The sun rose in the sky and day ponies stirred from their sleep. Today was going to be something different than normal. Today was Sunday, and Sunset Blessing felt that a church service was long overdo for many of the ponies.
Remedy and Rosetta made their way way into the church. Remedy had told Rosetta's family they had best keep their distance and stay away from this. This was her mother's moment to preach her new pony doctrine of Christianity and it might be best not to expose the impressionable twins to something that was likely going to be heavily influenced by her mom's Shimmerist beliefs. The two of them were going as a courtesy and to try to gauge how much ponies took to what Blessing was selling.
Wild Growth was also not going to be in attendance. She was getting examined by the unicorn with the magnifying glass and beetle for a cutie mark. Rosetta had been mildly relieved at the news. She dreaded that her sister might start adopting Sunset Blessing's views of the world now that she knew the power she possessed as a pony and the fact Blessing did a lot on her behalf.
The church sanctuary was filled with ponies all sitting facing the central alter. Almost all of them were casually chatting with one another as they waited for the service to start. The couple did a quick flight down to the front and found their own seats being held by Tonya. They quickly settled in next to her and were greeted by her smile.
"Glad you chose to make it, Sunset has been wanting to do this for a while. It will mean a lot to her that your here," Tonya said happily.
"Never expected you to be front row seat for a sermon," Remedy said.
"Well, as I said, it's really important to her. What kind of marefriend would I be if I skipped out on this? It would really hurt her feelings if I wasn't here. Plus I helped her a good bit with this so this is kind of my moment too," Tonya said as she looked towards the door that the preacher would typically enter in through.
"Well, we're eager to hear what you two came up with," Rosetta said in an even tone.
"It will be great, you'll see," Tonya asserted. "By the way, I heard Tattered Wing arrived last night. Any idea if she's going to try to get the night ponies to join us all in the exodus?"
"She seems committed to it, though she's upset about having to leave her home. Her family has apparently been here a long time," Remedy explained
"Are they human or pony or a mix now?" Tonya asked.
"She didn't say. I'll ask her sometime. We all talked for most of the night. We spent a lot of the night just trying to find out things from the Equestrians. Got a lot out of Lavender...that's the night pony mare, and I got a little bit of interesting information out of Tempest," Remedy said as she just took notice of the aforementioned unicorn standing off in a corner watching the room.
"You didn't tell me what went on with Tempest. I saw you two talking but didn't get to ask," Rosetta cut in.
"Got an idea why she's a grump, found out some information that might be of help to Wild, and got the impression she generally considers us all fake ponies," Remedy said with a her voice dropping to a bit of a growl towards the end.
"What about the other one, Lavender Mist? What did you two find out from her?" Tonya inquired.
"A lot about pony pregnancy, dealing with young foals, and she told us about a lot of things from her world. A lot of it is hard to believe," Rosetta said, shaking her head in wonder.
"I'd love to hear about it later on. Sunset wants me to try to find out everything I can about them, what they can do, and all that while they're here," Tonya said as she too glanced at Tempest.
"She wants you to spy on them?" Remedy said with a raised brow.
"Spying's a dirty word. Call it actively educating myself about them," Tonya said with a smirk.
"Why?" Rosetta asked with a narrowed brow.
"Get a better idea of what they're planning. They were the ones who stopped ETS and that makes us a little cautious. They say they're only interested in ponies that want to be human again, but there are still rumblings about forcing us all back to humanity. Lastly they're way more experienced in using pony magic than we are, obviously; the easiest way to learn what all we can do is to watch them do it," Tonya explained at length.
"I doubt we can just duplicate what they can do by just watching," Rosetta said.
"Yes, but we can learn what's possible, and once we know it can be done we can start trying to figure out how it's done," Tonya said with a sneaky smile.
Remedy was sure Tonya would be interested in learning about things like cities in the sky made out of clouds. Also about how strength of emotion increased strength of magic. The emotion thing was going to be applied soon with Wild anyway. Figuring out how to make a city out of clouds? That was going to take longer to crack.
Tempest was right in one thing; the whole of them had access to pony magic for two to three weeks. Their knowledge of how it worked and what it could do was essentially in the stone age compared to the Equestrians. There were far more ponies here on Earth though, and more ponies meant more minds at work trying to figure this stuff out. With them watching the Equestrians for examples of what could be done rapid advancement might be possible.
