//------------------------------// // Ch.29: Cracks in the Foundation // Story: A Hairier Problem: Rise of the Furball // by BlueBastard //------------------------------// Rise of the Furball Chapter 29; “Cracks in the Foundation” Raspberry Beryl was, unsurprisingly, nervous. It seemed to be one of her default states these days, though after the roller coaster that had been her life within the past week or two she couldn’t be blamed for it. But this time, simply trying to divert attention from herself such that she could fade back into obscurity was no longer an option. After all, no matter how hard she tried to live a normal life, everypony would know of her station. She was the last of an old royal bloodline, one close enough to the original royal lineage that she had a claim to the title of Princess more than anypony of royal blood but not graced with both wings and horn.  Instead, she was the bearer of the strongest dark magic in the country, maybe even the world, because of how depraved her ancestor had been, and having been handicapped by her father such that her heritage was the only way she could use magic at all, she knew there were ponies who would never trust her and would protest the fact she was joining a group as hallowed as the Equestriani princesses, and the only one without the ability to fly. “Razz, my dear, are you quite alright?” came the voice of Rarity, soon followed by the alabaster unicorn appearing at the side of the princess-to-be. The day before, the remaining elements from Ponyville were brought to the Crystal Empire due to their importance in both the affairs of Princess Twilight Sparkle and the role they had played in stopping Sombra’s brief return. “Other than trying to understand why any of this is happening, I’m just perfect!” Rarity shook her head, “Honestly, Raspberry, you’re living the dream every little filly wants to achieve, that every pony can be a princess. It’s going to look weird with you giving that speech while shaking as if you’re freezing. Plus, Twilight wasn’t too keen on the idea either, but she’s taken to being a princess like a duck to water.” “Twilight also earned her princesshood,” reminded Raspberry. “I’ve done nothing like her to deserve being known as one of that title, not to mention the reasons why I am going to be getting it anyway are far from being of personal achievement.” “While true, I would like to point out that purely on the basis of who you are, you deserve being a part of royalty far more than some bore like Prince Blueblood who is always claiming to be the thirty-something-times removed nephew of Celestia. You’ve saved lives and in respect to your power it’s enough to trump even the combined might of four alicorns simultaneously.” “But that just means I’m being made a princess on the grounds of ‘might makes right’, doesn’t it?” “Sort of, I’ll give you that, but it also will make ponies listen to you as who would dare disrespect a princess? So much trouble could have been avoided if you had been able to speak your piece, now as a princess you’ll be able to, and ponies who still doubt you are a good pony will see their perceptions of you are wrong, dark magic or no. Not to mention, you have a phoenix for a pet, of such rarity – no pun intended, of course – that even Celestia cannot claim to have.” Heliodor, who had been silently observing and having ended up staring off into space, suddenly twitched to life at the indirect reference to his person. “I…I guess you’re right, Rarity,” said Rasbperry. “Maybe I just need to stop looking at things like a half-empty cup.” “Oh, don’t be silly, dear, the cup’s not half-empty any more.” Rarity them motioned for Raspberry to follow her out of the room, Heliodor promptly following by perching on his usual place on Razz’s horn. “It’s half full, with the amount of good fortune filling it only going to increase for you from here on out. Now come, the others are waiting for you to accept your title, your highness.” As the sun shone down upon the gathered ponies, the long lost Crystal Imperial line of royalty saw itself be restored to its rightful place as a recognized branch of Equestriani high blood. While the means of how this had come to be were regrettable, Celestia was pleased to see the crystal ponies, whose memories still held the terrors of being under Sombra’s hoof, be generally quite open to the idea of recognizing another dark magic using royal to be of a station where they would be ruled by that individual. Of course, the confidence extruded by the alicorns and the elements who were present in regards to Raspberry probably helped, as did the eagerness