July 5 [Battle Creek]
July 5
Meghan got up after the second time her alarm went off like always, and then I set out breakfast and helped groom her for work and this time she finished her breakfast before the car came to take her away.
We waited on her porch—there was a hanging couch but it wasn't hers so we couldn't sit on it—and she said that we should have a spa day again soon, and maybe in the evening we could use her hot tub. I thought Thursday might be a good day for that, until I remembered that there was a chance of thunderstorms. So we decided to be safe and do at least the hot tub part tomorrow, and we'd just have to see when we could get time at the salon.
I reminded her that I was leaving on Friday to go to Lansing, and wouldn't be back until Monday evening. And she said that was when she had her conference so that was part of the reason why she wanted to go to the salon before that.
She rubbed my head when the car came to get her, and I nuzzled her hip and then when she was gone I flew back to my apartment and put on my flight gear.
While I'd had a nice lazy weekend with Meghan, now it was time to work my wings and then in the afternoon I was going to go shopping with Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn again.
I had an urge to fly east, so I took off and went low over town, until I was across the Kalamazoo River, and then I started following the railroad tracks until I got to Comstock. I thought that was far enough away from the airport that I could easily get clearance, and I did. Dori said that she'd missed me over the weekend, and I asked if she'd seen me on TV and she said that she had. She told me that CNN had picked up on it, which I guess was a good thing although I wasn't entirely sure what CNN was. And then I told her that my intention was to fly to past Augusta and she reminded me that I might fly into Battle Creek's airport zone, and gave me the frequency for their tower. She told me I ought to contact them no later than Augusta, and once I was past Galesburg to monitor their frequency.
Well, that was something I hadn't done before, but I guess I should have.
I picked up altitude and followed the railroad tracks, since they were a straighter guide than the river. And I was all the way at my ceiling by the time I got to Galesburg, so I flew in a big circle and changed my radio to their frequency and just to be safe I advised them of my intentions.
They said that the sky was clear and to monitor the general aviation frequency until I got to Augusta so I changed my radio again and waited for a break in traffic and then announced my position and my heading to anyone who was listening, and when I got to the right point in my circle, I kept going along the tracks.
I had to circle again while I was changing my radio, then when I got it they gave me clearance to proceed along the tracks and to maintain an altitude of ten thousand feet. So I did, and pretty soon I saw the airport off to my right and it was pretty exciting to be that close to it. I saw a funny stumpy-looking airplane that had dull olive paint zoom under me and land and I hadn't thought before that how the airplane directors might have aircraft go under me. So after that I paid a lot more attention to my altimeter.
I went a little ways further and then I got permission to turn around and I saw another one of the stumpy airplanes go down for a landing but instead of stopping on the runway he flew along it and then went back up in the air like I'd done to get my flight license.
I thought that they were really busy at the airport, so I didn't ask for permission to descend until I was near Augusta again, and then they told me that I could but to switch back to the general frequency once I got under five thousand feet.
So I did a nice, slow gliding descent, with a big loop at five thousand feet. Nobody objected to me going down more, so I continued losing altitude and finally landed at a parking lot near a bend in the river.
I went down the little ramp to the water and the water smelled okay so had a good drink, then I waded in a little bit further to cool myself down some, but kept my wings up and dry.
Then I walked around the parking lot a bit before taking off again. I went in a mostly-west direction until I was over the railroad tracks again, and then I followed them.
I was almost back to Kalamazoo when I saw a train coming my way, and it passed under me in a bright silver flash and then I turned and watched it until it disappeared around the corner in Galesburg. That was the train I took to see Aquamarine, and now I'd covered a portion of its route. For some reason that made me feel really satisfied with myself. It was almost like I knew the train's secrets.
I took another break near the karaoke bar that no one wanted to take me to. It was closed; it didn't open until the afternoon, but I peeked through the glass doors. Then I flew the rest of the way home, keeping low enough that airplanes went over me and I could land whenever I wanted to.
The shower felt really nice on my wings—a few days of hardly flying really made me ache the next time I put in a long flight—and when I was done I dried myself off and relaxed in the papasan for a little bit, then I ate a light lunch and waited for Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn to arrive.
