Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

The Eternal Furnace XVI

The despondent looking Silver Tooth was with Rainbow Dash in his second story office. He was nervous and pale as he repeatedly rubbed his hoof in a circle on his forehead while Rainbow Dash flatly stared at him. On the wall behind him there was a radio transceiver just waiting to be used but the gang leader was doing everything he could to delay the reality. The calm and collected poker face had failed and now here he was alone with a pony who was very likely going to bring his whole world crashing down around him.

He could’ve refused to admit defeat or had his gang attack her, but the Cutie Mark on his flank burned for him to accept defeat gracefully. And he had done so regardless of the consequences.

“Alright, Silver Tooth, you know why I came here in the first place so hurry up and call Crush. There isn’t much time before the normal work day starts,” Rainbow Dash told him.

“I-I know… this is just something I never thought would happen. We had a really good thing going for us,” the sweaty gang leader wiped his hoof across his brow.

Rainbow Dash angrily narrowed her eyes and charged up to him, pushing him against the wall. “If you’re trying to make me feel bad for you you’re going about it the wrong way.”

“Can you blame me?!” Silver Tooth pleaded. “I saw an opportunity to save myself from that awful life under Crush and Resin and I took it!”

“I can blame you cause all you did was make things worse for everyone! Now call Crush!” Rainbow Dash yelled and released him.

“F-Fine...” Silver Tooth whined and faced the transceiver, turning it on.

He detached a microphone and a set of headphones from it, wearing the headphones and holding the speaker with his magic all carefully under Rainbow Dash’s watch. He had to flick a few switches and turn a dial on the transceiver to a certain frequency but soon he had Crush’s security station on the other line. One more switch was flipped and a green light lit up right above it.

“Hello? Is anybody there? This is Silver Tooth from the Black Hoofs, I need to speak to Crush.” Silver Tooth said into the microphone.

Naturally Rainbow Dash couldn’t hear anything on the other end so she stood around waiting for Silver Tooth to give any sort of signal that Crush had picked up the mic on his end and answered. She was pretty sure Silver Tooth wasn’t going to try and betray her at the last minute but she was listening in closely just in case he tried to. If it came down to that she was confident in her ability to fight off his entire gang and escape though. Soon though, Silver Tooth perked up and gave a curt nod to her, Crush had picked up.

“Hello, Crush, yes it’s me,” Silver Tooth explained. “No, nothing like that, the gangs are still fighting with themselves.” A lie, good. “I have something else important to discuss with you, can you come here privately?”

A second went by, Rainbow Dash could just barely hear a disgruntled but muffled voice coming from the headphones Silver Tooth was wearing.

Silver Tooth himself winced. “Yes, I know it’s close to work but something has come up. I promise it won’t take long...” He was sweating and nervous again. “Okay?” Another pause and then a relieved smile came over his face. “Good, we’ll keep the door open for you. I’ll see you soon.”

He flipped the switch and the green light went off, letting out a deep sigh and turning to Rainbow Dash with a grin. “He’s on his way.”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Good, you’re going to make sure things in here seem normal and then we’re all going to jump him together.”

“Okay...” Silver Tooth gulped. “Er, we’ll need to go out and tell the rest of the gangs to hide before Crush gets here.”

“You’re right, let’s go,” Rainbow Dash agreed.

“Hold on!” Silver Tooth said, grabbing her shoulder to stop her.

She glared back at him. “What?”

“I don’t fully know why you’re doing this or what’s going to happen… but you don’t think me and my gang are going to be punished too badly or anything, regardless of who comes out on top, eheh?” He nervously smiled at her, his silver tooth having lost some of its luster.

Rainbow Dash’s glare morphed into an apathetic frown. “Silver Tooth, all I’m going to say is you’re lucky I’m here to make things better for everyone.”

---

Crush, chief of security in the city, walked down the promenade to Silver Tooth’s casino with a bored frown on his face. To be fair—that was essentially his default expression in the first place. He disliked being drawn out of his normal schedule and routine like this but that annoying gang leader said it was important. As long as it helped make things easier for Resin though… that thought only made his frown deepen.

