Autumn had arrived in full force in Ponyville. The trees were aflame with oranges and reds, every leaf a different shade. Hoof-carved pumpkins sat on every doorstep, carved into pony faces with frightening expressions. Paper moons hung in every window, and colts and fillies clutching baskets ready to receive candy were emerging from the houses, each one dressed in a homemade costume depicting a pony or monster of legend.
Most were headed for the town square, where the usual festivities would begin soon, just as they did every year. But a few braver ponies were heading further afield in search of tricks and treats.
Beyond the boundaries of the town the crowds thinned a little. As the houses dwindled away, so too did the festive decorations and pumpkins. The winding lane led down a valley, tall hedges rising on either side of the road, their usually friendly green visages becoming suddenly threatening in the gathering dark.
At the end of the lane waited a quaint, grass-roofed cottage, bedecked with birdhouses and beehives. The cottage bore the signs of careful decoration; not only did it have its own set of pumpkins — though these ones smiled genially instead of snarling — every birdhouse on the roof also had a tiny dwarf pumpkin sitting outside.
The yellow pegasus adjusting the last of these little pumpkins smiled at the result of her hard work, and gently brushed a stray fallen leaf off the roof of the birdhouse she hovered behind.
“There you go, Miss Sparky,” she said politely to the small sparrow sitting on the perch of the birdhouse. “Now you’re all set up for Nightmare Night, just like your neighbours.”
The sparrow gave an answering trill, and Fluttershy smiled and patted the little creature very carefully on the head, before descending once more to land on her own doorstep.
From the corner of her eye, she saw a tremor of movement in the window, and she glanced over. Peeking out from behind the curtain was a long yellow muzzle, topped by huge red eyes and a long pink mane. When Fluttershy’s eyes met those of the strange creature, it yelped, dropped the curtain and vanished.
Fluttershy’s cheerful smile evaporated and she let out a long sigh. Fluttershy had always loved the holidays, but the same could not be said of everypony in her household.
Moving with deliberate care, she opened the door and slowly walked inside.
“Rose Bloom,” she called softly, keeping her movements slow, the same way she had once approached an injured giraffe. “Come on, sweetie. It’s only me.”
There was a soft hiss from behind the sofa, and Fluttershy peered over the top of it to see her daughter, coiled up tight in the cosy space between the sofa and the wall, one of her plant pots clutched tight in her paws.
“Come out, Rose,” Fluttershy chided her daughter gently. “You can’t spend the whole night back there.”
Rose Bloom blinked sadly up at her mother from behind a shield of long, dusky-pink hair. After a moment, she huffed air out through her nostrils and reluctantly began to unwind herself.
Fluttershy stepped back to allow enough room for her daughter’s full length to emerge. Rose Bloom was fully as long as Discord was, and like a slightly more ordered draconequus in appearance. Rather than a mishmash of assorted limbs, she had two neat little lion forepaws, two deer hooves at the rear, and fluffy yellow pegasus wings, all on a long, sinuous pale yellow body speckled with fawn-spots. Fluttershy thought her daughter was beautiful — but other ponies didn’t always see it that way. Gawkers on Nightmare Night had been one of the reasons Rose Bloom had learned to distrust the holiday.
But Fluttershy had a plan in mind to change that tonight. She had thought about it long and hard, discussed it with Discord, and had determined that she was going to give Rose Bloom the most wonderful mother-daughter Nightmare Night there ever was. She was going to help her baby learn to enjoy herself.
“Come on, baby,” she said, coaxingly, in the same tone she had used when Rose Bloom was a foal hiding under the bed from the thunder. “Your Daddy’s away all evening, so it’s just me and you. What would you like to do tonight to celebrate Nightmare Night? Anything you like.”
Rose Bloom fiddled uncertainly with her tail and then reached a longing paw towards the plant pot. “Actually…” she stopped and swallowed.
“Go on,” Fluttershy encouraged.
Rose Bloom smiled, the tiniest bit. “I was actually hoping to just spend a little time with my bonsai trees, Mama. They put out such wonderful leaves when I take the time to play a little classical opera for them.”
“Oh.” Fluttershy’s wings sagged a little. “But I was hoping we could do something a little…um…spooky together tonight, Rose Bloom. I want to show you that Nightmare Night can be fun.”
Rose Bloom ducked her head back behind her mane and whispered something so quietly that Fluttershy had to strain to hear. “But I thought…this way I could avoid doing any of that stuff. I don’t like spooky things.”
Fluttershy was halfway through opening her mouth to explain why Rose Bloom ought to give the festivities a chance when there was a sudden pounding on the door. Fluttershy swung instinctively to calm her daughter, but it was too late. With pinprick pupils and a tiny squeal of terror, Rose Bloom had vanished back behind the sofa.
