Am I the Only One Wierded Out...?

[WingSong]

Okay, it's just that I'd been reading the archives and Rose Rebellion metioned the whole "little piece of rainbow" thing - how there's a bigger rainbow out there, and the Rainbow's like the ponies' god and such. Well, I'd thought about the idea that the RoL was only a piece of another rainbow too, but this really got me thinking...

Since the Rainbow's like their god, and the ponies have a piece of it in a locket, isn't that like Christians having a church somewhere where they have an angel in a cage? Maybe it's just me being wierd, but I constantly find myself connecting aspects of worlds and cultures and comparing them to mine - finding their equivalent in my life. So...is anyone else wierded out by the fact that there is one peice of Rainbow held captive(so to speak) down here by the ponies that worship it?

Anyhow, just wanted to say what I thought...

[silverfall]

I just assumed if the rainbow didn't want to return to the locket, it would float away. I supposed it could be "attached" to the locket like a genie in a bottle, but I prefer thinking of it as a willing companion.

[WingSong]

Probably. But it's all-powerful here, and I've never seen the MLP movie, but from what I understand the Rainbow couldn't stop the smooze. So wouldn't that mean there would be absolutely no help for the ponies with PAARS? And wouldn't that also mean flutters are the most powerful beings in the ponyverse? I'll bet there are a lot of people here that would like that.

But maybe it all just means that the Rainbow can only help with certain things, and flutters just happen to be better with dealing with smooze. But then, that would mean the Rainbow wasn't all-powerful...at least, not the Rainbow piece the ponies have. But then...what powers does the RoL lack that the bigger, better Rainbow has? Is there a difference beyond size and magnified power?

Jearrgh, I know I like to question things. It's just...with alternate universes and ways of life, there are so many things to question. I'll bet I'd spend every minute of every day thinking up tons of questions if I were a fan of something like Dungeons and Dragons. It's so broad, and when I think about the fact that I can't even handle thinking about a universe of pastel ponies...well, now I feel dumb.

[Whispering Wind]

PrincessWingSong said:

Probably. But it's all-powerful here, and I've never seen the MLP movie, but from what I understand the Rainbow couldn't stop the smooze. So wouldn't that mean there would be absolutely no help for the ponies with PAARS? And wouldn't that also mean flutters are the most powerful beings in the ponyverse? I'll bet there are a lot of people here that would like that. .

THe FLutter Ponies happened to have the power Utter Flutter. THe Moocic gave the ponies a map to heir valley, 'cause it had been said that they were the only ones that could stop the smooze. At that point, the RoL had already been shallowed by the purple goop...

However, in the end the flutters appeared. They blew the smooze away from the Paradise Estate, and also freed the Dream Castle and after a moment the Rainbow.
But in the end, it was the Rainbow that gathered the smooze and threw it back into the volcano, where it once came from.

Appearently, there is no way to blow the PAARS off the infected ponies.
But somehow there must be a way for the Seven of the Moon, the Champions and the Rainbow of Light to fight it togheter!

[Whispering Wind]

BTW, I only think there is one "The Rainbow". It´s kept in the locket, or at least it was, but it still is a symbol of it.
But the mighty RoL can get out in its own I guess, to roam the skies whenever the ponies are in danger.

[Becka *Pone*]

Ok, here is how I think of it:

The RoL, RoD, Moon/Sun/Elemental/Other/Ect Rainbows are all a part of the Great Rainbow. The Great Rainbow is God in Ponyland, it is All, Everything, the Beginning and the End to be cliche'. Most of the ponies, however, don't really like to think about the bad/dark/evil/whatever aspects of the Rainbow and so they choose to worship just the good/light side of it: the Rainbow of Light. Kinda like the Christian God. He's all good/pure/light that kind of thing. But there is always the problem then of "why do bad things happen if the Rainbow is so good/pure/loving/ect" - to explain that the Rainbow is trapped in a locket. It can't always get out to help, it can't always exert that kind of energy. The locket must either a) be opened by a pony or b) a pony must ask for help and really really really mean it (like in the RolvsRoD Kail was dying and asked for help and the RoL broke out of the locket, split into its stripes, and came to help). But you can't just say "Rainbow help me on this test" cause failing a test isn't worth expending the energy to leave the locket (ever notice that praying to pass a test you didn't study for doesn't really work )

Since the Rainbow's like their god, and the ponies have a piece of it in a locket, isn't that like Christians having a church somewhere where they have an angel in a cage?
Or perhaps its more like Christians worshiping a godly power that was trapped inside a mortal body? You can have all the power in the world, but if you want to make yourself accessible to the world like that its going to cause some setbacks. In the worlds of Aladdin's Genie: "Phenominal Cosmic Power! Itty bitty living space."

The RoL isn't the biggest bestest power in the pony universe - its just the one that most ponies worship. The REAL biggest bestest power is the Great Rainbow, and it has all sides associated with it: light, dark, sun, moon, every element, good, bad, ect. That can be a hard thing for ponies to wrap their minds around though. Continuing with the Christian-association of the Rainbows the RoL would be like Christ, the RoD like Satan, but they are both just part of a greater power.

And then of course other ponies don't even believe that the Rainbows are the greatest power in the world - they still believe in the Old Gods. Mirrors our world quite a bit

I should organize my thoughts and write a bit of this into the History, when I finally get that up

[Crescent]

*feels awestricken*

Wow. Is all I can say.

