Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

A Mammoth of a Problem XIX

“This may take a little while. I haven’t told this story orally to anyone before.”

“If it makes you feel any better you definitely come off as the kind of guy who’s really good at telling long stories.”

It was late at night and Larkon and Rainbow Dash were alone in his study back home. Bakol and a number of senators had made an appearance at town’s square shortly after Karkona left to declare the spring festival unfortunately over. Larkon led Dash home after that and the family ate a silent dinner together before Larkon brought her here.

Bookcases lined the walls of the study but Larkon wasn’t paying attention to them or anything else besides Rainbow Dash at the moment. It was certain he knew the history of his people well enough that he didn’t need to read from a book to tell her about it. He pulled one of the chairs out from in front of his desk and slid it over the carpet to her.

“Take a seat, please.”

Dash shrugged and hopped onto the big cushion of the chair. “You know, I’ve been all over the world, you don’t need to be afraid or ashamed of anything.”

“I know. And I know you’re not the type to really be upset or bothered by anything like this in the first place, you’re very carefree,” he grinned at her for a second before returning to a neutral look. “But you’re still the first creature that isn’t a mammoth to hear about this, and our first guest since we cast aside the old ways.”

“You don’t have to tell me then if you don’t want to. I mean, yeah I’m a little curious, but I’m not my friend Twilight either. If you just want to say “Karkona’s bad” then that’s pretty good for me,” Rainbow told him.

“No, no,” Larkon shook his head. “I’ll still tell you everything. Let me just gather my thoughts for a moment.”

Larkon leaned back on his desk and stared into space for a second while Rainbow Dash fidgeted atop her chair. He rubbed his trunk a few times and sighed, as if still doing his best to stall. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof was showing a heroic amount of patience compared to her usual self. Larkon’s eyes roamed to a dusty scroll of parchment jammed into the bookcase and he finally nodded to himself, looking back down at Rainbow Dash.

“Alright, the story begins a long time ago, with the first King of the mammoths.”

“How long ago?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Ages. It’s been so long and we did not keep written records back then. Everything was passed down orally through storytellers,” Larkon shrugged. “But either way, that’s the very beginning of things as far as they matter to mammoth society and what’s led up to now. Try to keep questions to a minimum while I speak, we can talk when it’s over...”

---

The first King of the mammoths was a mammoth called Morkanon. This was back in an age when mammoths had no such thing as an empire, when we lived in clans of a few families at most and roamed around the northern lands. Nomads is what we were. Marauders, brigands, thieves, is what others would call us. Yes, even back then we were a violent and quarrelsome people. We attacked and pillaged from others almost as much as ourselves.

The various clans of mammoths all competed with each other and fought over the scraps. While we still had conflicts with other groups such as the Frost Wolves, the Yaks, and the Sabertooths, we did not truly war with them at that point. Far more preoccupied were we with each other.

We mammoths were scattered and unwelcoming, clans did not work together for anything. There was no trading or helping out and outsiders were always ran off. It was an unforgiving time. A time of hostility and selfishness. And Morkanon was born into that time in one of the clans as the first born son of the current Chieftain. While he was groomed and brought up to one day take over from his father and lead his clan, it turned out he desired far more than that. Morkanon was a mammoth with a grand ambition: To one day unify all mammoths under his rule.

But it would take time before he could accomplish that goal. Growing up saw him grievously injured in a battle with a rival clan, and his tusks were both snapped off and never regrew. For a long while this shamed him in the eyes of others and many mammoths from other clans thought him to be weak. This led to him growing quite the chip on his shoulder and for much of his teenage life he would be notoriously quick to anger. With time though he used this seeming weakness to his advantage, making others underestimate him, and even using his reputation as a hothead to trick others.

In a few years, his father died and leadership of the clan fell to him, and for a time after that things mostly stayed normal. Morkanon married and had numerous children while all the while he plotted and thought of how best to conquer the other clans.

