//------------------------------// // Ch.13: Grounded Flight // Story: A Hairier Problem: Rise of the Furball // by BlueBastard //------------------------------// Rise of the Furball Chapter 13: “Grounded Flight” Apple Bloom was in one heck of a pickle. In just slightly over a month and a half, she’d gone from her regular old self as a farm filly living a normal life (with some exceptions thanks to her sister being the Element of Honesty) to living something close to a double life thanks to having been cursed with lycanthropy by means she still didn’t understand. It was bad enough that she kept having to risk discovery once a week to go on midnight runs, her secret being exposed if anypony in the house heard her leave the house, or if they came to check on her while she was out, but not running would just drive her crazy with all that pent up energy she wouldn’t be able to expel. It probably helped that she had plenty of experience sneaking out at night for Crusader related reasons. But even when she had her body under control, it was still hard to make it through the average school day. Her improved hearing sometimes gave her slight migraines due to her eardrums being able to listen to much higher frequencies, she occasionally had the urge to just stick her tongue out and pant during class, and then to top it all off she now had to deal with possibly two others who were possibly privy to her secret and could bring disaster on top of her head. In retrospect, it had been completely stupid to use her new form to scare the crap out of Diamond Tiara, regardless of how much she’d deserved it. After hearing that Diamond Tiara was still of the opinion that she was an actual werewolf, the sudden cold ‘burn’ she’d gotten from DT’s silver friendship bracelet from a little while back was making more sense and while DT didn’t have the resources to harm Apple Bloom severely, she could make her life hell. But more worrisome was Babs. She hadn’t even been in Ponyville a full day before she was on track to figuring out what Apple Bloom had been hiding. Frankly, it was pure luck Apple Bloom had decided to shift back after her run before going for the dog treats, or Babs would have known the truth right away. Diamond Tiara may have been more of a vindictive little brat with all intentions to ruin Apple Bloom, but at least she lived in another house. Babs practically was now bunking in the room next to Apple Bloom and even though was truly a nice pony wouldn’t hesitate to tell the rest of the Apples what her cousin had become. In fairness, Babs most likely would do so out of fear instead of any ill intent towards Apple Bloom, but the end result would be the same; disastrous. Finally, the school bell rang for the final time, letting loose the small horde of fillies and colts back into the world. Babs ended up needing to use the little fillies room this time, leaving Apple Bloom free to confide in her friends. “What am Ah gonna do?!” moaned Apple Bloom.  “She can’t ever learn what Ah am, if she finds out then the rest of mah family will find out and Ah can’t let that happen!” “You need to calm down, first of all,” reasoned Scootaloo.  “As long as you can keep your wild side under control for a while, Babs will probably forget about the whole thing.” “Easier said than done: You’re not the one shoving dog treats in your mouth like candy,” glumly replied Apple Bloom. “Well, why don’t you just tell Babs the truth?” suggested Sweetie.  “I mean, that’s probably what we should have done in the first place. Yeah, she’s your family, no denying that, but the whole ‘Bad Seed’ thing we all went through the first time she visited was because nopony actually communicated with each other.” “Because tellin’ her would mean havin’ to explain the whole family history with werewolves, includin’ Applejack’s bit, and Ah can’t do that. AJ would blow a fuse if she knew Ah’d already told you about what really went down in the Everfree that night.” Further discussion on the subject was cut as Babs returned, prompting the foursome to walk off from school talking about how they would try to get their cutie marks, all the while the two Apple Family cousins wary of each other. __ “There, that should do it!” a relieved farm mare exclaimed as the last crossbeam went into place. The heavy rainstorm that had taken place a little over two weeks ago hadn’t directly caused any major damage to the property on Sweet Apple Acres, but since then the crossbeams on some sections of the fence marking the edge of the farm had started to show advanced signs of rotting. Thus, most of the day had been spent hauling around a cart full of replacement beams and swapping them in. It hadn’t been hard physical labor in so far as it had been maddeningly repetitive, but