I probably ought to have read another chapter of the Bible, but I thought I'd do that tomorrow—I'd have a shorter flight, and then do it in the morning, where I'd have time to get all the way through another chapter uninterrupted.
They'd both seen me on TV, and when I asked what CNN was, Miss Cherilyn told me it was a cable news channel that did national news, instead of a local channel like WWMT. She said that she thought I'd make a great weatherpony, and she asked Mister Salvatore what he thought and he said that a piece like that might bring the nuts out of the woodwork and I wasn't sure what he meant by that.
Then we got to talking about flying, and I said that I thought I ought to get some bottles of water like people always had 'cause I got thirsty and Mister Salvatore said that I should get a camelback.
Meijer didn't have them. We looked at the sporting supplies—which Mister Salvatore said was his favorite section of the store—and there weren't any. There was lots of other stuff, though, like golf balls and tents and shoes with caulks and fishing gear.
I told him that I didn't need any of that to fish; I just watched from above and dove down when I saw one that looked good swimming too close to the surface and he said that I probably ought to have a fishing license then. So we went to the counter and I got one (all I had to do was give them my plastic money-card and fill out a form) and he gave me a pamphlet that said what kind of fish I could and couldn't catch.
Then he said it was probably silly, but he really didn't want to have to explain me to the DNR. And he asked if I hunted for anything besides fish because I guess you needed a special kind of license for that, too, and I said that I didn't.
He said that there hadn't been nearly as many headaches when Action Shot had been here but he was smiling when he said it.
We got more food for my apartment and also a mat for the bathtub so my hooves wouldn't slip as much. It had suckers on the bottom like an octopus that would hold it in place. And Miss Cherilyn said that since I bought so many vegetables maybe I would enjoy shopping at the farmer's market and when she told me that the people who grew the food also sold it, I agreed that was where I wanted to go. So she told me she'd get directions to it.
After we'd gotten everything we went back to my apartment and put it all away, then got back in the van and went to a store called Dick's and they had a camelback and it didn't fit all that well but then Miss Cherilyn got the idea to cross the straps and that made it much better. It would fit under my flight vest and would let me carry lots of water.
When we were driving back home, I told them how I was going to Bay City to see the ships next weekend and said that I already had bought train tickets for myself. And then I said that I still wanted to fly to Chicago and Mister Salvatore said that he needed to know ahead of time because Chicago had a very big, very important airport. And he wanted to know how far I could fly without landing and I said that I wasn't sure. It was different on Earth, 'cause I couldn't go up and rest on clouds, and it was a little harder to fly so he got kind of thoughtful for a bit and said that if I was going to do it, he'd want to charter a boat to follow me along and that way if I had to land I could land on the boat.
Well, I thought it would hurt my pride to have to land on a boat, but I guess I could understand why he was worried. A lot of parents didn't like their foals flying out over the ocean; even my mom had told me not to when I was little. I'd thought that was unfair because she did all the time, but she said that there were lots of ponies who flew too far and got lost and then drowned when they couldn't find land and couldn't find any clouds.
And I guess she had a good point. We never patrolled out very far without being in a group. We weren't always close, but we were close enough that we could keep an eye on each other.
So I said that I thought having a boat was a good idea, and I promised that I wouldn't do it until we'd scheduled a good time for it and then he said that he thought maybe it would be easier to go from Chicago to South Haven, because the wind usually blew from the west, and so that would help me.
He was probably right, but it felt like it would be more satisfying to go to Chicago, rather than the other way around.
We went to Bilbo's for dinner. I wouldn't have minded just going home and having something light, but he really wanted to eat there and I did like their pizza and beer.
I told them over dinner how Gusty had gotten a role on Orange is the New Black, and reminded them that she was going to come back to put on her play in Stratford and he said that it was something he was really looking forward to because getting us into Canada was a real treat.
Our waiter had seen me on TV as well, and he asked really nicely if he could take a selfie with me and so I did. I asked Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn if they wanted to be in the picture, too, but they didn't.
