Soldier of the Night

by Skyfire Storm

36. Portrait of a Lunar Guard (Part III)

An overbearing, uncomfortable and frankly unsettling silence loomed in the air as the group of Guards stood there as motionless as they all possibly could, staring at the i-beam overhead in obvious uncertainty and unease. Fixing their collective gaze towards the exact spot on the beam where they caught their first glimpses of what Ward was so vehemently afraid of spotting in the first place, an intense feeling of dread surged through their veins and down their spines as their eyes suddenly locked with those of the intruder watching them from above. That fiery, nightmarish pair of glowing yellow eyes watching them closely from the darkness remained there in the shadows just out of the light of the flashlights focusing in that direction, seemingly observing even the slightest move each individual Guard made from its vantage point overlooking much of the warehouse. At that point, the amount of moonlight seeping in through the skylight began to incrementally lessen, which caused the partially visible silhouette of the bat pony to fade back into the shadows so that the only thing which remained visible was the eerie, ethereal glow of the pony's slit-like pupils. To say that Storm was frightened would be an understatement; his heart rate having long jumped into overdrive, Storm's lungs expanded and contracted within his ribcage with each heavy, yet rapid breath he took as his gaze seemingly became glued to the bat pony perched there, watching them constantly, its gaze seemingly staring into their very souls. Though he tried to break eye contact and turn away, he ultimately couldn't. He was frozen in fear, as were a few of the other Guards, including Ward, who as seen from the corner of his eye exhibited a similar response to Storm.

As his immense fear persisted, within the confines of Storm's mind raced a million questions all to do with the bizarre intruder watching them and all of them having countless possible answers as to who this strange pony may be. Storm already had some ideas based on what he'd heard from Ward, his intuition telling him that this pony probably made its nest in the warehouse and was disturbed by the presence of law enforcement in its 'home' of sorts. However, in the end, he couldn't be entirely sure and ultimately, this did nothing to ease his fear. Gaze focused onto the beam, Storm remained on the edge, as did a few other Guards present, some of whom tried to ease their fears and attempt some form of communication with the stranger watching them from above.

"Who...are you?" one determined Guard shone a flashlight in the bat pony's direction, trying his hardest to get a glimpse of the pony watching them, but the pony would not respond, which unsettled the poor stallion greatly. "Who are you?!" he tried again, this time raising his voice by several decibels while flailing his flashlight wildly in that very direction.

No response.

His attempt at communication with the bat pony being ultimately futile, the Guard turned towards Ward, confirming his failure with a gentle shrug of his shoulders, a failure which seemed inevitable from the start. Storm's heart dropped to the ground as his hopes of successfully making contact with the intruder seemed to slim with each attempt at communication.

A moment of silence later, and one Guard spoke up.

"We're not here to hurt you," the Guard focused his flashlight onto the beam. "We're just looking for any...drug dealers. Can you help us? Please, whoever you are, show yourself."

Again, no response.

"Please, tell us," another Guard inquired, raising his gaze at the beam overhead. "Who are you? Show yourself or we will be forced to shoot."

Still, there wasn't any semblance of a response, which was something that made Storm and Ward's collective fears increase.

"Ward?" the purple Guard asked, gaining both the attention of Storm and Ward.

"Y...yeah?" the stallion replied, body tensing up slightly as he turned towards the Guard.

"This isn't working," the Guard sighed in defeat, dropping his hooves to the ground in frustration before pulling his gun out of his holster. "You seem to be the expert around here on whatever it is we're facing. Tell us what to do."

"Oh no. Believe me, I'm not." Ward chuckled in response, albeit in a self-deprecating manner in an attempt to desperately loosen up, eyes locked to the gun as the Guard raised it towards the beam above. "I'm not even close to being one."

"But you have had experiences with...bat ponies before, right?" another Guard asked.

"I have...and to this day I still remember."

"Well then, think of something, damn it!" the purple unicorn raised and dropped his front hooves in frustration and anger.

"Call Border Patrol," Ward narrowed his eyes onto the rather indignant Guard, his body tensing up further with every word he spoke, something which was picked up by Storm standing mere feet away. Something told Storm that the purple unicorn was a rookie Guard, far less experienced at his job than Ward was. "Tell them we've got bogies here. That's the best you can do right now."

