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// December 20 [Epcot] 
// Story: Silver Glow's Journal 
// by Admiral Biscuit 
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December 20

I woke up not too long after I went to bed 'cause there was a thunderstorm outside. And I got out of bed and opened up the balcony door just a little bit 'cause I didn't want anyone to get wet and went outside. And just when I stepped onto the balcony I thought that maybe if I got really wet I shouldn't get back in bed, but it was the kind of thunderstorm that was all flashing and noise and no rain. It was like pegasus fireworks over the park, and I could see the whole castle light up sometimes where there was a really bright flash.

I thought I'd been quiet and sneaky, but I'd woken up Gusty, and she got out of bed and went and stood inside the door and asked me if I thought it was gonna rain tomorrow. Well, I couldn't be absolutely sure without flying out there and seeing for myself but it didn't feel like it was gonna. And so I told her that and then I saw the look of relief on her face and she set her head on my back and watched the weather over my shoulder until I backed inside and closed the window 'cause it was calming down. And then we got back in bed together and snuggled up with our friends and fell asleep again.

It was kinda embarrassing to have a unicorn wake up before me every morning, and it happened again. At least I woke up when she got out of bed, so I didn't feel like I was being lazy. And Aquamarine got up right after me, and so did Miss Russi, so that only left Cayenne in bed, and she was lazy in the mornings.

I went out to the balcony to get some fresh air and Aquamarine followed me, and then when Gusty was in the shower we woke up Cayenne and she was a bit grumpy about getting up, but she did when we promised her that the coffee was on its way.

She stretched out and said that we'd better not be lying, and then she wiggled around a hoof and said that she thought one of her shoes was getting a little bit loose and she had been hoping to wait to get back to Equestria before she had to be shod again because the farrier in Chicago was a complete butcher. And Aquamarine said that if she could get some tools, she could fix it at least temporarily, and so Cayenne picked up the room telephone and called the front desk 'cause they had a little sign saying if we needed anything to call them.

Well, we found out that they didn't have farrier tools that we could borrow. But the man at the desk was very helpful and said that he would see if that was something that their medical staff was trained to do, and he said that if she threw a shoe they did have hoof boots available that they would be happy to loan her.

She didn't think she was gonna throw it but she decided that she'd be a little bit more careful on her forehoof. And she said it was 'cause of all the walking she'd done over the last couple of days.

Once everyone was ready we went to the Contempo Cafe and they had fast breakfasts which made Gusty really happy, 'cause if she wasn't waiting for a princess or a mouse she wanted to be in the park. And I couldn't really blame her; it was lots of fun. And we'd just finished up eating when Miss Parker's portable telephone rang and she listened for a minute and then gave it to Cayenne, and it was the nice man from the front desk, and he said that he could have hoof boots sent for her to try on if she wanted and if she needed it in the park to just stop at one of the medical centers and they would get it for her, and he also had a telephone number for a farrier if she wanted to have her shoe reattached. And we were all kind of surprised that he would have done that and Gusty got a big smile and said it was because Disney was magic.

We rode the monorail to Epcot, which was south of the hotel. And they had a really big sphere building that looked kind of like a golf ball, which we'd gone by on our way to Hollywood Studios.

There weren't as many people and I thought that maybe it was because it was still kinda early for people but Miss Parker said it was because the weekend was over, so a lot of people had had to go back home. I thought it might be nice to have a little bit more space without all the crowds, 'cause it was a bit overwhelming to have so many humans all together, especially since I wasn't supposed to fly over them.

The first place that we went was the giant golf ball which was actually a geodesic sphere and that had been invented by a man named Buckminster Fuller. And there was a ride inside it that would tell us all about the history of humanity and when we got in the little green cars there was a screen that let us pick what language we wanted to hear and it was smart so we could tell it. There wasn't Equestrian so we had to pick English, but when it asked us where we lived we could choose Equestria and it showed us where it was in the stars.

We saw how people had started off living in caves and then the Egyptians had built their own stone mountains which they called pyramids and I knew some stuff about them because of what Moses had said. And then we saw the Greeks and Romans and the Medieval scholars and artists, and then it showed how people had started inventing better and better machines and we got to see what a living room looked like and an office full of computers which were a lot bigger than mine and had lots of flashing lights. And then there was a little scene of Barack Obama meeting ponies for the first time, and then we got to go back, and while we were, the little television screen started asking us questions about us and then the television gave us a vision of our future where I would have a robot that could watch my dog while my spaceship took me to see the world.

