A Monster Looming Over Us

by Brass Polish

3 Respect Your Elders

Applejack, Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Fluttershy crowed around them.

“Gosh! That didn’t take long!” cried Applejack.

“Nnnnope,” agreed Big Mac. “You’ve only been gone two minutes.”

“I hoped I’d misunderstood those bats,” said Fluttershy, “but I must’ve heard them right. They really did try to warn me about giant bats.”

Twilight was taking longer to recover from the backfire than last time.

“It won’t be safe to keep going with this clean-up project,” she panted.

“Nnnnope,” nodded Big Mac. “I did always think it’d be best to leave well enough alone.”

“Why won’t it be safe?” asked Apple Bloom.

Everypony looked at her.

“All we have to do is not attack the giant bat, and everything’ll be fine,” finished Apple Bloom.

“It ain’t that simple, Apple Bloom,” said Applejack. “It might leave us alone if we leave it alone, but we’d still be fiddling with his home.”

“Yyyyep,” said Big Mac. “It’d get sick of watching us and losing places to keep out of sight. If it leaves, our fields don’t stand a chance.”

“Wow. If you’d been this talkative when I first met you,” said Starlight, “I wouldn’t have had to put that chatter spell on you.”

Big Mac and Applejack grimaced.

Crosspatch arrived.

“Twilight? What happened?”

“She tripped and fell,” said Apple Bloom.

“Apple Bloom!” snapped Applejack.

Apple Bloom ignored her. “What’re you doing back here so soon?”

“I was worried about all those bats nests I found on the ground in there,” said Crosspatch. “Well, actually, Lazybug reminded me about them.”

“I wouldn’t worry,” said Fluttershy. “Surely even a giant vampire fruit bat would be careful not to tread on babies.”

“Oh. I guess so,” nodded Crosspatch.

“Are you sure?” asked Apple Bloom. “How careful can a giant bat be?”

Twilight picked herself up. “It is best to leave the sanctuary alone, Apple Bloom.”

“That’s right,” said Applejack. “None of us are going back in there from here on. That includes you, Apple Bloom. Yes, I know.”

“You knew!”

“Yes, I knew. I knew you’re made of tougher stuff than me. I admit it. But not enough to be safe around a giant bat,” said Applejack firmly. “If I find out you’ve been going in there for any reason from now on, you’re in trouble.”

“Oh, fine!” snapped Apple Bloom. “Now you don’t have to feel bad at collecting seeds compared to me!”

And she stormed off.

Applejack sighed. “I better go after her and make sure she doesn’t try to spend the night in the treehouse. Don’t want her gettin’ foalnapped again.”

Crosspatch shuffled her hooves as Applejack ran after her little sister.

Apple Bloom hadn’t spent the night in the clubhouse, but was very displeased under the barn roof. She barely said a word to anypony until she was on her way to school with Lazybug.

“She admitted right in front of everypony that she knows I’m tougher than her,” she grumbled. “She just doesn’t want me hanging around that giant bat when she’s too scared to.”

“What about that chimera?” asked Lazybug.

“I still got the pie cart past it!” snapped Apple Bloom. “Besides, I didn’t know how to fight a chimera, but I know how to deal with a giant bat. Leave it alone. And she knows it too. She’s just a fraidy-cat.”

Lazybug said nothing.

“You don’t seem as mad as I thought you’d be,” observed Apple Bloom. “I thought you’d skip school and keep on working in the bat zone.”

“I’m not too fussed,” said Lazybug calmly. “You told me Cheerilee has a group assignment for the class today, right?”

“Yeah. So?”

“I’m gonna tell Cheerilee that I can only come back today, and I’ll have to go back to Sweet Apple Acres for the rest of the week,” said Lazybug. “And that you’ve agreed to partner up with me for this kite project so I can get credit.”

“Ah. And tomorrow and Friday, you’re gonna sneak into the bat zone?” asked Apple Bloom with a grin.

“I’ll keep popping in and out of class until that vampire fruit bat sanctuary is as clean as my water bottle,” smirked Lazybug. “And you can help. Whenever you have applebucking chores, and you’re not bucking red gala trees, you can put the bruised apples outside the bat zone’s fence instead of chucking them into the pig troughs.”

“Yes!” exclaimed Apple Bloom. “Then I can collect the seeds later and you’ll be able to plant something other than red gala trees in there! Great idea, Lazybug!”

They stopped talking abruptly as they approached the schoolhouse. Foals were already in the playground waiting for the bell to ring. Petunia arrived at the same time as Apple Bloom and Lazybug.

“You’ll never guess what I dug up yesterday!” she shouted excitedly.

Everypony stopped what they were doing and gathered around Petunia. Whenever Petunia told them she’d found something in the ground, they always got hyped.

