“Are you certain, that you’ve never been sick?” Twilight Sparkle asked Gilda from across her desk.
Gilda had finished her glass of water when she responded to Twilight’s question. “Not really,” Gilda stated with a shrug of her shoulders. “I’m like…….80% certain that I’ve never been sick.”
Twilight raised a brow. “Well, that’s not certain at all,” she said in a matter of fact way. Then, moving her eyes away from Gilda, she looked down and proclaimed under her breath, “That’s hole number 1. I’m going to be extremely skeptical about all this.” Then, she looked back up. “Are you at least certain that you’ve never been injured before?”
“Gilda’s been injured,” Apple Bloom piped up from behind her glass, which she held with two hooves to her face.
Twilight gave Apple bloom a queer stare, fascinated by what the filly said. Finally she looked back at Gilda. “Is Apple bloom correct?”
Gilda looked away and sighed. She knew immediately what Apple bloom was referring to. She ultimately had to respond by shaking her head and smiling in strange, dissatisfied matter. “Yeah. I was in this cart accident with Rainbow Dash back at the flight academy. When I came to in the hospital, the doctor’s told me that I had injured my wing. The strange thing was I felt completely fine. But they told me that when I came in I was screaming in pain and telling them myself that I was injured……so I really don’t know. I can’t remember a thing after we hit the tree.”
Twilight hummed to herself, and began to stroke the bottom of her chin with her hoof in deep thought. “How serious was the injury?” she finally asked.
“She couldn’t play storm ball again,” Apple Bloom stated. She looked at Gilda, who was looking at her as though she was speaking out of turn. In actuality, she really wasn’t being rude, but Gilda was just perplexed by how much Apple Bloom retained from casual conversations at the dinner table. “I mean, that what you said right?” Apple Bloom asked Gilda in a tone that made it sound as though she was scared. But Apple Bloom had nothing to fear. Gilda returned what she said with a smile.
“I pretty much had to quit,” Gilda commented. Then she turned to Twilight Sparkle. “Once you get damaged like I did, even if you don’t feel it, the school gets pretty skeptical, so instead of being babied around I decided just to drop out entirely.”
After hearing what Gilda said, Twilight, yet again, looked away and commented to herself, “That’s hole number 2.”
The three of them were in the back of Twilight Sparkle’s gallery. Twilight sat behind her fine, furnished, cheery wood desk while Gilda and Apple Bloom sat on the other side in possibly the most comfortable chairs Gilda ever sat in. She was somewhat perplexed by the surroundings she was in. Apple Bloom told her it was a comic book gallery. If that was the case, then this had to have been the most professional atmosphere for a comic book related gallery she had ever seen. Everything was clean and dusted, and all the furniture seemed fine and very expensive. Gilda practically panicked when Apple Bloom asked for a glass of water and Twilight returned (wobbling because of her crutches) with a glass that looked so fine it should’ve belonged in the Royal Palace.
The walls surrounding them were covered with what appeared to be ancient artifacts collected by Twilight Sparkle. Gilda couldn’t recall the exact period of history these artifacts were from, but they all had the same tone and texture. They reminded Gilda of…..well….comic books. They all had pictures on them and all of the pictures represented an action.
All of this, the surroundings, the conversation, and the fact that apparently this was the first time Twilight Sparkle had spoken to someone so close to the mane six in years, troubled Gilda greatly. There was a silence amongst the three as Twilight appeared to be thinking long and hard once again. Gilda just couldn’t take it anymore. She came to this place hoping to find answers and by Celestia, she was going to get them.
Interrupting Twilight’s train of thought, Gilda asked politely, “Twilight, do you mind telling me what this is all about?”
The purple pony returned the comment with a look that gave off the impression that she (i.e. Twilight Sparkle) was confused by the question Gilda just asked.
“I mean…..the note under the wiper………these ‘holes’ that you keep referring to…..what does it all mean?”
Twilight got the message, and sighed. She didn’t sigh out of disappointment however. She sighed as if though she was relief; as though she were waiting for the opportune moment to tell Gilda what she was about to say. It was all very strange, and from the way Twilight’s eyes remained focused, yet gave off an impression that she was far off in the distance, disturbed Gilda greatly. Apple Bloom was too young to understand such things, but you can spot ‘crazy’ up close. One just has to look in the eyes.
