“I must apologize for my sister’s outburst,” Celestia said, taking a sip of her tea. “She means well, ultimately, but this topic includes exceptionally painful memories of the Lunar Rebellions. She does not wish you to go down that path as well, Twilight. I was not joking when I said we must not be worshipped. That leads only to madness.”
Twilight nodded, drinking from her own teacup. “I understand. I was just… rather surprised at how intense Luna was about it, is all.”
“Luna is nothing if not intense. Her passion at its peak is truly something to behold. In any event, why don’t we continue the entry with me while my sister calms herself. Shall we?”
Twilight nodded, lifting up her pointing stick while the background changed to a picture of a pony watching a sunset. “Generally speaking, Equestria has, in it’s highest laws, enshrined complete freedom of religion. The government cannot recognize nor endorse any one religion. This, however, comes with an important exception.”
Celestia continued, “Worship of alicorns is strictly forbidden. All public displays of such worship are banned, including gathering for such purposes and even proselytizing. Commercial production of imagery meant to promote worship of alicorns is also banned. It is possible to be sent to jail for these infractions, and it has happened, although it is rare to spend long periods incarcerated for it.” The image changed to a jail cell containing an idol similar to the Princess’s cutie mark.
Twilight lay down on the ground, crossing her forelegs. “To be honest, I’ve only met maybe three ponies that ever ‘openly’ worshipped Celestia, and most of the time they’re fairly quiet about it. They didn’t deny it, but they didn’t yell it from the rooftops either. Generally speaking, although alicorn worship exists, I’d say it’s rather rare. Probably because of these laws. Even the Nightmare Moon Cult is said to only have a few thousand members, although I’d imagine it’s rather hard to get an accurate estimation on that.”
Celestia started to pour more hot water in her teacup. “Technically, private worship of us is also banned, but, that’s much, much more difficult to enforce. If a pony prays to us in their bedroom, how are we to know? Even if we did, acting on it would be seen as overly invasive and tyrannical. That’s something we can ill afford right now. The good news is that if a pony is only doing it in the privacy of their own home and not proselytizing it to others, the potential for damage is very minimal.”
Twilight swallowed. “I remember when I first started studying under you, you caught me praying to you in my room. I’m glad you didn’t toss me in jai—”
“Are you honestly suggesting I’d toss a filly in jail for looking up to me a little too much?” Celestia asked with a raised eyebrow and a smile.
“Ah, right…” Twilight fidgeted with her mane. “When you put it that way, it does sound kind of… well…”
“The word you are looking for is ‘ludicrous,’ Twilight. Even assuming I did enforce that law myself, foals do not suffer the same punishments as adults in the legal system for a reason. On top of that, even for adults the penalties are generally very mild and judges often use fines instead. Real hard time is reserved for those rare, repeat, and large-scale offenders. Often times, if a pony gets that ‘bad,’ I will have personal chats with them to clear their misconceptions, and that usually works. As it did with you.”
Twilight sighed. “And yet, I kept saying things like ‘thank Celestia’ even though I knew better. Everypony else does, too. And even since you talked to me about worshipping you there was always this little feeling in the back of my mind that I shouldn’t do that, but I did anyway.”
Celestia chuckled, dipping a new teabag in her hot water. “Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Luna and I have tried countless times to get our ponies to stop saying such things, but ultimately it’s ended in spectacular failure each time. Fortunately that particular habit of our ponies doesn’t seem to be harmful in the same way open worship is. At the very least, we haven’t noticed it in the last nine thousand years we’ve been full alicorns.”
“Then how come when I was a filly you spent that one day stealthily following around your old senechal Time Minder, popping around a corner and saying ‘you’re welcome’ whenever he said it?” Twilight smirked.
Celestia smiled. “Oh, come now, Twilight. Even I have to have a little fun sometimes. Besides, he stopped saying it after that, didn’t he?”
Twilight’s head jerked up in realized. “Okay, now I can’t tell if you were just playing a joke on him or if that was the planned outcome.”
“Ah, but who says it couldn’t be both?” Celestia winked.
“Riiiiight. Well, in any event, that concludes this entry, everyone. The voting board is back up.”
Nothing new unlocked this time.
==Pony Genetics==Stock Ponies and Draft Ponies
Tribe Hybrids
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==Magic Items==
Enchanted Objects
Cored Artifacts
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==Royal Guard Overview==
Senechals [LOCKED UNTIL: SOMETIME IN BLOCK 4]
Royal Guard [LOCKED UNTIL: SOMETIME IN BLOCK 4]
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==Equestrian Politics==
The Inner Council
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==Wings==
Wing types overview
Flight characteristics
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==Culture==
Languages
Technology Level
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==Higher Power==Pony spiritualityAlicorn worship
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