My six friends sit around a round table, sipping milkshakes at the Sweet Shoppe, smiling and chatting.
During a lull in conversation, I say, “Hey, I’m really grateful I got to talk to all of you this week about your religious beliefs.” I wink at Rainbow, preempting her retort. “Even yours, Dash.”
“Bu- Su-set,” Pinkie Pie says, muffled through a straw. She slurps the end of her drink, making enough noise in the process to elicit a disgusted wince from Rarity beside her. Pinkie pushes her empty glasses towards the centre of the table and exclaims, “You never talked to me about mine!”
I smile, a bit confused. “I asked if you had any religious beliefs, and you just told me to meet you and the girls here for milkshakes.” I sip my own drink and then add on, “I assumed you’re just really religious about spending time with your friends.”
Rainbow Dash snickers. “Nah, I bet you that Pinkie Pie’s ‘belief’” – she makes air quotes with her fingers – “is that sugar is holy and cupcakes make good communion.” Rainbow looks at me and wags her eyebrows. “5 bucks?” I glance at Pinkie’s indignant face and give Dash a thumbs-up.
Is betting on a friend’s religious beliefs sinful? Hey, if we’re all sinners, it doesn’t matter, right?
…Wait.
“Deal. 5 bucks that Pinkie believes something other than ‘there’s no limit to how much sugar a healthy adolescent should consume in one sitting’.”
“You say it like it isn’t true,” Pinkie Pie huffs at me. She then sticks her tongue out playfully at Rainbow, who sticks hers out much less playfully in return. The situation escalating, Pinkie wags her tongue around, and Rainbow gags. While the two most mature members of my entourage battle it out, I notice Rarity making hurried glances around the busy shop.
To Rarity’s obvious relief, Twilight Sparkle interrupts the little fight. “You guys are being ridiculous.” Rarity and Fluttershy nod in unison at this. Rainbow Dash crosses her arms with her eyebrows raised. “Rainbow, I can’t believe you don’t know that Pinkie Pie is Jewish.”
Pinkie bats an eye.
Rainbow follows suit.
Fluttershy tilts her head slightly at the revelation.
And Rarity? Rarity scoffs. “Preposterous. Pinkie Pie is a follower of Christ.” Fluttershy nods along.
“I don’t know where you heard that rumour,” Twilight frowns. “Because she’s definitely Jewish.”
“Rumour?” Rarity huffs. “She’s a Catholic, just like me.”
“No,” Twilight says, “she’s a Jew, just like me.” By now, the others look quite confused, Fluttershy most of all. Twilight and Rarity each turned their gazes Pinkieward for confirmation.
Pinkie says nothing and smiles cryptically.
Fluttershy speaks up. “Um, I don’t know if it makes her a Christian, but Pinkie likes going with me to church on Sundays. She says she likes singing our worship songs.” Fluttershy smiles sheepishly at Pinkie. “She sounds pretty good, too.”
Rarity puts up a finger. “Fluttershy, dear, let’s not be hasty. Pinkie Pie is a churchgoing Catholic. She knows the liturgy by heart. I think that counts a bit more than some, er, worship songs.” Fluttershy seems hurt by this remark, and I am tempted to defend her. When I was there, the songs at Fluttershy’s church sounded like a valid way to pray, just like the liturgy at Rarity’s.
Alas, before I get the chance to say anything, Twilight shakes her head and cuts in to the argument. “I for one see Pinkie at my shul all the time.”
Rainbow Dash smirks. “She probably just goes for the free food.”
Twilight blinks. “I suppose I have seen her eating her fair share of the oneg.” She pauses momentarily in contemplation, then shakes off the new information. “But Pinkie goes even when it isn’t anyone’s bat mitzvah. She prays, too, in Hebrew.” Twilight cups her hand around her mouth and comments to the group, as if I can’t hear her while sitting right next to her. “Her Hebrew is a lot better than Sunset’s, I gotta say.”
