February 23 [memories]
February 23
Tuesday morning started out a lot better than Monday had. We'd figured out how things ought to work last night and now that we had some experience it went much more smoothly, except when he kneeled on my tail by mistake, and when I bit his shoulder harder than I'd meant to.
I felt a lot more satisfied and relaxed than I had in a long time. I didn't even mind that Sara gave me a sort of hard look as I was coming back out of the bathroom. I just smiled at her and flicked her with my tail as I went by.
Aric didn't feel like getting up, so I hugged him and kissed him and then said that I was going off for a flight, and I'd see him Wednesday night if I didn't run into him on campus before then.
It was another good morning for flying. The grumpy airplane director was on the radio, but I didn't let him get me down.
I flew along due north for a while, until I was past all the houses and over open fields, then I looped to the east and flew that way for a while before turning back and flying a straight leg to the bell tower.
There's a pretty good-sized lawn in front of Trowbridge, and I landed there this time. I had to come in on a shallow angle, because there are a lot of trees, but that was alright.
When I got back from my shower, Peggy was awake, and she sat up in bed and asked me how it had been. I kind of put an innocent look on my face and asked her how what had been, and she just crossed her arms and said I wasn't fooling her at all.
So I sat down on my chair and started to groom myself for class and told her how it had been. I said we'd done it dolphin style which was weird and kind of scary at first. I said that he was a bit hesitant and I had to prompt him a lot, but he got the idea, and once we'd started he'd really gotten into it.
Peggy got up and held out the palm of her hand, and I asked her what that was for, and she told me about how high-fives work, so I smacked her palm lightly. It was a lot like a hoof-bump.
While I was combing my tail out (it had gotten pretty knotted), Peggy got dressed and we went to breakfast together. We talked a little bit more about boys and what they liked, and she gave me some ideas I could try next time.
Conrad introduced Shel Silverstein to us. There were a couple of kids in class that seemed really surprised by that; I turned an ear back and heard a guy grumbling that Silverstein wrote kid's poetry, and then Trevor said in a really low voice that he only thought it was kid's poetry because he wasn't smart enough to really understand it.
We started off with a really short poem called Anteater, just to get us in the mood, then he followed that with another short poem called God's Wheel, which was about God letting somebody else control the world for a while.
Moses hadn't wanted to, and I didn't think that I would either. There was an awful lot going on with it, and it was more than I'd be able to cope with. There had been days when just getting the right weather in one sector had been a major hassle.
Then he asked us how many of us had had a job where we were in charge of other people, or were planning on having one. A few people in the class raised their hands, including me. Once I got my degree, I'd start off as a squadron leader, which meant that I'd have to take responsibility for the clouds we had and make sure that they went where they were supposed to, and I'd also be in on the planning meetings. There was a lot of stuff that they could teach in school, but it wasn't the same as actually being there and doing it.
He asked me to read a poem called Rain, which I liked, even if it was silly. I imagined flying in the sky working on rainclouds while my head slowly filled with rain until I started sloshing.
It wasn't that hard to imagine. There'd been more than one day working feral weather on the coast where I'd dragged myself home half-drowned with equal parts rain and saltwater soaking me to the skin. I was surprised I hadn't been sloshing those days.
That was one thing that the earth ponies (and I guess the unicorns too) had that we didn't: fireplaces. There was a little tavern on the coast where all the sailors liked to go and we did too sometimes after breaking up a nasty nor’easter. They'd buy us all a round of drinks and a pot of soup and then clear out a bit and let us sit close to the fireplace to dry ourselves off.
I'd kind of gotten lost in old memories and jerked back to the present when I heard Conrad's voice again. He told Trevor to read Forgotten Language. Then when Trevor was done he told us all to close our eyes and said to think back to when we were children and remember something that we used to do that we didn’t do any more.
That was pretty easy for me. I hadn't been flying for all that long when I came across a field of dandelions which had gone to seed and I galloped through them, raising up a white cloud of dandelion fluff, which I flew around in and pretended that it was a snowstorm. Unlike snowflakes, though, the fluff didn't melt, and when I got home all covered in it, Mom was so mad, especially when my little sister started batting at my wings and making the fluff come off and get all over her too.
She dragged both of us out of the house and made us wash off in a stream and made me bathe my little sister because it was my fault that she'd gotten dandelion fluff in her coat, and I thought it was the most fun ever and so did my sister. Mom tried to stay grumpy but pretty soon she was splashing around in the stream with us.
