//------------------------------// // Bite of Foreknowledge // Story: A role-playing gamer in Celestia's Court // by Gsarge9289 //------------------------------// Applejack had been talking about this day for a few days which meant this was the first event of the show I was going to be around for when it unfolded. I had trouble sleeping last night, one because I'd forgotten a bed so I had to sleep on stone, two I was rather nervous about whether I should even interfere. Would just being there change things irrevocably? Should I back out now while I still had the chance to not change things? I had made the promise without thinking, but now that I thought about it I figured I at least owed Fluttershy after she stood up for me at the party. She should feel that someone was in her corner when the rest of her friends were going to pressure her into doing the Flutterstare on the vampire fruit bats I got out to Sweet Apple Acres just in time to hear Applejack begin the apple alert. I made my way to the orchard to a distraught Applejack trying to rally her family. "What's wrong?" I asked, fully knowing the answer and preparing myself to look as shocked as I could when the inevitable news came. "It's sumthing awful, Onyxian. Vampire fruit bats are all in da orchard eatin' up mah crop." I had an idea but still wasn't sure if I should change things but still spoke kneeling down to be eye level with Applejack as I noticed she was on the verge of tears. "What if we harvested the other side of the orchard from them and kept the apples out of there? I know it's not much of a solution, but it should limit their impact." Applejack seemed relieved at any plan coming her way at the moment as she nodded her head. "Dat'll work til we get another plan to act on, thanks. I need ya and Big Mac ta start on da other side. Me, Granny, an' Applebloom will do what we can ta slow dem down." Big Mac and I exchanged nods and made our way to the far side of the orchard as luckily the Apples had already set up wooden tubs to catch the apples. I stopped Big Mac from wasting a mighty buck on a tree with a wave of my hand. "I'll get the apples down, you just pull them back to safety." Big Mac seemed a bit confused as I then closed my eyes and stomped my right hoof on the ground as suddenly, like a ping from a sonar, my vision of blackness was filled with root system and four hooves. A tenth second later, I was seeing the full height and sway of the trees and a strong outline of Big Mac standing beside me. I then lifted my hands the warm sensation building on my forehead while tapping my left hoof a pulse traveled to the ground building to a sudden tremor shaking all of the nearby trees until their apples fell out of the branched and into the tubs set under them. I made sure to only shake the ground around enough to get the apples and tried not to disturb anything else. Once I made the tremor stop, I let out a sigh feeling a bit winded. "Ready for the hard part, Big Mac?" "Eeyup." He nodded his head with a look of steadfast determination. We both dashed to gather the tubs into the wagon Big Mac was using to pull them to safety of their barn which I worked to seal up so no bats would be able to get in. After a few runs I heard the sound of voices in debate. "You got this without me, right?" "Eeyup." Big Mac gave an understanding nod. I had already cleared a huge area for him, so he won't need my help for a little bit. I then set off to see what was going on as Fluttershy looked to be getting ganged up upon by the rest of her friends going on about how much of pest the vampire fruit bats were as I ran to her side this time. "Jus' look how much damage yer 'harmless' bats have dun." "That's not fair, you're judging them just because you think these are all your apples." Fluttershy was back in a corner as looked over at me in a pleading fashion. "These are mah apples. A bad season could ruin the farm. Why do you always gotta be on the side of every critter even when they ain't where they're supposed ta be." "Yeah, it's not like they should even be here. Why should we have to miss out on awesome cider just because a bunch of fat bats ate all their food in the wild?" Rainbow Dash Chipped in on the conversation. "Yeah! Fat bats. Fatty bo batties. Big ol' greasy, jiggle puffs full of Applejack's apple juice. The thieving meanies! They should be happy with what they stole and get going." Pinkie Pie jumped up and down as she spoke. I couldn't tell if she was on a side or just enjoying riffing on the bats. "Hey, Fluttershy's just trying to speak for something that you can't speak with yourself. I'll admit they're being quite the nuisance, but wouldn't the best plan of action be to limit their impact on the harvest?" I moved between Fluttershy and the rest of the group. "Yes, you could limit the amount of damage done by setting aside part of your orchard as a sanctuary for the vampire fruit bats." Fluttershy didn't seem all that happy with what I had to say but spoke up in the break I had given her. "Dat dun make a lick of sense. I'm rewarding the with a place ta stay an' more of mah crop ta eat?" Applejack really tore into Fluttershy's idea as poor Fluttershy had also