The Batmares

by Meep the Changeling

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Drama, Original Character, Adventure
Length: 7562

After Roc attack upon the Thestral city of Deepdelve Public Defender Midnight Glide interrogates a group of vigilantes who illegally came to the city’s defense.

[Third Person] Equisverse β

Commissioned by Neece.

After Rock-Roc attack upon the Thestral city of Deepdelve Public Defender Midnight Glide interrogates a group of vigilantes who illegally came to the city’s defense. But will the stubborn lawyer's attempts to point out the basic fact that he law is what it is stop the Batmares when the defend their actions as an organized protest against a bad law?

Published 2018-04-25 11:50:08 UTC
Last updated 2018-04-25 11:50:08 UTC

Mystery Mares (unedited)

Author's Note

This story was commissioned by Neece.

It takes place in my Beta Timeline AU, but can stand on its own as an independent story.

If you would like to support my content please leave PayPal donation, or by becoming my Patreon on Patreon.

Mystery Mares (unedited)

Midnight Glide - 16th of Lunar Dusk, 04 EoH

Deepdelve - Estoneigha

Far to the North West of Equestria lies the Thestral homeland, Estoneighia. Above ground, the nation was as a wasteland. Uncountable legions of monstrous creatures crawled flew and strode across the nation’s rolling of lifeless dirt and gravel plains, patchy tundra with scraggly trees, and a legion of mountains covered in rocky crags and creeping glaciers. Below ground Estoneighia was a thriving land existing entirely within the ancient halls carved into the mountains by generation after generation of Thestral craftsponies.

Of course, there’s only so far down one can dig. As the bat ponies dug deeper and deeper the rock became far too hot for comfortable living. Less traditional and prideful ponies would have simply dug outwards and joined their neighboring cities in forming larger settlements together.

Instead, the Thestral clan dug upwards, building upon the surface of their land for the first time in a thousand years. This made a lot of monsters very happy while making many Thestrals very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

Midnight Glide sat in her office while doing her absolute best to remain professional and ignore Her corner office’s two missing walls. The skyscraper she worked in had taken a very nasty series of hits. Not from the Rocs which had decided to knock their buildings off the mountain to create a nesting ground. The damage was almost entirely to blame on the six mares who had tried to stop the Rocs.

The six mares who were currently seated on the rubble in front of Midnight’s desk. Six mares whom she had to process for the local police department. Whose headquarters they had effectively destroyed.

Midnight looked up from the stacks of papers and concrete dust on her desk and immediately looked back down. The six may have had their hoods down and helmets off, but those costumes were still ridiculous.

All six mares wore form-fitting spandex costumes. Gray bodysuits, black boots, black capes embroidered with each individual's cutie marks, a black cowl, and off the shelf motorcycle helmets which had been very poorly spray painted gray. There had also been utility belts, but those were confiscated when the six had walked in and asked for reward money right as the police were walking out to get them.

Midnight knew the mares names, she focused on them as hard as she could to not laugh.

They look like a bunch of college kids who could only barely afford to go to some comic convention. Because they are. Midnight sighed as she closed the folder going over their last two years of scholastic history.

On Midnight’s left, there was Amethyst Maille and her twin sister Amethyst Sky. The two were indistinguishable from one another, short, thin, large wings, light gray fur, deep purple manes, fire orange eyes, extra fluffy ears. Even their cutie marks looked alike, Maile had a kite shield cutie mark which was white on the left side and black on the right. Sky’s identical shield was black on the left and white on the right. The silver and gold earrings they were to distinguish them from one another did not help at all.

Sapphire Shield was next in line. A taller mare, small wings but with that rare extra finger which gave her much more fine control over her flight. Coco brown fur, mane and tail dyed a deep black and given a short military cut. One yellow-green eye, one black eye patch. A fairly common looking mare, even if you counted her bizarre cutie mark which Midnight believed to be some sort of attempt at drawing a non-euclidean… Something.

Midnight actually knew the next mare. Smokey Quartz lived in the apartment across the tunnel from her. She was almost as basic as Thestrals could be, gray fur, orange eyes, purplish wing membranes. Unremarkable save for one thing… Smokey’s special talent was throwing rocks at supersonic speeds, as illustrated by her cutie mark of a boulder with its own mach cone. The cold breeze blowing through Midnight’s office, and the yet-to-be-fixed hole in her bathroom wall was Smokey’s fault.

Sitting slightly in front of Smokey in an attempt to be protective was Jade Comet. Midnight had the papers relating to the mare’s name change on her desk. For the life of her, she had no idea why a monochromatic pony would want to change their name to draw even more attention to being exclusively one color. Even her cutie mark was a block of jade, which made her look like a blank flank. An odd one for certain.

