A Grand Journey

by willow_whistle

Chapter 13: A Very Fluffy Morning

“We know Flitter Flutter is a girl, Twilight.” Minty said, confusedly. She had inched a bit closer to the werebat, prompting it to growl softly at her. Minty backed off, giving both Twilight and the bat an apologetic nod. “I just thought we were calling,” she gestured broadly at the transformed Flitter Flutter, “this an ‘it.’” Pinky Pie gently jabbed Minty in admonishment, who only looked confused.

“Well, this is Flitter Flutter, Minty.” Twilight replied, hiding her offense on her marefriend’s behalf. “Or, a part of her, at least. I don’t think she’s a monster, just… A creature.”

“A creature?” Pinky Pie asked.

“Sometimes Pinky says I’m a creature.” Minty added, with a big, goofy grin. Pinky rolled her eyes, permitted herself a small smile, and a look of adoration at Minty. Twilight couldn’t help but giggle, not noticing as the werebat inched a bit closer to her.

“Yeah. She’s just an animal, I think.” Twilight began again, “That’s a better explanation than her just being a monster. Animals don’t reason the same way ponies do, is all, it doesn’t make her mean. When she attacked me before,” Twilight pointed to the bandage around her leg, which she had changed this morning, “she probably felt threatened that I was in her territory or something like that.”

“I never got to see a werebat out of captivity when mom was still around,” Minty added, with less fear and more cheer than was probably called for, but wilted before continuing. “It always made me feel icky, having them tied up, afraid…” Pinky put a hoof around the back of Minty’s neck and pulled her into a hug. Minty nestled her snout up under Pinky’s, and muttered a thanks.

“Maybe you should try to touch her again?” Pinky offered, absentmindedly petting Minty like a dog. “She seems really curious about you.”

“I think you’re right, and I’ll probably unbind her too.” Twilight stated, nodding.

“Wha-- Twilight, wait!” Minty brayed, and bounced away from Pinky Pie. “I’m not too worried about her hurting us, but what if she runs away?”

“The doors are locked, Minty.” Twilight replied flatly. “She won’t get out this time, not as she is right now.” Minty crawled up under Pinky for protection, and Pinky gave her a little kiss on the head for comfort.

“I think it’s an okay idea, Twilight.” Pinky responded. “But, are you gonna be able to hold her in your magic if she does attack us?”

“Oh, absolutely.” Twilight said, with a look of excitement she only wore when explaining something unintuitive. “The only reason I couldn’t before was because she was just too strong for my telekinesis to hold her back for more than a second or two. We’re totally safe now, if she can’t break out of those ropes.”

“Well, okay.” Minty said, not shaking herself, but close to it. “If you insist…”

---

Twilight had finally finished untying the last knot in the bundle of rope that kept the werebat restrained. There were only two knots-- one linking two lengths of rope together, and another closing the loop around Flitter Flutters’ corrupted body-- but it felt like she had been working at them for hours. This was the moment of truth. She removed the ropes from around the werebat, allowing them to slump down at her sides. The bat’s eyes widened, and it glanced apprehensively at the three ponies surrounding her. Twilight took the initiative to get a bit closer, while Pinky and Minty watched carefully at a safe distance.

“Hey, girl, it’s okay,” Twilight Twinkle offered a hoof to the creature, who sniffed at it with her long, angular snout, “It’s okay, you’re safe.” The animal looked up at her with its big, wet, golden eyes; accentuating how doglike her other features were, as she rose to her hooves-- which, Twilight noted, were narrow and cloven like a deer’s rather than wide and singular like a pony’s. The werebat cautiously backed up, eyes fixed on Twilight, and then cautiously approached again. Pinky and Minty stood very still, as if hoping to avoid notice, before the little mule spoke up.

“Oh my gosh, she’s so pretty…” Minty said, with a twinkle in her eye.

“Yeah…” Pinky said, with a gulp. “And, a little scary.”

Twilight didn’t seem to notice or care what her friends were saying; she had much more important matters to attend to. The bat-wolf-deer creature had begun sniffing her hoof again, and tentatively licked it. Minty couldn’t help but chirp out an “AWWWWW!” as Twilight then reached up, very slowly, to the beast’s head to gently pet it.

