Fluttershy's question wouldn't be answered until two days later. Applejack had to deal with the damage to Sweet Apple Acres, so Rainbow Dash was assigned to babysit Fuyu in the interim. This involved moving into her apartment in town. Although she had wanted to help the blonde clean up the orchard, Twilight insisted she do as little physical work as possible to keep her appetite suppressed. While the librarian thought of some way to find food for her that didn't involve murder, Fuyu was to stay with Rainbow at all times. The first night with her new roommate had been somewhat tense, but the second was more relaxed.
“Morning,” Rainbow waved, walking by the couch. Fuyu was already awake and reading one of the books she had brought from the farmhouse. She had learned that Rainbow was, unless prodded, a rather late riser; this time around it was fifteen after ten. She sat down on the other end of the couch and checked her phone, while Fuyu closed her book and watched. It started to ring. “Hello?” she answered. “Oh, hey Rarity. Yeah, she's staying with me now.” Rainbow grimaced as a long, unhappy rant about how obvious it was that her friends were keeping something from her was unloaded into her right ear. “Um, about that. We need to talk.”
The 'you're certainly right we need to talk' was loud enough for even Fuyu to hear. “Okay, okay, can we come over, then? I may as well get this done with now. Pinkie's there? Great, I can save the trip. We'll be there in a flash.” She ended the call and fell back against the sofa, sighing as she decompressed. “She doesn't sound too happy. I can only imagine how she's gonna sound after we're done talking to her.” Seeking something else to think about for a second, she looked over at Fuyu and blinked. “How'd you sleep?”
“Fine. I only needed about an hour,” she replied, smoothing down her hair.
“That is freaky,” Rainbow said, sitting up and shaking her head in disbelief. “I guess the couch doesn't make your back hurt?”
She shook her head, looking down at the blue cushions. The sofa wasn't the only thing that shade; the carpet was blue, the walls were blue, even the tile in the kitchen was some variation of the color. The glass coffee table, bearing a silver frame, and the TV were the only objects that didn't have some of the color in this room. “I don't think I lay on it long enough for that to happen.”
“I guess not,” Rainbow shrugged, standing and scratching at her thigh. “You good to walk? I don't think I can lift you to fly, you weigh a ton.”
Fuyu looked down at her stomach, then back up at the woman and nodded. “Yes. There is plenty of time.”
“Cool. I'll be ready in a few and we can head over there,” she said, waving again as she wandered into the bathroom. True to her word, not five minutes later she was back, dressed in a cyan hoodie and blue jeans. She slid on her sneakers and stretched, yawning obnoxiously. “All right. Let's do this.”
They left her apartment and walked out into Ponyville. The town was much cleaner now, although little signs of the storm still remained everywhere. Leaves were all over the place, the limbs they had been attached to removed for disposal. Plywood decorated many buildings; even the library had a boarded up window. Rainbow hovered along beside Fuyu as they went, her wings beating only once in a while to keep her airborne. The news of Fuyu's exploits had permeated the populace, and many times they had to stop because people would come up to thank the woman in black. This made the walk much longer than it normally would have been.
“Geez, I didn't think Lyra was ever gonna stop talking,” Rainbow muttered, hands in her pockets as she floated along. A purple tower with a silver SUV parked beside it was directly ahead of them, and she pointed it out to Fuyu. “There it is. Looks like she already had the windows fixed.”
She examined it as they drew closer. It reminded her of Sugarcube Corner, although the motif was more akin to a carousel than confections. It was much taller than the sweets shop, and by the time they arrived she had to crane her neck to look up at it. She was only able to gaze for a brief moment before Rarity burst out of the front door.
“About time!” she huffed, slapping her hands onto her hips and fuming. “I've been hearing some ridiculous things. Every time I try to speak with Twilight, she absolutely refuses to talk about them! I want to know what's going on!”
“Here we go,” Rainbow murmured, rolling her eyes. They followed her inside and discovered Pinkie Pie running about in the shop, her arms full of rolls of fabrics.
