January 9
Weather Climate Science class is still boring. There aren't going to be any practical labs, although we will go on a field trip and watch people observe the weather.
Observation is important; it's part of quality control. Clouds ought to do what they're told, and weather teams should get it right. Nopony is happy when they don't, and it messes things up when they aren't, because there is a plan which needs to be followed for everypony's benefit. But it's boring. It's just a bunch of mostly unicorn-designed instruments that verify that the precipitation is falling as it should and the winds are what they are supposed to be. It's a reaction to an event.
I know that humans can predict the weather, even without being able to properly control it. Computers like mine but bigger and smarter make the predictions (before that it was the responsibility of meteorologists and before that it was old wives and farmer's almanacs). They can make clouds with airplanes and they can seed clouds with airplanes, but they can't move the clouds they want where they are needed.
They're kind of like foals in that regard. They do things, but from what I've learned so far, they don't really understand what they're doing. It's like a foal following her mother; they get the biggest cues, but miss the small ones.
I guess it's because they've been stuck on the ground until recently, they never really had the chance to understand what was going on above their heads.
It's kind of strange to think about. People have had balloons for hundreds of years, and then they invented other kinds of flying devices like airplanes and helicopters and stuff, which are all more advanced than what any pony could produce. Most of our complex flying machines are helped along by passive pegasus magic or unicorn enchantments.
They've even gone so far as to have books of rules and men in suits that work at airplane stations to make sure that the rules are followed . . . but they don't really understand all the workings of the sky. I guess because they have to be constrained in their machines, they can't feel the way that the air moves, like an invisible sea. (That's why ship crews always like to have some pegasuses as crew members; not only can they fly around and help spot stuff, but because the sea moves like the air, and a pegasus's instincts let her understand what's happening and how to safely get through it.)
I have to bite my tongue and keep my mouth shut in class. I remind myself that if an earth pony were attending a class on flowers presented by a pegasus, she would know things that her classmates simply did not understand. I know that you stick seeds in the ground and then food grows, but not much more than that. I can predict that if I plant a cucumber seed, a cucumber plant will grow from it, but I have no sense for the soil where it will prosper.
It was nice to get out of class and be outside for a little bit before my philosophy class. It's a little too hot in the classrooms because humans don't like to be cold.
We finished up learning about Socrates. I was disappointed that it got over with so quickly, but part of the reason was that although he had laid the foundations of philosophy and science, none of his writings have survived to the modern age, so nobody knows if what his friends said that he said was actually completely true.
One of the students in class thought it was odd that people would not have kept better care of his words, and the professor explained that widespread literacy was not all that common until very recently. I raised my hoof and explained how in Equestria, mandatory school education had been reserved for unicorns in big cities until a few generations ago, although anypony could go to school if they wanted to. I wanted to talk more about that, because my mom had strong opinions about mandatory schooling, but the professor said that we needed to move on.
There should be a place on campus where students can discuss things like this. Cloudsdale and Las Pegasus have famous forums where ponies can gather and discuss things, and even my hometown has one, although it is now more often used for recreation than public debate. Maybe when the weather is nicer people gather on the quad, and they just don't do it in the wintertime.
In Equestrian class, I suggested that each student ought to keep a journal to practice writing in Equestrian. The teacher thought that was a great idea, and so they're going to do that. One entry per week; that doesn’t seem like too much.
She said before class that she tries to role-play to keep things interesting. So the class pretended that they were at an Equestrian market trying to buy things for dinner. Even I was struggling for some of it, because we don't really use very many names for different pieces of meat, and eventually the teacher said that they should stick to vegetables and fruits, and that confused a lot of them who didn't know very many kinds of vegetables.
Then we decided that a more general market would be better—what the humans call a 'flea market,' where anything could be bought or sold. That got us using a lot more vocabulary, and I played along even though sometimes they'd pretend that they were buying something that nopony would be selling at a market.
