Umbra kept giggling. She couldn't help it. Little breathless things that rose up to the top of her chest and bubbled free as her eyes swept over the pages. She was just so excited! The book had spells! They were nicely organized by general purpose and in order of increasing complexity.
"Level 1 spells." She tapped a page, her horn flipping several pages along. "Then level 2, and so on. It's like D&D, without having to 'memorize' a spell every day." She rolled her eyes. "Which was dumb. If you know it, you know it." She flopped back, fresh giggles escaping her. "But where to start."
Well, since they were in order of difficulty, logic nudged her to start at the, well, start.
But She never called herself a perfectly rational creature. "Angry shadow creatures." She nosed through the book. "If there were hundreds of angry shadow creatures, how do I help with that? Besides summoning pretty chairs in their way..."
Wall of Shadow. "Wall of Shadow," she repeated out loud. "Shadow can make walls?!" The spell, as she read over the details eagerly, would create darkness, as she had done, but the spell would give it a specific shape. It would not stop things from passing through it.
At least not entirely. In terms of strength, it was like a strong wind, but one could press through it, and the dark, to get to the other side. It, being darkness, would block sight. "That's still pretty cool..." She had decided what her first spell would be, and she got to reading the actual magic part of it, practicing it with her horn and eyes glowing as she mouthed along with the spell as she read it.
"Lunch!" There was Purple Shine with a smile, a tray balanced on her back carefully. "Is now a good time?"
"Sure." She had only gotten about halfway through, but it was a big complicated thing. A little food might help! "Thanks."
She grabbed the tray in her magic off Puple's back and drew it in close to pop the top off. "Mmm." Lunch smelled great. "Thanks again."
Purple dipped her head. "Of course. If you've any other need, I am right outside." She pointed just past the door. "Do you want your door open or closed?"
"Um, closed." Umbra scratched behind her head. That wasn't normally a thing she considered. "I'm going to be studying a while. Why don't you relax?"
"Because I am on duty," easily countered Purple, closing the door from the outside. "Have fun," she called through it.
Umbra was still unsure how she felt about it, but Purple hadn't been annoying so far. Also the food was good! She eagerly devoured it with great chomps of her imposing shadow pony teeth, making short work of it. Hunger abated, she floated the tray off to flop on the ground, forgotten. "Now..." She went back to studying that spell.
She didn't even notice when Purple snuck in and made off with the tray. This was a surprise later when Umbra looked over where it had been to see a clean floor. "What the?" The tray, gone, likely off to be cleaned. "She's... good. Huh, thought shadows were supposed to be the tops for stealth."
But Umbra worked through the spell. "Not gonna get better without trying it." She parked the book where she could see it, but it wouldn't be in the way. "Shadow..." Her horn and eyes began to flare with bright darkness, a contradictory statement, but a true one. "--Wall!" She thrust a hoof out as a plane emerged from her horn, vertical and bisecting the room in front of her.
She swept a hoof to the left, trying to redirect it, but it slapped against the far wall, coming to a stop. "Progress!" she cried despite that. She had made the shadow wall. That was a big deal! She began to canter from hoof to hoof in place, giggling all the louder. "Progress!"
"Somepony's sounding pretty happy," came Shining's voice through the door.
With a squeak, the wall vanished. "Oh, hey Shining. Come on in." She turned to the door just as it opened. "I found a book of shadow magic. I'm working on getting better at it." Umbra pointed up at her horn. "What's the point of having this thing if I don't use it?"
"I'm with you there." He closed with Umbra. "The moment I knew what my purpose was, I wasn't happy until I learned all about defensive magics. So... what does shadow magic... do exactly? We've seen it hide things." He counted in the air, wobbling his hoof with each. "We've seen it dive into pony's pasts, their memories I mean. It's dark, that's a given. "
"I'm still reading," half-whined Umbra. "But the first spell I learned was Shadow Wall."
"Shadow Wall?" He leaned in with a smirk. "Are you muscling in on my turf?"
"Stop that." She shoved him, but she was smiling. "Look." Casting it again was not nearly as difficult. Like playing a song, was the second time ever as hard as the first? She saw the dark wall forming and threw her imagination at it along with her sweep of a hoof. It turned! Not a sharp ninety degree she had wanted, but it veered and kept veering as she focused on it. Fresh giggles escaped her as she got it to circle around Shining and herself, making a nice circle of darkness. They could still see, light coming from over the top of the wall. "Ta da!"
"Huh..." Shining approached the wall curiously. With an uncertain hoof, he tapped at it, not giving at first, at least until he actually tried, then he could move through it like an especially heavy cloth, walking through the wall. "That's an interesting trick." He turned to face her. "And I can't see through it."
But Umbra could see him, looking at her. Sure, he was darker, with the shadow in the way, but her glowing eyes were not fooled by the dark. Another advantage! Though that would be lessened if they were fighting other shadow beasts that could likely also see through darkness. "Hm! Cool though, right?"
