November 3
It was the middle of the night when Aric came in, and I did wake up. I must have been sleeping pretty lightly, 'cause I heard Winston in the driveway and then the kitchen door open and footsteps coming up the stairs and towards the bedroom.
I didn't let on that I was awake, and I think that Aric was really tired, 'cause he almost sat on me when he sat down in bed to take off his boots. And I think he didn't know I was there until he leaned back when he was pulling off one of them, and when he had it off he petted my side and I turned my head and kissed his hand.
He got his other boot off and his socks and then he had to stand up to take off his pants and underwear, and then he took off his shirt and laid down in bed next to me. I had to scoot over a little bit, 'cause I guess I must have moved towards the center when I was asleep, and then he got on his back so I could rest my head on his chest.
Aric was too tired to have sex, so he ran his hand through my mane a little bit and it was kind of funny 'cause he was falling asleep as he did it, and he'd pet me a little bit then his hand would go limp and then he'd kind of jerk and pet me some more. I nuzzled his chest and rested my snout against his chin, and he fell asleep for good.
It was light outside when I woke up again—I guess I'd been tired, too—and I didn't want to disturb him if I could help it, so I just stayed curled up with him until I finally had to get up to pee.
When I got back in bed, he was sort of awake and I started kissing and nuzzling him and pretty soon I was on top of him and it was kind of selfish but I just focused on me.
I just collapsed on his chest when we were finally done, 'cause he'd tired me out, and I drifted back to sleep for a couple of hours and when I woke up again the sun was well above the trees.
I didn't think he'd be in the mood again but he was, and this time he rolled me over on my back and pinned me to to the bed and I let him.
The two of us took a shower together and when we went downstairs, David or Angela must have been up already 'cause there was half a pot of fresh coffee for us to share. I hoped we hadn't woken them up, but they live all the way in the basement and we weren't that loud.
We both sat on the porch and drank it, and he told me about the dress rehearsal last night and how the director had decided that a couple of the lights needed to be changed and so he had to move them and they'd had problems with the costumes and the sound cues and it had been a pretty terrible rehearsal but usually when that happened opening night would go well because everyone would remember what had gone wrong and then they would not make the same mistakes again. And he said that to top it off one of the lighting instruments had failed in the last scene and he'd thought it was the lamp but it turned out to be something else and he wound up having to hang and focus another one, which sounded like it would be a lot of work.
He said that he was sure that when he tore into it in the light shop, it was going to be something simple and dumb, but everyone was too tired last night to figure it out.
I told him that I wasn't gonna be able to see it tonight, 'cause I had cheerleading practice, and then asked if he wanted me and Meghan to come over on Friday night so we could do stuff on Saturday and he said that he wasn't sure if he'd have time, because of the play. He said that if everything went well he'd be free but that you never could tell in the theatre, plus he had some homework that he had to finish up on over the weekend.
I thought it was kind of dumb for the theatre professors to assign homework the same weekend as the play, and he admitted that it had been assigned earlier and he just hadn't done it yet because he'd been so busy working on the play. He said that half the volunteers who were supposed to show up and help him hang lights hadn't shown up at all, and so he'd had to do most of it by himself.
So I promised that I'd call him and see how things were going, and we'd figure things out as they came up. And then I got together my flight gear and kissed him and I went back to college. I was feeling kinda lazy, so I walked some and then flew a little bit but not too high.
We'd spent so much time in bed that it was almost lunchtime, and even though I probably shouldn't have, I snacked on a little bit of hay just to make my stomach happy.
I sat with Leon and Cedric and Trevor and told them that I was gonna be a cheerleader at a football game but not the next one 'cause we weren't ready for that yet, and Cedric said that he was sure that would help lead them to victory. And he said that he was going to tell Aquamarine so she could be at the game too, and then she could cheer both of us on from the grandstands.
Trevor looked through the book and found us some poems again, and he had Leon read a poem called Misgivings by Herman Melville, and that one was kind of sad, but a good poem for the autumn. And then he had me read one called Old Ironsides, which was about a ship that was at the end of its life. And I liked that one, even though it was sad, because it made me think of home.
Then he had Cedric read the Emily Dickinson poem Hope is the thing with feathers, which we had also read in Conrad's class. And when Cedric got to the end of the poem he nodded and reached across the table and brushed my mane back and said that Miss Dickinson had been a really smart lady, and Leon agreed.
He said that he never could have imagined that one day he'd be reading poetry with a pegasus while he ate lunch, and that even when he'd heard about how there were ponies now at first he hadn't believed it was real; he thought that it was just the news media lying. And after he'd gotten his head around the fact that we were real, he'd still never expected to get out of the city and get to a nice college and actually meet a pony in the flesh, and wind up eating lunch with her and reading poetry with her.
Leon said that he had better be careful or the football coach might think he was going soft, and I could tell he didn't mean it 'cause there was laughter in his eyes. Cedric said he was going to suggest that the team recite poetry during drills, or maybe in the showers after. Leon said as long as the hugging waited until he had clothes back on he was in support of the idea, and Cedric wrapped an arm around Leon's shoulder and pulled him into a sideways hug, and Leon pretended to try and get away, but he didn't try too hard.
I thought it wasn't fair that they were hugging and I wasn't, so I went around the table and hugged both of them, and Trevor, too.
