Misty looked up at the tall figure of the alicorn standing before her. It was exactly like the etchings she had seen in the children’s books in the stable. Tall, wings and horn, and dark. That could only mean one thing.
“P-P-Princess Luna!” she cried. Misty lowered her body into a bow before the Princess of the night.

The alicorn paused in her muttering on hearing the unicorn’s declaration and seeing her bowing before her. “What?” A look of confusion crossed the purple alicorn's face. “Oh no no no no no, I’m not-”

“That is not Luna,” Tidbit interrupted, his voice hardening and curt, “That is a real monster.” Purple mane and tail swished as the alicorn spun around to the ghoul. He had position himself with the barrels of his battle saddle mounted weapons pointed right at her. “And the only reason I am not blasting this abomination against Celestia and Luna to Taturas is the fact that YOU ARE IN THE FUCKING WAY!”

Misty gulped as she spun around and saw the twin barrels of Tidbits large caliber guns were trained directly on the alicorn, and herself. A purple haze enveloped her, causing her to squeal as she was lifted by the levitation magic and deposited beside the recovering Hero.

The alicorn turned back after having put Misty safely behind her and looked squarely at Tidbit.

“Do what you have to do, Ghoul”, she said, voice was devoid of emotion.

Hero sat beside the disheveled and stressed unicorn and chirped as she watched the oncoming conflict. A short distance away the bat pony also sat, hat back on her head as her eyes darted from ghoul to alicorn.

Tidbit growled in his helmet as his visible eye narrowed. That was the only warning given as the weapons mounted on his armor opened up. In an instant a translucent bubble sprouted around the alicorn, bullet impacts sending ripples of energy across its surface. Inside the bubble her horn glowing softly the alicorn stood patiently, none of its earlier anxiety evident.
The guns fell silent as Tidbit realized he was wasting ammunition. With a roar he charged at the alicorn; only to slam into the shield bubble and fall on his flank. Angrily he snarled and started punching at the shield, his steel covered hooves sparking against the force-field surrounding the silent and still alicorn.

“Are you are quite done?” The alicorn’s voice dropped to a dangerous growl “or would you like me to take my turn with you?”

Tidbit stopped his pounding on the shield and snarled at her. “Well you brought us here, so what do you want with us?”

“I WANT NOTHING FROM YOU!” The alicorn’s voice echoed in the vast dark cavern. Turning her back to the stunned ghoul she dropped her shield and walked over to where Misty and Hero were watching. Misty’s jaw was still gaping as the tall figure stopped before her.
“I am NOT Princess Luna. She is dead and gone,” the Alicorn bluntly told Misty, “What I am is a little more complex. But for now please call me Serenity.”

Misty closed her mouth and gulped. “But...”

“What the ghoul says is somewhat right, I, and my sisters, were created to be Monsters, but now we are ‘free’.” The dark purple alicorn seemed to sneer at the last word. “But you are only here because of your friendship with her.” Hero watched as a dark hoof gestured to her.

Serenity turned to Hero. “I know what you are, and you have something I need.”

Hero looked confused and chirped.

Serenity bend low and whispered in the changeling’s ear. “Do you hear it? Do you hear the voices, always there in your mind? Please tell me you can hear it.”

Memory surfaced in Hero’s mind again, the background hum that was always her constant companion, the voices of others, voices without faces, and faces speaking without moving their mouths. Startled at this memory the changeling squawked and moved back, her eyes wide.

Misty’s body moved without her mind, placing itself between her friend and the dark Serenity. When her mind caught up, she looked up at the surprised face of the alicorn, her own face mirroring the surprise. Hero shivered as her mind tried to understand this new memory dredged up from the depths of her past.

The alicorn turned away and sighed.

“Um,” the bat pony finally spoke, “What is this place?” She flinched as every pair of eyes turned to her.
“Just wonderin’," she muttered, lowering her head.

“Where are my manners”, the alicorn’s voice rang out, “Please, forgive my rudeness”. She turned and glared towards Tidbit. “Except you.”

Tidbit merely growled at Serenity.

