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// December 27 [Second Christmas] 
// Story: Silver Glow's Journal 
// by Admiral Biscuit 
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December 27

Aric was still sound asleep after me and Meghan had woken up, and we got out of bed for a little bit and watched the birds and he never noticed that we were gone, I don't think. And once he started moving around a bit and looked like he was waking up we went back to bed and snuggled up on either side of him and once he was awake we teased him for a little bit, and Meghan got on top of him first and I thought about trying to push her off but I didn't, 'cause I could have a turn later.

I didn't get my chance until the shower, though, 'cause we'd worn him out last night and it took him that long to recover.

We still had ingredients for omelets and waffles in the kitchen and Meghan said that I could choose which I wanted, so I picked the waffles and I got up on the counter and started mixing the batter.

Aric wanted to know if that was how all ponies made their food and I said that we had shorter counters. And then I got to thinking about some human who was in her own apartment in Equestria maybe sitting on the floor trying to make herself breakfast because the counter wasn't tall enough for her or she might be on her knees instead; I didn't know which was more comfortable for humans.

At least most pony houses had pretty tall ceilings so pegasuses could fly inside although there were some fishing huts that weren't very roomy inside.

And I started snickering as I thought about it and Meghan asked what was so funny, so I told her and pretty soon she was laughing, too, and so she took the mixing bowl from me and sat down in front of the counter and tried mixing it in her lap and said that it felt weird to do it that way and also the floor was really cold on her butt and Aric said that if she stood back up he could rub it with his hands and warm it back up for her and she told him that if he got too close she was going to whack him with the spoon, but she was laughing when she said it.

I told her that that was why we had tails, and she thought that was really funny, too. And she gave the mixing bowl back to me before she dropped it and then Aric held out his hand so she could pull herself back up more easily.

Meghan said that it was too bad we didn't have any fresh fruit or else she'd put some in the waffles, and Aric said that he hadn't thought of it but he should have because he was pretty sure that they had had a sale on blueberries when he was at Meijer.

That would have been good.

But even without blueberries, the waffles were really good and me and Meghan both had one and a half and Aric had two of them.

I'd licked most of the syrup off my muzzle when Meghan said that I'd missed a spot and so I turned to her and I thought that she was going to wipe it off with the napkin she had but instead she licked it off and Aric said that there was a spot on his face that he couldn't get, too, so she motioned for him to come over and when he did she gave him her napkin and he said that that wasn't what he was hoping for, and she told him that that was what he was going to get which I thought was kind of mean, so I kissed him and he still tasted a little bit like syrup.

Meghan said that Aric could clean up the kitchen while we wrapped presents and I said that I was gonna wrap them all by myself, and Aric stuck his tongue out at her and said that she wasn't going to get out of dishwashing duty so easily. And she took the towel off the oven door handle and said that he could wash and she'd dry and put away, and after Aric realized that he wasn't going to get out of dishwashing duty, he went over and started filling up the sink, and I went to the bedroom to get out their presents and wrap them.

What I would have liked the most would have been to bring something right from Equestria but I would have had to thought of that right from the very beginning, and I couldn't have known a year ago that I was going to meet them and then how everything else had turned out after that.

And then when I thought about it, my first journal entry had been a year ago. In some ways, it didn't seem like a year, and at the same time it seemed like it had been forever since I'd been on Equestrian soil.

That was making me feel sad, so I turned my ears, and I could hear Meghan and Aric talking out in the kitchen, and just hearing them made me happier. So I turned my attention back to the presents and wrapping them as best as I could. It was hard, especially Aric's present, 'cause it was longer than the paper was wide so I had to do it in sections and it kept tearing through the paper anyways and I wound up having to put a lot of tape on it before it would stay wrapped like it ought to.

I would have been a little bit mad to get something with so much tape on it, 'cause it was pretty easy to put on but not so easy to take off, but human fingers would do the job, I was sure.

Then once I'd gotten it all wrapped I found out that I'd accidentally taped it to the floor, too, and I had to peel that off and then fold it over so it wouldn't stick to anything else.

I did a lot better on Meghan's present although it still wasn't as neat as a human would do. But it was in a box which made it much easier as long as I didn't pull the paper too tight on the corners.

When I had them ready I opened the door and Meghan and Aric were still in the kitchen and they were fighting with the water in the sink and kind of making a mess with it but that meant that they weren't paying any attention to me, and I was able to sneak the presents under the Christmas tree and then I went into the kitchen and stomped my hooves on the floor hard enough to hurt just a little bit and both of them stopped splashing each other and looked at me kind of guiltily and Aric pointed to Meghan and said that she'd started it, and she crossed her arms and glared at him.

I said that college students ought to know better, and Aric lowered his voice and said that a wizard should know better and then he said that he was sorry and he'd clean up the water on the floor of the kitchen and I said that it would evaporate and dry on its own so it wasn't worth bothering with and Aric blinked and said that sometimes he couldn't figure me out.