The next time I'd done it, though, it hadn't been as much fun, because she just told me that I ought to know better and sent me to wash up by myself, and I'd never done it since.
He asked us if we all had it in our minds, and there was a rustle of movement in the class as people nodded their heads. Then he told us that our homework was to be a child again, and write a poem about it.
At first I was thinking about what a problem that was going to be. When I stepped out of the building, it was all snow, not a dandelion to be seen. I'd have to fly south for days to find them. But then I realized that he hadn't said that we had to do what we'd thought of, just that we had to be a child again, and I figured that I could do that.
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Yay! Silver Glow got some!
I hope she pranks someone and then writes a poem about it.
I'll bet that "dolphin style" was pretty scary for Aric too. One wrong move and those hind-legs could put him through the wall, or bounce him off the ceiling (depending on the angle). I do wonder how Silver is coping with the typical male fascination with mammories? Do they count as an erogenous zone for ponies in this 'verse? Or is that one of the things they "figured out?"
It's almost a pity that Silver can't fly with a passenger/rider. It would be a memorable way to join the mile high club, if you could figure out a way to avoid one of them falling to their doom...
7139887
Rope. Though that probably only really works if it's a male pegasus.
I wouldn't want to relive my childhood. I was an idiot as a kid! One winter some friends and I were throwing around some firecrackers one of them had brought, and I'd hung onto one a little too long and it went off in my hand. Blew open holes in the index finger and thumb of my glove, but didn't touch the skin! Then there was a time where a friend and I thought it was a good idea to go dumpster-diving for free stuff and the police saw us....
Yeah, I was young and stupid then. I'm much older now.
7139887 They just need a balloon and a unicorn's cloudwalking spell.
Fuck yeah Shel Silverstein
...well, f*ck. There went my heart from the cute overload. It's to early in the day for this much cute!
Yes! The angst is gone!
Now I'd like to see Aquamarine's reaction, I migth be disapointed, but I am still curious.
7139897 I can spot you.
Back in my youth I lived really close to a switching yard the railroad had. Me and my brother used to wait for slow moving box cars so we could grab hold and ride it up and down the line. That ended quick, fast and in a hurry when mom found out. I was maybe 8 he was 9. Now thinking back that was extremely bone headed.
Silver Glow I get you got some tail, but please look into human dating practices. You are going to hurt someone's feelings by not understanding Equestrian customs.
Dolphin style?
7140148
Belly to belly.
So... does that mean "Your head's full of seawater" is a pegasus way of saying either "you're dumb" or "you screwed up bad"?
7140148
Stomach to stomach.
We don't have ponystyle, we have doggystyle. Likewise, they don't have human style, they have dolphin style.
Still beats the hell out of chimera style.
7140171 Thanks!
7139897
I notice you didn't mention smarter.
I'm sure everyone knows at least one person who should be forced to do this for their own good.
7138572
the most overrated rating ever . . .
i wonder when the gossip gets around in school
"Relive your childhood", they said. "Write a poem about it," they said. And then they have the audacity to punish me for making the teacher have an emotional breakdown.
7139897 I think I was the only kid that wasn't stupid. For me my childhood is full of wasted talent, languages and music were 2 things I didn't put any effort into and gave up on because the beginner stuff was too easy and I got bored... Stupid ADD.
7140263
I know I'm older and just about as stupid, only about different things.
7140086
She did kind of tell Celestia that there was about to be a massive
terroristattack. I'd probably expect my government to get off it's cake filled ass if I told them about such a thing too--and we're not talking about joe from the corner store either, at this point Twilight is probably one of Celestia's more trusted ponies.As for the second one: I think you're misreading that as 'not humble' when its more of a lack of self confidence. Twilight doesn't feel particularly special or smart, and it isn't surprising that she doesn't think she's 'powerful', but rather average. It's largely the same reason she gets so worked up about tests and examinations that Celestia puts before her because she doesn't or can't acknowledge her own skill and brilliance.
I don't think you can rely on the opening title sequence as canon information about the balloon. Title sequences always lie, and it hardly makes sense for Twilight to take a balloon to Ponyville, and then take a Chariot 5 seconds later. Or to send Celestia a never ending supply of pictures of herself and her friends.
I agree the merchandise tags it as Twilight's balloon, but Hasbro's merchandise has never exactly been reliable. Witness: Transformers.