I must have left lunch earlier than Anna, 'cause I didn't see her on the quad and when I got to class she wasn't there yet, and she came in almost before class started.
Professor Miller told us that there were supermassive black holes in the center of most galaxies, including our own, and nobody knew why, but scientist thought that maybe when the universe was formed stars were thousands of times bigger than they were now, and they'd collapsed into these black holes.
She said that there wasn't going to be enough time to talk more about them so we were going to talk more about normal-sized black holes, and she started by telling us how scientists in the sixties had discovered space X-rays and at first didn't know what they were coming from, and then they figured out that they might be neutron stars (which were small and energetic) or a black hole.
She told us how there were binary star systems where this happened, and the compact object was pulling gas off of the star and that was what caused it to make x-rays. And astronomers could tell by making observations if the compact object was a neutron star or a black hole.
It was a little bit harder to find black holes this way than it seemed, because the accretion disc was sometimes brighter than the star, but sometimes they were bright and sometimes they were dimmer and then you could see them with a telescope, and you could use that to figure out if it might be a black hole because of how much mass it would have to have.
And she also said that since black holes didn't have a surface, they didn't emit X-rays themselves, which was another way that you could know that they were there.
It was all kind of hard to wrap my head around.
After class, I brought my Bible outside with me and the benches by Stetson Chapel were being used, so I went up in a tree, and I started reading Galatians, which was another letter from Paul. And I guess the Galatians were being bad, 'cause he started out by telling them that, and then he told them about how he'd come to be accepted by the apostles, and then after that he spent the rest of the letter telling them how to be good instead of bad.
It was a pretty short book, and so I read the next one, which was Ephesians, and that was another letter from Paul. And it sounded like they were just starting to follow Jesus, 'cause he was giving them lots of advice on what they should do, and it was like the rules that God had given his prophets to tell the people, and I hoped that the Ephesians followed them. Because God got mad when people didn't follow His rules.
Paul talked a lot in both books about circumcision which didn't make a lot of sense to me, especially because he said that it wasn't supposed to be done but Aric had been circumcised, so did that make him a bad person? I didn't think that it did, and it didn't sound like what Jesus had said.
I went back to my room to have a snack before my meeting with Liz, and I'd actually picked up my glaive and was on my way out of the room when I remembered that I was supposed to be cheerleading and not fighting, so I wouldn't need it today.
I met Pastor Liz in her office, and told her how far I'd gotten, and I was getting close to the end—there were a lot of books left but most of them were pretty short. And then I asked her about Paul's rules that he'd said in all his letters, and how she could talk in church even though Paul said that she shouldn't.
Liz explained to me that there were a lot of different branches of Christianity, and they all had a slightly different focus. It was something that we'd talked about before, but she went into a little bit more detail and explained how some churches thought that women couldn’t be priests or pastors, while others said it was okay. She said that some religions liked tradition and keeping things the same forever, while others thought that the church ought to serve people now, and not the people who Paul had originally written his letters to, because the world had changed a lot since Paul's time.
She said that it was really complicated and that there were people who believed that the King James version of the Bible was the only correct version, even though there were multiple versions and they were all a translation anyway because English hadn't been a language when the Bible was written. And she said that for a long time the Catholic church had had their services in Latin, even though not many people spoke it anymore, because of tradition. And in some churches, priests were supposed to be celibate, while in others that wasn't important.
So it was all kind of confusing to me, 'cause it had seemed like everyone would agree what Jesus had said and what He had meant when He said it, but I guess that people might see what they wanted when they read it and not think of other ideas.
And when it was the end of our meeting I asked her how much of the New Testament was letters from Paul, and she said seven to fourteen books. She told me that there were seven books that almost everyone agreed had been written by Paul, and that some of the remaining seven certainly weren't, and people weren't completely sure on some of the rest.
I did stop by fighting practice long enough to tell Stellan and Karla where I was gonna be so they didn't worry when I wasn't there. And Karla said that I ought to bring my glaive to cheerleading practice because that would spice things up a little bit, and she told me that she was a flag girl in high school and it had been lots of fun. She said it was kind of like cheerleading except that she got to carry a big flag. And that sounded like it would be fun, too.
I went back up to the gym and I was a little bit late but they were still stretching out and so I thought I ought to do some stretches, too, especially since I'd been pretty lazy and not done any real flying today at all. And I was glad that I did, 'cause after I'd gotten done stretching my body felt a lot looser and more relaxed.
Then they started with their normal routines, and I stayed off to the side and tried to follow along as best as I could, 'cause I thought that maybe if there was one or two things that I could figure out how to do really well, I'd be able to do more than get tossed in the air. It was probably a fool's hope, but I thought that I'd try anyway.
When they were taking a water break, Sandra asked me if I could wear a uniform, so she told them to practice one of their routines when she was gone, and we went into the locker room, which was an interesting place. There were rows of lockers, where people could keep their things, and little benches that they could sit on while they got dressed, and then off to one side there was also a big shower room that would fit lots of people. She saw that I was looking and said that the teams usually took showers together but I wouldn't have to if I didn't want to, and I said that I would, 'cause group showers were fun and that was how we always did it but I hadn't thought that humans liked that.
