When Derpy appeared in Karyn’s dorm, she held in her hoof a small square of paper.

“What’s this?” asked Karyn.

“This is the page from my calendar yesterday. Normally I tear them off and throw them away. But this Saturday I had such a long shift at work that I wanted to punish it by dragging it here and throwing it out in your room where it can’t meet any other days and influence them.”

Karyn laughed at that. “A long day, huh?”

“Yes, but now at least it’s Sunday. The day of the sun!”

Karyn was about to pass that off as more pleasant conversation, but then a thought hit her. “You’re still speaking your own language, but the words are the same? The first part of Sunday means the sun in the sky?”

“That’s right. My daddy used to tell me the story of Sundays, since that was his only day off from carrying the mail. Long ago, when everypony had to work very hard, they complained that they didn’t have a chance to appreciate playing in the sun. Princess Celestia listened to them and declared that Sunday would be a day when everypony got to rest, unless something really bad happened, and, like, a doctor was needed. A lot of the businesses didn’t like that, but the princess said it wasn’t a rule, just a suggestion. Everypony listened to her, so nopony went shopping on Sundays, and the businesses didn’t make any money even if they were open. So it all worked out.”

“That’s a nice story.”

Derpy smiled. “I think so. Anyway, that’s why you don’t see a whole lot of activity when you come to Equestria on Sundays. The farmer’s markets are open, because we’ve got to eat, but when you come on a weekday is when things really swing.”

“I’m told that it’s very similar in some of the big cities. Back where I lived with my parents, Sunday wasn’t much different from Saturday. But my mother went to New York City once. She said that, from Saturday to Sunday, you might see a parking lot of a thousand cars empty out entirely, or a block full of stores go from packed with shoppers to being gated and locked. It’s not quite as bad here, but it’s still pretty quiet.”

They went to the window. Derpy did not even bother to become invisible. As if to underscore their point, that particular Sunday was especially quiet. The courtyard was empty of all but a few early risers playing handball or hackey-sack. With the ascending sun shining through the buildings, it was easy to see the empty halls, and no doors opened or closed. In one alley, the trash bins had been emptied and sat ready. The lawn of the quad had been mowed the day before. It looked like the entire campus had been reset and was ready for the week ahead.

“So what do all the other people do on Sundays?” asked Derpy. “All the ones who aren’t spending time with me, which is most of them.”

“Well, plenty of them spend time with their families, or some of them just treat it as another day off and laze around all day, dreading the Monday to come. In the autumn and winter, they schedule most of the football games for Sunday, and those draw a big crowd to stadiums and TV. Earth keeps itself busy.”

“They don’t celebrate Celestia, though.”

At the sound of the name, Karyn flashed back to when she had met the princess. She had found her an affable pony that she considered a friend. But she was also such an important figure. “No, with the possible exception of some of the more obsessed bronies.”

“Then whom do they celebrate?”

Karyn rubbed her temple. Derpy had steered the conversation in a direction Karyn would have preferred it didn’t go. “All right, sit down and let’s talk about this.”

Derpy didn’t see why Karyn had become so serious, but she landed on the bed and folded her wings.

After collecting her thoughts, Karyn said, “Let’s try this? Do you know who made Equestria?”

“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, of course. They led the three tribes after they learned to be friends with each other and defeat the windigoes.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. Equestria is the word both for your country and for your world. What I meant was, er, did anypony create the world itself? If there were no trees and rocks and rivers at one point, how did they get there?

Derpy was confused. “How would I know? They were all there as far as I’ve been around. Why would they ever not have been?”

“So you don’t ask the question. That’s fine. Some humans are like that too. They don’t worry about it, or figure that it was always the way it is. But others—a lot of them, historically—care and care deeply about they answer. And they think they have an answer, but it’s not always the same one. Then the questions of how to be a good person get tied up into that.”

“You lost me. Why does the making of the world have anything to do with being good?”

Karyn was more stressed. “I’m not the biggest expert on all of this. All I can tell you to answer your question is that plenty of humans think there is someone to celebrate, but there’s debate on who it is. Even if the debate is so strong that everyone will say there is no debate and that they’re right. When it all works out, each difference of opinion just goes to its own church and leaves others alone.”