He could see the protective door was raised so at least Silver Tooth still knew how to listen to orders. He’d make this trip quick and then head over into the work zone. Crush walked right past the metal shutter and to the double doors that led inside the casino, foregoing knocking he simply pulled the doors open with his magic and stepped inside. He was not a pony that needed to knock for anyone here.

“Silver Tooth?” Crush called out as he walked up to the pit, the gang leader was standing there in front of it and fiddling with his hat.

Crush raised an eyebrow. “Well what’s this important business?”

“Ah, you see, that would be-” Silver Tooth sputtered about as he sweated.

Which was just enough warning for Crush to realize something was wrong before he was jumped.

“Get him!”

He heard someone yell and looked over to see a group of ponies jumping over the front desk next to him. All of them were looking to dog-pile on top of him and he had just enough time to try and put some magic in his horn before they landed on him. They wrestled over him and pulled him to the ground while he screamed and tried to punch and knock them away.

“Keep him down, make sure he can’t get away!” That same voice yelled and Crush felt someone jump on his back, keeping him pinned to the floor.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Crush roared.

“Hey, buddy.”

Crush looked up to see a vaguely familiar face grinning down at him. A blue pegasus with a rainbow mane… his eyes widened as he recognized her. “I know you, you’re that outsider who came in a few days ago!”

“Bingo, name’s Rainbow Dash!” Rainbow Dash said and winked. “Sorry I couldn’t stay out of trouble like you asked me to.”

Crush growled and glanced around at the others, Silver Tooth and his gang were watching over from the tables while on top of him were the stupid gang leaders he knew; Frayed Wire, Double Duty, and Acid Raid. “Well it seems something has been going on right under my nose.” He shot a glare at Silver Tooth. “I’ll just have you know right now that you’re finished after today.”

Silver Tooth gulped.

“Forget about him,” Rainbow Dash cut in. “Tell me the code to get past the door that leads to the higher levels of the city.”

“You want to get past the door? Why?” Crush raised an eyebrow at her.

“Because I’m going to take down Resin and return this city to how it used to be before she took charge,” Dash told him.

Crush stared up at her for a second, dumbfounded. “Hahaha… you, you can’t be serious?” He couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re not even from here.”

“So that means I can’t do anything good and selfless for you guys?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow at him.

To her surprise he shook his head, his laughter dying down. “No, no, I just didn’t expect it.”

“Whatever, are you going to tell me the code or not? If you don’t you’re not going to get back to your security team, we can still hold you here, and none of the ponies are going to be working today so I really don’t think Resin is going to be happy about that,” Rainbow told him.

“So either way the routine is going to be ruined and Resin will be unhappy...” Crush made an exaggerated sigh while a small grin tugged at his lips. “There’s no reason for me to help you at all, I couldn’t care less what happens to me and it’s clear you’ve already got your little revolt going on down here. Resin still controls everything, she’ll just lower the power for a little bit until you’re uncomfortable enough to start working again.”

“And nothing will change,” Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof. “Fine, so maybe Resin still holds a lot of the cards but she doesn’t hold them all. There’s no way anyone is going to be happy with the way things go if all of us down here really decide to revolt. So why not at least give me the chance to make things better for everyone?”

Crush gave her a questioning look. “And how would you figure you can do that?”

“Just let me talk to Resin and convince her to stop all this. Distribute the power like how it normally should be and stop making everyone break their backs just for that ceremonial flame,” Rainbow Dash said.

“That will never happen. You won’t be able to change Resin’s mind,” Crush shook his head.

“I’m not a pony to give up without trying,” Rainbow Dash defiantly stared him down. “And if I can’t convince her peacefully then I’ll do it by force, because things can’t stay how they are here.”

Crush stared at her long and hard. Truthfully, Rainbow Dash had given him less reason to let her through the door if he wanted to keep being loyal to Resin. He started laughing again, his chest heaving on the floor and rocking his whole body. “If you want to go up there then fine, I’ll tell you the security code. It doesn’t matter—nothing matters.” His laughter slowed down until just a grin was left on his face. “Of course first I’d like you to tell these idiots to get off me already.”

