Trash waved a hoof slowly over an orbiting bit of plastic and metal. "Now it's time."

"Time?" Angel leaned in towards the two pieces. "What time?"

"Trash magic." He raised both his hooves to either side of the two, swirling them as his horn glowed brighter and brighter. "The cleaner you get them, the more care you put in, the better the magic works."

Angel sat and brought up her paws to clap them together properly in soft patpatpat noises. "Show trash magic!"

"Already on the case." He ran his tongue over his lips, tail swishing as the room became blindingly bright in a flash. The two fell to the ground, but were one. They had bonded together, becoming a ring with a spot for a gem, but there was no gem there.

Angel snatched it up, holding it towards the light in the room. "Shiny." It was, lustrous and new. The plastic and metal had run together in some kind of strange harmony that seemed to... work. Like the plastic, the ring was somewhat flexible, allowing her to shove it onto a large finger without much trouble. "Trash magic," she breathed out, visibly impressed with a dopey little smile.

"From the Trash Prince," noted Trash with a smile. "I have what will become the jewel right here." His horn glowed softly as a rock came into view. "Someone tossed this perfectly fine bit of stained glass. Their loss is our gain."

"Their loss, our gain," echoed Angel, bobbing her head. "Hunt. Good hunt. Their loss, our gain."

He inclined his head at that. "The way you say that... Where did you get those, Big Momma? Those aren't junk. Nopony threw those away. I know junk when I see junk." Despite his questions, he was already hard at work polishing and preparing the colored glass for its new life. "So lay the news out for me."

"Angel hunt," she said as if that explained everything. She looked over her shoulder where all her findings were in a little pile on a desk. She had taken them off for the bath, which reminded her... "Groom time." She grabbed a brush that had been sitting right next to her new shinies and approached Trash with purpose.

"Just don't get between me and the trash, Angel." He brought the glass close up, inspecting it as it twirled. "Almost... A nice big chunk. It'll be more than just the bubble on top. Mmm..." He raised a hoof to point at Angel. "I'll need that ring back. It's not done."

"Not done?" She paused her groom-stalking and held up the hand that held a brush, and had a ring attached. "Make more shiny?"

"More shiny," he agreed with a soft bobbing of his head. When she offered her hand, he raised a hoof to meet it, cradling the furry paw on the flat of his hoof. "How romantic," he chuckled out before leaning in and smooching the back of her paw, his magic slipping the ring free. "Now, let's make this ring even better."

"Better. Shinier." She clapped her paws with a happy smile, the brush falling to the ground, abandoned. "Trash Prince work trash magic!"

"The best kind." He nodded once firmly as if agreeing with an obvious fact. His horn began to glow hotter as the glass and ring circled one another. "And... Yeah." As he finished, a flash, but the glass did not become one big jewel, instead distributed, with the largest becoming the set gem, but there was plenty more than became little spots along the side of the ring, making it shine from more angles.

Angel snatched it from the air without hesitation, peering at it and turning it left and right and all around, her tongue poking out a little as she did so. "Better! Better! Trash magic!" Any hint that it had been anything but constructed specifically to be that pretty ring seemed to have vanished from her eyes. The glass hadn't been set on the inside, thankfully, as it had just a little edge, enough to feel it, and she wouldn't have wanted it pressing in on her finger.

Instead she slipped it on and wriggled all her digits at Trash. "Good, yes?"

"Oh, yes, very good." He nodded slowly. "It looks so much better on my big bling momma... Do you like it?"

"Like it, yes, very yes." She suddenly threw her head forward, headbutting him and narrowly avoiding either of them being jabbed by the other's horns. Such was the life of a tsuki and a unicorn. "Trash good hunter. Angel sorry think not." She shook her head quickly, ears flopping wildly in the motion. "Good hunter."

"Different hunter," he retorted easily, though his eyes swirled, the impact of that headbutt leaving him wobbling in place. "So... how do you hunt, Angel? Can you show me?"

Angel perked up, sitting straight. "Want show Angel hunt? Angel magic?"

