Crescent flinched as an explosion went off behind him. "What was..." But the words died in his throat, as he looked towards the smoke bellowing from Canterlot.
'Nightmare has arrived.' Luna said in Crescent's head.
"Then we're short on time." Crescent said out-loud, finding it easier to talk out-loud to Luna.
'As a precautionary, I think we should start your training, in case she sends somepony to find the elements. So find a safe place and sleep.'
Looking around, Crescent found a cave nearby. Crescent had found that as he slept nothing disturbed him, though whether it was Luna's presence or something else, he had not figured out.
Closing his eyes, Crescent was instantly asleep. And back in Luna's dreamscape.
"Good evening, Crescent."
Looking over Crescent saw Luna, still looking like a night sky. "Hello, Luna." Crescent stretched his arms, wanting to make sure he was prepared for whatever Luna had planed, "So what's the first lesson?"
"Just a simple game." Using her magic, Luna lowered the moon. As the moon disappeared over the horizon, all the glowing plants dimmed and darkened completely, leaving a ball of light in Luna's hand the only light source.
"Find me, that's your first test. See how in-tune you are with the dark." With the last light source gone, Crescent found himself in complete darkness.
Crescent knew how to complete this test of Luna's. But he didn't know if he could. The first time his darker powers showed themselves it had been on a moonless night, and yet he could see perfectly.
Taking a step forward, Crescent bumped his knee on a rock he had sworn wasn't there before. "Damn!" Rubbing his knee, Crescent tried to relieve the pain.
"Come on now." Crescent heard Luna to his left.
"You need to be more careful." He heard her to his right.
"You never know what might just appear." Crescent felt Luna's breath on his ear. Whirling around, Crescent was met with empty air.
Crescent then heard Luna laughing from multiple locations, "So close."
'She's just trying to get to me,' Crescent thought, 'To bad it's working.'
Closing his eyes Crescent began to concentrate on his inner darkness. 'If I lose here, I won't be able to protect anyone. I don't know if I'm the one, but I won't take the chance.'
Opening his eyes again, Crescent thought the moon was back up, with how bright the dreamscape looked.
"I see you've got the hang of it. Good." Crescent noticed Luna at his side. "Now we can start something more... practical."
"Practical?"
"Exactly, now I want you to show me how you would summon something you've just found." With a flash of light, a black set of clothes appeared, "Can you summon these?" Luna asked tossing the clothes to Crescent.
"Not exactly," Catching the outfit, Crescent couldn't believe how heavy it was, "I have to study the weapon/armor that I wish to summon."
"Show me." Luna gestured for Crescent to sit in a chair she had just made in her dream.
"Alright," sitting down in the chair, Crescent saw that there was a crescent moon shape in the back. 'How fitting.' he thought.
"Not really much to show really," Crescent let his magic flow through the outfit making it glow slightly, "like the pony who made the weapon or armor, I need to see every knick, every hole, every detail to summon it properly." When he was done his magic receded back.
"Only problem is if I've done it right, the item goes away."
"And if you've done it wrong?"
"I get magic sent back to my horn, leaving me without my magic for a while." Taking a deep breath, Crescent tried summoning his new outfit, satisfyingly his new outfit appeared on him, fitting perfectly.
"Looks good." Luna said, admiring how well the clothes fit her new apprintance. "Now on to the next part of business. What is your favorite piece of equipment you can summon?"
Crescent didn't have to think long, and started summoning a large two handed sword. "Not a difficult decision."
Luna shrugged, "Alright, now let's see how you do, in a fight were we're not trying to kill each other." Luna said summoning her own sword.
"This might be fun." Crescent said, putting on a smile. Yet on the inside, Crescent knew this wouldn't end well for him.
~~~
"That's enough." Luna said, banishing her blade. At the end of their sparing, Luna had been struck a few times, but Crescent... If this wasn't a dream, he would need to be worried about his loss of blood.
Crescent started shaking, "Are you sure?" Crescent fell to his knee, "I think I can go a few more rounds." His other leg slipping, Crescent fell face first into the dirt. "Actually, Luna, do you think you have another healing spell in your arsenal?"
