• Published 25th Feb 2016
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Silver Glow's Journal - Admiral Biscuit



Silver Glow takes an opportunity to spend a year at an Earth college, where she'll learn about Earth culture and make new friends.

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November 17 [The Big Rip]

November 17

Since none of us had to be to class too early, we had some time to play in bed, and we didn't get the book out and it was still lots of fun.

Then we took a shower, and after we were done, Aric said that he had a surprise for Meghan in his room and he was going to get it, and he came back a minute later with a hairdryer. And he reminded her that she'd told him that there was a sexy way that she could use it, and she nodded and plugged it in and started to dry her hair, and he frowned at her and said that she was trolling him.

Meghan told him that she was standing in front of the mirror drying her hair naked and wasn't that sexy enough for him and he said that he guessed that it was.

There wasn't really enough room in the bathroom for all three of us to stand around in it, so Aric had left the door open and I saw Angela come up around the stairs and when she saw us she turned around and went back downstairs although we weren't doing anything that we shouldn't have been.

And later on, when they'd gotten dressed, we were sitting at the breakfast table waiting for the coffee to be done, and asked if we were wearing clothes yet and I said no, so then she asked if everyone else was, and Aric said she'd have to come up and see.

Meghan was kind of embarrassed, and she sort of hid her face with the coffee cup even though there wasn't anything in it, although I didn't see any reason why she should be. I think people would be a lot happier if they weren't worried about being naked all the time.

Aric drove us back to the dorm together, and then Meghan and Aric helped me get into my flight gear, and I kissed them both goodbye and got out of the truck. Meghan said that she'd take my saddlebags so I wouldn't have to carry them when I was flying, which was nice of her.

I called the airplane directors and told Dori where I was going, and she said it was okay, so then I kissed Meghan and Aric again, and took off.

It was a really nice morning for flying—it was a little bit hazy and gusty and the temperature was still low, so I wouldn’t get too hot while I was flying, although I might on the way back, 'cause it felt like it was going to get pretty warm today. My winter coat still wasn't grown all the way in, but underneath the flight gear it really held in a lot more heat.

Instead of going over Trowbridge, I flew through the gap between the dorms and by the time I got to Hoben, I was high enough to clear its roof, so I did and then angled towards the hotel, picking up some more altitude as I flew. On longer flights, you usually used up less energy if you took your time climbing, and while I wasn't going far enough for it to really matter, it was still a good habit to keep.

I was around the top floor of the hotel when I went by, and I couldn't help but look inside, and I saw an older couple who were holding hands and looking out the window, which was really cute. So I waved at them before I continued on.

My course took me over the railroad tracks just past the river, and I followed them out East, past Sprinkle Road, but instead of flying on I landed by the fuel station that was right on the point and went inside to get some carrots, 'cause I'd seen that they had big bags of them outside. The clerk inside was surprised that I wanted some and he let me pick a few of the biggest, freshest ones, and let me have them for free, even though I offered to pay. So that was really nice of him.

I had to watch three ways for traffic before I could take off again, and I didn't get all that much altitude before I got to the electricity wires that came from the dam, and I turned to follow them, until I got to the stables.

I hadn't told Deanne that I was coming, so I was glad to see her truck parked along by the fence, and when I got closer, I also saw that she was practicing the obstacle course with Henry, so I circled and came in for a landing right by the fence.

Deanne and Henry were both focused on their routine, but they saw me, and so did the dog. He kept circling around my sides and rump, even when I started flicking my tail at him and telling him to back off. Even though I knew he was harmless, sometimes he made me a little nervous, and I kept side-stepping a little bit to my right, to put some distance between him and me. Which didn't work, 'cause he'd just crowd me again.

Deanne had Henry do a couple more laps before she walked him around the perimeter to let him cool down some. Then she came over to the fence and me and Henry sniffed at each other, then he stuck his head over my back and started trying to get into my camelback, 'cause he smelled the carrots and didn't know that it was rude to try and get at them.

Deanne asked me if I'd stopped by to watch or if I wanted to ride, and I said that either was fine. And I told her how school was ending soon and then I'd be going back home to Equestria not too long after that, and I hadn't wanted to leave without saying goodbye.

