//------------------------------// // Ch.8: Give the Dog a Bone // Story: A Hairier Problem: Rise of the Furball // by BlueBastard //------------------------------// Rise of the Furball Chapter 8: “Give the Dog a Bone” If one were to describe Pinkie Pie, somepony would mention how she looks like cotton candy given pony form and life. They would mention her desire to make everypony in town her friend, to the point of being stalker like in her methods. They would mention her expertise as the party planning pony extraordinare in all of Ponyville. They might even mention her little known origins as a filly on a rock farm who gained her cutie mark through making her family smile for what must have been the first time in their lives. The word serious would not appear in those descriptions. Unless they were talking about Pinkie Pie at the present moment. Her face was almost inequine in how it was devoid of even the smallest hint of a smile, her eyes catching the light in some way as to make them appear fully white and hiding her bright blue peepers. Her forelegs were resting on the table in front of her, hooves folded in such a way as to making a frontal view of her face see nothing but her white eyes and the top of her muzzle. “All of you…” she spoke in a very uncharacteristically deep voice, causing one of her addressees to whimper, “…need to understand the importance of this meeting. What we are here to do is-“ The dark room suddenly became lit up, revealing it to be nothing more than just the back storage room of Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie was sitting at the head of a table made up of a plywood sheet on top of boxes of sugar, around which sat Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy. “Oh, sorry!” apologized Mrs. Cake, “I didn’t know you all were using this room.” Pinkie just shrugged. “Not that big a deal, Mrs. Cake, I was probably going to turn them back on myself. The whole ‘menacing’ angle of meeting leadership isn’t my thing anyway.” She then reached over to pick up a bag of chocolate chips sitting nearby, throwing them over to Mrs. Cake. “Thank you, dearie!” replied the portly blue pony, turning and leaving the back room. “Anyway,” continued Pinkie, seemingly forgetting the intimidation factor she’d originally been going for, “Twilight’s coming back to Ponyville soon, so I want to make this the best ‘Welcome Back to Ponyville’ party ever!” “But that’s what you said last time, remember?” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “Yeah, but it’s always good to aim higher with these things. Plus, Twilight’s a princess, so there’s no excuse!” “Don’t forget, everything needs to be perfectly aligned and proportioned, any streamers exactly perpendicular to each other at right angles, and an even amount on frosting on any cakes and baked goods,” Rarity reminded. “You all know what happened the time we tried throwing a beach themed party and she tried fixing the crab shaped cake because the right claw was bigger than the left one.” A collective groan rung out at the mention of the crab. Rarity was never going to let anybody forget that incident. It wasn’t so much at the actual event as it was Rarity constantly bringing it up, since nopony was going to forget the day Rarity’s hidden disgust of giant crabs ended up with her fighting what had been a simple cake in the middle of town. “Well, um…” started Fluttershy, trying to avoid thinking about what Rarity had done to the cake-turned-crustacean, “why don’t we just hold a small party, just the six of us? I don’t think Twilight would want us to make this so grandiose because she’s a princess. If anything, she’ll probably prefer us just treating her as we did before her ascension.” “You…you mean she doesn’t like my parties?” whimpered Pinkie, hair beginning to deflate. Even though Fluttershy didn’t mean anything like that, the mere implication that Twilight took offense to what Pinkie did best was enough to start the energetic mare sliding down a hill of depression. Applejack took immediate action. “No no no no! That’s not what Fluttsy’s sayin’, Pinkie! What she meant was maybe this time, bigger ain’t better. We all know how much you like to throw big parties, but Ah am in agreement with the idea a giant bash isn’t the way to go here. Plus, just because it’s smaller don’t mean it’s not just as special, it would be more…intimate, Ah guess?” AJ made a quick glance at Rarity to confirm the proper word choice, which the fabulous mare confirmed. “Oh, okay, I can work with that!” chirped Pinkie, hair snapping back into its undefined natural state. “Especially since she did like the small scale party we threw for her that one time when we crashed the garden party.” “Uh, no high society party crashing this time, either,” suggested Rarity. “Nah, that’s not really my style. But what is my style is…” Pinkie leaned into the table, the other four mares following suit, and the smiles on their faces signified Twilight was going to have the best, small-scale party ever...or at least that's how it was originally planned to be, at any rate. Over at school, the CMC were at the heart of a horrifying discovery that Scootaloo dug up in one of the old board games in the schoolhouse’s entertainment corner, meant for colts and fillies to play with on rainy days during recess. “I knew this game was rigged, I just knew it!” declared Scoot, holding a card with questions listed on it. “How? Nopony ever gets that far in the game before recess is over.” Pointed out Truffle Shuffle. “Okay, answer this: ‘Who was the first pony to play the titular role in the original production of The Eye of Argon?’” Murmurs sounded from the gathered crowd of young ponies, but none of them answered. Scootaloo flipped the card over. “Limelight Limerick. Seriously, has anypony even heard of a pony by that name?” An almost unanimous ‘no’ came from the crowd. “Thought so. But, before anypony says it’s just one bad question, let me read another.  