In the library of her castle, Twilight was going through the lesson plan she had devised for Starlight. She still felt it wasn’t perfect and the pile of discarded scrolls against one wall betrayed her many attempts at finding the perfect structure. As she was making more changes to the syllabus, there was a furious knocking at the Castle’s front door. With a sigh, she put down the scroll and teleported to the hallway. As she used her magic to open the door, Derpy lunged in.
“Princessthere’sbeenanattack,” she said.
“An attack? Who? Where?” asked Twilight urgently.
“Behind the salon, Minuette,” panted Derpy.
“What’s going on?” asked Spike from behind Twilight.
“Wake Starlight and tell her meet me at the salon,” ordered Twilight as she took off into the night.
As she flew over the town it was clear the news had already spread as most of the townsponies were out in the street searching for the attacker. A few more enthusiastic ponies had acquired some torches and pitchforks which suggested the attack may not have been by another pony. As she approached the salon, there was a crowd gathered but the Mayor was holding them back. She also saw the body of her friend on the ground and somepony tending to her.
“What’s happened?” asked Twilight as she landed next to the Mayor.
“Lotus found her a few minutes ago but we don’t know what’s happened to her,” said the Mayor as she turned to walk Twilight away from the crowd. “It seems to be a monster.”
“Any ideas what?” asked Twilight.
“I believe it drinks blood,” said Nurse Redheart standing up and revealing a very tired looking but definitely alive Minuette.
“Hey Twilight,” whispered Minuette, “I’d get up but I’m missing a lot of blood and I’m pretty dizzy.”
“She’s very weak from the blood loss but with a few days of rest and plenty fluids she should be fine.”
“Did you see anything?” asked Twilight to her friend.
“It came from above and I felt something like wings but I didn’t see it.”
“Where have you been,” barked Nurse Redheart as an orderly from the hospital arrived with the ambulance cart.
“Sorry Ma’am,” apologised the orderly.
“Never mind, Princess could you help us?” she asked turning to Twilight who was examining the area.
Without thinking, Twilight levitated Minuette and placed her on the wagon. “I’ll come and see you once I’ve found whatever did this.” As the ambulance left she turned to the townsponies, “Right, teams of two, I want every inch of the town searched.”
As ordered by their Princess, the crowd dispersed in pairs and spread out to begin searching. As she turned back to the crime scene, Twilight heard hoof beats and turned to find Starlight skidding to a stop in front of her.
“Sorry I’m late, Spike didn’t impress on me the seriousness of what happened.”
Before Twilight could respond there was a sound from above and both mares turned to see a figure silhouetted against the moon. “Who are you?” demanded Twilight.
In response, the figure hissed.
“What did you do?”
There was a series of hisses in response but the figure seemed as if it was about to take off.
“Don’t-“ was as far as Twilight got before it was gone. She flew up but in the second it took her to climb as high as the roof it had vanished.
“What was that?” asked Starlight levitating herself up to Twilight.
“I’m not sure,” said Twilight but a horrible thought had manifested.
There was a sudden gust of air as Rainbow Dash came to a sudden halt in front of her. “Hey Twilight, has there really been an attack? Rose said somepony’s drinking blood then fainted.”
“I need you to go check on Fluttershy and bring her back to town, it’s not safe to be alone.”
“Why-“ began Rainbow
“Now Rainbow Dash!” shouted Twilight causing Rainbow to rocket off in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage.
“You and I are going to warn the Apples,” she said to Starlight. As they flew over the houses she noticed a group below, “We don’t use pitchforks as weapons!” she yelled causing the mob to stare at their weapons as if seeing them for the first time before casting them aside.
Worried by Twilight’s insistence that she check on Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash was close to Sonic Rainboom speeds as she flew to check on her oldest friend. As she approached, she realised Twilight's fears were correct as she spotted a figure flying into Fluttershy’s bedroom window. She dived for the opening, slowing enough to not crash straight through the opposite wall, and found Fluttershy standing dazed in the middle of the room.
“Where is it?” she asked as she circled her to protect her against whatever it was. After a few seconds and many revolutions she realised it was just the two of them.
