November 25

Peggy woke up before me, and she woke me up even though she probably didn't mean to. I didn't know why I was so tired, 'cause mostly all I'd done yesterday was sit in Cobalt, and that wasn't too hard. And that was all I'd done on Wednesday, too. I thought that she should have been tireder, 'cause driving Cobalt for a really long time was probably a lot of work, even though she didn't have to shift because Cobalt was smart enough to do it itself.

I heard noises in the house, and Peggy said that it was Chrissie and John getting up. Then she said that today was Black Friday, which was when a lot of stores had things for sale really cheap. It was kind of like a holiday for people because they had the day off so they could go to the store and buy things. Unless they worked in a store; then I suppose they had to go to work. And Peggy's mom did, too, because the Air Force base still had to be open.

It was still kind of dark outside, because we were so far west but our bodies probably still thought that we were back in Kalamazoo. And Peggy said that she couldn't believe she was getting up this early on her day off, and if she had any sense she'd go back to sleep.

I told her that she could if she wanted to, but she shook her head and said that since she was awake she might as well actually get out of bed and maybe tonight we'd stay up a little bit late to help get our bodies accustomed to Colorado time. And then she looked at her portable telephone to see what the weather was going to be, and she said that it was supposed to be over sixty today, which was unusually hot for Colorado Springs.

So then she said that she hoped it was cooler up in the mountains, so that we could play there. And she started to check her portable telephone for snow reports. I knew that if they didn't have real snow they had machines that made fake snow, which wasn't quite as good as the real thing. I thought that maybe if a bunch of pegasuses who were good with snowclouds wanted to move to Earth, they could get a job making snow for ski resorts. And they'd make much better snow than what the machines did.

After she'd looked at her portable telephone for a little while, she said that we would be able to go snowboarding, because all the resorts up in the mountains did have snow. And she said that we'd have to go to her favorite, and we could go to some other ones, too, just so I'd have a chance to see a bunch of them. She said that they were a lot better than the ones in Michigan, because they were much bigger and more mountainy and there were more difficult trails.

I wanted to leave today, but Peggy said that she wanted a day to relax, and she'd also promised her Dad to help put up Christmas decorations, and that sounded like something fun to do. Then she yawned and said that she ought to get dressed so that we could do something.

I jumped a little bit when I felt the floor shaking and heard a rumble under me, and Peggy started laughing at me. I wasn't used to Chrissie leaving for work and being right under us, even though it had happened last time I was here, too.

Me and Peggy went to the window and waved, although her Mom was looking back so she wouldn't run into anything and I don't think that she saw us.

Peggy looked through her dresser and closet until she found some clothes to wear, and we went down to the kitchen together. The big table was still in there, and John was sitting at one end with a cup of coffee and the newspaper spread out around him. And there were lots of glossy pages that had pictures of things you could buy at different stores. Peggy took the one for Best Buy and looked through it because she said that she needed a new computer, and they had one that she said was nice and also cheap. But she said that they'd all have been sold by now, because each store only had a couple of them to lure people in and only the very first people there would have a chance to get them and then other people would have to buy something else that was more expensive.

That seemed kind of unfair to me, until I thought about how at the market if you wanted the very best fish, you had to be the first one to see it or else the fisherpony would sell it to someone else. And they couldn't all be the best fish, so sometimes it was smart to be at the market early, especially when most of the fish were somewhere else at sea, and harder to catch.

So then I thought that that was actually nice of them to tell you before what they had, because that way if you really wanted that computer you could make sure that you were the first one in line. You never knew with fisherponies. You might get to a stall right when it opened and she'd had a bad catch, so there wasn't anything good to be had, and then you had to go look and see what everypony else had caught and by then usually the best fish were already gone from the other stands.

Or else you could do like Tira-Mi-Su did and fly out and find the fishing boats on their way into harbor. Everypony else thought that was kind of greedy, though, and I think if her sister hadn't been really nice, ponies would have made her leave town, 'cause she was always thinking just of herself.

John got me a cup of coffee and he got one for Peggy, too, and told her that she needed to take her car to Firestone to get snow tires put on it, and that he'd help her put them in the car once she'd gotten it unloaded. And he said that they'd emptied out the laundry room for her, too.

He said that I probably didn't have too much to do, and I said that I didn't have anything that I needed to wash. I'd left my blankets for Mister Salvatore to take care of, and my flight vest was still clean enough.

When Peggy had finished her coffee she said that she was going to go unload Cobalt, and I decided that I wanted to fly—she had a while before she had to take the car to the shop.

We ate breakfast first. I had a bowl of instant oats, and Peggy had cereal. And then I went upstairs and got my flight gear and got dressed and then I found out what frequency I needed to call to get the airplane directors, but I didn't call them yet because I had to figure out where I wanted to fly. They wouldn't like it if I called them and said I didn't know where I was going.

John had a topographical map, and he got up so that he could go find it. Peggy said that probably as long as I went towards the mountains and stayed below the tops, the airplane directors wouldn't mind, but I should let them know where I was, and she said that there were helicopters that flew around the mountains sometimes, giving tourists a pegasus-eye view of the mountains and valleys, so I would need to watch out for them.

