White

by Mayclore

Welcome To the Club

Morning arrived again, although it was dark and slow in coming. The sun was imprisoned by heavy gray clouds, and it appeared as though it would pour rain at any moment. As Fuyu drifted down the stairs, she found Rainbow Dash still there, lounging on the couch and watching the news. Applejack and her younger sister were both in the kitchen, fussing over what to cook alongside the breakfast sausage.

“Hey, Fuyu,” Rainbow said with a wave as the woman sat stiffly on the other end of the couch. “Wow, you don't look so good.”

“I'm fine,” was her automatic reply. This was, of course, a total lie. Inside, her entire body felt like it was on fire, and her stomach shrieked unceasingly.

“You look kinda tired,” Rainbow countered, sitting up straighter and turning to look at her. Her face dropped, and then she smirked faintly. “Did we keep you up?”

Fuyu's head swiveled just enough to look at Rainbow, but the rest of her was statue still. “What?”

“You know,” the athletic woman said lowly, grinning and waggling her eyebrows. Her innuendo slammed against the cold wall of Fuyu's silence, however, and soon she just felt incredibly awkward. “Uh, never mind,” she hastily added, flopping back on the couch as she made an uncomfortable expression. They were both quiet for a while afterward, but only Rainbow responded to the call to eat.

“Hey, Fu! Ya comin'?” Applejack called, standing behind the counter that separated the two rooms.

“I'm...” Fuyu stopped cold, doubling over slightly and sighing, then raising a hand to rub at her tired eyes. “I'm not really hungry.” Once again, the dissonance caused her a minor headache. She was hungry, and yes, hungry for something in the kitchen, but it wasn't going to fit on a plate.

The blonde folded her arms and frowned, ignoring the obnoxious noises being made by her girlfriend and little sister as they ate furiously. “Come on, Fu, eat somethin'.”

“I'm not--” She stopped talking and looked down as she felt something in her palms. She squeezed her hands a few times, and her blank demeanor was shattered by panic. Without another word, she threw herself off the couch and sprinted up the stairs. Her movements were so quick, Applejack couldn't even get the words of surprise out of her mouth. Once upstairs, Fuyu slid into the bathroom and shut the door roughly. She unclenched her fists over the white sink and watched as little drops of black sludge began to leak from her palms.

“I can't!” she growled at them, and herself.

A few minutes later she heard footsteps outside approaching, but they went past for a moment before coming back. That's when the knock on the door happened. “Hey, Fu? Y'all okay in there? What happened?”

“I'm fi--” She clenched her teeth and grimaced as her palms cried again. Her mind told her not to even bother completing her reply, and she scrapped it for a diluted version of the truth instead. “I don't feel very well.”

“Is it your hand?” Applejack called through the door.

“No, my stomach,” she replied, tingling with uncertainty about admitting anything – even if were only a half-truth.

“Oh boy. Well, uh, I'll go talk to Rarity and call off the appointment, if ya want.”

“Very well.” Fuyu was busy sopping up the sludge from the basin, rubbing her palms in a circular motion over the porcelain.

“'Kay. Should I call the doctor while I'm on the phone?”

That suggestion made her bristle slightly, but she tried to modulate her unhappiness and keep calm. The stress would only make her hungrier. “No, I just feel sick to my stomach,” she mostly lied, finally clearing the sink of her black goo.

“If ya say so. Listen, I gotta take Apple Bloom ta school, but I'll ask RD if she'll stick around and keep an eye on ya, okay?”

It wasn't okay in the least, but she had no choice and relented. “All right,” she groaned, placing both hands on her stomach as it churned furiously.

“Poor Fu. Sleep it off, I'm sure y'all will be fine in a little while,” the blond encouraged. At last, Fuyu heard her walk away from the door, and she took the opportunity to dart out of the bathroom and back into her room, closing the door and locking it as she went. She kept her fists tightly closed in case they began to weep, and stared out the window at the drizzling rain.

“This is bad,” she admitted to herself, uttering the words through clenched teeth. It only happened a few times before, when she'd been forced to take a child instead of an adult. Their flesh was never enough to last her the full four days of her limit, and by the end her palms would leak whenever she got around someone big enough to satisfy her hunger. If Rainbow Dash indeed agreed to stay here, she would be dead by the time Applejack returned. Fuyu was genuinely beginning to starve.

