Morning Dew scowled at the largish creature. It was large compared to her, but small compared to adult ponies. Sadly, she wasn't an adult, or a pony, for that matter. "You are intruding on my territory," she warned in dire, but flattened tones. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
The young tsuki sniffed at her instead of answering. "You smell different."
Morning took half a step back. "Different than what?!"
"Then other ponies."
Morning hiked a brow. "Then the other ponies."
The young rabbit perked his ears, young enough that they hadn't permanently flopped over just yet. "You're smart too. Ponies use lots of words. Lots of words between words." He mashed the words in his paws. "Way more than adults do at home. Learning."
Morning pointed a hoof at his head. "Can you do magic?"
He tried to look up as best as he could. "Huh?"
"You have a horn." Morning smirked as she leaned in. "Ponies use horns to do magic. Umbruum don't need horns. Do you use your horns for magic?"
"I don't think so." He managed to get a hold of his horns, one to each paw. "Should I be?"
"Maybe?" Morning considered properly a moment. "You don't want shadow magic."
"What's shadow magic?" He hopped up to all fours and bounced past Morning, twirling about to face her. "Is it fun?"
"Mmm... No, but yes? But..." She mused on how to explain that. "It's very enjoyable to the one doing it. To the ones you're using it on, sometimes..."
"Show me fun shadow!" He bounced in place. "Wanna see."
A willing victim, test subject? Minion? She wasn't sure which box to place the eager little rabbit in. "What's your name?"
"Tomtom!" He bounced with each syllable, as if his name brought him joy. "What your name?"
"What's your name," she repeated in a slow and careful way.
"That."
She frowned at him, but he was just waiting for the answer. "I am Morning Dew."
"Who are you talking to?" Anik walked in from outside. "Oh." He could see the little tsuki. "You've made a new friend. Hello."
"Hi!" Tomtom waved up at Anik with a big smile. "You look nice."
"I try to be nice." He looked to Morning. "Everything alright?"
Morning waved at Tomtom with a huff. "He's intruding. He has offered to make up for it by being a willing target for my shadow magic. What spell should I use?"
Anik considered that with a hum. "You could make him sleep?"
"A start." Shadow burst from her, the energy quickly rushing towards Tomtom, wrapping him firmly in her grasp. "Slumber," she commanded.
"Not... tir..." He flopped over limply, passing out into restful sleep.
Anik turned back for the door. "Be nice. He came to play with you."
"I am playing." Morning drew out a marker. "We're having fun."
TomTom stirred with an almost mewl as he stretched and yawned widely. "How...? Sorry!" He scrambled up to his haunches. "I slept! In your place! Sorry!"
"I forgive you." Morning patted the poor rabbit, festooned with all manner of her doodles. "You have experienced shadow magic. Do you feel better?"
Tom smiled brightly at the forgiveness. "Good. We friends now?"
"We are friends now," she casually corrected.
"Yay!" He crashed on her, pouncing her to the ground and squeezing her like the favored doll she was for the time being.
She rebuffed him in a burst of darkness, forcing him back several inches as she fell back to her hooves. "Stop that. There are rules concerning when one can and cannot touch a Shadowheart."
"Whassa Shadowheart?"
Morning pointed at herself. "Me, and my family. We are shadowhearts. That pony that came in is one too. You are not. There are rules."
"Oh... How I shadowheart?" He bounced left and right, claws tacking on the ground. "I be good one!"
Morning buried her face in a hoof. "How do I become a Shadowheart, and you likely won't, unless mother adopted you, which I forbid ahead of time. Now, don't look so sad." He was looking awfully sad about the news. "You can still be a friend and ally of the shadowhearts. You're well on your way to doing that."
"Am I?!" He reared up, hands out to both sides.
Morning didn't grasp what that gesture was. "What are you doing?"
"Challenge! Fun challenge." He took a slow step forward, his gait slow and awkward in his wrestling pose. "See who wins, see who's better."
Morning reared up into a fighting stance. "You're challenging me?!"
"Yes," he replied, lacking all the agitation that Morning had. "Fight. Fun!"
Morning's eyes flared with her power. "You will regret this."
That was, apparently, permission to begin. He came in at her like an eager sumo wrestler, grabbing for her arms. She flowed like shadow free of his arms, but he was on her an instant later, grabbing her even as she reformed and pinning her arms to her torso. "Got you!"
"You can't hold the dark." She exploded in shadow in all directions, his surprise enough to let her slip away in a scramble. "But the dark can--" He was on her without a pause. What he lacked in style, he made up for in intensity and persistence. She backpedaled, but he lunged. "Sleep!" she ordered as he made contact with her, both crashing to the ground under the momentum. "Blast it..."
The maid, silent until then, inclined her head. "I beleive that makes him the winner."
"But he's asleep." She wriggled under his slumbering form, pinned despite his sleeping status. "This isn't fair..."
"It isn't." Polish rose to her full height, approaching the two young creatures. "Putting your sparring partner to sleep is hardly sporting, ma'am."
"I warned him! Shadow doesn't fight in straight... lines." She tried to pull herself free of TomTom's bulk with limited success. "Get him off--Hey!"
Tomtom casually rolled over in place, grabbing Morning up in a gentle hug like she was a cute little doll instead of a fierce shadow wizard.
Polish sat beside them. "I think you've made a new friend. Be aware, ma'am. He will surely request a rematch when he realizes how this one ended. I doubt that was a satisfactory ending for him."
