Silver Glow's Journal

by Admiral Biscuit

May 26 [and the days are not full enough]

May 26

I woke up not too long after going to sleep to the sound of thunder and rain, and I got out of bed as quietly as I could and stood at the window just watching it. My radio was over on the desk and I wondered if it would need a storm-spotter and if I should call and see.

Either I disturbed his sleep or the storm did, because Aric woke up and put his hand on my back. Then he got out of bed and sat down beside me on the carpet, and we both watched the lightning flash through the sky, until the worst parts of it had passed.

Then he said that we could move the bed closer to the window, as long as I didn't mind maybe getting a little wet, and since I didn't, he shoved the bed over until the head of it was right under the window.

I wish he'd thought of that sooner. I stretched out on my belly and dozed back off, but whenever it intensified, I'd pull my head back up and look out at it and sniff at the air and I could do that without disturbing him, which I knew because he had started snoring.

When it was actually morning, the sky was still overcast, but the storm was gone, and with my head right by the window I could feel the pressure, and I knew it wouldn't be coming back. The birds knew it, too; they were out at the feeder eating their breakfast, and I watched them until I felt Aric's hand running down my back and around my dock.

Once we'd gotten out of bed I told Aric about Aquamarine visiting for the weekend, and said that I probably couldn't spend the night, 'cause she was staying in my dorm room and it would be really rude to leave her behind. She was coming Saturday morning at about ten thirty, and leaving Tuesday morning just before nine.

Well, he was a little disappointed in that, but said that it would be fun to see her, and I wasn't trying to keep her away from him, was I?

I said I wasn't; and maybe we could pick her up from the train station and do some stuff Saturday morning together. We didn't have any definite plans yet but everyone had made a lot of suggestions.

Aric asked if she liked cars, and I said I didn't know. He said if she did, there was a car museum called the Gilmore that was really neat, and that was an option.

I kissed him goodbye and remembered to take the pictures off the desk. Aric helped me stick them in my pocket, and I kissed him again for good measure, then went out the front door this time, 'cause I didn't want to risk them falling out while I was flying, so I was going to hoof it back to campus with all my flight gear on.

It wasn't the most comfortable walk. The radios slid down my legs when I was walking, and I had to stop a couple of times and adjust them back up. But that was better than damaging the pictures.

I couldn't decide which one to send, so I sent all but one of them—I kept the one where I was next to the white fast-looking airplane out front. Then I had to write on the back of each one what kind of airplane it was and what it was used for and why it was special, and by the time I was done and had sealed up the envelope, it was too late to go flying very far, so I just did a couple of low fast laps over the college and part of downtown to stretch out my wings, then took a quick shower. Then I went down the hall to tell Brianna that Aquamarine was coming and asked her when she was free to make sure that I made time for them to talk.

I ate lunch with Trevor and Leon and Cedric, and they were all talking about what they were going to do over the summer. Both Trevor and Leon had summer internships, while Cedric was going to spend most of his summer building houses for Habitat for Humanity. He said that he was going to work in Tennessee because he had some family there, and it would be nice to see them, too.

Leon said that Cedric didn't know a damn thing about building houses, and he said that he knew the roof went on top, and other than that, he'd just do what they told him to.

I didn't know anything much about building houses, although I'd helped the thatcher carry bundles of reeds a couple of times when I was younger. It wasn't a lot of fun, but it helped build wing strength.

But I told Cedric that I'd helped put a roof on a house once, and Leon started laughing and said that the thought of ponies on ladders was really weird. Trevor reminded them that I could fly, and the two of them looked at each other and started asking me all sorts of questions about what kind of jobs pegasuses did besides weather and clouds, and so I told him about how ships had a pegasus or two as a lookout and messenger and whatever else might be needed, and how there were a lot of jobs where being a pegasus was a real asset. Like they had a lot of tall buildings in Manehattan and most of the windows got washed by pegasuses.

So then they were wondering if every job on Earth that required a ladder would be a job in Equestria requiring a pegasus, and I said that there weren't enough of us to do all those jobs. Plus Earth ponies built clever devices to help them go where they couldn't otherwise. And both of them got a little pale when I described how a bosun's chair was used—because a lot of the smaller fishing boats didn't have any pegasuses on their crew.

Conrad started by reading us a poem called Coitus, and that got a few laughs out of the class. Jason, who usually sits in the back but was across from me with our new seating arrangement, asked if Georgia O'Keefe was familiar with Pound's poems.

So he had Jason read Women Before a Shop, and people were snickering when they made the connection between the two poems.