I stick a kiss on Twilight’s cheek in protest. She blushes but stands by her words.
“Some Christians learn Hebrew. It’s one of the holy languages, after all.” Fluttershy replies, unsure of herself. “And Pinkie sings all the worship songs, even the ones about loving Christ.” Rarity nods.
Twilight blinks and then looks between Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity in quick succession. “Oh G-d”. She covers her mouth with her hand, eyes betraying her shock. “What if she’s one of those Jews for Jesus?”
Pinkie says nothing.
Throughout the conversation, Applejack has been distant. Zoning out, maybe. Contemplative, more generously. But now she sighs. “I don’t want y’all drawing conclusions based on some ol’ she said, she said. But when I went through my faith crisis freshman year, Pinkie Pie here looked me in the eye and said, ‘AJ, it’s okay not to believe in God. It really is’.” Applejack bites her lip. “It really helped me to hear it back then. Lord knows none of my family would say that to me. Even if some of them were thinking the same thing. Thank you, again, Pinkie.” She smiles wearily at Pinkie, who returns an unabashed ear-to-ear smile. Applejack looks at Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity. “Now think what you want about Pinkie here, but those don’t sound like the words of a faithful Christian or Jew to me.”
While the religious trio looks puzzled, Pinkie innocently slurps on at least her third milkshake, while the rest of us are still on our first. I start to wonder if I’m going to lose this bet.
Rainbow Dash slaps her arms against the table. “I for one have never heard Pinkie talk about religion.”
Applejack quirks an eyebrow. “Since when do you give a hoot about anyone’s religion?”
“Duh, since I had a bet riding on it.” Rainbow sticks her head out and waves it like it’s obvious. “But I knew Shy is a Christian, ’cause she told me. And I knew Twi was Jewish, ’cause she told me.” She points up. “If Pinkie cared so much about loving God or hating God or whatever, she would’ve told me. ’Cause we’re friends. Cue the D.”
“Do you mean QED?” Twilight frowns. “Because that doesn’t mean what you think it does.”
I snicker. “‘QED’ doesn’t, or ‘Cue the D’ doesn’t?”
“Yes.”
There is silence, and one by one, we turn our heads towards the subject of our confusion.
“Pinkie Pie,” Applejack says, “I think you’ve got some ’splaining to do.”
That would be the understatement of the day.
“Hmm… I guess you’re all right about me.” Pinkie slurps away the last of milkshake numero cuatro. She needs to fuel up before monologuing, or something like that. “Just like you’re all right about God.”
A chorus of “huh?” ensues.
Pinkie taps her finger against the table. “Say I’m just a Jew. Then I get to go to synagogue with Twi, which is super fun, but I miss out on everybody else.”
Twilight nods.
“Or say I’m just a Christian. Then I get church with Flutters and Rarity. Those are both super fun in their own ways. But then I get no Twi.”
Fluttershy and Rarity nod in turn.
“And in none of those cases do I get to support Applejack as she comes to reject religion altogether, and that’d be a huge bummer.”
“Pinkie Pie, dear, why would you want to support her rejecting God if you’re a Christian?” Rarity frowns. “Or a Jew, for that matter?”
Pinkie smiles. “Because I’m Applejack’s friend. And yours too.”
“I’m your friend, too,” Rainbow mumbles.
“Yep!” Pinkie grins. “And I know nothing I do or don’t do could ever change that, Dashie. That’s part of what makes our friendship so awesome.”
Rainbow squints her eyes but says nothing, apparently both baffled and oddly touched.
Twilight flips a notebook onto the table and clicks her pen. “I don’t understand, Pinkie. What do you believe in?”
“You guys, silly!” Pinkie laughs, and squeezes Rarity and Rainbow on either side into a sudden hug. Both look dumbfounded by the turn of events.