"Wait, wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Border Patrol? let's not jump to conclusions. How can you be so sure these are in fact bat ponies, Ward?" the purple unicorn's eyes locked with his, the tension within the group increasing as his voice elevated. "This is a pretty crime-ridden area of town; for all we know, these ponies could merely be hoodlums making their hideout here, in which case we would need to strike fast and strike hard. The fact that the feds are right outside says as much to me.”

"You really think hoodlums have glowing yellow eyes?" Ward scoffed. "You really think that, Dusk?"

"No, I don't," the purple unicorn, his name being Dusk, shook his head. "What I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't automatically jump to conclusions and assume the unlikely."

"Exactly." another Guard nodded, his helmet gleaming in the light of the flashlights.

"Yeah. What makes you think that your hunch is correct?" a Guard inquired. "We haven't had reports of bat ponies in weeks."

"Wait," a light-green Pegasus Guard interjected. "Maybe Ward's right."

"How do you figure, Spark?" Dusk turned towards the short, plump stallion to his left, the group raising his eyebrows at him.

"Well," he began, trying to come up with a reasonable answer. "I used to live in this part of town as a kid, right? My dad was a Lunar Guard himself, and not a day went by without him hearing over the radio about some bat pony infestation in Silverwood Industrial. Most of them were false alarms, and the Guard eventually caught on, but they kept occurring on a regular basis throughout my teenage years in the 80s which piqued my interest. Eventually when I joined up just before the Griffon War started the reports calmed down for a while."

"And?"

"One night in '96, I don't remember exactly when it was, but we were out on a patrol, right?" Spark asked, taking a look around just to make sure nopony was watching or listening in. "And basically, we went into a warehouse in this exact same part of town, not unlike this one, after we received reports of bats in the vicinity."

"What happened then?" Ward inquired, his curiosity getting the better of him as his fears of the pony overlooking them subsided slightly.

"So, we went in, right?" Spark shivered slightly, taking another look around as a slight chill traveled down his spine. "And when we were inside, after some looking around we eventually found the bats we were looking for. It took us a good few hours to wrestle them into the squad cars, seeing as there were so many of them present, but in the end, we caught the bastards."

"Doubt you'd have caught them, Spark." Ward shook his head, despite being initially intrigued by the story, before cringing slightly. "When we tried to interrogate them ourselves, they escaped."

"Well, these guys didn't seem to resist," Spark responded. "It was almost as if they anticipated it; as if they knew eventual capture and deportation were inevitable."

"So what happened then?" a Guard inquired, somewhat gripped by Spark's story.

"Well, ever since that happened, reports of bat pony activity have been increasing over the years." Spark nodded and stifled a gulp, glancing at the group briefly before turning to look at the i-beam above where the glowing eyes still remained, watching them closely, closer than ever before in fact. "And...guys, I don't think this is either the time or the place to be discussing this. Let's just say, I had my close encounter with a bat as well."

"That's nonsense," Dusk deadpanned. "We're here to scour for dangerous criminals and not make-believe creatures from foals' fairy tales."

"You don't believe me?" Spark frowned.

"Nope," Dusk smirked. "That's a good use of taxpayer money, isn't it? Chasing some imaginary beings around Vanhoover instead of investigating actual, more serious crimes. No wonder this department has received so much flak lately."

"Ward, may I remind you that some of the supposed sightings we've investigated here in Vanhoover turned out to be nothing than false alarms?" one Pegasus Guard present asked, turning to briefly give Dusk a deathly glare. "I mean, I believe both of you guys had your encounters, but honestly, I'm gonna have to agree with Dusk here, as much as I'd hate to."

"I'm fully aware of that," Ward locked eyes with the pony, just as Storm took a quick glance around and up at the pair of eyes---wait, two pairs of eyes. "But something seems fishy in here."

"W...Ward?" Storm gulped, looking around.

"You guys can't be serious right now," Dusk smirked in response. "You really think we're being watched by bat ponies?"

"Easy Dusk," Spark glared at the continuously indignant stallion. "We have more experience as Guards than you'll ever have."

"You're all crazy," Dusk's face scrunched into a glare. "Bat ponies don't exist."

"Ward...?" Storm tapped the stallion's shoulders, eyes switching between the beam overhead and the bickering group in front of him.

