Black

Trixie departed her hotel room the next morning, filled to the brim with anxiety. She had lied to Fuyu about her reasons for being in Canterlot – a family visit being the one given – but the pale woman's voice was even harder to read without facial expressions to accompany it. Whether or not the ruse had worked was a mystery. Under Luna's direction, her medal of the Order was safely tucked away in her suitcase, as were the precious documents to be delivered.

"What have I gotten myself into," she muttered while moving down the carpeted hall. "At least the money is decent." Someone in causal clothing was at the end near the elevator, leaning against the wall with their back turned. Trixie didn't pay them much attention until reaching the doors. Squinting, she examined the other person.

They faced her and removed their hood. It was Luna. "Surprise," she said with a smile. "I wanted to see you off. Looks like I was in time."

The magician's face wrinkled. "Oh. About that..." She turned away, pretending to wait for the elevator to arrive even though she hadn't yet pressed the button to call it.

Luna didn't like her expression. Crossing her arms, the oppressive regal air she shared with her sister came flooding out of her stance. "What's with that face?"

Realizing a lie would probably land her somewhere very unpleasant, Trixie took a breath and divulged her phone call. "Fuyu knows I'm here. I had to lie to her about why."

The royal imposition vanished; Luna suddenly looked worried for a tiny instant. "How did she find out?"

Trixie cocked her head in thought. "I have no ide-" Her eyes lit up. "Applejack saw my train ticket! She must have told her."

"I do not appreciate your carelessness," the Princess hissed lowly. "If any of those five get wind of this, Twilight will. If Twilight does, my sister will. If that happens, I may never achieve the-" She pressed her lips shut and tensed visibly. "Never mind."

Despite her wish to remain out of prison – and out of a coffin – Trixie couldn't stifle her annoyance. "For your information, I wasn't expecting her to drop in at six in the morning." While she noticed the shift in demeanor, she decided not to call Luna on it. "Relax. Applejack doesn't know any better than Fuyu does. In fact, she probably knows less."

"For both our sakes, I hope you're right." Luna moved past and hit the button. "I think this goes without saying, but do not let anyone see you drop off the papers."

She nodded, but her eyes rolled during the act. "I've gone from being in a fantasy novel to being in a spy movie." The elevator doors slid open. "Here goes, I guess."

"Good luck." Luna raised her hand in a wave goodbye, allowing the gold-edged indigo crystal on her palm to glitter in the light. "And try to be careful."

Trixie barely managed to get her reply through the closing doors. "I'll do my best."

Today was shaping up to be the first true test of Fuyu's new policy. Both Cakes were back, but Pinkie had been hired away by the Mayor to prepare a meal for some local dignitary's birthday. This left Fuyu in charge of the storefront; it was now her responsibility alone to call back orders, whereas all she'd had to do earlier was talk to the cheerful baker.

And there was a crowd. The weekend started tomorrow, so more people than usual were after a burst of caffeine to help get them over that last hump. While Pinkie had her experience to rely on to keep the line moving, Fuyu depended on something else. In a way, it was like her conversation with Fluttershy, except with even fewer words. They couldn't avoid watching her use her power – at least if they wanted their coffee – so they had to react.

It went better in some cases than others. Rose and her entourage were at the head of the pack, and issued a flurry of orders that the pale woman fulfilled almost by her magic and black goo alone. Remarkably, all three stayed, but a few people in the back of the line departed. The trio left after paying, and the next person in line stepped up hesitantly. Fuyu found herself looking at the Mayor, who was quite unsure about the situation.

"Large coffee, two sugars and one cream," she finally said, adjusting her glasses.

"Very well." The pale woman glanced over her shoulder to aim her black tendrils, which she did without moving her hands from her side. "Is that all?"

The Mayor stepped back as she watched the things writhing around. "Must you do that?"

"It is the most efficient way." To prove her point, she slid the cup of coffee across to the Mayor in a fashion so quick it would have made Pinkie blush with envy. "As you can see. That will be 3.50."

While she squinted at Fuyu, the pale woman waited for payment. She was looking down at her nails, however. She saw the black crystal on her palm. "Wait just a moment, where did you get that edging?" she asked, pointing at the gold trim.

She had to take a long moment to frame her answer; there was much the town still didn't know about the way she had taken out Trixie. "It's always been there," she replied at length, her hand still raised. "Why?" People were starting to try and cut in front of the Mayor by this point, but she refused to yield.

"Hmm. I would like to speak with you after your shift is done," she finally said, flicking a bill across the counter which Fuyu caught with her regular magic. "Just keep the change."