"Yeah, that." He clopped his hooves once. "Show me your magic, tomorrow, alright?"

"Tonight," she countered. "Night better for hunt. Day hunt, can do. Did do." She pointed to her new collection. "Harder. Night better." She turned that arm to point out the window. "Night. Hunt?"

He looked to the same darker sky that hinted at a Canterlot under Luna's watch. "I wasn't planning on it," he admitted in lazy tones. "But for you, alright. Show me your magic."

She snatched him up into a hug just to roll over, him suddenly on her back as she bounded for the window. "Hunt!" she cried with joy, throwing it open.

"Woah, hold on doe." He clutched to her with all four legs. "You can give a fella a moment before--" They were in the air, propelled by her powerful thumpers into the night sky. "--this," he lamely finished, clinging to her. "Not that I don't trust you, Big Momma, but I'm usually a ground pony, sort of like an earth pony, with magic."

"Earth pony?" She landed in a courtyard of the castle just to spring back into the air. "What that?" In her mind, images of ponies made of rocks and dirt trotted along curiously. "Never see. Want see."

"They're not that odd. Just imagine me, and take off my horn. There, you have an earth pony." He reached one hoof up, the other three still holding tight. "Don't take my horn. I rather like it, ya dig?"

"Not dig, jump," she corrected as if mending the words of a child. She landed on a roof outside the castle and turned in place, hunting looks in her eyes. "Now hunt."

"From up here?" He sat up a little, the bouncing seeming to be over. "How do you hunt from up here?"

"Angel magic! You watch." She leaned over the side of the roof, peering into the darkness below. "There." Below them, a stallion with a ring on their horn, and another clasped around one of their legs. "Shinies."

"Yeah?" Angel inclined his head at the stallion below. "Those are his. Gonna ask him for some?"

"Ask?" She glanced over her shoulder and back. "Hunt. Angel magic. Watch!" She followed after the stallion from above, never making her presence known. "Look tired. Good."

"Good?" Trash licked over his lips, one golden brow raising. "Baby girl."

"Big Momma," retorted Angel.

"Nuh uh, right now, Baby girl. Are you going to steal from that pony?"

"Steal?" She easily hopped from one roof to the next, remaining close to the pony.

"Steal. Take what ain't yours. Take his shinies." He pointed down at the pony they were stalking.

"When Angel hold, is Angel's," she explained as if it should have been very obvious. She held up a hand, the new ring perched on it. "Is Angel's."

"It is," he gently agreed. "I gave it to you. I wanted you to have it, because I like you."

Angel felt her cheeks warming even if she couldn't quite place why. "Trash good hunt."

"Trash good friend, he hopes." He inclined his head a little. "So... can we not steal from the pony?"

"Want see Angel magic, see. Wait." She crouched down, rump wiggling as the pony went into a manor. "Lots shinies, hard get. Hard hunt, good hunt. Many shinies..." She clucked her tongue against her great teeth and jumped down to the street just to rebound up onto another roof where she could see the manor from another angle. "Mmm..."

"While you are... adorable planning and scheming." He reached to put a hoof on her head right between her horns, rubbing gently. "You don't have to. You shouldn't. Calm down, Angel."

"Not want see Angel magic?" She slumped visibly. "Know how hunt. Ready hunt." She pointed to the manor. "There."

"Not tonight..." Not any night, he figured, but getting her to slow her plans was the first step. "Angel... It's alright. Let him keep his shinies."

She coiled on herself and grabbed him. He squeaked in surprise, but she just set him down gently on the roof. "Wait. Trash wait. Not scare with jumps." And she was gone, bounding towards the manor without time for a reply.

He thrust a hoof out where she had been, words dying on his lips. "Well..." He looked left and right slowly. "Huh..." There was no obvious ladder to get down from there. "Maybe a night-owl pegasus will go by." He turned his eyes for the sky, hoping for such a lucky event.

Author's Note

This... feels like a proper cut point. Was I off? Lemme know! No, really, I love comments.

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