A Hairier Problem: Rise of the Furball

by BlueBastard


Ch.23: Reflections

Rise of the Furball Chapter 23: “Reflections”

Spike the Dragon was bored. Several days ago, his hunger had made him instinctively eat a diamond broken off of Sweetie Belle’s crown that had turned out to be a disguised dark crystal, the act of consumption causing it to try grow again inside his throat. Had Twilight not acted as fast as she had and caused him to eject the blockage, it would have rapidly increased in size and punctured through his throat despite it being naturally thicker to accommodate his usual diet of precious gems and magic mail-sending fire. However, despite not having died from an inverse cricothyrotomy,  the force required to launch the still-growing dark crystal shards from his throat had done considerable harm to his throat lining and so when he’d been declared stabilized, Twilight had gotten him rushed to Canterlot for the best medical care in the country. There, he’d been looked at by Princess Celestia’s and Luna’s own personal doctors, with great pains to even bring in one of the few dragons in the world who was recognized as a doctor under Equestriani law to ensure that Spike would not be failed where his adopted species couldn’t help him.

But, even though all the commotion in the end would mean he’d make a full recovery, the worst part was him needing to remain bedridden for a few days for his body to naturally regenerate the lining in his throat. And there was absolutely nothing to do while bedridden except read, which due to having lived in libraries for most of his life, he usually did in his regular free time. So instead he instead tended to just resort to his imagined fantasies about Rarity.

“Mr. Spike,” interrupted the nurse currently on watch, “you have a visitor.”

“Oh?” he croaked, sitting up with some strain as the muscles in his neck flexed the still healing areas inside his digestive tract. While Twilight and the others visited frequently, they were allowed to just walk in to say hi when checking up on him. He didn’t know anybody else who would want to come see him otherwise.  He was even more confused when indeed, Twilight first came around the corner.

“Hey, Spike!” she greeted, cheerily, “How are you holding up?”

“Better than last time you checked on me, Twi” he rasped, before coughing. Once done, he asked; “Though I thought you-”

“Spike, don’t talk too much, you’re still healing” began Twilight, “Plus, you really have two visitors.” She then looked at somepony (or someponies as she implied there were two) who were not seen behind the wall and beckoned for them to approach.

He first noticed the look of revulsion, then the cringing of the orderly on duty as she noticed the ‘visitors’, making him worry what was in store. There was some truth to the foreshadowing, as his visitors turned out to be none other than Raspberry Beryl and Heliodor. Well, he was sure of the latter, the former was implied by his roosting on the horn of who he believed to be Razz, but she did not look the same. Her colors were darker, especially her cutie mark which reminded him of the reason he’d been hospitalized in the first place. Her horn also seemed different, seemed wrong, for it was grooveless and curved upwards with a strange blending from the middle to the top. In fact, she looked far more demonic than the pony who he’d first met waiting outside Golden Oaks back in Ponyville. Looked more like…King Sombra.

At least, that’s what she looked like on the outside, but her expression radiated something far different. Strangely, it was…fear. Fear of him? Of Twilight? Maybe both, as she looked for reassurance from the alicorn. The princess gave it, though the fear did not leave the unicorn’s face as she approached Spike’s bed.

“A-are you…?” nervously asked Spike, unsure of what was going on.

“Yes, Spike, it’s me. I’m Raspberry.” Replied the unicorn. The phoenix cawed as if confirming her identity. “This is…this is how I look in reality. The horn, the cutie mark…this is the true me. So, please, with that in mind…I’m sorry.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “You’re…sorry?”

“Yes, it’s my fault that you’re here, my magic that nearly killed you, so…I know you hate me, and I can’t fault you for that, nothing can make up for what I did. But please, I just want to know you know that I’m sorry for that, and-“

“Razz, chill, it’s cool.”

“Yes, but-wait, y-you’re not mad?”

Spike shrugged. “Shit happens-“

“SPIKE!” chastised Twilight.

“Oh, come on, Twi, I nearly died, I think I get a free pass for swearing. Plus, considering the number of times you got me into near-death situations and been torn up about-*ACK*”

“Please, don’t strain your throat, Spike”

 “I’m *cough* fine enough. Anyway Razz here deserves some forgiveness, too. She wasn’t the one who made me eat the diamond, that was my own fault.”

“But…” mumbled Raspberry, “it still hurt you…”

 “But nothing, you didn’t actively make Sweetie break her crown, which gave me the chance to eat the -*hack*- thing. It’s not your fault any of this happened.”

