Life imitating art.

"Hey give that back I need it!" Twist said to the older girls who had snatched her asthma pump from her as she took her daily dose for her chronic asthma. Twist was often worried about taking her medication when ever she was in public; often for this very reason, to be seen as someone...different or even weak because of her asthma. So it was a bit of a shock when three older (and meaner) girls stopped her outside the pharmacy and began laughing at her and calling her names like "Wheezy." They surrounded her making themselves look bigger as they closed in on her; their black and white checkered skirts, and innocent "Daddy's girl" pressed white shirts where betrayed by their actions. Not that the pharmacy in downtown Canterlot attracted trash like the girls hectoring her now, but no place is perfect. Even Maine has some crime in it.

"You want this back?" The leader girl with her brown hair tied in a bun said waving the pump in her face; as Twist reached for it, the girl raised it up over her and out of reach. "Come on wheezy, just take it."

"Please you don't understand!" She said her breath becoming raspy and short. She knew what was coming, and she didn't like it. "I have very severe asthma and need to take my Medication now or I'll have a major asthma attack." She said almost as if she was begging for her life, which in some cases, she was. The only waved the inhaler in her face as they watched in sadistic joy as Twist struggled to breathe and grasped at her chest desperate for air.

Behind them came another girl's voice, it was a a gruff growling voice that said, "Hey! You girls ever heard the expression to pick on someone your own size?" The three of them turned around to see a girl in a brown leather jacket; she had some red headband with a white flower on it, the flag of Hong Kong. Her arm had a black armband with nasty looking spikes on them and that wasn't all, her eyes were hidden behind a black domino mask, The image instantly evoked the spirit of the cheap Kung-fu and street brawler matinees of a bygone age .

"Well well, look who want's to play hero." The other one with a bad set of pigtails on her and an telltale patch of sick yellow and brown nicotine stains on her blouse. The smoky breaths she blew toward the heroic Gilda made her thank Tsukuyomi she gave up the habit herself after a year of experimenting with it. She drew a pair of red nunchaku from her hips and let them swing with the skill of a martial arts master. The way she spun them and made the fast movements of her weaponry, made the other girl's jaws drop in a mix of awe and fear.

` "The way I see it ladies," She said while swinging the acetone plastic bars dangerously close to the bully girl's heads. "You can hand that asthma pump back and walk away knowing you only had to see just what I could have done to bitches like you...Or I show you all the toys I brought to play with." She said reaching for her bokken she had sheathed on her back.

"Fuck off!" The smoker says standing her ground a lit Marlboro steaming away in her lips.

"Have it you're way." She said Tossing the red nunchaku at them, they struck two of them square in the skulls, prompting Gilda to draw the bokken with a *Fwip!* and place it on the chest of the remaining one not dazed from a strike. "Still want to mess with little kids?" She said reeling her sword back in a blow. the other girl reached into her pocket, the silver handle of a butterfly knife flipped open with metallic clicks and rattles of springs and gears locking the blade in place.

"I'm going to cut my name across both your flat as a board boobs for that you fucking cunt!" She snapped taking a stab at her.

"You kiss you're mother with that filthy mouth?" Gilda quipped lashing her sword at Ms. Butterfly knife's side, only to just miss and ruffle the fabric.

"Didn't you just drop a B bomb at us?" Ms. B retorted back with a nasty jab of the knife that almost went right into the crotch of Gilda's jeans.

"At least I'm not one...anymore." She said bringing the wooden blade onto B's shoulder, her training with it enabling her to just miss the nerve clusters that would have crippled her, it only made her scream in excruciating pain and drop her blade.

"Ahhh you bitch!" She snapped doubling over in pain as Gilda struck her square in the hip, again the blow just barley held back from fracturing bone. The other girl fell to the ground and the other two took off running afraid of the sword of Gilda.

"Damn it she doesn't have the asthma pump on her." She said checking her pockets. the pump wasn't on the ground either and she'd wasted enough time as it was in the fight. Gilda looked at Twist; she was in sitting on the ground and trying desperately to breathe.

