A Monster Looming Over Us

by Brass Polish

4 Respect Your Minors

Fluttershy wished she hadn’t told everypony what the vampire fruit bats had said to her. She was sure she’d caused severe damage to several relationships and families. She watched aghast as Apple Bloom took off spluttering with rage. Lazybug and Cheerilee were leaving as well; Applejack offered them the dining room to work in.

“I gotta go give George his book back,” Fluttershy said, turning away.

“Fluttershy,” said Applejack, “you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I made Apple Bloom and Lazybug hate you two,” croaked Fluttershy. “I didn’t want to say it in front of them, but I agree with them. You’re being too hard on them. Lazybug only wants to show everyone that he doesn’t live up to his name. And Apple Bloom doesn’t like being held back. But now it’s too late to tell them we all know this. They’ll turn into complete rebels. They’ll never take you seriously again.”

“Yeah, this is definitely a mess,” agreed Crosspatch. “Something’s gotta be done.”

“Any ideas?” asked Applejack.

Crosspatch and Fluttershy shook their heads.

“I’m gonna go return George’s book,” said Fluttershy, taking off.

“Well, I think we should let them work on this project on their own,” said Applejack.

“Why?” asked Crosspatch.

“We’ll be giving them what they want, and they’ll be working hard to prove that they’re better than us,” explained Applejack. “They’ll be determined to get the whole thing done, so they’ll be won’t enjoy a moment of all that back-breaking labour after a few days of working.”

Crosspatch nodded. “I see. So we’d be giving them what they want, and punishing them at the same time.”

“Without them knowing it’s a punishment,” added Applejack.

“But Apple Bloom doesn’t want to work on this project now,” said Crosspatch.

“Oh, right,” frowned Applejack. “Well… Lazybug definitely will. Maybe Apple Bloom’ll change her mind when she finds out he’s being allowed to keep working without having to get tutoring.”

They agreed to put their siblings in the picture in the morning after they’d settled down a bit.

In addition to working on the bat sanctuary clean-up project for free, Crosspatch had offered to de-spider the entirety of Twilight’s Castle to make up for baiting her stunning spell and sending her flying backwards. But Lazybug wasn’t satisfied with Crosspatch’s efforts to make amends for her deception. He quite agreed with Apple Bloom that the adults were exceeding their authority, and was determined to carry out his backup plan. Such was his determination that he spent hours working on the make-up homework Cheerilee had given him. It was very early in the morning when he wrote the last paragraph of his essay on the Rain Dance, and when he finally looked up from his papers, he saw Cheerilee was fast asleep. He quietly left the dining room, returned with a blanket to put on Cheerilee, and left again to sneak upstairs to Apple Bloom’s bedroom. All was quiet, there was nopony about, but Lazybug was sure with every little sound his hooves made, he would wake somepony up. He reached Apple Bloom’s door and pushed it open.

“Have you been awake all night?” he asked quietly.

Apple Bloom, bags under her bloodshot eyes, nodded glumly. “I feel terrible.”

Lazybug considered. “Yeah. Me too.”

He joined Apple Bloom on her bed.

“Crosspatch is right. School’s not bad for me. I’ve made lots of friends there… including Miss Cheerilee. And I have learned a lot. I’d kinda like to do the Rain Dance. It’d save me the trouble of carrying a water bottle around all the time.”

“I don’t really want to work all the time either,” said Apple Bloom. “I am the leader of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I’ve got other things to do besides farm chores. I can’t hate Applejack for wanting to take charge. She’s the backbone of Sweet Apple Acres… and I love her. I don’t wanna go with our backup plan. It’ll just get us into more trouble.”

“And we can’t go into the sanctuary anymore because the bats’ll tell Fluttershy,” said Lazybug. “Besides, I don’t want Crosspatch to hate me anymore. She may be a coward, but she’s just as hard a worker as me.”

“I don’t want Applejack to hate me, either,” nodded Apple Bloom. “Yeah. Let’s just leave our kites in the clubhouse for now. We’ll take them to class tomorrow when it’s light.”

They heard a door slam downstairs.

“Cheerilee must’ve woken up and left,” said Lazybug. “I hope she likes me essays.”

“I should apologise to her tomorrow,” said Apple Bloom. “I wasn’t really mad at her. She’s our teacher. She’s supposed to give us hard work.”

“And it’s worth it,” agreed Lazybug. “Like I said, I…”

He shivered a bit.

“Is there a draft in here?” he asked.

Apple Bloom looked at her window. It was closed.

“Why would there be a draft in here?” she wondered with a little chill down her spine.

