Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

The Eternal Furnace XIV

Of course there wasn’t the time to do anything that day. In fact shortly after Rainbow Dash’s little speech the bell rang and they all had to head off to work. Despite the fact that Rainbow Dash was going to bring the whole system down she didn’t want Crush to catch onto things yet. So she spent that work day going around to every different group and letting them know that tomorrow morning was the moment. Tomorrow morning she would fly to get the Nail’s Wrenchers, Diesel Kings, and Thunderbirds to join with her and confront the Black Hoofs and Silver Tooth at their casino.

The daily announcement from Resin at the end of the work day just fanned her flames even more.

~-and so don’t forget: nothing matters except what you can do for the flame. The furnaces being made to work to their best is more important than your lives! Give everything you have to your work, give everything to the glory of our flame! Be like me and realize that nothing matters but the fire that warms us! Thank you, and rest so tomorrow you can work just as hard as you did today!~

“Tomorrow, huh?” Rainbow Dash growled as she flew back up to Night Reader and Brilliant Star’s room. “That’s when you’re going down.”

Night Reader and Brilliant Star were already there and Rainbow Dash was happy and proud to tell them of her recent successes.

“So you both just wait, cause tomorrow is going to be a big day. I don’t know exactly how long it’s going to take—still might be a couple days in all—but you’re getting this city back. I promise,” she said to them while they ate.

“I was skeptical of you being able to get all the gangs on your side but you’ve repeatedly proved me wrong,” Night Reader said with a fair bit of wonder in his voice.

“And I’m happy we were wrong,” Brilliant Star said and smiled. Actually smiled as some of the warmth returned to her previously dead eyes.

“You can praise me even more pretty soon. First thing tomorrow morning we’re all going to get together and I’m gonna be knocking on Silver Tooth’s door.”

“Good luck,” Night Reader said and smiled just a little bit too.

Rainbow Dash smiled back. “Thanks.” She picked her bowl of gruel up in both hooves and scarfed it down. “I feel like I’m going to need as much energy as possible, so I’ll be eating another big bowl of this once I wake up.”

---

And she did. Practically inhaling it down the hatch and then saying goodbye to her hosts—Rainbow Dash was off to gather the gangs. The Diesel Kings were the first ones she visited of course, they were right there after all, and a good sign already was that a bunch of them were out reattaching doors to the other ponies’ homes. That made Dash pretty darn happy to see, it was a sign of how she had already made an impact here.

“Yo!” She called out to the Diesel Kings upon arrival.

Soot Mane looked up and saw her, waving up at the pegasus and almost smiling. “Rainbow Dash, good morning!”

“Morning!” She gave a curt wave back and lowered herself to the floor while the other nearby Diesel Kings converged on her. Even Double Duty was already awake and had shockingly been helping out too, he and a few others came down the stairs until the whole gang was assembled.

“So it’s time already?” The leader asked.

“Just about, I’ve just gotta go tell the others to gather here and then we can go to the casino,” Rainbow Dash nodded. “So you guys get ready. I don’t know what might happen later today but it could be big.”

“We will. After yesterday I’m not sure what else the Black Hoofs might do but we’ll be prepared,” Double Duty said.

“Count on it,” Soot Mane resolutely nodded.

“Thanks. I’m gonna fly off to the Thunderbirds and Nail’s Wrenchers now, back in a jiffy!” Rainbow Dash said and then zoomed off. Again she didn’t have time to waste and had to act fast, there was no telling how long it would take to actually deal with the Black Hoofs and then lure Crush to them. It had to all be done before the work bell rang.

So it only took her a second to get to the Thunderbirds’ housing block where thankfully Acid Rain had already woken up his whole gang and gotten them ready for her arrival. All the pegasi were standing at attention when she rocketed down the floor and came to a full and complete stop right in front of them. Only kicking up the slightest amount of dust on her landing.

“So you guys are ready to go?” Dash asked them.

“Yes,” Acid Rain nodded. “We’re prepared for anything. I’m still not… totally convinced of your way of doing things but I’ll go along with this for now. Show me some real change and progress and I’ll devote myself to you wholeheartedly. I wouldn’t exactly mind things getting nicer around here either so long as me and my gang weren’t getting the short end of the stick.”

“You won’t be, seriously, I figured I had already done enough with the other gangs to convince you too but just watch me,” Rainbow Dash clapped a hoof to her chest. “Now I’ve gotta go off to meet Frayed Wire and the rest of the Nail’s Wrenchers, but you guys can head down and join up with Double Duty and the Diesel Kings for now, okay?”

“That’s okay, we can do that,” Acid Rain agreed.

“Cool, it won’t be long for me to grab the others, why don’t you try and talk and make friends with the Diesel Kings in the meantime?”

Acid Rain grimaced and looked back at his underlings who also looked a bit unsure about that. “We will… attempt to make an effort to become friends.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “That’s all I ask for now. Anyways, see ya!”

She bolted off once more, this time heading down the hallway that led out into the maintenance corridor that she was by now well familiar with. The Nail’s Wrenchers would all be waiting for her in places she knew how to reach, as per her instructions yesterday. It still took a longer time for her to reach them than it took for the Diesel Kings and Thundrbirds, since she had to go into the cramped access tunnels and stop flying.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash called out as soon as she entered them. “Are you guys ready? Come on out here!”

Eventually they all started crawling out of the woodwork around her, Frayed Wire and Nut were there together to greet her while Cast Iron and the rest of the gang came from all sorts of side tunnels.

“Hey, come on! We don’t have any time to waste!” Rainbow Dash said.

“I know, I’m just...” Frayed Wire shot a glance at Nut. “Apprehensive considering for the first time we’re all going to be together and not have it be for a fight. I’m worried a fight will break out anyways.”

