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.

Click to shrink...

(Quote slightly edited to avoid spoilers)

 

[Pittauro]

I'm quite certain that a not-insignificant portion of those Twilight-votes are from people who decided it was a vote for Cadance convincing Twilight to be our true-blue student/friend again. And it makes me grumpy because I'm pretty sure that's not what that option is going to pull at all.

Click to shrink...

That didn't look like it to me.

It was pretty clear from the beginning that this option, while it MIGHT improve Velvet's relationship with Twilight, it's mainly aimed at improving Twilight's mental state and strenghten her relationship with what little family she has left, hopefully with a side of "and now we can remove the Leash".


Admittedly Bird just came out and said "you can't be sure Cadance will actually go and visit her", that we're just pointing out it might be wise to check up on her and we don't know what comes up from it...

...but Cadance LOVES Twilight. she was her foalsitter, arguably the only person Twilight respected in her pre-ponyville days besides Celestia, Shining Armor and her family.

She is the princess of Love, and that's not JUST romantic love. And I can't imagine Cadance being reminded of her little sister-in-law-to-be, and just go "eh, I'm sure she's fine, I'm too busy choosing the type of napkins to use at the wedding".

She is currently understandably distracted. but once reminded... well, I think the best of Cadance. I trust her to do what she thinks is right. And I trust that will be of help to Twilight.

Even ignoring all that, Twilight is her beloved's only remaining family. I think she'd check up on her even just in her hopes to help HIM, at the very least.

 

[Venerable Ro]

...but Cadance LOVES Twilight. she was her foalsitter, arguably the only person Twilight respected in her pre-ponyville days besides Celestia, Shining Armor and her family.

She is the princess of Love, and that's not JUST romantic love. And I can't imagine Cadance being reminded of her little sister-in-law-to-be, and just go "eh, I'm sure she's fine, I'm too busy choosing the type of napkins to use at the wedding".

She is currently understandably distracted. but once reminded... well, I think the best of Cadance. I trust her to do what she thinks is right. And I trust that will be of help to Twilight.

Even ignoring all that, Twilight is her beloved's only remaining family. I think she'd check up on her even just in her hopes to help HIM, at the very least.

Click to shrink...

And I get that, I really do, if it all leads to a It's A Wonderful Life scene of Cadance hopped up on wedding Love making a series of uncontested perfect rolls to save Twilight's soul that would be fantastic. No arguments at all from me.

I'm just beset with curmudgeonly grumbles at the thought that our intervention/reminder is the only reason Cadance would go check on Twilight, for the same reasons as you just listed. Sure we're interfering in Shining's ability to listen to Twilight's suspicions, but that doesn't extend to the rest of his state of mind or someone would have noticed. Certainly Cadance, who is completely free and clear, should have reacted long before now, and without our reminder. Basically, I object to doing ponies' jobs for them.

 

[Pittauro]

And I get that, I really do, if it all leads to a It's A Wonderful Life scene of Cadance hopped up on wedding Love making a series of uncontested perfect rolls to save Twilight's soul that would be fantastic. No arguments at all from me.

I'm just beset with curmudgeonly grumbles at the thought that our intervention/reminder is the only reason Cadance would go check on Twilight, for the same reasons as you just listed. Sure we're interfering in Shining's ability to listen to Twilight's suspicions, but that doesn't extend to the rest of his state of mind or someone would have noticed. Certainly Cadance, who is completely free and clear, should have reacted long before now, and without our reminder. Basically, I object to doing ponies' jobs for them.

Click to shrink...

mh... put yourself in Cadance's shoes though.

Last time she saw Twilight, she had been rescued, she (and Shining) had spent some time with her, and Twilight was, if not mine, at least emoting. Showing emotions.

She laughed, she showed anger at not being informed of their relationships... she looked better.

