April 17
Meghan must have pushed me off her chest when she slept, and I must have rolled over too and then gotten trapped between her and the wall 'cause I was on my back and her arm was draped across my belly which wasn't the way I normally slept at all, even when I was with somepony else.
Not that I minded too much. I knew that it was probably time to get up and exercise, even though her curtains were still trying to trick me into thinking it was earlier than it was. But I'd exercised plenty yesterday and I was warm and didn't feel like moving at all. I shifted around so that I was a little bit closer to her and our heads were touching and rested my hoof on her hand and closed my eyes and sort of dozed off but not really.
When she first started stirring, she pulled her hand out from under mine and wrapped it around my hoof and squeezed it which woke me up all the way because even though I knew that humans were being friendly when they did that my instincts were to try and get away.
I guess I must have jerked away from her a little bit, because she let go of my hoof and dropped her hand back on my belly and I told her it was okay so she started petting me right along my ruff until she found my belly button and then she felt around that with her finger and then announced that I had a belly button as if she had just discovered fire.
I reminded her that she had one, too, and stuck my wing against her in more or less the right area—as close as I could get with her that near to me.
Meghan pushed the covers back so that she could see me better, and just looked down at my stomach, kind of pulling the hair aside until she could see it. Once she was happy with her inspection she moved her hand along my side and asked if she could feel under my wing which was also kind of a weird thing to ask but I let her run her fingers through the downy feathers right near my wing joints. She said I was fluffy and warm and I told her that mother pegasuses keep their foals warm under their wings, and then I wiggled out from under her hand and rolled over and stretched my wing across her. I couldn't cover very much of her 'cause she was bigger than me, but I did the best I could.
She traced her fingers along my wing for a little while and then said that we probably ought to get up so I folded my wing back against my side and waited for her to roll on her back because I knew she'd have to go that way to get out of bed. As soon as she had, I stretched my wing out against her belly to stop her then scooted over until I could rest my head on her breast and I told her that I wasn't ready to get up yet.
She tried to reach down to pull the covers back up over herself, so I stretched a wing across her stomach and said that I would keep her warm and she gave up on her efforts to escape bed and concentrated on petting my mane and scratching behind my ear and I was about the most contented pony ever.
We couldn't stay in bed forever, so I eventually let her go, and she went in the bathroom to start the shower. On my way in I opened the curtains to let some sunlight in the room, and when I got there she was already in: she was a lot quicker at getting in the shower when she wasn't wearing clothes.
Because we'd practiced before the shower went a lot better this time, and I decided that I kind of liked the crowding because it kept us close.
When we were done she wrapped a towel around herself and then started helping me dry off. She asked if I ever got out of a shower on really dry days and became fluffy all over, and I said that hadn't happened yet.
Meghan was a little mad that I had opened the curtains because she said now anybody could see into the room and I reminded her that the ground was several floors below so that the only student who could see in was me, and I was already here looking at her. She looked down at me and then said she would give me something to see and took hold of her towel and pulled it open and then wrapped herself back up again and told me that exhibitionism had never been her thing and didn't it feel a little weird that everyone on campus had probably seen my junk by now?
I said it was something I never thought of at all; it was no different than any other part of my body, and I didn't understand why it should be different. She said that it must be nice, and then said that she was going to try it, so she put her towel on the bed and lay down on her back and said it felt really weird so I got up next to her and covered her with my wing.
It would have been nice to spend the whole day with her, but she said that she had a group meeting after lunch and she was getting hungry since she'd skipped breakfast and I was, too, but I'd been too polite to say anything. So she finally got up and got dressed and then we went to lunch together and sat in a booth all the way in the back corner which wasn't where she normally sat.
When she had to leave to go to her group meeting I nuzzled her on the cheek and then she turned her head and kissed me right on the nose and then on the mouth and then waved at me as she walked off, and I wanted to just leave my tray where it was and follow her but I wasn't invited to her group meeting.
When I'd finished my dessert I took my tray back and flew across the quad back to my dorm room. It was a beautiful day outside and I was planning to go up to my room and get a book and sit in a tree and read it but when I folded my wings in I felt a loose feather catch and when I pulled it out I remembered that I had been thinking of making dreamcatchers and maybe today was the perfect opportunity. So instead of going back to my room right away I knocked on Rebekka's door and when she answered I asked if she could help me.
She'd never made one before, but she said that she would love to help, so we went to the Fine Arts building to get supplies. Rebekka agreed that it was too nice a day to be inside, so once she'd filled her bag we went back to the lawn and sat on the hill where the sun could shine right on us.