7138754 Ah lol I guess I was just too dense to catch it.
7140656
Ooooh. There are already mythological and fandom half breeds like the hippogryph. Wouldn't that be a crazy twist if she had sex with him while in heat thinking he couldn't get her pregnant just to have the first equestrian satyr!
And how would the introductions to him and his family go?
7141047
aren't satyr human-goat? if she got a satyr foal, she would have some explaining to do to aric as well
7141158
Well, I was thinking of a pony version but that would be quite the shocker.
Woo hoo, Shel Silverstein! One of my all time favorite poets.
Anyone who thinks Silverstein only wrote kids' poetry never heard the one about the competition between the world's greatest joint roller and its greatest joint smoker.
Oh yes. That exists.
Also, glad to see Silver had herself a good time. It'll be interesting to see how she gets in touch with her inner foal.
It's unfortunate that you feel the need to self-censor due to the rating kerfuffle, but meeting the needs of the audience you want to reach is important too I suppose. I hope you'll still manage to explore all the subjects you have in mind since you do such a great job creating realism from fantasy. If you really need to get away from normal physical traits/functions which we all share, you certainly have plenty to write about regarding the complexities of cross-species relationships in the era of social media!
7139673
Compared to nations that outright ban most, if not all, firearms, then yes, America does indeed have weak guns laws, in the sense that many citizens are allowed to own guns. Given that the majority of Americans now live in major cities with strict local laws and the high proportion of convicted-felon citizens (largest prison population in the world YAY!), I hesitate to claim the majority are allowed to. But I wouldn't go as far as saying that the United States' civilization more closely resembles Afghanistan's civilization than any European civilization. All three have major differences from one another. In fact, in my opinion, the latter two resemble each other more closely than either does the United States. This may sound absolutely daft, but hear me out. I wrote an essay for you!
Afghanistan and Europe both have long and well-known histories stretching into prehistory. Religiously, both began as polytheistic ancient cultures which later adopted monotheistic, Abrahamic religions (Afghanistan and Eastern Europe also experienced a period of Buddhist beliefs approximately between these two other religious periods, when Graeco-Buddhism spread from Greece into Afghanistan.) Early history of both lands were characterized by tribalism (which continues to today in Afghanistan) followed by theocratic kingdoms. Kingdoms were supplanted by empires and empire-building through conquest, which in the modern era have been replaced by various forms of democracy. (The survival of democracy in Afghanistan is, I admit, tenuous.) Both Afghanistan and individual European nations are (approximately) racially, culturally and religiously homogeneous. And let's not forget that Afghanistan was historically politically and economically dominated by European powers, with it's current borders approximately the same ones drawn arbitrarily by Great Britain in 1823.
The United States of America ... is not that. America has large urban areas, like Europe, but the large majority of its territory is actually rural or wilderness, with a very low population density and sometimes inadequate infrastructure, which in some ways resembles Afghanistan. Especially the bits sparsely populated by religious fanatics. :P There are a lot of places in the USA where internet and cell phone service are nearly impossible to obtain. I myself live in an exceedingly rural village where non-satellite broadband remains unavailable. Many local streets are gravel, or sometimes just dirt, and the nearest stop light is, according to Google Maps, is 43 miles (69 K) away. That said, there are a lot of farmers around here, and they would all be utterly doomed without GPS guided farming equipment (like tractors and combine harvesters) and satellite photography.
It's hard to claim very much of the Native American cultures as ancestral to our own civilization, although their art and diets HAVE had an enormous impact on ours. (I maintain, with absolute seriousness, that mankind's greatest creation - in all of human history - is corn.) Then again, new world crops have mad almost as big of an impact on Europe, so that doesn't mean a lot, either. American civilization therefore really begins with the colonization of the continent by various European empires, circa the late 1500s.