Meghan said that was because I was a girl and she said that the reason that men couldn’t figure out women was because they had two heads and tried to split their thinking between them. And I said I thought maybe that was why chimeras and hydras weren't so smart, either. They were big and scary—especially hydras—but if you weren't dumb, they were pretty easy to get away from even if you couldn't fly.

And then I wondered if a hydra killed something who got to eat it? The head that killed it? Did they have a head hierarchy?

I bet some unicorn has written a whole book about hydras.

Meghan wiped herself off with the dish towel, 'cause I didn't want to lick soap bubbles off her. They smelled really nice but didn't taste good at all. And then she threw it to Aric, so he could dry himself off, too, and when he had, he stuck his arm in the sink and pulled out the plug and then he had to dry his arm again.

We went out into the living room and Aric said that we ought to take turns and before we started we should just sit on the futon together and admire the presents and I thought that was a good idea, so we all got on there together and Meghan picked up one of the blankets to cover her lap 'cause she was getting cold again, so I slid my wing under the blanket to help out.

And then Aric said that I should go first, 'cause it was my apartment, so I went and got the biggest present, which was kind of heavy, and I opened it up.

It was a camping waffle-maker, which meant that it could be used over a fire or on a stove and didn't need any electricity at all to work. So I hugged both of them, 'cause they had put both of their names on it so I didn't know whose idea it was.

Aric didn't have too much trouble guessing what I'd given him, and when he opened it he asked if I was sure, and I nodded and said that we weren't supposed to take any weapons across and I thought that he'd like to have my glaive even though the handle was a little short for him, since I'd had it cut down. And he touched the blue ribbon that I'd tied to the handle and said that it was the best gift ever, and he gave me a really big hug then kissed me.

Then it was Meghan's turn, and she opened up my gift, which was a skyglobe that had a cloudhouse in the center of it, supported on a little wire. It wasn't actually made in Equestria, but I liked it 'cause it wasn't a big fancy cloud city but just a single house and it looked a lot like mine. And it also came with a booklet that had pictures of other cloudhouses in it.

I opened a cookbook next, which Meghan and Aric had made themselves. It had instructions for making lots of food that we didn't have in Equestria, like Nutella, and even if I didn't know how to make something 'cause I still wasn't a very good cook but I bet that Zucche and her mom could figure it out. I'd have to teach her some English, but it would be worth it if the tavern could make burritos like Taco Bell. And I could taste them to make sure that they tasted right.

Aric and Meghan opened their gifts to each other next. Aric had gotten Meghan a complete set of Daring Do books in Equestrian instead of English, and he'd also bought her some flowers and a box of chocolates called Whitman Sampler, because there were lots of different kinds in there.

Meghan had gotten him a set of tools for working on Winston. He was confused how she'd known what he didn't have, and she admitted that she'd asked David because she figured that he'd know not only which ones Aric didn't have, but also which kinds were good ones.

And then there was just one more present, which was for me. And it was a really nice set of brushes for my coat and my mane and my tail, and it all came in its own bag. Meghan said that she couldn't find any preening brushes, since Earth horses didn't have wings, but that was okay, 'cause I didn't like using a brush anyways. You didn't get the same feel as you did by mouth.

Meghan took the bow from the package and stuck it in my mane, and I just left it there, 'cause it was silver and it was pretty. And I said that we ought to have sandwiches for lunch, 'cause I thought that that was a human Christmas tradition and Aric said that it wasn't, although his family had had sandwiches for Christmas lunch. And then Meghan said that hers had, too, and so that did make it a human Christmas tradition. And Aric said that there wasn't any lunch meat for sandwiches but I didn't think that we needed it 'cause we had vegetables and cheese and I had extra cans of anchovies, which I was willing to share. I had a little bit of hay, too.

Meghan said that a vegetable sandwich wouldn't hurt him, and she got up and went to the kitchen to start cutting up vegetables, and I got the cupboard open and got the bread out. Aric had put it on a tall shelf 'cause he was tall, but I'd moved it down to a bottom shelf so it was easier to get at.

And then we talked about what we wanted to do today, and I said that I wanted to get in a little bit of flying but I didn't want to leave them and Aric said that we could go to the Nature Center and I could fly around in the big open prairie and they could watch me.

I also wanted to see Caleb and Lindy and Trinity, and I still had to see Rogue One as well, because I'd promised Christine that I would and I didn't want to break my promise.

It was probably going to be the last human movie that I saw, and that was kind of sad to think of.

So once we'd finished lunch, and had some of the Whitman chocolates for dessert, Aric and Meghan got dressed and he went down and started Winston so it could get warmed up, and after a couple of minutes me and Meghan went downstairs, too, and we drove across town to the Nature Center.

