//------------------------------// // Ch.28: Paranormal Poltergeist Presents Perfectly Perplexing Problem // Story: A Hairier Problem: Rise of the Furball // by BlueBastard //------------------------------// Rise of the Furball Chapter 28: “Paranormal Poltergeist Presents Perfectly Perplexing Problem” Apple Bloom was aghast at what she saw. Ponyville, destroyed. All the buildings were wrecked, most of the windows broken, doors busted in, signs hanging precariously on weak hinges. The overcast atmosphere was probably the nicest thing she saw, even though it colored the sky gray and made everything even more depressing. But, more eerily, the town was abandoned. Not a soul to be found. No bodies – thank Celestia – but it was as if the entire population sans Apple Bloom had just…vanished. “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” came the ethereal voice of one who should have been dead. Apple Bloom’s fur stood on end, her head slowly turning to see the source, though she need not have done so as she already knew it was Fair Vista. Indeed, her corrupted ancestor was there, coming into view out of nothing, but at the same time, something was wrong. Her colors were fuller, there was sound with her steps, her eyes glowed even more menacingly. Then Apple Bloom realized it: Fair Vista had somehow stopped being a ghost. And then to add to the horror, Applejack and Lightning Dust emerged similarly, except…they weren’t themselves. They had wild looks in their eyes, of feral bloodlust, both looking more like wolves than ponies. Then more ponies came forward as wolves. Apple Bloom unconsciously started moving back slowly, a backwards step every time a face she knew from town emerged to reveal their mutation. “Go ahead,” taunted Fair Vista, “run!” The filly needed no more convincing. Assuming her wolf form, she darted off. There was no set destination in mind, though ironically the Everfree was probably a safer place than Ponyville, for once. But that was only if she could get there, an impossible task as at every crossroad she was cut off by more and more of Ponyville’s altered populace. Soon, she was herded into a dead end, with all of the town now against her, slowly proceeding forth. Fair Vista at the front, her eyes growing brighter still as her face became darker in shadow. “Gotcha.” Apple Bloom shot up in bed, screaming her head off. “NONONONONONONONONONONO!”  She quickly realized it had all been a dream, that none of it had been real…at least until Applejack smashed through the door and got down to the ground like a wolf, snarling at any possible opposition. “AAAAAH!” screamed Apple Bloom, again, moving as far back as she could without topping over the edge, her forelegs raised to block Applejack from seeing her face.   Applejack, realizing what had happened, stood back up and turned to her sister, concern on her face. “Apple Bloom, it’s me, Applejack! Everythin’s alright!” “No, no it’s not!” cried the filly, “Y-you’re not yourself!” The orange mare had to give a deadpan look to a statement like that. “We’ve been through this twice, do Ah really need to spell it out to you that just ‘cause Ah’m a werewolf-“ “But are you still a pony, too!?” accused the younger sister, though she did lower her guard a bit, enough for Applejack to see the tears in her golden eyes. “Is that what happened in that nightmare of yours?” calmly replied the older one, walking up slowly to the bed. “That Ah became somethin’ like…like Sable Loam or Fair Vista?” “W-worse…it was like you were…well, it was your body, but not your personality. Like that night when Sable howled to summon you or whatever…only, instead of simply runin’ off, you went wild and were no better than a timberwolf. The same with Lightnin’ Dust.” “She was, uh, ‘not herself’ in this dream of yours, too?” asked Applejack, now concerned about this dream. While as far as she knew, her genetics had a defense against her mind going to the point she would end up like her unfortunate father and lose all sense of self. Lighting Dust, however, did not. “It wasn’t just her, it was the entire town!” exclaimed Apple Bloom, having fully let her guard down now that she was sure Applejack wasn’t a mindless attack dog. “Everypony was a werewolf, only they were all under Fair Vista’s orderin’. Ah saw Ponyville in ruins, too…” “And it was all in a dream, which is how it’s gonna stay, you understand?” Applejack reached out to put a paw on Apple Bloom’s