Then they left, Cadance and Shining are explicitly overworked and super-stressed, WE made sure Shining wouldn't linger too long on thoughts of Twilight due to her accusations (which is NOT how I thought the Leash would be applied, by the way, otherwise I think I would have strongly argued for the other option), and Cadance is presumably trusting Shining (who she KNOWS love her sister) and Velvet (who she believes to be really close to Twilight, especially considering the official story is that we found her/saved her, even if there's no details of the how) to keep an eye on her.


So, when Velvet, her bestest friend (especially if the "get even closer to Cadance") option wins, who she THOUGHT was close to Twilight, and presumably trusted to check up on her, comes to her and tell her "Cadance, maybe we should check up on her"...

well, NOW Cadance has a reason to actually worry. Because the implication is that Velvet doesn't think she can do it on her own. And she MIGHT have heard of how Twilight accused us, and thus might realize WHY she doesn't trust us. Or maybe she'll just think she got worse.




The point is, Cadance could be reasonably safe in the knowledge Velvet would keep an eye on her little sister-in-law-to-be, and now Velvet is telling her it's not enough. I think it makes enough sense she didn't check on her BEFORE, and it would make a lot of sense if she checked on her AFTER.


If anything, the one without any excuse is Celestia.

 

[zxzx24]

Celestia is REALLY busy throwing a tantrum.

 

[Bakkasama]

[X] "But none of them are nobles. Are you sure I can invite them?" (Increase all non-locked ponies in your Contacts list to Good Friends)
[x] "Cadance, what do you mean keep the change? What do you mean that I should keep the change?! " (Gain 500 bits)

[X] "What do you mean you want a traditional wedding? Cadance, you are literally writing tradition right now. You are a Princess for-…! Alright, fine, I'll check the Royal Archives." (Heart)

 

[Iustus Vitae]

Didn't Cadance and Shinning forget to invite Twilight to their wedding or something? In canon that is.

 

[NMS]

Didn't Cadance and Shinning forget to invite Twilight to their wedding or something? In canon that is.

Click to shrink...

IIRC, they did invite her. They just forgot to mention that they were in a relation at all to her before that point.

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

We really need those additional friends they will be so good to have. Not only will it give us effective control over the town of Ponyville. We would finally have enough people to tackle the backlog of stuff we have never gotten to.

We could assign them to research and develop the Ritual to Grant an additional health to someone, so we can stop being on 2 health all the time. We could also have them Research a 3 circle version of Calling an influence, that can grant the influence to the pony other then the caster. We could have Cheerilee handle examining Scootaloo to find out why her wings don't work, and if we can fix them with the Lores.

Just thing of all the ideas, and stuff we have wanted to get to but have not been able to because Velvet had more important stuff to do. With the 4 added to our friend circle we can have them do the research, and development needed to unlock a lot of High value stuff. All the little things that Velvet just is busy for, as they do not provide immediate benefit compared to what Velvet could be doing.

 

[zxzx24]

Cadence will for sure be an additional friend yes?

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

Cadence will for sure be an additional friend yes?

Click to shrink...

In case you missed it Cadence already considers Velvet her best friend.

 

[Solace2117]

Also as far I can tell Good Friends do not get AP. They can assist Velvet with what she's doing, but they don't do stuff by themselves until they are Confidants. As I've said I don't think the pick is terrible, just not in a clearing out backlog or controlling Ponyville kind of way. Saves us an action with Applejack. Do we need to reduce suspicion, we can talk to Mayor Mare. Can we think of a local business deal, our good friend Filthy Rich could help. All useful to have, but would still require an action on Velvet's part.
Really it could be in an interesting scene with all the Ponyville people at the party, though I think I prefer the Rarity option a little more. I've made my opinion on the Twilight choice pretty clear. Really the bridesmaid choice I'm not as interested in, but I think it's the one that makes the most sense considering considering Cadence's opinion of Velvet

 

[Void_510]

We really need those additional friends they will be so good to have. Not only will it give us effective control over the town of Ponyville. We would finally have enough people to tackle the backlog of stuff we have never gotten to.

