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

[Iustus Vitea]

-snip

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You are definitely reading too much into it, that's just normal character progression. Bird isn't writing anime fanfic slop here where the characters blush and stammer at every innuendo and other such asinine things. Soft considered Silky a sister for a while even if she didn't outright say and after the Catastrophe, well we're all she has and even if she doesn't want to replace or forget her old family that doesn't mean she can't add to it.

 

[DelightedOne]

Though, while I was thinking about Wolf, I realized one thing. Do you all remember when we learned that dreamlands are converting Woods into itself? I wonder what is happening with that now. Probably nothing good, as is all things involving Wolf.

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The Dreamlands were not even close to the Woods back then, they were trying to subvert the outer Mansus, but it would have reached the Woods eventually... wait a minute... The Master was the Woods so if the Dreamlands reached it... the Master would be taken over/killed? Was that why she was so "displeased" with Harmony because fucking hell if all this time she wanted to find a way to stop the Dreamlands from growing so she could survive whatever would happen it would make a lot of sense.

Nothing good comes from the Wolf, but good things come from Harmony. If anything happens it will be a battle between Ash and the Dreamlands, maybe Selene will be called to do something too.

 

[Iustus Vitea]

The Dreamlands were not even close to the Woods back then, they were trying to subvert the outer Mansus, but it would have reached the Woods eventually... wait a minute... The Master was the Woods so if the Dreamlands reached it... the Master would be taken over/killed? Was that why she was so "displeased" with Harmony because fucking hell if all this time she wanted to find a way to stop the Dreamlands from growing so she could survive whatever would happen it would make a lot of sense.

Nothing good comes from the Wolf, but good things come from Harmony. If anything happens it will be a battle between Ash and the Dreamlands, maybe Selene will be called to do something too.

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I don't think the Master was all that afraid of getting subsumed, even in the proposed ending in which we interact with Harmony they want to teach Harmony to hide it's light. Hell they wanted to become an Alicorn.

Plus the Lore of Moth is usurpation, in ages long past a God Humanity cursed itself with killed and wore the Skin of an Hour, who is to say the Heir of the Moth couldn't do something similar?

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

I still believe there's still something Moth about all of this. Carving without knowing what. The three Rules. Finally, the fucking Cult leader doesn't know about it.

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Reminder a cult is a cult is a cult. All cult are secretive, willing to kill to protect their secrets, and hidden from others. Their is nothing moth like about this cult, they know who the leader is, they know who each other are, they even tried open recruitment once.

While in the actual moth cult, 90% of members did not even know Velvet even existed.

 

[Random Anon]

Reminder a cult is a cult is a cult. All cult are secretive, willing to kill to protect their secrets, and hidden from others. Their is nothing moth like about this cult, they know who the leader is, they know who each other are, they even tried open recruitment once.

While in the actual moth cult, 90% of members did not even know Velvet even existed.

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I find your anwser disingenuous. Or just not satisfying, your choice.

Let's expand on the 3(5?) examples I gave. I could kinda see the three rules as standard cult behaviour, if you just look at the rules and not at the reason of their existance. On the other hand:

-Carving without knowing what, letting the fingers do what they want. Not standard cult behaviour.

And especially:

-The Leader doesn't know about the cult! Ahhhh! This is not cultist-like behaviour at all! This is super Moth-y!

Ok, in the Moth-Moth cult, some members didn't know who everyone on the upper court was. Here the freaking leader doesn't know! Tell me, which would you say is more mothy?

All in all, they may be just coincidences, or they may come from our beloved wolf daughter's particular situation. But even if Moth isn't involved even a little, there are a lot of mothy things here.

 

[Sveta08]

Hmm.
I don't know.

I hear what you are all saying. I understand that where she is can be from where she was. I get it.
But it sits in the back of my mind like an ugly sore.
Everything I've read, then reread, looking at speed, looking at pace, looking at focus. My experience reading and writing and lessons on characters and development... It's...

