Gray

by Mayclore

Rating: teen
Tags: Human, Main 6, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Spike, Trixie
Length: 62019

Twilight and company try to deal with the ramifications of Pinkie's brilliant idea, while Fuyu attempts to reconcile life in Ponyville with her particular appetite. A quest for revenge will upend the fragile balance -- and reveal a dark truth.

Fuyu, Twilight, and the rest of their friends attempt to strike a balance between leading a normal life in Ponyville and dealing with the ramifications of Pinkie Pie's brilliant idea. While they busy themselves, an old enemy threatens to upend the fragile balance - and reveal a secret about the mysterious woman in black.

Humanized. Sequel to White.

Cover art by Meh.

Published 2013-03-09 11:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-05-21 17:04:09 UTC

Bright Future (Prologue)

“Hungry...”

Rainbow Dash would never admit it, but she was genuinely afraid. Every time Fuyu whined out that word, with that tone, the hair on the back of her neck stood up as she recalled exactly what it meant. She huddled on one end of the blue couch, pressed against the armrest and hugging herself. “Just hold on, Fu, Twilight and Pinkie said they're on their way to pick you up.”

“Hurry,” Fuyu wailed in response, clutching the sides of her head as she sat, hunched over. “Don't want to...don't want to hurt you...”

Rainbow was even more fearful than before, and thought about flying out the window before something awful happened. To her surprise, she found she couldn't make herself leave the woman in black, even if she was in considerable danger. “I know, I know, just hang on,” she offered, but her voice was shaky and terrified. “They'll be here like, any minute now!”

“Hungry.” This edition was more akin to a groan of pain instead of a whine, and it sent chills down Rainbow's spine. Not a minute later, the door to the apartment swung open. Twilight walked quickly in, Pinkie in tow. They saw Fuyu's state and exchanged anxious glances with each other before approaching.

“Come on, Fuyu, we're going to help you,” Twilight spoke first, kneeling beside the woman. From there, she could see the tears streaming down her face; the sight made her extremely uncomfortable. “D-does it hurt, or something? You never really explained how all of this works.”

“No time, hungry, very hungry,” she replied weakly, keeping her hands glued to her head as if her life depended on it. “Please, food...food that's not you...hurry...”

“F-Fufu?” Pinkie was the most nervous of anyone in the room, despite the fact that Rainbow had been watching this ordeal play out for nearly an hour. “Y-you're scaring me.”

“Y-you should be scared,” Fuyu replied, her eyes wide as saucers. She managed to stand up, but was extremely reluctant to drop her hands. “Take me now!”

“Let's go,” Twilight nodded, leading the three of them out of the apartment and down the hall. They took the stairs to street level – three flights of steps covered so fast Pinkie nearly lost her balance on two occasions – entered the stifling air, and piled into the librarian's blue compact. Fuyu ended up in the back; fine with her, as it would make it just a little more difficult to get to her friends to kill them. Twilight drove as insanely as the traffic would allow, until they finally broke free from the town and emerged onto a curving, two lane highway surrounded by thick woods. While she concentrated, Pinkie did the best she could to help her friend feel better.

“It'll be okay!” the baker yelped, hanging onto the door handle for dear life as Twilight threw her car around a corner. “Eeek! Be careful!”

Her purple eyes were hard with concentration as she drove. Only when the road straightened out again did she spare the focus needed to speak. “I don't think we have time for careful. I hope you remember the incantation, otherwise we're in deep trouble.”

Pinkie nodded so rapidly she got dizzy. “Don't worry, I remember it!” she blurted out, trying to steady herself in her seat. Her eyes grew wide as they approached a nondescript dirt turnoff that went back into the mass of tall trees. “Wait! Turn left!” She screamed again as the car barreled onto the dusty path, closing her eyes and clenching her teeth, keeping them that way for several seconds after the force of the turn stopped trying to throw her through the window before she opened either. “There's the swamp! Stop stop stop stop stop!”

Twilight crammed her foot into the floor mat, bringing the car to an abrupt halt. Fuyu's head slammed into the back of Pinkie's seat, but the pain was a whisper against the roaring chorus of her angry stomach. Pinkie almost tumbled out of the car as she opened the door, take several wobbly steps away as she attempted to regain her balance. Twilight had no such issue, and after emerging went around to help an eerily quiet Fuyu outside. She gasped loudly at the black fluid dripping from her palms. “What is that?!”

“Hungry!” she cried, her voice bouncing off the tree trunks.

Pinkie could only offer the obvious as she walked over to the pair. “This is not good.”

“No kidding,” Twilight grumbled, making a face as she backed away from a weeping Fuyu. “Come on, we'd better go.”

They tore through the swampy forest as fast as they could manage. Fuyu pushed through the muck with stunning ease, following directions from Pinkie as she struggled to keep up. Twilight and Pinkie couldn't match her pace; their shoes constantly sank into the squishy ground and caused them to stumble ahead more so than walk. She had to wait for them on the other side of the bog, skittering about on the bank with fearful impatience.

“There,” Twilight pointed as she stumbled onto the solid earth. Upon following her motion, Fuyu saw a large gray boulder that looked out of place. “We'll have to move that to—wait!” she yelled, trying to stop the woman as she ran headlong at the huge rock. “Hold on! I have to move it!”

Fuyu couldn't spare the time. She threw up her hands and wrapped lengths of black around the boulder, stepping away from it until the ropes were taut. After kicking off her sandals and digging in with her bare feet, she pulled with all her available strength. The rock started to slide, slowly at first, until she let out a primal shriek that scattered the birds in the branches and stunned both Twilight and Pinkie into stillness.

“H-holy m-moley,” Pinkie breathed, watching the boulder move under her unceasing assault. Only when they saw the hole it covered were they snapped back to reality. “Fufu! There it is!” she yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth.

Fuyu let go of it, the tentacles snapping back into her palms with a noise that made Twilight cringe. They followed her into the hole and down the winding, granite ramp. Raspberry light, provided by the jewels on the librarian's hands, was their only means of seeing the way – at least, until they reached the bottom of the slope. Here, the cave was illuminated by the pulsing bluish light of a circular pool, whose surface resembled a mirror more than a body of water. Fuyu stood at its edge, mesmerized for a moment by its glow.

“Say it, Pinkie!” Twilight yelled, wincing at the echoes of her plea.

Pinkie darted over to stand with the woman in black, staring down into the pool and taking a brief breath. “Into her own reflection she stared, uh, yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly swore not to be scared, at the prospect of being doubly there!”

Ripples formed in the pool. Pinkie backed away, but Fuyu remained where she stood, dumbfounded as she watched another Pinkie Pie pull herself out of the pool and shake off the water. Twilight rushed over and grabbed the real Pinkie's blue shirt sleeve, yanking her away and back toward the stone ramp. Behind them, the woman in black was too startled to pay any attention to her screeching hunger. Her mind was trying to resolve where the other Pinkie had come from, and it was louder than even her stomach. Awestruck, she reached up as the clone turned to her with a smile, placing a pale hand against her left cheek.

“Hi!” the clone chirped, smiling with the contact. “I'm Pinkie Pie!”

Fuyu frowned deeply as she withdrew her hand, leaving a splotch of black on the clone's face. “No...don't want to hurt...”

“Oh no, you're sad!” not-Pinkie whined, clamping onto her in a tight hug. “We'll turn that frown upside down with some fun!”

The contact was too close for her to bear, and she ceded control to her base functions as the hunger overwhelmed her consciousness. Like an animal, she extended her black claws and began attacking. The false Pinkie yelled out in pain and tried to get away from her, pushing back with her tall frame just hard enough to turn and run from the edge of the pool. Fuyu stalked her, arms at her sides, panting with bloodlust. The clone soon tumbled to the rocky floor, bleeding from several slashes in her left side.

“Don't hurt me!” she wailed, throwing up a hand as Fuyu approached. “Please! I'm sorry for hugging you!”

Her words managed to sting Fuyu, but the sensation drowned in a sea of blind obedience. She fell upon the clone, tearing and cutting and ripping at every chunk of warm flesh she could contact. The cave filled with agonized shrieks as she fed, inhaling muscle and skin and even candy floss hair by the mouthful, so fast she couldn't even get a breath around her meal. By the time the clone was silent, her upper half had been obliterated; Fuyu had even eaten her shirt and bra. Satiated to an extent, she settled into a more even rhythm – the more awareness she regained, however, the worse she felt about what she was doing. Tears streamed down her cheeks, worsening as her eyes passed over the clone's face, frozen in a mask of wide-eyed pain.

“I'm sorry,” she droned out, muffled by a length of femur which she immediately crunched into afterward. She was drenched from head to knee with crimson fluid. The only way she could figure out to stop those dead blue eyes from staring was to eat them; one at a time she yanked them out, swallowed them whole, then began chomping down on the skull. She dispatched it, and the brain, in short order, then pulled off the clone's shoes, threw them aside, and finished by downing her feet.

The hunger was gone, replaced by bitter sadness. Fuyu sat back on her legs in the red puddle, hiding her face and weeping loudly. Her sobs were so forceful, they made her shoulders shake. The noise was loud enough to attract Twilight and Pinkie's attention at the mouth of the cave, and they entered to see what was happening.

“Fuyu?” Twilight called gently, waving her hands to shine the glow on various parts of the cave. When the light fell on the bloody scene, she and Pinkie couldn't help but scream in surprise.

“I'm s-s-s-sorry,” she stammered, removing her hands and staring for a long while at the actual Pinkie Pie. “I d-don't...I don't like th-this...”

Even from a distance, the baker could see the damage in Fuyu's eyes. Screwing up her courage, she disregarded the crimson mess and ran to her friend, sliding the final couple of feet on her knees and locking her arms around the woman upon reaching her. “It's okay,” she whispered, placing a hand on her black hair and wincing at the warm fluid that soaked it. “It wasn't me. It wasn't me.”

She repeated those words into Fuyu's ear until Twilight finally walked over. The librarian couldn't make herself step into the red puddle, and stood a distance away, only able to watch Pinkie console the woman in black. Her need to confirm success finally overwhelmed her respectful silence. “Fuyu...did it work?” she asked, trying to be as considerate as possible.

“Twilight, please,” Pinkie scolded her weakly, her arms still wrapped around a shaking Fuyu. “Just wait a little bit.”

“R-right, I'm sorry,” she nodded, turning and moving back toward the pool with shaky steps. She sat down near the edge and rubbed at her eyes, allowing the details to overwhelm her. Fuyu had eaten the clone. All of it. She knew how Rainbow must have felt, and like her, she had no idea what to make of the whole affair. Over her shoulder, the sad noises faded, and shortly after she heard the sound of feet scuffling on the rock. She looked up as Fuyu and Pinkie arrived, both of whom were teary eyed and smeared with red.

“She...” Fuyu stopped speaking, and sat down abruptly. It was more of a collapse than an intended movement, and Pinkie quickly sat down beside her. “She was like anyone else I've ever eaten.”

“That's...” Good wasn't the word, so Twilight stopped short of saying it, casting her eyes at the pool and shaking her head. “Something. It buys us some time at least.” She hauled herself to her feet and ran a hand through her hair. Her face betrayed the fact that she was thinking hard. “Okay, we'll split the work. I don't know what effect the pool will have on people like me.” She looked at the gems in her hand and made a face before looking over at Pinkie. “Did the book say anything about that?” The baker shook her head, still patting Fuyu on the shoulder. “All right. I'm not going to risk cloning Rarity or myself. That leaves you, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and...” she paused, emitting a tense laugh. “Fluttershy, if by some miracle I can convince her.”

“I don't like this,” Fuyu murmured, so faint they could barely hear her. “She...she hugged me.”

“The clones are basic copies,” Twilight explained gently as she leaned down. “They have distilled versions of the original's personality. It's not surprising she hugged you.”

Fuyu brought her knees up and frowned. “She told me she was sorry for hugging me when I hurt her.”

Twilight didn't know what to say in response to that, so she stood up and let out a long sigh. “I'm sorry. It's not perfect, but it'll give me a chance to find out some way around you having to do this. All I can ask of you is to hang on. It's the best solution we've got that prevents anyone from being hurt.”

She stared into the pool for a minute before nodding in reply. Her blue eyes indicated that someone was being hurt, but Twilight didn't pick up on the signal. After uncoiling her legs, she too stood. “Very well.”

The next time Rainbow heard from any of the three was when Twilight called, asked her to come to the library with a change of clothes for Pinkie and Fuyu, and abruptly hung up before the woman could ask why. She went to Rarity's first and picked up some of the clothing the dressmaker had created, then flew to Pinkie's loft and rummaged through her incredibly disorganized drawers for ten minutes before being able to assemble a complete outfit. Carrying two bags of clothes in hand, she took off from the balcony of the loft, covering the distance to the library in about thirty seconds. She landed with a slight flourish on the stoop and lifted her hand to open the door, but Twilight accomplished that before her hand could even grip the knob.

“What's up?” Rainbow asked, dismissing her wings and following the frazzled-looking woman inside. “What happened?” Twilight said nothing as they went back to the living quarters. Once she had shut the door that separated this space from the more public area of the tree, she took a sharp breath and held out her hands for the bags. Rainbow turned them over with an unhappy look, folding her arms once her hands were free. “You gonna tell me what's going on here?”

“Go up to my bedroom. You'll find out,” Twilight advised her, taking the bags through another door at the back of her small kitchen. Rainbow blinked, scratching her head as she started in a different direction, traveled up a narrow set of stairs, and emerged into the upper floor of the living area. Twilight's bedroom was an open loft with a large window, and staring out of it was Pinkie Pie. Rainbow could barely see the blood stains on her blue shirt and khaki shorts. “Pinkie!” she squeaked, dashing over to her. The red was even more prevalent on her front side. “What in the hell?”

“I'm okay,” the baker said, affixing a smile to her face. “We went up to the mirror pool. I cloned myself so Fufu could...um...that.” She watched as Rainbow's shoulders slumped with relief. “She cried, Dashie. She didn't want to hurt me, even if the me she hurt wasn't that me.”

A hesitant Rainbow stood beside the taller woman, then wrapped an arm around her. “What did you see?” she asked, her voice low and worried.

“We ran out of the cave before she started doing any of the scary icky stuff. By the time we came back, she was finished. All we saw was the blood.” Pinkie emitted an unhappy, broken noise after she spoke, but fought against the cold pit in her stomach and continued to smile. “I hope she's okay. I've never seen her look so sad.”

“Yeah...right,” Rainbow muttered, her ears pricking as she heard a noise behind them ascending the stairs. They turned and beheld a pristine Fuyu, clad in a long sleeved, black t-shirt and baggy tan cargo pants. Her feet were bare; Twilight didn't mention anything about shoes, so Rainbow didn't bring any. As they walked over to greet her, the visibly upset librarian arrived.

“My shower looks like a crime scene,” she said, hugging herself and trembling slightly. “Okay, Pinkie, your turn.” The baker nodded and bounced away, skipping down the steps and whistling to herself. Twilight took a seat on the edge of her bed, trying to collect her thoughts. “Rainbow, I hate to ask you this, but can you take the bloody clothes and dump them somewhere after the sun sets? You'll cover a lot more distance than I can in my car.”

“Uh, I guess I can do that,” she replied, her eyes on the unnervingly calm woman at the top of the stairs. “Hey Fu, how are you feeling?”

“I am fine,” she said evenly, shifting from one foot to the other as she glanced around the bedroom. “Where did you get these clothes for me?”

“Rarity sent them over,” Rainbow explained, sitting on the bed near the librarian. “By the way, she wants to talk to you, Twilight.”

She nodded softly, resting her arms on her knees as she hunched over. “I bet she does. I will later today. I need to speak with everyone about my plan.”

Rainbow tilted her head in surprise. “What plan?”

Twilight stood up, walking over to Fuyu as she spoke. “We're going to feed Fuyu clones until I figure out what that sludge is. And by we, I mean everyone but Rarity and I. I don't know what the pool will do if exposed to our higher levels of magic.”

“Wow. I guess I'm in,” she affirmed, shrugging her shoulders as she gazed at the two of them. “Do they itch, Fu? You haven't stopped bouncing since you've come up here.”

“Comfortable.” Fuyu wasn't annoyed with her new clothing, she was amazed at how well it fit her. “I've never had clothes like this.”

“That's custom tailoring for you,” Twilight said with a smile. “You two can go on ahead, if you want. You probably want to get home anyway.” She gave Fuyu a firm hug. “I'm going to figure this out. I promise.”

Her hug was returned, albeit stiffly and only after a moment. She could find no comfort in Twilight's words, however, and a light frown remained etched on her face as she replayed the clone's dying words in her head over and over again. She only returned to awareness when Rainbow bade her to follow. The two of them walked down the steps, out of the living quarters, and left the library. They emerged into a muggy fog of air, the sun beating down and sizzling everything caught under it.

They walked in silence. Rainbow couldn't help but look down every so often, her face twisting slightly as she watched Fuyu's bare feet hit what had to be a scorching sidewalk. “That doesn't hurt?” she finally asked.

The woman shrugged, keeping her eyes ahead. “Not really. I feel it, but it's fine.”

People walked by them as they traveled, so the conversation ended there. Fuyu waved whenever she heard her name, but never replied vocally to anyone's greetings. Ten minutes later, the two of them were scaling the stairs in Rainbow's apartment building.

As they reached the second floor, she spoke. “I gotta ask you something.”

Fuyu's eyes were still locked in front, even as the athletic woman summoned her wings to hover along ahead. “What?”

“Have you ever tried committing suicide?”

She stopped dead in her tracks, staring blankly up at Rainbow as she hovered there with her wings flapping lazily. She wasn't exactly frowning, or smiling either; it was neutral curiosity, backed by a slight flicker of anxiety. Fuyu dropped her eyes and thought for a brief period. One such instance did register in her mind. It was not long after she remembered remembering, and came directly after she had to take her first child for food. “Yes. There was one time.”

Now Rainbow was frowning, rubbing the back of her neck and refusing to make eye contact. “Is that when you figured out you couldn't get hurt?” She blinked when Fuyu shook her head. “Oh. What did you do?”

“I threw myself off a cliff,” Fuyu replied, proceeding up the steps and walking past a stunned Rainbow.

She gave chase, flapping her wings a bit more. “Are you serious? What happened?”

“I fell, then I struck the ground. There was some pain, and I lost consciousness.” Her straight answer silenced Rainbow all the way to her apartment door, and even afterward as she sat on the blue couch. Rainbow stood behind it, reluctant to sit down for a reason Fuyu could not understand. “What?” she finally asked, looking back over her shoulder.

“Nothing, it's just...it just sounds like that one time I got a concussion. I fell off a ladder like a dumbass, couldn't pull my wings in time. I felt some pain, and blacked out. But I only dropped a few feet, and you jumped off a cliff!” she exclaimed, at last coming around to sit down on the other end of the sofa. “You just picked yourself up and walked away?”

“After a few hours, yes,” she nodded, folding her hands in her lap. The surprise on Rainbow's face confused her slightly. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Why'd you jump?” she asked, dodging the question and throwing another.

Fuyu looked down at the blue carpet and frowned, recalling her feelings just before the fall. “I hurt a child. I was sad. I didn't want to do that anymore.”

It was a long time before either of them spoke again. Rainbow finally broke the silence, turning to Fuyu with a serious look on her face. “I'm gonna level with you. Applejack asked if I'd let you stay here until she got the orchard sorted out, and I wasn't totally sure if I liked the idea. I mean, I'm never, ever going to forget what I saw you do.” She smoothed down her messy hair before continuing on, her face softening a little. “But I've been thinking...you'd never do that to us, would you?”

“No.” Fuyu wasn't planning to add anything further, but those rose eyes quietly demanded some additional details. “You are all my friends. I've never had friends before. I...I starved myself trying to stay away from Applejack, and from you. If Stormy hadn't have helped me, I would have left.”

Rainbow nodded approvingly, dropping her arms and flashing a small smile. “We've all done some fucked up things in our lives. Not at your level, probably, but Twilight says there has to be a reason for what you have to do. I guess I think she's right.” She reached out and grabbed the remote off the table, turning on the TV. “Pinkie told me you cried when you...you know. She hugged you in the cave, didn't she?” Fuyu nodded, and her small smile became a wider grin. “That's kind of her seal of approval. Applejack might be able to detect a liar, but Pinkie's the only one of us that knows when someone's faking their feelings. And yeah, she's friends with the whole damn town...but I can count on my fingers the number of people she hugs.”

Fuyu was smiling now, although hers was much more subtle. “I liked the hug. It helped me feel better.”

Her words made Rainbow nod again as she glanced at the TV. “She's awesome at that stuff. If you ever feel sad, just drop by the shop and talk to her.”

“Hmm.” Another baseball game was on, and for a while they watched it quietly. “There are so many things I don't know,” she added abruptly, causing Rainbow to glance over at her. “How am I supposed to fit in here? What is it that people do?” Rainbow began to laugh, and Fuyu shot her a questioning look. “Why are you laughing?”

“You're the weirdest person I know, no offense,” she replied, still chuckling a little. “Don't worry. We'll show you how it works.”

Again, she wore a subtle smile, forgetting for a moment the sights and sounds of the magical cave. “Very well.”

Spitting Image

For the next few feedings, Pinkie Pie insisted on taking Fuyu herself despite Twilight's objections. The only way she'd let the baker do it was if she came back after every visit and allowed Twilight to examine her. In her two weeks visiting the pool with Pinkie, Fuyu had learned that the mechanics of the mirror pool weren't really understood by anyone, nor were the effects of using it so often. It became something of a comforting routine. Every four days, she would go to the pool, make quick work of the clone – she had taken to ambushing it as it emerged so it couldn't speak to her – get a long hug from Pinkie, and go home.

Therefore, Fuyu didn't understand why an extremely nervous Fluttershy was standing at Rainbow's door this morning, wringing her hands furiously as she stared up at her. Rainbow was still asleep – and probably would be for a while – so Fuyu wasn't quite sure what was going on.

"Pinkie is sick," the shy woman explained, shuffling quickly past and into the apartment. "I a-agreed to take you this time in her place."

Fuyu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in surprise, a facial tick she'd picked up from her constant exposure to Rainbow Dash. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Um, well, I sort of promised Pinkie that I would, last night," she explained quietly, hugging herself as she glanced around the living room. "I don't want to b-back out of it. She w-would be upset with me."

Fuyu nodded slightly as she walked behind the couch, slipping on her black sandals and moving back toward the door. "Very well. Do you know the words?"

"Yes, I have them, um, written down," she replied, skittering along after the woman in black. "H-how long do you usually take to, um...you know?" she asked as they started down the stairs.

Fuyu knew very well that she could fly, and couldn't figure out why she would walk when Rainbow usually took wing and hovered up and down the stairwell. She discarded her confusion to answer the question. "I won't be long."

"Okay," Fluttershy nodded. They left the building and got into her vehicle. It was an open-top, boxy green thing with fat tires and a bed, but it wasn't quite a truck. As she pulled into the street, the engine made a long throaty growling sound that caused Fuyu to blink. The dainty woman looked totally out of place behind the wheel, but she drove with same ease Applejack displayed while wrangling her old red pickup. As they drove, and Fuyu didn't speak, an awkward look sprouted on Fluttershy's face that grew more intense as the miles went by. Suddenly, she emitted a squeak and started to apologize. "I'm sorry! I didn't think you wanted to talk so I didn't say anything!"

Fuyu looked over, tilting her head and trying to figure out what the apology was actually for. Her eyes rolled about as she thought, until finally she gave up the pursuit and decided it would be easier to just accept it and move on. "It's fine." The silence returned, and the cycle began anew.

"Sorry!" she squeaked. "I didn't mean to be so quiet!"

The second apology earned her a confused stare, but Fuyu didn't endeavor to speak this time. Instead, she just watched the shy woman drive. As they made the turnoff, Fluttershy appeared ready to faint – or perhaps burst with some emotion Fuyu couldn't place. She brought the vehicle to a squeaky stop at the end of the dirt path and turned to look at her passenger with tense eyes.

"Y-you're so quiet!" she finally blurted out, slapping her hands over her mouth after she spoke. "Sorry!"

Never had Fuyu encountered so many apologies per square word. She wasn't quite sure how to handle it. Fluttershy was in an equal, if not quite similar conundrum; the woman in black actually spoke less than she, and she had no idea how to handle someone quieter than herself. As if to change the subject, they left the vehicle almost simultaneously. Fuyu began moving through the woods, and only after a moment did the shy woman summon her yellow wings and flutter along in pursuit.

"Oh my, I didn't bring a flashlight to see," she murmured, frowning hard at herself as they traveled. "I'm sorry. I could, um, go back and get one? Go back home, I mean," she offered, flashing the most awkward smile she could manage.

"Why do you apologize so much?" Fuyu asked, dancing over the soggy ground with disregarded grace.

Fluttershy blinked at the question, looking away for a second to ponder it. "I'm not sure. I'm sorry for apologi—oh, um...never mind." She floated along, biting her lip nervously as she attempted not to apologize for her apology about too many apologies. Neither of them were willing to speak again until they reached the rock, and the shy woman drifted through the air to peek down the hole. "Oh my, it's terribly dark." She squeaked as Fuyu walked in without a second thought. "W-wait! You might fall!"

"I'll be fine," she replied flatly, feeling along the wall as she descended down the stony grade. She knew Fluttershy had fallen in behind her thanks to the unbroken series of terrified squeaks she heard, plus two gentle bumps followed by muffled apologies to the wall that she'd collided with. Thankfully, the pool provided enough light to see as they neared it, and the shy woman stopped running into objects. They finally made it to the edge of the water, and an amazed Fluttershy stared down into its depths.

"It's so b-beautiful!" she whispered, hands to her chest as she hovered over it. She looked back at Fuyu for her opinion, but received a faintly impatient look in response. It confused her only briefly, until she suddenly realized why she'd come in the first place. "Oh, right, the spell..." She fished a scrap of paper from the pocket of her yellow shirt and unfolded it, holding it in shaky hands and trying to catch enough of the pool's light to read. "Into her own r-r-reflection she stared, um...y-yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly swore not to be s-s-scared, at the prospect of being doubly there." When the pool started to ripple, Fluttershy shrieked and flew away before her clone even fully materialized.

Sighing, Fuyu watched the false Fluttershy as she hesitantly pulled herself from the water. Unlike Pinkie's clones, however, this one ran away immediately upon seeing the woman in black. By the time Fuyu caught up to her, she was at the cave's ceiling, wings flapping desperately as she tried to find some way to escape. The cave was low enough for her to launch a black tentacle at the clone and wrap it around her waist. Slowly, she retracted the black rope and hauled the clone in.

That was when the clone started to scream. It was a noise unlike any she had heard before, shrill, visceral and so high-pitched it could probably shatter glass. The clone kept screaming at the top of her lungs even as Fuyu fully recalled her tentacle and laid hands on her, turning her around so they were face to face.

"Please no please no please no please no," she said, over and over again, through a series of sobs and hiccups. She didn't even struggle in Fuyu's grip, and that bothered her more than when Pinkie's clones tried to fight her. She was so put off that she actually released her grip, but the clone only fell to the floor and curled up into a ball, muttering a steady stream of 'please' as she shook. Just as she was collecting herself enough to summon a black blade and end it, the clone's words changed. A tidal wave of 'sorry' spilled from her lips, interrupted only by raspy gasps for air. Fuyu was now faced with a new feeling, but thanks to her reading she instantly had a label for it: guilt.

"I don't want to hurt you," she offered quietly, lifting her unarmed hand in apology. The clone squealed with terror at the word 'hurt' and fled, spreading her wings and taking to the air. Shaking her head, she started following the wingbeats as they echoed around the cave. This went on for about five minutes, until they abruptly fell silent. Once she located the clone, a serious problem became apparent.

The clone had found Fluttershy. Fuyu had no idea which one was which. The two of them clung to each other, weeping as they stared wide-eyed at the woman in black's arrival.

"I'm the real one!" the one the left blurted out. "Don't hurt me!"

The one on the right glanced at her double and blinked, then repeated her assertion verbatim. "I'm the real one! Don't hurt me!"

Fuyu sent away the black knife in her right palm and stared at the twins. The harder she tried at distinguishing the real one, the more her head began to ache. Soon, she placed a hand on it and mumbled, looking away from the two of them as she tried to think without causing herself discomfort. By the time she looked back, one of them had vanished. Fuyu heard no wings, so she had to have fled on foot. Instead of trying to chase the escapee, she approached the remaining Fluttershy.

"Please Fuyu, it's me," she begged, scrambling backwards along the floor as the woman drew closer. "Please! I swear I'm the real one!" When Fuyu raised an arm as if to strike, she weakly threw up her hand and started sobbing again. "No! No! It's really me! Please, no!" She closed her eyes as she felt something hard bump into her chest; assuming it was the end, she fell backwards and nearly passed out. There was no pain, however, and she opened her eyes again to find something like a lump of coal on her chest. "Wh-what is this?"

"Hold it," Fuyu replied, beginning her hunt for the other Fluttershy. She had to squint against the relatively bright light of the mirror pool, but caught enough of a movement on the other side of it to realize one of them was on the other side. Walking toward the edge, she shot out a black rope, wrapping it around a massive crystal point and yanking herself across, her sandals skimming the surface as she flew. Once she had the rope retracted, she started moving toward the last spot she saw motion. Sure enough, she found Fluttershy number two with her back against a rocky spike, sobbing quietly as she hid her eyes. Fuyu reeled her in with another black tentacle and held her under an arm, ignoring the spindly woman's weak thrashes. She drew herself across the pool and dumped the shy woman onto the floor with the other shy woman once she walked back over. The one on the right was clutching the black rock, and Fuyu addressed her first. "Why should I believe you?"

"B-b-because I knew your name," she replied, shaking so violently she could hardly talk.

"I know it! It's Fuyu!" the other Fluttershy squeaked, waving her hands in the air. "Don't hurt me!"

The one with the black rock looked ready to faint again, but adrenaline kept her upright as she berated her double. "You only know it because you heard me say it!"

"You only knew it because you heard me say it!"

Fuyu's gaze went back and forth as they argued in a circle about just which one of them had heard the name first. The squeaky bickering grated at her ears, causing her to rub at her eyes after a while, then to growl with annoyance. "Enough!" she bellowed, pulling shrieks of terror from both their lips. Once their attention was on her, she raised her arms, pointing one palm at each Fluttershy. "When I told you the truth," she began, glancing between both of them, "What did you do to me?"

"I shot you in the head!" the Fluttershy with the black rock screeched quickly. She ducked her head after speaking and began to mutter fearfully. Before the other Fluttershy could repeat the statement, a wiggling length of ebony launched out and penetrated her forehead. She fell limply to the ground, bumping into the original. "No no no," the shy woman wailed, scrambling away from her dead clone. "I don't want to do this anymore, I want to go home, I want to go home..."

Fuyu withdrew her weapon and walked over, dropping to a knee and giving her an awkward embrace. "I'm sorry. I won't hurt you. You need to leave, now. Wait for me outside."

Weeping, she nodded and sprouted her wings. She flew out of the cave as fast as she could manage, slamming into the upper part of the wall several times on her way. Fuyu winced faintly with every impact she heard before looking back at the dead clone. She dropped to her other knee and let out a loud sigh, emitting a wave of suppressed fear about killing the wrong one. "That could have gone better," she muttered lowly, getting to work on stripping the clone to eat.

Neither of them had much idea of how long they had been gone until they opened the door of Rainbow's apartment. They were met by Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow herself, all in various states of frantic anxiety. Fluttershy could hardly breathe, much less talk, so Fuyu took up the task of explaining why they were so late in getting back. At least she had made a point of keeping herself clean; a bloody parade through town in the shy woman's open-top vehicle would have been quite a disaster.

"There was a problem," she stated, sitting down on the blue couch and shedding her sandals. Behind her, Rainbow shuttled her best friend into the bedroom, shutting the door firmly behind them.

"No fuckin' kiddin'!" Applejack replied loudly, hands on her hips as she turned to face the woman in black. "Y'all been gone for half the damn day! We thought ya'd done killed her!"

Fuyu reacted badly to those words, pinning down the blonde with a gaze that could have frozen fire. "If I had killed her, I would have been done a lot sooner," she growled, standing up and walking over. "She didn't leave the cave after summoning the clone. The clone ran. They found each other and I couldn't tell them apart at first," she added, her tone somewhere between annoyed and frustrated. "I had to make sure I ate the right one. That's why we're late."

Applejack shrank back under her angry clarification, suddenly looking a bit sheepish as she raised her hands in defeat. "I'm sorry, Fu, I just...we were just worried, that's all." They both looked down as Twilight got between them, arms folded and eyes shining with sternness.

"It's fine," she stated. "Applejack is sorry, you're sorry. I think Fluttershy should be our biggest concern at the moment." They all turned to the bedroom door and stared for a moment before their impromptu get together broke up. One by one, they all sat on the couch and began to wait. "I thought Pinkie was doing this?" Twilight asked them both, glancing at each in turn. "Where is she?"

"Fluttershy told me she was sick," Fuyu replied, her eyes locked on the TV. "She also told me that she promised Pinkie she would take me to the cave last night."

"Ugh, I told her to let me know if she couldn't do it," Twilight groaned, slapping her forehead. "I would have asked Applejack to substitute."

The blonde perked up at her name and looked over. Still feeling a little apologetic, she nodded. "I'd have done it. No problem." She made a face when Fuyu glanced up at her. Those blue eyes betrayed that she hadn't gotten over the accusation leveled when she first arrived. "Fu, I didn't mean ta insinuate nothin'."

"Yet, you did," the woman in black replied evenly, crossing her arms. "It...hurt." She blinked at the admission. Emotional pain still confused her with how similar it was to physical distress, and almost reflexively she looked down at herself to see if she was injured.

An awkward silence fell on the three of them, broken only by the opening of the bedroom door. They all looked over the back of the couch to see a much calmer Fluttershy emerge. The shy woman stared at Twilight and said, with surprising firmness, "I'm not going to do that again." The librarian nodded her acceptance. For some reason, it made the shy woman squeak. "Um...well, I'm going home now. If that's okay with all of you." Since no one objected, she skittered out with a few more squeaks, nearly falling out of the doorway as she went.

"She okay?" Applejack asked her girlfriend, hanging an arm over the back of the sofa.

"Yeah, she cried a lot. I'd probably cry too if I'd been in her place," Rainbow said, moving to sit by the blonde. "We all cool out here?"

"Not quite," Twilight said, rubbing her temples. "I had some things I wanted to ask Fuyu, but I'm not sure now is a good time."

Three pairs of eyes went to her, but Fuyu returned none of their looks. "What questions?" she asked, still keeping her gaze on the TV.

Twilight cleared her throat, folding her hands in her lap and taking on a studious air that made Rainbow and Applejack exchange amused glances. "I was wondering if you'd let me have some of the sludge, to study."

Fuyu looked over at last, considering her request. After a second, she shrugged. "If you want." They all jerked back instinctively as she cupped her palm and squirted some out, swishing it around the basin and looking at the librarian. Twilight's hand lit up as she tried to magically float it over, but it never left Fuyu's palm. "What's wrong?"

"I can't grab it!" she exclaimed, a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead as she concentrated. "What the...it feels like oil, or something." The goo did have a faint raspberry glow surrounding it, but no amount of grunting or hand waving on Twilight's part could get it to budge. "That's certainly interesting. Rainbow, do you have a container I can borrow?"

"Um, I think so," she nodded, hopping out of Applejack's lap and wandering into her small kitchen. There was a long string of glassy noises as she rummaged through her lower cabinets, coming back with a jar and lid in each hand. "This work?"

"Yes," Twilight nodded. "Thank you. Fuyu, if you would?" She watched the woman squirt the jar half full of the awful gunk, screw on the lid, and hand it over. "Amazing," she breathed, swishing it around. "It doesn't stain the glass!"

Applejack shuddered as she watched the goo slide around, automatically wrapping an arm around Rainbow as she sat down in her lap once more. "Man, that crap looks terrible."

"It'd be awesome for a Nightmare Night prank," Rainbow countered with a wicked grin. Twilight shot her a grave look that turned her smile into a pout. "Stop being so serious all the time, Twilight."

"I'd say this is a pretty serious matter," she replied, still swishing the goo around. "I'm going to head back. I have a lot of tests to run. See you later," she waved, standing up and striding out of the apartment. Applejack and Rainbow offered her waves as she left, then looked over at the quiet Fuyu once she was gone.

"You okay over there?" Rainbow asked, noting a colder edge to her silence than usual.

