August 7
Cayenne was in bed with us when we woke up, laying on top of our comforter with the one from the other bed across her back. She smelled like sex and whiskey, so I guess she must have had a good night.
We got out of bed and opened the door, and there was another basket of coffee and muffins for us, which was really nice. Me and Aquamarine shared a cup of coffee, and we left the other one for Cayenne, 'cause I thought she'd probably need it.
The two of us were almost done with our shower when she staggered into the bathroom, the coffee cup floating just in front of her, and she walked right into the shower and stuck her head under the spray, then pulled back out long enough to finish her coffee and float the cup over to the sink.
I asked if she wanted us to help her, but she said that she'd be okay by herself, so we got out and started drying off. Aquamarine asked her how her night had gone, and she said that she found a party and a couple of people there remembered that there had been a unicorn in one of the plays, and she swore that she didn't pretend to be Gusty, but they might have thought so because they were pretty drunk. Also she flashed them on the way in and that could have influenced them a little bit.
I guess I was glad that Cayenne had had a good night, but I thought that while it might be fun to have lots of sex, it was better to do it with someone that you were friends with.
We wanted to meet Sterling Silver and Viola for breakfast, so when I was preening my wings Aquamarine called them, and she asked if we wanted to meet at their hotel in half an hour. They had a buffet breakfast which she said was really nice, and they were at the Best Western which wasn't very far from our hotel, so we said that we would and then I poked my head back in the bathroom and told Cayenne to hurry up so we could get breakfast.
She groaned and turned off the shower then shook herself off, and went to the mirror to comb her mane.
Well, we left a little bit later than I wanted to, so when we got there, both Stirling Silver and Viola were sitting at a table with coffee cups in front of them.
We all nuzzled (Sterling Silver was a little uncomfortable with that) and Cayenne got more coffee, then we talked for a little bit before we started breakfast.
They wanted to know more about what we were studying in school and what we were doing for the summer, and we learned that he was the owner of Silver Barrel in Manehattan, which I'd never heard of but Cayenne had. He said that his company put advertisements in newspapers in Baltimare, Canterlot, and Manehattan. Cayenne asked him if he was getting any ideas from visiting Earth, 'cause there were advertisements everywhere, and Viola said that they were on vacation and he wasn't thinking about work, but he nodded at Cayenne.
When he'd finished his coffee, we all got up and went to the breakfast buffet, which was a lot like the one that they had at the dining hall, but the food trays were a lot fancier and had shiny silver tops over them to keep the food warm.
Cayenne helped everypony get their food, and we were kind of quiet while we were eating. It wasn't as good as the food at The Bruce, but it was more familiar to me.
The scrambled eggs were a little bit runnier than I liked, but otherwise it was very good, and just like in college if we wanted more we could go and get it. Plus it was nice that we got to smell the food and look at it before deciding what we wanted to eat.
Aquamarine and Sterling Silver both went back for some more food, while the rest of us were happy with what we'd picked the first time around. I was a little disappointed in their apples; the one I'd taken was big and shiny red, but it was pretty mealy when I bit into it and I almost didn't want to finish it.
Viola wanted to know about the humans who were with us, and so we told her that they were our helpers and that they took us places and mine had helped me to get my pilot's license and radio license, and Aquamarine said that they'd also gone on the train trip with us and drove us around and then Cayenne said that they got her out of jail once and of course everypony wanted to hear that story.
She said that she'd gone to a rally with a friend of hers, and she'd thought it was some kind of race but it was really a bunch of people shouting about Donald Trump, and then things kind of broke out into a big scuffle and someone had put her in the back of a police car and then taken her down to a police station and that had been kind of fun because nobody there had any idea what to do with her, and they'd taken hoofprints and then had her sit in a chair with metal hobbles around her forehooves until her helpers came to get her.
So that led to them asking what we knew about the election, because ponies in Manehattan were talking about it and nopony really understood it. So I told them how I'd gotten to go to the primary election with a bunch of students from college and even though I didn't get to vote I got to kind of watch how it was done and they even had a sample ballot that everyone could look at.
Aquamarine had also gone with Jenny, but Cayenne said that she hadn't, because her helpers had told her that she ought to stay away from politics.
