** No.22871553
>Rise of the Furball, chapter 5
I finished "A Hairy Problem".  I have literally nothing interesting to say about the ending.

I've since started reading the sequel, "Rise of the Furball".  Apple Bloom gets werewolf'd by accident (Applejack is no longer a werewolf but can apparently still infect others).  Just like AJ in the previous book, she decides not to tell anybody (except the other CMC, who already know) because she's an idiot.

Edgelord is dead, but we get three new OCs to take his place:
>Edgelord's waifu (also dead), who comes back as a ghost for some reason
>A mysterious black and red [spoiler]uni[/spoiler]corn OC who's hiding out in the Everfree practicing dark magic
>Raspberry Beryl, the one character I actually need to know about for 7DSJ book 2.  She gets her own section on account of how special and unique she is.

Raspberry Beryl:
>is super shy and kawaii, like Fluttershy!
>has a super cool and special pet phoenix named Heliodor! (He is green instead of red, which makes him interesting and unique!)
>can let Heliodor perch on the tip of her horn without breaking her neck! Even Princess Celestia isn't strong enough to do that!
>is going to become friends with all the Mane 6!  (Is anyone surprised by this?)
And finally, based on the cover art, she appears to be a (pony) Sunset Shimmer palette swap, which I think has some significance to 7DSJ that I'm not yet clear on.


By the way, have you guys ever heard of Razorblade Angel?  Because I sure as hell have.
>Bookmarking her place in her current book, a recent sci-fi thriller titled Razorblade Angel, Twilight left the comfort of her bed
>As usual, the intelligent unicorn had been right and Rainbow found herself really liking Razorblade Angel.
>While the title, Razorblade Angel, was rather unusual, the content was excellent and Celestia was worried the book would end too quickly.
As it turns out, "Razorblade Angel" is a sci-fi novel that Shinzakura was writing a couple years ago.  [shilling intensifies]


 ** No.22877841
>Rise of the Furball, chapter 13

Beryl grows ever specialer and snowflakier.
>she's been chased out of several towns for unspecified reasons
>she avoids using magic in public because otherwise unspecified Bad Things will happen
>her magic aura is a sort of bubbling blue thing like Demon Sunset Shimmer's
>she got some backstory and it's exactly as tragic as you'd expect (mother died in childbirth, father beat her, ran away from home at age 16, etc)
>she has some amount of crystal pony heritage, giving her hair a unique gradient effect
>her pet phoenix, in addition to being one of three pet phoenixes in the entire world, is some kind of harbinger of doom
>even with all that's been revealed so far, she STILL has some kind of dark secret that she can never tell anybody ever

Apple Bloom continues to be a moron, producing increasingly absurd excuses for why she can't tell anyone that she's a werewolf.  She won't even tell Babs, who's come to live with her for the next several months, even though Babs guessed nearly all the details already.

Fair Vista (Dead Edgelord's ghost girlfriend) wants revenge on Applejack, and has apparently decided the best way to achieve this involves allying with Diamond Tiara.  Their most recent scheme involves rounding up a bunch of cats in the dead of night and somehow smuggling them into Apple Bloom's room without waking anyone up.

Lightning Dust showed up again.  She was around for a few chapters of the previous fic, then disappeared.  She's a werewolf now, and surprisingly, she actually decided to tell people who can help, instead of trying to keep it a secret from everyone forever.


 ** No.22886192
>Rise of the Furball, chapter 25
Raspberry Beryl gets dragged through a mockery of a legal trial, which goes to hell in a handbasket around the time she tries to murder the prosecutor in the middle of the courtroom. Celestia decides to skip over the whole "judicial system" thing, and invites Beryl to a nice lunch before deciding her sentence arbitrarily.  (Spoiler: it's going to be a slap on the wrist at worst.)


Speaking of Beryl, her whole life story has now come out:

>mother died soon after childbirth
>father was abusive (beat her, sawed off her horn)
>got run out of town at age 16 (they thought she was a demon)
>killed her father on the way out by ramming her horn through his heart

>has a pet phoenix
>the only other known pet phoenixes are Philomena and Peewee
>hers is an ultra-rare green phoenix (like Queen Faust's)
>green phoenixes only bond with those who are pure of heart

>can't use normal magic, only dark magic
>casts dark magic on par with Sombra's despite having no training of any kind
>can use magic without a horn
>...discovered this upon seeing RD's first sonic rainboom
>immune to lycanthropy
>can quickly regenerate from any wound (sawed-off horn)
>...including fatal ones (jugular shredded by werewolf)
>her blood turns to dark crystals when it hits the ground

>is secretly a descendant of King Sombra
>this makes her fifth in line for the throne (after the four alicorns)

>true form has edgy hair colors, eye colors, cutie mark, horn, and fangs
>pic related (was embedded in the story during the relevant chapter)
>constantly uses a disguise spell so that everyone doesn't hate her

>despite appearances, she actually is "pure of heart"
>nice to everyone, wants to make others happy, etc.
>deeply regrets killing her father
>perpetually angsty about how she only wishes she was a normal pony


Don't forget, Beryl is a major character in 7DSJ book 2.  I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how much damage Shinzakura can cause with a character like this.

 ** No.22887801
>>22887767
>deeply regrets killing her father

I don't know, if my dad was unrepentant abused me for 16 years and cut off one of my limbs (one that allowed me to use magic at that), I don't think I'd "deeply regret" offing him that much. I feel like the author only has her be like this so she'd remain "pure of heart" somehow. 

 ** No.22888156
>>22887801
>I feel like the author only has her be like this so she'd remain "pure of heart" somehow.
Probably. I actually find it more interesting that Ms. Pure of Heart was apparently right on the verge of killing Blueblood during the trial, and only stopped because Apple Bloom and Lightning Dust showed up at the last minute to talk her down. I think as a reader you're supposed to consider her actions justified, since Heliodor had just died as a result of Blueblood's mistreatment, but nearly killing someone in blind rage does not strike me as the behavior of someone "pure of heart".


By the way, I was right about the final verdict. Celestia goes on for a while about how Beryl technically ought to be executed ("on grounds of having committed the greatest number of offenses against Equestria itself in its recorded history"), but her actual "sentence" is to go back to Ponyville and keep living like normal. The only real punishment is (1) she can't travel to other cities without one of the M6 to keep an eye on her, and (2) the Crown can demand her help as an expert on dark magic. She does still get to be crowned a princess of Equestria, in case you were wondering.