Fruit Bats

by 007Delta

The Camp

It was what, maybe a few years after the upstarts Celestia and Luna usurped the tyrant Hades, and banished him deep within the earth. It was a pretty intense fight; a lot of magic was thrown between the three of them, and I can tell you one thing, not all of that magic ended up in the right places.

Now magic is just like any other form of energy, it has to end up somewhere, and lots of the blasts that had missed their mark found themselves far away from the battlefield. A bolt to a forest here, a wave to a meadow there... lots of wildlife ended up catching a large dose of potent magic from nowhere.

Most of the animals either mutated or died off, but a special exception is present in the plant life, which proved to have a rather interesting side effect. The plants which survived the new magic distributed it like it would anything else, so when the plants started bearing fruit... some of them ended up a bit more potent than the rest.

I’ve been hearing that some people have been getting powers, and I don’t mean just having more magic... I mean they’re getting abilities that that they absolutely shouldn't have. I'm pretty sure you know what I’m talking about, all the rumors that you hear everyone spreading.

“I saw an earth pony moving things with their mind!” or, “I saw a griffon shoot fire like a dragon,” or, “This unicorn busted through a wall with its bare hooves.”

Now I know what you’re thinking, They’re stories that people are making up, right?

Well normally, I would agree with you. I'm not one to buy into myths and other bullshit, and my partner is even harder to convince... and yet him and I have had some firsthand experience with those magic fruit that have been popping up everywhere... namely, biting into some.

Two fevers, a gallon and a half of sweat, fatigue and two stomachs of vomit later, and we became the stuff of local legend. We puked up the husks of the fruit before we even finished digesting them, but the magic already ended up inside of us.

Once word got out about these fruit, ponies everywhere started searching for them. Now even though there was a lot of magic discharged from the fight, it had to be concentrated for it to have as noticeable an effect as it did with us... but nonetheless, ponies with powers started popping up everywhere, and since most of the powers that people are getting are destructive, they’re starting to call them Chaos Fruit.

Now we have Renegades grouping together all over Equestria, formin' crews, gangs, bands, whatever they're callin' em these days. All I know is that some of these guys are just runnin’ around screwing things up. While those more loyal to the sister's new rule joined up with the Royal Army.

Us though, we didn’t pick a side. I mean I’m not going to if there is nothing in it for me. Don’t get me wrong, I'm no Renegade, but I’m not exactly fond of the Royal Army either.

My partner and I are more of opportunists; if the price is right, we'll go in and make sure that your problematic Fruit Bat meets a solution. How? Well, the fruits we ate gave us a couple of powers as well... and treading the gray area between Hades' old followers and the princesses new rule gave us work from both sides, and the only factor in deciding who won us over was how big your paycheck was.

Unfortunately for the Renegades, the Royal Army had more gold to throw around. Far more.

“Haven Gates,” called a soldier, a jaundiced parchment floating in front of him.

I took a step forward, watching as his eyes drifted on over to me, before he shook his head in disapproval.

The other guards in the area shared his scowl. Most ponies usually did, it was hard enough having Griffon blood in me, but a pony could at least tolerate a Griffon. I was a Hippogriff, the hated offspring of both species.

The soldier walked over to me, his eyes never leaving mine.

“Is the Royal Army in such a dire situation that it needs to call upon the help of a Half-Breed?”

I shook it off, no use in letting the words get to you. They were paying me, so they could say whatever they wanted, as long as I got my money.

“It’s bad enough that we need the help of the Fruit Bats, but I had at least hoped we would have the tact to keep the blood pure,” he shook his head. "I'm disgusted," he said with a growl, as he waved his hoof for me to get back into the line.

I returned to the lineup, watching as his eyes returned back to the list.

“Ronin Ace,” he said, waiting for someone else to step from the line. This time, it was a light gray Pegasus.

The guard looked back up, only to find an aggravated scowl on stallion across from him.

"I can't believe you have the audacity to speak out of line in such a way, considering that the 'half-blooded Fruit Bat' is being paid far more than yourself,"

An awed hush went over the group, leaving the guard somewhat shell shocked. "Talk below your pay grade, you presumptuous twat,"

Ronin turned back, and walked back into the line, leaving the guard's mouth agape.