The book that Aric gave me has many other stories besides the one about Socrates. I have a weekend ahead of me, and humans have chosen to take weekends off, so I don't have any classes to attend. I think I'll read more of his book, along with the FAA book. I can't do it today, though, until later, because Peggy said that she was going to take me shopping. I'm out of mane and tail shampoo, and she said it was cheaper at the market called Meijer than the student bookstore or the West Main Party Store that is within trotting distance or the Walgreens that is at the base of campus.
I learned from Silverberg's made-up story that Socrates asked lots of questions. Some of them seemed silly, but they were important to understand things. Pizarro also questioned things, but he wasn't as good at getting to the essence of a question as Socrates. But I really liked Pizarro's dedication, and sometimes his sort of abrupt method was the best method. Sometimes you had to do things without thinking about them too much.
As predicted, Climate Science is boring. And in an alternate universe, this prompts a miniature reenactment of the Siege of Unicornia, which the students decide to join in with because it's an interesting approach to history lessons.
Meanwhile, I believe I hear someone pulling into station; Indeed, it's our old friend the NITPICK TRAAAAAAAAIN!
the bolded words have either been added or altered to be correct.
All too often, we have the problem of people referring to a single pegasus with the plural form pegasi. It's almost refreshing to see the reverse.
Pizarro and Socrates, the next big act.
What level of climate science is she in? If it's an introductory course I imagine she would be feeling underwhelmed by our understanding, or lack thereof, of weather and climate. Also how similar is Equestrian weather when compared to earth weather? Maybe they function under different rule, I would expect the presence of Pegasi, Griffons and other cloud manipulating creatures would have an effect (similar to how humans have effected the earth. And that's not just considering fossil fuels, agriculture and deforestation have been around for a long long time) and thats not even considering how magic could influence things.
I guess my question is: How accurate is Silver Glow's perceptions on humanity's relationship to the weather?
I really liked the flower and earth pony analogy, but now it raises a new question: if she knew human don't control weather, how come she expected lab in climate science? And how she is disappointed to find it is less advanced then what she is used to?
I also saw that Silver used "she" and "her" as the default pronoun. I suppose it can be easily justified, but I just had that thought about how I would've expected Equestrian to favor gender neutral as default. It would be more "in touch" with what seems to be ponies' value.
She could just ask Bill and Ted what they learned from 'So-crates' on their excellent adventure.
7002902
Admiral Biscuit has actually addressed this before, I believe. If I remember correctly, he goes by the unintentionally canon-set rule that mares, for whatever reason, far outnumber stallions in Equestria, and are naturally the dominant sex.
There's also been some evidence in season 5 to suggest that stallions could be slightly looked down upon, or were until relatively recently. Watch the episode where Big Mac dresses in drag to compete in the Sisterhooves Social; there's a line spoken by Rainbow Dash where she says, "don't think I'll take it easy on you just 'cause you're a stallion."
7002828
Corrected the first; the implication I was going for in the second case is that it is the old wives who are forecasting the weather, rather than it being collected wisdom which has been passed down.
7002874
Hey, it's a great story. I would have loved it if Silverberg had written a sequel where they find Atahuallpa.
Plus--and this is true--I had actually read that story before I took a philosophy class, and it made Socrates that much more interesting for me.
7002985 If that's the case, the apostrophe on the end of wives has to be got rid of.
7002894
A first-level class (Climate Science 101, basically).
I'm going to say that it's fundamentally the same, but that they know how to get things going if conditions are right (like with moving in storm clouds), and they are able to use their passive magic to get results. But natural weather can occur in Equestria as well, and if they're not paying attention it can get beyond their control.
She's aware that we don't really have much control over the weather, but that's about all she really knows on the subject.
7002902
Let me answer that with a different analogy: I was aware that cell phone coverage in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan would be spotty (at best); I hadn't really internalized it, though. Last time I was up there, I kept on checking my phone and trying to use other apps that won't work without a cell phone signal.
It's one thing to say that humans can't really control their weather, but it would be hard for her to wrap her brain around the fact that what humans were learning at a college-level class is the same kind of stuff she would have learned in pegasus kindergarten.
