"Aw..." Umbra shook her head slowly. "It's not even fair, having a paramilitary force as a competing unit." The Wonderbolts had defeated Ponyville, leaving them with the silver in the aerial relay. "That was as cool as I hoped though."
Celestia cleared her throat. "They are ponies, like any other. They practice, like any other. Why wouldn't they be permitted to join? They aren't given any artificial aids."
Umbra quirked an ear, having forgotten Celestia was right there. "Oh! Um... Well, since you're here. They get to practice all day every day, I bet. Does anyone else get that?"
Celestia inclined her head. "The star player of the Ponyville teams, Rainbow Dash, practices near constantly, I'm informed. Ponies who have a calling in racing will do exactly that, as a member of the Wonderbolts or not."
Part of that did not make sense. "If they're racing all day, how do they pay for their house and food and stuff?"
Celestia's guarded expression lifted into a gentle smile. "I forget at times how new you are to our ways. What would your nation do, if someone were called to race with all their heart?"
"That... depends..." She envisioned a racing human, dashing back and forth with all their will. "First step, they'd probably try to join a team, which can pay them. They'd get sponsors, hmmm..." She tapped at her head in thought. "I wasn't an athlete..."
"How interesting." Celestia did not seem ruffled. "Here, in Equestria, if a pony is eagerly pursuing their ambitions, then we will ensure they have a place to rest, and food to eat. If they want much more than that, they earn it. As you have." She inclined her head softly at Umbra. "I hear you made quite a few bits in construction work, including this very arena we sit in currently."
Cadance clapped at another game going on, eyes on it, but her ears were trained on the conversation. "She did good work, as you can see. Worth every bit."
"But... You also could just stop working. We wouldn't cast you onto the street. You could hole up in a small house and study shadow magic all day, every day. We wouldn't stop you." Celestia hummed gently. "But that isn't what you want."
"No!" Umbra barked before she blushed at her outburst. "No... I like being more active than that... But don't some... just sit and take advantage?"
"Some do." Celestia nodded placidly. "Most don't. I think it's worth the price. Of all the worries my little ponies may have, starvation and shelter are not among them."
"Wait!" Umbra clopped her hooves. "What about the food makers? How do they get paid if everyone's eating free?"
"I pay them, of course. They submit a tally of how many meals they served, and Equestria, as a whole, renders payment. The free meals, of course. If somepony were to get a fancy meal, or more food than we allow, they have to pay for that on their own. It is a matter of prestige to go to an eatery that only accepts bits. Many ponies will gladly pay for what is otherwise free, if they think it's fancy enough. Exclusivity is a draw."
Umbra sank back away from Celestia. She made a low explosive sound, spreading her hooves as she did it. "Mind. Blown. So Equestria is a big ole socialist state... Neat... Hey... I have more bits than I know what to do with right now, can I contribute to keeping cute pony faces full of food and their stables nice and clean?"
Celestia's smile grew. "A kind and wonderful thought. You already pay taxes, I remind. They go towards such initiatives without any action on your part. Do you wish to give beyond that? I would not take a single bit without you understanding the circumstances."
"If I can? No hungry ponies." Umbra clopped a hoof down. "Not a single one!"
"Not if I can help it," gently agreed Celestia. "I will send an accountant over, after the games, to hash out exactly how much you are giving and to accept the payment. I must warn, there will be no reward for this. You are doing so entirely out of your own kindness."
"That's how a donation works." Umbra rolled a hoof, face going flat. "If you paid me, it wouldn't be a donation anymore."
"I can't argue that." Celestia pointed past Umbra to the playing field. "Now let us enjoy the efforts of our ponies."
Twilight suddenly clapped. "Oh, here comes the archery. You wanted to see how that works, right?"
"Ooo." Umbra fixed her attention on the line of ponies of all types, pulling back bows and letting the ice arrows fly to crash and stick to the target in an icey sheet at the point of contact. "Neat..."
One pony tripped, loosing their arrow into the air instead of at the targets. "Woops." Umbra watched it soar upwards, more out of curiosity than anything else, but that changed as it struck the cloud above and the ice formed, and formed, and kept right on forming in a great sheet. The entire cloud was freezing rapidly and becoming cold, sinking under its new weight. "That is not how physics worked..." Not that she was any expert on the subject, but she felt reasonably sure on that point. Still, it was coming down on a bunch of ponies, and there was screaming. Action was required.
All the other princesses were without magic, locked away to secure the games. "Time for... shadow decay!"
Twilight blinked at the call. "What is that? Is it quick?!"
"We'll find out." Umbra fired a thin purple ray into the great cloud. It wasn't hard to hit. The dark magic spread over it rapidly, to no effect other than coloring it it seemed. "And then..." She grabbed at nothing with her hooves and twisted them sharply counterclockwise. "We destroy what holds it together!" she shouted, shadow magic wafting from her eyes and fangs on display. She was a vicious shadow wizard and, in that moment, she was loving it.
