March 8
I woke up on my regular schedule, which was nice. And I felt a lot better, too: I doubt it was just one night's sleep that had done it, but sleeping with a partner. I always get better sleep when there's someone with me.
I don't always get as much sleep, though.
Both of us were pretty well rested, so we had some fun before I left. It's weird; sex usually makes stallions and men (based on my trial size of one so far) want to fall asleep, but it energizes me. I've heard that some stallions won't do it before a race, 'cause they think it tires them out, but most of the mares I know are in favor.
It was overcast this morning; low leaden clouds that promised more snow. I flew up to their base and rolled on my back and skimmed my hooves through them, shaking loose a few nascent flakes which I followed down to Earth, watching as they formed into proper snowflakes, not the little snowballs that the snow machines at Boyne Mountain make. So what if these aren't as good for skiing and snowboarding on; they're prettier.
My leg joints were still achey from being magneted to the snowboard all weekend, but a lap of the neighborhood after I finished my flight mostly took care of that. All in all, at the end of my exercise I was pretty limbered up everywhere, and the hot shower was just a nice bonus.
Like I'd promised, I got the duffel bag with the GoPro and the memory cards and batteries to Gates on my way to breakfast. He said not to expect anything too quickly—there was a lot of footage for him to review and edit, and I told him that was okay.
He also told me that he'd tweaked the first video some and promised to send me a link to it. He was going to use it as an assignment for his film class, and that made me sorta puff up with pride, so I was even happier that he had more footage to work with. Nopony had ever wanted me to be in an important film before. I wasn't some showmare or starlet or famous athlete.
It was kind of bittersweet when I sat down in poetry class. I knew that we were about to start on the last poet of the quarter, and that would be that.
I'd kind of cheated and read a little bit of every poet in the books Conrad had recommended, trying to guess who he'd be choosing next; and as always, he surprised me with a poet named Langston Hughes.
He started out with a long poem called Freedom's Plow, and he had students in the class each read parts of it until we finally reached the end. But he did something a little different than what he had usually done; instead of handing out a pamphlet with the poems in them, he had only one copy, and we had to pass it from person to person as we read.
I liked that. It was more intimate, and we couldn't read ahead to know what was going to come next. Only our words, and then we passed it along.
We discussed that poem for half the class, and what it was about. Then he did something else new: he passed out a copy of the poem to everyone, and he had us read it again.
Then he took the poem back and put it on his desk and walked around front.
He reminded everyone in the class that today was the presidential primary in Michigan, and he said that he hoped that every one of us who could would vote. He was old, he told us, and it wasn't as much his America as it had once been. It was ours, or it soon would be, and we ought to determine its future.
Then he went back around his desk and pulled out a much-loved book. He turned it open and read us a poem called Harlem, and then told us to think about what he'd said and class was dismissed.
We all stayed in our seats until he actually walked out of the door, and even then it was a little bit before anybody else got up.
Back home, I had my favorite thinking spot. It wasn't much; just a jumble of rocks on a spit of land that jutted out into the ocean. One of them was big and flat, and I could sit on that and watch the waves roll in, or—if it was windy or really rainy—I could get a bit underneath and have some shelter from the weather, if I wanted it.
I didn't have that here, which was a shame. So I flew up to the roof of Dewing Hall instead: there's a big open area in the center which you can't see from the ground that has some machines and smokestacks and other stuff that humans put on roofs, but more importantly, it was completely invisible from the ground unless I walked to the very edge.
It wasn't the only building like that on campus—most of the class halls were similar—but Dewing was the highest except for the Dow Science building, and that one sometimes had funny smells coming out of its chimneys.
I landed up there and sat in the lee of a big metal machine and read through the poem several more times and then just sat there and thought about it, trying to wrap my head around it. It wasn't about a thing, like so many other poems we'd read had been. Or maybe it was, but it wasn't a thing that could be grasped or even seen.
I didn't have the words to describe how it made me feel, but it was both sad and hopeful at the same time, and I thought perhaps that was how it was meant to be.
