Black

Trixie slammed a pillow down over her head as a low knocking sound filtered once again into her bedroom. She peered out at the clock on the oak nightstand – it was just after six in the morning – and growled. "Somebody is not getting the hint." Two more cycles of noise stabbed at her ears until, finally, she was driven by rage to get up and stumble out into the living room. "There had better be a fire or a plague or a man with a national lottery check behind that door."

Twice she had to brace herself on the back of the cornflower blue sofa to keep herself from falling flat onto the white carpet, but at last she reached the entryway and shot a one-eyed glare through the peephole. There stood Applejack on the other side, hat in hand and looking rather nervous. "You've got to be kidding me." While patting at her bedhead and taking a breath, she opened the door.

"Uh...howdy." The blonde looked past Trixie into the apartment. "May I...?"

The part of the magician's brain responsible for being polite had not yet woken up, and she didn't bother to wait on it. Glaring and expecting to be harassed in some way, she sneered her denial. "Why?"

Applejack shrank back a little, although the effect of her movement was lost on the shorter woman. "Look, I done come to apologize. I ain't tryin' ta cause a stir."

"At six in the morning?!" She scratched at her indigo pajamas and prepared to unload an epic rant. Her mind froze, however, when replaying the sentence. "Wait. Apologize?" Dumbfounded, she took a step back to allow the blonde passage.

"Yep." Applejack swung a quick glance around, noticing a rectangular paper something on the coffee table. She instantly recognized it as a train ticket. "What's this? Where are ya headin'?"

"Somewhere." Trixie shuffled over and grabbed it up. "Trixie is no—I'm still not entirely sure what you're apologizing for," she added, dropping her public persona with a ragged breath.

Applejack sat on the sofa and laid her hat aside. "Rainbow had a little chat with Fu yesterday. She said some things that got both of us ta thinkin'. About how if we were gonna let her stay here, we had to let ya do the same. You were usin' her amulet when ya did all that crap, after all."

The magician's stance softened as she listened, although her arms remained folded. "So that's why she didn't pay another visit to swear at me. I thought she'd moved out in disgust."

Applejack snorted and flashed a small grin. "Nah. Don't get me wrong, we ain't feelin' friendly, but..."

"I understand." Trixie returned that smile with a sleepy one of her own. "Still, who makes an apology trip at six in the morning? Couldn't you have called and left a message?"

The blonde stood up and gazed down at Trixie with a thoughtful – and somehow haughty – expression. "Ain't right to apologize over the phone. Supposed ta do that sorta thing face to face, like ma always said." Suddenly she began to chuckle. "Besides, ain't my problem half of y'all are such lazy bones. Get up earlier!"

Both of them laughed a little. Applejack strode back toward the open front door, but didn't get far before Trixie called her back. "Wait. What about Rarity? Does she know about your cease-fire?"

Applejack placed her hat back on and adjusted it while replying. "Well, yeah. She ain't too keen about makin' nice, though. Probably because of what ya wanted ta do ta Sweetie Belle."

"Again, I understand." Her folded arms loosened so she could wrap them around herself in a hug. "I wouldn't forgive me either, even if I was...under the influence."

"Yeah. Y'all two are probably gonna have to work it out on your own." The blonde could now see the train ticket in her left hand. Squinting, she leaned slightly down to examine it. "Seriously, what's with the ticket? Did Dash get ya to consider runnin' off after just a couple of days?"

"No. And again, this is my business." After tucking the thing into her pajama top, she ushered Applejack toward the door. "I would be more polite, but I'm running on three hours of sleep and I need a bit more than that to function. Thank you for being so considerate." Her left arm waved at the hallway. "Goodbye. We can take this up again when I'm not seeing two of you due to drowsiness, if you like."

