Circle of the Moon

by GJT_Productions

That Stalks In The Night

"Wow X, this is amazing! It's like Cloudsdale, but inside a mountain..."

"Mmmf."

"What? We're in a place that very few non-batponies have ever been in, and a grunt is the best I can get out of you?"

"Mmmf."

"Whatever, we're not really here to sight-see anyway. That's for the scummy unicorns and earth ponies to do..."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was just before sunset, and inside the caverns of Canterlot mountain were two infiltrators: Agent Snake, leader of the Agents of Chaos, and the mysterious Agent X, both loaded with large amounts of incendiary explosives. The sights would only distract them briefly for their devious mission...

The batpony colony inside the mountain of Canterlot was formed from the remains of a mining operation that helped build the city in its early days. The batponies would live roosting in hollows formed from the old mine tunnels, rather than building structures like pegasi would do in Cloudsdale. There was one notable exception to this rule, however, and considering it was the most important place in their colony it was not hard to see why.

A temple had been carved into the mountainside, styled in a manner that once suited the dark terror of the pre-exile Princess Luna's service. Before Luna's return earlier that year, it was called "The Temple of the Moon" and the batpony "believers" in the eventual reappearance of the good Luna worshipped and honored her in Celestia-approved secret.

However, like with Canterlot itself, the triumph in the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters changed everything. The temple's "priests", lead by the now-Lieutenant Vesper, pledged themselves to service of the returned Luna and changed the name of the temple to "The Temple of Luna". They also would open their previously-secret services to non-batponies for the first time, and now with the formal Nightmare Night activities canceled by Celestia the alternative the batponies now offered intrigued many Canterlot residents. Record crowds were expected for the service, which made it a prime target for Snake and X to strike.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was one major problem with their plan, however - glowing stuff. Agent Snake's glowing red eyes, as well as glowing red horn that he seemed to be using solely as a light source, plus the sickly green glow of Agent X's eyes, were both very distinctive in the context - a phenomenon blamed solely on lack of knowledge about batponies in general - and both were worried that they were being tracked, judging from the all the glowing cat-slit eyes that they could glimpse in peripheral vision.

"X, you did arm the explosive charges early?" Snake whispers to X as they approach the door to the Temple of Luna.

"Mmm." X mutters out again in affirmation, briefly letting a metal cylinder fall into the red glow of Snake's horn.

"HALT!" a third voice echoes in the cavern, and when Snake and X stop in their tracks, they look up to see two batpony stallions leveling pikes right in their faces!

"You are not welcome here, evil ones. And Princess Luna will be eager to try out her returned powers on the likes of you!" the previous voice speaks again, and X looks back to give an involuntary "eep" of alarm.

It doesn't take long for Snake, following X's look, to see why the cause for the alarm: more batponies coming up behind them, some on the cave floor and some with leathery wings flapping in the air above! It seemed from the circumstances the batponies had simply waited to spring their trap until X and Snake were in too deep to escape it.

In this case, however, Snake decided to act instinctively, yanking with his mouth one of the metal explosive canisters away from his comrade and hurling it to the ground in front of them. Before the batponies could figure out what to do next, a boom and a bright blast briefly light up the cavernous space, disorienting the batponies in the process and allowing Snake and X to turn tail in an escape attempt!

Snake and X quickly collide with the batponies behind him, and cloaks tear away as the batponies try to pin them down. X now throws another explosive canister into the air, the fireball in midair serving as an additional distraction to the batponies. When the two Agents of Chaos finally wriggle out of the attempted pins, they take off at full speed, throwing explosive canisters behind them as they gallop to keep back the batpony pursuers...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A LITTLE LATER...

"Guard, how does what you saw even make sense?" Lieutenant Vesper asks in disbelief as he interviews his subordinates, while other Guard members check out the scene of the failed capture attempt and tend to the batponies that were temporarily blinded by the brightness of the explosions.

"I'm sure that what I saw reflected in those explosions was real! One was a pegasus with glowing red eyes, a collar around the neck and a band with a unicorn's horn going around the head, and the other... I don't know how to describe it, sir, it had green eyes and hissed very loudly, not a batpony but some kind of fanged horror!" the subordinate Guard pleads.

"Lieutenant, over here! I found something!" another Guard with bright orange eyes exclaims from behind Vesper.

"What did you find, Arcturus?" Vesper asks, turning and starting over to where the subordinate batpony was standing.

"There's something inside the cloaks they dropped, sir. Different things in each one." Arcturus answers, holding out what he's found for his superior officer to examine more closely.

"... Pegasus feathers and a bit of what looks like insect wing. Who, or perhaps what, just attacked us?" Vesper asks in response to what evidence he sees.

"I wish I knew, sir. Nothing about these things make sense, sir." Arcturus answers. "If there was another alicorn running about, why haven't we heard anything about him or her? And I can't even speculate on where the insect wing came from..."

"Too many questions, and not enough answers. And that's what worries me..." Vesper comments, looking down at the feathers and piece of insect wing in total puzzlement. Pieces of evidence that would only make sense in hindsight...