“It is kinda windy tonight,” said Lazybug. “It would’ve been a perfect night to use our backup plan.”

Apple Bloom eyed him sternly.

“I know, I know. The plan’s off,” sighed Lazybug. “It’s gonna be a really awkward breakfast.”

“Yeah, but at least all three of them will be there. Then we can get it over with,” said Apple Bloom. “Crosspatch did stay over, right?”

“Yeah. She came in after work, walked right by me and Cheerilee, and went upstairs,” said Lazybug.

“Good,” said Apple Bloom. “Then we can tell them all that we know they’re not heartless and domineering to us just because we’re foals.”

“Yeah. They’ll be glad to hear we know they have our best interests at heart on the whole,” nodded Lazybug.

They heard a door slam downstairs again.

“What’s going on down there?” wondered Apple Bloom.

They left the room to have a look.

“Hey. Applejack’s door’s open,” said Apple Bloom as she and Lazybug walked down the hall to the stairs.

She looked inside Applejack’s room.

“She’s not there,” she said.

“Did she leave?” asked Lazybug. “Why would she do that at this time of night?”

They went down the stairs into the dining room.

“Oh!” cried Cheerilee. “You’re still here.”

“You took the words right outta my mouth, Miss Cheerilee,” said Lazybug.

“Is something wrong?” asked Apple Bloom.

“That door slammed and woke me up just a minute ago,” said Cheerilee. “And it woke Applejack and Crosspatch up too. Applejack said your bedroom door was open, and we all thought you’d snuck out of the barn.”

Apple Bloom was about to ask why they would do that, but she reminded herself that they did have a prank planned.

“I probably should’ve shut your door when I went to your room,” groaned Lazybug. “We better go after them. There’s no reason they should be out in that wind fussing about us.”

He and Apple Bloom expected Cheerilee to hold them back, but she didn’t. All three of them left the barn and ventured out into the wind.

“They’ll have gone to the vampire fruit bat zone,” said Apple Bloom.

“Yes, I thought maybe you’d gone there too,” admitted Cheerilee. “I’m sorry, you two.”

“I’m sorry, too,” said Apple Bloom.

“Me too,” said Lazybug.

Their spirits lifted, the trio put on some speed towards the bat sanctuary, running against the wind.

I hope the boxes I put on the kite strings are enough to keep them from blowing out of the clubhouse, thought Apple Bloom.

“I can’t imagine what those two are up to,” groaned Applejack as Crosspatch swatted a bat away from them. “Are they really trying to work in here at this hour?”

“I don’t care what it is they’re doing,” muttered Crosspatch. “I just can’t stand all this underhoovedness from my little brother.”

Applejack snorted. “You’re one to talk.”

“Come on, Applejack! I’m working for you for free now, and I’m cleaning all the spiders outta the castle. Is that not enough?!”

“All I’m sayin’ is Lazybug probably doesn’t like your underhoovedness any more than you like his,” said Applejack.

Crosspatch sighed. “I want to be a good influence, but I can’t help being scared of… of…”

Crosspatch froze.

“It just hit ya we’re in the vampire fruit bat zone at night, didn’t it?” asked Applejack with a frown. “I know. I don’t like it either. But…”

Applejack saw that Crosspatch was looking at the ground. She glanced down and shuddered. The clearing they had walked into was covered in what looked like dozens of large bat footprints.

“I completely forgot about those,” gasped Applejack. “If that giant bat Twilight tried to fight off was you, what’s been making these footprints?”

“Those?”

Crosspatch was pointing towards the reddening sky with a trembling hoof. Applejack looked up in horror at the two dark winged figures soaring through the air above the treetops.

“It’s the giant bats!” she screamed.

“Applejack! Crosspatch! It’s okay!” Apple Bloom called as she and Lazybug ran up to their screaming sisters. “It’s just our kites for class!”

Applejack and Crosspatch calmed down and looked up at the flying figures again. They realised their wings weren’t moving.”

“Mine’s the thestril and hers is a griffon,” explained Lazybug. “They’ve blown out of the clubhouse.”

Right at that moment, the thestril kite’s string snagged on a tree branch, and stayed where it was, bobbing up and down in the wind. Applejack and Crosspatch sighed with relief.

“Well, now that that’s all cleared up,” said Applejack, looking angry, “do you wanna tell us what you’re doing in here?”

“We came looking for you two,” answered Apple Bloom. “We never left the barn until you two did.”

“Oh, really?” Applejack made no effort to hide the scepticism in her voice.

“Cheerilee,” said Lazybug, “tell them…”

He looked back to find Cheerilee wasn’t there.

