//------------------------------// // A Mammoth of a Problem XLV // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// Karkona and his army marched through the dangerous and crowded mountains like mammoths possessed with only their goal in mind. Karkona in particular already felt on top of the world after what he had done to Larkon back in the city. And his followers felt invigorated because of how their leader was feeling. They could practically touch the aura he was giving off and leech off his strong will and drive, that was Karkona’s power as a leader. His overwhelming presence that made these mammoths behind him totally devoted to him. They believed in him and whenever he was feeling like this, with passion and adrenaline pumping through his veins, it made them more powerful as well. Despite the satisfaction beating Larkon half to death brought him though he was also annoyed and a little angry about how the historian had acted. Where did he get off thinking he could stand up to Karkona? And say those kinds of things and try to stop him without even being willing to fight back. It was infuriating in all honesty. But breaking Larkon’s body did everything and more to fill him with elation. There was only that nagging annoyance left that Larkon had even done that in the first place in front of all of his followers and whatever mammoths were watching. That pathetic, cowardly, weakling, historian… he was lucky Karkona wanted him to live for now. Whatever. Larkon mattered less than an ant now. The Sacred Spring was before them and soon Karkona’s dreams could come true. The last little thing that stood in his way was a pony that had no hopes of challenging him. Oh he couldn’t wait to crush her too and then finally gain the power of the Spring and become a mammoth among mammoths. How wonderful it must feel, he could practically taste that power already. Whatever else needed to be done to achieve that power he would discover it, the supposed Sages that were said to live at the Spring would either help him or suffer like Larkon. Karkona grinned as he thought about that possibility. If it came down to it he hoped they’d at least put up more of a fight than the historian. He relished the thought of what would come right after too when he had the Spring’s power. A test would be in order. Maybe he’d see what he could do to Murrank or one of his other soldiers, or if he had the patience he could travel back to the city and just show them all how much more powerful he had become. “How much farther do you think it is?” The voice of Murrank coincidentally brought Karkona out of his thoughts. Karkona looked over his shoulder at him and the rest of the army trudging through the mountains behind him. They had long stopped their shouting, heavy stomping, and waving of their weapons around. That was a show for the cowardly mammoths in the city and something that was supposed to scare Larkon. Now they marched in a much more casual fashion, their weapons hung limply at their sides and cold, hard looks on their faces as they followed their leader through these dreary mountains. “Who knows?” Karkona answered. “But this is the only path we found, it must lead to the Sacred Spring. Larkon loves his fellow mammoths too much to lie about this and deal with the retribution I would mete out if he tricked me.” “Right,” Murrank nodded. “I can’t wait. To think we’ll finally have that power that’s plagued our dreams for years.” Karkona allowed a low rumbling laugh to escape from his throat. “Yes, it’s almost upon us. All of us will soon become powerful enough to face entire armies on our own. And I… I will be the strongest, the true mammoth among mammoths, and King!” Karkona trumpeted loudly, Murrank, Alok, and the others nearest following suit until the entire army was joining in, even the ones so far back they had no idea why it was happening. They all could use the break, as the journeying through the mountain was proving tiring and tedious. The narrow confines of the trail and steep cliffs around them caused their numbers to spread thin and sometimes their path took them right beside a treacherous dropoff that they had to carefully walk past unless they wanted to take a tumble into a crevice they couldn’t even see the bottom of. And these were not the types of mammoths that handled boring well. They wanted to hurry up and get that power just as much as Karkona so the conquest could begin. The hundreds of them still made steady progress with Karkona at the front, the sole mammoth there, no others were allowed to march side by side with him. He went up the hills, through the canyons, around the bends, not stopping or slowing down at all. It didn’t matter if he had to end up climbing up one of these entire mountains at some point—he would get to the Spring. He figured it was somewhere in the center of this band of mountains since that would make it the most difficult to find no matter where you entered the mountains from. How had Tarmok managed to stumble across it all those years ago? Their predecessor must have been blessed by some sort of divine luck or fate. It had to have been Tarmok’s destiny to discover the Sacred Spring. Karkona couldn’t care less if he had that same sort of divine blessing. He’d take what he wanted with his own trunk and nothing like fate or luck would mean anything. Everything he accomplished was from his own strength and nothing else. He had united all the angry, thuggish, mammoths in the slums under his rule by beating anyone who opposed him and now look how far they had come. He had spread his word to all the impressionable kids in the city and look what he had gained because of that. It was all him. All Karkona. The mammoth grinned as he continued down the path to the Sacred Spring, no one around to see his face. A fight was coming. War was coming. And it made his heart race in excitement. Much to her displeasure and impatience, Rainbow Dash had to slowly glide along with the Sages as they took her inside their monastery. Past the dark entrance they had emerged from they were now inside a stone corridor lit up by torches along the walls. The shadows that draped over that entrance to keep any outsider from looking in had long disappeared. But what are we doing here in the first place? Rainbow Dash silently fumed. I know they said