I met up with Meghan and Lisa in Old Wells after lunch. I'd never been in it before; usually the doors were closed, because it was only used for special occasions, and I guess this was one of them. That was kind of a shame, the room was very beautiful, with an arched ceiling and a mural on the far wall, and big tall windows that let in lots of light, even on a cloudy kind of snowy day like today.
Everybody was gathered in little clusters, and every so often a student would come in and a dozen or so people would step out, and all the little clusters of people would rearrange, moving that much closer to the door.
Pretty soon it was our turn. All of us crowded into the van, and I had to stand in the little aisle because everybody else was taking a seat and the driver didn't want to leave one open for me because I couldn't vote. I didn't protest; it would be unfair of me to take someone else's space just because I was curious.
We drove through town until we came to a church, and the driver opened the doors and everyone got out and went inside, where there was another line.
Meghan told me as we were walking in that we weren't supposed to talk about candidates, and she also said that there would be sample ballots that I could look at and a poster on the wall that said what their rights and duties as voters were and she thought it would be educational for me to read them.
She also told me that it was rude to ask people who they had voted for; if they really wanted to say, they would. And she warned me that sometimes there were television crews and newspaper reporters at the exit who would ask who we had voted for.
Meghan got a little smile on her face and said that I should probably just tell them 'no comment,' but if I wanted to have some fun with them I ought to tell them that I had voted for Vermin Supreme because of his pony platform and then refuse to say anything else about it.
Then Lisa told her that if I did, it would probably backfire somehow. Meghan insisted that it would still be hilarious.
I read the posters and ballots like she had suggested, and then when they got to the registration desk I had to step aside because I wasn't allowed to go any further. But I watched as they got their ballot papers and took them into a little booth, then brought them back out and fed them into a machine.
It was very complicated: they had to go to one person and show their identification and a little card, then they had to give that card to another person who marked them off in a big book and gave them a ballot, then they filled out their ballot and before they could leave, they had to stop by another person.
Then we all had to wait outside until everyone was done, and then we rode in the van back to campus.
I ate dinner with them, because I hoped that Meghan and Lisa would explain more about it to me over food, and they did. They explained how different states had different rules, and in Michigan you could take whatever ballot you wanted, Democrat or Republican. She said that there were some people who voted for their favorite candidate, some people who voted for the one they felt was most likely to win, and others who voted against the one they liked the least.
After dinner was over, we went back to Old Wells, where they were showing results for the election on a big screen.
Even that was complicated: it took a while to get an official count, so the numbers were estimates at first, but their accuracy improved as the night went on, until the reporter decided that Trump and Sanders had won the race in Michigan.
There was both cheering and booing when that was announced. It was sort of like watching a hoofball match, both in how the audience reacted, and how the winners and losers of the primary both gave speeches.
People started leaving after that, some of them happy and some of them sad. I wanted to stay for longer, or maybe go and discuss it some more with Meghan and Lisa, but I knew that I would probably have a bunch of computer letters waiting from people in the climate science class who had more questions, and it turned out I wasn't wrong about that.
The only good news was that the professor had decided to move the due date back to Friday.
A beautifully appropriate poem for election season, along with one that speaks differently to every reader. Not much else I dare to say with this one.
1) yay
2) what if, thanks to inherent magic, and spring arriving Silver gets pregnant.
3) more about her spending girl time! Human pony interactions in this story are great.
4) maybe someone can fall in love! See how she reacts.
7182662 I can't say for anyone else, but the reason I want her to watch Zootopia is because I'm hoping it at least helps her recognize her racist attitude towards unicorns.
But Sanders won Michigan? It was close, but still.
7182883
Oh crap, you're right. This is what I get for thinking I remembered the results.
I remember reading a study about what pro cyclist tought about sex before a major race. The result were approximately as follow: One third said it was bad, one third said it was good and one third said it didn't matter.
All in all, the hormonal secretion made during an orgasm is making female and male relaxed and could lead to sleep. The effect are more pro-eminent with men because the post-orgasm refractory period is longer with men then women.
I know some weird trivia...
Seriously, Conrad Hillberry is the kind of teacher I love to have and I try to be.
7182883 Author's story, author's choice.
Huh, no idea why, but I assumed silver would be on semester. Probably because it's dominant in my area.