We really took our time at dinner, but it was nice. I didn't spend as much time with them as I ought to have, I guess sometimes because they felt like surrogate parents and I was of the age where all my instincts said I should be flying away from home.
And we decided on when we were going to go on a trip out west. Miss Cherilyn and Mister Salvatore were going to come with me, and I said that they didn't have to but Mister Salvatore said that it was a great way to get a vacation without actually taking any vacation time and he was pretty sure that was why Mister Barrow and Miss Parker had been so quick to volunteer for our last train trip.
Right now it seemed like it was so far off, but I had a feeling that it was going to sneak up on me and all of a sudden we'd be getting on the train. I was going to have a busy August, that was for sure.
When I got back to my apartment, I saw that I had a telephone message (Mister Salvatore wagged his finger at me when he saw that I'd left my telephone at home but where was I supposed to put it if I brought it with me?) and it was Meghan saying that she had gotten an appointment for Thursday after work.
Miss Cherilyn liked watching the birds and Mister Salvatore looked around my apartment again and asked if I wanted to get a different stove because he could lean on the landlord and make it happen. And he asked if there was anything else I needed and I said that I'd like it if the shower was wider because it was crowded when Meghan and I were in there together and he frowned and Miss Cherilyn said that was a pretty major change and she didn't think that they could make that happen. I said I'd thought the same thing because the bathtub was pretty built-in and if it got much wider it would run into the toilet.
And then I remembered that I needed to do laundry, so we gathered together all my dirty stuff and it was kind of annoying that I had to use my plastic money to get paper money and then turn that into coins before I could use the washing machine and dryer and when I was done I was left with a lot of coins and no good place to put them, because I hadn't thought to bring my bit-purse. So I tucked them in with my sheets to they wouldn't fall out, and put them away when I got home.
It was kind of late when I got back, but I wasn't all that tired. So I put on my clean flight vest and my blinking light (we'd bought enough batteries for it to last the rest of the summer) and then took off for a low flight around the neighborhood.
It was kind of neat, because occasionally I'd see people launching fireworks off in the distance. Not too many; they'd probably used most of them up on the Fourth, but I guess some people had them left.
I went all the way over downtown, circled around the hotel, and then followed Main Street back to my apartment.
The futon felt kind of lonely without Meghan, and I wound up tucking one pillow between my forelegs before I could fall asleep.
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a funny stumpy-looking airplane
175wg.ang.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/081217-F-8013S-001.JPG
Some comedian had this routine about late night Laundromats. He said basically, everyone there is such a failure nobody will trust them with enough money to buy a washer and dryer.
2nd, everyone is wearing their last clean clothes. Anywhere else you would draw attention wearing Speedos and a welder's vest but there you fit right in.
7542374
Getting a pegasus to report on the weather feels a bit like cheating.
"What do you mean, my prediction was off?" [...] "Not anymore it isn't."
"Problem?
"
Aww. Silver needs a human-plushie.
What Silver needs is something like a trakball controlled SDR with pico projector helmet visor for HUD so she can see when different channels have traffic on them even if she isnt listening in at the time.
I mean, I have a fibre router that handles 256 channels with 100 million bit per second accross them with S/N, quality, bit swap etc thats only a few watts of power, so detecting those channels only and decoding just one or two for compressed audio at a time should be even lower power.
What would be intresting is using a batch of dollar store phone boxes for the audio head, filtering, companding, full duplex single wire etc. I mean, how many of you who use handheld radios would love to have reasonable landline quality?
As for Chicago needing so much warning up ahead, I thought they wernt bothering spending an extra 1% on passive mil radar and active denial defence?
ask
As far as SG's problems with using pegasus magic on Earth are concerned, I was just thinking about another story with humans in it. Project Sunflower. In that story, Earth has no magic at all, just some leakage in the portal's immediate area. The ponies get around that by bringing magic "batteries" with them. Maybe Twilight can figure something like that out in this setting, too.
Am I the only one to find the idea of a camelback backpack on the back of a pony to be funny?
Since she already moved a world away, wouldn't they be part of the new herd?
Funny thing about Dick's Sporting Goods. It was founded in 1948 in Binghamton NY. My hometown.