He came back with his map after a few minutes and unfolded it on the table and it was pretty obvious that there were all sorts of river valleys that I could follow back into the mountains and be well below where any airplane might go, and I could use my watch to find my way back again, or else just fly up above a peak and look around for Colorado Springs. The airport would be really easy to see, even from a distance.

One thing that was useful with his map was that it told me what things were named, so when I called the airplane directors, I could tell them that I intended to fly a straight course to South Cheyenne Creek and then follow it up into the mountains, and they knew where that was.

It took them a minute to give me clearance, and they told me to stay at fifteen hundred feet and then fly direct to South Cheyenne Creek and then they asked which runway I intended to depart from and I said that I was going to leave from the street, which was called Hawk Meadow Drive and that confused them. Maybe they didn't know where that was.

Then they asked me to repeat my intentions and I told them where I wanted to fly and said that I could see the airport from here, which would have been true if I'd been in the air, and they asked me if I intended to land at the airport.

I said that I could if that would make it easier, but if I landed I needed the helipad and not a runway, which confused them even more, and they asked me to stand by, and then finally they asked me if I was classified as an ornithopter or a drone, and I said that I was an ornithopter, and then they said that I had clearance.

So I took off and flew over town. It was a lot bigger than Kalamazoo, so I had to be extra careful to keep track of where I was, since I didn't know it very well. And I kept looking back just to make sure that I got a good eye on the landmarks, just in case my watch stopped working.

There was a low spot in the mountains which I'd seen on the map and that was what I aimed for. I was pretty sure that that was where I wanted to go, and I knew that there was a golf course right by it, which would be a good landmark once I got close enough to see it.

I hadn't expected there to be four golf courses right next to each other, which was a little bit confusing, but then I saw the creek which was what I was going to follow, so I took the southern branch and went between the mountains.

Colorado Springs kind of just stopped where the mountains rose up, although there were occasionally houses that I saw. There was a road that ran right alongside the stream, and I followed along with it, too, until it ended at a park called Seven Falls.

When I flew a little bit further along the creek, I saw the waterfalls that the park was named for, and they were really pretty. The top was lit but the bottom was still in shadow, 'cause the mountain was blocking the sunlight from reaching the ground.

There were some people who were taking pictures of the waterfalls, and I slowed down a little bit when I went by in case they wanted to take a picture of me, too.

I followed the creek up the waterfall and there was a fork before I got too much further, so I guessed on the south branch, and followed that along until it forked again, and I went south again. I wasn't completely sure that I was still following the same creek, because I'd noticed that it had different names sometimes after forks, and I hadn't paid as much attention to the map as I should have.

As I got higher up, I started to see snow in the shadowy places, and then everywhere. There wasn't a lot of it, 'cause I wasn't all that high in the mountains, although I could see plenty further above me.

Since I might have been off-course, I paid close attention to make sure that there weren't any other airplanes or helicopters flying near me, and when I got close to where the creek ended, I found a big cluster of antenna towers on top of a peak, so I flew up just to get a closer look at them. Not too close, 'cause they could be dangerous.

I circled around them and looked at my watch to see what time it was. It didn't seem like I'd gone that far on the map, but the stream bent and twisted around, and it had taken longer than I'd thought, but I had enough time that I could reverse my route, so I circled around the antennas and then dropped back down into the valley.

I could have been a thousand miles from civilization; when I was flying along the stream I didn't see any people or signs of people. There were lots of animals out and about, and some of the smaller ones went running for cover when they saw me flying overhead, which made me feel bad. I didn't like scaring them away from their breakfast.

Going back was easier, 'cause it was all downhill, but I kept misestimating how far I could glide, since the air wasn't as thick as I was used to.

The water was really clear, and I kept seeing fish in it, and I thought about trying to catch one for a snack, although I wasn't sure if I was supposed to, and I thought I should ask John when I got back home.

When I got to the waterfalls, I felt like showing off, so I dropped down until I was practically skimming my hooves in the water, and then I shot over the top and I did have enough time to notice a couple of people stepping back from the edge as I dropped down to follow the creek.

I kept some altitude when I finally came out of the mountains, and I had to look around a bit until I found the airport, but I didn't have to look at my watch at all. And when I got back close to Peggy's house I had to circle around a little bit until I actually found it.

I took a shower and groomed myself, and then me and Peggy got in Cobalt so we could take it to Firestone to get its other tires put on. They were made out of a special kind of rubber that worked better in the cold and snow, and would make it grippier, which was important. Although Peggy said the way the weather forecast was looking she wasn't going to need them for around town anytime soon.

She said that her grandparents were in town shopping and were willing to give us a ride home, but I was kind of curious to see how they put new tires on, so we decided that we would wait for Cobalt to be done.

We weren't allowed out in the shop, which I thought was kind of unfriendly, but there was a little lounge where we could sit and it had windows so that we could watch. Peggy wasn't too interested in how they did it but since I was standing at the window with my muzzle to the glass, she decided that she was going to watch, too.