There were some extra cheerleading outfits in a back room and she helped me try some of them on. I liked the skirt—it was short enough that it wouldn't get in the way at all. She had a vest that fit, too, but there weren't any holes for my wings and it was only gonna work if she had holes cut in it, and she said that if I was doing good by next Wednesday, she'd have it done. She said that I'd want to practice in uniform at least once because it was different than exercise clothes and then she caught herself and added 'or nothing.'
And she was a little bit upset that I didn't like the uniform panties, but there wasn't a tail-hole, so they weren't going to work for me and I said that when I'd worn Gusty's they were really uncomfortable and made me too hot.
She said she'd have to figure out if I could cheer without them, and she said that we weren't supposed to be flashing the audience even though everyone hoped that would actually happen and I thought that was kind of dumb. Nobody cared that I went around without clothes on and if somebody else wanted to, why would they care? And why would it make a difference that I was in a cheerleader uniform when the last football game I was at I was up in the bleachers cheering with Aquamarine and neither of us were wearing any clothes at all?
But I guess if I had to wear them, I would, even though I wouldn't like them. I had to wear my flight clothes even though I didn't want to because that was the rule. And I was kind of used to them now, so it didn't bother me any more.
When we went back to the practice room, Sandra started directing the cheerleaders, and I just watched until it was time for me to practice with them, and we'd gotten pretty good at the tosses so she had me try to flip in the air and it was harder than I thought it would be because I had to make it look really smooth, and so she had me do it lots of times until she said it looked natural.
I wondered if Cedric and Leon had to practice that, too.
I hadn't thought we'd spent that much time at it, but after I'd gotten good at it, Sandra called a stop and said that we were done for the night, and reminded everyone to be ready for the game tomorrow, except for me, 'cause I didn't have to cheer along with them.
Then everyone went into the locker room to change and I couldn't decide if I should or not, 'cause I wasn't really part of the team yet and I didn't know all of them all that well yet, but on another hoof it was something that teams were supposed to do together.
And if everyone had, I would have, too, but there were a couple of girls who didn't, and just left the gym in their exercise clothes.
So I started to fly towards Trowbridge but then I decided that it was a nice night and I hadn't gotten a proper morning flight in, and then I turned around and went over the downtown and when I got to the river I followed it along. It was kind of strange at night, because it was a ribbon of darkness with lights on either side of it.
I didn't have my watch on and hadn't called the airplane directors, so I had to be careful to be high enough that I wouldn't get snagged on wires—'cause I couldn't see them very well in the night—but not so high that airplanes might run into me.
I didn't go all the way out to Galesburg, but I did go over the lake a little bit and then I turned around over it and dove down until I was right above the water, and I trailed a hoof through it for fun before I started to climb back up. There were lots of lights at the dam, so I could see those wires at least.
Because it was getting towards winter, the days were getting shorter, and I thought it would be fun to take one long night flight, as long as I went along a route I was familiar with. I wasn't sure when I'd have time, though.
I landed back on the boardwalk and went inside and I was kind of tired, even though I'd spent half the morning in bed. Sometimes when you spend too much of a day being lazy, it makes you more tired than if you're actually doing stuff. So I thought I'd go to bed a little bit early, but I didn't want to right away, 'cause I needed to cool down a bit first.
So I got out my poetry collection and read through the rest of it, and I decided that I'd get a different poetry book from the library for next week.
Lots of exercise for the little blue-purple Pegasus today.
I've taken to read poetry to my Grandchild at bedtime thanks in part to "Silver Glow's Journal". Something I did not do with my children when they were little. ( Sincerely Admiral Biscuit; Thank you ) I thought Silver and many of us would like one of the poems we read tonight.
"How Many, How Much" -Shel Silverstein
Thought you might like this. Space Time does occasionally make my brain hurt, but it's very cool. And as a bonus, the original presenter sometimes used Pones to demonstrate his lectures, as in this episode. Perfect for Silver Glow. ;)
Another cute chapter of this, eh?^_^ Well done.:D Though, can't help but be curious as to how progress is going on your other fics. XD Like Onto The Pony Planet. XD
7846707
I'm getting close to starting, too.
All of the Liberal Christians do not follow their Bible. ¿Do you know who do follow their Bibles? ¡The Westboro Baptists! The same goes for Muslims; members of Dæsh follow their Korans while the moderates do not. If one is is not a violent misogynistic bigot, one is not a real follower. Not only is Liz not a real follower, but she should not be allowed in a position of authority over men and should be silent in Church.
⸘Is not religion great‽
7846807 Poe's law?
7846715
Miss Rainbow Dash and Miss Fluttershy better be careful or Black Hole will kill them.
Sex w cheerleaders is the (college age) male dream, but even so there are times when you are just too pooped to pop I read (ICR where) that at age 17, males are capable of sex 10 times a day. All I can say is 4 times is my personal best & even then I was sore for days. 10 times?! Jesus, friction blisters alone would seem to prevent it
As far as Black Holes go, AFAIK "Doc" Smith was the 1st scifi writer to use them (in his Lensman series). He called them "Negaspheres" but if you read their description & how they were made you see that they are Black Holes. They were used to destroy fortress planets.
Let no one say you can't learn by reading fanfiction. Prior to this story, I thought that poem was Hope is a thing with feathers.
Silver seems to be learning a lot about the daily struggle of nudists. Comfort vs. the expectations of human society.
