A Hairier Problem: Rise of the Furball

by BlueBastard


Ch.17: What a Fright!

Rise of the Furball Chapter 17: “What a Fright!”


“W-what are we doin’, exactly?” stammered Babs. She wouldn’t ever admit it, her pride as a Manehatten mare demanded as such, but she was legitimately scared.

“Don’t you do Nightmare Night in the city?” asked Sweetie.

“Well, yeah, what town doesn’t? I’m sure every pony town has young fillies and colts do this ritual thing where we offer candy for Nightmare Moon to eat instead of us. Only in Manehatten it’s done in Strawberry Fields, or rather during Nightmare Night when it’s known as ‘Spookscary Fields’, with one of the art sculptures made to look like Nightmare Moon through illusion magic. And you can still see the lights of the skyscrapers above the treeline during the event, too.”

“Aw, come on!” replied Scootaloo, “it’s not that bad. The path is protected by magical wards and is still pretty close to Ponyville, so we’re safe. Plus, it is Nightmare Night, being scared is part of the fun!”

“Don’t forget, Babs…” added Apple Bloom, “Ah’d say the most dangerous thing isn’t in the woods.” For the briefest of seconds, she grinned at Babs with teeth far too sharp to belong in a typical filly’s mouth.

“Y-yeah, I guess…” was all Babs could say, although oddly enough, the fact Apple Bloom had jokingly reminded Babs of her “other form” helped the non-local filly relax a little, since she knew if something bad happened Apple Bloom wouldn’t hesitate to protect her kin.

“Miss Zecora,” piped up a young colt, most of his coat covered by his ninja costume but his inconstant Trottingham accent betraying his identity, “is Princess Luna going to be coming this year?”

"Dear Pip, sadly she must stay in Canterlot - she cannot play," answered the shamaness, who looked fearsome in her costume, that of a traditional Zebrababwean tribal warrior.  "I'm sure however, she misses you, and knows quite well you miss her too.  But just because Luna is not here does not mean there's naught to fear.  This night is dark and filled with spooks and at a glance, they'll still want to play and prance!"

It seemed like the young colt had more to say, but another part of the group exclaimed the statue was within sight. Zecora quickly gathered her charges around, with a few other older ponies serving to help keep the kids in line. Mainly, the Princess and her friends, except Raspberry in place of Pinkie for undisclosed reasons.

“So, wait, they sacrifice candy to the statue?” inquired Raspberry, who was the only pony of the entire group who was new to the holiday.

Rarity nodded. “Yes, it’s silly, but Zecora is a natural at making the kids really frightened, Pinkie isn’t even allowed back here during this because of what happened that one time with Princess Luna.”

“But, isn’t Nightmare Moon-“

“Yes, they’re technically the same, but after her restoration – and yes, I know she was restored, I was there you know – she chose to make her first public re-appearance during Nightmare Night in the middle of the candy offering ritual. From what I know it…got messy.”

Raspberry was surprised, “You mean you weren’t here for that Nightmare Night?”

“I actually fell ill with the choke around that time, so I was bedridden during the event. I didn’t even have the strength to make a costume so I could hand out treats, my cousin Sky Skimmer had to be my caretaker as she was the only pony readily available who had had the choke before and so would be immune to catching it again. It’s a shame she was stuck tending to me, though, and not being able to come see Zecora’s show.”

Raspberry would have asked further had it not been for the sudden onset of a green mist covering everything in sight, leaving Rarity the only thing visible.

“Wha-what the…” started the red unicorn, only to be frozen in shock as the ghostly form of Nightmare Moon lept out from the mist as if to swallow her whole. She took several steps back out of surprise and fear, her magic only held at bay by Heliodor (who had remained strangely quiet during the whole thing) lightly gripping her horn harder. Taking the hint, she immediately realized that ‘Nightmare Moon’ was only a projection around Zecora, a magical puppet, about a second before the zebra dropped the disguise to give a knowing wink to the unicorn pair, then brought the puppet back up to go scare the young ponies. Raspberry had to admit, Zecora was really good at scaring ponies, even though the full effect had been lost thanks to the fact she knew a thing or two about illusion spells.

