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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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Dear reader! Whether you are new here, archive-reading and whatnot, or you are already someone who has been with us for quite a while, I would like to say a few words that I believe are best kept close to mind.

-This is an MLP quest. And more importantly, none of us are gratuitously cruel. So good things will happen on this quest, and I hope that enough good things have already happened to prove that.
-This is also a horror quest, so bad things will happen. Bad things might happen to good characters if you are not able to protect them, and you most certainly will not be able to intervene if you lack the tools to do so.
-And finally, this is a quest in which you jostle with powers greater than yourself, with all that it entails.

Please, do keep those things in mind as you go forward. But ultimately, this is also a quest in which it is hoped we all have fun! So if any of the above points is not exactly your cup of tea, or somehow make the experience as a whole "not worth it", then this quest might not be for you. Which is fine! Individual tastes are a thing, so don't think any more about it if you don't want to read anymore. And regardless, I hope you have a lovely day!

Kaelor said:
PSA for whoever needs to hear it:

Readers should take their own mental health into consideration when voting and not subject themselves to triggering narrative elements like rape or constant mental torture of a friend just for the Greatest Good of a world that doesn't exist.

If those are fine for you or Regrettable is even more triggering, then GREAT! More power to you. But you aren't a bad or selfish person for picking the option that keeps the characters you've emotionally connected with safe. [REDACTED for spoiler warning]

This is a high intensity quest that doesn't hold back when it comes to horror and negative consequences. Take care of yourself.
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(Quote slightly edited to avoid spoilers)
 
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Pittauro said:
Also Mareinette is... not exactly a Name.
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Actually, Marinette technically is a Name! BoH revealed all the Liegians are Names of the Twins. Fun fact.

Anyway
[X] Earth ponies built Equestria. They invented the farming communities that colonized the land. And then they invented concrete when they decided they needed the proper soil in which they could plant buildings. Ponyville will always be an earth pony town, but it is time for it to embrace its future form. (Ponyville will begin to grow quickly, and many more ponies will benefit from it.)

We can probably end up taking advantage of this in some way. So sure, why not.
 
Were the Twins experimenting on how to break their taboo and get away with it via their Names? If so those are some mighty loyal names to go through with it.

On that note I wanted to ask. Has there been a WoG that explained why the Names that are still around didn't just claim their Respective Hour's posts? Like I can buy some of them not wanting to like Baldomere and others like DoA being unable but all of them? Especially the Master? Something has to have happened to make that impossible
 
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Iustus Vitae said:
Were the Twins experimenting on how to break their taboo and get away with it via the their Names? If so those are some mighty loyal names to go through with it.
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The few mentions in BoH about the situation implied that they took them as their Names after the whole becoming-an-alukite thing happened. So probably not.

Iustus Vitae said:
On that note I wanted to ask. Has there been a WoG that explained why the Names that are still around didn't just claim their Respective Hour's posts? Like I can buy some of them not wanting to like Baldomere and others like DoA being unable but all of them? Especially the Master? Something has to have happened to make that impossible
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Nope. And it's probably an Important Plot Thing, so I don't imagine we'll ever be getting one either. We'll just have to figure it out ourselves via Velvet.
 
[X] Earth ponies built Equestria. They invented the farming communities that colonized the land. And then they invented concrete when they decided they needed the proper soil in which they could plant buildings. Ponyville will always be an earth pony town, but it is time for it to embrace its future form. (Ponyville will begin to grow quickly, and many more ponies will benefit from it.)
 
Ericwinter said:
Look, you said most reasonable. All of them have their moments, but Applejack is very much on an even keel more often than the others.
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arguably Rarity is more reasonable. she's a bit of a drama queen, but she caused far less problems on average for everyone else.


Pinkie is obviously not to be taken into consideration, Twilight had lesson Zero in canon and her trauma in quest, Fluttershy... well, beside her social anxiety she's actually pretty reasonable.

and Dash... ok, I'm not sure about Dash. She's usually not THAT bad I think, but there's some moments...


Greymere said:
Actually, Marinette technically is a Name! BoH revealed all the Liegians are Names of the Twins. Fun fact.
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oh, I did wonder!

Though this means that there ARE Name-tier Alukites, and now I have to wonder what having an HOUR Alukite would actually mean.

Everyone is incredibly scared of that notion, but does Book Of Hour explain why exactly? or what being an Alukite actually means, besides having committed the crime and eaten the child?
 