Motioning for Apple Bloom, the earth filly drew a card from the box and handed it to Scoot. “Next question; what is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?” More negative murmurs. “42.” Silence then reigned, as if the crowd expected Scootaloo to keep going. “No, seriously everypony, that’s what is says the answer is.” To prove it, she handed the card into the crowd, where to their surprise she was correct in that 42 was the given answer. “Dumb game!” grumbled Sweetie Belle, walking over to kick the box lightly. Little triangle pieces shaped like pizza slices momentarily went airborne before landing back in the box. Scootaloo retrieved the card, returning it to the deck before putting the lid back on the box to seal away the unfair contents. Just then Cheerilee hastily came in through the door, prompting everypony else to rush to their seats. “Apologies for being late, class, the spring in my alarm clock is losing tension and woke me up at the wrong time,” explained the teacher. There had been another reason why she was running late, but the students would figure that out soon enough. “Now, I’m sure we’ve all heard about what happened to Diamond Tiara a few days ago…” Snickers suddenly became audible. Not all of the class was laughing, most notably Silver Spoon and, oddly enough, the CMC. “…BUT, whatever you may have heard, there is no evidence to suggest it was anything but just a bad nightmare. I’m sure you all have had experiences like that yourselves, right?” Cheerilee gave them a look that had them all shrink back slightly. “I thought so. Now, I want you to be nice to Diamond Tiara, she’s claimed to be alright enough to come back to school, and I don’t want any of you taking advantage of her.” “Yes, Mrs. Cheerilee,” replied the class in stereotypical class monotone. Satisfied, Cheerilee walked over to the door and poked her head out. After what must have been a brief exchange of words, Cheerilee backstepped to hold the door open. In stepped Diamond Tiara. However, to everyone’s surprise, she didn’t walk in with the attitude akin to a high society socialite, one who looked down on practically everything in Ponyville. Instead, she walked with a careful manner, slowly scanning the room as if there would be something in the dark corners that would leap out and attack her. She paused for a moment when she locked eyes with Apple Bloom, but the filly sitting at the desk did not mesh up with the thing from a few nights ago, so she resisted every urge to run from the schoolhouse screaming. “Is everything okay?” inquired Cheerilee. “N-n-no, I’m fine. I’ll g-go take my seat…” half replied, half whimpered Tiara, moving to take the empty desk next to Silver Spoon. The young gray mare looked with wide eyes at her friend, almost not recognizing Tiara with this new attitude. She’d have to talk with her in private later during recess to get the full story, since her attempt to visit the Rich Mansion after the incident just had maids turn her away. Over in the CMC camp, hushed whispers were being traded. “Wow, I knew you got her good but…wow,” whispered a stunned Sweetie. “Yeah, I know we all said she deserved it, yet now I’m wondering if it was more than that,” Scootaloo added. Apple Bloom said nothing. On the one hoof, she felt Diamond Tiara had deserved the whole ordeal. She’d put the CMC through so much trouble and grief over the years that the karmic backlash being delivered in one blow would appear to be a substantial amount. But on the other, she knew what it was like to be in Tiara’s horseshoes, to have that kind of fear. While the situation was different, it was Tiara’s expression that said enough. That fear she’d inflicted on the wealthy filly was as much as Apple Bloom’s fears that one night back in the Whitetail Woods, when she briefly was stripped of her identity as a pony. For Diamond Tiara, however, who glanced up at the exact moment Apple Bloom’s compassionate eyes looked over at her, it was a different story. In those big, golden eyes, Tiara saw the monster from that night laughing maniacally at her misery. She didn’t know how the idea popped into her head, but the sinister glint in the gold meant Apple Bloom was hiding something. Was she truly just an ordinary filly, just blessed with social connections Tiara littered her Hearth’s Warming Eve wishlist with, or was there more to the story? There was only one way to find out. Narrowing her eyes, DT looked over at Silver and whispered; “Got any plans later?” Her heart skipping at the surefire sign