with which the phoenix-brandishing unicorn presented herself with towards ponies who had suffered under her predecessor. Celestia had to smile at that. Even though Sombra had been powerful, one of his greatest shortcomings was a total lack of charisma. The sun princess herself wouldn’t admit it, but even she had once been nervous to speak in front of the citizens of her country. Granted, Queen Faust had been there to give a guiding hoof to both her daughters in public oratory experience, invaluable when the elder alicorn was forced to abdicate to her teenage daughters. But why did mom hide the truth from us about what she readily let Discord know? Wondered the matriarch, the only visual cue externally to her troubled mindset being her silent smile faltering a micron lower than usual for a split second. While she wondered her mother’s intentional omission of this fact, the most haunting words of the scroll held by Discord echoed in Celestia’s head: Bhtugunl rgunl nyfrsnl bjapenl vfjnl rivyjnl bfgznl batfgenl Vfunl rtnplynl vyyjnl riraghnyyljnl haqbjnl vfunl batjenl Nfjnl lfgnypenl bbqoynl vyyjnl vaqsnl bynprfnl vajnl nqrwnl versnl Naqjnl rycunl rgunl vkfnl riragcenl njnl rfheerpgvbaenl bfgznl verqnl Rajunl rgunl nfgynl ryrzragjnl vaqfsnl vajnl njnl bjagnl bfgznl  nvagdhnl Njnl bnysnl beaonl bsjnl hercnl nexarffqnl, hgonl rrsenl bzsenl vfunl nvaggnl Nyyjnl vfjnl bfgynl vsjnl lfgnypenl bhyqfunl bfrynl vgfjnl vtugsnl Besnl rgunl ngucnl bsjnl rfgvalqnl vqrfunl vgfrysjnl bzsenl vtugfnl Hgonl vsjnl rgunl rpraqnagfqnl bsjnl rgunl vzvynefnl rivyjnl rznvaenl vajnl vtugynl Rlgunl napnl bcfgnl rgunl rgheaenl bsjnl rgunl reebefgnl bsjnl vtuganl Naqjnl raqjnl Bzoenfnl’fnl hefrpnl bgnl rgfnl rirelguvatjnl vtugenl Hgonl bgnl bcfgnl vtabenaprjnl bzsenl rycvatunl vagragvbafjnl bfgznl rnaznl Vgjnl vfjnl nbfpunl bjunl hfgznl rrxfnl rgunl bbqoynl bsjnl rratenl. Discord had said his role in the prophecy had already been filled, though it left his role in the lead up to Raspberry’s trial more questionable than ever. Celestia cared not to dwell on that any more, it was the past, with the future lying in jeopardy. Raspberry, for as much trouble she’d endured for being just who she was, was going to be tested as hard as Twilight had been back when the Crystal Empire had returned from its thousand-year absence. Except then, Twilight had only succeeded because she had strong friendships to fall back on, especially that of Spike, that had been instrumental to stalling Sombra long enough to defeat him. But Raspberry was only just starting to develop her deep friendship with those same ponies and while her magic was as strong as Twilight’s, this was an entirely new situation that Celestia had not dealt with. After all, as far as Celestia knew, one of the few legends that she had not had to personally handle involved the living dead in any fashion, so what she could possibly be walking right into couldn’t even be classified as something Celestia could handle as had been the case with Sombra. And yet, if she truly is of Sombra’s blood, thought Celestia, hopefully she inherited the few good qualities that beast once had. King Sombra may have been an evil bastard, but on the grounds of ruling qualities, his determination to overcome all challenges and sheer force of will to achieve the impossible would have made him a great ruler. Had he not gone crazy with crystals and stuff, of course. So here’s hoping Razz will succeed where Sombra failed to live up to his own potential. “They liked me…they really, really liked me!” gushed Raspberry, overcome with happiness as the cheers of the Crystal Ponies still rung in her ears. Heliodor, mirroring the joy of his lifelong companion, was cawing happily and taking advantage of the high vaulted ceilings within the Crystal Castle to soar high and let out bursts of harmless emerald fire as he pleased. “Well, why wouldn’t they? “ asked Applejack. “Ah’d say they’d got every right to be happy you’re on the side of friendship and harmony and…whatever else it is you said.” “Yeah, I gotta say it was awesome and all, but it kinda got cheesy with the middle bit,” added Rainbow, hovering in the air as usual. “Give her a break, everypony,” chided Twilight good-naturedly.  “Even after everything, it’s still something to go out there and speak to that many ponies in accepting the title of princess.” “Yeah, I don’t think I could ever speak in front of that many ponies, at least not without you guys right with me,” confessed Fluttershy to the surprise of absolutely nopony. The camaraderie was instantly ended when the doors to the hall were violently thrown open, with Shining rushing in while flanked by a pair of guardsponies on either side. “Ladies, we have a situation,” said the prince, having entered serious soldier mode. “W-why? What happened?” asked Rarity. “Did something occur in Ponyville?” “Yes.  