We had to go to the character spot next so that Gusty could meet Baymax who was a big blobby thing. Cayenne said that he looked like the marshmallow man from Ghostbusters and I didn't know what that was. But he was really friendly even though he didn't talk, and he couldn't write either but his friend Hiro signed Gusty's autograph book and then we all got a picture with him. They had a whole schedule of when the important people and animals from Disney would be there, and she was determined to see them all.

And then we went to Mission: Space which was going to take us to Mars (but not really). We went through a entry room that had little model spaceships hanging up on the ceiling and posters of the first human family in space and spacesuits and it was kind of like the Kennedy Space Center. And then we had our own special spaceship module that we could get into that was pony-friendly but I had to be careful of my wings 'cause it wasn't pegasus-friendly. And it pretended to launch and it was really like being in a spaceship. It was shakey and I got pressed down by the acceleration and then got light when it stopped accelerating and we slingshotted around the moon and then bumped into some asteroids on our way to Mars and after we landed we almost fell in a pit.

I'd forgotten what they warned me about my wings and I hit Gusty and Aquamarine a couple of times by mistake. I guess that was probably why I'd had to wear a harness to hold them in when we were in the Tower of Terror. When things came up slowly I could remember but when it was quick like this my instincts took over and tried to keep me from falling.

It was a lot of fun but I was glad to get out of it because it was kinda disorienting, and it was nice to be back outside where I wasn't unexpectedly getting moved around. It was a lot better to fly on your own.

We went to the Test Track next, and we got to design our own car which was a lot of fun. We got to wear special styluses which is what humans call computer pens, because while human fingers worked on the screens our hooves didn't work very well, and horseshoes would break them. So me and Aquamarine just made suggestions and let Gusty and Cayenne use the styluses because they could hold them in their auras, and once we'd made the basic car we got to make its face and choose its wheels and what color it was and even what kind of engine it had and there were a lot of choices. And then when we'd finished our magic bracelets remembered what we'd designed, so we got to go down and drive it around. The car we got in was a SIM-car, which meant that it didn't look like ours but the computer said that it was going to behave like ours would if it was real. And then it said that it was auto-driving, and I thought that that was just their way of admitting that we couldn't really steer it but Cayenne said that there really were cars that could drive themselves and she'd gotten to ride in a Tesla which could do that.

After it went around the track and made Gusty scream when it almost ran into a SIM-truck, it went outside and raced around a course and then spiraled around the building and that was a lot of fun even though we didn't get to drive it ourselves. And instead of having a shop full of small gifts at the end of the track, it had actual cars. You weren't allowed to buy the ones that they had on display but if you were interested there were helpful people there who could tell you where you could buy one. We couldn't, though, because there weren't any Chevrolet salesponies in Equestria.

Our helpers liked looking at the cars, though. Mister Wayne liked the Corvette the best and Mister Salvatore said that he preferred the 2500 HD pickup truck. I liked the Camaro because it was yellow with black stripes and Cayenne said that that was like Bumblebee which was a car in a movie that was really a giant robot disguised as a car, which I guess made it a changeling Camaro. And Eleanor had been yellow with black stripes, too.

We had to go back to the character spot because Joy and Sadness were there. I liked Joy better 'cause she was happier and bubblier, but Sadness was almost the same color that I was and she looked like she really needed a hug so all of us ponies hugged and nuzzled her, but that didn't work. There were a lot of other people in line waiting to see her and it would be rude to take up too much of her time but I hoped that if she got enough hugs it would make her happy.

Then we went to a place called Soarin' Around the World and I thought it might be about the Wonderbolts but it wasn't. They had seats that were like a ski lift and when it started we got lifted up and then got to tour the world like we were flying and I had to remember to keep my wings in. It was a lot slower than the other rides so it was easier to remember but I did forget a couple of times and Cayenne got smart and kept her hoof up to keep my wings out of her muzzle.