Ignoring the ghoul, Serenity continued, “This is my home!” She gestured expansively around the cavern, torches around the walls lighting up magically, the flicking light reflecting off shelves of books, wooden crates, metal canisters and boxes resting on miles of metal shelves. “Though once this was a storage bunker for one of the Ministries.”

“Ministries?” Hero queried.

“I’ll tell you later”, Misty whispered to her. “It’s a long story.”

Hero shrugged.

Four ponies sat around a fire eating reheated and somehow still viable ministry rations while the bat pony sat some distance away from the rest. She shivered slightly before taking off the hat she had stolen, and took out a small paper bag from its crown. With uncharacteristic gentleness she opened it and took out some small papers. Placing one on the ground she gently placed some green plant material along its center, before rolling it in the paper, and twisting one end. She placed the other end in her mouth. Taking a match from the bag, and striking it against a rock she lit the twisted end. As the paper burned and the material within smoldered, she inhaled deeply. Closing her eyes with a sigh she released the smoke from her lungs.

The smell reached the sensitive nose of Hero, who made her way over to the batpony. Fluffy ears twitched to the sound of Hero sitting beside her. One eye opened slightly as the smoke started to ease the mind. “So, you’re the hero huh.”

“Our name is Hero”, the changeling replied.

“Huh, well you and your blue friend did get me outta there, so I guess it fits”. She took another hit, letting the smoke out though her nostrils. “I was called Emjay”, the batpony continued “After the herb.”

Hero watched as Emjay took another longer puff from her curious burning thing, so Emjay offered it to the changeling. Taking a tentative sniff some of the smoke went up her nose. Hero sneezed violently making the stoned batpony laugh. As pungent as the scent from the smoke was, there was another scent also tickling the chitin covered bug like pony’s nose. Leaning closer to the fuzzy batpony she sniffed. Emjay leaned back from Hero, as she felt her personal space invaded.

“Bad Meat” Hero muttered.

“What?” Emjay looked slightly offended.

“Bad meat,” Hero repeated.

“Oh never mind her.” Misty had made her way over to the pair, leaving Tidbit and Serenity to stare at each other distrustfully. “That’s her way of saying that she thinks of you as a friend.”

“No”, Hero responded, “Smells like bad meat.”

Misty also sniffed at the bat pony then held her hoof over her nose, her ears splayed backwards. “Dear Celestia! When did you last bathe?”

Emjay shrugged noncommittally then pinched out the ember at the end of her strange smelling smoke. She carefully placed it back in the bag and the bag back in her hat. “Usually they just threw a bucket of water on me when I was due to fight.” The batpony looked up her eyes silted as if relishing a memory. “I liked the fighting. They would put me in a ring with another slave, and I was free. I could do what I wanted to that pony, and no one would stop me, not until the other slave was dead.” Emjay’s lips curled up in a rictus grin, her fangs gleaming in the light.

Misty’s ears flattened as she looked slightly afraid at the batpony. “Uh, you... So... Uh, so you are good at unarmed combat?”

Emjay shrugged, her leathery wings twitching slightly with the movement. “I prefer using blades though.”

“I, uh, I need to ask Serenity something.” Hurriedly Misty got up and trotted hurriedly back to the other pair, sparing a glance back at the killer bat pony and the changeling that Misty called friend.

Serenity and Tidbit remained locked in a silent glare fight when Misty came up beside the dark purple alicorn. “Do you have any place where we can clean up?”

Neither the alicorn or the ghoul earthpony gave any sign of hearing her as they continued their stare off. Sighing, Misty went over to Tidbit, and smacked her hoof on the side of his helmet.
“The hell?” Tidbit broke his angry glare at Serenity and looked instead at Misty, who was nursing her sore hoof.

“Now that the pair of you have decided to join the land of the living, I was asking if this place has anywhere that we can clean up!”

Serenity cast her gaze down onto the light blue unicorn. “Yes, Why?” Misty reached herself up and whispered in the long ear. “Really?” The purple eyes of Serenity widened “I thought that stench was him.”

Tidbit growled at the insult.

“Bitch” he muttered.

“There is a spring down the west tunnel to the right. “

Misty looked over at the batpony. “I think we will need your help. She might not take it well.”

