Author's Note

Decided to take out a part of the chapter. The longer I thought on it, the more out of place it felt. I guess I wanted to go a certain direction with it but just never committed to doing it.

4. To Go Home (Re-Write 1)

It was Sunday morning. The sun recently traveling along its path until it was in its spot in the sky. The castle was alive with life as the maids began their weekly cleaning routine of cleaning the castle from top to bottom. The Canterlot reserves were marching into their designated positions; this being the only day they had to perform guard duty to cover for the normal guards day and night off. Princess Celestia was preparing to leave the castle to begin her list of activities planned for the day. Building openings, charity events, orphanage visits, and ending at noon with a Wonderbolts show.

Cinnamon was among the few guards waking up at the rise of the sun instead of sleeping in as he usually does. He wanted to get an early start on the day so he could arrive at home before dinnertime.

He walked through the halls in nothing but his loincloth. He loved these days when he didn’t have to wear armor nor the cloth that covered his upper body so his armor wouldn’t give him blisters or burn his skin under the sun. He’d rather walk around with nothing at all, but he had nothing covering his siring rod from the open world. It was aggravating since he was the only one he knew that had to wear clothing for this reason.

Like every other species, becoming excited would render the loincloth useless; something that has happened a few times before.

He walked down the senior guard offices until he stopped in front of Commander Silver Spirit’s door. The sign nailed on it said she was in so he knocked on her door.

“Enter”

Cinnamon opened the door, stepped inside, and closed it behind him. He walked to the middle of the room and stood at attention. Even though it was his day off, he still needed to follow the rules and stand at attention until the commander acknowledged him.

Silver was sitting on her comfortable rolling chair, busy filling out paperwork; performance reviews, transfer request papers, incident reports, promotion reviews, and making the next weeks guard assignments. It was the busiest day of the week for her.

She peered up at Cinnamon before returning to her paperwork. “What is it Private?”

Cinnamon, his presence being acknowledged, rested in an at-ease position.

“Commander, I need a train ticket to Manehattan.”

She waved a dismissive hoof at him, “then buy one at the train station and quit wasting my time.”

“I was told it would be paid for being a contending suitor to the princess.”

Silver stopped scribbling on her form to look up to Cinnamon. When what he said clicked in her head, she pushed off her desk to roll across her office to the filing drawers at the back. She opened the middle drawer and flicked through it with her wingtips before pulling a sheet out and reading through it. When she found his name on the short list, she put the paper back in and shut the drawer and opening the one below it and grabbing a blank travel form from it.

With a flap of her wings, she propelled herself back to her desk in her chair and started to fill the form out. She paused when she got to the portion that required the train he would take. Opening the side drawer in her desk, she grabbed a scroll of all the train departures from Canterlot and scanned through it until she reached the Manehattan departures.

“There’s a 7:00 and a 12:00 train,” she looked at her clock, “If you leave in the next 15 minutes, you can make the first train before it leaves the station.”

Cinnamon looked at the clock. The only thing he wanted to do before leaving was send a letter to his parents through the express delivery system to tell them he was coming home. Despite knowing that surprising them would be a treat, he needed to tell them beforehand so they could buy enough food before the stores closed.

“I’ll take the 7:00 train.”

She rolled the scroll up before writing in the train number and destination in the allocated spot. When she finished with the form, she placed it on the small pile of completed papers. Reaching into another desk drawer, she grabbed a gold coin and tossed it to Cinnamon, who almost dropped it when he caught it.

The coin was a travel token that was good for any train ride to anywhere in Equestria. The ticket seller would also give a bronze token of the same design for a free return trip to Canterlot.

Silver began to scribble in her forms again, “You are dismissed; I’ll see you next Sunday.”

“You mean Saturday, right?”

“You report for your assignment next Sunday night, I do not care if you arrive earlier, only that you’re here to receive your next assignment. Now, I said dismissed, don’t make me say it a third time.”

Cinnamon stood back at attention, turned around, and walked out of her office.

He quickly walked back to his sleeping quarters, grabbed a quill and paper, and wrote a letter to his parents about his arrival. He then took his loincloths from his chest and put them in his saddlebags along with his letter. Once packed, he slung the saddlebags over his shoulder and left for the castles mailroom located near the entrance.

