Small hoofsteps echoed throughout the hidden hall as Moonlight walked through it. There wasn’t any light, or even any torches on the walls to be lit. Were it not for her night vision, she wouldn’t be able to see anything.
Moonlight’s ears twitched. The further she walked, the more she heard a continuous, high-pitched ringing. Her curiosity was piqued, and as she walked further she could tell the direction it was coming from.
She looked to her left, seeing an ordinary-looking door. As she pushed it open, the ringing only grew louder.
I can already hear it fine, it doesn’t need to get this loud, she thought with mild annoyance.
None of the books or the comfy-looking chair in the quaint room interested Moonlight as she walked to a corner and investigated the source of the nearly deafening ringing. She bent down and pulled a book out of the shelf, seeing a small button that protruded from the wall.
She pressed it, and the ringing stopped, only for a lower-pitched, quieter ringing to sound from across the room.
Another? Moonlight went across the room, but seconds later the sound vanished, and the original ringing was once again loud and clear.
Despite the annoyance it caused her, Moonlight grinned. A secret inside a hidden passage? This is certainly something worth investigating.
Scootaloo grunted softly, her eyes slowly opening. Was that all a dream, too?
As she sat up and saw the portraits on the wall surrounded by the colored frames, that notion was shattered as everything she’d recently been through came back to her.
First there was a wagon barreling down towards her, then meeting Moonlight, and finally making a deal with her for her life.
Today has been one heck of a day, and I think it’s just getting started. But if I’m still here in my subconscious, where’s she?
“Moonlight?” Her voice was a whisper at first but quickly turned into a shout. “Moonlight, can you hear me? Are you there?” She wasn’t sure if she wanted an answer or not, but when nothing happened, she turned her attention back to the wall. Her eyes settled on the picture of Celestia that had a knife through the eye pinning it to the wall.
Suddenly the intense discussion from earlier returned in full detail, every single word Moonlight had said about Celestia burned into her mind.
Scootaloo frowned and approached the picture, grabbing the knife and trying to pull it out. But no matter how hard she pulled, it wouldn’t budge. She tried putting her hoof against the picture for extra leverage, but as soon as she touched the picture, her vision began to blur and fade out.
Moonlight had uncovered four nodes in the bookshelves, and there was a fifth somewhere nearby, but her patience was running thin. All of them were time-sensitive, and if even the first one ran out of time, then they all reset and she had to start over. By the time she was hearing the fifth one, she had seconds before they reset and that same annoying, high-pitched noise sounded again.
She investigated where she had heard the last sound, pulling books off a shelf, but unlike with the others, she didn’t see a small node coming from the wall. She tapped her hoof along the wall, soon hearing a hollow sound.
So that’s how it is. Moonlight knocked on it a bit harder, and the hollow noise made her think it wasn’t too thick. She drew her hoof back and struck that space, feeling the small false section of wall break as her hoof stung from the impact. Ignoring that and eagerly brushing the debris away, she looked down the hole and saw the node she’d been looking for.
She smiled as she approached where the constant ringing had been coming from. Let’s try this one more time.
She slammed down on the node, bolting across the room and hitting the second, already scrambling and pressing the third. She hurried and lunged down, hitting the fourth node. Only seconds left!
Springing to her hooves she sprinted towards it. I’m not going to make it! Time seemed to slow down for her, and every step felt like an eternity, as she came closer and closer to the button, each hoofbeat sounding like the ticking of a clock.
When her hoof slammed down on the node she breathed a heavy sigh of relief. I made it.
As soon as she did, there was the sound of stone sliding on stone as a hole in the ceiling opened, revealing what looked like a gem of some kind. It began to glow, and a translucent image of a large bat pony made entirely of blue light appeared.
Moonlight had expected to find a valuable artifact or a rare spellbook, not whatever she had stumbled upon. This pony was old, but he still towered over her current form, and his size betrayed his strength.