Applejack burst out laughing and gave Trixie a hearty slap on the back – hearty enough to make the magician grunt with pained surprise. "Don't thank me, thank Fu. Guess I'll see ya later." Out she stepped, the door closing very shortly behind her. As she moved away from it, a hand sneaked up and scratched at her head. "The hell would she be needin' a ticket ta Canterlot for?" she asked herself quietly, jogging down the hall toward the stairs. Out of habit she reached into a pocket for her phone to call Twilight, just as she usually did whenever one of the three women thought Trixie was doing something untoward. This time she stayed her hand, shrugged, and muttered, "Really ain't my business, I guess. Gonna take some gettin' used ta, though."

Twilight had made quite a big deal out of this being Fuyu's first weekend off, but like many things her friends considered normal, the pale woman didn't get the point of the whole affair. She was demure and polite while the woman prattled on about making the best use of her free time; although she was cognizant enough to note that, given that she only napped an hour a day, Fuyu had about a third more of it than anyone else in the world. The sum total of the librarian's lecture was a conscious sort of checking out, where Fuyu heard words but wasn't really listening to them, and instead used the background noise to enter something like a daydream without the dreaming part.

When Twilight dropped her last sentence, therefore, it came as a sudden surprise. "By the way, Fluttershy is expecting you. Should I give you a ride, or do you want to make the trip yourself?"

Fuyu snapped her eyes up as the other woman sat down in the chair beside her. "She is?"

"Yep, and I think it's time you paid her a visit." Her hand rose and lit up as she magically changed channels on the TV. "You two are so similar, you hardly speak to each other. And really, sometimes I think she feels lonely. You've seen how shy she is."

The expression on Fuyu's face betrayed her rejection of that label. "Yes, but I wouldn't exactly call myself shy."

"No, I'm not saying that. You're just kind of..." The word wouldn't come, despite her eye rolling and head tilting.

"Solitary?"

Twilight clapped her hands and pointed. "Yes!" For a moment, she peered at the TV and frowned. "Ugh, this is that show Applejack likes so much. I wish these people would enunciate words." Annoyed, she magically flipped through the stations. "No, really, I think you two should strike up a conversation. Get to know each other better."

Rubbing her chin, the pale woman considered the idea for some time. "The last time we spent alone together didn't turn out very well."

An image of the cave incident popped up in both their heads, although it was more accurately portrayed in Fuyu's than Twilight's. The picture was still enough to scribble unhappy expressions on their faces. "Exactly. Now that you've moved past that...ew stage, I think it's a good time to give her a better image of you."

She nodded her agreement and stood up. "I think I owe her that, at least. I suppose I'll be back in a little while."

"Okay! You guys have fun!" Twilight waved with a little too much enthusiasm as she watched the pale woman hover to and out the door. She squeaked and frowned, however, when she saw Fuyu take off into the air through the window. "Er...I was kind of hoping you'd walk, but fine?"

She hadn't gone far. Hovering over the tree at about ninety feet in the air, her first action was to taking a sweeping look over the town. Moving cars and people of all sorts were scattered across her sight, and in spite of the latter's chilly attitude the scene made her smile. Before she could streak off across the sky, a problem jabbed at her brain: she had no clue where Fluttershy lived. In all the weeks since her nomadic life had ended, never once had she dropped by the shy woman's house – not even in the company of Rarity, who seemed to go there all the time. "This is a problem." A solution came in the form of a tiny rainbow smudge some distance away to her right and nearer the ground. "I'll ask her."

Fuyu covered the distance with remarkable speed, something that helped her ignore the shocked looks of those on the sidewalks below. In about a minute the colors congealed into Rainbow Dash, cup of coffee in hand and looking around out her apartment window. While the athlete was surprised at first, she soon raised her mug in salute and put on a wry grin. "What's up? Besides you," she greeted, just as Fuyu began treading air at eye level. While waiting on a reply, she examined the woman's clothes. The dark colored t-shirt – in this case a pleasant shade of navy blue – wasn't unusual, but the light gray capri pants were, as were the black and silver sneakers. "Nice outfit. Like the shoes."