“Church?”

“You don’t have churches in Equestria?”

Derpy shook her head.

“OK, well, the word refers both to the building that they all meet in as well as the group of people who go there and share one of those opinions. Some of them are simple affairs, just empty rooms for people to sit and listen in. Others are modern with lots of technology. Still others don’t have the tech but are fancy and filled with sculpture and artwork.”

“So, when we went to the museum, was that a church?”

“No,” said Karyn. “It has to be specifically set up as a church and have no other purpose.”

“All right, I’m sold. Let’s go.”

Karyn knew that when Derpy got it in her head to see part of the human world, there was no getting out of it. But part of her cultural consciousness still caused her a moment of trepidation about taking someone from another world onto sacred ground. She laughed at herself. She didn’t believe that Derpy would burst into flames or be revealed to everyone as soon as she entered. The church’s miracles, if any, were the subtle kind as opposed to the clear magic of the ponies.

“Sure,” she said. “Get invisible and we’ll head out.”

Derpy searched her bag for her spell and turned it on. In the time it took her to do that, Karyn had removed from her closet the dress suit that her parents had bought her for job interviews, and she was walking toward the bathroom.

“You’re going to wash up first?” asked Derpy.

“I already did that. But you have to dress up to go to church. It’s tradition.”

“Oh. Then maybe I can’t go. Unless I can go back home for a moment to get a dress.”

“I don’t think the rule applies for ponies.”

Karyn didn’t attend church herself on campus, so she went to the computer and searched for the nearest one. Soon they were out in the bright sun walking off campus and into town. The spire was visible from a distance.

The building was not one of the modern “mega-churches,” but neither was it a proper cathedral of old. It had been built in the mid twentieth century, and was a building of the times designed to emulate tradition while still fitting in to the surrounding architecture. Karyn walked around the side to show Derpy some of how it looked.

“Look at the stained-glass windows!” Derpy said. “It’s just like at Canterlot Castle.”

“That’s another tradition. They could display the art of the figures of the church’s history there, back when most people couldn’t read.”

“You mean, like, when they were kids?”

Karyn decided that religion would be enough for Derpy that day, and that she would tackle illiteracy another. She nodded noncommittally and brought Derpy into the doors.

As soon as they came in, Derpy whispered, “Hey, Karyn? Can I drink this water?”

Without a word, Karyn turned around and walked out of the church.

Derpy followed her, confused, as they walked around to the side. Once there, Karyn said, “One thing about churches is that they have great acoustics. They built them so that, before they invented the technology to project sound, everyone could hear. So even if you whisper, people might hear you. And I can’t wear my Bluetooth in there; it would be the height of rudeness.”

“All right, I promise.”

“Then in exchange, I’ll tell you about the water. Again, back when churches were the center of town, people who came in would ritually cleanse themselves before going in. The practice was parts of the mythos, but it also helped serve the purpose of cleaning people. The irony is that today, when everyone puts their hands in the water, it spreads germs.”

Satisfied, Derpy let Karyn lead her back in to the church, and she got her first look at the interior.

The windows impressed her even more from the inside, but what really made her eyes pop was the ceiling. From the outside, the church looked like it might have been a multi-story building, but inside it was all one cavernous room. The wooden support slats of the roof were exposed to view, and had been polished and lacquered. They were spaced a few inches apart, and each one slightly above the next to create the effect of a pyramid.

Derpy, who was used to having low ceilings indoors, got to stretch her wings and fly around the room. At the opposite end from the entrance was the altar. Although she couldn’t tell its purpose and had been forbidden from asking Karyn any more questions, she enjoyed staring at the artwork of the gold carving. She couldn’t tell if it was real gold or not, but believed that the satin sheet lying over it was genuine.

Eager to get back to her friend, and hoping to communicate even a little by gesture and touch, Derpy flew back to where Karyn was waiting in line by the holy water. After she dipped her hand, they proceeded to the benches.

Right as they turned in, though, Karyn put her hand to her head and knelt down. No one seemed to notice, thinking that it might have been a kind of prayer, but Derpy swooped in and held her up. Forgetting everything that Karyn had told her, she said in full voice, “Are you all right?”

