Applejack Goes Batty
Throughout every community, from bustling cities to quaint villages, exist tales of legends and myths. Stories of heroes long past, of founding fathers and riches long since buried and hidden away. While the details vary from place to place, the messages remain the same.
A particular variation of these grandiose tales are spun in ghost stories, shared among campfires and late nights alike. A filly or colt might be branding a recluse if he or she had not heard a spin of one before. These legends made to fright are nearly always impromptu, changing to match the scenery, though are always based on common ground. Ghost stories, however, are only as effective in reaching their intended goal as the one delivering them is skilled.
“An’ that’s when she gets ya!” An orange mare exclaimed, standing upright in an attempt to loom and terrify. A moment of unperturbed silence within the poorly illuminated bedroom was enough to convey an overwhelmingly apathetic reception.
“Applejack, you really ought to take some lessons from Rainbow Dash,” the yellow filly stated rather bluntly, quickly followed with a light giggle from the two fillies surrounding her atop the large bed.
Applejack’s own demeanor was quick to devolve to a disgruntled expression, the mare puffing out a little huff as she dropped back down to all fours. “Goodnight, lil’ fillies.” She stated, with as much deadpan as a pony could possibly muster when saying “lil’ fillies.”
“Goodnight Applejack!” Responded the trinity of young ponies huddled together under a heavy blanket. Applejack turned away from the three of them, closing the door behind herself as she exited Applebloom’s room.
Again, she had failed to amuse during one of her little sister’s sleep-overs! It felt like she had tried everything so far, from sharing tales of her grandparents with Sweetie and Scootaloo, to even taking up juggling and other acrobatic tricks. Rainbow made it look so easy... She shook her head, and trotted out to the front door of her home. Though night had already settled, Applejack felt that she needed to breathe some fresh air, after having spent a majority of the day with three rather rambunctious fillies.
Quietly, she pulled the front door ajar, and slipped out into the dark Ponyville night. Applejack allowed her thoughts to mull over the poorly received story she had just shared as she wandered down the path before her home. How could her story possibly have failed to rouse? It was a story her father shared with her back when she was just a foal, and she can vividly recall suffering nightmares from it. Maybe she just didn’t have the details right anymore? No, she banished that doubt.
The farmhoof wandered down a field of blooming apple trees, bringing her gaze up into the clouded night sky. How couldn’t they be shaking in their coats when they heard of the dreaded Fruit Vampire’s attacks? Of her piercing gaze, or her nightly raids of terror? Maybe it was because she left out the tidbits about what her bite could do to survivors, turn them into mindless fruit bat drones that live to serve her. Maybe that would have been the key to really enthralling and spooking the young ponies! A smile broke across her face, as if she had solved some timeless conundrum. This hopeful grin, however, was quick to dissipate, as she realized that this revelation would do her no favors at this point in time.
Applejack decided to forget all this, and go home. Sure, she loved to be a great host, but this little slip-up had been given too much thought. She turned in place, redirecting herself to the light still shining from the front of her home. It hadn’t been very long since she departed for a refreshing night stroll, so she figured it would be an uneventful short trot homeward. That assumption would be a grave falsehood on her part.
With a rustling of leaves behind her, Applejack near immediately felt a weight pulling down on her backside. Affording no time to react, a hot sharp pain penetrated her flank, directly into her cutie mark. With a shout, the earth pony lifted her hind legs, and flung them backwards in a powerful display. To her relief, she connected with a resounding impact, pushing off the night attacker effectively. As she felt herself free from the beast, Applejack turned in place, ready to meet the offender face to face. The only sight afforded to her in the dark night was further rustling of bushes and leaves. She watched vigilantly, until the sound of disturbed foliage no longer touched her ears.
Applejack turned and looked to her backside, as well as her inflexible body would allow her. Her bite didn’t look too serious, she thought, only slight trickles of red liquid falling from the apples atop her flank. Still, she’d have to go get it examined. Last thing she needed was some sort of unholy disease. The mare turned her gaze out to the bushes again, cursing whatever sort of rabid animal that leapt upon her. It was probably a coyote, she wagered. It certainly gave her cause to not wander out in the dead of night again.