“It was a fossilized thestril wing!”

“You’re kidding!” exclaimed Silver Spoon.

“It was! I’ve read about them, and those bones definitely came from a thestril!”

“Wow! That’s gotta be the coolest thing you’ve ever dug up!” grinned Gilt Eyes.

“Yeah. But I still liked that gold doubloon I found two months ago,” Petunia smiled, remembering.

“Didn’t you poke your eye when you dug that up?” asked Twist.

“Yeah, but my mom had an eye patch for me,” said Petunia. “I thought it was kinda weird, though. She said she had that in case someone needed one.”

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle said nothing.

“I mean,” Petunia went on, “Pinkie Pie’s got eye patches stashed all over Ponyville for emergencies like that. My mom didn’t really need to have one.”

As planned, Lazybug told Cheerilee that he’d be absent again after today for bat zone clean-up detail, and Cheerilee agreed to give him credit for partnering up with one of his classmates for the upcoming kite constructing project. But after she assigned this project and told everypony to partner up, Apple Bloom was surprised to see Lazybug go straight to Petunia.

“How about we make a kite that looks like a thestril?” he suggested.

Petunia jumped at the idea, and they had begun drawing up plans before Apple Bloom had even found a partner. Diamond Tiara approached her.

“Silver Spoon wants to partner up with Gilt Eyes,” she said. “Can we make a kite?”

“Uh, sure,” shrugged Apple Bloom.

She and Lazybug had discussed making their kite to resemble a griffon, but now that Lazybug seemed to have changed his mind, Apple Bloom suggested she and Diamond make a griffon kite.”

“Oh, like Gabby?” asked Diamond Tiara brightly.

“Yeah,” nodded Apple Bloom. “I didn’t know you knew Gabby.”

“She came to me a while ago asking me about you, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle,” said Diamond. “And I told her how you three saved me from becoming somepony I hated.”

Apple Bloom smiled as she and her partner began drawing up plans for their griffon kite.

“Why’d you ask Petunia to be your partner?” Apple Bloom asked Lazybug privately during recess.

“I didn’t think she’d be too mad about doing most of the work if we were making a kite that looked like the thestril,” said Lazybug. “And you and DT are making a griffon?”

“Yeah.”

“Hm. Good,” grinned Lazybug. “Cause I’ve got a little backup plan, in case our sisters catch us.”

Apple Bloom managed to contain her excitement as Lazybug quietly explained his backup plan to her. She almost hoped they would get caught going behind Applejack’s and Crosspatch’s backs. They agreed to carry out their plan the next day, and after school that day, they worked with their respective partners on their kites.

In the morning, Crosspatch had work to do in the lake, so Lazybug had no trouble faking heading off to school before turning towards Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack was leaving with a market delivery when Lazybug arrived. He stayed out of sight until she was gone, and then he entered the orchard. He spotted Big Mac ploughing a field, snuck around, and had a clear path to the vampire fruit bat zone. In he went with an empty bucket. He wasn’t collecting seeds this time though. He was going to clear a patch for some non-red gala trees to grow. He knew it would be a long job, but he also knew he had all day. He found an area of the sanctuary that had mostly young, tiny, weak trees. It was unlikely any bats would give him trouble for deforesting this area, so he began yanking the trees out of the ground. Soon, he had a pile of thin logs sitting by a large red gala tree, and he noticed his water spritzing bottle was running empty. So he left the sanctuary and snuck to the well to refill it. Unfortunately, when he returned, he couldn’t remember where he’d found the path of tiny trees. And he’d left the bucket behind. He didn’t end up finding it, but he did find another patch of weak trees. This one was larger than the other, but there were overhanging branches over it with bat nests in the limbs. There would be more resistance from vampire fruit bats, but it didn’t matter to Lazybug. It took him longer than the first time, but towards the end of school bell rang, he had another pile of uprooted tiny trees sitting beside a red gala tree. The bats were not happy to have their nests prodded by the tiny trees he was pulling out of the ground, but he never failed to repel them. Eventually, there were none in sight. Now without the bucket, he had nothing to collect the roots still poking up out of the bat foot-shaped holes the uprooted trees had made, so he decided to start a pile of those as we—

“Wait a minute!”

Lazybug goggled at the holes the tiny trees used to stand in.

“That’s what’s been making those holes that look like giant bat footprints,” he chuckled. “Those little trees we’ve been pulling up. It’s just their roots. But then what attacked Twilight and Starlight?”

He started to leave when he remembered how he lost his way last time. He thought he ought to leave some sort of path.

“Hm…” he said, looking at the pile of tiny uprooted trees. “Are there enough of those to make a path out?”