We could assign them to research and develop the Ritual to Grant an additional health to someone, so we can stop being on 2 health all the time. We could also have them Research a 3 circle version of Calling an influence, that can grant the influence to the pony other then the caster. We could have Cheerilee handle examining Scootaloo to find out why her wings don't work, and if we can fix them with the Lores.

Just thing of all the ideas, and stuff we have wanted to get to but have not been able to because Velvet had more important stuff to do. With the 4 added to our friend circle we can have them do the research, and development needed to unlock a lot of High value stuff. All the little things that Velvet just is busy for, as they do not provide immediate benefit compared to what Velvet could be doing.

Click to shrink...

A lot of the things you mentioned would only work after we have raised them to confidant and inducted them into the lores. So at minimum 8 AP and 2 turns to get them to a level some ppl complain our current confidants are mostly useless for the kinds of things you want them to do.
Then 3 more turns to raise their levels either using their action to study and buying books to cover any holes in the secret library not filled by the loot from the expeditions we haven't gone on or using our own actions to raise them up.

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

A lot of the things you mentioned would only work after we have raised them to confidant and inducted them into the lores. So at minimum 8 AP and 2 turns to get them to a level some ppl complain our current confidants are mostly useless for the kinds of things you want them to do.
Then 3 more turns to raise their levels either using their action to study and buying books to cover any holes in the secret library not filled by the loot from the expeditions we haven't gone on or using our own actions to raise them up.

Click to shrink...

Good friends can be introduced to the lores, they explicitly do not need to be confidants to learn about the lores. They can all learn from the Library to get to the 0 and 1 level one level. And Our current confidants are mostly hobbled because we have so few, their rolls are not worth wasting on things that they are not good at.

For example the Ritual to grant additional health. We could have anybody research, and develop it, but they could also be doing something that gives imminent benefit. But with the 4 new friends we can tackle low value tasks because their will be people that have nothing to do on a turn. And their is also the unique actions they can take, like Cheeliee pulling Scootaloo medical records, and examining her. None of our confidants could do that but Cheeliee could.

And frankly their lore levels will stop mattering shortly, as I at least plan to go after all the level 6 Artifacts. That allows our inner circle to artificially raise their lore levels for any given task to 6. One of the reason I do not see a need to involve Rarity in the wedding dress, the small boost from it, is nothing to the Boost having the Carcass Spark Forge 6 artifact providing her with +30 Reroll to dress making every turn going foward.

 

[Pittauro]

raise their lore levels for any given task to 6. One of the reason I do not see a need to involve Rarity in the wedding dress, the small boost from it, is nothing to the Boost having the Carcass Spark Forge 6 artifact providing her with +30 Reroll to dress making every turn going foward.

Click to shrink...

I've already said how I don't think they'll be as useful as you said, that I don't think we'll actually pursue more than one of them (making the other two not quite wasted, as good friends still have uses, but they're ASSISTANTS to our actions and don't actually do their own AP actions for us), and We don't even know if they'll have an attitude for ritual creation (that's not exactly easy. Jade has been the only one to create a new ritual as far as we know, and we don't know if that's only because she's the only one who tried, or if it's because she has a talent for it. I lean towards the second one).


But even ignoring all that, at this on this point I have to remind you that artifact bonuses only apply to KNOWLEDGE bonuses (so ritual rolls and mansus challenges), NOT application bonuses. So unless that Forge 6 artifact has a specific effect boosting dressmaking, it will NOT be of any help to Rarity's career.


Having more artifacts is good for mainly 3 things: their specific effects, the scraps of lore they give us when studied, and the fact we can have our confidants and summons use them for rituals or, potentially, to climb the mansus (though we don't really have a reason to push them up in the mansus, at least as of right now)

 

[Greymere]

For example the Ritual to grant additional health. We could have anybody research, and develop it, but they could also be doing something that gives imminent benefit. But with the 4 new friends we can tackle low value tasks because their will be people that have nothing to do on a turn. And their is also the unique actions they can take, like Cheeliee pulling Scootaloo medical records, and examining her. None of our confidants could do that but Cheeliee could.

