Night had ended about an hour ago. For a bat pony, the night was their friend. Due to their darker colors, it hid them better. Because of their eyes they could see clearly despite the lack of light. So, for a bat pony to be flying during the daytime was somewhat unusual in Equestria.
Ruby Moon, a dark blood red mare with a black mane, kept looking over her shoulder to see if she was being followed. She knew it was dangerous to head back to the hideout during the daytime, but she had seen something that had caused her to linger back in the town of Hayberg. In order to throw anypony off her trail she had taken several wrong turns before heading back to the caves.
The entrance to the caves was found on a hillside several miles away from Hayberg. It wasn’t a large entrance, just big enough for a single pony to slip through. But once one got through that, the caves were large enough to hold hundreds of ponies. It was dark inside, but to one such as herself the darkness meant nothing. As she walked she felt thirteen pairs of eyes fall upon her. Sighing, she set down her saddle bag and opened it up to reveal the oat she had stolen from the farming community. She then took her share before walking away so that the other could get theirs.
Ruby continued to walk into the caves until she found who she was looking for. It was a stallion by the name of Lone Wolf. He had a dark purple coat with a silver colored mane. The left side of his face was covered with dirt bandages to hide the scars he had received during his childhood. Wolf was just sitting there, staring into the darkness as if he were trying to find something that wasn’t there.
“What do you want?” he grunted as Ruby sat down next to him. Silently Ruby pulled out a newspaper she had been carrying and laid it on the ground in front of the two. Wolf looked down to see that the headline read ‘Insanity in the Capital: Princess Celestia Adopts Bat Pony!’ Slowly the stallion read the article before turning to look at Ruby. “Is this some kind of sick joke?”
“It’s for real,” said Ruby with some excitement in her voice. “She said that she is going to do her best to start helping all bat ponies. Isn’t this exciting?” Wolf scowled as he stomped on the paper.
“It’s rubbish,” he growled. “So some princess adopts a bat pony. Big deal! She probably did it so she could dress her up like some sort of pet. That’s probably what she means by helping us, dressing us up like we’re some sort of animals that can be shown off. For forty years I’ve been told that I wasn’t a real pony by the ‘good ponies’ of Equestria. I won’t let them demote me even further by calling me a pet.”
Ruby let out a sigh as she turned to leave. She had hoped that he would have at least given this some more thought. However, she could not blame him. Out of all the bat ponies in this cave, he had suffered the most from the cruelty of the day ponies. But Ruby was not going to give up hope. She believed that a day would come when bat ponies would be welcomed in Equestria.
She only hoped she could live to see that day.
-x-
“Twilight, what you have done could be considered a serious crime!” Those were the words that awoke Scootaloo. Opening her eyes she found herself in a bright, silver colored throne room. It was circular shaped with twelve large plain glass windows that went straight up to the ceiling. At the top of each was a black flag with two silver crescent moons in-between an alicorn in flight.
She then noticed a large throne at the far side of the room. Sitting on it was a blue alicorn with a mane that looked like a clear summer’s night. Standing to the side of her were four ponies whom she didn’t know. She also noticed that Twilight was there as well, standing before the throne while the alicorn was looking at her angrily.
“I just couldn’t leave her there,” said Twilight without looking up at her princess.
“What you did was kidnapping,” said Luna as she pointed a hoof at Twilight. “What if her parents are worried sick about her?”
“She’s an orphan,” said Twilight. “And she has crossbreed syndrome. If I left her there then she would have been made fun of her entire life.”
“And I understand that,” said Luna quickly. “Believe me Twilight; I know what its like to be different. But she is a foal of the state. She is under Equestria’s care until she is legally adopted. Once they realize that she has gone missing they will file a missing foals report and sooner or later they will connect the dots.” Luna paused for a moment to let out a sigh. Her eyes then softened somewhat. “My sister may normally slow to act, but after what just happened I’m sure she’ll use the filly in some way. I’m sorry Twilight, but I’ll have to send her back.”
Scootaloo had only a vague idea of what was going on. It seemed to her that Twilight had taken her out of Equestria without permission. But why? Didn’t they say they would bring a doctor to Ponyville if she didn’t want to leave? Did something go wrong?
“If I may speak,” said Land Share as he stepped forward until he was standing in front of Luna. The Princess of the Night nodded. “If I recall my history correctly, wasn’t there a similar case like this a thousand years ago? One where a princess took ponies from a country she ruled alongside her sister and brought them to the moon?”
“That was completely different,” snapped Luna. “I did that to save lives.”
“But, in a way, Twilight Sparkle did the same thing,” replied Land Share. “While the filly lived there we can only hope that she got three meals a day, shelter, as well as everything needed for a healthy life. However, what about her ability to function? The filly would never be able to fly or use magic. She would be seen as a failure or an outcast. You saw the way they treat bat ponies! There is a good chance she would have been treated the same. What kind of life would that have been?”
“I have to agree with Senator Land Share,” said Gigawatt as he stood next to Twilight. “Twilight was only thinking about what was best for the child. I would also like to add that we can show her our society. Perhaps here she can flourish in a way she never could in Equestria.”
Luna closed her eyes for a moment. She could see the points they were making. There was weight to their words. Yet she knew that Celestia would not give up so easily. All she needed was a little leeway that she could use to get what she wanted. While Luna was certain that her main prize was Luna, she would settle for Twilight. Slowly she opened her eyes once more.