She looked over at them at last. "I don't want her to take me ever again," she said, her tone extremely firm. "Her clone was so scared, it scared me. That's why they were able to get mixed up. I couldn't...I couldn't hurt her." She decompressed a little with the venting, her eyes shifting from hollow to sad. "Pinkie's clones are bad enough about trying to hug me. Fluttershy's clone just begged and screamed." In an instant, Applejack and Rainbow were on either side of her, gentle hands on her shoulders. The contact made her sigh and slump over.

"It's cool, Fu. I can take you next time," Rainbow said, patting her almost roughly. "Good luck keeping up with another me, though, heh."

"I best do it," Applejack countered, grinning faintly as she looked across at her girlfriend. "Least I can't fly nowhere."

Fuyu interrupted their burgeoning banter, slumping over further as she frowned. "I'd rather you didn't have to do it at all." It had taken her a lot longer than Fluttershy for the emotion to build, but now it overwhelmed her and drew tears from her eyes. Quietly, the two women at her side enclosed her in a gentle hug.

"Fufu, I am the super sorriest in the entire world-"

Fuyu glanced down at Rainbow's phone for the tenth time and tried to squeeze a word in edgewise as she got some water to drink. "Pinkie, it's fine."

"-I'm gonna like, totally throw you a party to make up for it because I heard from Rainbow that you cried-"

"Pinkie, calm down," Fuyu tried again, walking over to the window to gaze at the sunrise.

"-and you crying made me cry and I don't want any of my friends to cry and ohmygosh are you going to cry again?! I'll drive over right now and we can have a biiiiiiiiiiig hug-"

"...Pinkie?" Fuyu said, seeing if she could use an inflection to get the words to stop. She frowned when that failed to do anything, resigning herself to drinking from her glass as she watched the town wake up.

"-I am serious do you want a hug because I will totally get out of bed ri—achoo!" Finally she was quiet, save for a muffled burst of sniffling after her sneeze.

"Perhaps you should stay in bed." Fuyu glanced over as Rainbow arrived, stretching and yawning obnoxiously. "Would you like to talk to Dashie?" The nickname caused her face to screw up for a split second. Pinkie unleashed a rapid-fire explosion of 'yes', so Fuyu handed over the phone and went to sit on the couch. While they talked, she thumbed through one of the books Twilight had given her. This one was a fiction novel about medieval knights, and the imagery caused her brain to stretch, much like the Daring Do novel had before. She got lost in the words for several minutes until, out of the corner of her eye, she detected something flying at her. Her left hand flew up and snatched it right out of the air; as she gripped it, she realized it was Rainbow's phone.

"Twilight wants to talk to you," she explained, heading toward the bathroom. "Tell her to make it quick, I gotta get ready for work."

"Good morning!" the librarian greeted her, unnervingly happy – while sounding simultaneously exhausted. "That goo is fascinating! Or, it was, until it hardened and got all inert and boring. May I have some more of it?"

Fuyu blinked at how giddy Twilight sounded. It made her nervous, and she couldn't quite guess at why. "I can fix it for you. If I expel too much, I'll get hungry faster."

"Of course! Don't want that to happen! Wait, how can you fix it?"

"If I reconnect it to myself, it will become flexible again." She was multitasking now, her eyes back on the pages of the book. "Do you want me to come over?"

"Amazing! It's like a ferromagnetic liquid that reacts to the electrical signals in your nervous system!" Fuyu could barely hear a scribbling noise in the background. "I would appreciate if you did drop by. I had something else I wanted to do."

"Oh?" Rainbow was back, dressed in a gray hoodie that almost covered her ridiculously short red shorts. She plopped down on the couch with sneakers in hand, untying them so she could slide them on. Fuyu glanced over at her for only a moment. "What?"

Her reply was as chipper as could be. "I want you to beat up Applejack!"

Rainbow snatched her phone right out of a surprised Fuyu's hand, holding it in front of her face as she yelled. "Excuse me?!"

"Hi! I just want Fuyu to test her strength against the strongest woman I know, that's all."

"You need some sleep, you're sounding a little more insane than normal," Rainbow muttered, placing the phone between her ear and shoulder so she could deal with her shoes.

"I have coffee, Rainbow. Besides, I'm too excited!"

"That's bad for the rest of us. Look, I gotta go. No beating up my girlfriend, got it?" She ended the call and stood up, looking down at Fuyu as she continued to read. "I'm out. If Twilight calls again, try not to agree to any of her ridiculous ideas, okay?"

"I will do my best," she nodded, flipping a page and crossing her legs. Brief goodbyes were exchanged before Rainbow sprouted her wings and flew out of the living room window. Alone, Fuyu sighed contentedly and threw herself into reading. At least, until the doorbell rang. She looked up at it and blinked, sliding off the couch and walking to answer it with her book in hand. Behind the door, she found a restless Twilight, shifting ceaselessly in place until she noticed the door was open. Her hair was a frizzy mess, and there were bags under her eyes.

"Fuyu, that goo is the most amazing substance I've ever seen," she said breathlessly. She reached out and grabbed the woman's hand to lead her down the hallway and to the stairs. Fuyu barely got the door shut before being pulled out of range.

"Rainbow told me not to agree to-" she began, but Twilight raised a hand to cut her off.

"Not now. I have serious science to do, and a limited amount of caffeine with which to do it."

Out On the Town

When they reached the library and drove around back to park, Fuyu saw the old red truck. She blinked and looked at Twilight, who was humming a little tune as she unbuckled her seat belt. “Applejack is here?”

“Of course. I said I wanted to test your strength,” she replied cheerfully, hopping out of the car before she could be rebuked.

Dumbstruck, Fuyu got out and pursued her, still carrying her book from the apartment. “I don't think I want to do that.”

They entered the tree through the back, making it all the way to the small kitchen before Twilight decided to respond. “Oh, it'll be fine. She's very stout, I'm sure she can handle it.” With a wide smile, she walked into the public room, an uncertain Fuyu in tow. Spike was in here, and he waved to them as he directed a cart of books through the furniture. Applejack was here too, seated in one of the boxy chairs with a purple mug in her hand. She offered a friendly smile to Fuyu as the woman sat in a nearby chair, but all Twilight got was an uncertain frown.

“Y'all sure this is a good idea?” she asked, blowing some of the steam away from her coffee before taking a drink. “I kinda need ta get back soonish and help Big Macintosh with the tree plantin'...I sure don't wanna limp back or nothin'.”

“It's completely fine!” Twilight groaned, raising her arms in frustration. “What is with everyone today? It's like I've never done this before or something.”

Fuyu looked at her with even eyes. “To me, you haven't.” The librarian became still at last, her fidgeting quelled by the woman's tone. “I'm not sure how much I like the idea. I certainly do not want to beat up Applejack.”

Twilight stared at her, slack-jawed, as if her consciousness was finally catching up with reason. She placed a hand over her eyes and sighed. “I'm sorry, Fuyu. I tend to get ahead of myself sometimes when it comes to research.”

“That's puttin' it rather mildly,” Applejack grinned and winked, raising her mug in a mock salute. She smiled at Fuyu afterward. “Twilight's about like Rarity when it comes to studyin'. Can't stop her once she gets started.”

No longer giddy, the librarian looked utterly spent. She fell into a nearby chair and scratched at her messy hair. “I need a nap,” she droned, yawning. “Actually...there is one thing I would like you to do,” she added, looking up at the woman in black. “That jar is in my bedroom. Could you bring it down and show me how the process works?”

“Very well.” Fuyu was off with a nod, setting her book on the table and wandering into the private area, then up the narrow stairs. She found the jar on the oak dresser and picked it up. Unlike yesterday, the goo within was motionless; it appeared to be a jar half full of onyx, not shifting sludge. She brought back out and sat down in the chair beside Twilight, who leaned up with anticipation to watch her work. Even Applejack looked interested, despite the faint look of disgust on her face. Fuyu easily unscrewed the lid and pressed her left palm against the opening, sprouting a thin tendril of the goo into the jar. Once it contacted the black mass, the whole thing became as fluid as when it had first emerged from her hand.

“I don't believe this,” Twilight whispered, watching as Fuyu removed her hand, screwed the lid back on, and handed the jar to her. She clutched it in both hands and moved it around to get the gunk within to flow. “It's like you melted ice!”

She gazed at it too, rubbing down her hair and sitting in the chair nearest the librarian. “It talks to me, and I to it. Not with words. When it gets sleepy, it hardens and waits for me.”

“Freaky,” a shuddering Applejack said, taking another sip of coffee. “Do ya have any idea what it is, Twilight?”

“All I know thus far is that it doesn't react to magic, acid, heat, cold, tap water, filtered water, lye, or that body wash Rarity keeps insisting I use that smells so awful,” she said, punctuating her list – and disdain – by waving her hand in front of her nose. “I got it to move a little under an electric current, but nothing like what you just did.”

Applejack had emptied her coffee by now, and set the mug on the table with a solid clank. “Huh. Well, y'all still need me for anything? I really do need ta get back ta the orchard.”

“Go ahead,” Twilight sighed, rising from her chair. “I'm sorry for dragging you all the way out here for nothing.”

“Shoot, don't worry none. Besides, y'all make better coffee than my brother does,” she quipped, also standing up. “See y'all later,” she waved, striding toward the door. “Fu, say hi ta Rainbow for me!”

Fuyu nodded. “Okay.” Then she drew her eyes up at Twilight, who hadn't taken a step further since standing up. “Should I go home now?”

“I had another idea, if you don't mind,” she replied, pausing as her eyes lit up. “Could you show me more of the goo? What it can do, I mean.” They were silent for a moment as a whistling Spike trundled past with the laden cart. “We can go into the basement,” she added, whispering to Fuyu with a hand shielding her mouth. “I haven't told Spike about any of this, I don't think he would...react well, if you get my drift.”

“I understand,” she sighed, reminded of the fact that she still had to hide her true self from everyone else. Twilight motioned for her to follow, and together they went toward a different door in the back of the public space. When they reached it, the librarian turned around.

“Spike, mind the store for me!” she called, hand cupped around her mouth. He waved at her from across the room, and only then did they enter. She reached just inside the doorway to flip on the lights, and Fuyu saw a spiraling staircase that lead down into a chamber full of various types of equipment. As they went down, she examined each piece more closely, unable to figure out what any of it was used for.

Until she saw the medical devices. Those made her stop on the stairs as she stared, trying to figure out why they were so familiar. Twilight only caught this after she'd gotten a few steps away. “Fuyu? What's wrong?” she asked, turning around. She followed her gaze to the equipment and blinked. “Fuyu?”

The white fog in her mind was parting just a fraction, and she placed a hand gently on the side of her head. “White room...” she mumbled, closing her eyes and grimacing. “Gray curtains.”

Twilight skittered back up the steps, ready to place a hand on Fuyu's shoulder. She stopped short, however, when the woman dropped her own hand and sighed. “Are you remembering something?”

“That was all,” she muttered, looking faintly uncomfortable. Quietly, she started on down the steps again, right past the concerned librarian. “Are you going to use any of this on me?”

“Um...” A hesitant Twilight began to follow, unsure about going through with her plan. She shrugged it off as they reached the bottom and shook her head. “No. I won't do anything you don't want me to do.”

“Very well.” Fuyu was enthralled by the heart monitor, walking over to it and touching its side. “Are you a doctor too?”

“Oh, no. You see, this is the biggest basement in the entire town! I end up storing a lot of unneeded stuff along with my own things down here,” she explained with a light laugh. A few awkward seconds passed as she watched Fuyu examine the heart monitor. Finally, she turned away to look at the librarian. “Okay. I'm not even sure what questions to ask, really. Just show me something you can do.”

She looked around for moment, thinking, then lifted her right arm straight up and tilted her head back to look at the ceiling. She gauged the distance before aiming her palm and firing a thick rope of the black sludge. It stuck with a faint sound to the oak, and thirty feet of ebony now connected her to it. After checking to make sure it was fastened, she reeled it back in, hauling herself into the air as if traveling on a reverse zip line. Once she reached the ceiling, she lifted her other hand, squirted some of the black onto her palm, and stuck it to the wood to give herself better grip. Now secure, she looked back down at an astonished Twilight. “How was that?”

“Insane!” she squeaked, hands over her mouth and wide-eyed. “I didn't know you had that much of it in you!” Her eyes followed the woman as she scrambled around on the ceiling. “Fuyu, you're like someone out of a comic book...wait, what are you--” Fuyu had detached herself, and was falling straight down. Before Twilight could even shriek, she twisted in the air and shot a rope at the floor. Once it attached, she reeled herself in quickly – but at a more manageable speed than plummeting. She landed with a solid thud, crouching into the impact before recalling her rope. “Never mind, I guess you've got it under control,” Twilight said breathlessly. “Don't scare me like that.”

“Sorry.” She dusted off her hands and the knees of her pants as she rose. “I tried to do that when the tornado caught me, but I couldn't see the ground.”

“Wow. I'm confused, though...it didn't stick to the glass, but it sticks to wood? It's flexible, but if it's away from you for too long, it becomes like rock?” The woman in black nodded, causing Twilight to fold her arms and gaze off in thought. “I've never heard of anything like this before. Hold on, let me get a notepad,” she said, summoning one that flew over from a messy desk near the stairs. She drew a pen from her blouse pocket and checked it for ink before looking up. “Okay, what else does it stick to?”

“Whatever I tell it to,” she replied simply, examining her palms.

Twilight looked at her, slack-jawed. “It sticks to anything? Why doesn't it leave a residue in the jar, then?”

Fuyu sat down on the floor, crossing her legs and looking up at the librarian. “It won't stick to things on its own. I have to tell it to.”

She was scribbling furiously on the notepad, but shaking her head in amazement as she wrote. “So you control it with your thoughts. Completely, apparently.” She looked at her writing and blinked. “It's...it's alive? It has to be if it reacts to your thoughts. Hmm.” She began to pace a circle around Fuyu, rubbing her chin. “If it requires human tissue to survive, maybe it's some kind of parasite?” she wondered out loud. “This isn't remotely like any parasite I've ever heard of, though...I'm going to have to request a lot of material to study...”

While she droned out a relaxing stream of consciousness, Fuyu rested her chin in her hands and let her mind wander. It snapped back to the white room, which plastered a frown on her face. No amount of thinking directly at the fractured memory was able to complete it, so she tried instead to think around it, using it as a trigger in an attempt to discover anything related. The ever-present voice was murmuring something, but Twilight's rambling combined with her own mental fog to drown it out. Annoyed, she closed her eyes and concentrated harder.

You will do what needs to be done.

It came out of nowhere, and she was confused as to its timing. Something was stuck to the front of it in this instance, however, and she silently asked herself for clarification.

When the time comes...you will do what needs to be done.

Startled, Fuyu lifted her head and blinked. “What time?” she asked out loud, causing Twilight to come to a stop behind her.

“What did you say?”

“What time...” she paused, thinking of some way to disguise her discovery. “...is it?”

“Oh.” She rolled up the sleeve of her white blouse and peered down at her watch. “About half past ten, why?”

“Just curious.” She hauled herself to her feet and eyed the stairs, wanting suddenly to get home so she could be alone and think. “Can I go now?”

“Of course,” Twilight nodded, heading to the steps. “Was I really talking to myself for fifteen minutes?” She lightly slapped her forehead and laughed. “I guess Spike was right about that. I'll let you know if I find anything,” she added as they headed up.

“Very well.” They filed through the doorway, pausing to allow the librarian to close it before making their way through the front room. “Before I go, who will be taking me next time?”

Twilight opened her mouth but said nothing, waiting for an oblivious Spike to wander out of earshot before she answered. “I'm not sure yet. I might have to ask Rainbow or Applejack. Is that all right?”

The look on Fuyu's face said it all; it wasn't, but she understood its necessity. “It is better than the alternative, I suppose.”

A twenty minute journey brought her to Rainbow's blue sofa. Restlessly, she sat down, shed her sandals, and went to work inquiring of the voice within exactly what it meant.

“Time for what?” she asked, pulling her legs onto the couch. “What time do you mean?”

Silence.

Annoyed, she shifted on the couch until she was lying down, staring up at the white ceiling. She hadn't caught a catnap since yesterday, but now she was thinking far too hard to try and sleep. “Answer me. When what time comes?”

When the time comes...

A scowl appeared on her face. “Yes, I know that. When what time comes?”

In her mind's eye, she could see the form standing behind the misty wall, like an ephemeral statue of faded gray. She internally glared at the thing for what seemed like an hour before she realized it was a little bit more defined than the first time she'd seen it. It had oddly familiar curves; the first thing that struck Fuyu was how similar the shape was to Applejack, tall and swooping like she was. She could distinguish nothing from the neck up, as the white fog was too thick to pierce. Without anything further to go on, she decided to address that. “Are you a woman?”

When the time comes... The voice was still wispy and hard to define, but it had suddenly gained a feminine quality that it lacked before. Frowning, Fuyu took that as the only reply she would get and tried another question. “Are you me?”

Silence, again. Frustrated, she sat up and rubbed at her head while trying to figure out what it meant, if anything. Undeterred, she tried posing a different question. “Are you the thing that lives inside of me?”

I am sorry. This apology was clipped at the end, as though something else were supposed to be attached.

“I didn't ask for an apology!” Fuyu yelled out angrily. “What are you? Why are you in my head?!”

Silence, and this time it caused her frustration to the point of stress. Knowing too much anxiety would move up her next feeding, she abandoned her search and fell back on the couch, helpless and unhappy. This time, she allowed sleep to take her. Her eyes slid closed with a final sigh.

And snapped open at the knocking. She first looked at the clock; about ninety minutes had gone by. Her ears pricked at the knocking as it came again. Somehow, it was a polite noise, cheerful and rapid. As she collected her wits, she slid off the couch and wandered to the door, foregoing her sandals as she went. Behind the door, she found a slender woman about her height, wearing an eggshell apron over her causal shirt and blue jeans. Her hair was half blue and half pink, flowing off her head in sweeping waves and concluding in fat curls. An expectant smile was plastered on her ruby lips.

“Hello!” she said with a wave, her voice a bit nasally and as cheerful as her knock. “Is Rainbow Dash here?”

It took a brief eternity for Fuyu to remember just who this woman was. “Bon Bon. No. She's at work.”

Bon Bon grumbled, placing a hand just above her eyes and looking off to one side. “Dang it, that's right. I swear, her work schedule is impossible to keep up with.” She slumped in defeat and turned, waving a hand as she prepared to depart. “Oh well, I'll catch her later.”

Something prodded the woman in black to stop her. It was identical to the feeling she got when Applejack offered her a ride, except now it was in reverse. This time, though, she had the advantage of reading to help her formulate what it was, why she needed to do it, and a small bit of how to get it done. “What did you need?” she asked lowly, savoring the sensation of kindness – kindness that she was giving.

“Huh?” She turned around and smiled. “She was gonna help Lyra and I rearrange the shop today. We can get it done ourselves, though, it's no problem.”

She began to leave again, and Fuyu glanced over her shoulder and back into the empty apartment. Frowning at the prospect of being left with her thoughts, she shut the door and moved to catch up. “I can help you.”

“You sure?” Bon Bon blinked as she came over and fell in beside her. “It's a lot of stuff. Pff, who I am kidding, it's probably nothing for someone like you.”

That assertion caused Fuyu to tilt her head as they began going down the stairs. “What do you mean?”

“Are you nuts? The whole town is still talking about what you did to that robber. And the mob! You took on the whole mob!” she exclaimed, waving her hands around as she spoke. “You're almost a folk hero. Haven't you noticed?”

Truth be told, she hadn't. The only time Fuyu left the apartment was when feeding time came, or one of the six women needed her to be somewhere, which wasn't a regular occurrence. “No, I didn't.”

“Oh boy, are you gonna be surprised,” Bon Bon grinned cheekily. They emerged into the late morning sun, and she paused to stretch for a moment before heading down the sidewalk. “Follow me.” As they walked, she gave Fuyu a once over with her eyes and blinked upon reaching her feet. “Uh, where are your shoes?”

“I forgot them,” she replied simply, glancing around. She found herself smiling again as she took in the scene, much as she had on the unscheduled trip to string her bow she'd taken some time earlier. Bon Bon stopped, and so did she. “What?”

“Do...you wanna go back and get them?” she asked awkwardly, a hand on her hip. “It's gonna get pretty warm today, you shouldn't be walking on the sidewalk in bare feet.”

Fuyu's first instinct was to say no, but she couldn't get the word out. Again, something poked at her. This was part of the secret, even if only a tiny sliver, and she had to keep it quiet. “You have a point. I will be back.” She darted off and entered the building, leaving Bon Bon to wait. She was back in a little over a minute, sandals on and a faint smile on her face. “There.”

Bon Bon had only one thing to say to the display. “Wow, you're fast. You work out? You're built like a truck.”

She considered how to respond as they began walking again. “Yes. You could say that.”

They went toward downtown, stopping several times for Bon Bon say hello and speak to various people that happened to be out and about. Fuyu monitored their conversations with polite silence, only speaking when directly addressed. From the last of these she learned something that disquieted her.

“I guess I shouldn't be surprised the Mayor wants to recognize you,” Bon Bon said as they walked away from a redhead who, as far as Fuyu knew, was named Roseluck. “Or steal the credit. She must be terrified about not getting re-elected for the hundredth time.” That sentiment was punctuated with an eyeroll and a sarcastic grin. “Here we are.” They entered a storefront with a blue and white checkerboard floor and eggshell walls. The back was dominated by a counter that ran the entire length of the space, save for a section cut out at the left. There were all manner of chairs and tables scattered about, and standing with her back turned was another woman with bluish hair, a white tube top and khaki colored shorts. Her sneakers squeaked on the floor as she spun, then ran over to hug Bon Bon. “Hey Lyra. The cavalry is here,” she said, returning the embrace. The closer she came, the easier it was for Fuyu to detect her magical spark.

“Sweet!” Lyra took a step away to eye Fuyu, which was when the woman saw her pale blue palm gems. “Hey! Hadn't seen you around town. Where you been hiding?”

“I'm staying with Rainbow Dash.” She was busy looking around at the chaotically arranged furniture.

“Huh. I thought she was going with Applejack,” Lyra noted lowly. The three of them went further into the store as she talked. “They doing okay?”

“Yes.” Fuyu looked her her, confused. “I am not dating Rainbow, if that's what you're implying.”

“Oh no, of course not,” she said, throwing up her hands. “Just kind of wondering, that's all.” Bon Bon jabbed her in the ribs, causing her to grunt. “What? Like you don't gossip all the live long day.”

“She's not here to listen to us hem and haw.” After shedding her apron, which she tossed deftly onto the countertop, she wiped her forehead with an arm and surveyed the rest of the store. “Okay. If you wanna grab something, we'll tell you where we want it.”

“Very well.” Right away, she went over to examine one of the tables. They were all in one corner of the space, a clump of round, black things with shiny tops and a single metal support in the center. After examining it for a moment, she bent down and grabbed one, lifting a table straight up until it was over her head. “Where does this go?” She turned just in time to see their shocked looks and blinked, realizing the mistake she just made.

“Wow. That's incredible,” Lyra said, open-mouthed. “Seriously, that's some Applejack stuff right there.”

Fuyu saw no point in trying to hide it now, so she just shrugged. “I suppose.” She then glanced at both women for some sort of guidance. “Where does it go?”

“I have no idea!” Lyra exclaimed happily, turning to Bon Bon. “Bon, where does it go? I can't even find the chart we drew to place all this stuff.”

Bon Bon stared back at her, then blinked and reached into her jeans pocket. “Oops, I had it.” She produced a folded piece of white paper, opened it up and looked back at Fuyu. “Okay, two tables go in front of each window.”

“Very well.” She carried the one in her hand across the room, as all the space was over there. She walked back over and picked up another, this time grabbing it by the top and lifting it. Meanwhile, Bon Bon and Lyra were beginning to disagree about the arrangement of the chairs. Frowning, she decided to interrupt and learn more about where she actually was. “What do you sell here?”

“Huh?” Lyra snapped her gaze over. “Oh, this is a soda shop. Bon Bon's baby. Her dad used to own it until he passed it down to her.”

“That's not all we do. And by the way,” she said, folding her arms in a huff, “He would say four chairs to a table!”

Fuyu left them to their gentle bickering after she placed the second table, sitting on it and watching them. It was her first opportunity to really watch people interact – at least, people that weren't interacting with her – and she found it to be strangely amusing. They only stopped after she had been watching for a while, and both of them blushed and laughed awkwardly. Before either could apologize, however, the door opened and they all looked over.

“Fuyu, darling!” It was Rarity. She pranced confidently inside, her heels clacking on the linoleum. Her face, however, was oddly anxious. “What are you doing here?”

“Bon Bon came by. She needed help from Rainbow Dash, so I volunteered in her place,” Fuyu explained, standing up off the table and walking in her direction. “Are you all right?”

Rarity attempted to flash her a reassuring smile, but the woman in black saw right through it. “Everything is fine. I just didn't know you'd be...here, is all.”

Lyra and Bon Bon were quiet, exchanging unsure glances as they stood next to each other. Fuyu could sense the faint tension, but couldn't understand why it was there. She tilted her head and gazed at the dressmaker. “I didn't know she would be coming.” Rarity's nervousness was subtle, but it was starting to bother her a great deal. “What?”

“I'm sorry,” she addressed the other two women, “But I'm afraid I need to borrow Fuyu for a bit.” They shrugged their acquiescence and the dressmaker nodded to Fuyu. She followed out the door, still unsure about what was happening, and moved down the street at her side.

“Did I do something wrong?” she asked, once a large enough gap in passersby appeared.

“No...” Rarity's reply was much less confident than she intended, and she began to smile anxiously. “It's just that Twilight thinks...”

Now the situation was really beginning to bother her, and to her surprise she found a tint of rich, hot anger coloring her feelings. “I don't understand,” was her measured statement. She watched Rarity like a hawk, frowning harder with every second of silence that went by. “Talk to me!”

The dressmaker had to mutter, as people were walking by them. “She said it would perhaps be best if you kept to yourself for now. While she figures out what to do.” The look in Fuyu's eyes sent a chill down her spine, and she hastily tacked on further clarification. “You never seemed to be in any hurry to go anywhere anyway. We thought you wouldn't mind.”

“Then why did none of you tell me this yourselves?” She stared as Rarity cringed under the bluntness of her question, but allowed her the chance to answer it.

“We just...” she fell silent and stopped walking, glancing off to her left. There was an alley here, between two buildings, and when she felt comfortable enough that no one was looking, she darted into it. Fuyu pursued her straight away. Only when they were some distance down the street did she stop and finally address the question. “We weren't sure if it would be safe for you to wander around town right now.”

“Why?” Fuyu's tone was as sharp as any blade, and it sent Rarity to fidgeting. She tried to fight off the sting of the dressmaker's words, assuming – or hoping – there was a benign explanation. Or, at least, one that didn't make her feel so unhappy. Rarity took too long in answering, though, and by the time she opened her mouth again, Fuyu had already deciphered the truth. “You...do not trust me?”

“It's not that intense, darling, I swear,” Rarity countered weakly. Fuyu was already stalking away. “Wait! Please, let me explain!”

It was too much. First there had been Applejack's outburst, and now Twilight was hiding things from her. They were all hiding something. It writ a bold scowl on her face as she thought about it. “I am going home,” she spat, frowning when that word didn't bring the happy spark it once did. Rarity only pursued her part of the way back, and came to a slow stop in the alley. Her face was uncertain and pale.

“Perhaps I could have handled that a bit better,” she mumbled to herself.

Truth and Reconciliation

The change in the air hit Rainbow like a brick as she opened the door to her apartment that evening. While she wasn't entirely used to Fuyu living there quite yet, the woman in black made things as easy to deal with as she could have hoped. Besides not having to eat, she was very quiet. It constantly reminded her of the way Fluttershy acted, if a little more chilly.

Therefore, she didn't know what had changed, but she knew it was something. There Fuyu sat, on the couch, in the dark, staring off ahead of her with her arms crossed. She wasn't reading a book, she wasn't watching TV, she wasn't doing anything. The scene made Rainbow's skin crawl.

“H-hey Fuyu,” she greeted, flipping on the light near the doorway before she shut the door itself. She realized she'd been unable to mask her uncertainty, but still tried to put on a nonchalant smile. “What are you doing in the dark?” She recoiled almost instinctively as Fuyu turned her head, a motion that was slow and deliberate.

“I am angry,” was all she said. Her eyes glittered with the emotion; Rainbow's uncertainty was beginning to shift into something closer to outright fear.

She couldn't help but gulp as she walked closer, despite her urge to make an excuse and depart the apartment posthaste. “Angry? About what?”

“Twilight is not telling me everything.” Those words weren't so much angry as they were disappointed, but they certainly bore a hard edge. “If I am to believe Rarity, at least.”

This was news to Rainbow as well, and her fear made way for confusion as she sat down on the other end of the sofa. “What did she say?”

Fuyu took a short breath rested her hands in her lap, tracking Rainbow with her gaze until the woman seated herself. “Bon Bon came over, looking for you.”

Rainbow made a face. “Oh, damn. I forgot to tell them I was working. What does that have to--” She was silenced by those chilly blue eyes for a moment. “Oh...there's more. Right, sorry.”

“I volunteered to help in your place, so I went with her.” Fuyu looked away briefly and frowned. “We went to her shop. I rearranged furniture. I listened to them argue. I liked it. I liked being outside, amongst everyone. Then Rarity sees me from the sidewalk.” A hard frown yanked at her lips. “She insisted I go with her.”

“But...why?” Rainbow asked, leaning into the corner of the couch and facing the woman in black. “Because of Twilight?”

“Yes. She doesn't think it is safe for me to be wandering about in town.” Anger was creeping back into her tone, and she looked away from Rainbow. “Does she not trust me? Do...do you trust me?” Her head snapped back so she could gauge her friend's body language.

“If I didn't, I wouldn't let you stay here,” she affirmed, sitting up straight. “I don't get it, neither of them mentioned anything like this to me.” Fuyu could see some unhappiness appear in her eyes as she retreived her phone from her shorts pocket. She thumbed for a moment through her contacts, dialed a number, and set the phone to speaker. A few rings passed before her call was answered.

“Hey, Rainbow.” It was Twilight. “What's up?”

Fuyu stared at her as she spent a split second to collect her thoughts. Once she did, she had to pace herself to prevent the whole thing from spilling out all at once. “Did you and the others talk about not letting Fuyu out in town, or something?” She made a face as a noise came from the librarian; it was surprised and slightly unhappy, and after she emitted it there was a nervous laugh.

“Well, um...” A pregnant pause inserted itself, and an impatient Rainbow began tapping her fingers on the armrest. “Rarity and I just thought it would be best for her to keep to herself for now. Until we're sure she won't do anything.”

“But it was okay for her to stay with me?” Rainbow exclaimed, standing up and perching her free hand on her hip. “What was I, a test run?” She didn't see the displeased look that was beginning to appear on Fuyu's face as she ranted. “Did you put Applejack up to that?”

Twilight hastily refuted that notion, her voice taking on a higher pitch with the anxiety. “No! Not at all! I didn't have anything to do with that, that was all her!”

Fuyu dropped her head, but Rainbow didn't catch that, either. Her anger was mostly gone, replaced instead by a strange sort of unhappiness. It was directed both at herself, and at her friends. More so the former, though, and by a long way; she felt at fault for the rather heated back and forth the athlete was now having with Twilight, but she couldn't make herself speak and interrupt it. She was limited to watching Rainbow pace around the room, listening to her voice get louder, and angrier.

It all reached a head in short order. “I'd appreciate it if you weren't keeping shit from us!” Rainbow growled, holding the phone so tightly Fuyu thought she would break it. “I thought we were gonna be together on this?”

Somehow, it seemed very familiar. The tone of the conversation was identical to many Fuyu had heard before, when she were the subject. Whether or not she were being directly addressed didn't matter. The undertone, at least the vast majority of the time, was as if she were being spoken of as a concept. A thing. Like she weren't there, or didn't have an opinion herself. Pinkie never did it, and Applejack only did it rarely, but the dressmaker and the librarian made a nasty habit of the thing. While Fuyu might not have cared one way or another during her days out there, that time had long passed.

And being referred to as if she weren't there annoyed her to no end. She stood up, which was the first motion Rainbow reacted to, and held out her hand. “Give me the phone. Put it on speaker first.”

The way she said those words rattled Rainbow enough to stop mid-sentence and stare. “Uh, Fuyu wants to talk to you,” was all she could squeak out before tapping the screen and handing over the phone.

Twilight's nervousness was now audible to the woman in black. “She wants to...oh boy...”

Her first question was simple and directly to the point. “Do you trust me or not?” No reply came, and as the moments went by she started to glare at the phone in her hand. “Answer me,” she demanded, flat and calm, after a minute had passed.

“Yes! I mean, as much as we can. You've got to understand, you're...” A heavy sigh came from the phone. “Fuyu, you're a killer. I'm risking a lot by hiding you. We all are. If the Princess found out, we could all go to prison. I'm not trying to say we don't trust you, I just don't know what I'm dealing with yet.” Silence arrived again, this time briefer and a little less heavy as Fuyu contemplated her reply. “Rainbow, listen. I didn't mean to shut you out of this, but Rarity and I decided we might be the only ones strong enough to stop her, in case...you know. That's why we kept it amongst ourselves.”

“I would have appreciated some kinda heads up,” she shot back, arms folded and a cranky frown pulling at her lips. “Or you could have asked before imprisoning her in my damn apartment!”

“You're doing it again!” Fuyu blurted out, her displeasure drawing shocked noises from both women. “Why do you keep talking past me like I am not here? Pinkie and Applejack don't do it!” She allowed her eyes to dart between the phone and Rainbow. Even though she could only see one, somehow she knew both of them had the same surprised looks on their faces. “Nothing is going to happen. Not as long as I am fed. I like being outside, amongst everyone.”

“I bet. How long were you alone?” Twilight asked, subtly trying to defuse the situation.

She would have none of it, glaring down at the phone again. “Long enough. I would prefer if I were allowed to be left to my own devices outside of feeding. If something were to happen, I will come to one of you.”

“I don't know if that's such a good idea, Fuyu. Not until I have some time to study that gunk...and, to be honest, you. Before we can let you roam around, we need to know what you're capable of, too.”

“You don't trust me, then.” Fuyu couldn't decide which emotion needed to leak out more badly, so she let them all come at once. She sat down on the couch – although it was more a falling motion – and dropped the phone beside her. “I'm not going to do anything...” she droned sadly. “If I say I won't, I won't.”

Rainbow's first inkling was to go over and hug her, but she couldn't make herself move. In fact, she withdrew a couple of steps, unsure how to handle the sudden outpouring. Twilight was the one that spoke first. “Fuyu, look,” she began, drawing in a sharp breath as she tried to steady her nerves. “I don't think any of us know how to...how to come to terms with you just yet. It doesn't mean we don't care, it's simply a lot to deal with all at once.”

“It doesn't seem to bother Applejack or Pinkie,” Fuyu retorted. Tears were clinging at her eyes. Rainbow finally found the gumption to move, sitting on the other end of the sofa and shooting an awkward look down at the woman in black. “Didn't you tell me that it didn't matter what I did before? That you would help me?”

An eternal pause arrived, broken only in sections by Twilight clearing her throat as she tried to collect the appropriate thoughts to reply. This action took her a full minute to complete. “I didn't know then what I know now. Still...you're right. I guess I should try looking at all of this some other way.”

“What other way?” Rainbow spoke up at last, hunched over with her elbows on her knees. “It's not like we can ask for help. We'd end up in jail.”

“I think that may depend on who does the asking, but you're right, at least for now. Listen, I have to go. I need to think. I promise not to hide anything else, okay?” Rainbow emitted a grunt in reply, but that was all the answer she got from the two of them. “Right. Fuyu...I'm sorry.”

“That doesn't help much.” The tears were trickling down her cheeks.

Twilight was almost whispering by this point; it was difficult for either of them to hear her. “I'll do better. We'll do better. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Very well.” Her voice was unhappy and curt. The screen flashed a message about the call being over, and Rainbow took up her phone again. Neither of them were willing to speak for several minutes afterward, and Rainbow only opened her mouth in an attempt to get the uneasy feeling off of her chest.

“You, uh, okay down there?” she asked awkwardly.

