The sun was setting over Trottingham, and Minty could tell by sight alone that Flitter Flutter was feeling the effects of the silverwort tea-- colloquially called “Bat’s Bane” for the weakening effect it had on werebats-- baggy eyes, and a much more mellow attitude, generally. The buttercream pegasus had spent the totality of the day so far helping fat little bumblebees out of flowers they had gotten stuck in, and making sure all the local grasshoppers got enough to eat, which she apparently did under normal circumstances as well. She had tried to get Pinky Pie to let an injured hornet rest in her mane, because Flutter had run out of space in her own for more tired bugs, but Pinky vehemently objected. It started when Flitter Flutter started telling the other three about the life cycle of luna moths, of which she had a particularly large specimen poised upon her snout. Twilight Twinkle-- predictably-- whipped out an entomology textbook to read up on it while Flitter Flutter gave her explanation, and informed the group that this particular moth was named “Linus,” and he had been migrating all the way down from Unicornia, on his way to Butterfly Island for the winter, when Minty noticed something familiar in Flitter Flutter’s eyes: a sudden golden sheen.
Minty poked at Twilight to rouse her from her reading-stupor, and explained “I think your marefriend is about to shift again. We should get the rope just in case.”
Twilight scowled, but nodded. “Yeah, but I hate having to restrain her.”
“We may not have to,” Minty replied, nuzzling under Twilight’s chin in an attempt at reassurance, “it’s only a precaution. We’ll have to see if I got the dosage right, okay?”
Twilight gulped, and pulled a length of rope out of her book-stuffed saddlebags. “Okay,” she said, resolute as she let the rope out of her teeth, “But we need to have her evacuate her hair first.” Twilight was the one who cut off Flutter’s insectoid-infodump, and she reacted amicably enough.
Flitter Flutter took care to relocate Linus the luna moth over to a field of wildflowers with Sammie the stag beetle, Beeatrice the Bumblebee, Celica the centipede, and many other alliteratively-named arthropod-amigos. She was very understanding about being tied-up, all things considered. She gave Twilight a warm smile, as the unicorn telekinetically wrapped her in the heavy cord. “It’s okay, Twilight. I’m not mad,” she reassured, “but, honestly, I am scared…”
“I know, honey, I know…” Twilight said, and gave Flitter Flutter a very soft kiss on the forehead. Minty gave Pinky Pie her trademark puppy-dog-eyes, and received the same sort of smooch after a playful eye-roll.
“How will we know if we did everything right?” Pinky asked Minty, sitting down next to her.
“From what I remember when I was a foal, she’s still gonna get all big and scary, but not as big, and way less scary.” Minty replied, and failed to properly force a confident smirk.
“U-um, girls…” Flitter Flutter asked, with a quiver in her voice, “M-may I please have a hug? Before, y-you know…”
“Oh, of course, sweetheart…” Twilight said, and embraced her twice as hard as usual to make up for Flutters inability to do reciprocate.
“Anything for a friend.” Pinky Pie said, and joined.
“I’m always down for a hug!” Minty giggled, and topped off the pony-pile.
“I’m your… f-friend…?” Flitter Flutter asked Pinky Pie, with watery eyes.
“Totally!” Minty chirped, answering for Pinky, who simply nodded. “Why else do you think we’d spend two whole days with you all?”
Twilight wrapped a foreleg around Minty, and nuzzled Pinky to indicate that the feeling was mutual. “Well, I’m quite grateful you two came around. I don’t think Flutters or I have felt quite this hopeful for a long time…”
Flitter Flutter nodded, and smiled with hope and love that was palpable in the air. She was cut off by a sudden feeling of heat-- burning, overwhelming heat-- from deep in her chest. It was time.
“We haven’t had a call from them for two whole days, Starry. I’m worried.” Skywishes whimpered, and sipped her cup of tea: some fruity blend Applejack had dropped off, she couldn’t properly identify any flavor or aroma but apples, but Skywishes had never been of a culinary persuasion.
Starcatcher paced around the tiny hospital room, grumbling to herself. “I knew this was gonna happen, I knew Minty’d find some way to muss it up.”
“What? Where’s this coming from?” Skywishes was surprised. She knew Minty had a tendency to push a lot of Starcatcher’s buttons without realizing it, but Starry had never expressed such animosity towards their friend before now.
“Aw, c’mon, love. She’s a bumbling fool, and you know it.”
“Starcatcher, you can’t mean that!”
Starcatcher stopped herself from saying anything else before she had calmed down. “No, you’re right. I’m sorry, hon…” She looked away from Skywishes, ashamed of her outburst. “I just… I feel kinda guilty puttin’ this on our mates like this. I don’t think Minty’s stupid, not really.”
“Oh, sweetie…” Skywishes beckoned her wife over to her bed, and leaned up to hug her as tight as her weakened forelegs could. “It’s okay, I know you’re scared, and I knew you couldn’t really feel that way…” Skywishes patted Starcatcher’s head. “Please don’t feel so guilty about not being out there, dear. I’d really rather have you here with me.” Skywishes gave her a kiss on the lips, and Starcatcher smiled adoringly back.
