It looks almost like an inverted spine sprouting hairs/(buds?) at the top. I have the same species growing next to it, which has been on its way to flowering for a while, so I know what typical flowers look like (the gray tufty balls). I'm just not sure.

i'm sure its just an unknown foreign object (never ever seen anything growing out of the tip like that before)
not a part of the cactus

I'm glad you agree that it is strange. I am not home now to investigate again. I tried tugging on it though earlier, and it seemed to be in there firmly. I thought maybe someone was silly and stuck a spine in there.. but that really makes no sense too. Especially considering the hairs, and the fact that they almost looked like they were growing after a day or two. I'll keep ya posted when I check it out haha.

Is it tightly attached to the plant? I would pull it off if I were you. It looks like a parasitic plant's flower to me.

It was quite tightly attached.. I'll go remove it today. Strange, you think the mystery plant germinated from dirt/material that accumulated in the top pocket of the crest? It seems like it grew straight out of it. The rigid structure does make it seem like a plant rather than some anomalous endophyte though. I'll letcha guys know when I know. Thanks!

New one on me !!

Ehem...
Ladies and gentlemen
It was a spine!

I suspected such. My most benign hope was that if it was a spine, that it maaaaaaaybe could have happened when I was transplanting my pachanoi and terscheckii. But I think I got my 'scheki at a different time; basically I thought the cactus would have been pushing out the spine like our bodies do a splinter, had it gotten stuck in there. It looks like my nearby terschecki's spine.

But alas I suspect it was someone else..
But who? My family wouldn't do that I think.. Perhaps the painting people?
All so senseless.
Thanks for sharing in my confusion. The world may never know.

That makes a lot more sense than a parasitic plant. Hehe. Glad you figured it out. I was stumped.

A foreign spine from another plant!!?? That does make the most sense.

Hostilis,
I thought it might have been something parasitic as well at first! I was having visions of coming back to my tricho, and seeing an eviscerated cactus mess with some hellish, alioarachnoid parasitic organism sprouting out of it.
Or some endophytic fungal supermutant haha
Anyway, cheers to one mystery solved and another opened as to its arrival..

I admire the prank! -- "lets see what the psychonought makes of THIS"

a few months later….