Petri nodded rapidly at Cadance. "Yes. Go." She pointed off. "I will tell them. They will hear. More tsuki come. Good?"
"Good," gently echoed Cadance. "You were a fine guest. If the others are just as charming, our friendship will be long and good for all of us."
"Good friends." Petri clapped her paws in a rapid applause. "Go." And she waited not a moment longer, bouncing high into the sky towards the other tsuki.
Shining looked between Cadance and Umbra. "That went well. However, you did promise them something considerable."
Cadance hummed softly. "We'll need a branch of the guard dedicated to them. Rotating staff in and out of that assignment would be awkward. They probably wouldn't be interested, but if they moved closer..."
Umbra clopped a metal-clad hoof to her face. "I should have thought of this before I opened my mouth. Speaking of problems caused by my mouth, I've started gently repairing things with Shifting."
Shining perked at that. "Oh, nice! Is she coming back to the game? I miss her energy."
Cadance shooed the both of them. "Off with you. Why am I the only one not playing your silly game?"
"You keep saying no?" Shining shrugged. "Offer's still open."
"Tempting." And yet, she banished them from her courtroom to continue the day's work.
Shining strode alongside Umbra. "Are you two..."
"A thing? No." Umbra shook her head quickly. "Never again, unfortunately. My fault entirely... I am yours and Cadance's. Thank you for accepting a naughty shadow pony."
"Very naughty." He closed, only to veer off. "On duty..." It was more a thing he was reminding himself. "Plans for today?"
"Idea!" Umbra flashed a deadly smirk. "The tsuki can reach me if they're in trouble. I've been getting in the habit of dream patrolling before bed. Thankfully, I don't have nearly the spread of Luna. Poor thing... Glad I can take a little off her plate."
"I can only imagine... and even that barely." Shining was marching down the steps from the palace. "What's it like? Patrolling dreams, I mean."
"Personal." Umbra considered that a moment. "I don't mean 'that's a secret' personal. I mean, so far I can tell, each walker of dreams sees it differently. It may also vary depending on which set of dreams you're looking at." She turned in place there in front of the castle. "Here, in the Crystal Empire, all the ponies are jewels. From naked gemstones to brilliant crowns, tiaras, pendants, and things... Some people are close enough that they link together, becoming one of those bigger pieces I was mentioning. I see them all as jewels, and I look for the ones that are cloudy or cracked or otherwise bothered."
Shining pointed off in the direction Petri had already vanished in. "What about them? Are they jewels too?"
"I only saw them once... They were..." She frowned, pulling up the memory. "Right, veggies. Comfy veggies tucked in the ground. Easy enough to see if one was looking wilted or otherwise not living its best little veggie life."
"That is very rabbit-like." He looked a bit too amused by that. "I can't complain, this place being a collection of jewels and all. We're both a bit on the nose." He tapped the end of his own snout. "Um, a request."
"An answer?" Umbra slid in a little closer, curiosity building.
"Can you visit me?"
Umbra inclined her head. "I'm doing that right now."
"When I'm asleep!" He threw his head towards the arena. "I should get to drills, but... tonight, maybe? I'd like to meet Umbra, dream walker."
"If you want." Umbra touched her nose to his without objection. "I usually avoid the gems that look fine, and I've yet to run into you so far, so you have to look fine from the outside."
"Not, um, professionally." He pulled at the collar he wasn't wearing. "As a friend, and a future spouse."
"How do I say no to that?" She rubbed her nose against his. "I will be there, as a friend, and a spouse. Silly stallion, go torture your guards."
"Yes, ma'am!" He saluted and marched off to get to work.
Umbra considered the warm day. "Thanks." She turned to the crystal heart. "All your fault, isn't it?" She went up to it with a steady clop of her metal-clad hooves on the crystal floor. "A lot of this is... You called me, didn't you?" The crystal had no words for her, spinning slowly in place. "You brought me here, tied me to them... You've been busy." And still, not a whisper. It was a rock, in the end. It was not a great conversationalist.
"Thank you." Umbra curled a hoof at herself. "I like this world. I like me, in this world, even if I did mess up real bad there..." She reared up and reached to touch the heart. "So, thanks." Her hoof made contact, and she stopped seeing anything.
"You were not in my plans."
Umbra still didn't see anything. She didn't hear anything either, but the words were clear, as if she just knew they had been said. She tried to reply, but she had no throat and no voice and no body. She barely qualified as existing.
"You ruined those."
Who was speaking? Were they male or female? Umbra couldn't tell, just meanings in the void. A void that could only barely be said to even hold herself.
"Things are out of order. Things are happening that shouldn't have ever happened. You act... You may be good."
Who was speaking, or thinking? Which was it? Umbra wished she could know.
"You may be bad."
Umbra tried to reach for the voice, but she had no arms and no hooves to make contact. She wasn't there.
"Other agents have accepted you. I will entrust them. Bow. Accept the order you have put into dissarray. Let Equestria be mended with your helping hoof."
Umbra tried to reply, to question, to do anything!
"Bow."