Trotting along the path back to her home, to secure some bandages for the bite, Applejack’s body began to feel heavy. Gradually, it became increasingly difficult to lift her hooves. She might have been inclined to realize why her body felt sluggish, if her mind wasn’t suffering from a similar effect. So instead, she dragged herself up along the path towards her home, head beginning to droop and eyelids growing heavy as she made her way to the front door. Thankfully, she hadn’t wandered too far off in the time spent wondering to herself, making the trip home manageable, even in a dizzying state. Applejack pushed open the door, and with gracefulness matching that of rock, she passed out.
Sleep that night was feverish and bizarre. Dreams were short, but vivid in intensity, and were of a subject matter that was familiar, though still very peculiar. They began in darkness, all that kept her sense company being droning unintelligible sounds all around her. These didn’t last long, forever, as the world morphed to a clear sunny sky in a moment’s time. Surrounding her sides in the sky were surreal streaks of red and yellow, with orange hues flittering before her. Of course, she didn’t have any rational thought at this time, or any really, being wrapped in whatever strange visions her changing subconscious threw at her.
She continued to drift through the open air, her vision searching automatically from one side to the other, before being dragged down to the ground below. What she saw there wasn’t surprising in the least, and instead tantalizing beyond imagination. The ground below was constituted entirely of fruit. Enormous apples, oranges, bananas, every fruit Applejack had ever heard of and more was glimmering down below her. Her form didn’t hesitate, and in seconds she had dived from the darkening sky, and landed atop a perfectly ripe apple. She dug in immediately, a taste of bliss filling her mouth as she engorged upon her namesake’s fruit. In a frenzy, she ravaged the produce, swallowing much more than her body could possibly handle. Her ethereal body burrowed deep inside the sweet structure of the fruit, finding a beating heart of a core in no time at all. Once again, Applejack bit in with all she was worth, affording no time to questioning.
This would be when Applejack awoke, the intoxicating taste of fruit replaced with a dry tasteless mouthful of felt. The waking victim spat out what she had been chewing in her sleep, and lazily rubbed at her eyes, clearing up her vision. Before her lied her signature hat, to no surprise. Instinctively, she reached a front leg out to retrieve the headwear, only to be met with an alarming degree of resistance. Her limb didn’t quite respond correctly, and when she lifted the brim of her hat, it scarcely lifted inches off the ground. Clearly, something was wrong.
In her still rather groggy state, Applejack motioned to stand in the most comfortable position for herself. Promptly, she noticed a dire error in perception. Her vision was only as high as the top of her hat, everything else was massive now! Her first thought was that she had simply shrunk, a prospect that, while terrifying, was at least something she had dealt with before. A quick turn in place, and a trip onto her face later, and Applejack knew that something much more shocking had become of her. Sprawled before her were two very alien looking appendages, which, with a quick test, moved on Applejack’s command. Panicking, she rolled over onto her back, tilting her head to examine her body. Fears were confirmed as her vision was met by fuzzy fur and large seeds, telltale signs of a fruit bat’s rodent figure.
A high-pitched shriek quickly filled the halls of the farmhome, emitted by the freshly changed bat herself. She pushed herself up to her newly formed paws, mind swimming as she scrambled to piece together this catastrophe. Sadly, she wouldn’t be afforded the luxury of time, as her cry of terror roused the fillies camping out upstairs. Giving little time to react, the three of them ran out to the hallway to inspect, Applebloom being the one to rush downstairs.
“Again? Applejack, you gotta stop leavin’ this door open...” She stated aloud, wandering towards the entrance in an aloof manner that conveyed that this was a common occurrence. “A’right, shoo.” She said to the rodent standing by the door, waving her hoof before it in an attempt to beckon it back outdoors.
