//------------------------------//
// October 15 [Homecoming Dance] 
// Story: Silver Glow's Journal 
// by Admiral Biscuit 
//------------------------------//

October 15

It was kinda hot sleeping between Aric and Meghan. And I couldn't push any of the covers off me, 'cause then one of them would get cold, but I did push myself up in bed a little bit so that more of me was outside the covers until I'd cooled down some, and then I wiggled back down a little.

Meghan woke up first, and I nuzzled her neck and she turned to look at me but she had to be careful not to fall out because the bed was narrow. And she kissed me on the nose then got up to use the bathroom and I got out of bed, too, and I was a little bit unsteady on my hooves because I'd had more to drink than I should have.

So when she came back in the room I took my turn in the bathroom and when I got back she was sitting on the side of the bed, looking out the window at the birds crowding around the feeder. And I stood next to her and looked, too, and I guess us not being in bed woke up Aric, cause he sat up in bed and then came over to see what was going on outside, before going off to the bathroom himself.

Meghan said that now was the perfect time to steal his spot, and got back in bed, with her back against the wall, and I decided that since I was still a little bit tired, too, I'd get some more sleep, so I snuggled in next to her, and she put her arms around me and pulled me in a little bit closer, so that Aric would have room.

I hoped he wasn't going to be mad that we'd taken his space, and he wasn't. He just sat down on the edge of bed and got back in and laid down on his back. And I put my foreleg over his chest, and stretched out enough to nuzzle his cheek, and he turned and kissed me and rested his hand on my pastern, and before too long, we were all drifting back off to sleep.

It was pretty late when we finally got up. Aric had turned on his side and I'd rolled on my belly, and me and Meghan had woken up first but we didn't want to disturb him too much, so we were whispering to each other, and she said that she was a little bit too hot, too, so she had pushed down the covers and pulled up her shirt to just below her bra to let herself cool off some. And I guess Aric had forgotten how close he was to the edge, 'cause he opened his eyes and went to roll over and fell right out of bed, which was really funny.

Meghan used her fingers to comb her hair and then she untangled my mane and tail, too, and Aric went to the bathroom to change his clothes. Meghan didn't have any new clothes with her, so she said that she wasn't going to bother to shower until later, when she got ready for the dance. And she put on her socks and shoes and then when Aric came back we all went downstairs.

David and Angela were in the kitchen, drinking coffee, and they had made a whole pot so there was enough for us, too. David said that we'd just missed Sean and Christine; they'd left about a half hour ago.

Their table didn't have enough room for all of us to sit, so Aric leaned against the counter and drank his coffee and asked what we wanted to do for breakfast. David wanted to go to Blake's, which was downtown, and he said it was really good, and Aric agreed, and he said that I'd like it, but he wouldn't tell me why. Meghan didn't know, because she hadn't been there before.

So we all got in Angela's Alero, and we drove downtown and had to look around a little bit for a place to park, and we didn't find one until about a block away.

But walking was a good way to wake up, and so we went around the block and as soon as we got in, I saw what Aric thought I'd like: there were pictures of airplanes all over the walls and models of airplanes hanging from the ceiling.

I got an omelet and hash browns and rye toast, and it was really good. We were a little bit crowded in our booth, 'cause it was only meant for four, and Meghan told Aric to be careful and not fall out of the booth. He said that if he felt himself slipping, he could grab for the table and he'd be all right.

Angela dropped me and Meghan off on campus, and Aric said that he'd meet us at the dance.

Peggy and Jenny were both in my room, and they said that they hadn't seen Aquamarine yet, and Peggy said that she had called Mister Salvatore and told him what had happened last night, and that I should probably tell him my side of the story when I got a chance, just in case the jerk said that it was our fault. She said that sometimes that happened.

I thought there wasn't too much to say; he'd been mean and he'd tried to grab at Aquamarine and he'd gotten exactly what he'd deserved. But humans have strange rules about things sometimes, so I wrote a computer letter to Mister Salvatore, and I saw that Cyndi had written me one back, and so I told her everything about where we met to watch storms and how much before and I also gave her my portable telephone number because I couldn't remember if I had before or not.

It was pretty quiet on campus, because I think that everybody had been partying after the football game and mid-terms, and I didn't mind.

Peggy said that the shower was going to be in high demand before the dance, so maybe it would be smart to use it now if I was planning on taking one, and I thought I'd fly around a little bit first and then use it to relax.

So I got out my flight gear and went out to the boardwalk, and I got permission from the grumpy airplane director. And so I took my usual route out to the Nature Center, but since I was out there so late, there were no deer, and there were lots of people walking around which I hadn't expected.

I decided that I'd put on a bit of a show for them, so I flew over the pasture and did a wing-roll, then dove down and came up on the path kind of fast, and I flared at the last second to lose my lift but still hit a little bit faster than I'd planned and stumbled a bit on the trail before I got my legs sorted out, and then I was off cantering down the trail.

