Rise of the Furball Chapter 18: “Give Her Something Sweet to Bite!”
This was turning out to be one crummy night for Apple Bloom. Here she was on the scariest night of the year, running for her life from her evil great great great great great great great grandmother who was trying to possess her, Lightning Dust probably had heard enough to deduce Bloomie was a werewolf herself, her Carmine Sancaballo costume was both hatless and slowing her down, she had no idea where she was running, and worst of all she hadn’t had a single piece of candy so far.
“This Nightmare Night sucks!” she declared, running as hard as she could through the Everfree. Fortunately, there was at least a path through the forest she’d encountered that appeared well traveled, so that was what she was following. She hoped it would lead her to town or to Zecora’s; the former being someplace the ghost of Fair Vista couldn’t get her while the latter was at least a place to hide until search parties found her. Granted, the latter strategy only worked in the event Zecora’s totems actually kept out ghosts as she claimed they did.
Suddenly, the red trenchcoat caught on a thick briar, Apple Bloom’s momentum propelling her into a sideways spin while simultaneously flinging her out of the covering. Coming to a stop a few yards away, her precious lead time was eroding as she stumbled around in a daze. She managed to shake it off, but when she looked up her eyes locked onto the full moon.
Her mind having gone numb for some reason, she barely registered herself quickly removing the boots as they were the last things covering her body. With them off and discarded to the side, there was nothing to stop her from revealing her wild side and calling out to the moon.
“AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
That’s when her eyes went wide, for as she slowly regained control of herself, she realized that her howl might as well have caused the moon to shoot a spotlight that tracked her, as Fair Vista would easily be able to ascertain Apple Bloom’s location from the sound.
“Oh, me and mah big, stupid werewolf mouth!” she complained while turning tail and continuing down the path. At the very least she was going considerably faster now she was a creature of the night itself, but unless she came across someplace safe, Vista would eventually catch up to her.
She did not expect, upon cresting a small hill in front of her, for there to be a sudden drop off that gave a magnificent view. An old, rickety rope bridge crossed an otherwise endless chasm, and on the other side of that bridge lay the ruins of Castle Everfree and what remained of the former Equestriani capital.
There wasn’t much time for Apple Bloom to admire the view, however, as she suddenly felt the presence of something. She couldn’t define what it was with the presence that made her fur stand up on end, maybe it was Fair Vista, but at the same time it was different.
Either way, Apple Bloom knew her only chance at escape lay within the ancient keep, so she charged headlong over the old bridge, praying that there was some safety in what had been the cradle of Nightmare Moon herself.
Apple Bloom’s howl was heard all the way to Ponyville, where not a single soul escaped a brief shudder. Slightly closer to the castle ruins was the small group of friends from Ponyville, and they too did not take hearing the howl well as they charged forth on their rescue mission.
“W-was that…?” stammered Fluttershy.
“It wasn’t Dust, I know that much…” answered Dash, before realizing not everypony present was in on that pleasant little secret, either.
“Did you just say ‘Dust’?” inquired Rarity, pressing her attack as the normally outspoken Rainbow seemed to be getting anxious about something, “As in Lightning Dust? The same Lightning Dust who came to town looking like five hundred miles of bad road and brazenly challenged Applejack to a race because of you-know-who?”
“Y-yes…” was all the wonderbolt-hopeful could manage, knowing full well what was going to happen now.
“And, going off of you saying it wasn’t Dust who let out that howl, which implies she does howl now for some reason, am I correct in assuming that she’s a-“
“Yes, she’s a werewolf, like Ah was,” summarized Applejack, though her primary focus was on ending Fair Vista and through her, the nightmare Sable Loam seemed intent on subjecting her to even after his death.
“Then why didn’t we know about it?!” argued Pinkie, not happy that her friends had been keeping secrets from her again.
“Because that’s what she wanted, Pinkie,” explained Dash. “Initially, it was just Applejack, but I ended up privy to the information when I intercepted her in the air, thinking she was going to cause more trouble.”
“And they brought her to me because, honestly, if there was anypony who would know what to do, it was me,” added Twilight. “Unfortunately, all I could do was just observe and try to find a cure, but I only ended up making it worse somewhat by…well, I actually don’t want to talk about it.”
“Actually, I think she’s happier for it, Twilight,” Fluttershy added. “The old system we came up for Applejack back when she was a werewolf is working just fine for her, mainly just me making meatburgers to keep her hunger pangs at bay, but-”
“Now hold on a second!” exclaimed Rarity. “I can understand why this information was withheld from Pinkie and I, but even then we’ve seen what happens to us when we keep secrets from each other.”
