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

- - -

The gates are closed behind you, the maid who had been waiting for you trotting lightly to catch up to your side as you walk through the garden. The parade of trees that form a path towards the large estate is always a fond sight to behold, and you can spy an earth pony gardener tending to a few overgrown bushes in one of the far corners of the green scenario. The path itself, paved with cleanly cut stones, leads towards the mansion itself, the wide two-storied edifice that gives a clear view to the large swathes of farmlands that your family owns.

But for all the luxury that exists within the mansion, all the servants, and influence, and everything else, you are honestly glad that when you look at it you can think of it simply as "home".

Of course, you could never forget that you are a noble. Your family might not hail from a powerful lineage, but they go to lengths to compensate in everything else, be it political clout or economic might, your position administrating the farmlands east of Ponyville is a proof of that. The mansion you live in is easily larger than the town hall of the city (although not taller, by a slight margin) and several of the simple houses that dot Ponyville could easily fit inside your garden.

But you are thankful that you have never let any of that go up your head. Having lived in Ponyville for several years now, you must admit that a good part of its warmth and kindness has gotten into you. And right now you wouldn't have it any other way.

You walk past the carriage that is always left at your disposal, and that you only ever use grudgingly and at Stormchaser's insistence, and finally arrive at the front door.

"Thank you Ponpon, but I think it's better if I open it", you say, giving a quick wink to your personal maid, "oh, but would you please take this? I'd hate to drop it like that other time…"

Ponpon lets out a short laugh as the bag you had been carrying gently floats towards her, "no problem at all ma'am," she says, taking the handle in her mouth.

Your horn starts glowing once again, the doorknob of the front door answering to your magic at the same time, and you take one last deep breath before opening it.

"Silky Streeeeeam," you let your voice be carried into the main hall, "I'm hooo-!"

"Mommy!" before you can even finish, a blurred dart of brown fur comes zipping down the stairs, flying through the hall and colliding against you in a tight hug. You're nearly thrown back by her speed, and your hindleg makes you wince at the sudden effort with a sharp pain.

"Mommy! You're back!" but all of that mellows out and disappears as soon as you hug your daughter back, "I was waiting for you so we could have breakfast together, but Soft Sweeps wouldn't tell me where you went!" she continues talking, with all that energy that shouldn't even be able to fit in such a small body.

You ruffle her mane, purple like her father's, and gently let go, "well I was going to wake you up to come with me," you say as you walk into the house, your daughter trailing after you in a mix of prancing and flight bursts, "but you just wouldn't wake up! I shook you and shook you, but you were sleeping like a stone, so I had to leave without you" you make up the story as you go, saying it with as much of a dramatic voice as you could without grinning too much.

"What? No I wasn't! I promise I didn't stay up after bedtime," she says, her prance stopping, eyes wide in a sudden panic.

Of course you immediately know she did, with a reaction like that.

"Of course you didn't," you ruffle her mane again and conveniently turn your head away, hearing a clumsily hidden sigh of relief shortly after, "and that's why I brought us a little something". You turn to Ponpon, who was still dutifully accompanying you, and gently float the bag that she was holding towards Silky Stream. And whatever sort of dread she was feeling from being caught doing something was immediately replaced with glee when you dangled the bagged boxes of ice cream in front of her.

You're sure Windy Flakes wouldn't mind a few less boxes of it, and you did leave payment in the counter.

"Yay! Can we have it for breakfast? Can we? Can we?!"

You laugh at the beaming filly, thinking you can almost see light coming out of her hopeful eyes.

And you almost consider saying yes to her request.



- - -



It was a long day, a long holiday that is. Stormchaser will still be away for a few more days, so it had been up to you to chaperone a hyperactive pegasus filly, and once again you were reminded of how thankful you are for your husband having wings. Soft Sweeps in also a pegasus, having been picked as Silky Stream's caretaker mostly for that reason, but you made sure to dismiss the servants for the day after a while. Most of them were from Ponyville after all, and it wouldn't do to have them work on a festive day.

On a side note, you did wonder how much more of a handful your daughter would be if Stormchaser was an earth pony or a unicorn…

Still, you think while you try to get onto the bed with a completely stiff leg, at least you do know that you will fall asleep almost instantly. In the end you manage to compromise between awkwardly pushing yourself with magic and hoping that the covers you're pulling won't just give out on your exhausted self, although you have the dreadful impression that they will, until you manage to get most of your body onto the comfort of your bed.