Call it a personal worry for now then. I haven't the glut of information that I want to speak in convincing tones.
And for right now, whether I am wrong or right, it doesn't change the current situation.

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

I find your anwser disingenuous. Or just not satisfying, your choice.

Let's expand on the 3(5?) examples I gave. I could kinda see the three rules as standard cult behaviour, if you just look at the rules and not at the reason of their existance. On the other hand:

-Carving without knowing what, letting the fingers do what they want. Not standard cult behaviour.

And especially:

-The Leader doesn't know about the cult! Ahhhh! This is not cultist-like behaviour at all! This is super Moth-y!

Ok, in the Moth-Moth cult, some members didn't know who everyone on the upper court was. Here the freaking leader doesn't know! Tell me, which would you say is more mothy?

All in all, they may be just coincidences, or they may come from our beloved wolf daughter's particular situation. But even if Moth isn't involved even a little, there are a lot of mothy things here.

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Sweeps is not in charge of the Cult she's not even an actual member, it the newborn Wolf's cult.

 

[Limabot]

Sweeps is not in charge of the Cult she's not even an actual member, it the newborn Wolf's cult.

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I would argue that she is a member of the therapy group, since she was in it before it got all murder-y and she recognized all the members once she woke up. However, I do agree that she is probably not the one (consciously) pushing it to becoming a homicidal Wolf-cult. If nothing else, she would probably try to get the Town Guard if she knew about the murders.

 

[Nevermort]

Damn, Twilight is so close... and yet out of reach.

But at least we got new wolf-maid out of it.
Wacky Amur does not sound like a proper pony name to me though. Amur is likely an abbreviation, like a Detective Roach was somehow abbreviation for (Beyond) Reproach. But surely no one will name their child Paramour.

Oh, and also Sweeps founded her Wolf-cult.
Luna introduced herself to Lunar Bureau top command.
Silky Stream's cult when?

 

[Limabot]

SNIP SNIP SNIP
Silky Stream's cult when?

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That's probably in the History where she was voted to be the Wolf-Vessel rather than Soft Sweeps.

Speaking of, I wonder what she would have been doing for Ash. I kind of imagine her hijacking the CMC to burn down the schoolhouse in the middle of the night and tricking everypony into eating the ashes.

 

[Zxzx24]

It is interesting to see The Wolf Divided is not having the trouble The Master did adapting to the new world.

Perhaps that is because it is not?

The sons are born of the world, as assuredly as Velvet Covers is.

It makes sense that they would be... wholly appropriate for a new age.

 

[DelightedOne]

Wolf thought: Is Stalk more or less Regrettable than Feast now we have a Wolf Cult climbing?

 

[Solace2117]

Silky Stream's cult when?

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What do you mean, Silky's Cult is one of Velvet's greatest threats. She has devout followers, one might even call them "crusaders," she has a base of operation out of the public eye on Apple land, and from all the scenes with her we can tell she's steadily subverting all of our Names. She's already made a ton of progress with Axe.

 

[Sveta08]

It is interesting to see The Wolf Divided is not have the trouble The Master did adapting to the new world.

Perhaps that is because it is not?

The sons are born of the world, as assuredly as Velvet Covers is.

It makes sense that they would be... wholly appropriate for a new age.

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The Master came to sneak. To think. Subvert. Convert. Theirs was a way of secrets, where even the dawn of their arrival was in silence.


The wolves howl. They are heralds.


The first, Evil, came to breath back old words. Old rites. Remembrances of things long lost. Like the dawn, the change is ever slight but overwhelming.

His word was in the voice of a Princess. One made of peace and prosperity, older than all lives yet lived. It spoke of betrayal, of a sister so soon restored fled, lost, and unfound. It spoke and the world realized there was Evil in the world.


The second was Paranoia. It called out to the people in whispered words. Private secrets. In doubts wormed and worked into the hearts of man, woman, and child. Fear and shadows, worry of the things you do not see.

His word was in the voice of the brother. The sister. Family and friends. Loved ones made monsters, destruction untold, tragedy's uncountable. It spoke and it was realized that Evil was not outside. It was in your own home. In what you believed was your family.


