//------------------------------// // November 13 [Trail Ride] // Story: Silver Glow's Journal // by Admiral Biscuit //------------------------------// November 13 Meghan was already awake when I woke up. She had her hand resting on the base of my neck, under my mane, and she was just looking at me. I yawned and then nuzzled her cheek, and she said I was really cute when I was sleeping. She brushed my mane back over my ears and I kissed her and then snuggled up against her. It wasn't as comfortable as I liked because I couldn't rest my head on her breast when she was on her side like that. Meghan shifted around in bed and I started climbing up on her so that I wouldn't accidentally push Aric out of bed, and we managed to move around until I was laying on top of her, and we hadn't knocked Aric off the edge of the bed. I put my head down on her breast, and she nuzzled the top of my head with her chin and then started scratching behind my ears and we just cuddled with each other while Aric slept. I wouldn’t have minded staying in bed all morning, but we had to get up so that we could say goodbye to Aquamarine before she went back to Michigan State. So I started to tickle Aric's back and butt with my wing, until he finally slapped at me and then rolled over onto his back and looked at me and Meghan and asked us what time it was. That was a silly thing for him to ask, because he was closer to everyone's portable telephones than I was. He didn't seem motivated to turn back over and look, so I got out of bed and bumped Meghan's portable telephone with my muzzle until it told me what time it was, and when I turned around to tell him, he'd taken my spot and had his head on Meghan's breast, which wasn't fair at all. So I pushed open the window and glided down to the bird feeder and started shaking out sunflower seeds. He came to the window after I'd gotten a second mouthful, and then Meghan did, too, but she stayed a little bit behind him so that nobody could see that she was naked. Once I'd finished snacking, I flew back up to the window and I tried to pull in my wings at the last second so I could glide in and land nicely on his floor, but that didn't work out like I'd planned for it to, and I only made it two thirds of the way in and got stuck on the windowsill. I pushed myself forward a bit with my forelegs, but that only worked until my hind legs hit the wall outside, and I couldn't get enough of a grip on the wall to push them up and over, and I didn't get any help until Aric and Meghan were done laughing at me. I smacked both of them with a wing, but I wasn't really mad, 'cause I would have laughed if I'd seen another pegasus stuck like that. Everypony learns to be careful flying through windows, 'cause if you've got to pull in your wings, this can happen, and if there isn't anypony to help you, the only way to get unstuck is to drop out tail-first and then fly out of it. We took a shower together and then Meghan helped me groom as best as she could—she hadn't brought her duffel bag, so she didn't have any brushes. Aric had one that wasn’t very good, but it was good enough to make sure that there weren’t any big tangles, but it didn’t get my coat as smooth as a proper brush would have. When Meghan was done using it on me, I took it in my mouth and brushed her hair with it, and then I made Aric sit down so I could do his hair, too. And he said that it was really weird having someone else brush his hair for him, but I think he liked it. Meghan said that I should see if I could brush the hair on his chest, but it was too short for the brush to do any good, and he said that it tickled, so we didn’t experiment with it any more. Aric put on pants and went downstairs to make us coffee, and then he came back upstairs while Meghan was preening my wings for me. By the time Aric and Meghan had gotten dressed, the coffee was ready, and we sat in the kitchen and drank a cup to finish waking ourselves up. Aric went outside to start up Winston so that it could melt the frost off the windows, and me and Meghan went back upstairs to get my cheerleading uniform which was still in his room from Friday night, and also her bra, because she said it was a good morning to go braless, especially since she had her sweatshirt on so people wouldn't be able to see that she wasn't wearing one. She carried my uniform for me, and we got in Winston and Aric drove us back to campus, and on the way he asked us to remind him before we went to Fort Custer that he needed to put gas in the truck, and we said that we would. He parked behind the dining hall and we went in the back way, and instead of going right upstairs he took us down a little hallway that was by WJMD, which was a radio station. He said that he had been a DJ there for a while, but now he didn't do it any more. He said it had been kind of disappointing that not too many people listened to the station, but it had also been fun because he could do almost anything he wanted, and one time he’d spent two hours only playing the Moody Blues. We went upstairs and they didn't have a whole lot of food out yet because I guess the food people like sleeping in, too. And then I wondered if the food people slept in because the students did, so there was no need to get up early, or if the students slept in because there was no food, so there was no point in getting up early. They had left our extra table, which was nice of them, and we were the first ones in, so we took our time eating the food that we'd picked. Cedric and Aquamarine showed up next, and then everyone else came, mostly in pairs. Cedric thanked Aric