Umbra could feel the warm sun above her. She could see. She was staring up at the crystal heart, confused, but intact. "What..." She could hear! She could speak! The crystal heart was twirling idly, unbothered by that whole... whatever it was.
"Was that you?" She peered at the crystal, but it had nothing to say. It was still a stone, however much magic it may also have had. "That felt very strange, just so we're clear... If you want to talk... talk."
Cadance stepped from around the dias that held the crystal heart, but her vision was wrong. She wasn't looking at any specific thing, instead a hundred meters away. "We can talk."
That wasn't Cadance, Umbra felt certain. What was it? "Hello. I'm--"
"--I am aware of you." The not-Cadance circled to be in front of Umbra, standing about equal in height to the usually taller princess, compared to most ponies. "You do not know me."
"I don't..." Umbra inclined her head. "Should I be worried?"
"It is my task to see the story of ponies is told properly." Not-Cadance sank to her haunches. "A tale once of struggle, then growth, now harmony..." She curled a hoof at herself. "That is now my name, but I have had others."
"Harmony?"
"Harmony," agreed the far-sighted Cadance. "Cadance is a distant agent. I can do little through her. My connection to others is far stronger, but I am connected to all ponies, however dimly." She raised a hoof at Umbra. "I am connected to you."
"You made that happen." Umbra pointed up at the crystal heart. "You tied me up with Cadance and Shining."
"I did," admitted Harmony with a flattish voice. "Sombra was to be destroyed, for a time. If I didn't, you would have shared that fate, worse likely. Perhaps I should not have. You have caused ripples. Each action, consequences."
"Yeah... It does work like that." Umbra waved a hoof over the city. "I've protected this place."
"From attacks that should not have happened." Harmony didn't sound immediately impressed. "Your presence caused them. The umbrum should yet slumber. Sombra's time has not yet come. But already you have encountered them. What comes next? I should know, but I do not. A stone cast into a pond, the ripples travel far and wide."
Umbra considered the... "What are you? No offense, but you're not Cadance."
"I am not." No argument there, a flat fact stated. "I am Harmony. I am not a pony."
"Not a pony... That's a start." Umbra rose to her hooves, shaking them out one by one. "Now, what are you?"
"I am Harmony," casually repeated not-Cadance. "That is what I am. Unless ponies move to another state of being. I was Struggle, Growth, now Harmony. They have grown, but still they are children." Harmony leaned closer. "You are not a child. You are an adult playing among children. You hurt one, but they are not a pony. I will forgive you."
"Th-thanks?" Umbra considered the... What was it? "Is there a more generic name for things like you?" She curled a hoof at herself. "I'm Umbra, an umbrum. If you called me a pony, I wouldn't be upset, but technically not that. I am a princess. What are you?"
"You are neither umbrum, nor pony. You have been declared a princess." At least one of the three she passed measure on. "You are--"
"You called me here." Umbra stomped. "You made me come here. Stop acting like I did this! I didn't pick to come here."
"I didn't..." Harmony trailed off with thought. "You arrived..." She turned to the crystal heart. "This was sleeping. That wasn't me." She turned back to Umbra. "What called you?"
"I'd love to know. Not you?"
"Not me," agreed Harmony gently. "Not you?"
"Not me," laughed out Umbra, finishing that loop. "I swear."
"I think you are speaking the truth. That changes things. You are a victim, a large victim." She raised a hoof at Umbra. "That does not excuse you. An adult should be careful and gentle with children."
Umbra sagged in place. "I said I'm sorry! I really am... I messed up! Even adults can do that... That was dumb. I was dumb."
"That was not dumb. That was selfish."
Umbra glared at Harmony. "So, more general title?"
"A spirit works. You know what that is."
"A spirit?" Umbra waved her hooves in a poor attempt to imitate a cloud. "You're not alive?"
"I'm not alive." Harmony inclined her head. "I was never born, simply a result of things. I will persist until those things end. So long as any feel this, I will continue." She angled an ear at Umbra. "You are not so rooted, nor is Sombra, or any umbrum else. You will expire."
"Thanks for the reminder." Umbra casually prodded the strange new being. "But, being an adult, the idea of 'you will die eventually' doesn't send me running like some others."
"I thought not. The test was worth performing." Harmony curled a hoof to her chin. "Dreamwatcher. May I employ your services?"
Umbra sat up. "That's a quick change of pace."
"I command children." Harmony's nose twitched with a faint sniff. "You are not a child. Will you assist?"
"I... If it helps them, I want to do that, but what are--"
"--Excellent." Not-Cadance clopped her hooves in one firm strike. "I will send those in need before your dreamwatching eyes. Tend to them."
"I would have done that on my own," grunted out Umbra. "Why'd you ask? You know that, right?"
"More." Harmony turned a hoof around, palmside up. "You find some, but there are many more you miss. Since you have agreed, I will place them where you can find them."
Umbra scowled. "Wait.... You were hiding them."
"I protect my children." No shame there. "You are a strange adult. Now we have an agreement. Tend to them, gently. You guided one towards an uncertain warmth. But he is pleased. I will show faith. Tend them." She stepped around the dias, and never came out the other end, simply gone.