Applejack was sat opposite her friend in the Sugarcube corner. She kept an eye on the time to make sure that Wallflower wouldn't barge in. That wasn't the point, after all. The point was to make sure Rainbow was fine with meeting him here, and she still hadn't gotten around to telling her about his visit.

The pair had met at the school, just like they had the day before. Once they had dropped off their respective young fillies, they had arranged to meet at the Corner for lunch. Applejack swallowed. How could she explain to her friend what was going on without sounding like a meddler?

"You, uh, look weird, today," Rainbow pointed out, scratching behind her ear. "You doing okay?"

"I'm, well..." Applejack began, fumbling to find her words. "There's a, uh, pony who wanted to meet you," she said.

Rainbow raised her eyebrow. "O...kay. Is he, like, trying to get me to pay taxes or something?"

"Well..."

"'Cause if he is, tell him I'm on a flying trip to Neighpal."

"He says he wants to give you money," Applejack replied.

It took a while for Rainbow to reply. "Oh, I see what this is about," she said, her voice growing cold and hostile. "This is about the pony who broke my house, isn't it?" Applejack nodded. Rainbow threw her hooves up in the air, flying into a frustrated rage. "Seriously?! You just had to meddle?"

"Hey, he came to me!" Applejack replied, going on the defensive. "He was goin' around lookin' for you, but he couldn't 'cause nopony knows you're livin' with Scootaloo."

Rainbow clenched her hooves. "Yeah, okay, whatever. Just... don't ever talk to him again." She clenched her teeth. "He's just a nopony."

Applejack watched as Rainbow's temper deteriorated. Applejack gaped: she had been calm and collected only a few moments ago.

"Rainbow, I don't know what's up with you an' that guy, but I don't think he's nothin' to be afraid of," she told her. "He looked honest."

"I'm not afraid of anything!" she replied, panic causing her voice to quicken to a squeak. "Horseapples, just tell him to go away!" She held her head in her hooves before looking at Applejack, eyes wild.

"Maybe," Applejack began, reaching out to her panicked friend, "... you should tell me what is is that's gotten you so worked up. Remember the Young Flyers Contest?" She put her hoof on Rainbow's shoulder, doing her best to calm her. "If you don't talk 'bout it, you'll just eat yourself alive."

"I..."

Applejack leaned forwards, egging her on. "You don't want to know."

"Rainbow, the mere mention of this stallion gets you angrier than Saddle Rager," Applejack said. "I think you could say my curiosity is well an' truly piqued." She folded her hooves. "And I ain't leavin', and from the looks of things, neither is he. The longer you hide this from everypony, the worse it'll get."

Rainbow opened and closed her mouth several times as she searched for words. Applejack waited with agonizing patience. It took a full five seconds for Rainbow to swallow, and sigh.

"...I'm a horrible pony."

Applejack widened her eyes, surprised. "You ain't a—"

"I am, though," Rainbow replied. "That stallion didn't destroy my house because he was bad, he did it because he was scared." She swallowed. "Of me. Back in Cloudsdale, before I came here, I may have been a bit... less awesome than I am now."

Applejack leaned forwards, intrigued. "How so?"

Rainbow sighed. "Back in school, I was... a bully," she replied, tripping over her words as she began her confession. "I tormented ponies like Wallflower. I guess I was just a kid, right? Kids do stupid things for stupid reasons. It was kinda' like pulling wings off a fly: effortless." Applejack frowned as Rainbow became even more self-deprecating. Was she really so guilty about that that she felt she had to hide from a pony trying to pay her back for property damage? "I'd call them 'slow' for not getting their cutie marks as quick as I did. I was all about speed, see, and anypony who wasn't as fast was a loser, and I made sure they knew it. And that's when I fell into the wrong kind of crowd."

"What kind of crowd?"

"This one pony named Bullit," she replied, spitting the name out like it was a rotten apple. "He was a little runt of a pony, but he was vicious, and he got me into the gangs." Applejack's eyes widened, and for just a second, her hoof recoiled away from Rainbow's shoulder. Memories of darker times came flooding back, of cruel and disorganized bullies waiting for her and others outside school. She swallowed. Rainbow gave her a wry smile. "Yeah, I didn't think you'd like that."

