Umbra was clapping with naked joy, regardless of the snacks being set. Umbra focused her eyes on Sunburst and Starlight. "So you two know each other? That's great! So, you heard, I'm the local shadow wizard." She willed her book of magic to appear and slapped it down. "Here are the spells I've figured out!"

Starlight raised a brow at the eager wizard. "Well, aren't you excited?" She reached for the book and casually flipped it open with a spark of her horn. "Let's see what you, wow!" The sight cut her words off as she flipped through. "You are very much into darkness..." The exact focus and level reached was clearly a surprise to Starlight. "Mind if I... read this?" She flopped over with the book, ready to just devour the magic right there and then.

Sunburst poked at his friend gently. "That is Umbra's book. Besides, I think she wants something in return."

"Guilty!" Umbra grinned, with too many sharp teeth on display. "I want to learn magic, too. I'm glad shadow magic doesn't spook you. So share!"

Sunburst pointed at himself. "Well, you got the book those spells came from." He tapped himself on the chest. "From me, so you aren't showing me anything I haven't seen before. Besides... I'm not that much of a wizard... I just know how to look, not cast that well."

Starlight batted at Sunburst. "Don't be like that. He's a great wizard." They had not yet exposed her to the fullest might of Starlight's direct magic. "Alright, so you have magic I want to see." She reached up as a book popped into being at her hoof. "I'm not a huge hoarder of spells. That's more Twilight's thing?" She set the book down gently.

"Spell book!" Umbra resisted pouncing it, barely. "May I see?"

Starlight inclined her head. "Um, sure... but those are mostly not-fun spells I used in the past. Blasty spells and controlling spells and... Nopony wants... that?" She couldn't finish with Umbra already eagerly reading through the book. "Huh... Well, deal's a deal." She willled Umbra's book up for a looking at. "Magic trading is the best trading."

Sunburst slid in behind Starlight for a peek. "Huh... These are subtly different... That one's new." He pointed at a spell before Starlight could flip past it. "I don't remember it in the original at all."

Umbra glanced up from where she was reading. "Hm? Oh! Duh. The book you gave focused on the dour and secretive. I'm not much either of those." She waved the idea away. "So I put my own spin on them. I also had to figure out my power. Me magic! Maybe that jerk could get it easily, but he's not here. Jerk."

Sunburst squinted as the page turned without his say so. Starlight had control of how fast it went. "You've made good progress... Um..."

"I'll say." Starlight was eagerly chewing it up. "Ooo...gonna use that one." She tapped at a spell as she flipped forward. "So many neat little things in this shadow magic. Why don't all ponies use it?"

"Most ponies use no magic?" Umbra shrugged as she nosed to the next page. "The ones that do, think shadow spells are all icky and scary, so there aren't a lot of candidates around." She perked an ear. "That reminds. I heard shadow letters are hard for a lot of ponies to read. You're doing alright?"

"All good here." Starlight flipped to the next page. "Who said that? They weren't me, clearly."

Sunburst laughed nervously as he looked away from the strange book of shadow arts. "So, you've really come into your own, I hear. You're working on the arena?"

"Step by step." Umbra's attention was more on new magic as she flipped slowly. "Ooo..." She willed over a blank set of paper to scrawl on, taking notes. "I see a shadow letter or two in here. Did you not even know you were using shadow?"

Starlight quirked an ear at the accusation. "Was I?" She flipped to the next page. "I just used what worked." She tapped at Umbra's book. "And this works, obviously."

"And you liked shadow magic."

"Why do you say that?" Starlight raised a brow at her new spell casting friend.

"This." She flipped the book to show the mind control spell. "Shadow runes. Not even the only one. Also, I'm taking it. Mind control?" She copied it diligently to her scrap of paper. "Mind if I test that?"

"Not it," sang out Starlight as she went to the next spell, not at all really bothered, but also not submitting to it.

Sunburst swallowed thickly. "That... leaves me and your maid, and I bet she doesn't count."

"She doesn't." Umbra set her book aside. "She'd already do whatever I said, because she's a great maid and I love her."

"Thank you, ma'am."

Sunburst took a step back. "So..."

"You haven't said no." Umbra crossed her arms. "But I take pride in adulting."

Sunburst raised an ear at the shadow wizard. "Is that... a good thing?"

"I like to think so." Umbra stood up. "It means I just ask. Can I try a spell on you? If not, your call, your body, your head." She tapped at her skull lightly. "Not my decision to make. I respect you as a person, which means you get to decide."

"O-oh." The tension in Sunburst eased quickly. "Oh, well, that doesn't seem so bad then... You seem very trustworthy, and wouldn't hurt me, right?"

"Not if I can help it." She advanced on Sunburst with a smile. "Bonus, even if it works, I wouldn't make you do anything too out of character and I'd put you back where you started."

"Okay..." He took a slow breath. "Alright. Somepony has to test these things." He gestured at himself in a light wave. "May as well be me, if nopony gets hurt in the end."

Starlight cheered without looking up. "Go Sunburst! But, seriously, don't hurt him. I will be very cross with you."

"And that is why I'm not really considering her." Umbra looked away from Starlight and towards Sunburst. "She's very strong willed. Like it! Probably not best for testing this spell out." Her eyes were streaming her dark magic, horn glowing with the promise of her magic. "So sit back and let Umbra take over a moment."

"Just... a..." His eyes glazed, and he sank in place, the fight beaten out of him with barely a delay.

