Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

A Mammoth of a Problem V

He was very, very, right about this being the largest bed she had ever slept in.

The room Rainbow Dash was boarding in for her time here was on the first floor at the back of Larkon’s house. It had a large window that gave her a nice view of his backyard as well as a bay door that led out onto their back patio. Opening and closing the windows and doors in this house might prove to be a hassle but she was thankful for the option.

The bed itself of course was gigantic, even being only a single for mammoths it dwarfed the royal beds she had seen in Canterlot whenever they were staying in the castle. The cotton sheets were very warm and comfortable for her in this cool northern city. A nightstand which was large enough to function as a coffee table for ponies sat next to her bed between it and the window with an old-fashioned alarm clock on top of it. The window had purple curtains that she had closed, not wanting to be woken up too early in the morning. And for that same reason she hadn’t touched the alarm clock.

Rainbow Dash knew mammoths weren’t early risers, Mallom had said so, and she was happy to hear that. She didn’t have to wake up with the sunrise and try to get the most out of traveling now that she was here in this city. She’d definitely enjoy a nice night of sleep and if possible wasn’t gonna get out of this bed until someone knocked on her door.

The only actual problem with the bed was that the pillows were too big. Rainbow Dash could easily curl up on one but trying to use it as an actual pillow tilted her head up too much and made it uncomfortable for her neck. She ended up tossing and turning for a bit and only got a good position after repeatedly punching the pillow to make it flatter.

After that she was finally able to get some rest. Her first day of meeting the mammoths left her thinking quite a bit, they weren’t what she expected and she was worried if she would be able to find the adventure she wanted here. But it was only one day. Surely with some more time something would come up in this city.

---

What Mallom had said was true, most mammoths were not early risers.

But Larkon was.

Especially when he had something new and exciting in his life and a very important job to do. His normal work was still important and he knew he wouldn’t always be able to guide Rainbow Dash or be with her but he at least wanted to get her started on the right path or give her some ideas when it came to touring their city. For this morning there were some things he wanted to go over with her, even though he was supposed to be at Tarmok’s Hall in just a few hours he knew the senate would understand given the task he had undertaken.

He had some faint apprehension when it came to letting her go out on her own but from her tales she sounded like a more than capable pony. And a very good one at that. A true do-gooder and hero, it was interesting to see one. And he had trust that nobody outside the slums would cause problems for her or be abrasive. There were probably some that wouldn’t exactly be open, and maybe more than a little impolite or standoffish, but he didn’t foresee any danger for her. Today’s newspaper that the other mammoths of the city would soon be reading would also help that, no one should really be surprised or afraid to see her.

So Larkon wanted to get things started as early as possible for her. And the pony seemed like one who wanted as much fun and excitement as possible so she’d probably like being woken up early, right?

“Rainbow Dash? Are you up yet?” He asked as he not so gently knocked on the door to her room.

Of course even if he was gentle it would only be “gentle relative to a mammoth” and probably still enough to shake her bones.

Rainbow Dash’s eyelids instantly popped open, her pupils like pinpricks, as she slowly turned her head to the door and the pounding of Larkon that woke her up from what had been a very comfortable and needed rest. She groaned in annoyance and threw the covers off of her. Pretending to be asleep would be no help here. Rubbing her eyes with her hooves she lazily floated up off the bed and towards the door.

“You can come in, it’s open.”

Larkon pushed the door open and stepped inside with a smile on his face. “Ready to start the day?”

Rainbow Dash frowned with heavy bags under her eyes. There was nothing a nap loving pegasus disliked more than someone full of energy in the morning. “Sure.” She bit out.

“Wonderful, come to my den, I have something to show you,” Larkon said and stepped to the side to allow Dash out.

She did her best not to grumble as she flew down the hall with him. It didn’t seem like anyone else in the family was awake yet, the house was too silent. Dash looked out a window that gave a view of the side yard and the house right next to them and also checked out any other rooms through the open doors in Larkon’s house. Eventually they reached his personal den, a modest room with a nice desk and two bookcases beside it, a window staring into the backyard with some halfway shut blinds and two fake potted trees flanking it. Cozy all in all.