"Don't worry, when you wake up you'll be fine." Luna said, beginning to raise the moon again.
"Oh, awesome. So tell me, how long am I to kiss dirt?" But as his vision turned white, Crescent found his answer.
As Crescent awoke, he looked himself over, and found Luna was right. Has cuts had disappeared, and his body felt fine. But what Luna didn't tell him was how tired his mind would become.
"Note to self, buy some coffee." Groaning, Crescent continued on his way to the ancient castle.
~~~
'I can not believe how the castle has changed...' Luna said, looking through her apprentice's eyes.
"Don't tell me you thought it would be in perfect condition," Crescent answered back, "I mean, it has been abandoned for a thousand years."
'I know... it just pains me to see my home this way...'
"I'll try to hurry here, and maybe after all this is over we can fix it up."
'I'd like that.'
With the help of Luna's guidance, Crescent quickly found where the Element's were suppose to be held. Inside the room there wasn't much that stood-out except for a large planetarium-esc statue, holding six large orbs.
'That's what we're looking for.'
While getting them down, Crescent couldn't help but wander, "How are we suppose to find their bearers?"
'... Good question.'
"What?! You mean you don't have a plan?"
'Not really. It would be easier if we knew where to find one of the Element Bearers, then they could lead us to the next.'
"Well that's just great." Crescent said, his words laced with lethal amounts of sarcasm.
"Μιλάς για τον εαυτό σας?" A robed figure dropped from what was left of the roof onto a broken pillar. "Αυτό είναι εντάξει εγώ πάντα να μιλήσετε με τις φωνές."
"What did she say?"
'That was the old language.' Luna said, surprised that anypony even remembered, let alone spoke, the old language.
"And, I should be concerned why?" Before Luna could respond to him, Crescent lunged to the side as a large chuck of the demolished castle was flung towards him.
"Γιατί δεν θα μου απαντήσει Βιβλίο Ανώνυμες?" The robed figure sent out another volley of ruble from the castle. "Είναι δυνατόν να μην είναι αρκετά ισχυρή για να πολεμήσουν?"
Instead of dodging this one, Crescent summoned his sword slicing the stone in half.
'All magic is written in the old language. There's power in those words.' Luna finally said.
"Meaning?" Crescent asked, dodging another chunk of stone.
'Meaning, she's stronger when she talks.'
"Χέρι πάνω από το βιβλίο, μικρό πουλάρι, και το μόνο που μπορεί να επιβιώσει." The robed mare said pointing her finger at Crescent.
"Translation please." Crescent said, watching the mare expecting another attack.
'She wants my book. Or she says you'll die.' Luna said, not sure how her apprentice would react. She started to worry when Crescent's grip lessoned on his sword and he closed his eyes.
"I don't really like either option," Crescent placed his sword in the ground next to him.
The robed mare, gave a sly smile accepting Crescent's surrender. Walking over to Crescent, she reached her hand out to grab the Book of Moon. Just before she grabbed the book, the robed mare took another look at the eyes of the defeated, pathetic stallion before her.
Yet the stallion's eye, were no longer had the same defeated look. Instead the stallion's eyes had the same unyielding fury barely held at bay that the robed mare had only seen in her nightmare patron.
Before she could act, Crescent grabbed the mare's arm, "That does not mean I will just hand it over to you." Coating his other hand in darkness fire, Crescent slammed his fist into the mare's stomach sending her flying into one of the last standing walls, only to have it crumble on top of her.
"Had you worried, didn't I?"
'Yes you did, actually.'
Grabbing his sword out of the stone floor, Crescent made his way to the newly crumbled wall. "Well I'm not about to just hand over the book to anyone, especially when I noticed her eyes. She's a bat pony."
Just as Crescent was at the crumbled wall, the whole floor began to shake causing even some of the larger pieces of rubble to bounce across the floor. Shooting out of the rubble the mare hung in the air - her cloak torn to near non existence - with her arms held over her head.
"Κάψτε το ανελέητο θάλασσα της κόλασης!" As the last word left her mouth, the mare flung her hands out towards Crescent.
Luna didn't have any time anytime to warn Crescent of the incoming attack, lucky for Crescent, he noticed the fire spark with enough time to raise a very hasty shield.