“That’s ridiculous.” Twilight pushes her glasses against the bridge of her nose. “None of us are God. Actually, I have my doubts about you, but none of the rest of us are God. And you believing in yourself is either cliché or narcissistic. Maybe both.”
“Pff.” Pinkie giggles. “I’m not God. I met Her, though. She’s pretty chill.” Pinkie leans in, away from other tables, and whispers, “But She’s pretty peeved that people keep fighting each other over Her.”
I blush at the language, though nobody else seems to react to that part of the sentence.
Rarity blinks. “I’m sorry, dear, you said you met God? As in…” She crosses herself. “The God? Not some pastry or rock musician or something else merely named God?”
“Obviously,” Pinkie laughs to Rarity’s awe and disbelief. “Only once, though. It was during the Friendship Games.”
Twilight grimaces. “I don’t like where this is going.”
“Nah, you’re good, Twi.” Pinkie beams. “Lyra, Bon Bon, and I were munching on some of my special Pinkie brownies, and then there was this burst of magic, and all of a sudden I was flying with Lyra in the sky with diamonds. We flew all the way to the pearly gates, and let me tell you, that took a while. They are so high up.”
Rarity blinks.
“Anyway, we got there and said hi to three Sweetie Belles playing six dimensional chess with Discord and Granny Pie. Then, bam, God showed up, and She was like, ‘Hey Pinkie Pie! Hey Lyra! Wait, Lyra, you’re not supposed to be here for another fifty three years’. And so Lyra looked super sad and scared and asked if she was going to hell, but God laughed and said that’s impossible, ’cause it’s just something We tell fillies to scare them a lil bit.”
Fluttershy blinks.
“Anyway, I apologized to God because Lyra being there was all my fault. God understood and chatted with us about pudding, cupcakes, the nature of the square root of one thousand seven hundred and sixty four, pies, pastries, you know, the works.”
Twilight shakes off a hand cramp and keeps writing.
“And then, uh, actually I don’t remember anything after that. Next thing I know, the three of us were behind the school bleachers, and we were all super hot from all the magic in the air and yummies in our tummies, so we turn to each other and decide to–”
I blink.
“Anyway, you get the picture. Great day, besides the discontinuities in the fabric of spacetime.”
Twilight sighs. “I feel like this is my fault.”
“Eh.” Pinkie shrugs nonchalantly. “Think less ‘fault’, and more ‘kickstarting your future classmates’ future marriage’.”
“…Yeah, this is definitely my fault.”
I try to process Pinkie’s perspective to little avail. “Hey, Pinkie?”
“Yes, Sunny?”
“Do you consider yourself religious?”
“I dunno.” She shrugs happily. “I go to two churches and a synagogue, so that’s, like, three times as religious as going to just one, right?”
“I’m not sure that’s how it works, darling.”
Fluttershy speaks next. “Um, if you really did meet God, do you know if…?” She hides her face behind her hair. “If it’s right to be a Christian?”
Pinkie grins. “Of course it’s okay that you’re a Christian, ’cause that makes you happy.”
“Crap.” Twilight frowns. “Do I need to convert?”
Pinkie giggles. “Of course not, why would you need to convert?”
“Because I’m Jewish?”
“Are you happy being Jewish?”
“Yes.”
“Tada!” Pinkie grins. “Then there’s your answer.”
Rarity blinks. “I’m so lost. Does God approve of… both Christianity and Judaism?”
“How should I know?” Pinkie laughs as if it’s a silly question. “I only met Her once, and we mostly discussed recipes so good they’re out of this world. You should ask Her yourself.”
Rarity sputters. “But.. how… you… didn’t…”
Pinkie’s smile is unwavering.
“Well, snap.” Applejack sighs and tips down her Stetson. “I guess I gotta believe in God again, if He – er, She – is real after all.”
Pinkie shrugs. “Why? I thought not believing in God made you happy.”
“It does,” Applejack admits to Rarity’s horror and Fluttershy’s distant frown. “But if God is real after all, then that matters a might more than my happiness about it.”
