January 23
Ugh. Today turned into a lousy day.
My morning trot was fun. There hadn't been a lot of people out exercising yesterday because of the snow, but they were back again this morning. Not all the sidewalks are clear, so the man I sometimes trot with was running on the road. I stayed on the sidewalk like I'm supposed to, but I flew over the places that were still snowy. He said that he wished he could fly. I told him that there were nice men like Mark who could help him get a pilot's license and then he could. He laughed and said that that wasn't what he meant.
When I got back to the dorm room, Peggy said that she had to go to Walgreens (which is not very far) because she was out of tampons. I didn't know what those were, so she explained it to me. It turns out humans go in and out of heat just like ponies, except that they do it all year long. (That's also why she smelled different yesterday, I bet.)
I couldn't really think of anything I needed from Walgreens, but I thought it would be interesting to go. I didn't have anything else I was planning to do, anyway, besides playing in the snow, and I could put that off. The snow would still be here when we got back.
Walgreen's is down the hill at the bottom of campus, and around the corner, and Peggy said she'd heard that it used to be a Burger King, which is a restaurant, but then they had made it into a store. Just like Meijer, there are big glass doors that know when you're coming and open up for you, and once you get inside there is shelf upon shelf of stuff. Humans like to have lots of choices of things to buy, and I still wasn't sure what kinds of things they needed and what they didn't.
Peggy knew where she was going, so I followed her. She went around to the back of the store and picked up a little blue box with a yellow end. I was kind of disappointed that this was all we'd come for, and asked if it was okay if I looked around the store a bit, 'cause I was interested in what other kinds of things were for sale here. There weren't so many people crowded in like there had been at Meijer, so I didn't feel as overwhelmed by it all.
She thought that was a good idea, and started taking me on a little tour of the store. There were boxes filled with pills for every imaginable purpose, and she said that in back, there were more pills that you had to use a prescription from a doctor to get.
There were shelves of beauty supplies and shampoos and soaps and clever elastic hair ties. Peggy snickered when she saw them, and said that on Earth when people tie their hair back it's called a pony tail. And I thought about buying some, even though it would be strange to have my mane tied back, and my tail hung just fine on its own.
Then we went and looked at the food, and Peggy decided that she needed to get some Doritos and Pop Tarts as well, and that she should have gotten a basket to carry things she wanted in.
Well, I knew right where those were; I'd seen them on the way in, so I said I'd get one. She asked if I was sure, and I nodded. They had little handles that you could carry in your mouth, just like a proper wicker basket.
It was a little tricky to pull one out of the pile; I had to stand on my hind hooves to get the handles but I managed. But when I moved back, I accidentally bumped into a man's legs.
He was wearing a nice suit, like Mister Salvatore was when I first met him, and I muttered an apology to him.
He spat at me! And then he said that when Trump was president he was gonna build a wall to keep us all out (how would that work?) and I dropped the basket and took a step back and bumped into the counter.
When he moved forward, I reared and spread out my wings, and that was enough to get him to back up, which gave me enough room to get free. I know I'm not supposed to fly inside, but he started yelling about goddamned ponies and bleeding liberals and his face was getting red, so I flew up to the counter and told him that I had every right to be here. Princess Celestia said so.
By then, one of the Walgreens workers had heard the commotion, and he came running up to see what was going on. The angry man said that he wasn't ever going to shop here again if they were letting livestock into their store.
Peggy came running up along with another store employee, and pretty soon she was yelling at the angry man while the two employees tried to calm things down.
He finally stormed out of the store, and I saw him get into his car and start it up—he'd left it right in front of the front doors. I went to pick up the basket, but Peggy shook her head and said that we were leaving.
She bought her tampons and then the two of us went out the front door. I saw the angry man's car was right next to the door—he hadn't left like he was supposed to have—and before either of us could react, he threw a cup of coffee at us and then raced off into the street.
Peggy shouted that he was a motherfucking cocksucking asshole and that if he had any balls at all he'd come back and fight like a real man, but he was too far away to hear her. Then she said that she was sorry for swearing in front of me, and that we were going to go back to campus.
Instead of going to our room, though, she went to Christine's room, because it was closer. On the way there, she asked me if I was okay, and if the man had hurt me at all. I said he hadn't; he'd just said lots of mean things.
Christine was surprised to see us, and surprised to see that Peggy was covered in coffee, so Peggy had to explain what had happened, and then said that she was going to take a shower and decide if she wanted to try and press charges.