It took him a long time, as we wasn’t able to carry all of the logs, but eventually, he had a path of them leading to the clearing he just made. It didn’t quite reach the fence, so when he stepped out of the zone, he made sure to make note of the fallen branch leaning against a post. He turned to meet Apple Bloom in the golden delicious field.

“Alright, Lazybug,” said Crosspatch through gritted teeth. “If you’re gonna insist on working on this project, you’re gonna get tutoring in the evenings.”

Lazybug’s jaw dropped at the sight of Crosspatch, Cheerilee, Fluttershy, and Applejack standing outside of the vampire bat zone waiting for him. Apple Bloom was also standing there.

“I swear I didn’t tell them,” she said quickly.

“Who did?” demanded Lazybug.

“It was me, Lazybug,” said Fluttershy, looking somewhat apologetic.

“How did you know?” asked Lazybug.

“The vampire bats told me somepony was disturbing their nests.”

“What?! You don’t understand the vampire bats,” objected Lazybug.

“I understand them better now that I’ve read this,” smiled Fluttershy.

She showed them a book she had tucked under her wing.

“I borrowed this from George, a friend of mine from the Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures,” she explained. “It’s a phrasebook.”

“For vampire fruit bats?” Lazybug’s jaw dropped again.

“He wrote it himself,” grinned Fluttershy. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? He actually studied the language of vampire fruit bats, and a lot of other animals. So now I know I misunderstood what the bats meant when they were telling me about a giant bat. They were talking about me.”

“You?”

“They didn’t take kindly to me because they thought I was aping their lifestyle when Twilight’s spell accidentally mutated me,” she explained. “They weren’t talking about an actual giant bat. They told me they’ve never seen any such creature.”

“But what about the one Twilight and Starlight found?” asked Lazybug.

“That was me,” said Crosspatch.

It was high time Lazybug sprayed himself with water, but he was so surprised by Crosspatch’s confession that he didn’t feel dehydrated at all.

“I kept the Zap-O-Lantern’s skin as a souvenir, in a box. I grabbed it as I left the house after dropping you off, using that guilt trip you used on me as an excuse to run off. Then I cut it into a bat shape, snuck in, put it on, and jumped out at Twilight and Starlight.”

She pointed to a grey heap next to Applejack. Lazybug could make out a crude cut that looked like a pointy wing tip.

“Yeah. I admit it. I was scared to keep working in there if there was a giant bat lurking,” said Crosspatch. “So now that we know there’s no danger and the project’s starting again, I’m taking the job for free.”

Applejack nodded.

“And like I said earlier,” Crosspatch went on, “if you really want to work on this project all day, Cheerilee here is gonna tutor you on what you missed in school. Starting now.”

Lazybug looked with a grimace at the loaded book bag Cheerilee had with her.

“How much did you teach today, Miss Cheerilee?” he asked.

“Today’s subject was different categories of recyclable materials,” said Cheerilee. “But as punishment for lying to me about being allowed to skip class, I’m also assigning you an essay on what you missed on Monday and Tuesday.”

Lazybug groaned. “Alright, Crosspatch. You win. I’ll never skip class again.”

“Well, you’ll have to if I need you,” said Crosspatch. “But…”

Apple Bloom snapped. “Make up your mind!”

“Watch it, Apple Bloom,” said Applejack sternly. “Or I might change my mind about letting you work on this project.”

“I don’t want to anymore,” grunted Apple Bloom. “This is just funny. Me and Lazybug got more work done that anypony else. I wanna see how good you do without us.”

She laughed derisively.

“You put it like that,” Applejack seethed, “I’m ordering you to help us clean up the bat zone.”

Apple Bloom stopped laughing and gave Applejack a look of disgust.

“You don’t want my help. You think I’m useless.”

“Don’t you go puttin’ words in my mouth, young mare,” warned Applejack. “Just for that, you’re on fertilizer duty for the rest of the clean-up.”

“No.”

“Yes, you are!”

“You can’t punish me just because you’re older than me!” shouted Apple Bloom. “You have no right! None of you do!”

She rounded on Crosspatch and Cheerilee.

“You think we’re just dumb kids that need to be whipped into shape! Well me and Lazybug are smarter and better workers than the three of you put together! And you hate us for that!”

“I told you not to put words in my mouth! Go…!”

Applejack faltered.

“See that?! You know if you give me a punishment, you’ll just prove me right!” sneered Apple Bloom. “And you don’t want me, you’re little sister, to be right.”

“I don’t care if you’re right or wrong. I’m not putting up with that bad attitude of yours, Apple Bloom! You put one more hoof wrong, and I’ll tear your clubhouse apart!”

Author's Note:

Cheerilee just kinda got dropkicked into this story, I realise.