"Alright, lights out everypony," you say, a doting smile on your face as you look at the small crowd of foals safely tucked in within the confines of the pillow fort, the thing itself dominating most of Silky's room. "Now, I hope everypony sleeps well. You can all ask Silky or Selene if you need to know where anything is."
"Goodnight Mrs. Velvet!" the answer comes in a chorus, so loud and excited that you can barely make out Silky's slightly different response of 'mommy' from the group.
Of course, you know none of them are about to sleep. They are too excited, none of them look tired at all, and most importantly they all had way too much sugar just a few hours ago.
You know it. They know it. And they know you know it. But still, you will make a point of very loudly closing your door as soon as you return to your room, and you told the servants who will be staying the night to only check on them if they hear something breaking. So, you know that for the foals the night is only beginning.
But frankly, you wouldn't have it any other way. Let them enjoy themselves, you say. Selene needs it, the house could certainly use a bit more of excitement for the weekend, and…
And this way, you have an excuse both to have them around where you know they will be safe, as well as an excuse to ask Soft Sweeps to stay the night for the next few days.
Because you know it will happen soon… so very soon. And you have absolutely no idea how things will go out. So, if nothing else, you will at least make sure that the ponies you care for are close at hoof.
Thank goodness Stormchaser is also home, having taken this last month off after you got hurt.
"Sweet dreams everypony," you say, giving everypony a last glance (even if your eyes stayed on Selene, shivering as she was, for a bit longer) before you close the door.
And then, you very loudly stomp your way to your room, closing the door to your bedroom a lot louder than you usually w-
"PILLOW FIGHT!"
Goodness gracious, Silky couldn't even wait that long? You let out a small chuckle.
Well, let them have their fun.
"Put them to bed, dear?" you hear your husband ask, and as you turn to face him you see him already lying on bed, calmly reading from a book with the light of the lantern from his bedstand.
"Theoretically, yes," you say, watching him smile as he puts the book down, turning to look at you as well.
"You think they'll cause too much trouble?" he asks-
-just in time for the two of you wince, as you hear a loud… dry noise, that very much sounded like a foal crashing against the ground.
You will wrestle your worry to the ground, doing your best to suppress the need to run back there and make sure none of them are hurt.
"Well… we taught the fillies not to play with matches, so I think the house will at least be standing when we wake up tomorrow," you say, trying your best to smile through the muffled yelps the two of you can hear in the distance.
"I think that's the best we can ask for," he says, tapping the bed next to him shortly after, "now come on over, Mrs. Velvet. The bed feels awfully cold without you," he says, a suggestive smile appearing on his face.
"Oh?" you say, knowing exactly what he means with the expression he is wearing. "Whatever you mean by that, Mr. Stormchaser?"
You say that, with clearly feinted innocence, but you still walk towards the bed. Towards his side of the bed, mind you, not walking around it to get up on your side as you usually do.
"Why, nothing at all darling. It's just that the foals are going to be so loud tonight, I'm not sure we will be able to sleep anytime soon… or that anypony will be able to hear anything over the noise they are making, mind you."
You let out a soft chuckle at that. Your first, second and third reaction being to just tell him to behave.
That is, until he made that
excellent point of argument just now. After all, the foals will be awful loud tonight just like he said, and even though there are so many of them just on the other end of the corridor…
"Now that you mention it, it does sound awfully unfair that they are the only ones who get to…
have fun themselves tonight."
You float the locket away from your neck, sending it to your bedstand without a second thought. But even that is enough for a
sweet aroma to fill your room, the smell of petals flowing through the air as if a sweet breeze had just come from somewhere nearby.
Stormchaser's smile grows wider as you place a hoof on his side of the bed, and with a soft push of your good hindleg you make a short jump to climb it-
-BUT BEFORE YOU REALIZE WHAT HAPPENED, STORMCHASER IS GONE.
YOUR HUSBAND IS GONE. YOUR BED IS GONE. YOUR ROOM IS GONE.