The local guard garrison just reported that one of the fillies the Crown had them keep an eye on: a miss Diamond Tiara, has just been listed as missing only a few hours ago by her parents. Considering what she knows about this whole werewolf debacle, I don’t doubt our mutual friend Fair Vista has something to do with all this.” “What foul bastard would take such an innocent child like my Diamond?!” wailed Champagne Dreams, her face buried into the crook of Filthy Rich’s neck. “I can’t even fathom why anypony would even want to hurt my baby!” The Royal Guard interviewing the parents of Diamond Tiara stopped scribbling and looked at the pair with a raised eyebrow, though when Mr. Rich gave back a look of ‘please ignore my wife, I know damn well why somepony would want to take my daughter’ the unicorn just went back to scribbling. “Often, the ones who committed these kind of crimes are individuals who are personal friends with the victim and/or their families. Is there anybody the Rich family knows personally that has also dropped off the radar?” Mr. Rich just shook his head. “No. The only pony my daughter really talked to, Silver Spoon, recently broke off their friendship due to some kind of conflicting interests, and she was grounded after continuing to pursue some foolhardy crusade to prove some other filly she doesn’t like that much was a werewolf.” The guard raised an eyebrow again in skepticism. “I’m sorry, did you just say ‘werewolf’?” “Yeah, I know, it’s dumb as Tartarus, but my daughter is ten years old. I do regret letting her have as much command over resources as she did, probably should have done that anyway to be a better parent, yet I’m sure my daughter’s disappearance has nothing to do with those blasted wolf-ponies of legend.” Just then, the sound of the mansion’s main doors opening was heard. Mr. Rich didn’t know it, but two of those ‘blasted wolf-ponies’ had just walked in the door along with two princesses and their entourage. “We came as soon as we heard!” said Twilight, immediately establishing her presence as princess, pausing only briefly to allow all the guards in the mansion to bow in respect. “P-princess Twilight!” sputtered Champagne, “this is an unexpected honor - we usually thought that such minor issues weren't under the aegis of our princess.” “While I don’t like to say any pony’s life being considered beneath my concern, your daughter is somepony of relative importance to current affairs.” “Current affairs?” asked Mr. Rich, “This doesn’t have anything to do with that giant, ill-meaning prank my daughter tried to pull back on Nightmare Night, does it?” “It may, I’m afraid. We didn’t mention it at the time, but we have come to believe that Diamond Tiara may have been working with somepony who desires to see the Apple Family harmed in…unusual ways.” “Are you suggesting my daughter was kidnapped by some felon she may or may not have-“ angrily accused Champagne, before noticing two of the ponies who had come in with the princesses were acting strangely. Applejack and some light cerulean pegasus with a two-tone orange mane were…sniffing? “What are you two doing?” “Yeah, it’s like you both have a cold or something,” intoned Rainbow, trying to subtly inform the two werewolves their condition was starting to show in their behavior. “What, you guys don’t smell that?” asked Lightning, oblivious to whatever Rainbow had been trying to say. “Granted, it’s faint, but you don’t need to be a dog or something to know the scent of mud.” “Especially if there’s somethin’ else in that mud that wasn’t exactly mud,” added Applejack. Almost immediately,  everypony in the room became aware of the very out-of-place smell of the wilds within the almost immaculately clean room. “Ms. Dreams, when was the last time the maids cleaned the house?” asked Rarity, trying not to gag. “Last night, before the occupants of our mansion were bedded for the evening. Richie insisted that the servants not carry out their duties after the discovery of our daughter having been whisked away during the night. Though I think you’d best leave the crime scene investigation to the experts.” “Like me?” smirked Raspberry, her horn suddenly lighting up in her dark aura…with Heliodor still on it. Seeing the bird nonchalantly stand on a pyre set ablaze with a magic normally associated with agony and torture caused all ponies not familiar with the true nature of