again for taking him out to see the stars, and he said that he'd never really had a chance to see them when he was growing up, because all the city lights had blocked out the view of the sky, and I thought that was really sad. Everyone took their time eating, 'cause nobody wanted Aquamarine to leave, and it kind of felt like as long as we stayed in the dining hall she was safe with us. But Mister Barrow and Miss Parker were probably waiting for her, so we finally got up and she hugged everyone and kissed Cedric and nuzzled me, and then we all took our trays back and walked down to Hoben in a big group. She had to go up to Cedric's room to get her saddlebags, and I talked to Miss Parker while we were waiting for them to come back down. And they hugged one more time before she got into the van, and Mister Barrow blinked the brake lights at us as he drove off. We had some free time before we had to go to Fort Custer, so we went back to Winston and got my cheerleading uniform and Meghan's bra, then we walked up to her room. We sat on her bed and talked and snuggled for a little while, and then Meghan changed into her horseback riding clothes. Aric said she should leave her bra off, but she said that it would be too bouncy and it might be fun to watch but then they'd be sore and we'd both be sad that she wouldn't let us touch them. We walked back to Winston, and Meghan reminded Aric that he needed to put gas in it, and so he drove to the Shell which was on the corner of Westnedge and I went over to his side and stuck my head out the window so that I could watch. The gas hose went in behind a little door and he squeezed the handle and that was all that he had to know because the pump was smart and knew how much went in and when it was full. I didn't like the smell of gas—it was stinky and sharp and stayed in my nose even after he'd hung the hose back up, and I wished that they could have made cars and trucks run on something that smelled a little bit nicer, or maybe put some kind of scent in the gas to make it smell different, like they did with soap. We drove all the way out there without seeing any trains, and drove though Fort Custer until we got to the parking lot by the horse trail. We'd beaten Deanne there, so we sat in Winston and waited, and we'd only been there for a few minutes before a big white Ford that was almost as big as a semi-tractor turned into the parking lot, and as it nosed towards a spot the engine note changed and it spit out a cloud of black smoke, then stopped and made a loud hiss. Deanne shut off the engine and climbed down out of the cab and came over to Winston and said that she was sorry for being late but Peaches didn't like getting in the trailer. The horses already had their heads stuck out the side windows, and she went and opened up the doors and let them out one-by-one and then tied them to the side of the trailer so that they couldn't run off, and then she got their saddles and bits out of a room in the front of the trailer. Meghan helped her put their tack on, while I went around by the trailer and greeted all of them. With both Deanne and Meghan working, it didn't take too long to get the horses ready to ride, and she untied them after we'd gotten on and taken the reins. She let Meghan lead and set the pace on the trail, and it was kind of strange but it looked kind of different when I was on the back of a horse. We were about halfway around the trail when I saw the grouchy lady who'd yelled at me before coming towards us, and I stuck my tongue out at her as we walked past. And she couldn't say anything bad to me, 'cause I was on a horse. I think that Hoshi was a better horse, too, 'cause she was a little bit bigger and more muscled. The trail just went in a big loop that started and ended at the parking lot, and once we got to the end of it we decided that we wanted to ride around it again, even though Henry was slowly moving back towards the trailer, thinking that Deanne didn't notice. And so we turned around the line and went back the other way, so this time Deanne was in the front and when we got to a long, mostly-straight section, she sped up to a canter and we kept that pace until we got to a sharp turn. I was sure that the horses could do it, 'cause I'd seen Henry turn tighter at a faster pace, but I knew I'd slide off Hoshi if she turned like that. It was kind of sad to think that this was the last time I'd get to ride Hoshi, and when we got back to the parking lot, I didn't want to get off her, but I had to. So I leaned forward and nuzzled the back of her neck, then flew off of her and I asked Deanne if she had a treat that I could give Hoshi, 'cause I hadn't thought to bring anything. And she said that she had carrots in the cab of the truck, so I went up and opened the door while Deanne was taking off Hoshi's saddle, and I got a carrot and offered it to her, and when she took it, Meghan said it looked like we were kissing. There was a faucet near the parking lot, and Deanne had Aric fill up the buckets which were in each stall so that the horses would have something to drink, and then another couple of buckets so that she could rinse them down. They were hot enough and it was cold enough that they started to steam as she sponged them off, and I bet that cool water felt really good to them. I stuck my head inside one of the stalls just to see what it was like, and it was kind of crowded and it seemed like it would be strange to be riding sideways to where you were going. But I guess that they didn't mind, 'cause they could stick their heads out the window and look forward. And