Rainbow Dash drove Fluttershy to work. On the way there, she asked about other things she could feed Tank.

“Lots of things!” Fluttershy said with a cheery smile. “Tortoises can be really easy to get food for. You can even give him dandelions and grass! Just be sure to rinse them, in case they were sprayed with pesticides.”

Rainbow Dash nodded as she pulled to a stop in front of the animal clinic. “And what about special treats n’ stuff?”

Fluttershy thought for a moment, her lower lip jutting. “Strawberries,” she said eventually. “And apples, too. But it’s important you take out the apple seeds!”

“Cool, thanks.” Rainbow frowned. “Though, I guess I could tell him not to swallow any, in case I miss one.”

Fluttershy stared at her. “Tell him?”

Rainbow’s eyes went wide. “Crap, I didn’t tell you yet, did I?” She grinned. “Tank’s like Angel Bunny!”

“Wh-What?” Fluttershy’s mouth fell open. She leaned toward Rainbow with wide eyes. “Whaaat, really??”

Rainbow Dash laughed. “Yeah, I know, right? That’s how I felt!”

Fluttershy sat back in her seat, her mouth still open. “My goodness! What are the odds!”

“I think it’s great!” Rainbow leaned forward on her steering wheel, her eyes fogging with ideas of things she could do with the magical tortoise. “I’m looking forward to goofing off with him! He really seems to like me for some reason...”

“I can think of many reasons to like you,” Fluttershy said without pause.

Rainbow looked at her, eyebrows raised. Then she smiled softly. “You’re scary good at that.”

Fluttershy tilted her head. “Good at what?”

“Saying the right thing at the right time.”

This made Fluttershy blush, but she mirrored Rainbow’s expression. “Dashie, I…”

Rainbow nudged a little with her elbow. “Aw, don’t clam up on me now! What’s up?”

Fluttershy’s smile pursed. She looked away with a shake of her head. “No. Nevermind.”

Rainbow frowned a little, intensely curious now. She opened her mouth to prod some more, but then her girlfriend said, “When you go to see your father, please remember what I said earlier.” Fluttershy looked at her solemnly. “About reaching out.” She undid her seatbelt, one hand going to the door handle.

Rainbow sighed heavily. “Yeah, all right…”

Fluttershy opened her door, but she paused, turned, and leaned in to peck Rainbow on the cheek. “We’re still meeting to work on your project tonight, right?”

The tomboy nodded once. “Sure.”

Fluttershy flashed her one last smile before leaving the car. Rainbow watched her go into the building, then put her car into drive.

On her way back to campus, she tried to think about what to do next. For certain, she wanted to get Tank a treat and check on him. He’d been alone for a while in the dorm and she worried he needed more water. She also reconsidered the option of studying.

Rainbow was fairly confident she’d done enough math work for the day. That only left her psychology project. May as well… she thought with a puckered mouth. Even for just an hour or two.

She wasn’t really confident she’d be able to absorb much given what was on her mind… but it was a good enough reason to put things off with her dad for a while longer. She was anything but eager to go toe to toe with Blaze.

After a quick stop at a campus cafeteria, Rainbow arrived at her dorm a little past four o’ clock, a cup of pre-sliced apples in her hand. Sunset Shimmer wasn’t there. Tank was out of his shell and having a little walkabout. Rainbow smiled down at him as he turned his scaly head her way. He’d been exploring Sunset’s side of the room, by the looks of things.

“Find anything cool under her bed?” Rainbow asked.

She smiled wider when the tortoise nodded at her.

“Ha! I bet.” Rainbow threw her school bag down on her bed. A quick glance at his food bowl said he’d eaten more, though there was still plenty left. His water was still good. She knelt by Tank, the apple slices hidden behind her back. “Got a treat for ya!”

When Tank’s eyes widened, she chuckled and revealed the apple slices. “Ta-da!” She opened the plastic cover and dropped the slices on the floor. No sense making the little guy take the slow trek all the way back to his food bowl. “Bon appetit, man!” She wagged a finger. “Oh, but hey. If you find a seed, spit it out, will ya? You can’t eat those.”