Fluttershy heaved a sigh and went to answer the door, but stopped herself just before she opened it. She loved her daughter, and while it was almost an instinct to defend her from whatever interloper lurked beyond the pale pink door, she had to remember it wasn’t their fault any more than it was Rose Bloom’s. She took in a deep breath, and glanced over at the rabbit basket in the corner, where a very elderly Angel slept flanked by his numerous progeny. Her bunnies always calmed her.
Schooling her face into a smile of welcome, she opened the door.
Three foals beamed up at her from behind a confusion of costumes and face-paint. “Trick or treat, Missus Fluttershy!”
Her tension melting away, Fluttershy let out a small giggle. “Oh, hello, children! Happy Nightmare Night to you all, and thank you for coming all the way out here just to see us!” She turned away and hastened over to the side table where her preprepared bowl of Pinkie’s Patented Pink Pastry Puffs waited.
She offered them to the children, who grinned and took at least four each. “It’s because you always have the best candy, Missus Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy laughed and turned her head to call Rose Bloom over, but her merriment faded when she saw the trembling yellow tail protruding from behind the green bulk of the sofa. “Rose Bloom, darling,” she said softly. “Will you come out and see the costumes?”
Hesitantly, carefully, Rose Bloom’s long yellow ears and pale brown horns emerged from behind her cushioned shield. Her big red eyes watched mutely as Fluttershy beckoned the three foals into the lounge.
The first was dressed as a skeleton, covered head to tail in black paint, with patches of his white coat still showing in the shape of bones. It was completely anatomically correct, and from the attention to detail and the pink streaks in the colt’s mane, Fluttershy finally recognised him as Heartsong, Nurse Redheart’s son.
She looked over at Rose Bloom to see her reaction, but Rose had always feared bones, and she cowered a little lower.
Fluttershy hastily ushered the next foal forward. He was dressed as Princess Twilight Sparkle, with a poorly-constructed mane of purple crepe paper and a crumpled cardboard crown.
Rose Bloom had all but vanished behind the sofa. She had never been fond of Auntie Twilight, who had startled her once too often with loud noises and long checklists.
The final filly was King Sombra, wearing on her head long black socks, stuffed with paper to make them stand up rigidly for her smoky mane.
This costume was the final straw for Rose Bloom, who retreated with finality behind her sofa, her only parting word a low mewl of fear.
Fluttershy’s heart sank, and she said a subdued goodbye to the children. Once the door was safely closed behind them she went to put on the sofa, and looked down at her only child. Rose’s long yellow muzzle was wet with tears, and her eyes glistened in the lamplight.
Reaching over to smooth her mane, Fluttershy let out another long exhalation. “I’m worried about you, darling.”
Rose Bloom’s ears flattened further. “I’m sorry, Mama.” Her voice was tiny in the shadows.
Fluttershy searched for a way to gently word her concerns. “Sweetheart, I know what it is to be shy, but I…um…I think you’re more than shy. I think you might just be…too frightened.”
Rose Bloom’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry, Mama,” she repeated. “I hate to let you down.”
Fluttershy nodded understandingly. Fear of failure had always been something Rose struggled with. The slight disappointment Discord had struggled with when she failed to manifest any chaos powers and then finally secured a flower-themed cutie mark had haunted Rose Bloom’s nightmares for years. Fluttershy couldn’t count the amount of times she had woken to hear Rose Bloom crying out in the night, caught in the throes of yet another nightmare about disappointing her parents.
“Rosie,” she tried again, her voice almost a whisper. “Maybe…maybe we need to work on you being less frightened. It’s good that you’re acknowledging it, at least. That’s a very positive start.”
Rose Bloom looked miserably up at her mother. “Of course I know I’m frightened, Mama. It’s Nightmare Night!”
Fluttershy smoothed a hoof across her daughter’s dusky pink mane, and her mouth set in an uncharacteristically grim line. “Well, then, sweetie…I think we just need to do something about that.”
Rose Bloom shifted uncomfortably from paw to paw, wishing to Celestia that Mama had just let her stay behind at home with her trees. She could have been playing Celestial Elegy Grand Concerto to them on the record player even now — but instead, here she was in the drafty atrium of Starlight Glimmer’s crystal palace, listening to her mother try to browbeat Starlight into casting some type of spell.
“Come on, Starlight,” Fluttershy wheedled. “It won’t take much for you to cast Twilight’s spell. I’d ask Twilight herself, but I can’t make it all the way to Canterlot tonight, and Rose Bloom needs this. Just look at her face.”
Starlight Glimmer shot Rose Bloom a doubtful look, and Rose Bloom flushed and glanced furtively from side to side in search of a sofa or other convenient alcove. She found none, and settled for looking fixedly at her own paws.
“I really don’t know about this, Fluttershy…”
“Please,” said Fluttershy, in a tone that was not quite pleading, but was getting closer to that zone. “Look, I even bought the cutest little bat. I fed him right before we left the sanctuary, too, to make sure he’s okay for a few hours without fruit.”
