The party was a pleasant memory, gone and done. She sat upon the throne, smiling at the pony before her. They were eagerly explaining a plan they had, to start a new farm on the outskirts of the city. "Just think of the bits," she bade. "Ponies from all across Equestria will line up to get some! All I need is a yes."
Umbra was taking her turn as a princess, giving Cadance some time off. "You didn't come here just to start a farm. You don't need royal approval for that. Skip to the part you really need permission for."
The mare shuffled in place. "Such a sharp eye you have... These specific fruits have a very specific fertilizer."
Umbra hiked a brow at that. "The blood of the innocent?"
The mare paled, stepping back. "Nothing that horrible, ma'am! The city already has it. The little ewes drop it all the time. I'll need permission to have some, the extra, and I can get going."
"Oh, literal fertilizer." Umbra thought of how that could go awry. "What is..." She looked to one of the guards. "Find out what the current use of that is. I need a full report." The guard saluted and galloped away to see it done. "I can't answer your request until I have that."
"Of course." The mare dipped her head. "I will return tomorrow." With the matter settled, for the moment, she strode off.
"Witching?" The next pony stepping up was an umbrum, and one Umbra knew well. "How can I help?"
"I see romance is getting everycreature these days." She rolled her eyes. "And yours comes with chores. Sounds like a losing trade."
"You did not come here just to needle me." Her words were flat, as was her expression. "What are you looking for?"
"Spoilsport." She glanced about at the guards, watching her suspiciously. "You've carved out a little hole for us, but it's still a little hole. Ponies don't exactly look forward to their incarnate nightmares living next to them, getting along or not."
"That." She lifted a hoof at Witching Hour. "Is at least a shared issue. It isn't just ponies having... needing time to adjust. Time will let that change, time and persistance. Your niece is very good at it."
"You dare to bring her up?!" Witching sank to her haunches. "I hate most that you're not entirely wrong... I swear, she finds acceptance without even trying... My point stands! We're not all her! What should the rest of us be doing?"
"Making friends?" Umbra tried her best smile. "Learning the local culture and making yourself a small part of it? You have a lot of talents, as a people, I mean. They don't have to be used to harass ponies, or much anything else. Shoot... even if you do want to do that, there are ways to do that without also making people regret having you around."
Witching hiked a brow at that. "How? My specialty, you know it. In what setting will a pony march up to me and ask me to dig up their worst, most guarded, secrets?"
Umbra touched her hooves together. "What happened to the psychiatric angle? You were doing well with me."
Witching flipped an ear back. "Most others don't like it when I grill them like that. It makes them uncomfortable... Which makes that whole job a little hard..."
"I don't want to be rude." Umbra sat up. "But I'm doing audiences. I'll dig into that when I'm not parked in this chair. Do you have a specific question for right now?"
Witching stood up, pacing before the throne. "Specific? I guess not." She strode away without another word, the meeting concluded without further fanfare.
With a soft thump, a tsuki landed in place to be the next up. "Protector shadow!"
That was a respectful greeting, coming from a tsuki.
"Tsuki have little want." He held up his paws close together. "Little. Can see in dark. Can see better with some light. Make little light? Can shadow make shadow go away? Please."
Umbra smiled at the hopeful tsuki. "Torches are out." She remembered those vast tunnels. She could imagine them filling with smoke dangerously quickly. "But magic should be safe. Clever ponies make things that glow. Use those, put them around in the darkest places to chase the shadows away."
The tsuki clapped with quick joy. "Oh! Oh. Yes. Will buy. Didn't know could buy light. Yes." He turned and hopped as one, as many hopping creatures do when turning. "Good shadow! Hope never chase protector shadow away."
Umbra nodded quickly. "I won't be chased away by a little light, promise."
"Good!" He bounded away, his matter handled to his clear satisfaction.
Umbra stepped down from her throne, not seeing another creature behind the tsuki. "Are we out of supplicants?"
A guard hurried to take a peek outside. "There are none waiting, Your Highness."
Umbra hummed softly. "I wonder how much of that is me being new..." Were ponies nervous about coming to her with princess problems? "We'll give it half an hour. If it's still empty, we'll call it a day." Guards saluted around the room in confirmation.
At least they didn't seem to have an issue adjusting to having Umbra on the throne once in a while.
"Thank you." Cadance hugged Umbra gently for a fleeting moment. "You have no idea how nice that was, getting a day to myself. Anything big happen?"
Umbra shook her head. "I think they're still getting used to me sitting up there. Handled a few things, got one thing to chase on my own time, and expect a report on little ewe manure use."