“Applebloom, it’s me!” The creature shrieked. To her surprise, and her delight, Applejack retained the capabilities of intelligent speech. This helped alleviate a metaphorical ton of worry, “Som’thin’ happened last night... I dun know, just give me a second!” Her accent came off strangely when accompanied by the shrill voice her new body produced.
The bat held both her wings out before her, as if she was trying to mentally push Applebloom away from her. She then closed her eyes, and tried to take a deep breath and calm herself, only to be rather rudely interrupted by that same yellow filly.
“Applejack!?” The ‘little’ pony walked a circle around the fruit bat, looking her over from head to toe. “What happened!? Did Twilight cast a spell on you, did Zecora use some weird potion or something?” She asked, leaning down to keep her muzzle inches from Applejack’s form.
“Oh c’mon, just calm down for a minute an’ let me tell ya!” Applejack retaliated, Applebloom’s own excitable outlook doing a wonder in calming the bat down. It must have been the big sister effect, which seemed to transcend species boundaries. The older of the quartet looked up to Applebloom, and to the two fillies that had begun running down to meet her.
“I think... Aw, I’ll just say it. That story I old all ya’ll last night, it was true!” It felt incredibly strange coming from her own mouth. There’s no way that those stories were actually true, right?
“R-really!?” Applebloom stuttered.
“Woah, no way!” Scootaloo followed up, nearly shoving Applebloom out of the way to look at Applejack herself. Allowing her excitement to override her consideration, she lifted the bat up with her forehooves, sitting back on her haunches. She saw that Applejack, while most definitely an orange fruit bat now, still possessed a rather messy head of blonde hair, and lustrous green eyes, unlike the beady ones of a common fruit bat. “You look awesome!” Scootaloo exclaimed, displaying no worry for the situation.
“Scootaloo, this is serious!” Applejack responded, flapping her wings feebly in Scootaloo’s grip.
“Yeah, seriously amazing! I can’t believe you had Twilight do all this just to convince us!” She assumed, holding Applejack tightly as she examined her small body.
“Scootaloo, I don’t think that’s what happened...” Sweetie Belle added, “And I think you’re hurting her!”
“Oh, sorry.” Scootaloo replied dryly, dropping Applejack down onto the ground in front of her. The bat managed to land, somewhat shakily, on her feet, and shot a disapproving glance up to the pegasus.
“I ain’t lying to ya.” Applejack attempted to wipe down the front of her chest with her wings, after being held rather roughly. “This ain’t some magic spell or somethin’, I got bit by the Fruit Vampire!”
Scootaloo seemed rather shocked at this news, as if Applejack hadn’t already told her of it. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom looked to the small bat with more genuine concern. “Well how do ya fix it?” Asked the red-haired pony.
Applejack sighed, and shook her head. “Ah dunno...” The weight of her situation started to settle once again. “Look, ya’ll just stay here, I’ll go see my friends and we’ll work somethin’ out.” She said, huffing hot air through her heart shaped nose. With a glance shot to her comically oversized hat, she turned away and looked to the front door. The sight before her threw a massive dent into her hurried plans.
The morning day was littered with mesmerizing colors and gleams, thousands of dots shimmering down in the fields. It was impossible for Applejack to pull herself away, and she wandered out the door in a trance state. She licked her tangy lips, wings outstretched as she ventured forth. The trees seemed to call to her in an unnatural way, beckoning her to come forth and partake in forbidden fruit. A fruitlust was growing inside her, and had it not been for the swift intervention of her younger sister, she could have lost herself in the inviting branches.
The world around her cut to black, and Applejack felt her normal senses rush back into her.
“H-hey, just what do you think you’re doing!?” She exclaimed, the scent of her hair, and her own sweat letting her know exactly how she was being held. She made a small mental note to clean her hat, once she returned to normal.
“You were running outside, making all these screechin’ noises. We thought you went crazy!” Applebloom retaliated.
Applejack remained silent for a moment. Did she really do that? All she recalled was a few seconds of self-indulging, nothing major. “Well it ain’t nothin’ major! Just let me get to Twi’s!” She said, her forceful tone made in an attempt to hide some shame.
