The only source of light that night was the shining stars. The bright moon overhead held only a tiny sliver of light reflecting onto the land below. A gentle, but cold breeze blew through the night, softly wafting the few scattered clouds across the sky.

Fluttershy folded her wings towards her for warmth, as she lay right on the edge of a cloud. She ran her tongue over her newly acquired fangs, eyeing the small town of ponyville like a child in a candy shop. Her chin resting in one hand, and an apple in the other, she threw the fruit up and catched it again, as she had been doing for the past while. She arched her back, stretching her wings as a few more feathers fell out to reveal the thick membrane beneath.

It had been weeks since Twilight had botched the spell. It had also taken a week or so for it to become apparent. At first she simply assumed that the spell would take some time reversing her back to her old self, as the fangs and wing arches came and subsided. It even went away for a while.

But then, three weeks after the whole incident had been forgotten, it had come back with a vengeance. All of the poor, peacefully sleeping creatures in her home had awakened to a bloodcurdling scream. She had been sleeping peacefully when a sudden stabbing pain shot through her wings, into her back and in her mouth. The pain forced her into consciousness as it reverberated throughout her entire body, sending shockwaves from the depths of her brain to the tips of her fingertips.

The initial panicked reaction was that someone was in her bed assaulting her, for it felt like someone was ripping her feathers out, but when she rolled onto her back, wings tucked beneath her, it continued. She arched her back and screamed some more as her canines also experienced the feeling of being ripped violently out.

Creatures, scaled, feathered, and furry alike pounded at her door, which she had locked before hand.

One minute of agony stretched into what felt like an hour of torture, but the pain subsided after only three minutes. She soon lay panting and shaking in her bed, sweat pouring down her forehead and a dull ache pervading every nerve ending in her body.
Light headed and confused, she tried to sit up, only to be met with a gasp and a throbbing headache. The rabble of concerned animals continued to pound at the door, like a jackhammer to her mind.

“I-Its ok everyone!” She rasped, her throat felt like it was full of sand and gravel, “Please just go to bed, I feel fine.” She most definitely did not feel fine, but having her animal friends worry for her felt simply unfair. She had been the one to wake them up, after all. The torturous awakening already felt like a horrible dream in her addled mind, and the ache was already receding from her body.

Her throat still felt dry as a desert, and when she ran her dry tongue over her lips, she was met with some unexpected results.

Her fangs were back. She squeaked and her wings snapped to herself from habit, but instead of soft feathers brushing against her equally soft skin, what hit her back was anything but soft.

With wide eyes and a fast beating heart, she slowly turned her head. To her horror and disgusting, membrany bat wings replaced her beautiful feathered ones. She clapped her hands to her mouth as she squeaked again, then marveled at the whiteness of her skin. She had never been very tan, but her skin now looked sapped of any pigment.

Then it hit her, a sudden deep, gut wrenching thirst. Her new wings snapped back with a crack like a whip, and with one powerful thrust, she surged forward, crashing past her door and bowling through the critters with a deep hiss.

They found her in the kitchen, all the cupboards open and the fridge a mess. Human and animal food was scattered around at random, but the only food that seemed touched was a few remaining apple husks. A single ruby red fruit remained, but only for a second more. The crowd of animals watched, horrified, as their caretaker sucked the last few drops with a carnal moan.

Yet another week later, Fluttershy looked at the apple in disgust. She had already devoured a dozen tonight, but the thirst still remained. She should be at Twilights right now, getting help with the problem, but she didn’t want to. For the first time since her brief encounter with Iron Will, she felt powerful.

After the first terrifying ordeal in the kitchen, she had fled from her home to the skies, and had ended up on the border of Applejack’s farm and the EverFree Forest. She attacked a single tree and consumed apple after apple, the sweet juices soothing her aching throat in an almost euphoric way. Halfway into her meal, a snarl snapped her out of her revere.

A small pack of five or six timber wolves loomed out of the forest, snarling at her. Usually she would have ran, or screamed, but not that night. She finished off the apple in her hand, and dropped to the ground in a low crouch. Feet splayed apart, wings stretched to the sky, one hand on the ground and the other clawing at the wolves, she hissed. It started low, like a snake hiding in the thicket, but it rose to a snarl.

The timber wolves wavered. She lunged at the largest, clearing only half the distance, but it had the desired effect. It yelped, and backed off.

Fluttershy continued to snarl, inching closer and closer. The Timber wolves got the hint and fled.

She went back to her tree, and continued her feast as if nothing had happened.

The apple rose and fell once again into her hand. She stared at it, and dug her now sharp and deadly fingernails into the fruit. Sweet, sweet juice leaked out, running down the white skin of her hand, as well as the red skin of the fruit. It made it shine brighter in the starlight, and she gave it a long, tender lick.

Her moan came out as only a whimper, and she threw the apple as far as she could, which was now a considerable distance. She watched it twirl through the air, falling a long way to the ground below. She continued staring long after it was to small to see, or had hit the ground. If she focused, she thought ht she could see it from even way up here.

It was some of the reasons she had yet to reveal this to any of her friends. The newfound power came with lots of perks. She could see so much farther in the night. She could fly so much faster and harder than before. She felt stronger, more limber, and more agile. Sleep became a luxury, as while it felt nice after a long night, she found it held no real importance anymore.

The first few mornings, waking up in strange places, had frightened her, and she had almost run straight to Twilight instantly. But then she remembered her little “outings”. The pain and thirst was bad, but the deep satisfying joy of draining apples made her feel so profoundly alive!

