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!
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.
… Certainly not the weirdest ship I've come across (that dubious honour goes to Rainbow Dash X Kitchen Sink!Twilight Sparkle, but that's probably just me).
"Velvet was just here, just a moment ago. Just here. Almost certainly"
Now imagine how would it be once Winter * and Knock ** settle in. Honestly, it would be fun to pursue it just for the sheer hilarity potential.
* The air is frosty, the candles gutter, the street-sounds are hushed. Someone is here.
** Velvet sees the gaps between things, and the arts that she has learned permit her, sometimes, to place her fingers in that gap.
"And I must say," you hear a final whisper, one that you are sure only you can hear, "what beautiful eyes you have, little Velvet. If you keep on this path, perhaps, one day you might even find…"
Looking back at the first council meeting after we got Moth Three, I really have to wonder what the Master meant by this. What might we find? And was it Moth in particular they were interested in or just high Lore levels in general?
mh.. we mostly only saw how he acts to US though. If we look at the interlude, he seemed to get along pretty well with Copper, and he was actually pretty kind to Golden (and, presumably, to his various employees).
Don't mind me, just saving this for if we learn Windy murders underlings. That might be the strongest argument for him not having killed Golden actually, because if he did these arguments about moral high grounds become hilariously one sided.
Nowhere is still a part of the Cultist Simulator metaphysics, a God-From-Nowhere hating something that comes from outside those metaphysics makes sense.
Is there any reason not to think that the Princesses, at the very least, are Gods-From-Nowhere?
To quote from Luna's... interlude:
You are much greater. You are a creature of order, your flesh borne into this world by choice, obeying its laws of entrance by birth, and of departure by death. Your soul smells of the outside, of the void between the lights, of the very thing it eternally aches to consume with never-ending thirst.
Given that the Witness in CS canon mentions that there are other worlds out there, each with its own Glory and its own Mansus, that makes it sound like the "lights" mentioned are those Mansus-compliant worlds - and therefore, the "void between" them must be... Nowhere.
Nowhere, then, is essentially a friendlier version of the Abyss from nMage. It is what remains when all that is possible has been subtracted. In the jargon of Fallen London, it is all the things which a Sun abhors (the Neath, the Masters of the Bazaar, colors like irrigo and cosmogone, etc). Hours go there when they die because Hours cannot die, and therefore a dead Hour is impossible, incompatible, unable to exist Somewhere and thus banished to Nowhere. (And likewise, the fact that the Elegiast can resurrect a dead Hour by remembering them makes perfect sense within this framework - a memory, after all, is Something, and Hours are themselves sufficiently eldritch and powerful that even the flimsy pretext of Something-ness that they gain as a memory allows them to return, like a person crawling out from inside a photograph.)
This would mean that the Worms aren't really envoys or agents of Nowhere, but just a particularly powerful and vile thing that resides there and seeks to escape. The mention of them 'sending the Mansus Nowhere' simply refers to the fact that the sorts of horrors they would wreak upon the Mansus, the Glory, and all that exists within its strictures would overturn and destroy those rules which separate Somewhere from Nowhere; to paraphrase Terry Pratchett, they would drown reality in their attempt to possess it like an ocean trying to warm itself around a candle.
What, then, is Harmony? The easy answer would be that it's some adjunct of the Glory - a castoff spark or reflection of its radiance. However, I think this is missing something very important.
Harmony isn't one of the Lores. It isn't an Hour or a piece of the Mansus or any other sort of Something.
Which means it's a Nothing. It belongs Nowhere.
My belief is that rather than being kin to the Glory, Harmony is a power of Nowhere which happens to superficially resemble it. The Worms demonstrate that incredible (and horrific) things can arise from Nowhere without much in the way of a predication for their emergence. If the Worms, then why not Harmony?
It would certainly explain why Equestria has survived this long. Most Worms would prefer to chase the Glory, not some odd little glimmer that might, maybe, perhaps be a little bit like what they hunger for. The most powerful Worm-things, certainly, would rather think of ways to work around the Hours than spend eons in transit toward something that might not even be worth the effort.
And certainly, whatever part of Nowhere Equestria resides in, it's very very very very very very very very far away indeed from the Sun-in-Splendor's corpse, far enough that the interlude references the kinds of distances that lie between stars IRL. The Glory might well be a shorter trip, and certainly one with greater prospects. Hence, the Worms that brave the long dark to investigate Harmony are the minority. The weak, the cowardly, the curious and the mad. No Lionsmith-testing titans, these.
Unfortunately, the Nightmare proves that even a relative trickle of relatively pathetic Worms is still an existential threat to Equestria - and whatever Harmony might be within the cosmology of the Mansus, it's certainly quite powerful, powerful enough that it's best to keep the Worms from sinking their proboscises into it. Enter the Master, a Moth Long who made the capricious decision to sojourn through Nowhere chasing a tiny spark of light, just in case it turned out to be something interesting.
If I know a piece of media better than CS, it's Mage: The Awakening. I've compaired Nowhere and The Abyss many times amongst friends, I'm happy others have as well. Masterfully done.
Most simply? Harmony's power destroys Worms. The weaker ones can't even survive within the presence of an Alicorn. I don't think creatures of Nowhere could even survive having Harmony possess them fully the way it has the Alicorns.
Like, you've built a pretty theory, and I'll admit it sounds somewhat plausible, but still requires a fair few assumptions about an intentionally confusing cosmology to function.
Most simply? Harmony's power destroys Worms. The weaker ones can't even survive within the presence of an Alicorn. I don't think creatures of Nowhere could even survive having Harmony possess them fully the way it has the Alicorns.
Like, you've built a pretty theory, and I'll admit it sounds somewhat plausible, but still requires a fair few assumptions about an intentionally confusing cosmology to function.