Raspberry’s magic to reel back. “Wh-what are you doing to that poor bird?!” shrieked Champagne, the ghastliness overcoming the mare and thus making her fall dramatically into the forelegs of Mr. Rich. “Showoff,” nickered Rarity. Mr. Rich didn’t notice the comment by the gray unicorn, instead looking apologetically at Raspberry. “You aren’t really hurting that bird…are you?” “Who, Heele?” asked Raspberry, glancing up at her pet, then laughed softly. “Nah, he’s been doing that for years.” Her tone suddenly turned much more serious. “However, in addition to the…’outside elements’ we’ve just become aware about, if what I suspect is true then there may be some other unsavory things left behind from our suspect.” Filthy Rich turned pale, losing strength and his not-exactly-unconscious wife suddenly found herself plummeting a short distance to the ground. He didn’t notice, his mind elsewhere as he wondered just what his daughter had been up to. “Don’t tell me Tiara got mixed up with one of those dark magic using anarchist scum-“ He was cut off by the majority of the ponies suddenly giving him death glares, Raspberry and more frightening Heliodor included, factors that he considered as he tugged on his shirt collar and corrected himself. “I, uh, mean those dark magic users who are totally unlike you, Miss Beryl! Heh heh…” Raspberry just rolled her eyes before giving Twilight a nod. The purple alicorn acknowledged, her attention in turn being put towards the guard who up to  that point had been irrelevant in the ongoing discussion. “Corporal, the matter that I fear needs to be discussed with Mr. Rich and his wife is of a private and highly confidential nature, so if you don’t mind…” “Of course, your highness.” replied the guard, before promptly leaving through the door. At the same time, Raspberry had motioned to Applejack and Dust, who were now following behind the bird-wearing unicorn though they knew not why. They soon got their answer, though. “That’s impossible!” whispered Applejack to the other two ponies, out of earshot of the rest of the group, who had proceeded to inform Mr. Rich about the real events of the past Nightmare Night. “What’s impossible?” subsequently asked Spike out of nowhere. “Whoa, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be over with Twilight?” asked Lightning, having forgotten Spike had come in with the group. “Got bored, so I came over here to help you guys. Even though I don’t know what you’re doing.” “Finding pieces of the Everfree, that’s what,” answered Raspberry, levitating up a leaf that was half-coated in mud yet hidden behind an end table. “Especially ones with traces of dark magic, which doesn’t bode well.” “Now how in tarnation could Fair Vista tread this kinda stuff in here? She’s a ghost!” reasoned Applejack. “Unless she somehow found a way to undie.” Raspberry’s features hardened as she knew what needed to be done. She turned to towards Twilight, finding the alicorn looking somewhat awkward at having just told Filthy Rich his daughter had basically been talking with ghost werewolves. “Twi, as bad as this situation is, we’re going to need to resort to your specialty.” “Um, you sure?” sheepishly replied Twilight, remembering the last time she tried tampering with dark magic and werewolves at the same time. “Oh, don’t worry, it’s not your magic you’ll need. It’s your love of books.” “So you’re sure you don’t know what the deal is with how Diamond Tiara is missin’?” asked Apple Bloom for what had to have been the hundredth time. “No, I don’t, and please stop asking!” replied Sandalwood, none too happy to be back in the position she was in. While it was nice to have paid leave from the spa for a little while, courtesy of royal intervention on part of Twilight Sparkle, Sandy would have vastly preferred regular work as opposed to having to be brought into the secret that werewolves still existed. Wait, no, I think it might be the part where Applejack then revealed she was still a werewolf, thought Sandalwood. Now here she was, laying on her back and tuning up the Apple Truck, under royal orders, getting it tuned up so it could be used in the event more werewolf hunting was needed. Figures Lyra got to stay back at the flat and work on the car, though she did admittedly build most of it before she brought me on to the project. “But are you sure this thing can outrun a werewolf? I mean, it probably won’t outrun Apple Bloom.” Said Silver, worryingly. Oh, yeah and that fun little bit, too mentally facehoofed Sandalwood, like the last thing I needed was to find out Applejack’s sister was a werewolf, too!  