September 4
When I woke up we were still rushing through the countryside, I didn't know where. It was hillier than it had been, and very dark. Every now and then I'd see a couple of lights flash by in the darkness, and I could hear the train's horn blow now and then and we'd pass by a flashing railroad crossing.
We went by a few small towns, and around a lot of curves. The train felt like it was going a little bit slower, maybe because the track had so many turns in it.
I got out of bed and took a shower which was really not all that pleasant because I couldn't anticipate when the train would suddenly go into a turn, and then I'd slide across the shower until I caught myself and a couple of times I had to hold out my wings for balance, too, and the shower was really too small for that. It must be really crowded for humans.
The train was slowing down by the time I finished, and the conductor announced that we were about to stop in Connellsville, Pennsylvania.
I shook myself off and then got out of the shower and sat on the bed and looked out the window. The town was nestled at the bottom of a mountain, and when I opened my door and looked out the other side, I could see a river and more town on the other side of that, so we were in a river valley.
We didn't stay there for very long, and as soon as we left town, there weren't any more houses or fields or anything except for trees on the side of the mountain, and the river on the other side. I think the other side of the car had a better view, so I propped my door open and watched out that way for a while before I decided that I wanted breakfast.
I knocked on the little connecting door and Mister Salvatore opened it. He was looking happy and cheerful, and his bed was folded away and the table was set between the chairs and already covered in papers and his folding computer. He smelled clean and I thought about asking him how he'd fit in his shower but I didn't.
He asked if I was ready for breakfast, and I said that I was, and he told me that Miss Cherilyn was getting ready and when she did we could go, or I could go by myself if I wanted to.
Well, I thought it would be rude to go if they were almost ready, so he invited me to sit over on his side and pretty soon Miss Cherilyn came out of the bathroom all dressed and ready to go. And she petted me on the head and Mister Salvatore put his papers in his briefcase and then we went to the dining car.
They didn't have the crab cake biscuit on the menu on this train, and I wasn't really in the mood for an omelet, so I had the oatmeal and croissant instead. And being in the dining car was nice because we could see out both sides and see the river that ran right next to the tracks.
Mister Salvatore said that we were in the Appalachian Mountains, and that we had to cross them to get to Washington, DC.
As we were going down a hill, a train passed us on the other track. The locomotives said CSX and all the cars it was towing were identical black cars that were full of coal. It was kind of neat to be on the second floor of the train and be able to look down inside of them.
We went through a couple of towns while we were eating, and then we went to the Viewliner car to watch from that. In the morning, the car wasn't so crowded because people didn't like to get up early.
We got to Cumberland, Maryland—which was also nestled in a valley—and the train made a long station stop so we got off and walked around some. It was a little strange having the platform not moving under my legs.
The train went out of Maryland and into West Virginia, which was almost the same as Maryland. Mister Salvatore said that the river we were alongside was the border between the two states, so when we looked out the windows on the north side of the train we were mostly seeing Maryland, which I thought was kind of interesting.
We passed a big factory that made railroad ties and telephone poles, and they were all neatly stacked along the tracks. It was very strange to see, because there hadn't been anything else around it, and it just came up all of a sudden, and then we were back in rural land again. There was a little village to the south of the tracks, and I wondered if everyone who worked there came from that village. It seemed impossible; it must have taken thousands of people to make all those railroad ties.
We went through another little town that was called Paw Paw, and right after that the train went over a bridge and we were back in Maryland again, then it went right over a second bridge and we weren't any more. Mister Salvatore said that the train would keep crossing back and forth between states as it went to Washington, DC, 'cause the train tracks were a lot straighter than the river. I thought it would have been cheaper to stay on one side, 'cause that way they wouldn't have needed as many bridges.
When we stopped in Martinsburg, the train conductor told us that the building opposite the train station used to be a railroad roundhouse, which was kind of neat. There were some in Equestria where the locomotives lived, but I had never seen one. And the ones in Equestria wouldn't have been so big. I guess their steam locomotives must have been as big as their diesel locomotives.
There was also a set of stairs that went above the train and I thought that maybe this station did have a second story boarding ramp, but Mister Salvatore said it was so people could walk across the tracks without getting hit by trains.
Before we left, a silver train called MARC stopped at the station as well. He said that we could get off our train and get on that one and it would also take us to Washington but I liked our train better.
The land was a lot flatter now and there were more fields and houses. We saw a few MARCs go by the opposite way, and when we were stopped in Harper's Ferry, one passed us going our way.
