//------------------------------// // Not Quite Civilization // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// There was something different to look at this morning. Up ahead on the southern bank of the river, it was a large building that was clearly well-maintained and inhabited. Brown wood made up its walls while Rainbow Dash could see large glass skylights on the roof and a number of chimneys currently churning out smoke, giving the whole thing a more modern look than traditional yak establishments. A sequence of circular porthole style windows ran along the side of the building too, closer to the top, Rainbow Dash estimated the thing probably had three separate stories inside. Aside from that the building opened up into a large patio on its backside facing the mountains. There were numerous ramps and stairways leading up it, which may mean that the actual entryway was back there. The outdoor patio was also completely free of any new snow so someone had to have shoveled it clear just earlier this morning. The other northern side of the building was built right up to the water’s edge and a dock extended from it halfway out into the river. The support pillars that held up the dock were made of layered stones that the ice floes passing by bounced off of if they hit them. At the dock there was a boat tied up too. A fairly large one with an angular bow and a main cabin built in a semicircle near the front, a single mast with a currently folded sail sat in the middle while the stern was taken up by a large paddle. An odd combination, normally you would only see a boat with either a paddle or a sail for locomotion, or oars, not both. Maybe they didn’t want to only rely on the wind. Painted on the side of the boat was a drawing of the twin yak statues from Yakyakistan, the boat must’ve been theirs or at least belonged to a yak from there. The prow of the boat also had a thick metal covering over it that was probably for knocking aside or punching through ice. It still seemed kind of risky to Rainbow Dash to tie up your boat there since a ton of ice floes were probably bumping into it as they came down the river but the thing must’ve been sturdy enough to take it. She kind of wanted to go fly around that boat and check it out more since it was the most interesting thing about this place but she instead chose to fly around back so she could go inside. This was most definitely the checkpoint William had told her about. There was nothing else it could be and she really wanted to meet with the Chief so she could get on her way. She had been told things wouldn’t be so simple so the more time she had to convince the Chief to tell her the path north the better. Rainbow Dash descended and landed on the wooden patio on the back of the building, as she suspected there was a large doorway made of two sliding wooden walls currently held open that led into the checkpoint building. There weren’t any yaks or other personnel she could see working here at the moment though, everybody must be inside. The blue pegasus glanced around the patio too but there were just some empty tables that looked like they were bolted into the floor. With a shrug, Rainbow Dash walked on into the building. The doorway opened up into a wide lobby that stretched to the roof of the building with the skylights she had seen from outside pouring light in. Two large fireplaces both on the right and left sides of the room must’ve been responsible for a couple of the chimneys up there as well. There was another door at the far end that probably led to the docks and two stairways beside it that led up to balconies that sat just below the rows of windows Rainbow Dash had seen from outside. Immediately to her left there was another open doorway tall enough for two yaks standing on top of each other to go through with a placard next to it that read “Basement” and had a ramp going down it. There also happened to be a couple of yaks carrying large crates down the ramp. “Finally,” Rainbow Dash floated over to them. “Uh, hey dudes. This is like, the checkpoint or something right? And there’s a Chief yak in charge here?” Both yaks looked at her like she had two heads. “Who are you?” One of them asked, not bothering to put down his crate. “Doesn’t matter,” the second one grumbled. “Busy. Keep working.” The yak that had no time for Rainbow Dash turned away from her without anymore words and went back to carrying his crate down the ramp. The other shrugged and followed suit, leaving a very peeved Rainbow Dash behind. “Well that’s real friendly!” She shouted at them. “Pff, whatever, I’ll go looking on my own.” Rainbow Dash flew up to the top of the room, the balconies had a number of unoccupied tables and chairs on them and each led to a closed and unmarked door on the third floor. Or technically just second counting the basement. The blue pegasus scowled and flew down to the open corridor leading to the docks, if the Chief had an office it would be more noticeable wouldn’t it? She touched