The purple alicorn nodded. “Very well, I will hold her, you scrub the stench off her.” Serenity stood up. “I don’t want her stinking up the place.” She looked over Misty and smirked. “I am sure you and your friend could do with a good cleaning as well. You do smell rather ripe.”

Tidbit snickered.

Serenity swung her head around, her featureless purple eyes narrowing at the armored ghoul. “As for you “, she snorted,” Nothing will ever get rid of the stink of abomination that surrounds you.”

Removing his helmet, the ghoul earth pony sneered. “At least I was once a real pony”.

Serenity ignored the low and inaccurate insult. She turned her back from the rude stallion and trotted over to the changeling and batpony. Hero cringed slightly as the tall dark alicorn approached. She was still feeling nervous after Serenity had sparked the memory. The alicorn gave no indication that she noticed, but inside her heart sank. She hoped that in time the changeling would give her what she had been missing for so long. But for now, the batpony’s stink was more important.

Emjay had developed a hooded eyed thousand-yard stare as she relaxed with the effect of what she had been smoking, her ears drooped and her head nodded slightly as if some music was playing in her brain. Beside her, Hero looked away from the alicorn and resumed trying to see what the dirty grey batpony was staring at. As Misty joined them Hero churped a greeting softly, while Emjay simply ignored them.

There was a soft chiming sound as the alicorn’s dark horn glowed a faint lavender, and a bubble of soft purple magic formed around the batpony and lifting her into the air. Startled Hero leapt to her feet, her teeth barred as her own horn started to shine in its own green magic.

“HERO! NO!” Misty shouted quickly.

Hero turned her head to Misty, the magic still radiating out of her horn.
“It’s ok, Hero. She won’t hurt... Uh… your friend.” Misty’s soothing tone calmed the agitated changeling, making her halt her attack, though her horn still glowed. “We are going to help her get clean, and I am going to try to look after her wounds.”

Hero didn’t look entirely convinced; the alicorn made her feel weird. But Misty was her friend.
If Misty says that this tall dark pony holding the Emjay pony in a spell, is trustworthy, Hero thought to herself, perhaps we should trust her too. The green faded around Hero’s horn, and she looked up at the floating and yet totally unresponsive batpony floating in front of her.

Softly the alicorn spoke. “Thank you”.

Serenity then turned and carried her burden down to the tunnels, where the batpony would finally become clean.
“Come on! She will need our help.” Misty gestured towards the retiring alicorn before following. Hero picked up the hat from the ground, careful to make sure that its contents were not spilled, then turned to follow the rest.

“So I will just stay here and keep the fire going then?” Tidbit called after them.

No one responded.

Tidbit sighed as he slowly removed his armor. The heavily armed and thick front half was tighter than his body, so he felt his permanently broken ribs expand to resume their normal shape as he removed the chest plates. The patchwork leather back half slid off much easier.

Turning his head, he saw a few new bullet holes in his skin and some of the black ichor blood that surrounded them. He sighed again, grumbling about how he needed a bath too, before grabbing a twig from the pile of wood near the fire in his mouth to dig out the offending bullets. His thick leathery skin resisted his attempts at first, but he had gotten used to digging things out of him, artificial and natural; making it easier to remove the metal from his hide. His cloudy eyes took in the faint imprint on his rump of his own cutie mark. Almost too faint to see, but still there. A hammer and a saw in saltire. The mark of a humble carpenter.

As he continued digging into the dry mummified flesh of his side he wished that he could go back to a life of building shelves and cupboards for ponies once more. As a bullet finally popped out he looked at the metal and leather armor and weapons he had found and built. His eyes narrowed at them.

Reminders that he can never again be what he once was.

It took a few minutes for Emjay to realize that she was no longer where she had been, but rather was floating. “This must be some good shit” she murmured, “I feel like I’m flying.”

Hero and Misty glanced at each other as they listened to the bat pony muttering to herself. Placing the hat on the ground, Hero looked over at Misty who was digging through a box. In faint blue auroras a few scrubbing brushes and some well used soap floated out and were placed beside a large full rock basin, where steam floated gently from heated water. Misty stepped into the deep pool, noticing that the rising water gurgled down a slit on the side, while air bubbles and fresh water jetted from vents in the bottom.

