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// August 4 [Thursday] 
// Story: Silver Glow's Journal 
// by Admiral Biscuit 
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 August 4 

I woke Meghan up in the middle of the night when I got up to pee, even though I tried to be quiet and sneaky. At first I couldn't remember why we were on top of the covers instead of under them.

When I got back to the bedroom, she'd put away the extra sheet and was under the covers, and I got in next to her and curled up against her, and she started petting my back and side and then she reached her hand further down and I lifted my tail out of the way for her and pretty soon we were fighting for who got to be on top and it was really hard to put up much of a fight when she was under my tail.

So in the morning she wound up not wanting to get out of bed until after her alarm had gone off four times, and by then she was too late to have breakfast at all and really had to rush her shower, too. I went through her dresser and picked out clothes for her and set them out on the bed for her, and then brushed her hair for her and she was just buttoning up her blouse when the doorbell rang.

Meghan kissed me and told me that I knew the drill and then ran off downstairs so that her friend wouldn't be mad at how late she was, and I waved from upstairs but I don't know if she saw me.

I thought it would be rude to eat her food while she wasn't even here, so I just picked up her dirty clothes and put them in the basket, and then I went and flew back to my house and thought about what I wanted to do today.

I wasn't sure that tomorrow I would have any time to fly at all, so I wanted to get a decent-length flight in. I also needed to make sure that Aric's birdfeeder was full, so I went to do that first.

So I flew over to Aric's house and went into the garage and got the seeds out of the icebox and then since I felt kind of bad for taking all the mouse's food I put a little pile on the workbench for him before filling the bird feeder.

Angela was in the kitchen, and after I took the bag back to the garage I waved to her and then flew off for home.

I still didn't know which way I wanted to go when I put on my flight gear, but since I hadn't flown east in a little while I thought I'd go that way.

So I went along the railroad tracks through town and towards Galesburg and then I decided that I wanted to visit the horses again. I think when I get back from Stratford me and Meghan should go riding them again before I go out west.

I remembered that the big electrical wires went more or less right out there, and that was easier to follow than roads, 'cause I could easily see where they went, and it was right by a crossing of two electricity routes.

So when I got the the big towers that ran from the dam, I followed them north and around, and then went to the branch that crossed under them, 'cause that was the one I wanted to follow.

It didn't take me all that long to get there, and I circled around to see who was there. The barriers weren't set up, and I didn't see anyone outside, so I landed just outside the barn and went in.

There was one horse who I didn't know tied out in the aisle and a teenage girl working in his stall, shoveling everything out into a big rolling cart. Her back was to me, so she didn't see me at all.

Right after I went into the barn, Hoshi whinnied at me and I whinnied back, and then I went over to her stall and she leaned down and we sniffed each other and rubbed noses to say hello, and she sniffed at my flight vest 'cause I'd put a couple of carrots in there in case I got hungry, so I gave her one of them.

I went down to the tack room in case Deanne was there, but she wasn't. So I went and asked the girl who was cleaning out a stall, and she was really surprised to see me and then she said that Deanne wasn't here yet but she would be soon to teach a riding lesson.

So I went back outside and waited by the training field for Deanne and the dog came over and kept moving in on me and I kept side-stepping down the fenceline until I ran out of fence and he was still not happy, so I just flew up and sat on a tree branch, and he didn't like that too much, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. He kept circling around the tree and staring up at me and he looked really confused.

I saw her come in—she had a little squarish red truck that I'd seen around before, and she parked it near the fence and when she got out I flew down to greet her.

She said that she had a lesson this morning but I could stay and watch if I wanted to, so I said that I would.

Before too long a man in a nice-looking car came by and he let a girl get out, who I guess was the student. She looked like she was a little bit younger than Trinity, and I was wondering how she'd manage to get up on a horse.

She came over to meet me, and I didn't want to take up too much of her time but I introduced myself and she said that her name was Hannah, and that she was just learning to ride properly and that she went to school in Kalamazoo and what was Equestria like and did I know how to ride a horse.

Well, I said that Equestria was very nice and I liked it but I also liked Earth, and I said that I did know how to ride a horse but I wasn't very good at it at all, and she said that Miss Deanne was a very good teacher.

I stayed out of the way while she saddled up her horse, and tried to stay out of the dog's way, but he kept nosing at me now that I was back on the ground. I thought about going back up to the tree, because it would give me a better view of the training field anyway, but I didn't.

Hannah came back out riding Peaches, and Deanne walked alongside.

I didn't learn much that was useful to me watching Hannah being taught, because she was learning about something called posting, which was where she stood up on the stirrups when Peaches was trotting. I could see why that was a good skill to have, because it looked like it was pretty bouncy on Peaches' back, and that was something I'd noticed when I was trying to ride.

Once her lesson was over, and she'd unsaddled and washed down Peaches, Deanne asked if I wanted to go on a little trail ride and I said I didn't think that I wanted to today, although I did want to next week sometime.

She was curious why I'd come out here then and I said that I wasn't sure but that it had seemed like a good idea. I think I was starting to understand why Aquamarine had been spending time with the horses out at Michigan State because even though they were big and dumb in a way being around them was a lot like being home. Maybe even more so for Aquamarine, since she was grounded anyways, while to me birds were almost as close of kin.