“I don’t understand.” Pinkie frowns. “Why should God care what you believe? It’s not like She’s counting on the income.” She laughs at her own joke, to the flat silence of everyone else. “Get it? Because God made money? And can just create more money and skyrocket inflation? Because She created inflation? And everything else?”
Rarity places her hand on Pinkie’s shoulder. “We get it, love.”
“Okie dokie.”
Something clicks inside Rainbow Dash, and her face lights up. “Ha! That means I was right after all.”
“About?” I ask.
“Religion not mattering. Pinkie just said God doesn’t care what I believe, so I was right.”
“Hmm.” I grin wickedly. “You’re right, that is one of her deeply held religious beliefs. Which means you just lost a bet.”
“Ugh.” Rainbow reaches into her clothes, produces her wallet, extracts a five dollar bill, and hands it across the table to me.
I feel a little guilt, choose to ignore it, and pocket the money. “I admit I don’t know where this leaves me. I came to you girls for answers, but now I have six different answers. And I may have caused some faith crises and a friendship problem.” I bury my head in my hands.
Twilight wraps me in a chaste side hug, and Pinkie gets up out of her seat to follow suit. “Thanks.” I pause. “You know, I just feel so lost. I don’t know if the Bible is the Word of God. I don’t know if Pinkie’s religious experience was just a hallucination. Er, no offence.”
“None taken!”
I press on. “I don’t know who God is. I don’t know if God is real. I don’t know if any of this even matters.” I sniffle to prevent an outburst. “I knew Equestrian religions were mostly wrong, but I thought humans knew more. Now I don’t know anything anymore.”
“Nah, Sunny.” Pinkie squeezes me. “You know the six of us. That counts for something.” She giggles. “I don’t know what, but something.”
I smile slightly. “Thanks, Pinkie.”
Fluttershy pipes up. “You know, Sunset, you don’t need the answers right now. You have a lifetime to figure things out.”
“I concur,” Rarity says. “There’s no use rushing matters of the soul.”
Rainbow Dash shrugs. “And if you never figure it out, so what?”
“It ain’t like God’s gonna smite ya over it.” Applejack winks.
Fluttershy opens her mouth and immediately shuts it.
Twilight squeezes my hand. “Sunset, you have a good head on your shoulders and a good heart. Wherever you end up, I think it’ll work out. If that means becoming a Jew, I know Beth Chaim will welcome you with open arms. If it doesn’t, I’ll love you and support you all the same.” She kisses me on the lips, and I kiss back, to a chorus of “Aww”s from the peanut gallery.
“I love you, Twilight.” I whisper.
“I love you, too.” She whispers back, her breath hot.
I pull back and face the others. “We make a funny group, the seven of us.”
“Sure do,” Pinkie says, returning to her seat across the table. “It’s like, a Jew, a Catholic, and an atheist walk into a bar.”
It’s silent for a second, then Pinkie bursts out laughing. “Get it?”
“Uh, Pinks?” Rainbow says. “Usually there’s more to those jokes.”
Pinkie Pie’s lips round into an o. “Okay, sorry, let me try again. A Jew, two Christians, an ex-Christian, an agnostic, and a mystic walk into a bar… And then they order a dozen milkshakes!”
Pinkie again bursts out laughing, and seeing her ease with the world, I find myself smiling too.
“I’m really glad I have you, girls.” I raise my eyebrows, then add with a wink, “Even you, Dash.”
“You’re pretty tolerable yourself.” Rainbow returns the wink. “Glad I have the rest of you to pick up the slack, though.”
“I agree with Sunset,” Fluttershy says. “I love all of you, with all my heart and all my soul.”
“Absolutely.” Rarity adds, “Twilight, I do mean to apologize for raising my voice earlier. It was no way to treat one of my best friends.”
