Rainbow Dash's Unstoppable Ego

by MagicS

Snow Griffons VI

An observatory had been mentioned and even though Rainbow Dash wasn’t big on stars or astronomy it still sounded like the most interesting place to check out in these mountains. The observatory was in the middle of the mountains that the griffons called home, she had gotten the directions from Glaive and Gordon, and now she made her way towards it. It sat on a relatively smaller mountain peak that didn’t have as much room to build on. So the observatory itself was only about the size of an ordinary house and it took up the entire peak. The top was domed but she didn’t see any telescope poking out of it just yet, it must have to open up first.

Rainbow Dash flew to it and looked around the sides for an entrance, finally seeing a landing on the opposite side with a railing on it and a door leading into the observatory. Rainbow Dash floated over to it and landed, resting her wings for a second before walking up and knocking on the door. It was a solid knock but she didn’t get an answer or hear any movement inside. She frowned and knocked even harder. Still nothing.

“Oh whatever...” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and grabbed the door handle, opening it up on her own.

When she stepped in she took a look around the griffon observatory. It was all one big room, the center of the floor dominated by a raised platform where the currently receded telescope stood, the sides full of cabinets overflowing with charts and journals, decorative stars and a night sky painted on the dome ceiling, and a single table to the side where an absolutely ancient griffon sat. Snoring.

“Are you asleep?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and walked over to him. A lot of his feathers were missing and wrinkles dominated his features, he was probably the most elderly griffon she had seen before. And he was indeed in a deep sleep that Rainbow Dash couldn’t snap him out of even by repeatedly poking him. “Come on, dude, get up already.”

He only snorted slightly and shuffled in his seat, turning away from her. Rainbow Dash frowned and started to shake him by the shoulders but he still only kept snoring. It was good he was clearly just sleeping or she’d worry he was dead with how heavy of a sleeper he was.

But this was getting a little ridiculous. Rainbow Dash grit her teeth in frustration and leaned in close to his ear. “Wake up!”

The yell echoed throughout the entire observatory and more than anything echoed loudly inside the griffon’s head. He squawked in surprise and leaped up out of his chair, feathers falling from his plumage, and tripped over his own talons to fall to the floor. Rainbow Dash winced and stared down at him in concern, grimacing with her hooves held up to her chin.

“Oops… uh, are you okay there, buddy?” She asked the griffon astronomer.

“I was okay,” he said as he slowly picked himself up off the floor and stared at her over his table. “Until I was so rudely awoken. Now who might you be?”

“My name’s Rainbow Dash, I’m kind of just visiting here and wanted to check out the observatory,” she shrugged.

“Here? As in our whole domain?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

“Yeah, I’m from pretty far away. Been on a really long trip and a big adventure. Right now I’m staying at the castle for House Stormwing,” she pointed a wing back at the wall in the general direction of the castle.

“I see, you’re no ordinary visitor then. And we hardly ever get any ponies here to begin with,” the astronomer said as he stood up straighter, dusting himself off and walking around the table. “You said you wanted to check out the observatory, does that mean you have an interest in the stars and astronomy?”

“Uhh… not really,” she awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck and looked away. “I’m exploring and checking out everything here and from what I was told about the observatory just sounded like the most interesting thing. I wasn’t told too much about anything up here.”

“Very well,” the old griffon rolled his eyes. “You picked the wrong time to come to an observatory anyways. It’s too early to look out and see the stars, we need to wait for night to roll around. And who knows if the sky will be clear enough in the first place.”

“So do you just look at the stars then? What for?” Rainbow asked.

“To find new constellations, to map the paths of comets, discover things like nebulae and other heavenly bodies, that kind of thing.” He told her.

“But… why?” Rainbow asked again.

