"I here." The elder emerged from a tunnel, only then joining the others. "Destroy? Will come back?"
Umbra shook her head. "No, but also hopefully not, since I've made my claim."
"Talk funny," noted a smaller tsuki, poking at her. "Why?"
Umbra skewed an ear at that. She was talking perfectly normal! Well, from her perspective. But her perspective... maybe wasn't the only one. "Sorry, how I was taught. Most ponies talk like I do. Is it annoying?"
The elder reached Umbra, traveling in smaller, slower hops than the youthful ones. "Different. Different not bad. Different different. Fight bad shadow. Win. Good." She patted Umbra gently on the chest with both paws. "Good."
Simple words, but clear enough. Umbra nodded with a smile. "Good," she echoed. "Now... A choice, a few choices, really... I don't want to tell you all what to do, this is your home. So... You could join the Crystal Empire from here, which means ponies will protect you, including me."
The elder rubbed at one of her horns, considering Umbra. "What pay?"
"Smart," admitted Umbra. "A trade. You share what you make, and the good will of your people. We share protection."
"Make?" The elder turned in place with the stiffness of age. "Beads!"
A tsuki, a young one, perked up, so young their ears could lift. "Beads!" The little boy tsuki dashed off in a series of rapid hops, returning with their arms burdened with many jangling beads. "Beads."
The elder took one of the strands from him with a nod and shoved it right around Umbra's head, hanging it from here. "Make."
"You make beads?" Umbra turned the beads around in her magic, examining them. "Pretty." They were made with local rocks, but also local gems. Of course Sombra would...
"Pretty..." She pressed further, examining their insides. They were of superior quality, almost as pure as stones still resting in the earth. They would make... wonderful enchanting materials. "Perfect... Yes. If you traded us some of these, we would gladly protect you." She inclined her head. "I will be honest, we'd protect you if you just asked, even if you never traded with us. Ponies are nice, overall."
The elder clapped her paws, the toebeans allowing for a firm slap. "Good good. Keep safe. No bad shadows."
Umbra turned a hoof on herself. "Only good ones."
"Good shadow, good." She touched noses with Umbra, which was a prompt for a lot of other noses to close in communal agreement that the good shadow was good, and welcome among them.
Umbra grabbed one of their horns in her magic, which prompted that tsuki buck to jump back in an awkward scramble. "Sorry, was curious. Can you do magic?" She pointed up at her own horn, glowing with a sign of its power. "Like I do?"
The buck shook his head quickly. "Horns not that. Your horn... different." Since it had been brought up, he went in to feel at Umbra's horn, returning the favor. If one was was alright, surely the other.
Umbra didn't fight it, letting her horn be examined. "Have you ever tried?"
The elder reached up, but didn't touch, instead snatching the halo of magic away from Umbra's horn, leaving it without a glow as she played with the magic like clay.
Umbra blinked in amazement. "Did you... just take my magic?" She tried to light her horn again, and it did so without a problem. The glow that the elder was playing with, still there. "You took... what I had, but not what I could make. That's so interesting."
The elder inclined her horns at Umbra. "Horn for magic. Not make. Change. Different. Different not bad. Different not good. Different different."
"Different," echoes Umbra with a smile of appreciation. "I like it a lot... You say it isn't good, but I think it's very good."
"Good?" The elder stepped forward, causing the others to make room without asking. "Why?"
Umbra patted herself down, finding a daydark she brought out and planted in the ground. "I make magic things, but to make magic things, I need good gems. I don't know how you mine, but you mine really well. Good good." Sure, she was trying to imitate them a little. "Very good. My magic." She pointed up at her horn. "And your gems--" She pointed to the beads. "Means I can make more, easily, and better."
"Magic?" The elder pawed at the stick, but it was, so far she could see, a stick. "What magic?"
Umbra pushed her magic into the daydark, gently, causing the light around them to dim, but that was a strange showing, as the only light had been her horn. "It makes dark," she tried to explain, brightening her horn enough to make the contrast more obvious. "You bunnies have good night sight."
Petri grabbed the staff, closing her hand around it firmly. "Why make dark? Lot dark." She waved behind herself, where there was all the dark one could ever need.
"For you," allowed Umbra with a gentle smile. "But for ponies, up above--" She pointed upwards with a hoof. "They sometimes have too much light. We have nightlights too, to make light when there's too much dark."
Petri clapped, releasing the staff. "Want. Share?"
"Share," gladly agreed Umbra. "Nightlights for you, daydarks for us. Share dark."
The elder fell to all fours, an easier stance to hold. "Share. Good shadow. We join nice ponies. Visit?" She turned to wave over her fellows. "Come see ponies. Ponies come see tsuki?"
"Tourism?" Oh, the blank looks she got. "Yes, that sounds wonderful!" They began to cheer and clap, crashing in hugs in celebration of the news. The cheer was infectious, Umbra dancing from hoof to hoof with a smile that refused to go away. "I should tell the other ponies what I found, and the good news."
Petri slapped herself on the chest and waved out at Umbra. "We friend. Take friend? See ponies." She sure looked excited about the idea.
The elder nodded. "If want. Good friends. Not force."
Petri shrank at that, called out. "Not force." She fell to all fours. "I want. Please?"
