Harmony Houseby Warrior_PrincessChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Mini chapterChapter 5Chapter 1In the city of Bayville, New York a group of people from all walks of life have gathered on the lawn of a large stately manor. Parents bringing their children to the summer boarding school program to see if they can be given a chance at a better future. It is however no ordinary school, and they not ordinary students. This mansion in fact is the Harmony House, a safe haven for young mutants, and the students are all mutants. Most of the parents here would prefer not to acknowledge their children's mutant nature at all, but the threat of sentinel robots and mutant hunters with the technology to detect anyone with the x-gene make living at home too dangerous for them. Some though wish to have nothing to do with their mutant child. At the front gates a red pickup truck pulls to a stop. The passenger side door opens to reveal a tall athletic teenage girl in blue jeans, yellow boots, and a white t-shirt underneath a light brown leather aviator's jacket. Her skin is caucasian, but lightly tanned showing that she is used to an active outdoor life. Her hair is white and cut short except for the purple bangs that hang over her eyes. She wears a small amount of makeup, enough for decoration, yellow lipstick that matches her golden eyes that are surrounded by a light purple eyeshadow. After closing the door, and grabbing her army camouflage duffle bag out of the truck bed she started to say goodbye to the driver, only to jump back as he spun the tires, and called her a freak as he drove away. Her eyes stung with tears that she refused to let flow as the only family that she had ever known drove away, and left her for good. She slipped her head and one arm through the single strap in her bag, and put her hands in her jacket pockets before walking through the gates. "Bye Dad." she said to nobody. This girl's name is Gilda Griffin, and three months ago her mutant powers first emerged. Her father had locked her out of the house that first night because of what she had become. They tried to make it work, but his fear of mutants, and of what she did to the door grew stronger with each day. So when the Harmony House had opened its doors, and started taking in students he had made arrangements as soon as possible. I just hope I have somewhere to go when summer is over. She thought. Gilda was not foolish enough to think that her father would take her back in. Needing to think about something else she looked at the other students. Gilda was surprised at how many of them looked so normal. There were quite a few who looked perfectly normal, and she was positive that if they did not have the sentinels and the Friends of Humanity to worry about then they would not be here. Others however, like the girl with plates of exoskeletal armor on her skin reminded her of why her father now hated her. She pulled her jacket tighter. Finding a tree with a nice bit of shade she walked over and leaned against it, glad for a chance to just chill out. She watched the crowd, and hoped that nobody felt like talking. A few more students caught her attention when they showed off their abilities. She watched as an older girl who appeared to be part of the staff grabbed a blue skinned rainbow haired girl, and pulled her away for almost starting a fight. "Owowowow." the blue skinned girl complained as the woman pulled her away by her ear. "Let go Spitfire! You're gonna yank my ear off!" Spitfire was wearing a blue tracksuit with gold trim, and a winged lightning bolt insignia on the left breast. "That girl can shoot energy beams out of her eyes strong enough to punch through a brick wall." Spitfire pulled the younger girl over to a tree not too far from Gilda's, and finally let her go. "Why do you want her to shoot them at you?" The blue skinned girl grinned at Spitfire. "So I can see how fast she is with them." Spitfire facepalmbed which made the girl lose her grin. "Listen kid." Spitfire put a hand on the girl's shoulder, and gave her a look that was a combination of pride and disapproval. "You want to be one of the Wonderbolts. I'll train you, and give you a shot when I think you're ready. But it's gonna take more than just skill and style. You need to learn what I learned a long time ago." Looking her in the eye Spitfire said. "Hotshoting hurts." With that she walked away, leaving the teenager with a slightly confused look on her face. Then she caught sight of the white haired girl looking at her. "Hey! Name's Rainbow Dash." Gilda cocked her head twice as she studied her. "Rainbow... Dash?" Rainbow Dash chuckled. "I got super speed so that's where Dash comes from, and I leave a multicolored light trail behind me when I run, so... Rainbow Dash." she shrugged. "How about you?" Gilda shifted nervously. "I uh... I got nothing." she looked away. Rainbow laughed. "Nothing huh?" She then dashed over and put an arm around Gilda's shoulders. "If you had nothing you wouldn't be here. So what do you do?" Gilda shrugged her off. "I don't want to talk about it!" she said aggressively. "Okay okay, sorry!" Rainbow put her hands up defensively. They stood there awkwardly, and Rainbow Dash kicked at a patch of grass. "You thirsty?" Rainbow asked, and pointed back at the mansion. "We got soda." Gilda huffed, but gave in. "Any root beer?" she asked. WHOOSH! The rainbow trail of light could be traced back to the mansion before it started to fade. Before it disappeared completely Rainbow Dash was back with two cans of root beer. "Ice cold." she handed one to... "Hey what's your name anyway?" "Gilda." she said, and popped the tab on her can with one hand. "Gilda Griffin." "Hey, that's actually a cool name." Rainbow opened her own can. "You probably don't even need a codename." "Good, I just want to be left alone, and I definitely don't want to be some kind of superhero." Rainbow Dash just shrugged. "That's cool, I think enough of the students here want to be one that a single girl that doesn't won't make a difference." "Cool." Gilda nodded and sipped her root beer. "So who are the Wonderbolts?" Rainbow Dash grinned. "They're our own hero team. They're the coolest, and I'm going to be one of them!" Gilda rolled her eyes. "Well good luck with that hero girl. So what do they do?" "You mean what do they do as heroes, or what are their powers?" "Both I guess." "Well as heroes they mostly just protect the school, and the city." Rainbow Dash explained. "The headmistresses aren't interested in sending their students out after villains and stuff. As far as they're concerned we're just getting trained to control our abilities, and protect ourselves." Rainbow Dash looked over the crowd, trying to spot the members of the Wonderbolts. She pointed at a blonde woman in a tracksuit like Spitfire's. "That's Surprise. She's a teleported, but unlike most people that can teleport she can pop up out of anywhere even if she can't see the place she's going to." A confused look crossed Rainbow's face. "Also she doesn't have to be small enough to fit inside something in order to teleport inside it." "What, like she can teleport inside of a shoebox?" Gilda laughed at the idea. "Yes, yes she can." Rainbow Dash deadpanned. Gilda couldn't think of what to say about that. Rainbow Dash continued. "That's Soarin." she pointed him out. "He forms an energy field around his body that makes him almost as light as air, and he can even shape it into wings so that instead of just floating he can actually control his flight, and it doubles as a force field." "So he can fly, and he's bulletproof." Gilda summed up the information. "I'm guessing Spitfire has fire breath or something?" Rainbow Dash scratched her head in thought. "Yeah, it's not really fire though. I forget most of the egghead stuff, but basically she exhales a form of plasma." Gilda's deadpan expression was the signal for Rainbow Dash to continue. "Uh, okay well lightning is a form of plasma, and is hot enough to melt sand into glass in the blink of an eye. Spitfire can make her flames as hot as fresh lava from a volcano." Gilda gave a complimentary curse at that. Rainbow Dash continued. "She's also an olympic level athlete, and she saved my life, and she is just plain awesome!" "She saved your life?" Rainbow Dash smiled, not grinned just smiled, and looked at Spitfire in awe. "Yeah. It was a couple of years ago, and I had just gotten my powers. I could only make short jumps of speed at first, and it was so cool that I just wouldn't stop doing it. Something across the room that my mom needed? I dashed over and got it for her. I got pretty lucky and grew up in a town that was mostly okay with mutants. Oh, sure there were a few people that were superstitious or whatever, but mostly they didn't care. But I still should have been more careful." A young girl, her skin black not blue, her short hair like a rainbow ran down the street. Again and again she dashed forward in short bursts of speed, but she could not go fast enough to escape her pursuer. Her attacker could not quite get a fix on her, but it was not giving her an opportunity to get off the street to safety. Suddenly the ground beneath her feet exploded as she dodged an energy blast, and the force knocked her off her feet. She groaned in pain as she felt her injured leg. THOOM! She froze as the sound of her doom approached. THOOM! She looked back with her eyes wide from fear. THOOM! The giant killer stopped before her. In a completely monotone electronic voice the monster said "Mutant apprehended. Directive..." the sentinel raised its arm with the blaster in its palm pointed at the girl. "Terminate." The girl shut her eyes, and tried to think of something other than dieing in the street. She felt an intense heat wash over her, but it did not hurt. Opening her eyes she found that the robot's arm had been blown off and melted nearly to slag. The sentinel turned its gaze to where the blaze had come from. Spitfire was standing not ten feet away, dressed in the blue and gold uniform of her team. "Halt mutant." commanded the sentinel as it raised its other arm. Spitfire's response was to quickly take a deep breath, and exhale it in a torrent of flames that welded, and then melted the machine into an immobile half formed skeletal frame. Gilda pictured the scene in her head. She then shook her head, and raised her can of root beer for a toast. "Wow. To Spitfire." "To Spitfire." Rainbow Dash copied her. They both drank their sodas. "To Spitfire." a third voice spoke up behind them. They both did a spit take, and choked on their drinks. "Hahahahaha! You should see the looks on your faces!" As the voice broke out into another fit of laughter Rainbow Dash looked back to confirm who it was. "Surprise!" the speedster yelled at the older girl. "You're gonna give someone a heart attack!" Gilda clutched a hand to her chest. "She nearly did now." she said, and then she thought to herself. Easy Gilda. Stay calm. Don't let it happen again. "Oh my gosh! You didn't have a heart attack did you!?" Surprise teleported away in a flash of golden sparkles, and reappeared in the same way with a defibrillator charged and aimed at Gilda's chest. "Clear!" She yelled. "No! Wait I was-" Gilda backed away from the woman, but found herself several yards away when she finished her sentence. "kidding?" Rainbow Dash patted her on the back. "You're welcome for the save, but don't worry her pranks are harmless." she told Gilda. "Usually." "What?" "Nothing! We're going to go look for some more of my friends Surprise." Rainbow grabbed Gilda's arm and pulled her in the direction of the crowd. "Okay, you two go that way, and I'll go check on things for the surprise party." Surprise called after them and waved happily. Then she clapped her hands to her cheeks, and her eyes widened in alarm. "Oh no! You're not supposed to know about that! Just pretend you didn't hear me!" she yelled, and teleported away again. Rainbow Dash and Gilda just continued walking toward the crowd. From a bush next to the tree that Gilda had been leaning against there came a noise like a cork being popped. Then from out of the bush stood a teenage girl that could simply be described in one word. Pink. "Well she's...eccentric." Gilda said as she let Rainbow Dash lead her away. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Yeah, eccentric is the word we use to describe her." she said sarcastically. Gilda looked around at the many different people to get her brain working properly again. As they we're about to walk by the first group of people she noticed that one of them, a frail pale skinned girl with light pink hair, had a pair of large pink and yellow butterfly wings sprouting from her back. Gilda pulled her arms up to tighten her jacket protectively around her. Because Rainbow Dash still had one of Gilda's arms held in her's this sudden movement resulted in the two of them being pulled close into each other's personal space. Intimately close. "... What are you doing?" Rainbow Dash asked with a sideways look at Gilda. Gilda blinked twice and hesitated while a blush spread across her cheeks. "... I...uh..." "Oh my. We aren't interrupting something private are we?" Rainbow Dash and Gilda both looked to see the butterfly winged girl along with two other girls. One in an orange shirt, blue jeans, and a brown leather Stetson hat with her yellow hair held back in a ponytail. The other girl was dressed in sandals with two inch heels, and an ivory white dress with her purple hair done up in an elegant swirl. It had been the first girl with the wings that had spoken. She wore a light yellow blouse with pink butterfly and flower print that was cut low in the back to allow for her wings, slim blue pants, and pink slip on shoes. Before Rainbow Dash could decide if she should facepalm, or make some deadpan or sarcastic comment she was knocked a few yards to the side when Gilda rapidly waved her arms back and forth in panic. "What!? No! There's nothing going on!" Gilda shouted. The others ignored her and went to check on their friend, though the country girl did give her a glare. "Oh my goodness!" said the butterfly girl as she knelt down next to her. "Are you okay Rainbow Dash?" "Dash!" Gilda rushed over to where Rainbow was laying face down in the grass. "Is she hurt? Should I do something?" "I think you've done enough." the country girl said, and she grabbed Gilda's left shoulder with her right hand and pulled her back. Gilda swung her left arm back to try and knock the other girl's arm away. Normally since her powers activated anything Gilda hit, on purpose or by accident, got sent across the room. Hitting this girl's arm was like hitting a tree for a normal human. They stood there for a minute and glared at each other. "Really now girls." the well dressed girl scolded both of them. "It was an accident Applejack, and you know it. Now both of you apologize." They both mumbled apologies to each other, and looked ashamed of themselves. Rainbow Dash groaned and pushed herself up to her knees. She then spat out the mouthful of grass that she got from her fall. "Bleh! Grass tastes terrible." she advised everyone. "She's fine." said the butterfly girl. "I've taken harder hits than that just by tripping when I run." Rainbow Dash reminded them. She stood up and did a few stretches to limber up making several joints pop. "Ahem." Rainbow Dash looked to find the fancy girl gesturing between herself, the butterfly girl, Applejack, and Gilda. "Stop waving your hand around like that and introduce yourself Rarity. It's kinda rude." Rainbow Dash told her. Rarity facepalmed, and then began taking to Gilda. "Since Rainbow Dash appears to have once again misplaced her manners..." "Hey!" "...allow me to do the introductions." she did a small girlie bow, and introduced herself. "The name I have chosen to go by after discovering my abilities is Rarity. I have the power to transform my body into different minerals, my favorites being gemstones." Rarity then waved a hand in the butterfly girl's direction causing her to squeak and pull her pink hair down in front of her face. "Our timid friend here is called Fluttershy. A play on words because of her butterfly wings, and her shy nature. Say hello darling." "It's nice to meet you." she barely squeaked. Rarity was about to tell Fluttershy to speak up, but she was interrupted by Gilda. "It's nice to meet you too." "... You could hear her?" Rarity asked. "No, I just...guessed." That earned her another glare from Applejack. Rarity just shrugged and continued. "Well anyway Fluttershy here can obviously fly thanks to her lovely wings, and she is able to empathically communicate with animals." "That's kinda cool." Gilda tried to get a look at Fluttershy's face, but failed because of the wall of pink hair that was being firmly held in place. What little bit of a pale cheek Gilda could see was flushed red so she figured that being singled out from the crowd must be an embarrassing situation for her. Gilda could relate to that now thanks to her mutation. "And of course you've already met Applejack." Rarity paused as she thought about how to phrase her description of her friend's power. "I'm so sorry Applejack, but I still can't find a tactful way to say it." "Not a problem Rarity." Applejack told her, and then to Gilda she simply said "I got horse legs." Rarity facepalmed again. "Horse legs?" Gilda asked. Applejack reached down and pulled up the right leg of her jeans to reveal that the toe of what Gilda had thought was a boot was actually a grey hoof. "Strong nuff to kick through a solid concrete wall, can run at a top speed of forty miles an hour on pure muscle power, and can carry eight hundred pounds with out breaking sweat." Applejack said proudly, and then she stood back up straight and looked Gilda dead in the eye. "And if ya call me cowgirl I'll buck ya right through a concrete wall." "Don't worry I won't." she told Applejack. Then she smirked. "But I might make fun of you for that name." "It's a family nickname." Applejack grumbled. "My real name's Jackie, and my family name is Appleseed. So because I liked a certain cereal growing up..." Applejack trailed off as the rest was obvious. "Appleseed?" Gilda asked. "Like the legend?" "Legend nothing!" Applejack said loudly. "He is our direct ancestor!" Gilda held up her hands defensively. "Okay okay, don't bite my head off...cereal girl." Applejack hung her head and huffed in annoyance. "Dang it." She looked at Gilda and deadpanned. "I hate you." The others all laughed or giggled. "So I guess you couldn't think of a name for having horse legs." Gilda teased. "Well someone tried calling me cowgirl a few too many times when we first met." Applejack glared at Rainbow Dash who was trying to look innocent. Everyone looked at Rainbow Dash. "Oh, come on! You showed up wearing a cowboy hat and had hooves!" she exclaimed. "I thought you wanted to be called that." "Epic fail dude." Gilda confirmed. "It would seem that you are about to be introduced to another of our friends dear." said Rarity as she spotted another girl approaching them. The girl approaching them was black with purple hair with a single pink highlight running from her bangs to the end of her perfectly straight shoulder length hair. She was dressed pretty plainly in a simple blouse and skirt combo with matching shoes and knee high striped socks. All of it in the same shades of purple and pink as her hair. She was carrying an impressive number of books for someone her size. The stack started in her hands at waist level, and continued on up to block half of her face from view. "Hello girls." she greeted them from behind a book on string theory. Gilda's first impression of her was nerdy