Establishing Luna's Royal Guard

by Zeck

Forming A Place

Shadow Echo was struggling to hold on to the bag of food she had managed to gather as she sped through the night, but it was becoming painfully obvious that she had to let it go if she had any chance at escape. She pulled into a steep climb into the clouds, hoping that the trick would work on her fifth try and that she would be able to hang on to her food.

As the water from the clouds whipped against her charcoal colored coat, she turned her head to look back. Her eyes cut through the darkness with ease, and the trail she had left in the clouds allowed her to see directly behind herself. For a brief moment she saw nothing and started to relax, but then she saw the shadow flash behind her again.

Blast it! What is this thing? She rolled onto her back and twisted in midflight, shooting off in a new direction with a turn that no pegasus should have been able to match, and yet this pony followed the maneuver with ease. Whoever it was, they were good, and that was cause for alarm.

No pony was supposed to be able to keep up with a batpony’s maneuverability in the air. Especially at night. The night belonged to Shadow Echo and her kind. It had for over a hundred years, and in all that time not a single pegasus had been able catch a bat pony. True, pegasi tended to be faster all around, but their wings did not allow them to make the same type of sharp turns and tight rolls that a batpony could do. All a batpony had to do was find some cloud cover, or a forest, and they simply vanished from sight.

Yet somehow this creature was keeping pace with Shadow Echo flawlessly. Was this some new breed of pony? Was it even a pony? Shadow Echo had tried to get a good look at whatever it was that was following her, and while it had four legs like a pony and wings like a pegasus, it was larger than any pony she had ever seen. She hadn’t been able to get a clear look at it, even with her night vision, because the creature seemed to be cloaked in darkness itself.

Not that she had seen very many ponies up close in her lifetime. She, like many of her kind, preferred to stay far away from the other three races.

Shadow Echo bit her lip in frustration, her fangs scraping against her face as she tried to think of a solution. Fine! If this thing wanted her food, it could have it. She could always go and collect more later in the night, after she ditched this creature. She turned around and yanked off her saddlebag with her teeth, then flung it at her pursuer.

“Take it and leave me alone!” she shouted even as her stomach growled as she watched her dinner sail away. It had taken her over two hours to collect all that fruit, hay, and wheat for bread, and it nearly killed her to watch it start to tumble away.

Except that it didn’t tumble away.

Shadow Echo’s yellow eyes went wide as her saddlebag began to spill open, but then froze in midair. A blue glow surrounded the bag and held it and its contents firmly in place.

Magic? This thing could fly and use magic? Shadow Echo’s heart threatened to choke the life out of her as it jumped into her throat. That didn’t make any sense! There was nothing in Equestria that could fly and use magic except Princess Celestia, and her blinding white coat would certainly stand out in the night sky. There was no pony else who could use both except—

Except him.

Shadow Echo’s blood ran cold. She couldn’t lead him back to her village. She had to lead him far away. As far as she could possibly fly, and then hope she could somehow lose him. If not, then…

She wouldn’t tell him anything, no matter what he did to her. She would kill herself before that happened.

“Halt!” a voice suddenly boomed, no doubt belonging to the creature. It seemed to echo off the very clouds that now surrounded Shadow Echo and threatened to tear the night open with its power. Lightning flashed through the clouds, some of the bolts so close that they nearly blinded her and threatened to singe her fur.

Shadow Echo folded her wings as tight as she could against her body, covering the shadow silhouette of a pony that was her cutie mark, and dove toward the ground. She went so fast that she was no longer certain if she was diving or simply falling. She plunged out of the clouds with such speed that she felt several still clinging to her body and one managed to even stick in her mouth. She spit it out and watched as the ground rushed up to meet her, threatening to welcome her in a deadly embrace.

At the last second she flared her wings and pulled out of the dive. She felt the shockwave of the air push back against her as it hit the ground and filled her wings. She flapped them once just at the right moment and took off like an arrow let loose from a bow. She was only a hair’s breadth above the ground and she knew that one small error in her judgment and she would slam into the earth at a speed that would likely cripple her, if not kill her outright.

