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

[BirdBodhisattva]

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!

Spoiler: Or if you'd rather hear it from someone else

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)

 

[Doomed Wombat]

WOG is that Velvet won't do that as its suicide and she's not suicidal.

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Figured. Well guess we'll just have to try and come up with semi-reasonable explanations for all this and hope Celestia buys them.

 

[Shaper47]

Figured. Well guess we'll just have to try and come up with semi-reasonable explanations for all this and hope Celestia buys them.

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Or lie till we create that hiding secrets ritual we were thinking about, or maybe "deal" with Celestia.

We have lots of options.

 

[Doomed Wombat]

Or lie till we create that hiding secrets ritual or "deal" with Celestia.

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Rather not deal with Celestia if I'm being honest.

The most successful Cultist Simulator games are the ones where you can blend into the furniture and grab a shit ton of books, easier said than done obviously (though I have gotten good at that.) But after merking the master I'd rather take a cushy position as Celestia's chief absolutely not an inquisitor and use that as a springboard for figuring out WTF is going on

 

[Shaper47]

@BirdBodhisattva

Gotta say I love everything about this.

But what in the wolfs name is up with these rolls?

[Winter Roll]

!!!

[Success]

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[Edge Roll]

!!!

[Success]

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[Knock Roll]

…

;;;;;;

!!!!!!!!!

[Success]

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I'm pretty curious about what just happened.

 

[Pittauro]

The cloak that you have begun to use while doing Cult business, to at least help to keep your name away from the title of Loremaster, weighs heavily on you, covering up all of your physical traits with the sole exception of your horn.

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they say the Loremaster was a normal pony once, but that they gave up themselves for eldritch power.

They say there's no face under that cloak. Only a floating horn.

No, they told me it's actually a rotting corpse!

No, I Heard it's actually a doll.

How can you be so guillible? Obviously it's just the Master having fun with a second identity!

I heard she's the master's daughter!

Changelings are evil

Or at least that's what you are telling yourself right now. That's what you have been telling yourself this whole time. They are evil. They are the enemy. Their species has caused terrible harm to countless ponies.

They are not even of your species. So that makes them evil, right?

They are supposed to be evil.

They have to be evil, by their very nature.

So why…?

Why is it that…?

Why is it that they are looking at each other like that?

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How deliciously distressing for Velvet.

This is honestly what I expected and hoped for

Why is it that they look… that they feel exactly like a pony should?

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Yep, exactly what I hoped for.

Velvet is going to learn a valuable lesson here, if a cruel one: That Changelings are no different than ponies, except for their circumstances.

These two changelings in particular were doomed anyway... but from this, Velvet will learn.

And maybe, if/when she leads the Lunar Bureau, once she has the ears of the princesses... maybe she'll be able to offer mercy to the changeling survivors.

And maybe that will make this worth it, even if she'll likely never forgive herself.

So perhaps, and just perhaps, they were just acting on their necessities. This doesn't justify the result of their actions, and it never will, but perhaps they didn't really have a choice. Perhaps their motivation was not this innate evil you see in them, or that you wish to see in them, but instead just... hunger, or instinct, or even the fear of death.

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True, but by that same argument then it's understandable and acceptable for ponies to kill changelings to stop them from preying upon them.

...and to think that, in a better world, there COULD have been a better way...

Although, even though you killed it, you swear you also see the light fade from the other changeling's eyes as well. As if it finally realized, without a shadow of doubt, what its own fate will be. And also that, since its companion is now dead, it no longer has any reason to keep its bravery.

The other changeling, you see, quietly begins to cry.

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...

...

well, it's what I expected, really.

You have successfully summoned the Daughter-of-Axes. Her detailed status, and more, will be revealed on the next update.

Your first kill would have given you several different options on how to internalize your actions. However, due to there being sufficient narrative justification (the circumstances), an IC interest in a particular result (Velvet knows she needs to learn more about Winter, and Selene is a family-level priority) as well as OOC interest (the voting would most likely have gone for Winter), I will skip the voting and decide the result myself.

What you did was a mercy. That is what you will say to yourself for the rest of your life. You have gained one scrap of WINTER Lore.

Winter is now level 4.

You have gained the trait [Murderer], and that is a burden you will carry for the rest of your life, clear and obvious for all those who have the eyes to see.

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I can even sort of believe it was a mercy. They were going to die anyway, no matter what, and all that would have changed was how long they'd have had to live under torture.

Of course this doesn't make it right... but Velvet doesn't have the luxury of not committing wrong actions.

Not with what we need to do.

...I'm hoping the Alicorns and our friends won't have "the eyes to see" though.

 

[Pittauro]

My guess is that this is something that someone with good enough Winter or Edge lore can "sense" on us.

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or Lantern, maybe.

any of these 3 could reasonably sense it.

