White

by Mayclore

Twenty Questions

Twilight lead them both into the library, and Fuyu examined her surroundings as they went. She thought it was a building shaped like a tree, but it was wood all the way through, and a rich oaken odor hung thickly in the air. There were books almost everywhere her eyes fell; books on shelves, books on other books on the floor, books on tables, even books in the windowsills. They passed through an opening into a wide room with large windows. They had come in the back entrance, and this room, the front room, faced the street. Several boxy leather chairs were loosely arranged here around round tables, and in one of these slept a teenage boy with wild green hair, a purple jacket, and khaki-colored shorts. Twilight saw him and rolled her eyes.

"That's Spike," she explained lowly, motioning them over to a set of chairs across the room. "He's my assistant, when he's not sleeping." She bade them to sit, and after they had seated herself, looking at the woman in black with curious eyes. Fuyu spent the silence while they were getting situated on more closely examining the librarian. She felt a twinge of something odd coming from her, something akin to the spark she felt when confronting one of those that could fly, but this was different. It was stronger, more electric, and she'd never experienced it before. She spent a moment burning the sensation to her memory, only regaining awareness of her surroundings when she felt Twilight's eyes on her.

"What can I do for you, exactly?" She blinked when Fuyu looked at Applejack, and also glanced over. "Um, whoever wants to start is fine?" she said, confused.

The blonde took up the task and went first. "Fu doesn't remember anything about herself but her name," she said, crossing her legs and sitting back in the chair. "What do ya know about amnesia?"

Twilight hunched over, elbows on her knees and hands clasped in her classical thinking pose. "Well, I know that it can be caused by blows to the head," she offered, looking up at Fuyu, who shook her head in reply. "Severe emotional trauma can cause it too, it's something called dissociative amnesia." Applejack made a face at the large word and shrugged, looking over at Fuyu.

"I don't remember being hit in the head," she said quietly, eyes cast at the floor. Twilight frowned and sat up again, also crossing her legs.

"You should probably see a doctor if you're having trouble recalling things," she advised, her tone gentle and serious. "How long ago is your earliest memory?"

Fuyu looked up at her blankly. Time was extremely fluid to her, as she never really dealt with clocks in her daily life. She measured its passage in the days and the changing of the seasons. She counted off five times previous when the weather had been this hot, including the time in which she first remembered remembering. Her brain converted that abstraction into a number. "Five years."

Twilight blinked a few times, shifting in the seat to get more comfortable. "Wow, that's a long time. What have you been doing since?"

The blankness in her eyes was drowned out by ice as she stared off to the side. "Surviving."

"Surviving?" Twilight repeated, unsure. She looked over at Applejack for clarification. The blonde sighed, frowning hard as she closed her eyes.

"Near as I can tell, she's been homeless all that time." They both looked at her for a reaction to that statement, but her empty face gave them no confirmation or denial of it. Applejack pressed on. "I think she has a military background, 'cause last night she ran off some thieves with guns. Didn't even bat an eye when I scolded her about it."

Twilight shook her head a little at that revelation and looked over at the woman in black. "Those robbers are insane, you could have gotten hurt!" she whispered harshly, growing confused again when she saw no reaction on Fuyu's face. "You could have been killed!"

"She don't care, Twi, that's why I think she's been through some sort of trainin' or somethin'," Applejack added. They were both looking at her now with questioning eyes, until the blonde's look softened and she turned to her friend. "Not that I'm implyin' anything bad about her. She's been nothin' but helpful since I picked her up."

"She's staying with you?" Twilight asked, lifting a hand to scratch her head. It was then that Fuyu saw the purple jewel embedded in her palm, a flat, square-shaped crystal framed in something that looked like gold. Twilight caught her look and blinked. "What's wrong?" She then looked at her hand. "Oh, don't mind these," she chuckled lightly, showing off the one on her other palm. "Did you know that only about 1% of the population has them? They're supposed to signify the concentration of magic one has," she began. Applejack could sense a prattling coming on, but she remained quiet, smirking and leaning back as Twilight talked. "In fact, a lot of people go through their entire lives without ever meeting someone with them," she added, turning her hands over and looking at them herself. "And yet, there are quite a few of us here in Ponyville, like our friend Rarity," she said, looking over at Applejack briefly before returning her eyes to Fuyu. She blinked again at the look on her face. "What's wrong?"

