To take a guess? She wanted to commit each of her failures to memory. Ignoring that those ponies had happy living lives and people who love them. Turning them into monuments of her own selfish hatred.
I. What? Where exactly are you getting selfish hatred from?
Like, consider this: How many people are in Canterlot? How of them died, in the face of devastation such as to leave the streets wider and the buildings remade? How much space hath the graveyards? (Does this really compare
that poorly with the necessary series of mass graves?) How great the strain on the labor force, doing everything else that needed doing? I don't think it was
that much a simple calculated practical necessity on her part, but more rational alternatives aren't coming to mind.
Ignoring the previous happy lives of those ponies in the course of her reaction to everything around Luna + Chrysalis-as-Luna
and also 'Canterlot Burns' really does not strike me as in Celestia's character. Each of those things was a -1 Misery, in the roll. And really, what exactly about this strongly speaks of
ignoring those happy lives and people who love them. The way the Devastation was, I think most of those involved died alongside at least a substantial portion of their families.
...Is Paranoia going to visit Soft Sweeps? that's NOT good news! (or it could be talking about Evil, but I don't think so).
congrats, Bird. our wolfy son is really really creepy... and at the same time unreasonably endearing in some strange and twisted way.
...wait, it doesn't mean Silky, right? it would certainly make sense if the last wolf spawn, the daughter, was meant to be Silky...
Nah, I'd say Soft Sweeps. She'd be the 7th mark, she's the oldest in a few different sense, and...
"I even remember that back and forth. I said Silky wasn't a foal anymore, you said she wasn't a mare yet either, I said she is slowly becoming one…"
For the progenitor's actions will always eclipse that of the progeny.
"She still isn't a mare, though…"
Still, there is something more now.
"Of course not. But she also isn't afraid of the dark or of sleeping alone anymore. Besides, she has Selene. And we both know that it's not like we are leaving them alone in the house like-"
Something else.
"I still can't believe we haven't heard from Scootaloo's parents…"
Something new.
"Exactly. But back to my first point. We had this same conversation a year ago, but we decided to let Silky go to school, right? And how did that turn out?"
A blank space, previously untouched.
"… it was the best thing we ever did for her…"
Her territory. Her home. Her den.
"Exactly! So, I know you get nervous when it comes to our daughters. I do too. But you have to trust them that they will be alright. And you have to trust us that we did good enough so far."
There is another one, there.
"I guess…"
The oldest. The last. The least hated.
"You get used to it, love. Trust me. And your train is set to leave tomorrow, so why don't we go spend some time with them?"
It has not yet met her.
"Okay…"
Time for a visit.
A loud whistle rings from outside the train. Steam blossoms from a metal chimney. The slight shake of brakes bring you out of your reverie.
"The oldest. The last. The least hated." (In the space Velvet had been leaving blank.) The least hated. I think you see what I mean.
HE'S OUR DEPUTY?! REALLY?!
I know, right!
Somewhat obvious in hindsight, and in any case great news. As you say,,,
...This SHOULD be good... at least for now. he has the leash, after all. And if we kept the leash until after we "discovered" the lores, and convinced him to be the first official test subject of the Forge's Redemption... that could be an easy way to get him as confidant, if we can hide the cult connections...
Hopefully we won't have any problems... but we shouldn't have any until we remove the leash at the earliest.
We haz the leash, and it takes quite a bit for decisions under the leash to not be rationalized when it leaves. Morality still pressingly applies, that's the point of this whole vote, but there certainly many imagineable cases (and day-to-day Bureau setup affairs, for that matter) where it'll smooth life out for Velvet.
Depending on how events play out, we might need to pay some genuine attention to noticing the moment where it stops being necessary. At the risk of mangling a metaphor, it'd be good to see the back of the thing.
mh... as a matter of fact, this give us an excuse for going deep into the lores the moment they're "discovered" by the Bureau.
After all, imagine, from Cadance's point of view: Velvet, her dear friend, a wonderful mother and wife, just learned of a ritual that can restore her ability to have children. She got overzealous and did the ritual without first informing the alicorns, but she succeeds, proving the value of the lores.
And then she offers to do the same for Shining and Twilight's horns.
if that doesn't convince the Alicorns that the lores are worth using, NOTHING will.
We're betting on being able to either introduce the lores through Luna, or faking a "discovery" by a Bureau team (for example by hiding a copy of the library into the canterlot expedition site and having it be accidentally discovered by our agents), but if it works it would solve most of our problems.
Of course it also means we'll be stuck at 2 health max for a few more turns at least, and that might be a problem with Mareinette...
it might be worth it though.
Also getting not only the 20 bits for the ritual, but the 45 bits for a lvl 3 reagent or, even worse, the... presumably 90 bits for a lvl 4 reagent... it's a lot to ask. And it's by itself enough money to basically fund half of the canterlot expedition, possibly more if we get some of the money back.
I'm leaning towards telling her, but I'd like to see if @BirdBodhisattva has something to add about the lie we used first, why we thought she believed us, and why we think she didn't.
Ooh, now
that's a thought. More then one, in fact: I wouldn't plant the discovery
there in particular, Velvet Axe tromping through probably left some interesting traces—considering magic forensics, probably stick to 'chisel the 2- and 3-circle ritual configs onto a wall in case the Cult raids don't turn up a copy', or something like that.
IMO it's not a proper negaverse without some made-up comments as well. (Text in spoilers are copied from the original, also I'm assuming that the scenes from the real updates that had Cadence were also put in from her perspective between the planning update and leaving.)
I'll second Bird in thanking you for your addition here, negaverses just aren't quite the same without.
Will Cadance become suspicious if you ever summon Grail again? Probably not, because after this she will already have seen a "false positive" before (if you vote to show her the scar) or she just wont want to bring it up again (if you go with the lie).
Ooh, now
this is good to know! Also very much the rest of this section, but let's not lose in the shuffle that we're genuinely
fine w.r.t Grail influences.
