The Misadventures of a Few Ponies

by Power Hors3

Ch 6: Missing Ponies

Ch. 6: Missing Ponies

The night was a beautiful one, nice, peaceful, and calm. Especially in the forest; aside from a few occasional wild animal howling or hunts. Tonight like most nights, there was guard duty at the half-ruins of the not so well-known fort of Ghost Sanctuary. Up as a new guard was a young male batpony, who had been trained for this for the better part of his life.

“Now that we’re running watch out here, we will cover a five-mile radius around the castle. If anyone comes within it, we capture them, if they fight back, we fight back. Remember, we are not to be seen first” An older guard says to the young batpony, who nodded shaking his gray-white hair.

Hours passed with nothing but the nightly noises to keep this patrol company. At every slightest noise, the bats turned their ears to listen then kept moving around in cycles, splitting up then regrouping. Each member did their role to make communication with other groups through low pitch noises only described as an “eeing” sound that varies in frequency depending on the need of the calling.
The patrol stops, not too far ahead was a figure not visible under the dark night but easily identified by the bats; a yellow unicorn, bigger than most of his kind.

“You’re up” The older bat told the younger one. He is quick to obey and stealthily takes out his blade, making a dash towards the figure, but is afraid to do anything, he perches on a tree above to watch. The unicorn was injured already it seemed, he was limping.

“Anypony there...?” The unicorn calls out. In that instant, the batpony grabs a branch, pouncing onto the ground behind the unicorn and knocking him out.

The head of the party comes up to the batpony and grins just a tiny bit, “Well done, go with one of us and carry him back to the castle.” The young batpony smiles, feeling a sense of accomplishment and does as he asked.
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“I don’t know why I agree to do these things…” Alina says, getting a branch out of her mane.

“Isn’t it better than sitting around all day?” Cherry teases.

“Well the excursive is good…what exactly are we looking for?”

“According to the files, the victims are dared to go to a dark place in the forest with specific coordinates. Now yesterday when I let, I spent time looking for who was sending them there. It turns out it all got started by a local teenaged mare named Viola. Anyways, the coordinates are on the map I gave you, I don’t know how to read maps to well hehe…”

“Now I have a greater purpose to read you the map hu?” Alina snickers, opening the map, “It’s hard to locate where we are but we entered here so the spot marked should be 5 miles in, somewhere to our right it seems.”

Cherry leads them with Alina nervously looking around as the bright shades of day darken the deeper in they go. Cherry stops and picks up a sword on the ground, “Looks like someone dropped it recently” She examines the clean blade.

“There’s a backpack over here” Alina points, going to a dull green bag that was partially opened with packaged food and drinks.

“Whoever left it must have been in a rush, leaving behind heavy things to run.” Cherry look at where its dropped and where some branches seemed to have been pushed apart. “Alina how long have we been walking?”

“It’s been an hour and twenty-five minutes, just a little over five miles, assuming we trotted about three miles per hour.” Alina calculates

“So in other words, we should turn right, right?” Cherry asks.

Alina looks to the their right, “Yes…and seeing as the items we found are right here, my guess is wherever the disappearing ponies are, it’s close…”

“It’s my job to find them, we must go right” Cherry goes on to the right. After a few minutes they start seeing statues, and bits of bricks that once belonged to old structures.

“Did you know this whole area used to be a town according to history? It was because Celestia and Luna had their castle in the Everfree before it became overrun by the wild. So there used to be settlements around these part. I wonder what this place was” Alina says, looking around the ruins like an archeologist on a field day.

“Do you know if all the inhabitants left?” Cherry asks.

“Most did, and others left later. These places are too hostile and unpredictable for a town to flourish, why?”

“Because there’s a creature that looks like a pony over there” Cherry grabs Alina and pulls her behind a stone wall, she looks over and points to it.

“Maybe one of the lost ponies?” Alina suggest.

Cherry shrugs, “There are a few ways we could handle this: go to them and ask, follow them, or attack. Eh, I recommend following”

“How many ponies are even in the forest? We can ask.”

“Unless…” Cherry looks over, “They’re gone!”

Alina peeks to find that she was telling the truth, “An illusion? But we both saw it, could be that we both expected to see something and both saw it”

“No, it was definitely there. Who knows if it saw us, maybe it had to go heh” Cherry looks again, “We should stay here, in case we’re being watched”

“Cherry its over there!” Alina points to the figure, now to the right of where it was. It is picking at a bush.

“I’m not going to stay here any longer” Alina stands up and as quiet as she can, sneaks up to the pony, she stops upon seeing its ears and wings. They were unlike a normal pegasus’ parts. “A batpony…!” She says to herself. That whisper alone causes the batpony’s ears to twitch and his head to turn.

“Skreeeeeeeee!” It lets out a sharp note of noise that hurts her ears, he flees up a tree, but not before Cherry engulfs him in a ball of magic.

“Cherry it’s a batpony!” Alina was extremely overjoyed and shook her.

“Ohh it is! Excuse me batpony, are you lost?” Cherry asks, “If so, ponies have been looking for you”

The batpony shakes its head, half scared and observing the magic field around him.