"He's only saying that because he's from Wiscoltsin," Spark smirked in the background. "He's never seen a bat in his whole life!"

"Shut up! So what if I'm from Wiscoltsin?" Dusk glared profusely at the stallion next to him, his midwestern accent evident in the tone of his voice. Definitely Wiscoltsin, if not then Minneighsota.

"Ward..." Storm asked, nervousness brewing within as he gazed uncomfortably at the arguing Guards.

"Hey guys, shut up," Ward growled, ignoring Storm's shoulder taps. "In all seriousness, it's kinda clear we're being watched by something at least. I can feel it in my bones."

"How can you be so sure, Ward?" Dusk turned towards him, scrutinizing the stallion closely.

"Isn't it bucking obvious enough?!" Ward raised his voice to a point where Storm had to cover his ears, having had it up to here with Dusk. "Why the hay are you even on this case if you don't want to listen to anypony else but yourself?"

"I'm never listening to you," the hotheaded Guard calmed down momentarily. "You're the craziest of the bunch!"

"How you got past training back in Marewaukee, I guess I'll never know for sure." Spark groaned, his smirk dissipating. Something told Storm that Spark had to deal with Dusk for a while; he assumed they were perhaps from the same precinct. "You're so egotistical and narrow-minded! Keep this going and I'll speak to the captain to have you reassigned to desk duty."

"Ward!" Storm threw a punch at Ward's shoulder, a gentle one at that in an attempt to get his attention.

"What!?" he yelled out of the blue, reeling backward from the punch, Storm's heart skipping a beat at the sudden reaction.

"There's more of them now," Storm turned and looked up at the i-beam overhead, where there were two pairs of eyes watching them now.

"Alright," Ward sighed, pulling out his gun from his holster. "All of you, get your weapons out and stay down. That goes for you too, Storm. We cannot make any noise."

"Roger that."

"Wait."

"What now, Dusk?" Ward angrily shot him a glare.

"You're taking this way too far!" the purple stallion yelled, pulling out his handgun and cocking it. So much for not making a noise.

"What are you doing?" a concerned Guard inquired as he glanced up at Dusk, pupils shrinking as it suddenly dawned upon him exactly what he was planning to do.

"Proving to you that these are not bat ponies!" Dusk growled, before pulling the trigger of the gun, firing a round towards the i-beam as the loud bang spread across the warehouse.

"What the buck do you think you're doing?!" Spark growled under his breath, just as Dusk fired another round. Then another one. Then another one.

A minute or so later, their long-awaited, and dreaded response arrived, but in the form of a low hissing sound that made Storm's heart near enough stop. He looked around, a surge of cold overwhelming him in an instant to a point where his breath could be visible in the light of the flashlights, before quickly glancing upwards at the beam; what he, along with the other Guards saw shocked them beyond belief.

"What did you do?" Ward glared furiously at Dusk, who seemed to back down in fear.

"My job," Dusk stuttered, dropping his gun to the ground in fear.

"What the buck did you do?!"

"I'm sorry---"

There were more pairs of eyes looking down at them now, perhaps ten or fifteen from every corner of their collective field of view, and as the hissing sound built to a crescendo, the Guards soon realized that whatever it was making the noise, bat ponies or not, was angry. Very angry, in fact; perhaps it was awoken by the commotion coming from below. Storm did not know for sure, but at that very moment, for the first time as an adult he felt vulnerable, as did the Guards present. As far as he was concerned, many of them had not dealt with anything remotely like this before; this was on a whole other level for many of them.

"Who is this?" Spark inquired, raising his weapon towards the beam. "Show yourself!"

No response.

"Guards, on my word, open fire," Ward growled, just as the air became filled with the sound of guns cocking.

"Wait!"

"Huh?" Ward turned back towards the front of the warehouse. Much to his surprise and relief, and that of the rest of the Guards, the noise finally piped down and a stallion stood in front of the pillar up ahead, his fluorescent yellow eyes lighting up the darkness; one Guard focused his flashlight in his direction, his form becoming more evident. The stallion looked like a very dark gray Pegasus, but his wings were unlike anything most of them have ever seen before.

"Please," the stallion began in surprisingly fluent English, something which started the Guards present, Ward especially. "We...Our supply of...potions ran out."