And yet, despite her physical distress, she resisted the idea of allowing the woman to check up on her and walk right into an ambush. After all, girlfriend did contain that six-letter word that caused her so much joy. It still did, even in her time of utter – if contained – desperation. Behind her, she heard the ruckus of Apple Bloom and her older sister getting ready, and the thought of the latter caused her palms to cry again. She had to cup her hands to hold the goo, but soon it overflowed and began to drip onto the wood floor. Frustration joined desperation in her heart, and she wept regular tears from her eyes.

“I've never had a friend before,” she whispered, stooping and trying to collect the black puddle that gathered on the oak boards. “Can't we just wait? I don't want to...”

Her stomach refused, and she felt herself getting lost in a mental fog. Soon, she would be on autopilot, and the first person she saw would end up being breakfast. After weakly cleaning up the black puddle, she stood, just in time to see the old red truck disappearing down the path. A moment later, a knock rang out from behind her.

“Hey, you asleep?” Rainbow called. “AJ said you weren't feeling well.”

Fuyu tried to formulate a response that would make the woman leave; even the thought of her behind that door was causing the woman great stress. Once again, her palms leaked. “I was trying to sleep, yes,” she finally blurted out, desperate to sound as even-keeled as possible.

“Oh, my bad!” she said, apologetic. “I'm gonna crash on the couch, okay? If you need something, just come down and wake me up.”

“Very well.” Her footsteps started and went away, and Fuyu breathed a sigh of genuine relief. Again, she stooped to collect her liquid hunger off the floor. As she got up and glanced out the window, trying to think of an option, more movement caught her eye. She walked closer to the window and looked to her right. The black truck was still parked there, awaiting pickup by the police for examination. At the passenger door was a redheaded woman in a blue jacket and jeans that she didn't recognize, apparently trying to break into the vehicle without attracting attention. Fuyu looked down, at first to calculate her jump out onto the ground. Instead, she saw someone else directly below her window.

It was Stormy.

Quietly, she opened the window and stuck her head out. Stormy looked up and shrunk back a little, but gained a look of helplessness a few seconds later. Fuyu pointed at the other woman, and Stormy nodded her confirmation. The delivery had arrived. Satiated by the thought of imminent food, her stomach became silent and handed off full command of her faculties. She slid partially out of the window and placed her left palm on the siding, sticking herself to it with a squirt of black. Then she emerged entirely, sticking her other hand to the side of the house and hanging for a moment, before she brought her feet up and let them sit on the siding. She climbed down under the window and closer to the corner of the house, all the while judging her launch point to hit the other woman without alerting Rainbow Dash to anything happening. When the other woman started to turn to look at Stormy, Fuyu threw herself off the house and collided with her. Before she could shout in protest, Fuyu slammed a hand on her mouth and gagged her with the ebony sludge. The woman clawed at her face to get it off, allowing her hands to be bound together. It was more difficult to tie her legs, but she could not match the strength of her captor and eventually wore herself out trying to kick the woman away. Her prey subdued, Fuyu picked up the woman and looked back at Stormy.

“Come on.”

“Wh-why?” Stormy asked, hugging herself and trembling. “I did what you wanted.”

Fuyu hefted the writhing, crying woman onto her shoulder and stared at the thief. “There's someone else here, and they may see you. I have to take her somewhere out of sight to eat and I don't want you being discovered.” Stormy was extremely reluctant to even approach, but the unending icy glare eventually changed her mind. She skittered to catch up as Fuyu began walking.

“Glad I'm wearing pants this time,” she muttered, jogging after the woman in black. Her partner's upper body was behind Fuyu and facing out, so she was treated to the pleading, confused looks of the victim as they moved. “Sorry, Ruby. I found someone I'm more afraid of than the boss.”

Fuyu looked back as they went, only slowing down after the farmhouse disappeared behind a hill. “What were you trying to do?”

“The boss really wants his truck back,” Stormy replied, frowning up at the rain as Fuyu set Ruby against a tree trunk on the ground. “Uh, can I go now?” She gulped as icy blue eyes gazed at her coldly. “Pl-please?” she begged, beginning to tremble. “I don't wanna see this...”

“I may need you to drop someone off more often than I thought,” Fuyu replied, sizing up her victim.

Stormy's jaw dropped. “Are you nuts? It took me hours of begging Ruby to come with me! If she doesn't come back – when she doesn't come back, nobody's gonna want to be my partner!”

Ruby began to screech through her gag at Stormy's revealing of her fate. She thrashed enough to cause her to tip over onto her side, but that was as far as she got.