We read a couple more short poems, then one about a river in a country called China. Conrad told us that Pound had had it translated from ancient Chinese, and he had made a mistake because he didn't know the language, and it was actually two different poems.

Then we discussed the problems with translating poems, and whether it was better to retain the spirit of the original, or the exact text.

I thought it was better to keep the spirit, rather than the original language. A few people in class had read translated poems and then read them in their original language and said that there was a big difference between the two.

Conrad told us not to bother bringing any books next week, because we were going to be traveling off the beaten path. He said that summer was upon us and it was time that we spread our wings and fly, and he looked right at me as he said it, so I fluffed them out a little bit and pretty soon everyone in the class was laughing.

Then he said that we would finish class by reading his favorite poem by Pound, and he asked who would do him the honor, and I wanted it to be me, but he gave it to Trevor instead, and I thought that was a smart choice, 'cause he had a better voice than anyone else in the class.

I don't know what impulse struck me, but after everyone else had left, I told him about Aquamarine's visit and asked him if he wanted to meet her. He said that he would be honored, and then wrote his telephone number and address on a sheet of paper for me.

It was too nice a day to be inside, so I claimed one of the little benches at the front of Stetson Chapel and sat down there and finished writing my essay for anthropology so that I could show it to Professor Amy tomorrow.

I took it back to my room and read it to my computer, making a few corrections on the way. Sometimes something sounds smart when you write it down but then it sounds dumb when you say it out loud.

It took me until dinner, and it still wasn't all the way done. But I didn't want to miss my friends, so I went to the dining hall anyway and listened to Christine and Joe debate whether Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton would win the primary. Finally, when it got kind of heated, the rest of us moved to a different table where we could have a somewhat peaceful conversation. It was close enough so that we could still overhear them if we wanted to, but far enough away that we could also carry on a conversation.

Finally Sean said that their argument had gone on long enough, and he went over to the bread table where they had long loafs of bread, and he got one and broke it in half and gave one half to Christine and the other to Joe and he told them to settle their argument like reasonable adults, so they hit each other with the bread until it had all broken up, then we moved back to that table and had a nice quiet dessert together.

I started reading the book on World War 1 before I went to see Liz. The beginning was really complicated, with lots of different kingdoms all making alliances with each other, all in the hopes of preventing a war, but then the book said that assassins killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but at first nobody cared. And then some Croats and Bosniaks (which is what Professor Amy is) killed some Serbs, and after that Austria-Hungary sent a list of ten demands that they knew wouldn't be obeyed in order to provoke a war.

That made me think of how the Israelites were really bad at following God's rules and His Ten Commandments, but that wasn't the same, I didn't think. He hadn't made the rules difficult to follow; most people just didn't.

And that was what Liz and I talked about. There were more kings and most of them didn't do what God had told them to, and so the tribes of Israel kept fighting and God didn't help them very much because their kings wouldn't follow His rules.

I told her it was weird to come across a long list of ancestors, and she told me that it was important to a lot of people to know, to be able to trace their lineage as far back as they could. And she told me that in America, people had often written the names of their sons and daughters in the family Bible, along with records of baptisms and confirmations and so on.

I read a little bit more about World War 1 after our meeting, and it started to get confusing. I was glad that there were maps, because I'd never heard of some of the countries involved. Russia declared war against Austria-Hungary and then Germany. Germany declared war back, and demanded that France stay neutral, but then decided to go to war with it anyway. And then once they'd started, some of them didn't know who they were supposed to fight, or where, except that Austria-Hungary was planning to quickly defeat Serbia, but seeing how much more of the book there was, I didn't think that their plan had worked.

Since I'd been up in the middle of the night watching the thunderstorm, I was kind of tired, so I went over to Meghan's room. She said we'd have it to ourselves for the weekend, because Amy was already away with her boyfriend. And then she asked if I wanted to watch the Harry Potter movie that we hadn't really watched before, but I was too tired for that. So we sat in bed together and talked for a little while. Meghan said that tomorrow she would make a salon appointment for us, and she also told me that we would be able to go to the hot tub either Saturday or Sunday night. I thought Tuesday would be the best day for the salon because I didn't have very many classes.

When I'd started to get really yawny, she petted my head and said that she was sorry for talking my ear off, and I reached up a hoof to make sure that they were still there because I was too tired to realize that was just another human expression.

She got undressed and got into bed next to me and I put my head on her breast and fell asleep while she was stroking my mane.

Author's Note:

Coitus

Women Before a Shop

The River Song

Comments

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

I remember someone saying that they were glad they came to (ICR), gladder still they'd left & gladdest of all to know that, except for the occasional nightmare, they'd never see the place again. Still, Silver is at the halfway point so she has a long way to go.