“We go in there too,” Hero asked, looking at the churning water fearfully. Misty nodded as she stripped out of her shirt before playfully splashing some of the warm water.

“The water is just perfect.” With that Misty submerged herself, then rose up out of the depths, the water streaming down her mane and face, and a goofy smile on her face.

Hero gingerly stepped into the water, feeling its warmth permeate though her hard exoskeleton. Then taking a chance and copying her friend, the changeling dunked her head under water. Everything sounded strange to her as the water filled her long ears, she could hear muffled voices and a glong-glong sound of a heartbeat. As the need to breath started to burn her lungs she pushed her head back up into the air. Hero grinned as the new sensations pleased her. Still dangling above, them the bat pony continued to murmur to herself, her eyes nearly closed and ears sticking out sideways.

“OK you can let her in now,” Misty said to Serenity.

The bubble of magic faded and the fuzzy batpony dropped.

The sudden explosion of water and a high pitch screeching scream of anger itself as a flapping thrashing batpony surfaced and tried to take flight.

“Hold her!” Misty yelled as she grabbed at the dark furred flapping fluff ball of fury. Bands of purple magic wrapped around the squawking batpony binding her wings to her sides and her legs together. This did nothing to stop her voice.

“I’LL KILL YOU ALL, YOU HEAR ME, I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU ALL!!”

“Can you shut her up please,” Misty appealed to Serenity.

There was a flash of light and a zipper appeared, running itself over Emjay’s mouth, zipping itself shut. Misty nodded a thanks to Serenity before grabbing one of the scrubbing brushes in her own magic, running the bristles over a bar of soap to work up a nice lather. Brush now covered in foam, Misty attacked the ground in dirt between Emjay’s large fluffy ears. Visibly shaking in rage, and having had her buzz killed by the sudden and very wet assault, Emjay growled behind the zipper and thrashed her body as much as she could as she tried to avoid the relentless attack by the brush and soap.

Hero could feel the emotions streaming out of the bat pony and paddled her way over to the former slave. She keened lowly to the trapped batpony and stroked her cheek, trying to sooth the writhing emotions. Hate filled orange eyes flashed at Hero before the Batpony tried to lunge her body forward.

There was a clunk as Emjay’s head smashed into Hero’s.

“Aw come on now,” Misty admonished as Emjay backed back ready to go again. Hero blinked a few times then saw blood flowing down over Emjay’s snout from where her sharp horn had cut into the batpony’s scalp. Emjay didn’t seem to notice. Misty sighed and poured some water over the cut washing away the blood much to Emjay’s displeasure, the growling behind the zipper growing louder.

As the warmth of the water started to ease into her muscles, Emjay reluctantly felt her body begin to relax. Hero took one of the wash cloths and started wiping down the grey fur around the batpony’s muzzle, keeping as gentle as she could she started cleaning the long furry ears.

“We don’t want to hurt you,” Hero said quietly, “We just want you to smell better.”

Emjay grunted, but felt her eyes beginning to droop again as the massaging effect of the brush on her back eased more of the tension out of her. Her head drooped in relaxation as the pair continued their chore. Unknown to her at this time Serenity had released the magical binds and zipper from her. Not being left out on the orgy of cleaning and bubbles she had taken another of the brushes and helped scrub and brush the light green tail and mane.

Misty stepped back from her work and lit her horn and started a medical scan. She could see no major damage to the bones or organs, but on the surface there were many old and new cuts and abrasions. The scaring of the rump worried her, but most of it was very old. To her it seemed that the flesh had been burned away and regrew as a mass of scar tissue. She shuddered to think how painful that would have been. Gently taking the fore-hoof of Emjay, she looked at the pale flesh where the shackle had been. There was some scaring there from the constant chafing but nothing that she could see that would be threatening to the batpony’s wellbeing. A series of parallel scars of various ages across the forelimb did concern her. She couldn’t think of any way that could have been done except deliberately. As if the pony in question had done it to herself. Misty shivered at that thought but noted that they were quite shallow and no threat either.

