Late that night, the friends had all returned to the orchard at, as Soarin said in a spooky way, “The witching hour…!”
The light of the full moon cast an eerie glow upon the orchard. From the ruined trees did stretch creep shadows that appeared to transform into sneaking spookables, the spine-chilling noises of croaking frogs, chirping crickets, the whispering of leaves blown in the cold wind.
“Maybe we should call this off. I'm not sure about the rest of you guys but I’m…” shivered Fluttershy before she noticed a hanging apple and her eyes widened as she said almost longingly, “…really hungry.”
Seeing that apple – That ripe, juicy, succulent, shiny red apple! – Fluttershy couldn’t help but drool but she snapped out of it when Blueblood assured, “Now, now, Fluttershy, it’s going to be just fine. We’re all together and together we shall overcome this problem.”
“That’s right,” Midnight agreed with a determined smile, “Nopony leaves this orchard until we solve this mystery, agreed?”
“Agreed!” everypony chorused and they carried on.
“Does everypony have their pony signal?” asked Applejack.
Midnight and Blueblood answered by lighting up their horns, creating spotlight signals with outlines of their cutie-marks, Midnight’s was turquoise and sapphire, Blueblood’s was golden and periwinkle. Pinkie shined her own signal via a flashlight which she somehow carried with that hanging curl in her poofy-mane, shining it to show her three balloons cutie-mark, colored white.
“Now remember, Pinkie Pie,” Applejack reminded, “only use yer signal if’n ya see sumthin’ suspicious.”
“I got it,” Pinkie assured while mistakenly shining her light into AJ’s eyes, making her rub them from the sudden flash.
“Something suspicious…”
Her bright blue eyes got shifty as she was on high alert when she noticed something and almost demanded in a shrill voice, “What’cha doing?!”
Fluttershy flinched, having been sniffing at an apple, but she didn’t answer and carried on, Pinkie stowing her flashlight into her mane and following with narrowed eyes. As they came to the entrance of the orchard, Applejack instructed, “A’right, now everypony split up – We’ll each patrol our own row o’ th’ orchard. Whoever `r whatever is destroyin’ mah apples has gotta be here somewhere!”
As the patrols commended, Fluttershy shivered, “I have a bad feeling about this, a really bad feeling about this…!”
But again, Fluttershy noticed a hanging apple and felt a foreign desire begin to well up, “That apple, it… looks… so juicy and… sweet…!”
As she licked her drooling lips, she failed to notice a tingle in her teeth as they lengthened into fangs!
As Pinkie patrolled her row…
*CHOMP*
Something scurried through the darkened foliage, Pinkie halting, “What was that?!”
She gasped in near-horror to see an apple, teeth-marked and mushy, “Suspicious! Hee-hee! It’s pony signal time!”
But as she whipped out her light, a noise startled her, making Pinkie drop her light and look around.
As Blueblood walked down his row, he tried his cousin’s calming technique to maintain his nerve when a shadow fell over him. “Who’s there?!”
Something just flew overhead but nothing happened.
“Well, ahem! It’s all well and good, just something out for a late-night flight…”
He then gasped and ducked as the shadowy figure flew over but a tad too close for comfort, making Blueblood gulp, “Er…! Perhaps… I should check in with Soarin!”
Soarin was flying slowly through the trees, determined to put a stop this threat to his beloved apple pies! Too good were these potential fillings for whatever apple-purloining parasite was behind this, and to himself Soarin swore, This ends tonight!
The sound of something flying overhead caught his attention and he looked in the direction he’d heard it go, “Who’s there?!”
The whistling wind blew `round a lone figure standing between two trees.
“Identify yourself or this gets ugly!” Soarin warned.
When the figure maintained its silence, Soarin snorted challengingly, “Have it your way!”
*SHOOM/CRASH*
Soarin pulled the figure’s forelegs back, yelling, “Say uncle! Say it now, you- You…?”
Soarin felt the legs fall apart into a messy something and he stepped back to see it was a “Scarecrow…”
It was a brown thing wearing overalls, buttons for eyes, hay for a mane and tail, the forelegs ripped apart from Soarin’s roughing up.
Soarin chuckled sheepishly, glad the others hadn’t seen his blunder, unaware that something had indeed bore witness to his mistake.
Midnight wasn’t at all nervous; rather he was quite glad to be out and about under the moon, soaking in its gentle glory but remained alert for the culprit behind the mushy apples. Still, it bothered Midnight – He knew he’d done the spell right, and he’d seen for himself, that vampire fruit bats no longer had a taste for the apples. Yet something was leaching off of the apples in the same manner the vampire bats had done. It just didn’t make sense, There’s another piece to this puzzle…
Grumbling in frustrated puzzlement, Midnight’s eye caught something skyward and he saw it was Applejack’s signal!
