Nestled in the shade of the Foal Mountains, the trees of the Umbral Forest darken the skies for the inhabitants of Hollow Shades. Most are more than pleased to be subjected to varying degrees of twilight and night, the most natural time of day for the bat ponies that call the town home. Yet, the Umbral Forest, while more tame than it's unruly cousin the Everfree Forest, is no stranger to things that go bump in the night.
A Reddoverse Sidestory - Reading of the main storyline is not required for this story.
Written for, and placed 3rd in, the 1st Monster Mare Story Contest (Unpopular Monsters). Absolutely last minute, I might add. 
I only discovered the contest by accident the day before the contest closed.
Chapters (1)
Best of luck to you
9684224
Thanks. And to you as well!
9684231
Loud
If Luna's bat ponies got their own spin-off series, this could be an episode of it. It's a brief but capable look at what non-Lunar-Guard batpony life might be like in the Hollow Shades -- right down to the local trio of CMC-like trouble-seeking fillies (Stardancer and her friends) charging in where angels fear to tread.
There's a few typos and some rough spots, and the story could benefit from a little more detail on the look of each of the characters, to make it easier to visualize who's speaking, but given the limited time you had to work on this, it's nevertheless readable and holds together well. Nice job!
9684581
Thank you so much for the review! Words cannot adequately express how uplifting that was to read. It actually made me want to go out and write more about this particular group of bat ponies as well as the snallygasters, really flesh out the world that I started crafting with this short. I'm not afraid to admit, it was just a "Oh my, I got an idea of something to write something for this, but I don't have the time" story idea, that I am still slowly starting to get visualizations of the various characters outside of Schneller Geist myself. So I don't blame you one bit on not having a perfect idea of what the various characters look like... even though I know crafting that is my responsibility.
Very nice little read
Might have benefitted from a longer build-up of the tension as well as some worldbuilding, but given this is a side-story written within a day, it’s more than alright. And Geist was a nice little addition!
Also, pardon my ignorance, but what is it with bat ponies and mangoes?
9718746
Not gonna lie, even as a bat pony myself, I don't 100% understand. lol It's just one of those things that started with Echo when she was made and has been going as a running gag ever since.
This is a nice worldbuilding piece! The bit about The Snallygasters dwelling outside of memory or the eyes sliding off of them is very evocative of cosmic horror. My only qualm is that Phantom doesn't seem to introduce himself in english before the narrator refers to him by name, but I'm guessing the (pseudo?)-german statement is there to introduce us to him.
I found this through the link in the sequel you posted, so congrats on getting on the front page!
9718746
I'm guessing they're partially based off fruitbats?
9879458
Yeah, the Snallygasters language is a sort of pig Latin / moronic beginners German. Though, as an aside, the first line that Phantom makes, which I can understand not catching this looking back at my own writing, was him speaking to Schneller Geist, hence it being said in their language instead of in English. Roughly can be translated as “Geist, I told you not to let your mask fall!”
good story