The response came in a flip of the hat, causing Applejack to fall flat into the felt making. With some more frantic squirming, she soon found herself placed down onto a soft mat of hair.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take you there. Scootaloo, Sweetie, ya’ll head down an’ see if Rarity or Rainbow know anything about this.” The other two fillies nodded, and ran off by Applebloom, each in their own direction.
“Applebloom, I can take care of myself!” The bat proclaimed, using her wings to rather ineffectively swat at the filly’s mess of hair.
A giggle escaped Applebloom’s lips, “Really? Ya could barely walk outside without makin’ a ruckus!” Applejack failed to draw up a speedy defense, allowing Applebloom to continue. “Jus’ let me carry ya there, we don’t need a buncha ponies asking about ya.”
As upset as Applejack was with the situation, she acknowledged that Applebloom was correct. And without much skill with this new form, flying would be out of the question, making a trip on the filly’s head a much quicker travel. “Fine, fine. Just don’t trip or anythin’.” She said flatly, at a lack of any real words to share at the moment.
“Oh, an’ you probably shouldn’t talk ‘til I I get there. It’d be even weirder to see a pony talking to her hat!” Applebloom added, giving the bat an excuse to keep her words sparse.
Instead, Applejack was kept to herself in the rather uncomfortably warm confines of her own hat, darkness, conflicting scents, and muffled noises of far off activity being the only stimulation her perceptions received. This offered her a prime opportunity to consult her own thoughts, and truly contemplate the situation she had unfortunately stumbled into.
Firstly, she was relieved to even be alive at this point. Had she not reacted so harshly to encounter last night, she could have been drained dry like a succulent apple. Bringing herself directly into her next train of thought, she pondered over the existence of the beast itself. Applejack never honestly believed she existed, but apparently there was undeniable merit to the stories she heard as a foal.
The bat rolled over in the hot air, trying to make herself comfortable. This didn’t seem to go over well with Applebloom, as she casually lifted a hoof up to scratch at her head of hair, only to momentarily smother Applejack’s face with it. The filly quick drew it away, followed with a shy whisper of “Sorry...” Applejack hoped this would be over soon, she hated to feel this helpless, especially when under the careless watch of her little sister.
Her mind wandered back to the legend, after she assumed it was safe to relax once again. Did her father ever tell her a way to combat this plague? She racked her brain in search of an answer, one that didn’t come to her. She supposed she had to rely on Twilight’s help with this, she seemed the most inclined to deal with problems like this, even if she had no prior experience with the monster.
What if Twilight couldn’t mend it, though? What would Applejack have to do then? Would she have to confront the Vampire herself? Applejack was surely confident in herself, but in this new body, she wasn’t short of doubts. In her uncomfortable hole-up, she gave a great deal of thought to how she’d go about fighting off a creature that was now much bigger and powerful than she was. However, with every idea she created, a new misgiving arose, pushing her back down to square one.
Maybe she really couldn’t do this, maybe she’d have to just accept what had happened to her. Would that be really so bad? She thought of ways she could still do her farmwork, nearly cracking a smile at her own ingenuity as she imagined several scenarios. It’d be difficult, surely, but Applejack always knew that she was an adaptable pony.
That last thought snapped her back into clarity. Had she really been delivering serious thought to remaining like this? She had become increasingly complacent with this entire predicament, which must have been an effect brought on by whatever foul magic that still lingered inside her body. Applejack turned again, readying to spur Applebloom into more hasty travels, though this attempt was interrupted by the princess she wanted to see.
“Applebloom! Where are the other crusaders?” Applejack heard a light giggle, “And why are you wearing Applejack’s hat?”
“It’s sorta a long story... Just promise ya won’t freak out or anything.” Words that Applejack would be wise to follow.
“Umm... Okay.” Twilight responded, a somewhat inquisitive tone in her voice.
Seconds later, light poured into Applejack’s world once more, the sudden dramatic increase in lighting causing her to take a second to adjust. This brief moment of recovery was met with an understandable degree of apprehensiveness. “Applebloom, why do you have a bat on your head?” She asked, curiously. The crusaders had come in here with worse, so they weren’t able to completely surprise her now, though they still managed to pique her interest.
