Esquestria: The House of the Sun - A pony cultist experience

[Talon Tiger Dino]

Very funny but I don't think that line will hold up against a Celestia who is already reciting the Formula Fissive. It's a much better card to play earlier during the "Here's why you should keep secrets from Celestia and still consider it to be the Lawful Good thing to do" when onboarding Roach into the whole "we secretly have Luna on-side" thing.

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Well of course it won't dissuade Celestia, but we're talking about Bureau Agents here, not angry alicorns.

 

[Pittauro]

I've actually read this a couple days ago, quoting the parts I wanted to comment on... but I didn't have the time to actually write the comments


Let me write what I THINK were my thoughts at the time...

A specific building in the city, an abandoned museum, was commandeered by the Commissioner herself. Because "it has an underground vault," from what you heard, and because commandeering a bank for the same thing would "take too long".

A very well-secured convoy was set up, transporting the thing they found to this newly acquired vault. Closing off every street it went through and practically galloping through the city as if the transport carriage could explode at any moment.

And finally, the entire building was sealed up and reinforced as if Princess Celestia herself had decided to make that place her new permanent residence.

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Imagine what that looks from the outside. The Secret Police requisitioning a MUSEUM for their VAULT...

and only not doing it to a Bank due to lack of time...

and all the work to prepare it...

He's here because the Commissioner said he should be here," the leading stallion says, shrugging to his fellow soldier. "Besides, look around you. Look at what we are working with. Two unicorns, two pegasi, and me and him make it two earth ponies. This is a textbook strike team as far as I'm concerned."

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there might be some metaphysical weight to it too. harmony and cooperation between tribes to counter the hate and agony of the Wolf...

"Me, the lieutenant, and Sharp Wind over there are from the same strike team, so I can vouch for them. You two boys are from Red Team, so it's a statistical probability," she says to the stallion that first spoke up. "Can't you see? Everypony in this room… already killed somepony, in the line of duty. Everypony here has blood on their hoofs. Which also explains why the Commissioner went over our files of all things, before picking this team."

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and, not that they know it, Velvet has killed too.

My fourth year serving in Baltimare. Had been on the trail of a perp for a while, investigating some suspicious deals with certain… wealthy ponies. And when I finally caught up to him, I found out he was a… he was a foal peddler," you say, earning a few serious, but respectful, glances from the surrounding ponies. "He resisted, things got ugly, and that was that."

You don't really think you need to tell them anything else.

You leave out the part where, after that, they gave you a medal and quietly transferred you to the paper-pushing side of the Constabulary.

You leave out the part where the final report from the internal investigation fully cleared you of any misdeeds, after citing evidence you never reported on.

You leave out the part where you saw red, and where you came back to your senses only after you finished drowning him on a nearby ditch.

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completely understandable... the evidence "he never reported" might very well be genuine, for all we know, but even if it wasn't... we're talking LITERAL slavers selling children, so honestly who cares.

Your team was in the Bureau a few weeks ago, when the Commissioner was in a particularly foul mood, and you remember how something as small as her gaze felt like a whip on your back.

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Bit of a shame we didn't have an edge influence active this turn... Then again maybe it would have been a bit too much and too suspicious?

In fact, you only just realized that none of you questioned the fact that the Commissioner is here to begin with. Because if you had heard this story from anypony else, that some fragile noblemare was about to help kill a monster, you would have thought the speaker was insane.

But for some reason, for some insane reason that none of you can even think to question, nopony is pointing that out. Nopony thinks there is anything wrong with this. In fact, a part of you feels relieved that she is here.

Because she is not just a fragile noblemare. She is not a sweet-talking posh who tripped and stumbled her way into the Princesses' favor.

She is the Commissioner of the Lunar Bureau.

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And don't you forget it!

But yeah, from the outside this must look crazy.

The Commissioner told you all about this. It told you the jar itself was cursed. That the creature inside it was even worse than that. And that the monster would try to get inside your very mind, telling you whatever was needed, just for the sake of tormenting you.

And true to her words, the moment you stepped into the vault, you started to hear it.

The sound of gurgling. The sound of a pony drowning.

The sound of the monster you killed, all those years ago, as you held him down with your own hoofs and drowned him in that ditch.

This sound, this ringing noise inside your ear, disgusts you. It disgusts you because it reminds you of everything you saw that day. It disgusts you because it reminds you that you failed to apprehend the ponies that truly matters, the ones that were funding that whole operation. It disgusts you… because you swear that the jar makes it sound like he is laughing even as you hear him drown.

