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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I made it!
What a journey since the Best Running Quest was announced! So many late evenings...

Anyhow I will not weight in on this vote because it seems done already. I do have a question through: When the Risen investigated not!Twilight we were told that it found no hint wether Spike is a changeling as well (through it had no lore to fall back on). So was he a changeling and they did something to him in Canterlot or was he left with the other prisoners in the hive or had he tried to defend not!Twilight?
 
Portec said:
I made it!
What a journey since the Best Running Quest was announced! So many late evenings...

Anyhow I will not weight in on this vote because it seems done already. I do have a question through: When the Risen investigated not!Twilight we were told that it found no hint wether Spike is a changeling as well (through it had no lore to fall back on). So was he a changeling and they did something to him in Canterlot or was he left with the other prisoners in the hive or had he tried to defend not!Twilight?
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His official death reason says the Changelings killed him by draining him of too much Love, so I assume he was abducted alongside Twilight.
 
Ericwinter said:
However, what he's doing might not be harmful. Velvet was not the first person to abandon ship, let alone the only, and she has not actually made moves against the Cult except that one ritual aimed at Copper, and only as a reactive measure. Hell, she went after a bunch of nobles with her new Bureau, not the actual perpetrators of either great tragedy we've seen in the quest. Theoretically Velvet could, and probably is an enemy to the Master, but she hasn't acted like it. Not to mention she's the closest person to Glory, and always has been. I'm honestly more worried about the Master going after Windy or Comet Feet than Velvet.
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This feels... Unlikely? At the very least OOC we know he's committed to snuffing the lights, which will be bad.

But I also don't really buy the "actually he might not be mad at Velvet" piece. Or, well, the master is mothy enough anything is possible, but I don't think it's likely.

But the whole accepting the role as head of the Lunar Bureau sure looks bad, even if our first action wasn't occult-related. I don't think being bridesmaid will be good either. And certainly once Luna is back that would drive it home.
 
Aranfan said:
your name is easier to spell than pittoro
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it is not!
BlueSteel said:
Any recommendations for threads to read.
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you'd have to be more specific in what you'd like to read.

if you want original sci-fi, Practice War and its sequel is really good (though I didn't finish it). If you like Naruto and Cultivation, Konoha Sect of Chakra Cultivation is basically THE other quest I'm following beside this one. If you'd like a Plan-Quest, there's "Attempting to Fulfill the Plan MNKh Edition" where we control the ministry of economy of the URSS. If you don't dislike quests in hard mode, millions of words of backlog, and rational-fic style, you could try the Marked for Death naruto quest (definitely NOT for everyone).

And so on.

Ericwinter said:
She had a Lantern Level 2 artifact, and nothing else. At least from what we saw. And while the Cadre had Levels one and two, it was still Copper leading the ritual, as a Grail main trying to brute force a Knock/SH/Lantern ritual. So yeah, it was… really whacky. Especially since she was neither Loremistress nor ritual master.
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I like to believe that Copper doing the ritual in person was a narrative side-effect of Paranoia being around...
 
spiderhellian said:
This feels... Unlikely? At the very least OOC we know he's committed to snuffing the lights, which will be bad.
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They're Moth. They might have changed their mind.

Pittauro said:
it is not!
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I mean, you're literally quoting them misspelling it. Though I will note that , at least for me, when you put the @ symbol and start typing a name it brings up potential completed ones. Just put Pitt and it brings you up as, like, second.
 
[X] "I would be honored to be the maid of honor." (Become closer to Cadance)
[X] "Your dress is good. But it could be better. I know a mare..." (Involve Rarity in dressmaking. Applies Rarity's Lore levels)
[X] "Cadance, both you and Shining sent invitations to Twilight. But maybe we should… check on her in person?" (???)
 