"I'm not... feeling satisfied either." She punched him, flat of her hoof against his chin. "Wake up!"
That was enough of a wake up call, Tom blinking away the forced slumber. "Huh? Oh!" He hopped up onto her, pinning her. "I win."
"Not fair!" She was punching, slapping, and beating him from underneath, but it was having very little effect.
With gentle motions, Polish encouraged Tomtom to go. "A wonderful victory. Would you two care for a snack?"
Tom's eyes widened. "Yes! Thank you." He twirled towards Morning. "Who is that? Shadowheart?"
"Not a Shadowheart. But she is loyal to them. She's a trusted servant. Technically, she's employed by the castle." Morning considered that. "Hm, where do your loyalties lie?"
Polish considered that with a proper little hum. "An excellent question, ma'am. Were Cadance to change my assignment, I would accept the new one given. I am employed by her, ma'am. I may regret it, but she's the pony that hired me."
"I appreciate the honesty..." Morning clucked her tongue against her teeth. "But what if she asked for our secrets? What then?"
"I would decline. I am trusted because I would decline. Making an exception, even for her, would make me less valuable, even to her. I would hope she understood that." Polish nodded firmly at the end of that. "Now, about that snack. Do you want one too?"
Morning poked at the bouncing Tomtom. "I will accept one. I suggest speed. He looks ready to burst."
"Playing makes me hungry." He hopped right over Morning, landing on Umbra's soft bed. "Soft!" He bounced on it with little giggles.
"That is for sleeping, not bouncing." Morning approached but did not climb onto the bed. "It's also not yours."
Polish vanished quietly, with all the ninja skills of a maid.
"Not true." Tom bounced off the bed to the ground. "Everything bounce. Some bounce better." He pointed to the bed. "Bounce better."
"That is for rest and recovery." She turned to keep him in front. "Not play."
"Try?" He waved at the bed with a grin. "Try. Then say."
Morning rolled her eyes. "Impertinent... Fine. I will try, then you'll leave mother's bedding alone." She climbed up onto the bed, each step squishing into the soft material. "A fine place for sleeping."
"Bounce! You said you try."
"You said you would try." Despite her words, Morning gave a little bounce, and the bed bounced back against her in a display of the rules of motion still being in effect. She came down and thrust her hooves, propelling herself into the air all the higher. "There. I have bounced." She hit the bed, just to slid from it to the ground. "Happy?"
"Good bounce, right? Admit."
Morning set a hoof on Tom's nose. "We are going to have to work on your grammar. It was... acceptable." She prodded the side of the bed. "But it's not mine, or yours. It belongs to Umbra, my mother. If you trifle with her, she will destroy you. She will visit such horrors you wish she had simply erased you."
And yet, Tomtom didn't look scared. "She's the good shadow! Silly. So long as we are nice..." He spoke a bit slower, trying to get his words perfect. "Then she will be nice. She protects us."
"Better." She trotted past him. "Where is--" She hadn't have asked, Polish returning with a generous closed tray. "There you are."
"As requested." She set the tray between the two younglings. "Eat up. You have growing to do." She pulled away the metal lid to reveal a tray of finger sammiches, small sweet treats and some drinks to go with it. "I hope it is to your satisfaction."
"Thanks!" Tom grabbed a sandwich in his furry fingers and stuffed it into his mouth, but no great chomp happened. He worked at it like an eager rabbit, nibbling fiercely from the edges inwards. It was rapid, but surely a big bite would be faster.
Morning watched him a moment. "Behold." She lifted one and took a slow and precise bite out of it, filly-jaws large in a display of what a big bite could be. "Can you do that?"
Tom was still nibbling at his food when hers vanished into her mouth and her teeth came down. "Woah! Careful. Not choke. Choke is bad." He reached for her food to draw it back a precious inch, to stop her from taking such a big bite again.
"That was entirely intentional." She drew the sandwich back in, or tried, truggling with her hoof against tom's firm grip. "Let me go!" But he wasn't letting go. "I'm not choking!" She tugged and heaved.
And he let go.
Her food was speeding at her under her own power, too much of it, splatting against her face. She scowled with renewed vigor. "Tomtom..."
Tomtom had the sense to look very guilty. "Accident..."
"You..." She slapped the remnants down and sloppily put them back together. "Finish this." She pointed to the mostly-ruined food. "That's the least you can do."
"Oh..." Tom put his nibbled offering aside and reached for Morning's. "Okay!" Without a word of complaint, the nibbling resumed, working at the edges inwards of the sandwich of ultimate shame. "Sorry."
Polish inclined her head. "It's so nice to see you getting along with another foal your age."
"Don't inform mother."
"Inform me of what?" Rising from the shadows, Umbra took form. "Morning... Someone new?"
"Hello!" Tom abandoned his food for the moment to smile at Umbra instead. "Nice meet. Name Tomtom. Playing with Morning." He pointed at her. "Friend!"
"Working on that," miserably allowed Morning. "Welcome back, mother. I have been instructing him on the proper place of shadowhearts."
"Have you now?" Umbra sank next to the two little ones. "Shadowhearts know the value of true allies and friends. I'm so proud to see you're already getting one."
"... yes... That is precisely what is happening." With that smooth pass given, Morning reached for a sweet candy wafer to chew on, nibbling like a rabbit.