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

[Greymere]

Well, now to see the two updates.... I saw a few ORANGE words, so... Is it finally time to heal our scars?!

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And it turns out we didn't even need the reagent!

 

[Sveta08]

Velvet.
Velvet Velvet Velvet. No half measures for you, is there?

Almost fitting how loud and how bright you are. And like any good story, it only becomes obvious the second time through. Passing strange that everyone who has a cutie mark, we knew the story. The skill. The ability it meant. But for Velvet, it was only ever a brand, even before it was a Brand.

Part of me is tempted to look back, to see if I can find a finger on the scales. If back when the brand was chosen, if a feather was placed. But, it would likely be further back I'd have to look. Character creation was an age ago, but that was when it was planted.
But that's not really important now, is it?

I know there is something to be said about chains. About a dance. About the binding of expectation, parenthood, and fate. About a reflection of a book made of flesh, of venom and the holes it bores, and an ax. I can see it and I know it, inarticulate as it may be.

It is good that Velvet did this before helping Ax. But I don't believe it has anything to do with her health. Something about the right way to heal from the wrong kind of wound.


There's something about chains and a dance. Has been for a while. I need to think more on it.


But, from the things at the edges of my ability to articulate, to the things well within my ability.
Decisions! Three of them. I don't see The Lores getting less than Promote, the Wendigos getting less than Caution, and Evidence as less than Downplay.

Promote, Alert, and Downplay are my recommendations, but hardly had to tell you that.

 

[LieutenantSpirit]

This is likely just my Paranoia talking, but I don't think we should choose Evidence-Downplay. Mechanically, my guess is it would just be a Grail check to convince the detectives to focus on something else, but there's a narrative element to it. We've just seen how actions can unintentionally line up to create certain perspectives, hence, the story being run about our "corrupt" dealings with farming.

In the case of Evidence-Downplay, what's making me so wary of it is that it's the exact kind of action a corrupt cop would do. The evidence is never initially brought up by the person in charge, but the moment someone gets suspicious, the detective is suddenly nudged to drop that line of investigation? Sure, our reputation might let that work, and sure, the alluring nature of Grail might see them be convinced, but it feels like the exact kind of response that would provoke even more suspicion and curiosity. After all, what was in those files for the boss to want them to look away?

We can't forget that the Bureau only hires the best of the best. Not just that, but even if we do put them off initially, once the Bureau become more familiar with the Lores, who says they won't give the evidence a second, far more insightful glance?

My recommendation is to choose Evidence-Burn simply because it outright removes the manuscripts from the board. Combine that with Lore-Promote or Lore-Champion, and there's a synergy of having the evidence be swept away in "personal" research. It will still generate suspicion, but I believe that suspicion will cause different questions to be asked. Rather than the detectives thinking that Velvet is hiding something, it might be more that the knowledge itself had something to it that encouraged Velvet to hide it.

(Now, I do have one other thing I'm worried about, but again, I'm paranoid. The combination of Lore-Promote/Lore-Champion, Evidence-Burn, and Windigos-Alert is simply too much. So far, Velvet has acted as a calm, determined, and capable pony that's honestly pretty intimidating. To suddenly accept all aspects of writings that could reasonably ignored as "ravings of a madpony" feels far too suspicious. I would choose either Windigos-Cautious, or honestly, Windigos-Ignore. If we're successful at spreading the Lores, the detectives should be good enough to understand the threat of the Windigos eventually.)

 

[spiderhellian]

Ah yes, there is a vote.

Lore-Promote seems like the obvious choice. I would like the Bureau more effective, but don't think we need to take the added risk of Champion. Unless it dovetails with our "Lores prodigy" plan (is that our plan?)

Windigos-Alert seems good as well. There's a reason the police tends to take bomb threats seriously, even if they may be spurious. Nothing like fighting a Windigo to put that newly-healed leg to work. This is going to be a turn for convincing the Bureau we are not what they thought we were, I guess!

Evidence... here, I can see a battle looming. I can see the argument for Evidence-Downplay. We've got influence, we've got Luna on our side, we can use them if and when we need it. But I think there's a good argument for Evidence-burn -- the Evidence is a Celestia-level risk, a cover-up is not. Yeah, it's a loose thread, that might be a nuisance. But whatever that nuisance is, it's not risking a game-over. And leaving the evidence in any other way is.

 

[DelightedOne]

(Now, I do have one other thing I'm worried about, but again, I'm paranoid. The combination of Lore-Promote/Lore-Champion, Evidence-Burn, and Windigos-Alert is simply too much. So far, Velvet has acted as a calm, determined, and capable pony that's honestly pretty intimidating. To suddenly accept all aspects of writings that could reasonably ignored as "ravings of a madpony" feels far too suspicious. I would choose either Windigos-Cautious, or honestly, Windigos-Ignore. If we're successful at spreading the Lores, the detectives should be good enough to understand the threat of the Windigos eventually.)