At the rate things were going, soon spa customers would only be able to get aromatherapy treatments on Nightmare Night, with their host; werewolf Sandalwood! I’d never be able to live it down. “Also, what’s with the Twilight standee in the truck bed?” added Silver, finally noticing Cardlight Sparkle. “Nopony knows, really,” said Sweetie. “It apparently just showed up in the back one day.” “It’s also rather useless, since Twilight got wings and is slightly bigger, too,” added Scootaloo. “So? You got wings, too, don’t mean you can fly,” commented Silver, though the sudden feeling of the larger Babs Seed bearing down on her through sheer presence brought her back into reality. “Oh, please, I’m sorry! After hanging around Diamond for so long it sort of became habit to make comments like those, I’ve been trying to break it, really.” “Nah, it’s cool,” said Scootaloo, shrugging. “Besides, I can at least do this.” The orange pegasus proceeded to jump into the air and, with great strain, maintain a height of five feet off the ground for a few seconds by working her wings extra hard. “Hey, that’s better than the last time, ain’t it?” said Babs. “Yeah, if I keep it up I might even be able to last a whole minute!” beamed Scootaloo, before she turned to Sandalwood. “Hey, DJ, you know when Applejack’s coming back?” Sandalwood pulled herself out from under the truck, confusion etched on her face. “DJ? Who the heck is DJ?” Scoot laughed. “Oh, sorry, don’t know what I was thinking, for some reason you struck me as a ‘DJ’.” “Do I look like Vinyl Scratch?” “Well, you do have the mane for it,” snickered Sweetie. Sandalwood glanced up to see her mane somehow sticking up like the famous DJ P0N3 ‘do. “Yeah, well, I’m still not letting you help so you can get your ‘car repair cutie marks’ if that’s why your four are still hanging around.” “Why not?” asked Apple Bloom. “Technically, when you built this thing originally, it kinda ended up setting off the events that led to you being a werewolf, didn’t it?” “Mah sister did not turn me into a werewolf!” growled Apple Bloom, her fangs growing slightly. “At least…it might have been from her indirectly, we’re still not sure, but she didn’t willingly turn me if that’s what you’re sayin!” “Uh, Cuz?” interjected Babs, placing a hoof on her cousin’s shoulder to calm her down, “I think she means more of the ‘this thing ended up crashin’ into the Everfree’ kind of deal, y’know?” “Oh, right. Sorry,” apologized Apple Bloom, teeth returning to normal. Sandalwood just shook her head, both in response to the simple mindedness of the filly and also to get her mane back to usual. “All things considered, this truck is good to go, I just hope it can help with what’s going on.” “So do I.” said Raspberry Beryl, who had appeared – noticeably without Heliodor – at the opening of the barn. “Hey, where’s your bird?” asked Sweetie, remembering the first thing she’d noticed about the dark unicorn way back when. “Heliodor’s off doing his ‘business’ if you know what I mean. He’s considerate that way, he won’t…you know, on other ponies or their property unless he really, really dislikes them.” “I heard what went down at Canterlot, so I’m guessing Blueblood would be one of those ponies?” joked Sandalwood. “Nah, Blueblood is reserved for me if he ever crosses my path again,” answered Razz, adding a purposefully fake evil cackle. “You kinda sounded like Diamond Tiara, there, no offense,” commented Silver, before realizing Raspberry shouldn’t even have been there. “Wait, I thought you and Princess Twilight were supposed to be doing studying on stuff at Golden Oaks?” “We’re technically on break. Well, I am, at least. Twilight had ‘flying lessons’ with Rainbow Dash scheduled, and you know how she is about her schedules.” “And don’t we!” simultaneously said the fillies and Sandalwood all in unison. Raspberry just smirked. “Looks like I’m going to have a very interesting time, living in Ponyville. But I better explain why I’m here.” “Let me guess,” interrupted Sandalwood, “you want a ride in the truck.” “If that’s okay,” bashfully confessed Raspberry with a slight blush. Sandalwood just rolled her eyes. “Alright, hop in. And yes, you Crusaders can hang out in the truck bed with Cardlight, just don’t fall out.” Twilight would normally have been learning the first stages of advanced flight styles under Rainbow’s wing. That was the original plan for today. Instead, she was getting to learn how to be an emergency weather pony. “Are you sure this is okay?” hollered Twilight, struggling to keep up with her rainbow hued friend. “We’ll be fine as long as we don’t get any closer from here!” replied Rainbow. The lack of