Bats!

Bats!
 * Season #: 7
 * Season Ep #: 21
 * Overall Ep #: 127

Summary
When vampire fruit bats take over the town orchard, Caramel Cider and Sugar Pie are at odds regarding how to deal with them, but disaster strikes when Sugar turns into a vampire bat-noid after one of Lollipop's spells backfires.

Episode
(Opening shot: fade in to a tract of the town orchard land at sunrise, every tree fully loaded with fruit. Pan slightly to frame Caramel Cider crouched on an overlooking hill.) (As she tenses for action, the first morning rays wash over the orchard and a rooster’s crow makes itself heard loud and clear.) (The legs in orange stockings come up and solidly make contact with a trunk, and a shower of fruits in all colors tumbles down around her in slow motion. She lifts her head and forelegs, lost in the moment’s bliss, and lets one particularly red specimen drop toward her raised hands. Normal speed resumes when it touches them, disintegrating into a spatter of pulp that ruins the farmer’s good mood in a heartbeat. In less time than it takes to say “puree,” shriveled apples rain down all around her.) (Overhead shot; she looks up with a shocked gasp.) (Zoom out and stop among the leaves. A bat-shaped silhouette flits across the screen, followed by a cloud of them dense enough to black out the view altogether.)
 * [Caramel Cider] "Any minute now…"
 * [ Caramel Cider ] (rearing up) "Yee-haa! It’s officially fruit-buckin’ day!" (trotting among trees) "Look at all those fruits—ripe and juicy! Perfect for buckin’!"
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " What the heck is goin’ on?"
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " They’re back!"

--

(Opening shot: fade in to a close-up of above the Rainbow House. It is later in the morning, and the bell is ringing wildly. On the start of the next line, zoom out to a long shot that frames the orchard in the distance, Caramel hovers above, and her eleven siblings and Beeping racing onto the property. The redheaded cowgirl has cleaned the goop from her hands.) (They reach her and the bell stops ringing as she finishes.) (She stops, the light around her going dim to leave her standing in an ominous spot.) (By the end of this, she has descended down by the fence, the edge of a tarp barely in view and covering something quite large. This is nipped and yanked away to expose said something as a tree bearing a single apple that is perhaps half a head taller than she is. The gargantuan fruit rests on the ground, its weight causing the tree’s upper portion to bend 90 degrees. It sparkles in the light, eliciting a round of appreciative responses from the others.) (Close-up of the spot as she finishes, pulling her leg away away to expose the reflection of the approaching Gelatin Soft.) (The blonde cutie pie beams at the suggestion, completely missing the tone of these words. Wipe to a stretch of bat-infested trees, the grass around their trunks littered with ruined apples; Sugar flies into view and lands in front of them.) (Another wrecked fruit is thrown down, barely missing as it goes splat.) (Her best “pretty please” grin is met with dead silence for a moment, followed by a machine-gun barrage of apple seeds spat into her face. Sugar flies away with a shudder; cut to her returning to Caramel, a few seeds stuck in her hair.) ~(Song)~
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " ATTENTION! THIS IS A TOWN ORCHARD CODE RED! I NEED ALL HANDS—AND CLAWS—ON DECK!"
 * [Cinnamon Buns] "Calm down, Caramel!" (Caramel gets in her face.)
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " Calm down?" (backing her up) "How can I calm down at a time like this? Vampire fruit bats are attackin’ the town orchard!" (She floats past Lollipop Pops.)
 * [Lollipop Pops] "But I thought the fruit bats usually stayed put in the west orchard."
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " The fruit bats do…" (pacing a bit) "…but these aren’t just your everyday ordinary fruit bats."
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " They’re vampire fruit bats!" (Start pacing; light comes up.) "I’ll be derned if they think they’re gonna sink their fangs into one blue-ribbon apple!"
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " This here’s our entry into the Apple Mountains State Fair's produce competition." (She breathes on a patch of skin and polishes it with her hand.) "You know how much TLC goes into gettin’ an apple to grow like this?"
 * [Gelatin Soft] "Caramel!" (admiring his image) "When you go big, you really go big!"
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " Them vampire bats want to shrivel it up like a raisin." (Sugar Pie flies over to her.)
 * [Sugar Pie] "Oh, I’m sure if we just let them know how special that particular apple is to you, they’ll leave it alone."
 * [ Caramel Cider ] (sarcastically) " Yeah, right. Be my guest."
 * [ Sugar Pie ] " Um, excuse me? Mr. Vampire Bat?"
 * [ Sugar Pie ] " We were just wondering if maybe—" (hastily) "—you wouldn’t mind leaving that really big apple alone?"
 * [ Caramel Cider ] "Well?" (Sugar wipes herself clean.) " What’d he say?"
 * [ Sugar Pie ] " Um, yes."
 * [ Caramel Cider ] (smiling) "Huh?"
 * [ Sugar Pie ] " But it could’ve been a no." (Caramel groans disgustedly.) "This is the first vampire fruit bat I’ve ever met, and, well, it might take some time for me to really understand their language."
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " 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 buncha monsters!"
 * [ Sugar Pie ] (taken aback) "Monsters? Oh, that’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?" (Sugar gets in her face.)
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " No, I do not."