That got people looking. Some looked around for the speaker, but the rest surrounded Karyn, who was not looking well. But she waved them off and said, “I’m all right. I think the smell of the incense hit me and I wasn’t ready. You know, the stuff they burn here to give it that heady smell? Just a little overwhelming.”

After everyone else dispersed, Derpy was able to comfort Karyn. She wanted to apologize for speaking out of turn, but doing so would only compound the problem. The church was not tightly packed, and she was able to stretch out next to Karyn and stroke her with her wings. Although Karyn had claimed to be all right, she looked to Derpy to be still recovering from her fainting spell, particularly because she wasn’t wearing a look of admonishment. Derpy resolved to keep an eye on her.

A bald man in long robes walked out, and everyone hushed and paid attention, so to Derpy’s mind he was the host.

Without Karyn to explain things, Derpy just had to sit back and enjoy it as best as she could. The people and places that the bald man talked about were unfamiliar to Derpy, and she soon gave up on making a list of questions to ask later. She did pay attention to the man’s discussion of peace and love, and found herself nodding along to the message.

Then everyone did a series of exercises, where they alternately stood, then kneeled, then sat back down. It wasn’t very intense exercise, but Derpy saw a lot of old people, and assumed that the host kept it simple for them.

At one point, Karyn took a book out of the slot in the back of the bench in front of her. Everyone else turned to a page, and there was a group sing. Karyn kept flipping through, and didn’t find the right page until the song was halfway finished, at which point neither of them could catch up to where they were in the song. But Karyn kept her voice low and tried to noncommittally match all the others, which wasn’t hard since there was a loud organ covering up the singing.

More exercises came next, and finished with one that Derpy particularly enjoyed, where all the people shook hands or hugged with all their neighbors, wishing them peace. Derpy wished that she could go visible and join in, but at the end she could only give Karyn a strong hug, who kept still during it so she wouldn’t appear to be hugging air.

The bald host did more singing and chanting, and made some sort of announcement. Everyone else seemed to know what to do, which was to get in line. Several people in particularly sharp suits stood at the head of the aisle. As far as Derpy could see, it was some kind of giveaway.

As she advanced up the queue, it became clearer that everyone was eating what was being given away. Oh, that makes sense, she thought. They all had light exercise, now a little snack. She was always wary of human food, but thought that she had heard something about bread in the announcement, and figured that if Karyn would eat it, it would be safe for her.

Derpy was so engrossed in her thoughts that she completely forgot about being incognito. So it was that after Karyn got her wafer, and the host held up the next one, Derpy took it out of his hands and quickly put it in her mouth. From his face it was clear that, for a moment, he thought that he had just dropped it. But both he and Karyn watched the wafer travel a distinctly non-ballistic path, and then vanish from sight.

“Did you see—?” he started.

Karyn thought about trying to bluff her way through it. If it was just the minister who had seen, she could pretend not to and leave it at that, but while she was mentally debating whether a shake of her head in response to an unfinished and vague question constituted lying in church, she saw that the woman waiting behind her had seen it too.

In desperation and panic, her mind worked quickly. “It must have been a miracle!”

The lady who witnessed the disappearance was dressed in a tight and expensive-looking shirt. She had on a pair of gaudy earrings and makeup that failed to conceal the lines around her eyes and mouth. She snorted. “Come on. Someone grabbed for it, I felt it.”

Karyn was about to defend herself further, when the minister said, “I beg your pardon, ma’am, but I would suggest the young lady is correct. Indeed, I have witnessed a miracle every time I hand out these wafers. If this one chooses to make itself more plain, I will not question it. I can only assume that, if that particular wafer has been consumed, that whoever did so needed it. As perhaps, for a different reason, do you.”

He busied himself moving the queue along, but not before he gave Karyn a wink. She returned to her seat after finding Derpy and dragging her along. Derpy still expected a chewing out for making herself known, but couldn’t help herself. The cavernous ceiling and the friendly atmosphere made her feel as if she was back in Equestria.

The show didn’t last much longer, as the host said a few more words, concluding with, “The service is ended; go in peace.” Derpy figured that she could lessen Karyn’s wrath by getting out before the crowd jammed the exits, so she hustled, expecting to see Karyn following quickly. Instead, she was listlessly dragging her feet.

