The Short Version · 6:46am Nov 4th, 2019
Trying to explain my headcanon for MLP has led to a great deal of confusion, because I have never posted the core of it in one go. I have always wanted to write out what I saw in its entirety, but god damn am I afraid of doing so. I tell you honestly, that the first time I saw the pilot, which was after seeing many other episodes (but before the first season was finished airing), I saw the majority of this story hidden in Faust’s story. My blood ran cold, my face turned white, and I shook in fear. The following story was solidified in my mind after S2E2, and has since then been the canon to which I measure the purpose of MLP despite all of episodes that would invalidate it. This is the short version. It's also the nice version:
~~~
In the beginning, there was Discord, god of chaos and pain. Discord tortured his creations to death and tortured them again in their next life, until they chose to stop existing for having no escape from his hate. Bored and wanting an audience who could appreciate his vile acts, Discord created the one who would become known as Celestia. Discord created Celestia with much of his own power buried within her, the power to feel into others and made her immortal. For a thousand years, Celestia bore witness to Discord’s monstrous acts. Celestia had no choice but to feel the pain of those tortured because of how she was made. For a thousand years, Celestia suffered all the fears and pains of all. For a thousand years, Celestia wanted the pain to end. For a thousand years, Celestia tried to help all anyway she could. For a thousand years, Celestia fought Discord anyway she could. A thousand years later, Celestia realized that there was nothing she could do to fight Discord, and decided at last that although there would be unending pain, she would act in harmony with all things.
The god of chaos and pain was amused by Celestia’s new unmoving nature and enjoyed trying to break her of it. A thousand years later, in frustration, Discord made a copy of Celestia and before the new Celestia could act, he ripped away her mind, and mangled her body. Celestia had never witnessed Discord harming a spirit, so this vile display at last gave Discord the reaction he had wanted. In his amusement, Discord gave the new creation a name that meant the opposite of Celestia’s name, which we now call Luna. Discord had made a mistake for Luna was made with the same power as Celestia. Together, they used their magic to seal Discord in stone.
Then with a terrible scream, Celestia commanded the end of all chaos. Nothing would move unless the living bade it move. Celestia and her new sister moved nature as it was needed. The creatures of the world were thankful and lavished upon the two many gifts including a house of stone. Shortly after, Luna began to mature into her powers, but she could not handle feeling into others. Where Celestia was born helpless save for this power, Luna had many but not the patience nor the tolerance that Celestia had built for herself. The creatures of the world did not have Celestia’s experience either and having always lived under torture and chaos, knew only this way to treat each other. In her pain, Luna raised the moon and would not let it fall for without the light, the world would freeze and die. Celestia tried to reason with her, but Luna did not want to listen. Celestia believed that Luna would choose to let the sun shine when she had felt enough pain and fear from the world. Within the time that should have been a few days, Celestia returned to plead with her sister. The pain Luna felt drove her to attack her sister with all the power she could gather, threatening to collapse the universe itself.
Fighting weakened the sisters’ ability to not feel the world, and Celestia would have let Luna kill everything except that in the last second she saw that it would not end. Luna had become what she sought to end in the world, and she would continue on the path of hate snuffing out all life, all spirits. Overcome with fear, Celestia did not know what she had done until it was over. Luna was killed and trapped in the darkness between lives. The magic released in that moment tore reality and left a scar that time could not heal. This scar would become known as The Everfree Forest.
For a thousand years, Luna felt hate. Then, Luna learned that even in this place the same empathy that caused her so much pain was available to her, but where it came by force before, she now could choose to open herself to it or not feel the world at all. For a thousand years, Luna blamed as she watched the lives of all. Then she learned the new power of walking into dreams. For a thousand years, Luna terrorized the dreams of the creatures that she still wished to punish. Ponies began to speak of the being in their dreams as the Nightmare. Then something unexpected happened. Luna watched a foal extend kindness even though she had been wronged. Seeing this reminded Luna of how she wanted the world to be. Luna’s form could not be seen in dreams for the mind of the dreamer could not make sense of something it had never seen, so when Luna visited this foal, she did so in forms with which she was familiar.