[jayessell]

When did SG finish her schoolwork?
After dinner but before the movie?

[Admiral Biscuit]

7426429
She finished her essay before dinner.

[The Rogue Wolf]

Finally Sean said that their argument had gone on long enough, and he went over to the bread table where they had long loafs of bread, and he got one and broke it in half and gave one half to Christine and the other to Joe and he told them to settle their argument like reasonable adults, so they hit each other with the bread until it had all broken up, then we moved back to that table and had a nice quiet dessert together.

A surprising show of wisdom from Sean. He gets one free get-out-of-shoulder-punching card.

[Cynewulf]

Life slips by

[Booster Spice]

You may enjoy walking quietly through forest glades.

You may love dallying amongst the flowers of the meadow.

Eventually, everyone comes to the river.

[Fana Farouche]

Sometimes something sounds smart when you write it down but then it sounds dumb when you say it out loud.

To pursue the premise:

Biscuits, you have provoked in me, with your respect for poetry, what no man has in nearly five decades. Thus, from my awkward proletarian self:

Oh you ponies, you have crept into my heart on soft kitten paws
and I have grown so very very fond of you.
Terrible, wonderful creatures
I am unmanned

I have no defence against such an assault
What terrible magic have you wrought upon my worthless carcass that I would live again?
With all your ways and your vast unwritten world.

A strange balm
Bitter, better men tell me it cannot be this way
It is not permitted

If anyone needs me, I'll be over here, hiding under a table. I absolutely have to stop posting when I'm drunk.The thing is, sobriety is silence, it's a problem.

[KMCA]

Russia declared war against Austria-Hungary and then Germany and Germany declared war back.

Well... I guess Germany was pretty upset if they declared war twice.

[Georg]

WWI still gives me the chills from my history class. It's the first war where machine guns and artillery were used with such abandon, and the generals of all the sides had not yet realized that it was nearly impossible to take a piece of ground by simply throwing young men at it until the other side ran out of bullets and shells.

[Conflicting views]

tall buildings in Manehattan and most of the windows got washed by pegasuses.

You know, they could make their life easier if the job was done by a unicorn using telekinesis to clean the windows while safely staying inside the building, plus it would be easier to spot dirt from inside without the sun's ligth reflecting on the glass.

I thought it was better to keep the spirit

I think it hold true with any translation, poetry or otherwise. A good translator will make sure his work still convey the same feeling and ideas as the original text.

Don't worry Silver, even for us Humans, the begining of the first World War can be very confusing.
I remember that extra credits made a series of very well made videos on you tube that explained very well the how and the why.

[A.P.O.N.I.]

She should check out the Extra Credits coverage of the war:
https://youtu.be/S-wSL4WqUws
Really humanized the causes.

[arancaytar]

as long as I didn't mind maybe getting a little wet

Gee, Aric.

until the head if it

*of it

I stretched out on my belly dozed back off

*and dozed

Plus Earth ponies built clever devices to help them go where they couldn't otherwise.

And also unicorns can teleport but nobody cares about unicorns.

Coitus.

I was talking about my rug...

I reached up a hoof to make sure that they were still there because I was too tired to realize that was just another human expression.

[Walabio]

7426304

> "I do need to read the the Great Reform Act to really get the full details of it and that's probably what KB was referring to."

I found a scan of the text, but I have 2 caveats:

* It is lawyer-readable (legalese).
* It has many OCR-Errors (Errors from Optical Character-Recognition from when it was scanned into a computer).

"The reform act, 1832; the correspondence of the late Earl Grey with His Majesty King William IV. and with Sir Herbert Taylor, from Nov. 1830 to June 1832;"

WikiPedia.Org has an human-readable article about the Reform-Act of 1832:

Reform Act 1832

[arancaytar]

he went over to the bread table where they had long loafs of bread, and he got one and broke it in half and gave one half to Christine and the other to Joe and he told them to settle their argument like reasonable adults, so they hit each other with the bread until it had all broken up

I demand that at least one televised debate be replaced with a televised baguette duel.

[Red Queen]

7427073

Unfortunately, I think that may constitute assault and battery with a deadly weapon. On the upside, no-one of value would get injured... hmmm...

[Johnny Walker]

7427041 Thank you. I tried to find it earlier, but all I could find was just history text.

[Shachza]

7426616

Probably Germany and Prussia. Prussia was essentially "other Germany," if I recall correctly. And, if I also recall correctly, Prussia was northern Poland-ish, which is part of the reason Germany wanted it back in WWII.

[KMCA]

7427329 yes but she doesn't know that.

