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

You are distressed.

You can hide it, sure. Plenty of things have already happened in your life, and many of them happened to you while you were powerless to interfere or have any say in it, so of course you can manage it. Just go on with your routine, just keep up with your everyday life.
Bid your husband safe travels when he leaves for his work, tuck your daughter into bed, make the decisions on how many earth pony farmers should be assigned to which fields, send the weekly reports to Canterlot.

But you can still feel that distress eating away at you. Slightly, slowly, almost to the point where you could ignore it if you really wanted to. But you don't want to. You can't.

You think about it every time night falls. You feel it as a shiver in your spine every time you put your daughter to sleep.

What the hell were those things you saw in the Dreamlands?

You dim the light of your lamp, the large working desk in which it sits sending deeper shadows into the floor. You are already done for the day when it comes to work, have already been for a while in fact, but sleeping really doesn't feel like a comfortable idea as of late.

Sure, you could go into the Mansus. But going there in your current mind state, or rather going there without a goal, would not be beneficial. At best you would simply get lost in the Woods, and at worst something else might find you in the Woods instead. The Mansus has its own dangers after all, of which you know only very few.

However, none of them are as wrong as those things. Not nearly as wrong.

For a brief moment you remember that flash of memory. Tongues that weren't tongues licking, scraping, against a wooden door with somepony's cutie mark engraved on it. You are thankful that your daughter still doesn't have hers, or you are sure that your mind would already have started making cruel changes to that memory. But you still have to force yourself to make those images stop.

You take a deep breath, the lamp-warm air from a night's worth of work filling your lungs, bringing you some sort of calm.

Right, you think to yourself, no point in being irrational about it. You are Velvet Covers, and you didn't get your cutie mark by flailing in worry whenever something complicated showed up in your life.

What do you know? That is the first question you ask yourself.

Well, first of all you know about the Mansus, and you know what you have been told by your cult's Master. Equestria might be a magical place, but no matter how one looks at it, it is also extremely unnatural.

You remember struggling with the word "unnatural" at first. The long conversations you had with Copper Secateur on what (at first) were just innocent book club meetings immediately coming to your mind. It really took some time for the idea that the sun and moon are moved daily by Princess Celestia to sink in. Well, not the fact itself, since everypony knows that, but rather the fact that the very concept of day and night, and their constancy, only exists because Princess Celestia makes it so.

"But it has been like that for as long as history goes" you said, stating the obvious.

"Precisely" was her answer, with something akin to a mocking smile.

Clouds are moved by the pegasi, seasons are changed by magic or hard labor. Everywhere a pony looks, she can see a land shaped by design.

The so-called natural order of Equestria is enforced, as if the whole world is a stage in which the props have to be moved manually, or else the play itself will make no sense.

That was what drew you in, at first. That small tidbit of realization that nopony else seemed to notice, that feeling of having your eyes open when everypony else was blind, the satisfaction of completing a small puzzle.

That "being part of a cult", of something closed off, private.

Then, you were introduced to the cult's Master, and you started to learn some other secrets.

You were shown the Mansus, and had to struggle your way through the crossroads and into the Woods proper. You learned about being lost, and how not to be found. You have learned how to walk on shadows, and have sometimes even seen shadows walk.

And that's what was so intriguing about it. You are an unicorn, you know magic, and the things you have seen and heard are not magic. Those things don't differentiate between earth ponies, pegasi or unicorns, they simply happen. They simply work.

The same way you were shocked to realize that Equestria's nature was enforced by ponies, you were also fascinated when you realized that you might have actually found the hints to some natural laws. Real natural laws, even if they were taught to you in secret meetings, or dreams, or through whispers in a dark forest that might not exist.

And right now, you take a deep breath to order your thoughts, what you are pondering is the… next logical question on all this.

Why?

Why does Princess Celestia enforces such things? Moving the sun and moon every day is something beyond deliberate once one starts to think about it. It might be seen as natural after millennia of culture and history, but she is older than that. So why?

And on the other hand, isn't Celestia benevolent? She has been for as long as any pony is concerned, so why does your Master insists that her actions are "abominable", as he says?

And most importantly, why are there those things in the Dreamlands of ponykind? Why are there things that right now could be eyeing the entrance to the dreams of your own daughter?

You sag in your cushioned seat, your mind starting to draw blanks and run in circles thanks to those questions, and to the long day of work you have just been through.

