A Monster Looming Over Us

by Brass Polish

2 Footprints

Apple Bloom returned to Sweet Apple Acres when Applejack was leaving the bat zone for the fourth time that day.

“Nyx wanted me to give you a message,” she said. “Twilight and Starlight can come over tomorrow to clear away some of the rotten wood.”

“Dandy,” said Applejack, whipping some sweat off her face. “Oh. Get this. I got this idea to make extra money. We can sell this here old wood as kindling.”

Apple Bloom groaned loudly. “I was just gonna say that!”

She stomped away towards the CMC clubhouse.

“No need to get all huffy,” frowned Applejack. “So what if we both had the same good idea?”

“I thought I’d be able to help out in some way that doesn’t make you wanna shove me away,” Apple Bloom blurted out.

Applejack let the basket of twigs she’d been carrying fall off her back.

“Look, Apple Bloom,” she said firmly. “You know dang well I don’t shove you away.”

“So I can help you and Big Mac clean up that mess?” asked Apple Bloom.

“No, but that’s not shoving you away,” Applejack said quickly. “I just think we’ve got enough ponies working on this. Me, Big Mac, Crosspatch, and now Twilight and Starlight are…”

“You left me out!” came Lazybug’s voice. “And I’m still getting more seeds than her!”

Lazybug stormed out of the zone and walked away towards the clubhouse; Apple Bloom followed him. Crosspatch left the zone carrying a half-empty bucket of seeds and sporting a sock on her hoof.

“It’s not my fault,” she insisted. “How was I supposed to resist that sock puppet theater Fluttershy put on for the young’uns?”

“If it’s too small, she’s too soft with it,” Lazybug sulked as he and Apple Bloom entered the CMC clubhouse. “If it’s too big, she’s scared lifeless of it. I don’t even get why. We both have our protective zap apple tree magic, so no creature can hurt us. But she’s still trying to find excuses to send me off to school. If she finds anything bigger than a bat in those old trees, all she’ll end up doing is refilling her spritzing bottle.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say big sisters just like pushing their smaller siblings around,” groaned Apple Bloom.

“So you do know better?” asked Lazybug. “Great. Then you can tell me why they do it.”

“Uh…”

“You don’t know better, do you?”

“I DO! I mean I know Applejack doesn’t think I’m useless,” said Apple Bloom. “She can’t. She admitted she was wrong when she tried to stop me reaching out to Zecora. She’s awful impressed with me, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle for having a griffon member of the Crusaders.”

“Maybe she just doesn’t want you doing her work,” suggested Lazybug.

“Nah, that can’t be it,” insisted Apple Bloom. “I’ve done my share of applebucking. I think she just doesn’t want me near those bats. Probably because of that whole chimera thing.”

“Oh, that makes sense. I mean, how did you never think to bring some ricotta with you?”

“I didn’t know there was a chimera in that marsh!” barked Apple Bloom. “And that was different. That thing was huge. Those bats are way smaller. I wish I could tell her I’ve been going in their territory the whole time.”

“Don’t talk daft,” sneered Lazybug. “You don’t wanna give her a reason to give you some kinda punishment just because she can.”

Twilight and Starlight made short work of the larger and more cumbersome tree trunks and brambles the next day. Unfortunately, they made a lot of noise, which hindered Fluttershy in her attempts to become friendly with the vampire fruit bats.

“I think they were asking me for an explanation for all the disturbance,” she told them. “But I don’t think I was able to communicate it to them.”

“Why is it only vampire fruit bats you can’t understand?” asked Starlight.

“I don’t know,” sighed Fluttershy. “But at least some of them understand me when I want to play a game with them.”

Twilight looked at the colourful shreds of paper stuck to Fluttershy’s hooves.

“What were you doing with them today?” she asked.

“Arts and crafts,” smiled Fluttershy. “I was making paper flowers.”

“What did they make?”

“I never found out. They quit after the noise got too annoying for them,” sighed Fluttershy.

“Sorry,” said Twilight. “This was poor timing.”

“It’s alright. But I’m still not keeping the bats away from Applejack and Big Mac as well as Crosspatch and Lazybug are,” said Fluttershy.

At the moment, Crosspatch and Lazybug weren’t doing a good job of keeping the vampire bats away from Applejack and Big Macintosh, because neither Applejack nor Big Macintosh had gone into the vampire bat zone yet that day.

“You better go look for them,” Crosspatch said to Lazybug.

