The rest of the group followed out shortly after, with Luna and Twilight excusing themselves from our little entourage to discuss a few more things, while the rest of us end up just walking around the castle.
"So… We've met, but we don't know much about any of you. What do ya say to a bit of show and tell?" I ask out of the blue after about an hour of walking in comfortable silence. Well, clackity silence.
They take the lead and sit down at a circular table bench, and my sister and I follow in tow.
"What do you wanna know?" Skyline asks.
"Stuff I can't find out with my eye. Your history, what you're like, how you all became Crescents, stuff like that. Besides, even if I could find all that out, she can't, and she deserves to know too, especially if we're supposed to be trusting our lives to you." I rattle off while pointing a thumb to my sister who's sitting right next to me.
"That's fair I guess. Twisted, why don't you go first?" He suggests with a smirk.
"You always suggest I go first ya prick." He grumbles.
"That's because your story is the funnest." Skyline replies.
"Yeah yeah, whatever. Well, as you know my name is Twisted Brew, and you can see I'm a pegasus.” he says while motioning to his wings in a ‘duh’ kinda way. “Though most of my family were earth ponies, my father had a thing for pegasi; and so my mother was a pegasus, and I landed the one in a million in the gene pool of being a pegasus. Go figure eh?” he says with a shrug before continuing.
“I used to be a waste of space homeless drunkard before I was a Crescent. I lived where I could when I could; normally up on the clouds. Well one night, a friend took me out drinking because he knew I was fun to have around, and that night quickly devolved into chaos. Some asswipe wanted to start shit with me, trying to make fun of me being homeless. That normally doesn't bother me, and he saw that so he started messing with my friend, and that's what set me off. You don't mess with my friends, especially if they're paying for the booze.” he says with a grandiose way as if his cause was a noble one.
“Glad to see you got your priorities in check then.” Kaia comments jokingly.
“Damn straight!” he barks out in between laughs.
Getting himself back under control, he keeps going. “So I tackled him to the ground, and started beating the crap out of him; his friends didn't like that so they started trying to run a train on me. So it's me vs like five guys because my friend isn't a fighter, and they get a few good hits on me, but I was whooping them way harder.”
“You were winning a five on one fight?” Kaia asks mildly interested.
“Well, even though I didn’t really know how to fight, I was still a hell of a beast, especially when drunk. Besides, five on one is nothing, just you wait. So of course someone got the guards, and there were like fifteen of them. The other pricks tried running but we're quickly arrested, meanwhile, the other guards were trying to arrest me. Now, this is where it gets weird, so you've been warned. To this day I don't know why, but I got a raging hard on at that point-” some groan and some laugh at that bit of knowledge.
“Too much information dude.” I interject while cringing.
“And my drunk self decided to start 'taking care of it', to put it nicely. So there I am, dick in hoof and I'm surrounded by guards. They tried to stop me, and I fought back. Of course some tried to use magic, but I wasn't having any of that; blitzed every single one of them. So I managed to get through like thirteen of them, more showing up gradually over time, and they just can't stop me. And by this point I’m having the time of my life! Hurt alot the day after, but well worth it.”
“So, where’s the Crescent part come into play in all this?” I ask.
“I’m gettin to it ya prick.” he huffs annoyed. “Well, little did I know, Princess Luna was enjoying a lil walk through town and happened to be nearby, saw this all out melee, and decided to help out, ending it by grabbing me in her magic. She was simply floored that I managed to wipe the floor with fifteen guards while drunk and jerking off; now I have no idea what she saw in me, but she decided to offer me to work for her. Of course, the rest of the guards that were still awake were furious, shouting their objections, so to piss them off even more I accepted. Swore my oaths the next day, and boy did Luna whoop my ass the next few weeks; not in the good way either. Been a Crescent ever since.”
He finishes his story and leans back in his seat, letting his body flop to the ground behind him, before pulling himself back up.
After a moment of silence, Kaia speaks up.“There's no way that's a true story.” she turns to the others. “That’s not true. Right?”