Wasn't she not supposed to land on roofs? Did she forget or just think she wouldn't get caught, since no one could see her from the ground if she stayed away from the edge?
So much characterization in such a short paragraph.
You know, I never liked Langston Hughes that much. Honestly he reminded me of what I used to gripe about with Christian music--your message is great your art is average. I just... Never really got why it was Hughes and Angelou that everybody fawned over when Dunbar is right there being the best.
If it's something uniquely American black culture people wanted, why not Weldon Johnson? God's Trombones is fantastic
7152481
7182662 Hear me out. KB_BOY is an unapologetic accusatory cunt who seems to love seeing racism in whatever post that isn't 100% Social Justice Kool-Aid and will dismiss most arguments with ad homenims, straw men, or a guilt by association. (You try being labeled a racist, white supremacist, conspiracy theorist and see how well you hold up.) He was accusing a YouTube channel owner of being a Neo-Nazi, even though I haven't found any pro Neo-Nazi videos on that channel (which is mostly evidence of social justice inspired protests and humanities courses detailing how white people are evil because of Whiteness), except maybe in the comments which doesn't say anything of the owner. I even checked the owners Twitter feed and only found that the channel owner follows some Conservative handles, which isn't evidence of anything much either, and even his followers seem to be a smattering of different people that aren't a part of a single movement or ideology.
For the second part, I meant that even racists should have the right to speak and bring evidence to the conversation, because even racists can have good evidence to support their argument and is evidence of something wrong, but their reasoning and conclusions may be very faulty. I gave the example of why there's so much black crime the US. A racist would present statistics of black crime and use the argument of why there's so much is because of black people's inferiority, like in intelligence. A rational person would take that evidence and use the argument that the abundant fatherless children and low marriage rates among black people is one of the causes of such high black crime in the US. Support for racist ideas will dry up if you allow people to speak instead of trying to silence others based on a label.
7183503 I like Johnson already. The first couple pages reminds me of all those years being a kid going to church. Southern Baptist preachers are like that.
7183388 Roofs off-campus, I believe.
7184184
Roofs on-campus are a good idea to stay off of, too, since many types of roof aren't made to be walked on. They can develop leaks.
7184324 Regardless, the FAA hasn't banned her from on-campus roofs so she's not going to be grounded because of this.
Election year politics. (This is Halloween, Everybody scream!)
Those people you've heard about, who just want to watch the world burn--they're the ones you'll see striking sparks and blowing on embers during years like this.
While Silver Glow is just a happy party-pony trying to make sense of it all...
7183946
You've literally admitted that you believe "Cultural Marxism", the conspiracy theory which comes from Nazi German propaganda, exists and is real.
You also describe people who study and discuss racism as anti-white racists. When asked to explain this, you just link to youtube videos of those people discussing racism, without actually bothering with the explanation.
Hint: you have to actually explain your reasoning to convince someone if they do not already agree with you. An explanation consists of more than just pointing to a video of some people saying things your debate opponent agrees with and claiming that it's actually bad, you have to actually disprove those ideas using reasoned logic.
Your inability to actually explain the reasoning behind your ideas makes it pretty clear that they're just things that sound appealing to you and didn't require any self reflection for you to espouse.
That's why you have no tactic beyond pointing at something you don't like and expecting people to automatically agree with you about it.
Hell, I'll go one further. That you describe your smoking gun evidence as people saying "white people are evil because of Whiteness" proves that you yourself haven't understood what they're actually saying, if you bothered to watch those videos at all. In an earlier post, didn't you even go so far as to mention genetics in conjunction with this? That's pretty funny; trust a guy espousing racist ideas like the existence of "anti-whiteness" to not notice they're not speaking of "whites" in biological terms, but rather the socially constructed nature of identity and cultural norms across different groups in American society. Groups that were originally segregated by perceived heritage by racists through everything from slavery to jim crow.
You also defend Racists' right to be racists openly.
These are all things racists do. These are things that people who aren't racists don't. The reason is that these are things which defend racism. Accusing those who stand against Racism of being malevolent, and at the same time you want to give the racists the benefit of the doubt? It is transparent.
It is, really remarkable that you cling to the claim that you yourself aren't a racist, while you share all these opinions with racists. If I were you I'd be looking into why all those racists are hollering about anti-whiteness, just like you.