If only Camelback knew. They would make a fortune selling those to pegasi. Either exporting them to Equestria or building a factory there depending on trade relations. It is simple enough that it would not count as a tech transfer and the ponies could make it. Working pegasi would view it as a must have since it would save a ton of time and effort landing or gathering it from clouds.
had a dull olive paint?
7542479
Ah, the the A-10 thunderbolt II, aka 'Warthog'. She's the primary reason why, when asked if they can get a good night's sleep in-theater, soldiers of all N.A.T.O. military branches reply "Only when Pigs fly!" Thier distinctive 'Brrrrrt brrrt' mating call serves as a lullaby to our troops.
...Why, of course it's a mating call! Think about it; every time you hear it, that magnificent, graceful bird is in the middle of fucking something up. No exceptions!
7542641 how is that funny?
Hah!
"What's wrong with sleeping around? It's all in good fun, Mister Salvatore, and it's not like I can get pregnant."
Well, Mister Salvatore, at least she's not Cayenne...
Damn, there are so many good things in this chapter and I don't have time for a proper comment-essay. *sigh*
Great job.
7542861
Surprised they haven't left a bath mat and a snarky note at her door yet. :P
Is it just me, or is her endurance increasing? I wonder if when she gets back to Equestria she'll need to compensate
7542861
I read one that had the oil glands at the base of the wing. Might have been one of the project sunflower stories, and imo makes more sense than in the cheeks
7540173
Why, the dog, of course. I was mostly thinking of how they waited for their ride home inside the barn so the dog wouldn't bother them, so I didn't even think of the horse. Figured the combination of a spoken command and being up in the air might get him to categorize her as not needing to be herded.
Silver should totally see if she can get some kind of arm-worn strap-on phone/wallet thingamajiggie.
Also, I went back a few dozen chapters and looked at "Apartment hunting" and Silver lives in a "Yellow-ish house on Grove street." and I went and looked for any yellow two story house that looked like it could be a duplex and am I a stalker now?
The second paragraph looks like it goes to the second line too quickly. Not sure if loading or formatting error.
I continue to require Mr. Salvatore's Weekend of Glorious Masculine Combat.
Not sure if serious or sarcastic because Canada has a bunch of antipony laws or something.
7543067
You're right; it's in Project Sunflower: Harmony. https://www.fimfiction.net/story/177431/4/project-sunflower-harmony/chapter-04-feathers-and-get-togethers
Time to get a hug pillow with aric on one side and meghan on the other
she needs one buildin level with the ground ... so her whole bath is the shower haha
and Silver has the odd habit to write really long sentences ...
7542374
7542479
damn, my first idea was vipers ...
7542498
it ain't cheatin if you make the weather you report...
7542937
Austraeoh reference?
7542374 I've seen one in person. That gun is massive.
Mister Salvatore sounds like he's the cynical type who expects everyone to do the stupidest or most wrong thing possible at any given moment.
...Biscuit, maybe you should ask me for permission next time you want to use me as an OC.
7542479 There's nothing quite like the siren song of 3900 depleted-uranium rounds per minute. Of course, it also helps the A-10's reputation that it can take a beating and still get home:
badassoftheweek.com/kimcampbell6.jpg
Piloted by Capt. Kim "Killer Chick" Campbell during Operation Iraqi Freedom. This woman is more badass than I will ever be.
Well you can't get much further than a whole other world. I guess it's why she writes home so infrequently although I actually feel a little bad about that, maybe it's standard Pegasus (or pony) behaviour but I can't help but think her mother is still worrying about what happened to her little filly.
7543505 It's an amazing plane, though, isn't it?
7543364 Yes... I read that as sarcastic also.
-----------
Whoo! 10,000 feet? Any higher and she'd need oxygen.
-----------
Isn't Battle Creek where cereal comes from?
------------
An Earth cloud won't let a Pegasus lay on it to rest?
What about that one SG captured to show to the teacher?
7543505
I'm suspecting that Salvatore is FBI or DHS or some other government agent, so it's probably his job to worry about that.