"I don't," Applejack admitted. "I didn't know you were one of them." Rainbow's smile, small though it had been, fell.

"Yeah, well... things kind of went from bad to worse. I think it'd have been okay if it wasn't all my fault, but it was. Gangs are a lot more dangerous up in Cloudsdale, see... we kept a tight grip on the place by organizing fights and staying out of sight. The guards just avoided us, 'cause we resisted, and resisted hard.

"That don't sound right. Even in Cloudsdale, the guard are tough ponies when it comes to upholdin' the law."

"We practised a lot. We were organized, and we ruined life for everypony," Rainbow said. "I wish we hadn't. It took... a really bad day for me to pack up and leave." She shrugged. "There just wasn't anything left there I hadn't already broken, and barely anypony who didn't either want to hurt me or who I had hurt left. Wallflower was just... one more pony I broke along the way."

Just one more pony, Applejack thought.

Rainbow bit her lip. "So, there. I'm a liar and a brute. I didn't want anypony to find out, and now you have." She ran her hoof through her mane, massaging her scalp. "I'd... I'd get it if you don't want to be friends with me anymore..."

Applejack's jaw dropped. Before she could collect her thoughts, the colour pink invaded their table, exploding between her and the dejected pegasus. Both of them flinched in surprise.

Pinkie Pie grabbed a-hold of Rainbow's shoulders, a wild grin on her face.

"So this is where you were hiding! Very sneaky, Dashie, I didn't expect you to hole up in my own home!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"P-Pinkie!" Rainbow shouted. The excitable earth pony nodded, her expression turning grave.

"Yup! And how could you think we'd want to stop being friends?!" she demanded, grabbing Dash by the scruff of her neck. "How could you? The betrayal!"

Applejack looked around, and saw to her surprise that the rest of her friends had arrived as well. "Rarity? Twi'... what're you all doin' here?" She widened her eyes. "Did ya'll overhear..."

"We heard everything, thanks to some of Pinkie's novelty spy gadgets. But besides, we already knew," Twilight told them, adopting a stern look.

Rainbow detached herself from Pinkie, and whirled around towards Fluttershy, who was hovering near the back. Rainbow looked at her with an expression of horror. "You didn't!"

"...I did," Fluttershy said, cowering slightly. "I was worried, so I told them everything."

Twilight interposed herself between Fluttershy and Rainbow. "She told us because we were all worried about you, and you weren't telling us. But now we know that you're just fretting over nothing."

"Indeed," Rarity continued. "All this nonsense about you being an absolute lout back in Cloudsdale has nothing at all to do with what you're doing now. Helping Ponyville and saving Equestria, and being an admirable pony whilst doing it."

"A meanie bully wouldn't have done all the things you've done! They'd be too busy being unfriendly and very un-Rainbow!" Pinkie added.

"Besides, you've been tearing yourself up about this for years," Fluttershy said. "If you were as bad as you think you are, you wouldn't be worrying about it."

Rainbow rubbed her temples.

"All of us took a lot of growin' up to get where we are," Applejack chipped in, her surprise finally waning enough for her to contribute. "If you're a good pony now, then..." she trailed off. After a brief pause, she forced herself to put aside the memories of Ponyville past and continued. "... then I for one don't care what you were." She shrugged. "I'll bend my rules on holdin' a grudge this one time. We all did things we wish we didn't, after all."

"Absolutely! I used to never laugh, or joke, or even try to make other ponies smile!"

"I used to wear toques," Rarity confessed, hiding her face behind her mane. "Yellow toques."

"I used to be shy," Fluttershy told them. Once all eyes fell on her, she added "I was very young."

"Yeah, well, that's not the same, though, is it?" Rainbow replied, flaring her wings. "I'm sorry, but my problems are a bit bigger than wearing an ugly hat."

"A very ugly hat."

"It's big to us," Applejack told her. "And it still don't mean we're wrong."

"We can help you," Twilight said, "...if only you'll let us."

