Moonlight Harvest

by insertbronyhere

Rehearsal

It hadn't been an hour after Big MacIntosh spoke with the rest of the Ponytones that Rarity had come to beat Fluttershy's door down. The meek pegasus had forgotten her close friend was the quartet's soprano, and the reminder only made her more nervous about the whole situation.

Naturally, Rarity had already written additional soprano harmonies into all of their songs. After all, she had wanted Fluttershy to join them months ago.

Not prepared to talk to Rarity at that time, Fluttershy had made up some important to-dos and managed to deflect the unicorn, who had reluctantly left after giving her a massive stack of sheet music to learn her parts. Despite the rapidly increasing gravity of the whole fiasco, however, the yellow mare worked hard to make sure she impressed the Ponytones.

And here's where it all falls apart, she thought with a gulp as she approached the studio for her first rehearsal with the band. It had been a good two weeks since she found out about her pregnancy and hatched this plan with MacIntosh: plenty of time for her to reconsider and dread every detail of it, especially the part where Rarity would be mere metres away every time she spoke to her foal's father.

After pausing at the door to take a few re-centering breaths, Fluttershy trotted into the Ponytones' studio, where the four ponies were already practicing a song ahead of schedule. Despite Rarity insistently beckoning for her to join them, she simply sat and listened to them until they finished and greeted her.

"Um, hello everypony," she responded in kind, nodding in turn to MacIntosh, Rarity, Toe Tapper, and Torch Song. "I-I think I'm ready. Um, I learned my parts."

Toe Tapper grinned and patted her on the shoulder. "I'm sure you'll do fine. How's the stage fright?"

"Um, well," she started, avoiding everypony's eyes, "MacIntosh has been tutoring me for a while now--" She froze. There it was. That gleam in Rarity's eyes: shipping goggles. That didn't take long. After a moment's hesitation, Fluttershy was able to turn her sudden loss of composure into another believable lie. "Um, b-but now there are f-four of you..."

Three of the singers failed miserably in their attempts to comfort her by all speaking at once, causing the pegasus to shrink. MacIntosh cleared his throat loudly, hushing the others, before stepping forward and lowering his head to meet Fluttershy at eye level.

"Now, Fluttershy, remember what we talked about," he said softly. She bit her lip and looked him in the eyes as he continued. He had really comforting eyes, she realized. "Just breathe, 'n' don't think about the ponies around ya. Ya got four other singers to cover ya if ya slip up a little, nopony'll even know. Just relax an' enjoy the music, right?" Fluttershy's lips turned up a bit as she gulped and nodded. Mac smiled with her, straightening up and stepping back among the others. "Now we're gonna get started on some warmups, arpeggios 'n' the like, 'n' you just jump in whenever you're ready."

"O-okay," she agreed, closing her eyes and trying some deep breathing techniques she had picked up from Twilight. With Twi's exercises and Mac's reassurance, Shy found her nerves softening much sooner than she had expected, and began performing scales along with the rest. The others smiled at their new member, and Torch Song almost clapped, stopped just in time by a firm elbow and stern "cut it out" gesture from the farmer. Instead, the Ponytones just grinned in silence as Fluttershy finished her warmups, unaware that the others had stopped a while ago.

When she did at last register the silence, she stopped and blushed, looking around at the others with a sheepish smile. "Um... maybe I'm ready...?"

"Then let's get started, shall we?" Rarity offered cheerfully. After some brief discussion on which songs to perform at their next show (mostly built around Fluttershy's favorites for now), the Ponytones began rehearsing properly, Shy falling right in as if she'd always been there. Things seemed to go without a hitch for most of their set, until one of their songs' conclusion was met with an unexpected round of applause.

"Brava! C'est magnifique!" Fleur Dis Lee's airy voice rang out during the last note, while her husband simply smiled at the band. Fluttershy's chest tightened immediately. Perhaps she wasn't ready for this after all.