The third is Ash. No longer innocent, no more the shadows that frighten, but the sounds of howling. The beasts are no more an unknown, but perilously known. It haunts the dreams of those too deep, in the hearts of those who sought safety.

His words are still being spoken.



It is not that The Master had trouble and the Wolves did not. Do not.
It is that The Master was the... Fulfillment of Moth in the world. The silent secretive scurrying in the dark, seeking treasures others had long since forgotten.
It is that the wolves howl. They herald a change. They do not seek to hide, but to mar the Manus with their presence.

And the Manus reflects in the Wake.

 

[Venerable Ro]

Ultimately, I believe that in order to "defeat" the wolves the wheel must turn, old history must be subducted under new futures, and the old/new story of changing powers repeat. The Wolf will go the way of The Seven-Coiled when something or someone comes that can fundamentally refute him and take his place. Harmony, most likely, of one stripe or another, because everything that the Wolf embodies can be remedied, in time, by the careful application of Harmony's six virtues, each in its proper time and place. Community over isolation, neh?

I'm firmly convinced that Soft has the capacity to become something truly beautiful if we can just support her in the way she needs.

 

[DelightedOne]

Ultimately, I believe that in order to "defeat" the wolves the wheel must turn, old history must be subducted under new futures, and the old/new story of changing powers repeat. The Wolf will go the way of The Seven-Coiled when something or someone comes that can fundamentally refute him and take his place. Harmony, most likely, of one stripe or another, because everything that the Wolf embodies can be remedied, in time, by the careful application of Harmony's six virtues, each in its proper time and place. Community over isolation, neh?

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Wish we had Insightfuls here, this deserves more than a Like.

One way of doing that could be asking for Velvet to be rainbow blasted by the Elements, that would get rid of the Sons and maybe point Harmony to their Father. The Harmony Path may also have something for that if the changes it brings to the World empower Harmony(very likely) so it could counter the influence of the Sons and of the Wolf properly.

 

[Blackgutter]

I just noticed that the thread for this quest opened here and the one on sufficient velocity will not continue. Should I anticipate this story May jump to another forum in the future?

 

[Venerable Ro]

I just noticed that the thread for this quest opened here and the one on sufficient velocity will not continue. Should I anticipate this story May jump to another forum in the future?

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Not unless Questionable Questing of all places takes offense to the pony cultist quest. Hopefully we can manage to avoid doing anything so exciting.

 

[Not!Guest]

Hm. In regards to the Wolf cultists, I am reminded of the Qlippoth of a 40k game with something someone said here. Giving up painful memories and replacing them with nonsensical concepts until one is indistinguishable from a Qlippoth/the Wolf.

 

[Pittauro]

mundane methods, such as magic

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mundane... magic... does-not-compute!

After all, she can barely tell that the place is shaped like a tree. Because there are no leaves or flowers to speak of, and most of its branches have already rotted and fallen down.

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uh. It's actually rotting? I don't think that's normal, is Twilight LITERALLY radiating that much misery?

And she knows that… she knows that it would be so simple. It would be as easy as picking up a ripe fruit, that is hanging from a low branch.

She could call whoever lives in that place right now, and she knows that pony would follow. All she needed to do was knock on that door. All she needed to do was extend a hoof, and the denizen of this catacomb would practically lunge to hold on to it.

Amor slowly raises her hoof, inching it closer and closer to the front door…



But like every other week, she stops.

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I wonder if it's a good or bad thing...

Because there are rules to this. There are rules to their… gathering, that she knows she must obey.

In fact, she was the one who wrote them.

And just like every other week, she almost broke the very first rule that they all must follow.

Do not invite any newcomers, unless She was the one who called for them.

Yes… yes. She must follow the rules.

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...I assume "She" is Soft Sweeps, and this is their support group? It feels a bit weird though

It is a shame they stopped leafletting, ever since the rules were put into place. But again, almost all the ponies who came because of the leaflets have already left, and only the ones She called have stayed. So…

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the fact they left is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on why they left...

