The next four years marked a period of significant growth for the Rainbooms. Within their first year, they recruited two more capos. The first new recruit was Jacqeline Appleton, nicknamed Applejack, a farm girl from the suburbs whose family owned a farm. With her many years of working on the family far, she was easily the strongest one, giving Arianna and Phillip a worthwhile challenge when it came to physical tasks. She was also level-headed, keeping calm in almost every situation. The other was Rachel Marie Johnson, a beautiful young lady with a penchant for all things fabulous, and as such went by the moniker Rarity as an homage to her favorite gemstone, diamonds. She used her charm and beauty to lure straight men, lesbian women, and bisexual men and women to do what she wanted, and she was good at it. They also began recruiting other schoolmates, including two boys from the attached middle school, a tall skinny boy who went by the name Snips and a short stocky boy who went by Snails. They weren’t very smart, but enjoyed being told to cause some mischief. They were perfect lackeys.

The summer between sophomore and junior years, Sunset tipped them off to a shipment of weapons that were supposed to be delivered to the Melodia family. The Rainbooms jumped on the opportunity to get a leg up on the Melodias, and went to work planning and preparing. Jacqueline, Arianna, and Phillip got part-time jobs at the docks the shipment was supposed to arrive at, and thanks in part to Rachel’s persuasion skills for convincing the employer to run the paperwork quicker than usual.

When the weapon shipment arrived, the three capos began loading the crates onto a semi truck driven by Sunset and Diane, who had intercepted the actual driver mid-route and forced him out before removing the GPS tracker. They kept it in the cab and followed the intended route until they approached a fork in the road by the bay. Sunset drove the semi off the road and down the embankment to make it look like the truck got run off the road. Diane threw the GPS tracker into the water, and they reversed back onto the road and took the fork toward their base of operations. Arianna, Jacqueline, and Phillip remained at their part-time jobs a few weeks longer so that if the stolen truck was discovered, it would appear like they weren’t connected with its theft.

It was their most successful job. The Rainbooms laid low and didn’t start carrying the weapons until after the Melodias had investigated, and until it seemed that they’d written off the shipment as lost. When they opened the crates they found that they were the new owners of new automatic rifles, pistols, sniper rifles, ammunition, and many other types of weapons. With their new arsenal, they were able to begin converting a vacant warehouse they controlled into a full-time armory, as well as lure in some more associates.

As time went on, the Rainbooms kept growing. By the time Sunset and her classmates had graduated, they were over fifty members, and with some of the associates going to colleges in other cities, they began expanding into new territories. Most, however, remained in Canterlot, choosing to keep Canterlot High School safe from gang violence, and on expanding their services to include things like intimidation, extorting money from corrupt government officials, and running scams. They even began dealing in illicit drugs, though they kept those operations at the edges of the cities.

After graduating from Canterlot High, the Rainbooms set up a permanent base of operations a few blocks away from the school, close enough to keep an eye on the school grounds but far enough away that it wasn’t too easy to find. On the surface, they had set up a music store on the first floor of a mixed purpose building to teach kids and teenagers all kinds of different instruments, but behind the “staff only” door at the back is where the Rainbooms’ bosses and capos had their offices. Sunset and Arianna had the largest offices, as they were the leaders, and other offices were held by Phillip, Rachel, Diane, and Jacqueline. By this time, they had all (except for Sunset) begun going by their nicknames more often than their given names.

One newer high-ranking member was a very intelligent young woman by the name of Esperanza Noches, codename Twilight. Due to an increase in crime and gang activity near Crystal Prep, her parents had transferred her to the quieter and safer Canterlot High at the end of their junior year. She had a talent for building and programming technology, and was granted an office of her own to convert into a lab where she could tinker with all the gadgets she could think of.

One day, Arianna knocked on Sunset’s door. Sunset, who was reading an article on her computer, looked up and minimized the window. “Hey Dash. What’s up?”

“Sofia, I’ve been thinking,” she said. “A lot of it, and I think I need to make a decision that will help our gang in the long run.” Sunset wondered what she could mean by that. Fortunately Arianna was about to continue. “We started this gang together, and we’ve run it together for about a decade. Recently, though, I’ve realized that while it started as my gang, you’ve actually done a shit ton more to lead it than I have.”

“Don’t be so modest, Dash,” Sunset replied. “You’re a great leader!”

