Surge the Destroyer was on a roll. He had stolen all the sweetness from the Land of Fruitopia. No one could stop him now! He looked out the window at all the fruit down below, gray-colored and sad looking. He had stolen their happiness, their color, their sweetness! Now they were nothing more than gray balls of sadness. Except for the bananas. Those weren't round. Surge shook the thoughts from his head and laughed. It was very, very, very fun to watch all the fruit down below run from the growing shadow that would suck up their sweetness! It was almost as fun as playing terrifying music on the organ. Surge stopped looking out the window and left the room, walking down the stairs into the basement. He had decided to play the organ a little bit.

Meanwhile, the shadow of sadness was slowly creeping forward. Apple, Lemon, Grape, Orange, and Banana were all watching it from far, far away on a hill. The land was almost completely gray! Apple turned to the rest of them.

    "We have to do something about this!" she declared, and Lemon, her friend, nodded. Grape, Orange, and Banana also nodded.

    "But how?" Orange asked. Lemon, Apple, and Banana didn't know. But Grape did.

    "We need the Sweetness Stone!" he said. "We'll have to go on a long quest to find it." He raised a hand triumphantly.

    "Who's with me?!" Everybody agreed to go on the quest.

"What do we know about the Sweetness stone?" Apple asked.

    "Legend says," said Grape, "that it has the power to bring the sweetness, happiness, and flavor back to fruit!" Apple frowned, and so did Lemon.

    "Isn't that what you say?" Lemon asked. Grape shook his head.

    "No, I'm just telling you what fruit and veggies long ago told their descendants." Lemon nodded in understanding.

    "Oooh," she said. Grape nodded.

    "Now, let's get to it!" Everybody left right away, and Banana brought a few snacks. Just in case. Because every fruit gets hungry.

Grape led them to a hill with a house made of candy on the very top.

    "What's that?" asked Banana, walking forward and grabbing a piece of candy.

    "That's a house for hungry fruit to take snacks from if they want them, but they're unhealthy," said Lemon.

    "What is healthy for fruits?" asked Banana curiously. Nobody knew what to say. After a while Apple asked Grape a question.

    "Where even is the Sweetness Stone?"

    "In the heart of Fruitopia," said Grape.

    "I didn't know Fruitopia was alive," said Banana. Orange groaned. "The heart means the center. And that's our destination."

    A while later, they were halfway to the heart of Fruitopia. But there was a problem. The shadow was still creeping forward, and Apple, Lemon, Grape, Banana, and Orange were almost sure they were the last people that still had sweetness, happiness, and flavor inside of them. They were literally running from the gray cloud- and it was fast. Finally they gained a little ground and had time to stop and rest on a grassy hill. The group was met by a red fruit.

    "Hey, I'm Tomato," the fruit said. "Where are you going? I've been running from Surge all day long!"

    "Same for us," said Apple. "I'm really tired!" Lemon nodded.

    "Yeah, it's really hot outside right now, too."

Lemon yawned. "Plus, we're tired!"

    "Well, I'm not surprised," said Tomato. "Can I join you? And you didn't answer my first question. Where are you going?"

    "To the heart of Fruitopia," Grape answered. "To get the Sweetness Stone."

    "What's the Sweetness Stone?" asked Tomato, confused.

    "It's in legends," explained Orange, taking a deep breath and panting. "It will bring happiness, sweetness, and flavor back to fruit."

    "I just hope the vegetables don't get it before we do," said Tomato, yawning and standing up.

    "What?" asked Banana. "Vegetables want the Stone?"

Tomato explained everything to the group, about how the vegetables wanted the Sweetness Stone because Surge the Destroyer's dark cloud of sadness has reached even Veggie Land!

    "That's crazy," said Lemon.

    "That's impossible!" said Apple. "How could it have reached that far?"

    "That's crazy and possible!" said Banana, dramatically fainting. Everyone groaned. Tomato pointed to Banana.

    "Is he always like this?" Apple nodded her head, Lemon replied,

    "Yep. But there isn't usually a problem like this," she added. Tomato nodded.

    "Okay, then. We'd best get on with our adventure!"

    The dark cloud had, conveniently, stopped during the night. Surge, after playing the organ for six hours and taking a nap before playing it for three more hours, had stopped it when the time reached 10:00 P.M. Lemon, Apple, Grape, Banana, Orange, and Tomato, their new companion, had set off at night, even though they were tired. They wanted to reach the heart of Fruitopia as soon as they could.

    When they got to the center of Fruitopia, the first thing they saw was a Potato standing on the top of a fountain with a stone apple on the top that squirted water out from its stem. It was a vegetable. A horrible, icky, disgusting, flavorless vegetable.