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We also "revealed" a private investigation that everyone thinks Velvet has been doing for years and showed competence beyond a regular mare, our reputation with the Bureau is high and taking every possible threat seriously seems like a good way to play on that "you don't know me as well as you think".

(is that our plan?)

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I think that is our only plan besides doing nothing.

 

[Pittauro]

Your right hindleg is… a mess. It is a familiar mess, but it is still something unsightly and, quite frankly, disgusting. There is nothing visceral to see like exposed flesh or a bleeding wound, but still, it is clearly something that would cause a normal pony to gasp in shock if they ever saw it.

For starters, you have no cutie mark there to speak of. In fact, you almost don't have a flank to begin with. The coat on that part of your body is hard and devoid of fur, but not at all like a smooth scar. Instead, your hard flank is cratered and flawed by the absence of certain muscles, like the trunk of a sickly tree that was cut by an axe or perhaps struck by lightning.

It wouldn't be wrong to say that you have a crater on your flank. In fact, as your eyes travel down from your flank and towards your hindleg, you even spot the familiar place where there is a hole through your skin. One that wouldn't look out of place on the shapeshifting creatures that have been stalking Equestria, or perhaps in some other kind of unnatural monster.

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It's worse than I expected, really.

Finally we'll find out the SOURCE! Velvet's origin story, like any proper villain!

can sense that, for this very short period of time, the laws of biology and physiology have given way to laws that are older than greater.

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older AND greater, I think.

You pick up the second and last item your brought with you, the hammer, and you clench it with your mouth.

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...somehow I didn't realize until know what the hammer is for.

...this is probably going to hurt.

And the hammer rings out as if it just struck solid metal. You don't feel anything at all on the point of impact, except for the faintest heat of forgework. And your flank is… entirely unmarred by the blow.

No, your flank is not unmarred. You can see it, right there where the hammer struck, that your flank is a little bent now. Like a piece of iron that has just begun to receive the attention of a smith. Like a clump of clay that just had the shape of a hoof pushed into it.

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...or maybe not, I suppose.

You know, somehow I didn't understand this ritual would LITERALLY have us forge our hips back into the proper shape. I didn't take it THAT literally.

Because… because this wound, your wound, isn't just yours. It is something that you all share. Something that has always connected you.

…

And the only way you will be truly rid of it is if you shatter this connection.

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...I imagine this won't affect our SH power. We're not breaking the FULL connection between all the Velvets, just... this specific part of it.

It's kind of depressing that in LITERALLY every history, Velvet still gets scarred, though

And while her family was visiting the Royal Zoo, she snuck out of where she should be, and into a place she shouldn't have gone.

There, she found a beast that was more than a match to a grown pony, and certainly lethal to a young filly like herself. And her flank was rent open by-

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oh, so THAT's the story? It wasn't actually her father's fault at all?!

And after years of being ignored, and of no longer being needed, and of not even existing as far as everypony else was concerned, the mother finally took things into her own hoofs.

So, the mother took that perfect little filly, and then went to the highest window of their tall mansion.

The filly didn't even cry out in fear, as she fell to her death. Because ultimately, she did not die. But her body was-

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...ah, we're just seeing the stories of the OTHER Velvets...

and they're all fairly depressing, apparently

There was once a little filly named Velvet Covers, who loved her daddy very much.

And he also loved her back.

But maybe that was the problem.

Because you see, he loved her a little bit too much-

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...some more than others

As you raise the hammer for the twentieth and final time, you finally… remember.



You remember that…



There was once a little filly named Velvet Covers, who loved her daddy very much.

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oh, FINALLY the true story!

She failed, and she failed, the love of her daddy growing dimmer and colder with each passing year. Until she was too old to apply, and the daddy she loved so much was no longer able to speak to her without a harsh frown on his face.

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This actually surprises me a bit.

Sure, this school is for the ultra-elites, but even with the best tutors Velvet couldn't get in?

...it was probably the "supposed to fail" test with the dragon egg (assuming they still had it). Velvet wouldnt' take well to failure, and supposedly that test was meant to see how you react to failing.

...or was that fanon? I'm not sure.

She did something so impressive, and so old, that not even the sages of her Era would know how to appreciate: she created a connection with herself. With all her other selves.

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...

...

Velvet did an eldritch ritual as a child.

AND SHE SUCCEEDED.

damn. that IS impressive.

This explains our realization power AND Personal Sacrament. It also means THIS Velvet is kind of responsible for the scars of ALL other Velvets, though. That must hurt to realize.

Also hey, apparently her father is more or less innocent here. At worst he's guilty of neglect, but nothing more.

And you only realize you forgot your dress in Jade's house when you are halfway towards the estate.

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People seeing her without a dress for the first time will likely be fairly surprised

Your Brand is now better understood. As a pony Branded by the Secret Histories, you have realized that you may benefit from both (personal and invitation) Sacrament options of Secret Histories. You assume, perhaps correctly, that ponies Branded in other Lores may do the same for their own affinities.

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oh?! That's good! We can also do Baldomare's Sacrament later then!

