//------------------------------//
// A Mammoth of a Problem IX 
// Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego 
// by MagicS 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash flew over the eastern part of the city, heading towards the wall and the farms that Larkon had marked beyond it. Aqua farming was one thing but now it was time to see what else they managed to grow in this cold valley. What could these mammoths make grow from the unforgiving land? She knew they had plenty of wheat and stuff like those herbs from Norma’s shop but she couldn’t imagine the land here was fertile enough to provide for a wide variety of crops. Although she had seen a lot of flowers in the city so maybe she was wrong.

Right now she was flying pretty low, just barely over the tops of the buildings so mammoths could still easily see her as she went by. She wanted to show them what she could do and what a flying pegasus looked like since she had mostly only been walking or hovering around at mammoth height as she went through the city previously. It would be a cool surprise to the ones who suddenly saw her too, by now Rainbow Dash was certain they had all heard or read about her so how cool would it be for one of them to look up and actually see their awesome visitor right above their heads? Doing something like flying in the sky that was unavailable to them.

With how friendly and open this place was she was sure no one would be scared or worried by her flying around either. That was the one thing she had been slightly apprehensive about but in the end she figured there was nothing to worry about. The mammoths would just think it was cool. And any mammoth she saw down there looking up at her she’d wave and smile to. Just like they wanted to make a good impression she had to make a good one for all the ponies and Equestria.

Now according to Larkon’s map and some of what he had told her if she kept following the main road she’d come to the eastern gate and then the road would keep going out to the quarry (which she also planned to visit later) but if you went down from there you’d hit the farms. Thanks to her height advantage she could see what looked like the edges of some farms in the distance to the south, so if she went down now she’d probably hit them but she also wanted to go to the wall first and see the outskirts of the city.

There was one mammoth down on the street coming from the eastern gate pulling a cart filled up with stone. He wiped his brow with his trunk and looked up to spot Rainbow Dash also staring right down at him. The mammoth jumped in surprise and Rainbow Dash chuckled. Luckily he seemed to see the humor in the situation as he also had a quick laugh and waved at her; Rainbow Dash was happy to return it and sped on to the gate.

It was funny to see that because the street had to be wider for mammoths that the big trees were unable to make an actual canopy over it. But they still made things prettier up here at least with them all going up and down it.

Now with her having a pegasus’ eye view of the city she could see all the snow that was still on top of the roofs and trees. These guys could use a pegasi weather service, no doubt about that.  

As she got to the end of the street it opened up into a wide half-circle around the eastern gate. Which unlike the western one yesterday was wide open so anyone could go in or out without a fuss. Several mammoths were sitting out at a concrete table to the right of it that was built under a large elm tree, looking like they were playing cards or something. They must’ve been the counterparts to Mallom and his group.  

“Hey, what’s up?” Rainbow Dash shouted to them.

They looked around in confusion for a few seconds before finally checking up, reacting with just as much shock as that last mammoth.

“Oh! It’s you!” One of them said, scrambling to get out of his seat and stand up for her while the others followed.

“You’re Rainbow Dash!” Another said with a big smile on his face.

“Yep, that’s me,” Dash waved and grinned awkwardly, still hanging in the air.  

“Won’t you come down and join us?” The first one said and waved his trunk over to the table. It was covered in cards and mugs of coffee. “Play a trunk or two?”

That actually did sound fun but Dash had other plans. “Sorry guys, maybe next time. Just wanted to make sure this is what Larkon called the eastern gate? Are you guys guards?”

“More like auditors. We record the entrance and exit of every mammoth through this gate and whatever they may have with them,” the first one said.  

“Out here all day?” She asked.

“It’s our job,” a third one shrugged.

“Fair enough. Alright, I’ve got another place to go right now but I promise I’ll come back for cards on another day. See ya!” Dash said and sped off over the gate before hooking right to travel down to the farms.

The mammoths watched her go, some waving and others just smiling. As some roofs soon blocked out their view of her they calmly went back to sitting at their table and picking their game of cards back up, glancing at the gate every now and then to see if any mammoths were coming through. The first one who had spoken to her picked up his mug with his trunk and downed the rest of the contents.

“Ahhh...” he sighed in contentment. “She was nice, wasn’t she?”





The first farm she saw was unsurprisingly a wheat farm but with her superior vision she could make out what she was pretty sure were corn farms right behind it too and a number of others that looked like lettuce patches and other rows of bushes that were probably herbs and seasonings. They were some really big farms too, all in all more than enough to put Sweet Apple Acres to shame. Which made sense what with how much these mammoths needed to eat. Even with the other kelp farms and the small personal gardens she had seen at a number of houses in the city these would still have to produce a massive amount of food to keep every last mammoth fed.