if they got hungry they also had net-bags that were full of hay for them to snack on, and the water buckets had a place to hang, too, in case they got thirsty. When Deanne and Meghan were done rinsing off the horses and cleaning their hooves, Deanne started putting them in the trailer, and Peaches really didn't want to go in. She flicked her tail and flattened her ears and Deanne had to push her a little bit to motivate her to get into her stall. Aric gave Deanne some money for our ride and she folded it up and put it in her pocket, and then she shook his hand and hugged Meghan and me, and got back up in her truck. And after she'd started it she didn't drive off right away, and Aric said that was because she had to wait for it to get enough air pressure to release the brakes. And after a minute or so, I heard the truck hiss, and then she drove out of the parking lot, and Aric said that he really admired a woman who could drive a truck like that. We got back in Winston, and Aric asked if we wanted to go somewhere for dinner or if we wanted to spend more time at the park. And I liked both choices, even though I was a little bit hungry 'cause we hadn't eaten lunch. But I could find some pasture grass to snack on if I had to, so I let Meghan decide. She said that she'd like dinner, and said that after that she should go back to her dorm and do homework, and Aric said that he had homework to do as well. And I said that I'd been a responsible pony and had done all mine already. So we decided that we'd go to Chipotle together for dinner. And the only one that Aric knew was the one that was near the movie theater, so we had to drive all the way through Kalamazoo to get to it. A lot of restaurants had more than one location, and I was kind of surprised that Chipotle didn’t, and Aric said that they probably had a store in Portage, but that wouldn't be any closer. My stomach was eager for the food as soon as I smelled it, but I had to wait 'cause a lot of other people were also hungry and were in line in front of us. I was worried that we weren't going to get a seat, 'cause most of the restaurant was filled, but luckily most of the people in front of us wanted to take their food away in a bag rather than eat it there, so we got the last table that there was. I had a little trouble getting into my chair, 'cause the table we got had high chairs. Aric thought it was funny, and he offered to help me up, but I made it on my own. Even though I was hungry, I reminded myself to eat slowly so I wouldn't give myself colic by bolting my food. But I still finished before Aric or Meghan had finished theirs. When we were going back out to Winston, I noticed a sign for Starbucks across the street at the Maple Hill Mall, and Christine said that they had the best pumpkin spice, so I begged Aric to go there so that we could get one, and he said that it was overpriced but he took us there anyway, and I got a pumpkin spice latte, which was too hot to drink right away, so I gave it to Meghan to hold. Aric told me if I spilled some on my lap and got burned I could sue Starbucks for millions of dollars and they would give it to me because I was so cute that the jury would fall over themselves awarding me with money, but that sounded painful and I didn't have any use for millions of dollars anyways. Meghan told Aric he was a bad influence sometimes, and he got kind of offended and said that he tried to be a bad influence all the time, not just sometimes. We drove back to campus, and Aric stopped in the Trowbridge parking lot for us, and said that he was going to be up late doing his homework but if we wanted to come over for the night we could and he'd just join us when he got done. Meghan said she didn't know when she was going to be done, either, and I was going to get up and go trotting with Peggy tomorrow, so we decided that we'd just sleep in our own rooms tonight and then have fun tomorrow night. My latte had cooled down enough that I could drink it, so I took a sip and it was a little bit sweeter than I liked but not too much. It tasted kind of like a pumpkin pie, and after I'd drunk a little bit more, I got used to the sweetness and so I drank the rest. And when Aric kissed me goodbye, he said that I had a pumpkin spice kiss, and I kissed Meghan too, to see if she agreed. And then she kissed Aric goodbye as well, and we got out of Winston and went up to our rooms. I got out my thermodynamics notes and went through them, especially the formulas and laws, because there were a lot of them and they were all important. I needed to know the name and how it was written and what it was for. I also spent a little bit more time with the periodic table, just so I was sure that I was familiar with it. It probably wasn’t going to be that important on the test, because I thought that if he gave us any alchemical solutions, he’d just tell us what their properties were and wouldn’t expect us to have it memorized, but I thought it was better to put the extra effort in, rather than find out when I took the test that I should have known more than I did. It was kind of annoying how most of the elements had letters which were in their names, but some of them didn’t, like lead and gold. I kept studying until the words in my notes started to look blurry ‘cause my eyes were tired, and then I turned off my light and got ready for bed, and before I went to sleep, I nuzzled Peggy and asked her if she wanted to get up in the morning to go trotting, and she said that she was going to say yes now but she’d be grumpy tomorrow morning and I should just drag her out of bed anyway.