“Where’s Cheerilee?” he asked.

“Did we lose her?” wondered Apple Bloom. “She was with us when we went after you two, Applejack. She told us you all thought we’d snuck outta the barn.”

“Lazybug, Apple Bloom,” said Crosspatch, “how many bat-looking kites did you make?”

“Just the two,” said Lazybug. “Why?”

Crosspatch pointed to the reddening sky with the same trembling hoof as before.

“There’s another one.”

A dark winged figure soared through the air above the treetops. It was no kite. This figure was beating its wings.

“The giant bat!”

Applejack, Crosspatch, Apple Bloom, and Lazybug all ran out of the clearing and hid under some overhanging branches out of sight.

“How?!” cried Apple Bloom. “How can there really be a giant bat in here?”

“What else could have made all those footprints?” asked Crosspatch.

“Oh! I forgot to tell you,” said Lazybug. “Those aren’t footprints. Those are spots where all those tiny apple trees used to be. I found that out yesterday when I was clearing away a buncha little trees. Their roots kinda look like bat feet when they come outta the ground.”

Applejack gave her head a shake. “That can’t have been a giant bat we saw.”

“But it was moving, Applejack,” shuddered Crosspatch. “You saw its wings beating, didn’t you?”

A scream filled the forest.

“It’s Cheerilee!” exclaimed Apple Bloom, taking off in the direction the scream came from, Lazybug, Applejack, and Crosspatch following on.

They found themselves in the other area Lazybug had cleaned yesterday. There was Cheerilee running around in a panic.

“Bat footprints everywhere!” she yelled. “Giant bats everywhere!”

“Calm down, Cheerilee!” Applejack ran up to her and tried to hold her still.

“Two just flew over me!”

“No, no! Those were just our kites,” said Apple Bloom. “For that group assignment for class. Remember?”

“There’s one right there!” shouted Cheerilee, pointing up.

There was the dark creature, its wings beating against the wind.

“And one in that tree!” Cheerilee cried.

Applejack, Apple Bloom, Crosspatch, and Lazybug all gasped when they saw another large dark figure with long thin wings. As soon as they saw it, it flew out of the tree and soared towards them. So did the first creature. The ponies all huddled together, unable to do anything other than shut their eyes in horror before the two monsters pounced on them.

A crunching noise compelled them all to open their eyes.

“What in scones name is this?” barked an unfamiliar voice. “This ain’t a real giant bat.”

The ponies got a good, up-close look at the creature standing before them. He was standing on something that resembled a broken piñata.

“He’s a griffin!” exclaimed Applejack.

He turned to face the huddled ponies, is beak, feathers, down, and snow leopard’s tail clearly visible now.

“Why are griffins always coming into Sweet Apple Acres?” groaned Apple Bloom, standing up.

“Hi, ponies,” said the griffin, looking a little puzzled. “Um, did Fluttershy not tell you about me? I’m George. I leant her my vampire fruit bat phrasebook.”

“You’re George?!” exclaimed Applejack. “Huh. She never said you were a griffon.”

“You’re a member of the Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures?” asked Crosspatch.

“I’m the first member they’ve had from Griffonstone,” grinned George.

“Well what are you doing here?” asked Applejack.

“Well Fluttershy gave me my book back, but I saw when I got up this morning that the bookmark was missing from it,” said George. “I want to find it before I head back home.”

“What’s that you’re standing on?” asked Cheerilee.

“I dunno,” George looked down at his talons. “It kinda looks like Fluttershy, but made of apple cores. And with longer wings.”

“No way,” Crosspatch piped up. “Did the bats make that? Fluttershy said she was doing arts and crafts with them a few days ago.”

“Oh. Now it makes sense,” said George. “She told me after I gave her my book that they told her they were mad at her when she turned into a bat pony one time, because they thought she was mocking them. They must’ve tried to tell her this earlier with this sculpture.”

“So what made all those prints?” asked Cheerilee.

“Appearently it’s all the little trees we’ve uprooted,” said Crosspatch. “Lazybug just told us.”

Everypony was relieved to know for sure that there were no giant vampire fruit bats about.

“Well, I’ll never find my bookmark in this mess,” groaned George, looking around at the wild forest. “Great. I’ll have to buy another one.”

He took off without another word.

“Thanks for trying to save us!” called Applejack.

George didn’t reply as he flew away across the sunlit sky.

Author's Note:

I decided not to go the route Top Bolt did. You can draw your own conclusions.

Comments

[leifj2009]

This feel like a prequel to ponyville mysteries.