//------------------------------// // 73. Flutter like a Bat! // Story: My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship // by Danieru //------------------------------// A bell was ringing through the streets of Ponyville. Normally, that is something that Star Twinkle would not bother with but in this case, he simply had to investigate. Star Twinkle remembered how Applejack once told him that whenever she would ring that bell, then it would be in some kind of emergency. Whatever the reason might be, Star Twinkle decided to check it out to see what happened. To his surprise, the rest of his friends were on their way to the orchard as well, all of them wondering what all of this was about. "What's going on?" Rainbow Dash asked as she was diving down next to Star Twinkle who was still running towards the orchard. "I dunno," Star Twinkle replied. "Today is Apple Bucking Day," Twilight pointed out as she ran right beside Star Twinkle. "Since Applejack is not working out in the field, I guess something must have happened to prevent her from doing just that," she figured. The rest of Star Twinkle's friends joined the three as well and they soon arrived in front of Applejack's barn where they could already hear the mare's voice. "Attention! This is a Sweet Apple Acres code red! I need all hooves – and claws – on deck!" She screamed over the sound of her ringing the bell. She finally stopped ringing the barn bell as soon as Star Twinkle, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Spike arrived right in front of her. Applejack seemed unusual paranoid and stressed, there was definitely something bothering her. "What happened?" Star Twinkle asked out of worry for Applejack. "Well, just look at it!" She replied while pointing towards the orchard. It was really messy all over the place. Foul and dry apples were scattered all over the orchard. On top of that, there were almost no apples hanging from the trees anymore. On first sight, it looked like as if Applejack's harvest was not as good as it usually was but the group then quickly noticed something else hanging in the trees. "Are those...bats?" Star Twinkle asked as soon as he spotted a few of those creatures hiding inside of the trees, sucking the juice out of some of the remaining apples in them. "Not normal bats!" Applejack corrected. "Vampire Fruit Bats! And they are attackin' Sweet Apple Acres!" She exclaimed frustrated and angrily. "But I thought the fruit bats usually stayed put in the west orchard," Twilight pointed out, clearly knowing more about all of this than Star Twinkle. "The fruit bats do, but these aren't just your everyday ordinary fruit bats. They're Vampire fruit bats! I'll be darned if they think they're gonna sink their fangs into my blue ribbon apple," she said as she walked up to something big and round standing next to her, hidden under a sheet. She revealed a gigantic apple hanging...or rather standing next to an apple tree. It was twice the size of Applejack herself and pulled the branch where it was hanging from almost down to the ground. Needless to say, the group was heavily surprised to see something like that and watched in awe. "That's a huge apple!" Pinkie Pie expressed, stating the obvious. Applejack explained. "This here's our entry into the Appleloosa State Fair's produce competition," she while she proudly looked at her masterpiece. "You know how much TLC goes into getting an apple to grow like this?" "I imagine a lot," Star Twinkle replied, not even having a single clue how Applejack even managed to get it to grow this big. Rarity walked up to the apple as well and looked at her reflection which was mirrored on the apple due to it being really shiny. "Applejack! When you go big, you really go big!" She said impressed before she lost herself in her reflection and adjusted her mane. Applejack was well aware of her success with this apple and wasn't even thinking about letting it get ruined by some bats. Considering how big she managed to grow this thing, it would really be a shame if something would happen to it, that is something the group all agreed to. This is where the problem with the Vampire Bats came in. Applejack claimed that they were after her giant apple. Fluttershy flew up next to Applejack after hearing that and assured her that it wouldn't come to this. "Oh, I'm sure if we just let them know how special that particular apple is to you, they'll leave it alone," she explained optimistically. But Applejack had problems believing that. "Yeah, right. Be my guest," she said, allowing Fluttershy to actually speak to some of those bats to take care of the situation peacefully. Fluttershy smiled and was glad that Applejack was open to her solution and went over to one of the apple trees to confront the Vampire Bats. She was the only one able to talk with animals so the rest was just waiting for her to deal with them. "You'll think they will listen to her?" Applejack asked into the round. Star Twinkle kept watching how Fluttershy was talking to one of them and expected her to be successful. "I'll saw her talking down a Dragon, a Minotaur, and a Draconequus. I think she can handle a few bats," Applejack kept watching Fluttershy and hoped that what Star Twinkle was saying was true but as soon they saw how the Vampire Bats spit some apple seeds at the mare they were convinced that it didn't go quite as well. Applejack simply rolled her eyes and was not really surprised by this outcome. Fluttershy came walking back and Applejack put on a fake smile. "Well? What'd