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.
I don't think we should be expecting to beat Comet Feet head on. Edge levels are one thing, we can maybe match him there if we work hard, but we've got two traits that reduce combat ability in different ways, and he probably has at least one which boosts his over and above his lores. Getting to a place where we can win with good luck is maybe feasible, but getting to a place where fighting him isn't a very bad idea probably isn't.
Yeah, in my most recent post I point out that we could—and definitely should—lean on other Lores as well to increase the odds. We're also, at some point, gonna want to fix those debuffs. Also Artifacts. We can totally use Artifacts should we find ones that can be used in combat.
The good news is that this also applies to any other Edge combatants we may or may not come across in the future too, not just Comet. Velvet can be a very scary Moth eventually.
Ah, that's fair. Then again, we might be able to do the same? As I recall, the others don't really spend their time searching for Artifacts—I think that's even specifically our domain as Loremaster? I remember Bird saying they were unlikely to buy something even if we specifically pointed it out—so they wouldn't really have much to sacrifice, and they would have to rely mostly on the Master's Lore Level, which would theoretically only be one higher than ours. That or the Edge Artifact—since they're still unlikely to have one of their own—might make up the difference. And heck, there's even more to combat than just skill or physical strength. With Moth we could ambush him, Heart would let us take more hits, stuff like that.
That, I think, is what makes Velvet scary and likely to come out on top in a fight against anybody other than the Master. Each of them focus on a single Lore, and get decently high, but Velvet can and will equal that strength ninefold. Like, excluding Comet everybody seems to be around Level Three, and chances are they'll get stuck at Four just like him. We've already got three Lores at Three—four if this turn works out—and are well on our way to several more.
If things get really bad, they could sacrifice a cultist, a random pony... or maybe kidnap Spike, if a dragon is worth an higher bonus?
Yeah, we definitely have a sinergy/generalist advantage, with all lores by that point being likely at level 3 (and I'm obviously still hoping for that all-3 skill), but it's hard to say just how much that helps when put against, say, a single Edge Specialist at lvl 5, and if that level brings the second skill/milestone there might just be too much of a qualitative difference to confront him.
Also, while Velvet has admittedly few weaknesses in terms of lores, we have weaknesses in terms of friends. If they were to, say, aim at Silky instead of us.. That would be a hard choice.
On the other hand many things might change in the coming months. For example we have no idea how Discord's release might affect the Cult's plans, and the not-update's scenario is far from being a certain thing.
Still, I think that in such a scenario, diplomacy would be our best chance, unless we're reasonably certain that it's impossible to negotiate with the master. Evasion might be a decent second, but only if we have a way to reach Celestia before we get found, or to at least have news of what happened reach her so that SHE might find us instead.
Something as simple as "I have Luna. I'm escaping for people wanting to harm both her and me. I'll be in x town 2 days after you get this message, please teleport there to take us both. signed, Velvet Cover."
We really need to prepare letters like this one, and give them to all of our confidants, just in case. Rarity is one, and she can give it to Twilight. Soft Sweeps might be able to give it to Twilight as well. If we could trust our uncle the "Facilitator", maybe we could leave one to him as well, though worded differently in case he decides to give it a read first.
Actually that's a fair point. Rarity would just straight up realize something's up the moment our house gets fucked, and head for Twilight to sound the alarm. Unless the Cult took her out first, but as far as they know we're still only decent friends with her, IIRC. Plus there's the fact that dropping the hammer on us is one thing, but taking out an Element is entirely another.
What of the one who can see, as she notices that the sky is bereft of its Moon
Tired, here's this quick thing.
+++
Your name is Jade Whistle, and you are very tired.
You sit in the home of Velvet Covers, where you have spent a number of days. You can't quite remember what happened, other than not feeling well at all, sprinkled with glimpses of white and brown. Maids tending to you while your body threatened to break down once and for all. You are certain of that much, just as you are certain that more royal guards will die in their duty to the crown this month, as they have before.
Had you been left there, alone again... Well. You know very well where you would be.
You know she had other choices. Easier choices. But she chose to bring your broken self into her home. She chose to invest her time in you. Somehow saw value in you. And now you finally have an idea for the ritual that should have been done already. The design is quite graceful, Secret Histories and Lantern working together to narrow down a specific target.
Velvet smiles as she looks over your work. A small thing, but genuine. Haven't you seen that before? Or perhaps felt it? She is not carefully choosing her words, but rather speaking her mind. Her true self, even shrouded in Moth, showing through.
She is...
Tap, tap. The glass door.
You fight down the heat in your cheeks as you grasp your emotions and pull them down again. It's a subconscious reaction, and you try not to let Velvet's disappointment gnaw at you.
In enters Silky Stream, her daughter. You don't have to use your Sight to see she is nervous, so you make a general comment to put her at ease. You look over her head and see--
The night sky flounders, the Moon's place forgotten. Safe from the perils of the world, she has been hidden away within the shadow of the Moth's wings.