The reason Velvet has an affinity with all of the Lores is because SH-Velvet connected herself to all the other Velvets.

The reason our Lore is so bullshit is because Velvet Nat100'd a Lore ritual as a child.

Edit: Oh and, because kid-Velvet's luck wasn't bullshit enough, she did it on accident. The book didn't even have the actual ritual in it!

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More the cutie mark than the ritual, I think.

or probably both.

If getting all affinities was as simple as doing a ritual, then many more cultists would have done so in the past.

I'm going to assume that yes, Velvet's ACTUAL talent is Lore-Understanding, which... damn that's impressive!

On a side note, I kinda want to go back to re-read this book from her childhood... then again, we probably long surpassed what lore was in it.

I wonder if the Master knew. it's very MOTHY to get such a talent as an accident...

 

[Maer]

~~… LE SNIP OF MANY SCISSORS …~~
———

oh?! That's good! We can also do Baldomare's Sacrament later then!



More the cutie mark than the ritual, I think.

or probably both.

If getting all affinities was as simple as doing a ritual, then many more cultists would have done so in the past.

I'm going to assume that yes, Velvet's ACTUAL talent is Lore-Understanding, which... damn that's impressive!

On a side note, I kinda want to go back to re-read this book from her childhood... then again, we probably long surpassed what lore was in it.

I wonder if the Master knew. it's very MOTHY to get such a talent as an accident...

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Given the potential benefits of having a higher innate SH Lore when performing our personal Sacrament, I might vote for Baldomare's first, THEN our own. If that's okay? It feels more like focusing on our Friends first, though given the choice of Lore Attention this turn, I would understand not waiting. I'd like to finish Baldomare's before our own, though. For the sake of safety. Unless you have other reasons for doing the personal one first?

I agree. Definitely her cutie-mark. Which means it was a forced cooperation between Harmony and The Mansus. Which is fascinating. Cutie-marks are explicitly Harmony's domain. They came after the brands, and might even be based on them. But here, Harmony's Cutie-mark seems to be producing affinity for and a connection to The Lores of The Mansus.

I wonder if Harmony is using that connection to try and understand The Mansus, The Lores, and Glory, through Velvet herself? Only, with how little she's built up her connection to Harmony, she seems unlikely, or maybe even unable, to have been sharing much through that single inborn connection… still. Bits are probably slipping through. Though this means that- unless Ash and his father are directly intervening- Ashen probably shouldn't be able to learn every Lore. Hmm…

 

[Greymere]

...somehow I didn't realize until know what the hammer is for.

...this is probably going to hurt.

...or maybe not, I suppose.

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I imagine it would have hurt quite a bit if we failed the Forge roll. The price of failure for the Forge's Redemption is the chance of suffering a Wound, after all.

Given the potential benefits of having a higher innate SH Lore when performing our personal Sacrament, I might vote for Baldomare's first, THEN our own. If that's okay? It feels more like focusing on our Friends first, though given the choice of Lore Attention this turn, I would understand not waiting. I'd like to finish Baldomare's before our own, though. For the sake of safety. Unless you have other reasons for doing the personal one first?

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Knowing that we can take both Sacraments, we could always use the Influence to do something else SH-related this turn, assuming we have actions to spare after DoA's Sacrament. Like finding somewhere a Level 7 book could be hiding, scouting BtRC Part 3, or finding somewhere that can play host to three-circle rituals on a more permanent basis. Then we can take Baldomare's Sacrament next turn, and work on our personal Sacrament when we have the space without worrying about the chokehold on our SH level. We'd finally be able to explore the Tower!

 

[Pittauro]

But on the other hoof, the second important-thing you need to tell her is that... well, you want to show her your flank! In the most wholesome way possible of course.

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...I bet Shaper is already writing an omake about this

But seriously, Velvet, phrasing!

But to string those three points together? And make some... gobbledygook claim that you are orchestrating these events to help your family? That you are... you narrow your eyes as you read one of the lines, "clearly using the Lunar Bureau to advance her own nepotistic interests"?

You aren't even angry. Well, maybe a little angry. But you are more shocked than anything else.

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I'm kinda surprised they dare, really. I suppose it means they don't fear the Lunar Bureau THAT much, which is in some ways a good thing.

Furthermore, a chill runs down your spine as you remember how you very recently told Mayor Mare that Ponyville should become a farming town... you honestly hope this story dies down before anypony catches wind of that.

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...and we told that to Mayor Mare BEFORE arresting the Greenhoofs I think, which is borderline insider trading... Then again there might not even be laws about it in Equestria. Or even if there are, they basically are not applied.

...you know, like in most modern countries, PARTICULARLY the USA, where it's fairly common for politicians to invest in companies using insider knowledge about future deals or laws that will benefit them.

[] (Lore-Champion) Ask for this evidence to be brought to your desk. Pretend to read it, and that you are interested in it. Make a point of telling everypony that "it works".
(Attempt to promote the Lore primer you planted to the Bureau at large. Suspicious, perhaps even risky, but the most aggressive way to spread the Lores into the Bureau)

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We DO have a cutie mark we could use to justify it, and we now even know it's not a lie!