She said that in that case I ought to have one more horseback ride, so we went to the barn and she got Hoshi out of her stall, then she saddled her up while I took off all my flight gear in the tack room, 'cause there wasn't any sense in my wearing it.

I got up on Hoshi's back and when Deanne got back on Henry, he snorted and looked back at her. I think he was expecting to get unsaddled, not ridden again and I felt kind of bad for messing up his routine.

We went back into the woods and Deanne looked back a couple of times to make sure that I was still there.

We turned around when we were back at the electricity trail, and I was in the lead most of the way back, although I didn't really do much, 'cause Hoshi knew where to go.

Deanne unsaddled the horses and rinsed them down, and I went into the tack room to get the carrots for them. I had one for Peaches, too, so she wouldn't feel left out.

I gave them their carrots and then before Deanne turned them out to pasture, I gave both of them a nuzzle and gave Hoshi a little kiss, too. I was going to miss them.

When she opened the gate, Henry trotted out into the field and then started sniffing around in it a little bit and then he dropped down and rolled on his back, while Hoshi just looked at him like he was an idiot.

Deanne followed me over to the obstacle course, and I hopped over the fence and walked around the course once to make sure that I still remembered it, and then I got to the starting line and wiggled my rump then launched myself around it.

I went a little bit slow the first time, 'cause I just wanted to refresh my memory of when the jumps were and where my hooves had to be, and then when I got back to the start I was already moving, so I just sped up into a full gallop, and tore around the course. And I did use my wings to carry my jumps a little bit farther than I could have got on my own, but that wasn't cheating, I didn't think.

When I finished the second time, I was panting a bit, and I had mud on my legs and a little bit of poop which I hadn't quite been able to avoid on one of my hooves, and so I went over to the washing area and turned on the hose and was using it to wash myself until Deanne took it from me and rinsed me off, and she made sure to clean my hooves, which was nice of her.

She offered to get a towel to dry me off with, but I'd dry enough on the flight back home, I thought. Maybe not under where my gear was, but that was okay. I was going to take a proper shower when I got back anyways.

So I went in the tack room and got dressed and then I called Dori before I came out. And I nuzzled Deanne and told her that I was going to miss her, and she said that she'd miss me too.

I nuzzled her one more time and then I flew off over the parking lot, and the dog followed on the ground until I got over the barn. He barked at me once, and then I was over the pasture and I waved at Henry and Hoshi, and then turned towards the railroad tracks.

I flew due south until I got there, and then I followed them back towards Kalamazoo. And I went all the way along them until I got to Academy Street, then I turned west towards the top of the hill. I'd been dropping altitude as I went through town, and I'd estimated pretty well, 'cause it felt like I didn't have to correct much to come in for a landing on the boardwalk.

Peggy wasn't in our room, and I got undressed and then went to the shower. I didn't think that there would be anybody waiting their turn, 'cause it was almost lunchtime, so I took a really long shower and thought about when the best time to have our group shower would be. I thought that tomorrow night was one option, but maybe it would be better on the weekend. People might like going a little bit later, and everyone probably would have spent all of Saturday studying and would want a break from it.

When I got back to my room, I took my time grooming, too, so that I wouldn't be all messy when I went to the salon. Then I got my astronomy books and my poetry assortment, and I also called Pastor Liz to tell her that I wouldn’t be able to meet with her today but I could do it Tuesday morning, which she said was a good time, and then I went to lunch.

Everyone was kind of studying while they ate, 'cause they'd put it off until the last minute like humans like to do, but Cedric put down his notebook and said that he was going to miss me, and that it was going to feel strange next year to not have a pegasus to read poetry with.

And I said that there would be a new pony and maybe she'd also like poetry and they could make friends, and Cedric said that she wouldn't be the same as the SG, and made a fist and bumped my hoof.

We each picked our own poems this time. I found one called Into Bad Weather Bounding, and it wasn't really exactly about the weather but I liked it because I bounded into bad weather, and Leon said that if I ever got business cards, that was what they should say.

Trevor read a poem called Great Sleeps I Have Known, and then Leon read Sonnet 73, which was by Shakespeare. And then Cedric took the book and he flipped through it and it took a while before he chose his poem, and it was called The Sun Sets in Molten Gold and it was really beautiful.

