Gray

by Mayclore

Spitting Image

For the next few feedings, Pinkie Pie insisted on taking Fuyu herself despite Twilight's objections. The only way she'd let the baker do it was if she came back after every visit and allowed Twilight to examine her. In her two weeks visiting the pool with Pinkie, Fuyu had learned that the mechanics of the mirror pool weren't really understood by anyone, nor were the effects of using it so often. It became something of a comforting routine. Every four days, she would go to the pool, make quick work of the clone – she had taken to ambushing it as it emerged so it couldn't speak to her – get a long hug from Pinkie, and go home.

Therefore, Fuyu didn't understand why an extremely nervous Fluttershy was standing at Rainbow's door this morning, wringing her hands furiously as she stared up at her. Rainbow was still asleep – and probably would be for a while – so Fuyu wasn't quite sure what was going on.

"Pinkie is sick," the shy woman explained, shuffling quickly past and into the apartment. "I a-agreed to take you this time in her place."

Fuyu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in surprise, a facial tick she'd picked up from her constant exposure to Rainbow Dash. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Um, well, I sort of promised Pinkie that I would, last night," she explained quietly, hugging herself as she glanced around the living room. "I don't want to b-back out of it. She w-would be upset with me."

Fuyu nodded slightly as she walked behind the couch, slipping on her black sandals and moving back toward the door. "Very well. Do you know the words?"

"Yes, I have them, um, written down," she replied, skittering along after the woman in black. "H-how long do you usually take to, um...you know?" she asked as they started down the stairs.

Fuyu knew very well that she could fly, and couldn't figure out why she would walk when Rainbow usually took wing and hovered up and down the stairwell. She discarded her confusion to answer the question. "I won't be long."

"Okay," Fluttershy nodded. They left the building and got into her vehicle. It was an open-top, boxy green thing with fat tires and a bed, but it wasn't quite a truck. As she pulled into the street, the engine made a long throaty growling sound that caused Fuyu to blink. The dainty woman looked totally out of place behind the wheel, but she drove with same ease Applejack displayed while wrangling her old red pickup. As they drove, and Fuyu didn't speak, an awkward look sprouted on Fluttershy's face that grew more intense as the miles went by. Suddenly, she emitted a squeak and started to apologize. "I'm sorry! I didn't think you wanted to talk so I didn't say anything!"

Fuyu looked over, tilting her head and trying to figure out what the apology was actually for. Her eyes rolled about as she thought, until finally she gave up the pursuit and decided it would be easier to just accept it and move on. "It's fine." The silence returned, and the cycle began anew.

"Sorry!" she squeaked. "I didn't mean to be so quiet!"

The second apology earned her a confused stare, but Fuyu didn't endeavor to speak this time. Instead, she just watched the shy woman drive. As they made the turnoff, Fluttershy appeared ready to faint – or perhaps burst with some emotion Fuyu couldn't place. She brought the vehicle to a squeaky stop at the end of the dirt path and turned to look at her passenger with tense eyes.

"Y-you're so quiet!" she finally blurted out, slapping her hands over her mouth after she spoke. "Sorry!"

Never had Fuyu encountered so many apologies per square word. She wasn't quite sure how to handle it. Fluttershy was in an equal, if not quite similar conundrum; the woman in black actually spoke less than she, and she had no idea how to handle someone quieter than herself. As if to change the subject, they left the vehicle almost simultaneously. Fuyu began moving through the woods, and only after a moment did the shy woman summon her yellow wings and flutter along in pursuit.

"Oh my, I didn't bring a flashlight to see," she murmured, frowning hard at herself as they traveled. "I'm sorry. I could, um, go back and get one? Go back home, I mean," she offered, flashing the most awkward smile she could manage.

"Why do you apologize so much?" Fuyu asked, dancing over the soggy ground with disregarded grace.

Fluttershy blinked at the question, looking away for a second to ponder it. "I'm not sure. I'm sorry for apologi—oh, um...never mind." She floated along, biting her lip nervously as she attempted not to apologize for her apology about too many apologies. Neither of them were willing to speak again until they reached the rock, and the shy woman drifted through the air to peek down the hole. "Oh my, it's terribly dark." She squeaked as Fuyu walked in without a second thought. "W-wait! You might fall!"

