Umbra was pressing into the dark, in that curious vision that let her see despite the complete lack of light. "I come in peace," she called out, wings fidgeting on her back. "Someone has to be here..."
An idea! A wonderful idea, she hopped. She sat on her haunches in the middle of the cave tunnel and spread her will and reach. She ceased to see the world, throwing herself into another place entirely. It wasn't a treasure vault, it was a system of caves, much like the one she'd just been exploring.
Tucked in the corners and safely stashed away were some vegetables. Not many? But some... Some was enough. "Are you all taking a nap?" She willed what looked like a big radish up into view. "Let's take a peek." But how did she 'enter' a radish?
Only one thing to do with a radish came to mind. She sank her teeth into it, and entered a third world.
"I love you."
The words were not being spoken at Umbra, but from one creature to another. They were big, fluffy, and... "Rabbit?" she said to herself, only realizing a moment later that she, too, was a rabbit, at least in that dream. That was a fine time to inspect herself, and the creature by proxy. She had horns on her head, and big floppy ears that hung down. She had a big cotton tail that she could wiggle about. Her legs were full of power, as befit any rabbit-like creature.
She was a horned rabbit. A big adorable horned rabbit. She turned her eyes to the dreamer, trying to woo another rabbit off her feet with mixed success. The two crashed together in a great hug that turned into a wrestling match. Their teeth were bared with grunts and heaves, but neither seemed upset about it. She threw him back to the ground. "Nice hug, need practice." She crossed her arms and turned away from the male. "Try harder."
"I..." The male sank, defeated. "Try harder..."
Umbra started awake. Something had poked her on the side. Twisting to see it, a surprised squeak reached her as the owner of the poking paw scrambled backwards.
"Hello there." Umbra turned slowly to face the presence in the dark. It was one of the rabbits, watching her and looking frightened. "My name is Umbra. May I know yours?"
The rabbit inclined their head. "Not attacking?" A female from the sound of it. "Umbra?" She curled a paw on herself. "Petri." She hopped forward, landing next to Umbra, sniffing at her. "Umbra."
"Petri." Umbra reached out to pat the rabbit. They were just as soft as they looked, and since there was no objection, she stroked the rabbit a little. "Nice to meet you, Petri."
"Yes! Nice." She grabbed Umbra then, squeezing her firmly in a great hug that drove the air right out of her. Petri let Umbra go to catch her breath. "Not good at hugs?"
"I wasn't ready," huffed out Umbra, sitting up to face the creature that was easily her match, alicorn or not. "Try again?"
"Try again," joyfully allowed Petri, moving in for a fresh hug. Umbra caught her, returning the hug with her own arms and pressing hooves. Since the rabbit clearly wanted a nice firm hug, she did her best to give just that.
Petri's joyful giggles filled the area, which was a summoning spell of sorts. Other rabbits emerged with twitching noses and soft slaps of their feet with each little hop from all sides to check out the great hugging going on.
One, older? With great brows and whiskers, but sounding female, approached carefully. "Why are you here?" she asked with better diction than Petri was managing.
Umbra perked with a smile. A leader! "Nice to meet you. I'm Umbra," she repeated to get the basics out of the way. "I came to see what was here. There were other ponies, like me, that got scared away."
"Ponies, yes." The elder nodded her head. "Come from above in a great crash." She swung her arms down in imitation of the act. "They were scared and so were we. They ran away. You... have not run." She considered Umbra carefully. "Are you a pony warrior?"
"Yes." There didn't seem a reason to deny that. "But I'm not here to make trouble, I promise."
Petri hopped in place, just shy of the roof. "She has a good hug."
The elder nodded, as if that fact was very important. "Then I welcome you. There is danger."
Umbra turned an ear aside. "Where?" Surely not the rabbits... right?
The elder pointed down one of many tunnels. "A creature of darkness. It hunts tsuki." She paused. "Oh. Tsuki." She pointed at herself, then the other rabbits. "Tsuki."
"You are a tsuki," put together Umbra. "I am a pony."
"Hello, pony Umbra," greeted another tsuki, coming in close for fresh sniffs.
"Hello," chimed several others. She was being buried in inquisitive snouts that sniffed and nosed and soon were petting her even more enthusiastically than she had petted Petri. It was like she was some stray dog that they decided was a good dog and in need of some good petting.
It was... charming, in a way. "Well, I know how to face shadows," she interrupted. "Maybe I can help?"
The elder shook out her head, ears flopping about. "You can fight shadows?"
"I am a shadow," argued Umbra. "Oh, most ponies aren't, but I am. I am a friendly shadow."
The elder clapped her hands in a dry slow applause. "A friendly shadow? I have never heard of that... But if a kind shadow would battle the hungry ones..."
"Kind shadow," piped a male tsuki, going in for a hug.
"Nice shadow," agreed a female, hugging her from the other end and burying her in their shared floof.
Umbra giggled between the two furry huggers. "You are all too great... Alright, where are these mean shadows? I won't let them pick on my new tsuki friends."
