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

[Shaper47]

The Velvet​

It is dark, an old darkness that has never known of the light.

It was here in this cradle of roots that a Goddess was born.

The taste of the blood that gave life to the birth still lingers upon the roots.

It was here that she fled when she fell, wounded and poisoned.

It was here that she died.

The Woods kept the body of their child a secret.

Kept it safe.

But now...

'...'

You step into the darkness.

It feels wrong, like a taboo that has been broken, a rule violated, a light shined upon a secret.

'...'

However nothing is here to stop you.

The Woods are no longer able to keep this place hidden.

You have traveled far to these once hidden roots and now you behold the hidden secret.

The corpse of a goddess.

'...'

You reach out your hoofs and touch

Spoiler: This is the End

dtheformsofchaosdanceend

You step back your Soul filled with the secrets you had torn forth.

'...'

You feel the breath of your son on your back.

Taste his hunger for what is before him.

Still this is your prize and he will bow to the will of his mother.

What shall you do with this fallen Goddess of the Woods?

[ ] Take her skin (unlocked by personal Moth Sacrament): "Who will remember the barber's child?" You will take her skin, her form, what remains of her for yourself. Such a powerful mask you shall create.
-Immediately gain 2 Moth scraps
-Gain trait "The Velvet"

[ ] Devour her (unlocked by Mareinette's Grail Sacrament): "Embrace the changes and be consumed!" You will feast upon the body of a Goddess. Oh, what power you shall claim from such a meal.
-Immediately gain 2 Moth scraps
-Immediately gain 2 Heart scraps
-Immediately gain 3 Grail scraps
-Gain trait "Old Blood" which grants an extra 3 maximum health
-Gain special resource "Velvet remnants"

[ ] The Dead shall no longer be Dead!: Your blood shall be given and life shall rise anew from the ashes of a Goddess. A loyal child shall walk the world once more.
-Gain and Befriend the summon "Velvet Wolf"
-[THIS IS A REGRETTABLE ACTION]

Spoiler: Velvet Wolf

"A tall and slender unicorn mare, with light brown coat and a long white mane. Despite her stunning beauty she so very easily goes unseen. Her glorious red eyes always seem to be filled with such amusement unless they are looking at you in which case they are filled with love."

Summoning requirements: MOTH 120, EDGE 60, WINTER 60.

Summoning cost: 100 bits.

Summoning details:
-The Velvet Wolf is capable of CHANNELING the highest intensity of Influence in her Lore, and gifting it to you for a full month. She is also capable of CHANNELING a lower-intensity Influence of her secondary Lores, although both of you consider that to be a waste of her time.
-The Velvet Wolf is considered to be a Minion, and does not mind being sacrificed for Rituals.
-As a befriended Child, the Velvet Wolf is no temporary summoned creature (although she must still be resummoned if she is sacrificed or destroyed)

Health: 8
General bonus: +40
Aspects: MOTH 7, EDGE 4, WINTER 4, [YOUKNOWWHATYOUDID 4]
[ONCE AN HOUR]: There is, or was, a hierarchy within the Mansus. She had reached the highest within its ranks.
[ONE WHO IS VERY GREAT]: The Velvet Wolf is willing to offer you Sacrament in the Lore of Moth, an offer graced to any loyal to Velvet Cover.
[WEIGHT OF PRESENCE]: The Velvet Wolf grants a full level up to the Secret Library for her preferred Lore.
[LOYAL]: Is loyal to Velvet Covers faction. She will refuse summons from any other faction, has one additional action per turn (for a total of two), and regenerates two health per turn if wounded. She is also more likely to activate influences on herself, as needed, and to lend aid to Velvet Covers faction when narratively relevant. If destroyed, she may be resummoned after one full month immediately.
[SECRETHIDER]: Narratively and mechanically Velvet Wolf hides the secrets that Velvet Covers would prefer kept secret. Lowers suspicion every turn without spending any action points.

[In Service To Our Mother]: Will narratively and mechanically aid Soft Sweeps in her actions.