And then after that we got to go on a boat that toured through the greenhouses where Disney grew all their food, and that was really neat. At first we went through a forest in a rainstorm while the announcer explained how roots worked and let the plants eat, and how buffalos used their hooves to put the food in the soil for the plants. And that was what Earth ponies did, too.

Then we went through a geodesic dome greenhouse and there were lots of tropical plants growing in there that we weren't allowed to touch. Inside the greenhouse was the first time that I saw Gusty get a little bit bored but Aquamarine was trying to see everything and for a moment I thought she was going to try and jump off the boat to get a better look at all the plants.

Then we went into a big room that had tanks of fish and that got my attention and I was the one who was looking around at all of them trying to see them all. 'Cause you could keep fish in a tank and then you'd have them when you wanted them.

They had potatoes that grew in pots in the air instead of under the ground, and then they had lettuce that grew in water pipes and Aquamarine wasn't sure what to think about that. And they had tomato trees too which were kind of strange but the announcer said that they lived longer and made more tomatoes than vines.

We ate our lunch at the Garden Grill, which was in the same building, and they had a fresh salad that came from what they grew back in their greenhouses, which meant that we were probably eating tree-tomatoes and pipe-lettuce but it smelled normal and tasted normal so I guess they were telling the truth when they said that it was a good substitute.

Aquamarine told us that she'd learned that people could genetically modify crops and that was just like selective breeding except that it was very specific and a lot faster, so you could use it to react to a new kind of pest or drought conditions or anything else that might take generations of plants to do the old-fashioned way and it was a little bit more specific with what she could do with her magic but you still had to hope you planted the right kind of crop, 'cause if you planted one that was good in droughts and then it rained a lot it might not do well. And she said that there were some that were designed to be resistant to a certain kind of poison that would kill bugs and weeds but leave the crop alone and a lot of people didn't like that idea and she wasn't really convinced that it was a good idea either because she thought it was a lot better to have your hooves on all your crops and actually know them instead of having the big machines like the humans did which practically did all the farming for you.

Me and Cayenne were listening to what she had to say but Gusty wasn't, 'cause she'd spotted Chip and Dale who were chipmunks, and when they finally came over she got them to sign her little autograph book and got a picture with them, too.

When we were done eating we went back to the Character Spot and see Mickey and Minnie and Goofy and Pluto and we got to get our picture taken with each of them, and Gusty got their autographs. I kind of liked Pluto, 'cause he was sort of silly, and he bent down and rubbed snouts with us which was nice of him.

And then we went to their little lake, and there were pavilions all around it that were from different countries, and there was even an Equestrian one and we couldn't decide if we should start there or end there. Then we decided that while it would be lots of fun to see other ponies it would be too bad to miss any of the other pavilions, so we thought we'd see them last 'cause that would be a nice way to end the day.

We went over to the Mexico pavilion next, and they had a big tall pyramid with a fancy and kind of strange man on it, and then inside it was like a museum and there were all sorts of displays about how people in Mexico used to live and how they lived now, and they had buildings that were like a Mexican street and there was a mariachi band. Cayenne really liked them and she followed them around for a little bit and when they noticed they stopped and played a song just for her.

After we’d gone through their little outdoor market, we went on the Grand Fiesta Tour, and got in a little boat that took us through Mexico where caballeros were chasing after Donald Duck (I still think he's more goose despite his beak) 'cause he kept trying to get away from them, and we went through a lot of really neat Mexican scenes. They built pyramids, too, but theirs were more ornate than the Egyptian ones. And they also had a city with skyscratchers which was neat. And they finally caught him at the end of the ride.

Norway was next to Mexico, and they had a really pretty stave church, and we found a couple of Vikings and I knew what they were because of How to Train your Dragon, and I wanted to have my picture taken with them and they were really happy about that, and then they played a little game where one of them pretended to be a unicorn while I tried to throw a ring around his fake horn and I threw one around Gusty's horn, too, which everyone thought was really funny.

Some Norwegian houses were dark wood with grass roofs and Aquamarine liked those and said that maybe she'd build her house like that some day. And in their museum they had lots of displays about the vikings. I liked them, 'cause just like in How to Train Your Dragon, they were really bold and brave, and they sailed around everywhere.