Why the hell do expensive mattresses need to be so damn tall…?



But true to your word, you quickly fall asleep.



Until you realize you didn't. Or rather, you did, but you are still awake.

You rub your eyes and look around, immediately recognizing where you are. You have visited this place, before, but always under certain special circumstances, only after you have made some prior preparations.

Never like this, unannounced, unprepared.

Summoned.

You find yourself in the middle of a crossroad, under the pale light of the moon. The crossroad itself is made of some dark-blue stone, paved unevenly in a way that could be footsteps of some many-legged creature. You can see well enough, and although you can't see too far you can make out shapes in the horizon.

A great chain of mountains seems to be in the far, far distance. You can see their silhouettes but no path that leads to them, for although it looks like you are in a plane that stretches on forever, you still feel like the world somehow curves before it actually reaches the mountains.

You look up and see no stars, only the moon. And when you look behind you, another familiar sight greets you.

A great dark wood stretches on and on before you, and more than a few of the dark-blue stone paths lead to it. The forest seems dark and uninviting, almost oppressive, but you feel no sort of fear when facing it. Almost as if its oppressiveness is a part of its nature, and the forest itself could not exist in any other way. Besides, you have already walked those woods a few times and you know that its darkness can sometimes even be welcoming. If not to you, then to some deeper part of yourself.

And above and within the Woods you see the place that you know to be the Mansus.

A great structure floats above the dark forest. The only way you can describe it is as floating, for you see no pillars sustaining it, only a maddening criss-cross of stairs that seem to connect odd platforms and entire floors, or that sometimes lead nowhere at all. There are no walls to speak of, and yet you can see doors that led into closed-off rooms. There is no real shape that gives order to it, and yet your mind can see that it has the form of something like a house, or maybe a pyramid.

And at the very top of that great structure, or perhaps at its center, it's hard to know, there is a great brilliant… Thing, which is neither a star nor a lamp, but still shares kinship with them. It shines at every single floor of the Mansus, its light reaches every single room and platform, although you swear that some of those rooms and floors should block the light and stop it from reaching the ones beneath them.

You are far away from that light, and it can't truly reach you from where you are, but you know that the light is utterly magnificent, and that its name is Glory.



The sound of rustling bushes comes from somewhere near you,
though you can't see any and the Woods are still somewhat far. Shaking your head a bit, you decide not to look at the Glory anymore.



Besides, the rustling bushes definitely sounded impatient, you think to yourself as you start walking down the path.

Soon enough there is no path to follow any more, the dark-blue stones being covered by overgrown roots. But that is fine, because you know that paths are completely useless inside this place. The sound of insect wings keep growing louder and louder as you walk, and is soon joined by the noise of scissors shearing at leaves, and the sensation of branches reaching for your mane, and the pointed impression that your tail is in the wrong place, and the sheer freedom that comes from being lost and-



The sound of rustling bushes once again make you snap into attention.



You shake your head once more and head towards the source of the sound, before you forget the direction it came from and the Woods start to pull at your attention again.

The Woods have no defined path, but you somehow know where to go once you set your mind on it. And you set your mind on arriving where you were summoned.

A small clearing opens before you, the light of the moon coming almost as a glare after you spent so much time seeing it as nothing but soft whispers blocked by the leaves of dark trees. You think you are alone in the clearing, until five more figures emerge from the trees almost at the same time as you do, Copper Sicateur and Windy Flakes being two of them. Each of you came from a different direction, and you realize that the six of you have inadvertently formed a circle. A quick look at the five other ponies reveal that you all know each other, and that you all know what this meeting means.

Snap.

You hear the sound of a twig breaking, and the buzzing from the forest seems to grow just a bit louder. But all of that is drowned out by the voice that comes from every direction.



"It is beautiful, isn't it?"



You look at the five other ponies, who seem just as unsure on what to do as you, and you wordlessly sit around in a circle, all of you facing outwards. A few more silent moments pass before your cult's Master's voice comes again.

"Eternity exists in here. Eternal change… eternal darkness, bathed in moonlight… And this eternity was far more common, in fact, a long, long time ago…" you almost involuntarily raise your eyebrows. Is the Master's voice almost sounding like he is… saddened?

