June 30
I only took a short little flight around the neighborhood today 'cause I was going to go see Cyndi at WWMT and I didn't know how long it would take me to get there, and I didn't want to be late.
Then I took a shower and made extra-sure that my mane and tail were brushed really well and had a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and then I checked the mirror one more time to be sure that there wasn't any oatmeal stuck in my muzzle.
The directions I had were for roads, and I figured that if I flew I would get lost, but I could fly faster than I could trot, so I compromised and flew just above the sidewalks.
That meant that I had to cross at intersections and obey traffic signs 'cause if I didn't a car might squish me. It must be frustrating to be a groundpony and have to wait for stuff all the time. Plus I also found out that sometimes when cars were turning right they wouldn't look to see if there was a pony off to that side trying to get across the road and a couple of them had started their turn before they saw me and one even honked and it probably shouldn't have done that because I bucked it in the nose. I didn't mean to, but it surprised me.
It was just west of Westnedge, behind a restaurant called The Korea House. And when I got there I had to look around until I found the front door, and there was a man in black pants and a white shirt with a badge who wouldn't let me by until I told him who I was, and then he saw that my name was on his list but he still wouldn't let me by 'cause he said that they were on the air right now and I would have to wait.
I didn't think he meant in the air, or else I would have told him I could fly up to meet them.
He directed me to some seats which were arranged like a couch but had arm rests between them so I couldn't stretch out. And there was a table with magazines about golfing, and also a little tree in a pot. It looked like a bonsai tree that had grown up.
The man went back to his business and it wasn't until a red light that said 'On Air' turned off that he picked up a telephone and made a quick call, and pretty soon Cyndi came out to greet me.
No sooner had I hugged her, but two more people came out, and introduced themselves as Kirk Mason and Alex Jokich. Alex said that Cyndi had been talking about me and so she wanted to meet me, too.
The three of them gave me a real quick tour of the TV station and their studio where they did the news. Kirk asked if I thought it looked bigger on the TV and I said that I had never seen it on the TV and Alex started laughing. She said that I was the first visitor who had never seen their show.
Kirk used his pocket telephone to show a video of him reporting on a bicycle crash that happened recently (although this was the first time I heard about it) and I looked at his telephone and then back at the studio and said I thought it looked bigger in reality than it did on his pocket telephone.
Then he and Alex both had to run off to get ready for their next news broadcast, and Cyndi took me to her office, which was just a little set of rectangular walls that didn't even go all the way up, so when she stood up everyone else could see her. She said it was called a cubicle, and I thought it was a nice idea because you'd never be lonely with all those other people around you all the time. When I flew up to see over a bunch of people were looking in our direction.
She showed me her computer and her weather radio which were a lot like the ones that the NOAA office had, and she said it was pretty much the same thing except that they had more stuff. And so we talked for a little bit about predicting the weather—which still felt a little bit backwards to me—and then she took me to her studio which was even smaller than the one Kirk and Alex had. One side of it was a big green screen and she said that she had to watch a small TV which showed her what she was pointing to on the screen.
I didn't understand, so she had one of the television crew start the equipment so that I could watch, and it was like magic—she was in front of a blank screen, but when I looked at the small TV there was a picture behind her.
She let me try it, and so I went in front of the screen and the man with the camera had to aim it down to even see me, and then I saw myself in the television screen with a map behind me but when I turned around it was just a green wall.
Cyndi told me to point to Grand Rapids and I went and poked at the wall where I thought it was, but I was wrong and had to move my hoof four times before I got it right.
She said that it took a lot of practice to point to things that weren't there, and a lot of people didn't appreciate that. Then she asked if I could do a special weather broadcast for her on the Fourth of July, which was coming up really soon.
I asked if it would be just me, or if she was going to help, and she said that she would be there, too. She said it wasn't a for-sure thing; she'd have to get permission first. And then she asked if I had ever been on television before and I said that I hadn't but I had been on YouTube lots of times and she said she'd seen some of those videos.
Then she told me that if I was going to be on TV I couldn't swear, because that was against the rules, and I also had to keep my head towards the camera. She said that they couldn't show my backside and I asked her why not, and she told me that it was also against television rules to show genitals.
I guess YouTube doesn't have rules like that.