I hugged them all before I left for Astronomy class, and my heart was kind of heavy when I went across campus, because it was almost the last time we'd get to read poetry together.

Professor Miller started by telling us what was going to be on the final exam and reminding us what her office hours were, and then she said that we were going to finish up by talking about how the universe might end by tearing itself apart.

I thought that was an appropriate way to end the class.

So she told us more about how the universe was expanding, and it was speeding up because there was more dark energy than there was matter or dark matter, but that that balance changed with time. She said that the matter density changed with time, because when the universe was smaller it was denser, and that the dark matter and regular matter had more of an effect than the dark energy.

She drew us graphs that showed how it looked, and that by extrapolating from the data points we knew that the universe was about 13.8 billion years old.

And you could look at further-away stars and find out when it had been slower, she said, and that space telescopes were able to see far enough back to know when it was moving slower, if you could find highly redshifted supernovas.

They were really faint, though, and you needed to be able to see in infrared, and she also said that when they were that far away gravitational lensing might be making them look brighter than they actually were.

She said that there was going to be a Joint Dark Energy Mission that was going to find supernovas, although it hadn't been built or launched yet, and there was also the LSST (they called it that because it was easier to say than the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope), which was going to take a survey of the sky every three days, but that hadn't been built yet, either.

So she said that we didn't know exactly how the universe was going to end but soon we might have a better idea, and then class was over, so on my way out I thanked her for everything she'd taught me.

And when we were in the hall, I asked Anna if she wanted to be my study buddy for astronomy. She couldn't do it right away, but she said that in an hour, we could meet and study. And we had to decide where, and she suggested that since it was warm we should go out on the quad and I liked that. It was too nice a day to be inside.

So I went back to my room and got my books, and I carried them out to the quad so that I would have them, and then I started to fly around, 'cause it was a nice day, and then I started galloping around and having a lot of fun until I remembered that I had meant to keep myself looking well-groomed, but it was too late now. My coat was damp and my mane was messed up, and I didn't have my brush and didn't want to miss Anna, so I just pushed it back with my hoof and thought that I could brush it real quick before me and Meghan left.

And then I stretched out on the grass right where the sun could shine on me, and I kept a hoof across my astronomy book and notebook just in case a squirrel tried to steal it.

I closed my eyes and I dozed off just a little bit—I never really fell asleep, I don't think, because there were too many noises and it wasn't really safe to sleep on the ground alone anyways. So even when my eyes were shut, my ears were alert, and I heard Anna coming before she got too close and opened my eyes and lifted my head up, then I yawned and stretched out my wings a little bit before sitting up.

There was a whole lot for us to review, and we didn't get all the way through it. Luckily, there weren't all that many formulas to remember, so that was one thing I wouldn’t have to worry about, but there were lots of other terms that I needed to make sure that I knew.

I thought if I had time, it would be good to make cards, and I probably could have done that instead of playing around on the quad.

We were trying to figure out when we could meet again when my portable telephone rang, and it was Meghan and she said that she was ready and we ought to leave soon. So I told Anna that I wouldn't be at dinner tonight, and tomorrow we could figure out when we wanted to meet to study again.

Then I flew up to the boardwalk and left my books in my room and I told Peggy that I was going to the salon, and then I went downstairs and met Meghan at her room, and we went down to the parking lot to wait for our Uber-car, which was a little boxy thing that was called a Soul.

It seemed kind of cheap inside, and the seat wasn't all that comfortable, but it was pretty quiet, and the driver asked if we minded if he played music, and we didn't. So before he left he picked up his little music-box and picked out some music, and I didn't really like the first song all that much, but the next one was called The Sound of Silence, which was by Disturbed. Meghan said that it was a newer version of the song.

He dropped us off at the salon, and we were a little bit late, so I apologized to Maura and she said that she didn't mind. And she saw that I was getting fluffy, and asked if I wanted to be trimmed down, but I told her that I just wanted my mane and tail cut. Even though I didn't really need it now, when I went back to Equestria it was going to be in the winter and I'd be cold if I got it shaved off.

So me and Meghan sat down in chairs that were next to each other, and I'd never had a chance to comb my mane, so the woman who was trimming it had to. Her name was Conni, and she had very pretty dark skin, and her hair was in lots of little braids.