"So, you are...bat ponies?" Dusk inquired, raising an eyebrow as he stepped backwards in shock.

"We are, yes." the stallion responded, his crescent shaped eyes contracting as tears ran out of his eyes. "We aren't here to cause any trouble, we just want a better life."

"Call Border Patrol," Ward turned towards Storm, who seemed to be touched by the bat pony's revelation. "Tell them we've found bogies."

"Why?" Storm frowned, watching as Ward took out his phone from his saddlebag. "He seems to be innocent to me, by the looks of it at least."

"Don't you understand, Storm?" Ward raised his gaze towards Storm, a deep, yet somewhat frightened glare forming on his face as he tried to maintain his composure, as he tried his hardest not to break down. "Bat ponies are illegals; they aren't recognized by the government whatsoever as being a legitimate minority group."

"You never told me that."

"But wasn't it obvious enough from what I told you?" he threw his phone over to the stallion, before switching his gaze to the bat pony standing before them, a stallion who didn't seem to back down whatsoever despite knowing who he was dealing with. "No matter what they say to you, you simply cannot trust them. I learned that the hard way. Call Border Patrol, now."

"On it." Storm switched his gaze from the pony standing before them to the cell phone in his hooves, uncertain of it all. Despite being somewhat convinced the bat ponies present were here only for a better life, what Ward had told him unsettled him slightly.

"Please, we're not here to cause any trouble." the pony crouched down on his hind hooves, gazing up at them with tears in his eyes. "We just want a better life."

"Why is there so many of you?" Ward inquired, lowering his gun as he turned away from Storm to his right and up at the beam. The moonlight seeped in from outside again, revealing some of the bat pony silhouettes watching the group. "Is this your family?"

"Well--"

"How many of you is there?" Spark mustered the courage to walk up to the pony, scrutinizing him closely.

"Ten of us; seven adults and three foals," he replied, briefly turning to glance at Storm. "You're not...No."

"I'm sorry, but we're legally required to." Ward shook his head in false shame.

"Border Patrol is on the line, Ward." Storm threw him the phone, turning to look at the bat pony before the group, scrutinizing him closely despite being at a considerable distance from the stallion, in a way amazed that he was seeing a bat for the first time.

"Hello? Yes, this is the Vanhoover Royal Guard. We've intercepted a group of ten bats in one of the warehouses in Silverwood; seven adults and three children....address? Oh yes, the address is..."

"You can't do this to us," the pony suddenly became agitated, something which was immediately picked up by virtually everypony present, including Storm, whose heart near enough skipped a beat or two. "We've only just arrived today!"

"Keep quiet," Spark admonished him, even turning to glance at the gun he had in his holster in an attempt to keep the bat under control, though this surprisingly did very little to calm him down.

"We flew over two hundred miles to get here, through some pretty poor weather, might I add!" the bat pony yelled, raising and swinging his hooves to the ground in anger. "And you expect us to go back? To go back to that forsaken colony where we'd be brutalized relentlessly?! Is that what you want, huh?!"

"I'm sorry, but this is an issue of national security," Spark shook his head, trying to ignore the bat pony's brewing anger before he reached his limit and pulled out his gun. "Also, I told you to keep bucking quiet, didn't I? Do you bucking want me to quiet you myself? Do you?"

"Make me." the bat pony flinched slightly at the sight of the gun, but retained his composure, something which unsettled Spark even more.

"It was never in our intention to harm you in any way from the very beginning, but you're pushing your luck." Spark growled under his breath, cocking his gun but soon drawing it back.

"Your best bet would be not to mess with us," Ward locked eyes with the bat pony, having finished calling border patrol, before pulling out his radio. "We've called up Border Patrol, they'll be here within the next hour. Our main priority right now is to keep you guys contained."

"You didn't!" the pony yelled out, his voice breaking up as he flailed his hooves at Spark, who backed away. "You bastards! How could you?!"

"Dispatch, this is Unit..." Ward spoke into the radio he held in his hooves, watching the bat pony from the corner of his eye. "...send out reinforcement units to secure the perimeter around Lot 37..."

"We flew all this way for nothing!"

"I bucking told you to keep quiet!" Spark yelled, aiming his gun at him just as two other Guards approached the agitated bat pony. "Restrain him, boys."