7846878 My personal best is over a 24 hour period is eight, but that is counting from one evening to the next. And we were on vacation, so there was plenty of sleeping before and after, and between sessions.
And then they promptly have a group hug right after that.
I've heard it before as "on the other hoof", but since they have four this makes much more sense.
Aw, Aric. Too tired to have sex. Our little boy is growing up. (Wipes away a manly tear.)
So much better to be able to sleep in while healthy, than waking up hours late due to being exhausted through even mildly ill.
Silver had be very careful with trying night flight. She thinks she has to be careful of wires, but there are so many around you dont notice, like adverts, and thats in places where only telco is slung. When you go to areas where power lines for houses are slung from poles as well you have trouble flying slow drones.
Maybe all the problems about what happens inside a black hole might solved if black holes dont have insides.
I'm with Karla; cheerleading would be a lot more interesting with polearms.
And yeah, black holes are bizarre things. Just wait until Silver hears about Hawking radiation.
I'm not a science major, but from what I've read at a layman's level about black holes is that they are formed when a massive enough object like a star 'burns' through it's fuel in several stages; at the end of the process, the effects of the gravitational attraction between its component particles is no longer being opposed by the outgoing energy of its own nuclear fusion process. When that happens, the mass at the core of what was once a star is so compressed that you have an object smaller than Jupiter having the gravitational attraction of a star the size of Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion. At that point, the mass itself is composed of nothing but neutrons and has become a neutron star. Some masses are so large, like the star Rigel-A, and get so compressed that they go a step further and become black holes. I wouldn't have the faintest clue on how to follow the math on how this works, but the visual evidence shows a mass with a gravitational effect so intense that not even visual light can escape.
Makes you wonder if black holes are the opposite of Princess Luna in the way that supernovae are the opposite of Princess Celestia?
7847367
Well now, when stars fuse hydrogen into helium, the heat it generates is what supports them. After they run out of hydrogen, what happens next depends mainly on mass:
Low-mass stars like the Sun get support from electron-degeneracy-pressure and become white dwarves. Their gravity crushes them down to objects not much bigger than Earth.
In more massive stars, gravity crushes electrons and protons together forming neutrons. These are neutron-stars. The Strong-Nuclear-Force, the strongest of all known forces, supports them. Neutron-stars are the size of cities.
If a neutron-star is too massive, the Strong-Nuclear-Force is not strong enough to support them. They totally collapse and become black holes.
White dwarves go up to about 1 and an half the mass of our Sun, neutron stars are about 1 and an half to 3 times the mass of the Sun, and black holes are over 3 times the mass of the Sun. One cannot say with certainty that star twice as massive as the Sun will be a neutron-star because of mass-loss; stars in their deaththrows blowoff material in eruptions:
As stars run out of hydrogen, the helium ignites, this throws the star violently out of whack. After helium, we have violent carbon-ignition, and so on. Stars pretty much always throw off most of their mass, so the final remnant is pretty much always less than half the hass of the star as it was when it fused hydrogen into helium.
This is an article about stellar evolution:
Stellar Evolution
"Old Ironsides" is about the USS Constitution, which is currently in drydock at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Charlestown, MA getting some needed repair and maintenance. The museum next to it is free admission.
I choose to imagine Silver's face lighting up with excitement.
In some ways, I wonder if this attitude really makes much sense for a pony. It's certainly a common one (ie not giving a damn about being nude) in fimfiction, it seems to me that even though ponies don't wear clothing, they're usually not exposed in the same way humans might otherwise be.
For example, if two ponies are talking face to face, their respective genitals aren't really visible; for mares, you'd pretty much have to be directly behind them to see anything, and for stallions, even if they get an erection, the boner is going to be largely hidden (in a sense) by the body mass.
Which isn't really the same for humans, who if you're talking to a naked one face to face, you're pretty much seeing it all.
Which brings me back to this: while Silver might be comfortable being naked, it doesn't mean she might not find herself uncomfortably exposed in certain situations. The fact that Cayenne goes around lifting her tail and/or flashing people on purpose suggests that, while naked, a pony isn't necessarily exposed, and it's probable that if Silver was exposed, she'd be uncomfortable. For example, if someone prevented her from lowering her tail.
Just some food for thought.
7846832 Nah, they're safe: Magic is on their side.
7847770 Thank you for that description of the process. Like I said, I'm not a science or math major; I had enough problems with algebra and basic trig in college (I'm a history grad, BTW). I can follow the basic concepts and descriptions; it's the mathematical theories that throw me for a loop.
messed up his name
feel like you're missing some words
7848139
Yes, that's mostly true. In what we'd consider close, personal interactions, odds are that they're going to be facing each other, more or less, and presumably looking at the face of their friend; as such they wouldn't be seeing anything at all. And we can probably logically extend the range of that out a bit, too; if we assume that two ponies see each other across the market and walk together to meet, on the way they're probably not going to be able to see much of anything. Probably if it's a stallion and he's unsheathed there's a possibility that you might get a glimpse, but it certainly wouldn't be as exposed as on a human male. (again, assuming a generally face-to-face interaction)
Now, to back it up a bit, when you're at a nudist resort, and talking to another person more or less face-to-face, you aren't likely to see much of anything either, as long as you're keeping your eyes up, that is. Obviously, you have your pair move apart some, and even the most respectful person is going to be seeing more and more. So in that case, I'd say that how much you see depends on the distance between the pair.