shoulders, but halfway through thought better of it and shifted back to regular pony form, before placing the more familiar hoof instead. “Nopony, ‘specially not Fair Vista, is gonna come in and destroy the town while turnin’ everypony into wolf slaves or whatever. The girls and Ah…we may not have the Elements of Harmony, but we don’t need ‘em. Twi’s a princess, for cryin’ out loud, and then we also have Raspberry Beryl, who certainly cares about Ponyville and everypony in it just as much as any of us do, you understand?” “Y-yeah…thanks, Sis.” “Now, you best better go back to sleep and try to dream of somethin’ less full of flea-bitten fantasies, you hear? Tomorrow’s Monday, so you’re goin’ back to school.” “Can Ah eat mah homework?” joked Apple Bloom, flashing her werewolf teeth. “No. You don’t need that much fiber.” “Aww…”   “I’m starting to have second thoughts about getting out of the death penalty,” complained Raspberry. She was probably going to kill something (in dark crystal effigy, of course, she didn’t want to actually take a life if she could help it) in the next few minutes. “Aw, come on” teased Cadence, “at least you’ve got the royal hairdresser to style your mane. The last time I had mine done up for a special occasion, Rarity volunteered for the job.” “And?” “It was…not good, initially, I will admit.” “No offense to Lady Rarity,” piped up the hairdresser; Frizzy Coif, “but the fact she managed to make the Traditional Crystal Empire Hairdress on her second try was pure luck. I remain of the opinion that some unruly pony was trying to undermine the chances of the Crystal Empire getting the Equestria Games by making me sick when I was needed most, and that your majesty should have held off seeing the representative until I was able to resume my station.” “It won’t happen again, Friz,” apologized the alicorn. “Speaking of resuming one’s station,” said Raspberry, changing the topic, “whatever happened to that thing you wanted to show me?” “You mean Sombra’s personal records?” “Princess Cadence!” interrupted Frizzy, her face clearly expressing shock, “You are not seriously sending in another princess into that damnable hellhole, are you?” “Wait, another princess?” That had Raspberry concerned. Was there somepony like her, gifted with dark magic, that possibly- “By ‘another’ I refer to Cadence herself.” “Oh.” Raspberry sighed internally, of course she was the only one like her, nopony else was unfortunate enough to have had a similar troubled childhood. “Raspberry is different, Frizzy,” explained Cadence. “Sombra’s little sanctuary inside the castle is of course protected by his dark magic, which so far nopony has been able to get any kind of understand of long enough to write it down before succumbing to the corruptive influence of the dark arts.” “And you would willingly send in somepony of your own bloodline in there, to suffer as you have forced yourself to time and time again?” “Is there something I wasn’t told?” asked Raspberry, not being happy about being out of the loop. A quick glance at Heliodor, who was being lovingly tended to by two crystal pegasi, had the bird shrug as his answer. He knew nothing of the matter, himself. Coif sighed. “In the past, her majesty had a disturbing tendency to go against the advice of her most important advisors, including both myself and Prince Armor,  by spending time inside that cursed chamber and subjecting herself to unimaginable pain.” “Oh, yeah, that.” Raspberry shrugged slightly. “She already told me about that.” Frizz was aghast. “Y-you think it’s not that serious a matter?!  Every second she spent in there could have corrupted her a little bit more until she became the reincarnation of that foul beast Sombra!” She then wheeled onto Cadence, who was clearly trying not to laugh. “And why are you laughing? Do I amuse you by being worried about the health and welfare of my regent?” “No, no! You’ve got it all wrong, Friz! Your have a very valid point, but it’s just that…that…” Cadence couldn’t stop herself from collapsing to the floor in laughter. “Mrs. Coif…” began Raspberry, unamused at the time at the salon was taking even longer, “you know I’m the one that all the commotion up in Canterlot two days ago was about, right?” “Uh…yes?” replied the stylist, not sure where the discussion was going. “Do you know why I was on trial.” “Well, of course, everypony knows that your trial was because you use dark mag-“ the pieces clicked in Coif’s