//------------------------------// // And On the Fifth Day... // Story: White // by Mayclore //------------------------------// Two more days passed, and in those two days Fuyu finished her morbid book, and read it another time from cover to cover to burn the words to her mind. Her planned doctor visit had been postponed; Twilight said she could reschedule it for whenever Fuyu felt comfortable, and she thanked the librarian for that offer. Without that to stress her, she found herself quite relaxed, working alongside Applejack and leading a strangely normal existence for once. Most of her time outside of that work was spent reading and processing her book. It turned out to be full of things she wanted to try on her next victim. That thought brought up a problem, however: it had been nearly five days since her last meal. She was detectably hungry, but the noise from her stomach was background chatter and easy to ignore – for the moment. She turned on the lamp to check the time on the wall clock. It was just after five in the morning. She noted that taking it easy as far as the physical labor went allowed her to outlast her usual limits – or perhaps it was eating much more than she was accustomed to. Whatever it was, she resolved to keep doing it, while also wondering where Stormy was with her next delivery. She sighed lowly and glanced at the door. Usually, at this time of morning there would be audible activity from behind it, but today was a Saturday. Apple Bloom would not be going to school, and Rainbow Dash was spending the whole weekend at the farmhouse. Thinking of them didn't cause her stomach to shout, so she still had a decent amount of fuel in the tank to play with. For the first time in all the days she could recall, she had no idea what to do with herself. As the sun began to peek over the hills, she took up the book again and opened it. She tried to make the weaponry in its pages by honing and bending the black sludge. For blades, this was easy, but she could not match the complexity of guns; even if she could, the goo wasn't explosive and would be incapable of firing a bullet. The best projectile weapon she could manage to bend out of her palms was a longbow, and even that took a few tries. The stave was easy enough to get down, but the black sludge, when hardened, proved to be rather brittle. Even worse, she could not provide a string without linking it to her palm, as the goo lost flexibility when not attached to her and exposed to air for too long. She worked on the stave first, creating a hard outer shell, then injecting it with the sludge and sealing it before the goo could start to dry out. This version of the nascent bow bent wonderfully, and she spent the next hour testing different designs in the book. She settled on a tremendous stave that was as long as she was tall, with recurve built into the upper and lower limbs. A test pull with the new weapon and a connected ebony string caused her to smile uncontrollably with the possibilities. She could knock down someone from a long way with this. They would never even have to see her. Before she could make any arrows, however, the house began to get noisy. She sent the bow away as she heard voices beyond her door, frowning that she hadn't yet solved the string problem. Then a thought crossed her mind: She could buy some. She leaned over and opened the nightstand drawer, retrieving the money Applejack had given her on the second day of her time here. After slipping on her sandals, she quietly opened the door and peeked out, discovering Rainbow Dash in the hallway just outside Applejack's bedroom door. She was walking away from it, dressed in only a white sleeveless undershirt and a pair of blue panties. She waved nonchalantly as she walked past, disappearing into the bathroom – which, Fuyu found out at that moment, was already occupied. Blinking, she wandered down the stairs and sat on the couch to wait. It took about ten minutes for someone to come down; it was Rainbow again, still dressed as earlier. She was busy with a black device in her hand, and as she sat down on the couch, Fuyu peered at it curiously. “Pretty neat, huh,” she grinned, holding it over so Fuyu could get a better look. She had seen something like it a few times in her travels, but only from victims that had been very well off. From experience, she knew it was a phone, but portable. “I haven't seen one in a while,” she replied. Rainbow drew it back and started fussing with it again as Fuyu spoke, drawing her thumb up and down across the screen. “Yeah, they're still too expensive for most people to have. We've only got one 'cause we're friends with Twilight, and Princess Celestia gave 'em to us as gifts.” There was that name again. Fuyu thought about it for a moment before discarding it and moving on. “You all have one?” “Yep. AJ forgets about hers half the time, and I don't think Fluttershy even knows how to work hers,” Rainbow cackled a bit, turning the smartphone off and setting it on the table. “They come in handy, though. The Princess literally put up a signal tower in the town just for us – not that other people aren't using it now. Still, we