So she let me practice a little bit more and then we went back to her cube-office and spent some time looking at the weather map and arguing good-naturedly about what the weather was going to do tomorrow or even later today. We both agreed that it was going to rain tomorrow, probably early in the morning, and then she said it would be mostly clear until Monday and I wasn't so sure about that.
Then Cyndi told me the worst part of her job was telling people that the weather was going to be bad for a holiday weekend because everyone always expected it to be nice but weather didn't work like that. And I said that if there were teams of weather pegasuses it could. We kept the skies clear on big market days and made sure that all the farmers got the rain that they needed. And we mostly stopped the storms that came in from the ocean and maybe one day we'd have enough weatherponies that we could.
She went with me back to the main room and on the way said that she would email me if she got approval to use me in a short segment and she said that I might want to think about a bio, because probably Alex would introduce me.
I told her that I would and then we hugged. She asked me how I was going to get back home and I said I would fly, and she wanted to see that so she went out to the parking lot and I took off and circled the building once and waved at her then flew back towards my apartment.
I wonder if Gusty has ever been on TV? I bet she has.
Once I got home I didn't have a whole lot to do so I ate lunch and then went out to the balcony with my Bible and read about Esther. She had been an orphan but when Queen Vashti didn't come to dinner with the King, he replaced her with Esther. A bad man who hated Esther's uncle planned to not only kill him, but all the Israelites, and I thought that the King was going to go along, especially since Esther was afraid to speak in front of him, but at the end she did and when the King found out what Haman's plan was, he had Haman hanged on the gallows he's built for Esther's uncle Mordecai.
I flew over to Aric's house to check on the bird feeder. David was out in the backyard, fixing a black grill like the one Jeff cooked on, and Angela was sunning herself again. David wasn't wearing his shirt—judging from the black smudges on his chest and arms from the grill, he had taken it off so it wouldn't get dirty. Angela was wearing a swimsuit with the bra untied like Christine did.
I filled the feeder and tested it and David asked if I wanted to have some burgers for dinner. He said that they were vegetarian, so I said I would, and so he told Angela that he was almost done and it was time to start gathering things for dinner, so she held her bra up against her and went inside and when she came back out with food she was wearing a shirt that said Einstürzende Neubauten on it and had funny little stick-man that had a simple eye as a head.
David said that was his shirt.
She said he was wearing her panties again, and he looked down and pulled his pants away from himself and said that he wasn't, so she reached down and unbuttoned them and pulled down the zipper and said that he was.
I thought that while they were cooking and looking at each other's underwear I would go get some beer to share, even though it would be helpful to learn to cook on a grill. So I went to Tiffany's and got six Oberons because everyone likes them and flew them back and it turned out that I didn't miss much because unlike Jeff's grill, this one had to have a fire in it and then it had to turn into coals before the food could be cooked.
I had two vegetable burgers and Angela had two and David had an actual meat burger and he also had a little tub of potato salad and he said that he was getting ready for cooking out the Fourth of July. He said that his mother and her wife were going to visit along with a bunch of other friends that they had, and I was welcome to show up and bring my friends.
So I told him that I would unless Meghan had something else planned, and then thanked him for cooking me dinner and then flew off to campus.
I think that Liz was happy that I didn't have my glaive with me this time. We talked about how bad things always seemed to happen to the Israelites and I said that I thought a lot of the reason was because they weren't always following God's rules like He had told them to. And then she told me some of the historical context of the chapters I'd been reading, and she said that there was even a movie called One Night with the King that was about Esther, and I might enjoy it.
And then she asked me how my summer was going and I told her it was fun so far but it was strange to not have a regimented schedule like I'd had in class, and I said that sometimes it was lonely in my apartment.
She invited me to church and said I'd be welcome, and then we hugged, and then I went back home long enough to pack up my flight gear and then flew over to Meghan's apartment.
We started off by making cookies, which was a lot like the waffles but the dough was thicker and more sugary and then she put it on flat tins and when she was done there was some batter left over and she said that eating it raw was one of the best things about making cookies.
I thought that we could watch the last Harry Potter movie while they cooked, but she said that they wouldn't be in the oven for that long, so instead we did the dishes which wasn't as much fun as watching a movie.
And while we were, I told her about how I got to visit the TV station and was maybe going to get a chance to do a weather report for them, and I also told her about David and Angela's party, and she said that she would like to go to that but reminded me that we were also going to go horseback riding.