She propped the bathroom door open and kept on talking while she was in the shower. I stretched out on the papasan and Christine sat with me while she talked back to Peggy. Since she was sitting with me, she ran her fingers through my mane and petted my coat. It was very nice of her, and helped calm me down.
Once Peggy was done in the shower, she had to borrow some of Christine's clothes, which didn't fit her very well. She's got bigger breasts and bigger hips than Christine, and she's a little shorter.
They decided that there wasn't any point in doing anything about it. They'd wind up spending most of Saturday talking to policemen, and probably nothing would come of it. I suggested that maybe I could tell Mister Salvatore and that he could get something done, and we all decided that was the best idea. He'd know what to do. He got me an ornithopter license; surely he could handle this.
Rather than go back to our room, Christine decided that we'd have fun in her room, so she got out some beer, and she and Peggy started to play a game on the television. It was called Mario Kart, and it was a racing game. They explained all the rules to me as they were playing, and Christine even decided that I could give it a try if I wanted to. I didn't have any luck with it; even with her holding the controller, there were too many buttons and I crashed a lot.
But it was fun watching them play it.
Throughout the day, some more people showed up, and pretty soon we had a game of euchre going, a couple of people playing Mario Kart, and a couple of other people just watching and talking. One of Christine's roommates, a girl named Cecilia who had frizzy hair that was a slightly oranger shade than Christine's, joined us, along with a pale girl with jet-black hair named Amanda. That was half of her roommates. Amanda said that I was really cute.
I was kinda able to forget about how the morning had been, ‘cause all of us were hanging out together and having fun, but then after dinner when we were back in our dorm room, I was in bed and it just kind of hit me again, how mean that man was for no reason! He didn't even know me.
Pretty soon I was crying, but trying to be quiet so I wouldn’t disturb Peggy—it wasn’t her fault she was dragged into it, and she had her clothes ruined by him—but she heard me anyway.
She got out of her bed and came over and got in with me and told me that it would be all right; Mister Salvatore (who I had sent a computer letter to) would take care of it, and that that guy was just an asshole. I told her how awful I felt, not only because of him, but because he’d ruined her clothes, and she said that was okay, at least nothing else had happened and then she hugged me until I was all cried out.
Lousy? You just need a delousing.
7046523
I'm still waiting for the fic where the human protagonist gets fleas from the ponies.
Ponies are for hugging, not yelling.
Political s**tstorm incoming, 3, 2, 1...
Well there is always bound to be a few nut cases around. It makes me sad that the golden rule is almost completely ignored in today's culture. Who would seriously yell at a pony.
I almost want to start ranting about US politics but I won't because this is not the place for it. Maybe this just reflects something that happened to the author and he's using the story to illustrate it. Maybe not and it is a political thing. I'm not going to start the flame war.
7046554
Yes. All my yes.
7046560
At least it will be more current than the long-running discussion of Marx and socialism. . . .
7046579
That hasn't stopped some of the previous commentors
I typically prefer to keep ponies and politics separate, but the absurdity of the idea of Donald Trump building a wall to keep magical talking ponies out almost made me spit my drink.
I would hope that the existence of a stable relationship with an alien world would change politics for the better. We would get reasonable political candidates with common sense views on how to solve the problems of immigration, like mandatory importation and an increase in Hug1B Visas. Maybe even superior election slogans, like:
"Make America Cuddly Again"
"Hope and Changlings"
and my favorite "A Scootaloo in every pot and a Silver Spanner in every garage"
7046554 I mean, if you consider Bulk Biceps and Princess Luna, the argument could be made that ponies are for yelling and hugging.
7046554 Widewings for President!
7046696 more slogans, please.
Also, Admiral. Brace for contact.
Well... this is exactly what would happen at some point or other. And that's universal, it would happen at some point, whether you're in the Trump department in the US or the right-wing corner here in Denmark. Guess the chances are higher in the US, but still.
Anyway, lovely chapter. The end was perfect really.
On edit: maybe someone caught the store scene on video as well? Now that would get a reaction on the interwebs.
What's hilarious is that given the -very- tight control interdimensional travel gives you, it's 99.99999999% certain that if you saw a pony, they're a -legal- immigrant.
Most Trumpers are torqued about illegals, thus the "build wall" meme.
Making a pony cry: the definition of unacceptable.