Then we started talking about trains and how much nicer human trains were. They were bigger and not as smoky and went a lot faster. They were both unsure whether to believe that we'd taken a train that was two stories tall, but we said it was true. And even the train I'd taken from Chicago to Lafayette had an upstairs dining room.
It would have been nice to spend the whole day together, but they were going to see a morning play, and we were going to see Gusty again, but we promised that when we were back in Equestria we'd get together sometime for a meal in Manehattan.
The three of us walked back to our hotel to meet our helpers, and then we went to the theatre. We had different seats this time, a little bit higher up and further back, and on the other side, and it was strange how when we watched it the second time it looked really different just because were were watching from the other side.
It was kind of sad when the play ended, because I knew that they wouldn't ever do it again and I wondered what Gusty thought about that.
We could have probably rushed and gotten to her sooner this time but we all agreed that it was better to wait, because she had so many well-wishers who wanted to hug her or shake her hoof.
I told Aquamarine that it was kind of unfair that none of the tech people were in line, and so we looked around and tried to find them but I think they were probably still upstairs in their little booth.
They don't get enough credit for a performance.
We didn't have a private lunch today; instead, once the crowd had finally left, Gusty and all the other actors went off to their own party, and we went back to the hotel and had lunch there. They had a nice zucchini soup, and also spelt, which was something I'd never heard of but it's a kind of wheat.
Then in the afternoon we went to the Avon theatre and watched a play called Shakespeare In Love, which I didn't like as much as I'd liked H. M. S. Pinafore. But it was still pretty good, even though Miss Cherilyn said it was all made up and that Shakespeare hadn't really been in love with any of his actresses as far as anyone knew and besides back then men played woman's roles.
So that was kind of like how in the Hearth's Warming Pageant a mare usually played Commander Hurricane.
We had dinner at The Bruce again, and it was just as good as the first time. I'd hoped that Gusty would join us, but I guess she was still out with her theatre friends, which I could understand. Ships crews tended to stick together in the tavern, and so did us weatherponies, 'cause we were always a bit more comfortable with who we knew. And I thought that in some ways finishing a play was a lot like finally landing after a big nor'easter, 'cause you kind of had to talk it through and remember it, and if you weren't up flying it or out on a boat in it you didn't really understand it. And I think that's okay.
Miss Parker said that we could probably get tickets to another play tonight if we wanted to, but me and Aquamarine both wanted a chance to get outside and stretch our legs, and I think that Mister Salvatore was happy that he didn't have to go to another play as well. So we split up again, and we walked around the parks for a little bit. It was kind of strange to be in another new country and yet so many things were just the same as in Michigan. We'd seen a lot more variety of plants and terrain when we went out west on the train, but what I'd seen of Canada was a lot like Michigan. I guess that since they were closer to each other than Michigan was to California, that made sense.
I really wished that I could fly around some, and I did a little bit, but I didn't want to fly off and leave Aquamarine alone, and I also wasn't sure that I was allowed to fly up high in Canada, so I stayed close to the ground.
We stayed out until it was dark, and then we went back to the hotel. It would have been nice to soak in the bathtub again, but it was kind of late, so instead we just sat on the bed and talked for a little while, and we both agreed that we'd try to convince Mister Salvatore to take us somewhere tomorrow. We didn't know where—we couldn't think of anything special that we wanted to do—but we thought that since we were in Canada we ought to do something special on the way back.
When we were finally ready for bed, we left one side of the bed folded back for Cayenne when she came back.
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Sterling SIlver
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Viola
You're missing word there.
Been
And now, the elephant in the room.
Sterling. I'm not sure how you managed to make the same mistake every time you spelled his name except in the title and your comment.
7630922 Little did you know Stirling Silver is the name of a unicorn who makes tiny little steam engines for.... Not buying it?
I remember the 1st time I read about double decker buses in London, I didn't really believe it until I saw it in a movie (James Bond?).
As to trains, most Equestria trains seem to be steam engines & most US trains are diesel.
Q What does the fireman do on a diesel train?
No idea. Any rail workers that can explain?
Diesels are cleaner than steam locomotives, especially if you are using cheaper soft coal.
7630977
Diesel and NOx engines have been refined to a degree that they're as much or even more promising "green" technology than any electric or hybrid car, but aside from trucks and buses, diesel never caught on in the US for some stupid reason.
