I was conscious of the fact that a cartoon horse is a pretty noticeable thing, and going into my house through the front door was probably not the greatest way to keep my secret.

Instead, I let my magic spread out over its radius, allowing me to feel the details of people and where they were in their houses. Most were asleep, some weren't home, one or two were up and about watching TV, and a particular trio I felt like my cartoon powers should be censoring. In fact, is more disturbing they weren't.

Pulling my magic away from that house in particular, yes the whole house for various reasons, I sneaked towards my backyard through the thin gaps in between the poorly constructed fences in the neighboring houses. Confident no one was watching, I came in through the back door.

The first thing I checked was the clock. Two in the morning. I heaved a sigh, I was out much longer than I had intended. But what was more annoying was how catching up on that sleep was going to cut into my activities tomorrow. I need to do some more studying of my power, particularly the plants. I was also going to need some way to carry stuff with me in pony form. After some time I had decided this form didn't need clothing and my fur kept me at perfect temperature nearly all of the time so long as I wasn't facing anything extreme. So without pockets, my first thought was a backpack. The space between my wings was roughly large enough to place a small backpack, but the idea of putting one there and securing it felt like it would be more trouble than it was worth.

Instead, maybe I could jury rig to bags together and make them into makeshift saddlebags. I wasn't sure how I could put them on without interfering with my wings while they were resting, but I was sure there was a way. It would just take a bit of work to get right.

I thought about the other things I was planning on doing as I made my way to my room for the night. I needed a good number of things. Lots of flowers, some fruits and vegetables to try, and a big note book to put everything I find inside of it. Given that each flower had its own effect and I could probably combine them to some degree, it would likely need its own note book.

My energy, magic now thanks to a certain hero, seemed more capable than I gave it credit for at first. It created the bubble shield for me, something that was definitely not telekinesis. If there were other effects to be had, I needed to discover them. Maybe another notebook on that.

Finally, I need to learn how to fly. It was important for my cape persona, to be able to swoop in and save people from danger. A little story book, maybe, but with the obvious issues I was already going to be having with just the way I look, a little story book might go a long way.

Resigning myself to deal with any and all of that in the morning I collapsed on my bed and felt a wave of fatigue wash over me. Both in the physical and metaphysical. I closed my eyes and made sure my last thoughts before passing out was about being human.

I woke up to heavy knocking at my door. With a groan, I rolled out of bed and shambled my way to it. I was in human form again, thankfully. I had a lot of things I wanted to do today and most of them couldn't be done in Alicorn form, the name Miss Militia had given it. I like the sound of that. Alicorn. It was distinctive, and better than pegacorn.

I wiped the sleep from my eyes as I opened my bedroom door. My hair was flawless, completely unaffected by last night's rest, but that didn't stop my eyes from crusting and my shirt from wrinkling.

My door opened to reveal my dad on the other side of it. He was in his work clothes and looking incredibly tired. I briefly wondered if he had stayed up out of worry last night but dismissed the thought. He knew I was going out. And while he didn't know how long or what all that occurred, I couldn't imagine him putting himself out like that when he knew where I was and what I was doing.

That was, unless he saw Assault's PHO account recently.

"Taylor," Dad said awkwardly. "I was, um, wondering if you were planning on going to school."

The question surprised me. The mere thought of school had completely slipped my mind in the wake of all that was going on. Compared to last nights adventure, school seemed so minor to what I needed to get done. Now that dad just reminded me that it was Thursday the thought of going to school was souring my mood.

"I wasn't planning on it," I said slowly, gauging how he would react to it. He nodded as if he expected it and said,

"Then when are you planning on going back? I realize this whole power situation has got you excited, but school is important too."

I bit my lip to hold back a retort. Math and programming were the only classes I was actually learning anything in, and not for lack of trying. Every other class hardly taught a thing worth knowing, and I doubted math and programming were going to be any use to me with my current career choice. Assuming it could be a career choice. I haven't really given much thought as to how I could make money doing this. Maybe take it from the gangs?

That seemed like something the local PRT would get on my case about, and I didn't want to give Director Piggot anything more to use against me. I'll have to look into it.

"Maybe two weeks," I suggested. I wasn't in all that of a hurry to get back, but I felt like if I waited any longer than two weeks I was never going to get around to it at all.

Dad frowned. "That's waiting quite a while, isn't it? You might fall behind."

I sighed. "Dad, I lost several pounds of weight and packed on twice that in muscle all over my body." I wasn't sure how much of that was true, but it sounded good and Dad got my point. I had gone from being a little on the chubby side with horrible fat distribution to incredibly toned.

"On top of that my hair is an entirely different colour and my entire face changed structure. Two weeks will give enough time for people to forget my face enough and possibly explain my other physical changes." I already knew I was going to be facing scathing comments about liposuction and plastic surgery, not to mention how the three meanies were going to punish me for daring to become just as pretty as they were. On top of that, trying to wear moderate clothing and trying to avoid attention was going to work anymore. Not with this hair. And once I start getting attention, it was going to bring them down on me even harder. I was not looking forward to going back at all.