Tank nodded, and Rainbow was rewarded once more with an adorable smile.

She stroked his head a few times before getting up and settling in to study.

A short time passed. She hadn’t been working long when Sunset Shimmer entered with a bang. Rainbow jumped, jabbing Dr. Axon’s video lecture paused on her laptop. “Woah, hey Sun!”

Sunset didn’t say anything to her. Didn’t even look at her. She strode quickly to their dorm’s window and peered through the curtains, her cyan eyes wide and focused.

Rainbow blinked as she set aside her computer and sat up. “Sunset? What’s the matter?”

Sunset Shimmer finally glanced at her. “Hi, Rainbow.” She looked back outside, scanning intensely. “Sorry, I’m kind of…” Her face tensed. “Distracted.”

“No duh!” Rainbow placed her feet on the floor and picked up Tank, who had wandered back to her side of the room. Sunset hadn’t been close to kicking him or anything, but her friend was clearly out of sorts. Better to get Tank out of the way to be safe. “Something’s obviously wrong, Sunset. Just tell me. We said we’d share more with each other, remember?”

Sunset closed her eyes. When she looked at Rainbow, it was with a tense jaw. After a long moment of inner debate, she turned her eyes back to the window. “Sometimes I get followed.”

Rainbow’s eyes went wide. “Really?” Her grip on Tank tightened as she let this revelation sink in. Eventually, she asked, “Is it those creeps from Tambelon?”

Sunset didn’t cease her scanning. “Yes. I’m pretty sure it is, anyway. Who else would want to follow me?”

Rainbow scowled at the window, even though she could only see the overcast sky from where she sat. “Can’t you tell the police?”

Sunset looked at Rainbow sharply. “No! No cops.” She slouched a little. “Even if you ignore my fake documents and the unsavory connections I still have, I don’t exactly have a stellar reputation with authorities.” She looked away. “I was never actually arrested, but there was a time I was hot on their radar. I got pulled in for suspicion a bunch of times. Every single time I was worried I’d get caught for identity fraud. I’d rather not play Russian roulette on that again.”

Sunset rarely talked in detail about her life before becoming friends with Rainbow and the others, so the tomboy’s ears perked up whenever she did. It was hard for Rainbow to imagine Sun being pulled into a police station, but then again, things had been very different a few years ago. Sunset Shimmer pre-rainbow-beam was beyond nasty in school. Maybe she’d gotten up to even more troublesome behavior outside of it?

Rainbow Dash set Tank aside on her bed and stood up. She placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder and looked out the window too. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. “There’s gotta be something we can do, Sun.”

“That’s what Twilight said, too,” Sunset said with a heavy sigh. She finally turned from the window and sat heavily on her bed, her head falling into her hands. “She says she’s following up on some possible solutions.”

Rainbow crossed her arms. “Have you told the Princess, at all?”

Sunset regarded her with a critical expression.

Rainbow threw her hands up. “Don’t look at me that way! You know she could probably help with this, too!” She gestured at the magic journal sitting on Sunset’s bedside. “You need to tell her about Rarity anyway! Why not?”

Sunset jumped back to her feet, her eyes flashing. “I’ll tell you ‘why not’. Because this isn’t something she can understand!” She slapped the back of one of her hands into the other. “The way justice is handled here, even the way crime is done here… it’s unique to this world! Ponies are peaceful by nature, and their justice system reflects that, Rainbow! Equestrian jails and prisons are small, and also, half-empty most of the time!”

Sunset held her arms out. “I’d have to explain the societal differences just to frame her understanding of my freaking problem! That’d take ages! I can’t think of a bigger waste of both our time! She has a country to run for crap’s sake!”

Rainbow stepped back, her eyes large. “All right, all right! I’m sorry I brought it up!”