"Help me, I need to get to the hospital." She said as best as she could. Gilda sheathed the blade and retrieved her side weapons. She picked the girl up in her arms and took off running along the streets, houses and shops flying by, the only thing she though about as she ran was the small child in her arms dying because of some second rate bullies picking on her. Gilda wasn't exactly a saint in her own past, but she'd never do anything THIS cruel, so ruthless and senseless it could ever cost someone their life.

As Twist steadied her breathing and tried to reduce the swelling of her lungs. The two of them made their way up and down side walks and streets the other girls sense of direction for the city the only thing she had to go on to reach the hospital.When she finally saw it just a few feet in front of her she bolted for the rear trauma ward the Paramedics often delivered their pick ups too. The lane that said ambulances only meaning nothing to Gilda as she darted into the driveway for them, and toward the metal doors that lead to the ward. She booted the gurney doors making the nurse behind the desk jump as she ran into the squeaky clean halls of the hospital.

"What is the meaning of this? You can't just go charging into wards like that ma'am, and take that mask off before I" The nurse began rambling before she was stopped by realizing there was a girl in critical condition in the older one's arms. Gilda looked her dead in they eyes with a look she knew could make the nurse (tag read Red Heart) back off but not get the wrong idea about her.

"Asthma attack; I think it's a fatal one, now are you going to do your damn job or not?" she said placing Twist onto a nearby chair to help her breathe. The nurse apologized as scenes from old 80's Daredevil comics are surprisingly not a common thing to happen around the ward. She alerted the ward of red zone asthma attack; as the paramedics in the ward placed Twist on a gurney and attached an oxygen mask to her face. The heart monitor thankfully picking up a stable beat as Twist returned to stable condition. The ward was too busy to notice the other girl that had brought dangerous weapons to the ward, nor did they see her slip out under the cover of the pandemonium.

It was a few hours later when the three girls who bullied her where clustered in a dank and grimy alley in the backwater dumping grounds of downtown. In Canterlot City the terms uptown and downtown where quite literal. Runoff and grey-water flowed like clockwork in the streets and drains and pipes of downtown. The girls took seats on the dumpsters and garbage pails of the alley, smoker kicked a few cans over in anger. "Damn it! I swear if I see that goody good' pussy licking bitch piece of shit again, I swear I'll shove a buck knife up her over licked joy trial, and slit her up the middle so far she'll paint this alley with her insides!"

"While I have experimented with an "alternative partner" or two in my time," A voice said seemingly from nowhere, "I think I'm like say Sinead O'Connor, and if I may paraphrase from her a bit. "I’m three-quarters of one thing, and a quarter of the other, but...I think I'd prefer a dude even more if he's not afraid of trimming more than his hair and face if you get my drift." The voice made all three of thee look around with one drawing a buck knife and the other a box cutter with the blade springing out with audible clicks. Smoker's own butterfly had been taken by Gilda, even if blades of real metal weren't her cup of tea.

Gilda was above them in the fire escape of the alley watching them from above and taking note of their tactics; sloppy, they think keeping in close formation and watching the shadows will work, but she's read The Art of War and knows all the tactics of everyone from the lowly cut purses and street scum, to the infantry of the armies from her own countries to even the ones you'd least expect like India and Ireland.

Gilda reached into a pouch on her side and pulled a bundle of Teflon wire and tied it into a noose, no she wasn't going to do that to them, but she'd make them wish she had. She clipped a rappelling cord to her belt buckle and stood on the railing of the lowest level of the fire escape; she took a deep breath and let herself fall over the side upside down. She grabbed the buck knife first and used the cord to get her and herself back up unto fire escape where she fixed the loop noose over waist. She looked at the girl's sickly blonde hair, the badly applied makeup to her eyes and lips. with her hand over her mouth, she lifted it only a few seconds. Before she could let out a scream for help, Gilda planted a deep and very...forceful kiss on her lips. She didn't moan; or use her tongue, if anything it was more a "kiss" that said "You're my bitch now sister," the way an inmate in prison would give another. Had the genders been reversed in all combinations possible from a boy Gilda to the one she had being a guy, or even the both of them being males...well you get the idea she'd still do it either way.