[] (Windigos-Alert) "This is serious, even if it potentially false. I want to be informed immediately if you find anything approaching this description in Manehattan."
(Should the Constables find any windigo jars during their action in Manehattan, you will be brought to the scene to intervene)

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I'd like to do this

[] (Evidence-Burn) You are the Commissioner. If you want something on your desk, you get it. And if it disappears after that, nopony but a Princess would be allowed to question it.
(Get rid of it, in a ultimate and final way. Of course, at least one pony, the one in charge of keeping the evidence safe, will notice)

[] (Evidence-Downplay) Yes, they are the best detectives in Equestria. But they can't chase anything if you keep their leashes on. If this ever catches anypony's attention, you will be there to downplay it.
(Do not touch the evidence, but keep a close eye on it. If anypony ever becomes suspicious about it, or tries to follow this trail, you will actively try to intervene)

[] (Evidence-Ignore) You will just pretend this problem doesn't exist.
(You will forget about this evidence, and hope nopony ever catches wind of it. There is a cartload of other things they might focus on and investigate, so you will just hope this is not one of them)

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I'd avoid Burn. Either Downplay or Ignore could work.

That said, IF we're bringing more attention to the primer, then looking at the actual lore books is an obvious follow-up...

...wait a second... @OurLadyOfWires I have to ask the obvious: If we can burn them, can't we also replace them?

Just replace them with some of our own copies, making sure the cover looks the same from the outside.

One day, it just snapped in half. Crumbled into black dust the same color of the metal it was made of. And for all that you feel haunted by losing an asset like this, you are also thankful you did not need it to begin with. One of your Wrong Keys (set to expire at the end of Turn 20) has been destroyed.

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wait, the Risen just broke down for no reason?

I mean, if you think the other Velvets don't count

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It was THEIR father, not ours

very fitting for this one-circle ritual

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two circles. Grail for want and Forge for change

Gives a whole new meaning to what Silky is to Velvet. And what her other daughters are too.

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We've known that for a long while though. It isn't really a NEW meaning, we knew Velvet can't (well, now she can!) have more children already.

And it turns out we didn't even need the reagent!

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We can never know what we'll roll, so still worth it.

Given the potential benefits of having a higher innate SH Lore when performing our personal Sacrament, I might vote for Baldomare's first, THEN our own. If that's okay? It feels more like focusing on our Friends first, though given the choice of Lore Attention this turn, I would understand not waiting. I'd like to finish Baldomare's before our own, though. For the sake of safety. Unless you have other reasons for doing the personal one first?

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I forgot we went for 4x Knock Sacrament, so yeah, we can easily do SH first. Maybe both in the same turn, next turn, even.

I imagine it would have hurt quite a bit if we failed the Forge roll. The price of failure for the Forge's Redemption is the chance of suffering a Wound, after all.

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very true.

 

[Cochimetl]

I'm for burn. I've had similar thoughts to what @LieutenantSpirit said: I've seen this exact thing happen in a detective series just recently.
Burn the manuscripts. If anyone asks, they contained information that could have had disastrous consequences for the entirety of Equestria if it had been revealed. It wouldn't even be a lie.

 

[Rafuki22]

oh?! That's good! We can also do Baldomare's Sacrament later then!

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With this information doing Baldomare Sacrament first seems like the safer route, although this depends on how we roll.

And in the voting? Promote, Alert(But i can accept Cautious) and Burn.

 

[des-pair-2]

I would like for us to take our personal Sacrament first, merely for pure narrative. I consider it... cheap? hollow? that we will take it second. I know it is a sub-optimal way to play, but that is simply how I feel.

 

[Sveta08]

....Velvet Covers
I.... Of course. Obvious in hindsight.

There is a book on Velvet Covers flanks. A book with every history written in it. But we only see the cover. We only see the spine. The binding.
We don't see the inside. How every history is written in those pages. And we don't see how the pages are bound together. Only the cover.

And until recently, only one of those covers. The back.
Every book has two sides. The front. The back. Two sides telling how things begin. How things end. And we have only ever had one side. The other... Marred and scarred.

But that doesn't quite matter.

I have always liked the ideas with Cutie Marks. An emblem of what you do. Of a talent of yours. I like the idea of brands. A mark, a wound that isn't a wound, but was once a mark of ownership. Of stewardship. Of import.

However. I don't know what it is here.
I don't, and I don't know if I can yet. But I don't know. It feels like I have enough pieces but not enough to make sense of it. Like I should be able to form the idea that leads to the direction it is. But I can't.

Maybe someone can.



Cutie marks are from Harmony. Brands are from the Manus. Neither replaces the other. But they do overlap. One is talent, purpose ,ability, gift. The other is aim, direction, skill, effort.

Is this unity? Understanding of purpose given and made apparent at a glance? Purpose that those who once knew the Manus that is gone once longed for? Was it like The Woods, a relic of an age long past, but still useful enough that it hadn't died?

