December 30 [Goodbyes]
December 30
When I woke up, I stuck my head up so I could see out the window and the snow was still coming down and from the bed I couldn't see any buildings so it was just like I was in a cloudhouse and that was kind of a weird feeling, 'cause I was almost confused about where I was.
I yawned and then nuzzled Meghan and Aric and I got out of bed and went over to the window and sat right in front of it and I didn't look at the ground but up into the sky and I watched the flakes gently drift down and it was kind of hypnotizing.
When I looked back at our room, Peggy had her eyes open and she was watching me and so I went over to her and her hand was hanging off the side of the chairs so I nuzzled it. She said that she hadn't slept all that well, 'cause the chair was pretty uncomfortable and I said that she ought to have gotten in bed with Sean and Christine and I thought that they wouldn't have minded. And she said I was probably right, but I knew that it was different for humans, and I nodded, 'cause I did know.
Peggy said that she probably wasn't going to get any more sleep and she stretched out a little bit and pushed the second chair away from her feet and stood up and then arched her back and twisted her neck until it cracked and said that she was going to pee and then start a cup of coffee and maybe she should go downstairs and get some more, 'cause there wasn't enough for everyone.
She'd gone to bed without changing into her sleeping clothes, and so when she came back out she got a clean shirt and a bra out of her bag and then she said that maybe if she went downstairs shoeless and braless the desk clerk wouldn't wonder why she wanted so much coffee, 'cause apparently there were only supposed to be four people in the room and we were six. And she grabbed one of the plastic keys off of the desk and said she'd be back in a few minutes, and hopefully her cup of coffee would be done by then and if anybody else drank it she'd break their arm and I think she might have been serious about that, so I pushed the chair in front of the coffee maker and sat on it so that I could guard her coffee cup.
When she came back up she had a bag that was full of coffee packets and extra cups and powder cream and sugar and she said that she probably could have asked the poor boy at the desk for anything and he would have got it for her and she felt kind of guilty for using her feminine wiles on him but not really.
She'd gotten back just in time, 'cause both Christine and Meghan were starting to move around and pretty soon it was us girls who were all awake drinking coffee and looking out at the snowfall and Sean and Aric were both asleep in their beds 'cause boys don't wake up as quickly as girls.
Christine said that if there was some way to move one of them without waking him up it would be really cute to put them in bed together and see what happened and Meghan nearly choked on her coffee.
I bet if I was a unicorn, I could have done that.
We talked about me going back to Equestria then Christine asked if any exchange student had been pregnant when she came over and gave birth on Earth. And I said that they'd checked for that before we were allowed over, and it wasn't that hard to smell by the time a mare was three or four months along and if she got pregnant at the usual time she'd be pretty big and it would be obvious, and I was curious why she wanted to know and she said that it would be adorable to see a mare with a litter of foals.
I told her that we weren't dogs and only had one at a time and sometimes twins but that wasn't very common and she said that she had a picture in her head of a pony surrounded by a dozen adorable little foals and I shouldn't try and take that from her with my logic.
So I said that I was gonna imagine that humans had litters and Christine winced a little bit when I said that and she said that babies were only cute when they were somebody else's and she didn't want to ever have kids of her own. And I thought that that was kind of sad, 'cause my little sister had been cute and fun when she was still a foal and I wanted to have my own but not yet.
Then Christine complained that she was hungry and we should get something greasy to eat, 'cause she was kind of hung over, too, and she said that she was gonna wake Sean up and maybe we should wake up Aric, too, and she went and held her hand against the window for a little bit and then reached under the covers in her bed and that woke Sean right up and the first thing he said was that she was evil and she said that that was why he loved her and if he didn't get up she was going to do it again.
We were more nice when we woke up Aric, 'cause we nuzzled him awake, and Peggy made coffee for both of them while they were stretching and getting out of bed.
Aric and Meghan didn't have any clean clothes with them but that was okay. And after everybody had gotten dressed we decided that we were gonna go to Blake's for breakfast, and since it was close we decided that it would be funner to walk, so we all crowded in the elevator and I was getting used to them although it still made me feel funny when the floor dropped out from under my hooves and I had to remember not to try and fly.
