Suiting up in their freshly enchanted armour once again, Phantom Shadow and his squad spread their wings and launched into the pitch black darkness of the cave tunnels ahead of them. They blinked heavily a few times until their eyes began to glow with a deep red bioluminescence, allowing their keen sense of sight to make out the small, land marking details on the rough rocky walls beside them. They kept their use of echolocation to an absolute minimum, as it could add too much noise pollution to their already sensitive hearing when they were trying to follow the screams of the fillies, or even worse, end up being heard by the nightmare forces as they were trying to pursue them.

The element of surprise was absolutely vital to the success of the mission, since if the nightmare forces knew exactly when they were coming, they could use the foal's fears of the bat ponies themselves as a catalyst for their possession. With such limited usage of Luna's magical enchantments, the less they would have to use in driving the nightmare force's back, the better.

As the screams and cries got louder, they knew they were heading in the right direction. When the audible distress of the fillies got above a certain level, Phantom's ears began to twitch and he instantly stopped dead in his tracks. He landed softly on the floor and gestured a wing signal to the rest of his squad to do the same. Night vision, turn off he signalled. Lurker formation, now!

Hooking their small sabaton claws into the rock, they gently crawled up onto the ceiling and edged their way forward until they could get a good impression of the physical form that the nightmare forces had possessed this time. Directly in front of them, they could see small flashes of light from the horns of the young unicorns within the group. They stayed back a good distance so that this light would not uncover them, but it did act as a double edged sword that added further complications to the mission. The small flashes of light were enough for the bat ponies to see that the fillies were trapped inside a big iron cage that was being used both to keep them in one place and as a tool for the nightmare forces to enhance their fear.

The nightmare forces had possessed a group of three diamond dogs; usually selfish and anti-social creatures from the mountain valleys far to the west of the Everfree forest. While Phantom was initially surprised to see them all the way down here, he quickly remembered that diamond dogs had a knack for creating extensive tunnels in their greedy quest to mine gems. If anything, it showed how desperate the nightmare forces were in finding physical bodies to spread their evil influence with.

The Diamond dogs were bipedal, usually standing at least a full twelve inches over the head of the average pony, even with their hunched posture. They had thick, clawed hands and feet that when combined with their wide jaws, made then unpleasant to look at even on a normal day. But when possessed by the nightmare forces, they looked utterly monstrous. Not only was their size doubled, but their clawed fingers were now as long as large knives, their arms being disproportionately huge with their bigger muscle mass and long, dagger-like teeth that jutted out so far from their jaws that they could only just close their mouths. Not to mention the endless wide, green glowing stare that were firmly locked onto the fillies at all times.

They relentlessly gnashed their teeth together, while rhythmically banging their claws on each side of the cage, scraping and howling alongside to make sure that even the bravest of fillies was utterly terrified. At this point, almost all of them were either trying to scrape at the bars or crying for their parents, desperate to be released from the torment of the nightmare diamond dogs. Now that Phantom could identify what they were dealing with, he put his plan into action.

Dropping down from the ceiling, Phantom kept low and got in as close as he dared to the diamond dogs. He kicked a couple of rocks ahead of him, acting as the first sonic distraction to grab the attention of the diamond dogs. Banshee moved further along the ceiling and cried out a short audible screech from the opposite direction to Phantom. The rest of the bat ponies gradually began to hiss and chatter their teeth along with Banshee, constantly changing their volume from either side to keep the diamond dogs confused as to where they were coming from.

When they could see that both the children and the nightmare diamond dogs all fell silent, their attention fully absorbed in trying to find out where the noise was coming from, Phantom flushed his eyes full of glowing liquid, beaming out his glowing eyes and flashing a toothy grin in the darkness at the diamond dogs, with the rest of the bat ponies following his command. They all fluttered in mid air, dashing past the diamond dogs and scraping alongside them, moving too quickly for their foe to firmly get a look at what was going on. Banshee's scream intensified, making the diamond dogs cringe in pain and making all the fillies in the cage jump in shock.

Increasing the volume of his light, Phantom slowly rose up right in front of the now panic stricken diamond dogs, creating an optical illusion with his eyes that projected an image of himself that was closest in appearance to an ethereal changeling, with Banshee backing him up with her scream that was baring down on the diamond dogs that to them was far more monstrous than what the nightmare forces had created.