“Where does this go?” she asked every time she went by. “And this? And these? And all of—eek!” she yelped as she tripped, falling flat on her face, although her impact was cushioned by the bolts she was hauling. “...owies...” she groaned, lifting herself up. That's when she laid eyes on Fuyu and leapt to her feet, almost tackling the woman in a hug. “Fufu! I thought the tornado got you!”
Fuyu and Rainbow exchanged an awkward glance. Her encounter with the storm had been found out by Applejack first, who had told the other three, but Rarity and Pinkie were completely in the dark. “I'm fine,” was all she could say as she was hugged.
“I want answers!” Rarity insisted, stomping her high-heeled foot. “You're both hiding something from us!”
Rainbow floated away, ceding the purple carpet to Fuyu. Sighing, she looked at the dressmaker around Pinkie's embrace and frowned. “What do you want to know?”
“What happened last night at the orchard? And do not say the tornado, I know better than to think that was all,” she warned, pulling the chair from her work desk, bringing it over and sitting down. Pinkie let go of Fuyu and blinked, looking between her and Rarity with confused eyes.
Fuyu also felt like sitting, but sat cross legged on the floor instead of hunting down a chair. “The mob attempted to kill me.” Pinkie gasped, placing her hands over her mouth.
“You mean the people that threatened Rainbow and Applejack?' she asked, looking across the room as the winged woman sent her flight implements away and sat on the staircase. She nodded in the affirmative after she was seated. “My word! How did you escape?”
“I didn't,” Fuyu said, her eyes becoming hard. “I killed them first.”
“Ohmygosh,” the baker squeaked again, also sitting on the floor. “How many of them were there?”
“Forty. Or so.”
“What?” Rarity exclaimed, standing up. “That's impossible! I can see you ambushing four,” she said, walking over, “but not forty! What really happened?”
“Rare, she's not kidding,” Rainbow interjected from the stairs. “She took out almost all of them herself.”
“I don't understand,” the dressmaker blinked, staring down at Fuyu. “How did you...” She detected that there was a larger secret, and it made her quiet for a moment as she tried to guess at what it was. “What else happened, then?”
“I got sucked up into the tornado,” Fuyu replied, her eyes calm again. “It threw me across the road into the open field.”
Pinkie wailed and scrambled over to hug the woman in black. “Nononono! Are you okay?!” she asked, beginning to sniffle. Rarity did not have equal sympathy, and began to back slowly away from them.
“She's more than all right, look at her...she doesn't have a scratch,” Frightened, the dressmaker backed away. “How can you not even look hurt? It's only been a couple of days!”
Pinkie realized that fact after it had been vocalized, and she released Fuyu to examine her. After seeing she was unscathed, she gasped again and scrambled backwards like a crab. “Fufu, you're more than okay, you're too okay...” No other words were spoken, but the unsure looks in their eyes contained everything Fuyu needed to hear. She turned over her left palm and allowed a swaying sprig of black to sprout from it. Rarity shrieked and skittered away, hiding behind Rainbow on the stairs, while Pinkie blanched white and began to chatter out a broken string of terrified words.
“It's all right, it won't hurt you,” Fuyu explained gently. “This is the thing that lives inside me. It's why I was strong enough to lift the robber in the store that day,” she added, gazing at Rarity. She was hugging Rainbow from behind, staring back with terrified eyes. “It's why I don't look injured; it heals my wounds.”
“M-m-m-m-magic?” Pinkie stammered, unable to tear her gaze away. “It's some kind of super duper magicky magic stuff? 'C-c-cause th-that's where Twilight a-and Rarity's m-m-magic comes fr-from, s-so it's j-j-just scary looking m-magic, r-r-right?”
“Here we go,” Rainbow sighed, rubbing her temples as the dressmaker clung to her back.
“It's not magic,” she said, shaking her head slowly.