While the others happily greeted the wealthy couple, Fluttershy tried her best to hide behind MacIntosh. Fancy Pants wasn't easily fooled, though: his eyes had been on the Element of Kindness since the moment they'd arrived. While his wife talked to the others, Fancy trotted around the large stallion, who was rolling his eyes as he gently tried to free his hind leg from Fluttershy's grip.

"Ahem," Fancy politely cleared his throat, his professional demeanor holding strong despite the rather comical situation before him. "I see you've acquired a new talent, MacIntosh."

"Eeyup," Mac grunted, giving up on shaking the small mare off.

"Performance anxiety?" Fancy asked her directly, his voice warm with sympathy.

"I-I'm sorry," she squeaked, causing MacIntosh to sigh heavily.

"Fluttershy, Fancy here is one of our sponsors," he explained, no small amount of frustration in his voice. She whimpered softly as she looked up at him. "Ah know this is all happenin' so fast, but keep in mind what you're workin' so hard for," he reminded her, his eyes jumping very briefly to her abdomen. He knew she was going to be difficult, but this was ridiculous.

The pegasus gulped, unconsciously rubbing her belly with a wing, then nodded and stood up, finding it hard to meet Fancy's eyes. "I-I'm sorry," she repeated softly. "I-I really do enjoy singing with the Ponytones, I just..." She bit her lip, dreading what she was about to say. "I can't get over my anxiety."

Fancy chuckled, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Believe me, I understand completely," he said. "Why, when I was a colt, believe it or not, I was a timid little thing. Father was so wealthy and influential, how could I ever fill those shoes? I was always surrounded by so many powerful ponies, all of whom expected great things from me... Haha, I was a mess," he said with a wink. "But," he continued, raising his eyebrows with a grin, "I eventually found it was much easier to face them all if I stopped worrying about what they thought and focused on being happy with myself."

"O-oh." Fluttershy bashfully scratched behind her neck, glancing at MacIntosh, who still looked displeased with her.

"Just relax, cheri," Fleur added, having overheard her husband giving a speech he'd used many times before. "You are young and beautiful and a wonderful singer, zey will love you."

Shy nodded, remembering Mac's pointed glance earlier. I am good at this, she told herself, and I need to do this for the foal. I can do this. I can do this!

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Fluttershy took on a look of determination. "You're right. I need to face this. C-could you maybe... bring some friends to rehearsal tomorrow? I-if they aren't busy..."

Fancy and Fleur both chuckled softly. "I'm sure we can round up an audience," Fancy declared. "Now, why don't you try a couple more songs just for us first? Baby steps, you know."

Fluttershy took a deep breath before nodding. "Alright. Everypony else ready?" she asked, glancing around at her bandmates. They all took their places and began another song, the pegasus keeping her eyes closed but singing along perfectly.

--------

That night, Fluttershy found herself dreaming again. No, not dreaming, she realized. This was Flutterbat, as Rarity had called it. Fluttershy would have sighed if she had control of her body.

Instead, Flutterbat scrunched her eyebrows. This was an odd feeling. She was having thoughts that didn't seem to be her own. Shaking her head, she pushed these thoughts away. She was ravenously hungry, and the orchard couldn't reach the horizon soon enough.

An image popped into her mind: the red stallion she had mated with a couple nights ago. She had been too hungry to think about him last night, but this time, she remembered. Yet, this thought of him seemed tainted somehow. She... feared for him? That couldn't be right. What was wrong with her? Maybe some apples and gossip would ease her mind.

As she reached the orchard, however, she couldn't take her mind off the stallion. Part of her wanted to mate again, another part -- what is this? -- wanted to warn him not to mate with her? She was so confused.

Whatever it was, it was far too distracting for her to have any sort of appetite, so she instead flew toward the farm house. Somehow, she knew which of the windows she'd find her prey behind, and she latched onto the wall on either side of the window frame with the claws on her wings, tapping on the glass with a hind hoof.

