//------------------------------//
// Up To Bat 
// Story: Dawn of the Chiroptera 
// by SilverNotes 
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For Twilight Sparkle, the old road to the cottage brought back so many memories. Fluttershy didn't live there full-time anymore, having moved in with Discord not long after Twilight had moved back to Canterlot, but she'd never sold the property, continuing to maintain it as a home away from home. It was quieter than it had once been, most of the animals who'd once crowded onto the property now living at Sweet Feather Sanctuary, but many of the birdhouses had become generational homes, the descendants of the birds they'd originally been built for coming back time and time again to raise their chicks. Even with some of the seasonal migrators already having taken off for the south, plenty of year-round nesters were still present, and so the air was still alive with all manner of song, which grew louder as Twilight set hoof on the bridge.

The original birds had known her, and had a special song to alert Fluttershy that one of her friends had arrived. These ones did not know the alicorn, and so the chorus was more chaotic, merely a warning that somepony was nearly to the cottage's door. Redeye, prancing at her side, had her tufted ears perk at the birdsong, and she started to enthusiastically whistle along as their hooves clipped their way along the stone bridge to the other side. Once her condition had stabilized and she'd stopped transforming, Redeye had regained a lot of her energy, enough to get up earlier and spend a little time in daylight; Twilight would have to lower the sun soon, but the little filly had been up long enough to have a big breakfast and take the sky-chariot ride to Ponyville.

She grew a little more subdued as they came to the door, and before Twilight made any move to knock, she looked down to see scarlet eyes staring up at her. Redeye spread her large, leathery wings, flapped them twice, and folded them again, before asking softly, "Are they nice?"

Twilight smiled. "Oh yes. I used to live in Ponyville before I was crowned princess, and I know for a fact that all of these pegasi are very nice." She opened one of her own wings, gently patting Redeye on the head. "I think you're really going to like Fluttershy."

Her horn lit, and tiny sparks of magic bounced off the wooden door in a distinct rhythm. Anypony coming today would know that knock, though Twilight would be the only one to perform it with a horn. She could hear murmuring within, catching a hint of Fluttershy's voice, and then the door slowly opened, revealing her old friend. "Oh, there you are, Twilight. I was just telling everypony you'd be here with our newest member."

In many ways, Fluttershy still looked like she did the day Twilight had first stepped into Ponyville. Her coat was still the same butter yellow, her mane--she wore it up, now, and today's hair accessory looked strangely similar to poison joke--and tail the same soft pink, without a hint of grey. Her body still had its same physique, with the subtle muscle all over that had come from spending so much time ground-bound running after and carrying animals. There were a few extra lines on her face, but she had aged so gracefully that it left Twilight wondering if Discord had been weaving any subtle magics to keep his dearest friend in peak condition.

However, there were a few ways in which she was not at all the pony Twilight had first seen conducting a chorus of songbirds. Teal eyes were now bright red, her gentle smile held long fangs, and her featherless wings were held open welcomingly. She'd been steadily learning to master the transformation and invoke it willingly instead of succumbing when hungry, and Twilight could see that the effort had paid off. There was no sign of the mindlessly-ravenous Flutterbat from that night in the orchard, just kindhearted Fluttershy.

Behind her, Twilight spotted more ponies. Cloud Chaser and Flitter were chatting over glasses filled with bright red juice, while Blossomforth had her foal curled up on her back. Already Twilight could tell that most of the downy foal-feathers were gone from the little colt's wings, leaving behind the telltale leathery skin, and they were bigger than they'd been when she'd last seen pictures of him.

The Bat Ponies Of Ponyville Club was growing, and with Redeye, would likely need to change its name.

Redeye didn't seem to have spotted the others yet, however. She was staring at Fluttershy with wide eyes, as the older pegasus knelt down to address her. "You must be Redeye Flight. My name is Fluttershy."

"Wow..."

And here it comes, Twilight noted with a small smile, before the torrent of words surged.

"You have wings like me! Can you fly with them? Can you teach me to fly with them? I've been trying but things don't move the same way they did before and Momma doesn't want me to jump off the roof again to practice. I smell juice! Do you have pomegranate juice? I tried it a few days ago and it's my new favourite juice. Are there--"

Twilight and Fluttershy met eyes, and each nodded to each other, before Twilight turned to stroll away. She barely got far however, before there were hurried hoofsteps and a pair of small forelegs wrapped tightly around one of her back legs, followed by a pair of wings. She looked back at the filly hugging her, and met those big, bright eyes again. "You'll come back and pick me up after, right?"

"Of course I will," she said gently. "You just write a message on that scroll I gave you." She nodded at Redeye's tiny saddlebags. "And it'll poof over to me and let me know to come get you."

"Okay..." She gave Twilight's leg one more squeeze before she let go. She looked up at Twilight, then at Fluttershy's smiling face, and back again, then turned to trot back to the cottage. "Bye Princess Twilight! See you later!"

"See you later!" she called back, and chuckled as she crossed the bridge again, heading back into town where she knew sights both familiar and not would be waiting for her. She could get some sweets from Sugarcube Corner, say hello to Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake while she was at it, and maybe take a stroll by Sweet Apple Arces to spend time with Applejack and her family as she waited for Redeye's message. Many things had changed, but so much hadn't, and she always treasured every visit to Ponyville that she had a chance to make.

And speaking of changes...

Blossomforth's son stuck in her mind. She'd been the first of the original pegasi caught in the Ponyville outbreak to have any foals, and while the colt had seemed to be an ordinary pegasus at first, with his recent changes, he had proven that the condition was hereditary. Like Cadence giving birth to Flurry Heart, the transformation had resulted in deep changes, ones that didn't end with the ponies themselves. It had given Twilight a lot to think about, as had being contacted to help Redeye when she'd fallen ill.

Her research pointed to there being previous outbreaks in the past. Surely ponies had survived, with either their communities coming upon the right ingredients for the treatment like she and Zecora had, or perhaps the ponies even fully adapting to the form and overcoming the juice-hungry beast within to regain their minds on their own. There were so many remote settlements in Equestria where such an outbreak could come and go and be kept mostly quiet, only leaving behind folklore. Those ponies could have descendants, ponies who had never had contact with vampire fruit bats at all.

There could be other bat ponies out there. Even if there weren't yet, there would always be accidents, careless ponies like Redeye who stumbled into just the right series of factors. The more pony-maintained orchards replaced wild spaces, the more it was guaranteed that Chiropteran Equine Disease would keep appearing.

How large would the population be in a hundred years? A thousand?

She paused on the road back to town, closed her eyes and lit her horn, sending the sun descending beneath the horizon, off to warm the other side of the planet. She then called on the moon, bidding it to rise high in the sky, bathing the path in silver. She could hear the calls of night birds as they roused, and she was sure many other animals were starting their long, active night. Like bats.

She didn't know exactly what the future held, but she wouldn't be Twilight Sparkle if she didn't stand by, ready to help. Her and her successors both, as Luster Dawn would be meeting Redeye three nights from now to tutor her in her schoolwork and the young unicorn... she had potential, enough that Twilight hoped that she would follow in her hoofsteps and earn a set of wings.

Equestria would be a haven to all creatures, including bat ponies, so long as Twilight stood vigil. After all, she understood what it was like to one day be different than she was before.

And just like then, she would make for absolute certain that everything would be fine.