noticed Applejack seemed to really hate the vampire fruit bats. "What if we round them up and then we can worry about what we're going to do with them?" "Dat's a plan, but how?" "I was thinking Twilight and Fluttershy could gather them up someplace and I could make a pen to hold them for a bit. After we are done with the harvest, we could take them to a zoo or animal sanctuary or even release them back into the wild to find food." I turned and gently gave Fluttershy a pat on the head. She and I managed to get along pretty well in spite of me being so new, likely thanks to my unpony appearance and not always enjoying large groups either. Though somehow I'd been lucky enough to not run into Discord the times I'd met with her. "I think I have a spell in the library that could make the bats not want to eat apples." I watched Twilight and now had to really come to a decision. Would I change the major event of this plot and prevent Flutterbat or would I let it happen? No, I wasn't. Fluttershy didn't deserve to be transformed like that. "I think magically enforcing our will on them is going a step too far." "I agree.": Fluttershy spoke up after me. "What if the spell makes them starve because they won't want to eat anything?" Twilight ears dropped at the statement. "I hadn't really thought about that. That would be awful. So just a simple telekinesis spell to move them once Fluttershy has the bats immobilized by the Flutterstare?" "If you and Fluttershy are ok with that." I turned looking over to Fluttershy as she looked up at me. "Um ok, it's not really what I was hoping for, but at least they aren't going to be hurt or have any weird magic used on them." Fluttershy got into position in front of a tree full of the vampire fruit bats and began her hard stare at them all of the bats going quiet and stopping as Twilight gently pulled them from the tree as I then formed a roomy cage, with small spacing between bars to ensure they wouldn't be able slip out, around them. Twilight let them go and Fluttershy stopped her stare as the bats flitted about not very happy at their sudden containment. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash helped the rest of the Apples as, after about an hour of work, we got every vampire fruit bat on Sweet Apple Acres rounded up into stone cages. We met back up in the middle and really tore into the harvesting of the apples. After a long day of work, we all gathered around to figure out what should be done with the bats. "Well I had Spike send a few letters and it seems the Canterlot zoo could house them." "I'd say dat sounds like a swell idea, don't ya think Fluttershy?" "Well, it does take care of them without having to use up more of your orchard on another sanctuary, Applejack. I'm sure they'll be well taken care of."' "They will, I visited there a number of times and the animals always looked happy and well cared for."Twilight added as Fluttershy nodded her head, but still seemed a bit down as all the other ponies and Spike left. I took a seat on the ground and gave a sigh as that seemed to attract her attention. "Are you ok Onyxian?" Fluttershy sat down looking a bit concerned. "Yeah, just a bit tired from magic use. A lot more cages than I thought I was going to need to make for all the bats. How about yourself? You seem a bit down." Fluttershy looked down at the ground pawing her hoof at the dirt. "I just feel like this could have worked out better if I could have worked better if I could have understood them. They wouldn't be in cages right now." "Or you could have still been shot down by the bats or maybe they were ignoring you even though they could understand you.. To be honest, this was a problem with no right answer, just one you answer the best you can." I gave her another pat on the head. "Thank you for helping Twilight and me with the bats. If you hadn't helped, we would have likely had had to be more forceful and it could have gotten violent." Fluttershy looked over to me with big scared eyes. "Thank goodness you didn't have to. I would have felt so bad for the little dears. I still do." I noticed Spike coming out of the barn and waved him over. "Hey, what's up Onyxian?" "Any idea when the ponies from the zoo will be able to pick up the bats?" Spike thought for a bit scratching his head as Fluttershy turned and looked over at him intently. "The last letter said they'd be here on the morning train to Ponyville." "Oh that's wonderful, I was so worried they were going to have to wait a long time." Fluttershy and I got up as she headed to the barn with Spike while I headed towards home until I was stopped by Spike calling out to me. "You're not sticking around? Without you they wouldn't be celebrating right now." I shook my head at him. "Tell Twilight and the others I'm beat. Guess it's one more night with a rock bed tonight." I headed home and was rather surprised to find an extra long twin bed by the door of my house. I found and opened the bed which read. - Onyxian, Thank you for the help today. Granny thought you might need this. Signed, Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Applebloom.- I folded up the note and with a sigh looked at the bed. "Hell of a day."