Starlight shook her head. “I didn’t know you and the girls at the time when this happened to you, Fluttershy…but from what the others have said, it wasn’t pretty. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Fluttershy nodded firmly. “I’m absolutely confident this is the right thing to do to help with Rose’s fears. Everypony has a dark side, a spooky side, and I think Rosie just needs to learn to embrace hers a little more.”
“What?” Starlight’s eyes widened. “Fluttershy, I’m not casting this spell on Rose Bloom! We only barely understand what it does to ponies, and even if Rose Bloom hasn’t shown any chaos powers, Discord still laid her egg! We have no idea what it could do to her.”
Fluttershy’s cheeks coloured. “Oh. Well, okay then, I suppose.” She puffed her chest out. “Then I suppose you’ll just have to do it to me. I’ll do…whatever it is Flutterbat wants to do on Nightmare Night, and Rosie can come along for the ride.”
At last, Rose Bloom finally found her voice. “Mama, I…”
Fluttershy, ever alert for her daughter’s quiet tones, span at once and came to her side. “What is it, baby?”
“I…” Rose Bloom lowered her long neck to whisper into her mother’s ear. “I don’t know if I can. What if I don’t like Flutterbat? What if she scares me?”
Fluttershy looked squarely into her daughter’s eyes and planted her hooves on her shoulders. “Then I need you to be strong and power through it, Rosie. It’s time for you to face some of your fears — it doesn’t matter which one. And Nightmare Night is the time for being scared and learning to be brave.” Her expression softened and she put a hoof on Rose Bloom’s cheek. “Trust me, sweetie. Flutterbat is completely harmless. All she’s — all I was interested in when I was in that state was getting my hooves on some fruit. She can’t hurt you.”
“I—” Rose Bloom tried to object again but her mother placed a hoof over her mouth.
“No buts, Rosie. This is happening. I’m going to be—” she took a deep breath and shivered slightly, “Not quite myself, so I need you to stick close to me, no matter what, and look after me till the morning. I need you to be brave for me. Can you do that, Rose Bloom?”
Rose shivered, much like Fluttershy had. “I…I guess so, Mama. I’ll try.”
Fluttershy nodded once and turned back to Starlight Glimmer. “Okay, Starlight. I’m ready.”
Starlight looked up from the scroll Fluttershy had handed her. “You’re sure?”
“Of course,” replied Fluttershy, her voice light. “I actually quite liked it, last time. It’s…freeing, in a way.”
Starlight bit her lip. “Okay. If you’re certain. Let’s give it a shot.”
Fluttershy knelt down in front of the bat’s cage and fixed him firmly in place with the Stare. Starlight lit her horn, glanced one more time at the scroll, half-shut her eyes and fired. The room flared with white-hot light.
Rose Bloom yelped and covered her eyes with her paws.
Everything went very quiet.
Shuddering uncontrollably, Rose peeped out from between her clawed fingers.
Fluttershy stood, head down, flanks heaving. Her wings unfolded, slowly, and Rose Bloom sucked in a horrified breath when she saw the naked yellow skin and long clawed fingers. Even Starlight Glimmer backed away, the scroll falling unheeded from her magical grasp.
Fluttershy rotated, placing each hoof down on the crystalline floor with a sharp snap, and Rose Bloom flinched at every sound. Her mother turned to face her, and flipped her head to toss her suddenly ragged pink mane out of her face. She looked Rose Bloom dead in the eyes with pupils not the familiar, safe blue, but as crimson as Rose’s own.
Rose Bloom gasped. “Mama?”
Flutterbat — it was impossible to think of her as Fluttershy any more — pulled back her lips to reveal long, wickedly sharp fangs, and Rose Bloom’s eyes widened. The vampire-batpony’s long, corvine ears flickered left and right, turning independently of each other as she listened to sounds undetectable to anypony but her.
A grin spread over Flutterbat’s muzzle, exposing the fullest extent of those gleaming white fangs, and she tensed her muscles. Rose Bloom tensed with her, but she wasn’t prepared for what her mother did next.
Wings flared, Flutterbat leapt straight upwards, and beat her wings down again. Then she was off, gliding soundlessly across the room and out through the castle’s large, empty window panes.
Their mouths hanging open slightly, Rose Bloom and Starlight Glimmer watched her go.
It was Starlight who recovered first. “Quick, Rose Bloom! Don’t just sit there — you need to go after her!”
Startled at last into action, Rose Bloom stumbled to her hooves. “Oh! I — uh — yes.” Hastily, she spread her own wings, comically small compared to her sinuous body, and flapped off in ungainly pursuit of her mother.
Starlight watched her go, a frown marring the smooth purple fur of her face. She shook her head and slowly stooped to gather up the fallen scroll bearing Twilight’s spell. “I’m not so sure this was a good idea,” she said softly, but there was nopony left to hear.
Rose Bloom beat her way desperately after her mother. Flutterbat’s vast new wingspan seemed to have given her a speed Rose Bloom had never seen Fluttershy display. Flutterbat was just a distant yellow speck in the darkening sky by the time Rose gained enough altitude to properly pursue her.