Her hands were firmly attached to the ends of the armrests, and she frowned lightly thinking about the marks on her palms. While she glanced quickly between Twilight and Applejack, she queried her brain about the lines, trying to determine whether or not she had ever had such jewels, if someone had taken them away, but her brain refused to give her any answers. After a few seconds of one-sided, internal arguing, she replied, "Nothing."

"Oh no ya don't," Applejack countered, crossing her arms and giving Fuyu a stern look. "Y'all are gonna learn not to try and hide anything from us, it ain't gonna work. What's eatin' ya?"

Had Fuyu been the grimacing type, she would have made quite a face at that poorly-chosen word. Instead, it remained mostly stoic. Another silent battle broke out about whether or not to turn her hands over, though the questioning looks from the other two women cut that fight short. Reluctantly, she showed them her palms.

"What in the world?" Twilight breathed, staring at the red lines. She got up and walked over, gently taking Fuyu's left hand and examining it. The sensation caused her to twitch briefly, but she held fast to her composure and watched. "What happened to you?"

"I don't know," she replied, her lips twisting faintly every time Twilight ran her finger up and down the red line. "They've been like that as long as I can remember."

Applejack rose and walked over to join them, gazing at the hand Twilight didn't have. "What do ya think, Twi? Could somebody remove those things, or somethin'?"

Twilight's eyes were closed, and a look of deep concentration etched itself on her face. "I don't think so. These jewels are something like vents for us; they let off excess energy, like wings do for the ones that fly," she explained. "If she had them before, she'd still be trying to vent from them. I don't feel a thing," she concluded, opening her eyes and removing her hand from Fuyu's. "I don't have any idea what they are. I'm sorry."

The blonde gave her a pat on the back as she went to sit again, before looking down at Fuyu with a frown. "Sorry, Fu...guess the best we can do is take ya to a doctor and see what they say."

"Mm," she replied quietly, staring at her palms.

Twilight made a noise, tapping her fingers on the armrest and scowling. "This is going to bug me," she said, mostly to herself.

Applejack looked over and grinned. "Oh boy," she started, wandering back over to her own chair. "Whenever Twi says that, she spends a whole buncha sleepless nights tryin' ta find answers to questions."

"Speaking of questions, I'm still not sure how you know my name," Twilight said, rubbing her chin. "Then again, I guess you probably don't either..." She looked at Fuyu, who just shook her head quietly.

"Well, ya are kinda famous. Aren't ya technically a princess?" the blonde asked, stretching in her seat and getting a little more comfortable.

"By marriage, yes," she admitted, looking a bit sheepish. "Am I really that famous? I mean, I don't see any paparazzi hiding in my bushes when I wake up in the morning."

"Papa what now?" Applejack blinked. "Pepperoni? Why would there be pepperoni in your bushes?"

Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled. "Paparazzi. People with cameras that follow you around and take pictures to sell to tabloids," she explained, smoothing down her skirt.

The blonde's face went blank. "Oh," she nodded, rubbing the back of her neck and shrugging. "Aheh, right. Well, I'd wager there aren't none 'cause Princess Celestia would have their hides. Probably wouldn't appreciate her student gettin' bothered like that."

That name rang hollowly in Fuyu's mind; like Twilight's, she knew it without having ever heard it before. This time, however, she kept that fact to herself, content to allow the others to speak to each other while she hid in a cloak of silence. They spent a few minutes more in idle conversation, although her role in this was to nod only when addressed, which was fairly often. After a while, Applejack stood and stretched, yawning in an exaggerated fashion before looking out the windows at the steady rain.

"Shoot," she grumbled, plopping her hat back on. "Hey, Fu, what do ya think?" she asked, pointing out the window.

Fuyu stared out the window for a moment before looking up at the blonde. "I think it's raining." Twilight stifled a giggle while Applejack made a face.

"I noticed," she replied, crossing her arms. "I'm askin' if ya mind it any. I've still got apples ta sell before we can go home."

