February 5
We had a guest in climate science class today! She's named Cyndi, and is the meteorologist for WWMT, which is a local television station.
I don't think that the professor had told her that I would be in class. When I went in, she was standing beside his desk, talking over the lesson with him, and she looked up and saw me and then took a step back, and I was a bit surprised so I extended out my wings a little bit, then tucked them back in right away before I scared her off.
She kept kind of glancing in my direction as I took my seat. Crystal Dawn leaned over and told me that she thought I had a new fan, and Luke thought that was really funny, then he said I ought to have brought a cloud to class for her. If I'd known she was going to be there, I might have.
Crystal Dawn asked if pegasuses gave each other clouds for gifts, and I shook my head. A cloud wasn't much of a gift (unless it was a building cloud). It would be like an earth pony giving her stallion dirt.
Then we all quieted down when class started. Cyndi said that her father had been a meteorologist, and she was following along in his footsteps. Then she asked us if any of us had climatologists or meteorologists in our families, and I raised my hoof. I think weather work counts, and my mom is a weatherpony.
She asked if any of us were interested in becoming meteorologists, and one girl in the back of class raised her hand. Cyndi was kind of disappointed by that, but continued on. I would have raised my hoof, but I thought that working with clouds wasn't the same as meteorology.
She gave us a brief overview of how the television station presents the weather, and how much more complicated it is from what we see on the screen. She also explained that to become a proper Certified Broadcast Meteorologist, she had to have a college degree, a strong backing in math and science, pass a test, and take continuing education classes. She told us that a lot of weather reporters on television don't have those certifications and so they just read off what someone else had decided the weather was going to be. Which was how a lot of weatherponies worked, too; they just did what they were told. It was the supervisors who had to know lots of stuff.
She also told us what kind of equipment they had to monitor the weather, and how the technology had changed over the years. She said that the models were getting better every year, which made the forecasts more and more accurate.
Then she asked us if we had any questions, and Luke raised his hand and asked what her opinion of global warming was.
She rolled her eyes and sighed, and then she said that man-made global warming was a fact, backed up by mountains of scientific evidence. I thought it was a stupid question, too: the professor had covered that in the very beginning of class. Maybe Luke hadn't been paying attention.
Luke raised his hand again, and Cyndi gritted her teeth and called on him again. This time, he asked her what her professional response was when the television station aired a segment suggesting that global warming was false, or at least implied that it might not be true. That put the interest back in her, and she said that it was a difficult position to be in. She didn't have the authority to stop them from airing such segments, but that she would advise her fellow anchormen that the story was BS. She said that there had been a few segments she'd kept them from airing because they were fake science, but that there were other syndicated shows that she didn't have control over and that was kind of frustrating.
When she was done answering questions, she told us that we could be friends with her on Facebook, and a bunch of students took out their telephones, then she left and we finished up with a normal lesson.
I was happy that we were wrapping up Descartes in philosophy class. I couldn't make sense of him. Despite all the professor's explanations, I still didn't understand why he would start out his philosophy with the idea that he didn't exist. And it only got more confusing when Ted asked the professor if it would make a difference if we really all were brains in a vat, since we wouldn't be able to do anything to change that. Then he asked if, according to Descartes' philosophy, a self-aware artificial intelligence could be said to exist.
The professor said that Descartes was attempting to remove anything that could be doubted from his philosophy, and Ted countered that you can't have a first principle of nothing.
Then the professor sweetly suggested that that would be a great topic for the final exam, and there were a few groans in the class. It also shut Ted up.
Anyway, we're moving on to John Locke next, and that will be a pleasant change I'm sure.
Lunch today was mostly pizza, and leftovers from yesterday's dinner. Christine said that they weren't trying, but I thought it was pretty exciting, and judging by how many other people were eating slices of pizza, it was a treat for them, too.
They weren't as good as the one Peggy had ordered. Sean (who had nearly a whole pizza on his plate) said that it was better than dominos. I hadn't ever eaten a domino, so I just took his word for it.