To be fair Trump is anti-illegal immigration not the normal kind. But the kooks will latch onto it for rabid isolationism and racism. What was hilarious was when the pope said it was anti christian and to tear down the walls. The Vatican is totally surrounded by walls.
The best thing for Silver to do would to fly above the car where she would not be seen but still under the FAA controlled space and follow him to his home. Get the address and dox him on youtube with tears and puppy dog eyes. I can see real spontaneous protesters forming outside his house.
If the police charge him, he would be guilty of illegal parking and two counts of assault. If the police can finagle assault charges for people spitting on them, they can do it for other people. 80 hours of community service at the homeless shelter would be a perfect punishment.
http://www.twincities.com/2016/03/19/after-applebees-assault-minnesota-panel-votes-to-increase-hate-crime-penalties/
This chapter gave me a sad.
I don't know what I'd expected from a chapter with "lousy day" in the title, but I wasn't expecting some nut to yell at a pony and throw coffee at them.
I really want to give Silver a hug. I know I could use one right now.
I find it funny that the old cliché "angry and unreasonable conservative" character in this chapter nowadays much better fits the left.
So if you are going to go and take a political stance in this story, why not introduce the pony to;
"safe spaces", "microaggressions", "trigger warnings", no-platforming, Black Lives Matter, third wave feminism, and all the other hilarious leftist Social Justice Warrior shenanigans that takes place at colleges today?
7046560
Not gonna happen.
Not because we are being civil or sane or polite, but because he is a political shitstorm.
You can't start a hurricane inside of another hurricane!
Except for hurricane Ike; iirc no one has figured out how it managed to form two eye cell walls and be as massive as it grew!
7046523 When I read the title for the chapter, I immediately wondered if she had to see the vet for it!
I'm surprised that this man's actions didn't start a riot. That's what I expect would happen in real life.
7046927
Those walls were built in the 15th century, how does that invalidate the Pope's argument?
Well, this was regrettable. I started composing a few more analytical comments, but I think treading on eggshells is the way to go with this one. Suffice to say, it was an interesting plot development and I look forward to seeing what comes of it.
Suddenly took a darker turn there. Had to check to make sure I was stillr reading the same story.
7046560 I dunno, and don't think so.
Could be Trump or any other politicain playing the fear and hate card. And thus any kind of idiot following said type of politicain and not really thinking about the praticality. I mean, build a wall to stop ponies from another dimension? How do you even do that?
It doesn't really matter if the guy follow Trump or M.Genericfarrigthpolitician, he is just an angry idiot.
Period.
And we can get back to hugging a crying pony.
Well it was certain that Silver would find someone who didn't like ponies sooner or later. It's just a shame it was such a jerk and that he got semi physical about it. It's just as well she has a nice group of friends to help her out.
I wonder if this event will lead into her first real bout of homesickness, not having any other ponies to talk things over with, a human can only help so far particularly if things escalate.
I don't think she's mentioned sending anything home, only to her friend on earth, I would assume there would at least be a postal system to Equestria even if it's slow (It's not clear if the 'portal' between the planets is permanent or has to be opened to schedule). She might even get a care package from home. We don't know much about her family either, she's mentioned a sire a few times, I'm not sure if she said anything about a mother or any siblings.
7046982
I think it's important to realize that "angry and unreasonable" extremists exist regardless of what side of the political spectrum you look at. It is true that there are a bunch of nutty concepts that come from the liberal side of things, but the same can be said about conservatives. I suppose it all depends on you perspective and where you get your news from. Stuff that we disagree with sticks out to us more and tends to present the worst view of your opposition regardless of your own leanings. Also the existence of the media bias makes things even worse. It is hard separate facts from rhetoric at the best of times.
In regard to this story, it should be noted that Silver Glow's viewpoint lends a bit of credence to how things have been presented. She has been on earth for less than 1 month and hasn't begun to pick up on all of the social nuances of human society. All those things you mentioned may be present, but she just hasn't noticed them. She hasn't even been on Youtube! How could she notice all the SJW controversy if she's never been exposed to it? Would she even be able to understand it all? On the other hand a man yelling in your face is hard to ignore. And as much as I hesitate to point it out, right wing fanatics would (in my opinion) be much more likely to be unhappy with Silver Glow than say, a SJW Feminist would. She's just not incompatible with their worldview.