When he arrived, he gave his letter to the mare at the front desk and paid for the express delivery so it would get to the bakery before he did. Once payment was accepted, the mare behind the desk motioned to one of the pegasi in the back. A purple pegasus mare trotted up, took the letter, and secured it in a small bag that was fastened around her neck. After finishing her checks that made sure the letter would never fall out, she jumped out the window and started flying in the direction of Manehattan.

Cinnamon watched the mare get smaller and smaller into the sky as he walked through the front gatehouse. He wished he had wings. An average pegasus could make it to Manehattan in four hours instead of the 9 hours it took by train.

Canterlot was also buzzing with activity as ponies walked to work or stores for the morning produce run. Upper Canterlot was mostly filled with rich and/or attractive ponies that walked through the streets. Normally, they would stick their noses up and ignore Cinnamon like they did when he first walked through town; however, due to his unique physique, they recognized him as a Canterlot Castle Guard. It didn’t grant him any unique attention but most of them didn’t turn their noses up at him now.

Cinnamon continued walking down Canterlot’s main road that started at the train station and went straight to the Castle. Once out of upper Canterlot, he walked into Lower Canterlot. Lower Canterlot comprised more of the middle class creatures and had an actual market where creatures from every city sold all kinds of merchandise.

He finally arrived at the Canterlot Train Station with a train sitting there being loaded with a dozen passengers. The one perk of an early train ride out of Canterlot was the lack of other passengers. If he waited for the 12:00 train, it would most likely be packed with hundreds of creatures instead of the dozen or two now.

He walked over to the train ticket vendor.

“One ticket to Manehattan,” Cinnamon said as he slid the gold token through the slot in the bars.

The stallion took the token and inspected it, making sure it wasn’t a forgery. He placed the token into a strongbox after verifying it was the real thing; grabbed a train ticket and a bronze token before sliding them back through the bars to Cinnamon.

“Have a good trip.”

Cinnamon nodded as he took his items, “Thank you.”

He turned around as he put his bronze token into his saddlebag and boarded the train.

When he first came to Canterlot to be a guard, the train had been much smaller, sized to carry ponies and creatures of similar size. He had to bend over so he wouldn’t hit the ceiling and he took up an entire booth instead of one seat. Now, the trains have been resized to accommodate creatures with a minotaurs stature. Cinnamon didn’t have to cram himself into the train and smaller creatures could lie down in their seats as if they were small beds. It was the best change Cinnamon has seen since becoming a guard.

He chose to enter the first train car since most commuters tend to stay away from the noisy train engine. Not because he wanted to be alone, but because he preferred the rhythmic chugging noise of the wheels being turned over the chatter of creatures in his car.

Minutes passed before the train whistle sounded, indicating that it would leave the station in 60 seconds. Cinnamon spent the time getting comfortable in his booth for the long ride ahead. The train jostled and started to move forward.

Chug… chug… chug. Chug. Chug. Chug, chug, chug chug chug chug chug chug.

Cinnamon sighed and melted into the seat, finally finding that really relaxing spot. Now he only had to wait for the ticket puncher to come verify his ticket purchase before he could go to the food car and get some breakfast.

Thirty minutes passed before the ticket puncher came into the car. He walked down the walkway until he reached Cinnamon.

“Ticket please.”

Cinnamon grabbed the ticket out of his saddle bags and gave it to the pony.

He looked over it, stamped it, and returned it to Cinnamon before walking toward the back of the train.

Cinnamon put his ticket back into his saddlebag, grabbed his Bit bag and started to make his way to the food car.

It was a cozy car. Booths lined the left side while a food bar with stools on the right. The bar held pre-made food in it along with an assortment of foal friendly drinks. There were also a dozen creatures sitting in seats, conversing in groups and eating alone. There were 4 groups of ponies, a gray minotaur with black head hair, two vibrant changelings conversing with a black one, and a light blue hippogriff with a white mane.