“I'm fine.” She wasn't; the way she spoke made it bitterly obvious. For a passing moment she obscured her face with her hands, and when she revealed it again her tears had stopped flowing. Her cheeks still shone with previous ones in the light of the entryway. “Perhaps not,” she admitted at length, pinning a sigh to the end. “I never hurt anyone unless I had to eat. As long as you all provide me a steady source of food, I have no reason to cause harm.”

Rainbow was wearing that face again when Fuyu glanced over at her silence. It was the mask of seriousness she put on whenever something truly bothered her. “Twilight's got a point. I keep thinking of what I saw you do in that field, then I see you on my couch every morning reading a book and waving hello. The two things are hard to...hard to...” she fell quiet, rolling her eyes and waving a hand as she searched for the appropriate word. “Reconcile, I guess.”

Fuyu thought on that for a long while, perching her chin on an upraised fist and staring off to the side. Suddenly, she nodded. “I think I understand what you mean. You're the only one that's seen me feed.” Worry began to worm its way into Fuyu's tone. “I am sorry you had to see it. I...”

Rainbow's frown was replaced by a vague smile, and she cut Fuyu off. “I had incredible nightmares the first night you stayed here. You busted through the door and tore me apart. When I woke up that morning and saw you asleep, I figured I'd gotten through the worst of it. And, if I'm being totally honest, if anyone but Applejack had asked me to let you crash here, I'd have told them to fuck off.”

That vague smile perched on Fuyu's thin lips as Rainbow talked. “Love, again?”

“Yeah. You could say that.” Rainbow emitted a relaxed sigh as she felt the tension finally break. “Are you mad at Twilight? She's probably just doing what she thinks is best for everyone. She's like that. Probably some crap she picked up from being the Princess' favorite student.”

She tilted her head. “I suppose I understand where she's coming from. I just feel a bit left out of the process.”

“Welcome to being friends with her,” Rainbow snickered. “I swear, she goes off on all sorts of stuff on her own. Gets in trouble for it too. I guess that's just how she is. If you ask me, I kinda think she's OCD.”

Fuyu blinked, placing her hands in her lap. “What is that?”

“OCD? Obsessive compulsive disorder. It's...” she trailed off, her face dropping as she suddenly realized she had no quick way of defining it to someone who didn't already have an idea of what it was. “Um...I dunno how to explain it, really. It makes people act weird.”

Instantly, she recalled Twilight and Stormy's exchange in the farmhouse, but her mind said voicelessly that it was probably not what Rainbow spoke of. She shrugged off the memory and smoothed down her hair. “Perhaps I will ask her later.” Abruptly, she gazed down at her stomach.

“Oh hell,” Rainbow gulped, pressing herself against the armrest again. “What's it doing?”

“Nothing, yet.” She pulled her eyes away and glanced at the other woman. “I'll let you know.”

“Right. Damn it, that's still freaky.” After digging around in the cushions for a moment, she produced the remote and turned on the TV. “Hey! You've been here for a while now, what do you like to watch?” she asked, tossing the remote to a surprised Fuyu. “And don't cop out by saying 'nothing', either.” She changed the channel straight away to a cable news network. Rainbow stared at it briefly, then unleashed a long groan. “Awwwww, you've gotta be kidding me, Fu...”

Another faint smile appeared on her thin lips. “I've found I like to know what's going on these days.”

Morning dawned, and a few hours after its arrival Fuyu was awoken from her brief nap by a cackling Rainbow Dash, who was on the phone with someone. As the athlete made herself comfortable on the sofa, she sat up and tilted her head at the tone of the conversation. It was constructed almost entirely of silly grins and inane, lowly spoken banter, interspersed with bursts of giggling. It was a Rainbow Fuyu had never seen before. This went on for roughly ten minutes before she hung up, red faced and smiling.

“Hey, Fu,” she said, turning to the woman. “I've got an idea. A trust-building exercise, in fact.”

That word piqued her interest. She shifted around on the couch until she was able to sit cross-legged and gazed at Rainbow. “What is it?”

“I wanna go to Applejack's for the weekend, like, really badly.” She meant to add more onto that, but the look on Fuyu's face gave her pause. “What are you looking at me like that for?”

It was her version of concern, and like many things about her it was awkward and unpracticed. “Did something happen to her?”

“What?” Rainbow blinked. “No, no, it's just I almost always go over every weekend so I can...you know.” She punctuated her explanation with waggling eyebrows, but the insinuation flew right over Fuyu's head.

If she had learned anything about Rainbow in her time there, it was that she had a tendency to beat around the bush. The woman in black had finally lost her patience with it. “Just say what you want to say,” she demanded, folding her arms.

Rainbow's face went blank, and she downshifted into the bluntest terminology she could think of. “I'm bored and horny and I wanna go see my girlfriend.”

“Oh. Very well.” Fuyu nodded once, reached over and picked up a book from the coffee table, and started reading, figuring the conversation was at an end.

Rainbow thought the same, smiling widely and starting to get up off the couch, but a flash of realization struck her and she sat back down. “Wait. You know what horny is?”

“Yes,” she replied, not removing her eyes from the page.

She couldn't shed the curiosity no matter how hard she tried, but she did manage to stand up before asking the question. “...how?”

Fuyu still didn't bother to look up. “Context,” she replied plainly, turning a page as she spoke. A confused Rainbow stood there, scratching her head, until she noticed the cover of the book in the woman's lap. She bent down to peer at it, and Fuyu blinked at her, raising the book almost automatically so she could look at it. When Rainbow burst out with peals of laughter and hid her eyes, she blinked. “What?”

She had to push the words out through her amusement, gasping slightly for air and resting a hand on the back of the couch. “Where in the hell did you get that sleazy novel?!”

“It was in the books Twilight gave me to read.” Those words drew a renewed explosion of laughs from Rainbow, so powerful that she doubled over and had to brace herself more fully with her hand. “Why is that funny?”

“I can't even believe she reads that shit!” Rainbow said, wiping away the tears with the back of her right forearm. Immediately afterward, she was seized by another round of laughter. “This is awesome, she's never gonna hear the end of it.”

Fuyu, at this point, was beginning to frown. She closed the book and looked up. “Do you think she'll be angry if you leave me here alone for two days?”

The chuckling died almost instantly, and a suddenly nervous-looking Rainbow rubbed her head and stood fully. She thought in silence for a moment, then allowed a confident smile to appear. “You're fine when I'm at work. I don't see why she'd throw a fit.” She peered down at her phone on the table and her eyes lit up. “Hey, I can leave you my phone, it's got all our numbers. If you need something, you can just call her.”

“Very well. I might need to eat before you get back,” she advised, opening her book again. Just as Rainbow was getting ready to go into her bedroom and get dressed, the woman called her back. “Wait. I...” she trailed off and frowned. “What are things I can do in town? I'm still not sure about how life here really works.”

Rainbow snickered again, turning her back and entering her bedroom. “Look around for yourself. Take a walk.” With that, she vanished, and Fuyu was left staring confusedly at the doorway.

“I suppose it wouldn't hurt,” she shrugged, and went back to reading her book. Rainbow was dressed in a flash, and walked out of her room with a white gym bag in hand.

“I'm out!” she called. “See you tomorrow night!” Before Fuyu could even issue a goodbye, the door was shut and she was gone.

“Oh.” A minute passed before she grew wide-eyed and looked around. “Hmm. Now what?”

Her mind had no answer for her, so she kept on reading. In an hour, she had demolished the romantic novel and set it on the coffee table, allowing the contents of it slosh around in her brain for a period before realizing she felt something new and unusual.

“I'm bored,” she muttered, rising from the couch and looking around on the floor for her sandals. Just as she found them, a knock rang out from the door. Something about the noise made her tilt her head as she shuffled over to open it.

“Hello!” A smiling Twilight greeted her, first with a wave, then by holding out a black bookbag. “This is for you!” She looked past the woman in black and blinked at the empty couch. “Where is Rainbow Dash?”

“She went to stay with Applejack for the weekend.” Fuyu examined the bag and tilted her head. “What is this for?”

Twilight swallowed hard as she moved by and entered the apartment. “Um...I wanted to ask you about staying with me at the library. If you said yes, then I wanted to have something on hand for you to carry your books with.”

“And if I said no?” she asked, peering at the librarian's back as she walked, not entirely sure of her motives.

“Then you can carry your books wherever.” She turned around and smiled again, although this one was somewhat anxious. There was a long, low sigh as she seated herself and fussed for a moment with her blue pleated skirt. “I would like it if you stayed at the library.”

Fuyu walked over and sat down beside her, the black bag in her lap. She was not completely trusting of the sudden offer, but she couldn't figure out what it was exactly that bothered her. “Why?”

Twilight's shoulders slumped a little. “I would be lying if I said it weren't partially to keep an eye on you, but that's not the biggest reason. You must have a lot of questions about...well, about everything. Rainbow isn't exactly the most patient person with that sort of stuff. I know you like reading,” she said, smirking at the stack of books, then totally losing her train of thought when she saw the romance novel. “Wh-where did you get that?!” she exclaimed, her face turning tomato red.

“It was in the stack you sent me last week,” she replied, wishing to get back to the topic at hand. “Do you want me there so I will be easier to...” she paused, her face twisting into an unsatisfied frown, “...study?” The concept made her feel uneasy, much like the word 'doctor' did.

Twilight saw how uncomfortable Fuyu had become, so she abandoned her embarrassment and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. “No. Not without asking. You said stress makes you hungry faster, and I don't know anywhere more relaxing than the library. You can read all day, or you can talk to me, or you can...” she hesitated for a moment, but smiled, “Or you can wander around town, if you like.”

The look on Fuyu's face said she still wasn't entirely convinced. “Is that all? You want to help me stay calm?”

Twilight shook her head firmly. “There's something else. I talked to Pinkie last night, and besides being a bit miffed at me, she thinks I need to get to know you so I won't worry as much. Not to say I'm worried that you'll...” she frowned, leaving the words unsaid, and moved on in her explanation, “It's not you. I worry about almost everything. Besides, you hardly seem to get rattled. Maybe you could help me stay calm.” She chuckled lightly to herself and scratched at her ear. “So, what do you say? Plenty of space in my bedroom for another bed.” She blinked at that thought and tapped her chin. “Which, if I'm understanding Rainbow correctly, you'll only need for about an hour a day. We really do need to make some kind of list with all the ways you're different.”

Fuyu made a face at the word 'different', but shrugged it off. She had a problem with the arrangement, and she uttered it just as soon as the librarian gave her a chance. “Won't Spike notice things like that?”

“i told him.” Twilight looked up at the lack of response, and found something she could only assume was surprise on Fuyu's face. “It's all right. He won't tell anyone else. I wouldn't have asked you to come if he didn't know.” She dropped her eyes to the carpet and sighed. “He didn't take it as badly as I thought he would. Certainly not as badly as Rarity did.”

Fuyu regarded the librarian with vaguely chilly eyes as she stood up. “I am still not sure.”

“Well, Rainbow ditched you for the weekend. Why not give it a try for a couple of days? Unless you still prefer the solitude,” she offered, also getting to her feet. “If you don't like it, you can come back here. A trial run. What do you say?” She accidentally allowed the inflection of her question to take on a nervous squeak, and tried to cover it with a wide smile. That became a frown when Fuyu turned her back and folded her arms.

“Very well,” she said abruptly, turning around and shrugging. “I suppose it would be all right to try.”

Twilight clapped her hands rapidly and nodded. “Yes! Great! It'll be like a sleepover, just slightly weirder!” She blinked at the frown that appeared on Fuyu's face. “Sorry. Um...I'll help you pack!”

She watched with amazement as Twilight gathered and sorted the books on the coffee table, stuffing them into the black backpack. Once it was full, she handed it over and started for the door. Fuyu watched her go for a moment until realizing she had another question. “Will there be rules?”

“Rules? What do you mean?” she asked, pausing to turn as she reached the entryway.

“Be quiet after midnight, don't use the glasses in the cabinet to the left of the refrigerator, don't drink my beer,” Fuyu recited, sliding Rainbow's phone from her pocket and placing it on the charger in the kitchen before meeting up with Twilight. “Things like that.”

She titled her head and blinked with confusion. “Why would she say not to use certain glasses? Oh, never mind. For one thing, I don't drink. For another, I'm a really heavy sleeper. And I don't have any qualms about glass usage.”

“Qualms,” Fuyu droned, rolling the word over her tongue like a sip of fine wine. They left the apartment with Twilight in the lead.

“This is exciting! I haven't had a roommate since the Academy!” she chirped, emitting a strangely excited mixture of happiness and nerves that caused Fuyu to gaze at her questioningly. “What?”

“Spike?” was all she replied with, shifting the backpack on her shoulders.

Twilight shook her head. “He doesn't count. He's more like a...it's complicated. Never mind.”

“Hmm.” They descended the stairs with Twilight doing all of the talking, and by the time they reached her car she was chattering at length about her collection of reading material. “Wait,” she interrupted. “Shouldn't you call Rainbow and let her know where I'll be?”

“I will,” Twilight said, using her key fob to unlock the car. “When we get there. This is so exciting! I'm going to have a reading buddy!”

Fuyu blinked at her enthusiasm and rubbed down her hair, wondering what exactly she'd gotten herself into as she entered the librarian's car.

In Case Of Apocalypse, Start Worrying

Fuyu had just completed – or perhaps endured – a grand tour of her new home. Twilight had shown her seemingly every nook and cranny of the tree's interior, save for some parts of the living quarters. They found themselves now at a green door, upon which the librarian gently knocked.

“Spike?” she said. “Hey, Spike? Are you awake in there?”

“Yeah,” a groggy voice droned in reply. Soft footsteps approached, and the door swung open into the room as the teenager answered. “What's up?” When he glanced at Fuyu, his eyes stuck to her form, and he seemed to shrink a little. “Oh. Uh...you're here.”

“Yes,” was her reply. Twilight wore a faintly awkward smile as she watched them, but didn't say a word. “You know now?”

“Yeah, Twilight told me.” Spike shifted uncertainly on the balls of his socked feet. “And she made me promise about a million times not to say a word to anyone.”

Fuyu glanced over at the other woman and shrugged. She intended to also remain quiet, but her mind gently prodded at her to say something reassuring to him. “I will not hurt her. Or you. If I can't find anything to eat, I will just run away.”

“Right. I guess that's good to know,” he sighed, shuffling out of his room and passing between them. “Man, I don't know what to think.”

“Join the club,” Twilight sighed, falling in behind him. Fuyu waited for just a moment before taking up the rear. The silent train ended up in the cozy kitchen, where Spike rummaged in the fridge for a while. “I'm sorry to drop all of this on you.”

“It is what it is, I guess,” he replied, emerging with a can of soda. “It's gonna take some getting used to, though.”

The awkwardness was strong enough to permeate even Fuyu's thick skin, and it made her uncomfortable. Twilight detected this and came over, nodding up the stairs that lead to her bedroom loft. “Come on, let me show you something. Spike, we'll be right back.”

“Fine,” he waved, back turned to them as he drank.

The two women ascended the stairs. When they reached the top, Twilight stood in a space at the foot of her bed and swept out her arms with a flourish. “Here's where your bed will go! Want to help me set it up?”

“Very well.” Fuyu watched her go to a closet nearby, open the door, and vanish inside. A series of noises emanated from it, some of which made the woman in black flinch a bit. She appeared again carrying what seemed to be some sort of wooden crate. “What is that?”

Twilight smiled widely. “You'll see. Stand over there next to my dresser for a moment.”

Fuyu did as told, and gazed on as the librarian pushed a button on the side of the strange box. It suddenly folded out of her grasp and into a rectangular-shaped construction that landed with a light thunk on the wooden floor. From where Fuyu stood, it looked like a solid plank of wood, except much larger.

“Ta da! It's an instant bedframe!” she said, looking over for some sort of reaction. When she didn't see any, it caused her to blink. “Rainbow wasn't kidding. You are hard to impress.”

“Sorry.” She moved over to look at it more closely. Tilting her head, she stared at the flat top of it and abruptly laid down on it. “It's not very soft, but I don't mind.”

“Um, I'm going to set an air mattress on that.” Twilight shook her head and offered a jeweled hand to help Fuyu up. “That would kill your back, even if you did only need an hour's sleep.” The blank look she received in reply was enough to correct that assumption. “Or not. That reminds me, we really need to talk about what you need and what you don't.”

“Right.” Fuyu waited for her to vanish into the closet and return with a cardboard box before beginning to speak. “I need water. I need a little sleep. I need...” she hesitated, sighing lightly, “Food. Everything else is optional.” She frowned at those last words, knowing they weren't at all true. “No, that's not right. I need friends, too.”

“Covered,” Twilight said with a smile, unfolding a forest green chunk of plastic from the box. After that, she drew a pump out and looked around for the nearest electrical outlet. “You need water? I figured you'd get that from your...meals.”

“Most of it, yes,” Fuyu replied, now having to raise her voice over the din of the pump. “Sometimes I need more.”

They waited for the mattress to finish inflating before trying to continue their conversation. Once it was full, they moved it onto the frame. “Do you ever get sick?” Twilight asked, continually eying and adjusting the mattress until she was satisfied it was in the center.

“No. I don't get very hot or cold, either,” she said, blinking at the amount of effort the librarian was putting into that task.

“Okay. Just a second.” Twilight again departed into the closet, returning with a blue, star-studded blanket and a pair of white pillows. She made the bed with gusto, again putting in a lot of work to ensure it looked as neat and tidy as her own, purple-clad bed. Fuyu watched her with something that approached stunned silence, only snapping out of it when the librarian spoke again. “All done! How does it look?”

“Nice,” was all Fuyu had to reply with. She got on the bed and laid back, placing her head on the pillow nearest the window. She could feel the difference between the air mattress and Rainbow's bumpy mass of blue sofa, allowing herself to sink into the new sensation. It allowed her body to stretch out more, and a content sigh escaped her lips. “Very nice.”

“I know, right? I love those mattresses.” Twilight perched herself on the opposite side and sat down, her back to Fuyu. “All right. Here's how it works. I don't really have any kind of set sleep schedule, except whenever I have to run the library. I guess you don't mind that, since you hardly sleep. Everything else we can feel out if you agree to hang around here.”

“Very well.” Her blue eyes were still glued to the grain in the wood above her. This was the most relaxed she could ever remember feeling; it was a further evolution of the sensation she had experienced at the farmhouse. That version of it was still tinged with anxiety – she didn't know how long she'd be staying, or who would end up dying. At Rainbow's apartment, it was something uncertain and fluid. Now that was replaced by a strange kind of certainty, like she had been meant to come here all along. Not only did it relax her body, it also loosened her mind – and her lips, a little. “What sort of things do you plan to do to me?”

Twilight jumped a little at the question, looking back over her shoulder at the woman in black. “Um, nothing you object to, of course. There are a few basic things I'd like to record, like your height and weight, and some of your vital signs.”

“I see.” The image of that medical equipment in the basement perched itself in her brain, and it made her vaguely uncomfortable. “When?”

The librarian glanced down at the watch on her right wrist and blinked. “It's only eleven. How about now?”

Fuyu's lips twisted into something close to a frown, but she sat up and pulled herself to the edge of the bed. After standing, she paused to stretch her arms over her head. “If you want.”

Down the stairs they went, into the kitchen and out into the public space. Spike was tending to two women Fuyu didn't recognize as they browsed the shelves, but he spared a moment to fire an awkward look. She returned it with an equally awkward glance as they vanished into the basement. Once they were at the bottom of the spiraling staircase, she watched as Twilight wrangled with one of the devices and brought it forward. It was a metal stick with a thin silver wedge at the top, whose spine looked like a ruler. She stared at it briefly, looking at the highest number, which was a seven.

“Stand under this,” Twilight directed, nodding up at the wedge. Fuyu did as told, and the librarian used her magic to make it descend until it pressed firmly against her scalp. “Five feet, eight and...” she hesitated, trying to see over the black locks, “three-quarters inches. Wow, you're taller than Pinkie.” She raised it and pointed over to a flat black box on the floor, which had a white half-circle something at one edge. “Stand on that, please.”

Fuyu again did as told without a word, looking down at the white thing and realizing it was a dial of some sort. It moved quickly as her weight settled on the scale, finally settling on 166 pounds. Twilight came over and blinked at it, scratching her head.

“That can't be right. You're way too lean to weigh that much. Hold on, let me test it.” She stepped off and away so Twilight could hop on. “116. That's about right.” Her eyes suddenly lit up. “It must be the sludge! If my memory serves, someone your height should be about 126 pounds...are you carrying 40 pounds of that gunk?!”

Fuyu drew back slightly from Twilight's amazed stare and shrugged. “I...suppose?”

She stepped off the scale, jaw dropped open. “Where the heck do you keep it all?!”

This was something she had never contemplated before, and it took her several seconds of inquiring internally to even begin formulating an answer. She felt it everywhere all at once, flowing through her veins and wrapping her internal organs in a comfortable embrace. “It's not in one spot. It moves through me.”

“Like blood?” Twilight shook off her shock and assumed a studious air. “May I...may I have sample from your bloodstream to look at? Just a vial. There's not a lot I can do with it here on my own anyway, and I'm certainly not going to take it to a doctor, but there are a few things I'd like to try.”

It took much longer for Fuyu to reply to this particular request, and the frown on her face made Twilight uncomfortable the longer she looked at it. “Very well,” she replied at last, looking off to the side with disquieted eyes. “How?”

The librarian was already looking through the clutter for a container, and after a minute turned back around with a vial in hand. “Um, well. Just cut yourself and drip it into this, I suppose.” She emitted a squeak as Fuyu loosed a blade of ebony and slashed her left wrist, stepping over and allowing the resultant crimson and black leak to trickle into the vial. It filled quickly, and Twilight gulped at the wound. “That wasn't really necessary.”

“It'll be fine.” In fact, it had already stopped bleeding. She stared at the cut, watching it heal, and soon realized she wasn't the only one watching the process. Her eyes moved up and rested on Twilight's fascinated face. “What?”

“This is amazing,” she breathed. “If I can figure out what this stuff is, maybe it could be synthesized and used to treat injuries.” When Fuyu didn't add anything to that idea, she glanced up and saw an unhappy look on the pale woman's face. “After we figure out some way to get around the...thing, of course!” she added hastily, hands raised. After taking a few steps away, she found a lid for the vial and dropped it into the pocket of her white blouse. “Right. I'll work on this sometime tonight. Now then, let's get back upstairs and help you settle in.”

“Yes,” Fuyu sighed, relieved to be on some other topic. She dismissed her black weapon and followed the librarian up the staircase.

Evening came, and with the public part of the library closed, Twilight and Fuyu were quietly reading, seated in two chairs opposite each other around one of the little wooden tables. The librarian noticed it first; Spike was some distance away, also in a chair, but his eyes were locked onto the two of them. She looked back at him, blinked at the look on his face, and set her book down. “What?”

“It's like there are two of you,” he replied, pointing at Fuyu. She hadn't stopped reading, and Twilight glanced over to see that she was in the same reading posture – book in one hand, one arm on the armrest – that she'd been in seconds before.

Finally, their gazes were detected by Fuyu, and she looked at both of them in turn with questioning eyes. “What?”

“She even reacts like you,” Spike pointed out with a vague smirk.

“Oh, quit being ridiculous.” Twilight rolled her eyes and went back to her book. A few minutes later, her phone rang, and she had to squirm around in her chair to retrieve it from the pocket of her skirt. She glanced down at the screen, tilted her head, and placed it to her ear. “Hey, Applejack.”

“Try again,” Rainbow Dash said. Her grin was almost audible, but the tone of her voice changed when she spoke again. “Have you seen Fu?”

Twilight winced and sighed, placing a hand on her forehead. “I knew I forgot something. She's staying with me, at least for the weekend. Wait. I thought you were at the farm?”

“I was, but I forgot my books.” There was a lengthy silence, interrupted only by the muffled noises of Rainbow rummaging through something. “Damn it, where are they...”

The librarian rolled her eyes and smiled again. “Is that the only reason you called?”

Fuyu ignored their small talk, focused again on her book. This was another novel, science fiction, and the general overtone of it bothered her. It was a dystopian, post-apocalyptic setting; the world had been devastated by some sort of alien attack, and the plot followed a group of survivors the were resisting the invaders from an underground sanctuary under what had once been the city of Trottingham. Like the other novels she had read, the narrative stretched her mind, but this one did it in a bad way. Even though she was almost halfway through the book, her brain couldn't get over the first three chapters, in which the aliens staged their invasion and cut through the planet's armed forces like – in the words of the book – magic. The picture of it disquieted her immensely, and she used all her effort to keep the feeling internal and secret.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Rainbow bantered back and forth, and a bored Spike departed for the living quarters. After he had gone, Fuyu looked out the window at the falling night and sighed loud enough for the librarian to hear it. She glanced over and caught Fuyu's worried eyes. She moved thus to end the conversation with her friend. “I should go, Applejack's going to yell at me for keeping you.”

“Wow, I think you might have a point, it's been fifteen minutes. Later,” Rainbow said, hanging up.

Once the call was over, Twilight set her phone on the table. “You okay? You don't look so well over there.”

Fuyu's lips curled down, and she set the book on her lap and tried to look as composed as possible. “I'm fine.”

“No you aren't,” she countered, leaning forward and peering at the woman in black. “You look worried. I can tell; if anyone knows what worried looks like, it's me. What's bothering you?”

Fuyu wanted desperately to bristle, as she had whenever Applejack asked her the same question in those early days. However, Twilight's tone was so gentle, it made any such attempt impossible. Instead, she leaned back in the chair and looked down at the novel. “This book. I didn't like the first chapters.”

“Which book?” Twilight raised a hand and floated it over with her magic. “Oh, I don't like this guy. The Princess would never let something like this happen.” she chastized, skimming through some of the pages. “Why does it bother you?”

Fuyu opened her mouth and blinked when nothing came out. It was a worry she wasn't accustomed to, something akin to the feeling she got from considering what would happen if her friends found out about the black goo. This, however, was even worse. It unsettled her to her core, in the same way her stomach would roar whenever she had been denied food for too long. It was a base fear, and the more she pictured it the worse she felt. “I can't explain. It makes me very unhappy.”

A worried Twilight frowned and looked down at the text again, more closely this time. She read through the chapters at breakneck speed, stopping halfway through the second when she reached the line about the city of Manehattan being leveled. “Wow. Hey...maybe it bothers you because you lived in one of these places?”

She hadn't considered that, but now that it was out there she tried to make it fit with her unhappy feeling. “Perhaps. I'm not sure.”

“Well, there's no need to worry. Like I said, the Princess would never let any of this happen.” She snapped the book closed with a crisp thwack and laid it dismissively on the table. “I never liked science fiction, anyway. I like my science to be real!” She laughed lightly, but fell quiet when she saw the frown still etched on Fuyu's lips. “Is something else wrong? You still look upset.”

The topic had come up, and only now did Fuyu remember keeping the secret at all. She felt obligated to divulge it, for some reason she couldn't exactly place. “Princess Celestia. I knew her name too.” She blinked with confusion when the librarian smiled.

“Of course you did. Everyone knows her, she runs the country.”

“No,” she shook her head, picking the book up and setting it aside to get a little more comfortable in her chair. “I had never heard the name before. I still knew it, like yours.”

Twilight frankly didn't know what to be more amazed with, the fact that someone could not know Princess Celestia, the most powerful woman on face of the planet, or that it was one of the details Fuyu seemed to recall. “You really didn't know who she was?” Again the woman shook her head. “Wow. I guess you never got much news before recently, huh.”

“You could say that.” Fuyu crossed her legs and sighed. “I do not know why I knew either of your names.” She watched as Twilight picked up her phone, and assuming she was about to make a call, picked up another book from the table to read. She never put it to her ear, however, instead running her thumb along the screen as she looked for something. “What are you doing?”

“I'm guessing you've never seen her, right? She only gives that one public speech every year at the opening of Parliament, and that was four months ago. I'm just thinking...” she paused, her eyes lighting up, “Here's one. I'm just thinking, if you know her name, maybe this will jog a memory?” She punctuated her question by handing the phone over across the table.

Fuyu leaned forward and took it, gazing down at the screen as she brought it closer. On it was a picture of Twilight with Celestia. They appeared to be standing in a garden of some sort, and the Princess was wearing a strapless white dress. Her skin was very fair, and her magenta eyes shone with amusement at something off camera. She towered over the librarian – Fuyu estimated she had to be as tall as Applejack, although not quite as muscular – and her striped, pastel hair flowed as if in a breeze, even though Twilight's own was still. She bore a gold crown on her head, studded with a large, purple gem.

“Anything?” the librarian asked politely, hands on her knees. Fuyu didn't answer, and she didn't push, allowing her to stare at the picture.

“Where was this taken?” she finally asked, looking up.

“Canterlot Castle, in the garden. Why do you ask?” Fuyu suddenly handed the phone back, and she took it while shooting the woman a concerned look. “Are you okay?”

“It seems...familiar,” she breathed, frowning when she realized she had vocalized her thought. She wanted to clarify, but didn't know how to explain that she didn't know any other word for her feeling besides the one she uttered. Instead, she let it go and sat there. Twilight didn't say anything at first, and the silence caused her to become even more uncomfortable.

“Maybe you lived in Canterlot!” Twilight exclaimed, standing up and putting her phone away. “The Castle lets in tourists to see the gardens, but usually they're only open to residents of the city. If you've been there, maybe you were a resident?”

“I...” She slumped over, racking her brain for additional details about the gardens. She found something, but it was flat and colorless and bland, more akin to a blueprint drawn by a child than a full, three dimensional memory. “...am not sure.”

“Don't worry. I'm going to find out.” Twilight strode away with a determination that surprised Fuyu, but she didn't get far before turning around and coming back. “After dinner. Are you thirsty?”

Her mind was a jumbled mess of alien apocalypses and castle gardens, but she stood up and nodded, thankful for something to take her thoughts away from the images. “Yes. I think I want to try that soda thing Bon Bon mentioned yesterday.”

It was a little past midnight when the two of them retired to Twilight's loft. The librarian was exhausted, but as she got ready for bed she wouldn't stop talking about how she was going to find out if Fuyu had ever lived in the mountain capital, no matter what it took. She even placed extra emphasis on the latter idea, expounding on it by saying she'd go there herself to find answers, if necessary. She only stopped when she saw the frown on Fuyu's lips, and gave her a hug before bidding her good night and sliding under her purple blanket.

Fuyu simply laid there on her own bed and stared up through the darkness, only halfway listening to the soundtrack provided by Twilight's dainty snoring. Her mind was a cluttered mess of thought, and she didn't bother trying to catch a catnap. Instead, she started asking questions.

“Why did that bother me so much?” No reply came, which managed to actually make her more concerned. It was beginning to approach the threshold of stress that would cause her to get hungry faster, but she couldn't let it go. No other book had made her feel this way, and she wanted answers. “Tell me. Why?”

When the time comes...you will do what needs to be done.

“What ti--” A connection formed itself in her brain, and it so agitated her she sat up and stared wide-eyed across the loft. “No...I don't understand...” She placed her hands on her head and felt tears coming on. “Twilight says that can't happen.” The phrase repeated itself again, and Fuyu could no longer hold back the panic. Outwardly, she showed very little sign of it, but on the inside her emotions were a whirling storm of anxiety. It chewed at her for many minutes, until finally she spoke to herself in an attempt to calm down. “I'm sorry for asking, please stop,” she offered weakly, lying down as she tried to find that relaxing position from her first time on the mattress. The sensation wouldn't come. She tried to reason with herself, and realized her worry wasn't coming from the connection of the phrase with the imagery evoked in the novel.

It was stuck to the picture of the Princess.

“No...why?” she breathed unhappily. “What does she have to do with...I don't even know her!” Her voice was louder than she intended, and she froze when the dainty snoring stopped. She could hear Twilight shifting in bed, but a few moments later the sleepy sound came back. “I don't understand,” she scolded her brain, just as soon as the snoring was going strong.

Nothing helped, and the uncertainty gnawed at her without cease as the hours ticked by. Fuyu sat up again and glanced at Twilight's digital clock across the way. It was now just after four in the morning, and she had a problem. Her stomach was grumbling with hunger as it reacted to her stress response. She also didn't want to wake anyone up, but her stomach's prodding grew more forceful as the seconds ticked by. Almost sheepishly, she loosed a black tentacle from her left hand and sent it writhing through the air over to Twilight. She used it to tap the librarian on the nose, and it worked to perfection. She gasped forcefully at the sight of the ebony rope, hugging the blanket to her chest for a moment before she realized what it was.

“Fuyu?” she asked, sitting up as she watched the thing withdraw. “What was that for?”

Her blue eyes were hollow as she spoke. “Hungry.”

“It's only been two days, I thought you said you could--” She turned on the lamp and had her train of thought derailed by Fuyu's worried look. “Wh-what's wrong now?”

“Don't feel well,” she replied, hugging herself. “Need food.”

“You're sick?” Twilight slid out of bed and walked over to get a better look at her. “You don't look sick...”

Fuyu wouldn't look at her; she was too busy trying to assure her stomach that everything was okay. It wouldn't listen. “No time to explain, please, I'm hungry.”

“Right. Um, well,” Twilight looked back at her nightstand and sighed. “There's only one person that could possibly be awake at this time of morning.” She walked over and snatched her phone from the charger on the nightstand and dialed a number with her thumb. She paced around as it rung, stopping when a voice came through. “Big Macintosh! Is your sister awake?” She sighed with relief at his reply. “Great. Can I speak with her?”

“Hey, Twilight,” the blonde greeted, her words tainted with confusion. “Y'all are awake early. Been studyin' all night again?”

The librarian swept aside her chuckling and got straight to the point. “It's Fuyu. I need you to take her up.”

Applejack's voice suddenly got a lot lower, and based on the rustling noise she was now cupping her hand around her phone. “Twilight, I can't. We gotta get the plantin' done today. 'Sides, ain't she just...ya know...two days ago?”

Twilight sighed and placed a hand on her hip. “Yes, but something's wrong and she needs to now. I'm begging you, Applejack. She doesn't seem well at all.”

The blonde was still adamant, however. “I can't just make up an excuse and ditch my family...”

Fuyu reached out her hand as Twilight opened her mouth to insist again, and she handed over the phone. “Applejack.”

“Hey, Fu. Ya all right?”

“No, and I need you to help. Please help me,” she asked, her voice cracking toward the end. She still had one arm around her stomach, and tears now flowed down her cheeks. “Please.” It was a long time before she got a reply.

“All right. I'm comin'.”

Just Like Me

Fifteen minutes later, Fuyu was in the cab of the red truck. A sleepy Applejack pulled away from the library tree, and they were off through the dormant, dark streets of Ponyville. The blonde had the interior light on, and she glanced over at her passenger repeatedly. The pale woman looked genuinely weary, and it made Applejack uncomfortable.

"Y'all look terrible," she blurted out, desperate to break the silence. A piece of paper rustled in the pocket of her orange t-shirt as she shifted around – this was the incantation, written down for her by Twilight. "What happened?"

Fuyu placed a hand on the side of her head and closed her eyes. "There are so many things I don't understand," she droned, opening them again and staring ahead out the windshield. "I don't feel well."

"Don't feel well?" The blonde's spine tingled at those words, and she suddenly felt an urge to abandon the woman and black and drive home. She scolded herself internally. "What's the matter, then?"

"Later. I have to eat first." She sighed and dropped that hand from her temple, resting it on her stomach. "Please be quiet..." she added, whispering so faintly Applejack couldn't pick up her words.

The blonde tightened her grip on the wheel, so much so her knuckles began to turn white. "Didn't y'all just eat a couple of days ago? Ya can't be hungry..."

"I know, I am just..." She was wont to voice the feeling, but the jumbled mess of thoughts in her brain was rolling about and weakening her will to keep quiet. "Afraid," she finally said, pinning an unhappy frown to the end of the word.

"Afraid?" Applejack gulped, trying to figure out what in the world could make Fuyu fearful. She got so lost in the possibilities that she nearly missed the turn for the highway that snaked into the woods. "Of what? Y'all ain't never been scared'a nothin'."

"Later!" Fuyu insisted, clenching her teeth. The tone was enough to make Applejack jump with surprise. She didn't open her mouth for several minutes, devoting all her energy to quelling the tidal wave of anxiety that was pounding her nerves. By the time they got to the end of the dirt road in the forest, she was trembling with panic.

"Ain't got any idea where this hole is," Applejack said, climbing out of the truck. "Y'all are gonna have ta..." She blinked as Fuyu started to move through the trees the moment she got out. "Wait! Fu!" The blonde took off after her, but found it was hard to keep up. "Fu, you're gonna leave me! Slow down!"

