//------------------------------// // Ch.30: Safety in Numbers // Story: A Hairier Problem: Rise of the Furball // by BlueBastard //------------------------------// Rise of the Furball Chapter 30: “Safety in Numbers” The mad ringing of bells woke Raspberry up from her slumber. Embarrassingly, she found that for once she’d actually been drooling if the soaked part of her pillow just below her mouth was any indication. Best not let Cashmere know about that, thought the unicorn while re-arranging the pillows so the stain could evaporate away while out of sight. More importantly, Raspberry had to wonder why she was even drooling in the first place, even as a newborn she knew that drooling tended not to be something she did in her sleep. “I’m coming, I’m coming!” came the groggy yell from Ascot, the recognition of his voice snapping Razz back to reality…along with a quick facehoof. She should have been more worried about that customer at the desk, the one whose ringing woke her up, than her nighttime activities. While Ascot would have no problem dealing with the early morning arrival, it would have been better for Raspberry to have taken it in her opinion. She was still sort of used to short periods of sleep with rude interruptions. But, oddly, she then heard Ascot call for her. Heliodor, who had also been woken up by this point, cooed in confusion as to what was going on. “Probably more royal nonsense,” groaned Raspberry,  making sure her visible form was the one without the forehead stalagmite of evil. A quick nod of approval to her reflection being the desired one, she quickly made her way out the door. “I’ll be right back, Heelee, this shouldn’t take long.” With a *click* the room returned to silence. The phoenix blinked a few times, shrugged, and then dipped his head to go back to sleep. Except the ascension to dreamland was suddenly cut short by the bedroom door quickly being flung open with a much-more awake Raspberry standing in the lit hallway. “Scratch that, Heliodor. We might be up all night.” It was maybe three in the morning, but when the guards finally allowed in the distraught couple: Silver Hammer and his wife Gallery Rose to see the princess. When it was mentioned Silver Spoon had now gone missing under the same circumstances Diamond Tiara had, Twilight immediately had Spike send a letter to Canterlot for Captain Stonewall of the Royal Guard to be awake and ready for further orders.  If this latest incident was the work of Fair Vista yet again, the entire town was in grave danger and guardsponies would need to be at the ready for deployment should she deem it necessary. As it was right now, she’d hurried over to the Traveler’s Retreat to pick up Raspberry.  Twilight had also intended to get Applejack or Apple Bloom, given they would be able to pick up the scent of another werewolf as they couldn’t assume the same level of sloppiness as at the Rich Mansion, but had encountered Lightning Dust on the way. Deciding to not bother the Apples – they didn’t need more trouble from Fair Vista as much as they needed a good night’s sleep – Twilight decided to bring Lighting along instead. “I don’t even think we need to guess who the culprit was this time,” sighed Twilight to her companions. “Then why am I here?” asked Lightning in a huff. “If you are already sure it was-“ “Doesn’t hurt to be totally sure. Besides, you were already up, so no point in waking up ponies who need their sleep. Plus, the guard is already suspicious of things in the Everfree after what Raspberry found at the Rich Mansion. They see you running around in bad enough lighting to think you’re a wolf?” The alicorn quickly brought up a foreleg and pantomimed cutting off her head from the base of her neck. “Yeah, you got a point.” “Unless of course you try to kill her,” said Raspberry, an evil gleam in her eye. “Then they’ll try to kill you but then once you tell them of your tragic backstory, how you’re just misunderstood, they’ll find a way to just enslave you to their service as a princess.” She finished with a wide grin, though it quickly faded upon seeing the confused looks on Twilight and Dust. “Was…was that supposed to be a joke or something?” the werewolf asked with trepidation, unsure of what to expect from the unicorn with the phoenix on her head. “Yeah, I’ll admit it was sort of in bad taste, but c’mon! I actually had to live through all that, now that I’m a princess don’t I have a right to at least joke about how my life up to now was so terrible that if it was in a book, there wouldn’t be a single publisher who would take it based on the grounds it was too ridiculous?” Neither Twi or Dust quite knew how to respond, though mercifully a distraction soon presented itself. “Hey, we’re here!” pointed out Twilight. Indeed, they had arrived at the Silver mansion. True to its name, it was as if it was carved from a single, abnormally huge ingot of silver, though in reality it was externally a mix of fine stone and marble, polished to a mirror-like shine. “Huh, can’t say they have homes this nice back in Canterlot.” “Weight restrictions, probably,” snarked Lightning, taking the lead of the group. “After all, I can’t imagine Canterlot being able to support a large number of solid houses like this, a castle-based settlement perched precariously on the edge of the