But her eyes did not fail her. Every stump, every rock, every slight bump in the soil was crystal clear to her in the night as she raced across the ground, dodging objects with ease and precision. Smiling to herself because of her skill, she looked over her shoulder to see if her pursuer was still behind her. She looked up first and saw nothing but the dark sky and the clouds that blotted out the stars and moon. Relief began to flood her body as she turned to look ahead again. She had done it. There was no way he would be able to catch up to her now.

“We command thee to halt!” the voice boomed again. Shadow Echo jumped and whipped her head around, this time looking directly behind herself. It wasn’t possible, and yet her eyes were showing it to her. Her pursuer was skimming along the ground just as she was with little effort.

Baffled and horrified, Shadow Echo continued to look back longer than she meant to. Her wing barely clipped the top of a rock, but it was enough to make her lose control. She began to stagger out of her form and her mind began to race as she realized she was moments away from serious injury or death.

As Shadow Echo began to tumble into an uncontrollable spin, she closed her eyes and waited for the instant when her body would smash against the ground and smear her across its surface. She hoped it would be over instantly and that she wouldn’t feel any pain.

I also won’t have to worry about leading him back to the village, she thought bitterly.

As the thought completed itself, another thought took its place in her mind. She wasn’t dead. She wasn’t even injured. She felt no pain beyond the pounding in her chest as her heart race and forced her blood to flow too fast through her veins. How was that possible?

Carefully, she opened one eye and found herself staring at the sky, but it was no longer moving at a blinding pace. In fact, it wasn’t moving at all. No, wait. She wasn’t moving.

Shadow Echo looked down at her body. She held her hooves up before her eyes and then turned to look at the wings on her back. Everything was in its right place, but she was completely surrounded in a glowing blue light that was suspending her in the air. Was she dead? Was this what death felt like? If so, it didn’t seem too much different from life. Still, there was something off about the blue light around her…

As she stared, Shadow Echo suddenly realized that she recognized the blue aura. It was the same aura that had captured her saddlebag. But then that meant—!

She looked around until her eyes fell on the form of her pursuer. He was on the ground now, slowly walking toward her. She struggled against the magic that enveloped her, twisting and kicking against the invisible prison that held her. She had to break free. She couldn’t allow him to take her prisoner. The things he would do to her would be beyond imagining, and she knew that she’d be powerless to stop him. She had to escape.

“Let me go!” she shouted, and was stunned when she found herself flat on her back as the magic surrounding her disappeared. For a second she stared at the sky, trying to comprehend why he had let her go. It was probably just some dumb game he was playing, giving her a false sense of hope. He probably thought she was going to run in another effort to escape, but Shadow Echo knew that was useless now. Running wasn’t going to work, but she doubted he expected her to do what she planned instead.

Taking half a second to collect herself, Shadow Echo then sprang up and flew toward her pursuer. She bore her fangs and hissed, a display that usually sent other creatures skittering away in terror. Her pursuer did not flee however, but instead continued to stand where he was. Fine. If he was dumb enough to let her get close, she was going to make him regret it.

Shadow Echo lunged at him from the air, trying to tackle him to the ground so she could sink her fangs into his neck. She didn’t like the taste of blood, but she knew that sometimes her fangs had to be used for things other than peeling skin off of fruits.

Her opponent simply stepped aside and Shadow Echo flew past him. She landed on the ground in a skid and spun around, then charged again, this time throwing a punch with her front hoof at her attacker’s face. He ducked the blow with ease and once again Shadow Echo flew over him. She tried two more times before she landed a bit away from him, huffing for breath and glaring at him.

“I…I don’t…know what game you…you’re playing,” she heaved, “but…I’m not…telling you anything. You’ll…you’ll have to…to kill me…before I talk.” She look to the air and charged her opponent again, but this time she came to a screeching halt as she was once again in enveloped in a magical aura. She struggled for a moment, but it was obvious she wasn’t going to be able to break free. She hung in the air, glaring at the figure before her. As she stared, she noticed that he had a cloak and a hood over his head. Why was he wearing a hood? He’d already made it obvious who he was.

“Well?” she asked. “What are you waiting for? Come on, do it! Change me into some sort of monster. Pull my wings off. Kill me!” She felt tears stream down her face as her heart was swallowed by despair. “DO IT!”

“Why would we do such a terrible thing to thee?” the figure asked, tilting his head to the side.