They put yellow metal arms under Cobalt and took the snow tires out of the trunk and back seat, and then they got them out of their bags and lifted Cobalt into the air and took the old ones off and put the new ones on, and it was a lot like putting a wheel on a wagon, except that they had nuts instead of a lynch pin to hold it on. And they had a tool that was kind of loud that put the nuts on, and it had a hose that went to it because it ran on air.

It didn't take very long before they put it back on the ground and put the old wheels back in the car for us. And it looked kind of different now, because the wheels had been shiny silver and now they were a dull black.

They'd looked under the hood, too, and before Peggy could pay and get her car back, the man at the counter told her that she needed to have some of her fluids flushed and he said that he could do it today while we waited, but she didn't want to, and I think that disappointed him a little bit.

We had to make our own lunch, which was just sandwiches because Peggy didn't feel like cooking anything more complicated. And the big table was gone and the little one had been put in its place, which made it a lot less crowded.

John was in the garage, sorting out the boxes of Christmas decorations, so when we were done eating we both went out to help, and he said that he wanted to start by putting lights on the house, and he said that I could help him with that, which was pretty exciting.

It took a while before we could start, though, because he couldn't find the box that had the lights. He said that he thought someone had moved it, but it turned out that it had just gotten turned so that the label was facing the wrong way and that was why he couldn't find it.

So he took it down and there were lots and lots of long strands of lights, which were all tangled together, and he and Peggy worked together to get them untangled and then they plugged them in to make sure that they still worked.

I put them out on the lawn after he'd tested them, and once he'd emptied the whole box and I had stretched rows of lights on the lawn, he came outside and he had a ladder so that he could reach up to where they could go.

He never had to use it, though, because I could just fly them up there. They were a little bit tricky to plug together while I was flying, and he finally thought to just plug them together on the ground and then have me carry them up like that. So he was helping to make a long string while I flew them where he wanted them. And there were little hooks up on the eves that I put the strands in.

It took most of the afternoon, but we got them all hung up and then he plugged them in and I flew along to make sure that they were all still working. Then he unplugged it again because he said that there was no use wasting electricity while the sun was out and you couldn't see them.

When Chrissie got home, she was a little bit mad 'cause he hadn't gotten all the boxes out of the garage, so she couldn't park there, but after Peggy showed her some pictures she'd taken of me hanging the lights outside, Chrissie wasn't mad anymore, and even helped carry the other boxes inside. One of them even had a Christmas tree inside of it.

Well, it turned out that the tree was a fake tree, but it was kind of neat to see how it all went together. You had to put the trunk together and then stick the branches in it, and pretty soon it actually looked almost like a real tree, although it didn't smell piney at all. But John thought that it was nice because it didn't shed needles like a real tree did, and because it didn't have to be watered at all.

We had leftover Thanksgiving food for dinner, and there was even leftover pie for dessert, and then we went back in the living room and started to decorate the tree. There were lots of little glass ornaments that went on it, and it got lights, too, and sparkly garland. And right at the very top there was an angel, but it was covering its face and John said that was because it was a weeping angel.

I knew that there were angels in the Bible, although I couldn't remember any of them crying, but John explained that it was from a television movie series called Doctor Who, and he explained how they couldn't move when you looked at them but if you looked away they could. That seemed kind of strange to me, especially when he said that they covered their eyes when they were moving because if two of them looked at each other they'd be trapped.

When it was dark outside, John turned the lights on and they were very pretty. We'd put them around the eves all the way around the house and then wrapped them around the evergreen tree in the front lawn, which was real.

Chrissie said that it looked like Christmas but it didn't feel like Christmas because it was so warm she was wearing a t-shirt and there wasn't any snow on the ground at all. And I told them that we always had to make sure that there was fresh snow for Hearth's Warming, and that maybe I could bring some to them if it got colder and there were snowclouds above the mountain.

John said that they'd be the envy of all their neighbors if I did, even if it melted later.

Then we went back inside and plugged in the Christmas tree and Peggy turned down the lights in the living room, and that was really pretty, too, and we sat in the living room and drank some leftover mulled wine and admired the tree. And I kept looking at the weeping angel, just in case it tried to get off the tree, even though it probably couldn't with a branch up its butt.

Peggy spent the rest of the evening packing up everything we'd need for snowboarding, and I sat at her desk and wrote in my journal while she was doing it. She had to go downstairs and have John help her take the summer tires out of Cobalt, and she had a lot of snowboarding gear that was in the garage, because she hadn't taken most of it to Kalamazoo.

She said that she did kind of feel bad getting home and staying for one day and then going off again, but she really wanted to get some good time snowboarding with me on real mountains, and we'd get to play with her friends, and maybe they'd teach me some new tricks. She said that some of them were better at it than she was.

We went to bed at a normal time, even though it was early for Colorado, so that we could get off to a fast start tomorrow morning.

Next Chapter: November 26 [Monarch Mountain] Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 3 Minutes