There was no time for patience, and she only looked back a few times to ensure Applejack hadn't lost sight of her. She beat her by several yards to the gray boulder, and disappeared down the hole just as soon as the blonde arrived. A beam of light cut jerky paths through the dark as she followed Fuyu down.

Once they arrived at the glowing pool, she couldn't help but stare into its depths with amazement. "Dang," she mumbled, scratching under her hat. "So this here is the mirror pool, huh? Freaky."

"Say it," Fuyu ordered, hugging herself tightly. She paid no attention to the incantation itself as the blonde drawled it out, only to the rippling of the pool as the clone began to form and rise to the surface. "Leave. I'll come out when I'm done."

"What am I supposed to do 'til then?" Applejack asked, hands on her hips.

"I don't care." Fuyu produced two black spikes from her palms just as the clone breached the water. Behind her, she heard the true Applejack's shoes scrape on the stone as she departed. The clone glanced around to get her bearings for a few seconds before seeing the pale woman and tipping her hat.

"Howdy!" she chirped with a smile.

That single word managed to stop Fuyu before she could even move; weakly, she dropped her arms by her sides and stared at the clone. A ray of lucidity pierced the roiling fog in her mind, and while she might have been grateful for the clarity under other circumstances, the thought that jammed itself into the forefront wasn't something she wanted to deal with at the moment. She flashed back to the first word Applejack ever said to her on the side of that road. Everything matched. The tone, the smile, the shining green eyes. All that image managed to do was throw uncertainty and sadness into her nervous mental stew.

The feeling was so bad, she had to admit it out loud in order to even begin steadying herself. "You're not real," she whispered, peering a hole into the blonde clone.

"Hey, that ain't very nice!" the double frowned, folding her arms and giving Fuyu a sour look. "Why, I'm just as real as you are!"

Now it was even worse, if somewhat different. It felt like a brick had just been bounced off her skull. She could only issue stunned blinks at the clone. "What did you say?"

"I'm just like ya!" Not-Applejack tossed her ponytail over her shoulder and started to smirk. "Hard of hearin'?"

Fuyu didn't hear that, but it wasn't for lack of functional ears. She was processing the statement slowly, thoroughly; almost by themselves, her hands turned over and she stared down at the black blades that protruded from her palms. The clone saw them and let out an unhappy noise, backing away, but Fuyu paid her no mind. Her mind was at last settled, simply because it was now dominated by a singular thought.

"Just like me..." she murmured, angling her hands so the ebony spikes reflected the dim, blue glow. "Is that right? Just like me?" She looked up and found the clone peeking out from behind an outcropping of crystal, wide-eyed and staring.

"What in tarnation happened to your hands?" she asked. Suddenly her face softened, and she emerged a little more from behind the formation. "Do...do they hurt ya? You're cryin'..."

Fuyu sent away the blade in her left hand and pressed those fingers to her cheek. Warm tears caressed her touch; until then, she hadn't even felt them.

"Whoa! How'd ya do that?!" The false blonde was hiding more fully again, pointing out and trembling faintly. "Are y'all one of them magic folks or somethin'?"

Her questions were ignored entirely. Fuyu was trying to figure out why she was crying. It wasn't the same sort of process she was used to, a chain of 'am I hurt' that was followed by 'no you're not, stop crying' that was comforting – if slightly cold. This time, she asked the question internally and got nothing in reply. Taking a sharp breath, she asked it again out loud. "Am I hurt?"

I am sorry.

Another metaphorical brick arrived, this time colliding with her squarely in the stomach. The feeling nearly dropped her to one knee with the impact. She ignored the frightened chatter of the clone as she mined her brain for a label. Not even her reading could help her with this one; no matter how hard she searched, a word would not attach itself. It made her angry. As she rose fully again, she glared at the clone with hateful blue eyes, but couldn't figure out why all her rage was flowing in that direction.

"I'm just like you?" she growled. That's when something in her mind popped. Stunned briefly, she peered down again at the awful thing rooted in her palm. Her teeth clenched. "No. I'm not like you," she said, hearkening back to the words she uttered to Rarity after their run-in with Connie. She stalked toward the clone, empty hand clenched into a tight fist. "I'm not anything like you." Her ire began to rush freely as she moved, and its proliferation clouded her mind. "I've never been like you." That fist unclenched to allow a dark blade to emerge. "And I will never be like you!"

Fuyu threw herself headlong at the clone, who ran from behind the crystal points and around the edge of the pool. She was fast; faster even than the pale woman for brief spurts, as she used her powerful legs to propel herself around the cave. The double spotted the rocky ramp and bolted toward it, only to have her ankle snagged by a black tentacle. She tumbled roughly to the floor, groaning as she tried to pick herself up. Fuyu fell upon her and prepared to end it, but the clone managed to roll over and plant a fist directly into her jaw. The force was surprising, enough to knock her off the clone. While both of them tried to shake out the cobwebs, Fuyu rubbed at her jaw. It was broken in at least four places, but the goo was already gluing it back together.

"You hit hard," she mumbled, watching as the clone finally got to her feet. She hopped up quickly and followed – a much easier task this time, as the false Applejack was limping around and grunting in pain.

"Why did y'all do that?!" she demanded, glaring back over her shoulder. "I ain't done nothin'!"

"No one ever does," Fuyu replied, teeth gnashed as she stormed closer. "I guess that isn't exactly correct. Some of them did something." She caught up to the clone a few seconds later. Another punch was hurled at her, but this one she caught with her right hand and stopped. The false Applejack's arm twitched as she tried to push through the grip, but her reserves of strength fell short.

"Let me go!" she squealed, trying to free her hand. She brought up her other arm and grabbed Fuyu's wrist, squeezing and clawing at it in an effort to make her release her grasp. It didn't work; she became exhausted and knelt down, her fist shaking in Fuyu's hand. "Pl-please...why are ya doin' this..." She became quiet when she felt her hand being released, and looked up just in time to see a set of pale knuckles arrive. The blow knocked her onto her back. As she laid there, hands pressed against her broken nose, Fuyu stood over her. "Please, no," the clone begged, raising her arms in defense.

That feeling was back again, the same one that had originally drawn out her anger. It only brought sadness with it in this instance, and it was so powerful it actually managed to quell Fuyu's appetite. She dismissed the black goo entirely and stared down at the terrified clone. "I have to."

"No ya don't!" the clone said, coughing lightly to clear her mouth of the blood. "Ju-just let me go, I ain't gonna try and hit ya again! I promise!"

"It isn't that simple." Fuyu raised her left hand, pointing her palm at the ceiling. She allowed her outstretched fingers to curl up until they resembled claws. "I have to do it because I'm different. I wish..." she paused, blinking at the depth of the unhappiness she now found in her mind, "I wish I didn't."

"Then don't!" the clone begged, moving her arms just enough to shoot a pleading look at her assailant.

It was too late; the pale woman's arm plummeted down with frightful speed. Her hand moved aside the defending arms and punched through the clone's chest, defeated her rib cage, and ended up buried in her right lung. The clone's speech faded into a warbling shriek of agony that stung Fuyu's ears. She began moving her hand around, pushing her fingers through the warm flesh until they wrapped around the clone's racing heart. Before she could fully grip it, a beam of light slammed into her face and drew her attention. It began to dance rapidly around, causing her eyes to have to constantly readjust until it fell away. She could hear the clatter of the flashlight on the stone, and sighed deeply.

"Wh-wh-wh-what are ya..." Applejack stuttered badly, backing away from the scene. She tripped with a yelp and landed on her rear, but never took her eyes off of the dying clone. No longer capable of words, she babbled out a broken string of terrified noises as she scooted away.

"I told you to wait for me," Fuyu grumbled, sympathy lost on her for the time being. She went back to work, wrapping her fingers around the heart and squeezing. After a few seconds, it burst with a loud, gooey pop. The noise drew a twisted squeal from Applejack's lips, and in the indirect light Fuyu could she she had fallen over onto her side and curled into a ball. "You should go back up."

The blonde was in no shape to go anywhere, sobbing so hard she had to force herself to gasp for air. Fuyu's lips curled with annoyance as she freed her hand and walked over, licking the blood off as she went. "Applejack," she said, kneeling down by her, "You have to leave." All she could get in reply was a rapid shaking of her head, and ceaseless crying. "It's not going to get any better. Just go back up." Again, the blonde didn't move.

Annoyance became frustration, and paired with the lingering mist of anger it exploded into rage. Fuyu stood up, teeth clenched. "I told you to get out, damn it!" she screamed. That was enough to snap Applejack out of her trauma; she shrieked and scrambled to her feet, leaving the flashlight behind as she tore out of the cave. Fuyu tracked her by virtue of her unending cries, and only when they faded totally away did she feel any relief. She also felt guilty about yelling, but that would have to wait. Quietly, she turned on her heel and walked back to her food.

It was still dark when Fuyu emerged from the cave. She had managed to keep the mess to a minimum, but the left sleeve of her black shirt was soaked through with blood. She rolled both of them up to her elbows as she walked around the boulder, expecting to find Applejack.

She didn't. The blonde was nowhere to be seen. Frowning anxiously, Fuyu began walking back toward the dirt path, eyes darting about as she searched for any sign of her. Only when she reached the truck did she find Applejack; the woman was already inside, and appeared to be asleep. Quietly, Fuyu opened the door and got in. Shutting it caused the blonde to startle and shriek. She leaned away from the pale woman upon seeing her, ending with her back pressed against the door.

The first words out of Fuyu's mouth were framed with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to yell at you, but it was the only way to make you move."

Applejack's mouth hung open slightly, but no sound came from it. She hugged herself and stared at the pale woman for a long while. "Ya...ya had your hand in her..." she finally sputtered, wrapping her arms tighter around herself as she spoke. "I don't..." Abruptly, she slammed a hand over her mouth and looked away.

"I'm sorry, again," Fuyu sighed, looking away herself. Applejack wretched a few times, but managed to keep her breakfast down. When she was silent again, Fuyu looked back over. "Are you all right?"

The blonde placed both hands on the steering wheel, closed her eyes, and took a series of deep breaths. "No," she admitted at length. She looked utterly spent; her eyes were sunk in and her face was pale. "I know y'all told me to stay above ground, but I heard screamin'. I heard...I heard me screamin'." She shuddered visibly and opened her eyes again. "I still hear it."

"I probably will too, for a while." The pale woman looked exhausted herself, but there was an undertone of resignation which the blonde's face lacked. She took great care to ensure her bloody sleeve didn't contact any of the upholstery. "She told me I was just like her. I'm not, and I..." In swept that feeling again, causing Fuyu's teeth to clench. "I never will be, will I?"

"Sugarcube, if anyone can help ya, it's Twilight." Applejack's voice was a little stronger than before as she mentally collected herself, but outwardly she was still a wreck. "Dang, now I know how Rainbow musta felt when she saw ya. No wonder she had nightmares."

"Yes. I don't know how Pinkie does it." That thought lead to another instantly, and Fuyu blinked at herself. "I want a hug. A Pinkie hug."

"I'll drop ya by there. I could use the extra time to get my wits 'fore I head home," Applejack said, starting up the truck. "Will Twilight mind?"

"I don't think so." Fuyu stared out the window as they began to move, noting the faintest blue light between the leaves. "Your clone was strong. She broke my jaw."

"Heh...uh...my apologies?" Applejack offered, her face scrunching up. "I guess I woulda fared about as well."

The pale woman folded her arms and frowned. "I never would have done that to you."

"Aw, I know that, I was just...hell, I don't know what I was doin'. Don't pay me no mind." Sighing, she focused on the drive for a while. Just as they crossed the town limits, she glanced over at Fuyu and cleared her throat. "What...what does it taste like?"

Fuyu couldn't believe the question she'd heard, and turned her head to stare at Applejack. "What?"

"I'm just tryin' ta get a sense of it," she explained, peering ahead at a traffic light as it changed to yellow. "If we're gonna be friends, then I wanna try and understand it as best I can."

Her sentiment drew a slight smile on Fuyu's face, but gathering the reply stomped that grin under a mighty scowl. "Everyone tastes different. I do not think you want to hear the details, do you?"

"Tell me," Applejack replied, glaring up as the light turned red. "I may as well get the whole story sometime, ya know? 'Sides...ain't no point in hidin' nothin' anymore. That's what we're here for, ta talk."

While she appreciated the sentiment, the contemplation of her meals still wouldn't allow Fuyu to smile. She moved around a bit in her seat, staring at her bare feet while she collected a deeper answer. "They taste like iron and heat. Beyond that, everyone is different. You – your clone – tasted like wood."

"Wood? Thought I'd taste like apples. That's what Rainbow always says." Outside, the light was green again, and they proceeded ahead. "Y'all might wanna change clothes 'fore I take ya over to see Pinkie. Twilight'll throw a fit."

Fuyu nodded idly. "Very well. By the way...it's never something anyone eats. As far as I know, it has more to do with their surroundings. Sometimes it's how they feel. Pinkie's clones taste like happiness."

"What the heck does that taste like?!" Applejack exclaimed, staring at Fuyu for as long as traffic would allow.

"I will never be able to explain." They could see the library tree now. "I should not wake Pinkie up. I'll see her later today."

"Ya sure? She wouldn't mind it none, I can almost guarantee ya." Fuyu nodded once again, and the blonde shrugged. "Okay. I'll drop ya here, then." They pulled in behind the great tree and sat there for just a moment. The blonde peeked through the windshield at the light that came from Twilight's bedroom window. "Well, guess I'll see ya later." Upon glancing over, she saw Fuyu wincing a little with her left hand on her head. "Ya all right?"

She didn't reply at first, being too busy rubbing at her skull, but she ceased grimacing. Something in her mind still felt wrong after that formless popping sensation in the cave. Many things seemed different, and she was silently inquiring of the voice within what had happened. It wouldn't talk to her, so she gave up for a moment and dropped her hand. "I'm fine. Are you?" she asked, finally looking over.

"I'll deal," the blonde smiled. "Just gotta wrap my head around it is all."

"Right." Fuyu waved a goodbye and slid out of the truck, watching Applejack drive off before entering the back door of the library. Twilight met her immediately.

"Everything okay?" she asked, frowning at the dark stain in the black fabric which was now visible in the interior lights. "Oh. You can borrow one my shirts for a while until I can get to the Boutique. Rarity said she had some more things made for-" The icy look in Fuyu's eyes cut her planning short. "What?"

"We need to talk," she stated flatly, walking past and toward the stairs that lead up to the loft. "Something happened to me in the cave." It was, in fact, happening as she spoke; never before had she been so willing to talk about something – anything – related to herself. A confused Twilight skittered after her. When they reached the top, Fuyu settled on her bed, but the librarian remained standing. "The goo isn't the only thing that's different about me."

That's when her mind started shrieking again, so loudly it made her wince and hunch over. It didn't speak with words so much as with a torrent of negative sensations, but the message was crystal clear regardless.

Twilight came over and sat beside her on the bed, hugging an arm around her. "Are you okay? What's going on?"

"It doesn't want me to tell you," she struggled, leaning up and clutching her head. "I don't care." She was able to focus her voice through the altered portion of her mind, circumventing the formless figure's ability to make her shut up. "There's a..." She stopped and grumbled; the figure was really screaming now, so loudly it gave her a pounding headache. "Shut up, I'm going to say this whether you want me to or not."

"Um..." An unsure Twilight released Fuyu and slid away, blinking. "Who are you talking to?"

"The figure that lives in my head." She doubled over even farther with the mental assault, but refused to yield. "When I first...when I first woke up, it guided me. It told me when I needed to eat. What I needed to eat. How to find shelter. Any time I had a question about something, it would give me answers. It's like a guide of some kind." Abruptly, the screaming ceased. The figure became quiet again, having failed its mission. "It's quiet now."

Twilight stared at Fuyu for a long time, but the look on her face was not quite what Fuyu expected. "Is it related to the black stuff?"

"I don't know. I don't think so," she replied, rubbing at her face. "Sometimes it feels like the two talk past each other. Whenever the sludge wants my attention, it usually gets it through my stomach."

Cautiously, the librarian scooted back over. "What else does it tell you? The figure, I mean."

The pale woman hung her head, feeling tears well up. "It tells me it's sorry."

A long while passed before either of them spoke again. They spent those minutes quietly crying, in Fuyu's case, or looking off in thought, in Twilight's. She was the one that eventually broke the silence, standing up and pacing around the loft. "I think I know where to start looking now."

Fuyu looked up, blinking away her tears. "You do?"

"Yes. But you shouldn't worry about that for the moment," Twilight replied, coming over and giving her a tight hug. "Do you feel better?"

"Sleepy. Eating too much makes me sleepy." She yawned out the last few words and sighed, stretching her arms. She watched as Twilight disappeared into her closet and came out with a gray sweatshirt, which she handed over. "What's this?"

"Put it on, I'll wash yours while you take a nap," she said, turning around as Fuyu undressed. She took the black shirt and peered at it more closely. "It's not too bad, I guess. Anyway, should I wake you?"

"No, I'll wake up myself." Fuyu shrugged her shoulders as she got used to the feeling of the new shirt, then proceeded to lie down. She was out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Twilight stared at her for a moment before sneaking away down the staircase. She first dropped the shirt in the washing machine and started it, then moved through the kitchen and toward Spike's bedroom. She pressed her ear against the door and listened until hearing a rough snore. Satisfied, she stepped away and went to another door farther back. This was a storage closet that held some of her personal book collection; mostly things she'd had forever that had been given to her by family as presents. Some of them, however, were things she'd been given for safe keeping. They were on the top shelf, and after she'd opened the door and turned on the light, that was the shelf for which she reached. After a few awkward seconds of feeling about, her hand settled on a heavy book with metal-clad corners. It took her a moment to even get the thing down. Once it was in her hands, she peered at the title.

"Never thought I'd have to be reading about banned magic," she sighed. "I hope I'm wrong about this."

RSVP

“I think something is wrong.”

The question nearly caused Rarity to drop the pen in her hand. She finished scribbling down the measurements and magically sent the pad away to rest on her work desk. She remained knelt before a Fuyu clad only in black underwear, looking up into her unsure eyes. “Why do you say that? Did Twilight say something?”

“That's just it,” Fuyu sighed, rubbing at the right side of her skull and closing her stance, now that the dressmaker had finished taking her inseam again. “She hasn't spoken to me much in the past two days. I don't understand why.”

Rarity rose to her feet at last, tapping her chin as she thought. “Does she have her face buried in a book every time you see her?” she asked, smirking slightly when she received a nod. “That's why. Twilight tends to withdraw when she starts studying.” A sad glance from Fuyu caused the dressmaker to tilt her head. “What's the matter?”

“I think she's studying me,” the pale woman muttered, crossing her arms and peering off to the side. Her eyes rested on her clothes, neatly folded and placed in one of the chairs. “I'd like to know what she's found, but I think she thinks it will upset me.”

Frowning, Rarity removed her glasses, magically dismissing them to her table with a flick of her wrist. “I don't know what to tell you, darling. Maybe she hasn't found anything? Nothing annoys her like a question she cannot answer.”

“Hmm.” Fuyu watched the dressmaker walk away and dropped her arms. “Can I get dressed now?”

“Oh, of course,” she replied, smiling awkwardly. “I just needed more accurate numbers before I start working on your new ensemble.”

“Ensemble?” she blinked, striding over to the chair. In an instant, she had the black shirt pulled on, and was grabbing her cargo pants. “What ensemble?”

“For the Mayor's party, darling!” Rarity was busy bouncing her gaze between bolts of blue fabric that, to Fuyu, looked exactly the same. “I want you to look stunning. I must admit, I don't often do work for women of your build,” she added, dropping those bolts and taking up a black square that shimmered in the sunlight. “Applejack only wants work clothes, and Rainbow Dash thinks all of...this,” she paused briefly to wave her hands around, indicating the entire shop, “is terribly dull. Designing something that hangs on you well is going to be quite a challenge!”

Fuyu tilted her head at the giggle that punctuated Rarity's words. Once she had her pants on, she walked a short distance to retrieve and slide on her sandals. “I'm not sure I want to go to that thing.”

“Oh, it'll be lovely! Pinkie is doing the planning, I'm sure she'll make arrangements so you feel comfortable. Oh, would you mind trying these on?” Rarity waved a pair of shining black heels in Fuyu's direction. “I just need to see how tall you'll look in them.”

With a shrug, the pale woman went over and picked up the shoes, ditching her sandals and inserting her feet into the heels. Once in them, she glanced around at the new perspective and blinked. The heels were three-inch; she was now almost Applejack's height. Rarity folded her arms and nodded several times, emitting slight noises as her eyes traveled the length of Fuyu's frame. “They don't feel very good,” she admitted, missing the empty comfort of her flip flops. “How do you wear them all the time?”

“Practice, my dear,” Rarity laughed. “You can take them off now.” Fuyu did so quickly, donning her sandals again. She wiggled her toes to stretch the constrained feeling out of them. Rarity took the heels when they were handed over and smiled. “If I may, you're sounding different today.”

Fuyu bounced from foot to foot as she secured her sandals. “How so?”

“I'm not sure. More natural?” Rarity looked inside the heels at the size and made a mental note. “You used to talk like a robot, no offense.” When no reply came, she looked up at found Fuyu had her back turned. Again, her right hand rested on her skull.

“Something happened when Applejack took me to the pool. I'm not sure what. I haven't felt the same since.” She spun to face Rarity again. “Natural? I guess.”

“Well, if I'm being completely honest, you sound like one part Applejack, and two parts Rainbow.” She smirked as Fuyu cocked an eyebrow. “Rainbow does that all the time. Especially if I ask her to model something too frilly.”

“She doesn't seem like the type that enjoys standing still.” She looked out the window at the sunny sky, allowing her eyes to pass over the trees before she looked back at the dressmaker. The air had a faintly crisp undertone today; soon, the leaves would be all sorts of colors. While Rarity was drawing out something, Fuyu sat down and watched. “I still don't know how much I want to go to this party.”

“Oh, it'll be fine,” Rarity said, waving her free hand dismissively. “Just pop in, accept your award, mingle a bit, then retire if it still bothers you. You don't have to stay the whole night.”

Fuyu rubbed her eyes as she went back to sit in the chair. “Won't they be unhappy? I'm not certain how all of this works.”

Rarity opened her mouth to answer, but a cheerful ring from the door on the other side of the room silenced her nascent words. She stood up and smoothed her dress down, preparing to greet the arrival. Fuyu simply looked back over her shoulder at the door as it began to swing. In the doorway was a smiling Pinkie Pie, who darted past and clamped onto the dressmaker in a hug, then released her and did the same to the pale woman.

“Hi!” she chirped, her face buried in Fuyu's midnight and blue locks. “What are you two doing?”

“Getting started on her dress.” Rarity rubbed at her sides, trying to dull the soreness from the baker's steel trap embrace. “Please be more careful with your hugs, I think you almost broke something,” she sighed, although a smile was on her face.

Pinkie giggled, still wrapped around Fuyu, who was only just now returning her hug. “Sorry! This is why I like to hug Fufu so much, she never ever gets hurt!” She squeezed even tighter to prove her point, and let out a surprised noise as she received a poke on the shoulder.

It was the pale woman, jabbing gently at her friend and frowning. “I would like to stand up, if you don't mind.” Pinkie instantly let go and stepped backwards, staring. “What?”

“You still don't sound like yourself!” the baker gasped and pointed. “Did Twilight do something magicky to you?” In an instant Pinkie was clamped on again in a hug. This time, Fuyu simply rose with the baker still attached. “Eek!” she yelped, wiggling her legs as her shoes lost contact with the carpet.

Fuyu was hugging rather firmly herself, mostly for grip on Pinkie to make certain she didn't fall. “No. Remember what I told you about Applejack's clone?” Furious wiggling rattled her frame, indicating the baker wanted down. Once she was free, she simply latched on in a third hug.

“Oh, I forgot that...” Pinkie nodded rapidly, her voice anxious. She was hugging as hard as her arms would let her, so forceful they were trembling. When they could bear no more, she released Fuyu and stepped away to stand with Rarity at her work desk. “You're still snapped, then? Are you okay?”

“I'm not sure. I feel fine, physically.” She stared back at their uncertain looks for a moment before crossing her arms. “What?”

“Snapping is bad! At least I'm pretty sure snapping is bad. I snapped once and it was bad. Snapping's bad, right?” Pinkie stared at a slightly stunned Rarity for confirmation, tapping her pink sneaker on the carpet. “I thought so!” Undeterred, she kept on trucking. “Fufu, you don't even look snapped! Are you sure you snapped?”

Fuyu had now heard some variation of the word so many times, it was beginning to sound odd. She rubbed her head and sighed. “It felt like a snap. A literal snap. In my mind.” Vaguely aware of how strange that sounded, she frowned and looked off to the side.

“That can't be good,” was all the dressmaker had to offer.

“Ooooo wait! Did you tell Rarity about the voice that lives in your head and tells you it's sorry?” Pinkie blurted out, looking between the two of them expectantly. Rarity dropped the bolts in her hands and blinked, while Fuyu rubbed at her eyes and grumbled.

“No, Pinkie, I didn't,” she sighed, returning the stunned gaze of Rarity with a helpless look. “And by the way, it's a literal voice. When I mentioned it to Twilight, that's when she started studying so much.”

“I'm going to be honest here and take a page out of Rainbow's book: I do not know what to think about you sometimes.” She smiled, however, and took up her fabric again. “Then again, I can say that about all my friends.” A severe pout from Pinkie caught her eye. “Don't give me that look. You don't even know what to think about you. You told me so yourself.”

“Good point,” the baker admitted, a peal of giggles escaping her lips as she grinned. “Oh, Fufu! I almost forgot to ask what kind of drinks you like!”

“Anything fizzy,” she replied, unrolling the long, black sleeves of her shirt and glancing out the window. “I should probably be getting back.”

“Take care, darling. I'll try to have this done for you by next week,” Rarity called, daintily waving her free right hand. Pinkie's wave was far more exaggerated; she even bounced in place beside the dressmaker. Fuyu returned both goodbyes with a faint wave of her own and drifted out the door.

Once outside, she allowed her thoughts to fade against the backdrop of the bustling town. She was still plagued by the imagery of the book, though with a full stomach she had been more able to suppress the anxiety it caused. Twilight's cloistering bothered her in a different way, and yet she could not make herself intervene. After a few minutes of walking, she engaged in a conversation with the other occupant of her brain.

The first question was as pointed as she could make it without actually opening her mouth.

When I thought of the Princess, why did you reply with those words?

Someone across the street shouted her name. She glanced over and, upon seeing it was someone unfamiliar, nodded briefly while awaiting an answer. All she received were the same words that attached themselves to the imagine of the Princess, at which she scowled. Unwilling to argue with herself in such a public place, she resigned herself to walking back to the library. Many of the people walking by would greet her in some fashion, and she tried to return their hellos while being as brief as possible. One voice from behind was familiar enough to stop her, however.

“Miss Fuyu!” The pale woman turned and beheld an oncoming Apple Bloom, weaving past passersby as she ran down the sidewalk. Her sneakers emitted an awkward squeak as she slid to a halt, hunched over and trying to catch her breath. “Hold on,” she panted, gulping air for several seconds before raising up. “Phew. My brother wants ta talk to ya!”

Fuyu blinked down at her. “Brother?” When she looked up again, an absolute mountain of a man, clad in blue jeans and a red flannel shirt, was making his way toward them. When he got there, she had to look a long way up at him – Applejack was tall, but he would tower over the blonde had she been there.

“Ma'am,” Big Macintosh said, dipping his head respectfully. “Bloom, go over ta Bon Bon's and get us some lemonade while I speak ta Miss Fuyu,” he added, smiling down at the redhead while producing some money from his pocket. She nodded happily and took the bill, skipping off down the sidewalk. He watched her go for a moment before speaking again. “Me and Granny never properly thanked ya,” he said, moving past and settling on a bench nearby. “Ya risked your life for the farm. We appreciate it.”

“It's nothing,” Fuyu replied, walking over to sit beside him. “I owe your sister more than she owes me.” Quiet settled over them as they watched the town move by, and she found herself searching for something to add. “How is the orchard?”

“Fine,” he replied simply, brushing aside the idle chatter as he leaned forward. “I was wonderin' if ya knew what happened to Applejack day before yesterday?”

Her blood ran cold, but her face remained a mask of stone as she shifted on the bench. “What do you mean?”

“She said ya needed her help. When she got back, she didn't look so good. Past couple of nights she's hardly slept. I was wonderin' if you knew why.” Fuyu had no reply, and her silence was enough for Big Macintosh to gain a sour look. “Did y'all do something to her?”

“Absolutely not,” she stated firmly, folding her arms and glaring off. “I needed someone to speak to. What she heard, she may not have handled well.”

“Hmm.” They were again quiet for a while, until both of them caught sight of Apple Bloom returning from down the street, balancing three white plastic cups in her arms. “I ain't one ta talk, but I hear things when I'm in town. They say y'all had amnesia 'fore ya showed up here, that you were a drifter. While I appreciate what ya did, don't get my sister mixed up in nothin'.”

Fuyu's first inclination was to point how late that request was, but she held her tongue and nodded instead. “I won't. I owe her far too much.” Apple Bloom was just arriving, and she took one of the cups from her. The chill soaked into her palm as she took a drink. To her surprise, she could actually taste the lemonade. “Sour.”

The Apple siblings gave her an odd look, but only Big Macintosh spoke. “Well, we'd best be getting' home. Good day, Miss Fuyu.” Bloom added a squeaky goodbye of her own, then followed her brother off down the sidewalk. She watched them go and sighed, only standing up after she lost them in the crowd. After taking another drink, she started off toward the great library tree, hoping the woman that ran it wasn't still locked up in the cavernous cellar.

Ninety minutes later, Fuyu was at the kitchen table in the library's living quarters, watching Spike devour his dinner. He'd made up meat for tacos, and the aroma was so pungent it registered on her dulled tongue as taste.

“Build one and try it,” he offered, around a mouthful of food. “Thought Twilight was gonna come up when she smelled the hamburger. Guess not. You can eat this stuff, can't you?”

“I can, but it doesn't affect my hunger,” she replied, looking at the various bowls and plates scattered before her. She recalled how Spike had made his and copied his process, selecting a soft shell to dump her meat, lettuce, cheese, and salsa in. Once she'd gotten the construction securely wrapped up, she lifted it and took a hesitant bite. “I can taste it,” she stated, glancing around while contemplating the flavor. “Spicy?”

Spike nodded, eyes wide with amazement. “Yeah, you used the hot salsa. I'm surprised you're not crying by now.”

“It's not that bad.” She chewed for a moment before swallowing, noting the uneven texture of her creation. “Have you spoken to Twilight at all in the past two days? Did she say what she was studying?”

The boy's face dropped; sullenly, he set down his food and sighed. “Yeah, she did. She also made me promise not to tell you,” he replied, leaning back in his chair.

That revelation didn't stop Fuyu from finishing off her taco. Once she had, though, she frowned and folded her arms. “I should have known. If she figured something out, why wouldn't she tell me?”

“Maybe it's bad?”

She didn't intend the glare to be so harsh, but it stilled him and caused him to shrink back. His words had struck a nerve, and she rose from the chair. “I'm not waiting any longer to find out.” A few powerful strides got her out of the kitchen, and few more brought her to the closed basement door. Spike came out of the kitchen as well, but drew no closer. After glancing, Fuyu opened the door and beheld the darkness. The only light was coming from a desk at the bottom of the spiral staircase. At this desk sat Twilight, reading a large book. Quietly, she descended the steps – so quiet, in fact, that the librarian didn't hear her approach, even after she was standing behind the chair. Fuyu watched her read for a moment, folding her arms.

“Twilight.”

“Gah!” she shrieked, startling badly. She slumped over and placed a hand on her chest as she tried to calm herself. Only when she had did she swivel in the chair to face the pale woman. “Fuyu, what are you doing down here? Did Spike send you? I'm not hungry.”

She got straight to the point. “Why are you hiding from me?” The words dragged after them a long, awkward silence that saw Twilight's eyes grow anxious, and Fuyu's become annoyed. “Answer me!”

“Okay,” she said, raising her hands in submission. “Calm down. I'm not hiding from you, I'm just...I've found something, but it doesn't make any sense. Sit down, I'll explain it to you.” She nodded over to another chair, sighing with relief when Fuyu sat down in it. “Um, I don't really know how to begin, so I'll start with my theory. Show your palms and let out some of that gunk.”

The pale woman blinked at the request, but did as told. Two wiggling ebony tentacles emerged. Twilight rolled over in her chair, and grabbed each one. The touch caused Fuyu to twitch. “What are you doing?”

“This.” Twilight's hands began to glow, as if she were manipulating the goo with her power, but nothing happened. “It's so empty,” she mumbled, shuddering at the feeling. “Fuyu, I think this stuff absorbs magic.”

Upon hearing that, Fuyu queried her stomach to see If any of the raspberry energy was reaching it. The longer Twilight held on, the more apparent a sensation became. “Yes. It feels strange, but I feel more full.”

The librarian let go, her forehead shining with sweat. “I could feel it pulling on me, somehow. If I'm right, this explains why you have to eat people.”

“How?” Fuyu withdrew her black helpers, eying the exhausted-looking Twilight with some concern. “Are you all right?”

“I'll be fine,” she replied, waving the worry aside. “Like I was saying...I think you're eating people for their magic.” Her words were met with blank blue eyes. “I'm serious. Everyone has some level of magic inside of them, even if it isn't immediately obvious. Pinkie and Applejack, for instance, use their magic subconsciously to grow plants and make people happy. They don't even know they're doing it, it just happens.”

Fuyu mulled this over for a few moments, staring at the red lines in her palms. “What is my magic good for, then?” she asked, her eyes becoming sad.

Twilight winced at her tone. The question broke her heart, and she made no attempt to hide it. “It's okay. I'm convinced this is not your natural state, but...I still don't know where that gunk came from.”

“Hmm.” Fuyu dropped her hands into her lap and sighed. “Why didn't you tell me this?”

Twilight got up and walked over to give the pale woman an awkward hug. “Because I didn't want you to feel sad, like you just did. Also, I still don't know everything yet, but I'm trying. I hate giving incomplete answers.”

“Something would have been better than nothing,” Fuyu chided her coldly, although she returned the embrace. “So I have to eat people for their magic. That doesn't change much.”

“I know,” Twilight sighed, letting go. “Maybe it does. If you could leech enough magic off of me, you wouldn't have to eat.” She began to pace, resting her chin on her left hand. It didn't long for her to realize, however, just how much energy the black goo had leeched. “I feel awful!” she groaned, stumbling back over to the chair and sitting down. “You took a lot out of me for us to be in such short contact.”

Fuyu nodded with a frown. “And I wasn't even hungry.” They shared an unhappy silence. “What do you think the black sludge is?”

“I'm leaning toward it being a parasite,” she replied, wiping the sweat off her forehead. “I've heard of magic parasites before, but nothing like this. Then again, there are some parts of the country that are still not fully explored, and you might have come from one of them.” She paused long enough to grab the heavy book off the desk behind and set it in her lap. “Initially, I thought someone might have done this to you – there are spells for leeching magic, I'm sad to say – but what that sludge is...I couldn't make it, and I don't know anyone with a level of skill that could. It's insane.”

“Yes, it is,” Fuyu murmured, staring at her palms again. She looked up as Twilight motioned her over. “Hmm?”

“Look at this. It's a slide sample of your blood.” Fuyu stood and came over to peer into the microscope. What she saw was a mottled mess of ebony and crimson, but the globs were carbon copies of each other in shape and size. “See how similar they are? It's like the black stuff is cloning your blood cells. If that's true, you could use the goo to breathe und--”

“Underwater? Yes. I've done that.” Fuyu raised up from the microscope and looked over. “I would lure people by pretending I was drowning.” She dropped her head and sighed again. “If it is a parasite, how would we get rid of it?”

“I'm not sure we can,” the librarian admitted, shutting the great book. “If it's bound to your nervous system, trying to get rid of it would probably kill you. I don't even know where you keep all of it, honestly. That's why I think it's natural; no person could make a substance that has all the properties of that goo. It's impossible.”

“I see.”

Twilight frowned at the look of resignation on the pale woman's face. “I'm going to find a way. I don't know how yet, but I promise you I will.”

Fuyu cut her eyes up at the determined librarian. “Very...” she stopped, blinking at herself. “Okay. I trust you.”

Twilight nodded and grinned. “Let's change the subject. Are you going to the Mayor's function? I think Pinkie Pie is doing all the planning.”