Though I don't mind brushing off the insults... my partner had a big mouth.

There were barely stifled chuckles from the rest of the lineup, leaving an aggravated and embarrassed guard looking around awkwardly.

Ronin was your run of the mill Pegasus, as far as his gene pool went. You also might be wondering why the term "Fruit Bat" is being thrown around so often. It's essentially an insult to anyone who's eaten a Chaos Fruit.

"Erm... I suppose the names are unimportant. No sense in a roll call," he said, his eyes shifting around a bit oddly. "As you know, we need you all to carry out any sort of missions that the Royal Army themselves can't take care of. As the struggle is fought against the Renegades, we will come across other Fruit Bats who have sided with the enemy. We will post profiles along with bounties here outside the castle. You are free to take any of these missions on as you please, and collect the reward on those you capture or kill. Of course, proof is required,"

He began pacing around as his composure rebuilt.

"Whether it be his head or any of his key possessions, you will recieve your pay upon proving a successful mission. Feel free to browse the wanted board behind me at once, and remember," the guard seemed to hesitate. "the Royal Army appreciates your help. Dismissed,"

He nodded his head and walked off, leaving a large board with many papers nailed to the front. The lineup dispersed, a large group of the Fruit Bats making their way to the board.

I watched as Ronin walked over to me.

"These guards are an arrogant lot, huh?"

I nodded slightly. "Try not to hambast anyone, okay?"

Ronin let out a small chuckle. "Lambaste," he corrected.

"Whatever big word I meant,"

"Don't worry, I won't. But he was still way out of line, it was justified. They need our help after all,"

"You have no sense of professionalism, you know that?" I said, shaking my head with a smile,

"No, I just have an opinion. He lashed out, not me,"

Ronin eyed the guard, who had disappeared into one of the many tents set up outside the castle in Everfree.

I shook my head. "So do you want to actually check out the bounties or what? I'm not here for fun,"

"Alright, alright, but I still want to see what kind of powers we have in this group,"

"Afterwards, but let's at least grab a bounty,"

Ronin nodded, before starting for the board.

We walked up to the jumbled mess of papers, skimming through the pictures. They ranged from ponies to griffons to changelings, and I even saw a dragon up there. A lot of Renegades had gotten their mouths on some of the fruit, which meant a lot of jobs for us.

"Hey Haven," said Ronin, a small smirk on his face. "Get a load of this guy,"

He pointed a wing to one of the papers.

It read "Jade Ironclaw", and below it was a picture of a griffon's ass, with a maliciously grinning mug behind the right buttock.

"It says his power is 'Chemical Mist'," he looked over to me, his front legs crossed. "I wonder where the mist comes from," he said with a grin.

"Not him," I said plainly.

"What? Come on! He's got a nice bounty on him! And look at his picture, he's practically assking for it,"

"Now we're definitely not doing it,"

"Way to be a party pooper," he said, still grinning smugly at me.

"You know what? You're getting muted," I said, snapping my fingers.

"Oh you better no-" suddenly, his voice simply cut out, and I watched as his smile turned into an aggravated frown. He folded his hooves once again, before reaching his wing out and touching my shoulder.

I felt a little magic drain from me as he clapped his hooves together.

"Don't you mute my puns,"

I'm sure you're probably wondering just what our powers are by now.

Well, I have the power to control sound. I can amplify it, mute it, make it stronger, make it higher pitched, whatever I want. And Ronin gets the abilities of just about anything he's touching. If he happened to be leaning against a tree, than he can become hard like the bark, or camouflage himself like it. As you can imagine, this extends to other Fruit Bats as well. He kind of acts like a giant, annoying, pun-making leech,

"I know, I suck " he said, laughing at yet another bad pun. "Besides, we might as well grab this one, he's the closest as far as I can tell,"

I scanned the other papers, and he was right. Jade had last been seen setting up camp at the north edge of Everfree, however, they've had a hard time pushing further into the forest. On the flip side, the army hasn't been able to remove him themselves due to an acid like fog that has spread from the area, and they want him out to prevent any reinforcements from gathering.

