Author's Note

Coauthored with Mr101.
Notes on current cover art:
During the making of this, we requested an original piece be made, but unfortunately, the artist has gotten caught up with the holidays. So, until he's finished with the actual cover art, or further notice, what's up is merely a place holder. It has little to do with the story except that there are bat ponies, and sexiness to come. Hope you enjoy the story!

Holding the Door

The snowstorm outside furiously raged on, all the while, a lone, indifferent pony flew onwards to Canterlot. She fought against harsh winds the best she could, gasping for air as she kept pushing forth, the pieces of her purple mane and dark, smoky coat that could be seen through her armor and helmet wet with ice cold slush. What made her so different from normal pegasi were her wings, not to mention her extra furry ears and sharper than average, protruding fangs. She was unique to say the least. A bat pony, the most common of her kind; one with wings.

Just like regular, everyday ponies, the bat pony species has three distinct kinds as well. One is pegasi, which are the winged. Then the unicorns, which oddly enough usually have more magical prowess than normal unicorns do, and finally, earth ponies. Needless to say, unicorns and earthly bat ponies are born without wings, because typically, wings aren’t the only thing that make up a bat. They also have furry ears that grow wild with fur in the winter time, and gnarly, sharp fangs useful for biting into fruits and sucking them dry without the need to eat the skin.

Along with the typical, cat-like eyes, so long as they have these features, they’re generally enrolled into the Lunar Guard if found. It’s naturally their choice, but despite their aggressive nature at first sight, they almost always concede after hearing the details. Being greeted by a fellow bat pony sometimes helps in the matter as well. Nopony really knows exactly how the bat ponies came to be, not even themselves, but Luna found their characteristics and nocturnal behavior quite useful, and shortly after her return, she made the discovery while investigating a cave one night, but that’s another story for another time.

The pony currently being addressed is one of the first bat ponies she’d ever met, just getting up there in her prestigious ranks, and had since become one of the few guards to reach the rank of flight lieutenant in the Lunar Guard. She’d been very recently promoted from officer cadet at an alarming pace. Her name is Moon Dancer; her name resembling the cutie mark of a cloud twirling around the moon itself in a dancing fashion.

Moon Dancer was on yet another mission entrusted to her by Princess Luna. This time, it being outside the castle. A simple delivery and pick up was normally welcomed by her, but this time around, she’d rather be doing something more demeaning like kitchen duty. So long as she was inside the warmth of the castle, it didn’t very much matter which job she needed to do. Anything would’ve been better than having to fight this storm of frost that nearly blanketed her vision.

She would've be alright with the job assignment had there been no snow to speak of, and she was so thrilled to do it at first, too. Not because of what she'd be doing, but because of who she'd be seeing again after what seemed like such a long time, too. She was never very fond of the cold, always moaning and complaining during the winter months back when she was with her family. The fact that she’d been flying for a while in the wind and cold didn’t help her mood, either, but she put up with the conditions just for him.

As the mare tried to make light of where she was, she remembered an important ability her kind had, one that she somehow nearly forgot: sonar. Moon Dancer opened her mouth and let out a small series of quick screeches that were beyond the range of regular ponies. The screeches bounced off objects that were ahead of her, giving Moon Dancer a better picture of what was beyond the blizzard, and how to strategically navigate around them. The mare continued to do this whilst battling the snow, dipping and diving to avoid obstacles such as heavy clouds and clusters of hale in her path.

After what to her seemed like hours, the mare was able to get a faint image of her destination up ahead, despite the barrage of snow and wind. She smiled to herself, already picturing in her mind what it would be like to relay her mission reports and enjoying a nice bowl of skinned fruits, maybe with a side of hay before climbing into her soft, warm bed at the end of her shift. Not before seeing the pony who'd let her in, though, and maybe she'd catch up with what she's missed ever since her advancement.

She spotted the long stone runway completely covered in snow, typically used by the night guard to land after a flight mission, or for when Princess Luna would occasionally inspect her troops. Moon Dancer landed on the snow with an unbalanced skid, but stuck it nevertheless, shivering slightly as the snow came near halfway up to her legs. She trudged through it, heading for the large door that separated her from the warmth she so desperately needed at this time.

The door itself was enchanted by Princess Luna to only open with the magic of her royal guards, and them only. By heart, her soldiers knew the order in which the runes on the door needed to be placed for activation, to let the unicorn on the inside know whether it was friend or foe requesting entrance. Princess Luna had done this as to ensure that no enemy could sneak into the castle and take them by surprise, despite her sister’s claim that it wouldn’t be needed due to the thousand years of peace the kingdom had held since her banishment. Still, though, the lunar alicorn remembered the battles of old and had refused to budge an inch on her decision.