Twilight placed her hooves together, and spoke calmly and clearly, as though she was reciting a speech that needed to be heard.
“I’ve read books for as long as I could remember,” Twilight began. “Reading has always been a passion of mind and I’ve pursued the quest for knowledge greatly for many years.” Then, her voice changed tone, as though what she was saying made her the happiest. “Although not necessarily considered educational by some, my favorite guilty pleasure was reading comic books. My brother use to give them to me all the time and I would read them by the dozens.”
Her tone of voice changed again. This time, it was sadder. “I spent a third of my life in a hospital bed with nothing else to do but read…….” Twilight looked down at her hooves, and recited the rest of her case in a matter of urgency. “I believe comics are our last link to an ancient way of passing on history.”
Twilight looked at a relic which was posted on the wall behind her, and then spoke to Gilda, hoping the artifact would start to make sense to the Griffon. “The crystal walls from the palace of the crystal empire depict pictorial figures performing amazing things. Many places, aside from Equestria, still use a comic-like format to pass on information to others, or at least leave in formation behind for others to discover and, in my opinion, decipher.”
She then grew passionate in her speech, and spoke to Gilda with a mixture of fervor and wonder. “I believe comics are a form of history; that somepony, somewhere, at sometime felt or experienced……of course those experiences and that history got tainted by the commercial machine in order to make titillating cartoons for the sale rack.”
Gilda at this point was intrigued. She obviously knew that Twilight seemed like a pretty sane and rationale pony, but what she was referring to…..it didn’t really make sense. In a logical world, what Twilight was saying was considered crazy. But then again, Gilda knew that Twilight wasn’t finished yet. Maybe this conversation would take a weird left turn.
In a way, it did, but not the way Gilda was expecting.
“Equestria has seen its share of disasters,” Twilight commented. “There’s the in famous Zeppelin incident in which thousands of passengers died in an explosion as the Zeppelin began to land. Morbid I know, but there’s more. There was a fire around 8 months ago that completely destroyed one of the most extravagant apartment complexes in Canterlot….. There’s the random collapse of the Appleoosa water tower which flooded the town and took the lives of several hundred ponies and buffalo’s. All in all, during these accidents, I watched the news, waiting for the words to emerge, but they never did.”
At this moment, Twilight got a glimmer in her eye, and she smiled in a way which seemed so hopeful and charismatic. “And then one day, I hear about a train accident, and I heard them. ‘There is a sole survivor and he,’ or in this case, ‘she is miraculously unharmed.’”
Gilda paled. She couldn’t believe it. She was putting the pieces of the puzzle together, but it was completely crazy. There’s no way Twilight Sparkle thought that Gilda was a…..well…..she certainly wasn’t heroic in any way.
Gilda looked at Apple Bloom. Her reaction is what really terrified her. Apple Bloom’s eyes widen in wonder. Gilda caught the faintest glimpse of a smile on the filly’s face. Apple Bloom…..apparently, was buying into what Twilight was saying….and actually liked it!
That still didn’t explain why Twilight Sparkle hadn’t spoken to her friends in years. Gilda had many question to ask Twilight regarding this topic. Why the isolation? Why did she try to kill herself many years ago? What was the point?
Twilight answered Gilda when she spoke up again. “I have a disease called osteogenesis imperfecta. Basically, my cells cannot create a certain kind of protein and thus my bones are very brittle; susceptible to break. I use to take medication for it back when I lived in Ponyville. Zecora, may she rest in peace, knew a certain kind of herb that I was able to take with my food which helped produce the proteins that my body needed. I asked her where I could find these herbs, but she said that it was a family secret, and that the last time some Zebra spoke about this magical plant she gave me, an all out war occurred. I told her she could trust me…..but she never did tell me about the place where this herb originated from, or where I could find some more.”
Twilight’s eyes went down as she spoke in a melancholy tone. “Then one day…..Zecora died. Without her, I didn’t have my medication. For two weeks, I…..illegally searched her home for something, ANYTHING, that could’ve told me where I could get the medicine needed…..but there was nothing……I lost all hope-”
Gilda finally got it. “And that’s why you tried to kill yourself.”
Twilight faintly nodded in then continued with her speech. “Fortunately Spike was able to find me in time to send me to the hospital. When I came to, I asked if I could speak to the Princess. I referred to her about my problem. She looked into it and sent guards to Zecora’s homeland, but unfortunately, there was nothing they could find. Even the villagers themselves are clueless as to the herbs used in my medicine.”