he say?" She asked overly sarcastic awaiting Fluttershy's answer. "Um... yes," Fluttershy then replied with a smile on her face. "Huh?!" Applejack replied confused. "But... it could've been a no," Fluttershy then corrected, causing Applejack to groan in response. "This is the first Vampire Fruit Bat I've ever met and, well, it might take some time for me to really understand their language," she explained further which would explain why the bats replied the way they did. "Uh-huh. And in the meantime, this pest and his vermin friends are gonna go after my prized apple and, while they're at it, every other apple in the orchard! These vampire bats are nothin' but a bunch of monsters!" Applejack said, clearly not taking it too well that those bats were flying around in her orchard. "Monsters?!" Fluttershy replied, shocked by Applejack's choice of words. "Oh, that's a bit harsh, don't you think?" "Didn't they just spit seeds at you?" Star Twinkle pointed out. Fluttershy had to think for second how to reply but then decided to smile nervously. Applejack, however, didn't feel like smiling and made her point clear. "They don't care about what happens to my orchard, they don't hesitate to eat my apples, and I am pretty sure that they already targeted my masterpiece of an apple as well!" Applejack said, hammering down her hoof at the ground angrily. "Now wait just a minute, there's also another side to this," Fluttershy responded, trying to side with the bats again. "These bats are mamas and papas too and they care for their young just like us ponies," she pointed out. "Oh, give me a break," Applejack replied annoyed. "You're being too kind! Do mamas and papas treat an orchard like a restaurant?" Applejack replied. This went back and forth multiple times. Both of them made valid points and tried to convince the other to side with them, unfortunately with not much success. However, there was one fact that could not be ignored. Those bats already destroyed some of Applejack harvest and they would probably continue. Applejack had all rights to worry about her orchard. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy, but I believe Applejack has made the better argument," Rarity agreed. "These vampire fruit bats sound downright dreadful," she expressed while shrugging her body in disgust. Applejack suggested that they should all round them up so that they would not destroy the rest of her orchard. Everyone agreed with that idea, except for Fluttershy who was not liking the idea to treat the bats like that. "Um, excuse me, but, um, what if instead of rounding them up, we... let them have part of the orchard?" She suggested. She was obviously still trying to find a more peaceful solution to all of this. But Applejack was not so easy to convince after losing some of her harvest already. "Have you lost your pest-lovin' mind?!" She replied offended. "They're only here because they're hungry!" Fluttershy pointed out. "If we build a sanctuary for them, they could have their own apples to enjoy! After a while, they could even help the rest of your orchard! The vampire bats don't eat the seeds of the apples, and when they spit them out, they grow into even more productive apple trees!" She explained. "Listen, Fluttershy," Applejack replied, trying to finally make her point in all of this. "That sounds real nice 'n' all, but every second we spend buildin' this so-called 'sanctuary' is a second they'll spend destroyin' orchards! You don't know what it was like the last time there was an infestation, but Granny Smith has told me enough stories about it that just the thought of it gives me nightmares! We lost a huge section of orchard that year. They had to ration out apples all winter!" She explained. It was no wonder that Applejack wanted to deal with the situation as fast as possible after growing up with a story like that as a background. But after listening to the story, Rainbow Dash a whole lot of other concerns. "What about the cider? There was still cider, right?" She asked in worry. Applejack looked straight at the mare with a serious expression on her face. "Not...a...drop," she simply said. "No cider?! No cider?! We need to round up these monsters, and we need to do it now!" Rainbow Dash quickly advised, having her mind in a whole different place right now. Hearing that, made Star Twinkle feel relieved that Steel Hammer wasn't present because he would probably go to even more drastic methods to secure his cider. "If Granny Smith wasn't with Apple Bloom an' Big Mac checkin' out our produce competition in Appleloosa, she'd be here tellin' us to do just that!" Applejack pointed out. It made actually sense hearing that. If Granny Smith would have done it the same way and if the bats were unable to be convinced to stop eating the apples then there was no point in wasting more time and risking more of the orchard getting destroyed. Even if it meant for Fluttershy to be the only one being left out in all of this. Twilight noticed that Fluttershy was still against that idea, which is why Twilight tried to comfort her. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy, but I think Applejack is right. I just wish there was another way we could convince them not to eat them in the first place," she said before she looked up while thinking about something. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she showed a happy and relieved expression. "Maybe there is...!" She then said, hinting at that she came up with another idea. But in order to figure out if her idea would work, she needed to confirm one more thing. And for that, she had to return to her library... Later in the Golden Oak Library... "So, there's good news and bad news," Twilight said after she was done flipping some pages in her books and finally coming up with a solution. "The good news is that I found a spell that can get the vampire fruit bats to stop wanting to suck the juice from the apples," she explained. This sounded strangely familiar to Star Twinkle and got him worried. "Wait...you mean that spell that you used on those Parasprites things that totally backfired and caused them to eat literally everything else!?" He pointed out with a nervous expression on his face. Twilight replied with a nervous grin after she remembered this incident herself. "I think I can tweak around a little to prevent that from happening again," she said, still with a nervous grin on her face, making that statement a little bit more unbelievable. "Note to myself...keep a broom ready..." Star Twinkle thought, remembering all too well how he had to fight off some Parasprites that attacked his house back then. After that cleared, Twilight still had to share the bad news that she mentioned earlier. "But in order for the spell to work, I need the bats' full and complete attention," she said before she looked straight at Fluttershy. Fluttershy then gasped as soon as she knew what Twilight demanded of her. "Oh no," she said worriedly. "Fluttershy, I need you to do your Stare on the bats," Twilight asked of her. But Fluttershy hesitated and didn't seem to like the idea of using her stare. Star Twinkle didn't remember seeing that Stare very often but from what he knows, it usually involves Fluttershy literally staring down an animal until it does what she demands. It was kinda like the ultimate way to tame an animal. This would explain why Fluttershy was not too fond of using it since she preferred to not force but rather use her kindness to get her animals to agree with her. She stated that it was something that she didn't take lightly and that she made a vow not to use it except in dire circumstances. "This circumstance is plenty dire to me!" Applejack said, feeling a little offended that Fluttershy would rather risk losing her orchard and side with the bats then stopping them. "Me too!" Rainbow Dash said. "Think of the cider! Won't somepony please think of the cider?!" She exclaimed in frustration as she dropped to her knees. "I'm sorry," Fluttershy apologized. "I just don't like the idea of taking away the thing that really makes the vampire fruit bats vampire fruit bats! It just feels wrong!" Twilight understood the conflict that Fluttershy must have gone through now but she was still worried about Ponyville and remembered her that if Fluttershy didn't step in, Ponyville would lose every single apple. This only put more pressure on the mare. Even Star Twinkle tried to convince Fluttershy by now. "I'm sure they will find some other fruits to eat. Somewhere else, where they won't eat stuff away from anypony," Fluttershy started to get behind what her friends asked of her. It was either letting Applejack's orchard get destroyed or making the Vampire Fruit Bats lose their appetite. Eventually, Fluttershy gave in and decided to help out, mainly because she didn't want to disappoint her friends. "Okay, I'll do it," Fluttershy said. "Good choice," Rarity said. "I knew you wouldn't side with those icky bats!" She added while she was shaking her body just thinking about those creatures. "They're not icky," Fluttershy said. She seemed to think that it was rude of Rarity referring to them like that, especially since they would soon lose their interest in apples which was already not okay for her. Fluttershy was now on their side and was willing to use her Stare at them but Star Twinkle was still worried about getting this plan done at all. "If we want to use Fluttershy's Stare on all of the bats, then we first have to gather all of them in one place," he pointed out. "How do we do that?" He asked, trying to be one who wanted to make sure that the plan would succeed. But Applejack already seemed to have something in mind and looked at Star Twinkle. "Don't worry! I think I know how to make that happen," she said confidently while smiling at the stallion. "How?" Star Twinkle asked confused. He didn't realize that Applejack already included him in her plan. After hearing what it was all about, he wanted to talk his way out of it but unfortunately, it was already too late... Later in Sweet Apple Acres... "Why do I even ask..." Star Twinkle mumbled annoyed. "Oh, come on, Star Twinkle!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly. "I bet it'll be fun!" She said as she jumped up and down as usual. Of course, Pinkie Pie would think of this task, that they both were assigned to, as fun. Both of them had a hat filled with apples on their head. They were supposed to lure the Vampire Fruit Bats to a certain tree so that Fluttershy could use her Stare at all of them at once. Star Twinkle didn't like playing the bait for those things but there was no way that he could bail out now so he just tried to get over with it as fast as possible. The two Earth Ponies walked up to a tree where most of the bats gathered and tried their best to get their attention. Star Twinkle waved over to the bats and actually managed to get them to look at him. "Okay, let's just hope that they will follow me..." he thought, hoping that the plan would work how he expected it to go. However, as soon as the bats spotted the