It is a chain. Binding who you are in a way like the horizon. You were never going to cross it, but it's a restriction. One you were never going to feel. But now it's known.

It is a binding. To the Dreamlands. Incarnation of Harmony? But what purpose? What goal? Why were they made? What do they do?

How beautiful too, is the cutie mark. Is the repetition of history. Moving like a dance, following the same path. Like Mother like daughter.
Only Selene knew how to not hurt herself when giving herself a cutie mark.

Buy it's not just talent. It's.... Understanding? Sympathy, harmony, kindness, understanding... Stormy alone proves it is something more than just what you would be good at. It's a connection to... Harmony? But how. Why? Where and to what end? A Brand is chosen. It is given. So too is a cutie mark. But they do not replace each other. It's...
Additional context.

I don't know. There's too many pieces and none of them tell the complete story. Because it's all missing the same piece.
What is Harmony doing?

 

[Maer]

Promote or Champion, Alert, and Burn.

We have plenty of Reputation, and I'd rather we use it to get what we need when we need it.

Heck, for Champion, we could even point out that it FEELS right. That we understand it. Use Grail to help others infer that we've discovered something tied to our cutie-mark. Let Celestia hear a rumor from the Bureau that we've got a cutie-mark aligned with the Lores and that we're learning them quickly. Let her get that leading up and into things so we have a better chance of heading off her fury and distrust.

We'd even be Honest about it. Kind and Generous for sharing the secrets and powers and knowledge with our Bureau, for showing such Loyalty as to share it with them and maybe even Cadence. The power of an Ancient Magic shared, to protect the Laughter(happiness/joy) of the People of Equestria.

 

[Shaper47]

Maybe it's more like the stealing someone's house while the owners are away.

The house is repainted, the personal belongings of the actual owners locked away.

The books in the library are burned or thrown out but the shelves are used for the thief's books.

But they don't truly own the shelves, they don't fully understand them, the secrets the original owners of the shelves had.

And so they don't know about the secret entrance behind one of the book shelves, the entrance left behind that leads to a book.

A book found by coincidence by Velvet.

 

[Greymere]

So, for the vote!

I think I'm learning toward Promote and Burn as sure things, and I'd be fine with either Caution or Alert for the Windigos. If we're going to burn some reputation, we might as well do it on getting rid of the biggest piece of incriminating evidence there is so the Angry Sunhorse can't read them.

 

[OurLadyOfWires]

...and we told that to Mayor Mare BEFORE arresting the Greenhoofs I think, which is borderline insider trading...

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Basically, yes.

No comment on how horse law would see that though. This is not the kind of problem this quest is focused on solving.

Velvet has to deal with a lot more stuff than you see on screen. She has a whole life after all. This was just a blurb of one of those issues, like that time Windy trolled you and you trolled him back.

wait a second... @OurLadyOfWires I have to ask the obvious: If we can burn them, can't we also replace them?

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No.

The dude down in the evidences vault has a cutie mark for keeping tally of important and delicate items. You're not about to fool him with a changed version of what you took out.
Not without spending one or more actions using your Forge to create a forgery (heh) with the usual risk that you might fail. And if youre going to invest that much energy into inserting the Lores into the Bureau, you might as well go for more practical and efficient ways.

This here is a very simple issue. There is a "Damning Evidence" card on your board, and you can either burn it, keep an eye on it, or forget about it. Because in practical terms, the Bureau already got their hoofs on it, and you cant really undo that without pulling your rank into the conversation.

 

[Flaregamer82253]

Howdy friends!

Been a long and busy month for many of us I can imagine, but its always nice to sit down and catch up. Something I've always enjoyed about this quest from the outside is that the people around it can pull up a chair and jump right back into it like no time has passed. An eternal nostalgia of sorts that can only exist shared between other people.

Still, enough waxxing philosophically for now. I'll jump back on in a few hours to give my own input on how we should vote when I've thought about it more, so this is just gonna be some of my initial thoughts and analyses about what we've learned.

Your Brand is now better understood. As a pony Branded by the Secret Histories, you have realized that you may benefit from both (personal and invitation) Sacrament options of Secret Histories. You assume, perhaps correctly, that ponies Branded in other Lores may do the same for their own affinities.

Velvet Covers is no longer "Scarred", your health has been updated to 3/3.

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A few things stick out to me about this. But first of all THANK GOD WE'RE NOT A TOOTHPICK ANYMORE.

More health was basically my number 1 non-DoA concern for this turn, so a big anxiety has been put to rest.

And speaking of anxieties, sometimes they just go poof and disappear like our agonizing over our SH sacrament.. I've seen some talk over how we want to go about this, but I'm thinking it would be more pragmatic to attempt Baldomare's first next turn before our own. Well, that really depends on how good or bad our DoA sacrament goes this turn, so I'm not gonna put the cart before the horse now. A little too early to deliberate on the details.

And just like that, you finally fix a mistake that you have made long, long ago.

You wonder if, on that day, you became that filly.