See, I've always thought of them as a female-dominated matriarchal society, and that their language reflects that.
7002976
Reminds me of the Denis Leary skit about the warnings on cigarettes. "Oh, shit, these things are bad for you? I thought they were full of vitamin C and stuff."
If there's a dead pegasus sitting on a cloud, pretty good chance a griffon is going to eat it, as long as it's reasonably fresh. If the griffon doesn't, vultures and crows will.
Until now, I'd had a good ten year run where I had not ever thought of that movie, or the fact that I once watched it. Curse you.
7002995
Done!
Another interestin' chapter, as always.^^
If she were in the South I can only imagine her horror at hurricanes, and her absolute baffled response to the gulf's residence just sort of shrugging their shoulders and living with it. For that matter, tornadoes in tornado alley.
I wonder if ponies would like sweet tea. Bet so.
I'm kinda curious what she thinks of terrestrial horses. Does she see herself in them, or is that idea ridiculous to her?
7003078
kpl.gov/uploadedImages/Adult_Services/Local_History/Photographs/Arts_and_Entertainment/sculpture-prospect-598.jpg
Yes to both.
7003078
Oops, forgot to reply to the second comment.
One of my thoughts is that weather ponies can dampen out some of the atmospheric conditions which form hurricanes, as long as they got on it quickly enough. So while it was still a tropical storm, they could maybe re-route it a little bit, or make conditions unfavorable for it to get larger. But once it's a category 5, they can't do anything to stop it, either.
Likewise with tornadoes--their skill would be in preventing them from forming in the first place. Stopping them once they've started is much more difficult.
Might be too sugary for many of them. Probably depends on the pony. I personally don't like it. I like my tea and coffee without sugar, thank you very much.
I think she would see them the same way we see primates. There's a kinship, but they're not the same.
7002995
This seems like a gray area. If the subject (the almanacs) is shared by old wives and farmers, then the possessive apostrophe is only added at the end. But if they are different almanacs by different groups of people, then each would be apostrophized. See: 1, 2
I can predict that if I plant a cucumber seed, a cucumber plant⁽*⁾ will grow from it,
* Admittedly, in parts of Equestria, this is not entirely true, as what ponies consider a cucumber plant will not under normal circumstances pull itself up by the roots and chase creatures around, attempting to aggressively collect them as fertilizer.
7002828 I read your nitpick and add my own!
Technically there is no correct plural for pegasus. Pegasus was an individual creature, not a race.
7003307
Equestrian agriculture must be so weird. Especially when DIscord gets involved. Did AJ actually plant popcorn, or did it just change to that?
And how do you cope with monsters ravishing your crop? Or your crop deciding it doesn't like your garden, and going off to someone else's, or--as you say--deciding that passers-by would be good fertilizer?
7003976
"Consarn it, Discord! Ya made my crop mature way out of season! We ain't prepared to harvest this yet at all!"
The Meijer name drop made me smile. A fellow Michigander. XD
7005877
Yes, indeed! Best state, just sayin'.
This struck me as slightly odd, since Flea Markets are confirmed canon in the pony universe in s1e6 (Boast Busters):
Other than that, keep up the great job!
I am, honestly, a bit furious on this opinion about humans not understanding sky and all cause we don't have natural flight.
We understand sky. Even better than Pegasi in fact. It's not like a child trying to mimic his parents. Our weather can't be controlled, or if it can be, it isn't that we don't understand how to do it. We CANT do it. Pegasi can just move clouds, we can't just do that. But we studied weather and we understand it way better than them
7003922
I read your second order nitpick and add a third:
While there are legends about a singular being known as Pegasus, there are also legends of an entire race of them that lived in Ethiopia. These were known as the Pegasoi Aithiopikoi, in English that becomes the Ethiopian Pegasi.
So yes, there is a plural for pegasus and it really is pegasi. One has to remember that "pegasus" itself is the Latin spelling, not the Greek, which is "pegasos", (when transliterated from πηγασος).
7016867
I like the idea that the plural of "pegasus," being a Greek word and ending in"us," is actually "pegapodes."