"Fine, we'll nab this one. Any idea how we'd get through the fog? If the unicorns in the guard couldn't get past it, it's obviously magic resistant."

"I dunno, maybe you can vibrate the air enough to disperse it," Ronin offered

"Maybe, we'll see when we get there, but you said you wanted to see the other Fruit Bats?"

"Yup. I still have a few empty flasks we could fill, and maybe one of them has a power that could help us with the smokescreen,"

"Oh come on dude, this isn't the time. Last thing we need is you pissing off one of these guys and getting into a fight, save the flasks for later."

"Alright, fine. But we should still pick up some supplies for the journey, it'll make the trip quicker not having to hunt."

"Okay, but don't you get sneaky, Ace, I don't know who the guards hate more between the two of us,"

“You, because you're boring,"

I rolled my eyes as we made our way into the mass of tents. There had to be one for provisions somewhere around here. Ronin and I wandered around, before finding a unicorn running a fruit stand. Ronin turned to me.

"You can go a few days on fruit? This is an equine establishment, I doubt they'll have any meats for sale,"

"I'll be fine,"

Ronin hustled up to the store while I took a seat on the grassy forest floor. I watched as he conversed with the guard for awhile, before he was handed a small wooden crate of fruits.

He trotted back, the crate under his wing.

"Got an excellent deal for a nice amount. Plus they have a few charms on these that keep them fresh for longer,"

"Great. So is that all we need?"

"I'm pretty sure it is, everything else we can find on our way. We'll refill the canteens before we head out though," said Ronin

"Alright, we'll Leave in an hour,"

"Aww, so soon?" said Ronin. "I thought we could at least meet the other mercenaries,"

"I told you no flasks,"

"I'd be quick," he countered, "they'd never know,"

"Nope. As a matter of fact, what's stopping us from leaving now?"

Ronin stomped his hoof lightly. "I get a say in this too you know, and I elect we get a profile on some of the help here. Besides, now is the only time they'll be together like this, once they have bounties they'll be all over the place,"

Well, he did have a point. However, because of my... mixed race, I make a point of avoiding crowds, and if Ace is going to go flasking, he needs to touch them directly. I won't be of any help to him there.

Oh yeah, there's another term you might not know. "Flasking" is something that Ace does with his power, where he can take the essence of something and store it in a flask, or jar, or whatever he has around. Essentially, stealing bits of power from people... all of whom are essentially hired killers.

"Also, on the off chance I am caught... we need to know who we can handle and who we can't,"

"Wonderful," I deadpanned, starting down another path of tents. "But where is everyone now? They're probably spread around the camp now,"

Suddenly, a few small bells rang somewhere towards the center of the camp, before a deep voice called out, "Soups on!"

Ace turned to me with a smile. "What impeccable timing!"

I rolled my eyes. "I still think this is a bad idea,"

"You think everything is a bad idea,"

We followed the sound of the bells to a small dirt clearing littered with several long tables. Crude wooden stools of different colors were set on either side of them, along with a growing crowd of soldiers. There were bundles of fruit and oats spread along the centers, along with a few cuts of meat hanging on a rack to the side for any carnivores to dig into, which was a relief. I'm glad someone in this camp remembered the meat-eaters.

There were mostly guardsmen settling into the tables, and considering that they were almost exclusively equine, that made just about everyone else here a Fruit Bat, and judging by a quick scan of the crowd, I'd say there were about 20 of us here all together, not including Ronin and myself.

Ace tapped my shoulder. "Mute us real quick, Haven,"

I focused my mind and let the magic inside me flow, focusing on an area around my partner and myself. Suddenly, there was a small pop, and there was no noise but the soft ringing in our ears.

He grinned, looking at me with an amused faced. "I'll never get over how cool that is,"

There was a small pause as he appreciated the silence. Since I blocked any sound from going out, naturally incoming sound was cancelled as well.

"Anyway, we'll split up from here. You go to the meat rack or something, I'll see what that minotaur over there has to offer," he looked around, noticing that many of the Fruit Bats were sitting. "I'll squeeze past a few tables as well, but keep an eye on me, okay?"