A thousand years passed, and Luna had taken interest in following the lives of a thousand spirits. Each of them teaching her in ways that she did not realize, until at long last, Luna had given up her hate. It was then that Celestia foresaw the return of her sister and wept for so long that she forgot to lower the moon and raise the sun. When her attendants found her they asked her what had happened. Celestia could not bear to tell the truth of her sister’s past for the world had changed and such cruelty could no longer be understood. Celestia told a version of the story that would not frighten her ponies, and marked the moon with an outline of her sister. This is the night that ponies claim to remember, reason why the Nightmare started to be called Nightmare Moon, and the origin of the Summer Sun Celebration.
Celestia made ready for her sister’s return by spreading this story for although her sister would return, the magic that would bring her would bring back her old body without her new memories. Celestia knew that this dark version of her sister could only be made whole by returning her memories. Celestia knew that if she defeated her sister again, there would always be doubt that it was power not righteousness that defeated her. For this Celestia used her powers of seeing into the futures to find and gather the spirits of those who embodied the lessons that led to the great power that she had once found.
A thousand years later, Luna had discovered the answer to returning to herself, but was deeply afraid of what she might become. She thought to keep herself in the darkness to protect her foals, but the loneliness and guilt hurt her more. She remade her body and removed from it the memories of her pain, but she could not remove the memories of her last intentions. Celestia hid herself from the world so that Luna would know the will of the world without her interference. Luna’s body wanted to bring eternal night, but her spirit pushed her body to take hubris in testing and toying with those who would seek to thwart her.
This magic was the magic of harmony, the magic of friendship, the magic of love. Though her body feared it, the magic did one thing, the one thing it was always meant to do. The magic helped Luna to remember herself, to remember her love, to remember her reason for wanting to return to the world that had once caused her so much pain.
~~~
These limited mortal forms are for all of their frustration, a blessing in disguise for if we had unlimited power now with these limited hearts, who could say that they could stop themselves from doing something unrepairable? Within each of us is the foal who would become Nightmare Moon from feeling fear and pain. We must learn to love beyond ourselves and tolerate difficult things. We cannot do that without opening ourselves to others, so we must learn to embody honesty, loyalty, laughter, generosity, kindness, and all of the names that are as to love what a rainbow is to pure light. Through embodying these elements we find the magic that makes us one with all beings so that there is no us and them, only moments of pleasure and moments of pain that rise and fall like notes in a song without confusion. Our task is only to make beauty in that song, to learn to exist in harmony despite whatever befalls us, and if we fail to do that, if we do not make that a very real priority in our lives, we risk destroying everything.
Certainly a beautiful and poetic myth, and a suitable foundation for a philosophy. The place you found it though, I suspect, was not in Faust's story (which I doubt contained so much cruelty and pain) but rather the reflection it cast in your mind.
It certainly makes for a quite unique Celestia, Luna and Discord - but I think the time has passed for such portrayals to see wide acceptance. If you wish to convey the philosophy described at the end using Friendship Is Magic as a medium, you might need something new to bundle it with.
well, this was interesting headcanon to reflect on ... For example, I always (...well, lately) was confused by why humans tend to assume god/creator can live in isolation? By very fact s/he interested and depended on the social interactions (even awful ones) one can conclude god is social ..creature/being, and thus had history as social creature, even if in distant past and/or different form. Discord was not happy to just be giant speace-tearing chaos nebula and self-reflection - he wanted other beings to 'interact' with. So, this brings question _why_ Discord become discord... of pain for others. Did he forgot something over very long live, so only torturing part of his nature lived on? Did he made himself like this out of some long-forgotten rebellion against things he saw as unadequate?