Crescent started being pushed back from the force of the fire, with his heels pushing into the ground. Trying to think quick before he became barbequed was proving difficult with having to constantly rebuild his shield. When he finally got an idea planed out, Crescent could only hope he had enough energy to do it.
'Crescent! You can't do that.' Luna called in his head.
"That's right, -" Crescent gritted his teeth under the fire's force, "- tell me I can't do it." Crescent closed his eyes concentrating on his plan, "Then watch me try twice as hard, -" spider-web cracks started forming in his shield, "- just to prove you wrong!" The torrent of flames finally broke through the shield engulfing everything.
When the mare noticed her victim was gone, her smug look from before returned, "Όπως είναι η μοίρα εκείνων που πάνε ενάντια βασίλισσά μου."
Levitating herself back down, the mare made her way towards where Crescent was -hoping the book survived the flames. Yet what she found was just scorch marks. The mare couldn't help but feel her pride swell, if she could so easily create a flame that didn't even leave bones. She knew her queen would have liked to have the Book of Moon, but would be happy no one else could have it.
"Looking for something?"
The mare's eyes shot open, as a swift kick connected to her spine, sending her fling into the center stone monument.
Collapsing to one knee, Crescent started to taste copper. "Note to self, stop teleporting so far." Using more of his little remaining magic, Crescent propelled himself towards the mare.
Trying to stand, the mare found Crescent's bag full of the elements. Deciding it would be better to retreat, grabbing them she noticed Crescent flying towards her. Using her magic she teleported out.
Not making it in time, Crescent watched her disappear with the Elements of Harmony. Looking up at the monument, Crescent found he had missed one element when the mare had interrupted him. Taking the last element, Crescent ran after the fleeing mare.
~~~
"And that's when I met you." Twilight said to Applejack.
Ever since their encounter with the earth pony geomancer, Twilight had told Applejack everything that had happened the last few days. All-the-while, Applejack had listened and watched the ground.
"Ah'm sorry, Twilght, ah wish ah could help ya, but ah have ma family to think about."
"It's fine, after we arrive at the castle, you can leave and forget all about me."
"Twilight, ah-" They saw a pony rushing through the trees, "What was?" Then somepony ran into Applejack.
"Excuse me." He said then continued after the other pony. They would have left the two go, but Applejack noticed the stallion's eyes, and tackled him the ground.
"Hey get off! She's getting away!" Crescent yelled trying get the mare off him.
"Quiet, ya'll bat ponies are really getting annoying."
'I really shouldn't do this' Crescent thought to himself. Finally getting his arms free, Crescent shoved his arms up into Applejack's chest, with the added power of his dark fire, Applejack flew off him. As setting up was proven difficult for either pony, when Crescent got to his knees, he could not stop himself from coughing up blood.
'Crescent stop fighting!' Luna called in his head. But instead of answering his mentor, Crescent changed his eye's back to normal. With his dark power gone Crescent could do nothing but sit there trying not to coughing anymore.
Twilight and Applejack were ready for the bat pony in front of them to attack. But as they watched him cough and saw the blood, they couldn't help but feel pity.
"Well what have we here?" A bat pony hovered in the air before them , his wings beating silently. "Three lost ponies. Could these three be the ones that have been giving us trouble tonight?" A strong wind started to circle the three ponies on the ground, "I would say so." the wind grew stronger, making a wall around the three ponies.
"What in tarnation!" Applejack said, reaching for the walls of wind, and once again wondering what she had gotten herself into.
"I wouldn't touch the tornado walls, little pony." The bat pony called through the wind. "It'll rip you to shreds."
Applejack quickly withdrew her hand, not ready to test the bat pony's help.
'Crescent? Crescent are you ok?' Luna called.
'...No...' Crescent called back weakly.
'Crescent, I need you to-' Before Luna could continue, the ground opened up, making every pony in the vortex tumble down the walls of the hole.
A bat pony burst from the ground, revealing the geomancer from before. "How do you guys like my antlion trap?"