Greymere said:
Huh. I... don't really know what to think of this actually. I guess more ponies not in Paranoia's range would be good, but at the same time I feel very ??? on the consequences of either of these.
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The big problem is tha a slow growing town is guaranteed to become a messy big town and eventually a messy city. But a fast growing town may become a very, very, veeeeerrrrrryyyyy messy city if things are not planned ahead and carefully.
 
I like the small town vibes-


[X] Earth ponies do not rush things. They do not make plants grow faster, but instead they care for it until it decides to flourish on its own. Ponyville is cared for, and it is flourishing at its own pace. There is no need to change anything or hasten it. (Ponyville will begin to grow, but it will do so slowly. Mayor Mare and the local community will not take any steps to accelerate it.)
 
[X] Earth ponies do not rush things. They do not make plants grow faster, but instead they care for it until it decides to flourish on its own. Ponyville is cared for, and it is flourishing at its own pace. There is no need to change anything or hasten it. (Ponyville will begin to grow, but it will do so slowly. Mayor Mare and the local community will not take any steps to accelerate it.)

While there's nothing wrong with urban growth per say (especially as it means some ponies will be a bit safer from Paranoia for at least a little while longer), all of the specific suggestions mentioned in the update sound like things that will come back to bite Ponyville in the relatively near future.
 
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permeakra said:
The big problem is tha a slow growing town is guaranteed to become a messy big town and eventually a messy city. But a fast growing town may become a very, very, veeeeerrrrrryyyyy messy city if things are not planned ahead and carefully.
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on the other hand with the fast growing town we get more of a say in it, we have the mayor on our side, and potentially Cadance and Celestia if we want to throw a nuke :V
 
[X] Earth ponies do not rush things. They do not make plants grow faster, but instead they care for it until it decides to flourish on its own. Ponyville is cared for, and it is flourishing at its own pace. There is no need to change anything or hasten it. (Ponyville will begin to grow, but it will do so slowly. Mayor Mare and the local community will not take any steps to accelerate it.)

I too wish to preserve what vibes we may.
 
Yeah I definitely worry that our scope has pretty clearly moved beyond Ponyville (see: spending lots of time in Canterlot, being the director of an important government bureau), so I'm not quite sure how we'll accrue benefit from the town itself growing. I'm sure there will be some positive benefit, but I don't really see how investing effort/AP in Ponyville's improvement (which I think this action sorta wound up being..?) will really pay dividends relevant to our ongoing goals.
 
spiderhellian said:
Yeah I definitely worry that our scope has pretty clearly moved beyond Ponyville (see: spending lots of time in Canterlot, being the director of an important government bureau), so I'm not quite sure how we'll accrue benefit from the town itself growing. I'm sure there will be some positive benefit, but I don't really see how investing effort/AP in Ponyville's improvement (which I think this action sorta wound up being..?) will really pay dividends relevant to our ongoing goals.
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Bits hell is our second-worst enemy, right after AP hell. I could definitely see us leveraging some of that growth in our favor to get some more passive income besides Rarity.
 
Greymere said:
Bits hell is our second-worst enemy, right after AP hell. I could definitely see us leveraging some of that growth in our favor to get some more passive income besides Rarity.
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they're more or less equal, really.

After all, if we had more bits we could use them to summon more APs for ourselves!

We haven't even tried a single Mare-in-the-Light yet, and they'd make for perfect combat maids!
 
[x] Earth ponies built Equestria. They invented the farming communities that colonized the land. And then they invented concrete when they decided they needed the proper soil in which they could plant buildings. Ponyville will always be an earth pony town, but it is time for it to embrace its future form. (Ponyville will begin to grow quickly, and many more ponies will benefit from it.)

It's nice to have a vote where either option could win and I'll still feel pretty good about it.
 
Alchemist767676 said:
[x] Earth ponies built Equestria. They invented the farming communities that colonized the land. And then they invented concrete when they decided they needed the proper soil in which they could plant buildings. Ponyville will always be an earth pony town, but it is time for it to embrace its future form. (Ponyville will begin to grow quickly, and many more ponies will benefit from it.)