Last in line was the oldest of the group, as well as its mastermind. Crystal Aurora, the only pony in the line up who wasn’t a Thestral. Crystal was a Crystal Unicorn Pony. An immigrant from the Crystal Empire, which made her somewhat sympathetic in Midnight’s eyes. After all, she wouldn’t want to live in a place ruled by Princess Cadence either.

Midnight had been supposed to learn you really could see right through a crystal pony.

I still can’t get over how they really are blocks of living gemstones… I wonder if she’s made of blue quartz, sapphire, or something more exotic? Is she one material, or his her mane and tail made of opalite? I have so many questions which will never get answered.

Midnight reached up and rubbed her temples. All the paperwork was in order. It was time for her to document their crime in their own words. Truly the worst part of a Public Defender’s job.

This kind of thing is why I never want to visit Equestria. Midnight moaned to herself. This stuff is supposed to happen there. In that weird little town next to their capital. Not here. Not on my day off. Not when the Chief can call me in because there’s no one else who can spare the time to do the documentation.

Midnight reached into a desk drawer and took out a pad and pen to begin writing the mare’s story down. Normally she would have used a tape recorder. Unfortunately for her, tape recorders do not appreciate it when sixty pounds of concrete fall atop them and there was no time to go below ground and buy a new one.

“Okay…” Midnight said with a sigh. “I know you said a LOT of things while I was getting your papers in order, but none of it will have stuck. I’m not trying to be rude, I’m trying to make certain all of your information is correct and consistent across six separate sets of thirty-three different forms. If you’ve already explained yourselves, you’re going to have to do it again.”

The six mares groaned in irritation.

“Oh come on! It’s not THAT hard to understand,” Maille shouted as she threw her hooves up in the air.

“Yeah!” Smokey agreed. “Everypony here is just terrible at fighting above ground. You can't do anything to the monsters. We can. So we did!”

Midnight clenched her teeth tightly. “This. Is. A. Legal. Statement. You need to be detailed. I can’t write down “Six mares decided to become superheroes.” I need the reasons why you did this in your own words. Or would you rather your lawyer be unable to come up with a defense?”

Crystal smiled, her teeth flashing like the diamonds they were. “But that is the reason.”

Midnight groaned again. “Fine… What’s your origin story?”

Crystal raised a hoof to her throat, cleared it, then sat back on her rubble pile to begin the story. “A not so long time ago, in a cafeteria kinda far away…”

Six mares huddled around a cafeteria table as the world shook around them. They had all taken shelter beneath the table closest to them. The six had never met before, but if they survived and their school didn’t collapse surviving this hell together would certainly make them friends.

Dust, pebbles, and the occasional slab of stone fell from the ceiling as the rock-golems outside continued to bombard the city. Boulders the size of small houses flew through the air at speeds even the amazing Rainbow Dash would marvel at. A shame they were being used to level part of Deepdelve.

Sapphire yelped in fear as a slab of stone smashed on the floor inches from her nose.

“This is insane!” She shouted above the bombardment.

“You can say that again!” Jade yelled as she did her best to retract herself further under the flimsy folding table.

“Why don’t they at least have ponies out looking and giving us some kind of warning?” Smokey moaned, burying her face in her hooves.

“Because we’ve only had to watch one tunnel entrance for like, a millennium now,” Sky mumbled, wincing as shards of stone peppered her left side.

Crystal looked at the other mares hiding with her and shrugged. “Eh, it’s not THAT bad.”

Five pairs of eyes turned towards her and stared into her soul with a mixture of hatred and skepticism.

“We're hiding under a quarter inch of plywood to try to not get crush by giant boulders of falling rubble. How could it possibly be worse?!” Sapphire demanded, slamming a hoof into the granite floor hard enough to leave a dent in it.

Crystal frowned, her face scrunching up. “Um, because it’s just some rock golems? It’s not like Lord Tirek is back again or something. We just have to wait a few minutes and whomever you're equivalent to the Elements of Harmony are they’ll take care of it.”

The five bat ponies shared an incredulous look. Smokey reached out and smacked Crystal on the back of her head, making everypony present wince at the loud ringing sound.

“Ow!” Crystal yelped, reaching up to rub the back of her head. “What was that for?”

“We don’t have a squad of superhero mares, genius!” Maille snapped, her eye twitching slightly. “You’re not in Equestria anymore!”

Crystal’s eyes widened as she looked at the others with genuine surprise. “You don’t?!”

“NO!” Five voices shouted over the sound of falling ceiling and collapsing towers.

“So panic like the rest of us!” Sky insisted, glaring at Crystal before clearing her throat, looking out from under the table once more and screaming, “We’re gonna die!”