Fuyu couldn't even get out a curious sound before the next person in line came up and snatched her attention. What followed next was a solid hour of arrivals and departures. Three distinct groups of reactions eventually formed. The first were people that didn't care for the display but stayed. The Mayor, Rose, Lily, and Daisy fell into this one. Another consisted of people who actually seemed to like watching Fuyu work.

Not surprisingly, Rarity was a member of this group. "Darling, I have never seen someone make a cappuccino so fast in my life," she gasped, grasping the small cup with her magic.

Fuyu dismissed her ebony assistants and shrugged. "I have an unfair advantage, I guess." Behind the dressmaker, two people departed before reaching the counter – this was group number three, composed of those unwilling to brave the supposed danger for their coffee. "I'm not driving away as many as I thought I would."

"You're not giving them much of a chance to run." Rarity stood to the side to allow others to get their orders in. "The morning crush has never moved quite like this."

"Mm." Fuyu looked up at the new customer and put on what she assumed was a polite smile. "What'll you have?"

The new arrival was a blonde woman with glasses and yellowish eyes that didn't seem to be looking in quite the same direction. Fuyu saw her nearly every day when she delivered mail at the library tree, but didn't yet know her name. "Um, just a hot chocolate," she muttered shyly. When the pale woman used her black helpers to start fulfilling the order, it drew a gasp from her lips. "Those look scary!"

"I suppose they do." Fuyu had to look back a bit longer to make sure she was hitting the right switches, and so wasn't facing the woman as she spoke.

"Good morning, Ditzy," Rarity said, fanning the steam off her tiny cup. "Lovely new glasses."

"Really? I had to get a new prescription, so..." Suddenly, her hot chocolate was on the counter and waiting. "Whoa. That was fast."

"I am nothing if not quick." She looked briefly at Ditzy's silver glasses and blinked. "I like that color."

"Oh, stop it." Red-faced, Ditzy placed a bill on the counter and departed with a faint giggle.

Rarity smiled as she watched her go. "There you are! Make conversation. Nothing endears one to another like idle chatter and a good compliment."

The two people behind Ditzy, having seen Fuyu's display, declined to order and left. Frowning, she looked over at the dressmaker. "You were saying?"

She frowned hard and sighed. "You'll never win them all over. Just do what you can." A clump was beginning to form at the head of the line, so Rarity emptied her cup and deposited money directly into the register with her magic. "I'd best be off. See you later."

"Right." Fuyu looked at the next person in line and sighed. "You may be correct," she muttered under her breath, "but it still bothers me."

Once the morning crush had subsided, the rest of the day was a relative breeze. Fuyu had been called back into the kitchen to assist with the confections twice, although only after ensuring that the Cakes knew she had no idea how to cook or bake anything. Her role was nothing of the sort; instead, it called upon her magic to steady a towering chocolate construction of some kind built for a client in Canterlot. While she was standing there, holding the thing up with her magic and waiting on the batter to set, Pinkie arrived.

"Omigosh guys I accidentally snorted a piece of bell pepper," she rambled upon arrival, drawing odd looks from the three of them. "What? That can totally happen." She rubbed at her nose furiously. "How did it go, Fufu?"

"Fine. Some left. Most didn't." Her concentration was still being applied to the tiers of the enormous cake on the table. "What about you?"

"It was great! I got to grill things! I didn't know I could grill things but after a couple of fires I totally got it down." She folded her arms and glared at the Cakes, who were wearing horrified expressions. "I didn't burn down city hall if that's what you're thinking."

"Of course not, dearie!" Both disappeared behind the cake as if checking its integrity. "I don't know why you'd believe we were thinking such a thing."

Pinkie stifled a long giggle. "Pff, silly. Hey, I heard the Mayor wants to talk to you!" She darted over and hung on the pale woman in as tight a hug as her position would allow. "Are you in trouble? Is that like the grown-up version of getting called to the principal's office?"

"Not that I'm aware, and I honestly wouldn't know." Her focus was absolute, despite having the baker draped all over her back. "But I should probably go soon and see her. How much longer?"

Mister Cake leaned out into view and gave her a thumbs up. "Looks fine. Have a good weekend!"

Fuyu nodded as her hands ceased to glow. "Very well. Goodbye." Pinkie, however, wouldn't let go. "I need to leave," she said, gently nudging the baker in the arm.

She whined unhappily and continued to cling. "But I just got here! I haven't even said hello! Hi! Okay now I did, but still."

"Yes, but I should not keep the Mayor waiting." After slipping out from the hug with a magical assist, she patted Pinkie on the head. "I'll be around. You can visit me at home."