Raspberry smiled. “Thank you, Spike, after everything that’s happened because of that, my conscience can rest easy now that I know you don’t hold me responsible.”

“Yeah, no problem. Though…do you mind explaining what the deal is with your horn? It sorta looks like King Sombra’s, which does raise quite a few questions I’d like answered.”

Twilight laughed, though with a tinge of regret in light of what those answers would reveal to Spike, who was still unaware the trial had even happened. “It’s a long story, number one assistant.”


“Ohhhh…” moaned Rarity, blinking uneasily as consciousness returned to her, “wha…what happened?”

“You passed out,” Lightning said, nonchalantly.

“But it was the middle of the night, last I remember, did I really sleep for that long?!” exclaimed Rarity, who proceeded to hurry to the mirror and check her mane for any undue creases. There wouldn’t have been any, since Rarity’s magically-enhanced hairspray ensured her mane would keep whatever shape she desired it to be no matter how many times she dramatically fell backwards in a dead faint, but old habits didn’t go easily.

“Well, sorta,” explained Rainbow.  “The first time you passed out, which was last night, was in reaction to Apple Bloom going into detail about…” Rainbow had to be careful, lest she make the same mistake Apple Bloom had and cause Rarity to faint yet again, “…well, remember how Applejack was turned into a werewolf that one night in the forest?”

“Uh, yeah, we were looking for that…whatever the Crusaders built, right?”

“Yeah, basically the same thing happened to Raspberry when she was trying to save Apple Bloom from Fair Vista’s ghost, except she didn’t die from…the injury and didn’t contract werewolf-ism.”

“I think you mean ‘lycanthropy’, Rainbow,” Fluttershy corrected.

Rarity just rolled her eyes. “Well, can’t be helped, I suppose, the graphic mental imagery was far from pleasant…hold on, you said the first time, you’re saying I fainted again between then and now?”

“Yeah!” exclaimed Pinkie, “you actually woke up about three hours ago in Applejack’s room, then after we brought you back up to speed by mentioning Applejack had somehow spread her curse to Apple Bloom, who is now I guess a werepuppy because she’s still a filly, you said something like ‘how dreadful!’ and passed out again, so we moved you back to your room!”

Rarity had stopped fumbling around with her mane, too busy staring at Pinkie with a raised eyebrow of skepticism. When the fashionista finally realized Pinkie had actually stopped talking, she shook her head to stop gazing into empty space. “Well, um…thanks for moving me back here, but is that really what happened? Apple Bloom is a werewolf-

“PUPPY!” insisted Pinkie.

“Um, Pinkie?” piped up Fluttershy, “the proper term here would be werecub, not puppy.”

“But if Apple Bloom had a choice, she’d choose puppy over cub.”

Rarity just sighed and facehoofed before amending her statement, “-er, werepuppy, in addition to Applejack’s condition relapsing to her having the curse again?”

Fluttershy nodded, “I’m afraid so.”

“B-but how?!” stammered the stunned unicorn.  “She killed that brute in the forest, there’s no possible-“ she stopped herself when she realized she had unintentionally gone muzzle-to-muzzle with the timid animal caregiver to the point of backing the pegasus into a corner, “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, you know how worked up I can get.”

“Ain’t that the truth!” snarked Rainbow, to which Pinkie giggled alongside.

Fluttershy shot both of them a disapproving look before turning her attention back to Rarity. “It’s alright.”

“Thank you,” said Rarity, “Now, please do continue, darling.”

“Right. After you passed out, we explained to Raspberry everything anypony could recall about Applejack’s previous time as a werewolf.”

“I was meaning to ask why Twilight had brought her along, the poor mare had been through enough just hours before at that mockery of a just trial.”

“Well, if you remember, lycanthropy was a creation of Sombra’s dark magic, so Twilight correctly figured if anypony would understand why Applejack had reverted, it was Razz for obvious reasons. However…”

“However, what, Fluttershy?”

“Well, um…”

“Tell me.”

“It’s sort of hard to explain…”

Tell me.”

“Are you sure? Considering merely telling you Apple Bloom was a lycanthrope didn’t end well-“

TellmetellmeTELLME!

“Oh for-!” nickered Rainbow, “Look, Rarity, Razz basically said Applejack had never been cured in the first place!”

Silence, then: “You’re joking, surely this is some bad joke on your part,” pleaded Rarity.

Pinkie shook her head, her composure in that rare state where not even the faintest hint of a smile was on her muzzle. “We don’t know if she’s right or not, but since she’s knowledgeable about a kind of magic even Twilight admits she can’t truly understand, we have no choice to believe her.”

