“When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, There's just something about you that pisses me off.”
― Stephen King, Storm of the Century: An Original Screenplay
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“What do you mean what’s a religion?”
“I really have never heard of the word religion Matt! It must be an earth thing.”
“That is bull-“
“What is it with you and the negative derogatory with bulls… excrement? Sure they can be a little mean sometimes, but-“
“As I was saying Twlight, there’s no way Equestria didn’t at least have a religion in the past. Every subculture on Earth has place faith in superstition at one time or another. Their had to be a time when ponies did the same thing.”
“Well maybe this is just another translation error between our cultures. Like everybody, and everypony, only more significant. Could you explain it for me?”
“Gladly, you see-“
“Oh wait! Let me get something to write this down with!”
“…You know for someone likes to lecture so much, you sure do interrupt when it’s someone’s else’s turn.”
Twilight begins to respond with a meek expression, but I can’t hear the words she’s saying. It must have been while I was trying to make heads or tails of the situation, because next thing I know I’m in an ocean of darkness. An odd sense of calm fills me as I get a feeling similar to going down an elevator….
I awoke to some very nostalgic music
I open my eyes to take in taking in my surroundings and immediately recognize that I was standing in the camber of sages from one of my favorite video games, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Water is endlessly flowing from the nearby columns, and the surrounding walls of blue light seem to hint of something much more beyond them. Even the 6 seals of the sages surrounded me. The only difference is that instead of the Triforce being in the center, my feet rested upon a yin-yang, the symbol of Taoism.
“How did I get here?”
“Though are still asleep on the train that is on its way to Canterlot,” replied a Victorian sounding voice, “This place is merely a construct of your mind. It made something familiar to you that you’d feel comfortable in so that we could talk.”
I spun around to find a blue equine figure with wavy star filled hair, standing on the seal of darkness.
“I was under the impression that humans lacked any magical talent or access to places such as this. Is it a magical shrine of mediation for you humans? Twlight’s letters mentioned that you come from a world without any magic. If this is true than how did you dream up such a plain?”
I felt like I should be freaking out, or at least freaking out over the lack of freaking out, “This is a scene from one of my favorite video games, an advanced form of interactive storytelling, and entertainment that-“
“I’ve heard of these video games from our dear friend Twilight! You must tell me more about it! I’ve always had a vested interest in finding new ways to tell stories. Graphic novels were considered for children until I funded innovative ponies to advance the art. If video games can create such amazing imagery then-“
“AS I WAS SAYING!” I projected with vocal chords acquired from several lead performances in school plays. Calm or not, I wanted some answers, “Where am I and who are you?”
The dark blue alicorn was taken back from my blunt topic change. She clearly wasn’t used to being talked back to. I would have found this irritating if I wasn’t in a zen like calmness.
"My apologies, I am Princess Luna of the night. As I said before, we are merely in your mind, your dreams specifically. This is the first time I have been able to enter your slumbering mind. Now that I’ve figured out the workings of your mind, I should be to visit you with greater ease."
Now normally, such a breach in privacy would have brought out quite a number of emotions, followed by some tastefully chosen words. However, this calm tranquil mindset I was experiencing was deeply rooted. I felt warm…. secure…. and I had no desire to leave it. Kind of like how you don’t want to leave the your warm bed on a cold morning.
“Why didn’t you visit sooner.”
"Your mind is like a labyrinth where you walk down instead of right. Normally entering the dreams of my subjects is a simple as stepping into a body of water. However, yours is so foreign. I could only enter your dreams now be because you are closer to Canterlot."
That’s right! I’m in a train on its my way to Canterlot. Twilight finally convinced me to visit Canterlot after our discussion on religion. I didn’t think I was comfortable with the idea of meeting a demi-god yet, but she used my pride to her advantage. She figured if anyone could clear up our argument over religion it would be a seemingly immortal princess. Clever girl.
"Why have you been so eager to enter my dreams? Couldn’t you just talk to me face to face in Canterlot?"
…….
Luna’s Body was completely still, like the image of a character when you pause a video. And yet, I couldn’t help, but get the feeling she was still moving. Almost like she was just jogging in place faster than my eyes could see.
"I’m sorry, but I’ll have to cut this warning short. Your train is ahead of schedule and will be docking soon. Twilight will no doubt wake you at that time."
"Warn me what?"
"That my sister Celestia has yet to decide whether or not it is wise to send you home."
I felt my calm quickly being replace with rage as the pedestal we stood on began to shake. She may be some sort of goddess, but she’s on my home turf.
"You anger is quite understandable. However, sending you home is not yet been made possible. So this is a decision that has yet to me made. We are researching the after effects of what brought you here and I am absolutely certain that we will eventually be able to send you home one day. Unfortunately, this is a brand new field of magic, and there are a lot of fine details that need to be work out. It is very difficult to estimate the specific time we will figure out how to send you home."
Okay so kicking in the teeth of the closest living thing to a demi-goddess wouldn’t get me home yet regardless…impossibility of achieving that scenario aside.