had our own personal tower. Isn't that awesome?” She grinned widely at the woman in black, but again her words bounced off a blank-faced fortress wall of silence. She cringed and blinked, crossing her arms. “You sure are hard to impress, Fuyu.” “I suppose,” she replied, glancing out the window at the fully risen sun. “I'm going for a walk. I will be back later.” She rose from the couch and strode toward the door without another word. Rainbow watched her go until point she shut the front door behind her and blinked. “And I thought Pinkie was strange,” she muttered, snatching the remote off the coffee table and proceeding to channel surf. The mile between the orchard and town was dealt with swiftly, but now that she was here Fuyu realized she was a bit lost. There was the not only the matter of figuring out where she could buy her precious string, but also how to go about it without seeming too awkward. She found herself smack in the middle of downtown as she searched, peering through an almost endless row of plate glass windows into shops for the item she sought. After passing a storefront whose sole offerings appeared to be ballpoint pens and sectional sofas, she grew annoyed and decided to rest a moment. She sat down on a wooden bench between two small, decorative trees and watched the people wander by. That's when it hit her. As she glanced about, she realized her proximity to what was effectively a wandering buffet line was not making her stomach all that unhappy. “Hmm,” she muttered to herself, actually leaning back against the bench and relaxing. A few minutes passed as she took in the sights of the town at her own pace, and the whole scene caused her to smile faintly. She rarely had cause or wish to enter populated areas, preferring instead to stick to rural places where she could hide. She had to admit, however, there was something to being around people – at least when she wasn't about to eat them. Just after that thought had faded, she heard a very familiar voice approaching from her right and turned her head to look. “Darling!” Rarity waved, strutting down the sidewalk as if it were a fashion runway. She again wore a dress, although this one was strapless, purple, and shimmered in the sunlight. There was a small white clutch hanging from her left shoulder, which bounced about slightly as she moved. “Good morning!” When she arrived at the bench, she sat down, tossing her glittering curls and smiling. “I'm surprised Applejack let you get away, she loves to work weekends. Come to think of it, I can't recall a day she doesn't like to work,” she added, smirking to herself and laying her right arm over the back of the bench. “She doesn't know I left,” Fuyu admitted, folding her hands in her lap and looking down slightly. “I wanted to go shopping, but I didn't want to bother her about it.” “Don't be silly! She wouldn't have been bothered by that at all,” the dressmaker said, leaning closer as she reassured Fuyu with a smile. “I can tag along, if you'd like. Where were you heading?” That drew a frown across her face as she realized she had to admit her helplessness. She turned away from Rarity and sighed, closing her eyes briefly. “I'm not sure which store has what I want.” She looked back as the other woman got up, crossing her arms and smiling again. “What?” “Why didn't you just say that in the first place? I'll be glad to help you find your way,” she said, shaking her head a little and looking down at the woman in black. “You can't expect to know the whole town by now, you've only been here for a few days. What were you looking for?” “Bow string,” Fuyu replied, also standing up and glancing around. “I'm not sure where to start.” “Bows? Oh, a bow would look stunning on you, I think,” the dressmaker said, lifting her left arm so her chin could rest on the back of that hand. “Something subtle and understated, perhaps like Apple Bloom wears, but not quite that size or color...I could make a few for you!” She blinked as the other woman shook her head and dropped her arms. “What? Why not?” “Not a hair bow, a bow,” she clarified, making a motion as if she were wielding an invisible one. “I want to string a bow.” Rarity's face went blank for a moment as she processed this, and it took her another to reply. “I see. To be honest, I'm not sure where to buy any of that, either.” She looked up and down the street, glancing at the various storefronts along the way until she pointed at one across the street. “That shop seems to have bows. Perhaps they have string, too?” Fuyu followed the gesture until her eyes landed on the store. Her lips twisted in slight annoyance at the fact that she'd walked right past it. “I didn't see that.” Rarity giggled faintly as they waited to cross the street; there wasn't much vehicle traffic despite the time of day, so this was accomplished right away. “I must admit, I've never been in this shop before. Not much appeal for a lady,” she said, lips curling at the thought of going out and killing some helpless animal with a shotgun, like Applejack did on occasion. As they drew closer, they saw a woman behind the counter talking lowly with a man in a green