//------------------------------// // March 26 [back to Kalamazoo] // Story: Silver Glow's Journal // by Admiral Biscuit //------------------------------// March 26 We met Mister Barrow and Miss Parker in the hotel restaurant and ate breakfast, and they said that there were all sorts of museums and shops and restaurants that we could go to. Well, Gusty's ears perked at the word 'shops,' and she said that she wanted to go shopping. That wasn't my idea of a fun day, really, but then yesterday she'd gone up to the top of the Willis Tower and ridden on the sailing boat with all of us, and so it was only fair that we let her do something that she'd really like. At least, that's how I saw it, so I didn't object. We packed up all our bags and the bellhop put them into the back of a silver van, but we were going to hoof it through town. It was a bit chilly, especially because there was a wind. Mister Barrow told us that Chicago was called the Windy City because of that. And the place where we were going was called the magnificent mile because of all the stores. We were in a part of Chicago called 'the loop,' which was the very heart of the town. To our east was all public parks and museums and galleries and such and then a little bit further in where we were were the shops that Gusty wanted to see so much. She didn't really have a plan; she just went into any shop that caught her eye and we followed. We went into clothes stores and shoe stores (that only sold human shoes) and jewelry stores and little galleries and antique shops. She even pressed her nose against the glass of restaurants as we went by, perhaps hoping that she would find something besides food there. And even though I didn't find shopping all that enjoyable, when I thought of it more as a series of art galleries, it was pretty nice. A lot of the people working in the stores were super-friendly, and would answer our questions about what we saw for sale. Then we went into a little store that sold stuff from Equestria, and that was really weird. A lot of it was really junky stuff: you could tell it hadn't been made by a proper craftsmare, but was cobbled together by an apprentice who was just learning the trade. And then there was also a bunch of stuff which was supposedly antique but was really just worn-out. Most of the stuff was human-made, though, and they called that 'Equestrian-themed.' One thing they had that I kind of liked was a little hoop that they called a 'dream catcher,' and it had several pegasus feathers hanging from it. Small ones that weren't big enough to be used for quills, and some that had been clipped short probably because the vane had been broken. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my feathers when I moulted. Back in Equestria, we kept them and turned them in where they were cleaned and sorted and then sold to quillmakers, but here on Earth I hadn't seen anybody using a quill. So I took a card from the counter that had the shop's telephone number; I could call them and ask. Even though there wasn't anything in the shop that was really worth buying, all the people there were interested in us, and asked us questions about Equestria and things on the wall and it was kind of funny how wrong they were about some stuff. We probably could have stayed there for the rest of the day answering questions, but we wanted to move on to different stores, so we left the store after about ten minutes and went on to the next shop. We had a nice lunch at a little restaurant called Pastoral, and then we continued our shopping until it was time for Gusty to go to the train station. Everybody hugged and said their goodbyes. Gusty promised that she'd come to Chicago some weekend to hang out with Cayenne, and she reminded us again that we all should come and see the play that she was in. Then there was a lot of hugging and nuzzling before she finally got into the taxi with Mister Barrow. He was going to stay at the train station, because he'd be meeting the rest of us there in a couple of hours. Cayenne took us to the park, and we walked all the way down to the waterfront. She pointed out some of the sights to us, and a sculpture called Cloud Gate that she thought I'd like. It was a big bean-shaped mirror that reflected the sky and the buildings, which was really clever. Then she said that we could take an L-train and see some more of the city quicker than we could walk, so we rode it for two laps—first looking out one side and then the other. Then we had to walk to the train station, because the L didn't go there (Cayenne said that we could, but we'd have to change trains a few times). Mister Barrow was there and so were Cayenne's human helpers, who introduced themselves as Miss Blaise and Mister Garvin. For the first time on the trip, we were outnumbered by our human helpers, which was actually kind of nice because it meant that we didn't have to carry any of our bags. Aquamarine and I both said that we'd keep in touch with Cayenne, and find a weekend to visit her, maybe when the weather got a bit warmer and there were flowers in all the flower gardens in the park. Then we hugged and went down to the platform and got on our train. This time instead of sitting in our own seats, we found a set of four that had a table between them, kind of like a restaurant table, and we sat there, with me and Aquamarine on one side, and Mister Barrow and Miss Parker on the other. Since we were reversing our route from before, I kind of knew what to expect from it. The huge expanse of city that just stretched on forever was still hard to wrap my head around, especially since it extended in three directions from the train station: we'd seen a lot of the south side of it when we came in on the train (and now we were seeing it again), and then we'd left on our trip to the north, and returned from the west. I think if they could have built the city out into the lake, they would have done that, too. Like before, we went slowly when we were still in the city. There were a lot of tracks and a lot of other trains, and our engineer probably had to be careful not to run into any of them. I hadn't thought about it before, but when we jolted over a crossover, the train hadn't stopped for anybody to set the switch. I asked Mister Barrow about it, and he said that the switches were controlled remotely, so that they just had to put the train's route into a computer and then it would set the course for the train. Then he started to explain how you could stack trains and Miss Parker punched his arm and told him that we really didn't need to know that. But I did want to know: I'd seen trains that carried long boxes that stacked on top of each other, and if they could do that than maybe they could put trains on top of each other if they were both going to the same place. Mister Barrow laughed and said that wasn't what he meant; he said that there were signal lights that said whether a train could go or not, and that stacking routes meant that the train dispatcher could set a route for one train, and then one for the next train, and the switches would stay set for the first train until it passed, then they would change for the second train. When we were finally out of the city, the train sped up, and I knew that it wouldn't be that much longer before I was home again. We watched the scenery out the windows and talked about how much fun we'd had on the trip. I wanted to