"Thank you. You can figure out where they came from." Her eyes looked over Rainbow's left shoulder and saw Applejack lounging on the couch. The blonde noticed her at about the same time and offered a friendly tip of her hat. "Oh. Am I interrupting?"

"Nah, she popped in to say hello and never left." Rainbow turned back into the room and raised her voice in mock anger, "Popped in at six thirty in the morning like a dumbass!"

Applejack cocked a brow and snapped her wrist in dismissal. "Screw you, ya know ya love it."

Cackling, the athlete turned back to Fuyu. "Let me guess, Rarity made them?"

She nodded with a slight grin. "I keep telling her to stop. Twilight wants to cut a new closet out of the tree so I have somewhere to put them all."

Rainbow snorted, bent forward slightly due to a chuckle. "Man, you can forget it. She's generous enough as it is, but in your case she's probably overcompensating for the scissors attack."

"She does like to call it her 'most unladylike moment'." Fuyu folded her arms and looked over at the clouds that had suddenly choked the morning sun. "Anyway, I need your help."

A swig of coffee prefaced a surprised look. "Eh? With what?"

"Fluttershy has invited me over, but I don't know where she lives." A bug landed on her sleeved-covered arm; she shooed it away with a glowing hand. "Could you point in the general direction and tell me what her house looks like?"

Rainbow was deeply confused and made no effort to hide it. "Didn't she tell you that herself?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

Fuyu tried to maintain her usual stoicism, but her face softened since she knew exactly where the athlete was going. "No. I didn't actually talk to her."

"Twilight?" They both nodded; the pale woman glanced down afterward and sighed. "So Fluttershy called Twilight and Twilight invited you over for her. Dude, you've gotta get one of those phones so she stops being your go-between."

More nodding came in response to those words, but a frown chased it. "You have a point, although that isn't the entire problem. She seems to derive great joy from watching me encounter normal things. Like earlier, she was so happy about my first day off from a job I didn't even know I had forty-eight hours ago."

Rainbow emptied her mug and set it on the windowsill. "Yeah, see, that's Twilight Sparkle. When something fascinates her, she latches on with both hands and holds on for dear life."

Fuyu folded her arms and let her eyes close. "I would kind of like her to back off, but I don't want to seem distant. And while I appreciate all the six of you have done for me, it still seems like some of you enjoy doing it without my knowledge."

That made the athlete snort. "What can I say? Sometimes we're a pushy bunch of bitches." Before either could continue the conversation, she noticed something down on the sidewalk below. "Ugh, don't look now."

"What?" Fuyu did just that; her eyes came upon two boys – one with a greenish-blue bowl cut, and the other with messy orange hair – looking directly up at them. "I think I know those two. I've seen them with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle at school."

"Yeah. Get lost!" she yelled down, shaking her free hand. They skittered away. "And Rarity wonders why I don't wear skirts."

"Huh?" Only after a second or so did Fuyu get her drift. "Oh. Oh," she said, looking back up. "Right. I had not considered that."

Rainbow laughed so loud it caused Applejack to walk over with a questioning look. "First rule of flying, Fu: wear pants."

She folded her arms and glared off to the side for a moment. "I'll keep that in mind."

The blonde wanted in on the joke, nudging her girlfriend accordingly. "What're y'all chattin' about?"

Rainbow nudged her right back, still wearing a wicked smirk. "Forget it." She leaned out the window and pointed to her left. "River's that way. Follow it toward the orchard until you see a tree covered in birdhouses. That's Fluttershy's cottage."

"Right." Fuyu was just about to take off until that new piece of knowledge froze her and made her blink. "She lives in a tree too?"

"Sure does," Applejack nodded. "Hollowed out elm. Damnedest thing I ever saw; I didn't even think elms got that big."

"Hmm. Well, thank you." The pale woman flipped them a wave and streaked off.