“But that just throws more suspicion into this! I mean, I refuse to believe Raspberry would lie, she’s clearly the same pony who sold me gems and seemed downright mortified when she learned what happened to Spike because of pure circumstance – speaking of whom, has anypony checked in on him today?”

“Twilight’s there right now, as a matter of fact,” Fluttershy answered, her bashfulness in light of Rarity’s assertiveness fading somewhat. “Along with Razz and Heliodor, since the fact it was her magic that harmed Spike, so she’s there to apologize.”

“I hope he can forgive her, since it truly wasn’t her fault. Really, it’s mine in a morbid way, she wouldn’t have made that diamond for me if I hadn’t begged her for it. But, nothing we can do about it now.”

“Yeah,” agreed Rainbow, “plus, that luncheon with the princesses is today, the one where we’re going to discuss what to do about Raspberry being both a powerful dark magic user and allegedly the blood heir of King Sombra."

“Ah, right, the luncheon!” Rarity blurted.  “I’ll need to look my best! We’ll all need to look our best! Especially Razz, the poor dear will probably need some fashion help with styling her mane, and don’t even get me started about Appleja-wait, if we’re here and Twilight’s with Razz and Heelee visiting Spike…where are the other three of our group?”

“Still in Applejack’s room,” answered Pinkie, “and trust me, you do not want to go in there!”


“Ah’m tellin’ you, sis, Ah’m sorry for keepin’ it a secret from the family for so long!” Apple Bloom moaned, hints of tears in her eyes.

“Don’t matter,” snapped back the orange mare, “the point is we coulda done somethin’ about this ages ago, only if you’d told us! At the very least, it woulda given me an indication about me never havin’ been cured in the first place…”

“To be fair, what would that have accomplished anyway?” asked Lightning, “It’s still not clear how she contracted lycanthropy, we still haven’t figured out how I got it either, for that matter!”

“Last Ah checked, that was between you and Ah fightin’ when you were losin’ that dumb race or Sable Loam takin' a bite outta your throat while you were sleepin’ off a hangover!” Applejack’s tone was slowly increasing in what could only be retrained aggression, evidenced by her canines starting to change into fangs and her eyes subtly shifting ever so slightly to a yellow-green coloration.

“Hey, you think it’s any easier for me? YOU have some dumb-ass immunity to the curse that prevents you from becoming no better than some feral animal!” retorted Dust, she too starting to bear fangs and her pupils becoming a lighter hue of orange. At the rate things were going, the two werewolves were going to relive the fight they’d had before, only this time both were quickly becoming inequine predators filled with bloodlust.

Thus, it fell upon the werepuppy to stop the inevitable. “Seriously?! Are you two really gonna throw down here?!”

“Well, that’s what she wants!” answered Dust and AJ simultaneously, both now having dropped any subtlety and assumed their canine complexions. Any actual fighting was prevented, however, by Apple Bloom forcing herself in-between them after having to change forms herself.

“No, this isn’t what either of you want! Look at yourselves, Ah know both of you don’t want to throw away who you are as ponies, but this is exactly what is gonna to happen if you two don’t stop!”

“Stay outta this, Bloomie, you don’t understand-“

Ah don’t understand?!” screamed the cursed filly, her razor-sharp teeth barred in the direction of her sister, “Ah think Ah actually do understand, AJ, just 'cause Ah’m a filly don’t mean Ah don’t have the same problems you do!”

Lightning Dust cocked an eyebrow when she realized just what that implied, even if Apple Bloom didn’t realize it. “Uh, no, Apple Bloom, trust me, you don’t have the same problems, at least not all of them.”

“And how is that?!”

“Oh, Celestia…” gasped Applejack, “Don’t tell me you had that happen while you were-“

Lightning laughed “Oh, yeah, I didn’t dare mention it to you back when I dragged my sorry plot to your farm that day, but one of the contributing reasons for why I got booted from my job in Baltimare was my supervisor getting convinced I’d somehow angered every dog in the city. Naturally, I got really crabby about it, both because of…you know, and because I didn’t understand what was going on. When you told me about your own fun with that, though…”

Apple Bloom growled impatiently, “Okay, so maybe Ah don’t have the exact same number and kind of problems as you two, but Ah think Ah’ve got the majority! This curse makes me wanna run around at night, mah hearin’ is so good that Ah keep gettin’ headaches from everypony talkin’ in school, and Ah have a cravin’ for meat somethin’ bad!”

