A Clone Gargoyle's Equestrian Tale

Journal Lessons: Bats!

S4 E7 Everypony! Rarity Takes Manehattan is up next!

Malibu was sleeping in his bed one morning at Sweet Apple Acres when he was startled awake by the frantic ringing of the bell, wondering what the emergency was. It was only him and AJ here at the barn while the others were out for the day.

He ran down as fast as he could, quickly eating an apple as he raced outside, seeing the rest of his friends coming along.

"Attention! This is a Sweet Apple Acres code red! I need all hooves—and claws—on deck!" Applejack called out, her face rather frantic.

Malibu panted before speaking. "Hey, calm down, what's going on?" He asked, the others having questioning looks too.

Applejack glared at him. "Calm down?! How can I calm down at a time like this?! Vampire fruit bats are attacking Sweet Apple Acres!" She growled.

It made the gargoyle clone blink, for he had never seen one before. "Huh?"

Twilight raised her brow. "But I thought the fruit bats usually stayed put in the west orchard." She said.

Applejack nodded. "The fruit bats do, but these aren't just your everyday ordinary fruit bats. They're vampire fruit bats!" She explained ominously. "I'll be darned if they think they're gonna sink their teeth into my blue ribbon apple." She pulled a blanket off of a huge apple dangling from one of the the trees.

Malibu, Twilight and the others all stared in amazement at the size of the thing. To Malibu it really looked good enough to eat. "Awesome!" Spike praised.

The cow mare polished the apple with her tail. "This here's our entry into the Appleloosa State Fair's produce competition. You know how much TLC goes into getting an apple to grow like this?"

Rarity couldn't help but look at herself in the surface of the apple. "Applejack! When you go big, you really go big!"

Malibu nodded. "Yeah, I've never seen one that size before. But what do you want to do with those bats about it?"

Applejack though stood protectively near it. "I won't let them vampire bats shrivel it up like a raisin!" She said bravely.

Fluttershy walked up timidly. "Oh, I'm sure if we just let them know how specoal that big apple is to you, they'll leave it alone."

Malibu saw Applejack look unconvinced but she allowed it. "Yeah, right. Be my guest." He decided to go with Fluttershy to meet these vampire bats himself.

He looked into the tree to see some red eyes glancing down at him, Fluttershy's ears lowered. "Um, excuse me, Mr. Vampire Bat—."

The two jumped back from an apple splattering on the ground, the bat hissing at them. "We were just wondering if maybe you wouldn't mind leaving that really big apple alone?" Fluttershy asked, smiling. Malibu waited expectantly, feeling tensed until the bat started spitting seeds in their way. Malibu quickly ran for it, Fluttershy following.

Applejack's eyes were wide in hopefulness. "Well, what did he say?"

Fluttershy shrugged. "Uh, yes." Applejack grinned at that. "But... it could have been a no."

Malibu moaned with Applejack. Fluttershy seemed to have a good explanation though. "This is the very first vampire fruit bat I've ever met and, well, it might take some time for me to really understand their language."

The teal alicorn put a wing around her. "You did your best." He encouraged, making her smile at him.

Applejack raised her brow. "Uh-huh. And in the meantime, this pest and his vermin friends are gonna go after my prized apple and, while they're at it, every other apple in the orchard! These vampire bats are nothin' but a bunch of monsters!"