“To have found this message, you need a bat pony’s hearing, so if you’re listening to this, then I rejoice that the time of our return is near. My name is Silver Fang, and at the time of this message, it’s been seventy-four years since Moonlight was banished. They have been dark times for us. After Moonlight was banished, Celestia set to hunting us down without pause or compromise. Most of us fled, others tried to grovel at her hooves for mercy, only to find there was none to be had. Serves them right for thinking they could trust her.”
Fools, Moonlight thought to herself, scoffing at the notion of seeking mercy from Celestia. After what we did, they should’ve known she’d show no mercy.
Silver Fang continued, pulling her from her thoughts.
“We learned that the bat ponies Celestia captures aren’t killed, they’re locked away in Tartarus.” He grinned widely, “Anypony trapped in Tartarus doesn’t age, thirst, or hunger. They’re alive, and there they will stay alive indefinitely. With this knowledge and the hope that Moonlight is still alive, we hold hope to rise again. And it is with this hope that we that escaped have worked to build our return, and you seeing this means the time to do so is almost upon us.”
Moonlight was in shock, her mouth hanging open as her mind blanked out.
“After Moonlight was banished, many of us went into hiding, but we weren't idle. We worked to make, gather, and hide everything needed for another uprising. We’ve toiled in the shadows, hiding from Celestia’s prying eyes. We have prepared for decades, thanks to greatly extended lifespans as a result of the bat pony spell. At this point, I suspect we’re able to move more freely because she thinks we’ve all died out.”
Silver Fang frowned, touching the wrinkles on his cheek.
“However, we are not immortal. By now, we are all over a century old. If Moonlight returns, it likely won’t be in our lifetime, and it wouldn’t be right to bring foals of our kind into the world only for them to have to hide like we have.”
He gestured towards the ceiling where the gem was projecting him. “To that end, we stashed everything we made in hidden caches across Equestria, with messages like this so that only a bat pony would find them. We also posted sentries to protect them, but by the time you see this, they’ll likely be all gone.”
A rolled-up scroll appeared in front of Moonlight in a flash of magic and fell to the floor, but her attention would not be diverted. “Armor, weapons, artifacts, equipment, bits, everything you will need to succeed.”
Silver Fang’s expression hardened, and his voice became coldly focused. “What you need to do is simple. Go to Tartarus. Find your fellow bat ponies, free them, arm them with what’s in these caches, and tear Celestia apart. Good luck.”
As the image faded, Moonlight felt the floor beneath her shift. She snatched up the scroll and leaped back as a small section of the floor parted, revealing a staircase.
Moonlight sat in sheer disbelief, struggling to process what she’s just heard. However, as she wrapped her head around the message, a feeling of euphoria washed over her. Maliciously happy laughter began to echo about the small room, but it stopped abruptly.
Her laugh wasn’t the same intimidating laugh she’d previously held, but a filly’s.
“Are you telling me-? Ugh!” Moonlight growled in annoyance. In addition to Scootaloo’s body, she had borrowed her voice as well.
She turned to the scroll, opening it and seeing a map of Equestria. Across it were dots over specific places. I take it that’s where they hid these caches, and one is right here.
She folded up the map and tucked it under her single wing, looking at the revealed spiral staircase. And it seems it’s right beneath my hooves.
When Scootaloo’s vision returned, she was in Canterlot Castle on the night of the Grand Galloping Gala and was suddenly awash with how she felt that night.
All her current unease and trepidation were drowned out by much more pleasant emotions. She was overjoyed to be Rainbow Dash’s plus one, the background music created the perfect atmosphere for the event, and she was looking forward to the wonderful food served to the guests.
She looked up at the top of the staircase, seeing Celestia and Twilight talking. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she wasn’t trying to hear them. She was hoping to see Luna, but no matter what, this was going to be a great night!
Suddenly she was back in her subconscious, the knife still clutched in her hoof. She let go of it, backing away from the wall.
