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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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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!

Kaelor said:
PSA for whoever needs to hear it:

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.
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(Quote slightly edited to avoid spoilers)
 
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[x] Everypony who is important enough is involved in some way. Get to know your co-equals better, from the Solar Court and elsewhere. (???)
[x] "Cadance, what do you mean keep the change? What do you mean that I should keep the change?! " (Gain 500 bits)

Neither of these options are winning, and I do like the winning options, but I do want to know more about the rest of this new government Celestia set up.
 
I greatly enjoy how being Cadance's Maid of Honor is running away with first place.

"Velvet, you have the chance to ask a Princess for almost anything. And remember she has the authority to actually grant it! So, with limitless opportunities before you, what do you ask for?"

"Maidofhonormaidofhonormaidofhonormaidofhonor--"
 
Space Murica said:
[x] Everypony who is important enough is involved in some way. Get to know your co-equals better, from the Solar Court and elsewhere. (???)
[x] "Cadance, what do you mean keep the change? What do you mean that I should keep the change?! " (Gain 500 bits)

Neither of these options are winning, and I do like the winning options, but I do want to know more about the rest of this new government Celestia set up.
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We're going to have to use a Bureau action to meet our counterparts and then more bureau or personal socials to get to know them better.
 
Corporeal Ghost said:
I greatly enjoy how being Cadance's Maid of Honor is running away with first place.

"Velvet, you have the chance to ask a Princess for almost anything. And remember she has the authority to actually grant it! So, with limitless opportunities before you, what do you ask for?"

"Maidofhonormaidofhonormaidofhonormaidofhonor--"
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I mean, when Celestia asked almost literally the same question, Velvet's response was "nothing, I just did it because you needed the help." Cadence asking the same thing and getting "Bitch, I just wanna be your friend and be there for you" makes 100 percent sense in character.
 
…Oh. Oh dear. I just realized, what the fuck will being Maid of Honor look like from an outside perspective? I mean, people know that Velvet is obviously trusted and favored by the Princesses, being the person selected to head the Bureau and all, but this is… well. It's something more than just being trusted to do an important job.
 
Void_510 said:
By that definition any skilled debater or con man engages in mind control.
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That is what debating is convincing other to change their mind AKA Mind Control. Their is a reason Athens considered debate training a key skill to political power. To the point that whose who could train people where selective in who they trained, because of the power and influence their students would gain.
 
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Ericwinter said:
…Oh. Oh dear. I just realized, what the fuck will being Maid of Honor look like from an outside perspective? I mean, people know that Velvet is obviously trusted and favored by the Princesses, being the person selected to head the Bureau and all, but this is… well. It's something more than just being trusted to do an important job.
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Well maybe if literally anyone else had turned up to help hold the country together...
 
Ericwinter said:
…Oh. Oh dear. I just realized, what the fuck will being Maid of Honor look like from an outside perspective? I mean, people know that Velvet is obviously trusted and favored by the Princesses, being the person selected to head the Bureau and all, but this is… well. It's something more than just being trusted to do an important job.
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The Bluebloods are fuming in their prison cells. They didn't even get page one of the news!
 
Ericwinter said:
I mean, when Celestia asked almost literally the same question, Velvet's response was "nothing, I just did it because you needed the help." Cadence asking the same thing and getting "Bitch, I just wanna be your friend and be there for you" makes 100 percent sense in character.
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If the three options currently winning do actually win (heck if any of the top four options win), Velvet is using this opportunity to either get closer to Cadance OR help out a friend. There's very little being chosen that's solely for her own benefit. Other than becoming Maid of Honor, she's helping some combination of Rarity, Twilight, and a miscellaneous sum of people that she only kind of knows.
 
Corporeal Ghost said:
If the three options currently winning do actually win (heck if any of the top four options win), Velvet is using this opportunity to either get closer to Cadance OR help out a friend. There's very little being chosen that's solely for her own benefit. Other than becoming Maid of Honor, she's helping some combination of Rarity, Twilight, and a miscellaneous sum of people that she only kind of knows.
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SHHHHHH! Celestia's watching. :V
 
Corporeal Ghost said:
If the three options currently winning do actually win (heck if any of the top four options win), Velvet is using this opportunity to either get closer to Cadance OR help out a friend. There's very little being chosen that's solely for her own benefit. Other than becoming Maid of Honor, she's helping some combination of Rarity, Twilight, and a miscellaneous sum of people that she only kind of knows.
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Yep. The thing about Velvet that people forget is that, for all the terrible things she has caused she is, at heart, an extremely Harmonious person, and that is why she is so terrifying.

Because evil is illogical. Evil destroys those who would help you, inspires opposition, and weakens you at every turn. But good? Good means you have Allies. Good strengthens and reinforces your powerbase by building it up. Good ends your enemies by having them simply refuse to fight you. Good terrifies me more than Evil ever will because a good person can take over a country, and that country will love them for it.
 
I mean, most people doing evil I think try to convince others, and often themselves that their Evil deeds are Good actually, or justifiable in the service of Good, or at the very least morally neutral and those who try to stop them are just oppressive. Which lets you 'get around' a lot of said 'problems' with being evil. And in fact, in a society where that takes root, doing the actual Good thing is actually what gets you a lot of the trouble, while accepting the lie that calls Evil Good is rewarded.
 
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Ericwinter said:
It's honestly kind of sad because, ironically, Comet once trusted her. To be honest, he probably still does. He, of all people, knows she would walk into the lair of a monster that could and would kill her in a bid to save that monster's soul, simply because one of her friends cared. Because she cared. Velvet has only ever had the best of intentions, and that probably scares him more than anything else.

After all, how else does one pave a road to hell?
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With like, 6 Regrettable Actions. 7 tops.

Corporeal Ghost said:
I greatly enjoy how being Cadance's Maid of Honor is running away with first place.

"Velvet, you have the chance to ask a Princess for almost anything. And remember she has the authority to actually grant it! So, with limitless opportunities before you, what do you ask for?"

"Maidofhonormaidofhonormaidofhonormaidofhonor--"
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I personally find it to be a waste of things, though perfectly understandable IC. I just know we're incredibly close to Cadenza anyways though, so mechanically it feels pretty meh.
 
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