7630922
You're assuming he's not from (the Equestrian equivalent of) a Scottish town made famous by Mel Gibson's pasty bare arse.
Yes, well, that's how it goes with the ponyfolk...
Sugar and spice as I believe the old refrain goes.
I drove a taxi cab in Phoenix for a while. Thus, I got around the whole city.
Part of the problem with non gas or diesel fuel cars is the lack of support infrastructure. There's gas stations pretty much everywhere you go, mechanics and spare parts stores. For the others, damn few and far between.
Yeah, you can get a car with a non petroleum powered engine. But, you will pay more and suffer inconveniences to do it.
I've been without internet for a month...
*cracks knuckles*
SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK!
I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but how long past the current show is this set? Like, if Apple Bloom appeared in a chapter would she be an adult and if so how old?
And I wonder what the exchange rate between Equestria and Earth is. If the golden bits they use as money is in all actuality our gold then they'd all be rich ponies.
I want them to go to Niagara Falls. I mean come on, if you wanted to shock and awe an earth pony and a pegasus raised around water you've gotta take them to the falls... Then tell them we can control the flow rate.
Also now that I think about it you can actually notice when they change the flow rate over the falls (I've done a lot of events right by the horseshoe falls)
Cayenne's handlers are probably due a medal for the work they do, it's why we don't see them they need all the time off they can get.
it's. it is.
7631160 Moving money between worlds must be a nightmare.
To us, mass produced items are cheap, to them, gems are.
It may be a 'Rate of Exchange' is based on labor... or just not possible.
Everything coming and going has to have its value based on several factors and the price negotiated.
Could a jar of Zap Apple jam be worth its weight in white truffles?
The play will never be repeated?
When we come to the end of the road, the only life we will have lead, are the memories we leave behind.
Seems like old Sterling is uncomfortable with the idea of nuzzling a bunch of young mares. I know a few old business men who would've enjoyed it far too much...
Sounds like a good advice. Life's hetic enough, no need to add an alien country's politic into the mess.
Was it a cry from an upset tech?
7631015
No, they really haven't. Diesels are terrible in terms of pollution. Much, much worse than a Petrol car of equivalent age. You can actually see the cloud of poison emitted when a turbodiesel car hits boost. You have to wash it off the paint.
7631546 Only when the emissions equipment is disabled, or non present, as on older vehicles. Also, that's soot. Unburned fuel, and comparatively not so bad. The really nasty stuff is invisible. But again, you only get that if the emissions equipment is disabled or was never there.
7631628 No, this absolutely happens on brand new cars with no modifications- I've had the misfortune of being behind them - and the idea that soot is the lesser poison coming out of a Diesel car's exhaust is laughable. That soot is unburned fuel, which is poisonous on its own. It gives you cancer in a whole bunch of different ways, even skin cancer.
They're trying every trick under the book to reduce diesel emissions, right down to fitting cars with horse piss injection (AdBlue) in the hope that the urea will neutralise it. And it still can't pass emissions standards without cheating.
7631420
I've turned this over in my head a few times. A quarter is two bits, so there's eight bits to the dollar. But I'd be surprised if your average Ponyvillian pays more than 2 bits for a loaf of bread, whereas we'd pay two dollars, or sixteen bits. So, in terms of straight bit conversion, it must seem especially expensive for them to visit the United States. It would not be unreasonable for ponies to be allowed to bring with them a couple of gems, value not exceeding, oh, let's say 30 equestrian bits, but that anything greater would be seized unless they had a (very expensive) import license.
Of course, "not unreasonable" is not the same as to what the governments would actually agree.
Does this mean she only considers Aric and Meghan to be friends?
7628920
That could work, I doubt most locals law have ever dealt with the DSS before but probably have some interaction with the FBI. Wouldn't exactly smooth things over, but would at least mean there is an existing bridge to work with. I would suspect that DSS is in the lead being that this is the sort of thing they normally do.
what is Cayenne doing on earth ? and what is she going to tell Celestia ? "Hey princess i bet i had fun with more humans than you" wink wink "Ifyouknowwhatimean"
what could go wrong ?
The Horse Races.
(Where they have to explain that they don't actually speak horse so they don't have an unfair advantage.)
I actually don't think I've been on a single story train car. All the major Amtrak ones are double decker.