Weakened, the crystal matrix that made ice ice in the first place began to unwravel under its own weight. It broke and cracked with great screams of tortured material. Bits of it began to fall in what was more like uneven chunks of hail instead of an entire sheet. That still meant hail was raining down on the panicking ponies. "Damn it..."
Other ponies were involved. The Wonderbolts were zipping about, catching larger bits of hail with a practiced harmony they had trained long and hard to gain. "Yeah! Backup!" Umbra pumped a hoof, her horn glowing wildly as she broke the ice up harder, trying to reduce the size of the dangerous falling debris. "We got this, together!" The Wonderbolts weren't the only ones to get involved.
Though they had jumped to action first, other pegasi caught on to what they were doing and many of them surged to join in the rescue effort. Larger earth ponies stepped over smaller ponies to serve as shields. Unicorns were out of luck mostly, with their magic turned off. But the ice rain was getting closer, and still falling. Her efforts had only reduced the damage of each specific bit of it, though she struggled to at least keep that up.
But there was another hero there. Spike bounced off Twilight's head, to her squawk. He took a great breath and proved that dragon magic has also not been shackled as he unleashed a great torrent of flames on the underside of the cloud, turning the hail to water. What had been dangerous turned into a refreshing shower, and cheers erupted.
The day had been saved, not by any one creature, but by so many of them stepping up when things went badly. Celestia and Shining shared a nod, stepping up to speak to the worried ponies. "Everything is under control now," assured Shining Armor. "And it's thanks to many of you. Let's stomp our hooves for our brave ponies, and dragon, that stood up to the plate when we needed their help." The arena became a deafening roar of stomping hooves and whooping cheers. Shining let the applause go on for a little while.
"And now, let the games resume!" With a blast of horns, the archery competition was allowed to be completed. There were many other games waiting to be played, to show off the skills of the ponies taking part in them.
"Hey." Umbra was sitting properly. "Nice save, Spike."
"Aw, I just did what I could." He waved it away. "You helped a lot."
"We can call it a team effort?" Umbra offered a hoof.
He met it with a firm slap of a palm against the bottom of the hoof. "Team effort!" In that, they were united. "Ponyville's giving a good showing."
"Yeah." Umbra considered the sports being played. "I'll be honest, my only attachment to Ponyville are the friends I have from there, like you, and the crusaders I still want to meet."
"Still thinking about that?" He gestured as if to throw the discus being hurled, even if he wasn't doing it himself. "After the games are done, they'll meet up with us. Applejack wouldn't go anywhere without Apple Bloom, family thing, and you got Rarity and Sweetie Belle, both of them are sisters." He held up four fingers though. "Then you got Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, who aren't officially sisters, but they see each other that way, and what's wrong with that?"
"Nothing!" Umbra nodded firmly. "Found family can be best family. Aw, now I want to chat with Rainbow. I didn't think she had it in her."
"Hm?" Twilight turned an ear off the competition towards the other two. "Who had what?"
Umbra rolled a hoof slowly. "Rainbow. She seemed pretty cool and I liked that, but she didn't hit me as a caring sort, so that's nice that she took another pegasus under wing... literally, come to think."
"Are we talking about Scootaloo?" Twilight wasn't looking away from the action below. "Nice filly. Seems to get along with Rainbow Dash very well."
Spike rolled his eyes. "We just went over that." He waved Twilight off. "Nevermind her."
"She's absorbed on the game." Umbra chuckled softly, a waft of shadowy magic escaping her mouth. "Which I'm glad is continuing. So what's the most horse-like game they have?"
"Horse-like?" Spike frowned in thought. "Um... Hm."
"That's easy." Twilight was apparently paying at least mild attention. "The ground races. Any pony of any tribe can move their legs. It's a natural activity that all ponies share."
"Most." Umbra smirked softly. "I'm sure there are some ponies, poor things, that can't. They're still ponies, so most, not all."
Twilight flipped an ear back. "Valid... Most ponies. The races of varying lengths are very popular. Rainbow was upset she couldn't take part in them, since she was on the flying team. But, as you know, speed is something she takes pride in."
"She did good in the relay." Umbra nodded to Spike, who returned the gesture. "Second place isn't bad... I'm sure she wanted first."
"Absolutely, but she didn't look too upset." Twilight did some counting, her lips moving without speaking. "The fifty meter dash is coming up in two events. Be sure to pay attention, since you were curious. You... were a human, were you not? Like Equestria High?"
Umbra's ears perked right up. "I forgot you'd been there! Yes, one of those." She wriggled a hoof, but it had no fingers to finish the wriggle. "Fingers and all. We came in less colors where I'm from, but mostly that. Those were pony-humans, which made them better."
Twilight smiled at that description. "Most creatures don't like ponies more than their own race."
Umbra raised a brow at Spike, who turned colors and looked away, not daring to join that conversation. "Ponies have a lot to like, Twilight."