What Happens on Saturday

Cinnamon lied awake in bed, the sun pouring through the window to illuminate the room. He stretched his arms and legs out, receiving a pleasant feeling from doing so. Once finished, he got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom to relieve himself, then take a shower.

After finishing his morning routine, he walked downstairs into the kitchen to see Coco and Paprika already at the table eating breakfast. Coco had a bowl of Hay-O’s while feeding Paprika a bottle of milk.

“Morning Dad,” Cinnamon said while rummaging through the pantry for his own cereal, Wheat Hooves. Since his body apparently couldn’t digest hay based foods, he had to go with a dietary cereal that was wheat based. He didn’t mind that though; of all the diet foods he tried, Wheat Hooves are one of the few dietary foods that were actually tasty.

“Good morning Cinnamon, enjoy your sleep?”

Cinnamon grabbed a bowl and spoon and started to fill the bowl. He then reached over to the fridge, grabbed a glass of milk, and poured it into the bowl. He put the milk back into the fridge and walked over to the table to eat breakfast.

“It was okay, I think I had a nightmare though.”

“Well that’s no good, what was it about?”

Cinnamon scrunched his brows in thought. “You know… I don’t remember. I woke up in the middle of the night sweating heavily.” He drummed his fingers on the table, “Maybe I became too comfortable with Princess Luna watching over my dreams while sleeping in the castle.”

“That could be. Sorry to hear you had one on your first night home.”

“It’s fine. I’m more disappointed that I can’t remember what it was.” Princess Luna offers dream courses to guards that want them. I was mentally strong enough to pass the bottom line to be a guard; maybe taking some of her lessons would be a good idea.

“Anyway, has mom taken over running the bakery since Paprika was born?”

“Vanilla was the one staying home taking care of her for the first 6 months while I ran the bakery alone. When it was time to wean her, we switched roles; I take care of her while Vanilla runs the shop. Once she gets old enough for daycare, we can go back to running the store together.”

“Daycare?”

He nodded, “We were juggling the idea of continuing to have one work at the store while the other stayed home but it takes too much out of us. We even thought about having her at the store while we worked but an energetic pegasus foal is not something we’d want around the bakery. Maybe if she was a unicorn but flying over raw ingredients would be a health hazard.”

Cinnamon nodded after finishing his breakfast, “So is this what you do all day? Watch over her?”

He nodded, “For the most part; it got a lot easier once we got her potty trained. Now I only have to make sure there’s no windows she can fly out of and feed her when it’s time.”

Coco took his bowl and started to clean it. He looked back to Cinnamon, “Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Vanilla’s closing the shop after the breakfast rush ends so we can all go to the park today.”

“Really? Huh, that could be fun; I haven’t been to a park in years.”

Coco nodded, “And we’ll go out for dinner afterwards.”

A few hours passed before Vanilla returned home. Afterward, they all left the house and headed toward Manehattan Park. It was a 10 minute walk before they reached the edge of the park’s grass. Coco set Paprika on the ground and let her fly off, heading toward the park’s playground. Cinnamon, Vanilla, and Coco sat down on a bench that overlooked the playground.

The day was pleasantly warm with the sun shining and not a cloud in the air. A small breeze traveled through the air, passing over the three of them.

“How has the guard treated you?” Vanilla asked Cinnamon.

“It’s been good so far. Good meals, hot water, and clean living quarters. Although, the beds could be better; it’s a bit difficult to get to sleep on those things… pretty stiff.”

“We could buy you a better one if you need it, or you could take the one from home.”

Cinnamon smiled and shook his head, “Can’t as a castle guard. We’re not allowed to bring many personal belongings; I almost wasn’t allowed to have the loincloths I brought with me. Everything else is provided by the Princesses.”

“Oh, well that’s a shame.”

He shrugged, “A small bump on an otherwise smooth job. I’ll just have to get used to it again after this week’s over.”

Paprika flew over to where they were sitting and landed in front of them. Her wings were spread as she hopped from side to side.

Both Coco and Vanilla hopped off the bench, “looks like she wants to play dodge.”

“Dodge?”

Vanilla nodded, “mhm, I will shoot harmless balls of magic at Paprika and your father while they try to dodge them.” She jumps and runs to a field that doesn’t have ponies around.

