Chapter 41: Vampire Fruit Bat Problem
On an early morning, Baked Apple is waiting for the right moment for something. With a determined look, and staring at the apple trees in the orchard, he is ready for something special. Just then the sun starts to rise up into the sky.
When Baked Apple sees the sun coming up, he rises his front hoof in excitement, and shouts, "Now it's time for some apple buckin! Yeeha!"
With that, he starts to run to the orchard and is going to start bucking the apples from the trees so they can come down. He then uses his back hooves to hit the fist trees and the trees are coming down from the tree. But when the apples land on the ground, they ends up looking like mushed apples.
"What in the hay is this all about?!" Baked Apple questionably explains.
Baked Apple hears a strange noise coming from the trees. When she turns around she can see them flying all over the place. The causes Baked Apple to be completely scared to see what are inside the tree.
Baked Apple horribly says, "Oh no. they're back!"
Later that morning, Baked Apple has called an important meeting for her friends. When they arrive, they can see Baked Apple in a frantic state like he've seen a monster or something. Sakura and the others are trying their best to calm him down.
"Baked Apple calm down. How are we supposed to help you is you don't settle down and calmly explain to us what's happening at Sweet Apple Acres?" Sakura replies calmly.
Baked Apple calms himself down and says, "Sorry Sakura, just lost my head in a tizzy there."
"Maybe some tea could settle your nerves," Ruby says while using her magic to pass Baked Apple a cup of tea.
"Thanks," Baked Apple replies, as he drinks the tea. Then he sits down on the floor.
Sakura sits next to Baked Apple and says, "Now tell us what happened from the beginning."
"I was up bright and early to do some apple bucking for the season since fall it's already here we need to make sure we gather up the apples before winter," Baked Apple explains.
"Yes," Sakura says while nodding her head.
Then Baked Apple says, "But when I first bucked one of the trees, the apples that fallen looked mushed, like there are no juice in it."
"And," Ace replies.
"And then… when I looked up in the trees… I'd discovered… they're back!" Baked Apple scaredly answers.
"Who?" Everyone on the room asks.
"The Vampire Fruit Bats!" Applejack scaredly shouts.
Everyone in the room gasp to hear the situation. However Sakura is looking a bit confused after hearing the name of the problem.
"Vampire Fruit Bats, what are they?" Sakura questionably says.
Bake Apple looks at Sakura and says, "That's right, you never met them before. Vampire fruit bats are like normal fruit bats, but they suck any kind of fruit in their paths without stopping. If we don't do something, they'll end up destroying the whole orchard,"
Sakura shows a surprised expression and says, "That's awful, I'm surprised you didn't get bitten by them"
"Don't worry, those bats don't bother ponies, just go for apple and other kinds of fruit. We need to stop them before they suck Sweet Apple Acres dry," Baked Apple replies.
Eden comes over to the conversation and calmly says, "Cousin, I know you are upset, but maybe I can talk to them. I'm sure once I've explains to them they'll leave us alone."
Ace and the others excluding Baked Apple are looking a bit confused about hearing it. They know she can talk to animals, but not sure about these kinds of bats.
"Eden, have you ever talk to vampire fruit bats before?" Ruby asks.
"Well, maybe a little, but it's worth a try," Eden says while her cheeks are blushing.
Sometime later, Eden and the others are at the orchard where the bats are. The others are waiting for a little until Eden is finished talking to them. When she finishes talking to the bats, she flies back to the others and are going to give them the news.
"What did they say?" Baked Apple asks.
"Well, they said they understand the acres are important to the family, but it's the best and they need to get food for their families, so they don't really want to leave right now," Eden explains, and sounds like bad news.
Everyone frown because of the new they just received from the bats and Eden's translation.
"Well that didn't work," Ace bluntly says.
Then Sakura asks, "Anyone got a back up plan for this?"
The others try to think of a way to get the fruit bats to leave the orchard or at least get them to stop eating the apples.
Just then Eden has an idea and suggests, "Well, we could make a special section for the bats, but we'll have to make one far away from the farm."
