Sweetie paused at an alleyway as the other girls charged past it. She perked an ear, looking about curiously a moment. "Hm." She sniffed the air and turned to it fully. "Hm."
Scootaloo slowed in her charge. "What's wrong? You're going to be left behind if you stop like that."
"Sweetie see somethin'?" Apple Bloom had turned to face the pause in their charge. "What d'ya see?"
"A... filly?" Sweetie pointed to a small and huddled form in the gloom. They didn't look like a normal pony, not exactly. They were a pegasus? Their wings were rounded and translucent with no feathers, like bug wings. Her mane and tail looked unusual too, not like just hair, but as if it was made of some kind of energy, though Sweetie was helpless to name what energy it was.
Despite all that, Sweetie approached the unconscious little filly, as strange as she was. "You alright? This is a funny place for a filly to be." Try as she might, she couldn't think of many good reasons for a filly to be asleep in an alleyway. "Are you alright?"
The filly cracked open a bright eye, the iris grey in color. "O-oh."
"Hiya!"
Scootaloo joined Sweetie. "Heya. What're you doing there?"
"I don't have a better place." She sat up, her alien wings flapping on her back. "Everypony was ignoring me."
Sweetie tilted her head at the filly. "The ponies here are usually nice..."
Apple Bloom nodded firmly. "Yeah! Did you try talkin' to them?"
"No," admitted the filly in a tiny voice. "I'm scared..."
"There you are!" Swooping in from above, Umbra joined them, landing with a clip-clop. "You ran off so suddenly." That was when she noticed the new filly. "Oh, hello there..." There was something about the new filly that tickled at her, but Umbra couldn't place the feeling exactly. "Who are you?"
The filly shrank back from the large alicorn. "Um..."
Sweetie moved between them. "You're scaring her! Don't worry. Umbra is really nice." She wheeled on the new filly. "But knowing your name would be really nice."
The unsure pony gave her wings a single flap. "Morning Dew."
Apple Bloom nodded. "That's a right nice name. Pleased to meetcha. Ah'm Apple Bloom."
"Scootaloo."
"Sweetie Belle!" She bounced as she declared it. "And she's Umbra."
Umbra nodded at the new filly. "Nice to meet you, Morning Dew. What are you doing in there?" She didn't see the filly sleeping in the alleyway, but she was still standing in it.
"Um..."
Sweetie was happy to be the spokespony. "She's hiding."
"Yes." Morning nodded.
"Right." Umbra hiked a brow. "Why are you hiding? Is something bothering you? I'll take care of them."
Morning blinked with wide eyes. "Why? You just met me. You... don't owe me anything."
"No..." Umbra rolled a single hoof in the air. "Doesn't mean I wouldn't help a filly in trouble, or most any other pony come to think. Are you new in town? I'm Umbra, local shadow wizard! I am the comforting dark that snuggles you gently from all sides and keeps you safe from what lurks in the night."
Scootaloo squinted at that description. "That is both reassuring and terrifying at the same time. Neat."
Morning stepped carefully to the edge of the alleyway, peering at Umbra. "You... seem familiar."
"I do?" Umbra inclined her head. "We never met." She was pretty sure she'd remember a little filly with uncolored butterfly wings. "But that doesn't mean we can't be friends. Now, what's sc--" She didn't get to finish. Morning touched her. Umbra didn't mind a little filly doing that. It was kinda cute, really.
What she wasn't expecting was that to have consequences. Her form unraveled, great teeth, projecting and terrible, her facial bones becoming visible in a grim display of an equine skull. All her color was gone. She was not just a wizard of chaos. Umbra had become a creature of darkness, fierce and angry with hollow eyes of static that looked threateningly about.
The CMC scampered back with mutual shrieks of surprised fear, but Morning couldn't look happier. "Yay!"
Umbra tried to blink, but her strange nightmarish form was incapable of the action. "Trying to stay calm..." She patted the little happy pixie filly. "Can you tell me what's going on?"
"You're an Umbrum," cried out Morning Dew. "I'm one too. I thought I was alone... I'm so happy..." She recoiled suddenly. "You're not a mean umbrum, are you?"
"Me?" Umbra tried for a winning smile, but it only came off as threatening. "I'm the nice kind of shadow, I just said that. Wait." She fished around in herself and found a mirror to peer at herself. "Oh... Oh no..."
Sweetie peered suspiciously at the revealed umbrum. "Uh, so... What do you see?"
"Besides ugly." Scootaloo was not afraid to say it as it was.
"Don't be mean." Apple Bloom swatted at Scootaloo. "Yer still Umbra in there, right?"
"Still me, on the inside." Umbra turned the mirror in her magic slowly to get to other angles of her ghastly new form. "Wait... You said you're one too." She lowered the mirror to look at Morning Dew. "You don't look like this."
"I'm hiding," noted Morning as if it was very obvious. "I thought you were hiding, too. You were hiding so well, you hid from yourself. That's good hiding..." She rubbed her chin, looking quite impressed at that level of hiding skill.
Umbra tucked her mirror away. "Not that good... How do I 'hide'?" She peered at the little filly. "Can you show me?"
"You were doing it." Morning peered at Umbra like she was speaking nonsense. "Just imagine a form that's less scary and wrap up tight in it."
