“I’ll admit, I didn’t actually expect this,” Frayed Wire said as he stroked his chin while Rainbow Dash and Nut stood before him.
Cast Iron and a number of Wrenchers from both factions stood behind them as they all gathered back in this requisitioned storage room. No time for sleep, it was the late evening of the same day.
“I didn’t expect it either but this mare’s pretty stubborn and after some business I owed it to her to at least do this. I can hear you out and maybe we can come to an agreement,” Nut said although she still regarded Frayed Wire with distaste.
“Agreement? There shouldn’t be anything to talk about,” Frayed Wire said and frowned at Rainbow Dash. “You were just supposed to get her to join back up with me and that’d be the end of it.”
“Hey, you even just said you didn’t expect me to get this far, so take it or leave it,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “This is closer to how I want things to go anyways. You know, you guys actually reconciling and getting along?”
Frayed Wire curled his lip at her, it was obvious he didn’t like her twisting what he wanted but he couldn’t deny that this was at least looking more beneficial for him than not. “Fine.” His eyes shifted to Nut and narrowed. “But I hope you don’t think I’ve reconsidered being the leader of the Wrenchers? The gang’s mine now!”
“I should be the leader!” Nut stamped her hoof on the metal floor. “My brother started this and as his sister-”
“Sister nothing! So what if you were his sister? I’m the best fighter and that makes me the one best suited for fighting against the Thunderbirds and Diesel Kings!” Frayed Wire yelled.
“I can fight too!” Nut yelled back.
“Not half as good as me and everybody else knows it,” Frayed grinned. “That’s why most of em joined up with me, cause they know it’s the truth and they agreed with me. I keep us all in line. What if someone got uppity under you and challenged you to a fight, huh?”
Rainbow Dash didn’t want to admit it but Frayed Wire brought up a good point. With how fragile and contentious things were here if the leader wasn’t strong you’d just see fight after fight and the gang would probably fracture even worse than it had. The other ponies knowing Frayed Wire was the best fighter in the gang kept them from doing anything pointless or self-destructive. Unless the rest of the gang was brought around to more peaceful ways, Nut would just end up deposed by someone else even if she convinced Frayed Wire through talking. Unless he himself fully supported her and kept the others off her back. But that might just end up with ponies deserting the gang entirely. This gang, Frayed Wire, Nut, all needed healing.
“I’ve still got lots of loyal followers who would support me if that happened,” Nut said. She was trying to be defiant but she clearly realized the problems with what she had said.
“Yeah but you’d never be able to keep all of the Wrenchers together,” Frayed Wire told her and spread his hooves out. “We’d just have more of what we’re having now.”
“It still isn’t right...” Nut ground out.
Rainbow Dash looked between the two of them, Nut seemed to know she wasn’t getting her way and couldn’t convince Frayed Wire to be in the gang under her. The question was now if she would just leave or if she’d be willing to join up with him. Rainbow Dash was carefully waiting before saying anything herself, she wanted to see if maybe Nut’s recent brush with death and her witness of Rainbow Dash’s true nature had done anything for her. If Nut actually did choose to come back into the fold and it was directly because of Rainbow Dash then even Frayed Wire would have to believe in her ability, and maybe convincing him of starting to change the gang for the better could happen.
“Right or whatever I aint giving up control of the Wrenchers. So are you prepared to call me the leader of this gang or not?” Frayed Wire asked her.
Nut frowned, looking down at the floor. Her lip twitched and she looked up at Frayed Wire, and then over at Rainbow Dash. The decision must have been tearing her up on the inside.
Finally despite her quivering lips she stalwartly looked at Frayed Wire with resolution in her eyes. “I’ll come back. I want the Wrenchers to be united as one again.”
“Excellent,” Frayed Wire grinned. “Well then first-”
“But!” Nut interrupted him and frown. “On one condition.”
Frayed Wire’s grin turned upside down and he glared at her with suspicion. Rainbow Dash too raised an eyebrow at the ink-maned mare.
“What?” Frayed Wire asked.
“We change the name of the gang. To honor my brother, I want the gang to be known from here out as Nail’s Wrenchers.” Nut said.