(I had not thought of all this that far. But now I have. And I have seen the light. Or dark. Or everything. Go pony-world philosophy!)

[Whispering Wind]

*applause* OMG, Becka. This is cool.

[Becka *Pone*]

hehe, I've had about 3.5 years to digest it myself. And with recent... enlightenments in my own life, it just seems to work.


(Does Razz understand now why Kail's little pony head couldn't wrap around the Old Gods? And why when she called the Rainbow for help the second time and it didn't show up she didn't want to go fight? She doesn't get the big picture.)

[Angel624]

Hmm, so where exactly is the RoL on here anyway? I just wondered that when I read this thread. Does someone have it? Is it kept safe somewhere? Sorry for all these questions. I was just curious. XD

[WingSong]

Well, isn't it back in its locket in DV? Cause isn't that what the bad pirates are gonna try and steal?

Thanks, Becka. Now I get it - if one takes into consideration that the RoL isn't like an angel really...so one asking if it's wrong to have it down here is like someone asking if it's wrong that Jesus came to earth in Christian belief. Now I've got it.

But here's a real brain-teaser: How did the RoL end up in that locket in the first place?

[Becka *Pone*]

Yeah, I've got no answers to that one

[Angel624]

Ah, so it's in DV then. Ok.

[WingSong]

The writers just had it in a locket so Megan could have it. Uggh, no offense to people that like her, but I can't stand Megan. She was okay in Rescue at Midnight Castle, but after that it was just kinda...I dunno. I think my real reason for disliking her is these terrible fanfics I read... Too sugary-sweet.

[silverfall]

(Razz doesn't understand. I don't imagine Razz is very enlightened. Not in the sense that he's given anything a great deal of thought and as a result become enlightened from the experience. He has always lived the kind of life where the less he thought, the better his life was and the nonsense of it made all the more sense. He's kind of like Winnie the Pooh that way. Or at least he used to be. Experience changes everything.)

In my pony world (as in my personal fan-fics), the RoL in the locket is just a small piece of a greater magic. Magic itself is pure energy. Everything is made of energy, but magic is just a more concentrated form of energy. Someone using magic is manipulating this energy to perform a task. Magic can also be influenced by its user and by its surroundings. Magic can be imprinted upon, like the mind to carry memories, and this can shape the energy it outpours. It is neither created nor destroyed, but merely changed. It is always changing shape. There is no need for balance because the reality is everything cycles whether it is balanced or not. One thing will always become another eventually, naturally, and given enough time it will always become itself again. Mages, however, often strive for balance, because they cannot see this greater picture. They are limited by their own perception of the world and the desire to preserve that which they enjoy and destroy that which they do not (no matter what side they are on). The life force of the world doesn't care about these things. It moves like the ocean, tide in and tide out, and never knows where the lobster is.

In my world, energy can be concentrated into physical objects, thereby imprinting on it a sense of being with that object in the way the soul is attached to the body. In fact, that IS how the body/spirit works in the first place. In the same way ponies create life and give birth to other ponies (which is yet a mystery they don't truly understand), they have refined the ability to give energy to objects like the locket. There is a difference between the two, however, because most ponies cannot create true life in these objects, but are merely anchoring energy into them that can then be drawn upon at need.

The energy they are storing is drawn from shifting magic, which is energy freely available for manipulation because it is in the process of shifting from one thing to another and will readily take on a new shape/purpose. It doesn't exist on the physical plane... but that spiritual/magical plane. I've always referred to it as the Shadow World, for lack of a better description. It is drawn into the physical world and then anchored here.

Ponies can even put their own spirits into items, although it's not as good an idea as it sounds. This can also happen naturally, accidently, or by chance. For example, if you tripped and fell into the river and went over the waterfall and died, your spirit might get caught in free shifting magic just as it was beginning to settle itself into new shape and you might be trapped there. Then you'd be stuck haunting the place until another shift came along. It could be a day or a few hundred years because some places have stronger currents than others. It depends on the current of the universal energy, which might flow fast or slow in different areas. In turn, these currents shift and change over time and influence how the world changes, although only in subtle fashion. I mean, a pony's lifespan is but a blink.

Life itself goes against the very nature of the current within which it exists because it creates anchor points (for example, each life force is a stone causing rapids in the river). Why does life exists in the first place then, if it simply gets in the way?No one knows, but wise ponies speculate that the physical world creates anchor points that in turn create tension in the flow. You'd think that this would slow the current, but in reality it speeds it up, thus propelling it along. (Others speculate that this is all illusion and everything flows at the same rate that never changes, but that's one for the sages to argue out...)

This is how there comes to be sources of power. Take for example, the Darklands. Past worldly events have anchored magic in this place and given it a flavor, thereby creating tension in the current. ATM, this is doing a fair amount of damage to the current and will eventually recoil, in turn doing a fair amount of damage to the physical plane. The universal power doesn't care about that, though. It will simply bounce back from the effect, recharged.

World-Building is by far the most enchanting part of the writing process for me. I'm by no means perfect when it comes to world-building and sometimes I have to insert the typical "Dat da way it is cuz I SAY so," but, hey, I try.

OK, I'll stop now.

Edit: I meant to add that in my world, the RoL was put into the locket by one of its earlier characters. It was then handed down to others for safe keeping and eventually ended up with the Moochie (haha). In fact, there were many talismans like the locket that were handed down in this fashion and each one had a special kind of magic. One in particular held the key to unicorn transformation. Another the winged pony. Etc.