There was that word again, and as usual, it pulled a smile across Fuyu's lips. She shook it off and addressed the question. "I don't mind." They were all standing now, and she followed Applejack to the door while Twilight brought up the rear. Once they arrived, she was surprised when the librarian gave her a hug during their goodbyes.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you," she said, stepping back. "I'll keep looking though. Oh, and welcome to Ponyville!" she added cheerfully, waving as the two of them walked out into the rainy, humid air.

---

It was still raining as Fuyu climbed back into the old truck, which was parked in front of the town's grocer. It was a fairly large building, but nowhere near the size of the average supermarket she'd seen on her travels. She had just finished helping Applejack unload the apples the thieves had tried to steal yesterday, and the blonde was confident she'd sell every single one of them. Left to her own devices, she just sat there, staring at the red line on her right palm.

"If this isn't magic, then what is it?" she asked herself, summoning just a little of the black goo. She cupped her hand and swished it around; it didn't leave a stain as it traveled, instead behaving like a darker-colored mercury. She sent it away, watching as it drained into the red line, which split open slightly to accept it. With a sigh, she leaned against the door and looked out the window. The sky had darkened as the day wore on, and a full-on thunderstorm seemed to be approaching, just as Rainbow Dash had said earlier. With the weather growing worse, very few were out on the streets. Fuyu didn't pay much attention to any of those braving the elements, until she caught a flash of color out of the very corner of her right eye. She turned to look and saw a woman on the sidewalk, about thirty feet away. She was dressed in a pale yellow blouse and a long, dark green skirt, and clutched a white umbrella in her hands. Her faded pink hair was long and straight. It looked as though she'd been frozen in the act of walking, and a curious Fuyu couldn't figure out what she was doing. She began to approach, but about ten feet away she froze again. Her cyan eyes locked on to Fuyu, and she appeared to be shaking. She stared right back, and suddenly the woman skittered away, entering the market.

"What?" Fuyu said, watching her go. Through the plate glass windows, she watched as the woman scampered about, only stopping when Applejack appeared. She went over to the blonde, pointed out at the truck, and a conversation started. After five minutes, Applejack came out, shaking her head and smiling, but the other woman went further into the store. As she got in, Fuyu posed the question. "Who was that?"

"That's Fluttershy," Applejack replied, still grinning. She counted the money in her hands and stuffed it into her jeans pocket before starting the truck. "And that's her way of sayin' hello. Poor girl's afraid of her own shadow, and I do mean that literally," she added, swiping at a drop of water on the brim of her hat. "Anyway, I'm starvin'. Want some lunch?"

At the mention of food, she automatically queried her stomach, which reported back full. "I'm not really hungry," she replied, settling back into the seat and folding her arms.

The blonde had a rather concerned look in her eyes as she drove back out onto the street. "Ya sure? Ya hardly ate any breakfast..."

"I'm fine," Fuyu said flatly, looking down at her palms again.

"Shoot, I've upset ya, haven't I?" She looked down slightly as she drove, frowning hard. "I didn't mean ta. I just wanted ta help."

"I'm fine," she repeated, dropping her hands and gazing out the window. Applejack scowled lightly, but her eyes lit up as she got an idea. Without saying a word, she drove them to that gaudy building they'd passed earlier, and parked the truck there.

"I'll be right back," she said, smiling to herself as she got out. It was still raining, so Fuyu watched her rush into the building, but lost sight of her afterward due to the small windows. Paying it no mind, she simply went to staring out the window and waiting. A few minutes passed like this, and she found herself wondering what exactly was going on. Just as she sat up straighter, a face appeared outside her window. This was a woman she'd never seen before, with blue eyes and wild, hot pink hair. She had a multicolored umbrella hat on her head, and the only piece of clothing Fuyu could see was her light pink t-shirt. She motioned exaggeratedly for the window to be rolled down, and she was obliged. The moment the glass had departed, the speech explosion began.

"Hi!" she started, a wide smile on her face. "I'm Pinkie! Applejack said you were new here and I was like whoa because she'd tell you that I know everyone here in Ponyville but I didn't know you so I decided to come out here and say hi!"