jacket, with slick blonde hair, on the other side of it. Neither of them paid much attention, because the second they opened the door they were struck with an odor even Fuyu blinked at. “My word! What is that smell?!” When there was no reply from the shopkeeper, they went on their way down an aisle. Their curt glances did not catch the fact that her hands were raised, and her eyes were full of terror. “Well, good luck, darling,” Rarity offered, blinking down the way at a collection of camouflage clothing. “My, that's an interesting pattern,” she muttered, approaching it. Fuyu allowed her to get out of sight before going in a different direction. It took her three aisles before she discovered the item she was looking for. In fact, there was an entire aisle of the string, and she found herself not knowing what to purchase. For several minutes she pondered the shelves, hands on her hips, as she tried to make sense of the packages. Off to her left, she saw the man in the green jacket walk out of her sight with the shopkeeper, but paid it no attention. Only when she heard a panicked shriek from Rarity did she look away from the shelves, moving slowly toward the end of the aisle to see what was going on. She was met at the end by the man, who pointed a gun at her and smiled coldly. “Hey there, baby doll,” he purred, his voice smooth and confident. “Why don't you come over here with your friends for me?” She looked to her left and saw Rarity and the shopkeeper, mouths sealed with duct tape and huddled in the corner, heads just below the plate glass windows. He glanced over too to make sure they were still where he'd left them, then returned his eyes to Fuyu. “I don't want anyone to get hurt, I just want to see what's in that fat safe behind the counter.” Fuyu cast her eyes down at the gun, then back up at his face, her face as blank as stone. “I don't like guns.” Those words made him close his eyes and cackle for a second. “Sister, I don't think anyone likes g--” That instant was all it took for her to smack the gun right out of his grip and send it clattering across the linoleum, where it skidded to a halt next to Rarity's polished purple heels. In an instant more, her right hand balled into a fist and slammed into his stomach; as he doubled over, she drove that hand up along his chest, catching his neck and lifting him wholly off the ground. He kicked at her as he struggled, his nails digging into her forearm, but she stared unflinchingly at him as she suspended him in the air. “I don't like guns, and I don't appreciate you pointing them at my friend,” she hissed, lifting him a little higher. Rarity and the shopkeeper were standing again, having ripped their tape gags off. The latter was calling the police, but the dressmaker was frozen, horrified and awestruck by Fuyu's strength. “You're going to kill him! Put him down!” she yelled, finally coming to her senses. He was beginning to choke in Fuyu's iron grasp, but she showed no signs of letting him go. “Fuyu! Stop! It's over! We're fine!” Those words finally made Fuyu look away, and she gazed at Rarity for a moment. Shrugging, she opened her hand and allowed the man to plummet roughly to the floor, where he landed in a coughing heap. She turned on her heel and walked back into the aisle, contemplating the reels of string as though nothing interesting had happened. In a few more minutes, two uniformed policemen arrived. One of these was a burly man with flaming red hair and a similarly colored mustache, and he did most of the talking. “Finally got ya, laddie,” he scoffed, cuffing the wheezing man and hauling him to his feet. “Which of ya ladies did him in?” Rarity pointed to Fuyu, who had plucked a reel of blue string off the shelf and was examining it. “Hey lass! I appreciate the heroism, but ya'd best be leavin' the foiling of robbers to us, aye?” “He pointed a gun at me,” she replied flatly, walking toward the counter with the reel in hand, intending to finish the purchase for which she'd come. “I don't like guns.” The other officer was busy dragging the robber out to his cruiser, leaving the red-haired cop inside to finish up with the three women. “Ya coulda gotten hurt, lass.” She glanced back at him as she set the reel on the counter, her eyes empty. “I sincerely doubt it.” They gained a little life again as she tried to inject them full of what her brain told her was pleasantness and looked at the shopkeeper. “I would like to buy this.” “It's on the house,” she replied, pushing her glasses back up onto her nose and leaning on the counter. “Hell, you want a bow too?” “No, I have one already.” She turned away from the counter with the reel in hand and looked between the officer and a dumbfounded Rarity, tilting her head. “Can we go now?” “Not quite yet, lass,” he replied, producing a notepad. He took down statements from each of them, seeming most impressed with Fuyu's, whom he recorded last. After she related her actions to him, he gave her a hearty clap on the back and laughed. “Come join the force!” he said, putting the pad away. “We could use the help!” He departed with a friendly wave, and Fuyu exited the store not long