May 4 [Force Day]
May 4
Not too long after I took to the sky, it started raining, and not a drizzle, but a good genuine soaking rain that farmponies love. I loved it, too; it's a lot of fun to fly in the rain although you have to be careful because it muffles sounds and smells and of course you lose vision, too. And I could stay out in it longer because it washed off all the sweat and so I didn't have to take a shower at all when I was done with my flight, which was a real time-saver. My mane and tail were wet and droopy but even if I'd taken a shower and combed them out they would have looked the same again by the time I got to class, so why bother?
The talk at the breakfast table today was that Ted Cruz had dropped out of the presidential race, leaving only John Kasich who didn't have very many votes and wasn't too popular with anyone. Meanwhile both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were still competing, and there was some debate at the table which one would win.
I thought it would make sense if all of them competed together; what was the point of having one set of elections to pick two semi-finalists and then another to pick the winner? It would be a lot easier if people could just choose from all the candidates. But I guess that's not the way it works; there are only two parties and when there is a third people get confused.
Before anyone could talk too much about politics, Christine held up her hand and said that what was more important was that today was Force Day, named in honor of Star Wars. Then she reached out and touched everyone's forehead and said 'may the force be with you' when she did.
I didn't feel any different after but that was okay; it was still nice of her.
Professor Sir Doctor Banerjee told us about the phase portrait which is the picture of the orbit in general on the plane. And he said that no matter what, it would make a particular shape, which was a definite structure. Then he explained the bifurcation diagram, which was where you started to plot specific points on the plane to see what that did to system behavior. And after he explained all of it, he brought up a map which showed us easily how the system behaved with a period one orbit for a while, then it had two, then four, then eight, then it got pretty chaotic after that.
This was important because it easily showed us the points where things started to get unstable, and he explained that most likely if we could figure out why it went from one to two, it would be the same reason it went from two to four, and so on. Then he wrote a fourth-order equation on the markerboard and told us to solve it.
That was difficult but a lot of fun. We'd already solved two equations for the period one orbit, and after he hinted that they were roots of the period two equation, it wasn't that hard to solve. Since Sean was struggling, I helped him out in exchange for him writing down all the symbols which I wasn't very good at.
Once we'd all had a chance to figure that out, he showed us several of the different graphs layered on top of each other, and then what we'd been calculating all made sense. We could see how the period kept doubling over time, and when he made the layered graphs again we could see how the original points were still on the line, along with more new ones.
I think that one of the most interesting things about the math class was how many ways there were to explain things that were really too complicated to easily understand, and then put them all together for a pretty good approximation of what was happening.
They had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and Christine said that they would be really nice if they'd made them right but they were too soggy and greasy. Sean dipped his in tomato soup and said that if you ate it that way it was really good.
She said if it was meant to be eaten that way than they would have grilled cheese soup, and he held his hand over her mouth and told her not to say that where they could hear. Then he said if there was grilled cheese soup on the menu for dinner he was going to make her drink a whole bowl of it.
Christine told him that they wouldn't think of that, and he just crossed his arms and glared at her.
Professor Amy told us about personality development. She started off by saying that there were some genetic aspects to it; that people could be born with traits that didn't fit well in their current social setting. That was a lot of words to say that pegasuses weren't happy when they had a groundpony foal. I suppose the same was true with unicorns having anything but another unicorn. I'd heard the earth pony parents didn't mind having unicorn or pegasus foals, though, because they could also be useful on a farm or on a ship.
There was a pegasus who lived in town who did all the thatching work and lived in a ground-house and she liked it. She didn't like flying much higher than roofs, which was weird. I think she just wasn't used to it. But she was really strong from lifting bundles of thatches and sometimes her helper when they had a big job like the roof of the pub.
Professor Amy said that what mattered the most after that was how the child was raised; what the social expectations of the parents and community were, and how the child learned what to adopt. Then she said besides the potential problems with genetic traits, there was a theory that there were three different types of personality: tradition-oriented, inner-directed, and outer-directed. But when she described each different type I thought that each one could apply to me, and when she was done a whole bunch of hands went up and before anyone could speak she said that there were problems with this theory and would anybody who felt that they had more than one of those traits put their hands back down.