"You!" Twilight launched a ball of magic at the bat pony only for him to duck back under ground. Yet as the bat pony surfaced again, he had to go back under or have Applejack's hoof in his face.
When the geomancer disappeared, the bat pony in the vortex started jumping down to the grown making rocks fly at the three ponies inside the trap. "You can't escape!" As the bat pony jumped back into the air, the geomancer jumped around the ground attacking the two mares. Both bat ponies forgetting about the suffering stallion, still laying on the ground.
After attempting to avoid the two bat ponies' assault, Twilight's book started glowing. When she looked at it, the book, said 'Heal the other stallion you foal, he'll help.' Twilight wasn't sure, she herself had seen the dark power he had used against Applejack, but... her book hadn't lied yet.
'Crescent,' Luna called in his head, 'get up!'
'...I can't...'
'You need to recite a spell.'
'...I can't...' But as he said it, Crescent felt his pains ease, and the taste of blood disappear. Realizing what was happening, Crescent noticed the purple mare watching him as her spell finished. "Thanks." Crescent hardly recognized his voice, growing raspy from all his coughing.
'Ready Luna?'
'Repeat after me.'
Twilight watched the stallion stand, then grab a spell book from his waist and hold it out.
"O' Frozen queen."
"Spirit of the ancient Glacier!"
"Lend me the power of Diamond Dust."
"Σίβα!"
Crescent wasn't sure what to expect from the spell, but as large ice crystals started forming in the air, he thought he head the guy in the ground say, "Shit, another one!"
Once all the ice crystals formed, they rushed into the ground in front of Crescent, then unexpectedly shattered. When the crystals were gone, before all the collected ponies stood a tall, blue, snout-less mare.
'Hold the book out,' Luna said in Crescent's head, 'and tell Shiva what to do.'
Doing what he was told, Crescent pointed to the other two stallions, "Shiva attack them."
Shiva looked over her shoulder at the red stallion behind her. It had been so long since Luna had summoned her, she was surprised to find Luna had accepted an apprentice. Turning back away from the book bearer, Shiva swiped her arm, making the ground freeze solid.
When the earth bat pony noticed he couldn't go below ground anymore, he slowly backed towards the wall.
Diving back down to the ground, the pegasus bat grazed Shiva making her arm drip freezing water. When he tried to jump back up, Shiva caught him in a spinning twister of sharp ice crystals.
Setting her sights on the other stallion in front of her, Shiva snapped her fingers encasing him in ice. Flicking her wrist, Shiva sent the pegasus stallion flying towards his frozen companion. By the time they collided, both were frozen to the point the impact shattered them both. Turning around to her book bearer, the ice queen herself shattered.
Reattaching the Book of Moon to his side, Crescent tried to remember which way the crazy fire mare from before went.
'She's gone, Crescent. Nothing we can do now.' Luna said.
'Now what?'
'Not sure, but I'm curious about these two mares...'
"Excuse me?" Realizing he had spaced out, Crescent noticed the purple mare right next to him trying to get his attention; while the other one, wearing a sour face, was crossing her arms.
"Yes?"
"Ah! Hello there, my name is..." the purple mare started.
"Why are ya'll bat ponies fighting us?" The other said.
"I'm not a bat pony." Crescent pointed at his eyes for emphasis "As for why they're attacking you, I don't think you'd believe me, if I told you."
As he started to walk away, Crescent felt something move between his legs only to find the hatchet that was recently held by the orange mare embedded in the ground. Noticing how close he came to becoming a mare himself, Crescent felt his pupils shrink.
Slowly turning back around, Crescent tried to force a smile, "So where do I begin."
~~~
Ready to be ride of the Everfree forest, yet weary of more bat ponies, Crescent and the two mares quickly made their way back to Sweet Apple Acres. On the way Crescent and Twilight exchanged stories, all the while Applejack kept an accusing eye on her new stallion companion. Crescent had told the two mares his whole story, only leaving out about the part that he could talk to Luna via the Book of Moon.
As they neared the forest's edge, the three ponies started to hear odd chanting. "Ω Ευλογημένος Φωτιά! Καίω τον κόσμο σε ατελείωτες Hellfire σας!"
"What's that?"
"I believe you mean 'who', Applejack."