afterward. Rarity skittered quickly after her, heels clacking on the sidewalk as she went. “How in the world could you be so calm?” she asked, fussing with her frazzled hair. “He could have shot you!” Fuyu was turning the reel over in her hand as she walked, examining the blue fiber that encircled it. “I was not afraid.” “But you could have died!” Rarity said harshly, stomping the concrete with her left heel. Not even that outburst of emotion caused her to turn around, though, and the dressmaker had to walk quickly to catch up. “And by the way, how did you even pick him up? Applejack doesn't have that sort of strength!” The questions were beginning to agitate the woman in black, and she finally whirled to face the dressmaker. “It's over. Stop,” she said, using her own words against her. Taken aback, Rarity laid a hand on her chest and blinked several times, automatically collecting herself in the process. She took a small breath, which became a ladylike sigh, and her face softened. “Forgive me. I just can't understand how you could be so...so unflappable.” “Because I am not like you,” she let slip, mentally slapping herself for the leak after it emerged. Rarity was silenced again, and Fuyu, unable to think of any further words, turned again and walked away. “What in the hell were ya thinkin'?!” Fuyu was unmoved as she sat rigidly on Applejack's couch, having been subjected to a rather loud rant for the past twenty minutes. The blonde had asked that particular question for the sixth time, and for the sixth time Fuyu just looked up and shrugged, which sent Applejack on the same tirade all over again. Rainbow Dash – dressed, this time – was on the other end of the couch trying to watch the TV, but she couldn't hear a thing for the unhappy shouting. “AJ, calm down,” she finally said, throwing her arms in the air and standing up. “It's not like she hasn't stopped people with guns before.” “I get that,” she huffed, folding her arms and looking down at her girlfriend. “That don't mean she should keep doin' it. Fu, one of these days you're gonna get hurt!” They both glanced at her for a reply, but she just shrugged again. “And y'all call me stubborn. Ya could least say somethin'!” That finally did it, and Fuyu stood up, pinning Applejack down with a glare that made the tall blonde shrink back a little. “And what would you have me do? Let him take me hostage?” she began, a scowl drawing itself across her lips. “I did what I had to do to make sure Rarity would be safe. If it is your intention to scold me for that, so be it. I will not, however, stand idle when I am absolutely certain I can prevent something bad before it even starts.” She fell back on the couch after that and looked away, blinking. She had never spoken that many words at once before, and was surprised with herself. Rainbow and Applejack were equally astonished, their eyes darting between each other and the seated woman. The blonde, fidgety and unsure, took up speaking again. This time, her tone was far more gentle. “I'm not sayin' ya shouldn't defend your friends, I'm sayin' sometimes the best thing ta do is pick your battles,” she explained, sitting beside her on the couch. Rainbow wandered off to the kitchen, seemingly annoyed with something, but the blonde only gave her a passing glance. “I don't want ya ta get hurt, is all.” “You're getting attached!” Rainbow called from the kitchen, head in the fridge as she rummaged. “So what if I am?” Applejack shouted in return, looking quite cross as she took off her hat. Their voices faded as Fuyu went to analyzing what of the encounter with the gunman she could recall, and realized she had run a long spectrum of emotion. The majority of that emotion was similar to the feeling she felt the night Stormy and Clyde were robbing the orchard, but the specter of possible harm to Rarity had brought it to a level she was totally unfamiliar with. If he had hurt her, she would have killed him right then and there. No questions asked. It was disturbing to her, somehow. She never killed without need, and in the early days after her awakening even resisted that for a period. The thought of her friend being harmed, however, waved away a fraction of the white fog that obscured so much of her brain, revealing a wisp of something else, the fringes of a higher purpose to her existence. She wanted at once to pull that mist away again, yet knew that a similar situation would require endangering the people she found herself becoming fond of. While she considered a course of action, she barely paid any attention to the playful argument that had erupted between Applejack and Rainbow Dash, even as she came back from the kitchen and sat on the couch with them. “All right, all right,” Applejack huffed. The tone broke through Fuyu's internal wrangling, and she looked over as the blonde continued to speak. “Look, she's a hard worker, she keeps her promises, and she'll stick her neck out for ya. So what if she's the silent type?” Fuyu blinked at the sensation being caused by being spoken of as if one weren't there, but was. She shook it off and kept silent. Rainbow grinned widely, swishing the cider around in