tallest mountain in the country can’t  risk too much bloating. But then again, most cities can’t be like Cloudsdale or the upper part of Los Pagasas.” “What are you implying?” asked Raspberry, eyebrow raised with Heliodor mimicking the action. “That whatever pegasus town you were born isn’t as limited as Canterlot in terms of expansion or something?” “Who do you think I am, Rainbow Dash? I wasn’t born in a cloud city, to be precise my hometown is actually Detrot.” “Oh…sorry.” Raspberry felt slightly ashamed at her accusation. She’d been to Detrot a few years ago, certainly nowhere near as unwelcoming to her as Lonesome Dove but also not the greatest place to grow up if one was a pegasus. “Don’t worry about it, your highness.” Dust cracked a grin at the annoyed look Raspberry shot her way. “Besides, we got bigger problems at hoof.” While Twilight had been off getting Dust and Raspberry, the guards had escorted Mr. Silver and Mrs. Rose back to their home, which was now in the process of being locked down much like its counterpart the Rich Mansion. It quickly became evident that while the state of the mansions were the same, the parents clearly were not. While Mr. Rich had clearly been worried about his daughter much more than his wife, with Silver Spoon’s parents the mother was as worried as Mr. Rich but the father seemed to be downright livid about the matter. “How could this happen!?” he snarled at nopony in particular, “It’s a disgrace!” “Dear, please,” begged Mrs. Rose, “there was nothing anypony could have done by the time there was any indication something was wrong.” “I still can’t accept this, not when it was our daughter!” “Mr. Hammer, you aren’t accusing the guards of being incapable of filling their position, are you?” asked Twilight, unsure of just what the distraught stallion was going on about. At the same time, she shot a quick nod to Raspberry and Dust, who proceeded to go inside the mansion itself. “No, no, the guards are doing just fine. Really, I can’t fault them for this.” “Then, please, what are you so angry about?” “Because…because as a father I failed my daughter!” the anger started to turn into tears. “I used to be a Royal Guard myself, 315th Engineering Corps, when I was younger. I wasn’t expected to do any fighting but I still got pretty good at hoof-to-hoof before I needed to take over the family business of silversmithing. Had I been there to stop whoever took my daughter in time, I would have-“ “Mr. Hammer, I assure you, there is truly nothing you could have done,” Twilight said sternly. She knew it wasn’t what Silver Hammer or his wife had wanted to hear from her. “How…how can you say such a thing?!” Gallery Rose looked like she could have slapped Twilight right then and there had the princess not replied fast enough. “Because you daughter was probably taken by something – not somepony, something – that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen or were trained to fight, Mr. Hammer.” “Oh, don’t tell me this has something to do with that stupid werewolf business that Silver Spoon’s friend was going on about!” Twilight blanched slightly at the fact the stallion knew more than he probably should have. “I refuse to believe that some paranormal piece of fiction has made off with my daughter, or that even if that is the case that I wouldn’t have been able to stop her, no matter what you say princess!” He backed off upon realizing he’d overstepped his station. “Uh, sorry, no offense.” “It’s alright, Mr. Hammer, I’m well aware of how…unusual the idea may seem, and that you’re currently under a lot of emotional stress, but I will ensure that I put everything in my power to use in finding your daughter and return her safely to you.” “Thank you, Princess Twilight.” The princess of magic let a small smile grace her muzzle before she caught in the corner of her eye the form of Heliodor trying to catch her attention. No doubt Raspberry and Lightning had already found something she needed to see. “You are most welcome. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my compatriots need me.” Having seen Twilight acknowledge him, Heliodor promptly took flight, expecting the princess to follow suit. She did, with some awkwardness as she really wasn’t in the shape for an early morning flight, but the distance was short she soon discovered. An opened window on the other side of the mansion was her destination, upon landing inside she found Lightning and Razz waiting. “Alright, girls, what did Fair Vista leave behind this time?” “Uh, yeah, about that…” nervously said Lightning, “whatever happened here wasn’t her doing.” Twilight was stunned, then annoyed. “This isn’t the time for jokes, either of you, there are now two fillies missing and-“ “Trust me, Twi,” interrupted Raspberry, “since I just cracked a pretty bad joke about how horrible my life was not to long ago, I know this looks even worse. But this isn’t a ruse or anything; Fair Vista wasn’t here.” “Then…what took Silver Spoon?” A quick glance between the two non-alicorns, then a beckons to follow saw Twilight following her friends down the hallway and to a partially open door. The plaque on it said Silver Agatha Spoon. “Oh…oh my…” was all Twilight could say, a hoof raised to her mouth in shock at what she saw. Silver’s room was, simply put, a warzone. Absolutely nothing in the room had been left untouched in what looked like a fierce struggle. The closet had been torn apart, one of the doors ripped clean off its hinges, the window curtains were dislodged and partially ripped, as if tugged really, really hard, and there was a large hole in the drywall but not deep enough to penetrate through the masonry that formed the outside.  