7542512
There's a couple of problems with your idea:
(1) Air-traffic control frequences are analog signals -- specifically, AM (amplitude-modulated), double-sideband, full-carrier signals on VHF frequencies between 108 and 137 MHz. The first 10MHz of that band, from 108 to 117.95MHz, is divided into 200 narrow-band channels at 50KHz spacing, and typically reserved for beacons and navigational aids; voice channels are in the remaining 118 – 136.975Mhz band, divided into 760 channels at 25KHz spacings. (Although Europe has begun subdividing the band even further, down to 8.33KHz channel spacing, potentially allowing up to 2280 channels.)
(2) It's not just the listening that requires power, it's the transmitting. Unlike a cell phone, an aircraft radio's signal has to reach all the way from the aircraft to the tower on its own; there's no chain of transcievers that relay low-power signals between source and destination. Typical aircraft radios are 10 to 16 watts, although there are models as small as 5W and as large as 25W.
So, a VHF air-to-ground radio scanner/transciever and a fiber-optic network router really don't have a lot in common when it comes to complexity, power requirements, and so on.
And that's not even getting into the additional complexities of the whole trackball-controlled HUD visor display you're talking about...
And realistically, aircraft don't generally need to monitor a lot of different channels simultaneously anyway. The only reason Silver is having to switch channels at all is because she's crossing air-traffic control zones.
(And yes, there are reasons why they still use such a relatively low-tech system. One big reason is that with AM modulated signals, even if a pilot is transmitting, the tower can "talk over" them and other aircraft will hear both transmissions. Ditto if two pilots try to talk at the same time; the tower will hear both, and can then instruct one pilot to repeat and the other to wait if necessary. With FM, there is a "capture effect" which causes only the stronger signal to be demodulated in the receiver, leaving the receving parties unaware that the weaker signal was sent at all. Digital radio transmissions -- which are really just FM broadcasts in which the signal is modulated by digital bit patterns rather than by audio waveforms -- would have the same capture-effect problem.)
7543892 probably DHS, I would think they're responsible for foreign dignitaries. Which it seems is how the ponies are currently treated.
7544371
Hmm.
A cursory search says it's most often either the Secret Service or the Diplomatic Sercurity Service, if Silver Glow is being treated as a foreign dignitary.
So, Mister Salvatore might be DHS or DSS, maybe the Secret Service. Explains why his badge is so damn powerful.
My Jury senses are tingling.
Also this felt like a really long chapter. Good work.
7544468. How many Equestrians are in the US in this story? I don't know if there are enough agents in the respective agencies to keep track of over 1000 exchange students/ researchers / VIPs. Maybe it's only a few hours a day spent on each of them, or the majority are in a secure area.
I'm looking forward to seeing Mr. Salvador meet one of the Equestrian guards who had to watch over humans in Equestria. I'm sure they'd have an interesting conversation.
A stumpy looking aircraft eh? A few of the other readers say it is an A-10. I would like to say I agree. A-10 is best combat plane.
Glad to see Silver got a Camelback! I hope she doesn't have too many issues with it.
7542479 Now why would the Pentagon want to replace this majestic beast?
7542374
Nailed it.
2.bp.blogspot.com/_eMJkwY0SnYg/TC40yynGj_I/AAAAAAAAAU0/89QtL_4bFW4/w1200-h630-p-nu/A-10-2.jpg
7542444
I use the local laundromat for my good clothes, since I've got so much iron in my well water that I can pick up a drinking glass with a magnet.
That's totally true. Even the free laundry at college was like that. As often as not, people who were doing their laundry were wearing their pajamas.
7542479
In the video, the gun sounds kind of silly, but I'd hate to be on the receiving end of it.
Then again, odds are if you were on the receiving end of it, you wouldn't live long enough to actually hear it.
kermitsbench.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/gau8bullet1.jpeg
Why does it even carry rockets? With a gatling gun full of these, rockets seem superfluous.
7542498
What would be worse would be if two local TV stations each had their own weatherpony.
A pony with any plushie is diabeetus-inducing adorable.
7542512
That would achieve the goal the FAA desperately wants: to load her with so much mandatory equipment that she can't get airborne.