Just as the couple were leaning back from the window, Applejack's eye caught Trixie exiting the building with a suitcase floating behind her. "Guess she's headin' out too."

"Who?" Rainbow peeked out as well, her face screwing up when she saw the magician. "Oh, yeah. Maybe we should have told Fu about her going to Canterlot?"

The blonde shrugged while falling back onto the blue sofa. "Maybe when she gets back. I'm sure it ain't nothin' ta worry 'bout."

Ten minutes of almost aimless flying finally brought Fuyu to her destination – or rather, above it. If she didn't know better, she'd have thought this was a conglomeration of birdhouses in the shape of a tree, like the fancy scrap metal art that would sometimes be on sale at the marketplace in town. As she descended, many birds fluttered up to and then away from her at breakneck speed, most of which disappeared into the branches of the elm. Applejack had been right; this was certainly the biggest example of the species Fuyu had ever seen in her five years of wandering.

She landed on the winding dirt path and looked up at the tree. Unlike the large windows of Twilight's library, the trunk was studded with smaller, rounder versions that were almost like portholes. The door was split in half – the top part was open and swung into the trunk – and there were various flower boxes and potted plants all of sorts everywhere. A quaint little sign was hanging from her mailbox that proclaimed something about an animal grooming service. As she walked nearer, she could hear the shy woman talking, but didn't see her inside upon looking through the half-open door. Trying to follow the voice was difficult because of the ceaseless calls of the birds filling the branches above. At a loss, the pale woman went around the back of the tree to begin her search.

Once she got past the green jeep, she finally came upon Fluttershy, at the base of a spindly birch tree, looking up at something Fuyu couldn't see. Moving over closer, a white cat became visible in the limbs. While waiting patiently to be noticed, she examined the dark, brooding forest which dominated the background. It looked just like the ones containing the cave, although she didn't think the woods spread that far. A minute passed, then two, filled with the shy woman's plaintive begging for the cat to jump down to her. Fuyu decided she'd had enough and cleared her throat. "Fluttershy?" she called lowly, trying not to scare her.

Of course, it didn't work. She squeaked loudly and crouched, hands over her head and shaking, until she realized who had addressed her. "Oh! Fuyu! I, um, I wasn't expecting you until later. I thought you would be at work." Standing with a smile, she waved cheerfully, but like most of the six women she had to look up at her friend.

"Someone ordered a hundred and forty cheesecakes. Mister Cake told me to stay home since they wouldn't be able to bake anything for the cafe." The cat had her attention now; she pointed at it. "What happened?"

Fluttershy also lifted her eyes while sighing to herself. "Oh, well, Fiona doesn't want her bath. She always ends up in this tree."

"Mm." Fuyu waited for the shy woman to fly up and retrieve the unhappy feline, but instead she continued calling for it to come down. "Can't you just pull your wings and get her?"

Apprehensive instantly became embarrassed. Fluttershy turned away from tree and friend both, squeezing her hands together. "W-well..."

Staring off after her, Fuyu's eyes widened a little. "You really are afraid of heights?"

"Terrified," she murmured, nodding firmly.

The pale woman blinked several times. "I thought Rainbow was joking." Reaching out with her right hand in sheathed in magic, she used the power to detach the cat from its perch and levitate it slowly down. "Here."

"Oh, thank you." Fluttershy let it settle into her arms with a smile. "Such a bad kitty." It meowed up at her, tail swishing. "Goodness! Mind your manners, we have a guest!"

They walked back to the larger tree together. After entering, the shy woman lead them up an unstable-looking set of stairs to a little room with a metal table, a metal sink, and counters that lined three of the four walls. She set the cat in the sink and took a breath. "Let's try this again. Could you hold her with your magic? Please be gentle."

"All right." Fuyu's left hand was alight with the black glow, though she didn't bother to raise it, and the cat lit up with the same shine a second later. Fluttershy turned on the water and began the washing process. "I don't think she likes this." The feline's movements were sending twitches through her senses. "Grabbing living things feels strange."

