The Walk

Rainbow Dash just stood there in shock. “How – how did you know my name?!”

The man replied, “I know many things, Rainbow. But for now, let’s just say that I’ve been around for quite a long time."

Rainbow recoiled, "How long have you been around here for? I've never seen you, and to my knowledge, neither has anypony else."

Jesus replied, "I've always existed in the realm of eternity."

Wow. She tried to not laugh, she really did. She could have gotten a medal for trying. However, when her lip started to hurt her so bad from biting down on it, she laughed perhaps the hardest she ever has. She thought that he was absolutely crazy. He was only a man, right? How in the world could he be around for....well, forever? Yet, he didn’t act like he was kidding. Instead, he chose to sit down in the grass, looking up at her now. As if he knew what she was thinking, he asked, “Anything else you’d like to know?” He said it with a light chuckle to signify that he meant no harm with the remark, as he could tell that she was growing more uncomfortable by the minute.

“Yeeeaaaahhhhh, well, I think I’m going to go and…well, do something else. Look, it was nice running into you and all, and you seem nice, but you're crazy. I have some stuff I need to do; I’m a busy pony you know.” She said this with her false pride and knew she was lying, but she figured he didn’t.

He brushed some stray grass off his knees and straightened up his posture. He spoke up, “Ah, yes. You’re a very busy pony, napping every day for hours on end. After that, you were probably going to go and re-read a "Daring Do" book, right?” He put his arms around his knees and looked at her as she searched for an answer.

She took a few steps back and went from laughing at him for being crazy to being seriously concerned. She looked back and forth as thoughts raced through her mind as fast as she could fly, Okay, now I’m getting seriously freaked out; how in the world does he know all of this?! Is he stalking me?? That’s impossible! I live on a cloud. Humans can’t walk on clouds! Or can they? Ugh I need some migraine medicine… "Okay, seriously, what's your deal? What are you doing here, and how do you know so much about me?"

Sensing the growing tension in the air, he spoke again. “Rainbow, would you like to walk with me? It’s very beautiful through here, and if I remember correctly there’s a gorgeous lake nearby. I was planning on visiting it and enjoying the scenery, if you’d like to come along.”

She looked up suddenly, “Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute. You’ve…been here before?” she asked quizzically as she raised an eyebrow.

He nodded, “I’ve been here more times than you think.”

She shrugged and looked at the ground, searching her mind for a valid reason not to go along with him. “I don’t know…I’m more of a flyer myself. I mean, I’ll walk if I’m going through town or something, but I just always thought walking was too slow. Why walk slowly when you can zoom through the air?”

He looked into her eyes, seeing the anxiety slowly building. “Sometimes, slowing down is necessary to see things for what they really are. Now, let’s get going. I hear that the water shines just right this time of day! Plus, there’s a certain large-mouth bass that’s been eluding me for weeks. I’m going to try and catch that little sneak today. Come, walk with me.” With that, he jumped up to his feet and started to walk. When he noticed she wasn’t at his side, he turned around and gestured kindly for her to walk alongside him.

This was all so weird for Rainbow. All she wanted to do was to nap on a cloud, and go back home and read. That's all. Was that too much to ask? Yep, apparently it was. She thought about what her friends would do in this situation. Applejack would probably be fine with it, with her southern manners and all. Rarity would probably be insisting on dragging this poor guy back to her shop so she could accessorize his rope belt, (probably adding a bunch of sequins to it). Fluttershy would probably be the most scared of the group, but then most likely find something in common with him and invite him back for tea or something. Twilight...well, she'd probably want to study the heck out of him and ask a whole bunch of egghead questions.

Rainbow still didn't know how she felt. She felt odd, that's for sure. However, she didn’t know why, but she grew more intrigued by this man. She considered the facts of the situation: not once has he threatened her. He honestly seemed like a nice guy, just going for a stroll through the land. So, with those two facts as justification enough, she decided to go with him. With a curious and still somewhat conflicted heart and a gradual comforting warmth engulfing her body, she went along.

As they walked, she noticed that he was slow. Why did he have to be sooo slow? She was aching to just spread her wings and leave this guy in the dust, and mentally laughed at the fact that Tank could probably beat him in a race. But something inside her held her back; and quite strongly at that. She ended the silence and asked a question.