"Gosh, fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine." She walked over to the cake and waved with a smile. "Go do your boring meeting or whatever."

Fuyu smiled and waved back, then walked out of the kitchen and through the shop. Once outside, she decided to detach herself from the parking lot asphalt and hover to city hall. Whether or not the populace approved was below her concern; instead her mind wandered around in an attempt to figure out why the Mayor wanted to talk to her. Finding the place was easy, since she passed by it whenever visiting Rarity's boutique. It was a squat, brick building with as many stories as the one Rainbow Dash lived in, although not as narrow. A flagpole was stuck in a circle of concrete with bushes surrounding the base. The flag that flew from it was one she'd seen several times before – Twilight had said this was the national flag, which featured a half-sun, half-moon disk accompanying day and night skies, split in twain from bottom left to upper right. She watched it flutter for a moment before drifting up the wide steps and into the building.

Before she could even let her feet drop to the carpet, the raven-haired woman at the reception desk near the stairs got up and started in her direction. "She's already waiting for you." Her head tilted at the stairway.

"All right." Fuyu moved past her and began to climb them. They doubled back as they rose and dumped her onto the second floor, a space with many desks and a few people, none of which were the Mayor. She kept going up, until the stairway came to an end in a small reception area with two couches and a table. There was a door nearby, made of wood with a gold plaque at top center. "Mayor Mare," she read it out loud, then entered.

She was looking out her window as Fuyu came in; the view afforded was of downtown, looking toward the towering meeting hall. "Ah, there you are. Shut the door, if you would."

Magically, it was done. The pale woman settled in one of the two black leather chairs before the desk and looked at the Mayor's back. "Why did you want to see me?"

Before turning, she closed the blinds. Before speaking, she sat down as well and placed her hands on the desk, clasping them tightly. "First, I wanted to thank you again for saving the town. I didn't get a chance at the function because of the Princess' presence."

"Mm." She struggled to resist barging right through the pleasantries and to let the point of this gathering come to her. "It was nothing."

"It certainly wasn't." The Mayor leaned forward and assumed an air that was almost threatening. "Which leads me to why I asked you here. How did you do it, exactly?"

Fuyu crossed her arms and frowned a little. "You're just asking me this now?"

"I wouldn't have been curious had I not seen the edging on your jewels. In fact, if I'd not seen the jewels period. Last I heard, you had cuts on your palms that leaked some sort of black fluid."

And just like that her arms fell limp into her lap. She hadn't thought anything of her diversion; keeping the memory had, with time, become unnecessary. Bon Bon and Lyra hadn't brought it up again, so she'd assumed none of the others in their makeshift posse did either. In retrospect, she wondered why she had ever assumed her actions would stay quiet. Her mouth curled down as she inhaled. "Yes. So?"

The Mayor leaned ever farther forward, squinting through her glasses. "What did you do with the amulet?"

Now frozen with a fear she hadn't known since Rainbow Dash caught her feeding, Fuyu was silent and wide-eyed. While she wasn't a stranger to lying, she knew doing so now was probably a bad idea. There were, however, no parts of the truth she felt comfortable with giving to a relative stranger – and then, of course, there were the parts she had to keep hidden from everyone. While she fought to find an answer, her pants began to emit a generic ringtone. "Huh?" She retrieved her phone and peeked at the screen, where a photo of a smiling Twilight greeted her. "Oh. I should probably answer this."

"If you must," the Mayor relented, no shortage of disdain in her voice. Fuyu rose and strode out of the office, closing the door behind her.

The librarian was a bit too chipper in her greeting. "Hey! I hope you're getting overtime."

"Help," Fuyu breathed, glancing back at the door she'd just exited through. "The Mayor is asking me questions that I can't answer."

"Wha—why is she even talking to you? I haven't spoken to her since after the Princess left the party. I thought everything was fine."

The pale woman paced, realized she'd picked up the habit from Twilight, liked doing it, and kept going. "She saw my crystals and she knows I didn't have them before. Remember what I did to distract Trixie? Someone told her."

"Ohhhhh boy. Um. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"There's no time for you to drive." Fuyu looked out the nearest window and saw the towering branches of the library. "Go to the balcony. I'll fly over and pick you up."

"Erk. I don't think that's a good idea...then again we may not have a choice. All right. I'm walking up now."

Fuyu hung up and quietly opened the window with her magic. A peek out revealed several people on the street below, going about their business. Grumbling, she threw herself from the building and began to drop. After ten feet, her magic overwhelmed gravity and stopped her fall; in a second more it began to propel her along. The surprised shouts of those below only reached her ears for a moment until she had rocketed out of range. She alighted on the balcony not thirty seconds later, next to Twilight's precious telescope.