Click to shrink...

You're missing the point, which is that we can't ask Good Friends to do things for us on their own. Being able to 'assign' them tasks is literally the main benefit of getting to Confidant status. The most we could do is ask them to help out with an action we're already doing.

But even ignoring all that, at this on this point I have to remind you that artifact bonuses only apply to KNOWLEDGE bonuses (so ritual rolls and mansus challenges), NOT application bonuses. So unless that Forge 6 artifact has a specific effect boosting dressmaking, it will NOT be of any help to Rarity's career.

Click to shrink...

That is an idea though. Getting an artifact that can improve Rarity's work rolls. An enchanted needle of some kind, maybe? Rarity getting higher rolls on her work is universally good for us, especially since she still seems to roll even when focusing.

 

[Void_510]

Good friends can be introduced to the lores, they explicitly do not need to be confidants to learn about the lores.

Click to shrink...

I'll give you this one, I was wrong.

They can all learn from the Library to get to the 0 and 1 level one level. And Our current confidants are mostly hobbled because we have so few, their rolls are not worth wasting on things that they are not good at.

Click to shrink...

We waste them on mundane things all the time because their lores are too low to use them for lore stuff.

For example the Ritual to grant additional health. We could have anybody research, and develop it, but they could also be doing something that gives imminent benefit. But with the 4 new friends we can tackle low value tasks because their will be people that have nothing to do on a turn. And their is also the unique actions they can take, like Cheeliee pulling Scootaloo medical records, and examining her. None of our confidants could do that but Cheeliee could.

Click to shrink...

Or we could ask her as the friend she is now with the only difference being she could say no or we could take her to an actual doctor, or have her examined by one of the lore monsters we summon since we're trying to use the lores to heal her.

"GRAIL?"

And frankly their lore levels will stop mattering shortly, as I at least plan to go after all the level 6 Artifacts. That allows our inner circle to artificially raise their lore levels for any given task to 6. One of the reason I do not see a need to involve Rarity in the wedding dress, the small boost from it, is nothing to the Boost having the Carcass Spark Forge 6 artifact providing her with +30 Reroll to dress making every turn going foward.

Click to shrink...

and I plan to go after securing our summons long term. Level 6 book, Frangliclave, whatever Biedde wants.

And then summoning MitL and hey, we now have lots of extra AP.

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

and I plan to go after securing our summons long term. Level 6 book, Frangliclave, whatever Biedde wants.

And then summoning MitL and hey, we now have lots of extra AP.

Click to shrink...

That gives us more AP not spare AP their is difference. Names/summons are to valuable to waste on low value tasks, like researching a ritual to grant more health, looking for the low level Ponyville expeditions, figuring out why Scootaloo wings do not work. These are all things that our Names/summons will never do because they have much more valuable things to be doing.

 

[Greymere]

That gives us more AP not spare AP their is difference. Names/summons are to valuable to waste on low value tasks, like researching a ritual to grant more health, looking for the low level Ponyville expeditions, figuring out why Scootaloo wings do not work. These are all things that our Names/summons will never do because they have much more valuable things to be doing.

Click to shrink...

And they are also things that Good Friends cannot do, only Confidants and up, because independent tasks can't just be assigned to Good Friends like that. Because that is literally the thing that mechanically distinguishes a Good Friend from a Confidant.

Edit: Also I wouldn't say that researching a ritual to gain more health would be 'low value'. Especially since people seem generally adverse to having the resident Heart/Grail name do anything social, and I'd imagine such a ritual would be at least partly Heart-based. Maybe Heart/Forge (or Forge/Heart, either way). And Mareinette gets a +40 general bonus anyway.

Edit 2: Or maybe we can set Mareinette on developing a warding ritual against killing ritual. That'd definitely be part Heart.