It took Fuyu a few seconds to decipher what Pinkie had said, simply due to the speed at which she said it. This process required a few blinks. "...hello?"

The grin that appeared on Pinkie's face was so vast, it required her eyes to close briefly. "Applejack says you're staying at the farm! I love the farm, it's so nice and quiet and pretty and the apples are yummy and I really like apples, do you like apples? Rainbow Dash says my nose is shaped like an apple but that's silly, my nose is shaped like a nose!" she said, poking at it with both her index fingers. "An apple nose would be so weird, right? All you could smell is apples, and I like apples a bunch but I don't think I'd wanna smell apples aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllll the time, you know?" she continued, framing that long 'all' with a wide, arching sweep of her arms. "Don't tell Applejack I said that though, because she really likes apples and I think she'd like it if she had an apple nose." There was a loud gasp. "Ohmygosh I should see if the joke shop has an apple nose! She'd love it!"

The stream of consciousness rattled around in Fuyu's mind like a bag of marbles, causing her to place her left hand on her head and stare at Pinkie. "Wh-what?" she said, still in the process of interpreting the tidal wave.

"Oh no! That's the look that Fluttershy gets whenever I talk too fast and she gets a headache!" Pinkie blurted out, abruptly slamming both her hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry!" she said, muffled almost to the point of being unintelligible. "Does your head hurt?"

"I don't know?" she replied helplessly, although her hand remained where it was. She didn't have the foggiest idea whether or not she had a headache, as Pinkie's verbal assault had rendered her slightly dazed.

Pinkie dropped her hands and took a ridiculously deep breath, preparing herself for the herculean task of speaking like a normal person. "I talk really fast when I'm happy, and I'm always happy to meet someone new," she said, the slowness of her speech hilariously out of sorts with the high pitch of her tone. "I don't mean to, sometimes I just can't stop myself!" she added, visibly having to remind herself not to get excited even as she said the word itself. "Does your head hurt now?"

"No," Fuyu finally decided, feeling less foggy as the seconds passed. "I'm fine."

For Pinkie, this was a signal to drop her vocal governor and let rip again. "Great! I would have been so unhappy if I'd given you a headache. Headaches are bad because they make you sad and being sad is even worse than bad!" She fell silent when Fuyu didn't immediately reply, but that big smile never left her face. Out of seemingly nowhere, she produced a small, brightly colored plate with a cupcake. The icing was white and red, and pockmarked with rainbow sprinkles. "Here's a welcome to Ponyville cupcake! By the way, what was your name again?"

Hesitantly, she took the cupcake and looked at it, tilting her head. "My name is Fuyu."

"Oooooooooooooo that's a pretty name! I've never heard anything like it before, but it's pretty!" Pinkie said, nodding furiously. "Oh, that icing is vanilla and cherry! Do you like cherries? One time Applejack ended up working for a lady with a cherry orchard! I got the recipe from her! Try it!"

Fuyu looked between the confection and the woman, and finally took a bite of it. She was never really able to taste what most people considered food. This cupcake was so overpoweringly sweet, however, even she could detect the flavors. It was the first time she'd ever known the taste of something besides flesh, and she took a long while to analyze it. Pinkie, meanwhile, stood patiently with her hands on the door, ignoring the rain, and smiling widely. Finally, Fuyu had an opinion: "It's...nice?"

"Yay!" Pinkie blurted out, clapping a few times. "I'll go back in and get you a whole box!" With that, she was gone, darting into the store with speed that surprised the woman in black. After she went out of sight, Fuyu finished off the cupcake, stuffing the remainder in her mouth and chewing on it contemplatively. "Nice," she repeated, wondering why that word gave her roughly the same sensation as 'home' did. Applejack appeared shortly after, carrying a pink box under her arm, which she handed over as she got into the truck.

"Well, how'd it go?" she asked, starting the truck and backing it out of the parking space. When there was no answer, she looked at the other woman. "Fu? What happened?"

Fuyu looked back after swallowing the cupcake and blinked. "I have no idea."