"Wow..." Umbra tilted her head. "He was even more pliable than I thought. You're here, so you know I'm not doing anything funny."

"Do and I'll snap your horn off." Starlight snorted softly in her threat, flipping to the next page. "Don't make me change my mind about you."

"Easy." Umbra reached out and stroked the unmoving cheek of Sunburst. "He's kind of cute, waiting like that... Sunburst, you in there?"

"Mmm?"

"That's a yes. Sunburst, hop on your left legs for me." Sunburst did just that without a moment of delay, bouncing on his left side as best he could. "Enough of that. Ha... wow... Is this what the Jerk expected? I can see why he'd get hooked."

"He's mine." Starlight raised a brow, but seemed focused on the book.

"I have a girlfriend." Umbra snorted softly. "With extra, I'm told."

"Pardon?"

Umbra chuckled softly at Starlight's confusion. "I'll tell you when you're grown up." That got a nasty glare, but no more prying. "Sunburst, I want you to glow as brightly as you can." The unicorn obeyed without delay, glowing brightly. "That looks shiny enough. Can you go brighter?" And brighter happened. "Brighter." But it got no brighter. "Huh, that the top? Alright, back to off." And off it went. "Huh, that was brighter than I expected from 'I can't cast spells' over here."

Starlight hiked a brow. "Can you go brighter than that? The skill at casting spells is not the same as glowing. One's learned, one's innate, and the learned one has innate parts but not the same parts, and it gets complicated really quickly."

"Huh..." Umbra had learned something new. "Alright. Just to test how far this goes, Sunburst, kiss your favorite mare in the room." She did not expect to be the one being smooched. "Hey! Why did you kiss me?"

Starlight burst into fresh laughter. "I was expecting him to pick me, but good thing he didn't. This is me, busy with reading, not smooching. I am going to tell him you did that, though."

"Fiend." Umbra stuck out her tongue at Starlight. "Seriously, Sunburst. Why did you pick me for that kiss?"

"You are the mare I am paying the most attention to. I want you to be happy."

"Huh." Umbra scratched at her chin. "I guess that makes me your favorite right now, but that doesn't even count. And... free!" Her eyes flared, and she clapped loudly, dismissing the spell on Sunburst.

He started in place, blinking rapidly. "What, huh? Oh, you can cast the spell now."

Starlight snickered as her magic made a note dutifully in a lack of actual pause from her scribing work. "Wow... You were already under her whims. She made you kiss her, by the way. A real smooch, Pervert."

Umbra’s cheeks darkened rapidly as she sputtered a moment. "It's not how she's putting it. I just asked you to peck your favorite mare."

"And I picked you?!" Sunburst sounded perhaps a little too surprised by that, blushing as badly as Umbra was.

"I was just as surprised... Hey! What's wrong with me?" Umbra crossed her arms over her front with an angrily bobbing hoof in the motion. "I am a tall slice of imposing lady pony that anyone should be happy they get even a shred of."

"Weird." Their eyes went to Starlight in silent agreed interest. "What? That was a direct control spell. The warnings I've read—" She added a bit more in a hushed tone, "—and ignored, all said to expect a headache, but Sunburst looks and sounds alright to me."

Sunburst blinked softly. "And you didn't warn me about that?!"

"I only thought of it just now." Starlight waved the objection away as if it were of no real importance to her. "You look fine. How do you feel?"

Umbra rubbed at her cheek as she sat down. "Huh, must be a shadow wizard thing." She leaned in, eyes flaring with the promise of her shadowy magic. "I held you in the gentle grasp of a friendly shadow wizard, so no aftereffects."

Starlight snorted softly, nose buried in her book as she eagerly devoured the fresh magic. "Lucky. But you have a specialty. Read all of mine you want, but you'll never be as good at the not-shadowy bits. You're a shadow wizard, and crystal wizard? Those two do not go together!"

Sunburst looked a little unsure of himself with little noises of that uncertainty. "Um... It bothers me that some of your spells were shadow spells without you noticing."

That got Starlight to go dark in her cheeks in a silent admission of her guilt. "I have a dark background, I admitted that! Stop judging me." She raised the book like a shield from the judging looks of her old friend.

Umbra lowered the book casually with a sweep of her hoof. "So you don't have a specialty?"

Starlight turned with the force of the sweep and read from a new direction. "Nope! I like all magic. You met Twilight, right? Like her. We eat magic up for breakfast. Wow, imagine watching the two of us sparring." She snorted softly, but did not pause her reading.

Umbra's eyes sparkled. "Spar?! Magic spars? I wanna spar!" She leaned in further with each exclamation, tail wagging wildly behind her. "Can we spar? Not to hurt anyone, of course."

"Pfft." Starlight threw a hoof at the very idea. "Good luck hurting me." She set Umbra's book aside. "Now, we can only hold Twilight’s need for keeping her schedules back for so long. You sure you want to spar instead of devouring magic?"

Sunburst could see the indecision weighing heavily on Umbra. "Let me help." He grabbed another paper and sat beside her and got right to dutifully helping in scribbling down Starlight's spells. The ones he was doing, Umbra could skip and work on others. Twice the progress! Technically, it was more than that. For all Sunburst complained about magic use, he was a pro at copying and remembering. He was working significantly faster than Umbra at copying those spells.

Perhaps there would be time to Spar?

It's time for a fight! A magic fight! Maybe?

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