goth. "Got enough books there princess perfect?" Rainbow Dash asked with a grin. "Very funny Rainbow." she rolled her eyes. "So are you all going to listen to the headmistress' welcoming speech to the new arrivals?" "Well that would be the fashionable thing to do." Rarity suggested. "Ain't got nuthin else to do." Applejack admitted with a shrug. "I guess I'll go to." said Rainbow Dash. "I don't think I'll go." Fluttershy said. "If you don't mind that is. It's just that with so many people that I've never met before, and I really don't like crowds. So I think I'll just stay inside with my animals." she told them. "If that's ok with all of you." "That's perfectly fine Fluttershy." the girl assured her. She then saw Gilda. "Oh, hello. I'm sorry for not noticing you." Gilda raised an eyebrow. "That's ok, your hands are full." "Hehe, yes they are." she looked to Rainbow Dash. "Um, Dash would you mind?" "Your room or the library?" Rainbow Dash asked. "My room please." Rainbow Dash set to work. Zooming back and forth between the group of friends and the mansion she carried at least two books at a time. In ten seconds flat the books were all gone. "Thanks." the girl said and held her hand out to Gilda. "I'm Twilight Sparkle." "...like those vampire movies?" Gilda asked. "NO!" Twilight shouted. Everyone laughed except for Gilda and Twilight. Twilight groaned and slapped a hand to her face. "I hate those movies...and the books." "So what's your power?" Gilda asked to change the subject. "Past experience has led me to believe that it's easier to demonstrate than to explain, but that can wait till later." Twilight told her, and then waved for everyone to follow her. "Come on, Celestia is about to give her speech." Chapter 2Together they walked back to the front lawn. Fluttershy went off on her own before there were too many people. Gilda occasionally glanced sideways at Rainbow Dash as she grew curious about something. "So, I don't know if it's rude to ask or whatever, but why are you blue?" she asked and pointed at Rainbow Dash's arm. "Oh, it's a full body tattoo." the speedster replied without skipping a beat. "What!?" Gilda exclaimed in alarm. Then she pictured it happening and her face turned red again. Rainbow Dash couldn't resist anymore and laughed out loud. "You should see the look on your face!" she said with some difficulty as her laughing interrupted her ability to speak. After she calmed down she continued. "It's not really a tattoo. It's part of my mutation, helps me absorb extra solar energy to fuel my power." Gilda facepalmed. After a moment she removed her hand from her face and leveled a deadpan glare at Rainbow Dash. She then bust out laughing herself. "Alright that was a good one. Up high!" she told her and held up a hand. "I knew you had a sense of humor." Rainbow Dash said as she high fived Gilda. "Of course now I'll have to get revenge!" Gilda swore the oath with a raised fist. "Very amusing girls, but we're going to be late at this rate." Rarity reminded them. Then to Gilda she said "And she gets everyone with that joke darling, welcome to the club." "Well thanks. It's always nice to know I belong with my fellow weirdos." Gilda said sarcastically. They began walking again, but Gilda found herself curious about something else. She looked over to where Spitfire was talking to a slightly older woman with pale multicolored hair. "So only three Wonderbolts?" she asked them. "Seems kinda small for a super team." "Don't really need anymore than that." Applejack told her. "Ain't never a whole lot of trouble in town and they don't get involved in police buisness. Besides they already got everything covered. Spitfire's got the massive energy blast, Sorin can fly and stop bullets, and Surprise...have you met Surprise yet?" "She tried to electrocute me." "Then you know what she's like." Applejack nodded. "Imagine her actually fighting instead of just goofing off." Gilda shuttered as the thought of an angry Surprise invaded her mind. "There are a couple more, but they aren't here all of the time." Twilight explained. "The reserve members include Fleet Foot with enhanced speed and reflexes, and Rapid Shot who can fire a very large number of low level energy bolts from his fingers in very little time." "Don't forget about your brother and Cadence." Rarity reminded her. "Well yes, but Cadence is more of a teacher, and Shiny is really just a P.E. coach. They don't do any hero work anymore." Twilight explained again as she waved off her friend's comment. "But they were the first Wonderbolts!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Yes, but they retired in favor of training and helping others with their abilities." she countered back. Gilda interrupted the speedster's reply with an important question. "Your brother is named Shiny?" "Ahem, yes, uh...would you mind not letting him know that you know about his nickname?" Twilight smiled sheepishly. "Sure whatever." Gilda shrugged and stuffed her hands back into the pockets of her jacket. "So what's he actually called?" "Shining Armor." Twilight told her. "Force field powers." "How bout you? What's your power?" Applejack asked Gilda. "...I don't want to talk about it." she told them, and hunched her shoulders to make her jacket fit better. "Now hold on a darn minute! We introduced ourselves and told ya bout our mutations. Why caint ya do the same?" the country girl asked. "Applejack, if she doesn't want to talk about it she doesn't have to." Twilight told her friend. "And she probably has a good reason anyway." "Does my dad kicking me out of the house and calling me a freak qualify as a good reason?" Gilda asked bluntly. "Oh my goodness..." Rarity stepped forward and briefly hugged Gilda. "...and that was for...?" Gilda asked while taking a step back from her. Rarity composed herself before speaking. "I apologize for that." Her eyes showed the kind of old sadness that could give no more tears. "I know what it's like. When I discovered what I am my mother was none too pleased. She became rather passive aggressive and refused to look at me or even speak directly to me. My father ignored it at first, but when he found out how I was dealing with my depression over the matter he had had enough. My parents haven't lived together for over four years, and my little sister doesn't have a permanent home because I am a mutant." Gilda just stared at the elegant girl who was so different from her and yet had been through something so similar to her own situation. "Take your time darling. Rest assured you can stay here as long as you need to." Rarity promised her. Rainbow Dash gave Applejack a super fast punch to the arm, and jerked her head at Gilda. Applejack sheepishly stepped up to Gilda. "Sorry for bein rude. I have a habit of gettin a little overprotective." "Yeah whatever, it's cool." Gilda accepted the apology and turned to keep walking. Then she stopped and stared at the new size of the crowd. "That is a lot of people." she stated simply. The other girls all looked at the crowd, and blinked. They had expected a few reporters and of course the family members of the new students...but this was verging on ridiculous. There were easily over a hundred people on the lawn, and more outside the gate. Oddly enough there appeared to be no police officers despite the crowd being an obvious hazard to people's safety. "... Well I guess it's not everyday that someone who once went toe to toe with Doctor Doom, and won, opens a school for superpowered teenagers." Rainbow Dash said. "Didn't Headmistress Celestia once put a dent in Iron Man's helmet when she slapped him?" Applejack asked. "She focused solar energy into her hand and turned it into an impact grenade." Twilight explained. "That was back before he had proper energy shielding though." "In other words the school being opened publicly like this is a big deal." Rarity summed it up for them. "I can't be here." Gilda said as she turned around and started walking away. "What!?" Rainbow Dash caught her by the shoulder. "Why not?" "I don't have control of myself, and it's worse when there's a lot of people around." Gilda told her. She then looked back at the crowd and paled at the thought of what could happen. "And that is a lot of people." "Oh, sorry." Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head as she apologized. "It's cool, I just need some space until all of this is over with." Gilda explained and jerked her thumb at the crowd. Then she pointed at the building that they would all be staying at. "I'll take a walk around the palace." In the kitchen Surprise was making a large cake. She had teleported out of her Wonderbolts warm-up suite and into a chef's outfit. Her face and blonde hair were covered in sploches of white flour, pink and blue frosting, and sprinkles. Her clothes however were spotless. "Giant twenty layer cake? Check! Totally yummy frosting? Check! Get cleaned up so I don't embarrass anyone by showing up covered in flour frosting and sprinkles?" Surprise ran through her check list of things to do for the surprise party. On the last one she quickly teleported out of the kitchen and reappeared a moment later with her face and hair completely clean. "Check!" Now she just needed to move the two cakes into the reception area. "Huh!?" she stopped what she was doing and looked at the two cakes. "Wasn't there only one of those a minute ago?" Indeed where there had been one cake only moments ago there were now two. Both looked exactly the same. They were the same size. After a quick taste she confirmed that they were the same flavor of frosting and cake. "I know I only made one cake." Surprise said to herself. "So where did the second one come from?" The left cake then opened the three sets of eyes and its three mouths and growled at her. Surprise yelped and grabbed the first weapon she could. With frying pan in hand she leaped into battle and screamed her war cry. "Die demon cake!" Gilda was casually strolling along the estate grounds, slowly making her way around to the back yard. She was taking her time as she had a few things to think about. She needed a new home by the end of the summer because of her father's fear of mutants. The people here were mutants so wouldn't treat her badly for being one, though she would need to work on her self control. They were friendly enough, and even Applejack was nice when she wasn't being protective of her friends. She also has to deal with a similar problem as me, Gilda thought to herself. I wonder if she got the instincts too, like I did. As she kept walking she soon found herself passing a wide set of windows. A look inside revealed the room beyond to be the kitchen. The second look after her double take showed Surprise and a girl with pink hair and pink skin sitting on the floor. Surprise's chef outfit and the pink girl's white top with a pink heart on it, and pink skirt with three blue and yellow balloons on it, and blue shoes, and candy cane colored socks were all covered in frosting and sprinkles, along with everything else in the kitchen as the cake she had made was now destroyed. She could hear Surprise laughing. "Hahaha, You, hahaha, you were a, hahaha, You were a cake!" shouted the woman as she pointed at the pink girl who had begun laughing in an exact imitation of her. Gilda calmly sweatdropped and walked away. "The first one was bad enough, but a little sister is insane." After making her way to the back yard (which was massive) she saw a few older teenagers and a couple of adults all enjoying the sun and doing chores. A handsome blue haired boy and a beautiful pink haired girl were holding hands as they walked. An older man in what Gilda was sure was a tuxedo adjusted his monocle as he checked on the snack tables. Not far from where Gilda stood a large man, a giant really was setting up a table of drinks, mostly fizzy apple cider. "Hey can I get one of those?" she asked him. "Eyup." he told her and grabbed one to pass to her. When he turned around with the bottle in his hand it was nearly covered except for the neck. He pressed his thumb against the top and effortlessly popped it off, even though it was a twist top. "Wow! Thanks guy, uh sir." Gilda corrected herself before taking the drink. "Ain't a sir." he said in his baritone voice. "Only eighteen." "Oh! Seriously?" she asked and looked up at him. She was taller than most girls her age at six feet two inches, though Applejack had stood almost as tall, but he was definitely a whole foot taller if not more. He nodded his answer. "I guess you look older because of how tall you are. I just turned seventeen a few months ago. You don't look much older than me now that I'm getting a good look at you." As she finished talking Gilda raised her bottle to her lips and took a long drink from it. His cheeks turned slightly red and he kept glancing away from her. "Um, o-okay." Gilda sputtered and nearly spilled her cider as she realized how she must have looked. "I swear I'm not flirting with you I'm just awkward!" she said loudly and waved her empty hand in between them. "Who's your friend Macintosh?" asked the man in the tuxedo. "Oh uh um..." The fancy man raised an eyebrow at the giant and disapprovingly twitched his upper lip causing his mustache to tilt to one side. "A gentleman should always make proper introductions when he first meets a lady my good boy." "Yeah I'm a lady." Gilda said smugly. She then fanned her face as if she was hot and added a fake English accent. "Do introduce yourself why don't you." Macintosh stood there awkwardly. The dressed up man sighed and rolled his eyes. "Very well, I shall demonstrate, again." Macintosh dropped his head in embarrassment which caused Gilda to chuckle. "Ahem." "Sorry." Gilda apologized to the man. "So how does this work?" "First I introduce myself." the man told her. He quickly adjusted his monocle and ran a hand over his hair in case any had come out of place. "I am Fancypants." Gilda couldn't help herself, she doubled over and clutched her stomach. She had only just managed to pass her bottle of fizzy cider to Macintosh before she could drop it. She nearly fell over more than once as she lost her balance. When Gilda was done laughing she stood up straight and looked Fancypants in the eye. For his part the monocled and tuxedoed man had kept a straight face through all of this as it was hardly the first time it had happened. "Well introduce yourself." he told her. "My name is Gilda Griffin. ...sorry for laughing at your name." she grinned sheepishly. "It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance young lady. And I'm far past caring what the younger folk think of my name, no harm done." he said with a reassuring smile. Then he clapped his hands at Macintosh. "Well come now lad, your turn." "Uhm, my name is Macintosh Appleseed, and it is a pleasure for you to meet me." Fancypants sighed and shook his head. Gilda chuckled again. "I think you got that backwards dude, but I get the general idea." She reached for his hand to get her cider back. "And I'm guessing that you're Applejack's brother." Macintosh chuckled sheepishly and scratched his head. "Eyup. Oh, here ya go." He gave her back the bottle. "Thanks. So... Is this where I ask what mutations you two got stuck with?" Gilda shrugged. "Ah, no actually." Fancypants answered her. "You see my dear, Macintosh and I are not mutants." He definitely had Gilda's attention with that admission if her eyes going wide was any indication. "You see Macintosh here took the job of grounds keeper when it was offered to him after his family came into some financial troubles. Celestia and Luna agreed to loan them the money to keep their apple farm in exchange for him simply working it off. I on the other hand have been with the two sisters since they were young children. They were not even in their teens yet when their abilities first manifested, and I was hired on to care for them as their parents thought it best to hide them from the public." "Oh well...just don't take it personally if I get nervous around you. I only mutated a few months ago." Gilda told them, placing heavy emphasis on the word 'mutated'. She chugged her fizzy cider and threw the bottle away. She was about to say goodbye to them, but caught sight of Fancypants looking at her. "Young lady, I don't know what has happened to you, but I can assure you that whatever it was shall not happen again within this school. We will not let it happen. Anyone who has hurt you for being a mutant shall not be allowed on the property without your approval." "Nope." "... Nobody tried to hurt me." Gilda corrected them. She stuffed her hands back into her jacket pockets and glanced away from them. "I turned into a monster and nearly killed my dad. So he dumped me here." Fancypants' eyes softened and his mustache drooped a little. "Ah, I see." He then smiled kindly at her. "Well then it will be our duty to aid you in reconciling with your father." "Eyup." "...I tell you I turned into a monster and nearly killed my dad, as in with claws and stuff, and you want to help me go back home with him?" Gilda gave them both questioning looks. "Eyup." "Quite right." "... Are you high?" she asked them. "Nope." "I should think not." "... I literally tried to kill the only family I've had since I watched my mom die!" she yelled at them. "There is no reconciling from that!" Through most of this back and forth conversation Fancypants and Macintosh had kept their faces completely straight. Now their faces were masked with expressions of shock. Macintosh looked at the drinks and pretended to count them. Fancypants took off his monocle and put it in his pocket, then took out a white handkerchief in case of tears. "How long ago?" the older man asked. Gilda clenched her eyes shut when she realized that she had just shouted her biggest secret for everyone to hear. Everyone always assumed that she must have been messed up in the head because she had been so young, and she hated the looks people always gave her. It was like they expected her to be some pitiful sad little emo chick that needed to be on medication. "I wuz thirteen." Macintosh spoke up as he counted the bottles of cider. "AJ wuz eleven, and our baby sister wuz only four. Our pa was a mutant, could make plants grow real quick. A bran new apple tree sapling would be a ten footer in just a few months and would give the biggest juiciest apples you ever ate. Turned out it wuz his own life force that he put into the trees to make em grow. Plants didn't need much so it never hurt him none, but then I got sick. He tried making me better, but it wasn't enough. So ma told him to use both of their lives to heal me. I don't remember what they did to make it work but it did, and they died. I blamed myself for the longest, but my sister didn't and neither did our Granny." Macintosh turned to smile at the pretty girl. "My point is that neither you or me were in control of what happened and we shouldn't try to blame ourselves for it. You're pa might be scared but I'm sure he still loves you. Just give him some time." Gilda looked at him for a moment. Then she gave him a halfhearted 'whatever' and walked away from them. As she walked she could see the older boy and girl that had been holding hands watching her, she steered herself away from them. She could see an black woman with a black and white mohawk subtlety keeping an eye on her, she steered herself away from her as well. The only other person in the massive back yard was a woman who was tending to some gardening chores next to the entrance of a hedge maze. The gardener wasn't paying any attention to her or anything else so Gilda didn't mind being in the same area as her. Gilda stopped walking a few yards from the entrance to the maze. She