Umbra grunted into the cushion of the sofa. She could see the nurse watching on with a confused expression. Why shouldn't she be confused?! The pony she was monitoring was giving birth was busy not producing a child and just made odd noises.
"Nnng." Umbra pinned her ears back. There was a time the tiara working both ways would have been handy. Trick! There was no way to go both ways. The emotions would come unless she slapped a tiara on Cadance's head, which she didn't have permission to do.
That was all a ploy to distract herself from what was going on. It was all very magical and wonderful and a little mystical. Nobody said it was natural for her to experience childbirth on her own. They weren’t even her child! A little further. She could feel the child moving. Poor Shining.
He wasn't even female, and he could feel it too, and hear her. Cadance was making stranger noises than Umbra, she felt certain. Poor stallion was probably making his own noises. Sounds connected them together! Umbra burst into laughter at the idea even as her midsection went taught. "Alright, alright." She felt like she should focus on pushing, despite having no child.
Problem with that, she had the parts. She could feel herself flutter and tense. She gave a silent thanks to her tiara. "As if Cadance needs to feel that." Phantom labor pangs were the last thing she imagined needed to be given over to an actually delivering woman.
She yelped with wide eyes as the discomfort grew. It wasn't a pain exactly. Nothing was tearing. Nothing was breaking. She was just stretching in a new way and more than she had before. The widest part of the child, perhaps? She sank back against the couch, huffing as the sensations ebbed away. Did she do it? Did Cadance do it, to be more precise about it?
"Are they done?" Umbra looked over at the confused nurse.
"Do you mean the princess?" She caught herself with a squeak. "Cadance! The other princess."
"Her." Umbra flashed a sharp smile. "She's done?" It felt like she was done. Oh! An unfamiliar sensation came to her as a foal, being allowed to do what foals did. "I have those..." She was nursing a foal, or at least feeling it. Then again, so was poor Shining. He only dimly knew what it was to have those parts from when Umbra was cleaning up ages ago.
"She's done." Umbra sat up with a smile. "She's all done." And she, dear Umbra, made a little mess. The sensation of giving birth and being nursed was too powerful a combination. Though unasked for, it spurred her into action. It was a little motion, but her body did not turn a blind eye to it. She was leaking. It wasn't enough to satisfy anyone, just make a little mess in her fur. "Damn it..."
Umbra had just experienced the entire glorious spread of childbirth. Would she ever want to do it for herself?
The nurse returned from where she had fled. "They are done! How did you guess?"
"Everyone involved alright?" Umbra smiled at the nurse as shadows hid her lower half entirely from sight.
"Just fine." The nurse sighed happily with clasped hooves. "I can't wait for the crystalling!"
That was not a word Umbra knew off the top of her head, not that she was waiting to find out. "I'm headed in," she said on the way past the nurse with agitated flicks of her tail.
She found the married couple leaning against each other with equally harried faces, as if they had both gone through the process together. This was not untrue so far as Umbra could determine. "Where--" The bundle she came into view of cut off her approach with a loud gasp at seeing it next to Cadance's lower belly. "There you are, little troublemaker!" She had a big smile on her face despite the discomfort that it had produced for her enjoyment.
Unknown to her, she was ready to deliver some loving on a creature, and there was a creature ready for it. Umbra trotted up to the little unicorn and leaned in to nuzzle at their swaddled form. "Aren't you just the cutest pain in my flank ever?"
A hoof landed on her arm. She looked over to see a tired Shining Armor looking at her with concern. "What? I will not hurt her, promise." She smooched the new unicorn on the nub of her new horn. "Aren't you a precious thing?"
With a sigh, Shining pulled himself up with Umbra's arm for a brace. "I'm not scared of you, Umbra. If you want to keep an eye on us, that'd be great. How are you... still mobile?"
Cadance shook her head. "I'm worn out, and I know Shining just had his world flipped upside down."
Umbra inclined her head, ears flicking with some confusion. "I went through the same thing you did." She glanced around to see just one guard standing there stoically. "I felt this child come into being and it was... quite an experience, but I made it and I want to just do this." She blew a raspberry into the foal's cheek, getting aloud squealing giggle in reply.
Pony children came with their fur pelts! Plus one point for them compared to human children, and she was, well, she was a pony, through and through. Humans came out looking like aliens sometimes. "Such a cute little..." Her words failed as extra body parts brushed the covering off. That was no unicorn. They were spreading feathery wings wide in either direction with a fresh set of giggles in obvious pleasure at Umbra.
Umbra's eyes widened slowly as she thought through the ramifications of that. "Alright, you are not attending the princess summit if I'm not allowed to go!" She crossed her arms in a mighty petulant display at the idea. "But seriously, just born? How did you qualify for Eee!" The infant proved she was capable of movement by grabbing Umbra's right wing, hanging from it, as Umbra flinched in surprise.
