Rainbow Dash relaxed on a bed in a formerly empty apartment in the upper levels of the city. Well, relaxed may not have been the right word. She was uncomfortable, upset, and still tired even after sleeping through the night. The food in this place was still no good either. Yesterday she had passed out right after walking back to the control room and meeting up with Double Duty and the others, and only later did she learn that the nearly catatonic Resin had been carted off and thrown into a jail cell somewhere up here. It wasn’t exactly what Rainbow Dash wanted but she knew the others, after all they had suffered through, couldn’t be placated so easily. She’d have to get them to go easy on Resin before she left the city but for now she needed to regain her strength.
From what she had heard from the others things were actually looking pretty good though. The power was being distributed equally throughout the entire city again and the security ponies had been rounded up and either convinced about what had happened and joined up with them, or were being momentarily detained. Rainbow Dash was going to try and convince the others to let them out as quickly as possible too. Honestly the security ponies didn’t deserve to be punished that badly, once Rainbow Dash told them what Crush had told her she was willing to bet the rest would come over to their side anyways.
“Whatever,” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself and slid out of bed, yawning. She had spent enough time in there and some important work still needed to be done. Her body was still sore and in a decent amount of pain but she could live with it.
Things actually looked kind of nice when she left the apartment. Not only were the lights still on and things were clean but there was just a different and more welcoming aura to everything. As she walked down the hallways she saw some ponies just casually out walking as well and they were actually smiling. It was a shame that a number of sections had been launched off the mountain or ponies would be even happier. Maybe in the future they could rebuild but for the moment they needed to get everything else back into working order first.
Rainbow Dash walked in the direction of the stairs she needed to take to get up to the control room. She knew Double Duty, Acid Rain, Frayed Wire, and probably quite a few others too, were using it as a temporary base of operations and had been overseeing everything there since yesterday. It was her hope that they would do the right thing and completely shed their old selves so they could truly fix this city and bring back hope and happiness to all the ponies. She believed they would… but she also wasn’t sure how they’d treat Resin, Silver Tooth, and some others. Rainbow Dash wasn’t against punishing them but she didn’t want her friends to go too far either.
And after seeing Resin’s reaction to the flame disappearing… maybe that was punishment enough. It’s like what Crush said, Resin was a child. A scared and broken child.
As she made it up the stairs quite a few ponies recognized her along the way, her comrades she had fought with and helped, but a quick smile and a nod was all she had to give them as she passed them by. Some of them may have wanted to talk more with her but she didn’t have the time. They’d always remember her for helping them back when they were still just in gangs and then some though.
Rainbow Dash got to the top level with the circular corridor and just happened to see Soot Mane walking down it in the direction of the ceremonial flame room.
She saw Rainbow Dash and smiled. “Rainbow Dash, how are you?”
Such a different reaction compared to when they first met. “I’m fine, just came up here to talk with everyone about some stuff. What are you doing?”
“Actually I’m going to the flame room to clean it up. We’re planning on turning the fire back on at some point, but only at a weak level. After all that flame still holds a lot of importance to us and this city.”
“Got it,” Rainbow Dash nodded. “The others all still in the control room?”
“Yep! They’ll probably be happy to see you up and about. When you collapsed yesterday we were all kind of worried for a moment,” Soot Mane’s smile turned into an awkward grin.
“It’d take way more than what I went through to keep me down. I’ll see you later,” Rainbow Dash said and then walked by Soot Mane.
The mare gave her a wave and the two went on their separate ways. It actually could’ve ended up being the last time Rainbow Dash spoke to her depending on how things went today. She was planning on leaving soon now that her work was done, just like she had done everywhere else before. That was just the nature of her adventure. She simply wasn’t satisfied quite yet and wanted to get on to the next part of her journey now. When would she be satisfied? Only time could tell. Once again she was proud of what she had done here to help but the burning desire in her heart wasn’t quenched yet either.
Rainbow Dash walked into the control room with a neutral expression on her face, seeing the former gang leaders and some others working on the control panels. She walked up to them to say hi. “Hey!”
They turned around at the sound of her voice and smiled just like Soot Mane had. Still funny to think about.
Frayed Wire was the first to greet her back. “Rainbow Dash, it’s good to see you back. Feeling better?”
“Like a million bits,” she said. “Seems like you guys and the whole city are feeling the same way too.”
“I’d say we are. It’s weird considering how long we were just—well—you know, but now everything is looking up and I can’t help but smile,” Double Duty said. “I feel bad about all that time I spent just being awful, and all the things I did to other ponies.”
“Well considering how things were for you guys I don’t totally blame you, we all make mistakes I guess,” Rainbow Dash awkwardly rubbed the back of her head.
“What are you here for now anyways? I think we’ve got things more or less under control,” Acid Rain said.
“Just to talk and, well, maybe say goodbye.” Rainbow Dash said.
“Goodbye?” The voice of Nut came from her side and Rainbow Dash looked over to see the mare, she hadn’t noticed her there at first. “You’re leaving?”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Probably soon, yeah.”
The leaders all walked up to her now, concerned and confused as to why she was leaving so soon.
“I don’t understand, I thought you would be helping us out here?” Double Duty asked.
“I already did,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Honestly I wouldn’t really be any help when it comes to rebuilding or making sure everything here works again anyways. My part was making sure you got here, now I’ve gotta get back out there and fly. More places to go, more places to see, it’s like that.”
“You did do quite a lot so it’s not like I’m being ungrateful but I had hoped you would stay longer too,” Acid Rain said.
“What do you even have to do instead anyways?” Frayed Wire asked.