took her hands out of her pockets and hugged herself. "Mom... "Gilda why did you hit that boy?" asked a brown haired woman in a leather aviator's jacket. "He called me pretty." said a six year old Gilda in blue jeans and a red monster truck shirt with her pale hair still cut longer than she liked. Gilda's mother chuckled and knelt down to talk to her better. "And what's so bad about that? You're a very pretty little girl." Gilda crossed her arms and pouted. "I don't want to be pretty, I want to be cool." The woman laughed some more and took off her jacket to put it on her daughter's little shoulders. "Listen to me Gilda. You just be you. I don't care what anyone else says you should be, or what they say you are. You just be you, and be proud. Okay?" "Okay." Gilda smiled up at her mother. "Good." she kissed her daughter's forehead. "Now let's go apologize for making that boy's nose bleed." "Ok, but if he calls me pretty again I'm gonna hit him again." Gilda promised. "In the ear." After a quick apology from Gilda, and a round of snacks paid for by her mother she was soon sitting on her father's shoulders to watch the airplane show. Her mother was one of the jet pilots and would be flying threw the air like a bird, like a superhero, like an angel. Yeah! Like an angel Gilda thought to herself. After a few sky writing stunts, some people jumping out of the airplanes, and a fake fight where the pilots shot at each other with machine guns that shot paintballs it was her mom's turn. A single jet was rolled out onto the tarmac. It was blue with a big gold eagle's talon painted on each side of the cockpit, and a set giant golden wings to match painted on the jet's wings. The Harpy. That was her mother's nickname in the Marines. She was the best pilot they had, and she never once got hit. The jet she flew for them had survived six other pilots, but they had all been killed by freak accidents. She was the only one that could fly it, and everyone else was too scared of its curse, so they retired it and sold it to her really cheap. Today, for some reason, a bit of extra paint had been added. Bright red streaks now made the talons look like they were dripping blood. The jet took off like an arrow from a bow. In a near vertical climb she looked like she was aiming for space. She rolled to the left in a spiral making it look like she had lost control, but then she pulled up into a half loop that left her flying upside down. The crowd was hypnotized by the beautiful acrobatics of The Harpy, both pilot and jet. Smoke. Inside the cockpit of the jet a sparking could be seen in the electronic systems. "Oh shit!" the woman said. Back on the ground her husband could see the smoke, and he knew that his wife didn't use any kind of effect. "Dambit! Gilda stay here!" he told his daughter as he set her down beside the boy that she had hit. "Ya wan a nacho?" the boy asked her. She ignored him, and his little sister peeked out from under her oversized Stetson hat so she could steal one. Gilda remained oblivious to everything else and continued to cheer for her mother. Her father had tried to tell the emergency response team that something was wrong, but they didn't know who he was or that he knew anything about what he was talking about. They just thought he was an overexcited fan. When he looked again The Harpy was coming down in a nosedive and rotating lazily. "Gilda cover your eyes!" he somehow managed to yell above the noise of the crowd. He ran to her where she was jumping up and down. "Gilda cover your eyes!" "No! I want to see mommy's trick!" she shouted. "Yay mommy!" Gilda stood in front of the entrance to the hedge maze in the back yard of the Harmony House. She stood there and hugged herself in her mother's jacket, and she did not cry. After a minute or two she grabbed the zipper with her left hand and the bottom of the jacket with her right, and she pulled it down. She reached up and grabbed the lapel of the jacket, and pulled it back over her shoulders. She lowered her hands and let the jacket slide down, her hands slipped through the sleeves and stopped at the shoulders to keep it from falling to the ground. And then Gilda spread her beautiful wings to their full twenty-five foot span. The feathers were a deep strong brown edged withe light grey at the very tips, making it look like they glowed in the sunlight. "Fuck you Dad." she said. "I'm proud to be me." Chapter 3Gilda wrapped the sleeves of her jacket around her waist and tied them in place. For three months she had held herself back. For three months she had been afraid of letting herself relax because of her mutation. But it was not simply her new wings that made her nervous, in fact she could not think that they were any cooler. Even the retractable claws that she could feel being held in place by the new muscles she had in her forearms were not so scary. The thing that had changed that frightened her was her brain. Her brain had been rewired to give her the instincts of a predatory animal, and that first night when after she mutated her instincts had made her see her father as prey. Time to let go I guess, she thought to herself. It was actually pretty easy for her to keep her instincts in control. All she had to do was constantly think of the humans, and especially the Sentinels as the bigger predators, but it left her feeling like a bird in a cage. It made her jumpy and paranoid, and it was too easy for something to surprise her and make her take a swipe with her talons. She still felt bad about that dog's ear. So she dropped her control and relaxed her mind and body, knowing that she was in a place where everyone around her could handle themselves, and it felt great. No more feeling like she was in a cage, her wings not being uncomfortably pressed into her back, nobody to call her a monster, her raptor eyes following every movement of a nearby rabbit... Okay, a little self control should stay. "Your wings are very beautiful." "AH!" Gilda jumped, and hovered in the air as her wings flapped a few times seemingly defying gravity with little effort. She stopped flapping her wings and lightly fell back to a standing position. After a moment to calm down she turned to the person that had spoke, the gardener lady. "Uh, what?" "Your wings are very beautiful." she said again. The woman was dressed in a light purple blouse with a white lapel, dark purple slacks, and white dress shoes with tall heels on them, though she had an apron on over it to protect the her outfit from dirt. Her skin was a pale white like the full moon, and her dark blue wavy hair hung loose almost to her waist. "Did I startle you?" "No. ...Yes." Gilda was embarrassed, but at least she hadn't tried to claw the woman. "I'm Gilda." "It's nice to meet you Gilda, my name is Luna." the woman greeted her and held out her right hand. "Nice to meet you too." Gilda reached out to shake her hand, but pulled back when she noticed a problem. "Watch the claws!" she warned Luna. "Oh, thank you. How sharp are those?" Luna asked as she looked at the eagle talon sized claws at the ends of Gilda's fingers. Three talons for the fingers with the middle one being significantly larger, and one for the thumb. Yet she had normal hands a moment ago, interesting. "Does the term meat hook mean anything to you?" Gilda retracted the talons back into her hands. "I don't imagine finding that out was fun." Luna said. She watched as an extra layer of skin unfolded from around the girl's hands, revealing her normal hands underneath, and the claws appeared to shrink as they were pulled back in. I've seen stranger mutations. "What gave you that idea?" Gilda said sarcastically. A little too sarcastically for Luna. "I would watch your attitude young lady. You may not be aware of who I am, but that was still very rude." She looked down at the six foot tall girl who was about half a head shorter than her. "Yeah?" Gilda raised an eyebrow at her. "And just who are you exactly?" "Headmistress Luna, co-founder of this school, known as the Dark Thunderer, " Gilda lowered her eyebrow and shrunk down a little. "fourth richest woman in the world, retired Avenger, and the woman whose property you are currently standing on. Do I need to go on?" "No ma'am." "Good." Luna took off the apron and dropped it next to the gardening tools that she had been using. "So, if you're the headmistress why were you doing yard work?" "I can't have a hobby?" Luna asked and pointed at the nearby hedge maze. "I planted this entire maze ten years ago, and I have tended it ever since." "Wow." Gilda was impressed. She looked into the maze, down through the center aisle that separated the two halves of it, and at the stone monument at the end. She pointed at the monument. "What's that?" When Luna didn't answer right away Gilda turned back around to look at her. Luna stood still and just watched the monument for a minute or two. She finally blinked a few times, and shook her head. "That is the end of a long story that I don't want to get into right now. Come, we can still hear the last of my sister's speech if we hurry." Gilda thought about it for a minute. She was still a little nervous about being around other people, but she was not going to get any better about it by standing there doing nothing. "Sure, why not." As they were walking around the mansion a ringing noise came from Luna's pocket. She reached for the object and pulled out what Gilda at first thought was a credit card, but then Gilda saw the red and white pattern and the stylized A. The woman pressed the A to answer the call. "Luna speaking." "What? Oh, crap... Uhh, hey Luna any chance you and your sister aren't mad at me anymore?" "Stark! I'm hanging up!" "No wait! We need backup." Luna's eyes narrowed as she frowned. "So why did you call me? I'm retired, Celestia too." "We've got a small invasion of Skrulls in New York and I told Jarvis to contact the nearest Avengers. We're scattered over the globe right now and we could really use some help here." Luna sighed. "Who do you have with you?" "Hawkeye, Falcon, and a few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents." a boom was heard on his end of the line. "Fine I'm on my way, but after this I am done." "Understood...Celestia isn't coming is she?" another boom. "No she is busy with the new students and their families." Luna said before passing the card to Gilda. "Take this." "What? What am I supposed to do with it?" Gilda asked as she took the card. "I don't even want to be a hero." "Throw it away, burn it, keep in case of an emergency, do what you shall." Luna told her dismissively. "Stand back from me." Luna walked away from Gilda, raised one hand to the sky, and called for the power. "To me Shadowbolt!" From the the clear blue sky overhead there came a thunderous noise and a great flash of light as a bolt of lightning streaked down into Luna's outstretched hand. She grasped the electricity and let it's power flow into her. A spark started in her hand and spread over her body. As the spark spread it changed what it touched. Her hand and forearm was now armored in a black gloved wrist guard that was clearly designed to protect against strong physical attacks, and as the spark continued down her upraised arm it gave her larger more well defined muscles. The spark passed over her shoulder and began to transform her clothes into stylised black steel armor. The spark continued on and flowed over her entire body, replacing her clothes with the same black steel armor that covered her forearms, her legs from feet to knees, her upper body from shoulder to above her abdomen, and everything in between was covered in a blue fabric. And upon her head was a helm of black steel with wings sweeping back from the sides and a single six inch spike protruding from above her eyes. The armor was not overly feminine, or sexually suggestive like what some female heroes dressed themselves in. It was elegantly designed yes, with beautiful patterns that resembled a flor de lis, but it was designed and built for one purpose. Battle! The woman underneath was not left unchanged. She was now taller than what she had been before, though her boots were not high heeled like her shoes had been. Her body was now leaner, more muscular, and brought to mind an ancient Amazon warrior. Her eyes held a glint of hidden power, and her hair now flowing without wind appeared as if it was the night sky itself. Luna pulled down her hand and willed the still flowing lightning gathered into a solid form. An obsidian hammer, black as a starless night, shaped like a stylised bolt of lightning, flat on one end a sharp point on the other. She grabbed the strap on the handle and whirled Shadowbolt around over her head, and threw it into the sky without letting go sending herself flying like the wind. Gilda stood still from shock, not just mental shock but electric as well because she had not been far enough away. Now her white hair, and even her feathers stood out at odd angles. Finally she blinked a few times and spoke to the man on the other end of the Avengers communication card. "She isn't in charge of detention is she?" As Headmistress Celestia was greeting the last of the last of the guests the crowd outside of the gate made its intention known. The parents, children, and the school staff were all momentarily startled by the sudden shouts of anti mutant protesters. "Humanity now! Mutants never!" was the constant chant. There were also several men and women wearing shirts with the logo of the Friends of Humanity. Scattered throughout the crowd was a variety of signs that had been painted with hateful, and even some violent, images of mutants. One person had even made a dummy with four arms and a tail, which was hung by its neck from a pole. Three young men up close to the gate had something extra planned. They were actually closer to being boys than men, but they were still adults. They each had brought high powered paintball guns and were planning on shooting at the people gathered on the lawn with special paintballs that were filled with neon green glow in the dark dye. "Filthy radioactive mutants need to be marked." one of them muttered. Before they could open fire though there was a commotion in the crowd. A series of random noises consisting of honks, dings, and cat noises passed in a wave through the crowd. The three men all looked behind them to see what was happening... ...and found themselves looking at a catgirl like in those Japanese cartoons. "Hi there! Can I get by please? I'm late." She smiled up at them completely oblivious to what they were doing. Her pink cat ears poked up out of her blue, brown, and black hair. She was wearing a blue top, a blue and brown skirt with a kitty face on it, and knee high blue and black boots with pink soles and a pink bow at the top of each. Any skin that showed was covered in pink fur, and a very fluffy tail as long as her legs flicked back and forth behind her. Her big blue anime sized eyes were so adorable that they almost made them ignore that she was obviously a mutant. "What? N... No! You freaking mutey!" the leader of the three pointed his paintball gun at her. "EEEK!" she squeaked in alarm and batted the barrel away from her. The man instinctively pulled the trigger, and shot a woman in the face with a paintball. "She made me do that with her powers!" he told everyone, and he honestly believed his own lie. "No I didn't" The catgirl reached a hand into the tip of her fluffy tail, pulled out small box of tissues, and held them out to the woman. "Here." "Get away from me you monster!" The woman swung her purse at the girl, but missed when she ducked and scrambled back. The crowd began to turn hostile. Other people around her started to throw bits of trash at her. The woman pulled a large book out of her purse, the Holy Bible, and began quoting a scripture that she had only read for the first time that day. The three men each tried to grab the girl, and they probably would have succeeded if someone had not stopped them. Three quick punches and they were stumbling back against the gate. The rest of the crowd stepped back from the new person. He was young, lean and fit with a runner's body, and his skin was pale like he never got any sun. He wore a red hoodie over a black shirt, dark blue jeans, and a pair of silver reflective sunglasses. The thing about him that really stood out was his belt buckle, a blue rectangle stamped with a yellow X. "Alright everyone, you had your chance to protest peacefully, now leave." he told them as he stood next to the catgirl. His fists were clenched and even with his sunglasses hiding his eyes it was clear that he was glaring at the three men. The catgirl was clinging onto the right shoulder of his hoodie with her ears drooped down as she nervously looked around. "Mind your own business mutant lover!" "This is a public street, we can stay as long as we want!" One of the three men stepped up to him with an arrogant smirk. "I think it's time for YOU to leave." the man said and poked him in the chest. The boy looked like he would have ripped the man's head off if the girl had not been holding onto him. Instead he raised his left fist up between his and the man's faces, and willed the shadows underneath his sleeve to come out and shape into three claws. Seeing this everyone quickly backed away from him. "Hey I recognize him! He was with the Brotherhood!" one of the other three men yelled. Before things could escalate any further another man stepped forward to speak. He was in almost every way completely average, from his medium length loose brown hair to his green shirt and light brown hiking shorts, and from his white shoes to his barely tanned skin everything about him was average. He carried himself like he was a big man, though he was only a bit stocky, and he stood at the average height of just under six feet tall. The only thing that would stand out was the color of his eyes, they were a unique mix of green and blue that seemed like it was on the verge of changing from one to the other. This man grabbed the bible from the woman and quoted without looking. "Judge not lest you be judged. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love thy neighbor. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." The crowd had stopped to listen to him. "Many of you are Christians, but you forget the most basic teachings of your faith. You even commit the sin of blasphemy by saying that God did not create mutants. It is said in this book that only that which he wills can exist in this world. If that is true then God wants mutants to live with you because they would not exist if he did not allow them." By now most of the crowd had regained some common sense and were no longer holding up their protest signs. Those who were from the Friends of Humanity however did not relent. "This isn't about God! It's about monsters like them using their powers to intimidate and take advantage of us normal people!" The man gave the woman back her bible and turned to address the new speaker, a middle-aged man in a FoH shirt. But one of the three young men thought it wise to do the stupidest thing possible. "All three of you get on the ground NOW!" The rest of the crowd ran off pretty quickly after they saw the gun, a thirtyeight special. He moved the gun back and forth between the mutants. He looked the older of the two males in the eye and sneered at him. "I recognize you too. You destroyed an entire town. Did you really think your face wouldn't be on the news at some point?" The boy wanted to do something, anything, but the catgirl was still clinging to his shoulder so the best he could do was take the bullet for her. Though he was hoping to get an opportunity to use his shadows without that happening. He could feel her heart beating like a drum roll against his back while she peeked over his shoulder with one eye. He watched the other guy out of the corner of his eye, and he stopped thinking when he noticed that the man had steam rising from his body and little bits of stone, concrete, and other trash around his feet were vibrating. What the hell kind of power does he have? the teenager wondered to himself. "I said get on the-gyah!" the troublemaker yelped as his gun took on a mind of its own. It waved around wildly like it was trying to escape him, and then it smacked into his face. When he released his weapon from shock it spun up into the air and disappeared. They all stood there watching the sky with dumbfounded expressions. "Well that was interestin." Big Macintosh said from where he stood in front of the gate. He placed his left hand on the young man's shoulder and gripped it rather hard. "Y'all go on in while I wait for the cops to come pick up the trash." The three mutants did as he said and walked passed him into the front yard of the property, and each winced in sympathy at the pained look on the teenager's face as Big Mac squeezed his shoulder. They continued on for a bit before any of them said anything. "So what are your names?" the pink catgirl asked them. "I'm Feline Fluff!" They both looked at her. The boy pulled his hood down to reveal his spiky white hair and a little hesitantly introduced himself. "Nocturnis Nemesis, and yes that's my real name. Code name is Shadow Bat." "Richard King." the average looking young man offered his hand to them in greeting. "No code name." None of them noticed the elderly man down the street. He stood alone in a nice suit with a cloak attached to the shoulders. Floating next to him was the gun he had taken from the boy. It slowly disassembled itself, even the bullets opened up to release their powder making them useless. With a flick of his hand he then crushed the weapon into a crude metal ball. "Homo Sapiens and their guns." Celestia stood in front of the crowd of parents and students. It had taken a bit more time to get everything settled than she had anticipated. Her sister flying off in a burst of thunder definitely did not help, though the sudden shouts from the protesters was worse. She was glad that no-one has been hurt when the boy had pulled a gun, but it was regrettable that it had happened at all. After taking a calming breath She spoke to her guests. "Mutation: it is the key to our evolution. It is how we have evolved from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward. "Since the dawn of existence, there have always been moments when the course of history shifted. Such a turning point is upon us now. The conflict between the better and worst angels of our very nature, whose outcome will change our world so greatly, there will be no going back. I do not know if victory is possible. I only know that great sacrifice will be required." "Wise words from a great man." Celestia told them. "Charles Xavier. A great man with great skill at speaking to crowds, but I shall try to keep this short and not turn it into a lecture as he would." She grinned as that got a good chuckle from most of the people present. "Charles Xavier's dream of mutants and normal humans living side by side as equals has sadly not yet come true. It is not for lack of trying that he has not succeeded, but rather because of how he went about it. True, oppression by the government, hostility from the general population, and a rivalry with his oldest friend played a part. But it was his school's purpose as a training grounds for mutants that held him down." Celestia took a moment to let everyone understand what she said. "In making his school a facility for training mutants how to use and control their abilities, and nothing else, he made it no different from a military base. He did not think what the average person would see when they saw his students. What they saw was an army of superhumans all marching to his orders. "Harmony House will be different. Me, my sister, our staff, and even our older students are here to not only train others with powers how to control their abilities, but also to help them grow as individuals and to actually teach them. Here your children will be able to learn and become knowledgeable in science, art, law, philosophy, and anything else that we can provide. "But other things will be taught as well, such as acceptance of other people no matter who or what they are. Human," she glanced at young Octavia Melody sitting beside her father. "Foreign," she saw a platinum haired girl with a camera look up at her. "Alien, robot, android from the future, or mutant. "Here at Harmony House we teach honesty, kindness, loyalty, generosity, laughter, and a little something extra." Celestia finished with a wink. "Now come on everybody, there's a party around back with your names on it!" Iron Man, Hawkeye, Falcon, and three S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were pinned down in Central Park by a squadron of Skrull warriors. Supplies and power were both low, and injuries had been sustained. The worst part was the leader of the invasion. Kl'rt the Super Skrull stood before the heroes. "You will surrender to us now, and tell us where you have taken her." "For the tenth time...I don't know who you're talking about!" Tony Stark yelled, his face plate retracted because of a crack across the eyes that made them stop working. "No offense Stark but you're not always the most trustworthy guy." Hawkeye shot a glance at him while shifting his aim between different Skrulls. "So if you know ANYTHING about what they want now would be a great time to say something." "They haven't even said who they're looking for! ...does anyone else hear a whistling sound?" Tony looked around at everyone. They all were looking for the sound too, even the Skrulls. "It's like when someone drops a bomb in a cartoon." Falcon pointed out. He blinked then looked up. "What- The boom of a thunderbolt knocked everyone off their feet as she crashed to earth between the heroes and the Skrulls. Kl'rt remained standing though, and he got a very good view of her hammer after he recovered from the force if her arrival. Luna shouted VERY loudly. "HAVE AT THEE!" Mini chapter Luna swung her mighty hammer, and scattered six Skrulls. More came at her to replace the ones she felled. They were many, but she was worthy! She had not even begun to use her natural abilities for fear that- She grinned wickedly as her weapon connected with one alien’s face with a satisfying crunch. She began to laugh as she battled. Soon her laughter could be heard across the entire park as the other heroes fought nearby. Loud, booming laughter. “Uh, Tony? Why is she laughing like that?” Falcon asked as he deflected a laser blast with his wing. Tony Stark glanced at the thunder powered woman as she got completely swarmed by Skrulls. “Falcon...that is why she is retired.” With little effort, Luna lifted all of the more than twelve Skrulls over her head. A dark energy swirled around her body, and enveloped her. As the energy burst, Luna threw them all fifty yards away where they landed in a painful heap. “Gone, gone the lady fair. Awakens the darkest Nightmare.” A few hours later, and Luna stumbled into her bedroom. She somehow managed to get to her bed, and unceremoniously fall onto it without missing it even though her eyes were closed. She exhaled an exhausted groan. “I quit…” In her head she heard her constant companion. Silly girl. Pacts are forever. Late at night, after all in the mansion had fallen asleep a single lone little girl walked across the backyard. She hummed to herself, and occasionally skipped across the lawn. Her path was clear as she headed straight towards the hedge maze. Her light purple shoes scuffed through the grass, and her mismatched socks (one white with purple stripes the other purple with white spots) loosely bounced around her ankles as she skipped. What skin that was not covered by her light purple knee high dress looked oddly pale in the moonlight. A bouncy mop of dark purple and white curly hair flopped about her shoulders. On the top of her head was little orange and yellow hat with a spinning propeller at its top. Into the maze she went. In the darkness of the hedge maze a spinning violet light could be seen coming from her eyes. She grinned mischievously like a Cheshire cat as she navigated her way with no problem. At last, she found what she was looking for. The statue of her father. She climbed up onto the statue’s pedestal, and sat down next to it. Her smile disappeared. “So here you are my Dad, a statue oh so cold so dead. You tore their world apart and everybody lost their head. Now I must carry on spreading evil for you instead. 'Cause you are my Daddy-” she paused here as she wiped away some tears. “- and I am a piece of you! I'll make them pay Daddy... Chapter 5 “Wake up!” Gilda yelled at Rainbow Dash who she now shared a room with. In the past five minutes, Gilda had been woken up by an alarm from somewhere, fell out of her bed when she didn't recognize where she was, and attempted to wake up her roommate. The speedster continued to sleep. Gilda, now with a headache because of her hawk's hearing, finally picked up her roommate by the shoulders, and shook her while yelling much louder than before. “WAKE UP!” Rainbow Dash woke up then, and fast. “What the heck are you doing?!” Gilda had to steady herself after the speedster dashed across the room. She blinked a few times to clear the afterimage that had been left in her vision, and then glared at the other girl. “I have super hearing.” she pointed at her ears “And this alarm has been going off for five minutes! I don't know where it's coming from, or what it's for, so I can't do anything to stop it! And it's driving me crazy!” Gilda’s hands shifted into talons as she covered her ears. “Make it stop.” she begged. Rainbow Dash listened to the alarm. “That's the fire alarm!” and then she went racing up and down the halls in her Captain America pajamas to find the source of the alarm. She found it in the kitchen. No fire thankfully, just a very pink girl with poofy hair, and smoke from the very overcooked something that she had tried to make. She smiled brightly at, Rainbow Dash. “Hi there! I made cupcakes!” “Um...not really.” Rainbow Dash eyed the tray of what looked more like charcoal than food. She then quickly took down the smoke detector to turn it off, and opened the windows to fan the smoke out. “You know there are already people here who do the cooking, and actually know how to cook.” “Oh, really? Maybe they can teach me.” The pink girl put an entire cupcake in her mouth. “Not bad.” Rainbow Dash just watched in mild disgust as the pink girl ate the inedible food. “For the sake of your health, I hope so. And who are you anyway?” “My name is, Pnkamna.” she ate another cupcake. “Uh huh. I'm not sure that, I can pronounce that. I'll just call you, Pinkie.” Gilda found her way to the kitchen at that moment. She saw the burned food, and forgot about her headache. “Wow, someone's a bad cook.” “Hi there! I'm, Pinkie!” She ate another charcoal cupcake. “...I'll make breakfast. You sit. Rainbow Dash, get this mess cleared for me.” Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and Pinkie enjoyed a breakfast of freshly baked scones. Other residents of the school however walked into the kitchen expecting a big delicious breakfast, only to find out that the food that smelled so good had already been eaten. Shining Armor was especially disappointed by the lack of food, and gave the three girls the chore of buying more groceries. So along with Rarity, Applejack, Twilight, and Fluttershy they headed out into town. Gilda drove the minivan because she was the oldest, and actually had a license. Pinkie kept sticking her head out the window, and Applejack had to keep pulling her back in to keep her from getting hurt. Rarity insisted on fussing about, Rainbow Dash’s hair because she hadn't brushed it. “There's nothing wrong with my hair.” Rainbow warded off her friend's hand as she tried to touch her hair. “Oh, please, Rainbow Dash your hair looks like a porcupine!” Rarity practically wailed. “Now you're just exaggerating.” “Not by much. Just let me brush it, I have one in my purse.” Rainbow Dash clapped a hand over her eyes. “You did not just seriously ask me to let you brush my hair in public?” “What? There's nothing strange about that.” Rarity pulled out her brush. “Girls help each other look nice. Now hold still.” “Get away from me!” “I think her hair looks fine.” Gilda called out. “See! My hair is fine.” “Fine.” Rarity sighed, and put away her brush. She looked over Rainbow Dash’s outfit though. “Couldn't you have at least dressed in something other than gym shorts and a tank top. We're grocery shopping, not running a race.” Rainbow Dash looked at her as if she had grown a second head. “...You're wearing a full dress that anyone else wouldn't wear unless it was for church or something! For grocery shopping!” “What's your point?” Rarity seemed confused. Applejack pulled the new girl's head back inside the vehicle for the tenth time. “Quit stickin yer head out the window.” “But it's fun!” Pinkie explained, and immediately stuck her head out the window again. “Well if ya don't stop yer gonna get hurt.” She pulled Pinkie’s head back inside again. “Stop it.” “You can not stop me!” Pinkie stretched her neck out like a turtle, and poked her head out the window while her body stayed perfectly still. “Now cut that out! ...What does it say about my life that somebody doin that ain't freaky to me?” Applejack faced forward with a bemused expression. SMACK Pinkie’s head retracted back into the minivan, and wobbled from side to side on her shoulders like she was a life size bobblehead of herself. Her head was half squashed like a lump of clay someone had stepped on. She took a deep breath, and held it to reshape her head correctly. “Well...alright then.” Applejack reclined her seat a little, and pulled her hat down over her eyes. “Tell me when we get to the mall.” “Mall?” Gilda glanced at Twilight in the front passenger seat. “I thought we we're going for groceries.” “There is a grocery store next to the mall. Next left.” Twilight told her without looking up from her book. Gilda just shrugged, and took the next left. They all climbed out of the minivan, and started towards the mall. “Ahem.” Twilight stopped everyone. “We will go to the mall while you three go grocery shopping.” “Ah come on, Twilight.” Rainbow Dash pleaded. “It's going to be super boring.” Twilight wagged a finger at her. “You three burned, then cooked and ate most of the food all by yourselves. So you three can go get the food.” Rainbow Dash sighed in defeat. “Fine…” Just as they were separating, Rarity noticed something about Gilda’s clothes. “Pardon me, but do you have two of the exact same outfit, or...oh.” Rarity’s expression shifted from curious to concerned. “Did you sleep in, and then wear today the same clothes you had on yesterday?” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Rarity, some people simply don't care about dressin up. Ya ain't got to point out every little thing that don't meet your standards.” Gilda shifted nervously. “Well...actually I didn't have much time to pack, so I just filled my duffle bag.” They all stared at her. “What?” “How much do you have?” Twilight asked her. “Hey, I'm not a charity case. I have clothes, just at home with my dad.” “Your dad kicked you out.” Fluttershy said just a little louder than a mumble. Gilda scowled at her, and Fluttershy hid behind Applejack. “We can buy you some clothes. Twilight’s brother gave us a lot of money for the groceries.” Rainbow Dash happily held up envelope with the grocery money in it. “He won't mind. He's cool like that.” Gilda clenched her fists for a moment. “Don't waste it on me, I don't need it.” “Girls…” Rarity tried to get their attention. “Celestia will understand.” Twilight assured Gilda. “It's her money, and I don't think she's even met you, but she's- ”I don't need your charity!” Gilda literally roared at them, and their hair flew back from the force of her voice. Gilda snatched the envelope of money from, Rainbow Dash, and stormed off to the grocery store. The others stood there in shock. Pinkie skipped after Gilda, and followed her inside. Rarity shook her head with a sigh. “I tried to tell you girls. Being generous is one thing, but we must remember our manners. That was very embarrassing for her.” Gilda did not really pay attention as she grabbed different food stuffs from the shelves and put it in the kart she pushed in front of her. She did however keep an eye on Pinkie who kept putting random things in. The envelope of money was in her pocket where she had put it just before realizing how much was in it, and every time Gilda stopped what she was doing, it got her attention. Don't need their money. Spent a week on my own once when my dad was working, and I was fine even without money to buy more food. Gilda thought to herself as the temptation kept nagging at her. She had stolen before, nothing worth more than some pocket change, but she did not think of herself as a thief. Pinkie skipped up to the kart and dropped a sponge into it. “Why did you yell at them?” Gilda was slightly surprised to hear her say something. It was the first time she had talked after stepping out of the van. Gilda put the sponge on a random shelf next to some ten pound bags of rice, and put two of the bags in the kart. “They were asking for it.” “Huh?” Pinkie scratched her head. “I don't remember them asking for you to yell at them.” Gilda stopped, and just looked at the other girl. Is she serious, or is she being smart? Finally she looked away from the odd girl. “It's complicated.” “Is it because you felt embarrassed, and insulted by them wanting to buy you new clothes, and you already felt like you owed them something for giving you a place to live after your father kicked you out for being a mutant leaving you with nothing more than a bag of whatever you could fit in it, and you were even a little bit jealous of them?” Pinkie asked with a wide smile. Gilda's eyes nearly came out of her head as she stared at Pinkie in amazement, and in slight fear. “.........Are you a psychic?” “I don't think so.” “O...kay.” Gilda shook her head, and almost slapped herself. “Well, you were pretty spot on actually.” “So...they didn't do anything wrong?” Once again she had stop and think about what Pinkie said. “....Ah crud.” Gilda could still not believe how much money she had spent on food. Granted there were a lot of students to keep fed, but three karts was a lot. She and Pinkie had pushed one kart out, then gone back for another, and then gone back for another. Finally they were pushing the third and last kart out to the minivan. They saw the other girls at the minivan looking through the windows. Gilda walked up to see in. “Uh...I guess letting, Pinkie pack the groceries in was a mistake.” she said after seeing the groceries stacked up in the seats with the seatbelts buckled. “Yeah…” Rainbow Dash scratched her head. “Oh! Gilda… Rarity made us do it!” she pointed at Rarity. Gilda raised an eyebrow at them. “Did what?” Rarity sheepishly held up a few bags from one of the clothing stores in the mall. “Hehe...Surprise.” Gilda eyed the bags with a bemused expression. “You bought me clothes?” They all nodded nervously. “With what money?” “With our allowances.” Twilight said sheepishly. “We're a little bit broke at the moment.” “Well…” Rarity, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy all leaned back away from Gilda as she paused. “Thanks.” “Awe, friends!” Pinkie literally wrapped her arms around all of them.
