//------------------------------// // My roommate! // Story: Silver Glow's Journal // by Admiral Biscuit //------------------------------// My roommate! My new roommate is awesome! She's really friendly and was just as eager to see me as I was to see her. She got to the room just after lunchtime. I hadn't gone to the dining hall, 'cause by then I was starting to worry that maybe she wouldn't show up or something . . . I know, dumb. I thought about calling my human assistants, but I didn't want to bother them, they've probably got all sorts of stuff that they have to do. One of the mares that gave us a bunch of pointers worked as a facilitator in Equestria, and it sounded like she worked a lot to make sure that the humans had a good experience. It's a little bit harder for ponies 'cause we don't have telephones. So I'd gotten most of my stuff put away and was starting to pace the room nervously, when I heard keys rattling outside and a girl's woman's voice talking, then the doorknob turned and she came into the room. She was shorter than any of the humans we'd met at the facility, but still more than a head taller than me. I thought she was really fat, but it turns out that she was wearing a padded jacket and was a lot thinner under it. Her name is Peggy. She has a dark brown mane that falls below her shoulders and brown eyes that have little lines around them when she smiles or laughs, which is a lot. She's also got large udders breasts which I think I remember were a sign of beauty on a human woman. There was a brief moment of awkwardness, like neither of us could believe this was actually happening, and then I reached out my hoof like we'd been told was a greeting (just like a hoofshake but the human will hold onto your hoof or pastern) and she leaned over and wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug. I told her that if I'd known we were going to be hugging I would have stood up on my hind legs, and so we tried again and it worked out much better. She took off her coat and pulled her suitcase which has little wheels into the room and then we introduced ourselves properly. I'd kinda gotten a little background from her; that was part of the matching process we had to do beforehoof. Of course in the moment, I couldn't remember anything except that she came from a region called Colorado that was all mountains, which is probably why they thought she'd be a good match with a pegasus. Peggy smelled nice, too. We'd been warned that humans liked different smells than ponies, and I'd kind of worried about that. What if she smelled like a pig or a bear? Humans are omnivores after all. I think it would be smart to let all the new exchange students meet with the outgoing group. There's some overlap of times; it has to do with how the portals operate. I bet we could learn more from that than from a slideshow. She had a lot of clothes in her suitcase, and she put them away while we talked. She was happy that she could use my half of the closet. I was only using a couple of drawers in my dresser, and I told her she could use the rest of that, too. I couldn't reach the top drawers unless I flew anyway. Which was something she really wanted to see, so I flew up to the ceiling for her. It felt good to stretch out my wings. Then she was unpacked and sat down on her bed, so I stretched out on mine, and we just talked about what our homes were like for a little bit. Mostly me—she had a lot of questions, and I got the impression that their briefings hadn't been as detailed as ours, or else there had been a lot of details left out of our materials and I was going to find out later how different things really were. We probably could have kept talking forever, but her portable telephone rang and she read the telegram on it and then said that it was dinner time. I'd completely forgotten about the time, but when she mentioned it, I all of a sudden remembered that I was starving. All I'd had to eat was the snack bouquet that had been on my desk. One of the many many things in my packet was a table of times that the dining hall was open. I think they called it Saga, and then there was a little restaurant under it called Quad Stop that was open later but cost actual bits to eat at. I started to look for it, but Peggy said that she'd buy us a pizza, if I could eat pizza. I wasn't sure if I could, but her little telephone was very clever and showed all the different things that came on a pizza, and we finally agreed on what to have on our pizza. We got back to talking again, and then it finally arrived—it was delivered in a vehicle, which seemed like a very complicated way to get food when we could have just walked over to the dining hall and gotten some there. She gave the driver some bills, which is what they call their money. Bills and coins. All the bills look the same, except they have numbers on them, while the coins are all different sizes so you know what's what. She told me to stay up in the room, so I did, but I watched as she got the pizza from the delieveryperson because I want to know how it works so that I can get my own sometime. It was very good, although a little bit undersalted, and there was more cheese on it than I thought there would be, and fewer vegetables. But Peggy had also gotten a salad for me, and while it wasn't very fresh, it was still good. She also let me eat the pepper that came with the pizza. The two of us talked until it was very late—she finally looked at the clock and apologized for keeping me up all night, but she said that the night before had been a holiday and she had stayed up late and that was why she had been so late in arriving. I told her that I didn't mind. Peggy undressed changed into her sleeping clothes, which was a t-shirt and panties (I had to look that up). I hadn't believed that humans wore clothes all the time, but there it was in front of me. I should have written this last night—I probably forgot some stuff—but I was exhausted. Obviously, Peggy was too; she's still asleep even though the sun is already up.