I mean, if the Watchman can be the First Egg (a deceased God-From-Stone) and also an ascended human...
As for Harmony's effects on the Worms, I'll admit that I'm leaning into an idea from Fallen London/Sunless Sea - in those properties, every star is essentially a sapient, godlike entity which projects their will across a vast distance around themselves via the light they shed. That which a Sun thinks well of finds sunlight pleasant. That which a Sun abhors finds sunlight to be, at best, enervating, and more often outright poisonous. In Sunless Sea, you can take your ship up to Naples for short trade voyages, and you tend to bleed crewmen all the while despite them covering up every inch of their bodies against the Sun and avoiding daylight as much as they can - and the people of Fallen London are noticeably more resistant to the Sun, thanks to the fact most once lived on the Surface and earned the Sun's ire through prolonged exposure to the Neath. Creatures like blemmigans or Clay Men or Finger-Kings (which are by their very nature alien to what the Sun desires and always have been) tend to burn, crumble, or otherwise cease existing as anything but ashes in very short order.
Harmony certainly behaves much like a Sun in that respect, nourishing things that concord with its view of How Things Should Be (Equestria, the Princesses) and sterilizing things that don't (see "Worms, the"). While there are instances of Suns being overwhelmed or even killed by things they abhor, it generally takes forces of godlike potency to do the job. The more powerful Worms, as well as Hours (and presumably Lores, although Harmony seems to accept the Secret Histories at bare minimum), for example, would probably fit the bill.
TL;DR - if this is indeed referencing properties like Fallen London, then Harmony screaming "FUCK YOU WORMS, FUCK RIGHT OFF" via light so intensely that lesser Worms implode into dust, but sparing the Princesses because they've earned a place in its good books (including, based on the interlude, essentially sacrificing their original natures to become 'Gods-of-Harmony'), would be completely sensical.
Most simply? Harmony's power destroys Worms. The weaker ones can't even survive within the presence of an Alicorn. I don't think creatures of Nowhere could even survive having Harmony possess them fully the way it has the Alicorns.
Equating all the beings of Nowhere with Worms is, I think, contradicted by CS canon. The Crowned Growth is somewhat Wormlike in its subsumptive edacy, but the Mare-in-the-Tree could pass itself off as another Moth-and-Grail Hour (and betimes has) — they are not wholesome, but are also not Worms.
That said, and with the caveat that I know little about any variety of Mage, I don't think Nowhere can be fairly characterized as like the Abyss. Despite its name and its status as the residence of slain Hours, it does not appear to contain everything that does not exist — notably it's said to be possible to be even less existent than being in Nowhere:
Article:
In Nowhere it is very cold. But it is always possible to be deader.
Given that it's also said to be "lit by lamps of black nephrite", it comes off to me as more like a classical underworld than a (post-)modern realm of the non-real.
TL;DR - if this is indeed referencing properties like Fallen London, then Harmony screaming "FUCK YOU WORMS, FUCK RIGHT OFF" via light so intensely that lesser Worms implode into dust, but sparing the Princesses because they've earned a place in its good books (including, based on the interlude, essentially sacrificing their original natures to become 'Gods-of-Harmony'), would be completely sensical.
Sure... except Bird has explicitly admitted to not having had a chance to play those other properties yet. And while saying "well if it's like this thing from this other setting" is all well and good as a logic train, you're still relying on similarities that... could just not exist, in all honesty. It's possible, but not really more so than any other possibility.
Is there any reason not to think that the Princesses, at the very least, are Gods-From-Nowhere?
To quote from Luna's... interlude:
You are much greater. You are a creature of order, your flesh borne into this world by choice, obeying its laws of entrance by birth, and of departure by death. Your soul smells of the outside, of the void between the lights, of the very thing it eternally aches to consume with never-ending thirst.
Given that the Witness in CS canon mentions that there are other worlds out there, each with its own Glory and its own Mansus, that makes it sound like the "lights" mentioned are those Mansus-compliant worlds - and therefore, the "void between" them must be... Nowhere.
And certainly, whatever part of Nowhere Equestria resides in, it's very very very very very very very very far away indeed from the Sun-in-Splendor's corpse, far enough that the interlude references the kinds of distances that lie between stars IRL. The Glory might well be a shorter trip, and certainly one with greater prospects. Hence, the Worms that brave the long dark to investigate Harmony are the minority. The weak, the cowardly, the curious and the mad. No Lionsmith-testing titans, these.
For another, we have access to the Mansus, so wherever we are, it's close to the Glory. Yet the Worms are not being drawn to it, they're being drawn to Harmony.
Given that, I don't think the astronomically-sized mass of Worms in the distance is the Sun-in-Splendor's corpse. How would it have gotten so far away from the Mansus, while we remain so close? For that matter, how could it be so large?
If I understand correctly, the Princesses were mortal before their ascension, so they would be Gods-From-Flesh, regardless of whether or not their power was from Nowhere.
Given that the Witness in CS canon mentions that there are other worlds out there, each with its own Glory and its own Mansus, that makes it sound like the "lights" mentioned are those Mansus-compliant worlds - and therefore, the "void between" them must be... Nowhere.
Nowhere, then, is essentially a friendlier version of the Abyss from nMage. It is what remains when all that is possible has been subtracted. In the jargon of Fallen London, it is all the things which a Sun abhors (the Neath, the Masters of the Bazaar, colors like irrigo and cosmogone, etc). Hours go there when they die because Hours cannot die, and therefore a dead Hour is impossible, incompatible, unable to exist Somewhere and thus banished to Nowhere. (And likewise, the fact that the Elegiast can resurrect a dead Hour by remembering them makes perfect sense within this framework - a memory, after all, is Something, and Hours are themselves sufficiently eldritch and powerful that even the flimsy pretext of Something-ness that they gain as a memory allows them to return, like a person crawling out from inside a photograph.)