I wanted to try lots of different toppings to see what my favorites were. I probably ate more than I should have—I felt really bloated after lunch, and I resolved to not eat anything besides a salad for dinner.
In Equestrian class, I asked Meghan if I could use her bathtub tonight. It would be a great way to relax after the week. She said it was okay with her, and the rest of the girls said it was okay with them, too.
So I went over after dinner and started drawing my bath. We talked a bit while the tub was filling, and I told them about the soaking tubs that every ground village has, and how popular they are with everypony. Meghan said that there was a place that had hot tubs in Kalamazoo, but she wasn't sure if they were sanitary, and she also wasn't sure that they'd let a pony in. And she said that her uncle also had a hot tub and maybe we could use that sometime.
Once it was full of nice hot water and lots of suds, I lowered myself in and stretched out, and just relaxed. At first, I was alone; the girls stayed behind when I went into the bathroom, but eventually Meghan stuck her head around the corner and asked if I minded if she came in, too.
I said that I didn't mind at all; she could even join me in the bath if she wanted to. It would have been crowded, but I think we could have managed to fit.
She said that she'd just sit and talk, which was almost as good. So she sat on the toilet seat, and then eventually Becky and Lisa pulled their chairs up to the door, but they were pretty hesitant. Becky stayed a bit off at an angle, and I really had to stretch out my head to see her. Until she eventually moved closer.
All three of them smiled when I sculpted the soap bubbles into little clouds and set them floating around the bathroom. I wasn't all that good at it; one of my weather teachers could make whole cloudscapes out of them, and she even used ink in the soap solution to represent different types of clouds. But she'd had a lot more practice, and she probably wasn't as good with real clouds.
It was really relaxing, and it was nice to chat while I was in the bath. Sometimes I try to have a conversation with the other girls in the bathroom when I'm in the shower, but most of the time they don't want to say much more than 'hi.'
When I was done, I was all fluffy from soaking and drying off with towels. Meghan said that I looked absolutely adorable, and asked if she could brush my mane and tail. I told her that she could, so I stretched out on her bed and let her groom me.
That was about the best Friday night ever, and it just got more better when I got back to our dorm room. Peggy and Christine and Sean were all there playing euchre (you can play it with three people, too, but it's not as fun as having a partner) and drinking beer. When they finished their game, we played a four-person game; not too long after we started Aric showed up as well; he said that he had just been passing by and seen our door was open.
He sat on my bed while we finished the game, and then Peggy thought it would be fun to watch a movie on her computer, so she turned it so we could all see. Aric and I shared my bed, while Christine and Sean sat on the floor.
There was a little debate while they decided what movie to watch, but they finally decided that How To Train Your Dragon would be fun, because I knew about dragons and because there were some good flying scenes in it.
I wound up snuggling against Aric when the movie got really intense, but he didn't mind.
It was kind of disappointing when he had to go—I think he didn't want to, either, but the party kind of broke up a little bit after the movie.
Silver and Aric? Whose parents are going to be more weirded out by the situation?
7082023 They just keep responding.
How to Train Your Dragon? My favorite film!
7084067 Aric's I would think. There is so many species in Equestria, such a couple wouldn't be that weird. Of course we don't know the parents, so maybe Aric parent are er... very open minded while Silver's parents aren't.
But aren't we sailing this ship a bit too early? Silver's interpretation of physical contact is not the same as our, it migth be innocent, a simple ship tease for april fool.
7084067 Aric... Although casual racism doesn't exactly speak will of Silver's parents either.
So Silver is teaching the humans around her that you don't have to be ashamed of your body or afraid of watching another. The beauty of student exchanges... the cultural learning always goes both ways, much more than the academic.
Mind you, had this been at Uni Copenhagen in Denmark, they would have needed a tub big enough for three girls and a pony only a moment after Silver offered to share.
This created one of the best mental images ever. It also made me think of Tom Waits' Emotional Weather Report and then about what kind of song he could come up with about Silver and that's where I went to make myself a strong cup of coffee before my brain could escalate this even further.