YouTube. The best posting is Futurama Hermes The Beaurocrat Song + video
Situation
Bender has had his personality chip removed and misfiled. Hermes has to file all the backlog to get it back
The untranslated last line is "I'm Bender, baby. Please insert liquor"
7631017 In that case, he misspelled it in the title, in his comment on this chapter with the character images, and in the previous chapter.
7631160 In the show Aquamarine is a background pony filly about the same age as Apple Bloom. So 5 - 10 years after the show depending on how fast ponies age.
Back when Lauren Faust was on the show she said that she imagined ponies physically matured faster than humans which explained why their apparent emotional maturity could fluctuate so much depending on the needs of the episode's script. This is further backed up by Pound and Pumpkin cake acting like human 6-9 month olds when they were actually only 1 month old in Baby Cakes.
7631711 It's a shame that you experienced that. I work with big diesel vehicles daily, and I can tell you unequivocally that they are very clean. We had a number of units which we retired recently, all were near 300k miles. All but one had the California mandated exhaust particle trap installed (these days, just about all new trucks have them)
The one with no p-trap had a tailpipe that was black on the inside from accumulated soot. The others had tailpipes that appeared to be unused, because there was no soot escaping the p-trap. No, nobody was cleaning the tailpipes.
Urea injection doesn't do anything about particulates, btw. All it does is catalyze NOx. About six of our units now are equipped with the urea injection system, the rest are from a different manufacturer. All of them have clean pipes, because they have functioning p-traps.
I'll put what I said before a slightly different way: if you encounter a diesel producing visible exhaust, especially large quantities of it, it is either not equipped with emissions equipment, or said equipment is at least partially non-operational. That, or there is something wrong with the engine itself.
7632622 I never said the piss injection was to stop soot, man. I said it was for emissions.
You should look at the Euro emissions standards. All the way to 5B the auto industry lobbied for Diesels to be allowed to produce 3x NOx than what a petrol car does. The EU finally put their boot down and EuroVI requires them to be closer, but still 33% more than a petrol car. And even with horse piss they still can't reach it - it can be as much as seven times above the limit.
(http://www.theicct.org/real-world-exhaust-emissions-modern-diesel-cars)
It's really sad and pathetic. They sold us all on Diesels for fuel savings back in the early 2000s but whoops, turns out that isn't true any more either.
The scrambled eggs were a little bit runnier than I liked, but otherwise it was very good,
Huzzah for firm scrambled eggs! Hey... It's important. It is. Really.
(Hint: The more respected the chef, the less cooked the eggs, so avoid "fancy" places.)
Typo, though it'd be a neat pun if he were a mechanic working on engines.
(... damn it, I miss Sterling Gears )
7633506 lab has been active in the fandom. I just think she's dealing with writer's block.
Okay, now I know she's just poaching words from English. Even if the weather in her area of Equestria is guided by similar patterns, that's a very specific bit of local terminology, and one I know she doesn't have personal flight experience with.
7631888
I've already stated that I think Celestia is going to ask about and take extensive notes from Silver Glow's 'friendship lessons' courtesy of Aric and Meghan. I mean, what else could be the point of such an exchange program?! Even Aquamarine and Gusty are getting involved!
If Silver wants plant diversity, the place to go is South Africa. We've got an entire floristic region, which is kind of a big deal because there are only six of them in the world...
7630922
I've got mad skillz?
Corrections made; thank you!
7630972
Aw, man, that would be awesome. Sadly, he just owns at Silver Barrel.
7630977
I was pretty amazed by the two-story trains the first time I rode on one. I did believe in the double-decker busses, but only because I had a Matchbox one and assumed that all Matchbox cars were modeled after real cars.
Nothing. There is no fireman on diesels. He was one of the first jobs to go. Originally, train crews were five: Engineer, head brakeman, fireman, rear brakeman, and conductor. The last two rode in the caboose. Nowadays, only two men ride on a train, the engineer and conductor.
Unless you're still running Alcos. Those were notoriously smokier than steam locomotives.
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7631015
GM's notoriously bad diesel might have been part of the reason.
7631029
Cayenne probably has their cell phone numbers memorized. "Hey, Miss Blaise, I'm in jail again. Come and bail me out before I use my horn-laser to break out. They don't like it when I do that."
7631034
It does depend in part on where you live--out in the country where I am, you can get diesel at every gas station, and also kerosene and off-road diesel. If you want E-85, though, you're out of luck.
