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Bats! (December 28th 2013, 22 minutes)

Summary: We can't stop here, it's bat country! Sweet Apple Acres is infested with uncontrollable vampire fruit bats.

Apple Bucking Day? This is odd in several ways. One, AJ is seen bucking apples pretty much every day (which is weird actually). Two, I thought it was Apple Bucking Season, not Day. Three, under normal circumstances apples don't all go ripe at the exact same time on the exact same day. Different cultivars will become ripe at different times, and within the same cultivar they will become ripe over several weeks (which is why it's 'Season', not Day). This sounds more like an milestone day, something set on the calendar as a semi-festival or the like.

I believe this is the first time we've seen the Sweet Apple Acres bell being used. Interesting that the farm even has such a thing. Given the number of emergencies Ponyville seems to undergo normally, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that there are alarm stations set up at various outlying farms and watchtowers as part of an alert system.

Differentiating between Fruit Bats, and Vampire Fruit Bats. Given that they're still 'Fruit Bats', they're not similar to vampire bats as defined in our world. AJ is still talking about them as being fruit bats, but they appear larger and more rapacious.

They are also sufficiently different from regular fruit bats that their 'language' is different.

Actually, no. The way fruit bats help is by increasing the distribution of seeds, which is something orchard farmers *don't* want. Having apple trees grow three fields over where the farmer hasn't planted them is not helpful. They don't make trees grow faster or stronger unless there's something magical about 'vampire' fruit bats that produces this effect. Also fruit bats help in pollination, as many go after flower nectar the same way several birds (like humming birds) do.

And they shouldn't be damaging the trees themselves, just the fruit.

Which they already did. The West Orchard is for the fruit bats. Simply building a 'sanctuary' won't help unless you can talk to them to tell them to not go elsewhere. Which you've already proved you can't do yet. And if you could, why do they need *another* sanctuary when the West Orchard is already designated for them? Unless vampire fruit bats and regular fruit bats cannot occupy the same region.

The last time the vampire fruit bats were around was when Granny was young. So this is an infrequent path they take. Which likely means they normally 'flock' pretty far away, but something else causes them to change paths. Basically something has happened to their normal food source. As much as I sympathize with AJ, I'd be concerned that there's something more insidious on it's way like a crop disease of some sort. Bats often carry diseases and the like, but once something is infected, the diseases stick around after the bats have left.

Oh, lord. Twilight. The last time you did this, to the parasprites, it went badly wrong.

Where did Rarity get the full containment hazmat suit? That's a bit odd in this setting. Useful, but odd.

These trees have not just lost fruit, but leaves as well, and are appearing sick. I'm really getting the impression that the bats are just the surface issue, not the real danger.

One day later, the trees are all repaired? Weird.

What exactly are the bats eating them? Last time Twilight did this trick, the target creatures simply switched to something even worse.

Twilight used the phrase 'stakeout', which most people associate with police hiding and watching a building in secret in the hopes of catching a criminal. That's the nice version. The original stakeout was an interrogation technique, where you tie a person to stakes driven into the ground and leave them out in the weather for an extended period of time. I'm assuming Twilight's using it in the more modern sense.

Pinkie's entire mane is prehensile. The other ponies occasionally use their tails that way (especially AJ), but Pinkie seems to have far more control than any of the other ponies. Perhaps that's an Earth Pony trait, and Pinkie's just better at it than normal.

Okay, Fluttershy's wings have gone batty, and she's using her tail prehensile.

What? 80's computer graphics? The heck?

Fluttershy is continuing to transform. She has not yet gained the slit pupils that the batponies in Luna Eclipsed had, but it's possible that she would get them eventually. Or if she had foals in this state, those foals may be batponies. Mind you, bats don't have slit pupils, so it's still more likely that batponies are actually 'dragonponies' intead.

Unfortunately, the sanctuary is only working because Fluttershy likely learned the vampire fruit bat language due to her experiences. So it's not really indicative of the validity of her original argument.