Tempest marched through the town an angry scowl on her face, Grubber followed behind her but kept his distance.
“Sooo...what do we do now? That stallion wouldn’t say anything…” he asked. Tempest didn’t answer instead she continued to march towards the center of the town where all the soldiers were gathering every pony into the town hall.
“Some pony knows what she was doing here, or saw where she was at...I’m going to get answers one way or another.” Tempest growled.
Twilight and her friends had been traveling for a long time now, it took more than a day to travel by hoof but finally they were getting closer to their destination. Twilight looked at the atlas floating in front of her and then up at the rock formation ahead of her.
“I think this is it, this is the entrance to the valley of the Crescent Moon. The Children of the Night should be somewhere in here.” Twilight said with a smile. She put the atlas back in her saddlebag and walked ahead some more, Sweetie Belle paused and looked back a little worried before following.
“You think every ponies okay? Not just Canterlot, but Ponyville too?” she asked. Fluttershy stopped and gently pat Sweetie on the head,
“Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll be fine. Once we get help we'll go back and get every one.” Fluttershy reassured her.
Pinkie hopped over beside the two and added, “Yeah! Twilight knows what she’s doing! There’s no way we’ll lose!” Sweetie smiled at hearing the two older mares confidence. The group finally entered the valley, it was dark and dimly lit, the only real light coming from the gap of the valley overhead. The wind blowing made an eerie sound, the occasional bit of dirt and rock making more noise.
“Sure is scary, are we sure that they’re in here?” Fluttershy said nervously. Gabby put one of her arms around the little pegasus with a smile,
“It’ll be fine, if things get too bad we’ll just fly everyone up to the top and get out. Right Twilight?” Gabby asked. Twilight looked back and nodded with a smile,
“Let’s see what we can find further in, I don’t think there’s any pony near the entrance.” she said. The group walked through the valley close together, the valley getting darker the deeper they went in.
“Wait! What was that?” Trixie suddenly asked, they all stopped and looked back at her puzzled.
“I didn’t hear anything.” Applejack answered, the group stood and looked around nervously. Then the sound of a small rock falling from above caught their attention,
“That! Something’s moving around and its not us.” Trixie shouted. Every pony grouped together and looked around the valley frantically for anything moving.
“There!” Sweetie shouted pointing above them, they all looked and saw a silhouette of something leap across the top of the valley, it leapt across again going the opposite direction a few small rocks falling down as it did. Twilight put up a shield blocking the rocks from falling on them and once it was safe she shouted to everyone.
“Run! Before it brings the valley down on us!” Twilight kept the barrier up until all her friends were ahead of her and then ran after them, the creature above leaping back and forth above the valley. Trixie led the way as they came to the end of the valley, the side crumbled into a climbable slope. Trixie stopped and ushered Sweetie and Fluttershy up ahead of her before following, Applejack and Pinkie following behind them, and lastly Gabby took flight and grabbed Twilight carrying her up to the top of the valley just as the others reached it.
Gabby set Twilight down and she walked over to everyone else,
“Are all of you ok?” she asked. They all smiled and nodded, happy to have made it out safely.
“What was that?” Pinkie asked looking back down at the valley floor, before Twilight could look or answer something leapt up out of the valley and into the sky, the sun behind it. Pinkie, Sweetie, and Fluttershy all hugged one another and let out a panicked scream together. The creature suddenly darted past all of them and landed leaping from rock to rock before landing and facing them. Twilight was in awe to see it was just another pony though, she slowly stood upright and spread her wings giving them a good view of her. She was a gray mare with a dark pink mane that had a dark purple highlight, fuzzy pointed ears, small fangs sticking out of her mouth, and lastly a large pair of leathery bat wings. The whole group gasped in awe,
“A...a bat pony? I didn’t know they were real…” Twilight. The pony's expression suddenly turned to one of shock at Twilight and her friends.
“No way! Other ponies?! Here, in the valley? This has never happened before!” she said with glee. She hopped down from her perch and trot right up to Twilight playfully grabbing her face with her hooves to inspect her.
“I can’t believe it! Look at you, a horn, feathered wings, no fangs, and your ears are so small and cute!” she said. Trixie immediately trot over and pushed the mare back from Twilight though.