And thus an opportunity presented itself to him one day.

Morkanon heard news of a rival clan that had done battle with the yaks, and the firstborn son of their clan was killed in battle. This son left a young widow behind and no children. The widow being a mammoth of the second most prominent family in this other clan.

So Morkanon in his wisdom confronted this other clan with an offer, his own firstborn son would marry the widow if the family joined his clan and renounced loyalty to the other Chieftain’s family.

The offer was accepted.

But that was not the end of it. Morkanon then gave the rest of the clan an ultimatum, join him as his vassals or be eradicated. The other Chieftain refused to bow down, and the mammoths in their viciousness did not hesitate to destroy him and his family.

A rival was gone and the strength of Morkanon’s clan had only been bolstered.

Not only that but Morkanon learned the idea of a new weapon he could use that would change the shape of mammoth history: Diplomacy.

Something like what he had done had never been done before between mammoth clans and word quickly spread of it throughout the other scattered clans. Mammoths now were worried, but also ambitious, and many leaders sought to make alliances in the same way Morkanon had. While fighting was still the go to answer for any problem, mammoths still became more open to bartering, marriage alliances, trade, and even sharing land and resources if it looked too costly to fight over them.

Now of course none of this was due to a change of heart by any mammoths but simply out of sheer pragmatism as other leaders sought to counter Morkanon’s increased strength and reach.

But even as Morkanon’s power grew, like I said earlier, many still viewed him as weak and easily tricked. They saw his use and invention of diplomacy as weakness instead of craftiness or intelligence. How he offered to allow the other Chieftain and his family to join him instead of just eradicating them outright. Mammoths were very cynical back then.

Looking at this perceived “weakness”, the most powerful clan around sought to destroy Morkanon and his clan and get rid of the threat he posed. The Chieftain of this clan secretly met with and made alliances with other close by clans and they all hatched a plan to divide up Morkanon’s treasures and resources when he was done away with. Then, the Chieftain invited Morkanon and his clan to his domain on the pretense of creating an alliance of their own. When Morkanon and his followers arrived, all of the other clans would attack them and the upstart maverick would be taken down.

Finally the day came and Morkanon’s procession arrived to meet with the other Chieftain. Secretly warriors from every other clan the Chieftain had allied with were hiding about, and as soon as Morkanon entered the Chieftain’s tent he gave the order for them all to butcher Morkanon.

But he was the only one getting butchered that day.

Morkanon had already secretly allied himself with the other clans long before this day, knowing he would one day have to deal with his stronger rival he had brought together the weaker clans first. And then the perfect opportunity presented itself when the Chieftain tried to have him killed, not knowing the clans he had spoken to were already on Morkanon’s side.

Six Chieftain’s had been inside that tent at one point. But now their number was down to five.

However that was not the last of it. Morkanon told the other Chieftains they had the choice to renounce their titles and become his vassals, or suffer the same fate.

Only one Chieftain was now left inside that tent. Along with two more bodies.

---

“I’d hate to be on his bad side.”

“You and me both.”

---

There was no longer any real threat to Morkanon after that and he centralized his power, absorbing the domains of all the clans around his. Resources, food, water, and labor were abundant. Morkanon’s clan was no longer a band of nomads, but a thriving civilization in its infancy.

It was at this point that he saw the title of “Chieftain” lacking. After all there was so much more than just one clan under his control now. Not just his family, but other families from other clans that used to have Chieftains of their own bowed down to him. To him it only made sense that he needed a new title. A regal title. For this was the dawn of a new age for the mammoths and his ambition had finally brought him here.

Morkanon proclaimed himself the first King of the mammoths.

And it was no longer a time to take things slowly.

The mammoths were still not totally unified, there were numerous other roaming clans still out there. But now Morkanon had the strength to do absolutely anything he wanted with them and there were no longer any who could even think to oppose him. Morkanon didn’t care what the cost might be anymore, because he knew he would win in the end. So what he did was demand that every last clan do what the others had; forfeit their independence, give up their land and titles, and join him utterly and be ruled over by the new King.