“As you can see, she puts on quite the show!” laughed Rarity, good naturedly.

Suddenly, a low, guttural growl came from around the clearing, prompting the older ponies to immediately tighten the circle around the group.

“Wh-what was that?!” whimpered Fluttershy.

“Ah don’t like the sound of that…” replied Applejack, taking a stance Applebloom noted was slightly similar to that of a wolf getting ready to pounce. She shrunk back slightly, one of the few subconscious traces of Applejack’s lycanthropy reminding her of what had permanence with her own condition as a werewolf.

However, despite her initial expression of determination like everypony else, Rainbow caught something shine for the briefest of a moment from behind the statue, where nopony was looking. Lightning Dust, in her wolf form, gave a sly wink to Rainbow before taking a few pieces of candy from in front of the statue and silently bounding away into the depths of the Everfree.

“I don’t know what you all are doing, but I didn’t hear anything!” mock-chided Rainbow. She immediately caught the glare from Twilight, to which she simply mouthed Lightning Dust. The placated alicorn was surprised to learn who it had been, but with a smile and a wink she played along.

“Yeah, it might just have been all your little pony minds imagining things.”

“B-but that had to have been a timberwolf!” exclaimed one of the fillies, with several others acting in agreement.

“What did you hear, Apple Bloom?” asked Sweetie, but in a way such that the non-Crusader ponies wouldn’t hear.

“It was definitely a wolf, but not one Ah’ve ever heard of,” the filly carefully answered.

Then a second howl sounded out, this time one Rainbow indicated to Twilight she didn’t know the source of.

“Quickly, everypony, to Ponyville we must away!” shouted Zecora, immediately getting Twilight’s pantomimed message, ”To escape the wrath of Nightmare Moon without delay!”

In the ensuing chaos that was a herd of scared little ponies (who thought this was all staged and not an actual situation where they were in danger), barely held together by the older ponies, it wasn’t easy keeping track of everypony. Indeed, once they got back to Ponyville, Spike immediately pointed out a certain Daring Do villain who was consciously absent from the otherwise all-present group.

“W-where’s Apple Bloom!?” cried out Applejack, fearing the worst and practically ready to jump back into the Everfree if need be.

“We don’t know!” responded Babs for the rest of the Crusaders, “she was with us last we checked!”

“Hey, wait a second…” realized Fluttershy, “wasn’t Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon supposed to be part of the group?”

The sudden sound of Diamond Tiara screaming not too far away gave everypony a fright.

“Zecora, Applejack, Rainbow, with me!” ordered Twilight, “everypony else, you stay right here!” The princess having taken charge, she and the three others of her group galloped off to investigate.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” whined Scootaloo.


Damn, these biscuits are really good, thought Lightning, who had stumbled upon several such confections just lying around in the Everfree. She’d tried to shadow the group after that unknown, second howl scared them off, but she couldn’t keep up without blowing her cover. Then she found the first treat. Having dropped the candy so she wouldn’t be hindered by them when running, she was in the mood to eat something and she eagerly popped the thing in her mouth. It was some kind of meat flavored dog biscuit, and it was delicious.

Then she found another one.

And another.

Turns out somepony had left them lying around all over the place. As Lightning practically gorged herself on them, it never occurred to her why somepony would have done that in a place like the Everfree, she was only thinking about how delicious they were.

Seriously need to remember to ask Dash to pick me up a few dozen bags of these ,said Dust in a whisper to herself as she reached for yet another treat. But her hoof stopped right above it as she heard something else moving through the woods.  Darting for cover behind a large tree trunk, Dust carefully peeked her head around to see who else was there.

To her surprise, it was Apple Bloom. She looked lost, presumably having been shoved away from the main group. She was heading in the right direction of town, though, so Lightning decided to shadow her to keep off any dangers until the filly was clear of danger.

Then Apple Bloom saw one of the dog biscuits. She picked it up, sniffed it…and then ate it. Lightning was dumbfounded. Did Apple Bloom really just eat a meat flavored dog treat? The answer came quickly enough as Apple Bloom eagerly hopped over to another treat and ate it as well. What was going on here?

