"If you want to run, I'm with you." Umbra inclined her head. "If you want to go and leave me behind, I understand that. Whatever you want, I'm there for that."
Shifting shuffled from hoof to hoof. "Why did you tell him? Why did you tell anycreature?!"
Umbra flopped to her belly. “There are no excuses! I thought... another changeling was alright? I was wrong! Just completely and totally wrong! I messed up! I will take whatever punishment you want to give." She covered her snout and eyes with her hooves. “I messed up! I'm serious though! Until you tell me to leave you alone, I'm not leaving you.”
Shifting's teeth clenched powerfully, perhaps with that temptation. "She's going to interrogate me... Pry into my secrets... And only after she's happy learning all the things she didn't need to know, she'll kick me out. That's what you did. That's what you're asking right now."
"I'll walk with you out of here and never come back." Umbra perked an ear. "Won't even write a letter if you'd rather I didn't."
"But you... just asked if I would go." Shifting thumped Umbra suddenly, bopping her on the forehead beside her horn. "You hurt me!"
"I hurt you!" wailed Umbra. "I messed up, completely. If this is the end... I did it... I'll take that blame... I... don't want it to be... but it's my fault. I will do whatever you want."
"Can we go back to yesterday?" Shifting made a sort of rewinding motion with her hooves, tears stinging at her eyes. "Can this just never happen?"
"That would be so nice..." But dark crystal magic didn't have that trick, so far she knew. Umbra sat up slowly. "I'm your big stupid girlfriend. Tell me what to do."
Shifting beat at Umbra's front to little avail. "I want to trust you! Our secret should stay our secret... I thought you understood that..."
Umbra cringed, the words hurting far more than the buffeting hooves. "Ow... Gah... I deserve all of that and then some. I'm so sorry! I will not toss you to the lions and walk away! I'm right here." She tapped herself on the chest. "One mistake is already too much."
"Way too much." Shifting stomped in place, throwing a fit with choked sobs and flying tears. "It'll never be the same! I will never just be the silly bat to them, ever! I... won't be Shifting Prism..." She flopped miserably to her side. "It's over... My whole life..."
"I won't let that happen." Umbra offered a hoof, and they did not resist it as she gathered Shifting into a hug that deepened into a proper embrace. "I'm with you every step, and they better realize how amazing you are and continue to be, or we're both walking out of there and not stopping."
"You have a life too!" Shifting waved at Umbra's everything. "You're a hero here. The ponies are... so excited when they see you. Why would you come with me?"
"Because it's my fault?" Umbra inclined her head. "Because I like you a ton? I want to do it. Besides, you didn't tell me not to. I'm responsible for it." Sure, she had repeated that last one, even louder, but she felt it. "So are we going, or running? We could fly. We have wings in either direction."
"T-true..." Shifting wiped at her eyes with her arm. "Why does she need to know?"
"Because she's dumb, and I'm dumb for letting her know." Umbra sagged in place. "We can still run. It's an option. On hooves or wings, your choice."
"Stop that." Shifting gathered herself up with a slow inhale. "It's... Alright... Alright! Here's how it'll go."
Umbra leaned in sharply. "Listening!"
"Good." Shifting set a hoof on Umbra's snout, booping her. "We'll talk to her, and if I walk out, you help me walk out if they try to stop me. If they say hurtful things, you speak up the truth as you know it. You won't... watch quietly, alright?"
Umbra opened her mouth wide with a creaking sound she made up. "I'm ready!"
"Fine! Fine... Let's get this over with." Shifting began walking to the door. "Now, if that's alright?"
Umbra scrambled to keep up with her. "You're calling the shots."
As they walked down the small street towards the major thoroughfare, Umbra scooted up beside her agitated girlfriend. "I'm so sorry..."
"Prove it." Shifting peeked to the side at Umbra. "Prove you can." She hurried ahead without room to talk, marching for the castle at a brisk pace. She ascended the stairs without argument from the guards. It was hardly her first time there, of course. That Umbra was scurrying behind may have helped.
"Cadance!" Shifting looked left and right. "Where are you hiding?"
"Calm down." Umbra hurried to Shifting's side. "This isn't a fight."
"Isn't it?" Shifting turned away from Umbra down a new hall. "Cadance!"
"Even if it was, shouting for her isn't helping." Umbra matched Shifting's pace. "She called you. Just tell a guard and you could have a friendly chat without all the screaming."
"I'm not screaming." Shifting sounded tense in her words, teeth clenched as she went for a new door. "Are you in here?!" She threw it open to the surprised gasp of a pony inside. "Sorry." She closed the door and turned in a new direction. "Just a maid."
"This is why this is bad. What if I told you I could reach her silently?"
"That a shadow spell?" She looked over her shoulder at Umbra. "You didn't mention that."
"It's the shared sensation thing... which I did mention." Umbra reached up for her tiara with both hooves. "I can reach them nice and quickly. Shall I?" With no call to pause coming, Umbra popped off her tiara and set it just to her side. She began tapping at her chest.
"What does this do?" Shifting was holding the tiara, turning it around in her hooves. "You blabbed my secret. The least you can do is give me one of yours."