Phantom was about to strike when suddenly, a bright green flash of light erupted behind them, exposing him and all of the other bat ponies with its blinding radiance. The nightmare forces quickly melted off the diamond dogs, fading away into the shadows behind them. Phantom tried to make out what was going on, but the light was so strong that he and the other bat ponies suddenly felt a spell of dizziness fall over them. Unable to keep his eyes open any further with the intensity of the light, he fell onto his back in a haze and briefly passed out.

“Phantom? Phantom! Please, wake up Phantom!” Phantom awoke to the desperate calls of Banshee, echoing out his name. The sound was very dull at first, but gradually became louder as he heaved his eyes open and blinked a few times to clear up his blurry vision. He tried to pull himself to his feet, falling down a few times with the lingering dizziness, while rubbing his head at the splitting headache that he had been left with.

“B-ba-Banshee?” He stuttered as he tried to get a firm grip on his returning consciousness. “Ugh, I feel like I've been hit by a five ton rock slide. What exactly happened back there?”

Banshee breathed a sigh of relief. “I'm so glad you're not badly hurt. I'm not entirely sure what happened myself. But it appears as though one of the unicorn fillies cast some sort of huge illumination spell!”

“Oh no, the foals!” Phantom panicked and snapped on his eye glow, frantically jumping around to try and find where the fillies were. “What happened? Are they safe? Where are they now? Please don't tell me the nightmare forces got them!”

Banshee placed her hoof on Phantom's shoulder. “Calm down.” She said in an attempt to ease Phantom's worries. “All the foals are still in the cage. They are perfectly safe, especially the little unicorn who cast that spell to begin with. We do however have a different problem to contend with...”

Phantom shut off his eye glow and turned to face the captive fillies. The young unicorn was still emitting a significantly bright light, forcing Phantom to squint briefly let his eyes adjust. Having spent much of his life within the tunnels, he wasn't used to seeing such an intensity of light. Even when Luna was visiting, the glowing crystals still provided a much more manageable level for both sides to see each other properly.

Phantom sighed. He hadn't anticipated a mere foal could actually cast such an intense spell to begin with, let along while being tortured by the nightmare diamond dogs. “Guess there's no point in hiding ourselves any longer. We'd better introduce ourselves to these foals, as I bet they're going to have a lot of questions to ask when they've calmed down a bit.”

“Wait a minute, Phantom!” Banshee dashed in front of Phantom. “Can't we just put them to sleep and have Luna turn all their memories into bad dreams? Why do we have to directly reveal ourselves to them?”

Phantom shook his head. “It's too late for that. Thanks to that young unicorn, all of the foals have got a clear look at us now. Luna can only turn their memories into dreams if they are vague enough in their details. Seeing glowing eyes and teeth in the darkness as well as whatever arbitrary shapes they make out of the nightmare forces could be turned into anything that the fillies are afraid of. But now they've seen our full bodies in the flesh, our best option going from here is simple diplomacy.”

Banshee slumped down to the ground, eyes wide open in shock. She never imagined ever being actually discovered by the fillies and risking their entire operation. The only worse disaster she could imagine would be the nightmare forces actually succeeding in possessing a foal or another bat pony. She could hardly comprehend what this meant for the future of her and her entire race. The only thing right now she could think of was to trust in Phantom's idea of diplomacy.

Phantom gradually walked towards the cage to get a good look at the foals. There were about five in total, mostly a mix of pegasi and unicorns, but with the one earth pony among them who was particularly big for her age. They were all blank flanks, as rarely did the nightmare forces risk kidnapping a pony that already had their cutie mark and was no longer open for developing their undiscovered natural talents for evil from the beginning. The unicorn at the front of the group who was so well magically endowed seemed to be one of the youngest out of all of them, looking barely at the age where a unicorn would start magic kindergarten. He was a burnished orange coloured pony with a short, warm red coloured mane that was starting to grow out into a small fringe on the left side of his horn and a slight twirl in his short tail.

He stood with his head dipped and his legs spread in a wide in an aggressive stance, gritting his teeth in an attempt to intimidate Phantom as he approached. “Stay back foul monsters! I'm warning you!” He spat out with slight lisp to his mousy voice. “I'm not scared of any of you! You're not going to hurt me or any other pony!”