“Because it’s what you do, monster!” Shadow Echo shouted back through her tears. “We exist because of your twisted sense of enjoyment, but no more! I refuse to tell you anything!”

That seemed to strike a nerve. Two white lights appeared in the shadow of hooded face and Shadow Echo felt the wind begin to whip around her. She looked up at the sky and watched the clouds begin to swirl into a maelstrom and white veins of lightning flashed through them.

The magic around her began to squeeze her tighter and she felt her fur growing warmer. This was it. He was going to crush her like a grape.

“How DARE thou speakest to us so!” the figure shouted in a voice that nearly deafened Shadow Echo. She could feel the air from the words slamming against her face even as the wind from the storm beat her fur. “Thou accuses us of being a monster! The nerve thou doth posses. Doth thou not know who stands before thee?”

“Cut the act,” Shadow Echo said, her fear and despair giving way to anger. She wasn’t going to let him get away with pretending to be someone else. “I know it’s you, Discord. There’s—ooaf!”

Shadow Echo suddenly found herself on the ground, the magic holding her gone along with the terrible storm that had been raging just moments before. The night had gone back to its peaceful stillness and she was still alive. Carefully, she raised her head to look at Discord.

“What? Nay. We are not that foul creature,” the hooded figure said in a voice that Shadow Echo thought sounded genuinely surprised and horrified. He reached up with one hoof and pulled his hood down. A cascade of literally flowing night sky sprung from the back of the imposter pony’s head and the two white lights dimmed to reveal two striking teal eyes. “We are thy Princess of the Night. Princess Luna.”

“Yeah right,” Shadow Echo said, picking herself up and glaring at Discord. “Nice try, but there’s only one princess. And her name isn’t Luna.”

“But we speak true!” Discord shouted as he stomped his hoof. “We are who we claim to be! How else would we be a pony?”

“Discord can change his appearance,” Shadow Echo said coldly as she glared at this so-called Luna. This pony, if that’s what she really was, didn’t seem to be the cruel, tormenting monster that her grandmother spoke of, but that didn’t mean that Luna was who she was either. Shadow Echo had never heard of a Princess of the Night.

Still, here hair was doing that weird…flowing thing, like Princess Celestia’s.

“Very well, we shall prove our innocence” Luna said calmly, standing up a bit straighter and tapping her chest. “Can Discord command the winds and lightning as we have just demonstrated?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Shadow Echo said. “Discord can bend the very fabric of reality. I’m sure whipping up a maelstrom like that is something he can do with a snap of his talons.”

“But we…” Luna took a step forward, stretching her hoof out toward Shadow Echo. Shadow Echo immediately took a step back and winced, waiting for a blast of magic to turn her into…whatever. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Luna had stopped moving toward her and a look of…was that pain on her face? Sadness maybe?

The expression vanished in a flash, replaced by the confident look she had been wearing before. “Can Discord fly and wield magic?” she asked confidently. “There are but two ponies who posses both abilities, and we are one of them.”

“No,” Shadow Echo said coolly, “there’s one pony who posses those abilities as far as I know. And you are not the one I’m familiar with.” Granted, Shadow Echo wasn’t exactly familiar with Princess Celestia either, but she had at least heard of her on the rare occasions when she had been able to get close to other ponies.

The look that crossed Luna’s face first appeared to be nothing but anger and jealousy, but as Shadow Echo continued to stare she saw the same sadness and hurt buried under the rage. It flashed in Luna’s eyes and softened her face for a brief moment before vanishing again. Shadow Echo was certain that the only reason she had seen it was because she saw it nearly every time she looked in a mirror after trying to speak with other pony tribes.

“Can Discord control the moon?” Luna demanded, stomping one of her front hooves on the ground and raising her other to point toward the glowing white light in the sky. “No! Only our sister and we can command the heavenly bodies to rise and fall with each passing day.”

“Prove it,” Shadow Echo said.

Luna froze for a moment, then looked at the ground. “We…we cannot.”

“How convenient,” Shadow Echo said with a smirk.

“No! It is not that we lack the power to do so, but that we cannot move the moon before its proper time, less the entire day be ruined,” Luna protested.

“Fine,” Shadown Echo said. “If you are who you say you are, and I don’t believe that, then I’m going to turn around and leave. Don’t try to follow me or stop me.”

