When it came to places that the Rainbooms would go to chill and hang out, the Mall wasn't usually high up on heir list. After all, given that they all worked at the place, did they really want to spend too much of their spare time there too? But, there were times, however few, where they did enjoy coming over here, even though the memories of giant mirror-wielding ladies did occasionally taint their pleasant times here. Sitting together near one of the many ice cream vendors that dotted the place, the girls were all chowing down on their chosen confectionaries, with Pinkie's especially apparently having been piled up with more sprinkles than were humanly possible. Today was a fairly calm day, all things considered, which suited them just fine, as a time of peace and quiet was always welcome with their hectic lifestyle. As they licked and licked at their ice creams, Pinkie was, inevitably, the first to finish, letting out a satisfied sound as she wiped away the last of the melted cream from her lips.

"Mmmmmmm! Yummy!"

Sunset chuckled to that.

"Always nice on a hot day, right?"

The others nodded in agreement to that, with the exception of Twilight, who was instead busy reading a particular segment of the local newspaper. The other girls noted her doing this, with Rarity especially seeming a touch concerned.

"Um...Twilight? Darling? You might want to look up."

The young scientist did indeed look up, and just in time to see a very large drop of her ice cream about to fall down from her cone and onto her lap. Quickly, she reacted, getting out her tongue and hastily lapping up the stray cream, much to her friends' amusement.

"Somethin' caught yer eye, Twi?" Applejack enquired.

Though she briefly let out a nervous giggle to her previous ice-cream-related mishap, Twilight actually gave a nod of confirmation to that, picking up her aforementioned newspaper and turning it around so the others could see. It was an article right in the middle pages of the paper, and at the top there was a somewhat blurred photograph, though all the girls could see that it was of them. Specifically, it was them dressed in their magic-induced outfits, chasing down some shoplifter. The photo was of such a poor quality that none of their faces were seen properly, but regardless, they looked to the article with interest, especially Rainbow.

"Oh yeah! Getting famous, are we?"

Fluttershy poked the end of her chin briefly.

"Well...not really. I mean, they just know there's a group of crime-fighters out there. They don't know it's us."

But Rainbow waved her off.

"Pfft! Semantics!"

Fluttershy frowned.

"That's...not what that word means."

Sunset shook her head to that, then glanced back to Twilight.

"What does it say?"

Looking to the article in earnest once more, Twilight began to read it aloud.

"It's talking about how there's a slight drop in the number of petty thefts in the city of late. Apparently, there are fears that the criminals will meet the "masked heroines" if they try something."

Pinkie giggled

"Yay! We're causing crime to drop!"

Twilight, adjusting her glasses slightly, continued to read.

"But there are also talks about how some people aren't approving of there being vigilantes running around."

To that, Pinkie's exuberance dropped somewhat.

"Awww! Why'd you have to say that?"

Rainbow too looked a touch disheartened.

"Yeah! I mean, what, just because we're not cops means we're not allowed to step in?"

Rarity, considering the matter herself, added her voice to the proceedings.

"I understand your frustrations, Rainbow, but consider. We are, and let's be perfectly frank here, a group of unsupervised teenagers who go around stopping crime using magic from another world. And without any sort of accountability, I might add!"

Rainbow rolled her eyes after hearing all of that.

"Hey, we're doing good out there, remember! Stopping bad guys! Keeping stuff from being stolen! And hey, if criminals are even thinking of not doing crime because of that, then we're doing even more good work!"

Applejack, after taking a moment to adjust her hat briefly, thought on the issue herself.

"Ah hear ya, Rainbow...but we ain't cops. So, ya know, it's kinda...well...illegal fer us ta be doin' all that."

Rainbow looked to her farmer friend with incredulity.

"And I suppose you're going to say it was illegal for us to stop Sunset when she went crazy with Princess Twilight's magic crown?"

She gave a brief glance to her Equestrian friend.

"No off-OMPH!"

She was halted by a finger to her lips by Sunset, who simply smirked at her.

"For the thousandth time...none taken."

Chuckling quickly, Rainbow looked once more to Applejack.

"Or how about Juniper? Or Gloriosa? Or any of those guys! We couldn't just wait for someone official to come along! We had to act!"

Twilight looked down to the article again, then looked back to her friends.

"I can understand that. I mean, it's unlikely any legitimate law-enforcement figure could have dealt with those threats without the use of magic like ours."

Rainbow looked to her with triumph.

"Ha! See?"

But Twilight raised a finger soon afterwards.

"But that still doesn't change the fact that it's rather iffy that we do this other stuff with our powers."

She sighed.

"Taking on petty crooks or shoplifters is one thing, but..."

Her eyes narrowed.

"...what if we one day come across something more serious? Someone who wants...well...something worse?"

Rarity nodded, showing understanding.

"I can certainly vouch for that, Twilight. I still recall how atrocious it was to come across an armed mugger with Sugarcoat and Adagio. No police were there, and I didn't have my amulet."

Rainbow looked over to her.

"But if you did, you'd have trounced him! Like Adagio did!"

Rarity, considering that, swept aside some of her hair.

"Well, that goes without saying, darling."

Rainbow cackled to that, but Fluttershy seemed a touch more concerned.

"Do you think...that it might be worth considering stepping back from everyday crimes?"

The others looked to her, and after taking a moment to consider her position, she started to elaborate.

"Taking on magical threats is certainly our jurisdiction, at least for now. But perhaps...it might be best for regular crimes to be left to those whose job it is to stop them."

Sunset, who had been silent for some time now, gave a slow nod.

"Maybe you're right, Fluttershy. Defending ourselves is certainly going to always be an option...but this thing we've been doing lately, going out of our way to seek out criminals? That might not be something we should be doing."

Rainbow seemed aghast by that.

"But...but...but..."

Twilight then frowned at her athletic friend.

"I know you want to help, Rainbow, and I know we've done some good. But vigilantes are still vigilantes. And if I'm being perfectly honest...I don't really want to be a vigilante."

Rainbow sat there with her mouth agape, no doubt thinking how anyone wouldn't want to be seen as some crime-fighting super-heroine. But, as she looked from face to face, seeing her colleagues all seem to share Twilight's sentiment on the matter, she eventually relented, letting out a deep sigh and shrugging her shoulders.

"Ugh! Okay, fine! I guess I can settle with letting the law do its job!"

Sunset chuckled to that, reaching over and giving her friend a quick pat on the shoulder.

"Well, look at it this way...at least there's always the chance of crazy magical Equestrian monsters and corruptions to let your frustrations out on."

Rainbow paused, thinking on that for a moment, before nodding slowly and forming one of her trademark smirks.

"Yeah...that is good, isn't it?"