Umbra came to a screeching halt in her tapping in the distraction. "H-hey! Most of what's in there is me-flavored."
"Which is theoretically mine right now." Shifting hugged the tiara close. "So tell me?"
"You know that's not how that works." Umbra fell to all fours and came up on Shifting, nose to nose. "Even married people can have secrets if they don't hurt each other. And we're not even that. If that was your proposal..." Her cheeks darkened a little. "I'm not used to that style, but still..."
Shifting shoved her face back a few inches with a great push of a hoof. "No! Um... Please? I won't tell anycreature... unlike some others I know."
Umbra glanced around. "We're standing in a hallway, so that isn't happening. Maybe later, in private."
"Hmm... fine." Shifting set down the tiara to be grabbed instantly by her larger girlfriend. "You owe me!"
"I do owe you." Umbra cradled it under an arm and resumed her tapping message.
"Umbra?" Shining was trotting towards them briskly, head held high. "You wanted to talk to me?"
This is what Umbra got for using 'you' in the message instead of a name, but 'you' was shorter! "I meant Cadance actually, but hi!" She waved at him. "Do you know... oh, being dumb." She clopped her forehead. "She said to meet her at the breakfast spot."
"Oh, I know where that is." Shifting started down a new hallway, with the others right behind her. "Why are you coming, Shining? Aren't you busy?"
Shining perked an ear at that. "Umbra doesn't use that unless it's important, and she's doing it again."
Caught! She was rapping out a message to them both, 'Going to breakfast. Be there.'
All three marched into the room with its appointed table. It wasn't breakfast time, proven by how lunch foods were set out instead. Each took their usual spot at the table, with Umbra casually chomping. Her tiara was back on her head, granting her privacy. "You already hear about what we're here for?"
Shining glanced at Shifting briefly. "Only the basics." He folded his arms over his chest. "To be honest, it's hard to imagine. You've been a good friend of ours and hers." He wagged a hoof at Umbra. "If you were a nefarious changeling, you were playing the long game."
"Which they do." Cadance had arrived, closing the door behind her with a sparkling horn. "Thank you all for coming." She moved to her usual seat next to Shining. Flurry was not in sight. "We have things to discuss."
Umbra clopped the tabletop. "Don't start this with racist insults. Shifting Prism is proof that changelings can be delightfully loving people like any other race." She spread a wing to rest over Shifting in support.
Shifting smiled at the touch, but her guard was clearly still up. "I didn't choose that, but I chose a lot of other things. I've been a faithful subject of yours for a long time now... What changed?"
Cadance set her hooves in a steeple against one another. "Nothing, and everything. Let's be frank and honest. Changelings have, before, stolen everything from me. They locked me in a dark cavern away from everypony and expected me to languish there and die... That leaves a mark or two." She brought those hooves closer to just under her chin. "So forgive me if I still have feelings about that."
Shifting swallowed audible. "I'm sorry... I wasn't part of that, promise!" She wriggled in place, twitching her batty nose. "I just want to make pretty jewelry with Umbra..."
Umbra beamed suddenly. Her girlfriend still wanted to be with her. "She's already saved your butts before." Both of the others across the table perked at her with confusion. "In the dark, when the shadow creatures were attacking, she used her trickiness to save all of you." She tapped at her own chest. "And didn't even take credit. I could see it though. Darkness isn't much a hiding place from me."
Shining nodded slowly. "I should imagine not... Why didn't you tell us?"
Umbra rolled a hoof at him. "Because this conversation? Because you hate changelings, which she is. Not like anyone asked her if she wanted to be one before she was one." She tightened her wing's grip on Shifting. "She is a darling and wonderful person! Stop bullying her."
"I am not bullying her." Cadance brought down a hoof of her own. "My feelings matter too."
Shifting raised both hooves quickly. "They do! I'm sorry, really... That sounds horrible..."
"It was!" she screamed perhaps too loudly. "I thought... I thought I'd never see my Shining again, or anypony for that matter." She sagged against the table. "It was the most miserable time of my life, thanks to Chrysalis and her changelings."
"Well, I don't like her either." Shifting stuck out her tongue. "She's a real--"
"Jerk!" finished Umbra without delay. The two of them nodded in agreement. That was a pony that deserved the title. "She ran away from that jerk, and now she's in a better place where she can get hugs instead of that." She squeezed her girlfriend gently.
Cadance's eyes went off-focus a moment. "You two really like each other..." She sat up with a little smile. "So bright..." Her vision went to something else between herself and Umbra. "So ugly..." She sighed, falling with her face into her waiting hooves. "I don't want to be ugly. We're here because I want to get better, Shifting. This still hurts. It hurts badly... Even inviting you here was a matter of willpower."
"That's no excuse!" Umbra's hackles were raised in angry defiance. "Stop picking on her."
"Wait." Shifting gently pushed Umbra's wing back. "I think she's being honest... I'm sorry, even if I wasn't the 'ling that did that to you... That... That must have hurt."
Cadance smiled at the bat. "May I see your actual form?"
Shifting recoiled. "This is my authentic form! Even if I... am that... This is what I want ponies to see. This is what I want to be..."
Shining inclined his head. "Ah ha."