Batpink: I AM THE NIGHT

by Jimbo

Chapter 2

“Black - S-Snootie!?” Batpink gasped, and just a hint of her squeaky voice managed to penetrate Batpink’s usual throaty growl.

The bat-winged pony laughed, blazingly white teeth glowing in the moonlight. “You sound worried, Batstink!” The pony-like creature screeched, its voice like nails on a sheet of glass.

“Only worried about how long you’ll be in pony-prison, Black Snootie!” Batpink yelled back, sounding much more brave than she felt. Wow. She’d never really faced a real criminal before; so far, she’d been sticking to the whole ‘tracking manticores, planning revenge, and building cool gadgets’ thing. What was she supposed to do now? Take her to the perpetually empty pony-prison? Well, that sounded like a good of a plan as any!

But when she grabbed the Pinkarope from her toolbelt, the winged pony took off with a massive backdraft of hot air, warmed by the fire that blazed below them. “Hold still, you sneaky Snootie!” Batpink barked, trying to get a bead on her as she swung the rope in one hoof expertly.

“Ahh, so Batpink is so concerned about the Snootie that she would leave her friends to burn?” The bat-pony grinned widely, sharp teeth brilliant in her dark face as she floated upwards, glancing down to the ponies battling the blaze below. With a horrified gasp, Pinkie Pie glanced down, then back up at Black Snootie, hesitating for a brief moment.

“I’m not done with you, Snootie!” Batpink growled, stowing the rope on her belt as she leapt onto the Bat-Copter, thrusting into the air with a few quick cycles of her legs.

“I should hope not, Batstink.” The creature laughed, already abandoning Applejack’s farm, disappearing into the darkness not illuminated by the fire.

Without a moment to spare, Batpink took off - away from the fire. But she was not the Batpink for nothing, and so while her friends tried to hold off the fire with their little pails of well-water, she made a detour to a nearby lake, activating the Scoopinator attachment to grab a big jumbo-sized scoop of water from the lake. It was heavy as all get-out, but she pedaled furiously all the same, struggling to stay in the air long enough to make it back to the orchard. With a grunt of relief, she hit the lever to eject the water onto the flames, sending her copter skittering up into the air with the force of the steam that was released. Phew! Talk about a big delivery!

“Hey! Look up there - it’s Batpink!” A quick glance over the edge of her Bat-copter confirmed Pinkie’s hunch; Applejack, dark with soot and half-soaked from lurching water pails, had caught sight of her Bat-copter.

“Batpink has come to save us!” Twilight Sparkle cried, three pails of water magically suspended a few inches above her horn. “Oh, thank you, Batpink!”

“All in a day’s work, fellow citizens!” Batpink called, rather gallantly she thought, as she turned and took off for the lake once more.

By the end of the night, she’d made over half a dozen trips to the lake, and she thought she might very well save Black Snootie the effort and die of exhaustion right there. But she had managed to stay in the air long enough to beat the fire back to a point that her friends could douse the last embers, saving the majority of the apple crop. Luckily, despite its ferocity, the fire had only burned about an acre of apple trees, sparing the farmhouse and all of the other buildings on Sweet Apple Acres. Without their quick thinking, who knows how much might have been lost? The thought of it made the Batpink feel all queasy, like the time she ate an entire batch of gumdrops by herself.

As her friends unknowingly cheered their giggliest friend on, Batpink began wobbily flying home, her legs most akin to taffy as she struggled across Ponyville’s nightscape, finally bringing the craft down at the mouth of the cave’s entrance with a clunk. She fairly fell out of the cockpit, but still did her best to cover up the Bat-copter, stumbling over to try and grab the camouflage netting from its hiding place. However, a familiar hoof stopped her.

“You should be getting home, Miss Pink. I will hide the Bat-copter.”

“You don’t have to do that, Francois.” Batpink groaned, dragging herself to her hooves, legs shaking with the effort. “It’s late, you should be in bed by now.”

“So should you, Miss.” Francois countered, trotting over to the Bat-copter smartly, throwing the netting over it before he dragged it into a slightly less obvious patch of bramble.

“How am I supposed to sleep, with - this happening?” Batpink burst out as she ripped off her cowl, running a hoof over her wild mane, her eyes rimmed with red from where the smoke had stung them. “Black Snootie? A bat-winged pony? Forest fires in AJ’s prime crop? We’ve never tackled anything like this before, Francois!” She insisted, her voice getting higher and squeakier with each word. “Why, the last time - the only thing closest - that one time -”

“The Jellybean Incident, in which Snips and Snails figured out a way to cheat Sugarcube Corner’s weighing system, cheating the Cakes out of - mm - a fistful of bits in jellybeans?”

“Precisely!” Pinkie Pie cried, directing a dramatic forehoof towards him. “But even that crime seems petty in comparison to - to this!”

“With all due respect, Miss, I had thought that the matter was considered petty in its own right.” Francois asked a little dryly, walking in his slow, stately way towards the spot where Pinkie was now pacing.

“You don’t kid around with jellybeans, Francois.” Pinkie Pie said seriously, brows heavy over her blue eyes as she paced in a tight, nervous circle. “Fruit tarts, maybe. Fruitcake, absolutely. But jellybeans? Absolutely not.”

“Very well, Miss Pink. So what are we to do about Black Snootie tonight?” Francois asked, restraining the familiar eyebrow lift that Pinkie Pie had gotten so used to seeing from him.

Pinkie Pie frowned, then humphed softly to herself, and paced a little more. When the pacing didn’t help, she frowned even harder, until her brows felt like they might be strong enough to crack a Jawbreaker. When the frowning didn’t help, she humphed, and harrumpfed, and hrrmed, and made all sorts of angry grunting noises that, similarly, had no effect. Finally, with a disappointed sigh, she sat down in the patch of dirt she had been wearing a circle into with her pacing, and stared up at Francois. “I don’t know.”

Francois stared at her for a moment in contemplation, then gave a little nod, stepping over to her side and gently lifted her up onto her hooves once more. “Then it sounds like it is time for Batpink to go home and go to bed, and try to figure it out in the morning. Nothing clears up a foggy mind like a good night’s sleep.” He said smartly, giving her a little nod before he held out her abandoned cowl to her. “I will see you at breakfast?”

Pinkie Pie nodded gently, offering Francois a small, grateful smile. “Okie-dokie-loki.”

As Pinkie Pie trotted home, now shed of her disguise of Batpink, she had no clue that she was being watched from the shadows, a pair of devious, dark eyes glued to her every step. And as she settled down into her comfy-cozy bed in the upper floor of Sugarcube Corner, a thought continued to roll around her thoughts, giving her no peace: Who is the Black Snootie?

Comments

[PinkiePieisbestponya+100]

The suspense is killing me! I original;y thought the Black Snootie was Francois since he was described as such, but he is an eath pony. Plus...Pegasi don't have leathery bat wings! Have fun writing the story!