something about this was dangerous but come on! We don’t have the time. The elderly mammoths probably couldn’t move any faster than they were though and obviously they believed something very important needed to be discussed before Rainbow Dash gained the power of the Sacred Spring and fought Karkona. She’d have to be polite and patient. As teeth-grindingly difficult as that was proving to be right now. Ollaron was at the very front leading the procession with Rainbow Dash floating right behind him and the other three Sages whose names she hadn’t gathered yet followed behind her. The corridor wasn’t wide enough for more than one mammoth to walk in at a time, in fact it was narrow enough where even a more heavyset mammoth would have trouble getting through it. “Sooo… you guys have lived here for how long now?” Rainbow Dash asked in an attempt to pass the time, not knowing how much further they needed to walk. “Long enough where the years have all blended together. Ages,” the female Sage from directly behind her said. “Geez, you ever get bored?” “It’s a life of quiet contemplation and accomplishment,” Ollaron said, not really answering her question. “That’s not to say we don’t do anything though,” the other male Sage from the back said. Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up and she glanced back at him with a raised eyebrow. “Oh yeah? What kind of stuff do you do here to pass the time?” “We have board games,” he cheerfully smiled back at her. She cracked as genuine of a smile as she could at him. “Sounds fun.” It’s just like she thought when she first heard of these Sages. She would die of boredom if she had to be out here just guarding over the Spring for hundreds and hundreds of years. Well at least her arrival would spice up their lives a little bit… in the wrong way, but still. Even if she was a harbinger of doom she was still someone else to talk to. Dash loved her friends and there was no one more loyal to them than her but if she could only talk to them for a thousand years even she might start to get a little tired of it. After some more excruciatingly slow walking/flying the party of five emerged from the corridor into the first real room of the monastery. For mammoths it would’ve just been an average sized chamber but for a pony like her it was very big. Round, with a tall ceiling that had a huge golden chandelier hanging from it with dozens and dozens of arms that wielded lit torches. Directly at the other end of the room there was a huge double door with large wooden beams across it that locked it in place, making opening it from the inside impossible. There were two other large open doorways to her left and right and the center of the room was taken up by a large round table with for some reason an even dozen stone chairs around it. The chairs looked more like thrones almost, Dash thought they might’ve been built right into the ground or carved from rocks that had been sitting there. And as she looked around this room some more she was hit with some slowly building recognition. She had seen a familiar sight to this place many times in her life now. This is just like the Cutie Map room in Twilight’s castle. Rainbow Dash thought to herself. Is that a coincidence? Or—no way, has to be a coincidence, doesn’t make any sense the other way. Faded tapestries were hung all over the walls, so faded she could barely make out what might have been shown on them when they were first made. She could vaguely make out the shapes of mammoths, mountains, what looked liked a battle of some kind, but most of it was a blur on all of them. In addition to those the only other things seemed to be a pair of wooden cabinets by the two doors on the right and left of the chamber. While the table itself that took up the center of the chamber was made of a smooth and polished rock that didn’t fit in with the mountain and other stone around it. Everything about this chamber felt—unusual. Not scary or creepy, but there was just an off feeling the more she looked around it. While she hovered in the entryway the four Sages went to take up random seats at the table. Rainbow Dash then floated towards it and stayed above the center instead of taking a seat anywhere. She looked around at each one of the Sages, frowning as they didn’t seem to have any intention of starting up the conversation. “Okay so can we actually do something now?” Rainbow Dash asked them. “I think you guys know how important this is so whatever we need to talk about let’s do it fast.” “When was the last time you ate?” Ollaron asked her. “What?” Dash threw her hooves out in disbelief. “You’re going to want a full stomach and have as much energy as possible for when you enter the Spring,” the other male Sage said. The two female Sages nodded and one of them, who was slightly taller than the other, spoke up. “It’s very important that you’re in as great of shape as possible. Even then I’m not sure...” Rainbow Dash furrowed her brow as she continued to stare at the four of them, even now they still weren’t forthcoming. At last she sighed and dropped to the table. “Fine. Obviously this is a big deal too so let’s take it slow like you want. Just please, tell me about the Spring and everything so I can use it to stop Karkona already.” “We shall,” Ollaron said in a slow and doddering voice. “But allow us to officially introduce ourselves. As you know, I am Ollaron.” “My name is Nillse,” the taller of the female Sages said. “I am Damark,” the other male Sage said. “And I am Zemara,” the other female Sage said. Rainbow Dash turned around and waved at all of them in turn. “Uh, nice to meet you all. So yeah, I’m Rainbow Dash from Equestria. I’ve flown a really long ways to get here and now I’d really like to save your city from Karkona and everything.” “And we would like to help you, but you must be fully aware of what you are asking to do,” Ollaron said. “To attempt to gain the power of the Sacred Spring is not without danger. In fact, for you it may mean certain death.” A frown tugged down her lips as a cold pit settled in her stomach. “I don’t get it? I thought it was just supposed to make you super strong when you went into it?” “It isn’t so simple,” Nillse said. “If you are not already incredibly strong you won’t be able to handle the power of the Spring flowing into you. Many of Tarmok’s followers entered the water of the Sacred Spring only to never reemerge.” “Okay, now I get why you guys wanted to talk about things first,” Rainbow grimaced. “Yes,” Zemara nodded. “And please eat or drink something if you are even the slightest bit famished.” Dash sighed and sat down on the table. “Geez… this just couldn’t be easy, could it?” “Considering your size and strength is far lesser than a mammoth’s it’s not unlikely that the Sacred Spring may kill you outright the moment you submerge yourself. We have no idea if any creature less than a strong mammoth can survive it,” Damark said. “Well if there is any creature that can then it’s me. You can count on that,” Rainbow Dash pointed to herself. “It’s good that you’re confident. A strong will and lack of fear are necessary as well,” Ollaron said. Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I mean… you guys are saying it’s really dangerous for me but I sound like the perfect pony to try it out. Super athlete, boundless confidence, most awesome pony alive, what else do I need?” Ollaron smirked. “Yes, you are making a good argument.” “I’m still worried about letting her into the Spring,” Nillse said. “I as well,” Damark said. “It’s not just about her potential death, but the whole reason we’ve lived her for so long is to keep others from misusing the power of the Spring.” He looked over at Rainbow Dash. “How much do we really know this pony? Are we supposed to take her word on everything? What if she proves to be just as dangerous with the power as Tarmok was?” “Even if her intentions were less than noble that wouldn’t be such an issue though,” Ollaron said. Rainbow Dash glanced over at him. “Why not?” Ollaron was silent for a second, looking at his fellow Sages before responding. “The ritual to use the Spring’s power, as well as the Spring itself, are centered around mammoths. Even if you gained the strength of a mammoth the effect of the Sacred Spring would only be temporary. I doubt you would keep its power for more than a day or two.” “Okay then even more reason to hurry up and do this ritual for me!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “I can’t possibly do anything bad with your Spring’s power—not that I would in the first place. Seriously, believe in me, Larkon trusted me to stop Karkona. Me, because he believed in me. I know I don’t really have any proof and don’t have much time to convince you but here-” Rainbow Dash paused and took the time to look each one of them deeply in the eyes. “Look me in the eyes and you’ll know I’m telling the truth. Cause you’ll never find a friend more loyal and dependable than me.” Each Sage met her powerful stare and saw a great depth and will in those magenta eyes of hers. They had lived a very long time but not even in their long lives could they recall seeing such a strong will. Just like Rainbow Dash had said, it was impossible to believe that she was lying after really looking into her eyes. Ollaron cleared his throat. “Ahem, I think it’s settled then. I do trust you and what you’ve said about this other mammoth coming to take the power of the Spring by force. If the Spring must be used then let it at least be used for good.” “We knew at some point there would come more to use the Spring again. Although we hoped we could peaceably talk them out of using it,” Zemara said. “Believe me, that’s not an option,” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “We tried.” “We would refuse the use of the ritual for as long as we could… but he sounds like the type of mammoth to follow through on his threats. And he may always be able to find out how to use the power of the Spring all on his own like Tarmok did,” Nillse said. Rainbow Dash frowned and raised an eyebrow at her. “What’s up with that anyways? Larkon told me that Tarmok first discovered the Spring and used it to get strong but then later he had all of his followers do a ritual or something first before they could use it?” “The fine details of King Tarmok’s journey and initial discovery of the Sacred Spring are unknown even to us,” Ollaron said. “What we do know is that he went into the Spring alone and became a mammoth among mammoths but upon his return with his followers he said the Spring could only be used by other mammoths after a special ritual, but after that ritual many mammoths could gain the power of the Spring at once instead of one at a time. He somehow unlocked the secrets of the Sacred Spring all on his own and kept them so mammoths couldn’t move against him so easily and use the Spring against him. Not that it did him any good in the end.” “This Karkona sounds like a strong-willed enough mammoth that he wouldn’t stop until the Sacred Spring was nothing more than his tool. Just like Tarmok,” Zemara said. Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, he is.” “Then we can only hope that you’re able to withstand and take in the power of the Sacred Spring,” Ollaron said, a morose look pulling at his ancient face. “I don’t plan on dying anytime soon,” Rainbow Dash confidently grinned. “Well I do believe we have said everything we wish to say. If you’re still going to use the Sacred Spring despite the danger we will help you,” Nillse said. “I am. There’s no question about it, let’s do it,” Dash said. “Have something to eat first,” Damark said. “We were serious about that, you know?” Zemara stood up from her stone chair and went over to the cabinet on the left side of the room, she opened up one of the drawers and rummaged through it for a bit before pulling out a faded wicker basket. It looked so spindly and dry that Rainbow wouldn’t have been surprised if the whole basket disintegrated into dust while she held onto it. But it managed to stay in one piece while she placed it on the round table and Dash flew up to it to see just what it was these mammoths ate. “Uhh...” she was flummoxed as she stared into a basket full of what looked like bark and dried pieces of wood. “Roots, it’s all we eat out here,” Zemara said. “We are Sages after all,” Ollaron shrugged. “It won’t taste good and it might be impossible for you to chew but it’s healthy, natural, and it will fill you up for your endeavor.” Dash reached in and picked up a root, just from the look and feel of it she could tell this was going to be like eating a tree branch. “Looks great.”