“The file doesn’t say anything about a batpony Cherry” Alina says, showing her the file.

“Oh. In that case; have you seen three normal ponies around here? They’re lost” Cherry asks the bat which was now floating around in the bubble. He looks at them both and nods. “Can you tell us where they are?”

He shakes his head in a no.
“He claims to know but won’t tell us where. Do we let him go or leave him for interrogation Cherry?”
“He’s our only hint but I can keep him without evidence, but he DID say he knew, so he’s withholding information. He stays with us. Unfortunately, I can’t keep my hold on him so we’re going to use cuffs” She cuffs him to herself and releases the magic.
“Skreee skreeee! Eeeee!” The batpony shakes the cuff, trying to pull away from her.
“Alina help me out! He’ll rip off my hoof!” Cherry hollers.
Alina’s horn glows, “Er let’s see if this sleep spell works! Keep him still!” Cherry grabs the batpony, she was bigger and stronger than him but he could definitely squirm and released himself from her grip just as Alina cast the spell.
Cherry passes out but the batpony was still attached to her.
“Hey calm down we just need answers please stay still…” Alina says in a kind voice, the batpony frowns and tugs. “You’re hurting her body, sorry I have to put you to sleep” She casts the spell on him, he falls within a few seconds. She looks at the batpony, specifically at its distinct features like: it’s ear nips, the rougher yet softer fur fluff, the fangs that were mainly hidden from sight, and the most noticeable; the wings, covered in fur and webbed. She takes the liberty to lift up one of its wings, and looking at in further detail, this feeling caused the tail of the batpony to wag. “Awww…” Alina smiles and goes to the sleeping Cherry.

“Cherry wake up” Alina shakes her a bit, but the spell seemed to have been taking its toll, “Oh damn. It’s getting cold here.” She looks at the canopy of forest above them; it was darkening and the rays of light that had been pouring through weakened. Using her magic, Alina levitates them both, at the cost of her getting tired from the weight of the two ponies. “Ugh…where will we go?” Going a little away from the ruins, she sets them down soon setting up the tent and placing them in. Later, she sets up a fire and starts to read from the scroll.

Hours passed and Alina herself decides to take a nap. Around that time the batpony wakes up and calmly looks at where it is. Using its ears, it hears the heavier breathing coming from the sleeping mares and smiles. He looks at the cuffs and searches Cherry for the keys. Unaware, Cherry hugs him like a teddy bear. He holds back a screech as her hug tightens, he spots the keys and waits till her grip releases him. Letting out a sigh he starts to unlock the cuff and is soon out of it. His head pokes out the tent and he see Alina sleeping with the scroll on her face. With a smirk he slips out and starts to go but a scent of cooked ramen noodles catches his attention. A pot by the fire had warm noodles, attracting him to it and very soon, he feasts on them. Cherry wakes up and sees the missing batpony, she looks out the tent and spots it. In a half-smile, she levitates the pot away. The batpony lifts it head and flies up to it, eating more. Cherry shifts it again and again until she leads him back into the tent and sets the pot down in front of her. He eats more than notices the unicorn in front of him.

“Eeeeeeeeeeee!” He lets out an eeing that wakes up Alina.

“Woah! Cherry!” Alina rushes in to see Cherry hugging the batpony tightly and the bat struggling to get out of her grip.

“He’s so fluffy!” Cherry keeps the batpony in her deadly hug hold.

“Let me go!” The batpony utters.

“Did you just speak…?” Alina asks the bat.

“Yes! Tell Cherry to let me go!” It snarls.

“Can you help us then?” Alina asks, “Then she’ll let you go”

“Ugh fine, the ponies that are missing are back at a castle, well it’s called a castle it’s just an old fort.” He starts to get comfortable.

“A fort? Where is it at?” Cherry asks.

“I’m not supposed to say.” He replies.

“We’re not here to harm you or your kind, we need those ponies back because they have families and friends that are looking for them. It’s my job to get them back.” Cherry continues, “So if you are withholding information, I need to take you into custody.”

“I don’t want to waste my time with that and it seems my clan failed to hear my calls of distress so I have no choice but to comply” He sighs.

“So there’s a clan here in the Everfree??” Alina blurts out, she opens the scroll and shows him the list of clans, “Which one is it?”

He points to one, “Black Ghosts”

“Black Ghosts are an assassin clan” She says to herself, she suddenly starts to worry.

“We haven’t done much assassinating in years” The batpony says, having heard her.

“If we go, how hostile will they be with us?” Cherry intrudes.

“We don’t like when strangers come to our place.” He frowns.

“I don’t like the sound of that; what do you do with those who stumble into your place?” Cherry sits, still holding onto him.

“It depends on how they behave. Sometime we just leave them somewhere else in the forest, lock them up, or in extreme cases; execute them” He smirks, hoping to scare them.

“If the missing ponies are there, we are going there too.” Cherry loosens her grip on him, “And you’re taking us there little batpony”

He looks at them, “As you wish then, it’s at your risk” He looks at the pot of noodles, “But more of those first”

Alina smiles, giving him the pot of humid boiled noodles.
End of Chapter 6.

Author's Note:

Batponies are cute