I'm moss. Don't look too closely.
There is an unspoken code, of sorts, among healers. You will never hear one directly mention death, as though voicing it might have the power to draw it near. If one is not paying attention, they might come to the conclusion that death does not exist in Equestria.
Fluttershy is here to tell you otherwise.
*Trigger Warning* Heavy Christian themes.
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Oohhh, this was profound and very well written. All of my praise on a sad and oft mishandled subject around these parts. I'm sorry to hear such creativity was spurned by real life, though. My condolences.
Beautifully written piece. It's such a treat to stumble upon a fic with well written Christian themes. You've earned my like, good lass.
This is amazing, mysterious and emotional in so many different ways which I cannot begin to start to explain. Well done mate, I'm sorry about the incident.
Beautiful. I love how you worked God in, without subtracting from the MLP world. Very well done.
Mors stupebit et natura
Cum resurget creatura
Judicanti responsura
This is a great story, I can see how "I Am" (God) might cause a flame war. A of yet this is one of the most comforting stories I've read in a while.
5472874 Oh my. That's a very long post, dear. I did make it a point to read all of it, though I can't claim to have followed or understood it all.
Thank you for not digressing into the Arian debate.
As I am unfamiliar with theology myself, and my initial response was, "Elim? What's that?" I hope you'll forgive any vagueness on my part.
I am very impressed, you have demonstrated a level of Biblical knowledge I have seen only in Catholic apologists. I'm not sure all that theology necessarily belongs in the comment section of a small one-shot that theorizes how Fluttershy copes with the death of her patients offscreen, but I see no reason it can't be here either.
A little bit of exposition about the author: I grew up in a non-denominational church. Sermons focused very lightly on Bible verses and very heavily on emotional appeals, and much emphasis was placed on having a, "personal relationship," with Christ. The Bible was generally trusted as absolute truth, though no point was ever made of proving it.
Then I went off to college, began to actually read my Bible on my own, and, understandably, had some questions. When presented with a few of the many, many logical fallacies in the Old Testament that shook my faith in the Bible as Absolute Truth, my dad urged me not to think about it so much and, "just have faith."
I couldn't. I couldn't sacrifice my logic for my religion, it was too central to my identity as a person. So I started looking into things you've brought up. I watched this ridiculously long documentary on the history of the church, looked at the ideas of the Protestant Reformation, and, to gain a better historical perspective, started attending a Catholic mass.
I should have done that years ago. I'm in an RCIA program now, not necessarily to become Catholic, but just to learn about the 2,000 years of Christian ideas the church of my childhood didn't feel like bringing up.
So just keep in mind, a few months ago I had never heard the term Original Sin, and wouldn't be able to tell you what it meant. I'm not an apologist; I can't even properly explain to my own parents my personal decision to attend a Catholic church, much less speak on any point of doctrine.
My story doesn't have any grand plan of, "spreading Christianity and supporting the faithful." It's more along the lines of, "Hey, I wrote a thing. Do you want to see it?" There's no agenda. There's no purpose. There's just an idea, an idea that became a story.
You went off on a huge tangent about how can a Christ figure exist in a world with Celestia, and I got the feeling you weren't speaking to me, not really. Celestia isn't in my story, except as a figure to swear to as an oath, and people swear to lots of things in oaths. (My favorite is Gorlog's beard.
)
So, um, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think a lot of this applies to my story in particular, but I don't mind talking about it if you really want to.
5473786 I think the only reason this story hasn't gotten more hate is because it's relatively unknown. I posted it at a weird hour when not a lot of people are on, and I've only posted it to trusted Christian groups, nowhere else.
I'll be honest, I got a lot of hate on the Christian Bronies page. I posted a forum thread asking for help, and it dissolved into an argument about core Christian beliefs. I didn't want that at all, I just wanted to talk about life with fellow Christians, not put myself on trial for atheists to examine. Not being a theologian, I didn't handle it as well as I should have.
Then an atheist admin named Proper Noun decided to "cleanse" my presence from the forums, deleting all of my posts and locking me out of commenting on the forum. I was still able to comment on the front page, though, so I apologized for any offense given, (because yes, I sinned, I was nowhere near as kind as I should have been) explained why I was leaving the group, and, as is commanded in Mark 12:31, publicly forgave Proper Noun. Someone calling themselves The Brony Gamer directed me to a new Christian group, and Proper Noun went ballistic, and deleted all of the comments on the front page.
It's made me scared of talking about my beliefs at all, to be honest. I fully expected to take this story down within a day due to hate, and have been very pleasantly surprised at the positive reaction I've gotten so far.
I feel the need to explain myself a little bit. There isn't any of that in my story because the way I envision it, there isn't anything like it in Equestria. There's no reverence beyond that of personal experience, and there is no preference to God and Jesus in comparison to the Elim.
Part of that is because of things you touched on; Christianity in the real world is very dependent on the historical narrative, and hinges on understanding the fall of the First Covenant and the implementation of the Second Covenant.
I see it as comparable to a tale set in a land that has never heard the Good News, and is thus entirely ignorant of it. They have their own religion, their own spirituality, their own perspective on the universe, and any missionaries who would try to explain would be subjected to widespread ridicule. The Elim are revered because the Elim are all that the ponies know. I don't see that the Elim necessarily have to be evil. Humans get up to all sorts of nonsense without being explicitly evil, after all.
God still exists, however, regardless of whether or not we acknowledge Him. Is it possible for nonbelievers to call on Him? I've seen Christians argue back and forth about this, but my perspective is that anything can happen with His will. He's the one who decided to open up His blessings to the masses beyond Judaism, after all, and it seems in His character to take pity on us when we earnestly call out for help.
I also borrow a little bit from the Creationist narrative, Genesis 1:1, in assuming that God came before everything, including Equestria.
So from Fluttershy's perspective, she may not have any idea at all who her Patron is, and probably sees Him as just an exceptionally powerful Elim that has taken her under His wing. She is largely ignorant of the main tenets of Christianity, and yet she is faithful in a way very few real Christians are. She has the, "personal relationship," that my childhood church thought important above all else. If this were more than a one-shot, I'd introduce other common Christian story things into it, like her needing to defend her beliefs to others, or her learning more about what it means to be a follower of Christ. This is just a one-shot, though, so I can leave heavy themes like that implied at best.
I was surprised to get such a vociferous response, but as you can see, I'm no stranger to the Wall of Text comment.
So long as we keep this polite, I don't mind talking with you about this at all. 
5699031 According to Bucking Nonsense's story, "Who is this Lord Tirek you speak of?" if you say, "Hastur" three times in Equestria, he will appear, and is more than happy to judge your rock-off.
If you feel the need to reply, please refrain from using his name, as saying it a third time may summon him and none of us have the capacity to deal with that.
5701113 No, no, you misunderstand. We are ants to him. Less than ants. We are microbes. His treatment of us is entirely dependent on his whims, not ours. If you nudge a crumb towards an ant so it can pick it up, it is because you are feeling charitable, not because the ant is especially good. If you burn an ant with a magnifying glass, it is not because that ant is particularly loathsome, but because it is a sunny day and you are bored.
All you can do is hope that, when you summon him, he feels charitable, and not bored.
This is why I serve the (insert many names and titles here) Jehova Ro'eh. He makes a point of doing the kind thing as often as possible, to try and teach us to do the same.
This was very nice little story. Thanks for writing it. :)
Well written, well meant... Well done.
bad