"O-oh." Unable to figure out any further way to respond to that, Fluttershy kept on scrubbing the displeased cat. "I meant to t-talk to you directly when I called earlier, but Twilight..."

A heavy frown yanked at her lips. "Yes, I know." Between her black magic and the shy woman's practiced hands, Fiona was washed and dried in no time at all. She watched as Fluttershy set her down on the floor and let her run off to hide. "That was easy."

"She can be so catty." The unintentional wording made her giggle and blush faintly. "I'm sorry, I certainly didn't invite you over to do more work. Let's go sit in the living room while I wait for her to dry."

And so they went, back down the rickety steps and over to a green loveseat tucked away near one of the cottage's larger windows. Fuyu noted the presence of a fireplace – something she had thought to be an odd feature in a house hewn totally from wood ever since she saw the one Twilight's library contained – and what looked to be several heavy bags of birdseed next to the front door. Something was on the small TV nearby, but the volume was down. From what she could tell, it appeared to be a cooking show.

Fluttershy tucked a strand of cotton candy behind her ear, looked directly at the floor, and spoke the longest set of sentences Fuyu had ever heard from her. "I-I'll go first. I've been thinking that you and I don't really talk much, and that's not very nice of me. I mean, if you d-don't want to be not talked to, that is. So I invited you over. I'm not really sure what we could talk about, but..."

The pale woman had a sheepish expression which grew deeper as Fluttershy spoke. "Actually, I think I still owe you an apology for what happened at the cave."

She snapped her head up, eyes wide. "Oh, n-no. It was sort of my fault. I should have run like Pinkie told me to, but there was another me! I didn't know what to think."

Fuyu hunched over and rubbed at her face. "I can understand that. You have no idea how glad I am to be past eating."

"Oh my, I bet." Fiona darted by and ducked noisily into an overturned wicker basket near the fireplace, causing them both to watch her for a moment. "Silly cat. Would you like some tea?"

Before she could reply, the pale woman inquired of her mind about her history with the drink. "I don't think I've ever had any," she said at last, straightening up. "What does it taste like?"

"Oh, well, there are a lot of kinds." Fluttershy rose, brushing off her khaki skirt. "I don't even know what to start with. Is there such a thing as starter tea?" She squeaked when her eyes landed on Fuyu, who was giving her an amused look. "Sorry, I'm talking to myself again."

She smiled more at that and folded her arms. "Whatever kind you think is best will be fine. I really don't know anything about tea."

"R-right. I'll go see what's in the cabinet." She skittered into the kitchen – the gait combined with her long skirt made Fuyu wonder how she didn't fall flat on her face like Stormy usually did. A subsequent series of low, glassy clacks and scrapes and other ambient noises caused her to relax just a little more, at least when it wasn't being broken by tinny yelps of surprise.

"Are you all right?" Fuyu asked, leaning forward to try and see better into the kitchen.

"F-fine! Just fine!"

"Okay?" Fuyu decided it would be best to wait, and it turned out to be about five minutes later when she heard a shrill whistling noise. "What is that?"

"The water is boiling! J-just a moment!" Soon she appeared with two dainty white cups of steaming liquid, each of which bore a tag hanging from a string over the rim. "H-here we go."

"Oh." Fuyu used magic to take hers from the shy woman and float it nearer so she could peer into it. "Brown?"

"Y-yes, this is just black tea. It's not really black, I guess, but—eek hot oh goodness, oh goodness!" Until then she'd been cradling her own cup in her hands, and hastily set it down on the coffee table. Despite her distress, her voice never rose above a murmur.

It made Fuyu grin again. "Be careful."

"S-sorry..." Fluttershy waved her hands to shoo away the excess heat that clung to her fingers. "I don't usually bring it out until it steeps for a few minutes."

Fuyu put her own cup aside as she watched her friend sit. "You never answered my question."