Everything clicks into place, yet the presence of the new jostles the old and sends other pieces skittering.
Velvet had found and hid the Princess in secret, to give her time to grow outside the influence of the Master.
She was never going to forfeit the filly to the cult. Not then, not now. Not ever. Her heart was too soft to even consider allowing a child into the Woods. Instead, Luna -- Selene, would grow.
Away from the influence of the Master.
Velvet Covers had betrayed you all. Had probably intended to disrupt the ritual all along.
You do not move.
"Oh..."
Velvet stares at you, eyes blown wide. They convey everything.
She knows you know.
She knew it was a risk, bringing you into her home.
She knew you could find out.
And yet...she had invited you anyway. You, the one member of the Inner Circle who studied Lantern. The one person who could possibly discover the truth about this ruse and blow her whole world to dust with only a few words.
Because she held the well-being of others over her own safety.
And she would let you go, too, knowing her future was uncertain.
You should really tell the Master. It was the logical thing to to do. Velvet Covers had turned her back on the cult's mission, had tried poorly to sabotage you, and had acted behind everyone's back. If not stopped, she may very well do it again in the future.
But...was it the right thing to do? Betraying the mare who had done so much for you already. Who had opened her heart and home when it would have been so much easier not to bother.
To leave another bereft of family.
Yet...
And yet...
"I need some time to think," you tell her. Your mind whirls with indecision, logic struggling against emotion amidst waves of truth.
I certainly hope so! The resultant scenes would be completely and utterly adorable! I can literally feel my teeth rotting at the Sheer sweetness of the thought!
You have beheld a work of great beauty, formed of many smaller and humbler works, and witnessed a plurality surpassing the sum of its parts. If many hooves make light work, what further miracles may be accomplished?
Oh how I WISH this was part of the quest alongside the Lores/Aspects of Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness and Magic/Friendship. Actually, it could be a culmination of acquiring all six (6) of those Aspects/Lores! As in, getting the six (6) of them up to level one (1) could be the key to 'unlocking/acquiring' the first level of HARMONY Lore.
decided to come up with a pony background for this quest. You may like it) But it's still for fun. (guys, try to come up with a background pony. Even if the main quest does not get into the quest, maybe he will get into some Nega quest (Nega Jade, for example)? game, you need to come up with a character, his proximity to certain knowledge, a brief background and occupation. Well, its approximate appearance. That's all.
Meet this Mrs. Robinson, known in narrow circles as Robin. A middle-aged pony works in a small bookstore. She always wears an old coat out of the weather, telling others that she's a little embarrassed by her mark.
Her Closeness to Knowledge - Edge, Knowk
Ps:sorry for troubles
Yeah, in my most recent post I point out that we could—and definitely should—lean on other Lores as well to increase the odds. We're also, at some point, gonna want to fix those debuffs. Also Artifacts. We can totally use Artifacts should we find ones that can be used in combat.
The good news is that this also applies to any other Edge combatants we may or may not come across in the future too, not just Comet. Velvet can be a very scary Moth eventually.
The problem is that those debuffs are character creation debuffs, so they will not be easy to get rid (especially the scar if it counts like scars or wounds in CS) in which of at best and probably will require a significant sacrifice of some sort... thought this may happen regardless if we keep wantonly increasing our lore without caution as a side-effect. Its really important to remember that the more Lore of a type we get the more its going to change Velvet and not necessary for the better given that the whole point of CS is to 'ascend' past your previous limited mortal form and that if the Master was a normal being once they certainly are not now. (given that Grail literally goes down cannibalism as the most obvious problem but the other Lore paths are just as bad in their own way) but thats going off topic.
Back on topic a number of the Principles should be able to deal with the debuffs, abet in their own ways.
Edge: Given that its about pain and combat it might help us with our scar by making it a strength rather than a weakness. May help us overcome frightened but i doubt it IMO.
Forge: Its about change at its heart so through it we might be able to change Velvet to not be scarred or be frightened, though almost certainly at the cost of some sort of destruction personal or otherwise.
Heart: May simply allow velvet to bull through both maluses given its about enduring and body.
Winter: Given its about death and deliberation it may help us with Frightened, though it might just make things worse
Knock: is about openings, and a wound/scar is a type of opening so it might be helpful is some way
Moth: is about shapingshifting so it might let us 'shed' our scar, though the risk here of shedding to much of what makes velvet velvet i feel is very high.
As for Grail, Lantern, SH i don't really see how they could help remove our Maluses but thats my opinion.
As for the Selene situation, i think the best way to handle informing Celestia is somehow getting her to Ponyville and having her see the filly, given that i assume she should recognize her instantly. The card we could pull for not bringing her to Canterlot is because we know what Canterlot is( i.e. a den of snakes) and that its in no way a safe place for her to recover. Either that or playing dumb but thats risky. Whatever we do the more ties Selene has to Twilight and co, and the more of them we have on our side, the better things should go, though the longer we wait the more damage the search does and the worse she will probably think of the situation.