apples on Star Twinkle and Pinkie Pie's heads, the bats began to hiss aggressively and spread their wings all at once. They were all flying up into the air and got ready to dive down on the two. Star Twinkle's reaction was a loud scream of terror. He quickly ran away from this hungry swarm of bats that was about to attack him and charged to the spot where he was supposed to lure them into all while bats were right behind him. Pinkie Pie was running next to Star Twinkle and was completely unshaken by all of this. In fact, she was laughing and even seemed to enjoy all of this. "See? I told you it would be fun!" She said happily at the stallion who was just running away in fear. "I think your definition of fun is maybe a little bit different than mine!" Star Twinkle exclaimed back at the mare as he focused to run towards the tree where they were supposed to lure the bats to. It didn't take long until the two would arrive. Both of them placed their apple-hats right next to a tree and the bats quickly went to it, eating the apples that the two left behind for them. In the meantime, the rest of the girls rounded up the very last of the bats and placed them on the tree as well while also making sure that they would not leave it until Twilight and Fluttershy were done with them. "Good work, everypony! I think we got 'em all!" Applejack said happily after seeing how the plan worked flawlessly so far. The next step was Fluttershy using her Stare at them to keep them focused. Fluttershy still didn't like the idea of using her Stare at them but with friends, mainly, Applejack and Rainbow Dash putting more and more pressure on her, she soon found herself to not have any choice now so she went up to the bats and started. "I really, really, really hate to do this to you... I just hope you can forgive me..." she apologized before she then closed her eyes. When she opened them again her eyes were widened and she stared right at the bats. At first, the bats were hissing at her but then they found themselves in some kind of trance which was caused by Fluttershy's Stare. As soon as every bat was staring at Fluttershy, Twilight followed up with her spell. Her horn began to glow in a purple light and she closed her eyes to concentrate on her spell. The bats were soon covered in this purple aura as well but they didn't seem to mind or even notice it due to them being still in trance by Fluttershy's Stare. Twilight stopped her spell after a few seconds and had a smile on her face, indicating that the spell must have been a success. "You can stop staring, Fluttershy," she then said after she noticed that Fluttershy was still concentrating on using her Stare. Fluttershy stopped her Stare shortly after. Judging from the sweat that was coming down from her head, she was probably at her limit of using it and was glad that it was over. Still, her expression showed that she regretted doing that. "Did it work?" Spike asked, which was undoubtedly the most important question now. "Only one way to find out for sure," Applejack said giving a signal to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash put Twilight's spell to the test and presented a fresh apple in front of one of the bats to see their reaction. Instead of sticking its teeth right into it, like usual, it only sniffed at it for a second before it completely rejected it and flew away in disinterest. "Ye-he-heah, whoo!" Rainbow Dash expressed in joy after seeing that the spell was a full success. "My crop is saved! Yee-haw!" Applejack added in joy herself. If there was anypony who would be happy with this outcome, then it would be her after all. "I wanna thank you for your help. I couldn't have done it without you," she said in her gratitude. The Vampire Fruit Bats were no longer an issue so Applejack could return to buck some apples tomorrow, meaning that Star Twinkle's work was done and that he no longer had to worry about it anymore. He decided to leave the orchard but while he was on his way home, he noticed Fluttershy walking next to him with her head still down because of what she had to do to the Vampire Fruit Bats. As soon as she let out a huge sigh, Star Twinkle could no longer ignore her so he tried to talk to her a little. "Are you still worried about the bats?" Star Twinkle asked. Fluttershy seemed to be thrown out of her thoughts as soon as she heard Star Twinkle's question. She looked towards the stallion and tried to hide her worries a little but Star Twinkle could still see that she was definitely feeling bad about all this. "Um...it's just...I wished that we could have done something else than forcing them to no longer eat apples," she explained before she looked back at the ground again. "It didn't feel right doing that," "So you would have rather let them eat all the apples away from the orchard and risk that we will all run out of food?" Star Twinkle then boldly asked. Fluttershy widened her eyes in shock because of how Star Twinkle was not holding back his thought about this. "No! That's not what I meant!" Fluttershy protested nervously, hiding her face from the stallion. "I just..." she then said but she could think about a way to finish her sentence and looked away. Surprisingly, Star Twinkle smile a little at this response. "Don't worry. I get it," he then said warmly, causing the mare to look back at the stallion surprised. "I mean...I don't really get it because I agreed to deal with those bats but I know that you just wanted to look for a solution that would make everyone happy. That's just who you