//------------------------------// // Snow Griffons VIII // Story: Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego // by MagicS //------------------------------// “We’re having a dance?” “It’s a ball, officially.” Rainbow Dash had actually been woken up by Galia this morning so the griffon matriarch could tell her about what was going on. It was a surprise to Dash—who had been planning on sleeping well past noon—for a multitude of reasons. She didn’t really expect this kind of thing from griffons in general and these guys didn’t seem like they really engaged in this kind of sociable stuff. Even though these northern griffons and Houses were kind of noble and fancy they just didn’t get along well enough from what she had seen. Glenn wrote about parties and stuff in his stories, but those were romanticized, weren’t they? “And I’m invited?” Rainbow Dash asked her as she threw off the covers and hopped out of bed. “We’re bringing you along. If you want to come of course,” Galia said. Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I didn’t have any other plans for today. Not really.” “Excellent, you’ll be a real treat at the ball. Be prepared to get dance requests from many griffons,” Galia told her. “Oh,” Rainbow Dash frowned. “Well, uh, alright.” “You do know how to dance, don’t you?” “Yeah, it’s just not my most favorite thing or anything like that. But I can do it. So who’s going to be at this ball? Is it being held here?” Rainbow asked. Galia shook her head. “Of course not, there’s not enough room at any of our castles. And everyone—every family member I should say—from the five Houses are going to be there. I don’t know how much longer you’ll be staying up here but this is an opportunity for you to meet everyone of import.” So nobody not in one of the Houses is important to you? Rainbow Dash thought. That kind of thing rubbed her the wrong way, especially after the fun she had had with Gabriel. But that’s just how these types were. Rarity was annoyed about that kind of thing too, always saying that Fancy Pants was one of the few from Canterlot’s royal elite that wasn’t such a snob. Rainbow Dash took a deep yawn, she was too tired to pick a fight over something as lame as this. “Okay, let’s go to the ball then.” “Well it’s not for a few more hours. I just woke you up now so you could get ready. And I still have to gather up the hooligans that make up my brothers and sisters, which will take me some time,” she said. “Yeah I can definitely imagine that...” Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck. “If you go take a bath and freshen up, Greely will come back to fetch you later,” Galia told her. “Great,” Rainbow nodded. The bath was totally empty this time. Galia hadn’t been joking about having to gather up the others, they probably had known about this ball far longer than Rainbow Dash and clearly didn’t have a great desire to go to it. Gale, Gwenyth, and Genna, despite their love of cleanliness, weren’t around at all. And she hadn’t seen a one of them or the three brothers on her way down here. Rainbow still wasn’t exactly in love with bathing or anything either and with no one around to talk to she only took a quick dip and got back out to dry off and take care of whatever else she needed to do. Since she didn’t know if the ball was going to be catered she decided to stop off at the kitchens and grab a bite to eat too. And if it was being catered well she could still fit plenty of food in her stomach. As she made it back to her room now to wait for Greely she idly wondered if this was a normal thing up here that happened all the time or if one of the Houses set it up only recently. She was also a bit suspicious that maybe someone had gotten wind of her and that’s why this was going on. Although Galia’s reaction to her when they first met kind of threw water on that idea. She hadn’t really cared that much about who Dash was or where she came from. More than her siblings but that really wasn’t saying much at all. So Rainbow Dash made sure to stretch and relax a little and sure enough it was only a few hours after she returned that Greely came to get her. “You coming to the ball too?” She asked the old griffon. He slowly shook his head before a sudden coughing fit overtook him, coughing so hard that a number of his feathers came out and Rainbow Dash worriedly fluttered over to steady him. “N-No… not me.” “You know, I was going to ask why but I think I can kind of guess,” Dash said. “Mmm, just a little bit too old for dancing. Even the slow waltzing that you’ll see at the ball,” Greely answered. “I need my rest...” “Yeah dude, no offense, but you look like you need it. You want me to help you back to your room? Or just down the stairs?” She offered. Greely was happy to accept. “If you would be so kind...” She helped the old castellan to his chambers and then made her way out to the little courtyard in front of the castle per his instructions. Everyone else was already there, although none of them looked happy. Glenn and Genna were probably in the best mood and they only showed total ambivalence and apathy on their faces while the others were annoyed and tired. Especially Galia. She sported a nasty glare on her face and her eyes narrowed every time they landed on Glaive. “Uh, hey?” Rainbow Dash waved to them as she came out, hoping the mood could lighten a little. Galia’s ears perked up and she looked over at her. “Oh, good, you’re here. We can head to the ball now.” Her voice was still strained a little but she was attempting to still be polite