I still felt strange riding in instead of flying in, and Aric said that he could turn around and let me out outside the park and I could fly in if I wanted to.

I don't know why, but I liked that idea, so he went and drove back out on Westnedge Avenue and went to the next street where he could turn around and once he had he stopped the truck and let me out, and I took off and flew about a hundred feet up which was high enough to be over all the trees. And without thinking, I lifted up my hoof so I could call the airplane directors but I hadn't brought my radio with me, so I couldn't call them.

I was coming in from the wrong side and I didn't like that, and since I knew it would take them a little while to park I made a big loop around so that I was approaching from over the river and wouldn't scare off the deer, even though I knew that they probably wouldn't be out this late in the day. And then I glided over the trees and came down for a landing on the high spot.

I could just see Aric and Meghan coming along the path and I could have waited for them but instead I started trotting the other way, 'cause I always went around the trail that way and it felt wrong to go any other way.

I picked up some speed on the downside of the slope and then when I came around the corner I broke into a canter and I could feel some of the mud from the path coming up and hitting me on the belly but I didn't care. It would wash off.

Aric and Meghan had decided to go the right way around the path, too, and I caught up to them while they were still on their way up the hill, and I broke into a gallop as I passed by them and then I took flight and once I was a ways up I started to do loops and dives and rolls, and then I dropped back down over the river and glided over that until I saw a stand of trees I recognized and went up and over them to make sure that I'd clear the railroad tracks even though I didn't seen any trains. I'd almost got caught by one and I wasn't going to let that happen again.

And then I came back down the other side and it took me a moment to find them. They'd stopped on the high part of the hill, which was why I hadn't seen them right away, 'cause I'd assumed they were going to keep walking.

I went around them, still flying even though I was only a meter off the ground, and then I landed on the downslope which was actually the hardest kind of landing to make, 'cause the ground kept going away from you, and you wanted to go upslope whenever you could.

I stumbled a little bit on my hooves when I landed and then I started trotting again, all the way around the path a second time, and galloped back up the hill for another takeoff.

This time I stayed mostly over the prairie, first crossing it diagonally and then flying around the whole perimeter, and then I went around a second time and a few times I ducked back into the woods a little bit when the trees and underbrush wasn't so thick.

When I'd gotten done with my second patrol of the perimeter, I started making circles around the middle, keeping a steady radius the first couple of times and then I stretched it out into an ellipse and it was like I was orbiting Aric and Meghan.

And then I heard a train horn kind of off in the distance and it was south of us, towards the center of town and so I got a little bit more altitude and looked down the tracks to see if I could see it but I didn't. The second time I heard it, though, I got a better fix on its direction and it was coming our way, so I landed on the path next to Aric and told him.

So he decided to hurry along a little bit and maybe we could be right by the tracks when it came by, and I took a shortcut directly across the prairie where people weren't supposed to walk but it was okay to fly over. And there was a big tree that had a good view, so I landed up in its branches and settled down in the crotch and waited.

I'd told Aric in plenty of time, it turned out, 'cause they had gotten around to where I was before the train got to us, and Aric said that he wanted to make a movie of it coming, so he got out his portable telephone and pointed it down the tracks, and Meghan got hers out too and I never thought she was that interested in trains, but she turned it in my direction and took a picture of me sitting in the tree instead.

It was really strange 'cause when the train went by and I was watching all the railroad cars moving along I got a weird kind of vertigo and wanted to jump out of the tree and onto the train cars and I had to remind myself that that was a really bad idea. And I looked down at my leg where I could still faintly see the cut I'd gotten from the train I'd ridden, and that was all it took to break the spell.

If trains were predators, that's how they would get you.

Once it had gone by, I glided back out of my tree and landed and said that I thought I had one more lap and one more flight in me before we went to see Caleb and Lindy and Trinity, and Aric and Meghan hadn't even made it around once. So I went off at a trot again until I was halfway around the corner and then I changed my gait up to a gallop.

I was kinda having second thoughts when I was going up the hill, but then I was at the top and I stretched my wings out and took off again and I did three quarters of a loop just above the path and then when I got over Meghan and Aric I pulled up a little bit and started climbing higher until I was about a hundred meters high, and I went all the way to D Avenue and then back south a little bit past the end of the Nature Center, then I made a big, descending turn and got up a good bit of speed on it, so I had to really flare my wings before I landed.

I rolled in the snow to cool myself off a bit and once I'd covered my coat as well as I could, I laid on my back and stretched out my wings and if I focused straight ahead it was almost like being on my back on a cloud in the sky.

I got back to my hooves and shook some of the loose snow off and then trotted over to Meghan and Aric, and Meghan said that I was steaming a little bit and she was right; I was, and that made me wonder if you could make a cloud from enough hot ponies. I bet you could if it was cold enough.