head. “Oh.” In response, Raspberry lightened up a little with a soft smile. “The fact I’m a princess, or soon-to-be at any rate, just means I am for all intents and purposes the only pony close enough to Sombra that I can get in that room safely.” “Ah. So that’s why her majesty is…behaving much unlike her station,” grumbled Coif, glancing over at the still laughing Cadence. “If it makes any difference, Mrs. Coif, she’s not been corrupted or anything by the dark magic left in that study, I can tell that pretty easily. Which considering I haven’t even been near this alleged ‘damned hellhole’ is pretty indicative that Princess Cadence is fine.” “Y-yes, like I said, I’m fine!” chortled Cadence, having finally regained balance on four legs. “But I’m sure it will be of interest to you, Razz, that I do intend to take you there once we’re done with all this prep for your coronation.” “Finally!” exclaimed Raspberry happily, “something not stationary to look forward to!” Back in Ponyville, school had just let out and the fillies and colts were back in town, mingling with the older ponies and generally being kids. Except for one. She’d rushed away from school as fast as possible, needing every last second to get her plan ready and for her to be in position. That’s it, Apple Bloom thought Diamond, watching from her vantage point on the roof adjacent from where the trap was primed. Nopony could see her, especially not those on the street, but there was enough of a crack in the rakes on the lip at the top where she could survey the ground below. Come on, get closer, I’ve got a treat for you… As expected, she was with the other two loser ponies she had as friends, the useless unicorn and the pathetic pegasus. There was also her cousin; Babs Seed, who had once been cool but had changed sides and was now no better than the rest of them. But wait, there was a fifth filly with them…no, it couldn’t be… “Silver Spoon?” whispered Diamond to herself in disbelief. The two had gone their separate ways over the whole debacle on Nightmare Night, but Tiara knew deep down that Silver had enough self respect that she wouldn’t hang out with the Crusaders. But after rubbing her eyes, Diamond couldn’t deny that her former PFF now walked among her former enemies. How could she do that? How could she viciously betray what had been between her and Tiara? The pink filly was furious, it was clear now that the argument on the schoolyard had been the work of Apple Bloom. “First she shows me up at school, then scares me half to death in the middle of the night at my own home, then is allowed to go hang out in Canterlot with royalty, and now successfully stole my best friend?!” Diamond was seething at this point. “I’m going to make her pay for running my life, right here, right now!” Right as the CMC + traitor were near it, Diamond pulled the string. She’d carefully threaded it such that a system of pulleys ensured nopony would trigger it by accident yet she could be a safe distance away. Instantly a small, plastic red cup that would have been just a regular piece of discarded garbage was yanked by an unseen force into a crevice and out of sight. In it’s place… “Oh, hey, look!” said Apple Bloom to her friends. “Somebody left a doggie biscuit lyin’ around!” She moved to approach it, but was immediately stopped by Silver who had stuck her foreleg out. “Apple Bloom, don’t,” she warned. “Why not? We ponies eat flowers and hay and other things right off the ground, why can’t Ah-“ “Wouldn’t you have noticed the biscuit before now? Take a closer look.” “She’s right, Apple Bloom,” agreed Sweetie.  Apple Bloom did as she was told, finding that indeed there was more than met the eye. There was a super-thin fishing line wrapped around the body of the dog treat, the line barely visible in the noon-day sun. The string led from the biscuit through a wall just behind the treat, but for what purpose she knew not what. It was safe to assume Diamond Tiara was somehow involved, though. “Best to let that sleeping dog lie,” suggested Scootaloo. “Agreed.” Apple Bloom turned away from the biscuit, her friends in tow. Diamond Tiara was agast. Silver, what did you do?! thought the filly as she watched her former friend defeat all her hard work. No doubt that she was brainwashed or something, since she was actively helping the freak now, and after all the trouble Apple Bloom had put her through, too! While Diamond was trying to make sense of the situation, she failed to notice Apple Bloom saying hi to her sister Applejack, who was coming down the opposite way with Lightning Dust.  