February 14 [Valentine's Day]
February 14
It was nice to wake up in a room full of my friends. Aric was stretched out on my right side, being a comfortable wall, while Sara was on my left. I'd somehow slid off the pillow Aric and I were sharing and wound up in the cleft between the two, which wasn't doing my neck any favors, but that was all right. Aric's hand was on my shoulder, while Sara's arm was wrapped around my barrel. There was no way I could move without waking both of them up, and that thought comforted me.
I would have guessed the night before that I'd be the first to wake up, but that clearly wasn't the case. I could hear the shower running, which told me that someone else was an early riser. From my position on the bed, I couldn't tell who it was, and I didn't feel like straining my neck any more than it already was to find out, so I just closed my eyes again and pressed my muzzle against Aric's chest.
I didn't really fall back asleep again, but I sort of drifted in and out. I heard the bathroom door open and felt the cloud of hot air and steam drift out and mingle with the stale sleep-air of the hotel room, and then I heard the low voices of Kathleen and John-Jacob as they came out of the bathroom together and wove around our sleeping friends to find their open spot.
That was enough to start waking everyone else in the room. Aric yawned and looked down at me with sleepy eyes, and Sara shifted against me in a final rebellion against waking, but it was too late. Pretty soon the room was full of the sounds of people yawning and stretching.
One of the things that's annoying about a group in a room like this is that there's only one bathroom, and aside from Kathleen and John-Jacob, no one was inclined to share. At least our bathroom in the dorm has several toilets, although only the one shower. So there was a bit of discussion over who was going to bathe and use the toilet and when, but that all got settled pretty quickly at least.
All of us girls had to have help getting dressed, which I thought was a bit unfair, but Aric mentioned that he couldn't put on all of his armor by himself, either. Human hands make short work of most clothing, even with the little tiny fasteners that humans like to put on their clothes.
Kathleen said, as John-Jacob was lacing up her bodice, that back in the Middle Ages, most women that wore clothes like this would have servants to help them get dressed. She chuckled and said that we'd probably never had that problem, and I told her that in fact almost all the clothes I'd ever worn had required another pony to help me get dressed.
She was curious about what kind of clothes we wore, and why, so I told her about the special flight suits we sometimes wore, and of course the barding that the Guard wore, and on top of that there were formal dresses for balls and galas and so on and I had the one that I'd brought.
So John-Jacob asked if I was planning to go to any of the school dances, and I told him that I hadn't known that there were any. He said that there were, but he didn't know when, on account of having graduated the year before. It was something to look forward to!
Once everyone was dressed, we went down to a common room in the hotel where they had breakfast. It wasn't much—Sara said it was called a Continental Breakfast, which consisted of bagels, sorry-looking half-squished muffins in a plastic wrapper, and packets of oatmeal. There was also a big urn of overbrewed coffee and little cheesecloth sacks of tea.
It was the worst breakfast I've ever had, and if it had been later in the year I would have just gone outside to graze. But, I suppose it was better than nothing.
When we were done eating, we piled back into our cars, and drove back to the fairgrounds.
Aric said that today there wasn't any heavy weapons fighting so that we could do whatever we wanted to. He said that there was going to be a fencing tournament, and that Sara was one of the fighters, and I thought that would be fun to see.
It wasn't starting right away, so we wandered around for a little bit. Just like yesterday, a lot of people came over to talk to me and there was one little girl who said she really wanted to ride the horsey. Her mom kept telling her no and was holding her back by the collar of her dress, and I finally said that she could if she wanted to. She was pretty small so I didn't think that she weighed all that much.
I had to give my glaive to Aric—there wasn't any point in risking her getting injured on it—and the mother asked if I was sure it was okay, and I said that it was, so she picked up her daughter and gently set her on my back, being careful of my wings and my costume.
The girl immediately grabbed onto my mane and told me to 'geddyup.' Then she kicked me in the barrel! I had to restrain myself from just bucking her off—I'd actually dropped my rump before I realized what I was doing.
She kicked me again and leaned forward, and I guessed that meant she wanted to go forward, so I gritted my teeth and started walking. I was totally off-balance; she wasn't all that heavy, but there was a giant weight on my back that was randomly moving and I kept feeling like I was going to fall over.
Her mother hovered next to me, arms ready to grab the child, while Aric just started laughing so hard that he almost fell over. He had to bend down and rest his arms on his knees.
Well, we got things worked out after I'd gone a little way down the hallway, and the girl on my back was getting pretty enthusiastic about how she was riding a pony. I kinda got more into it, even though she kept squeezing her legs against my side, as if that would motivate me.