"I'll be fine," she replied flatly, feeling along the wall as she descended down the stony grade. She knew Fluttershy had fallen in behind her thanks to the unbroken series of terrified squeaks she heard, plus two gentle bumps followed by muffled apologies to the wall that she'd collided with. Thankfully, the pool provided enough light to see as they neared it, and the shy woman stopped running into objects. They finally made it to the edge of the water, and an amazed Fluttershy stared down into its depths.

"It's so b-beautiful!" she whispered, hands to her chest as she hovered over it. She looked back at Fuyu for her opinion, but received a faintly impatient look in response. It confused her only briefly, until she suddenly realized why she'd come in the first place. "Oh, right, the spell..." She fished a scrap of paper from the pocket of her yellow shirt and unfolded it, holding it in shaky hands and trying to catch enough of the pool's light to read. "Into her own r-r-reflection she stared, um...y-yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly swore not to be s-s-scared, at the prospect of being doubly there." When the pool started to ripple, Fluttershy shrieked and flew away before her clone even fully materialized.

Sighing, Fuyu watched the false Fluttershy as she hesitantly pulled herself from the water. Unlike Pinkie's clones, however, this one ran away immediately upon seeing the woman in black. By the time Fuyu caught up to her, she was at the cave's ceiling, wings flapping desperately as she tried to find some way to escape. The cave was low enough for her to launch a black tentacle at the clone and wrap it around her waist. Slowly, she retracted the black rope and hauled the clone in.

That was when the clone started to scream. It was a noise unlike any she had heard before, shrill, visceral and so high-pitched it could probably shatter glass. The clone kept screaming at the top of her lungs even as Fuyu fully recalled her tentacle and laid hands on her, turning her around so they were face to face.

"Please no please no please no please no," she said, over and over again, through a series of sobs and hiccups. She didn't even struggle in Fuyu's grip, and that bothered her more than when Pinkie's clones tried to fight her. She was so put off that she actually released her grip, but the clone only fell to the floor and curled up into a ball, muttering a steady stream of 'please' as she shook. Just as she was collecting herself enough to summon a black blade and end it, the clone's words changed. A tidal wave of 'sorry' spilled from her lips, interrupted only by raspy gasps for air. Fuyu was now faced with a new feeling, but thanks to her reading she instantly had a label for it: guilt.

"I don't want to hurt you," she offered quietly, lifting her unarmed hand in apology. The clone squealed with terror at the word 'hurt' and fled, spreading her wings and taking to the air. Shaking her head, she started following the wingbeats as they echoed around the cave. This went on for about five minutes, until they abruptly fell silent. Once she located the clone, a serious problem became apparent.

The clone had found Fluttershy. Fuyu had no idea which one was which. The two of them clung to each other, weeping as they stared wide-eyed at the woman in black's arrival.

"I'm the real one!" the one the left blurted out. "Don't hurt me!"

The one on the right glanced at her double and blinked, then repeated her assertion verbatim. "I'm the real one! Don't hurt me!"

Fuyu sent away the black knife in her right palm and stared at the twins. The harder she tried at distinguishing the real one, the more her head began to ache. Soon, she placed a hand on it and mumbled, looking away from the two of them as she tried to think without causing herself discomfort. By the time she looked back, one of them had vanished. Fuyu heard no wings, so she had to have fled on foot. Instead of trying to chase the escapee, she approached the remaining Fluttershy.

"Please Fuyu, it's me," she begged, scrambling backwards along the floor as the woman drew closer. "Please! I swear I'm the real one!" When Fuyu raised an arm as if to strike, she weakly threw up her hand and started sobbing again. "No! No! It's really me! Please, no!" She closed her eyes as she felt something hard bump into her chest; assuming it was the end, she fell backwards and nearly passed out. There was no pain, however, and she opened her eyes again to find something like a lump of coal on her chest. "Wh-what is this?"

"Hold it," Fuyu replied, beginning her hunt for the other Fluttershy. She had to squint against the relatively bright light of the mirror pool, but caught enough of a movement on the other side of it to realize one of them was on the other side. Walking toward the edge, she shot out a black rope, wrapping it around a massive crystal point and yanking herself across, her sandals skimming the surface as she flew. Once she had the rope retracted, she started moving toward the last spot she saw motion. Sure enough, she found Fluttershy number two with her back against a rocky spike, sobbing quietly as she hid her eyes. Fuyu reeled her in with another black tentacle and held her under an arm, ignoring the spindly woman's weak thrashes. She drew herself across the pool and dumped the shy woman onto the floor with the other shy woman once she walked back over. The one on the right was clutching the black rock, and Fuyu addressed her first. "Why should I believe you?"

