//------------------------------// // Chapter One // Story: Anon's Batty Expedition // by ShobieShy //------------------------------// If someone had told you yesterday that you’d wake up in the middle of an alien forest, on an alien planet, carrying an admittedly adorable bat filly through said forest in an attempt to reach an alien pony civilization, you would have called them a lunatic. Then you would’ve asked where you could get whatever they were on. Hell, you might've already done that considering your current predicament. Your idle thoughts are interrupted by yet another growl from the filly in your arms. She had fallen asleep only ten minutes into your walk and you couldn’t bring it upon yourself to wake her. Unfortunately for her, yet fortunately for your arms, the rumble from her stomach makes her stir in your grasp and her eyes flutter open with a slight frown on her face. “Good afternoon.” you say, stopping to place the filly down on the ground beside you. She brings up a hoof to rub at her eyes, then mumbles something incoherent before her stomach voices its disapproval at being empty, making her whine and clutch her stomach. She looks to you with her big eyes that silently scream ‘Feed me please’. "Jeez, do I have to do everything?" you ask in mock exasperation. Missy's gaze falls and her eyes turn away from you. "Oh, uh, sorry, um..." You smile, "Relax, I'm just teasing." before you think a seemingly obvious thought that makes your expression turn neutral and your eyebrow raise slightly. “Um, what exactly do you eat?” Her cheeks flush and her pupils dilate. She looks down bashfully. “Uh…” she starts then looks back up at you with a forced look of accusation. “What do you eat?” You cross your arms and shake your head. “Tsk tsk, nuh uh, you’re not flipping questions on me this time, Missy.” Her wings flutter as she looks around nervously, then hangs her head with a dejected sigh. “I...” she begins before mumbling the rest, so quietly you couldn’t hear it, looking to the side with a mixture of anxiety and irritation. You crouch down and use a hand to bring her face forward to look at you. “Missy, I can’t help you if I don’t know how. Whatever it is, I’m sure I can help you get it.” Her gaze softens and she takes a deep breath to prepare herself. “I… I think the word is omniverse.” she finally admits, averting her eyes away for a moment before looking back at you. Pondering for a second you speak up, "Omnivorous?" She nods. “B-but I eat plant stuff too! I-I can eat fruits and vegetables! I just need meat every once in a while to keep from feeling tired...” Her eyes close and she shakes your hand away. “Please don’t hate me...” "Why would I hate you?" You can’t help but chuckle slightly as you reach over and pat her mane. “Looks like we’re in the same boat.” Your answer takes her by surprise as her eyes open to gawk at you. “W-what do you mean?” She hadn't answered your first question. Electing to ask about that later, you straighten up, sitting on your heels and smile down at her. “I mean I eat meat too.” You lift your top lip with a finger to present your canines for a moment. “Not exactly fangs, but my species eats both meat and vegetables. We need a combination of both to stay healthy, just like you.” Her gawking increases to include a look of awe. Her staring persists as you stand up and begin to think of a way to catch some wildlife. You’d rig up a trap of some kind... if only you knew how. Curse you for not looking more into survival classes or videos. You’re interrupted by a mass clinging to your leg. Missy had latched herself to it, nuzzling your leg with a smile on her face. The sight forces a grin out of you as well. Forcing yourself to ignore her for the time being, you notice a decent sized rabbit hopping about in the distance in front of you. You decide the best way you can catch the two of you some dinner is by fashioning a makeshift spear. You ease the filly off your leg and set out, filly in tow, to find a stick worthy of crafting into a spear. You slowly ease forward, crouching at low as you can, with your new spear at the ready. After painstakingly carving the spear using the sharpest rock you could find, you spend the next fifteen minutes searching for the rabbit you had seen previously. Finally finding it, you stalk it and follow it for another couple minutes, waiting for a good opportunity to throw your spear. A sharp snapping noise from behind you causes your body to twitch involuntarily, and the rabbit stands up, alert, and looking in your general direction. You glance behind you to see a sheepish looking Missy crouching as low as she possibly can, eyes meeting yours in a silent apology. Not waiting for another chance, you take aim and throw your spear and pray to whatever gods are out there listening that you hit your target. Your prayers, luck, or a mix of both work in your favor as your spear impales the animal, ending its life in an instant. You pump your arm in a silent celebration and look back at the filly to see her jump up with a beaming grin on her face and her wings buzzing. Approaching the animal, you lift it by its legs and pull the spear out, silently wishing you had some sort of knife to skin it. You turn and present the rabbit to the filly with a smug smirk, causing the filly to bounce up and down in joy. You look over the fresh kill with a slight frown. “Unfortunately, I don’t know how I’m gonna skin it without a knife, and I don’t really want to use some rock off the ground.” Missy thinks for a moment, then adopts her own smirk. “Luckily, you’ve got me.” she states with confidence. Your eyebrow raises as you look down at the filly. “Oh? Do you have a hidden knife I don’t know about?” She scoffs. “No, but I do have these.” She copies your earlier motion and lifts her top lip with the thumb of her wing, showing you her fangs. “I may still have my foal fangs, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t sharp.” she explains. Then, raising her wings, she flexes her aforementioned wing thumbs. “And unlike pegasi, I’ve got these too! My talons are just as sharp!” She beamed. "Ms. Fluttershy stops by every once in a while with animals for me, but nopony will touch them, so I had to get used to doing it myself." You return her joyful grin. “Well alright then! Bat ponies for the win!” You reach down