When we went back outside, a pretty blonde woman in a black dress and bright red coat told us how they celebrated Christmas in Norway, and there was a man called Julenissen who was a Santa that lived in haylofts and caused her all sorts of trouble especially if people were bad.

And then we went on a ride called Frozen Ever After which was modeled like Arendelle, and that was an almost Equestrian-looking town. There was a sauna but we couldn't actually go in there. And then we got on little boats that were kind of like Viking ships and we went by a reindeer who had gotten his tongue stuck to a pole. And then we went into another room where Anna was singing and then the boat had to back out which I hadn't been expecting and it was all wintery on the way out and there was a big group of happy snowmen and then a castle with fireworks exploding over it that was kind of like what we'd seen last night.

Right next to that was a pavilion for China, and they had a big gate that was really fancy and lots of dragons on things, and a pond that was full of koi that were for looking at and not for eating. And they painted their buildings with lots of gold and had really intricate patterns on them, and we went inside a big domed building that was really beautiful and they had a movie that showed us around China, and it was really neat ‘cause it was on all the walls around us and we could move around and look at what we wanted to see.

They also had some displays about what China was like and an army of clay soldiers, and Gusty found a woman who was named Mulan and so she had to get her autograph and a picture with her. We were going to take a whole group picture but Cayenne had gotten distracted by some fans that were for sale and we had to bring her back for the picture before we could look in the store.

There were statues of Buddha, too, and Mister Salvatore said that he thought you were supposed to rub his belly for luck, so we all nuzzled it, and I went over and looked at the paper lanterns they had while Cayenne found a really pretty handbag that she liked.

We went to Germany next and Cayenne really liked that because they had an Oktoberfest tavern which had beer. I'd missed Oktoberfest which was a drinking festival, but Cayenne hadn't. And Gusty found Snow White there, 'cause she was German, so she got her picture taken and got an autograph.

They also had a doll village with a train that went around it and that was really neat to see. We got right up to the fence to watch it and Aquamarine said that if you laid down on your belly and kind of squinted your eyes it was like it was real, so all of us did that except for Gusty, 'cause she didn't want to get her clothes dirty.

I really liked the half-timbered houses and Aquamarine said that most houses in Ponyville looked like that except that they had thatch roofs. We had those in Chonamare, too, but most of our houses were just stone 'cause there was lots of it and everypony wanted to save the wood for boats and cookfires. You couldn't build a boat out of stone!

The Italian pavilion was really neat, too. They had a big bell tower and statues on big columns. One of them looked like a griffon and the other one was a person. And they had a restaurant that made pizzas from wood ovens that were named after volcanoes who were named after gods.

In the courtyard there was a man who was juggling and he was fun to see. We stopped and watched him until Gusty had to trot off to meet Pinocchio. I thought maybe she should have waited until he was done, 'cause it was rude to leave like that. He was really funny too 'cause he didn't talk but he whistled instead, and he had a boat that he kept all his things in.

Then before we left we got scared by a statue 'cause it was really a person pretending to be a statue and when we got too close she moved and I jumped back and flared out my wings and Cayenne put up a shield really quick and that made her jump and then we were all laughing and we posed with her and her friend took our picture.

The next place was America and I thought that maybe we ought to skip it and see the other places first and then come back but they had a play about American History and I thought that would be interesting. So we went inside and watched that, and Benjamin Franklin who had discovered that clouds had electricity and Mark Twain who wrote about riverboats told us some American history and they had little scenes that the two of them explained and discussed. And in the evening there was going to be a candlelight procession for Christmas and that was something we all wanted to see.

So we went to Japan next and went under an arched gate which is called a torii, and that led us to some really pretty gardens and fish ponds, and they had a restaurant which made your food right in front of you instead of back in the kitchen, and they had a sushi restaurant, too. And they had a little museum about cute things that Japan had made which were called Kawaii and Cayenne said that there ought to be a picture of her there too and I said that she wasn't cute enough and stuck my tongue out at her.

And when we came back out there were Matsuriza drummers who were really good. Aquamarine started stomping her hooves along with them and pretty soon we all were and we really had to pay attention 'cause they kept changing their rhythm a little bit. They were really funny, too, 'cause they kept fighting over who got to hit the drums in the middle and who could play the most drums at once and then they all played together faster and faster.