Sunset’s expression turned weary as she dropped back onto her bed. “I’m not going to bother her with this. It’s my problem anyway. My fault. Maybe if I hadn’t been an evil jerk when I came to this world, I wouldn’t have fallen in with this crowd. Sometimes, we just have to clean up our own messes, y’know?”

Rainbow stared down at Sunset. “Geez, and you’ve been dealing with this on your own all these years?” She put her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to one foot. “Damn, dude! No wonder you’ve lost your chill.”

Sunset smiled at her sarcastically. “Gee, thanks.”

“I’m just sayin’... I’m kinda glad you told us, at least.” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Though you coulda told us more. Like who runs this gang? Do you know what they get up to?”

Sunset groaned, her head falling into her hands again. “Look, we talked about a lot yesterday. I wasn’t exactly eager to bring the subject up again when we moved on to other things.”

“Fine, I can see that,” Rainbow said with an acquiescing nod. “Still would help if we knew the enemy a little better.”

Sunset wagged a finger at her. “Do not go picking fights with these guys. They aren’t just a gang. They’re part of a big criminal organization! Those goons at Tambelon are just one small arm I communicate through!”

Rainbow’s shoulders tightened. “Seriously?”

“When I first arrived in this world, I needed someone smart and with plenty of resources to help me get established.” Sunset’s lip curled. “It didn’t take me long to find out about the Trog-El Syndicate.”

“Hmm… never heard of ‘em?”

“Run in shady circles and bad neighborhoods long enough, and you definitely would. Most normal people don’t know about them.” Sunset rubbed at her face and fell back onto her bed, her fiery hair splaying out across the bed sheets. “They let their low level goons do all the bragging. Y’know. All those smaller gangs you have heard about? Half of them probably answer to the Trog-El Syndicate.”

Rainbow sat down, her heart pumping with adrenaline. It had been a while since they’d faced a serious threat, and this one sounded on another level. “Who runs it, do you know?”

“A man named Grogar.” Sunset threw an arm over her eyes. “Not that you’d tell that on the surface. He donates to charity. Runs popular events. He even owns tons of businesses and real estate across the county.” Her lips grew thin. “Meanwhile his criminal organization has their fingers in every bad guy thing you can think of. Racketeering, drug sales, even human trafficking…”

Rainbow frowned. “Wait, so him and this syndicate has got tons of money?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh, then why does Grogar want your gold so bad? Doesn’t sound like he needs it!”

Sunset raised her head to look at Rainbow with exhaustion plain on her face. “What I think he really wants is where I get the gold from.”

“Oh…” Rainbow’s eyes went wide. “Oh, crap!” She pointed out the window. “So the reason they follow you is—!”

Sunset let her head flop back onto her bed. “Yep.”

Rainbow struck a fist into her other hand and squeezed it. “Geez! If they found Equestria—”

“It’d be disastrous. I know.”

Rainbow’s face screwed up. She gestured at the book again. “Hold on a sec! That totally sounds like a good enough reason to tell Princess Twilight!”

Sunset groaned and curled up on her side, her arms going over her head.

Rainbow quickly went to sit on her friend’s bed. “Sunset, even I can see why this is important! I get that it’s hard for you—”

“No!” Sunset lifted an arm to glare at Rainbow. “No, Rainbow! You don’t!” Her eyes narrowed. “Do you know what it feels like to be faced with your mistakes over and over again for years? For a while things will be going great, then some dumb awful choice I made ages ago pops up, and all of a sudden I’m cleaning up Old Sunset’s messes again!”

She pressed her hands to her heart, her eyes misting. “How can I go back to my mentors and tell them that I may have placed Equestria at risk. Again? After all this time?” She shook her head almost frantically. “No! No way, I’m sorry! I’ve got the situation handled, okay? I’ve been doing this for a long time, just trust me on this.”

Rainbow Dash watched, feeling helpless as Sunset rolled away from her, sniffling. She sighed and looked down into her lap, a heavy weight in her gut.