The problem is that those debuffs are character creation debuffs, so they will not be easy to get rid (especially the scar if it counts like scars or wounds in CS) in which of at best and probably will require a significant sacrifice of some sort... thought this may happen regardless if we keep wantonly increasing our lore without caution as a side-effect. Its really important to remember that the more Lore of a type we get the more its going to change Velvet and not necessary for the better given that the whole point of CS is to 'ascend' past your previous limited mortal form and that if the Master was a normal being once they certainly are not now. (given that Grail literally goes down cannibalism as the most obvious problem but the other Lore paths are just as bad in their own way) but thats going off topic.
Back on topic a number of the Principles should be able to deal with the debuffs, abet in their own ways.
... We have rituals explicitly for getting rid of permanent debuffs like our character traits. They're risky and extremely costly, but also explicitly mention being used for those traits with suspicion being our biggest concern.
its going to change Velvet and not necessary for the better given that the whole point of CS is to 'ascend' past your previous limited mortal form and that if the Master was a normal being once they certainly are not now. (given that Grail literally goes down cannibalism as the most obvious problem but the other Lore paths are just as bad in their own way)
Considering it is a cultist simulator quest, it is supposed that overwhelming majority of readers here would like to see that for plenty of reasons, such as "I think it's cool", "Bird writes these mind horror sections nice and scary!" and "MERCY IS FOUND ONLY IN THE SHADOW".
Bar that single "Tap, tap", which some might interpret as a romantic response (although I personally didn't see it like that) I see nothing on that story that wasn't canon from Jade's point of view.
So yay!
Do tell if you have a specific "What of..." title in mind, I admit that I wasn't sure of how to name it, temporarily.
And I must say, you can say that you wrote that while tired, but I thought it was really good!
This is lovely!
And I can't promise that I will "definitely" use her. But if you don't mind, I have zero problems with making Mrs. Robin a regular cultist. Although it might be a long while before we have Edge oriented ponies in the Wildhoof Club.
And in other news, character sheet and cult sheet have been updated. Let me know if I missed anything. Just going to post the update in a few moments.
[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, KNOCK 2, 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 have purchased a number of books. 44 bits have been deduced from your personal savings
You have recently read that 10 Royal Guards never returned from the Forbidden Jungle while on the search for Princess Luna. Reading these, now monthly, news is not becoming any easier for you.
- - -
This is a little bit of a new experience for you.
You have been able to "read" things with your hoofs for a few weeks now, but you have been giving yourself time to adjust to this new… thing.
What are you even supposed to call it? A secret? An ability? A skill? It is somewhat difficult to describe it because whenever you do it, it feels obvious and simple, to the point that you sometimes wonder why you never tried doing this before your whole life. But when you try to mentally explain how you are able to do it, whether you are pretending to talk to somepony about it or even when you try to write down instructions on how somepony else might do it, you realize you are at a loss for words.
It feels like an entire new sense, of sorts. It is something you can do, and that you know how it works, but you can't explain it with words any more than you can teach somepony to look through their eyes or listen with their ears.
Yes, of course, the air vibrates and your ears pick that up, that's how you hear. But simply saying that everything refracts the light of Glory in the Wake, as it leaks in through the air, and that you simply have to read said refraction… is not exactly a useful instruction that a pony can put into practice.
This, you figure, is exactly what your Master meant when she said that "everything has a taste"…
Anyhow. You have been able to do this for a few weeks now, but so far you have been "testing" it, so to speak, in order to learn exactly how much you are capable of doing with it.
It is important to note, however, that these tests have not been made out of skepticism. You know that you can trust that sense the same way that you can (or, when anything Magical is involved, can't) trust your eyes and your ears. Your tests didn't involve reading a page with your hoof, and then rereading it with your eyes "just to make sure", because…
Actually, you realize with a start, why didn't you do that?
Scientifically speaking, you feel stupid. Everything you know about magic has taught you that new spells and mysterious phenomena must be extensively studied, and yet you didn't do something as simple as double checking that you are actually reading what is written in a page.
And yet you know that you don't need to do that because…!
"Heavens, this is frustrating," you say out loud, sitting on the chair of your office.
Your Master has once told you that Lantern is about understanding everything, while Moth is about understanding nothing at all. And this gnaws at you.
This frustration gnaws at you because you know just enough about Lantern to grasp at this new skill, and yet you do not know enough to completely understand it…
Or this frustration might just be the Moth inside of you repeatedly flying against the light of this knowledge you now have, making a tink-tink-tink noise that might yet drive you insane.