This would mean that the Worms aren't really envoys or agents of Nowhere, but just a particularly powerful and vile thing that resides there and seeks to escape. The mention of them 'sending the Mansus Nowhere' simply refers to the fact that the sorts of horrors they would wreak upon the Mansus, the Glory, and all that exists within its strictures would overturn and destroy those rules which separate Somewhere from Nowhere; to paraphrase Terry Pratchett, they would drown reality in their attempt to possess it like an ocean trying to warm itself around a candle.
What, then, is Harmony? The easy answer would be that it's some adjunct of the Glory - a castoff spark or reflection of its radiance. However, I think this is missing something very important.
Harmony isn't one of the Lores. It isn't an Hour or a piece of the Mansus or any other sort of Something.
Which means it's a Nothing. It belongs Nowhere.
My belief is that rather than being kin to the Glory, Harmony is a power of Nowhere which happens to superficially resemble it. The Worms demonstrate that incredible (and horrific) things can arise from Nowhere without much in the way of a predication for their emergence. If the Worms, then why not Harmony?
It would certainly explain why Equestria has survived this long. Most Worms would prefer to chase the Glory, not some odd little glimmer that might, maybe, perhaps be a little bit like what they hunger for. The most powerful Worm-things, certainly, would rather think of ways to work around the Hours than spend eons in transit toward something that might not even be worth the effort.
And certainly, whatever part of Nowhere Equestria resides in, it's very very very very very very very very far away indeed from the Sun-in-Splendor's corpse, far enough that the interlude references the kinds of distances that lie between stars IRL. The Glory might well be a shorter trip, and certainly one with greater prospects. Hence, the Worms that brave the long dark to investigate Harmony are the minority. The weak, the cowardly, the curious and the mad. No Lionsmith-testing titans, these.
Unfortunately, the Nightmare proves that even a relative trickle of relatively pathetic Worms is still an existential threat to Equestria - and whatever Harmony might be within the cosmology of the Mansus, it's certainly quite powerful, powerful enough that it's best to keep the Worms from sinking their proboscises into it. Enter the Master, a Moth Long who made the capricious decision to sojourn through Nowhere chasing a tiny spark of light, just in case it turned out to be something interesting.
Nowhere is not the same as Nothing. Nowhere, contrary to its name, is technically somewhere. To cast an Hour into Nowhere seems closer to disposing of a corpse or sending someone to an afterlife. The Mansus is where the dead of the waking world go, the Nowhere where the dead of the Mansus go or those who are too dead to pass through the White Door. Given that the Mansus has its own native residents beyond the silent dead, we can infer that Worms and the Gods-From-Nowhere are the native residents of the Nowhere. Additionally, the Elegiast cannot resurrect dead Hours with his remembrance, otherwise the Gods-From-Stone would still be around as he has literally made it his purpose to preserve their memory; he can remember mortals out of Nowhere, but how that works is ill-defined.
Well, two out of the five Gods-from-Stone are still around: The Horned Axe never died, and to quote CS, "The Wheel still turns in the House of The Moon." Which incidentally is overseen by the Meniscate. Since it would be impossible to disprove this given the information from the game, an argument could be made that The Elegiast could bring the Gods-from-Stone back but chooses not to because they decidedly lost the Lithomachy and The Ivory Dove doesn't want to start that shit up again for what would certainly be the same outcome.
It occurs to me that the best outcome from the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy episode is actually for the Flim Flam brothers to win out, and then for us to use our influence over the Mayor's office to get that incredibly dubious deal about exclusive cider rights nullified, while making sure Applejack is well aware of why she still has her farm.
It occurs to me that the best outcome from the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy episode is actually for the Flim Flam brothers to win out, and then for us to use our influence over the Mayor's office to get that incredibly dubious deal about exclusive cider rights nullified, while making sure Applejack is well aware of why she still has her farm.
Yeah, I just finished re-watching that episode, and despite making a pretty good cider machine they're much more interested in get-rich-quick schemes then sustainable business dealings. Honestly, in light of that, their threat to run the Apples out of business was almost certainly hot air. There's no way they could muster the commitment to import apples from elsewhere (almost certainly paying more then they were offering the Apples before transportation costs) and undercut the Apple's already-underpriced cider for months on end.
I'm kind of torn between the interpretation where they're just pathologically unable to put in the hard work, even when it would benefit them, and the interpretation that their machine is too expensive or unreliable to make an honest business out of (notice that they never once actually pay for the apples they're using?). Canonically the first is probably right, since they're there to show why it's pathological, but if you take them seriously as people rather then avatars of vice for a 22 minute cartoon you have to imagine that they've heard equivalent stories in their childhood and decided to do this anyway.
Well, two out of the five Gods-from-Stone are still around: The Horned Axe never died, and to quote CS, "The Wheel still turns in the House of The Moon." Which incidentally is overseen by the Meniscate. Since it would be impossible to disprove this given the information from the game, an argument could be made that The Elegiast could bring the Gods-from-Stone back but chooses not to because they decidedly lost the Lithomachy and The Ivory Dove doesn't want to start that shit up again for what would certainly be the same outcome.
While arguments can be impossible to prove or disprove, we can use information to determine which are the more likely to be correct; there is a consistent internal logic to CS once you get past all the ambiguities and partial-truths. While it is possible that the Elegiast revived the Wheel and hid it in the House of the Moon, the more simple answer (that requires far less assumptions concerning CS metaphysics) is that the Wheel never actually died. How the Moth replaced the Wheel has the most contradictory lore out of all the Lithomachy; while part of this can just be Moth being Moth, it also means that the story has enough openings for the Wheel to have survived and eventually fled to the House of the Moon.
while part of this can just be Moth being Moth, it also means that the story has enough openings for the Wheel to have survived and eventually fled to the House of the Moon.