her hooves down and walked on through the hallway, a number of other doors on the walls but none of them stuck out. When she finally reached the next room it opened up again into a larger area, directly ahead were several door and windows that she could see indeed lead to the docks and the big boat swaying in the river outside. To her right was an indoor cafe of some sort, a yak sat behind a counter with all sorts of foodstuffs behind it and the smell of coffee now wafting to Rainbow Dash. The cafe had a number of chairs and tables around it too but only one table was occupied. Rainbow Dash did a bit of a double-take, surprised by the three creatures seated at the table. One was a fairly lithe griffon who had a golden sheen to his plumage except around his crest which was green. Another was… something Rainbow Dash wasn’t even sure of. It had the shape of a pony but a little on the lean side and her faded yellow coat glimmered slightly in the light while her ears were pointed and webbed. Completing the odd look was a spiky seaweed green mane and a hairless tail that ended in a wide flipper. What was that? The last of the trio was just a normal pony though, a white unicorn with a yellow mane that had a single thin orange streak running through it, she wore a black bow slightly off-center behind her horn and had a Cutie Mark of the sun rising over the horizon. Well whoever those three were they definitely weren’t the Chief yak. They didn’t seem to notice Rainbow Dash walk in anyways so she just shrugged and turned to see what else was here. To her delight, on the right side of this room was a square office, and a large glass window taking up most of the wall that she could look into. Floating up to check it out she saw a yak sitting behind a desk. The door to the office didn’t have a nameplate or anything on it but this was the only thing like it she had seen in this building. That yak in there was the Chief, right? She was about to walk to his door when- “I say, that is quite the eye-catching mane you have!” Rainbow Dash turned around to see the griffon from the table walking towards her, his beak twisted up in an amicable smile behind a thin mustache that was also long enough that it could’ve been wrapped around his head once or twice. The two others who had been sitting with him were also rising from their seats and walking over. “Thanks. It’s pretty awesome, yeah,” Rainbow Dash grinned at the griffon. “Indeed! I’ve never seen such a vibrant mane, what a pleasant surprise! Especially so since I did not expect to see any other creatures but yaks here today.” “Honestly I wasn’t expecting that either. Big coincidence, huh? Name’s Rainbow Dash, what are you guys here for anyways?” She asked and looked behind him at the other two. The white unicorn was regarding her with a curious expression while the other creature was smiling at her. The griffon gave her a small but overly showy and polite bow. “Greetings, Miss Rainbow Dash. I am Gilbert of Griffonstone and please allow me to introduce my lovely two acquaintances.” He held out his arm and gestured to the unknown creature that had walked up on his left. “This is Miss Senax of East Glade.” “Hello,” Senax said, reaching out a hoof to Rainbow Dash. “Hey,” Rainbow Dash gladly grasped it and shook hooves with her. Although she couldn’t stop her eyes from widening in surprise when she felt Senax’s hoof, it wasn’t fur covering her body but something more akin to fish scales. “Er, sorry if this is a little rude but… what are you?” Senax pulled her hoof back and giggled. “Don’t worry about it, my people aren’t exactly common in this part of the world. I’m a merpony.” Rainbow Dash tilted her head. “Oh, cool. So you can like swim really well and breath underwater? I’ve met like, hippogriffs who could do that too.” “Yes, we can do all of that,” she wiggled her tail for emphasis. “But we don’t transform like hippogriffs or anything. We can’t fly like they can. Actually my people are originally from an ocean on the other side of the world, so that’s probably why you haven’t seen one of us before.” The merpony suddenly shivered and wrapped her hooves around herself. “And we’re made for places and waters a bit warmer than this, brr...” “And this-” Gilbert continued, swinging his arm over to the unicorn mare. “Is Miss Daylight Gleam, who hails from “Around” as she so fondly notes.” Daylight Gleam rolled her eyes but walked forward with a smile on her face to shake Rainbow Dash’s hoof as well. “I’ve just been on the road most of my life. Never really considered one place my home or anything like that.” “So where might you hail from, Miss Rainbow Dash?” Gilbert asked her. “Oh, I’m just from Equestria,” she replied. “I’m going on an adventure right now, so that’s why I’m so far from home.” “Ah, adventure!” Gilbert beamed, his wings extending and almost whacking Senax and Daylight Gleam in the face. “A fellow adventurer, are you? I have spent near my entire life seeking excitement and the next grand