"MacIntooosh~" she sang. He never said his name, how...? She shook the thought away. It didn't matter. By Celestia's sorrows she was horny. She tapped the glass more insistently, grinning when she saw movement in the dark room.

Mac grunted as he rolled over to light the lantern on his end table. Groggily, he made his way to the bedroom door, opening it to find an empty hallway, but the noise continued. Turning around, he spotted the culprit at his window and sighed heavily.

"Ah know what ya want, and ya ain't gettin' it," he stated sternly.

Unperturbed, Flutterbat pressed her pelvis to the glass. "You can't tell me you didn't enjoy the other night," she mused almost inaudibly through the window.

"Ah won't lie and say that wasn't fun," he admitted, "but Ah didn't rightly know what was goin' on at the time. Ah ain't interested in doin' that again."

The vampire pulled back a hoof, preparing to punch the glass. "You weren't interested last time, until it was already happening~"

"Now listen here, bat," he growled, "ya break mah glass an' you won't be back on mah property without a fight. Just cuz ya got away with jumpin' mah bones two months ago don't mean it's gonna happen again. Ah got more respect for Fluttershy than to--"

"Two months?" she repeated, tilting her head. "That was just the night before last, you silly stallion."

Big Mac looked at her incredulously. "D'you not have Fluttershy's memory?"

"What are you talking about? I am Fluttershy."

"No, you're not," he insisted, shaking his head at the floor with a sigh. "You're... Ah dunno... some kinda spirit, or something, that gets control o' her body once a month. That's the best I can figure, at any rate."

She scrunched her face, growing confused and angry as she considered his words. After what seemed an endless moment, she hissed at MacIntosh and turned around to take flight.

As she headed for the orchard, disturbing thoughts crossed her mind. Could he be telling the truth? She had no memories of fillyhood... yes, she did...? But they felt foreign.

They're not your memories, they're mine. Those thoughts that didn't feel right! Was that the real Fluttershy? Yes. No! Impossible! She began to panic as she arrived at the orchard. There was no other mind in her head. Perhaps she was just going mad? That stallion had done this to her!

Frantically, she flitted among the vampire fruit bats, asking them different questions in turn. How often did she visit them? Once a month. How long had Lucius and Narcissa been mates? Nearly a year, and Narcissa would be giving birth to their first offspring any day now. Where was Vincent? He'd passed away a couple weeks ago.

Fluttershy -- Flutterbat -- whoever she was! -- fell to the ground, curling up and hyperventilating as her reality fell apart. She'd never thought it odd that the bats seemed to move through life so quickly. It had never occurred to her that the moon shouldn't be full every night. She had always had a strange feeling like somepony else was watching her, but now this other was talking to her occasionally. Was this normal? Did she even belong in this body?

It was an accident.

She jumped as that other mind showed itself again. What is this?

I'm not entirely sure myself... One of my friends cast a spell that somehow... created you. I turned into you a few nights in a row, but she tried to reverse the spell. Since then, you've only come out every full moon.

Flutter...bat deliberated for a moment. Faint images of Fluttershy's memory presented themselves to her, but she couldn't make much sense of it. Instead, she curled up tighter, whimpering pathetically. Am I not... real?

I... I wouldn't say that...

W-where do I go? Where do I come from?

I wish I had an answer... I'm sorry. Um... can we go home now? O-or maybe eat? I'm-- er, you're hungry. We're hungry?

Flutterbat groaned. The hunger was there, but no desire to eat. What was the point? She was just going to disappear at sunrise, right?

It's my body too, and I have to eat for the baby.

Baby?

You... conceived a foal with MacIntosh.

Flutterbat bit her lip and gulped. This wasn't even her body, and she'd put a child in it.... She forced herself to get up and flew into a tree, ignoring the strange looks and inquisitive squeaks from the bats as she forced herself to eat. She owed Fluttershy that much, at least.