//------------------------------// // A Mammoth of a Problem XXVII // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// Shibu was not done with Rainbow Dash. Not by a long shot. Rainbow Dash learned this the following day when she was dragged out to the marketplace and taken into one of the busy shops close to town’s square. A shop for jewelry. Specifically tusk jewelry, the kind that Shibu loved to wear and she had seen many other mammoths, guys included, wearing all across the city. “Okay look-” Rainbow Dash started as they entered the store. “I’m not totally against wearing stuff like this, I’ve worn it before and all, but it’s still not my thing, you know?” “But some nice accessories would perfectly complement your pretty new hairdo,” Shibu smiled at her. A half teasing smile. Rainbow Dash tossed the braided mane she was still wearing back behind her head, it kept falling one way or the other and getting in the way, and frowned at Shibu. “That’s part of the problem. Besides I don’t know how you’re going to get jewelry specifically made to fit or hang off a mammoth’s tusk to work for me.” Shibu frowned as she looked Rainbow Dash up and down, thinking on how best to tackle that problem. “We’ll figure something out. The employees here are experts when it comes to jewelry and style too. By the end of the day we’ll have found the perfect look for you.” “Noooo...” Rainbow Dash weakly whined. Despite her protests they went deeper into the store, Rainbow flying past shelves and other mammoths shopping. Perhaps unsurprisingly, all the mammoths she saw shopping in here with them had way more jewelry and ornamentation on their tusks than the average mammoth. There were lots of ear—tusk rings that hung off their tusks along with bands painted gold or silver and embossed with intricate designs. Some of the hanging jewelry had pretty little bells at the ends that jangled with every movement of the wearer. She saw a lot of dangling hoops that were attached by thin golden chains, and glass that was colored and fired to give it the appearance of crystal. A place for Rarity more than her. Rainbow Dash just blanched at the sheer variety of stuff she saw in here and how Shibu was clearly willing to go through every little thing until she found something for Rainbow Dash. She was going to be used as a ponnequin and be forced to model and exhibit all kinds of stuff, she just knew it. “Uh, can I just go back home?” Rainbow asked Shibu. “I could just let you pick something out for me and I promise I’ll wear it at least once.” Shibu grinned at her. “Not a chance, dearie. We need to make sure it fits you perfectly.” Rainbow groaned and flew about a display case that contained sequences of rings to fit on your tusks with fake diamonds studded all in them. Some of the golden bands may have fit perfectly around her hooves or up her legs, or even around her neck if there were any that unlocked like that. But then I’d start looking like Zecora. Rainbow Dash thought, the picture vividly coming to her head. Hopefully Shibu would just find something nice looking soon and Rainbow Dash could be temporarily put out of her misery. “Ladies!” Shibu suddenly said as they got to the back of the shop. “I have a special customer for you!” The back counter of the store was occupied by three old mammoth ladies with graying fur and an assortment of jewelry on their own tusks. When they saw Shibu and Rainbow Dash their eyes lit up and they moved with a fiery passion that Rainbow wouldn’t have expected from their age. The three ladies burst from behind the counter and ran up to Shibu and Rainbow, their stampeding steps shaking the cases and display sets around them. “Shibu, it’s been ages! And Miss Rainbow Dash is here too?!” The first one who reached them said, she wore thick square bifocal glasses on her face that she squinted at Rainbow Dash through. “Hi...” Rainbow Dash hesitantly waved to her and the other two. “Rainbow Dash, let me introduce you.” Shibu said and pointed to the first lady with her trunk. “This is Nallo.” “A pleasure,” Nallo said and grasped Rainbow Dash’s hoof with her trunk, shaking the pegasus vigorously. “Y-Yeah...” Rainbow said after she was let go as she watched a number of her feathers fall to the ground. “And this is Gobu,” Shibu said to the next mammoth in line, who looked to be the oldest of the trio. “We’ve read a lot about you from the newspaper, and a few customers have been gossiping back and forth about you too,” Gobu said politely. Rainbow Dash wasn’t entirely sure what to make of that comment but she smiled anyways. “Thanks?” “And last but not least, we have Kallok!” Shibu said of the last of the proprietors. Kallok had the most jewelry on her tusks of the three, you almost couldn’t see the bare ivory beneath