Brotherly Bonding Time

by Sketcha-Holic

2.2--To Save an Orchard

Pinkie hopped through the orchard, humming a merry tune as she did so. With a fruit hat strapped to her head and the hissy squeaks and chirps from the bats behind her, everything was going smoothly. She could see that she was gathering more and more bats from the trees, and if all went according to plan, they'll all be back in the sanctuary!

She bounced past a large, red stallion tending a tree and waved at him. "Hiya, Big Mac!"

Big McIntosh looked up and nodded in acknowledgement. His jaw then dropped at the sight of a black cloud made of vampire fruit bats chasing Pinkie, the sweet aroma of her hat too much to ignore. He continued to gape at the sight, followed by the Cutie Mark Crusaders in pursuit of the cloud.

Big Mac put a hoof to his face. "Oh no..." He sighed and turned around. "Better get th' net..."

Pinkie just kept bouncing on forward, the sanctuary now in her sight. Victory was within her reach, and Sweet Apple Acres was going to be safe. No more apples would fall victim to hungry animals. No mean vampire fruit bats were going to devour her friend's--and possible family's--orchard while Pinkie Pie was around!

She was almost there. The fence called to her, telling her to bring the bats home. The aroma of her hat just needed to keep the bats' attention for just a little while longer...

All of a sudden, at one moment when she landed on her hooves, something crashed into her, sending her tumbling forward, her fruit hat flying off. She found herself at the bottom of a pile of fillies, a wagon, and a scooter, aching from the impact. Stars were in her vision, as were many a fruit bat.

She shook her head and looked forward, only to spot the bats snatching her fallen fruit hat and sucking the fruits dry. She gaped at them, hearing the sucking sound from their mouths as the fruits withered into ugly, wrinkly, mushy skins. Once they were done, each member of the little group burped before flying off.

The Crusaders climbed off Pinkie, and then she proceeded to jump forward, growling and shaking her hoof in the air. "Hey! I was using that to lure you bats! You weren't supposed to eat it yet!" She stamped her hoof. "Now I have to make another one..."

The Crusaders lowered their heads in shame. Apple Bloom looked up at her, saying, "We're sorry, Pinkie Pie..."

"Yeah, I didn't mean to crash into you," Scootaloo said.

Pinkie was looking up at the bats flying above her. "No time to apologize--we need to find some fruit and make a fruit hat!"

"Aren't apples fruit?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"We've lost enough apples!" Apple Bloom snapped.

Pinkie turned to them. "Apple Bloom is right! I'm going to town to find some fruit that the bats haven't touched."

The Crusaders' eyes widened, and they opened their mouths to protest. However, before they could utter a word, Pinkie sped off, leaving the trio standing there, gaping at the dust cloud that Pinkie left.

"She left," Scootaloo said.

Sweetie Belle bit her lip. "Uh oh... she's not supposed to know about the party!"

Apple Bloom gazed at the bats flying around. "But we can't just leave the orchard to fend for itself."

"I got it!" Scootaloo leapt into the air and hovered for a moment. "One of us can go and keep her away from the party!" She looked around, and then spotted Big Mac with a net, trying to catch some of the bats. "And the two of us that are left can help Big Mac catch the bats."

"Well, who's gonna go?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other and then back at Sweetie Belle. "You are."

---

Tomato wished he had a homing signal on Cheese.

Wherever his older brother was, it was where the supposed party was, and where everypony else was sure to be. He had figured out that it was a party for Pinkie, due to the Crusaders dragging her out of town.

He wished they had at least paused to give him the location. Then again, he didn't really know where he was going.

He passed by house after house, shaking his head at each one. Wherever the party was, in wasn't in one of those humble homes. If he were to guess, it'd either be outside or in a larger building like the town hall or the castle.

He sighed. If only he knew where to look first.

He heard the panting of a foal behind him, and he turned around to find Sweetie Belle sitting there, sweating and wiping her forehead. She looked up, with eyes that seemed to be asking for his assistance.

"Did you chicken out of catching the bats?" he asked.

"Huh? No, I didn't!" She took a deep breath and asked, "Have you seen Pinkie Pie around?"

"Afraid not. Did she escape or something?"

"She's looking for fruit to make a fruit hat."

Tomato pursed his lips. "Okay then... say, do you know where that party is? I figure that the other ponies are there, and we need their help with the bats."

