Fluttershy got up and decided that today was the day. Today she would go to her mother and listen to what she had to say.
As she walked to her cottage door, she started to think. What do I say to her? Should I come in the night or should I not go at all? Then she shook her head. Get a hold of yourself. You need to do this. She opened her cottage door and looked up in the sky. Sure enough, she found her parents’ cloud house. She flew up there, not knowing that her entire world would change.
When she landed on the cloud, she spotted her father Gentle Breeze. He was shaping the cloud wall to make a place for flowers, for he really wanted to surprise his wife. He noticed his daughter and put down his tools, saying, "Oh, Fluttershy, my daughter, what brings you here?"
"Well, I'm here to listen to mom."
"Oh, right, she did move our home over yours. And I know you and she don't see eye to eye. But it would be nice if you didn't go full Miss Angry on her."
"I promise, Dad. Just tell me where I can find her."
"Let's see. I think she’s inside cleaning the living room."
"Thank you, dad." And Fluttershy went to open the front door, which was lighter than her own door. It had been a while since she had opened a cloud door.
When Fluttershy closed the door, Gentle Breeze went back to his tools.
As she walked in, Fluttershy saw the kitchen where, once upon a time, when she was a filly, she had tried to get at the newly baked cookies her mother had just made.
Fluttershy moved on to the living room where her mother was asleep on the couch. She walked to the armchair right next to the couch. Before she could sit down, an alarm rang out and woke her mother. Her mother stretched her body, and went she was done, she looked up at her daughter, unable to believe her eyes. Her daughter was in the living room, the very same room where Fluttershy accused her of doing something to Fluttershy’s brother that she was kind of responsible for. But she didn’t care. Tears ran out of her eyes.
She wiped off the tears, and got off the couch, saying joyfully, "Fluttershy, are you really here? If I'm dreaming, please don't wake me up, Princess Luna."
"I'm really here, Mom, and I'm ready to listen."
Realizing that this was real, Mrs. Breeze said, "Oh, right." She regained her composure and said, "In the letter you sent, you said that you and your friends had a bat problem at Sweet Apple Acres, if I recall correctly. You wrote in the letter that your friends told you that you became a batpony. And the reason why you became half bat and half pony is because you and I are batponies, but our kind like to be called Chiroptera.”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened, as she said “What?”
In Manhattan, four hunters gathered at the base of the Statue of Liberty. The leader of the group was called Night Glider, and he was hoping to find a very special artifact underground, somewhere in the secret tunnel system that very few ponies knew of.
Night Glider and the others slowly descended deeper and deeper underground.
"Are we there yet?" asked an impatient young stallion.
"It's been only two hours. I'm sure you can last a little longer."
"But I'm just so bored with the cautious approach. If I was in charge, we would be hunting that psychopath. But instead, we are learning every small detail about the relic she used.”
"You do realize that a hunter needs to be cautious in order to survive. And the prey we hunt is a banished hunter who knows how to spot us. And even worse, she survived the pits that lead to Tartarus, the worst place a pony could go, where all hunters who betray our order go to eventually die."
"Well, you can't blame me if I want some action."
"Hm, you’ve been reading too many smash fortune books lately, haven't you?"
The hunter’s cheeks started to turn red. "I'm just reading some of it."
Then another hunter asked Night Glider, "How does one hunter get banished and how are you certain that they will eventually die down there?"
"Well, if a hunter tried to kill Luna, or if they looked at ancient knowledge that was forbidden to the hunters of secret, that would do it. As for being certain that they would eventually die, we hunters cut off the wings of the banished hunters before we send them to their death in the pits of Tartarus. The reason we do this is to decrease their chances of survival down there.”
The young hunter started to shiver at the idea. "Well that’s one way to die, but I prefer to die with honor."
"Same here. Oh, Eager Shot, look. We're here."
The hunters passed a destroyed door that once had Egyptian markings on it to protect what was beyond. But all that remained now was a ruin of what appeared to be an underground warehouse, full of several smashed objects and pony skeletons strewn about the floor.