The snow was tapering off when we got to Blake's, and we all brushed ourselves off and it was kind of dumb that booths were only made for four humans at a time but we took one anyways and kind of managed to crowd in, and Sean said that he was holding on by one cheek and Christine said that she bet she could push him off.
Peggy said that we should try not to get kicked out until after we'd had our breakfast. And I told them how when I'd come back from Florida the man at Denny's had been mean to me and Aquamarine and I was glad that they were nice here.
Aric said that since it was an airplane-themed restaurant and I was practically an airplane they pretty much had to let me in.
And I looked up at the model airplanes hanging from the ceiling and wondered if they'd ever put a pegasus doll up there to join them. I think if there are human airplanes that fly slowly it would be kind of fun to fly in formation with them.
Maybe the Wonderbolts will figure out how to do a show with airplanes. That would be really neat.
I got an omelet and when Aric wasn't looking I took a strip of bacon off of his plate and ate it, 'cause that wasn't something that I could eat in Equestria and I'd just gotten tempted by it, and then I felt kind of bad when he looked back down at his plate and it was gone so I told him that he could have some of my omelet to make up for it and he said that he was more disappointed that he hadn't seen it and offered me his other piece of bacon but I wasn't sure if I should have two, 'cause I might regret it later.
But then he kept begging and so I couldn't refuse and so I ate the second strip of bacon, too, and he started clapping when I was done and he said that we'd finally made a real American out of me, and even if it had taken a year it had been worth it, and then I saw that Meghan had her portable telephone out and then she put it away and said that she hoped I didn't mind if she put that on YouTube.
I told her that she could but I didn't think that anybody would be too interested in me eating a strip of bacon.
Sean said that if she put it on YouTube it would probably get a billion views, and Meghan kind of blushed at that and she said that a billion was probably aiming too high.
Christine asked me what I was going to do on my last day and I said that I wanted to fly around Kalamazoo one more time and then I was going to look and make sure that I had packed everything right and I wanted to spend time with Aric and Meghan at my apartment, too, and then I said that maybe we ought to have a party at my apartment in the evening even though it was kind of sad with everything in boxes but maybe it wouldn't be quite as lonely with friends staying over.
But then I also wanted to have one last, fun night with Aric and Meghan, and I couldn't do that if everybody was over, and Peggy said that she had Cobalt and she'd be a designated driver, 'cause she was thinking the same thing that I was, and I would have nuzzled her except that she was across the table and I couldn't reach her.
We walked back to the hotel together and then everyone had to pack their things and Peggy wanted to know when a good time for them to come over was and I said that I didn't know but maybe after sundown and she said that they'd be there.
Me and Aric and Meghan left a little bit before they were all the way ready, 'cause none of us had brought anything, and then we went back to my apartment and I put on my flight gear and hugged both of them and then went out to the balcony and called the airplane directors on my radio, and Dori answered and said that I could fly.
And so I took off and I circled once around the lake and Aric and Meghan were standing at the window waving at me and I waved back and then I flew around towards downtown, and I followed Stadium Drive all the way into town and then went along Main Street until I got to where the two halves of the road joined up near Bell's brewery. And I went a little bit north there, until I was over the tracks and I followed them along the river and when I got to Sprinkle Road, I was feeling a little bit bold so I kind of dug at my memory to remember what you were supposed to say when you wanted to land at an airport, and then I called Dori and she said for me to make a left approach to runway 9 and call again on my downwind leg and she would tell me if there was any cross-traffic.
So I flew south until I got close to the airport and then I called them again as I was getting close and Dori said that I was clear to land and I knew how big airplanes landed so I lined myself up with the stripes and glided in the last little bit and then I flared out my wings right before I touched the pavement and told her that I had landed and she asked me what my intentions were now and I didn't have anything that I really wanted to do at the airport, 'cause I knew that she was busy with other airplanes, but I felt really proud for having landed at the airport and I hoped that I hadn't made too much work for her keeping other, bigger airplanes away.