Applejack couldn’t argue back to that immediately, the realization that she’d been regarding Apple Bloom’s points as irrelevant setting in and that in a way, the shared issues were even more of a problem for the little Apple as while Applejack had worked around the meat issue through the help of friends, there was no possible way Apple Bloom could have been eating like a carnivore without somepony knowing. “Apple Bloom…have you actually eaten meat?”

“No, thankfully,” denied the filly, much to Applejack’s relief, “Ah think it’s not so much the actual thing as it is just the taste. ‘Course, Ah kept on worryin’ you’d find a doggie treat bag in a way that pointed to me eatin’ em.”

Applejack facehoofed. “Y’know, Ah was wonderin’ why Winona was burnin’ through those treats so fast. Though, admittedly, while Ah’m not happy about you stealin’ em, Ah’d much prefer that over you havin’ to consume the real deal.” She shuddered, even as a werewolf, Applejack had to work hard not to throw up whenever she ate meat.

“Yeah, Ah’m sorry ‘bout that, sis, but…the reason Ah wanted to keep this a secret from you is, well…after what you went through back then, the worryin’ about how other ponies saw you, the troubles with Sable Loam and Iron Will, and then how that all tied back to Ma and Pa…the family’s been troubled far too much with this werewolf nonsense, 'specially you of all ponies, and Ah didn’t want to put the family through all of that again.”

Applejack moved forward and embraced her sister, “Oh, Bloomie…Ah’m sorry for bein’ mad at you earlier,” she then looked up at the non-Apple werewolf in the room, “and you too, Dust.”

“Enh, no sweat,” replied the pegasus, returning to regular form. “I remember I didn’t take it too well when I figured out what was going on with me, but for somepony like you to have to go through lycanthropy a second time? If it was me, I probably would have done something really bad by now simply by being so uncontrollably distraught, so in comparison you have amazing self-control right now.”

“Yeah…” sighed Applejack with a smile, happy that the situation ended without anypony being hurt. Just then, there was a knocking at the door.

“Hey, Dust! AJ! Apple Bloom!” came the voice of Rainbow, “You girls getting ready? It’s almost lunch time!”


“Your highness, I must object to this!” pleaded Captain Stonewall, “I don’t know what the princess was thinking when she had this set up, but –“

“Permission to speak freely, Captain,” replied Shining Armor, fiddling with his dress shirt and regalia in preparation for the luncheon.

Stonewall, who was appropriately named for his temperament and not letting almost anything bring down his steadfast military stance, instantly became the much more friendly and slightly nervous pony he was behind it all. “O-of course, Capt-I mean, Prince Armor, the guard regulations don’t really apply to you now that you’re of a higher station.”

“Trust me, Stony,” said the ex-captain, doing his best to reassure his former subordinate by using an old nickname, “you think the paperwork as a guard captain is bad? At least there you have rules that must be followed and ponies tend not to question your authority. But as Prince Regent? Not only do I have to rule an entire annex to Equestria that, honestly, is as old fashioned as you can get though to be fair it was missing for a millennium, and the whole Crystal Empire was doubting my legitimacy to being the beloved of ‘the Crystal Princess’ or so they sometimes refer to Cady as.”

“While I understand, your high-“

“Seriously, enough with the formalities!” chuckled the prince, “While it is commendable that you’re maintaining professionalism here, I’m no different than I was back when I was your boss. Do I need to order you to drop formality?”

Stonewall cringed in embarrassment. “N-no, I get it, Shiny.”

Shining just shook his head in amusement, “As good a soldier as you are, Stony, I still can’t figure out how you managed to get past the recruiter’s scrutiny. But that’s not important, what is important, though, is that with my own experience in regards to Ms. Beryl leads me to think she is not a threat despite her ‘outburst’ at the trial.”

“But what she did there is exactly what I’m concerned about! I had the guards set up every imaginable defense against a powerful dark magic user running wild in that courtroom, every single one of them useless against her when she snapped and went for Blueblood.“

Shining raised an eyebrow and turned his head to look directly at his successor, “But are you sure they were designed for that kind of dark magic? While I have no doubt the guards you posted in there were trained to deal with the usual worst case scenario of a dark magic ‘master’ running ramshod with unnaturally strong fireball spells or trying to raise the dead, they wouldn’t stand a chance against somepony on Sombra’s level.”

“Neither did the princesses, which considering Celestia and Luna took down Sombra years ago, means this pony who Celestia has invited to lunch is more powerful than the very pony she claimed to have inherited her power from!”

