Umbra paced back and forth in front of the desk that concealed two important ponies. Neither were royalty. Both were crystal. "Glad you could make time for me."
The female of the two nodded. "Of course, Umbra the Brave and Glorious. But we do have quite the project ahead of us. We should be monitoring it."
The male nodded in kind. "What's on your mind, so we can both get back to it?"
"About that." Umbra turned to them both. "How many ponies work for you two?" She pointed between the two leaders.
They looked to one another. The female had the answer. "Sixty in total, if you include us. Why?"
Umbra's horn glowed, drawing out a lonely coin. But it was no normal bit. She set it on the counter and both their eyes went to it, clearly recognizing it. "I am being overpaid, and I imagine your workers are not. This is between us. No royalty involved. I want to tilt the scales."
The male sat up, gazing at both the coin and Umbra at once. "How many of these are you getting?"
The female thrust a hoof out in front of him, a call for quiet. "Wrong question. What are you offering? How much you keep isn't our business."
The male grumbled, but nodded anyway. "Sure, yeah. This is yours." He pointed to the bit. "We don't have claim to it."
"Unless I give it to you." Umbra sighed softly. "Now I'm going to ask a question and I know you don't owe me an answer, but how much is each pony getting, on average? I want to up that, without the shock that I got when I got my cut. Say... Up it by... Wait, no!" She leaned in with a big sharp smile. "I have a better idea. What would they have gotten if I wasn't there?"
Both leaders set their hooves together. "Now that... is a number I have," noted the male. "I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't take note of your involvement and what it meant to the bottom line."
The female gestured grandly to him. "Well, don't keep us waiting. What is the missing number between what we have gotten and could have gotten, were Umbra, glorious in even building, not part of it?"
"Each house would have been sixty royal bits, easy." The male sat back. "So each house you do, we lose that much, and you are quite the builder, Umbra. Not gonna lie, it's something else the way you go, and you only seem to be picking up speed."
Umbra's left ear quivered as she did a bit of consideration. "So I was being paid extra, for speed I can only imagine."
Both of them sat forward. "You're getting more than that?!" they blurted in unison, but composure came back to them quickly with clearings of their throats.
The male cleared his throat. "Speed is something to pay for."
"Speed, Quality, or affordability." The female tapped her hooves together. "You can have, at best, two of those. We can see which two they went with in your case." She leaned in. "So what are you offering?"
Umbra tapped her hooves together. "Now, that sixty is for all sixty ponies. I doubt every pony gets an even cut." She looked over the two ponies that likely got most of it, being the leaders. "But still, that's for sixty. You make it work, and I bet you're happy with it."
"Quite so," noted the male. "It's good work."
"Good work," echoed the female. "And a solid living."
"And we'll need more built, I'm sure! I'm not doing it all." Umbra rolled her eyes. "And I can't be everywhere at once. I don't want to replace ponies who do it with their own hooves. So, my proposal, your pay just got doubled." She paused, frowning. "No, that won't work, um... Alright! Every day that I'm out there working, I'll give forty bits per house to you two to give to the others." She waved a hoof. "If it's too much to give to them all at once, your judgment, I suggest you put it aside as a rainy day fund so you're ready for the good days and the bad."
The two coughed, not a clearing of throats, but clear surprise each. The male thumped a hoof down on the desk. "That's a lot to give for nothing in return."
"You truly are brave and glorious," sang the female with a bright smile. "But I have a counter proposal."
"You do?" The male peered at her oddly.
"I do." She nodded curtly. "The ponies will feel awkward if they get money for nothing. I propose we make a detachment to follow you around, to give inspections and touchups. Your houses are fine, quite acceptable, but if we're being paid that much for so few hours, we can afford to go all out. Besides, if we're following you, we can get right to furnishing. Houses will hit the market all the faster. Everypony wins."
Umbra broke into a fresh grin. "That sounds great. Yes, help me and Shifting make each house perfect and I'll gladly share my cut. Forty a house. Deal?"
Both male and female crystal pony presented a hoof, and they were met with a loud clop each.
A deal was struck.
Cadance and Shining Armor both frowned at the crystal pony with poor news. Cadance took a slow breath. "They have broken through the wall."
"And are on our doorstep. Should we send a letter to Celestia?" Shining inclined his head. "This is an outright attack now, not just a theory."
Cadance brought her hooves together. "Hm." It was an option. It was always an option. "We should, though I fear whatever ponies she sends may not get here in time if our attackers are serious. Dispatch the letter at least. I won't risk my ponies out of pride."
Shining Armor saluted and trotted off to get that done.
"In the mean time..." She looked to one of many ponies looking back at her with fearful hope. "Summon Umbra. We have need of her expertise."
