//------------------------------//
// Chapter 85: Griffins, Goats, and Minataurs, Oh My! 
// Story: Marshmallow Dreams 
// by Halira 
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I have been on plenty of planes and to many airports in my life. It's something that happens when you are moving from place to place every few years. I was not an airplane expert, but I was no novice to getting ready to board one. Things had regular policies you had to follow.

Equestrians had different policies.

There was no airport in the Crystal Empire. We all gathered into the crystal stadium and made our way near the top of it, where three airships were tied to the side of the stadium with ropes. Three separate gangplanks had been laid out for boarding the three ships. From what I could tell, the ships were primarily wood, and I didn't know what to make of their balloon or how it was fixed to the vessel. I had gotten a good look at the ships as we were coming up to the stadium and noticed that they had no visible motors, just what looked like fins that hung off the back. Equestrian airships were supposedly much more advanced in terms of their safety and maneuverability compared to Earth's zeppelins, but looking at them, I didn't understand how. They looked pretty.

I was separated for the moment from the other candidates and left to board alone. This was only going to be temporary because I saw that we and our families had all been assigned to the same ship, and it was because of those families I was temporarily alone. My friends were busy trying to keep their families focused as they boarded. Sunflower, in particular, looked like she was having struggles with her earth pony relatives, who had suddenly developed a fear of flying when they noticed the gangplanks had no safety railings or even ropes on the side. She was now trying to convince them that it was perfectly safe to walk across and hold up the line waiting to board. A month ago, I would have called Sunflower timid. Now I would call Sunflower exasperated. 

"Mom! You aren't going to fall off the side, and even if you did, I would immediately rush to catch you. There are plenty of other pegasi and unicorns here that will help me too," Sunflower said in a long-suffering tone. "You're making a scene. Just hurry across and don't think about it."

Sunflower's mom, a tan earth pony with a red mane, didn't even answer; she just sat in front of the gangplank and cowered down. 

"I can walk you across and guide you as you go if you want to close your eyes," Sunflower suggested but still got no positive response.

Everyone waiting to board this particular ship was getting restless and started to mutter again. There had been some early mutters expressing sympathy for the mare, but now those mutters were beginning to turn to annoyance, with ponies and humans wanting her just to let someone guide her across, have someone find a unicorn who could teleport her across or at least have her get out of the way so others could board in the meantime.

Sunflower looked around and took in the crowd's mood before stepping close to her mother and whispering too low for me to hear. I could only imagine it was more cajoling to cross in a hurry. However, the crowd suddenly quieted down as a new figure came to the ship's side of the gangplank, a goat—a goat with a clipboard and a microphone headset. 

We all watched in rapt attention as the goat sat down, lifted the clipboard to look at it in his forehooves, then held the clipboard in one forever and pointed at it with the other while bleating out angrily. "Beauh!"

I heard the crowd around me start to mutter again.

"Is that a goat?"
"Are goats supposed to be intelligent in Equestria? I hadn't heard of any goat country."
"Are we getting bossed around by farm animals?"
"What is this, a cartoon? Are the birds and the pigs and the cows going to start talking too?"
"What other farm animals are going to come out and boss us around?"

It was primarily ponies muttering, but the humans waiting seemed more amused by the ponies' reaction than amazed that a goat had just come and fussed about the schedule. I wasn't immediately sure why. I mean, how often do you see an intelligent goat? Then it finally dawned on me, and I think it occurred to some other ponies around the same time what the humans were amused by. I took it in stride, but I think several of the ponies may have been deeply insulted. The humans had the good sense to keep their mouths shut; otherwise, there might have been some ponies screaming about how they weren't animals.

The mutterings were cut short, and a few gasps were let out as another figure stepped up beside the goat, a minotaur, an honest to goodness minotaur! 

The great bull glared down at Sunflower's mother and snorted. "Iron Will runs a tight ship and has a contract with strict timetables. Iron Will can't have ponies delaying takeoff!"

Iron Will, or at least, I was pretty sure that was his name, and he was speaking in the third person, marched down the ramp to the now shivering form of Sunflower's mother. Sunflower shifted out of his way, taking to the air in a low hover just off the side of the ramp. Without saying another word, the minotaur reached down, grabbed Sunflower's mother, slung her over his shoulder, grabbed her luggage and put it on his other shoulder, and marched up the ramp. 

"CAPTAIN WILL!" a voice shouted in outrage from somewhere on the ship as Iron Will deposited the earth pony on the deck.