Unfortunately, as Lightning moved closer, she made the amateur’s mistake of unknowingly stepping on a branch. The resulting snap echoed through the forest like the retort from a large bore cannon. Apple Bloom’s head snapped in the direction of the noise, looking right into Dust’s eyes. Fortunately for the green werewolf, her natural orange eyes were the only thing Apple Bloom could see, the rest of her too shrouded in darkness to be identified. Even so, Lightning subconsciously moved back to hide her cutie mark behind the tree as she took pride in it, the fact lycanthropy was taking away that part of her identity being no small part of embarrassment.

But none of that mattered, as Lighting would have willingly revealed her dark secret to Apple Bloom if it meant keeping her safe. Which was something she’d done the opposite of as Apple Bloom immediately took off in the opposite direction. At the very least, it was in the direction of Ponyville, so everything was going to be alright.


“What were you two doing in the Everfree?!” demanded Rainbow. The scream had come from Diamond alright, whereupon it was quickly discovered she’d done something in the Everfree as evidenced by the Poison Joke pollen on her hooves, the otherwise inexplicable absence of her cutie mark, and her hysterics over losing her cutie mark. She couldn’t be brought down from her hysterics, so Zecora took her to Ponyville General. But Silver was still around, her face clearly nervous and indicative she knew the truth.

“I..I…” she stammered. If she told the truth, it would be the end of everything between her and Diamond. The end of the one friendship she had. Trying to make any new friends was out of the question since she knew everpony only saw her in a bad light, the same as Diamond. She’d be all alone, but after everything she’d been through with Diamond…

“Wait, stop!” suddenly cried Rarity.

As Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, and Silver looked, the three crusaders were charging towards Silver, with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Raspberry quickly giving chase. They were not fast enough, however, to stop Babs from tackling the crippled Silver.

“Where’s my cuz!?” she demanded, giving SS a death glare while holding up Silver with her hooves, Scootaloo and Sweetie looking disdainfully at the gray bully from either side.

“B-but how-“ sputtered Silver.

“’Cuz Diamond Tiara thinks my cuz is a werewolf and I can see it in your face you think so, too, which is givin’ me a pretty good idea as to what happened!” she seethed. Silver no longer cared about werewolves at that point: the Manehatten native, who was slightly older and much larger than Silver, was a much more clear and present danger. The cast on her leg was bad enough; she didn’t need to lose another pair of glasses thanks to Tiara’s machinations.

“Diamond made me promise…” whined the bespectacled filly.

“Did you Pinkie Promise?” said Pinkie, suddenly appearing from the sky above, the means of how this was done unclear as Silver could only see a small part of Pinkie’s neck from the top of her vision.

“N-no…”

“Oh, then you probably should tell us what’s going on!” Pinkie’s tone was unsettlingly cheerful as she bounced over in line with her friends. Rarity also lit her horn, separating Silver from Babs’s ever-increasing death grip of anger.

“This better not have anythin’ to do with that dumb idea mah sister is a monster, since that’s what Ah’ve been hearin’ has been goin’ round thanks to Rich’s filly.” Angrily stated Applejack. Silver noticed the momentary reactions from the crusaders, more so Scoot and Sweetie than Babs, but it was enough to confirm to her that they’d known Apple Bloom’s secret.

Taking a deep breath, mainly to try to stop from crying, Silver was at a loss as to what to say right up until Babs stepped forward. “I think I can get her to talk, cousin Applejack.”

AJ’s eyes narrowed at the perceived implications, the other ponies sans Raspberry readying their wings or magic or what-have-they to stop the expected fight if need be.

Babs just rolled her eyes. “It’s not going to end up like that! Just let me have a quick, private moment with Silver here, me along with Scootaloo and Sweetie, and we’ll get this sorted out.”

A curt, but impatient nod from Applejack got the other ponies to stand down, with Babs hauling Silver behind a corner, Scoot and Sweetie following. The moment they were out of hearing range, Babs pinned Silver with her back to the wall. “What did you do?”