I am not quite convinced of that; the stories do at least all agree on the fact that the Wheel died.
On the other hand, I also don't think the Elegiast's intervention is necessary for the Wheel to have returned from Nowhere. From its description, the Wheel's primary principle appears to have been Heart; given that the Thunderskin is known to have returned from destruction and reentered the Mansus, it seems plausible enough that another Hour associated with Heart, in particular, could have done the same. ('That which does not cease, is not ceased.')
I am not quite convinced of that; the stories do at least all agree on the fact that the Wheel died.
On the other hand, I also don't think the Elegiast's intervention is necessary for the Wheel to have returned from Nowhere. From its description, the Wheel's primary principle appears to have been Heart; given that the Thunderskin is known to have returned from destruction and reentered the Mansus, it seems plausible enough that another Hour associated with Heart, in particular, could have done the same. ('That which does not cease, is not ceased.')
"Reports of the Wheel's death have been greatly exaggerated"
All joking aside, you bring up a good point, to which none of my counter I am particularly confident in. The most obvious counter-argument is that the stories are wrong and the Wheel's death is assumed given the confirmed deaths of the Flint, Tide, and Seven Coils; the fact that it is not agreed how the Moth killed the Wheel opens the possibility that the reason for these contradictions is that the Moth never killed the Wheel. Unless the Wheel escaped from Nowhere directly into the House of the Moon (which is not implausible), I'm not entirely sure whether it could get away with such an escape unnoticed; Thunderskin returned to the Mansus through the Peacock Door, drawing a lot of attention, we don't know if that was a conscious decision on his part or a requirement to re-enter the Mansus from Nowhere.
Sorry if this read weird, literally falling asleep as I type this.
While arguments can be impossible to prove or disprove, we can use information to determine which are the more likely to be correct; there is a consistent internal logic to CS once you get past all the ambiguities and partial-truths. While it is possible that the Elegiast revived the Wheel and hid it in the House of the Moon, the more simple answer (that requires far less assumptions concerning CS metaphysics) is that the Wheel never actually died. How the Moth replaced the Wheel has the most contradictory lore out of all the Lithomachy; while part of this can just be Moth being Moth, it also means that the story has enough openings for the Wheel to have survived and eventually fled to the House of the Moon.
The stories might not be consistent about how the Wheel died, but they're very consistent about the Horned Axe being the only God-from-Stone to survive the Lithomachy. And we know very little about the House of the Moon or the implications of what it means for an Hour to be only there and not be in the Mansus. I'd say the "The Wheel is dead, but could pretty easily be brought back if certain Hours (likely the Elegiast and/or the Mensicate) wanted it so" explanation is the most sensible one here. But pondering this with my tired mind has given me another big question with no answer as far as I know of CS. Does something being dead necessarily mean they have ceased? For mortals, a certain existence does continue beyond the White Door. Could an Hour be less than a mortal in this regard, or does their End have to be so much greater, too great for any continuation elsewhere, for them to even count as "dead" to begin with?
I've been interpreting Windy as more of a Wolf-Divided type of Winter, a near-solipsistic nihilism that ultimately has no care for consequence beyond the very end. We can rely on him when things truly matter, but only then; just as the Wolf will only acknowledge the Exile's devotion and lend it's purposeful aid at the very end of their trials.
So, I health returns, and I have used the "Dream" verb enough times.
Still not at 100%, but writing no longer is something which is physically painful. So we can, slowly, get back to schedule.
Now, I had the option of either holding onto this and correcting it tomorrow morning, or posting this right now and start writing what comes next as soon as possible. I chose the first option, because I want to get back on my feet when it comes to writing and posting.
I mean, technically they happened at basically the same time, but from what I recall the circle itself was actually written on the walls around the Door, and by understanding the Door—which let us pass safely through—we also understood them, but passing through was its own thing. I might be wrong though. Need to recheck that scene at some point.
EDIT: never mind. On second look we did, in fact, find the pattern after passing through the Door. It was hidden in a bunch of bushes just on the other side.
[X] Plan Solid Foundations V3
-[X][Attention of the Laws] GRAIL, to help with bridging the gap between us and Stormchaser.
-[x][Work] A measured commitment (6 personal actions available)
-[x][Purchase Books] KNOCK3, FORGE1, MOTH1
-[X][Selene] EDGEif the lesson with Comet Feet is successful, KNOCK otherwise
-[x][Servants] Search for Books in Manehattan
-[x] Read books: FORGE2, KNOCK2, KNOCK3.
-[x] Reach out to Copper Secateur. You wish you'd caught up with her sooner, especially after that close call she had - how is she?
-[X] Reach out to Comet Feet. It is your duty to learn, and you've had a hard time locating books that can teach you about EDGE. Can he give you another lesson before he goes?
-[x] Reach out to Twilight. You did say you were looking forward to hearing her findings, after all.
-[X] Meeting with Stormchaser (write in)
-[X] Help Convince Stormchaser (his choice of a lesson in Lore, meeting Copper and Starry, or just simply time spent together)
- - -
You are Stormchaser, and you are working.
Yes, working. That's all you have been doing lately, isn't it? You even traded your last Ponyville shift for a Vanhoover weather-run last month, just so you could stay an extra week away from home, didn't you?
You sigh, trying to put the jumbled mess of thoughts that you have in your head back into order.
What a mess that you have gotten yourself into…
"Anything the matter, boss?" a familiar voice brings you back to the present.
Right, you haven't said anything in a while.
"Oh, it's nothing, don't worry about it," you say, shaking your head as you try to focus once again on the task at hoof.