[X] "I would be honored to be the maid of honor." (Become closer to Cadance)
[X] You will spend a long time with Cadance. Whisper a few Lore-secrets, here and there. (???)
[X] "Your dress is good. But it could be better. I know a mare..." (Involve Rarity in dressmaking. Applies Rarity's Lore levels)

I read this entire quest over the past few weeks and I've really, truly enjoyed it. There's a ton of well-done writing in here and the expansive lore, and the way everything has blended together is wonderful. I'm a little... worried about what's going to happen with Selene, especially with the timing of her returning to Luna coinciding with Mareinette's request, but I'm hopeful that will go well.

Oh, and just as an informational - is there a way to see what the current vote status is in the future? I see people talking about which options are winning and I'm not sure if there's a way to see the running count or if it's just people reading through all the posts and keeping a rough tally.
 
shmone else said:
Oh, and just as an informational - is there a way to see what the current vote status is in the future? I see people talking about which options are winning and I'm not sure if there's a way to see the running count or if it's just people reading through all the posts and keeping a rough tally.
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At the top of the page, there should be a button that says Thread tools. Click it, then click the vote tally in the dropdown menu. This will pull up the vote tally tool, which should show the most recent counting someone has done, and you can make a new one if you press new tally. While there are other functions, it's probably best not to mess with them at the moment since it's set up properly already.
 
[X] "I would be honored to be the maid of honor." (Become closer to Cadance)
[X] "Your dress is good. But it could be better. I know a mare..." (Involve Rarity in dressmaking. Applies Rarity's Lore levels)
[X] "Cadance, both you and Shining sent invitations to Twilight. But maybe we should… check on her in person?" (???)
[X] "Cadance, what do you mean keep the change? What do you mean that I should keep the change?! " (Gain 500 bits)

I have to agree that picking up a bunch of Good Friends is questionably useful at this stage of the game.
 
[x] "Cadance, both you and Shining sent invitations to Twilight. But maybe we should… check on her in person?" (???)
[x] "Your dress is good. But it could be better. I know a mare..." (Involve Rarity in dressmaking. Applies Rarity's Lore levels)
[x] You will spend a long time with Cadance. Whisper a few Lore-secrets, here and there. (???)
[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)
 
Skelm said:
I have to agree that picking up a bunch of Good Friends is questionably useful at this stage of the game.
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Personally I continue to disagree, this isn't an MMO where NPCs wait placidly for years for the player to solve their problems, Bird has been very clear about characters pursuing their own lives and goals independent of us. And, as Copper has amply demonstrated, they can go in directions we'd rather they didn't when ignored and/or slighted.

For that matter, I really don't know where/why this idea that Ponyville is a starting zone that we've "outgrown" comes from. We just had the meeting with Mayor Mare about the town getting bigger, more ponies means more opportunities. Luna's about to come back, Cadance is getting married, Ponyville's getting bigger, the Bureau is a turn or two from really getting to work, this should in no way be considered a "finished version" of the environment we'll be working in.
 
Two votes nearly missed in a row, I'm losing my touch. :V

In all seriousness, I've been unfortunately very busy lately and unable to participate in the discussion. I'll try to catch up with the thread later, but based off of just my initial impressions it looks like I'm mostly following the zeitgeist, as reported by the vote tally.

[X] "I would be honored to be the maid of honor." (Become closer to Cadance)
I want to be friends with Cadence. We've been pushing that for a while for the mechanical effects, and I also want to read about it. Maybe the Mane Six is off the table, but I think we could still get all the alicorns if we play our cards right.

[X] "Your dress is good. But it could be better. I know a mare..." (Involve Rarity in dressmaking. Applies Rarity's Lore levels)
Same thing again, good mechanically for more bits, plus I think it would make a good story. Being the dressmaker for the only ever royal wedding is sure to be a boost to both her income potential and friendship with us.

[X] You will spend a long time with Cadance. Whisper a few Lore-secrets, here and there. (???)
The ??? makes me nervous, but I think having a non-suspicious alicorn at all positive about the Lores will be incredibly useful to us. Sure, Luna will probably be on our side, but last time Luna came back she was an imposter, so there's some mistrust there. Cadence doesn't have that issue.