"B-but..." Rainbow began, but hung her head in defeat before she could finish. "...okay. I just thought, you'd... Well..." She smiled. "See me as a bad-guy, or something." She sat down heavily. "I hate what I did so much..."

Twilight gestured at Applejack, flicking her head towards the young pegasus mare. Taking her cue, Applejack trotted over to her friend and slid her hoof around her shoulders, pulling her close and dragging her into a warm hug.

"Well, that's exactly why we forgive ya'," she said.

Rainbow fell silent as the rest of her friends joined in the hug. She was too busy smiling.

"Thanks," she choked. "Thanks a lot."

Applejack nuzzled her friend, a sensation of warmth spreading from her chest outwards. For as long as they were together, all of them, there was nothing they couldn't face. Applejack was just happy that at long last, the mystery was solved, and her friend was on the path to happiness again.

The moment didn't last long.

A young pegasus mare burst into the corner, panting loudly, unable to catch her breath. She looked around the room, her eyes finally settling on the rainbow maned pegasus, surrounded by her friends.

Rainbow raised her eyebrows. "Gale? What's up? There an emergency?" she asked, forcing herself to adopt a businesslike manner. Sky nodded.

"It's... it's Thunderlane," she said. "He's been attacked."

The weatherpony was lying down on his back, bandages wrapped around his chest. Applejack thought he looked like a mummy, if a mummy could talk and was hooked up to several medical machines who's purpose escaped her.

Rainbow Dash was not happy. A scowl was plastered on her face, and her muscles were bunched up and tense. It surprised Applejack how she could go from confused and sad to angry and furious in such a short space of time.

She began to think about Wallflower, and where he might be. He'd be wondering what was going on, but Applejack didn't care. They didn't have time to worry about an apologetic pegasus, not when somepony was lying in hospital.

"You gonna' be okay?" Rainbow asked. "I can take over your shift for as long as you need me to—"

"I'll be fine," Thunderlane answered. He looked awake, at least. Having seen a few injuries herself, she knew he'd get better... but it might take him a while. "It's just a few broken ribs..."

"Just a few?" Rainbow asked, folding her hooves. After a brief moments hesitation, she changed her tone, and gave a small chuckle. "Heh. Yeah, not even worth worrying about, right?"

Thunderlane nodded. "Yup. Just a bruise. Nothing that can keep a weatherpony down, right?"

Rainbow nodded, grinning. Applejack noted that her muscles were still tense, however, even if her expression was far more relaxed. In fact, she was practically trembling. Out of concern, or anger?

"Did you get a look at whoever it was?" Applejack asked. "The authorities had better be given their descriptions as soon as possible, sugarcube."

Thunderlane became serious again. "Sure. There were two of them, a mare and a stallion. I didn't catch their names."

"What did they look like, then?" Rainbow asked. "C'mon, spill!"

"One was a mare," Thunderlane said. "But she wasn't the scary one: she just grabbed my tail and held me long enough for the other one." He narrowed his eyes. "There was this stallion. He wasn't big, exactly, but he was strong. He was the one who broke my ribs. It didn't even look hard for him."

Rainbow raised her eyebrow. "Uh, 'kay. But what did they look like?"

"They were both pegasi. I'm afraid it was dark, though..."

Rainbow hung her head. "Right, yeah. Night-time."

"Yeah."

"Do you think they're still in Ponyville?" Applejack asked, concerned. "They sound like nopony I know of. Two ponies, a mare and a stallion, that'd hurt somepony so easily?" Thunderlane winced. "I'm sorry, but it's true: and you ain't no pushover, neither."

"They might be. They didn't look like they were going anywhere, but I certainly didn't recognize them." Thunderlane smiled. "And don't worry. They were tough: and fast, too. I tried flying away, but they were just too quick."

The room fell into silence as the trio contemplated the notion of two dangerous pegasi roaming the streets of Ponyville... Streets filled with ponies they knew and cared for.

"So, when do you think you'll be back in the air?" Rainbow asked.

"The doctors say not before two weeks," Thunderlane replied. "Apparently, bones take a while to knit together properly."

"Don't I know it," Applejack joked. "Big Mac' was out o' commission for a month when he snapped his leg on tree-buckin' duty."