You are looking at a detailed map of Ponyville, a detailed map of Ponyville's sky-plane, mind you, not of the city itself. Sky-plane maps are large pieces of work, where variables like temperature and air pressure are displayed so that the month's weather can be efficiently planned. These sorts of maps have to be updated regularly, of course, so that weather engineers like yourself can work without accidentally causing a small disaster, although small cities like Ponyville rarely see large or relevant changes with each monthly update.
It's not like the place has any large industry causing artificial pockets of heat, for example, like larger cities do. Although you have been noticing a small increase of magic saturated in the low atmosphere over the last few months.
"Doesn't sound like nothing. You've been staring at that map for an awful long time just to say that we should stick to the usual schedule," he tries again.
And you realize he has a point.
Both on the nothing part and on the job part. There really have been no relevant changes that would warrant an update on the weather plan you had them use last month, in all honesty.
"It's just a… problem," you concede, mouthing the report that had been sitting on the adjoining desk and signing the authorization for the weather plan, "nothing that anypony can do about it, truth be told."
You can feel Warm Front's eyes on your back as you go about the motions of signing and stamping the documents, and you all but know exactly what expression he must be wearing while he watches you.
Warm Front is an old pegasus. He has worked in Ponyville's weather department for decades now, and has been properly in charge of the place since about the year you have moved into town after marrying your wife. This means that the two of you have been working together for a long time now, since you are usually given Ponyville on your shifts for obvious reasons.
"Sounds like troubles in paradise," he says.
Warm Front is also a very wise stallion.
"Yes Warm, that sort of problem," you say, rolling your eyes while you still have your back to him. This is not exactly the kind of conversation that you really want to have, if you can have any say on this.
But something tells you that he is not going to give you that sort of luxury.
"Well then, I'm all ears. Always wondered when I'd have this sort of talk with you," you hear him sit down on one of the nearby chairs, "part of me even worried you'd only ever need it after I had retired."
He says that with his usual experience-driven surety tone of voice, but you can't help but feel taken aback by that.
"What do you mean you always wondered that?" You ask him back, and in all honesty you have to dose your voice a bit so you don't actually sound as offended as you feel, "I've already had problems in my personal life, I just don't bring those sorts of problems to work like other ponies do."
"That's where you're wrong, Storm," he says with a small chuckle as he sets his back more comfortably against the chair he is on, "don't take it wrong when I say this, but all these years that I've known you, you have practically been living a fairy tale when it comes to your marriage."
Warm Front says that so suddenly that, for a few moments, you don't really know how to answer him. Part of you wants to say that he is wrong, of course, but another part can't help but agree with him, even if just a little bit.
"I mean, I work with weather grunts," he continues, "and let me tell you, some of their lives are... well, no other way to describe it but as an awful mess. So really, having a good wife and a happy family is not something to be ashamed of, quite on the contrary. But nothing's perfect, so I know your life isn't, either."
He says that, and you can see from his expression that he really means it when he says that all these years he had been wondering when this would happen.
That doesn't help you from feeling a small surge of anger appearing in your chest, of course, but you know it's not because of Warm Front. Not exactly, at least. You are feeling this anger, this budding weight appearing inside your chest, because of the subject itself, as you have felt every time you thought about it this last month.
You take a deep breath, knowing that it won't help in the slightest, more out of habit than anything else.
"So c'mon, take a seat. We've known each other for years now, and you're not some young weather grunt that needs some harsh words or a shoulder to cry on. Let's just make this an honest talk," he says, as you audibly exhale the breath you have been holding.
But still, you follow his advice and sit down. He is an old friend after all.
"I'd even tell you that I have some of the good stuff stowed away in my working desk there, but I both know that you don't drink much, and that you are exactly the uptight kind of weather engineer from Central that gets ponies in trouble for drinking in their workplaces," he says, smiling a bit.
To which you only answer by looking back at him. You don't glare or frown at him, you just look at him, and Warm Front holds your gaze for a few moments.
Curiously, though, you can see his smile disappear after a few seconds, and he gets up from his chair shortly after, making his way to his desk.
"Shit," is all he says as he opens up one of the bottom drawers, letting out a long whistle as he takes out a bottle and a pair of glasses, "that bad? Hate to ask, but has you wife been… using up her free time while you are away at work?" he says between his teeth as he pours the dark beverage on the two glasses.
You wince at his words, although you understand why that would be the first conclusion anypony would come to. Adultery isn't exactly uncommon among weatherponies, considering the long hours away from home and how they sometimes have to work on faraway places. That, and it's not exactly a secret that this sort of thing is one of the less uncommon scandals among nobles. So you being a weatherpony who is married to a noble would obviously mean that…
"Not that," you say, accepting the glass without a second thought, "just… things."
You feel his eyes on you, and you can tell that they are slightly more worried now, as you look at the dark liquid inside the cup.
You also feel the fiery pressure inside your chest build up a little bit more, so you take a gulp from the glass and hope that the interaction between those two elements doesn't turn out to be explosive.
"Anything I'd lose my job over if somepony knew you are talking about it with me?" he asks, his ideas clearly veering to the side that, since it wasn't your wife fooling around, then it's something best kept under wraps.
"You know what? I'm not really sure myself," you say, with an honesty that even you weren't expecting.
But really, now that you think about it you don't even know what to make of the things that your wife told you.
Well, the whole problem is that you believed her when she said those things. You believed in her because if you didn't then the only option would be to send her to a mental institution. But was there even a modicum of sense in the things that she told you?
After all, from what she said she has been part of a secret organization of sorts for years now, which has been studying magic and whatnot, among other things. And then she told you that the filly she brought home with her is actually…?
To be fair, you don't even want to think about that conversation in details, you don't want to remember it, or the fight that the two of you had right after.
Because deep down, the part of it that you know hurt you the most was…
"Well, we have a daughter," you say as you take another gulp, feeling the burning sensation wash down your throat, "and she has been keeping something to herself for around as long as our daughter has been alive."