“What?” asked Fluttershy as Rainbow landed in front of her.
“I thought I saw something come in here,” said Rainbow feeling a little unsure. “You didn’t go out and come back in the window did you?”
“It’s dark,” pointed out Fluttershy as evidence she wouldn’t have been out.
“Right.” Rainbow felt like a fool for charging in for no reason. ”Twilight wants us back in town, there’s something drinking blood.”
“Blood!” squeaked Fluttershy as she dropped to the ground. “I’m not leaving if something’s drinking blood.”
“Or I could leave you here, alone.”
After a few seconds considering her options Fluttershy stood up, “I’ll come with you.”
“Thought so,” said Rainbow and flew out the window as Fluttershy reluctantly followed.
As they arrived back in town, it was clear everypony was now in on the hunt, though there wasn’t any sign of torches and pitchforks. As they flew over the town square, Twilight teleported in front of them.
“I want you two on perimeter, there’s been another attack so it’s either very fast to get back unseen or hadn’t left.” At that, she teleported back to the ground.
“You heard her,” said Rainbow as she peeled off to start a circuit as Fluttershy tried to keep up.
As the pair flew their third lap of the town, Rainbow spotted what looked like a pony biting the neck of another and dived down into the alley only to discover Lyra and Bon Bon looking very annoyed. “Sorry, I thought you were drinking her blood,” admitted Rainbow sheepishly as Lyra fixed her mane with her magic.
“And what if she was?” asked Lyra defensively as Bon Bon simply glared at her.
Trying to regain some dignity after having interrupted an intimate moment, Rainbow stood up straight, “Carry on.” She then shot off into the sky to where she’d left Fluttershy who was nowhere to be found. “She’ll be hiding somewhere,” said Rainbow to herself, “Just means I can patrol faster.”
As Twilight was hearing reports from pairs who thought they’d seen something, Starlight was hanging back so as not to interfere with ‘Princess Business’. As she watched Rainbow Dash fly overheard, she heard a groan from the alleyway behind her and, nervously, turned to investigate. As she peered into the darkness she saw Fluttershy standing over a unicorn she didn’t know.
“What are you doing here Fluttershy?” she asked.
The pink maned pony in the alley lifted its head from the neck of the poor unicorn and turned to face her, flaring its leathery wings as it hissed at her.
“FLuuuu-“ stammered Starlight as the monster in front of her kept hissing at her.
“Don’t move!” yelled Twilight having heard the hissing and came running. “Don’t you dare fly away or I’ll…“ She really didn’t know what she’d do.
After a few more hisses, Flutterbat shook her head and took off into the night. Twilight flew after her but lost sight of her before they’d even left the town limits. She slowed down and hovered to try and spot a glimpse of a leathery wing but there was nothing. There was one piece of new information, she was heading for the Everfree forest. She turned and flew back to round up her friends, she couldn’t trust anypony else not to try to kill her friend on sight.
As the group entered the forest, Twilight took the position of Rainbow’s wingpony as the two flew ahead of the group on the ground to try and spot any sign of her. She wasn’t keen on the group splitting up but Starlight assured her she could protect her friends from the forest’s usual threats. Rarity had to remind Starlight they were her friends too.
After ten minutes, Rainbow suddenly stopped dead in the air, turning her head to each side before diving down to the edge of clearing and approaching a bush.
“It’s me,” she said to the bush.
In response, a yellow and pink blur shot out from underneath it and clamped it’s forelegs around her neck. “I’m so glad you’re here,” said Fluttershy in clear state of panic, “I don’t know how I got here and I think something’s stalking me.”
There was a sound of rustling and as the two pegusi took to the air their friends came running into the clearing.
“You’re back to normal,” said Twilight with great relief.
There was a rustle behind the group and Twilight felt something hit her hard and the world turned black.
A minute later, Fluttershy crawled out of the bush that Rainbow had thrown her into to find her protector, along with Pinkie and Applejack, lying motionless on the ground with two puncture marks in their necks. There was no sign of the three magic users. She gingerly approach Rainbow and leaned down to nuzzle her. She still felt warm and there may have been a twitch.