it was a nice change of pace from continuously bucking the seemingly infinite number of apple trees spread across her family’s land. Taking a moment to rest before hauling the bad fence beams to the barn to be turned into firewood, Applejack looked out across the land and took in the sights. Most ponies who lived in the main part of town and other cities would just see an endless expanse of unending work, ranging from actual crop harvesting to providing for the livestock and of course the constant trouble of keeping the buildings standing. She too had once only seen the farm that way, years ago, although she had also been a mere filly who didn’t know much about the world. Applejack could not recall how much influence her desire to see the urban side of pony society had actually been in her motivations to leave the farm, at least in comparison to having to deal with the sudden deaths of her parents. Maybe she’d left the farm more out of a need to get away from it all, to remove herself from the life that had caused her pain she didn’t fully understand at the time. But none of that mattered in the long run, since as she’d realized upon seeing that magical rainbow (a.k.a. Rainbow Dash) streak across the sky right to Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres was where she belonged. Her parents had only been out that fateful night because they needed to meet their crop harvesting quota in order to feed their family. Even after they’d healed up from the attacks, most likely having already fully become werewolves at that point, AJ remembered they spent quite a few nights working on the fields, past the time when she and her siblings were put to bed, all to keep the family sustained. Their extra production from werewolf-enhanced endurance hadn’t brought in that much extra income, but it had been enough to keep the parentless Apples afloat long enough for other parts of the Apple Family to move in temporarily and prevent the farm from going under, right up until Big Mac and herself could manage the farm without help. And speakin’ of ponies who need help…thought Applejack, having caught in the corner of her vision the familiar afterimage of a particular pegasus approaching from the right. But then she saw the other afterimage of a pegasus she was familiar with following close behind. The pegasus in front also had noticed the second one, moving to zig zag as to avoid getting tackled. The second pegasus, however, made no move to close the gap between it and the first one, only changing its flightpath slightly when its target made any significant changes of direction itself. The second pegasus suddenly shot past the first one when the latter turned right towards Applejack, flying in front and making to block what must have been perceived as an attempt to crash right into the grounded Earth pony. However, the now-blocked pegasus simply slowed to a stop in front of Applejack’s guardian, with both ponies proceeding to argue for a short while but became more conversational when the defending pony proved to be more aggressive than the pony who had been flying towards Applejack. Surprisingly, they came to some kind of agreement, whereupon both pegasus ponies resumed flying towards Applejack. “What was that all about?” asked Applejack, wary of what could be going on considering who she was in the presence of. “Dust says she needs to talk to you about something,” said Rainbow, evidently still not trusting of her former wingpony, “although I doubt it’s about what she’s owed you for over a year.” “I know, I know,” hastily replied Lightning Dust, although instead of her normal standoffish nature she currently seemed anxious. Admittedly, the last time she’d been in Ponyville was during something akin to a mid-life crisis, having been tricked by Sable Loam into challenging Applejack to a race she couldn’t possibly have won, and then trying to beat up Applejack only in turn to have been maimed by the enraged werewolf. She’d then spent time recovering in Ponyville General, but the second her wing had healed up to the point she could fly she skipped town in the middle of the night. “Let me guess, you’re here to challenge me to another race?” mocked Applejack. While the race had revealed Applejack’s secret to Lightning Dust, the pegasus couldn’t blackmail Applejack with the truth since she was no longer a werewolf. “Please, this is important!” pleaded the aquamarine mare.  “Look, I know I was in the wrong for the whole thing with the race and the fighting and all, Celestia knows what I was thinking at the time, and while it’s far overdue and you have absolutely every right to ignore what I say, I honestly, deeply and truly, am sorry for everything.” Applejack said nothing, studying the out of character hotshot mare in front of her. Admittedly, compared to the complete mess LD had been a year ago, she was looking far better. Her coat, mane, and tail looked well kept, wings weren’t in need of preening, her breath didn’t smell like stale liquor, really the only sign anything was still wrong was the rings under her eyes. While they weren’t nearly as bad as they had been, they still were evidence that she wasn’t sleeping well. However, at the same time the look in LD’s eyes couldn’t mean anything else other than her being completely honest with her apology. “To be honest, Ah kinda forgot about that whole thing, ‘cause Ah was goin’ through some rough stuff mahself, as you probably found out.” “Yeah…” Lightning looked away from Applejack, which immediately tipped the Earth pony off there was something more too why Dust was here, something involving Applejack’s lycanthropy. Rainbow noticed as well. “Hey, if it’s about the fact you explicitly told Iron Will about Applejack being a werewolf after I explicitly told you not to tell anypony, that was a year ago and in the end things only ended as positively as they had because he'd known the truth, so I don’t have any reason to still be mad at you. Even though I did expect you to have at least apologized a long time ago.” “Yeah…” replied Dust again, “I don’t expect either of you, or anypony else for that matter, to respect my reasons for taking this long, but the truth is that I couldn’t bring myself to talk to any of you face-to-face until now. The whole business back at Wonderbolt Academy? Yes, I was a total pain in the rear and I deserved to get kicked out, but even then I still had more respect for myself in some way or another because my focus was more on making me look better than anypony else. But when I challenged you to a race, Applejack, I ended up wanting to actually hurt somepony, and for nothing more than bragging rights that truly meant nothing to me! I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror after I got out of the hospital, so how would I expect ponies like you two, who I’ve wronged multiple times, to even listen to an apology from a pony who had even less respect for herself then you did?” Rainbow, much to her surprise as much as Dust’s and Applejack’s, found herself compelled to wrap a wing around the other pegasus. “Well, you look much better than you were before, Dust, and you’ll find no ill will from anypony around here if you truly have turned over a new leaf.” Shockingly, Dust just shook her head sadly and used her own wings to move off Rainbow’s. “Like I can believe that, too bad karma decided that’s not going to happen for me.” It was then Applejack remembered Lightning Dust was living in Baltimare. “LD…are you stayin' in a local hotel or somethin’? Baltimare is a mite far to fly in a single day, even just one way, but you don’t have any luggage or anythin’” “Yeah, now that you mention it…” added Dash, scratching her head with a hoof. “I’m staying at the Traveler’s Retreat," answered Dust, "money is tight for me right now because Baltimare’s government is having some kind of financial shutdown and, while most of the weather team got furloughed, I was outright replaced by somepony who doesn’t get drunk and pick fights with ‘timberwolves’, if you know what I mean. Since then I’ve been managing a living by working through a temp agency, but I can’t even do that anymore because…well…because of my condition.” “Condition?” simultaneously asked AJ and RD. “Here, look at my teeth,” said Lightning, promptly opening her jaw to show her pearly whites. Immediately, Applejack noted the four fang-like incisors, causing her heart to sink in recognition of LD’s ‘condition’. Rainbow, meanwhile, just turned pale and barely found enough of her voice to say “Y-you’re…” Dust closed her mouth. “Yeah, can’t say I don’t deserve it, after all I’ve done. And no, I haven’t bitten anypony else, or frankly actually really changed all that much besides what you just saw, which I myself found a week ago. I immediately came to Ponyville since if anypony would be able to tell me if I was becoming what you and that…whoever it was Iron Will paraded around the corpse of… had been, it would be you. Then, yesterday, I somehow found myself at that meat restaurant here in town. With some kind of meat sandwich in front of me.” “And you not only ate it, but you liked it, even though it was meat,” finished Applejack, shuddering at the resurfacing memory of the day right before she had first turned, “ Ah did the same thing, although the immediate result of that probably was a lot worse in comparison.” “Like? I loved it!” emphasized Lightning Dust, now apparently on the verge of crying, “It was then I knew I was becoming a werewolf like you, since