Sweetie Belle stood up. "It's around the castle. I'll lead the way. But be careful, we don't want to ruin the surprise for Pinkie."

"At this point, I don't think whether or not it's a surprise matters, since, well, the bats."

Sweetie Belle groaned, and she cantered around him. She took the lead, and Tomato waited a few moments before following her. As much as they needed to hurry, he didn't want to press her to go a full gallop. Still, he wondered how the other two were faring against the bats, and how well Pinkie's first fruit hat worked.

And then it hit him. Two fillies, facing off against a colony of bats--

"Wait, you left your friends to fight the fruit bats on their own?"

Sweetie briefly glanced back at him. "No, they're with Big Mac. He's big and strong, he'll be a lot of help! And to be fair, you left us."

"I assumed Pinkie would watch you, but apparently she's a bad babysitter." Tomato snorted. "Maybe you should ride on my back and I can gallop to the castle."

"But what if you get--"

"I can see it right there!" Tomato pointed to the spires of the castle. "I'll be just fine. Now, let's go--killing time means we're killing fruit." He trotted beside her, and used his tail to hoist her onto his back. "Okay, hold on tight!"

Sweetie Belle wrapped her front legs around his neck, and then the stallion bolted, startling her with his surprising speed.

Tomato galloped through the streets of Ponyville, his heart pounding and his ears filled with the rapid rhythm of his hooves hitting the pavement. Not very many ponies were out and about, though those that were jumped at the sight of a lanky, vermilion stallion nearly crashing into them.

Tomato didn't have time to apologize, nor could he even say it with the panting that overtook his lungs. His windpipe was burning, his legs were aching, but he still went full throttle. Not helping his breathing was the filly hanging on his neck for dear life.

Soon the castle was within reach, and Tomato gave himself one last push. He could see many ponies working on the party, just like Sweetie Belle said. Sure enough, Pinkie's friends, as well as Cheese, were there. They had put up streamers, banners, and balloons galore, and there were several activities being set up. The only one he processed was the tug-of-war, with the mud puddle in the middle.

The very reason that he processed it was that he tried and failed to stop before he fell in. So he went tumbling in face first, with Sweetie Belle still on his back, and both yelped before they went splat in the mud.

The yelps got the attention of everypony there, including the party planner and the friends of the mare which the party was for. After a moment of of confusion looking amongst each other, the ponies ambled to the mud puddle to find a now muddy Sweetie Belle, sitting atop what looked like a dead stallion lying face down in the mud.

Rarity gasped. "Sweetie Belle!" She telekinetically lifted her sister out of the mud. "My goodness, you're a mess! What were you doing in the mud?"

Tomato lifted his head and raised a hoof. "My fault." He then splashed his face back into the mud with an ungraceful splat.

Cheese walked into the mud and helped him up. "Geez Louise, Tomato, I never thought you'd end up tripping into a mud puddle like that! I expected a more sophisticated fall."

Tomato scowled at him, and then swatted him so he fell face first into the mud. "Like that?"

Cheese looked up with a muddy and unamused face. "Okay, okay... that was a bad joke..."

All of a sudden, Pinkie popped up from the mud between them, holding a disappointed look as she looked between them. "Hey! I thought you were done with that feud! You two be nice to each other!"

Everypony simultaneously groaned.

Pinkie looked around in confusion and asked, "What?"

Twilight sighed. "Oh, Pinkie..."

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms. "So much for a surprise party."

Pinkie blinked and looked around at the food and decorations around her. She also saw the disappointment on everypony's faces, to which she pursed her lips and said, "I could forget about this party so I can be surprised later."

Tomato started wiping the mud off of himself. "Well, now that everything's been spoiled... I need to tell Applejack something."

Applejack blinked. "Uh, what you have to say?"

Tomato bit his lip. "Well... your orchard's under attack."

---

The cacophony of the bats' screeches and hisses were giving Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo earaches. The juice of many an apple was spilled on the ponies, and the bats were not shy about discarding mushy apples on the heads of their pursuers. Some even dared to divebomb them and give them a few scratches here and there.

Big Mac gave a buck that was only hard enough to shake the tree and scare the bats out of it. Then, with a net in his mouth, he attempted to catch some of them. He only succeeded in snagging one, however, and he had to drag it to the sanctuary, making sure it didn't escape his clutches. And in attempting to throw it back in, the bat flew the opposite direction. Big Mac growled and stomped on the ground, and then tried to catch the bats again.

