Silver Glow's Journal

by Admiral Biscuit


January 24 [Fallout]

 January 24

When I first awoke in the morning, Peggy was still in bed with me. Instead of getting up, like I should have, I snuggled against her. Her breast made a nice soft pillow, and with my ear against her chest, I could hear her heartbeat. It was quick like a yearling’s, even though she was still asleep.

I had been worried 'cause we'd learned that humans didn't like too much close contact or mutual grooming and it was going to get awfully lonely to be a year without. Humans have a 'personal bubble' that you're not supposed to get inside without permission.

But here I was, inside that bubble. I guess when it counts, we're not so different after all.

When I woke up again, Peggy was also awake. She asked if I felt better, and I told her that I did.

She reached up and used her claw fingernail to scrape some of the crust of dried tears out of my coat, and I turned so that I could nuzzle her forehead.

Then we both went to the bathroom to pee. Peggy asked me if I had anything planned today, and I told her that I thought I would fly for a while, then take a shower and go to lunch, but if she wanted to do something together, that would be fun as well.

She told me that she could work on her math homework while I was flying, and then we could plan to do something after lunch.

So I called the airplane directors, and once I got my permission to fly, I made a low circle around the campus and then picked up some altitude.

None of the other tribes really understand the freedom of the sky. There were no roads I needed to follow, nor were there walls to keep me out. Even Trump couldn’t build one high enough. I could fly all the way to the horizon, and when I got there, I could fly even further. Unicorns liked to stay in their castles and earth ponies had their farms and houses, and we had the whole sky, so we were freer than they were.

But I wasn't going to go to the horizon today.

Off to the west, I could just see the great lake that was the source of the storm, and one day I’m going to fly all the way there. It's not all that far away.

I wasn't feeling like flying over Kalamazoo any more than I had to, so I flew north because that was the shortest distance to trees and open fields.

Once I got there, I started to do loops and dives to sweat out the last of my frustration at the angry man. When I'd worked up a bit of a lather, I just hovered and looked down at a fallow field, letting my mind become as pure and white as it was, then I rolled on my back and made a giant half-circle dive, pulling up just before I got to the ground.

I kept my forward speed as I came upon a woodlot, rolling to the side to avoid the peak of a pine tree, and then I went flat and down under the crown of a big oak. I think I shook some dead branches off it as I went by.

Then it was up and out, shooting up into the sky until I'd bled off all my momentum.

A couple of dozen climbs and dives later, I was satisfied. My wings ached and my barrel was soaked in lather. I'd worked a bit harder than I'd meant to, which I only realized on my way back to campus. I keep forgetting how much harder it is to fly on Earth, so I'll have to work to build up my endurance some.

When I'd finished my shower, I checked in on Peggy. She was still leaned over her homework, biting at her pencil and frowning.

I asked her if I was allowed to help, and she said that I could try. It didn't go very well at first; I didn't recognize all of the symbols they used for the math, but after she explained it to me and said that she was doing partial derivatives, then I understood.

So I helped her with the problems, and she got a funny look on her face and finally asked me why I knew calculus.

I told her that pegasuses had to use a lot of math to work with the weather—it isn't all instinct and practice—and since I didn't want to be a cloud-pusher all my life, I had to learn how to work the supply side of the system, which included calculating forecasts, and there was lots of math in that. That was why I was in college; you had to know this stuff or else you'd always be taking instructions from somepony else.

Then she said I was absolutely the most adorable thing ever and gave me a huge hug.

I went back to my bed and started brushing my mane, and Peggy asked if it would be okay if she did it. I told her that was all right, but only if she let me brush hers in return.

She thought that was really funny, but she finally agreed. I let her brush my mane first, and then I brushed hers. It was good bonding for both of us. Even animals know that and they're not so smart as ponies or people.

At lunch, everyone asked if we were okay, and I said I was fine, and Peggy said that she was as well. Then Peggy asked me if I'd heard anything from Mister Salvatore and I told her that I had forgotten to check but I would when I got back to the room.

Well, there was a computer letter from him, and he said that he was going to come by in the afternoon if that was okay with me, and he'd sent the letter late last night and I hadn't checked my computer mail like a good pony would.

I sent him a computer letter back, and he replied within five minutes and said that he would come around dinnertime and that we would go out to eat together and that I could have Peggy come along if she wanted to.

Well, I was glad that he wasn't mad at me, and I told Peggy that she was invited to come along, and so she said that she'd come with me.

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon writing letters—real paper letters, not computer letters. I wrote one to Miss Chestnut, since she’d been so helpful in getting me in this program, and one to my mother, and another one to my little sister. My sister really likes poetry, too, so I wrote down a couple of Emily Dickinson's poems, as well as Longfellow's poem about the blacksmith, 'cause she used to have sex with the farrier in Hatchaway Falls. She still isn't sure if I actually know about it, and it's fun to twist her tail. I never told her about the time I saw them behind the shop and she should have known if she wanted it to stay secret that she shouldn't do it outside, even if it was behind a fence.

Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn arrived around six, and we all went to Bilbo's again. He had both of us go through what had happened step-by-step while we were waiting for our pizza, and then he asked a few more questions while we were eating. He didn't seem all that upset by what had happened, just sad.

Peggy asked if they thought they'd find him, and Mister Salvatore said that they already had; the store had cameras that had looked at his car as well as cameras inside that saw the whole thing. Then she asked what they were going to do, and he said he didn't know yet, that it would depend on a lot of factors and the whole thing was really complicated. He told Peggy that she had the option to press charges if she wanted to, but that things might work out better for everyone if they just buried the incident and didn't get the courts involved at all.

She asked if they needed an answer from her now, and he said no, they didn't. Mister Salvatore told us to talk it over for the next few days, and let him know by Wednesday (hump day!) what we had decided.

When we got back to the dorm room, I was super-tired, both physically and emotionally, and went to bed a bit early. It was hot in the dorm room and my belly was full, so that had made me even sleepier.