You wonder if, on that day, that filly became you.

But whatever the answer may be, you realize now that it doesn't matter.

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See, something I like about Secret Histories is that there's always this giant sense of ambiguity to its history (ha). It doesn't really matter if this memory was our Velvet's memory at all. For all we know, this is just another SH!Velvet that isn't our own that started a lateral connection between other Velvets, but whether it is or isn't is something entirely irrelevant.

There are many pasts that can lead to the same present, after all. Our future may be malleable, but frankly we have no guarantee that our past isn't malleable and can't change without our noticing. As long as it delivers us to the same present, as long as the important points of "Velvet loved her father" and "Velvet received a permanent, crippling Scar" remain consistent? Everything else is just blank space between the lines.

Fantastic job @OurLadyOfWires! You did not dissappoint.

Almost fitting how loud and how bright you are. And like any good story, it only becomes obvious the second time through. Passing strange that everyone who has a cutie mark, we knew the story. The skill. The ability it meant. But for Velvet, it was only ever a brand, even before it was a Brand.

Part of me is tempted to look back, to see if I can find a finger on the scales. If back when the brand was chosen, if a feather was placed. But, it would likely be further back I'd have to look. Character creation was an age ago, but that was when it was planted.
But that's not really important now, is it?

I know there is something to be said about chains. About a dance. About the binding of expectation, parenthood, and fate. About a reflection of a book made of flesh, of venom and the holes it bores, and an ax. I can see it and I know it, inarticulate as it may be.

Click to shrink...

History is only what the writer chooses it to be after all. Velvet holds an interesting pen!


Well, that's all for now. I'll be back later to consider voting options. Until then, it's great to see you all again!

 

[BritBiscuit]

I wonder now if the part reason that Velvet ended up one of the 6 ponies in the Inner Circle (in narrative, mechanically that was just the premise of the quest) out of I think like 2 dozen in the Cult at the start was not just due to her being Wealthy with resources for the Cult but also because the Master saw just a hint of that Wound that bound Velvet to her others, that slight trace of Lore magic in todays Era mixed with her hiding both the scars and the story probably added a secret that was amusing enough to the Master to elevate us above the others, a mystery to wonder at but never try to solve as that isn't the moth way.

Also in regards to the vote I would argue

Lore Neutral : To promote the Lores would spread them true, however with the presence of the evidence our interest would allow others to more easily link us to them, it is one thing to have manuscripts speaking of similar things to the Lores in the Commisioners handwriting but those could with either social pressures or a high reputation be mostly dismissed as just similar handwriting across people as there are so many ponies that its inevitable that some people write the same especially with the nobility having tutors to write in a specific style. However to show interest and encourage the Lores would make it far easier for a suspicious detective such as Beyond Reproach to link us having been the one to pen the evidence. The Lores will spread either way it merely will take time.

Wendigos Alert : Due to our job being mainly about hunting monsters we really should show to our employees and Celestia that any mention of ancient threats to ponykind possibly being around or even summoned today are taken extremely seriously. It is our Duty to the crown to treat this as severely as we can doubly so as in character we know that the Cult has access to and has in past performed summons. Our personal attention shows our commitment to our work, if we are called we are most able to prevent accidental or deliberate unsealings and our public presence in health will bolster our reputation.

Then finally there is the controversial or better termed difficult vote, I would say

Evidence Ignore :
To burn it whilst the Bureau is teamed by the best of the best would invite a lot of suspicion if not an inquiry from above, as a consequence of our focus on quality they all have keen intuitions, to have a Commissioner call evidence from an active case up and burn it would point their suspicion directly at us, burn (ha) goodwill.
To downplay it would call attention to it unless Birb is planning on making it narratively look like we are following the entire investigation and downplaying and encouraging other evidence, if we are helping and arguing about the importance of all evidence then it just the Commissioner doing her best to keep track of progress and point the team down the paths of inquiry that she feels is most important (such as the Wendigos) however if it just the Evidence then it is suspicous that the Big Cheese is coming out of her office (that she didn't really leave until we took those loyalty actions) purely to tell specific detectives that are already following the trail to stop is just going to make things worse.

I would say Ignoring whilst not a perfect solution is at this point the only option that makes sense to me, due to the way the rolls of our efforts to dispose of it before turned out, the evidence has reached the investigators nothing can change that, however with the workload of the Bureau being on such a small team (quality over quantity kinda helping here) it is possible that with the need to go for the Changeligns in Tall Tale, pursue the Wendigos, to hunt down whatever Windy might do, to perform the paperwork and follow up on the Greenhoofs and to also investigate nobles, there is a high chance that unless we start acting suspiciously, this piece of Evidence might just sit in a file waiting until the Bureaus loyalty/trust in us lowers.

I wouldn't say I agrued my opinions as best as I could but I tried and it seems comprehendable enough to get the gist across. Its nice to have OurLadyofWires back in action and to be able to participate in discussion with you all again.