"That'll take too long! We need to deal with them now!" Baked Apple shouts not approved of the idea.
Then Sakura says, "Well, I did remember seeing something in the library that can help."
Agreeing to the idea, Sakura and her friends head back to the library to see the book about the solution. After looking for a few minutes, Sakura has found the book that will help. However, Sakura remember that sometimes spells can lead to trouble, so she need to be careful with spells, especially this one.
Sakura hold out the book and explains, "Okay guys, there's good news and bad news, The good news is that there is a spell that can make sure the vampire fruit bats won't be drinking the juice from the apples."
"And the bad news?" Raspberry asks.
"In order for the spell to work, we need to be sure the bats are at their full attention while I cast the spell," Sakura answers.
"But how are we going to get them still long enough?" Ruby asks.
"Well… I might have an idea," Sakura says as she scratches her chin while looking at Eden
She turns to Eden and asks, "Eden, can I ask you a small question?"
"Um, of course, what is it?" Eden says looking a bit confused.
"Are you able to do it on animals, like how your mother does?" Sakura asks think of the idea some more.
"It?" Eden questionably replies.
Sakura and the others are looking at her. Eden is kind of confused when Sakura means 'it'. She also wonder what is this something that her mom can do that she might do. Just then she remember a special move that her mom has done to her animals at certain occasion and back when she was younger.
Eden eyes widen and shockley says, "You mean… the stare!"
"That's the one," Sakura declares.
But Eden scaredly says, "But, um, I couldn't, I wouldn't, I don't really have a control over it when it happens, it just happened. I'm just good with my animals just like mom. I was surprised when I inherited it from her."
"Don't worry, the spell won't hurt the bats, and you don't need to stare at them for that long," Sakura says reassurance.
She then turns to Baked Apple and asks, "But Baked Apple, are you one hundred percent sure you want to go through this? There can be some consequences, and sometimes messing with the laws of nature can cause some problems."
"But if we don't then the bats are going to devour all the apples," Baked Apple saying trying to pressure the idea.
"But it doesn't seem right to make them not do the one thing that make the vampire fruit bats, vampire fruit bats!" Eden scaredly says.
However at this very moment, Baked Apple and Apple Eden start to argue with each other. They both want to help save the orchard but have different opinions on doing it. The others try to get either one of them to agree with the other, but that is not working so well.
Sakura can't take the arguing anymore and angrily shouts, "Quiet!"
The voice Sakura makes causes the whole house to shake, and the gang stop arguing. In fact, they end up feeling a bit scared for Sakura's screaming the way she does it. Sakura shockley covers her mouth, hearing her shout is a lot louder than her original shout.
Sakura takes a deep breath and suggests, "Why don't we do this, we'll makes the bats not drink the juice until the harvest is over, then we'll change them back. Sounds fair."
"Okay," Everypony else reply.
"Then let's go before the bats cause anymore trouble," Sakura declares.
With that, they all hurry up to the orchard to stop the bats from attacking it. Luckily they haven't caused too much trouble yet. However, they have one small problem now.
"Forget it! I'm not going to get anywhere near these bats!" Ruby firmly says.
"Come on Ruby, they're just a bunch of bats," Ace says with annoyance.
"And we're going to need your help to round them up," Eden adds.
"But they're icky, and scary looking. They're going to ruin my mane," Ruby says in disgust.
"Come on Ruby, the sooner we deal with this the soon we can clean up this mess and go home, and then we can party," Raspberry says with a smile on his face.
Ruby sighs in defeat and says, "Alright, but I'm going to the spa after this."
"Deal," Baked Apple says.
At that moment, Bake Apple, Aerial Ace, Dragon Ruby, and Raspberry Pie goes after the bats while Apple Eden and Sakura are waiting for them to make sure they are at one location. The case has been going okay, but Ruby doesn't seem to enjoy it.
"Chasing bats are fun," Raspberry says with a smile and chasing the bats with the net.
"Doesn't seem like it for them," Eden sadly replies.