We ate lunch in the dining car, and as soon as we'd finished we had to go to our rooms and pack our things because the train was getting close to Washington. It didn't take too long for me to pack, and then I just watched out the window as we went by lots and lots of houses and businesses, then we slowed down and it was kind of like Chicago where there were lots of tracks and other passenger trains. I saw some that were smaller than the MARC even and they just had an M on them.
There were also lots of wires overhead and I saw a train go by that had a strange arrangement on its roof that ran against the wires. It said on the side that it was an Acela, and I guess it got electricity right from the wire to run, which was pretty clever.
We had a few hours, so we put all our luggage in a little locker again and then we got on one of the mini-MARCs and went to see the Capitol.
There was a big park called the Washington Mall, and it had an obelisk at one end and reflecting pools and the Capitol and lots of museums and we didn't have enough time to visit any of them which was too bad. But we did see lots of the monuments and he said that I could fly over the park but not too high and to not go all the way to the Capitol.
So I flew around and looked at all the buildings and there was one called the National Air and Space Museum which I would have liked to go to if we'd had more time. I decided that if we went through Washington on the way back I would insist on seeing it.
We walked and looked at the Lincoln memorial, and we saw the Constitution Gardens, and we looked at the Vietnam Wall, which listed the names of all the men who had been killed in the war, and that was really sad. There were some flowers and other gifts at the base of the wall. Miss Cherilyn said it had been a terrible, stupid war and Mister Salvatore didn't disagree.
Then we went off the main part of the mall to see the White House, which is where the President lives. I thought it would be neat to meet him but Miss Cherilyn said that he was in China at a trade meeting, which was too bad. I asked if he had ever met any ponies, and she said that she was sure he had. He'd probably met the Princesses, and perhaps some of our other leaders as well.
Mister Salvatore said that he was glad that he wasn't a Secret Service agent, because he couldn't even guess how hard it would be to arrange security for a meeting with Princess Celestia. I thought she'd probably bring her own guards, and he said that that wasn't what he meant.
We ate at a pub called Elephant & Castle, because Mister Salvatore said that he used to eat there all the time when he worked in DC. He said that almost everyone eating there was an important person in the government so if I wanted to, I could stick my tongue out at anyone who went by and that would make him very happy.
I thought that was kind of mean, so I didn't. One of his friends was there, a tall man he said was just named Hush, and he shook my hoof and said that he was really happy to meet me 'cause Mister Salvatore had told him about me.
I had enough time after we were done eating for another quick flight over the mall, then we got on another mini-MARC, and it took us back to the big train station.
Our train was called the Silver Meteor, and it was all one-story cars. Our car was in the back, and we only had one room. Mister Salvatore said that we were going to be getting off the train in the middle of the night, so he'd only gotten the one room for me and Miss Cherilyn, and that he would be up front in the coach car, and he'd come and get us when it was time to get off the train. And he told her to set her alarm for four AM, which I didn't like at all.
So we folded our bunks down right away so that we could get some sleep, and I took the top bunk 'cause it had a short window I could look out of.
It was a little bit claustrophobic being that close to the ceiling, and Miss Cherilyn had to help me get up there 'cause it was a little bit tight to fly into. And then after I'd looked out the window and watched the city give way to farmland, I thought that I could read my Bible some but my saddlebags were still down on the floor and I didn't want to bother Miss Cherilyn by asking her to get it, so I just closed my eyes and let the train rock me to sleep.
Ah, the wonders of Factories and Mass Production.
Wait when does school begin again for Silver Glow?
7702487 Probably September 6.
This November, send Silver Glow to Congress!
It'd make me really happy, too.
Aww…
Silver, I give you fair warning. If you don't like train travel don't ever go on a long trip by bus. You'll think you've died & gone to Tartarus & you will spend the trip wondering what you could have done that was so bad that you deserved this torture.
My mother was afraid to fly. She decided to take a 3 day bus trip from east Texas to Phoenix to visit me. She brought my youngest sister, then about 5 years old. After about 12 hours on the bus, she got off the bus she had a miraculous cure of her fear. (I believe psychologists call it aversion therapy). She got off the bus & got plane tickets for the rest of the trip. She said if she died it would be a merciful release & Hell would be a rest cure. True story
7702553 Trains are usually the most spacious of transportation these days. I believe it about busses, they can be hell if the wrong people are on them.
Silver Meteor? Where does that go?(checks google) Ah.
So, why are they heading towards Florida?
Having been to the Air and Space Museum when I was growing up, I fully support Silver in this endeavor.
twilight.ponychan.net/chan/fic/src/131500367847.jpg
Which means he probably got to meet Princess Twilight. Lucky bastard.