AND INSTEAD OF FALLING AT THE SOFT EMBRACE OF YOUR BED, YOU ARE NOW FALLING INTO A SEA OF ROOTS AND BRANCHES, BLACK LEAVES CUTTING AGAINST YOUR COAT AS YOU FALL INTO THE WOODS.
- - -
Conscience comes back to you in a starting fit, and you flail your legs wildly as you realize you can't breathe or see anything.
A few panicked seconds later you can finally tell which way is up, and you realize that the thing that is pressing against your face is in fact the ground. You get on your hoofs moments later, coughing and shaking your head as you try to understand what in the Tartarus just happened, and where you are.
But the answer comes to you almost instantly. As you realize you are coughing out black dirt. As you feel the faint touch of that oh so distant light against your fur, shining down from the very top of the world. As the impenetrable smell of the first forest of the world reaches your nostrils.
You look around, more out of habit than a real need to get your bearings. Because you already know where you are, and you already know that "getting your bearings" here is not really something that can, or should, be done.
Because you are in the Woods.
Or rather, you have been brought into the Woods. You have been summoned, and by a very powerful summons indeed.
And what is more…
The Woods. It is agitated.
"Goodness gracious," you mumble to yourself, your ears perking up as you realize the things you are hearing aren't just the sounds of the wind or of the tree branches scraping against each other.
No. You are hearing screams. Screams, and shouts, and unnatural noises that sound too much like the clicking of claws and the howling of beasts mixed into one. The resulting cacophony almost, but not quite, drowning out the constant sound of the howling winds, as it shakes the trees and blows away loose leaves.
You hear yells. Pony yells. Your body tensing up as you realize those are the sounds of ponies who are panicking.
The yells, you can tell, are almost always being followed by the sound of something… of something else. Something that sounds like a beast with too many legs giving chase, insect claws scraping against the ground as they stampede after a fleeing pony.
Your thoughts begin to race as you try to understand what is happening. As you try to understand
why this is happening.
"Talk about a rude awakening. I'm not sure I've ever seen this place so riled up before. Oh, hello there Velvet dear, do you think you will be called as well?"
Until you hear a familiar voice, coming from somewhere behind you. Saying something that finally makes everything click inside your head.
"Baldomare?" you say as you turn to face her.
And as you do that, you feel a slight sense of vertigo.
Baldomare is standing in front of you. However, she is standing at the very bottom of the dark-blue Mansus-stone stairways, the same stairways that would lead a pony towards the Blank Door.
You are absolutely sure the stairs were not there before, but you can see that Baldomare is standing there, avoiding the branches of nearby trees just like they avoid her, as if she is making a point of not wanting to step hoof on the black soil of the Woods.
Which in turn makes you wonder what exactly just happened. You wonder if it was you, or the stairs, that was moved to this place.
Or maybe, you think, it was the Woods that moved you both.
"Of course it's me, dear," she says, bringing her hind down and sitting on one of the steps of the stairs as she talks to you. "Well, it is me as much as it's me who is also in the Wake," she mentions idly.
And you realize that Baldomare is… well she looks as real as you remember her. But that's the thing, she looks as real as you remember her in the Wake, during all the weeks you have seen her.
But you have a faint feeling that she is not nearly as… as what, as radiant? As shining? Well, she is not nearly as herself as you think she was in the Blank Plains.
As if the Baldomare sitting on the stairs before you is merely a reflection of her, or… or a mirage.
"Or a courtesy," she says, nodding to you as if she could read your thoughts. "After all, you were brought here to talk about me, so there's no reason for me not to be present."
She says that, and you can't help but tilt your head slightly.
"Wait, what do you mean talk about you?"
But instead of answering, Baldomare begins to make a slightly annoyed face, as if she was looking at something particularly annoying.
And you realize that she is not looking at you, but instead slightly over your shoulder.
You almost, almost, turn around to face what she is looking at. But you immediately hold yourself.
After all, you know that there will be nothing there if you turned to look.