"You know what? I just don't care," you say to yourself, eyeing the pile of reports you have already gone through and deciding that if there are any mistakes you have made by relying on your new Lantern-touch, then your father's accountant will surely let you know by means of an extensively disappointed report.
But if you keep dwelling on that, if you keep trying to understand exactly "why" this thing works, you won't get anything done.
You ought to simply understand "how much" it works, so that you can use it to its full potential. For now, at least, this feels a lot more useful, or at least it feels like you are going somewhere or making a little bit of progress.
And besides, trying to give a neat and proper explanation to something that has metaphysical properties is a very quick way to insanity.
With that, you float a new set of scrolls and quills towards you, as well as the books that you will try to turn into reports for the benefit of the Bright Library… and yourself, of course.
You usually take a few days to read through a single book, since more often than not you read when you have nothing else to do while working. You mostly read during those rare moments where you can do nothing but wait for a batch of reports to be corrected by your employees, or when you order the inventories to be counted.
Which means that you don't usually have much time to read. Unless you decide to do it during your own free time, of course, but between your family and all the other things you need to take care of, those are also somewhat rare.
Still, you took… a lot less time than expected to go through the books you picked.
It still took you a few days, and several hours of concentrated effort to write down your thoughts about what you had just read. However it still took you less time than you would have needed to read through half of that, had you used only your eyes.
This was also a learning experience.
You started with the largest of the three books, the Ophidiae Encyclopediae, which you thought had a needlessly wordy title. The book itself was very in-depth, though, so you hoof-read your way through it with a growing interest on the subject.
That is, until you got to the anatomical illustrations.
The illustrations weren't badly drawn. Quite on the contrary, they were thorough and detailed. Too detailed, in fact. To the point where you got a splitting headache as soon as your Lantern-touch reached the part of the book where the diagrams and illustrations were.
It took you a while to realize what had happened, but it seems that… it seems that you don't so much "read" the book, even when there are words to be read, as much as you "absorb knowledge".
But words are tame things. Most of the time they only ever mean one thing, being that which is written, and very rarely they will mean two or three things at once, something that you feel mostly when you try to read poetry with your Lantern-touch, or some particularly cleverly-worded text.
The anatomical diagrams, however, were crammed with knowledge, so much so that where you had to drop the book a few moments after you felt them.
You found an equilibrium of sorts, in the end, where you paged through the more complex parts of the book with your eyes, while you read the rest with your hoofs. Everything went a lot better from that point onwards, and after you nursed your head back to a less throbbing and painful state.
But let it not be said that the only thing you learned was about your most recent skill. Quite on the contrary.
Snakes are interesting, sure, although you wouldn't much appreciate being face to face with most of them. The details about how several tunnels were dug on the mountain in which Canterlot is perched, which you learned from the second book you read, were also… interesting, so to speak.
However, after you finished reading both of those books, and started putting your thoughts into paper, you started seeing a few connections here and there. Connections about how both snakes and trains move, and about how poison is delivered through an opening, as well as several other things. You put them all down on a scroll, feeling like you were slowly putting together a large puzzle with every line you wrote, and you bound and hid away said scroll shortly after you finished writing it.
The very last lines of the text you wrote had a small remark from you, a small tidbit of wondering that struck you as odd. You remember writing down that the mountain that houses Canterlot is, in fact, more useful due to its tunnels.
An obvious statement at first glance, for sure, but you couldn't help but wonder how much that little phrase might change if instead of "tunnels" you thought about them as "wounds".
"Huh…" you remember saying out loud, as that small realization dawned on you.
That mountain was merely a mountain, until it was wounded and became so much more. It then became a haven, and a passage, and a gate to the heart of a kingdom.
So you couldn't help but wonder… if wounds, when correctly applied, could perform such changes in a mountain, what transformations might a pony's body undergo, if correctly wounded?
And what exactly might those "correct" wounds be like?
Those questions remained stuck on your head even long after you hid the scroll away.
But after that, armed with the knowledge that diagrams and drawings might contain more knowledge than you initially thought, you approached the final book a lot more carefully.
You thought it would be a dull read, after all you already knew a thing or two about farming equipment to begin with, although you still hoped to gain some insight on how machines as a whole operate by reading that book.
However, when you reached a particularly unassuming chapter, which had some diagrams about a simple cog-based mechanism, you certainly didn't expect that…
That when you slowly, carefully tried passing your hoof over that diagram, since it looked so basic and simple…
You certainly didn't expect that you would see something so beautiful.
Maybe it was the perfection of its simplicity.
Maybe it was because the small piece of equipment that chapter was dedicated to explaining was, somehow, close to how things of much grander designs work.
You don't know.
All that you know is that you put the book down right after, and immediately started writing about how the sunrise and sunset might work, if the sun had to be moved through the skies by a machine.
Because even if said machine had to be forged by a god, its principles would still be understandable by mortals.
And something tells you that you caught a glimpse of that.
You have gained two scraps of KNOCK Lore by reading two books.