[IN LOVE]: Is against anyone who hurts her beloved mother and will no accept slights against her. Will not take prisoners of those who have hurt Velvet Covers in combat. Will not allow retreat for enemies of Velvet. Narratively will take action against those Velvet Covers hates. No forgiveness, no mercy, no matter what.

 

[Sveta08]

I am too tired and my eyes are too full of things right now. It is difficult to focus, so I think I will write.
Get thoughts out of my brain before it creaks and makes a hole so I can think. Terrible apologies I haven't said more



All Maps point Home

---

There are fields outside.

It was the first thing you noticed you noticed. The fields. Because it's so easy to notice that it becomes hard to remember. It becomes so hard to forget that it's impossible to see. Of course there are fields outside. Where else would they be?

But there are fields outside and they are fields.
Today at least.
This time at least.


One of the rare moments you don't have. Where the clock is not ticking and time is not waiting and there is nothing to do but to remain. Where you can simply take a sip of tea, float the cup back to the saucer and watch. Listen.
Remember.


Silky is laughing in the garden. It is right to hear that.


There is music in the fields. Or, music in a different way. Even though the fields are gardens. But aren't just gardens. They are the family fields. The farms overseen by the Velvet estate. Though, not handled by you, it's still handled by your house. It's hard to remember that. It's hard to forget that.

But it's a nice sound.

Foals laughter outside. The sound of them playing and running and jumping and flying. Dancing in the fields. Thundering of hooves. Children laughing and screaming and talking and playing out in the fields.

And there is a rasp like honey. A word like sweet poison. And laughter becomes brighter and sharper and shrill.

A lady.
A monster.
A friend.

Playing tag with your daughter.


It was easier to see if you didn't look. Because it was right even though you rose to your hooves. As you ran down the stairs and went to join and speak and more, eyes you don't have saw. Memory that was yours even if it wasn't yours. It saw and heard

That there were fields outside. And that there were children that played outside. Laughing and playing and dancing unknowing. Learning, but unknowing of where they were. If the world they were in. And there were monsters in the fields. Beasts that ran and laughed and hounded the ignorant and blind. They played and played with long teeth and sharp claws, but they merely played.

Maybe it was the tea that let you see it.
Maybe it was simply something you already knew.
Maybe it was something you forgot.


But as you left the house a thought struck you. Hooves still beat the ground, but it struck all the same as you left to speak to a child and a monster.

What if the fields were fields, because they were outside the house?
Why did they call it seeing the world through the eyes of a child?

---

There are enemies outside the fields.

Not the monsters within. Within the fields were beasts that played and maimed and danced the same, but outside there were enemies.

Here at your home away from home, looking upon yet another report, the thought struck you. Monsters are here and can be dealt with, but enemies are outside. Monsters are mitigated and managed and fought. Enemies must be countered at each measure,cor else they would destroy everything.

That was, of course, what the report on the Changelings was.

Enemies that infiltrated. That wore the skin of their foes and threatened to swallow all whole. They fed on love and joy and wouldn't kill you. Not if they could help it. The story of the captors that had been rescued would be a new ghost story to tell around the campfire. Only, more real. More grim.

Maybe that was the point of the first campfire stories. To tell not just of monsters but of enemies. To capture the imagination and fill it with terrors so they might know them. That they might see the distinction.



Still, Iron Button needs a missive. What to tell and what steps to take. In the light and in the dark.



Such is the crimes you will commit to the enemies of Equestria. Of your home. To walk in light and dark. To teach ways older than old and stronger than strong to a new age. To a new era.
To take up arms against a foe for whom they are evil.


Who among them then?
Who among them have you made murderers of?
Have you exposed them to horrors true but otherwise unknown?

How could any stand against your actions now? Knowing the enemy at stake?

Another report passing by your hooves. Dissection records of a monster you yourself killed. A creature made by them, built from them, and somehow more. Steeped in powers they should not have, creeping here into this world. Invasive. Subversive. Unknown.