Crystal sighed and shook her head. “Well, I helped stop Sombra from returning that one time. So I guess that means I have to do something,” she said tapping a hoof to her chin in thought.

“Smokey, please tell this mare there’s nothing we can do,” Jade groaned.

Crystal rolled her eyes. “Yes, there is. Let me buy us some planning time,” the unicorn closed her eyes and concentrated on her magic.

The air around the table shimmered, sparkled, then erupted in an orange glow as Crystal’s shield took shape. Rubble slammed into it, making the shield flex and sparkle, but not seeming to do much to the energy barrier. Not even when large chunks of ceiling fell on it.

“What the hay did you do?!” Sky gasped in shock.

“Magic. Duh!” Crystal said as she rolled her eyes. “I’m a unicorn.”

Four of the batponies gaped at the barrier erected between them and the collapsing building. If Crystal had been a little more socially aware she would have sensed their growing desire to strangle her and ask why she hadn’t done that earlier.

Smokey took Crystal’s shield spell in a different direction.

“You know… If I could see one of the golems I could hit it with a rock,” Smokey reminded.

“What good would that do?” Maille asked, raising an eyebrow. “You’d just peg a bigger rock with a smaller rock. Then that rock would peg you right back with a huge rock!”

“I can throw a rock so fast it sounds like it explodes when I let go. I’ve put holes in the mountain. I think I could destroy one or two of them,” Smokey said, gesturing to her cutie mark with one hoof before sighing. “But I mean… We’re inside. I can’t see them.”

“Also, we’re not cops or soldiers. We would be arrested for interfering in a military operation,” Maille spat angrily, glaring at a floor tile.

“Right, see, nothing we can—” Jade began only to trail off in thought. “Actually, I could make sure we got away. I can make things pass through places they shouldn’t.”

To prove her point the jade-colored mare reached up to the bottom of the table above her head and continued to reach upwards even after her hoof should have touched the table. Instead, it sank into a pool of inky black shadow, only to return a moment later as Jade drew her hoof back, having retrieved a spoon from the tabletop.

“See?” She said with a shy smile.

Crystal smiled, her eyes twinkling as she finished her plan. “Cool! You get whats-her-name and I up to the roof, I put up a shield so we’re not squished, she throws some stuff at them, we save the day, and you zap us back here!”

Sapphire shook her head rapidly. “That won't work! Ponies will see us leave, and what if somepony in the army comes up behind you while you’re helping?”

The Amethyst sisters looked at each other excitedly for a moment, then frowned.

“Too bad we don’t have a couple hours,” Maille began.

“We could make disguises for you guys,” Sky finished.

Sapphire shook her head. “Am I the only pony who doesn't think going out there is a good idea?”

The other five mares looked at one another, then nodded in unison.

“Looks like it,” Crystal said with a shy smile.

Sapphire groaned and covered her face with her hooves for a moment. “Okay! Arrested is better than dead. Let’s go. The twins and I will be lookouts.”

“— then Jade did her thing and warped us out of the cafeteria. Turn out the roof is WAY further than she can send one pony, let alone six. So we ran up the stairs, set up our bombardment platform, and Smokey let fly a few dozen fastballs into the golems. Worked like a charm!

“The soldiers were fighting like they were in a tunnel. Trying to block specific avenues of approach. We were right above one of the gatehouses that had been fortified to use as a choke point. The moment we heard those stallions cheering as golems were shattered by Smokey’s throwing arm, well, we knew we had to do what they couldn’t.”

Crystal leaned forwards, her gemstone-body catching the light streaming in through the missing walls, making her seem to glow with an inner light.

“We had found our calling. We would become watchful protectors of the incompetent, shadowy knights with the special power to use our talents to protect this city from the horrors lurking in the darkness. We would become, The Batmares!” She exclaimed, striking a heroic pose atop her rubble pile.

Smokey cleared her throat. “Crystal uh… She won the rock paper scissors to name us and is obviously terrible with names. I wanted the Mystery Mares. Can we go with that on the legal forms?”

Midnight shook her head. “I’m sorry, but after Stoneridge vs Gold Rush Rock Paper Scissors was formally recognized as a legally binding contract.”

Crystal flashed a huge smile at her friend. “WOOO! Victory for the underdog once more!”

“Wait, it’s legally binding?” Maille asked, her eyes almost popping out of her skull.

“Yes,” Midnight said, giving the mare her most serious stare.

It’s only legally binding in a city with at least a hundred and seventeen thousand residents, but that’s what Smokey gets for making a hole in the wall between my bathroom and the public tunnel. Midnight thought as she held in a smirk.

Sky and Maille shared a look. “Uh oh…”

Midnight raised an eyebrow. “Is there a problem?”

