BAT PONIES

HISTORY

The history of Bat Ponies as a race is well muddled by centuries of superstition and fear. Added to their reclusive nature, it leads to a mystery of how these ponies live, work, and play. To most scholars, the only obvious fact about Bat Ponies is their close relation to Pegasi, in both physiology and personality. Their greatest secrets are left unknown even to themselves, shrowded in an ancient past long forgotten.

Thousands of years ago, it is known that the winged ponies, Pegasi, were a violent, militaristic race fueled by airborne warfare and nationalistic, imperial zeal. Great armies of Pegasi washed over entire continents, conquering them in fell swoops.
However, it was not until the ancient Pegasi arrived in Dresenia did they meet resistance. Many generations before the first united Equestrian explorers reached the continent, a scouting party of five score and ten Pegasi arrived on Dresenian shores. After establishing a small colony now known as Fort Featherfall, the soldiers set about putting down resistance from native flora and fauna. Forests were slashed and burned, small villages of Zebras, Diamond Dogs and Griffons were razed, and the army met no resistance until reaching the mountains.

There, in the mountain chain that Dresenian Bat Ponies now call their ancestral home, the army met a foe they could not overcome.
A terrible, angry spirit rose up from the mountain caves, and came down on Fort Featherfall like a terrible illness. It spread quickly from pony to pony: First, feathers would start to shed in clumps, leaving naked, useless wings behind. Then, bones would ache and muscles would twist to the point of nearly breaking, leaving the soldiers crippled, some lying only where they fell. What happened next is too frightening and too graphic for young lore scholars to hear.
The ancient army became the first Bat Ponies.

Reclaimed by the Dresenian land, the first phalanx vanished, their story swallowed by history just as the sea swallowed their colony. The Bat Ponies retreated into the mountain caves, as they could no longer tolerate sunlight, nor make the long journey home to Cloudsdale. After many generations, the Bat Ponies' children no longer remember their origins.
In modern times, Bat Ponies live in isolated colonies, populating secluded caverns far away from other ponies. In their own culture, they lead simple lives, but many travel to other nations for work, for fortune, and to escape famines and disasters. Sometimes, other nations come to them, building closer and closer to their mountain homes. Earth Ponies and even Pegasi are famously intolerant of Bat Ponies, blaming them for crop blights and poor harvests.

ANATOMY

Most Bat Ponies are, most importantly of all, peaceful herbivores. Like all other ponies, they are gentle natured, and only feed on the nectar of fruits, rather than grass or roughage. Because of their high minded feeding habits, they tend to rarely touch the ground, sleeping in tall trees or the roofs of shallow caves when feeding outside of their homes.

While most ponies have blunt, flat teeth for grinding grass and shoots, Bat Ponies possess two kinds of long, needle-like teeth for cutting into the delicate flesh of succulent fruit. Their famous canines can be so long that they protrude from the top lip, and their molars are scissor-like for slicing and holding fruit. They often have long, pronounced snouts and gaunt faces, as cheek muscles evolved for chewing grass have become useless to them. Their long, bony faces are seen as ghoulish by most ponies, who find them uncanny and skeletal. Further enhancing their dramatic appearance are pale, luminous eyes that have vertical pupils for capturing optimal light. These unique eyes also give them one of their most crippling weaknesses: Bat Ponies can absolutely not tolerate sunlight. Completely blind in full sun, they're also fatigued and easily sunburned during the day. It is said that a Bat Pony out during the day is likely sick, dying, or insane.

Bat Ponies are most identifiable and obvious from their unique wings. Instead of feathers, Bat Ponies possess leathery membranes stretched between long "fingers" on the wing arm. These wings are much more flexible than a Pegasus's, making them more maneuverable in dense forests and underground tunnels, but much slower and less powerful fliers. The swift, mechanical movement of the wing fingers also gives them a degree of dexterity, and along with the small thumb claw on the leading edge of the wing, Bat Ponies can swiftly climb up trees and cave walls without using their hooves.

