At 3:25pm, two trains left Los Angeles. One train traveled westward at a constant rate of 82 mph, while the other train traveled east at a constant rate of 66 mph. If they are now 111 miles apart, what time is it now? Please show all steps
The class stared up blankly at the board, and Cheerilee grinned, only to pause when she saw Astral's hoof raised in the air. "Yes Astral?" She asked, expecting a funny comment or an annoyed question.
What she got was "ten past four."
She stared blankly at the student, who stared back expressionlessly while the rest of the class gaped. "I'm sorry?" Cheerilee asked after a few beats of shocked silence.
"The answer. It's ten past four" Astral repeated, and the corners of her lips twitched dangerously at everypony's expressions.
Cheerilee checked the answer book and saw that it was indeed ten past four. "V-very good, Astral, can you, uh, show us how you solved it?" How did she solve it? Astral Plane was an average student, usually getting C's and B's in most of her subjects.
Astral jumped out of her chair and trotted to the front of the class, ignoring the nonplussed fillies and colts. Picking up the chalk with her magic- and since when could she use magic? - she started writing on the board.
Rw * T + Re * T = D, where Rw is the rate of the train heading west, Re is the rate of the train heading east, T is the time of travel for the trains, and D is the distance they are apart.
Substitute and find the value of T:
82 * T + 66 * T = 111
148T = 111
Divide both sides by 148:
T = .75, or the trains have traveled for .75 hours, which is 45 minutes.
3:25 PM + 45 minutes is: 4:10 PM.
She circled the answer twice and trotted back to her seat, but not before taking a picture of her classes shell shocked looks.
That was so worth the two hour lecture from mom about the Distance, Speed and Time formula, Astral thought as she sat down at one of Sugarcube Corner's many booths and ordered a milkshake.
She pulled out a folder, and added the pictures to it. Her mom had come up with the idea of keeping the binder so as to not lose her notes, and she had taken to adding in all the pictures she had taken of her pranks.
"Aw shit" a voice rose through the usual hustle of the bakery, and Astral turned to see a stallion she had never seen before frowning down at his newspaper. It seemed he had spilled his tea on it, and could no longer read it. "Fuckin' great" he groaned, putting his head in hooves.
Astral frowned, brow furrowing, but before she could say anything, Pinkie slammed a milkshake down in front of her with a wide smile. "Here ya go Assie!" She chirped "anything else I can do for you?"
"Yeah, what does shit mean?" The filly asked, not noticing Pinkie's smile drop into a frown. "And fucking?" She added as an afterthought.
She yelped when the baker grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her in close. "Where. Did. You. Hear. Those. Words?" Pinkie bit out in a cold voice. Surprised, Astral pointed a shaking hoof at the stallion, and a smile that had slightly too much teeth was back on Pinkie's face.
"Excuse me" Pinkie said, before trotting over to the stallion. Astral watched the two out of the corner of her eye as she slurped up her milkshake.
And then Pinkie said some things, and then the stallion at the table cried, and then Astral finished her milkshake and decided she should go look up these new words.
It took a while but she eventually found the definitions in her mom's dictionary.
Shit
exclamation
Fuck
exclamation
Oh, so these must be words that grown ups use, Astral thought, brightening. I have a cutie mark, that makes me an adult too!
"Fuck" she said out loud, and giggled from the sound of it. It tasted weird in her mouth, but she kind of liked it.
"Fuck" Jam repeated, and giggled like the filly she was.
"It sounds" Butterscotch squinted up at the sky, looking for the right word "I dunno . ."
"Fancy!"Astral said proudly, chest out. "Adults probably use it to make their words sound flashy." Butterscotch nodded thoughtfully. The word did sound fancy.
"I have to go to help mom feed the fucking animals" he said, and grinned "hey! You can put it in anywhere!"
"I was a bit confused as to why you called a Crusader Meeting for this, but I get it now" Jam said as the three went their separate ways.
Astral trotted back into the castle, trying to keep her hoof steps as quiet as possible. In the vast, empty castle, every sound would be magnified a hundred times over.
"Hello sweetie!"
Astral turned to look at Twilight, who had just returned from Canterlot, not knowing anything about Time Loops. "Hey mom."
"How was school?" Twilight asked as she fell in step alongside her daughter, who shrugged.
"Eh, schooly. But I did manage to solve this really complicated math problem. You should of have seen their fucking faces!"
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her mom come to a dead stop, and turned to see her staring blankly at Astral, who hurried to elaborate "they didn't think I was stupid, it's just it really was a hard fucking question. Don't worry mom!"
Buying a drink in a desperate attempt to get the taste of soap out of her mouth, Astral ran into a confused and upset Butterscotch and Apple Jam. "Hey guys" she said "what's up?"
"I don't know!" Jam wailed, tugging at her hair dramatically.
Butterscotch looked miserable. "Our parents made us wash out our mouths for some reason" he explained, and Astral gasped.
"So did mine! What was up with that?"
Jam straightened up, a determined expression crossing her face. "We need to figure this out" she said, and the other two nodded, setting off to find answers.
Two hours later, and they were exhausted. They had scoured the town, asking around, looking for answers, only to get nowhere. Finally, giving up, they three headed back to their respective homes.
It was on the way home that Astral heard a very familiar voice. "Oh, you bitch." Turning, she saw the same stallion from Sugarcube Corner, reading the newspaper.
Astral frowned. "What does bitch mean?"