???

What about that time when we had that old yearning on?

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...ok, moth too then.

Love the game, love the world and its lore/ambiguities, but the game would be more accurately called cult simulator, sans for the exile.

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CS is the game I'd love to love. I just can't bring myself to play it after a certain point, the gameplay is just not for me.

This quest gives me my fix without having me go through the weird card gameplay.

Anyway, out of curiosity does anyone remember the plans (general or specific) for leaving the cult? Are we going to take Celestia/Cadance's offer up? If we do shall we reveal to them some of our dealings, even the whole thing, and hope that Celestia won't blast us to dust, or shall we continue to build upon foundations of deception until we have a viable explanation for how we know the things we know?

Personally, I'd go for at least some "truth" since the Master is a moth and I'm doubtful we can compete with a master of moth in causing confusion and misdirection.

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we prepare as much as possible, so that the cult won't be able to retaliate.

We save Twilight, and either bring her to our side or gaslight her and convince everyone that when she says she heard us promising to rescue her she was hallucinating.

We accept the position of head of the Lunar Bureau.

We keep our connection to the cult and any hint of the fact we know the lores as secret as possible.

We bring back Luna.

...after that, no idea. We're PROBABLY going to share most of the truth, if not all, with Luna, and ask for her advice and support. After that, the hope is that she'll become our direct superior in the Lunar Bureau, and that either she'll justify/protect us from Celestia if the truth comes up (or she has us tell it), or we continue to keep our secrets from the other Alicorns and Luna basically takes up the responsibility of vouching for us whenever we do something questionable.

And maybe, just maybe, once we have Luna we can start integrating the lores into the Lunar Bureau, without having to explain to Celestia how we learned those things.

 

[Demilich]

-The good Velvet: You are immune to your family's complicated reputation, having sufficiently distanced yourself from it... you hope;
-Murderer: "This one's hoofs have taken a life";

Incredible, that this two wound stand so close... The irony.

 

[ElMariachi]

-The good Velvet: You are immune to your family's complicated reputation, having sufficiently distanced yourself from it... you hope;
-Murderer: "This one's hoofs have taken a life";

Incredible, that this two wound stand so close... The irony.

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The apple don't fall far from the tree.

 

[Mage of Eyes]

Beautiful update. All I hoped for while voting for that option and more. Our descent continues!
Seriously, this quest is so much more interesting to play evil because of how awful evil actions feel. It isn't just some evuls: it's taken seriously, regrettable and feels like properly horrifying shit that you would expect from classic eldritch horrors. This keeps it much more real and doesn't break immersion.

 

[N39TUN3]

Well that was horrifying. Exactly what I expected.

 

[Aranfan]

 

[Byzantine]

I do not regret my choice. But ow. I have no words that can do it justice, beyond that I wish we could, perhaps, have saved them. But that was never a path we could take. And so… mercy… in so much as such cruelty can even be called that is all we had.

 

[Kymecho]

My guess is that this is something that someone with good enough Winter or Edge lore can "sense" on us.

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Jade could probably see it even if she didn't already know, being in charge of the Cadre and all. But then Jade's closeness to the Cadre isn't very well-defined.

Baldomare and similar types goes without saying.

 

[Empere]

I am incredibly angry right now, so as much as I would like to spew some bile at the thread, I won't.

Peace out for now.

 

[Aranfan]

This was a mistake. I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop this.

I would have voted for this to be an edge scrap rather than a winter scrap.

 

[tricholysis]

Velvet ends up circumventing the Master's gift, all those turns ago, and ends up here nonetheless, in order to hurt the Master. Truly unreasonable. Please. Please. That old rigmarole. Etc.

I would have voted for this to be an edge scrap rather than a winter scrap.

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I don't see how Edge would make the blow any softer. Edge is the lore of conflict, so I can only imagine that if Velvet took this as a lesson in that direction then that means that she fully internalizes the irrepressible differences and unending hatred between herself and her victims. You don't seem the sort to prefer that.

 

[Pittauro]

This was a mistake. I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop this.

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I disagree.

Our big mistake was, in my opinion, not going to Celestia when we could have, once we had just found Selene. Maybe even not choosing in favor of the betrayal right after the Path to Nightmare.


In the position we're in, now, that we're about to betray but still oh so very vulnerable... I believe this to have been the right move.

 

[MrRobot]

Yeah, we are out of fell good options now, and while i think i voted to the plan that do not killed the changelings (or at least did not voted for this plan) i do not regret the outcome, it was necessary. If is too much for some people im sad to say that the quest is going on a direction that they simplily can't follow.

 

[Pempelune]

Yeah, we are out of fell good options now, and while i think i voted to the plan that do not killed the changelings (or at least did not voted for this plan) i do not regret the outcome, it was necessary. If is too much for some people im sad to say that the quest is going on a direction that they simplily can't follow.