But Crescent knew, he knew all too well, he had felt the burning of those words. Quickly running towards the chanting, Crescent moved as fast as he could. Leaving the two mares staring and thinking, especially Applejack, that he was making a break for it; till Crescent turned around and yelled back, "Move your tails!"
While passing the charred stumps of ash, Crescent and Twilight didn't knew where they were running too, nor did they expect to. But Applejack couldn't even figure out were they were, even though she had lived most of her life in Ponyville and Sweet Apple Acres.
As the chanting got louder, they finally saw a column of smoke over the hill. And when they were at the top of the hill, they found the smoke was coming from a barn surrounded by burning apple trees. Noticing the tears and anger coming from her friends eyes, Twilight grabbed her and Crescent, teleporting them closer to the barn.
Crescent was surprised Twilight could teleport three full grown ponies with out much strain, but the sight of the pyromaniac mare from the ancient castle coming out of the burning building quickly gained his attention. Holding fireballs in her hands, the mare walked out of the burning barn swaying her hips with a cocky smile, "Welcome to my barbeque."
Already knowing what the pyromaniac was planning, Crescent threw up a shield to protect himself and the two mares. Yet as the flames struck the shield, large cracks begin to form. Holding both arms up Crescent began to reinforce his shield, yet not fast enough to stop the cracks. With his last hope, he turned to Twilight, "Don't suppose you know a good shield spell?" The cracks grew larger, "Cause that would be greatt~ right now..." The hasty shield began to flicker, "A GOOD shield that is..."
Twilight, embarrassed from being caught off guard, took out her spell book and started to concentrate. Mere seconds later, a large dome formed over the three, dwarfing Crescent's crumbling shield.
Again Twilight surprised Crescent with her magic ability, especially with using so much magic without showing signs of mana poisoning. Summoning his sword, Crescent dropped what little was left of his shield.
'Don't use your darkness!' Luna cried in his head, almost desperate.
"You two, do what you can, just stay within the dome." Raising his sword, Crescent ran off to the side, drawing the, seemingly unrelenting, flames away from the mares.
"We have to do something!" Turning to Applejack, Twilight saw the tears in her friend's eyes, and saw the mourning in her tears. Twilight ran forward, readying her spell book. When her new spell was ready, a small ball of light shot out of Twilight's book at her target. As soon as the ball struck the pyromaniac's head, it exploded staggering its victim.
With the flames stopped, Crescent noticed the pyromaniac about to burn Twilight. Rushing forward, Crescent gave the pyromaniac a new problem, his sword. "Don't you dare," a sword swing and a dodge, "forget about," another swing, and the mare dodged again, "ME!" Calling to his inner darkness, Crescent's round pupils turned to slits. Dropping his sword, Crescent pushed his arms towards the mare, a large ball of darkness shot out at her, knocking her far away.
Quickly dismissing the darkness, Crescent's eyes returned to normal, only to have Luna cry out again, 'Crescent! Stop this at once!'
Giving a primal roar, Crescent spoke back to Luna aloud, "SHUT UPP~!!" Scooping up his sword, Crescent lunged at the stunned mare, letting his anger control his sword swings.
"Applebloom..." Applejack remembered a time while playing with her sister, tears slowing growing in her eyes...
"Big Macintosh..." She remembered working the orchard with her brother, tears growing faster...
Looking up at the farm she had always lived at, she noticed the battle before her. Twilight throwing more balls of light at the mare, to Crescent's furious sword swings, Applejack could not believe the chaos before her.
Between his sword strikes, the pyromaniac got a hit on Crescent, knocking him down. One of the few items Crescent had fell out of his bag rolling away...
With tears flowing free, Applejack saw Crescent fall. Tired of standing within the dome, Applejack ran forward, launching her hatchet towards the pyromaniac. Batting it aside, she paid the small hatchet no mind and turned her attention back to the stallion.
Running up to Twilight, Applejack nearly tripped on something. Looking down, she found her granny's axe covered is ash. Picking it up and removing the ash, she noticed something else nearby. A hand sized, perfectly round stone laid near her in a trail coming from Crescent. Not fully understanding it, Applejack felt a strong urge to pick it up, if nothing else to return it to Crescent latter.
