Feb 14
Valentine's Day was upon me, and once again I didn't have anybody to celebrate it with. Nobody was going to be taking me to dinner or buying me chocolates or flowers or—
Whatever, it was just a day. I hadn't even told Cinder Glow about it; in the pantheon of human holidays, it was bottom-tier. Or maybe that was my cynicism talking.
Really, though, it was a holiday for two. Not in remembrance of something or in honor of something, just a celebration for couples and if you weren't, that was too bad.
And had we lived in a vacuum, the subject never would have come up.
Cinder Glow had twigged to the idea of stores selling themed goods quicker than I had expected. Granted, I didn't know anything about Kirin stores, maybe they had their own Hallmark Holidays and maybe some of the more cynical Kirins griped about it. Or maybe they went all-in for whatever holiday was currently on offer.
I hadn't told her about it, but she'd figured it out. Maybe we didn't speak the same language, but she could see the displays in the store. I could have tried to convince her that it was part of the Superbowl celebration, but that didn't seem right. Sure, she probably wouldn't see the irony of candy hearts honoring the Eagles and the Chiefs, and I could have spun a tale that might have made sense.
Why was it that a holiday official enough to be marked on every calendar made me grumpy? No other holiday did that, even it it was one that I had no care for.
No care for, ha. The last time Valentine's Day had rolled around when I'd had a boyfriend, I'd had all sorts of expectations. They'd been dashed and we weren't together any more and the less I thought about it the better.
I hadn't told her about Valentine's Day, and she didn't notice the first week the pink cardboard displays were out. The aisles in the store were always full of pallets of special offers, after all, and boxes of chocolates weren't all that different from boxes of Lucky Charms, at least not as Cinder saw them.
How did she see things in stores? I still hadn't figured out what got her attention. Sometimes she wrinkled her muzzle or frowned or flattened her ears as we went through, other times she was drawn like a moth to a flame to the weirdest things. She'd spent ten minutes playing with a clicky pen before deciding to buy a whole pack of them.
There weren't any candies besides conversation hearts that had writing on them, at least to my knowledge.
Cinder had bought a box of them, and she was sitting at the kitchen table, sorting them. That was a weird thing she did. Our Halloween candy had included little bags of M & Ms—fun-sized, as the bag claimed—and she'd sorted them by color before eating them.
Conversation hearts not only had different colors, but different messages. She was sorting by message rather than by color. Currently CRUSH IT was leading the rankings, but U GOT THIS was coming up strong. What happened to the old messages like I LUV U or BE MINE? Maybe conversation hearts were being more inclusive.
I watched her sort the entire box. I knew she saw that I was there; her ears had perked as soon as I'd walked into the kitchen.
She studied her neat ranks of sweet chalk hearts and then pushed one in my direction. YOUDA BEST.
It would be churlish to refuse a heartfelt . . . heart.
"Thank you."
Her eyes were locked on the heart as I picked it up, then put it in my mouth. It tasted just like I remembered.
"Do you celebrate Valentine's Day?"
Cinder shook her head, then lifted a hoof and waved it in a 'so-so' motion. She picked up a heart, tapped it to a hoof, then set it back down.
"Hoof . . . heart?"
She shook her head, tapped a hoof, then the heart.
"Heart hoof?"
Cinder nodded. She air-nuzzled, then pushed the candies away.
"Yeah." I pulled out the other chair and sat down. "You and me, sister."
Singles Awareness Day. Not an official holiday because how do you market it? A card for yourself? Netflix and nothing else? Solo dining in a restaurant while an attentive waiter waits on you hand and foot?
We settled on Netflix and nothing else. What better way to celebrate than with another kindred soul, after all?
Nothing romantic; that would not have been in the spirit of the almost-holiday. I thought the occasion called for something that was the exact opposite of romantic, which would have been a horror flick.
Cinder surely would have objected to that. She was too cute and innocent to enjoy horror. The next best thing was a documentary, and David Attenborough was the perfect host.
As the occasion required, we sat together on the couch, sharing a blanket. Also in the spirit of sharing and laziness, rather than cook something I used an app on my cell phone to get Domino's delivered.
One pizza was plenty for two roommates to share, or at least I'd thought it would be. If we hadn't stayed up late celebrating, it might have been.
Midnight rolled around, there were still more films in the queue, and we were both in that zen-ish state where getting up long enough to make more food—so long as it wasn't too complicated or time-consuming—was acceptable.
I had microwave popcorn, always a reliable fallback. Several choices: normal, extra butter, and movie theatre butter. Tonight was an extra butter night, and Cinder watched the bag spin around in the microwave as it cooked. She liked the microwave, and had figured out how to use it, and it was always fun for me to watch, too. If it was something new, I'd have to punch the buttons, but Cinder understood microwave popcorn.
