[HICHE] ADKoPD: Episode 11, Right Off the Bat

Subtlety and subversion are things I appreciate. I love subversive plot points, things that look one way but turn out another. I especially like it when they set up with some trope that’s so obvious the characters should see it that you know there’s no way that’s actually what the author is using, and of course they’re not using it, they just wanted to quell your fears early that they wouldn’t go that way by letting you know they saw and ignored the opportunity. If only my ideas had actually done that. Welcome, friends, to Episode 11 of “A Different Kind of Pegasus Device”.

[G-Docs Chapter Link – Right Off the Bat]

We jump right into the mission with a team whose only notable feature is including Fluttershy’s first active assignment, despite her having had prior run-ins with the dark magic entity and Crunch the Rockdog. The Jumper arrives through a grounded Stargate in a dim forest, where it’s warm despite being rather near a pole. There’s also a slight ringing in everyone’s ears that will absolutely play no role at all later on. Then we meet the native species for this planet: bat ponies. Not from a past Gen, just straight up G4 bat ponies, and no, Princess Luna doesn’t know how either. Up until now, the various past-Gen ponies have been intended to physically resemble their differing animation styles, being chubbier, stockier, or pencil-thin compared to the main cast where necessary, but these bat ponies fit right in with the Equestrians. There’s no lore reason for it, it’s just the way I envisioned it. Anyway…

There are a handful of OC bat ponies whose appearances are vaguely borrowed from the Silverwing book series, most of whom will get only minor features in roles that were decided while preparing this summary, while the only name worth mentioning is Desmo, their leader, named after a bat species that will immediately tell any bat enthusiast where this story is going. The bat ponies want to see the reign of the Wraith ended, but act suspicious enough to serve as a hint that astute Gaters may realize resembles the Genii. In SGA, the Genii are the most recurring antagonists after the Wraith, and are basically corrupt greedy people based on third world dictators who don’t care if others get hurt for their ambitions, not even other Genii at times. After failing to make nukes, their main strategy for fighting the Wraith is to kill the human populations they feed on so they’ll starve. As for the bat ponies…well, we’ll see. They begin ignoring all Expedition members except Fluttershy, prompting Twilight to be called in, only for the discussion of an alliance to go nowhere. Things progress much the same on the next day, where Twilight is literally led in circles in the forest by a rambling bat pony to keep her away from Desmo, who meets privately with Fluttershy for a discussion about Atlantis. He gives her a metal ear band all bat ponies wear (which Silverwing readers may recognize—yeah, this is the new “as in SGA”, I loved those books and I’m using as much of them as I can) and a cup of tea, which absolutely has nothing else in it. After Twilight finally manages to get back, she pulls the mission because of suspicious circumstances and the group heads home, where she discovers that Fluttershy actually offered the bat ponies information about their ZPM.

That night, Fluttershy mutates into Flutterbat (you all knew it was coming) and steals Atlantis’ ZPM, shutting off power to the city. Twilight and co. find her leaving through the Gate on backup power and rush through after her (telling Spike to prepare reinforcements to follow), but are surrounded by bat ponies on the other end. With the planet’s odd ear-ringing background tone, Twilight can’t concentrate as much for magic, so she teleports the group elsewhere to plan how to get Fluttershy and the ZPM back. Leaving the others to wait for their backup, Twilight and Rainbow (disguised as, but not transformed into, bat ponies) wander and discover a large cave where hundreds of bat ponies are huddled, stuck in an apparent trance. The most obvious Silverwing reference character points them to a place called the Cave of Zotz, another namedrop, which turns out to be an abandoned Wraith lab that tried adapting Wraith technology to use ZPM power. Records reveal that the first bat ponies here were Wraith experiments, and they find the formula that forced the Flutterbat transformation. Inside is also a device that’s emitting the high-pitched frequencies they’ve been hearing all along, which they discover resonate with the other bat ponies’ ear bands to control them, also from Silverwing. Most bat ponies were tricked into wearing them by an extremist group which found the lab, and are kept out of the way in the main cave, with only those few in on the plan being free, wearing inert ear bands. Twilight and Rainbow also find scribbled ramblings that give them a horrifying realization. These bat ponies possess a similar hunger to the Wraith, and they don’t just want to defeat the Wraith, they want to replace the Wraith as the carnivorous scourge of the galaxy, the Vampyrum Spectrum. Step aside, Genii, you’ve been out-crazied.

If you thought a lot just happened very quickly, it’s because it kinda did, and it’s gonna wrap up even quicker. Twilight and Rainbow are outed and captured, failing to threaten Desmo with a Get Smart reference. The backup teams arrive in Jumpers, but discover that their cloaks don’t block bat pony echolocation (and neither could illusion spells), ruining the sneak attack…and it’s at this point you’ll notice that I never envisioned a conclusion for this episode. I guess they get the ZPM and Fluttershy back, but I couldn’t tell you how. They probably mess with the sound machine (shoot a drone into the lab?) and send the other bat ponies into a distracting swarm to escape, but as for reverting the Flutterbat mutation again? I dunno, maybe the elixir in the tea wears off. Cop out, but it works. Except that I have in dialogue that the change will become permanent in time, so…yeah, I got nothin’. The Atlantis lab concocts an antidote from the original sample. Post your alternate suggestions in the comments below.

Most-broken conclusion since “The Path to Power”, but I repeat, there’s a reason this story is still in the draft state. I feel these summaries have gotten considerably shorter as the episodes go on, and not least because I’ve been leaving out more details and explaining fewer references from the draft. I didn’t mention it, but we passed the halfway point of the draft’s document when we started last episode, and the first half of the pages only had the first third of the story. If I can stay focused on the task, I could knock out the remaining summaries disturbingly fast. Let’s hope I can join you sooner next time as we begin a game of Subnautica in the next episode, “Creeps in the Deeps”.