Chicago O'Hare is busy enough with commercial traffic that a pegasus trying to land or even fly thorough their airspace would give them such headaches. Just the wake turbulance issues of her coming in behind a jumbo would be problematic. Mister Salvatore doesn't want to deal with the headache, so he's basically forbidding Silver Glow from going into their airspace at all.
7542570
ask
Correction made; thank you!
I personally don't like that headcanon;* I prefer that magic is usable everywhere on Earth, although it is a little less potent than it would be in Equestria. I suppose that they could have some kind of storage batteries to briefly superpower their magic though.
*One of the main reasons that I don't like it is that it suggests that the flipside is that humans have to bring 'science' batteries with them to Equestria.
7542610
It is kind of funny. What would be even funnier would be a camel with a camelback.
Sort of, but I think that herds would tend to be a pony's peers, and Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn aren't, any more than Conrad or Professor Sir Doctor Banerjee.
7542641
Interesting. All I know about them is I giggle every time I see one of their stores.
7542670
To every pony, really. Just think how convenient it would be to have a bladder of water you could easily carry around on your back when you worked out in the fields, or when you were hauling a wagon from Ponyville to the Fire Swamp.
A lot of authors think that the ponies would really want the high tech stuff (tablets, iPods, etc.), but I think that what they'd really like the most is little stuff like camelbacks.
7542731
All the ones I've ever seen did. I don't know what color they're painting them these days; I suppose that it depends on their operating theater. (That having been said, I bet the fact that the paint color was obviously military helped people guess what it was from Silver vague description.)
7542758
And you're totally right, too.
7542905
He probably gets to read the field reports from her helpers.
7542937
I had to.
7542947
Well, she's only taken one 3am shower so far.
7543067
It is, now that she's not in school and spending more time in the air.
You know, I've heard that runners sometimes train at high altitudes, so maybe Earth could become the go-to training location for pegasus atheletes.
I wonder if that could cause problems with the down feathers, though?
I think the dog would still figure she needed to be herded, he'd just be upset that he couldn't do his job effectively if she was flying. He might start barking at her to try and lure her down.
7543089
She could. Although with two radios and an altimeter already on her forelegs, she's starting to run out of legspace, too. (And she does have pockets in her vest.)
Well, you're not the first one to do it; I believe 7542731 beat you to the punch. If you found the one on the north side of the street that's between Arlington and Berkley, you found the right house.
7543265
Oddly, it looked right on a mobile phone. Just coincidence, I guess. Yeah, it was wrong; a carraige return got put in where it didn't belong.
7543364
Not sure if serious or sarcastic because Canada has a bunch of antipony laws or something.
A little bit of both: besides the human laws, there are the horse laws, some of which may apply, depending on the agents. Plus the American ponies have American visas, but not necessarily Canadian.
Also, for what it's worth, Canada is the only foreign country which has considered deporting me.
7543366
Those are really nice.
She does. Especially when she gets emotional, then her sentances get really run-on.
"It isn't a weather prediction, it's a weather promise."
7543368
Yup.
7543375
I've never seen the gun but for a comment reply above I found a picture of what the gun fires and all I can say is holy shit, that would ruin your day.
7543505
That's basically his job.
Damn. That had to be a fun flight.
Related: Senior Airman Polly-Jan Bobseine, 823rd Security Forces Squadron fire team member.
7543519
Probably her mother is worrying a little bit. Which reminds me I ought to call my mother today.
7543739
I'm not sure if this has been explored in other fics, but I wonder just how high pegasi can fly? There are birds that can hit 30,000 feet, and I assume that they have some way of dealing with the low-oxygen environment; perhaps pegasi are the same.
Yes; it's nicknamed Cereal City, in fact. It's the home of Kellogg's.
Not as easily as an Equestrian cloud. She can work them to the point where she can rest on them, but it isn't as easy for her as it would be back in Equestria.
On a long flight, if there are low enough clouds, she could shape one to her needs and rest on it.
7543892
You are correct; he's a government agent and it's his job to worry about her safety.