Wild Growth marched into view, glaring up at the minotaur without a hint of fear, looking furious. "These are my guests, and you have no business handling them like that! You need to apologize right now!"

Iron Will pulled out a sheath of papers from...somewhere, and he proceeded to point at them while bending to meet Wild Growth's glare. "Iron Will always fulfills his contract to the letter! Iron Will agreed that he would ensure all guests would be properly boarded and the flight would commence in a timely manner! Iron Will was fulfilling the terms of the contract, and Iron Will will not apologize!"

The standoff continued, and the crowd waited with bated breath to see which of Wild Growth or the fearsome minotaur would back down first. It took several long seconds of silence, then Wild Growth relented.

"This better not be a sign of things to come on this trip, Iron Will, or you and I will continue this conversation, and you will find me not so amendable. Go ahead and continue seeing that everything advances on schedule," the senator said. She then turned and marched off. 

With the holdup gone, everyone resumed boarding the ship. By this time, the other two ships were already fully loaded and pulling up their gangplanks, but our line was moving quickly now. 

I was among the last to board, and as I started crossing with my luggage dragging behind me, I slowed briefly. I am not a cowardly pegasus, but I was a heavy one, and I couldn't help but give a second's hesitation at the thought that the ramp might not support my weight. It was only a second, though. I quickly realized I was being silly. Iron Will had to weigh way more than I did, and the plank supported him just fine. I picked up my pace and headed onto the ship.

The deck had different sections. There was a big pool area that had what looked like a smaller section with paddle boats, an ice cream vendor, and a huge central cabin that had stairs going down into the boat—presumably where our rooms were. There were also an excessive amount of speakers hanging along the top of the cabin area and off the balloon itself. 

"I hope you creatures feel welcome because you are!" the speakers blared with Iron Will's voice. 

There was the sound of a scuffle. "Give me that!" Wild Growth's voice came ringing over the speakers mere seconds after the first announcement. "Greetings, everyone. Welcome aboard, and thank you for joining my family and me on this vacation across Equestria!"

Cheers rang out from the crowd as ponies stomped their hooves and humans clapped. 

"Now, everyone should already have their cabin number," Wild Growth continued. "I know most of you are eager to drop off your luggage, but if you wait just a moment or two, we will be casting off, and I know that some of you will be eager to see that. If not, nothing is requiring you to stay on deck. Each of your rooms should include brochures detailing ship activities that will periodically happen, and the captain should be announcing when each of those starts. Captain, I believe you had a few announcements to make before we cast off?"

There was a short pause before Iron Will began. "Iron Will advises passengers to be careful when leaning over the sides of the ship. Iron Will is not responsible if anycreature falls to their death or is injured falling. If a winged creature goes overboard, Iron Will will not stop the ship or turn it around, so it is up to that creature to get back onboard themselves. Iron Will is not responsible for injury or death that may result from dragon, roc, wendigo, breezy, bird, pirate, griffin, pegasus, unicorn, night pony, catapult, trebuchet, magic storms, regular storms, time ruptures, asteroids, demonic entities, changelings, centaurs, rams, volcanoes, tornadoes, sheep, machine powered aircraft other than this one, rainbooms, parasites, or ponies named Tim—this is not an all-inclusive list. Satisfaction is not guaranteed, and there are no refunds!"

There were some worried murmurings from the crowd. 

"Iron Will does not anticipate any of these things happening. Iron Will orders you to have a good time! Prepare for liftoff!"

Several crystal pony guards standing off the ship unhooked the ropes mooring it to the stadium. The ship began to gently drift away from the stadium before it suddenly lurched and made a sudden turn, and picked up speed. The ship I was on took off first, and the other two ships followed after, each slightly behind ours to either side in a squat triangle formation. 

The crowd on deck seemed appreciative of the sights as the ships sped away from the Crystal Empire. From where I was standing, it looked like a lot of snow, which didn't make it any less stunning, but it did seem like something I would rather miss a few minutes of than what might come later. I resolved to hurry and find my cabin before there was a rush. 

The central cabin area that descended into the hull of the ship had stairs, and that meant my luggage went thump, thump, thump behind me as I dragged it. Well, better the luggage than me. I was now more happy with my session to leave my laptop on Earth. I could well imagine those thumps cracking its screen. Mom would probably replace it for me since I needed it for school, but she wouldn't be happy about it. 

The lower decks were cramped, cramped enough that I imagined two humans walking side by side would be near impossible, and it would be a struggle for most ponies. Luckily, the room numbers were simple, seemingly laid out in order, and I was room number twelve. 

