The X-Men have undergone dramatic changes in recent years, but many of the team's biggest changes were actually predicted decades ago by Kitty Pryde in a bedtime story she told to Illyana Rasputin, who was only six years old at the time. In this fairy tale, the X-Men were depicted as over-the-top caricatures of themselves. However, many parts of this bedtime story later came true. It seems that nothing is too crazy for the X-Men, as even the most sensational fancies of Kitty's imagination have come to pass, including her aspirations of becoming a pirate.
This takes place in Uncanny X-Men #153 by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum and Josef Rubenstein, entitled "Kitty's Fairy Tale, when the team is reeling from the events of The Dark Phoenix Saga and from a recent clash with the Hellfire Club. At the time, Illyana is still an innocent little girl, but Kitty is also barely out of childhood--something Colossus remarks upon. The bedtime story she tells is filled with whimsical childlike aspirations, as evidenced by the fact she imagines herself as a swashbuckling pirate adventurer.
Pirate Kitty teams up with Colossus when they encounter a wizard (inspired by Professor X) and an outcast prince (Cyclops). These two are trying to save the prince's lover, Princess Jean (Jean Grey) who has become possessed by the darkness in her own soul, becoming the Dark Phoenix. Along the way, they arrive at an island, where they meet a blue impish teleporter (Nightcrawler), a hairy beer-chugging creature with no name (Wolverine) and a djinn trapped in a bottle (Storm). On top of that, the X-Men's airplane, an SR-71 Blackbird, is re-imagined as a dragon named Lockheed.
Despite the whimsical nature of all of this, much of it has since come to pass. Kitty has grown up and now operates a pirate ship, helping to smuggle goods into the island nation of Krakoa and assisting anyone targeted by anti-mutant extremists. The alien dragon Lockheed who has been her companion made his first official debut in Uncanny X-Men #166 by Claremont and Paul Smith, which came out a year after "Kitty's Fairy Tale."
A particularly weird part of the story is Nightcrawler being part of a race of tiny impish teleporters called Bamfs. The first Nightcralwer solo miniseries written and drawn by Dave Cockrum brought the hero to Earth-5311, the world depicted in Kitty's story. Apparently, just imagining this reality gave it form, and Nightcrawler met the Bamfs, who called him "Daddy." Later, the series Wolverine and the X-Men would introduce another type of Bamfs created by by Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo and Irene Y. Lee. These were actually demonspawn who infested the Jean Grey School For Higher Learning, teleporting about as they stole things and caused general mischief.
The djinn Storm appears in a white full-body costume, as opposed to her black ensemble of thigh-high boots, a crown, and a top which exposed her midriff and clasped to her underwear-like shorts. This fairy tale full-body outfit is a black costume streaked with lighting bolts, but it is strikingly similar to her iconic white costume from the 90s.
The most important part of Kitty's story is its ending, in which the Prince Cyclops marries Princess Jean. The couple would actually marry over a decade later in X-Men #30 by Fabian Nicienza, Andy Kubert and Matt Ryan--a romance worthy of any fairy tale. But at the time Kitty tells her story, Jean is dead and the whole team is grief-stricken. The X-Men stand outside the door to Illyana's room and listen, and Cyclops is touched hear about a narrative where he and Jean finally get a happy ending they deserve.