The fear was evident in Silver’s eyes, the gray filly knew that much, but surprisingly she could see that behind the anger in the eyes of the Crusaders, they too had fear. Concern, worry, trepidation, all those kinds of emotions which indicated they cared about Apple Bloom despite the truth. And much more than Diamond Tiara, who had been single-minded in her approach to getting Apple Bloom into trouble. Only then did Silver realize the entire scope of the plan still wasn’t evident to her, which couldn’t mean anything good for anypony.

“Please, I’ll talk! Just…just answer one or two things for me, okay?” begged Silver, the tears starting to come out.

Scoot tapped Babs, indicating the larger filly should let her victim go. Babs did so, reluctantly, but at least eased off so Silver wouldn’t land on her bad leg too hard.

“Th-thanks…”gasped Silver. She knew she was fast approaching the point of no return, but without Diamond being around, the strength to defy the spoiled brat was slightly easier for Silver to muster up. “I just need to know…is it true? Is Apple Bloom a werewolf?”

Several tense moments of silence followed, after which to Silver’s surprise Babs spoke up again. “Yes.”

“A-and did she do that thing that one night?”

“Yeah, she did,” Sweetie confirmed.  “She didn’t mean any real harm from it, though, and she felt really bad about what happened afterwards. It wasn’t supposed to make Diamond hate her, or us, more than usual.”

Then Scoot jumped in. “But she’s not a mindless monster. She’s still the same pony, even if she isn’t exactly totally a pony anymore. Heck, she doesn’t want to be a werewolf, but there’s no cure, so she’s stuck having to keep it a secret.”

“The Crusaders were the only ones who knew.  Even then because I’m family to her, it took time for me to be let in on the secret,” Babs added, with a shrug.

Silver took her time formulating a response. She knew that with every second she wasted, it was a second used up in delaying any rescue attempts for Apple Bloom. But for all that Silver desperately valued her friendship with Diamond Tiara, if it could even be called friendship at that point, it was clear that in order to maintain that relationship, Silver would play accomplice to whatever horrors Apple Bloom might have been going through that second, having kept the much stronger friendships Apple Bloom had from being able to help her in this time of greatest need.

“Okay, I’ll explain to everypony what’s happened,” Silver Finally agreed, “but promise me one thing, okay?”

“What?” grunted Babs.

“Please…don’t hate me after this.”

“And why not?” challenged Scootaloo, “after all you and Diamond have done to us? After whatever you’re keeping everypony away from except Apple Bloom?”

“You need to understand…Diamond is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a true friend, but after this…after I say what I’m going to say…I’m burning the bridges between her and I. There’s going to be nopony left who will want to associate with me after I betray her aside from my parents. I don’t want to be alone, but…I can’t stand by Tiara any longer. So please, after all is said and done, don’t hate me. I have enough regrets as it is.”

“Silver…” began Sweetie, “what you’re doing is right. And if there’s anything I’ve learned from my sister being an Element Bearer, it’s that friendship can be found wherever you look. You just need to try. But right now we need to know where Apple Bloom is and what exactly you and Tiara did before it’s too late!”

“Right!” With newfound vigor having come from the most unexpected of places, Silver walked out from behind the corner wall. Followed by the crusaders, she walked with a confidence she hadn’t felt in years. She could only hope her change of heart was in time.


Apple Bloom stood there, frozen in place, as she looked on in horror at the thing before her. It was a ghostly apparition of some green mare, two-tone mane and hair of sky blue and yellow, but the conveyed feeling of spring was overwhelmed by the unnatural aspects brought on by the spirit being a werewolf. The cutie mark, which was of two hills framing something that couldn’t be seen from a distance due to the fading, was unsettlingly at odds with how it seemed to be calm and peaceful, compared to the gaze of the glowing pink eyes at the head of the beast.

Worst of all, however, was the fact the thing in front of Apple Bloom vaguely looked like Applejack. Which could only mean one thing.