Morocco was next to that, and they had a museum and even a normal house where we could see how Moroccan people lived. Cayenne said that she thought Saddle Arabian houses were kind of like that, too. Aquamarine got really excited when she found a garden that had North African plants in it, but none of us liked the restaurant that served lamb. Lambs were cute, even if they were kinda dumb. But they also had hummus which was really good, and we got a little sample of that.

There was a store that sold things made out of brass and mosaics and tiles and vases and they had too much to fit in the store so it just stretched outside like in a proper market. And they also had rugs but none of them were magic flying carpets which Gusty said that they had in Arabia (and Donald and his friends had been on one, too).

There was a man called Taarji who sat outside and he told everyone about how Ramadan and Ashura were celebrated in Morocco, which was really neat. I wasn't sure that I liked the idea of fasting for Ramadan, but you got to eat after the sun went down at least. And I guess that it proved your faith, 'cause a lot of times the Israelites had done it in the Bible, too.

The streets were kind of narrow and we were a little bit walled in, and Gusty said that was the kind of place that Aladdin liked and so we looked around until we found him, and he was with Jasmine who was a princess and she had the same dress that Gusty had been wearing yesterday, and we got our pictures taken with them and Gusty got more autographs.

We went to France next and saw a movie about all the beautiful places in France and they had a store that sold wine and also one that I thought would sell casseroles, but it didn't. And they had a bakery that sold pastries and an ice cream store and we were hungry for a snack, so that was a good place to have it. They also had a tower that looked like a fancy electricity tower and it was a replica of a famous landmark in Paris called the Eiffel Tower. And Belle was there along with Princess Aurora, and Gusty got their autographs and we took pictures with them and I was wondering just how many princesses there were. I guess if each country only had a couple that wasn't too many, but it was kind of hard to keep track of all of them. Gusty didn't seem to be having any trouble with it, though.

Then we went on to England and they had a pub and Cayenne said that the snack had made her thirsty and so we went in and had a drink. I got Bass which didn't taste like fish at all and I couldn't decide if it would be better if it did. And then we went to a hedge maze and if I was allowed to fly I could have solved it really quickly, but I had to keep my hooves on the ground and wander around like everyone else.

Their houses looked the most like the ones in Ponyville, Aquamarine said, 'cause their cottage had a proper thatched roof. And we found a building called the Historical Research Center which had a sign that said that they could tell you the history of your name and that sounded like fun but they didn't know the history of any of our names. Cayenne insisted that her family had kept track of their bloodline all the way back to Princess Platinum and Gusty said that she was related to her, too, and the two of them gave each other a hoof-bump. Aquamarine's family hadn't kept track as well and their records were pretty spotty before the founding of Ponyville, but she could list off all her cousins by memory. All I could say for sure was who my Granddam was and I didn't know before that.

They also had a restaurant that sold fish and chips and that sounded pretty good. But I didn't get anything because I wanted to see what else there was to eat.

Right as we were leaving, Gusty found Mary Poppins who wasn't a princess but just a nanny and could fly around using her umbrella, and so she got her autograph.

The Canadian pavilion had the prettiest gardens, and we thought that the Canadians must be good at making gardens, 'cause the ones in Stratford had been really nice, too. There was a waterfall that would splash you if you stood close and so that cooled us down. And the little rugged parts kind of reminded me of Colorado.

They had big poles called totem poles and one of them told the story of how the Raven tricked the Sky Chief into releasing the sun, moon, and stars from a chest where he was keeping them. I bet if he'd tried to get Princess Celestia and Princess Luna in his chest they wouldn't have let him.

There were two mooses there who were called Rutt and Tuke and Gusty knew them even though they weren't princesses and we got to hoofbump them and get our picture taken with them, too. And then we went into their theatre and watched a movie about Canada that was all around us, just like the movie about China had been. There was a lot of Canada to see, and it was all really pretty, and I wondered how much of it Sterling Silver and Viola had gotten to see from their train.

We'd seen lots of restaurants in all the different pavilions, and none of us could decide which we liked the best and so we split up and all had dinner where we most wanted to. I went to Tokyo Dining, 'cause they had sushi and I thought that would be better than fish and chips.