The thing inside that jar, you know, hates you. It hates you, and it is mocking you, and it wants you to suffer. Because whatever curse or whatever spell it knows is enough to look into your mind. And it is using that power for the sole purpose of tormenting you.

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Truly, The battle with the Windigo starts when you approach the jar, really.

It bursts out of the jar, and it HOWLS as it does that.

"SEND ME TO THE MIDSTS OF MY ENEMIES, THAT I MAY DIE KILLING!"​

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...ok, that's a pretty Metal battle cry, I'm not gonna lie.

[Critical success! The Windigo will be "rewarded" with a full turn alone with its new target]

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[Combatants (name, health, personal combat)]
Windigo (2/3, +55) (Solo Cmbatant)
Paperflank (3/3, +11) (Current Main Combatant)



[Overflow: Bureau –8, Windigo – 41]



[Windigo's first roll: 47 + 55 (Personal Combat) = 102]

[Paperflank's first roll: 75 + 29 (Personal Combat) = 104]



[Overflow: Bureau –10, Windigo – 41]



[Windigo's second roll: 74 + 55 (Personal Combat) – 30 (Outnumbered) = 129]

[Paperflank's second roll: 57 + 29 (Personal Combat) = 86]

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Shouldn't Paperflank have a lower combat score? You used Velvet's for this @OurLadyOfWires

Not that it matters much, but still!

Your eyes go wide as you realize what the Windigo is truly trying to do.

The beast, you can tell, is trying to shake the Commissioner off.

Because somehow, somehow, she has her hoofs around its neck. And despite the ethereal nature of its body, the Commissioner's hoof are somehow straddling it, as if the mare could strangle it into submission.

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...ok, that's just crazy awesome.

[Windigo's first roll: 24 + 55 (Personal Combat) – 30 (Outnumbered) = 49]

[Commissioner's first roll: 96 + 29 (Personal Combat) = 125]

[Team-leader's first roll: 43 + 18 (Personal Combat) = 61]

[Constable 1's first roll: 52 + 17 (Personal Combat) = 69]

[Constable 2's first roll: 9 + 15 (Personal Combat) = 24]

[Constable 3's first roll: 62 + 14 (Personal Combat) = 76]

[Constable 4's first roll: 33 + 14 (Personal Combat) = 47]

[Paperflank's first roll: 38 + 11 (Personal Combat) = 49]



[Overflow: Bureau – 144, Windigo – 34]



[Windigo suffers two wounds (-100 to Bureau's overflow)]

[The Windigo has been defeated]

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and, due to how this combat works... a single bad roll by the Windigo basically doomed it.

And Velvet did MOST of the damage, though numbers helped a LOT.

...Imagine if this had been not ONE Windigo, but instead Three or more.

In any case, it's a good lesson. If we can get a good strike team involved, numbers can make up for a lot against anything without multi-combat traits.

And in the end fighting the Windigo was a fairly safe endeavor for our team.

Actually, her gaze is almost soft. She looks relieved. She looks like a normal pony, who isn't even aware of what she just did or what just happened.

Instead, as if she didn't just drop from the ceiling with her hoofs around a creature made of pain and malice, she slowly limps her way towards you. Shooing away the lieutenant, and really everypony else, as she makes her way to your sorry self.

"Paperflank, are you alright?" she asks, with a voice so soft and, well, so worried you can barely believe it is coming from her mouth.

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the whiplash...

If you didn't know any better, you would think the Commissioner of the Lunar Bureau is now fussing over you as if you were foals. But still, this is certainly just her taking responsibility for her subordinates. Which, given the fight you have been through, makes sense, and shows that she is a mindful superior.

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... when "knowing better" makes you wrong...

You're just lucky our family is a bit too large already, or we'd adopt you too!

In the aftermath of this feat, Velvet Covers was able to introduce one of the Lores to the Lunar Bureau.

Velvet Covers has crafted the Level 1 Manuscript "Institutional Knowledge: Monster Hunting Techniques". It has been added to the Secret Library, and it has introduced the Lunar Bureau to the Lore of Edge.

The Lunar Bureau threadmark has been updated.

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yay! a +5 to our combat teams would be significant... though of course not everyone will have an affinity for Edge.

I wonder if Celestia will notice them, and what she'll think of it.


