Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS


Snow Griffons VII

The following evening had Rainbow Dash attend another big dinner with Galia and the other members of House Stormwing. Last night was a long one with her staying at the observatory with Gabriel for hours until she finally flew back to the castle and made it to her room. The temperatures outside when she had been flying back were below freezing and Rainbow Dash felt herself lucky that she hadn’t caught a cold. At least the blankets of the bed had functioned well enough for comfort and heat.

Because of how late it was when she finally got back she fell asleep nearly instantly once she stopped shivering from the cold. She ended up waking quite late because of the long night though and missed breakfast, having to again get herself a snack all alone down at the kitchens. Nobody was still at the bathhouse when she made it there either. She ended up bathing alone and taking an extra amount of time just kind of lying in the hot water, still a little tired after the previous evening.

At least Gwenyth would be happy to know she was still bathing once a day. That was a lot better than Rainbow Dash’s usual average.

It was already way past noon by the time she got out of the bath and most everyone else in the castle was either away or had their own thing to do. So Rainbow Dash saw it as prime chillaxing time. Instead of going to that other patio she had already found, Rainbow Dash went up to the top of the castle’s highest tower. It was nice and secluded in its own way, gave her a commanding view of the entire griffon domain, and it had been cleaned off by the servants.

It was also incredibly cold. The weather today was colder and windier than it had been so far up here, even if there wasn’t much snow left on the tower there was still a layer of ice and newly forming ice over a lot of it. If Rainbow Dash really wanted to chillax up here she would’ve had to bring up a fire. Or her own igloo.

So unfortunately she ended up leaving the tower and headed back inside. It was not a day where she wanted to be out if she could avoid it. And since she didn’t have anything else to do or anyone to meet up with today she just went back to her room. She could wait until it was dinnertime and go down to eat with everyone again. At that point she lit up the brazier to get as much heat as possible in the room and curled up in her cocoon of blankets. She hoped she was able to only nap for a couple of hours and wouldn’t sleep past dinner or anything too. It wouldn’t have been the first time she did something like that.

Luckily for her her stomach had indeed told her when to wake back up. And when Rainbow Dash went back down the tower into the main part of the castle she bumped into Galia and was invited to dinner.

So that takes us to the present where Rainbow Dash was now eyeing a pea soup that smelled a lot spicier than peas were supposed to be. Were there peppers in there? How did they get peppers in a place like this? Scratch that. How did they get peas in a place like this? Rainbow Dash didn’t know and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Maybe it was some kind of secret griffon magic. Either way she grabbed her spoon with her wing and took a big gulp of it.

The soup was the exact opposite of the weather outside. Hot.

Very, very, hot.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes watered as she felt her lips and tongue burn, but she didn’t cry out or immediately go for the water. She wanted to look tough and if she had a reaction like that it would’ve been totally lame. So as painful as it was she just sat there while the fiery feeling in her mouth grew and grew. It was only the relative temperature of the dining room that kept her from breaking out in a sweat.

And to make sure the masquerade wasn’t discovered she drank another spoonful of soup. It was not a good idea.

“Are you enjoying the soup, Rainbow Dash?” Genna asked her. It was an innocent question, she had no idea the turmoil Rainbow Dash was going through on the inside.

“Y-Yep...” Rainbow Dash shakily nodded and smiled at the griffon, hoping her lips weren’t red.

Genna smiled back. “I’m glad you like it, that soup is my favorite.”

“It’s really special,” Dash managed to say before reaching for a roll of bread to try and stifle the heat. It worked a little bit. Her throat was burning too as she tried to swallow it all down but at least no one had seemed to notice.

“I’m sure you’ll enjoy eating our food for however many more days you feel like it,” Gwenyth said while making a pointed decision to not actually look at Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash knew what she really meant by those words and flatly stared back at her. “Who knows?”

“Do you normally eat such extravagant meals back in your homeland? What was it called?” Gale asked her.

“Equestria. And not really. I like big meals and stuff and I could definitely have more if I wanted to but I’m fine with eating normally most of the time. Especially since I want to keep in shape,” Rainbow said.

“I see getting to enjoy lavish meals like this whenever we want as a privilege of being born into a House,” Gale shrugged. “So if the opportunity is here I’m never going to forsake it.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes (Glenn and Genna did the same, while the rest at the table weren’t really paying attention) and resumed eating some more food. These griffons weren’t exactly all the hoity-toity rich type she was used to seeing in Canterlot but they weren’t the most down to earth or charitable creatures either. Kind of like how griffons had been back in Griffonstone before Dash and Pinkie helped Gilda bring the magic of friendship back to them.

Well Rainbow wouldn’t have been totally against doing that here too. It would be an adventure as well, just a different sort of one from what she really wanted.