There were some big farmhouses out here too, three or four that she could see and all of them probably twice the size of Larkon’s house at least.  

She found it strange that it was all just left outdoors though. If snow was a constant here how did they keep it from ruining their crops? Meh, she wasn’t a farmer. And any time Applejack had tried to explain to her what she did she ended up just zoning out.

Or falling asleep.

But now all she knew as she flew over the farms was that they looked well taken care of. Mammoths with hoes, scythes, bags, and everything else needed for farming and safely transporting crops walked up and down the rows of produce today. A lot of them wore straw hats to keep the sun, weak as it was up here, from beating down on them. And they were all too focused on their work to notice the little pegasus flying right above them.

Well that was fine for her right now, unlike the “auditors” who were clearly relaxing these farmers had a lot of hard work to do and she wasn’t going to just interrupt them like that. Larkon probably knew some of the mammoths here and would’ve had an actual schedule or plan for Rainbow Dash to experience the farms like he did with Captain Gollak and the kelp. Rainbow Dash however just had to go wherever her gut took her and hope for the best.

Which for the moment was the nearest farmhouse.

She came down onto the healthy looking ground in front of it to see if there was any mammoth around who looked like the boss. Maybe she should just knock? There was also a barn attached to the side of the house and its doors were open, she could check in there first.

“Hello?” Rainbow Dash asked as she trotted over to it and stuck her head inside.

She was greeted with the sight of a near empty barn, all of the tools and other stuff that usually filled it up must be out in the field, and one old gray mammoth in the back sweeping the floor with a broom and a piece of wheat in his mouth. He looked up at her with a tired expression on his face—until he noticed just who it was that had spoken.

He dropped the broom in shock. “You’re that pony, what are you doing here?!”

She was hoping he was just a little surprised and not actually scared. Rainbow Dash flew into the barn to stand before him. “Hey, I’m just checking out the city and, well, now I’m here. Do you know Larkon? He’s the historian here and he wanted me to see the farms.”

“I know Larkon,” the old mammoth nodded and tentatively picked up the broom. “Sorry for my reaction, I just didn’t expect you to suddenly show up in my barn.”

“Yeah sorry, Larkon and I had to part ways for something and I didn’t really have a way to like, let anyone know I was coming so I just flew here,” she shrugged.

“Oh, so what did you want then? A tour or something? We’re a little busy today,” the old mammoth rubbed the top of his head.

Rainbow Dash could tell he wanted to be polite and a good host but didn’t really know how or have the time to. So why not just do what she had been doing and take things into her own hooves. “Hey it’s fine. I mean I can just fly around the farms and check them out on my own. Like, I’m pretty good at doing things by myself, I like that freedom. Just uh, is there anything you can tell me about these farms? Larkon would probably want me to know.”

“I spose’ so,” he leaned his broom up against the wall of the farm and walked up to her. “Uhh, so what we have out here is five families of farmers that have been taking care of the farms since… almost since the city was founded. Shouldn’t be much of a surprise to you but I’m one of those family members, though a lot of the workers out here aint related to any. My name’s Arkul too by the way.”

So they were kind of like the Apple family. Except the Apple’s were the reason Ponyville was founded, not the other way around.  

“The families of course live out here in these big farmhouses you see? The rest of the workers come from the city, mostly the areas right outside the eastern gate.”

Rainbow Dash had noticed that unlike the western side of the city where the buildings outside the wall were completely abandoned, the eastern side was still just as lively and inhabited as any part of the city she had seen inside the walls. From what Larkon had said it must’ve been a more recently built part of the city, probably using a lot of the requisitioned materials from the western side. Rainbow Dash thought it was silly at first. Like, why not just use the old buildings in the first place if you needed more homes for mammoths? But considering the farms and quarry were on this side of the city that was probably the reason why.

“And now you’re visiting during harvest season. What doesn’t just get sent into the city for day to day eating gets stored up for when the weather turns and it really gets cold and snowy up here.”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Really gets cold and snowy? You guys already have fresh snow every morning.

“True,” he nodded. “But only a few inches, not a few feet. And the lake aint frozen either.”

“Yeesh, guess I got here at the right time...” Dash looked out of the barn and over the farms, trying to picture what it would look like during winter.