Umbra could easily see the competing eagerness to go and to not be rude. Other tsuki looked eager, but they seemed to accept that Petri had the best chance. "How... fast are you?"
Petri pointed at Umbra. "How fast? Race?"
Umbra rubbed behind her head. Well... it wasn't like she had a spedometer, and neither did that eager rabbit. "Race. Now, show me how to get out." She had no idea which way to go in those tunnels. "A little lost." She willed her daydark up and tucked it away.
"Here." She began to do just that, bouncing down the tunnel for Umbra to follow. She wasn't alone, with many tsuki coming right along with rapt curiosity.
When they got to the large hole, somewhere between ten and sixty minutes later, the tsuki were less present. Most seemed to find other things to do along the way. Umbra waved a hoof at the lack of tsuki. "I thought they wanted to see?"
"Scared." Petri kept right on for the center of where the hole was above. "New. New is scary."
"New can be scary..." Umbra joined Petri there in the center of thing, on that raised platform. "How will you--" She didn't get to finish that question, Petri vanishing in a sudden leap that carried her up and out of sight instantly. "Oh..." Fortunately, she had wings, and began to flap her way upwards. "See you all later." The remaining tsuki waved at her and called out their fare wells. The visit was officially over.
Umbra emerged into the dark of night, to find Petri standing there in the moon-lit snow. She was a tsuki, a moon rabbit, and the way the moon reflected off her fur was an enchanting reminder of that. "There is." She waved excitedly as Umbra emerged. "Faster than you." She sounded so proud of that.
"That was pretty fast." Racing Petri in shadow form was tempting, but the poor thing didn't know where to go. "This way." She could fly forward faster than up, and began leading the way back towards the Crystal Empire. "It'll take some--"
Petri grabbed Umbra mid-air, snatching her and dropping the unicorn on her back. With her passenger secured, Petri bounced forward with all her might, proving tsuki could get to impressive speeds when they were focused on it. Umbra clenched her teeth as the world sped past her at a whistling speed. The landings were surprisingly gentle, the rabbit's thick toe beans allowing her to absorb the impact and even rebound with her coiled muscles, conserving most of the energy to use on the very next hop, like a well-tuned spring.
"Pretty?" Petri asked as she bounced. "I pretty?"
"Pretty fast," corrected Umbra, catching the meaning a moment later. "I... have someone already." Multiple someones, but why complicate that? "Thank you."
"Oh." A moment of quiet save for rushing wind. "You nice. Give good hug. Would say yes."
Umbra quirked an ear. Was she being propositioned? "You want more than... a good hug, I hope?"
"Yes." Petri looked over her shoulder. "You nice. You brave. You strong. What more want?"
Umbra pointed a hoof at herself. "We can start with... we're both ladies. Do you prefer ladies? I mean, no shame in that."
"Lady?"
Umbra clopped a hoof to her face. "Ladies, the ones who carry the children. Men, the one who put them in the ladies. To make that simple."
"Oh. Lady." She nodded with growing confidence. "Lady." She pointed at herself briefly, keeping her paws ready for bouncing a moment after. "Oh! Oh. No kits. You right. Not think. Good shadow. Good good. But no kits." Just like that, she put aside the idea, not for lack of liking Umbra, but it was true, two ladies didn't make kits. "Sorry."
"Don't be." She gently patted the back of Petri's neck. "Thank you for thinking it through, now. Friends?"
"Friends!" That was an easy thing to secure. "Friends?" She pointed up ahead at a gathering of lights. They were approaching the kingdom. "Bright. Bright for night." Understanding dawned on her. "Why daydark! Understand. Make sense. Understand. Bright..."
The excitement of her mount was hard to miss. "And full of ponies. They'll be surprised to see you, a good surprise. With me here, they shouldn't be upset."
That theory was put to the test quickly when they came down in a smooth landing among many ponies trying to go about their night life.
Several came to a sudden and complete stop, gawking at their hero mounted atop a giant horned rabbit.
Umbra slid to the ground. "Hello! I've brought a friend." She waved at Petri. "Her name is Petri. She's a tsuki, and I think she already likes you."
This was not a hard guess to make, as she was snuffling curiously at a crystal pony. "Hello?" squeaked out the crystal pony. The moment they raised an arm, it was taken as an invitation for a hug, a contest they swiftly lost, buried under warm tsuki fur in aggressive cuddling. "Help!"
Umbra pulled the two apart with her magic. "Easy there. Tsuki love wrestling, as you can see. She doesn't mean anything bad by it."
"Mmm, not good hug," decided Petri. "Not bad. Petri." She pointed at herself. "You?"
"O-oh, hello." The stallion got himself properly upright. "I'm Glaze Finish. Nice to meet you."
"Nice." She turned back to Umbra. "Where den?"
Umbra pointed to the palace ahead. "There. Come on. I have to show you to our leaders."
Petri gasped. "Oh! Elder?"
"Not elder." She imagined Cadance didn't want to be called that. "But the one in charge. She's very nice." Umbra paused. "But warn her before you hug. If she's ready, you'll get a better hug."
"Ooo... Good. Good good." Equipped with the tip for superior hugs, Petri went with Umbra towards the palace to officially introduce the tsuki.