“Hey, give her some space! You crowding Twilight!” she snapped. The bat pony looked surprised but then quickly apologized,
“Oh sorry, its just we’ve never had any pony come out here before. I got little over excited. So what are you doing here? Can we talk? Can I help? Can we hangout? Oh, I’m Lullaby Moonlight by the way. Nice to meet you!” she said as she stood up excited again dancing in place eager to talk more. Every pony relaxed when they saw how friendly she was, Twilight smiled and walked up to Lullaby.
“Hi Lullaby, I’m Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends. Trixie, Sweetie Belle, Gabby, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. We came out here looking for someone, do you know where we could find the “Children of the Night?”” she asked. Lullaby’s face lit up with a smile that rivaled Pinkie as she held her face with her hooves.
“Of course I do! That’s us!!! We’re the Children of the Night!” she cheered, “Come on, I’ll show you the garden where we all live! You’re gonna love it!”
Lullaby led them through a small path in the valley leading them into a path overgrown with vegetation, flowers and fresh berries growing everywhere. Twilight and the others were awe struck, but Twilight came to a stop when she saw a mural painted on the wall. Lullaby looked back and saw Twilight looking and walked up to her,
“Pretty isn’t it? That’s the story of how we all got here! Wanna hear it?” She asked excitedly clapping her front hooves together, Twilight naturally nodded curious about the bat ponies. Lullaby pointed to the left most image of the mural where shadowy drawn bat ponies were at,
“Long ago, we bat ponies were mean and scary! We were mean to all the other tribes and scared them off, no one came to see us ever.” Lullaby explained, she pointed to the next part of the mural showing an Abyssian woman sending the bat ponies onto an earth pony village.
“Then the witch came, an old Abyssian witch who used her magic to control us. She sent us out to bring ponies from all the other tribes back to use in her magics to keep herself young.” Lullaby pointed to the center picture which showed six ponies defeating the witch, Twilight recognized one of them as Starswirl the bearded.
“Then the heroes came and battled the witch, defeating her and setting us all free!” She moved on to the next picture which showed all the bat ponies huddled together the other tribes casting them out.
“But every pony was scared of us after the witch was gone, we weren’t being controlled anymore but we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. So we went and hid away from them all.” Twilight noticed the last image had a few vines and branches covering it up, but she used her magic to move it away and she gasped at what she saw.
“Then one night, SHE came. Our beloved mother, the Mare of the moon, and she taught us so much. She showed us that we could be just as much of a part of pony society as every pony else. And promised to one day welcome us to Canterlot the great city where she lived.” Lullaby explained. The final picture of the mural being a gorgeous image of Luna clad in a black dress decorated with a Crescent moon insignia and stars. Luna was standing so proud and elegant in the image, the bat ponies in the picture kneeling and praising her. Lullaby sat next to Twilight a big smile on her face, Twilight looked at her a little puzzled though.
“Um, if the Mare of the Moon said she’d welcome you all to Canterlot...why are you still here? Why not there too?” Twilight asked. Lullaby’s smile faded a bit,
“Oh...um, no pony really knows why. All the stories and elders in the garden say she used to come all the time. But one day, she just...stopped. We never saw her again, but, some of us still think she’ll come back, maybe one day. I know she will.” Lullaby explained. Twilight and the others at silently, thinking about Lullaby’s story Twilight had an idea of what might have happened. Luna must have become Nightmare Moon before returning, that was so long ago and they’ve all been here waiting for her she thought. Lullaby stood up and got her smile back quick though,
“But you’re not here for this, right? You’re here to meet all of us aren’t you? Come on, its just his way!” she said before standing up and trotting ahead while humming a cheerful tune.
Trixie walked up beside Twilight and whispered quietly to her, “Do we...tell her? Tell her why Princess Luna never came back?”
Twilight shook her head, “No, not just yet at least. Let’s go meet all of them and get them to help first. Once it’s all over Luna herself can talk to them I think that’d be best.” Twilight whispered back. The group followed Lullaby into the cave, the entrance was a little dark but as they got deeper in a few mushrooms that naturally glowed in the dark provided the ideal lighting. Then finally they came to a massive underground cavern, where a large village filled with all sorts of plants, trees, and glowing mushrooms could be seen. They all stood in awe at the sight of all the bat ponies going about their day, Lullaby then turned and held up her hoof smiling and announced.
“Welcome to the Garden of Shadows, the home of the bat ponies!”