to Dash. “Alright,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “So where is it, anyways?” “The ball is held on a large platform built on top of one of the mountains near the northern edge of our domain. It’s used specifically for large functions such as this. I think you’ll find it very nice,” Galia explained. Rainbow Dash grinned and flew up from the ground. “Cool! I’m about to show you griffons how to dance!” Well as it turned out the terms “ball” and “party” had a pretty big distinction. A party would’ve been a lot more casual and wild and Rainbow Dash really would’ve cut loose. A ball unfortunately was very, very, formal. Slow dancing (“waltzing” as Greely had called it) seemed to be all they were doing or allowed at the ball. Not that Rainbow Dash couldn’t do that either but she liked faster dancing, like what she got to enjoy with Dust Bunny down in their little underground city. Galia was right about the place being nice though. It was a huge stone platform supported by a number of beams going from its underside to the sides of the thin mountain. The surface on top looked like polished and incredibly smooth marble—perfect for dancing—and the outer edges were covered in pretty bushes and planters with luscious leaves and flowers growing from them. Vines even cascaded off the sides dozens of feet down off the platform. It made it almost look like a high up sky garden or something. There were already dozens of griffons around it too, either flying above and around it or some who had already landed and were mingling with each other. Of course they noticed her immediately but unlike some places she didn’t get suddenly mobbed. The griffons of the other Houses allowed her and the group of House Stormwing to land peacefully. Apparently Rainbow Dash was just going to be a quaint source of amusement here, though she was indeed still prepared to be asked to dance quite a bit. “None of you better make fools of yourself here,” Galia said to the others. “There is a time and place for insult trading and a time and place for civil and courteous behavior. This is the latter. I want you all dancing and engaging in pleasant conversation with heirs and family members of other Houses in minutes. Do you understand?” “We get it, Galia. This is not our first ball,” Glaive said, irritation dripping from his voice. “Then hurry up and get out there,” she growled and shooed them off before turning to Rainbow Dash. “You can just mingle and do whatever you want, someone from one of the other Houses will ask you to dance soon enough.” “Sounds like a blast,” Rainbow sarcastically quipped. Galia just grumbled in response and the two of them stood there on the edge of the marble dance floor, waiting for some griffon to show up and offer them a dance. In the meantime Rainbow Dash watched the center of the dance floor, there was a large ring of griffons all dancing in unison while other couples stayed on the outside. Now that she was here she could also see how many of them were wearing things like tophats and well-pressed suits. Something totally absent from her griffons of House Stormwing. She would’ve asked Galia why that was the case but she already knew that answer—Glaive and the others would come here quietly but you sure as Tartarus weren’t getting them to dress up for it. The more Rainbow Dash stood here and watched the “waltzing” the more she wished she could magically trade places with Rarity for the rest of the day. Or Applejack. Because that would be funny. Galia was right though, just as Rainbow Dash was starting to get a little bored a couple of griffons flew down from the sky and landed in front of Dash and Galia. Both of them were guys and one of them was middle-aged while the other looked closer to Galia’s age. The older one actually had quite the elaborate tuxedo on with a fancy bowtie at his neck and a lapel so sharp it looked like it could cut glass. The younger one merely had a black hat and a pair of gold-rimmed eyeglasses that he wore on top of a fake smile. “Hello, how are you two lovely ladies enjoying the ball so far?” The older one said and took a slight bow. While Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, Galia did the exact opposite. All traces of annoyance were totally gone from her as she put on a happy smile and giggled at the two griffons. It was such a shocking change that Dash had to fight to keep her jaw from dropping open. “Lord Razorbeak, you’re always so kind,” Galia said, a blush appearing on her face. “We’re having a wonderful time.” “Splendid, splendid, my son and I just arrived and when we saw the two of you still alone we had to come over,” Lord Razorbeak said. “It is dreadful to think you ladies weren’t asked by any others to dance immediately upon arrival.” His keen eyes peeked over to Rainbow Dash. “And please allow me to properly introduce myself to you. We have all read about you thanks to the pleasant letters sent by Galia here but this is our first true meeting. I am Lord of House Razorbeak and this is my son and heir, Gunther.” “Charmed,” Gunther said, nasally, his head dipping in a slight bow similar to his father. “Nice to meet you two,” Rainbow Dash said as pleasantly and measured as she could manage, waving a hoof at them. Lord Razorbeak smiled at her. “Of course. So would you two ladies care for a dance? Galia, you can dance with Gunther and I shall dance with our pony guest here.” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at him. She didn’t know why he would be dancing with her, didn’t he have a wife? She had figured griffons like Glaive, Glenn, and Gordon would be dancing with her. Not the actual heads of the big Houses. And Galia was the de facto head of House Stormwing right now so why wouldn’t he dance with her? Rainbow shot a sneaky glance over at Galia and Gunther, the male griffon sporting a lecherous look on his face. Oh. Creating new bonds and marriage alliances between Houses, huh? Lord Razorbeak then offered her a talon and Rainbow Dash took it while Gunther did the same with Galia. The group of four now walking out to dance. “Do you know how to dance like this?” Lord Razorbeak asked her. “I can pick it up quickly,” Rainbow replied. “Just start us off.” “Very well,” he smiled and pulled her between two other dancing couples, grasping her right hoof tightly while placing his other talon on her left shoulder. Rainbow Dash responded how she needed to and worked her hooves so she could follow along to his movements. Thankfully he was leading so all she really had to do was keep up with him. And after watching the other griffons waltz around before this she had a decent enough idea of what their dance was like. She could handle it. The two of them perfectly weaved into the larger group, flowing along and waltzing like any other pair out there. It still wasn’t her preferred dance but it beat standing around. “Once we’re done members from House Snowfall, Lightfeather, and Frozenflower will surely come to ask you to dance as well,” Lord Razorbeak said. He then leaned in closer to whisper. “If I’m being perfectly honest though none of us are too interested in you, we’re only doing it for face and to project politeness.” Rainbow Dash wryly grinned. “I had actually kind of figured that, dude.” The older griffon held back a snort of amusement. “It was too good an opportunity to pass up, to force my dear contemporaries to dance with you less they look bad. My apologies.” “Don’t worry about it, I don’t hate dancing or anything,” Dash said. “You do seem to have a decent knack for it,” he said. “Thanks,” she grinned and the two of them kept waltzing together for a bit longer until she decided to ask him about Gunther and Galia. “So are you like—trying to set your son up with Galia?” “Yes, actually,” Lord Razorbeak answered totally shamelessly. “She may not be the real head of House Stormwing but she’s an important griffon. Daughter of a previous leader and sister to the future one. I’d love to have her marry my son, it would strengthen the bonds between our Houses.” “No offense but I don’t think that plan of yours is going anywhere,” Rainbow grimaced as she looked over at Galia and Gunther dancing. While her face may gave been pleasant, Galia’s body language was showing something else. “I’m aware she has little to no interest in such a thing at the moment—regardless of who it is going after her—she’s much too invested in getting House Stormwing stable. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try and plant the seeds for after those things are taken care of,” Lord Razorbeak shrugged. “Fair enough. She seems pretty into your guys’s traditions and culture up here. At least enough that she’s always ragging on her brothers and sisters for not living up to it,” Rainbow Dash told him. “Well we all hope House Stormwing will fix its problem… more or less. We aren’t exactly close or friends or anything, none of the Houses are, but we’re all in this together,” Lord Razorbeak said. “You guys could always work on that part you know? I’m from Equestria and we’re kind of really big on the whole friendship thing. Even Griffonstone is really big on friendship nowadays,” she said. A wider smile split across his beak. “I suppose we can consider it. But, pray tell, what else can you tell me about your home and Griffonstone? I would love to hear about them both.” Rainbow Dash was happy to fill him in while the dancing went on, up until they had to part for the next round of waltzing. Lord Razorbeak wished her well and he and his son left her and Galia to their own devices again. It was actually a way nicer conversation and experience than Dash had been expecting to have with one of these griffons. She only hoped the others that would soon come to ask her to dance were as easygoing and upfront as Lord Razorbeak. And of course there was even less time for her to stand around now, not while there was waltzing to be done, she saw other griffons now flying down to her and Galia. Snowfall, Lightfeather, Frozenflower—she wondered which House was going to get to her next. After having to dance with the (already married) heir of House Lightfeather and listen to him gush about his wife while Galia danced with the incredibly old and ugly brother of the current Lord, Rainbow had had enough of waltzing. She politely excused herself away from anyone else trying to dance with her and left to the edges of the ballroom platform. There she could mingle with a lot of the others who weren’t dancing either. She had already decided to find Glaive and the others because she doubted they, or most of them, were dancing either. That thought actually turned out to be kind of wrong though. Rainbow Dash spied both Genna and Gwenyth dancing with griffons from other Houses while Glenn and Gordon were engaged in what looked like pleasant conversation with some others. That just left Glaive and Gale somewhere. Rainbow Dash had to fly around a bit through the groups of griffons that were in the air and not dancing down on the platform to find them since she couldn’t really just butt in on the others. There were so