What was that? I was right back at the Gala. The sights, the sounds, even the emotions. Scootaloo’s face broke into a smile. “That, was, awesome!” She shouted as her tiny wings buzzed in excitement.
“I wonder if the others do the same thing?” She glanced across the wall for a portrait to try it out on, but her smile faded when she saw Moonlight’s among them. Yet again, Moonlight’s angry words pounded in her head, as well as her own.
“Moonlight said that Celestia wronged me just as much as her. It was easy to agree with her in the heat of the moment, but now... I’m not sure anymore.”
Scootaloo sat down and stared at Celestia’s picture before looking back to Moonlight’s. She began to drift back to her days in the Canterlot orphanage, but she grunted harshly and stopped herself. “Somepony somewhere definitely screwed up with the Canterlot orphanage, but it’s not her fault. She doesn’t handle every single thing in Equestria.”
She began to pick at the floor while her thoughts continued. “I’m sure it wasn’t just Celestia’s decision that Ponyville was too small for an orphanage, but either way, I still had to sleep on a hard floor every night.”
Getting bored with the floor she stood up and stretched her wings and legs. There’s nothing really bad that I can think of about her. She paused, remembering how Moonlight came to be, and just how old her grudge with Celestia was.
A sense of dread slowly crept into her, making her feel cold on the inside. “Then again, when they fought before, she banished her for a thousand years. What’ll she do to me?!”
She began to think of what exactly could happen, but nothing was positive, and each new train of thought was worse than the last. “If she’d banish her sister, what’ll she do to me?! Maybe she’ll banish me to the moon, or turn me to stone, or turn me to stone and then banish me!”
Her legs felt weak and she didn’t so much sit as she fell to the ground, feeling tears prick at the corners of her eyes. “I only just met Moonlight, and I’m already in a corner. Even if I commit myself to whatever plan she has, she could still lose, and even if I don’t and she loses, I won’t be able to just hide anymore.”
A new problem began to weigh on her mind, bearing down on her. “Forget not having parents, I took a deal with Luna’s evil half. But, what was I supposed to do? It was either take her deal or die, and she would’ve just found somepony else. Anypony would’ve done the same thing I did. Right…?”
Her tears threatened to spill over her cheeks, but she fought to suppress them, wiping them away. “Come on, I’m better than this. Rainbow Dash wouldn’t cry in the face of uncertainty, so I won’t either.”
The urge to cry suddenly vanished and a small smile finally appeared. She scanned the wall, seeing the picture of Rainbow Dash. “I’m sure she’ll understand. After all, she took me under her wing that night. And it’s not like with Celestia and Luna, my big sister is the Element of Loyalty. If anypony will stand by me no matter what, it’s her.”
Feeling a little bit better about what might happen, she looked back at Moonlight and Celestia’s frames one final time, thinking long and hard about what could happen. “If Moonlight wins, only Celestia has to get hurt, and if she loses, Rainbow Dash won’t let anything bad happen to me. And if everything goes the way I hope it does, soon I’ll be flying alongside her.”
Scootaloo wasn’t sure if she believed herself, but it was the best explanation she had to put her mind at ease.
Moonlight pushed open the door at the bottom of the stairs, and what she saw made her practically giddy with excitement all over again. The chamber was about the size of one of the royal bedrooms in Canterlot, but not an inch of space had been wasted.
Weapons hung from racks in the center of the room. Sets of armor were set up along the walls alongside chests that she could only guess the contents of, and saddlebags hung from hooks on the walls.
It’s like Hearth’s Warming came early this year. Moonlight took the scroll out from under her wing, reading it again.
Even if every cache is only as big as this one, I’ll still be able to equip a large force. However, everything here is useless to me without somepony to wield it.
Remembering Silver Fang’s words, her excitement grew. And thanks to him, I know exactly where to find said force. So many ponies have told me to go to Tartarus in the past, and it seems that their wish will finally come true. Just not the way they imagined it.