The way the door worked was thus. A unicorn guard of the lunar branch would use his or her magic to open and close the door for incoming and outgoing fliers, or for the princess herself. The hours were long and often very boring, so some of the unlucky posted guards viewed the task to be a punishment if anything. That’s just what Druid Shield felt like at this time. It was his turn to hold the door for whoever might be entering or leaving, but there was just one that had left that day. That was awhile ago, and she was nearing her return quicker than he, or anypony else had anticipated.

He stood behind the structure, his head lowering as sleep began to overtake him. Still, he fought the urge to simply drift off to dreamland, and shook his head to stay awake. Like most, he had only just gotten his first of many promotions, but considering just how long he’d been amongst his own kind, that was a feat rarely seen so early on. He had the typical, blue mane, a coat just a pinch darker than Moon Dancer’s, and a cutie mark of a waning moon, curving along the edges of his flank followed by a star in front.

He’d been there for much too long, and even started to worry about Moon Dancer, but only a little. Whilst the two weren’t best friends yet, they did know each other and had been in the same training program, too, serving under the same wing commander before Moon’s promotion. However, Moon Dancer was always somewhat more comfortable whenever they saw one another.

She’d told him before leaving that she’d be a while, but with the storm just recently arriving, things became that much more uncomforting to him. As he checked out the wide, tall window found to the left of the door, he could only see snow piled up against the glass, and on top of that was even more snow mounting over rather quickly. “If only I had wings,” the horned bat pony commented.

“Hey, Druid,” a familiar voice called to him from the shadow of a hallway. “Got a job for you, Cadet.”

“Sir, I’m on duty, per Princess Luna’s orders.”

“And I’m overriding those orders,” he said with a sneer. Wing Commander Mourning Wind was another pegasus like Moon Dancer, commander of her squadron, though not that many could give him a proper bodily description due to all the armor he enjoys wearing all the time, save for when he was in his own quarters. An ebony mane and brown coat was the best anyone could say, but along with his stern attitude and sharp, pointy ears, the fur sticking straight up in an intimidating way, that alone made up for his lacking of appearance. Anypony could spot those menacing ears from a mile away.

“Sir, Flight Lieutenant Moon Dancer will be arriving soon, I think. I’m not leaving my post.”

He continued to antagonize his subordinate with little regard for Moon Dancer’s possible, close arrival. “She’ll probably not be around until another hour or so. Wouldn't you agree? This will only take a second,” he lied. “I just need you to journalize a few of the jobs I’ve had ponies like Moon Dancer do, and seeing as how you’ve been the doorman for all this week, you’d be doing your fellow guards a service. Now, follow me.”

“But-”

“I said…” He turned around, walking off already. “Follow… Me, Druid Shield. This isn’t a request. It’s a direct order.”

The unicorn looked from the door to his commanding officer, and sighed, “Ohhh, I hope Moon Dancer doesn’t show… Knowing my luck, though…”

“Druid! Did I not make myself crystal clear with you?!”

“Alright! Coming!”

He resiliently galloped off, and just as he rounded the corner, with the most absurd timing, Moon Dancer showed just outside the door desperately wanting in.

She huffed to herself as she trudged her way to the doors, the snow making the walk a little bit more difficult from the sheer amount that fell non stop. With a determination that was fueled by the desire for luxurious heat, and just to see Druid Shield once more, she made it to the door, grinning smugly before performing what she had done so many times before. To signal her return, and to confirm it was her and not an imposter, the runes were moved in accordance to her repetitive training.

Muttering to herself as she moved the runes around on the door, something Luna had prided herself on doing as the runes were naked to anyone outside of the guard, she waited for the confirmation on the other side by Druid who would then let her in. The process didn’t take too long, usually being done in under three minutes. That depended on how quickly the guard on the inside responded, though. She could picture it in her mind, too. The glow on the knob would shimmer brightly with a loud hum, possibly waking whoever might be asleep or distracted, and then, the door would undoubtedly open for her.

She took a few steps back, fighting back the overwhelming urge to shiver that much more while the cold wind and snow battered against her. She even began to move her legs up and down to keep them warm and active, plus to fight off the cold as she looked at the door, a small irritation growing inside her head.

“Come on, Druid…” she muttered under her breath.

Moon Dancer started to get more and more worried with each passing moment. She knew that it would take a small amount of time for the doors to open, and she understood that sometimes the guard on the other side might not have immediately seen the runes, but in this particular instant, she didn’t care. She knew he had to have at least heard it by then.