Cinnamon sat down in one of the empty booths since the stools at the bar were made of wood and would hurt his ass if he sat on one too long. He grabbed a menu from a menu holder on the table. He skimmed through the menu and found that they had one of his favorite sandwiches in stock, an egg salad sandwich.

He got up from the booth and walked over to the counter that the food pony stood behind.

Cinnamon placed three bits on the counter, “Egg salad sandwich and a water please.”

The food pony took the bits and shuffled through her inventory before placing the wrapped sandwich and water in front of Cinnamon. He thanked her and began to turn to walk to his booth. Mid-way through, he noticed the hippogriff with a bowl of fruit was looking at him. He stopped turning and looked back at him. They looked at each other for half a minute before the hippogriff realized that Cinnamon was returning the gaze.

Realizing he had been caught staring, he took a menu and hid his face behind it, ignoring his fruit breakfast. Meanwhile, Cinnamon was shaking his head with an uneasy feeling of nostalgia. He hadn’t received a look like that since he first walked through Canterlot; mixed looks of shock, fear and even a few of curiosity.

He smiled as he continued walking to his booth. Canterlot Castle had made him feel normal enough though, being treated like every other creature.

He sat down and began to eat his sandwich and watched the scenery pass by. The train had reached the bottom of the mountain and was passing through the wide open plains. They’d be passing over the river from Neighagra Falls in another hour. He could see the top of Mount Everhoof over the horizion.

Half an hour later, he finished the last of his sandwich and water. He stood up and walked back to his train car.

Another bonus from riding in the front car is nobody complaining when he grabbed a few extra small pillows from other booths. He managed to grab a dozen pillows on his way to his seat.

Once he even took the seat cushions from every booth and placed it in the space between his booth seats to make a makeshift bed. He enjoyed that train ride the most, but the crewpony was less than impressed when he came in to wake Cinnamon up before they arrived at their destination.

He arranged the pillows so his seat turned into an improvised throne with armrests. A little clunky due to the small size of the pillows, but it worked.

Just as he was settling into his new seat, he heard the car door open behind him. Cinnamon cursed his rotten luck under his breath; he knew the crewpony coming down the walkway would see his abuse of the train’s furniture, suggest he put them back where they belong and not leave him alone until it was done.

He shrank in his seat. Since he was sitting nearly at the front booth, he was hoping the crewpony would turn around before reaching him. The steps grew closer and closer to his booth until a familiar hippogriff appeared from around the seat. He looked in the booth opposite of Cinnamon first before turning his head and finding Cinnamon looking back.

Seeing that it wasn’t the dreaded crewmember he was expecting, Cinnamon sat back up in his seat.

“Hi there!” The hippogriff said in a cheery, feminine voice.

Cinnamon mentally pinched his nose; he really needed to improve on knowing the difference between genders with hippogriffs. He only knew the females had slightly smaller beaks compared to the males. Difficult to tell if they’re looking directly at you and harder still since she was only the third hippogriff he’s ever personally seen at this point.

“Hello”

“Is this seat taken?” she asked, pointing to the empty seat across from him with her claw.

“It’s not; feel free to make yourself comfortable.”

She jumped onto the booth and sat directly across from him.

“So… How can I help you?” Cinnamon asked.

She cleared her throat, “Well, to start, my name’s Lily Angeltail. Could I ask you a few questions?”

Cinnamon smiled, so that was why she was giving him such a curious look in the food car.

“Sure, I can answer some questions. By the way, my name’s Ground Cinnamon; Cinnamon for short.”

Her smile widened, “Nice to meet you Cinnamon. So, what are you?”

Straight to the point but he could only shrug in response, “I don’t know.”

She tilted her head, “How do you not know?”

“I kinda just appeared in Manehattan one day. Nocreature knows where I came from and the princesses have never seen another of my kind before.”

Cinnamon looked over Lily; this would actually be a perfect time to learn more about hippogriffs.

“Actually, could I ask a few questions as well? We could do a back and forth.”

“Sure! Ask away.”

Cinnamon thought of a question to ask her. There were a few things he would like to know, but he figured he should start simple.

“Well, what brings you to Equestria?”