Naturally, all the noise attracted a bit of a crowd, and I was a bit embarrassed, but everyone else seemed to be having a good time, so I just went with it. Aric had gotten over his fit of laughter and took out his phone and started taking a movie of me, which motivated me to look really good, so I started to really lift up my hooves like the fancy unicorns in Canterlot do, and high-stepped back down the hallway, with the girl on my back shouting gleefully the whole time.
When we got back where we'd started her mom took her off my back and gave me a big hug and then she asked Aric if he could send her the movie.
After they exchanged their computer mail addresses, we went back to the hall where all the fencers had been setting up. Keith asked where we'd been, and I said that I'd been giving a little girl a ponyback ride.
Nobody believed that until Aric showed them the movie, and they thought that it was hilarious. Donald said that Aric ought to put the movie on YouTube if I didn't mind, and I said that would be okay.
The fencing was totally different from the heavy weapons fighting. There were just two opponents at a time, and their movement was a lot more restricted. They wore thick mesh helmets and had their bodies covered in a fabric armor, so it was a little hard to tell who was who. Luckily, I could see Sara's hair sticking out below her helmet—and it turned out she was the shortest one to compete as well.
The fights were more like a ballet, I thought. Sometimes the two opponents would taunt each other—one man wore a sock-puppet on one hand and used it to taunt his opponent (that wasn't a very good strategy; he lost). Sara used her short height to her advantage: she had a little shield which Keith said was called a buckler, and she ducked under her opponent's blade, blocking it with her buckler, and then went straight in for his chest.
She advanced through four rounds before she was finally beaten by a man who faked an attack, and when she went to block it, he came around even lower than she had crouched, and she pretty much ran into his sword.
She was in pretty good spirits about the whole thing, though. Aric told me that he'd taken some fencing classes with her, and that she was pretty hard to beat (he never had) but that she used her favorite opening move a little too much and probably the man who had beaten her had expected it. And he also said that she was the only person who had ever broken a sword on him.
Everyone found a spot in the main hall—where the market had been—to sit down for lunch, and we passed around more of the bread and cheese and what was left of the summer sausage. Keith got out his cards and we played a round of Durak while we were eating, and that was a lot of fun. I could kind of forget that we were in a boring modern building and imagine that this was how people had acted a few hundred years ago.
Kathleen said that there was a workshop on making clothes that she wanted to attend, and I thought that would be interesting. I didn't think I was going to make my own clothes, but I was curious about how it was done, so I told her that I'd come along, and John-Jacob said he would as well. Aric wasn't interested at all, but he told me that I could go if I wanted to, and he'd just find something else to do.
That kind of bugged me, but I chalked it up to drowsiness (nobody got a lot of sleep last night) and went off to the class.
The lady in the front of class really covered what I thought were probably the very basics at first—but a lot of classes do that. She explained where to get patterns and where to find appropriate fabrics, and then moved on to more advanced stuff, like how to modify patterns and what sorts of historical books would have pictures of period clothes in them. She said that we were lucky to live in Kalamazoo since Western Michigan University had a very good Medieval Studies department, with lots of books and experts.
When that was over, we went back into the main hall. Aric had found a spot at a table and was playing a game he called The Viking Game with Malcolm. Aric said that one side was supposed to protect their king and let him escape, while the other side was supposed to capture him. I watched the game until it was over—Aric won (he said that he usually did). I wanted to play, but it was Donald's turn first and even though he said that I could go, it would be rude to cut in line.
I watched intently, so that I might get an idea what the strategy was. The king's side had only half as many pieces, so it seemed at first like that might be a big disadvantage, but it wasn't really. Once Aric got some of Donald's pieces captured, he moved the king out of the center of the board and rather quickly made his escape to a corner square.
Then it was my turn, and I hoped I could put on a better showing. Aric explained all the rules to me, and we began.
I knew that once he got the king free, the game would be over, so I concentrated on pinning him towards the center of the board. Donald had tried to protect the corners, but that hadn't worked out very well for him.
I didn't win, but I did better than either of the other two had. I got Aric down to only four pieces plus his king when he finally made his run for the corner, and if I'd managed to have had one more piece on the left corner, I think I would have beaten him, but he caught me out when he ran to one corner and then switched directions when I responded.
Then we changed sides, and I won easily. I got my king out before Aric even had time to set up a good defense, letting him capture a couple of my soldiers to open up a path for me. He didn't see it coming, and by the time I was halfway down the board, there was no way he could win. I had open lanes to all four corners.