"So why does she get to make the judgment call on my fate? I thought you were the co-ruler? Not to mention Twilight or this alicorn of love if heard about?"
"Twilight is still new to the role of a Princess. She will continue to play an important role should things work in your favor. Smart as she may be, she still lacks the proper experience that comes from living over a thousand years to comprehend the magnitude of your species potential. As for me, I agree with my Sister’s claim that I am too emotionally invested in your outcome, and that it would corrupt my ability to make a decision for the good of my little ponies."
Surfing on the internet since as early as I can remember has made an impact on my life that the rest of my family can never fully understand. I imaging that I’ll get along with my nieces and nephews better than my own brothers, and hold the title of the ‘sage uncle’. However, surfing websites like four-chan, along with reading fan-fics tend to make someone with a dirty mind like myself see a sexual innuendos and scenarios in almost anything, and the thought of being flirted with by an alien demi-goddess [however brief] is enough to make anyone blush. Being a little lonely doesn’t help either.
Luna seemed to notice my slight blush, and soon was wearying one herself.
Well this is awkward….
With a level of convenience that rivals Saved By the Bell, a booming noise echoed across the digital plane that was my dream. It almost sounded like a whistle hooked up to a bass system.
Darkness flowed in around me with the speed of a tsunami as I began to feel like I was falling. Luna was drifting away against her will, trying to yell out to me, but the thunderous whistle drowned whatever she said. The last thing I remembered was that her cheeks where still red.
I like this
Seems promising
There's one topic I think that Matt and Celestia could talk about: If she really is some sort of demigoddess.
In canon she isn't, she just has more power than any other pony has, but NOT some godlike ability.
She may be able to control the sun, but remember: A few(!) unicorns were able to move the sun and moon before Celestia and Luna were even born.
I hope that Matt isn't one of those "magic-just-killed-all-I-believe-in" guys.
Uuum did I miss something? There was literally nothing about how he came to meet Twilight or what happened when they discovered each other.
2915531 In this fic, it is unimportant. He have given us enough information to know that he came to equestria, talked to Twilight, and is now traveling to meet Celestia. This fic is about a Human disscusing religion with Celestia (Duh) not the entirety of what happened to this human when he arrived or how he adapted. These two first chapters are like an introduction. so we can grasp his situation. Every HiE fic doesn't need to have the whole deal about how the human came to Equestria, atleast not if it isn't a major plot (hehe) point in the story.
So in conclussion; Almost everything that happened to him while he was there is unimportant, this fi is about a religious disscution, not the events of a human coming to Equestria.
2915531>>2916160
Basically, Matt made a wish on the stars that were temporarily made when Twilight became an alicorn, and it came true. I wasn't quite sure how else to describe how the star looked with just words. I might slap a picture up or something.
And yes, this fic is going to mostly be focused on self-narration, and talking to Celestia about philosophies on religion, and other human topics like technology and politics. May as well warm up the flame wars . I'm VERY open to suggestions for topics, and themes (religious or not) to discus with the sun horse.
However, the next chapter will provide some details on how Matt adjusted to being thrown into a brand new culture with aliens.
It will certainly be interesting to see what you do with the discussions on philosophy. It's not exactly a completely novel idea, but that's irrelevant. It shall be interesting to see how you deal with Matt. Will he be "the avatar of the reader", or will he be an Uzzah or Zarathustra?
Et in Arcadia Ego. We shall be watching.
2916835
He's not going to be an avatar for the reader, but I chose a 1st person perspective for more than just the conventional means. Also, I have no idea what an Uzzah or Zarathustra are/is.
2916986
Never mind. If it's just going to be a thinly-disguised allegory of faithlessness, it is our strong suggestion to abandon it. If not, good luck.
2916997 If it were that, Matt would be an atheist.
2917015
That's mishandling the terms rather roughly. No, Matt wouldn't necessarily be formulated as an atheist because agnosticism is not mutually exclusive with either atheism or theism, and atheism can be an element of agnosticism. Furthermore, there's the issue of degree, and then the issue of specific belief systems being based on entirely different formulations of agnosticism and/or atheism.
So no, in short, agnostics can preach irreligion.
I (for what ever reason) think that Matt is going to pull the 'Dear Celestia' statement into this... arguement
I'm listening
I am reluctantly following this story now, but I do hope that your protagonist is equipped to give a fair, more or less complete view of some rather complicated topics of discussion. I've been burned by this on other stories before, but was able to keep going since the whole plot wasn't built on the single premise, but if the same thing happens here there really isn't anything else to come back for.
I don't mean that if I disagree with the main character I'm going to give up the story, I just want all the sides of the argument to be presented, and for the Ponies hearing the arguments to have some actual input or unique points of view.
2925093 I totally get what you're worried about. I've had this idea buzzing around my head for a long time, but I didn't want to put in the effort to write this (mostly because I'm a slow writer) unless I could avoid having it sound like a whining adolescent. They're gonna talk about other topics eventually to avoid being a one trick pony.