Also, like you point out, a pony's anatomy is generally going to cover up the fun bits. For mares, if they keep their tails down (more like real horses, rather than how they're drawn in the show), pretty much everything's going to be covered most of the time, at least as long as her tail's hanging down and not being active. Once she starts to move it around, though, you're probably going to get at least some glimpses from behind.
As for the stallions, that's a bit of a tougher call. From the head or tail end you're not going to see much, if anything, no matter how proud he's standing, so to speak. From the side, though, distance and height of the viewer may come into play; on the other hand, if they have reasonable control, it's probably going to stay hidden at all appropriate times.*
[This may not be true for colts/adolescent ponies, but that's probably something that we can ignore for now and just assume that there are social rules in place to deal with that.]
Things get a little bit tricker when we think of pegasi, though, since they fly overhead and given how they can, and do, move their bodies, anybody on the ground who looks up is going to see pretty much everything.
1.bp.blogspot.com/-ilWleSJ67OU/VSL0juENLII/AAAAAAAAH24/2LRFATh3amM/s1600/in%2Bour%2Btown.png
Yes; I think this is true. She's comfortable going around naked, and she has no objection with anybody getting a passing glance; I'd assume that in pony society that's something that's taken for granted. And she's probably more likely to flash a cute stallion (or boy) than a human woman would be . . . that having been said, there's a time and a place, and she can clamp her tail when she gets uncomfortable with someone looking at her.
So in general, she's not likely to even consider who sees what when she's just walking around or flying or whatever, but she is able to cover or uncover herself as the situation requires, simply by lifting or clamping her tail.
________________________________________________
*Going back to humans, assuming that a woman has her natural hair, you also aren't going to see much, and in fact there have been cases where in a group of naked people, the men have been charged with indecent exposure but the women have not, simply because the law requires exposure of the genitals for a crime to have been committed, and if you can't see them . . . obviously, different states and countries have different rules.
(I'm so bad at answering comments quickly, and I told myself since I've still got some other comments of yours open that I've been meaning to reply to, I'd get to this one quick, and . . . well, it's not an unreasonably slow reply. . . .)
Why do the chapters keep getting longer and longer? I just can't keep up with the story; it updates too quickly!
7861287
I think it kind of makes her comment a bit out of place, although I get the impression that we're to understand that her part of the route is flying. I would imagine that from the point of view of a pony, accidental or unavoidable eyefulls are not really remarkable or worth thinking about, whereas certain exposures are very deliberate and therefore inappropriate in certain circumstances. While she might not consider earth bound onlookers, it doesn't mean she might think 'flashing'--if framed in that way with that terminology--is appropriate.
Even if a pegasus is more exposed than other ponies, stallions in particular, I imagine it wouldn't really be considered a flash unless it done on purpose by the pony or within certain contexts. This probably would include dropping in general.
It does make having a coherent conversation difficult, I'll admit.
Hope is the thing with feathers. And Silver Glow is the pony with hope. And feathers.
7846598
In the bedroom and in the gym . . . so all in all, a good day for her.
7846707
I think if this story has done nothing else, it has gotten a number of people interested in poetry, which I'm quite proud of. Heck, it brought back my love for poetry.
Thank you! That is a beautiful poem, and I think it's true--the more love you give, the more you get back.
7846715
I love that one. I really need to watch the whole series, 'cause I struggle with understanding black holes and how they work. They're just so weird!
7846754
Currently stalled, I'm afraid. I got behind on everything in October, and never caught back up, and I'm not sure I will until this story finally reaches its end. I have hope, but I'm not sure that I'll get anything else out before we're done with Silver Glow's Journal.
7846759
Do it--there's so much good poetry out there. Even just reading the poems that come up in Conrad's class or in her poetry readings with Leon and Cedric and Trevor (if you haven't been).
7846807
Sure they do. They cherry-pick verses in the Old Testament (mostly) and ignore the fact that Jesus made a new covenant, and ignore every New Testament verse about compassion, and love. They would do very well to read John 8:1-11 and consider what lesson Jesus taught there.
7846878
I always love in old Sci-Fi where you discover something that is really true now. It's not always called the same thing, of course, but when you step back and take a broad view, it's accurate. Like the 'internet' in some of Asimov's stories, for example.
7846935
I've actually picked up a lot of bits of knowledge from reading fanfiction, which is really cool. And I'm glad that I'm able to carry on the tradition.
At least right now for me it isn't a struggle, since I'm cheap and keep my furnace turned down. When it's only 60 (at best) in the house, it's not a struggle to wear pants.
7847050
Nothing is more manly than a group hug.
I used to say 'on the other hoof,' and then MrZJunior gave me flak, so I changed my ways. It does make more sense to say 'on another,' since there are four.
7847277
The real growing up part is when you're willing to admit it, and not just try anyway.
7847282
Yeah, at night she's safest staying over roads about ten feet up (so long as their isn't truck traffic along that road), or a minimum of a couple of hundred feet to avoid high tension power lines. I'm actually not sure how tall they are.
I suppose that's possible. They could be extra-dimensional. Or maybe when we figure out what dark energy is, black holes will all of a sudden make perfect sense.
