Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

Demons III

Crush and his security team took a special elevator up close to the very top of the city, it was the fastest way to get up there if you couldn’t fly, and then made the short trek to the stairs that took them to the level with the ceremonial flame chamber and the control room. He briefly looked over his shoulder to make sure his entire force was with him—three dozen able-bodied ponies all loyal to him and by extension loyal to Resin. That was the best he could do really. Resin was not exactly the kind of pony you could expect others to be genuinely loyal to. Fear, yes. But loyalty that is birthed from love and admiration like the kind any good leader should have? Not quite.

He frowned inwardly but didn’t let it show on his face. Knowing the gangs down below had become unified, and getting a firsthoof experience of how reliable and capable that rainbow pony was, he wished there were more ponies on security. If he was up here he could always conscript some of the useless layabouts, couldn’t he? Put them to some sort of use, maybe they’d even be happy to have a job and be doing something even if it was oppressing their fellow citizens.

That could come later though. Right now he was also just worried about Resin’s broadcast and why she had called not just him but all of the security forces to her. Obviously that Rainbow Dash had done something. But if Resin just needed to tell him to find her and imprison here then why say everyone needed to come up here? Clearly there was something else going on, Resin must’ve gotten some idea or plan in her head. He knew her well enough to understand that especially with how out of the norm that earlier broadcast had been in the first place. Maybe Rainbow Dash had gotten to her in some way or rattled her.

Whatever, let’s just get this over with already. Crush sighed as he and his forces continued up the stairs.

They were getting close to the top when one of his subordinates, an earth pony by the name of Firm Press, deigned to speak.

“Sir? Do you know why Resin called all of us here?” He asked his chief.

“How should I know?” Crush shrugged. “Whatever it is we’ll learn soon. All of you just need to follow your orders.”

Firm Press nodded and they kept walking up the stairs, rounding another flight they were right before the top. Crush didn’t want to show that he was just as curious as the rest of his forces were. He wanted to be viewed as someone who had utmost faith in Resin and only cared about his orders. That was the role he played, to be on her side no matter what and make it easier for her will to be done. Even if the others weren’t loyal to her it kept dissent from breaking out in their ranks so long as he unquestioningly went along with what she wanted.

When Crush made it up the final step to the top level he stopped and turned to the others, all of them stopping to listen to him. “Alright, we’re here. The rest of you keep your mouths shut and just let Resin talk to me. Don’t look at anything, don’t touch anything, don’t question anything.”

He didn’t bother asking if they understood, instead just walking right down the circular hallway in the direction of the control room.

Of course when he got there the situation was unusual enough that it even caused him some trepidation.

There were a bunch of those metal monsters imposingly standing around the control room with Resin herself in the middle of it patiently waiting for his arrival. Usually her mind was so consumed by the flame that she hardly paid attention to anything else. He didn’t let his confusion and slight worry appear on his face as she strode inside, with the metal beasts watching him. He could feel the apprehension from the other officers as they walked in after him. Not that he blamed them, these things were terrifying and dangerous and they just stared menacingly at all the ponies.

Was one of them missing? He was fairly sure there were more than this.

Swallowing, he walked towards Resin and stopped a few feet in front of his sister. “What did you summon all of us here for?”

Her smile widened before she responded. “I have something very important for you and your security team to take care of! You see, I’ve realized we can make ourselves even more efficient and reduce all the unnecessary waste in this city. I want you to take care of enacting fail-safe protocol on all sections of the city that are not absolutely essential to survival! Every lounge area, every viewing deck, extra outer housing ring, storage, and etc. shall be closed off and jettisoned off the mountain!”

“Wha—really?” Crush couldn’t help the surprise and confusion even though it went against the persona he tried to project. What she said was so out of nowhere and excessive. A lot of the security officers behind him were mumbling too.

“Yes!” Resin either didn’t notice or care about their poor response. “First you’ll evacuate and escort all of the ponies still in those areas in the upper levels and then you’ll immediately get rid of them. We don’t need it anymore and it’s just a slight drain on the power and fuel that should be going to the flame anyways.

“I-I see...” Crush was worried in truth. This might be the kind of thing that did get his officers to mutiny if he didn’t keep them in line. It was a little much even for one of her orders.

“There’s no time to waste, I know you can do it for the glory of the flame!” Resin said. She then blinked. “Oh yes, and one last thing, if you see that blue pegasus by the name of Rainbow Dash please imprison her or do whatever it is you do to troublemakers.”

That he could nod along with easily at least. “Of course.”

“Good! Now hurry up and get on out there! There are a lot of sections to remove and I want your entire security force to work on it until it’s done,” Resin cheerfully told him.

“We will,” Crush nodded and looked over his shoulder at the slightly faltering group of security ponies. “Isn’t that right?” He only had to narrow his eye a little bit.

“Yes, sir!” His ponies answered, but he could still see some of them sweating and shooting uncertain glances at each other.