I couldn't help but notice that the doors were close together, like, really, really close. How big were these rooms? We're they bigger on the inside? Did they have narrow entrances that led into bigger rooms? I was about to see.

I opened my door and gaped. The room was just as narrow as the hallway. The bed, if you wanted to call it a bed, was a single platform that was attached to all three walls, had a thin mattress, blanket, and two pillows, and it took up the entire room aside from the space where the door swung in. There was some space under the bedplank for me to put my luggage, and there was a single round window with no curtains. Sitting on the pillows was another pouch of coins and the aforementioned brochure. 

This wasn't a room. It was a closet.

As I was gaping, I realized another thing; there was no bathroom. Where did I go to use the bathroom? Was there a communal one? How many people was I sharing a potty with?

Okay… first thing first, store my luggage. I pushed my luggage carefully under the edge of the bed and flew up on the top of the bed. This was my room, and I would have to deal with it. There had to be a bathroom somewhere, and I would find that in time. Time to check out the brochure. 

"Hey! Ya wanna see a magic twick?"

I turned around and saw a small mass of fur and feathers that had a beak sitting in my still open doorway. 

I blinked and moved over to the side of the bed. "Are you a griffin chick?" I'd only ever seen one griffin before, and it looked vaguely like this kid… I was pretty sure he was male. He looked like a brown owl head attached to a lion cub body. 

"Yeah!" the griffin declared as if it was obvious. "Wanna see a magic twick?"

I blinked again. How old was he? Maybe five or six, but that was me trying to compare with ponies. "Um, okay. What sorta magic trick?"

He held out a talon. "Ya hafta give me a bit!"

I looked at the coin pouch and dug out one of the coins, tossing it to him with my mouth. He caught greedily with both sets of talons. 

"So, what's the magic trick?" I asked.

He held out his talons and showed me the coin, then he brought it close to him and wrapped his wings around it, then he spread his wings and talons. "Poof! No more bit! I made it go away!"

I could just make out the coin sticking out of the feathers of his right wing, but I wasn't going to call him out on it. Instead, I clipped my hooves together, acting impressed. "That's a very good trick. Hey, where are your par—"

"Guillermo! ¡Dónde estás!"

The chick jumped. "Uh oh!"

I was doing a lot of blinking. Did whoever was looking for him call out in Spanish?

Two adult griffins, a male and a female, came into view at the doorway and stared disapprovingly down at the chick. The female had the head of a grey hawk, while the male had the head of a brown falcon. I didn't have much time to process it before the female launched into a verbal tirade which again was in Spanish. My Spanish wasn't very good, so I couldn't keep up with what she was saying. I got the gist; she was angry her chick had wandered off. 

The male made a clicking noise with his beak that got the female's attention, and as she looked up, he pointed at me. She looked embarrassed as she straightened up and smiled at me. 

"I'm very sorry," she began in Equestrian, but then she switched to English. "Are you from Earth?"

My eyelids were going to get tired from blinking. This griffin was trilingual. I decided to answer her back in English. "Yes, I'm one of the contest winners. Your son—that is your son, right?" She nodded to me. "He wasn't any trouble. I didn't know there were going to be griffins on this flight. Are you part of the crew?"

She shook her head. "Oh, definitely not! I don't have a clue how this ship works. I'm Jean Martinez. This big bird is my husband, Roger Martinez, and this little ball of fluff is our youngest son, Guillermo. We're Wild Growth's family. We live in Equestria, but we are originally from Earth too. Have you met our daughter?"

"Wild Growth?" I asked, smiling happily. "Yes, I have talked to her a few times. I'm from Skytree, and we have run into one another a couple of times. I think I met your grandkids if those are Phobia Remedy's foals. I didn't realize they had griffins in their family tree."

"It's a long story," Jean said with a sigh. "I started off human, then was a crystal pony, now I'm a griffin, and I won't be turning into anything else. It was nice meeting you—"

"Rebecca."

She nodded. "—Rebecca. Maybe we can talk later. I would love to hear how our old town is doing." She grabbed her son up with a talon and wing and deposited him on her back. "However, we have an appointment to go see my other kids and introduce my little nest egg to the rest of his siblings and his nieces and nephews. I hope you enjoy your trip! Nice meeting you, and sorry again about my son disturbing you in your room! It won't happen again!"

I watched them walk off. 

Wild Growth had a fascinating family. How did her parents end up as griffins living in Equestria? That had to be an interesting story, but it was a story for another time. It was time to read over my brochure and make some plans because I definitely wasn't staying in here.