“Uh, no!” Sky squeaked with a sheepish grin.

“No problems,” Maille added with an overly enthusiastic nod.

Midnight rolled her eyes, deciding whatever they were worried about wasn’t any of her business. The light orange Thestral turned her attention back to Crystal.

“You broke the law once and got away with it clean. You may feel it’s a bad law or a dumb law, but that doesn't give you permission to break it. What I don’t understand is why you did the same thing again later. You got away cleanly, there are no reports of the incident on the twenty-third of midwinter. Why did you risk capture by going out again?”

Crystal facehooved and gestured out the missing walls at the piles of house-sized stone-plated bird corpses lying at the base of Deepdelve.

“Are you not— Seriously?” She sputtered, shaking her head slowly.

Jade sighed in frustration. “Okay, look, we bats get attacked, we form a defensive wall in the nearest tunnel-like structure and wait. That’s what tradition says and it’s what kept us alive until now. But that doesn't work with the monsters on the surface! It’s not like dealing with tunneling horrors either. You can’t feel them coming.

“Those Rock-Rocs came out of nowhere as far as most of us are concerned. The military just hasn’t caught up with the change in lifestyle yet. Until somepony decides to stop being prideful and get help training us for above ground combat, someone has to stop the monsters.”

“Right, and why not us?” Sapphire asked, tossing her mane. “We’ve shown we can do it. You know you can’t do it. The option we have is to be heroes or let people die. It’s simple, really.”

Midnight facehooved. Granite below! Morality does not factor into whether it’s okay to break the law. Feelings do not factor into it’s okay to break the law. Why does no one understand that only the text on the page matters when it comes to the law? You broke it, or you didn’t. The courts are where morality matters.

“YES! It is simple,” Midnight exploded, throwing her hooves up in the air. “You broke a law! You’re going to be punished. You should know that you will be punished if you are caught breaking the law. That’s the entire point of having a legal system! Civilians are not allowed to contribute to military action due to the likelihood of damaging public property, injuring or killing bystanders, and/or hinder military operations. It may be the morally right thing to do, but you are not allowed to do it. You knew this, you told me you discussed it before you first operation. But you still did it.”

“Of course we did. The law is stupid. Buck it.” Smokey said with a dismissive wave of her hoof.

“It doesn't matter if it’s stupid, it’s the law!” Midnight snapped. “You follow the law or you get punished. It doesn't matter if the law is good, bad, or somewhere in between. We all follow the law because the people who make the law have the physical power to enforce the law.

“You could have avoided all of this instead of hoping your reasons are enough to get the judge to punish you the least. I’ll ask again. WHY did you decide to interfere with military operations today?”

Sky grimaced and turned her head to look at Crystal. “Geeze, she’s dense!”

“Of course she is, she’s a lawyer. I’d be really weirded out if her sense of right and wrong wasn’t overridden by some junk a politician said.” Crystal replied. “Miss Lawyer, write this down. A few days after the golems we were at the Amethysts’ place…”

The six new friends clustered around a small plastic storage crate inside the twin’s bedroom. Maille took the lead for her sister as she normally did, and gathered everypony close around the large black and gray box.

“This is it, girls,” Maille said with a proud smile. “Our ticket to helping more people and not getting caught!”

Sapphire shuffled her hooves on the carpet. “Are we really going to do that again? We got away with it, but just barely. If that corporal hadn’t thought we were just running away scared… Well, you know!”

Sky nodded. “Yeah. I know. That’s why my sister and I made these.” She reached forwards and popped the crate open. “Uniforms!”

Inside the crate were six mostly identical uniforms styled after the twins favorite comic hero. The gray and black form fitting outfits with motorcycle helmets would have surprised their friends if their shared room hadn’t been mostly filled with comicbooks and associated geekery.

Crystal picked one of the uniforms out of the box with her magic and held it up. The cape unfolded as her magic pulled at the fabric.

“Oh! Hey, you’ve put our cutiemarks on there,” Crystal said with a little smile. “And really well too! Good job, girls.”

“Wait,” Jade said turning to glare at the twins. “You guys know that if we flash our marks everywhere we go they will know who we are, right?”

Sky nodded twice. “Yeah. That’s the point.”

“The law is stupid, and it needs to change,” Maille agreed. “Let’s face it. We’re a bunch of students who got lucky once. We can probably get lucky a few more times. But we’ll be caught eventually.

“Being anonymous is a two edged sword. This way, when we are caught we’ll probably have a bunch of citizens who know who we are and who won't stand for the people who helped them and there will be political pressure to let us go.”

Jade’s frown twisted into a smile. “That’s not a bad idea! So you’re saying we intentionally let civilians see us, use our real names, and do this all above board, only avoiding the military and the cops for as long as we can get away with?”