And I pranced around in a little circle on the runway and then I said that I was ready to take off again and she asked if I wanted to use runway 35, which was the biggest, most important runway they had (and it was also 17 if you went the other way) and I said that I would, so she told me to trot to the runway and hold short at the threshold and then call the tower again, so I followed her instructions and there were lots of big signs so I would know where to go, and when I was close to the edge I told her and she said that I had clearance to use the runway and to climb to five hundred feet upon departure and then turn on a heading of 120 until I was two miles away and after that I could fly wherever I wanted to again.
So I stepped on the big runway and it was kind of intimidating and I thought about all the big airplanes that landed here and for right now all of it was for me. No other airplane could share it with me.
I trotted down it and then got to a canter and a gallop and took off and then I turned on a heading of 120 like she had told me to and that put me kind of close to the control tower but I didn't think that she'd mind, so I climbed kind of slow so that I could go by their big windows and I saw the grumpy man there standing at the window and he had a really big smile on his face for once, so I waved at him and he waved back.
And then I was past it and still climbing until I got to the five hundred feet they'd told me and I wasn't exactly sure how far the two miles were but my watch knew and so I just followed its instructions and once I was two miles out, I called Dori and told her that I was going to fly on a direct path to my apartment, and she said that I could and to advise her when I was back on the ground.
I'd meant to go right to my apartment and I was on an almost direct line to it, but then the smells from Sweetwater's Donut Mill tempted me and I landed in their parking lot and trotted around to their little ordering window and got some cinnamon rolls to take back with me, and we could eat them for lunch or maybe as a snack later.
And then I took off again and flew back to my balcony and I called Dori one last time to tell her that I was landing and she told me godspeed and then I landed on the balcony and turned off my radio and went inside and got undressed and hugged Aric and Meghan.
I was glad I'd got the cinnamon rolls, 'cause we didn't really feel like putting any effort into lunch, and after we'd snuggled for a little while I went through my boxes one more time just to make sure that I hadn't forgotten anything 'cause it would be bad to leave something behind that I'd wanted or to take something that I shouldn't, and a good pony makes sure not to do that. And I found my little collection of shed feathers and then I thought that I should have made a dreamcatcher for Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn and I never had and there was also the one that I had made in there and I had meant to give it to Conrad along with a poem but I'd kind of forgotten about that as the summer went on and I was doing so many fun things but I couldn't leave without getting it to him, even if I had to make Mister Salvatore stop on our way to East Lansing tomorrow.
So Aric took my computer apart because I didn't need it anymore and that gave me space to work, and I kind of felt selfish making dreamcatchers and not playing with them but both Meghan and Aric told me that it was all right and it was also really fun to watch me working. Meghan said that she’d always liked watching horses in their pastures and Aric said that she’d probably never seen any who could make dreamcatchers and she admitted that she hadn’t.
I had to make the first one twice, 'cause I was out of practice and I kept forgetting what Rebekka had taught me until after I made a mistake, but then I got it figured out and the second one went a lot quicker and it only took me a couple of hours to make both of them and I set them on top of everything so that I could give them to Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn tomorrow.
I was gonna fly over to Conrad’s house, but Aric said that we could take Winston 'cause we didn't have a whole lot of time left and even though it wasn't that close to when Peggy and Christine and Sean were going to come over I knew what he meant, so we all got in Winston and he let me steer until we got to Stadium Drive, and then I took my seat back in the middle and let him drive.
Since I'd only ever been to his house on hoof, I kind of got us a little bit lost and we had to go around the block once so we wouldn't be breaking the rules by going the wrong way on the road even though there wasn't any traffic, and we stopped in front of his house and I went up and knocked on his door and when he didn't answer right away I was afraid that maybe he wasn't home and I'd started to think that I could hang it on his doorknob but that wasn't as good as seeing him, and just then he opened the door and it took him a moment to look down and see me and I gave him a big hug and then I offered him the dreamcatcher and told him how I'd meant to write him a poem to go with it, but I never had thought of quite the right thing.
And he said that I should not go seeking the muse but I should wait until she whispered in my ear, and then he crouched down and hugged me and told me that it was time for me to sail, and I nodded and as I walked away my heart was heavy but my spirit was light.