In the following months many clans were annihilated.

But by the end of it there were no more clans at all anymore. Merely a single kingdom.

And that is how the mammoths became unified and our empire began. Cities were constructed, our nomadic lifestyle disappeared, and Morkanon ruled over all. Even back then in the early years the empire spanned a great area and Morkanon conquered whatever he wanted to increase his domain. Large farms sprouted up as he realized they would be necessary to maintain things as well. And our wars against the yaks, sabers, and other groups increased. Partially to give us a common enemy, such was Morkanon’s wisdom, but to also take whatever resources we could from them.

That was normal now. It really was the start of a new age for the mammoths and Morkanon ruled well into his old age. He was a well-respected leader for how fair and generous he was to his friends—and for how utterly ruthless he was to his enemies and any who disobeyed him. But none could deny his reign was a time of plenty and pride for the mammoths. Even now in our more peaceful days he is not hated, merely seen as a product of his time and hardly worse than any of his selfish contemporaries. He was not needlessly cruel nor did he oppress his mammoths after becoming King, but I think the yaks and others would not have so favorable a view on him.

---

“I can already tell you you’re one-hundred percent correct on that one.”

---

So our story skips ahead quite a few years to the apex of the old mammoth empire. We now had multiple cities, roads, actual borders, and no longer did mammoths live in mere tents and huts. They built in stone and steel and constructed huge buildings across the lands. This was in an area northeast from where we are now. Mammoths also began to write, draw, and create art like sculptures and paintings. Anyways, ever since Morkanon became King the mammoths were constantly at war with their neighbors. Generation upon generation of mammoths were born and grew up in a state of perpetual warfare. And a true military with real soldiers now existed, not just bands of warriors from each clans back in the more primitive times. Soldiers as well wore armor and fought with spears and flails. They were a deadly force in this northern world.

That was just the way things were. Although the mammoths were able to come together as one there was never an attempt to try and become friends with any of the other groups that lived around them. Too deep were the scars, too different and volatile everyone was. And the mammoths had never known anything but war and conflict with them.

So in this time of both stability and war the next King of the mammoths was born; Dathon.

---

“Dathon? That’s the name of one of Alykon’s friends.”

“It is a fairly common name among mammoths today.”

---

Dathon was the firstborn son of the current mammoth King, whose name ironically has been lost to history, and was known from childhood to be a quiet and reserved mammoth. The reason why he is still loved today and his name is shared by many is because he was the first mammoth King who sought peace. His values and goals resonate with us in a way the other rulers did not.

Dathon did not see war as a necessity. Unlike Morkanon and previous Kings he had no desire to attempt to expand the territory of the empire by starting up more conflicts and trying to conquer land. Instead he decided to focus his rule inward, on improving things in the empire instead of just adding more to it. More crops were planted, roads became better maintained, more focus was given to the arts and music, mammoths were encouraged to take up hobbies and jobs that weren’t all about warfare. Dathon knew this would likely not be permanent, as it didn’t stop others from wanting to attack the mammoths, but he still wished that at least one generation of mammoths could be born and live without constant war and battle going on around them.

For the most part he succeeded. Not all in the empire were happy with him, but none could doubt that life in the empire was good. And there were only a few border skirmishes between the mammoths and their neighbors at this time, none of which were initiated by the mammoths either.

Until we fully abandoned our warlike ways, Dathon’s reign was the most peaceful mammoths had ever been at.

We also have him to owe for literacy rates increasing dramatically under his rule and much more being written down and recorded instead of just being passed on orally. There are a number of books in our libraries that go back to Dathon’s day.

At any rate, like all healthy mammoths, Dathon married and had several children.

His firstborn son, Lorak, his secondborn son, Morkanon, his firstborn daughter, Ebbu, his secondborn daughter, Caranthu, and his final child and son, Tarmok.