The old griffon snorted. “I suppose to you there might not be much interest but to some, like me, looking up at those stars has meaning and value all in its own. It’s a wonderful, endless, ocean up there.” He then shot her a bored frown. “But if you truly wish for a practical use, astronomical charts have been used by explorers to figure out their location by looking at the stars and constellations in the sky for ages. Not as useful anymore, but still, there it is.”

“I guess that’s kind of cool… and uh, sorry for belittling your hobby and everything, I didn’t mean to come off that way.” Rainbow Dash apologized. It was true too, with all the myriad interests her friends had and all the times she had to walk in their horseshoes she wouldn’t just insult someone’s passion like that. She learned that lesson after reading her first Daring Do book. And she’d never want someone to insult her for her love of that or her obsession with racing and the Wonderbolts.

She could picture some kid looking up and asking her “Why?” too.

“It’s fine, I know the life of astronomy and gazing up at far away stars through a telescope isn’t for everyone,” the griffon replied, a wistful tone in his voice.

“Yeah, I’ll admit to liking more active things for the most part,” Rainbow Dash said. “So what’s your name? Is there really nothing around here to do until night time?”

“More or less, that’s why I was asleep. And because I hardly get any visitors here,” he grumbled before looking over at her and reaching out a talon. “My name is Gabriel.”

Rainbow Dash shook it and smiled. “Nice to meet you, dude.”

“Likewise I suppose. It’s not like I was doing anything besides sleeping,” Gabriel said.

“You don’t even get visited much by the griffons here?” Rainbow asked.

Gabriel shook his head. “They don’t particularly care either, so long as I do my job, update any charts that need updating, and so forth. They have their own lives and the stars aren’t their concern.”

“Geez, sorry dude but it sounds pretty lonely up here,” she said.

“Oh I won’t deny that, but I’m used to it.”

Rainbow Dash frowned and looked around the observatory. “Do you actually live in here too?”

Gabriel nodded. “Yep, there’s a trapdoor on the other side of the platform with the telescope. It leads down to an apartment. Got my own bed and everything, it’s actually pretty cozy.”

“More power to you then, I guess. How many years have you been living in here?”

“Hmm...” he looked up for a second in thought. “Couldn’t say… been so long I can’t remember exactly when I took up residence in here. I was always working at the observatory even as a child, helping out my predecessor, I think I moved in as soon as he passed away but I couldn’t tell you how many years ago that was. A long time for sure.”

“What are you going to do when you… you know? Do you have a student?” Rainbow asked.

“Not in the slightest! None of the brats here have shown any interest in working at this observatory,” Gabriel laughed. “One of the Houses will just force someone to be a replacement.”

“Well that’s at least something I guess,” Rainbow shrugged.

“As long as the observatory is looked after I won’t be upset. Someone else who cares and loves the stars as much as I do will come around again eventually,” Gabriel said, that wistfulness back in his voice.

He trailed off after that, looking up at the painted ceiling of the dome while Rainbow Dash watched him. She wondered what he was thinking about but instead of asking him she decided to look up at those stars too. Maybe she could see and feel the same things he did. Rainbow Dash attempted to imagine it as an actual night’s sky but it was a little difficult. The stars didn’t make a constellation and the sky was just a deep blue color instead of the black it should be. Try as she might she couldn’t lose herself in these stars like Gabriel could.

After a few minutes though the griffon snapped back to reality. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, didn’t really have any more questions or anything to talk about anyways,” Rainbow said.

“Hmm...” Gabriel hummed and tapped a talon under his beak. “That being said… would you like to see something?”

“Sure, what?” Rainbow said, raising a single eyebrow at him.

“Just a moment,” Gabriel smiled and then went over to the cabinets that ringed the whole floor of the observatory. He started rummaging through them and carelessly tossing out scrolls and books from inside them onto the floor. Rainbow Dash watched as he went from cabinet to cabinet muttering to himself. “No, no, no… where is it? It should be somewhere around here...”

“Uhh, need any help?” Rainbow asked.

He waved a talon back at her. “Not at all, just stay right there, I’ll find it in just a moment.”