DT was already back to normal, Silver eagerly shook her head from side to side. “Good. Does your manor still have that large library in the back?” Spoon’s shaking went from horizontal to vertical. “Perfect. We have some reading to do later.” Raspberry Beryl walked out the door of her home into the bright sunlight, breathing in the fresh air. On her back sat her saddlebags, full of various gems that had been organized by the pony she would be delivering them to. Heliodor then followed suit, soaring out of the door and taking perch on a nearby tree. He cooed concernedly when she locked the door with her magic. “Oh, don’t worry; nopony’s going to see it,” Razz assured her pet. Not many ponies lived around where the unicorn and her phoenix dwelled, so there was no chance anypony would see her magic and…overreact. Merely nodding, the young phoenix then left his perch and flew off towards the woods. One of the benefits of having a predatory bird as a pet, Raspberry had found out, was that they practically took care of themselves. Sure, she got a little queasy every time Heliodor came back with a half-eaten rodent in his beak, but she’d never had to deal with him forgetting to do his business where it wouldn’t bother anypony. Considering how often they’d had to change places of residence over the years, not to mention the troubles she had to go through on a daily basis, it was a blessing the closest thing she had to family for all these years was naturally so intelligent. Sure enough, Heliodor came back, thankfully without a to-go meal, and took his regular perch on his owner’s horn. To his surprise, however, she shook her head slightly, indicating she did not want him there. “Not right now, Heelee,” explained the unicorn, “your breath still smells like dead mouse.” He blushed and proceeded to simply hover alongside her while matching the pony’s speed. Truth be told, she just didn’t want him on her horn because her head was being weighed down already with thoughts of what she might possibly do today. One thing for certain was to try and stay on the good side of five specific ponies…or rather four specific ponies, and avoid the fifth one entirely. Rarity had shown signs of promise as being a strong supporter should things go the way they always had, with Rainbow Dash and Applejack possibly being on the same side if they truly were the embodiment of Loyalty and Honesty. Fluttershy…well, considering Raspberry knew the entire town compared her to the pegasus because of both their similar demeanor, she was sure that in the event they finally met things would go okay. But Pinkie Pie…there was something wrong with that pony, Raspberry knew, something far stranger than anything the gem peddler had ever gone through in her life. But whatever it was, it certainly would see through Raspberry’s lies and send everything crashing down. I can’t let that happen thought the red mare, next to Heliodor the closest thing I even have to a friend is Rarity, and even beyond that Ponyville is the last town in Equestria where I can sell gems. If things go south again here, the only places left to me are the settlements in the dry lands. Maybe I can be an aide to the buffalo tribes in finding turquoise gems out there, but without proper hunting grounds Heliodor will die because of the lack of food, and although I know he’ll stick with me to the end I refuse to let my pain claim him as it has my mother and my childhood… Heliodor’s cries snapped Raspberry out of her trance, finding herself having been on auto-pilot and walked a good bit of the way to her first stop. While Rarity was, among other things, Raspberry’s main outlet for selling her gems, the fashionista was far from the only pony who called upon Raspberry’s services. But those other clients usually just wanted small diamonds or other tiny precious stones, which for the dirt cheap prices Raspberry offered them they couldn’t resist having some rubies to decorate a clock or a sapphire lined frame for the family photo. Rarely did anypony want something bigger, unless they were named Rarity. While the gray unicorn was the one the majority of the gems in Raspberry’s saddlebags were being sold to, Carousel Boutique was intentionally the last stop as to allow a little time for the unicorns to converse with each other. Granted, those times usually were cut short by Raspberry for any number of reasons and Rarity was the one who usually talked the whole time anyway, but today was the day Raspberry resolved to finally take up Rarity’s offer and stay for tea. Having never actually had the chance to drink tea, Raspberry was a mixed bag of emotions about trying something new. “What do you think tea is like, Heelee?” she asked, having just made her last stop before the Boutique.  