know what other ponies had done for their vacations. Miss Parker said that most of them had gone on trips like we had. Some had gone by airplane instead of train, because there were a few ponies who wanted to go to very specific places. I thought about how much Gusty had loved California and Los Angeles and wondered why she'd gone by train, but then I remembered how much she hated the Space Needle and Willis Tower, and thought that maybe she was afraid of being in an airplane, too. When we were getting close to Kalamazoo, Aquamarine helped me strap on my saddlebags so that I'd be ready to get off the train, and then I hugged her and kissed her and said that we should hang out some weekend because Michigan State and Kalamazoo College weren't that far away by train. And I hugged Mister Barrow and Miss Parker, too, and then it was time to get off the train. I waved at it until it was gone, and when I turned around to go inside the building Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn were both there, and I hugged them too. It was sad to leave the train station behind. I already missed being with other ponies, and thought that maybe it would have been better if we'd done things on our own or with just our usual human handlers, because then the trip wouldn't end with our little traveling band being torn apart. But at the same time, it was nice to be going back to a familiar place. I missed all my friends and I even missed the familiarity of my dorm room, and even the bathroom. They took me to Taco Bell for a late dinner, and I gave them a brief summary of my trip. I said that I wanted to go see an airplane factory, and that maybe I could do that if I went on the train out to see Peggy, and Mister Salvatore said that he could arrange for that. He told me that he could get me into a Boeing factory, too, which was where they made big airplanes like the one I'd flown on before. Miss Cherilyn reminded him that there was a museum in Kalamazoo that had old airplanes, and I thought that would be a fun place to go on a weekend. Since it was inside, maybe it would be best to go soon before the weather was too nice outside to want to spend the day inside. Then I told them how Gusty wanted us to come and see her play, and how Cayenne wanted us to come visit her in Chicago, and how Aquamarine and I wanted to spend some time together on a weekend, too, and Mister Salvatore said that that all sounded like a fine idea, and all we needed to do was decide when and how we were going to get there, and they could take care of the arrangements from that point on. I kind of felt like royalty when he said that. But I wanted to figure out some stuff on my own, too: it was nice to have them there to help, but you can't learn to fly unless you actually go out and do it for yourself. They dropped me off at the dorm, and I went upstairs to my room and unpacked my bags and just sat down on the bed and kind of reflected on the past week and then I read some of my Bible 'cause I was really really behind on doing that. I read through Deuteronomy, where God told Moses the rules the people were supposed to follow and then Moses told them. From what I'd read before, I didn't think that the people would be all that good at following the rules. Then Moses died in the end, and Joshua took his place. The next book was about Joshua, who had taken the place of Moses. He was going to lead the people into Canaan, and first he told them what to do and told them to make sure that they followed the rules, and then he sent spies into Jericho and they stayed with a prostitute who promised to help them if they kept her family safe, and they said that they would. I stopped reading there because I wasn't sure how I should feel about her. She recognized that God had promised the Isrealites the land, and they would have had it already if they weren't so bad at following rules, but at the same time she was lying and betraying her tribe, and they'd been there first. I really needed to talk to Liz about what I'd read so far, and I would just have to admit that I hadn't read as much as I should have. She was really nice; she wouldn't be mad at me. I was getting kind of lonely, since none of my friends were back from Spring Break yet. I flew out to Aric's house, but Winston wasn't in the driveway and the house was all dark, so he wasn't back from his trip yet. Then I flew back to campus and thought I'd check on my other friends. I went to DeWaters first 'cause it was the closest, and Meghan was back but nobody else was yet. She was really happy to see me and invited me in, and we sat on her bed and talked about how our vacations had been. We talked until it was kind of late, and I really didn't want to leave and go back to my lonely dorm room, but she said that I could spend the night with her if I wanted to. So she went into the bathroom to put on her night clothes and that reminded me of Gusty and how she didn't want to be without clothes. I told Meghan about that after she got dressed, and she laughed and said that Gusty had gone native. I asked her if it bothered her that I wasn't wearing clothes, and she said that she didn't mind because it was a pony thing, but sometimes it was a little weird. I said that if it bothered her and she had an extra shirt I could put it on, and she laughed and said that a shirt wouldn't cover anything important. I said that it would cover my wings, and those were pretty important; they were about the most important part of me. I’d rather lose a leg or an eye than my wings. Her face got red and she said that wasn't what she meant; my veejay would still be out where anybody could see it. I told her if it really bothered her I could find something to wear. Aric had underwear called boxers that had a slit for his penis to go through and if I wore them backwards my tail could fit through there, and it wouldn't be all that uncomfortable, but Meghan said it was okay, she was just being silly. She changed the subject and told me that tomorrow was Easter Sunday, and she wanted to know if I was going to go to church, since it was a special day. There were going to be services at Stetson Chapel, and Liz was going to be preaching. I said I hadn't known, but I would like to go. I could learn more about God, and afterward I could have Liz answer some of my questions. She told me a little bit about Easter, and it was sort of hard to follow, but I think I got the idea. Liz would surely talk about it more tomorrow. And she said that it was traditional for people to wear really nice clothes to church, but she supposed that it would be all right if I went naked, and I stuck my tongue out at her and told her I had a nice dress back in my dorm room and I'd wear it. I knew that there were formal occasions where clothes were required. When we finally got in bed together, she was a little bit squirmy but eventually we got settled into a nice position where she was on her side holding me against her. We sat like that for a little bit and then sort out of nowhere she said that it was a little hot with the two of us together in bed like this and would I mind if she took off her shirt. It was okay with me, although I thought it sort of strange that she'd made such a big deal about putting it on in the bathroom where I couldn't see if she was going to take it off again. And it didn't seem like it was all that much cooler after she took off her shirt, either.