are," Star Twinkle said before he looked deep inside of himself and realized that there was quite a big contrast between the two of them. "I was just looking for an easy solution and didn't even thought about the feelings of those bats," he then admitted before he let out a brief laugh which was directed at himself. "Compared to you, I am just selfish..." Fluttershy didn't say anything at first to that but shortly after, she narrowed her eyes at Star Twinkle and was throwing an almost angry look at him. "You are not selfish!" She then said with a much louder tone in her voice than usual. Star Twinkle was heavily surprised by this little outburst of her and didn't know what to reply to that. He was just standing there with his mouth open in surprise as if he was stuck in time. Fluttershy continued to give Star Twinkle a little glare but as soon as she noticed how Star Twinkle was looking at her, she quickly hid her face under her mane and acted as her usual self. "Um...I mean...let's go home now. I'm a little tired of using my Stare...bye," she quickly said before she walked away from the stallion who was still standing still on the spot in his surprise. "...Yeah! See you," he replied as he watched the mare walking away from him shyly. Fluttershy's reaction was not really surprising after Star Twinkle thought about it. He said himself that she was somepony who was considering others feeling above her own so it would only make sense that she didn't like seeing Star Twinkle sad and looking down on himself. He had to admit, seeing her concerned about him, made him a little happy and caused him to smile. "She really is a nice pony," he said to himself before he was returning home with a smile on his face. On the next day... After taking care of the Vampire Fruit Bats the day before, one would think that Applejack would have no problems at all with her apple bucking today. However, just like yesterday, the bell of her barn was ringing loudly once more and Star Twinkle and his friends checked out what was going on in the orchard again. As soon as they arrived, they noticed how the whole orchard was again covered with dry and sucked out apples. Something was still terrorizing the orchard and kept Applejack from doing her work. "The spell didn't work!" Twilight said surprised after she saw the state that the orchard was in. "You're darn tootin' the spell didn't work!" Applejack said, clearly not being happy about this at all since she lost some more harvest now. "I think we're gonna have to take more extreme measures!" She then suggested, going back to her original plan from the day before. "I hear ya, Applejack! C'mon, everypony! Let's track down those vampire bats!" Rainbow Dash agreed before she led the way to where the Vampire Fruit Bats were at now. They quickly found a whole bunch of them in one part of the orchard, sitting in some trees. However, instead of seeing a picture of bats sucking the juice out of some apples, all they found were some bats sitting on apples and not even remotely thinking about eating them. Of course, the group was confused to see that so Rainbow Dash once again, offered one of the bats an apple. But just like yesterday, it was rejected and slapped out of her hoof. After seeing that everyone came to the conclusion that those bats were not the ones who sucked the apples dry. Twilight quickly turned towards the one pony who knew most about animals. "Fluttershy, you're our animal expert. Do you know of any other creature that might be capable of this?" But Fluttershy was at a loss too. "I'm sorry. I don't," she replied. It didn't look like as if she was lying to protect the bats or anything, especially since it was pretty much proven that they weren't the culprits. So in order to find out who it really was, the group had to see it for themselves. For that, they had to resort to doing something that Star Twinkle was not really looking forward to. And that was keeping an eye out on the Orchard at night... Later that night... Since Applejack was awake from morning till evening, the only time for the culprits to attack the orchard was at night when she was asleep. The group went to the orchard, equipped with flashlights and decided to keep an eye out for anything that could be the reason behind the sucked dry apples. Of course, not everyone was too hyped for this. Star Twinkle let out a yawn and wanted to go to sleep at times like this, instead of spending the night to walk around a dark orchard. It was actually pretty dark and all the empty apple trees gave the whole farm a pretty scary look. But Star Twinkle was way too tired to even get scared by this. "Hopefully we find this culprit soon enough. I really prefer to be home at this time..." Fluttershy, in a way, agreed with Star Twinkle, though it was for different reasons. "Maybe we should just call this off," she said worriedly. Fluttershy was definitely scared to walk around in the dark and wanted to go home as soon as possible. "Oh, Fluttershy, it'll be okay," Rarity assured. "Don't forget, darling, we're all in this together," "That's right," Twilight added. "Nopony leaves this orchard until we've solved this mystery." The rest of the group agreed with that and finally started to head deeper into the orchard to spot anything suspicious. "Alright, now everypony split up. We'll each patrol our own row of the orchard. Whoever or whatever's destroyin' my apples has gotta be here somewhere," Applejack suggested, much to Fluttershy's dislike. "Split up!?" Fluttershy asked in shock. She was clearly