“Good idea. Then you might get a full bucket of seeds for a change,” said Lazybug before taking off.

“I’ll be getting more seeds for the rest of the job,” Crosspatch said under her breath. “Because you are going back to school tomorrow, you child.”

Minutes later, Crosspatch found there’d been no need to send Lazybug to find the farmers. Applejack turned up looking exhausted.

“We’re a bit behind in our regular applebuckin’ jobs,” she told Crosspatch. “And that’s not the only problem. I had to fight with Apple Bloom to get her to go to school today.”

“Oh, you too, eh?” asked Crosspatch.

“She thinks I’m puttin’ her down by not letting her work in here,” Applejack went on. “I dunno what her big deal is… I know she’s been coming in here collecting seeds behind my back.”

“Just fancy,” sniffed Crosspatch. “I’ll be glad when this job’s over. Maybe if…”

“Wait! What’s that?” Applejack pointed to the ground.

The two mares looked at a large imprint in the soil.

“Whoa!” cried Crosspatch. “It looks like a bat’s footprint.”

“But it’s huge!” exclaimed Applejack. “No way there’s a bat that big in here.”

Crosspatch looked around. “I dunno. There’re plenty of hiding places in this forest.”

“Well since we’re cleanin’ up in here, we’ll do away with any space big enough to hide a huge vampire fruit bat,” said Applejack.

Crosspatch gulped.

It wasn’t long before Applejack’s confidence trickled away. She was still uncomfortable being anywhere near the vampire fruit bats, and even though it was slightly less cluttered now, it looked and felt like the Everfree Forest to her. This wouldn’t have been much of a problem, as by now, Applejack and her friends had worked out the paths of least resistance to Zecora’s hut and the Castle of the Two Sisters, and hadn’t been ambushed by any monsters for ages. But nothing was familiar in this wild jungle that sat in her own backyard. She kept telling herself that there couldn’t be a vampire fruit bat big enough to leave a footprint that size. This ended when a possibility occurred to her.

“Maybe the bats that sucked all the juice outta the Zap-O-Lantern got huge,” she breathed.

She spent several minutes both contemplating this possibility and trying to tell herself it wasn’t possible. It was late when she realised she hadn’t gotten much work done. She took off quickly to return to the golden delicious orchard, and found Big Mac on the way. He wasn’t moving a mussel.

“Big Mac?”

The big red stallion jumped.

“Sorry,” said Applejack. “Is anything the matter?”

“Yyyyep,” Big Mac pointed to the ground, indicating a large bat foot shaped indent there.

“Oh, yeah. Me and Crosspatch were just talking about that,” said Applejack. “We…”

She realised they weren’t in the same spot she and Crosspatch were when they saw their footprint.

“Uh,” she went on, chuckling half-heartedly, “it kinda looks like there are big ol’ bats in this mess, don’t it?”

“Yyyyep,” agreed Big Mac, making no effort to appear jovial.

Applejack’s pace getting back to the golden delicious field was helped by the realization she was late and the desire to get the flying feather away from the vampire bat zone. Her spirits were lifted when she found Apple Bloom was doing her work for her.

“Oh. Thanks, Apple Bloom. I sure don’t mind y’all doing this here kinda work,” she said.

“I guess that’s something at least,” said Apple Bloom, rolling her eyes.

Applejack was about to retort when she noticed Lazybug was applebucking in the field as well.

“Ain’t y’all supposed to be pickin’ up seeds?” she asked.

“I wanted to see how Crosspatch got on without me,” said Lazybug.

“Looks like we’re gonna find out how she did,” Apple Bloom said, pointing towards the bat zone.

Applejack and Lazybug turned to see Fluttershy flying quickly towards them, followed by Big Macintosh and Crosspatch.

“There might be a giant bat in that forest!” said Fluttershy in an agitated manner.

Applejack gulped. “Ya… ya think?”

“Big Mac and Crosspatch say you three all saw big bat foot-shaped footprints,” said Fluttershy.

Applejack, Big Mac, and Crosspatch all nodded.

“And an hour ago, I finally understood something the vampire fruit bats said to me,” Fluttershy went on. “They said something about a giant bat.”

“Are you sure?” asked Lazybug.

“Yes. Giant bat sounds exactly the same in vampire fruit bat language as it does in ordinary fruit bat language,” insisted Fluttershy. “I’ve told Twilight and Starlight this, and they’re patrolling in the bat zone right now.”