[Walabio]

7427357

The Spaniards came up with this great invention called Inverted Punctuation. ⸘What the buck is inverted punctuation‽ ¡It is the best thing ever! ¿How does one insert it? On my keyboard, if I type ALT OPTION 1, it inserts the Inverted Exclamation-Point. If I type OPTION ALT SHIFT /, it inserts the Inverted Question-Mark. I do not have a keyboard-combination for the inverted Interrobang, but if I type CONTROL COMMAND SPACE, a character-selector appears allowing me to insert any Unicode-Character. ¡Using Inverted Punctuation really improves one's writing!

On FiMFiction.Net, Tabs insert Tab-Spaces, so you can have Tab-Spaces in your comments. I always type thus:

Tab Paragraph Return Return Tab Paragraph Enter Enter Tab Paragraph Et Cetera

¡Have fun using Inverted Punctuation and Tab-Spaces!

[Lord Legion]

I doubt it, but that would be interesting to see Aquamarine into cars. Kind of reminds me of my OC when it comes to cars.

[Walabio]

7427184

I know. It took a while for me to find. The thing is that it is of only historic importance now (it has been completely superseded by later acts of Parliament, so none of it is part of current English Law). Google, in its program for preserving history, scanned it, and then OCRed it, but no human, as far as I can tell (maybe, someone somewhere fixed the OCR-Errors) can be bothered to correct the OCR-Errors because it is of only historical importance.

[Admiral Biscuit]

7426616

Well... I guess Germany was pretty upset if they declared war twice.

That was not worded well. First Russia declared war on Germany, and Germany replied by declaring war back at them.

[harts fire]

I do love a good ripping thunder shower my self. now that I am living out in the sticks I can stand out side in the rain and enjoy them.

[Orajm]

I read a little bit more about World War 1 after our meeting, and it started to get confusing. I was glad that there were maps, because I'd never heard of some of the countries involved. Russia declared war against Austria-Hungary and then Germany. Germany declared war back, and demanded that France stay neutral, but then decided to go to war with it anyway. And then once they'd started, some of them didn't know who they were supposed to fight, or where, except that Austria-Hungary was planning to quickly defeat Serbia, but seeing how much more of the book there was, I didn't think that their plan had worked.

Ah good old WWI. I wonder how Silver's outside perspective will influence her reading of the entire affair. That's without mentioning how the outcome set things up for everyone to go to war all over again a few decades later. Regardless there is a lot of nuances she will inevitably miss unless she wants to commit some serious time understanding how the system of alliances were set up, as well recognizing how the various European powers felt at the time and their shared history.

The sad thing is that due to WWII (for many reasons) taking so much precedence over WWI many Americans have incomplete or flat out wrong understandings of The Great War, so she may not be able to get much help from others if she needs an in depth explanation.

[TheTownCrier]

[High_Fidelity]

7427437 so, you've explained the how, but... Why would you? Is it so you know what inflection to read in, sorta like with computers, how you have a [format] which is followed by a closing [/format]?

[FanOfMostEverything]

Finally caught up. Sorry for the delay; many irons in the fire. Still enjoying it immensely; definitely looking forward to Aquamarine's visit.

[Dan]

Then we discussed the problems with translating poems, and whether it was better to retain the spirit of the original, or the exact text.

Everyone interested in linguistics needs to read Professor Hofstadter's works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Ton_beau_de_Marot

[Forderz]

7427437 But... Why?

[Admiral Biscuit]

7426377

I remember someone saying that they were glad they came to (ICR).

I don't know what ICR is, I don't think.

7426439

A surprising show of wisdom from Sean. He gets one free get-out-of-shoulder-punching card.

Political battles should be settled by baguettes.

7426449

Life slips by

And the older you are, the faster it goes. I'll be 40 at the next Bronycon.
<cries a little>

7426527

Eventually, everyone comes to the river.

[Admiral Biscuit]

7426610

Biscuits, you have provoked in me, with your respect for poetry, what no man has in nearly five decades.

Don't thank me; thank my college poetry professor who so many years ago tried to make me appreciate poetry and it might have taken twenty years for his words to stick, but better late than never, eh?

The Sea

Beautiful poem as well. . . .

You know, some people get fanart. I'm getting fanpoems. Conrad would be proud.

[Admiral Biscuit]

7426674

WWI still gives me the chills from my history class. ... it was nearly impossible to take a piece of ground by simply throwing young men at it until the other side ran out of bullets and shells.

IIRC, wasn't there a trenchline that basically didn't move for the whole of the war?