As for the rest of the options, the 500 bits is somewhat tempting, but we're already saving ~95 (iirc) from the Pride gifts, so we've already alleviated the crunch somewhat. I don't feel like inviting our family, the Names, or Fluttershy/Comet will do much narratively or mechanically for us that I particularly want to see, and the Good Friends and coworker options aren't so urgent that we can't do them some other time with regular actions if or when we need them. The Royal Archives one seems to me like it will be some sort of physical reward, maybe a book, maybe an artifact, maybe something else, but I doubt it will be totally unique like these other options are. We can find old books in lots of other places, such as expeditions. I don't want to spend one of our only three ever wedding picks on it.

Finally, Twilight. New paragraph for this one. I remember that there had been some discussion a while ago about Velvet acting like she knows better than everyone, which in some circumstances she certainly does. The Worms, for example, are a very big problem and we are one of the very few ponies that even know about them, let alone how to potentially stop them. However, I don't think that Twilight is an issue where we know better, making us automatically justified in doing things "for the greater good". First off, it's not a huge end-of-the-world type situation, it's a relationship issue and secondly, we don't have undeniable proof for our perspective. Maybe Twilight just wants nothing more to do with us, like she told us to our face. While the savior mindset might be necessary for the world and the Worms, we don't need to stay locked into it for smaller, more mundane problems such as "somepony doesn't want to be friends with us". Maybe intervening would be the right thing, but I'm not willing to risk that maybe, not when we could be both following Twilight's directly stated wishes and doing something more useful at the same time.
 
BirdBodhisattva said:
They took some ponies away, Velvet, for food, or whatever else they do. But we are looking for them. However… as grim as it might be, there is still some hope, even in that. Because we have been finding them. After the attack, we have been looking for the missing ponies everywhere, on the outskirts of all the major cities and the mountains of Canterlot itself."
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BirdBodhisattva said:
"The guard is stretched thin doing this. We can't send too many, because we can't open our guard, but we are still sending everypony we can. But so far, all the kidnapped ponies we found were still alive. So I hope… I know Twilight is alive. And we have to look for her. We will look for her."
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So maybe we will be rescuing more ponies as time goes along in the Bureau?


jelloloaf said:
Maybe intervening would be the right thing, but I'm not willing to risk that maybe, not when we could be both following Twilight's directly stated wishes and doing something more useful at the same time.
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The only outcomes we are sure of by taking that option is that we will mention it to Cadance, and what she will then do is a mystery; so for all we know things will be kicked off in the background that we will never hear of again through this option.
 
lurker9875 said:
Suppose they exist.
We are going to pursue them, with what AP (even after that Pick)?

It might be worth if we were running a Cult, but we aren't?
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The free AP we get to perform a social action with an acquaintance, and the AP confidants get to do whatever. For example, Rarity could inquire as to what Applejack might need help with while We investigate Mayor Mare, then Applejack would be well suited to talk to Filthy and Mayor Mare would be able to talk to Cheerilee, and we'd have our own AP and Rarity's to do something else with or weigh in on those. That would grow exponentially with just a bit of startup, and there's your cult of personality to simply make life easier.
 
Alright, but what does these have to do with our victory conditions or preventing our defeat conditions again?
Because what we need right now is Bits, or people we don't mind getting Wounded and who have decent Lores for Expeditions, and information about Outsiders, or combat power/intrigue to deal with the Outsider once we find them?
 
lurker9875 said:
Alright, but what does these have to do with our victory conditions or preventing our defeat conditions again?
Because what we need right now is Bits, or people we don't mind getting Wounded and who have decent Lores for Expeditions, and information about Outsiders, or combat power/intrigue to deal with the Outsider once we find them?
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While it is, of course, not always an option—for example, this last turn—one of the best ways to clear fleeting actions off our plate is to use Confidante AP, especially if they're more suited to it. And Fleeting Actions are one of the main reasons we took so long climbing the Mansus, and have yet to do research the Memory of Lighr, and are only just starting our SH Sacrament this turn.
 