Phantom stood in front of the cage door for a moment, carefully looking around to ensure that there was no trace of the nightmare forces still lingering around. When he knew the area was safe, he raised his hoof and slammed it down on the pad lock, snapping it off and letting the door swing open. The startled foals huddled to the back of the cage in fear, save for the young unicorn who refused to budge, despite his knees clearly beginning to shake. The other bat ponies approached, moving into view so that they could all get a good look at the fillies.

Phantom then promptly removed his helmet and bowed down before the fillies. “Bat ponies, disarm and stand down.” He commanded, with the rest of his squad quickly copying his actions to follow his order. The unicorn colt then leapt out of the cage and charged straight at Phantom Shadow, attempting to shoot magic missiles from his horn, but only managing to get a few wild shots of varying strengths to bounce off the walls. A few lucky shots hit Phantom and Banshee on the back and sides, but they were felt no more than the annoying sting of mosquitoes.

But the colt refused to give up. He stomped his hooves on Phantom's head and head butted him as hard as he could. His flailing attacks were wild and random, yet Phantom just sat there and took everything the little unicorn could throw at him. Any of the bat ponies he saw out of the corner of his eye trying to move quickly got a harsh glare that made it clear his orders were not debatable. All bat ponies must stay still where they were until Phantom said otherwise. It only took a couple of minutes for the little colt to become exhausted. As much as he tried to keep charging, he just wore himself out until he could no longer stand. Panting heavily, the magic on his horn began to flicker and fade, but not extinguishing entirely.

“I...will not...let you....harm...any pony!” The little unicorn wheezed, still determined to fight that bat ponies. It was at this point Phantom finally spoke up.

“Young foal, let me ask you a question.” He said gently before standing up and walking right up to the little unicorn. “If I or any of the other bat ponies you see here were actually trying to harm you, don't you think we would have done is already?”

The colt's eyes widened as he took in Phantom's words. “B-but..” he stammered briefly. “Why aren't you trying to hurt us? My dad warned me about you bat ponies on my first ever Nightmare Night! Aren't you supposed to be Nightmare Moon's secret army?”

Phantom shook his head and smiled warmly. “Only Princess Luna and a few other select ponies know about what we really are. Let me assure you; Princess Luna is not your enemy. The beasts that kidnapped you are the real enemies. The nightmare forces, as we call them, are an evil entity that feeds off fear, anger and jealousy. They once brainwashed our dear Princess Luna into becoming Nightmare Moon, but now that she is free from their grasp thanks to Princess Twilight Sparkle, she is wise to their tricks. We are indeed Princess Luna's secret army. But we exist to combat the nightmare forces and hopefully one day vanquish them for good.”

“Wow!” The colt exclaimed, now with a wide eyed fascination this new information. “That is so COOL! Why doesn't Luna just say so herself?”

Phantom shook his head. “Unfortunately, the kingdom of Equestria, especially Ponyville, has many problems and other threats to begin with. If the outside world were to learn of us, the resulting hysteria and possible call for further intervention by those who are ignorant of the nightmare forces' ways would only add to the problem. The fewer ponies know about us, the easier it is to do our job and find new ways to protect the citizens of Equestria.”

The young unicorn barely knew what to make of this shocking revelation. Was his dad just being paranoid this whole time? How long had the bat ponies been fighting in secret? There were so many questions he could think of that he didn't know where to begin.

“So what happens to us now?” The little unicorn asked as he hauled himself up to his feet again.

“Well now that you have seen us and know who we are, you can see the predicament that faces us.” Phantom replied. “However, seeing the kind of power that you have been able to wield, even at your tender age, does give me a fantastic idea!”

“An idea?” The young unicorn's face lit up with excitement. “Please tell me! I really want to know? Please? Please?”

Phantom chuckled. “You will find out soon enough, little one. But perhaps first you could inform me of your name?”

The colt quickly nodded. “Of course! My name is Cinder Spark, but you can call me Cinder for short. It's nice to meet you!” Cinder raised his front right leg to offer a hoof shake.

“Pleased to meet you too, Cinder.” Phantom said while returning the hoof shake. “Could you perhaps pass on this information to the other fillies for me? I suspect they may be reassured more by your words than mine.”

“Sure!” Cinder replied enthusiastically and turned round to the other foals, who were still hiding in the cage. “Guys, guys! Did you just hear what they said? They're like secret agent ponies for Princess Luna! They're not just gonna protect us from the evil monsters that kidnapped us all. On top of all that, they've got a special idea for us foals as well! How cool is that?”