her bottle as she leaned back against the arm of the sofa. “Basically, she's your brother. AJ, you're such a sucker for family, you're adopting random people off the side of the road!” “I ain't doin' no such thing!” the blonde huffed again, folding her arms and pouting strongly. “What?” Fuyu finally interjected, leaning forward so she could look at Rainbow around the back of the blonde. “Adopting me?” “Aw, she's just pokin' fun at me,” Applejack explained, sitting back so Fuyu could regard her girlfriend without having to lean so far up. “Although, that does kinda remind me...” Now she swiveled to look at the woman in black with a serious expression. “I talked to my granny and Big Macintosh about ya.” She waited for a response, but seeing that none would come, pressed on. “They say it's fine with them if ya live here. It's fine with me too, so...what do ya say?” “Permanently?” was all Fuyu could reply with. That bubbly feeling was starting to well up again, but it felt more like a tidal wave than the perky little spring of happiness she was used to. “Well, yeah,” Applejack smiled. “Look, I don't know what all happened to ya out there, and honestly, it's up to your own wishes if ya wanna tell us. But from what I've seen, we'd all be happy to have ya around...even if ya are a bit reckless sometimes.” “Reckless? More like awesome,” Rainbow scoffed, taking a swig of the cider and crossing her slender legs. “Shush,” the blonde grumbled, sneaking a look back at her. She returned her eyes to Fuyu and smiled again. “I guess what I'm sayin' is...y'all don't have ta wander.” That tidal wave was approaching shore, and it threatened to drown Fuyu's self-control. She could barely feel her limbs as she stared at Applejack. All she could sense was the widening of her eyes. “I don't have to...” Even Rainbow sensed the gravity of the moment, and she let the smirk fall off her face as she scooted to the edge of the couch to look at her girlfriend. Applejack took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, they contained tears despite the broadening smile on her lips. “Y'all don't have to be alone anymore.” The wave arrived, and it swept up all the thoughts and memories in her mind, forcing them along until they streamed from her eyes as tears. She could not restrain the flow and wept bitterly, more bitterly than she ever had before. Applejack collapsed on her in a hug. Even Rainbow was moved; she soon got up and switched sides on the couch, embracing the part of Fuyu the other woman hadn't enveloped. She knew a happiness unlike anything she ever felt before, but with it came regret of equal intensity. She now knew exactly why she cried when she ate; some part of her subconscious had a faint reckoning of the pain she wrought with every meal. She did eat friends, but not hers. They were the friends of people she would never meet. She didn't have a home; she was too busy destroying them, rendering them a traumatic horror for the ones left behind. She now had the things she had spent so many years taking away and ruining. She did not feel worthy, and it made her cry. The combined outpouring of joy and grief was enough to crack the white fog again, and through it her mind's eye saw an unfamiliar shape. It resembled a human figure, but its outline was so vague that she had no idea what it truly looked like. It spoke to her in an equally shapeless voice, so bland and wispy that words written on a page would have more tone and form. I am sorry. It was the same voice with which her mind guided her in regular times, but she had never before seen its source. Unlike those times, where it offered her certainty in an uncertain existence, she found no comfort in what it spoke. It only made her cry harder. Hours later, an emotionally exhausted Fuyu lay stiffly on her bed, staring at the ceiling and the pall cast on it by the moonlight. Her stomach roared unhappily; the stress she'd released was replaced by an even heavier sadness, and it left her drained and weak. She was unable to think about food, though. Her appetite had been ruined by the truth. “What am I?” she asked herself, the first time that question had ever escaped her lips. “What I am supposed to do?” Her mind was silent. “Hungry,” she tacked on a few seconds later, allowing her body to speak for an instant. She could barely make out the wall clock in the dim light, and realized it was after midnight. Day five had arrived, and she was starting to worry about the next meal. Sighing, she rolled over onto her stomach and closed her eyes, hoping a catnap would take her. It did, eventually, but the next time her eyes opened she sensed a problem. Something was restraining her. There was a weight on the bed that shouldn't have been. She wanted to lift her head and look out the window, but couldn't. A hard thing was jabbed into the base of her skull, and it held her face down into the pillow. Her hair was so slick and rigid, she couldn't quite figure out what it was. “Oh, you're awake, baby doll?” a voice rang out from behind and above her, smooth and confident. “That's good, 'cause you and I need to have a talk.” Now she knew. It was a gun. Again.