“Right!” Sky said with a nod. “We’ll probably get some kind of punishment, but we’ll change the system. Just think, if we can do this so can lots of ponies! Imagine if all of our talents were good for fighting.”

Smokey raised an eyebrow. “You’ve got shields on your butts. Aren't you guys talented in combat?”

Sky giggled. “Nope! We’re good at making LARP costumes.”

Sapphire groaned and held her head. “So we’re going to intentionally get ourselves caught… What if this PR plan doesn't work? What then?”

Crystal tilted her head. “Then we get punished. Is that worse to you than a bunch of ponies dying?”

Sapphire’s ears fell. “No… I just… I don’t want to be a criminal!”

“You already are,” Smokey reminded, giving her friend a gentle pat on the back. “But it’s okay. I like the twins plan. We can fix the system and save people at the same time.”

A dull boom rocked the city’s very roots. The room’s mage-lights flickered as their crystals shook.

“What was that?” Jade asked, her ears perking up as she strained to listen to the round as it continued to reverberate through the rock.

A few seconds later the sound of urgent hoofsteps echoed through the apartment hallway. The room’s door was pushed open as the twins’ father, Tunnel Brace barged into the room.

The large wine-red stallion’s eyes looked around the room, locked onto his daughters, then softened. “Oh thank goodness! I thought you were at school.”

“What’s happening, dad?” Sky asked, her wings flicking uneasily.

“Some kind of giant tentacled frog monster just crushed your school. At least that’s what the radio says,” he said as he leaned back out into the hallway and looked around for a few moments. “Looks like your mother is still at her friend’s down the street. Are your friends going to help you with that little bit of civil disobedience?”

Smokey blinked and turned to Maille. “He’s in on it?”

She nodded. “Yeah. How would I have snuck six motorcycle helmets into the house without dad’s help?”

“Mom watches everything like a hawk,” Sky added.

Sapphire created her throat. “Yes, sir. We’re helping them. And everypony up there too.”

“Awesome. I didn’t see you girls head out and you were here all day. Be safe,” Tunnel said giving everyone a wink before leaving.

“Your dad’s cool,” Crystal said with a happy smile. “Okay, big tentacle frog thing. Let’s do this!”

“— so we ran out, saved a bunch of people from the rubble to make sure they knew we were there, said some dramatic things, then Smokey threw a few rocks through its brain and everypony was safe. Good triumphed over stupid. And that’s why we did it.”

Sapphire nodded twice. “That’s why we did it all fifteen times before this time too. It’s not complicated. This is civil disobedience for the public good.”

“She’s a rules monkey too,” Smokey said, nodding towards Sapphire while looking at Midnight. “But that doesn't mean she’s a heartless robot. Bad laws need to change.”

Midnight nodded once. “Yes. That’s why we vote on the laws.”

Crystal snorted. “Please. I may not have lived here long but that kind of thing never comes up on the ballot. If a law is bad you need to protest. If a law is bad and ponies are getting hurt because of it, you do something about it yourself.

“Ponies like you make me regret leaving a nation ruled by immortal demigods. The biggest cultural adjustment I’ve had to make is realizing every single one of your politicians is too young and foolish to understand how to really make a country run smoothly.”

“And monarchy is better?” Midnight asked skeptically. “You’ve probably never seen a law come up for a vote because you are not free to choose your laws. They are dictated to you.”

“We’re as free to choose our laws as you are,” Crystal retorted, rolling her eyes at the mare behind the desk. “You only get to vote to pass NEW laws. You don’t get to make up the new laws, or even help with the wording. Political parties do that. You only get to vote on if your local city’s enact new laws. If it’s a national law, or a regional law you don't get any say at all. Your representatives do get a say, they listen to their parties, not the people. Representative is an empty title form where I stand. They represent nothing.

“Your parties are your nobility, only they are not beholden to your service because they are not responsible for managing public assets to maintain their wealth and power. They get their power from your random decision once every few years. They have no incentive to help the people because the people are the thing they use to get power, not their power source.

“The only difference between democracy and monarchy is that democratic leaders don’t have power long enough to gain the experience needed to do their jobs well, and are not really beholden to the people. Oh, and because they are out the door so fast there’s way more corruption that goes unpunished because you guys are all “Oh well we’ll just replace the bad ones.” But you don't pick the candidates, the parties do. You’re as free here as I was in Equestria, but you have none of the perks.

“Equestria’s laws are dictated by extremely old, wise, kind, passionate ponies who have been in charge for so long they yeah, they really do know better than everypony else when it comes to how to run a government. Sure it’s not perfect, Princess Luna was exiled for a bit, but no system can ever be prefect. But that’s no excuse for your system being terrible. You still have to TRY!”

