This chapter contains what is an attempt at an unbiased explanation of religion based on known facts on the subject (Its role in history; ETC). I acknowledge that this is a hard subject to broach/explain, and that I may easily have not succeeded in my goal. The expressed views are my own, and I ask that the more religion-inclined members of this story’s readers keep this in mind and try to not take offense at any questionable content that I may have posted.
May.
- TSC
“I’m not sure whether to call today packed or not.” I comment bitterly, leaning against the rail of my suite’s upper floor and staring out of the floor-to-ceiling glass that takes up the exterior wall of the apartment. “But it was definitely… strange as hell.”
Twilight lets out a little huff of a laugh at my statement, despite the fact that it wasn’t meant to be humorous. “That’s one way of putting it.”
I give a little shrug. “I don’t really know how to put it. Distressful comes close, I guess. I mean, come on; I had to just crush those ponies' hopes... even if it wasn't up to me anyway.”
The mare beside me nods, and we both fall silent.
Dinner has been and gone. Treated beef cuts for me, and the usual salad for the others – oh, the others stayed for dinner. It was nice, kind of like inviting friends over. The only problem is that I don’t feel like I know any of the Elements quite well enough on a personal level to say that we’re friends. I’d consider myself Twilight’s friends, but thus far I feel that the others are still just acquaintances.
Social rules are pretty stupid when you get down to it.
Anyway, now Twilight and I are the only two left. The others weren’t interested in participating in our nightly conversation, mostly because they’re a little more serious than idle chit-chat. Tonight’s going to be a real doozy. I’m going to put forward the idea of religion to Twilight, and see what Equestria has in relation to it. What’d be really interesting would be if it turns out that pony civilization has developed without any actual religious organisations, because then I could get what would essentially be an impartial view of the concept – provided that I myself portray it accurately and without a bias, which will be tough.
In fact, this is what I’d call the ‘build up’ for our conversation. It’s the part where we barely speak as I gather my thoughts. I hope Twilight isn’t doing the same, as I doubt we’ll be discussing much apart from religion. On any other night I would have assumed that she was gathering her thoughts, but at the moment my unicorn companion is looking more than a little drowsy, so maybe she isn’t.
“Only one day until the trial.” I note to the lavender mare, standing up straight and turning towards the stairs.
“How are you feeling?” Twilight asks quietly, moving to join me as we slowly make our way to the stairs.
“Nervous. Worried. Apprehensive.” I raise one hand in a gesture of helplessness. “A lot of stuff. It’s hard to label them all. You?”
“Excited.” The mare replies, before hurriedly elaborating at the prompt of my raised eyebrow. “Because Trixie has no hope of winning, and that it will feel so good to have her convicted.”
“Uh-huh.” I nod as we start to descend the staircase. Judging from the mare’s voice, I think she might be exhausted as well as excited. “I wonder what will happen once it’s over. There’s going to be a lot of therapy – mostly mental, but some physical, I guess – and… what else?”
Twilight frowns. “I don’t know. I guess after that… it’s whatever you want to do.”
I feel a little pang of emotional anxiety in my chest as I hear her words. Twilight’s right; what comes after the trial is completely up in the air. It’s only now that I consider the possibility that I’ll be separated from the Elements, be it by performances, them going home and me staying here, or me actually being sent home to Earth.
I don’t want that. I don’t want to leave them… I mean, what would I do without them? Most likely sit around and do nothing for ninety percent of the time. I’d happily move to Ponyville to prevent us being separated.
“Keys?”
“Huh?” My eyes shift to look at Twilight. “Oh, sorry. I dazed off again.”
“I was just wondering if you were okay. You looked really… sad.” She cocks her head to the side slightly. “Is something wrong?”
“I’m fine.” I place a smile on my face as I answer in a slightly too-quick fashion, even though it’s pretty much the truth. Feeling a little anxiety does not qualify me as being unwell. “Just thinking.”
“About what?” Twilight presses as we reach the bottom of the stairs. It’s the first time yet that her curiosity has irritated me.
“Just about our conversation topic.” I lie quickly, attempting to divert the conversation. I’d rather not burden the mare with my insecurities. “On that note; are you ready for it?”