Suddenly came the voice of Princess Cadence: “Which is why the fact she as a pony could be a good thing to have on Equestria’s side.”

“Cady!” blushed Shining, jokingly, “I thought we agreed you’d knock before coming into the walk-in-closet!”

“That’s only when you’re going to wear pants, dear,” countered the alicorn, “and since I’m positive you haven’t owned any in years after outgrowing your ‘Lucky Grandmaster’ pants from highschool, I don’t think I’m in trouble for breaking rules, am I?”

“Lucky Grandmaster?” asked Stony, confused.

“Okay, for the record, I didn’t ‘outgrow’ them," contested Shining, "Twilight decided to try making a bow out of the pantlegs back when she was still getting the hang of basic levitation, which she did but managed to make the knot so tight that the pants were completely unwearble. And yes, before you go into that tirade from high school again, they were my lucky pants, since all of my best sessions of playing Ogres & Oubliettes were when I was wearing those pants.”

“Still can’t believe I fell in love with such a nerd.” Joked Cadence, walking over to kiss her husband on the cheek. “But there will be time for mourning the loss of your nerd pants later, right now we have a luncheon to attend. And yes, captain,” her attention turned to the active guard in the closet, “I do trust my aunt in this. If Raspberry’s intentions were to take out the royalty and claim Equestria for her own much as Sombra wished to, she would have not wasted time with a weakling like Blueblood instead of taking out all four princesses, the only ponies who can really go up against her power provided there was time to prepare. That’s why she overpowered the countermeasures yesterday,  there was no implication she was capable of a locomotus morte spell that could affect that many ponies regardless of their own magical ability.

“Plus…” continued the princess of love, her tone becoming more somber, “the luncheon probably will be beneficial for everypony, especially Raspberry. The emotions she’s had bottled up for so long…I honestly think those are more dangerous than the worst dark magic spells she could throw at anypony, since while power is one thing to have, as long as it’s used responsibly it can be rendered harmless. But when insanity or desperation by any reason is given control…well, I think it goes without saying that had Apple Bloom not stopped her in time, Raspberry would have made an example of Blueblood in a manner far worse than anything Sombra had ever done to anypony.”


“Are you okay, Raspberry?” asked Twilight, having escorted the dark unicorn and her pet from the infirmary where Spike still needed to rest all the way to the grand doors blocking the way into the Royal Banquet Hall where the luncheon was to be held. Only before they arrived there, Rarity had intercepted them and dragged the duo to her own chambers.

“Are you crazy, Twilight, darling?” questioned back Rarity, “Of course she’s not alright, she is in no condition to attend a private luncheon with royalty!”

Raspberry could only whimper slightly as she continued to suffer under the designs of the fashionista, who had practically kidnapped her the second upon returning to the castle proper with intentions to make her look “proper”, right down to the diamond-marked pony having partially converted a portion of her room into a stylist salon complete with spinning chair. “Miss Rarity, please, you don’t have to-“

“Oh, but I must! Consider this making up for how much I still owe you for all those gems you got me.”

Raspberry’s dark red coat immediately assumed a shade close to that of her “normal pony” disguise, though more out of shock than magic. “B-but you don’t owe me anything for those! Heck, I still feel bad for never telling you the truth about them before and charging you for knock-offs!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Raspberry! While true, the things you sold me were not the real deal, they were small and trivial enough that I only really ever used them for trimmings on my outfits. Admittedly, most designers would use glass ones for the same purpose, but the glass ones don’t have the look and feel of real precious stones, so I’m paying for the quality of the imitation I guess. Since I doubt dragons would try to eat pony dresses, nopony will probably ever know the difference unless outright told.”

“R-really? You truly think that? But even then, I don’t deserve your generosity, almost everything about me that you knew back in Ponyville was a lie, a cruel deception.”

“Oh? So you don’t have any employment history at the Traveler’s Retreat? You manipulated Cashmere and Ascot into opening their residence to you out of the kindness of their hearts? That you never were the pony who has been roaming the world all her life, the shy and secluded unicorn who only sold cheap gem fakes purely to survive? The pony who, even after her secret was revealed by almost complete accident in the worst way possible, was willing to throw away her own freedom to protect a filly from a threat even we, the Elements of Harmony, failed to stop?”

“What?! N-no! That still doesn’t change-“

“Razz…” interrupted Twilight, “just listen to Rarity, hear what she has to say.”

“Yes, please do what your princess asks of you,” added Rarity, taking Razz’s head into her hooves and making it look right at hers. “Now, answer me with a 'yes’ or a ‘no’, okay?”

