replying as I go through the thread. Feel free to ignore arguments already made by others
Edit:
Heart would level us too. Mmm
That's actually not really important. We have a lvl 3 book that would give us 2 scraps after studying it.
If we get a scrap now, we reach lvl 2, and lose that extra scrap.
So, it basically makes no difference to us.
Then again choosing a course of action only based on the scrap it gives would likely be a bad choice here. Still, in that respect, Forge is better.
It's a good thing there isn't really anybody else with Lantern in the Cult, huh...
Then again, Twilight has Lantern. That might be difficult.
I think Jade was underestimating the ease with which someone with Lantern would notice Selene.
Still, while I don't think Twilight with Lantern 1 would be that likely to notice, lvl 3 likely could. She DID meet Luna before, after all, and is close to Celestia. That might make it easier for her to notice.
We should have a few months before that point though, so maybe by then we'll actually be ready to reveal things to her. If we put it in terms of "if Celestia finds her now, she risks causing her to escape/go crazy again"... we might be able to convince her to keep the secret.
Be cruel, to be kind. Fluttershy actually knows that lesson pretty well (or, at least, will learn it in the future. It's a pretty important character growth moment for her in season 4).
What would a spirit want with mortal money though?
money might have conceptual value. It is, after all, something that can be used to trade for nearly anything in the mortal world. A symbol, representing wealth and power.
It's not about the gold, it's about the value everyone gives to it, basically.
That's... interesting. Where, then, is the other half of the Moon? Maybe it's just the part of Luna that's currently asleep.
Or maybe Luna and Celestia, the two sisters, were originally a single being before entering the world?
Probably not, but it's an interesting interpretation... and it kinda reminds me of the Sun-In-Splendour being divided into 3/4 (depending on how you count, even if technically its names already existed before then..)
Jade, no! We have to sell that house!
is it bad that was my first reaction too?
I KNOW, it's a touching moment, Jade is hurting, this could set her free...
but we really need the money! And she really needs it too!
Anywho, I'm actually really happy to have two Confidantes, and be on the path towards another with Twilight. Soon our AP woes will be over, and we may even start our own side cult! Fun stuff, that.
sorry, Ericwinter, but you're too optimistic.
Our AP woes will NEVER be over. we'll just get more things to do!
Maybe,
just maybe, we can reach the point we don't have to devolve all of our AP to putting out fires, and can pursue a little extra project, kinda like we did with the Canterlot Rarity turn.
I'll remind everyone that you can turn that stuff off by clicking on the eyeball at the top right of the post. Ideally you want a slash through it.
Also, interestingly, that invisitext implies to me that maybe Celestia and Luna were once one entity.
yeah, I'm considering it too.
If she does go with HEART, as it looks like the vote is going, that has some musical associations that could help her reconnect with her old friend (and her old friend's new friend). I wonder if she might take up music as a hobby?
From a pure making-Velvet's-numbers-go-up efficiency standard, the FORGE option would be optimal - the HEART scrap would be redundant because reading the HEART 3 book followed by the HEART 2 book would get us to the exact same place with it or without it, so grabbing that FORGE scrap instead would leave us with a greater total increase. But the narrative considerations... yeah.
If that FORGE secondary manifested as Jade remodeling her old house and just burning the bits that got thrown out (like that noose), that'd be one thing, but destroying all of it suggests bad things about how she'll change herself with a FORGE affinity. Destroying her pain won't make her any less hollow. HEART will have its own perils, of course, but I think it'll be a healthier influence regarding Jade's... wholeness of self, for lack of a better description.
And it'll (probably) be less unnerving to other ponies than a tendency to burn things down.
[x] To become unceasing.
also, slightly related... maybe her getting Heart might make it easier for her to understand (and help us getting closer/helping/subverting) Starry Skies, the Heart-focused advisor?
"Anypony who knows the slightest thing about Lantern", you say? It doesn't seems right given that it was a crit and the message, but it's still concerning. And reveal even more issues, this time with Jade's self-esteem. Poor Jade.
She's probably exaggerating a bit, though I'd be careful about raising Twilight's and the cult's Lantern too much. lvl 1 is probably safe. lvl 3 probably isn't.
So, Vinyl and Octavia? Well, only the latter, but still interesting.
I wonder, what reasons lie behind that envy? Yes, quite possibly more trauma, I know.
or it's simply the jealousy of a girlfriend. It's decently implied in the show, and a very common fanon couple.
..on the other hand, I just found this on the wiki
In
The Big Mac Question,
Discord mentions that Octavia went out on a date with
Bulk Biceps.
but then again, I completely forgot about it, and I wouldn't be surprised if Bird did too. Also "a date" seasons later doesn't mean that, for example, Vynil doesn't already like her.
Also, I would note that at this note we can seriously undermine Master's ability in purely esoterical matters. With both learning and magic advisors compromised, it leaves primary Master themselves and Comet Feet as heavy hitters (and maybe Windy). The latter is quite focused at Edge alone, and the former is restricted in his abilities for one reason or another as we can observe with our tasks in Mansus exploration. Copper and Dancer, as far as we know, neither went deep in their lores not had truly focused on the occult jobs. And we may subvert Dancer eventually, too.
If we would want to openly betray the cult, now we have not so horrible chances. Not anymore.
well, if we ever wanted to REALLY rebel, our best course of action might be to use the winter ritual against Comet.
but really, we have enough influence in the cult at this point that we might simply find it better to negotiate.
IF the master can be negotiated with. I'm not completely sure about that, but he hasn't been really unreasonable yet...
I am also quite excited at possibility to see Major Subverted lore and Minor Subverting! This would be cool to see. For some reason I believe that over time, the Forge will become Major. Much like the conflict calls all revolutionaries and all the progress of humanity to its causes, Lantern is in love with Forge. Lantern means having a vision (and right attitude). Forge means having strength to bring it to reality. Lantern will always answer yes.
mh.. maybe she could even reach the point of having BOTH be major affinities? Right now all we know is that usually cultists either have one major affinity, or one major and one minor if named.
Except Velvet and the Masters (and Selene), who apparently follow different rules.
Maybe... maybe getting more than 2 affinities usually requires becoming a Know? I was already thinking that becoming a Know might be one of the requirements for lvl 5 in a lore, but maybe there's more to go along with that...
I didn't really mean it seriously. AP hell never ends, but it's grip on us can, at least, be weakened slightly. For example, now we don't need to waste an action conducting search rituals if the mood strikes us, since we can throw Jade at the problem. (Though we may want to find a Secret Histories Artifact for her to use as a focus)
Or we might get her to study any artifacts we do find, or maybe books if we're lucky, and so on and so forth. Like, if we didn't have to bother reading all the low level books we've turned almost obsolete, that would be really cool. We could maybe even ask her to write Lantern manifests since we still haven't found any books for it, although that might be a bit too much.
Basically it opens options that we would have difficulty managing otherwise, even if we're still going to struggle with stuff we really do have to do ourselves.
yeah, like every new confidant (and, to a lower extent, Good Friend), she gives us new options.
Rituals, books, manifests, help with Twilight, support in cult meetings...
An interesting thing to notice: right now, with Copper and Comet in Manehattan, there are 4 inner circle members in Ponyville.
Jade is on our side. Starry is
mostly on our side, as long as we don't explicitely act against the cult, and I think we're likely going to give her some more attention pretty soon. There WAS that reading problem we had to check...
That leaves Windy probably on its own, in terms of internal factions.