---

An hour later, they were back at the farmhouse. The weather had gotten much worse on their way back; realizing she wasn't going to get any work done today with the lightning around, the blonde had fallen asleep on the couch. She was snoring so loudly, Fuyu could hear her despite being on the front porch. She gazed out at the pounding rain, only flinching a bit when a crash of thunder would roll past. Usually, she would be seeking shelter in weather like this; without needing to look, she found her mind full of unknown thoughts.

"Home," she whispered, barely audible over the dull roar. She turned and looked back through one of the windows at the sleeping Applejack for a moment. A flash of light came, and she looked back out across the orchard just in time for the thunder to arrive. She let the noise wash over her before she resumed thinking. "I wonder if I had one before."

Hearing herself speak those words startled her, and she shook her head briefly. She had never given much consideration to the time before she remembered. Since she was always on the move, always looking for a suitable meal, she never really had time to think about it. While the latter was still mostly true – she still didn't know what to think about Stormy's offer – the former wasn't. For the first time, she found herself not wanting to wander. This change of thought nagged at her, so she spent some time trying to figure out why. Some of it she could write off as physical needs, for instance being dry while it poured rain outside, something she rarely got unless she could find a cave. A great chunk of this feeling could not be explained away, however, and it caused her to frown. Once again, she looked back at the snoozing apple farmer.

"Friend," she murmured tonelessly. The word caused her heart to leap into her throat. "Friend?" It made her tremble and feel uneasy, but not in the same way she did when her stomach shrieked at her for food. She could only label the feeling as anxiety, but it was lighter and far more tolerable than that. In fact, it was pleasant, like the feeling she got from 'home' but a dozen times more potent. She queried her mind to see if the label she wanted was contained therein. A whole list of words flashed past, as did their definitions, but none of them fit her feeling. She was just about to give up when the word she wanted appeared.

"Happiness?" she said, uncertain. Automatically, she nodded. That was it. This strange sensation bubbling in her chest was happiness. She put a hand lightly over her heart and stared out across the apple trees. The hand moved up to her face when she felt something on her cheeks. She had started to cry.

"What?" she breathed, confused. She only cried when she was eating, or when in sufficient pain. Reflexively, she patted herself, checking for injuries. "I am not hurt," she informed herself, but the tears continued to flow. "I don't understand..." She wandered over to one of the porch swings and sat down, drying her eyes with the back of her hand. "Is happiness supposed to make me cry?" Another bolt of lightning descended upon the orchard, but the resulting thunder didn't even make her blink. She was much too busy internally to care; a hole that she didn't even know existed was filling up. From here, she couldn't see the blonde as she looked through the nearest window, but it didn't matter.

"Friend..." More questions came, an avalanche of uncertainties that overwhelmed her. Did she have friends before? What happened to them? Did she...

...did she eat them too?

That image fell upon her like a ton of bricks, and the force caused her to emit a broken sob. Happiness departed, leaving in its wake a feeling absolutely opposite. She had felt it before; it was the sensation that caused her to burst into tears while feeding, but she didn't know what to call it, and she'd never felt it at any other time. It was like a punch to the gut, and she hunched over in the swing with clenched teeth and tightly shut eyes.

"No," she moaned. Stress was beginning to make itself apparent as she tore at the clefts in her memory, desperate to figure out whether or not she had friends before, and even more desperate to know whether or not they had met their ends by her hand. She flashed back to what Twilight had said earlier, and that only made things worse.

"Severe emotional trauma can cause it too, it's something called dissociative amnesia."

Those words stung her bitterly. "No!" she said, her tone demanding and upset. She raised up enough to stare ahead, plumbing her thoughts for answers again. Her brain had nothing to give her, and she left the swing, pacing in frustration. Suddenly, her stomach alerted her about not being quite as full as it liked again. The feeling caused her to stop pacing. She found herself by a window, and looked in at the sleeping Applejack. Her stomach continued to bother her about the emptiness, and she stared for a long while at the woman sprawled on the couch. "Hungry," she droned. That anti-happiness slammed into her again, and it was loud enough to drown out the grumbling in her belly for a brief time. Her stomach won out eventually, though, and resumed pestering. Fuyu looked down at it, with tears streaming anew, and sighed.

She walked through the front door, shutting it gently behind her.