But most horrifyingly of all was the bed, or rather the state it was in. Something had clearly clawed its way through the blankets, with shreds of fabric and the cotton stuffing surrounding the bed, the pegasus-down filled pillows in a similar state of ruin. The sheets, while still on the bed, also had deep claw marks carved into them, deep enough that the springs in the mattress were poking through. The piece de resistance, of course, was the disturbingly large pool of blood in the middle of the bed, in the center of which was what looked like half of a bracelet. “I have to hand it to Silver, she clearly put up one heck of a fight!” commented Dust, worried that should Silver turn up ok, her anger would have her go against Lightning because she too was a werewolf. “But then again, she wasn’t fighting Fair Vista.” “What do you mean she wasn’t?” questioned Twilight skeptically. “Who else could have done this?” “Twilight, you know better. Fair Vista, if she had a physical body as evidenced by what we found at the Rich Mansion, then she would have had no problem restraining Silver and…” Raspberry gulped, involuntarily putting a hoof on her throat and remembering very vividly what it was like having her throat torn out. There had been a lot of blood, like what was now on the mattress. “Yeah. However, if the one who attacked – and bit…and kidnaped- Silver was much more evenly matched in strength, then this crime scene makes more sense.” “But it had to have been Fair Vista! The claw marks, the…the blood, the everything! Unless gryphons somehow decided to kidnap Silver, which still doesn’t explain the  blood anyway, there’s no other reason for how Silver’s room is this ruined!” Raspberry didn’t immediately respond, instead levitating the bracelet that was on the bed closer to her. A quick examination had her nod sadly, before passing it on to Twilight. “Hey, can I get a look?” impatiently asked Lightning. “No.” answered Raspberry. “It’s made of almost pure silver, this thing would burn you on contact pretty badly, as it did to the last werewolf it touched.” Twilight, on the other hoof, was even more horrified by what she saw. “N-no, this…this can’t be true…no way this means what I think it means.” “I’m afraid so, Twilight,” said Raspberry, levitating the silver bracelet which still had the partially burned remains of distinctively pink fur stuck to its surface. “Diamond Tiara is a werewolf…and for all we know, she’s forced Silver Spoon to the same fate.” “But why?” asked Lighting, mouth slightly agape, “being a werewolf sucks! Why would she want to spread this damn curse around?” “Because she’s under Fair Vista’s control, Dust,” glumly answered Twilight, already formulating the letter she would soon need to send to Canterlot in her head. “Fair Vista’s trying to turn Ponyville into the pack of werewolves that Sable Loam intended to use me, and then Applejack, to create.” The town of Ponyville was full of nervous worry, quite understandable given the news. “Have you heard? Silver Spoon’s been kidnaped, too!” “Oh, no! First Diamond Tiara, now Silver Spoon? You think somepony is holding them for ransom because of their family’s wealth?” “I don’t know, but I’m keeping my children home until the culprits are brought to justice!” Then, shortly after lunchtime, it was noticed that a large division of pegasi in guard barding had journeyed from Canterlot, by way of Cloudsdale, along with an unheard of addition of what appeared to be a division of Princess Luna’s night guard. While antagonism between the day and night guards didn’t go past basic rivalries, the two tended to never intermingle operations. The fact they were doing just that suggested the situation in Ponyville was much more dire than anypony could have guessed. Princess Twilight happened to be one of the ponies who had been not-entirely fully informed of the situation, as she was surprised to see the bat ponies landing alongside the pegasus ponies. “Corporal Skyracer, reporting in you highness!” saluted the commanding officer, a pegasus. “The 352nd Guard Regiment is here in full, as you requested.” “Corporal Summer Daffodil, also reporting in with the 501st ‘Strike Bats’ Regiment!” added the bat pony mare who moved to salute next to her white-and-blue counterpart. “I do thank you and your respective groups for hurrying to Ponyville in such a short amount of time, but while I do appreciate having a Lunar Guard regiment at my disposal, I don’t recall having requested any more than a single day guard regiment.” “It was ordered by Princess Luna, your highness,” explained Daffodil. “Due to some recent reorganization, a good portion of the 501st is pretty green when it comes to deployed service, and so Princess Luna thought it would be a good way to break them in as the crisis at hand reportedly may need the specialties of bat ponies for night operations.” Twilight nodded agreeably. “I see. Well, all the same, it’s great to have