Kathleen said that we were all going to go to Denny's for dinner because it was a tradition. Aric said that Denny's was a great restaurant because it was open all the time, and because you could get breakfast whenever you wanted to.
We were quite a spectacle when we came in. The hostess didn't know what to make of us: nine people and one pony all dressed up in medieval clothes. When she saw me, she went back to talk to someone else before seating us and finally a man in a suit with a gold badge came over and looked at me than looked at Aric and then back at me.
He said that animals weren't allowed in the restaurant. I don't know what came over me, but I stomped my hoof on the ground and flared out my wings and told him that I wasn't an animal, I was Silver Glow, of the second ile of Commander Hurricane's hipparchy. It had impressed the girl at Val Day, so maybe it would impress him, too.
He got a really funny look on his face then. He looked around at all of us and kind of slumped down and then said that he supposed it would be okay if I ate at the restaurant, as long as I was housebroken.
I didn't know if I was, but Aric said that I was, and that was good enough for him. He took a pile of menus and led us off to some tables in the back, well out of the way of the other customers.
All through dinner, he kept an eye on us. I think he thought we were some kind of troublemakers. Our waitress liked us, though; she kept saying how cute I was and she wanted to know if I was the same pony she'd seen in a YouTube video playing in the snow. I said that I was, and she said that I was simply the most adorable thing she'd ever seen and asked if I would give her my autograph.
I couldn't say no, so I signed her little notebook for her and she gave me a big bosomy hug, and all in all it was a great dinner.
I really would have liked to spend the night with Aric, but I had some homework I still had to do, so I had him drop me off at my dorm. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and he kissed my forehead and told me that it had been a fun weekend, and I agreed. He asked if I'd be playing Durach tomorrow, and I said that I would, and if he didn't mind I could stay over after; he said that would be nice. Then he drove off and I went back up to my dorm room.
It was only when I was halfway up the stairs that I realized I might have some trouble getting undressed by myself.
Luckily, Peggy was back, and once she was done telling me how awesome my costume looked, she helped me take it off. We caught up on how our weekends had been—I told her about the girl I had given a ride and the waitress at Denny's and the weaponsmith who had sold me the glaive, and she told me about the fancy restaurant her boyfriend had taken her to and how they'd spent almost the whole rest of the weekend in the hotel room, and that it had been fun and really sexy to have the curtains open and look over downtown Kalamazoo and nobody outside could see them or guess what they were up to.
I said that I hadn't gotten that lucky over the weekend, and Peggy hugged me and said that was okay, it would probably take Aric some time to get used to the idea, and maybe we ought to talk and figure out what each of us wanted out of the relationship. That was pretty good advice.
Then I sat down and finished all my homework and wrote in my journal. It was pretty late by the time I was finished, and I knew I was going to be tired in the morning.
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You'd think first contact with interdimentional magic aliens would be widely known at this point, but then again, maybe the Denny's manager was just racist.
The little kid cracked me up, though.
7114126 Drat. Ok!
had
7114152 Almost definitely racist.
I used to LARP world of darkness with the Camarilla organisation and Denneys was definitely a tradition. I also feel for Silver; there was a night when about 20 of us showed up (we sometimes had a lot of visitors) and we left after facing some BS about cards and not being able to split the bill, or something. It was late, and they apparently shut down part of their system at some hour, but they missed out on all that because they wouldn't make any exceptions.
7114152
7114183
Specist. Racist in this case would mean they didn't like her cause she was a pegasus instead of a unicorn/earth pony.
Ahhhh pony cheek kisses
Anyhow. It's interesting that in a lot of ways, that world is closer for her than for us. Equestria seems like it's in a sort of industrial revolution-like state, but there are tons of holdovers of what we would call medieval. Thatched roofs I can chalk up to simple preference and aesthetics/tradition, but the guards armor certainly isn't solely ceremonial. They fight like its 1500 and have trains. The effect of magic and natural flight on technology is weird.
Ah the "continental" breakfast, I've seen a few variation of it, but it never fail to disapoint. And that sorry excuse for a muffin in a plastic bag always end up there, for some reason.
And wow! You have to admire Silver Glow's patience with the kid.
Oh I want to know more about why she said she didn't as lucky...
7114183 and not as concerned for his job as he should be, if word got out it would be a public relations nightmare.
7114258 since those are called tribes maybe the term would be tribalist?
7114152
7114183 Ahem. Specist. (Sorry, it's the pedant in me)
I did not see the pony back ride going like that.
It was really well thought out on the admiral's part though. The reactions all make perfect sense to the point that I feel a bit stupid for not seeing it coming. I'm glad it all worked out in the end though. 