Only when she heard Dust mention something about a biscuit did she realize her trap was about to spring on the wrong targets. It would catch an Apple, alright, but not the one who was currently a werewolf. She wanted to say something to stop the inevitable, but when she finally worked up the nerve to say something it was too late. Lightning Dust had pulled the biscuit, only realizing just then it was merely bait. The wall through which the fishing line was threaded opened up like a trap door, causing an avalanche of dogs to spill onto the hapless werewolves. Needless to say both of them were having uncomfortable flashbacks to when they’d been chased all over a town during that time of the month, but fortunately they weren’t expecting it anytime soon so they were in the clear for now. Still didn’t make it any less traumatizing to have been somehow ambushed by dogs randomly. But for Diamond, her problems were only just beginning as she barely had run away five feet before Lightning Dust shot out from the dogpile and into the sky, looking rapidly every which way for a possible perpetrator. Diamond’s pink coat betrayed her as she had no need to be on the very roof that happened to be overlooking the incident site. When Applejack managed to dig her way out of the pile, she looked up to find Lightning hovering above and holding a very uncooperative Diamond Tiara. “Oh you have got to be kiddin’…” complained Applejack. “Yeah, can’t wait to tell Mr. Rich about this one,” agreed Lightning Dust. “I guess somepony decided they needed to get in more trouble.” Off a slight way, the Crusaders bore witness to the trap being sprung on the wrong pony and the revelation of the culprit. “Now how did Tiara manage that?” wondered aloud Sweetie. “Certainly not going around at night to kidnap them, like what we did with the cats,” said Silver. “So that was you!” accused Apple Bloom, though Silver’s humble expression took the bite out of it. “Yeah, but that was also before, back when I had been convinced by Tiara and that ghost that you were a real threat to this town, not the other way around.” Scoot smiled. “So, you’re fully with us, now?” “Not as a Crusader, I can’t be since I have this,” Silver rocked her flanks a bit, highlighting the mark of desinty upon them. “But after everything, you girls have been the nicest of anypony to me after what happened on Nightmare Night. On top of that, I don’t think I can ever repay Apple Bloom for saving my life after the water tower burst, so…yeah, I’m fully with you.” One by one the Crusaders traded knowing looks, their expressions implying a scheme forming in their heads. “Silver, come with us,” said Babs, taking her gray counterpart’s foreleg in hers, “I think it’s time we addressed something.” “For a door that holds what my ancestor intended to be mine,” said Raspberry, “I was admittedly expecting…something less mundane.” “Yeah,” agreed Cadence, “it is sort of disappointing.” “Of course, you could say that about Sombra himself, too, considering how short his ‘resurrection’ was.” Both ponies laughed at the joke. They stood in front of a regular wooden door, which aside from being located far off from the main thoroughfares of the castle interior, was literally just nothing special. No obscene images or cult like runes carved into its surface, no leaking auras of evil coming from it. All there was in the doorframe was several planks of wood held together with more wood crossbeams and a few nails. “The funny thing is that this door is actually extremely valuable along with being sacrilegious.” Explained Cadence. “These timbers were grown from seedlings whose seeds came from the Tree of Harmony.” “The tree of what now?” questioned Raspberry, both she and Heliodor raising eyebrows at the unfamiliar name. Cadence laughed softly. “The Tree of Harmony. Real original name, I know. But, more importantly, its wood only grows in special places. Most ponies don’t even know of the main tree, which the Elements both came from and were returned to, but to use any lumber from anything that comes from that tree…risks destroying the fragile balance of harmony the tree provides.” “So, basically this door is really a ‘buck you’ to everything Princess Celestia talks about?” “Yeah, pretty much.” Raspberry merely nodded, then took a deep breath. “Alright, Helee, you