Had I just been by myself, I would have eaten it out of the bag. Since she was with me, I grabbed a bowl, she tilted the bag, and then her horn lit around the sorted then scattered conversation hearts.
The two of us sat on the couch, watching David Attenborough narrate the secret life of painted dogs while eating a surprisingly good extra butter/conversation hearts bowl of popcorn.
Not how I'd expected to spend my Valentine's Day, but I'd take it.
Figured I ought to write a Valentine's Day fic.
Where I am, it's technically Feb. 15 now. Where you are it might not be. Regardless, enjoy.
For once I didn't research before publishing, but I'm sure that conversation hearts will go on sale now that the holiday is over. I'll report back.
In case you didn't know, Cinder Glow is relentlessly adorable, and I could totally see her as the kind of kirin who'd sort her candy before eating it. After all, we all know the blue M&Ms are the best, and you gotta know what you're working with before you commit to eating a package of 'em.
Also, how about that Superbowl? I sure didn't watch it. I hear Rihanna won. EDIT: I have learned that Rihanna's ASL interpreter actually won.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Admiral Biscuit · 2.5k words · 232 2 · 2k views
- SockPuppet · 1.2k words · 132 5 · 1.9k views
- SockPuppet · 1.1k words · 64 5 · 784 views
- Admiral Biscuit · 2k words · 212 10 · 1.6k views
- Admiral Biscuit · 10k words · 73 3 · 874 views
- Admiral Biscuit · 3.4k words · 38 1 · 353 views
- RunicTreetops · 1.2k words · 111 6 · 1.3k views
- Rego · 3.4k words · 126 11 · 903 views
Stats
Page generated in 0.202 seconds
Total duration
724 users online
974,465 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
*reads title*
...
Posted in the group "Admiral Biscuit's Fleet"
the "Ponies on Earth" Folder
Excellent and adorable as always.
But a kirin is a microwave.
I'm getting concerned about the development of language skills in both of these characters. They had routines built by the first story, which was sometime before October. It's February now, and... nothing? And Cinder was talking, albeit in her own language, in the first story, which said something along the lines of "as if, if she stopped talking, it might be forever." And now she's miming when she clearly understands the protagonist's speech? That's just plain worrisome.
You're starting to channel Cackling Moron with these, exquisitely fluffy.
Very cute and adorable, just like Kiran!
11506997
I'd say that a kirin is more of a toaster oven, unless you don't give it the proper attention, then its more of a blast furnace.🔥
11507001
To me it seems like she could understand English just fine (she understood what the hearts said, after all), but she can't physically pronounce it.
Maybe kirin anatomy is just too different?
11507289
On the other hoof, if Cinder can understand spoken English, and read it well enough to understand what the candy hearts say despite the "twitter-speak" abbreviations (like substituting "U" for "you"), then she ought to be able to write her responses on a chalkboard or something, even if she can't physically pronounce the words.
The ASL interpreter for Rihanna won. You should definitely look for that video.
11507039
Nah, not enough anxiety. And tea.
11506867
I know, right? Don't even have a kirin to hang out with.
11506873
Thank you!
11506997
Thank you!
More of an open flame than a science oven IMHO. I did consider cooking the popcorn over Cinder, sorta like this:
derpicdn.net/img/2022/6/11/2885132/large.png
11507357
Maybe she's practicing? Either way, someone needs to get Anon into Blissymbolics.
This is a nice story. My Hearts&HoovesDay was HorseApples:
I live in the house of my mother. She died. I own half of it and my brother owns the other half. I lived here with my MareFriend. Just after the beginning of the month, my brother and sister-in-law broke-up. He moved hither and drove away my MareFriend just before Hearts&HoovesDay.
11507001
Is it possible for the two to speak each other's language? There could be enough physical differences between a pony and a human to make it impossible even if they tried.
Or maybe neither of them want to, or neither of them are good at foreign languages (especially a really foreign one). I did work with a client some time back who could speak, but rarely chose to. She never did when I was working with her, and apparently her therapist didn't know she could speak, but some of her regular staff did. . .
I don't think you're wrong to consider this, even if it's not something that the story isn't really meant to focus on. Your comment also reminded me that I've written multiple characters who are mute for one reason or another and how they communicate. Maybe that's something from my job at the group homes bleeding through.
11507023
Thanks!
11507039
Thanks!
I've only read a couple of Cackling Moron's stories, and I enjoyed them. I think there's a place for deep, exploratory stories that you can really sink your teeth into, the ones that leave you in thought for some time after reading them . . . and there's also a place for cute fluff.
Besides, ponies are for hugging. Everybody knows that
11507099
Thank you!