“Yes. Rarity is making me a dress for it,” Fuyu replied, turning her hands over to hide the lines. “Who else was invited?”

“Everyone. Literally, everyone. Oh!” Twilight reached into the pocket of her blouse and produced her phone. “I need to ask the Princess if she's spoken with the Mayor yet.” She stopped short of dialing the number, however, as her stomach growled. “Crap. I really should have eaten something. Would you go upstairs and tell Spike to save me some?”

“Sure.” Fuyu rose from her chair and walked off. She was halfway up the stairs when Twilight finished dialing and placed the phone to her ear. While it rang, she tapped her purple fingernails on the armrest.

“Twilight! I was wondering if you'd forgotten my phone number.”

The quip made her smile widely. “I'm so sorry, Princess. I've just been busy helping a friend.” She looked up at the retreating form of Fuyu as she said those words.

“I heard about the tornado. I also heard about the mafia. Is everything all right?”

“Yes,” she lied, shifting around in her chair. “Is there anyway I can convince you to come down for the Mayor's party?”

“I'm sorry, but no. I've gotten thirty such requests just this afternoon, and to be honest, Luna needs my attention more.”

Twilight hung her head and sighed. “Is she sick again?”

“She's getting better, and I want to make sure she keeps improving. Send my regards to the Mayor, but I'm afraid I'll have to decline.”

She sneaked a glance at her watch and sighed. “I understand. I kind of wanted you to meet my new friend.”

“A new friend, hmm? That's wonderful! You could bring them up to Canterlot next month for the autumn festival and introduce me.”

“Of course!” Twilight slapped her forehead and laughed at herself. “I totally forgot about that.” Again, she paused, looking up at the light from the doorway high above. “I think I might just take you up on that offer.”

And Now You Know

Twilight grunted in protest as she felt an elbow jab her in the ribs. Her eyes slid open and she looked around, a frown etching itself on her face as the fog of her sleep faded away. At her left side was a worried Spike; on her right was one of the windows of the empty train car in which they sat. An announcement from above advised that they were about to arrive at Canterlot Station, and the librarian bolted upright in her seat and rubbed at her face.

“I'm up,” she grumbled, dropping her hands and looking out the window at the mighty city that towered above and blotted out most of the predawn sky. “Ugh. My legs are killing me.”

“Ten miles of walking will do that,” he replied, smoothing down his spiky hair and sighing. “At least we can get this over with now.” He watched as she produced her blue phone from the purple duffel bag at her feet. “Calling the Princess?”

Twilight shook her head, gaining a hard look on her face. “No. I'm arranging a place for you to stay while I do my work.”

“What work?” he asked firmly, leaning up in his seat and scowling. “Twilight, call the Princess! We need her help!”

“No!” she snapped, so vehemently that he shrank back and scooted as far away as the seat would let him. “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...” She slumped over and hid her eyes, allowing the stress to summon tears. “This is my fight, Spike. If I don't beat her on my own, then...”

His shock had gone now, overcome with frustration as he crossed his arms. “Why do you think you have to do everything yourself?”

She couldn't answer before the train slowed noticeably, signaling their approach to the station. The city scenery outside was intercepted by a massive arching frame of metal and glass as they entered the terminal, and in a minute more the train had come to a complete stop. Taking a sharp breath, Twilight snatched up her bag and allowed Spike to lead her toward the nearest exit. Once they stepped onto the platform, she took the lead, plowing a curvy path through the burgeoning morning crowd and into the station itself. This one was large enough to contain several small restaurants that served the travelers, and it was in one of these – the only one that was open – that the pair took shelter and got their bearings.

“You didn't answer me,” Spike said, resting his arms on the little round metal table as he watched Twilight's fingers fly over her phone. “This isn't just your problem.”

“It's my fight,” she replied calmly, her eyes never leaving the screen. “She challenged me, I lost, and now I'm going to find a way to beat her. Me. Myself. I'm not going to bother the Princess while Luna is still sick, and I'm not going to let Trixie frustrate me into begging for help. If I do, she wins again, and I'll be damned if I let that happen.”

His counter to that was short, sweet, and terrifying. “What about Fuyu?”

“I...” she stammered, her face turning into a mask of anxious realization. “Oh no, she'll have to eat soon--” A pause interjected itself to allow a throng passersby to get out of earshot. “--and she can't get to the cave with anyone! Damn!”

Spike leaned back in his chair and nodded sagely. “Now you see why we need the Princess?” When Twilight shook her head, his jaw dropped. “Are you kidding me?”

“No, I can still find a way around this.” Abruptly, she dropped her phone into the pocket of her blue t-shirt and gave her young friend a weary smile. “You want anything for breakfast before we go? I've got a place for you to nap while I go to the Canterlot Library.”

“Fine,” he muttered, shoulders dropping with resignation. “What's in that musty old place that's going to fix anything?”

“There's a high security wing there. They'll have what I need,” she said, standing up and wincing at the loud screech of her metal chair against the tile floor. “Come on, let's go order something.”

Ten minutes later they were out on the sidewalk, Twilight attempting to hail a cab while Spike demolished the second of the three sausage biscuits he had requested. It took the dainty librarian three tries to be noticed amongst the forest of people crowding the side of the street, but at last a yellow car slid to a halt before them. He darted around to the left side and got in, while Twilight dropped her bag in the floor in front of the right seat and climbed in.

“Morning!” the cabbie greeted, tossing her pale pink ponytail around as she turned to them. “Where to?”

“The Canterlot Library, please.”

With that, they were off. At first, their focus was waiting for the chilly black leather to warm up underneath them as they sat. As that problem disappeared, Twilight went to work writing down the address of Spike's final destination, which she passed to him. Neither of them talked as the sights of downtown Canterlot zipped past, but the cabbie's incessant, cheerful whistling made them both smile. The librarian picked various things out of her bag: money to pay for the trip, a notebook and pen, her wristwatch, and the charger for her phone. The sun had not fully risen; consequently traffic was still light, and in fifteen minutes they were at the front of the enormous library. This was the biggest such public facility in the entire nation, and its architecture reflected that status – the whole front fascia of the place was propped up by several white marble columns, and the building itself was hewn from a faintly darker grayish stone. As she got out and prepared to scale the mountain of steps, she handed Spike her duffel bag. “I'll be along in a few hours, I hope. If you need anything, I'll have my phone with me.” She walked to the front passenger side door and thrust a handful of bills in the cabbie's direction through the open window. “He's going to give you an address. Would you take him there, please?”

“Sure!” she chirped, accepting the cash and counting it before issuing her former passenger a smile and a nod. “Have a good day!”

“You too,” Twilight replied, waving and watching the cab depart into traffic and vanish around a corner. “Let's do this,” she said to herself, almost storming up the stone steps toward the library's main entrance. After passing through the glass doors, she couldn't help but stop and inhale the musty scent that soaked the air. The floors were polished black granite, which donned red carpet runners to denote where one should walk. The walls were hidden by bookshelves so high, the stone was only visible far above the third floor near the roof. Twilight made for a set of grand stairs off to her left, scaling the two flights to reach the top floor and looking around to find the receptionist's desk. It was a few feet ahead, and consisted of a tall counter-like structure braced on two sides by walls. No one was standing behind it as she arrived, however, which caused her to frown impatiently. A silver bell was on the desktop, and she poked at the button to make it ring. A minute went by with no response. “Oh, come on,” she growled lowly, ringing the bell again. Once more, no one showed to answer her call; by now, the librarian was seriously beginning to lose her patience. “Hello?” she called, hand cupped around her mouth as she tried to yell into the open doorway behind the desk.

“Just a second!” a female voice called.

“Finally.” Twilight tapped her nails on the desktop and glanced around at what few people were up here wandering around and browsing. The receptionist arrived, and she prepared to issue her request. The identity of the woman, however, stunned her into silence.

“Oh, hey!” Stormy waved. She was dressed much like the last time the librarian had seen her, sporting a black baby tee and a long, tan skirt that fell to her ankles. Her white hair was pulled back into a ponytail that she allowed to hang over her right shoulder. “Been a while!”

Twilight's jaw slammed into the floor at the speed of sound. “Stormy?! What are you doing here?”

“I work here! Been on about a month,” she replied, sitting down in a chair hidden behind the partition and grinning. “Actually, I got hired just after I left Ponyville. Hell of a background check they've got here.”

“How did you even pass it?” Twilight stared. “This is supposed to be the high security desk! You're a thief! What in the world were they thinking?!”

“First, I'm insulted you think I'd steal something,” she began, placing a hand on her chest and looking sufficiently upset. “Second, I've been nothing but a good girl since I left. I'm even going to get a raise soon! Third, I wanted the most boring job I could find after all the shit I've been through, and holy wow is this gig dull. I get paid to sit here for eight hours a day and I hardly see anyone! It's awesome. All I have to do is make sure nobody leaves with anything, and, oh by the way, they said my experience was a plus for that job!” she finished, wearing a smug smile. “Anyway, how can I help you?”

Twilight processed her rant, crossed her arms, and pinned her down with a slightly annoyed glare. “You dropped my name in the interview, didn't you.”

Stormy blinked, but her smile didn't change. “Yep.”

“Damn it! I should have known it was you when that woman called me for a reference!” The librarian shook it off and pinched the bridge of her nose, deciding it would be best to get to the point of her journey. “Look, I need access to the confidential documents. This is seriously an emergency.”

“Why?” Stormy was still grinning.

“Don't you start with me, this is important,” Twilight hissed, her hands clenching into fists.

The ex-thief stood and approached the partition, leaning forward until she was eye to eye. “I have to ask, it's part of the job. Also, if you try to kill me with a bottle again, we're gonna have a fight.”

Sighing, Twilight relented. “The whole town's been taken over by a woman named Trixie. She was too strong for me to beat because of a magical artifact she was wearing, and I need to access the archives and find out how to defeat it.” The blank look on Stormy's face caused her to grumble. “What? It's true.”

“Trixie. Wait, is this the same chick that calls herself the Great and Powerful?” She watched Twilight nod. “Hey, I met her once. Screwed me and a girl with a weird name over in a poker game one time. I should have stabbed that bitch. I didn't think she had all that in her, though.” Stormy walked through the doorway behind the desk and disappeared for a moment before showing up again in the hallway that ran past them. She placed a sign on the desk, then nodded. “Come on, then.”

Twilight blinked and fell in behind her. For a couple of minutes they walked in silence, but Stormy was unable to keep her mouth shut for long. After glancing around to ensure they were truly alone, she looked back over her shoulder. “So, what happened to Fuyu?”

“She's still in town,” the librarian said, trawling her thoughts carefully to determine what she could reveal and what had to remain secret. “We found a way to feed her that doesn't involve hurting anyone.”

Stormy nodded, then jerked her head to the right to indicate a change of direction. They were now lost in a towering fortress of bookshelves. “Oh, that's cool. Hey, why don't you just let her beat Trixie's ass? She seems pretty capable.”

“I don't know if she can. That's how powerful that amulet's made her. Besides, Trixie's cut the town off from the outside world, and my friends won't be able to feed her if I don't get back soon and stop this.” Stormy had come to a stop at a nondescript door at the end of one row of shelves. “This is it, huh? I've never actually been in here before.”

“Yep. I'll have to stay and watch you, but I don't think you'll steal anything, right?” Stormy grinned at her negative reply. “Of course not, 'cause I'm the thief. Here we go!”

They entered a small room that was plastered with white tile floors and white walls, and whose ceiling held long fluorescent light tubes. At the far end were two desks, each bearing a small monitor and a keyboard. Along the side walls were two small bookshelves, loaded with serious-looking tomes. The air was frigid, and there were no windows to be found.

“This is it,” she chirped, sitting down at one of the desk chairs and spinning around to look at an underwhelmed Twilight. “What? Not what you were expecting?”

“Not really,” she admitted, walking over and examining a shelf. “Whatever. It doesn't matter if I find what I need.” She plucked a book from the group and flipped it open, reading even as she went to sit down. “Because if I don't...” she trailed off, growing teary-eyed, “My friends are in serious trouble.”

While Fuyu had spent the night trying to find Applejack without success, locating Trixie was almost a trivial matter. The persistent buzzing in her mind acted as a sort of sonar that got louder when she approached the amulet, and quieter if she went the wrong way. After playing a forty-five minute game of hot or cold, the noise finally got loud enough to bother her in front of a large brick building south of the town proper. Before Trixie, it had been a hotel; now, her magic had reshaped the structure into something closer to a three-story house, clad in blue siding with ostentatiously wide front windows. In these Fuyu looked, trying to see anything in the growing dawn light. The open first floor was unoccupied, so she glued her hands to the exterior and began climbing straight up the side. Once she reached the next set of windows and peeked in one, she found a bedroom. It was empty, she so shimmied to her left and looked in another window. It was a second bedroom, but the bed in here contained a tall blonde. On the dresser was that familiar tan Stetson. Fuyu began tapping on the glass.

It took ages for Applejack to stir, but once she did she nearly fell out of the bed trying to get over to the window. “Fu!” she whispered harshly once she had the thing open. “How'd ya get out of the jail? I thought Trixie had done something ta the locks!” She had to step aside as the pale woman launched a black rope at the ceiling and reeled herself into the room.

“She magicked the doors, but it wasn't enough to stop me,” she explained, grimacing at the increased volume of the buzzing. “She's in here, isn't she?”

“Well, yeah, upstairs. She turned the whole third floor into a penthouse or something.” Applejack looked up at the ceiling and sighed, placing a hand on her hip. “I thought ya'd done croaked. What happened?”

“That amulet made me pass out,” she explained, having to use all her willpower to not say 'my amulet'. She peered at the door for a moment before turning to face the blonde. “Why are you here with her? Where's the rest of your family?”

“They're outside the dome, thank goodness, and she's kinda usin' me as her middleman with the townsfolk. I'm volunteerin' 'cause I figured they'd be able ta handle it a little better if I'm the one givin' the orders,” she sighed, walking over and sitting on the bed. “She's a lot more ornery than I remember. Kept sayin' she wanted ta kill some people for not obeyin'. I had ta convince her ta lock y'all up, even.”

You are the only one that can truly control the gift I have given you. I have made sure of it.

“Nnh?” Fuyu groaned, rubbing the side of her head and looking away. “Why are you talking to me now?”

“Well, ya asked me a question,” Applejack replied, confused. Her eyes lit up as the realization struck. “Shoot, is that that there voice Twilight told me about? What's it sayin'?”

“Never mind that.” The pale woman turned her back on the blonde and looked at the door again. At that moment, she realized the buzzing was increasing in volume even though she wasn't moving. “Trixie is coming.”

“W-wait!” Applejack said, reaching out a hand as she flashed past and launched herself out the window. Before she could even stand, her door swung open and Trixie strode in, clad in her black cloak. The amulet glittered around her neck, despite the weak, cloud-choked light that streamed in.

“Good, you're already awake.” She cast her gaze to the open window and smirked. “Perhaps I will install some climate control for you if you actually prove worthy. Get dressed and let's go.” She was gone without a further word, leaving a defeated Applejack in her wake.

Fuyu, hanging on the side of the building, clenched her teeth and waited for the buzzing to die down enough to allow her to regain her faculties. Once Trixie was gone from the room, she pulled herself up and looked into the window. “Go with her. I'll follow you and figure out something.”

“She's gonna kill someone when she finds out ya ain't in the jail!” Applejack warned as she snatched her hat off the dresser. “I can't let her do that, Fu!”

“Then I'll make her spend her wrath on me instead.” Fuyu dropped off the structure before the blonde could speak, landing with a heavy thud on the dewy grass. After sneaking to the front, she waited for them to emerge. When Trixie stepped out onto the porch, she ducked behind the corner.

“We're going to the police station after I meet my slaves. I want to see how they're getting along,” she cackled, adjusting her cloak. “I want to talk to that one with the black hair, too. What did you say her name was?”

Applejack stepped out and shut the door behind her before answering. Her eyes were weary and sad. “Fuyu.”

The magician sauntered down the steps as she nodded. “Winter. She must be from the east.”

“Wait, is that what her name means?” the blonde asked, jogging to catch up and genuinely interested. “I thought it was just a random buncha letters.”

“They have different names for the seasons there. Fuyu is winter, haru is spring, natsu is summer, and aki is autumn.” Once the blonde had caught up, she unleashed her magic and caused them to float.

“Where'd ya learn that?” Applejack gulped, looking down at the sidewalk above which she now hovered.

“I learned it from a woman in Trottingham who had a similarly strange name. I think hers was Natsu, but that's neither here nor there. I've got dictating to do.”

From her hiding place, Fuyu watched them fly toward town. Once satisfied she wouldn't be seen, she darted from the bush and ran after them, although the magician's power made her almost as fast as those naturally gifted with flight. It took her some minutes to finally catch up. When she saw the woman again, she and Applejack appeared to be addressing the town in front of the meeting hall. Trixie was peering at a grand throne that seemed to be built of sweets of all kinds, but her face betrayed immense displeasure.

“Why is it not done yet?” she growled, turning and glaring a hole in a lanky, orange-haired man standing nearby.

“Ma'am, cake isn't designed to be this big, or, frankly, to be used in this manner,” he explained, doffing his white hat. “We can't seem to make the batter stiff enough.”

“You will find a way,” she hissed, her right hand exploding with a red glow, “or perhaps you will wake up tomorrow morning and discover your precious twins are missing.” The man began to weep bitterly, but the magician floated away to the front of the gathering and folded her arms. “Does anyone else want to tell me something can't be done?” The crowd murmured anxiously, but remained silent. “I didn't think so. Get out of here. I'll call you when I want you.”

While they talked, Fuyu searched the crowd for any sign of Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, or Rainbow Dash. They had apparently taken her advice about laying low – none of them were present, at least that she could see. She had to hide again as the crowd dispersed, darting into an alleyway out of sight until everyone had shuffled past. Once they had, she emerged into the street to continue tailing Trixie, but found she'd come out too early.

“Hey!” a voice called, stopping her before she could really get going. She turned to see Bon Bon and Lyra wave, then run up to her. “We thought Trixie carried you off and killed you or something,” Bon Bon said with a frown. “What happened to you guys?”

Fuyu was itching to get after her quarry, but something prodded at her to stay a moment and speak. “She locked us in the jail. I broke us out.”

“I told you she'd be the best option besides Twilight,” Lyra said, nudging Bon Bon in the ribs with her elbow. “The whole town freaked out when you fainted, man. Figured we'd have no shot. I mean, Rarity tried her best and all, but Trixie's way too strong!” She looked over as Bon Bon grabbed her hand and sighed. “I wanted to try and fight her too, but she'd have slaughtered me.” Her sad look disappeared when she laid eyes on Fuyu again. “Go kick her ass for us!”

The pale woman crossed her arms, but couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face. “I have some things to do first, but I will try.”

She bid them a quick farewell; too much time had passed already, and she was desperate to get eyes on Applejack again. Fortunately for her, Trixie was walking, and it only took her a few minutes to make contact with the pair once again. The clouds above were darkening as the three of them moved – so much that Applejack couldn't help but notice.

“Looks like the bottom's gonna fall out,” she said, tipping her hat aside to look at the whirling gray above.

“It'll rain when I tell it to rain,” Trixie replied darkly, still in a bad mood. “I feel like punching someone. Perhaps there will be a volunteer at the police station.”

Applejack cringed strongly as she looked down. “I'm sure that ain't gonna be necessary. Just, ah...Rarity does this breathin' thing to calm herself down! Maybe y'all should try that?”

“Rarity! I'll smack her around for a while. Thank you for the suggestion,” the magician grinned, crossing her arms. Applejack winced again, but this time remained silent. Neither of them spoke again until they entered the station. Fuyu waited for them to go downstairs before entering and hiding behind a desk in the back to wait. It didn't take long.

“How did they get out?!” Trixie roared, stomping out of the stairwell and into view. Her hands were burning with red magic as she glared around. Applejack only arrived a few seconds later, looking rather terrified. “I bet it was Rarity, she's the only one left that could even hope to defuse my spells. Well, I'll show her.” She turned to the blonde and jabbed a finger at the doors. “Find her little sister. Bring her to the town square, and summon the slaves. I believe I need to set an example.”

“Is this really n-necessary?” Applejack pleaded, hands clasped. “I-I mean...”

“You begged me to leave them be, and this is what I've gotten in return! I will not be made a mockery of!” Trixie growled, her voice and expression growing angrier with every word. “Now do what I told you to do or I'll be more than happy to string you up from the library tree!”

Weeping openly, the blonde skittered out of the station and vanished from Fuyu's sight. The magician, however, lingered for a moment, talking to herself as she paced around. “I hope she finds out about this. Perhaps I should allow in a reporter to watch. Wait! I'll make one of the slaves tape it.” A dark grin curled her lips. “I almost wish she were here. I would love to see the look on her face.” After a few more seconds of evil hand-wringing, she left the station and floated into a light drizzle. Fuyu waited until she had gone out of view before standing up and approaching the doors herself.

“Sweetie Belle?” she mumbled, vocally calling up the memory. Rarity's younger sister was a bipedal ball of adorable that the pale woman had met twice before. Like Applejack and Apple Bloom, the two were extremely close, even if the girl was sometimes too dense and stubborn to admit it. “That can't happen.” After leaving the station and ensuring Trixie had left the area completely, she started walking in the direction of the Boutique. If Rarity had done as she promised last night, there was a high chance they would both be there. It was deathly quiet; the whole town was as empty as when she'd woken up yesterday morning. Another cursory glance confirmed how alone she was, so she decided to pick up the pace and use the sludge. She launched gooey black ropes at the fronts of buildings, reeling herself in and firing another ahead to repeat the process.

What Fuyu didn't see below and behind her, however, was the confused and terrified face of Bon Bon, hands slammed over her mouth as she watched in order to keep herself from being noticed.

Shades Of... (I)

Fuyu burst into the Boutique about fifteen minutes later and went straight up the stairs to the living quarters. Once again, however, she found the whole place to be completely empty. This posed something of a problem, as she had no idea where the dressmaker's family lived. While pacing around her enormous bed in thought, the pale woman suddenly realized something.

The buzzing had stopped. Furthermore, she had no idea just when the noise had ceased. Distracted by this development, she scratched her head and tried to retrace her thoughts. It buzzed when she found Applejack, but faded because the magician had outrun her to town. When she next saw Trixie, it was faint, but still there. However, in the police station, there was no noise at all when it should have been unbearably loud. Trixie had been, after all, not more than ten feet away when she ordered Applejack to find Sweetie Belle. Fuyu's mind was quiet then, and it had been quiet ever since.

“What happened?” she asked herself, coming to a stop and looking into Rarity's large floor mirror.

You are ready.

She blinked, both at the voice and at the imposing figure she struck in the mirror. “Ready for what?”

It didn't answer her, but she had no more time to spend on the topic. She was gone from the tower in a few moments and emerged into the streets, trying to figure out where the dressmaker might be. Without any immediate ideas, she simply made a beeline for Rainbow Dash's brick brownstone, hoping she had decided to go home and get some sleep in her own bed. Upon reaching the structure, she skittered right up its side and looked in the window. There was certainly someone inside, but it wasn't quite who she expected.

“Like hell you will!” Rarity screamed. Her back was to Fuyu, and her little sister was clinging to her right side. “I cannot believe you're even considering such a thing! I will let her have Sweetie over my cold, dead body!” It took the pale woman a second, and some shifting, to see who she was talking to – a sheepish, wilted Applejack, hat in hand and cheeks soaked with tears.

“Rarity, please, I ain't much inclined ta do this either, but I ain't got another idea! One of us is gonna get it, and...and, well, if we give Trixie what she wants, then maybe she won't hurt nobody else!” The look in her green eyes betrayed the fact that she didn't believe the words even as she said them.

“She wants me, right? Then I'll go,” the dressmaker replied calmly, patting her sister on the head.

“Noooooooooo!” the young girl squealed, so strong and high-pitched her voice broke near the end. “She's gonna hurt you!” Sweetie clamped on even harder to her sister and began to bawl. Applejack couldn't take the sight, and looked over to the side and down.

Frowning, Fuyu slipped in through the window and walked up beside Rarity, startling both her and Applejack with her sudden appearance. “Neither of you are going anywhere. Where is Rainbow Dash? How did you end up here?” she asked, looking over at the dressmaker.

“Sweetie was terrified and wanted to come with me. I knew we couldn't stay at the Boutique, so Rainbow Dash let us sleep here last night. She went with Pinkie and Fluttershy, but did not tell me where they were going.” She swallowed hard and looked down, tears gathering. “I...made her keep it a secret, since I assumed Trixie would think I broke us out of the jail and come for me. I suppose I was right.”

Fuyu took a moment to consider her words as she crossed her arms. “You decided to give yourself up to protect them?”

Sweetie began to cry loudly, and Rarity knelt down to give her a hug. “What can I say? Giving is what I do best,” she replied, looking up at the pale woman and smiling sadly. “Even if it means...”

“What the fuck am I supposed ta do?” Applejack wailed, her voice weak and cracking. “I can't go back with nobody, she'll kill me. I can't go back with either of you two,” she added, pointing to the sisters, “'cause she'll kill you, and I can't not go back at all, 'cause then she's gonna kill someone at random!” The burden of it all became too much to bear, and it felled the blonde at last. She sank to her knees and wept. Fuyu walked over to her, causing her to look up just in time to receive a studded slap across her cheek that drew blood and rattled her skull. Even though it was a light strike, the shock of it made her fall over, and caused Rarity to stand up and gasp in horror.

“What in the hell are you doing?!” the dressmaker growled, placing herself between Fuyu and her sister. Both of her hands became coated in blue magic, ready to be used in defense, but all the pale woman did was help Applejack sit up again.

“I'm giving her an excuse,” she replied stoically, hefting the tall blonde to her boots. “You're going to go back to Trixie and give her me.”

“Wh-what?” Applejack stuttered, a hand against her cheek. “I don't understand...”

“You're going to tell her you found Sweetie, but I stopped you. I can't have stopped you without hurting you.” Fuyu turned back to the sisters and walked away from Applejack. “I'm not sure it'll be safe here. You should probably go.”

Rarity was no longer in a defensive stance, and her hands had lost their glow. Fuyu's words, however, managed to rile her up somewhat again. “Oh, so you get to die instead of us. That's ridiculous.”

“And you get to be dramatic,” the pale woman shot back, stunning the dressmaker with her sarcasm. “No one is going to die. Now stop arguing with me and get out of here.” She gazed over her shoulder at the blonde. “And you get back to Trixie. The sooner she starts looking for me, the safer all of you will be.”

“But...but Fu,” Applejack said quietly, only to be silenced by an icy glance. “It ain't any easier for us just 'cause ya volunteer ta be the sacrifice.” Her words failed to move the pale woman, and she spent her breath on no more. Defeated, she walked out of the apartment, leaving the three of them behind. Fuyu walked past the sisters and to the window, looking out into the street to see if anyone was around.

“You fainted merely by being near her,” Rarity said evenly, boring a hole into Fuyu's back with her eyes. “What, exactly, makes you think you'll fare any better than one of us would?”

Her question had come while Fuyu was climbing out, and it stopped her long enough to make her turn and smile at them both. “Because I'm ready.” With that she was gone, dropping from sight and landing on the sidewalk in a crouch. Sighing, she jammed her hands into her pockets and began to walk at a leisurely pace. When she reached the corner, she saw Applejack a distance away, heading toward the center of town. “I may as well make it easy for her to find me.” She turned and headed in the same direction, hands shoved in her pockets. It was beginning to rain in earnest now, and after a time Fuyu's hair and clothes were soaked through. She made no attempt to pick up the pace; in fact, she went even slower, a part of her mind savoring the deep quiet that engulfed her.

“There she is!”

Blinking, the pale woman came to a stop and looked around for the speaker. Eventually, she found Bon Bon approaching from behind her. She wasn't alone. Lyra was at her side, as were several other people, almost all of which were holding some sort of weapon. The mob came to a halt about ten feet away, and Bon Bon approached, brandishing a knife and looking anxious and angry all at once. “Show me your hands!” she yelled, pointing the blade.

Fuyu, confused, lifted her arms and obliged. “What's this about?” she asked, her voice as gentle as she knew how to make it.

“Now show them what comes out of your hands!”

Suddenly, it all made sense. “You saw?” Fuyu asked, somehow more relieved than upset. “You saw me?”

“Yeah! You're a monster!” Bon Bon yelled. “What is that gunk? Did Trixie give it to you? Did you sell out?!”

An idea was beginning to form in the pale woman's brain, and she allowed the black to wind itself out of her palms and wiggle in the rainy air. “Perhaps I am a monster,” she admitted over the collective outburst of shock. “Perhaps Trixie is the only one that can save you from me, and I was going to go kill her so I could have the town to myself.” The mob was now stunned silent. “If I were you, I'd go find her and beg for help.”

They ran, scattering, screaming and for the most part leaving their weapons in the street as they went. Smiling to herself, Fuyu dropped her arms, retracted her awful assistants, and decided to take a seat on a nearby bench. “That was fun. I'm sure she'll have her hands full with the panic.” Silence returned, and she stared directly up into the falling rain. Drops struck her in the eyes, but she didn't bother to blink; the way the magician had wrangled the storm was a sight to behold. Untold amounts of gray cloud swirled in the dome like a massive top. It was akin to staring into a compressed hurricane.

“What am I?” she asked herself, lounging against the back of the bench. She went about tracking a specific sky-borne puff for a while, then locked onto another as the first disappeared. “Am I really a monster?”

My dear Winter...

She sat up straight, eyes wide. “Who is Winter?” She needn't even bother asking; the heavy feeling in her chest was all the reply she required. “My name is Fuyu...isn't it?” She hunched over and placed her hands on her head. “Was my name Winter once?”

The voice spoke no more, and she felt unsure about what was to come. She remained in that position for nearly half an hour until a noise from her right attracted her attention. Upon looking up she saw Applejack drawing near with an umbrella in hand. She was alone. After arriving, she sat down beside Fuyu and emitted a loud sigh.

“Trixie was about ta light me up when a buncha folks came in cryin' about a monster,” she said, crossing her legs and looking down at her partially soaked jeans. “Y'all mighta had somethin' ta do with that, I reckon?”

“Yes,” Fuyu nodded. “I guess you backed up their story?”

Applejack grinned, pointing to the bandage on her cheek. “Y'all know what Trixie said? 'Since y'all have failed me, ya get ta go find that monster and bring her ta me',” she said, waving her free hand around in exaggerated air quotes. “A suicide mission. Hell, the whole town probably thinks I've headed out ta my death by now 'cause Bon Bon and Lyra can't keep their mouths shut.”

“They have a tendency to hem and haw,” Fuyu said, sitting up and relaxing against the bench again. “At least my idea worked.”

“She's gettin' angrier, Fu.” Applejack rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Her fuse is shorter and shorter every time I see her.”

She considered that for a moment, staring out through the rainfall. “The amulet. She can't handle its power.”

“What is it that Twilight said once about power corruptin'?” The blonde tapped her chin as she chased the thought around her mind, but she couldn't quite catch it. “Aw, shoot. Don't matter. Y'all still insist on fightin' her?”

“It's the only way, Applejack.” Fuyu stood up off the bench and traveled a few steps ahead. “I told them I was a monster. Am I? If not, then what?” she asked, facing the blonde with a helpless look on her face.

The blonde stood up too, grasping her umbrella and regarding the pale woman with an easy smile. “That's easy. Y'all are somethin'.” They shared a brief laugh, and Applejack couldn't help but admit her surprise at the reaction. “Ain't never heard ya do that before. Ya sick?”

Fuyu cocked an eyebrow and grinned. “I've been hanging around Pinkie too long.”

“Sounds 'bout right,” the blonde said, laughing again. “Well, we'd better get back. Trixie's probably gonna blast a hole in the town at this rate.”

The pale woman's smile ran away instantly. She slammed her right fist into her left open palm, turning her hands over to look at the red lines afterward. From them, two black blades emerged. “Not if I blast a hole in her first.”

Only when she realized she could no longer see straight – nor make herself see straight after a minute of trying – did Twilight decide to rest her aching eyes. She had been poring over text of all kinds for nearly three hours, but was no closer to finding her answer than when she'd started. Stormy was still in the desk chair beside her, slurping a can of soda loudly through a straw.

“You don't look so good,” she noted, watching the librarian rub vigorously at her face.

“I think my eyes are going to fall out,” she replied, dragging herself to her feet and walking the stiffness out of her legs. “I wish I'd gotten more sleep on the train.”

Stormy answered that with a shrug and another series of noisy slurps. “Hey, I'm curious...how'd you end up feeding Fuyu?”

“I can't tell you that.” The librarian was still pacing the aches out of her legs, running slow laps around the small room.

All her reply did was invite Stormy's curiosity. “Are you killing people for her?” she asked, setting her soda aside.

The librarian couldn't help but snap at her. “Of course not! Do I look like a murderer?”

The former thief shot a sour look at her and folded her arms. “Sheesh, you're still uptight. It was just a question!”

“And the answer is none of your business,” she muttered under her breath, glancing down at her watch. “I need a drink. Where did you get yours?”

“There's a vending machine tucked in the corner. Turn right when you leave here and just walk until you see it.” She grabbed the can off the desk and peered into the open top. “Damn, I'm empty. Hey, will you grab me another?” A hand entered her shirt pocket, then emerged and flicked two shiny coins at the librarian which she barely managed to catch.

“Fine.” Twilight glanced at the can to note the brand, then shuffled out of the room and looked to the right. She didn't see the machine, but decided that Stormy wouldn't lie to her and started walking. “I can't believe I haven't found out exactly what that amulet is,” she sighed, beginning to think out loud. “It's so powerful, surely someone must have heard of it before. Seen it, even.” She looked up and saw the machine. “Oh, right.” Before she could insert the money, however, her phone started to ring. Upon seeing who was calling, her heart began to race. “Ah...good morning, Princess!”

Her mentor's tone was decidedly less chipper. “Twilight, would you care to explain why I've been told there's a giant glass dome over Ponyville?”

The librarian swallowed hard, unable to stifle her nervous laughter. “Oh, that? That's nothing. I've got it under control!”

“Don't you dare lie to me. What's going on?”

“I...um...” Unable to think of some decent excuse, Twilight wilted after a moment. “N-nothing! I promise!”

“Twilight Sparkle!”

That was enough to make her wince and almost drop the phone. The Princess sounded angry – disappointing and/or upsetting her was one of Twilight's deepest fears, and it seemed to be coming to fruition. “Trixie!” she blurted out, unable to bear the strain any longer. “Trixie beat me in a magic duel and took over the town!”

Many seconds passed. Each successive moment of silence caused the librarian to grow more anxious, until she was ready to scream at the phone for her mentor to say something, anything, before she went completely off her rocker.

“How did she win?” This time, Celestia's voice was far more gentle.

“S-she was wearing s-some kind of amulet.” It took all Twilight had to prevent herself from bursting into tears with relief. “I came up to Canterlot to see if I could find out where it came from and how to get around it.”

“Oh, Twilight.” Disappointment did stain the Princess' voice, but it was the variety a parent used when scolding a child. “Why didn't you just ask me for help?”

The reasons were many and varied, and an emotionally spent Twilight was unable to stop them from rushing out all at once. “I didn't want to bother you, and I wanted to beat Trixie myself, and you're busy, and...and damn it, I wanted to win! I failed! I have to fix it!” she replied, her voice cracking by the time she managed to make herself finish.

“We all fail, Twilight. Failure is a part of life. And for the record, I'm never too busy to help you with something. Tell me, what did this amulet of hers look like? I'm sure it's listed in the Castle archives.”

Her thoughts had to be collected before she could describe it; running over those memories caused her heart to sink. “It's mostly black. There's a large red gem set into it. It's got a unicorn's head at the top, and the sides have red and black wings.”

Silence came again. This time, Twilight just assumed the Princess was asking someone, or taking the information and looking herself. Burnt out, she knew nothing else to do besides the thing for which she'd walked out here: get something to drink from the machine. As the can of Stormy's soda was dropped, however, she realized it had been a couple of minutes since Celestia last spoke. It was making her anxious again. “Princess? Are you still there?” she asked, balancing the cans in the crook of her left arm and starting back toward the little room.

“Who else knows about it?”

Twilight blinked several times, both at the question itself and the oddly worried tone the Princess' voice carried. “Well, the whole town watched us fight. Why do you ask?”

“Did you tell anyone else besides that?”