Frayed Wire sat back for a moment of consideration but nodded in short time. “I’ve got no problem with that. We’re the Nail’s Wrenchers gang now.”
Rainbow Dash and a lot of the Wrenchers—Nail’s Wrenchers—that were standing behind them let out a collective sigh of relief. Even Cast Iron looked almost as relieved as she was shocked. It seemed like things were doing to be okay with them now. Rainbow Dash was willing to chalk this up as her first success here in this city, now it was time to see how much further she could go with it.
Rainbow reached a hoof over to Nut’s shoulder and patted her gently. “It’s not so bad, is it?”
“I guess not...” Nut shook her head, she seemed a little sad but that would pass with time hopefully.
“I don’t think it’s bad at all,” Frayed Wire said as he hopped off his box and strode down to both of them. He shot Rainbow Dash an appraising look. “You really… what did you do that got Nut to come back here like this? She seems different after meeting you.”
“She saved my life,” Nut said.
“Saved your—really?” Frayed Wire asked Dash, shocked.
“At risk to my own even,” Rainbow Dash grinned back at him.
“Why would you do something like that?” The gang leader didn’t seem to be able to comprehend it.
“What do you mean why?” Rainbow frowned. “That’s just what any good pony would do. I guess you guys have forgotten that though.”
“You really saved Nut’s life?” Cast Iron asked too as she walked up to them.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Is that really so hard to believe? You guys might be in this horrible situation but you shouldn’t be that oblivious. It’s not like you stopped being ponies.”
“I was just as surprised you had done it,” Nut said.
The news that Rainbow Dash had done something like that—something that was altruistic, dangerous, and for a pony she didn’t even know and probably didn’t even really like at that point, spread through the Nail’s Wrenchers ponies in this room and the small tunnel leading into it. It was practically a foreign concept at this point to do something that plainly good. It was the actual evidence that Rainbow Dash had wanted to be able to show off to prove to others that she meant every last word she said and she’d even be willing to lay it all on the line to help them.
Rainbow Dash smiled, more sincerely than just a grin, and looked around at the gang ponies. “So you all believe me now? You all believe how awesome I am? I’m not all talk! Maybe now you’ll be willing to let me help you—but you’ve got to want it first.”
Frayed Wire scowled. “Hey, if you’re trying to mess with my leadership of the Wrenchers-”
“I’m not trying to do anything like that. I’m not trying to usurp you or whatever other cynical thought you’ve got going through your head, dude.” Rainbow said to him and then flew up so she was above all of them. “The only thing I’m trying to do is help all of you, every last pony in this city. Cause don’t you all want things to be better? Don’t you want to be able to be nice and not surprised when someone saves someone’s life?”
The gathered gang had the decency to look at least a little ashamed and dismayed by what Rainbow Dash had been saying. Even Frayed Wire and Cast Iron knew how far they had fallen since this whole lifestyle began.
“If you give me the chance again I’ll keep doing all I can to change things here. I’ll take down Resin and make it so you aren’t driven like slaves and feel like you have to fight each other just to feel a little bit in control of your lives! Don’t you want to not eat gruel and be worked to the bone every day? Trust me, help me, and I can do it. Just take a step.”
Frayed Wire shared a brief glance with Nut, who shrugged, and looked back up at Rainbow Dash with a frown. “You’re persuasive. And stubborn.”
“Yep,” Dash nodded.
“What do you really think you can do about Resin though? It’s pointless,” Frayed Wire said.
“No it’s not. Not with me here. Just let me help you and the other gangs and we can all work together to stop her.”
Frayed Wire scratched his head. “I gave you a chance and you succeeded… I guess I owe you the same Nut did to at least give you another. I can’t say we’ll be all nice and peaceful towards the other gangs yet but if they’re willing to listen to you too at some point I’d be willing to sit down with Double Duty and Acid Rain. I’m also really tired of eating gruel.”
Rainbow Dash dropped down and gave him a hoof bump, then another to Nut and Cast Iron. “Good enough for me. I’ll make sure things go right down here now, in a few days things’ll be changed way for the better.”