everything she was wearing. Kallok also shook Rainbow Dash’s hoof with her trunk, although she at least did it gently enough where she only shook her hoof and not her entire body. “Are you interested in jewelry too? We haven’t seen you around here before, Miss Rainbow Dash.” “I decided that she needed something nice,” Shibu stated with a big smile on her face. “Don’t you think she’s just so pretty? She needs to accentuate it.” The three ladies looked Rainbow Dash up and down, making her thoroughly uncomfortable. It was just like with Shibu, they were imagining what they could do with her and make her wear, who knows how much she’d have to model before they were satisfied that they had found the perfect thing for her. Other customers were watching the whole affair now too. Rainbow could hardly blame them, who wouldn’t be intrigued by the only pegasus in the city being fitted for their culture’s jewelry? “Uhh… I’ll just leave this all in your trunks, cause I have no idea about anything,” Rainbow Dash gulped. “Just… at least try to pick out something cool, okay?” Shibu chuckled at Rainbow Dash and gave a knowing look to Nallo, Gobu, and Kallok. “Please find her something extra cute.” “Noooo…” The next hour for Rainbow Dash was spent just as she expected: with all manner of jewelry being foisted upon her and tried on. Business in the store stopped completely as all the customers came to watch as well. She had alternating rings of silver and gold slipped over her hooves, down her tail, around her neck, etc. Chains with glistening “crystals” at the end were attached to her ears to see how that looked, but most were oversized. All of the ladies tried their trunks at finding a way to accessorize her wings, to very mixed results. Gobu fit a golden “necklace” around her neck that was originally meant for mammoth tusks. It had a set of orange rectangular crystals all around it that went well with her coat. “I think that’s the best looking thing we’ve gotten so far,” Gobu said as she looked around the pony’s neck. “You might be right,” Kallok said as she slid a pair of silver bands engraved with a floral pattern up both of Dash’s forelegs. “Nnnn...” Rainbow Dash groaned in discomfort the more and more was done with her. “Let’s try this,” Nallo said and removed the pink bow that Rainbow Dash had on her tail and replaced it with a golden loop. “Simple, but nice.” “True,” Kallok nodded. “But it’s just not cute enough, the bow was cuter.” “Do we have a loop with pink beads or crystals in it?” Nallo asked. “Maybe somewhere...” Kallok muttered as she put two more silver bands on Rainbow Dash’s hindlegs. Shibu this whole time was patiently watching and nodding along as the wide variety of jewelry was exhausted on Rainbow Dash. She would frequently smile or frown depending on what was put on the pony, the final word on whether something was cute enough or not. Rainbow Dash was certain that if there were cameras here she and every other customer would be snapping tons of pics. In the end, after being used as a living prop, Rainbow Dash was left with four silver bands that had flowers engraved on them on each leg, a golden necklace with orange crystals around her neck, hoop earrings that dangled from thread-thin golden chain, and a golden loop studded with pink pearls at the end of her tail. Combined with the fashionable way her mane and tail were done and she looked fit to party in Canterlot. Rainbow Dash looked down at herself and grimaced. “Couldn’t you, couldn’t you at least have found something patterned with like swords or lightning bolts instead?” “No, you look adorable, it’s perfect,” Shibu said, patting her on the back. “I am not adorable,” Rainbow grumbled. Shibu was undeterred. “What does everyone think of the final product?” She said, stepping away from Dash so absolutely everyone could see the jewelry bedecked pony. Rainbow blushed as almost twenty different mammoths clapped and voiced their approval for what Nallo, Kallok, and Gobu had put her through. It was probably really good advertisement for the three of them. But she really wished it would just be over. She was confident that she could just about rock any sort of look, and still be awesome and kick butt even looking like this, but standing around while everyone thought about how cute she looked? It was very embarrassing. Please let’s just go home already. She lamented. “Bwahahahahaha!” “Pffff! Hahahahahaha!” Both Larkon and Alykon were rolling on the floor laughing at her when she got back and Shibu happily showed her day’s work off to them. Samarkon just snorted in derision and walked away. Rainbow Dash glared at the two mammoths the entire time, looking forward to being able to take off all this stuff the moment she got away from Shibu. It couldn’t come fast enough.