Twilight presses her fist against her chest. “I’m sorry, too. For a moment there, it mattered so much what my friend Pinkie believed.”
Rarity’s lips curl up. “But I believe the friendship is what matters, and everything else will come in due time.”
Oh…
Oh Celestia.
“While we’re all apologizing…” I suck in a breath. “I’m sorry for trying to force you into a box, Rainbow. I guess I got caught up in all the strong opinions, from Fluttershy’s to Applejack’s, that I didn’t stop to think maybe you didn’t have a strong opinion. And that’s okay. Pushing you wasn’t okay.”
Rainbow throws up her hands. “Hey, it’s all good. You were just doing what eggheads do best.”
Twilight seems miffed by this remark. “Study?”
“No,” Rainbow laughs and replies in a crummy approximation of Rarity’s accent. “Faux pas.”
Rarity rolls her eyes at the impression but chuckles anyway.
“Aww, snap.” Applejack sighs. “I guess I got an apology to give, too.”
“You don’t have to do this, AJ.” I reach over Twilight to touch Applejack supportively. In doing so, my right arm brushes against Twilight’s chest, not that she seems to mind.
She pauses. Then she sits up a little straighter. “Naw, I’m afraid I do.” She lets go of a deep breath. “Alright, here goes. Fluttershy, Rarity, I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions about how you might treat me if… If you knew something about me. I try to be honest, but I’ve had to hide something for a while now. I know we’re friends, but it’s just hard to say, what might happen in the future, you know? If you knew.”
While Rarity’s eyebrows shoot up, Fluttershy seems confused and asks, “Knew what? I promise that no matter what, I’ll love and support you. It’s what Jesus would do.”
“A promise?” Pinkie sticks her nose into the conversation. “Or a Pinkie promise?”
Fluttershy brings her hand to her chest and motions as she replies, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
“Right.” Applejack sighs and closes her eyes. “I’m, uh, I’m gay.”
Nobody says anything.
Applejack pokes her eyes open. “I thought y’all would have something to say to that.”
Applejack’s unsure eyes meet Rarity’s. “Darling, I don’t mean this in the wrong way, but I’ve known that since the Spring Fling. I’m not quite sure what you’re so worried about.” Rarity looks around the table. “Is this coming as a surprise to anyone?”
There’s a mix of nodding and shaking of heads around the table.
Fluttershy is one of the nods, but she says, “Applejack, I support you. I meant what I said.”
Applejack seems distant. “I’m just scared, you know? I know you support Twilight and Sunset, but I also know what Christians think of people like me.”
“Not all Christians.” Fluttershy seems a bit hurt. “Jesus taught us to love one another. Hate isn’t compatible with truly following Christ.”
Applejack bites her lip. “But what about all that stuff in the Old Testament about how queer people are s’posed to get stoned?”
“What’s wrong with that?” Pinkie asks. “Getting stoned is great!”
Applejack and Fluttershy both look at her.
Pinkie looks back, smile undeterred.
“Right,” Applejack continues. “I know the Old Testament law isn’t binding on Christians, but if you really think that God wrote the Bible, then you think God wrote that part, too.” She lowers the volume of her voice. “Maybe you support me now, but maybe that’s because you’re a new Christian. You know the Gospels but not the rest of the Bible yet.” She stops herself. “But assuming makes an ass out of me, so I guess I better ask. How do you square those parts of the Bible with being all supportive?”
Fluttershy seems pensive. “You’re right. God prohibited Jews from practicing homosexuality in Old Testament times. But when the Word of God doesn’t seem consistent with what God would say – the God we know from the New Testament – that’s a sign we need to look deeper.” She sighs. “In truth, I don’t know. Your church growing up didn’t support gay Christians. My church does. I think times have changed. We’re no longer bound by the Old Testament law, because now we have Jesus. Doesn’t following Jesus’s lead takes priority over law that was never intended for Christians?”
