"I have a formal request." Cadance was seated at a large table. It was breakfast time. The three of them often met for breakfast before the day properly began. "If you would hear it."
Umbra quirked an ear at Cadance. "From you, Cades? Fire away! I kinda owe you a lot, and I doubt you'd ask for anything too out there."
Cadance smiled gently. "You are the only pony to refer to me as 'Cades'. Not a complaint. Now... I'm told your crystal artisanship has advanced to large constructs." She angled her head. "And you are to thank for the new crystal hut we have not far away."
Umbra colored swiftly. "Oops! Should I have gotten rid of that?"
"It's already occupied." Cadance brought her hooves together. "Which is exactly where I want to employ you, Umbra. The city is growing, with ponies of all sorts. Freed of their opressor... the crystal population will likely soon experience quite a boom. We would like to be ahead of that, to say nothing of immigrants, of which there are already quite a number. One of them is in your O&O game I hear?" She looked between Shining and Umbra.
Shining bobbed his head quickly at that. "Do you mean Sunburst? He knows the rules pretty well. Good stallion."
"He lent me the book of shadow magic," noted Umbra with a pleased smile. "Alright, so you want me to build houses?"
"Many of them." She danced a hoof in the air. "I have plans drafted for where they should be. The city has a pattern to it, and we don't want to deviate from that too much. Is this something you can do, and would want to do?" Cadance leaned forward with a smile. "It is a paid position."
Umbra sat up straight. "Oh, wow, my first real J O B job. Exciting! Um... I hate to ask... but how much for how many?"
"One hundred bits per house." She tapped at the table between them. "Twice that if it's two stories and can house three times as many ponies. More bedrooms, less kitchens, the space should work out."
"Ah, so... two stories, but for one family, larger, rather than a bunch of smaller apartments?" Umbra reasoned through it, hooves cycling.
"Exactly." Cadance nodded with a bright expression. "I knew you'd understand. Will you do it then?"
A hundred bits was not a small sum! On one hoof... "It'd cost more than that to get a normal construction crew to do it, I imagine?"
"Yes." Cadance reached across, tapping at Umbra. "But you will get it done far faster. You will make more a day than ever they would." But would also produce even more, getting less per house. "I will have them working too. This is not a single pony job, even for you."
Shining let out a little sigh. "Normal construction ponies are paid by the day, with the knowledge that one day will never be enough to get the job done. You're being paid by the result, because measuring by the day with you would be silly."
Umbra couldn't help but smile. She had another super power! She was a super builder. "Can I do it? Yes I can." Sure, she was the only person on the entire planet that would get that reference, but it was enough to get a giggle out of herself, and surely that was good enough. "One thing. I can make stuff out of crystal just fine, but the softer stuff..."
Cadance curled a hoof at herself. "If you can get a house ready for furnishing with all else complete, I would consider that a task well done. Soft bedding and seats are far less a concern compared to the rest of the structure. Does that mean you'll take the job?"
Umbra clopped her hooves before thrusting one at Cadance. "You got yourself a builder."
Cadance met the hoof with one of her own in a clop of confirmation. "Excellent. Here's the map." Her horn glowed as she floated up a rolled scroll to hover over to Umbra. "Review when you're ready and I look forward to seeing the results."
Umbra forgot the breakfast she had mostly had her fill of already. "I'm all over this." She unfurled the scroll in her magic, looking it over. "Looks like we're expanding to the station?"
"Exactly the idea." Shining pointed to where the station was on the map. "More crystal ponies in the area will help bring the heart's influence with it, which means the station will stop being snowed in all the time. That'll help a lot of other things."
"Too many to count." Cadance inclined her head faintly. "I did not imagine one day I would rule over a people that were, themselves, an asset just by being there. Each crystal pony is a little beacon for that protective power."
Umbra whistled at the idea. "You'd think everyone would want some crystal ponies then!"
"Not so." Cadance pointed to where the heart floated. "Too far away from the heart and the connection fizzles. Unless we had an unbroken line of crystal ponies, we can't 'bring' that magic anywhere."
"Works for the Crystal Empire, but not much elsewhere." Shining nodded firmly. "For now, let's get the trains rolling smoothly."
Umbra imagined such a great line stretching across the snowy wastes, over the mountains and down into the rest of Equestria, crystal ponies lined up for days and days to finish the magic circuit. "That would be a lot of work... And a lot of crystal ponies living out in the middle of nowhere."
Shining shook his head. "Not practical. And those ponies would have to work very hard to get back in time for the next crystal fair, which could mean it'd fail, and the whole thing shuts down anyway."
Cadance tapped her hooves together. "That's enough of that. Today, we build, not send ponies off to live in the wilderness."
Umbra snapped a salute she'd seen the guards do. "I'm on the case!" And off she trotted at a brisk pace, but not directly to the work site.
