April 22
I woke up late again because Meghan or Amy had closed the curtains in the room and it was dark inside. I don't like that because it confuses me about what time it is and then when I find out it's later than I thought my whole morning routine is off.
I snuggled up to Meghan and nuzzled her cheek and she opened her eyes and reached her hand out towards my head so I bowed my head against her chest in the hopes that she would scritch behind my ears and she did. Then her alarm went off and she had to turn it off before it woke up Amy.
I asked her what time it was and of course it was too late to go flying. We still had time for a shower but Meghan was a bit reluctant at first and I don't know why. I thought the last couple of times had gone well and had been good bonding and I thought that I had done something wrong but she said that it wasn't my fault. So she decided that she would but reminded me that we had to be quiet because Amy was still asleep and maybe Becky and Lisa were too.
She got out her new clothes and took them in the bathroom with her and then turned in the water and started undressing and I got in and said that I should bring over some of my own shampoo because it wasn't fair to be using hers and she said that she didn't mind when I did.
Right before we were done there was a knock on the door and Meghan said she was almost finished and then muttered under her breath that that was the bad thing about sharing a bathroom.
I let her get out of the tub first and then shook myself off as well as I could and then sat down on the bathmat and started drying myself off and it was kind of crowded because she was standing on the bathmat too while she dried herself. Then she got dressed and unlocked the doors and when we were leaving Becky went in from her side and sort of blinked when she saw the two of us then shook her head and shooed us out and closed the door.
Amy was still asleep so Meghan finished getting dressed very quietly and then she got her books and we went to breakfast together. While we were waiting in line for food she overheard someone say that Prince had died, and she didn’t believe it but she used her telephone to look at a page called Wikipedia and it said so, too. I didn’t know who he was, so Meghan played some of his music on her telephone and said that she had always liked his music.
Professor Sir Doctor Banerjee surprised us with a test on what we'd learned so far in class, and there was a lot of grumbling about that. When I started reading the questions, though, some of them were pretty funny, like where we had to choose what we should call him, and the last question which said that we should calculate when the next quiz would be, given an margin of error of one class day, and he had labeled his axises for date and time and place and it was pretty obvious to me that the correct answer would be the only answer which put us in this place at this time in the future, and that wasn't too hard to figure out.
Then he started introducing us to the Rossler Equation, which had both its x and y axises linear, and only z wasn’t linear, so if you said that z was zero, you could study it in two dimensions because it almost sat on one plane. He said that type of equation was especially useful in chemistry.
When I got to lunch Peggy said that she'd been a little worried when I didn't come back from Meghan's and I told her that I had stayed the night. Sean set his fork down and asked if that meant that I had slept with Meghan and I said yes, and Christine said that if he said another word he was going to have to sleep with Miss Michigan for the rest of the quarter.
I asked who that was because it wasn't anyone I knew and Sean held up his hand which didn't really answer my question, then both Christine and Peggy started telling me other things it meant like how he would have to go solo or yank his own crank or skin his own flute and finally Peggy said what they meant was he would have to masturbate, which I don't know why she couldn't have said that the first time.
Then Peggy said that we were going to have a little girl talk after dinner and Christine said that she hated to ask but since the topic was already sort of out there how did stallions masturbate anyway? Well, I wasn't a stallion so I couldn't say for sure, but I had some pretty good guesses and so I used my drinking glass to demonstrate how you could hook something with your hoof.
And I told her that some stallions were big enough and flexible enough that they could use their mouths and Sean said that he'd heard that there were some men who could do that too. Joe said that was all sorts of too much information and he wasn't hungry anymore and asked if anyone wanted his second hot dog, but nobody was interested in it.
Professor Amy said that since we’d talked about marriage in the last class now it was time to talk about babies. Rachel raised her hand and said that she had skipped a step, and there were a few laughs and the professor said that we would be talking about that later.
There were all sorts of rules about who could be with the mother and where she had to give birth and then after she had different societies had rules about what you could do with the baby—who was allowed to see it and who was allowed to touch it and things like that.
Some cultures wanted to name the baby right away, and others waited for a while. She didn’t tell us about any cultures where children got new names when they became adults, but that’s what some ponies do, and I heard from a sailor once that zebras consult a shaman who does a ritual and then tells them what to call their foal.
