A few minutes of walking took Rarity and Gyro to the other side of the island, where they could see Rainbow’s tail hanging off of some rocks on the ridge. As they approached, Rarity tugged on it with her magic, earning an undignified squawk from the pegasus it was attached to. Rainbow’s head shot up and glared at Rarity while she quickly scooped her colorful tail back against her body. “Hey! Dang it, Rares!”
“Call it punishment for leaving your marefriend behind instead of escorting her to your date like a proper lady,” Rarity said, scarpering up the rocks to join Rainbow on the ridge.
“I was just trying to encourage you two to hurry it up before we missed it,” Rainbow said. “You sure took your time getting here. The sun’s almost down!”
Gyro hauled herself up the edge and sat down next to Rarity. “Looks like we’re just in time, then,” she said. “I prefer not to go running when I can help it.”
“G, you just spent like an hour dragging a sledge back and forth in the sand. I thought you loved exercise!”
“Strength training, yeah.” Gyro cracked her neck and stretched out her sore limbs. “But I hate cardio. Cardio’s the worst.”
“Cardio is not the worst!” Rainbow protested. “Don’t you love the feeling of listening to your heart pound and the rush of air into your lungs and air sacs?”
Rarity shook her head. “Rainbow, earth ponies and unicorns don’t have those, remember? That’s just a pegasus thing.”
“Oh, right, duh.” Rainbow shook her head. “It must suck to run out of breath so quickly. You guys don’t have pneumatic bones either, don’t you?”
“We’re decidedly all pony,” Gyro said. “We aren’t half bird like you.”
“Lame. Birds are neato.”
Rarity rolled her eyes and settled onto her stomach in a more comfortable position. “I won’t disagree with you on that. Their plumage can be absolutely splendid and stunning, especially for birds of paradise. So many colors and designs. They’re like the supermodels of the avian world.”
“I’ve met a lot of griffons before.” Gyro crossed her forelegs and glanced over her shoulder to the east, in the general direction of the Confederacy. “I’ve been there a bunch of times on different airships. They’re really interesting people, though they’re kind of assholes.”
“The way my griffon friend Gilda told it to me, there’s two different groups of griffons,” Rainbow said. “There’s the raptors like her and the doves like… not her. The raptors are the ones with eagle, owl, hawk, falcon, whatever heads, like most griffons we see in Equestria. They’re loners and just go wherever. The doves don’t really go outside of the Confederacy much, so we don’t see them that often, but their bird parts are more like pigeons and doves and sparrows. They’re supposed to be a lot friendlier and a lot more social than the raptor griffons.”
“Huh.” Gyro furrowed her brow in thought. “Neat.”
“I suppose then I’ve seen a fair number of doves while designing my dress line for them,” Rarity said. “Now that you mention it, they did look different and act different than Gilda or some of the others I’ve met before. I never would have thought that other species could have such distinct racial differences like us ponies do.”
“And I bet most of the griffons that would be interested in those dresses are gonna be doves, too,” Rainbow said. “Griffonstone is mostly raptors, and they certainly didn’t seem to care about stuff like that. All they wanted was bits until me and Pinkie came to town.”
“What about hippogriffs?” Gyro asked. “They’re real, aren’t they? They’re what happens when a griffon and a pony love each other very much, right?”
Rarity and Rainbow exchanged looks. “I don’t really know about that one, darling,” Rarity said, “But once upon a time, there was an entire kingdom of them far to the south in a place called Mount Aris. Rainbow and I actually went looking for them with all our friends when the Storm King attacked Canterlot not all that long ago.”
“Oh yeah, I remember that,” Gyro said. “Well I mean, kind of. I was on an airship over the ocean at the time. We didn’t hear about it until we docked again.”
“Yeah, that was some pretty crazy stuff,” Rainbow said. “It was pretty awesome too, apart from the Storm King’s minions trying to foalnap us the whole time. But yeah, the hippogriffs exist, though when we found them, they were hiding under the sea as seaponies.”
“Wait, really?” Gyro blinked. “Seaponies? How?”
“Their queen possesses powerful magic like the princesses,” Rarity said. “We experienced it ourselves while we were there. I dare say I looked dazzling as a seapony; my bejeweled fins were beyond stunning.”
Gyro put her hooves to her head and chuckled. “Okay, this stuff is going waaaaay too fast for me. So you two and your friends went and found the hippogriffs, who were actually seaponies, and they turned you into seaponies as well, albeit however briefly?” She shook her head as she tried to take it all in. “What else did you do? Meet any giant cat people or something?”
Rainbow and Rarity exchanged a look and an amused smile. “Now that you mention it…”
“I give up,” Gyro said with a laugh. “That’s too cool. Think we can get an airship line down there? I’d like to see this stuff before I die.”
“Maybe one day,” Rainbow said. “Twilight’s been super busy with trying to connect Equestria to the hippogriffs and all the other species that we encountered way down south. I bet we’ll be seeing a whole lot more of them in the future!”
“That would be pretty neat,” Gyro said. “I’d love to meet a hippogriff. I’m sure they’re awesome.”
“They were spectacular, I will say that much,” Rarity said. “We got to see one—!” She abruptly stopped and frowned at the west when she realized she wasn’t squinting anymore. “Oh, blast! We missed the sunset, we were so caught up in our conversation!”
“Dang,” Rainbow said, narrowing her eyes at the traitorous western horizon. “I guess we got a little carried away.”
The mechanic at Rarity’s side nodded and lowered her chin to her hooves. “Yeah, that sucks. But I mean, at least we were talking about interesting stuff, right?”
“Yeah, awesome stuff!” Rainbow clopped her hooves together in excitement. “Oh! I should tell you about the parrot pirates we met! They were pretty cool!”
“Please do!” Gyro exclaimed. “That sounds awesome!”
Rarity gently laughed. “I suppose we might as well tell you all about it now. We must find some way to pass the time until it’s bedtime, yes?”
“Sounds good to me,” Rainbow said.
“I’m all ears,” Gyro responded.
“Good.” Rarity straightened her posture and cleared her throat. “If we’re going to tell you all about it, then we might as well start at the beginning…”