Holy-!

It lives!

Time to find out what's on Alex's mind and his plans of salt intoxication.

Awesome, another chapter!

but it'll have to wait till tomorrow for a read-trough

*See the chapter update in the feed*

M-must... Not... Faint...

Welcome back!

WOOO! I know what I'm doing as soon as return from work!

8 chapters and 130k words with no meat for the sex and mature tags. Lucky this fic is good on its own, otherwise myself and others would of left by now.

One of the things that this story does very well is demonstrate culture shock, and it has always done this well, but I'll admit, I'm starting to get a little tired of Etheria freaking the fuck out over every little difference. Or maybe that isn't the right way to say it...

It's less that she freaks out, and more that every time she freaks out, it comes across as, "Ew, you guys do THAT?" And the main character apologizes and grovels, and meanwhile I sit here and start to like her just a little bit less. Is there anything in our culture that she admires? There might be. There might be examples of things she has admired IN the story, but they are so outweighed by her instances of "look at that mess you made! Icky! Yucky! Civilized ponies don't do this!" That none immediately come to mind.

It might not necessarily be so bad if the main character didn't act like a lovesick apologetic doofus every time she does it. It probably isn't very civil of me, but some part of me wants to shout, "grow a fucking spine!" every time he does it.

Now I will grant you, maybe this is a pet peeve of mine. Maybe I am being overly sensitive. Hell, maybe I'm just in a bad mood today, but this story is really well done, it's full of good intereactions and the world building is top notch. That one little annoying facet really detracts for me. Culture shock is one thing. Cultural elitism is a another, and it is fucking annoying. She has spent exactly zero time trying to understand WHY humans culture is the way that it is; we don't have harmony magic and terraforming weather manipulation and wise, immortal god emperors. We've made due with what we have, and how fucking DARE someone, anyone, denigrate the accomplishments we've made?! We've paid for them in BLOOD.

That got a little vehement at the end, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way. This comes across as a much stronger criticism than I really intended. What I've said here is, however, what I FEEL, and I'm not going to take it back. I just hope it helps you in the future.

you're a naughty foal and that is concentrated evil coming out of the back of you

I fucking lost it.

Dammit man, I have to sleep in two hours and this shows up.... DAMMIT! DAMMIT DAMMIT!

....
....
....

Fuck it *makes some coffee*

Part 2 will be up shortly.

shortly

i.imgur.com/qZEQGLb.gif

I'm counting on you.

Nevermind, while I was reading you uploaded the other half. Where's my sleep now.

OH MY GOD IT UPDATED I hope Craig doesn't get sloshed and let something slip.

4453067 Welp, you've said just about everything I could about those particular issues, so I can be lazy and just go

glad to see this story still in existence. I had just been thinking about it the other day

IT'S ALIIIIIIVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A-hem.

Great to see this back on track and certainly worth the wait!

There was one point in there, where Alex was playing with his guild and Nispee started being vulgar...well at the same time I was listening to "it'll be OK" by Shercloppones and the song comes to an end, AJ comes into scene and says;
"That was the creepiest thing I've ever heard..."

I died right there. I am writing this from hell. Please inscribe my gravestone with the phrase;
"Totally Worth It."

About time it updated.

Glad it was worth the weight.
Though I am curious as to how she will react once they get to the more...
Well, vulgar parts of human history. Some shock at that would be fine, but it would be nice to see the alicorn being hit with a sucker
punch at just how truly she and possibly her world to an extent are lucky in a few ways, while at the same time show her some of the truly amazing things we have done. I.E: How we are all too familiar with the gruesome realities of war, as well as dazzle her with our exploration of space, even landing on our own Moon if possible.

Those Family Guy references...

Excellent, an update! But one thing though. Could you put that deleted scenes into some sub-chapter, or maybe separate it at the end of this one? I read it as an epub file on ebook, and FiMF doesn't include author notes in those files. If I didn't came here to post "It's alive!" comment, and if I just pushed 'end' on a keyboard instead of scrolling, I wouldn't even know there were any 'deleted scenes'.

Edit. Ok, I should have read that first before I posted this.

Great chapter! Will read more later.

What language are you using for Etherea's Equestrian? It doesn't seem to be a current human language, did you create it just for the story, or is it Quenya or the like?

Oh craige I swear xDD

And holy damn its only been 4 days since etherea has been on earth? Good lord I thought this was a week in at the very least.