“It won’t, trust me,” Rainbow Dash said. “Just treat them like you’d want them to treat you and just be awesome to each other.”

Nut shrugged. “Rainbow Dash has kept proving herself right so far.”

“Exactly,” Dash grinned and winked at the mare. “Besides I’m going to be there the whole time leading you guys, I’d still like it if you tried to mingle with each other and make friends but if you don’t want to just yet you can just follow me for now.”

“Fair enough,” Frayed Wire shrugged. “Let’s just get there and do this then, I’ll say that I am excited to take those Black Hoofs down a peg or two.”

Rainbow Dash really agreed with that sentiment. “Me too.”

---

Dozens and dozens of gang members were now all joined together in the Diesel King’s housing block ready to move on a moment’s notice. Frayed Wire, Double Duty, and Acid Rain all stood together in an attempt at unity although Rainbow Dash could see they didn’t exactly enjoy each other’s presence just yet. That was fine, they’d have something big to cheer about and celebrate together before this day was over. The rest of the gangs were more or less staying with each other but at least some were mingling with others. Decent start.

“Okay, okay, everyone!” Rainbow Dash called out as she flew above them. “I’m super pumped that you’re all here together! I promise you you’re going to be happy about believing in me, I’m going to make things change here.”

She looked out over all of them before continuing. “Right now we’re going to head to the casino that the Black Hoofs use. With all of you together I’m going to convince Silver Tooth to let us get ahold of Crush so I can make it up to the higher levels of this city and get to Resin! He’ll have no choice cause he and they all know what will happen if you stop working for Resin, they rely on you and up till now they needed you divided so you couldn’t do anything like this!” Rainbow Dash smiled at them. “That’s the power of keeping up hope and believing in friendship!”

A more positive group probably would’ve cheered after she was done saying all that but these ponies weren’t quite there yet. Still, they didn’t boo her or grumble or anything so Rainbow Dash was willing to count that as a win.

“So I think we’re all ready to go now, right?” She glanced down at the three leaders.

“We’ve been ready,” Double Duty said.

“Same,” Acid Rain said.

“Yeah,” Frayed Wire nodded.

Rainbow Dash flew about and pointed her hoof down the tunnel leading to the first housing block. “Then let’s go!”

And she kept floating there for a few seconds, her wings flapping but not going any further.

“Is something wrong?” Nut asked her from below while the others watched on curiously.

“Uhh...” Rainbow Dash blushed and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. “I kind of have actually never been to the casino or that whole area, so can somebody lead the way?”

And after that little piece of embarrassment the huge group began their march to the casino, with the three gang leaders at the front. They traveled into the first housing block in full view of all the other ponies who were waking up and preparing for a hard day of work (that with any luck would never happen) and headed in the direction of the other hallway that led deeper into the mountain. Rainbow Dash remembered seeing Crush and his security ponies entering it on her first day here but she had been too preoccupied with other stuff to go in there herself and see what was beyond it.

Despite it taking some time thanks to how big the party of ponies was they eventually made it through the tunnel and emerged into a large, curved, promenade that stretched around the interior of the mountain. Buildings and old stores were built right into the walls, all of them were completely closed up and empty though and the lights above were just as dim and poorly functioning as anywhere else. Before Resin it was probably a center of leisure and entertainment for the city, now it was just sad. A very wide set of stairs split the promenade down the middle and led up to a second level of it, with nothing else on the first level for them Rainbow Dash and the others went right up there to the casino. As she learned from the others the casino was on the second level at the far end in the same direction the housing blocks went. It took up a huge space but was now completely barred shut along the windows and the door was replaced with a heavy metal shutter that could only be opened from the inside.

Once they reached the second level, Dash took a brief look around. The other half of the promenade was completely dark and empty, and the stairs went up to a third level that led to the security forces center and the doors to the higher levels of the city where Resin was. Soon she could go up there and get past those closed doors. She just needed that security code from Crush.

“Do you think they’ll hear or see us coming?” Dash asked the gang leaders as she flew down and landed beside them, now walking together with them towards the casino.

“Doubtful. The windows don’t just have bars in front of them, they’ve had metal plates bolted and welded behind them. I don’t think they’ll know we’re here until we use the intercom,” Frayed Wire said.

“What’s an intercom?” Dash asked.

“It’s like a radio. There’s a button and speaker on the outside of the casino by the door connected to another one on the inside. We’ll use it to speak to Silver Tooth and get him to open up,” Frayed Wire explained.

Rainbow Dash nodded and they shortly had rounded enough of the promenade where they could see the casino built into the far wall. A large two-story building half merged with the mountain. At one point huge letters spelling out “CASINO” were lit up by numerous light-bulbs on the front of the building, but all the bulbs had been removed and the A and the S had fallen off. The paint had peeled off too, making it look as ugly and broken down as anything else in the city. The Black Hoofs probably didn’t care about any of that though so long as the inside was clean and comfortable.

She could imagine them playing games and having fun all day while the other ponies down here broke their backs working for Resin. It honestly made her blood boil.

They soon stopped right in front of the heavy metal “door” of the casino. Her unified gang army that was maybe one hundred strong at this point was standing behind her, waiting for Rainbow Dash’s next move. Her eyes looked over to the right side of the door where a speaker was built in with a red button right below it. The intercom.

“Hope you’re prepared, Silver Tooth,” Rainbow Dash said as she reached up her hoof and pressed the button.

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

Happy Rainbow Dash Day!

[redmar]

There is a confrontation about to happen I doubt he Black Hoofs are very cooperative.

[Spiteful Spirit]

Well back to reading this again. I'm liking this arc tho, nice change of pace from the slow boil of the others.

[MagicS]

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Glad you're still enjoying the story!