"Well," Rainbow said with a confident smile, "I can keep the skies clear until you get back, 'kay?"

"Sure thing."

Rainbow turned to leave, still as tense as ever. "You take care. I'm off."

Applejack glanced back at Thunderlane, then trotted after her friend, closing the door behind her. Twilight and Rarity were both waiting in the corridor, not wanting to crowd the injured pegasus. Rainbow was growling to herself, now free to show just how livid she was.

"Rainbow, calm down," Twilight tried saying. It didn't work, and only seemed to send Rainbow to spiral out of control even further.

"Calm? There are two seriously bad ponies just wandering around out there! They hurt my teammate!" Rainbow thumped the wall with her hind hoof, relieving some small amount of stress. "Today has been... a real pain."

"I know, darling, but we can face it together, can't we?" Rarity suggested. "We could come up with some sort of... neighbourhood watch scheme!"

Twilight's eyes lit up with excitement. "We could organize shifts! We could have whistles!"

Rainbow and Applejack both groaned. "Shifts?"

"Organize?"

"Okay, well, you three do that then," Rainbow retorted, trotted away in a huff. "I'm gonna' take a little flight around Ponyville. I have to clear my head."

As the three ponies watched her leave, and once she was a good distance away, she stopped in her tracks. "Oh, and, uh... thanks again."

Rainbow was cross. She found that flying didn't help either: with each wingbeat she felt progressively angrier. Ponyville was spread out below her, offering no support whatsoever. She tried closing her eyes, but all she saw was Thunderlane's bandaged torso, or Wallflower's terrified expression as he ran away from her, back in Cloudsdale.

"Horseapples... think happy thoughts..." she muttered. "Think about flying."

It had been the one thing she had enjoyed, back in Cloudsdale. Flying as fast as she could: that had been her release.

It was a pity it didn't seem to be working now.

"Dammit, I thought I had gotten away from all this," she exclaimed, feeling her blood boil and her heartbeat race. "So why do I feel so angry!?" She kicked a cloud as hard as she could, scattering the pieces across the sky far and wide. She panted as she tried to collect herself. "When I find those two, they are gonna' get it!"

She had felt the need to hit things for as long as she had lived. Since she had been a foal to her adult life. But this, right now, was the strongest it had been since her teenage years. It was like her hooves were itching to collide with something, and a cloud wouldn't cut it.

"Poor Thunderlane," she muttered under her breath. It wasn't a nice feeling, she knew, to be held at somepony's mercy and then be shown none. Her hoof instinctively went to her head, brushing against the top of he skull. It wasn't a nice feeling at all, she decided.

Unable to calm down, she glided to the ground, where she hoped the increased feeling of gravity would soothe her nerves. The street was half full. School would end soon, and a lot of ponies would be leaving their jobs and make their way to meet their children, if they could. Rainbow stormed down the street, stomping at the ground as she went.

It hadn't been five minutes before she was drawn out of her grim mood by somepony calling for her

"Oh, hey," came the oiled, precise voice. "There you are."

Rainbow recognized it from years gone by, her ears folding back violently as the memories came flooding back. She turned, her pupils contracted to pinpricks as she looked for the source of the voice.

"I expected we'd bump into each other eventually."

Sitting on a bench, stroking his own hoof, was the pony she had hoped never to see again. His creepy, almost reptilian eyes wrinkled around the edges as he looked at her with a smug look.

"Bullit..." she growled. The muscular pegasus stallion grinned, his skin pulling back to reveal his grimy, ugly teeth.

"The one and only. How've you been keepin'?"

Scootaloo cantered out of the schoolhouse, leaving her friends in her dust. She had homework to do, and if she got home earlier, that'd leave her with more time in the evening to spend with Rainbow Dash.

She dodged Twist, who was a notoriously slow walker, and carefully evaded Diamond Tiara and her cronies, taking the long way around the playground. Scootaloo shuddered as she pictured getting ambushed by their jeering and taunting. If she were Rainbow Dash, she thought, she'd stand up to them, but instead she was just Scootaloo.