Taking flight, he found her in no time. Applejack was gazing up in shock at something, her signal light set to beam upwards.
“AJ, what is it?” Midnight asked as he landed near her, only to feel something bounce off his head and he looked to see Pinkie hanging from a tree branch, her light beaming at something else hanging from the branch but they couldn’t tell what it was, Pinkie yelling, “Suspicious!!!”
The hanging thing moved what appeared wings away, to reveal…
*HISS*
“FLUTTERSHY?!” Everypony had gathered and were shocked to see Fluttershy as she whipped out her tongue and pulled an apple to her mouth, quickly sucking it dry and spitting it out. Her ears were longer and pointed, she had fangs, her eyes had turned a harsh pink.
“Fluttershy?! Yoo-hoo!” Pinkie waved her hoof over Fluttershy’s face, only to get hissed at, that the party pony dropped.
“That’s not Flutter-shy…” Blueblood was horrified, “that’s… Flutter-bat!”
“We’ve gotta do something!” exclaimed Midnight.
“Uh- Fluttershy! Come on down, and…cease the vampirish behavior!” Blueblood called.
Flutterbat just hissed and sucked another dry before spitting it out. Soarin flapped up to her, “Flutters, what’s up?! We’re your friends, so cut the bat act and-”
He was answered by a harsher hiss before Flutterbat unfurled her wings, which had become larger and leathery, and flapped them with such power the gust they generated sent Soarin for a loop.
“Whoa!”
He flew down to the rest, “Uh… let’s… just let her come down when she feels like it."
“Duck!” Spike yelled and they all did, as Flutterbat swooped over them, taking flight.
“Flutterbat on the loose! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!” Pinkie yelled as she began to dig.
“Pinkie, relax! See? She’s... just… hanging out?” Midnight pointed out rather lamely.
While Soarin gave Midngiht a disapproving 'Boo' to that poorly made pun, Pinkie responded, “She’s just biding her time – Waiting for the right moment to pounce!”
“Pinkie Pie, bats don’ eat ponies,” Applejack said tiresomely. “Not even vampire bats.”
“But maybe vampire ponies eat other ponies! I’m not taking any chances” Pinkie debated before she began tunneling away.
“But Celestia’s mane! How did this happen in the first place?” Blueblood brought up in worry.
“I think it’s our fault,” Midnight answered woefully.
“Whattya mean, brony?” Soarin asked.
Midnight cast an illusion spell to create a holographic display for visual aids, as it showed everything he explained.
“There I am, there’re the bats, and that’s Fluttershy doing the Stare. The spell I cast should only have affected the bats but somehow the vampire fruit bats’ desire to be vampire fruit bats wound up going to Fluttershy!”
He broke the spell, the hologram vanishing, as Midnight said, “We’ve gotta undo the spell before this gets any worse!”
From the ground did pop Pinkie, “Then what’re we waiting for?!”
*HISS!!*
They all looked and hit the deck as Flutterbat dive-bombed them again, Pinkie yelling, “Follow that bat!”
As the six of them gave chase, they didn’t realize they’d been given the slip as Flutterbat was perched on a tree and shuddered as her ears became more bat-like.
“Tartarus!” Blueblood cursed after they’d slowed down, “We’ve lost her!”
“Fluttershy! Where are you?” Midnight called, a hissing answering and they all looked and scattered as Flutterbat dive-bombed them, ignoring Spike and snatching up another apple. She flew up, her wings frightful against the moon, and came at them again, Applejack yelling, “look out!”
Seeds shot like darts as the ponies ducked for cover, Soarin noticing another leached apple fall. “If she keeps this up, the whole crop will be gone in no time!”
“Never mind the crop,” Applejack sighed, feeling guilty as she looked to Flutterbat, still flying. “Ah jus’ want mah friend back!”
“The only way we’ll get her is if we corner her and catch her so I can reverse the spell,” Midnight stated.
“But every time we get close to her, she flies away before we can so much as touch her,” Blueblood protested, “and I think it’s quite clear she’s not in her right mind to be reasoned with.”
“Then there’s no choice,” Midnight decided, “We’ll have to lure her in!”
“But even if we can,” Applejack spoke up, “how’re we s’posed to keep her still long enough for you t’ reverse th’ spell?”
“Oh! If only we had Fluttershy to do her Stare on the Flutterbat!” Pinkie fretted, the words hatching a plan in Midnight’s mind.
“Of course! C’mon, back to the house!”
Upon arriving, Applejack asked, “What’s th’ plan, Midnight?”