"A long time ago the Woods could stretch much farther than it does today… It could stretch out of dreams and into the Wake, and reach far away from the holy places like the one where we gather… But that is no longer possible in this age, not in such great scale..." the voice seems to take a harder tone as it continues, an angrier tone, "not while the fires burn, not while the world blazes with light."

A twig snaps, and you nearly jump at the suddenness of it. Not because it frightened you, but because the sound came exactly from the middle of the circle. And although you know that there will be nothing there if you turn around, you can still hear the Master's voice coming from right behind you.

"We will change that, my followers. It is still possible to expand the Woods into the Wake, and to make Equestria safe once again, hidden away by its shadows. But for that to happen… there is much to be done."

At that, a shadow appears in the corner of your vision, and you know that you will see the Master if you just look a bit more to your side. But you don't, shutting your eyes tightly instead.

You can hear the Master whisper into your ears, and for some reason you can also hear the whispers to everypony else's ears.



"Comet Feet," the whispers went to the large and gruff pegasus to which you have rarely spoken to, "our followers need to be made ready, for they will sure be needed. Share your knowledge of Edge with our most loyal, and see to it that they have the required tools."

"Starry Dancer," the whispers went to the pink pegasus mare that was sitting opposite to you, "we must ensure that we are in the good graces of our current hosts. Gain the ears of the rulers of Ponyville, so that we might more easily sway them in the future."

"Copper Secateur," the whispers went to the dark red mare that you know well, "gather more followers among the simple minded, and bolster our numbers. But do not yet tread in the way of Starry Dancer's efforts."

"Windy Flakes," the whisper went to the light maned unicorn, who always seemed to have a smirk on his face, "the Wake has its rules, and we must master them. Expand out holdings, build a place where we may more easily gather, and plant the seeds that we may later reap as riches, for we will surely need them."

"Jade Whistle," the whispers went to the aloof-looking earth pony that you have only ever seen in passing, "prepare our cadre and study what components and instruments might be of use, for we will soon need to call upon greater powers."

"And Velvet Covers…" the whispers caressed your ears in an almost tickling manner, "the one we aim for is indeed very great, but like any grand castle there are many avenues to reach it. Look for a way that we might strike at her, search for a path that leads to her. Lead the way and draw the plan, so that our followers might follow your hoofsteps and enact them. But be mindful that you prepare yourself first, armed with knowledge and lore, lest you are not sufficiently prepared and become lost to us."



All of the whispers happened simultaneously and lasted the same amount of time. When they finish, however, you wonder if they were all as equally detailed as yours, or if perhaps it was an idea that was whispered to you, and you simply overheard the diminished echoes of the ideas that he gave to the others.

But as you wonder that, you realize that the presence behind you is gone, and you stand up together with your fellow ponies.

The six of you look into each other's eyes, and for some reason you simply know that you will all reconvene in two months' time, though you have no idea how you shared in that knowledge.

And with that same wordless agreement, you turn around and head back into the forest, hearing the crunching of leaves and the rustling of wood that indicates the other ponies did the same.



- - -



You have a Moth Master. What did you expect, precise instructions?

Perhaps it was intentional, perhaps it was true reminiscing, but you feel that you heard something important from your cult's Master as he spoke about (or perhaps from?) the past. Gained 1 scrap of Secret Histories Lore.

Secret Histories Lore has reached Level 1, Character Sheet updated.





POSSIBLE ACTIONS

You will have FOUR personal actions you can take, with an ADITIONAL action that can be performed by your servants (five picks total). One turn refers to a single month, and one action is (roughly) your actions during a weekend, the accumulated efforts during your nights after work or other equivalents. Try not to think too much into it.

This also means that there will be TWO turns (two sets of 4+1 actions, equivalent to two months) before you reconvene with your cult's Master. This is both so you don't have to shotgun a large amount of choices in a small period of time, and so you can check your progress and consolidate/abort an effort if you feel it's not going the way you think it should.


Specify which action will be carried out by your ponyservants. They will apply ONLY your status bonus, as they will follow instructions or carry your name and influence, but they will not apply personal bonus (bonus given by Lore, personal items, personal Characteristics or of any other nature).