He cawed in manner that suggested he had no idea. “Me neither, but apparently it’s what high society ponies drink all the time, apparently their blood is partly made up from the stuff if they drink it as often as Rarity says they do.” She noted Heliodor, now perched on her horn as usual, had stiffened slightly at the mention of the word ‘blood’. “Heelee, I’m just being figurative, if anything this could be the day where I can finally confide in somepony.” The phoenix looked hurt. “I said somepony, last I checked the thing sitting on my head is a phoenix.” Pleased at her elaboration, he smiled, but then as if realizing something horrible he quickly looked down at his caretaker, cooing with a concerned tone. “And yes, your perch is a horn that does belong to a pony, even if you’re the one who has to remind her of that now and again.” The feeling of her pet rubbing his head against hers brought a smile to her face, one she kept on wearing until she came into view of the Boutique. More specifically, being able to see Rarity waiting outside of the building with a smile that clearly indicated something was in store for Raspberry. Unfortunately, surprises were not something Raspberry liked. It was a rare thing for surprises, much like whenever she had to do magic in view of other ponies, to ever turn out well. Worst of all, as the smile slowly fell from her face in realization, she considered the possibility she still wouldn’t be able to try tea. The private library contained within the mansion Silver Spoon called home was smaller than the collection at Golden Oaks, but several factors were at play in Diamond Tiara’s decision to not go to the latter. First, Twilight’s hoofpicked successor for the job of Ponyville Librarian; a recent graduate from Celestia’s school by the name of Wisdom Seeker, was really, really creepy and sometimes went off on so-called prophecies about the local mailmare Derpy Hooves and her involvement in some great journey or some nonsense.  Everypony, Derpy included, was convinced he just had the hots for her. Diamond had made it a point to not go to the library until he eventually got replaced by somepony slightly saner. The fact he was put in that position because of the princess also was a reason to avoid Golden Oaks, since if there was something wrong with Apple Bloom, Applejack would know about it, so therefore Princess Twilight would know about it, and if DT walked into Golden Oaks with her current intentions there was no question Seeker would tell the princess, resulting in the Royal Guard standing outside the Rich residence the following morning. Another reason is that Diamond Tiara was privy into a secret about Silver Spoon’s family. The first of their ancestors to have “Silver” in their name had been a blacksmith by the name of Silver Streak, who according to legend had founded a secret society dedicated to the eradication of all supernatural threats to the Equestrian populace; vamponies, werewolves, even the Slenderpony. The group had disbanded centuries ago, but if Silver Spoon was right some of the old research from those days had been preserved in the family archives. “Are you sure there’s anything in those dusty writings about what’s going on with Apple Bloom?” worriedly asked the gray filly. “I’m telling you, Silver; when I looked into those eyes, there was something dark and evil in them. As a professional in the fields of harassment and being rude to others, I think I should be able to tell when a pony’s eyes reflect a natural nature of them being jerks, like me, or if there’s darker forces at play.” “Does your dad know about this?” “Of course, he knows I’m going to be spending the night at your place. After my little ‘panic attack’ he thinks it would be good for my mental health or whatever if I get out of the Mansion.” More like a therapist would be better for your mental health thought Silver, but aside from this new obsession there was nothing significantly different about her friend, so it might as well be for the best to just treat it like a fad that would soon pass. Soon, the two fillies were in the Silver Family library, busy looking for anything Diamond thought would be useful. Of course, since the crowned pony didn’t know what she thought Apple Bloom was, anything that mentioned anything about ponies being actually monsters in disguise qualified. It was in the middle of one of Tiara’s monologues about how Apple Bloom may be an evil beast native to an area near Trottingham because of a new, secret addiction for imported Trottingham cheeses that Silver found something actually relevant. “Hey, Tiara, you might actually have been on to something. Check this out.” “That Apple Bloom actually does need to eat twenty pounds of Wensleydale cheese a day?” the obsessive pink pony asked as she trotted over, getting an ‘are you bucking serious’ look from her friend. “Well, I don’t think its cheese she may be after, but something far worse. Read from here,” said the glasses wearing filly, gesturing with her hoof. Unknowingly, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara had stumbled upon information similar to that which, almost a year earlier, Sandalwood and Lyra had uncovered within the Crystal Castle. While the fillies didn’t have a member of the Apple Family that confessed to being a werewolf, or the personal research notes of King Sombra himself, the information Silver Spoon’s ancestors had recorded during the time when werewolves fought under the banner of Nightmare Moon strongly implied the youngest Apple had contracted lycanthropy as one by one the given behavioral changes matched up to Apple Bloom’s recent mannerisms. “Look at this, when they were scouting out suspected werewolves, they noted that the ears of their targets were generally more wolf like, straighter up to the point instead of the rounded sides on normal ponies.” Mentioned Silver Spoon, rubbing her own ears with a hoof to further convey her point. “While I can’t remember off the top of my head, Apple Bloom’s ears have been looking a bit different compared to the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.” “Enh, can’t really say until we can get a good look at her ears,” replied Diamond. “This bit about how their tempers usually were noticeably increased if the pony’s attitude was known prior to becoming a werewolf…now that sounds more like what’s been going on with her.” “Do you think it might have been right before the trip to Whitetail Woods?” “Can’t be.  