“Y-y-you’re…” stuttered Apple Bloom, slowly taking a step back, “…you’re F-fair Vi-vista…”

“At least you know of me, that saves me the trouble of introducing myself,” replied the undead werewolf, casually stepping forward to maintain the same distance between her and the filly at all times, “That actually is quite a relief, since you probably have a good idea of how hard it would to explain it in terms your little head would understand.”

“B-but how? You’re d-dead!”

Vista rolled her eyes. “I noticed.”

Apple Bloom’s progress backwards was halted by her hindleg hitting the base roots of a large tree directly behind her. While she wasn’t totally cornered, trying to dart off to either side would just leave her open to whatever the ghost was here to do. “W-whatdy’a want from me?”

“It’s actually quite simple, really,” Vista said, flipping her mane to the other side of her neck with a swift head snap, “Your sister, Applejack, killed Sable Loam on top of my grave. I don’t know how or why I have come back, nor how you managed to be blessed with lycanthropy unless Applejack bit you as well, though I highly doubt it, but all things happen for a purpose.”

“Ah’m not exactly seein’ your point…”

“Oh for…do I really have to spell it out for you?!”

“Yes.” Apple Bloom couldn’t help but smile as the undead werewolf facehoofed in irritation at how stubborn she was being.

“I’m dead, you’re not, and we’re both werewolves.” Vista growled, her patience having worn thin, “obviously, you’re supposed to be my new body.”

“Wait, what?!” shouted Apple Bloom, shocked at the not-really-that-clear conclusion Vista seemed to have come to.

“Well, I know enough about my state that I can’t last like this forever, so I need a host body. As it stands, you’re the only werewolf left alive, so I don’t exactly have a choice, do I?”

In a split second, Vista then lunged at the frozen Apple Bloom, the ghost then realizing she didn’t really know how the whole possession thing was supposed to work. That problem quickly became irrelevant when an aquamarine blur shot out in a perpendicular direction and shoved Apple Bloom out of the way. All Vista hit was the displaced red hat the filly had been wearing, before slamming face first into the tree in front of her. Contrary to expectations, Fair Vista had discovered that she could solidify her form temporarily to interact with the physical world, limited to only a few seconds but better than nothing. That said, she probably shouldn’t have made herself subject to the mortal realm’s forces when going after Apple Bloom, for just as she could affect the world in those few seconds, it could affect her. Painfully.

Off to the side, Apple Bloom was even more horrified. Her rescuer had been another werewolf. Except this one was actually alive. She’d been lucky enough to avoid possession, but that had been luck, which might really have been bad luck as this new werewolf was a Pegasus, which meant she was even faster than anything Apple Bloom could expect. Then she recognized the colors of the werewolf, they were the same as the one pegasus who had ended up trying to pick a fight with Applejack and lost.

“L-Lightning Dust?” uttered Apple Bloom, unable to manage anything louder than a whisper.

“I’ll explain later!” said Dust, not wanting to waste any more time. Flaring her wings, she quickly hovered up and effortlessly righted the filly. “Just run! Go! Get out of here!” Whoever that ghost pony/werewolf thing was, it was already recovering from the impact and Dust wasn’t going to let it have a second chance at Apple Bloom.

“But what about you?” asked Apple Bloom, worried about what her rescuer intended to do.

“Don’t worry about me, just GO!” half-screamed, half-barked Dust, her amber eyes aglow in the moonlight. Apple Bloom didn’t need to hear anything else, she just took off running  without really knowing where she was going. Anyplace and anything would be better to deal with than her undead ancestor trying to steal her body.

Dust made sure Apple Bloom was safely away from the immediate area before turning her attention to the ghost, now recovered. “I don’t know who the hay you are, but I’m not going to let you turn her into the same kind of freak I am!”

Vista expressed surprise, and then strangely laughed. “You couldn’t tell? Or even hear that part of our conversation? I don’t need to give her the gift of lycanthropy, she already has it!”

“What?!” replied Dust, not quite able to grasp the idea Apple Bloom also was a werewolf. Then it hit her; Apple Bloom was eating the dog treats for the same reason Dust had. She liked the taste of meat.