7847313
That's why the flag girls were so dangerous--they did have polearms, of a sort.
Sadly, I don't think that winds up coming up in her class.
7847367
That's pretty much my understanding of them, as well.
And then that also makes you wonder if the lifecycle of alicorns ends with Tia going supernova, and Luna collapsing into a black hole. Hopefully not; that would be a hell of a way for Equestria to end.
7847770
Thanks!
7848041
As I recall, she's the oldest commissioned ship in the Navy as well, isn't she? So there's a non-zero chance that she could be used to invade a foreign power (which they totally wouldn't be expecting).
7862417
I appear to have a tendency to get more and more verbose the longer the story goes on. I'm making a very conscious effort to not let any chapters break the 5k mark, so there's that at least. But they have been creeping up in word count.
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7906584
⸘Christians cherry-picking‽ ¡Say it ain't so!
¿Do Westboro Baptists judge? or ¿merely state that people violate the law? At any rate, one can always kill them all because god will know his own.
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I'm trying my best. Stupid work and classes and having to do things on weekends . . . .
Yeah, that's pretty much what I think too. If you're walking down the street or flying or whatever and someone happens to see, that's not something that even worth consideration. If you're going down the street, tail-high, winking at all the stallions you pass by, that's probably not appropriate. In a way, I think it would be kind of the same etiquette as at a nude beach, which can basically be summarized as don't show off and don't stare.
I just don't think of her putting much thought or having much concern about who sees under her tail, at least in ordinary circumstances.
I think that here it's just a matter of word choice--if Sandra told her that she wasn't supposed to 'flash' the audience, that's probably the word that she'd use (I know people who apply it to both deliberate and accidental exposure).
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You know that they do. Religion-bashers do, too.
Given that they are apparently unaware that Jesus made a new covenant with God, I'd say that their statements of violation are false. Also, they should perhaps consider Matthew 7:1-3
Exodus 20:13; also Matthew 5:21-24 for Jesus' thoughts on the subject.
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Deuteronomy 18:21 states that prophets making false predictions are not prophets. Jesus said that he would return in the lifetime of his disciples (Matthew 16:28). Jesus did not return, so we should not listen to him.
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Except for when He rose from the dead and spoke with some of them.
But that isn't the meaning of the verse, nor does it refer to judgement day--He meant until the Ressurection and the Apostles going out and spreading Christianity.
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Correction made; thank you!
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Every time I see you (or Silver) capitalise like that I trip over myself and mentally go He-EE!
Pegasi seem like they'd be pretty useful for hanging up stage lights, actually.
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Pretty much anything where you need to carry stuff up to an altitude. I imagine them also having little trouble finding work as bridge inspectors, or transmission tower lightbulb changers, as well. If contact continues, their natural resistance to electricity plus their flight ability might make them very useful in wind farms, too.
They should probably not visit solar concentration sites, though.
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Eh, Cole Slaw is alright too.
To quote Sf Debris "Because when some guy with a German accent says 'und it vil be, ze ultimate weapon!' you trust he knows what he's talking about."
Sniffy Pony Tracker activate! Humans just don't get how much Pony can figure out based on sniffs.
Emphasizing she's kissing Meghan's 'smooth skin' just confirms Silver is a Smoothie. She'll be joining the club with Lyra soon enough.
That's... not quit right, movement isn't a zero-sum game, it's just, no real use for us to be able to move our ears. Still cute how you think though.
See, it's not just Silver being a lecherous little pony eager to make use of her pleasure slave. She's testing the kitty ears out FOR SCIENCE!
Hard floors everywhere making pony stealth hard. #ponyproblems.
After all she does to Sean, Christine deserves those hearts in the lucky charms.
Even if it does trigger Silver to go into "protect the noms" mode. Another reason you learn to eat really fast in the military, less chance for anyone to fuck with your food.
Awww, good caring roommate Pony, making sure the willy humans are having sex cuase she knows they'd be all upset at her walking in on it for some reason.
See, and right into "Hey dancing, let's do it!" very good pony!
"with her boy" just.... Silver...phrasing..... TOO ADORABLE!
Ah yes, Leon having to learn a bi of sage advice that all should always keep in mind. "Never sick your dick in crazy" Sea Story time! Now, first off, there is an oft repeat phrase of 'Don't be a buddy fucker' basically, don't screw over your shipmates, help them out. About a year after I got to the ship, a new group of nubs showed up, one of them was a chick named Buddie, she... was very special. First off, picture a six foot red headed bowling pin and you have a good image of her. On top of that she was freaking NUTS! Just.... so damn unstable, every single little thing anyone said or did around her was a personal insult meant explicitly to mock or demean her and had to be responded to immediately (I once saw her peal away from the group she was with to race across the hanger bay and start screaming at a guy three ranks above her, because she thought he looked at her funny). By the end of the cruise, she'd been busted down in rank twice for starting shit and was forbidden from going to any Supply Department run space other then the mess deck without a senior member of her chain of command escorting her (Ship's Laundry, Store, barber, etc...) Well, long story short, there was indeed a person in my plant who ended up getting stuck with the nickname "Buddie Fucker". His only defense was he was drunk as hell at the time.
You know somepony will find a way to catch the horizon. No one will understand how, or even want to know, but it will happen.