All in all I think this was Admiral throwing a bit of conflict at Silver Glow rather than him making a political statement. Besides only someone unreasonable would take offense with her (she's so adorable), so the individual in question needs to be a raving lunatic.
(On an unrelated note where exactly is this school again? I got politics on the brain now and I wanna look at the local area politics.)
Anti-alien becomes a little more literal.
Introducing someone not familiar with it into the furious core of our controversies and the lingering hatred in the hearts of men.
Neat!
Hey Admiral, I want to say thanks for writing this story. It's nice to be able to come to fimfiction every day or two and find something well written waiting for me to consume. I love your take on ponies.
As far as the jerk character in this chapter, I am relatively impressed that even though he was a deluded cretin, he performed these actions on his own. Usually it takes a whole group of like-minded d-bags for them to gather up the courage to put on such a shameful show.
7046652
And a pegasus, no less. How would that even work?
7046696
I would hope so, too, but the cynical side of me insists that wouldn't actually happen, or if it did, it wouldn't last.
I would vote for any candidate that used one of those slogans. Incidentally, if you hadn't heard, Ted Cruz's favorite pony is Applejack.
7046836
+1
7047213
I agree with your first part with the caveat that the left has more and more become totally unhinged, and the classic "angry/stupid republican" trope is quickly giving way to the new "angry/stupid leftist" trope.
For the second part, well, she is shown walking about campus quite a lot, and the one thing SJWs are good at, its making quite a bit of noise and drawing attention to themselves. As whats the point of being "the good guys" if no one notices how "good" you are? Better make sure everyone knows. And those that disagree with you arent even human. Since if you are "the good guys" that must mean they are the "bad guys" and afforded no human rights. This is the logic of the new left.
7046840
7046844
Yup, unfortunately.
Thanks!
Well, it's a safe bet that Walgreens has surveillance cameras near the front door/cash registers, so. . . .
7046890
Yeah, I haven't gone into details in the story, but most fics (this one included) presume that the portal or whatever is rather tightly controlled. it isn't just an unguarded statue that anyone can walk through.
7046925
It's illegal in Canada.
7046927
That's the case with a lot of rhetoric, to be honest. The extremists will take it to the extreme end, whether or not that's what the candidate actually meant.
That would be one option, although it probably wouldn't change his mind. Might backfire, even.
The agency Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn work for can lean on him even harder. And they'll find him. Walgreens has security cameras, after all.
7046965
Thank you for that!
7046978
I think we all want to give Silver a hug.
Really, the world needs more hugs.
7046982
I think it fits both sides.
Well, I'm not trying to take a political stance; however, since it's told from the perspective of a contemporary student at an American college during an election year, it would be stretching credulity for there to not be any mention of current issues or politics.
That having been said, when I attended that college, there weren't all that many 'SJW shenanigans' going on. Perhaps that's changed in the intervening decades, or perhaps only a small percentage of students participated in that kind of thing.
7046995
When it comes time to have her hooves trimmed or her coat groomed. . . .
7047062
It would depend on how many people were there, and how many of them were impassioned enough to get involved.
7046927
...Unless you're a Muslim. And speaking as an ESL teacher who works with Muslims every day, that's still pretty awful.
Anyway, Admiral Biscuit, this was definitely a different turn, but a realistic one. It's very true that sometimes people are just jerks, regardless of political leanings, and it always hurts to be discriminated against. Poor Silver Glow.
7047282
I agree it fits individuals on both sides. But the point I am trying to make is that the "liberal" left is more and more abandoning sane, rational arguments and quickly becoming the exact boogyman republican they have spent their lives making fun of.
And the SJW stuff has exploded the last 2 years. Its so much worse now.
7047113
Not everyone welcomes our new pony overlords.
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw1986-ponyoverlords.jpg
7047167
Words of wisdom. Angry idiots will always find a bandwagon to jump aboard.
7047211
Unfortunately, there's always going to be that guy. Maybe lots of them.
That's a good question, and I don't have a good answer.
Yeah, they can send stuff through. There's a limited tourism industry between the two worlds, but visas are very limited at the moment.
Bleh. politics
7047282
7046560
I "hang" with ultra-conservatives on Tumblr (the kind that think the Republicans aren't conservative enough), uber-liberals on Facebook (the kind that find the actions of Soviet Russia, North Korea, and Cuba perfectly reasonable), and the vastly politically uninformed on Twitter (the type that think "caucus" is a word that identifies a body part), and they all have one thing in common: every last one of them thinks Trump is a moron using Hitlerian tactics to rabble-rose the worst elements of the country and desperately wish he would magically disappear and take his vitriol and propaganda with him.
