1 - Stay a While and Listen
"Done scared her off good." Applejack thudded her hoof against Big Mac's shoulders lightly. "That showed her!"
Big Mac gave a simple nod. "Ayup."
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "She wasn't doin' nothin' wrong!" she protested loudly, practically bouncing in place.
"Oh, hush, Apple Bloom, 'twere the right thing ta do."
"What's that?" Granny Smith emerged from the house, approaching the gathered group. "What's that I hear?"
Applejack waved a hoof vaguely towards town. "Just scarin' off this creepy zebra that thinks she kin own the place."
"Ya don't say." Granny settled to her haunches. "So, what'd she do?"
"She paws at the ground all weird like every time she roams into town."
"Yup."
"She scares away all the other ponies!"
"Ayup."
Granny Smith rubbed at her chin with a knobby hoof. "Ya sayin' she runs around hollerin' at folks?"
"Nope." Big Mac shook his head slowly.
"Nothin' like that."
Apple Bloom stomped a hoof. "Everypony's just a'scared of her! She didn't do nothin'!"
"Ah reckon ah know what yer dealin' wit' then." Granny slowly nodded and tapped the ground. "Sit down, close yer mouths, open yer ears, and ah'll learn ya somethin'."
Apple Bloom flopped to her haunches, tail wagging eagerly to hear a tale from Granny. Applejack and Big Mac looked less enthusiastic, but neither dared disobey and they settled to hear her words.
"Ya see, a long time ago..."
The sun was shining warmly over a smaller Ponyville. It was just a few years past when the town was founded. It was spring, and we were hard at work getting the fields ready for a new season of produce. It wasn't just the Apples, oh no.
You see, word of Ponyville spread mighty fast, especially with zap apple jam to lure curious ponies hoping to make a new home for themselves. We got some other earth pony families, and a few pegasi. Useful, the second one, for keeping the weather cooperative while we worked the field.
Each new family was met with a smile and open arms. Our little town was growing and getting better for it. We didn't have to eat just apples every day, nice as they were. We had carrots, strawberries, potatoes, and much anything else a pony could put in the ground. We were all working together, to make Ponyville better.
Then they came.
Apple Bloom perked up, ears dancing. "Who came?!"
"Ah'm gettin' to that. Hush and you'll find out."
They came in a pack of three. Two stallions and a mare, but they didn't look like no pony we ever saw before. Two of them, a mare and a stallion, were grey, the smaller stallion was an off-blue. Like rolling colors of the sunset, they came walking into town. They were tired from their trip and they barely had anything but what could fit in their saddlebags.
As they came, ponies left. They had strange ears with fuzzy bits at the end. Their eyes were strange and slit, like a cat or a monster! They had wings, but they weren't any pegasus. They were big and leathery and had fur on 'em. Not a single feather to be seen. They looked like demons come to take us all away, and no pony was in a rush to be the first one claimed.
"You sure this is the right place?" asked the larger of the stallions. "I don't see a single pony."
The mare waved a hoof at the buildings. "You saw the sign same as I did. This is Ponyville."
The smaller stallion lifted his shoulders in a tired shrug. "May be, but I don't see any ponies."
The mare sank to her haunches. "Well, even if they ran off, I'm not walking anymore. We can make a house here, and get to work." The other two grunted in tired agreement, and they did as they planned.
Without the welcome of Ponyville, they built themselves a house. Whenever one of them walked through town, ponies ran off and hid.
Even our marketplace, as young as it was, would be abandoned whenever one of them came past. This worked out fine for them, free eats, but that hardly worked out in their favor as far as the town ponies were concerned.
Now, don't get me wrong. They did leave a bit or two behind when they went 'shopping'. If a sign was left behind that had an obvious price, they were good for it, but they still took things, and that's all most people cared about.
Finally, they couldn't take it anymore, and a town meeting was called. They weren't invited, of course. All the other ponies were gathered up tight in one of the old barns, barely lit with a few lanterns.
"They're makin' the harvest go bad!" claimed one mare with an angry stomp.
"They steal from us every chance they get," added a stallion, with a grunting chorus of agreement from the others.
"Remember when little Sky Chaser went missin'? I bet ah know who caused that..."
The mood only darkened. The elder female of the bunch, my own mother, stood up tall. "Then it's high time we did somethin' about it! No more hiding and hopin' they'll go away, 'cause they won't! No more bat ponies! We don't need 'em!"
The crowd roared with approval at the idea. The plan was drafted and approved in no time at all, for all the plan it was.
The next day, when they figured the bats would be at their weakest, when the sun was as tall as it was ever gonna be, they came.
They were shoutin' and fumin' and makin' all kinds of racket as half the town came down on their little house. One of the ponies planted a huge sign of Celestia in the lawn. "Get back to the night!" The cry was infectious. "Back to the Night! Back to the Night! Back to the Night!" They chanted it with one voice, filled with hate and fear.
A little cry came from inside the building. It sounded like a foal.
"Little Sky Chaser!" came the panicked cry of one of many of the adults.
They rushed the house, determined to save their foal. Now, no pony ever admitted to doing it. They claim it was an accident. They claim they didn't see how it happened. It doesn't matter much anymore. The building was set on fire.
They caught the bigger stallion. He tried to hold them back, shouting and fighting as best he could for his family. He went down under a wave of angry pony bodies. His sacrifice weren't in vain. The littler stallion and the mare burst out of a window and took to the air. The screaming young one became obvious then. The mare was holding a little bat foal, not even a yearling.
The crowd fled the burning house, leaving that poor stallion behind. Those that were outside looked up at the two. They knew Sky Chaser wasn't there. In their heart of hearts, they knew Sky Chaser never was there. They were just a family. That didn't make them much less angry. In fact, I'd say it made them more angry. Being wrong doesn't make a pony anymore calm.
The bats thought the crowd's lull might be a sign of returning sanity, but it weren't. They dared to come closer to the ground and the shouting came back. They loudly proclaimed the bats' wrongs. "Thieves! Witches! Hexers!"
In the end, they were chased away. Good thing they had those wings, or they mighta lost all of 'em instead of just the one.
Apple Bloom's jaw hung open a moment.
Applejack winced and glanced away. "But she's trouble..."
Granny Smith heaved a heavy sigh. "They said that after the bats were gone. We never heard from them again. Ain't much a mystery to me why no bats tried to live in Ponyville again. Apple Bloom?"
"Yes, Granny?" Her voice was small and haunted.
"C'mon. Good fillies deserve a treat." She turned back for the house. "At least somepony might avoid makin' the same mistakes."