brashness in her voice worried Twilight. Normally, it would have been near impossible to get Rainbow to resist the temptation to fly through a thundercloud. But this…Rainbow was in super serious mode, she was not confident that this was a safe thunderstorm that was forming above the Everfree. Several Ponyville weather pegasi were already on the scene, maintaining their distance. Twilight easily recognized several of them as having been Wonderbolt Candidates back when Rainbow had been accepted there. “Boss!” called out one pony who was easily identified as Cloudchaser, “this thing isn’t natural!” “Well of course it isn’t, it’s an Everfree storm!” “No, this one…it’s different!” added Thunderlane. “We can normally manipulate Everfree storms, it doesn’t stop ‘em but like that last one we can break it up to reduce the force on the town.” “So what’s different about this one?” “Whatever is causing this…it’s not the Everfree! Or a pegasus! The stormclouds are being held together with something other than water moisture! Even Bulk Biceps can’t break the clouds!” The three pegasus ponies and alicorn turned to see a muscular white pegasus with Scootaloo-size wings delivering an absolute flurry of punches and kicks to a small cloud bank that formed part of the slowly growing thunderhead. The cloud bank absorbed it all like a sponge. Thunderlane then turned back to Rainbow. “From what we can see, it’s like a hurricane is building up, though we don’t know over what as all visibility to the ground from up here is cut off. It’s probably going to hit Ponyville in a few days, tops.” Rainbow then turned to Twilight, worry in her eyes. “Twi…do you think this might have anything to do with…you know who?” she whispered, not wanting the other weatherponies to know about matters that would lead to RD revealing she had a werewolf for a flatmate, especially the one the majority of the local weatherponies would just love to tear the head off of. “We may need Raspberry’s expertise, since if pegasus ponies like me and the others can’t do squat against clouds like these, we’re going to need some powerful magic that bends the rules of nature.” “I’ll have to see what she knows.” Replied Twi. “I’m honestly at a loss to explain this, only that I have a need to study it further.” “Never change, Twilight Sparkle,” chuckled Rainbow, happy to have something to laugh at while patting her friend on the back, “never change.” The night was still for Silver Spoon. It wasn’t thundering outside, thankfully, but she could feel it in the tips of her fur; a storm was coming. “Diamond…what have you gotten yourself into?” asked Silver into the nothingness outside her bedroom window, hoping her former friend could somehow hear. “I know you weren’t kidnapped, but if you’ve decided to be driven hard enough to go with Fair Vista simply for petty revenge on a prank…it’s madness.” “Nah, it’s not madness, I’ll tell you that much” suddenly came the voice of Diamond Tiara. Silver swore her heart leapt high enough to launch her whole body five feet into the air before coming back down to land on the bed. In the dim light, all Silver could see was a shadowy outline, but there was no mistaking that headpiece. “Diamond, what the hell have you been up to?!” demanded Silver, not afraid of using “big pony” words and getting in trouble for it. This was serious. “Preparations, my dear Silver,” cooly replied Tiara, her form getting closer to the bed. “Pr-preparations for what, exactly?” Silver was growing concerned. Tiara was obviously keeping herself out of any kind of light for a reason, along with somehow broken into the Silver Mansion without the private bodyguards noticing a thing. Slowly backing up on her bed, she felt her foreleg go a bit wide to the right and make contact with her half of the silver “PFF” bracelet. Subtly, she rolled it into the palm of her hoof and behind her back. She was of the Silver lineage, she was a descendant of those brave ponies who sought to rid the world of monsters like werewolves, and if she was gonna go down because of werewolves then she damn well was going to take one or two down with her. “Oh, I was hoping to keep it a surprise.” Now Diamond’s tone started to get a little whimsical, as if she was drunk…or delusional…or under somepony else’s control. “Y-you’re not Diamond Tiara, are you!?” screamed Silver, her response forced as she found herself backed into a corner. “Don’t be silly, Silver! Of course I’m still Diamond Tiara…” a pink foreleg reached out to turn the bedside lamp on, only there was no hoof on the switch when the light came on. “…I’m just learning to understand my enemy better.”