Because even though the stallion is tied up and bleeding, he still has a smile in his face. Even though some of his bones are broken, and he is clearly in pain, he still has an expression that can only be described as insane.



"You don't get it. NONE OF YOU DO! I met her before! We grew up together, i-in Cloudsdale! We promised we'd marry! Just ask her. ASK HER! I proposed to her right before the Catastrophe! And it's a miracle that I found her here!"

"I think he's too far gone…"

"Yeah, I think he's a lost cause as well."​

"NONE OF YOU ARE GOING TO STOP M-ARGH!"

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...what?

Maybe it's not Soft Sweeps, but something Mareinette is doing? She has that ability to replace Velvet, I could see her being able to replace other people.

Do not speak to Her, and do not approach Her, unless She approaches you first.

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ominous

Because ultimately, that is all they can do. The only thing they can do is wait for… what comes next. For what they know is coming, but that they can neither accelerate nor slow down.

And the rules are there to help them keep to their roles. So, they can better play the part of the audience, or perhaps the gathering Host, until the time finally arrives.

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...is this... a wolf cult waiting for the awakening of the seventh wolf?!

Some of them swear that she looks like a daughter, or a sister, or a wife. Or somepony else they lost. They swear that she is somepony who they love, and that they must -that they deserve- to have her for themselves.

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Again, this doesn't quite seem to fit Soft Sweeps...

So, acts like this are necessary.

Because it is imperative that they do not scare her away.

After all, if she ever decided to stop coming to their gatherings… well, the inevitable would still happen, some day in the future. But they would not be a part of it.

And that, they all know, is an agony none of them are prepared to suffer.

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are those the "bad" consequences of letting Soft Sweeps followed her heart with her not-cult?

Side note, she's really becoming a little Velvet. Remember how the cult members misunderstood our Windigo summoning instructions and used pony sacrifices when we did NOT expect them to?

"Do you think she will share anything today?"

"Oh, I sure hope so. But as always…"

"Yes, we can only wait."

"Yes. It is agonizing, isn't it?"​

A few more chuckles erupt here and there, at the familiar joke.

And soon enough, yet another body is buried and forgotten in the tree-covered outskirts of Ponyville.

After which a group of ponies, united by loss and who help each other in their grief, make its way to their weekly meeting.

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Soft's not-cult took quite the unexpected turn. And it seems like she doesn't know about it yet!

Amor doesn't mind waiting. In fact, she is more than prepared not to leave that spot, even if she has to wait until sunrise. After all, she isn't as interested in going to the gathering as much as she is interested in being with her friend. So, if her friend doesn't feel like going to the gathering, she will stay there all night. And if her friend decides to come, she will accompany her there.

This, without a doubt, is the high point of her week. The thing she looks forward to the most.

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...friend?! She's more of a minion to Soft Sweeps than Jade is to us!

except that at least Jade is not keeping THOSE kind of secrets (probably)...

Because when she really gets distracted, when she really lets her hoofs move on their own, she inevitably ends up carving what seems to be a small pair of dogs.

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or wolves?

She immediately jumps into action, throwing the block of wood away, and almost forgetting to stash her knife in saddlebag. And moments later, she is already galloping towards Ponyville. Her quick pace being sure to get her there before Soft's almost-sleepwalking speed.

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I wonder if she's actually sleepwalking. are the wolves controlling her in her sleep somehow?

also, so the cult is evolving as more wolves come into being?!

Truly, regrettable actions suck.

Well, because the young pegasus looks like she is in a trance. And there isn't a single pony here who wants to wake her from that state.

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Please DO WAKE HER UP INSTEAD!

"And that made me realize that… that one day, that picture will be gone, you know? One day, the one thing that I have to remember them by… it will be gone. It will turn into dust. It won't be there anymore."​

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MAKE

COPIES

It's that simple!