“No!” Luna shouted and Shadow Echo jumped at the volume of her voice. She would have left right then. She no longer believed the pony standing before her was Discord in disguise—after all, the stories said that he had been defeated many years ago and none of the information the batponies had heard indicated that he was still around—but that didn’t mean she believed this Luna to be who she claimed to be. She would have ignored the shout and flown away without looking back if it hadn’t been for two things.

The first was that the shout hadn’t been an order, but a plea. There was a desperation behind the word that Shadow Echo was painfully familiar with. This pony, whoever she was, was so alone that she was begging for companionship.

The other thing that gave Shadow Echo pause were the tears that were threatening to spill from the teal eyes.

“Please, do not leave us,” Luna said, her voice so quiet now that it sounded like a little filly’s. “We…we have never met any other ponies like thee.”

“There’s a reason for that,” Shadow Echo said bitterly. “The other ponies are terrified of us. They see us coming and they panic. Say we’re monsters from the Everfree Forest that have come to suck their blood and eat their manes. Do you have any idea what that’s like, to be hated and feared before you even open your mouth?” Shadow Echo was about to continue, but the look on Luna’s face shocked her into silence.

She did know. The tears streaming down her face showed that she was all too familiar with the feeling Shadow Echo had just described, and the smile she was struggling to hold was that of a pony who was desperately hoping that the feeling of loneliness was about to end.

“Then,” Luna said hopefully as she wiped away her tears, “there are…others than thee?”

Shadow Echo nodded. “There are quite a few of us. We live in the dark places of Equestria. Caves and deep inside the forests. We prefer the darkness those places offer, as well as the cool night. Sunlight hurts our eyes.”

“May…may we meet them?” Luna asked, the look on her face changing to one of a little filly waiting for a birthday present. Her ears were perked up now and her eyes had gone wide.

“No,” Shadow Echo said firmly. “Our laws forbid us from bringing any outsiders back to our village. We don’t want an angry mob to burn our home down.”

Luna looked as though she had just had her heart ripped out and Shadow Echo felt horrible for making her feel that way. She nearly changed her mind, but she forced herself to remember why her kind had such a rule: they were feared throughout Equestria, and ponies did crazy and terrible things when they were afraid of something. This was for her own protection, and her village’s.

“Very well,” Luna said, hanging her head and digging her hoof into the ground. “Thou…best be on thy way. Here. Thou dropped this.” Luna floated Shadow Echo’s saddlebag up into the air and gently placed it on the batpony’s back. Without another word, she turned and spread her wings.

“Wait,” Shadow Echo said. Luna turned to look at her over her shoulder. “Why were you chasing me?”

“It is our duty to guard our night,” Luna said. “We had heard whispers of flying monsters roaming the skies in the darkest hours, so we decided to investigate. It is…rare for any creature to be active at such a late hour. Our curiosity got the better of us. We had…hoped that we had found a creature that appreciates our work.”

Is she doing this on purpose? Shadow Echo thought even as the next words left her mouth. “Well, I appreciate it. All of my kind does. Night is really the only time we came come out in the open and stretch our wings.”

“We are glad to hear that,” Luna said without turning around completely. “Farewell.” She flapped her wings once and took to the sky. Shadow Echo watched her go for a few moments, then stomped her hoof on the ground in frustration.

“Wait. Again.” She took to the sky and flew up to where Luna was waiting for her. She hovered in front of her and studied the so-called princess’ face. She didn’t seem evil. She seemed lonely, just like Shadow Echo and her tribe were. And if she was who she claimed to be, then it couldn’t hurt having a princess as a friend to the batponies.

Hoping she wasn’t making the biggest mistake of her life, Shadow Echo held out her hoof. “I’m Shadow Echo. Would you like to come to my home?”

Luna’s eyes shot open as she stared at the offered hoof. After a moment, she eagerly shook it with both front hooves. “Yes, please, dear Shadow Echo!”

“Very well, Your Majesty,” Shadow Echo said. She wondered why she had addressed Luna as Your Majesty as she pulled her hoof away and gently massaged it. Not only did Luna posses pegasus wings and unicorn magic, but she clearly had an earth pony’s strength. She turned and headed toward her home. “I’m trusting you. I hope I’m not making a mistake.”