“Am I!” Twilight perks up, apparently using her excitement to push her weariness to one side as she quickly trots to the entry of my suite, which is where her saddlebags are located. “I brought paper this time!”
I give a slight scoffing laugh at her words as I move myself to the nearest couch and sit down. I remember mentioning last night that she should bring paper, and I should have known she would remember. “Oh, good.”
“Yeah. At least now I’m organised.” Twilight speaks quickly as the sound of clinking glass reaches my ears “Would you like a drink of water?”
“Yes, thanks.” I roll my eyes as I look out the windows again. Judging by the noises, Twilight had been in the process of pouring me a drink anyway. “I suppose we’re going to be sitting here for a while, so why not?
“Okay then.” Twilight replies, before we both fall silent as she quickly gathers everything she needs.
I turn away from the window as twilight returns, energetically jumping up on the couch next to me and sitting down despite the obvious fatigue in her eyes. I can’t help but find it odd that she chose to sit beside me, when there’s an entire other couch where she could spread out her things better – but I’m more occupied by the fact that she’s controlling three different telekinetic fields at the moment. One contains a small stack of papers along with a feather-pen and an inkwell, another lifts the navy blue book I attempted to purchase earlier today, and the final holds two tall glasses of water from the fridge.
“Thanks.” I accept one of the glasses as Twilight moves the pair towards me, before also retrieving my book from her aura. “And thanks again.”
“You’re welcome.” Twilight replies with a brief smile, and then goes about arranging her papers and writing equipment. “Uhh… just give me a moment to get set up.”
“Sure.” I take an idle sip of my drink, before nearly doing a spit-take upon glancing at the title of my book. I manage to stop myself well enough, but even so I let out a surprised grunt as a tiny jet of water escapes my lips and lands on the coffee table.
“Keys?” Twilight’s head snaps back to me as I hurriedly swallow my mouthful of water and once again check the title of the book, coughing and spluttering the entire time. “What’s wrong?”
“Ah!” I take a sharp breath as my short coughing fit subsides. “Hah! This…” I clear my throat quickly, suddenly feeling flustered. “This, uh… ‘A Stallion’s Guide to Dating Stallions’… definitely isn’t my book.”
“Oh!” Twilight glances at the cover, a flush of embarrassment appearing on her cheeks. “I’m so sorry! That store clerk said it was the one you tried to buy!”
I gag slightly, realizing that even after being penalized by the city guard, that store clerk managed to screw with me. “Hah! No, I didn’t buy this.” A half-laugh escapes my lips as the humour behind the situation hits me. “I wouldn’t buy a book like this.”
“Ah.” Twilight nods slightly, looking at the cover again. “So – uh… you aren’t… into stallions…?” She delivers the question in a tone that is more abashed and awkward than I thought was possible.
“Oh no!” I reply quickly, raising my hands at the suggestion. “Oh, hell no – not that there’s anything wrong with that, either. What I mean is – ugh.” I blink twice, getting more and more confused. “What I mean is that I don’t like stallions. I like mares.” I speak quickly trying to dispel any illusion that I might be homophobic. “It’s… no. I’m straight.”
“Right…” Twilight nods slightly, and I look down at the book again.
“Huh. Twenty bits out the window.” I frown, and then unceremoniously toss the book onto the coffee table. “Cool.”
We both sit in an awkward silence for a couple of seconds, before I turn to Twilight. “But seriously. I don’t… you know, ‘swing that way’.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” Twilight nods. “Me neither – although some of my friends back in Ponyville are homosexual.”
“Right.” I sit back in my chair for a second, briefly contemplating the odds of any of Twilight’s ‘homosexual friends’ being some of the brony favourites. People seem keen on Lyra and Bonbon. Maybe it’s them. “Well. That was… awkward. Maybe we should just… y’know, move ahead.”
“Uhh… yeah.” Twilight quickly finishes organizing her things. “I agree.”
“Okay then.” I take a deep breath, and then release said breath in a loud exhale. “Well, tonight’s topic is a big one, so let’s start at the beginning; do you know what ‘religion’ is?”
“Religion?” Twilight raises an eyebrow, simultaneously dipping her feather pen in the inkwell and writing the word out at the top of her first page. “Uhh… no. I’m not familiar with it.”
