Sitting near the edge of a grove of apple trees, Big McIntosh gazed up at the moon. The sound of powerful wings descending from the night sky caused him to turn his head. He smiled and bowed as Luna and one of her bat pony guards landed.
“My dear stallion, you need not bow to me. I believe we are a bit beyond such formalities.” Luna paused, a concerned look passing across her face. “At least, I hope we have moved past such things.”
McIntosh stood back up, his smile even wider. “Eeyup.”
Luna hugged him to her. “It pleases me that you are of the same mind. It has been quite some time since our fun at the festival. I have come to deeply enjoy your companionship.” She leaned her head close to his ear and whispered, “Having your affection has also been most pleasing.”
McIntosh blushed, adding a deeper hue to his already dark red coat.
“Now, what surprise did you wish to show me?”
McIntosh nodded towards the newly converted grove of apple trees. “I know you like bats of all kinds, so I thought you would like to see the latest addition to the farm, a bat sanctuary.”
Luna clapped her fore-hooves together. “A bat sanctuary?! How marvelous! What inspired you to construct such a thing?”
Big McIntosh gestured for her walk with him. He explained the events that led up to the creation of the bat sanctuary as they made their way into the sanctuary.
“These bats will provide your farm with good seeds and fertilizer. Fluttershy was wise to suggest such a thing.”
McIntosh looked deeper into the sanctuary. “There's been something mighty strange goin' on since we made the sanctuary, though. A new critter's been comin' to the grove to eat some of our apples like the vampire bats do, but it's a good bit bigger.”
The bat pony at Luna's side said, “We of the Lunar Guard could help drive the creature off, if you would like.” He quickly bowed to Luna and added, “With your permission, of course, Princess.”
Luna patted the guard on the shoulder, causing him to rock slightly. “My dear Horizon, your enthusiasm is to be commended, but we know not the whole of the matter quite yet.”
McIntosh continued, “Now and then, we find pouches of bits hung from the branches of the trees. It's like the critter wants to pay for what it has been takin'.”
Luna put a hoof to her chin. “Are you certain it's not a bat pony who does not want to disturb your slumber during the night?”
McIntosh shook his head. “It's got bat-like wings alright, but the critter has red eyes and it's got fangs for sucking the juice out of the apples.”
Luna and McIntosh turned to Horizon, who smiled, revealing he had no fangs. “Not one of us then.”
Luna grinned and looked deeper into the grove. “This creature sounds most intriguing. Let us see if we can spy it this night.” Luna turned towards the moon. With a bit of magical power, she caused the moon to shine brighter.
Horizon rubbed the back of his neck. “Princess, I hate to say anything, but Celestia asked you not to deviate from the moon's typical patterns too often.”
“To whom do you report, me or my sister?”
Horizon responded, without hesitation, “You!”
“You would do well to remember that. There is a possibly dangerous creature on the loose in the orchards of one of the Elements of Harmony. It would be remiss of me not to use all my powers to render aid.”
McIntosh said, “I don't want you gettin' into trouble with your sister over something like this.”
“I shall not be dissuaded. You and I will search for this creature together. Horizon, you shall take flight and see if you can spy our quarry from the air.”
“What should I do if I see it?”
“If you can do so without endangering yourself, capture it and call for us.”
Horizon snapped off a salute and then launched into the air.
Luna turned back to McIntosh, a broad smile on her face. “Let us start the hunt. It should prove to be most entertaining.”
*****
Horizon flew around the edge of the grove, not too far from the tops of the trees. “Luna, I know you were trying to help, but the moonlight is just going to back-light anypony trying to fly stealthily tonight, including me,” he said as if the princess could hear him.
He slowly started to circle the grove, tightening the circumference of his path towards the center of the grove each time. A shape in the trees caught his attention. He descended to the ground.
He cautiously slunk his way towards where he had seen the figure. He put his hoof down on a squishy, drained apple. He looked at the bottom of his hoof with disgust. He muttered to himself, “That's what you get for not paying attention to where you were stepping.” He looked around and spotted other similarly drained apples. “Those bite marks are too big for typical vampire bats.” His ears pricked up at the sound of somepony's voice.
“Hello there little guy, I'm glad you made it. I was worried about you when you didn't show up.”
Horizon made his way to the trunk of a tree and eased his head around it. He watched as a yellow pegasus pony with a pink mane gave out apples to a gathering of vampire bats. She was hanging upside down from a branch, held aloft by her tail, as she spoke to the bats.
“There you go. I added some vitamins to these to help you stay healthy. I know that they don't taste quite as good, thanks to the medicine, but please eat them.”
He leaned a bit more to get a better view of her.
One of the bats noticed him and chattered a warning.