At that point, American civilization was something akin to a nasty growth on Europe's back; an unloved dumping ground for the diverse groups of the European unwanted. it was not, by any definition, separate from the European powers. Soon a wave of (forced) migrants from Africa arrived. Although these people were inevitably enslaved to the Europeans, for the purpose of growing or mining resources (Gold, silver, sugar, coffee, and tobacco) to send back to Europe, they had a huge impact on the local culture. (It's worth noting that many people of European descent weren't much better off than than the African slaves; a teenage Irishman forced into indentured servitude which was extended far beyond the standard seven years was more common and treated just as poorly as a man from Senegal.) The United States, already beginning to show signs of a cultural schism with Europe, split from the British Empire in 1776; the importation of African slaves ended in 1808. In the following years, however, American culture (and territory) began to expand and change rapidly. America began to absorb people from all around the world. American civilization is culturally, racially and religiously heterogeneous. It is possible for any person of any ethnic or racial background to walk pretty much anywhere in the modern United States without getting a second look. I doubt this is true of Afghanistan and I know for a fact that it isn't true of Europe. This combination of a young civilization and a vast diversity of influences has had enormous consequences. Food, music, art, recreation, politics, technology, philosophy, architecture -- you name it, we've absorbed twenty to fifty different forms of it, then invented something more or less completely new. Again and again. And again. Unlike Afghanistan and Europe, we've never been a conquering empire or a theologically pure kingdom. (Despite claims to the contrary.) We've never had the advantage of being all in agreement most of the time. American culture is distinctly unlike anything ever seen in the Old World. America is unique in its modifications and even its rejection of the ancient cultural ideals that shaped the nations of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The United States’ very first treaty flatly rejected any claim of religious-government cooperation or divine right to rule, concepts then central to old world governments. We have never had an emperor or a king. We have never had noble bloodlines.
We are unique. We are simply too diverse to survive under the ideas that have dominated Old World history.
This has been an essay written by YellowStripedBat. Reading may cause headaches, education, regret, vomiting, explosive foamy diarrhoea, and/or death. Dictated but not read. Not for consumption by changelings. Do not ingest. This post may or may not be related in any way to the story to which it has been posted to. That was fun!
7138402 Good thoughts. Thank you.
Very much so. That occurred to me as I was writing the comment, in fact. It's even harder to deal with when the weapon is a natural part of their biology. While some people might argue against a human's right to bear arms, I don't see how you could morally deny unicorn's the right to use of their horns or pegasi's right to fly or an earth ponies right to tend the fruits of the land.
My parents used to read me a lot of his poems when I was a kid. Still have lots of fond memories of Where the Sidewalk Ends.
Ok, I've held this in long enough. Why is Silver Glow's racist against unicorns?
7142307 It's cause of her deeply held pegasus beliefs. Also, Blueblood.
Silver Afterglow.
7142393
pbs.twimg.com/media/CLs3AmcUYAApz2R.jpg
(That was a terrifically bad pun and you should feel bad)
I am kind of worried that Sliver took Conrad's instructions too literally.
7142307 I've asked that too. Admiral said that she's actually tribalist, but I don't think he said why exactly? (I'm kind of worried I missed a reply because fimfic doesn't always send a notification if the response is on another page.
)
I think it's because she's spent more time in pegasus communities and/or remote coastal regions (although Manehatten is on the coast...), and she probably has only ever met unicorns who were jerks like in Canterlot. There are also some valid soceital reasons in this fic's lore, such as Jim Crow'esque oppression of the "lesser" (
) races in the Equestrian education system just a couple generations ago, which mirrors the US really. 
However, I don't think all of that really explains the level of disregard she has shown for the unicorn tribe. As I recall, she doesn't really think that much of earth ponies either, they're just okay in her book.
It just seems like she must have some personal vendetta with a unicorn or something.
I don't know. Maybe it is just that her beloved granny didn't get the education she deserved?
EDIT:
I think Canterlot unicorns tending to be such jerks has to do with the influence of the following:
1. The rudeness urban culture.
2. It being the center of government (so pride and bureaucracy reside there) .
3. Because of 2, it being a magnet for elitist classes (the nobles and the merchant elite).
Since so much of the population there are unicorns, visitors assume such behavior as inherent to unicorns, but correlation is not causation.
Sadly, many people don't understand this and bias is born. 
(Ironic counter: Maybe if the unicorns in charge hadn't withheld a proper education to all the tribes, they would have understood the difference between correlation and causation. 
)
"LITTLE ABIGAIL AND THE BEAUTIFUL PONY"
There was a girl named Abigail
Who was taking a drive
Through the country
With her parents
When she spied a beautiful sad-eyed
Grey and white pony.
And next to it was a sign
That said, FOR SALE—CHEAP.
"Oh," said Abigail,
"May I have that pony?
May I please?"
And her parents said,
"No you may not."
And Abigail said,
"But I MUST have that pony."
And her parents said,
"Well, you can have a nice butter pecan
Ice cream cone when we get home."