Applejack looks around. I wonder if she thinks the question is meant for somebody else. When nobody else answers and Fluttershy doesn’t clarify, she replies, “I guess? My Christian knowledge is pretty rusty.”
“That’s alright,” Fluttershy smiles. “I just want you to know I do support you. Thank you for trusting us with this.”
“Thank you, Fluttershy.” Applejack smiles.
Pinkie squeals. “Ee! Friendship moment!”
Applejack and Fluttershy each look at Pinkie fondly.
Then Applejack turns pink.
“Er, speaking of.” Applejack fidgets with her hair. “Rarity, I know it didn’t work out the last time I was in a church, but I was wondering if maybe I could be your plus one sometime?” She pulls her hat over her forehead awkwardly. “You know. Just the two of us, your church?”
“Hmm?” Rarity looks dumbfounded for a moment and then blushes. “I can’t quite tell if you’re trying to convert to Catholicism or finally ask me out.”
Applejack blushes in response. She scratches her neck. “I mean, I guess, I’m not opposed, in principle… Ahem. Does this weekend work for you?”
Rarity smiles and blows a kiss across the table. “It’s a date.”
“Alrighty.” Applejack averts her gaze. Her face looks like it’s about to catch fire.
“Wow,” Rainbow snorts. “Get a room, you two.”
“Aww, Dashie, don’t be a spoil sport.” Pinkie elbows her.
Rainbow relents. “You guys are all pretty gay, huh?”
Fluttershy smiles. “And pretty religious.”
I smile too. “Before this week, I wasn’t sure that humans could be both. I guess I’m learning a lot.”
Applejack’s cheeks seem to have recovered to their regular orange. “You and me both, Sunset.”
Fluttershy says, “I don’t know about you all, but right now I feel full of the Holy Spirit.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“It feels like a special moment. For you, for Applejack and Rarity, for all of us as friends,” she says. “I can feel the presence of God.”
“Wow.” I take in a deep breath. I won’t pretend I feel the presence of God myself, but for the first time since Saturday, I do feel at ease. “I know my journey is different from yours, but we’re all on different journeys. Maybe we’ll all get to the same place in the end.”
Fluttershy smiles.
“And we’ll be together the whole way.”
Gonna be honest I was banking on Pinkie being a Scientologist.
It's incredible what happens when you actually talk to your friends instead of relying on wrong assumptions~
Amazing chapter in an amazing fic.
I still think an epilogue ending with SciSet getting married (and meeting Rabbi Clockwork Relativity) would be good. I just need help writing the wedding.
Not many fics are as good as this. This is one of my favorites!
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Thank you! The story isn't over, though
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Yeah, I get it.
Seriously, this is one of my all time favorite fics. I kid you not.
Double RariJack SciSet Wedding epilogue?
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*facepalms*
Oopsie! I just thought that it was, because "six friends have six ideas".
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I was expecting Pinkie to be part of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
"I literally didn't know that language existed until Friday."
"Pinkie Pie is the Messiah" is a disturbingly workable hypothesis. Also, as the person who saddled Sunset with the Church of the Divine Bacon Horse, I get a unique sense of appreciation out of this line.
"Wait, are you the human or the pony?"
"I'm Pinkie Pie, silly! "
"Yeah, pretty sure I've met my smiting quota."
I never got to see this chapter until now. I have to say, I'm very happy with it. Pinkie continues the logical chain by reflecting Dash. After all, what better follow-up to one who believes nothing than one who believes anything and everything, so long as it makes the believer happy? (And who may or may not have achieved communion with the divine, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.) Looking forward to seeing how you bring it all together.
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Pinkie Pie is an eldritch First One, beyond time and space and incomprehensible to humans and ponies alike.
...I wanna say "Dammit, Pinkie," but I also want to hug her.
Should've expected Pinkie to be the one to bring a sledgehammer to the whole plot. While I can't help but find the dialogue very... artificial, at times, it all kind of works? Not sure, but the message you're trying to convey here is the right one.