"I don't know…" you say to yourself, almost in a depressed tone, "I know too little about… all of this…"

Your horn flickers for a moment, the lamp before your eyes flickering in return before its light vanishes. It is getting colder, and you don't want to limp all the way back to your room if your hindleg suddenly decides it is too cold, so you start walking out of your office.

"But if there is an answer, then I'm going to find out."

You had many options on how you could have done this.

You could have staged a "coincidental meeting". Two friends bumping into each other on the streets, a flurry of embarrassed apologies quickly turning into smiles as they both recognize each other and head off together, chatting merrily towards the nearest café.

Or perhaps you could have elected a more unconventional road. Although the Woods are vast and shifting, there are certain places that you and your fellow cult members have been taught to traverse frequently. It is possible to carve certain messages on the darkened bark of some trees, that fade after a lunar cycle. Inadequate to storage knowledge, but perfect for scheduling places and times of gathering.

However, in the end this is Ponyville. In all honesty there is not really much need for secrecy when it comes to meeting somepony in private. There is equally no need to go about your business publicly, and leave a trail of crumbs that might be followed in the future, but that doesn't mean you need a great and convoluted plan for every single small part of your life either.

So you had decided, a few days back, to send a letter to Starry Dancer offering to meet with her, and an answer came shortly after.

"There you are!" a delighted voice, followed by the soft sound of trotting, snaps you out of your reverie, "I gotta say, I knew you weren't lying in your letter. But boy was it a surprise!"

A pink pegasus sits in front of you, her orange mane with a single teal streak covering one of her eyes, but not her smile. And her smile, you can see, is both honest and curious.

"And I'm glad you wrote me back, Starry Dancer," you answer, floating the teacup you were drinking from down to the saucer in front of you, although you make no comment on how... short her answer was. Two-letters short, in fact.

The two of you are in a tea house. One not far from where you live, but one that you have never visited before regardless.

Well, not like the list of places you have never visited in Ponyville is short to begin with. The more you think about it, the more you realize that you might as well have just moved into town a few months back, with how little you know about it.

"Of course I would!" she beams at you and take a menu in her hoofs, her smile turning into a questioning gaze as she reads through it, "but uhm… what do you want to talk about again…?"

"Since we are in the same… club," you say in a nonchalant way as a waiter stallion walks towards you table, "I figured I could actually learn a thing or two if I joined in on somepony's else assignment. Well, I could both learn something, and get to know them better," you finish with a smile of your own.

"U-huh…" Starry Dancer has the menu almost covering her face now, you can almost picture her nose touching it. You can't help to tilt your head slightly at her until, "I'll have what she's having!" she puts the menu down a moment later, turning to the waiter stallion before he can even ask the question.

The stallion also seems slightly put off, but he nods shortly after and walks away.

"And why didn't you just say so in the first place then?" she says in an almost excited tone.

Although you're pretty sure you did say so, in your letter.

"So then, what can you help me with?" she continues, with that same innocence.

Which leaves you, admittedly, befuddled for half a second.

"That's… what I was hoping you could answer me?" you try asking, your polite smile slowly crumbling into doubt.

"Oh, right! Of course. Well then, here's what I've been up to these last few weeks…"

Government in Equestria is a rather… interesting subject, you ponder as you make your way through the streets of Ponyville.

Everypony lives in a monarchy, that much is undeniable. The title "Princess" seems rather unfit when "Queen" or "Immortal Empress" could have fit Princess Celestia much better, or at least would make a lot more sense.

But regardless of her title, she is still the undisputed ruler of Equestria. And under her wings ponykind lives in the richest lands that are known, with mineral wealth that far outstrips the mighty Yakk mines on the far north, and agricultural potential that puts the militarized Griffons beyond the eastern sea to shame. And there isn't a single creature (among those that bother to study about it, at least) that doesn't know that no other race dares to so much touch pony territory thanks to the presence of Princess Celestia.

Having a resident demigoddess reigning over you has its many perks, after all.

But anyway, focus on the topic at hoof, government in Equestria.

Since it is a monarchy, all power and authority emanates from Princess Celestia herself, but after centuries some of that power has become… well, not exactly "decentralized", but somewhat "shared".

As history goes, the first noble ponies were those who performed some sort of great feat. Said ponies would almost always be handsomely rewarded, usually with great wealth or (since it was far more available back then) large swathes of land. However, there was no single family, no matter how large, that could make proper use of so much land as was rewarded, so the usual practice was for said pony to allow others to settle in their land.