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

Champion for sure we need the Bureau online. Windigos Cautious they are not such a problem that massive loads of military ponies, already in the city helping the Bureau cannot handle them.

And finally Destroy the evidance at long last, we can play the Luna card if needed

 

[Arrkhon]

So for the vote, my thoughts
[] (Lore-Champion) Ask for this evidence to be brought to your desk. Pretend to read it, and that you are interested in it. Make a point of telling everypony that "it works".
We have enough of trust and image so glorified I could easily see us getting away with this, and in fact I would recommend it, we are working on short timelines and being one of first adopters would help us explain how we are so good at this
[] (Lore-Promote) Ask for this evidence to be brought to you, and show some interest in it. But be subtle about it. Your agents are sharp, so you are sure they will notice whatever hints you drop.
More of a safe approach really, less rewards but also less issues
[] (Lore-Neutral) Ignore this piece of evidence. If that catches anypony's eyes, you will be glad for it. If not, it is what it is. But you know, from personal experience, that the Lores tend to attract those suitable for it.
Extremely safe approach that could accomplish nothing, even if it's extremely unlikely with the smart ponies under us
[] (Lore-Suppress) A short missive labeling the Primer as containing "black magic" will see it moved to the same section where you can store cursed items. Nopony will ever stumble on that if it is there.
Walking back on something we planned to do and frankly a bit of narrative waste

[] (Windigos-Alert) "This is serious, even if it potentially false. I want to be informed immediately if you find anything approaching this description in Manehattan."
This lets us deal with any windigo that gets found and combos well with us promoting lores, could cost us actions tho
[] (Windigos-Cautious) "This sounds like a bomb. Treat it like a bomb."
Less personal but unlikely to waste actions
[] (Windigos-Ignore) "Ravings of a madpony, whoever wrote it. Just follow procedure."
lol, lmao
Would teach our agents a really hard lesson in a way they wouldn't forget but this isn't a Wolf Velvet quest

[] (Evidence-Burn) You are the Commissioner. If you want something on your desk, you get it. And if it disappears after that, nopony but a Princess would be allowed to question it.
If it works it works, if it doesn't we would be in a pretty deep shit and have to run damage control at best
[] (Evidence-Downplay) Yes, they are the best detectives in Equestria. But they can't chase anything if you keep their leashes on. If this ever catches anypony's attention, you will be there to downplay it.
Utterly terrible idea, we are talking about trying to deceive dozens of extremely competent ponies we hand picked for their competency in sniffing out exactly this sort of shit
[] (Evidence-Ignore) You will just pretend this problem doesn't exist.
Avoiding problems hoping they go away rarely works, could probably do some Moth fun to make it more likely though

Overall my recommendations would be the following
[] (Lore-Champion) Ask for this evidence to be brought to your desk. Pretend to read it, and that you are interested in it. Make a point of telling everypony that "it works".
[] (Windigos-Alert) "This is serious, even if it potentially false. I want to be informed immediately if you find anything approaching this description in Manehattan."
[] (Evidence-Burn) You are the Commissioner. If you want something on your desk, you get it. And if it disappears after that, nopony but a Princess would be allowed to question it.
A bit of high stakes approach but frankly it's still lower than most of the things we are doing

 

[Pittauro]

Would teach our agents a really hard lesson in a way they wouldn't forget but this isn't a Wolf Velvet quest

Click to shrink...

...it kind of is, but I get what you mean

 

[jelloloaf]

And so the Wheel turns ever onward.

Hello again everyone. Glad to see that we're all safely returned. Will do my best to get caught up with what's going on somewhat soon, but I've been busy. You'll not see much of me most likely, at least for a little while longer. Hope everyone is doing well, and a fruitful Solmōnaþ to you all.

 

[Talon Tiger Dino]

All of this is great and all, but who the fuck killed the Risen? That thing was supposed to give us more AP! And whatever did that used up a Wrong Key in the process! It's horribly unfair I say.

We should Champion the Lores in order to drop the hammer on those fools even faster than we did on Copper.

 

[spiderhellian]

All of this is great and all, but who the fuck killed the Risen? That thing was supposed to give us more AP! And whatever did that used up a Wrong Key in the process! It's horribly unfair I say.

Click to shrink...

I think there's been a misunderstanding. Bird does these administrative passages separately, but they did create a subject ambiguity here. Could probably be fixed just switching their order in the update.

Still, I think it's pretty obvious that the "it just snapped in half" refers to the Key (the subject in the following lines), not the Risen. The Risen is still undead and well!

Biedde has brought you a body, and you have used a body. You have created one Shattered Risen, that will expire at the end of Turn 22.

One day, it just snapped in half. Crumbled into black dust the same color of the metal it was made of. And for all that you feel haunted by losing an asset like this, you are also thankful you did not need it to begin with. One of your Wrong Keys (set to expire at the end of Turn 20) has been destroyed.

Click to shrink...

 

[Flaregamer82253]

Alright, I've done some thinking on this vote.

Before we make our plan, let's all remember that we have a lot of reputation to throw around right now as a resource bar, but that there is a limit. Moreover, we have to consider what we want to get out of our choices here.