"Two weeks is still a pretty short time for a change like this," my father pointed out.

I nodded in agreement. "Yes, but at that point, all it will do is raise a few eyebrows. If I showed up like this today it will cause some alarm. Not to mention I…" I stopped myself, but it was too late. I had slipped up.

"You what?" My dad asked.

"I sort of, debuted last night and now a lot of people know about a new cape who happens to be a cartoon horse."

My father's expression dropped and mouth deepened into a frown. It was a little disturbing to see him go from the calm and rather caring man he was before to this. Luckily, he was still just as patient.

"What happened?" He asked seriously. I took a deep breath and started to tell him. I started with training, but left out the part about the floors as it would only confuse things. Then moved on to the fight with Hookwolf and Rune, again leaving out some details that would only derail the discussion. Like how exactly I had taken them both down.

I then explain my meeting with the Protectorate and local PRT. I skipped over Piggott's intimidation techniques in my story and moved rather quickly through my talk with Panacea and Rune, getting to the end of it rather quickly so I could say I got home a relatively earlier hour. Which I didn't.

"Taylor, this could be a massive problem," Dad said. I nodded glumly.

"I know, but I have a plan."

"I hope so," he said with a nod. "Because this might mean your identity is already compromised."

I gave him an odd look. "What do you mean?" I knew there would be some similarities between my hair and Nova's mane, but that surely wasn't enough to out me, was it?

"Taylor, that mark you said was on your flank, it's on your cheek. Right underneath your right eye."

I felt my eyes widen as I raised my hand up to feel it. All I was met with was smooth skin, but I doubted my dad was lying to me. I silently cursed my power. This just became a lot harder.

"I'll have to cover it up with makeup," I said glumly. I had never really used makeup before, but Emma had shown me the ropes. I figured if I just put foundation over it and blended the edges so it didn't stick out I should be fine. The real pain would be getting and using makeup.

"I think one of Annette's old kits is still in one of the drawers in the bathroom," Dad said. He looked me up and down and sighed. "If you don't plan on going to school, do you know what you are going to do today?"

"I was going to go shopping for some cape stuff I'll need."

"That's good, you should be prepared. Here," he reached down and pulled out his wallet. From inside, he pulled out three twenties and handed them to me.

I took the cash tentatively. It was more than he had ever given to me before, and we didn't normally have that much to spare. The fact that he carried around sixty dollars cash surprised me. Particularly given what city we lived in.

"Are you sure?" I asked. I didn't want him to be hindering himself for me be giving all his cash over just so I could go out and buy flowers. Dear Celestia, I'm buying flowers with the money he thought was going to be used to buy me something to defend myself with.

"Yes," Dad told me. "If it is for your night time activities, then I'm sure. Just be safe." He moved forward and gave me a kiss on the top of my head before turning around. "See you later tonight," he told me.

"See you," I answered before shutting my door. I turned and looked at my room, my eyes gravitating toward my closet. I needed a change of clothes, and then it was off to The Market.

Despite not feeling like I needed a shower, I took one anyway for the sake of normalcy. No longer feeling like I needed to hide my body, I had pulled on one of the t-shirts that actually fit me well and a pair of jeans that weren't so baggy I had to wear a belt to keep them up. I had also foregone a heavy sweatshirt.

I was now walking down the Lord Street Market, a patch of makeup on my right cheek over my mark. It wasn't the weekend so many of the stalls were empty, but there was still plenty to see and be had. Although, oddly enough it was the normal people walking around that seemed the most scarce. It made for an oddly quiet atmosphere.

The Enforcers were prowling about with an odd amount of activity in their movements. And while there was a normal amount of stalls out for a week day, the people seemed guarded and closed off.

I recognized the signs. This was the behaviour that normally followed large gang movement.

If shops and people closed their doors every time there was a shift in power in Brockton Bay they might as well just close their door permanently because they would go bankrupt. But that didn't mean the same for the people that did the shopping. Living in Brockton Bay people got used to things, which accounted for the people that were already here and out shopping. But there was undoubtedly a large portion deciding to stay indoors today.

Of course, that made it easier for me to go from stall to stall looking at the different flowers out on display.

I wasn't sure exactly what gang movements had been made, but I could take an educated guess. With Assault broadcasting my existence to the world that undoubtedly led to increased attention to Hookwolf's arrest. With Hookwolf basically being the Empire's version of Lung, they seemed weak at the moment. Causing the ABB and probably the Merchants to attempt to take some territory. There haven't been any reports of cape battles yet, or at least I haven't seen or heard them, so likely any conflict had been just between the normal human members so far. But it was only a matter of time before a cape fight broke out, which made coming outside at all a gamble.

However, I wasn't going to waste a chance to better prepare on the odds that a cape battle might happen and I might be in the wrong place at the wrong time to be seriously injured by it.

As I found a stall with a wide variety of plants, the stall being owned by a flower shop, I felt a touch of excitement as I looked them over. If every plant here had a different effect and could be combined somehow I could have dozens of little backup powers. The dandelion had given me a stamina boost I had decided when I thought about it today. And the daisy had given me increased perception. With all of these, I could only imagine the minor powers I could make.