“Then what in the hell is it, Fuyu?!” Rarity shrieked, causing Rainbow to cringe with the noise. “Because it certainly looks like something straight out of a nightmare!”
Fuyu noted how appropriate that word was and decided she was correct. “You're right. I have to feed it people to keep it – and me – alive.”
Pinkie was too stunned to do anything but stare with wide blue eyes. Rarity, on the other hand, had an absolute fit upon hearing that tidbit of information. She darted over to her desk and hid under it, her hands lighting up with blue magic as she mentally grabbed the nearest sharp things she could see. “Get out of my shop, you beast!” she screeched, a cloud of various types of scissors now hovering before her. “Now!” Fuyu made no attempt to move, and the dressmaker flung her makeshift weapons at the woman with a mighty grunt. A dozen scissors sank themselves into her flesh, most of them in her chest and abdomen. Pinkie began to cry loudly, turning away from the sight and laying on the floor. Quietly, Fuyu started pulling them out of her body.
“Y-you...” was all Rarity could say, her mind unable to comprehend the lack of pain on the woman's face. “I...”
“Damn, Rarity,” Rainbow said, standing up and jogging over to Fuyu as she yanked a pair of the scissors from her left forearm. “You all right?”
That act of kindness seemed to bother the dressmaker more than the ineffectiveness of her attack. “Why are you being nice to her?!” she screamed. “Get away! She's a...she's a horrible thing!”
Mottled red and black gunk oozed out of her wounds, but they were quickly being taken care of. By the time she moved over to Pinkie to check on her, she had already stopped bleeding. “Pinkie? It's all right. I'm not going to hurt you.”
“Get away from her!” Rarity shouted, using her magic to collect another round of projectiles. Rainbow growled and stood in front of her, blocking her aim. “Move, you fool! She's dangerous!”
“I'm sorry, but if you hadn't noticed, she hasn't moved a muscle to try and hurt anyone,” Rainbow scolded her, crossing her arms and peering down. Behind her, they both could hear the low voices of Fuyu and Pinkie speaking to each other. “She's lived with Applejack for almost a month and never did anything. She's lived with me for two days and I'm still here.”
“So what? She's a murderer!” Rarity shot back, leaning from side to side as she tried to get a bead on the woman. “Look! She's using Pinkie as a shield!”
Rainbow looked over her shoulder and saw Fuyu giving an awkward hug. “Uh huh. That looks so evil.”
The woman in black was paying no attention to their conversation. She was busy trying to stop Pinkie from crying. “Pinkie?” she asked quietly, knelt over beside the baker with her hand lightly on her shoulder. “Stop crying, it's all right.”
“B-b-b-b-but you're a canabila! A cananbial...” The tears finally stopped flowing as she devoted most of her thought to getting the word right. “Cannabile? Cabanabibble?”
“Cannibal?” Fuyu offered. Pinkie nodded and began to sniffle again. “I know. If I don't eat, I'll starve to death. I don't have any choice.”
“Are you g-g-g-gonna eat me?” she asked, sitting up and resting on her calves as she wiped her eyes.
She shook her head firmly and leaned back so Pinkie could shuffle around to face her. “Of course not. You're my friend. I would never do that.”
“O-o-okay,” the baker nodded, but she didn't seem all that sure. She frowned at the wounds and began to cry again. “You're hurt...”
“Rarity doesn't like me very much right now,” Fuyu admitted, glancing back at her and Rainbow.
“You're damn right I don't!” the dressmaker shouted, waving a fist in anger. She had dropped her weaponry, however; the tools lay scattered on the carpet a short distance away. “I want you out of my sight this instant!”
“Get a grip, woman!” Rainbow growled, kneeling down so she could argue face to face. “She saved our asses! She saved your ass! She's got very, very fucked up baggage, I'll grant you that, but she risked her life more than once for me and Applejack. That goes pretty far if you ask me!”