My favorite was the Balinese belief that a newborn’s feet can’t touch the ground for two hundred ten days because they are believed to be divine beings before then. A lot of foals spend at least that long in the clouds before their first trip to the ground. I bet I did, ‘cause I was born late in the year. My mom would have still been nursing me through the winter and I probably didn’t touch the ground until after Winter Wrap-Up.
At dinner Peggy said that there was an Earth Day run tomorrow and wanted to know if I had heard about it and if I was planning on doing it. She said she would run with me if I did.
I said that I didn't know that she liked running, and she said that she didn't, but she thought I'd enjoy it, because it was on trails in a nature area. So I said that I would—it sounded like it would be a lot of fun. I haven’t really gotten to participate in many sports since I got to Earth.
And everyone else had plans for the weekend as well: Sean and Christine were planting trees in a park, and Joe was going to help in the Bat Cave, which was underneath Dewaters and didn't have any bats, but had stuff that could be recycled or reused. I was the only one who didn't have plans because nobody had told me that this weekend was special.
I didn't think that Aric would mind me running in the morning; maybe he'd even want to join me and Peggy.
After we were done eating, Peggy and I went back to the dorm room and Christine came too like she'd said she would and everyone sat down on my bed and Peggy asked if I'd broken up with Aric because she's just assumed that when I was gone on weeknights that's where I was and I asked her if it was okay to say because she'd told me I wasn't supposed to tell anyone and she said yes, it was okay no matter what I said they weren't going to be mad at me.
So she said that if I was dating Aric that I shouldn't be sleeping with Meghan because people are supposed to be only in one relationship at a time, and I asked her what that meant because I was only having sex with Aric and not anyone else and Peggy said that she had misunderstood then because I guess when people said 'sleeping together' they meant sex. I said that we hadn't done that yet; just showered together, and Christine said that was practically the same thing, and I said no it wasn't or else sitting in the hot tub with Peggy would also be the same.
Christine said it didn't count because Peggy was wearing a swimsuit, and Peggy's face got red and she said that she wasn't but that wasn't the point.
So then Christine and Peggy got to arguing about what was appropriate and what wasn't and even they couldn't agree with each other, so they finally said that was the problem with relationships a lot of times that both people weren't always open about what they wanted and expected in the beginning and then they wound up in situations like these and it didn't help that I had a different viewpoint than Aric or Meghan probably did. But they both agreed that I shouldn't be going behind anybody's back.
Peggy said maybe it would be okay if Aric said it was—she said that some guys didn't mind if their girlfriends were casual lesbians because they hoped that maybe they'd get a threesome out of it. Christine said she shouldn’t have told me that, and Peggy said that it was the truth. And then she made me promise that I would ask first before I did anything else with Meghan.
So we all hugged and Peggy said that since we'd just had a girl talk we should go to the Quad Stop and have ice cream together. They make really good milkshakes and when we sat down and started drinking them Christine said that my milkshake brought all the boys to the yard and Peggy just started laughing but I didn't know why mine was special.
Christine went back to Hoben to visit Sean, and Peggy and I walked back to our dorm room. I said that I was going over to Aric's but I would see her in the morning for the run and asked if there was anything I needed to bring. She didn't think that there was.
Rather than fly to Aric’s house, I walked so that I could get my thoughts in order. Peggy should have told me earlier, rather than bring it up now. And I thought that maybe he would be mad so I went to the beer store and bought some beer so that we could share and talk about it over drinks.
He was a little bit upset that I was planning on jogging with Peggy in the morning just because I think he wanted to have a nice lazy day with me and I didn’t want to maybe make him madder but I had made a promise to Peggy . . . I had promised her I would tell Aric before I did anything else with Meghan. Since I wasn’t planning to do anything else with her, I told Aric that I would come over tomorrow and spend the evening with him and stay late on Sunday too and he said that sounded good.
Then his mood got a little better and he said it was going to be fun to see me running with all the people and I asked him if he wanted to run, too. He said that he only liked running when he was being chased by wolves and I asked him how often that had happened and he said it hadn’t yet but I could be sure that when it did he’d take a sudden interest in the sport.