The foals looked at each other, unsure of what to make of the whole situation. Everything had happened so quickly that a few of them still didn't quite know if all of this was real or just a very bad nightmare. But the enthusiastic smile of Cinder soon began to win a couple of them over. The pair of pony twins, a cream coloured male pegasus with matching hazel coloured eyes and mane alongside a custard yellow female unicorn with an orange mane, blue eyes and a sky blue bow in her hair walked up towards Cinder. They were still shaking a little bit, clearly showing their nerves while putting on a brave face.

“We'll come with you!” The Unicorn said. “You're just as brave as Daring Do!”

“Any pony as brave as her is a friend to us!” The Pegasus added enthusiastically.

“Fantastic start!” Cinder said encouragingly “Why don't you go introduce yourselves to the bat ponies?” Both twins nodded, putting their trust in the brave unicorn and walked just ahead of Cinder to introduce themselves as Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake, respectively. The remaining two ponies were more reluctant to come out.

“Come on guys!” Cinder said in an attempt to gain the trust of the remaining ponies. “The twins have already put their best hoof forward to work with the bat ponies. What's stopping you from joining us?”

The light blue female earth pony with a sunburst yellow mane stood up and gave a sceptical glare at Cinder. “How do you know they really are trustworthy?” she said harshly “This could be another trap set by the nightmare dogs or whatever they were! Are you really so gullible as to believe any story they tell you?”

“You saw what they did, didn't you?” Cinder countered with the utmost confidence. “I was bashing on them like mad and they just sat there! You saw how quickly the nightmare forces started tormenting us, so it makes no sense for them to be setting us free. Besides, if they do ANYTHING to hurt you at all, they will have me to answer for!”

Before the earth pony could respond, the lime green pegasus filly with a combed over purple mane leapt in front of Cinder. The earth pony rolled her eyes and sighed at Cinder's over-enthusiasm winning over the ponies. But considering her options, she supposed she may as well go along with everything. Better than sitting around in the pitch black until some other pony came to rescue.

Reluctantly, she lined up with the other foals and introduced herself as Flora Spring, along side the pegasus filly named Starshine Swoop. She couldn't shake the unease from her mind that their trust in the rescuing bat ponies was based on such an immature and rash judgement. She only hoped, for Celestia's sake, that Cinder had made the right decision.

With the foals standing in a neat row, Phantom ordered the rest of his squad into formation. “Are these all the trapped foals there are, Cinder?” He asked.

“Yep! I know that no pony came out of that cage until I said it was OK to do so.”

“Good. Now, before we explain what exactly is going to happen here, we will need to take you all back to our base of operations. To do so, we will fly you back there on our backs, but we must do so in total darkness. That way there is no chance of the nightmare forces seeing us coming and setting up an ambush. I know it's asking a lot for you all to trust us on such rushed first impressions, but given the circumstances I can assure you that your safety will be our highest priority. The nightmare forces will try to manipulate through fear so that they can possess you. We, on the other hand, let our actions speak louder than words. It is our royal duty as bat ponies, not just to her highness Princess Luna, but to all of Equestria to ensure your safety. Do you understand?”

One by one, the foals nodded and each climbed on the backs of the front ranked ponies. Cinder promptly shut off his magic light and held on tightly to the back of Phantom Shadow. Before they took off, Banshee Mist, who had been quiet this whole time following Phantom's orders, tapped Phantom on the shoulder.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” She whispered, ensuring she wasn't heard by the foals. “If the nightmare forces do capture them again, then they will be lead straight to our home. With our limited magic, the chances of us all making it out alive are slim to none.”

Switching on his eye glow, Phantom smiled at Banshee. “Don't worry old friend.” He said reassuringly. “Cinder Spark has something really special at his age. I suspect there was a good reason the nightmare forces chose these foals in particular. Trust me Banshee, this will work out spectacularly for all of us.”

“If you say so.” Banshee reluctantly replied. “Just don't forget that they are still fillies. I hope you aren't becoming as over-confident as the colt Cinder Spark there.”

“I have confidence in exactly what I see before my eyes. Now Squad, lets fly, homeward bound!” Spreading their wings wide, Phantom and his squad launched themselves down the tunnel. What they were pulling was probably the most risky gamble they had ever attempted. But if the gamble worked, it would have a very high pay off indeed.

Author's Note

2nd Draft for Chapter 2