That said, we DO have an excuse for this!

It's this kind of rewards that make me want the quest to slow down and commit to building up this instituition properly instead of climbing the Mansus. The idea of an organisation dedicated to protecting the Kingdom from the dangers of the Lores created by the very Pony causing said dangers from the Lores is so fascinating.

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I get it, but no. We're on a timer.

The Bureau will last beyond our "ending". if there's a follow up or sequel after tha All-In quest, maybe we can build up the Bureau more then.

---

And I'll read the rest of the discussion later

 

[DelightedOne]

yay! a +5 to our combat teams would be significant... though of course not everyone will have an affinity for Edge.

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Not everypony will have an affinity for Edge, but Velvet Covers will certainly try to point those that do to the right targets.

I wonder if Celestia will notice them, and what she'll think of it.


That said, we DO have an excuse for this!

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I sincerely hope we did not make a mistake with introducing the lores and if we didn't Celestia will appreciate our help in filling the gaps in her knowledge(and hopefully distracting her from Lantern for a couple of turns).

That might even give us an in or FO with Midday Dew(for us to slow the advancement of Lantern as much as we can).

 

[Talon Tiger Dino]

Not everypony will have an affinity for Edge, but Velvet Covers will certainly try to point those that do to the right targets.


I sincerely hope we did not make a mistake with introducing the lores and if we didn't Celestia will appreciate our help in filling the gaps in her knowledge(and hopefully distracting her from Lantern for a couple of turns).

That might even give us an in or FO with Midday Dew(for us to slow the advancement of Lantern as much as we can).

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In before Mandatory FO where Celestia all-too-eagerly demands Edge lessons.

 

[Greymere]

In before Mandatory FO where Celestia all-too-eagerly demands Edge lessons.

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Well, she could demand them all she likes, but unfortunately for her Edge probably isn't in her affinity list, considering that Luna has it.

 

[OurLadyOfWires]

Dear reader, this is an "administrative" post that in my opinion warranted a threadmark.

Feel free to skip to the next threadmark to continue the story.

Spoiler: Author's notes

I am glad you all enjoyed the last update! Or at least that's what I hope happened. Still, I don't have a lot of opportunities to write combat, so I am legitimately happy you guys picked the Windigo fight.

As a personal note, at first I wanted to write it from Velvet's POV. But several factors made it that a third-person perspective would have been overall better. Hence good Paperflank taking center stage for this update. I don't expect us to see him anymore, but he is a good constable for your Bureau.

Still, I would like to point out that Velvet Covers herself had never seen a Windigo in the Wake before. And I need you all to realize that this meeting was dread-inducing even for her. (Although a non-capital D dread). Still, the fact remains that I tried my best to show that this was an encounter that warranted a boss music on the background.
No, really think about it. Here, you had a team of seven ponies. And the main combatant (Velvet herself) was rocking an above-heroic combat status. So, for all that Ponykind is big on its "heroic" units, those are still rare and sparce. In fact, your entire civilization only has three Princesses, one Shining Armor, and now one Velvet Covers.
So, even though you won, Velvet Covers is worried about the big questions. What if there were two Windigos at the same time? What if there were more? What if Windigos appear on multiple cities?
Make no mistake, there is potential for evil, and Evil, to win.

But as you said to your subordinates, today you won, and that is all that matters. And other than that, all you can do is keep strengthening the shield that the Lunar Bureau must become. One Lore level at a time.

[CHANGE OF SUBJECT]

So, I realized too late (as in, literally when you guys pointed out) that I fudged Paperflank's combat stats during his solo stint.

Thankfully, even if we used the real numbers, he would "only" have received an additional wound.

So, because I liked the fluff of how Harmony's warmth "burned" the Windigo, and because no mechanical changes would have truly occurred, I'll consider this a harmless error and not make any changes. And considering how I was already a bit miffed that Paperflank suffering "frostbites" was a bit too strong of a word, now that we all know he should have taken two points of damage, I am a lot more comfortable with the description of his wounds.

Which means, again, I'll declare this a "harmless error" and we can all move on.