So cute. I just wish I could watch that YouTube video.
7114259 Personally I think that Equestria is very technologically advanced but the overall response to advanced technology was meh. It'd be like if apple released the ipod and everyone went hey that's nice and went back to cd players.
I also separate the royal guard from equestrias military. I view the royal guard as kind of an honor guard for the princesses and they have a separate military. you could also say that the royal guards are in a formal uniform. For example, U.S marines in dress uniform often have M1 garand rifles (wwll era) or sabers.
Have you considered a kind of reverse of this fic, exploring a human exchange student in Equestria?
7113819
There need to be more ponies in suits.
7114033 It'd depend on the extent to which ponies base their sexual practices on being large prey animals without much ability to hide. If they haven't fully adapted to actively fighting off predators and living in shelters (unless those were never concerns from the start), ponies might be pleasantly surprised by what humans are capable of.
7113993
I thought he looked familiar.
I don't know why, but Denny's and YouTube seem to go together a lot.
Hmm... wonder how it'd be like if one of her friends she found playing Magic: The Gathering.
7114152 We all act that way at that age. Just glad Silver didn't fall for her instincts and buck the kid. That'd be funny, but bad in the long run.
Hmm? Thinking of costumes. I wonder what Silver Glow would make of bridles and bits? Would that be Victoria's secret stuff? Or fetish material?
Realized, one of the nice parts about this story is that SG's Equestrian antics are new to people then they get used to them pretty quickly. I can imagine the difficulties a Uni might have if they were used to using their magic for everything.
Not to mention the people trying to get them to do illegal stuff. I just don't think I could run a daily Journal like your doing here though. 
7114152
Does the no animals policy apply to ponies or not? I think that would be one of those interesting legal questions in the case of first contact.
7114166
Would you prefer it was 365+ chapters?
7114251
We didn't go to Denny's after Val Day, but we'd go to Big Boy during Winter Revel. In garb, of course, and that always confused them.
7114182
Correction made, thank you!
7114770 Archaic tools of slavery rebranded as fetish material by the recent sexual revolution. Glory to Cadance!
7114823 A full year would be interesting! Especially since even a pony would have a hard time writing after 3 months or so of not writing. Plus, if you do spring break, you won't have to explain as much as to what happened and who she met. Same with summer vacation. A lot can happen in 1 week, let alone 3-4 months, depending on where you look.
7114258
Maybe he's a unicorn fan and doesn't like Silver Glow's casual tribalism against them.
7114259
Yeah. I can justify the thatched roofs because they're all natural, a pegasus could easily install one without even using a ladder, and when done right they can last a hundred years, which is something asphalt shingles can't do. Guard armor is almost certainly enchanted.
It is weird to consider how different a path their technology took in a large part because of magic, and in another part because while they do world modifications on a scale we can only dream of, they also really seem to care about their environment.
7114264
I can only assume that hotels get them as route returns, and then just keep putting them out again and again until some poor bastard finally eats it.
7114304
You mean like how long Peggy kept her new Victoria's Secret underwear on? Not very long.
7114859 Not quite. But I like that train. And I ask again, have you thought about the human side of this? How would a human react to having to write and speak in pony language?
7114823
If you have enough material for it, don't get bored by the story after one year, why not?
7114347
If nothing else, he could just point to the no animals sign that the restaurant surely has, and say that nobody from corporate had told him what to do if a pony in a caparison walked into the restaurant.
7114384
So do I. So do I.
7114545
I don't think that they are, but with their magic it really doesn't matter. They give the appearance of being technologically advanced, and they can do things with magic that we still can't do with tech (like control the weather). But I think you are right that they generally aren't that enthused about new tech when they've got old tech that does the same thing.
I think that they're one and the same, but that they are wearing overly formal outfits most of the time. If they have to fight, they might wear more appropriate armor . . . then again, there's something that would be unnerving about having a horde of identical-looking ponies coming at you. I also expect that they've got some pretty brutal tactics using the advantages of all three tribes. Pegasi diving down from a cloud cover that they made, unicorns blasting off spells, and the earth ponies for the heavy work. . . .
7114567
Probably not; I've already got plenty of HiE fics. I might, though, once this one is over. I dunno.
7114628
I wouldn't know; back when I used to frequent it, YouTube hadn't been invented.
7114639
She might like MtG, assuming that she didn't just reject it as a 'unicorn game.'
7114653
Yup. And I'd want to ride a pony even at my age (although I'm way to big to fit on an Equestrian pony, dammit).
