Wensley glanced over. They were not along. It was Umbra's own chamber, and yet they were not. A purple gem pony sat calmly, watching them as if she were just another fixture of the place. "Um..."
"Go on." Umbra seemed to not even have noticed the other pony. "You wanted to talk?"
"It's... private, ya see?" He tossed his head towards the intruder.
Purple got the hint, rising to her hooves. "I'll be outside, ma'am. Call if you have need of me." And she moved to depart, only to have a wall of darkness spring in front of her.
"I didn't introduce you two, dumb of me." Umbra waved at Purple. "That's Purple Polish, and she's my maid and super great." She turned the wave on Wensley. "Wensley, a nice fan that's fun to just chat with."
"Howdy, ma'am." Wensley dipped his head at the maid, at least understanding her place in the world.
Purple returned the gesture. "A pleasure. While you are in her company, I am also at your service." With the shadow wall gone, she departed, granting privacy to the room.
Umbra nodded with simple pleasure. "Alright. Now, we're alone. What's the question? Also: No, I won't marry you."
Wensley burst into laughter. "That ain't what ah was gonna ask. We don't know each other that well." He rubbed a little behind his head. "Though I am gonna ask fer somethin' private. Just not that."
Umbra angled an ear off. "Alright. Private, but not a whirlwind romance. I'm listening."
"It's... hard to explain." He pressed his forehooves together. "The problem's up here." He directed a hoof at his head. "The most private place we got, ah figure."
Umbra leaned in, mirth fading from her expression. "Yeah."
"An'... Ah got problems, um, up there. Problems I'd... like you to take a look at." He smiled awkwardly.
Umbra sat up. "Now, see, I know this world has therapists. They're surprisingly good! I thought the relationship I had going on would just get more toxic by the day, but we had some talk, real talk, all the ponies involved, and it's gotten so much better." She nodded firmly. "Have you tried that?"
Wensley let out a nervous laugh. "Y-yeah... But it didn't work out none. They keep telling me to do what ah already try to do. It ain't helpin'. Look, ah know a pony can talk to you, but they're outside." He pointed just in front of himself. "I want a pony to look from the inside." He directed both hooves at himself. "Can ya help?"
"Mmm." Umbra grumbled softly, wings fidgeting. "I'd actually love to." Oh, his bright smile, radiant with hope. "But I don't know that magic." And there went the smile. "Shadow is my thing, no doubt there. That doesn't mean I got a guidebook for free with all the tricks. I know mental stuff is a thing connected to shadow." She leaned in. "Shoot, I met a shadow pony of dreams, another princess! She wouldn't teach me dream magic either." She grunted with remembrance of that denial.
"So... What can you do, um, shadow wise?" Wensley sat up himself. "We can start there."
"Sure." Umbra waved, painting a shadow wall casually. "I can make shadows, to start. Balls, walls, cubes. Want shadow, I got it! I can drain the vibrance from magic, which makes most magic fizzle, unless it's also shadow magic. Oh! I can tap into the crystal heart, but that's probably for emergencies only. It makes ponies drop their hangups and march on, if they're up for it."
Wensley's ears danced atop his head. "Can ya do that? Just zap all the hangups right out of me?"
Umbra reached for him and wasn't stopped from setting a hoof on his shoulder. "That is a very temporary fix. I don't even want to imagine what addiction to it would be like, if it is that. I only used it once, when we super needed it."
Wensley sagged with a sigh, as if air was escaping, causing him to deflate. "But if you had the spells?"
"Then I'd use them." Umbra smiled brightly at that, not as down as Wensley by far. "I like doing that, learning to be the best me. Speaking of that, you're still being evasive. What's bothering you? You sure we can't fix this the old fashioned way? I'm an open ear. Go on, tell me."
Wensley worked his hooves together. "You'll think ah'm odd."
"I am odd," noted Umbra with a raised brow. "In ways you don't even know. I doubt you'll top those charts, and if you do, I will be impressed, not scared off." She spread her wings. "I mean, c'mon. I got six limbs and a horn! That isn't natural."
Wensley laughed at the biological plea. "Seems natural 'nough... Alright... alright... If ya promise?" Umbra nodded swiftly. "Then... ah'll try, but ah'm holdin' ya to it."
"Of course, now, start from the start." She made a rewinding swirl with her right hoof. "How'd this happen?"
"Even as a little foal." He raised a hoof up, but not far. "Ah'd see things. Not like ghosts or nothin', more like ideas. Bad ideas. I never did none of hem! But they're always there."
"If you can, an example please?" Umbra rolled a hoof, bidding Wensley to continue.
Wensley went quiet.
"Are they that bad?" Umbra leaned in, breath washing over Wensley's face in proximity. "I already promised. Hit me with your worst."
"Worst. Um... So, alright... This is when you start lookin' at me odd." He directed up at her horn. "When I see that horn, all long and curved and red, a little part keeps wondering: Hey, what would that be like if I sat on that. Would I bleed? Is that why it's red? Bet you could kill a pony that way. What a way to go. Bet you could use it like a handle. Rip her head clear off with it." The more he described the morbid thoughts, the more he shrank back. "I don't do none of them, 'course. You'd notice, um... but they're there..."
