Truancy - Chapter Six - Extended Author's Notes · 7:20am June 21st
The first person has a few literary shortcomings, but I think it helped this chapter. The colt is necessarily stuck narrating within his headspace, but he should grow out of it as he learns to speak. (Chapter 7 should start that.)
Anyone in that situation would have to deal with the challenge of nourishment. I apologize if the subject has put anyone off. Humans get embarrassed by that; there wouldn’t be any good jokes about it otherwise. I tried to make it as funny as I could without getting too distasteful in the details. The good news is that I shouldn't have to go into such detail for that activity now that the colt has established a food supply for himself;although, I do think there are a few running gags I can squeeze out of this... 
Comedy comes in threes! 
Most M material will be presented in like style; although, there will be some dialogue later that will more assuredly earn the M rating but hopefully being no less -or even more- funny. I’ll mark those as well.
Colt seems to have some remnants of education in his noggin,’ but, ‘education,’ is a far cry from, ‘smart.’
The writing system he found on those blocks is the nature-pony script. The show presented a few different writing texts: some wing-ding picture-based characters, Phoenician-style letters, block-type characters for newspapers and contemporary print, and a few others. This will be my attempt to incorporate Apple Bloom’s mouth/lip-writing style from Season 01 episode 12, “Call of the Cutie,” by giving the nature-pony their own script based on that physical movement.
Apparently, equines like splashing in water. There’s quite a few videos about it. But perhaps that makes the colt seem less civilized…
Don the Mallard is an open source name I made up in place of another famous duck owned by an enormous corporation founded by a fellow named Walter. (Not sure what the Copyright Police will let me get away with.)
I don’t know who slapped the foal for that really bad pun. Perhaps I can blame Harmon- ow!
The Pompadour Hairstyle: Article on anime characters with the Pompadour. The list of characters who use this is far more extensive.
A foal ‘clacking’ its teeth at adults is a submissive signal to the elder that means, ‘please don’t hurt me.'
Cup had a few expressions this chapter not too dissimilar from Starlight with that cup of coffee.
Somepony failed a Wisdom ‘saving throw.’ Next chapter might be… interesting.
I mean, its not like he peeked further back from her teats there.
Though failing the toilet is expected, how does it even work?
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From my limited understanding, I don’t think ponies typically squat. Mares, then, have something of an advantage because they only need to concern themselves with a single posterior direction. Whereas stallions have two opposing. In practice, I think the commodes’ design would favor the more frequently used; which, in practice, would require the stallions to reorient in order to perform Number One. This would have the added benefit in an RGRE of natural conversion to that old ‘toilet seat up vs down’ argument.
You know, I don’t entirely know how to describe it with words… I might have to try to doodle this bathroom. Won’t be the last time it makes an appearance.
I was honestly curious yo see when somepony would try the old "Bathroom" thing here for ponies, and I have two headconon versions for those myself:
1) The entire floor is a toilet with a central drain in the center. Fine for doing a Number One, but leaves open the question for a Number two. Floor would be cleaned by a simple switch which releases a sheet of water to "wash" away any errant drops;
2) Another version would require two types of fixtures. One would be a normal commode, but built for equines, so mares would have no problem. For stallions, the fixture would need be a urinal style that he would stand over to do his business. The urinal would have to be "cup"-shaped to allow the stallion to drain without spillage. A simple switch on the floor, or a lever that can easily be pushed with a hoof to make the water flow to wash the urinal, similar to human urinals.
Those are my ideas. Comments?
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I, too, think the ‘barn stall’ style has a few too many problems for a society to adopt. If memory serves, the In Equestria series by Saltybedspackle has a unique solution: some magical grass that rainbows waste away.
The Asian ‘long drop’ has a few issues, too. Recessing in the floor would invite a tripping hazard for the hooves in a blind spot. Also, the dimensions of a stallion would require its length of the porcelain to be somewhat excessive.
I think a cup or funnel is a good place to start the functional design. A ‘seat’ or ‘boot’ extension for the male user may be good to include. (Also makes for some good, “who left the seat up!?” jokes.
) Given that my Equestria has a significantly higher mare population, most furniture design would favor to the greater numbers. There is also the ‘trough urinal’ that might cross with the cup-bowl.
It’s really hard to draw white porcelain with dimensions…
And you are correct about the evacuation and cleaning processes being a concern for the design… wow, that’s some serious ‘pony potty’ stuff right there!
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I am thrilled that you gave me a forum to talk about this issue on the serious side of ponydom. Afterall, being alive does mean that there has to be a way for ponies to evacuate, and with the manner of how their society has progressed, lavatory issues would have also progressed. I was glad to provide some ideas on this issue. However, let us be honest: as writers and storytellers, such issues regarding elimination of body wastes are mostly left up to the reader, and had little to do with the story itself, save in the situation you presented in that chapter.
Thank you again for feedback.
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I do recall that, not only did it take care of things, but acted as a bidet too, ensuring cleanliness