 

[Iustus Vitae]

No they are not. Names, I'll give you are, too valuable for some of those actions but something like a MitL? Nope. Summon a bunch and use them for whatever task mundane or not. Names are important both because they are powerful and because they are unique with unique abilities. The mundane summons are not. Yes there is a cash problem involved but by the point we can, in all practicality, guarantee a summon it shouldn't be that much of an issue.

Like the ideal next few turns is going to be using Axe to clear expeditions, Marinette and Biedde and Velvet to deal with Copper cult and Windy (after that we can have Biedde guard us or make cash while Marinette either finally gets to social or we throw her at expeditions/investigations), Baldomare to find shit out for us and if we summon any additional Names we'll find some use for them too I'm sure. Of these in the ideal scenario we have extended Baldomare's stay, have DoA permanently, Marinette is going to be a problem in 7 turns while Biedde and any other Names we find will operate by Baldomare rules and so have a 6 turn period before which we have to repay their cost. That's a lot of time and money to summon a bunch of more normal Mansus creatures to throw at other tasks.

 

[Talon TigerDino]

Applejack as a forge pony would be useful for building things, as we get reminded every time we see the actions for Jade's old house. Filthy Rich's applications are obvious and, honestly speaking, not terribly lore-dependent. Mayor Mare is the head of local government and local law (and hopefully a way to render grave-robbing suspicion free so we can have free zombie minions at all times). Cheerilee is, well, I can't think up anything for her.

Also random brain blast: since Bird puts actions in the order that benefits us most, should Twilight be unlocked from Acquaintance, then she would be promptly rocketed up to Good Friend. Which would be insane.

Uh, technically it's just a big fat ???, and its already stated the options aren't equal? (So we could end up bringing 4 level 4 books home, for instance; to say nothing of the possibiliy of us NOT getting books that don't require returning, and getting stuff like Artifacts instead?)

Also, your approval vote is missing a Lore, I believe the most-voted for option is Secret Histories so far?

Click to shrink...

Technically it's a ???, but practically people said, "That's a book," and Bird went, "Yeah, it's a book." I think the ??? is for everything else that happens while exploring the Archives.

Thanks for catching my vote error though, I'll be sure to take care of it.

 

[Tomsawyer18]

Cheerilee is, well, I can't think up anything for her.

Click to shrink...

Just wait until we find out that she could have made a super efficient lore lesson plan for Selene and we could have saved months and months of turn time on the lessons

 

[Talon TigerDino]

Just wait until we find out that she could have made a super efficient lore lesson plan for Selene and we could have saved months and months of turn time on the lessons

Click to shrink...

But that would have meant less Selene time, and that's terrible.

 

[Void_510]

That gives us more AP not spare AP their is difference. Names/summons are to valuable to waste on low value tasks, like researching a ritual to grant more health, looking for the low level Ponyville expeditions, figuring out why Scootaloo wings do not work. These are all things that our Names/summons will never do because they have much more valuable things to be doing.

Click to shrink...

We don't use the spare ap we have now. Rarity has focused on her work for 2 turns and Jade is currently resting.

And if they aren't a condidante I wouldn't use them in most of our lore stuff. It's where we get up to all of our shady shit and only confidante is help you hide a body.

Cheerilee is useless to our goals beyond a set of hands as I'm not so heartless that I want to sacrifice our childs teacher to a sacrament. Mayor Mare, controlling Ponyville ourselves - that ship has sailed. Filthy Rich - sacrament sacrifice. Applejack - gotta catch them all.

If we want to mess with Ponyville then suborn our little brother and have him run it. It's what he's here to do on orders of our father so all his background actions will be towards this goal and we won't have to worry about it while solving that chink in our armor or fighting him for control of Ponyville. And we could help him be a better person.

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

No they are not. Names, I'll give you are, too valuable for some of those actions but something like a MitL? Nope. Summon a bunch and use them for whatever task mundane or not. Names are important both because they are powerful and because they are unique with unique abilities. The mundane summons are not. Yes there is a cash problem involved but by the point we can, in all practicality, guarantee a summon it shouldn't be that much of an issue.