Umbra was not, despite being a lot of things, a psychologist, or a therapist. She was unqualified in any professional level. Still, what she heard painted a pony that could use a hoof, er, hand. "What are your dreams like, if I can ask?"
"Huh?" Wensley shrugged softly. "Normal?" He smiled a little. "Never really thought about that before, the two together. Mah dreams are pretty peaceful, overall, thinkin' about it. Ya don't... think the same way, asleep."
And so he was never visited by Luna. No bad dreams, no signal for her to act. Well, if one shadow pony had passed him over, the next wouldn't! "So, first of all, thinking a naughty thing once in a while? Normal. We all do it." She sat back a bit, almost toppling. "Like me. I've been propositioned no few times since I got here, and that gets me thinking. Part of me actually wants to... think about that kind of thing. I fantasize the strangest situations at times."
Wensley's cheeks darkened. "Uh... about me?"
"Sure about you. No offense, these are just thoughts. Which... I think is the dividing line." She sliced the air, shadow trailing behind her hoof a moment. "I'm not hurting you, or anyone else, with a dirty thought. You're not hurting me with your violent ones."
She raised a hoof to tap at her head. "Remember what we were talking about? This thing is amazing, and complicated."
"But what if I want to? Maybe that's the real me... Maybe the nice quiet me is just me... in denial." Wensley hiccupped, his emotions gearing up as his eyes darted about the room. "What if there's a monster just waiting for its chance to break free and hurt ponies?"
"You're not alone." Umbra said each firmly, eyes locked on Wensley. "We all feel that way, once in a while. When they first told me what shadow magic was for, I wondered, huh, am I supposed to be a shadow monster, terrorizing the kingdom?! I decided no. I will be a lovely shadow princess." She grinned brightly, sharp teeth on display. "And I think I'm rocking it."
"You are," laughed Wensley, but it was a strained noise. "But yer a wizard, and a princess. Of course yer better at handling that kinda thing..."
"Stop that." Umbra prodded Wensley in the center of his chest. "It's your head, your brain. Now... what did those therapists tell you, that turned you off that idea?"
Wensley sighed slowly, but was sitting up as he did so. "Most of them said a little of what you said. 'It's just a thought, don't even worry about it.' But ah am worried! I'm scared."
"Yeah.... Yeah... Wow... I feel you."
"You... What happened?" His attention slid from himself to Umbra.
"I've been to therapists before. They told me a lot of things like that before." She pointed at herself. "This may be hard to imagine, but I was a stallion before, physically anyway." That got him by surprise, gaping at her. "Yeah, don't look it much these days."
"Um... But...?"
"But I knew what I was, on the inside, and I kept telling them that, just fer them to prattle on as if they knew me better than me. They'd go on and on about how I'd get over it..." She snorted in an explosive equine fashion. "It took a while to find one that took me seriously."
"Are... you taking me seriously?" Wensley pointed at himself. "I see a monster, waiting for their chance."
On one hoof, she wanted to deny that. On the other, she had painted herself into a corner. To deny it would be making herself exactly what she said she hated and didn't trust. Umbra fidgeted instead, considering her course. "What you are feeling is very real. You are doubting yourself, and that's just not fun, having been there myself... When you look in the mirror and you're not sure who's looking back? That's... awful."
"Yeah!" He perked up. "Yeah... That's what... What bothers me. Ah don't know..."
"Why don't we learn?" She extended a fluffy wing towards Wensley. "Because I already like the pony in front of me, even if he's really upset. Even if he's not sure. Even if he thinks his shadow is deeper and bigger than mine." She flashed a toothy grin. "We could compete."
"Yer really not upset? Ah mean... all those nasty things I thought about you? Yer not scared?"
Umbra considered her odds. If it actually came down to violence, she felt fairly confident in her ability to win. "I'm not scared of you, Wensley. I can't reach in there." She tapped Wensley on the top of the head. "So if you want a quick fix, I'm not that. But if you want to approach this slowly?"
Wensley smiled, a gentle thing. "Yer already so busy... It ain't even fair... Can ah help? Take somethin' off yer plate since I'm so busy puttin' somethin' else on it?"
"We're just going to be talking." Umbra hopped down from her bed and began stretching out. "If you just come hang out with me, we can chat while I get things done. I get to talk to a nice pony I know, and you get to work things out with someone you trust."
"Huh." He hopped down next to her. "That does sound like a win-win. That easy?"
"Nah, that's just the first step." Umbra waved that away. "You have to actually face yourself, and make changes in how you see the world, and yourself. That's not easy. That's not even 'kinda' easy. You have a lot of work ahead of you. I'm just lending a hand."
"You don't have no hands." He was smiling despite that oddness. "Can ya do that, lend hands? That a shadow thing?"
Umbra raised a hoof, horn glowing as shadow formed into a great umbral hand that began patting Wensley on the head. "See, you had a point already."