Once she made it out of the playground, she quickly unlocked her scooter and swung her helmet onto her head with a fluid, practised motion. Then, with a powerful flutter of her wings, she buzzed down the street away from the confines of the school.

She took a left, heading into town. It'd be best, she thought, to take the short way through Ponyville before it got filled with ponies during rush hour. Then she'd get home without a hitch!

Bullit Blaze began to slowly circle the paralysed mare, enjoying the effect his presence was having on Rainbow. To her dismay, she noticed that Rattle was there too: yet another pony she would prefer to forget.

"I'm actually surprised you recognized me," Bullit told her. "Last time we met, I was carrying scissors." He made a cutting motion with his hooves. "Close shave, that. Very close shave."

Rainbow glowered at him, her heart pounding. "You really shouldn't have come to Ponyville," she warned, pawing at the ground. Bullit chuckled in response.

"Yes, yes, yes... we've been told that we're supposed to avoid you," he said, grinding his teeth as he did so. "We may even have been laughed at. Put me in a very bad mood, that did."

"Good thing we were able to relieve stress," Rattle snarled.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes, realizing what they meant without needing any further explanation. She remembered the image of Thunderlane, lying in a hospital bed, bandages wrapped around his sides. Bullit continued talking regardless.

"We weren't happy you left. We still had a score to settle, you and I," he said. "Remember what we all said when we met? Thunderclouds forever, right?" He snickered. "Should've guessed you'd turn traitor. Well, there's a price for that, and you know what that is."

"You couldn't beat me before," Rainbow replied, finding her breath coming in leaps and bounds, unable to properly control herself. "What makes you think you can beat me now?"

"We've been practising."

With that, he stomped his hooves with a wild, sadistic grin. Rattle sprung into action, launching at Rainbow like a snake, wings flared. Rainbow leaped back onto her hind hooves, raising her forelegs in a desperate guard. Bullit grinned.

"Get her!" he snarled. "And be careful! She's fast."

Rattle was inches away from her target, her hooves aimed straight for Rainbow's throat. Closer and closer she came, her honed reflexes making everything seem slower. Rattle was by far the fastest fighter in the Thunderclouds, and her lightning fast leap had proven that.

But then, Rainbow was gone.

"What?!"

Rattle caught herself just in time, landing on her hooves instead of falling flat on her face. She whirled around. Rainbow had been right there... it was impossible she could have moved that fast. Even back in Cloudsdale, she hadn't been that quick...

"Y'know, it's pretty good we met..." Rainbow confessed, hovering above her. Rattle's eyes widened in panic as she took stock of the situation. Rainbow had altitude, and if any pegasus knew anything, it was the power of potential energy. "I really needed to work out some stress," she finished.

Rainbow powered straight down, using the energy gained from her height to crush the pegasus mare into the ground. Not even Rattle's lightning fast reflexes could prepare her for the blinding speed Rainbow commanded... Especially when she was this furious.

Rattle groaned, her wings disjointed and out of place as Rainbow hurled herself at Bullit, who was beginning to regret trying to take his revenge so soon. "Your turn!" she bellowed.

"B-but we trained!"

"So did I!" Rainbow replied. She wrapped her hooves around Bullit Blaze's mane, and with a powerful tug, she tossed the heavy pegasus over her head. Bullit gave a yelp as he tumbled back down to earth.

It wasn't a finishing blow, despite the force of his landing. Bullit caught himself as he flew, using his wings to stabilize himself, reorienting himself just in time to see his opponent charge. Rainbow hurled herself at him like a cannonball, hitting him in the stomach and driving him into the ground. Bullit coughed up all the air in his lungs, unable to breathe.

Rainbow dug her hoof into his side, eyes wild and mouth contorted into a smile. This wasn't the Rainbow from earlier, Bullit realized. This was the Rainbow from days gone by, back to haunt him. He began to panic.

"This is what you did to Thunderlane, isn't it?" she growled, applying pressure to his chest. "You showed me this one a while back on Wallflower... man, you were such a monster." She snarled, leaning in harder, Bullit's ribs beginning to bend under the weight. "Still are!"

"Dammit', Dash, get off me!"