7084101 It's ponies! If the author doesn't ship, the commenters will...
I was a delivery driver for Domino's Pizza for four years. There's a reason I only ever ate their pizza when it was free (someone ordered and then never picked up, etc.).
7084115 Any fiction really. Spend some time in any fandom, there is enough ship to make an invincible armada!
It would be interesting if the Professor had a dialectic between Rousseau and Hobbes.
When will Silver play any video games?
Seriously adorable chapter. Silver's comment about never eating a domino and the gang getting together to watch How to Train Your Dragon were both very cute.
You're really doing a bang-up job with this daily update thing, too. Congrats on maintaining it!
No clue about the law in their state, but often the driver gets the ticket for an unbelted passenger. Which would make Silver Glow guilty and sad, probably.
It's interesting that Silver doesn't seem to have any basis for understanding scientific controversy. As far as she's concerned, if the teachers say something is true then it is true. It makes sense, given that most of the advancements in science and magic in her world seem to have been practical rather than theoretical for a long time, so things like the evolution and climate change debate would be somewhat new to her. Then again, that first one isn't quite scientific in my view since it deals with the un-testable past rather than the present and future. Maybe a better example would be last century's debate on whether light was a particle or a wave.
Is Ted the same guy who made the God comment a couple of classes ago? If so, I get the feeling he's one of those "thinks he's a skeptic but is really just contrary" types. I could be wrong though.
I know another author already had ponies react to watching HtTYD, but I was kinda hoping to see what she thought of it.
Thanks for the chapter!
One thing Silver could do with her friends is video game RPGs like Mass Effect. I did the series with my mother where I did the combat and she made all the non-combat decisions. It was a lot of fun, and I could see Silver and her friends doing the same thing.
(Author writes about every controversial topic in current events)
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I'm really dreading when she gets to Nietzsche... either her head will explode, or she'll declare him utterly insane.
7084111
ESCALATE, ESCALATE, EESCAALAATEE!
Ahem, sorry, what I meant to say was; do it, filly!!
Aric is obviously secretly a pony in disguise everyone
Aww social pony baths. Good chapter!
Cannot WAIT for Locke.
The things Silver Glow doesn't write about are driving me crazy. You invited a boy up onto your bed, filly! Does he make your heart go pitter-pat?
I name this ship Silvaric. Faust bless her and all who sail in her.
*smashes a champaign bottle over the prow*
7084101
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This is such a fun story! Silver Glow is so damn adorable I just wanna smush up her cute little face! Did anyone else think of this song at the end there? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXmLRHnoSAs
It will be a change that's for sure! I wonder how Silver will interpret his ideas and how they apply to ponies.
Admiral Biscuit, you are a writing MACHINE! (Not literally, I hope.)
One thing that puzzles me: Silver Glow doesn't seem to "get" that we humans love to ponder the imponderable, and to make up sincere and heartfelt viewpoints about the world based on little or no information. I would have assumed that at least some Equestrians would have the same trait, based on Pinkie's first reaction to Zecora, Rainbow's day-to-day behavior, and Spike's fixation on zombies... and others.
We'll argue about anything! I've seen people get angry discussing the dietary health qualities of Butter vs Margarine!
<Muffin!)...(Cupcake!>
7084948 Be carefull! There migth be some extra tarification on that one!
Well I hope this end up well and one or the other of them doesn't get their heart broken, maybe just about part of college life I guess. At the very least any romance that does blossom might hit a snag when she has to go home at the end of the year.
One thing I have to ask is do American terms run through calendar years so Silver is there for a complete Academic year? In the UK term would start in September / October and run through to July. I would expect an exchange student to be there for a full Academic year.
Its quite possible that we may see our heroine wish to be more than just friends with Aric. I don't normally ship characters but this will be my second exception. I do hope that Silver Glow and Aric get together.
7085118 Silver Glow does seem to like her ponderings. Otherwise she wouldn't have signed up for classes in poetry and philosophy. Which is good; pondering humans and ponies and the things they reveal about each other is one of the main reasons I'm here.