Chapter 1In the city of Bayville, New York a group of people from all walks of life have gathered on the lawn of a large stately manor. Parents bringing their children to the summer boarding school program to see if they can be given a chance at a better future. It is however no ordinary school, and they not ordinary students. This mansion in fact is the Harmony House, a safe haven for young mutants, and the students are all mutants. Most of the parents here would prefer not to acknowledge their children's mutant nature at all, but the threat of sentinel robots and mutant hunters with the technology to detect anyone with the x-gene make living at home too dangerous for them. Some though wish to have nothing to do with their mutant child. At the front gates a red pickup truck pulls to a stop. The passenger side door opens to reveal a tall athletic teenage girl in blue jeans, yellow boots, and a white t-shirt underneath a light brown leather aviator's jacket. Her skin is caucasian, but lightly tanned showing that she is used to an active outdoor life. Her hair is white and cut short except for the purple bangs that hang over her eyes. She wears a small amount of makeup, enough for decoration, yellow lipstick that matches her golden eyes that are surrounded by a light purple eyeshadow. After closing the door, and grabbing her army camouflage duffle bag out of the truck bed she started to say goodbye to the driver, only to jump back as he spun the tires, and called her a freak as he drove away. Her eyes stung with tears that she refused to let flow as the only family that she had ever known drove away, and left her for good. She slipped her head and one arm through the single strap in her bag, and put her hands in her jacket pockets before walking through the gates. "Bye Dad." she said to nobody. This girl's name is Gilda Griffin, and three months ago her mutant powers first emerged. Her father had locked her out of the house that first night because of what she had become. They tried to make it work, but his fear of mutants, and of what she did to the door grew stronger with each day. So when the Harmony House had opened its doors, and started taking in students he had made arrangements as soon as possible. I just hope I have somewhere to go when summer is over. She thought. Gilda was not foolish enough to think that her father would take her back in. Needing to think about something else she looked at the other students. Gilda was surprised at how many of them looked so normal. There were quite a few who looked perfectly normal, and she was positive that if they did not have the sentinels and the Friends of Humanity to worry about then they would not be here. Others however, like the girl with plates of exoskeletal armor on her skin reminded her of why her father now hated her. She pulled her jacket tighter. Finding a tree with a nice bit of shade she walked over and leaned against it, glad for a chance to just chill out. She watched the crowd, and hoped that nobody felt like talking. A few more students caught her attention when they showed off their abilities. She watched as an older girl who appeared to be part of the staff grabbed a blue skinned rainbow haired girl, and pulled her away for almost starting a fight. "Owowowow." the blue skinned girl complained as the woman pulled her away by her ear. "Let go Spitfire! You're gonna yank my ear off!" Spitfire was wearing a blue tracksuit with gold trim, and a winged lightning bolt insignia on the left breast. "That girl can shoot energy beams out of her eyes strong enough to punch through a brick wall." Spitfire pulled the younger girl over to a tree not too far from Gilda's, and finally let her go. "Why do you want her to shoot them at you?" The blue skinned girl grinned at Spitfire. "So I can see how fast she is with them." Spitfire facepalmbed which made the girl lose her grin. "Listen kid." Spitfire put a hand on the girl's shoulder, and gave her a look that was a combination of pride and disapproval. "You want to be one of the Wonderbolts. I'll train you, and give you a shot when I think you're ready. But it's gonna take more than just skill and style. You need to learn what I learned a long time ago." Looking her in the eye Spitfire said. "Hotshoting hurts." With that she walked away, leaving the teenager with a slightly confused look on her face. Then she caught sight of the white haired girl looking at her. "Hey! Name's Rainbow Dash." Gilda cocked her head twice as she studied her. "Rainbow... Dash?" Rainbow Dash chuckled. "I got super speed so that's where Dash comes from, and I leave a multicolored light trail behind me when I run, so... Rainbow Dash." she shrugged. "How about you?" Gilda shifted nervously. "I uh... I got nothing." she looked away. Rainbow laughed. "Nothing huh?" She then dashed over and put an arm around Gilda's shoulders. "If you had nothing you wouldn't be here. So what do you do?" Gilda shrugged her off. "I don't want to talk about it!" she said aggressively. "Okay okay, sorry!" Rainbow put her hands up defensively. They stood there awkwardly, and Rainbow Dash kicked at a patch of grass. "You thirsty?" Rainbow asked, and pointed back at the mansion. "We got soda." Gilda huffed, but gave in. "Any root beer?" she asked. WHOOSH! The rainbow trail of light could be traced back to the mansion before it started to fade. Before it disappeared completely Rainbow Dash was back with two cans of root beer. "Ice cold." she handed one to... "Hey what's your name anyway?" "Gilda." she said, and popped the tab on her can with one hand. "Gilda Griffin." "Hey, that's actually a cool name." Rainbow opened her own can. "You probably don't even need a codename." "Good, I just want to be left alone, and I definitely don't want to be some kind of superhero." Rainbow Dash just shrugged. "That's cool, I think enough of the students here want to be one that a single girl that doesn't won't make a difference." "Cool." Gilda nodded and sipped her root beer. "So who are the Wonderbolts?" Rainbow Dash grinned. "They're our own hero team. They're the coolest, and I'm going to be one of them!" Gilda rolled her eyes. "Well good luck with that hero girl. So what do they do?" "You mean what do they do as heroes, or what are their powers?" "Both I guess." "Well as heroes they mostly just protect the school, and the city." Rainbow Dash explained. "The headmistresses aren't interested in sending their students out after villains and stuff. As far as they're concerned we're just getting trained to control our abilities, and protect ourselves." Rainbow Dash looked over the crowd, trying to spot the members of the Wonderbolts. She pointed at a blonde woman in a tracksuit like Spitfire's. "That's Surprise. She's a teleported, but unlike most people that can teleport she can pop up out of anywhere even if she can't see the place she's going to." A confused look crossed Rainbow's face. "Also she doesn't have to be small enough to fit inside something in order to teleport inside it." "What, like she can teleport inside of a shoebox?" Gilda laughed at the idea. "Yes, yes she can." Rainbow Dash deadpanned. Gilda couldn't think of what to say about that. Rainbow Dash continued. "That's Soarin." she pointed him out. "He forms an energy field around his body that makes him almost as light as air, and he can even shape it into wings so that instead of just floating he can actually control his flight, and it doubles as a force field." "So he can fly, and he's bulletproof." Gilda summed up the information. "I'm guessing Spitfire has fire breath or something?" Rainbow Dash scratched her head in thought. "Yeah, it's not really fire though. I forget most of the egghead stuff, but basically she exhales a form of plasma." Gilda's deadpan expression was the signal for Rainbow Dash to continue. "Uh, okay well lightning is a form of plasma, and is hot enough to melt sand into glass in the blink of an eye. Spitfire can make her flames as hot as fresh lava from a volcano." Gilda gave a complimentary curse at that. Rainbow Dash continued. "She's also an olympic level athlete, and she saved my life, and she is just plain awesome!" "She saved your life?" Rainbow Dash smiled, not grinned just smiled, and looked at Spitfire in awe. "Yeah. It was a couple of years ago, and I had just gotten my powers. I could only make short jumps of speed at first, and it was so cool that I just wouldn't stop doing it. Something across the room that my mom needed? I dashed over and got it for her. I got pretty lucky and grew up in a town that was mostly okay with mutants. Oh, sure there were a few people that were superstitious or whatever, but mostly they didn't care. But I still should have been more careful." A young girl, her skin black not blue, her short hair like a rainbow ran down the street. Again and again she dashed forward in short bursts of speed, but she could not go fast enough to escape her pursuer. Her attacker could not quite get a fix on her, but it was not giving her an opportunity to get off the street to safety. Suddenly the ground beneath her feet exploded as she dodged an energy blast, and the force knocked her off her feet. She groaned in pain as she felt her injured leg. THOOM! She froze as the sound of her doom approached. THOOM! She looked back with her eyes wide from fear. THOOM! The giant killer stopped before her. In a completely monotone electronic voice the monster said "Mutant apprehended. Directive..." the sentinel raised its arm with the blaster in its palm pointed at the girl. "Terminate." The girl shut her eyes, and tried to think of something other than dieing in the street. She felt an intense heat wash over her, but it did not hurt. Opening her eyes she found that the robot's arm had been blown off and melted nearly to slag. The sentinel turned its gaze to where the blaze had come from. Spitfire was standing not ten feet away, dressed in the blue and gold uniform of her team. "Halt mutant." commanded the sentinel as it raised its other arm. Spitfire's response was to quickly take a deep breath, and exhale it in a torrent of flames that welded, and then melted the machine into an immobile half formed skeletal frame. Gilda pictured the scene in her head. She then shook her head, and raised her can of root beer for a toast. "Wow. To Spitfire." "To Spitfire." Rainbow Dash copied her. They both drank their sodas. "To Spitfire." a third voice spoke up behind them. They both did a spit take, and choked on their drinks. "Hahahahaha! You should see the looks on your faces!" As the voice broke out into another fit of laughter Rainbow Dash looked back to confirm who it was. "Surprise!" the speedster yelled at the older girl. "You're gonna give someone a heart attack!" Gilda clutched a hand to her chest. "She nearly did now." she said, and then she thought to herself. Easy Gilda. Stay calm. Don't let it happen again. "Oh my gosh! You didn't have a heart attack did you!?" Surprise teleported away in a flash of golden sparkles, and reappeared in the same way with a defibrillator charged and aimed at Gilda's chest. "Clear!" She yelled. "No! Wait I was-" Gilda backed away from the woman, but found herself several yards away when she finished her sentence. "kidding?" Rainbow Dash patted her on the back. "You're welcome for the save, but don't worry her pranks are harmless." she told Gilda. "Usually." "What?" "Nothing! We're going to go look for some more of my friends Surprise." Rainbow grabbed Gilda's arm and pulled her in the direction of the crowd. "Okay, you two go that way, and I'll go check on things for the surprise party." Surprise called after them and waved happily. Then she clapped her hands to her cheeks, and her eyes widened in alarm. "Oh no! You're not supposed to know about that! Just pretend you didn't hear me!" she yelled, and teleported away again. Rainbow Dash and Gilda just continued walking toward the crowd. From a bush next to the tree that Gilda had been leaning against there came a noise like a cork being popped. Then from out of the bush stood a teenage girl that could simply be described in one word. Pink. "Well she's...eccentric." Gilda said as she let Rainbow Dash lead her away. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Yeah, eccentric is the word we use to describe her." she said sarcastically. Gilda looked around at the many different people to get her brain working properly again. As they we're about to walk by the first group of people she noticed that one of them, a frail pale skinned girl with light pink hair, had a pair of large pink and yellow butterfly wings sprouting from her back. Gilda pulled her arms up to tighten her jacket protectively around her. Because Rainbow Dash still had one of Gilda's arms held in her's this sudden movement resulted in the two of them being pulled close into each other's personal space. Intimately close. "... What are you doing?" Rainbow Dash asked with a sideways look at Gilda. Gilda blinked twice and hesitated while a blush spread across her cheeks. "... I...uh..." "Oh my. We aren't interrupting something private are we?" Rainbow Dash and Gilda both looked to see the butterfly winged girl along with two other girls. One in an orange shirt, blue jeans, and a brown leather Stetson hat with her yellow hair held back in a ponytail. The other girl was dressed in sandals with two inch heels, and an ivory white dress with her purple hair done up in an elegant swirl. It had been the first girl with the wings that had spoken. She wore a light yellow blouse with pink butterfly and flower print that was cut low in the back to allow for her wings, slim blue pants, and pink slip on shoes. Before Rainbow Dash could decide if she should facepalm, or make some deadpan or sarcastic comment she was knocked a few yards to the side when Gilda rapidly waved her arms back and forth in panic. "What!? No! There's nothing going on!" Gilda shouted. The others ignored her and went to check on their friend, though the country girl did give her a glare. "Oh my goodness!" said the butterfly girl as she knelt down next to her. "Are you okay Rainbow Dash?" "Dash!" Gilda rushed over to where Rainbow was laying face down in the grass. "Is she hurt? Should I do something?" "I think you've done enough." the country girl said, and she grabbed Gilda's left shoulder with her right hand and pulled her back. Gilda swung her left arm back to try and knock the other girl's arm away. Normally since her powers activated anything Gilda hit, on purpose or by accident, got sent across the room. Hitting this girl's arm was like hitting a tree for a normal human. They stood there for a minute and glared at each other. "Really now girls." the well dressed girl scolded both of them. "It was an accident Applejack, and you know it. Now both of you apologize." They both mumbled apologies to each other, and looked ashamed of themselves. Rainbow Dash groaned and pushed herself up to her knees. She then spat out the mouthful of grass that she got from her fall. "Bleh! Grass tastes terrible." she advised everyone. "She's fine." said the butterfly girl. "I've taken harder hits than that just by tripping when I run." Rainbow Dash reminded them. She stood up and did a few stretches to limber up making several joints pop. "Ahem." Rainbow Dash looked to find the fancy girl gesturing between herself, the butterfly girl, Applejack, and Gilda. "Stop waving your hand around like that and introduce yourself Rarity. It's kinda rude." Rainbow Dash told her. Rarity facepalmed, and then began taking to Gilda. "Since Rainbow Dash appears to have once again misplaced her manners..." "Hey!" "...allow me to do the introductions." she did a small girlie bow, and introduced herself. "The name I have chosen to go by after discovering my abilities is Rarity. I have the power to transform my body into different minerals, my favorites being gemstones." Rarity then waved a hand in the butterfly girl's direction causing her to squeak and pull her pink hair down in front of her face. "Our timid friend here is called Fluttershy. A play on words because of her butterfly wings, and her shy nature. Say hello darling." "It's nice to meet you." she barely squeaked. Rarity was about to tell Fluttershy to speak up, but she was interrupted by Gilda. "It's nice to meet you too." "... You could hear her?" Rarity asked. "No, I just...guessed." That earned her another glare from Applejack. Rarity just shrugged and continued. "Well anyway Fluttershy here can obviously fly thanks to her lovely wings, and she is able to empathically communicate with animals." "That's kinda cool." Gilda tried to get a look at Fluttershy's face, but failed because of the wall of pink hair that was being firmly held in place. What little bit of a pale cheek Gilda could see was flushed red so she figured that being singled out from the crowd must be an embarrassing situation for her. Gilda could relate to that now thanks to her mutation. "And of course you've already met Applejack." Rarity paused as she thought about how to phrase her description of her friend's power. "I'm so sorry Applejack, but I still can't find a tactful way to say it." "Not a problem Rarity." Applejack told her, and then to Gilda she simply said "I got horse legs." Rarity facepalmed again. "Horse legs?" Gilda asked. Applejack reached down and pulled up the right leg of her jeans to reveal that the toe of what Gilda had thought was a boot was actually a grey hoof. "Strong nuff to kick through a solid concrete wall, can run at a top speed of forty miles an hour on pure muscle power, and can carry eight hundred pounds with out breaking sweat." Applejack said proudly, and then she stood back up straight and looked Gilda dead in the eye. "And if ya call me cowgirl I'll buck ya right through a concrete wall." "Don't worry I won't." she told Applejack. Then she smirked. "But I might make fun of you for that name." "It's a family nickname." Applejack grumbled. "My real name's Jackie, and my family name is Appleseed. So because I liked a certain cereal growing up..." Applejack trailed off as the rest was obvious. "Appleseed?" Gilda asked. "Like the legend?" "Legend nothing!" Applejack said loudly. "He is our direct ancestor!" Gilda held up her hands defensively. "Okay okay, don't bite my head off...cereal girl." Applejack hung her head and huffed in annoyance. "Dang it." She looked at Gilda and deadpanned. "I hate you." The others all laughed or giggled. "So I guess you couldn't think of a name for having horse legs." Gilda teased. "Well someone tried calling me cowgirl a few too many times when we first met." Applejack glared at Rainbow Dash who was trying to look innocent. Everyone looked at Rainbow Dash. "Oh, come on! You showed up wearing a cowboy hat and had hooves!" she exclaimed. "I thought you wanted to be called that." "Epic fail dude." Gilda confirmed. "It would seem that you are about to be introduced to another of our friends dear." said Rarity as she spotted another girl approaching them. The girl approaching them was black with purple hair with a single pink highlight running from her bangs to the end of her perfectly straight shoulder length hair. She was dressed pretty plainly in a simple blouse and skirt combo with matching shoes and knee high striped socks. All of it in the same shades of purple and pink as her hair. She was carrying an impressive number of books for someone her size. The stack started in her hands at waist level, and continued on up to block half of her face from view. "Hello girls." she greeted them from behind a book on string theory. Gilda's first impression of her was nerdy goth. "Got enough books there princess perfect?" Rainbow Dash asked with a grin. "Very funny Rainbow." she rolled her eyes. "So are you all going to listen to the headmistress' welcoming speech to the new arrivals?" "Well that would be the fashionable thing to do." Rarity suggested. "Ain't got nuthin else to do." Applejack admitted with a shrug. "I guess I'll go to." said Rainbow Dash. "I don't think I'll go." Fluttershy said. "If you don't mind that is. It's just that with so many people that I've never met before, and I really don't like crowds. So I think I'll just stay inside with my animals." she told them. "If that's ok with all of you." "That's perfectly fine Fluttershy." the girl assured her. She then saw Gilda. "Oh, hello. I'm sorry for not noticing you." Gilda raised an eyebrow. "That's ok, your hands are full." "Hehe, yes they are." she looked to Rainbow Dash. "Um, Dash would you mind?" "Your room or the library?" Rainbow Dash asked. "My room please." Rainbow Dash set to work. Zooming back and forth between the group of friends and the mansion she carried at least two books at a time. In ten seconds flat the books were all gone. "Thanks." the girl said and held her hand out to Gilda. "I'm Twilight Sparkle." "...like those vampire movies?" Gilda asked. "NO!" Twilight shouted. Everyone laughed except for Gilda and Twilight. Twilight groaned and slapped a hand to her face. "I hate those movies...and the books." "So what's your power?" Gilda asked to change the subject. "Past experience has led me to believe that it's easier to demonstrate than to explain, but that can wait till later." Twilight told her, and then waved for everyone to follow her. "Come on, Celestia is about to give her speech."