Usually, Rose Bloom was a careful flier. She always watched her speed and turns with great concern, always slightly afraid of over-judging a corner and ending up falling. Likewise, she had learned as a foal to always make sure she held her spine straight when in the air; a lesson learned when she was a fledgeling just learning to fly. She had been the unfortunate possessor of a propensity for letting herself hang from the shoulders, and her drooping neck and body had earned her the cruel schoolyard name of ‘the Flying Noodle’.
But tonight there was no time for any of her usual attention to detail. Her mother was getting away, and Rose Bloom had promised faithfully to take care of her. Straining a little, she pumped her undersized wings harder and put on another burst of speed.
In the far distance, over the apple tree orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, Flutterbat clipped her wings and let herself start to fall. Rose Bloom let out a pained moan and fluttered after her.
“Mama!” Rose called as she alighted, folding her wings and peering anxiously around her at the apple trees. “Mama, are you here?”
She was answered by silence. The wind murmured in the leaves, and the night air was chill. The hairs on the back of Rose Bloom’s neck stood on end, and she shifted on the spot, turning her long neck around and around to try to spot any sign of movement.
The trees presented her with a uniform and ominous front; a solid wall of foliage concealing who knew what?
Under normal circumstances, being in the woods made Rose Bloom feel safe. But being alone in an alien orchard, on a night growing ever darker…she didn’t feel comforted at all.
“Mama,” Rose Bloom tried again. “Come on, it’s only me. There’s n-no need to be afraid.” She tried to make her tone of voice comforting, like the way Mama spoke to her when she was frightened, but the words felt hollow and unreal.
Her heart was thudding in her chest; the only sound audible in the gathering gloom.
Suddenly, there was a rustle from a tree just behind Rose. She jumped as though she had been electrocuted and span to face the noise. It came again, and Rose Bloom took a cautious step forward. The orchard grass was soft against the pads of her paws.
Moving as quietly as she could, she crept under the spreading branches, each one laden with growing apples. When she came to the rustling tree, she slowly reared onto her hind legs and extended her neck to its fullest length. At her full height she was just tall enough to poke the tip of her nose into the lower branches. She did so, and blinked, trying to accustom her eyes to the dim light.
There was a furious hiss, and a flash of white teeth in the darkness, and then Rose Bloom’s nose was peppered with a hail of apple seeds. She cried out in shock and reeled backwards, landing with an ungainly thump on her rear just in time to see Flutterbat take off from the tree and vanish into the night again.
Rose Bloom was stunned. In all her life, her mother had never reacted to anything Rose had done with anything but kindness and a gentle voice. To have seen that same sweet face twisted up in a snarl of rage, to have been attacked — there could be no other word for it — by the one pony who had never been cruel to her…it was too much. Tears welled up in Rose’s eyes, and began to trickle down her snout.
A distant crashing sound in the leaves made her pause and realise what was happening. She was giving up. She sniffed hard and wiped at her eyes with both paws, and got to her feet. A promise had been made that she would try to face her fears. It was time to keep it, and show Mama that she could do things on her own.
With a new determination, she set off in the direction of the noise, her mouth a thin grim line.
Despite Rose Bloom’s best efforts, Flutterbat evaded every attempt at capture. Rose could get close enough to be within a few bodylengths of her, but any closer than that would result in a horrible hiss and a display of that hideously long tongue, followed by a retreating vampire-batpony — if she was lucky. If she was unlucky, there would be another bombardment of apple seeds or screeching yellow ball of fury dive-bombing her head. On one occasion, Flutterbat even rushed Rose directly and knocked her bodily out of a tree with a well-placed kick.
It seemed that Fluttershy had been right when she described Flutterbat as largely harmless; the creature mostly seemed to want to escape and be left in peace to feast on apples. But Rose Bloom couldn’t let Flutterbat get away; who knew where her mother might wake up in the morning if Flutterbat was left unchecked? Fluttershy might awaken lost in the middle of the Everfree for all Rose Bloom knew.
But for all Rose’s determination, Flutterbat proved impossible to corner in an open environment like the orchard.
Thinking back to the tale of how her mother’s friends had saved her previously, Rose Bloom knew that she needed mirrors, and lots of them, but how could she leave Flutterbat with nopony to watch over her while she went in search of them? Not for the first time, Rose Bloom wished that she had inherited a smidgen of her father’s magic. If she was going to be stuck looking like a draconequus, it seemed remarkably unfair that she only had the magic of a pegasus. If her father were here, he could have snapped some mirrors into being instantaneously. For that matter, he could have turned Flutterbat back into Fluttershy with nothing more than a thought.
Unfortunately, Rose Bloom was more limited than her father was. Clearly, she would need help to capture Flutterbat. There was only one thing for it; despite her initial hope to get Flutterbat safely home before the proprietors needed to be told about the intruders on their land, she would have to pony up and tell the Apples.