When we got home the sky was clearing and the sun was setting and all of a sudden everything was alive in reds and oranges and we didn't get out of Winston right away but stayed out in the parking lot and it was warm and cozy inside the cab even if it smelled a little bit like exhaust all the time and then Aric finally turned it off and the silence was almost too loud, and I knew that when I got out of the cab I'd never get back in again and when I got out I leaned up against the side of Winston for a moment and I didn't care that I was getting salt in my coat and that the flakes of rust were kind of scratchy, and I nuzzled the fender, which was kind of silly of me but it was like a sailor leaving her ship for the very last time.
I think I would have cried away the evening if it hadn't been for Peggy and Christine and Sean being there, and I think that maybe Aric and Meghan would have, too. But it was a lot easier not to think about how close the end was with them there, and the apartment didn't seem quite so empty with their voices and scents filling it.
Peggy had brought cards and so we played some euchre and she'd brought beer with her too but nobody really drank any of it. And she'd also brought some snack food and I had a little bit of that and the rest of my leftover hay, too, but I wasn’t really all that hungry even though I hadn't eaten dinner.
And they left around midnight, and it was really hard to say goodbye to them and me and Peggy hugged for a really long time ‘cause neither of us wanted to let go, but we had to, and she said that she could come by in the morning if I wanted, and I did, but I knew that if she did that was gonna make it harder, so I shook my head ‘cause I didn’t trust myself to speak at all, and once she’d gone out the front door I went to the window and put my forehooves on the sill and watched down in the parking lot as Cobalt started up and left the parking lot and I stayed there even after it had turned onto Stadium Drive and I’d lost sight of it.
While I’d been standing at the window, Aric and Meghan had pulled the mattress back on the floor and made up the bed and then they got undressed and cuddled up with me and Meghan started crying first and I'd thought that it would be me, and so I nuzzled her cheek and put my head down on her chest and Aric had his arm around my shoulders and his head against my withers and I stretched my wing out to cover him and Meghan, and pretty soon I heard Aric kind of sniffling and I could feel that my coat was getting damp and I heard him say that boys weren't supposed to cry, and Meghan said that it was okay if men did, and she reached a hand up and squeezed his hand.
I had more than a few tears on my cheeks, too, and then Meghan sniffed and said that she wondered if it was possible for all of us to cry so much that we'd all melt together and I said that I didn't think that it was, and Aric said that he thought it could happen in Equestria. And then he got out of bed long enough to get his shirt so that we could dry our tears and then we all snuggled together on the futon mattress and I kept my wings over them and I didn't think that any of us were going to get that much sleep tonight.
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:C
Pattern is clear, Ghost Rider.
Fair winds, and Clear Skies.
FUN LEGAL ISSUES
Edit: Lyrics.
Given how far ahead Biscuit writes it's weird to think he's probably already finished the story.
Naughty to the end! Landing without informing the air traffic controller! Such a very naughty pony!
Godspeed, little pony. May the winds be ever at your back.
Silver Glow's last night on Earth, for now. Maybe one day she can return for an extended stay and see all of her old friends again. Tomorrow is going to be beyond painful for her. As Roy Rogers would say, "Happy Trails to you, till we meet again".
The way it ended with Dori et all was beautiful and sad and DAMN YOU BISCUIT
Curse you, logic!
Silver Glow the 'murrican. Baptized in Grease, Soda and Bacon.
Made Grumpy Man's day, I guess. :3
But what if it were horses in their pastures making dreamcatchers?
And the end is nigh.
Good byes are hard, mang.
As i started reading this chapter while listening to my music what should pop up. Only the most evil and complimentary song ever. Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World. Poor feels never stood a chance.
7995689
No, the end is neigh.
It's funny, over the last few weeks I've been toying with the notion of trying to write a story in the same shape and form as this story (ie daily journal posts), and one of the background ideas was a pony finding herself unexpectedly pregnant on Earth, and, eventually, giving birth here.