I nodded, before unmuting us both.

Ronin trotted through the tight spaces between the tables, as I made my way to the meat rack, which currently had a small dragon tearing a piece off from a large section of cow. He was slightly taller than a pony, with teal scales and a white underbelly. He tore off his section before taking a glance at me, pausing for a second. He grunted slightly before making his way to the tables.

I dug my claw into the rack and tore off a nice strip, before glancing back over at Ronin, who was talking to a very intimidating looking, tan Minotaur.

I walked down to the end of one of the tables, taking care to place myself as far from everyone as possible. I let the meat hit the table and I tore into it with my beak. Tasted nice, the cow had been slaughtered recently, and the meat didn't taste too metallic.

Suddenly, there was a deep, booming laugh that resounded from across the tables, and I looked up to see the tan Minotaur holding his stomach as he bellowed out laughter.

"You are funny, little horse," he said through a thick accent, before reaching out his hand to shake Ronin's seemingly tiny hooves. "What is name?" said the Minotaur, his voice loud and resonant.

I watched as my partner began to speak, so I focused my mind on sending some of the sound waves my way, and sure enough...

"-ame is Ronin Ace, and you?"

Suddenly, my ears rang with an explosively loud voice.

"I AM KNOWN AS VLADMIR THE STRONG, BUT YOU MAY CALL ME VLAD,"

I scrambled to cover my ears as magic amplified his voice into a deafening bellow. Thankfully, the effect was exclusive to me, but it felt like thunder had just went off in my head.

I looked up from my stupor, toning down the waves coming from Vlad.

"So what brings you to the Royal Army?"

"Freedom, small horse,"

Ronin cocked his head to the side. "I don't follow,"

"I was slave for years. Royal Army come and kill masters, freeing me... Now I repay debt,"

Ronin nodded slowly. "It's a noble thing to do,"

Vlad shook his head. "I owe life to sisters. Even if I die, I die knowing I fight for reason,"

There was a small pause as Vlad drifted into thought.

"So what about you, small horse, er... what is name?"

"Ronin Ace, you can refer to me by whichever of the two you like better,"

"What brings you to war, Ace?"

"I'll be honest," he said. "Money,"

"Hey, the cash does not hurt anyone, yes?"

Ronin let out another small laugh. "A little cash never did hurt nobody,"

As I listened in on their conversation, I caught sight of something in the corner of my eye.

I looked over to my right, only to see a... whoa, that colt was young! What is he doing in a place like this? He couldn't be more than twelve... and he was walking right towards me.

He sat down across from me looking me dead in the eye with a coy smile.

There was a silence between us, before he started batting his eyes... oh no.

"Hey there big boy, what are you doin' here all by your lonesome?"

I tried to bury myself into my meal, but the young colt only leaned forward. "What's wrong, aren't interested in anything I have to offer?" he said with a feigned frown.

"Uh... You're a little young... Also you are a colt,"

"Oh, are those problems? The last guy really enjoyed this character,"

I didn't say anything. I only watched in uncomfortable awkwardness.

"Here, allow me to change,"

suddenly, the colt melted into a puddle of gray mud, before reassembling into a large clump. A few limbs exploded from the center, before a head emerged and sprouted a long, beautiful mane. The body fleshed itself out into a curvy figure, as the coat turned a soft peach.

The mare that had only seconds ago been a small colt bit her bottom lip. "Perhaps this is more your speed?"

I swallowed hard and uncomfortably, eliciting a long string of laughter from the now gorgeous mare.

"So you're a hippogriff? A griffon in the front and a stallion in the back?"

I paused, before nodding slowly.

"I hope you don't mind me asking... But you are a stallion where it counts, correct?"

A stone dropped in my stomach at the question.

"Of course he is!" said a familiar voice behind her. "He has very strong legs,"

The mare turned around to reveal Ace, who wore a very suave smile,

"Who might you be?" Asked Ace,

"I'm anything you want me to be," said the mare, her eyes half lidded.

"I'm sure you are," said Ronin, patting her shoulder with a laugh, watching as one of the flask at his side filled with a sparkling liquid.