Well that was pretty much everyone and she went on to explain that most people exhibited all those traits in their day-to-day life but that it was still useful to know because often in societies there was one type of personality which was the most dominant but that people were a lot more complicated than just sets of labels.
The clock said it was almost time for us to go and I thought it was strange that she hadn't given us anything more than a broad overview because she often told us specific things. Then she said that our assignment was to determine which personality trait was most common in our hometown and why.
I spent the rest of the afternoon outside playing in the rain and splashing around in puddles and I even nibbled at some of the grass that was under the deeper puddles because it tasted the best then, and it was easy to pull it loose and get some of the roots, too. Not too much, though, because it was rude to leave bare patches.
Then I had to take a shower because I'd gotten my legs all muddy.
There wasn't any grilled cheese sandwich soup for dinner; instead it was their normal stuff. I had all warm food because I'd already eaten my greens outside and it was nice to have warm food on a rainy day.
I spent most of the evening working on my homework. I started with Anthropology, where I decided that the pegasuses in my town had mostly inner-directed personalities because we all knew what was right and what was wrong, but second to that was definitely tradition-oriented and I almost made that first. What changed my mind was thinking about how we were a little too practical to stick to tradition when something newer and better came along. A lot of the older ponies were skeptical of it, and maybe that was good; there wasn't any sense in galloping along towards every new idea there was. But if it worked better than the old way then they'd pick up on it, like with reading. Some of the older mares on the weather team complained that in their day they didn't need to know how to read to do their jobs, but nopony griped that all the younger mares knew how and there was one mare on the afternoon shift who had been taught how by her daughters and she was really proud of it and now she liked to read everything she could get her hooves on.
When that was done I decided to see if I could solve the eighth-order equation that would come next, which was really tricky because first I had to figure out how to write it. But since he had given us the others and I'd written them down, I got what looked right to me, and just to verify I used the points we'd already calculated and they worked out so I thought it was probably correct.
Peggy looked over my shoulder and asked if I was learning Greek, and I explained that I was solving the equation for fun and she said that between reading the Bible and solving long math equations I had a really odd idea of fun sometimes.
I was pretty proud of what I'd come up with, even if it did fill a couple pages of my notebook. And I kept on working on it while Peggy was doing her math, but I finished before her. I hoped I had done it right: I was going to have to get to class before everyone else and show Professor Sir Doctor Banerjee.
While I waited for Peggy to finish, I went back to listing off things that I wanted to do, and I was so engrossed that I didn't notice when Peggy came across the room and asked me what I was doing. So I told her, and she laughed and said that I had now acclimatized to Earth so much I was writing a bucket list.
I didn't know what that was, and she told me that was the name for things I wanted to do before I kicked the bucket, which was a human way of saying dying. I said that the list would be a lot longer if I included everything I wanted to do in my life.
She said I was going to be a busy pony and said I didn't mind, and she said that she was free Saturday afternoon if I wanted to go Go-Kart racing and get that off my list.
I told her I was going to see if Aric wanted to go, and she said that the more of us who came the more fun it would be, and then she petted my mane.
After I got done helping her with her math, I flew off to Aric's house, shook myself dry on his porch, and then went upstairs to his bedroom. I probably could have read more of Mark Twain—the book was still where I'd left it—but I was kind of tired, and I thought that maybe if I went to bed a bit earlier I'd wake up when he came home.
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Wow.
Force day, of course being friend with Christine she was almost forced to learn about it!
Intersting insigth, even if it is missing the point; Amy is talking about comportemental traits, Silver about appearance.
This -in a nutshell- is the main problem with any science that studies behavior.
Is the "very many" intended?
Helper is a verb now?
For some reason, it makes me feel a bit better about the universe when racism is not just limited to humans. It still doesn't reflect well on the individual, though; no matter whom the racism is aimed at.
7358809
I guess tribalism is still a major issue in some parts of Equestria. It makes me wonder how Rainbow Dash would handle having a foal that was not a pegasus then? The rest of the cast would do just fine imho but Rainbow Dash's whole personality is heavily influenced by her love of flying.