I have to agree with Aric on what it would take to get me to want to run.
Honoring the agreement but not the spirit of it. Deceitful little pony, you spin yourself a web of lies. This might be a problem later.
Silver's pony ride brings all the stallions to the pasture.
7321098 I'll be over tomorrow morning to help you start your exercise program!
I'll be skipping breakfast, so limber up beforehand!
Pretty sure you just had a class about not being able to extrapolate from one data point, Silver.
You also have to be sure that the data you're extrapolating has an actual pattern to it, and Professor Doctor Sir Banerjee's tests don't necessarily. He could even choose to never give a class test again to ensure anyone who answered was wrong if he was so inclined.
But... based on psychology rather than extrapolation, the place and date and time of the next test can probably be guessed as their very next class, with the intent to make it very memorable to all of them what kind of data can and can't be extrapolated.
I had never considered it before, but people from Michigan must be exposed to all kinds of hand-based puns.
But does that make most of you Trolls, 'cause you're from below the bridge?
7321108
She doesn't understand the spirit of it.
Yes, it's all well and good telling Aric about Meghan. I think she might need to have the same conversation with Meghan. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Meghan might be completely unaware that Silver and Aric sleep together. This love-triangle could cause a world of hurt, and Silver could spend the rest of her time on Earth trying to figure out why.
Weird? Didn't we have (or at least had) some of those on earth?
7321126 I'd say that any information you get from your teacher about upcomming evaluations is to be considered solid truth until proved otherwise. Even if it come under a funny cryptogram.
7321152
If I'm not mistaken, the Japanese samurai had that kind of tradition. They got one name when they were born, and then their adult name when they came of age. Buddhist monks might also have the same tradition, but for religious reasons (as one way to cast off all Earthly restraints and ties, again if I remember correctly).
7321137
Trolls or flatlanders, depending on who you ask.
Those in the upper peninsula are of course Yoopers.
I'm a little worried we'll look back at today as the point where it all spiraled a little out of control.
Yes, Silver may be about to find out how very poorly some people handle break ups & how VERY nasty some humans can get. Still, Aric seems pretty laid back, so it might work out.
Some people get a new name when converting to Judaism , Catholics take another name when entering religious orders. + Women change their name sometimes when they get married.
7321167 So like normal university life then...... well like life in general.
If I were in Aric's situation, when Silver told me, I would be a bit shocked at first... but I would not be angry. I would then discuss with Silver what her expectations were. With me, with Meghan, and in general about Pony attitudes towards sex.
I would then tell her I had to do some thinking about MY expectations, and then... do some thinking!
Unfortuantely, I don't think Aric is that sort of person. He doesn't seem like a very... thoughtful person.
I hope not, but I sense some powerful hurt feelings in the near future.
Then again, he may just be happy with the the threesome idea. He's not exactly deep.
Y'know, I suspect Aric's not going to be the one who objects to this little love triangle.
In the grand scheme of things human males (and I suspect pony stallions as well) have a much harsher reaction to other males than other females. Another male is, in the most basic sense, direct competition for procreative rights. Another female? Not so much. Aric seems laid back so, though I can see him being upset at the perceived misdirection, but I think that can be worked through.
Meghan, on the other hand... She's taken long enough to work up her courage around Silver, so in some senses Aric's in direct competition for the interaction she's been striving for. Add to that Meghan hasn't had any of the necessary (according to her personality) relationship building time with Aric. I can see her balking hard; all in one, Silver's betrayed Meghan's feelings/wants and may be putting her in a highly uncomfortable situation.
7321152
I always forget how much Americans seem to like multiple-choice tests. I honestly had to read that section again twice even after reading your reply to realise that was what was going on. Makes much more sense now. I assumed she was just estimating an answer based on how many classes they'd had before having the first test rather than eliminating obviously wrong answers from the provided options.
When you explain it to him Silver, make sure to emphasize that nothing you've done with Meghan is considered sexual, or at least not romantic, in your culture, and that you intend to clear that up with her afterwards.
Silver seems to do a lot of that whole 'following the letter but not the spirit of' thing.