You see Warm Front raise an eyebrow at that, pursing his lips together as he tries to imagine exactly what that secret might be.
"Noble family stuff," you say nonchalantly, to which he immediately nods in understanding.
It's a lie, of course, but since Velvet Covers is a noble, it's the easiest way to have Warm Front not think about it anymore. Canterlotian nobles are notorious for, every decade or so, having a small scandal that is quickly put under covers, and everypony knows that it's the sort of thing which is best left alone.
Better for him to think that your wife is a bastard and was never eligible for inheritance, or whatever else he might privately come up with, than for him to even suspect what is really going on.
But really, you think with a long sigh as the alcohol battles the ball of anger you feel inside your chest, what is actually going on?
"So," Warm Front says tentatively, "it's the sort of thing that you can't do anything about. But I also get the impression that you are not disturbed by that secret in itself… whatever it is, but instead by the fact that it existed in the first place."
To which you answer with a grunt, drinking the rest of your own glass shortly after. Burn your throat as it might, it's still a good drink.
"Her deciding not to tell me, throughout all these years, was a choice she made. Living with me and talking to me every day, and deciding not to tell me every single day, was a choice she made," you say.
"Well, maybe because she wasn't comfortable with telling you about it?" He says, still looking you in the eyes. Whatever it is that he sees in your eyes, however, makes him take a deep breath, "listen Storm, I know that I'm not working with the details here. Celestia knows I don't want to know the details, even. But I can tell that for all that your marriage isn't perfect, and no marriage is perfect, you are having a problem because of something your missus didn't do, instead of because of something she did."
The old pegasus then gets off from his chair with a short flap of his wings, bringing the bottle with his mouth and slowly refilling your glass.
You have the impression that he was waiting for you to say "when" while he was pouring the alcohol, but you don't really care at this point.
Having a full glass, also, will stop you from accidentally thinking about any "glass half-full" figures of speech.
"Sure, she chose not to tell you… whatever it was, during this entire time. But in the end she did, didn't she?" he asks, waiting for you to confirm that she did decide to tell you whatever had caused the two of you to fight, and not that you discovered it by yourself, "and also, well, there's the fact that up until now things have been pretty good, haven't they?"
You can feel the unasked question hanging in the air, you realize what he means with that.
He means that you should ask yourself what has changed, exactly, now that this great mysterious secret is out in the open? And besides, isn't it a good thing that your wife chose to finally tell you, instead of you discovering it on your own?
Because, in a sense, if all those things that Velvet told you about have been going on for all these years while the two of you were happily married, then it means that they didn't really have an impact on your relationship, right? So you can just continue living your life like you did before you ever found out about them.
Right…?
"It's not that simple…" you say, noticing the hesitation in your own voice, as you take another swing of your glass.
"Well, it can be as complicated as you want," is what Warm Front says back to you without missing a beat, as he takes another short gulp of his half-filled glass, "but really, it's usually the mare's job to make things complicated," he finishes, letting out a short chuckle as he shrugs.
Which actually makes you frown, a retort immediately coming to your mouth, in part facilitated by the alcohol you've already had.
"Now listen here yo-"
"Hey boss, are we going to get those weather plans today or…" but before you can finish your very poorly thought reply, a young pegasus nearly barges in through the door.
Needless to say, her words die inside her mouth as she slowly takes in the scene before her eyes.
There is her boss, looking at her with a well humored expression. And then there is her boss' boss sitting opposite to him, with an expression that looks like… well, you are not sure how exactly you look like right now, but something tells you that you are not entirely presentable.
And then there is the fact that the two of you seem to be drinking something very expensive, and clearly alcoholic in content.
The young pegasus takes a long look at all of that, and slowly reaches for the doorknob with her hoof, awkwardly trying to retreat away from that most unusual of scenes.
"Nuh-uh, come in," that is, until she is interrupted by Warm Front, who makes her freeze with a few simple words, "and close the door behind you."
You can see the young pegasus gulping down something dry, as she wonders exactly what sort of trouble she just got herself into. But you already caught on to what Warm Front has in mind.
And you let out a low annoyed grunt as you see him take out a third glass from the drawer in his desk.
"Sit down, you're not in trouble," he says to the young mare, before once again turning to you, "now Storm, why don't we get this youngster's impression on your problems? See if she has any fresh insight that might be of use to us old horses?"
Damn Warm Front and his antics, you think as you see him pour down the glass and give it to the extremely confused pegasus.
- - -
"So there you have it… hic," the young pegasus says in a slur, as her words come out in a nearly unintelligible mess filled with too many hiccups, "sure, she screwed up by… hic, by keeping that secret. But c'mon, boss-man…"
"Stormchaser," Warm Front helpfully adds, as he grins at the whole situation.
"Yeah, that… c'mon, nothing that'x worth doing is ever easy doing, so you gotta be loyal to her y'know? To the thing you had between you two before this… problems came up," she finishes, with something that you believe was her best attempt at trying to sound sage.
The young pegasus didn't need much convincing to join into your conversation, all things considered.
She's a good girl, you can tell, and the fact that Warm Front told her to stay when she just barged into his office shows you that he clearly trusts her to begin with. Or at least that he trusts her by principle, if not in her common sense. And you could also see that she trusts him in return, especially because she seemed to be more hesitant about talking to you than she was about barging into his office or accepting a glass of extremely expensive alcohol.
But still, she is… hilariously weak when it comes to holding her drink.
The three of you have been at it for less than fifteen minutes, with the mare only having finished a single glass, and already she is in a state where you are worried if she will be able to fly back home, or even if she will be able to fly in a straight line.
