"The League was made up of all three kinds of ponies -- earth, pegasus,  and unicorn, for we had followers amongst them all. Though faithful, none of them were suited to life on the moon, harsh mistress that she is. So, with our final gasp of power, we prepared them, and rewarded them, blending their essences to erase all distinction, and creating a new race perfectly adapted to the eternal night that was our objective:  the batponies. With only the briefest glimpse of what we had wrought, we collapsed into torpor, fated to slumber for a thousand years until  prophecy decreed that we should awaken and renew our nightmarish quest."