"Don't you dare approach us," the dusk-gray pony replied, gritting his teeth and shielding his body with his bat-like wings.

"We have to keep you guys in here," Spark groaned in frustration, Ward becoming more anxious as he was forced to watch his comrade attempt to negotiate with the unruly bat pony. "Truth be told, I have better things to do with my time than chase after illegal bat ponies, but don't you understand that we have to keep you contained here? If we didn't, you'd cause a mass panic and all ten of us would most likely be fired from the Royal Guard for not reporting you guys. Do you understand?"

"I do, but---"

"Believe me, as much as I don't want to," Spark sighed, drawing his gun backward as the angry bat calmed down momentarily. "We simply have to deport you and your...brood. See, the folks up here, most of them at least, believe you've all been wiped out during that war we had with your kind. Most of the ponies around here believe your kind to be the stuff of legends; we don't want to stir up panic if anypony aside from a select few individuals finds out you're real."

"We flew all this way for nothing...two hundred miles. And now we have to go back."

"Yes, yes, you do." Spark sighed, motioning for the two Guards to restrain him.

However, just as the two Guards apprehended him by grabbing and holding his hooves in place, the bat pony broke loose and flew back to his friends, to the sound of a cacophonous screech coming from the group of bat ponies, which alerted the Guards behind Spark, Ward especially, who grew confused and dazed, shifting away and crouching down behind a pillar. Storm's heart sank as he recalled what Ward had told him earlier about their supposed 'collective defense mechanism'. If this was, in fact, it, there was nothing really to do now aside from running for cover and staying there until it died down.

"No, no, no..." Ward sighed, his heart racing into overdrive. "Not this again."

"Ward?" Storm raised an eyebrow, heart skipping a beat as he watched the stallion inch backwards from the rest of the group.

"Ward, get back here!" Spark yelled towards the stallion, Storm slinking away towards him knowing exactly what's going on; another panic attack, just as Ward had anticipated. "Hold your fire! Hold your bucking fire!"

"Ward..." Storm knelt down in front of the stallion, who wailed uncontrollably as he sat crouched behind the pillar. All the while, the now-deafening noise increased in volume, causing Storm to cover his ears. "Ward, it'll all he fine. I promise!"

Yet this did nothing to calm him down; instead, he became more riled up by the moment.

"Ward, look at me! Cover your bucking ears!" Storm yelled, panes of glass bursting around them as the noise continued to grow louder and louder, to a point where Storm's ears began to hurt; he was finding it increasingly difficult to stand in place without covering his ears, as were the other Guards present, who briefly managed to open fire before becoming overwhelmed by the noise. Their screams soon joined the cacophony but became drowned out by the increasing volume of the screech.

"COVER YOUR EARS!" Storm clenched his eyes shut.

The stallion finally did as he was told to and covered his ears, but the damage had already been done beforehand. Even with his ears completely covered by his hooves, both himself and Storm could hear ringing inside them, Storm to a much lesser extent. Forcing his eyes open, he focused onto the horde of bat ponies in the distance, trying to calculate their next move as the screech grew louder and louder.

As the glass windows of the warehouse blew outward from the noise, the group suddenly shot up through the skylight above, a rather unexpected move which made Storm's heart, already racing within his chest as adrenaline surged through it, skip a beat or two. He recoiled backward immediately, and almost instinctively, he ducked for cover, shielding his ears as best as he could with his hooves pressing down on them and praying for some kind of miracle to occur.

The noise, as horrible and overbearing as it was, thankfully died down.

It was all over now.

In the silence that ensued afterward, Storm pulled his hooves from his ears, as did a few of the other Guards present, and crawled through the shattered glass and debris scattered across the floor towards over to Ward, who shivered in fear and confusion. The debris didn't matter to him, nor did the intense, migraine-like headache which ensued afterwards; what mattered was whether or not the pony he swore to protect was okay.

"Ward," Storm raised a hoof to his face, nudging the pony gently. "It's all over now."

Ward, however, remained frozen in fear.

"Please, you're alright." Storm shook him gently, the stallion turning into a blubbering mess as he turned towards him slightly. Much to Storm's surprise, the stallion suddenly threw himself at him and embraced him in a lung-crushing hug as he burst into tears. "Ward!"