And yet… you suddenly feel as if you are being watched by something with many eyes… all of them looking down at you, from way, way up high.
The howling of the wind, and the sound of distant screams, becomes even louder. To the point that you can't even hear Baldomare sigh, for all that you can clearly see her doing that.
"Little little Velvet…"
The voice that you hear, a whisper cutting through the cacophony of the woods, is one that you don't recognize. It is not a pony voice, for all that you might know exactly who is speaking.
You are not entirely sure how to react, but the voice continues before you even have the chance. A mixture of anticipation and eagerness covering its words like a sickly sweet honey.
"The time has come, as I promised… but I require something more of you…"
You purse your lips at that, your thoughts racing as you understand exactly what your Master means.
She did this. She did all of this. She brought you here, you have no idea how, so it wouldn't surprise you in the slightest if she had also brought every last member of the cult that she wished.
Which means the probably already knows about all of your preparations. And that she is choosing what she wants. That she is choosing
who she wants.
"But not your body, no… that is too frail, too wounded... Still too hurt from the thing that has stained your soul… Worry not, little Velvet, I do not call for your presence…"
You can practically feel as the all-too-many eyes shift away from you, snaking their sight through the root-covered dirt until it reaches the stairs to the House.
Baldomare's expression becomes disgusted as your Master's attention focuses on her.
"The Name, Velvet… give me the Name… her blinding light is required for the shadowy places I shall take our followers… Give me the reins of her bindings, even if temporarily, and you will be rewarded…"
[The Master has NOT called for you to join the assault on the Changeling Hive. But wishes for you to pass on Baldomare's bindings to her, so she may take her to the expedition as her own minion.]
You...
[] Obey. (Baldomare's contract will be passed on to the Master for the duration of the expedition. You will be rewarded.)
[] Object. (You will NOT give the Master Baldomare's contracat, but will order her to go to the expedition as your agent.)
[] Demand. (You will NOT give the Master Baldomare's contract, but will instead demand to be taken to the expedition together with her, and whoever else the Master is calling upon.)
[] Refuse. (You will deny your Master. WRITE IN whatever you will tell your Master instead, seeing how this is clear disobedience.)
Regarding the "passage of contract".
-If you decide to "Obey", Baldomare's contract will be passed to the Master, and WILL be returned to you as soon as she returns from the expedition. So, unless Baldomare dies or is banished, this will not interfere with your ability to control her come next turn.
-Ordering Baldomare to "go to the expedition, and obey the Master as if she was you" is just empty talk. Baldomare will either go as your minion, or as the Master's minion. The certainty of an eldritch contract of binding is the crucial difference between those two things. (That is the difference between "Obey" and "Object").
-Baldomare has not expressed her opinion in any of this... with words, that is.
Why is this relevant?
-A pony's contract to a summoned minion is what makes the creature into a "minion". The summoned creature is required (and in many cases forced) to obey the summoner because of those bindings.
-Baldomare has told you that Names such as herself (and other sapient or higher-intelligence summons) are something of an exception. But the fact remains that her summoned body is still contracted to you, or to whoever else holds the binding.
-In practical terms, passing the bindings to the Master will mean that (theoretically) the Master will be able to:
--Order Baldomare to do anything she desires (you do not know how a creature with the Master's powers would empower the binding contract).
--Banish Baldomare.
--Be sure that Baldomare will not act against her will during the expedition.
--Order Baldomare not to tell you what happened during the expedition, once she returns to you (you do not have the knowledge to know if that is possible, would work, or could be circumvented by Baldomare herself. But this is a point of worry Velvet can think of).
Other points of note.
-You are currently at ONE health point. (Your healing will only occur at the beginning of the next turn).
-You have written your father a letter promising not to leave Ponyville.
-You do not know how long the expedition will last. (This is also valid in the sense that you do not know how long the OTHER ponies called will be away)
-You have no idea about what other assets or ponies the Master has called upon.
Beware of consequences.
Four hours moratorium, further forty-four hours of voting, total forty-eight hours of voting period.