Hero was enjoying herself scrubbing the batpony’s coat, tufts of mattered fur falling free reveling shiny fluff underneath. Months of ground in filth, sweat, and secretions turned the water of the bathing pool to a muddy brown, while wads of fur floated among the soap bubbles. For her part, Emjay was enjoying the unusual attention, though she kept muttering half heated threats which were dutifully ignored by all present. There was a splash as Emjay’s legs gave out from un-accustomed relaxation and she disappeared under the water. Hero dove underwater and lifted the spluttering batpony back up to the surface.

“-KING KILL YOU ALL!” The batpony’s screeching resumed.

There was the sound of teeth being slammed together as Hero used her fore hooves to shut the swearing batpony’s muzzle. “You smell better now,” she told the glowering and growling sodden gray pony, “We like this smell better.”
Serenity lifted Emjay out of the bath and deposited her, dripping, onto the floor. As soon as the magic faded Emjay shook herself vigorously, spraying the room with water. As soon as she was satisfied, she snarled at the still wet ponies before her, grabbed her hat and jammed it on her head, then stalked out.

As soon as she left, Misty stepped out of the water followed by Hero. “She’s had a hard life; I can tell you that. She has been beaten half to death but nothing that’s caused any serious damage to her body. She has so many scars all over her it’s not funny,” Misty sighed, “When we found her, it looked like she was being used as a comfort pony.”

Hero looked confused at Misty who ignored her, and continued “But when I spoke to her before, she also was used to fight.”

“Hate,” Hero said. “We could feel nothing but fear and hate from her. She is scared of us, but she mostly hates herself.”
“She is violent and dangerous, she told me how much she likes to kill.” Misty continued, “She is too much of a risk to have her here!”

“I can teleport her somewhere” Serenity said “Or put her out of her misery.”

Outside the door, unseen by the three, a batpony’s sensitive ears was listening in. On hearing the remark by the alicorn she snarled and walked off. No-one, she thought to herself, will ever raise a hoof against her ever again. She will make sure of it.

Hero stomped a hoof on the ground “NO,” she exclaimed “She is hurting and needs our help!” Hero’s face darkened “Hero will help her, even if you won’t.”

“We just can’t risk having a violent pony with us just like that!” Misty said as she raised her voice.

“You told Hero that Tidbit is a friend, even though he broke Hero’s leg, Hero took you as a friend even though you shot us,” Hero shot back, “She has done nothing to us, just yelled a lot!”

Misty had to admit to herself that Hero’s introduction to herself and to Tidbit were less than peaceful, but it did not do anything to ease her worries about the batpony.
“Fine,” Misty conceded “But she is your responsibility!”

Hero then turned to look at the alicorn. “You, we don’t know. You scare us, but Misty likes you. Hero can see that. If Misty trusts you, so will Hero.”

With that she turned on her heels and left.

“Do you trust me,” Serenity asked Misty in a small voice.

“I don’t know.”

The alicorn nodded. “Can I trust you?”

Misty looked offended “Of course! What sort of pony do you think I am?”

The dark alicorn’s featureless eyes betrayed nothing as she looked down at the unicorn. After an uncomfortable pause she turned to the door. As she made her way out, she quietly asked, “Come with me, please."

Shaking the last of the water from her coat, the light blue alicorn picked up her and Hero’s shirts, draped them over her back, then trotted behind Serenity.

Tidbit took a sip from a lead lined canteen that contained radioactively contaminated water, as a ghoul his body needed the poisoned water to heal and maintain itself. He would be the last to admit, though, it gave him a warm glow and a slightly light head. With the help of the radiation the bullet holes in his rump and gut slowly grew together with a sickening squeak of stressed leather like skin. He heard yelling coming from down the passage way as he placed another few logs on the fire and chuckled to himself. Then when the silence came he started to look around and poke at the large amounts of shelves with crates. All of the crates had pink and blue butterflies painted on them, and the letters MOP. He found some that were opened and curiously looked inside. One had old ration packs, another had first aid kits and healing potions. A third he found contained something he did not expect. Inside, nestled in foam recesses, were apple grenades.