“Twi, it’s me!” The bat exclaimed, her eyes still stinging from the light.
“Applejack!?” Twilight responded with hullabaloo. Applejack felt a warm presence lift her into the air, and blinked a couple times, before looking Twilight Sparkle in the face, at eye level.
“Yeah, it’s me...” Applejack said, sounding rather shameful in her new position. “Look, I just need you to fix this as fast as you can, I feel like it’s getting worse.”
“Worse?” Both Applebloom and Twilight asked. “How could it possibly get worse than this?” Twilight questioned, placing Applejack onto the table before her, while also levitating a hefty tome before her.
“Yes, worse! I’ve been startin’ to... Think like one of them!” Her tiny body shuddered in repulsion.
Twilight nodded, and looked through the rapidly turning pages of her book. “How’d this happen?” She asked, not wasting any time in trying to guess specifics.
“Well, about that...” Applejack kicked at the wood of the table lightly, a little embarrassed at how silly it all sounded in a serious situation like this. “I got bit by the Fruit Vampire.” She stated bluntly enough.
“The... Fruit Vampire?” Twilight stopped the turning of her pages.
“Yes, The Fruit Vampire! Look, it’s a story I heard when I was just a filly. Can ya just please hurry up with it?” Normally, Applejack wouldn’t think of acting so rudely, especially to a friend, but she felt the situation warranted a fault in manners.
“Okay, okay.” Twilight ceased her interrogation, and returned to her writings. With only a bit more searching, she managed to pinpoint a spell for the situation. Closing her eyes, she channeled purple magic throughout her horn. Applejack was enveloped once more in the aura she produced, and with a tense bout of concentration, Twilight released her reserves of magic.
The fruit bat was whisked upwards in a course of magical energy, shining a rather bright flash throughout the library. As abruptly as it took it over, though, it had dissipated, leaving the scene, and Applejack, appearing identical to before. This came at a disappointment to Applejack.
“What did ya do?” She asked, dropping down onto her paws again.
“A dispel, spell. It should have removed any magic still inside you, so your mind shouldn’t be affected any further, at least.” Twilight sighed, “Obviously, it wasn’t enough to turn you back to normal, though.”
“So what now? Is Applejack gonna be stuck like that?”
“No, Applebloom. I’ll figure somethin’ out.” Applejack attempted to reassure her sister, and herself.
“Right, you have our full cooperation, of course.” Twilight smiled. “I’ll be looking for a spell more... Relevant to our situation for you. I just need you to tell me everything that happened, okay?”
And so, Applejack did. She recounted every detail, from what she remembered of the stories, to her encounter with the Fruit Vampire, to how she ended up in the library that day. Twilight was as diligent as ever, ready to take notes to effectively document the retelling.
“An’, that’s that.” Applejack sighed, “What do ya think of it?”
“If I didn’t see you standing in front of me like this, I’d think you were crazy.” Twilight said, trying to lighten the dry mood somewhat. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a fruit vampire. Regular vampires, sure, there are hundreds of stories about them. But this? Well, I can try to look into it, but it’ll take a while.” The purple mare glanced over to rows of books on her shelves. “You should see the others in the meantime, and just try to relax, okay?”
Applejack didn’t take kindly to that answer. Her face clouded rather noticeably, though she didn’t make a scene of it. “Okay, okay, you’re right. Thanks, Twi.”
Now she just had to wait? How long could that take? Days, weeks, months? No, she wasn’t going to take this sitting down, especially thinking that the Vampire would come back for her.
“Spike can take you, I’ll wake him up. I mean, I bet Applebloom would like to see her friends today, it’s not long before she has to go back to classes.”
“Nah, that’s alright. Rarity’s ain’t far from here anyways, I’ll just walk by an’ make sure nopony sees me.”
“Applejack, that’s not really a good plan.” Twilight replied candidly.