“What or who built this place?” Eager Shot asked with curiosity.
Night Glider replied, “Several years ago a secret group known as the Order of Time tried to take over Equestria from the shadows. They probably would’ve succeeded and continued secretly stealing magical items for world domination if it wasn’t for one Draconequus. From what I understand, that Monster tore the very fabric of reality right here. And since that day, this place has been plagued with ghosts of the Order.”
An old banner flapped in the breeze with one simple hourglass symbol on it. For once, long ago, this was the home base of an organization that hid in the shadows and powered the small towns. But the organization wanted complete control over the population and they were doing pretty well getting it, until Discord, the Lord of Chaos, came and caused chaos and destruction. The ponies ran in fear of the chaotic god. Discord successfully destroyed every last member of the Order of Time.
Eventually, the royal sisters defeated Discord by turning him into stone. But he had already accomplished one of his goals. He had burned their base to the ground. With hearts heavy for the loss of life, the two sisters flew back to Canterlot to tell everypony the good and bad news.
When the hunters entered the ruins of the warehouse, Night Glider said, "Okay, what we are looking for is some details about the first spear of the hunters and if there is an artifact that can identify an ancient relic that can tell us what kind of surprises it possesses. So, hunters, move in. Oh, and watch out for any active artifacts." All four hunters fanned out to begin searching.
Fluttershy finally recovered from that bombshell and shook her head. Then she looked at her mother and asked, "Why didn't I stay as a Chiroptera?"
"Well, because you’re basically half Chiroptera. When I met your father, I decided to keep him from the truth by hiding my true appearance. I wear magical runes that disguise my form." Then Night Breeze showed her daughter the ruins on her pearl necklace. "As for you, I guess your magic copies the same magic on the ruins. And has kept you looking like a pegasus. But when your friend Twilight used her spell to alter the bats, she must have messed with your magic. And when she reversed her spell, it fixed your magic."
As Night Breeze removed her pearl necklace, a magical swirl went around her body. Her wings changed from feathery to leather. Her ears got pointy and two fangs poked out of her mouth. Her coat became slightly darker.
Seeing her mother’s Chiroptera form, Fluttershy realized something. “Did you show the same thing to my brother?”
Night Breeze put on the pearl necklace again and returned to her Pegasus form.
“Yes. I thought he could handle it, but unfortunately, he reacted much differently than I expected. So, I tried to make him look like he was having some kind of crazy episode. That’s something I regret deeply, more than anything.”
Fluttershy remained silent for quite some time, but eventually asked, "So are there any others like you or me?”
"Well, there are some but most of them stay in the safety of a town called Blood Moon, the only place where all Chiropteras can feel safe."
Night Breeze noticed how interested Fluttershy was in Blood Mood. "But I don't think you want to go there. It's a rough place and only a Hunter of Secrets knows where the town is."
Fluttershy looked at her mother questioningly as she asked, "Um, what's a Hunter of Secrets?"
Before Night Breeze could answer, a rainbow vapor trail came through the front door and stopped in front of the two ponies.
Then Rainbow Dash exclaimed, "Fluttershy, I have some bad news."
Fluttershy gave her a look that said what kind of bad news?
Rainbow said, "I think you are going to have to see it to believe it."
Rainbow grabbed Fluttershy with her hoof and zoomed out, leaving a very surprised Night Breeze behind.
Night Breeze then walked to her bedroom and pulled a lever that looked like a book. A secret room opened up where all of her hunter gear was stashed. She then grabbed three light blue pebbles from the secret room and tossed them over the bed. As she did so, each pebble started to glow blue and hover in the air. Then, the glowing pebbles connected and created a magical two-way portal with one entrance inside her bedroom and the other somewhere in the town of Blood Moon.
A hoodie pony appeared from within the portal.
"So, what has happened?" Night Breeze asked the pony.