“Kidnap someone. I don't care how you do it.” Fuyu sat on the ground beside Ruby, hauling the redhead into her lap until the back of her head was underneath her chin.

“What have I gotten myself into,” Stormy lamented, walking to another tree and sitting underneath it. “Hey, uh...” she began, freezing when Fuyu looked up at her. “What did you do with Clyde? I mean, when you were done ea--” she fell quiet as she watched Fuyu open her mouth and latch onto the back of Ruby's head. Stormy made a series of unhappy noises and got up, walking quickly away from the two of them. “Fuck it! I don't want to know! Celestia help me...” she moaned, slamming her hands over her ears as she went.

“Wait,” Fuyu called, having moved her head away. “You actually did it.”

“Did what?” Stormy asked, turning around and dropping her arms. “Oh, bring you someone to...ugh. Now I'm a murderer, too. Great. Look, I got lucky that the boss loves his truck, and even luckier that he agreed to let me try and make it up to him. When I come back without it, though, I am fucked.”

“Wait until night and then take it. I won't bother you.”

Stormy folded her arms and blinked. “Okay, but then how will I get him to keep sending me back here? He sounded like he just wanted to cut his losses. After he got his truck back, I mean.”

Fuyu looked down briefly at the squirming Ruby, locking her arms around her chest to keep her still. “Perhaps I can kill him for you.” Her hands wept again, but with food secured she remained in control, and her stomach, while grumbling, was otherwise silent. “Maybe he will view me as a threat if you tell him what I've done.”

Stormy considered this for a moment, idly wiping the rain from her forehead as she thought. She let out a helpless laugh and shrugged, giving Fuyu a weird sort of smile. “That would be great, but he's gonna send a ton of people down here after you if he does think you're dangerous.” She stared at Fuyu's blank look and scratched her wet head. “I guess you don't give a damn, huh?”

“Not really,” Fuyu responded, parting Ruby's messy red hair and bringing her head back down. She latched onto the back of the skull before her and bit, causing Ruby to unleash a muffled shriek of pain. Stormy cringed powerfully and turned, walking away again.

“I'll come back later,” she said, running to get away from the noise. This time, Fuyu did not stop her, instead focusing on her meal. Her teeth had cracked Ruby's skull, but she bit again to break it open more completely. The helpless woman tried to thrash, but was held still by strong, pale arms. Just as soon as she could reach it, she bit into Ruby's brain stem to paralyze and kill her. With her arms freed from holding her down, Fuyu began cracking off pieces of skull, swallowing them whole. She ate from the top down, taking bites out of the brain as if it were a large apple. Once the skull was gone, she recalled the black bindings from Ruby's wrists and legs and removed her inedible clothes. Twenty minutes later, the only thing remaining of the redheaded thief was a bloody stain on the grass, and that was being washed away by the increasingly heavy rain.

“A bit spicy,” she remarked, looking to see how much blood she'd gotten on herself. There were small spots of it, but they were hard to distinguish against the dark fabric. Satisfied, she began looking for the river, both to dispose of the clothing and to take a quick dip to get the blood out of her hair. By the time she found it, however, she could hear the grumbling engine noise of Applejack's old truck off near the road. Sighing, she had to limit her bath to a dunk of her head in the water and a quick, clumsy scrub of her hair. As she raised it back out of the stream, she watched the red bloom flow lazily away and break up as it was pelted by the raindrops. She placed a hand on her stomach and sighed, then let out a loud belch which was accompanied by a red mist. After that, she turned back to where she thought the house was and started to sprint. Her bare feet slipped constantly on the wet grass, but she managed to stay upright the entire way. Upon arrival, she saw the old truck already parked; instead of going in the front door, however, she deployed the black suction cups again and scrambled up the side of the house, daintily sliding herself into the window just in time to hear the worried voice of the blonde.

“Fu! Are ya all right in there? I saw the window open. Hey, Fu? Fuyu?” she called through the door.

“I'm fine,” she called back, positioning herself as near the bed as she could to make her voice sound correct. She was soaked from the rainfall, and was leaving a little puddle where she stood. “It was hot, so I opened it.” She looked around the room for something to dry off with, but couldn't find anything. Shrugging, she stepped over quietly, unlocked the door, and poked her wet head around it to look at Applejack. “May I have a towel? It's hot up here.”