11507135
Campfire on demand.
Or, as you said, a blast furnace if she's angry.
You think that they can channel just a little bit of Nirik to get warmer? Or maybe their body temperature is naturally higher than other ponies?
11507289
I think that's a reasonable read. The story doesn't really go into it either way.
Given the difference in anatomy between equines and humans, there's a very good chance that it would be very difficult if not impossible for a pony to learn a human language, or vice-versa. In that case, written language would be learnable and understandable, but speaking would be out. Maybe some words could be learned, but not enough to have a good conversation.
Interestingly, while I know of quite a number of language barrier fics that at least start out with ponies and humans not speaking each other's language, I can't think of any off the top of my head where it's not possible for the characters to learn over the course of the story.
In Special Operations by Lets Do This, the ponies weren't on Earth long enough to learn language (if they could), but Twilight couldn't read anything and it was implied that it was somehow impossible, for whatever reason they couldn't learn: "In the end, [Twilight] wound up sitting in the middle of a heap of discarded books, none of which she could read. The strange distancing, that made her speech and writing incomprehensible to Sam... it apparently worked the other way as well."
11507357
There are a lot of possibilities. I work part-time with developmentally disabled adults, and some of them use boards with items on them (i.e., cookie, food, shower, car, etc.), others of them use variations of American Sign Language, and some of them are very good at communication with pantomime or simply taking you to what they want. Many years ago I met a mute guy who was complaining about how one of our mechanics had forgotten to balance his tire, and he was good enough at pantomiming that I got exactly what he said.
Writing's kind of cumbersome, and if pantomime gets the point across most of the time, that's probably a fine means of communication. Maybe write for something nuanced or complicated, but pantomime or pointing could and probably does work for other stuff.
Like, when you really get down to it, whatever works, right?
11507386
I did, and you're right. I'll have to change the note
11507558
Don't you tell me how to live my life.
Such cute. Much kirin.
So, our spunky protagonist keeps introducing Cinder to humans and human customs. I can't help but wonder if Cinder will ever flip the tables, and come a major kirin holiday, our lucky(?) human will wake up to a house full of silent dragon-fluffponies.
11507579
That's a possibility.
That's actually pretty amazing. I know we've gone universal or near-universal on some symbols like warnings and some informational signs, but I'd never heard of Blissymbolics. Which is interesting since one of my jobs is in a field where they might be useful; AFAIK we don't use them but instead have other methods.
11507608
One small wrinkle in that, is that when you look at scenes where the ponies are shouting:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/5/3/888160.gif
They clearly have uvulas, which exist only in humans and are considered to be accessory speech organs. Which, in turn, suggests that the ponies are capable of communicating orally in a manner similar to humans.
Or their just a stylistic thing.
11507585
Gah, yeah, that really sucks. Yikes.
I might not currently have a significant other, but at least I'm the sole owner of my house (well, I guess co-owner with the bank who holds the mortgage papers).
11507630
Yeah, it sucks:
Just because my brother cannot have hot naked nude sex anymore, he makes certain that I cannot either.
11507623
I think they're usually only used for those with very limited motor function. I also recommend looking up the back story behind them, I'd argue it's just as interesting.
11507625
Without getting too into the weeds . . .
I think that details like that are best left up to the individual author to figure out. Obviously we're extrapolating from a cartoon, and what's just cartoon convenience and what's actual fact is up for debate. Or, how horse-like are the ponies? I generally tend to lean towards the more equine end of the spectrum, and ignore stuff the show gets wrong for convenience (in my opinion), but of course YMMV. Same applies for pony tech; I have a solid headcanon on that based on a variety of factors which are very much up to lively debate . . . the general human/pony fic does assume that verbal communication is possible, but I feel it's reasonable to decide that it isn't due to physiological reasons. Or that there are some sounds which can be made and others which cannot, in the same way in which ear language (and tail language) is very important to IRL equines and probably MLP equines, too, and no matter how much a human can understand it, they cannot replicated it with their dumb ears and nonexistent tail.
That might be true, I honestly don't know. Most of the clients I work with are high-functioning, but there are others in the agency who aren't. I know a guy who works basically everywhere in the agency and he'd probably know if it's a tool we have, or if we use other options.
I am going to check into it, because I am very curious.
11507600
I figure that's a reasonable assumption on both accounts. When cooking with kirin, one should always remember that there is a fine line betwixt this
derpicdn.net/img/view/2020/12/17/2510872__safe_artist-colon-rocket-dash-lawnchair_cinder+glow_summer+flare_kirin_angry_background+kirin_christmas_cinder+glow+is+not+amused_cinderbetes_cute_fema.png
and thisderpicdn.net/img/view/2021/12/25/2771641__safe_artist-colon-jargon+scott_applejack_autumn+blaze_earth+pony_kirin_nirik_pony_angry_awwtumn+blaze_cute_dialogue_female_food_frown_glowing_glowing+h.jpg
Is this a 'Sam is a girl' scenario, or is protag just gay?
