By the time their procession reached the first housing block all the ponies from there had left their rooms and were also marching down the hallway Rainbow Dash had first seen them come back from yesterday. She tried to spy Night Reader and Brilliant Star but couldn’t see them. It didn’t really matter since no one was speaking to one another or getting out of line, even though Crush and the security team weren’t around. She wondered if they were already in the work area at the pumps and drills for the oil, waiting for the ponies to arrive and get started.
Rainbow Dash looked behind herself to see if she could see the ponies from housing blocks further back coming but there was too much of a crowd from the Diesel King’s one already there.
There are really hundreds of ponies going to work here all at once everyday? Rainbow Dash thought. And they work how many hours?
She wondered about Oil Slick and other ponies who shared his type of work. It seemed like he might have it easier than the ponies she was about to work with. And the Diesel Kings were supposed to do the dirtiest and worst type of work possible… but Dash needed to show all of them that she was tough, and how serious she was. She needed to gain their respect. Only after she proved to them all that she wasn’t just some random pegasus who had flown in would they maybe listen to her and stop fighting each other.
Then she could work on the Black Hoofs and Crush.
“You’re a real dumb pony, you know that?” Double Duty said to her. “I aint interested in getting the help of some outsider who won’t even join my gang.”
“What’s even your angle?” Acid Rain asked.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “No angle, I’m just an awesome pony that likes going on adventures, helping ponies, and taking out villains. And Resin sounds like a villain to me and you guys definitely need a lot of help. Seriously, you guys are crazy. And if you give me the chance I’ll help you get your city back in order and you don’t have to keep fighting each other.”
“No deal,” Double Duty growled.
“Yeah, you can forget about that. Unless you change your mind and want to be a Thunderbird you can buzz off,” Acid Rain dismissed her.
“We don’t need anyone who won’t fight for us either,” Frayed Wire said.
Rainbow Dash just shrugged as they all walked. “Suit yourselves. I already knew I’d have to work to change your minds. Maybe when you see how awesome I am you’ll change your tunes and listen to me.”
When her group had made it through the first housing block she looked down the big hallway and saw that the huge door was already open, now for the first time she’d soon get to see what it looked like where these ponies worked. She imagined dirty and greasy. But she’d done plenty of hard work in her life. This would be a piece of cake.
The conversation between her and the others died as they walked on and passed the raised door. From here Rainbow Dash could hear—and smell—what awaited her. There was a constant grinding of gears and pistons going on from deeper in and the scent of gasoline and sweat hung in the air, the hallway started to become better lit and soon enough she was surrounded by heavy machinery and a bunch of corridors going off elsewhere into the city while stairs and catwalks went up and around the machines. There were a group of ponies already working on the closest machines, huge pumps that constantly pushed and pulled out of the ground while ponies attended to nozzles attached to them that leaked out black and unrefined oil into barrels. After walking another few feet the hallway opened up entirely into a huge vaulted room with a ceiling much higher than the housing blocks and machinery that went up everywhere. More catwalks hung from the ceiling while stairs wrapped around huge pillars that helped the room stand up. Rainbow Dash hardly knew what to make of most of this stuff or how it worked but it seemed to do its job of getting oil for Resin.
And she knew she’d just follow the Diesel Kings today to do the jobs they did.
“Hurry up and get to work, all of you!”
A voice from above yelled down at them and Rainbow Dash looked up to see Crush on one of the catwalks. A number of other security officers were with him. Looking at the ground floor she saw a lot more security ponies walking around and making sure everyone was following orders and working.
Despite the large size of the room things were starting to get claustrophobic thanks to the sheer amount of ponies in here and how clustered together all of the machinery was. However it was much more brightly lit at the same time and Rainbow Dash could see basically everything going on. Some of those barrels just recently filled with oil were taken to a big conveyor belt by other ponies that fed into a large machine buzzing with steam and shaking as each new barrel entered its bowels. A single unicorn stood in front of it watching a bunch of gauges and pulling levers on the machine when he apparently needed to. Way back Rainbow Dash saw something else, the actual rock walls of the mountain itself. And a number of large drills and derricks built right up against it that continuously worked on boring deeper into it and draw out all the oil that must remain like a treasure inside.
Rainbow Dash realized while watching all of this that even though there were only ponies living in here, this city was more foreign to her than anywhere else she had traveled to in the True North. At no point in the past, present, or future could she see a city and machinery like this in Equestria. It was all too much. Too alien.
“So what sort of work are you going to do?” Frayed Wire asked her. “You just gonna do some baby work to pass the time and act like you know what it’s like to work in here with us?”
“Yeah, you can just monitor the barrels that come out of refinement. Not like Crush or anyone else is gonna care if you stand around and do nothing,” Soot Mane said to her.
“Thanks but I’m going to do some serious work,” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.