7426687

You know, they could make their life easier if the job was done by a unicorn using telekinesis to clean the windows while safely staying inside the building, plus it would be easier to spot dirt from inside without the sun's light reflecting on the glass.

Although the pegasus could also do an inspection of the outside of the building while she was washing the windows; that would be a lot harder for a unicorn to accomplish. That having been said, I don't think that occupations like those are exclusively pegasus occupations, just that pegasi are generally more suited to it.

I think it hold true with any translation, poetry or otherwise. A good translator will make sure his work still convey the same feeling and ideas as the original text.

It does, but I think often in poetry where the rhythm and meter really matter, it's crucial. I've read some of The Canterbury Tales three ways--in the original English, in a literal word-for-word translation, and in a poetic adaptation. I would say that the poetic adaptation is the easiest to read, the original English second-easiest, and the word-for-word absolutely the worst.

Don't worry Silver, even for us Humans, the beginning of the first World War can be very confusing.
I remember that extra credits made a series of very well made videos on you tube that explained very well the how and the why.

That's something I ought to check out. When I have free time, sigh.

7426752

Really humanized the causes.

I'll be checking them out as soon as I get the chance.

[Admiral Biscuit]

7426879

Gee, Aric.

Silver Glow never minds getting a little wet.
because she's a weather pony. Geez, get your head out of the gutter.

Corrections made; thank you!

And also unicorns can teleport but nobody cares about unicorns.

Uni-what? Are those land narwhals?

I demand that at least one televised debate be replaced with a televised baguette duel.

I second that demand.

7427137

Unfortunately, I think that may constitute assault and battery with a deadly weapon. On the upside, no-one of value would get injured... hmmm...

I think if the baguettes were fresh, they wouldn't be deadly. Then again, that would take all the fun out of it.

Seriously, though, how much would you pay to see Hillary and Trump go at each other with baguettes?

7427329

Probably Germany and Prussia.

That was mainly poor wording on my Silver Glow's part. It meant that first Russia declared war on Germany, and then Germany declared war back on Russia.

But it was a very confusing time.
i.onionstatic.com/onion/8783/16x9/1200.jpg

[Admiral Biscuit]

7427455

I doubt it, but that would be interesting to see Aquamarine into cars. Kind of reminds me of my OC when it comes to cars.

She'd probably enjoy farm machinery, especially the old steam-powered stuff. There's actually a steam show near my house this weekend, and I might go for research purposes. Kinda depends on how caught-up I get tomorrow.

7427731

I do love a good ripping thunder shower my self. now that I am living out in the sticks I can stand out side in the rain and enjoy them.

Oh yeah. Haven't had a really good one here in a while, but I remember driving back roads from Ann Arbor to Lansing one time when the lightning was nearly continuous. That was pretty epic.

7427788

Ah good old WWI. I wonder how Silver's outside perspective will influence her reading of the entire affair.

She's going to miss a lot . . . you can't really discuss World War 1 without knowing all the various balances of power that existed in Europe at the time, which kind of is a class unto itself. In my World War 2 class in college, we spent about a third of the class covering the years after WW1, because it was important to understand that to understand the war.

7428164

Finally caught up. Sorry for the delay; many irons in the fire.

Ha, no worries.

7428757

Everyone interested in linguistics needs to read Professor Hofstadter's works.

Now added to my Amazon shopping cart

[Conflicting views]

7437188 Well, the WW1' western front barely moved until the offensive of 1918 when the war suddenly became a movement war once again. Except from the retreat on the Nidenburg line in early 1917, any terrain gained was usually lost the next morning.

also do an inspection of the outside of the building

Aren't those kind of inspections usually performed by specialists?

[CinnamonSwirltheBreaded]

7437188

Although the pegasus could also do an inspection of the outside of the building while she was washing the windows; that would be a lot harder for a unicorn to accomplish. That having been said, I don't think that occupations like those are exclusively pegasus occupations, just that pegasi are generally more suited to it.

I think I'm a bit confused here; haven't you been implying or saying that pegasi, like Silver can't hover like we see in the show?

Also, I imagine it might be difficult to fly around buildings, especially tall ones, given they alter the local weather.

[Admiral Biscuit]

7437230

Aren't those kind of inspections usually performed by specialists?

Well, yes, but I think that a window washer could learn to look for things like loose bricks, missing mortar, cracks, that kind of thing.

7444197

I think I'm a bit confused here; haven't you been implying or saying that pegasi, like Silver can't hover like we see in the show?

I don't remember if I've said that or not, to be honest. It sounds like something I might say, though, since most real birds can't do it. On the other hand, they certainly do in CSI/OPP, and a lot of the worldbuilding in this story is a direct continuation of that.