The yelling started again, followed by the heavy clopping of stamping hooves, so he quickly made his way back to the fireplace. Out of the passage he saw an angry but now clean and rather fluffy bat pony. She was soon followed by the changeling with a bowler hat in her mouth. He watched as the batpony turned on the changeling and adopted a fighting stance, but the changeling simply sat down. Then in amazement he watched as the changeling lifted a front hoof and booped the batpony on her nose. The batpony seemed to go crossed eyed looking at its own muzzle before snarling, turning her back on the changeling and stalked off into the shelves. The changeling followed.

Mystified, Tidbit made to follow, but after a moment of hesitation, sat back down by the fire. Whatever happens, he thought to himself, Happens.

Misty was surprised when Serenity did not turn towards the main cavern, but went the opposite direction, passing some other doorways that had been cut into the tunnels. Serenity turned suddenly and opened one of the many doors then made her way inside. Misty followed her in, seeing that this room had been expertly cut away from the rock like the rooms in her stable, but set up like an office. A terminal sat on a desk which also had a selection of old manila files.

“What do you know about your black friend?” Serenity moved to the other side of the desk and looked at Misty.
Misty tapped her hoof against her chin as she sat on the ground. “Well, I don’t know what she is, but she seems to be nice.” Misty looked thoughtful. “She has the ability to magically change her appearance, but you know that, and she likes to eat meat.”

Serenity nodded.

Misty smirked then continued “She refuses to use words like ‘I’ or ‘me’, which is weird, but someday, I will get her to do that.”

Serenity smiled softly. “Your friend is known as a changeling”

“Makes sense.” Misty added.

The alicorn sighed “If you please, let me continue.”

Misty shut her mouth and waited

“Changelings are a type of pony that were discovered years before the war. But they just disappeared after some event in Canterlot. What happened there, I do not know. But I do know a few things. For one, they are emotavores. “

“Huh?”

“They feed on emotions. They use a pony’s emotions to fuel their magic, which is why she has been able to change and use her magic with you, when before she met you she couldn’t.”

Misty gulped, not sure how to feel about that, but waited for Serenity to carry on.

“Don’t worry, it’s not anything that could harm you. But my interest in her is in something else that the changelings have.”

“You better not want to hurt her,” Misty growled, her eyes flashing and her horn lighting up, “Whatever she is, she’s proven herself to be my friend.”

“If your ghoul friend couldn’t harm me, do not think for a moment that you could.” The dark alicorn’s mane whipped in an unseen wind. “But no, I have no interest in harming her, I was hoping she could help me. But…” The alicorn shifted uncomfortably. “I and my sisters, where created by our Goddess to be weapons. We were always linked together in our minds, our own little hive mind. I could always hear my sisters and my Goddess in my head. It was comforting, we could share our thoughts, our minds. Help each other, learn from each other, prepare each other, all under our Goddess.” A tear formed in the alicorn’s eye. “But something happened. We lost our hive mind, our Goddess was killed, and our connection to each other destroyed. I can no longer hear my sisters. I have no one.”

“That’s uh...,” Misty searched for the right word, “Sad?”

Serenity shook herself, then picked up one of the files. “And that’s why I asked you here.”

She passed the file to Misty who took it in her magic and opened it. After reading the first few paragraphs in the first page of the large file she looked up “Hero has a hive mind?”

Serenity shook her head. “Not anymore. I believe she has been cut off from her own hive, or she is out of range of its Queen. So she, like me, is alone. I had hoped that she would be in one, and she could let me be in it, so I won’t have to suffer like this anymore.”

Misty kept reading. “It says here, that the Ministry of Peace was working on a spell matrix for a hive mind for the troops, they had developed a proto type based on the changelings, but it was abandoned when the megaspells struck.”

“This is what I wanted to ask you. I know where the Ministry of Peace testing grounds are.” Serenity’s voice turned plaintive. “Would you and your friends go and retrieve this spell matrix from the bunker?”

Author's Note

Many thanks to S-clark who helped come up with the look of our favorite Bat Pony. He did some excellent work of concept art that can be seen on the Hivemind tumblr! Go check him out.. and find him on here and read his stories! READ THEM THE BAT PONY COMPELS YOU!