7544200
This is something I'm a little unsure of--would a small plane be able to monitor both the GA frequency and a local tower frequency simultaneously, or would the pilot change to the appropriate frequency once he entered the tower-controlled airspace? (I could ask my brother, as well; he's a private pilot.) I know some boats will monitor multiple frequencies, and I've seen CBs that let you monitor one channel (I think it was 16) while being on another.
Huh, I didn't know that. I knew that the aircraft could 'talk over' each other, but I didn't know that that wouldn't work on FM.
7544371 7544468
I haven't ever decided on which agency specifically pays the agents' bills, but they're a cooperative effort between the DSS and the FBI. Silver Glow took her radio test at the Kalamazoo FBI office.
7544729
Thanks!
7545043
I don't have an exact number, but in terms of students it's probably not more than a hundred in the US. The students get different treatment than other visitors--a pony like South Pole, for example, who's in Hollywood on a work visa, would be handled through the normal channels [I don't know exactly how that works, but it would be the same as a British actor working the the US], and Equestrian diplomats (say, Prince Blueblood visits) would also have the normal security. Tourists on short-term visas would be handled the normal way, as well.
I should write that. That would be interesting.
7545086
It is. Kind of ugly, but when you want to make holes in things, it's really good at that.
Aside from the fact it isn't exactly designed for a pony's anatomy, it'll work really well for her. And totally be the accessory everypony wants once she shows it to her friends.
7545699
Probably because it's so damn old.
Although since it's super-effective, I don't really see the need to replace it. Why not just make new ones?
7552674 Any athlete that does endurance sport can gain from high altitude training. With the lower oxygen level, the body is forced to increase the hemoglobin level to be able to transport more oxygen. When going back to normal altitude, th body is thus able to perform better temporarly.
So earth could be a training camp destination, but only if the pegasus' body compansate for whatever make fligth harder on earth.
Otherwise it would just be the same as flying with weigth of just faster (and thus "harder")
I just remembered you talked bad about timmies a few chapters back. Am I going to have to get my hockey stick?
7721614
Whaaaat? Who doesn't like timmies?
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7553427
Well, reduced ambient magic would be similar to reduced oxygen, at least in some ways. Maybe the same effect could be achieved with weights, but just like you couldn't fake all of the moon landing because some things performed very differently in different gravity, so too weights could cause a pegasus to pick up bad flight habits. I haven't really thought hard about all the mechanics of it, but I think it's plausible that Earth could be a good pegasus training ground.
7721614
It's not really a Michigan thing, y'know? The coffee's good, I'll give you that, and I haven't really figured out the rest of the menu.
7722896
Who names a breakfast sandwich a B.E.L.T.? At least McMuffin makes sense.
7727979 I guess you are the one creating that world. So yes, if magic is something pegasuse use to "fuel" there body when they are flying, then earth would be a perfect training spot.
I'm not too sure about the abd fligth habit. They would compensate by putting more strength in their movement and would need some time of readaptation to put the correct amount of strength when back to normal condition, but the re-adaptation is very easy to do. Bad habbits would come from doing movement differently, creating new muscle memory.
7552735 they don't just make new ones because military designers are kinda idiots in the order they design things. They design the computer first, then build the plane around that. So when it is ready to fly the electronics its designed for are sometimes a decade old. The comp on an f-16 has a 64k cache.
Unrelated, where we ever told what silver's cutie mark is? I can't recall.
7728114
Going with canon wing size, they'd pretty much have to, unless they only weigh about a pound.
Potentially, though, they might. Maybe longer strokes than needed, or shorter . . . I dunno. But I think it could be possible. I've mis-learned touch typing, so I can't use a split keyboard. I suppose if I spent enough time with one, I'd learn to adapt, but as it stands right now I'd have a lot of unlearning to do.
7932689
Although the US military has a number of aircraft which far pre-date computerized electronics, so in some cases it is just having something that works so there's no need to change it.
Automobiles also run into that problem with electronics; their systems tend to be simple, robust, and rather outdated. Nowadays, it's better, but you're still designing a system that's out of date by the time the cars actually go on sale, and by the end of the production cycle, it's positively antiquated.
No; it's stars and a swirly thing. If you don't mind the horrors of G3, here's a decent pic of a Silver Glow toy:
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