---

“Er… I kind of get the feeling that Tarmok is gonna be important in the future.”

“No extra points for that guess I’m afraid.”

---

As is tradition, Dathon started raising his son Lorak to one day replace him, and he of course taught him the same ideals he held. Dathon hoped for a continuance of his legacy of peace. Morkanon meanwhile decided to take a superficial position in the army, Ebbu and Caranthu were married off to other important mammoths. Tarmok… I’ll get back to him in a moment.

Dathon eventually raised his son Morkanon to head of the army and essentially began to reform it into more of a guard than anything. Instead of preparing for war and making weapons the army began construction of walls around the entire empire to dissuade attacks. Lorak also proved himself to take after his father. He was a very studious mammoth, slight of build, quiet, the opposite of a warrior and what would’ve been necessary for a King even a few short generations ago. In other words he was perfect to Dathon and the King was quite proud of his son.

Of course though, more and more mammoths with hawkish ideals were becoming disgruntled by Dathon’s reign. They already didn’t like what he had been doing but at least quietly took it for the sake of this rare peace and the happiness of the other mammoths in the empire. But now? Seeing what was becoming of their army, and how an even less martial mammoth was next in line to be King, it made some mammoths very upset and worried about the direction their civilization was going in.

And that is where Tarmok comes in.

Tarmok never found his place in mammoth society. He saw no point to anything, knowing he would never be King, and having no passion for the arts and peaceful activities that his father loved. What was the fifth child of the King supposed to do? There wasn’t even a place for him in the army what with the lack of wars. He had made his grievances well known around the capitol city, drunkenly telling any who would listen in the various bars he would visit.

And so it was that late in Dathon’s reign that Tarmok was approached by a certain group of mammoths with treachery on their minds.

They and Tarmok came to an agreement: when he became King he would restart the wars and conquest and they would help him to quietly get rid of his father and older brothers to make that happen.

Tarmok had ambition in him too and the desire to become King. He coveted it because he had nothing of his own and saw the reign of his father as the reason for all of his problems and apathy.

There was however one problem, one of the members of the conspiracy got cold feet and blabbed everything. The conspirators were executed and Tarmok was banished. It was a dark day in the empire, Dathon was horrified and saddened by what his son had almost done. Tarmok was unrepentant however and before he was thrown out of the city we have it recorded that he told his father that he never believed in his peaceful ways and hated him for what he had done to the mammoths. Dathon became ill shortly after Tarmok’s banishment, he would not live to the end of the year.

Lorak’s reign began after that, but that is not the story that needs to be told. You must learn of what happened with Tarmok after he was cast out on his own.

---

“He kind of deserved it.”

---

Tarmok journeyed through the snowy cold of the north for well over a year by himself.

That much is known for certain, as well as a few other things, but much of what I am going to say next must be taken with a grain of salt since it all comes from Tarmok’s mouth himself and there’s no way to really prove if everything he said happened happened.

The way he tells it he was accosted by sabertooths and frost wolves constantly while he traveled through the frozen wastes. And apparently a yak warrior party hounded him relentlessly for months. Naturally he fought them all off with ease as he says. Besides just the usual culprits that mammoths fought with he also claimed to have done battle with and defeated a huge monster made of living stone and also brought down a dragon that breathed below freezing cold air. Food was scarce for him but he always managed to find what he needed to survive. He said he kept himself strong through sheer willpower and never gave up sight of his goal of becoming King. What’s more he claimed that the spirit of Morkanon, the first King, came to him one night and told him that he was the true successor to his lineage and one day the empire would be his.

Scholars and historians like myself all believe he only made that up to increase his legitimacy after he did several other things that made the mammoths of the empire wary.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Regardless of everything Tarmok said that may have happened on his long journey, what we know did happen is the most important part.

He found something. Something strange, magical, and powerful.

