Bats!

Bats! is the seventh episode of the fourth season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and the seventy-second episode overall. The title could be a pun on the common saying "Rats!" which is said when something wrong or unfortunate happens.

Production and development
On April 1, 2013, Meghan McCarthy wrote as part of an April Fools' Day joke that the eleventh episode of the fourth season would be titled "Bats" and that "It's just like the musical 'Cats', but with, you know, bats. And ponies. But mostly bats."

The premise of the episode was originally pitched to be a musical episode by Amy Keating Rogers.

Summary
Applejack is shown in the episode on a hill waiting for sunrise. She counts down, then at sunrise she gets up on her hind legs and then trots past the apple trees. She bucks one and watches the apples fall, only for them to be empty inside. Then, in the tree, she sees Vampire Fruit Bats.

(Theme song)

Applejack calls an emergency, and the rest of the mane 6 comes to see what's wrong. Applejack tells them about the Fruit Bats, and she shows everypony her prized apple, a huge apple bigger than a pony and shiny. Fluttershy proposes asking the Bats if they'd stay away from the apple. When she does, they spit apple seeds at her. Applejack asks Fluttershy how it went, she says that she is unsure of the bats answer because she has not comunicated with Vampire Bats before.

Fluttershy proposes to let the bats have half of the Apple Orchard. Applejack immediatly snaps back that she is in no way letting the bats have half the Apple Orchard. On the next scene, Twilight says that she has found a way of getting the Vampire Bats to stop eating the Apples, though the bad news was that Fluttershy has to use the stare on them first to get their attention. Fluttershy disagrees with Twilight's solution, though is shortly overcome by her friends.

After the mane 6 rounds up the Vampire Bats, Fluttershy plays her role and does the stare on them. Twilight uses her spell on the bats, and seems to have worked.

The next day, Applejack is shown back on the hill for a take two on her first attempt.

Quotes

 * Rainbow Dash: Think of the cider! Won't somepony please think of the cider?!


 * Applejack: ..Apple Bucking Day Take 2.. yeehaw!