“This is not the time for that, Rarity!” chided Rainbow, “I think rescuing Apple Bloom takes precedence over something as trivial as a little secret!”
“A little secret?! You’re telling me that there being another werewolf, a known troublemaker we’ve all had prior encounters with and now potentially could attack us all with ease, is a little secret?!”
“Considering I’ve been letting her crash on my couch for the past few weeks, I think I can safely say ‘yes’ to that.”
Apple Bloom felt her luck couldn’t get any worse. She’d reached the outskirts of the ruins, but to her dismay they were in such a bad state that they offered no real opportunities to hide from the monster who had suddenly appeared right behind Apple Bloom.
“I hope you do realize the harder you make this, the more fun it is for me…” taunted Fair Vista, emerging from the shadows and almost disappearing when she came into the presence of the moon light. “Like I said, you can’t hope to outrun me anyway; I’m dead! The physical constraints of flesh and bone no longer apply to me, so in the end you never had a ghost of a chance!” She laughed at the pun. Apple Bloom just groaned and rolled her eyes.
However, as Apple Bloom did so, for a split second she thought she saw a momentary flash of fire. Green fire. Either tonight was going to get even worse because changelings had gotten involved, or maybe there was the possibility of escape after all.
“You can’t chase what you can’t see!” yelled back the filly as she dashed away into the maze of ruins. Fair Vista did have to give the little shit some credit, this was the kind of thing that the best werewolves had been known for. The attitude still needed major fixing, though.
That didn’t matter, though, as suddenly a green bird made its presence known to her by laying down a carpet of emerald fire. Even though it couldn’t physically harm her, she still instinctively dived for cover, cursing herself for being that silly as she glared at the bird. The green phoenix let out a fearsome cry as it banked into a loose curve and began to circle her position, readying another wave of fire.
Where have I seen you before? wondered Vista as she tried to get back on track of catching Apple Bloom. She’d seen the bird before, she just couldn’t place it. The energy shield she bumped into, however, she remembered all too well.
As was the cloaked pony waiting just on the other side. The horn, lit up with dark magic, the glowing blood-red eyes, and that cloak covering most of the discernable features, it was the same mysterious pony from before. Vista once again found herself in fear of this unknown pony, but she reasoned that Apple Bloom couldn’t have come this way either because of the same fear.
But when Vista immediately turned and ran towards the center of the old capital to hunt her prey, she chanced a look back and found the cloaked pony was now actively following her. To say the pressure on Vista’s mind had just gone up was an understatement, especially when the perusing pony fired some kind of magic beam at Vista. She narrowly dodged it, not looking back to see what kind of damage it did, her mind deadest on self-preservation.
“Ah!” exclaimed Apple Bloom, as she felt something grasp her hind leg and drag her into one of the few fully enclosed structures left at the ruins. To her surprise, she found her “captor” was none other than Raspberry Beryl.
“M-Miss Raspberry?!” exclaimed Apple Bloom, stunned, before Raspberry quickly put a hoof over her muzzle, making a “shhh” noise. The filly nodded, prompting Beryl to remove her hoof. It then occurred to Apple Bloom that she was still in wolf form, but Razz hadn’t freaked out.
“Surprised?” said Raspberry in a whisper, as if she knew what Apple Bloom was thinking. “I…I’ve had my suspicions for some time about you. The aura you gave off when I first came close to you gave me some inclination, but this…” She was interrupted by the young mare immediately drawing herself to Raspberry in a tight hug. “There, there, the others are coming but…I’ll protect you.”
“But h-how? You can’t defend against ghosts!”
A beam of light suddenly shot in through an opening in the weathered wall, nearly making contact with the duo.
“I don’t think the ghost is of concern right now,” said Raspberry, as at that moment Fair Vista raced in front of what was left of the structure’s main doorway, clearly oblivious to her prey being close by. The reason for that also made itself clear, with the cloaked pony and its raging dark magic aura following the apparition a few moments later. Then Heliodor swooped in the doorway and tweeted something, but Apple Bloom didn’t understand. Razz did, though. “Heelee says there’s a safer spot a few blocks to the west, we should move.”
“Alright. But you’re sure mah sister and her friends are comin’?”
“Yeah…” answered Razz, her tone indicating to Apple Bloom that the unicorn wasn’t exactly enthusiastic of reuniting with that group anytime soon, “I’m certain they are”.