It is kind of weird to see Twilight giving Spike ponyback rides. I would think that the normal commands that we use on Earth horses would be unknown to them, especially since you can just tell them what you want them to do.
7114770
I'd think that bridles would be Victoria's Secret, and bits would be more fetish type stuff.
7114844
I wasn't thinking of skipping over it, just doing it as one longer chapter, rather than say seven individual chapters (for spring break). I could do it as individual chapters; I hadn't really decided for sure.
7114880
Oh, I can come up with enough material for a full year.
7114869
You should check out Celestia Sleeps In and Onto the Pony Planet (and I really, really need to update OPP).
7114908 lol Maybe she could be dismissive till trying it with someone's spare deck. XD
7114917 Oh! Sorry, I misunderstood you about that!
7114880
All in favor?
I enthusiastically second this motion!
I think I've played that game before actually. Was there some deeper meaning about why she did better playing on the king's side?
Good on her for standing up for herself at Denny's. Less good on her for using her fake character identity.
7114900
it's a mater of perspective. electricity was magic to ancient cultures but it's the basis of our modern society. it all depends on the mindset of the people. Given that equestria is a modern society, i see them approaching magic from a scientific viewpoint rather than having a more medieval approach. Clarke's third law and some of it's variants sum it up nicely. Essentially, magic is science when heavily analyzed and technology is magic to those who don't understand it. I guess what i'm trying to say is that the line between magic and technology is very blurry and depends heavily on perspective.
7114976
Can I see your research, as well? It might be useful for the fic I'm writing.
7113318
Precious, maybe, but not exactly innocent.
7112968
I dabble in many things, but my calling is designing targets.
Well, I do want to see her reaction to the part where they are talking about the Temple of Solomon & describe a well as 7 cubits across & 21 around (Should be aprox 22.) That is possibly the most famous error in the Bible. You would think the creator of the universe would know what pi is -but clearly they don't.
2nd place would be New Testament, 2 books give completely different lineages for Jesus (what's that song line, "2 men think they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong". Although, I was told the lineage in Luke is Mary's & the other one is Joseph)
7114152 Is it wrong that I assumed he was racist because he was a Denny's manager?
7114823 Humans are animals too, so the rule is implicitly "only people". But how extensive has the media coverage been? I'd think that realistically the media would have lost their damn minds and it'd still be a circus, enough so that it would be having knock-on effects. The presidential campaign, for instance, Trump wouldn't be cruising on infinite free media coverage if they were still going nuts about magic horses.
7115059
I wouldn't think there's anything special about being better at the kings side, I just think that sides easier, it sort of works out that if your opponent makes a mistake you win.
7114908
Earlier on today in the series they did have some other ponies carrying foals about on their back, I remember a scene with a meteor shower with the cmc being carried by their sisters or sister substitute. It would seem to be a pony thing, although it would seem to be very awkward to do, it might be easier than in our world as equestrian foals seem to be smaller than real world ones.
This chapter did a great job of showing just how early in the adjustment period it is. Not just the Denny's manager's anthropocentrism, but also the little girl's reaction to and treatment of Silver. Good thing Silver kept a cool head during that ordeal; would've been a PR nightmare otherwise.
In any case, the fun is sadly over. Back to class and easing Aric into the idea of xenophilia.
7114639 7114908
Oh goodness. Imagine Silver's reaction to Sacred Mesa. "Sacrifice a pegasus!? This from one of the cards with Celestia's cutie mark on it? What kind of sick game is this?"
7114900
Does America's 'murder' policy apply to ponies?
How about it's 'tax' policy? 
(Sadly I can see a lot of situations in which the second is made a higher priority than the first.) In practice this would probably be settled between the Princess and US government before the students came over, as far as practical anyway. Pony in an ER may be given automatic lower priority because no one has the training and/or drug knowledge to treat one. :(
And then the regional and global corporate HQ turns around and says, "Yeah, but we told you not to be racist like a bajillion times. Here, have this nice pink slip as reward for your behavior."
Which wouldn't be entirely fair, since it might be hard to tell the difference between a earth miniature horse and a equestrian pony under all that cloth, but that's probably how most corporations would address the issue if they become aware of it.
...
Though I might be tempted to prank a few local restaurants by putting on dark glasses, and pretending Silver was a guide pony for the blind.
wow Silver Glow is too friendly !
someone should have told this little girl that the pegasus pony is not a horse.
and the Denny's manager hopefully gets a call from the exchange program people ...
Reminds me a bit of Thud.
7114653
Could have gone worse.
i.imgur.com/GAm9fkf.gif