Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS


A Mammoth of a Problem XLVI

Abalun and Harrak rushed through the slums with many more mammoths from the city following behind them. There were some leftover thugs and slum-dwellers not part of Karkona’s army that were still in there but once they saw the herd of stampeding mammoths coming over the bridge they wisely shut themselves indoors and chose not to bother with them. Most of the slums were an outright ghost town thanks to this and so many fighting age mammoths going with Karkona.

Besides the mammoths who had been in town’s square and heard Larkon say they had the opportunity to rescue the kidnapped children many more had been gathered up along the way. Harrak had practically been shouting the entire time he ran and as soon as Abalun caught up with him he helped alert any mammoths in nearby homes of what was going on. Now they were well into the slums with a ragtag army of their own.

“I know where the children were being kept!” Abalun shouted over pants as he ran along with everyone. “He shouldn’t have had a reason to move them, let’s go!”

“Dathon!” Harrak yelled again.

Abalun would’ve liked to have gathered up all the Senators and brought them out here so they could reunite with their children personally but that wasn’t feasible with how scattered around the city their homes were. Most probably had no idea what was going on at all. That reunion would come soon after they got the kids out of the slums. Abalun also wondered if the kids realized they weren’t being guarded anymore and all of Karkona’s followers had left? If they did then it was possible they were already freely moving about the slums. That might make things worse though if they got lost or came across some unaffiliated thug. Abalun really hoped they could just get back to where they needed to go and rescue those kids.

He also hoped the best for Larkon. His friend’s condition was still taking up a lot of his mind. Right now all they could do was follow the words he had given them and hope that when they got back to the city Larkon wouldn’t be as in bad of a spot as Abalun feared. They left him with that doctor and his family, it was the best they could do right now. Larkon would be cared for and now everything else was up to Abalun and the others.

Larkon had done more than enough. From the beginning he had been doing more than enough. It was a tragedy that he had to go through such a thing but for now everyone else could at least let him rest.

They were getting deeper and deeper into the slums now, already well past where Abalun had his own little shack. A thought occurred to him that there was probably another area they should go to and search through and secure besides just all the shacks around Karkona’s house.

“There are warehouses coming up along the way!” Abalun said to Harrak and the others. “Three of them—we should search through them too!”

“Do you think there might be children in there too?” One of the other mammoths asked him.

“I’m not sure, but he kept a lot of things in there for storage like food and weapons, we should make sure it doesn’t fall into the wrong trunks,” Abalun said.

Harrak was too tunnel-visioned on Dathon to respond but the others agreed with Abalun. A group would break off once they got to the warehouses. There was a lot in there that would need to be explored and safely taken care of. It would also bring Abalun some cathartic joy knowing the warehouses that were ignored by the senate would finally be opened up… long after the point even mattered. And probably after most if not all of the incriminating weapons were gone.

Because they were rushing through the slums it wasn’t long until they arrived at their first destination. The warehouses looked a bit different now to Abalun, since there was no one there to guard them and their doors were hanging wide open. And it still amazed Abalun just how nice of a day it was, the sun even shining down on the slums. It betrayed the truth of the day. Maybe it was even the world telling them how small they and the problems of the mammoths were.

“Those are the three warehouses!” Abalun pointed with his trunk. “Some of you go check them out, we’ll rescue the children at the other spot!”

“Right!” Some of the mammoths responded and broke off to go charging up to the warehouses.

Abalun and Harrak’s group continued to run through the streets. It wasn’t far now to where Karkona had all of his captives so long as they had stayed put. All of them were pretty tired after running so far and so fast but the adrenaline in their veins more than made up for the exertion. They would have plenty of time to rest after the rescue.

“It’ll just be a little further,” Abalun said to Harrak.

Harrak nodded although Abalun wasn’t sure if he actually heard him or not. Abalun certainly wasn’t going to say anything bad, especially since no one deserved to have their son kidnapped, but he couldn’t help but feel a little bit that this was Harrak’s own fault and his punishment for it. He really should push that thought out of his head though, they were all on the same side and it was clear Harrak wouldn’t make the same mistake twice when it came to Karkona and Larkon. The rest of the Senators too.

“I know you all have never been to these slums before so just follow me, we need to turn in here and we’ll get right to Karkona’s inner domain!” Abalun yelled to all his mammoths while they ran past dilapidated shack after shack.

At last Abalun brought them to where he had just been mustering with Karkona’s army only earlier today. When the hundreds had stood outside his home and watched as Samarkon arrived and brought them the news about his father. Where he had slid away from earlier to warn his friends, not even thinking about the children at the time. But here he was back to rescue them. Well that was one mistake he could rectify, and it felt good to take some real action after just spying on Karkona and his friends for so long.

“Here! In all of these houses and buildings around here, the children have been locked inside!” Abalun shouted.

“Check them all! Open them up now!” Harrak yelled too and ran off to the nearest shack made of rusty sheets of metal and old beaten up boards of wood.