[CHANGE OF SUBJECT]

In other news:
-I have been extremely, and I mean extremely, busy. Thank you for your patience!;
-Typos have been un-typoed (Windigo is an "it", not a "him", and other things besides);
-I am sure there are more typos I am still missing, so point them out if you will;
-I noted the comments that Biedde's Edge is not being applied to the Secret Library. But to be honest, I have not yet decided IF Names will influence the Lunar Bureau for now. Baldomare visited the Windhoof Club and the Master gave lessons, to justify it, but I don't see Biedde wearing a Lunar Bureau badge (yet?). So for now, no Name-bonus to the Bureau, but that is subject to change, as well as subject to certain things that might happen. But for now I'll just apply Velvet's own acts and Manuscripts to the Bureau's Lore level. Please give it more time;
-And your Knock Sacrament has been updated into your character sheet.

Thank you for your time and patience, and thank you for reading my story!

I am not sure when I will be able to write the next update, given how hectic life has been. But as has been the case so far, I'm sure I'll be able to squeeze in some time to do it.

As always, I hope you are all doing well.

 

[Fouredged]

It is entirely in setting for Cult Simulator for the universe to miss an error and then decide to make the error truth. The Histories are decided by committee. There now exists a secret history where Paperflank was injured.

 

[Witherbrine2671]

The Silver Key: There are certain mechanisms, locks or cogs or perhaps even laws, that are scattered in this world. You can now interact with them. (You will recognize them when you see them

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Okay this is very interesting

 

[DelightedOne]

The Silver Key: There are certain mechanisms, locks or cogs or perhaps even laws, that are scattered in this world. You can now interact with them. (You will recognize them when you see them)

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It's probably not what the Sacrament meant but I can't help but wonder if the door in BtRC part 3 can be interacted with. And of course the possibilty of things in the Mansus and maybe the Dreamlands.

The Tree of Harmony too since I feel like it could be the door to Harmony(because magic trees being doors to other realms is one of the best cliches of fantasy in my opinion).

There is also the matter of us going back to the human world by taking the mirror(if that is possible).

 

[AuthorTransient]

Dear reader, this is an "administrative" post that in my opinion warranted a threadmark.

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I am very glad to hear from you and I appreciate the time and effort it took for you to go out of your way to clarify this, despite your hectic schedule.

KNOCK: The Silver Key: There are certain mechanisms, locks or cogs or perhaps even laws, that are scattered in this world. You can now interact with them. (You will recognize them when you see them).

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Ah, you know what that means! Fleeting Opportunities! /joking

Thank you for your time and patience, and thank you for reading my story!

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Thank you as well. Though these four words may not be much, thank you for writing your story.

 

[ses]

-I noted the comments that Biedde's Edge is not being applied to the Secret Library. But to be honest, I have not yet decided IF Names will influence the Lunar Bureau for now. Baldomare visited the Windhoof Club and the Master gave lessons, to justify it, but I don't see Biedde wearing a Lunar Bureau badge (yet?). So for now, no Name-bonus to the Bureau, but that is subject to change, as well as subject to certain things that might happen. But for now I'll just apply Velvet's own acts and Manuscripts to the Bureau's Lore level. Please give it more time;

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I for one personally have been an extreme supporter of Biedde-Bureau interactions! Best grandpa.

I am glad you all enjoyed the last update! Or at least that's what I hope happened.

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You can safely consider this to be so. I was very annoying talking to my friends about how much I wanted to boop the windigo snoot to my friends in the days before the post was even dropped, and was talking about how much I loved the "SEND ME TO THE MIDST OF MY ENEMIES THAT I MAY DIE KILLING!" line afterwards.

 

[spiderhellian]

Okay this is very interesting

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So interesting! And so tantalizing!

It's opening a present to see a note that says "you will encounter presents over the next six months."! The mystery has been pushed out a step further! I am so curious here what this will look like.

 

[ses]

So interesting! And so tantalizing!

It's opening a present to see a note that says "you will encounter presents over the next six months."! The mystery has been pushed out a step further! I am so curious here what this will look like.

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Incentive to send Velvet personally on expeditions instead of just sending Axe to solo them? It would make sense to nudge her in that direction. Honestly I want to spend some Selene actions searching for easy Expeditions next turn, as hopefully that will turn up some Short jaunts into the Everfree that we can send Axe or, now that we need to take this perk for a spin, Velvet, on without burning their action. I could easily see a Turn 22 for Selene of "Soothe the night/Search for a 3circle spot/Search for Easy Expeditions"

Or we could entrust Mareinette with finding us a 3circle site? We really do need to apply some heavy ammo to that task next turn after all, since turn 23 is when we really want Selene to just start spamming generic summons. Honestly I'm not really sure the intended way for us to obtain one.