Rainbow Dash nodded to the gang leaders and they got off him, Crush slowly rising with a grunt and dusting himself off. He was a big pony after all and he didn’t need any additional weight wearing down his legs.

“That’s better,” he glared at the gang leaders. “I was wondering how long you idiots would keep fighting with each other, guess it took an outsider’s perspective to finally get you to change.”

The three gang leaders looked pretty angry and were about to do more than just “jump” on him when Rainbow Dash stepped between them. “Enough of that, just tell me the code.”

“Not quite so fast,” Crush frowned and narrowed his eyes. “I’ll tell you but only you. The rest of your group isn’t getting that code, and they’re staying down here. That’s the deal. I’m only letting you go through those doors to meet Resin.”

“That’s stupid!” Double Duty said. “If we could all go through there we could take her down by force, Rainbow Dash!”

“That’s right, forget talking to Resin to begin with, just let us gangs up there so we can get rid of her!” Frayed Wire said.

Crush snorted. “Exactly. That’s why it’s either only Rainbow Dash or no one.”

Rainbow Dash silenced the gang leaders with a wave of her wing. “It’s fine, besides like I said I wanted to try solving things peacefully in the first place. If this is the only way Crush will give up the code then it’s alright.” She flashed a grin at them. “You guys trust me to succeed well enough by now, don’t you?”

There was some grumbling but they couldn’t really say they didn’t at this point. Silver Tooth in the background was now silently praying for Rainbow Dash to be successful too, since Crush would most definitely mete out some harsh retribution to him. The rest of the gangs would have to be calmed down when they saw Rainbow and everyone leaving here with Crush but that should be an easy enough matter too.

Since she had her answer, Rainbow Dash looked back at Crush and raised an eyebrow. “So how’s this going to go then?”

“We can all walk up to the doors that block off the top levels from the mid and bottom ones, but you and only you will come over with me to the keypad. There I’ll tell you and enter the code so you can see I’m not lying or anything. No tricks, I’ll enter the code for you and then you can be on your merry way to Resin,” Crush said. He then breathed a long breath out of his nose and stared at her. “For all the good it will do you.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Rainbow Dash countered. “But fine, that sounds good to me, let’s go. I really want to do this as soon as possible. From what I’ve seen here these ponies have all suffered long enough.”

“Good luck changing that,” Crush sarcastically quipped to her.

Rainbow Dash frowned at him but didn’t bother restarting their argument. There were more important things to do right now.

---

Dozens of gang members followed Dash, Crush, and their leaders up the steps leading to the top level of the promenade where the great doors were as well as the way to get to the security forces headquarters. Crush weathered all of the stares and nasty looks from the other ponies with well practiced apathy while Rainbow Dash walked beside him. She too was staring up at him every now and then, curious about his attitude and how he had been acting.

Once they reached the top of the steps, Rainbow Dash looked ahead to see a huge gray wall blocking off the path ahead of them. It stretched the entire distance across the very top of the promenade.

“And that’s the blockade keeping anyone but me or my security force from going up,” Crush said.

“So how does it open?” Rainbow asked him.

“Electronic keypad on a switchboard in front of the door that raises it,” Crush nodded towards the lowered gate. “The rest of our party can stay right here.”

Rainbow Dash turned to the gang leaders. “Okay you guys, stay here by the steps with the others and don’t do anything when I’m through. Just wait for me in the housing block.”

“You still don’t want us to keep an eye on him or anything?” Double Duty asked with a glance to Crush.

“No—that’s part of the deal. He can do what he wants after giving me the code,” Rainbow said.

“Can’t say it’s a very smart decision...” Frayed Wire muttered.

“It’s about being fair,” Rainbow told them. “We’ve gotta be willing to show some kindness and be better even if we wouldn’t get the same treatment. That’s part of what it means to be a good pony and it’s what I’ve been trying to remind you all about. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it all anyways.”

“Can we hurry this up already?” Crush asked, bored and annoyed of this situation.