Actually, the show's canon implies that pegasi would be entirely lost (and somewhat scared) of Earth's weather.
They wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of it any more than humans can.
(Rainbow states that one of the reason that the Everfree forest creeps her out so much is that she can't figure out the weather, how it does everything by itself and ponies can't predict it. So a pegasus on Earth would have no better luck, given the situation.)
7338575 She is very naive when it comes to earth, so she doesn't know it can't be controlled. And from how Twilight responded to the Everfree(Being nonplussed about it) It's not a really big land mark since she lived in Canterlot and didn't know about how the clouds, the animals, and the plants, are wild. From that I can conclude that she(Being Silver) really DOESN'T know that the clouds can't be controlled.
How long has there been contact in this story?
7406153
It's not specified, but between 5 and 10 years since first contact.
7013239
We understand it in a different way than they do. We can predict the weather fairly well. They can make the weather. It's a different kind of understanding.
We know a lot about the oceans, but if dolphins could talk fluently, they could tell us things about the ocean that we never imagined.
7338575
I think that they would be able to understand it and manipulate it with some study and practice. I think it would be very difficult for them to affect it on a large scale, but given enough ponies, it's probably possible. (Granted, that's making a lot of assumptions about how magic might work on Earth, and there isn't really a 'correct' answer.)
7458605
My theory is that weather on earth would much to them like the weather over the Everfree.
Same old weather, same systems, just difficult-- impossible even-- to control.
7003052
Heh! Time to think about them again!
7626645
As I recall--and I may be misremembering--what freaks RD out about the Everfree weather is that it happens on its own, not that they can't control it.
That having been said, I think that enough pegasi on earth could control the weather, at least over a limited area, but the problem is keeping the clouds where they want them, keeping new clouds from blowing in, and so forth . . . because it's a whole, big system.
7634147
Well, in response to that:
7006161 Meijer is pretty good, but we all know that Aldi is the place to get the good stuff.
7746603
You can't buy a Princess Luna Christmas Ornament at Aldi.
They still haven't told her? Boy, is that gonna be a doozy
No, Silver Glow. They can't control it at all
...except maybe Pinkie Pie
Yeah, I can imagine
7984431
She knows, but she doesn't understand.
But they use airplanes to make cirrus clouds . . . .
I don't know if I'd call her flying contraption 'advanced.'
"What's that?"
"A fish."
"What part?"
"The fishy part."
And then she finds out that they have space stations and sat alights and objects orbiting other planets in the solar system... Sorry Silver... We kinda beat you there
8024020
Well, I dunno. They started their space exploration over a thousand years ago, with their first mared mission to their moon.
Yes. Especially when writing lovenotes.
8026723
I always overthink those.
God, she'd probably have a fit if she went to the Gulf Coast. All those hurricanes and we just shrug our shoulders and grow a stiff upper lip for it.
8357091
I know, right? But what can we do about them? Just get out of the way and hope for the best.
8393754
Recovering from Florence and getting shoved arouns by her kid brother currently.
I'm amused by a birbpon squeaking in outrage at what shouldn't exist.
9224808
Keep safe!
What, giant hurricanes that humans can’t control?
7371949
Er, Twilight seemed bothered by it to me, just undetered. She's a goal oriented mare who was presented with an obstacle to her objective. It's a problem, but she presses on That's not the same as nonpulsed.
More importantly to this discussion, her reaction isn't nearly as informative as Dash's is, a mare who works on the weather team, like Silver is implied to be when she talked about the high visibility vest. Weather that can't be controlled would be pretty unnatural and off-putting to her.
Of course, there's no evidence yet that the weather can't be controlled, just that humans can't control it. Which would be about as spooky as a minotaur being unable to control weather.
And yes, she'd obviously know about it. She went through weeks of prep before ceossing worlds. When preping a unicorn to go to earth, the first thing you'd tell them is no human can use magic, right? When prepping a pegasus you'd tell them they can't fly or control the weather.
You can't prepare them for the differences if you dont tell them what even the most basic differences are.