While alone in the mountains of the north he stumbled upon a spring, a spring of nearly boiling hot and steaming water nestled in a secluded and previously completely undiscovered part of the mountains. Just looking at it he could tell there was something special about the spring and its water.

Tarmok claims he bathed in the spring for three days and three nights and when he emerged he felt rejuvenated, more alive than he ever had before in his life, and powerful. He found he could shatter boulders with his trunk, lift more than double the weight he could previously, shrug off any attack, and never get tired no matter how much he ran or pushed himself. In his own words he became “A mammoth among mammoths.” That was the power of the spring, to bring a mammoth to the absolute peak of physical power.

Tarmok then returned to the capitol city, ignoring his banishment, with the mission to become King. No one could stop him with the new strength he possessed and he told others of the Sacred Spring he had found. He demanded he be made King and with his power the mammoths would conquer and destroy all of their enemies. And… when it became clear that things could not be solved with talk he killed his two brothers and took the throne. Then he married both his sisters after taking them from their husbands.

---

“Wait, hold on. I think I just misheard something there. Did you say he married his sisters? Both of them?”

“It was a different time...”

“Ew.”

---

Tarmok was now King and immediately things changed in the empire. Gone was the focus on the arts and back was war. Every able bodied mammoth became a soldier as Tarmok prepared for more and more war than mammoths had ever waged before. He wasn’t stupid however, he knew how the army had degraded in Dathon’s reign and that their population was far lower than their enemies in the first place. Something had to be done to increase the quality of mammoth soldiers. So naturally Tarmok led his army to the Sacred Spring and a magical ritual was created for any mammoth who entered the spring to become the same kind of superpowered monster as Tarmok.

Now there was a whole army of unstoppable mammoths.

And war began anew.

There are no more sabertooths in the north. Tarmok completely wiped them and their civilization out. Not a trace of them is left. The yaks barely fared better, Tarmok sacked their homeland and drove them south. The various tribes of Frost Wolves were scattered in every direction, their strength broken for generations.

Years and years of constant strife and conquering happened under Tarmok. Until there were simply no more enemies to fight.

But there was still an entire empire of mammoths raised and taught nothing but battle. Everything else about the empire had dilapidated and degenerated. If it didn’t have to do with war it didn’t matter, that was Tarmok’s way. And now without anymore war to wage everyone could see the horrible effects of that.

Introspection however did not come just yet. Because Tarmok and the other mammoths found their old mutual foe to fight: each other.

For the first time since Morkanon’s days mammoths warred with each other and the empire was torn apart. Battle for the sake of battle was all it was. And Tarmok was there to enjoy it all, laughing as the empire fell apart around him. This was no simple conflict either, the old days of nomadic clans struggling for resources couldn’t compare at all to the devastation brought by this civil war of the mammoths.

In this age of destruction, Tarmok eventually migrated his mammoths to a place closer to the Sacred Spring, leaving nothing but burning rubble behind. When his people stopped they began construction of a new city. This city.

However, as should be obvious, Tarmok and those who would willingly follow him at this point had not lost their taste for war and conflict and it was not long until the last war of the mammoths began.

It was a short, vicious, and personal affair that saw fully half of the remaining mammoths wiped out. Including Tarmok himself. A fitting end. At the end of it all even most of the freshly built city was destroyed as well, but finally, for the mammoths that were left, they could look around calmly and just see what they had wrought. Tarmok was gone and for the first time in years mammoths were able to truly see and think about what their warlike ways and brutality had cost them. What had been destroyed, what had been lost, all of those who had been harmed.

Regret. Sincere regret and guilt overtook the survivors. The “victors”. There was no victory to be had there, mammoth civilization had been destroyed.

But it was from those ashes that a new civilization—a new way of life for mammoths—was born. Slowly the mammoths picked themselves back up and rebuilt this new home of theirs. It was secluded and no other creatures were around, there was no threat of danger. That was for the best not just for us mammoths but for the other creatures of the north. Many thought it was better to be secluded away from all the rest.

