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Chapter 5

Author's Note:

Here is the first of several new monthly updates. I have adopted a new writing schedule that should let me update each of my active fics once a month. The exact length of each chapter will depend mostly on how much I can get into the plot. The more interesting what I'm writing is the more of it I will write. Keep in mind that this is a slice of life story, and not an adventure fic. It will have comic book adventure type stuff, but the focus will be on the characters' interactions with each other.

“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.

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