Another reflection is ...well, long life by itself is not panacea, unless you actually can learn from watching/co-acting, and ..learn real lesson, not just something always saying 'yes, you are right' type of self-approving...
So, yeah, interactions and feeling of others....
5150406
Discord is a psychopath without what we would call empathy. He is able to feel what others feel, but it is a sensation to him that does not prompt him to even imagine that he should take action. For example, if you saw someone fall and scream out in pain, you would have a flood of emotions and an immediate desire to help this person, even if the most selfish of these emotions is the desire for the negativity to stop. Discord can feel what others feel, but his has no desire or even base inclination to react to the feeling. Discord can feel what others feel when they react to someone in pain, and that has always been an interesting sensation to him because he doesn't understand why they do.
Discord did learn fear from watching the princesses fight, he realized that Celestia and Luna had the power to tear him to shreds, so when he came back he had nerfed himself significantly to keep from pissing them off, but because he is a psychopath, he doesn't understand emotional responses, and figured that as long as he did not drive them to the same responses he could continue existing close to how he did before.
If you choose to believe that he was let out to be reformed (I don't), then what you are seeing is a psychopath learning cause and effect based on example and not emotional responses. Everything he does from that point is based on logic without emotion, and you can see this all the way up until the end of the series when you see him releasing former enemies of Equestria because it boosts moral.
5150399
5150526
well, this is more detailed explanation I was asking for.. I haven't analyzed Discord's actions, but mostly was commenting on fact sometimes our, hm, narrative traditions actually might backfire, because we never ask important questions.
Psychopathologies obviously named as such because majority of social beings simply can't have them and continue to live. At least not for long. Individuals - yes, in some sense ..but everyone at such level of un-emphaty will lead to very sad end.
I also was thinking about difference in oral stories vs written stories - obviously stories you can only re-tell from memory will be shorter (and somewhat tuned to be easily memorized?) compared to stories we may have in written form..
Some sidethinking; I don't think books were considered THE form of knowledge back in 0 A.D. ..at least popular God images not about God _reading_ something or having library or any of this :}
back to Discord - I (as one who like to read some sci-fi from time to time) can imagine few situations when such unfeeling of others is not sign of pathology but sign of very big differences - if someone's pain actually mostly can be heard way above frequencies you usually listen to ... discovering this without some strange (unusual?) factor may took a lot of time, or not even happen for single being. But yeah, apparently this is not what stopped Discord from feeling others ...I think I've read some translated sci-fi story once about beings who were de-facto immortals when they discovered earth.. and such strange fact we and other life here actually can be killed finally, not just take some alternative form, as it was norm for them (I think Ender's Game, at least book version, was build around such fatal mis-understanding at one alien side ...and military mindset at 'our' / humanity side ...). But again, this was not something writers of character were concerned about ..
My thinking orbiting around problem we have here - because yes, sometimes humans fail into such strange state, or can't even imagine their actions are ...mmm...not good. Sometimes this may not come from any factors we even in theory can alter ...but sometimes ..I refer again to Ender's Game because I think it showed quite clearly how this psuh towards 'rationalized' internallyagressiveness develops in our world. Sometimes by just school 'interactive bulling', soc-called adults pushing us into roles we better not play, by various shortages of time ..and otehr materials ....
So, I was looking for something like ..I don't know, evolutionary thology (?), not just about bolting on fashionable concepts from our era (evolution, cybernetics ..) - but actually re-thinking some old stories we keep telling ourselves in all this new light ..namely fact social beings NOT come out of vacuum, and not live in it. Sometimes I think all this centaralization of narrative on just one being (God) or few 'heroes' actually obscured real social reality, applicable even to very long lived beings.. Greek's panteon was ..sort of extension of then known/popular ideas of how more powerful (in some fields..) beings may socially interact with others and among themselves ..then ...it sort of was reduced too much - not even to Trinity, but to single, one being. Abstraction and simplification gone too far ..not sure if it was intended at least by some officials and authorities (writers) of that era, or happened due to combination of many factors ....not just someone's will (idea). So, my thinking on this - we better not just to re-dress old ideas, but try to think beyond what was thought about all this social relations.. including what combination of factors can drive us (or similar beings) into very hard-to-return and dangerous state ...