Also, I imagine it might be difficult to fly around buildings, especially tall ones, given they alter the local weather.

That seems to me like something that you could get used to with practice.

[Sky Blue CMC]

River Song makes me think of Doctor Who.

[Admiral Biscuit]

8327591

River Song makes me think of Doctor Who.

Myself, it makes me think of Firefly.
scifitvgeek.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/firefly_objects_in_space.jpg
It's only an object. It doesn't mean what you think.

[Seraphem]

Back right off to Silver being all adorable, pinning Aric down to claim her right to the birdy-pone treats!

Then being adorable and worrying that somehow Peggy might not want two ponies in the room.... how could she not!? Besides, you already know you can get most humans to do you will, just look at how you got that stamp and envelope.

I'm sure they'd like her, but I'm not sure she'd like them.

He...hehe....hehehehehehehe... weeeeellll now that you mention that.......

More pony being unconventional in poetry with her whole 'arrange them by what they are about rather then who wrote them'. I kind of like that idea. I do get going by author, since let's you better get to see their style, as well as giving the chance to explore or learn ore about them and what they've done. But her idea also has some good points as well.

And yes Conrad, she is very wise Pony.

Silver, how could Meghan NOT want to have TWO ponies snuggling with her in a hot tub? Just look at how instantly she brightened and cheered up just by seeing one pony waiting for her.

Silly grass rolling pony, getting all covered in grass clippings and being all adorable.

I feel bad for Walgreens, not their fault some asshole happened to shop there that they should be denied Pony.

Silver, while technically only 26 letters, you do also have to factor in spaces as well as punctuation. Then you have the langauges with a freaking absurd number of characters. Still love her way of looking at it. Math in't hard, there's only like, ten numbers you need to know, everything else is just putting them in the proper order.

Then again, this is the nerd that tries to figure out how to express a leaf with fractal equations.

Joe is smart, already accepting the inevitability of the coming pony conquest! Granted it confused the hell out of Silver, the humans weren't supposed to know about those plans yet.

Aquamarine just ins't as outgoing and eager to make friends as you Silver. She's more the Fluttershy to your RD. She's fine with a smaller, closer circle of friends then trying to make friends with everyone she meets.

Wow Silver, adding sexism to you list? Stallion's are just disposable sperm banks?

"Grazing and gathering." I love this expression.

"Going hungry is a distant memory" oh.... oh Silver... you poor innocent little cinnamon roll..... Granted as far as ability to produce food goes, we do have enough to not have people go hungry, it's not a resource shortage, it's a combo of moving it from the areas with high production to where it's needed, and people just being greedy assholes.

She let figuring out a complex math equation distract her from going to get laid. Yeah, Twilight would be very proud. Still at leas she's learning not to be a total triablist, admitting the Unicorns did help refine the stuff the pegasi invented.

Very, very dedicate Storm Pone, always ready to go do what she needs to, good pony!

Yes Trevor, the flappy pone is flappy and no needs your silly groundbound concepts like 'ladders'.

And Silver unwittingly gets drawn into a subs v dubs debate over translating poems. Or at least one aspect of it, do you just go literal word for word, or adapt it to keep the idea, but in a way other people would get. Especially if it's a language with a lot of words that have connotation and implications beyond just the literal translation. Then you have guys like Woolsey, who just go 'I'll do whatever I want' and just keeps most of it straight, but changes things around if he feels like it to get a better product for the market he's translating for. (He was the head translator for Squaresoft back in the SNES days, he's the one we have to thank for such immortal lines as "You Spoony Bard!" and the raw glory that is Kefka, who in Japan is seen as just a bland, boring, forgettable villain, but Woosley's changes to his dialog turned him into one of the best Final Fantasy villains ever.)

Conrad knows how to take advantage of, and utilize having a pony in class to have a bit of fun and make some points. truly best teacher.

And yes, all must meet new ponies! Everyone wants to do that!

Settling debate via bread combat, what are they, Dwarves? (If you don't get the joke, why have you not read Discworld!?)

Silver, you have no idea how bad Austria-Hungry's plans backfired. And just starting to see the clusterfuck of clusterfucks that went into the war starting. Hell they declared war before even being ready to attack or do anything, simply for the sake of claiming they declared it, meanwhile their generals were screaming at the politicians how idiotic they were being.

Okay.... more a writing thing here...

Meghan said that tomorrow she would make a salon appointment for us, and she also told me that we would be able to go to the hot tub either Saturday or Sunday night. I thought Tuesday would be the best day because I didn't have very many classes.