KNOCK is now Level 3!
You have gained two scraps of FORGE Lore by reading a single book.
FORGE is now level 1!
You have done more than learn about simple mechanisms and gears. What you did was gain true insight on why it is that things move. Gain one extra scrap of FORGE Lore. Your report on this book will have double weight at the Bright Library.
FORGE is now level 2!
- - -
It is late in the afternoon, during that time of the day when the shadows are starting to stretch, and evening is fast approaching. You have finished writing your notes on the books you read a few days ago, and you have been waiting for an opportune moment to head to the Wildhoof Club to deliver them.
Of course, you could have gone there at any time during the last few days, but you have been waiting for something in particular to happen. Specifically, you have been waiting for a day in which you remember also meeting Copper while you are at the Club. You know she goes there frequently, but you simply haven't had the time to catch up with her, bar the short moments when you meet after seeing your Master. But, rather understandably, the two of you are usually too busy or worried with other things to be able to talk properly.
Something that you are about to remedy, you think, as you recall the image of Copper sitting in the Red Bar having a drink.
It still feels weird, to have a memory that your mind tells you is from "a few seconds ago" in which you were in another place. Maybe that sort of thing would feel less alien if you knew how to teleport, you think, as that sort of skill might help you get used to changing the scenery around you so abruptly.
But you don't know how to teleport, and even if you did you doubt that you would be able to cover such large distances.
And so, while idly thinking about the several times that you failed to enter the School for Gifted Unicorns when you were younger, you finish taking the scrolls you had hidden away in you office, carefully place them inside your saddle purse, and head out through the front door of your estate.
It is only when you are halfway to the Club, trotting down the streets of Ponyville, that you realize that you forgot to tell anypony that you were leaving.
Well, nothing you can do about it anymore. Besides every now and then the sun will simply sit on the horizon for a few more hours than it should while patiently waiting for the sunset to happen, so there is a very real possibility that you will be back home before night actually falls.
You walk into the Wildhoof Club, and you can't help but notice that it is unusually empty. You see at most a few ponies in the entrance hall, along with the usual staff, and something tells you that everypony present is a member of the cult, with no sign of the usual non-member clientele that you have already seen crowd the place.
Well, Ponyville is a small-ish town, and you are not here during one of the peak hours, so this is more than understandable.
Still, this makes your job a lot easier, to the point where you don't even have to jog your not-memories to find out where Copper Secateur is. After all, she is right there by the counter of the bar, sipping from something.
Seeing her with your own eyes, however, is a lot different from the glimpses you had from your memories.
Copper is sitting by the bar, yes, but there are at least four other ponies, the bartender included, practically orbiting around her. She seems to be in the middle of saying something, as she swirls her glass with a hoof like a cat would lazily toy with a ball of yarn. Other passersby, club staff or otherwise, also seem to linger for a few moments whenever they walk near her, and you even see some of them shake their heads, or sometimes sigh, before continuing with their activities.
As you approach her, you realize that you can't really blame those ponies for acting like that. The closer you get to her, the more you realize that there is something about Copper that is simply… well, she simply feels interesting. Her words, even if you cannot yet make out what she is saying, seem to linger in your ears for a few seconds more than they should, leaving a tingling sensation behind. Her body, as well, doesn't merely "look" attractive so much as it "tells you" that it is attractive.
Most interesting, however, is that you can feel that this is not the effect of an Influence. Or rather, you can't feel an Influence about her. This, all of this, is all her.
Part of you wonders just how deep in Grail she must be already, or exactly when she started feeling like that, but then you also remember that…
Well, that the only ponies of the Inner Circle who you have spoken to for an appreciable amount of time recently were Comet Feet and Jade Whistle. And the former was covered in an Influence the last time you saw him, while the latter was not really in a good mental state for you to be able to notice anything. Your thoughts then shift to wonder if Starry might also give you an impression like Copper is giving you right now, and you begin to question yourself if you missed anything strange about Windy, since you also spoke to him not long ago.
But still, as much as you feel somewhat surprised right now, something tells you that she has already been like this for a while now.
And also, you think for a moment longer…
This might be a strange thing to ask yourself, but you shortly wonder if this is how it feels like, to be able to feel the effects of something subtle around a pony. After all you are, and perhaps this might be something bad, too used to the overwhelming presence of your Master, perhaps even to the point that you might have failed to notice the more subtle changes happening to the other members of the Inner Circle around you.
And these strange thoughts, this concern that things might be changing faster than you realize, only grows deeper when you realize that this same failure to notice things might also apply to yourself.
After all, you just realized that you are already standing right behind one of the ponies who is listening to Copper, and yet nopony has noticed yet that you have gotten this close already.
Even worse, however, is that you didn't mean to approach them unnoticed. Consciously, at least…
You let out a muted sigh at that thought. How much have you changed already? How have these little things been affecting you day by day, subtly, without you noticing?
