July 4
Getting up at three am wasn't any fun at all. I'd gotten used to Meghan's alarm going off at its normal time in the morning, but I wasn't prepared for it and I jerked up in bed, smacked Meghan with a wing, and was backing out of bed when I realized what the noise was.
Meghan picked up her pocket telephone and glared at it and I thought that she was going to throw it across the room and we both sort of shared a look like the sensible thing to do would be to just turn it off and go back to bed and wake up at a sane hour of the day.
And she could have done that and I wouldn't have even been mad. I'd promised that I was going to do the weather report, but she was probably just going to have to sit off in the background, being quiet.
I really did want her to come, though.
She groaned and rubbed her hand over her stomach, where I'd smacked her, and then pushed the covers the rest of the way off and sat up in the bed. I got back in and nuzzled her side and she reached down and scratched between my shoulders and then said that maybe a shower would help wake us up.
I thought coffee would, too, so when she went in the bathroom to start the shower I filled the electric kettle and got it going. I had a jar of coffee crystals I'd bought for early mornings.
She'd already gotten in the shower, so I hopped in the back and waited for my turn to stick my head under the hot spray.
We took turns washing each other and then she got out first and went on the other side of the shower curtain so I could shake myself off some, and when I hopped out she had a towel waiting for me.
It was a bit chilly in the apartment and there wasn't any sun to warm us up. But that helped us wake up—it's hard to sleep when you're chilly. She got dressed quicker than she usually did after a shower, putting on her bra and shirt before I even combed her hair. And then she got the rest of the way dressed while I went and made coffee for us.
Meghan blew on the cup to cool it down a little bit then took a sip and made a face. I tried some of mine and it was pretty bitter, but it certainly opened my eyes, so I guess it worked.
We used the rest of the hot water to make two bowls of the mapely oatmeal that I like, and then we were ready to go.
The town was very different this early in the morning. When we got to Stadium Drive, there weren't any cars on it in either direction, and Meghan said that was kind of creepy. And most of the buildings were closed and dark, although there was a gas station that was open.
As we were walking along Westnedge, every couple of minutes a car or two would pass us. One was a police car with lights on top and it slowed down as it went by, then sped off up the hill. And I saw a red wrecker with a smashed-up car behind it.
Meghan checked her telephone when we got close and said that we were a little bit early, so she crouched down and combed my mane again with her fingers, and I pushed her bangs back over her ear with my nose. Then we went inside.
I knew that bakers got up early to start baking bread, and I guess newspeople did, too, because while the town outside seemed nearly deserted, once Cyndi escorted us back through the door it was bustling with activity. Meghan leaned down and said that people had no right to be that chipper this early in the morning.
They rushed me off to get ready, and Meghan followed along. We went right to Cyndi's little studio, and a man stuck a microphone on me again and then had me check to make sure it was working right. And he reminded me to be careful sitting down because the pack was on my tail like it had been last time.
They had to use a few more strips of tape this time, 'cause I was going to have to fly up a little bit to point to things on the greenscreen, and they also wanted to make sure it didn't come off. So he put a couple more pieces on my back, 'cause it was easiest to run the wire along my spine rather than under my belly.
After I was ready, Cyndi and I read through the weather report a couple times, just to make sure that I knew what was in it, and then we had a little practice with the screen. Then when it was almost time to start, they told Meghan that she couldn't be in the studio while they were filming, because of the incident in Virginia last year, but there was a separate little room where she could watch what was happening.
They started turning the floodlights on, and people came in and put the cameras in position. I noticed that each one of them had a little rubber duck on the end, which were all different colors, and Cyndi told me that was how they knew which camera was which. They had labels on the other end, but the ducks were easier for everyone to see.
Alex and Kirk came in and took their seats at their desk and shuffled through some papers, and Alex looked over at me and waved, and then we had to be quiet because it was time to start.
It was really strange to watch, because while Alex and Kirk were the only ones talking, all the actual action was taking place on the floor, where no one but us could see it. Besides the people with the cameras, there was a woman on the floor who watched everything intently and occasionally made hand-motions towards the cameramen.
TV had commercial breaks, and so when it was time they turned off the light that said 'On Air' and everyone relaxed a little bit. My ears perked up after the second when Alex said that they were going to do a very special Fourth of July weather report next, and then she kind of stayed in position with a friendly smile on her face until the 'On Air' light went out and I knew it was about time.