The way it's set up, sounds like she's saying Tuesday would be the better day for the hot tub. Since talks about the spa, then the hot tub, and just, very oddly worded and arranged.

But Silver makes up for it by being cute little tired pone that things her ears might really have fallen off.

[Admiral Biscuit]

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Back right off to Silver being all adorable, pinning Aric down to claim her right to the birdy-pone treats!

Once he puts them in the bird feeder (or really, got them for that purpose), they're fair game for pegasi. That's a fact.

Then being adorable and worrying that somehow Peggy might not want two ponies in the room.... how could she not!? Besides, you already know you can get most humans to do you will, just look at how you got that stamp and envelope.

Yeah, of course Peggy won't really mind two ponies in the room. And if she does, of course Meghan won't.

He...hehe....hehehehehehehe... weeeeellll now that you mention that.......

Silver Glow sometimes considers the silliest things.

More pony being unconventional in poetry with her whole 'arrange them by what they are about rather then who wrote them'. I kind of like that idea. I do get going by author, since let's you better get to see their style, as well as giving the chance to explore or learn ore about them and what they've done. But her idea also has some good points as well.

When you're searching them on google, you can search by subject, which is actually pretty nice. I don't know of any class that ever presented poems that way, but I can't see any good reason to not do it. Sure, going with one author's style is nice, and seeing how he or she explores different subjects; on the other hand, there's also something to be said about the varying approaches to a subject by different poets.

And yes Conrad, she is very wise Pony.

Wise beyond her ears, really.

Silver, how could Meghan NOT want to have TWO ponies snuggling with her in a hot tub? Just look at how instantly she brightened and cheered up just by seeing one pony waiting for her.

I know, right? Probably the more ponies, the more willing Meghan is to do it. I bet if she was in Chonamare and Silver Glow suggested the public hot tub at the public spa, Meghan wouldn't hesitate for a second.

Silly grass rolling pony, getting all covered in grass clippings and being all adorable.

It stretches the back and makes a pony smell like fresh grass . . . there's no reason not to.

I feel bad for Walgreens, not their fault some asshole happened to shop there that they should be denied Pony.

Yeah, and it's not really their fault at all. Probably some of the clerks there would have loved for Silver Glow to become a regular, especially since it's so conveniently close to college.

Silver, while technically only 26 letters, you do also have to factor in spaces as well as punctuation. Then you have the langauges with a freaking absurd number of characters. Still love her way of looking at it. Math in't hard, there's only like, ten numbers you need to know, everything else is just putting them in the proper order.

And, while I'm no math expert, there are probably more critical rules for how math numbers are arranged, versus the clusterfk that we call English. Where ever rules is "do this, except when. . ."

Then again, this is the nerd that tries to figure out how to express a leaf with fractal equations.

In many ways, though, the natural world does run on math.

Joe is smart, already accepting the inevitability of the coming pony conquest! Granted it confused the hell out of Silver, the humans weren't supposed to know about those plans yet.

There's no reason not to embrace our new pony overlords.

Aquamarine just ins't as outgoing and eager to make friends as you Silver. She's more the Fluttershy to your RD. She's fine with a smaller, closer circle of friends then trying to make friends with everyone she meets.

Yes; on the other hand, she probably has deeper bonds with her fewer close friends than Silver does with her larger number of friends. Plus, it's probably overwhelming for Aquamarine to be at a university the size of MSU--something like 30,000 students (I'm too lazy to look up the actual number), vs. Kalamazoo College's 1000 or so on-campus students at any given time.

Wow Silver, adding sexism to you list? Stallion's are just disposable sperm banks?

Well, she does have a point. She doesn't even know who her sire is.

"Grazing and gathering."I love this expression.

#Paleopony times.

"Going hungry is a distant memory" oh.... oh Silver... you poor innocent little cinnamon roll..... Granted as far as ability to produce food goes, we do have enough to not have people go hungry, it's not a resource shortage, it's a combo of moving it from the areas with high production to where it's needed, and people just being greedy assholes.

Yeah, exactly. I'm not sure if we really do have the current capacity to produce and provide food for all the needy people in the world, but there's no doubt we could do a lot better than we do now.

She let figuring out a complex math equation distract her from going to get laid. Yeah, Twilight would be very proud. Still at leas she's learning not to be a total triablist, admitting the Unicorns did help refine the stuff the pegasi invented.

Twilight would probably forget to show up for her wedding if an interesting magic problem came up. Presumably, any stallion or mare who wanted to marry her would understand. And it's a kind of grudging admission that the unicorns made pegasus math better.

Very, very dedicate Storm Pone, always ready to go do what she needs to, good pony!