That was also the time Vista chose to solidify again and rushed headlong into Dust, body-checking the pegasus into another tree and causing her head to snap back, hitting the trunk hard enough to knock her out cold.

“You’re a disgrace to our kind, bitch!” growled Vista, “but, fortunately for both of us, you are a far better choice as a host then that filly, and I must admit I’ve always wondered what it’s like to have wings.” Try as she might, however, she couldn’t seem to possess the winged werewolf.

 Vista couldn’t understand why, she’d felt like she could easily have possessed Apple Bloom, but this pegasus she was unfamiliar with wasn’t giving off the same feeling. Maybe it had something to do with physical compatibility? Being an earth pony ghost, maybe the only kind of pony she could possess was other earth ponies?

“Either way…” muttered Vista, walking over to sniff the hat. The scent of its owner was still ripe, and easily trackable no matter where the filly went. “…the hunt begins again!”


“Castle Everfree?!” half-shouted the gathered ponies in reaction to what Silver was saying.

“That’s what Tiara told me, that she was going to put out a trail of do-uh, I mean, delicious treats and candies and such in a path that would lure her away from the group and on a path leading towards the ruins.”

“But that’s impossible!” argued Rainbow, “we’ve been there dozens of times for so many different reasons, there’s no way Diamond could have secretly placed a trail all the way from the Nightmare Night trail to the ruins, even without leaving the candy the time she’d need to make a round trip simply is too much!”

“Well, maybe she only did it part way, I only remember something about how ‘the ghost’ would meet her halfway.”

“The ‘ghost’? Seriously?” said Scootaloo, incredulously, “you’re not talking about what I think you’re talking about, are you? Everypony knows that-“

“That the story is completely made up?” snapped Silver, turning to face Scoots, “Yeah, I know that everypony knows that, so did Tiara. Everypony also knows Nightmare Moon doesn’t exist anymore now that Princess Luna is back, still doesn’t mean we don’t go to that stupid statue in the middle of the woods at night to give tribute! The whole thing is a sham, doesn’t meant we don’t still get scared of it!”

“You have a point, Silver,” said Rarity, “but what is this ‘ghost’ you speak of? Surely it’s not the one about the-“

“No, it’s not that ghost, Apple Bloom wouldn’t randomly follow some spirit deeper into the Everfree. As dumb as Tiara says the Crusaders are-“ she winced at the imagined glares the three present Crusaders were giving her, although in reality they weren’t doing such a thing – “she gives Apple Bloom that much credit for smarts.”

“Then what ghost are you talking about?” demanded Applejack, “mah sister is in danger because of you and Tiara, and while Ah appreciate you wantin’ to fix this mess Ah’d like to get to the point so we can get to the savin’ part!”

Silver took a deep breath, expecting everypony to look at her stupidly for what she was about to say. “Diamond somehow ended up in contact with some ghost – a real one- of somepony named Fair Vista. Claimed she was a werewolf or something.” The immediate increase in the tension within the assembled ponies told Silver that what she said hadn’t been stupid, only that the situation was even far worse than she’d expected.

“W-who did you say the ghost was?” stammered Applejack, having paled to the point she looked like the wonderbolt Surprise in coloration.

“Fair Vista, I-“ Silver repeated, but was suddenly grabbed by Applejack who brought her muzzle close to Silver’s.

“You’re sayin’ the ghost of somepony named Fair Vista, who claims to be a werewolf, was workin’ with Diamond Tiara, and Apple Bloom is right now in the Everfree with that monster!?”

“Y-yes?” whined Silver.

Applejack immediately dropped Silver, her emerald eyes wide but pupils almost pin-point tiny in fear. “I-impossible…”

The reactions of the other ponies was just as shocked. Except Raspberry, who after a consulting look with Heliodor still didn’t know what was going on. “I…take it this Fair Vista is a pretty bad pony?”

Applejack suddenly shot a look loaded with anger and hatred right at Raspberry, “That haridelle is the reason mah parents died! She and that bastard Sable Loam!” She immediately apologized to Raspberry for the outburst when the unicorn was evidently close to tears. It was another unicorn, however, whose reaction to the revelation would change everything.