The blonde stared at her for a moment, then started chuckling and nodded. “Sure, just a second. This old house is real bad about trappin' heat upstairs.”

Fuyu watched her go retrieve a blue towel from the bathroom, which she handed over through the cracked door. She toweled off her head as best she could, although even dry her hair was still shiny.

“Feelin' better?” Applejack asked, still near the door with her hands on her hips.

“Yes.” Fuyu went to work on her tank top next, pausing briefly to re-patch the hole left by Stormy's knife with a squirt of black.

“Good, 'cause Rarity insisted on comin' over to do measurements. I told her over and over again that ya weren't feelin' too great, but I think Twilight may have mentioned ya riskin' your life in the defense of my crop,” she chuckled again, shaking her head and grinning to herself. “Can't stop that woman from anythin' once her mind gets set. Ya hungry? Still some sausage left over downstairs.”

Fuyu had scrubbed herself over several times by now, and had gone from dripping wet to mildly damp. She opened the door fully and looked at the blonde, holding the wet towel in her hand. “Just thirsty,” she replied, walking past and depositing the towel in the bathroom hamper. If Applejack noticed anything off, she didn't say it.

“Come get some of the cider, the fizz might help your stomach settle down,” she offered, adjusting her hat and moving back toward the stairway. “Oh, could ya shut the window, please? Don't want that oak floor in there gettin' wet.”

“Yes,” Fuyu nodded, moving to do just that before coming back out and walking toward the steps herself.

---

Rainbow Dash had not long departed when Rarity arrived, darting through the raindrops after getting out of her silver SUV and avoiding puddles as if they were landmines. The soft ground fought against her white heels, and thrice she nearly fell over. Applejack and Fuyu met her at the top of the front steps, the former smirking at her plight.

“Not funny,” Rarity glared at her, setting aside the large purple box she was carrying and closing her umbrella, setting it in one of the swings. She gently patted at her hair and smoothed down her shimmering white bias cut dress, a garment that sported short sleeves, a small collar, and a narrow, diamond-shaped cleavage cutout. After she was satisfied with her appearance, she took up her box again and cleared her throat. “Pardon me for taking so long,” she said, strutting between the two of them to the front door. “I had to ship a few things to Canterlot. Dreadfully long line.”

“Ya didn't even have to come in the first place,” Applejack grumbled with a smile, falling in behind her. Fuyu brought up the rear and closed the door. “Well, good luck, Fu,” she added with a snicker. Rarity beckoned the woman in black to follow her upstairs.

“Come along, darling, I'll make this quick,” she chirped happily, sauntering up the stairs. Fuyu followed her after a brief delay, catching up when both of them reached the top. “I gather you've never been fitted for clothing before?”

“No,” she replied, having to show Rarity which room was hers. The dressmaker cringed while entering, due to a loud crash of thunder that rattled the windows.

“I wish the sun would come back,” she moaned, a hand lightly on her chest as she calmed herself down. “At any rate, this won't take long at all. I only need to measure you, and if you're still ill we can talk about color and fabric some other time, all right?”

She shrugged a little and nodded, standing at the end of the bed and watching the other woman unload her tools. “I feel fine now.”

“Good! I'm glad I brought the bolts, then,” she said, laying out several squares of fabric on the bed and spreading them out. She put on a pair of thickly rimmed red glasses and walked over with a yellow tape measure in her left hand. “Now, stand like this, please.”

Fuyu copied her pose, standing with her legs together and arms down at her sides. Rarity moved behind her and pressed the tape to her back. Off to their left, a notepad and pencil floated over, sheathed in cornflower blue magic. A number was scribbled down before both pad and pencil dropped on the bed.

“I'm not making you uncomfortable, am I?” she asked, unnerved by the quiet as she continued to press the tape on various parts of the woman in black.

“I'm fine,” she replied quietly. Cleared of physical worries, her mind was wandering again to more abstract thoughts. “Why are you doing this for me?”

“Arms straight up, please. To be honest, Applejack asked me to yesterday, but in the course of talking to Twilight this morning I learned about what you did in the face of those evil apple rustlers,” she explained, moving to Fuyu's left side to take further measurements. “Anyone willing to do such a thing for a friend of mine is my friend as well.”

“Huh.” Fuyu looked down as Rarity moved to her front, crouching down and rubbing her chin. “What?”

