All of Fluttershy's attention was on the big ...juicy ...apple. It was right there in front of her on Applejacks hoof. Just waiting for her to reach out and- Pinkie grabbed it first. She resisted the strange urge to hiss at her friend. It's just an apple. There are plenty more of them around. And it was kind of funny watching her try to drink it with fake teeth. The group laughed at their pink friend's antics before saying their good byes and parting ways.
Twilight was the last to leave. She stopped at the door and looked down. "Again, I-I'm sorry about... what happened."
"It's ok, Twilight. I know you didn't mean for that to happen. You were just trying to help."
She looked up and saw that soft friendly smile that was filled with kindness. "Thanks. I'll see you latter."
With the last of her friends gone, Fluttershy closed the door and prepared to go back to her nice and quiet, not scary, life. She caught something red out of the corner of her eye and they locked onto it, the forgotten apple still on the floor. ...She lunged.
***
Twilight walked along the empty road in the dark of night. Her hoof steps and occasional gust of wind being the only noise. The last time she was out this late had been the week before at the orchard.
"It's kind of late. Are you sure she's still up at this time of night?"
"Who."
She continued walking through the peaceful night as her journey took her further from town.
Finally the cottage was in sight. "Hey, I think I see a light on."
She received a happy hoot from her back in reply.
As she got closer she heard some noise coming from inside and was happy to know she wouldn't be waking up her friend. When she knocked on the door everything went quiet. She waited a few seconds before knocking again. "Fluttershy, It's me, Twilight."
More of nothing was the response she got. She pressed and ear against the door. "Fluttershy, are you ok in there?" The only noise was a bit of wind. "I'm coming in ok?" At that she heard a scrambling of hooves against the floor.
When Twilight stepped inside she found... nothing out of the ordinary. A light was on, if a bit dim and making shadows in the corners. A few animals poked their heads out to look at her before going back to sleep. The library book on bats sat on a table. "Fluttershy?" She lit her horn to brighten things up and heard a noise from the direction of the couch.
As she got close she saw a bit of pink mane sticking out from behind. "Fluttershy, what's wrong? It's me Twilight. Why are you hiding?" There was a squeak and the mane moved further behind the couch. "If I caught you doing something... embarrassing, I'm sorry. You know I won't think any less of you. I just need you to take a look at Owlowiscious." All she got was a bit of whimpering. "Fluttershy, you're starting to worry me here. Talk to me. Just tell me what's going on."
As Twilight stepped forward and the couch was wrapped in magic, Fluttershy yelped. "Ok, I'll come out. Just promise me you won't get upset ...or scared."
"I can do that. I was starting to get scared that something was wrong with you."
Another little whimper. "And no magic."
"That's a bit odd but, ok no magic." Twilight stopped her magic completely and the room got darker.
Fluttershy started to remove herself from hiding. Once her head was out she turned to look at her friend. Twilight took a half step back at seeing a bright red eye looking up at her, the other obscured by pink mane. She looked a little further down and saw sharp fangs poking out. Twilight stood there with her mouth open in shock as Fluttershy continued her way out and her leathery wings were revealed.
Twilight's mind started working again. "I can fix this! I'll just use the spell again to get you back to a pony for now and then I can work on why you reverted into a bat-pony. Just hold still for a minute and I'll have you back to your old self in no time."
When Fluttershy saw her friend's horn fire up she jumped away, looking for something to hide behind. "You promised!"
That caused the magic to sputter out. "What?"
"I asked you not to use magic and you said you wouldn't."
"I... I did." Her ears fell as she looked at the floor. "But look at you. Wait." Her focus was back on her shy friend. "You can understand me like that?" She gave her head a shake. "Never mind that. Of course you can or you wouldn't be talking to me. But still, just let me use the spell to turn you back into a pony for now. Then I'll get started on why it didn't work and how to fix this for good."
Fluttershy had crouched down a bit, her large ears back and eyes nervously scanning the floor. Something sparked in her recent memory. She stood up straight with her eyes closed and took a deep breath. "No." When she opened her eyes she saw her friend staring back in confusion. "I know you just want to help but please, no more magic."
"But I can't just leave you like this."
"Twilight, are you sure you can fix everything with nothing else happening?" She stepped forward and placed a hoof on her friend's withers. "Just let it go for now. Ok?"
"What about the next time you have to go into town? I know you don't like drawing attention to yourself and ponies are going to notice."