“Look at this,” Larkon said and pointed his trunk at the desk.

Rainbow Dash flew above it and looked, a map was sprawled out on top of his desk and thanks to her spatial awareness it was very familiar to her already. The mammoth city. Detailed well with all its walls, streets, and buildings.

“As I’m sure you can surmise, this is our city,” Larkon’s trunk grasped a pen that was lying on the desk, he deftly used it to make an X on one of the buildings inside the city limits. “Where we currently are now, my home.” He made a few more X’s on the map. “Tarmok’s Hall, town square, the eastern and western gates, I just want to make sure you know exactly where everything is. Even though with your wings it’s not like you could ever get lost this should still make things easier for you.”

“Thanks dude,” Rainbow Dash said as she scanned over it, memorization was a skill of hers she had a lot of faith in.

“And of course, let me just mark two more areas,” Larkon said and instead of making an X he drew wide circles around two large groups of buildings on the map. One on this side of the river and the other on the other. “The slums on the far side of the river, and the older section just outside the city walls but still on this side of the river.”

“Older section?”

“The first buildings and homes made when we settled in this valley. We just put down right at the edge of the river without any planning and forethought. As the city and our population expanded we ended up reworking quite a bit and started building in other areas. The old sector isn’t abandoned like what you came through but it’s fairly dilapidated and poor and mostly lived in by more elderly members of the city. There’s also a drawbridge that connects it to the slums and vagrants have been known to cause trouble there,” Larkon explained. “I’d like to take you there to see our oldest structures and history someday, but not today.”

“Alright,” Rainbow Dash nodded. “So then where are we going today? What did you want to show off to me first?”

“Everything if we have the time,” Larkon grinned. “But first of all… how about leaving that as a surprise for now?”

Rainbow Dash smirked. “Fine by me, I love a good surprise.”

The big mammoth chuckled. “I have an extra special surprise for you tonight as well. Something I think you’ll greatly enjoy after hearing all about you.”

“Oh yeah? What?” She raised an excited eyebrow at him.

“I can’t spoil the surprise just like that!” He laughed harder. “Come on, let’s head out, we need to make the most of the day.”

---

The city of mammoths was starting to wake up. Some jobs required certain mammoths to have already been up for hours, such as the newspaper distributors and the ones who cleaned the streets of snow, but now it was close to the hour when the average mammoth would be rising from their slumber and getting ready for the day. Whether they be working or have something else to do, most mammoths had gotten out of bed and were walking to their front door to get today’s paper.

Such was the case with Yarran; a glasses wearing mammoth that worked as a bricklayer. His shop and home were all one building and it sat on the same street as Larkon’s, just down the road a bit and closer to the eastern gate.

This was a morning Yarran thought would be like any other when he went to pick up his newspaper and flip the closed sign on his front door to open. The massively excited headline on the front page of that newspaper was about to prove him wrong however. His tired eyes widened when he saw the huge font and exclamation points crowding the page:

A VISITOR FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD!!!

RAINBOW DASH: PONY FROM EQUESTRIA!!!

The bricklayer began leafing through the newspaper immediately, sopping up every last detail and every single word written about this “Rainbow Dash”. Only at the very end of the article did he read who had graciously taken her in.

“Larkon...” Yarran whispered.

No sooner had the name left his mouth that he heard the unmistakable voice of the very same mammoth across the street. Lifting his eyes he gripped the newspaper tightly and narrowed his eyes at the sight of Larkon and the blue pony that could only be Rainbow Dash going down the street together to who knows where.

The newspaper was thrown on the ground in anger as Yarran bit his lip so tightly it almost bled. “Karkona needs to hear about this.”

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

[StarzGecko]

He was very, very , right about this being the largest bed she had ever slept in.

I’m trying to imagine the scale of all this. It definitely sounds big

[Maud of Sterner Stuff]

Since the mammoths are about 12 feet tall, I imagine almost everything from Rainbow's perspective is sized or portioned between 3 to 4 times greater than what it normally is for ponies.