Taking careful note of her mother’s location, she reluctantly turned to leave. Hopefully if Flutterbat was left undisturbed, she wouldn’t go too far in the few minutes Rose Bloom intended to be away.
Backing slowly away, Rose Bloom moved carefully off. Once she was at a sufficient distance that her leaving would not make enough noise to startle Flutterbat into the air, she pointed her nose towards the farmyard and took off at a gallop.
The run through the orchard was alarming, with branches looming out of the darkness like clawed talons reaching for her, but Rose Bloom bit her tongue and didn’t cry out. She was on a mission, just like those her parents used to go on in the service of Equestria, and she was determined not to fail. Fluttershy had always tried to give Rose an ordinary upbringing, despite her unusual heritage, and Rose Bloom was usually content with being an ordinary pony. But tonight — just for one night — she would be exceptional. She would make a difference.
And then tomorrow, after Mama was safely back to normal, Rose would be able to sink back into delightful obscurity in her little garden.
Night was here in earnest now, and it was hard to see the ground beneath her paws. She stumbled once or twice, but managed to catch herself and maintain her speed. Her lolloping body might suggest snake-like slowness, but when Rose Bloom put her mind to it she could build up some serious speed. Her claws were unsheathed, providing extra grip and launching power for her forelegs, and her cloven rear hooves were well able to cope with the rough terrain that a pony might find difficult going.
Before long, the farmhouse loomed large and black before her, a vast square void in the stars. Rather than approaching the homely white porch, Rose Bloom swung left and followed a narrow path down the side of the barn, through a gate or two, and finally to a small cottage nestled in the centre of an orchard. She was headed for the ponies she knew best, rather than face the uncertainty of how Big Mac’s family might react.
She bounded up to the little wooden door and hammered on it with both fists. “Applejack, Applejack!” she called, her voice cracking in its earnestness.
There was a scuffling sound from within, and one of the upper windows banged open.
“Who is it?” A voice demanded, rough with sleep, and Rose Bloom looked up at the blue face of her aunt Rainbow Dash, her rainbow mane tangled and tow-headed with sleep.
“Aunt Rainbow Dash!” she cried gratefully. “I really need your help!”
“What in the hay is goin’ on out there?” called a pony from deeper inside the house. Auntie Applejack’s distinctive southern twang was like a soothing balm to Rose Bloom’s jangled nerves. Auntie Applejack was so capable and sure of everything — she would know exactly what to do.
Besides, Applejack and Rainbow Dash had taken on Flutterbat before. They would know best how to handle her.
In a shaky voice, Rose did her best to explain what had happened. “It’s Mama — it was — she was trying to teach me to be braver, so she had Starlight cast the vampire bat spell on her. Flutterbat came straight here, and now she’s in the orchards.”
“Eating our apples?” Rainbow Dash’s voice climbed higher.
“What in tarnation was she thinkin’?” Applejack’s head joined Rainbow’s at the window. “Where’d she even fix to get a vampire bat from at this time o’ year anyhow? Their nestin’ season ain’t for months yet. They should all be migratin’ south by now.”
“I’m so sorry to have disturbed you both,” Rose Bloom ended in a whisper. “But I didn’t know who else to come to.”
Applejack reached for something with one hoof and clamped her familiar beat-up stetson down on her head. “Right,” she said. “Ain’t nothin’ for it. We’ll have to catch ourselves a Flutterbat. Again.”
“Ugh,” Rainbow Dash groaned. “I was having such a great dream, too. I was just about to win the olympics.”
Applejack vanished inside, but her voice could still be made out. “Ya already did that in real life, you idiot.”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and climbed directly out of the window, flapping to stay aloft. “Doesn’t mean I can’t still dream about it.”
More clanging sounds came from inside the house as Applejack gathered her supplies, and Rose Bloom and Rainbow Dash waited in silence for her. Rose Bloom found the quietness almost unbearable — Rainbow must resent her horribly. How would she ever be able to face the apples again after this? Hearth’s Warming Eve in Canterlot with Princess Twilight and everypony was going to be torturous now that two of her aunts hated her. How could she salvage this situation? Perhaps she could —
Her idea was cut off mid-gestation by the slam of the front door as Applejack emerged, fully dressed in a harness with three or four lassos slung onto hooks, and a hoof-mirror clutched firmly in her jaws. With a jerk of her head, she tossed it to Rose Bloom, who panicked and fumbled the catch.
“You’ve got paws and fingers, you can carry it,” Was the only explanation offered.
Rose Bloom bowed her head in mute supplication. “Yes, of course, Auntie Applejack.”
“Which way, then?” Rainbow Dash demanded.
Rose Bloom shivered. Facing Flutterbat with other ponies at her side somehow seemed even more daunting than facing her alone had been. At least there had been nopony to judge her.
“She was o-over this way.”
“Go on, git her!” Applejack hollered up, and Rose Bloom did her best to obey.