Click to shrink...

A Mitl can cast reflection of the Tapestry and guard the family and that is about it. We already have 3 people that cast RotT without issues, and we do not need them to Guard the family is we control the town. So they seem overall usless save as expedition fodder. Not to mention the whole 55 bits cost we cannot pay when we have 2 names to summons.

 

[Pittauro]

That is an idea though. Getting an artifact that can improve Rarity's work rolls. An enchanted needle of some kind, maybe? Rarity getting higher rolls on her work is universally good for us, especially since she still seems to roll even when focusing.

Click to shrink...

it's possible, sure. I'm not sure it's worth the AT LEAST 2 or 3 actions necessary for it (to scry and acquire such an artifact).

And that's assuming an artifact SPECIFICALLY helping dressmaking/tailoring even exists.

Right now it's just easier to bring her to 4/2, and between that, her considerable (mundane) talent and experience, and the fame boost from the wedding dress (assuming she wins) she'll basically be as famous and recognized as she could possibly be anyway.

At some point it's just... not really worth it to invest more for negligible gains in fame/income/quality.

That gives us more AP not spare AP their is difference. Names/summons are to valuable to waste on low value tasks, like researching a ritual to grant more health, looking for the low level Ponyville expeditions, figuring out why Scootaloo wings do not work. These are all things that our Names/summons will never do because they have much more valuable things to be doing.

Click to shrink...

And they are also things that Good Friends cannot do, only Confidants and up, because independent tasks can't just be assigned to Good Friends like that. Because that is literally the thing that mechanically distinguishes a Good Friend from a Confidant.

Click to shrink...

and if they're so low value, maybe they're just not worth pursuing.

and again, we're really unlikely to pursue more than 1 of the new good friends we'd get anyway, because turning a good friend into a confidant is a non negligible investment in effort and resources. And I speak as the one who made the plan that made Rarity our confidant.

I mean, "looking for low level ponyville expeditions"... isn't it actually a possibly servant action? We haven't done it because we just weren't that interested in expeditions until recently, when bits became scarcer and book shops became too pricey to be worth considering.

Having to rank our new confidants, teach them... it's not an investment I think we're actually going to commit to. I'm not against potentially working on one or two of the ponyville ponies if we run our of fires to put down (and confidants to teach to), but I don't see us doing it anytime soon, even if this option wins.

No they are not. Names, I'll give you are, too valuable for some of those actions but something like a MitL? Nope. Summon a bunch and use them for whatever task mundane or not. Names are important both because they are powerful and because they are unique with unique abilities. The mundane summons are not. Yes there is a cash problem involved but by the point we can, in all practicality, guarantee a summon it shouldn't be that much of an issue.

Like the ideal next few turns is going to be using Axe to clear expeditions, Marinette and Biedde and Velvet to deal with Copper cult and Windy (after that we can have Biedde guard us or make cash while Marinette either finally gets to social or we throw her at expeditions), Baldomare to find shit for us and if we summon any additional Names we'll find some use for them too I'm sure. Of these in the ideal scenario we have extended Baldomare's stay, have DoA permanently, Marinette is going to be a problem in 7 turns while Biedde and any other Names we find will operate by Baldomare rules and so have a 6 turn period before which we have to repay their cost. That's a lot of time and money to summon a bunch of normal summons to throw at other tasks.

Click to shrink...

also all of this. low level summons CAN take care of some low-level actions. Not ALL of them, of course, but some. and Axe and Mareinette can do expeditions all on their own except for maybe the most difficult ones, where we'd want to send Velvet (and anybody else is basically useless anyway).

Like, the Overkill "can do anything" expedition team is basically Velvet (omni-lore bonuses and rerolls) + Mareinette (social focus) + Axe (all non social challenges). Maybe replace Axe or Mareinette with Biedde if we expect there to be a lot of combat.