Cadance raised a brow at that. "Not what I expected, but I'll be sure to give that a look. Why?"
"A mare wants to have some of it for her own project. I didn't want to just..." Umbra cycled a hoof. "Say yes without knowing what it's already being used for, if anything. That seemed like a good way to mess it up."
"Good thinking." She touched noses with Umbra. "Glad to hear you're thinking this through. I'll be sure to read it. If she comes back while I'm on duty, I'll be sure to be ready for her. So, how did it feel? A good thing, or a bad thing?"
"Sitting up there?" Umbra pointed vaguely at where the throne rested a few rooms away. "We practiced. I was ready! The questions were mostly harmless things. The most complicated one was about umbrum, and that's personal. I'll chase it starting tomorrow."
"Need any help?"
Umbra started. "Hey, I'm trying to take a burden off your shoulders. Besides, Umbrum problems. They need a shadowy point of view."
"I'm sure that's true." Cadance smirked faintly. "But only to a point. We're a team, don't forget. We both want the umbrum to be happy members of the great family that is the Crystal Empire." Her eyes lit with an earlier idea. "Figure out what these are?" She hoofed at the new necklace hanging against her chest. "It's not awful, but I'm dying to know what it actually is."
"Starlight was a big help." Umbra sat and brought up both hooves to cradle her necklace. "We could tell it's attached to the heart, which you could probably guess. It's also attached to us, all three of us. Positive." She lifted the necklace up with her magic and tossed it away, but it never hit the far wall, instead appearing back ground her neck. "The odds of losing it are very low."
Cadance recoiled an inch at the sudden jump. "Remarkable... Does it do anything besides hang around?"
"This." Umbra took it off but didn't toss it, instead placing it on the ground next to herself, and put her tiara next to it. She poked herself in the cheek quite bluntly.
It took Cadance a moment. "Wait..." She rubbed the same spot. "I didn't feel that."
Umbra put the necklace back on and repeated the demonstration, the sensation of being poked echoing to Cadance with a fresh jump. "Wear the necklace, have the bond. Take it off, put it on pause. Can't just toss it away. That should make it easier when we do want to pause it."
"That is easier." She ruffled her wings. "But I don't want to keep you away. We're a thing now."
"But being able to close a door is a good thing." Umbra stepped past Cadance, rubbing along the way. "Boundaries."
"Boundaries," echoed Cadance with a smile. "Do they do anything else? I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but we'd already worked out ways to muffle the connection when we needed to."
Umbra slipped her tiara back into place, her mane resuming its living state. "We have a theory, but not one we could test without all three of us, the newlyweds, working together. That ties back into your magic lessons."
"I've been reading, promise." She played several magical notes across her horn, not a spell at all, just showing she knew the notes. "See?"
Umbra clapped gently at the display. "Progress! So, the thing is, we're pretty sure us all wearing this puts us at a deeper sync. You know how Twilight and her girls are in super sync at times, to banish darkness and blast rainbows?"
Cadance's eyes widened at the idea. "We have that? Truly?"
"Maybe... Not the same." Umbra wobbled a hoof with the uncertainty. "We're not bound by Epic Friendship. We're bound by the heart. And as much as I'd love to say that it's True Love eternal... I'm a mess. I won't even argue it. I can't participate in True Love blasting. Working on it... Want to, but not there yet. Wait for me?"
"As long as I need to... But you sound like you have an idea." Cadance coiled around Umbra. "So, share. What's this wicked idea on your mind?"
"Magic." Her hooves glimmered with dark magic, eyes doing the same in sympathy. "Shining knows it, and I know it. We just need to get you up to speed. I think we can sync up with magic. Friendship and love may be magic... But, turns out, magic is also magic." She pointed up at her horn. "We can skip the preamble and get right to it."
Cadance tapped her chin softly. "I like the idea of love and magic... But you're working on that." She touched her horn to Umbra's. "I did that once, with Shining... But I'm not a wizard. And neither is he. Neither of us made it a proper magic. It just... happened..."
Umbra thought back over what she had been told. "That... got her the tiara in the first place. That's a big ask..." She shuffled with a little smile. "I'd love to do it... But not yet. I don't feel ready. Magic is Magic. We already know that. And we do love each other, and we're bonded. We can use what we have." She pawed at the dangling necklace. "And maybe do some amazing things."
"That sounds interesting." But Cadance was walking away. "Let's look into it. Tomorrow, me, throne, back to it. You... are chasing umbrum things. Good luck."
Umbra waved at her fellow princess. "You too. Tell me what happens with that farm." She set off herself, considering her future plans. There was plenty to be done. "Tomorrow..."