"'Bet Thunderlane said something similar, right?" Rainbow growled. "Hey, y'know what? I think I remember what you do next." She grinned. "You twist, right?"

Bullit braced himself for pain, but before he felt the inevitable snap, he heard a stallion's voice cry out.

Rainbow's onslaught stopped.

"I-I knew it! I knew you hadn't changed!"

Rainbow looked to her right. A dozen yards away stood a third face she would rather never see again: Wallflower. He stood, his hoof brought to his mouth as he fought back a scream.

"Hey, no!" Rainbow shouted back. "He attacked me!"

Bullit grinned. "She came out of nowhere!" he exclaimed. "She's a monster!"

The pressure on his chest lessened as Dash recoiled back. She looked around wildly: it was rush hour. In the chaos, she hadn't realized that she had attracted a crowd.

"You're nothing but a criminal!" Wallflower exclaimed. "Just like in Cloudsdale!"

Rainbow leaped off of Bullit Blaze, panic taking hold of her. "No! It's not like that! He's just as bad!"

"On second thought," Bullit whispered as he got to his hooves. "This is much better."

"Did she just attack somepony?" asked one of the townsponies quietly. Rainbow widened her eyes as she crowd began to slowly turn on her. Bullit then crossed the street melodramatically towards Rattle's prone body.

"Oh, she almost killed my special somepony," he wailed. "And just because we bumped into her!"

"She was a real monster back in Cloudsdale," Wallflower went on, backing away into the crowd. "She broke my ribs."

"No, I..." Rainbow growled. "You don't understand!"

She eyed Wallflower. If only she could say he was wrong, if only she could say it was all a lie. But she couldn't, because it wasn't. Her wings crumpled into her sides as she felt the crowd's icy stare wear down her defences. "D-don't be stupid!" she shouted. "You can't believe Bullit! He's just as bad!"

"Did she just call us stupid?" came a voice from the crowd, causing the rest of them to mutter darkly. Rainbow closed her eyes, trying to block out the noise. Her temper was rising again, and she knew, she just knew she had to keep it under control.

"Don't fight anypony..." Rainbow whispered to herself. "That won't help..."

"What did that pony say about Cloudsdale?" one of the ponies asked. Bullit was only too happy to provide an answer.

"She was a gang-pony!" Bullit shouted, clutching his sides as if in pain. "And a bully!"

Bullit made sure to keep his back to Wallflower at all times. He didn't expect the little stallion to recognize him after so much time, but he wasn't keen to take any risks. The crowd could easily turn on him just like it turned on Rainbow.

Rainbow fought back the urge to strangle him. It wouldn't be hard, she thought: Bullit was far slower than her, and he couldn't even begin to match her strength. His real advantage had been how vicious he was, but when going up against somepony prepared to go all out, he'd have no chance.

Except he was winning, she realized. The crowd was getting restless and Rainbow didn't know what to do.

"Rainbow..." came a small and horrifyingly familiar voice, "Is that true?"

Hovering between two townsponies was Scootaloo. Her ears were flattened against her head as she looked to Rainbow for reassurance. Confirmation that this was all a lie, some cruel deception. Unfortunately, she found no such help. Rainbow's face was like an open book, and to somepony used to reading it every day, it may as well have been a signed confession. She teared up and her face turned to a scowl, and she turned around to run.

"Scoots, wait!"

But Scootaloo was already leaving, buzzing straight down the street where she had come from. Rainbow extended her hoof towards her, as if she might be able to catch the disappearing speck in the distance.

Then her face darkened once again, turning from panic to rage, her blood boiling. She swerved towards were Bullit had been, screaming wildly. "I'll show you what for, you..."

But Bullit had disappeared, taking advantage of the distraction to escape into the crowd along with Rattle. Instead, the crowd just saw a roaring, snarling pony who had just been pummelling a pony whilst he was down. They backed away, full of fear.

"Don't go..." Rainbow whimpered, wishing that her friends would arrive soon.

Author's Notes:

Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. New chapter on the 18th!

As always, please comment with criticism, thoughts, the works. If you enjoyed this story, you may also enjoy other stories by me, like Fancy That?.

Have a very good one.