“Anything. I don’t know if I really had the chance to tell you guys about all this but I came up here looking for adventure and excitement. Found a lot of it already but not enough, and since the major stuff I needed to help you guys with here is done it’s time for me to go and find somewhere else. I know there are more adventures out there,” Rainbow Dash explained.
“Well I hope you find some fun out there I suppose, and help any others who might need you,” Frayed Wire shrugged.
“Me too, good luck out there, Rainbow Dash.” Nut smiled.
“Thanks, but I’m not leaving just yet. I’ve got one or two things I want to talk about and then someone else I need to see before I go,” Rainbow said.
“What do you want to talk about?” Double Duty asked.
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath before affixing all of them with a more serious look. “I know you’re not going to like what I have to say but I want to talk to you about Resin.”
The mood got a bit cooler in the control room, the other ponies definitely weren’t happy to even hear her name mentioned. But it needed to be said.
“What about her? We’ve already got her imprisoned and everything, nothing more needs to be said,” Double Duty said.
“I just want to make sure that that’s all that’s going to happen to her. You may not think she deserves it—I’m not even sure if she deserves it—but I want you guys not to hurt her or do anything else to Resin. She’s already lost, just let it end like that. In short… go easy on her?” Rainbow Dash winced at the awkwardness of her own request.
Frayed Wire frowned. “I’m not even going to pretend to say that I want to do that. After everything she did there’s still so much rage boiling inside me at her.”
“Same here,” Acid Rain said. “It’s not something we can forget so easily.”
“I know that,” Rainbow Dash held up her hoof to stop them. “I know. I’ve dealt with a lot of bad guys and was asked to forgive some of them and it didn’t always sit right with me at first. But I’m asking you, as a favor to me at the least, to not punish Resin anymore than this. Just let her stay in that cell. She’s not healthy, you had to have seen that yourselves when you took her out of the flame room. Show how much better you’ve become and don’t do anything pointlessly cruel. Make it your first big step to bringing this city back to how it was in the past.”
The four ponies looked between each other, doubt was on their faces, discomfort as well, but in the end they knew Rainbow Dash was right. At the very least it was true they owed this much to her.
“Alright, Resin can just reside in her cell. No one will bother her or do anything to her,” Double Duty said.
Rainbow Dash smiled. “That’s all I ask. Now if it’s not a problem, can you show me where her cell is?”
A lonely cell at the very back of the jail, it had but one light that was barely strong enough to illuminate it. No one else was imprisoned in this entire block, or if they had been they were released or moved elsewhere, it was Resin completely alone. The cell itself was small with only a single bed and a blanket thrown over it with a pillow at the head. Resin was curled up under the blanket, still like the same fragile ball that Rainbow Dash had last seen her in.
“Hey, Resin.” Rainbow Dash said to her from outside the bars, looking in.
The pony on the bed didn’t stir in the slightest. Rainbow Dash could tell she wasn’t sleeping, but whether she was actively ignoring her or too shocked to even notice the visitor in the first place she didn’t know.
“I guess you probably don’t care but no one’s going to be hurting you or anything like that. You won’t be bothered.”
Still nothing.
“You know Crush told me everything about you? I feel bad for you, and I’m sorry you had to go through that but I’m not sorry about stopping you. But now I wanted to make sure you knew that Crush still always cared for you, and he really regretted not being able to help you sooner.”
Resin still didn’t move or acknowledge her words in any ways.
Rainbow Dash sighed and shook her head. “Alright, I just wanted to see how you were doing. I’m going to be leaving real soon so you won’t have to deal with me anymore at least.” She shrugged and turned to leave before stopping and glancing back at the shrouded form. “By the way, I hear they’re going to turn on the flame again.”
A twitch.
“Just a little bit, but it’ll be back on again. Maybe… maybe someday you’ll be able to see it again.”
Rainbow Dash watched her to see if she would move more, but the mare under the blanket was still. So Rainbow Dash picked her hooves back up and left the cell block and Resin behind for good. This didn’t feel as good as when she beat Blizzard and Karkona. She wasn’t exactly happy about it, but it was the best she could do.
A few short goodbyes and requests to tell that she said goodbye to some of the other ponies in the city and Rainbow Dash was down at the exit hatch that led out to the exterior catwalk that ran the circumference of the mountain. It rose with a hiss and she stepped out to enjoy the open air for the first time in days. A cool, fresh breeze washed over her and she closed her eyes to take it all in and enjoy it to its fullest. There was nothing like the outdoors.
Rainbow Dash walked to the edge of the catwalk and looked out north to the horizon. It was the middle of the day and the sun was still bright and the sky unclouded. Once more she didn’t know what north of here held for her but she knew where she was going.
The way was lit for her and she wasn’t stopping anytime soon.
A smile tugged at her face despite things and she opened her wings to their fullest. She could feel the air currents, she could hear her own wings begging her to fly. “This is what I was born for.”
And Rainbow Dash flew off from the mountain, resuming her journey.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the mountain surrounded by junk and garbage, a loud and constant banging noise came from a small jettisoned section of the city.
Heartless bucked against the heavy steel bars keeping her inside the section. Bucked, headbutted, punched, whatever was working to warp and bend the bars to eventually give her enough room to squeeze through them. It was slow going but she never stopped or paused in her efforts to get free. Nor did she ever stop smiling. Her relentless attack was working too, the bars were already showing the signs of stress and had dented or shifted in some places.
However in mid-buck she suddenly stopped for the first time since she began. Glancing up, even though her vision was blocked off, she could see Rainbow Dash’s bright life-force leaving and going north away from the mountain. But if anything her smile only widened.
“In two or three days I’ll be out of here and back on your trail, Rainbow Dash. Don’t go too far.”