“O-okay…” answered Raspberry.

“Close enough. Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that you’ve convinced yourself that Raspberry Beryl, the one I knew, the one everypony knew, is only as deep as the disguise you use, the one hiding how fate forced your body to become twisted in the image of a fowl and corrupted noble. That isn’t true. While for all I know, this is in fact a lie and you’re just as evil as Sombra, but being part of the most important group of ponies in all of Equestria has taught me many things like how to see a pony for who they truly are where it matters, and with you that is the inside.” She jabbed the air just in front of Raspberry’s chest for emphasis. “If it means anything to you, the way ponies see me is with a fair degree of artificiality, too.”

“What!?” exclaimed Raspberry and Twilight simultaneously, the former shocked at the alabaster unicorn even claiming such a thing, while Twilight caught the deeper undertones heavily enough to flare her wings, “Are you saying there’s more to it than just the fake eyelashes?”

In light of having made such a statement, Rarity stood steadfast and sure of herself. “Yes, the pony you see me as isn’t quite the pony I was born as. It’s not nearly as elaborate as your secrets, Razz, but…” Rarity looked around as if suspicious of other listeners, “both of you have to promise that what I’m about to tell you never leaves this room, got it?”

Razz, Twilight, and Heliodor at Razz’s insistence all instinctively Pinkie Promised.

“Alright, in truth, the way I normally talk, like this? It’s not my natural accent, it took years to get right though thankfully mother and father think it’s cute and don’t tell anypony about it. My real voice…” her accent suddenly dropped an octave in addition to everything about proper pronunciation of words Rarity usually strived for,“…well, y’all c’n git why Ah can’t go ‘round soundin’ like dis, can’t ya? Nopony would take me seriously as a fashionista while soundin’ as somepony who don’t really need be concerned wit' high society.”

Rarity took the dumbfounded, gaping jaws of the not-fake-accented unicorn, alicon, and phoenix as a sign of understanding and so cleared her throat, the pitch and pronunciation immediately going back to that of the socialite the outside world saw her as.

“*ahem* It’s not something  I show off, obviously, but for you, Razz, you put confidence in us as good ponies, so you deserve confidence to be put in you as well. Sure, your horn is quite unsightly to be honest-“

“I think Heelee is the only one who actually likes it, I sure as hell don’t”

“- but other than that, all you do is change your colors. In fact, I’d go so far as to say your ‘disguise’ is in fact more evocative of you, since the stigma of dark magic doesn’t suit a pony like you who is truly good at heart.”

“Thanks, Rarity, that…means a lot.” said Razz, blushing slightly “but I don’t want to go back to my false colors just yet-“

“NO!” declared Rarity as if on impulse, “don’t call it that, instead let’s say they are your…’preferred’ colors?”

Heliodor cooed in approval, to which Razz smiled, “Alright then, my ‘preferred colors’, but all the same I can’t go back to them just yet. Until my fate is decided on by whatever happens in the luncheon, I want to show I recognize what I am, to not hide how ugly I am on the outside, if only to prove to everypony I am truly no different than them.”

“Oh, I think ‘ugly’ doesn’t suit you, it never did to begin with but especially not now,” said Rarity, gesturing to the mirror. Razz realized she hadn’t seen what Rarity had done to her mane, but as she turned in the salon chair to see it, the horrors that had been perceived were instead the complete opposite. Normally her mane was simply a more jagged curve, vaguely similar to Rarity’s in a way, but now her mane was perfectly smooth, her bangs having been draped over such that her hair now completely covered the junction between her elongated horn and her skull, making it seem to actually fit in with her appearance than the unnatural mutation it was. From her forehead, her mane continued down the right side and hung off her head without looking unbalanced. For the first time in her life, Raspberry Beryl looked at herself in a mirror for what she really looked like, and did not fear everything that her colors, horn, and outright appearance heavily implied. She actually looked pretty. She actually looked like a regular pony.

But even more so, Razz realized Rarity was right, too. She’d always been a pretty pony, but had let herself be defined by a pony by whom she barely even shared a bloodline with. She’d let herself be defined by her father, who had tried to mold her into something she was never destined to be. But now was her chance; to truly define herself as her own pony not only in the eyes of the princesses, but more importantly herself.

Let's just hope the princesses will see things that way, too thought Razz, but a glance over to a smiling Heliodor was all she needed for a smile to grace her muzzle. Maybe everything would turn out okay in the end after all.