11507757
Protag was annoyed with all the women's Halloween costumes being sexy and bought a men's firefighter outfit instead.
In the UK, I have never seen "conversation hearts," but we do have another type of sweet called "love hearts" which are quite similar in design.
11507784
Right. Girl and her kirin roommate.
I hope Cinder doesn't disapprovingly terrify and chase off any would-be male suitors. Gotta keep the sisters before misters.
Cinder might have thought the displays were for imported Equestrian goods.
On the one hand, I question that assumption. On the other, no one wants to startle their roommate into an incendiary state. If nothing else, it’ll probably cost them the deposit on the apartment.
Another lovely bit of kirin fluff. Thank you for it.
11507625
Like Biscuit, I tend to assume that our cartoon equines are no more accurate to the reality than our cartoon humans (the last time I said this, I linked to an image of the eponymous Phineas and Ferb to illustrate my point).
11508155
Also, there is literally magic in MLP, which, depending on how you look at it, either explains a lot or makes things more complicated. Best to leave it up to the individual, I suppose
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/1/20/529727.gif
11507705
Looking back, there are a lot of moments were we see equine behavior and body language. Exhibit A:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/11/18/1588746.gif
11508425
Both? Both is good.
11507618
Can't go wrong with kirin floofiness.
Ooh, that would be an interesting twist.
Debatable if our protagonist could survive the cuteness overload. I know I wouldn't.
11507733
"For this recipe, set your kirin's anger level to three or four. . . "
Heh, I wonder if kirins ever invented home heating? I mean, if they get cold, that probably makes them angry, right? It's a self-solving problem.
Also, I don't know why, but I suddenly have a vision of a group of kirin in a battle just marching into enemy lines and then setting themselves on fire. And everything else.
11507757
She's a girl, always has been. Although just like the first Sam and Rose story, I'm not sure it actually came up in Portrait of a Kirin.
As 11507784 pointed out, in the last story she didn't like the girl's costumes on offer.
So I think the biggest worry would be that, despite warnings, would-be suitors touch Cinder when she doesn't want to be (try and pet her, rub her scales the wrong way, whatever) and then pay the price.
Like, way back when my girlfriend had a rabbit named Freddie. He was very friendly when he was out of his cage, and very protective of his cage. The first time my friends saw him, they'd want to reach into the cage and pet him; I'd warn them that he didn't like it.
Usually they'd say something like "what's he gonna do, he's a rabbit," then stick their fingers in the cage.
He'd growl, then come at them with claws and teeth.
Seems like most people don't know that rabbits can growl, or that they have claws.
11508051
Eh, I hate to burst your bubble, but not everybody can count on themselves to love themselves.
11508083
That's true--the ponies love heart-theming and pastels. We didn't see enough of the kirin to know that they had similar tastes, at least as far as I remember. But they probably do.
Never make that assumption, you just never know. Although you're right, it's best to make sure she isn't startled to the point she bursts into flames.
You're welcome!
11508155
I do feel that this is very much up to the author to decide. There are pros and cons to both camps, and a lot of times it really doesn't matter. For what I tend to write, I find it's more interesting to go more realistic and follow those implications, at least for most stories. It's also taken me down some fun research paths.
11508425
Yeah, the magic makes things really complicated. Especially in human/pony stories set on Earth, because that begs the question of why does magic work on Earth, and assuming it follows some principles currently unknown to mankind, could humans learn to use it in some way? Maybe not innately, but by building a machine which can interact with thaumic fields or what have you, and thereby duplicate some pony spells?
In one of my stories, pegasi are teaming up with weather researchers to gain insight into what the ponies can do, and how they do it.
Oh, there totally are, which is really delightful. That's one of the things I really adore about the show.
One of my favorites is this:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/8/14/1806663.gif
The only thing they missed was having one of Fluttershy's hind legs cocked.
A truly alarming number of Monty Python jokes have a basis in reality.
11508490
You're not wrong.
I don't think Freddie could have beheaded anyone, but it wouldn't have been for lack of trying--if he was gonna go at someone, he was gonna go all-in.
Actually, I think that's the reason that most of the dangerous animals to humans are herbivores. A predator usually isn't going to try and eat you if it's too much trouble or too risky, whereas a prey animal that decides it's going to fight won't hold back. I seem to recall an episode of Casual Geographic where he listed the 10 most dangerous animals to humans; two of them were equines (zebras and donkeys, IIRC).