“I don't understand why you're asking me this,” she replied, becoming distinctly uncomfortable with the line of inquiry. “Why does it matter? Do you know what it is?”

“Answer my question first.”

She came to a stop in front of the door, trying to open it while not dropping the cans in her arm. After some failed tries, she decided to finish the conversation first. “Spike came with me. He knows, obviously. Besides him, only the receptionist in the Library. The one on the third floor. She's the only other person I told anything.”

“Is that where you are now?”

The librarian couldn't help feeling uneasy, but her words ended up tinged with anger when they emerged. “Well, yes, but...Princess, why are you asking me these things? If you know what's going on, tell me so I can go back to Ponyville and stop her!”

“Find her and both of you, stay where you are. I'm on my way.”

“Wh—why? What is going on?” It was too late; she'd hung up, and Twilight was left staring at her phone with a mixture of disbelief and worry. “What was that about?” A full minute passed before she was able to recover enough to put her phone away and go back into the little room.

“Thought you'd gotten lost,” Stormy smirked. She received an icy look in reply. “Sheesh. Did you get my soda?”

“Yes, here,” she sighed, handing the can over and sitting roughly in the desk chair nearby. While the former thief popped the top and took a loud, obnoxious swallow, Twilight simply set her own drink aside and put her head in her hands.

For that gesture, she received a poke on the shoulder. “What's up?”

“Princess Celestia called me.” Twilight was still trying to rationalize the conversation, and didn't feel like giving up any more detail than that.

Stormy was genuinely impressed. “Wow! She's got your phone number?”

“She should, I'm a Princess, too. Technically, at least.” She dropped her hands and reached her to grab her can of lemonade and open it. She looked over at Stormy for a moment, and decided that she owed her at least a heads up about what was coming. “She's coming here. For us.”

“Wait, for us? For me too?” Stormy watched her nod. “Uh...why?”

Twilight made a face at the fizzy sourness in her mouth before swallowing it and answering. “I don't know. She didn't tell me. All she said was to find you, and stay where we are.”

Now it was the former thief's turn to panic. “She must have found out about my history! Shit, I'm gonna get fired, then I'm gonna end up in Tartarus Prison!”

Twilight watched her pace around the room, wringing her hands and glancing about worriedly. “Stormy, I didn't even tell her your name. She only wanted you to stay here because I...” After pausing and considering just how specific she wanted to be, she realized that it probably didn't matter at this point and spilled all the beans. “I told her about the amulet. She asked me who else knew. I said you, and that's when she said to stay put. It's about Trixie, it's not about you.”

Stormy tried to calm herself with some hilariously deep breathing, and after a few cycles it seemed to have worked enough for her to stop pacing. “R-right. I'm fine. I'm just an office bitch, why would the Princess do anything to me? Right? Aheheh...uh...I'm still fucking terrified.”

Twilight nodded, knowing exactly where she was coming from. “Honestly, so I am. The things she asked were very odd. I can't figure out why she wouldn't tell me if she knew about the amulet! I can take care of it, I just need the information to work with.” The librarian folded her arms and nodded confidently. Her eyes bulged shortly after as a thought crossed her mind. “I'd better call Spike and let him know what's happening.” She dialed the number and placed the phone to her ear again, but it rang several times without any reply. A second attempt also yielded no response, and she dropped the phone back into her shirt pocket. “He's probably asleep. Oh well, I'm sure it's nothing,” she said happily, trying to convince herself more than anything.

“I've never met anybody famous before.” Stormy walked past and sat down in the other desk chair again, fussing with her long skirt so she could cross her legs. “You know her? What's she like?”

“Kind and gentle.” She met the former thief's look of disbelief with folded arms and a serious scowl. “She is! I've known her since I was young.”

“If you say so,” Stormy shrugged and picked up her soda. “I should probably find my boss and explain what's going on. Then again, I don't want the Princess to show up and me not be exactly where she told me to be, 'cause that would piss her off. I seriously do not want to piss her off.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and groaned. “She wouldn't be mad.”

“Yeah, well, I ain't gonna test that theory.”

They spent the next few minutes in silence, save for Twilight trying to reach Spike, without success. She was just about to call him a sixth time when the door opened. In stepped Celestia, dressed as she had been in the photo Twilight showed to Fuyu. She towered over the two women even after they had stood; the librarian curtseyed, but Stormy just waved and laughed awkwardly.

Celestia gave that greeting an odd look, but quickly turned her attention to the librarian. “Both of you, come with me.”

“Wait just a second!” she countered, looking as cross as she could without overstepping her bounds. “Why won't you tell me what's happening?”

“There's no time.” The Princess' tone was even and barely harsh, but her eyes had a much harder edge. “We need to go, now.”

Twilight refused to yield. She glanced over at a fidgeting Stormy, before looking up at her mentor. “Are you hiding something from me?”

A shadow of fear ran across Celestia's face, but she maintained her regal composure. She walked over to her student, placed a hand on her shoulder, and put on her best smile. “I'll explain on the way. Please. We have to hurry.”

They stared at each other for a long while, but finally Twilight softened her stance and dropped her head a little. “Okay, I guess. I'm just worried. What about Spike? I can't get a hold of him.”

“He'll be fine where he is.” Celestia raised a hand, motioning at the open door. “The car is out front. I'll be along in a moment.” Stormy darted out immediately, not wanting to get in trouble. Twilight lingered a little longer, giving her mentor an uncertain look before gathering her things and departing. Once they were gone, the Princess shed her royal demeanor and slumped over slightly, hiding her eyes.

“You were right after all, Luna. It's finally coming back to bite me.”

Shades Of... (II)

Applejack made as much of a show of parading Fuyu into the town hall as she thought necessary, having tied up her wrists before marching her through the sparse crowd inside. Muffled gasps came from all sides as they traveled toward the stage where Trixie sat in a replacement for her sweets throne, which had been lost to the rain. Even though it was a much more standard, if ornate chair, its occupant still looked very intimidating.

And yet, as the pale woman was brought to a halt before Ponyville's ruler, all she could see was the wear and tear on Trixie's face. The glowing amulet sat not eight feet away from her, but Fuyu's mind was still free of noise. She stared at it until the magician stood and approached her.

“Show me,” she demanded, pointing at the pale woman's hands. “I want to see it.”

She lifted her arms until they were about chest height, unclenched her fists, and let a whirling tendril of black from each palm thrash around and cut the ropes. They fell away as Trixie took a surprised step back. Fuyu dropped her hands to her sides, but let the wiggling black sludge remain exposed. Behind them, the murmurs of confusion became brief screams of terror.

The magician was just as dumbfounded as the crowd. “What sort of magic is that?!”

Fuyu stared her down, but made no other movements. “It's not magic.”

Trixie tried to sort out her thoughts as she watched the ebony gunk. She placed a hand on the amulet and stepped forward again, scowling. “It has to be magic. It comes from your hands. Is it something Twilight taught you?”

“You're as dense as you are snide. It isn't magic,” Fuyu repeated, withdrawing the tentacles so she could cross her arms. “And Twilight herself can't even define it.”

“That's...” Trixie snapped her eyes to the blonde, who had moved off to the side. “How were you able to catch her? Bon Bon said she was...” The magician fell silent as Applejack started to cackle. “What are you laughing at?”

She adjusted her Stetson and shot Trixie a wry grin. “Didn't have ta catch her. She came along on her own.”

“Ridiculous! You had her tied up!” The magician pointed down at the ropes angrily, and froze in that position as the wheels started turning in her head. As the seconds ticked by, her eyes got wider, until abruptly she pinned down Applejack with a hateful glare. “You knew, didn't you...”

“Sure did. By the way, she's probably the one that broke my friends outta jail.” The crowd again emitted murmurs of anxiety, noises that the blonde glanced at over her shoulder. “I knew all along.”

Words failed the magician, but her rage was as dependable as ever. She lunged at Applejack with both hands flaming red. Fuyu took one step to her side, stretched out her right hand, and snatched Trixie by the wrist while yanking her back.

“Let me go!” she shrieked, eyes shining red. “I will destroy both of--” Upon realizing her inability to break free from the pale woman's grasp, she fell silent and stared at her for a moment. “How are you so strong?”

She was silenced again by a vicious slap across the face, so powerful it broke her concentration and caused the glow around her hands to vanish. “I am asking the questions now,” Fuyu hissed, in twisted stereo. “Why do you have my amulet?”

“Why do ya sound so wei—wait, your amulet?” Applejack blinked, now just as surprised as everyone else. “A-are ya serious?”

“It's mine!” Trixie snarled. “I found it, it belongs to me!” She cloaked her free hand in red magic and pointed that palm right at Fuyu's nose. “If you like having a face, I suggest you release my hand.”

Fuyu's warped reply sent a bitter chill up Applejack's spine. “Do your worst.”

The magician obliged her, unleashing a pillar of crimson light that enveloped the pale woman's skull. It kept on going until it struck a wooden beam and left a scorch mark. The crowd scattered in every direction, pairing off or clumping into groups and huddling together in fear. Applejack, despite her terror, stayed on the stage. The smell of burnt flesh soon reached her nose, forcing her to turn away and retch.

“I warned you.” A confident Trixie grinned, now able to extract her wrist. From the neck up, Fuyu was concealed by thick smoke, but remained standing. Trixie blew on the gray cloud to see her handiwork. “How is it, being bli--”

“Being what?” Fuyu interrupted, fanning away the fog with a hand and looking down at her attacker. The skin on her face was entirely gone, along with some of the hair near the front of her head. Her eyes were still intact, however; their glittering blue stuck out like ice in a bowl of tomato soup. She watched the magician step back a long away and smiled – at least, as best as her exposed muscles would allow. “Not what you were expecting? Oh, wait. It gets better.” Even as she spoke, alabaster skin was returning. First, her neck received a new coat, which spread up to her cheeks and temples. Her nose was covered next, then her eyebrows. Forehead and scalp were last to be repaired, and when it had all returned she rubbed a hand across her new face and frowned. “Give me a minute for the hair.”

Trixie had no coherent response, but Fuyu didn't wait for her to gather one. The pale woman strode across the stage, lashing a tentacle out of her left palm that she used to strangle the magician and pull her closer. She grabbed at the black rope, with no success – however, using her magic against it worked. The black snapped off where it contacted the red glow, and Fuyu withdrew the remainder while Trixie pulled the rest off her neck.

“So you're stronger than the rest,” she panted, rubbing her throat. “No matter. I'm still stronger.” She threw the brittle ebony aside, where it landed with a clunk on the oak. “I suppose I'll just have to use all of my amulet's power.”

Fuyu threw a tendril at the discarded sludge, reclaiming it and folding it into the rope. She loosed another from her other hand and glared at the magician. “I didn't expect that.”

“I'm the most powerful woman on this planet! I can do anything!” She prepared to fire another blast, smiling. “I think I'll just turn you into a frog.”

“Applejack, get everyone out of here,” Fuyu said, addressing the blonde in her normal voice. “This could get messy.”

“Y-yeah...all right, y'all, time ta go!” she yelled, running for the door. The others fell in behind her and departed with haste, leaving Trixie and Fuyu alone in the meeting hall.

The magician sneered at her opponent. “How noble of you to buy them a few moments.” She fired another crimson ray which struck Fuyu flush. This one, however, had no effect. “Why didn't that turn you into a frog?!”

“You were serious,” she blinked, patting herself to search for a burn which wasn't there. While Trixie fumed, the pale woman fired a snake of black that impaled her in the upper torso. After recalling it and watching as she fell to her knees, screaming, Fuyu decided to hold her ground.

“You bitch!” she roared, twitching in pain. The amulet began to glow fiercely as Trixie clutched at her wound. Blood seeped between her fingers and dripped onto the floor, but her condition grew no worse. In fact, she was soon on her feet again, hunched over and gasping for air, but alive. “I admit, that one really hurt.” A few shaky steps brought her closer to Fuyu, steps that became more and more sure with each passing moment. She dropped her hand; there was a hole in her cloak, but the one in her body was sealed up.

“I didn't expect that, either,” Fuyu murmured, dropping back into a fighting stance.

Trixie was grinning again as she prepared another spell. “Please, Twilight tried to murder me at the end of our little dance. Do you really believe you can do any worse?” She flew headlong at Fuyu, slamming into the woman fists first and firing bolts of magic into her on contact. Fuyu rocketed backwards off the stage, crashing through rows of benches until her momentum dissipated and she bounced instead, landing in a heap near the double doors. Before she could roll over, Trixie kicked her onto her back and lit her hands again, bringing them down. Fuyu caught her by both wrists, and they began to struggle.

“It's a shame you have to die,” the magician hissed through clenched teeth. “You're the best challenge I've gotten since I found this amulet.” She tried to fight through the iron grip, but her arms couldn't muster the strength. A sarcastic smirk pulled at her lips. “Goodness, you must really work out.”

Fuyu was more focused on the first words she'd spoken, and why they seemed so familiar. Every burst of strength from the woman now hovering dangerously above interrupted her train of thought, but after a moment she found her answer. “I thought the same thing once about someone,” she mumbled. “She's a much greater person than you.”

“I am the greatest and most powerful Trixie!” she roared, her hands flaring up with even more power. Even as she raged, however, her arms began to tremble with the strain of fighting Fuyu's physical strength. “No one is better than me!”

The amulet was now a few inches above the pale woman's face, but she couldn't release Trixie's wrist to reach up and touch it. The magic coming off her hands in hot waves interfered with her ability to shoot out the sludge; they had came to something of a stalemate. The magician began to rant angrily, but Fuyu's attention went to other words instead – at this distance, the amulet was emitting sounds that seemed like whispers.

“What are you saying?” she asked it, her arms fighting off Trixie almost on their own. “I can barely hear you.”

“Don't you fucking mock me!” She yelled so loudly her voice cracked, but for all her anger she was unable to fight off Fuyu's hands and aim her blistering power.

The pale woman's face suddenly went blank. She felt the sludge coursing around inside her in a way she'd felt only a few times before, the last of which involved a tornado. Automatically, her mouth opened and a tiny tendril of the sludge flew out of it, making contact with the shining red gem. The second it touched, everything stopped. Trixie fell silent and ceased to move, her face frozen in a mask of bitter fury. The noise of the deluge on the roof of the hall was gone. The dust from her trip through the benches hung in motionless clouds in the air. Unsure, Fuyu let go of her assailant's wrists as the black gunk retreated into her mouth. Trixie stayed suspended above her, and she quickly slid out from under the magician and stood up.

“What?” Blinking, she looked around the hall until her eyes came to rest on the double doors nearby. Curious, she went over and pushed them open. Outside, she could see every individual drop of rain, frozen before it could reach the ground. The people that had escaped were mostly gone, but she could see a statue of Applejack shouting at someone out of view. Fuyu stepped out and pushed her fingers through the drops, watching as they moved aside and froze instantly again upon losing contact with her skin. “What did I do?” she asked, looking back into the meeting hall. On the stage, she saw it, standing there.

The figure.

It still didn't have a face she could distinguish, but the rest of it was three dimensional and as real as anything she'd laid eyes on before. As she ran inside and up to it, it raised a hand like it was saying hello.

“My dear Winter,” it said, its words carrying a pleasant tone. “It appears your time has come.” Unlike the times it had spoken to her in her head, its voice was rich, full, and vaguely feminine.

The pale woman stepped up onto the stage so she could confront the thing head on. Had it a visage, she would have had to look up at it; it was at least as tall as Applejack, if not taller. “I thought my name was Fuyu. Why are you not in my mind?”

“A winter by any other name...” it replied. She could almost feel it smiling at her. “I am here before you because you've found the gift I've been saving.” A representation of the amulet appeared between them, staying for a few moments before vanishing. “You will need it to complete your task.”

Fuyu peered at it for a moment before looking back up. “What task?”

The figure's voice became serious. “You must kill her to save us all.”

The pale woman blinked, looking past the figure at the magician still frozen in place. “Is she really that powerful?”

The figure nodded briefly in confirmation. “More powerful than you can believe. She is the reason I created you.”

“Created me?!” Fuyu took an unsteady step backward in shock. “I don't...understand...”

“There will be a time for answers later. For now, you have to prevent the end of the world.” The figure placed a gentle hand on Fuyu's shoulder. “You must take up the gift and stop her, or we will all die.”

The pale woman touched its hand; it felt like white marble, cold and lifeless. “Is this my purpose?” she asked, looking up with teary eyes.

The figure withdrew its hand and moved away. “Yes, it is. I have told you many things during your wait, but there are many more answers I cannot give you. We will meet again, should you live, and then you will know everything.”

“I only need to know two things,” Fuyu stated, following the apparition. “What am I? What is this sludge that lives in me?”

“It is a living weapon, built by our hands.” The figure stopped, and appeared to turn around to face the pale woman. “You are its container. The gift will feed it, and you, so you may complete your work.” After a moment of contemplation, it spoke again. “I have said on many occasions that I am sorry when you spoke to me. I will say it again, one final time. I am sorry for what we've done to you. I am sorry for your existence even being necessary. I am sorry for everything. But despite all that, I would have been sorrier for not doing what needed to be done.” The figure approached again, towering over Fuyu. “And now, you must do what needs to be done. For all of us.”

“V-very well,” she sniffled, feeling suddenly weak. “I will do it.”

“All of creation will remember you, my dear Winter. Now go. But before you deliver the last blow...please tell her I am sorry, too.” She pointed aside and suddenly disappeared. Before Fuyu could snap her head in that direction, the entire world flashed white...

...and she again found herself struggling against Trixie on the floor. The magician's eyes were gleaming red as she railed. She was still unable, however, to break Fuyu's grasp. The pale woman considered her options as she glanced around, then an idea hit her. She looked up, past Trixie's blue hair, and blinked. “Twilight?”

“What? She's here?” the magician snapped, craning her head up. It was all the window Fuyu needed. She let go of Trixie's wrist and latched onto the amulet, yanking at it with all her might. Trixie reacted with a shriek and started blasting the pale woman with her power, but the crimson beams bounced off. “Why isn't this working?!”

The amulet's magic flooded Fuyu's senses, unleashing a fullness that completely silenced the anxious goo within. As she sucked on the trinket's power, her strength grew. Soon, she threw Trixie off of her, forcing the chain that held the amulet around her neck to break. The magician tumbled across the floor and slammed into the front of the stage with a loud grunt. Fuyu ignored her, staring down at the thing in her hand. “You really are mine,” she whispered, pinching a wing of it between her fingers and lifting it until it was right before her nose. Without a further thought, she opened her mouth and put it in, swallowing it with a painful gulp.

Ahead of her, Trixie was trying to shake off the blow and stand. “Ugh...what happened?” she moaned, rubbing at her temples. “Trixie feels like she got hit by a bus.” After patting herself on the neck, she began to panic. “Where is it?!” she screamed, her head whirling frantically in search of the artifact until her sight rested on Fuyu. “You! Did you take it?” she demanded, pointing angrily.

“I took what was mine, yes.” The pale woman's voice was now as smooth as velvet, lacking any of its previously stilted nature. She started walking toward Trixie, but something below caught her attention and made her stop. She turned over her hands and looked down; the red lines on her palms were gone, replaced by black diamond-shaped stones edged in gold. “That's new.” She continued on and realizing something else that was different – she could no longer feel the sludge flowing clumsily around inside of her.

“Give it back!” Trixie squeaked, finally on her feet and walking to meet the pale woman. “Trixie needs it to...to...oh dear...” she blinked as the mental haze began to clear. As she recalled the events of the previous day, she blushed in genuine shame. “That thing made Trixie a complete bitch.”

“Indeed it did.” Fuyu suddenly lifted off the floor and began to hover, the stones in her palms issuing an onyx glow. “And now you must pay for what you've done.”

“N-n-no no,” Trixie yelped, moving away until her shoe caught on the oak floor and caused her to fall. “Trixie is very sorry about all of this! She only wanted to get the last laugh on Twilight. This was definitely not part of her plan.” She shrieked as the black light enveloped her and lifted her up. “No! Please don't hurt me!”

“I'm supposed to apologize to you before you die,” Fuyu growled, “But considering what you've done to my friends, I don't believe you're worth the breath.” She clenched her fists, listening to the agonized scream that came from the magician's lips.

“Dude, was that Trixie?”

Applejack looked between her girlfriend and the closed doors. “It sounded like it.”

“Maybe we should go in,” Rainbow advised, flapping her wings against the softening rain and preparing to enter. She blinked when the blonde stepped in front of the doors and shook her head. “No? Why?”

“I got a baaaaaad feelin' about this,” Applejack admitted, doffing her hat and running a hand through her drenched hair. They both looked up at the sky as it began to clear. “Huh, look at that.”

“Yeah...hey, wait! This has to mean she's won, right?” Rainbow tried to move Applejack aside, but the stout woman wouldn't budge. “Come on, AJ! It's gotta be over!” She moved the blonde enough to press her ear against one of the doors. “It's awfully quiet in there. I wonder what happened.”

Applejack copied her motion, her eyes becoming blank at the silence. “Heck, maybe it really is over?”

“Like I've been saying,” Rainbow huffed, at last able to move her girlfriend aside, “Let's find out!” She pushed the door open and flew in, coming to an abrupt stop a few feet inside. The blonde strode in and stood beside her, both of them glancing around at the damage to the building. “Whoa...” the athlete breathed, her eyes traveling ahead of them.

Seated on the stage in the ornate chair was Fuyu, legs crossed and a wry smile on her face. On the stage before her was Trixie, bound by hardened black sludge to the floor in a crouched position. Her head was hung, and she didn't react to their arrival. As the two of them approached, she remained still.

“So that's who you were yelling at, Applejack,” the pale woman noted, glancing over at Rainbow Dash. “Trixie, wake up. You have something to say to these two.”

“Wh-what happened ta your voice?” The blonde blinked at Fuyu's dismissive wave, then looked at the magician as she raised her head.

“Trixie would like to apologize for enslaving the town,” she groaned, a thin trail of red running down from the corner of her mouth. “And for all the other things she did after the accomplishment of said enslaving.” When she had finished, her head dropped again. “My everything hurts...”

“Good girl. We'll see about letting you stand later.” Fuyu nodded with approval as she stood up and walked over to her friends. “Where are the others? Still hiding?”

“Yeah. I'm only here 'cause Rarity said you were gonna fight, and I couldn't make myself wait anymore.” The athlete tapped on the black restraints holding the magician to the floor. “Wow, that feels like metal!”

“You can let her go now, Fu,” Applejack advised. “She seems ta be back to her regular-strength jerk self.” When Fuyu ignored her and gazed up at the sunlight now streaming in through the windows, it gave the blonde a chance to notice something. “Speakin' of that, what did ya do with the amulet?”

“I ate it,” she replied simply, dropping her eyes and raising her hands to look at her palms' new decorations.

“You what?” Rainbow and Applejack exclaimed with horror. The blonde took up speaking after their outburst. “That thing turned Trixie insane!”

Again, Fuyu waved a hand dismissively. “Relax. It was built for me.”

“I missed something,” Rainbow muttered, peering over at her girlfriend. “It was Fu's amulet? Why did Trixie have it, then?”

“I ain't got a damn clue,” Applejack replied, folding her arms and peering at the pale woman. “Y'all care ta explain what the hell is goin' on here?”

“Later. I have to go undo what Trixie has done to the town.” Abruptly, Fuyu's hands began to emit a dark glow, and she lifted gently off the floor. As she floated toward the double doors, Rainbow and Applejack pursued her. “Have you gotten in touch with Twilight yet?”

“Since when can you fly?” a flabbergasted Rainbow interjected. “What are those things on your hands now? What the fuck is any of this?” she finally vented, slamming her hands onto her head and shaking it. “Seriously! What did I miss?”

They all emerged into the town before Fuyu answered; it was oppressively hot, and above the fading clouds the shimmering dome was now visible. “I'll take that as a no. Hold on, I'm going to go remove the dome.”

“How?” Applejack asked, tipping her hat back and staring into the sky.

“I'll figure it out when I get up there.” She enveloped herself in the dark glow and began to float skyward, gathering speed as she went. She punched through a low cloud and literally bumped into the dome just after emerging from it. Upon reaching out a hand to touch it, she realized it wasn't actually glass at all; her internal alarm was wailing. It was solidified magical energy. “Oh. What do I do now?” she wondered out loud, scratching her head. On a whim, she placed her palm against the structure. “Like this?” She watched as tiny black threads began to spread out into the dome, looking like cracks. As she watched, they traced winding paths all over the sky, as far as she could see, until suddenly the whole thing emitted a series of noises and collapsed, the shards of magic fading away as they fell. Cooler air began to rush in. Satisfied, she dropped back down to the surface, landing almost exactly where she'd taken off. Applejack and Rainbow were still waiting. “I think I fixed it.”

“Great. Now can ya tell us what's goin' on?” the blonde asked as she walked over.

“When we find Twilight. This is not a story I want to repeat.”

By the time the librarian showed up, the sun was beginning to set. An airborne Rainbow Dash, who was surveying what was left to be changed back in the town, was the first to notice the extremely fancy car as it drove down the highway, and on further investigation found Twilight, Stormy, and the Princess inside. The latter rolled down the window as the athlete tapped on the glass.

“There you are!” she grinned, waving at Twilight. “Oh, hey Princess. Uh...hey Stormy. What are you doing with them?”

“I don't even know anymore,” the ex-thief groaned wearily. “I don't even think I'm allowed to tell you?”

“It's fine, she already knows,” the Princess said. “Rainbow Dash, what happened to the dome?”

“And where is Fuyu?” the librarian chipped in, leaning around Stormy so she could see her friend. “Is everyone okay?”

“We're all good. She took out Trixie and got rid of the dome too,” she explained, landing on the pavement and dismissing her wings with a snap. “Right now we're just changing all the buildings back that she messed up.”

“Oh...” Twilight nodded, her face dropping. “I would have called, but I didn't think it would get through.” She unbuckled her seat belt, opened the door, and got out. “Princess, please go on ahead. I need to talk to Rainbow about something.”

She gave her student a long, pointed look, but shrugged her deference and motioned to her driver. “Proceed.” The window rolled up again, and they were off down the road. Both women watched the black car go for a moment before looking at each other.

“Does she have to eat yet?” Twilight asked, wringing her hands. “I was terrified she was going to take someone in town.”

“She hasn't even mentioned it.” Rainbow rubbed at her face and sighed. “Shit is upside down, Twi. She took that amulet thing Trixie was wearing and ate it. Now she can do all kinds of crazy stuff.”

“She ate—I don't follow,” the librarian blinked, giving her a blank look. “She literally ate the amulet? How did she get it away from Trixie?”

Rainbow smirked at her glazed-over eyes, but frowned hard shortly after. “They fought, I guess. The meeting hall was pretty messed up. She's gonna tell us the whole story, but wanted to wait on you before she did.”

Twilight nodded once and glanced down the road at the town. “Well, let's not keep her waiting. Can you carry me?”

“Sure,” Rainbow recalled her wings and prepared to wrap her arms around the librarian, but something in the sky caught her attention. “Never mind. Look up,” she pointed, stepping away.

“Huh?” Twilight snapped her eyes up just in time to see Fuyu descending above them, her hands glowing as she touched down gently on the grass nearby. “You can fly?!”

“Welcome to my brain six hours ago,” Rainbow muttered, arms folded as she shot a cross look off to the side.

A powerful scowl twisted the pale woman's lips, but she chased it off with a smile. “A lot has changed.” She glanced around and blinked. “I thought Spike was with you?”

“I had to leave him in Canterlot. The Princess was so desperate to come down here and she wouldn't even tell me why.” Twilight noticed something shiny on Fuyu's palms and walked over, grabbing her hands to look. “Where did these come from?”

“I'll explain in a while.” Suddenly, her blue eyes were downcast, and she turned away from the two. “I can fly us back, if you want.”

“Are you okay?” Rainbow asked, her eyebrow raised.

“Please shut up,” Fuyu murmured, rubbing at the side of her head. The figure was back, and it was speaking to her whenever she laid eyes on the librarian, six words that nagged at her in a vicious way:

Your task is not yet complete.

Life Is a Party

Despite Fuyu's best attempts, the seven of them were only able to gather at the library tree the next morning. Applejack arrived first, wandering into the public space as the pale woman was practicing with her new power. Quietly, she watched as Fuyu traced lines of black through the air that hung in place like permanent marker, but were three dimensional. Only when she came up to touch one did she even know anyone had arrived.

“Wow,” the blonde breathed, tapping a mark in the air with her fingernail. It responded with a cheerful ding that rang like metal. “How are ya doin' it?”

“Same as ever.” The black marks flowed from the stones on her palms as she moved her hands around, leaving ebony smears that hovered, motionless. “The way I was using it before seems so primitive.” She snapped her fingers and the lines fell to the floor, emitting a light crash. She snapped again and they rose, flying back into her open right palm.

“That's scary,” Applejack admitted, walking away and sitting in a chair. “Hey, it's been a while since ya ate. Ya wanna do that before we get started?”

Fuyu glanced back over her shoulder. “I'm no longer hungry.”

“Ya ain't?” She thought about asking why, but discarded the idea and just shrugged. “Granny always said not ta look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess the reason don't matter. At least ya don't have ta do that stuff anymore – once sure was enough for me.” She muttered the last words and sighed, giving herself a brief hug. “Anyway, where's Twilight?”

“I believe she's at the train station to pick up Spike.” Fuyu contemplated a spot above the blonde's hat and whipped a metallic black rope at it. Applejack jumped with fright, tilting her head back to look up at it. “Sorry. I'm getting my control down. It goes a lot farther than I'm used to.”

“Geez, could ya ask first?” she grumbled, securing her jostled hat. “Is Trixie still nailed down in the meetin' hall?”

“Yes. I haven't decided what to do with her yet, and no one has told me to let her go.” Fuyu recalled the black line, staring it all the way back into her palm. “Whatever happened to the Princess? I only saw her for a few seconds and she didn't even speak to me.”

The blonde shrugged a little and crossed her legs to get comfortable. “Far as I know, she didn't stay long. Just enough ta wander around town and make sure everyone was all right. Don't think she was here more than an hour.”

“I see.” The front door opened again, and they turned to look. Rarity peeked around it to see who had arrived and smiled at the two.

“Fashionably early, I suppose,” she noted, entering and closing the door behind her. “I cannot wait to hear what you did to Trixie.” She settled in the chair to Applejack's left and looked at her. “Do you ever sleep?”

“Early ta bed, early ta rise,” she grinned, tipping her hat.

Rarity smirked back at her, but that smile faded when she glanced up at Fuyu. “Long time no see, as it were. You look different, somehow.”

“I am different,” she confirmed, showing the dressmaker her new palm-mounted jewelry.

Before she could respond, the door opened again. Fluttershy shuffled in, wringing her hands and glancing around nervously. She took the chair on Rarity's left without saying a word, and tried for a second to hide in her yellow sweater. When she felt the three looking at her, a squeak escaped her lips. “Oh...um, hello. Am I early?”

“A little.” Applejack gave her a reassuring wave. “We're just chattin' until Twilight gets back.”

A noise from outside attracted their attention; it was a light thump, followed by muffled speaking. The door again opened, and Rainbow Dash stumbled in, grumbling unhappily and rubbing her arms. “It's too early for this crap,” she said, pulling the hood off her head and giving them all a bleary-eyed glower. “Hey. I didn't get much sleep, I'm gonna be grumpy.”

“Don't worry none,” the blonde said, waving her over.

The athlete took the chair to her right and tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. “Bleh. Where's Pinkie?”

“I'm not sure, I haven't seen her since we checked all the shops last night,” Rarity said, adjusting her earrings and smoothing down an errant curl.

Fuyu crossed her arms and looked over the assembled. “I didn't miss anything in the town that needed restoring, did I?”

“Not as far as I know,” Rainbow shrugged, scratching at her ear piercings. “Ha, knowing Pink, she's probably passed out in her bed. She looked exhausted.” All of them looked over as the door burst open. “Or not. Hey Pinkie.”

“Ohmygosh you guys I am so sorry for being la—oh! Never mind!” she chirped, bouncing in and weaving through the room. “The Mayor and the Princess called me, can you believe it?” She came to a dead stop after looking at Fuyu and blinked. “Wow. You look a little scarier than I remember.”

“You're not the first one to tell me that,” the pale woman smirked, nodding over at Rarity. She tilted her head as the baker dashed over and clamped on in a hug. “What's this for?”

Pinkie squeezed as hard as she could. “You sound even more differenter than you did before! Did Trixie do something to you?”

Fuyu couldn't help but pat her on the head. “I'm fine. I'll explain it after Twilight gets here.”

“That would be now.” Spike said, walking through the open door with the librarian's duffel bag. The woman herself arrived a second later, looking bitterly frustrated.

“Huh? Where's your car?” Rainbow asked, not having seen the headlights despite keeping her eyes on the window to stay alert.

“It broke down, I'm having it towed to the garage. We just decided to walk back.” She stopped for a moment and bent over, rubbing at her calves through her gray sweat pants. “Geez, my legs...”

“Wow, you look jacked,” Spike said, staring up at Fuyu. “How'd you beat Trixie?”

“You can sit in for my explanation, if you like.” She nodded at an empty chair, but the boy shook his head.

“Nah, I'm beat. I'll just get the story from Twilight later.” He trundled up the stairs, yawning. The librarian had a smile on her face as she watched him go.

“Right!” she clapped her hands after he'd gone. Pinkie finally released Fuyu and skipped over to an empty chair, and Twilight followed her example. “Let's get this party started, so to speak.” She blinked at the unhappy gaze she received from the pale woman. “Is something wrong?”

“Forget it,” she said, casting her eyes at the floor and walking to the center of the little circle. “Those of you who haven't seen me since yesterday, this is for you.” Her hands began to glow; as she lifted off the floor, the soles of her sandals issued light scuffing noises. Rarity and Fluttershy gasped, but Pinkie emitted an enthralled 'oooooooooooo' that lasted a few seconds. “I suppose I should start with the amulet...”

“Yes, please. Trying to figure out that shit gave me a headache,” Rainbow interjected, looking even grumpier than when she'd arrived.

“Sorry,” Fuyu smirked. “First, the amulet Trixie wore is mine.”

“Excuse me?” Twilight blurted out, leaning forward in her seat. “How do you know it was yours?”

“The same way I knew your name.” She dropped to the floor and sat down herself, making a face at Pinkie's reaction when the baker saw her shining black stones. “When I touched it with the sludge, time stopped. At least, time stopped for me.”

“That's impossible,” Rarity stated, but drew back under the pale woman's firm gaze. “Or not. I should know better when it comes to you.”

Twilight stared in disbelief. “But how...you know what, just keep going. If I start to ask questions before you're finished, this will take six hours.”

Fuyu nodded at her and pressed on. “Okay. While time was stopped, I saw the figure that's usually in my head on the stage in the hall.”

“Here we fucking go again with insane shit,” Rainbow moaned, hunched over and clutching her head.

“Let her talk, Dash,” Applejack scolded gently, doffing her hat and setting it on the armrest.

“What did it say?” Pinkie urged, bouncing excitedly. “What did it look like?” Like the dressmaker, Fuyu stilled her with a firm glance. “Oopsies...”

“It told me why I...” she paused, raising a hand and frowning at the gleaming stone. “Wait. I think I should mention this first. Twilight,” she began, looking up and over at her, “you were wrong. The sludge is not a parasite. It told me that it, along with others, built the sludge as a weapon.”

“Now that is impossible,” Twilight insisted with a frown. “What that stuff does is completely beyond anything manufacturing is capable of!”

“I'm just telling you what it told me. It also said I was the container for this weapon.” Her eyes darted about at each gasp, frown, and in Fluttershy's case, a broken squeak. “Then it told me I had to kill Trixie.”

“Why in the world would it care if she was dead?” Applejack said, shifting in her seat. “Shoot, before we met that first time I hadn't even heard of her.”

“Again, I'm only telling you what it told me.” She fell silent for a moment too long, and Twilight caught it.

“What else did it tell you?” she asked gently, sliding to the edge of her seat.

“I...” Fuyu couldn't even look at the librarian without that six-word message playing in her head, so she averted her gaze and sighed. “It's something I've figured out myself. At any rate, after it went away, I was fighting with Trixie again. I grabbed the amulet, started to drain its power, then I was able to knock her off. Once I had it, I consumed it. That's when I changed.”

“Whoa, whoa,” Applejack raised her hands. “What did ya figure out?”

Fuyu snapped back at her. “It's not important.” Her face dropped at how angry she sounded, and she let a sigh pass through her lips. “Sorry. I would like to deal with it on my own, please. What's important is that the amulet's magic is feeding me, so I won't need to eat as long as that remains true.”