Then the cookies were done and it was frustrating how good they smelled but we couldn't eat them yet because they had to cool on the rack first.
That was why I never flew above the bakery.
When they were cool enough she got a plate of cookies and a glass of milk and we went to her room to watch the last movie.
I spent most of the movie in Meghan's lap and I think I would have stopped watching if she hadn't told me that it turned out okay in the end, because it seemed like things kept getting worse and worse and I was pretty sure that Voldemort had actually won until Harry Potter came back to life.
Once it was over, we ate the rest of the cookies and Meghan brushed a few stray crumbs off her bed and put the dishes away and then she got undressed and got into bed.
I snuggled up with my head on her breast and she put her arm around my back and petted my wing and she fell asleep pretty quickly but I was still kind of stressed out about the movie so it took me a while longer and I think if I had been by myself I would have had trouble sleeping but since I was with her I felt safe.
hum is silver going to be a star weather pony here on TV?
I could make a crude joke here. I just want you to know that.
Since when is Silver Glow a newspony?
sudden shift to present tense
You know, there are really tiny TV transmitters hobbyists use on drones.
Silver could do a helicopter like in air weather report.
Although I hate to add yet another radio to her.
"Doppler 3 is tracking a long line of thunderstorms coming to Kalamazoo. So I'm going to fly up there and kick those mean clouds so they don't ruin our holiday weekend. For WWMT 3 Weather, this is Silver Glow. Back to you, Mara."
7529370
She's going to end up as 50% transmission equipment by the end of her stay.
7529370 Bah, it's only 3 radios. I've carried more at work, it's not a problem as long as EVERYONE uses proper radio etiquette and you know by heart which mic goes with which radio (headset for your primary radio, 2 speaker mics with one pinned on each side of your neck and whatever radio you don't need to transmit with on your belt.) The big problem becomes weight, as once you pass 3 radios the weight starts getting noticeable and you have to cinch your belt tight as hell unless you're willing to lose your pants.
My personal record is 7 radios although 5 of those were just until I passed them out.
And here I picture some guy trying to explain to his insurance agent how his car ended up with tiny hoofprints in the bumper.
There are so many things I could say about this, but I have to go to work and sit in my cubicle.
This right here is why I dont like so called modern systems, given Mandala turned the presenter into an integrated computer graphics object back in 87, then Mpeg 4 came out with its dynamic seperation of characters and backgrounds in the early 2000s at least. Throw in a bit of optical and digital image stabilisation in handheld cheap cameras, and it just gets more and more desperate to be seen to keep the price up to justify the costs.
Oh well, only another ten years to wait before the BT purchased patents on freeform MESH networking expire and cell phones can link each other up to bypass costs of cell networks and landlines with the advantage of the more cell phones in an area the greater teh overall bandwidth and resiiance.
One advantage with having a weather pegasus on wing, is that you can greatly extend your personal BBQ season?
I lack the skill to put in a link but check out "Family Guy The Freaking FCC". Also, George Carlin's '7 words you can't say on TV" (Although, these days that's a little dated. Probably down to 3 or 4 & none on cable)
As to Silver being on the air. The weather is the weather no matter what channel you're on. They are desperate to differentiate themselves. I'd bet the brass will put Silver on the air. IDK though, do you have to belong to SAG or AFTRA to be allowed to do a broadcast? If so, what does it cost?
After 10 years, I daresay Ponies aren't automatically celebrities. Certainly not "A list" celebrities. Still, it's probably a novelty & good for ratings. She could get a Summer job as "the eye in the sky" & maybe her take on events or weather.
Honk if you love
poniesgetting your bumper bucked in by a pony.I love everything about this entire section. Those YouTube videos must be... interesting.
(Come to think of it, I wonder if that creepy dude at Meijer had been stalking her videos.)
Watching a movie with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk and a cute pony cuddled in your lap. Meghan is in frigging heaven right now.
I love this description.
I wonder if anyone has been dumb enough to try that on Aquamarine, and how badly damaged the car would end up if they did...
WWMT - What Would Meghan Touch.
Wait what? Is it a mistake or did I miss something there?
I did the weather broadcast for the national channel once when I was a kid. Fun experience. Cure you forever of any stress you may have about talking in public.
