A Nightmare's Legends Returns

"I got dibs on my plushie!" He exclaims diving at the Timberwolf who curled around him, the flasks water draped over him like a big blanket, being slightly warm to the touch. He however shook his head, "Damn forgot training..." He sat up and snatched a ball of water which floated in his hoof closing his eyes he began imagining different objects, the water took their form with ease, always ice however, from a small spikey caltrop, to a large war axe, he sung a small travelers tune under his breath at barely a whisper. The song however struck a nerve, like it always had, he never knew why he kept singing it, yet it was stuck in his head for good, while the water in his hooves slowly turned into a thin bladed weapon the water around him circled into slight orbit, his breathing increased as if he was short on breath as the water began to boil.

Finally the rapier fell into the grass, shattering into shards of ice, as well as melting and slowly creeping back into the flask, along with the rest of the water, all while he stared blankly at the ground in front of him.

"So, then.. I suppose I am with you guys now?" Scythe slightly worryingly asked. He knew none of them trusted him, yet they were acting as if he wasn't even there. He expected a lot of questions and tests of trust.

"Thou art here with us, and thine portal didn't betray. Thine would say yes, for now," Shard said from where she sat, giving the social thing another go. Copying what had been said to her in recent times, Shard actually stood up and wandered over a little closer to Rain when she saw the display.

"Are thou okay?" she asked Rain, though her face still held the cold stoic expression.

Ruby took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I suppose you are. You did help us get closer to the edge of the Everfree. One step closer to our goal." She said to Scythe, but not turning towards him. She kept her eyes on the grass in front of her hooves. She needed sometime to think about what had happened when they got into the Everfree. She let out a sigh and laid down, looking at the sky, or the side of the sky that had the moon. A small smile appeared across her face. She closed her eyes and put her head on her hooves. Sweet dreams, hehe.

In a tree at the edge of the clearing there was a pair of eyes that watched the group as they rested, not quite visible for any of them to see, but not quite hidden as well. "Wait till they're all sleep and then we have them. It's amazing how far they got past the troops down in Ponyville." A tiny voice whispered, carried only slightly by the wind. If one listened closely they could hear that one sentence.

The answer Ruby gave was not quite the same one Harun was going to give, but it was easy enough for him to let him go. He was creepy and certainly odd, but he wasn't the only one in the group that was such things. He just nodded his head at  Scythe before turning his attention to Rain's little show. From his standpoint he really didn't need much training with his water, seeing as he had a broad range of things he could already, unlike boring old him. You didn't learn how to do such things without putting the time in to learn, so it all made sense to him.

Harun sighed, though it was likely tiredness getting to him, he still felt he had another hour or so left in him at the very least. He’d marched further in worse for much less meaningful causes, holding everypony to the standard he was at was tad unrealistic he guessed, then there was the fact they were being stopped to deal with things so frequently. He gave a quick glance all around the area before sitting down. There was no point completely wasting this time to rest, so he breathed a sigh and began to look half liddedly at the path ahead. He was sat and awake but his mind was far way, too far to listen for any faint noises or such other things that could be happening around them unless they were highly noticeable.

He froze slightly, looking up as he hastily wiped away a tear, "Eh? Yes yes I'm fine! Just, had a bad thought." He replied, giving what he had hoped as his best "I'm ok smile" he had as he leaned against the softly snoring Timberwolf, "And how are you so far on our... Quest? Any issues? Or trouble for that matter? Or," he snorts, "Any questions you'd want to ask me? Trust can mean more than the best sword on the battlefield, and I can only assume we will have more than one scrap here."

Shard took a hesitant step back at the response. She'd barely expected one or two words from the formerly distracted pony, not any returning questions. Then there was the issues for trust, which Rain had pointed out, and that probably scared her more than anything, but with a forced breath Shard calmed herself back down and steeled her nerves back to the cold stoic nature she'd at least tried to maintain for the majority of this trip.

"Y-yes, thou has had some trouble, but tis nothing thyself can not handle. Thou is a touch curious though as to the nature of thee's power, if it is not too personal of a story to tell?" Shard asked from where she stood. What could be seen of her face left nothing to read in terms of thought or emotion but the tone of her voice at least hinted at curiosity.

Rain's expression grew dark, "Not a good bedtime story. However, yes, I suppose I could tell it." He scoots towards her a bit more, however within reasonable distance for any other to hear as well.

And he began,

"I was a young kinda colt, always into the chaos of friendship, along with my best friend, Rapier, his mother, is what always caught my attention however, say what you will that made was a Gypsy. Anyway, I was coming along to my seventh birthday, my... My own family barely cared for me, so expecting a gift, or at least attention was out of the question, however Rapier told me his mother had gotten me something special. We went over and as expected she pulled out a package, opening it I found the flask you see today, she told me: "Now boy, this is the heart of a elemental, its dying wish was to be bonded with somepony special, and its your birthday that makes you special to me." Taking this flask I felt as if somepony had branded my brain, the water inside is indeed special, and I can manipulate it without the use of magic, since it only takes 'brain power' to use, I think it, it tries its best to work in my favor." He leaned back against the timber wolf smiling, it had been good to tell his tale.

The story brought an almost invisible smile to the mare's face, one that disappeared almost as soon as it had appeared. Whether it appeared because of the tale itself, or something else was unknown because of the amount of her face that was covered by the sunglasses. Then in her usual monotone voice, Shard spoke as well.

"Thi- Thine wouldn't know of those feelings. Thou must understand that thine only knew thy parent for a very short time. Thine barely even remembers what they looked like. Separating children from their parents, twas one of the tactics employed to keep the slaves in line," Shard explained from where she stood. Then she lowered herself to the ground, so she could once again get comfortable if any of the others should either ask her to elaborate or if another wished to tell their story.

Rain raised an eyebrow, "Slaves? Now I have to hear this." He sat up as his water rolled around in the dirt, oddly not getting dirty itself as it did so, however Shard had Rain's full attention, his ear only twitched softly, hearing something on the wind.

"No," Shard replied stoically. "Thou doesn't wish to continue talking about thine past, at least not right now. What of the rest of you, do any of thine wish to share thine story?" Shard asked, looking away from Rain and back towards the rest of the group.

Shrugging Rain smiled and turned towards the rest, "C'mon all we lack is a bag of marshmallows, anypony wanna tell us a story?"