Twilight notices some changes in Fluttershy and realizes her mistake may have had more permanent consequences than previously thought.
What if when Fluttershy became Flutterbat and then Fluttershy once more, Twilight hadn't drained all of the Bat back out? What would have changed? How would Twilight feel knowing she couldn't undo the mistake she made? Join Twilight as she helps Fluttershy discover and figure out her new body!!
Some background: As I wrote I kept realizing my bat facts were common misconceptions, which actually worked out to make this story semi-informative on bats Cover art is by me, via my tumblr page!!
Twilight Sparkle looked up to the skies, frowning slightly. She’s gliding. I’ve barely seen her wings flap. Her friend Fluttershy had never been an amazing flier, a fact she was quick to admit, but she had also never strayed far from standard flight technique. Twilight, since her ascension, had studied both of her pegasi friends’ patterns, on top of the various books and scrolls, so that she could control her new wings competently, if not gracefully or stylishly. As such, she was quick to notice the change.
Fluttershy, for her part, hadn’t mentioned any reason for her new style. She flew so rarely in general that a strained wing didn’t seem likely. But as she helped the geese find their course on this fall afternoon, she seemed a little perturbed at having to make the tight circles to keep her altitude steady, and the few times she had flapped her wings seemed to be accompanied with a slight twinge of pain, so Twilight assumed whatever had made her friend change her flight form was unpleasant at least.
Having finished helping the traveling birds, Fluttershy descended in long circles, grabbing a bit of cloud on the way down. Hmm, Twilight thought, that’s more of a Dash thing. Her analysis was confirmed more when, rather than land on the ground, Fluttershy stop her glide a little above, braking and resting onto the small portion of cloud in front of her friend.
“Heya, Fluttershy!!” Twilight smiled lightly at her friend, trying her best to convey I’m your friend, and you can talk to me about any troubles you have, “Nice perch you have there.”
“Hello Twilight, thank you very much,” Fluttershy responded, turning her head slightly away, not unusual in itself, but in its intensity in Twilight’s eyes, “Dashie showed me how to make one without disrupting the rest of the cloud...”
“Oh? What made you want to learn how to do that?” Twilight pried, trying not to overwhelm the shy pegasus. She knew that asking too many questions, or even one wrong one, could send her friend into a near-non verbal state, and Twilight wanted to avoid both the hurt that could cause her friend and the loss of information. Fluttershy seemed to be thinking how to phrase her response. She had a look on her face that was hard to grasp, even for her.
“Well, I’ve been having to fly a little more lately to help with the seasonal migrations, and um, well, y’see,” Fluttershy was looking at the ground now, and getting a little quieter, to the point where Twilight had to twist her ears directly at her friend. “I’ve been having some trouble taking off lately.”
Twilight frowned slightly at that, looking down at the ground, her mind already whizzing through the possibilities. Fluttershy had always been a weak flier, but taking off was her best area in that endeavor (albeit usually from fright or shock, but still).
“I’ve found it easier to just, kinda, let myself fall and start from there. The cloud’s a little simpler to do that with than climbing a tree, I never enjoyed climbing much.” Fluttershy continued, her eyes still looking anywhere but at her friend, seemingly embarrassed at the process she had had to undergo for something that usually came so naturally to the other winged ponies.
Twilight’s ears perked up slightly at that. Falling out of a tree to start flight? I’ve read something about that. Recently even. The alicorn looked up at her resting friend, who had at this point taken note of her analyzing posture. Twilight figured the fact that she hadn’t made an excuse to leave meant that Fluttershy was willing to help feed her information, clearly she wanted some answers as well.
“When did you start having problems with your take-offs Flutters? Around the same time as you started needing to glide more, maybe?”
“Oh, you noticed that too Twilight? My wings just haven’t. Hmm. Controlled? The same lately. It’s hard to describe, but it’s like the muscles don’t want to flap in the same way. I first noticed it a little before the Appleloosa State Produce Competition. I went to have a picnic with Applejack to help keep her mind of how she sacrificed her Prize Apple, and I was late because I had to run instead of fly there. She didn’t mind, at least not that she said, but I felt terrible the rest of the day for having left her hanging.”
Twilight raised her head fully at that point. “The Appleloosa State Produce Competition? That was right after the whole thing with the fruit bats wasn’t it?”