You've already mentioned your disdain for feminism and your sympathy for gamergate, the various misogynist movements like the PUAs and "meninists"... You're the prototypical 16-24 anglosphere internet fash, mate. No matter how much you deny. You hit all the same talking points and have the same lack of ability to actually explain how you draw conclusions, and you demonstrate a lack of knowledge about both named ideologies you claim and named ideologies you oppose while still acting like your opinion is worth anything. You're neither a unique nor effective political actor, and your ideas are just things you want to hear repeated in an echo chamber.
Eventually, you'll move on. Maybe you'll grow out of this, or maybe you'll go further down the rabbit hole. But at the moment all you can do is hamfistedly promote erroneous ideas who's origins you don't know, and get really mad at the "SJW cunts" who see through you and laugh at you on fimfiction.
The first week I was at Caltech I started exploring the tunnels and rooftops. Mostly this was fun until I got onto the roof of Noyes, which was the Chemistry department. This was... a mistake. Fortunately not one resulting in injury but I wasn't too happy at the time.
I knew I heard that Harlem poem before.
I was never a fan of that type of poetry, where it was interpretive and you had to pick apart meaning from every little word. I did always like something with a bombastic beat like Pioneers O Pioneers and The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
7182745
7182755
Not going there in this story, but it's something I've been thinking of doing in some story.
7182837
It's tribalist, dammit. There is a difference.
7183006
Having done some research, I found pretty much the same thing. There wasn't any conclusive results one way or another, although one source I found suggested that the night before a performance wasn't the time to try out something you'd never done before.
It's the kind of teacher every teacher ought to be.
7183280
In this case, it was totally my mistake. While I am taking liberties here and there, I didn't mean to change how Michigan voted. And when we get to it, I'm not going to change the fact that Cruz and Kasich backed out of the race, nor am I going to change whatever the RNC does when that time comes.
7183388
Off-campus, she's not allowed to land on roofs. Noone told her whether she could or could not on campus.
7183393
7183503
I really didn't in back in college, either, but nowdays some of his poems just really speak to me. I think in light of recent events, Freedom's Plow is certainly worth reading, anyway.
It's interesting; I mostly didn't read any poetry after I got out of college and only just picked it back up for this story, and I'm finding that things I didn't understand then make a lot more sense to me now. Being 20 and knowing everything was great, but looking back at those days I was so dumb.
7184324
That never stopped me when I was in college.
Dewing has a big generator on its roof and presumably you're expected to walk to it in order to service it.
I never got up on the roof of Dewing, but the roof of the Fine Arts building was totally accessible to me. Used to hang out there a lot. Sometimes I'd even hide from building security up there, and come back down when they'd left.
7184557
Yup. As long as she doesn't fly above her approved maximum altitude, what she does on campus property is campus security's problem, not the FAA's.
7184950
What's wrong with a system where everybody tries to out-crazy each other during the primary, and then walk it back as we lead up to the general election? At least Vermin Supreme isn't walking it back; he keeps the crazy going 24/7.
Someone will eventually clue her in that it's just a big circus, and at the end of it everyone votes for their favorite clown. And so it goes.
7188086
All the cool people do that. Between my buddy and I, I think we covered every roof that had access from inside, all the steam tunnels, all the utility tunnels, and all the attics. The only place we never got was the bell tower of Stetson Chapel, because there was but one key for that, and it was well-guarded.
Going through the steam tunnels, from the base of the hill to the top, in the middle of winter, turned out to be a mistake.
7190022
Huh, that's interesting, because I see it the other way. "Harlem" strikes me as not really needing to pick it apart.
It's also worth mention that "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" came to mind when all the new stations were covering the Arab Spring. I think I have a recording of that on vinyl somewhere.
7812293
Florida fell to Trump's favour and Pennsylvania after multiple hours of counting.
Michigan was a red state for the first time in a few decades.
7280212
I did consider writing him in, on the off chance that I might get a free pony out of the deal, and that's a fact.
7812293
It was one of several that was expected to be in Hillary's camp but wasn't. She could have won if just Michigan had gone red, but too many other important states did as well (Florida, Pennsylvania, etc.).
