Love at First Bite

I knew it was the wrong way to use my act of kindness. It’s not a way to free Fluttershy from her batty counterpart. It wasn’t necessary to kill the creature.

Flutterbat is kept confined on a barn wall for she’s considered not to be running loose and I agreed with that. But she took love away from me, so I wouldn’t relax until the problem is solved.

What came to my mind is probably the worst and the most horrible solution to fix this kind of situation. I want to free her via the death of the demon. There were no other answers to think of.

And I didn’t even care if there’s another solution. There would be one moment that I’d regret this when my attempt succeeded. I didn’t want to do it, but I’m unable to prevent it. What was I thinking?

I came into Flutterbat’s prison cell with a knife from my home kitchen in my hoof. That’s when she scrambles to escape her fate. It’s like she’s pleading me to not do it, yet I ignored her pleads.

It seemed like I really am about to stab her. I was hovering the blade centimeters over the oesophagus. But suddenly…

“Rainbow Dash! Stop!”

A young stallion named Silver Trust disarmed the knife by shoving me onto the wooden floor, saving Flutterbat in the process. I was still heartbroken due to the loss of my love, so I sort of shouted at him harshly.

“Argh! What the hay?!

I continued ranting about how I wanted Flutterbat killed and Fluttershy freed as nopony was able to magically revert her mutation.

However, that’s not entirely the case, at least for Silver. I was able to listen to him enough to hear that he might be able to mentally, not physically, put me and Fluttershy together again. He planned to reform Flutterbat.

It seemed too good to be true, so I doubted trying to reform her. But it sounds like he doesn’t know if his plan would work either, therefore I gave him a chance. Should’ve given him at least more chances though.

“I’m sure Flutterbat just had a misunderstanding. Especially when she bit your foreleg.”

That was Silver’s last speech bubble before Flutterbat hissed at us, except it’s unlike the hisses we would normally hear from her, it’s more polite and less freaky.

“Have you been hearing our conversation?”

That was Silver’s first question to ask Flutterbat and surprisingly enough for me, she replied with a slow nod like she understands the question. I can tell that Flutterbat is unbelievably being reformed.

Silver asked more questions that are definitely worth asking. Especially questions like…

“Are you…thirsty? Do you want…blood?”

Flutterbat quickly answers that question by shaking her head, which is a way of saying no, which is an odd answer coming from her, a vampire.

“Do you want to be released?”

By this question that’s being asked, Flutterbat doesn’t answer straight away. She took few seconds to think about her answer before nodding. So she wants to be released, but because of one reason or another, there’s one moment when she thinks about not being released.

At this time, it’s Silver’s turn to do some thinking. Eventually, he made a choice, but the first thing he said afterwards is…

“Rainbow, give me the knife.”

What does he need the knife for? It’s definitely not for killing the beast dead because he already established not killing her, although I could be wrong and that he’s actually going to penetrate the blade through Flutterbat’s flesh. Nonetheless, although I’d like to ask why, I trust Silver enough to not ask any questions and just passed the knife on the floor to him.

As he gripped hold of the knife, Flutterbat immediately shuts her eyes as if she thinks this is the end for her, but she didn’t even struggle to escape as if she’s accepting the fact that she’ll die here.

But no, that didn’t happen. Flutterbat doesn’t get to die, instead she gets freedom. Silver cuts through the chains that were holding Flutterbat up and she dropped off the wall. I walked closer to her to further inspect her. As soon as I got close enough, she targets her eyes at my face with sorrow before she immediately embraces me while weeping tears on my underbelly.

Shortly after that, she weirdly decided to lick my leg, since that’s the area she bit before, before she returned to resting her head on my chest. It’s like she’s trying to heal the wound or something. That’s when, and only when I finally realized what she wants. She wanted to regret being alive and biting me on the foreleg that she cried on my chest like she really meant it. Flutterbat’s scared now. She’s afraid of the demon that she became and is.

”It’s okay, Flutterbat. You may not be the mare I like to see, but I’m not upset now that you understand what I felt.”

Poor Flutterbat realized she’s a monster and she remembered how violent it was to tear across my leg, opening a wound and protuding blood from it. She didn’t know how much pain was received from the biteforce, she didn’t know that her existence came from a mare of kindness, she didn’t know that she took love away from my life. Now she knows what I and a few ponies have been through, but it’s long past her violent actions and so she declared herself guilty for those actions to wet her face in tears.

Silver and I had to comfort her, we got her reassured by telling her not to worry about the past. After that, Silver suggested to Flutterbat that she needs to start befriending Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie and Twilight, but it was getting late so I suggested to start amends tomorrow. We agreed, I had to remain in the barn with her so that she has someone accompanying her while Silver starts walking to his home in Ponyville, but I got his attention to thank him before he leaves. After all he’s done within a span of a couple of hours, he deserves my gratitude.