On harmony ..well, it can be said humans sort-of realized if you just chop off arm or head - it will be not just cosmetical problem ... So, harmony was usually described as living organism (or some geometrical or mathematical or musical stimulation) because ..well, if 'this' lives then things actually aligned pretty good, at least good enough for still being alive and kicking! But then it was incomplete idea ...harmony can be quite hard to spot, or something looking as real harmony can be just ...temporary state, not something lasting. So, instead of trying to realize different manifestation of harmony - a lot of intellectuals and their ...followers just spend a lot of lifetimes pushing few things into few 'sure' directions... so, now we have quite big arsenal of artistic assaults on senses, yet hardly can use it for actually changing our state.. or even discovering what IS wrong in and around us ....
sorry, I tend to be quite sad in my thinking ....
5150548
I've read your post several times and don't understand it at all.
5150558
no problem, I'm used to this (it just my thinking trying to connect ALL those dots I've read about in all my relatively short life ... paired with some very loosy job at actually writing mid-result of such thinking ...). Feel free to re-use fragments of this for your own head scratching.
5150537
You can just hear his disappointment at the end about how they don't get it. That said - are you sure you totally understand yourself?
If you want to search for cosmic truth in a kid's TV show, then OK - but don't forget that the show is not just a mirror, it also has things it's actually telling you itself. The truth of Faust, if you care about it, isn't your own echo.
5150620
You know, Latecomer, I think you’ve forgotten how this all started. You see, I answered the 50 Headcanon Questions in late 2015, and when the forum for those questions appeared I copied my answers and pasted them to the relevant question numbers with only minor changes for clarification. If you go around looking through my blogs, my stories, and my forum posts in TCB and this post in Faustian Orthodoxy, you are going to find that all of them point back to this same core belief that “we do not see things as they are; we see things as we are” and we must for our own benefit and for the benefit of all, better ourselves by acknowledging the value in others.
You see, I am not alone in my belief that we must search for answers within everything. Aside from the clip I linked, which also detailed the Element of Laughter, the oldest form of this wisdom that I know comes from the Vedas where Krsna said to Arjuna, “He who searches for me in all things and all things in me, is never far from me, and I never far from him.”
You are not the first person to criticize me for trying to find “cosmic truth in a kid’s TV show”. The best one said, “How simple are you that you can find God in a cartoon?” To this I replied, “How simple are you that you can’t?” You see, the thing is there are lessons we mean to tell and there are lessons that can be seen beyond that. I was following this one webcomic for years, and in it I saw a poignant message within it. So moved, I started changing my life to address the cause of this problem. Years later when I met the author, I found out that although I had picked up on all of the messages he had intended, the most meaningful and the one for which I had been improving in my own life, was not something he was aware about at all! Perhaps you will see the intended message as it was intended, but the ability to perceive it is based on the individual’s ability to understand it, and if the individual is wanting to understand, then the individual may learn even more than what was originally intended. If you are not open, then you cannot see a message at all. My personal philosophy is that you cannot force someone to understand. No matter how much information you give the person until the person chooses to think, it does not become knowledge.
Yeah, that disappointment is kinda how I feel, because when I shared my headcanon, I thought it was pretty straightforward, but then you made it quite clear that you don’t get it. Not only do you not get it, you don’t want to get it, you don’t want to believe that anyone could believe in things so completely outside of what is normal for you, and as a defense mechanism, you’ve been trying to convince me that something is wrong with me for believing what I do and/or coming to the conclusions that I have. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, but this question you asked me really solidifies your intentions. Part of me wants to cuss you out for being a bully instead of just accepting that this is how I see it, but another part of me just wants to laugh at how universal this response is. For both cases, I feel upset that you clearly haven’t taken the time to think about what I have said, instead opting to find a rebuttal as fast as you can.