Mudpony? Is she getting even more racist? I thought it was just unicorns that she was bigoted against..,
Bad Silver Glow! Don't use the m-word!
I swear I saw a PBS documentary on the problems Tesla had building the 1st AC generator + stories in the Granville Gazette (1632 universe) about the difficulties they had building some. (Apparently they work somewhat differently than the alternator in a car)
I'm sure you are right -I was led astray by bad companions
As to racism, I was never so happy in my life as when I read that Jane Goodall said that sometimes chimpanzees would try to kill her for no reason at all.
I don't think Silver Glow is actually racist (Tribalist) as she is pretty good friends with Aquamarine and Gusty, and likes Cayenne too. I think she just uses those words and says that stuff about the other tribes because she doesn't see/get why some of the stuff they do matters so gives them shit for it. Kinda of like how the military branches do to each other, but are still basically friends and work together just fine.
7358809
Well, if they had a cloudhouse they wouldn't be too happy.
7358823
Actually, not so much appearance but the actual fact that a non-pegasus foal would almost certainly be unable to live in a cloudhouse or a cloud city.
We can make generalizations, but we can't make absolute predictions. And our generalizations are only as good as our prior observations.
yes.
no; it's a noun. Her helper is a non-pegaus pony that she sometimes carries up to the roof.
7358830
Technically, tribalism, and in this case it's justified: a non-pegaus foal probably couldn't live in a cloud house (although of course she could have used a different term).
7358859
You may be thinking of the "War of Currents" — but those difficulties weren't technical problems with actually developing the machinery, so much as they were the result of a "format war" between the two competing systems (AC and DC) and the companies behind them (primarily the Westinghouse Electric Company and the Edison Electric Light Company, respectively) who were both determined to get their way and make their preferred system the system ("There Can Be Only One!"), and weren't above using media campaigns, propaganda, political lobbying efforts, and various other dirty tricks to sabotage the other's chances of widespread adoption.
One instance where you don't need the first letter of the alphabet.
Did she seriously just say mudpony? Seeing as we've yet to hear the bonehead slur, that seems incongruous with her particular flavor of 'benign' tribalism.
Also, Meghan needs either closure or a personal crisis of Skirtsian proportions, stat.
Make it so.
7358840
Yes; but in some cases it is practical. If an Earth mom gives birth to a child of a different ethnicity than her she won't have any trouble raising the child, because all the important stuff's the same. If a pegasus who lives in a cloud house gives birth to a non-pegasus foal, she's almost certainly going to have to move to a ground house.
She made due with Tank, so she'd find a way. I think she'd be upset at first, but then she'd just deal with it and pretty soon it would be the most awesome thing ever. Rainbow generally isn't the broody type; once she got done lashing out, she'd just deal with it and from that point on it would not be a problem.
7358841
She likes unicorns the least . . . but with 'mudpony' she means any pony that can't fly, not just earth ponies specifically.
7358847
7358935
I get the why of this particular case, it is just that it's the best word I could came up with to describe traits that are related to how the body his rather then the mind (altough both are related).
Not being able to live in a cloud house isn't a comportement, it's a trait, but not the same kind of trait as discussed by the class.
Makes more sense that way. Thank for the clarification.
7358905
It's a little of both. More of rivalry rather than outright hatred. She knows the least about unicorns, so her view there is badly skewed. And she's unlikely to say bad things right to their faces, since she wants to get along with everyone if she can.
7358910
If they live in a cloudhouse and their foal can't fly or sit on clouds. . . .
7358945
That must be where the one that went missing a few chapters back got to!
She means it in terms of any pony who can't fly, not specifically Earth ponies.
Aye, aye, sir.
7358955 Mudpony still sounds more like an offensive term then a generic term like for exemple "ground pony".
Still, given the context, I could see her quoting an hypothetical upset mare using an insult to vent frustration.
7358863
Hope he does, as I think she'd really enjoy it. (Not to mention I'd love to see her reaction to it.)
7358975 Look, while there's nothing I could be more in favor of than an author applying their own headcanons to tired concepts, warping the meaning of 'mudpony' just won't fly. Within the fandom, 'mudpony' is universally and unquestionably a derogatory word for the earth pony tribe, most commonly employed by the unicorns but partially adopted by some pegasus clans after the initial Unification hype died down and old tribalist tendencies and slurs began to resurface.