“Oh, good. They’ll find it,” said Apple Bloom.

“Or them,” put in Lazybug. “There might be several of them. We should go in there too, Crosspatch.”

“Uh…”

“Don’t worry. You can stick by me,” sneered Lazybug.

“Um…”

“Oh, come on! There’s no need for you to be scared of anything bigger than you,” insisted Lazybug.

“Easy for you to say,” scoffed Crosspatch. “You haven’t met Discord.”

Fluttershy tittered.

“We both have the protective zap apple tree magic in us from the Zap-O-Lantern,” continued Lazybug in a huff, “so we’ve got nothing to…”

“The Zap-O-Lantern!” exclaimed Crosspatch. “The bats that sucked all the juice outta the Zap-O-Lantern musta gotten huge!”

Now Applejack quite understood how Apple Bloom felt about being beaten to saying something she was thinking.

“Well, maybe,” said Lazybug. “So…”

“That means our zap apple tree protection won’t work against them!” Crosspatch said excitedly. “They’ll have it too! And that means Twilight’s and Starlight’s magic won’t be any use against them either!”

“Y’all are getting’ awful excited there, Crosspatch,” said Applejack with a raised eyebrow.

“Course she is,” groaned Lazybug. “She’s a total yellow-belly.”

Fluttershy and Apple Bloom looked affronted.

“You know what I mean,” Lazybug rolled his eyes.

“Have Twilight or Starlight ever used their magic on either of ya?” asked Applejack.

“Not me,” Lazybug shook his head. “And Crosspatch, if you’re about to say yes, we’ll ask Twilight and Starlight to see if you’re lying.”

“I’m not making excuses, Lazybug,” snarled Crosspatch. “No, neither of them have ever used any kind of magic on me either.”

“Fine. We’ll wait until they come back, and then we’ll see what happens when they use magic on us,” smirked Lazybug.

“Alright, but whatever the results are,” said Crosspatch firmly, “you’re still going back to school tomorrow.”

“Why?!”

“I’m not having you miss more than two days of school a week,” insisted Crosspatch. “Anyway, you didn’t do much today.”

“Don’t give me that!” snapped Lazybug.

“You never came back after I sent you to see where Applejack and Big Mac were.”

“I bet I still got more seeds than you today,” Lazybug grumbled. “And I was keeping busy.”

“That’s true. He was,” Apple Bloom nodded. “He’s been helping me do Applejack’s golden delicious-bucking.”

“Uh, Apple Bloom, you can go now,” Applejack said quickly. “I’ll take it from here.”

Apple Bloom rushed off in a huff, looking back for a moment to see her big sister swiftly place some empty buckets beneath one of the few golden delicious trees that she and Lazybug hadn’t yet harvested. Once she was away from the group and out of earshot of Crosspatch and Lazybug’s argument, she turned towards vampire fruit bat territory.

“Thinks she can make everypony forget me telling them she hardly did anything all day by send me away, does she?” she grumbled “Well if I have to go anywhere, it’s gonna be to the vampire bat zone.”

She came upon the fence around the bat’s territory, beside which sat a pile of logs that Twilight and Starlight had collected during the day. She ran into the zone and quickly spotted Twilight and Starlight.

“Apple Bloom, it might not be safe for you to be running around in here on your own,” said Twilight.

“Yeah, yeah, Applejack and Crosspatch told me their dumb guess,” moaned Apple Bloom.

“I guess it doesn’t sound a bit dumb,” agreed Starlight, “but it couldn’t hurt to make sure, could it?”

“You’ll never guess what Crosspatch said,” grinned Apple Bloom. “She thinks your magic won’t be able to repel a giant bat.”

“Why not?” asked Twilight.

“She says… well, she hopes that the bats that sucked all the juice outta the Zap-O-Lantern turned giant, and that they have the same protective magic as her and Lazybug,” chuckled Apple Bloom.

“Huh. Does that mean we’ll get thrown backwards if we try attacking them?” asked Starlight.

“I doubt it,” said Apple Bloom. “Crosspatch is just scared.”

“I thought she would be,” said Twilight. “That abominable snowmare seemed to spook her pretty badly. Still, it would be a good idea to find out for sure. Let’s go see what effect our magic has on Crosspatch.”

Lazybug, Apple Bloom, Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Fluttershy watched with anticipation as Twilight and Starlight pointed their horns at Crosspatch, who was looking quite calm compared to how she came across earlier.