Yet when she did pick it up, the world stopped, the three fighting ponies stopped moving, the ensuing fire froze.
Hear... Feel... Think... Blessed daughter of the crystal...
"What in tarnation?!" Looking around, Applejack could not see where the voice was coming from.
The stone in her hand started to glow orange, shrinking smaller till it was a golden armlet, with an orange gem in the shape of her cutie mark. Slowly at first, the armlet began to shake, then attached itself to Applejack wrist. She knew she should be worried, yet as the armlet attached itself to her, Applejack began to feel many things, yet fear was not one of them.
"Beloved daughter of Honesty." A mare said behind Applejack. Turning around, Applejack didn't find somepony like she thought she would. Behind her, stood a snow white silhouette of a mare. A long horn protruding from her head, wings stretched far to her sides, hair flowing in an ethereal wind. Applejack thought she was facing a ghost, she might as well have been...
"The blessings of Harmony have touched you my child. Though your family is gone, you mustn't give into despair. There are still those who still need your help." Holding out her hand towards Applejack, the mare glowed brighter then the sun. Shielding her eyes, Applejack looked away. When the light was gone, so too was the mare. As time started to move again, Applejack's grip on her granny's axe, no her axe, tightened.
Crescent couldn't believe he had given into his anger, he had learned long ago to not to. Yet here he was about to be burned alive, the burn on his chest growing more painful with each breathe.
As fast as Crescent felt the pyromaniac's flames starting to get hot, they stopped. Opening his clenched eyes, Crescent came face to blade with a large axe between him and the pyromaniac. Looking to the side, he saw a stunned Twilight and a very enraged Applejack, barreling towards her thrown axe, and her family's killer.
Noticing the angry mare herself, the pyromaniac tried to pull the axe free. Yet it was so far into the stone she could not move it, as if it had always been there. Noticing Applejack getting closer, and Twilight starting a new spell on the stallion, the pyromaniac did what she did best, "Ω ισχυρός Ifrit, να μου δώσει τη δύναμη να καίω εχθρούς μου!"
Applejack grabbed her axe, like it was a feather, and swung with all her might, "ARGH!"
"Ω ισχυρός Ifrit, να μου δώσει τη δύναμη να καίω εχθρούς μου! Hellfire!" Raising her hands high, a large ball of fire formed. She had long grown tired of this nonsense fight.
Jumping into the air, with her powerful legs from being an apple farmer and an earthpony, Applejack easily reached the top of the fireball. Swinging her axe down, Applejack's momentum sent her rocketing down cleaving the fireball, along with the pyromaniac's skull.
With Twilight's healing spell finally finished, Crescent rushed to catch Applejack's unconscious body. She had won the fight, yet Applejack's body was hardly recognizable, her clothes were burned away, as was her fur and some skin; some places only bone remained. "Twilight!" Crescent called, "Can you heal her?"
"I don't know..."
As Crescent laid Applejack down, Twilight furiously flipped through her spell book. Her eye's fell upon her Book of Globe's new written text, "Notice her new bracelet..." Twilight did, "She is the first Element of Harmony you two have found. She will heal quickly with that title... and yet could use some help."
This was the first time Crescent had noticed the book, 'Luna, she has one of the books...' he called in his head, then felt Luna look through his eyes.
'Yes, my brother's Book of Globe. And yet she is not as connected as we are...' Luna went oddly silent.
'Luna?'
'Please go to sleep soon Crescent. We must talk.' Then nothing, Luna wouldn't answer his calls.
Looking back to the two mares, Crescent found Twilight's spell finished, yet Applejack wasn't all healed.
"The spell can't heal her any more." Twilight said through pained breaths. Finally reaching her limits, mana poisoning was starting to set in.
Returning his gaze to Applejack, he found her completely healed, except her hands. Where here hands once were now only charred stumps remained. Yet another problem remained. Along with her hands, Applejacks clothes were still gone. Prying his eyes away was no small task, but Crescent got a blanket and covered Applejacks sleeping body.
"Why not get some rest. I'll stay up and watch over you both."