The pegasus looked around frantically for the cause of the alarm. “What is it?”
The bat pointed a wing towards Horizon.
Horizon stepped from around the tree. “Hello.”
The mare softly whimpered and hid behind her wings.
“Please, don't be afraid.” He took off his helmet and extended a hoof towards her. “I'm not going to hurt you.”
The mare gave a squeak, let go of her hold on the branch, and started to fly off.
Horizon dropped his helmet and took flight after her. “Wait! Please! I just want to talk to you!” He grabbed her tail with his teeth and slowly directed their flight towards the ground. As soon as their hooves touched the ground, he tackled her. “Look, I'm sorry, but I have to talk to you. I'm under orders from Luna.”
She hid her face behind her mane.
His eyes widened. “McIntosh was talking about you earlier, you're Fluttershy!”
She turned towards him and nodded.
“Why do you look like that? I thought Twilight cast a counterspell?” Horizon glanced over his shoulder as a voice called his name. “That's Luna!” He looked back down at Fluttershy. “You've got to get out of here.” He offered her a hoof up. “Run, fly, I don't care, just get out of here!”
Accepting Horizon's hoof, Fluttershy got to her hooves. “Thank you. I hope you don't get into trouble.” She turned and raced off through the grove.
“Dark Horizon!” Luna ran up to him and picked him up in a bear hug. “I feared for you! We found your helmet, what happened?!”
“I saw the creature, but she's gone now,” he wheezed.
McIntosh walked over to the pair and patted Luna on the shoulder. “Luna, he needs some air. He's turnin' colors.”
Luna gently put Horizon back on the ground. “Sorry, I am just overjoyed at seeing you unharmed. What manner of beast was it?”
Horizon looked in the direction that Fluttershy had run. “I don't know. I've never seen anything like her.”
“Her?” McIntosh said.
“It looked like a female creature, whatever she was.”
McIntosh offered Horizon his helmet. “Here you go.”
Horizon took the helm back with slightly shaking hooves. “Thanks.”
Luna looked over Horizon. “Are you well? You seem shaken.”
“I just wasn't expecting something like her.”
“Perhaps the Lunar Guard will be needed here after all. We cannot have a potential threat to Ponyville do as it pleases.”
Horizon snapped to attention. “I would like to volunteer for the operation.”
McIntosh raised an eyebrow at Horizon, but said nothing.
May I ask the ships?
3710141 Of course! There will be a couple of different pairings in the story. Luna and Big McIntosh will be one and Dark Horizon and Fluttershy will be the other. There may be other hinted at relationships. but those will be the primary ones.
3710194 All I can say is
Insta Fav
I really want to see where this goes. Like, I really want to. Vamponies are now canon, and my dreams have come true! Take my favorite.
It seemed kind of rushed, though. That's my only problem with it. Take your time and use a little more of that time to flesh out Dark Horizon more, give the story more depth.
please contnue?
3710231 I admit I crammed a lot of stuff in this first chapter, perhaps a bit too much. Now that I'm not working with a word constraint, I will certainly dive into the characters and storyline much deeper.
Thank you for your feedback. I greatly appreciate it.
3710709 No trouble.
3710427 I most certainly will. This was just a crazy little idea that I had after reading a post on Equestria Daily that looks like it's going to turn into a multi-part story that's going to be a blast to write.
Thank you for the encouragement!
What? A Flutterbat story that's not a one-shot?
*follows*
Well well, this is quite intriguing. A Bat Pony and a Flutter Bat? Let's see if this ship floats
3710196 Thank you for the fave and for adding my story the all the groups you did. I'm thrilled that your enjoying the story so far. It's not my typical crack shipping and it's going to be a little on the OC side, but I think it will turn out to be a fun romp.
Great Story! I think this deserves a like and a fave and a read later :3! FLUTTERBAT IS BACK!!! With Dark Horizon and Luna and Big Mac... FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm watching this! Like a Hawk! or a Bat! or a- I need to shut up... GOOD JOB!
3710884
3710741 Thank you! I'm afraid this might be a little slow in updating, but I assure you I will not abandon it. I have a good track record of finishing my stories and I intend to keep up the trend.
3710803 I hope the ship floats. The possible contrasts been the 'vamponies' and the bat ponies sparked something that really took off with the Equestria Daily prompt. I'm trying to make sure that this story will not just be a mushly love story, though there will be ample amounts of romance, but delve into a little world building as well.
3710884 Thanks! I'm glad you're liking the story so far. After reading the comics and seeing Luna and McIntosh's interactions, I couldn't help but throw them in the mix. It's nice to see that you enjoyed them too.