And then Cyndi told me to look towards the camera—she said to never turn away from it even if it wasn't on—and I heard someone say 'thirty seconds,' and then before I knew it Cyndi was introducing me, and then the camera that was looking at her turned and looked at me and I waved.
I was glad we'd practiced, because otherwise I would have just been standing there like a scared foal. But it was still fresh in my mind where I was supposed to point and what I was supposed to say, so I did.
And then before I knew it it was over. The lights went off and Cyndi said I'd done a great job and gave me a hug, and then the man who'd put my microphone on took it back off and asked me if I wanted to stay for the rest and I kind of did but I thought Meghan was getting lonely, so I had him lead me to the room where she was.
She hugged me when I came in and said that I'd done a great job and that I should ask if I could have a copy of their broadcast, or at least the parts about me. And she wanted to know if I'd been nervous and I said a little bit but once it was my turn I didn't have time to be nervous, I just did what we'd practiced.
It was strange going back outside because now it was light and there were lots of cars on the road, and it looked like the city was alive again.
I wish that they'd had a cot or a couch for us to sleep on, because now that I was done the anticipation had worn off and I was starting to feel pretty tired, and neither of us was really looking forward to walking back to my apartment.
We stopped at the Bagel Beanery again and had breakfast sandwiches which were like normal bagel sandwiches except that they also had egg on them. And if we'd wanted to stay up, we would have had coffee but both of us were in the mood for a morning nap.
We'd still have to go and get some beer before David and Angela's party, but that could wait until after we'd had some sleep.
I waited until Meghan was in bed, and she asked if I was waiting just so I could sleep on her, and I admitted that I was. She laughed and got in bed and I curled up with my head on her breast and my wing over her stomach and she put her hand on my withers and asked if I needed an alarm set.
I said I'd rather wake up without it and she agreed that would be best.
She must've woke up before me, 'cause I woke up to her petting my wing and back and so I turned my head and kissed her to show her that I was awake. And she asked if I minded her petting my wings and I said as long as she was gentle.
After a little while she asked me about preening, and so I moved off to the side a little bit and pulled my wing up so I could get to it and after I showed her how I let her try.
It was a little hard for her at first, and her fingers felt a lot different than when I did it with my mouth and teeth and she left a few feathers kind of ruffled, but she really wanted to learn so whenever she made a mistake I told her and she gently fixed it.
Then she wanted to do my other wing, so I turned around and put my head on her hip and stretched it out for her. That wasn't as comfortable as having my head on her breast; I should have just gone across her.
But her hands were already in my feathers, so I stayed where I was until she was done. Then I got out of bed and fluffed out my wings and straightened a couple feathers that she'd missed, and did a little hop-flight around the living room while Meghan watched. I landed back on the bed and kissed her on the forehead and said that she'd done a really good job especially for it being her first time.
She got dressed and then we went to Tiffany's and bought five carriers of beer so that we'd have plenty to share with everyone and Meghan said that she could have made something and if we hadn't slept so late she would have. My ears kinda fell when she said that, but she said it was okay, she didn't think he'd be mad.
It was pretty close to get to the house, so we just went directly over there. David had put a tablecloth across the hood of not-Winston and Meghan set the beer there first before she saw a blue icebox which had enough room for about half of the beer.
There were probably about a dozen people in the backyard—David was at the grill and Angela was helping him, and I saw an older woman who looked kind of like him that was probably his mother. And there was one more person who I recognized from college, but didn't really know and the rest were strangers.
Angela lead us around and introduced us to everyone. David's mother was named Mary and her wife was Susan and said that they had both seen me on the weather report this morning. And the man from college I sort of recognized was Jay. There was another man named Lanny, and David's friend from high school named Matt.
Angela's friends were Allison who had very bright red hair, Miriam, a tall awkward guy named Zach, and a couple called Daniel and Amanda. Everyone was really friendly and they were all a bit curious about me 'cause none of them had ever seen a pony up close before. So at first I was kind of the object of everyone's interest, but after a little bit the novelty wore off and people started talking about other things, and that was a lot more fun for me.