So what is it? What is so important that you feel the need to argue my imagination? Actually, no, if you had a problem with my imagination, you would let it go. You have a problem with me, and the conclusions I have drawn about the world, so say it plainly. I want you to get it all out in one go, so let us pretend that you get this one reply and then I’m going to block you. Whether or not I actually do that, it is unlikely that I will reply to you again, so if it takes you 100,000 words to get your point across then write all 100,000 of them before pressing reply. Please take your time. Don’t worry about making your reply too long as I will read it all without skipping any part of it.
5150700
The Faustian Orthodoxy post is probably the clearest you've conveyed it yet - I think the show still has plenty of moral value left after the early seasons, and I really doubt its' the only moral cartoon in three decades, but it's true that the later seasons were more hit-and-miss.
(On the other hand, your speech there about different perspectives and seeing the commonality with those who hurt you makes your utter villianization of Discord more confusing.)
And I certainly think you can find deep truths in fiction (as well as things that look like them and aren't, so be careful) but as your story with the webcomic points out, they aren't necessarily there by author intent - sometimes what your seeing is a sort of reflection. So I'm really not sure how this view of yours fits with Faustian Orthodoxy.
And i have thought about what you have said - that doesn't mean I'll necessarily agree with it. (Or at least all of it, because you've said a lot of different things.) Regarding your headcanons, many do seem very unusual - but having such outlier viewpoints in the group is part of what makes it interesting.
Regarding real life, I admit I dislike radical change that is not obvious improvement, and also have a somewhat optimistic view of the world. I do sincerely believe that most parents genuinely love their children, even unintended ones. As for monogamy - it may not be natural, at least for males, but I cannot readily conceive of it's abolition without the total upheaval of society. Instead, there will probably just be - has been - a slow relaxation of it while still remaining the standard.
Regarding FIM, I actually think we are alike in some ways - we look for the deeper layers beyond the surface, which we agree is a lens limited by the show's target audience. The thing is, though, that as G'kar more or less said, what each person sees while looking at those things is defined more by themselves than what they are trying to look at - and so we have come to very different conclusions. But it would be a boring fandom if we only had the same ones, didn't it? I may not agree with all your positions, but at least they engage me in a way the same familiar ones do not.
Really, aside from a few philosophical differences, the thing that galls me a bit is you combining such a radical reading with Faustian Orthodoxy as if to say that the message you found was one the show - Faust - was trying to send. But I would bet you a hundred pounds that she would find your ideas strange and unfamiliar - perhaps interesting, perhaps disconcerting, but nothing like her own thoughts on Celestia, Luna, Discord or ponies.
There are a lot of good things to be got out of the show - yes, even long after Faust left. And there is value in your philosophy as well. But parts of it did not come from FIM, even if it was by watching it you discovered them. And so it can seem strange when you read the show through its' lens.
I don't know if that answers "everything" - we've talked about a lot. If you want me to clarify anything, please ask. And if you don't choose to talk further, then my thanks for at least contributing your unique take on the show to my fledgling group. Who knows, perhaps future readers will follow our discussion her and see the wisdom in your words - and like the the Book of G'Kar, we might have the Book of PeachClover.
5150700
well, my another standing ovation for this one.
Not sure if I can explain better what *I* mean by some probably cryptic for you references to Ender's Game, and other stuff, so may be I better to reflect a bit on this phrase of you:
- this is interesting while you wrote this _selfish_ I remembered this as _inferior_, so my point was to say why I agree with this point.