“Since Seaquestria lifted the embargo on Equestria, I came to see all the creatures I learned about when I was little. I got a little excited in Canterlot though, so I only really saw ponies. I heard there were a lot of griffins in Manehattan, so I’m going there next.

“What about you? Why are you going to Manehattan?”

“I’m heading home for the week for my time off from the Castle Guard.”

Lily gasped. Cinnamon could swear that he could see literal sparkles in her eyes, “You’re in the castle guard!?”

Cinnamon smiled, “Ah ah, it’s my turn to ask a question. Why are you taking a train to Manehattan? Couldn’t you just fly there?”

“I don’t know the flight laws well enough; I got two tickets on my way to Canterlot. Besides…” She looked out the window, “… the sights are just as good from down here as they are up there. I do miss the feeling of wind against my face though.”

Cinnamon nodded, he heard plenty of stories from the flight patrol about ticketing ponies and griffins. One griffin was so stubborn about the flight zones that he had two dozen tickets before he got to Vanhoover.

“Fair enough.”

Lily got that excited look in her eyes again, “So, Castle Guard? What’s it like? What are the princess’ like? Is the castle as glorious as everycreature says?”

“Woah! That’s too many questions! One at a time!”

She sighed, thinking which one she wanted to ask first.

“Tell you what,” Cinnamon said, “I’ll answer them all if you answer a more personal question from me.”

“Sure!”

“Alright, well, being a Castle guard is a time consuming job but I love it. This is actually the first time I’ve had more than a day or two off. As for the princess’, they’re great. Powerful, majestic, wise and, while I haven’t seen it myself, they say Princess Luna is a ruthless strategist. That was all of them, right?”

“The castle, what about the castle?”

“Oh! Right, well… it’s a sight like no other… also a great place to live, once you learn the hallways and stop getting lost at least.”

“Now I wish I went to see it, but there was a waiting list! I only got to see the walls.”

Lily’s ears folded down in disappointment. Cinnamon looked at her while thinking to himself. There were forms a guard could fill out to give tours to somecreature. Most guards used it to take their families through the castle. His parents would come every so often, but haven’t paid a visit in nearly a year.

“You know… I could move some things around to give you a tour around th-“

He wasn’t able to finish his sentence as Lily practically body slammed him, causing the pillows to fall out of place.

She was hugging him tightly, “REALLY! That would be AWESOME!”

Cinnamon smiled as he hugged her back, patting her on the neck. A small part of him wanted to say that it was no big deal, since it was just a few minutes of filling out a form. Instead, he kept it to himself; basking in the false feeling of temporary importance.

Lily pulled away from the hug and decided to sit next to Cinnamon, “So what’s your personal question?”

Cinnamon’s averted his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck, “well, despite the kind of job I have, I don’t really know much about hippogriffs.” He looked at Lily, “how do you tell the difference between a male and female hippogriff? I find it difficult to accurately tell between the two.”

She raised a brow, “really?”

He nodded, “Including you, I’ve only met three hippogriffs. I wasn’t really paying attention to detail when I met them.”

“Oh,” she turned herself so her body was facing him. She leaned in close to his face before tapping a talon against her beak, “Females have a smaller beak than males. Many of us also have this small curve to it,” she said as she pointed to where her beak met her face, “But not always; our queen doesn’t have it, so size is the best way to identify us.”

She put her talon back on the seat and puffed her chest feathers out, “we also have more plumage in the chest area than males.”

Cinnamon looked at her fluff, then back to her face. He didn’t know about hippogriff culture, but pegasi would show off their plumage for... intimate reasons. Maybe Hippogriffs were more relaxed about it than pegasi; They have been seaponies for quite some time.

“You didn’t have to show me, I’m familiar with the plumage on pegasi mares.”

She shrugged it off, “I thought showing you would be better than just telling you.”

She tapped her talons together, “Since we’re asking personal questions now, can I feel your arms?”

“uh, sure.” Cinnamon said, lifting his arm so it was within grabbing distance to Lily.

His muscles weren’t as big as a minotaur, but he had decent muscles from guard training.

She looked at his bicep before wrapping her talons around it and giving it a squeeze.