“That's lovely!” Rarity smiled her approval. “Now you can do what you like and not have to worry about such awful things anymore.”

Twilight seemed a bit suspicious about something; her eyes glittered with the feeling, but her lips remained sealed. She looked around at her friends and started to enter her usual thinking pose. “Well, what we need to find out now is who did this to her and why. I sincerely doubt someone would put this much effort into killing a vengeful stage magician.”

“Any ideas? Because I don't have a clue,” Rainbow admitted freely, falling against the back of the chair and rubbing her eyes. “All I know is Fu beat Trixie's ass, fixed the town, and at the moment that's about as much of the story as I need.”

“Right. I will definitely need the Princess' help on this one, but I have no idea how to ask the question without exposing some seriously prickly information.” The librarian also fell back in her chair, staring helplessly at the ceiling.

Pinkie's eyes lit up, and she started to bounce again. “Oooooh! That reminds me! The Princess told me that she wants to be at Fufu's party!”

“What party?” Rarity blinked. “I thought the Mayor canceled it in light of Trixie being a complete ass.”

“She did, but then the Princess was all like 'well I think there should be a party because of everything Fufu has done' except she didn't call Fufu Fufu and she kinda told the Mayor to hold one and she said it was okay if I still plann—eek!” She rubbed at her ear after Twilight gently thwacked it. “Sorry, I got carried away.”

“At least she'll get to meet you,” the librarian sighed. “I don't know why she left in such a hurry after being in such a hurry to get down here.”

Rainbow perked up and glanced at the assembled. “Hey, that reminds me...where is Stormy?”

“That's another weird thing!” Twilight could no longer hold her feelings in and stood up to pace. “The Princess has put her up in the hotel, in her words, 'indefinitely'. She's even replacing her lost salary with some kind of stipend. I don't understand why! I don't understand anything she's been saying lately, and I don't understand why she won't just tell me what she knows!”

Applejack shook her head and tried to calm her friend. “Easy there, Twi. Ain't no use in running yourself ragged with questions.”

“We can talk to her when she comes for the party,” Fuyu stated evenly, hovering to her feet. “I believe that's all I have for you. Any questions?”

To everyone's collective surprise, Fluttershy quickly raised her hand. “Shouldn't we seal the cave?” she mumbled hesitantly, still halfway hiding in her sweater. “The Princess will be angry if she finds out all of this, and, um, if we forget to close it, she'll be even more mad.”

“Good point,” Twilight nodded. “Applejack, could you take me up there in your truck? I think the drive might help me clear my head. If nothing else, I can vent on that dumb rock.”

“Sure.” The blonde rose and grabbed her hat. “Er...we done here?”

Fuyu looked over her shoulder out one of the large windows. “I like Twilight's idea. I think I'll go for a walk now that my stomach has shut up.”

“And I am going to bed!” Rainbow said, standing up and summoning her wings. “Later.”

The meeting broke up, with all the women variously flying, prancing, bouncing, or shuffling with barely restrained terror out of the library. Twilight went with Applejack to her truck, and Fuyu found herself alone in the library after about three or four minutes.

“Huh.” The pale woman drank in the silence for a moment before striding outside and looking around. The sun was now fully above the horizon, and some people were wandering around as they got back to their normal lives. Deciding to go check on her prisoner, Fuyu turned left and started down the sidewalk. Any time she tried to make eye contact with anyone, though, they either looked away and ignored her, or gave her a frightened look and stopped dead in their tracks. The first instance of this she ignored, but subsequent occurrences made her increasingly uncertain. By the time she crossed the street in order to head downtown, her mood had grown foul.

“Why is everyone looking at me like that?” she muttered lowly, stalking down the street. She was so lost in her displeasure that she almost ran into someone leaving one of the shops.

It was Lyra, who turned to apologize, then swallowed loudly upon seeing who it was. “Oh. Uh. Hey?” she offered nervously, stepping back and waving.

“Hello,” Fuyu peered at her, arms crossed. “It seems that everyone is unhappy with me for some reason.” She glanced over and saw Bon Bon coming through the plate glass windows.

“Why would we be unhappy?” she laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. Bon Bon stood beside her, a rather defensive look on her face. “It's just, well...you're kinda scary. And with what just happened and all, you understand why we're nervous.”

“Not really,” Fuyu shot back. “You've known me for longer, and I've never lifted a hand to hurt anyone here.”

“Which is totally true!” Lyra nodded frantically, sensing the edge in the pale woman's voice. “But you're really strong, and we still don't know that much about you, you know? You're kind of a walking mystery.”

“I know that feeling all too well,” Fuyu sighed, gazing off to the side. “I assure you, there's nothing to worry about.”

Bon Bon was visibly unconvinced. “I heard you took that amulet. What's to say it won't make you crazy too?”

“It was...” Realizing she couldn't say the truth without unleashing an even larger storm, she fell silent and let her arms drop. “It will be fine.”

“Uh huh,” Bon Bon muttered. She lead her partner back into the soda shop without a further word.

“Really.” Fuyu watched them for a second, then kept going. “I save the town, and this is what I get?”

The pale woman was truly stewing now, and every further anxious look she received only deepened her anger. By the time she reached the meeting hall, she was very close to punching something. Her vicious slamming of the double doors awoke her captive, who had somehow fallen asleep despite being held down in an awkward crouch.

“O-oh, it's you,” Trixie stuttered. The blood that had been leaking from her mouth was now dried and brown. Her face was etched with exhaustion, although that was joined by fear as Fuyu walked up to her. “Have you come to...to...”

Her reply came in the form of an uplifted hand and snapped fingers, which caused the ebony restraints to shed their rigidity and fly into the black gem on her palm. A surprised Trixie stood, wobbling and rubbing her shoulders.

“You're letting me go?” she asked, still trying to get her feet under her.

“No. You and I are going to have a talk.” Fuyu turned and launched a shimmering black line at the doors, which wrapped around the handles and tied them shut.

“Of course! It's better than the other thing I thought you wanted to do,” the magician said, laughing nervously, then doubling over a bit at the pain in her ribs. “Ugh...I really need to use the bathroom, though.”

“Fine.” Fuyu walked past her and to the chair that was still positioned on the stage.

Trixie blinked at her back. “You're really going to let me get out of your sight?”

“Yes, because if you make me find you, we both know what will happen,” she replied, not bothering to glance back at her as she went.

The magician gulped hard. “R-right...I'll be right back.”

Fuyu settled into the chair and eyed her as she skittered away and out of view. She was gone for about five minutes, and returned looking relieved, although she walked with a limp. Unsure of what she was supposed to do, Trixie stood on the floor in front of the stage, leaving her eyes at knee level with the seated woman. “What do you want to talk about?” she asked, still uncertain.

“I would like to know exactly how you came in possession of my amulet,” Fuyu stated, clasping her hands on her crossed legs.

“Believe or not, I found it in an antique shop in a little town in the south,” Trixie explained. The look on Fuyu's face said she did not, in fact, believe, and the magician gesticulated a little to reinforce her point. “No, I swear! It was inside a glass case behind the counter. I don't know how I knew it was so powerful. I just...I just did.”

The pale woman pinned her down with an unyielding gaze. “It spoke to you, didn't it?”

“When you put it that way, I suppose it did,” she admitted, glancing to the side and looking somewhat more uncomfortable. “It whispered. Awful things. Or, they sounded like awful things. I couldn't really make out words, just sounds. I only know that I didn't like it at first, but it sort of faded away after a while.”

The pale woman rubbed her chin in thought. “What happened when you started drawing on its power?”

Trixie considered that for a moment, and almost subconsciously went over to a bench to sit down. “I can't remember! It's so strange. When I fell asleep, though, I could hear talking more clearly. It kept telling me I wasn't worthy. That's why I came back here – those words just made me think of what Twilight had done. I got very angry.”

“You came looking for revenge?” She watched Trixie nod sheepishly, but then the magician's eyes got wide. “What?”

Trixie hung her head and sighed. “I wanted to humiliate her, absolutely, but the rest of it was not my original idea. I wanted the whole town to see it too, but after I had won I couldn't control myself. I felt so...strong.”

Fuyu nodded at that. “You couldn't handle it.”

Trixie smoothed back her hair and looked up at the ceiling. “It corrupted me. I got drunk off the power and decided I wanted more. Then I decided I wanted it all.”

They spent a few moments in uneasy silence. Trixie continued to rub and grope at various sore parts, wincing in pain. Fuyu, meanwhile, seemed to be contemplating something. Suddenly, she asked a question. “What would you do if I let you go?”

The magician snapped her eyes up at the abrupt inquiry. “I had planned to stay here, actually. I have a penance to pay for what I've done. That thing...if you hadn't stopped me, I would have done something genuinely horrible. I owe you for preventing that.”

“To hear Twilight's friends tell it, you're a jerk. Maybe that's not entirely true.” Fuyu stood up and regarded Trixie as she walked to the edge of the stage. “I thought I was supposed to kill you.” She smiled faintly at the fear in the magician's eyes. “I don't think that's true, either. You can leave.”

Trixie watched in amazement as Fuyu snapped the black ribbon over to her, tracing its curvy path through the air with wide eyes. “I wish you'd teach me how to do that. I'd make a fortune with my shows.”

“One of us is enough, I think,” Fuyu replied, hopping off the stage and walking toward the doors. Trixie got up after a moment and followed painfully. They had just reached them when they swung open, revealing Applejack and Big Macintosh. “Hello,” the pale woman waved, happy to see a friendlier face. “What are you doing here?”

The blonde was holding a heavy toolbox. She and her brother gave Trixie a sour look – although he also had one for Fuyu, which she tried to ignore – then nodded at the damaged benches. “Mayor asked us to come fix this stuff for the Princess' little get-together.”

Fuyu blinked. “I didn't know you did carpentry.”

“Seems like we do every damn thing in this town sometimes,” Applejack muttered, her unhappy words drawing a nudge from her brother. “Never mind. What'd y'all decide ta do 'bout Trixie?”

“Trixie is going to stay here, for now,” she said, her face suddenly taking on a confident mask. Fuyu blinked at the way she spoke. “Public persona time,” the magician whispered to her, before increasing her volume. “She would like to pay off her debt to Ponyville before departing.”

“Whatever,” the blonde said, “If ya do anything else, I'll punch your face in.” They walked by the two women and toward the broken benches. “Good grief, what in the world happened?”

“Trixie threw me through them,” Fuyu explained. “I'm going back to the tree.”

“All right, see ya later,” Applejack waved, hammer in hand. “Mac, we're gonna need more wood.”

The magician followed her out, past the Apple's red truck, and into the streets. “Could have gone better. Oh well. I understand why they're upset,” she shrugged. “Thank you for not murdering me, by the way.”

“Hmm.” Fuyu was looking around; again, people were going about their day, and like Big Macintosh, they gave both women unhappy glances. “I don't understand why they're upset with me.”

Trixie was preening a little, adjusting her hair and trying to look her best. “Maybe they're afraid. You're extremely powerful, after all. People fear that sort of thing.”

“I don't see why.” Fuyu departed, leaving the magician behind, and started back toward the library. She did her best to ignore the chilly feeling that came from the residents, but by the time she made it home, it had gotten to her again. Twilight was reading in one of the boxy chairs, and the moment the pale woman laid eyes on her, the figure reminded her of her apparent failure.

“Hi!” she waved. “How was your walk?”

“The town hates me,” Fuyu replied, heading toward the kitchen. “I saved them, and they hate me.”

“That can't be right!” Twilight put her book aside and got up, chasing Fuyu down. “What did they say?”

“It isn't words. It's looks. It's body language.” She felt herself getting angrier, and had to stop walking in order to focus on quashing her emotion. “They think I'm another Trixie.”

“Applejack told me you showed them the sludge. We were scared too. It just takes time. They'll come around.” She clung to Fuyu in a hug, an embrace the pale woman returned only after a few seconds. “Don't worry about it, okay? I'm pretty sure you and Trixie have nothing in common.”

“Hmm.” Just as soon as Twilight let go, Fuyu continued on to the kitchen. The pale woman turned in the doorway and watched her go back to her seat for a second, scowling hard at the urging of the figure in her head to kill the librarian. “We may have more in common than you think.”

The Good Word

A week flew by, and Fuyu found herself spending less and less time in the library. She gave Twilight the excuse that she went out every morning to practice her new found skills, but the look on the librarian's face indicated that she had stopped buying that on the third evening. Twilight never tried to follow her, however, and Fuyu was thankful for the lack of intrusion.

As she had six times before, she walked down the street – she never floated, figuring it would increase the already chilly distance between her and the townspeople – and the people traveling by would give her odd looks. Now, they were accompanied by whispers which stung her. She managed to stick to Twilight's advice on this matter: be patient. They will eventually see you for who you really are.

That posed a problem for the pale woman, because she was really a serial-killing weapon of mass destruction. Yes, she had saved Applejack once, and the town at large once, but she was fairly certain that wouldn't balance her deeds before her arrival. So, again, she found herself wandering toward the south of town to have a conversation with the other two people that knew her – the actual, genuine Fuyu – almost as well as Twilight and her friends did.

“Hey, ma'am,” the young girl at the hotel's front desk waved. She was a tanned tomboy with blazing red hair whose name escaped the pale woman; it didn't matter, because she'd only answer to the nickname Garnet. She was also one of the few in Ponyville who regarded Fuyu warmly – after all, this was her family's main source of income. “I guess they're waiting upstairs like usual.”

“Thank you,” Fuyu nodded, moving up the staircase. Now that the place was back in its original configuration, one side of the space to the left held four bedrooms. This was separated by a central, blue carpet hallway that lead to the back, and the stairs to the third floor. To the right of this corridor was an open area; the dining room, more or less, where travelers would eat the food prepared in the ground floor's rear kitchen. The tables were rounded and made of polished elm that shone in the overhead lights. Seated at one of these were Trixie and Stormy.

“I see you haven't stabbed each other yet,” the pale woman said, sliding out a chair and sitting down. The two women were playing a card game, and had two cards each, face down, on the table. Three cards, face up, were between them – the ace of clubs, the four of diamonds, and the jack of hearts. The rest of the deck was stacked neatly off to Trixie's left. “What are you playing?”

“Hold 'em,” Stormy said, lifting her cards. “Besides, I forgave her for that the first day you came up here.”

“Trixie didn't even cheat on that particular occasion, regardless.” She too eyed her cards, then looked across the table at the ex-thief. “Show the turn.”

“You totally cheated, and fine, I will.” Stormy drew a card and turned it over before placing it beside the other three. It was the five of spades. “Shit.”

“Folding again?” Trixie's tone was dripping with smug satisfaction. Sure enough, Stormy flicked her face down cards away. “You always curse before you fold. It's an incredible tell.”

“Oh, get off your high fucking horse. We ain't even playing for money.” Stormy looked over at Fuyu and nodded to the cards. “Wanna play? It's not hard to learn.”

“I'm not interested.” She watched as Trixie magically shuffled the cards for the next hand. “How is the town treating you?”

“Slow progress. Trixie is sure that at least the children no longer hate her.” She dealt two cards to herself, then two across to Stormy before looking at her own with a stone face. “What about you?”

“It's only getting worse. They think I don't hear the gossip.” She blinked as the magician slid two cards over. “I have no idea how to play this.”

Trixie gave her a smile. “It's fine. Like Stormy says, it isn't difficult to learn.”

“Man, I can't believe the government is paying me to sit here and play cards.” She frowned down at her pair and began to mutter. “And yet, I can't seem to buy a decent hand...”

That drew a smirk on her lips. “Ha. Oh, Fuyu, thank you for putting in the good word. Pinkie Pie was very receptive of Trixie's apology.”

The pale woman shrugged, taking a peek at her cards. She held the ace of hearts and ace of spades, although that really meant nothing to her at the moment. “I didn't talk to her. I think she just loves everyone.”

“Will you drop the third-person bullshit? You're giving me a headache,” Stormy grumbled. “You guys ready for the flop?”

“The...flop?” Fuyu tilted her head. Stormy drew three cards and turned them over in the center of the table. “Oh. That's what that's called.”

They eyed the cards – the four of diamonds and clubs, and the king of hearts – and the magician couldn't help but smirk again. “Trixie is not a psychic, but she predicts someone will be folding again. And by the way, I have a reputation to keep up.”

“You know what? Fuck you. I'm going all the way to the end. Fuyu, you gonna fold your cards?” She frowned at the blank stare she got in reply. “That means discard them 'cause you don't think you can win.”

Fuyu considered it for a moment, then shook her head. “Oh. I will keep going too.”

“Awesome. Turn it is.” The ex-thief drew and revealed the ace of diamonds. “Huh.”

The pale woman glanced down at her cards again. “If you say so. Were either of you invited to the function tonight?”

“Trixie was surprised to receive an invitation, but declined. She does not feel it's appropriate to attend.” She also looked at her cards, but her face was somewhat more displeased. “Hmm.”

Stormy grinned excitedly and shifted in her chair. “I'm going! I'd be nuts to turn down free booze. Ready for the river?”

Fuyu had other things on her mind. “If the town knew what I did before, do you think they'd want me gone?”

Stormy grew suddenly pale, and the magician blinked at both of them. “Trixie doesn't think she's heard this before.”

“You probably don't wanna, either,” the ex-thief muttered. “It's pretty damn terrible.” She drew a card and set it down. This was the king of clubs. “Ha! Show your hands, suckers.”

“Hmm.” Trixie peeked down at her cards before flipping them over. “Two pair, kings and jacks.”

Stormy lost control of her grin and flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. “My pair beats your pair! Queens and kings.”

Fuyu tilted her head and showed her cards. “...this.” She watched as both of their jaws dropped. “What?”

“Full house, aces full of kings,” the magician muttered. She used her power to grab them all and begin the process of re-shuffling. “Trixie is curious to know what you did before you showed up here.”

“I was a serial killer.”

She dropped the cards and nearly fell out of her chair before the look on her face changed from shock to nervous disbelief. “Right. That's a poor joke,” she said, steadying herself in the chair and using her power to gather the cards. “What did you really do?” Her question met a stony wall of silence, and she glanced around. “You're...you're serious?”

“Yes. I killed...” Fuyu's eyes drifted up as she calculated the tally. “Four hundred and eighty-eight people. After I killed them, I ate most of them.”

Trixie looked ready to pass out, and Stormy was doing little better. “Y-you a-ate them?” the magician stuttered fearfully.

“To feed that black stuff. You've seen it, right? That's what that shit runs off of, human flesh,” Stormy clarified.

“That's not actually correct. I consumed people for their internal stores of magic.” Fuyu looked at their horror and sighed. “The effect is the same, regardless. Thanks to the amulet, however, I no longer need to do that.”

The magician was still the most dumbfounded of the two by far; so deep was her feeling that she visibly trembling. “Trixie is not sure what to think now.”

“People keep saying that.” Fuyu watched her deal the cards again. “It's not something I wanted to do.”

“Trixie would certainly hope not.” She took a moment to regain her composure before looking at her cards. “Ugh. Trixie will not even pretend to bother with these.” She thumped the cards away and sighed.

Fuyu was just about to check her own hand when a series of sharp noises came echoing up the stairs. They all turned to see the cause, and found Rarity scaling the steps. She was clad in her full professional outfit, which consisted of a white suit over a white blouse, a knee-length, white skirt, and shining white heels.

“Fuyu, darling, what are you doing with these two?” she asked, folding her arms and cocking her hips in displeasure as she peered at Trixie.

“Playing cards,” she replied, finally peeking at her own – the ace of spades, and the king of diamonds. “I still don't know what this means.”

Rarity and Trixie were still staring – or glaring – at each other. “How...lovely,” the dressmaker snarled politely. “Well, I need you to try on your dress for tonight, while I've still time to make the alterations.”

“Awwww, we just got started!” Stormy whined, leaning back in her chair and pouting. She shrugged at Rarity's annoyed glance and sighed. “Fine. Hey Fu...one quick round of fifty-two pickup?”

The pale woman knew exactly what this was and nodded with a smile. “Yes.”

Trixie used her magic to gather the cards again into a neatly stacked deck, which she then flung straight up at the ceiling. The cards caught air and flew in all sorts of directions, but within a second of their scattering a storm of shimmering black lines darted out of Fuyu's palms and tore up, adhering to them with a sticky point. By the time she'd latched on to them all, it looked like an abstract tree had sprouted from her hands.

“Oh my,” Rarity blinked, dropping her bristled pose and staring at the construction. “How in the world did you manage that?”

“I guess I can track a lot of targets.” She brought the lines back into her palms, one card at a time, until she had twenty-six in both hands in two decks. She sat these on the table and stood up to leave. “I'll see you later.”

They went downstairs and out to Rarity's gleaming silver SUV. The first thing that struck Fuyu about the black, leather-clad interior was how enormous it was, especially compared to Applejack's old truck and Twilight's blue compact.

“I went with something simple, but not too inconspicuous,” Rarity said, starting the engine and backing out into the street. “Your lines were hard to work with, but I think you'll be pleased with the results.”

Fuyu looked out the window as they drove. Even in here, once she was recognized she got those looks from the populace, and it started to grate on her nerves. “Why does Twilight insist I go to this thing?”

Rarity patted at her hair absentmindedly. “If I understand her right, the Princess personally requested your presence.”

“Why?” Fuyu asked, stunned enough to look back over her shoulder. The dressmaker shrugged her confusion. They didn't speak again during the rest of the short trip, and not even after they'd arrived at the Boutique and gone in. Only when Rarity appeared out of the back with the dress she'd designed did either talk.

“Here it is!” she chirped, holding it up and turning it for Fuyu to inspect. It was a shimmering turquoise number, strapless, with a matte black stripe that ran from where the back of her right thigh would be, curled around the left waist, and disappeared below the right shoulder. The bottom of the garment had a semi-pleated fringe around it. “What do you think?”

“Blue!” the pale woman blurted out. She blinked at herself and glanced away. “I don't know why I said that.”

“You said it with a smile, so I'll take it as a compliment,” Rarity smirked. “Here, try it on!” She handed the dress over and shooed Fuyu into one of the changing booths, pulling aside the purple curtain for her. “I'll get the shoes. Back in a jiffy!”

“Hmm...” Fuyu scratched her head and looked down at the dress in her hands. “Here goes, I suppose.” She disappeared into the booth.

Rarity got back just in time to see her step out, and nearly dropped the shoes in her hand at the sight. “Oh my word,” she said, walking circles around the pale woman. “I did very well, if I do say so myself.” She rubbed her shin with her free hand and came back around to look at Fuyu from the front. The dress came to an end just above her knees, and the top showed the barest hint of cleavage. “It's not too showy, is it? I cut something for Fluttershy too low once and she nearly had a heart attack, so I erred on the side of modesty for you.”

Fuyu looked down at herself and shook her head. “I feel fine. It fits perfectly.”

“Good! Now, try these on. They should be somewhat more comfortable than regular heels.” Rarity set down a pair of turquoise shoes on the floor in front of her feet. The soles were black, and consisted of a thick wedge of material that was three inches high under the heel, but much shorter under the ball and toes. Fuyu ditched her sandals and stepped into them. “Comfortable?”

The pale woman wiggled her toes. She had to look down a fairly long way at the dressmaker now, and the perspective took her a moment to get used to. “Yes, much better. Everything looks different from up here.”

“You're almost six feet tall in those, darling. You'll match up well with Princess Celestia.” Rarity raised her arms and set her chin on the back of her right hand, pondering the ensemble. Abruptly, she clapped her hands and let out a giddy laugh. “I am so good at this! You're absolutely gorgeous! Come over here, see for yourself!”

Fuyu walked over as Rarity waved toward a floor mirror. Her steps were a bit unsure at first, but it didn't take her long to get used to the shoes. Once in view of her reflection, she couldn't help but be surprised. “I look different,” she said, smoothing down the lower part of the dress. “I feel different.”

“Clothes make the woman, my dear. Goodness, you're living proof that Rainbow Dash and Applejack should get over themselves and wear a skirt once in a while.” Rarity peered closely at the curving black stripe and nodded her approval. “Flawless. Are we all set?”

“At least as far as appearance goes,” Fuyu muttered. “I still don't know how I feel about attending.”

Rarity came around front again and smiled up at her. “You'll have us there. And you don't have to stay the whole time, like I said before. Unless the Princess has other ideas.”

“Right.” Fuyu looked at herself again and smiled. “Thank you. If nothing else, I'll look very nice while they glare at me.”

Rarity patted her gently on the left shoulder. “Have some faith, dear. It takes time.”

The pale woman cast her eyes at the floor and sighed, wondering just how much patience she was really capable of.

“I cannot believe you are wearing that.”

Fuyu heard the outburst and looked over at Rarity, seated on her right, who was scowling at Rainbow Dash. The athlete had walked into the meeting hall in her usual clothes – only this time, the hoodie was gray and her blue jeans had no holes in the knees.

“Hey, if I'm gonna be sitting through this, I'm gonna be comfortable,” she countered, sitting on Fuyu's left. “I bet you Applejack is wearing the same thing I am.” The three of them were on the stage, seated at a rectangular table covered with a white cloth. To their left was the podium, and on the other side of that was another table, just like theirs. Its seats were empty; the dignitaries had not yet arrived.

“Thank goodness you're early, that's something. Wear some jewelry for once!” Rarity scolded, primping a purple curl as she glared. She was clad in a shiny, muted blue dress that resembled the color of her eyes.

Rainbow grinned back, pointing at the rings in her ears. “I am!” She snickered at the groan that came from the dressmaker and leaned back in her chair. That's when her eyes landed fully on Fuyu's new look, and she blinked. “Damn, girl.”

The pale woman glanced down at herself, then over at Rainbow. “What?”

“You look pretty good. Maybe Rare is right about me being able to wear a dress.” Rainbow tilted her head, then smiled to herself. “Nah, I'll never do that crap.”

“Rainbow Dash, I swear you are so...you!” Rarity huffed. More people were beginning to arrive, and they all paused to watch them enter. Out of nowhere came Pinkie Pie, in a cheerful pink shirt and skirt, popping up seemingly from under the table and scaring Rainbow Dash out of her wits.

“Hi!” she waved furiously, then presented Fuyu with a glass bottle full of yellowish liquid. “Try this!”

“Okay?” Fuyu peered at it for a moment before taking a swig. It was fizzy lemonade with a hint of peach, but unlike her previous attempts with such drinks, all the flavor reached her brain. She crinkled her face up, though she smiled regardless. “Tangy. I like it.”

“Great! Be right back!” She took the bottle and vanished under the table cloth.

“How in the hell does she keep doing that?!” Rainbow exclaimed, looking under the table. All she got was an eyeful of Fuyu's legs. “...wow.” She retreated from under the cloth and sat there with a blank look on her face.

Rarity was too busy scanning the growing crowd to tease her. “I see Fluttershy. Darling! Over here!”

They all watched her skitter through the benches, avoiding people as best she could. Because of her winding path, she only arrived two or three minutes later. “Hello. I'm glad I'm not late.” She, too, was in her usual modest garb, but sported a glittering yellow butterfly hairpin above her left ear.

Rarity smiled as she sat down. “You look lovely, darling.”

“Oh, so she wears her usual clothes and you don't care, but I wear mine and you pitch a fit,” Rainbow growled across Fuyu, leaning forward and glaring.

Before the argument could get going, Applejack strode in. She stopped for a moment and looked around with uncertain eyes; Fuyu guessed it was due to her clothes. She was wearing an apple-themed dress the pale woman had never seen before. Quickly, she moved to the table and sat down next to Rainbow. “Uh, I think I done dressed up too fancy,” she said, laughing nervously.

“You wore your Gala dress! I'm so proud!” Rarity then smirked at Rainbow. “So much for your assertion.”

“Damn it,” the athlete muttered, before giving Applejack a kiss on the cheek. “You look great.”

“Thanks! Hey, Fu! Speakin' of lookin' great, y'all look wonderful,” she said, waving a little. “How ya feel?”

“Anxious,” the pale woman admitted, eyes pointed down at the table.

“Shoot, relax. Just accept your thingy and we can get on outta here,” Applejack reassured her. “Well...after I eat. Ain't had nothin' since breakfast.”

“We're not here for that,” Rarity pounded the table lightly. “We are here to back up our friend.”

Fuyu's face twisted into a vaguely annoyed look as the four of them started chatting amongst themselves. Pinkie once again appeared from nowhere and took the seat on the end farthest from the podium, smiling widely. Only one empty chair remained, and it was on the other end. The pale woman began wondering where Twilight was.

She didn't have to wait long for her answer. “Wow, look at Miss Serious,” Rainbow said, pointing toward the open doors. Twilight walked directly down the aisle toward them. She had on a navy blue blazer, under which was a white blouse and a red necktie. Her skirt was also navy blue, and was so long Fuyu couldn't even see her shoes.

“It's not often she busts out the uniform,” Applejack blinked. “Well, least I don't feel too outta place now.”

“What uniform is that?” Fuyu asked, but none of them were able to answer before Twilight arrived. The figure in her head started to rail, but Fuyu did her very best to ignore its words.

The librarian walked up the steps and came around, taking her seat and looking over. “Phew, I'm still on time. What's with all the staring?”

“You look terribly grave, darling,” Rarity pointed out.

“Oh! Sorry, my Academy uniform was the only formal clothing I could find...in the closet I promised myself I'd clean out three months ago...” she grumbled, the volume of her voice dropping on that last line. “Applejack, you're wearing your Gala dress?” She watched the blonde blush and grinned at her. “It happened to you too, huh. Fuyu, you look very nice!”

“Thank you,” the pale woman shrugged. “I'd like to get this over with.”

Twilight smiled at her. “It'll be fine, I'm su--” Abruptly, she stood up, and the hall became quiet. Everyone else at the table rose too, so Fuyu did the same. Princess Celestia traveled down the aisle with regal grace. The Mayor was in tow, as was the chief of police, and a few other people Fuyu didn't recognize. While they all sat at the empty table, the crowd also seated itself, and the Mayor went to the podium.

“I'm gonna take a nap,” Rainbow whispered, jumping in her seat as Applejack jabbed her in the ribs.

The Mayor began speaking. Of the seven women at the table, only Twilight, Fuyu, and Fluttershy seemed able to maintain their attentiveness. Rainbow's head bobbed up and down as the speech bored her to tears, and her girlfriend started yawning a few minutes later. Even Rarity's eyes were droopy. Pinkie Pie was much too fascinated with the fancy accoutrements on the table – for her, most of the speech was spent making faces into the vases that contained the flowers. Soon, even Twilight had run out of attention, and by the time the Mayor was done using the opportunity to campaign for the next election, only Fuyu was still paying any attention, although that was basically jerking into alertness when she heard her name.

“Speech time,” Twilight advised her, nodding to the podium. “Now's your chance!”

“I don't...” she trailed off, glancing around at the six women, all of whom were making some sort of encouraging face or motion. She sighed and relented. “Fine.” She stood up and walked from the table, blinking at the Mayor as she quickly stepped aside. The crowd politely applauded, but the pale woman sensed the tension as she looked out over the people. Far in the rear, she saw someone waving – it was Stormy. Unable to resist, she waved back.

It was enough to dent her nervousness and loosen her lips. “I'm not sure what to say,” she started, gripping the sides of the podium, “but I know what I'm going to say. I understand that I'm different. I understand that it makes you afraid.” She frowned and glanced down to her right. Twilight nodded up to her and smiled back. “I'm different, but I'm something else, too. I'm not a dictator in waiting. I'm not going to burst into your house and demand you make me a cake throne.” A few chuckles rose from the audience, and her frown faded. “I'm mysterious, too, but a lot of me is a mystery to myself.” She paused there and looked down.

“You can do it,” Rainbow said, leaning back out of line so Fuyu could see her. “Just let it out.”

She nodded at the athlete and looked back at the crowd. “This is my home. Why do you think I fought Trixie in the first place? She was going to hurt you all. I didn't want to see that happen. I...” She faltered again; the figure was speaking to her, and once more she found its words fit beautifully in her train of thought. “I did what needed to be done to help the people I cared about. I won't be ashamed of it.”

The audience was murmuring amongst itself, and Fuyu could see the looks on their faces, especially in the closer rows. Fearing her words were only making things worse, she racked her brain for something else to say. “I guess my point is...please don't be afraid of me. I'd never do something like Trixie did. I don't even think I could do such a thing.” Spent, she drifted back from the podium and proceeded to return to her seat at the table. Before she could get there, out of the corner of her eye she saw someone stand up in the crowd.

It was Stormy. This time, everyone looked back at her as she walked into the aisle and toward the front with purposeful strides. When she reached the base of the stage, she turned to face them all and slammed her hands onto her hips. “Look, Fu can be scary as hell sometimes, but you know what? She keeps her word.” Again, the crowd was murmuring. “I owe her everything. My life, my safety. I know you guys think I'm just a thief. Come to think of it, Applejack probably still wants to shoot me in the face!” she grinned, thumbing over her shoulder at the blonde. “I'm just saying...give her a chance. She's really nice. Kinda quiet, but reliable as fuck. Errr, pardon my language, Your Highness,” she gulped, looking over her other shoulder at an amused Princess. She skittered back into the crowd and sat down, giving the pale woman a thumbs up.

Fuyu smiled broadly as she sat down, but the crowd was still limited to murmuring. The Mayor came over and whispered something into Pinkie's ear that made her stand up and start bouncing. “Okay! Who wants some food?” she yelled, streaking to the curtain behind the on stage and yanking it open. Behind it was the buffet table; the crowd stood up and started toward it.

“Okay, time to mingle,” Twilight said, stretching her legs as she rose. Her face went blank as the Princess motioned her over. “Hold on.”

“How did I do?” Fuyu asked Rarity, glancing at the librarian's retreating form.

“Wonderful, dear.” She gave the pale woman a tight hug. “Even if it doesn't help, you still have us.” They watched Applejack and Rainbow Dash, already at the buffet, fighting over the rolls. “Pardon me, I need to go separate the pigs.”

“It's okay,” Fluttershy said, coming up just as Rarity departed. “I thought you did great, too.” Fuyu nodded and smiled, then turned as Stormy stumbled up onto the stage and fell over her long skirt.

“Did I help?” she asked as Fuyu pulled her to her feet.

“I don't know. We'll see.” Off to the side, Twilight was waving for her. “I think I'm being summoned.”

She went over to the librarian, threading her way through the people. She was standing with the Princess and had a big smile on her face. “The Princess would like to speak with you in private,” she said, then pointed up. “Just follow her to the balcony.”

“Very well,” Fuyu nodded, looking at Celestia. Even in her new shoes, she lacked three inches compared to the Princess and had to raise her eyes slightly. They vanished stage right and ascended a spiral staircase, and Celestia moved aside the curtain with her magic to grant them entry. Once on the balcony, Fuyu looked down at the milling people below. “You didn't speak to me before. I'm glad you decided to now.”

The Princess smiled down at her, but the expression was laced with a sad anxiety that made Fuyu blink. “I think it's time you knew the truth.”

The pale woman stood there, motionless, analyzing the voice that had just addressed her. Once she made the connection, her face twisted into a confused scowl. “You did talk to me before,” she whispered, the realization overwhelming her. “You talked to me when I touched the amulet. You've been talking to me for the last five years!”

Unthinkable (Epilogue)

As the Princess sat down in a chair tucked off to the side near the open curtain, Fuyu tried to prioritize the burning thoughts in her head. Ever the immediate pragmatist, she went with the nearest question first. “Why didn't I detect your magic?” she asked, standing next to the railing and looking back.

“Probably because of...” she paused, snapping the fingers on her left hand. Two white, angelic wings sprouted from her shoulders, which she dismissed after a moment. “The two types usually cancel each other out, leaving those that can do neither. That's why there are only three of us: Luna and I, and my niece, Mi Amore Cadenza.”

“Okay.” With that dealt with, she began wrangling with everything else. It was a heavy weight, and she too had to sit down, although she chose the blue carpet as her chair. “Why have you been talking to me? Do I know you from before I can remember?”

“That's one way of putting it,” Celestia nodded, gripping the armrests of her seat. “My sister and I built you.”

Fuyu slumped over even further; hearing it from the figure of the Princess was one thing, but hearing it again from the woman herself was entirely different. “You kept telling me to kill Twilight after I took the amulet,” she said, looking up. Her voice was raspy. “Why? She adores you.”