I still have some questions as to what started this all, but let's see what the next day brings.
As a gay Catholic, I completely appreciate this chapter. Especially the Applejack parts.
Pinkie, never change.
I was actually wondering if anybody was Hindi or Islamic, just going by how Christianity, Islam and Hinduism each have over a billion followers. Didn’t expect Pinkie’s viewpoint to come from a pot brownie but at least she’s the most open of everyone, which makes sense for her
not gonna lie, I half expected Pinkie to be either a Bob Dobb slacker or maybe a neopagan Dionysus cultist
Someone should ask Spike his opinion, love to see what a dog who was recently given the gift of sapience has to say on the subject of religion
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Can we please have this!
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I was thinking a scientologist.
Sorry I haven't been able to comment on the previous chapters; I had been reading them when they came out, but I hadn't gotten to writing comments.
Going in, I was expecting everyone to have a completely different religion. The choice to have two Christians and a former Christian worked to explore different relationships with religions, since they're easier to compare directly. You did well covering the judgmental aspects of religion through Rarity and especially Fluttershy, while still making them feel in character; though for Fluttershy, it definitely felt like discovering her dark side. At least the latest chapter shows that Fluttershy isn't quite committed to her belief that everyone else is going to hell. I will agree with a previous comment that having Applejack be an atheist because she's scornful of God was awkward, since that's the favored atheist of Christian movies like God's Not Dead (since they can easily convert back in the story), but I appreciated the representation of self-destructively fanatical religion in her backstory.
It was neat seeing Sunset try to figure things out from what the others were telling her, including her missteps with Rainbow, and then Pinkie upending everything she and the others thought they knew.
Fantastic
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Thank you for reading :-)
It's a valid criticism. It's not what I intended, but I suppose it's what I wrote :( Applejack is angry at (two flavours of) Christianity, rightfully so given the circumstances (religion's role in her parents' deaths and being ostracized by her religion for her burgeoning sexuality). Growing up (those two flavours of) Christianity were synonymous with all religion and religious belief. The "scornful of God" comes as a secondary consequence: she has legitimate beef with every religious practice around her, and she reacts by rejecting it all.
By contrast, Rainbow Dash is much closer to a reasoned agnostic atheist position, though of course isn't able (and doesn't care!) to articulate it in such "egghead" terms. In some ways Rainbow (and to an extent Twilight) are the only characters' in the story who base their (lack of) faith on reason and not emotion. Up to you if that's a good thing.
I kinda wish Pinkie wasn't just bullshitting to muddy the waters (my personal assumption). I get wanting to support everyone and their beliefs, but she's behaving in some really disrespectful ways by involving herself in their respective religions. She even prays in Hebrew while not believing? She never confirms or denies she is a practitioner or believer, but acting like she is one is clearly deceptive and manipulative. A lie of omission is still a lie. Not to mention using sophistry to confuse her friends and make them doubt their position (even for just a split second)? Why? I don't see the end goal here. This is clearly way beyond being supportive. This is some next level gaslighting going on here.
You don't go to a congregation and pretend you're a believer by taking part in ceremony and prayer when you don't believe, that's fucked. You can't just go "hah, you thought I believe in your god? I never said I did. GOTTEM!" and think that's an explanation or excuse. I'm pretty sure the 'i met god' thing was just to distract the group from thinking about what she has been doing. I get Pinkie's desire to be "lol random", but she shouldn't be making light of these deeply held beliefs that her friends have, nor of Sunsets struggles with belief.
Though considering how little they seem to care about all this (especially surprising how Sunset didn't care, seeing how she has been taking her spiritual journey so seriously thus far), and the fact they're taking her sophistry and that she 'met god' seriously, it wouldn't surprise me if Pinkie slipped something into their food and drinks. I half mean that as a joke, and half considering that seriously. They're letting Pinkie get away with some pretty heinous stuff. But then again, trying to get Pinkie Pie to explain herself would very much be like trying to herd a hundred cats. Maybe they're just rolling their eyes internally while thinking, "yeah, that's pinkie" xD
I'm surprised Pinkie didn't say she was a Fundamentalist.
