Gray

by Mayclore

Bright Future (Prologue)

“Hungry...”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Have you ever tried committing suicide?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Comments

[Midnight herald]

I really like the new tone set by the rewrite. I think that by starting out this way, it sets the upcoming story up for a more psychological feel than White. I loved Fuyu's reactions to the first clone-kill; it really showcased how much she grew over the course of the previous story. Looking forward to whatever comes next.