They all laugh, even Aria, which is surprising to see her break out of her serious demeanor. “It’s all true, all the guards involved were furious for weeks; some even envied him. But after they were allowed to sit in and watch one of our training sessions, that was over quick. Some still hate him to this day though.” Aria explains.
“Eh, they’re just mad cause they’re bad.” Twisted says with a shrug.
“Alright, well that’s one down, three more to go. Which of y'all are going next?” I ask, trying to keep the ball rolling.
Silence fills the air for a moment, before Caiuss takes a deep breath and lets out a sigh. “I’ll go next. I’m not proud of my past, and it is not a happy story, but I don’t deny it; it’s what made me who I am today.”
He keeps an even expression on his face as he pulls his book from his side and sets it on the table, motioning to it. “Luna, Celestia, and all the other Crescents know, but I use dark magic. I apologize if that makes you distrustful of me, but I never denied that I use it.”
Kaia purses her lips at the mention of dark magic, but keeps quiet for now.
“It first manifested in me when I was young, so I had always had it. I tried to suppress it, and for the most part, it worked; though I still had flare ups while practicing regular magic, probably due to the stress regular life was causing. An abusive mother led me to seek my father gaining custody. Conflict with him led me to move out early on my own as soon as I was a legal adult.” he starts.
“What kind of family issues did you have with your dad?” Kaia asks with a tilt of her head.
“A mix of meaningless junk, and my flare ups. I left because I didn’t want to be around him.” He answers.
“Anyways, I only had enough to afford a month or two of rent, so, given my feminine characteristics, and my own questionable hobbies, I turned to…” he gives a side glance at Kaia. “Less than savory means to make ends meet. I’m not proud of it, but I don’t regret it either. Well, a friend of mine took issue with it, and wanted me to stop. This was one of the few real friends I had at the time, and you could say we were really close. She was important to me… and those who were close to me, usually got hurt.” he says with a sigh.
“See, dark magic attracts unwanted attention from various kinds of entities; if you don’t know what you’re doing that is, so none of you are currently in danger in case you were worried about that. But, at the time, I didn’t know what I was doing. I knew dark magic was illegal, but I couldn’t control it, it just happened; and I certainly didn’t know the repercussions. So, I just did what I could to hide it and pretend it didn’t exist; Out of sight, out of mind, right? Well… that only works for so long.” he lets out an explosive exhale from his nostrils.
“My friend died. We were out late one night just having fun, when one of those entities had been drawn to us. Before I could even know what was happening, she was being lifted into the air… I’ll spare you the details, but she unfortunately suffered… I tried to do something, anything to save her, but I was too weak, and got knocked out in the process. I woke up the next day in a hospital, being treated for the injuries I sustained during that encounter. The guards were already on the case, but I was still shaken from the event; I didn’t know how to feel. After I recovered enough to leave, I felt anger. Anger at myself for not having been strong enough to protect her, for having let myself get close to someone.” he closes his eyes, silently counting to himself.
“If you don’t want to continue, you don’t have to…” Kaia offered solemnly.
When he opens his eyes, he seems calmer, but still noticeably upset at the memory. “No, no, it’s fine. I’ve told this story plenty of times. From that day I decided to devote myself to studying magic, for all its worth. I tried to enroll in Celestia’s Academy for Gifted Unicorns; I wanted to be strong enough to protect those I cared about. But I was denied entry for my less than stellar mana pool, as well as lacking an affinity for any kind of magic that they taught. Sure, I have a natural affinity for dark magic, but I couldn’t very well show them that, or else I’d be arrested, and they’d probably try to pin that previous incident on me.”
“So, I gathered whatever resources I could, and moved out to Ponyville. Rent was cheaper there, so I could afford to spend more time on my studies, and I had figured the nearby chaos magic infused everfree would mask my activities. Most of it was me experimenting by myself, and on myself. Seeing the extent of what dark magic could do, and writing down my findings. I learned a lot about dark magic, and myself; namely, I am not a talented mage. So, I started looking into what I could do to circumvent that, and that was actually when I got my cutie mark. Turns out runic magic was my talent, and when I discovered that, it made dark magic much easier to continually test out and perform.” he explains with just the barest hint of pride.