Rebekka made the first one while I watched in order to get an idea how to do it. For someone who had never made one before, she was really good at it and I could see why she was an artist. I'd sometimes seen ponies make landscape paintings along the seashore and I could never figure out how they could take something that they saw and then mix up some paint and put it on a canvas so easily when I couldn't even draw a good stickpony.
She had to go back and redo some of her work because it was her first one but by the time she was done it looked almost as good as the ones in the shop, and I liked it better because I'd seen it being made. So then I set to doing it myself, and it wasn't easy. I think if I had been making them for anything other than as a gift, I would have given up because it was so hard, and she had to help with the little knots that made it all stay together.
When it was time to put the feathers on I stretched out a piece of string and she reached in with the scissors to cut it then said that she thought it might be a bit more personal if I tied them on with a strand of hair from my tail and I thought that was a really good idea, so she reached through my tail until she found one that was just right and snipped it off and we cut it into three pieces and tied one feather to each.
I was pretty satisfied with how it had turned out. It wasn't as neat as the ones I'd seen, but it was a lot more personal, and I knew just where the first one ought to go.
She packed up the supplies and took them back to my room so that I could make more in my free time and I gave her a feather that wasn't the right size for a dreamcatcher, and she tied it into her hair and then invited me to dinner with her and Kat and Ruth.
After dinner there was still enough light for me to sit on a tree branch and finish Samuel—although it turned out there was another Samuel after the first one—and then I went back to my room and wrote a letter to my sister, started on another dreamcatcher, and then went to bed.
Sapphic Glow's Diary is getting greatThat would be a terrible name for a pony
I'm doing mental gymnastics trying to figure out what her making a dream catcher would look like
I feel for you, Silver Glow. I can't draw a decent stick figure either.
Don't feel bad Silver, neither can I.
interesting a true Dream catcher.
A) What if a dream catcher made with the feathers from a pegasus actually worked?
B) What if it allowed Princess Luna to access Earth?
7306297
This would be incredibly cool, and probably freak Silver out a bit.
7305110 All of NASA's spaceships have been mothballed, but there are private American companies that still build rockets, even taking our men up to the ISS.
Well, humans are simple creatures and easily fascinated.
Winghug! Oh my god, winghug.
......
7306237
Well, it's not wrong.
Yeah, I mean if she has problems opening the packaging of a calculator, I'm not sure how suited her hooves are for arts and crafts projects.
7306297
C) What if she ended up snared in the darn thing and woke up half the campus in her indignation?
Man, she's really making progress building her herd.
She's got her stallion, I assume she's the lead mare. Umm... Biscuit help me out, what were the other herd positions?
I wonder if the hooves are a pegusus thing. Would explain Rainbow and her hooves.
7306297 Yeah, that might not be good.
Luna: Get me out of this thing!
Silver: Just a second, Your Highness. It's caught around your hoof.
Luna: I know that! The blasted thing is sticky! I can't even pry it off my horn!
7306297
It only works if it's made with Luna's feathers.
7305391 sounds a million times more funny in english than in german
7306297
C) What if she got stuck
This is probably a cultural difference. Ponies just see cuddling different than we do.
I've heard that there are legal restrictions on what kind of feathers can be used in dream catchers. The ones sold to tourists are not authentic. Pegasus feathers are not yet restricted.
Possibly worth big $ -if you are crass enough sell a gift when the giver might find out.
Awww. So cute.
I was expecting a dream catcher, I got a lot and lot of cuddle instead.
I just realized we've never seen a description of SG's cutie mark. Is it the one from G3 canon? (A bunch of green and blue stars, from what I can find)
I know it isn't intentional, but man, Meghan grinds my gears sometimes.
7305945 (Scootaloo has hooves. Chickens don't have hooves. Thus we can logically deduce that Scootaloo is not a chicken> <What is this I don't even.)
Anyway... Dreamcatcher was a thought provoking chapter. Would there be any chance that feathers from a magical pony combined with Native American lore might actually
...work instead of just looking pretty? <And what could I sell them for?)
]Electricity
Ponies probably use it industrially. It is just too useful for them not to. Making aluminum, arc welding, electroplating & doubtless other stuff.
Home use? Well, Pegasus cities are probably like trailer parks except more spread out & no utility hook ups.
Earth Ponies, first there is the cost. As late as the 1930s about 40% of the USA didn't have electricity because electric companies charged to run the power lines to your house & in rural areas that could cost over a year's income.
There might be cultural barriers as well. I point to Winter Wrap Up. Earth Ponies have an attitude about Unicorn magic. They would rather do the job without any, even if it means a LOT more work. Electricity isn't magic , but Ponies might be confused about that especially if Unicorns invented generators.
So, about 2/3 the population can't or won't use it & that is why you don't see any power lines.
!