Applejack began to really show signs of growing frustration. She hopped off the table, and landed lightly on the floor, after an instinctual glide of her wings. She walked, slowly at her new size, past Applebloom. “I know, I just need some fresh air, an’ Spike isn’t exactly genuine for that.”
“Ya should at least-”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be back in a jiffy.” Applejack interrupted her sister’s concern, slipping out of the open door. The bat finally got a true sense of her own scale as she wandered out into the outdoors. Houses seemed hundreds of feet tall, grass was waist high, and what few ponies that were awake at this hour wandered around like casual giants. The sensation was sickening, one she couldn’t wait to put a hasty end to.
Having a strong feeling that Applebloom would rush to follow her at any moment, Applejack took the initiative in putting her cursed form to use. She hopped up into the air, a short distance, as that was all her short legs could offer, and flapped her wings against her side. In a strangely delight surprise, Applejack didn’t touch back down on ground, and instead raised higher! It took a great deal of effort on her part, of course, but she managed to lift up a respectable distance in a relatively short time.
“Applejack, what are ya doing!?” Applebloom cried, confirming Applejack’s notion. The bat didn’t attempt a response, and instead flew herself away. At this point, she didn’t know exactly what it was she was doing, but she knew she needed some time to herself.
With the relative ease of flying, Applejack didn’t find it much of a difficulty to lose Applebloom, and stand atop a home within Ponyville. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she attempted a more clear analysis of the situation. Waiting was out of the question, she wasn’t going to become accustomed to being some flying varmint. No, what she had to do was take the fight directly to the beast itself.
While a noble idea for sure, it came with its own fair share of issues. First off, how would Applejack even find the Fruit Vampire? And even if she could discover her lair, how would she defeat her? As a pony, Applejack knew she couldn’t lose to some half-baked monster in a fair fight. Now, she wasn’t sure she could even knock Spike over with her full strength. She couldn’t do this by the books, she’d have to be crafty.
Wrapping her wings around her chest, Applejack thought of any possible weaknesses the Fruit Vampire might possess. She doubted that the traditional stakes and garlic cloves would do the trick. What did fruit bats hate more than anything else? She sighed, trying to place herself into the mindset of one of the rodents, which was surprisingly easy to do. She imagined what they, and she, would do on an average day. Fly about, eat fruit, go to sleep, and repeat.
She grumbled, and dropped down onto her back. It wouldn’t be as simple as that. What did fruit bats hate? Dogs, hawks, all those that would threaten to eat them, naturally. That was no help... Any food that was poisonous to them? Applejack knew that fruit bats never seemed to ransack zap apple trees. The thought of one of them even managed to send a shiver down her tiny spine.
That was it! Zap apples must possess some quality that was poisonous to fruit bats. Maybe this whole problem wasn’t as hopeless as it seemed. The bat stood up once more, and looked to her farm off in the distance. The gears in her head continued to spin as she hopped into the air, and traveled homeward bound.
An uneventful flight later, and Applejack arrived at her doorstep. Landing down on her porch, she realized that even getting into her own home would be a chore in itself. Her bat body didn’t provide her nearly enough leverage and power to push it open, forcing her to re-evaluate her approach. She flew into the sky again, rolling her eyes with her own misfortune, and circled around the home. Thankfully, a window had been left open, providing her with a means of entry.
Gliding back into her comically oversized home, Applejack immediately set forth on a plan of hers. She walked, or more appropriately, waddled towards a cupboard in her kitchen. She had the time she needed to at least get setup. Her brother would be out in the fields, Granny would be still be sleeping, and while definitely worried, Applebloom wouldn’t swing by the farm for a while in search of her.
Firstly, Applejack needed to recover the fruit she needed to, hopefully, defeat the Fruit Vampire. Using most of her strength, she pulled open a cabinet door to the revolting sight of a few zap apples. Sure, Granny would be upset for the drainage on the reserve supply, but Applejack was sure the emergency was enough to certify the use.