“I know I am. I’m awesome!” Arianna grinned, then got serious again. “But seriously, I haven’t come up with a good tactical plan in a long time. Every time we send someone on a mission and they’ve come back successful, it’s because you planned it and a bunch of contingencies, or it’s because I’ve learned how to create good plans by copying your methods. So really, you’ve been leading this gang the whole time, and I wanna make it official. I’d like to make you the matriarch of this family, so to speak.”

Sunset leaned forward and put her elbow on the desk, putting her chin on her hand. This was something she’d been expecting for some time, but had had no desire to speak it into existence herself. Becoming the actual leader instead of the de facto leader was also just one step closer to her goal of destroying the Melodia famiglia.

“Have you talked with anyone else about this yet?”

“Only Flash.”

“What did he think about it?” Sunset asked.

“He agreed and thought it would be good for us,” Arianna replied. “You and Twilight are the smartest people I’ve ever met, and between the two of you she cares more about her gadgets than about leading a gang. You’re like the best parts of Vito and Michael Corleone.”

Sunset smiled at the comparison, leaned back in her chair, and started speaking in a thick Italian accent.

“You come to me, on this, the day of my daughter’s wedding...”

Arianna burst out laughing, and Sunset switched to a Brooklyn accent.

“You think I’m funny? Do I amuse you?"

Sunset kept a straight face for a few seconds, then started laughing herself. “Sorry, I know that’s not The Godfather, but I couldn’t resist. I’ll admit that being the leader is something I’ve thought about a lot the last few years...” No need to tell her that it’s actually been the whole time... “and I’m glad you have this much faith in my abilities.”

“It’s not so much faith as it is evidence,” Arianna said. “Like when I brag about how awesome I am. Most of the time I can actually cash the checks my mouth writes.”

Sunset quickly grew into her new role as head of the gang. She continued making plans and running the books, but now with Arianna’s complete trust in her, she could use that to the gang’s advantage as well. The capos in charge of the scouts across the Rainbooms’ territories now sent their reports only to her, and Sunset was able to streamline their operations to make them a little more efficient and more cost-effective.

One night after the sun went down, Sunset’s phone vibrated. She picked it up and saw a text from capo Tiffany, also known as Trixie, the head of the local scouts. One of her scouts had received information about some possible Melodia activity that night on the other side of the school from where the Rainbooms’ music store was located. According to the intel, a girl named Felicity Esposito had recently been followed by some Melodia goons, though whether or not they were following her based on order from the Melodias was unknown.

Sunset put her phone down and leaned back in her chair. The young woman’s name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. Leaning forward, she typed the name into her computer, and after a few minutes of searching, she found what she was looking for: Felicity and Arianna had some history together.

When they were kids, Arianna had told Sunset about a friend that she’d once had but had lost touch with when she moved away after her older brother was murdered by a low-life in a shitty street gang in an alley somewhere around town. Not the upscale, sophisticated kind of street gang the Rainbooms were.

Sunset picked up her phone and texted Arianna.

Just received a tip. Some Melodia thugs are in our territory.

Great, I’ll get some of my soldiers and teach them a lesson

That won’t do. The thugs have been following an old friend of yours.
Felicity Esposito

No fuckin’ way. What’s she doing in Canterlot?

Trixie didn’t say. What she did say was that something was going down on the other side of CHS tonight. Are you available to save your old friend?

Duh. Am I getting backup?

No soldiers. Pick a capo. We want Felicity to be safe, not scared.

Done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arianna and Rachel holed up in a vacant apartment near Canterlot High. Rachel was stationed at the fire escape with a good view of several alleys the thugs were likely to come down. Rachel was sitting on the sofa, waiting for Felicity to arrive so she could run down the stairs and save her old friend.

They had been waiting for some time already. Rachel polished the gems she’d bedazzled onto a sniper rifle between looking down the scope at the alleys. “How many times do we have to tell you that the point of a sniper rifle is not to be seen, and that bedazzling it just makes it fucking useless?”

“Says the girl with her hair dyed six different colors. The jewels only reflect light if there is light,” Rachel protested, “and we have the lights off and the moon is waning crescent. The only major source of light is the streetlights down below, and they’re pointing at the ground, away from us. Besides, I only use this gun when I’m staking out unintelligent targets.”

Arianna glared at her. “Did you just call my childhood friend unintelligent?”