She was kind of quiet, 'cause she was doing a really good job and just focusing on that. But she said that my mane felt really soft and full, and she was kind of jealous of it, so I told her that I really liked her hair, too.

It didn't take as long as I'd thought before we were done, and Meghan didn't go in the back room this time to get waxed. She said that she might make another appointment for that later. And then she used her portable telephone to get another Uber-car to come and pick us up, and it happened to be the same Soul, so he knew right where to go.

He was playing the same kind of music this time, and it was kind of hard to follow some of the words. There was one where the singer kept saying pogo over and over again, which was kind of odd. But I could understand the words in that one at least.

Meghan asked if we wanted to see what they had left for food, and I asked if we could get Chinese food delivered, and she thought that was a great idea. So we went back to my room, and Peggy was there, and she wanted some, too, but not too much because she'd just had dinner.

So she used her computer to find their menu and they knew what they liked and I didn't know what most of it was, so Peggy and Meghan both helped me decide what I wanted to eat.

We talked while we were waiting for our food to arrive, and Peggy complained some more about her art project, because she still didn't have any ideas, and it had to be something pretty simple that she could do in a couple of days, and she said that she might look at her computer and see if she could find something that would inspire her.

And she didn't right away, but then she found a movie where people were using giant cannons and siege engines to launch pumpkins, which was really neat to see. And she said that something like that would be visually interesting, although the egg would probably break.

Then she kind of stopped and blinked and reached into her bag and got her notebook out and pulled out a piece of paper and she sat up and said that it never said that the egg had to survive, just that it had to be visually interesting, and she said that nothing was more visually interesting than a catapult firing the egg straight down into the floor and that was what she was going to do.

Meghan said that she ought to put something else in the basket that it could fire, and at first she thought paint, but then decided that she'd get in trouble for splattering paint all over the lobby of the Fine Arts building, and said that glitter would be good, too.

She had to go downstairs to get the food, because the deliveryperson couldn't bring it right up to our room, which was kind of dumb. And she came back with a big plastic sack and she opened it up and it was full of little cardboard boxes of food, and also some fortune cookies and packets of soy sauce, which was really salty. They also had napkins and plastic utensils and wrapped-up chopsticks.

Meghan asked if I was going to use mine, and I said that I couldn't with hooves, so she took them out of their package and rolled up my mane into a loose bun and stuck the chopsticks in to hold it in place.

Peggy knew how to fold out the containers to make little plates, and we ate on the floor, 'cause we didn't have a table and it wouldn’t have been social to sit at our desks. I had Kung Pao shrimp as my main course, and I'd also gotten some spring rolls to eat, 'cause they were good. And then when we were done eating our food we opened up our cookies. Mine told me that the secret to getting ahead was getting started in bed, and I said that I was gonna save my fortune until tomorrow.

Peggy's said that love was for the lucky and the brave in bed, and Meghan said that she should be mischievous and she would not be lonesome in bed, and she slid her hand under my tail before I could swat it away and Peggy pretended not to notice, but then she started laughing and that gave her away.

Even though I had a full belly and it was kind of late, I wanted to go and see if people were fighting in the park, 'cause it would probably be my last chance to see Karla and Stellan, so I flew down there, and there were more people than I thought. I guess maybe fighting was a good way to work out the stress from finals.

So I had to spar with Stellan and with Karla, and pretty soon I wasn't thinking of anything else, and by the time we were done, I was lathered again and I'd lost both of the chopsticks, too. And we found one, which was broken, and we had no idea where the other one had gone.

I hugged both of them and thanked them for everything that they'd taught me, and I wish that there had been some gift that I could have given them, but I hadn't thought of anything. And then I remembered that everyone seemed to like my feathers, and I had a few more secondaries that were working loose, so I reached back and pulled them out and gave one to each of them.

Karla thought that was kind of a strange thing, until Stellan told her to remember what Gimli had asked for, and then she laughed, and she leaned down and hugged me again.

I flew back to Trowbridge and when I got back up to our room, everyone else was gone. Peggy was looking at pictures of catapults trying to figure out what she could build—she said that she wasn't that much of a carpenter but people had built catapults in the Middle Ages so how hard could it be?

I had time to make cards with all the important astronomy terms and also the formulas that we'd learned, and then I wrote in my journal, too, before I went to bed.

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