"You're a fine piece o' work yourself," she cooed, looking up innocently at Ace. "I suppose there's no disputing what you are down there,"

"Nope, but I can't help but feel curious to ask you the same question,"

There goes Ace's damn mouth again.

"What gender are you?" he asked, taking a seat next to her. "Originally?"

"It doesn't matter what I was, I can be whatever I feel like now,"

"I suppose you'll be just enigmatic about your species as well,"

"I am whatever species I want, honey,"

"Of course. Okay, may I at least know you're name?"

"I've started to call myself Reverie. I think it fits, what about you?"

"I suppose it does. Rather nicely if you ask me,"

"Even if it doesn't..." she turned to me as she sat up from her bench, "I'll make it fit,"

My eyes widened in concern as I panicked inside.

She trotted off seductively, swishing her hips in a display for all to see.

Ronin sat down next to me, a surprised grin on his face.

"She was aggressive," he said breathily.

"Could be a he, or an it for that matter," I said, my discomfort causing me to shift in my seat. "And did you see her...melt? She just turned to this syrupy mush,"

Ronin followed Reverie with his eyes. "I wonder if I'll get her libido along with the shapeshifting,"

I shook my head, eliciting a small laugh from Ronin.

"Alright," he said, getting back down to business. "I got a lot of powers here. I got a nice amount from Vlad, a few vials from shuffling through the aisles, and a good quantity from Reverie,"

I swallowed a chunk of raw meat. "Will any of them help with the mission?"

"Well, maybe," he looked around a bit oddly. "Actually, I have no idea."

"What?!" I said, raising my head from my meal. "Why'd you go out of your way to get all these?"

"Well, they might help. I don't even know what half of these do, but they might be useful down the line,"

"Wonderful. How are you supposed to use them if you don't know what to use?"

Ronin looked around, before shrugging.

I returned to my food, aggravated at Ronin's lack of a plan.

"Hey, no harm, no foul! If anything, now we at least have a mulligan if all else fails,"

"Okay, so let's go actually do the bounty!"

Ronin let his head fall against the table. "Did you really want to leave today? There isn't any rush,"

I swallowed, before looking out towards the forest. "We might as well, there isn't much else to do. Is there anything else you had planned?"

"No no..."

I looked up suspiciously. "You sure?"

"Of course," Ronin said quickly. "You're right, but at least let me eat,"

He stood up and walked off.

"Hey, the foods over that way," I said, watching as he walked to one of the tables.

"I know," he said, before he took a seat a table away, he couldn't hide the smallest smile that formed on his lips.

What was he doing?

He then turned his attention to the mare next to him.

"Miss Reverie, I do think I'm fancying a curvy, red haired mare. You think you can pull that off?"

I watched as a wave of red coursed through her hair, before she turned to Ronin with a coy smile.

Ace then turned to me, and with a smug grin, he spoke. "I'll be back soon from dinner,"

Reverie let out a small squeak of surprise, before the two of them disappeared into the mass of tents.

Looks like we were starting tomorrow whether I liked it or not.

Like I said, he has a big mouth.

Comments

[Idamsta]

This story, I like it

[pursuitofponiez]

I truly like the concept, and the world seems far more dim than equestria. Also, Like!

[DashIsOver9000]

Sweet story! Please post moar chapters!

[RoseOf1000Thorns]

5344753 Your picture with that comment though.

[NotObama1995]

Awesome story, concept has captured my attention and I honestly want to know how it all progresses. Completely worth the like and fav :3

[SillyWilliam909090]

Great story! Ronin seems so funny, but he also seems like the type that kicks ass when it's time to get serious. Can't wait for chapter two!

[MashedPotatoesAreGud1989]

I have to agree
5344800
I love this concept. Although, the fruits sound like they give powers like a anime called One Piece.

[MrDaveyJones]

Love the story, also, kind of does sound like One Piece

[Metta13]

5344898
Thank you and yeah it is lightly inspired by one piece, but we're not gonna make it to where luffy shows up out of now where and is all like "whats with all these small horses"

[MashedPotatoesAreGud1989]

5344970
I see, well, the story is good, and you and your friend are excellent writers. Please never stop. Also I like your story