"Don't worry, they think it's fun alright," Raspberry says running pass Eden and Sakura.
Raspberry is right, the younger vampire fruit bats seem to be having fun playing chase with Raspberry. But Ruby is not having fun at all.
Ruby swing the net around and says in disgust, "Eew!"
One lands on her hair and scaredly screams, "Disgusting!"
Ruby so does not like to be chasing bats for a life experience. After some time later, they manage to get all the bats into one tree. So now, it's going to be Eden and Sakura's turn to do their work
"That's all of them," Baked Apple says.
Sakura turned to Eden and asks, "Ready Eden?"
"I'll try," Eden nervously answers.
Eden flies up in the air to the bats. The bats notice Eden is in front of them. When the bats have their attention at Eden, Eden begins to do the stare at the bats. When the bats are facing Eden's stare, Sakura uses her magic to cast the spell. The spell takes effects on the bats and it seems to be working. After a few minutes, Sakura stops casting the spell, but notice that Eden is still doing her stare.
Sakura flies up to Eden and says, "Eden, you can stop now."
Eden stops the stare, and then brings out an apple that she has earlier. When she presents them to the bats, one of them simply whacks it away from Eden hoof. Since the bat doesn't want the apple, it can only be one thing.
Baked Apple happily shouts, "We did it!"
"The spell worked," Raspberry cheerfully exclaims.
"Alright, cider season is back on!" Ace screams with excitement.
Ruby laughs a bit and says, "Ace, maybe you should worry about the cider season later, like around November."
"Now let's get this clean up for apple buckin day tomorrow," Baked Apple adds.
Agreeing to the idea, they decide to start cleaning the apples. As they walk away Sakura notice that Eden is not with them. She decides to walk over to see what she is doing, or if she's doing okay.
Sakura calls out, "Eden? Are you okay?"
But Eden isn't answering. Sakura decides to come closer. She then decides to tap her so she can get her attention.
"Eden?" Sakura calls out again.
As soon as Sakura taps Eden on the shoulder, Eden suddenly bits Sakura on the hand.
Sakura painfully screams, "Ow!"
Then Sakura screams, "Eden, stop! It hurts!"
Sakura manages to put her hand away from Eden, but she ends up with teeth mark. She looks at Eden with a shocked and confused look. This is not like Eden at all, and yet she attacked her after being frighted. Somehow Eden snaps out of it.
Eden looks at Sakura's hand and scaredly says, "Did I… oh Sakura, I'm so sorry. I… I… don't know what gotten into me."
"It's alright. I just didn't know ponies can bite that hard," Sakura says calmly as she rubs her hand.
"But… I… I don't know how it happened," Eden shamefully says.
Sakura calmly says, "Don't worry, I'm fine. Let's just clean up and then we can all head back to your place, okay."
"Okay," Eden says still feeling bad of what she has done.
With that Eden and Sakura walk back to the others to help with the cleaning. Of course, when the others seen Sakura's hand, they ask what happened. Sakura explains that Eden bit her by accident and is very sorry for what happened. Eden feels very bad. They know it's an accident, but are not sure why Eden bit her, they know it's not Eden's nature to do something like that. They decide to ignore it, and continue getting the orchard clean for tomorrow.
The next day, Baked Apple is up bright and early again, and is ready to do some apple bucking. When the sun comes up, Baked Apple start his day gathering up the apples, and hit one of the trees. But when he does it, the apples comes out the same results.
"What in tarnation?!" Baked Apple questionably says with a shock.
Baked Apple gather his friend again to tell them what happened. Sakura sd the others are confused about the spell that's been cast yesterday. They figure there must have been something wrong with it.
"The spell didn't work," Sakura says looking confused.
"Looks like we need another plan," Baked Apple adds.
Ace flies ahead and says, "Let's go find them."
But Raspberry says, "But we don't need to, because' they're over here."
They turn to where Raspberry is facing and can see the vampire fruit bats. From the looks of it, they don't seem to be feeding on the apples at all. Ace holds an apple in front of them, but the bat knocks it off of Ace's hoof. They can see that something is strange is going on here.