Cinnamon watched as they played dodge. Coco and Paprika evaded most of them but a few would connect and send one of them spinning in the air. Whenever Paprika was the one spinning, she’d always giggle and scream happily.

Watching them fly was pretty entertaining until a pair of talons covered Cinnamon’s eyes.

“Guess who?”

Cinnamon smiled, recognizing the voice immediately, “Hmm, Talons and a voice I heard so much yesterday? Lily?

The talons fell away from his eyes, one sliding over his ear and giving his head a playful push to the side. “Aw, you’re no fun,” Lily said, flapping her wings to jump over the bench and landing to sit next to him.

“So how has Manehattan been?” Cinnamon asked.

“I love it! The building designs are so different from what I’ve seen so far, and the city is HUGE!”

“Glad to hear you’re enjoying it. Save your last stop for the Crystal Kingdom though, there’s nothing like that place; best place to end your tour of Equestria.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Coco and Vanilla walked back to the bench, Paprika now playing with another little pegasus that looked to be around her own age.

“Oh? Cinnamon, who’s this?” Coco asked.

“Mom, Dad, this is Lily Angeltail; I met her on the train ride here. Lily, this is Vanilla Crush and Coco Harvest; they’re the ones that raised me.”

Coco raised a foreleg for a hoofbump, which Lily grabbed with a talon and shook. Coco, a little confused, put down his hoof and gave her a small smile.

“Sorry,” Lily apologized, rubbing her foreleg, “I’m still getting used to greetings.”

Cinnamon couldn’t help but smile as Vanilla showed Lily how to hoofbump, “She’s traveling around Equestria cities and towns.”

“Well,” Vanilla spoke up, “I hope our mundane city could be entertaining for you”

“Mundane? This place is awesome!”

Vanilla, Coco and Cinnamon all shared a chuckle, “Live here for a few months and you’ll see what I mean. Nothing happens here; which is sometimes a nice thing. We didn’t know about the Storm King until after he was already defeated.”

Lily gave pause to that, “well, that’s just bad communication. I knew about that and that’s when we were as secluded as we could possibly be.”

“yeah… I should probably bring that up to my captain…” Cinnamon mused

Lily hopped off the bench, “well, I should go, there’s still so much I want to see before I leave for the next city. Bye everycreature,” she waived at them.

“Bye Lily,” they said in unison, waiving back at her.

They stayed at the park for another hour before noticing that Paprika was starting to get tired. Coco went to retrieve her.

They walked out of the park, heading in a direction away from the bakery until they came to a stop in front of a small restaurant. The restaurant was called The Guto; named after a well-known river near Griffinstone. It was a big seller of the meat related food that griffins usually eat but has been able to survive in Manehattan due to their excellently cooked fish, allowing the pegasi to come and enjoy the food.

They also served salads, but it never matched up to the majority of other places that served the same.

They were seated at a table and already ordered their food.

Cinnamon looked around the place. Despite The Guto only managing to get by, the interior was well lit and pretty fancy looking.

“Well, I’m quite surprised that we came here to eat; there’s not much here for you to eat mom. Well… nothing that’s worth the price.”

Vanilla shrugged, “We know you love the fish here; I can justify the price just this once for a family dinner. We haven’t done this in so long.”

Coco nodded, “Yes, today was nice. Felt like the days when you were still making your special cinnamon cupcakes.” He chuckled, “You always made such a mess when you made those.”

“I remember those, I could never sell a single one since you two kept eating them all!” Cinnamon said in mock anger. “Then you told me to stop making them when you two started to get fat.”

Coco gasped, “You take that back.”

Cinnamon rolled his eyes with a smile, “Mom looked like she was pregnant and you didn’t have the energy to pick her up anymore when she overworked herself.” He looked at Vanilla spoon-feeding Paprika, “Though, I suppose that was just foreshadowing to what was coming.”

Coco looked at them with a smile, “I guess it was. She’s certainly brought a lot of excitement to the daily life.”

“I thought you two didn’t want a foal after I dragged you through Tartarus when I was 14 years old.”

“Yeah, well…” He looked over to Vanilla, “Sometimes things change. Life throws you for a loop, priorities shift, and suddenly you want something more. I think Vanilla missed having you around the house and wanted something to put her love into.”

“I’m sorry I haven’t been around much.”

Coco waved a dismissive hoof, “We know it’s not your fault. You’re doing important work in the guard, we’re proud of you for it.”