And Abigail said,
"I don't want a butter pecan
Ice cream cone,
I WANT THAT PONY—
I MUST HAVE THAT PONY."
And her parents said,
"Be quiet and stop nagging—
You're not getting that pony.”
And Abigail began to cry and said,
"If I don't get that pony I'll die."
And her parents said, "You won't die.
No child ever died yet from not getting a pony."
And Abigail felt so bad
That when she got home she went to bed,
And she couldn't eat,
And she couldn't sleep,
And her heart was broken,
And she DID die—
All because of a pony
That her parents wouldn't buy.
-Shel Silverstein.
7140756
And calling the Jurassic World raptor "him" on merchandise packaging.
7141701
And he worked for Playboy for a time.
7142011
" It is possible for any person of any ethnic or racial background to walk pretty much anywhere in the modern United States without getting a second look."
Ahahahahaha
And no, America isn't unique, and it doesn't reject european "cultural ideals". Your founding fathers were a pale shadow of French revolutionary liberals.
And yes, America is a conquering empire. It has a highly defined sphere of influence of such strength that it has de facto control over the economic policy of most of Latin America and Africa. It got this through war and subterfuge. Even in the present day, America's standard response to nations which don't follow it's lead is "intervention", which means war waged until that country's state and civil society collapses.
This is what I like so much about your fics dealing with the whole interspecies thing. The weirdness, awkwardness, clumsiness... and it simply feeling real because of it.
On a side note, don't let a horse rest its head on your shoulder while you give its maneline a thorough scratching. If you do, stop when it gets a kind of dreamy expression, since in a few moments it might forget that you aren't a horse and wont appreciate it reciprocating by scratching your 'maneline'. With its teeth, just like you can observe horses doing to each other. I bear the scar on my left shoulder to this day. I think he got a genuine shock when I jumped away and yelled at him, the poor thing. He clearly meant well.
Good thing Silver had a little more restraint, even if it was uncomfortable.
Doctor: "So, how exactly did you acquire that open bruise on your shoulder?"
Aric: "Uhm..."
7142421
I think we just got to see a lot of the snobs early on in the series, because when the focus was on Canterlot it tended to be things like the Gala which was a high-class thing, or else related to Rarity wanting to impress high society (Applejack seems to have met similar attitudes from high society Manehattanites, for instance).
If you look at some of the later episodes, Twilight's school friends from Canterlot don't seem to be jerks, the customers in Rarity's shop don't act like jerks, etc.
I think it's just early sampling bias, and the average Canterlot unicorn probably isn't any more rich and snobby than the average inhabitant of any other city.
7142974
I think Spoiled Rich supports this. She's not a unicorn but acts like we expect a unicorn to act. What she is is high society.
Though Fancy Pants proves that you can be high society without being a jerk too.
7139845
7139880
That would be an epic poem!
7139887
Wouldn't that be a great trip to the ER? Probably Aric wasn't thinking about that during.
She's probably confused (and poor Aric; she's basically an A-cup, tops), wondering why he's playing around there when the fun place is a bit further back.
I think that pretty much anything on your partner can be an erogenous zone, depending on what you're doing and what you mutually like. There was this one time that I . . . well, that's not important. They figured it out.
Since Silver doesn't like airplanes, a hot air balloon and a pilot who's willing to cover his ears and look the other way is probably their best bet.
7139895
I dunno; she could sling him under herself and . . . but she's not allowed to fly with passengers.
7139897
I didn't start doing really dumb stuff until high school. Boy Scouts was part of the reason (Boy Scouts is also why I can't count to ten on my fingers [I can only get 9 3/4 (and fireworks weren't involved in that little fiasco)]) along with the state issuing me a driver's license and my parents letting me use the car sometimes. Did you know that you can drift in a '83 Caprice station wagon?
Also regarding dumpster diving; the desk that this computer is on came out of a dumpster in Kalamazoo. There's great stuff in dumpsters!
7139935
Damn straight son.
7140018
It's never too early in the day for cuteness overload.
7140037
Maybe Aquamarine's been up to shenanigans too and they'll compare notes.
7140083
That's the kind of things that cautionary tales come from. Also there was a railroad that ran right behind our house when I was a kid, and I don't know why I never tried that. We usually just played in the abandoned canning plant.
7140130
Well, maybe . . . and she's probably going to be blindsided, because who in college thinks first?
7140283
Quite honestly, perhaps all people ought to be forced to do this for their own good.