This is a really nice start. The romance should not be a hard thing to achieve and looking forward to the world building especially since you are the first I have seen to make a Flutterbat fic that is not a one shot.
best shypire vampony flutterbat story so far lol
a bit hard to spot it between all the other flutterbat fics out here since the episode
3711532 Thanks a lot! Considering the number of Flutterbat stories out there right now, that's quite a compliment. I have a feeling that one of the reasons that there has been a flood of Flutterbat stories is that Equestria Daily is having a writers training event with Twilight's reversal spell not completely working on Fluttershy being the prompt.
3710880
"OC side" as in lots of OCs?
On a separate note, the bit where the guard found Flutterbat felt a bit... off. It didn't quite fit Fluttershy's character or even lie between her "feral" side she displayed in the episode and her "normal" disposition.
3714633 There will not be lots of OC characters, just two. However, one of them is going to be involved in the storyline rather heavily.
I admit, writing for Fluttershy is not a strong suit for me. Unlike Pinkie, who you can do anything with, Fluttershy takes after her namesake and it's hard to get her tone quite right. I'll see what I can do with the coming chapters to capture her personality a bit more.
Thank you for the feedback. Having readers point out areas in my writing that need polish has helped me more that I can tell you. I really do appreciate it.
3715389
Just to voice my observations of Fluttershy's "feral" vampire bat pony disposition:
"Flutterbat" as shown in the episode was skittish, just like the "normal" Fluttershy, but it was much more defensive/territorial comparatively. It would first flee, then if pursued, would fight to defend its "territory." Sort of a half-way between Fluttershy and Rainbow in terms of combative tendencies.
The non-feral Flutterbat shown in this story was actually more skittish and flighty than the normal Fluttershy was, pushing her even farther from her feral side than if she was not in her pseudo-predatory vampire pony state.
Can you do a sequel plz?
(Did i spell it right? Plz tell me.)
3720844 Your spelling was perfect. Don't worry, there will be more chapters to this story. Life is crazy for me right now, so my writing has slowed quite a bit.
I'm flattered that you want me to write more. It's feedback like yours that really gives the me extra boost I need to keep my fingers flying on my keyboard.
Er... I'm not that big of a fan of Luna/BigMcIntosh, but I was still entertained throughout the story. I'd like to see how it proceeds.
3721858 ok, i just really like this story.
Finally! A Flutterbat's story that isn't an one-shot!
I'm torn on this. On one hand, I do enjoy flutterbat stories, on the other hand, certain elements have made me averse to vampire stories. Since there's a romance tag, I get the feeling this is gonna lean more on the "forbidden love" type of vampire rather than the "feral instinct" vampire. Oh well.
3728702 I'm glad you want to read more of this wild idea of mine. I hope that I don't disappoint with my future chapters.
3730529 I promise there will be no blood, violence, or anything of the sort in this story. This is going to be more of a slice of life, world building, and light romance kind of tale. There will be some tension, if I can manage to pull that off, and perhaps a couple of conflicts of the ideology / personality types, but no violence.
I like to keep my romance stories rather fluffy and nice. Dark stuff has it's place, and I have written one story with a bit of harsher edge, but it's not something I'm skilled at.
This should be interesting. I'd like to see more Mac and Luna. I mean with the comic and their kiss, they're more Canon then any other pairing. Also I'm enjoying Lunas speech.
Flutterbat is sorta take it or leave it for me. Vampires do nothing for me. I'm here for Mac and Luna
Love this, please keep going, give seven out of ten
3853310 Thank you! I fully intend to finish this story. In fact, I hope to have the next chapter out in a couple of days. It's quite a bit longer at 5K+ words. I'm trying to edit it the best I can so that readers don't cringe at my horrible grammar and punctuation. Dialog punctuation in particular can be a beast for me to wrestle with.
I am tickled to receive seven out of ten from you. I hope that the next chapter will push that score a little higher. I have so many ideas for this story, trying to pull them in a way that makes since to the story flow is proving to be a fun challenge.
3747413 There will most certainly be more McIntosh/Luna scenes and romance. I love the idea of Luna's outgoing personality (if you follow the examples of the comics) trying to fit with McIntosh's more reserved attitude towards life.
I hope to have the next chapter out soon. It won't have much in the way of Luna/Mac, but the chapter after certainly will. Thanks for the positive feedback on Luna's mode of speaking. She is fun to write, but it can be difficult to get the right mix of archaic language with more modern dialog. I'm glad I'm doing her some justice.
3859495 Glad to hear it! Hope you update soon!
Interesting story.
I like this story so far even tho i don't ship big mac and luna but its hard not to read more Keep up the good work
I really like Big Mac in this. Totally sees through Horizon's awkward lies and is having none of it.
But still not mentioning it.