Fluttershy backed up and sat down with a small smile on her face. "Oh don't worry about that. I just need to drink some fruit and get some exercise, then after I take a nap in the morning I'll be fine. Even right now if I try really hard I can make it go away."
"How do you know that will work?"
"It's what I've been doing all week."
Twilight jumped back a little as her eyes went wide and wings flared out. "You've been like this all week? Why didn't you tell anypony?"
She looked to the side and started running her hoof in a small circle. "I didn't want anypony to worry about me. Besides, it's not all bad. The dark doesn't bother me at all anymore and I think I'm getting better at flying. I just have to buy more fruit and I don't sleep in a bed every night."
She stepped forward and hugged the bat-pony. "Fluttershy, you're my friend, I'm supposed to worry about you when something happens."
"Who."
"Which reminds me why I came here to begin with." She let go and turned to the side. "I think Owlowiscious hurt his wing. We were hoping you could take a look at him." She looked over her friends current state. "If you're up to it that is."
"Oh of course. Bring him over by the light." Fluttershy quickly turned on another light, wincing at it's brightness for a moment before getting a small box of supplies. "Now what seems to be the problem?"
He hooted a few times and held out a wing.
"Ok." She started digging through his feathers using the small claws on her wings. "There it is. Twilight, can you pass me the tweezers." They floated over to her and she grabbed them in her mouth without looking away. She stuck the tweezers in and bit down then jerked her head back. He flapped the afflicted wing a couple times while she dropped the tweezers on the table and opened up a bottle, putting a drop of cream on her hoof tip. "Let me see you wing again." He held it out and her claws quickly found the same area so she could rub the cream into the skin. "There you go. Now you take it easy tonight and you'll be good as new by tomorrow." He put his wings around her head and gave a happy hoot. "You're welcome."
Twilight levitated a tiny piece of wood in front of her. "So it was a sliver that was bothering him?"
"And a big one at that." She commented as she started putting away the supplies.
It was reduced to ash as it floated over to a garbage can, before it could do any more damage. "You've gotten used to being like this haven't you?"
Fluttershy simply looked over and tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean?"
"You used those claws almost like they've always been there and your fangs didn't get in the way."
"Oh." She tried to hide behind her mane. "It took some time but I couldn't just stop doing things because of this."
"But still, you managed to adapt to this in a week and it isn't always there. That's actually rather impressive." She gave a nod of approval at her friends abilities and received a small smile in return.
Silence fell on on the cottage as the two mares looked at each other and the things around them. nether knowing what to say next.
Finally Twilight spoke up. "Do you need my help with anything or even for me to stay the night and keep an eye on you?"
"Oh, no. Thanks for caring, Twilight, but I'll be ok on my own. You two go home and rest."
"If you say so. I'll just get out of your mane and let you..." She looked over at a bowl of fruit that would likely be reduced to mush in short order. "...do your thing." Twilight made her way towards the door but stopped before opening it. She looked back at her friend. "You really should tell the rest of the girls. You know they'll support you. And if somepony else sees you like this it would be better if they already know that you're ok and have things under control."
Fluttershy looked at the floor as her ears drooped a little. "You're right." She looked back up and their eyes met. "Will you help me?"
"Of course." She smiled. "What do you want me to do?"
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Can you get everypony together at the library tomorrow?"
"I'll make sure of it."
"Thank you. Now you really should get him home." She turned her attention to Owlowiscious. "And make sure he doesn't lick that cream off. It won't hurt him, but it won't help if it's not there."
"I'll do my best. See you tomorrow Fluttershy." With that Twilight opened the door and started on her way home.
She waved at her departing friend a few times before closing the door and heading into the kitchen. "It will be ok. ...Right?" Her eyes wandered over to the fruit bowl. "If I have trouble controlling myself because I'm too hungry it won't be."
Applejack trotted through the library door. "I'm here. Now can somepony tell me what this is all about?"
Twilight turned towards the stairs. "Ok, Fluttershy, everypony's here. You can come down now."
Dash put down the book she was reading and joined the others in watching to see what was happening.
Slowly Fluttershy walked down into the room. It was a few seconds after her wings were visible that she made it to the floor and heard a gasp. When she turned to look, her red eyes and sharp fangs got a bigger reaction.
Pinkie jumped into the air, pointing at her. "IT'S THE RETURN OF THE FLUTTERBAT!"
Dash got to her hooves. "She's trapped. I'll grab her. Twilight get your spell ready."
Both of them were grabbed out of the air and set back down by Twilight's magic. "Calm down. It's ok, she's not like she was in the orchard."