"Good grief!" the librarian exclaimed, coming out of the double doors. "You beat me up the stairs!"

"I'm in a hurry," Fuyu replied, pointing her left hand at Twilight, who squeaked as a sparkling black cloud of force enveloped her. "Let's go."

"Okay, just-" Whatever she had wanted to say was lost to a squeal when they went airborne. "Fuyu! Slow down!" The rooftops and trees flashed by under them at such a rate that Twilight tried to fight against their forward momentum. As the side of city hall came up on them like a charging bull, she slammed her eyes closed.

The expected impact never materialized. Fuyu gently threaded her friend through the open window, slid in after, and closed it behind them. While Twilight braced herself on the back of a couch to calm down, the pale woman took to pacing again.

Her demeanor was intimately familiar. "A-are you freaking out?" Twilight asked, finally collected enough to straighten. She issued one full-body shake, however, in an attempt to fling off the tingling of the telekinesis.

"No. Maybe." Fuyu regarded her with a tense glance. "I don't know what to say to her to make her stop so I can stay here."

Twilight's gaze hardened. "She's not going to make you go anywhere. Come on."

A very surprised Mayor stood up as the librarian entered her office. After a brief moment of confusion, she regained her composure and peered at the women. "Miss Sparkle. I wasn't expecting you."

She smoothed down some of the hair that Fuyu's breakneck speed had messed up and nodded. "Yes. I got wind of your meeting and decided to drop by." A small smile ran by as she considered her pun. "Although I would like to know the purpose. What's going on?"

"I'm simply tying up a few loose ends." The Mayor seated herself once more and looked at each of them in turn. "Such as the whereabouts of the amulet. And the jewels that I thought weren't supposed to be there. And what magic was she using before, exactly? What Lyra described to me didn't sound like the power I'm used to seeing."

Twilight was just as nervous now as her friend had been before, but unlike the pale woman she managed to recover. Her tone became somewhat akin to an attorney. "First, I have the amulet. Second, you are seeing Fuyu's hands as they were before her...injury."

That was close enough to the truth to make Fuyu squirm with discomfort, but as far as Twilight knew she was just adding to the lie being woven.

It appeared to be working. "I see," the Mayor murmured. "That still doesn't explain what was coming from her palms."

Twilight crossed her legs and looked as learned as any professor that had ever lived. "Madame Mayor, our jewels act as vents to regulate the flow of magic through our bodies. If we lose them, that magic compresses until it solidifies, and, if not dealt with, kills us. Lyra probably saw her trying to eject compressed magic out of her hands."

If there were any ambiguity about how effective the librarian was being, it vanished with the gasp. "That sounds painful!"

"You have no idea," Fuyu said, looking down at her black jewels. The truth sat heavy on her chest, but the outward expression of her pain was still vague enough to avoid triggering Twilight's concern.

"I don't think it would be fair to make her dig all these memories up again, do you?" She smiled as the Mayor nodded. "Good. Have I addressed all of your concerns?"

"Yes, but I'm curious. How did she lose her original jewels?"

Holding the answer in became too much for the pale woman to bear. Emotion bent her in half, forcing her to place her elbows on her knees and hide her face just as the tears arrived. The only other time Twilight had seen her cry like this was the morning after the tornado at Applejack's farmhouse.

It rattled her deeply. "Mayor, please," she stammered, rubbing Fuyu on the shoulder, "Don't make her relive it again." She leaned closer to whisper to the pale woman. "Are you all right?"

"Can I go now?" she replied through her shaking fingers.

The Mayor was just as uneasy and motioned to the door. "Of course, I'm sorry." Both of them watched Fuyu depart posthaste. "I truly am sorry. I had no idea," she added, looking at Twilight.

The librarian paired a weak smile with her deeply uncertain eyes and shrugged. "It's all right. Her past is a very touchy subject." Quickly, she got to her feet to see where Fuyu had gone.

"Wait, before you go...what about the edging? I thought..."

She had the perfect lie instantly; it took her far longer to frame the words just right to allow for maximum deniability later on. "That only Princesses had them?" she finished, looking down. "Well." Her tacked on expression was flawless, so flawless it made the Mayor gasp and cover her mouth. "Please keep this quiet."

"Of course."

Unwilling to wait any longer, Twilight excused herself and darted out of the office, hoping Fuyu hadn't gotten too far. She found the woman on one of the couches right outside, seated and hunched over. "You're one heck of an actress," she laughed nervously, sitting down with her.