I ate more than I should have and so did Meghan but she said that was some of the fun of a party. And I thought about showing her around the house a little bit, since it was open, but I wound up not until she asked where the bathroom was, and so I led her in the side door and showed her the bathroom off the kitchen and she said that she had never seen a house that had a bathroom door with a window in it.
I took a little bit of time to refill the bird feeder, even though I knew that there wouldn't be any birds around while there were so many people in the backyard. Aric's bag of seeds was almost empty, so I thought that I ought to get a new one for him, too, when I went shopping next.
After David was done grilling, he set up a little ring in the backyard and people took turns throwing giant darts at it. The rule was that you had to be twenty feet away but I got accused of cheating when I went twenty feet straight up and dropped them down like that.
The darts got put away when it got dark and he went into the garage and brought out a couple of big boxes of fireworks and cleared a spot on the lawn and then started to set them off.
I'd seen fireworks before but not that often and they were always a treat to watch. There were little rockets with stick-tails that got put into beer bottles and made whistling noises as they shot up into the air and exploded, and there were some that made even bigger patterns. He had sparklers which you could hold but I stayed away from them because I didn't want to have any more burns anytime soon, and strings of little firecrackers he called daisy-chains that all went off one after the other.
When everything else was gone he pulled out a really big tube and set it on the ground and told everyone that if the cops came to play innocent. And he lit it and it shot up into the air and at first nothing happened, then it exploded into dozens of bright starbursts really high in the air. And then a second rocket went up, and a third, and all told six of them went up like that, exploding and sprinkling down on us.
The party started breaking up after that, and we left while about half the guests were still there. I said my goodbyes to everyone and thanked David and Angela for inviting us, then we walked back home to the accompaniment of other people all around the neighborhood shooting off their own fireworks. There were so many, I didn't think there was much chance that the cops would have noticed the one that David launched at the end.
We stopped at my apartment long enough for Meghan to pick up her bag of clothes, then went to her apartment since she had to get up early in the morning. And when we were snuggled up in bed right before she went to sleep she said that she thought this had been one of the best Independence Days she'd ever had.
Objectively false, Will Smith wasn't there.
Pegasi preening is just sort of fascinating to think about.
7541599 s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/0e/dc/80/0edc80e24be1cf0485ad19dfd79cfec5.jpg
I miss the lawn darts. Stupid government had to bad the sale of them.
Back when I was a kid, one of the local TV stations had the old Popeye cartoons from the 30s and 40s on Saturdays before the network shows.
One of them had Popeye telling his nephews that they should celebrate the 4th in a safe and sane fashion. Their reply was "Who wants to be safe?" "Yeah, and who wants to be sane?"
Here in Arizona you have got to drive to Mexico to get the good fireworks. I remember one South Park where Uncle Jimbo tells the kids that's what Mexico is FOR (getting stuff you can't get in the USA)
Meghan, you're missing your chance to make your own fireworks with Silver Glow.
I miss fireworks in the backyard...
7541624 Don't ya hate it when some folks decide to use others as targets (inadvertently or otherwise) for lawn darts, and they ruin for everyone else?
As far as fireworks, that's why we have the Seventh-Day Adventist town of College Place right next door to Walla Walla. They sell the good stuff like mortars and the fancy rounds for them; it also helps when you have the use of a flat floor of a gravel pit well outside of town to shoot them off at.
7541594 It's just not the same if the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air isn't punching an alien and quipping a one-liner.
7541712 god that movie is unreal
just
its just so good in that way that only movies between 1985 and 1998 could get away with where they are so bad and so good at the same time.
Ah the old "WTF? Oh, ok."
There's following the rules and then there's following the spirit of the rules. I would have been very amused by that.
I remember having to do an interview for one of the local news stations, and the times the news crews had footage of my partner and I working homicide scenes. I particularly remember watching the news, and how odd and awkward it felt to see myself on TV. ("Do I really look/sound/gesture/carry myself like that?...") Apparently, I'm not alone; others have described that weird, disconnected, surreal affect when watching themselves (Joe Haldeman, for example, once described how he wrote a short story that borrowed his own discomfort in watching his interviews to inform his protagonist's reactions to watching herself being interviewed).
Wonder how Silver Glow's going to handle it?
7541594
That it is.
And then I went and extrapoled, we probably have veterinarians that do know how to preen, what with how the program to help endangered bird species...