Wonderful chapter. Meghan and SG are still utterly adorable together, but now there's finally a slow burn going on. That alone wouldn't be all that interesting, but your description of the way Meghan is trying out pony social norms is fascinating. Cultural exchanges cut both ways... and irrespective of how this all ends, Meghan is going to take something far more valuable with her than just ponycuddling.
Hmm... Aric is SG's boyfriend alright, but Meghan seems to fit (or soon will) the currently unoccupied niche marefriend. SG's descriptions of her sound increasingly pony and I love it.
And pegasus dreamcatchers. I want one too!
7306507 you switched from definitions to phonetics. In a phonetic language, the pronunciation is inherent on the spelling but you basically said that the word would contain the definition based on the spelling
I've been wondering about the pony aversion to hoof-grabbing.
I get that the hoof-shake isn't something they do in this setting (although I think it happens in the show on occasion), but why the instinctive panic reaction? Note that Silver doesn't seem to have any issue with being pinned or enveloped while snuggling, even though that traps her far more effectively than just grabbing her hoof.
7307257
I wouldn't go that far - maybe "just as valuable".
7307618
I concede... ponycuddling is hard to top.
Meghan's getting bolder. Is Silver going to remain oblivious? Will Aric return to a request to let Meghan into the herd? Will something even crazier happen?
7306450 Are we talking Tripartite or Kinstrong? Tripartite is just broken up into Stallion, Lead Mare, and Rump Herd. The Kinstrong Model has the Stallion, the Lead Mare, the Facilitator, the Companion, the Organizer, the Guardian, and the Scout.
(
StolenBorrowed without permission from the Xenophile's Guide to Equestria.)7307213
This sounds kind of reminiscent of today's problems with broadband coverage...
Either tell us what she's filling her bag with, or just tell us she filled her bag.
7307680
Canterlot is basically a welfare state then.
7307680
Ummmmm, no. Mares of Diomedes is kind of squicky on a whole different level because it's meant to be torturous and bloody. Only one chapter in the second story, The Alchemist's Heart, comes close to what Mares is, in my opinion.
Of course, I'm biased against Heart because I reacted so badly to that chapter, which was only partially because of the bloodiness.
EDIT: Outside of that one chapter, and its fallout, the stories are dark but upbeat and I rather enjoyed them. Most of the awfulness is about screwing with the protagonist's mental state rather than actual physical trauma.
7307743
Which is the exact point where we do not ask Silver how she knows the size of that.
7307691 I guess. In other news, here's a Japanese Spiderman...man.
It is my Head Canon that in the Good Old Days getting your Cutie Mark was the start of your adulthood. You could marry, sign contracts, join the army, whatever. Now, all that is regulated by age. But, it still has social importance.
7308018
s3.amazonaws.com/colorslive/jpg_512x512/301363-CJd-Ji7zlvk6acRb.jpg
7308054 Wardrobe technology on your wrist! Awesome!
With that kind of power I could put my clothes on in the morning so quickly!
Aww a pegasus feather dream catcher is so nice! I wonder who is gonna get her first one?
And I sense some sort of buildup concerning a relationship between Silver Glow and Meghan. I'm actually kind of worried now. If this is going where I think this is going, then I have a bad feeling about this.
7307743 I think Meghan wants to go further, albeit slowly, and she thinks that Silver is welcoming it. However, it seems Silver is oblivious to Meghan's advances and simply thinking she is being very friendly.
7308255 Silver definitely knows Meghan might be interested, there was some talk about her being a furry a while back. I read Silver as down for whatever but letting Meghan take the lead, probably because of humanity's many hang-ups with sexuality that Silver doesn't really understand.
That said, one of the IMO great things about this story is that Silver's writing for herself at least to the extent that she doesn't explain her thought processes where they vary from human. So it's easy to have textual and interpretation issues. Like, my feelings are:
-Silver doesn't seem to mind being as intimate as Meghan wants to be
-Silver doesn't think this is cheating, either because she doesn't think sex implies romance, or she doesn't think romance implies exclusivity
-Silver doesn't indicate any frustration with this, which implies to me that ponies don't really have a concept of "blue balls" or whatever (this also seems to be the case based on how happy she is to generally snuggle up with people)
But of course, I could be wrong about any of these, because it's all subtext! For example, it's possible she thinks Meghan is totally platonic, she's in a monogamous relationship with Aric, and the kind of contact she's been having with Meghan isn't sexual to her at all, so it isn't that sexual frustration isn't a thing for her, it's just that none of this trips it. That's a lot of what I like about a lot of the Admiral's stuff, but it's on strong display here. She's a great unreliable narrator not because she's being dishonest, but because she's talking to herself and so assumes the reader is coming from her place, not ours.