Rarity refused to yield. “She was probably just doing it to...” Suddenly, she realized she couldn't think of any legitimate reason for Fuyu to have done the things she'd done, and her face went blank. Rainbow was just about to declare her victory when the bell rang, signaling an arrival entering through the front door. All four of them looked to see Twilight. Twilight first saw Fuyu's healing wounds, then the bloody scissors nearby.
“Good grief, what happened?” she asked, walking farther into the shop. The woman in black pointed at Rarity. “Oh...right. Sorry, I was planning to tell you guys, I've just been overwhelmed with everything,” she sighed, falling into a nearby chair.
“That would have been lovely,” Rarity hissed, her anger beginning to return. She moved Rainbow aside and crawled out from under the desk, smoothing down her dress as she stood up. “You're harboring a killer!”
“It's more complicated than that,” Twilight countered, but her face admitted some truth to those words. “Fuyu has some, um, unique circumstances to deal with. I'm trying my level best to figure out a way around them.”
“She'll have us for dinner by then!” Rarity began to stalk in Fuyu's direction, her eyes shining with hostility.
Twilight groaned and moved to intercept her. “Even considering the circumstances, I think you're being a bit unreasonable here.”
“Says the woman helping a serial killer.” Twilight was stilled by those words and could only stare at the dressmaker. “Mhm. I'm right, and you know it.” Rarity stood over Fuyu, her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. “Get out. Do you hear me?”
The woman in black did rise to her feet, but moved not an inch more. She stared Rarity down. “You're no less a murderer than I am now.”
'Indignant' would not cover the look Rarity had on her face. It was closer to shock and disgust. “Excuse me?” Fuyu pointed down and to the side, and she followed the motion until her sight came to the bloody scissors on the floor.
“If I were anyone else, I would bleeding to death at the moment,” she said, her voice almost empty of emotion. “What were you doing, Rarity? Defending yourself from someone who has no intention of attacking you? Preventing me from giving my friend a hug when she was afraid?”
“I was...I was...” she struggled, trying to formulate a reason. Her shoulders slumped with failure, but she scowled and raised up again. “I don't need to explain myself to you.”
“I understand. I'm not angry. If it will help you feel better, then I'll go.” She did just that, punctuating her statement by turning away from the dressmaker and walking out the door. She left a gulf of tense silence in her wake, which was only broken when Twilight moved to help Pinkie stand up.
“That went about as well I thought it would,” Rainbow grumbled, rubbing the back of her head as she walked over to the other three. “I guess I'd better go catch up with her. See you guys later.” With a light wave and a snap, she was airborne and fluttering out the door.
Twilight was left with Pinkie and Rarity, and she had no idea what to say to either of them. “So, I guess you girls aren't too happy with me, huh?” She expected an angry response from the dressmaker, but she was stooping down and picking up a pair of the crimson-stained scissors. “Rarity?”
The adrenaline was wearing off, and now her actions were beginning to weigh heavily. “My word, I did try to kill her...”
“I'm sure you were just afraid,” the librarian offered weakly, watching her pick up the scattered scissors.
Pinkie made a few odd noises as she wiped her face clean. “I think I'm just gonna go home, I don't feel too good,” she mumbled, offering cursory hugs to her friends before she ran out the door.
Twilight raised a hand as she went, but was too slow to say anything to stop her from going. She looked back at Rarity, who had tears in her eyes, and sighed. “If it makes you feel any better, you're not the only one. Fluttershy shot her in the head and she's been apologizing ever since.”
“It really doesn't.” After she had gathered the bloody tools, she held them away from her pristine dress and looked for somewhere to deposit them. “I didn't even think, Twilight, I just fired them at her. She wasn't even provoking me.”
“So you reacted badly. I don't think that's really surprising, given what she told you.” Her words failed to help; she frowned as Rarity began to cry. “Feeling overwhelmed?” she guessed. Rarity nodded, sniffling. “You're not the only one. If I don't figure out something soon, someone is going to die.” Those words hung heavy in the air for a few minutes as Twilight allowed the desperation to get to her. After some effort, she shook it off, trying to ignore how burned out she felt. “I'll help you clean up. I need to think about something else for a while.”
