"Supposed to be dead..." Grogar conjured Sombra into being anyway, joining the others. "We'll try anyway. You!"
Sombra scowled at the goat. "What am I doing here?"
"You're getting your things together. I've been watching you." He waved to the others, Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow. "The lot of you. None of you are closer to your goals. Twilight and her friends... You can't get past them. Not alone. It's time to take things in a new direction..."
"So, friends." Starlight huffed at Umbra. "That's fine... Sheesh, what I expect from most ponies. You just got my hopes up."
"Sorry." Umbra took a slow breath. "You are, of course, super welcome around here." Umbra smiled at Starlight, the two standing out of the way of other ponies moving along the road. "But if you need to get back, I'll get that ticket. Sorry for getting yanked like that."
"Discord..." She rolled her eyes. "Hard to predict anything with that guy. But you didn't do that, so I'm not blaming you for that. Say..." She gestured up at Umbra's sizable horn. "You any good at long range teleportation? Say using shadows or something?"
Shadow teleportation? "I never thought to try that angle... Shadows can get really long, especially at the right time of day... Clever..." One could almost see the wheels turning in Umbra's head, considering it.
Starlight laughed good-naturedly at the reaction. "Well! Glad to help, but that means you haven't right now, so teleporting home's not an option. I'll have to use that train. I can't teleport that far, and doing it repeatedly to make up the distance sounds exhausting."
"I can imagine..." If only she could share her shadow-walking powers, but that was an umbrum thing. "Want to be a shadow pony? We can get around pretty well."
Starlight thumped Umbra in the chest. "Thanks, but no. I'm happy being a unicorn." She hiked a brow. "Besides, can you even do that?"
"Not yet." Umbra leaned in with a sharp smile. "But I'd be willing to work on that if you wanted it."
"Ever consider being a unicorn?" Starlight brought her brow down just to waggle them both. "Lots of perks, less light sensitivity."
Umbra huffed at that. "Alright, alright, I get the idea... I was just curious."
"You often are." Starlight lifted into the air, glowing with her magic. "I'll grab that train now."
"Wait." Umbra lifted on her wings, far less magic. "I won't make you pay for your ticket."
"Suit yourself." They launched together in a quick zip to the train station. Soon, Starlight was on her way home.
Umbra shook her head, walking back through the city. "That was dumb of me... Starlight didn't deserve any of that."
She returned to her room to find the door closed, and locked. "What?" There was a small sign posted just next to the door. It said to head to Cadance's room. "What is going on?" She fell into the shadows and rapidly swam towards the royal suite, emerging with a scowl. "Where is my stuff?"
A guard stood before the room. "They're expecting you, ma'am." They stepped out of the way and gestured inside.
"Good." Umbra stomped into the room to find Cadance on her bed, watching her with a knowing smirk on her face. "What are you looking so smug about?"
Cadance waved Umbra closer. "You are a stubborn little thing at times. I took it into my own hooves."
"Took all my things?!" Umbra glared at her new wife. "What's going on? Where's Polish, for that matter?"
"Right here, ma'am." Stepping out from behind a divider, Polish bowed her head at Umbra. "You look like you could use a drink, ma'am."
"After... this conversation." Umbra relaxed, only to tense anew. "What's going on?"
"We--" She gestured at Umbra and herself. "We're married."
"Yes..."
"Married ponies live together." Cadance rose to her hooves on her bed. "Especially royal ones, or ponies begin whispering about how well they're getting along."
"What? Oh." Umbra slackened, the idea sinking in. "Oh. Wait..."
"Yes, you're moving in." Cadance hopped to the ground. "Welcome to your room. Our room, to be more accurate. Your things are safely tucked away." She pointed to a wardrobe. "Moved with care, I assure."
"Oh... Now I feel silly." She applied a hoof to her face for emphasis. "Why didn't you ask me to move my own things?!"
"Because you kept putting it off," flatly countered Cadance. "I love you, but you have priorities, and that wasn't high on the list. So I took care of it myself. Now... Now, we're together." She went up to Umbra, eye to eye, as so few ponies were. "We are a loving couple, sharing a bed. Though... I suppose 'couple' isn't entirely accurate, and triplet sounds odd to me."
Umbra touched noses with Cadance. "You surprised me." The room had a scent. Cadance liked floral notes, and the room had that, as opposed to the wooden scents that were common in Umbra's room. "This will take getting used to... But I shouldn't have agreed if I wasn't ready." She brushed alongside Cadance. "So... Here I am. I just sent Starlight on her way back to Ponyville."
"I do hope she enjoyed her visit." Cadance waved Polish from the room. "We have other things to discuss. Promises were made, and you are now married. Nothing stands in our way."
What had getting married allowed? "Well, we'll..." But it reached her. What else could getting married allow? Umbra twirled to find there was nothing else in the room, not a pony in sight other than Cadance. "Now?!"