afraid to wander around in the farm on her own. "We do have a better chance to catch the culprit if we split up," Twilight mentioned. "Don't worry, Fluttershy. Just pull out your flashlight and send a signal in the air and we will come right to you," she assured. "Um...okay..." Fluttershy replied. She still didn't like this plan but with everyone being so focused on finding the culprit, they didn't seem to notice how scared she was and just continued to do their own thing. Just like Applejack said, the group split up and decided to spread through the orchard. Star Twinkle didn't really like the idea to be on his own either but he liked the "finding the culprit faster" part of the plan so he just went along as well, despite feeling a little scared in this dark orchard. He had his flashlight ready at all times to signal his friends as soon as he spotted something but that didn't change the fact that it was still very dark to see something. It was then when Star Twinkle realized what to do about that. He transformed into a Unicorn and tried to use his horn to create some light around him. He didn't want to use his flashlight because every flashlight had the Cutie Mark of the owner inside of them, meaning that if he would use it, everyone else would see a light with a star inside of it and mistake it for Star Twinkle actually finding something. "Come on," he said as he tried to use a flashlight spell with his horn. "I saw Twilight doing that so many time. It shouldn't be that hard," he mumbled as he continued to try using his horn to create light. It actually worked after a while and Star Twinkle managed to create a light in front of him to make him able to see something. He got pretty excited since he got it to work and swung his head around to enlighten his way but as soon as he saw a face in front of him, he fell back and dropped to the ground in his surprise while also shrieking a little. "Oh! I'm sorry!" Fluttershy apologized, revealing herself as the one who Star Twinkle shined at with his flashlight. "Fluttershy! What are you doing here!? We're supposed to be splitting up!" Star Twinkle said with some fear and surprise still being in his voice. Fluttershy felt bad for scaring Star Twinkle but she still replied to his question. "I know but...I'm too scared to go off on my own so I thought I could stay with you," she explained as she slowly walked up closer to the stallion. Star Twinkle couldn't really blame her for that. He didn't feel too safe as well just thinking about that something in this dark orchard was lingering around them while they were speaking. In fact, having somepony close was probably not too bad, even if it was Fluttershy, who was even more scared then him. "Alright. You can come with me. Let's try to find the culprit fast so that we can soon get out of this place," Star Twinkle said before he led the way. "Yes! I would prefer fast," Fluttershy replied before she followed Star Twinkle close behind. The search went on for a while but no one seemed to have found anything because there was no light to be seen anywhere except the light that Star Twinkle shined over the place. He kept making sure if Fluttershy was behind him as he continued on his way through the orchard. Fluttershy kept looking around to see if there wasn't anything approaching them. She really didn't like being at this place. "Don't worry, Fluttershy. I'm sure whatever is responsible for all this is not dangerous for us," Star Twinkle said in order to cheer the mare and himself up. Fluttershy chuckled after he said that, a reaction that he certainly didn't expect. "What?" He asked because of her response. "Told you," she simply said before she began to smile and looked away happily. "Told you?" Star Twinkle thought confused. "What does she mean with that? Told me what?" As he was trying to figure out what exactly Fluttershy meant, Star Twinkle's hoof was hitting something on the ground, something that rolled away from him because he accidentally kicked it. He used his horn to look what it was and quickly found out that it was an apple, a normal and not sucked dry one in fact, untouched by whatever was eating the apples. Right next to it were some more, also completely untouched. An idea quickly popped into Star Twinkle's head. He picked one of the apples up and explained to Fluttershy what he tried to do. "There are some apples over there. We can use those to lure the culprit out. If we just hide somewhere while watching over them then we surely find the culprit sooner or later. Don't you think?" Star Twinkle explained before he turned around to see Fluttershy agreeing with his plan. However, as soon as he turned around, a really long tongue snatched the apple that he was holding out of his hoof. What followed was a big shadow flying right past him and going after the apples on the ground, causing him to stumble to the ground in surprise. He saw something eating the apples, it must have been the one who sucked out all the other apples dry. "Fluttershy! I found the culprit!" He said, worrying about Fluttershy a little who vanished in the middle of all this. "It's..." he said before he used his horn-light to see what the culprit exactly was. But as soon as the light was shining on it, the creature turned around and hissed at him. As if that wasn't bad enough, the culprit turned out to be none other then Fluttershy herself. "Fluttershy!?" Star Twinkle said confused as soon as he saw the yellow coated Pegasus mare sucking the juice out of the apples on the ground. He didn't have