I had to get at least one pun in I have no regretsWait, that's a thing?
Pinkie. Never. Change.
I get that Pinkie's attitude is that she's doing things that her friends enjoy in order to make them happy, but when somebody finds out you're just paying lip service to their deeply held religious beliefs, that tends to make them not happy.
Pinkie can try to give Twilight credit if she wants, but we all know that those two were destined to get married before the Friendship Games took place.
As the member of the group who's witnessed more death than any of the others (depending on what all happens on Applejack's farm), I'd think that Fluttershy would know better than most that "a lifetime" is no guarantee of a fixed length of time.
Actually, this chapter feels like an attempt to soften Fluttershy after she came across as too fundamentalist back in the third chapter. She goes from being confident that only Christians will get into heaven to being willing to question her beliefs based on Pinkie recounting one potential hallucination.
For what it's worth, I thought that the Fluttershy in the third chapter acted a little too out of character for the sake of portraying a specific religious belief. We go from
-- which is not how somebody responds to that unless they wholeheartedly believe that same-sex romance is a sin -- to
Unless "support" is an unfortunate euphemism, that's more in line with tolerant Fluttershy and with Protestant churches that have welcomed LGBT members with open arms.
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Pinkie is like one of those ladies who drives her Jeep around with a COEXIST bumper sticker on the back (you know the kind.) Like a deist who focuses more on the spiritual aspects of various religions and tries to focus on the overlapping positive morals of them.
The fact that she goes to at least three separate places of worship is pretty overkill, though. I almost expected her to have some sort of "mirror pool" thing going on in this story.
As for her story, I'm pretty confident that she's being genuine in her experience, whatever its authenticity. Most versions of her would be satisfied to just state her desire for what she said to be how God is, rather than laying hold to some false authority to try to manipulate them into believing that for the sake of getting along. Plus all of her friends witnessed and experienced a ton of magical nonsense firsthand, so that story isn't too fafetched in the context of this fanfic.
A great read all around. More of this with other characters and religions would be interesting. Principle Celestia the Unitarian Universalist?
Pinkie Pie, you are living proof of God's benevolence, since he created you spread joy and diabetes around the world.
hehe, very believable for Pinkie Pie
for someone who cares so little about religion RD knows enough to make a wicked communion joke, dang, the more i see this RD the more i like her!
hehe, i do love the preposition "Pinkieward"
haha, nice! augh, i can imagine Rarity as a High Church Anglican so well! why didn't you make her a High Church Anglican, FF? she would be so refined and pretentious in such an effortless way just like this, but toward all branches of Christianity! :pinkiewhy:
they like to be called "Messianic Jews" now!
aww, i love this, so sweet!
hehe, i like this Rainbow malapropism
hehe, remembering Twilight from "Feeling Pinkie Keen" here. ah, the reductionist Western urge to
ah yes female pronouns for the Deity please i will never tire of it
oh i absolutely adore this paragraph. it is so resoundingly an interaction between Rarity and Pinkie, and my favorite so far! just having to make sure Pinkie isn't talking about a pastry called "God" is just perfect
yes, yes, we all love The Beatles
loving this theology so far
well uh
dang, she has a point! i love this
i do love everything about this paragraph
dangit, Sunset! no taking monetary advantage of semantic paradoxes! do i have to tap the sign?
agh, love how this fits both her personality and how her actual beliefs would give her the most reason to object
and this is why Rainbow is the second-best one after Pinkie
hehehe love it
gay
i am with Rarity there
aww! just want to give her a hug
oof, and yet, very Pinkie Pie
hehehe
aww!
We later learn that Pinkie Pie is Jesus. And that explains everything