“Are you alive,” she whispered.
In response, Rainbow’s eyelid twitched.
“Where are the others?” she asked looking around her fallen friends.
Each of her motionless friends managed to twitch their eyelids but that was all they could do.
“It’s got them, that thing took them,” whispered Fluttershy to herself, hearing her own voice cracking with fear. “I can’t… I can’t help them.” She turned to look at her motionless friends before looking at the broken bushes from where the thing had come from. “But you can. If I let you out, you must promise to save my friends.”
The three paralysed ponies looking through unmovable eyes at Fluttershy talking to herself and thought she must have gone mad from fear. They almost preferred that as an option to what happened. There was a sickening cracking noise as Fluttershy’s ears changed shape and she flared her wings as the feathers compressed to form a single leathery membrane. She shook herself a little as moonlight glinted off her fangs before launching herself with speed rivalling Rainbow Dash, pulling a trail of leaves up into the air.
Starlight woke up to find she was completely immobilised and lying on a cave floor. Her eyelids were stuck open but with great effort she managed to blink, the dampening of her eyes coming as a slight relief given the situation. She concentrated and found her magic still worked so she levitated herself upright and found Twilight and Rarity lying next to her. She lifted them upright too and found they were both awake but unable to move as well and as she turned them round she saw the puncture holes she was expecting. That also explained why holding three ponies aloft was more difficult than normal, she was lacking in blood too.
As she turned them and began to move in the direction of the light that indicated the cave entrance, a shadow detached itself from the roof and landed in front of them. It was enormous, about the size of a house, with wings folded behind it and claws the size of an adult mare’s leg. As it bent down to examine its prey it showed an impressive array of teeth behind the leg-length fangs.
“Hey ugly!” came a yell from the cave mouth.
The three mares assumed it would be Rainbow Dash by the language but the voice was wrong, it sounded more like it was midway between Fluttershy and Pinkie with the confident edge of Rainbow Dash. The source was revealed as a yellow and pink streak slammed bodily into the monster's face and Flutterbat rebounded off it, narrowly avoiding a swipe from its claws.
“Get out!” shouted Flutterbat to the three mares, “I’ll hold it off.”
Starlight didn’t need any persuasion and immediately began moving the three of them towards the entrance while keeping an eye on the fight to avoid any wayward strikes. Flutterbat was flying a classic Rainbow Dash attack pattern, flying in for a blow before taking off to ensure she couldn’t be caught by something that could crush her with no effort. She was actually quite impressive.
As they approached the entrance the monster broke off from its fight with Flutterbat and lunged for its escaping food. Starlight knew she couldn’t move quick enough to avoid it but a blow to the base of its skull caused it to fall out of the air in front of them. Flutterbat grabbed one if its ears, her fangs piercing the flesh, and pulled to put its focus back on her. As it screeched, her sensitive sense of smell knew why her friends couldn’t move.
“Its venom paralyses,” she shouted before being thrown off and getting hit by a wayward backhand which fired her into a wall. “Twilight you know a spell -“ she was cut off as she narrowly evaded being impaled by the claws that stuck into the rock. “The others are north west.”
As Starlight got them out of the cave, Twilight remembered the spell she knew for treating poisoning and hoped it would work on that thing's venom. She focused on the three of them and each felt a tingling sensation, bordering on pain, which caused Starlight to lose her focus and drop them. Each mare landed on her feet and realised it had worked, they could move again.
“We need to get to the others,” said Twilight as she stretched to make sure everything was working.
“What about her?” asked Rarity looking back at the cave as a monstrous howl echoed forth.
“I think she’s fine,” said a shocked Starlight, “besides, I’m exhausted, I don’t think there’s much I could do.”
“Same here,” said Twilight. “You saw how fast she is, if she’s in trouble, she’ll lead it away. Now come on.”
Reluctantly, Rarity turned and ran after her friends, leaving Flutterbat alone with the monster. It only took a couple of minutes for them to find their paralysed friends in the direction Flutterbat had told them.