"See Storm? Even young Dash here has got the right idea," he says, as he gently pries away the glass from the mare's hoofs, forgetting about it on his desk after telling her he would refill it, "I know it's not easy, being in the horseshoes of the pony who's in the middle of the storm, but if you don't think this whole ordeal is worth breaking up with her, then you gotta stand by that decision. If you're standing by her then do it properly, don't lose the good things you had because of bitterness or whatnot."
You let out a disgruntled neigh as he says that, gulping down the remainder of your fourth glass and throwing an annoyed glare at the two pegasus sitting opposite to you in the room.
The blue mare visibly recoils at that, going wide-eyed for a moment as if suddenly afraid that the scary supervisor from Central Weather might magically smite her or something.
But Warm Front for his part simply gives you another nod.
"Well then, I think this is settled. I got the weather plans signed, and a whole lot less brandy, so I think I'll get back to my actual job," he says as he gets up, stopping for a few moments to give the mare a wing as she tries, and fails, to do the same thing, "and you Rainbow, you can take the rest of the day off. Just make sure you leave through the window, will you? Wouldn't want for there to be talk about you getting drunk at work if you can't fake it properly."
The two of you watch as the blue mare clumsily make her way to the window, mumbling a mixture of thanks for the time off and that she was feeling well enough to go… something about practicing a stunt? You're not sure, but she is out of Warm's office shortly after.
He looks at you after seeing her off, and simply shrugs as he sits down behind his desk and gathers the documents you had signed earlier.
"What? Don't give me that look. Kid's got a good head on her shoulders, and more importantly she said what you needed to hear. I'm sure I could have done the same, but a neutral, young and honestly drunk third party usually gets the point across quicker to old stallions like us, even if we won't admit it."
You let out a short sigh, feeling the smell of alcohol in your breath as you do it.
Just in your breath, though, it takes far more than that to even get you tipsy.
"Thanks," you say, to which he simply gives you a friendly nod, "this whole thing is a mess but… well, I guess it helps to talk about it."
"You sure could have done a little more of talking," he says gently stowing away the bottle on the last drawer and pushing it close, "but at least you listened. And I know you're not a crier, so it's not with me or with some young weather grunt that you really need to talk to anyways."
"I suppose…" you somewhat agree, knowing what he means by that.
He means that the hardest part of the talking is yet to come, and you know that he is right.
You thank him one last time, and a few minutes later you are flying back to your own home.
You find your wife in her office, and she is honestly surprised when you call her attention by tapping on her window.
But she opens it nonetheless, with apprehension in her eyes you might add, and none of the murderous what-do-you-want attitude that you usually see when you interrupt her while she is working.
That goes to show, you know, just how much this whole thing has been affecting her as well…
"Yes dear?" she asks as soon as you land inside her office, with a hesitant tone of voice that you are as uncomfortable listening to as you think that she is with using.
By Celestia… you really ought to fix this mess, before you actually lose something that you will surely regret losing.
And with that, you make a decision.
"Follow me, we are going," you say, taking her by the hoof before she can even answer you, seeing her hesitant expression turn into confusion as she follows behind you out of sheer surprise.
"Going? Is… is something the matter dear? Did anything happen?" she stammers as she says, more because she has no idea of what's going on than anything else, you know. "Going where exactly?"
You are not sure, but that might just be the magic of it.
"No idea," you answer, "but it's not like staying here is doing us wonders anyways."
You see her tilt her head at that, but you don't give her any time to think.
You don't even give her any time to pack, something that she only realizes after you close the carriage door behind the two of you, and it gently starts accelerating towards the train station.
She does, however, refuse to board the train until the two of you make a quick stop at a post office, where she writes a short letter to your daughter telling her to behave and listen to the maids, and that the two of you will be back soon.
But you don't really mind that last part, since that worry is something that oddly strikes you as refreshingly normal from her. And not long after, the two of you are inside a train, on your merry way to somewhere far away from all of that.
It is important to note, however, that you only bothered to check where the train was going after it started moving, having basically asked the tickets salespony what train was about to leave, and buying two tickets for that one.
The two of you need some time alone, after all. Everything else, you know, is just details.
[It takes two to tango, incremental every +10, minimum of 100 required]
[Roll: 69 (your roll) + 70 (her roll) = 139]
- - -
You have already been to every last pony city in Equestria at least three times, and it is easy to forget that other ponies don't exactly travel around as much as you do for work. So it came as a small bonus when your wife admitted that she had never been Los Pegasus when you arrived five days ago.
The two of you are eating breakfast right now, after having checked out from the hotel you stayed in these last few days, and in all honesty you had missed this sort of thing.
Not the erratic travelling, no, definitely not that. Your wife doesn't do much "traveling", at all, so this is not the sort of experience that is making you reminisce, although you will cherish the memories of these last few days.
What you really missed doing was this, the experience that you are having right now. The simple happiness of having a breakfast with your beautiful wife, as you watch her laugh over something silly that you just said.
"What, do I have something on my face Mr. Chaser?" she asks, waving a hoof at you rather bashfully as she speaks.
You consider saying something extremely corny about her eyes, but you decide against it at the last moment.
Maybe if this was a normal situation back at home, and if you had Silky listening in to further embarrass your wife, you might have said it. But not right now, you think.
You hold her gazer for a few more moments as you take a deep breath, steeling yourself to ask about the final subject that you categorically avoided talking about these last few days.
It was a cute little adventure, of sorts, that the two of you had, going to a city where she had never been to before with nothing but the clothes you had on your backs. That, of course, and a sizeable amount of bits you had brought with you, but still it was something that had the two of you completely out of your elements.
And that helped, you know, grounding both of you, in a way. It helped you realize personally that, in the end, this was still the mare that you love and that you have known through all these years. And it helped her in some way as well, you are sure of it, although you are not really positive of how.
But right now, on this last day of your escapade together, you know that you have to take care of one last little detail.