True, by now they likely know the regular answers you can just copy off the internet directly. And Pony is doing this to become Smart Pony! Not just for course credits!
And yes, lab work really can help you better understand things.
Hmmmmm, well, I guess everyone can be glad pony avoids yet another potential Toxic Gas Defense System fuel.
D'awwww you know Silver would go grab whatever Dori wanted and fly it right up to the control tower if asked.
Yeah, very, very few humans would ever expect a pegasus to fly by their window and peak in.
Silly Flying Pony, trying to hard to not become falling pony again.
Yes, come watch the majestic Silver fly around being all happy birdy-pone!
Silver never gets to catch and eat a fresh fishy....
See! See! She just admitted she enjoys stalking and killing her prey herself! Ponies really are just oddly shaped cats.
And yes, Peggy is top best nice roommate!7906486
Semi-Sea Story time! So, no shit this really happened (Only Semi-sea story cause it happened at Prototype, not on the ship) dudes were bored while putting in their mandatory plant hours for the day for training. On a bet, one of them down two test tubes of 2190TEP (Navy standard turbine lube oil) He spent the rest of his shift in the plant under a vent fan sweating bullets (normal temp for that is in the triple digits, but it had been in the tube long enough to chill down to not scalding) but seemed fine. Then a few hours later, while back in the study hall, guy leaps out of his chair and runs for the head... leaving a puddle of oil on his chair. Also know a guy that snorted a crushed up cinnamon Altoid for $5.
Unbeknownst to Silver, there is a 'Pony Watch" app that a bunch of people around the area use to keep tabs on her in case viral video material is about to happen.
Pony always wants to fly, even more then she wants sex.
Well, you can't blame her for asking about heading south, you never really know with you Ponies.
Also, obligatory NEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I note how she makes sure to call it 'Her territory' she's staked a claim to it, when the Ponies take over, she shall be the Lord High Pegasus of the Kalamazoo region! (I'm pretty sure Pinkie's already called dibs on the entire Orlando FL area.)
Silly rushing pony is cute.... even more so at the thought of hurrying pony just charging out a window and taking a flying leap.
Of course the coach thinks having a pony on the team for at least one event is a good idea, EVERYTHING is better with ponies!
YAY! Such a simple happy pony! PLate full of tasty fish and leaves is all she needs.
Also, cute outside reader in the rain without getting book wet pony!
Well, given what you are fighting, 'bragging' is perfectly fine, and like you said, you really do need to hammer it into the nubs (New Usable Bodies) that this is serious.
Dutiful Storm Pony, always ready to fly!
(Non-story related note of venting AHHHHHH Screw you Amazon! Why you push a Kindle UI update that moves the buttons I'm trying to hit on pure muscle memory to other sides of the screen!)
Unlike the swimming, not doing practice that involves a lot of twisting around, bending, and other sources of potential strain to the food holding region right after eating is likely a good idea, if only for the teams dry cleaning bill.
Yeah,pony on team is gret, but this time of year, just pull her out for a few special tricks.
"Ponies don't bend like cheerleaders"
Ahem...
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Pony Toss is fun for all, even the pony!
And now Storm Pone Mode is fully activated, she must be ready for Storm Pone Duty! And Mel should no by now there is no "You don't have to fly in this" for Silver, if it's a storm she WILL be up there.
Who wouldn't be happy to have a pony in their bed when they got home?
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A comprehensive and constantly updating digital collection of data on any and all things that can be referenced for a good overall idea of any topic, but needs to be taken with several grains of salt and isn't exactly accurate, but is close enough no one really cares? Am I talking about The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, or Wikipedia?
Wow, too tired to see pony in the bed, that's tired.
Pony girlfriend, best parts of having a pet and a girlfriend at once!
It's not selfish to focus on you Silver, it's training the humans to learn to serve Pony above all others.
So, I'm guessing by the remark of not being 'that loud' either Silver is not 'a whinnier' or she doesn't realize she is.
Bad human, no doing your school work quickly. Silver, smack him with a wing.
Happy Pony Stomach is good, all parts of pony must be happy!
With double pony cheering, you can't possibly lose the game! (If nothing else, seeing a pony cheerleading might be distracting enough for the other team to screw up.
Silver meanwhile is watching episodes of "My Little Human: Broship is Magic" play out right in front of her.
Yes, bad humans, you know you can't exclude pony from the hugging!
Trees making useful back up seats if all the benches are full. #pegaperk.
By now 'God got mad when people dind't follow his rules' is something even Silver realizes is an understatement.
Yeeeaaaahhh, the whole circumcision bit, like I've said, it make no sense now, because it was all a giant recruiting mechanic back then.
Bring the weapon! It could REALLY bring out some new cheer routines.
Yeah, another perk Ponies have with their demi-goddess. Ponies can just ask Celestia for clarification on what she meant rather then having to guess.
Pony just found Nirvana, humans, who shower together regularly! Why dind't I join a team before!?
Silver.... just go with the clothing thing, yes it's silly but... it will be better in the long run.
And yeah, doing nothing can actually make you tired.
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You’re welcome to my share.
Exactly!
While they may lack hands for the things that hands can do, they make up for it with radar ears and good sniffers (and also relentless adorableness).
She will, won’t she?