The elder tapped Petri, who nodded with understanding without words. "Follow." The other tsuki backed away from Umbra. "Here." Petri took a little hop and looked back.
Umbra started off at a trot, which got Petri moving. As a pair, they went deeper into the tunnels. "I hope you'll lead me back out when we're done..." Umbra was pretty sure she was already pretty lost. That Petri didn't answer that wasn't assuring. "So, shadow this way?" But still no answer, just the steady hippety hop towards theoretical danger. Umbra abandoned trying to question the tsuki.
"Imposter." The word came cold and firm all around them. Petri fled, bolting where they had come from.
"Imposter of what?" asked Umbra with far less running involved. "Who are you?"
"My question..."
Umbra hiked a brow at that. "So we share one. I'll go first." She curled a hoof at herself. "I'm Umbra."
"Pathetic." The voice seemed to come from another angle, but there was no body and no substance to it. "A shallow imitation."
"That's the part where you give your name," prompted Umbra, rolling her eyes. "Unless you think you're scaring me, which you aren't."
"You should be." With the emphasized word, two glaring eyes opened in front of her, ebbing with the shadow powers that Umbra knew too well.
"The jerk!" she spat out with an almost laugh. "I thought you exploded."
"Defeated, but not gone... Why were you not... Why are you standing?"
Umbra hiked a brow at what, she assumed, was Sombra. "Why are you picking on those rabbits? The tsuki seem pretty nice to me, leave them alone!"
"Mine."
"Yeah... no." Umbra's horn glowed with her shadow magic. "And one of us is intact, and the other really isn't. You want to start this fight?"
The sound of a heavy thump drew Umbra's vision to Petri returning, her eyes distant, but her stance hard to get wrong. She was focused on Umbra, flexing her claws in the air. They weren't sharp things, but their intent was as dangerous as they had been friendly before.
"Dirty pool!" Umbra had read the book of shadow magic. She hadn't learned how to rip into minds, but she knew they existed, and Sombra was a master of such deviant arts. "Take a breather." She locked eyes with Petri's as her own eyes and horn flared with shadow, submerging the rabbit in overpowering sleep.
Petri sagged back and flopped over, eyes closed. "That wasn't even funny, trying to get her to attack me."
"Barely the start."
Thuds and clicks echoed from all around as tsuki emerged from all around, all their gazes distant. On the positive, the elder didn't seem to be among them. "Crud."
"Crud, indeed," chortled the voice of Sombra. "You can't put them all to sleep."
No, the sleep spell really was made for one on one, not an entire crowd... "They can't fight shadows." She fell into the plentiful dark of the tunnel, becoming nothing but shadow itself.
And there he was, also a shadow. He lunged for her, teeth bared in a savage bite before she could even fully realize he was there. She kicked him away with a squawk, her essence spilling from the sound. With her will and a sharp throw of a hoof that wasn't even really there, she threw jagged spikes of shadowed crystal after him, but he darted and swirled around it.
He knew how to deal with shadow, and crystals. She had learned his tricks on that... But she had learned other tricks. She wove her magic and her next volley of spikes slowed and stopped in strange patterns, time flowing about them curiously. She released the time grip just as he passed in front of one, causing it to jab into him in a return for the bite he had delivered.
He howled with fury, the crystal shattering in the force of it as he surged for her with blinding fury in his shadowed eyes.
A pity time magic worked both ways. He hadn't expected the shards that had already missed him to come flying backwards, following their trail backwards until they slammed into him, decorating his immaterial back with shadow crystal shards with meaty thumps that implied they were far more physical than they actually were.
"Jerk." She lashed around and kicked out her hooves, sending him crashing back. But he wasn't down for long, flowing with the impact to come crashing on her, or at least where she had been a moment before.
It took a lot of magic, she was no Minuette, but she warped her personal time to sidestep out of the way at the last moment and pounce just after.
"Enough!" he roared, zipping away from her. "I'll be back, have no... fear." He didn't stop his fleeing.
But Umbra didn't chase him either, instead reforming into physicality to see all the tsuki looking dizzy and confused, except one that was still asleep. "Good news." They looked to her. "The mean shadow was taught a lesson. If he poked his head in here, you let me know."
The tsuki let out a cautious noise of approval, but seemed far more confused than overjoyed.
Petri blinked her eyes open, stirring, perhaps from the noise. She sat up with a horrified look. "Did I hurt?"
Umbra shook her head at the tsuki. "No, I'm fine. The mean shadow was chased away."
"Good!" She flipped over to all fours and hopped at Umbra, pouncing her in a big hug that was soon joined by another, and another. It seemed she had gained many friends that day, or night? It was evening when she arrived... "While we're here," she asked in the midst of the bunny pile. "Do you all work during the day, or the night?"
Petri considered that a moment. "When the sun is heavy, or the moon is light. Not too bright. Not too dark. That is our favorite time." Other tsuki were nodding in easy agreement.
Umbra wriggled free of the pile as gently as she could. "There's a term for that... that I don't remember... But neat!" She clopped her hooves. "Where'd your boss tsuki go? We have things to discuss."