Apropos of nothing, I got an email from a CSR today named Aric, which I'd never seen spelled that way outside this story. I resisted the urge to ask him how his horse wife was doing
7306237
That would be a great name for a pony. Better than Night Soil, one of the OCs in OPP.
A lot of awkward holding things with her hoof while moving around thread in her mouth. That's why she needs a helper; she can't tie the knots on her own.
7306257
I can draw cartoon airplanes and cartoon trucks and once drew a pretty good soldier but that was more luck than skill, I think.
7306276
I wonder how long it would take to teach myself to draw?
7306286
As long as it doesn't accidentally catch Luna.
7306297
I would think that a dreamcatcher made from Princess Luna's feathers probably would work.
Which has the potential for a story in it, methinks.
7306343
"Oh, hi, Princess. This is a bit awkward."
7306376
I thought that they were only taking supplies and the Russians were taking our men.
7306379
Yes, we are.
They really aren't. That's why she needs help. She can do some stuff with her mouth, but not everything.
7306407
That would be awesome.
7306450
What 7307706 said (Kinstrong).
7306466
It's being grabbed that worries her, not being touched. It's a prey reaction: if she's grabbed, she can't get away.
7306516
No, it would be wonderful.
7306536
And the webbing could be made from her tail hair for extra effectiveness.
7306547
What's it called in German?
7306562
Oh, that's wonderful.
derpicdn.net/img/2015/12/10/1041383/large.jpeg
(related)
7306599
They do. Cuddling is part of being friends. Like hugging.
That actually might be a really good export for Equestria for a while (until the market is saturated) since if pegasi moult they would have a vast number of feathers that they haven't got any use other than to sell as quills.
7306618
7306651
And a dream catcher. So it's a win/win!
7306978
Is it because she isn't clear on what she wants from Silver Glow?
7306807
Yes, the G3 cutie mark is the one she has.
7307021
Yes, I think they might. Maybe not on Earth (or not work well for non-ponies on Earth) but they would probably work in Equestria.
7307213
Arc welding you could just use lightning bolts from a pegasus or possibly a unicorn could 'weld' with her horn. I think you could make aluminum with lightning; you also can without electricity but it's really expensive. I'd have to look up the process. I know that in Napolean's time, pure aluminum was more valuable than gold.
While I prefer to go the 'no electricity (as we know it)' route, if it was your headcanon that they did have electricity, those would be logical reasons to limit it. Maybe some parts of some big cities like Manehattan have it, or certain industrial plants have their own on-site generator (like an aluminum factory), but most ponies do without because of expense, logistics, or just pain old-fashioned stubbornness.
7307257
Sometimes it's the subtle stuff that you take away from a place that really matters in the end, isn't it? And really, they're both learning at the same time because Silver Glow is a bit more comfortable with Meghan about stuff like that than she is with Peggy.
7307618
Her first instinct as a prey animal when she feels her hoof being grabbed is to try and get away. If she'd been all the way awake when Meghan did it, she wouldn't have reacted but since she wasn't her instinct took over for a moment.
She's used to cuddling, but she's not used to having her hoof grabbed. Odds are that basically never happened in Equestria--hoof bumps, yes, even 'hoofshakes' like AJ and Twilight did in the opener, but this is hand around her pastern (wrist). She's also likely to respond badly to an unexpected grab at her neck.
7307706
Possibly all of those things!
7307753
Heck, when I was in high school there were still some people who didn't have home phones.
7307897
She filled her bag with raw art.
7307911
It's filled with unicorn politicians, so. . . .
7307963
Well, I might give it a look then. I don't mind certain levels of gore in a story if they're justified at least somewhat.
7307993
Who do you think stars in pony porns? Fun fact: donkeys are the most well-endowed of the equines.
7308027
That's my thought, too. I don't think that it's illegal per se to still do things that way, but that for the most part society has moved on and most ponies wait until they're older, out of school, etc.
7308091
I know, right? That would be such a timesaver. As it is these days if I wake up late I have to go to work naked and nobody likes that.
7308242
Peggy gets the first one, 'cause she's Silver's roommate.
You are not entirely right, but you're not far wrong either--Silver's not oblivious.
7308550
Yes; Silver knows. Christine pretty much told her that Meghan wanted to have sex with her.
Maybe not 'whatever,' but so far Meghan hasn't crossed into Silver's no-zone.
Your feeling are pretty much spot-on. Especially that second one, and that's the most important one. You really are a wizard.
That should be her tagline: Silver Glow, unreliable narrator.
I actually stole the name from a kid I met at church camp way back when. He's the only person I've ever met who spelled Aric like that. And maybe the same person you got the email from.