“Of course not, darling,” Rachel said, still looking down the scope, where she saw some movement. After a moment of observing she saw a thin young woman with strawberry blonde hair walking down the street being followed by some big goons dressed in dark clothes. Rachel pointed down the alley. “I was referring to them.”

Arianna got off the couch and went over to where Rachel was sitting. She picked up the sniper rifle and looked through the scope down the alley.

“It’s been about fifteen years, but that’s definitely Felicity,” she said. “Her hair always did look more pink than blonde at night.”

“Dashie, Dashie, Dashie.” Rachel clicked her tongue. “Don’t tell me you had a crush on that girl when you were children?”

“Not on her, no,” Arianna replied. “It was only after she moved away that I realized I was a lesbian. She was more of a signpost than a crush. They’re getting closer. Imma start heading down. Cover me if you need to, but I can handle two thugs.”

Arianna gave the sniper rifle back to Rachel and made her way down the stairwell.

“Oh, and when you come down, don’t call me Dash," Arianna said. “I don’t want Felicity to know I’m part of a rising organized crime syndicate.”

Rachel clicked her tongue again. “Such big words. Oh, don‘t worry, Arianna,” she continued after Arianna gave her a look of annoyance. “I’ll join you two when you’ve dispatched those ruffians.”

After a minute of climbing down the stairs Arianna opened the door to the outside and stood by the corner of a nearby building that Felicity and the two brutes were sure to pass to give Rachel a clear shot if she needed to. Not that she actually needed to, that is. Arianna listened for the footsteps, and soon she saw a shadow passing by. She thrust her arm out, grabbing Felicity’s arm, and pulled her behind the building. Felicity was about to scream, but Arianna put her finger to her lips, and Felicity relaxed, seeing the familiar multi-colored hair of her childhood friend.

As Arianna had expected, she heard the other footsteps speed up and backed up along the building a bit, then ran out and kicked one of the goons in the side, knocking him into the other. The first goon fell to the ground, holding his side.

“You guys look like you’re lost,” she said. “Melodia territory is in the other direction, but I don’t mind getting my hands dirty if I’m protecting Felicity.” Arianna punched her hand into her palm and grinned, as if expecting a fight. Felicity backed up a bit more.

“Hey, I know that hair,” the second goon said. “You’re Dash from the Rainbooms. My nephew gets guitar lessons from you.”

“Short kid, never practices his chords,” Arianna said. “His talents lie in more physical skills, just like mine do. I’m a pretty awesome fighter too. Would you like to see?”

The first goon got up, still holding his side. “Don’t do it, man. She’s got one hell of a kick, and I don’t want to see what else she’s got. Let’s get outta here.” The two men turned around and went back toward Melodia territory.

“I’d better not see you guys around here again unless you want to buy an instrument!” Arianna called after them. The first thug flipped her off as they left. “Rude.” She turned around to face Felicity. “You okay?”

Felicity hurried over and wrapped her arms tightly around her old friend. “Oh, thank goodness!” she exclaimed. “I was so afraid, Arie!”

Arianna chuckled and returned the hug. “I’ve missed you too, Felicity.”

Felicity pulled away. “Oh, um, sorry. Personal space.”

“No worries, Lis. If anything, we’ve got fifteen years of it to catch up on. But we can do that later. Are you all right? Did they hurt you at all?”

Felicity shook her head. “No, they just kept following me. I didn’t know what to do or where to go, so I just stayed in the streetlights.”

“It’s a good thing you did.”

“How did you know I’d be here?”

“My friends and I got a tip that some lowlifes had been following and harassing someone, and that they’d be in the area tonight.”

“What friends?”

“Just some friends I made in high school,” Arianna said. “One of ‘em’s actually here with me. She was my backup, not that I needed it,” she boasted.

“You really must learn humility sometime, Arianna,” said a voice across the alley. “It’s rather unbecoming of a lady.”

“I ain’t no lady!”

“Clearly.” Rachel stepped forward and held out her hand with a smile. “Good evening. I’m Rachel. It’s nice to meet you, Felicity.”

Felicity shook her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you too.”

“We should probably get somewhere safe,” Arianna said, bringing a stop to the pleasantries. “It’s late and I don’t trust those bastards to stay away for very long.” Felicity gave a quiet gasp. “Oh, sorry, Felicity. Bad habit I picked up in middle school.”

“It’s okay,” she responded. “I might just have to get used to hearing that in this town. I’ve been hearing some people say such awful things.”