The limbs of Bat Ponies are very long and gracile, and some subspecies have developed two or even three toed hooves similar to the ancient ancestors of all pony races. The joints of the legs are often pronounced, and connect to equally bony hips and shoulders with deep grooves to accommodate the legs while in flight, which are tucked closely to the body instead of the typical "spread eagle" flight posture of Pegasi. These thinner, longer legs have a disadvantage on the ground, and Bat Ponies are known to be clumsy runners. Normally only running during takeoffs, they are much slower than Pegasi, and can even break bones by spending too much time on the ground. Chronic hip problems are common among Bat Ponies assimilated with Earth Pony culture.
They also use their tail as a fifth "limb" when roosting--although it lacks musculature to be truly prehensile, the tail is much longer than an average pony's, and can wrap tightly around tree branches to brace the Bat Pony while sleeping, feeding, socializing or caring for young.

Shaggy coats are common due to their nocturnal lifestyle. Unshaven fetlocks can become bothersome quickly, though some braid or dread their longer fringes. The mane and tail is thick and frizzy, contributing to a wild, mangy appearance. Most noticably are their thickly furred ears, which are exaggerated to better capture sound in the dark.

CULTURE

Despite their alien appearance and feral dispositions, Bat Ponies are overwhelmingly passive and peaceful. Reclusive to a fault, they often decline to take sides in any conflict unless they or their feeding grounds are directly involved. Often pushed further away from other societies by stigma, some Bat Ponies are reproachful of ponies approaching them for help or friendship, and although rarely violent, they can be aggressive tricksters. Instead of warfare or cruelty, Bat Ponies will often play mean spirited tricks on ponies that wander into their territory, intentionally frightening, embarrassing or confusing an aggressor away.

Tricks and pranks are central to Bat Pony culture, almost as close to their hearts as their love of fruit. Even the most serious and stone faced elder patriarch will crack a smile at a well planned joke. Everything, from courtship to politics, is inundated with joke culture. Social groups are tightly bound by in-jokes and code phrases, and being told a Bat Pony's personal jokes is considered a sign of great trust. Close friends and relatives can complete each other's jokes and riff off of each other flawlessly.

Perhaps the greatest prank Bat Ponies play are their grand shows of manners and sensibilities, mimicking the aristocracy of long-forgotten Pegasus ancestors. A well-dressed nest is a sign of high social status, and lavish prank parties are held in sweltering grottoes and moonlit meadows. Each flock has a wildly different set of manners and rules, and even a ridiculous formal accent to be used at parties and in front of outsiders. These social rules exist solely to taunt and gossip about other ponies participating, and breaking them can result in becoming a shamed laughing stock, but only until the next unlucky victim comes along. Because of this, Bat Ponies outside of their native societies are often seen as cruel, mean-spirited and gossipy.
The cities of Bat Ponies are sparse, often the ruins of larger cities of extinct civilizations. Underground jungles and waterways are popular, though some have left caves altogether to live in tree houses and in the societies of other races. Abandoned churches often have bats in the belfries, and ghost towns can come back to life with nocturnal residents and their loud parties.
Travel is also an important aspect of their culture, and most societies will partake in mass migrations from one feeding ground to the next. Farms and towns that unwittingly build on these ancient migration routes can find themselves suddenly swarmed with thousands, if not millions of nocturnal, fruit-devouring pranksters. Because of this, the relationship between Bat Ponies and rural Equines is strained at best, and fatal at worst.

Earth Ponies by far despise Bat Ponies the most. When migrating flocks travel overland, they leave farms devastated and livelihoods destroyed. Bat Ponies are all by driven out of many areas of Equestria and Dresenia, for fear that their presence will bring about famine and disease.

However, in Equestria, the night princess Luna is considered a patron saint of Bat Ponies, employing them as her personal guard and staff. Many Bat Ponies even in Dresenia pray to Luna for guidance and prosperity, and put great faith in her appearance in dreams as a tool of prophecy and leadership. Cults of the moon can be found in most Bat Pony societies, and most officials and leaders are also high ranking members of these cults. Lunar imagery is prized in jewelry, clothing and Cutie Marks, and adorns trees and caverns used as homes.