enough time to take a closer look at her because she quickly escaped to a tree to hang herself on it, just like a bat but he still noticed that she looked a little different. Her wings, ears, and teeth resembled those of a bat and her eyes were red instead of green. He could also swear that her Cutie Mark changed from three butterflies to three bats. This was certainly too much for Star Twinkle to handle so he decided to use his flashlight to signal his friends. It didn't take long until everyone came rushing to him after seeing a star signal in the air. "Star Twinkle, you found something?" Twilight asked to which Star Twinkle simply pointed towards a branch of a tree from where Fluttershy was hanging upside down from. "Is that Fluttershy?" Applejack asked as soon as she spotted her. Fluttershy then sucked a nearby apple hanging from the tree towards her mouth to suck it dry and threw it away afterward. There was no more explanation needed after everyone saw this happening in front of them. "That's not Fluttershy... That's Flutterbat!" Rarity said after she saw that "creature in front of her," Rainbow Dash flew up to the Fluttershy and tried to talk with her. It was worth a try, it's not like anyone had a better idea how to deal with this situation anyway. "Fluttershy! It's me, Rainbow Dash! Why don't you cut the bat act and come on down?!" She said to Fluttershy, trying to talk her out of all of this. Unfortunately, Fluttershy didn't listen and flapped her wings to knock Rainbow Dash away. The mare landed near her friends. For a second it almost looked like as if Fluttershy was actually intimating her a little. "Maybe we should just let her come down when she's ready," she said which only proved it. "Duck!" Star Twinkle then suddenly exclaimed. Fluttershy was diving down right at them, causing everyone to jump flat on the ground to duck under her. "Flutterbat on the loose! Run for your lives!" Pinkie Pie screamed before she tried to dig underground to escape the bat turned Pegasus mare. "Pinkie Pie, calm down! See?" Twilight said before she pointed to the tree where Fluttershy was hanging upside down from. "She's back on her... branch," she added, feeling weird to say it like that. "She's just biding her time! Waiting for the right moment to pounce!" Pinkie Pie returned scared. "Pinkie Pie, bats don't eat ponies. Not even vampire bats," Applejack pointed out before her expression got a little more unsure. "Right?" She then asked into the round confused. "I don't know!" Star Twinkle replied confused himself. "But maybe vampire ponies eat other ponies! I'm not taking any chances!" Pinkie Pie said scared before she turned her own mane into a drill and dug an escape tunnel so that she could escape Fluttershy. A legitimate question would be how Pinkie Pie was able to use her mane like a drill but Rarity did everyone a favor and asked the important question. "How did this happen? That's what I don't understand," Twilight actually seemed to have a good idea of what could be the cause. "I think this was actually our fault." she said, causing her friends to react in surprise. "And how'd you figure that?" Applejack asked. Twilight explained. "Remember when Fluttershy used her Stare at the Vampire Fruit Bats? The spell I used was supposed to remove the Vampire Fruit Bats desire to be Vampire Fruits Bats so that they would stop eating the apples. But I think, while Fluttershy was staring at them, that very desire must have transferred over to Fluttershy, instead of removing it completely. This caused her to transform into this bat pony-like creature," The group began to understand the explanation of Twilight but Star Twinkle only had one thing he wanted to correct. "Sooo...it's your fault..." he then boldly pointed out. Just like last time, the spell that was supposed to fix everything backfired in some kind of way and made things worse. That is what Star Twinkle was pretty much saying to Twilight. The Unicorn rasped a little and quickly tried to change the subject. "Anyway... C'mon! We'll reverse the spell and make it right!" Pinkie Pie then dug out from under the ground in the middle of everyone. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's save Fluttershy before that thing eats us all!" But catching Fluttershy was a little harder then everyone expected. Fluttershy kept charging right at them and as soon as they got too close to her she flew away. There was no way that they could hold her in one spot, or let alone capture her so that Twilight could reverse the spell. And in the meantime, Fluttershy kept sucking out every remaining apple that she could find. It was starting to get a little hopeless. After one more unsuccessful attempt to catch her, Rainbow Dash pointed out the obvious. "If she keeps this up, your whole crop will be gone in no time!" She said towards Applejack. "That's the least of my worries," Applejack replied as she watched Fluttershy flying off into the distance. "I just want my friend back," Twilight once again, mentioned that as long as Fluttershy wasn't close enough, she couldn't reverse the spell. All they needed to do was keeping Fluttershy in one spot for long enough just like with the Vampire Fruit Bats before. Star Twinkle was aware of this all and actually came up with some kind of plan. "I think I know what we need to do," he said, raising the hopes up in the group. "But I think you won't like it, Applejack..." he added which left the mare confused until Star Twinkle further explained what he came up with. A little later... It took a little while to prepare everything but eventually, the group came back to the orchard after gathering some things to get Star Twinkle's plan to work. One of them was Applejack giant apple that she wanted to show in the Appleloosa State Fair. "Are you all ready?" Twilight asked Star Twinkle, Spike, Pinkie Pie and Rarity who were hiding either behind the apple or somewhere else out of sight, all of them giving a signal that they were ready for the plan. Applejack then prepared to cut open her apple so that it could lure Fluttershy towards them. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings to let the scent of the apple reach the whole orchard. Twilight stood ready to use her spell as soon as Fluttershy approached them and the rest was hiding. It didn't take long until a loud hissing could be heard from afar, as expected, Fluttershy came charging right at the big apple. This meant that the group had to go to the next step of their plan. As soon as Fluttershy was close enough to almost stuck her teeth into the apple, Applejack kicked right out of the way and revealed Star Twinkle who was holding a mirror in front of himself, making Fluttershy look at herself. She seemed confused to see herself and tried to escape but luckily, Spike, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were surrounding her while holding up mirrors in front of them as well. Soon, Fluttershy found herself staring at her own reflection which was exactly what the group intended. "Yes! Keep looking, Fluttershy!" Star Twinkle said as he held his mirror in front of him. This was now the perfect opportunity for Twilight to use her spell. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Soon a purple aura was surrounding her horn, and later, Fluttershy. The spell was swirling around Fluttershy who kept staring at her own reflection and turned her back to her original self and landed on the ground. After this was over, Fluttershy opened her eyes again. "Oh... where am I?" She asked confused. She probably had no idea what happened all this time. "Well..." Star Twinkle started before he fully explained the situation to her. On the next day... After what happened yesterday, Applejack decided to go with Fluttershy's previous idea and gave the Vampire Fruit Bats part of the orchard to live in. Twilight also reversed the spell on the bats so that they could still eat apples, much to Fluttershy's liking who was now happy that everyone was happy, not to mention that future apple trees would become even better and stronger than before because of the Fruit Bat's spat out seeds. At the end f the day, the group met up in Fluttershy's cottage one last time to let Spike write everything inside of their journal. Everything from Twilight using her spell, Fluttershy turning into a bat and building a sanctuary. "Be sure to put in there that I came to see that my short-term solution was a little short-sighted." Applejack added, making sure that Spike would not forget to mention her mistake. "And that you shouldn't let anypony pressure you into doing something that you don't think is right. Sometimes you have to tell even your closest friends 'no'," Fluttershy then finished. "Got it!" Spike said as he finished the last sentence and closed the journal again. With everyone learning an important lesson like that, they all could go home now, knowing that the orchard and the bats were save. Star Twinkle was the last one to leave the cottage. and was stopped by Fluttershy who still wanted to talk about something with Star Twinkle. She looked a little hesitant to talk at first. Star Twinkle could only faintly make out what she was saying. "Thank you..." She said quietly. "For what?" Star Twinkle asked confused. "Um...I heard that you were the one who came up with a plan to turn me back into a pony so thought I should thank you for that..." she said a little embarrassed, hiding her face under her mane. "Well...what was I supposed to do? I mean, we couldn't just leave you like that, right?" Star Twinkle replied. Fluttershy giggled. "Told you..." She said once again, just like yesterday when they were in the orchard. Star Twinkle quickly confronted Fluttershy about that. "You said that before. What do you mean with that? What did you tell me before?" He asked, eager to find out what this all meant. Fluttershy widened her eyes. She must have thought that he knew what she was talking about. But since this was not the case, she decided to explain. "I mean, I told you that you are not selfish," she explained. Now it was Star Twinkle's turn to widen his eyes in surprise. For some reason, he felt embarrassed to hear that and rubbed his neck. "Was that selfless? Isn't that what everyone else in this situation would have done? That doesn't make me any more special doesn't it?" Star Twinkle thought before he looked over to the mare who was only throwing a smile towards him that made him feel even more embarrassed. "I need to go!" He then said before he turned around to walk out of Fluttershy's cottage. Fluttershy waved him goodbye and Star Twinkle did the same once he got too far away from the cottage. Still, this was weird. Fluttershy always seemed really friendly towards him whenever they talked with each other. That was especially weird since Star Twinkle felt like he was the complete opposite of her. Star Twinkle is usually grumpy and selfish but still, Fluttershy acted towards him as if he was the nicest pony in Equestria. Realizing that, Star Twinkle could only say one thing. "She really is a nice pony..."