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

[Pittauro]

ok, I've been a bit busy, so I mostly skimmed and didn't fully catch up in the last few weeks... let me get back into it...

(As a side note, I've really gotten into a regression webnovel/webcomic called SSS Class Suicide Hunter / SSS Class Revival Hunter. I heavily recommend it, it's peak!)

"It's alright. How is it that Cherry always says it? Ah, of course. Our kind is meant to build the canvas, but your kind is meant to paint on it," she said to the empty room. And not for the first time, she couldn't help but come to the same conclusion she always did. "And I'm awful glad that I get to paint on it. Being an immortal sounds so dull, really. I'm glad I just get to do one thing well, and then pass the torch to the next generation."

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It took me a second to realize Cherry would be Cherenkolt.

Well, as long as she's happy... to be fair, while death doesn't really sound pleasant, especially in a CS setting, LIVING as an Hour or Name isn't exactly all sunshine and roses.

Then again, with Harmony apparently making a "new" afterlife, maybe things are different here. Velvet certainly wouldn't like her family and friends ending up in Nowhere OR as "blanks" in the Blank Plains.

Silky considered pranking her. Pretending to be asleep or dead or something else besides. But she decided against it. Not today, she thought. Not today.

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Bad Silky! no pranking with the lores!

We still haven't lived down that thing with the zombie and Windy!

Her mother, and the other immortals who loved her so, laid out the groundwork. They saved the world from the hate of ice, and the wrath of fire. They negotiated this bright future into existence. They brought about this land where the New is enthroned and the Old is honored.

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Wrath of Fire is obviously Daybreak, but the other... Windigoes? Wolf in general? Technically Sombra could also fit, I suppose, but I doubt it.

The proper things, in the proper manner, in the proper order.

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To think that's usually more of a threat...

Velvet, help us all.

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Of course, Silky Stream also knew their companions well… after all, she quite literally made them. Granted, making them companions had been an effort in itself. But that was not the time to look back at old victories.

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...what?

...as in, they're her sons and daughters, or she LITERALLY made constructs of some kind?

[VIOLENCE IS FORBIDDEN AT THIS TABLE] (Esoteric Trait): During an Event, you may pick a Trait of a willing Guest. For the duration of the Event, that trait will be nullified (treated as nonexistent). This may be applied even to Traits that are archetypal, Hours-sponsored, or that are otherwise usually considered "untouchable."

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...She accomplishes the impossible, she's bringing Biedde and Smiles at the same table in (sort of) peace!

[ANTISOCIAL] has been nullified.

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...making Axe NOT antisocial might be an even larger accomplishment!


Shame this will likely never be. Especially considering the Moth Name is very much worse than dead.

Unless, I suppose, we somehow manage to bring the last seed of the Woods back to life. It's not COMPLETELY impossible, I suppose, to recover it from the corpse of Starry Dancer and make some great ritual for it... But it's definitely not something that could ever happen during the course of the quest. at best it might be an epilogue thing, and only if the Wolf-sons and maybe even THE Wolf were dealt with I imagine.

Ah… how noblebright. It makes me think that some kind of "go back in time to the beginning of the quest and redo everything with your memories intact" due to some Secret Histories nonsense would be a very !!FUN!! effect.

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Just imagine if, somehow, after finishing this quest we got to redo it all, either because Velvet somehow "regresses" into her past self, or just as a new game + where OOC we "know things".

...I can already imagine how we'd start all confident, and then created a new problem for everyone we solved

In most cities, where the air whispers malice into the ears of ponies and the wind is a little colder, ponies blame each other. Their neighbors, their families, everypony but themselves.

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Reminder that both Evil and Paranoia are making things worse for everyone...

But in fair Ponyville, where trust has not been chased away by wolves, everypony just silently notices the struggle taking place in the twilight sky. And in their hearts, they hope that tomorrow will be a little better.

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maybe if we made officially every city in Equestria part of Ponyville we could get around the wolf-effects?

Honorable Cherenkolt, and the blasted snake I know won't bother reading this…

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"Miss Baldomare? I have a letter for y-"

"I already know that. Here is my answer."

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how fitting. she doesn't give you the satisfaction of playing along

"We will also be hosting two of our consultants," you say. "Make sure everything goes smoothly with their clearance when they arrive in Canterlot, but make sure they come see me before anything else."

You say that partly because, indeed, you want to make sure there are no hiccups during this first visit of your "consultants" to the Bureau. After all, you know you are taking a bit of a risk by bringing Lore-soaked Names here, given how Eclipse is already exploring the Mansus. But still, you don't have time to hesitate or second-guess yourself.

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Oh, I'm a bit rusty, I had nearly forgotten we introduced the Names and Selene to the Bureau.

[] (VELVET) You will NOT join the Bureau in the expedition.
-Velvet Covers will direct the Bureau's expedition from a distance, through missives and reports.
-She will still lend some aid to the expedition, but most of her skills will be aiding the Bureau in its other actions.
-She will be WELL POSITIONED when Cadance rolls her dice, and will be able to react quickly to whatever happens.