In order to dissuade your readers' knee-jerk reaction to what appears to be a tribalist comment that Silver Glow would never say [because A) she evidently doesn't use slurs, merely stereotypes, and B) she's shown a very strong acceptance of and identification with earth ponies], you would first need to basically take an entire chapter explaining your own customized meaning of the term.
Or, you know, you could just say "that was a roundabout way of saying that pegasi weren't usually too happy to get foals who couldn't fly", and maybe take a sentence or two to assure the reader that that's not a tribalist sentiment, but one rooted in practicality.
All this talk of higher order math class just makes me want to see the class go over something like Chaos theory. Then have discord pop in, look it over, and then shake his head and say "Nope" then turn the teacher's podium into a pink sheep and leave.
7358855
it sounds like your voltage is to high. I'm not sure what it needs to be off the top of my head but look up short circuit transfer, it's how you're supposed to mig weld thin materials. Practice makes perfect, but knowledge is power. You don't need to stack the deck against yourself.
7358973
That's true, but I think it's one way where Silver Glow is seeing things differently than her classmates. While there aren't significant differences between different races of humans (obviously, there are some), there are huge differences between the tribes of ponies.
You're welcome!
I think that it would be a hard blow for a pegasus, especially if she already had several pegasus foals. I'm honestly still torn on how the ponies would deal with that.
7359057
All this talk of higher order math class just makes me want to see the class go over something like Chaos theory. Then have discord pop in, look it over, and then shake his head and say "Nope" then turn the teacher's podium into a pink sheep and leave.
i.makeagif.com/media/4-10-2015/bZybgU.gif
Error. Error. Does not compute.
Actually, I have a friend who's an accountant and she does math for fun; I like to tease her about it sometimes. But there was the time when we decided to play the game Antichamber together, and between her analytical tendencies and my conceptual ones, we ended up beating the game whereas we'd both had a lot of trouble doing so ourselves.
7358994
I had hoped that people would pick up on the fact that she was referring to all groundponies from context, but perhaps not. That's one advantage to having pre-readers; they're usually really good at finding stuff like that and so it gets changed (if needed) before the chapter ever gets published.
I'll think on it, and perhaps I will wind up changing it. I suppose that would be a case of locking the barn door after the horse has already galloped off. . . .
Dang Silver's getting more racist as the story goes on it feels haha.
I love the idea of Silver just munching on peoples lawns. I find it hilarious for some reason.
wow silver. mudpony doesn't sound like a very nice term.
Sounds like me. I remember doing some gearbox optimization on a Friday night at 10 pm while my roommates were throwing a party.
you know what's fun about problems of that length? If you mess up, it's easier to start over than to try to find the error.
I actually managed to work out the genetics so that two pegasi could only have pegasi for children. I'm having to re work it though because Flurry Heart managed to ruin it as it didn't allow alicorns to be born.
7359097 The term groundpony would probably work better, and it's a fairly simple alteration to boot.
But yeah, damage has basically been done at this point. Consider the audience triggered.
You've kinda made me want to experiment and make a grilled cheeze and potatoe soup.
MFW that adorable cutie pie pony turns into a rabid racist. Like, wow.
7358955
I kind of disagree. While the foal isn't going to be in danger of slipping out of their mom and falling through the 'floor', as it might with a pegasi giving birth to a non-pegasus, this doesn't mean an earth pony family is going to have an easy time of raising a non-earth pony kid. For example, what if the pegasus foal decides to fly off? Apparently foals have super strong magic for their age, and flight, at least at first, appears to be almost instinctive. The foal could fly up, out of reach of their hooves and get herself killed. In a similar case, unicorn foals appear to quite adapt at magic as well, and non-unicorns are likely ill-equipped to deal with it. I don't think this can really be dismissed, either; while I think one could have read the Pinkie Pie episode with the Cake Twins are more of a joke focused episode, the Crystalling clearly makes it less of a joke and
more of a horrifying reality, no wonder the birth rate is low; the actual birthing probably isn't bad but the kid might turn you into an orangeactual canon material. Presumably as the foal ages into a toddler, the magic surges subside and it has to be reawakened as they get older--assuming it's an at will exercise of magic at all.So, really, I'm not sure any of the tribes would care for a child that didn't match at least one parent's tribe, for practical reasons.