Cadance nudged Shining with a hoof. "Told you she'd take it."
"Glad she did." He rubbed behind his head. "If she works as fast as we hope, that'll cut the time down a lot, and get us a station running a lot more smoothly. Ponies can come and go without trekking through the snow."
"I want that." Cadance hmmed. "The Crystal Empire can become a beacon again, a grand place to visit and marvel. It has some of the oldest surviving structures in Equestria, thanks to a little time skip."
"Shifting!" She knocked on a door to a small house. "You home?"
Shifting peeked out of a window. "Is that an Umbra I hear?"
"It is!" sang Umbra. "I got a huge new job!"
"You sound excited about it, sec." She vanished for a moment. The door swung open and she cantered out. "Here I am! What kind of job?"
"I'm building houses," proudly reported Umbra. "A whole block of them for ponies to be comfy in."
"Wow!" Shifting clapped her hooves with naked pride. "You only made the one before."
"Exactly why I'm here." She leaned in, touching nose to nose with Shifting. "Will you help? I'm getting a clean hundred bits per house. I'll share with you, forty each, if you help me out. Review my work, keep me on track. You know?"
"Huh!" Shifting frowned with thought on that. "Huh... That's a lot of bits for not actually building anything."
"You built the builder." Umbra extended her tongue. "Without you, there'd be no buildings at all!"
"That's not how that usually works." Shifting backed up a little. "Besides, if you bring me along, I'll point out all your mistakes."
"Good!" Umbra did a little dance in place. "Exactly why I want you there. A bunch of ponies are gonna move in, and I want them to have nice houses. They're paying good bits for quality, not a cheap rush job."
"Hm." Shifting said nothing else, instead looking around slowly. "Hm. When you make crystals... how strong are they? We haven't really measured. I think we need to do that, if ponies are gonna be living in them. The nicest looking house isn't much if it falls on your head."
"That'd be awful!" cried Umbra at the image summoned. "Let's do that, now." She turned away. "Come along, supervisor."
"Ooo." Shifting broke into a walk at Umbra's side. "I've never been a supervisor before."
"It's a day of new starts!" The two cheered as one as they set off to get on the task of building a new city block for the crystal empire.
Cadance bit him on the ear, a gentle nip and a tug. They were in a warm glow, having enjoyed time together. They did it in private. "It... worked."
"Quite well." Shining was panting for breath, not resisting the hold on his ear. "So... we can choose which door we close."
"And which we leave open." Cadance nuzzled into Shining's cheek. "And when."
Shining laughed gently. "This curse has become a blessing."
"But it still ties the three of us together." Cadance sat up atop her hubby. "I've been talking to Active. She likes us, both of us." Shining nodded at that, but Cadance kept right on, "But she's a good pony, and refuses to even think about taking action if it might hurt us and our connection." Cadance set a hoof on Shining's nose. "Which is why I want to send you to action."
"To action?" he asked, muffled by the hoof on his snoot. "What do you mean?"
"I mean... I want you to invite her out, have fun, and be close. I want you to woo her. No forcing. No seduction. I just want you to become good friends." She closed her forehooves. "With my blessing. I... am still not... She is more like a lovable niece to me than a potential partner, but what works for me is not what works for you." She set her hooves on the top of Shining's belly, a chest if he were human shaped. "Which makes this feel odd, siccing my husband sexually on my niece. That isn't normally called for, but this is not the usual situation. And she is, thankfully, not tied to us by blood and is an adult capable of making her own decisions."
She raised a hoof sharply. "Which is why I feel I must repeat, no forcing. No means no."
Shining flipped his ears back. "I'd never! Besides, she could probably force me a lot easier than I could force her."
"And that turns you on." Cadance rolled her eyes with a wry smirk. "I swear... Are you hoping she figures out how to throw her shadow across minds, hm?" She leaned in as he blushed. "Would you submit to her, if she cast her shadow across your heart, demanding your obedience?"
Suddenly she sat up. "Too bad! I cast my spell on you first." She curled a hoof, a great heart throbbing over it, her horn glowing brightly. "Your heart is mine, and I call dibs."
"Oh no," cried Shining with a complete lack of horror. "Whatever will I do?" He grabbed her at the hips and began to show what came to mind. With shared giggles, they got to expressing their physical affection for one another, secure in the fact that they weren't attacking Umbra with it.
Shining nuzzled against her available tummy. "I'll talk to her, promise. Now that we aren't tripping over each other, this could work out a lot better."
"That's, mmm, my hope." She smooched the end of his snout. "So invite her in, gently. You stud, gathering a herd around yourself."
"Technically... we're your herd." He poked her on the nose in a reversal. "We're both your consorts. I hope you'll treat us gently."
"That depends." Cadance licked his cheek and nuzzled into the same spot. "Be a good boy."