//------------------------------//
// January 16 [The Force Awakens] 
// Story: Silver Glow's Journal 
// by Admiral Biscuit 
//------------------------------//

January 16

I had a lot to think about this morning.

I didn't really understand a lot of the presidential candidate debate. There were very many issues which were raised that we never learned about in Equestria. To hear some of the candidates talk, America is on the brink of collapse, and the current president didn't do anything to stop it for eight years. But he was re-elected four years ago; does that mean that even if he wasn't qualified, his opponents were less qualified? Or maybe something happened in the last four years that he didn't respond well to. Sometimes a pony will overlook something that she shouldn't have, and only later we realize that she hadn't been thinking ahead like she should have been, so we need to pick a new pony to lead us.

I suppose humans probably have a much better grasp of the nuances of their society. It’s very complicated to balance the wants and needs of a whole nation fairly. I don't think I could do it.

The other thing that struck me as odd was that there were two moderators who asked all the questions, despite there being a large audience there. Traditionally in the forums, any passer-by could ask questions. I hope that they have those debates later.  It’s nice to know what the common pony person thinks.

I was disappointed that a lot of the candidates seemed pretty confrontational. There was a lot of posturing and puffery going on. That's one of the problems with this type of system—it can turn into a popularity contest. It's funny to think of, but in that regard the unicorns have the purest system, since it only matters who your dam was, not what you've done or say you'll do. No political system is perfect.  We figure out the flaws and try to address them as well as we can.

The debate was something to ponder while I did my morning exercise.  Plato’s system, as wise as it is, can run into problems when citizens don’t recognize what they’re good at and try something they’re not good at.  At least we have cutie marks to help guide us; the poor humans must be blundering along blindly, never quite sure if they’ve found their niche.

It was warm again, and there were patches where all the snow had melted. Even the little triangle of land where I like to cool off after my morning jog had pretty sparse snow coverage, and I wound up getting my coat all muddy before I realized how thin the snow was. That was annoying. I hate having dirt in my coat. I don't know how the earth ponies put up with it.

I took a nice relaxing shower—I would have spent a bit more time, but Brianna was waiting her turn, and it wouldn't be nice to make her wait. She's really tall and skinny and has long blonde hair which comes all the way down below her rump. She'd already gotten almost completely undressed before I came out of the shower and I noticed that she had a big scar on her right side just above her panties. I wasn't sure if it was polite to ask about it, so I kept my mouth shut. But I was really curious.  Humans fight a lot, so maybe she was in a fight.

After I preened and groomed, I read Aquamarine's letter, which I should have done earlier. She said that it was really crowded on her campus, and she didn't like that too much. But there was a lot of open land to the south, which is where a lot of her classes will take place. Humans, she said, don't have magic to work on plants but they do have chemicals to get rid of pests. They're learning about those. She said it's a very difficult balance to not have unintended consequences with the chemicals.  They can hurt beneficial animals, and if too much is applied, they can poison everyone’s drinking water, and they can also cause plants to grow where they shouldn't.

Her dorm room had bothered her for the first couple of days, because it was so high up. I'm on the third floor, which is the top floor of my dorm; on her campus, the dorms are almost as tall as skyscratchers and she's on the eighth floor. Once she got used to it, though, she started to like the view. She said that there are trains which go by all the time. Some of them are freight trains pulled by black locomotives with red noses, and there's a long silvery one called an Amtrak that carries passengers.

I wrote her back about all the friends I'd made already and how my classes were going and that I was officially allowed to fly pretty much wherever I wanted to as long as I got permission from the airplane directors and wore my flight gear.

In the afternoon while we were waiting to go to the theater to watch Star Wars, a few girls from our hall gathered in our room and we played some more Euchre and talked for a bit. Ruth was there; she's dyed her hair blue now. She said she did it because she liked my coat color. Christine came over along with Joe, who I've only been seeing at meals. Aric showed up, and he came with Sean. I thought that was odd, since Sean thought Star Trek was better, but he said that he really liked a lot of science fiction movies.

We all crowded into Cobalt and went to the theater. It's right next to a shopping mall (it's called Maple Hill, although there aren't any maples or hills there), which is even bigger than Meijer. How many things can be sold? I really want to visit it and find out! Humans really like having a lot of stuff.

There were little kiosks where we got our tickets, and then we went into a lobby where there were lots of people milling around, and a stand where you could buy popcorn and candy and bubbly pop drinks. I didn't really want anything, but Aric said that no theater experience was complete without having overpriced food in a giant bucket and bought some popcorn to share.

I got mauled by a few foals children who wanted to pet me or touch my wings and that started to make me nervous so Christine and Peggy kind of closed around me and ushered me to the theater. They picked what they said were the best seats. They weren't all that comfortable for me, mostly because the cushion was so soft I sank in and was worried that I might have trouble getting out.

Right before the movie started, there were a bunch of advertisements. I was hoping there would be newsreels, but there weren't any. I guess because televisions can show news right when it's happening, there's no need to have them in the theater.

The movie was a lot more intense than the other ones had been. A lot of it was the setting—the screen was huge, and the sound was loud enough to make my seat shake. But it was totally worth it for the flight scenes. I really felt like I was flying during them, and even accidentally hit Christine and Aric with my wings a couple of times.

Everyone was all hyped-up when it was over, even though most of them had seen it before (Aric hadn't, and of course I hadn't either).

When we got back to campus, nobody really wanted to go to bed right away, so we went to Christine's room. Sean and Christine got in an argument about Star Wars vs. Star Trek again, and I took my favorite spot on the papasan and just listened to them until I finally drifted off to sleep.

I didn't mean to, and I hope Christine didn't think it was rude. When I woke up the next morning, Joe was asleep on the couch, and nobody else was anywhere to be seen. I went down the little hallway to the bedrooms, but all the doors were closed.  I knocked lightly on Christine’s door (I could smell which one it was), but she didn’t answer.

I probably should have stayed, but I wanted to get my exercise in before going to breakfast.