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// April 9 [evening] 
// Story: Silver Glow's Journal 
// by Admiral Biscuit 
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April 9

Miss Parker offered to take us back to the horse show or wherever we wanted to go in their van, but I thought that being outside might clear my head, and Aquamarine thought so, too, so we thanked her for her offer and then went outside on hoof (or feet for Jenny). Since we had lots of time, we first went to the greenhouses.

That was a big change from being outside. They were hot and humid inside, and she explained how there were certain greenhouses she wasn't allowed in because earth pony magic had had some unintended effects, like healing plants which were part of a study on sick plants. She said that professors got mad when their studies were skewed.

Then she opened a little door and showed us her experiment, which was a bunch of ordinary-looking ferns. She was to care for them like she would care for a plant back in Equestria, and meanwhile there was another group of ferns that she wasn't allowed anywhere near, and I guess the purpose of the test was to see how much bigger and better her ferns were compared to the normal ones.

It wasn't a proper experiment, she said, because there was only her and her professor involved, but it was going to give them an idea how much of an effect earth pony magic had on plants. They had done the same thing with every other earth pony who had been at the university, and they said that in time it would provide a useful baseline for other experiments.

Aquamarine told us about some of the short term experiments that had been done, and while she was talking she was also caring for her plants, and when she got done showing them off, she wrote in a little journal when she'd come and what she'd done. She also had to report if she had seen any parasites on her plants or any other signs of damage.

Then we went into another room, which was where there was another experiment she was working on. In this one, each of the plants was in a little box all to itself—it was a clear box so that the plant got all the sunlight it could want. She called it the plant hospital, because those were small plants that were sick or injured.  She gave them all a quick look and they all looked ok.  She said that she had come in one time and the cucumber vine had had all its leaves torn off by something, and that was too much damage for her to fix, but she tried.  

While we were on our way out, we ran into her professor who was named Doctor Krelborn. Aquamarine introduced us, and he was happy to see me and when he stuck out his hand to shake my hoof, I noticed that there was a lot of dirt on it which I suppose was the mark of a good plant professor.

He asked if I had any kind of plant magic, and I told him that I didn't, so he said that I ought to see one of his projects that Aquamarine wasn't allowed anywhere near, and so he took me into a little room and showed me a tiny tree in a pot. He said it was called a Bonsai tree, and explained how the art of the Bonsai was to make it small and visually pleasing, and he couldn't show it to Aquamarine because if he did pretty soon it would be ten meters tall and that wasn't what he wanted.

I thought it was kind of silly to spend a lot of time making sure a tree didn't grow up, but I didn't tell him that. And I thought maybe he ought to ask the tree what it wanted.

It was a bit of a shock leaving the greenhouses and going back outside. Especially because it was snowing again. If earth had weatherponies, they would have all been fired by now.

We walked south of the Pavilion, and came around to some big fields surrounded by fences. Aquamarine said that this was where the free horses were kept. She said that she had spent some time with them and that was why she was more used to seeing them than I had been.

Of course it was a big field and we weren't supposed to go over the fence, so we walked around towards the car entrance until we got close to the herd, who was grazing a little way back from the fence. She tilted her head back and whinnied, and I saw a couple of heads perk up and pretty soon some of the horses were trotting towards the fence to greet us.

I put my hooves up on the fence and that was when I discovered that one of the fence-wires had electricity in it. I hadn't been expecting that. I guess that was a way to keep the horses from trying to knock over the fence and go free, but I thought it was kind of mean, too. They wouldn't know until they'd gotten zapped in the muzzle a few times.

Even with that, it was still nice to see them, and it did help me feel a little bit more comfortable around horses.

We stayed there until all of them who wanted to come over and meet us had, and then we went along the fence line and across the driveway where there were some more horses kept in individual pastures. There was one stallion right near the gate and as soon as we got close he tilted his head up and pulled his nose back and I looked over at Aquamarine and she blushed and said that her heat wasn't quite over yet.

Jenny said that he was dropping, and I couldn't help but look at him. I told Jenny that he wasn't just dropping, he was getting erect and he was huge, and then we decided that we probably ought to get out of there before he figured out that if he really wanted to get some, the fence wasn't going to stop him. Even if it was mean to tease a stallion and leave him hanging like that.

We went back the way we'd come, and the horses came back over to the fence and sniffed at us again and I could tell that they were all friends with Aquamarine and they liked me, too. They weren't as interested in Jenny, but one of the mares stuck her nose over the fence and let Jenny pet her, then she mouthed Jenny's coat a little bit and covered one shoulder with drool. I put my head down and ate some of the grass and thought about how I might feel if I were one of them, but I couldn't imagine what it would be like to not be fully aware. Since it was off-season, the grass didn’t taste very good, and my nose and mouth got cold ‘cause of the little bit of snow that was sticking to it.

When we were a little ways off and they had gone back to grazing, I just stopped along the fence and put my hooves up and watched them for a while. They were happy . . . or at least they were content. But they didn't know any better, and that still made me a bit sad.

Once we were back at the Pavilion, we had a snack—the only two things that weren't some kind of meat were popcorn and French Fries, and neither of them made for a good meal. Aquamarine said that we could probably get some oats or alfalfa cubes in back, then Jenny said that we could order Jimmy Johns which had subs so fast we'd freak. She had their whole menu memorized and said that she could recite it off for us, and Aquamarine told her that we would have two number thirteens and a pickle.

It wasn't super-fast, but it was only about ten minutes before a man showed up and gave us our food, and we went back into the grandstands to watch the pull.

They had to pull a whole truck, which had weights on it which they'd lift while they were pulling. The truck had to go twenty-seven and a half feet (which was a very specific number) and they could make three attempts. There was a time limit, as well.

It was really interesting to watch. The doubletree was hooked over the back of the truck and there were a couple of people that helped hook it, and as soon as the horses felt it drop they started pulling. That went pretty well until the fourth team came up, and the helpers missed the hook and the horses took off anyway, with their leader holding the reins and scrambling to keep up.

They weren't very good at backing up, and they kept their hooves high in strange, prancing steps. You could tell that they were all eager to pull the weight and show how strong they were, and even from where we were you could hear the leader calling out encouragement to them.

As the weights got heavier, teams started to be disqualified, because they couldn't pull the truck far enough. Once they were over four thousand pounds, it started to go quicker because almost everypony had been disqualified. They finally got to 4,600 pounds of weight and that was what it took to crown the champions who were called Mike and Roger. The announcer said that they were the current world record holders, so me and Aquamarine decided that we had to meet them.

Around the arena there was a tall wooden fence that people could see over but ponies couldn't. We gathered by the gate with everyone else and when they came out there were lots of people congratulating them on the win (well, they were congratulating the driver, but he hadn't done any more work than hold the reins), and the crowd helped us get to the front to let the horses greet us, and that was actually a lot of fun. I'd never met the world champions at anything, and they were really calm and leaned down to sniff at us and I stood still as Mike got my scent and lifted his head and took a little step back to think about it, then leaned down again and brushed his nose against mine.

After they were led off into the stable area, we went back to the dorm, because it was late and there would be more to see tomorrow.

I was glad that Aquamarine was with me, 'cause I was still stressed out some with all we'd seen and all I'd been thinking about and I couldn't fully escape it even here because the scents clung to us, so I could still smell Mike and Roger and all the other horses we'd met on her and on me, and I still hadn't quite figured out what to make of it all.