“Before I answer, let me turn that voice off. You don't need it any longer.” Celestia stood and walked over, placing the palm of her left hand on Fuyu's forehead. The golden crystal on her flesh was as warm and inviting as the sun, and like that star it burned away the white fog in Fuyu's mind. The figure, too melted into nothing, and by the time the Princess withdrew her hand and sat again, the whole of the pale woman's consciousness was a gaping, black void. “There. It should be a little quieter from now on.”

“How did you...” Fuyu rubbed at her skull, trying to scratch the abyss within as if it were an itch. Automatically, her thoughts expanded to try and fill the gap. “Answer my question.”

“There is some backstory you need first.” Celestia rose again, wandering to the railing and looking down. Below was her faithful student, chatting happily with Fluttershy and Rarity. “When Twilight was young, her parents submitted an application for her enrollment in the Canterlot Academy. The process includes a practical magic applications test.” A powerful frown yanked at her lips. She turned away from the railing and went back to her chair. “I've never seen a girl so nervous before. She put so much pressure on herself to succeed, and when she kept failing, she panicked. That's when it happened.”

“What happened?” Fuyu urged her, desperate for something to analyze. “What did she do?”

The Princess reached up and shed her golden crown, setting it on the floor in front of her white boots. “She began transmuting matter. She turned her parents into potted plants, for instance. I had to intervene and stop her.”

“I thought such things were impossible.” Fuyu blinked at something in her head, then looked up at Celestia. “Is that why her spark was different from all the others I felt?”

She nodded gently. “Yes. We didn't want you to activate for just anyone that had the power. We needed you to be ready for her.”

“I don't understand. Twilight is very friendly, she wouldn't hurt anyone.” The pale woman rose to her feet and approached. “She...she helped me...”

“And I'm glad that's who she has become. You see, I took two approaches to prevent a disaster. The first was taking her under my wing, to help her control her immense strength.” Celestia glanced down at the floor, her magenta eyes oddly anxious. “However, Twilight is very high-strung. I knew even my guidance couldn't help her overcome that. That's why, on the side, we had you. If she ever lost her sanity, you were to prevent the unthinkable.”

A few precious pieces of the puzzle were now falling into place. Fuyu understood why the book about the invasion bothered her so; its result was the thing she was supposed to stop. She continued to scratch the empty itch in her head and attempted to prioritize the questions. “Where did I come from?” was the one that escaped her lips.

It took a long time for the Princess to answer. The look she bore on her face was deeply uncomfortable. “You were an orphan in Canterlot. The red lines on your palms were where we cut away your original crystals.”

Immediately, Fuyu rotated her hands and stared at the black studs. “I had these before?” Again, her mind was aflame, but this time she couldn't restrain herself from asking the first thing that sprung up. “What color were they?”

“The same blue as your hair.” Celestia replied. She could see Fuyu beginning to tremble, but couldn't make herself offer any comfort.

“Did I have family?” There was no stopping the flow now, both of inquiries and tears from her eyes.

Celestia shook her head. “We don't know. When I met you in the hospital, you only knew your first name, which was...”

“Winter,” Fuyu interrupted her, already having that answer. “That's why you called me...” She went over to the railing and looked down. Her eyes settled on Stormy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, apparently having a playful fight about something. The ex-thief looked up and waved upon seeing the pale woman, and the two lover followed suit. The pale woman put on her best smile and waved back before retreating. “How did I become Fuyu?” she asked, staring down the Princess.

“One of the Castle staff is from the east. She ended up keeping an eye on you while you stayed there. When she learned your name, she started calling you Fuyu.” The Princess looked suddenly upset, and hid her eyes again. “I'm not surprised you imprinted on that name. She was the kindest to you out of us all.”

“I stayed in the Castle...” Fuyu called up the flat, formless memory of the gardens and nodded to herself. That lead her to another memory. “There was a white room, with gray curtains. Was that in the Castle, too?”

The Princess dropped her hand and glanced up. “No, that was somewhere else. It was the facility where we first introduced you to the material.”

Fuyu recalled the dream she had about being strapped down to a bed and began to fidget. “Is that when I was tied up and surrounded by those people?”

Celestia shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Probably. It was an injection.”

“That's why I couldn't control it,” she breathed, looking at her hands once more. “I didn't even have it yet. You were there too, behind everyone. I talked to you, but you wouldn't answer,” she added, turning to look at the Princess. “Now I know why.”

“I truly am sorry about all of this,” Celestia offered, standing up. “You were a last resort that, thankfully, is no longer necessary. I hope.”

“Wait. How did I end up in the middle of nowhere?” Fuyu cut her off, her gaze hard. “You're leaving things out.”

The Princess looked bitterly uneasy, but she steeled herself by taking a long breath. “When I decided to terminate the project, we left you in the wilderness, hoping you would die.”

Fuyu glared at her, but found she wasn't so much angry as she was sad. “I see. And how did the amulet end up outside of your care?”

“I...” The Princess' face shifted from upset to embarrassed. “I wanted to throw it off the side of the mountain. Nobody could use it but you, so I figured it didn't matter what I did – or so I thought. I finally chose to hide it in the ruins of an old palace in the south.” She turned away from the pale woman and folded her arms. “I was ashamed about not having faith in my student. I wanted the whole thing to go away. It appears I didn't hide it well enough.”

“Things like that don't stay buried.” Fuyu walked up to her and stood at her right side. “Do you even know what I've been doing the past five years?”

She nodded, but kept her eyes averted. “If you're asking me about the people you've killed, yes. I had some idea. You were doing as we designed you to.”

Fuyu blinked and took a few steps backward. “You designed me to eat them?”

“As an emergency source of energy, yes. Luna and I both decided that death would be better than an eternity spent as a toaster, or a bicycle.” Celestia finally regarded Fuyu, and her face was firm. “If you couldn't access the amulet, you would have had plenty of fuel. It might not have been enough to stop Twilight, but you could have hurt her. Maybe she would have come to her senses.”

The two were silent for a few moments. Fuyu mentally writhed under the weight of the truth, while the Princess dealt with the burden of having to reveal it. They both ended up at the railing, looking down at the people below.

“How old am I?” Fuyu asked out of the blue, glancing up at her companion.

The Princess hesitated for a moment before replying. “Twenty-one or twenty-two, as far as I know. When we took you in, you were barely a teenager.”

“Do I have a birthday?” Fuyu couldn't understand why these questions were so important to her, but her mind demanded they be asked.

“To be honest, you didn't remember, and we never found out. You get to pick one,” Celestia said with a smile. “How about today? It's the first day of your new life.”

That struck her oddly, and in a way she didn't like. “No. I have a better idea.” Twilight was waving to them again, and they returned the gesture. Fuyu patted at her face to make sure she wasn't still crying – that would have attracted unwanted attention. “What am I supposed to do now?”

“Whatever you want.” Celestia place a hand on her shoulder and smiled. “You're not too angry with me, are you?”

“You did what you felt needed to be done,” Fuyu replied. Even though her words held no ill tone, they stung the Princess viciously. “As for anger...I don't know yet. I have to think.”

Celestia frowned, but nodded. “I understand. I think Twilight is becoming suspicious. We should probably head down.”

“I'm not done yet,” Fuyu refused, crossing her arms as she turned away from the railing. “I want to know more. I want something I can read.”

“I'll arrange it so what's left of the project documentation can be sent here, but on one condition,” Celestia replied. She shivered faintly at the frigid look Fuyu launched at her. “You cannot tell Twilight. If she finds out what I've done – what we've done – it may send her over the edge. I don't know what to expect if that happens.”

“You won't need to expect anything,” the pale woman replied, her voice as cold as her blue eyes. “I'll accomplish the purpose for which you built me.”

“Please,” the Princess began, but her voice caught in her throat at the image of her faithful student being killed. “Please don't say that. It hurts me to think such things.”

“And yet, here I am,” Fuyu squinted. “You're afraid of her. That's why I'm here in the first place, isn't it?” Celestia was unable to respond, but her silence was all the answer needed. “No wonder she keeps giving me advice. She knows exactly how it feels to be feared.”

The Princess finally found the gumption to fire back. “No, she doesn't! She doesn't have a full recollection of that day, and I intend to make sure it never troubles her.”

Fuyu looked at the railing as she collected her thoughts. Anger was starting to creep in where the fog had once been, and it was adding its own particular haze to her thinking. “Did you really come here to provide me with the truth, or did you just want another set of shoulders to help bear your guilt?”

“Both,” Celestia replied, without any hesitation. “I had some idea that you were alive, but to go looking for you would invite questions. I needed to wait until you made yourself known.”

“Fine.” Fuyu was getting tired of the conversation, and her face showed it. “I want to go be with my friends now.”

The Princess nodded. “Of course. But before we part company, there's one more thing I have to give you.”

“I think it went well!”

Fuyu glanced over at a very chipper Twilight, who was having some trouble with the car's floor pedals due to the length of her uniform skirt. “Maybe,” was all the pale woman had to offer.

“Oh, don't be so pessimistic. You looked great, you did great, and the Princess seems to like you.” Twilight peered up through the windshield at the red traffic light. “Change already! By the way, what was in that little purple box?”

Fuyu reached into the only storage she had to retrieve the velvet-clad object in question – her cleavage – smiling all the way at the memory of Stormy's reaction to her putting it in there as she left the party. The contents of the box, however, slaughtered her grin. “It was from the Princess.” She flipped it open and showed it to the librarian, blinking at her surprised reaction.

“She invested you?” Twilight breathed with shock, snatching the medal from its case and holding it up to her eyes. It was a stylized golden sun, with a yellow cabochon topaz at its center. The sun was attached to the rectangular ribbon by a circle of metal that hooked to a pair of wings. The ribbon itself was an intense blue, and had an orange stripe down the center. “Wow. I think I have to call you Dame from now on.”

“I thought it was just an award,” Fuyu said, taking the medal and its case back. “Do you know what it is? She didn't explain it to me very well.”

“I sure do, I have one myself.” The light was green, and Twilight accelerated through the intersection before continuing. “The government acts just like any other monarchy. There are knights and orders of all kinds. This one is called the Order of the Morning Sun. It entitles you to some stuff. I'm sure you'll get the letter later.” With that out of the way, Twilight's mind snapped to a more pressing matter. “What did you two talk about for so long?”

Fuyu set the case in her lap and frowned. “Things.” She knew full well that would only attract further curiosity, but had no idea how to lie her way around the conversation.

“She told you about the amulet, didn't she.” The librarian didn't sound terribly upset, but her face was marked with something between confusion and annoyance. “Applejack would tell me to let it go. I'm not sure I can. Then again...she'd never hide something that would hurt me, right?” Twilight smiled to herself as they drove. “Celestia's been like my second mom, always looking out for me. Seeing what that thing did to Trixie, maybe she had a point. I'm still worried about you having it, but you seem to be fine. Maybe I should let it drop.”

“Hmm.” The accepting tone in Twilight's voice only served to make Fuyu more uncomfortable with the gravity of her new secret, and she shifted in her seat appropriately. “She talked about you quite a bit.”

The librarian blushed a little. “Nothing bad, I hope. You know...she only gives entrance to that order to people she trusts. You must have made quite an impression on her.”

“I guess.” Fuyu shed her shoes to allow her toes to breathe, wiggling them furiously against the carpeted mat. She decided to change the subject to one she could actually be open with. “I wonder what the town thinks of me now?”

“I guess we'll find out in the morning.” Twilight glanced up at the full moon and scratched at her nose. “I can't wait to get home. This skirt is driving me insane.”

“Can we still go to Canterlot?” Fuyu asked, turning to look at her. “You said you would take me to meet the Princess. Can we still go?”

Twilight blinked at the insistent tone of her words, but nodded with a smile. “Sure we can. It's really pretty this time of year. Soon, it'll be snowing! Everything in the city turns white.”

Fuyu waited for that statement to call up a memory, and scowled when nothing happened. “It sounds nice,” she sighed, turning back to look out the window.

“Are you okay? You've seemed really tense ever since we left.” Twilight's worried eyes darted over to gauge the pale woman's mood.

“I don't know what to think anymore,” she breathed, so faint it was lost in the music coming from the radio. She looked back and tried to put on a smile. “I'm fine. I just want to get my nap in.”

Twilight couldn't help but smile to herself. “At least that hasn't changed.”

A few minutes' passage brought them to the library tree, and Twilight brought the car to a stop around the rear. Fuyu slid her feet back into her shoes and got out, watching as the librarian did the same. Once inside, they found Spike had fallen asleep watching the TV in the public area, and Twilight disappeared into the living quarters, returning with a blanket to cover the snoring kid. After he had been tended to, she walked into the bathroom while Fuyu went upstairs to the loft to shed her clothes and put on her usual garb.

“Phew!” Twilight said, stretching her arms and trying not to fall over herself as she climbed the steps. She glanced at Fuyu, who was lying on her bed, and smiled. “Good idea. I'm beat.” She entered her closet. Rustling sounds came from within, and a couple of minutes later she stepped out, dressed in a light blue shirt and black sweat pants studded with yellow stars. “Much better.”

Fuyu watched her fall onto her own bed and let out a long groan. “I have a question,” she said, sitting up and setting the medal case beside her.

The librarian blinked as she got comfortable. “What's up?”

“If I hear a voice in my head that sounds like me, what does that mean?” Her face was totally serious.

“Um,” Twilight scratched her head and looked around. “It's probably your conscious. Everyone has a voice that sounds like themselves up there. Does it talk to the other thing?”

“The figure is gone,” Fuyu admitted, unable to stop at least some of the truth from slipping out. “It's only me now.”

Twilight nodded and crossed her arms, thinking. “Must be the amulet. I should keep an eye on you for the next few days. I mean, if you don't mind.”

“All right.” The pale woman dropped back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. “I think I'll go to sleep now.”

“Good night! See you in the morning!” Twilight said, doing much the same and turning off the lamp. She was out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, and once again Fuyu was treated to the dulcet tones of her dainty snoring.

The pale woman did not sleep, however. She took the opportunity to test her new mental spokesperson instead. “Now what?”

I can't tell Twilight. It will hurt her.

“I know, but...” Fuyu sat up again and gazed across the room at the snoozing woman. “Shouldn't she have the truth too?”

She's happy. Let her stay that way.

Fuyu had to adjust to the first-person aspect of the new voice for a moment, but she appreciated always getting an answer. “Very well. But I want to know more.”

We'll see what the Princess does.

“She better keep her word.” Fuyu glared out the large window and frowned. “I think I'm talking to myself.” This time, it didn't answer her, and she grinned lowly. “Is that a signal to shut up?” Again, it remained quiet, and her grin only got larger. “Time for a nap.”

Her eyes slid closed, and when they next opened a little more than an hour had passed. To her surprise, however, Twilight was also awake, sitting up in bed, reading a book. She didn't have the lamp on; a small pen light was in her free hand to light up the pages. While Fuyu was used to seeing this, she had assumed Twilight was tired enough to sleep through the night.

“You're awake?” the pale woman asked, sitting up and rubbing down her messy hair.

“Yeah. Something spooked me and now I can't seem to get back to sleep.” Twilight turned a page and tried to work the stiffness out of her neck. “I meant to ask earlier, did you talk to the Princess about the black stuff?”

Fuyu shook her head. “The subject didn't come up.”

“Oh. I asked her about it the other day. She must not have found out what it is.” The librarian turned another page and sighed. “I don't know what to think. Part of me wishes she were forthcoming, but another part of me says I should trust her and move on.”

“There are three of you?” Fuyu blinked, both at the statement and at Twilight's giggling reaction.

“It's called being conflicted,” she explained, setting her book aside. “I know you've felt the same way before.”

Fuyu looked down in thought, then lifted her head and nodded. “Every time I had to eat. And then...Applejack.”

“Exactly. Well, not exactly, but close enough,” Twilight said, her face twisting a little. “Sometimes, you just don't know what to do.”

“I've always known what to do,” Fuyu countered with a frown. She considered the events of the day and realized that was no longer the truth. “At least, I did...”

“Welcome to our world,” Twilight grinned faintly, then let out a terrific yawn. “Reading that chemistry book always does it. I'm out. Good night.” She slid under her blanket and cut off the lamp.

Fuyu sighed and slid out of bed, wandering down the stairs. She opened the refrigerator and found a glass bottle of the peachy lemonade that hadn't been there when she last looked, which caused her to tilt her head. “How does she do that?” With a shrug, she took the bottle and wandered into the public area to look out one of the great windows. Once in a long while, a car would travel by, but otherwise the streets were just as sleepy as the library.

“I really don't know what to do,” she admitted, lifting her free hand and letting the moonlight bounce off the black crystal in her palm. Something heavy settled onto her chest; she was sad, and couldn't quite figure out why. “Shouldn't I be happier? I don't have to hurt people any longer." She glanced back over her shoulder at the door to the living quarters and frowned. When it finally hit her, she squeezed the bottle and scowled unhappily. “All I've done is trade one secret for another.” Her emotions grew mixed, but instead of the comforting fog, all her mind's eye had to offer her now was a broken library of incomplete thoughts, combined with the stew of the Princess' admission. She growled lowly, emptied the bottle with one pass, and stalked back into the living quarters. The whole thing bothered her, but the feeling it generated bothered her even more.

For the first time in her conscious memory, Fuyu felt bitter.

The Great and Powerful

People. People all around me.

Why are you letting them hurt me? Stop them.

Why is everything white? Why won't you come out?

Help me! Don't just stand there!

At least look at me, you--

Fuyu shot up in bed and slammed a palm to the right side of her head, trying to figure out what had just happened. In a moment she knew it was a dream; in moment more she realized it was the first one she could recall ever having. Quickly, she ran over its particulars. She was in a white room, surrounded by hazy figures at which she had to look up. It was because she was lying on a bed of some sort, unable to move her hands and feet. The black goo would not listen to her, nor free her from her bonds. She was only able to move her head and look, and behind a mass of the formless crowd she saw that figure again, the one which spoke to her in times of need – or refused to speak outright when she most wanted it to.

“What happened?” she droned, slumping over as she collected herself. The light in the loft was pale and gray, and as she got her wits she slid out of bed and walked over to the large window. “Cloudy.” Turning around, she noted that Twilight's bed was made; the librarian was long gone. It was also ten after ten in the morning; she had been out for over four hours. “I should tell Twilight about this. It's not normal.”

Now that her shock at the dream was fading, something else rushed in to replace it: a buzzing noise, faint but unyielding, that caused her to grimace. Keeping a hand on her head, she retrieved her shoes and shuffled down the stairway into the kitchen, only to find it empty. Spike's bedroom door was open, so she walked over and looked inside. It, too, was vacant. No one was in the bathroom or the laundry room, either, nor the open space that lead to the tree's back door. After entering the public space and finding it just as deserted, she began to worry. Sprouting two knives from her palms, she crept around the pillars and tables to ensure she was truly alone. As she stalked past a bank of windows, however, something outside caught her attention.

The streets were just as empty as the library. Cars were parked beside the sidewalk as they always were, but no pedestrians were moving about. Even stranger, there was no vehicle traffic to speak of. Confused, Fuyu walked over and stepped out of the front door, eyes darting about warily.

“What is this?” She suspected she was still dreaming, and without a second thought lifted her shirt and stabbed herself in the side to confirm. The dull pain dissuaded that notion, and she started into the street with a frown while the sludge worked to repair her. Out of habit, she dismissed her ebony blades, even though nobody was around to see them.

“I don't understand,” she muttered, glancing into car windows as she passed by. Before long, she was in front of Rainbow Dash's apartment building, and peered up at the open window on the third floor. After making certain no one was watching, she squirted some of the goo onto her palms and placed her hands against the brick. In the space of thirty seconds, she had scrambled up the side of the structure and was peeking into the blue apartment. “Rainbow?” she called, sticking her head in through the window. Not seeing her, the pale woman slid in through the window and started searching the rooms one by one. The kitchen was empty and the bathroom was vacant. Upon entering the bedroom, she found the bed unmade and tremendously messy, but that was the standard state for it.

“Why isn't she here?” she asked herself, going back to the window in the living room and sticking her head out. Her eyes rested on the Boutique, some distance away. “Hmm.” The buzzing in her head poked at her for a moment in the silence, and she took some time to shake it away before flinging herself out the window. She landed with a heavy thud in the street, brushed off her pants, and started toward the purple tower. A drop of rain pegged her in the forehead; when she looked up, she noticed the clouds were swirling in a wide circle above.

“Storm?” Fearing a repeat of that night at the orchard, she picked up her pace. The pavement flew underneath her sandals as she ran; the faster she went, however, the louder the buzzing became. It grew so noisy that it forced her to clutch at her head and come to a wobbly stop. “Go away,” she droned, making herself stumble on. Slowly, it began to subside until she regained her footing and tore off again. Once inside the shop, she went directly up the stairs at the back and began poking around the living quarters. The enormous four-poster bed in Rarity's bedroom was neatly made; everything in the room was orderly, for that matter. The same went for her bathroom, the small kitchen at the back, and the two rooms set aside for her little sister's visits and her fashion brainstorming sessions. They all had something else in common, however: none of them contained the dressmaker.

“What in the hell?” Fuyu spat, blinking in surprise at her anger. Only one other place was near enough to check, and she immediately departed the Boutique. The scene only got more eerie as she entered downtown proper. She passed shops that had very clearly been opened, yet held no occupants. There were far fewer parked cars. Even worse, the buzzing was back with a vengeance, pounding her brain as she wobbled toward Sugarcube Corner.

“Shut up!” she shrieked, her voice echoing off the plate glass windows. The sweets shop was at the corner ahead, but every step she took felt like an hour's worth of withering work. Once she was in range, she pulled one hand away from clutching her skull to point it at the balcony of the baker's loft, firing a black rope at the railing. Once it attached, she yanked herself up and fell roughly against the door, unable to control her landing. The buzzing was now so powerful it twisted her sight, blurring everything around her into wispy blobs of color. “Pinkie!” she croaked, stumbling into the loft. “Help me!” No one was there to answer her call. Eventually, she teetered back outside onto the balcony, bumped into the railing, and fell off onto the sidewalk. The fall didn't bother her so much as the ceaseless ringing, which was so loud now it drilled through all of her thoughts, and even obscured the shape of the figure in her mind. “Stop...stop...” she begged, clawing at her skull.

Working on its own, the black goo forced her arms down. It shot out of her palms and latched to the concrete, reeling itself back into her hands to drag her along. To her horror, however, the noise only got worse as she traveled. “No! Other way!” she ordered it, clutching her hands into fists. It ignored her, wrenching her fingers open and pulling her into the ringing abyss. “No! Damn it, listen to me!” Before she could fight it again, however, the buzzing was gone entirely. Fuyu now found herself lying on the pavement in the shadow of the enormous town meeting hall, the only building in Ponyville that beat out Rarity's dress shop in height. Like the rest of the town, the space around it was devoid of people. Unlike the rest of the town, however, she could hear voices. Quickly, she leaped to her feet and shook her head, trying to clear out the residual cobwebs left by the incessant ringing. Once she could see again, she started following the voices. They lead her to the hall, but when she looked in the windows it too was empty. Confused, she went around the side and finally found a large crowd of people out front. Sighing with relief, she prepared to join them, but something stopped her.

It was Pinkie, at the front of the mob and staring at her with fearful blue eyes. She slowly shook her head at a Fuyu when the pale woman started to approach, and nodded off in a random direction. A few cycles of this went by before a loud, unfamiliar voice boomed out.

“What are you looking at? Did I miss someone?”

Pinkie squeaked with fear and threw up her hands. “No no no no no! I just saw a bird! A dancing bird with a top hat and a cane!”

Stunned by the randomness of the baker's outburst, Fuyu barely heard the voice's next words. Instead, she only came in contact with their results – a crestfallen Applejack appeared, shuffling up with tears in her eyes.

“H-hey Fu,” she greeted with a halfhearted wave. “Uh...y'all just come back with me, all right?”

Fuyu didn't budge, instead folding her arms and pinning the blonde down with a harsh look. “What's going on here?”

“Why aren't you back yet?” the strange woman yelled again.

Applejack winced, slumping over in defeat. “Please, Fu, she's gonna hurt somebody if I lollygag.”

“Who is she?” The pale woman walked over to her, trying to peek around the building and see. She blinked when Applejack grabbed her by the wrist and started forcing her ahead. “What are you doing?”

“Just play along, please,” the blonde muttered. They rounded the corner and Fuyu saw just how large the crowd was. She picked out individual people as Applejack moved her along; Bon Bon was there, with Lyra by her side, Rarity and Fluttershy were huddled together on the ground, an angry Rainbow Dash perched over them protectively. The Mayor was there as well, standing between the crowd and a woman Fuyu didn't know. She had two-tone blue hair and hateful red eyes. Cornflower blue crystals studded her palms. The majority of her frame was covered by a black cloak, but around her neck was a gleaming red and black amulet in the shape of a unicorn's head, whose sides were framed by wings. Fuyu's eyes would not leave it, even as Applejack stood her before its wearer.

“I did miss someone, it seems,” the woman sighed, waving her hand dismissively. “I don't remember seeing you the last time I was here.”

Fuyu was too busy staring at the amulet to pay any attention to her words. It pulsed with an energy she could barely comprehend – the spark that alerted her to the presence of magic was wailing at a tremendous volume. So enthralled was she by it that she didn't see the woman lift her hand, nor that hand light up with crimson power. Only when that glow was hurled at her and bounced off of her face did she snap out of her reverie.

“You do not ignore Trixie,” she hissed, smiling at the smoking mark on Fuyu's face. Applejack growled angrily, but was quieted when the magician pointed over at her family in the crowd. “Go over there and shut up. I'm going to have some fun with the present you've brought me.”

“You leave her alone!” Rainbow screamed, only to be suppressed by another bolt of crimson magic that forced her to cover her friends with her wings.

“A friend? All the more reason for me to enjoy my--” she stopped short, blinking at Fuyu. “Why are you still standing?”

The burn on her cheek was still there, but Fuyu paid it no attention. The amulet had her in its shining grasp; it was almost as if its presence wouldn't let her fall. The buzzing returned, but it was a more subtle noise than earlier, and instead of clouding her thoughts, it cleared away some of the white fog.

When the time comes, you will do what needs to be done.

Fuyu's eyes rolled up into her head until she was looking at the swirling gray above. “Why are you saying this...”

“Fu?” Applejack blinked down at her, then reached over to steady the pale woman. “What did ya say?”

“Oh, this one talks to herself,” Trixie groaned, rolling her eyes. She lit up her hand again and prepared to launch another glob of magic. “I'll be putting her out of her misery.”

Fuyu grew wobbly, and as she fell her sight passed over the amulet again. When it did, the figure spoke in a tone so clear, the words stuck even though she was beginning to lose consciousness. They even drowned out Applejack's worried cry and the hateful laughter of Trixie.

I am sorry...but that time is now.

The first thing Fuyu heard as her senses returned was someone crying. As her body ran its usual post-unconsciousness self-check, she eventually figured out that it was Pinkie Pie. The noise was bouncing, which alerted her sense of touch to the cold, concrete floor on which she lay. That, in turn, agitated her fingers and toes, which she wiggled. Her left hand came up automatically to feel her cheek where Trixie had struck; it was back to normal. Having passed the check, her eyes were the last thing to react, fluttering open.

“Fufu!” The baker was on her knees, hovering over the pale woman. “You're awake!”

“Oh, thank goodness.”

Fuyu looked over at Rarity as Pinkie helped her sit up. The dressmaker was an exhausted wreck – her hair, especially, was all out of sorts – but she put on a smile and walked over from the corner. She offered a hand, which Fuyu took, but it required both women to help her to her feet. As she rose, she examined the room. It was gray and bare, save for a simple cot on the wall opposite, and a silver toilet nestled between it and the back wall.

“What happened?” she asked, glancing about. The three of them were in a jail cell. The only light came from outside. When Fuyu went over to the bars and looked out, she saw a single ceiling light at the far end of a hallway. “Where are we?”

“The police station's basement,” Rarity explained. “Darling, are you all right? You've been out for hours. We thought you were...” She choked up a little, and had to force the last word out. “...dead.”

“I'm fine,” Fuyu assured her, turning around. Her sight caught a small window above them, through which she was able to see the cloud-obscured moon hanging in the night sky. “Who was that woman?”

“Trixie! She's the meanest meanie that ever meaned!” Pinkie growled, her hands clenched into fists. Upon seeing the blank look on Fuyu's face, her frown softened. “That didn't help explain anything, did it?”

Whatever anger the baker had lost in that instant, Rarity seemed to have gained. “She is a charlatan!” the dressmaker growled, stomping over to the cot on the back wall and sitting down. “This isn't the first time she's done this. Last time, Twilight humiliated her after she used her magic to mess around with us.”

That reminded Fuyu of something. “Where is Twilight?” she asked, moving to sit with Rarity on the cot.

“She got kicked out of town!” Pinkie wailed, dropping to her knees and hiding her face. “Oh, it was the worst! They had this big magic fight and Trixie's magic was magickier than Twilight's magic so Twilight took Spike with her and just...just went poof! We don't know where they are!”

The pale woman blinked at this revelation, but lost none of her chilly pragmatism. “Can't you just call her?”

“Trixie knocked out the signal tower. I tried a land line before she rounded us all up, but they're not working either,” Rarity explained, leaning back against the gray concrete wall and sighing. “I can't even open this stupid door. That rampaging whore has done something to it.”

Fuyu glanced over at the metal bars, then to the lock itself. That spark flashed past in her head – something magical indeed clung to the steel. “You're right, I see it.”

Pinkie rose to her feet and gasped at the pale woman. “You can see magic?”

“It's not really sight, but yes. It's how I can tell the ones that fly from the ones that can't, among other things.” Fuyu rose from the cot and walked over to the door, peering into the keyhole. At this close distance, the magic alarm in her brain was somewhat louder. Placing her hand on the metal drew a vaguely electric shock, but it wasn't strong enough to deter her. She filled the mechanism with goo and began rotating her hand back and forth. A loud click rang out a few seconds later, and the door swung open into the cell. “There.”

“Now we're getting somewhere,” Rarity sighed with a smile. She got up and followed Pinkie out into the dark hallway, looking over her shoulder at Fuyu as she brought up the rear. “I heard Rainbow in here earlier, but I'm not sure which cell she's in. The dressmaker lifted her left hand, lighting it up with bluish magic to help them see. They headed for the lit end of the hall first, but all the cells in that direction were empty. After doubling back and reaching the darker end of the corridor, they discovered the athlete asleep in the rear corner of one cell. The cot was also occupied; the long pink hair that spilled out from under the green blanket gave away that person's identity. “Rainbow! Fluttershy!”

“Nnagh!” the athlete screeched as she startled awake. Fluttershy squeaked loudly and tumbled to the floor, wrapped in the blanket and unable to wiggle out of it. “It's okay, Shy.” Rainbow went over to help her up before they both approached the bars. “Hey, guys. How'd you get out? Every time I touched the door I got shocked.”

Fuyu loosed a black snake from her palm, causing the shy woman to cry out unhappily. “This is how. Give me a second.” She worked her magic on the lock, prying it open with hardened ebony and pushing open the door. “Where is Applejack?”

Rainbow's face dropped into an angry mask of frustration. “Fuck if I know,” she hissed, stalking out of the cell with Fluttershy in tow. “I'm gonna kill that bitch!” Rarity grabbed her hand as she streaked past, pulling her gently back. “Let me go, Rare! I've got people to stab!”

“Because that worked so well the last time,” the dressmaker countered sarcastically. “She mopped the floor with Twilight, and Fuyu passed out in front of her. She's too strong for us to handle.”

Fluttershy began to weep quietly. Pinkie darted over and clamped on in a hug to calm her down, but the tears kept flowing. Fuyu looked over the four of them – while Rarity was calm enough, Rainbow still wanted to murder someone, and it wasn't long before the shy woman's crying caused Pinkie to tear up and sniffle. Fuyu folded her arms and sighed, looking down at the door on the other end of the hallway. “I'm going to go figure out what happened to Applejack.”

“Excuse me, but you've been unconscious for hours!” Rarity shot back, still having to restrain a furious Rainbow Dash. “I've got enough trouble dealing with our resident hero! Don't you start!”

Fuyu had a chilly glare loaded and ready to fire, but looking at Rainbow stifled it and swapped it out with a question. “Why didn't you just fly away?”

Rainbow became still and glanced at the dressmaker, who released her wrist. “I tried, but there's some kind of dome over the town, beyond the clouds.”

“A dome? Over the entire area?” Fuyu blinked as Rainbow and Fluttershy both nodded quietly. “How did she do that?”

Rarity shrugged and placed her hands on her hips. “Good question. Not even Twilight can do such things.”

The pale woman cast her eyes at the floor for a moment, thinking. “The amulet,” she realized, walking away from them and toward the door. “It was radiating a lot of magical power.” Rarity and Rainbow moved quickly to catch up to her, but Pinkie was still comforting Fluttershy, causing the two to lag behind. “You said you've met her before?”

The dressmaker shivered at the calm edge in Fuyu's voice, but nodded in reply. “That's right. Twilight said she was some kind of illusionist. She uses her magic ability as part of her show. The things she did to us, however, were no trick.”

That sentence made Fuyu turn around and look at her. “What things?” she asked harshly, the calm in her voice fading into anger.

“She made some people really old!” Rainbow said, raising her hand. “And younger, too. She fucked with my wings a couple of times. Oh, and she took Pinkie's mouth!” They all looked over as the baker emitted a very displeased noise and clung to Fluttershy, who sobbed even worse in response. “Don't worry, Pink, I'll give her one for you once we find her.”

“She even thought about leveling the library,” Rarity added, falling in beside Fuyu as they all got going again. “That would have ended badly for her, I wish she'd done it. No offense to the books.”

“I wouldn't have appreciated that very much,” Fuyu grumbled. They were at the door, and waited for Pinkie and Fluttershy to catch up with them.

“At least she had the decency to let Spike leave with her,” the dressmaker said, giving the shy woman a hug of her own as she walked up. “It's going to be all right, darling. If Twilight doesn't find a way, we will.”

“I hope she hasn't flattened the town,” Rainbow said, opening the door and peering up the stairs. They slowly ascended them and came to the station's ground floor, whose desks and floor were littered with all manner of paperwork. Upon reaching the glass front doors, they saw that Ponyville was indeed still standing – although most of the buildings in sight were dark. Fuyu placed a hand on the side of her head as the buzzing returned. “You all right, Fu?”

“I hear it,” she mumbled. “I hear the amulet.” They all followed her out into the small parking lot. “What are you all going to do?”

“I'm going straight to my parents' house to see if everyone is all right,” Rarity said, adjusting her blouse. “Hopefully I can get there without being harassed by that damnable wench.”

“I'd better take Fluttershy back with me,” Pinkie said, still clinging to her. “I don't think she wants to be by herself now, and I don't really wanna be either...”

“I'm gonna figure out where the hell Applejack went!” Rainbow growled, sprouting her wings and taking flight. As she flashed by, Fuyu launched a black rope from her palm that wrapped around her waist and yanked her backwards. “Let me go! I want blood!”

“You can get it after you make sure Rarity gets home.” Fuyu glared at her to make her stop struggling, and once satisfied she would just hover recalled her tentacle. “It might be a good idea for the four of you to lay low. I don't know what Trixie will do once she finds out you're not where she left you.”

“That's a good id--” Rarity stopped abruptly, stalking over to Fuyu and jabbing a finger into her chest. “And what about you? Are you going to go off and be a hero again by yourself? She's too powerful for you! She was too powerful for the most powerful woman I've ever known! I am not going to stand here and watch you go off and get killed!”

Fuyu swatted her finger aside and returned her glare with a frigid gaze. “I'm aware of that. I'm not going to go pick any fights, I just want to see where she is. Maybe Applejack is with her. If not, I'm going to go find her and bring her to Rainbow's apartment.” She ignored the happy cheer of the floating woman and continued. “If nothing else, I can cut a way out of the dome and go look for Twilight if I have no other options in town.”

Rarity huffed an annoyed sigh, but stepped back and folded her arms in resignation. “Fine. At the first sign of trouble, though, you come to the nearest one of our places, all right? This is something we need to tackle together.”

“I understand.” They all broke up, Rarity and Rainbow heading in one direction while Pinkie and Fluttershy shuffled in another. After they were all out of sight, Fuyu turned around and peered up at the town meeting hall with crossed arms. She stood there for several seconds, listening to the ringing in her mind as she thought. “There's something else I have to do first,” she muttered, dropping her arms and beginning a dash into the street toward downtown. The next words that passed through her lips were warped as if two of her were speaking at the same time.

“I must find out why she has my amulet.”