“Good girl,” the unicorn said in a low, soothing tone, “good puppy…”

The creature seemed to relax, letting her wings unfurl just enough for the other three to witness their enormity-- they were easily wide enough to drape over the whole party like a canopy. This, followed by a very gentle nuzzling of Twilight Twinkle’s face, almost knocking her over by mistake. The (relatively) little unicorn cooed softly to the creature, and stroked the side of her enormous head.

“She. Is. So. CUTE!” Minty squeed, and hopped over, the suddenness prompting the Flutter-Bat to recoil and growl, seemingly protective of Twinkle. Minty backed off immediately, and brayed apologies at the two.

“I think maybe we take this a little slower, okay, Mints?” Pinky hugged Minty, and attempted to console her. “This was a really big step for Flitter Flutter, we can hardly expect she’ll warm up to either of us quite as quickly as she did to Twinkle, alright?”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” The little green mule stated, then turned back to Twilight. “Sorry, again.”

“It’s alright, Minty. Just, maybe ask next time? And move a little bit more carefully. She seems to startle easily…” She said, while scratching behind the animal’s ears, causing her to smile and roll over belly-up. “D’awwww… baby girl.”

---

Flitter Flutter felt more well-rested after that night than she ever had before, in no small part thanks to the fact that her bat-form didn’t hurt anypony or break anything. In fact, it-- no, she, seemed to develop quite a rapport with Twilight, with whom they snuggled all night. She was just an animal that needed to be taken care of, which ws something she was very much familiar with-- both in concept, and in-practice. After a celebratory breakfast of wild mulberry pancakes, that Minty insisted on making, the two from Ponyville seemed to remember something important.

“PINKY!” Minty shouted suddenly, after gasping as she put the last dirty plate in the sink.

Pinky Pie rushed out of the tower’s dining room and into the kitchen, and looked at Minty with tremendous concern. “What’s wrong, sweetheart!?”

“Oh, it’s just terrible, just the worst thing in the whole world!”

“What is it? Minty, please--”

“We haven’t called home in three days!”

Pinky let out a sigh of relief that nopony was hurt, or anything seriously damaged; but huffed a bit at her marefriend. “Minty, Minty, Minty. You don’t have to yell about that, sweetie-pie.”

“Right, sorry…” Minty looked apologetic, but still indignant. “We really do need to call them though.”

“You’re absolutely right,” Pinky replied, and gave Minty a peck on the cheek, “We’ll call them as soon as I’m done helping you clean up, okay?”

“Okay!” Minty replied, all her tension immediately melting away. She hummed a little tune to herself as she and Pinky started scrubbing the frying pan she had used earlier, which Pinky thought she recognized as a common ditty sung to donkey foals, which she begun to sing herself:

When you’re rife with devastation,

There’s a simple explanation:

You’re a toymaker’s creation

Trapped inside a crystal ball,

And whichever way he tilts it,

Know that we must be resilient.

We won’t let them break our spirits

As we sing our silly song!

“Woah, Pinks!” Minty brayed, clearly impressed. “Where’d ya learn that?”

“The night we first met, when you and dad stopped into Ponyville for the first time…” Pinky said, a bit bashfully, thankful the color of her fur hid her blushing a bit.

Minty’s, however, only seemed to accentuate her own. “D’AAAWWWWW, Pinky!” Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as she leapt forward to wrap her love up in a tight hug. “That’s so sweet, I can’t believe you remembered that from all those years ago…”

“Minty, it was only three--” Pinky began to respond, but thought better of it, and instead just kissed the molly she loved.

Author's Note:

No points for identifying that the song is from FiW, sorry. However, I must thank you heartily for reading :3

Comments

[willow_whistle]

11688275
OH MY GAWSH, thank you so very very much!!! It means a lot to hear that ( ;c ; )
I'm super duper excited to work on it more! I'm just starting out a new job next week though, and doing a lot of work on my old beat-up car, so I dunno when the next chapter(s) are gonna be out, but I have some ideas that I think are really exciting, and I'm so grateful to you and everycreature else who's read/is reading them! <3