Using a Trump supporter as the bad guy in this fic is really not that controversial.
7047213
Yes. This is an important point too many people miss.
Kalamazoo, Michigan. And the school itself is a private, liberal arts college.
7047215
7047217
You're quite welcome!
It's easier to kick a puppy than a bear.
7047293
I wasn't going to bring that up, but yeah.
Sadly, it won't be the last time for Silver Glow.
7047295
Are they, or is only some small percentage, which is either becoming more extreme or getting more media coverage? This isn't a trick question; I don't have a factual answer for that.
7047302
Says the guy with the Luna avatar
(God she's cute)
7047315
I also have friends with extreme biases each way, and sometimes it's fun to watch the train wrecks; other times I just shake my head and weep for our country.
some people just want to see their comment section burn
EDIT : or not, I guess it's difficult to be a brony and a trump supporter at the same time
7047319
But will Trump blend?
7047293 Yea its kinda comparable to the changelings. For a lot of people the only exposure they have to Muslims is them committing mass murder against us. It is hard to look past that and with no incentive to find anything past that. The governments make that even harder. My uncle worked all over the middle east and he said in Saudi Arabia our biggest Muslim "Ally" that woman are literally classified as property. My aunt was confined to the American base there unless escorted by her husband.
7047269 Didn't know they are government workers. I thought they were just like a family taking in a foreign exchange student.
7047282
Let's mistake the vet for the spa
By the way, for some reason horses don't get lice or fleas or any kind of hair/skin parasites, except if kept in really bad conditions. Don't know if it's the same for ponies, of course.
7047256
7047422
7047407
Not really difficult to be a Trump supporter and a Brony if you fact check what the media presents as "reality".
For example, I used to be rabid anti-Trump and convinced he was a Hillary false flag op because just as short as 8 months ago (and my entire life previous), I thought the mainstream media more or less was respectable to certain degrees.
But since I watch the debates and the rally speeches, on both sides, I started to realize over the months just the sheer depth of the half-truths, comment mining, news angling, and outright lies that was going on against Trump.
At first I was filled with gleeful schadenfreude.
But then it just continued. And got worse.
I started to wonder why they were painting him as the second coming of Hitler. So I started to research. And the more I researched, the more I realized the Old Media and Republican Establishment hated him for no good reason I could find compared to some of the other candidates.
Except for one thing. Control. He was not bought and paid for, and he did not adhere to the dogmas of the Politically Correctness Religion and its Media Priesthood.
For telling things truthfully and by evidence of the GoP and Media bias against him, he is the best hope USA has of not sliding into the vast unwashed shite'hole European socialism is.
Believe me, I live in Sweden and know full well the horrors this system has created. Of the giant ponderous bloated Government, suffocating every free enterprise in the country like a giant urine soaked rag over your face.
Welp, I was expecting that to happen sometime. Thankfully it was only one person and didn't turn too violent.
And the comment section is relatively civil at this point.
7047422 Not if a wall on the Mexican border has anything to say about it.
7047743 Hadrian will make Rome great again
The Picts will pay for their own damn wall
Etc
7047347
Oh, no.
It's hard for me to say what racist groups would think of an alien, since I don't know their doctrine. (I've never found any reason to study it.) They may not have any problem with ponies--there's no obvious ox they're goring. The Nazis didn't have any problems with Japanese or Italians, for example. The KKK was virulently anti-Irish, and in the 20s many people considered the Irish as almost in the same camp as African-Americans. Today, considering the Irish a separate race would be laughable, but a lot of people in the past didn't think so.
People seem to be using the train of logic that Racists=Hate, Hate=Bad, Hating Ponies=Bad, therefore Racists=Hating Ponies. My point is that these people don't actually use this train of thought. A more realistic treatment of this was the Quarrymen in Gargoyles, founded to destroy the titular characters--they were explicitly anti-racist, because all humans should stick together.
How groups end up for or against each other has a large component of path dependence, too. We don't know enough about Pony politics to say for sure (nor will canon ever answer the question), but there's some plausible stances that ponies could take that would make them considered "right-wing" if those became the first friction points that blew up in public. They'd be considered "left-wing" if others became the first public argument.