I slowed down to a trot as I went around the corner, and then I picked up a canter again down the whole length of the trail that ran parallel to the river. And once I got to the top, I did the same thing again, although I had to slow down to get around a group of people who were taking up the whole width of the path and didn't seem to have noticed me.

When I got back up to the top of the hill, I took off and flew back towards campus, and I couldn't resist doing one more wing roll once I was high enough to clear the trees.

There wasn't anyone in the bathroom, so I took my time in the shower, and then I sat on my bed and groomed myself. Peggy had left a note saying that she was giving Jenny a tour of campus, and that they would meet me for dinner, if they weren't back before then. I thought about flying around until I found them, but I decided that I'd relax and read my Bible instead.

So I opened it up to John, and started reading.  It was mostly the same as the other three books, but it mentioned some things in specific detail and left others out, and it also mentioned that Pilate and Herod hadn’t found Jesus guilty of any crime, but the people wanted him executed to prove their loyalty to Caesar.  And the way it was written felt a little bit different than any of the other books.

And I thought that the last verse was kind of funny, because there was a whole lot more of the New Testament I hadn’t read yet, but maybe John hadn’t known that was going to be there.  Or maybe he had, and it wasn’t about Jesus.

So now I'd read the story that was told four different ways, and had different details, which kind of reminded me of how whenever there was a bit of good gossip, everypony would want to share it, but after a while in all the different tellings some of the details got a little bit mixed up or exaggerated. And sea stories did, too, and so did weather stories. And I'd heard that there were ponies who liked to collect the stories and see what was different about them or write them down so that other ponies could read them later.

But I wondered if sometimes it didn't really matter if the details changed a little bit. Everypony knew that the fish was never as big or the storm wasn't as bad in all those stories. And you knew what the worst storms had been, 'cause nopony really talked about them in any detail, at least not to anypony else.

That made me think about the football game last night, and I wondered what the talk in the locker room had been like, and if Cedric or Leon said any of the things they might have said in there to Aquamarine.

When I went to the dining hall for dinner, since I was going by myself, I flew most of the way, and I landed on the sidewalk next to a man who had a badge that said 'Thomas Davis 99.' He said that I was the first pony he'd seen up close, and asked me how I liked it so far, and I said that it was really pretty and almost everyone there was nice, and he said that he'd been worried after he left because there had been a couple of incidents and he thought that maybe the college was changing for the worst, but it sounded like they'd gotten past it.

Then he said that somewhere on campus, there was still a copy of the novel he'd written as his senior project, and he'd always wondered if anybody else had ever read it.

I asked him if he was going to go to the dining hall, and he said that he didn't want to relive that experience of his youth, and then he asked if people still called it Saga. And I said that I'd heard people calling it that, and he smiled and said that was good.

And then he walked off across campus.

When I was getting my food, I saw Aquamarine and I waved to her, and her and Cedric waved back at me, then Leon noticed me and waved, too. And so I went over and we talked for a couple of minutes, and Aquamarine said that she'd be coming over to my room after dinner to get ready for the dance, and Cedric turned to her and Leon just shook his head and that was a little strange.

Everyone was looking forward to the dance, and Anna said that last night they’d seen a bunch of streakers, and she told Reese to go join them but he wouldn’t.  Reese said that was because he didn’t want to embarrass them, because he had a lot to be proud of, and she held up her fingers about an inch apart.

I got Aquamarine on our way out, and we went back to my room, which was a little bit crowded with four of us getting ready for the dance together. Peggy couldn't decide between two of her dresses, because she said that she wanted one that would get attention but not be trashy and she finally picked a really pretty blue one that showed a lot of her boobs but not too much. Jenny had a nice red skirt that went all the way to the floor and a silk blouse to go with it.

Aquamarine had a really beautiful dress with lots of ruffles and a nice saddle on the back, and it had a bunch of gems sewn in the trim to highlight the gold embroidery. Mine was a little more subdued; it was a light blue that matched my coat, and I had a breastpiece with my cutie mark on it, which I'd gotten for my cute-cenera.

Everyone had to do their hair, too, and so Peggy put my mane back in a bun because she said that my dress make me look kind of like a naughty librarian, and then Jenny braided Aquamarine's mane but left some hanging down, and she had a curling iron in her suitcase, which she used to make the loose parts of Aquamarine's mane curly, and then she used it on the ends of her own hair, too.

And everyone except me had to put on makeup, and then Aquamarine had a set of formal hoof-boots that fit over her shoes, and she put those on as well, which made her even taller than me.

If I had some silver dust, I'd have sprinkled a little bit on my wings, but I didn't. I hadn't brought any makeup with me.

Peggy said that maybe I could use a little bit of glitter, and said that Rebekka had some because she'd heard Kat complain about it before. So I went down to their room and Rebekka put some in, and when I looked at myself in the mirror, I thought I looked really good.