“Oh, just considering a few designs,” she laughed lightly, pushing her glasses back up. “You and I have rather similar figures, besides the muscle tone.” A few more awkwardly quiet minutes passed before Rarity felt she could no longer avoid the subject nagging at her brain. “If you don't mind my asking...were you actually homeless before you met Applejack?”

“Yes.” Fuyu opened her stance as Rarity gestured for it, then tilted her head at the sadness in the dressmaker's eyes. “What?”

“I cannot imagine what you must have gone through,” she said, frowning as she magically wrote down more numbers on the notepad. “Five whole years? Well, I'll tell you this much, as long as you're in Ponyville, you'll never have to worry about that again.”

That sentiment caused her to blink and shift in her stance a bit while Rarity fussed with the yellow tape. “I don't understand.”

“Darling, I take care of my friends. We all do,” she said, smiling as she rose fully to her feet. She wrapped up the tape in a neat spool and dropped it in the purple box, removing and setting her glasses inside at the same time. She took the notepad out of the air and gazed at the numbers for a moment, nodding and making little noises as her mind worked. “Now then, colors!” she blurted out, setting the pad down and gathering the bolts of fabric.

Fuyu, however, was not quite ready to move on. “We?” she asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed nearest the window. Rarity moved over to her and sat down with the bolts in hand, smiling.

“The six of us. Myself, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Fluttershy – whom, by the way, asked me to apologize on her behalf for running off. She doesn't handle new faces terribly well. As I was saying, we all look out for each other,” she concluded, idly shuffling the bolts on her lap as she spoke.

It took a moment for it all to hit her, but once it did, Fuyu found tears stinging her eyes. “I...” A hand gently squeezed at her shoulder as she hunched over a little, trying to collect the whirlwind of feeling inside of her. “I don't remember having any friends before.”

Rarity grasped Fuyu's left hand, holding it in both of her own. “You do now. As for your amnesia,” she frowned, looking down at the floor briefly, “I'm not sure if there's anything we can do, but Twilight is going to try. Even if she can't help, you can make some new memories. Now then, dry those eyes! We've got fabric to look at!”

They spent the next ten minutes examining the bolts. Fuyu ended up picking black and blue as her favorite colors, although this was more a function of her selecting what she knew more so than having a legitimate preference. Rarity was packing up when Applejack arrived, peeking in the doorway with a smile.

“How'd it go?” she asked, pushing up the brim of her hat.

“Wonderfully,” the dressmaker replied, clicking her box shut and smiling. “I'll call you when I've got some things for you to try on, all right?” she added, looking at Fuyu as she stood and turned around.

There was a nod, and once again Applejack witnessed that odd, stilted sort of gratitude emerge from the woman. “Yes. Thank you.”

“It's no trou--” Another crash of thunder interrupted Rarity, and she cringed deeply again. “...trouble. I'd best be getting back before this weather somehow gets worse. Ta ta!” she said, lightly waving her fingers and striding out into the hallway.

“See ya!” Applejack nodded, tipping her hat and watching her go for a moment. Once she'd gone down the stairs, the blonde looked at Fuyu. “Looks like ya been cryin'...”

Fuyu wouldn't make eye contact, instead looking down at her bare feet. “It's nothing.”

“Oh, no ya don't,” the blonde countered, walking over to her. “Talk. What's eatin' ya?”

That word would have caused her genuine misery had it come a few hours ago, but she shrugged it off easily and looked up. “I have friends now. It's...” She struggled to find an appropriate word for it, but ended up falling back on one she'd used for something far less significant. “It's nice.”

Applejack gave her a few pats on the back and grinned. “It sure is. Ya hungry yet? Got some leftover pizza warmin' up in the oven.”

Fuyu wasn't quite sure how her stomach would react to taking in anything else while it was so full, but she shrugged and nodded a little. “Very well.” They both went down the stairs. The rest of the day was a blur until the point where Applejack retired for the night. Fuyu also went up to her room, wrapped up in thoughts that were still fresh and unfamiliar. As she watched the shrieking thunderstorm through her window, she considered the idea of having many friends, not just one. Her brain distilled it into a very simple equation: more friends meant more kindness, and more of that feeling to slake her addiction. She frowned, however, at the thought of having to keep her secret from so many.

“I will find a way,” she resolved, lying down on the big bed. Just the idea of having to go back to her lonely life made her stomach twist unhappily. She settled in to sleep, the last noises she heard before drifting off being a loud rumble of thunder and lower, mechanical droning – a sound that was very close by. She didn't even have to open her eyes to know exactly what it was.