"I can't hear...you...very well," Ward spoke, his voice breaking up as he continued hugging Storm tightly, having snapped back to his former self. "My ears hurt like shit."

"Is anypony here a medic?" Storm turned to look at the dazed Guards to his left, all of whom shook their heads. "Any unicorns know healing spells?"

"Nope." the collective response came.

"Anypony hurt?" inquired Spark, who seemed to be less affected by the blast than the others. Two or three hooves shot up in response, one of which was Dusk's.

"How badly?" Spark inspected the group closely, noticing some Guards nursing slight scratches on their bodies from the falling glass, and some holding their heads in pain.

"Ward?" Storm inquired, letting go of the stallion abruptly as he investigated any injuries he might have sustained in the blast. Aside from some scrapes on his coat, nothing.

"Yeah, Storm?"

"You'll be fine, I promise."

Comments

[HolyCross9]

You know, this action to quarantine bat ponies feels very wrong to me. If Princess Celestia heard about mistreatment like this, she would be royally angered about it and have all of it put to an absolute halt.

Further more, how is it that ponies are able to hold firearms if they have no digits or fingers to pull the triggers?

[Skyfire Storm]

7823890 Well, if you've ever read Thunderblast's The Veins Run Deep, you would know that bat ponies weren't exactly welcome in Equestria for a long time.

[Skyfire Storm]

7823890 I agree with you that it would be wrong to treat bat ponies like that, but you gotta remember that this was the mindset of the ponies at the time; the guards in this chapter were just trying to prevent mass panic from happening. On top of that they were scared themselves, as most of them have never seen bats before.

[Skyfire Storm]

7824763 And to answer your question, the way I always saw it is that trigger guards on Equestrian guns are big enough for hooves to fit through.

[HolyCross9]

7824790 Alright. It is sadly ironic that this chapter happened to be released on the day when Carrie Fisher's tragic death was announced. I was deeply grieved by it too.

[Skyfire Storm]

7825058 Yeah, I'm a huge fan of the Star Wars movies myself. Carrie Fisher's death came as a total shock for me, and I hope her family makes it through :/

[HolyCross9]

7825087 Me too.

[Skyfire Storm]

7825120 Did you know her mother starred in the 1950s musical Singin' in the Rain? Really good movie if you ask me.

[HolyCross9]

7825130 Yes, I actually did.

[Thunderblast]

This is getting intense. I can't wait for more. I love how you're adding on to the lore of the banished bat ponies. :3

[Skyfire Storm]

7833346 Thanks dude :3 Glad you've enjoyed it.

[Skyfire Storm]

I'm considering putting this story on hiatus for a short while, maybe a week or two, just to enable me to focus on other things, such as schoolwork and other projects besides this one. I'm kind of struggling with chapter 36 at the moment, although I have a few good ideas in mind, all of which I discussed in depth with Thunderblast a while back; I doubt this is full-on writer's block but I feel it might be a good idea to put SoTN on hiatus for a while, at least until I get through this.

[Skyfire Storm]

Attention: If you're looking forward to chapter 36 of SoTN, I have some great news; since I have nothing coming up this weekend, I hope to find the time to work on it, and thus maybe have it up by Saturday or Sunday at the latest.
Stay tuned, everyone.

[Skyfire Storm]

Just updated the character tags on this. Sorry for the lack of progress, by the way; I had a really busy past two weeks.

[Skyfire Storm]

Hopefully I'll have chapter 36 up by Friday or Saturday at the latest :3

[Skyfire Storm]

In the process of updating this story on FanFiction.net.

[Solitare]

I love it!!

[Skyfire Storm]

I'm finally getting on with chapter 36. Hopefully it will be up within the next couple of days for you guys to read.

[Skyfire Storm]

So sorry for the long wait, but I've had a busy past few weeks at school and I just couldn't find the time to sit down and work on this story.

[Skyfire Storm]

But now, seeing as school's kind of wound down for me since then, I'm happy to say that I've resumed work on this chapter. At this rate, I'm hoping to have it up by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest, but I'll see if I can push myself to have it out earlier than that. :3

Once again, I apologize for how long it has been taking me to write chapter 36, but things just kept getting in the way for a few weeks, school especially.