(Despite Silver's comment here, it seems to me that it would be unlikely in the extreme that the Equestrian and Earth years would be exactly the same length, or that the seasons would be synchronized, so I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard for a pony to be in the early stages of pregnancy and not test for it)
I can't help but admire you, and this story; you stuck with it for more than a whole year, now, and that's just crazy. It really is. I wish I could write like you.
Man, seriously fighting back tears here. Love the airport scene. Had to be done at least once. Nevermind that she was supposed to use the helipad. I think everyone that was able to would have loved to see her out on the runway.
i begin to suspect pegasis having and extra ear organ to know their exact altitude over zero ...
i bet their was a big paper signe with instructions what to do when a bored pegasus comes along and wants to land, just for the fun of it right after Silver was visiting the tower crew...
7995835
yeah
Sniff, our little ornithopter all grown up and using the big plane runway!
img07.deviantart.net/ce1c/i/2017/063/d/5/silver_glow_s_journal_by_adolphusarthuro-db14siq.jpg
A little rushed and probably not my best work but here's Mr Salvatore's photo of Silver Glow and her journal.
for some reason the last time at the airport got to me.
after a few days year I can still say this story is really good.
Really sad but really beatiful chapter. The airport scene was great, but I also wanted to give some points to the little making the dreamcaches scenes, cause I think that feeling of having to make somthing that you haven't done in a while, and how you re-learn it on the moment it's spot on.
It's a great goodbyes chapter.
But, STOP THE ROTATIVES. NEW PLAN. how many millions views Meghan videos got already? How many millions views silver bacon-eating video will get?
I say it, Meghan will become rich on youtube money, and will use that money to buy throug the burocreatic obstacles and go live on Equestria!
7996006
People make bundles on cats being Internet cute. Pegasi are at least an order of magnicute more so.
7995607
Now that's a fine way to put jus soli to the test!
I'm dreading the next chapter.
I can't wait to read the next chapter.
(I'm in the mountains at the moment, and I saw a dog rolling in the snow from my window right after the owner let it out of the car. I had to laugh because it made me think of Silver.)
7996539
I would rather call it that Silver in general lives in ground-based home in her village for most of the year, but she is stil a pegasus, who also at one point of her live lived in cloud home, aand it's just more natural for her (being a pegasus). Maybe when she was in school for weather job? As in, school trips, you know, training grounds, far from home/school? :)
But yes, she was selected mostly because she was one of the very few pegasus who live in ground-based home for most of the year (I have started from the beginning, because I don't want to end it... :().
I do not know how typical the Cakes are, but in Earthen Equines, twins are very rare and usually fatal for both of the foals and their dam too.
7995607
7996295
Given that we do not recognize other species of sapient animals as persons (other apes, elephants, dolphins, porpoises, corvids, and parrots, the foals would probably legally be livestock or wildlife.
7997388 You've been reading this fanfiction about magical ponies for presumably about a million words and just now you decide to withhold suspension of disbelief?
Relevant video for the end of the chapter:
Farewell, SG. Earth is lessened, and Equestria is enriched, by the departure of one of the most awesome pegasi ever to grace its skies.
(But don't tell Cayenne that I said that...)
7990822 Yes, I see what you're saying, but I have a problem with that. First like I said, Spencer is an idiot whose ideas can be seen clearly and everyone pretty much hates what he has to say and has no political power. He's small fry and easy to brush off. However, with Trudeau, he's a PM of Canada with his type of rhetoric being very popular with people I like to call champaign socialists. Extremely Leftist to the point of authoritarian dogma and ignoring any reality like how illegal immigration hurts a country, Islam isn't a peaceful religion that needs to be kept in check, and free speech should be crushed for the feelings of a fringe minority of whiny entitled brats. And people like him have huge amounts of power, which I take into account in my comparison, and he does believe in that dogma. So yes in a way, Trudeau is worse than Richard Spencer. It's because he has massive support and clout behind him with awful damaging ideas, not that his ideas are the worst.