That night, I was sleeping in the barn on the floor curled up like a sleeping dog. Because bats are nocturnal creatures and Flutterbat is an associated species, she had to hang upside down in the corner of the room until daytime. I didn’t see it, but I think she’s been staring at me the whole time, it’s probably because she feels the guilt that grew in her because somepony mentioned a factor that nopony discussed with her.

Flutterbat’s stare didn’t disturb me from my sleep as it was a normal stare and not ‘The Stare’. However, after some time of getting some shut-eye, she flew down from the corner to sit close to me while she’s still looking at me. And then the next thing I knew, she moved closer to me to stroke my fur body, but I accidentally took it as a disturbance and so I opened my eyes from one touch of a stroking hoof.

“Is it morning already?”

I woke up only to see Flutterbat already hiding behind her mane. I didn’t think she was meant to wake me up, so I tried a salutation just to tell her that we can have a conversation right here and now.

“What’s up, Flutterbat? I don’t mind waking up, you know? But unless you were actually trying to wake me up for something, I’ll be falling asleep. You can stroke me if you want to, it’s not like a nocturnal creature like you have anything awesome to do in an empty box or in this case, a barn used as a prison cell where you’re not supposed to escape.”

That’s my reassuring speech, saying that I’ll allow Flutterbat to stroke me. While she did smile at the offer, she feels down with sorrow immediately afterwards. I thought she’s still thinking about my leg and stuff.

“Flutterbat, Silver and I told you that you don’t need to worry about all the intentional injuries you’ve caused today. You didn’t realize that I wedded, well, you as a pegasus and so you didn’t care about harming an innocent pony. You only understand my feelings because somepony else spoke out loud to you.”

I tried my best reassuring her, making sure the words are relatable and making sense. But apparently, that wasn’t the reason why she’s in sorrow as she’s, well, still in sorrow. I had no idea what she wants to say. To make it clear, she puts her hoof on her chest, or rather, her heart symbolizing something. Unfortunately, my palette of sign language is limited, but fortunately, I know that she’s referring to my real love, Fluttershy.

My Fluttershy disappeared ever since Flutterbat exists. Although I have doubts about “Fluttershy is really gone.”, it might actually be the truth. Flutterbat understands the feeling of losing your loved ones, taking my love is no exception. She was born from a malfunctioned spell, vampire bat genes replacing Fluttershy’s genes.

Unless somepony eventually finds a reverse spell, the transformation is permanent. She wished that she’s never born in the first place and things would be back to normal starting with Flutterbat reverting back to Fluttershy, bonding lovebirds together again and never existing ever again. I thought of an appropriate combination of words that could be viable to say to her in this case.

“It’s okay, Flutterbat. I know that taking away Fluttershy from me is wrong, you’re responsible for her absence and you want to preserve it. But it’s not your fault, don’t blame yourself. Besides, it was me and my friends that accidentally made you alive in the first place.”

Flutterbat was shocked to hear that she was born by us, but it’s true. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie and I told Fluttershy to do ‘The Stare’ on the vampire fruit bats so that we can cast a spell on them. Unfortunately, it turns out that ‘The Stare’ acted like a magic conductor that causes the spell to transfer to Fluttershy’s body and the effect is vampirism.

“But if you’re really blaming yourself for removing Fluttershy from my picture, just know that you understood how I feel about my vanished love and wanted to bond me and Fluttershy again.”

Awesome, she took my message as she smiles at me. Although she’s been reassured, she may have a small amount of guilt, but not enough to hold her down. That’s when I thought about my attempted bloodshed. I was lucky that Silver Trust caught me trying to kill Flutterbat, but it was so wrong that I had to apologize hard to Flutterbat.”

“I’m sorry I was about to kill you with the knife, Flutterbat. I was just truly convinced that Fluttershy is gone, but I made the claim that she’s alive but trapped in the darkness. I wanted to kill you so that she can go to rest in peace, but then Silver Trust came to make you and me understand the love and friendship between us. Can you forgive me?”

Flutterbat puts her hoof on my back and nodded. She forgives me for trying to stab her, but can I forgive myself? I know that I should forgive myself no matter what to forgive about, but it’s hard to try. I need to close my eyes before I barely get any sleep.

“I should go back to sleep. You should go back to whatever you noctural creatures do at night.”

My eyes were closing as I informed her. But instead of her getting back to the corner, she stayed sitting next to me continuing to stroke my back. This time, trying not to consider it an interruption to keep my eyes close until a few hours later, she decides to hang upside down on the barn’s ceiling. As the day called Celestia a few more hours later, the sun is ready to rise for a new one.

To be continued…