Midnight went over to the giant apple and pulled it off, “Our bait!”
Gasping, Applejack admonished, “Midnight! Tha’s our entry for that competition in Appleloosa!”
“No worries, AJ,” Midnight looked to the giant apple and chanted.
Materia Replicata… Materia Replicata! Materia Replicata!!
The giant apple was enveloped in Midnight’s turquoise mana and everypony watched as it fidgeted to and fro before it seemed to split apart, resulting in another giant apple, a perfect copy!
Everypony wow’d at Midnight’s spell, Applejack ‘phew’ing, “Well, least we’ll still get t’ try fer Produce Competition's blue ribbon!”
Without waiting, Midnight levitated the copied giant apple, saying, “C’mon, everypony! Let’s get our friend back!”
Midnight went over the plan with them all before taking the giant apple copy into the orchard, specifically in the last place they saw Flutterbat, and set it down.
“Alright, places everypony!”
As the rest of them hid, Applejack walked up to the copy and hesitated for it was a perfect copy of the one she’d grown but knowing Fluttershy needed them steeled her and she took the knife she brought and slit the skin, the juice oozing out. Soarin flapped his wings to provide the wind, carrying the famishing fragrance.
They weren’t kept waiting for long as Flutterbat’s harsh hissing alerted them and they saw her coming, with a hungry craze!
“Here she comes!” Soarin yelled, and Applejack waited… before bucking the giant apple to reveal…!
A full-length mirror held up by Spike, Flutterbat catching her reflection, much to her confusion. She shook her head and attempted to veer away, only to run into more and more reflections as Pinkie and Blueblood, each with a mirror, surrounded her.
Satisfied that Flutterbat had been dazed, Midnight focused, his horn igniting, ribbons of turquoise mana unraveling from it before they streaked towards Flutterbat, enveloping her in a swirling embrace! They watched as the spinning oval of mana intensified before it burst into white mana globs shaped like bats that flew away and dissolved into nothingness, Fluttershy, returned to normal, floating down, still dazed.
Her friends watched as Fluttershy stirred awake, “Uh… where am I?”
They whooped and cheered, Applejack going up to hug her, “Thank goddess yer okay!”
“But… what happened to me?” Fluttershy asked, Pinkie hopping down in front of Applejack (to her chagrin), “You turned into a vampire pony!”
Gasping, Fluttershy fretted, “I tried to eat other ponies!”
“Of course not!”
“So I wasn’t a vampire?”
“Yes!”
“Yes I was? Or Yes I wasn’t?”
“Yes you were.”
“But I didn’t try to eat ponies?”
“Yes!”
“I did?!”
“No-”
*SMACK*
Pinkie mmph’d indignantly as she threw a stink eye at Midnight, who’d shut her mouth with his long tail, “Yes you were a vampire but no you didn’t try to eat ponies, because you were too interested in eating apples like the vampire fruit bats.”
“Ohh…!” Fluttershy finally got it, “That makes much more sense.”
“Anything makes much more sense than Pinkie Pie,” Blueblood cracked, spurring a laugh from them all, even Pinkie.
The next morning, the friends had set up a sanctuary for the vampire fruit bats, just as Fluttershy had suggested. Oddly, even though she didn’t remember being a vampire, Fluttershy found she was able to communicate with the vampire bats much more easily and was able to convince them to keep to the sanctuary and to always spit the seeds around the orchard.
After she set up the sign for the sanctuary, Applejack turned to her friend, “Fluttershy? Ah’m real sorry Ah din’t take yer suggestion in th’ first place.”
“And don’t forget,” Fluttershy replied in a bright tone that said there were no hard feelings, “now you’ll get seeds that will grow into bigger and even better apple trees!”
“Does that mean what I think it means…?” Soarin asked with a hopeful smile, Applejack smiling with a nod.
“Yup, more apple pies.”
“WHOO-HOO!!!” Soarin flew skyward happily, much to everypony’s amusement.
“Lucky thing this is over before the rest of the family got home,” Midnight said to them all, “I would not have liked to explain to our brother about his fiancée turning into a vampire.”
“It’s alright, Midnight,” Fluttershy assured, “I’m just glad everything worked out, for everyone!”
“C’mon, `Shy, Spike, Ah think we got us an entry fer th’ journal,” Applejack said with a smile as she started down the path, only for Pinkie to stop her.
“Halt!” she pointed to an apple Aj had almost stepped on, and said with a Transylmanian accent and bad vampire teeth, “I vant to suck its juice!”
She bit into the apple, her fake fangs coming off, that it spurred more laughter from them all, nopony noticing that Fluttershy still had fangs (albeit much smaller).