It occurred to her that the government might actually be concerned about that fact. Ponies were outnumbered by humans considerably, but magic was already something that had been used against the humans to great effect, and that took only one lone unicorn. There were now millions of unicorns in the world, and some like Remedy's mom dreamed of a pony world.
So why was the government so willing to basically hand Remedy's mom power and influence practically gift wrapped? It wasn't the first time she wondered that, and she still was confused by it. There was something she wasn't seeing. She had a lot of ambivalent feelings about everything involved; from how she felt about her mom's beliefs, to this migration, to what the government might be up to working with her mom.
A hush descended upon the church as Remedy's mom entered into the sanctuary and walked towards the alter, a Bible floating in her magic close behind her. She looked like she had taken extra care in styling her yellow and purple striped mane and tail today so they had a curly wave, and her red fur had an extra luster to it today as well.
Sunset Blessing carefully sat the Bible down next to the altar and turned to face the congregation with a contented smile on her face.
"I greet you all and thank you for your attendance. I'm extremely pleased that so many ponies have turned out to hear the Lord's word.
"Some might question with all that has happened why our faith should still be important, and some might question if it should still exist at all. We are ponies, and as ponies we are not something that contradicts the word of God, we are the sign that there is hope that this world can still live in harmony with the word of God," Blessing began her sermon.
A few scattered shouts and speaking of Amen could be heard through the church, but quickly died out as Blessing surveyed the congregation.
"Our Lord Jesus Christ lived an example of what we should be to the world. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, stopped cruelty, and he did it all without want or care for reward. He did it because that is the right thing to do. Throughout the Gospels we see this time and time again. Doing the right thing because it is the right thing," Blessing paused as another wave of amens went out across the church, one of those surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, from Tonya.
"We even see him get unhappy with the towns he visits that he performs many miracles in, yet they don't believe in him still. As God he had to know that this would happen, yet he still went to these places and did those things. Do you know why? It's because it was the right thing to do. Kindness, compassion, generosity these are always right, and come with no price tag."
Another wave of amens greeted her.
"When we do things that go against these principles, if we truly have a good and caring heart we are burdened by shame. When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge they did something selfish, dishonest, and disloyal to God. They felt shame though because they were still genuinely loving beings. They marked this shame by covering themselves up, and constructing clothes to cover their bodies as if this would somehow mask the shame they were feeling. There was no sin in their nakedness, it was a sign of their innocence. The shame was in their innocence lost. Their betrayal of what is right."
Blessing paused and looked over the congregation as they waited for her to continue. She smiled at them before beginning again.
"I look around this congregation and see nothing but naked ponies," Blessing declared. Them she paused with narrowed eyes at Tempest.
"Well, almost all naked ponies," she corrected flicking her tail dismissively at the Equestrian unicorn.
She turned back to the congregation and continued. "We're all naked yet feel no shame. We're ponies and we know in our hearts what is right and good. We know of kindness, generosity, honesty, loyalty, joy and we know we give those freely without asking for presents from God. We do those because they are right. Because we shouldn't be thinking about our rewards in Heaven to come when we feed the sick, we should be thinking that it is horrible that the individual is sick and hungry and we should want to make it better. That is what Jesus would do."
Another wave of amens. This time more numerous.
"Now our earth ponies can produce crops at astonishing rates, our pegasi can calm storms and help end droughts and hurricanes, our unicorns in time will find ways of treating prevalent illnesses. We ourselves were cured of our own maladies and perhaps none worse than the maladies of the spirit. We've been given a gift from God and we'll do the work of God, not because of any fear of judgement or reward in heaven, but because it is right. We've already been shown the compassion of God and we will share the compassion of God with the world. This is our covenant with the Lord."
A loud roar of amens went out across the church, as most of the ponies present got caught up in the call to action. Remedy and Rosetta were among the few who weren't giving loud amens in response.
As Sunset Blessing sat waiting for the church to quiet Remedy sat and thought. There were two ways to interpret what her mom had just said. On the surface there was the pledge that ponies would do all in their power to make the world a better place. However, carefully put into the wording was the idea that to be a pony was to be blessed by God and that blessing should be spread across the world.
Remedy noticed that the way it was worded was not lost on all members of the audience either. One in particular who had a raised brow was Tempest, who turned and exited out of the church as Remedy's mom called for a hymn to be sung.