“Wait…didn’t Apple Bloom say something about Sable Loam back at the tent when she…y’know?” whispered Sweetie to the other Crusaders. Silver seemed to gravitate over to the little grouping, but was stopped by Sweetie. “What do you think you’re doing? Haven’t you done enough?”

“Hey, give me a break, I could have told them Apple Bloom was a werewolf too, but she saved my life after the water tower thing, so I’m trying to help her out as much as I can, which I’m guessing also means letting you girls know what I know.”

“Like what?” asked Babs.

“Fair Vista liked to talk, hype herself up. Diamond ate it all up, I didn’t but in truth I was just a goon in the equation. Tiara and Vista were the ones running the show. But I did listen to her. She mentioned something about how she and somepony named Sable Loam had been the last ‘true’ werewolves or something, and that she was going to make Applejack pay for killing her lover.”

“Her lover?!” said the Crusaders in hushed unison.

“Yeah, I didn’t think things would get this bad, so I didn’t really pay much attention to what she was saying, but this whole thing…she wants revenge on Applejack through Apple Bloom somehow.”

“WHAT?!” squealed Sweetie, her face twisted in rage and attracting the attention of everypony, “You’re saying that right now Apple Bloom is possibly in the clutches of some undead pony monster thing because of some convoluted revenge plot?! One that you helped execute?!”

Silver couldn’t even look the other fillies in the eye, drooping her head down in shame. “Yes.”

“AAARRGHH!!”

Rarity, trying to calm her sister down, moved forward, “Now, now, Sweetie, I’m sure everything will be-“

“No, it’s not!” snapped back Sweetie, turning on her sister in blind rage, “Yes, it’s Silver and Tiara’s fault for setting this thing up, but we’re Apple Bloom’s friends and we failed to even keep track of her when she actually needed us the most! I…just…AAAAAHHH!” Sweetie was out of control, so much that she couldn’t stop herself from reaching up to remove her crown and throwing it down on the ground with as much force as she could muster.

The impact was enough to break off the large diamond in the middle, sending it careening off in a direction different to the now-not-quite-round headpiece it once adorned. It shortly thereafter came to a stop in front of Spike.

Everything from that point on happened so fast that barely anypony knew what was going on. Spike, having starved himself all night, couldn’t resist something as delicious looking as that diamond, impulsively snatched it up in one fell swoop to deliver it in his mouth. He could only give an apologetic look in response to the disapproving looks everypony, especially Twilight, was giving him, but when his teeth made the first fracture into the diamond, his expression quickly turned from embarrassed to panicked.

Twilight immediately grabbed the dragon in her magic and began to perform the Haymlich maneuver. After a few thrusts, the remains of the diamond were launched out of his mouth and right in the direction of the fillies, unintentionally. At first, they landed well short of Silver, the closest to Spike at the time, but then they suddenly lost their bright clarity, the beautiful pearly-white clarity fading into the illustrious shine of black obsidian. Nopony could even think about how to describe the change in color, though, they all took a large number of steps back as the shards suddenly grew into somewhat sizable crystal formations, large enough to tower over even Twilight, before they just abruptly stopped.

“Wh-what?!” shrieked Silver, who had accidently tripped and fell on her back, having had to crawl backwards to avoid the growths. “Are..are those dark crystals?!

“B-but that…” started Rarity, “that was an authentic, pure diamond, not a forgery! Wasn’t it, Raspberry?”

Only, when everypony turned to look at where Raspberry had been, she and Heliodor had vanished. On the ground were the tell-tale signs of an emergency teleport spell, along with a small number of droplets of something on the ground. Rarity realized that the droplets were what were left of teardrops. But she could not be sure if they had been Raspberry Beryl's, at least not the one she and the others had come to know so well, as Raspberry’s magic couldn’t have handled the raw power necessary for emergency teleportation.

Unless, like the diamond, Raspberry Beryl had only been what others would see, and what was really behind the external facade was something not meant for normal ponies to ever know.