Like, for example today I slept way too much, so my dog has no physiological means to wait not just for me, but for whole elevator thing before going to street/outside. So, we have somewhat smelly liquid on the floor. Hm, no big problem, I'll clean up this shortly. Problem is, while I was picking up broom and basket and everything I was thinking - is my motive to clean this up rooted in my desire to make place better for other humans who live here, or simply out of fear of (verbal, at this point) punishment? And I come to conclusion I fear punishment much more than I want to do something good for other people! Why this is ...bad/suboptimal? Because we try to avoid things we afraid as fast as possible? So, we do very quick job and retreat as far away from source of our fears as possible, usually not thinking about helping one who made us so afraid at all? So, while fear push us to make impulsive action fast - in the long run ....
But thing is, your _exact_ quote was not about this, and while I think you can (rightly) dis-value egoism - your point was different from point I wanted to agree with... still, I agree with your formulation of problem, too.
5150715
The definition of fear is the stress caused by resistance to change. “Radical change” would be scary to anyone, if it actually effects you, and this fear is the heart of your argument. The question is, how can the things that I have talked about harm you?
Why? This is what I was hoping you would answer for yourself when given the opportunity to explain your fears. “Upheaval” is an interesting word, because yes, there would be a change in society, but you imply that society will collapse or become violent, and by saying that, you are implying that monogamy is so important to society that not encouraging this unnatural behavior will assuredly cause chaos and suffering.
The biggest difference that I see between humans and ponies is that ponies acknowledge that they are animals first. Humans have forgotten that fact. Whatever is natural for the species is on what the society should be built in-so-far as compassion will allow. Lies hurt people, believing lies as a society, really hurts people . Maybe you feel that polygamy is simply unfair to women since you mentioned males specifically, but women are polygamous too. Maybe you feel that it is unfair toward women who choose to be mothers, well, I don’t see how because they made that choice. I would never recommend anyone be a single parent, but I would hope that they have agreed with their partner(s) to raise children together. When I talked about pony society, I brought up how I believe that marriage must be a foal raising contract for ponies. I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but you’ve led me to believe that if you have an argument besides “it’s too different for me to handle” then that argument would be that monogamy forces men to raise children if their women partners become pregnant instead of leaving the woman to raise the child herself. People who believe that are very naïve, because in monogamous relationships that are not consciously and explicitly in agreement about the responsibility of child rearing either or both partners could simply refuse to raise the child. This is not just fathers who don’t want to be fathers, but also mothers who don’t want to be mothers.
There is the question of accidental pregnancy, and indeed, that is a question. Humans don’t have magic to fix this problem, and finding a truly compassionate answer is difficult, but one thing is clear, trying to stop people from having sex has not worked in the entire history of the human race. When you say that you have an optimistic view about parents loving unwanted children, it really disturbs me, because pretending that things will just work out, trying to force people to be parents when they don’t want to be, and/or placing blame and/or responsibility wholly on one person, causes great suffering to all involved. I am not saying that humans don’t have the potential for caring for others, but when this is a demand and not given freely, then it becomes hate.
Once upon a time, children were raised by the community. Women would simply stay together and assume that it was their responsibility to raise all of the children in the society whenever they came along, however, this is not an answer that works well today because we have moved to value individualism over communal living, and I have to agree with this outcome as communal child rearing brings the children down to the lowest common denominator instead of lifting them up to their own potential.
If you want to go a little bit deeper, you could argue about STDs. Here in the US, STD tests are only done when a person requests them. Those who associate STD tests with promiscuity as a bad thing, rarely get tested because of the potential scandal and social embarrassment, however, even though they may only have one partner at a time, this does not prevent them from spreading STDs, and because of the social embarrassment they never know how many people they have infected. The society which holds all of these social beliefs about sex that are not in alignment with the reality of it, is actually causing harm.