It's nice to have a vote where either option could win and I'll still feel pretty good about it.
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Don't worry, I'm sure someone will soon figure out some reason for one option or the other to actually be terrible and cruel and just the absolute most evil thing Velvet could ever do. :V
 
Pittauro said:
Everyone is incredibly scared of that notion, but does Book Of Hour explain why exactly? or what being an Alukite actually means, besides having committed the crime and eaten the child?
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The Crime of the Sky isn't really expanded upon in a satisfactory way what we do know is cobbled together from multiple sources. Firstly the crime isn't having kids with another immortal, it's eating them. For one the children from a union of Long and Higher are said to be special, rare and destined for great things, the table top we get this from goes so far as to say that they have the personal attention of the Hours. Their death would be a thing...mourned. For another this is a Law either enforced by the Hours or by the Glory and so is as invoiable as it gets. Then there is the fact that those who do break it are both barred from the Mansus and so from ever ascending higher, struck with a monstrous visage and corresponding strength and vitality and finally a curse/malus described as a great hunger/urge to devour. There is some speculation on why it exists, either as population control or as a way for the Hours, or any other immortal for that matter, to protect themselves from a more powerful heir coming along and dethroning them. But the biggest idea is that seeing as Alukites are really fucking hard if not outright impossible to kill, powerful and cursed with unending hunger no one wants more around. Especially no Hour Alukites, this revulsion to the mere concept is so great that the Interclate and the Sun-In-Splendour's death/sundering was thought of as more palatable.

I have just had a fucking terrifying thought. That the reason the House of the Sun is Empty is that when the Sun-In-Splendour rose he and the Forge-Of-Days weren't able to resist the pull and had a child. A child one of them ate and seeing as we know where the Sun-Unconqured's corpse lies we also know who awaits any who climb to the Glory unable to rule the house due to her status and unable to be struck down because of the same.
 
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Iustus Vitae said:
I have just had a fucking terrifying thought. That the reason the House of the Sun is Empty is that when the Sun-In-Splendour rose he and the Forge-Of-Days weren't able to resist the pull and had a child. A child one of them ate and seeing as we know where the Sun-Unconqured's corpse lies we also know who awaits any who climb to the Glory unable to rule the house due to her status and unable to be struck down because of the same.
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Eh… from what we saw in the memory, things went crazy as soon as the Sun returned. There didn't really seem to be time for Alukization.
 
Ericwinter said:
Eh… from what we saw in the memory, things went crazy as soon as the Sun returned. There didn't really seem to be time for Alukization.
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Well yes but those memories were from moments after his return and cut off after Moth got it's wish. It's not inconceivable that things stabalised after they had the party worthy of a History being made. Plus Velvet in her travels says over and over again that something terrible broke the Mansus, she says this even after viewing the memory. While this may just be her being an unreliable narrator she may also not. Plus there is the fact that the Wolf-Divided was described as having fallen onto the Ascent of Knives after he tried to jump into a three-way (or was it two-way?) brawl. This could mean one between anyone of the following; Hours, Worm, Harmony, Alukite Hour.

I admit the idea is somewhat iffy with what we know seeing as this series of events has other interpretations too but you gotta admit it's compelling/scary to think about.
 
The memory pretty clearly indicates that a lot of the destruction was wrought in the immediate aftermath of the Sun's return (?) and/or by the Moth's traversal:

BirdBodhisattva said:
And he fluttered through the maze of stairs, as its butterfly-net of criss-crossing paths broke and bent, for the first time ever aiding rather than hindering passage.

For there would no longer be a need to sort the worthy.

And he fluttered through the very heart of the House, as its cobwebs of passages ceased to be, their purposes fulfilled.

For there would no longer be a need for the Climb.

And he fluttered through the higher reaches, as they toppled and fell towards down below, their denizens rejoicing and mourning over what had happened.
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With regards to the Wolf, I think the best guess is that the "titanic conflict between three eternal foes" was the conflict between the three Edge hours.

BirdBodhisattva said:
The Wolf-Divided was cast down, thrown into this place on the closing of a titanic conflict between three eternal foes. Thrown into a sea of knives so that he might be skewered alive and taken out of a larger equation, even if only for a moment. But for the God-creature, such a fate made no difference. After all, it had sought out said fight precisely so it could try to end itself.
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[x] Earth ponies built Equestria. They invented the farming communities that colonized the land. And then they invented concrete when they decided they needed the proper soil in which they could plant buildings. Ponyville will always be an earth pony town, but it is time for it to embrace its future form. (Ponyville will begin to grow quickly, and many more ponies will benefit from it.)
 
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