He noticed Apple Bloom had caught some bats as well. Too bad that those in her net were flying in harmony, carrying the filly off the ground and leaving her legs dangling. Apple Bloom had her mouth clamped down tight, shouting something incoherent at the bats.

Big Mac sighed, and galloped toward Apple Bloom to help her.

Scootaloo was zipping around on her scooter, net in mouth and hoping to snag some bats as well. Unfortunately, they were all flying too high for her to reach, even when she jumped. Her attempts to hover even resulted in her falling, missing her scooter, and crashing down to earth, dropping her net.

Getting up and brushing herself off, she grabbed her scooter once again and sped through. She looked around for anything that could make a good ramp, enough to give her a boost to snatch some of the bats. She looked to one side; there were trees. She looked to the other; there were more trees. She looked forward; there were still more trees, and she had to swerve to keep herself from crashing into one.

Finally, she spotted a rock, which had the perfect slope to get her some air. With a smirk, she sped on forward, flapping her wings to give herself a boost. Feeling the wind blow through her fur and her heart racing, she was ready to soar.

She flew off the rock, and she found herself high enough that she could touch the bats. She swung her head to snag some bats... only to find that she had forgotten to pick up the net when she fell.

"Aw, horsefeathers!" she shouted.

And then she found herself plummeting back down to earth. As she braced herself for impact and the inevitable broken bone, she was suddenly intercepted in midair. She blinked, and looked up at her hero. She grinned.

"Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow nodded proudly. "Of course it's me! You think I wouldn't notice a filly falling from the sky?"

She turned around and sped back the direction she came, startling some bats out of the flying pattern. The disrupted bats hissed at her, but didn't bother to chase her.

She landed in another part of the orchard, joining her friends--minus Applejack and Pinkie Pie--as they surveyed the scene before them. Behind them sat Tomato and Sweetie Belle, who appeared utterly horrified at the sheer number of bats that flew both above and between the trees.

Rainbow set Scootaloo down and turned to Twilight. "Is it just me, or did those things multiply?"

"Well, obviously, they reproduced since the last time we dealt with them," Twilight replied.

Hearing them speak from where he sat, Tomato added, "They also reproduced in the last ten minutes."

Rainbow glanced at him with a sneer and asked, "Why did we bring him? Cheese would have been more help than his dipstick brother."

"Cheese is keeping the preparations going," Twilight answered. "Besides, Tomato was telling us how this started, remember?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes. "He didn't even make it exciting."

Applejack came out of the trees, with Apple Bloom and Big McIntosh behind her. "...now, Apple Bloom, I appreciate that you want to help--but after you bein' almost carried off like that, I figure we'd have to wait a little longer before you can catch varmints like that."

"Applejack, I couldn't just let the farm go to ruins!" Apple Bloom protested.

"Don't worry, I won't let that happen." Applejack looked up at her friends. "Okay, looks like we rounded up all the Crusaders. Now we can round up them bats and put 'em back in the sanctuary." She turned to Fluttershy. "You been practicing yer bat speak?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Of course I have. I'm still not perfect, though..."

Applejack walked to her and patted her back. "We ain't lookin' for perfect--just enough to get the bats to listen."

Then Pinkie Pie hopped on the scene, carrying several fruit hats. "You wouldn't believe how much fruit I found! I made seven fruit hats!" She started hopping around, putting the hats on each one of her friends, as well as Big Mac. "We can attract seven times the bats!"

Twilight looked up at the fruit hat she was now wearing for a brief second. Then she looked forward at her friends and said, "All right, girls... and Big Mac... let's all go get those vampire fruit bats!"

"Darn tootin'!" Applejack exclaimed. She looked at her brother. "Ready for a fruit bat roundup?"

Big Mac nodded. "Eeyup."

As the group wearing the fruit hats started to leave, Tomato raised a hoof. "Is there any way I could help?"

Applejack stopped and turned around to face him. She rubbed the back of her head. "Er... unless ya can speak bat like Fluttershy, I doubt there's much you can do. Why don't you just take the Crusaders to where the others are settin' up the party?"

Pinkie stopped her pronking and gasped. "Wait! There's a party?"

Both Applejack and Tomato raised eyebrows at that. Then Applejack told the Crusaders, "You gals can help Cheese Sandwich set things up. I'm sure he'd love the help."