All she could really think of doing was making Glaive, or perhaps Gordon or Glenn, care about becoming leader of their House. That could at least partially solve the problems here and heal House Stormwing. She wasn’t exactly sure why Glaive came to her mind first. He just came off as the most assertive of his brothers, the one likely to take charge and be a leader even if maybe he wasn’t the one most fit for the job. The thing is he just didn’t seem to care about growing up. Rainbow Dash would’ve thought it was cool to become the leader of an ancient, important House like this but obviously Glaive didn’t see eye to eye with her on that. She started tapping her hoof next to her plate before glancing down the table at Galia.

“Hey, Galia?” Rainbow Dash asked her host.

The temporary matriarch looked up from her food, a half eaten rodent of some sort, and raised an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash. “Yes?”

“How did you griffons get up here? How long ago was it? You know about Griffonstone and Equestria and everything so I’m just wondering what your story is.”

“Well we did branch off from the griffons of Griffonstone a long time ago. Shortly after the founding of Equestria. The complete history can be found in our library if you’re really interested but honestly I don’t think there’s much of a story to tell,” she said.

“Oh. Well uh, why did you guys come up here?” Rainbow implored. “And also… did your ancestors have to find their way through the wasteland to the south? And that huge cliff that blocks everything off?”

Galia gave her a questioning look, puzzlement showing itself on her face. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. There’s no record of any such thing in our histories.”

“That’s… weird,” Rainbow Dash frowned. “For me to get up north here from Equestria I had to fly over this huge wasteland where nothing grew and then into this one narrow passage through these tall cliffs. If you griffons didn’t have to do that I wonder if you came up another way. Or maybe it wasn’t always there?” She knew the yaks were cast out of the True North hundreds of years ago and the barrier and wasteland existed then, but if Galia was right and the griffons came up slightly after Equestria was founded then that was well over 1,000 years ago. That was one part of history she at least wasn’t totally ignorant of.

“I don’t know to be honest,” Galia shrugged. “But to answer your other question the reason we left Griffonstone originally was due to essentially losing an argument over where our kingdom should be centered. My ancestors wanted us on the peaks of the tallest mountains. The ones who stayed in Griffonstone didn’t. And uh… things became slightly violent, kind of a griffon thing, the lines were drawn, and at the end of it we left. We weren’t cast out or exiled, we willingly left, it just wasn’t very amicable.”

“Sorry about all that,” Dash said.

Galia grunted, and then her eyes narrowed and she glared at her brothers and sisters. “And I bet it’s the first time any of these layabouts have learned about that too!”

Glaive just rolled his eyes and popped a biscuit into his mouth, chewing on it while he responded to her accusations. “So what? History is boring and the important part is that we’re here anyways.”

“Those who don’t learn the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them. Things might be nice but one day something bad could happen and you might end up having to fly off and look for a new home,” Galia sharply pointed a talon at him. “You wouldn’t like that would you? Forced to do something so unpleasant, where you can’t just rely on your servants or expect to have a nice meal every day?”

“Of course I wouldn’t like that but that’s not reality so there,” Glaive smugly retorted and tossed another biscuit into his mouth.

“Imbecile,” Galia shook her head. She then looked at the other five. “The lot of you are the same, no sense of duty, no worries, just carefree, not forward-thinking at all. It’s disgraceful.”

Rainbow Dash awkwardly ate the various breads and salads around her while the griffons argued with each other. She didn’t exactly want to butt in on what was essentially just a family squabble. She made sure to keep away from that pea soup though. The other griffons though… aside from Glenn and maybe Genna they really came off like a bunch of spoiled and entitled brats. They really weren’t interested in any of this? Gwenyth wasn’t paying attention at all, Gale looked like she was annoyed—or possibly feeling even a little guilty, Gordon was just eating with a kind of sad look in his eyes, Genna and Glenn were both looking at Glaive and Galia as they continued their argument.

“Haaahhh~” Glaive yawned and leaned back in his seat, acting as lackadaisical on purpose just to annoy his big sister. “Your lectures always make me so tired.”

“You’d be smart to listen to them or something else might make you dead,” Galia threatened.

“I’ll take that chance,” Glaive said.

“Why do I even bother,” Galia sighed and went back to eating her food, much to the joy of Glaive and some of the others.

It looked like things were going to just go back to normal, but then a griffon who hadn’t spoken once in Rainbow Dash’s presence decided to add his two bits as well.

“You should be more receptive to what your sister is saying,” Greely said. His voice was old and tired and—even though he was still clearly annoyed—even Glaive didn’t interrupt or say anything rude while he was talking. “Everything you have was built on the backs of your ancestors… don’t just spit on their memories… they had to live much harder lives than you. You owe them respect for allowing you to have such peace. A lot was sacrificed to make this haven for us griffons up here...” His voice trailed off after that, the old castellan becoming tired and returning to eating a porridge he had in front of his seat.

That at least sobered the other griffons. None of them wanted to speak out against their elder and some of them even looked a little ashamed. Rainbow Dash doubted it would lead to a sweeping change in attitude for Glaive or anyone but at least it showed they could have some respect when it was appropriate. And tomorrow was yet another day, maybe something would happen or Rainbow Dash could help them realize that they could be so much more than what they were. They should be able to live up to the griffons of old and make them proud.