Those settled ponies would, in turn, recognize the land owner's authority over them, and suddenly the seeds of a small town have been sown, with the authority of the rewarded (and later known as "noble") pony being passed on through generations. Fast forward a few centuries and you have a noble family that rules over a city, with those who live in their lands recognizing their authority and right to rule.

Ponies tend to be good neighbors like that. Very few such stories have ended in bloodshed.

However, not all cities and towns share that background. Some of them saw their ruling noble families run dry, without heirs to pass the torch to. Others were simply founded by simple folk and were later recognized as a town by royal decree, like in Ponyville's case.

And that's what you have been thinking about. Ponyville's history, and its rulership.

More specifically, its current ruler, Mayor Mare.

You have been living in Ponyville for years now, and you cannot recall a single election taking place. Granted, you could have easily missed it between your isolated lifestyle and your rare trips to Canterlot, but you're pretty sure that they never happened to begin with. Which left you wondering about the "Mayor" part in her name…

Your best guess is that once Ponyville was officially recognized as a town, it would have started paying taxes as per royal decree. She might just have been the pony who rounded up all that work, or was part of a council that took care of mediating relations between the recently-declared town and Canterlot. After that, other public-servant related tasks probably piled up on her reliable hoofs, until she found herself as the de-facto leader of Ponyville. Hence the "Mayor".

And speaking of names, you also realize you have no idea what her actual name is. Oh well, Mayor Mare will have to do.

"Ma'am, we're here", Ponpon calls your attention. You blink twice before looking out through the window, and thanking her with a nod.

You have a very simple reason to be pondering governorship and nobility, and that is because you are about to pay a visit to Mayor Mare.

From the conversation you had with Starry Dancer, she has been trying to get on the good side of Mayor Mare for the last few weeks. More specifically, she has been trying to get a job on the Town Hall, or as the mayor's assistant, "whichever gets me closer to her, that is" was what the pegasus had said. And that is what you are going to help her with.

Unfortunately, you don't really know Mayor Mare. You met her, years ago, when you first moved into Ponyville on some sort of formal meeting your family had with her. But apart from that, you can't really say you had any sort of contact with her.

But what you do have is your name, and a carriage parked in front of the Town Hall, the doors of which have just been opened by Ponpon for you to step out.

Of course you detest riding the thing, but that's for personal reasons. No need to refrain from using a tool if it can be useful.

"Shall I go announce you to the mayor's office, ma'am?"

"No need Ponpon, we didn't exactly schedule a meeting with her. Let's just hope the good mayor has the time for a sudden visit," you say as you walk into the town hall.

Attracting quite a few curious gazes, you might add. After all, a well dressed unicorn accompanied by a fully uniformed maid, arriving in a carriage drawn by two stallions, isn't exactly a common sight in Ponyville, bar during a visit from a representative of Canterlot.

The town hall is mostly a reunion hall, used for grand festivities or ceremonies, receiving dignitaries or simply for the town to gather if there is some matter that needs to be discussed with the community. But you do know there is an office in here from where Mayor Mare works.

Or at least there was, years ago… Wait, there it is.

You walk to a door on the side of the large hall, the one topped by a bright plaque with "MAYOR MARE" engraved on it.

You give the door a few knocks, and soon enough you hear a muffled answer, followed by the sound of a few things being put aside, and of hoofs heading towards the door.

"Good afternoon! How can I …" Mayor Mare herself opens the door, already speaking before quite realizing who she is talking to.

[First (in a long while) Impressions, breakpoints 40/60/80]

[Roll: 36 + 10 (Diplomacy) + 5 (Beautiful) = 51, surprised, but available]

The sight of a well dressed unicorn flanked by a prim and proper looking maid can have the most varying of effects. In Canterlot, it is only expected, while in Ponyville it can earn you downright puzzled stares.

But true to her office, Mayor Mare has been the direct link between Ponyville and all manner of authorities for… well, for as long as you know. Her expression turns quizzical for less then a second before her practiced smile returns to her face.

"How can I help you, Mrs. Velvet Covers?" she finishes, after skipping only a single beat.

"Miss Mayor, it has been quite a while", you say with your most pleasant tone, shifting to an embarrassed one right after, "do pardon my sudden visit, unannounced as it is, but could I perhaps ask for your help on a matter?"