“Yes that one!! I still shudder a little thinking about having been a fruit vampire, brrr” Fluttershy shuddered a little, seemingly to prove her point.
“I’m so sorry that spell had such a bad side effect, even if it was reversible in the end,” Twilight flicked her tail and winced, slightly at her mistake, slightly at what she knew she would have to say next, “And considering what you just said, I’m not so sure it was.”
Twilight had Fluttershy hooked to a machine for some tests. She knew exactly what readings the machine took, but the author didn’t, so we’ll let her explain.
“Based on these readings, my hypothesis isn’t as far fetched as I had hoped,” she said, scanning the red lines that formed peaks and valleys across the chart. “It looks like when that spell transferred the vampire fruit bat DNA into you by mistake, not all of it came out upon the reversal.”
Fluttershy trembled a bit at the thought. She had always wanted to be closer to the animals, but her brief excursion as a vampire fruit pony confirmed to her that she desired that closeness in a purely metaphorical sense. The idea that the excursion had had lasting effects past a few bad memories and a quick entry in a journal was much less than appealing. Even so, it didn’t quite explain her main complaint.
“But bats are one of the only sets of mammals outside of pegasi capable of true flight. I suppose the bug bear can too, but they’re only half mammal,” she whispered the last half, recognizing it could turn into a ramble, but she felt the clarification important, “so, anyways, why would having bat DNA affect my flight?”
“You’re right about bats being able to fly, but they have a different method than pegasi!! If you don’t mind, could I, uh,” Twilight gestured to Fluttershy’s wing, to which she obliged, extending it out to its full span. Twilight noted the twinge of pain on her friend’s face once again and resolved to ensure her explanation was accurate and helpful.
Twilight brushed aside the top feathers of Fluttershy’s wing with her magic, being sure to be extra gentle, as pegasi wings were known to be fairly sensitive. Fluttershy didn’t seem to mind though, she trusted her friend completely. What she did mind was the sensation that came when Twilight poked her with her hoof. It was less the poke thought, and more where the poke was located, given that it should have been a place impossible to poke.
“This is what I figured I’d find, but I can still hardly believe it.” Twilight whispered under her breath, stroking the flap of skin hidden by Fluttershy’s feathers. Fluttershy wrenched her wing out of her friend’s grip and leaned it in towards her own face, once again feeling a strain in her muscles that she couldn’t place. Her panic lead her to pace in circles, chasing her own wing.
“Bats wings are closer to dragon claws than the wings we have. They generate lift with the large skin flaps that connect the modified finger bones, whereas we use feathers that protude off an arm-like structure,” Twilight began to explain, seemingly unaware of her friend’s literal panic spiral, “Except you seem to have a hybrid wing now, with skin flaps and feathers. I’d have to do a fluid injection and scan to see the musculature underneath, but I’d bet my bottom bit that that’s changed too, which is why you keep gettting those pain twinges. You’re moving your muscles in ways they literally cannot move any longer.”
Fluttershy was laying on the ground now, wings covering her face in a way that was typical for the mare, but now seemed to accentuate the literal pain brought on by the new knowledge. She slowly folded her wings back by her side, noting the sensation of skin folding in, one which she had up till now assumed was simply something brought on by the wing conditioner Rainbow Dash had loaned her. She breathed deeply, closing her eyes to take stock of the situation she was in.
“If my wings have really changed to this... new... hybrid... thing, then what should I do? I can’t keep flying in the same, um, way that I have, but can’t just not fly, much as I’d like to some days. Ponyville’s animals need me!!”
“I’m not sure,” Twilight started, she usually had a game plan fairly quickly, but this situation seemed, fraught, somehow, “Rainbow Dash taught me when I got my wings, but that was easy for her because we had the same, well, kind. I can’t think of a single pegasus that has wings even a little like yours. Dragons are closer, but Spike hasn’t gotten his yet and I don’t think any of the ones we met on his trip would be willing to help a pony.”
Fluttershy had brought her head up midway through Twilight’s thought. “Nopony has wins like mine, its true, but I know somecreature who might.” Twilight looked with a quizzical tilt at her friend, seemingly not catching her drift. Fluttershy smiled brighter than she had the whole day. “I’ll have the vampire fruit bats teach me!! If my wings are more like theirs now, then they can show me how to use them!!” Twilight leaped in glee upon hearing her friend’s conclusion. Of course!! It was perfect!! After all, if Twilight had had a pegasus help her master her pegasus wings, why not have a bat help Fluttershy master her bat wings.