and ruffle her mane, the combination of your words and actions causing her jovial expression to remain. The two of you continue your journey until you notice the sky starting to darken and change color, transitioning from a bright blue to a yellowish orange. You come across a small clearing the perfect size to fit a shelter and fire, then turn to your companion. “Alright, you wanna get started on the rabbit while I get a fire going? Then we’ll build a quick shelter for the night.” She nods and you hand her your future dinner. She takes it in her mouth and trots over to a nearby rock just big enough to use as a makeshift preparation table, quickly cleaning it off with her hooves and a wing before starting the skinning process. You then start to gather some decent sized rocks and various sizes of twigs and logs for the fire, along with still living branches and vines for the shelter. Missy’s timing couldn’t be better. She managed to finish her job as you got the fire started, which took a bit more effort than you thought, considering you didn’t have a lighter on you, nor did you have any amount of practice with the spin-the-stick-really-fast method. You managed to get it going though, thanks to you remembering one of your recommended YouTube video rabbit hole adventures that lead to a tutorial for the method. For the most part at least. You managed to find two Y-shaped sticks during your stick gathering session and stuck them in the ground on opposite sides of the fire. Then you placed another straight stick on top to use as a spit. Sitting cross-legged in front of the fire, you take the skinned rabbit from the filly and hang it on the spit, then sigh and stand up, stretching before looking to the filly next to you. “Ready to make this shelter?” “Mhm!” she answers. It takes the two of you some time to construct a shelter you both were happy with, the semi-frequent breaks to rotate the cooking rabbit not helping your speed. You end up with what you can only describe as a ‘nature tent’. It has a triangular shape to the front of it with the top sloping down to the ground towards the back, the angled sides thick with layers of leaves and branches, with the front currently open with a thick support stick standing vertically in the middle of the opening. You’ve made a thick door out of extra fresh tree limbs and are currently tying to the peak of the tent with vines. After you finish with the door, you take a step back to admire your work. A bit ugly, but sturdy nonetheless. The rabbit had finished cooking about five minutes ago, but the sky was almost dark, so you wanted to make sure the shelter was made before the night took over entirely. You take a seat in front of the fire with the tent behind you. Before you tied the tent door on, Missy had taken the cooked rabbit off the spit when you had called it done and used her talons to cut it in half along its back. She brings it over to you balanced on her wing and sits down beside you, leaning into you as you take your share. You both eat, content in the heat of the fire as the night cools the air. After you both finish, Missy opts to sit in your lap and use your body as her back rest. You respond by wrapping your arms around her in a light hug, which brings a smile to the filly’s face. You never thought of yourself as 'good with kids', but you seemed to be doing decently so far with this one. Even if it's not human. You think about today’s experiences and a couple questions pop in your mind. Taking a moment to ponder your wording, you ask your first question. “Hey,” you begin, gaining her attention. “Why did you think I would hate you for eating meat?” You feel her form stiffen at your question, and you silently curse yourself for it, despite knowing that would probably happen no matter how you asked. She shifts slightly before answering. “Well… Other ponies don’t eat meat. Only thestrals, er, that’s the actual name for us bat ponies, do.” She pauses for a moment as you nod for her to continue. “I mean, griffons eat meat, and hippogriffs eat fish, and dragons obviously eat all kinds of things, but they all live in their own lands. Thestrals live here in Equestria, we’re another type of pony. Ponies see us eating meat and get grossed out by a pony eating meat.” She sighs and her voice softens. “All the other kids make fun of me for it, saying I’m not a real pony and that no… No family will ever want a foal that eats meat...” You hear a soft sniffle and you simply hug the filly tighter. "Aren’t there other thestral foals where you live?” She shakes her head. “No… I was just dropped off in Ponyville one night. Ponyville doesn’t have any other thestrals living in it… I’m the only one.” You give a silent nod before she continues. “They’re right. No family will want a meat-eating foal. I’ll just gross them out all the time.” You begin to guess the answer to your other question. “Is that why you came to the forrest?” you ask, just to confirm your suspicion. She takes a moment before nodding, lowering her gaze in the process. You slowly stroke her mane in an attempt to calm the filly. “You don’t gross me out.” you start. “I don’t know a whole lot about your culture, but I’m sure there’s a family out there for you, you just haven’t met them yet.” She looks upward to meet your gaze. “You really think so?” You scoff. “I know so.” You affirm with a smile. She responds by pushing her back further into your body, a gesture you find adorable as you wrap the filly in a tighter hug. The two of you spend the next twenty minutes relaxing by the fire until you hear her light snores begin. You carefully, as to not wake her, pick her up and take the filly with you into the shelter, sealing the door one handed with spare vines on either side. You slowly lower the filly and yourself onto the thin pile of leaves on the floor you call a mattress. Missy shifts until she’s facing you, and you fear you’ve woken her up, but her eyes remain closed as she reaches out, grabbing your form, and pulling herself as close to you as she can, burying her face into your chest, then continues her snoring. You smile at the sight and slowly brush the back of her mane with your fingers, causing her to hum and her ear to flick. “Goodnight, Missy.” you whisper before closing your own eyes, letting today’s exhaustion take over, sending you to sleep as well.