What makes you think she doesn't see that quality in humans?
(BTW, I like your colored speechbubbles.)
7085918 She seems just a little bit too willing to take what she's told literally, and she seems to be confused by disagreements of opinion between people, is all...
I can accept that's due to her being a "Stranger in a Strange Land" on Earth though. I mean, I'm an American, and I don't understand some of my own countrymen... Which is perfectly OK, since they probably feel the same way about me.
Bubbles... Bubbles are cool.
(Gah! Quit doing that!> <Doing what?)
7083016 Yes, but I was responding to Dinode, who was referring to how it's useless for humans, which it's not.
7086239 Well thank you! I learned something new.
Biscuit you've got euchre on the brain.
I can already see the shipping wars between Camp Auric and Camp Meghan. Those two seem to be taking quite an interest in our little pegasus...
I believe you meant WWMT ("We're West Michigan Television").
Of all your stories, this has quickly become my second favorite, right behind OPP. Please keep up the good work!
7084111
Same in Japan, and probably a bunch of other countries that I'm not so familiar with. For some reason, The USA seems to be one of the more prudish countries when it comes to social nudity.
7086324
You're welcome! And that's one of the great things about Admiral Biscuit's stories - if you don't learn something in the story itself, you probably will in the comments.
7086474 College is for experimenting, let's just ship them all!
I'll bet Ted got a lot of Gibs smacks for giving the professor such an idea.
Perhaps some Studio Ghibli animation would go over well too. Although coming from Japanese culture would take a bit of explaining. But they do have the communal bathing.
Ugh. I've had classes with some Lukes and Teds, including a quantum physics course. There are few things more frustrating than seeing someone monopolize the class by complaining how the subject doesn't make sense. Arguing with the teacher will not alter quantum behavior!
As for the shipteasing, I'm not seeing it. This is pretty standard pony affection thus far.
Ah, lovely Silvaric moment...
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Pretty much anything is better than Dominos pizza.
Despite having your admiralty now, I suppose you started as a lowly Seabiscuit? I think those humble beginnings show in your mentorship of the comments section. You guide from afar, allowing each ship to manage it's own affairs as long as they maintain the flotilla.
(Silver/Meg is victory.)
7084150 She already tried that. The buttons were too small and close together.
7087708 That's quite possibly the dumbest comment I have ever seen. Yes, a good teacher is going to shunt any overly long discussions into office hours, but your ideas are just begging for a class of apathetic students.
I am a math teacher. By curriculum standards I have to go through a lot of material fairly quickly. Too quickly. It's a topic where complex ideas build on each other. Tomorrow's lesson won't make sense if today's doesn't, to say nothing of next semester. Deeper lessons taking more time to explain fewer concepts means more students will actually learn and retain ideas, rather than cramming for the test and forgetting everything after. It means fewer students will need to go back to school to learn what their diplomas say they already know.
But you know what? If the teacher asks "does anyone have any questions?" and everyone stays quiet to avoid wasting everyone else's time, the teacher has no choice but to move on. Yeah, I know somewhere around 20 of the 30 people in the classroom are lying to me, but without the question I have no idea what material I need to revisit.
The student that has the balls to take a risk of looking stupid or wasting time helps everyone.
7091316
I'm not saying that people shouldn't ask questions in class. It's just that this person would, unprompted, derail the class for a good ten minutes of arguing with the teacher, rebuffing and flat-out not listening to any explanations. It wasn't a matter of someone who didn't understand the material trying to remedy that. It was a matter of someone who disliked the material trying to change it to something he would agree with, regardless of the reality of the situation.
7085826 Honestly, I've been on the edge of my seat about those topics since first reading Celestia Sleeps In, and I really think that the subtle romance between all of the characters is a strength of the author. I wouldn't mind if it came to them just being really close as opposed to having it completely defined because that keeps me hoping and silently begging for it - which I love to do.
7084067
We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?