I was in the middle of looking them over when I noticed some gang members hanging around an alleyway. The reason they caught my eye was because they were wearing different colours to any gang in the area. White and gold.

My curiosity got the best of me and I tore myself away from the flowers for a moment to study them. They weren't of any particular race and they clearly weren't drug fiends like The Merchants. Two of them were white, one was black, and there was a fourth member that was Asian. The Asian being the only woman in the group.

Ironically, the Merchants had been the only non-racial gang in the city before. Making these newcomers particularly interesting to me. It was a bold move to claim territory from the Empire or ABB, especially when just starting out.

They were unknowns, someone I needed to learn more about before going out on patrols at night. The only question became, how could I figure out more?

Well, the simple choice would be to ask them.

Gangs tended to not be as closed off and as secretive as people thought they were. In truth, they wanted people to know how strong they were. They wanted people to know exactly what their message and goals were and what capes they had backing them. With the exception of Coil's mercenary gang, almost all gangs liked boasting enough that walking up to a gang member and asking them about the gang usually led to some honest answers, if incredibly bias.

"Hey," I said, walking up to one of the white male members. Just because they seemed to include members of all races didn't mean they didn't something in place regarding them. It might have seemed paranoid, but better to err on the side of caution and talk to a member of the same race as me.

"What do you want?" The ganger asked suspiciously. He eyed my hair for a moment before turning his gaze back at me. His friends had fallen silent and were staring at me too. Strangely, I didn't feel nervous at all. I felt like if this went sour I could get away pretty easily, and there were Enforcers all over the place to deal with them if I couldn't.

"I haven't seen your colours around before," I said factually. "Are you new?"

The gang member smirked. "Yeah, just moved in last night," he said gruffly, and slightly proud. "Nicked some territory around here from the Empire."

"Pretty bold," I told him. He and his friends smiled stupidly at each other with undeserved pride. "You must have some pretty strong capes backing you then."

"Eh," the gang member shrugged. "We might."

"You guys got a name then?"

"Why?" The Asian woman asked. Although she was smiling too, she didn't seem at ease with my questions like the others did. "You thinking of joining?"

I shrugged and looked away like I was trying to feign disinterest. "How can I be looking to join? I don't know your name, what capes you got leading you, or what your motive is. You, not racists, clearly. So what are you?" The Asian woman opened her mouth to answer me when the man I had started talking to originally held out his and shushed her with a smug grin.

"The girl wants to know, so let's tell her," he said with a cocky attitude. The woman looked a little put out but she didn't say anything. The man turned back to me and said,

"We're The Workers. Small time mostly, but from what I hear a bunch of gangs like us cropped up last night. And like you said, we're not racists. The Workers aren't looking to push any sort of message like these other gangs. We take anyone who wants some easy pay and is willing to put in the work."

That last bit was hard to believe. Maybe it was just my time in Brockton Bay tainting my view on it, but people made gangs around ideas. Sure, sometimes the idea is simply gaining power and money, but the ABB is the closest we have to that and even they unify under their Asian heritage. Gangs like The Workers didn't tend to last long.

"And who's protecting you from the Kaiser?" I asked. The guy kept his smirk grin and shrugged.

"A guy going by the name Sapien. Don't know much about him. Some sort of Thinker probably." He glanced at his friends for a moment before returning his look back at me. "So," he began, "Sound like something you might be interested in? We got jobs for a hundred dollars a night just moving some boxes into some moving vans. You look like you could handle it."

"I might be," I said. If it gave them a reason to keep talking, I might as well act like I'm interested in joining. "You said there were other ones like you cropping up?"

"Just what I heard," he said with a shrug. "I bunch of small timers like us that had just been waiting for a chance to nip some territory. You'll have to talk to one of my higher ups if you want to know more. Of course, that only comes with full membership."

"Thanks, I'll think about it." I turned on my heels and started walking away before they could say anything else. I heard at least one of them snickering as I walked on.

New gangs so soon after Hookwolf was arrested. They would have had to move in last night, but the PRT hasn't even released a statement on his arrest yet. That meant they had somehow heard about it sooner. And not just one gang, but apparently several. Troubling.

I needed to add some more things to my shopping list.

About an hour later I was walked towards the end of the Lord Street Market to the bus stop with two large baskets filled with supplies. One for each hand. One was filled with flowers and fruits of all kinds, the other with more conventional stuff I would need.

I had just about made it to the bus stop when I felt someone grab onto my wrist. I turned as blinked in surprise as I saw a girl that was very clearly homeless gripping my wrist tightly. She had dirty blonde hair, both in the sense it was greasy and its colour, and freckles that covered the bridge of her nose. Her clothing was in complete and utter shambles, looking like they had barely been together when she got them then proceeded to wear them for a few weeks.

"Hello, there. I'm going to need to borrow you for a minute." She said, a vulpine grin spreading across her face.

I noticed some of the Boardwalk's Enforcer's walking this way and I got a bad feeling I was about to get into something I really didn't want to be a part of.