Twilight regained her sad composer. “I was ashamed about what I did……..I knew my friends would accept me back but……….I knew it would never be the same. So I asked if I could end my research on friendship. Celestia provided me with a home, which is the one you guys are in right now, and I adopted a new identity. Although my face can’t necessarily change, legally, I am a completely different pony. Only my brother, Cadence,Spike, Luna, and Celestia know about this…..and now you two know as well. As for what happened to Spike, he eventually got too big to keep with me and he ended up living with the dragons in the mountains.”
Twilight went back to the tone she used when speaking about her disease. “So far this year, I have had seven broken bones, and I have the tamest version of osteogenesis imperfecta; type 1. There’s type 2’s, type 3’s, type 4’s……..type 4’s usually don’t survive infancy.”
Then, Twilight got that sparkle in her eyes once more. “It is because of my disease, because of the fact that aside from school, I grew up in hospitals with my head in comic books; because of all this, I came up with an idea. It’s been with me for a long time, but only recently have I developed it into a full blown theory, that only now can be tested……..I lived in one side of the spectrum for many years; constantly getting sick, getting hurt……what if there was somepony on the opposite end? What if there was somepony, who never gets sick? Sompony who’s unbreakable? Maybe that sompony……..is who these comics are written about. And he or she probably doesn’t even know it, that they were sent here on this earth…..to protect us…….I just never would’ve thought that the somepony was in fact not a pony at all.”
Gilda was shell shocked. This conversation ended up the exact same way Gilda thought it would end; badly. There was no way what Twilight was saying was true. Only the crazy believed what Twilight believed.
Twilight summarized all that she stated in two simple sentences. These two sentences will haunt Gilda for the rest of her life. “I believe that comic book superhero’s walk the earth…..and that you Gilda….are one of them.”
Gilda sat in her chair, numbed by the whole experienced. She felt dazed. The room seemed as though it was spinning. She felt like from the weight of it all, she was going to throw up.
Apple Bloom however, was excited. Her face was brighter than any light Equestria had ever seen. “ARE YOU SAYING THAT GILDA IS-” Apple Bloom proclaimed with a shrieking voice.
Twilight stopped her, with a very serious tone. “I didn’t say a thing!” she responded. “It’s just a theory……one with many holes.”
A silence fell amongst the three. The entire atmosphere of the room became hostile. Not in the sense that there was intimate injury upon them, but more or so, that whatever was to be said next would have to be of strict importance. Whoever spoke next basically had to deal with the pressure of how the rest of the conversation would plan out.
Gilda took this opportunity to her advantage. She had to stomp out Apple Bloom’s false hope immediately. There was no way Gilda was hero. Twilight was just insane.
Gilda watched as Apple Bloom brought the glass of water up to her lips for one more sip. With a voice low and docile, Gilda commanded, “Apple Bloom, don’t take another sip of that water.”
Apple Bloom paused, glass in the air, halfway to her lips. “But Gilda-”
“No Buts,” Gilda retorted. She looked Apple Bloom dead in the eyes. “Go throw it in the trash. Now.”
Apple Bloom at first remained motionless, confused by why she needed to throw away the glass. But, after a while, the silence between the three became dense and hostile once more, and Apple Bloom left the room not because she wanted to, but because she desperately needed to.
Once Apple Bloom trotted away, Gilda gave Twilight the dreadful glare she gave Apple Bloom a few minutes ago. Twilight responded to the glare with a stare of her own; one filled with a sense of understanding. It was as if Twilight’s stare said ‘I know you think I’m crazy, but I’m right.’
Gilda wasn’t about to accept that notion anytime soon. She made that evident when she spoke to Twilight.
“You know,” Gilda began. “I use to see ponies, and stallions, and griffons, and multiple types of creatures like you in my old job. You find someone you can take advantage of, you lift up their hopes with this miraculous story…..and then somewhere along the line you say, ‘now all I need is your credit card number.’”
Gilda scoffed, in both anger and disgusted; surprise and disappointment. This is where everything ended up. She would never understand why she survived that crash, if all sources lead to this crazy pony. “I’ve had several mornings ever since that accident, here and there, and even today, I woke up not feeling…….sad. I thought that whoever wrote that note and placed it on the windshield wiper had an answer………..But in the end I don’t think there are any answers. There’s the sane and insane….and what you’re proposing……it can’t be real……it just can’t.”