Current bits: 120

Monthly revenue: 120 bits/month





[ ] On what must be done (finding a way to reach Princess Luna)
-[ ] The Dreamlands, the realm of pony dreams, is not a part of the Mansus, and yet you can see it from the Woods, far in the horizon. Search if there is a path that leads there.
-[ ] Perhaps the least subtle of options is the answer, and your target being royalty means that she is not hard to track. Get in touch with your contacts in Canterlot and try to get a hold of an invitation to some event. You surely won't get to her immediately, but it will be a first hoof into the city where she lives. Not suspicious.



[ ] On furthering the cause
-[ ] There are books that could be of use. You should start looking for them. (Will involve random expenditure of bits). All sub-choices are not suspicious.
--[ ] In Ponyville, and its… great assortments of libraries? (no extra cost)
--[ ] In the great libraries of Canterlot… the ones that are open to public access, that is (20 bits in transportation)
--[ ] In the many small bookshops that dot the side streets of Manehattan (35 bits in transportation)
-[ ] In all honesty, the Cult lacks an appropriate place for gatherings, at least when it comes to lesser meetings to discuss small matters, or to simply stash certain things. Scout for a suitable place, or other buildings that might be for sale. Not suspicious.
-[ ] Although you are personally judicious about such habits, you are still a noble. Searching for "peculiar items" to "add to your collection" is certainly not out of place... right? Suspicion depends on how strange the item scouted is.
-[ ] Copper Secateur may be in charge of finding suitable candidates, she even was the pony who first introduced you into the Wildhoof Club, but you could use followers of your own.
-[ ] You are the highest authority from your family in Ponyville, and have countless earth pony farmers working under you. The next logical step it to scout for those who would be loyal to you and your cult. (Scout out for cult candidates within your own employees). Highly suspicious.
-[ ] There is somepony in charge of the "heavy lifting" within your cult, of course, but you could do with a few strong hoofs at your personal disposal. Go looking for such contacts. Moderately suspicious.
-[ ] There are bound to be, among all of those large, strong earth ponies, some who wouldn't mind a way to make some extra bits on the side. Reach out to them. (Scout out for ponies willing to get their hoofes dirty among your own employees). Highly suspicious.
-[ ] You really shouldn't, but needs must. Every single ledger from the farms east of Ponyville pass through you, it would be a simple matter to have some "administrative mistakes" make some bits disappear from the coffers and appear in your pockets. Highly suspicious
-[ ] You cannot expect to succeed working alone, that's why you are in a cult. Take some time to help one of your colleagues. Who knows, you might even learn something from them.
--[ ] Help Comet Feet, the pegasus in charge of the "dirty business".
--[ ] Help Starry Dancer, the pink mare who seems to be in charge of the talking.
--[ ] Help Copper Secateur, your cult's eyes and ears in the dark.
--[ ] Help Windy Flakes, the unicorn seems to be in charge of most of the cult's physical possessions.
--[ ] Help Jade Whistle, the earth pony who, apparently, will be doing a lot of the "occult" for the cult.



[ ] There is too much you do not yet know. You must further your knowledge.
-[ ] The matters of [SPECIFY LORE] intrigues you, petition your cult's Master for a lesson (currently willing to teach all Lores up to level 2)
-[ ] No other sources of knowledge are currently available


[ ] The Mansus is a place of contradictions. It exists, and yet it doesn't. It is frightening, and yet it calls to you. Only through exploring it will you learn its secrets.
-[ ] Explore the Woods, and its many whispers
-[ ] You have studied the Lores, and are now more knowledgeable than before. It is time to find the paths to somewhere else, or to climb even higher into the Mansus.



[ ] Your personal life, or at least the non cult-y part
-[ ] Of course you love your family very much, but you could always spend a bit more time with them.
-[ ] Go into town and try to meet somepony interesting, there are at least six very interesting ones who just exorcised a demigoddess.
-[ ] Bits are the engine of Equestria! You have been working your hooves off for years now and should write to your parents and request an increase of your share of the family's grants.
-[ ] You do know "your place" in the family, but bits are still important. A letter asking for a one-time gift will surely be better received than one asking for a permanent "raise", right?



[ ] Others WRITE IN (anything, but i will have to consider it, and it might make the voting period a bit longer)

- - -

There will be a minimum of 24 hours for voting, and keep in mind that its two turns before you have to report to your cult's Master.
Also, for the time being you are being very cautious about keeping appearances, as well as you have your family that you don't want to suspect anything. There will be no shenanigans of "working less days a week to gain more actions".