Chapter 2Together they walked back to the front lawn. Fluttershy went off on her own before there were too many people. Gilda occasionally glanced sideways at Rainbow Dash as she grew curious about something. "So, I don't know if it's rude to ask or whatever, but why are you blue?" she asked and pointed at Rainbow Dash's arm. "Oh, it's a full body tattoo." the speedster replied without skipping a beat. "What!?" Gilda exclaimed in alarm. Then she pictured it happening and her face turned red again. Rainbow Dash couldn't resist anymore and laughed out loud. "You should see the look on your face!" she said with some difficulty as her laughing interrupted her ability to speak. After she calmed down she continued. "It's not really a tattoo. It's part of my mutation, helps me absorb extra solar energy to fuel my power." Gilda facepalmed. After a moment she removed her hand from her face and leveled a deadpan glare at Rainbow Dash. She then bust out laughing herself. "Alright that was a good one. Up high!" she told her and held up a hand. "I knew you had a sense of humor." Rainbow Dash said as she high fived Gilda. "Of course now I'll have to get revenge!" Gilda swore the oath with a raised fist. "Very amusing girls, but we're going to be late at this rate." Rarity reminded them. Then to Gilda she said "And she gets everyone with that joke darling, welcome to the club." "Well thanks. It's always nice to know I belong with my fellow weirdos." Gilda said sarcastically. They began walking again, but Gilda found herself curious about something else. She looked over to where Spitfire was talking to a slightly older woman with pale multicolored hair. "So only three Wonderbolts?" she asked them. "Seems kinda small for a super team." "Don't really need anymore than that." Applejack told her. "Ain't never a whole lot of trouble in town and they don't get involved in police buisness. Besides they already got everything covered. Spitfire's got the massive energy blast, Sorin can fly and stop bullets, and Surprise...have you met Surprise yet?" "She tried to electrocute me." "Then you know what she's like." Applejack nodded. "Imagine her actually fighting instead of just goofing off." Gilda shuttered as the thought of an angry Surprise invaded her mind. "There are a couple more, but they aren't here all of the time." Twilight explained. "The reserve members include Fleet Foot with enhanced speed and reflexes, and Rapid Shot who can fire a very large number of low level energy bolts from his fingers in very little time." "Don't forget about your brother and Cadence." Rarity reminded her. "Well yes, but Cadence is more of a teacher, and Shiny is really just a P.E. coach. They don't do any hero work anymore." Twilight explained again as she waved off her friend's comment. "But they were the first Wonderbolts!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Yes, but they retired in favor of training and helping others with their abilities." she countered back. Gilda interrupted the speedster's reply with an important question. "Your brother is named Shiny?" "Ahem, yes, uh...would you mind not letting him know that you know about his nickname?" Twilight smiled sheepishly. "Sure whatever." Gilda shrugged and stuffed her hands back into the pockets of her jacket. "So what's he actually called?" "Shining Armor." Twilight told her. "Force field powers." "How bout you? What's your power?" Applejack asked Gilda. "...I don't want to talk about it." she told them, and hunched her shoulders to make her jacket fit better. "Now hold on a darn minute! We introduced ourselves and told ya bout our mutations. Why caint ya do the same?" the country girl asked. "Applejack, if she doesn't want to talk about it she doesn't have to." Twilight told her friend. "And she probably has a good reason anyway." "Does my dad kicking me out of the house and calling me a freak qualify as a good reason?" Gilda asked bluntly. "Oh my goodness..." Rarity stepped forward and briefly hugged Gilda. "...and that was for...?" Gilda asked while taking a step back from her. Rarity composed herself before speaking. "I apologize for that." Her eyes showed the kind of old sadness that could give no more tears. "I know what it's like. When I discovered what I am my mother was none too pleased. She became rather passive aggressive and refused to look at me or even speak directly to me. My father ignored it at first, but when he found out how I was dealing with my depression over the matter he had had enough. My parents haven't lived together for over four years, and my little sister doesn't have a permanent home because I am a mutant." Gilda just stared at the elegant girl who was so different from her and yet had been through something so similar to her own situation. "Take your time darling. Rest assured you can stay here as long as you need to." Rarity promised her. Rainbow Dash gave Applejack a super fast punch to the arm, and jerked her head at Gilda. Applejack sheepishly stepped up to Gilda. "Sorry for bein rude. I have a habit of gettin a little overprotective." "Yeah whatever, it's cool." Gilda accepted the apology and turned to keep walking. Then she stopped and stared at the new size of the crowd. "That is a lot of people." she stated simply. The other girls all looked at the crowd, and blinked. They had expected a few reporters and of course the family members of the new students...but this was verging on ridiculous. There were easily over a hundred people on the lawn, and more outside the gate. Oddly enough there appeared to be no police officers despite the crowd being an obvious hazard to people's safety. "... Well I guess it's not everyday that someone who once went toe to toe with Doctor Doom, and won, opens a school for superpowered teenagers." Rainbow Dash said. "Didn't Headmistress Celestia once put a dent in Iron Man's helmet when she slapped him?" Applejack asked. "She focused solar energy into her hand and turned it into an impact grenade." Twilight explained. "That was back before he had proper energy shielding though." "In other words the school being opened publicly like this is a big deal." Rarity summed it up for them. "I can't be here." Gilda said as she turned around and started walking away. "What!?" Rainbow Dash caught her by the shoulder. "Why not?" "I don't have control of myself, and it's worse when there's a lot of people around." Gilda told her. She then looked back at the crowd and paled at the thought of what could happen. "And that is a lot of people." "Oh, sorry." Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head as she apologized. "It's cool, I just need some space until all of this is over with." Gilda explained and jerked her thumb at the crowd. Then she pointed at the building that they would all be staying at. "I'll take a walk around the palace." In the kitchen Surprise was making a large cake. She had teleported out of her Wonderbolts warm-up suite and into a chef's outfit. Her face and blonde hair were covered in sploches of white flour, pink and blue frosting, and sprinkles. Her clothes however were spotless. "Giant twenty layer cake? Check! Totally yummy frosting? Check! Get cleaned up so I don't embarrass anyone by showing up covered in flour frosting and sprinkles?" Surprise ran through her check list of things to do for the surprise party. On the last one she quickly teleported out of the kitchen and reappeared a moment later with her face and hair completely clean. "Check!" Now she just needed to move the two cakes into the reception area. "Huh!?" she stopped what she was doing and looked at the two cakes. "Wasn't there only one of those a minute ago?" Indeed where there had been one cake only moments ago there were now two. Both looked exactly the same. They were the same size. After a quick taste she confirmed that they were the same flavor of frosting and cake. "I know I only made one cake." Surprise said to herself. "So where did the second one come from?" The left cake then opened the three sets of eyes and its three mouths and growled at her. Surprise yelped and grabbed the first weapon she could. With frying pan in hand she leaped into battle and screamed her war cry. "Die demon cake!" Gilda was casually strolling along the estate grounds, slowly making her way around to the back yard. She was taking her time as she had a few things to think about. She needed a new home by the end of the summer because of her father's fear of mutants. The people here were mutants so wouldn't treat her badly for being one, though she would need to work on her self control. They were friendly enough, and even Applejack was nice when she wasn't being protective of her friends. She also has to deal with a similar problem as me, Gilda thought to herself. I wonder if she got the instincts too, like I did. As she kept walking she soon found herself passing a wide set of windows. A look inside revealed the room beyond to be the kitchen. The second look after her double take showed Surprise and a girl with pink hair and pink skin sitting on the floor. Surprise's chef outfit and the pink girl's white top with a pink heart on it, and pink skirt with three blue and yellow balloons on it, and blue shoes, and candy cane colored socks were all covered in frosting and sprinkles, along with everything else in the kitchen as the cake she had made was now destroyed. She could hear Surprise laughing. "Hahaha, You, hahaha, you were a, hahaha, You were a cake!" shouted the woman as she pointed at the pink girl who had begun laughing in an exact imitation of her. Gilda calmly sweatdropped and walked away. "The first one was bad enough, but a little sister is insane." After making her way to the back yard (which was massive) she saw a few older teenagers and a couple of adults all enjoying the sun and doing chores. A handsome blue haired boy and a beautiful pink haired girl were holding hands as they walked. An older man in what Gilda was sure was a tuxedo adjusted his monocle as he checked on the snack tables. Not far from where Gilda stood a large man, a giant really was setting up a table of drinks, mostly fizzy apple cider. "Hey can I get one of those?" she asked him. "Eyup." he told her and grabbed one to pass to her. When he turned around with the bottle in his hand it was nearly covered except for the neck. He pressed his thumb against the top and effortlessly popped it off, even though it was a twist top. "Wow! Thanks guy, uh sir." Gilda corrected herself before taking the drink. "Ain't a sir." he said in his baritone voice. "Only eighteen." "Oh! Seriously?" she asked and looked up at him. She was taller than most girls her age at six feet two inches, though Applejack had stood almost as tall, but he was definitely a whole foot taller if not more. He nodded his answer. "I guess you look older because of how tall you are. I just turned seventeen a few months ago. You don't look much older than me now that I'm getting a good look at you." As she finished talking Gilda raised her bottle to her lips and took a long drink from it. His cheeks turned slightly red and he kept glancing away from her. "Um, o-okay." Gilda sputtered and nearly spilled her cider as she realized how she must have looked. "I swear I'm not flirting with you I'm just awkward!" she said loudly and waved her empty hand in between them. "Who's your friend Macintosh?" asked the man in the tuxedo. "Oh uh um..." The fancy man raised an eyebrow at the giant and disapprovingly twitched his upper lip causing his mustache to tilt to one side. "A gentleman should always make proper introductions when he first meets a lady my good boy." "Yeah I'm a lady." Gilda said smugly. She then fanned her face as if she was hot and added a fake English accent. "Do introduce yourself why don't you." Macintosh stood there awkwardly. The dressed up man sighed and rolled his eyes. "Very well, I shall demonstrate, again." Macintosh dropped his head in embarrassment which caused Gilda to chuckle. "Ahem." "Sorry." Gilda apologized to the man. "So how does this work?" "First I introduce myself." the man told her. He quickly adjusted his monocle and ran a hand over his hair in case any had come out of place. "I am Fancypants." Gilda couldn't help herself, she doubled over and clutched her stomach. She had only just managed to pass her bottle of fizzy cider to Macintosh before she could drop it. She nearly fell over more than once as she lost her balance. When Gilda was done laughing she stood up straight and looked Fancypants in the eye. For his part the monocled and tuxedoed man had kept a straight face through all of this as it was hardly the first time it had happened. "Well introduce yourself." he told her. "My name is Gilda Griffin. ...sorry for laughing at your name." she grinned sheepishly. "It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance young lady. And I'm far past caring what the younger folk think of my name, no harm done." he said with a reassuring smile. Then he clapped his hands at Macintosh. "Well come now lad, your turn." "Uhm, my name is Macintosh Appleseed, and it is a pleasure for you to meet me." Fancypants sighed and shook his head. Gilda chuckled again. "I think you got that backwards dude, but I get the general idea." She reached for his hand to get her cider back. "And I'm guessing that you're Applejack's brother." Macintosh chuckled sheepishly and scratched his head. "Eyup. Oh, here ya go." He gave her back the bottle. "Thanks. So... Is this where I ask what mutations you two got stuck with?" Gilda shrugged. "Ah, no actually." Fancypants answered her. "You see my dear, Macintosh and I are not mutants." He definitely had Gilda's attention with that admission if her eyes going wide was any indication. "You see Macintosh here took the job of grounds keeper when it was offered to him after his family came into some financial troubles. Celestia and Luna agreed to loan them the money to keep their apple farm in exchange for him simply working it off. I on the other hand have been with the two sisters since they were young children. They were not even in their teens yet when their abilities first manifested, and I was hired on to care for them as their parents thought it best to hide them from the public." "Oh well...just don't take it personally if I get nervous around you. I only mutated a few months ago." Gilda told them, placing heavy emphasis on the word 'mutated'. She chugged her fizzy cider and threw the bottle away. She was about to say goodbye to them, but caught sight of Fancypants looking at her. "Young lady, I don't know what has happened to you, but I can assure you that whatever it was shall not happen again within this school. We will not let it happen. Anyone who has hurt you for being a mutant shall not be allowed on the property without your approval." "Nope." "... Nobody tried to hurt me." Gilda corrected them. She stuffed her hands back into her jacket pockets and glanced away from them. "I turned into a monster and nearly killed my dad. So he dumped me here." Fancypants' eyes softened and his mustache drooped a little. "Ah, I see." He then smiled kindly at her. "Well then it will be our duty to aid you in reconciling with your father." "Eyup." "...I tell you I turned into a monster and nearly killed my dad, as in with claws and stuff, and you want to help me go back home with him?" Gilda gave them both questioning looks. "Eyup." "Quite right." "... Are you high?" she asked them. "Nope." "I should think not." "... I literally tried to kill the only family I've had since I watched my mom die!" she yelled at them. "There is no reconciling from that!" Through most of this back and forth conversation Fancypants and Macintosh had kept their faces completely straight. Now their faces were masked with expressions of shock. Macintosh looked at the drinks and pretended to count them. Fancypants took off his monocle and put it in his pocket, then took out a white handkerchief in case of tears. "How long ago?" the older man asked. Gilda clenched her eyes shut when she realized that she had just shouted her biggest secret for everyone to hear. Everyone always assumed that she must have been messed up in the head because she had been so young, and she hated the looks people always gave her. It was like they expected her to be some pitiful sad little emo chick that needed to be on medication. "I wuz thirteen." Macintosh spoke up as he counted the bottles of cider. "AJ wuz eleven, and our baby sister wuz only four. Our pa was a mutant, could make plants grow real quick. A bran new apple tree sapling would be a ten footer in just a few months and would give the biggest juiciest apples you ever ate. Turned out it wuz his own life force that he put into the trees to make em grow. Plants didn't need much so it never hurt him none, but then I got sick. He tried making me better, but it wasn't enough. So ma told him to use both of their lives to heal me. I don't remember what they did to make it work but it did, and they died. I blamed myself for the longest, but my sister didn't and neither did our Granny." Macintosh turned to smile at the pretty girl. "My point is that neither you or me were in control of what happened and we shouldn't try to blame ourselves for it. You're pa might be scared but I'm sure he still loves you. Just give him some time." Gilda looked at him for a moment. Then she gave him a halfhearted 'whatever' and walked away from them. As she walked she could see the older boy and girl that had been holding hands watching her, she steered herself away from them. She could see an black woman with a black and white mohawk subtlety keeping an eye on her, she steered herself away from her as well. The only other person in the massive back yard was a woman who was tending to some gardening chores next to the entrance of a hedge maze. The gardener wasn't paying any attention to her or anything else so Gilda didn't mind being in the same area as her. Gilda stopped walking a few yards from the entrance to the maze. She took her hands out of her pockets and