"So…" you say, watching her beautiful expression go to a more neutral and focused, but still beautiful, tone as she notices the seriousness in your voice, "Selene?"
And with that single word, you voice all the worries and apprehensions that you have inside of you.
To which she purses her lips, and take a deep breath.
[It's not about us, it's about her, breakpoints ??/??]
But she continues looking into your eyes, even as she holds the deep breath she just took. You wonder what she sees there, you wonder what is going on in her mind right now.
You don't know, but you know what you see in hers.
You lack the words to describe it, you are not even sure if those words exist to begin with. Maybe they do, maybe the last Princess who was crowned a few years ago invented the proper words for that, to describe the muted sea of stars that you see in her eyes, or maybe she didn't invent them.
But whatever name this feeling has, you know that it means that you will trust whatever your wife decides to tell you.
Because you can see in her eyes that she will be honest in whatever she says next, from the depths of her very being.
"Selene…" she says, after letting out a long sigh, "is just a filly."
And you nod at that, a slow and understanding nod.
You remember, and she knows that you remember, all the things she told you, about the group she is a part of, and of her studies, and about who Selene really is. You remember that, but it is exactly because of that that you understand what she means by those words.
Selene might be exactly who she told you, but right now Selene is just a filly.
Or at least, right now, that is all that matters for Velvet Covers.
"She is just a filly, and the only thing she really needs right now is…"
She breaks eye contact with you for a few moments, but you understand why.
You can see her looking around, as if searching for something.
It doesn't make sense, you know, but you know that she is also looking for a word, a word that also doesn't exist.
She is looking for a single word that can, by itself, convey the entire… universe of things that she wants to say, and that she knows that Selene needs.
But naturally, she can't find that single word, so she settles for the closest approximation she can think of.
"She just needs to be loved," your wife says simply. "She needs to be cared for. She needs a family," she continues, reaching out from across the table to take your hoof with her own, "and I couldn't think of a better family that she could be a part of, in all of Equestria, so I brought her with me…"
She takes your hoof between the two of hers, and gives it the lightest of squeezes.
And with just that, you understand everything that she means by it.
Velvet Covers knows what it means to have a bad family around her, as do you. Maybe your upbringing wasn't as convoluted as hers, by far, but in the end the two of you were sold away into marriage, so you can understand that much.
But thanks to the unbelievable luck that the two of you had in meeting each other, followed by the small star of happiness that was Silky Stream after she was borne, the two of you also understood what it means to have a happy family.
She knows that, she realizes that, and regardless of everything else that you might think about Selene, you can tell that what your wife really wants is to give that abandoned filly all of that joy that the three of you built together.
But… you can also see in her eyes one last thing.
It is something obvious, something that she doesn't have to say out loud but that you understand regardless.
You know that it won't be the same thing, that the abandoned filly won't be introduced to that happy little family, if you are not there.
You are an integral part of it, after all, an irreplaceable part of that tight-knit group of ponies that means the world to each other.
And you can feel it, inside your chest, the anger that you had felt this last month flaring up one last time, telling you that it isn't right that she made that decision all by herself, and that she is forcing you to play by her rules. You can feel your pettiness and grievances rearing up their ugly heads, saying that the two of you decided to create a family with Silky, and that it isn't fair that she is practically having somepony else invade it just because.
You feel all those ugly retorts coming to your mind as you look deep into your wife's eyes.
And then they are gone.
Really, you know that you can feel angry about it, if you want. But if you do that... you might also lose sight of what is really important.
You love your wife, you love your daughter, and you want to make the two of them happy. And if the two of them want Selene to enter that equation, then…
Well, then having grievances against it will only make things more complicated.
Besides, who is to say that you won't end up loving her as well? You surely didn't know Velvet when you first met her, and you definitely didn't know what kind of pony Silky would grow up to be when she was borne, so why do you even think that you won't be able to connect with Selene?
After all, you have it in good standing with the best filly in the world that you are a great father, thank you very much, so taking in another daughter will probably be a walk in the park... you hope.
"I see," you say, as you get up from your seat and gently pull her to follow you.
But you know that she understands what is going on in your mind. You can tell it by the look of happiness, and no small amount of relief, that she has on her face as she follows behind you.
"Shall we go back home then?" you ask, nodding towards the exit of the hotel's breakfast hall, "we have two daughters waiting for us back in Ponyville, after all."
"Yes, let's," she says walking by your side, with a beaming smile that you haven't seen in far too long.
And the two of you start the long trek back home, to the family that you have built together.
You rolled well for the final conclusion.
And when it came to the "compromise", your option was for Stormchaser to choose, so he chose what he wanted the most.
He chose the thing that he knows and loves: you.
If he will ever get to know the other part of "you", the one he didn't know until very recently, is another matter entirely. Whether if he even wants to get to know that or not is something that is best left unasked for a good while.
But finally, you think that your husband is happy once again.
And so are you.
Your ordeal with Stormchaser has been resolved. He has decided to ignore your dealings with the occult, and has drawn a line that as long as you are not in danger, and as long as it doesn't involve Silky Stream, he will not let it get to him.
It is safe to say that Stormchaser will be severely unaffected by "suspicion" from now on, when it comes to simple dealings. He will still, however, react as expected if he suspects or finds out that you are doing something morally wrong or illegal.
He views your dealings with the occult as a hobby, so that is not morally wrong or illegal in his eyes… as far as he knows. It is just his wife studying curious magic.
Picking any actions that involves teaching him or Silky Stream about the occult will be viewed as an extreme breach of trust for the foreseeable future. Your lessons to Selene, however, are long-term and subtle enough that you don't have to worry about them. Otherwise, Stormchaser is completely uninterested in anything occult. Otherwise involving him or Silky in anything cult-related, when it is explicitly clear that it involves the occult, will be more of a grey area that might upset him.