“Hey, I don’t think I ever got your name. Mine’s...oh yeah. Well, since you apparently know me already, what’s your name?”

He looked at her and said, “I have many names. But for now, just call me Jesus.”

“Jesus? That’s…simple. Well, at least it’s easy to remember.” She chuckled a little, looking around for a sound distraction to kill the awkwardness hanging in the air. She looked to her right where he was standing and saw that same menacing hole in his hand. She got stuck staring for a few seconds, not able to look away. It was only when she saw him look back down at her that she looked away in shame, afraid that she had been rude for staring at the injury.

“I’m sorry, I…I didn’t mean to be rude. It’s just, well, sorry for being rude, but what’s that hole all about?” She mentally kicked herself for the unintentional roughness of her words.

He looked down at the ground and smiled softly, yet seeming serious at the same time. “These scars are a constant reminder for the price that I paid.”

She raised an eyebrow, “What kind of price? Seems pretty heavy if you have holes in your hands.” She tried to repair the harshness she felt she had created, but he seemed to overlook it as he went on to explain.

“Yes. You’re aware of the human race. You have heard the stories that have been told about them, about how they are an evil breed seeking harm and destruction. Correct?”

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with-“

He put his hand up to stop her, as he hadn't finished saying what needed to be said. “I knew the hearts of men were black. However, they disobeyed my command and rebelled against me. Seeing how evil they were, I tried many things to get them to turn back.”

She felt even more confused than ever, narrowing her eyes as she tried her best to make sense of this. “Wait, you said they rebelled against you…are you an important person or something?”

Jesus chuckled a little and nodded with a brief raise of his eyebrows, “ Eh, you could definitely say that. All I wanted was my creation to love me as much as I love them.”

It was Rainbow Dash’s turn to stop him, “Wait – your creation?”

“Yes; I created the human race. You see, Rainbow Dash – I am God.”

She stopped walking. He kept on for a few steps before noticing she was frozen in place. He looked back at her and she just stared at him open mouthed and eyes popped wide open. She couldn’t believe it. God? It wasn't as if she didn't know about the humans' concept of religion, she remembered hearing about it from all the rumors and stories. For a while, Twilight even tried to teach Rainbow about the cultures of humans, because curiosity had gotten the better of her. After all, they might have been myths to the ponies, but that doesn’t mean that assumptions weren’t made about them and that they weren't fascinating creatures. Like any other myths or folktales, they had their own ideas of gods and goddesses. Rainbow even remembered something about how some humans believed in a single God above all, but soon tuned out because of Twilight’s tendency to be an egghead. However, what she didn’t expect was there to be an actual God. And now this strange man named Jesus was claiming to be just that – the God above all others. What in Equestria was happening?

“So…you said something about a ‘price being paid’. What was the price for, and how did you pay the price?”

“Well, to make a very long story short, I paid the price for the sins of humanity. I was nailed to a tree and left to die.”

Her heart stopped, and she suddenly felt sobs building up in her, not only from what he had said, but how he said it. She shook the shock from her system at the sudden change in tone and tried to clarify, “Wait, if you were left to die, then how are you alive?”

He responded, “I was raised to life by the power of God.”

She paused, and then added, “Um…Wait a minute, I thought you said you were God?”

“You’re correct. There are actually three of us, but we’re one person.” He smirked, knowing this revelation always caused confusion. He looked back at her and sure enough her face was scrunched in a humorous way trying to make sense of all of this.

He ran his fingers through his beard for a moment thinking of the easiest way to describe this odd situation to this particular pony.

“Okay, I have something that may help you. See, there are actually three of us. There’s me, the Father, and the Holy Ghost. That makes up what’s called the Holy Trinity; yet we’re all one being.”

Again, she seemed nothing less that completely and utterly lost.

He took notice of this and explained further. “Now, I want you to think of an egg; a simple chicken’s egg. Following so far?”

She nodded her head slowly, trying to digest the odd request.

He continued, “Good. Now, there’s three parts to an egg: the shell, the yolk, and the egg white. No part of the egg can exist naturally without the other. Right?”

She nodded more fervently this time, seeming to know where he might possibly be going with this analogy.