It probably is similar, except the pony can tell you when you are missing a spot.
7541594
But Silver Glow gets Meghan's boobs. Boobs can substitute in the absence of Will Smith.
....they told Meghan that she couldn't be in the studio while they were filming, because of the incident in Virginia last year,....
It was because of the noodles. So many noodles...
Well, if no one else has posted it, I will!
Probably best that Silver didn't do all that much flying that evening, probably far to likely she'd get shot down by a firework.
Man, all the good stuff is banned in California. We pretty much just have fountains.
http://www.purewatergazette.net/asimov.htm
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Silver:Its a Lawn Dart.
I dropped it.
In the UK, one of the favourite fireworks teh last couple years has been the Metal Storm version.
Take a load of multishot tubes, and strap them together to form a cube, then wrap the cube and have a fuze.
Step back when lit, and watch the thing fire for an entire minute.
then, if you have the money and freind, you can buy The Big One. Moarter burst that fires 1500 foot into the air, and has a thousand foot burst diameter.
Local large store owner who had the first firing in the UK at his big public display, Im not sure if he got UK Flight authority clearence, as for a top of burst relative to sea level of 2800 foot, put it right in the middle of the North end of Manchester Airport Glide Path. Just outside the North Stack.
Lets just saw, watching it from half a mile away in a stone and brick house with double glazing, on rock, the place shook when that thing went off.
What, you expected a pegasus not to think 3-dimensionally?
She's been building up the courage to ask that for days.
Maybe saying "Aric's" would be better here, since he hasn't been mentioned in recent chapters.
Loopholes!
The people downstairs must hate that shower.
*Clomp, clomp... clo-clomp clomp... clompclompclomp...*
"It's three in the fucking morning, you stupid pony!"
And I'm surprised that none of the fireworks gave Silver's ears conniptions. She's been very consistent about her reactions to loud/high-pitched things before.
7541594
Especially when you consider that it's more than just putting them back into place. As far as I'm aware, part of it is to also oil them up so they remain strong but flexible (like hair looks/behaves much better when it's properly oiled - hence conditioners). I've only seen one story where pegasi had little oil glands inside their cheeks, though quite a few still preferred the modern convenience of preening kits with brushes and specially-made oils and things.
Heh, backyard fireworks. You should see Reykjavik during new years.
In Silver's defense, no one said she had to stay on the ground for those twenty feet.
7541712 Pretty sure Silver would punch him right back.
7541620 Wow, I just realized Fluttershy stole her Celestia without telling her, that's totally accurate... I wonder if they actually meant to reference the last supper like that? I mean, they even put Fluttershy in Judas's spot.
July 4th is always great to celebrate with friends and family.
7541594
True fact: I was going to try and work in a movie reference, but I coudln't think of a tasteful way to do that.
I saw that movie in the theatre when it first came out.
It's been 20 years since it came out?
It is, isn't it?
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I like to think that a lot of pegasi do it socially when they're all together.
7541624
I'm kind of not surprised, to be honest. That just seems like the kind of game which will only end in tragedy. Although I legit didn't know they were banned.
7541675
For us Michiganders, it used to be Indiana, until fairly recently. In a way, it was kind of a shame, because it used to be that getting illegal fireworks was a big expedition, and there were billboards advertising them near the state line, and it was a lot more fun to set off illegal fireworks . . . but I think that people were also a little more cautious with them, because they were illegal. These days, you can go to the Meijer parking lot and buy a trunkful of mortars and if you use 'em all up a day early, it's easy enough to get more of 'em.
7541680
She's getting closer . . . .
7541699
Are they not allowed in Oz? Or do you not have a backyard anymore?
7541704
Wait, in your state Seventh-Day Adventists have different firework rules than muggles?
7541712
There's something satisfying about punching an alien.
7541727
That's a very typical cop routine. Also (from personal experience), getting pulled over and then the cop coming up to my car and saying "Oh, it's you," and then just walking back to the cruiser.
The rules never said you had to keep your hooves on the ground, just that you had to be twenty feet from the target.
7541739
I hear that's a common thing.
The one indie movie I'm in, every part of it that I'm in is so disorienting. My voice sounds wrong, my acting feels off . . . it's really weird. I mostly don't watch stuff I've been in, at least not where I have speaking roles, just because it's so strange.