“Awrite, love…” she replied. Then grinned a bit deviously, “But I am still mad at that li'l molly for knockin’ over the Hearth’s Warming tree.”
Skywishes scoffed, gave her wife a playful shove, and chuckled. “Oh, you spiteful bonehead!”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, pipsqueak!” Starcatcher retorted with equal mirth.
“Seriously, though. Do you think they’re okay?” Skywishes asked, her thoughts returning back to their departed friends.
After a moment of thought, and resting her chin on Skywishes head for good measure, Star replied, “I do think so. Minty’s pretty strong-- she could lift up this bed with both of us on it if she wanted to-- and what Pinky Pie lacks in magic, she definitely makes up for in bein’ a clever-clogs.”
Skywishes chortled at that, and was visibly relieved. “‘Clever-clogs’, honey?”
“Oh, chomp the bit, ya dork…” She replied with a grin.
Flitter Flutter felt it very firmly, it was taking the forefront of her mind, making her take a back seat to control of her own body, punishing her for her hubris of thinking she could ever really be a mare. Her last act as herself was to wail out “It’s coming!” as a warning to the ponies embracing her, before that awful beast came out. The three yelped and jumped back, staying about ten feet away from her, understandably wanting to put some distance between themselves and that monster. She felt her feathers shed from her wings, even as they were restrained, and her body grow larger, more muscular. She hated this feeling, but had hope she wouldn’t have to live with it forever, and that counted for a lot. As it took her over, made her into only an observer, she felt less fearful of what would happen.
“Oh my golly gosh!” Minty yelped. “That looks like it hurts, Flutters! Are you okay?”
The only reply was a growl, and a bearing of fangs.
“Minty…” Pinky admonished, “No. Just… just don’t.” This was met with a look of genuine, innocent confusion from the mule, followed by sudden realization, and an apology directed towards the werebat. Pinky Pie facehoofed.
“It seems as though it’s working…” Twilight stated, illuminating the dark room with her horn. “I know you can’t talk right now, dear, but I’m here for you… okay?” Twilight said, and looked into the werebats golden eyes. The creature in Flitter Flutter’s body seemed smaller, and put up much less of a fight than it had against its restraints previously. It seemed even to… calm down a bit? Twilight took an incredibly cautious step towards it.
Minty was not so cautious, and started trotting over to the bat, before Pinky telekinetically stopped her. “Minty, careful!” Pinky yelped, and then added “Please…?”
Minty looked at her with a thoughtless expression, before smiling. “Oh, Pinks, it’s okay. I’ve done this before, remember?” Despite her confidence, she proceeded more cautiously.
Pinky and Twilight looked at one another apprehensively, but joined Minty in creeping closer to the werebat, which growled and wriggled in place. It was hardly any bigger than Flitter-Flutter’s body usually was. Granted, Flitter Flutter was easily the largest pony the others had ever seen, but the werebat had-- of course-- been much larger before than it was now. Two nights ago, if Flitter Flutter was an orange, the werebat was a grapefruit; but now the werebat was more like a slightly larger orange (in keeping with the analogy). Minty was the first to approach, and the creature snarled and writhed wildly in-place. Twilight was next to follow, taking a much smaller step, and the bat seemed to calm, and met her eyes. It looked at her sternly, and she froze. She could sense… something. She didn’t know what, but she felt less threatened, and more curious. She got closer, and Pinky nervously scooted closer to Minty. Twilight shook her head and unfroze; she had an idea. Possibly a stupid one, but she liked it much better than consigning her marefriend to bondage every other evening.
“Hey there, girl…” Twilight said in a low voice, trying to be comforting, trying out treating the werebat like an animal, the way she had seen Flitter Flutter do before. Maybe, since the werebat seemed to be much more like beast than a pony, she ought to treat it like one? The bat looked up at her, reminding Twilight of the big, wolf-like dog that Granny Smith used to have back in Ponyville. Actually… upon close inspection, (and without immediate threat of death) the face really was much more like a wolf’s than a bat’s. She carefully reached out a hoof to the werebat, and ignored Pinky Pie’s gasp. It-- no, she-- rose her snout to sniff at Twilight’s hoof. Twilight Twinkle should have, by all accounts, not done this; but she was herself, and that meant she would put herself directly in harm’s way for the sake of learning new information, even if the back of her mind was relentlessly screaming ‘DANGER, DANGER! BIG SCARY THING THAT ALMOST KILLED YOU! RUN AWAY!’. The werebat growled softly, leading Twilight to pull her hoof away, just as carefully as she had offered in the first place. The werebat stopped growling immediately, and just looked Twilight in the eyes curiously. There wasn’t much of Flitter Flutter in them, but they were still pretty in their own way.
Several seconds of silence were interrupted by the hooting of an owl in the surrounding woods, and Minty was the first of the group to speak up. “Wow. Twilight…” She started and stopped to say something else several times, but eventually decided that “Wow. Just, wow.” was sufficient.
“It’s… kinda like a big dog.” Pinky said. “Except… a pony.”
“She.” Twilight said, authoritatively. “Not ‘it’, she.”