"Very." Shining nodded approvingly. "Look, Umbra." He pushed back through to reach her. "This is been... odd... and we, Cadance and I, have been real butts about it. We've attacked you, twice. Once without realizing it, once without any excuse. I want to say sorry."
"Now you don't."
Shining blinked dumbly at that.
"Because you already said it. You don't want to say it again, do you?" Umbra stuck out her tongue, pleased with her own humor.
Shining chuckled awkwardly. "I will, if it helps. Looking back, I see what a huge foal I was being. I mean, you barely know us, and we're proposing to you? Who would even consider?! Just asking is a huge... We were wrong, just completely."
"Don't sell yourself short." Umbra fluttered her lashes. "You got an athlete's body and a nerd's brain. There are things I like about what you were shoving in my direction. It was the shoving part that I was upset about." She suddenly raised a hoof. "Which is not my way of saying 'it's on!' Consider it more of a 'Let's be friends first?' thing. Sheesh."
Shining looked around in the dark circle. "How long does this last? Are you holding it up?"
"I am." She released that hold and the wall began to crumble away, allowing light to spill through its many slits and breaks. "Only way it works, unless I made a new crystal toy with it, but that's not my goal right now."
"What is your goal right now?" he asked as he circled her, examining her.
"To learn." Umbra pointed at her book, then clearly visible. "Your sister gave me the tools to make use of that. A new friend, Sunburst, lent me that book. I want to learn all the shadow magic I can so I can help around here. As much as you complain, you two, the whole kingdom, has been super nice to me. I don't plan to just sit on that."
Shining walked briskly across the room, almost a trot, but the distance was too short to work up into one. "Huh." He leaned in for a better look at the shadow wall spell. "I recognize... parts... but most of this is... I'm not Twilight." He sat. "I bet she'd understand it, but there's a lot of not-defensive magic there."
"It's shadow magic." Umbra trotted into a leap, landing on the bed with a thump, the book bouncing from the impact, but caught in her magic and set right back in place. "My magic. Which reminds me of a question. If Sombra was 'the' shadow wizard, how did this book ever happen?" She pointed at the blessed book of knowledge.
"That... is a fine question." Shining set, hoof to his chin. "Just because Sombra was the most infamous, doesn't mean he was the only pony ever to use shadow magic. That book is proof that wasn't the case."
"Well, yeah..." She nudged the book weakly with the edge of a hoof. "So what was it used for? Twilight said she had a hard time with it. The magic is super rare."
"But it's your thing." He set a hoof on her back. "And you, I'm happy to say, are a pretty good pony. If anypony could bring out the light side of shadow, I'm already putting my bits on you." Her perked suddenly. "Oh yeah. You're new to magic, right?"
"Mostly? Why?" She skewed an ear, looking at him curiously.
"Because your walls started at you."
She blinked at that. "Where else would it start?" She pointed up at her horn. "This is what's doing it."
"Sure, but magic doesn't have to work that way. For instance..." He pointed at a spot and a bubble sprang being being there, protecting... nothing. "Ta da. Magic is all around us, and once you have a spell down, you can push away where it starts."
Umbra clapped with renewed joy. "That is great! Gonna try it." And she got right to casting a fresh shadow wall, imagining it in the hall outside. The room became dark instantly. She could see through it, but Shining was feeling around, slowly. "Oops!" She drew the spell back, returning his vision.
Shining gasped loudly. "Oh! It was like I was stuck inside your wall. Um, I mean, nice try... but more practice is for sure needed."
Umbra hopped over him suddenly, landing on the floor on the other side. "Sorry about that, but I feel like I'm really getting somewhere. I'm going to have to practice, more. A lot more." She pointed out the door she was next to. "Which means you have to go, Shiny."
He began to walk past her, but her arm went out in his way. "Hm?"
"When's your next D&D game?" she asked with a bright smile.
"D&D?" Shining tilted his head.
"O&O! When's the next one?"
Shining sat, a smile forming. "I didn't know you played. Um, let me throw that past the story master. It'd be rude to just spring you on them without any warning."
Shining then was able to flee without further attempts to stop him. "Good luck with your magic."
"I don't need luck." She closed the door with a feral grin. "I need practice." She clapped her hooves as a new shadow wall formed in her horn. It would not be the last shadow spell she'd try from that book. Each new trick, greeted with giddy giggles. She was a superhero mare. A superhero shadow mare! Batmare? A warrior of justice, of the dark, sure, yeah, that worked.
The thought of becoming an avatar of goodness, with low illumination settings, pleased Umbra, driving her onwards to dive headlong into the reaches of shadowy magic.
"Miss." Purple was poking her head in. "It is supper time." Umbra had completely lost track of time. She was starting to come around to the idea of Purple, who pulled her down from the clouds, keeping her healthy and ready. All good heroes needed a quality butler, right? Batmare!