Midnight’s ears flipped back against her head. “Be that as it may, it doesn't change how any of this works. Opinions do not change reality, they only help to color it.”

“Here’s an opinion,” Jade said as she gave Midnight an angry glare. “How about you stop editorializing and do your job?”

Midnight took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I’m not editorializing. I’m trying to help you understand how the real world works. You’re still in college. You’re starting to understand a little of it, but they won't teach you most of what you really need to know. I’m trying to get you six to understand that by going against the system you’re going to screw up your entire lives.

“If you go to prison over this, and you will almost certainly go to prison over this, you will no longer be eligible for many social programs. If you live with your parents, and they live in government subsidized housing, you will have to move out immediately or you and your parents will be arrested because ex-convicts are not allowed to set hoof on government-subsidized housing projects.

“If you’re ever starving and need food, you won't be able to get into a food program if you’ve got a criminal record that includes a prison sentence. If you need help finding a job, you won't be able to get it from a free service the government provides. You will no longer be eligible to vote in any form of election other than local.

“Are you starting to get the picture?”

Sapphire winced. “Yeah… I— I didn’t think it would be that bad.”

Everypony else turned to look at Sapphire. She had always been the most hesitant of the group. There might not be anything to lose if she rejected her friends now, but it would still hurt.

“But that’s fine. If fixing this law means I have to work extra hard for my whole life to make ends meet, I won't have a problem with that,” Sapphire continued. “Because today we saved seven entire skyscrapers in one of those low-income housing zones.

“I live in one of them. I know how many people live in those towers, Miss. We saved around six thousand lives today. That’s worth having to work a little harder to get through the rest of my life.”

Midnight groaned and rubbed her temples again. “Girls… I didn’t even list a third of the problems you’ve created for yourself. You’re also ignoring the fact that your minimum sentence is ten years. The judge may choose to not put you in prison, but if he does, you lose a decade. You won't have a degree, and you will no longer be eligible for scholarships and grants because you will be too old.

“Going back to school will have to be done on your own dime. You will need a job. Guess who will hire ex-cons? That’s right, criminal enterprises and people who will pay very little because they know that as an ex-con you’ll take any job you get because no one else will hire you. You won't ever make enough money to go to school.”

Crystal smiled. “Individually, no. Collectively, yes. That’s another thing I miss about Equestria. Ponies just help each other out. If we all stick together and work hard, one of us can get through school, then join the workforce and somepony else can finish school and—”

“And no one will hire you even with that degree.” Midnight interrupted with an irritated groan. “By going to prison you flag yourself as a threat to the community. Every employer will know about your past when they do a background check. It doesn't matter if you’re a qualified pilot and there’s a shortage of airship pilots, they will go with anyone else because you were once in prison.

“Life is brutally unfair. For your sake, I hope your story is enough to make a judge look favorably and choose fines over prison.”

Crystal shook her head slowly. “Man, you guys REALLY need to get an alicorn. I heard that Princess Celestia’s protege is an alicorn now. That means Celestia can make them. You should call your Prime Minister and have him ask super nice for an alicorn filly. Raise her up to be a great leader and a few hundred years from now you could have a ruler with the knowledge of several lifetimes to draw upon for decision-making. Then your laws wouldn’t be the STUPIDEST THINGS I HAVE EVER HEARD!

“If someone's OUT of prison, then they’ve paid their debt to society and are reformed. Probably. There’s always some bad apples. But if you’re going to label every criminal for life you might as well just brand their foreheads like they did back in the medieval ages because you're not trying to help people become a part of society again you’re just interested in punishing them!”

Midnight shook her head slowly. “Why do young idealists never understand that the way things should be is important but infinitely less important than the way things are? I would love it if the world you want to exist exists. But it doesn't. You can’t act as if it does or—”

“Or it won't ever be real,” Sky interrupted quietly. “Fantasy never becomes reality unless you work for it, and are willing to sacrifice some things for it. We decided to make the fantasy of a world where ponies are allowed to help each other without being punished a reality.

“It doesn't matter what the price is. We decided to do it. We’ve done what we think will make our fantasy a reality. You’re not talking to some naive college kids who want to change the world. You’re talking to six mares who got off their butts and actually did something about it.”

“Can we get a new lawyer?” Smokey asked as she looked over at her friends. “I want a new lawyer.”

“I’m not your lawyer,” Midnight said flatly. “I’m the public defender tasked with getting the paperwork relevant to your case done. You’ll have a different pony for your legal defense.”