I’d never gone near meat in my life before then.” Rainbow immediately moved in front of Applejack, once again becoming her bodyguard. “So is that why you’re here? For revenge on Applejack for making you a werewolf?” Lightning quickly shook her head, “No, nothing of the sort! Honestly, I think it was that other guy, the one who goaded me into that race challenge in the first place, who you guys said was a werewolf. I still don’t remember what happened after that drinking contest since I blacked out at some point, for all I know he could have bitten me then and I’m only now showing the signs.” She then bolted over to grasp Applejack with her forelegs, knocking Rainbow out of the way. “Please, Applejack, you’ve somehow managed to keep living like a normal pony despite having this curse, you gotta help me!” “Ah…Ah’m sorry, Dust, but….” Applejack gulped; this wasn’t going to be easy. “Ah’m not a werewolf no more. Haven’t been for about a year now.” “You…you managed to cure yourself?! How?!” “Well, Ah, um…had to kill Sable Loam. Apparently the only way to cure yourself of lycan-whatever it is, you gotta kill the werewolf who turned you.” Lightning said nothing as her deathgrip loosened, letting Applejack go. The look on her face, Rainbow noted, was a more morose version of her expression when she’d been kicked out of the Wonderbolt Training Program.“So…so basically I’m completely and totally bucked?”she whimpered. “No, you’re not,”Rainbow insisted, as if having an epiphany, “Back when AJ was still a wolf, some of our friends had gone up to the Crystal Empire-“ “What does that have to do with this?” interrupted Lightning. Rainbow shot Dust a dirty look for having interrupted, “Because King…uh, what was his name…King Sofa was the one who created the werewolf curse, so be quiet and listen. Where was I? Oh, right. Apparently King Salvo had recorded a bunch of research about werewolves in the castle, which our friends found, which mentioned that the dark magic powering the curse is basically able to be transferred into another pony through a deep bite which comes into contact with the victim’s blood. However, pegasus ponies like us have thinner blood since we usually live in thinner parts of the upper atmosphere, so that could be slowing the curse as shown by you only recently showing any of the effects.” “H-how do you know all that?” asked a slackjawed Applejack. Lightning raised an eyebrow at the orange pony. “She’s a weather manager, if somepony gets hurt on her watch she needs to know basic medical information like that. Seriously, she may be hardheaded but she’s not stupid.” She then turned back to Rainbow. “But that still doesn’t answer why I’m possibly still not condemned to being a flying wolf monster.” “No, it doesn’t.” answered Rainbow, “But it means Princess Egghead most likely will know what to do. Follow me!” With that, Rainbow dashed into the air, Lightning not far behind, both pegasus ponies heading in the direction of Golden Oaks. Applejack watched the two fly off into town, then just sighed while sadly shaking her head. “Nopony deserves to suffer from bein’ a werewolf,” she said to herself, “no matter what they’ve done.” __ Raspberry Beryl bid farewell to Cashmere and Ascot for the time being, then left through the main door into the night before her. Heliodor was already waiting, using his own magic to become a small beacon of light to guide the way. Traveling by night would be dangerous once the duo were out of Ponyville’s limits, since they were going right into the Everfree as it was the most direct route to their destination. But between Heliodor’s natural weaponry as a bird of prey and Raspberry’s experience in having had to spend many nights in the past alone in dangerous conditions, they were more than up to the task. It was also for the best if nopony was around to stop them and ask just where they were going, since Raspberry wanted to keep her source of gems a secret lest other gem hunters deprive her of the means of her employment, and at night there was nopony except a lone guard or two Raspberry could easily avoid. With Heliodor now perched like a sentient lamp on the unicorn’s horn, they were like a glowing spirit moving through the silent town. Razz couldn’t help but find it weird how the town could be so full of life during the day, yet at night the town was basically dead save for a few nighttime activities scattered all over the settlement. With her ever-faithful pet lighting up the night, the unicorn couldn’t help but feel like it was an apt reflection of her journey through life. She, a lost light, navigating through a sea of homes that, while on the inside would be cozy and friendly, were barred from anybody on the outside coming in and their dark states