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

You are sitting at your office chair, reading a letter.

Not just any old letter, mind you, this is a letter from Canterlot, straight from the castle. Royal seal, high quality parchment, everything that the upper nobility enjoys.

Even the ink seems to be of excellent quality.

The content, however, is… something that you will have to give a great deal of thought to.

"Esteemed Mrs. Velvet… your help in the Canterlot Camp… invaluable to our efforts…" you read it once again, for what must be the third time, just to make sure you are getting this right. "We would like to cordially invite you to participate on the nation-wide coordination effort, in the royal castle, for the period of two weeks, signed…"

You sigh. You definitely read that correctly.

Two weeks. They want you for two weeks.

Granted, the letter was extensive in thanking you, and you can sense that whoever wrote it feels like you have already done more than your share, so it certainly is within your reach to simply deny the request.

You wouldn't be able to simply say the letter never arrived, of course, it came by royal courier, although you didn't recognize the name of the pony who signed it, and it certainly wasn't a Princess.

Still. Royal courier.

But anyways, you certainly wouldn't lose much if you denied the invitation, however… well, you are a noble, albeit a lesser noble, but you still have common sense. There are opportunities you can let pass you by, and opportunities you shouldn't let pass you by.

And there is also the fact that the letter danced around the subject, but didn't really avoid it, in saying that they are really short in staff. Any help would be appreciated, and your help would be especially appreciated.

But half a month…

"I could go there and say I can only stay a week, for sure. And besides…" you nervously talk to yourself.

Besides, they really must be overestimating you. Of course, captain Chalkhoof was boundlessly thankful for your help in his camp, but whatever the hell did he write in his report to warrant you, a lesser noble in a backwater town, something that was the second best thing next to a royal summons?

"Oh dear…" you sigh, "well, I might be able to-"

When your train of thought is interrupted by your door being banged open.

The hairs on your coat raise to their ends, but any reaction you might have is immediately restrained when you see that the pony who literally barged into your room is the one pony in all of Equestria who could get away with it scot free.

"MOM!"

The brown and beaming blur that is your daughter zips through the room and lands in your desk. It is a feat of reflexes on your part that you manage to shove your things to the side with magic, clearing her a small landing spot.

You see Soft Sweeps by the door, face on the ground and hoofs outstretched as if she had just tried, and failed, to stop your daughter from nearly blowing your door out of its hinges only a few moments ago.

Well, you will forgive her for that. She clearly tried.

"Mom! Look mommy, look!" Silky Stream prances on your table, speaking through her teeth as she holds on to a piece of paper she has in her mouth, "lookie look look! Can we go? Can we can we?!"

You stop her mid-prance with a bit of floating magic, a smile coming to your face as you recover from your shock, and your daughter's presence immediately melts away any sort of emotion that isn't objective acceptance to her actions.

Sure, you would remind her to try and not interrupt you while you are working, and you might have to remind her to listen to Soft Sweeps, as she clearly tried to stop Silky from coming here in the first place.

But your daughter is happy right now, and she didn't do anything objectively wrong, bar perhaps be a little overexcited about something. So you can't exactly scold her for that, right?

"Canwecanwecanwe?!" she keeps prancing, or at least her legs keep moving as she floats in the air, and you take the piece of paper she has in her mouth.

"Can we what, dear? What exactly is it that happened?" you ask absent-mindedly, as you take the paper she is holding and quickly read it.

It is a flier to some sort of… local event in Ponyville?

"Sisterhooves Social?" you ask her.

"Yes! Its an event where sisters compete! And all of my friends will be there with their sisters, and-" Silky Stream goes on and on, talking in the excited rush that only a foal is capable of talking in, and that only a parent is capable of understanding.

As she speaks, however, you look pass her and towards Soft Sweeps, who has only now recovered from her face-first impact. You see her dust off her maid uniform, but you catch her taking a peek in your direction from where she stands by the door.

And she notices your smile, directed at her, as well as she hears Silky Stream's continuous clamoring.

And by the heavens, you can see her soul leaving her body in embarrassment.

"-and now I can go because I have a sister! So can I go? Please? Pleasepleaseplease?" Silky Stream finishes, waving her hoofs around while free-floating in your magic.

"Is that so…?" you ask, as if seriously thinking about whether if you should let her or not.

But of course, the only thing you are really trying to do is not let your smile show too much.

You look at Soft Sweeps who is still by the door, blushing furiously and trying to hide her face behind her hoofs. You smile a little more at that.

"And did she say she would like to go with you?"

"Yes! She did!"

You see the maid die a little bit more inside.

"Well then dear, of course you can go."

Her reaction to your answer, although there really wasn't any other possible answer, nearly melts a hole in your heart, and as soon as you let go of her with your levitation she zips back towards Soft Sweeps, nearly tackling her in a hug, the two of them yelling and yelping for very different reasons, although deep down you can see that the maid is also almost as happy as your daughter is.

However, your eyes still fall towards the royally stamped letter on your desk. It didn't specify when you should come, only the period they would like you to stay, but it seems that you will have a very busy month ahead of you indeed…