Right after dinner we all met back up and went to the Equestrian pavilion. It was the smallest and newest one, and there were some pony houses including a half-timbered one like the ones Aquamarine said were in Ponyville and a more modern Manehattan rowhouse which we all thought was kind of ugly but Gusty said that was the kind of house she'd grown up in.

There was a little museum and there were pictures of Equestria and a model of the Canterlot castle, and I hadn't known that the Earth ponies started building Canterlot but later on they moved away 'cause there were too many buildings and not enough fields, and so they spread out in the plains in the valley below.

We stuck our noses in a gift shop that had lots of pony-themed toys and gifts, and then we found one that had more authentic things that were actually made by ponies, or at least that's what the signs said. There was a really nice chess set that was carved out of wood, and I bet that if you knew the craftsmare you could have her make you one for a fraction of the price.

There were a bunch of ponies who worked there, too. There were a couple of mares named Coral Shine and Offbeat dressed up in skirts and aprons who were at the gift store, and they were really happy to see us and we gossiped a bit in Equestrian. They told us that we had to watch the Quiet/Fluff magic show, so we said that we would and then nuzzled them and while we were going to the little pavilion we passed by a zebra in a grass skirt named Zenith who had a little cart and was selling fake potions and friendship masks. And she was really friendly and nuzzled all of us and gave us a Zebrican blessing before we went on our way.

And we also saw High Winds and Lightning Streak who I guess were allowed to fly, 'cause they were soaring over the pavilion. And when they saw us they landed and they were both Wonderbolts (I would have known that even if they weren't wearing their uniforms) so that was really exciting, and they said that I could fly with them for a little bit if I wanted to, but I had to stay with them.

So I went up and we flew around their pavilion and then went down a little bit lower and zipped over the main street and circled around the Italian bell tower before coming back and landing. It felt really good to stretch my wings some, 'cause I'd hardly gotten a chance to fly at all since we'd come to Disney World. I wish that I'd known that they were there before.

They had to trot off, 'cause they were supposed to be mingling and greeting other people in the park, and we wanted to see Quiet/Fluff, who were a pair of mares wearing dark suits and top hats.

Quiet/Fluff was really funny. Most of what they did was meant to appeal to people, so it was all glimmer and not so much real magic. Quiet Gestures never talked and she was usually the butt of the joke, but whenever Banana Fluff wasn't looking at her, she'd make faces at her, and she also sometimes fixed the trick when Banana Fluff messed it up. And at the very end they both made fireworks with their horns and then Quiet Gestures fell off the stage when she bowed and then levitated herself back to her hooves just before she hit the ground.

When we went back by Morocco, they had belly dancers and they were really pretty. Some of them had little cymbals on their fingers and they had bells on, too, so they'd jingle along with the music as they danced. It was kind of mesmerizing and there were lots of people who were watching who were swaying along with the music but only Cayenne got up on her hind hooves and tried to belly-dance herself and she was pretty good at it. Most unicorns aren't too good on their hind hooves but she could stay balanced for a really long time, and kept dancing until the song was over. And then we went back to Canada for a little bit because it was really relaxing to just look over their gardens as the sun set.

Everything got all lit up with Christmas lights and we had to walk around again just because it all looked different with the Christmas lights, and all the different pavilions had their own type of Christmas tree, which all looked better at night. And then we went to the Candlelight Processional which told the story of Christmas and it had lots of Christmas Carols which were all really beautiful. And at the very end all the singers were holding candles, and then Gusty and Cayenne both lit their horns as well which was really pretty.

They had a really big fireworks show to end the evening, too, and watching it over the lake was really pretty, because they were reflected in the lake so it was like we were seeing twice as many, and there were colored fountains and lasers shooting in the sky, and there was a lighted big globe out in the middle of the lake that moved around.  At the end of the show it opened up and fireworks started coming out of it, too.

By the time we got back to the monorail station we were all pretty tired and I was looking forward to getting off my hooves, and for once I didn't really mind the elevator that much because I could just lean against the side wall and let it take me upstairs. And I felt bad for Gusty 'cause she had to get undressed and then dressed again before she could go to bed and I thought that maybe I ought to help her but that was just too much effort, so I hopped up on the bed as soon as we got back to our room and rolled on my back to stretch it out a little bit and it was too much effort to even turn over again so I just closed my eyes and fell asleep.