As she's kinda been portrayed as someone with a very casual attitude toward sex, it might be hard for her to grasp how seriously some people take it. I want to say she might think twice about all these little evasions and double-talk if she understood how badly she might hurt Aric and/or Meaghan.
I also get the feeling Silver didn't have a lot of interaction with ponies who weren't pegasi, back in Equestria. She really thinks as a pegasi first, and a pony second from what I can tell. All her correlations compare human societal norms to pegasi, while earth pony society is much more similar. I can only assume that she simply doesn't know that much about it, because if she did she'd know that extrapolating from that mindset would give her a better mean to draw from for judging human reactions. Uh, that got wordy...
Anywho, I don't know why people keep mentioning a threesome. I mean, we don't even know if SILVER would be interested. Just because someone, or in this case, somepony, isn't shy about sharing her affections with more than one person, that doesn't mean she'd be comfortable doing it with more than one person at the same time.
All in all, I'm glad Silver's friends cared enough to take her aside for a moment, but I think they might have failed to express the possible gravity of the situation. Not really their fault, since they seem to be talking in differently accented English, while apparently Silver is hearing Greek.
Hopefully it all works out! It's kind of funny to me that I was perfectly happy to enjoy this story silently until this point, but once the subject of cross-cultural relationship drama starts rearing it's head, I just HAVE to put my two cents in. I need a better hobby than psychoanalysing fictional magic horses.
I'd rather think it'd be more interesting to ask how mares masturbate
Also: I can't help but notice that the professors seem to be going through the topics pretty quickly. I've never gone to this university, but in my experience it would be... rather difficult if you were doing a new topic literally every day, especially in a math course. Don't get me wrong, I've been to intense classes like that, in chemistry, but it isn't really surprising that most of the topics were directly building on the prior one and often didn't really introduce too many new mathematical concepts.
Regarding girl talk: While I think it's good that Christian and Peggy are trying to help, it feels like they spent more time arguing with one another than really stressing the importance of what Silver's been doing, completely by accident. It's disappointing that Silver doesn't appear to make any effort to defend her own culture either, such as the whole social bathing issue or 'sleeping together'.
7321553
That's an interesting observation but I wonder if everybody (and everypony) works that way? There are certain things we all share as humans but they tend to be modified by conditions in our country, which in turn are modified by our local environment which in turn are further fine turned by the various events of our lives. The more specific has a greater impact on us than the more general.
Things are going better than expected so far. If the Admiral wanted everything to explode into radioactive drama he's had plenty of opportunity already. Maybe we are just a bunch of neighsayers and Silver will talk things over with Aric and Meghan and everything will be fine.
And there's that procrastination again. Not telling them may keep them happier a little longer, but they'll be even more upset when the truth inevitably comes to light.
Also, going by the evidence thus far, Silver's milkshake brings a gender-independent subset of the population to the yard.
Why run on Earth Day anyway? Do you want to generate more CO2???
7321119 Hmm... I believe I'm unavailable for spending time with you tomorrow so you'll have to make do with Alaborn.
i cant wait for her to find a positive Poly couple and prove her wrong
65.media.tumblr.com/32d75c5269d7c78fc1036ff5fcdce4d6/tumblr_mknwuabPbH1rwwd1to1_500.jpg
Is it weird that I'd quite like if this all horribly fall apart ?
7321137 Yeah in Michigan if you live in the U.P. you're referred to as a "goat" or a "yooper". If you live in the "mitten", you are referred as a troll.
I really hope Silver doesn't procrastinate. This could get really bad really quick if she holds out on this much needed talk with Aric. I could see it going one of two ways. She could fully explain that it was a misunderstanding and he could be cool about it. That would be the truth, she didn't know full well the cultural significance most people have when in a relationship. In contrast, Silver's admittance to being with Meghan could cause Aric to be angry or hurt and it could get worse from there. I think Aric is a relaxed and understanding person and I'm pretty sure he won't be angry. Sure he may have process what Silver is to tell him, but I think he will look past it as a misunderstanding.
7322868 Drama's always fun.
7323563 Protestajts use the Easter date used by the Western churches aka the Catholic date. The Eastern churches use a different accounting for the date of celebration so for like a thousand years we've used two different ways of determining the date that occasionally coincide.