7631148
7631160
She'd be the same age as Aquamarine, give or take a year.
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Yeah, which is why if the governments had any sense at all they'd work out some way to really minimize goods transfer between the worlds in order to not flood the market with gems and gold, making both basically valueless. "Maryanne, some pony just tried to pay for a bolt of corduroy fabric with a bucket of diamonds."
7631181
That is actually pretty amazing, isn't it? And Silver Glow could try to go over them riding on a barrel . . .
7631261
Oh, yeah. Those poor bastards got the short end of the stick with her.
7631374
Correction made; thank you!
7631420
I think setting up exchanges would be the stuff of nightmares, and you'd want to take really slow, careful steps to make sure that you didn't wind up accidentally really screwing up your market or theirs. At this point in the story, it's pretty unlikely that there are any meaningful amounts of trade goods crossing between the worlds.
7631458
Not with the same cast. That's the thing about doing plays--you pour your whole being into it for a few months, and then it's over forever.
But memories are like starlight--they go on forever.
7631466
Maybe if he wasn't in front of his marefriend, he'd take the opportunity.
Yeah, that's probably something that they ought to put in the manual.
Maybe a bit.
7631747
There's no way it could be a straight conversion--if their money's actually gold, it's worth a fortune. Heck, how would you work out the exchange rate? The way it works in this story is that the host nation covers all expenses, so you don't have to worry about exchanges, but of course a program like that only works on a limited scale. Tourists would have to do something different. . . .
7631871
No, just that if she's looking for someone to have sex with, she'd pursue it among her friends, rather than a complete stranger at a theatre after party.
7631887
That was my thought. The FBI's got a better ground presence, with field offices in nearly every major city and relationships with major police forces, whereas the DSS has the technical expertise for this kind of mission.
7631888
Studying physics by day and partying by night. Taking in the local culture, if you know what I mean.
Exactly!
7631937
Or do they speak horse well enough to know who's most likely to win?
7631940
Yeah, I think all the long-haul routes are now Superliners or equivalent. Shorter runs are more conventional cars, like the run from Kalamazoo to Chicago, for example.
7632200
Well, I can say IRL that people's emotional maturity can fluctuate as well. I've worked with some actors and actresses in their early to mid teens who were more mature than some of the adults in the play.
7632675
A couple of recent innovations in gasoline engines (GDI, for one) have made a big difference. In the early 2000s, about the best you could do was a diesel with a manual trans. That's simply not the case any more.
7632901
I've always liked them just a little bit runny. Not too much; just a little.
7633506
Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking. Oh well, they're fixed now.
7637138
She's writing her journal in English, and she learned nor'easter in climate class. So yes, she's sometimes poaching words when she knows them; other times she's still using what she learned to call things in Equestria. So she's got some odd places where she's fluent.
"Exchange students wanted to go to Earth and get laid. Oh, and also a college degree, I guess."
7646671
Huh, I did not know that!
7699680
She essentially wrote that she had flown at least one Nor'easter - her comparison was very direct and personally applicable - yet I know she can't have. Learning about them is one thing, but learning enough in a class to be confident enough to equate Nor'easters to her specific experiences?
I suppose it's possible, but I'm staying doubtful.
7700284
To pull back the curtain a little bit, that is one flaw in the journal that crops up every now and then--trying to create the illusion that Silver Glow is writing based on her experiences in a way that will be understandable to other ponies, and yet simultaneously have it make sense to my human readers. Another place where that was an issue was when she describes sailing ships--what are the odds that she knows all the proper English terms?
It's a tough line to walk, and I'm a little less finicky about staying right on it in this story than I am in some others.
It suddenly occurred to me, while reading this chapter, that pegasus points would make really incredible drug runners. Low payload, sure, but they don't show up on radar and they laugh at your pitiful idea of terrain following.
7907899
Oh, yeah, they'd be really good at it. And they could stash the stuff in a cloud if they had to (heck, they could push it by the bushel in clouds). I've got to figure that there are some pegasi in Equestria who are smugglers.
Why a mare? No living stallion studly enough to fill the role?
10565028
On the show there are way more mares than stallions.
It's in metres too, eh?
11333291
It's a good thing that Silver Glow knows both meters and feet (and mixes and matches them however she wants to)