“Lightning! LIGHTNING!”
Dust groggily woke up, her head hurting like nopony’s business. Cracking her eyes open, she saw Rainbow standing over her with worry, the five other ponies she was known to hang out with standing around although Applejack was clearly extremely antsy. It still wasn’t enough to make Dust not make an obvious joke.
“What, are ya gonna kiss me now, Dashie?”
“Oh for…” groaned Rainbow, “at least that proved you’re fine.”
“Yes, if you can consider being a werewolf a ‘fine’ predicament,” commented Rarity.
Applejack snapped back, “Rares, were ya like this the whole time Ah was a lycanthrope?”
“Well, no, but-“
“But nothin’! She’s been havin’ a harder time then Ah was back then, though to be honest Ah’d have to say she’s been dealin’ with it a lot better than Ah was, too.”
“…You’re right, Applejack,” Rarity conceded. “Saying that was disrespectful to both you and Lightning Dust. I do apologize.”
“Focus, girls!” said Twilight, before turning to Lightning. “What happened?”
“I’m sure Rainbow already told you about me trying to help out with the whole ‘ritual’ thing, right?”
“Um…” mumbled the blue flyer, her face blanching somewhat.
“She told me, or at least let me know it was you that first time,” replied the alicorn, giving the rest of her friends an ‘I’ll explain later’ look, “But we need to know what happened, which I’m guessing has to do with that second howl we heard”
“Yeah, that,” answered Dust. “When the group started running from that second howl, I tried to shadow you guys so that whatever it was, I could at the very least try to keep it from attacking the kids. Didn’t get the chance, since I couldn’t keep up without giving my presence away, but I kept on going anyway. I eventually found Apple Bloom wandering on her own, probably because she accidently got pushed to the side in the madness and was disoriented.”
“Yeah, then what happened?”
“I followed her for a while, she was heading in the right direction to town fortunately so I thought it best to not make myself known to her at the time.” Dust had forgotten the whole bit about the random dog treats lying around that both she and Apple Bloom had eaten, as had the six from Ponyville forgotten Silver saying something about how Apple Bloom was to be lured by ‘treats’ left along a trail. “But then all of a sudden this ghost showed up. I know it’s stupid sounding but-“
“Fair Vista…” said Applejack, her whole body slightly trembling.
“Wait, you know her?”
“Remember Sable Loam? The werewolf who had turned me? The whole reason he’d gone for me was so Ah would be his replacement mate, originally it was Twilight but-“
“What?!” exclaimed Twilight, her wings flaring up in reaction and Spike, not strong enough to prevent it, was launched into the air only to be caught on the return fall by Rainbow, “He told you this all the way back then and only now do you mention it?!”
“Ah didn’t think you needed to know! He only wanted you at all since making you the mother of his new werewolf pack or whatever would have been as close to a direct attack on Celestia as possible, since she killed Fair Vista by mistake.”
“Let me guess,” said Dust, “he changed his mind and went for you because he found you attractive? I did notice the ghost sort of looked like a green, hatless version of you.”
“Yeah, turned out that bitch is actually some ancestor of mine, back eight generations on mah mom’s side accordin’ to Granny, it’s her immunity to the later stages of lycanthropy that probably kept me sane in the end.”
“Yeah, thanks for reminding me,” scowled Lightning.
“Uh, sorry, Ah’ll make it up to you later, but right now we need to get Apple Bloom! Do you know where she went?”
“Well, I remember they talked for a bit, then Vista lept at Apple Bloom as if to attack, but I managed to shove Apple Bloom out of the way in time. I told her to run the hell away, then…then Vista said something to me that caused my guard to be let down just enough for her to rush me into that tree. I must have hit my head pretty hard, since the next thing I know Rainbow’s trying to-“
“-resist beating you up within an inch of your life?” finished the pegasus in question. “We’re done joking around here, Dust, we need to get to Apple Bloom before Vista does!”
“Oh, right! Sorry! Um…I didn’t actually see which way Apple Bloom went, but…” Getting up, Lighting walked over to the discarded hat still lying on the ground. “…her scent is still strong, give me a second and-“
Another howl sounded out, this time it’s location unmistakable to both the werewolf and the ex-werewolf.
“They’re at the ruins!” shouted Applejack, subsequently noticing the odd looks everypony was giving her, “look, Ah howled there mahself a few times back when Ah was a werewolf, it’s a great spot to do it.”