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We probably can't afford to have Velvet be away while Cadance needs us... I forget if we had made specific decisions on this already though.

[] (CHERENKOLT) Cherenkolt will focus on aiding the detectives.
-Cherenkolt will NOT join the Bureau expedition.
-Cherenkolt will CHANGE his orders and will recalibrate to Secret Histories, and will aid the detectives in investigating Neighnia.
-This will guarantee that the detectives have their report (be it success or failure) BEFORE Cadance rolls her dice. (Otherwise, the detectives will only finish their mission after Cadance rolls her dice)

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...I'm REALLY rusty. I had completely forgotten we were trying for Neighnia too.

It has occurred to me that, despite my best efforts, the time is already running late. And it has also occurred to me that, to my great shame, I have yet to devote a respectable amount of time to entertaining you as a guest.

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...the fated time approaches...

She is delighted. The taste of a letter, recently read, still fresh on her teeth, its papery corpse still clutched within one of her bony joints.

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...she literally ATE the letter?

...why am I even surprised?

Could it be that they would even be… honored, to be so "chosen" by her?

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not every victim of Mareinette's attention would feel regret. Probably not even most, if she feels kind that day.

Whether his last thought will be of fear, relief or exultation, only Our Lady of Wires will ever know.

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I really can't tell which would be better.

and looking at that old omake that is now next in the list of threadmarks...

She had long thought otherwise. That first evening set the tone, when the whips of etiquette and the bindings of summoning had been wielded so harshly against one who solely meant to admire. The next few months were not much better, as her ostensible host invited over guest after guest she deemed sufficiently refined, while leaving Her out in the cold. She had to beg and plead merely to offer her host a gift that none of those snooty stayers-on even dreamed of providing!

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amusing, ironic, horrifying... the fact that it was only Mareinette that offered her help then, when Velvet needed it the most.

I said it before, and I'll say it again... I really believe Mareinette thinks well and actually WANTS to help Velvet. To become her "friend".

Something no other Name except MAYBE Baldomare (deep down) wants to do.

...but of course, the friendship of a monster will be monstruous in kind...

I don't think Mareinette's sacrament is going to indelibly corrupt Velvet. It's not going to make her into a filly-hungry monster. It's not going to be a stain on our hooves that bleeds into the Glory. It's not going to turn the Pony we know into a monster, or take decisions out of our hands.

It's about respect. For Mareinette and for desire. For Grail. The kind of lesson a Sacrament is made of.

It takes a degree of honour, to make our Honoured Guest a friend. We have forced her to obey our desires, and disrespected hers. To have her truly honour those desires, and respect them in turn, we need to at least give her a shred of doing the same.

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I mostly agree with Spiderhellian here.

This will not "metaphysically" corrupt Velvet. not really.

Lots of Cultists have done FAR worse across the ages for far worse reasons.

But still, it IS a sign of just what Velvet is willing to do. For the sake of the power she feels she needs, for the sake of keeping Mareinette on her side... and, maybe, guiltily, shamefully, out of curiosity and greed and ambition and some actual respect and admiration for Mareinette too.

Her reasons are not wholly good, nor wholly evil... there's a mix of them in here.

AAAAaaaaaAaaaa any risk for a chance at finding out what does the Silver Key DOOOOooooooOOOO?????

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oh, right, I want to find out too!!!

[] Caddy, I can help. Let's give it one more shot, together. (Velvet and Cadance will roll again, together. If you get very lucky, this may defuse Daybreaker's wrath. If you get somewhat lucky, this may delay Daybreaker's eruption until next turn, at which point you may try again to defuse it. But if you fail, you will be in Daybreaker's sights.)
[] Caddy, there's something else we can try. But you'll have to trust me. (Velvet and Cadance will flee Canterlot and leave it to Daybreaker. If you go All In at the end of this turn, Cadance will accompany you on the expedition. This may have other side-effects, both positive and negative.)
[] Caddy, it's too late. We just need to save what we can. (Velvet and Cadance will do their best to ameliorate Daybreaker's wrath. Hyperthermia mechanics will be at HALF effect for THIS turn and NEXT turn.)

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brutal.

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aaaand I'll pause here for now. I've skimmed a bit of the future threadmarks, though I might have missed one, so I have a VAGUE idea of what's happening...

 

[JenMGold]

To elaborate more on the whole "the world is literally bent (i.e. round)" thing, I think that it happened during the Mansus's fall. Because we've seen that, in the beforeyears, the Wake and the Mansus weren't separated. You could physically approach and see the Mansus, and the Woods that surrounded it. But now, they're entirely divided from each other.

I think that it came about as a consequence of whatever the Forge did. Dividing the Mansus from the Wake, sealing away the Glory, kindling a new power in its place... something like that.

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Huh. Very Tolkien, if that's the case. In Tolkien's works, Valinor - the land of the gods - used to just be a continent within the flat world that they had consecrated, and anyone could go there just by sailing west far enough (that is, if they could break through the enchantments protecting it). But after the reshaping of the world, Valinor was removed from the world of mortals and could only be reached by the immortal elves who could see into the spiritual world and understand how to travel "the straight road" to get there.