"B-b-because I knew your name," she replied, shaking so violently she could hardly talk.

"I know it! It's Fuyu!" the other Fluttershy squeaked, waving her hands in the air. "Don't hurt me!"

The one with the black rock looked ready to faint again, but adrenaline kept her upright as she berated her double. "You only know it because you heard me say it!"

"You only knew it because you heard me say it!"

Fuyu's gaze went back and forth as they argued in a circle about just which one of them had heard the name first. The squeaky bickering grated at her ears, causing her to rub at her eyes after a while, then to growl with annoyance. "Enough!" she bellowed, pulling shrieks of terror from both their lips. Once their attention was on her, she raised her arms, pointing one palm at each Fluttershy. "When I told you the truth," she began, glancing between both of them, "What did you do to me?"

"I shot you in the head!" the Fluttershy with the black rock screeched quickly. She ducked her head after speaking and began to mutter fearfully. Before the other Fluttershy could repeat the statement, a wiggling length of ebony launched out and penetrated her forehead. She fell limply to the ground, bumping into the original. "No no no," the shy woman wailed, scrambling away from her dead clone. "I don't want to do this anymore, I want to go home, I want to go home..."

Fuyu withdrew her weapon and walked over, dropping to a knee and giving her an awkward embrace. "I'm sorry. I won't hurt you. You need to leave, now. Wait for me outside."

Weeping, she nodded and sprouted her wings. She flew out of the cave as fast as she could manage, slamming into the upper part of the wall several times on her way. Fuyu winced faintly with every impact she heard before looking back at the dead clone. She dropped to her other knee and let out a loud sigh, emitting a wave of suppressed fear about killing the wrong one. "That could have gone better," she muttered lowly, getting to work on stripping the clone to eat.

---

Neither of them had much idea of how long they had been gone until they opened the door of Rainbow's apartment. They were met by Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow herself, all in various states of frantic anxiety. Fluttershy could hardly breathe, much less talk, so Fuyu took up the task of explaining why they were so late in getting back. At least she had made a point of keeping herself clean; a bloody parade through town in the shy woman's open-top vehicle would have been quite a disaster.

"There was a problem," she stated, sitting down on the blue couch and shedding her sandals. Behind her, Rainbow shuttled her best friend into the bedroom, shutting the door firmly behind them.

"No fuckin' kiddin'!" Applejack replied loudly, hands on her hips as she turned to face the woman in black. "Y'all been gone for half the damn day! We thought ya'd done killed her!"

Fuyu reacted badly to those words, pinning down the blonde with a gaze that could have frozen fire. "If I had killed her, I would have been done a lot sooner," she growled, standing up and walking over. "She didn't leave the cave after summoning the clone. The clone ran. They found each other and I couldn't tell them apart at first," she added, her tone somewhere between annoyed and frustrated. "I had to make sure I ate the right one. That's why we're late."

Applejack shrank back under her angry clarification, suddenly looking a bit sheepish as she raised her hands in defeat. "I'm sorry, Fu, I just...we were just worried, that's all." They both looked down as Twilight got between them, arms folded and eyes shining with sternness.

"It's fine," she stated. "Applejack is sorry, you're sorry. I think Fluttershy should be our biggest concern at the moment." They all turned to the bedroom door and stared for a moment before their impromptu get together broke up. One by one, they all sat on the couch and began to wait. "I thought Pinkie was doing this?" Twilight asked them both, glancing at each in turn. "Where is she?"

"Fluttershy told me she was sick," Fuyu replied, her eyes locked on the TV. "She also told me that she promised Pinkie she would take me to the cave last night."

"Ugh, I told her to let me know if she couldn't do it," Twilight groaned, slapping her forehead. "I would have asked Applejack to substitute."

The blonde perked up at her name and looked over. Still feeling a little apologetic, she nodded. "I'd have done it. No problem." She made a face when Fuyu glanced up at her. Those blue eyes betrayed that she hadn't gotten over the accusation leveled when she first arrived. "Fu, I didn't mean ta insinuate nothin'."