“More importantly, we know where to go!” said Lightning, flaring her wings.
“Oh, no!” Rainbow flew in front of her former ex-wingpony, “You’re in no condition to go, especially not alone!”
“What are you talking about? I only hit my head, normally that’s not a problem anyway since I’m thick-skulled naturally and the princess told me werewolves have a faster healing rate, right?”
“Um, that’s correct…” sheepishly replied Twilight.
“See? The princess said I’m good to go. Plus, if that ghost can physically harm me, think about what she can do to the rest of you. She bites me? I just get a bloody wound that heals up somewhat faster than normal. She bits one of you? Well, you get the wound, and then you turn into what I am, and I think Applejack is in agreement with me that being a werewolf sucks.”
“Darn tootin’!”
Rainbow facehoofed. “Okay, I get it; the best counter to a werewolf is a werewolf, but…but damn it Dust, we’re practically wingponies again, except much more than we ever were back at the academy. I can’t let you rush headlong into danger, especially not when you just described how that didn’t work out for you.”
“Rainbow…” Dust put a paw on Dash’s shoulder, “you guys will be coming, anyway, but it’s better that I take a few blows such that Apple Bloom is safe, instead of all of us going as a group only to find her dead. Or worse.”
All the rest of the group other than Dash and Dust expressed their agreement.
“Besides!” Lightning boosted herself into the air, “that ghost clearly needs some help to rest in peace. Permanently.” With that, she shot off into the sky and towards the castle ruins.
“Well come on, then!” shouted Rainbow, “We can’t keep her waiting when she gets there!”
“Keep who waiting, Apple Bloom or Dustie?” chirped Pinkie, who didn’t seem to have paid any attention to the majority of the just finished discussion.
“Both of ‘em!” answered Applejack, who immediately surged forward with great speed towards Castle Everfree, her friends following suit. They could only hope it was not too late.
The situation at Castle Everfree had quickly deteriorated, which Fair Vista didn’t like. Here she was, trying to chase down that little shit Apple Bloom so she could have a physical body and, hopefully, carry out Sable Loam’s desires to resurrect the werewolves. Now the filly was accompanied by that spineless gem seller, Burpleberry Viral or something. The only way anypony from town could have possibly have known where to go was if one of the two fillies Vista had been working with, Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon, had fessed up. Vista figured the latter, she hadn’t seemed totally trustworthy from the start and was only kept in check by Tiara’s boisterous nature. If anything had happened to Tiara, which was unfortunately likely considering the chain of failures in the town, Silver would have grown a conscience and told everypony. Probably would have kept Apple Bloom’s lycanthropy a secret too, in the hopes maybe karma would be nice to her about the matter. Vista intended to prove otherwise when she got the chance.
However, none of that answered why it was the useless gem merchant who had come to the rescue and not, say, Applejack or one of the former element bearers, especially that loathsome newly crowned princess, Twilight Sparkle. Even though the green phoenix above her kept on with its intent to try and roast her to a crisp (which, while she could feel the heat, obviously didn’t affect her when she wasn’t phased in with reality).
And more worrisome than that was that damnable mysterious pony in the cloak, who seemed just as tireless as she was. Maybe it was the dark magic, but as Vista narrowly dodged another blast of dark magic, there wasn’t really time to wonder about that kind of thing. Not until Apple Bloom was hers.
“Just leave me alone!” cried Apple Bloom, leaping through the remains of a wall while the mulberry unicorn accompanying her nearly tripped over herself in vaulting over it.
“Stop trying to avoid your destiny, your body will be mine!” screamed the ghost, who was getting real sick and tired of being in the middle of the chase and the only losing party. Especially when she was being outdone by a pony who nearly defecated the first time she’d seen Vista. That wouldn’t fly with the werewolf, who grinned evilly as the plan of attack to take out said unicorn suddenly came into mind. As her quarry rounded a bend, Vista suddenly bolted to the side and disappeared through a wall.
“Do…do you think we lost her?” gasped Apple Bloom, who felt like she’d been running nonstop for hours to the point even her supernatural endurance was reaching its limits.
“I can…only…hope!” wheezed Raspberry, who had somehow managed to last running almost just as long as Apple Bloom even though unicorns were the least athletic of the three pony subspecies.
Heliodor circled above, his cawing letting Raspberry know he’d lost sight of the ghost. At the same time, the cloaked pony seemed to take a position behind a nearby wall, as if perpetually ready to attack.