And I'm well aware there are at least some decent Liberals or Lefists out there, and I've talked to several on this thread here too, but there's a hard resistance to new ideas or things that don't conform outside of their beliefs too. For example, for every decent humored person like Conflicting Views here, there's usually someone else like Walablo who firmly believes that Trump should be impeached and Hillary should have won no matter what, damn any hard evidence of Hillary's past as a corrupt corporate whore who helped destroy countries and peoples lives. And sometimes, you do get the insane religious nut job like KB_BOY who really is a dyed in the wool Communist. Yeah, I know the Internet dials things up to 11 and it's easier to find people like that. Still doesn't change that it's something that does need to be criticized.
Or she could have joined Silver, Aric and Meghan in their cuddle-pile.
*last-minute shipping noises*
Silver Glow, the guardian of the coffee.
Christine has interesting fantasies.
I had the wonderfull chance of reading this chapter in the boarding aera of an airport while wating for my flight. Looking at the runways, I swear I could picture a small pegasus landing, prancing in joy and then taking off again.
It sucefully guarded me from the angst.
Well, Aric, I cried too.
7995587
7995601
mlpforums.com/uploads/post_images/img-2677682-1-rainbow_dash_be_flying_by_sonicrainboom93-d4gwccj.png
7995607
That's been my experience, anyways.
Oh yeah, they'd be.
7995613
Thank you! That's such a beautiful song.
7995626
I hadn't, actually. I burned up my reserve chapters by October and rarely got chapters ahead after that.
7995640
At least she remembered to call when she'd made her final landing.
7995660
7995672
I think she will, one day.
The final goodbyes. . . .
7995687
7995689
A pony with a litter of foals would be so adorable.
And she drove a truck, too.
Deep down, he liked her. He'll just never admit it.
That's probably more than you could train a horse. They're not very good at painting, either.
They are . . . we can only hope that they're only temporary.
7995746
Ooh . . . that would do it. That's a really good complimentary song.
7995750
7995774
(you got me in the feels with Shenandoah)
7995822
Do it! That would be awesome, and as far as I know, it's never been done. Unless it's covered in All American Girl, which I've only read some of.
No, they're not synchronized; however, she came over in the winter (in Equestria), so if she was pregnant, it wouldn't have been real recent.
(and yes, it was just crazy)
7995835
It did have to be done. She's probably the first pegasus to land at an actual airport.
Funny story about that; I found out from my brother (who is a pilot) that many airports don't have helipads, and you land on a runway or the taxiway, generally at the pilot's discretion (obviously, ATC has to clear you for whichever you choose).
I know I would have. That would be the most amazing thing to see, especially if she landed on the runway and then trotted off to a taxiway.
7995945
i begin to suspect pegasis having and extra ear organ to know their exact altitude over zero ...
I think they do.
'Landing instructions for pegasi.'
At a not-so-busy airport like Kalamazoo, they could just ask her her intentions and then pretty much let her do whatever she wanted, so long as it didn't interfere with other aircraft operations.
7995956
7995984
Thank you! It's beautiful!
7995996
Her last flight on Earth. . . .
7996006
Yeah, it takes a little bit to get back into something that you knew, but haven't done for a while, and then it's right there like it was never gone.
Thanks!
Silver's videos probably have tens or hundreds of millions of views, collectively. Meghan's not hurting for cash right now.
7996158
Oh, yeah, pretty much anything Silver Glow does that gets posted to YouTube is pretty much guaranteed to go viral.
7996295
I wonder if the FBI even has a contingency plan for that? They probably do.
7996528
7996872
Yeah, when she's at school, she's in the dorm (and on the ground); when she's in Chonamare, she lives in a cloudhouse in the sky.
7997345
That was likely true in Equestria, as well, at least until the advent of modern pony medicine. They're still probably very rare.
7997761
7999369
That's a very important role.
It would be hilarious.
8005911
Oh, that's just perfect
I know when I go by an airport, I look for her, and the next time I'm in Kalamazoo, I'm going to keep expecting to see her.
8029177
<hugs>
8039334
I honestly don't think I could. It's a level of commitment that's just head and shoulders above me, I think D:
I don't think she'd be able to slip by undetected if she's any length of time along. On the other hand, I'm not really sure winter is a universal season in Equestria; since Cloudsdale has to 'deliver' winter and it would be super useful if some part of your breadbasket was always 'on'.