And when will it stop? Is it possible that one year from now you wouldn't even be able to recognize yourself if you looked back?
You shake your head, banishing those thoughts away. Now is not the time to wonder about that sort of thing.
Although you do hope that those who are around you, your family most importantly, have not started to notice that…
Another sigh escapes your lips. But right after that, you draw your breath and raise your voice.
"Am I interrupting a fan club meeting of sorts?" you ask, stepping into the empty space that appeared between two of her listeners for a split second, while they were laughing at something she had said.
To which the group as a whole reacts almost immediately. You hear quite a few gasps and yelps of surprise, and the bartender who was listening in, and who had not taken his eyes away from Copper until this very moment, nearly drops the bottle he was holding.
Copper, for her own part, just smiles at you, a genuinely friendly smile.
"Velvet dear, what a pleasant surprise! I thought I felt a fresh pair of eyes looking at me," she says, waving a hoof towards the barstool right by her side, "won't you take a seat? I don't think I've ever seen you here when you're not on business."
She doesn't even seem to register that the barstool she pointed at is currently occupied by one of the ponies who was listening to her.
"You are here for something other than business, right?"
Or rather, the seat by her side was occupied by somepony. The stallion who is sitting there gets up a few moments later, wearing a complicated expression on his face.
The whole group, you realize, is wearing rather curious expressions.
Except for Copper, of course.
The stallions around you seem to be shocked, looking at you wide-eyed in surprise. However, their shock seems to be actively battling against their urge to at the very least steal a few glances at Copper every now and then.
Heavens, even the pony who just got up from the place Copper invited you to sit at seems… regretful? He seems to be partially regretting having to stand up from his place next to her, and partially dreading that she might be somehow disapproving of him for having been there to begin with. Like a stallion who was trying to pick up a mare in a bar, and just received a "I'm reserving that seat to my friend" to the face.
But while you are not sure how to address this whole situation, Copper seems to be more than in control of it. She seems to be relishing it, in fact.
"Well, I came here to deliver a few things I wrote to the Bright Library," you say, nodding at your saddle purse, "but truth be told, that's just a bonus. I actually came because of you."
You internally raise an eyebrow at your own choice of words, and you can't help but notice that a part of you, small as it may be, wants to be infatuated with her as well.
For a few moments you consider taking a deep breath to center yourself, but you decide not to.
After all, you can tell that this thing you are feeling is not being caused by something malicious on her part. And you really are here just to have a chat with her, so putting your guard up to begin with seems like the wrong hoof to put forward.
Whatever it is that you are feeling, you understand that causing it is a natural part of your friend, now.
This is the nature of change, after all. Copper has grown, so to speak, and this is how things will be around her from now on.
"Do you mind, boys?" she says, addressing the stallions around you after giving you an understanding nod, "us mares would like to have a little girl chat right now."
And with that, the group immediately disperses. You see several apologetic expressions, some of them downright disappointed, while a few of them even give her a few parting words wishing her a good evening, in a tone that you can tell is veering a lot more towards adulation than simple goodbyes.
The bartender, as well, suddenly becomes very interested in cleaning a few glasses on the far side of the counter, but you see him sneaking a few glances towards you and Copper every now and then.
"Impressive," is all you can say, as you watch her take another sip from her drink.
"Well, I try my best," she answers with a pleased smile, "we've all been busy, but the best part is that we have been picking up a few things along the way, isn't it?" she finishes, giving you a wink.
You slowly nod at that, agreeing wholeheartedly.
You also smile softly, feeling a little giddy at the wink she just gave you.
"Speaking of busy, how have you been? We haven't been able to sit down and just chat in a long while," you ask, partially recalling how the two of you would talk a lot more frequently back when the cult was smaller.
"Everything has been fine, really. And you do have a point," she says, idly clinking her glass with a hoof as she thinks for a few moments, "when was the last time we just stopped to chat? It feels like it was just yesterday, but it must have been… quite a while, now that I think about it, with all this juggling that we have been involved with as of late."
"It was several months ago, at least," you answer, watching her grimace for a few moments.
Also, even her grimace looks pleasant, somehow. Giving you a slight urge to simply fawn over her until she is back to smiling again… very curious, you note.
"I guess time does fly when you have things to do," she says, almost as if speaking to herself.
And with that, the two of you begin to chat.
Much to your relief, despite the uncanny and subtle urges you feel towards her every now and then, the conversation you have really does feel a lot like it did back then. You ask her how things are going at work, and she asks you how your family is going, and then the two of you start gossiping about some idle things that have happened in Ponyville and beyond.
However, at some point while you are chatting you realize that… that this does feels too much like how you used to talk to her.
You realize, although you manage to hide it well enough, that the two of you have not talked about anything that might be truly relevant. It suddenly dawns at you that every time the conversation starts steering towards certain subjects, Copper deftly starts talking about something else.