many up here just flying and hovering around, casually talking or whatever, that Rainbow Dash was having trouble. And since she stuck out like a sore thumb and there were probably others who had to ask her to dance to keep up appearances she might end up sidetracked if she didn’t find those two quickly. “You two didn’t go flying back to your castle, did you?” Rainbow Dash wondered to herself. She kind of doubted it though, Galia would be really mad if they did something like that. Her eyes scanned down around the edges of the platform to see if she missed anything there but all she saw were some couples hanging out around the bushes and flowers. Er, wait, that wasn’t quite all. It was a little tough to see because of some of the vines hanging down but Rainbow Dash could see underneath the platform where a lot of the support beams were. Two familiar griffons happened to be hovering down there, mostly out of sight of the rest. “There they are,” Rainbow Dash grinned and began her flight down towards them. “Don’t know what you’re doing but whatever.” When she made it to the vines and shot through them, both Glaive and Gale noticed her presence. They were surprised to see her but all Rainbow Dash did was wave. “What’s up? Why are you two down here?” She asked them. “Oh, Rainbow Dash,” Gale said before shrugging. “No real reason, we just didn’t want to dance.” “We’ll come up later and do one or two dances that we have to but otherwise it’s too much of a bother,” Glaive grumpily said. “I guess as long as you haven’t outright ditched Galia wont be too mad,” Rainbow said. “Mrm,” Glaive grumbled. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at him. “Something wrong?” Glaive shared a look with Gale for a brief moment before she waved her talon, motioning him to talk. The pompous, and yet flighty, griffon sighed before affixing Rainbow Dash with a bothered gaze. “If I’m being totally honest, yes. I hate to say this and I’ve been doing my best to ignore it but ever since you came here I’ve felt… bad,” Glaive said. Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but snort. “And if I’m being honest, that’s a little tough for me to believe.” “Well it’s true. I’ve been thinking of some things. Gambien, House Stormwing, what Greely and Galia say, you. Perhaps it took an outside perspective or something to shatter our normal day to day life but I feel now how empty everything I’ve been doing is. Even the exchanging of insults with House Lightfeather didn’t cure this feeling. Instead it just made it worse after wasting my time on those louts. I want to do something that matters now. I think possibly I understand how Gambien felt and why he left—although I have no intention of following his moronic path,” Glaive said. “You almost sound a little selfless there,” Rainbow Dash grinned. He shrugged. “It’s true I don’t want to be selfish and cause problems like my deceased half-brother. Not anymore at least, that’s part of the strange feeling I have in me now.” “Which you’re the source of,” Gale said to Rainbow Dash. “You and your talk of friendship, what you said about Griffonstone, how even Genna, Gordon, and Glenn like you quite a bit already, it’s all had an impact on this featherbrain here.” She hooked a talon at Glaive. “It’s made me want to be a little… responsible,” Glaive said. He then sighed though and looked up at the underside of the platform. “That still doesn’t mean I like this kind of thing. The Heads of the other Houses will be trying to foist their daughters on me and their sons on Gale. It’s annoying.” “Hey, it’s gonna happen at some point,” Rainbow Dash nonchalantly told him. “Yes, thank you,” Glaive rolled his eyes. “You’re essentially the true heir and the one who will lead House Stormwing in the near future after all, it’s only natural,” Gale told him. “I know but I’d like to do this kind of silly matchmaking on my own terms,” Glaive said. “If you’re actually serious about doing all this and becoming a fit ruler or whatever for your House I bet Galia would spread that news as quick as possible. I’ve only been here a few days but I know how eager she is to get House Stormwing back to normal,” Rainbow Dash said. “...which is also why I think the two of you should come back up there with me and start dancing. What do you say?” Glaive clicked his tongue and folded his arms over his chest. “I despise the waltz.” Rainbow Dash reached forward and patted him on the shoulder with a smirk on her face. “Yeah I get that, but how about dancing with me then so no one else bothers with you tonight?” Glaive slowly smirked to match her. “That sounds alright.” The group of three flew out from under the platform and joined back up with Galia, who was presently talking with some other griffons from House Lightfeather. When she saw Glaive arrive she seemed annoyed at first before phasing back into a pleasant mask for the other Houses. Rainbow Dash and Gale then went around and gathered up the other four griffons of House Stormwing and brought them together. The whole group was going to perform a waltz together and merge with the others dancing (while Rainbow Dash stuck with Glaive the whole time). It was a nice sight and they got the attention of the other members of the Houses present. House Stormwing had become the center of attention thanks to Rainbow Dash and this special waltz. While in the middle of it, Glaive silently made the decision to himself to tell Galia everything he had resolved on soon and become the true heir to the House she had always wanted one of them to be.