"So I… I burned the picture. I burned it. The last memory I had of them. I burned it all, until it turned into ashes… And the ashes burned my mouth in return as I swallowed them down." ​

The smell of smoke seems to be coming from her hoof, as if she is holding a burning picture that is slowly crumbling into a tiny pile of ash.

"And this burning sensation… I can still feel it. It still hurts… It will never stop hurting… This burn in my throat, it is part of me now… And they will never leave me again."​

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I'm now kind of regretting our regrettable actions again.

On that night, they all took a precious item they had been holding on to. A stuffed toy that belonged to a foal, a cherished scarf knitted for a loved one. They all took those precious items, and they burned them. They burned them, in the privacy of their own homes, right before they went to bed.

They burned them, and then they swallowed down the dirty ashes that remained.

That night, sixteen of them had the Dream. Fifteen woke up to share the news with their fellows, and one of them woke with his lungs full of ash, as he almost did not survive what found him during his dreams.

And from that night onwards, their purpose was a little clearer.

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That's NOT good! Not good at ALL!

...on a different and ironic note though, Soft Sweeps is truly her (second) mother's daughter. This looks like an even more absurd version of Velvet the Loremaster of the Wildhoof Club!

Just a group of ponies dealing with their own problems.

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DOUBT!

ALL THE DOUBT!

 

[OurLadyOfWires]

And everything there "was already happening" immediately BEFORE the "gathering" reached Level 3

Like Lucifer said to Constantine, "I have a full theme park of red delights" now that Soft!Quest gained their third point on the Character Creation phase

Anyways. Hope you're all doing well.
Ill answer pings eventually. And this weekend i plan/hope on reaching Comet talk. That's the vote i hope i can leave us with for the next week.

 

[Sveta08]

Doing well enough.
Stuck somewhere between morbid fascination and grim resolve. And, all together, in a good mood.

Wondering how people will think on the therapy group now. Wondering how much of that information will seep into people's decision making.

Belatedly sad we voted that most of the Lunar Bureau was not situated in Ponyville. Makes sense why it was done, just means we get to see lingering consequences.

 

[DelightedOne]

Wondering how people will think on the therapy group now. Wondering how much of that information will seep into people's decision making.

Belatedly sad we voted that most of the Lunar Bureau was not situated in Ponyville. Makes sense why it was done, just means we get to see lingering consequences.

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On my side: Even more motivation to never, ever under any circunstances do another Regrettable action, to have the All-4 family lesson, to find a way to get rid of the Stains(*cough*ElementsofHarmony*cough*), interact with Soft Sweeps personally(Velvet technically has a reason to do that since Ash was born recently) and a very worrying feature of Ponyville considering how many ponies will be moving to the former small town, who may have lost so much they may be willing to give everything that's left to the Wolf.

On the flipside, if the Bureau was here they would most likely arrest Soft Sweeps as the leader of the creepy agony-murder cult.

I thought how funny it would be for the Wolf cult to just lose their connection to the Wolf if we manage to purify Velvet's soul, one day feeling the certainty of the end the next hollow and adrift. There is also Soft Sweeps not having more lessons to give, since the counter would reset to 0 or lock the Mother of Wolves "victory".

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

If you want to get rid of the wolf their is only one way, is to use the moon to restore the Manuses to it old state.

 

[DelightedOne]

If you want to get rid of the wolf their is only one way, is to use the moon to restore the Manuses to it old state.

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Ha. Funny joke.

Restoring the Mansus would also restore the Wolf, he would get out of the Ascent of Knives because he wasn't supposed to be there or it won't affect him at all. Unless the Mansus that is in the Moon is the Stone one instead of the post Intercalate one.

 

[Greymere]

Ha. Funny joke.

Restoring the Mansus would also restore the Wolf, he would get out of the Ascent of Knives because he wasn't supposed to be there or it won't affect him at all. Unless the Mansus that is in the Moon is the Stone one instead of the post Intercalate one.

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I hope it's the Stone version. The Gods-From-Stone were mostly cool. At the very least, there seemed to be considerably less deliberate malice and divinely sponsored/rewarded cannibalism.