(The camera swivels quickly behind the pair to frame the trees they are both looking at, and the bats filling one of them scatter into a red-eyed swarm. One swoops toward the camera and up/away; behind it, the trees become gnarled and ravaged and the entire view takes on a gloomy, blighted appearance.)

[Caramel Cider] (She gestures off to one side, the camera panning in that direction to stop on a tree that is swiftly picked nearly clean by two bats. A third puts its head out from the leaves and bites into one of the last apples, sucking it dry and spitting the drained husk so that it bounces across the grass to stop at Caramel's hands; she crushes it.)
 * Those vampire bats will give you a fright
 * (to Lollipop, Beeping) Eatin’ apples both day and night
 * They rest for a minute, maybe three
 * Then they’re eatin’ every apple in your apple tree

[ Caramel Cider ]
 * They don’t care about nada
 * (to Gelatin, Cotton) Not zilch, no, nothin’

(One flies past the camera and away; now Sugar crosses to Caramel and lays a hand on her shoulder. The focus softens and the normal colors resume.)
 * (gesturing about; bats fly up from trees, leaving the limbs bare)
 * ’Cept bringin’ about an orchard’s destruction

[Sugar Pie] (Two bats are seen in full light—similar to ordinary bats except for their large eyes, long fangs, and leaf-veined ears. One cradles a baby.)
 * Now wait just a minute, there’s another side to this
 * And if I did not defend them, then I would be remiss

[ Sugar Pie ] (The young one flies up and nestles in Sugar's hair as she arrives on the scene.) (It nuzzles her cheek happily. Back to the rest of the group, the gloomy color scheme taking hold again and the soft focus ending.)
 * These bats are mamas and papas too
 * They care for their young just like we creatures do

[ Caramel Cider ] (Tilt quickly up to a bat—rather less cuddly-looking than the ones Sugar envisioned—seated at a table on a branch and ready to dig into an apple placed on it.) (Another one flies up and grabs the meal away; the thwarted diner gives chase with a yowl.) (She crosses to the two bats, now having a tug-of-war over the apple on the path.) (Knock it out of their grip; they fly away. As Sugar sings, the colors brighten again and the focus softens as before.)
 * Oh, gimme a break, you’re bein’ too kind
 * These creatures have a one-track mind
 * The orchard is not their restaurant
 * But do they ever think what others may want?
 * No, they don’t, and that is just a fact
 * These bats, they simply don’t know how to act

[ Sugar Pie ] (Tilt up quickly to the cute bat couple from her last verse, holding an apple between them.) (They bite; the apple bursts in a hail of seeds that drift down over the orchards.) (Pan quickly to Caramel, holding up a blanket behind herself and spreading it like a pair of bat wings; the gloomy color scheme returns.)
 * That’s where I have to disagree
 * They’re loyal to their family
 * Spreading seeds both far and wide

[ Caramel Cider ] (She sweeps the cloth past the camera; behind it, the view wipes to a long shot of her addressing all but Sugar. The sky has gone red, and a giant, red-eyed bat silhouette looms up over the fence, matching her movements.)
 * You see one comin’, you’d better run and hide

[ Caramel Cider ] (Another sweep clears the red sky to show the stricken apple trees.) (Sugar flies over as a new tree sprouts up and develops a crop of apples.)
 * They’re big, and ugly, and mean as sin
 * Will you look at the state my trees are in?

[ Sugar Pie ] (A swing of Caramel's hand, and the new tree falls backward as if made of cardboard.)
 * They help your trees, they’ll grow stronger faster

[ Caramel Cider ] (Now Cinnamon, Gelatin, and Lemon Drop pace a circle around Sugar.)
 * They’ve turned my life to a total disaster

[Gelatin Soft] [Cinnamon, Lemon] (Vanilla Cake and Rainbow Flavor swoop down.)
 * Well, I for one don’t have a doubt
 * These vermin must be stamped right out

[Vanilla Cake] [Rainbow Flavor] (Caramel advances toward the camera, having disposed of her blanket.)
 * I second that, they’ve got to go
 * These bats, they’ve got to hit the road

[ Caramel Cider ] (Sugar soon finds herself ringed in by the other eleven CandyCakes.)
 * It comes down to just one simple fact
 * They’ve crossed the line, it’s time to fight them back

[All but Sugar] (Cut from one singer to another during the next two lines.) (Caramel back Sugar down into a scared, shivering crouch.)
 * Stop the bats, stop the bats
 * Make them go and not come back
 * Stop the bats, stop the bats
 * Make them go and not come back
 * Stop the bats, stop the bats
 * Make them go and not come back

[ Caramel Cider ] ~ (Song ends with the eleven nod resolutely in time)~
 * Yes, it comes down to just one simple fact
 * They’ve crossed the line, it’s time that we attack