Crystal wiped her forehead in relief. “Thank Celestia! You’re honestly not the person I would want representing us. You can't even get the basics right. We’re not young idealists. We’re young political activists. There’s a difference. Can we just get this over with?”

“Yes, lets.” Midnight agreed. “Tell me about today's incident.”

Crystal shuffled into a more comfortable spot on her rubble pile. “We were up on the roof of our temporary college, posing dramatically for propaganda posters and getting yelled at by the twins for not using classical superhero poses when…”

A sound much like a chainsaw being thrust into a bath of ice water rang out across the mountaintop, echoing between the skyscrapers and off the mountainside. There was no mistaking the sound.

“Rock-Rocs!” Sapphire shouted, jumping down from the edge of the roof to stand back on the top of the tower with her friends.

The six looked up, their tinted helmets’ visors letting them see past the noonday sun’s glare and watch the house-size stone-plated birds begin their dive.

The monsters once roosted on top of Deepdelve’s mountain. They had every reason to come back once a year, and unlike most monster attacks, the Thestrals were ready for this one.

The fear-filled streets cleared in mere seconds. By the time the air-raid sirens had begun to blare their dire warning everypony had already begun heading for the underground. The guard towers within the city seemed to erupt with soldiers as ponies ran to man flack-cannons.

And atop the rented out office building, the Batmares went to work.

“Twins, start breaking bits off the half wall!” Crystal ordered, her horn glowing brightly as she created a one-way shield over the entire rooftop. “Sapphire, better help them, Smokey will need all the ammo she can get. Jade, I want you to try warping her stone’s paths like we practiced. See if you can guide them to target. It’s way harder to hit things in the air than on the ground. I’ll spot targets with breezie-fire. Go!”

Over a dozen successful missions in all six of their region’s major cities had transformed six mares were a well-oiled machine. The twins and Sapphire went to work immediately. Every batpony can shape stone as easily as a pegasi shapes the clouds. Their hooves dug into the concrete half-wall as if it were butter. Hoof sized wads of stone rapidly piled up as they tore the wall apart.

The Rocs reached the city, the sound of flack cannons firing was almost lost amid their hunting cries. Black clouds filled the air as the AA shells burst. Rocs screeched as their stone armor was chipped away. Some monsters fell from the sky, crashing into towers like missiles, threatening to topple them with each strike.

Crystal bit her lip and counted to ten in her head. Smokey needed ammo before they could begin to help, but that was no reason to not mark targets. The Crystal Pony’s eyes scanned the skies, stopping for a split-second each time she made out the shape of a Roc through the flak clouds.

Beams of orange light blasted from her horn one after the other. Harmless rays of light which struck her targets and outlined them in a bright orange fire. The sounds of panicking soldiers filled the city for several seconds until somepony noticed the magical fire made it easy to see the attacking birds through the flak clouds.

The twins had gathered more than enough stone-wads by the time Crystal was done marking targets. Throwing regular chunks of rock worked, but there was more than the three could do. The twins started to roll the chunks of concrete in their hooves, shaping them into balls. Sapphire began to run the finished balls to Smokey and Jade.

“Here’s the first five, make them count!” Sapphire said as she set the “cannon Balls” down next to her friend to run back for more.

Smokey reached down and picked up one of the balls. She narrowed her eyes, searching for her first target. A large male Roc, diving straight for the governor's penthouse with its talons outstretched.

“That one!” Smokey shouted, pointing at her target with a wing.

“Got it!” Jade reported.

Smokey braced herself like a hoofball pitcher, pulled back her foreleg, and let the stone ball fly.

The stone split the air, vanishing from sight in an instant, leaving behind a thunderous sonic boom that shook the rooftop. Ponies on lower floors screamed in pain, assuming their ears were ringing because a Roc had hit the tower.

The governor watched through his skylight as the monstrous bird plunged down, its talons extended, it’s beak open. He couldn’t move, terror froze him to the spot. The Roc would have its meal.

Then something in the distance exploded.

The stone sailed through the sky, crossing the kilometer of air in less than a second. The Roc never saw it coming. The governor saw the stone bird’s head explode in a shower of stone shards, the rest of its body knocked off course by virtue of the six-kilogram mach three projectile.

“Nice throw!” Crystal praised as Smokey picked up another rock.

“Thanks!” she said, pointing to her next target with her wing again. “Screw that guy, Jade!”

Smokey let the next stone fly. Another Roc briefly had an understanding of the force produced by seven kilograms of TNT. A unit better known to the Batmares as “A Smokey Throw.”

“It's too bad you girls said no to Superhero names,” Maille sighed wistfully. “If we called Smokey Saitama it would make millions of fillies super happy.”

“I wish I got your references,” Smokey giggled as she threw another rock.