7841511
Although interestingly, we've had a Republican governor and legislature for a while now.
At least they had a split up there. Down here in Texas Ted Cruz dominated it, even if most of San Antonio, Austin, and El Paso hate him, it is hard to beat Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth republican majority.
8007971
I can't speak for other states, but Michigan has a really hard time trusting government at all, and we prefer to keep things divided whenever we can. Also we kind of set up our constitution to sabotage the legislative branch. Sometimes that's a problem, but it also keeps them from doing anything too crazy, except for occasionally poisoning a whole city's water supply.
8014039 If my state had to deal with those crackpot "emergency managers," I wouldn't trust its government at all, either.
8026463
Yeah, although some of them have been better (or at least less corrupt) than the ones they replaced. Of course, no Michigan mayor managed to poison his city's water supply. . . .
All Hail Lord Trump!
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8066120
Vermin Supreme would have been a better choice, just sayin'
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In which pony gets to see a taste of Democracy in action! How long till she figures out why some famous person once said "Democracy is the worst form of government ever created. Except for all the rest." Granted this was said by a person who did not know rule via nigh-immortal, omnibenevolant demigoddesses was an option.
That said.... now I really want to see Petey and Celestia interact. (Petey is a koloazoid looking AI from Schlock Mercenary. The best description of him comes from one panel of the strip "This is Petey, he is bar none the single most powerful entity in the galaxy. He is benevolent, philanthropic, and cuddly. But he is never not playing you.")
Even without 'sleeping' with him. You know one fic postulated an idea that Ponies had a kind of low level communal empathy/telepathy going on. That would explain stuff like this. (And also how they all manage to burst into the same song on cue.)
Bow chica wow wow!
Damnit, used the 'bow chicka wow wow' to early.... Still, good morning exercise at least.
There are so many ways this could go and so many facets that could be looked into about body chemistry and other such things to explain this stuff......
Yet the first thing that pops into my head is a pic I saw of RD finding out one of the duties of the team rookie is to ensure that Soarin is nice and aerodynamic before an event by taking care of any bulges in his flight suit.
D'awwwwww!
Awwwww, it's so cute you think this is 'an important film'. Silly, sheltered little pony. It really is adorable.
Hmmm, lesson about how you read a poem being different then reading it and how memory can fool you type deal?
Well bar the Pony of course.
Sneaky pony. Still, yet another bonus to being able to fly.
But, if you hang out there enough and at the right time, you might get to be a 'victim' in some freak accident and those strange smells will be some gas that gives you superpowers!
Yeah this is going to be rather boring.
To bad you aren't in a state with a caucus instead.
This is when you bring the magnetic hoof boots with you and just stay on the roof.
Silver should totally troll them, walk out and say of course she voted. For Princess Celestia.
Okay, that's even better!
Kill joy. Just because your all huffy and upset over a little perfectly fine inter-species fun times doesn't mean you get to douse everyone elses fun.
And others who just say fuck it, and write in Cthul'hu. Given what great choices we have anymore... why settle for the LESSER evil?
Ohhhhhhhh boy. How's she going to take to the reactions to the actual election.....
Also, wouldn't the existence of Equestria, ponies, magic, all this other stuff have had some effect on things a bit to maybe skew results? That is an issue with sticking to close to the IRL events, there is this new variable tossed into the mix that could cause a butterfly effect on things.
He needed more time to figure it all out too.
8096403
One of the biggest advantages the ponies have, really. A dictatorship by a wise, benevolent, nearly immortal dictator is probably the very best form of government, and that's what they have. Makes our system seem kind of silly.
On the other hand, if something happens to Celestia, they're in real trouble.
I don't know that franchise, although it does sound like it would make for an interesting crossover.
I think that they do. Or else they're really good at reading each other's social cues. Either way, they're much more attuned to touch than we are.
Yeah, and it probably varies from person to person. Or pony to pony. Or pony to person.
Seems to me that you'd want to make sure that that was done right, and instead of having the rookie do it, you'd want an experienced mare take care of him.
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The funny thing is, she's probably going to get more views on YouTube than some actual movie stars have gotten.
Or him showing everyone how they're a part of the whole.