I feel like I've seen something similar with spacers referring to planet bound people as 'mudsuckers' or something along those lines, but I really don't think it quite works in this situation. The reason the fanon has sprung up around 'mudpony' being a slur against earth ponies specifically is because, as farmers, they're probably working in the dirt and mud in general, as well as implying they're sort of worthless.
7359097
You mean the pony has already galloped off, right? But y'know, if you give a heartfelt apology she'll probably come back on her own. Ponies are cool like that.
Speaking of mudponies... (I only know from the comments, since it's 'groundpony' now).
Loved the bit dealing with literacy. I know it's a little headcanon controversial around here, but it makes for so much richness of the setting. Especially in a remote location like SG's home village.
Solving equations for fun. What.
Oh shut up Twi.
7359096
There was an incident a while back where a bored professor was doodling equations on a plane and the lady sitting next to him thought the strange symbols were terrorist communications.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ivy-league-professor-dubbed-plane-terrorist-for-math-equation/
t13.deviantart.net/u3y0X9NtR2i1mgS0gPKcL7tq-UA=/fit-in/700x350/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre07/bf25/th/pre/f/2013/047/6/f/twiley_facehoof_meme_by_ponyponypony22-d5v3xnc.png
Although modern-day Equestria is much more tolerant of inter-tribal relationships I would suspect that long ago ponies that were born out of the parents tribe type were given up for adoption, believing that it was in the best interest of the foal to be raised among its own kind.
For all I know in one of Twilight's libraries there's a story about a Pegasus and a Unicorn who fell in love and their families tried to keep them apart.
(The humans would say 'We have a similar story'.)
7359806 They were probably more rare, given that most ponies only had ancestor from one tribe.
so i wonder if every pegasus mare gives birth on the ground only? ... because of reason ...
is that some kind of joke among pegasus born ponys ?
"you dropped from a high cloud as a foal?!"
"actually yes, but i don't remember, daddy catched me in time."
I do love seeing Silver's hidden depths. Her mathematical acumen and willingness to analyze her own culture with the tools of anthropology demonstrate the power of the mind underneath the adorable exterior. Then she contrasts that with eating grass out of puddles and there's this delightful moment of cognitive dissonance.
7359057
"You're taking all the fun out of it!"
"But Mr. Discord, math is fun!"
"Bite your tongue, child."
The day Ted Cruz dropped out was the best day ever.
7359082
That's the story of my life, sometimes. Sadly.
7359096
We all have different ideas of fun, I guess. I read NTSB accident reports for fun; that's one of my weird hobbies. And I watch videos about math, but quite honestly I don't understand a lot of what's going on in them.
7359108
That wasn't meant to be quite as offensive as it came out. I've since changed it to 'groundponies.'
7359114
Well, there's a bunch of nice tasty green grass there--why wouldn't she?
Yeah, it wound up being more offensive than I'd meant for it to be. She meant any groundpony (who [obviously] couldn't live in the clouds).
My brother spent some of his free time over Christmas analyzing performance graphs for a Gulfstream. I read comics.
I was just looking up one of the equations that comes up in the next section with Professor Sir Doctor Banerjee and I could make no sense of it whatsoever.
You could take the lazy solution and assume that alicorns are special somehow and can only be produced by some sort of magic and only carried to term in another alicorn.
I think the odds are stacked in favor of a pegasus mare having a pegasus foal, but if she hooks up with a non-pegasus stallion there's a chance her offspring won't be a pegasus, especially if she's also not a pureblood. I personally think that Dinky is Derpy's biological offspring.
7359245
Do it! For Science!
7359116
Well . . . she's adorable enough everyone'll forgive her.
7359372
Oh yeah, for sure.
7359691
Math is by its very nature suspicious. And everyone knows that terrorists communicate with highly technical mathematical equations.
functions.wolfram.com/EllipticFunctions/ArithmeticGeometricMean/introductions/ArithmeticGeometricMean/05/13/imagetext/0058/text58.gif
7359352
It wasn't meant to be read that way.