“Not like that!” barked Lazybug as Crosspatch was lifted off the ground by the combined magic of Twilight and Starlight. “You gotta attack her!”

“Yeah! They only repel attackers,” added Apple Bloom. “Their defensive magic’s not gonna happen if you just pick them up!”

Applejack would have liked to send Apple Bloom off, but by now, she knew she’d never get rid of her that easily.

“You okay with this, Crosspatch?” asked Starlight as she and Twilight set Crosspatch back on the ground.

“I’m not worried about me,” said Crosspatch. “I’m more concerned about you two.”

“We’ll be fine,” said Twilight, looking over her should to double-check that she and Starlight had plenty of space behind them.

Everypony watched as Twilight’s and Starlight’s horns lit up. Next second, two beams shot towards Crosspatch and hit her right in the face. In a flash, Crosspatch’s eyes glowed all the colours of the rainbow. The beams of the two stunning spells seemed to pause in midair, and identical streaks of lightning snaked along them towards their casters. There was a huge bang, and Twilight and Starlight were both catapulted backwards several yards.

“Alright, alright, so their stunning spells’ll get thrown right back at them if they attack Crosspatch and Lazybug,” muttered Apple Bloom as Applejack and Big Mac helped Twilight and Starlight up. “But we still don’t know if that’s what those giant vampire fruit bats have.”

“If there are even any giant bats,” added Lazybug.

Twilight gave herself a little shake. “We’ll be alright. But I think we better wait a few minutes before we go back into the bat zone.”

Starlight nodded in agreement. “And if we do see one, I’ll fire a stunning spell at it. If it backfires, you teleport us out of the zone.”

“Alright,” said Twilight. “And then we better stay out of there, or it might leave the zone. And then who knows what it’ll do?”

“My whole orchard’ll go dry!” cried Applejack.

“And it might attack more ponies,” added Apple Bloom.

“Oh, yeah. That too,” said Applejack quickly.

“Well, I think we’re done here,” said Crosspatch. “Our water bottles are going dry. We better head home and refill them. Come on, Lazybug.”

Lazybug shrugged and followed his big sister out of the orchard.

“He took that well,” said Applejack. “I thought he’d fight her hoof and nail to stick around here and look for a giant pest.”

Crosspatch was surprised as well.

“So you’re not gonna grouse about me dragging you away from work and send you back to school tomorrow?” she asked when they got home.

“I’m tired,” said Lazybug. “I can’t keep arguing with you. I better get to sleep before school tomorrow.”

“I better not catch you sneaking out in the night to go bat hunting,” warned Crosspatch.

“Oh, I promise,” said Lazybug, “I won’t be leaving my room all night.”

And he opened his bedroom door with a grin on his face.

“Then why are you giving me that look?” inquired Crosspatch.

“Because you still found an excuse to not go after that giant bat yourself even though you saw its footprints on the ground,” smirked Lazybug. “I never thought you’d be alright with leaving all those baby bats in their nests on the ground to get trampled.”

He shut his bedroom door, and chuckled to himself when he heard Crosspatch stampeding away down the hall.

Twilight and Starlight had now recovered, and re-entered vampire fruit bat territory.

“If we do find a giant bat,” said Starlight, “will they cancel the clean-up project?”

“They might have to,” replied Twilight, as the dim evening light began to fade under the overgrown branches of the unkempt apple trees. “A giant bat would most likely prefer living in here now that there are so many places to hide. If we all cleaned up enough of it, it’ll either keep attacking us, or probably fly away and cause some serious damage.”

She and Starlight lit their horns so they could see better.

“Did you hear that?” asked Starlight, stopping.

“Yeah,” nodded Twilight. “It came from over there.”

They looked, and gasped as a large, wide, dark shape revealed itself to them. There was no mistaking those long thin wings. It was a giant bat. Quickly, Twilight shot a stunning spell at it. The spell froze, and a great flashing of many colours exploded from the eyes of the figure before them. Sparks crackled sharply along the stream of light, and Twilight was blasted backwards off her hooves. She bumped into a tree and crumpled in a heap on top of the upturned roots. Starlight promptly ran to her, and cast her teleportation spell to get them out of the forest.

“I said I would be the one to cast the stunning spell!” she snapped at Twilight once they were out of harm’s way.

Author's Note:

When I was conceiving this story, I imagined Granny Smith would be in it. But blow me, I couldn't find a role for her to play.