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

You are Silky Stream, and you are about to wake up.

You fumble slightly in your half-sleep, under your blanket, and you realize that you are hugging something very large and warm. Like some sort of big teddy bear or a pillow that...

Oh, wait!

You open your eyes slightly, still feeling a bit sleepy, but you recognize that feeling, that special warmth mixed with a small bit of nice perfume. You're hugging your mom!

Or rather, almost being tackled by her. You are currently right between her forelegs, being pressed against her chest. Which is fine, after all you love your mom very much. You hug her back and press your head against her fur for a bit longer, slowly waking up more and more as the light of the sun grows stronger from beyond the curtains of her window.

Until a few dots start connecting in your head. You don't exactly remember coming to her bed during the night. In fact, you haven't done that in years, you've grown up enough that you aren't scared of the dark anymore, and you haven't had a nightmare for quite a while now. So this is strange... what exactly are you doing here?

You wriggle away from your mom, slowly, sneaking away from her hug inch by inch, freezing for a few seconds whenever you feel her move slightly. Until you can get a better look at her face.

Oh no... you can see it, even with the weak light of the blocked out sun. Your mom is sad.

You feel a small knot inside your chest. This is bad.

You know your mom gets sad sometimes. In fact, you know she used to be sad a lot more, when you were younger and when she thought you weren't looking. She would never be sad around you, and you that is because you make her happy, as she tells you all the time. But your daddy told you once about this, about how she can feel down sometimes, and the two of you made a few secret promises so you could help your mom feel happier.

Like the promise you made to never talk about grandpa near her, and the promise you made to always behave and be a good filly, and the promise you made to never fly or run away too fast because you know that she can't run that well, even if she says it's no big deal. You made a lot of promises to your dad, and they all work! Your dad knows your mom really well, of course, and ever since the two of you started working together, you don't see your mom as sad as she used to be, when you were younger. You also know about other things that work, like when you and your dad surprise her with something, or when she comes back from book club or from an afternoon with her friends, or when she reads a good book. All sorts of things.

But right now, your mom is sad and you don't know what to do. And that makes you very worried.

"Mooom..." you press your hoofs against her chest, shaking her slightly and trying to whisper her awake, "mommy... Mooom!"

"Mmm? Wha... Oh, good morning Silky..." until she finally wakes up, blinking in confusion for a few seconds until she realizes where she is, and hugging you back just a bit more, "yes dear, what is it?"

You can see a smile in her face, but it's a tired smile, the kind of smile you usually see when she kisses you good night before going back to work in her office. Your mom didn't rest at all!

"Mom..." you start speaking, hesitantly, unsure exactly of what to say, "is everything alright?"

You can see her looking at you, the small smile in her face turning into something else that... you don't know what is. But she hugs you, burying your face in her fur this time. And although this is good, because you love your mom, you really can't help but feel a bit worried that you can't see her expression as she answers you.

"Everything is fine, sweetie. Why wouldn't it be?"

But, with your head buried in her chest, you can feel a slight tremor in her voice.

"Mommy, are you... sad?", you ask, feeling the strength of her hug waver for a second.

[A White lie]

[Her Roll: 23 + 11 (Intrigue) + 5 (GRAIL bonus) = 39]

[Your Roll: 54 + 7 (Intrigue) = 61]

"Of course not, sweetie..." you hear her answer.

With that same tremor in her voice, only this time just a little heavier.

"Mommy," you insist, feeling the knot on your chest get a little larger, "what's wrong? What happened...?"

"Nothing happened sweetie, I just..." you hear something strange in her voice, something that you don't know what is and that makes you feel very bad. But you know you are worrying about her even more than you are feeling bad right now.

But why isn't she telling you what's wrong? Maybe the cause of the problem she is having is... you? Maybe you don't make her happy anymore? That thought terrifies you, so you hug her back, stronger now, and try asking one last time.

"Mom... you know I love you, right?"

You hear her breath in heavily, sharply, and she hugs you tightly. You almost think you felt her sniff a little bit.

"I know sweetie, it's just that... Mommy had a very bad dream, where she was in a far away place and she wouldn't ever be able to see you or daddy again and..." you hear her voice break a bit, and her chest is shaking even when she's not speaking now, "and mommy felt very scared and..."

You wriggle away from her hug, gently, making your way up between her arms and towards her neck, until you are level with her eyes.

And you can see that your mom is very tired, and very sad.

So you hug her neck, as strong as you can. Strong enough for her to know just how much you love her, strong enough for you to squeeze the sadness away from her, if you can. And she hugs you back, although you can feel her breathing heavily, and you think something wet might have rubbed against your mane. She simply hugs you back, you hope, because she knows just how much you love her.

"Me and daddy aren't going anywhere mom. I promise," you whisper in her ear, and you can feel her nod as she puts a hoof on the back of your head.

The two of you stay like that for a very long time, and you don't go to school that day.