When it comes to Evidence, I'm entirely certain that we want to destroy the Damning Evidence card on the board. We lost our chance at a clean getaway in the expedition, so we have to deal with what's left on the table. I'd rather deal with a single known quantity than as many time bombs as people end up looking at the evidence.

When it comes to Lore, I'm conflicted. I haven't talked about it much, but the bureau has been a factor that both limits and helps us in several aspects, but we've wanted a non-secret way to do esoteric things for a while. So what do we get out of this? Hard to say for longterm use, especially given we have the Celestia DOOM Clock running with an unknown time limit, but we definitely know what it gets us in the (kinda) short term: Shining Armor's horn. Of course, this does pull the other hornless pony in sight again too, but whether we'll be allowed to do that, much less have the time to do that, may depend on the speed we choose to spread lore.

This one is very ambiguous and hard to say if it will even be useful, but I suppose I at least want to spread it. I don't mind either as long as there's a solid rationale and understanding that we know we're voting for benefits we can't predict.

Lastly, the Windigos. @LieutenantSpirit makes a good point here on the optics. The goal with our warning here is to protect ponies wellbeing, so I'm pretty wary of Alert over Cautious, but I can be convinced.

That said my preferred options are these:

[] (Lore-Champion) Ask for this evidence to be brought to your desk. Pretend to read it, and that you are interested in it. Make a point of telling everypony that "it works".
[] (Lore-Promote) Ask for this evidence to be brought to you, and show some interest in it. But be subtle about it. Your agents are sharp, so you are sure they will notice whatever hints you drop.

[] (Windigos-Cautious) "This sounds like a bomb. Treat it like a bomb."

[] (Evidence-Burn) You are the Commissioner. If you want something on your desk, you get it. And if it disappears after that, nopony but a Princess would be allowed to question it.

 

[Talon Tiger Dino]

I think there's been a misunderstanding. Bird does these administrative passages separately, but they did create a subject ambiguity here. Could probably be fixed just switching their order in the update.

Still, I think it's pretty obvious that the "it just snapped in half" refers to the Key (the subject in the following lines), not the Risen. The Risen is still undead and well!

Click to shrink...

If that is the case, then that would be great. I still want to Champion since we just learned that our Cutie Mark Talent is, in fact, the Lores, and I want to throw that into suspicious horses' faces. Celestia should be used to SUDDEN PRODIGY ALERTS by this point in her life anyways.

 

[Sveta08]

All of this is great and all, but who the fuck killed the Risen? That thing was supposed to give us more AP! And whatever did that used up a Wrong Key in the process! It's horribly unfair I say.

We should Champion the Lores in order to drop the hammer on those fools even faster than we did on Copper.

Click to shrink...

Reread that.
The risen didn't die. A key did.
It might be best to not have the "it" adjective immediatly following detailing the Risen rising, but considering that it immediatly goes on to describe it being made of metal, and Risen are very notably, not metal, it's eh.

Biedde has brought you a body, and you have used a body. You have created one Shattered Risen, that will expire at the end of Turn 22.

One day, it just snapped in half. Crumbled into black dust the same color of the metal it was made of. And for all that you feel haunted by losing an asset like this, you are also thankful you did not need it to begin with. One of your Wrong Keys (set to expire at the end of Turn 20) has been destroyed.

This map had an expiration date. That date has passed. The "Safe Ritual Spot" Baldomare had found for you has decayed, and has been removed from your inventory.

Click to shrink...

 

[Solace2117]

Also hey, apparently her father is more or less innocent here. At worst he's guilty of neglect, but nothing more.

Click to shrink...

While I'm not going to argue some of the others weren't worse, I think it's bit too forgiving to chalk it up as simple neglect. Considering Velvet's current relationship with her dad and what we've seen of how he treats others, I think the emotional abuse was probably much greater then it may seem at first glance. The memories were portrayed like a children's tale or something from a child's perspective to make the tragedies softer. While he may not have physically scarred her, and he may not have been as much of a monster as we thought he could be, I doubt it was simple neglect that drove her actions.

As to the actions.
Leaning towards promote the Lores. I don't know that we can afford to risk championing at this point.
With the Windigos, I'm leaning Caution. I'd like to do Alert, but not sure I want to possible loose an action this turn or next. It may be important enough though, so I'm on the fence.
With the notes, at this point I just want to burn them, I think we may have enough rep to get away with it. Intervene could be a good way to reel in a few of the Bureau, but I just don't know if it's worth the hassle. Also considering how much damn trouble we've had with them, I don't know if I want to risk it.

 

[spiderhellian]

Oh it has been a day, we can actually vote.

[X] Plan Feels Good To Be Back
-[X] (Lore-Promote)
-[X] (Windigos-Alert)
-[X] (Evidence-Burn)

[X] Plan There is a Detective on Our Case Already
-[X] (Lore-Promote)
-[X] (Windigos-Alert)
-[X] (Evidence-Downplay)