“So,” he spoke up, “what is the culture like in Seaquestria?”

“Lacking,” she muttered as she moved her talons down to feel his forearm. “It’s a big, underwater cavern. We weren’t allowed to go to the surface and swimming out to the ocean was dangerous with all the predators out there. Shell collection’s and Kelp growing competitions were all we had. Queen Novo and Princess Skystar were the only two there that made the place bearable to me.”

“That does sound pretty dull; so is the surface exciting enough for you?”

She giggled and let got of his arm, seemingly content with her investigation. “Absolutely! I’ve never seen so much variety! The houses, the food, even the species! There’s so much of everything!” The excited mare had stars in her eyes and was bouncing in her seat.

She took a deep breath and exhaled, closing her eyes and calming herself down, “so yeah, super exciting. I’m looking forward to Cloudsdale the most; I heard everything is entirely made of clouds!”

He chuckled and nodded, “I’ve heard the same. I could never go myself though.”

She cocks her head to one side, “why?”

“I can’t fly and the magical amulets they give to land creature as day passes don’t work on me very well.” When she opened her mouth to reply, he held up a finger to her beak, “And before you ask, no, I don’t really know why. For some reason, magic is weird on me. Doctors say I’m like a sponge for magic, absorbing it when it touches me. So magic needs to be more powerful than normal just to work normally.”

“Well that doesn’t sound fun; what if you need to go to the doctor’s?”

“I just need a specialist, which I have in Canterlot and in the guard. Though, it could be an issue if I get hurt on vacation. It’s not all gloom though. The benefit, especially for my job, is offensive magic doesn’t hurt as much. Something that would wound another guard only bruises me. And something that would kill them only wounds me. It’s saved me a couple times in the past. So… yeah, I’ve learned to live with it.”

A silence settled over them; at least, as silent as it could be being so close as they were to the locomotive.

The rest of the train ride was spent making small talk. He didn’t learn much about Seaquestria since she became bored whenever the topic was brought up. And, despite her enthusiasm about what he was, he couldn’t provide her with many answers. He didn’t know what a female of his species looked like or why he had hair in a few places but not all over him.

Their conversations eventually peetered out. They changed seats so Lily could watch the scenery pass by through the window while Cinnamon got comfortable in his little makeshift pillow chair and took a nap..

Cinnamon woke to a hoof tapping his shoulder. He looked to his right to see the Ticketmaster.

"We'll be arriving in Manehattan in 15 minutes." He looked at the extra pillows around them, "And please put those pillows back where they belong."

Cinnamon nodded, "Thank you, and I will."

The Ticketmaster nodded and walked out the back of the car. Cinnamon looked to his left at Lily, who was leaning toward the window, sleeping.

He rested a hand on her shoulder and gently shook her in an attempt to wake her. "Lily, wake up."

She grumbled a little but remained asleep.

He gently nudged her again, "Lily."

Her eyes fluttered open. She sat up, yawned and stretched out her forelimbs. She smacked her beaks together and slowly glanced in his direction.

"We're almost there."

"Hm?" she hummed, looking out the train window. "I guess I should get back to my seat."

She jumped over him, landed in the aisle and stretching her hind legs and wings. She began to walk toward the back of the train before stopping and looking back at Cinnamon.

“Soo… see you in Canterlot?”

“Hm?” He asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

“The tour of the castle, right?”

“Oh! Yeah, yes. Just, let me know when you’re in the city. It takes about a day for the papers to go through.”

She nodded, "alright, yeah, I'll do that then. See ya later Cinnamon."

She waved goodbye to Cinnamon, a gesture that he returned, before she walked through the back door and closing it.

Cinnamon stood up and started to put all the pillows back in each booth before returning to his own and waited for the train to come to arrive at the station. The brakes squealed as the train slowed down to a stop.

Looking out the window, there were a few ponies standing around the platform and sitting in the benches.

Once the train finally stopped moving, Cinnamon stood up and walked to the nearest exiting door. When he stepped out, he stretched his arms to relieve the stiffness from being in the same position for the past few hours.

Content with his stretch, he began to walk down the road toward his parents bakery.