Rainbow Dash frowned at him but just shrugged. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

As the two left the other ponies on their way to the great wall that blocked off access to the higher levels of the city, Rainbow Dash kept shooting confused looks up at Crush. The security chief was odd. She couldn’t get a good read on him or figure out what he really thought or felt. He didn’t seem fanatically loyal to Resin nor did he seem to just be out to have as good a time as possible like Silver Tooth. That way he said “nothing matters” earlier—it had sounded like he was saying it to himself as much as he was saying it to her.

“Do you have a question to ask?” He suddenly asked her, aware of her constant glances.

“I’m just… confused by you,” Rainbow Dash admitted. “Do you even know or care about how what you’re doing is so wrong? And if you do why don’t you want to stop Resin too?”

“Hah!” Crush snorted. “Do I know? Of course I do, I’m not some moron, nor a monster. I know what I’m doing is wrong.” He shrugged.

“But then why? Why do you follow Resin and do all of this?” Rainbow Dash practically exploded at him.

Crush and her paused as they reached the wall, sure enough there was a pole coming out of the floor that ended in some kind of electronic keypad that looking kind of like a calculator to Dash. But Crush didn’t make any moves to input the code just yet. He turned his head to regard her with an impassive expression.

“She’s my sister.”

“Your sister?!” Rainbow Dash yelled almost loud enough for the gang ponies back there to hear, not that Crush seemed to care. “But… I don’t… no one said anything about that!”

Crush shrugged. “They don’t know, I’ve never had any reason to tell someone. Didn’t see the point.”

“If she’s your sister then do you know why she’s all… uh, crazy?” Rainbow Dash asked him. “How come you’re not all obsessed with that flame and everything? Honestly you seem pretty normal.”

“The only person who really knows about how she became like that is Resin herself. I hadn’t seen her for years before she showed up the way she is now and took over the city,” Crush said.

“How come?”

Crush sighed, not a sad one but an exhausted one. “I thought she was dead. When we were children there was a fire, I was rescued but the rest of my family were assumed dead along with some other families caught in it. It was a huge problem. Anyways I went to a foster family, and Resin wound up lost and abandoned in the bowels of the city. That’s all I know for sure. Either way at some point growing up she became obsessed with the fire at the top of the city—I have no idea why. And now-” he gestured around them. “This is what you’ve got.”

Rainbow Dash’s face was a somber look of pity. “I’m sorry to hear all that… but did you ever try to talk to her about all of this and change things?”

“Hehehe...” Crush chuckled and shook his head. “When I first saw her again I dropped down onto my knees and cried about how happy I was to see my baby sister again. Do you know what she did?”

“What?”

"She pushed me aside and started talking to others about how wonderful the flame was and how we needed to start devoting all of our lives towards it,” Crush snorted. “She didn’t care about me, she knew who I was, she just didn’t care. There wasn’t any anger or love or anything in what she did when it came to me. All she cared about—all she still cares about—is that dumb fire.”

Crush turned to the keypad and stared at it. “And I felt guilty. I felt guilty about being rescued, guilty about her having to grow up alone, guilty about how she had become. So I made the decision to support and help her. It was the only thing I could do to make amends, with her and myself.” His eyes looked over to her. “I know it’s wrong but I’m going to be the big brother she should’ve always had.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I feel bad for you.”

“She’s the one you should feel bad for. She’s like a child, you’ll understand when you meet her, and you’ll see why I told you it’s pointless.”

“We’ll see,” Rainbow Dash frowned. “Just tell me the code.”

“38211,” Crush said. “Watch.”

He input the five numbers and with a confirming beep a deep lumbering sound came from the door and it began to rise off the floor, slowly traveling up and receding into the ceiling. All in all the height to walk through was still only a normal door’s height, but it was wide. Beyond it there was a clean antechamber with bright lights in the ceiling and a set of glass doors on the far end that looked like they led to another much larger room. Along with a keypad that looked exactly the same as the one they had just used to open the door.

“And now you can find your own way to the top,” Crush told her.

“Thanks. I guess,” Dash said to him.

Crush bit back a laugh. “Sure. But just so you know I’ll be coming after you. I’m giving you a head start of about an hour just out of fairness but once that’s up my security team is going to be coming for you.”