“Thank you. Remember that everything you do is for the flame, you’ll be able to feel its warmth and love even more after fulfilling this duty!” Resin told them and waved to the security officers before turning around and walking over to her control panels.

Crush wasn’t sure if she had something else to do or not but he knew better than to ask. Especially with the Wolf monster staring right at him. So he turned around to face his ponies and grunted. “Alright, you all heard her, let’s get to work!” He strode past them and started walking back out of the control room. “We’ll split into teams to cover as much ground as possible and get everything jettisoned before the end of the day! And be sure to keep an eye out for that pegasus!”

“Yes, sir!” They answered again, more strongly this time, and filed out with him.

Although he kept up the stony appearance he needed to he was still a bit tumultuous on the inside. This was too much. Were they really going to do this? The mountain city was going to become a skeleton city now—it was such an extreme order from Resin but he knew he couldn’t do anything about it. Refusing her was out of the question, especially in front of the others, and trying to convince her to change her mind would be impossible. That’s just not how she worked.

A slight pang of guilt hit him but he quashed it. He’d still look out for his little sister, misguided as she was.

---

Once Crush and the rest of the security team had left, Resin got to work on the other thing she was doing to diminish waste and increase efficiency in this city. For even she had the sense to not actually tell Crush what she was going to do with all the ponies in the housing blocks down in the lower levels. Even he wouldn’t accept such a thing. They’d just have to come to an agreement after the fact. Or not, if he and the others still refused to accept what she was about to do then she’d just have her metal beasts deal with them.

She hummed a nice tune to herself as she looked over the necessary controls for cutting off all the power and all life-support systems to the lower levels. Hesitation and concern for anything that wasn’t the ceremonial flame were no longer things that existed in her mind.

“All for the flame,” Resin said as she reached a hoof up and turned the first dial to zero. Then the next. Then a series of switches were flipped. Then a button. Everything was turned off.

Lights. Off.

Heating. Off.

Ventilation. Off.

Doors. Closed.

Ways to get into the work areas. Closed off.

“Good,” Resin smiled. “Shouldn’t take more than a day or two for them all to die. Better keep everything turned off and closed up for three just to be sure.” A sudden frown came across her features, her one eye twitching and her teeth grinding together. “Being forced to use the fuel and power reserves for the flame… how horrible, how insulting. Nothing like this will ever happen again. You all made me do this because you couldn’t love the flame like I do.”

Resin slammed a hoof down on the control board to calm herself, breathing in and out and thinking about the warm and comforting glow of the flame. A smile reached her features. That’s exactly what she needed, to spend some more time in front of the flame to calm herself down. She had been interrupted earlier after all. A good hour sitting there before the flame’s love and she’d be feeling fine again.

---

Down in what used to be the Black Hoofs’ casino the leaders of the various gangs and a number of their subordinates were passing the time playing games and waiting for Rainbow Dash to come back. Silver Tooth and his gang members however had been relegated to the staff attending to them while they enjoyed the slot machines and card tables. A fitting punishment.

No one was sure when Dash would be back or when they’d have any news of what was happening above but they at least weren’t going to be fighting while she was gone. Things had changed for good down here and they weren’t going back to the old ways. The Black Hoofs were deposed, none of them were working for a tyrant, and the casino would be the first fun place that would be reopened for everyone. The unified gangs were going to fix things. Doing the good things they should’ve done from the start instead of allowed themselves to be played against each other and fight for such petty reasons. All the ponies who weren’t in gangs would be lifted up too.

Double Duty, Acid Rain, Frayed Wire and Nut were all playing Poker at a table, with Silver Tooth as the dealer. Acid Rain drew to a three-of-a-kind that he figured would win him the hoof only to look on in dismay as Nut put down a flush.

The pegasus grumbled and flicked his cards back at Silver Tooth. “Think she’ll be back by the end of the day?”

“Who knows,” Double Duty shrugged. “Just let her do her thing.”

“We should’ve made Crush let us go through too,” Frayed Wire frowned.

“It can’t be helped now, we’ve just got to wait,” Double Duty said.

“I’m confident she’ll pull through after everything else she’s done it’s just annoying having to sit here with jerks like this-” Frayed Wire nodded over to Silver Tooth, who glared at him. “Doing nothing.”

“Still better than the alternative of working or beating each other senseless,” Nut said. “I don’t think we would’ve been very helpful to her up there anyways.”

Frayed Wire shrugged. “I guess you’re right.”

Acid Rain tapped the table with his hoof, frowning over at Silver Tooth. “Well, dealer? Hurry up and deal the next hoof.”

“Yeah, yeah...” Silver Tooth grumbled, using his magic to gather up all the cards and put them back into the deck, quickly reshuffling it and preparing to slide em out to the players.

When all around them an electrical whining sound fell over the casino and the lights went out, throwing them all into darkness.

Comments

[superfun]

Man, I really can't wait for Resin to be dealt with.

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

[StarzGecko]

I’ve caught up...

Wow, so we got the Thing, FNAF, Crazy Flame loving Pony and now darkness to worry about... It’s about to get scary isn’t it?