As soon as they got outside, Derpy led the way back around to the alley where no one could see them. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I think so. I’m not sure what I’m feeling.”

“Are you upset that I ate the little bread?”

“We got out of it,” said Karyn, breathing heavily. “I guess that makes it all right.”

“There were still some things I didn’t understand.”

“I’m sure there were. But for right now, I’d like to get back to the dorm. It’s dreadfully hot out here, isn’t it?”

Derpy agreed, but they had just left the building where it was kept cool, and were now in the shade of the same building, so didn’t see how Karyn could be that hot so soon. She put her hoof on Karyn’s head.

“You’re burning up! I think you’re sick.”

“No, I’m—“ But that was as far as Karyn got before dropping to her knees.

Derpy panicked. She thought about crying for help, but didn’t know if anyone would come into the alley. Instead, she threw her hooves under Karyn’s shoulders and pumped her wings as hard as she could. Karyn’s knees scraped along the ground, but her head and shoulders emerged into the street.

The sound of Karyn falling attracted the views of others, and soon enough a crowd gathered. Derpy was forced to fly up out of the way, since the people walked right in to where she would have been. No one was sure whether to move her or not.

Fortunately, there was a hospital on the opposite corner from the church, and a one young man ran over to alert the emergency room. When they realized how close she was they used an ambulance’s siren to halt traffic, and pulled out its gurney to take Karyn in.

One of the EMTs picked up Karyn’s purse and brought it in. At the reception desk, Derpy watched as they searched through and found her college ID. She heard the receiving nurse tell an underling, “Call the school. They’ll have her emergency contact info. She’s probably still on her parents’ insurance.”

Relieved that at least there was a communication method, Derpy flouted all hospital rules and followed Karyn into the emergency room. She was already being looked at by a doctor, who was quick and efficient. Derpy was reassured that he didn’t seem to be acting hastily. His appearance and manner reminded her of the bald host from the church. She watched the display monitor that had been hooked up to Karyn’s body and saw numbers coming down. Even though she didn’t know what they meant, the doctors seemed reassured.

Karyn opened her eyes and spoke groggily. “Where’s Derpy?”

“Miss? You’re in a hospital,” the doctor said. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“My head…felt like it was on fire.”

“We brought down the fever, and we’re running some tests. Just relax. You’re out of danger for now.”

He turned to leave, when one of the nurses said, “What about the scrapes on her knees?”

The doctor looked askance at her. “She fell when she fainted. What’s odd about that?”

“It looks more like she was dragged.”

“It didn’t even break the skin. Worry more about the fever.”

Karyn was left alone, and was pleased, a moment later, to feel a furry hoof hold her hand. She was not alone.

On the next round, the nurses found that her condition had not deteriorated, so they moved her to the ICU. Derpy followed through the double doors and resumed her vigil at Karyn’s side. With the beeps of monitors and the traffic of feet and beds throughout the unit, Derpy concluded that the ban on whispering was lifted.

“They found your school ID and they’re calling them. Your parents will probably know soon. I’m sure they’ll rush up to see you. Until then, I’ll stay here with you.”

“You don’t have to do that. They might not come till tomorrow. You have to work and take care of the cat.”

Derpy added a gentility into her voice. “The fever might have made you forget. I can be there, work my whole shift, and come back here before you know I’m gone.”

“Oh, that’s right. I love magic.”

A nurse came by and checked on her, giving her a sedative. She told Derpy that she would indeed like to sleep, and did so moments later. Keeping watch, Derpy flashed back to when she had had Karyn resting in her house as she recovered from a cold. She hoped that it would be the same: Karyn would wake up and everything would be fine.

With her head to the side, Karyn coughed in her sleep. Derpy nearly cried out again.

She didn’t want to wake Karyn, and didn’t even know if she could over the sedative, but when she finally saw Karyn’s eyes open an hour or so later, she got her attention.

“We may have a problem. I don’t think that the doctor’s tests are going to find what’s wrong with you.”

“What do you mean?” asked Karyn.

“While you were sleeping, you coughed from time to time, and sparkles were coming out of your mouth.

“I think you’ve got a magical illness.”

Author's Notes:

To be continued...