Heaving out the heavy fruit, Applejack set out towards her next step. She flew up towards higher shelving, and procured a copious amount of red food coloring. Uncorking the top, and holding the bottle as well as she could between her two paws, she hovered above the apple. As soon as she reached a proper position, she tipped the bottle pouring the entire contents down onto the floor and fruit below.
Applejack tossed the bottle into a sink, and then dropped herself onto the floor, careful to avoid slipping. Sadly, the amount of coloring dousing the apple wasn’t nearly sufficient to Applejack’s needs, necessitating an act of getting messy. Using her wings, and effectively, most of her body, she scooped at the liquid coating the floors, smearing it all over the zap apple. It surely wasn’t an enjoyably activity, and would require quite the cleansing to remove it all from Applejack’s fur, but she hoped it was worth the effort, as honest work usually is.
After ten or so minutes of making a fool of herself, Applejack covered the zap apple from stem to end. She let out a heavy sigh, and dragged the apple back into the nearby cupboard. Before she engaged in any sort of encounter with her enemy, she needed to at least allow her family to know she was safe. Granny would believe she’s just some sort of crazy talking bat, and she thought it would be appropriate to save Big Mac the shock, instead choosing to address her sister once more.
Taking flight again, she hovered out the same window she used to enter, and flew up high into the blue sunny sky. To her relief, a search for Applebloom was short-lived, as she was already running up the path home.
Applejack glided down before her, giving Applebloom quite the fright. After a yelp on the expense of her sudden appearance, Applebloom gave an almost uncharacteristically stern look to her sister. “Applejack, just what got into you!? You nearly gave us all heart attacks, we were all lookin’ for ya!”
“I just needed some time to cool off.” Applejack smiled, landing on the ground before Applebloom’s hooves. “I’m fine, and I really do appreciate all the concern.”
“Next time at least warn us, yer supposed to be the reliable one.” Applebloom said, still notably peeved with Applejack’s sudden decision to ditch her friends and family.
“I know, I know, I’m sorry. How’s about you go wrangle up everyone, an’ we’ll have a dinner here, okay?” Applejack proposed.
Applebloom remained silent for a moment, before piping up, “Alright. Just don’t go runnin’ off again!”
Applejack returned with a nod of her own, watching her sister turn and run off towards town once more. She’s sure she’d understand, it was far too dangerous to try and drag her friends into this. As much as she’d like the help, she couldn’t watch her closest friends, or even her sister and her pals, fall into her same fate. That was worth lying, wasn’t it?
She didn’t have any time to waste, especially if this plan didn’t go exactly as she’d like. Applejack needed to act now. She raced home, seizing her fruit once more. Now, she needed only to take the apple a respectable distance from her home, a feat that proved more daunting than she had first imagined. It was incredibly heavy to her now, and it drained most of her strength just hoisting it out the window. Dropping it down on the ground as carefully as she could, she fell next to it, panting heavily. Flying it away was out of the question, she’d have to burn time in rolling the zap apple away.
Exerting her almost pathetically weak body, Applejack rolled the apple a few hundred metres away from home. Not a perfect distance by any means, but she hoped the cover of trees would protect herself from friendly detection.
Taking a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for the next step, Applejack stood as tall as possible. “Alright miss Vampire, Ya’ll can come an’ get me now!” She shouted, hoping that beckoning the beast in what seemed to be her home turf would yield results. It should, shouldn’t it? She didn’t think a monster that shaped itself after photosynthetic organisms would have the normal vampiric aversion to the sun.
And sure enough, it did! In a flourish of technicolor fruit bats, the vampire appeared, finally giving Applejack a proper look at her.
She stood at an above average height, just below Big Macintosh’s size. Though, her limbs didn’t possess nearly the level of muscle as his, rather lanky, in fact. Her coat was a pale white, with an orange mane topping off her head, complementing her yellow eyes, in a sense. It flowed downwards, off her sides, nearly touching the ground with its length. Littering the plentiful amount of hair were what looked like miniature fruits, oranges, apples, bananas, the entire works were used to accessorize her hair. She wore a bulky jet black cape, one that was no doubt concealing her wings. Normally, the sight of her would incite a giggle or two, not a serious response, but Applejack couldn’t help but stare.