Rock after rock flew from the tower top. Roc after Roc fell from the sky. Four minutes into the battle the guards triangulated the Batmare’s position. Flak cloud patterns moved, opening pathways to the office building, forming walls behind the attacking flock, funneling them towards their rocky doom.

Crystal watched the Rocs, marking each new one as she spotted it. As the flak clouds moved, the birds dove lower to avoid them. “Watch it, girls! We might start hitting build—”

Smokey threw a stone mid-sentence at a diving Roc and missed. The ball hadn't been made of good concrete and broke apart in the air, creating a stone shotgun blast. The stone fragments streaked off into the distance and punched a few dozen large holes in a distant skyscraper.

“Oops! I uh, I hit the police station,” Smokey admitted in embarrassment.

“How bad?” Crystal asked with a wince.

Jade squinted at the building and winced at the sight of the tower's lower southern and eastern sides new swisscheesification. “Woah… Pretty badly.”

Crystal stamped her hoof on the rooftop angrily. “Buck… Pack it up, girls. We need to make sure no one in there got hurt. The Rocs are almost all gone now anyway.”

Midnight waved her hooves in disbelief. “Woah, woah, woah! Hold it. You came here because you wanted to make sure you hadn’t killed anypony with that rock?”

“Yeah,” Crystal said, her ear flicking in irritation at being interrupted by the incredibly rude pony.

“I brought up a reward as a joke,” Sky giggled. “I wasn’t serious about that.”

Midnight let out a relieved sigh. “Okay. Good. That’s something that your lawyer can work with. You turned yourself in. That always pleases a jury.”

Crystal’s eye twitched. “You know what pleases them more? Not getting eaten. I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine!”

“I hope so,” Midnight agreed. “But you’re still criminals. You will have to be punished somehow.”

Jade’s ears perked as if she heard a faint sound in the distance. A smile parted her lips and she shook her head. “No. We broke a law, but we’re not criminals.” Jade snickered.

Midnight beat her head against her desk twice.

“Criminal, a person who has committed a crime,” Midnight said flatly. “By helping in that battle you committed a crime. Ipso facto, you’re a criminal!”

Jade continued to smile and shook her head again. “No, we’re not…”

Her friends frowned and gave their friend an odd look, not certain as to what game she was playing.

“Yes, you are!” Midnight insisted. “There’s absolutely nothing that can change that. Your actions were noble, but you still have to experience their consequence—”

The office doors slammed into the walls as a tall black and gray speckled stallion in a somewhat disheveled navy-blue suit burst through them.

“Your friend heard right, I’m giving those girls a full pardon!” Governor Stone Mason called to a police officer standing in the hall behind him.

Jade snickered. “Told you we’re not criminals!” she said, taking a second to stick her tongue out at a flabbergasted Midnight.”

The governor turned his attention to the six mares and cleared his throat before reaching out to shake their hooves. “I’m Governor Stone Mason, it’s a damn fine pleasure to meet you. Do you have any idea how many voters you’ve got back on my side? Half the region thinks you’re what I meant when I said I’d do something about the monster attacks.

“I’m thinking we make that official. What do you say we go to my penthouse for an early dinner and discuss the details of expanding your little operation and bringing it above the table?”

Midnight sputtered. “S— Sir! You can’t do that! They broke—”

The Governor rolled his eyes. “I can and I did. Are those their files? Burn them. I’ve already signed the pardon and the announcement is all set for the evening news. These mares are responsible for saving far too many lives to punish because of some five hundred-year-old law in an extremely dusty book.”

Crystal cleared her throat. “Uh, about that law, can we get rid of it?”

The Governor hummed. “Probably. That’s not within my power it will come down to a partisan vote. There’s a good chance we can swing things our way with how much public approval your little vigilante operations have gotten me. But I can appoint deputies and organize militias. Like I said, we’ll see what we can do over dinner. NEVER discuss business without dinner and in the presence of a lawyer,” The governor said, nodding his head towards Midnight.

The Batmares shared a short laugh and exchanged high hooves.

Crystal nodded and smiled at the governor. “That is the first smart sounding thing I’ve heard in half an hour. Come on girls, let’s go!”

The six mares stood up, dusted the dust and rubble from their uniforms and began to leave, following the Governor out as he excitedly began to talk about the girl’s victory.

Crystal paused at the door and looked over her shoulder. “See? Nothing changes unless you do something about it. Later!”

Crystal stepped through the doors, pulling them shut with her magic.

Midnight closed her eyes tightly. Called in on my day off just so my time could be completely wasted and some young mare could throw egg in my face. Yep. Time to hit the bar.

Midnight stood up, collected the Batmare’s documents, tossed them into her paper shredder, and walked out of the office and into a better future.