“Twilight, are you sure this is what you want?” asked Luna in a low voice. “If she stays then you will have to take responsibility for her. That means adopting her.” Twilight nodded right away with a smile on her face. “Very well then. From this day forth, the filly known as Scootaloo will be under the care of Twilight Sparkle.”
“Thank you,” cried Twilight as she ran up to her mentor to hug her.
“Don’t thank me just yet,” chuckled Luna. “And don’t worry about Celestia. I don’t think that she’ll start a war over this.” Twilight nodded as she let go of the princess and went to Land Share to give him a hug as well. She then tried to do the same to Gigawatt, but he simply shook his head.
“No need for that,” he said with a half smile. “I owed you one.” Somewhat confused, Twilight turned and walked over to Scootaloo who was now sitting up. Her face seemed to be frozen in a look of surprise.
“W-What just happened?” asked Scootaloo after a moment.
“The princess just made you my daughter,” said Twilight. “Or maybe little sister. Either way you’re now part of the family. Now we have to get going.”
“Wait up,” said Scootaloo as she got up and began to follow Twilight who was walking towards the doors. They opened to reveal that Shadow was on the other side, dressed in his armor.
“Alright then,” said Luna once the doors closed. “Did anything happen while we were away?”
“Yes Princess,” said Shining Armor as he produced a piece of paper. Using his magic he handed it over to the princess. “Bring in Dr. Blue Star!”
Once more the doors to the chambers opened. Two Royal Guard ponies walked in, escorting a third in a lab coat. In many ways, she looked like Celestia’s faithful student Trixie with the only visible difference being the color of her yellow eyes. There was also her cutie mark, which was a single white star, but that was hidden by her clothing. Blue Star looked scared, looking around for a way to escape. But she knew that escape was impossible. No pony escaped the justice of the Lunar Republic.
“Dr. Blue Star,” said Luna as she read from the paper. “You have been brought before me for the crime of misuse of government funds. You withdrew twelve thousand bits that belonged to Project Crescent Hope earlier today. You then traveled to Dome Five where you spent the bits on a new designer dress. The LBI has already searched your office to find not only the dress but a receipt for it as well. They have also spoken with the stallion who runs the shop who was confirmed that you were there.” Luna lowered the paper to look at the trembling doctor. There was no mercy in her eyes. “I find this inexcusable. We need Crescent Hope now more than ever! Your selfish actions could doom the entire Republic! Do you have anything to say in your defense?”
“P-Please forgive me princess,” begged Blue Star as she got on knees. “It was a moment of weakness. The dress was on sale and I thought-”
“That no pony would notice,” Shining Armor cut in.
“I beg your mercy princess,” pleaded Blue Star as tears began to fall down her face. “I’ll return the dress and put the money back into the account. It will never happen again, I swear.”
“No, it won’t,” said Luna with a sigh. Lunar justice was different from that of Equestria. Lunar ponies believed that the higher the position, the more power a pony wielded, the greater the punishment. A thousand years ago, they had seen nobles get off lightly from crimes that a normal pony would have been sent to the gallows for. So when they came to the moon, Luna and the new Lunar ponies worked out a new system to ensure that something like that wouldn’t happen. Or at least make a pony think twice before they committed some kind of crime. “I, Princess Luna of the Lunar Republic, sentence you to twenty years in the royal dungeons.”
Blue Star let out a wail as the doors opened again. Fearfully she turned her head to see another guard walking towards her with what looked like a black floating egg. The two original guards picked her up by her forelegs, dragging her to the egg while the new one opened it. Blue Star began to scream for help, for mercy, for anything she could think of. Yet no pony even bothered to tell her to be quiet. Once the egg had been opened, her hooves were strapped into several automatic locks. From one of the sides a tube appeared from out of the wall. Like a snake it made its way over to her mouth and slithered in. Blue Star continued to struggle as the egg began to close up trapping her in darkness. Once it was fully closed, a gas began to fill the insides causing her thrashing to stop. When it was finally over, the area in front of her face became transparent.
Helpless to do anything, Blue Star watched as the guards began to take the egg out of the chambers. She knew for the next twenty years she would be in here, unable to move or speak. There was no way she could break out or cause any trouble for the rest of the Republic.
-x-
It was about thirty minutes later when Twilight, Shadow, and Scootaloo got to the office of Healing Touch. Luckily, being the prized student of the princess came with some perks. Twilight quickly explained the situation to her and the medical mare went right to work while the young couple waited outside. After about fifteen minutes, Healing Touch came out closing the door behind her.
“Well she definitely has crossbreed syndrome,” said Healing Touch as she went over the test results. “But it isn’t natural meaning that the mother tried to change her while she was still in the womb. She was either an unskilled magic user or found out she was pregnant too late.”
“But you can help her, right?” asked Shadow.
“Of course I can,” stated Healing Touch with a confidante grin. “Normally I would give her a retrovirus, but since magic was involved I will need some help. I’ll get a couple of unicorn doctors to lend a hoof. They’ll be able to help sort out the magical flaws while accelerating the speed of the retrovirus. Should be done in no more than two hours.”
As the couple thanked the doctor, Twilight let out a yawn. She had been awake for more than twenty-four hours. Now that she had a moment to relax she was realizing how tired she was. She moved over to a corner of the waiting room and laid down. As she closed her eyes she felt Shadow lay down next to her. He then draped a wing over her body to keep her warm. Smiling, Twilight drifted into dreamland.