ready?” The loyal phoenix nodded, puffing out his chest in a sign of bravery. “At least one of us is. Well, no sense in sticking around here.” Without letting herself have the chance to think about it, Raspberry opened the door with her magic and walked into the cursed room. She was immediately beset by a magic force, definitely dark in its nature, but at the same time she could feel it…approve of her presence. Slightly less so for Heliodor, probably only letting him in because he was her pet. But, the magic went away, leaving pony and bird unharmed inside a chamber filled with old tomes. There was no dust or signs of age, as to be expected in a room protected by powerful magic spells. Many places had gaps where books should have been, as before the room had turned super-hostile the mages of the Royal Guard wasted no time in removing all the dangerous materials they could identify. But they’d only been able to remove a small fraction, for much of the library appeared untouched. “You’re not spasming, either of you, so that’s…good?” hopefully called out Cadence, who obviously was still outside the room. “Yeah, as we thought I’m fine in here,” answered back Razz. Her attention was quickly taken to a book that had been left out; How I Did It, by King Reginald Sombra. “Hello, what’s this…” Cadence, who could easily see what Raspberry was doing, tried to be a helpful as possible. “I think that’s the book Sandalwood and Lyra consulted back when they were here. The pages might be folded on the relevant sections!” Indeed they were, as Razz noted. While Heliodor had flown off to do some exploring, Raspberry quickly opened the book to the dog-eared pages. The contents she found were…disturbing, to say the least, but at the same time Raspberry could glean information from the runes and symbols in the book among the normally legible writing, icons that made no sense unless one understood dark magic. Maybe not even then unless they were truly gifted at the dark arts like Sombra and herself. But most importantly of all, she understood them on a level that, if given time, she might be able to come up with a counterspell. A legit cure for lycanthropy. She smiled, knowing she could undo the damage she’d done to Applejack, save Apple Bloom and Lighting Dust as well, then if given the chance finally destroy Fair Vista by removing whatever power she’d gotten tied to in order to resurrect her ghost. It’s ironic she thought, that the light of hope comes from a room shrouded in the darkest of evil. Silver desperately did her best to maintain balance as her entire world was rocked by a musical earthquake. “Scoot!” chided Apple Bloom. “Oh, right, sorry,” blushed Scootaloo, who had been repeatedly told to not make the treehouse rumble whenever she played the initiation drums. “Don’t worry,” said Babs to Silver, “she did that when they accepted me into the CMC, too.” “Great…” replied Silver, cringing. “Ahem!” interrupted Sweetie Belle. “If I may…We, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, elect Silver Spoon to join us as a sister, friend, confidante, alley, boss-om buddy, gal pal, compadre, chum of chums...wait a sec, this is the old version of the initiation speech!” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “I told you, the new one is in the drawer in the podium.” “Ah, yes, of course.” Sweetie blushed in embarrassment slightly as she tossed the rather lengthy sheet of parchment away in favor a significantly smaller one. “Starting over, shall we? Okay…We, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, elect Silver Spoon to join us in our group and our journey to discover our cutie marks.” “Um…” Silver rocked side to side on her legs in uneasiness, since for some reason it seemed the Crusaders kept forgetting she did have a cutie mark. “However,” continued Sweetie, oblivious to Silver’s discomfort, “due to her having attained her cutie mark, we bring her into our group in the special role of ‘Cutie Mark Consultant’ such that she may help us on our own discoveries.” Consultant, huh? thought Silver, I could get used to that title… “And so, it is with that special consideration that we swear her in as a member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” “Congratulations!” said Apple Bloom,  throwing a fabric bundle into the air. The bundle unfurled at the apex of its path, releasing confetti into the air. But, as it fell onto Silver, who took the cloth off to