She made sure the noose was tight and would hold as she tossed her over the side of the rails. Buck knife (now bitch number one) dangled with her arms flailing about wildly; Gilda licked her lips before wiping the kiss off with a spiteful grimace "Sour, and she tastes like Pabst and bacon ranch potato skin chips, disgusting" All the while her thoughts went back to...Peter...'No Gotta stay focused' She though.

"Holy shit Beau! What that butch bitch do to you?" Smoker asked as the other too tried to untie the Teflon from her waist.

"Oh we had a discussion on the stereotypes of deep and close girl friendships, being labeled romantic relationships by social stigma and double standards...WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK SHE DID TO ME YOU COUPLE OF CUM SUCKERS!?" she said leaving out the whole...kiss thing. "Now get me down from here!" The girls tried to loosen it but the damn wire was tied in a solid knot that they'd have to cut, just what Gilda needed. She lowered silently down again from the fire escape and sneaked up behind the two of then and grappled with the back of her filthy blouse, Gilda then proceeded to shove her quarry into a trashcan...headfirst.

"Bag her!" Beau said while dangling but with smoker the only one left, Gilda drew not her bokken but Smoker's own knife before wrapping her free hand around her neck.

"Now what was that little thing you said to me earlier sweetie? Something about my name on your boobs?"

"No it was MY name on YOUR boobs you bitch."

"I know..that's what I said." She said taking the knife and slicing the blouse open to expose her tan bra; she placed the cold steel blade to her left bosom, just as the skin was pierced, A loud voice shrieked from the darkness.

"Gilds no! Don't do it! She's payed the price!" It was Rainbow dash! Gilda looked from the captive to Rainbow; She sat on the handle bars of a bike with Peter on the seat. He got off the bike with Dash and walked up to her.

"Gilda; if you maim that girl, even with just a marking scar into her skin will only make you no different than her. If you want to change they way people see you and prove to us that you're a changed girl, then you need to have an event horizon of good and evil, right and wrong. and know the limits of that horizon to show people you've changed. and that starts with not stooping to their level." He said to her. "Please, do what you know is right and leave her....for us" Gilda looked from them to Smoker back and forth, She raised the knife up used it to cut her pigtails off leaving two ugly bald spots on her head.

"They'll grow back, but enjoy being a laughing stock until they do...patchy head." She said as the girl broke down in tears and ran away down the dark alley, Gilda turned to the two who gave her a look of mixed emotions to what she did, "What? she deserved it and its not as bad as being cut up. " She said tucking the knife in her pouch, and zipping it up. "I keep my enemies weapons as trophies," she said ex-positing while she picked up the buck knife and box cutter, but I don't use any hardware that's not a bludgeon or my own much." She said fishing a few twenties from her pocket. "I'll get us a van to drive us all home."

"What about her?" Rainbow asked pointing to the still suspended Beau.

"The Teflon is coated with a slow acting agent that makes it weaker as it's stretched, it'll break in an hour, okay I''ll make sure she has a soft landing." Gilda said before they could point it out, moving a dumpster under her. "Now can we go? I'm tired, so damn tired."

"Let's go back to my place Gil, We'll play some Mario Kart; order a few pizzas, and watch some movies okay?" She said gently tapping her bag and hugging her as the strong tough girl began to softly cry.

"Thanks Dash, I'm glad you're still my friend."

"Can...I be you're friend too Gilda?" He asked pulling his phone from his pocket. Gilda smiled and pulled something from a pocket, it was the deck of 1987 Garbage Pail Kids cards with the "lucky seven" deck and showed him it.

"Yes Pete, you are a friend in my book from cover to to back and with a spot just next to Dash." The three of them held their hands together and waited by the curb for the ride home, a long night ahead planned.