“That doesn’t surprise me – although it means I have to take some time and explain it.” I raise one hand to the side of my head. “Okay… so, ‘religion’ is pretty much a set of beliefs that each human has regarding the creation of existence, who or what created it, what happens after we die, what moderates our existence, and what the point of life is.”
“That sounds… really serious.” Twilight raises an eyebrow, waiting for me to explain.
“People certainly take it seriously.” I frown and take a sip of water as I run through my own knowledge of religion. “There are about twenty major or ‘primary’ religions, and each one has dozens of sub-religions that were formed through ideological differences. Almost all religious beliefs follow the idea that the universe and the human race were both created by a ‘god’, or a set of gods. The general opinion is that whoever created the universe is some sort of omnipotent, omniscient being that watches everything that we do, so that when we die it can be decided what happens to us, or something to that effect.”
“What… happens?” Twilight raises one hoof to her eye and rubs it, letting out a silent yawn as her previous excitement apparently gives-way under her tiredness. “What do you mean?”
“Uhh, well… I’m not sure how many, but a few of the religions believe in the existence of a heaven and a hell. The basic idea is that if you do good things during your life, you go to heaven when you die and spend the rest of existence in luxury, and doing bad deeds means that you go to hell and are punished for the rest of existence.
“The rest of existence?” Twilight stops scribbling down notes briefly. “That seems… insanely disproportionate.”
“Yeah. Critics like to mention that the concept of infinite punishment for finite crimes is more than unfair.” I purse my lips. “But then again, the Equestria I’ve seen has some of that too – indefinite banishment to the moon and imprisonment in stone being prime examples.”
“Well… yeah…” Twilight glances at me as she begins to protest my observation. “But maybe the problem with what you’re telling me is that those who are punished die and are punished forever.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I glance out the window, not wanting to get into an argument over what makes infinite punishment unfair. “Okay, I don’t think I’m doing this right. I can’t just mention the negatives. To be fair, I should tell you some of the positives of religion.”
“Which are…?”
“Uh – okay, let me start from the beginning.” I take a deep breath. “Almost all religions believe that there is at least one god, and some of them believe that there multiple ones. Some percentage – I’m not sure how many – also believe that humans are rewarded or punished forever once they die, based on their actions.”
“Right. I have all that.” Twilight glances at what she’s written so far.
“Yeah.” I look over the mare’s notes – which are closer to being a transcript of the facts I’ve stated so far. The one thing I notice is that she’s so tired that the handwriting is barely legible. “Okay, one of the biggest upsides to religion is its teachings. All religions normally teach their followers to be kind to others and do the right thing. The problem is that many people are religiously intolerant, and will openly disparage those of a different belief to them.”
“Uh-huh… and… uh, what’s your religion?” Twilight glances up at me, her eyes questioning me. “What do you believe?”
“Technically, I don’t have a religion.” I reply stoutly. “I’m what is referred to as an ‘Atheist’. We’re the people who believe that there are no deities, and instead follow what we see as having been proven by science-”
“Wait.” Twilight suddenly interrupts me, before interrupting herself with a yawn. “Uh – if religions have been proven wrong by science, why do people follow them?”
“Well, technically science hasn’t proved any the many religions wrong. It’s proved parts of their stories wrong, but it’s almost impossible to prove that there is no god, due to the fact that god has been described as operating outside our plane of existence. Therefore, no matter what proof you throw up the religious can always say that god still exists, or that it was part of his plan, or that we can never understand his works.”
“This sounds very complicated.” Twilight comments in a low mutter.
“It really is, and I don’t think I’m explaining it right.” I sigh. “Religion is a huge part of human culture. I should’ve realized that I’d screw up at trying to convey it fairly. It’s next to impossible to be impartial and unbiased on something you are involved with, and there’s actually a lot of subject matter to cover.”
I glance at Twilight, who is yawning again. Now I’m definite that she didn’t sleep last night – and possibly the night before that. “And… no offense, but you don’t really seem in the best shape for a discussion like this. When’d you last actually sleep?”
“Sleep?” Twilight looks down at her notes. “Uhh… it wasn’t last night… and… was it the night before that? Ugh, I… I can’t remember.”