Cinnamon smiled, “Thanks dad.”

“Now finish your food, that fish wasn’t cheap you know.”

They finished the night by going to watch a play about the fall of Queen Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow.

With everything that happened during the day, it was very easy for Cinnamon to fall asleep.

Cinnamon’s eyes focused themselves until he realized he was in the throne room, sitting on one of three thrones. Princess Celestia sat in a throne to his right while Princess Luna was on the opposite side, also sitting on a throne. He paused to look at the princess of the moon for a few seconds longer; this was the first time he’s seen her in in person. She had a similar slim figure that Princess Celestia had, only smaller in stature.

“So,” Princess Celestia said, drawing Cinnamon’s attention to her. “What is thy first official decree?”

“Decree?”

She nodded, “Correct, one should get used to it now that a crown rests atop thy head.”

Cinnamon reached up to the thing above his head. Sure enough, there was a metal crown on his head.

“What? Why? When?”

“Calm thyself,” Princess Celestia said while placing a reassuring hoof on his shoulder. “Take a deep breath and exhale slowly.”

He did as she said and took a dozen slow breaths until he settled down, giving him a moment to think.

“Princess?”

“Please, call me Celestia.”

“Uh… Celestia… why are you talking like that?”

“Pardon?”

“Thyself, decree, thy… why are you talking like that? Are you ok?”

Her eyes widened slightly, “Oh, well… we are just… excited, yes! Excited our sister agreed to the law of the paired sisters.”

“The paired sisters?” he queried, looking over to Princess Luna. She was giving him a sideways glance, but didn’t say anything.

He looked back to Celestia, “What’s that?”

“Tis a law that requires the consent of both princesses of Canterlot Castle before a new prince or princess of Canterlot is declared by rite of marriage.”

“rite of… MARRIAGE!? WE’RE MARRIED?!?”

She nodded, “Correct”

Cinnamon looked back to Princess Luna, “To you too?”

She smiled a little and nodded.

“Oh,” Cinnamon mumbled while shifting his focus; looking down the stairs to the empty room below.

“Is something the matter?” Celestia asked. She looked to Luna, then back to him.

“Doth thou not desire to be married to mine sister?”

Cinnamon shook his head, “It’s not that…”

“Then what matter ails thy mind?”

He looked between the princesses, only now noticing the colored bands three quarters of the way down their horns. Luna had a shiny silver ring on her horn while Celestia had a gleaming golden one on hers. When he looked at his own hands, he noticed he had identical colored rings on both of his ring fingers; a silver ring on his left hand, and a gold ring on his right.

He continued to look at the rings as he began to speak again, “I don’t feel very deserving of this. Being in a herd with both princesses of Equestria and making official decrees.” He clenched his hands so he couldn’t see the rings anymore and looked down the steps, “I shouldn’t be up here, I shouldn’t be in this throne.”

Cinnamon was caught off guard when both princesses stepped off their thrones, stood on their hind legs, and wrapped their forelegs around him; enveloping him in a warm hug that was very comforting.

They stayed like this for a few minutes before Celestia pulled her head away.

“Perhaps thou are undeserving, but thou can become worthy of such things.”

She looked down a little to break eye contact, then looked back at him, “Forget the official decree; what would thou desire to change? First thing that comes to thy mind without fear of it leaving this room.”

Cinnamon thought to himself as they continued to hold him in a warm embrace.

“Beds.”

“Pardon?”

“Better beds in the barracks. It was tough to get a good night’s sleep as a guard with the mattresses we had. We should give them better beds; make it easier for them to go to sleep.”

Celestia seemed to ponder his words for a moment before

She smiled and side stepped until she was standing right in front of him. Luna stepped down and away from Cinnamon to allow Celestia to wrap her forelegs around his neck. She nuzzled into his neck, right below his earlobe where she gave him a long kiss.

“Thou art worthier than thy think.”

Then his surroundings disappeared into darkness, waking Cinnamon up in the process. It wasn’t with a start, or in a sweat, just an opening of his eyes. He blinked a couple times while remaining motionless in bed.

He could feel a pleasant tingling sensation below his left ear. He reached up to gently touch it with the tip of his fingers. He could remember dreaming, however, he could only recall the kiss Princess Celestia gave him right before it ended.

He sighed as he wiggled in his bed to get more comfortable and fell back to sleep.