She humiliated me a few days before the weekend, although now that you mention it she was acting really strangely during the trip, so maybe it was a few days before that she somehow started being one of these…things?” “Well, outside of whatever she did that ended up with her wearing that thing on her leg, we don’t know. Unless the injury that thing was for somehow turned her into a werewolf?” “Gah!” shouted Diamond. “We’re never going to figure this out. Even if she isn’t a werewolf, the only way we’re going to figure this out is if we can stalk her like your old ancestors, but we don’t have the skills or the equipment!” With added frustration, she slammed her hooves against a bookcase, suddenly noting that one of the books she hit had somehow slid inward. The sounds of wheels on a track were heard as the bookcase suddenly slid back and sideways into a wall, revealing a hidden cache of dangerous looking weapons. “Okay, I knew mom and dad were keeping secrets, but this is getting insane!” Silver Spoon yelped. “I mean, this stuff belongs in a museum! In fact, it’s probably all silver in those sharp blades, if they’re as old as they look; they’ll be worthless if they hit anything with enough force.” Diamond Tiara looked at her friend in shock. “When did you suddenly become an expert in metals?” Silver just raised an eyebrow in response. “What, didn’t I tell you my special talent is being a silversmith? I mean, fine metalworking has been in my family for generations, why else do you think my family is the second richest in Ponyville, second only to yours? Seriously, did you think my cutie mark was representative of narcissism or something?” Diamond Tiara thought it prudent to not comment on what she’d thought her friend’s cutie mark had possibly meant. Especially since her flank had been blank longer than Silver Spoon’s and in consideration as to what her tiara cutie mark meant. Instead, she went back to the subject of going old school on Apple Bloom’s behind. “Well, alright miss metalurg-whatever that word is, can any of this stuff be used?” Silver shook her head. “The fact these things are preserved as well as they are is impressive, since as far as I know my bloodline is Earth pony up to the generation before these things were forged, but even with a magic protective coat my family probably paid unicorns to put on these years ago, silver is not known for its durability as weaponry even when newly minted due to its inherent malleability. A thousand years just makes the metal less sturdy if it isn’t reformed into something new to temper the shape.” “Then why make weapons out of it if the very thing it’s supposed to be doing is what it sucks at?!” shouted Tiara, confused as to why the wall of death instruments in front of her had just been explained as having been totally worthless as actual death instruments. “Because silver is actually a very pure metal, anything of unnatural origin such as werewolves or vampires have very bad chemical reactions should they come into contact with it, usually the same as the burn you’d get if you put your hoof inside a large campfire.” Cooly explained Silver, “Deliver enough force behind the silver and you can do lethal damage against an enemy of impure origin very rapidly. At least, that’s what I got from those old writings” “Huh.” Was all Tiara said in response, clearly impressed at how much Silver Spoon actually knew about this stuff. “Well, okay, so we can’t use this stuff, even if it wasn’t everything you just said, it’s all probably all too heavy to carry for us anyway.” “Agreed.” Silver then pushed a rather obvious button on the side of a regular bookcase, exposed by the open secret door. Upon activation, the false bookshelf slid out from the wall and back into place, as if the evidence of ancient horrors had not been found behind them by complete accident. “Now, if you’re really determined to oust Apple Bloom as a werewolf, then we need to make sure she’s an actual werewolf or whatever paranormal monster you think she is before we go in with Royal Guard styled silver weapons.” “Hey, you’re the expert here, if you have any suggestions on how I can get revenge on that stupid filly…wolf…chicken…whatever she is, I’m all ears.” “Well, the family has a small forge in the back, I’ve used it a couple times to make some simple trinkets, and I’m thinking it’s high time I made us some nice, all-silver Best Friend bracelets!” “I’m liking this idea!” said Diamond Tiara, grinning evilly as Silver led her out of the library.