“Thank goodness you’re alright,” said Twilight as started focusing on the spell to cure them. She couldn’t cure them in one go and had to focus on one at a time due to feeling very lightheaded from the running and lack of blood.
“Fluttershy turned into Flutterbat voluntarily,” said Applejack as soon as she felt her muscles come back under her control. “She said she’d let her out if she saved you.”
“Woo hoo!” shouted Pinkie as she could move again and bounced into the air.
“We know,” said Starlight, “she saved us.”
As the warmth spread through Rainbow she could feel herself loosing up. “Where’s Fluttershy?” she demanded as soon as she could speak again.
“She’s here,” came a voice from the undergrowth. "Sort of, anyway."
The group turned to see Flutterbat walking out of the shadows with a slight limp and, to everypony’s horror, one of her wings hanging limp and torn, trailing in the dirt.
Rainbow launched herself at the monster wearing her friend’s body but was grabbed telekinetically by Twilight and Starlight. “What have you done with her!” she yelled.
“She saved us Rainbow, there’s no need to attack her,” said Twilight as she set her down.
“Fluttershy’s in here, she safe,” said Flutterbat.
“You took her over,” snarled Rainbow.
“She let me,” said Flutterbat calmly in the face of Rainbow’s anger.
“How can that be?” asked Twilight. “Are you the same pony?”
“I have all her memories,” explained Flutterbat, a little uncertain herself of how she and Fluttershy existed. “I think I’m somepony else but there’s still a piece of her in me. I’m not something that needs to be cured, I’m not a disease.”
Everypiny noted the hint of sadness and fear in Flutterbat’s voice. Clearly she was worried that they would try to cure her away, again.
“Why did you hiss at us earlier when you could just have told us you didn’t do it?” asked Twilight.
“I was trying to tell you. I don’t know why I could only hiss or why I can talk now.”
“May I?” asked Starlight to her teacher. “Could it be because you and Fluttershy aren’t fighting for control anymore? Maybe when she was resisting you she kept you out of the language centre.”
“Could be,” said Flutterbat brightly. It was as good an explanation as any.
“Why did you take over when there was a vampire drinking blood?” asked Applejack. “Ain’t that a bit of a coincidence?”
“Oh I know that one,” said Flutterbat excitedly. “When Fluttershy was sleeping I could hear its echolocation and I tried to stop it then I tried to warn you and hissed at you.”
“Where is it now?” asked Rarity nervously.
“Buried under a lot of cave roof,” grinned Flutterbat. The grin was recognised by the group as one they’d often seen on Rainbow Dash after she’d pulled off a tricky manoeuvre.
“OK, that’s a pretty good way of beating it,” admitted Rainbow, she was starting to like Flutterbat.
“So how did something so big sneak around town unnoticed?” asked Twilight.
“Seriously Twi, I don’t know everything about it,” said Flutterbat. “I knew about the venom by smell but that doesn’t mean I know what it is.”
“Sorry, I just thought with you being a –“
“I am not like that thing,” said Flutterbat indignantly as a hiss crept in. “I’m a vampire fruit bat-pony hybrid. That thing is a monster!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply I thought you were the same,” said Twilight.
Flutterbat took a moment to steady herself. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shout. I don’t want that to be how you remember me.”
“You’re leaving?” asked Pinkie as she admired her fangs.
“Fluttershy’s coming back,” explained Flutterbat, “but before she does I need to do something she’s been too scared to do.” She walked over to Rainbow Dash and stood tall and proud in front of her at an angle to ensure her flank was visible and to hide her broken wing.
Rainbow’s eyes slipped down from her confident and rather seductive gaze, ran along her surprisingly well toned body and onto her amazing legs. She had to admit that the bat-pony in front of her was astoundingly hot. As her eyes took in everything, Flutterbat slowly raised her one good wing to indicate arousal. Rainbow’s eyes darted back to Flutterbat’s.
“She loves you Rainbow, she always has,” confessed Flutterbat before adding, “I do too.”
“She does? You do?” asked Rainbow as the others moved back a little to give them some privacy.
“I so want to kiss you right now,” said Flutterbat as she took half a step forward, “but I won’t take her first kiss away from her.”