We went back to Winston and Meghan said that I should probably take another shower before we went over to see Caleb and Lindy and Trinity, 'cause I'd gotten a bunch of mud on me. So we went back to Aric's house and I rinsed off in his shower, and Angela asked if we wanted to have dinner there, and I thought that that would be fun, so Aric said that we would.

I went upstairs and I left the bathroom door open so that Meghan and Aric could talk to me—it was too crowded in there for three people. And I felt kinda guilty for getting mud all over the bathtub but it rinsed off and down the drain eventually. I wish that he had a hose out back that I could have used, 'cause that would have been easier and not made so much of a mess, but you couldn't leave hoses out in the wintertime 'cause they'd freeze and burst.

He had to go fill his birdfeeder, too, 'cause it was almost empty, and when he was taking the bag back to the garage I flew up and got some seeds out of it and I guess he'd been expecting that 'cause he threw a bright yellow ball at me which was called a tennis ball and he got me right in the stomach, 'cause I wasn't paying enough attention. And then he felt bad, since he hadn't meant to hit me, but I thought it was funny that he'd finally got me.

There wasn't any point in driving over to Jeff's house, so we just walked and as we got closer I was hoping that they wouldn't be gone for Christmas, and they weren't. And Trinity especially was really happy to see me again, and she was even more happy when I told her I'd been at Disney World and met lots of princesses.

We decided to go around the neighborhood looking for Pokemons but we didn't find too many, 'cause everyone was so chatty I think we must have scared them all away. Jeff had taken all the kids to Disney World a couple of years ago, when Trinity had gotten old enough for it, and they all had liked it and we talked about what we'd seen there. There hadn't been an Equestrian pavilion back then, although it was under construction, and Lindy said that there were some ponies who stayed around Canada and had a magic show, and I asked if it was Quiet Fluff and she nodded and said that she'd liked them because they were really funny.

I hadn't really thought about it before, but I wonder what it was like to perform the same thing several times a day for months or years on end. I would think that you'd get bored of it and want to do something different.

Caleb thought that it was really cool that I'd gotten to see a rocket launch, too, and Jeff said that he wished that he'd just pulled the kids out of school to see the last Shuttle launch, but he hadn't. And he said that next time they were going to go to Florida, they ought to schedule it around the time that there was a launch.

We made a big loop around the neighborhood and it was getting dark by the time we finally got back to the house and I hugged and nuzzled everyone and I was getting a bit teary, 'cause it was probably the last time I'd ever get to see them. And then I decided that since I hadn't given Trinity a good ponyback ride in a while, I was gonna do that before we left, so she got on my back and we went trotting around the backyard and sometimes when you're sad you can forget about it at least for a while by doing something.

I was really hungry by the time we got to Aric's house, and Angela had made a nice white lasagna for dinner which was really good and I had two squares which was probably more than I should have had.

Both David and Angela also wanted to see Rogue One, so we all got in Angela's Alero and drove to the movie theater which is right by the Maple Hill Mall and we skipped the concession stand since we'd just had dinner, and got our tickets.

I thought I should probably sit on the end so that I wouldn't hit anyone with my wings in case I tried to fly during a flight scene but Aric and Meghan both said that they didn't mind, so I sat between them instead and there were a bunch of trivia questions that I couldn't answer and then also some advertisements, and then a bunch of previews before the movie, to make us want to watch something else and to put us in the mood for the movie that we were watching now.

I thought that K-2SO was funny, 'cause he was a robot and just like C-3P0 and Data he said whatever he thought without thinking what humans might think about it, and I also really liked Jyn. I think if she was a pony, she would have been a pegasus. And it was nice how the movie explained where they'd gotten the plans for the Death Star, too.

I only forgot twice that I wasn't actually flying, and I only hit Aric and Meghan once. And there were a couple more times that I put my wings out but remembered before it was too late. I couldn't help it; human movies really fool you into thinking you're flying, 'cause they move the camera around, too.

There were cheers when we saw Princess Leia, but after the movie Aric said that she had died today which was sad. And then he said that she had said that her obituary should be 'I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra,' which I thought was really poetic.

Instead of going to my apartment, we stopped at Tiffany's on the way home and then went to Aric's house and all five of us crowded on the couch in the living room and we sat and talked and drank for a few hours until it was really late and we'd almost run out of beer and I had more than I should have and I was really tired, too, from all the exercise I'd gotten all day, and I didn't want to get up from the couch but I had to 'cause there wasn't enough room for Meghan and Aric to sleep with me on it.

I managed to stumble up the stairs and I thought about flying but I was pretty sure I'd crash. And we were all too tired to do much more than lie in bed and not really fall asleep for a while 'cause everyone had to get up and pee a couple of times and I remembered that I needed to drink some water so the first time I went to the bathroom I turned on the bathtub and stuck my head under the faucet and drank some and maybe that would help me in the morning.