“Come on. Let’s go to the music store. You’ll be safe there.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunset stood in the main room of the music store. She’d gotten a text from Arianna a few minutes earlier and decided it would be a good idea to greet their guest while her associates prepared a room for Felicity to sleep in that night, if she chose to.

It wasn’t long before she saw Arianna’s distinctive multi-colored hair a few blocks away. Sunset opened the shop door and ushered them inside.

“Looks like it went well."

“Yup. Felicity, meet Sofia. We’ve known each other for over a decade, and we started this music store together after we graduated.”

Sunset smiled and held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Felicity. After what we heard could’ve happened to you tonight, we want to make sure you’re safe. We’ve set up a room you can sleep in tonight, and I’ll stay here as well in case you need anything.”

“Oh, thank you,” Felicity said. “I’m sorry for all the trouble tonight. Can Arie stay here as well? I mean, I don’t mean to be rude. It’s just that I’ve known her longer than anyone else in this city.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, should it, Arianna?” Sunset asked, looking at her friend. It was unusual for her to not be going by her nickname, but given the circumstances it made sense.

“Not at all,” she responded with a smile. “I’m glad I can start spending time with my oldest friend again.”

“Great, then you can show her upstairs,” Sunset said, and led the group through the staff door to the back offices, and gestured to the nearby stairway as she held the door open. Arianna began chatting with Felicity as they climbed the stairs, and Rachel and Sunset went into Sunset’s office, leaving the door open where sunset could see the stairway from her desk. Sunset opened the mini-fridge under her desk and took out two glass beer bottles, giving one to Rachel as they both sat down.

“How did it go, Rarity?”

“Perfectly,” Rachel replied. “We waited longer than expected, but the two ruffians were following Felicity as expected. Dash pulled her into an alley and then kicked one of them into the other. It’s a shame, however.” Rachel let out an overdramatic sigh and touched the back of her hand to her forehead, and began to whine melodramatically. “I had to leave my favorite gun in that old hotel!”

“Which is your favorite, the bedazzled sniper rifle or the leopard print semi-automatic?”

“The bedazzled one, of course. It is gorgeous! My semi-automatic rifle is my leopard print weapon, not my sniper rifle, but when you want fabulous, darling, you can’t get much better than a leopard print semi-automatic.”

“Cheers to that,” Sunset said sarcastically and raised her bottle. Seeing Arianna come back down the stairs, she took another beer from the fridge and set it on her desk.

“Sounds like it went well,” Sunset said as Arianna entered and took the beer. She leaned back in another chair.

“Yup. I’m glad you caught on quickly that I didn’t wanna use my nickname.”

“I wouldn’t have survived this long if I wasn’t that clever,” she replied. “Would you like to explain why?”

Arianna took a swig of her beer before answering. “Felicity’s always been very timid. She always stuck by me in grade school, and would often ask me not to get into fights. Since we ended up starting a street gang that developed into a fully organized crime syndicate, I thought she might feel betrayed if she found what had happened to me so soon after reuniting with me.”

“I’m definitely rubbing off on you.” Sunset took another sip from her bottle. “Do you think she’ll want to meet the rest of the Rainbooms?”

“Maybe not everyone, but for sure she’ll want to meet my closest friends.”

“All right. We’ll let Pinkie, Twilight, Flash, Applejack, and a few others know that for a few days we should use our real names. If Felicity has a safe place to stay, she may be gone by then, but if not, we may have to ease her into a teensy bit of the cosa nostra. At the very least, teach her to defend herself.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” said Rachel.

“I’m gonna go back upstairs,” said Arianna, standing up again. “I told Felicity I’d be in the room next to hers all night if she needed me, and I shouldn’t stay away too long.”

Rachel and Sunset wished her a good night, and not long after Arianna left Sunset’s office, Rachel left as well, leaving Sunset alone at her desk with only her thoughts.

I was afraid, with all the time I've spent here doing more and more criminal things, that I’d lost all of my Equestrian heritage, and yet here I am, offering my resources to help a complete stranger. Sunset felt a warmth grow in her chest, but she told herself it was just the beer. At the very least, I hope I don’t grow soft. I’ve got a reputation to uphold and a goal to obtain first.

Author's Note

The chapter title translates to "friendship remains a faithful anchor."

This is the last time there will be a massive time jump. This chapter also includes a scene I initially wrote in February 2019 after a bunch of my friends in a discord server started talking about what kinds of guns each of the Equestria Girls would have.