 

[Venerable Ro]

Wondering how people will think on the therapy group now. Wondering how much of that information will seep into people's decision making.

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Well I for one would like to take this perfect opportunity to reiterate that this is not an RPG.

Alright it is an RPG.

But, it is not a party RPG or some variation of WoW, or Baldur's Gate, or Diablo, whatever other sort of game with area levels and loot and skill trees where you never return to an older zone once you beat it and get your loot.

This is a simulator, this is Cultist Simulator, this is Total War, this is Hearts of Iron, this is Europa Universalis, this is Crusader Kings, heck this is Terra Invicta.

Our territory and our resources both material and social are always going to be important, there's no moving on from them to "a better area". We might, hypothetically, claim more territory as we have with The Bureau, but it should never come at the cost of our "capitol". Ponyville is our back yard, it's the place with the most narrative potential for us and the place where the closest social opportunities and dangers can be found. We are currently doing the equivalent of building up one single doomstack while watching multiple potential crises ferment. We have also, almost completely neglected our social economy and infrastructure, such that we are now having monetary and action issues because there aren't enough resources to go around. Velvet is having to personally make every single ritual reagent herself, even the very simplest ones that any associate with two levels of Forge could manage, just as an example. Furthermore, this Wolf-cult, we knew/know nothing of them, and they weren't even trying to hide.

They were handing out pamphlets!

Social connections with say, Mayor Mare or Cheerilee, or perhaps even Pinkie if we met up with her, could have clued us into this and other happenings in the town much earlier. What if this had been Copper, what if Windy was still in town, what if some of the Wildhoof Club remnants had chanced into this Wolf-Cult and jumpstarted them? We wouldn't know anything. Heck, we have no assurances at all that Copper hasn't reestablished a foothold in Ponyville, we've never checked.

We have got to invest some time in getting our social network established, so that we have options, defenses, awareness, economy, and so that we don't just hand enemies known and unknown a easy beachhead.

 

[DelightedOne]

I hope it's the Stone version. The Gods-From-Stone were mostly cool. At the very least, there seemed to be considerably less deliberate malice and divinely sponsored/rewarded cannibalism.

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Uh huh, they were kinda nice especially the Egg, sure the blood sacrifices were creepy but its just a bit and it is the price for protection.

I think their only fuck up was the Crime of the Sky, because why not just do anything else than give immortals a crazy strong urge to eat their kids and then turn them into monsters that also exist outside the laws of the world?

We have got to invest some time in getting our social network established, so that we have options, defenses, awareness, economy, and so that we don't just hand enemies known and unknown a easy beachhead.

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If you feel like this, we could try meeting new ponies with our free social action, improve our current friendships or at least meet the rest of the Elements to be safe, that scare with the Wolf cult and Twilight almost made my heart stop.

 

[Venerable Ro]

If you feel like this, we could try meeting new ponies with our free social action, improve our current friendships or at least meet the rest of the Elements to be safe, that scare with the Wolf cult and Twilight almost made my heart stop.

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With Selene in play we've got a good narrative reason to meet with Cheerilee, or rather she has a good reason to meet with us. Mayor Mare, we could reach out to her to ask about managing ponies and being responsible for everything (since Velvet is rather blind to her own accomplishments). In either case Bird has long since noted that he'll take care of making decisions make sense.

I would honestly like to simply accrue more associates. "Friendship is magic" as the tagline goes, and so far making friends has gone very well for us.

 

[Greymere]

I think their only fuck up was the Crime of the Sky, because why not just do anything else than give immortals a crazy strong urge to eat their kids and then turn them into monsters that also exist outside the laws of the world?

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I'm not actually sure if it was the Gods-From-Stone that instituted the crime, tbh. It at least wasn't around long enough for the Names of the Wheel and Flint to fool around with each other, which produced Antaios and Laiagh. And while Laiagh did eat all of her and Antaios's kids it's not entirely clear whether that's because of the whole Crime of the Sky thing or because she's just Like That.

Plus that little tidbit that alukites are like... Red Grail-animated zombies or something?