Rainbow shrugged and walked past the door. “If that’s what you have to do then that’s what you have to do.”

The security chief did laugh this time. “You should’ve taken my advice and not caused any problems in here. I’ll see you soon.” He input the code again and the door slowly went down, the two of them watching each other the whole time until they disappeared from each other’s view.

Rainbow Dash then turned to the glass doors and nodded. “Okay, Resin, here I come.”

She traveled to the doors and pushed one of them open, looking out into this next room. It stretched on quite a bit into the distance but also looked like it was bisected by another huge hallway halfway down. Creating a big cross of a room. Pillars and support beams holding up the ceiling went all the way down it too—and there didn’t seem to be a single soul in here. The lights were on and things were cleaner looking than down below but it wasn’t very inviting for her first look into the upper levels of the city.

“Oh well,” Rainbow Dash shrugged and flapped her wings, preparing to take off and fly down the elongated and oversized hallway for a quicker trip.

“Are you really not done yet?”

The sudden, familiar, voice from the shadows of the pillars next to her caused Rainbow Dash to turn her head.

A unicorn with a silver light emitted from his horn emerged from the shadows, slicked back jet-black mane and tail, navy blue coat, powerful body, cold and expressionless face.

“You again… what are you doing here?” Rainbow Dash asked him.

Harlequin Grey stepped forward until they were only a foot apart. “I’m here to talk with you again of course.”

“Oh, that sounds really fun,” Rainbow Dash sarcastically rolled her eyes. “Look, I don’t have the time to talk with you right now and—hey, wait. Weren’t you a pegasus?”

“You’re misremembering things. I’ve always been a unicorn.”

“Whatever,” Rainbow Dash ignored him. “Like I said I’m not bothering with you right now.”

Harlequin Grey sighed. “Must you keep going on this pointless adventure? You aren’t satisfied enough even after defeating Karkona back in the mammoth city?”

“No I’m not,” Rainbow grinned. “And yeah—so that’s another thing I did up here in the True North, bet that makes you mad?”

“On the contrary, Karkona wanted to destroy the quiet and peaceful mammoth society that’s existed for centuries. I didn’t want him to succeed either.”

“Oh. Well, uh, I didn’t do it for you!” Rainbow Dash pointed her hood at him.

He rolled his eyes. “I’m well aware. And here you are now after completely refusing to heed my warnings, with a huge problem on your hooves.”

“Resin isn’t-”

“Not her,” Harlequin Grey cut her off. “The thing you met in Ice Valley.”

Rainbow Dash’s blood ran cold but she did her best not to show any fear to Harlequin Grey. “So you know about that too huh?” She bit her lip. “What is she?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea truly. Some kind of monster, one you’ve disturbed after a lot of effort has been done to keep her attention away from ponies like you.”

“Well whatever,” Rainbow Dash shook her head and tried to ignore that memory of what it felt like when Heartless touched her. “I’m not afraid of her and I’m not stopping this journey either. I’ve still got adventures to go on and ponies to save, got that!” She walked up to him and poked him in the chest. “And I still don’t trust you.”

She turned to walk away-

“She’s coming, you know.”

Rainbow Dash looked back at him with a frown.

He only nodded. “She’s coming here right now. Looking for you. After feeling your powerful life-force just once she’ll never lose sight of you, she can sense you no matter how far away you are. You can’t run or hide from her.”

“I’ll...” Rainbow Dash fought a gulp. “I’ll deal with her when the time comes.”

Harlequin Grey clicked his teeth. “Obnoxious ponies ruining my hard work… I’ve warned you enough I suppose. You’re going to regret not listening to me in the first place.”

He stepped backwards into the shadows while Rainbow Dash watched, until he vanished completely in them and she didn’t feel his presence anymore.

She turned back to look down the hallway and this time flapped her wings to hover halfway above the floor. “One thing at a time.”

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

It seems Resin’s reason to keep the flame going is personals a psychological one?

[Dashie04]

10662474
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. It’s usually assumed Rainbow Dash has it.

[StarzGecko]

10662493
Ok

[redmar]

Harlequin Grey's hard work isn't anything good. I hope Rainbow will get through to Resin.