Gabriel was turning the observatory into a mess with how fervently he was searching for whatever he was. Rainbow Dash was honestly thinking of quietly slinking out of the room while his back was turned if this kept up for too much longer. The old griffon had entirely lost himself in the search, humming to himself while more and more things were tossed out, one book even thrown so that Rainbow Dash had to duck her head out of the way. At last he stopped his frantic searching and pulled out a single folded up chart.

“Aha!” Gabriel shouted and held it up high.

“Looks like a chart. Or a poster,” Rainbow Dash looked up at it, somewhat unimpressed.

“It is a chart, but a very special one,” Gabriel said with a smile and brought it over to the table, unfolding it out and spreading it over the furniture.

Rainbow Dash looked it over and saw that it was a chart of numerous constellations, all of them perfectly drawn and recorded across the night sky. But it was a little off, they were only drawn inside of a semicircle on the chart. Rainbow wasn’t sure exactly what it meant. The more she looked at it the more she noticed how some of the constellations were a little more faded than others, as if the chart wasn’t drawn at once but over a long period of time and more and more constellations got added as it went on. The paper it was on in general looked pretty worn and old too. Rainbow Dash could see a lot of tears at the edges and pieces flaking off.

“This chart shows every constellation of note that can be seen from this observatory. It was compiled and completed over decades of work,” Gabriel proudly stated. “It’s far older than even I am. As you can see it’s hardly a full map of the sky but it is a full map of the sky as seen from the northern hemisphere of this planet! Depending on the time of the year you can look up and see all of those constellations from here. It’s marvelous.”

It was pretty cool knowing so many griffons had worked to make this thing. Twilight would definitely think it was awesome, she could appreciate this way more. But Rainbow Dash could appreciate the hard work and passion that went into it too. The observatory must’ve really been standing here for ages and these griffons did something that Rainbow Dash frankly wasn’t sure anyone else in the True North had done or even cared about doing. It was impressive.

Rainbow Dash grinned at him. “Yeah, that’s actually pretty awesome, Gabriel. You guys have worked really hard up here.”

“And it’s why I’m going to keep working in this observatory and search for more and more wonders of the sky,” he puffed out his chest… and then started coughing, his age catching up with him.

“Woah, easy there, buddy,” Rainbow Dash chuckled and patted him on the back.

“Thank you,” he smiled back at her. “Er, if you wish you can look over this chart all you want. I’m not really sure where you’re going or what you’re doing but if you’re ever lost you can look up at the night sky and try and judge your position based on the constellations you see.”

“Thanks but considering what I’m doing I’m not sure I really need that,” Rainbow Dash shrugged.

Gabriel nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Also I think I’m gonna get going now, it was cool to see your observatory again but I’ve got more stuff to check out.”

“Like what?” He honestly asked.

“Uhh...” Rainbow Dash stammered, actually he had a point. She didn’t really have any plans for anything nor was she crunched for time. She didn’t even know how many days she would actually bother staying here. “Actually never mind. I don’t really have anything else to do today. Not really.”

A wide grin split his beak and he clapped a talon on her shoulder. “Then if I could make a suggestion? Won’t you please join me tonight for a viewing of the stars? It will be a while till nightfall but why not spend it here if you didn’t have any real plans in the first place? I’m certain we’ll both have a magnificent time. Perhaps I can even give you an appreciation of those heavenly bodies. And if we need to pass the time until the stars are ready to view, I’m certain you have stories to tell?”

Rainbow Dash matched his own grin with a very wide and smug one of her own. “Oh yeah, you’re right about that.”

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Another great chapter!

[StarzGecko]

Star maps are a very good thing when you can learn where North is. Rainbow would benefit from learning about the stars

[redmar]

For some reason it seem sas if I have read Gabriel's comments about a replacement for him before but I can't remember when or where. Maybe Rainbow will have some use for the information in those charts.