The pony saluted sharply. Unlike Shining who strode away, he broke into a full gallop, rushing past Shining in their hurry.
Umbra entered shortly thereafter, trailing behind the rushing pony that had been sent to get her. "What's going on?" She saw Cadance and started for her instead of following the pony. "Something wrong?"
"Unfortunately, yes." She slowly breathed a moment. "A pony was attacked, a guard. We have reason to suspect it was a shadow creature of some variety. Being our resident expert on that..."
"You called me." Umbra pointed at herself. "Well... Guess that rules out them being here to say hello... Darn it. Where'd it happen?"
Cadance pointed the way. "Towards the edge of the heart's influence on the southeast side of town. But before you go rushing off there, I was hoping you could look at the victim. He's catatonic, paralyzed as if... I can't be sure, but, again... you are the closest we have to a shadow expert. Perhaps you can help him?"
"I can try?" There was little confidence in her words. "Where is he?"
"In the medical wing. Just ask for the hurt guard and they'll see you to him directly. If there's any change there, or you find anything, let me know immediately."
"Of course." Umbra dipped her head to the princess of the land. "I'm on the case." She turned in place, lifting three of her hooves and pivoting on the last before she got to walking out of the throne room.
"If someone could tell the builders I'll probably be busy today?!" she called out to no particular person on her way out.
"This way." The nurse led the way to a room. It wasn't darkened, though a daydark sat in the corner.
Umbra took note of it. "If he's resting, why is it so bright in here?"
"He doesn't react well when we tried." The nurse leaned over the bed. "Hello there. You have a visitor."
But the pony didn't response. Face locked in an expression of terror, he wasn't moving at all. Arranged as comfortably as they could manage, blanket pulled up over him, he could have been mistaken for dead if not for the steady up and down motion of breathing, too fast for something so seemingly still and peaceful.
It was the manic breathing of a pony still terrified.
"Eesh..." Umbra circled the bed left and right, considering it. "Hm..." If only she had learned any shadow mind magic, but that had been denied her! Sombra kept his mind magics squirreled away. "Ah!" A bright smile appeared, an idea with it. "Maybe..." Her horn began to glow, eyes wafting as she wove the spell of negation. Perhaps it was a spell, still lingering. She could try to cancel it.
She could see her magic reach out in its purple and greens, grasping at what seemed like a shadow clinging to the pony. She saw the problem straight away. Normally, her negation drew away the color and vibrance from a spell. But that dread miasma had no vibrance to start. It didn't react to her attempt other than faint quiver.
The moment she stopped trying, she lost sight of it. "Detect Shadow!" she called, despite having no need to do so. The miasma returned to her vision, a cocoon around the pony. Nightmares made manifest. "That is... so not good... On the bright side, pun intended, I can confirm this is shadow magic." She reached out, poking the cocoon. It had no physical presence, but she could still prod at the boundary of it.
On the other hand... "This is shadow magic," she repeated to herself. She was looking at a new kind of shadow magic, spread before her, waiting to be examined. "Tell Cadance I'm going to try to work backwards on this." She clapped her hooves. "No promises, but if I can get it, maybe I can help him."
Even as the nurse scurried away, Umbra was leaning in closer, trying desperately to figure out the magic from the wrong way. She didn't normally learn spells by looking at the result and trying to step backwards, but it was all she had to go with.
Like trying to learn how to fashion and glaze a pottery by looking at an already formed pot with no other hints, this was far easier said than done. Umbra grumbled to herself, hooves working around one another as she tried to imagine how the weaves of shadow magic could have come together the way they did, to make the connection they did, and perform what they were doing.
"Nnnnng!" But there was so much there, and doing so much, with no real... "Ugh!" She threw a hoof out wide. "This is nuts!" Looking at the tail end of the spell would not work...
"Oh!" An idea came to her. "I can't free you, but..." She set a hoof on the chest of the pony. "Maybe a little peace." She extended her deep shadow, the kind she used to cut herself off from the link she had with the royal couple. The breathing caught, had he stopped breathing?
No, there it was, slowing. Slower... slower... His expression relaxed. He was sleeping. A thin layer of the new shadow was keeping the nightmares at bay. "This is not really an answer..." The moment Umbra left, or even stopped concentrating, it would resume. To say nothing of whatever shadow did it in the first place, who could do it again and again, likely, even as Umbra gave a single pony peace. "Damn it all!" She wanted to rescue the world, but she wasn't even sure she could rescue the one pony in front of her.
Thoughts warred in her. She could fashion a crystal charm to leave behind with the pony, a stopgap.
But what was the better idea?