Well, if we could move our ears we could use them for showing our moods, which would be slightly helpful (or maybe not).
Exactly! Do they work as advertised or not? Pony must know.
Really, though, she’s familiar enough with the house, she could probably fly through it, or at least most of it (the low ceiling would be annoying, though).
Yes, she does.
And in prison, I’ve heard. Although I don’t know that from first-hand experience.
Yeah, they would be. At least Silver has learned this lesson, which probably cuts down on the awkwardness with having a pony roommate. “Don’t stop on my account; I’ve just got to get my books.”
She’s not wrong.
It’s true, you shouldn’t do that.
I can’t say what I would have done at that age, but I can say that now I wouldn’t touch that with a ten foot pole.
Most likely Pinkie Pie, honestly.
Oh, they surely know the common stuff that you can look up easily, and odds are if you put a lot more work into it you’re gonna learn something (I certainly do looking up stuff for stories). And yeah, Silver Glow knows she won’t learn anything doing it the lazy way.
It really can. I’ve learned a lot more working on cars than I ever did reading about working on cars.
Oh, yeah, sauerkraut-fueled pony would be bad news for anyone around her.
She would, too.
That would be a very odd sight, honestly. I’m not sure how I’d feel if I looked out my window in a tall building and there was a pegasus looking in.
She knows how yew bushes feel.
It’s always a sight worth seeing, and totally different from her flying in storms.
They’re wily and slippery.
She has to let her hawky side out every now and then.
I don’t know what’s in that stuff, but if it’s a highly refined oil, it’s probably not toxic (trans fluid isn’t), but it’s a good laxative.
That sounds horribly unpleasant, honestly.
Well, there are airplane spotters and train spotters and exotic car spotters, so there could very well be people who are listening to the airplane radio and stalking her.
That’s more of a urge for her, honestly.
I know, right? She could blend in with a flight of geese and wind up in Florida or something.
She’d be a good overlord for the Kalamazoo area. She knows the territory and generally gets along with the airplane directors, plus she tirelessly does storm patrol. You could have a far worse overlord than that.
You know that’s how they do it in Cloudsdale. I bet the apartments there don’t even have a front door--what’s the point?
You got that right!
It’s almost like being back home for her.
That’s the point of a covered porch, to my knowledge. It’s fun to sit out there in the rain and read without getting wet.
Yeah, and probably the NUBs (I like that acronym!) don’t really get it until they’re in the thick of it, and then it’s too late to back out and they better have paid attention.
She is always prepared to do her duty.
Yeah, it really is. Especially for an equine, since their digestive tract is kind of weird.
That’s their plan; she’ll never have time to learn all the routines well enough to put her in with the normal stuff.
Okay, normal ponies don’t bend like cheerleaders.
It is! Especially since they don’t have to worry about catching her on the way back down.
Yeah, and honestly if she didn’t have classes, she’d be up in every rainstorm no matter how small.
Only a person with a heart of stone.
Yeah, exactly! Wikipedia isn’t 100%, not by a long shot, but it’s really convenient and in general you can follow links and learn a lot about anything that you care to. Heaven knows I use it often enough as a stepping-off point.
It happens sometimes. Well, it’s never happened to me; I’ve never found an unexpected pony in my bed. Still hoping, though.
It really is.
“Please me, now.”
She would probably know if she was a whinnier, since one of her friends back in Equestria would have pointed it out (or Meghan, who would find it adorable).
“I’ll keep hitting you until you do your homework right.”
Yes, they must be. All she needs now is a nap in a nice sunbeam.
That is something to aspire to. We did that once in pep band, for a basketball game. Got them to pull a player (a big guy named George; our band director played George of the Jungle every time he got the ball) and miss a few shots due to our sound effects. We also got a penalty for the team, but we won, so that’s what matters.
There are worse people she could learn from. Those two have it down to an art.
Ponies win the hug war.
That must be fun at pony concerts. Maybe they sell tree tickets and cloud tickets to the show, too.
Yeah, but Jesus was way cool.
I seem to recall last time we broached this topic, there was one thing that it still protected, but I can’t remember what, and it’s probably beating a dead horse to track that down again.
Our flag girls had fake guns for some stuff, and in one of our shows, the drum major had a sword, so it’s not without precedent.
That’s why I’ve always maintained that ponies would not have religion as we think of it; like you say, they can just ask Celestia the answers to their questions, and she’ll tell them. Very little mystery there.
Yeah, somebody should have told her that if she wanted group showering to join a team.
It will at least cut down on the angry letters to the editor and potential penalties from the refs (I’d assume that that’s something that they can penalize for, anyway).
Yeah, it sure can.
Oh, definitely too hot, and Coach knows it. She's afraid Silver's going to inspire everyone a little too much.
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True story, when I was in pep back back in high school, we got the opposing team to pull a player because we made fun of him every time he got the ball (he was named ‘George,’ and we’d start playing “George of the Jungle”), and there was also one game where we had a penalty called because of us (if I remember correctly, it was the sound effects on the synth we were playing each time the opposing team tried to make a free throw).
All I’m saying is home team advantage.
The fabled Cheer-ducken. Cheer for the cheerer who is cheering.
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It’s cheerleading all the way down
If I remember correctly, this prevented its real-world inventor from being able to patent it; it already existed in "the literature" after all.