At that moment, Gilda heard the hoof falls coming from Apple Bloom. Gilda got up and without shaking Twilight’s hand, left a confused and Flabbergasted purple pony by saying, “I’m leaving now.”
When Apple Bloom arrived at the desk, Gilda directed her head towards the door and the little filly realized that it was time to leave. They both walked out together, in silence.
Or they would’ve, if Twilight hadn’t had asked one more question while they were leaving.
“What did you use to do?” Twilight asked desperation thick in her voice. “You’re old job. What was it?”
Without turning back, Gilda spoke up, “I use to be a security guard for the fillydelphia eagles stadium.” And then she pushed open the door, and she was gone.
Little did Gilda know that those words, while minute and small, left a giant impression on Twilight. This wasn’t the end of their conversation……not by a long shot. They would meet again. Somehow, someway, they would meet again.
As Gilda flew home, she noticed that Apple Bloom clung on to her back a little more forcefully than usually. It was then it occurred to Gilda that maybe Apple Bloom wanted to believe what Twilight said was true just because….in a way….Apple Bloom needed a hero. She told Gilda about the multiple times bullies teased her at school for being a blank flank. It must’ve been an awful feeling; to not know who you truly are and what you’re meant to be.
So maybe Apple Bloom needed a hero. Apple Bloom needed that all powerful protective being to give her perspective, to know that no matter what, there was a hero watching out for her.
But Gilda was not supposed to be her hero. Apple Jack was suppose to be Apple Bloom’s hero. Big Mac was supposed to be Apple Bloom’s hero. Not Gilda. For one thing, Gilda was still a new member of the household, and while she appreciated how fondly Apple Bloom thought of her like a sister, she in the end, wasn’t really her sister. Plus, the title ‘hero,’ meant that Gilda would have to be perfect. If she accepted that role, if she let Apple Bloom down, it would be a tragic blow to everyone in the family, and Gilda wasn’t about to upset anypony just yet.
What scared her the most about how much Apple Bloom believed Twilight, was the fact that what Twilight said could be twisted multiple ways. The purple pony said that the hero ‘she probably doesn’t even know it, that they were sent here on this earth to protect.’ What if Apple Bloom thought she was supposed to be the hero? What if she started getting into trouble, getting into fights that weren’t her own, or sweet Celestia, what if she actually tried to stop a crime that she couldn’t stop, all in the name of trying to be a hero?
When they landed at Sweet Apple Acres, Gilda had to bring Apple Bloom aside and speak to her directly.
“Apple Bloom…..” she said softly and with concern. “You know that what Twilight said was crazy…right? You know there’s no such thing as super heroes, right?”
Apple Bloom nodded her head yes.
Gilda sighed. The way Apple Bloom responded wasn’t necessarily enthusiastic. There was still a part in the little filly that wanted to believe what Twilight said was true. She decided not to fight it. Eventually, Apple Bloom would learn that in the end, Gilda was just a normal Griffon. It would be hard for her to accept, but then again, all fillies in the end have to ‘put away the toys,’ as it were, and accept life for what it was.
But there was still one thing that needed to be taken care of.
“Apple Bloom, can you do me a favor?” Gilda asked. The little filly’s eyes widen with enthusiasm. Gilda leaned in close, to make sure her words had an impact. “Today never happened. If Applejack asks about what happened today, tell her the store was closed. If anyone asks, you tell them the same thing, you got that?”
“Ok,” Apple Bloom responded. “But why?”
Gilda spoke somewhat truthfully. “As far as I’m concerned, I didn’t want what happened today to happen. It was just a major disappointment and I don’t want to infringe that disappointment on anyone else. Got that?”
Before Apple Bloom could respond, the door to the front of the house opened and Big Mac called out to Apple Bloom. “Apple Bloom, supper’s ready!”
“Coming!” Apple Bloom rushed into the house with a big smile on her face. She was starving.
As she went inside, Big Mac went out to great Gilda. The two nuzzled their necks together and began to feel warm and at peace.
“So, how was today?” Big Mac asked.
“The store was closed,” Gilda responded.
“That’s a shame.” Big Mac stated.
Gilda’s response could’ve been interpreted in many different ways. “Yeah…..it really was a shame.”