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There was nothing necessary about this. Other options were more costly or less convenient, but they were there. "It was a mercy" is a halfway believable lie for Velvet to tell herself, "it was necessary" really isn't.

 

[MrRobot]

There was nothing necessary about this. Other options were more costly or less convenient, but they were there. "It was a mercy" is a halfway believable lie for Velvet to tell herself, "it was necessary" really isn't.

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Honestly you can yell yourself that, but it if we let the sacrifices lie they would be used to bite us in the back like everything else. Monkey brain works on panther recognition and bird do follow a patern on their style.

 

[Doomed Wombat]

CS is the game I'd love to love. I just can't bring myself to play it after a certain point, the gameplay is just not for me.

This quest gives me my fix without having me go through the weird card gameplay.

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I do love to play it, I just find it frustrating the lack of agency you as the cultist have. Gameplay wise I get it, but its still irritating.

Otherwise I think the card game aspect is fine, although I do think it needs an organise button.

we prepare as much as possible, so that the cult won't be able to retaliate.

We save Twilight, and either bring her to our side or gaslight her and convince everyone that when she says she heard us promising to rescue her she was hallucinating.

We accept the position of head of the Lunar Bureau.

We keep our connection to the cult and any hint of the fact we know the lores as secret as possible.

We bring back Luna.

...after that, no idea. We're PROBABLY going to share most of the truth, if not all, with Luna, and ask for her advice and support. After that, the hope is that she'll become our direct superior in the Lunar Bureau, and that either she'll justify/protect us from Celestia if the truth comes up (or she has us tell it), or we continue to keep our secrets from the other Alicorns and Luna basically takes up the responsibility of vouching for us whenever we do something questionable.

And maybe, just maybe, once we have Luna we can start integrating the lores into the Lunar Bureau, without having to explain to Celestia how we learned those things.

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mmm...feels like we need to try and pull it out root and stem, but that's me.

Defo.

Neato.

Probably smart.

No idea when that will be, but hey.

Fingers crossed that works then.

Also fingers crossed Rarity doesn't rip our head off for the whole leashing her thing.

This was a mistake. I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop this.

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Don't blame yourself me dude.

 

[Pittauro]

There was nothing necessary about this. Other options were more costly or less convenient, but they were there. "It was a mercy" is a halfway believable lie for Velvet to tell herself, "it was necessary" really isn't.

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It was necessary not for this ritual, but as part of depriving the cult of resources.

and even if it was not strictly speaking necessary, they were going to die no matter what.



It still sucks, but if we wanted something different to happen we should have left the cult a long time ago.

Otherwise I think the card game aspect is fine, although I do think it needs an organise button.

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that's very much the one thing I'd love for it.

If the cards were organized automatically it would make it much easier on me, and I'd probably be more willing to go through with it.

 

[Glau]

These two changelings in particular were doomed anyway... but from this, Velvet will learn.

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Velvet has learned that she is capable of killing people in cold blood.

That's a lesson I'd prefer never be learned.

Velvet has also learned that she'd prefer to kill liabilities rather than risk then being used against her in the future.

So. The question we need to start asking is: how do we keep Velvet's goodness intact?

Personally, I'm very much in favor of never using blood sacrifices in rituals ever again, and let this be a boundary that was only transgressed once. I really don't want this to be a rachet, where every time a boundary is broken we normalize breaking it- and that means stepping back and not doing it again.


On a larger note, it's becoming increasingly obvious that we are, at some point, going to have to gamble everything on a few rolls going well for us, because we don't have any good options left. Luna, obviously. Twilight as well. Candace, and celestia. We ARE going to face reckonings, so we might as well get comfortable with the idea that there are going to be places in the near future where all we can do is hope not to die.

Ironically, avoiding those choices earlier made them inevitable.

 

[Doomed Wombat]

and even if it was not strictly speaking necessary, they were going to die no matter what.

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I'd not deal in such absolutes, but yes their chances were not very high.

We made it certain, but not high regardless.

that's very much the one thing I'd love for it.

If the cards were organized automatically it would make it much easier on me, and I'd probably be more willing to go through with it.

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Yeh. Its also got an annoying thing with the stat cards when they're exhausted and on separate timers.

Ironically, avoiding those choices earlier made them inevitable.

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Ironically.

I remember getting to the point with the door vote, reading it and going "ah shit I know what's about to happen."

Not in the sense I knew the consequences, but I knew it wasn't going to go well for...well a lot of reasons, some I do wonder why they weren't a bit more obvious?

 

[Greymere]

I'd not deal in such absolutes, but yes their chances were not very high.

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I mean, Bird flat out said they were doomed regardless of what we did. That's about as absolute you can get in a quest.