All she knew, was that Druid was either being intentionally mean to her, and taking his time, or he’d left his post, and Luna protect him if the latter was the truthful case.

The mare began to trot in place as the cold started to chip away at her will, to where she flared her nostrils in rising anger. She tried to re-do the sequence on the door to see if maybe, on an off chance at that, she might have gotten it wrong, but that was highly unlikely. When this yielded nothing for another couple minutes, she stomped her hooves hard into the cold ground, and cursed under her breath.

“For the love of the moon, Druid. Open this d-damned door!” she roared, hoping that somehow the stallion on the other side would hear her, but that was unlikely. It was solid, reinforced, enchanted steel, but she had to try. The storm was getting worse.

It proved to be as effective as drying a paper towel with a wet sponge. The wind easily overpowered her voice with its own, terrifying noise, and by then, the mare growled as she started to shiver even more nervously, her tail wrapping around her exposed lower legs. She began rubbing up and down against them in an effort to generate what little warmth she could. Normally, Moon Dancer was a calm and collected guard. She would always try to act with a clear, level head, almost always calculated the best way to circumnavigate a problem such as this, and for the most part, was always able to remain professional around her underlings and peers.

This was unbearable, though. With the constant barrage of snow combined with harsh gusts of freezing winds hitting her the way they did, she started to lose her mind. Her breathing became slightly ragged, and her tail flicked about behind her nervously.

“Druid! Open this damned door, or… or I s-swear to Luna! I will break your legs with a f-frying pan!” She screamed at the door, now bashing repetitively at it with her hooves as hard as she could.

After what seemed like half an hour of banging and shouting enough curses to make a manticore blush, Moon Dancer began to tire herself out, only to come to a sudden, defeated stop, panting heavily as she rested against the door and huddled her body as tightly as she could to beat off the gathering frost. From what it felt like, she might as well have been out there for hours, judging by how much snow was now sticking to her body. Moon Dancer was starting to panic. Maybe Druid had left his post for whatever reason, and maybe there genuinely wasn’t anyone on the other side.

“N-no… not again… p-please, not again… it’s so cold…!” She went silent again, her teeth chattered lightly.

By now, she could have simply flown down to the front of the castle, only to enter there and berate Druid for his incompetence afterwards, but because she’d spent too much time and valuable energy waiting on him, her wings had become too frigid to remove them from her sides, and it hurt to even try to open them in the slightest. What’s worse, the only way off the platform was to fly, glide, or to jump the hundreds of feet it was to the lower levels.

Moon Dancer was going to freeze to death if nopony showed to save her.

“D-damn it… Druid… Thought you said I could… t-trust you… To think, I liked you, too...” She whispered softly as she shook, being buried by snow, a tear escaping. By then, she was at the brink of passing out. It must’ve been at the last minute that the door finally opened for her, but her savior wasn’t Druid at all. Instead, it was a local recruit, just barely into the Lunar Guard. Nevertheless, it was somepony to say the least.

With the door cracking ever so slightly, and Moon Dancer rising to her numb hooves, she heard his immature voice through the opening crackle from the strain, “Need… some help over h-here! Can’t open this thing by myself!”

“Hah… C-coming!”

With all her might, she forced herself to push against the slippery steel, putting all her weight against it, eyes squinting and tears on her cheeks stinging. Little by little, it budged more and more, until finally, it opened just enough for her body to pass through. She flopped to the floor, yelling, “Close it!”

He did his best, using his body as well to seal away the outside weather from the inside’s cozy conditioning, and the second it was all done and over with, Moon rose to her hooves, and the colt looked at her with some sweat running down his forehead. “Wow, that was close! You alr-”

He didn’t even get to finish his question without her lunging at him, ignoring her professionalism, just grateful for his arrival. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I thought I was a gonner! What’s your name?”

He wheezed from her squeezing, “N-no problem, Flight Lieutenant! My name’s Blacky Berry… and, you’re crushing me!”

“Oh, sorry!” She let go, but not wanting to. If anything, his body could’ve been used for extra warmth, but she chose to mind his personal space. “Umm, I’ll be sure to give your name to Princess Luna, and let her know you literally saved my life… Now…” Her toothy smile soon withered away as she regained her composure. “Where. Is. Druid. Shield.”

“Uhhh, I… thought he was supposed to be stationed here, to… open the door?”

“Where is he?” she asked more calmly, and by then, he could guess what was going on.

“I don’t know. I was just passing by, and, and then saw the green-ish… yellow-ish, and purple light, and, well… Here we are!”

She turned abruptly, a scowl forming across her face. “Thanks, and sorry to leave so suddenly, but I’ve got a lazy, good for nothing to hunt down!” With that, she was off.