Apple Bloom stomped a hoof. "But I wanna help save the farm!"

Applejack lowered herself to eye level with Apple Bloom. "Don't worry--my friends and I can take care of it."

Tomato nodded a bit numbly. "Yeah, I guess seven adult ponies is enough to handle a swarm. Besides... maybe there'll be more opportunity to earn your cutie marks helping Cheese."

Sweetie Belle gasped. "You don't think we'd be party ponies like Pinkie or Cheese, do you?"

Tomato shrugged. "Maybe. But there's only one way to find out."

Scootaloo grinned. "Well, why not? I'm up for it."

Apple Bloom looked at the orchard and back at her friend, biting her lip. She looked at her older sister and asked, "So... the orchard'll be okay?"

Applejack nodded and hugged her. "We've saved it plenty of times. We can save it again."

Once she was released from the hug, Apple Bloom hesitantly walked away. "All right. I'll go help with the party..."

Applejack stood up straight, nodded, and then turned around. Apple Bloom watched her sister gallop into the trees before she turned around. The Crusaders and Tomato then began to walk all the way back to the castle grounds.

Author's Note:

Ever played Panda Pop? I'm playing it on Facebook, it's frustratingly addicting, and I can't get writing or drawing done if I keep playing that spawn from the underworld! I'm on Level 154... grr...

But, yeah, more vampire fruit bat madness! Now with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Big McIntosh involved! Big Mac's name frustrates me...

Nevertheless, I wasn't at much of a standstill with this chapter than the last one. Had a little trouble in some areas, but I wouldn't consider it a groaner.

Comments

[scoots2]

Pinkie blinked and looked around at the food and decorations around her. She also saw the disappointment on everypony's faces, to which she pursed her lips and said, "I could forget about this party so I can be surprised later."

I WOULD TOTALLY DO THAT.

In fact, I think I have done it.

Loving all the sweet Cutie Mark Crusaders moments, including the funny stuff with Tomato and Sweetie Belle. They play off each other well, don't they?

[Drifting Heart]

:D This going to be good and Pinkie ruined her own surprise party how the.....Forget it never question the pink one.

[SageBrony07]

I feel sorry for Tomato. Everpony is overlooking him. Sad. I hope he can shine sometime in this story. Great job with this chapter.

[Jordan179]

5517611

Pinkie is psychologically-strange enough that I could see her doing this for real.

[Drifting Heart]

5519000
With how the tv series treats her its no surprise she has these comic relief powers.

[howard035]

I love Pinkie forgetting her own surprise party! I just hope she doesn't do it via hitting herself with something.

I was kind of hoping when Applejack asked Fluttershy if she'd learned bat yet, AJ would take the time to say "I told you so." From what I remember of the episode, it seemed like the bats could understand Fluttershy, they just didn't care, like a horde of Angel bunnies with wings.

[Jordan179]

5525679

The funny thing about this is that her Reality Warping is one of the most potentially-dangerous powers in Equestria -- right up there with the Alicorns Major, especially if she screws up badly enough. Her Final Strike mode would basically be the ability to crash causality -- the problem is that she might not be able to contain what she unleashed.

[Drifting Heart]

5527135
Oh man that's pretty intense! She would learn to control it right? because those with powers do eventually learn to control it so they don't accidently hurt the ones they love. Still its an amazing gift she has but deadly if not controlled.

[Jordan179]

5527146

It's a really good thing for everyone that Pinkie PIe is an archetypical All-Loving Heroine.

[Drifting Heart]

5527179
Good! Her getting corrupted in any way will be a disaster.

[Jordan179]

5527194

Alex Warlorn's Angry Pie (Discorded and immortal Pinkie) and Nightmare Granfalloon (Pinkie-gone-Nightmare) were both terrifying characters, precisely because they had retained Pinkie's powers but lost their moral compasses. Angry Pie was a homicidal maniac who horribly killed anypony she thought might be laughing at anything; Nightmare Granfalloon incapable of doing anything but Eternally Partying -- from a Joker sort of persepctive of "partying."

[Godslittleprincess]

All of a sudden, at one moment when she landed on her hooves, something crashed into her, sending her tumbling forward, her fruit hat flying off. She found herself at the bottom of a pile of fillies, a wagon, and a scooter, aching from the impact. Stars were in her vision, as were many a fruit bat.

Ooooh! So close.