Although it was funny to watch a video of one of our stuntshows where I had to play a dead body in one scene, just because I know that I was actually asleep during the filming. That's a type of method acting they don't usually teach.
She hasn't seen any videos of herself speaking yet, as far as I can remember. So when she gets a chance to see it, she'll probably think her voice sounds really odd, and she might notice some mannerisms she has that she isn't aware of.
7541754
They probably don't do as good a job of it, though.
I think that they'd probably be gentler than they can be, too. It's like when you're scratching someone's back for them--you don't want to really dig in until they tell you you can, 'cause you don't want to hurt them.
7541873
I second that. Boobs are better than Will Smith.
Boobs make a better pillow than Will Smith. (that ought to be on a t-shirt.)
7541896
If only.
7542120
And wouldn't that spark an incident?
Even if she just got winged (so to speak). . . .
"Equestria calls for ban on anti-pegasus rockets."
7541924
Fun fact: my grandpa was born during the Wilson presidency, and lived long enough to see Obama elected.
7542127
That's because your state is one spark away from being entirely on fire, followed by an earthquake for good measure.
7542265
Another fun fact: one of my great, great, great . . . grandfathers was in the battle which inspired the song.
7542298
Not a firework, but I've got these neighbors down the hill from me who are idiots, maybe 600-1000' away. One night I'm just sitting at home minding my own business when I hear a whumpf! that rattled my windows even though they were open.
I don't know what they threw on their bonfire, and I can't imagine what it was like to be right next to it.
7542456
Exactly! Of course she's going to go up; that's how pegasi think.
7542475
She has!
Good call--I changed it. Thank you!
Never let your pony exploit them.
7542861
My downstairs neighbors used to have sex in the shower. You could hear pretty much everything.
She's used to fireworks? 'Cause she's seen/heard them before, so she knows that she needs to fold her ears down before they go off.
I legit did not know about the oil glands. Huh. That makes sense.
Maybe the reason that they use conditioners and such now is because they bathe more often than they used to in ancestral times, so their wings dry out faster than their oil glands can produce.
If that holds true for pegasus ponies, than they can slobber on you and they can slime you.
I really need to find the right story to put that in.
possibly a clopfic
7543049
Cool!
I've never seen a high-ground view of fireworks throughout a city before. That must be an interesting sight . . . Silver Glow missed an opportunity to circle above Kalamazoo, high enough that the fireworks couldn't get her, and look down. That would be a rather unique view of everyone's celebration.
7543120
Agreed--if she wasn't supposed to fly, they ought to have said so right from the get-go.
7543809
Or bite him.
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7544544
Now I'm wondering, too. I wouldn't put it past them. . . .
7545053
It is.
7542861 Hoopy McGee placed it under the wing if I remeber well. But since the last update of Sunflower is been a long time ago, I am not so sure.
7546739
I've never heard of that. But on the Indian Reservations in New York they get away with that kind of stuff. Tax-free gas and cigarettes. Casinos, fireworks...
... That might just be you.
7546739 (Because you never got a reply...) Yeah fireworks have been banned in Australia for a while. Really disappointing, but you can make your own using sparklers :)
7546856
That sounds right to me. But I haven't read Sunflower in a while.
7554127
Yeah, they get special rules. In Michigan, as I recall, they were the only ones who could build casinos, although I think there was an exception made in Detroit.
It does help to know all the local cops, and to be the guy who works on their cruisers.
7679865
That's too bad. Although Australia has so much other cool stuff I don't think I'd miss fireworks.
Also musk flavored Life Savers. What's up with those?
Typical Silvy, didn't even think to wear her nice dress for an event she should dress nice for.
Gusty is going to be scandalized that she was on TV naked
9249956
Why should she dress nice for TV? If anything, she should have worn her flight gear.
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She totally would be.
Gusty’s probably scandalized by some of the scenes her human co-actors have shot (can’t remember if at this point it’s a spoiler to tell you what TV show Gusty was a guest star on )
7541924
7541594
This comment is *way* more amusing in 2022
11195981
For those playing at home, they made a sequel where Will Smith's character was killed offscreen because they couldn't afford him.
Superfluous "and".
11326419
Correction made, thank you!