“For context, runes are a difficult and rare form of magic that circumvent the need for extreme mana cost by having efficiently written spells at the ready in the form of said runes. Anyways, as my progress accelerated, so did my corruption. Not mental, but physical. I was being tainted by it, and I reeked of it. Apparently, my initial plan worked, as the everfree did mask me for a bit, but eventually Princess Luna tracked me down. I was terrified when I first saw her at my door. Immediately she had me encased in her magic, all my magic suppressed; not that I tried to resist her regardless. She came in, locked the door behind her, put up a barrier around the house, and began interrogating me. As she was questioning me, she looked around my study room, examining all my notes and progress. She continued to question me on all my discoveries, how I made them, my past, my reasons for learning dark magic.” he lists off.
“When she put me down, I was ready to resign myself to my fate, whatever it may have been. I wasn’t ready for her to offer to teach me more about dark magic, saying all I had to do was swear an oath and become a Crescent. She taught me fundamentals I had no idea about, various spells, and how to protect not just myself, but others. Of course, there's the rest of the training associated with being a Crescent, but that's the gist of it.” he finishes while putting his book back on his side.
“That’s… how old are you?” Kaia asked seemingly out of nowhere.
Caiuss raises an eyebrow, but answers anyways. “I’m twenty three. Why?”
“I dunno… you just didn’t really give much of a time frame for when things happened.” she replies.
“That explains the how, but not the why. You never asked her why she gave you that offer?” I asked confused.
“Of course I did, but she never gave me a straight answer. If I were to hazard a guess, it would probably be pity towards my situation. It wasn’t my fault I was born with a natural affinity for it; but whatever the reason, I’m thankful for the opportunity all the same.” he retorts.
I still personally don’t know how to feel about his dark magic, but he has no reason to lie. I just hope for his sake that he’s right about not putting any of us in danger by being around us.
A heavy silence fills the air as we both ponder on the two stories we’ve been told so far, before I once again keep the ball rolling by breaking said silence. “Alright, while that was informative, there’s two of you left. Who’s next?”
Skyline and Aria look between each other and give each other a subtle nod before turning back to the group.
“Believe it or not, we both became Crescents at the same time.” Aria declared.
I hike up an eyebrow at that. “Both at the same time? I thought each Crescent had a unique reason for being one?” I ask curiously.
“Well, that’s not entirely true. Er, there are exceptions I should say. But, to explain how we became Crescents, there's another pony and more we need to tell you about for context.” Skyline says.
His sister and him look towards a spot in the castle for some reason.
“Well, Null knows some things, but Kaia, you don’t, so we’ll just start from the beginning. Long ago, around a thousand and a half years ago, thestrals had just joined the Equestrian nation; And it was only by Princess Luna’s grace that it was allowed. So, the thestral race came to revere her like a goddess.” Skyline started.
I get faint flashbacks to the first time I saw thestrals. It was just after the war with the Crystal Empire and King Sombra; I remember the hopeful yet fearful look on the faces of the handful of envoys that came to plead their case, to beg for entry to the nation. Even unarmed, they were met with hostility right in the courtyard, and barred entry to the castle proper. With the war recently coming to a close, nobody could really blame them for being distrusting, but Luna heard the commotion and granted them an audience, much to the dismay of everyone around.
Shaking my head, I tune back in to their story telling to catch them finishing reciting the short version of the tale of Nightmare Moon; another dark chapter of Equestria’s history.
Skyline takes a look at Aria, and gestures for her to continue. “After Princess Luna was banished to the moon, the thestral race didn’t see much of a reason to stay in Equestria; Their princess, their military leader, their goddess, was gone. So, they left, and returned to a place called The Hollow Shades. That’s where we came from, and we lived there all our lives up until a year or so ago when Princess Luna returned from the moon, and was freed from the control of Nightmare Moon thanks to the elements of harmony.”