"Yet, you did," the woman in black replied evenly, crossing her arms. "It...hurt." She blinked at the admission. Emotional pain still confused her with how similar it was to physical distress, and almost reflexively she looked down at herself to see if she was injured.

An awkward silence fell on the three of them, broken only by the opening of the bedroom door. They all looked over the back of the couch to see a much calmer Fluttershy emerge. The shy woman stared at Twilight and said, with surprising firmness, "I'm not going to do that again." The librarian nodded her acceptance. For some reason, it made the shy woman squeak. "Um...well, I'm going home now. If that's okay with all of you." Since no one objected, she skittered out with a few more squeaks, nearly falling out of the doorway as she went.

"She okay?" Applejack asked her girlfriend, hanging an arm over the back of the sofa.

"Yeah, she cried a lot. I'd probably cry too if I'd been in her place," Rainbow said, moving to sit by the blonde. "We all cool out here?"

"Not quite," Twilight said, rubbing her temples. "I had some things I wanted to ask Fuyu, but I'm not sure now is a good time."

Three pairs of eyes went to her, but Fuyu returned none of their looks. "What questions?" she asked, still keeping her gaze on the TV.

Twilight cleared her throat, folding her hands in her lap and taking on a studious air that made Rainbow and Applejack exchange amused glances. "I was wondering if you'd let me have some of the sludge, to study."

Fuyu looked over at last, considering her request. After a second, she shrugged. "If you want." They all jerked back instinctively as she cupped her palm and squirted some out, swishing it around the basin and looking at the librarian. Twilight's hand lit up as she tried to magically float it over, but it never left Fuyu's palm. "What's wrong?"

"I can't grab it!" she exclaimed, a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead as she concentrated. "What the...it feels like oil, or something." The goo did have a faint raspberry glow surrounding it, but no amount of grunting or hand waving on Twilight's part could get it to budge. "That's certainly interesting. Rainbow, do you have a container I can borrow?"

"Um, I think so," she nodded, hopping out of Applejack's lap and wandering into her small kitchen. There was a long string of glassy noises as she rummaged through her lower cabinets, coming back with a jar and lid in each hand. "This work?"

"Yes," Twilight nodded. "Thank you. Fuyu, if you would?" She watched the woman squirt the jar half full of the awful gunk, screw on the lid, and hand it over. "Amazing," she breathed, swishing it around. "It doesn't stain the glass!"

Applejack shuddered as she watched the goo slide around, automatically wrapping an arm around Rainbow as she sat down in her lap once more. "Man, that crap looks terrible."

"It'd be awesome for a Nightmare Night prank," Rainbow countered with a wicked grin. Twilight shot her a grave look that turned her smile into a pout. "Stop being so serious all the time, Twilight."

"I'd say this is a pretty serious matter," she replied, still swishing the goo around. "I'm going to head back. I have a lot of tests to run. See you later," she waved, standing up and striding out of the apartment. Applejack and Rainbow offered her waves as she left, then looked over at the quiet Fuyu once she was gone.

"You okay over there?" Rainbow asked, noting a colder edge to her silence than usual.

She looked over at them at last. "I don't want her to take me ever again," she said, her tone extremely firm. "Her clone was so scared, it scared me. That's why they were able to get mixed up. I couldn't...I couldn't hurt her." She decompressed a little with the venting, her eyes shifting from hollow to sad. "Pinkie's clones are bad enough about trying to hug me. Fluttershy's clone just begged and screamed." In an instant, Applejack and Rainbow were on either side of her, gentle hands on her shoulders. The contact made her sigh and slump over.

"It's cool, Fu. I can take you next time," Rainbow said, patting her almost roughly. "Good luck keeping up with another me, though, heh."

"I best do it," Applejack countered, grinning faintly as she looked across at her girlfriend. "Least I can't fly nowhere."

Fuyu interrupted their burgeoning banter, slumping over further as she frowned. "I'd rather you didn't have to do it at all." It had taken her a lot longer than Fluttershy for the emotion to build, but now it overwhelmed her and drew tears from her eyes. Quietly, the two women at her side enclosed her in a gentle hug.

---

"Fufu, I am the super sorriest in the entire world-"

Fuyu glanced down at Rainbow's phone for the tenth time and tried to squeeze a word in edgewise as she got some water to drink. "Pinkie, it's fine."

