//------------------------------// // Snow Griffons IV // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash walked down into another basement level of the castle after Glenn pointed her in the right direction for the bathhouse. She sorely needed a bath and something like a good wash was just going to feel really good. Especially since they probably had the waters heated by fires, it was going to make this great. She whistled to herself and hopped off the last step of the stairs, an open doorway at the end of this new hallway that Glenn helpfully told her led to the bath. She could hear some giggling and splashing coming from it. Seems she wouldn’t be alone. When Rainbow Dash got closer she could feel the heat from the room and steam started to slightly fog up her vision. Buzzing up with her wings she blew away some of the steam as she flew into the room and took her first look at the bathhouse. It was spacious but not as much as she would’ve thought, with a single large bath that looked almost like a pool carved into the floor. It was hot and steamy with a large partition built into the middle that Rainbow Dash assumed was used to separate the male and female sides. Numerous narrow slits were carved into the far wall of the bathhouse for steam to escape to the outside. The half of the bath she could see was empty and considering how feminine those giggles she heard were, Rainbow Dash was willing to guess this was the male side. She flew around the partition and peeked in to see three familiar griffon teenagers. The girls she had just met yesterday. Their eyes met at once and the griffons went silent as they stared at each other until Rainbow Dash raised a hoof and awkwardly smiled. “Uh, hi?” “Hello,” one of them said back to her. Rainbow Dash instantly recognized her voice as the one who had spoken to her yesterday. To be honest they were all a little difficult to tell apart based on looks thanks to their snowy features that all kind of blended together. “Room for one more?” Rainbow asked. The three griffons looked between each other for a moment before moving closer to the partition, allowing Rainbow Dash plenty of room to jump on in. “Sweet!” Rainbow said and dropped into the warm water, dunking herself in completely right at the start and letting the warmth rush into her body. She then shot her head above the surface and let the water drip down her now flattened mane. “Now that is nice. Thanks!” “Our home is your home for as long as you’re staying,” the griffon shrugged. “And I’m gonna enjoy it. So do the three of you take a bath every morning?” Rainbow asked them. “And every evening,” one of the other griffons answered. “Cleanliness is our pride,” the last one said. They’d get along well with Rarity. Rainbow Dash nodded. She took a big stretch in the water and let the bath cleanse her body and massage her sore muscles. For a second she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the edge of the bath to relax. Just resting there for a moment was nice, she used to be embarrassed about how much she enjoyed this stuff but it’s not like she had to put on a front right now. She opened her eyes back up and looked at the griffons. “So what are your names by the way? I don’t know how long I’m going to be here but I figured I should at least learn them.” “If you feel you must,” the first one said with another shrug of her shoulders. “My name is Gale.” “I’m Genna,” the second one said. “My name is Gwenyth,” the third said. “Alright,” Rainbow Dash grinned at them all. “Nice to meet you for real then.” “Likewise. I won’t exactly be apologizing for what we said to you yesterday but we’ll treat you more amicably from now on,” Gale told her. Rainbow Dash didn’t see a reason to push the issue and get in an argument over it. Especially when she was trying to enjoy this bath. “Eh, works for me then.” “And we have our own lives so don’t expect us to make extra time for you or treat you special either,” Gwenyth said. She had a more haughty and aloof attitude to her than the other two seemed to. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Rainbow fought to keep from rolling her eyes. “If you wish to join us for these baths that would be fine however. Since it’s always part of our normal schedule you wouldn’t be interrupting anything,” Genna said. Rainbow thought for a second. “I might take you up on that, yeah. I don’t know if I’m going to bathe every evening like you do but I can probably come here in the mornings.” “Well that would still be more than our brothers,” Gale giggled. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at her and looked at the partition, thinking about the empty guys side behind it. “Yeah I was gonna ask, actually. They don’t come here as much?” “Hardly at all. It’s revolting,” Gwenyth made a disgusted face. Honestly Dash could appreciate that too but she wasn’t going to say anything. “I guess they don’t value cleanliness like you do.” Gwenyth curled her beak. “Our brothers are vulgar.” “We’ll be getting some breakfast as well after we finish bathing, would you join us?” Genna asked. “That wouldn’t be a break in our day either.” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “I already ate, and there’s still more stuff I kind of want to look at here. And not just in this castle but on all these mountains. I want to see what your whole city is like.” She absentmindedly rubbed at her mane and then frowned. “Uh, so do you have soap and shampoo here too? I could kind of use some.” “We do,” Gale said and floated through the water to the far end of the bath. It had been partially obscured by steam but there was a bucket with a number of bars of soap and glass bottles containing shampoo and other luxuries for the bathing griffons. Gale put the bucket in the water and Rainbow Dash watched as it floated on top of the surface, the griffon then pushed it across the water to her. “Take whatever you would like, we have plenty.” “Thanks,” Rainbow Dash said and looked over the various soaps and shampoos. Tons of different scents were in the basket, from flowers to the smell of rain and even types of wood. Again, Rarity would enjoy this a lot. Rainbow Dash didn’t really care about smelling any particular way though. She grabbed some of the unscented soap and a bottle of shampoo labeled “rose” since that seemed like the plainest one they had. She wasn’t exactly the most thorough washer or anything, she liked some spa visits every now and then but showering was lame, she was just enjoying this cause of how warm and relaxing the water was. It was still good to put in some shampoo and get all the grime out of her hair though. This was the first time since… back in the mammoth city that she had really gotten to wash and had a good treatment like this? It almost made her pause when she thought about how long ago that had been. She had been going on a pretty rough and dirty adventure, hadn’t she? Her entire time inside the metal mountain was a mess. This was looking like the opposite so far. With the soap in one hoof she vigorously scrubbed across her fur until the water on and around her got soapy, then she took a bit of a gentler time cleaning her wings and making the feathers as glorious as possible. Some shampoo in her tail and a wringing out of it pretty much finished up what she considered getting clean. If Aloe and Lotus were here it would be a little different but Dash didn’t really care about doing anything more thorough herself. She could already tell how much better she looked and felt after this wash with the soap and shampoo. “Alright, that’s gonna be a lot better,” she said as she wrung out the last bit of suds from her mane as well. “You’re already done?” Gwenyth raised an eyebrow at her. “We bathe for much longer than this.” “Well I’ve got a lot of stuff I wanna do and I feel pretty clean so, yeah, I’m done.” Rainbow answered. “I was hoping you’d be a bit more concerned with your appearance but I suppose I was expecting too much,” Gwenyth said, looking away from her. “Kind of not a high priority when you’re out adventuring and saving the world and stuff,” Rainbow Dash did roll her eyes this time. “Hmph,” Gwenyth stuck up her beak at her. Rainbow Dash was fine with that. She didn’t really think they’d have much in common or anything to talk about anyways. The other two griffons in here didn’t seem to care half as much as Gwenyth either. After putting everything back in the bucket and letting it float into the middle of the bath, Rainbow Dash took another stretch and lifted herself out of the water. Floating above the steamy bath, water dropped down from her and back into it. “That was great,” Rainbow Dash said, taking a big sigh. “Got any towels in here?” Gale pointed a claw to the other end of the room on the far side from the door. Rainbow Dash turned around and looked to see a large wardrobe in the corner with a hamper next to it, she quickly flew over to it while still wet, dripping a fair amount of water onto the stone floor of the bathhouse. Opening up the wooden cabinet she saw several shelves currently stocked with a number of fluffy white towels. Taking one down she quickly began to dry herself off until she was no longer wet and dripping water everywhere she went. Her mane took the longest to make sure it was totally dry and once that was done, Rainbow Dash tossed the now wet towel into the hamper. She looked over at the three griffons and waved. “I’ll see you later today, maybe. Or tomorrow morning.” “Be seeing you,” Gale lazily waved back. “Enjoy the rest of your day,” Genna nodded. And Gwenyth just ignored her entirely. Rainbow Dash grinned and chuckled to herself, flying out of the bathhouse and back into the rest of the castle. She still didn’t have a real plan for the day but there was a lot she could choose from to do. Whether she’d spend more of it inside the castle or finally leave to check out the other buildings on the mountains up here. This place may not have been like the mammoth city, nor was she thrown into conflict immediately like at the metal mountain or the pegasus empire, but there was still a lot to discover and experience. That’s something she was certain about.