"It seems the spell work on them after all," Eden says.
"But if it wasn't the bats that ate all of the apples," Rudy scaredly says.
"Who is?" Sakura adds feeling concern about the situation.
She turns to Eden and asks, "Eden, you're our animal expert. Do you know any animal that are capable of this?"
"No. I'm afraid I don't," Eden sadly answers.
Sakura thinks about the situation and says, "Well it looks like the best way to figure out is to catch the culprit in the act."
"How do you suppose we do that?" Baked Apple asks.
"A stake out," Sakura answers.
Later that night, after getting permission from their parents, Sakura and the others are at the orchard at night with some flashlights. They decide to go find whoever is doing it, and will be coming at night.
"Maybe this is not a good idea guys. I don't know about you, but I… feel… a bit hungry," Eden scaredly says she she start to stare at the apple.
For some reason Eden is having a strange sensation of eating et. she then snaps back to reality and is still scared of going out at dark.
Ruby shows a reassuring smile and says, "Don't worry, Eden we're all here so there's nothing to be scared of."
Then Sakura announces, "Alright, we should split up. Eden and I will go to the west side, Baked Apple and Ace, you go to the eat. Ruby and Raspberry go south. If one of us see something, make sure you give us the signal and we'll walk to your location."
With that, they all go with their partner in opposite direction. The orchard is very big that it will be very hard to find anypony else in here. As they walk in opposite direction, Sakura and Eden are looking at their end, but Eden is still very scared of being here.
"I think this is a bad idea. A really bad idea," Eden scaredly says.
Just then Eden notices the apple on the tree and starts to drool over it. Sakura notice Eden is not tagging along with her so she comes back to see if she's okay.
When she reaches Eden, Sakura asks, "Eden, what's wrong?"
When Sakura asks, Eden says in a strange tone, "That apple… it looks so juicy… and sweet."
Sakura looks at the apples that are hanging in the trees. For some strange reason she is getting a strange urge to have some herself.
She says in an unexpected tone, "You have to admit… it taste really good. In fact, it's delicious."
As they both decide they want some apples to eat, their eyes have turn red, and teeth are starting to grow sharp and pointy. Then the desire of apples begins to grown and grown, and then their wings start to change.
At a different part of the orchard Raspberry and Ruby are looking around for any clues. Just then, they hear slurping noises coming from the top of the trees.
Ruby scaredly hugs Raspberry and asks, "Wha-what was that?"
Raspberry shines his flashlight with his mane to see a few apples has been sucked dried and have teeth marks on it. They can tell it's a clue. However, they are wonder where they come from.
Raspberry announces, "Suspicious! It's pony signal time."
Before Ruby and Raspberry can signal the others, a strange shadowy figure flies past them. Then another figure flies pass them from behind. They are starting to think something is in the orchard after all.
Ruby scaredly asks, "Did… did you see that, or am I imagining it."
"Nope," Raspberry.
"We better go find the others," Ruby scaredly replies.
Agreeing to the idea, they decide to find everypony else before the figures come back. At anothe rpart of the orchard, Aerial Ace is still looking for anything out of the ordinary. Just then, he noticed Baked' Apple silhouette of his cutie mark in the sky, making he has found something. He rushes over to see what he finds in his are.
Ace asks seeing Baked Apple completely shocked, "Baked Apple, did you find something?"
Ace feels something hit him on the head, and then look to see what's up in the tree. When Ruby returns she can see they have indeed found something. Two strange figures in the tree, and they are both very big.
Raspberry who is up in the tree with his flashlight shouts, "Suspicious!"
When the figures open their wings, the figures are revealed to be Apple Eden and Sakura. They both end up with glowing red eyes, sharp front teeths, their wings have changed to bat wings. Their hairs are a little messy as well. Everypony excluding Raspberry asks with horror to see who are eating the apple from the orchard, but are more shocked to find it's been Sakura and Eden doing it the whole time. They are in huge trouble now, their friends have become vampire fruit bats.