“Like what?” Soot Mane raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
Rainbow Dash grinned at her. “The same work you do. Like you all said, you Diesel Kings do the grungiest and dirtiest work in here, if I want to prove my mettle I better do the same.”
“Tch,” Double Duty clicked his teeth. “You aren’t proving anything to anyone.”
“And you can just wait for me to let my actions do the talking,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Either way I’m helping out with your work today, so show me what to do. Doesn’t matter if you believe me or not right now cause I’m going to show you what I’m made of.”
“Well do your stupid Diesel King work then,” Acid Rain spit at her and flew away from their group, taking a large portion of the Thunderbirds with him as they went off to do some other kind of work.
Rainbow Dash frowned. This wasn’t going to endear her to anyone except maybe the Diesel Kings, but she just had to take it all one step at a time. It was clear that even though this was supposed to show how serious she was about her mission; their divisions were so great that they couldn’t see it as anything but favoritism right now. Acid Rain and Frayed Wire clearly saw this as a personal insult. Oh well. If nothing else it would prove her strength.
As if to confirm her thoughts, Frayed Wire gave a nasty look and soon ditched her and the rest of the group to take some of his Wrenchers into the small corridors along the outer side of the room, where they were likely working on standard maintenance and repairs. Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure if she’d work with them or the Thunderbirds next—or do something else entirely to try and win them over—but something was going to happen. In the end she’d certainly faced greater challenges than this, and she was the most awesome pony ever, she’d pull through.
Most of the ponies working in here, whether ones walking ahead or behind Rainbow’s group, had gone off to their own places and workstations or were rounded up by security and made to do something specific. She and the Diesel Kings were still walking deeper into the chamber. More machinery piled up and the floor turned into metal grating, looking down she could see an underlevel that was totally cramped and just a mess of greasy pipes and gears. Ahead there was an opening in the floor and a stairway that led down into the underlevel.
I hate cramped places but whatever. Rainbow frowned.
The Diesel Kings didn’t acknowledge her or give her any clue as to what she should be doing when they went down there but she followed them anyways. She could observe them and figure it out herself. Once she descended the stairs with them she noticed things were even more cramped than she thought because the “ceiling” of the grated floor was so low. She wasn’t a tall pony but she only had a couple of inches from the crown of her head hitting the ceiling. These passageways down here under the machines were a total maze too, with no indication of what anything was or where to go to the untrained eye. The lighting wasn’t as good anymore either and the heat was bad with the hot machines and all the ponies bunched together.
A low piston on one of the oil pumps popped and sprayed hydraulic fluid over the jumpsuits of several Diesel Kings working in front of it.
Yep, this was dirty work.
She didn’t mind that part, Applejack would revel in it too, but she didn’t like the claustrophobic nature of this bottom level in the city’s work area. And Rainbow Dash ended up shoved around by a few Diesel Kings thanks to not knowing where to go until she saw Double Duty going beneath a drilling platform and followed him.
He and Soot Mane were standing right by two huge drills that were already embedded in the ground and continuously pressing in deeper. Pumps and hoses attached to them looked to constantly be sucking out and carrying oil back to the platform above them. Double Duty grabbed a bucket of water that had been kept down here and started pouring it over the drill, the hoses, and the hydraulics that moved the drill, where it all instantly evaporated into steam. Those drills were hot. She didn’t know how well the water he was using would actually cool them down and keep them from overheating but it must’ve done something. Soot Mane also grabbed a rag and began cleaning and wiping all the moving parts of the drill, removing grease and other grime to make sure it functioned properly.
The drills were as thick around as their bodies and they were pretty close together so Soot Mane had to be careful as she squeezed around them to clean them up. With such little room down here there was nothing else she could do. She was already sweating thanks to the heat and steam coming from the drills, Dash made up her mind to grab a rag and help her out so they could finish cleaning these drills before the Diesel King passed out.
Unsurprisingly, Soot Mane shot her a nasty look when she came over but neither she nor Double Duty did anything to stop Rainbow Dash from working. If they took the work seriously enough to stop in the middle of killing each other they took it seriously enough to not sabotage or actively shoo her away from it. As soon as Dash put her wet rag against the metal drill she could feel the heat from it and saw the water sizzle. Dash got one drill while Soot Mane took care of the other, both of them making a good effort to get them spotless. These things probably got dirty fast so she bet she’d be doing more work like this in the future.
She was sweating pretty good by the time she finished while Soot Mane and Double Duty had both pretty much drenched their own jumpsuits by now. It was still probably better to wear something like that though than accidentally getting a scalding liquid sprayed on you.
Double Duty and Soot Mane both pushed past her to go do something else and Rainbow Dash was going to follow them when she was distracted by the sudden sound of steam escaping from a tight space. She looked over to see some kind of boiler shaking and emitting steam at the seams while a pressure gauge was going into the red on it, a few other ponies went to try and shut off the valves and relieve the pressure but couldn’t before a bolt shot off from the boiler like a bullet and ricocheted off some of the other equipment before stopping. Dash and a number of others had ducked down with their hooves over their heads while that happened but at least the boiler wasn’t about to explode anymore. Still looked a little busted though.