lurker9875 said:
Alright, but what does these have to do with our victory conditions or preventing our defeat conditions again?
Because what we need right now is Bits, or people we don't mind getting Wounded and who have decent Lores for Expeditions, and information about Outsiders, or combat power/intrigue to deal with the Outsider once we find them?
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Well gosh, it's too bad we don't have a rapidly-growing community full of ponies who still lionize us after our heroic efforts to keep the peace during a tragedy. It's too bad we don't have multiple ins with a destined adventuring party. It's too bad we don't know two different major contributors to the local economy, which I might add is rapidly growing.

A shame really, but what can you do, it's not like soft power and having friends at every social level ever helped anyone.
 
Venerable Ro said:
destined adventuring party.
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Um, you do realise these are fillies, and thus sending them on dangerous Expeditions is likely OOC for Velvet?

Venerable Ro said:
contributors to the local economy
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We already have Rarity on our side and just about to be enhanced.
Furthermore, we still have absolutely no idea how to get Filthy Rich to Confidante given the problems he is currently facing, which will remain the bottleneck to what you are proposing even after the Pick you are advocating for wins?

Venerable Ro said:
soft power
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We do not have things that we need MORE soft power in order to leverage for Ponyville stuff?

Ericwinter said:
one of the best ways to clear fleeting actions off our plate is to use Confidante AP, especially if they're more suited to it
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Agreed.
...however, the problem ('problem?') is that Velvet is more suited to basically any FO because Lore levels, short of that time when we used Rarity as a catspaw to help clear our name from the cult?

Furthermore, Social usually uses Grail, and we already have Rarity for that, and thus Rarity is already the one more suited to social-related FOs?
 
lurker9875 said:
Agreed.
...however, the problem ('problem?') is that Velvet is more suited to basically any FO because Lore levels, short of that time when we used Rarity as a catspaw to help clear our name from the cult?

Furthermore, Social usually uses Grail, and we already have Rarity for that, and thus Rarity is already the one more suited to social-related FOs?
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FOs are wide and varied, and not all need Lore levels. It is certainly rarer, but not completely impossible. Though I will grant that Rarity does cover a lot of it.
lurker9875 said:
Um, you do realise these are fillies, and thus sending them on dangerous Expeditions is likely OOC for Velvet?
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I believe they were referring to the Elements, not the CMC.
 
lurker9875 said:
Um, you do realise these are fillies, and thus sending them on dangerous Expeditions is likely OOC for Velvet?
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The Elements? Applejack, Rainbow Dash, ect? If you want to start doing expeditions all of a sudden then the Forge pony might be a useful start.

lurker9875 said:
We already have Rarity on our side and just about to be enhanced.
Furthermore, we still have absolutely no idea how to get Filthy Rich to Confidante given the problems he is currently facing, which will remain the bottleneck to what you are proposing even after the Pick you are advocating for wins?
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Do you want bits or not? If nothing else Filthy's good graces would probably make reagents and by extension rituals cheaper if we could buy the mundane ingredients wholesale and at a friendly discount.

And we find out how to get him up to confidante by asking him, or getting someone else who knows him better to ask him. Bird isn't going to do everything for us, Rarity was practically a freebie.

lurker9875 said:
We do not have things that we need MORE soft power in order to leverage for Ponyville stuff?
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That's the thing, the whole status quo is about to get flipped like a stack of flapjacks, and I'd like to be prepared ahead of time for surprises instead of playing catchup trying to social ponies individually like a cat in a room full of rats. Maybe nothing at all happens and we just get more friendshipping with Velvet enjoying her life. Maybe Luna decides to move out to the country where life isn't so modern and Ponyville just explodes, who knows? I just want the flexibility that comes of having all the groundwork already squared away.
 
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