Overtime, as new generations of mammoths were born, peace was more heavily stressed. Even the simplest violence and conflict became frowned upon and eventually mammoth society became what it is today. No weapons, no fighting, total pacifism. We saw what endless war and barbarism got us in the past and shunned it.

The current age of mammoths had begun.

---

“And that is more or less the important part of our history you need to know,” Larkon finished.

“Thanks for telling me about all of that… and uh, sorry for what you guys had to go through.”

Larkon shook his head. “It was our own fault.”

“Well at least you guys are happy now,” Rainbow Dash awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. “But what about that Sacred Spring? What happened with it? You said Tarmok moved you all to get closer to it.”

Larkon sighed and walked behind his desk, sinking his tired body down into his chair. “That is something that even I don’t have all the answers on. It is true the spring is why we came here in the first place, but when we cast aside our warlike ways we knew that the spring and the power it held was also far too dangerous to simply leave as is. And the temptation it might hold to mammoths. Even the possibility of its misuse was a frightening thought. So the leaders of old hid its location, struck every mention of how to get to it from our books, and made it forbidden to go in search of it. A group of sages also pledged service to the spring, vowing to stand by it for time immemorial to make sure no mammoth could bathe in its waters and perform the ritual to become a mammoth among mammoths again. As legend would put it those sages still protect the spring in case any mammoth does find it.”

“So you have no idea where it is? And that’s why Karkona said he still needed to find it, huh?” Rainbow asked.

“That’s correct,” Larkon said. A brief flash of hesitation then passed over his features.

Rainbow caught it and raised an eyebrow. “What?”

The historian looked her in the eyes and chewed on his lip, deciding what more needed to be said. “The leaders of old… did not fully abandon the spring. In case its power was needed, or there came a day when mammoths could use it for more selfless reasons, one mammoth was allowed to know how to find the Sacred Spring. And when the time came and he had grown old he would tell another, younger mammoth, and then he would tell another and so on and so forth where every generation there would be one mammoth, whose identity and knowledge would be unknown to all others, that knew how to reach the spring.”

“And Karkona does know that,” Rainbow’s eyes narrowed.

“Correct,” Larkon nodded. “I believe he’s been trying to think of a way to find this mammoth’s identity.”

“You know… if I’m being honest I was actually going to leave and go somewhere else really soon. But now I really think I should stay here. That’s what my gut’s telling me,” Rainbow told him.

“I think so too. And thank you,” Larkon smiled.

A sudden thought occurred to Rainbow Dash and her brow perked up. “Oh yeah! One other thing but, uh, if Tarmok was so horrible and the exact opposite of what you guys are like now, why’s it called Tarmok’s Hall?”

Larkon’s expression hardened as the smile disappeared. His eyes and face drifted off in the direction of the hall, as if trying to look through the wall of his home at it. “A reminder. To remind us of our awful past and to stay ever vigilant so what happened under Tarmok’s reign can never happen again. For better and for worse, King Tarmok will never be forgotten.”

Rainbow Dash nodded and the two of them stayed in his study in silence for a little longer. She wasn’t sure what the future of her adventure in the mammoth city would be like, but she was excited again. Karkona, the Sacred Spring, there was a lot bubbling under the surface. And maybe she was being selfish but she couldn’t wait for it to erupt. Not like she didn’t believe in herself to save the day after all. She would win. She would protect her friends and defeat the villain, because she was Rainbow Dash.

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

Is Markanon another common Mammoth name?

Is Blizzard going to play a part in wanting to find the Sacred Spring as well?

[MagicS]

10558835
Dathon (the King) just wanted to pay his respects to the first King by naming one of his children Morkanon. I wouldn't call it a common name the same way Dathon is.

[redmar]

I wonder if that Sacred Spring would have the same effect on non mammoths and if Rainbow is going to it. Karkona might have problems with the sages protecting the spring since those are probably still around.