However, the joy faded a little as she continued to think, one thought in particular she voiced aloud, “If your wing anatomy has changed, I wonder if anything else has as well? After all, your appearance changed quite a bit when you transformed.” Fluttershy shrunk down a little, and made to sit back in the chair.
“In that case, I think we should run some more tests Twilight. If I’m going to ask my bat friends to help me understand my new body, I need to know every part that’s changed.” Fluttershy said, with a grim look of determination on her face.
Twilight got to work, putting the pads onto her friend, then ducked down into the machine to recalibrate it and take whatever the most applicable readings would be. “Okay Fluttershy, I’m gonna have to rewire some stuff here, can you look at the readout and tell me when the colors shift?” Twilight moved the wires with her hooves and magic as needed, but five minutes passed and not a peep from her friend. She ducked back out and saw that the readings were set for the test she had wanted to do, as well as that her friend was staring at them, but seemingly hadn’t noticed the shift in ink from red to green.
“Fluttershy,” the alicorn said, exasperatedly, “why didn’t you tell me the color changed like I asked?” The pegasus blinked rapidly and tilted her head.
“They did?” Fluttershy was genuinely shocked. “I didn’t even notice the ink was printing!!” She leaned her head closer to the parchment and gasped a little. “It’s like it goes into a blur if I’m not right up on it!!”
“Hmm, I was worried about that. It seems you’ve gone nearsighted from the bat changes as-”
Fluttershy cut her friend off, “But Twilight, that’s just a common misconception!! Bats have excellent vision, even better than ponies in low light environments. They just have different cones for color and such.”
Twilight shouldn’t have been surprised that the animal lover knew something she didn’t about animals, but she was a little embarrassed to have fallen into such a blunder. Next thing she knew she was going to be told that owls weren’t as smart as she thought or bee wings actually were big enough for their large bodies.
Thankfully for her ego, she recovered quickly. “Thank you for the correction Fluttershy, that gives me an idea.” As she acquiesced, she used her magic to slide the light switch dimmer and dimmed the lights until her friend made a little “Oh” sound.
“I can see the lines now Twi!!” she gave her friend a cute nickname in excitement, “The colors are a little different than I’m used to, but it’s nice!! More vibrant I think, I can just imagine how wonderul the cute little animals will look when I get to see em next!!”
Twilight grinned at her friend’s excitement. She was still at the point where she felt guilty for causing her transformation, especially since, although Fluttershy had previously assured her there was no ill will, the new element of permanence made the mistake that much more consequential. As such, any good part of the whole endeavor was very welcome to the alicorn. Still, Twilight felt she had to say something, at least to get it off her chest.
“I’m so sorry for all of this Fluttershy, now that its permanent more than ever. If I had been more careful with my casting, or if we had just listened to you in the first place-” Fluttershy wasn’t having any of it though, Element of Kindness that she was.
“I’m not having any of that Twilight. You and the girls gave me an apology the night of, and I forgave you. Besides, it’s not like I’m hurt here. Yes, I do get a twinge when I move my wings as I am used to, but I simply need to adjust my muscle memory. And my sight is an easy fix, readers like Rarity or barring that I lower the light levels in my cottage. Which considering its mostly under a hill is really quite simple.”
Twilight grinned genuinely at her friend, small tears in her eyes. The pegasus was never one to hold a grudge and Twilight felt so loved to be able to be offered her forgiveness. The two hugged, as they were wont to do, being ponies.
The night ran on, Twilight running as many tests and sets of measurements as she could think to take. Ultimately, it seemed the only two major changes were the wings and eyes. Fluttershy did notice she still had sharper incisors and could hear a slightly higher range than she was used to, but it wasn’t quite enough for juice draining or echolocation (Twilight presumed the fact that the bats were fruit eaters rather than insectivores meant they had less use for that particular sight method, even though Fluttershy regaled her with recent research that said they still had some ability.) Ultimately, the pair grew tired from the long day of discovery and retired to the top floor of the tree-house. Twilight suggested Fluttershy could try to sleep hanging upside down, but the pegasus shot the idea down, as she was worried about the strain on her back. They ended the night giggling at the thought regardless, drifting off to a comforting sleep, excited for the next day in their friendship.