A lot of them were locked from the outside and didn’t have windows, or they were like the windows of Abalun’s house and tightly shut. Harrak wrenched the sliding lock off the front door of the first shack and pulled the door open while others followed suit at other buildings.

“Dathon! Are you in here?!” He yelled.

The building was packed full of young mammoth children that had been thrown together last night, they looked tired, hungry, and sore from their situation. It seemed they had no idea what was going on now either and that they were being rescued with some of them huddled against the back wall and regarding Harrak with fear. Most of them seemingly slept on the floor the previous night and looked even more exhausted than the rest. Harrak’s eyes roamed over them all, looking for his own son, forgetting that he should be comforting and reassuring these children right now that they were okay.

That went until some of them actually recognized him as a Senator just like their parents were.

“Mister Harrak?...” One of them blinked a few times at the Senator and rubbed his eyes.

Another mammoth came beside Harrak and moved him out of the way. “Kids! You’re safe now, we’re here to rescue you! Come on and we can get out of here and get you back to your parents!”

That lit a fire under some of their feet and a number of kids started piling out of the building while Harrak left the doorway and went to go search another for Dathon. But one mammoth reached down and picked up another kid that was lying on the floor, supporting him. A number of other kids also didn’t look like they were in any shape to run out of here right now.

“Some of us are hurt,” the kid holding up the other one said. “We need help.”

The adult mammoth grimaced, he hadn’t thought about this. “You may have to wait here, we’ll find a doctor if we need to.”

Elsewhere more and more children were being taken from the buildings they had been locked inside and a huge crowd was forming where Karkona had his army gathered earlier. Abalun had walked on top of where Karkona liked to stand on his house and was trying to corral them together and get everyone in order before they left back to the city. From what he had heard and seen a lot of mammoths were still beat up and injured from last night, this might be a long process.

“Dathon!” Harrak yelled as he saw his son stumbling out of one of the homes, still bruised but able to stand. The Senator quickly wrapped him up into a hug and cried against him despite the embarrassment that would likely put his son through. “I’m so glad you’re okay, my son!”

“Y-Yeah… thanks dad,” Dathon winced and took a deep breath, patting his dad on the back with his trunk.

Abalun watched it all going on and wiped the sweat from his brow, there was a lot of work still left to be done but at least the most pressing matter had been attended to. Now he, like Larkon, just needed to trust in Rainbow Dash.


Rainbow Dash stood at the edge of the Sacred Spring while the four Sages stood behind her. It was impossible for her to tell how deep the Spring was, the water gave off no hints to anyone looking at it from above and she couldn’t tell how quickly the ground sloped underneath its surface. Or it may have just been a straight drop from the beginning like the Spring was some grand hole just shot into the ground. The water was still so oddly shiny and reflective—it really wanted to keep all of its secrets hidden.

Thump

Thump

Thump

The four Sages each rhythmically stamped wooden staffs on the ground behind Dash. They had pulled them out from the monastery and brought them with them, telling her they were part of the ritual. The steady thumping created the smallest of vibrations through the ground, causing tiny ripples to spread from the edge of the Spring. Rainbow Dash’s own reflection shimmered slightly and she thought she saw the water get a little bit brighter.

“How long does your ritual take before I can get in there?” Rainbow Dash asked.

They kept thumping away without pausing but Ollaron still answered her. “Only a few minutes, but the Sacred Spring must still be properly awakened.”

Dash nodded and went back to looking at the water. She figured she probably shouldn’t bother them anymore while they were doing their thing. Going into the Spring held enough risk without her mucking things up.

The four Sages all began to hum from closed mouths as they kept stamping their staffs, it started as a low sound coming from their throats but got progressively higher-pitched and louder. Soon they opened their mouths and sang in unison—a wordless melody that echoed across the entire Spring.

“Ahhhh~”

Their four voices held a lightness and energy to them that Rainbow Dash would’ve never expected with their advanced age and appearances. It sounded like youthful songbirds from Equestria singing a tune, Rainbow Dash didn’t even realize she had closed her eyes to listen to it as best she could until she felt a smile tugging up the corners of her lips. It was such a calming, a soothing, sound that made Rainbow Dash think everything was going to be alright. The surface of the Spring shimmered more and more while long wisps of steam came up from it and evaporated into the air.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The rhythmic pounding of the staffs grew louder and faster as the ritual began to reach its crescendo. Rainbow Dash opened her eyes back up and stared at the bright water in the center of the Spring. She didn’t look back to see the four Sages swaying their heads in motion to the beat but she heard braying start to come from their trunks. Those trumpeting noises unique to mammoths joined the singing, creating a symphony from Ollaron, Nillse, Zemara, and Damark. Considering this was a ritual not done for centuries they had it down pretty well. Maybe they practiced it to keep up.