How much more you wanted to know. How much more you didn't want to. But had to. For the sake of others.

To become aware, to fight an existential threat. Enemies... Known or unknown.
Such was the strength granted and assisted by most recent an Ally. To destroy and grow by it. But. To have an enemy.

Maybe that's what enemies were. Threats that could upend it all. Should they not be dealt with. Maybe not immediately. Maybe not soon. Maybe not in your lifetime. But they are a threat, and if not dealt with...

But they are a distraction.
You do not succeed by killing your enemies. You do not improve Equestria by stopping their plans. You cannot improve in a perpetual state of violence. Even your newest Ally can see that. Stopping them only stops their harm, only mends the damage. It does not... Improve. It doesn't better. It is simply... conflict.

Enemies are a distraction.
Enemies must be dealt with.
Enemies are outside the fields, and threaten them.

---

The second floor was the right place for a bedroom.

It was far harder to place that idea than the others. And even in doing so it was too distant from a useful answer. Too far from the point it was meant to be to make much sense. And honestly, it hardly did.

A bedroom on the second floor was habit more than anything. Interior design following patterns and aesthetics from long generations past. As long as the home didn't open into the bedroom, what did it matter, so long as there was separation?

But that was just it.

So long as there was separation. All from long generations past recounting.
There was something hidden there. Some reason long forgotten. Some purpose to it. Or perhaps, purpose was the wrong way to think of it?

After all, you weren't going to be so young forever. A bedroom where you didn't have to climb the stairs wasn't wrong per day, but it felt...
Acquiescence.

Because it wasn't about the bedroom was it? Sometimes it wasn't a bedroom.



Sometimes it was the infinite hallways of The Royal Castle in which you ran.



Missives sent by pony to the one, running every length of those halls. Some flying, most running, but never too fast. It was disrespectful to run in the halls of the Princesses. So they hastened. The breadth and the depths of twisting halls and turning corridors and more flights of stairs than should have been to go where they need be.

Every path led somewhere important after all. It wouldn't have been built if that wasn't the case.

Kitchen and Garrison and Private Quarters. To Record Rooms and Pantry and Library. Study and Lab. Garden and Workshop.

The guest rooms of course. Dignitaries, and Counsilers and Emissary. Those who were truly important in a way the laypony simply wasn't. When they were withing the chambers of the Princesses, the ways to them were here.

And of course, the path to the Audience of the Princess herself. Rare used in these times, least not quite by Celestia.

A most important path that was. None of the others would mean anything if that wasn't there. A chamber, or master bedroom. The...

The place? Was it that?

Ax was certain to know, but prying answers from her was more difficult by far. Even if Silky was so sweet as to help, this was too... vague. Esoteric. How do you even ask about the domain of such a snake?

... No. The chambers weren't her domain. It was the space between them. The halls and paths and -

Leave the idle thoughts later.
You arrived.

---

You were not supposed to be here.
Cadence was not supposed to be here.
Frankly, no one was supposed to be here.

But you were. And she was. And you had to be.

Up
Up
Up beyond the throne.
Up past the quiet secret paths of the castle.
Up hidden away in the most obvious parapet.
Was the chambers of Celestia herself.

You were not meant to be here. The air frank rippled with power. With heat. With pressure.
Stones buckled and warped and cracked. Flesh burned, fur scorched, magic withered.
All was beholden. For here...



Here was power.



Here was the ruler of Equestria.
Not merely the seat of power. But her home.
A place you were not meant to be. No mortal was.

---

You did not have time to consider it then.
Not when there was far more important things at stake. Not when an errant thought could lead to a fall like death. Not when there was more important work to be done.

You did not consider it on the carriage ride home either.


Not as you left your troubles of work outside.
Not as you walked through your gardens.
Not as you walked into your home.
Not as you climbed your stairs.
Not as you slipped into room.
And certainly not when you nestled up against Stormy.



For you are Velvet Covers
And on your flank is a book of all history
And for as long as it is
It's incredibly short




Glory shines
And all basks in its splendor
Palest reflections