journey right around the corner. Yes, ever since I departed my dreary home of Griffonstone, life has been a nonstop rollercoaster for me!” Daylight Gleam pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head, although there was a playful smirk on her face. “Just ignore this guy. He flew straight north from Griffonstone, got stuck in Bug Bear territory, and had to run for his life and hide for the better part of two years.” “Hey, I can’t fault anyone for going someplace dangerous for fun,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Pardon me-” Senax interceded. “But if you’re going on an adventure then why are you here? There’s nothing in this part of the north and this river only leads to Yakyakistan or back to the ocean.” “We ourselves just came back from Yakyakistan, that’s where Misses Daylight Gleam and Senax found me, and now we’re heading downriver on our lovely vessel that I’m sure you saw docked here.” Gilbert explained. Oh, so it was their boat? Rainbow Dash grinned at Senax’s question and smugly folded her arms in front of her chest while she floated off the ground a bit. “Well I’m still going north from here. I’m going to find all the adventure there is up there.” “North from here?” Daylight Gleam asked with a raised eyebrow. “But all there is is an impassable wasteland.” The smug expression on Rainbow Dash’s face only grew. “I can’t really go into details cause it’s supposed to be a secret but there’s a way north past that wasteland. I’m gonna find it out and then I’m gonna do all kinds of awesome stuff, yeah!” “Like what?” Daylight Gleam asked her, still confused. Rainbow Dash drifted to the ground, thinking. “Uh… I don’t actually know yet. Cause I don’t totally know what’s up there. But it’s gonna be cool! Bet on it!” “Well good luck I guess,” Daylight Gleam shrugged, giving up. “Thanks!” Rainbow Dash put her hoof forward for a hoof bump, which the unicorn obliged. “And like, I was curious about you guys too. So you three only just met up at Yakyakistan and you’re taking your boat… where now?” “It’s not our boat actually. We don’t own it or anything,” Senax shook her head. “It’s a Yakyakistan boat that we’re merely passengers on for the moment. Daylight and I traveled all the way there to find Gilbert and now the three of us are on the first day of a much longer journey.” “This boat will take us all the way to Griffonstone, at which point we will have to find travel of our own to go any further to our shared destination,” Gilbert cut in with a smirk on his face. “So where are you guys going? Sounds like someplace far,” the rainbow maned pony asked. “In total it’s kind of a long story, and since I’m the most concise please allow me to explain,” Daylight Gleam said, stepping in front of Gilbert and Senax before the two of them could say anything. “So like you we’re going on an adventure. A while back I met Gilbert’s sister. She, Gilbert, and their other brother, all lived in Griffonstone when they were younger. As you obviously now know, Gilbert left to go adventuring one day. But he wasn’t the only one. Both his brother and sister went their own ways too. Well recently now though his sister has returned to Griffonstone and since she knew I didn’t have anywhere to go and all I do is travel she asked if I wouldn’t mind going in search of her two brothers. She’d been getting a bit sentimental and wanted to see them again. So I said yes.” Daylight shrugged. “Went looking for the other brother first but… a whole bunch of stuff happened, I met Senax, and it ended up with the two of us going to find Gilbert instead and then get back on the trail of his brother. And so the two of us found Gilbert in Yakyakistan finally and now we’re on the way to find his brother again, finally. Among some other things but I don’t really want to overload you with other details and stuff...” “Yeahhh, that already wasn’t very concise,” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her neck. She hadn’t even heard why Senax was traveling with them in the first place. “But thanks and all, sounds like you three got a real adventure ahead of you. I hope mine turns out pretty awesome too.” “You said you still needed to find out the secret way to the north? What do you need to do?” Gilbert asked her while twirling his long mustache around a talon. “Oh! I need to ask the Checkpoint Chief about it. He’s supposed to know,” Rainbow Dash fluttered her wings to rise up and pointed back at the office. “Is that his office? That’s him in there, right?” “The yaks who came off the boat with us said as much, yes.” Gilbert nodded. “Great!” Rainbow Dash pumped her hoof. “Look, it was nice talking to you but I really want to learn how to go north and stuff. See ya!” She speedily turned around and went to the door of the Chief’s office before she could hear their responses and thank yous. Her blue hoof grasped the handle and pulled it open, the pony from Equestria stepping into the Chief’s office to ask him a question he probably didn’t want to hear.