This actually gets her to raise an eyebrow, but a moment later her door is wide open, and she is welcoming you into her office.

"Thank you kindly, and please just call me Velvet," you say as you take a seat, Ponpon closing the door behind the two of you after you enter and waiting outside.

"In that case please just call me Mayor as well, no need for anything fancy with me," she says with a smile as she sits behind her own desk.

Not helpful with your whole "name" curiosity, you think idly…

"Now then, I am quite used to helping ponies, so please do tell what is this matter you have."

Mayor Mare seems to be in full business mode, so you don't think you'll gain anything from beating around the bushes for now.

"Well, I have been… or rather my family has been having problems with our farmlands here in Ponyville, or at least they perceive that they are having a problem," you try your best to sound like you're flustered with the whole situation. Not exactly wanting to agree with "your family", but not exactly sure how to react either. "It is basically a problem with regulation."

"Regulation? What sort of regulation, something on what your lands are planting or the likes?" she answers with genuine concern, you can almost see her trying to remember what sort of laws (ancient and obscure, or recent) you might be referring to.

She probably won't remember anything, you think to yourself. This whole "problem" is made up after all.

"Not really anything relating to that," you assure her, raising a hoof slightly, "it has to do with our working hands. We do employ a rather substantial number of earth ponies, after all, and there has been… problems, so to speak."

You can see a hint of worry in her eyes, and you latch on to that.

"The problems aren't really anything new. Things about payments, and season shifts, the usual issues with the weather department on how long the farmers say a season has to last, and so on… What changed is how our family head back in Canterlot is seeing things. He's recently started to say that since the workers are causing too much trouble, then it means that our business hasn't really integrated well with Ponyville, and that…"

You try your very best to sound tired as you deliver that last line.

"Well, that since we are having so many troubles with our workforce here, then we should move away all of our assets into another town."

You look down, trying to appear as worried as you can, and you see in her eyes that..

[Delivering the Lie, breakpoints 30/70/100]

[Roll: 88 + 10 (Intrigue) + 1 (GRAIL bonus) = 99, so close to the mayor freaking out]

You see her eyes go wide, some part of her very nearly losing control, but being restrained at the last moment, and she becomes speechless for a moment.

Of course, you can understand the reason for that.

Your family owns several farms and plantations to the east, and consequently employs a considerable number of ponies. Those ponies are paid, obviously, and live in Ponyville. Consequently, a good amount of riches flows from your family's coffers and into Ponyville's economy as a whole.

None of those riches are yours, of course, but you do administer them. And although the flow of bits that goes from your family's farmlands to Ponyville workers might not be an artery when it comes to local commerce, it's still significant. A cart that has four wheels can still function with three, but you will either have to make some modifications on its structure, or risk having it tip over if you mismanage the weight that it is carrying.

So what does Mayor Mare has when the sole administrator of almost the entirety of the eastern farmlands of Ponyville enters her office, and simply drops an "you're about to lose one of those four wheels" bomb?

She has a small disaster that's about to happen, that's what she has.

"Well, Mrs. Velvet, we simply can't let that happen now, can we?" you hear her voice almost fail. Almost. But Mayor Mare must have already talked to Princess Celestia herself, and is holding herself as best as she can. "And I'm sure these problems your family is seeing can be absolutely taken care of. But what exactly can we do to help?"

"I totally agree that this is a simple misunderstanding, but we have to somehow show that our relation with Ponyville is good…" you think to yourself for a moment, hoof on your chin, before you deliver the solution you had planned the whole time, "in fact, I think this could all be solved if we had somepony from here as an official contact with us," you say with an "aha!" smile.

"Somepony as a contact? You mean a liaison of sorts?"

"Yes, exactly that!" you clop your hoofs together, as if all of your problems had just been solved, "if we have somepony from the town hall to be an official link with us, maybe to even be a figurehead for our workers and whatnot, we can surely show my family that we have close ties with Ponyville."

[Does Starry Dancer stick the landing?]

[Roll: 24 + 9 (her Intrigue) = 33, no, she does not]

"Do you have anypony you could spare for that role?" you ask hopefully.

And now would be the perfect time for Starry Dancer to knock on the door. The hopeful mare who wants to help the mayor galloping in by sheer coincidence and saving the day. Or at least that's what you had planned with Starry.

But instead, an awkward silence extends itself as Mayor Mare looks thoughtfully (and with a slight bit of panic) at the papers on her desk.