“Well, you look… pretty tired.” I manage to refrain from making a comment about her being hit by a train. In all honesty, the mare’s looking exhausted, and a quick glance at her writings shows that the scribbles are now completely illegible. I literally can’t understand them, even though they’re just the transcript of my terrible explanations. “Okay, really tired. I don’t think you’re in any shape for this kind of discussion.”
Truth-be-told, I’m not feeling overly alert either. I long for the day when going out into the city and pretty much just walking around and talking doesn’t leave me feeling drained, but at the moment I feel about ready to go to bed myself. Twilight’s yawning isn’t helping either.
“What? No…” Twilight glances down at her papers. “I’m fine, just… please don’t stop talking.”
“Don’t stop…” I raise an eyebrow.
“Don’t stop talking. I want you to keep talking.” Twilight’s voice drops to a mutter as her eyelids droop, before she suddenly wrenches them open again. “I’m having fun.”
I shake my head at the mare. “You’re going to be asleep in a couple of minutes. You know that, right?”
“No… no…” Twilight’s quill drops to her paper. “I’m fine… just… talking…”
I let out a little sigh. “You’re hopeless. Okay, gi’me a second.” My almost constantly present frown deepens as I think over what to say next. Like I said; there’s a lot to talk about.
“Okay, so the many religions have good intentions. They teach their followers to love, tolerate, and to just be better people as a whole. They don’t always succeed at this, and it’s widely acknowledged that religious teachings and disagreements have been the cause of at least half of humanities’ wars. There’s also the issue that some people believe in religious teachings, but are still not kind to many of their fellow man. That, however, is a failing of the people themselves, and not the religion.
“One of my own big problems with religion is how they reject proven modern science and facts in favour of their own ancient stories. Another issue is that…” I glance at Twilight, only to see that she’s failed in her attempts to stay awake, and is now snoring quietly. “…Oh… well, I was right.”
The lavender mare’s head is folded over her forehooves, placing her in a cat-like sleeping position and creating an adorable image the likes of which I haven’t seen since I was back at home and actually watching the show. Luckily, she’s managed to avoid knocking over her inkwell, which I carefully relocate to the coffee table.
I feel vaguely creepy, just sitting here and watching Twilight sleep. I’d actually get up and move if it wasn’t for one rather small thing – and it really is small. Simply put, I’m just a little curious in the ponies’ body structure. The show and my time here have both shown that there’s a huge difference between Equestrian and Earth equines when body structure is involved – such as the high amounts of flexibility in the limbs of Equestrian ponies. Their faces are far more human-like, instead of being… well, horse-faced, and of course I won’t even mention their strange coats, cutie-marks, sentience and anthropomorphism.
Earth horses normally sleep standing-up, as I recall, although they require at least one hour of lying down during their rest every day to achieve the necessary amount of REM-sleep for a healthy sleep cycle. (As an interesting note, it was actually My Little Pony that triggered me finding that out.)
Equestrian ponies, on the other hand, seem to spend most – if no all – of their sleep lying down. That might be because they’re not skittish and don’t fear predators, or maybe it’s related to another matter entire, which I haven’t really looked at until now: It’s about time that I stopped comparing the inhabitants of Equestria to Earth horses and ponies. It’s glaringly obvious that the only attributes they share are their body structures and species names.
Aside from that, the two races couldn't be more different. It’s like comparing humans to monkeys. The differences are so huge that it’s borderline offensive. The fact of the matter is that Equestrian ponies aren’t ‘animals’, by the human definition – the human definition being that an animal is sexually reproducing creature that does not have the faculties for cognitive thought – although all organic creatures are technically considered animals. It’s not a hard truth to accept, and is in fact a very easy conclusion to draw.
It’s a simple as that. Equestrian ponies are related to Earth ponies in the same way that humans are related to monkeys and apes; abstractly, with eons of evolutionary distance between them. The fact of the matter is that I need to stop viewing them as being related to unintelligent animals, because they just plain aren’t.
I smile slightly, easing myself up off the couch and quietly making my way towards the stairs. It’s hard to put into words, but I feel strangely ‘happier’ after having cleared that up with myself. Redefining my friends as being distanced from the unintelligent creatures on Earth somehow makes me feel like I’ve progressed in our understanding of each other, even if this is an identification that only I am aware of.