Damn right.
It's kind of frustrating how the differences between pony culture and human culture lead to the humans constantly infantilizing Silver Glow. I keep waiting for her to just get frustrated and tell them that she already knows all this stuff, so would they stop dancing around their stupid cultural issues and just be up front about stuff.
You'd think they would twig after the five hundredth time she casually mentioned sex.
7322556
It's what plants crave.
7323729
ahh, completely forgot about that. My professor would kill me if he knew. We take a class that's half applied statistics and half metrology (science of measurement), which is a lot of stuff like that. There's uncertainty from marking it with the white dot, shutter speed, rolling shutter effect, uncertainty in camera location (needed if you want non relative location) resolution uncertainty and statistical uncertainty (how the center is calculated). I remember we had to know the mass of an M&M so precisely that we needed to know latitude and longitude (local gravity) and we had to take buoyant force from air into account. My professor described the class as brussel sprouts, you're not going to like it but your're going to take it and it'll be good for you.
It's on MIT opencourseware as well, but that may be a bit above your level. I won't make fun of you for it, in fact i'll do one better. I'll let you know if/when i catch up and I can give you a hand if you need it.
that's what I figured. They but bitterants in aerosols now so people don't huff them.
7323908
we had a wet winter, which meanes it rained hard 4 times instead of sprinkling twice. It's been years since i've seen a thunderstorm.
For use back in Equestria by the Pegasus Search And Rescue. She's mentioned a few times sailors getting lost so maybe it bothers her... We have a way of solving that problem. Mostly.
They make similar devices for aircraft or hikers. She may want to invest in one. If she should ever crash or be injured out in the country far from help it Coukd save her life.
7323729
Woah! Is there anything actually fictional in this story? Silver Glow isn't real, is she?
7323908
TIL; I thought the formaldehyde was the bad part, but apparently that gets metabolized to formic acid which does the real damage.
7324144
The videos I'm watching right now are already well above my level. I don't understand half of what's going on.
7324535
I thought I should give a nod to the guy who's teaching me nondynamical systems.
So many commenters in recent chapters are unhappy with Silver for not telling Aric and Meghan about each other. Few are criticizing Aric and/or Meghan for not having a discussion setting parameters of whatever sort of relationship they're having - with an extradimensional nonhuman being from a completely different culture!
You folks have it backwards, whether ponies or humans are involved. In your own future relationships, ask questions, make agreements, and don't make assumptions, or you will be disappointed. And if you get angry then, it will be your own fault.
7321098
It's all about the right motivation. Wolves are very good motivation.
7321108
Technically, a web of omission. Although the end result might not be that much different. Luckily (or unluckily, as the case may be), Peggy's not one to let things slide.
7321119
It does, doesn't it?
7321126
He gave them the equation, too, which isn't obvious in the story (because Silver didn't mention it).
7321139
Well, yes, this is an important factor. From her perspective, she hasn't done anything wrong.
7321147
Silver does need to have the same conversation with Meghan. But maybe not as urgently, because Silver Glow isn't actually having sex with Meghan at this point.
You're not wrong.
7321152
We did, but odds are that the teacher wouldn't be bringing it up in a lesson on birth rituals. Which is something that SIlver Glow failed to consider, as well.
7321167
Every day Silver Glow is on Earth is another point where it might spiral a little out of control
And never mind Silver Glow; can you imagine the conversations that Cayenne has with her roommate?
7321237
Yes, Silver may be about to find out how very poorly some people handle break ups & how VERY nasty some humans can get.
Someday . . . but today is not that day. And tomorrow isn't, either. (<--Spoilered for people who are reading through the comments as they finish the chapters)
7321238
Exactly. And I can attest to those few days where it really did spiral out of control.
7321241
That's a very reasonable choice. I would do the same. And then, like you say, do some thinking afterward, when (potentially) tempers have had time to cool down and one can think clearly.
7321388
Your suspicions are very well founded.
Yes, that's absolutely true.
You're pretty close to the mark here, too.
7321427
That part wasn't multiple choice, although the text wasn't all that clear. Professor Banerjee gave them enough information to draw a three-axis graph, and, if they did their calculations correctly, there was only one place in the future where it would intersect with a valid course time and date.