so many ponies ready to protect this town at such a short notice. Corporals, I will need you to come with me when I address the town of what is to be done about the current problem. But the rest of your troops may set up camp in the meantime, after the town address I will leave it in your hooves to organize the ponies at your disposal to protect the town as you see fit. Another pair of salutes from the lead pegasus and bat pony, before both delegated to their subordinates the job of overseeing the establishment of their joint base camp. Shortly thereafter, Skyracer and Daffodil had changed to their dress uniforms and were escorting the princess to the town hall. “If I may ask, your highness,” inquired Skyracer, “but what exactly is the need for so many extra guards around Ponyville? Things seem safe enough to me.” “Oh, please, I might have actually believed that if you weren’t in the guard,” chortled Daffodil. “But seriously, I must admit I am curious to know as soon as possible, too, as while I am loathe to admit it the fact the townsponies seem extremely happy to see so many guards all of a sudden is rarely a good indicator of things to come.” “I thought you might ask that, which is why before I give my little speech, there is something you need to see first,” cryptically answered Twilight as the trio arrived at Golden Oaks. ”Please, step inside.” Exchanging wary looks, the pegasus and bat guardsponies entered the tree library with some concern. What they found waiting inside, other than the expected bookshelves, a central table, and various adjustments suggesting the tree served as Twilight’s home as well as the public library, was a nervous orange mare wearing a Stetson sipping from a cup and a purple dragon going around to reshelve books. “Ah thought you said there was only gonna be the one guard, Twi.” Replied the orange mare. Skyracer fought the urge to verbally reprimand the other pony for not regarding the princess as per her station, realizing it was Applejack, the Element of Honesty, and she was perfectly within her rights to call the princess any way she desired. “Yeah, well, Luna decided to send some bat ponies, too, and really you know as well as anypony we can’t have too many guards to deal with her.” Daffodil raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, but…her? Who is this ‘her’ you speak of?” Skyracer looked equally curious. “Jeez, Twilight, you didn’t tell them about-“ started Spike, who in his turn realized this was Twilight telling them. Skyracer was getting his impatience override his calm demeanor now. “Must we be kept in the dark longer for some reason?” “No, in all honesty the longer you and your troops are kept in the dark about this the more danger Ponyville is put into by the second.” Twilight assumed as much of a ‘princess knows best’ pose as she could muster, wings opened and everything. “But first, I need to know how much you know about it. This will sound odd, but…what do either of you know about werewolves?” Daffodil couldn’t stop from snickering. “Is that what this is about? I’m sorry, your majesty, but werewolves are nothing but a myth, the things my mom used to weave into those old Nightmare Night ghost stories she told me and the rest of the sprang when I was a filly. You can’t seriously-HOLYSHIT!” Applejack, wanting desperately to get to the point, had opted to just get off her seat and change into wolf form without much fanfare. Daffodil, the more excitable of the two corporals, launched backwards into the air, her ridged wings beating hard to keep up with her racing heart that came as a result of all the Nightmare Night stories evidently not having been so made up after all. Skyracer, for his part, managed to stay on the ground, though his wings also flared and he’d taken more than a single backstep. He also was the first to get his voice back. “W-wait a second…if Lady Applejack is a werewolf, and the problem you need so many guards for also involve werewolves…there are more of them?!” Twilight shook her head. “As far as we can confirm, there’s only one. However, she’s not only come back from the dead, she’s far more cunning and dangerous than any real wolf and she aims to create some kind of werewolf army to overthrow the current tetrarchy.” “Ok, not gonna lie, but that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” said Daffodil from her lofty position. “That’s what I said, too!” called out Spike from the other side of the room. “Yeah, no arguments from us on that,” replied Applejack, rolling her eyes. “But here’s the thing; just because Celestia could whip her plot into next Tuesday right now, the werewolf we’re dealin’ with – some haridelle named Fair Vista – has foalnapped two fillies from town, and we’re sure she’s gonna try to do it again sometime soon.” “Which is where we come in,” assumed Skyracer. “This…Fair Vista character could strike at any time and any place around town, so we can’t be too careful.” “Alright, that I can get behind,” agreed Daffodil. “But since werewolves are just, well, pony colored wolves – no offense, Lady Applejack – do we know what she looks like?” “Heh, you’re not gonna believe this, but…” Twilight suddenly blasted Applejack with a spell that changed the mare’s colors. Applejack now was a green mare with a two tone mane; sky blue and a shade of