Being a feral storm pony in Chonamare, that would be ingrained in her. No matter what, she had to fight storms there, whenever and wherever they decided to show up. Also something that inland ponies probably don't understand about feral weather work.

Yes Trevor, the flappy pone is flappy and no needs your silly groundbound concepts like 'ladders'.

I almost wonder--as Equestria gets more technology if they'd actually start winding up with pegasi shortages? There are so many things that are naturally suited to pegasi, and sooner or later there would be more jobs than actual pegasus ponies.

And Silver unwittingly gets drawn into a subs v dubs debate over translating poems. ...

That's one of the biggest challenges. I've read The Canterbury Tales both ways, and I much prefer the poeticized version over the literal version. I actually preferred struggling through it in Middle English vs. the exact translation. Poetry like that was meant to have a flow, and a literal translation doesn't. Although of course depending on how the language works, you can find yourself having real trouble with some of that . . . I guess in some ways, translating a poem is an art form.

Heck, translating in general is an art form.

Conrad knows how to take advantage of, and utilize having a pony in class to have a bit of fun and make some points. truly best teacher.

The best teachers know to use every resource at their disposal, including students.

And yes, all must meet new ponies! Everyone wants to do that!

I know, right? She really should have found a way to bring Cayenne to Kalamazoo

Settling debate via bread combat, what are they, Dwarves?

At least they're not teleporting the bread.

(If you don't get the joke, why have you not read Discworld!?)

That's on my to-do list.

Silver, you have no idea how bad Austria-Hungry's plans backfired. And just starting to see the clusterfuck of clusterfucks that went into the war starting. Hell they declared war before even being ready to attack or do anything, simply for the sake of claiming they declared it, meanwhile their generals were screaming at the politicians how idiotic they were being.

On the other hand, they were in good company at doing something really dumb. Really, there's probably PhD papers written specifically about the dumb things that nations do leading up to war and in actual war--the political decisions, and the military decisions. Probably hundreds of papers. Maybe thousands. I'm not exactly an expert, but I seem to recall that Hitler declaring war on America wasn't exactly his best move, either. IIRC, Roosevelt didn't have enough support to overtly fight Hitler (although of course we were 'leasing' England military supplies and suchlike), but once Hitler declared war on us, we had no choice but to respond. . . .

Okay.... more a writing thing here...

The way it's set up, sounds like she's saying Tuesday would be the better day for the hot tub. Since talks about the spa, then the hot tub, and just, very oddly worded and arranged.

That really is, isn't it? Even for Silver Glow's kind of rambly writing style.

But Silver makes up for it by being cute little tired pone that thinks her ears might really have fallen off.

[Herald of Opera]

Where ever rules is "do this, except when. . ."

And then there are even exceptions to that. It's honestly really weird. (For those playing at home, there actually a second rhyming line in the "I before E" thing... and "weird" doesn't qualify for it either... and I didn't even notice "either" was a second full exception until I'd already typed it. English is a ****ing mess)

[The Spy of the Tiger]

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Sure, English has some issues, but it isn't so bad. For example, Arabic doesn't write short vowels. They do write long vowels, but not short ones. Canada is written as Cnda. Arabic also has a specific tense when talking to two people.

Russian doesn't have articles. There is no usage of words like "the" or "of." If I wanted to ask if Caleb is a doctor, a direct translation would be "Caleb doctor?" If I wanted to tell someone that Caleb is a doctor, I would then say "Caleb doctor." The only difference is punctuation and intonation.

[Admiral Biscuit]

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One of my bits of headcanon (which only makes a passing appearance in this story) is that 'common' Equestrian uses a simplified character set, since it's hard to mouthwrite. So they don't use vowels (but they add vowel points when needed) and shave down a few other characters as well. Contrast with Unicorn, which uses a phoenetic alphabet, 'cause when you're casting a spell you don't want to be confused by homonyms like 'lead' and 'lead.'

I'm not very good at knowing the mechanics of language, so I never took it further than that, but it's a fair bet that ponies don't use the same writing structures as English . . . I know some stuff that's done in other languages (IIRC, Latin puts the subject in the noun), German capitalizes nouns; there are genedered words. Maybe in Equestrian there are tribaled words?

Chicago Ted went and invented an Equestrian language for one of his stories, which I had the honor of pre-reading:

TThe Children of Planet Earth

• MLP: FiM
• Mystery
• Sci-Fi

An exploration of linguistic xenohippology.

• Profanity
• Human
• Alt. Universe
• Twilight
• OC
• Main 6

Chicago Ted · 156k words  ·  566  43 · 10k views