Bats! (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic)
Applejack battles vampire fruit bats with the Mane Six's help.
"Bats!" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. It was written by Merriwether Williams and originally aired on The Hub on December 28, 2013. The episode centers on Applejack's discovery of vampire fruit bats at Sweet Apple Acres and her efforts to remove them.
Quick Facts
- Series
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Writer
- Merriwether Williams
- Air date
- 28 December 2013
- Length
- 22 minutes
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Applejack looks forward to Apple Bucking Day but finds vampire fruit bats have drained the juice from all the apples at Sweet Apple Acres, leaving shriveled husks. She summons the rest of the Mane Six for help before the bats ruin her prize apple for an upcoming competition. Fluttershy advocates a peaceful solution where the bats share part of the orchard, noting their seed-spitting helps new trees grow, but Applejack insists on total removal. The other ponies side with Applejack, and Twilight proposes a magical compromise to make the bats lose their appetite for apples. Fluttershy reluctantly uses her Stare to hold the bats still while Twilight casts the spell, which initially seems successful. The next morning, more drained apples appear, though the bats show no interest in fruit. During a nighttime stakeout, the ponies discover Fluttershy hanging upside-down from a branch, sucking apple juice with bat-like wings and aggressive behavior, which they call "Flutterbat." Twilight realizes her spell accidentally transferred the bats' nature into Fluttershy during the Stare. The ponies trap the transformed Fluttershy using mirrors and her attraction to Applejack's prize apple as bait, allowing Twilight to reverse the spell. Applejack apologizes for not listening to Fluttershy and agrees to designate part of the orchard for the bats. They write in their journal about not letting others pressure you into something you believe is wrong, and that compromise and coexistence often work better than exclusion.
Reception
Sherilyn Connelly rated the episode a "B" in her book Ponyville Confidential. Daniel Alvarez of Unleash The Fanboy gave it 3.5 out of 5, calling it "no all-star, but definitely fun because of FLUTTERBAT" and praising the vampire Fluttershy transformation as awesome, which he said boosted the episode's excitement. He claimed that without Flutterbat, the episode would have been average, and criticized the moral as feeling tacked on at the end. Brian Truitt of USA Today described the episode as "chilling" in a "kid-friendly way." Author Jen A. Blue called "Bats!" "delightful" and argued it was a strong episode that echoed themes from the season premiere through concepts of corruption and dark mirrors. Blue analyzed it through a kabbalistic framework, seeing Applejack and Fluttershy as representing the sefirot of Chesed and Gevurah, and argued that Flutterbat is a qlippothic reflection of Fluttershy, embodying "the impulse to devour and consume." Blue interpreted the message about the bats' destruction benefiting the trees as representing putrefaction, "the creative power of decay, the emergence of life from death and value from rot." Rae Grimes of Comic Book Resources ranked "Bats!" as the third best song in Friendship Is Magic, noting it was the only song where Applejack and Fluttershy were at odds, and called it incredibly catchy and memorable. Sofie Liv of The Agony Booth gave the episode 2.5 out of 5, calling it a mixed bag and average, praising the song "Stop the Bats" as the highlight, but criticizing the message for being obscured by the fact that Fluttershy was actually in the wrong about the bat infestation.
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