So I felt kind of stupid for having come out, and I felt like I was kind of wasting her time, and I was thinking that maybe I should leave, but then she said that since she was here she was going to take Henry out for a ride and even if I didn't want to ride I could come along with her and so I said that I would.

She promised not to leave me behind, but I could tell by her little smile that she was going to try and outrun me.

Deanne got Henry dressed and he sniffed at me when I was close and then mostly ignored me.

She got up in the saddle and rode out into the back, and I followed behind, and for a while we just walked along and then she picked up the pace a little bit and Henry was in a really slow trot while I was trotting as fast as I could to keep up, and I was thinking of switching to a canter. If I had legs as long as he did, I could fly right on the ground.

Deanne looked back to see if I was still following, and then she asked me how fast I could gallop and I said that I didn't know, but by my best guess maybe fifteen or twenty miles per hour for a short distance.

We came around a curve in the path to a long, straight section, and even before she pushed her heels into Henry, I knew what she was going to do, and I broke right into a gallop, closing on him for a moment as he picked up speed and then he left me in a cloud of dust.

She looked back once to see where I was, and as soon as she turned forwards again I took flight, and the race was on.

Henry was fast, but I was faster. She wasn't even halfway down the straight stretch when I passed her and I didn't slow down at all until I got to the end of the straight part.

Well, she said that I had lied about how fast I could go and I said that I hadn't; she'd asked how fast I could gallop, and then I said that she'd lied about not leaving me behind and she said that obviously she hadn't because I got to the end of the trail before she did.

We kept together after that, and when she was halfway she went off the trail into a patch of nice grass and let Henry have a snack and it smelled so good that I had some, too.

Once we got back to the barn she took off Henry's tack, and let me wash him down, and then she rinsed me down, and I got dressed again and thanked her for letting me go out on the trail with her.

I was thinking about Henry as I flew back home. He seemed really happy and content and I don't know why that bothered me.

My thoughts were interrupted by my portable telephone ringing, and I ignored it 'cause I knew that if I went to answer I'd wind up just dropping it, but I did find a good spot to land at the edge of a golf course. I stayed by the very edge, in a little cluster of trees, so that nobody would be mad at me, and I got out my telephone and saw that it was Mister Salvatore who had called and he said that he had done some research on what might work for me and if I wanted to go shopping today we could look at our options.

So I said that I would come and look, and I could meet him at his office in an hour or so, and he said that he would be there.

I called the airplane directors and gave them my new course, which was going to take me pretty close to the airport if I wanted to fly straight. Dori said it was okay as long as I stayed under a thousand feet and that when I got close to the airport it might be safer if I went below five hundred to make sure that I didn't get hit by any wake turbulence.

I told her that I would, and all the way over I kept looking down at my altimeter to make sure that I was low enough, especially since for a little bit I was right in line with the end of the runway.

I could see their tower, and I wonder if they could see me?

No airplanes took off or landed over me, which was probably for the best. I wasn't sure how bad wake turbulence might be, and at only five hundred feet above the ground I probably didn't want to find out. I'd lost more altitude than than in bad downdrafts before.

When I got to their building, I had to wait downstairs until Mister Salvatore came and got me, and then he took me upstairs and we looked at pictures of different kinds of things that I could wear. There was a watch that was nice and compact that gave altitude and also bearings to the nearest airport, or I could put waypoints in it—it was designed for airplanes, he said.

And there was also a yellow GPS that was like the ones that some cars had but this one was simpler and didn't make you go on roads and that was pretty neat, too. It had a case that strapped around an arm, and it would work on a leg, as well.

Then he showed me what was called a smartwatch that talked to my portable telephone, but I didn't like that as much because it didn't have any buttons, just a screen that you touched and that wasn't very convenient for me. At least I could talk to my telephone and make it work, but he didn't think that I could do that with the watch.

I couldn't decide if I liked the watch or the GPS better, and he said that if I wasn't sure, I ought to get both and try each out and decide which one was best to use.

Well, I thought that was a bit much to be carrying around with me—pretty soon my forelegs were going to be nothing but human devices strapped from hoof to elbow, and I was going to have to tie a weight to my tail to balance myself back out.

Mister Salvatore told me that I could try one at a time and that it could take the place of my altimeter, and I guess that would work.

He said that he was going to have to order them, but it wouldn't take all that long to get and that I'd probably have them after we got back from Stratford.

So I thanked him for finding them, and then on my way out we went by their office so I could say hello to Miss Cherilyn. She was on the telephone, so we didn't have any time to talk.

I stopped at a Taco Bell on my way home and bought lunch, and I flew home to eat it. When I took them out of the bag, the food fit nicely in my vest pockets.

I just relaxed for most of the afternoon. I should have finished Jeremiah, but I wasn't really in a mood for it, 'cause I was starting to get eager for my trip tomorrow.

So when I met with Liz, I had to admit that I hadn't made as much progress as I'd meant to since I was training up for flying across Lake Michigan to Chicago, and going on a trip tomorrow, and I felt like I'd let her down a little bit.

She wasn't upset, though, and she said that maybe we could talk about other stuff instead, like what I'd done today, so I told her about going out to visit the horses and about flying earlier in the week, and we just chatted for a while and had tea which was really nice.

I nuzzled her when we were done talking, and then I went back home and packed up my saddlebags, because we were going to leave pretty early tomorrow, and then I went to bed early.