yellow softer than what it was before. Her eyes were pink, if not also slightly glowy, and her cutie mark was now a faded sunrise framed by two equally faded mountain peaks. “Um…” Daffodil was not quite sure what the point of this exercise was. “I get the colors, but…just knowing the colors isn’t going to help us tell our troops what to be on the lookout for. I mean, a ‘spring colored Applejack’ can’t possibly-“ Now it was Applejack’s turn to snicker. “That’s actually the whole point why Twi just changed mah appearance; Fair Vista does look like me. Ah’m actually her great-to-the-somethin’ power granddaughter, much as Ah don’t appreciate followin’ her hoofsteps in bein’ a werewolf.” “Oh…OH!” The irony of Daffodil’s earlier words about how Fair Vista would have been just a pony-colored wolf, only for it to turn out she looked a lot like Applejack to begin with, finally hit the bat pony hard and her normally dark gray fur was lit up on her face like a red lightbulb. Twilight’s artificially enhanced voice boomed all over Ponyville and could be heard from the outskirts of town. Stuff about how there was a curfew and that the night guard would be working with the day guard around the clock to protect everypony and… “She’s a princess, hiding behind guards is what she does best,” drawled Diamond Tiara, also hiding with Vista. The only signs of her having been a pony were her relative size still being that of a filly, her cutie mark still prominent on her flank (though the side effect of lycanthropy; cutie mark mange, had already started to make her mark fade though now she didn’t care), and her insistence on wearing her namesake tiara. But otherwise, her once bright colors were now slightly matted with dirt and in dire need of a wash, the purple-and-white in her hair somewhat in disarray, and her equine features distorted such that she was more like a large dog. She folded her pink paws in order to make herself more comfortable. “Honestly, I don’t know why you’re even keeping us here, what advantage will you gain from listening to that nerdy blowhard?” “Simple, my young pup. She may be smart, but she’s no good at withholding information. For example; she just mentioned that the night guards have the honor of Ponyville to be their first assignment. No doubt they’ll be assigned to be the majority of the guards assigned to protect the town at night, being that the bat ponies are so efficient at night operations such that they make the regular day guard look like newborns. Still doesn’t make up for a complete lack of experience, however, which is perfect for us.” “How do you know that?” Diamond was curious. “Bat ponies only recently were enlisted as a  whole different guard for Princess Luna after she was restored, before that few ponies even remembered they existed and were native to the mountains.” “Simple. Back during the glory days when Sable Loam was still around, he’d tell me how the princess of the night had bat guards who, obviously, were better suited for that kind of thing than the boring old pegasi of the day guard. I always thought that they would make good allies since their ancestors had rebelled alongside Nightmare Moon and what was left of the werewolf packs soon after the fall of Sombra, but obviously that’s not an option. Still, it’s valuable info, all because of somepony’s loose lips. You never know if what you say can get the better of you in the end. Isn’t that right, Spoony?” The third member of the trio just nodded. Silver Spoon, too, had been turned into a werewolf, by her former best friend no less. She’d never been fond of her colors, thinking they made her look old more than of the precious metal her name came from, but now they betrayed her again as of the three werewolves she looked the most like a true wolf. Her cutie mark was just starting to fade, leaving the only other signs she’d even been a filly as her mane – still in its braids, much to her relief as there was no way she was going to fix them with paws – and her blue glasses. Secretly, she’d been amused with how despite the physical performance boost gained from lycanthropy, her eyesight was still bad enough that she needed her glasses. They drove Fair Vista crazy, since she wanted this fledgling ‘pack’ to be as unpony as possible, though due to the bloody affair in Silver’s bedroom one of the lenses was cracked and without a way to escape Fair Vista’s will, Silver was left partially blindsided as a result. “Enh, you’ll come around,” shrugged Diamond. “Really, lycanthropy isn’t all that bad once somepony gets used to it.” “Everypony will get used to it, eventually. At least once we finish what Sable Loam started.” A mean grin appeared on Vista’s muzzle as she stood up. “Princess Egghead just finished up, so no doubt there will be guards coming around. We must head back, preparations need to be made for tonight.” Silently, the alpha werewolf darted off into the depths of the forest, her pink protégé’ in tow. Silver was much slower in getting up, sneaking one last longing glance at her hometown before reminding herself that not following Fair Vista would be hazardous to her health. I hope the guard can handle the oncoming storm she thought, turning tail and unwillingly heading back into her living nightmare’s base camp, or else tonight is going to be a bloodbath.