Never play hide and seek with a pegasus, unless you can fly.
I suppose it's technically possible that that could happen. More likely, your face would melt off. Gotta figure that whatever comes out of the ventilation stacks probably isn't good for a person or a pony.
Twilight would love it! She likes lines, and even went to LineCon!
On the other hand, we can vote in the primary for whoever we want to. You can take a republican or democratic ballot, but you don't have to prove that you're one or the other before you get it.
Pretty soon all pegasi are going to be riding around on roofs with their magnetic boots.
You could write her in, I suppose. She's ineligible for the presidency, but she might be electable as a governor. Hmm, that would make for an interesting story.
I know, right? Lisa needs to lighten up a little bit, doesn't she? Maybe get a couple of nuzzles and hugs from Silver Glow. . . .
You know, there's a town, I think in Colorado, that has a donkey for a mayor, and I think he's won re-election at least once.
You'll just have to wait and see.
Yes, it probably would have changed things somewhat. I'm not sure entirely how, but it certainly would have made an effect. In general, that's one of the downsides with a story set on Earth.
Probably while the numbers of tourists are still pretty low, there's not going to be a huge effect; on the other hand, it's hard to know for sure how people would react to the sure knowledge that there are other worlds out there with intelligent aliens on them.
Yup!
Yes, yes, we get it, lol
Hah. Professional pride. You have to hand it to the humans though; they not only managed to make snow, but they managed to make the kind of snow they wanted for their specific purpose
Aww. That class is only one quarter too? No more Conrad?
He does that on purpose to trick people into reading more poetry, hm?
Well, "theirs", not "ours" technically; Silver Glow isn't actually included in that
(Conrad 4 prez!)
*Two familiar black-clad figures loom behind the bus driver*
Salvatore & Cherilyn: "Excuse me, sir, we'd like to have a word with you about endangering the safety of an interdimensional exchange student by putting her in an illegal passenger position in your vehicle."
Yessss
Though one would wonder how Vermin Supreme would be received in a world where contact with Equestria would have been made.
TV reporter: "So, you support the slavery of ponies, then?"
Silver Glow: "...ummm... no? What? Meghan...?!"
8180612
That's very true. And I bet that the ponies also have purpose-built weather of all kinds, but I think that most of the pegasi still take pride in making the weather pretty and enjoyable whenever they can.
All the classes at K were only one quarter long. Having said that, there's no reason that she can't take another poetry class later. When I was a student there, I wound up in lots of classes with some of my favorite professors.
That's probably not entirely his goal, but he's not opposed to students reading more poetry.
Although if/when ponies are legally allowed to become citizens, it could be hers, too.
I could get behind that.
It's kind of glossed over in the story, but Silver Glow doesn't wear seat belts in cars, due to the incompatibility between them and her body.
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Well, if enough ponies want to visit America, he could totally back up his 'free pony' promise. They could even be identification ponies, like he wants. "Yes, sir, that's Meghan. I can identify her."
If the ponies get free hugs and ear scritches, it's not slavery; it's a symbiotic relationship.
This aged poorly.
10928177
I dunno, I follow him on Facebook and he seems as nutty as always.
10930493
I was referring to his attempt to run as a "real" candidate in 2020, with the scare quotes because he was going for the Libertarian ticket and that basically doesn't count in practice.
10930975
I mean, I could be wrong, but I’ve never considered any of his runs likely or “real.” He’s also historically tried in both Republican and Democratic primaries (and lost there, too).
When I first read this chapter I went and read the Hughes poems, and read up on the author. Now every time I read it I just get furious at the people who ran my school, and at people who advocate "death of the author ".
They taught us Langston Hughes like this: they had us read Harlem, except it was titled "Dream Deferred." I don't think they mentioned what year it was written, but that didn't matter much.
They didn't tell us he was black.
So for decades I knew it as another silly nonsense poem like Ride a Wild Horse or maggie and millie and molly and may. I knew "dream" could have more than one meaning but had no way of knowing what kind was meant. And once you know the context, it becomes clear that there's an extremely specific kind of dream involved, and an extremely specific way that it is "deferred."
And an extremely specific way that, eventually, it was to explode.