7702666
My guess would be that they're going to see Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center.
And there she goes by my neck of the woods.
( At least she didn't get stuck on a bum Metrorail train, sayeth this transit worker.)
It's odd that Silver doesn't really know about WW1 or 2 but she does seem to have some knowledge of Vietnam, maybe it's more of an American thing and is still more in the public arena for her to have picked up from her friends but it just seems odd to me.
What no snuggling with Miss Cherilyn? She's there to protect you right? Well she can protect you from lack of sleep due to being by yourself, that's totally legit!
7703150 Well I doubt it was a doctorate, but a degree all the same.
A bachelor of arts in "Pega-sciences" perhaps?
7703110. What makes you think she knows anything about the Vietnam war? All she knows is that each name on that wall is someone who died, and that's really sad. Speaking as an American I know less about 'Nam than the others.
I wonder how having diplomatic relations with aliens who aren't technologically advanced but who have control of forces not understood would work.
The U.N. is supposed to handle planet to planet relations, but the military of the various nations may be concerned something may unbalance the preexisting parity.
Ponies at the Pentagon is straight out, but Bureau of Mines, Standards and Measures and National Science Instute, why not?
AND THAT'S WHY PONIES HAVE WATCHERS!
Is Hush a reference to the Weedverse?
7703491
No; he's a reference to a character in P.T. Deutermann's Train Man.
7703633 Given the topic of this chapter, that would make more sense.
I'll travel by AMTRAK when they run it at a profit.
7702896
Silver herself could've met her had they more time in D.C. She's probably STILL wandering around the Library of Congress.
I REALLY want to ride a train now. For now though I'm stuck on a big rig lol.
7703110
I'm not sure how you conclude from Silver Glow's description of it as "a wall which listed the names of all the men who had been killed in the war" that she has any actual knowledge of the war itself, or the historical events surrounding it; she's just describing the monument itself as exactly what she sees in front of her: a wall with a list of names on it.
The simplest and most obvious explanation is that Mr. Salvatore or Miss Cherilyn simply told her what the monument was when they visited it. (Also, if memory serves, there's an inscription somewhere on the wall itself which says what it's for, too.) So, she knows it's a list of names of all the soldiers who died in a particular war called "the Vietnam War", but that doesn't necessarily mean she knows anything more about the war itself than she does about World Wars One or Two.
7704083
"The collections of the Library of Congress include more than 32 million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages; more than 61 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America, over 1 million U.S. government publications; 1 million issues of world newspapers spanning the past three centuries; 33,000 bound newspaper volumes; 500,000 microfilm reels; over 6,000 titles in all, totaling more than 120,000 issues comic book titles; films; 5.3 million maps; 6 million works of sheet music; 3 million sound recordings; more than 14.7 million prints and photographic images including fine and popular art pieces and architectural drawings." -Wikipedia
"Leave? What do you mean leave? I can't leave, I haven't read everything yet!"
7703633 Huh, that looks interesting. Picked up a copy.
Between flying around the Willis Tower and over the Washington Mall, what's with Silver Glow and seriously restricted airspace? If someone buzzed the Mall with a pony-sized drone, I'd think that DC would lose its collective pea-sized mind.
Silver never ceases to be adorable!
"Would it be adorable if I poked you with my glaive?!"
Probably...
There must just be something about ponies that says "this is a pet" to human hind-brains, because I think no other intelligent creature has ever engendered so much of such reactions.
7702462
It's pretty amazing when you think about it.
7702487 7702522
September 12.
7702523
The first Congresspony. I don't know if she would be very good at it, to be honest.
7702538
7702553
I've done a couple of Greyhound trips and they're not the worst, but pretty much anything else is better. Bus trips in high school were fun, but then it was a bus with lots of my friends, so. . . .
I can't imagine being on a bus for more than four hours or so. I would honestly never consider a multi-day bus ride as a reasonable way to get to my destination. That would be a special sort of Hell.
7702623
The only other thing I can think of that's similar is a ship, and you've really got limited choices on where you're gonna go on one of those.
7702666
And now you know
7702896
It's absolutely worth a visit.
That would be a really fun meeting. Disappointingly, I was unable to find any fanart.
That's a good guess; unfortunately, it's wrong.
7702929
Are you now looking at train windows slightly expecting to see a pegasus through one of them?
7703110
She doesn't know anything about it other than there's a wall with the name of the fallen on it.