For real? Nice!
That will be interesting to see Silver on TV
"Aric ? Why does my rear end looks so blocky on earth ?!? Is it just on youtube ? Quick i need a mirror!"
following your nose - a favorit catch phrase among pegasus ponys. its about pegasi who crashed anywhere close to tasty smelling locations ...
David and Angela would have a field day in Equestria ...
Hooray for Ester.
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/ee8ncd/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-crazy-stupid-dov---the-war-on-purim
So it wasn't even slightly like this, eh Silver?
7529414
"She assaulted my car! Someone's going to pay for this, and if you're in charge of her, then that's you!"
"Sir, did you or did you not honk at the pony?"
"She was crossing right into traffic! And look what she did to-!"
"Don't honk at the pony, sir."
"What? I'll honk at-!"
"Don't. Honk. At. The. Pony."
"But-!"
"You're lucky you only got a dented bumper. One of the earlier pegasi visitors worked for their weather factory. Blew out every single piece of electronic in some dickwad's Jaguar. It wasn't the pegasus' fault that you weren't paying attention, and that means it's not our fault. You should be happy to know that she didn't hurt herself on your bumper, or else we'd be doing so much more than just warning you to not honk at the pony. Understand?"
David has excellent taste in music.
I love Einstürzende Neubauten. Such an eclectic array of music.
I can just imagine a statewide Squee once shevon television.
"We now return to Cookies with Ponies with your hosts Silver Glow, Aquamarine, Gusty and Cayenne."
Great entry. And as an aside, it'd be hilarious if her friends took her to a 'full audience participation' showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show for Halloween (Bonus points if it's a live show and Aric is doing the lights.)
7531058
Forget that nonsense. They need to do a classy show.
I know all about cars turning right without looking. It is no fun.
7529354
That's not really her style, but if she wanted to she could probably get a job as a weatherperson.
7529368
Corrections made, thank you!
(and you totally should have made a crude joke)
7529370
Yeah, too many radios and other equipment and she won't be able to lift off at all.
7529378
"Weather on demand--only on WWMT."
7529392
Yeah, no kidding. People keep wanting to add radios, cameras, and so forth. On the other hand, that type of thing could potentially be good employment for pegasi going forward. Who needs a news helicopter when you've got a pegasus with a GoPro and a satellite uplink?
7529397
I bet you've never tried human-powered flight with that many radios strapped to you, though.
7529414
He's lucky it wasn't an Earth pony. I bet Aquamarine could buck the car hard enough to trigger the airbags.
I bet you're not lonely with all those people around you.
7529419
I'm kind of surprised that we don't have that yet--Comcast is working on a thing where their modems all have wifi transmitters that let other nearby Comcast subscribers access channels on the go. They even let people use two hours a month as a guest, which I've utilized before.
Of course, a lot of customers aren't too happy that other people can slow down their network.
If she can fly up into stormclouds, Silver Glow could do small, local weather-clearing. And of course she can also deliver rainclouds right where they're needed.
7529457
I've always wondered if that song just scrapes by the FCC's censors, or if they just planned to pay the fine right from the get-go. Like, there was some exec sitting by the telephone waiting for the call, holding a pen over a checkbook.
Anyway, here you go:
Oh, yeah. Of course they will. That's a big coup to have a pegasus reporting the weather; that's not something anyone else is doing.
You might have to belong to SAG or AFTRA to be allowed to be an actual weatherperson, but I've seen clips of guests doing weather reporting, and I don't think that there's any restrictions on that. After all, someone else prepared the weather report, and they're just reading it. To use a similar example, you've got to be a lawyer to read a closing statement in court, but there's no prohibition against anyone else reading it in order to report on it later.
Yeah, she's missed her opportunity to be totally unique; on the other hand, she's one of the few pegasi who's spent a lot of time on Earth, so that's something. And she's unique enough to be a local celebrity, that's for sure. Especially since lots of people have witnessed her flying around town.
7529490
Honestly, if I got my bumper bashed in by a pony bucking it, I wouldn't even be mad.
Pretty much any video that manages to capture her backside . . . or that one where she was rolling on her back in the snow? That one wouldn't have left anything to the imagination.
Quite possibly.