7084097
I won't claim it as my favorite, but the flight scenes in the movie were amazing.
7084101
This is FimFiction. Two characters who are seen together in one shot are presumably madly in love with each other.
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7084110
It's tribalism, not racism. The difference is subtle, but important.
7084111
To the first: slowly but surely. That's one of the things I learned at college, anyway. To the second (bolded), yet. Very much yes. That might be one of the most important things about college.
One assumes that the they had such tubs there. In so many ways, Europe is better than the US.
It would be something interesting, that's for sure. FWIW, Tom Traubert's Blues is my favorite Tom Waits' song.
7084133
I delivered for LIttle Caesar's myself. There was one day that I went up to my dorm with 15 leftover pizzas and just started handing them out. That made me very popular for a day.
7084144
It would be interesting if the Professor had a dialectic between Rousseau and Hobbes.
Read Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another. Pizarro and Socrates. Not the same, I know, but bloody brilliant nonetheless.
7084150
She's already tried Mario Kart. And yes, she'll play others. This is college, after all.
7084165
Thanks!
7084204
That's probably the case in Michigan, but I'm not entirely sure. And yes, Silver Glow would feel terrible if she did something that got someone else in trouble.
7084208
That's one advantage or disadvantage they have (depends on your point of view). Whatever Celestia says is probably true, and that would sort of trickle down to all authority figures, deserved or not. Just look at the way the ponies usually rally around Twilight.
I would argue that the preponderance of evidence points to the first being true, and breeding things like dog species, horses, and GMO crops certainly provides further proof that it's likely true. Horses have been demonstrated to make evolutionary changes pretty quickly when a change of circumstances in their environment requires it, and research I did for this story indicated that horses buck the trend (no pun intended) of heart rate related to body size, probably because the smaller breeds are fairly recent (IIRC, miniature horses aren't more than two centuries old).
Yes he is; whether you're right about his character is open to debate.
7084219
.
Or games like Minecraft or the Sims might appeal to her, or various puzzle games . . . basically, things that engage more of the thinking and less of the button-pushing. And yeah, she'd be totally on-board with a cooperative run through a game as well. That would work well with her psychology.
7084237
She's a pony at a contemporary college; of course she's going to experience them.
7084973
Thanks! I'm thinking about that song now.
7085110
You'll know pretty soon.
7085118
As far as I know, only Skirts is a sentient typewriter. And I'm not him.
Well, there's pondering the imponderable, and being wary of the unknown. I think that ponies often fall into the latter camp (hence the fear of Zecora).
7085136
For better or worse, heartbreak is often part of college life.
They do, yes, so she started mid-year. However, at K they often did that to correspond with other school's schedules, so it's not that much of a stretch that she would start mid-year.
7086349
That was a major college pastime. We took it very seriously. And you did not want to get skunked.
7086474
7086560
I probably did. I'll fix that.
Thanks!
I still don't know why. Puritan heritage, maybe? K's not so prudish (at least it wasn't when I was there), but of course lots of the students still were.
7087328
She's more conditioned to like that kind of movie than, say, a Jean Claude Van Damme movie. She'd love Castle in the Sky.
7089029
7093271
Fun fact: Pawing at the ground is an aggressive gesture among horses, but a relaxed one among zebras. Certainly puts more of a light on how freaked out the ponies were when Zecora would wander around town digging little holes in the dirt.
(I learned this from some comment thread on this site. Odds are, it was one of the Admiral's.)
7084208
"Then again, that first one isn't quite scientific in my view since it deals with the un-testable past rather than the present and future."
That sentence makes no sense. Both claims, thinking that evolution isn't scientific, and thinking the past is untestable, have no foundation in reality.
Evolution is one of the most well founded and proven scientific theories because it explains pretty much everything we know about living creatures - and because the disproof would be fairly simple if it was false (rabbit fossil in the pre-cambrian for example) and yet over a hundred years it's never happened. Evolution is also quite capable of making predictions about the present and future, they just tend to be rather general ones.