She didn’t retreat from the fleeing Flutterbat, who was being pursued by a blaze of rainbow fury, but instead threw herself forward to intercept. Her claws fastened onto one rear leg, but Flutterbat was still moving, and Rose Bloom found herself faced with the choice of whether to let the yellow chiroptera-equine slip away, or dig her talons into flesh to secure her.
Unable to face the prospect of drawing blood from her own mother, no matter how monstrous she had become, she let go.
Flutterbat vanished into the night.
“Gosh dang it!” Applejack shouted from below. Fury was writ large across her freckled face. “Ah wish to Celestia that Zaps were here to help ya, Rainbow.”
Rainbow shot Rose Bloom a slightly sour look. “I know, honey. Kinda hard to catch Fluttershy on my own.”
Wilting under the force of that look, Rose Bloom slowly sank from the air and crumpled onto the ground. The rags of bravery that she still clung to were blown away like leaves in the breeze.
“Ah just don’t understand what woulda possessed Fluttershy to go an’ do a stupid thing like this,” Applejack said, frustration obvious in every word. “Last time was an accident, but to do it voluntarily — what was she thinkin’?”
Rose Bloom looked up. Applejack was staring down at her, clearly expecting an answer.
“I — uh — it was my fault,” Rose answered miserably. “I’m such a…coward. And Mama was trying to help me be braver.”
Rainbow came in to land, and Applejack exchanged a glance with her.
“Aw, come on now, kid,” Rainbow said, attempting a gentle tone. “You’re young yet. And Fluttershy was real jumpy too when she was your age.”
Rose Bloom shook her head sorrowfully. “Not like me. She…she’s said so herself. She worries about me. I don’t want…to be a burden to her. But now I’m causing problems for you, as well.”
Rainbow put a gentle hoof onto Rose Bloom’s shoulder. “Just keep trying, kiddo. When you mess up, that’s all you can do.”
“Ah hate to interrupt this heart to heart,” Applejack said tersely, “But we ain’t got time for this. Mah apples are bein’ eaten by the bushel!”
Straightening abruptly, Rainbow dropped her hoof from Rose Bloom’s side. “Right. Of course, AJ.” She glanced back to Rose. “You ready to go again, kiddo? You’re all we’ve got.”
Rose Bloom nodded firmly, and brushed the moisture impatiently away from her eyes. She would not fail. “Yes.”
“Thatta girl,” Rainbow said proudly. “Maybe this time you try drive her towards me, huh? I’ll try and drag her down a bit, and then we can see if AJ can get a shot in with the lasso.”
Nodding again, Rose Bloom flared her stubby wings. “Right. I’m on it.” She tried to imitate Rainbow’s brusque, no-nonsense tone.
She was rewarded with a grin from her aunt. “Awesome. I’ll take point.”
Applejack turned and thundered away into the gloom, and Rainbow Dash darted aloft once more. Rose Bloom thrummed her wings and headed after her, trying to stick close her aunt’s flank, as they had planned.
They spotted Flutterbat lurking in the shelter of a particularly large pear tree, juices running down her chin as she gorged herself. Rainbow pumped her wings to slow herself and hung back, jerking her head to signify that Rose Bloom should go on alone. After looking around for Applejack, Rose spotted the orange mare already in position at the base of the tree, sides heaving with exertion but lasso at the ready.
Setting her jaw, Rose Bloom drew her wings in and circled down towards her mother. When she was within a few wingbeats of the tree, she backwinged and coughed quietly to announce her present.
Gleaming red eyes flashed up at her as Flutterbat became aware of her presence. The eyes narrowed, and the now familiar hiss echoed up. Rose Bloom resolutely came a little closer.
“Hi, Mama,” said Rose, softly. “How’re you doing?”
The only answer she received was an ugly snarl and a flicker of long pink tongue.
Flapping slowly closer, Rose Bloom spread her paws wide. “Why don’t you come here, Mama?”
Flutterbat half-stood, one hoof raised in indecision. Her pupils dilated a little out from their slitted form, and hope surged through Rose. Surely this was Fluttershy beginning to return, recognising her daughter.
She flapped one wingbeat closer, and the thread pulled taut between the mock-draconequus and Flutterbat snapped. Flutterbat flared wide yellow bat-wings and spat her fury, and then sprang from her branch to the air. Rose Bloom feinted left to cut her off, and Flutterbat swerved away.
A haze of rainbow light sped towards her, and then Rainbow Dash intercepted. Blue feathers and leathery buttercream skin entangled, and the two ponies became a ball of thrashing limbs, cries of pain and savage snarls.
“Hang on, Rainbow!” Applejack snatched up a lasso and span it around her head before launching it directly at the fighting pair. Her aim was true and the lasso caught them both. Applejack reared onto her hind legs, and with a mighty jerk of her head, forced them down. The blurred ball of fighting hit the ground with a sickening thud.