So she kept it a secret, and reveled in her new powers nightly. It was baby steps, and she approached it timidly, like most things in her life, but soon she took to it like a duck to water. It all came to her instinctively. She knew that admitting her little problem to her friends might have been received with support, as it had seemed like Applejack had eventually accepted the fruit bats, but something held her back.

Now she felt relieved her friends knew nothing about this. For the last few days, she had started to feel a slight itch in her throat even after feeding. Last night, she could have sworn that the apples tasted slightly less sweet and fulfilling.

Like the first true transformation, a horrible new development hit her without warning.

Tonight, the red fruit did nothing. She drank in the nectar of far more than she should have, and come morning, Applejack would surely notice. She did not care; the thirst had driven her to the far edges of the orchard, but to no satisfaction.

Unlike the bats, which were only animals, Fluttershy had been careful about her consumption (after that first night). She kept to the outer borders, and took only an apple or two a tree, spacing the trees out which she picked. Knowing her farmer friend, if the bats became suspect all the work that she had put into the sanctuary would have been for naught. It was not herself she that she feared retribution, but the bats. Her new talents gave her plenty of ability to hide. They were confined to their sanctuary.

Despite her painstaking measures, the dreadful realization that she no longer gained satisfaction from the fruits drove her almost mad. Half the tree was sucked dry before she gave up.

Another light gust blew at the tight black outfit she wore. She pulled the hood farther over her head, but wind still seeped in from the two holes where the bunny ears used to be. She had found this outfit the same place she tossed it in the back of her closet after that one adventure with twilight. Everything else in her closet was a light pastel color, and would have been a dead give away in the black of night. It was also vanity that pushed her to wear the non-revealing, but skintight outfit. The material hugged her curves so wonderfully, bringing out her hourglass figure and large breast in a provocative manner she never would have out in the public and daytime. It matched her hair, in its darker, almost purple vampire state, and added to her confidence in remaining anonymous.

I saw this chick last night soaring around in a skintight black outfit! One person would say.

That couldn’t have been sweet, meek FlutterShy. Another would confirm.

She giggled lightly at the imaginary exchange, but her mood quickly soured as they evolved into a light cough, then a wheezing hack. Her throat was feeling worse, so much worse. She wished it could be morning, when she turned back and it went away. It always retreated from the dawn. As much as she loved her new found abilities, they meant little to her when her throat felt like someone had ripped it out, set a rake to it, then haphazardly thrown it back in.

It was time to get serious about finding a new solution. The night had just begun and it promised to be a long one if she couldn’t gain satisfaction. Her eyes locked onto Sweet Apple Acres in the distance. When she first alighted on her little cloud, crying in despair, it had been right over the farm, but the breeze had slowly pushed her away.

She stood on the cloud, then, with her wings spread, fell.

The first time that night she had soared over the bountiful trees, the smell of ripening fruit had made her mouth water, but now it was just a painful reminder.

Her leathery wings flew silently through the dark night, much more stealthily than the swoosh of her beautiful feathered ones. Her dark hair was tied up in a thick bun inside of her hood, coupled with her appropriate attire, it provided a very aerodynamic FlutterBat.
She alighted gracefully and quietly on the floorboards of the porch up against the house, where they didn’t creak. Years of midnight snacks in a house full of jumpy animals had taught her stealthy skills that no vampire instincts needed to help her with.

Knowing her friend, she tried the door handle, and it opened without complaint. The Apple family must have felt so secure and trustworthy this far into the farm, with innocent ponyville being the only town around. She lifted the door as she opened it, to keep it from creaking, and slide inside.

The lack of moonlight or indoor lighting at this time of night made the living room impossible to see in. Unless you were FlutterBat, master of the night! Her large, round, blood red eyes narrowed into slits as she amped up her night vision, and the living room came into being. She slipped across the room, her footsteps falling on the floor like soft sighs.

The cellar door was slightly ajar and she slipped through it noiselessly. At the bottom, she relaxed a little, enough to straighten up and walked normally. They weren’t going to hear her down here.

Feeling her way along the wall, her delicate fingers found the switch and flipped it, illuminating her salvation.

Barrels upon barrels of Sweet Apple Acres Cider lined the walls, all-waiting for the market. FlutterShy made her way over to the section marked “non-alcoholic”. She didn’t need to be getting tipsy off this stuff.

A cup, found in the corner beside other drinking accessories, was soon filled with her favorite Honey McIntosh Cider.

She held the foamy liquid in front of her face, savoring the smell, the taste, the idea of it running down her sandpaper throat. Oh, how she ached for it!

Finally, with great revere, she took a long, but generous sip.

And spat it out. Fluttershy said several choice words that would have made Discord blush. The cider tasted as she had remembered it, but it did not bring her the needed sustenance. It had fallen down her throat, cold and heartbreakingly delicious, but her throat still burned. She took several more gulps to make sure before throwing it to the floor.

She had thought that if pure, from the source juice did not work, then the refined version might have whetted her appetite.

Almost at the verge of tears from the pain and despair of the situation, she curled onto the floor then wrapped her ugly wings around herself.

“What do I do now?” She asked out loud. Why is this happening, could I not just have this? Why did I receive this gift, only to be hit with such despair?

Tears now flowed freely, she no longer felt like the strong master of the night anymore. She was cold, distraught, and oh so thirsty.

Why did it have to get worse? From the start, this was a progressive change, so in what direction was she heading now?

Author's Note

This is my first fanfic, so critique is helpful, also any grammatical errors or misspells pointed out would be wonderful.