7529531
Probably, and probably hard enough to cause actual damage, rather than just some hoof-shaped scrapes.
proequinegrooms.com/files/4914/4624/1703/2.jpg
7529539
(Anything she can)
7529567
That was a typo.
I'm pretty sure i've never been on TV.
Yup, for real.
7529669
Silver Glow: student, ornithopter, weather-watcher, and now Weathermare.
7529676
YouTube legit doesn't censor nudity so long as the video has the proper tags. For obvious reasons, I can't link an example.
The tragic loss of ten pegasi at the Greater Manehattan Confectionery is still fresh on everypony's mind.
They would. Although they'd have trouble trading underwear with the locals.
7529780
My personal favorite book of the Old Testament.
7529821
Pretty much like that, except not intentional. If she was being intentional, she'd fly up and kick it in the windshield.
7529878
I can see it playing out like this:
Miss Cherilyn does all the explaining, and Mister Salvatore just stands there with his arms crossed, a serious look on his face.
Which reminds me, have you ever seen the X-Files episode with Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek?
7529919
Yes, he does. Not so good taste in movies, though.
7530021
One of my friends loved their music. The Garden is the only song of theirs that I really remember well.
7530852
7530871
Is this cooking the cookies, or eating the cookies with a pony on your lap?
Either way, it's a show I'd watch.
7531058
I went to a Halloween showing once, but they confiscated everything before we got in the theater. I guess they didn't want to deal with the mess.
I know a guy who can pull off the Frank N. Furter Time Warp outfit perfectly.
7531168
7531357
I've gotten lucky, and only totalled one bike like that.
Trust me, what's even worse is a city bus turning right without looking.
orig00.deviantart.net/0ed9/f/2016/248/c/1/wrecked_plow_truck_by_admiral_biscuit-daglexa.jpg
7537785
You bet your ass I can.
7705111
Pics or it didn't happen.
Uhhhh, Admiral?
7537785
7531357
Another universal truth. Death, taxes, and bad driving.
Around here people will turn left and right without looking. They also won't indicate and do it whilst eating their submarine sandwitch and reading the paper. (no joke, it's happened.)
Add to that people running stop streets, traffic lights, and having no idea about yielding; and people wonder why SA has such terrible traffic safety.
7908818
That's accurate. His mother and her wife.
7918014
So you're implying his mother is a lesbian? It just seems very weird a detail to me, specially considering she has a son.
7918526
Well, I don't know exactly how it came about, but one of my friends in college had a mother who had become a lesbian at some point after she'd had him.
These days, I assume that you could also use donated sperm, if his mother had never had any interest in men.
7537683
...*YouTube search intensifies*
sorry, couldn't resist
8118833
That's actually an interesting thing to speculate about--YouTube (and other internet sites) have certain rules about human nudity but generally not animal nudity (for obvious reasons). How might those rules apply with ponies on Earth? Do they count as 'human,' and thus you can't show the naughty bits, or do they count as animals, and it's fine to show those parts?
Not For the Hypersensitive
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=George+Carlin+7+Dirty+Words&&view=detail&mid=62B6ACBA9F84E5E5DAF862B6ACBA9F84E5E5DAF8&&FORM=VRDGAR
A little dated, cutting edge 50 years ago. The best part starts about 4:30 into the video
reposting this because it's one of my favorite Family Guy scenes
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=family+guy+the+freaking+fcc&&view=detail&mid=8C20D3A265E6DFF8C7FC8C20D3A265E6DFF8C7FC&&FORM=VRDGAR
8769405
You still can't (generally) say those seven words on TV. Unless it's cable; then you're golden.
And I love the Freaking FCC. One of the best Family Guy songs ever.
The general rules are
Books & plays may end poorly or well BUT
Opera ends badly &
Movies end well
The book Pygmalion ends with Eliza Doolittle walking out on the Prof
but in the movie My Fair Lady, they show Audrey Hepburn coming back to him
9318768
Not all movies have a happy ending. A History of Violence didn’t exactly have a good ending, for example.
7537652
8769405
According to the Youtube comments, the FCC actually thought the song was funny. They may have fined them anyway on unfortunate principle, but...
It's the little details
11323330
11040009
I wouldn't be surprised if some of them got a laugh at it, but the rules are the rules.
EDIT: I don't know if they were actually fined for that song, or not. It might be very carefully written to not break any actual rule.