examine it closely, she saw it was an exact copy of the capes the other four Crusaders were wearing, the blue patch and all. She looked up at her newfound friends, wide eyed and a blush coming to her face, wondering how she could have overlooked the ponies who were true friends when she was so desperately clinging to the false one with Diamond Tiara. “So, how does it feel to be a true blue Crusader?” asked Babs, who had once been against the Crusaders with Silver a long time ago. “It…it feels good,” replied Silver. “It feels…right.” Diamond Tiara sat in a huff. Her latest plan had been possibly the greatest unqualified disaster yet, even more so than Nightmare Night. There at least, she’d had the benefit of the most important ponies in town trying to cover up the truth, but now she’d outright embarrassed them in public when Silver had betrayed her yet again. To make matters even more worse still, she didn’t have another chance coming to expose Apple Bloom now. What with having been grounded until further notice and her rights to demanding anything in her father’s stores curtailed as well, she had no resources and no ability to try again. And then to top it all off, the power went out suddenly. It was almost midnight, so without power the room was pitch black. Not even a nightlight to help provide a path should a late night bathroom trip be necessary. “AAAARRGGHHHH!” shouted Tiara, furious at this latest problem. “What good are electric bills if they don’t keep the power going?!” “Power is a luxury, one I’ve never really needed, myself,” came an all too familiar voice from where the door was. Somehow, Fair Vista had returned, managing to open and close the door without a single sound. “Oh, great, it’s you,” groaned Tiara. “What do you want?” “I saw your latest little escapade in the town today. From a distance, of course.”  Vista sauntered closer, to which Tiara noted was with much more presence in her step than before. In fact, everything she did was with more presence than before. “Ah, yes, by the way, I figured out how to stop being dead. Quite novel, really.” “You what?!” Tiara was shocked. How does one manage to become undead without the usual connotations? “I’ll have to tell you later, but right now we have more problematic matters to discuss.” “You mean like your failure?” Tiara immediately reeled back when Vista clamped her all-too-real jaws at her. “I did not fail because of a lack of skill,” snarled Vista, “I handled matters to the best of my ability. However, you were incorrect about that gem seller.” “The one on trial?” Diamond was skeptical about that. “What does she have to do with this? Sure, she was on charges of dark magic use, but that was because she-“ “Where do you think she went after the thing with the dragon? Oh yes, I learned about what happened, the entire damn country knows about it. One doesn’t nearly accidentally kill the adopted brother of Twilight Sparkle without national coverage. But she somehow knew to come to the castle ruins and tricked me multiple times, enough to save that little twerp.” “How?” Vista facepawed. “Dark magic, you dolt! Somehow, her magic was able to harm me even though I was ethereal. I had to run, lest she manage to kill me a second time and I have too much to do before I leave this plane of existence again.” “Okay, that makes more sense, I guess, but it still doesn’t explain how-“ “Again, I’ll tell you later. But right now we’re on the clock. It’s lucky that Raspberry Beryl is forced to be in the Crystal Empire for a little while due to her need to be recognized as a princess of the realm or something. It gives us time to deal with the werewolf problems before she returns for good.” “Wait, problems? As in plural?” “Yes, there are other werewolves in this town ,too.” “WHAT?!” Tiara was shocked. More werewolves was not a good thing, especially since Vista wouldn’t have a reason to lie about that. “Indeed, something needs to be done. But I’ll need your help.” “Bah, not much I can do for you. I’m grounded and I can’t get any resources for you to use, Silver’s betrayed us by going over to the Crusaders, and most of the town thinks I’m crazy now. Do you think I’m crazy?” “Me? Oh, no, you’re not crazy at all! Frankly, you’re the only one who understands what needs to be done. But while you can’t provide the material help that I need, there is another way you can help.” Tiara’s eyes glinted as she dared to don a small, evil smile. “Do tell.”