Take a Stand: Waste in the Woods

Witching Hour did not like being up with the sun, but she knew she could help with Golden Sage’s research as soon as bat droppings were mentioned. Harvest Moon is very particular about her plants and what she uses as fertilizer. Guano is a favorite of her plants, she claims. 

The issue, though, came in explicitly wanting the guano from a Wild Magic-influenced fruit bat. A normal fruit bat was trivial, a WMI of any other type of bat was easy, but the combination could be hard to identify. One of the most common traits of creatures under the effects of Wild Magic influence is an increase in size. But fruit bats were also called megabats for a reason.

It took two days of active searching until she finally found what she was looking for. Originally she didn’t even think it was a fruit bat. Its tail had grown long and ended with a lion-like tuft and the fur around its neck grew thick and long. It became more accurate to call it a flying lion than a flying fox. But it landed in a wild pear tree with other fruit bats that paid it no mind. 

Watching it for while, she noticed that while its kin would drink the sap of the fruits, the Wild Magic-influenced bat would eat the pulp of the pears just like she would have. She also observed it using overgrown nails to peel off bark to make it easier for other bats to get to tree sap that it itself wouldn’t partake in. It would seem as though this bat became a pivotal member of its community.

Now she camped nearby the tree the colony liked roosting in the most in the hour before twilight. The previous night, she laid out figs and was pleased to see most of them had been eaten around. Soon, the sky turned beautiful shades of dusty purple and red and became littered with stars. The roosting bats awoke and eventually flew off to go about their night of harvesting.

With a yawn, Witching Hour approached the base of the tree and found plenty of bat guano for harvesting. Thankfully it isn’t something she would call fragrant. She scooped a healthy portion of normal droppings with a sterile knife into one container. She labeled it Non-MWI Guano. Shoving aside the unremarkable turds, she eventually found oddly colorful bat feces that gave off a pleasant smell. Carefully, she scooped as many of these samples into a separate container, doing her best not to put any normal bat droppings into the mix. She labeled this container MWI Guano and put both containers safely into her saddlebag.

Witching Hour returned to the lab and was only mildly surprised to see Harvest Moon with ten or so plotted plants in tow. She was currently in the middle of trying to convince Professor Golden Sage to use her plants to aid in the research. While she was politely listening, she held up a hoof when Witching Hour made her presence known.

“Witching Hour, yes? Ah, you brought the bat droppings. I was worried nopony would bring any.” Golden Sage gratefully took the samples but raised a brow at the normal collection. “Oh? Two?”

“One of them is normal guano. Studying something odd is pointless when you don’t have something normal to compare it to.” Witching Hour reasoned. “They came from the same colony. Hopefully, there are as few variables as possible because of it.”

“I had my own samples to study against, but that is very helpful. Thank you.”

“Of course.” Witching Hour nods politely. It wasn’t much, she felt, but Golden Sage looked to have thought otherwise. “C’mon Harvest Moon. Leave the professor to her research.”