“Now, take that egg and apply it to myself. I am God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in one being, but three separate persons. Without the other, I cannot exist – and like the egg, we exist in perfect harmony with one another. Does that help you understand any?”

And there went all hope. She seemed lost in thought, to the point to where she was starting to drool a little. The only part that really stuck out to her was when he mentioned harmony, what with the familiarity with the Elements of Harmony. At best, she figured it was something along those lines. Still, this didn't stop her from beating her brain against the walls of her skull in futile attempts to try and figure out just what he was meaning by all of this.

“Rainbow Dash, is something wrong?” Jesus asked in a humorous tone, biting his lip in an effort to hold back his chuckles. He knew this conversation always went over so well...and the face she made was priceless; if only he had a camera.

She snapped back to reality, “No, no-nothing. Nothing’s wrong.” Jesus figured to leave well enough alone for now and continued on his walk. After all, he just revealed that he is God – the almighty three-in-one speech included. That’s enough for her to chew on for the time being.
As they were walking, Jesus figured this would be his turn to break the silence and shift the conversation’s path a bit. “How has life been treating you, Rainbow? Are you content with the way things are going?”

Rainbow Dash sighed, thinking about how all of her friends seemed to be busy with their own lives. Her mind flashed between scenes of her and Apple Jack racing in the woods, her and Scootaloo training to get her off the ground and into the air, and just enjoying time with her friends in general. She missed everyone so badly. She looked back to him. He had an expression of concern on his face, waiting patiently for her to tell him when, and if she was ready.

She took a deep breath, and prepared to open up. She had this built up inside of her for a while, and for the first time in a long time someone was actually there to listen – even if it was a human being who claimed to be God. She started, “Well, it just seems like life is…I don’t know. Standing still, I guess, and I'm just flying past it. I just figured that all the adventures would go on forever, ya know? But I’m finding out that that’s not really the case. All of my friends seem to be so busy lately, I feel left out or something. It’s like they don’t even have time to say hello anymore. Rarity is busy with her fashion business, Apple Jack has her farm, Twilight has been hitting her books more than usual… heck, even Fluttershy has been in and out of Ponyville lately on nature trips and different things of that sort. I was going to see what Pinkie was up to later today, but earlier when I went by on my break, I saw that she was so busy baking cakes and planning for another party that I just couldn’t bring myself to disturb her. I felt like I would have been intruding or something. Even my little surrogate sister seems too busy for me lately. She’s always helping Apple Jack’s sister with the farm. Which, I mean, isn’t a bad thing; I’m proud she’s thinking of others… I just wish she’d think of me every now and again, ya know?”

He just stood there, listening. Not once did he interrupt, nor did he try and give his opinion. He just took it all in as the cyan pegasus poured out a little of the pent up frustration she had stored up in her. After she seemed to be finished, he calmly laid his hand on her head, re-assuring her that he was there for her despite how she felt about him. For the first time in a while, she felt important to someone, even if they were different from her in every way imaginable. After pondering this for a few moments, she continued walking with this gentle person who was somehow also God. The egg speech was still hurting her brain a little, but she figured she would get it someday. Maybe she’ll ask Twilight later – she’s bound to have a book about it or something.

There’s a funny thing about pegasi ponies. They have the ability to fly, control weather patterns, and even to walk on clouds. However, that’s the extent of their magic: flying and cloud walking. If you asked a pegasus to walk on water, they would laugh at you and say that it is impossible – which was true. So, whenever Rainbow Dash felt the bottom of her hooves feel wet and cold, she instinctively looked down to see the cause of the disturbance. She looked down and saw nothing but deep, dark water.

The same deep, dark water she was standing on as if it were solid ground.

She gasped once, twice, and a loud third time, only to hear Jesus happily exclaim,“Hey, we’re here! I guess we made better time than I thought, eh?”

Rainbow promptly screamed out of shock and fell beneath the water.

Jesus just laughed and extended his hand out again.

This was going to be a fun afternoon.

Author's Note

Okay, here it is! The next Chapter! Huge thanks to my friend Vicki for helping me edit, I really appreciate it. I'm not exactly sure how long this story will be, or when I'll update it. I'm just updating as the inspiration keeps coming, so Lord knows when that'll be - I just happened to have the next chapter in my head last night. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this addition to the story, and I'll update as soon as I can. God bless!