unwelcoming. Almost as if in desperation, she quickly turned to look in the direction of the Traveler’s Retreat. In contrast to the town, the Retreat was lit up, a beacon in its own right that symbolized the thing Raspberry had always been looking for both metaphorically and literally. It was a place where she could go and feel at home, where she would feel wanted by ponies who didn’t care who she was. In fact, she knew it was dangerous for her to have even accepted becoming a more permanent resident of the Retreat, because if the truth ever got out it would destroy what Cashmere and Ascot had spent years building up. But it won’t happen, mentally swore Raspberry, who in her renewed determination turned away from the warm light and surged forward into the darkness. I’ve already told Princess Twilight more about the truth than anypony has ever known outside of Lonesome Dove, maybe if I can truly feel like I’ve gained her trust then she will be able to help me finally face the past. In her thoughts, she almost missed the darting shape of two fillies with what looked like bags. Curious, she moved to follow them while Heliodor, instantly picking up on what his mistress was doing, extinguished his light to hide them among the darkness. After navigating a few twists and turns without the fillies noticing, Raspberry could see they were somehow going around collecting all the cats from around town in their bags. “Why are they collecting everypony’s cats…or rather how are they luring the cats out?” rhetorically asked Raspberry of her pet. He in turn bent down and made a shrugging motion to indicate he didn’t know either. Then, suddenly, a ghostly figure emerged through a solid wall right in front of the fillies. The gray one seemed a bit jumpy, as if she wasn’t totally expecting it, while the pink filly with the tiara seemed impatient. But the ghost…Raspberry couldn’t help but slowly back away in fear at the apparition. It was if Applejack had not only become ethereal, but changed her color scheme and cutie mark…and become a werewolf. There was a faint aura of darkness around the ghost, similar to what Raspberry had felt around Apple Bloom, and the implications of which were not good for Raspberry. She quickly turned and fled, Heliodor having already taken flight behind a building as to not be spotted until he was well away from Raspberry as to divert attention from any prying eyes. “Who was that?” asked Fair Vista, motioning with her head towards where moments ago Raspberry Beryl had been watching them. Diamond looked in the indicated place, seeing nothing. “Who?” “Unicorn mare, raspberry colored coat, two tone mane of sky blue and purple.” Silver Spoon just shook her head. “Oh, that’s Raspberry Beryl, don’t worry about her. She’s always skittish around everypony, chances are she’ll probably just think she was hallucinating this. Nopony would believe she saw a werewolf ghost and the two richest fillies going around kidnapping all the cats in town, especially considering where they’re all going.” Vista, however, wasn’t so easily dismissive of having been observed. “Why was she out this late?” Tiara snorted impatiently. “She’s going off to go visit her ‘secret source’ of gems. She’s a gem monger by trade, but instead of big stones she just sells cheap gem shards that most ponies around here use for light decoration on their own crafted goods. Really the only thing interesting about her is that she has a green phoenix for a pet.” That caught Vista’s attention. “A green phoenix, you say?” “Yeah, everypony thinks he’s just a fake and whoever sold the bird to Raspberry duped her pretty hard, but nopony has the heart to tell her the truth.” “Hmm. Well, it is a sort of kindness, in a way, letting her live her ignorance in bliss. As it is, she doesn’t seem to pose any threat to us as you said, Silver, so let’s hurry up with these cats.” __ At the same time, a visibly shaken Lightning Dust was checking out of the Traveler’s Retreat. “Ms. Dust, are you quite alright?” asked the worried Cashmere. “Y-yes, I’m fine, perfectly fine!” unconvincingly answered the pegasus as she moved to try and sign the checkout book with the quill in her shaking hoof. A sky blue one moved and lowered Dust’s forelimb, taking the pen and signing the book instead. “Everything is going to be fine, Dust,” calmly reassured Rainbow, who currently wore a saddlebag full of Lightning Dust’s worldly possessions. It was depressingly light considering it contained everything Lightning Dust owned. “I don’t mean to be rude,” interjected Ascot, “but if she’s going to be like that all night, she shouldn’t be out at night. Who knows what might happen.” “Don’t worry, Mr. Ascot. Dust here, she…she’s been diagnosed with a rare disease, super rare. Don’t