It took her a moment to get her surprised wits back under control, and Umbra swung the new child into range to hug away from the wing gently. Cuddling the child felt a lot safer than letting her have her way with that unexpecting wing. "What's her name?"
Cadance smiled at the two at play. "That is Flurry Heart, and she is clearly happy to see you. I admit, it scared me a little that you'd be far less happy to have her around, considering how she entered your life, and... She isn't related to you at all."
Umbra quirked an ear. "Not her fault, either of those things." She rubbed her nose against Flurry's with a shared smile between the two of them. "Right now, she is a perfect little creature, minus one point for the wing grabbing."
Flurry was giggling nonsensically as children did when they were that young. She felt little nuzzles and snuggles as she got comfortable with Umbra, though that turned into too comfortable. "Hey!" Umbra suddenly had a child attached to her, discovering she was also a ready source of nutrition. She wasn't nearly as good as Cadance. They had kicked her into action, but this didn't seem to stop Flurry from trying her best. "S-stop..." Why did they have teeth?
Umbra squirmed at the attention even as her internal hormones shifted in reaction. She would make more for the monster. "Y-you..." But it felt... close. As uncomfortable as it all was, she felt closer and closer to the little imp. She hugged them closer instead of shoving them away, even as Flurry did her best to draw more milk than Umbra had to supply, yet. Nature had done its job, and it had created a new wet nurse without her informed consent.
Flurry was full before long and wandered against the pelt of her forced caretaker. Shining scooped her up in his hooves. "Come here. Your mommy wants you with her." He brought Flurry over to set gently against Cadance as the three snuggled with the same smile that Umbra was still feeling despite the distance.
Cadance was holding Flurry with one hoof, but her eyes went to Umbra. "You are a clear and undeniable part of this family."
"It's hard to argue that." Shining had one hoof around Cadance and the other around Flurry. "Flurry gave you her seal of approval."
Umbra smiled at that as she looked at the little foal the approval came from. "Well, I can't argue with that." She rolled upright and stretched slowly. "I am exhausted! No changeling searching for the rest of the day. I'm headed back to my room and you can't stop me or I'll... I don't know, nightmares or something..." Not that she had learned nightmare magic, and they both knew her threat was missing teeth.
There was no resistance to her hasty departure. She didn't become a shadow even if it was faster. It also required more focus and energy than just walking slowly did, so she stuck to moving her hooves. She saw her door up ahead and smiled at the comfortable familiarity. "Home sweet home." She willed the crystal door to swing open.
Inside, Purple Polish had Shifting Prism pinned to the ground as she worked clothes onto Shifting with their squealing dissatisfaction. "You will look better for Umbra. Calm down and let me do my work."
Umbra entered with a brow raising. Her magic sealed the door behind her with a quiet click. "Is there a good reason you two are wrestling right now?" The match of wills came to a sudden stop. "Good, then you, scoot." She pointed at Purple with a noise between a snort and a yawn. "You, get on the bed." She pointed at Shifting for that. "Me, go to sleep."
Purple scurried from the room, with the door open just long enough to permit her crystalline form past it. Shifting hopped up on the bed, leaving her clothes behind in the motion. "You look awful. What happened?"
"I don't feel awful, just exhausted." Umbra hopped up onto her bed next to Shifting and collapsed onto it bonelessly. "Sleep sounds great. Oh, I know what giving birth feels like now, so there's that."
With widening eyes, Shifting let out a loud gasp. "Cadance had her child?! Congratulations!" She clapped excitedly despite any amount of fatigue that Umbra was feeling. "What's their name, are they healthy, are you alright, and is she alright?"
"Too many questions." Umbra pulled a pillow up over her head. "I felt it too, you know. I was there, really there. I... I'm a mom now." A delirious laugh escaped her as she rolled over with the pillow still on top of her. "I met the kid. She's named Flurry Heart and I love her a lot and if anything hurts her, I will murder them terribly."
"So she's okay." With a soft thump, Shifting flopped right next to Umbra and snuggling up with her. "And you're alright. Everycreature is doing fine, just a little tired from... everything."
"She nursed me!" Sure, Umbra hadn't technically been asked, but she couldn't hold back that information a moment longer. "With hell's own teeth, she attacked me and it felt awful but also kinda good and..." She wandered a hoof down to the sore bit of her body. "Is this what all wo--mares feel like? I should... You didn't?"
"I didn't." Shifting gently kissed Umbra's cheek as she drew the blanket over the both of them. "We can ask about it after you've had a little sleep, my brave warrior."
"I did not fight today!" Umbra nipped at Shifting in revenge for the comment. "But thank you anyway..." She willed the lights off and nestled in tight with her crystal bat that may have alwso been a changeling they charged her with finding. She'd get back to them.
Some day, maybe.