"I suppose." Her tone lacked any of its usual strength.

Twilight tilted away and blinked. Her own mind was starting to light up with anxiety. "You were acting, weren't you?" The pale woman wouldn't answer. "Oh no, was I telling the truth by accident? What did I get right?" Suddenly, she gasped. "Did you remember something? Was it what happened to your hands?"

"Can we not talk about this right now?" Fuyu growled those words. She couldn't help it; her nerves were raw from the outburst. "Please."

"Sure. I-I'm sorry. You're just worrying me." She stood up as the pale woman did and followed her to the window. "Really, though, are you okay?"

"I'm fine enough." She opened the window with her power and flung herself through it, disappearing for a moment. When she floated back into view, she motioned for Twilight. "Come on."

"I will never get used to this..." The librarian's exit was far less graceful, and she yelped with the fall until the pressure of Fuyu's magic cushioned and stopped her. "Geez. I wish I could lift people."

"Mm." They took off together, although the trip back was slower. The distance was still covered in fairly short order. Fuyu set Twilight down on the balcony before letting herself land. "If you don't mind, I think I will take a nap."

"No, no, of course not. I need to head back downstairs anyway." In an instant she was by herself on the balcony, which gave her the chance to wrangle with her thoughts. "What did I say to set her off?" She couldn't figure it out, although running over her last words to the Mayor suddenly introduced a startling possibility. The gold trim had been thrown on the enormous pile of things that were odd about Fuyu and forgotten, but insinuating that she had it due to being a Princess – a blood-related one, not by marriage like herself – caused Twilight to think hard.

"Why does she have that trim?" she asked lowly, tapping her chin.

Trixie arrived back at her apartment long after the sun had died behind the hills, an exhausted and nervous wreck. Somehow, not having seen Fuyu on the cab ride into and through Ponyville only made her more uneasy. Too spent to unpack, she rolled her suitcase into the bedroom, retrieved only the envelope with the documents, and fell on her couch to wait for the night to grow a little older. A thought about calling the pale woman crossed her mind, but she dismissed it instead for a brief nap.

Sleep refused to come. She had the distinct feeling she was going down a rabbit hole of indeterminate depth, and imagining what awaited her at the bottom was unnerving to say the least. Muttering to herself, she rose and wandered over to her window to look outside.

"So much for the stage life," she sighed, looking at the darkened library tree in the distance. "Never even made it to Manehattan." An attempt to perk herself up had mixed success, but she smiled anyway. "At least I don't have to sleep in a glorified trailer in the creepy as hell woods."

Looking back at the table, her eyes fell on the packet. While she might have been curious about its contents, something told her that peeking would end badly; she didn't put it past Luna to have magicked the thing to explode if anyone but Fuyu tried to look inside. Scowling, she glanced back out the window. "They have to be asleep by now. I may as well get this over with." After snatching the packet up, she slid on her sneakers and walked out. Once she emerged from the building and onto the sidewalk, she snapped her eyes around to gauge how alone she was. Ponyville itself seemed to be slumbering, but the magician was too paranoid about being see to take any chances. Once she crossed the road, she darted into the nearest alley and began her trek.

From shadow to shadow she moved, clumsily at times, desperate to remain out of sight. A few minute walk from the apartments to the library turned into half an hour of hiding, whispering prayers whenever someone passed by too closely, and lying in wait for opportunities to move. When the great tree came fully into view, all the windows were dark.

"Thank goodness." Trixie ducked down behind a bush to catch her breath, and also to contemplate where to put the packet so only Fuyu would find it. A slow walkaround of the tree yielded no acceptable answer. The stoop was out; Twilight would likely find it first when she checked her mail. Anywhere else might be too well-concealed for Fuyu to see. Grumbling, she looked up through the branches at the stars. Her eyes fell on the balcony, and she grinned. "Perfect." With her magic, she slowly threaded the precious cargo through the limbs and leaves, then slotted it through the railing and let it drop. Once sure it was up there for good, she turned and moved quickly away from the tree.

Fuyu, standing on the balcony and looking up at the sky, had felt Trixie's magical spark wandering around, although she didn't know it was the magician. While she had been curious about how close the tingling had come to her, she was in no hurry to investigate until the sound of the packet hitting the deck reached her ears. She walked over and picked it up, blinking at it. "What is this?" A movement from her left made her look – it was Trixie, retreating down the street too close to a lamppost, and at a conspicuous pace. She glanced several times between the envelope and Trixie, letting her eyes rest on the latter until she vanished out of sight.