"That won't be nec-" But Twilight never got to finish before passing out.
'Poor girl,' Crescent thought, trying to reposition Twilight so she didn't wake up stiff, 'She must have never had to deal with mana poisoning.'
Taking some bandages, Crescent wrapped Applejacks arm nubs as carefully as he could. True to his word, Crescent stayed up to watch for more batponies. Occasionally watching the mares’ chests rise and fall to make sure both were sleeping properly.
When sleep had all but taken him, Crescent laid down himself, preparing himself for a long night of training with Luna.
'Oh how wrong you are, my apprentice...'
~~~
Awakening back in Luna's dreamscape, Crescent found Luna right in front of him.
Before he could utter a word, Luna smacked his face, sending him to the ground. "What was that-"
Using her magic, Luna created a large dark portal underneath her apprentice. Before Crescent could act, a large claw reached up from the portal and quickly dragged him through. Another portal appeared, spitting Crescent back out. After Crescent flew from the second portal, he flew out and struck a tree, were chains of Luna's magic bound him to it.
"Luna what are you doing?!"
Luna slowly walked towards him, to stand before him. Crescent still couldn't understand how he could tell Luna's emotions, yet in the swirling galaxies that made up Luna's eyes, he swore he could see tears of sadness and fear.
"Why?!" Luna screamed through a cracking voice, hitting Crescent's chest harder then she had wanted.
"Why didn't you listen to me?!" She pounded on his chest again.
"Luna? I don't-" Luna hit his chest again knocking the wind out of his lungs.
"Why didn't you stop using the darkness when I told you to?" She tried to say more, but her voice cracked too bad.
~~~
Crescent was the first to wake, yet was still exhausted as always after his meeting with Luna. Finding the two mares still asleep, Crescent picked up what he could of their hasty camp. Finding Applejack's axe thrown off to the side, Crescent brought it back and set it by its owner.
Most of the day had passed before Twilight had even begun to wake. Being the first time Twilight had been outside of Canterlot, she had yet to feel the effects mana poisoning.
"Ugh!" Twilight tied to sit up, but didn't make it far.
Crescent caught her as she fell, "Careful, as much magic as you used you shouldn't be doing much for awhile." Picking up a cup, Crescent held it up to Twilight's mouth.
Barely any of the drink touched Twilight's tongue before she spit it back, "What in Tartarus is that?!"
"It's called an ether. The Royal Guards use them to help with mana poisoning." Crescent tried to move the cup towards her again, but Twilight pushed it away, "Drink it and you'll feel better. Believe me, I know it has an acquired taste."
Finally taking the cup, Twilight quickly chugged the foul liquid. "Ugh, nothing that awful should be legal!" Looking towards Applejack, Twilight remembered the predicament they were in.
"She'll probably be out for a few days" Crescent said, following Twilight's line of sight.
'Highly doubtful,' Luna called, 'the Elements give their bearers un-natural abilities. Including healing. Sadly though her hands may still take centuries... though she won't live that long as she is.'
“Ugh, wha happen?”
All Crescent and Twilight could do was silently watch Applejack, as she leaned up, one arm holding the cover over her, and the other reaching up to scratch her head. Only for Applejack’s charred arm stub to bump into her head.
Eyes wide with shock, all Applejack could do was stare at her charred arm. Slowly stepping forward, Twilight wanted to comfort her friend. Yet when she crouched down near her friend, Applejack finally snapped and let out a loud scream of pure shock.
Reacting quickly, Crescent jumped forward wrapping one arm around Applejack, and the other over her mouth. “This is the last thing we need with all the bat ponies around.”
Pulling out her spell book, Twilight quickly put Applejack back to sleep. “That should hold for awhile.”
“’Should’? You don’t sound too sure.”
Looking at the ground, Twilight suddenly found playing with her robes more fascinating then the conversation. “Well… You know…”
“Well whatever.” Letting Applejack down, Crescent started gathering their gear.” We need to get back to town.”
“Oh… yeah.” Twilight said snapping out of her stupor.
Lifting Applejack on his back, Crescent started off towards where he hoped Ponyville was. With Twilight quickly following behind, still silently watching the ground.