As if it hadn’t been cold enough in most of the True North—only now did she realize how lucky she had actually been. Her wings and feathers would’ve completely frozen if she tried flying through a snowstorm and below freezing temperatures that did what Arkul said they did. She had shivered and struggled enough through some of the cold up here, she didn’t need to do anymore.

“Do you want to know what we grow here? You can fly around and see all the farms and patches and such that you want,” Arkul asked.

“Yeah, sure. I know you guys got wheat and I saw lettuce and some other stuff,” Rainbow said.

“It is mostly wheat, yep. That’s our most important crop, our staple food. Bread, pasta, what have you, we use wheat more than anything. But we also have pumpkins, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, sugar, peppers, and so on. I think you’d be surprised with what you see up here. Don’t expect fruit though.”

It seemed more than slightly unnatural that they could farm all that up here. Again, Rainbow Dash was hardly a farmer but she remembered that the only natural thing in the Crystal Empire had been those special crystal berries, and they definitely didn’t grow anything else out in the snowy landscape around them. There had to be something special about this valley.  

And in the back of her mind she was pretty sure Larkon knew what.

“I guess I’ll go check out the farms and stuff on my own then, I know you’re busy, see how everyone works out here,” Rainbow Dash said. She lifted up on her wings and flew out towards the barn door before looking back at Arkul. “Oh yeah, so where do you keep all the food you store for when it gets really cold?”

Arkul stomped his foot on the ground. “Underground storage. Lots of space dug out below the farmhouses, you can hold anything down there and it’ll keep as long as you do it properly.”

“Thanks,” Rainbow Dash gave him a slight wave and sped off back into the sky.  

The farms below her spread out over so much area, going up and down some of the slight hills here and stretching close to the mountains to the east. Combined with all that kelp it really was a lot of food. As she flew over some of the southern patches though she came to an area that was mostly a bunch of shrubby bushes and weeds. Probably stuff like oregano and garlic and other seasonings and herbs. There were mammoths down there carefully picking and digging things out with their trunks, Rainbow Dash didn’t want to bother any of them, she had no idea how long this “warm” season lasted.  

And just like her they probably wanted to make the most of their day.

In an area where there weren’t any mammoths walking up the rows just yet she flew down to see what was growing. She was confident in her nose being keen enough to tell her what was here. With a big sniff of the leafy green plants she was sure of it: basil. So they had that here too. Arkul was right about them having a wide variety of stuff, she should probably ask Norma and Shibu about all the different ingredients they used when they cooked next time she saw them.

She walked in the direction of the nearest farmhouse down these rows of crops, going from basil to garlic, and eventually lettuce. This next farmhouse had a different shape compared to Arkul’s. It was flatter and sat on a small hill with a wider footprint. And unlike the big barn attached to it there were several grain silos right behind it.  

Made sense she supposed. Different families probably took care of and stored different things.  

Grain came from wheat right? What was grain anyways? Seeds or something she thought.

Maybe she should’ve listened to Applejack and Twilight better.

Wheat seemed like a good idea since it was the closest crop being farmed at this farmhouse. When Rainbow Dash walked into the rows she became practically invisible to outsiders thanks to her relatively short stature. The tall patches swayed in the cool breeze, so much more to be harvested in the coming days. When she got to the end of the wheat farms she looked up at the farmhouse and saw a few mammoths on the hill rolling barrels and tightly packed bags around to the back.  

Without Larkon here to guide her she was starting to see her freedom as something of a detriment since it almost gave her too many options and she wasn’t sure if she would interrupt someone or something that she shouldn’t. Now Larkon had basically told her not to worry about anything like that and the mammoths would go out of their way to be nice and look as good as possible to her but she didn’t want to really impose on or bother them if she could help it. Normally she didn’t give that much consideration to others but that was back in Ponyville and it was usually her friends she was bothering. Up here she kind of had the duty to be as good as possible too. And that meant not being an inconsiderate jerk and just selfishly doing whatever she felt like.  

“Dang,” Rainbow Dash bit her lip.

If there was some chief in charge of all the farms she could just talk to him and maybe have him set her up with some kind of tour or give her some ideas; but there wasn’t. Well, Larkon might be disappointed but Rainbow Dash was beginning to think she had seen and learned all she needed to about the farms right now. If he had something to tell her about them next time she met him then so be it, but for now Rainbow Dash was thinking she could go.

“Quarry I guess,” she said as she flexed her wings and shot up into the sky, high enough to see completely over all the farm area and back to the city and the road that led out of the eastern gate.  

Supposedly she just needed to follow that road and she’d get to the quarry, and then once she was done there she could head back to Larkon’s house for whatever that “surprise” he had planned was.