Rainbow Dash was suddenly shocked as she heard them bang their staffs together and walk forwards to the edge of the Sacred Spring. They took big, heavy steps to get there until the four Sages were right at its edge with their heads shaking and their staffs beating back and forth against each other. Rainbow Dash stood right under Ollaron and waited for him to give her the go ahead with the ritual. It wasn’t done just yet though, the four of them drove their staffs right into the ground at the edge of the Spring while continuing to sing.

They all backed up slowly until they couldn’t reach the staffs anymore even with their trunks and suddenly made a thunderous bellow towards the sky with their fifth appendage.

“Oh, Spring!” Ollaron yelled.

“Oh, Spring!” The others repeated.

“We mammoths come to you to ask for your blessing once more!” Ollaron stood up on his back legs and held his front legs out wide towards the sky.

“For your blessing!” The other three followed suit.

At the same time they spoke there was a growing heat that radiated out from the Spring and the water shined brighter, making Rainbow Dash squint for a moment before she adjusted to it. It must’ve been any moment now that she could make her way into that water… and hopefully come back out. The more the Sages spoke and sang the more ripples appeared on the surface of the Spring and the steam rose higher and thicker. Rainbow Dash watched as the Sacred Spring truly became alive for the first time in hundreds and hundreds of years, even she could feel something special now, something significant, that was happening because of the mammoth ritual.

Behind her, Ollaron had begun a dance with Nillse while Damark and Zemara mimed their movements. The four swung around in circles, clasping their trunks together and rubbing tusks. But even though Rainbow could hear something going on she didn’t tear her eyes from the Spring for a second. The dancing, the singing, the ritual, it all served to excite the water and get its power ready.

For her.

For Rainbow Dash to use its power for a noble and benevolent reason. Who cares if she wasn’t a mammoth? She knew that she could handle anything, no pool of water would be able to overwhelm her! This was going to work. It had to.

“Spring!” Ollaron yelled once more.

“Spring!” Damark followed.

“Spring!” Then Nillse.

“Spring!” Zemara finished.

“Awaken for us!” They all yelled together.

The Sacred Spring suddenly shone so bright that Dash had to lift a hoof up to block the light, but then it was back to its normal brightness in a second while a steady swirling current radiated out from the center. As Dash lowered her hoof and peered at it it seemed to beckon her forward. It wanted her to wade into its waters.

“The ritual is complete,” Ollaron said as he walked up beside her. “And now the Sacred Spring is ready for you.”

“I wish you the best of luck,” Nillse said.

“I as well. Hopefully your body can take it,” Damark said.

Zemara nodded as well. “Good luck.”

Rainbow Dash flashed them all a cocky grin. “I don’t need luck, I just need me.”

Ollaron couldn’t help but smile briefly too, before his face went back to being serious. “You’re going to have to go out into the center of the Sacred Spring and fully submerge yourself in the Spring’s water. Be careful when swimming out there, the bottom drops off immediately and the Spring is very deep.”

“Got it,” Dash nodded and lifted a hoof to take her first step into the water. She paused for just a second before taking a deep steadying breath and gulping, and then stepped in.

The water was too warm for this part of the world. And that warmth instantly spread throughout her entire body, nearly making her sweat. She took another step in, her hoof going further into the water and much deeper than her first, nearly up to her body. It really did drop right off. And the movement of the Spring water… it pulled her, it wanted her to keep coming and never stop.

Well she was more than ready and willing to oblige that desire.

Rainbow Dash gently dove into the Sacred Spring completely, her hooves already unable to touch the ground less than a foot away from its edge. Ollaron and the others watched as she swam out to the center where the water seemed even hotter and brighter. She didn’t know exactly how she felt right now. On the one hoof it was kind of like wading through the spa back in Ponyville. But on the other it was making her heart pump and pump like she had been flying a marathon and yet more and more energy was constantly flowing into her body so she never got tired. The water pulled at and coursed through her mane and coat, making her feel light, as if there was no resistance whatsoever when she moved through the Spring.

Her head felt light too. Fuzzy. A white blur was starting to overtake the edges of her vision as she got closer to the center and it wasn’t just the rising steam.

Was she at the center?

She couldn’t tell.

But the water came up around her and the next thing Rainbow Dash knew she was sinking.


The mammoth army led by Karkona had made good progress. They were surely almost upon the Sacred Spring with how much ground they had covered through these mountains. And not a moment too soon, everyone was restless, especially Karkona himself. They were now plowing through a canyon with steep walls all around them and they had to restrain themselves from running. Karkona had a wild grin on his face, his heart was pounding and his grim determination was hotly burning in his spirit.

A sudden bright flash from deeper in the mountains brought him to a halt and startled the mammoths behind him.

“What was that?!” Murrank yelled while the army muttered and whispered.

Karkona’s grin only widened and he laughed. “The Sacred Spring. We’re close.” He looked back over his shoulder at his army and raised his trunk into the air. “Mammoths! Onward!” Karkona trumpeted loudly and continued his march.

“Raaarrrghhh!” His army roared in support and followed.

The hundreds of them would be upon the Sacred Spring in mere moments.