“We shall be on our best behavior,” Luna said with glee. “May we ask where thou art taking us?”

Shadow Echo debated whether she should tell Luna their destination, but if she was already taking Luna there, she saw no harm in telling her where they were going. “My home is just past the Fowl Mountain, deep in the forest on the eastern side. It’s a small village called Hollow Shades.”

“Fascinating!” Luna said as she flew next to Shadow Echo. “We have never heard of this place.”

“Well, I’ve never heard of you,” Shadow Echo said with a smile. She looked over and saw that Luna had lost some of her cheer at that. “But, that probably our fault,” the batpony said quickly, trying to keep Luna’s spirits up. “We…don’t really socialize with other ponies. That’s made our information on the outside world a little…incomplete. Perhaps you could fill me in while we fly?”

Luna’s childish smile returned instantly. “We would be more than willing to regale thee with tales of our adventures as well as the happenings of Equestria. Tell me, how familiar are you with our history.”

“Um…” Shadow Echo blushed and was grateful that it was dark outside. “We…don’t really know much since Discord was defeated. He created the first of my kind and we’ve been in hiding ever since.”

“But, our sister and us defeated Discord decades ago,” Luna said in a baffled voice. “His magic should have failed the moment he was cast down.”

“It did,” Shadow Echo said. “My grandparents woke up one evening to find that they were a pegasus and earth pony again. But magic didn’t make my parents. Or me.” She blushed and stopped before she began explaining something that a princess no doubt knew about.

“Ah,” Luna said and she flew in silence for a few moments. “Well, we are certain our sister and us could find a way to change thee back to a normal pony, if thou so wished.”

“I am normal,” Shadow Echo said with a smile. She had grown up as a batpony, and being anything else was unfathomable to her. She turned and smiled even wider at Luna, making sure her fangs gleamed in the moonlight. “Besides, I like having these. Makes eating fruit a lot easier. And there’s not a single pegasus that can keep up with a batpony in terms of tricks.”

Luna smiled and narrowed her eyes. “We kept up with thou.”

“You don’t count,” Shadow Echo said. “You’re special.”

“We thank thee for such a kind remark,” Luna said with a genuine smile. “If it matters, we did not find it easy to keep up with thee.”

“High praise, coming from a Princess,” Shadow Echo said. She and Luna both chuckled slightly as they continued to fly through the night.

Author's Note:

And...here it is. First of three short chapters for my batpony story for the EQD write off. I'm still not sure if it's batpony or bat pony. I mean, we don't say earthpony, unicornpony, and pegasuspony, so why would it be batpony? Then again, that's what everypony calls them, so I guess that's what they are? I don't know. Anyway, hope you liked it.

A note on the timeline: Discord, in my mind, ran rampant in Equestria for over a hundred years. Celestia and Luna didn't manage to defeat him until about fifty years before this story's start. That's why there are second and third generation batponies now.

Some of you may recognize the name Shadow Echo from my other story, 'Luna's Adventure,' and if you recognize her, you probably already know what's going to happen next and who will be showing up in the last chapter. If you don't, you can either go read that story, or wait two more days when chapter three comes out. Feel free to leave a comment. :-)

Comments

[Juntao112]

Lately, the fandom has taken to calling bat ponies thestrals.

[Chaotic Note]

3410543
It seems kinda fitting though, right?
I mean they're similar to the bat ponies.

[Zeck]

3410543

Yep. Personally I don't understand. I only have this story for the Halloween--er, I mean, Nightmare Night contest they have going on at EQD. I think they're cool, but I fear they may soon suffer overexposure and ponies will grow tired of them. Still, I've seen some pretty niffy art of some bat ponies. You think they'll ever get a bigger part in the show?

[ForceUser]

I liked the story, well written but it's a bit difficult to read without white space between chapters.

[Zeck]

3410941
I take it you mean 'paragraphs' and not 'chapters' right? Would it be better if I double-spaced it then? Is there a format for that on here besides just hitting enter?

Glad you liked the story so far though.

[ForceUser]

3411652

haha yea paragraphs :)

Eh some people prefer it this way others just like a normal whitespace (enter) line between each paragraph, even if the paragraph is a single line.