In both of these cases, people can take preventative measures, and actually smart people do. Smart people do not assume their partner is monogamous or polygamous without asking. Smart people would come to a full understanding before having children. Smart people would get STD tests before they had sex and ask for STD test results before having sex with a new partner, but I think at the end of the day, we aren’t talking about other people’s actual choices – we are talking about our expectations for other people. I see your expectations for other people unrealistic because you hold that people will do what they should to reach the best outcome. In order to do that the individual must be well informed about the facts, the consequences of every action, and then have the will power to overcome self-centered decisions. I do not hold that people are naturally evil, but I do believe that people are naturally selfish and naturally lazy. I believe that as individuals, we must keep this in mind when making expectations of ourselves and other people. It is the very act of seeing and acknowledging these vulnerabilities in ourselves that allows us to see the truth of the world not as someone who feels angry that there is imperfection while trying to hamfistedly fix everything even if it hurts others, but as someone willing to greet the world with compassion and help if such help is accepted.
The message that I believe Faust wanted to send is written below the tildes in the post above, I shall quote it again for clarity:
This is the message I believe Faust Intended. As the Babylon 5 clip pointed out, god is an idea more than a person, so when you look at Celestia, Luna, and Discord as personifications instead of people their purpose begins to become clear. Discord represents chaos in nature, unexpected events, accidents – the way he was introduced in the show was just like this, not as a person but an idea. My “utter villianization of Discord” comes from the fact that I see him as landslides, tornadoes, floods, disease, broken bones, wildfires. You can hate all of these things, you can find humor in all of these things, but you cannot convince them to happen differently. You can be at peace with the fact that they have happened, but you cannot stop them from happening.
Celestia represents the highest potential of one’s self, the seeking of knowledge, acting in selflessness, and remaining resolute in acting toward reaching a goal. Luna represents the inner child, the part of one’s self who is afraid, the part of one’s self who isn’t strong enough, and the part of one’s self who needs love even when doing wrong. Their immortality represents remembrance. Mortals represent those who conveniently forget their past experiences in favor of the belief that they are perfect as is. I think of this as pride. Immortality represents remembering the truth of past experiences both good and bad. The personification of Luna is easiest to understand because we have all failed our own expectations at some point and when we remember that, we remember pain and failure. We judge ourselves and others for the bad things, we ignore, we rage, we bargain, we suffer, and maybe we accept, but if we remember without distortion then we accept that we are not above these actions and experiences ever having had happened, and we are not above the possibility that they may happen again. Most people would want to forget these things ever happened because they hurt they “lower our lifetime score average” to put it one way. Most people would rather forget that they could happen again, because to accept that possibility means to ask one’s self to be vigilant for the signs of their return. This awareness is above the default state of lazy and therefore takes energy. The personification behind Celestia when taken through the metaphor of immortality represents the realization that there is always a opportunity to think and act in selflessness. Most people forget or would rather forget that they can understand the need and their own ability to act in greater good because it interferes with selfish desires.
I realize now that I have never made this association to their personification to concepts clear. For myself, it is so natural to look at fictional characters in the superposition of being both representations of persons and concepts, that I had always figured that drawing close to that explanation was enough to make others realize it completely. That has been a mistake on my part.
When I think about Celestia in the dual state of both being an idea of highest selfless potential and being a thinking person who is immortal, she would then help shape society to the needs of all, not as a heavy hoofed dictator, but as someone who sees the Luna, the faltering child, in all and takes that into account to act in truth, kindness, and great patience. I really put my full effort into trying to understand what decisions she would make to better the world. Why then do my results look so radical? If the answers to life were so simple, normal, and easy the world would have already figured them out and not be suffering. Are my answers perfect and infallible? No, but they are the best that I can imagine.
What really matters is not that we are prescribed ultimate truth as a dictated set of rules, because without understanding the reasons behind them, rules become arbitrary thus the cause of suffering. What really matters is that we have the desire to understand along with compassion. With the desire to learn alone, we may learn more than what was intended, but we may also learn and act upon that which is harmful. That is why compassion is so integral to personal growth. What we take into ourselves must pass through the lens of compassion and what we do onto others must also pass through the lens of compassion. As long as we are doing this, we are moving in the right direction.
It’s curious that you should say that.