"Well I ain't so convinced." Applejack said as she held up an apple in her hoof. "Look, her eyes went right to it. You want this here apple don't you?"
Fluttershy was still crouched down from preparing to be tackled by her oldest friend, but her focus was on the apple closer to the door. "Well, um... it does look really tasty."
Twilight turned to her farmer friend. "Applejack! It took a lot of courage on her part to come here an tell everypony about this. And you're going to taunt her with food before she has a chance to explain?"
Applejack's head and ears lowered. "You're right. I'm sorry sugarcube." She glanced at the apple in her hoof. "Um, here. I did kinda offer it to you." She tossed the apple in a gentle arc.
Fluttershy stood up and watched the juicy morsel heading right towards her. Until Her tongue shot out and pulled the apple into her mouth. Her friends watched as she happily drained the fruit of it's juices. When she finished and saw them watching she started to blush and tried to hide behind her mane. She quickly trotted to the kitchen to dispose of the remains.
Dash was the first one to say anything. "That was actually pretty cool, watching her snag it out of the air like that."
Rarity turned to Twilight. "But how did this happen? She was perfectly find just yesterday. Did your reverse spell wear off somehow?"
"I don't know what went wrong with the spell. She has actually been like this all week. It's just that she has some control over it to make herself look normal."
"Oh my, the poor dear." Rarity held a hoof to her muzzle for a moment. "But you can fix this, right?"
"We've agreed not to try anything until she's comfortable that I've found something that should work for good. She seems to be ok with it and is adapting well." Twilight leaned to the side at seeing her friend return. "Isn't that right, Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy smiled softly and gave a small nod. "It's not all bad and I only look like this right now because Twilight said it would help if everypony sees that I can still control myself."
Applejack walked up to her. "I'll admit I shouldn't have taunted you with that apple. But you can't really expect us to believe you're all ok and nothing has changed. Not after what we all just saw."
She looked down and started rubbing her fetlock against her cannon. "Well there are a few changes I have to deal with. I have to buy more fruit at the market and I'm still trying to find a comfortable time to sleep."
Applejack lifted Fluttershy's chin so they were eye to eye. "I'm worried about you, we all are." She looked over her shoulder. "Ain't that right girls?" There was a chorus of agreements from the others. She put her head down with her ears back. "If I had just listened to you at the start, none of this would have happened."
Fluttershy hugged her friend. "I don't blame anypony for what happened. I'm just happy to have such good friends that care about me, even when I'm like this." She let go and sat down. "But I'll be fine, really. The animals know it's still me and I really can control myself. I just didn't want such a juicy apple to hit the floor and go to waste."
Applejack gave a small nod. "If you say so." She let out a small laugh. "Sometimes you're too kind for your own good, you know that?"
Dash was suddenly hovering beside them. "Enough with the feelings and mushy stuff. Does this mean you can still fly like you did that night? It would be awesome to see what you can do during the day, so I can... you know... actually see it."
Fluttershy shuffled back a couple steps and looked up at her flying friend. "I-I don't know. I still don't remember much from that night. I think I have gotten a little better from the exercise before going to bed in the morning."
Dash zipped around the room in excitement. "Sweet. We have totally got to get you in the air like this. Sometime when you can show me what kind of moves you've got now."
Pinkie started bouncing. "Oh does this mean I can throw a 'Fluttershy is a bat-pony' party?"
Fluttershy gasped and crouched down with a terrified look on her face. "Please don't."
"Oh, ok." For a split second, Pinkie looked not happy, before her normal smile returned. "What if it's just us?"
Fluttershy started to recover from her fear of being found out by the whole town. "I guess that would be ok. I mean, if you really want to."
Pinkie started bouncing again. "This gives me another chance to use Nightmare Night decorations. I'll have to bake something with fruit juice and get some fruit punch..."
Pinkie continued with her party ideas. Rainbow examined her friend's new wings. Rarity contemplated new fashion designs. Applejack and Fluttershy talked about the apples and the bats.
Twilight simply sat back with a smile on her face and watched her friends be happy. I really shouldn't consider something like this to be just a part of everyday life. The ponies who live in this town must be crazy. Oh wait, I live in this town. She joined her friends as they enjoyed the rest of the day together, almost like nothing had happened.
Author's Note
Original? No not really, just my take on the idea. It's actually practice and learning for a different and bigger story. That in mind I would like my criticism the old fashion way... Brutally.
Over 3000 words? If I told any of my old English teachers that I made this, they wouldn't believe me.