hugged herself. "Mom... "Gilda why did you hit that boy?" asked a brown haired woman in a leather aviator's jacket. "He called me pretty." said a six year old Gilda in blue jeans and a red monster truck shirt with her pale hair still cut longer than she liked. Gilda's mother chuckled and knelt down to talk to her better. "And what's so bad about that? You're a very pretty little girl." Gilda crossed her arms and pouted. "I don't want to be pretty, I want to be cool." The woman laughed some more and took off her jacket to put it on her daughter's little shoulders. "Listen to me Gilda. You just be you. I don't care what anyone else says you should be, or what they say you are. You just be you, and be proud. Okay?" "Okay." Gilda smiled up at her mother. "Good." she kissed her daughter's forehead. "Now let's go apologize for making that boy's nose bleed." "Ok, but if he calls me pretty again I'm gonna hit him again." Gilda promised. "In the ear." After a quick apology from Gilda, and a round of snacks paid for by her mother she was soon sitting on her father's shoulders to watch the airplane show. Her mother was one of the jet pilots and would be flying threw the air like a bird, like a superhero, like an angel. Yeah! Like an angel Gilda thought to herself. After a few sky writing stunts, some people jumping out of the airplanes, and a fake fight where the pilots shot at each other with machine guns that shot paintballs it was her mom's turn. A single jet was rolled out onto the tarmac. It was blue with a big gold eagle's talon painted on each side of the cockpit, and a set giant golden wings to match painted on the jet's wings. The Harpy. That was her mother's nickname in the Marines. She was the best pilot they had, and she never once got hit. The jet she flew for them had survived six other pilots, but they had all been killed by freak accidents. She was the only one that could fly it, and everyone else was too scared of its curse, so they retired it and sold it to her really cheap. Today, for some reason, a bit of extra paint had been added. Bright red streaks now made the talons look like they were dripping blood. The jet took off like an arrow from a bow. In a near vertical climb she looked like she was aiming for space. She rolled to the left in a spiral making it look like she had lost control, but then she pulled up into a half loop that left her flying upside down. The crowd was hypnotized by the beautiful acrobatics of The Harpy, both pilot and jet. Smoke. Inside the cockpit of the jet a sparking could be seen in the electronic systems. "Oh shit!" the woman said. Back on the ground her husband could see the smoke, and he knew that his wife didn't use any kind of effect. "Dambit! Gilda stay here!" he told his daughter as he set her down beside the boy that she had hit. "Ya wan a nacho?" the boy asked her. She ignored him, and his little sister peeked out from under her oversized Stetson hat so she could steal one. Gilda remained oblivious to everything else and continued to cheer for her mother. Her father had tried to tell the emergency response team that something was wrong, but they didn't know who he was or that he knew anything about what he was talking about. They just thought he was an overexcited fan. When he looked again The Harpy was coming down in a nosedive and rotating lazily. "Gilda cover your eyes!" he somehow managed to yell above the noise of the crowd. He ran to her where she was jumping up and down. "Gilda cover your eyes!" "No! I want to see mommy's trick!" she shouted. "Yay mommy!" Gilda stood in front of the entrance to the hedge maze in the back yard of the Harmony House. She stood there and hugged herself in her mother's jacket, and she did not cry. After a minute or two she grabbed the zipper with her left hand and the bottom of the jacket with her right, and she pulled it down. She reached up and grabbed the lapel of the jacket, and pulled it back over her shoulders. She lowered her hands and let the jacket slide down, her hands slipped through the sleeves and stopped at the shoulders to keep it from falling to the ground. And then Gilda spread her beautiful wings to their full twenty-five foot span. The feathers were a deep strong brown edged withe light grey at the very tips, making it look like they glowed in the sunlight. "Fuck you Dad." she said. "I'm proud to be me."
Chapter 3Gilda wrapped the sleeves of her jacket around her waist and tied them in place. For three months she had held herself back. For three months she had been afraid of letting herself relax because of her mutation. But it was not simply her new wings that made her nervous, in fact she could not think that they were any cooler. Even the retractable claws that she could feel being held in place by the new muscles she had in her forearms were not so scary. The thing that had changed that frightened her was her brain. Her brain had been rewired to give her the instincts of a predatory animal, and that first night when after she mutated her instincts had made her see her father as prey. Time to let go I guess, she thought to herself. It was actually pretty easy for her to keep her instincts in control. All she had to do was constantly think of the humans, and especially the Sentinels as the bigger predators, but it left her feeling like a bird in a cage. It made her jumpy and paranoid, and it was too easy for something to surprise her and make her take a swipe with her talons. She still felt bad about that dog's ear. So she dropped her control and relaxed her mind and body, knowing that she was in a place where everyone around her could handle themselves, and it felt great. No more feeling like she was in a cage, her wings not being uncomfortably pressed into her back, nobody to call her a monster, her raptor eyes following every movement of a nearby rabbit... Okay, a little self control should stay. "Your wings are very beautiful." "AH!" Gilda jumped, and hovered in the air as her wings flapped a few times seemingly defying gravity with little effort. She stopped flapping her wings and lightly fell back to a standing position. After a moment to calm down she turned to the person that had spoke, the gardener lady. "Uh, what?" "Your wings are very beautiful." she said again. The woman was dressed in a light purple blouse with a white lapel, dark purple slacks, and white dress shoes with tall heels on them, though she had an apron on over it to protect the her outfit from dirt. Her skin was a pale white like the full moon, and her dark blue wavy hair hung loose almost to her waist. "Did I startle you?" "No. ...Yes." Gilda was embarrassed, but at least she hadn't tried to claw the woman. "I'm Gilda." "It's nice to meet you Gilda, my name is Luna." the woman greeted her and held out her right hand. "Nice to meet you too." Gilda reached out to shake her hand, but pulled back when she noticed a problem. "Watch the claws!" she warned Luna. "Oh, thank you. How sharp are those?" Luna asked as she looked at the eagle talon sized claws at the ends of Gilda's fingers. Three talons for the fingers with the middle one being significantly larger, and one for the thumb. Yet she had normal hands a moment ago, interesting. "Does the term meat hook mean anything to you?" Gilda retracted the talons back into her hands. "I don't imagine finding that out was fun." Luna said. She watched as an extra layer of skin unfolded from around the girl's hands, revealing her normal hands underneath, and the claws appeared to shrink as they were pulled back in. I've seen stranger mutations. "What gave you that idea?" Gilda said sarcastically. A little too sarcastically for Luna. "I would watch your attitude young lady. You may not be aware of who I am, but that was still very rude." She looked down at the six foot tall girl who was about half a head shorter than her. "Yeah?" Gilda raised an eyebrow at her. "And just who are you exactly?" "Headmistress Luna, co-founder of this school, known as the Dark Thunderer, " Gilda lowered her eyebrow and shrunk down a little. "fourth richest woman in the world, retired Avenger, and the woman whose property you are currently standing on. Do I need to go on?" "No ma'am." "Good." Luna took off the apron and dropped it next to the gardening tools that she had been using. "So, if you're the headmistress why were you doing yard work?" "I can't have a hobby?" Luna asked and pointed at the nearby hedge maze. "I planted this entire maze ten years ago, and I have tended it ever since." "Wow." Gilda was impressed. She looked into the maze, down through the center aisle that separated the two halves of it, and at the stone monument at the end. She pointed at the monument. "What's that?" When Luna didn't answer right away Gilda turned back around to look at her. Luna stood still and just watched the monument for a minute or two. She finally blinked a few times, and shook her head. "That is the end of a long story that I don't want to get into right now. Come, we can still hear the last of my sister's speech if we hurry." Gilda thought about it for a minute. She was still a little nervous about being around other people, but she was not going to get any better about it by standing there doing nothing. "Sure, why not." As they were walking around the mansion a ringing noise came from Luna's pocket. She reached for the object and pulled out what Gilda at first thought was a credit card, but then Gilda saw the red and white pattern and the stylized A. The woman pressed the A to answer the call. "Luna speaking." "What? Oh, crap... Uhh, hey Luna any chance you and your sister aren't mad at me anymore?" "Stark! I'm hanging up!" "No wait! We need backup." Luna's eyes narrowed as she frowned. "So why did you call me? I'm retired, Celestia too." "We've got a small invasion of Skrulls in New York and I told Jarvis to contact the nearest Avengers. We're scattered over the globe right now and we could really use some help here." Luna sighed. "Who do you have with you?" "Hawkeye, Falcon, and a few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents." a boom was heard on his end of the line. "Fine I'm on my way, but after this I am done." "Understood...Celestia isn't coming is she?" another boom. "No she is busy with the new students and their families." Luna said before passing the card to Gilda. "Take this." "What? What am I supposed to do with it?" Gilda asked as she took the card. "I don't even want to be a hero." "Throw it away, burn it, keep in case of an emergency, do what you shall." Luna told her dismissively. "Stand back from me." Luna walked away from Gilda, raised one hand to the sky, and called for the power. "To me Shadowbolt!" From the the clear blue sky overhead there came a thunderous noise and a great flash of light as a bolt of lightning streaked down into Luna's outstretched hand. She grasped the electricity and let it's power flow into her. A spark started in her hand and spread over her body. As the spark spread it changed what it touched. Her hand and forearm was now armored in a black gloved wrist guard that was clearly designed to protect against strong physical attacks, and as the spark continued down her upraised arm it gave her larger more well defined muscles. The spark passed over her shoulder and began to transform her clothes into stylised black steel armor. The spark continued on and flowed over her entire body, replacing her clothes with the same black steel armor that covered her forearms, her legs from feet to knees, her upper body from shoulder to above her abdomen, and everything in between was covered in a blue fabric. And upon her head was a helm of black steel with wings sweeping back from the sides and a single six inch spike protruding from above her eyes. The armor was not overly feminine, or sexually suggestive like what some female heroes dressed themselves in. It was elegantly designed yes, with beautiful patterns that resembled a flor de lis, but it was designed and built for one purpose. Battle! The woman underneath was not left unchanged. She was now taller than what she had been before, though her boots were not high heeled like her shoes had been. Her body was now leaner, more muscular, and brought to mind an ancient Amazon warrior. Her eyes held a glint of hidden power, and her hair now flowing without wind appeared as if it was the night sky itself. Luna pulled down her hand and willed the still flowing lightning gathered into a solid form. An obsidian hammer, black as a starless night, shaped like a stylised bolt of lightning, flat on one end a sharp point on the other. She grabbed the strap on the handle and whirled Shadowbolt around over her head, and threw it into the sky without letting go sending herself flying like the wind. Gilda stood still from shock, not just mental shock but electric as well because she had not been far enough away. Now her white hair, and even her feathers stood out at odd angles. Finally she blinked a few times and spoke to the man on the other end of the Avengers communication card. "She isn't in charge of detention is she?" As Headmistress Celestia was greeting the last of the last of the guests the crowd outside of the gate made its intention known. The parents, children, and the school staff were all momentarily startled by the sudden shouts of anti mutant protesters. "Humanity now! Mutants never!" was the constant chant. There were also several men and women wearing shirts with the logo of the Friends of Humanity. Scattered throughout the crowd was a variety of signs that had been painted with hateful, and even some violent, images of mutants. One person had even made a dummy with four arms and a tail, which was hung by its neck from a pole. Three young men up close to the gate had something extra planned. They were actually closer to being boys than men, but they were still adults. They each had brought high powered paintball guns and were planning on shooting at the people gathered on the lawn with special paintballs that were filled with neon green glow in the dark dye. "Filthy radioactive mutants need to be marked." one of them muttered. Before they could open fire though there was a commotion in the crowd. A series of random noises consisting of honks, dings, and cat noises passed in a wave through the crowd. The three men all looked behind them to see what was happening... ...and found themselves looking at a catgirl like in those Japanese cartoons. "Hi there! Can I get by please? I'm late." She smiled up at them completely oblivious to what they were doing. Her pink cat ears poked up out of her blue, brown, and black hair. She was wearing a blue top, a blue and brown skirt with a kitty face on it, and knee high blue and black boots with pink soles and a pink bow at the top of each. Any skin that showed was covered in pink fur, and a very fluffy tail as long as her legs flicked back and forth behind her. Her big blue anime sized eyes were so adorable that they almost made them ignore that she was obviously a mutant. "What? N... No! You freaking mutey!" the leader of the three pointed his paintball gun at her. "EEEK!" she squeaked in alarm and batted the barrel away from her. The man instinctively pulled the trigger, and shot a woman in the face with a paintball. "She made me do that with her powers!" he told everyone, and he honestly believed his own lie. "No I didn't" The catgirl reached a hand into the tip of her fluffy tail, pulled out small box of tissues, and held them out to the woman. "Here." "Get away from me you monster!" The woman swung her purse at the girl, but missed when she ducked and scrambled back. The crowd began to turn hostile. Other people around her started to throw bits of trash at her. The woman pulled a large book out of her purse, the Holy Bible, and began quoting a scripture that she had only read for the first time that day. The three men each tried to grab the girl, and they probably would have succeeded if someone had not stopped them. Three quick punches and they were stumbling back against the gate. The rest of the crowd stepped back from the new person. He was young, lean and fit with a runner's body, and his skin was pale like he never got any sun. He wore a red hoodie over a black shirt, dark blue jeans, and a pair of silver reflective sunglasses. The thing about him that really stood out was his belt buckle, a blue rectangle stamped with a yellow X. "Alright everyone, you had your chance to protest peacefully, now leave." he told them as he stood next to the catgirl. His fists were clenched and even with his sunglasses hiding his eyes it was clear that he was glaring at the three men. The catgirl was clinging onto the right shoulder of his hoodie with her ears drooped down as she nervously looked around. "Mind your own business mutant lover!" "This is a public street, we can stay as long as we want!" One of the three men stepped up to him with an arrogant smirk. "I think it's time for YOU to leave." the man said and poked him in the chest. The boy looked like he would have ripped the man's head off if the girl had not been holding onto him. Instead he raised his left fist up between his and the man's faces, and willed the shadows underneath his sleeve to come out and shape into three claws. Seeing this everyone quickly backed away from him. "Hey I recognize him! He was with the Brotherhood!" one of the other three men yelled. Before things could escalate any further another man stepped forward to speak. He was in almost every way completely average, from his medium length loose brown hair to his green shirt and light brown hiking shorts, and from his white shoes to his barely tanned skin everything about him was average. He carried himself like he was a big man, though he was only a bit stocky, and he stood at the average height of just under six feet tall. The only thing that would stand out was the color of his eyes, they were a unique mix of green and blue that seemed like it was on the verge of changing from one to the other. This man grabbed the bible from the woman and quoted without looking. "Judge not lest you be judged. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love thy neighbor. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." The crowd had stopped to listen to him. "Many of you are Christians, but you forget the most basic teachings of your faith. You even commit the sin of blasphemy by saying that God did not create mutants. It is said in this book that only that which he wills can exist in this world. If that is true then God wants mutants to live with you because they would not exist if he did not allow them." By now most of the crowd had regained some common sense and were no longer holding up their protest signs. Those who were from the Friends of Humanity however did not relent. "This isn't about God! It's about monsters like them using their powers to intimidate and take advantage of us normal people!" The man gave the woman back her bible and turned to address the new speaker, a middle-aged man in a FoH shirt. But one of the three young men thought it wise to do the stupidest thing possible. "All three of you get on the ground NOW!" The rest of the crowd ran off pretty quickly after they saw the gun, a thirtyeight special. He moved the gun back and forth between the mutants. He looked the older of the two males in the eye and sneered at him. "I recognize you too. You destroyed an entire town. Did you really think your face wouldn't be on the news at some point?" The boy wanted to do something, anything, but the catgirl was still clinging to his shoulder so the best he could do was take the bullet for her. Though he was hoping to get an opportunity to use his shadows without that happening. He could feel her heart beating like a drum roll against his back while she peeked over his shoulder with one eye. He watched the other guy out of the corner of his eye, and he stopped thinking when he noticed that the man had steam rising from his body and little bits of stone, concrete, and other trash around his feet were vibrating. What the hell kind of power does he have? the teenager wondered to himself. "I said get on the-gyah!" the troublemaker yelped as his gun took on a mind of its own. It waved around wildly like it was trying to escape him, and then it smacked into his face. When he released his weapon from shock it spun up into the air and disappeared. They all stood there watching the sky with dumbfounded expressions. "Well that was interestin." Big Macintosh said from where he stood in front of the gate. He placed his left hand on the young man's shoulder and gripped it rather hard. "Y'all go on in while I wait for the cops to come pick up the trash." The three mutants did as he said and walked passed him into the front yard of the property, and each winced in sympathy at the pained look on the teenager's face as Big Mac squeezed his shoulder. They continued on for a bit before any of them said anything. "So what are your names?" the pink catgirl asked them. "I'm Feline Fluff!" They both looked at her. The boy pulled his hood down to reveal his spiky white hair and a little hesitantly introduced himself. "Nocturnis Nemesis, and yes that's my real name. Code name is Shadow Bat." "Richard King." the average looking young man offered his hand to them in greeting. "No code name." None of them noticed the elderly man down the street. He stood alone in a nice suit with a cloak attached to the shoulders. Floating next to him was the gun he had taken from the boy. It slowly disassembled itself, even the bullets opened up to release their powder making them useless. With a flick of his hand he then crushed the weapon into a crude metal ball. "Homo Sapiens and their guns." Celestia stood in front of the crowd of parents and students. It had taken a bit more time to get everything settled than she had anticipated. Her sister flying off in a burst of thunder definitely did not help, though the sudden shouts from the protesters was worse. She was glad that no-one has been hurt when the boy had pulled a gun, but it was regrettable that it had happened at all. After taking a calming breath She spoke to her guests. "Mutation: it is the key to our evolution. It is how we have evolved from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward. "Since the dawn of existence, there have always been moments when the course of history shifted. Such a turning point is upon us now. The conflict between the better and worst angels of our very nature, whose outcome will change our world so greatly, there will be no going back. I do not know if victory is possible. I only know that great sacrifice will be required." "Wise words from a great man." Celestia told them. "Charles Xavier. A great man with great skill at speaking to crowds, but I shall try to keep this short and not turn it into a lecture as he would." She grinned as that got a good chuckle from most of the people present. "Charles Xavier's dream of mutants and normal humans living side by side as equals has sadly not yet come true. It is not for lack of trying that he has not succeeded, but rather because of how he went about it. True, oppression by the government, hostility from the general population, and a rivalry with his oldest friend played a part. But it was his school's purpose as a training grounds for mutants that held him down." Celestia took a moment to let everyone understand what she said. "In making his school a facility for training mutants how to use and control their abilities, and nothing else, he made it no different from a military base. He did not think what the average person would see when they saw his students. What they saw was an army of superhumans all marching to his orders. "Harmony House will be different. Me, my sister, our staff, and even our older students are here to not only train others with powers how to control their abilities, but also to help them grow as individuals and to actually teach them. Here your children will be able to learn and become knowledgeable in science, art, law, philosophy, and anything else that we can provide. "But other things will be taught as well, such as acceptance of other people no matter who or what they are. Human," she glanced at young Octavia Melody sitting beside her father. "Foreign," she saw a platinum haired girl with a camera look up at her. "Alien, robot, android from the future, or mutant. "Here at Harmony House we teach honesty, kindness, loyalty, generosity, laughter, and a little something extra." Celestia finished with a wink. "Now come on everybody, there's a party around back with your names on it!" Iron Man, Hawkeye, Falcon, and three S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were pinned down in Central Park by a squadron of Skrull warriors. Supplies and power were both low, and injuries had been sustained. The worst part was the leader of the invasion. Kl'rt the Super Skrull stood before the heroes. "You will surrender to us now, and tell us where you have taken her." "For the tenth time...I don't know who you're talking about!" Tony Stark yelled, his face plate retracted because of a crack across the eyes that made them stop working. "No offense Stark but you're not always the most trustworthy guy." Hawkeye shot a glance at him while shifting his aim between different Skrulls. "So if you know ANYTHING about what they want now would be a great time to say something." "They haven't even said who they're looking for! ...does anyone else hear a whistling sound?" Tony looked around at everyone. They all were looking for the sound too, even the Skrulls. "It's like when someone drops a bomb in a cartoon." Falcon pointed out. He blinked then looked up. "What- The boom of a thunderbolt knocked everyone off their feet as she crashed to earth between the heroes and the Skrulls. Kl'rt remained standing though, and he got a very good view of her hammer after he recovered from the force if her arrival. Luna shouted VERY loudly. "HAVE AT THEE!"
Mini chapter Luna swung her mighty hammer, and scattered six Skrulls. More came at her to replace the ones she felled. They were many, but she was worthy! She had not even begun to use her natural abilities for fear that- She grinned wickedly as her weapon connected with one alien’s face with a satisfying crunch. She began to laugh as she battled. Soon her laughter could be heard across the entire park as the other heroes fought nearby. Loud, booming laughter. “Uh, Tony? Why is she laughing like that?” Falcon asked as he deflected a laser blast with his wing. Tony Stark glanced at the thunder powered woman as she got completely swarmed by Skrulls. “Falcon...that is why she is retired.” With little effort, Luna lifted all of the more than twelve Skrulls over her head. A dark energy swirled around her body, and enveloped her. As the energy burst, Luna threw them all fifty yards away where they landed in a painful heap. “Gone, gone the lady fair. Awakens the darkest Nightmare.” A few hours later, and Luna stumbled into her bedroom. She somehow managed to get to her bed, and unceremoniously fall onto it without missing it even though her eyes were closed. She exhaled an exhausted groan. “I quit…” In her head she heard her constant companion. Silly girl. Pacts are forever. Late at night, after all in the mansion had fallen asleep a single lone little girl walked across the backyard. She hummed to herself, and occasionally skipped across the lawn. Her path was clear as she headed straight towards the hedge maze. Her light purple shoes scuffed through the grass, and her mismatched socks (one white with purple stripes the other purple with white spots) loosely bounced around her ankles as she skipped. What skin that was not covered by her light purple knee high dress looked oddly pale in the moonlight. A bouncy mop of dark purple and white curly hair flopped about her shoulders. On the top of her head was little orange and yellow hat with a spinning propeller at its top. Into the maze she went. In the darkness of the hedge maze a spinning violet light could be seen coming from her eyes. She grinned mischievously like a Cheshire cat as she navigated her way with no problem. At last, she found what she was looking for. The statue of her father. She climbed up onto the statue’s pedestal, and sat down next to it. Her smile disappeared. “So here you are my Dad, a statue oh so cold so dead. You tore their world apart and everybody lost their head. Now I must carry on spreading evil for you instead. 'Cause you are my Daddy-” she paused here as she wiped away some tears. “- and I am a piece of you! I'll make them pay Daddy...
Chapter 5 “Wake up!” Gilda yelled at Rainbow Dash who she now shared a room with. In the past five minutes, Gilda had been woken up by an alarm from somewhere, fell out of her bed when she didn't recognize where she was, and attempted to wake up her roommate. The speedster continued to sleep. Gilda, now with a headache because of her hawk's hearing, finally picked up her roommate by the shoulders, and shook her while yelling much louder than before. “WAKE UP!” Rainbow Dash woke up then, and fast. “What the heck are you doing?!” Gilda had to steady herself after the speedster dashed across the room. She blinked a few times to clear the afterimage that had been left in her vision, and then glared at the other girl. “I have super hearing.” she pointed at her ears “And this alarm has been going off for five minutes! I don't know where it's coming from, or what it's for, so I can't do anything to stop it! And it's driving me crazy!” Gilda’s hands shifted into talons as she covered her ears. “Make it stop.” she begged. Rainbow Dash listened to the alarm. “That's the fire alarm!” and then she went racing up and down the halls in her Captain America pajamas to find the source of the alarm. She found it in the kitchen. No fire thankfully, just a very pink girl with poofy hair, and smoke from the very overcooked something that she had tried to make. She smiled brightly at, Rainbow Dash. “Hi there! I made cupcakes!” “Um...not really.” Rainbow Dash eyed the tray of what looked more like charcoal than food. She then quickly took down the smoke detector to turn it off, and opened the windows to fan the smoke out. “You know there are already people here who do the cooking, and actually know how to cook.” “Oh, really? Maybe they can teach me.” The pink girl put an entire cupcake in her mouth. “Not bad.” Rainbow Dash just watched in mild disgust as the pink girl ate the inedible food. “For the sake of your health, I hope so. And who are you anyway?” “My name is, Pnkamna.” she ate another cupcake. “Uh huh. I'm not sure that, I can pronounce that. I'll just call you, Pinkie.” Gilda found her way to the kitchen at that moment. She saw the burned food, and forgot about her headache. “Wow, someone's a bad cook.” “Hi there! I'm, Pinkie!” She ate another charcoal cupcake. “...I'll make breakfast. You sit. Rainbow Dash, get this mess cleared for me.” Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and Pinkie enjoyed a breakfast of freshly baked scones. Other residents of the school however walked into the kitchen expecting a big delicious breakfast, only to find out that the food that smelled so good had already been eaten. Shining Armor was especially disappointed by the lack of food, and gave the three girls the chore of buying more groceries. So along with Rarity, Applejack, Twilight, and Fluttershy they headed out into town. Gilda drove the minivan because she was the oldest, and actually had a license. Pinkie kept sticking her head out the window, and Applejack had to keep pulling her back in to keep her from getting hurt. Rarity insisted on fussing about, Rainbow Dash’s hair because she hadn't brushed it. “There's nothing wrong with my hair.” Rainbow warded off her friend's hand as she tried to touch her hair. “Oh, please, Rainbow Dash your hair looks like a porcupine!” Rarity practically wailed. “Now you're just exaggerating.” “Not by much. Just let me brush it, I have one in my purse.” Rainbow Dash clapped a hand over her eyes. “You did not just seriously ask me to let you brush my hair in public?” “What? There's nothing strange about that.” Rarity pulled out her brush. “Girls help each other look nice. Now hold still.” “Get away from me!” “I think her hair looks fine.” Gilda called out. “See! My hair is fine.” “Fine.” Rarity sighed, and put away her brush. She looked over Rainbow Dash’s outfit though. “Couldn't you have at least dressed in something other than gym shorts and a tank top. We're grocery shopping, not running a race.” Rainbow Dash looked at her as if she had grown a second head. “...You're wearing a full dress that anyone else wouldn't wear unless it was for church or something! For grocery shopping!” “What's your point?” Rarity seemed confused. Applejack pulled the new girl's head back inside the vehicle for the tenth time. “Quit stickin yer head out the window.” “But it's fun!” Pinkie explained, and immediately stuck her head out the window again. “Well if ya don't stop yer gonna get hurt.” She pulled Pinkie’s head back inside again. “Stop it.” “You can not stop me!” Pinkie stretched her neck out like a turtle, and poked her head out the window while her body stayed perfectly still. “Now cut that out! ...What does it say about my life that somebody doin that ain't freaky to me?” Applejack faced forward with a bemused expression. SMACK Pinkie’s head retracted back into the minivan, and wobbled from side to side on her shoulders like she was a life size bobblehead of herself. Her head was half squashed like a lump of clay someone had stepped on. She took a deep breath, and held it to reshape her head correctly. “Well...alright then.” Applejack reclined her seat a little, and pulled her hat down over her eyes. “Tell me when we get to the mall.” “Mall?” Gilda glanced at Twilight in the front passenger seat. “I thought we we're going for groceries.” “There is a grocery store next to the mall. Next left.” Twilight told her without looking up from her book. Gilda just shrugged, and took the next left. They all climbed out of the minivan, and started towards the mall. “Ahem.” Twilight stopped everyone. “We will go to the mall while you three go grocery shopping.” “Ah come on, Twilight.” Rainbow Dash pleaded. “It's going to be super boring.” Twilight wagged a finger at her. “You three burned, then cooked and ate most of the food all by yourselves. So you three can go get the food.” Rainbow Dash sighed in defeat. “Fine…” Just as they were separating, Rarity noticed something about Gilda’s clothes. “Pardon me, but do you have two of the exact same outfit, or...oh.” Rarity’s expression shifted from curious to concerned. “Did you sleep in, and then wear today the same clothes you had on yesterday?” Applejack rolled her eyes. “Rarity, some people simply don't care about dressin up. Ya ain't got to point out every little thing that don't meet your standards.” Gilda shifted nervously. “Well...actually I didn't have much time to pack, so I just filled my duffle bag.” They all stared at her. “What?” “How much do you have?” Twilight asked her. “Hey, I'm not a charity case. I have clothes, just at home with my dad.” “Your dad kicked you out.” Fluttershy said just a little louder than a mumble. Gilda scowled at her, and Fluttershy hid behind Applejack. “We can buy you some clothes. Twilight’s brother gave us a lot of money for the groceries.” Rainbow Dash happily held up envelope with the grocery money in it. “He won't mind. He's cool like that.” Gilda clenched her fists for a moment. “Don't waste it on me, I don't need it.” “Girls…” Rarity tried to get their attention. “Celestia will understand.” Twilight assured Gilda. “It's her money, and I don't think she's even met you, but she's- ”I don't need your charity!” Gilda literally roared at them, and their hair flew back from the force of her voice. Gilda snatched the envelope of money from, Rainbow Dash, and stormed off to the grocery store. The others stood there in shock. Pinkie skipped after Gilda, and followed her inside. Rarity shook her head with a sigh. “I tried to tell you girls. Being generous is one thing, but we must remember our manners. That was very embarrassing for her.” Gilda did not really pay attention as she grabbed different food stuffs from the shelves and put it in the kart she pushed in front of her. She did however keep an eye on Pinkie who kept putting random things in. The envelope of money was in her pocket where she had put it just before realizing how much was in it, and every time Gilda stopped what she was doing, it got her attention. Don't need their money. Spent a week on my own once when my dad was working, and I was fine even without money to buy more food. Gilda thought to herself as the temptation kept nagging at her. She had stolen before, nothing worth more than some pocket change, but she did not think of herself as a thief. Pinkie skipped up to the kart and dropped a sponge into it. “Why did you yell at them?” Gilda was slightly surprised to hear her say something. It was the first time she had talked after stepping out of the van. Gilda put the sponge on a random shelf next to some ten pound bags of rice, and put two of the bags in the kart. “They were asking for it.” “Huh?” Pinkie scratched her head. “I don't remember them asking for you to yell at them.” Gilda stopped, and just looked at the other girl. Is she serious, or is she being smart? Finally she looked away from the odd girl. “It's complicated.” “Is it because you felt embarrassed, and insulted by them wanting to buy you new clothes, and you already felt like you owed them something for giving you a place to live after your father kicked you out for being a mutant leaving you with nothing more than a bag of whatever you could fit in it, and you were even a little bit jealous of them?” Pinkie asked with a wide smile. Gilda's eyes nearly came out of her head as she stared at Pinkie in amazement, and in slight fear. “.........Are you a psychic?” “I don't think so.” “O...kay.” Gilda shook her head, and almost slapped herself. “Well, you were pretty spot on actually.” “So...they didn't do anything wrong?” Once again she had stop and think about what Pinkie said. “....Ah crud.” Gilda could still not believe how much money she had spent on food. Granted there were a lot of students to keep fed, but three karts was a lot. She and Pinkie had pushed one kart out, then gone back for another, and then gone back for another. Finally they were pushing the third and last kart out to the minivan. They saw the other girls at the minivan looking through the windows. Gilda walked up to see in. “Uh...I guess letting, Pinkie pack the groceries in was a mistake.” she said after seeing the groceries stacked up in the seats with the seatbelts buckled. “Yeah…” Rainbow Dash scratched her head. “Oh! Gilda… Rarity made us do it!” she pointed at Rarity. Gilda raised an eyebrow at them. “Did what?” Rarity sheepishly held up a few bags from one of the clothing stores in the mall. “Hehe...Surprise.” Gilda eyed the bags with a bemused expression. “You bought me clothes?” They all nodded nervously. “With what money?” “With our allowances.” Twilight said sheepishly. “We're a little bit broke at the moment.” “Well…” Rarity, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy all leaned back away from Gilda as she paused. “Thanks.” “Awe, friends!” Pinkie literally wrapped her arms around all of them.