“I do not understand the difference.”
It was half past one in the afternoon. Rainbow and Fuyu occupied the former's couch, watching a baseball game. The athlete was trying to teach her the finer points of the sport, and to her surprise she was picking them up quickly...except for this newest concept. She put down her slice of pizza and chewed, trying to clear her mouth to explain.
“See,” she began, her mouth not much emptier despite her efforts, “A wild pitch is when the pitcher just totally throws it so bad that the catcher's got no shot at all of keeping it from reaching the backstop.” She waited for the next pitch, which was a ball. “Aw, damn it, that caught the corner...anyway, a passed ball is when the catcher gets a mitt or something on it, he drops it, and it gets far enough away for a baserunner to advance. Or, like, if the batter strikes out, for him to get to first. Does that make sense?”
Fuyu nodded in the affirmative, but she had a different question. “If both situations allow a runner to move up, I do not see why they must be denoted separately.”
“Lemme put it this way. A wild pitch is the pitcher's fuck up, but a passed ball is the catcher's. Is that any better?” she asked, taking up her pizza again.
“Oh. Yes. Now I understand.” They fell quiet again, watching the batter get walked to load the bases. Just after an inning-ending double play, the doorbell rang.
“I got it,” Rainbow said, hopping up and walking over. She peered through the peephole and grumbled. “Oh boy, this should be good.” She opened the door and eyed a sheepish-looking Rarity. “Hey. What's up?”
“I'm here to offer an olive branch,” she replied, hands clasped in front of her. Rainbow moved aside so she could enter, and the dressmaker immediately went over to sit with Fuyu on the couch. “Hello, darling. I...I've come to apologize.”
“For what?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“For...well, for trying to murder you.” She looked at Fuyu to gauge her emotion, and was stunned to see a faint smile on her face. “You're really not angry with me?”
She shook her head slowly. “No, you were afraid. You did what you felt was necessary at that moment.” They both looked up as Rainbow sat down. “It didn't hurt me that much, anyway.”
“Right,” Rarity said, exhaling with amazement. “Well, I'm not saying I'm completely...all right, with your having to...you know,” she continued, gesticulating mildly as she spoke, “but I'm sure Twilight will figure out something. She always does!” A light laugh didn't fall as flat as she feared, and the smiles on Fuyu and Rainbow's faces reassured her further. “With the storm damage to the Boutique, and my friends being so distant, I suppose I just snapped under the strain. I'm sorry, again.”
“It's all right,” Fuyu confirmed, turning her eyes back to the game. She frowned, however, and dropped her arms. “If Twilight can't help me, I'll have to eat again in a couple of days. I...I don't want to hurt anyone here in town. They've all been so kind to me.”
The mood darkened, and neither Rainbow nor Rarity could offer her any encouragement. They watched the game in silence. Then the doorbell rang again.
“I got it!” Rainbow said, jumping up and running over. She blinked when she looked through the peephole, quickly opening the door. “Uh, hey Pinkie.”
“Fufu!” she said firmly, walking right past Rainbow with the most serious look she could manage. “You said you have to eat people, right?”
“Yes,” she blinked, unsure why Pinkie was being so direct.
She folded her arms and nodded, like an investigator confirming a clue. “And if you don't, then you'll starve because that gunky goo glob stuff will die and kill you too, right?”
“What's all this about, darling?” Rarity asked, shifting around to face her. “I don't think we need to hear all of that again.” Rainbow shut the door and walked to the back of the couch so she could look at the baker along with everyone else.
“What's with the questions, Pink?” she asked, leaning on it as she waited for an answer.
Pinkie looked at them in turn, her blue eyes slowly losing their seriousness as a smile spread across her face. The next time she spoke, her tone was back to its usual bouncy self.
“I have an idea!”