7321538
That's a very important distinction, too. Heck, both partners in a relationship had better be on board with what each one considers cheating, 'cause if there's miscommunication on that. . . .
7321553
It is hard for her to understand, since by her upbringing she hasn't done anything wrong. And it's kind of Peggy's fault that she didn't tell Meghan about Aric at least; Peggy told her to keep the fact that she was having sex with him secret.
She didn't. She lived in a somewhat isolated area growing up, and the town below their settlement was mostly earth pony sailors, and if you've ever spent time around sailors they're not what you'd consider a normal, representative part of the population. Just going to college in Equestira was probably a big eye-opener to her, and she's still struggling with putting that into her worldview and now she's on a whole different planet. . . .
Silver's potential interest in a threesome (or lack thereof) is something that a lot of commenters seem to be overlooking. I think you're the first one comment that maybe Silver isn't interested in that, regardless of whether Aric or Meghan are.
I have been on both ends of those conversations multiple times in my life. Fittingly enough, starting in college.
7321794
They recite poetry.
Yeah, it's challenging. But they do, and there's a lot of homework outside of class.
But at the same time, is her taking a shower with Meghan actually cheating on Aric? I suspect if you asked a bunch of people you'd get a bunch of different answers. That's where it gets complicated: yes, she should be open with Meghan and Aric, especially if she is actively pursuing a sexual relationship with Meghan, but depending on where Aric and/or Meghan place their own relationship boundaries, Silver may not have crossed over any lines yet.
Think of it more as them trying to tell her how to fit in the college 'herd' on Earth, rather than them telling her that her culture is wrong. That's how Silver Glow is hearing the girl talk.
7322380
I think so. I'm a product of where and how I was raised, and what I've learned throughout my life thus far. To a point, I think we humans (and presumably ponies) can imagine different situations, but the more 'foreign' they are, the harder it is going to be. And I think we're seeing that in the comments, even.
7322466
That's certainly a possible outcome, especially since this is college.
7322492
7322857
It is possible, but it usually works out better when everyone's upfront right from the beginning, rather than it being a surprise later on.
7322868
Some people like watching the world burn.
7323175
Luckily, Peggy is around to motivate Silver Glow.
7323233
As long as you're not the one in the center of it.
7323833
They've still (mostly) got the mindset that Silver Glow is a wide-eyed virgin, despite some of the stuff she's said. And there's also some human nature in there as well; a lot of people are more comfortable using euphemisms rather than just coming out and saying it directly; that really depends on the individual person. Plus they're likely to keep forgetting that Silver Glow doesn't always understand euphemisms or slang, since they're such a common part of our speech.
Here's an appropriately topical case: when I first had Christine say that Sean was going to have to sleep with Miss Michigan, I wasn't going to have her explain what that meant, and then I remembered that most of my readers aren't Michigan natives and probably wouldn't get the reference, jsut like I didn't get it the first time my friend from Pennsylvania said he had to go see a man about a horse.
7324051
7324144
If more proof was needed that I'm not familiar with that level of mathematics, the only uncertainty I thought of was the shutter speed.
I'm trying to keep it vague enough that I don't lose readers and yet accurate enough that people who do know this level of math are fooled into believing that Silver Glow does, as well. Which means as the class goes on there's every chance I'll need help.
I don't think I could handle that.
7324472
Heh, I didn't think of that. Yeah, that would be tech that could potentially be imported, assuming that the ambient magic didn't mess up radio waves. It wouldn't be as good as some of them on Earth are (no GPS), but just a radiolocater beacon would be better than nothing.
7326674
Wise words, my friend.
7326674 I dunno about that, both sides assumed the other had the same background culture on relationship.
Silver followed Peggy's advice of keeping her relationship secret, but didn't follow the second part of the advice, unless they are close to you and you trust them. It is where I think is the biggest problem in the situation. Silver consider Aricand Meghan as her best friends on earth -aside from Peggy and Aquamarine- and yet she did not trust them enough to even mention this.
And considering how casual she is about sex and talking about it, I doubt it was her culture holding her back.
So yes, that issue on trust is where I think she faulted and I think it is most likely what will hurt the most to both Aric and Meghan.