It was true that maybe Rainbow wasn’t haunted by the same level of poor choices that Sunset was… but she did understand a little, she thought. She’d made her fair share of mistakes. Mistakes that were like boomerangs flying away, out of sight, only to soar back around and whack Rainbow in the back of the head. The stupidity of her latest scheme was one prime example, the repercussions of which she was sure she’d be feeling keenly that evening.

Rainbow put a hand on Sunset’s side. “Okay. All right, man. Hey, I get it.”

She leaned over and tried to catch Sun’s gaze. Silent tears had leaked from the corners of her friend’s eyes, but it looked as though Sunset had managed to reign in her emotions. “If you think the portals are safe, then maybe we don’t gotta sound the alarm just yet. But we do need to get Grogar and his chumps off your back.” She punched Sunset lightly on the shoulder. “In the meantime, let your friends in this world help you, all right? You don’t have to do everything alone all the time!”

When Sunset’s eyes finally met hers, Rainbow gave her a tentative smile and said next, “Maybe after Rares gets her magic poisoning cured, she and Twi can lay down some more of those fancy protection spells? Those goons aren’t following the rest of us, are they?”

Sunset shook her head. “I don’t think so.” She swiped at her nose with a little sniffle. “New wards might be a good idea...”

Rainbow’s forehead wrinkled. “Just promise we won’t wait till the last minute to call for help from the princess. Deal?”

Sunset sat up and wiped delicately at her eyes, even though none of her makeup was running. Her gaze flickered from her knees to Rainbow’s face as if she were embarrassed for getting teary. “Deal.”

Rainbow scooted closer and put an arm over her friend’s shoulders. “In the meantime, maybe you should relax a little? We can hang a bit, if you want?”

Sunset braved a shaky grin. “I’d love to, but I’ve got some studying I have to do.”

The tomboy shrugged a shoulder. “Raincheck, then.”

Sunset looked at Rainbow with a steadier gaze, and her smile flared wider. “Raincheck.” She tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. “Um, actually… I do have something to look forward to this week.”

Rainbow grinned. “What’s that?”

Sunset hugged a knee to her chest and rested her cheek on it. “I’m dragging Applejack with me to blues night at this bar I go to sometimes.”

Rainbow’s grin turned crooked. “Blues? I didn’t think AJ listened to that kinda thing?”

“She doesn’t really, but I was hoping to warm her up to it.” Sunset turned her eyes down to her shoe, propped up on the bed. “I think she needs to blow off steam as much as I do.”

“Well, I hope you guys have fun.” Rainbow Dash gave her a squeeze. “And hey, do me a favor, huh? Soften her up before I help her on Saturday!”

Sunset put a hand on Rainbow’s knee, her brow wrinkling. “She does miss you, y’know. She blames herself as much as you do for growing apart.”

Rainbow’s lips thinned and she pulled away. “I don’t see how she can think that. I was a massive jerk. My head was so far up my butt, I didn’t even try to understand why she was acting different.” She snorted. “Of course she wouldn’t want to be around me. Especially when...” When I had the girl Applejack loved practically in the palm of my hand, and all I did was hurt her. I hurt Fluttershy. I hurt ‘em both.

She let her head hang. I’d hate me, too.

As if Sunset read her mind: “She doesn’t hate you, Rainbow. She’s just conflicted.”

Rainbow looked at her, pained. “Sun… You said I didn’t understand what it was like to have to deal with past mistakes over and over.” She shrugged. “It’s not as big as the fate of a whole ‘nother world, but I do get it. Kinda.” She flashed a wry smile. “Like, helloooo? All the crap I’m dealing with lately?”

Sunset chuckled. She patted Rainbow’s knee before pulling her hand away. “A fair point, Dashie.” She flashed her a little smile. “Thanks.”

Rainbow bumped shoulders with her. “Pfft, no biggie, dude! We’re in this together!”

They sat in companionable silence for a short moment.

Then Sunset stretched. “Mmm! I might take a power nap before I study. I’m still pretty tired from last night.”