Around 100k words in and its only been 4 days good lord the juicy romance will take forever!

Quick Alex, think of something! "Your knob is dirty."

.....

I died.

Is it me or is Alex and Craig comparable to Octavia and Vinyl?

She met my gaze with a faint blush. "Oh, um... I am still astonished by, um, how casually you demonstrate such... fine dexterity."

I looked at the pencil I was holding. Nothing unusual there; I was just writing. "Like I said: it's just a lot of practice. You, however," I leveled the eraser end of the pencil at her, "can still do the same thing without being anywhere near the page."

"Oh, I know. I just can't imagine being able... to coordinate all ten of your, um, fingers so deftly."

Huh. You know, if I had to explain hands to an alien equine I'd probably start by saying they're really sensitive. The closest thing to compare that to might be the end of their nose, and even then that wouldn't be right. Hands can determine dust particles and individual scratches on surfaces that our eyes can't even see. You can use them with your eyes closed. Now that I'm actually thinking about it, I'm really happy to have hands.

Shachza, on a different note, could Alex technically be tried for treason for hiding Etherea away? I know there are a bucket load of laws people can break without even realising it, and have you looked into some of the legal stuff for this? He might become too important to be publicly attacked by the government, the laws do break down at this situation, and he has done what he thought was safest, but an aggressive politician could easily debate the legality of his actions. I mean there was no real way to tell if the extraterrestrial were safe, and her arrival could be considered a matter national security at the least. Patriotism isn't anything like it was, but it could be argued by some that Alex betrayed a civil duty to his country.

Congrats on over 1000 likes!

Should we expect a new chapter before the New Year?

5173574 .... I had the same thought a few chapters ago, not gonna lie.

'you're a naughty foal and that is concentrated evil coming out of the back of you'

Really

My thoughts during this reading.

I found it really funny las chapter...or was it this chapter when Etherea made it look like she had breasts. That was very good. Though I wonder how she will react to finding out about the wars mankind have made. Especially the world wars. Or very tragic events.

The "Answer me you noodly armed mother fucker" seemed like something Egoraptor would have shouted during one of his "Awesome (Fill in the blank)" series. Especially the "Metal Gear Awesome" Series.

I tiny 'hmh!' came from behind me. She sounded amused.

A

As Etherea and I traded sheets and carefully copied snippets of script I found myself under a constant, almost uncomfortable from stare from her.

Remove

The U.N. is all about everyone working together peacefully so they might have something about they would do for first contact.

About what they

What that I could take the second part back...

Wish

Especially if something happens that to get them involved, like Etherea's people showing up looking for her.

To get//that gets

Her brow was heavily creased brow and her eyes were darting between Craig and some point off to her right.

Remove

The great, beaming smile that break out across her muzzle was wonderful.

Broke//could also remove the following 'out'

I mean I got the joke at its core but by thoughts were too disjointed to express.

My; 'much' after 'express'

When came to a stop he rested an elbow on the island beside me, faux whispering conspiratorially.

When his piece came

Etherea hadn't seemed to notice my momentary lapse and settled back reexamine the paper in front of her.

Back to re/examine

I took everything step further and sought out

Everything a step

For a little there was nothing but silence in the apartment while Craig stared at me.

Little while there

What if Cadance got herself stuck on Earth and secretly bought a house next to some poor schmuck?

Is that a story somewhere?
Sounds like comedy.
No romance. Just pizza peetzer.

Coming back years later to reread, and the phrase "noodly armed mother fucker" is STILL great!

Pretty much every time Etherea is grossed out or underwhelmed by Alex and Craig's practicality born of being two broke/poor bachelors (old clothes, infrequency of laundry, small array of cleaning products, standards of clean, etc), this song begins to faintly play in my head.

This is what it's like to dance along with the common people/ponies Etherea!
THIS is what it's like to live along with the common people/ponies Eherea!
THIS is what it's like to live like the common people/ponies Eherea!

10879197

It's one of the other random story ideas I had. Probably not even enough for a Storytime With Shachza blog... A guy is living in a neighborhood and the house next door gets bought. Moving company moves stuff in, but he never sees an owner. Time passes, he's heard the occasional noise and seen the occasional movement, but still no concrete neighbor. One day he goes over (sneaks?) and discovers/sees Princess Cadance inside. Things take off from there.