"Qu...wh-what question?" Terror flowed freely into her eyes as she groped about for an inquiry unrequited. "I don't remember any question I don't think, I—um...pleaseaskitagain?"

Her final four words were spoken at twice normal speed and three times higher pitch, and yet somehow they still lacked volume. Fuyu blinked and settled against the armrest in an attempt to assume a calmer pose – which she hoped would make Fluttershy seem less nervous. "I meant the question I asked you that day at the cave. Why do you apologize so much?"

"Oh! Um. That." She shifted gears from fear down into pensive unhappiness with such speed that the pale woman raised up with concern. "No, no, it's fine. I guess I say I'm sorry so much because I don't want anyone to feel bad." Her hands found their way into her lap and began to wring.

Her answer didn't help Fuyu much. She countered with her usual bluntness, although in as gentle a tone as possible. "But you say it for such trivial things."

The shy woman slumped over with sadness. "I kn-know. I guess I'm just so used to saying it all the time that I can't not say it."

"Now I'm sorry," Fuyu sighed, feeling as though she'd entered some touchy territory. "I was just curious. Did something happen?" She drew back with shock as Fluttershy hugged herself and began to whine. "Perhaps I should stop asking questions."

The shy woman tried her best to smile, but it didn't look right squashed together with the rest of her expression. "Don't mind me." A beat passed before she added, so quiet and quick it almost slipped by, "I'm jealous of you."

Fuyu had to make sure she'd even heard it before responding. "Why?"

Fluttershy gazed at her tangled fingers. "You don't care what anyone thinks. I think I might care too much about what everyone else thinks. I...I'm not very strong."

"That's ridiculous."

She snapped her eyes up and blinked. "Wh-what do you mean?"

Fuyu magically took up her tea, peered at it again, and took a sip. Her face screwed up with the flavor. "Bitter. If I recall, you willingly took me to the cave despite knowing what that meant."

Fidgeting harder, Fluttershy looked away again. "Well, I promised Pinkie. It wouldn't have been right not to keep it."

The pale woman took another sip, this time without the accompanying expression. "And you shot me in the head to save your friends. That isn't weakness."

"I'm still s-sorry about that!" she yelped, hiding her face. "I just thought..."

At last enamored with the bold taste of the tea, Fuyu emptied her cup and floated it back to the table. "Don't worry. I just think you don't give yourself enough credit. I liked the tea, by the way. It's certainly different from soda."

"Oh, y-yes..." Needing a distraction, she retrieved her own cup and started drinking. "G-goodness. I forgot the sugar."

"And for the record, I do care what everyone thinks. That's why I hardly show my powers." Pausing to frown, she folded her arms again. "Twilight believes it scares everyone."

Fluttershy tilted her head. "If you keep hiding them, it'll just scare people for longer." Fuyu glanced up with a look that made her squeak. "I mean, th-that's just what I think."

"No, I believe you might have a point." Before they could get any farther down that road, Fiona emerged from her basket fortress with a meow.

"Oh, you're dry! I guess I'd better call Lily." The shy woman rose to do just that, leaving her cup behind.

While she did, Fuyu looked at the feline. "You're Lily's? This really is a small town." She also stood and followed the other woman into the kitchen. "I'm going to head back. Thank you for the tea. And the conversation."

She was trying to balance her cordless phone on her shoulder, but managed a friendly wave anyway. "You're welcome. See you."

The pale woman stepped out into the cool morning air and, out of habit, walked down the path back toward the river. After covering a few hundred feet, she stopped and clenched her teeth. "She's right." A glance back at the tree helped reinforce her thoughts. "Why am I hiding the parts of me I don't need to hide? I'm not going around and hurting anyone. I don't need to conceal myself." Her hands lit up with black magic; in a second more her sneakers detached from the ground. "I've tried being passive. Let's see what being active gets me." She was off like a shot into the cloudy sky, scattering the birds who were perched and watching her from the trees.