Rainbow stood. “Sure! Get some rest. I was gonna head out soon, anyway.”

Sunset lay onto her pillow with a little yawn. “What ya got goin’ on?” she asked, already sounding drowsy.

Rainbow froze, her eyes on the far wall. Should she say anything? Then she grimaced.

No more secrets, remember? You just got through telling Sunset to share! Besides, Shy wants us to reach out!

“I’m going to tell my dad about Shy and me.” She didn’t turn her head to see how this news was received. She didn’t really need to.

As expected, a heavy silence followed. Feeling her anxiety rise up, Rainbow picked Tank up off her bed and set him back down near his food bowl, where she’d already moved the remainder of his apple treats.

“You’re going alone?” Sunset asked, the sleepiness gone from her voice.

“Yeah.”

“Rainbow…”

“I’ll be fine,” Rainbow said, glancing at Sunset. Her friend was gazing at her with open worry.

“Does Fluttershy know?” Sunset asked.

“She does, but she’s working.” Rainbow crossed her arms. “And anyway, I don’t want Shy to see my dad blow up… because he will blow up.”

“Maybe all the more reason not to go alone?” Sunset sat up. “I could go with you.”

Rainbow slouched and glared down at her feet. Was she weak for wanting help to face her own family? She knew the value of her friends. She knew the value of having a team supporting you.

She just wasn’t sure she wanted anyone else seeing this side of her father. They wouldn’t understand. They might even see him as a monster. Rainbow knew her dad loved her. That he wanted what was best for her. He just… had a hard way of showing it. This was how she got tough. This was how she became a winner.

But she had to admit, having someone close by sounded appealing.

“I don’t want to take up your time,” she eventually said. “Y’know, cuz you were going to rest and stuff before studying…”

Sunset rose quickly. “No, no! It’s totes fine! I’ll ride shotgun with you. This is important, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow swallowed through a tight throat. “I’d still want you to wait outside. My dad won’t like other people being around when I tell him. Might make things worse.”

Sunset nodded. “Okay. If that’s what you want, I can wait outside.” She placed a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder and squeezed. “What matters is that you’ll have one of your friends there, waiting for you, okay?” She thumbed at the clock. “You said ‘soon’. Do you mean like within the hour, or…?”

Rainbow answered quickly in a rough voice: “Let’s just do it now.” She sighed and went to get her jacket from the back of her desk chair. “I was gonna study some more… but screw it. There’s a storm coming anyway. Better not to drive in it.”

“All right.” Sunset started for the bathroom. “Gimme a sec to freshen up and I’ll get my coat.”

Rainbow pulled her jean jacket on, then sat on the bed as the bathroom door closed. She rubbed at her forehead with her hand. Her palm was sweaty.

Her eyes fell on Tank. The tortoise’s dark gaze seemed filled with disquiet.

“Don’t worry, lil’ dude,” she said to him with forced cheer. “I’ll bring you a new salad when it’s over, and then we can sit on our butts and watch a cool movie till my meeting with Shy tonight. How’s that sound?” The corners of Rainbow’s mouth twitched up. “I’ll be fine.” She looked out the window at the darkening clouds.

“You only get rainbows after it rains, right?” she murmured uneasily.

Sorry. Kind of a fluffy bridge chapter. I felt like the Blaze encounter needed a little more setup.

Also the first time we get references to stuff that happened in What They Hope to Find, the mature Sun/AJ spinoff I'm doing. Not gonna pipe up every time this happens, so if you want the whole picture, maybe give that a read. I'm trying not to make it required reading, but events in that story will impact this one sometimes. When I can, I'll try and default to keeping things here, but for the most part, anything heavily dealing with Sunset and AJ's subplots will be focused on in the spinoff.

I know it's weird, but this is fanfiction, and sometimes us fan authors try to get away with weird things. This was my way of pursuing the stories I wanted to write, whilst attempting to still respect what my readers actually came for.