"Well, nopony immediately comes to mind. I know a mare who is reliable and would surely want to help, but this sounds like it will be an awful lot of work and I'm not sure if she'd have the time to…"

No, it wont be an awful lot of work, you think to yourself. Bar signing some pre-written letters you would prepare yourself, this "liaison" would have no other worry except being an official assistant to the mayor. But you can't tell her that right now.

She mumbles to herself a bit more about somepony named "something-jack", but you don't really listen. Your ears straining, trying to hear a knock on the door that isn't arriving.

"Well, I can do it myself," Mayor Mare finally concludes, dread appearing in her eyes as she realizes that either she mauls this unknown amount of work herself, or Ponyville might suffer a blow, "and besides, nothing can really beat 'having close ties with Ponyville' more than letters and reports signed by the mayor herself, rig-?"

Until finally she is interrupted by the sound of knocking coming from the door, one in a particular rhythm that sounded like some sort of music.

And Mayor Mare must have recognized that music, because she lets out a short sight before answering.

"Could you come later? I'm having a meeting right now," Mayor Mare says towards the door, managing a voice that sounds a lot less tired than she looks, and even a bit educated.

You turn around, seeing the door open slightly, a pink pegasus looking in (or rather, specifically looking at you) with an apologetic expression.

"Oh? Terribly sorry miss Mayor, I'll be back later then," she says, moving to close the door.

[Rescuing the Situation, CD 40 (nearly-panicked Mayor)]

[Roll: 100 + 10 (Intrigue) + 1 (GRAIL bonus) = 111, critical success]

"Starry Dancer! Come on in!" you say with a sudden smile, your whole body perking up and facing her as if really in joy. "Why, what a pleasant surprise, how have you been?"

You keep your eyes on Starry Dancer, willing her to walk in with your stare.

And you have your back to Mayor, so there's no way she will notice the slight force in your gaze. But Starry Dancer herself sure does, and her apologetic expression turns into some shade of fright as she meekly walks in through the door.

"Pardon me Mrs. Velvet, but do you know this mare?" you hear Mayor asking from behind you.

"Of course I do! We are good friends, the two of us," you say in the most non-specific way possible, yet still beaming with sincerity, "but I had no idea that she worked for you Mayor… In fact, why not assign her for that liaison idea of ours? I can't think of anypony more reliable than her for the job, especially since it is somepony I already know so well."

You look into Mayor's eyes, your smiling face the picture of a pony who just struck gold during a previously hopeless situation, and you can almost see the options flashing inside her mind.

She could tell you that said mare does not work for the townhall, of course. But that would mean that she would have to tackle some obscure task as a connection between Ponyville and a noble family in Canterlot all by herself, and also that she would risk offending the very same noble who not only came to her for help, but also nearly gave her the news that a lot of earth pony farmers were about to lose their jobs.

Or… she could just smile at the pink pegasus who had recently, and quite sincerely perhaps, been trying to help her in her duties these past few weeks. If she could just play along with the misunderstanding that you brought up, hoping that "you wouldn't realize that you were mistaken", then the problem will have practically solved itself. Starry Dancer might be a bit on the clumsy side, always humming a song, and to be quite honest she sometimes can be a bit of a disturbance. But she is also forthright and earnest, and seems to have a great deal of potential.

Besides, she somehow seems to be personal friends with Ponyville's resident and recluse noble mare.

A few moments later, you see Mayor Mare smiling, a subtle sigh of relief causing her shoulders to relax.

"Starry Dancer," she says, the strain draining from her voice with each word, "take a seat, my assistant, me and Mrs. Velvet here would like to discuss an assignment with you."

You nod in agreement, and pretend you didn't see the quick wink that Mayor Mare gave to Starry Dancer as she sat by your side.

Well, this was our first 100.

Just a short notice, 100s and 1s are critical successes and failures, and that incurs in them having "lasting effects". This might come as a scrap of Lore reward, some material thing, perhaps a status upgrade or something else. But it will always be "a result beyond what you attempted to achieve" (as, I assume, is a normal practice in quests).

On this particular case, Starry managed to leap several steps up on Mayor's trust. Or will be able to, in due time, the two of them being off to a start that will go far better than expected. This 100 will be wholly cashed into Starry's cult mission, and she has you to thank for it.

You are also acquainted with Mayor Mare now.