To name a few things… so far, you haven't been able to directly ask her, for example, how she felt about the aftermath of the ritual that happened months ago, or about the Master's latest decrees of what the cult must do in order to achieve success. You haven't even been able to ask her about how her recent efforts to draw in new recruits have been going.
You couldn't even find a way to wedge in a question about how her preparations for her departure to Manehattan are progressing.
This, you see, is the sort of maneuvering with words that you have already seen happening several times. Heavens it is something that you have already done sometimes, the pleasant and subtle kind of smooth talking in which nothing is really said.
She has been leading you around on this conversation, there is no other way to describe it.
The only thing you don't know, however, is rather if Copper is doing this consciously… or if is doing this without realizing it. Maybe she doesn't want to talk about those subjects, and the things she knows about Grail have been making her act like this without the mare herself noticing it.
Only one way to find out, you think. Now that you've seen through it, it's only a matter of interrupting her and driving the subject home.
"Actually, Copper," you say, narrowing your eyes slightly, "I have to get something out of my chest, now that we are here."
You make sure your tone is a little strained as you say it, somewhat apologetic. You even lower your voice as you speak, showing that you'd rather this just stayed between the two of you.
"A few months back I recall that you had your plate rather full when it came to your assignments from the Master. I know we all had a lot to do, but I really wish I had been able to help you, with whatever you had to do on that whole…" you look around, waving a hoof at the entire club around you, "investigation thing."
And then you see it. For the slightest moment, her pleasant complexion seems to become somewhat… strained. Yes, strained seems to be the only way you can describe it.
But a second later, that slight slip is gone as if it had never existed.
"Oh, that?" she asks, taking a hoof to her mouth to cover a short laugher.
You can feel some sort of tension rising inside of you, as you can't help but swear that her laugher is absolutely genuine. You wouldn't have had any idea that she meant something else if you had not noticed that slight slip right now.
But still, if she can even fake something like that, if she can be that genuine whenever she wants, what else might have you missed then?
"That was nothing, Velvet. Besides, you had far grander things to do, didn't you? And I managed things on my end just fine. Why, I'd say it was almost easy to sort that whole mess up!" she says.
She lies, actually.
You know that she is lying, because the only thing that comes to your mind is how rattled she looked, when she reported her results to the Master a few months back. You can almost swear that she described the whole ordeal as "nearly disastrous".
And it also strikes you that she doesn't know you can see through the darkness of the Woods, during those meetings. So she surely doesn't know that you could see her face back then.
Yes… you are sure of it. She definitely has something on her mind, and she has spent this entire conversation dancing around and avoiding it. In fact, she spent this entire conversation avoiding everything of any relevance.
She looked troubled back then… and you are almost sure that she also looked trouble just now, during that split second that her expression slipped.
The problem is that you have no idea why that might be.
Oh dear…
"One moment Velvet, I think those are…" but before you can say anything else, she looks over your shoulder towards another group of ponies. You turn around to see a mare and a stallion, talking to a rather nervous looking pony near the entrance of the Club. "Those two are mine… and I think they're trying, and failing, to sweet talk somepony into…"
She lets out a sigh, an honest sigh that is both humored and slightly annoyed. The clear expression of a pony who has just seen her apprentices not reaching her expectations, and who has to intervene sooner rather than later.
You also wonder how much of that sigh is honest.
It rattles you that you have no idea.
"Well, I'd better go there and take care of it before they frighten that pony too much," she says, flashing you a smile as she gets off her seat, "I did love our chat Velvet. And I hope we can have more like this in the future."
She is gone a few moments later, not even waiting for you to say your goodbyes or anything else.
There is clearly something going on.
But between her alluring smile and she way she knows how to talk, you are not sure if you will be able to find out what it is. Not from her, at least.
You watch her as she heads towards the trio, and the nervous looking pony immediately reacts to her mere presence as she approaches. She then begins to talk to said pony like the two of them were long time friends, any prior nervousness quickly forgotten.
You purse your lips at that, watching as a few more ponies gather around her not long after, seeing her revel in…
Didn't Jade Whistle mention that she felt like Copper needed to look interesting…?
You shake your head at that, getting off your own seat and heading upstairs to leave the recently written scrolls at the Bright Library.
And you are away from the Wildhoof Club, completely unnoticed, not long after.
[Success. You notice there is something bothering, or wrong with, Copper Secateur]
[Getting a read on her, CD 60]
[Roll: 79 + 12 (Intrigue) = 91]
[Success. You realize her avoidances while you talked were intentional, not accidental or subconscious.]
There is definitely something troubling Copper Secateur, to the point where she completely avoided talking about anything cult-related, anything recent at least, and happily chatted about the "good old times" when things were calmer.
You do not, however, have any idea of what it might be. After all, she avoided talking about everything, not just her… experience, or whatever else might have happened while she tried to deal with the investigations a few months back.