Also, I suppose me and Twilight will need to reschedule our religion discussion for when she’s finished resting-up – although with how terrible a job I’ve done at explaining it, it may be a better idea to simply drop the matter entirely before I imprint a biased opinion on Twilight. It was a stupid idea for me to think I could provide an impartial explanation of the system when I’m a partaker of it – and an opinionated one at that. I guess that’s another tally point for the ‘Keys is a dumbass’ rule. When Twilight get’s up I’ll have to ask her to disregard everything I said, and explain to her exactly why I think the information I’ve given her is unreliable.
I give a little sigh as I reach the top of the stairs and move to the entry to my bedroom. I’ll need to find some blankets and a pillow for Twilight, which will most likely be in one of the closets in my room.
Five minutes of searching a quiet muttering later, I emerge from my newly partially-ransacked room – now laden down with both the duvet-pillows from my bed and a small pile of spare blankets – and begin the return trip to the couch downstairs. My pace is still far too slow for my liking, and I’d probably be moving faster if I was still using my cane around the suite, but I think I’ll get in better shape if I stop relying on the cane in an enclosed space like this. Going out to the city is a different story, though.
“Hmm…” I hum discontentedly to myself as I start down the top of the stairs. The fact that a few blankets and a pair of pillows feel notably heavy to me is more than a little irritating. Carrying them feels about as taxing as carrying three full grocery bags would have felt before my enslavement. That’s a huge change in ability, and it still really bothers me… although I will admit that it’s much better than how I was on the first day of freedom, when I could barely even walk on my own – much less lift something. It’s progress, but it’s slow… and as a human, I find that infuriating. I’d consider myself to be moderately patient, but going this long and still being so feeble is downright infuriating to the point that I grind my teeth every time I think of the subject. My dentist would throw a fit, but he’s just another name on a very long list of people I’m probably never going to see again.
I yawn as I arrive at the bottom of the stairs, pushing my many thoughts on my physical condition to the side as I all-but hobble back to the couch.
My burden is unloaded onto the carpet with a quiet ‘oof’, before I busy myself slowly retrieving Twilight’s many papers and quills from around her sleeping form and relocating them to the coffee table with the embarrassing ‘Stallion’s Guide’ book and her inkwell.
With that done, I carefully lift up one of the blankets and unfold it, before draping it over Twilight’s sleeping form. After that, I gently lift the mare’s head with one hand and slide the duvet-pillow in between it and her hooves. The action causes the lavender mare to stir, but I manage to finish before she awakens.
Finished, I step back and frown, now feeling faintly irritated that I brought so much down and used so little. Now I need to trek all the way up those damn stairs just so that I can go to bed myself.
With a little grumbling under my breath, I scoop up the unused duvet-pillow and blankets, and pause to glare at the stairs for a couple of seconds. I am so sick of using stairs all the time.
Of course that’s when I realize that I don’t need to go back upstairs, because I have everything I need to go to sleep right in front of me. Sure, it won’t be as comfortable as the double-bed upstairs, but I literally can’t be screwed going up those stairs again.
I glance at the upper level of the suite, and then turn my gaze to the vacant couch opposite Twilight. I’m not opposed to taking convenience over comfort lately – especially when flights of stairs are involved – so I suppose I might as well just sleep down here.
“Mmm…” I hum discontentedly as I move around the coffee table to drop the remaining pillow on the couch opposite Twilight and the blankets on the floor. “Well, why not?”
I sit down on the couch, swinging my legs up the floor and curl up as I drop my head to the pillow, before reaching out, and retrieving the topmost blanket from the pile.
With that done, I roll onto my side so that I’m facing into the couch-back. I didn’t normally find it easy to fall asleep quickly back on Earth, but nowadays I’ve been finding myself falling asleep in the middle of the day. It’s so easy, it’s actually a little inconvenient.
Even now, I’m already feeling a little ‘disconnected’ from my body. I’m in that hazy, drowsy zone before sleep where realizing you’re in it normally yanks you back to being alert. (Oddly enough, I’m still falling asleep.)
I exhale at length through my nostrils as my eyes flitter close, only having one thought before I fall into a proper, restful sleep.
‘Twilight sure was acting weird… even for someone as tired as her.’