"-I'm gonna like, totally throw you a party to make up for it because I heard from Rainbow that you cried-"

"Pinkie, calm down," Fuyu tried again, walking over to the window to gaze at the sunrise.

"-and you crying made me cry and I don't want any of my friends to cry and ohmygosh are you going to cry again?! I'll drive over right now and we can have a biiiiiiiiiiig hug-"

"...Pinkie?" Fuyu said, seeing if she could use an inflection to get the words to stop. She frowned when that failed to do anything, resigning herself to drinking from her glass as she watched the town wake up.

"-I am serious do you want a hug because I will totally get out of bed ri—achoo!" Finally she was quiet, save for a muffled burst of sniffling after her sneeze.

"Perhaps you should stay in bed." Fuyu glanced over as Rainbow arrived, stretching and yawning obnoxiously. "Would you like to talk to Dashie?" The nickname caused her face to screw up for a split second. Pinkie unleashed a rapid-fire explosion of 'yes', so Fuyu handed over the phone and went to sit on the couch. While they talked, she thumbed through one of the books Twilight had given her. This one was a fiction novel about medieval knights, and the imagery caused her brain to stretch, much like the Daring Do novel had before. She got lost in the words for several minutes until, out of the corner of her eye, she detected something flying at her. Her left hand flew up and snatched it right out of the air; as she gripped it, she realized it was Rainbow's phone.

"Twilight wants to talk to you," she explained, heading toward the bathroom. "Tell her to make it quick, I gotta get ready for work."

"Good morning!" the librarian greeted her, unnervingly happy – while sounding simultaneously exhausted. "That goo is fascinating! Or, it was, until it hardened and got all inert and boring. May I have some more of it?"

Fuyu blinked at how giddy Twilight sounded. It made her nervous, and she couldn't quite guess at why. "I can fix it for you. If I expel too much, I'll get hungry faster."

"Of course! Don't want that to happen! Wait, how can you fix it?"

"If I reconnect it to myself, it will become flexible again." She was multitasking now, her eyes back on the pages of the book. "Do you want me to come over?"

"Amazing! It's like a ferromagnetic liquid that reacts to the electrical signals in your nervous system!" Fuyu could barely hear a scribbling noise in the background. "I would appreciate if you did drop by. I had something else I wanted to do."

"Oh?" Rainbow was back, dressed in a gray hoodie that almost covered her ridiculously short red shorts. She plopped down on the couch with sneakers in hand, untying them so she could slide them on. Fuyu glanced over at her for only a moment. "What?"

Her reply was as chipper as could be. "I want you to beat up Applejack!"

Rainbow snatched her phone right out of a surprised Fuyu's hand, holding it in front of her face as she yelled. "Excuse me?!"

"Hi! I just want Fuyu to test her strength against the strongest woman I know, that's all."

"You need some sleep, you're sounding a little more insane than normal," Rainbow muttered, placing the phone between her ear and shoulder so she could deal with her shoes.

"I have coffee, Rainbow. Besides, I'm too excited!"

"That's bad for the rest of us. Look, I gotta go. No beating up my girlfriend, got it?" She ended the call and stood up, looking down at Fuyu as she continued to read. "I'm out. If Twilight calls again, try not to agree to any of her ridiculous ideas, okay?"

"I will do my best," she nodded, flipping a page and crossing her legs. Brief goodbyes were exchanged before Rainbow sprouted her wings and flew out of the living room window. Alone, Fuyu sighed contentedly and threw herself into reading. At least, until the doorbell rang. She looked up at it and blinked, sliding off the couch and walking to answer it with her book in hand. Behind the door, she found a restless Twilight, shifting ceaselessly in place until she noticed the door was open. Her hair was a frizzy mess, and there were bags under her eyes.

"Fuyu, that goo is the most amazing substance I've ever seen," she said breathlessly. She reached out and grabbed the woman's hand to lead her down the hallway and to the stairs. Fuyu barely got the door shut before being pulled out of range.

"Rainbow told me not to agree to-" she began, but Twilight raised a hand to cut her off.

"Not now. I have serious science to do, and a limited amount of caffeine with which to do it."

Comments

[Midnight herald]

Watch in awe as Twilight does SCIENCE! some of her ideas are completely crazy... I love it.