“Morons!” Double Duty yelled without looking at the source of the problem. “Fix that now!”
A couple of Diesel Kings with some tools and extra bolts got to work on the boiler, affixing small metal plates over the splits where steam had erupted and welding them into place. Dash periodically heard more stuff like that going on, along with beeping noises from alarms and the grinding of gears that had too much stress put on them. This whole place was a mess of barely functioning machinery that had clearly been overtaxed. And the Diesel Kings were doing their best to make sure it all kept working, she would’ve thought it was admirable if she didn’t know how selfish Double Duty and his gang really were.
At one point Dash ended up on her back underneath one of the machines, cleaning grime off of it while also replacing a bunch of gears and chewed through circuits inside of it.
Chewed through by the rats that were crawling around next to her. Rainbow Dash was thankful for her thick skin—a more squeamish pony might freak out. It was still gross and uncomfortable but despite complaining being one of her fortes in life she just grit her teeth, furrowed her brow, and did it before shimmying back out from under the machine and watching as the light on it switched from red to green and it went back to doing… whatever it was for. She should probably actually learn about this stuff before next time.
Covered in crud right now… Rainbow Dash frowned and shook her wings to at least get the dirt off of them.
“Hey,” someone called to her.
Rainbow Dash looked to see the unicorn stallion who she had briefly spoken to before the fight broke out. He had a huge swollen bruise on his face from when he had been struck earlier but he must’ve been good at dealing with pain since it didn’t seem to stop him. She raised an eyebrow at him. “Yeah?”
“Come help me out with something, you’re just doing anything aren’t you?” He asked her.
Well he was right about that. And it was good to have someone actually ask for her help, maybe she was at least proving herself to this guy. So Rainbow Dash shrugged and went with him. “Sure.”
He led her to a machine that went up through the floor above them while down here there were a bunch of pumps on one side with some levers under them and then a conveyor belt emerging out the back that had a safety light on it. The machine was already shaking and there were some ugly gurgling sounds coming from inside it and up top. The stallion walked up to the first lever on the machine and pulled it, the safety light flipped on and the pumps started rapidly pumping up and down.
“What is this thing?” Rainbow Dash asked him.
“Toxic waste processor. In a minute a barrel full of waste will come out the conveyor belt, make sure the lid is sealed on tight and then place it down behind the machine. Later on someone else will come to dispose of it properly,” he explained.
“Properly...” Rainbow Dash muttered, remembering what Oil Slick was doing with this toxic waste.
“And be careful. If there is a leak or anything make sure to not get any of that stuff on you. You really don’t want that to happen.”
“I can guess,” Rainbow Dash winced.
She didn’t know how the stallion knew when to pull the next lever but after a minute of the machine whirring and pumping he grasped the second one and pulled it. The conveyor belt activated and a barrel came out from inside the machine. Rainbow Dash walked back to it and looked it over, it was definitely the same kind of canister that Oil Slick had been throwing off the mountain. She checked it intently to make sure it wasn’t leaking in the slightest and once she was sure it was okay she plucked it off the conveyor and put it down on the ground. The stallion pulled the third lever on the machine and it sounded like a big fan activated inside it, like the machine was clearing its own nose and unclogging its parts.
“Everything about this place is gross,” she shook her head.
After that she continued with more and more miscellaneous work for the hours she spent down here with the Diesel Kings. It was an unrelenting stream of busyness thanks to the massive amount of machinery to take care of and clean and fix on the fly. By the end of it she had to admit she had an appreciation for these guys being able to do this every single day with nothing to look forward to when they were done. It was tough and she wasn’t sure how many ponies back in Equestria would be able to handle it.
And she was proud to say that she only accidentally burnt herself once when she touched a hot pipe with her hoof. And it was only a minor burn.
When the time had come for them to leave the work area for the day, Rainbow Dash wiped the sweat from her brow and sighed in relief. She knew she was covered in grease and who knew what else. The braid her mane had been in thanks to Shibu was now gone, a frayed, ragged, and sweat-drenched mess left in its place. So closer to how her mane usually looked. Her and the Diesel Kings left this cramped nightmare and went to join the others as they walked out of the work area and back to the housing blocks. Rainbow Dash planned to drop back in with Night Reader and Brilliant Star tonight but she still wasn’t able to see them even as they got to the first housing block.
Before she could take to the air with her wings and look around a familiar buzzing came from the ceiling.
~Thank you once more for your hard work! And remember—the flame is everything! The flame is life itself! So don’t worry about your lives, just work and work as hard as you can for the flame!~
The speaker cut out right after. Rainbow Dash couldn’t wait for the opportunity to tell Resin exactly what she thought about all that.