(The landscape returns to its normal color as a shadow extends over the cringing blonde animal lover. She opens her eyes and finds that it belongs to Lemon Drop, who helps her up off the dirt.) (The rest of the group stops in its collective tracks, Caramel voicing an angry little groan before they round on Sugar.) (On the end of this, the camera zooms out slightly to frame the tree she has reached—lush and greed and laden with a fresh crop.) (Cut to Lollipop/Cotton/Gelatin/Beeping Bot looking on.) (A moment’s thought sets off a brainstorm under the dark violet hair, and she smiles shrewdly as the camera zooms in.) (Dissolve to a long shot of the town library and zoom in slowly.) (Inside the reading room. Several books lie open on the floor around her, and the others are on hand as well.) (On the second half of this line, she floats one volume up for a closer look. Now the camera cuts to Sugar, standing off by herself and not looking too comfortable.) (The others aim very funny looks down at him during a beat of silence before Sugar speaks up.) (The camera zooms slowly in on Sugar, at the center of the group, as the large blue eyes flick indecisively from one side to the other. Her face betrays just how torn she is between the two options before the view snaps to black.)
 * [Lemon Drop] "I'm sorry, but I believe Caramel Cider is right. These vampire fruit bats sound evil!" (Zoom out slightly.)
 * [ Caramel Cider ] (pacing in foreground) " So let’s get to roundin’ ’em up so that they don’t destroy the rest of the orchard."
 * [Choco Cream, Cotton Puffy] "Fruit bat roundup, fruit bat roundup!"
 * [ Sugar Pie ] " Um, excuse me, but, um, what if instead of rounding them up, we…let them have part of the orchard?"
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " Have you lost your pest-lovin’ mind?"
 * [ Sugar Pie ] " They’re only here because they’re hungry. If we built a sanctuary for them, they could have their own apples to enjoy." (Caramel starts to mull this over.) "After a while, they could even help the rest of your orchard!" (walking past her) "The vampire bats don’t eat the seeds of the apples, and when they spit them out, they grow into even more productive apple trees."
 * [ Sugar Pie ] (crossing yard to her) "Listen, Sugar Pie. That sounds real nice and all, but every second we spend buildin’ this so-called sanctuary is a second they’ll spend destroyin’ orchard!" (Zoom out; the others join them.) "You don’t know what it was like the last time there was an infestation." (Close-up.) "But daddy has told me enough stories about it—" (Zoom in slowly.) "—that just the thought of it gives me nightmares. Daddy says we lost a huge section of orchard that year. They had to ration out apples all winter."
 * [Vanilla Cake] "What about the cider? There was still cider, right?"
 * [ Caramel Cider ] (emphasizing each word) "Not a drop." (Vanilla lunges down into her face.)
 * [ Vanilla Cake ] " No cider?" (Turn to Sugar.) "No cider?!?"
 * [ Vanilla Cake ] (from o.s.) "We need to round up these monsters—" (Pan/tilt up to him, hovering overhead.) "—and we need to do it now!"
 * [ Caramel Cider ] "If Mr. Rainbow wasn’t with the produce vendors checkin’ out our produce competition in the Apple Mountains—" (Sugar lets her head drop, crushed.) "—he’d be here tellin’ us to do just that!" (Lollipop approaches the blonde.)
 * [Lollipop Pops] "I’m sorry, Sugar Pie, but I think Caramel Cider is right. I just wish there was another way we could convince them not to eat them in the first place."
 * [ Lollipop Pops ] " Maybe there is."
 * [ Lollipop Pops ] (from inside) "So, there’s good news and bad news."
 * [ Lollipop Pops ] " The good news is that I found a spell that can get the vampire fruit bats to stop wanting to suck the juice from the apples."
 * [ Lollipop Pops ] (crossing to her) "But in order for the spell to work, I need the bats’ full and complete attention." (Sugar's eyes pop, followed by a gasp.)
 * [ Sugar Pie ] "Oh, no."
 * [ Lollipop Pops ] "Sugar Pie, I need you to shoot a laser eye beam at the bats."
 * [ Sugar Pie ] "Oh, no." (Vanilla whooshes across to her.)
 * [ Vanilla Cake ] " What’s the problem? Do you not know how to do it?"
 * [ Sugar Pie ] "I do, but it’s not something I take lightly. I’ve made a vow not to use it except in dire circumstances." (Zoom out slightly; Caramel has joined them.)
 * [ Caramel Cider ] " This circumstance is plenty dire to me!"
 * [Rainbow Flavor] "Me too!"
 * [ Vanilla Cake ] " Won’t somepony please think of the cider?"
 * [ Sugar Pie ] " I’m sorry. I just don’t like the idea of taking away the thing that really makes the vampire fruit bats…" (leaning toward Caramel) "…vampire fruit bats!" (emphasizing every word) "It just feels wrong!"
 * [ Lollipop Pops ] " But if we don’t do this, there won’t be any apples left for anypony here in Jupiter Town. Doesn’t that feel wrong too?"

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(more TBA!)