Rainbow leaned in as if she was going for a kiss and, true to her word, Flutterbat withdrew so Rainbow rewarded her with a nuzzle. They stayed together for a few seconds before breaking away.
“I do love you,” said Flutterbat as a disturbing crack echoed from within her. “We’d have had so much fun together. If she’s ever too timid to keep you happy I can help her.”
As Fluttershy emerged from within her own body her ears returned, her fangs retracted and her wings regained their feathers, her damaged wing seemingly healing with the change. The last thing to leave was Flutterbat’s suggestive expression which was replaced by a look of fear from Fluttershy.
“Was she telling the truth?” asked Rainbow.
“Mmm hmm,” nodded Fluttershy, afraid Rainbow would reject her. She was very surprised when Rainbow gave her what she’d always wanted, her first kiss. “You like me?” she gasped.
“Of course I do, you’re you. I always thought you just like me as a friend.”
Fluttershy laughed, “I thought that was how you saw me.”
“As adorable as this is,” cut in Applejack, “could we do it outside the Everfree Forest where there ain’t who knows what waiting to kill us.” There was a clamour of support for this plan as the group were nervously eyeing the shadows.
“How about we go to your place?” whispered Rainbow to Fluttershy with a perfect copy of Flutterbat’s suggestive expression.
After some effort, Twilight managed to talk down the townsponies, who had acquired their pitchforks again, and had worked themselves into a monster hunting frenzy in her absence. As they reluctantly dispersed, she and Starlight headed back to the castle as she explained Flutterbat’s origins to her pupil. Thankful for the distraction to keep her mind of what Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were doing.
“So are they now different ponies sharing the same body?” asked Starlight.
“I’m not sure but I really want to find out,” said Twilight. “It’s clearly not just schizophrenia due to the physical changes but I wonder if Flutterbat is simply the pony Fluttershy could be if she was confident in herself.”
“I was thinking that too. If she has the same memories and is everything Fluttershy is then surely she is still Fluttershy.”
“For now we’ll just have to take her word on it. She was made by Fluttershy’s Stare and two spells so who knows what’s possible.”
“So what do you think that monster was?”
“Some form of vampire bat certainly. What I don’t know is how it stayed hidden in the town.”
“Well,” began Starlight nervously, “It only fed on unicorns so maybe it drains magic and gets bigger.”
“And then it found us, two of the most powerful magic users in Equestria.”
A horrific thought crossed Starlight’s mind, “Do you think it took us to farm our blood?”
“I really hope it’s not that intelligent,” said Twilight as she climbed the steps to her front door. “If it can think and plan then we could be in trouble.”
As she closed the door behind them Starlight could finally say what she had wondered since she had been let into the group. “At least now I know why nopony told me Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were a couple.”
“Was it because they weren’t a couple,” suggested Twilight.
“They pretty obviously liked each other. I made a life by reading a pony’s weakness and after spending time with all of you it was pretty clear they cared about each more than the rest of you. If I’d had time to study you I could easily have cracked Fluttershy alone and Rainbow Dash would have followed.” Realising what she was saying she dropped her head to stare at the floor. “The old me really was just awful, wasn’t she.”
Twilight laughed, she knew someone else who had used that exact line. “Maybe I should set you up with a reformed villain councillor. She knows exactly what you’re going through.”
“So you really didn’t know about them?”
“I knew they’d been friends since they were fillies but I assumed that was all.”
“So how do you think having a couple in the group will affect the group?”
“I don’t know, this is a whole new aspect of friendship to study,” said Twilight gleefully.
“And you really want to study how Flutterbat works.”
“I’ve already devised several experiments,” said Twilight with an over-enthusiastic smile.
Starlight laughed nervously at the look on her teachers face. She’d heard stories from the others about what happens when Twilight gets fixated on something. This might get strange.
Author's Note
I always wanted a follow up episode regarding the suggestion Flutterbat hadn't been cured so I thought I may as well come up with one, though the Fluttedash shipping obviously wouldn't make it into the show.
For any doubt, the reformed villain councillor is Sunset Shimmer.