“Talk ta’ me, Rainbow!” grunted Applejack through teeth clenched tight around the rope of her lasso as she fought to reel the blue-and-yellow bundle in.
There was a moan, and then Flutterbat leapt to her hooves. She crouched atop Rainbow’s prone form, eyes flickering from Applejack to Rose Bloom and back again.
“Mama, it’s okay.” Rose tried to soothe the flurried creature, but Applejack was already advancing, her mirror at the ready.
“Rainbow, are you alright?” she called, leaning as she walked to try to see under Flutterbat’s spreadeagled wings. “Don’t fret none, Ah’ll get her off ya!”
Flutterbat snarled a frantic warning, and then snapped her wings down to try to escape. The lasso caught her and held her fast against Rainbow Dash, who was also beginning to struggle.
Flutterbat thrashed more wildly, and as Applejack called for caution and Rose Bloom cried out her mother’s name, those slitted red eyes lit with a sudden flash of understanding. With a jerk of her head, Flutterbat used those deadly-sharp fangs to bite through her bonds. In an instant, she was airborne again.
This time, rather than retreating to the nearest apple tree, she seemed more uncertain. She flitted around the grove once or twice in a widening circle, and then her eyes fixed on a distant horizon and she darted away.
Taking to the air in pursuit, Rose propelled herself above the trees in time to see Flutterbat beating a hasty retreat towards the pitch-black shadow of the Everfree.
Rose Bloom was torn as to whether or not to go after her. She looked back down at the ground, where Rainbow Dash was slowly crawling back to her feet, with Applejack clucking over her like a concerned mother hen.
“She’s headed for the forest!” called Rose. “Are you guys — should I—?”
Applejack looked up and waved a dismissive hoof. “So long as she’s off our land Ah don’t give a hoot, Rose. Y’all go on after her — Ah’m stickin’ here with Rainbow. Ah don’t think she’s up to chasin’ Fluttershy much further.”
“Aw, no, AJ,” protested Rainbow Dash, visibly swaying. “I’m fine! I could fly all night!”
“Ah’m vetoing that,” Applejack answered firmly. She looked skywards once more. “Ah’m sorry we couldn’t help you more, sugarcube,” she said to Rose, her voice sounding as it usually did for the first time that night, rather than tight with irritation.
Rose Bloom could have cried with gratitude. She couldn’t bear it when her aunts were angry with her. “I’m so sorry for all this, Auntie Applejack.”
Applejack slung Rainbow’s wing over her shoulder and held the feathers fast with her teeth stabilise her wife. “It’s fine — though tell your momma in the morning that I expect a hell of a lot of help from her with the harvest next week to make up for tonight!”
Smiling a little for what felt like the first time in a long time, Rose Bloom headed off in chase of the receding yellow blot on the horizon. “I will!”
Already, Flutterbat was scarcely visible in the darkness. Rose Bloom sighed and began to flap faster. It was clear she had a long night ahead of her.
When Rose Bloom finally landed in the forest clearing, the moon had passed its zenith and was beginning to slide down the far side of the world. Dawn was not yet approaching, but in a few more hours the light would come. Rose registered this with relief. Not much longer, and then Fluttershy would return, and they could go back to Starlight and get her to lift the spell.
She just had to keep tabs on her mother until morning came.
Flutterbat had lead Rose a merry chase, darting hither and thither through the forest, spitting with rage and fleeing every time Rose came too close. It seemed that there was no calming her, or catching her. All Rose Bloom could do was follow.
In the centre of the clearing grew a wild crabapple tree. Flutterbat had alighted again in its branches. Previously, her fear-driven flights had lasted longer, full of switchbacks and feints as she tried to throw Rose off her tail. But this time she had landed not long after taking off, and her wings were drooping. Rose’s spirits lifted. Perhaps Flutterbat was tiring at last.
Rose Bloom landed softly at the edge of the dell. Venturing closer would only scare Flutterbat off again. Best just to wait.
Her stomach rumbled loudly, and though Flutterbat’s head jerked up from the apple she was draining, she didn’t take wing. Rose let out a breath of relief and then began to cast around herself for some sort of food. It had been hours since she had eaten, and the night bad bought with it far more physical exertion than she was used to.
The forest floor was carpeted with thick green grass, but Rose Bloom wrinkled her muzzle at the sight. She had never been overly fond of plain grass. It lacked flavour. But it would do: if there was really nothing else.
To her pleasure, there was a small blackberry bush growing a small distance away. She scooted over to it and inspected its produce. Most of the blackberries were wrinkled and rotted, of course. It was late in the year. But there were still a few that looked edible. Rose Bloom set about helping herself, transporting the berries directly from the bush to her jaws.
So intent was she on her food, she lost track of what Flutterbat was doing until there was a small chirping sound at her elbow. Startled, she twisted around to see, and blinked in shock at the sight before her.