“Who’s that?” asked the filly lycanthrope, instinctively moving closer to Raspberry. Whether it was to be protected by, or defend, the unicorn wasn’t quite clear to her.
“She’s…she’s a friend of mine,” carefully answered Raspberry. “I’ve known her for a while. Doesn’t talk much, but she’s taken a few blows for me in the past to help me out of a jam.”
“Really? Why hasn’t she come to town? Pinkie’s gonna be real upset if she finds out and can’t throw a party for her.”
“It’s…difficult to explain. She only shows up when there’s danger, since it tends to follow her anyway. Normally she likes to be alone, other ponies don’t really…understand who she is. They fear her, because they misunderstand.”
“Like how everypony but me was afraid of Zecora way back when?”
“I…wasn’t there for that.”
“Oh, right, erm…okay, when your friend shows up, do ponies run into their homes like there’s a flood comin’?”
Raspberry took surprisingly long to answer, sounding downcast when she did.
“Worse.”
“Oh.” Was all Apple Bloom could say. Silence followed for a few minutes until the werewolf chose to break it, “Does…does your friend have a name?”
“Yes, but she prefers to be called something other than her real name.”
“What is it?”
“It’s…” Razz took a deep breath, wondering if Apple Bloom would understand what she was about to say, “Her name is-“
“DEATH!”
In an instant, Vista virtually flew out of the wall behind Raspberry and, choosing that moment to phase into the physical world, clamped her jaws tightly around the unicorn’s throat. She let go a good minute later, but as far as she could tell the unicorn’s injuries were fatal as the blood poured from the punctured jugular, the body twitching in its death throes. There was no chance she’d get immediate medical attention, so the only two possible outcomes were actual death, or she’d begin her transformation into a werewolf.
Curiously, the unknown pony, whose name Razz had almost revealed, didn’t instantly throw burning orbs of dark magic at the ghost. Instead, it just…vanished. As if its entire existence suddenly was wiped from reality, the form inside the cloak disappeared, leaving the covering to slowly drift to the ground atop a pile of black diamond pebbles. Neither werewolf noticed, however, as they were too busy with each other.
“Y-you killed her!” wailed Apple Bloom, her mind wanting to start running away but her legs frozen in fear.
“Nopony’s going to miss her, except maybe that dumb phoenix,” said Vista, the taste of blood having reignited her murderous side; the fact said phoenix was noticeably not within her vision completely ignored. “Don’t worry, she still has a chance at getting better…as one of us. Or she’ll actually die, which isn’t a big loss.”
“H-how can you be a pony and say such things?!”
“You’ll learn, in time, but ponies are weak things. They worship false goddesses who they blindly follow without knowing why, they have lost the way. But we’re going to fix that. Well, actually, just me, but you’ll be helping on the physical front.”
“N-No! Never!”
“Oh, but it’s just begun!”
Vista immediately shot forward, giving no time for Apple Bloom to react. However, phasing into reality only proved detrimental once again as a wall of dark crystal burst from the ground between the werewolves. For Apple Bloom, it was almost déjà vu in being saved from one evil by another, but almost immediately three more dark crystal walls formed around her, forming an enclosed cell from which she couldn’t escape.
Vista was furious, it had to be the work of the mysterious pony, but when she saw the cloak crumpled on the ground she had no time to realize the facts before being broadsided by a blast of raw dark power.
“You know, ‘death’ wasn’t exactly what I was going to say…” said Raspberry, who, to the horror of the quickly recovering Vista, was slowly getting to her feet, the blood that had been spilled forming dark crystals on the ground. “…although I will admit in your case it’s an acceptable answer.”
“Well, what were you going to say?” taunted Vista, although her heart wasn’t in it.
Now fully erect, with her green phoenix swooping low out of nowhere to perch on Apple Bloom’s prison, Raspberry’s head snapped upwards. Gone was the timid gem seller Vista had seen before, for now it was Raspberry’s horn that was raging with the dark, bubbling mass of forbidden powers, her eyes overflowing with green-and-purple mist. While Fair Vista herself had made a quick recovery all those years ago when she allowed Sable to turn her, the ghostly lycanthrope somehow knew that this unicorn had escaped a fatal wounding to her jugular...without having contracted lycanthropy herself. Now Vista was truly scared, for she realized she'd underestimated this unicorn more than she'd ever underestimated anypony before.
Then, with a voice sounding more akin to Nightmare Moon or some other evil power, Raspberry Beryl answered the werewolf who had tried to kill her:
“Truth.”