worry, it’s not contagious, Princess Twilight herself diagnosed it due to it being magical in origin so you have a royal guarantee it’s not contagious. However, the princess also wants Dust to be moved to a more private location, away from the public, so I’m taking her to my cloud house for observation and basic living necessities.” “Oh, that’s a relief,” commented Cashmere. “I’m sure she’ll be in good hooves with you, Ms. Dash.” In truth, while technically Lightning Dust did have a magical-based disease that wasn’t contagious in the normal sense, the proprietors of the Retreat did not need to know she was in fact living on limited time as Twilight had told Dust it was still up in the air whether or not she could be cured simply by raw magic intervention. She’d also been told that as it was extremely unlikely she had the same blood mutagen Applejack had, it was almost a guarantee that the unlucky pegasus would eventually devolve into a wild wolf with no memory of her life as a pony. There was still a chance at salvation, with Twilight doing a somewhat poor job of hiding her glee at being able to research a live specimen of pony who was gradually falling victim to a centuries old curse, but Lightning had to remain around Ponyville for observation reasons along with making sure things didn’t go out of hand. Fearing Dust might go feral the same way she’d, ironically, made Applejack lose control during that one brawl and end up maiming more ponies who would become werewolves as well, Rainbow put herself at risk by offering her own spare bedroom. “Dash…” said Dust, both pegasi having left the hotel and taken wing up to Rainbow’s private estate. “What, Dust?’ answered Loyalty incarnate. “Why are you doing this?” “You mean me letting you crash at my pad?” “Yeah. And don’t say because it’s to get me out of public view. I know it’s more than that.” “And you know what it is, too.” Rainbow looked over at Dust, who had started tearing up again, evidently having not expected this much hospitality from Rainbow. “Back at the academy, we were made partners, with you being the leader. We didn’t part ways on good terms, not then and not after your ‘timberwolf’ incident. But anypony can see you’ve tried to improve, with life having dealt you a pretty crappy hand of cards, and since Spitfire made me the leader, I can’t let my wingpony down.” “B-but I’m not even a wingpony. I’m a-“ “Do not finish that sentence,” ordered Rainbow Dash, swooping over and taking Dust’s face into her own hooves, “and don’t say you don’t deserve a second chance. Everypony does. Even if you are probably going to end up being the same pain in the rear I knew back at the academy.” For the first time that day, Dust finally found a reason to flash a smile, a mischievous one at that. “Only if you’re the insufferable jerk that I knew at the same time.” “You’re out of line, cadet!” playfully retorted Rainbow, glad to see Dust finding something to laugh about. “We’ll see who’s out of line when I prove I’m faster than you!” Dust challenged, taking off before Rainbow could even respond. “Oh, it’s on now, furball!” shouted Rainbow in acceptance of the challenge, shooting off in chase of her old rival once again. __ The next morning, Apple Bloom was fast asleep in her room, snoring as usual, but then she smelled something unusual. “Mrrrr…” she lightly growled in her sleep, “cats…Ah smell…cats…” Indeed, for whatever reason she was dreaming of there being cats close enough to her that she could smell them. A while ago she didn’t mind one way or another about the creatures, but thanks to her current state of being part supernatural canine she had grown increasingly irate at felines for some reason. The fact the smell was only getting stronger made her angry, to which she bared her teeth that had already partially shifted to become sharper. Then she woke up from being so angry and opened her eyes, turning anger into total shock. Somehow, her room had suddenly become packed from floor to ceiling with the entire cat populace of Ponyville. And every single one of them immediately realized the yellow, red haired werewolf was trapped in the same room. Outside the Apple Family homestead, Winona looked up at the windows to Apple Bloom’s room, having been drawn from the extremely loud cacophony of feline meowing and whining, and now trying to use a non-sapient animal form of pantomiming to communicate with Opal, who was trapped in that room and pressed against the window glass. Unfortunately, in trying to move her limbs around, she accidentally released the window latch on the inside, causing the window to burst open from the pressure of pussycats. Winona barely managed to avoid getting caught up in the waterfall of cats pouring out of the upper story window.