• Published 25th Feb 2016
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Silver Glow's Journal - Admiral Biscuit



Silver Glow takes an opportunity to spend a year at an Earth college, where she'll learn about Earth culture and make new friends.

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January 17 [A Day Flying]

January 17

Christine and Sean came to breakfast together, and he was wearing the same clothes he'd been wearing the night before, but she was wearing new clothes. They also smelled like each other—they must have worked out their disagreement between Star Wars and Star Trek the fun way.

I didn't have anything planned for the day, so I thought I'd go flying. It was a perfect day for it, a little bit chilly but perfectly clear. It would be my first chance to really stretch my wings.

Pegasus magic doesn't work as well on Earth. We don't know why, but our scientists are working on it (on the other hoof, human electronics don't work very well in Equestria). So I knew that I wouldn't have the same endurance I had back home. Still, as long as I didn't overexert myself, I'd be fine, and it would be a good chance to see just how far I could fly before getting tired.

Just the same, I asked Peggy if she had any plans for the day. I didn't know if she had been planning to spend the day with me, and it would be rude to just fly off without telling her where I was going.

She said that she was just going to do laundry and hang out with the friends who lived down the hall, and told me to have fun and be careful. I put on my vest and my light, and made sure that I had my map and spare batteries in my vest pocket. Then I strapped on my light and radio, and I was ready to go!

I glided down the stairs—it's kind of fun to make the turns at the landings, but I have to watch out for people coming up the stairs—and then walked out the front door.

As soon as I was outside, I flew up to our window and waved at Peggy, then took to the sky. I used the radio to get clearance from the airplane directors when I was at the level of the bell tower. Before they answered, the bells started ringing, and I almost jumped out of my skin! I'd forgotten that they sometimes ring them on Sunday morning.

Once I got my flight clearance, I went up higher and surveyed the area. I knew it pretty well from the map, but things always look different the first time you're looking down on them from above. It takes a little bit to get used to.

In Equestria, the easiest thing to do would be follow roads or follow railroad tracks. Rivers are also a good thing to follow, but there isn't one next to campus. There's a little creek, but it's hard to see because it's so small, and it gets hidden by the trees a lot, and when it goes under the road it gets lost.

There were roads—lots of roads. I could probably follow the main roads and not get lost, but then I spotted the railroad tracks at the base of campus, and that was an even better path to follow.

They ran sort of diagonally, then turned into the center of town. There was a big brick railroad station, which also had a lot of buses at it. Some of them were silver and blue with a big greyhound on them; the others were white and had numbers on the roof.

I continued to follow the tracks to a crossing, which was a good waypoint, and then a river. There was a big dirt field next to the river, so I landed there and checked the map. I could go further east if I wanted to, or I could follow the river north or south.

East felt like the best direction to me. If I was ever going to fly out to visit Aquamarine, that would be the direction I would be going. From looking at the maps, it was a safe bet that these tracks would go to East Lansing eventually, so it was a good idea to get familiar with them and what was around them.

I tried to keep my altitude at about five thousand feet. That was plenty high enough to get a good view of the city and pick out the landmarks. It's actually easier on Earth, because there are tall buildings and big towers that stick well above the trees, and most towns have water towers with the town's name painted on them. When I turned in a slow circle, I could see six of them (although only one was close enough to read). But they were good waypoints, even if I couldn't read them, 'cause they weren't all the same shape or color.

I probably could have gone further if I'd wanted to, but I decided that when I got to Augusta I was going to turn around. The last thing I wanted was to completely exhaust myself, and have to walk back to campus, especially since I couldn't very well walk back along the railroad tracks. That's dangerous! A train could come along and run me over, and Earth trains are much bigger than Equestrian trains.

A long freight train passed me on my way back. I heard it honking its horn off in the distance, and after about ten minutes, it overtook me. Even at my height, I could smell the acrid smoke of its exhaust, and it hung in the air for a long time. Our trains make a little bit more smoke, but it doesn't smell as bad. Maybe it's just because I'm not used to it.

It looked like a giant snake, undulating along through the trees. Even when it had gotten quite a lead on me, I could occasionally see it as it passed by open fields.

Unexpectedly, I caught up to it again on the outskirts of Kalamazoo. It was stopped at a red signal just short of a crossroad, and I wondered what it was waiting for.

The tracks go through a ravine, while the road for cars goes up and over them. Just on the other side of that road, I saw a fast silver train going the other way—what Aquamarine called an Amtrak, and I figured that was what the freight train was waiting for.

I still had some energy left, so when I got back to the center of Kalamazoo, I followed a road that went north. It passed through a kind of run-down neighborhood for a while, and then curved out into open fields. Strangely, as I kept flying, the smell of mint suddenly filled my nostrils, and it got more intense as I kept flying.

The road curved to the west, and while I might follow it one day, it was getting late, so I turned around and headed back for campus. It's a highway, so I could follow it for quite a while if I wanted to.

Kalamazoo College's bell tower is a great landmark. Even when the trees are leafed out, it will be impossible to miss. I flew a direct course, circling over the center of campus to my landing spot.

Peggy was still in the room, wearing her lounging pants and a t-shirt, so she probably hadn't been out all day. After I put away my flight clothes and took a shower, she got dressed and we went to dinner together.

By the time we got back to the room, I was tired, but it was the good kind of tired. The kind of tired you get after an honest day's work. Peggy started working on an essay that she said was due tomorrow, and I went to bed even though it was still kind of early. All that flying had worn me out some, but now I had a good idea of how long my pegasus magic would last and with practice I ought to be able to get better endurance.

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