On the other hand, the length of day does appear to vary, so who can say.
8039472
Well, don't do it as a daily. That's crazy.
I think that there still has to be a dormant season, at least if they want to keep the native plants happy in the areas they're managing. Maybe not--I have no idea what crops and trees and animals and stuff that are used to winter would do if there was no winter at all. But I think that it would likely be a major ecological problem, and perhaps it's one that the ponies have already suffered through once. Maybe that was the catalyst that started the whole Windegos thing--maybe the crops failed, and as the pegasi started going hungry they stopped managing the weather, and then the weather patterns were so messed up, winter came, and all the plants that they had couldn't survive winter. . . .
And does Celestia do that by tilting Equestria, or by changing the speed of the sun as it orbits the planet?
8042118
What are you suggesting, I write some 20 k words every weekend? that's crazy!
Frankly, I always wondered if it wasn't to give the female population a break from their own season. ha ha.
Regardless though, the intention would have been for her to 'just' be coming up on it when she left Equestria, for whatever reason.
probably the latter.
8039334
eh, I learned something new!
8042342
You could write 5k, or 10k, or whatever your pace is. It doesn't have to be 20k; I'm not sure I could write 20k in a weekend before my wrists failed.
I mean, it's possible. Or maybe they thought that if they didn't go off-estrus for a bit, things wouldn't work out right and all the mares might go infertile.
So then in the depths of winter, a day in Equestria might be only eight hours long; meanwhile, on the other side of Equestria, it would be sixteen hours. Although if that were the case, the birds might be better off flying west for the winter. . . .
8048839
I suppose I could give it a stab. How did you manage to research local happenings for your story?
Or maybe they had one too many population booms 11 months after hearth's warming and decided it was a good idea.
A long time ago I had the thought that perhaps Celestia and Luna weren't actually raising and lowering their respective objects in a normal sense.
For example, if it were the case that the objects were merely going around the planet, it would seem Nightmare Moon's dream of ever lasting night would be simply impossible: there's be daylight somewhere.
It seems to me that there is a distinct possibility that everyone experiences day or night over the whole planet's surface at the same time: the easiest would be if the planet was actually a flat disk. However, assuming you want to go with a planet, I had the idea that perhaps the movement of the sun and moon, as well as how they appear in the sky, are not what they seem.
Rather, the objects have higher dimensions, so no matter where you are on the planet, it always looks like the same time of day or night; the 'setting' of the sun or moon and vis versa involves moving the objects through the higher dimensions such that the mind perceives the object moving towards the horizon, but in fact it's more accurate to say it's withdrawing from view around a spatial angle the minds of ponies can't quite process.
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Well, some of them were national news, like the Uber driver, the guy that killed a bunch of bicyclists. The shooting in St. Joe (which may or may not have shown up in the story, I can't remember) was also national--I heard about that while I was in Baltimore. There were other things that were just good guesses, like there being a Trump protest (I figured that there probably was one, so all I had to do was a little bit of google searching, and then found a couple of news clips). Amusingly, I got the date wrong and had to re-write part of a chapter because of it.
Weather was easy; Weather Underground has a history function for most major cities. I didn't know that at first, but I figured it out fairly early in the story, and the weather was [mostly] accurate from that point on. Plus, making the story fairly current made it pretty easy.
I did enough google searching for the happenings around Kalamazoo, in fact, that for a while my cell phone thought it was in Kalamazoo.
The downside of the story being 'in real time' but off by two months was that sometimes, especially towards the end, I'd get confused about what day or month it really was. Like, it would take me a moment to remember.
One thing that would be useful for such a story is keeping your own journal, maybe of events that happened that day. It's something that I should have done, but generally didn't. That's why I can't remember if the St. Joe shooting made it into the story.
Yeah, that's a possibility, too.
Well, if that's the case, it certainly would explain why Silver Glow had so much trouble understanding time zones.
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At this point I'm 4 months out of date, though, oh well.
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That makes it a lot more difficult, unless your local library keeps copies of the newspaper.