"As amusing as that'd be... Actually no." Cadance wrinkled her nose. "To be perfectly clear, I have a libido. It's quite healthy. But, it can wait long enough for Shining to get off-duty. I know he wants to be here for this. From what I recall of our little planning chats, the first up is you." She pointed firmly at Umbra, then to the ground. "Under me. We will do as loving ponies do."
Umbra darkened at the blunt phrasing of the event to come. "Wow..."
"We're married," Cadance sang out. "Which means you get to hear me talk dirty in private. I'm going to cover you. Does that sound fun?"
"Yes?" Umbra squeaked out, at least as nervous as excited. "Be gentle?"
"As gentle as you'd like." Cadance kissed Umbra's cheek, circling to get the other. "I am a mare. I know how... unkind it can be when your partner isn't gentle. But then, I also know sometimes you don't want gentle. Different times. Today, tonight... gentle. We will meet and become one, as a single loving creature."
Umbra shuddered from front to back. "You are talking dirty... and I'm not sure how I feel..." Turned on? Scared? Both? "Actually, it just hit me." She pointed to Cadance's horn. "Your magic."
"What about it? I haven't used it, promise." She crossed her chest for emphasis.
"What if I want you to?" Umbra closed, touching her cheek to Cadance's. "Find our thread and make it nice and fat, so we can be as close together as possible."
"Warning about that..." Cadance returned the cheek rubs, close and nestled with Umbra. "That will enhance the feelings we have, for good or ill. I make the thread larger, not change its nature."
"Well, I really do love you." Umbra turned to face her fully. "And I want this... Any doubts I'm having are about me, not you. So if I can think about nothing but you, That'd be a good thing."
"Mature of you." She flared out her wings. "If you'd like, then alright. Tonight, we will think only of each other, and in that tizzy, perhaps, I'll become a parent again. You mentioned you missed being able to make milk. We'll fix that."
Umbra colored at that. "Stop making milk sound so dirty! I... like..." She danced on her hooves. "The idea of being a mother is just really nice... I enjoy being a source of comfort, of growth for a little thing..." She sank back onto her haunches. "And I feel silly just saying that."
"You shouldn't." Cadance pointed off to a crib, where a little pony rested quietly. "You're talking about the joy of being a mother, and I'd be a strange mother myself if I thought that was a bad thing to be. You were my willing wet nurse the first time... I feel certain you will be a grand mother this time."
"Thank you..." Umbra took a slow breath. "When does Shining Armor get done? What's he doing, leading drills?"
"One of his favorite things to do," assured Cadance with a smirk. "He'll be done at sundown. We both have our duties to help make the empire work, you included. Speaking of that, you're on duty tomorrow, just to remind."
Umbra's reddish hints grew quickly. "So don't make me walk oddly. I know you just said you wouldn't... I'm nervous, that's all! I... Hm." She rubbed at her cheek with a hoof. "But I'm in your care, and I trust that."
"Aw." She coiled, getting nose to nose. "I will be sure to keep that trust. Speaking of that, not to dampen the mood... But how did Starlight take it all? I assume the topic came up."
"It did," groaned Umbra. "It did... She's still mad, but... we're still friends, so it coulda gone worse. Ugh, I really wish I hadn't done that. I was so stupid..."
"You don't need to apologize to me again." Cadance went to the door and cracked it open. "No interruptions until Shining Armor is here, and none after that either. We'll let you know when you can bother us." She closed the door, thing settled with the guards. "I should be clear, and I think you already know this... But it deserves to be said..."
"Well, I'm scared now." But Umbra remained where she was, watching Cadance. "What do I know?"
"A lot of things." Cadance paced in a slow circle. "But what I mean is that, if things go well, you will owe your fealty to one other, one least able to defend themselves, who will rely on you more than any other creature even possibly could... One to whom I dare say, should it come to it, you owe them more faith than even the vows we swore to one another."
Umbra's ears perked as one. "That's a tall order..."
"But deserved." Cadance closed, raising a hoof to Umbra's belly from the side. "And when life quickens in there, you will feel it. You will know it. Once you become a mother, nothing else can take that #1 spot, and I won't dream of trying to compete with it, nor would I want to." She drew her hoof away to turn it on herself. "What is love? Is this not the final purpose of it? We are... drawn together, to clash in passionate fury, to create life... to then nourish it, forever. To want it to be its best. Even our partner... I should stop saying that." She shook herself out. "My point is that..." She trailed off, humming. "I got distracted. You will be a mother, and we--" She waved to the Shining not yet there and herself. "We will be fathers."
"You will not." Umbra thumped Cadance. "Maybe for the first hour or so... But then you'll be a mother alongside me. Our child will have two mothers and a father and you know it."
"I'm phrasing things poorly today. I don't have a word for 'parent who is not the mother but is still female.'" But it clicked. "Ah! I will be an aunt, just as you are an aunt to Flurry Heart. And don't tell me you don't love her with all your being. Anypony that lacks faith in the unwavering love of an aunt is truly a foal."
"Here's to that." Umbra headbutted Cadance, thumping their foreheads together, horns missing thankfully. "To Uncles and Aunts, our second parents we love so much."