“Life in Hollow Shades was… different to Equestrian life, to put it simply. We still worshiped Princess Luna, some more than others, but a bit of our previous tribalistic and house driven ways found their way back into our culture. Of course, ponies back then had children with thestrals, and blood lines got mixed. So there were more than thestrals running around, unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi all could be found living there too. Though most of them were seen as black sheep; Pureblood thestrals were the ideal. Most non thestrals… didn’t make it for very long. Some houses even straight up abandoned their children just because they weren’t thestrals. Those that did make it, typically left for Equestria, some of them having their sanguine heritage woken; be it on purpose or by accident. That’s not to say everyone treated non-thestrals poorly, but it was still not an unusual sight.” Aria explains with a sad sigh before smiling a bit.
I find myself very interested, silent and attentive; I’d never heard anything about what happened to hollow shades after Luna was banished. Kaia also seems to be paying attention quite intently as well.
“Around five years ago, we met a filly unicorn. She was small, frail, and abandoned by her family like many others.” Aria describes as her smile turns to more of a frown. She also had another unique trait, that being that she was an albino, with her sanguine heritage already awoken; She was as close to pureblood as you could get without actually being a thestral. Now, awakened sanguines are already pretty powerful, and require blood as part of their diet, but her being albino, made her even stronger. But, she was the first albino in several hundred years, and was seen as a curse to their family, a demon spawn. She managed to survive because of her mother, who still loved her very much despite what she was. That lasted for about five years, before her house found out that she was keeping the foal in secret, and killed her for it. Suffice it to say, that house fell out of favor soon after.”
“That’s horrible… How could anyone do that to their family? To a child?!” Kaia exclaims in outrage. “Family is important and irreplaceable…” she grumbles as she puts her head down in her arms.
Skyline gives a bit of a smirk. “Well, that’s partially true. Family is important, but it is replaceable.” Kaia looks a bit miffed at that statement, but Skyline doesn’t lose his smile. “Allow me to explain. Sometimes, life is cruel; and the family you’re born with doesn’t follow true family values. This was the case of that filly. She didn’t have a family, and her only option was to replace it.”
Kaia looks thoughtful at the table, before looking back up. “That’s.. Not entirely wrong. But she didn’t replace it, she didn’t have it to begin with. If the house that gave birth to her didn’t care about her, they weren’t her family. When you find your family, you hold onto it, and nothing can replace it.”
“That’s a fair way of looking at it.” He smiles a bit. “Anyways, that filly became known as a ghost story, because she disappeared without a trace. For the next four years, there were rumors about a small white filly with piercing red eyes running around. Ponies only caught glimpses of her, and people thought she was a vengeful spirit. Well, one day, my sister and I were patrolling the outer edge of town, as the houses shared the responsibility of maintaining and protecting the village. It was on that patrol we found that filly. We saw traces of tracks and nearby fruit being picked, and followed them to her little home. She had found a smallish tree with a hollowed out area big enough for her to live in, about the size of a barrel.”
Aria has a happy smile on her face as she no doubt was remembering that day. “We were heartbroken at the sight of how small and thin she was. She was so confused and scared when we woke her up, and it took a bit but we assured her we weren’t going to hurt her. We promised to take care of her, and she hesitantly followed us. She didn’t want to trust us, and who could blame her? It was then we found out her name was Moon Glow, and that she was nine years old. We nicknamed her Moogle for short.” she giggles softly to herself; again, first time I’ve seen her do that.
“She was immediately in love with the nickname, even if she was still distrustful of us. The rest of that day was spent talking and playing with her; but when it came time to go home, that’s when the trouble started. Our family’s house wanted nothing to do with Moon Glow, and told us to get rid of her. Of course, we refused, and as a result, we were disowned and kicked out of the house.” her smile fades a bit.