Jenny and Peggy had to take lots of pictures of us all dressed up, and they also took a couple of selfies and then she decided that we were ready to go.

I wanted to go down to see if Meghan was still in her room and if she was ready to go to the dance, so even though it was a little bit out of our way, we walked down the hall to her room.  She had a green dress that came down to her knees, and heeled shoes that matched it.

The dance was across from the dining hall, in a big ballroom called Old Welles. And it was all decorated with garlands and flowers and it was really pretty.

It was kind of odd seeing all the people that I knew wearing fancy clothes, and I guess they thought the same about me and Aquamarine, 'cause there were a lot of people looking at us as we walked in.

We found Cedric and Leon right away, and Aquamarine trotted to him and gave him a big hug. He looked kind of uncomfortable in his suit, and it looked like it was just a little bit too small for him, but it did look nice. But Leon—his suit fit him perfectly, and he looked really good in it. And he looked comfortable, too, like he was used to wearing them.

They had a couple of tables with snacks on them, and a few seats around the edge for people who wanted to sit down, and there was a man on a little podium who made the music, and you could ask him to play a song for you.

I wanted him to play Renegades, but I didn't know how to do a human dance, and it wouldn't be fair for me to ask for a song when I didn't know how to dance to it, I thought, so I wanted to watch and see how other people did it.

Meghan had a different idea, though, and she just sort of pulled me into the crowd and said that if I didn't know any actual dances I could just move my hooves and nod my head, and I said that I knew lots of dances but they were all pony dances and a bunch of them were pegasus dances.

She asked how pegasus dances were different than other pony dances, and I held out my wings. And then she said that she was an idiot for not thinking about dancing in three dimensions.

I kind of got the hang of it after a little while, and I don't know when Aric showed up, but he wanted to dance with me, too. He looked pretty nice—he had pants that he called Dockers and the ugliest tie I'd ever seen but I didn't want to say that and insult him because maybe it looked good to humans.

When we got a little bit tired, we went over to the snack table and had some punch. Aric said he was surprised that it wasn't spiked yet, and if he'd known he would have brought a bottle.

I'd just finished up a couple of really flakey cookies when Leon came over and bowed to me and asked if he could have the honor of a dance. And I didn't really know what to say, so I went out on the floor with him and he took my fore pasterns and had me stand on my hind legs with my forehooves around his waist and on his shoulder, and he put his hands on me and told me to just follow along with what he did.

He bowed to me when the song was over, and he thanked me again, so I nuzzled his chin and he got a kind of silly smile.

Aric got a bunch of people together and said that they were going to dance a SCA dance, and they found a clear spot so that they had enough room. He picked Angela as his partner and then when the song started, and there was some really complicated foot movements which were called the grapevine and then everyone marched forward and turned around and came back, and the girls got to spin which looked like a lot of fun.

Then he asked if I wanted to try it but I didn't think I could do the spins. I couldn't do the grapevine either, it turned out, and if he hadn't been holding on to my fetlocks I would have fallen down.

Meghan was a lot better at it than I was, and she got it right on the second try, and then she kicked off her shoes so she could do the spins right, because she said if she tried to do them in heels, she'd break her ankles.

The dance went until ten, and people stayed a little bit after it was over. My hips were kind of sore from trying to do too many dances on my hind hooves, and Meghan said that her heels were killing her, so when we finally left the dance hall, she kicked them off and walked back to the dorm without them.

We went back to her room and she went into the bathroom to change out of her dress, while Aric helped me with mine. I had to give him instructions on how to unfasten it, 'cause he didn't know. And he was still struggling with it a bit when she came back out of the bathroom in sleeping clothes and she shook her head, and Aric said it was really complicated.

I said that Aquamarine had put it on me and she didn't even have fingers, and Meghan said it was because boys didn't know anything about clothes, and helped me get the rest of the way undressed. And she got my hair out of the bun and put the scrunchie around my foreleg like a bracelet.

He took off his shirt and tie and put them on her desk chair, and I folded up my dress and put it on top.

She had a bottle of wine, and we all sat on her bed and shared it and talked about the night, and she'd gotten pictures of all of us in our fancy clothes, and a really nice picture of me dancing with Leon, too.

I kind of didn't want the night to end, but I knew that I was going to have to get up tomorrow and fly in the storm and I didn't want to disappoint Cyndi, so I'd need to be rested and alert and also we were out of wine.

Meghan told Aric he could stay because it was only fair and he said that he didn't have anything to sleep in because he didn't want to sleep in his pants, and she said if he wanted to he could sleep in his underwear because there was going to be a chastity pony between him and her, and I said that I didn't know much about chastity, which she thought was really funny.

She got in bed next to the wall and had me get in next, and then Aric squeezed in on the outside, and he said that he was really going to be pissed if he fell out of her bed, too. She said that she could use his tie to tie him to the bed, and he said that he didn't think we were at the experimentation stage yet, and she told me to bump him out of bed, but I didn't.