7703258
Oh, I don't know. They could give an honorary diploma with practically anything on it, so why not an honorary PhD? Heck, Mister Salvatore could have negotiated for it. "She gets a PhD or she's not getting in your wind tunnel."
7703311
Yeah, all she'd know about it is that one of her helpers would have said that it had the names of soldiers who had died in Vietnam, and whatever else they chose to tell her about the war.
7703431
It would be ugly and messy and no doubt the subject of hours upon hours of meetings and agreements to make it all work.
Especially if you could convince a group of high-powered unicorns that your way was the best way, and convince them to help you find the rabble who object to your leadership.
That is part of the reason. They protect the ponies and they protect people from the ponies if needed.
7703837
How do you define a profit? By its very nature, public transportation of any sort doesn't generate a profit. Hell, in 2014 the federal government spent $46 billion on highways and didn't get a dime back in the form of tolls, but I think it's safe to say that highways provide economic benefits to the US.
7704083
They'd have to drag her out kicking and screaming.
"Just one more book!"
"With all due respect, Princess, you've been saying that for four days."
7704733
I'd like to ride in a big rig. That's one thing I've never done.
7705167
That's exactly right--her knowledge of it is basically what the wall says, and what limited information about it Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn gave her.
7706878
One of Twilight's first Princessly duties after seeing that would be to try and fund a pony expedition to read it all. With her at the head of it, of course.
I'm reminded of Bad Horse's Big Mac Reads Something Purple:
7711788
It's well worth the read, IMHO.
7713380
As long as she stays low, she's still a pedestrian, sort of. Although you can bet going forward that there are going to be more rules for pegasus-restricted areas, or specific altitude limits (say, you can fly over the Washington Mall, but not higher than fifty feet).
7715163
pre00.deviantart.net/0c0c/th/pre/i/2013/314/8/e/fluttershy_by_aymint-d6tqcpd.png
Ponies like being petted and snuggled, so it's a win/win.
7736216
I'm afraid the collection grows at a pace faster than any speed-reader could handle. Although knowing Twilight, she'd use a time acceleration spell to be able to catch up.
8341788
I wonder if it's possible for ponies to absorb books directly into their brains, and if it is, I wonder if it's possible for a pony to mentally overload on information. I feel that if it is, Twilight's a good candidate for being the first pony to discover it.
Haha I totally forgot that Obama was still president when this story was set
7736164
I had a 26 hour Greyhound from Wilmington, NC, to Fort Wayne, IN.
9269746
Yup.
I’m sorry for you. I’ve been on a few multi-hour Greyhound trips, and they weren’t my favorite things. Although on one trip I did get to see a dump truck crash, so that was something.
"President Obama, presenting Sir Fancy Pants."
"... For real?"
11223045
That would take some getting used to. Maybe they give their names in ponish, and it doesn’t sound that weird that way. Heck, if you go for the actual meaning of a lot of human names, they can get kinda weird. My brother’s name might loosely translate to “Barn King.”
A reference?
Edit: Comment browsing answered my question.
11342713
That's a good book, in my opinion. P.T. Deutermann is a retired FBI agent, so besides having the usual 'cops chasing a bad guy' plot, it's full of departmental politics which really adds to the story. Also it's got trains in it, which is cool. And the methods that the bad guy uses seem plausible, as well.
You probably already knew this, but the Washington Monument was capped with a six pound piece of a metal so precious, it cost $225 in 1884. I can only find calculators that go back to 1913, but $225 in 1913 was worth about $7,000 today. Interestingly, the metal is only worth about $6 today, because it's just aluminum.
Did you know that LBJ's wife was a significant shareholder in Bell Helicoptors? Did you also know that the UH-1 Iroquois, nicknamed the Huey was the most produced helicopter of the war? Did you know the Huey was manufactured by Bell Helicopters?
11699218
I did not know that! I knew aluminum used to be really valuable 'cause finding it pure was very rare, and the tech didn't exist to get it out of ore. I also did know that at one of Napoleon's dinners, the honored guests got aluminum silverware, while the scrubs got gold.
Given my headcanon for pony tech, I have considered writing a story where a pony trades gold to humans for pure aluminum on a pound-for-pound basis.
I knew that the Huey was produced by Bell, and while I didn't know it was the most produced helicopter of Vietnam, but I did know it was associated with it. I did not know that LBJ's wife was a shareholder.
Also, I'm sure there's no connection, but for whatever reason whenever I hear "Bell Helicopters," I think of Alexander Graham and the phone monopoly that would eventually bear his name . . . there's almost certainly no relationship, and yet I can't help but think if I were to google it and find out there was, I wouldn't even be surprised.