“It was hard… having your family turn their back on you like that. But the choice was already made, and we had to live with it. The next few months were hard, especially with ponies harassing us for taking care of what they thought was a demon child. We eventually found an abandoned house on the edge of town; the previous owner was an earth pony, so he was more sympathetic towards us, and gave us the house. He was leaving for Equestria anyways, so he wasn’t gonna need it. From then on, we just… lived our lives. We were still harassed, but we were able to live a happy life. She was like a little sister to us.” Skyline recounts.
“Did something happen to her? You keep saying ‘was’ and talking in past tense...” Kaia asks, concern evident in her voice.
“Well, she’s still alive, if that's what you mean. But something did happen. See, about a year or so ago, as you know, Princess Luna returned. And when the news spread to Hollow Shades, everyone wanted to return to her. Some wanted to stay, but for whatever reason, we decided to go. Of course, that meant giving up our home, and we needed to find a new one. It was a new environment, one we weren’t familiar with, so we wanted to keep Moogle somewhere safe; so, we asked the local orphanage to look after her, expressly stating that she was NOT up for adoption. It was only temporary until we could secure a place to stay, and even then we visited her every day. They hesitantly agreed, and all was good for a while. Until one day, we went to visit her, and found that she wasn’t there.” Skyline states.
“What happened?” I asked, fully invested in this story.
“Nothing bad, per se. Princess Luna adopted her, saying she had potential for her Crescent program. At the time, we didn’t know what that was, so we asked around, but found nothing. So, we asked for an audience with Princess Luna herself; and when we got it, we explained what was going on. We got to see Moogle again, and got a bit of an explanation of what she was doing with Princess Luna. All was good again for around a month and a half; Luna was giving Moogle a proper education, and even training her in combat and magic.” Aria said with an even look on her face.
“Well, that’s good isn’t it?” Kaia asked.
“Yes, well, due to her being an albino sanguine on top of that, her strength grew quickly; perhaps a bit too fast. But then… Luna tried something that she couldn’t take back; and it left a lasting effect on Moon Glow. They both refuse to speak about it, but Luna was extremely disheartened about it. So much so that she was ready to cancel the Crescent program. But Moogle didn’t blame her for it, and wanted her to continue it; she was grateful for everything Luna had given and taught her. It took a bit of convincing, but Luna agreed to acquiesce to her wish, and continued the program. Though she didn’t know where to start looking for candidates; so Moogle recommended that she take us on. It was her wish that we become Crescents alongside her, saying we definitely had the heart for it. And we’ve been Crescents ever since.” Aria finishes.
“So there you have it. The story of the first, second, and third Crescents.” Skyline adds.
“What effect did Luna have on Moon Glow? You said she’s still alive, so where is she?” Kaia asks, confused.
“Moon Glow now sleeps for a large portion of her life. She can’t stay awake for that long, and ends up sleeping for around twenty hours a day; and even when she’s awake she’s usually pretty tired. If she wakes up before her usual twenty hours, she isn’t really up for long, usually for the bathroom or to eat. At first, she was a bit lost, drifting from dream to dream, time passing without much rhyme or meaning to her. Luna found her in the dream realm though, and taught her the art of dream magic, something very few get to learn. So now she spends most of her time asleep playing in the dream realm, having fun and doing whatever she can think of. Such is the privilege of someone wronged by Luna; of course, she’s still a Crescent, and she still helps out, just not so much in the waking world anymore. The dream realm is definitely much more peaceful with her watching over it though.” Skyline explains, his voice even.
“And how do you two feel about all that? Like, how did you take it?” I ask out of curiosity.
“We… didn’t know how to feel. Luna was clearly regretful of what she did, and Moogle wanted us to follow in her hoofsteps. It was an honor, really. Moogle wasn’t hurt or anything, she was happy; and is currently very well looked after.” Aria answers.
“Where is she now?” Kaia asks.
They both look up towards the castle. “In her room. We can introduce you to her if you’d like; it’s nearing the time she usually wakes up.”
My curiosity piqued, I can’t help but want to accept. Kaia beats me to responding though. “I’d love to meet her!”