“Ah, it was only a matter of time before you came running back.” She said, with a positively alluring voice. “It was surprising, usually you all don’t fight back.” The pony took a step closer to Applejack, her large body casting a shadow over the little bat.
“Yes, your... Majesticness, I got you a gift for everything you done for me.” Applejack presented the painted zap apple. She really could have worked on her acting.
“Mmm, that you did. You’re obedient, suppose it’s working faster than expected.” She swiped the apple from Applejack’s wings. Applejack remained silent, waiting to see if she would take the bait, and if it would be as effective as she hoped.
Turning the apple in her hoof, the vampire scrutinized the gift. After a few very tense moments for Applejack, the pony dug her fangs inside it!
The sight that followed was exactly what Applejack had hoped for. Abundant currents of electricity erupted from the fruit, coursing violently through the evil creature’s body. A scream escaped her own lips, a lengthy few seconds of burning energy zapping her from head to hoof. Applejack fell back during the event, watching with wide eyes.
By the time the electricity had run its course the vampire was lying on the ground, once perfectly white fur singed black by the magical fruit. Applejack smiled, thinking she had defeated the monster rather easily. It would only be a matter of time before she returned to normal now!
A scant moment later, and Applejack found herself pressed onto her back in the dirt, the Fruit Vampire standing above her with a snarl.
“Do you think you can use such trickery!? Whatever it is keeping you sane, it won’t last long.” She bared her fangs, leaning in close to Applejack. “And neither will you.” Her breath was hot, close enough now to cover Applejack with each word.
She wasn’t going to allow herself to go down like this, she needed to do something! She turned her head to the left, seeing her entire wing covered painfully by a hoof. She then looked back up the grinning face of her vampire, and did what she’d do in this situation normally.
Applejack kicked herself up, tearing her wing as she pushed both her paws against the Fruit Vampire’s snout. Luckily enough, she managed to get her nostrils, momentarily stunning the beast, more out of confusion than anything else. She lifted her hoof to rub her nose, giving Applejack the escape window she needed.
Rolling over, in a heap of pain, she pushed herself to her feet. With as much strength as her now bleeding body would allow, she ran off from the vampire. Sadly, it wasn’t nearly enough to get her to safety, as it was only another second before she was on the ground once again, this time her face pressed into the dirt.
“Your courage is admirable, but it will be your downfall.” She stated plainly, pressing her hoof down against Applejack’s head.
She flailed every which way, squirming in a vain hope that it would preserve her fleeting life. She could hear the vampire talking to her as she was smothered by earth, but she couldn’t make it out. Her struggles continued to weaken, until eventually she was left weakly clawing at the ground. It wasn’t going to end like this, was it?
The weight was lifted from Applejack’s back with another spark. She had no idea what it was, and she didn’t care, she needed air. Coughing up soil, she turned onto her back, vision slowly returning to her as she gasped for fresh air.
She felt a warmth pass through her as she took the time to recover, but it passed much too quickly for her to properly investigate. Taking a heavy breath, she lifted her hooves up, and rubbed the dirt from her eyes.
And that’s when she met her savior, or saviors, face to face. In front of her was the entire group, her sister, the crusaders, and the rest of the Elements of Harmony. They all looked normally sized, too, causing Applejack to look down. She had returned to normal!
The freshly turned pony looked up her friends, seeing Twilight Sparkle standing over what looked like the unconscious vampire, with magic coursing through her horn. She would have asked what she did to turn her back, but was instead assaulted by a hug from her little sister.
“Applejack, don’t ever do that, you could have been really hurt!”
Applejack embraced her with her right front leg, one that had been spared from a large cut. “I know, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gone off like that.” She said, looking up to the rest of the ponies standing about. They all looked confused, and Applejack really couldn’t blame them.
“You’re so stupid.” Applebloom said forcibly, burying her face in Applejack’s chest.
“I know.”