Well in one of the comics, Pumpkin was on a tether. I'm not saying that it's gonna be easy for them, but it's manageable. The Cakes didn't trade in their foals at the orphanage in exchange for earth ponies, after all. And I suppose that there's a chance it'll end in tragedy, but maybe other ponies in town are willing to lend a hoof and look out for the youngsters, or else they do have a high rate of foals that don't survive into adulthood . . . but considering the CMC, even matched ponies (I'll assume that Scootaloo's parents are pegasi) have a pretty good chance of getting themselves killed.
I think either that, or Pound and Pumpkin are some sort of a rarity. We know from canon that Sweetie Belle isn't very good at magic, and Scootaloo can't fly well/at all, so if they had that ability as foals, they lost it as yearlings.
Yeah, I've had second thoughts and subsequently changed it.
7359690
Yeah, a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Watch Numberphile videos; they get really enthusiastic about maths.
7359806
Most likely that would be the case. I could see an earth pony wanting to keep a pony from a different tribe, just because of how useful it could be around the farm (if you've got your own pegasus, you don't have to worry about the weather team), but the unicorns of old certainly wouldn't have, Pegasi probably would have left their foal on somepony's doorstep.
I also think it's worth noting that in Apple Family Reunion, there were a few non-earth ponies. Granted, modern times, but I feel the Apples are about as traditional as it gets.
7360176
I think that these days they probably just have a test done before so that they know what kind of foal they're going to have. Probably back in the olden days, they just had midwives who were really good at catching foals, or else the foal could sit atop the blankets on the bed just fine.
7360996
Corrections made; thank you!
7361542
I had mixed feelings about that, because while I'm not a fan of Cruz, I'm not a fan of Trump either.
7360205
When you're hungry you're hungry. And grass in puddles is the tastiest kind.
7359691 I remember that one, I think that other article I read said he was actually completing something he needed for a conference about finances.
7361706
Or the midwife had an assistant waiting under the cloud.
7363626
Also a reasonable possibility.
I think from what we've seen in canon though, it's a reasonable bet that if there were a blanket on the cloud, that would hold the foal. IIRC, Rainbow's had a stack of books and some other furnishings in her cloudhouse, so there must be some kind of magic which holds them up and which would probably also hold a non-pegasus foal up.
The flying in the rain made me think of something, pegasus would have to have a nictitating membrane in their eyes (a transparent third eyelid) just to protect them from the wind and wet of flying. I bet it's something she doesn't even think about or realize that other tribes probably don't have.
At that point, Sanders would need over 2 votes for every less than 1 vote Clinton gets. At that point, the logical thing to do would be to endorse Clinton in exchange incorporation of his planks in her platform. Instead, Clinton had to fight a war on 2 fronts, with Trump on 1 front and Sanders on the other front, for 2 more months. If Trump wins, I blame Sanders for not knowing when to throw in the towel.
This is an historical accident:
We had voicevoting before paperballots. People would tell a clerk whom they support. The Clerks, who would have to record all of the votes, would insist on only 1 candidate for office, just for reducing writing and accelerating voting. Now we have paperballots with an overvoterule. This givesrise to Duverger's Law:
Close parties drive each other to extinction, leading to 2-party rule. This is how it works:
We have 2 candidates. 40% of the voters like Candidate A and 60% likes Candidate B. Candidate B wins.
Let us add a Candidate C. Candidate C is a near clone of Candidate B. The results are Candidate A 40%, Candidate B 30%, and Candidate C 30%. Candidate A, the least popular candidate, wins.
¿How Can we fix this? ¡Remove the overvoterule!
Candidate A 40%, Candidate B 61%, Candidate C 59%. ¡Candidate B wins!
7369121
I would assume that they do. Although even that isn't enough eye protection, since we see them wearing goggles sometimes.
7470920
Looking back on it, I think it worked pretty well overall. Sanders did get Hillary to incorporate a lot of his planks, and I think it really helped Hillary refine her message, while on the Republican front it was largely not policy debates at all, but more of a drunken brawl.