Flutterbat was lurking just behind her, eyes fixed on the blackberries, saliva pooling over her fangs. She saw Rose staring and hissed, seemingly out of habit, but it was half-hearted compared to her earlier savagery. Then the red slitted eyes flicked back to the berries, and she chirped again.
Hesitantly, Rose Bloom offered the two blackberries in her paw to her mother. Flutterbat’s eyes flickered between Rose’s face and the berries, but slowly, slowly, she leaned forward. Then in a sudden rush of motion she snatched them both up in her jaws, sucked them dry, and spat the husks onto the floor.
She parked her rear on the grass, looked at Rose Bloom expectantly, and chirped again.
A laugh bubbled up in Rose’s throat. “You like the blackberries, huh, Mama?”
Flutterbat cheeped and switched her tail.
“Here you go, then.” Rose Bloom picked more, her opposable thumbs making short work of the task, and palmed them one at a time to Flutterbat.
The yellow creature crept a little closer with each offering, her chirps and clicks becoming a little more friendly with every berry. Before half an hour had passed, she was curled up almost at Rose’s feet atop a mound of dried-out blackberries, humming and chirruping contentedly. Rose Bloom was scanning the bush over one last time.
She sighed and spread her paws. “I think that’s all of them, Mama. You’ve had the lot.”
Flutterbat hissed in disappointment, her ragged-tufted ears tilting downwards.
Another loud grumble emanated from Rose Bloom’s stomach, and Flutterbat leapt up, her eyes wide with alarm.
Rose laughed. “No, it’s okay! It’s just me.”
Head cocked, Flutterbat listened, and her pupils expanded again.
Smiling, Rose Bloom watched her mother. If she had learned anything about Flutterbat tonight, as she chased her across what felt like half of Equestria, it was that Flutterbat’s main motivation was fear. She wanted to feed, and was always searching for food, but stronger even than her hunger was the driving force of her fear. Though her appearance, her manner, her snarls and hisses were all frightening, Flutterbat never attacked for the sake of it. She would rush a pony to knock them over so she could get away, but that was all.
Flutterbat was just as frightened as Rose Bloom was.
This was shocking news — though Fluttershy could be withdrawn around ponies, Fluttershy had seen her mother face down rabid bears, angry manticores, and venomous sea snakes. Fluttershy was the bravest pony Rose Bloom knew. And that had always made her feel even worse — all she wanted was to be brave like her mother…but everything in the world outside was just so much. The only place she really felt safe was her greenhouse, where she was surrounded by the green leafy friends that she had grown and potted herself.
So to find an ally, somepony who felt the same way as she did, in her mother — albeit in an altered form — was wholly unexpected.
She held out a soothing paw to Flutterbat, who winced, but finally allowed her to smooth her tangled mane away from her eyes.
After Rose’s stomach growled once more, Flutterbat stood, chirped imperiously to demand that her daughter follow, and led the way towards the crabapple tree. She snatched up a crabapple in her fangs, but after a moment’s hesitation, rather than drain it, she tossed it to Rose Bloom.
Rose fumbled the catch, of course, but she was able to pounce on the bouncing fruit and gulp it down. She beamed up at Flutterbat, who ascended to the branches to retrieve a second crabapple to spit down to the mock-draconequus.
Pale morning sunshine filtered down through the leaves of the Everfree Forest. Two yellow forms lay sprawled beneath a crabapple tree — one long and winding, the other stubby and small. Apple cores and wrinkled fruit-husks lay scattered all around them.
Fluttershy groaned and opened her eyes — once more as blue as the morning sky. She grimaced and put a hoof to her head. She hurt everywhere. It felt like she had run ten marathons in one night.
She looked over at her sleeping daughter and let out a sigh of relief. Rose Bloom was sleeping peacefully, with no injuries in sight.
“Rose,” she said softly. “Wake up, Rosie.”
Rose Bloom made a little mew of protest, but slowly blinked into wakefulness. She yawned and stretched like a cat, all her claws extended, and Fluttershy watched her with no little affection.
“Did Flutterbat’s scariness bring out your scary side too, baby?” Fluttershy asked, her voice sweet and melodic as always.
A small smile crossed Rose Bloom’s muzzle. “Not quite. But…we understood each other, I think.”
“Well that’s good.” Fluttershy pressed a reassuring hoof to Rose’s cheek. “I’m really proud of you, sweetie, for persevering.”
Rose Bloom smiled down at her mother. “Thanks, Mama.” She got to her paws. “Should we get you back to Starlight?”
“Oh, that can wait till later today,” answered Fluttershy with a careless wave of her hoof. “Let’s spend a little time together first, just the two of us. Shall we go home? I can make pancakes, and we could eat them in the greenhouse with your bonsai and the classical music you wanted to play.”
Rose Bloom grabbed her mother in a hug tight enough to make the older mare’s eyes pop slightly. “Thank you, Mama. That would be wonderful.”
Hoof-in-paw, the two creatures took flight once more, and headed back towards the little cottage at the end of the long, winding lane.