You are also not sure of how much she outclasses you when it comes to talking or reading ponies. After all words, you remembered almost too late, are her weapons of choice. That, and if anywhere is a place that might be her domain, it is the Red Bar.
Still... as much as you might have forgotten how good with words Copper is, the fact remains that you weren't expecting that you would "duel" her to begin with... You will certainly be more attentive, the next time, now that you know that something is bothering your friend enough that she decided to act like that towards you.
I don't know if I'd jump so far as to assume rebellion.
But, given her desire to 'look interesting', talking to the one pony who seems to not have had any failures and seems to be jumping from success to success (barring Luna, which everyone else failed to get anything) may not exactly be her favorite thing in the world.
After all, no need to get her successes attributed to Velvet like poor Starry.
You started with the largest of the three books, the Ophidiae Encyclopediae, which you thought had a needlessly wordy title. The book itself was very in-depth, though, so you hoof-read your way through it with a growing interest on the subject.
It's only two words. Wordy usually means using too many words. Maybe you want 'pretentious' instead of 'wordy', in that the choice of words was fancy sounding ones when common would have done? Or if it's the length of the words, rather than the number or rarity, you could use 'sesquipedalian', it's not a common word, but it's not one you often get the opportunity to use, though perhaps it suffers from pretentiousness itself.
How appropriate for a Loremaster, that so many of our new occult abilities are sensory/information gathering techniques. Seeing in the dark with our eyes closed, absorbing knowledge from objects, remembering alternate timelines, even superhumanpony stealth has information gathering applications.
Hmm... methinks Copper is having doubts. Not necessarily straight to rebellion, of course, but... she was unhappy about the ritual too, if I recall, and then followed that almost immediately with a close call from the investigation. That, and I don't think she's really had many successes just in general so far? She might feel like the Cult isn't giving her what she wants, or isn't worth the danger. Either way, we should dig deeper.
Not to mention get more Winter to resist bullshit like that Grail weight.
All that you know is that you put the book down right after, and immediately started writing about how the sunrise and sunset might work, if the sun had to be moved through the skies by a machine.
Because even if said machine had to be forged by a god, its principles would still be understandable by mortals.
While there's a lot to unpack in our interaction with Copper, this part stuck out to me, if only because the words "Sun" and "Machine" so close together bring to mind somethingsimilar. -UN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE SUN. THE S-
After all, you just realized that you are already standing right behind one of the ponies who is listening to Copper, and yet nopony has noticed yet that you have gotten this close already.
Even worse, however, is that you didn't mean to approach them unnoticed. Consciously, at least…
Another sigh escapes your lips. But right after that, you draw your breath and raise your voice.
"Am I interrupting a fan club meeting of sorts?" you ask, stepping into the empty space that appeared between two of her listeners for a split second, while they were laughing at something she had said.
To which the group as a whole reacts almost immediately. You hear quite a few gasps and yelps of surprise, and the bartender who was listening in, and who had not taken his eyes away from Copper until this very moment, nearly drops the bottle he was holding.
Ever had them forget you were in the room while having a conversation you participated in? Because that's always fun. Especially when you were there before they even walked in.
Ever had them forget you were in the room while having a conversation you participated in? Because that's always fun. Especially when you were there before they even walked in.
Not yet, I'm more likely to teleport from one side of them to the other, as my real "stealth" skill is silent footsteps. Most people practically stomp as they walk, and so people are used to tracking where a person moves by sound if they aren't looking at them.
Bar that single "Tap, tap", which some might interpret as a romantic response (although I personally didn't see it like that) I see nothing on that story that wasn't canon from Jade's point of view.
So yay!
Do tell if you have a specific "What of..." title in mind, I admit that I wasn't sure of how to name it, temporarily.
And I must say, you can say that you wrote that while tired, but I thought it was really good!
Not yet, I'm more likely to teleport from one side of them to the other, as my real "stealth" skill is silent footsteps. Most people practically stomp as they walk, and so people are used to tracking where a person moves by sound if they aren't looking at them.
It is important to note, however, that these tests have not been made out of skepticism. You know that you can trust that sense the same way that you can (or, when anything Magical is involved, can't) trust your eyes and your ears. Your tests didn't involve reading a page with your hoof, and then rereading it with your eyes "just to make sure", because…
Actually, you realize with a start, why didn't you do that?
Scientifically speaking, you feel stupid. Everything you know about magic has taught you that new spells and mysterious phenomena must be extensively studied, and yet you didn't do something as simple as double checking that you are actually reading what is written in a page.
And yet you know that you don't need to do that because…!
While everything about Copper's interaction was very interesting, far more than I can comment in succinct form, this little thing stood out to me. Lantern's mental influence is interesting in how it manifests in this sort of unnatural certainty that's somewhat hard to notice due to how it makes you not look for it.