"Less scary. Hm... No wonder I ended up with a changeling." She was a shapeshifter too, turned out. Umbra held the vision of her old self. "And... wrap..." She slowly waved her hooves over herself, bidding that form to return to her. Her form stopped dangerously wafting with barely formed shadow, becoming the equally dangerous but perhaps less mysterious shadow wizard she had started as. "That's..." Umbra took out her mirror to check. "Better..."
Scootaloo leaned forward. "You're with a changeling?"
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "They mentioned that, remember? 'Our brave and glorious hero, tamer of changelings', etc. etc."
Sweetie was the closest to Morning and dared to come closer. "That means you can also look like that? What is that?"
"You're worst nightmare." Morning stood proudly instead of cowering, with Umbra behind her as she faced Sweetie. "Are you scared? Good!"
Umbra set a hoof on the little pixy-filly. "Calm down. Sweetie is a friend. We don't need to scare friends."
"Aw...." Morning shrunk at the chastising. "But her fear is tasty..."
"I've run into them before, but I didn't know what they were called." Umbra held the little filly, not scared of her. "They fought me, and the entire city... It was a big fight."
Morning perked at the description. "You were there?! Why weren't you on our side then? We're both umbrum. Why would you protect... them?" She waved wildly at the crusaders.
"Because nocreature deserves to be scared by me that isn't trying to hurt me or what's precious to me." Umbra leaned in at the little filly. "And these are friends, little wonderful friends. They should be celebrated, not spooked." She paused. "Did I say nocreature? Ponyisms are rubbing off on me."
"They're corrupting you!" wailed Morning Dew. "Let's defeat them and run away while we can."
Sweetie shook her head. "Too late, she's a friend of ours."
Scootaloo nodded in solidarity. "Yep. Umbra, shadow wizard and local hero. And, uh, umbrum?" All three girls inclined their head in shared confusion at that last part.
"It confuses me too." Umbra picked up Morning gently. "But you."
Morning pinned her ears back. "Oh no... You're going to destroy me, aren't you? You're a traitor and... I'm gonna be ripped apart..." Big tears welled in her eyes. "Oh no..."
"Shh." Without thinking it through all the way, Umbra floated over a bottle that hadn't been there before, popping it into the pouting face of the distraught filly. "Shh..."
Morning fought against the sudden bottle shoved in her face, but she got a sip of it and the fight died down slowly until she was cradled by Umbra and nursing with little suckling noises on the bottle, holding it herself between her forehooves.
Sweetie burst into giggles. "She's a filly, not a baby. She doesn't need a bottle."
Scootaloo thrust a hoof in front of Sweetie. "Hey, didn't she say something about 'fear is tasty'? Maybe she is hungry. Let her drink."
Apple Bloom tapped at her own head. "That's some smart thinkin' right there."
Umbra was happy to whisper sweet nothings to her little nightmare pony. It was only when all seemed calm that she asked, "Feel better?"
Morning licked over her lips. "I didn't know anything could be as tasty as fear..."
"You're still a pony, even if you're a scary one sometimes. Food works!" She set Morning carefully down, the bottle vanished back to the ether it had come from. "Now, to set some basic rules; So long as you're a nice pony, I won't let anyone hurt you. I won't let you starve either. Now, when I got here, these fillies were trying to make friends with you. Apologize for trying to scare them."
"I'm not sorry." Morning stood in brave defiance. "Hey!" Sweetie was poking at her. "What are you doing?"
"You feel like a normal pony to me." Sweetie inclined her head. "Hi!"
"I am nightmare incarnate!" Morning revealed the terror, her innocent pixie form melting away into the unformed flesh of shadowy nightmares. "And you should fear me, little pony!" She gnashed with exposed teeth at Sweetie with a grin that was entirely unnatural. "Because you are delicious, and your fear, twice as much."
"Nah." Sweetie casually pushed Morning back. "I'm not scared of you anymore. Umbra is bigger and scarier. She knows magic and could probably turn is inside out."
Scootaloo raised a hoof. "Or turn us into lawn furniture."
Apple Bloom hiked a brow. "Maybe both at once, but she wouldn't, because she's nice." All three nodded in agreement, no fear to be had among the three.
Umbra flashed a less boney smile. "Aw! That means a lot." She placed the crusaders mentally in the 'so adorable it hurts' category, again. "And I try to be, even to little fillies that are being naughty." She tapped at Morning's nightmarish side. "You're not scaring anyone here, so go on back."
"Ugh... fine..." Morning became her pixy-pony self. "But you know the nightmare is hiding just under the surface." Her threat had little impact on the three. "I still don't get it... If... If you're against umbrum, why are you showing me mercy? Why are you being nice? Why did you feed me?!"
"Because I'm a nice pony." Umbra leaned in, touching nose to nose with the little nightmare pony. "And I'm not scared of nightmares. I am nightmares, and scare them away. I'd rather not scare you away. I think you need love, not scares."
"I love to scare?" Morning ventured, as if that'd make things click and make sense again.
"A good scare can be a lot of fun." Umbra nodded. "But..."
Sweetie got the hint. "In the right place."
"At the right time," continued Apple Bloom.
Scootaloo flashed a cocky grin. "Which isn't here or now. You can scare us when we aren't expecting it."
Morning brightened at that. "I can? You promise?"
Sweetie considered that a moment. "Hm... alright, promise. You get one scare, when we aren't expecting it, so make it good."
Apple Bloom waved her hooves as if she were an apple-themed ghost. "Really spooky!"
"Knock us dead with fright." Scootaloo clutched her poor heart, thumping over in feigned weakness. "Show us your best scare, but not right now."