VVVVVigil: Valorous Veterans Vanquishing Venal Vermin

[Rebonack]

[The Academy]

"That brings us right back around to capture a demon, then," Geneva muses. "But! That gives us somewhere to start! I think I'll begin with a few more general solutions, then see about capturing a demon for study. Once we've got that resource testing will be easier and I'll be able to focus things down on more targeted solutions."

Geneva likes solutions.

Solutions are great.

"Thank you, Ambrosia, for the information. And for, ah, hehe, putting up with my eccentricities. If I ever run across any interesting information on dragon transformation I'll be sure to keep you in mind."

There. Ending the conversation on friendly terms. Way better than darting off and hiding in a lab.


[Geneva's Mind]

~That's a good way to look at it. A chance to start over. Staying positive helps keep the good work flowing,~ Geneva replies with a mental nod.

She's pretty sure that she has a solid grasp on the resonator. It'll just be a matter of getting the right components. Thankfully she has a decent supply already, a good eighty five percent either with her or in storage. It'll just be that last little bit that'll prove tricky. But sometimes finding the tricky components is half the fun! Geneva has already visited quite a few interesting places in the Nexus she never would have even thought to poke around in if not for her search for equipment and knowledge. Nothing like a scavenger hunt across one of the most interesting Cities in existence to help you meet new people.

And then?

Other questions.

~Well... less than I probably should. It hasn't been high on my priority list, I'm sorry to say. I was initially under the impression that it was some kind of highly advanced memory crystal coupled with a artificial intelligence, all quite miniaturized. But that wouldn't explain the mental clarity that having you with me grants,~ Geneva replies. ~That was a decent, though not wholly satisfying, explanation at first. But since I got you back from Fortuna this feels MUCH more like talking to a person rather than the echo of a person.~

[Morty]

[Commander's Village]

Calm Reed smiles slightly, a rare sight.

"Very well. I will hold nothing back and excel, as a Prince of the Earth must."

[VIGIL Phone]

"That was before everyone and their mother wanted to duel me," Wenomir says, sounding unamused. "Such is the price of notoriety, I suppose. Though I never did ask you why you really wanted to fight me back then."

[Shadowcaller]

[The Academy]

Ambrosia nods deeply. "You would have helped me the same way, Geneva. It was the least I could do. Really, I could try to get one of those demons for you, if you're willing to wait that is. I have some other projects, but this one might actually be useful for my own research too. If you don't prefer letting VIGIL doing it of course."

[VIGIL Phone]

"Why do you duel, Wenomir? I can tell you that I might be one of the few melee fighters in MERC and even fewer of them are all that interested in dueling. Just wanted to avoid getting rusty and you were my go-to guy. It's even more of a concern now... but let's not get into that now. I can tell you're not in the mood." As if he ever was, the man needed to get a sense of humor. But it was better to get straight to the point then, how dull. "Anyway, I called you tell you about a woman that came to hire MERC for a peculiar job. Apparently, there is a group of "facestealers" led by a half-dragon called Venmaunt, a child of the dragon Feiadyne, that are infiltrating Inside and we're being hired to stop them. Not only that, but this woman, hired by a certain miss Libitina who as far as I've gathered is one of Magtok's former girlfriends?" Only through rumors though. "Your guess is as good as mine there, but apparently they haven't contacted Inside about this as they fear that the city is already infected by these facestealers who are working to destabilize the city for... evil reasons. This Venmaunt is looking for some religious artifact. No information what said artifact looks like beyond that it contains a lot of divine energy." Dena pauses to let all that sink in.

"So, as you can tell..." A shorter pause as she can feel Wenomir processing the information. "Its a bit of a mess. Beyond what we usually deal with. What do you make of it? Since you guys deal with this way more than we do."

[VIGIL Entrance]

Cessie will be waiting for Saint Laz and Calm Reed by the entrance. With her is Garn the gargoyle who is holding six ribbons, three blue and three red.
"Grand, there you are. Why don't you put on these ribbons? The red ones are for Saint Lazarus and the blue ones are for Calm Reed. I'll explain their purpose in a moment."
The gargoyle will hand out said ribbons to the two once they approach without as much as a word.
"As to ensure that no one gets hurt, I've conjured what should be completely harmless. However, if you are hit by it, one of your ribbons will turn to dust. Once all ribbons have turned to dust, you're out. Do you understand?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[Geneva's Mind]

It's a more important lesson to take to heart than most realize, I think.
The power of positivity is more than just a "feel good" thing, to her.
It's vitally important to the survival of everyone.

And scavenger hunts are fun! Usually not too bad of a thing to indulge one of those, for a good cause.

One more question. Are you familiar with necromantic manipulation of souls?

[Rebonack]

[Academy - Geneva's Laboratory]

Because we may as well start calling it this, right?

That's basically what it is. Or at least what it's going to be.

It's just a (mostly) empty room right now, but imagine the possibilities!

"If you think you can do that without too much risk, please feel free," Geneva replies with a nod. "And if we can make headway without having to do anything that mister Wenomir would strongly disapprove of-"

Like getting help from demons.

"-that would probably be for the best."

As she is speaking, Geneva begins unloading equipment from her inventory spell.

...wow.

Some of that stuff is really big. And fancy looking. Not just equipment for analyzing and potentially opening bridges, but equipment for making other equipment. All the stuff Geneva has assembled herself has a rather eclectic look to it, bits and pieces from just about every cosmology in the Nexus. She's taking this 'use all the resources at my disposal' thing pretty seriously. It'll take her a good fifteen minutes or so to unload everything and get it arranged more or less to her liking. There will be even more once the transport arrives with the rest of her gear.

"If you ever need help with anything, feel free to ask, alright Ambrosia?" Geneva requests as she works. "I'm an engineer, first and foremost. If you need any equipment to help with your studies, I'm your gal."

That's a nice offer. Very friendly!

[Geneva's Mind]

~I... well... I'm not sure. The way something like that would work back on Earth, eer my Earth, is probably different from how it would work in Equestria. And it would be different from how it would work in many other worlds that touch the Nexus. I've found that magic involving souls, necromancy and the like, they tend to be one of the most variable types of magic I've encountered. And considering how variable magic is from one world to another already, that's saying quite a bit. So assume I'm a student at the Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns. How would you explain it to me, ethical concerns of that kind of magic notwithstanding?~

Sounds like Geneva is ready for her friend to lay it out. There's a mental image of Geneva, a youngish adult human with pale pink hair reminiscent of a certain pegasus, sitting at a desk with pencil and notebook at the read, bright blue eyes watching expectantly.

[Lord Magtok]

VIGIL Entrance

Saint Laz nods, quietly frowning to herself at the red ribbons as she puts them on her wrist. So it looks like one of her greatest assets, namely, the ability to take a dozen or so hits that would kill a person and keep on moving, isn't going to be tested here, and her tendency to just ignore most attacks completely isn't going to be of much use. Drat. Oh well, we should still be able to make this work. Just gotta focus on taking down the whatever-Ms. Mithar's-conjured-up quick and clean.

"Any other rules we should be aware of? Is this supposed to be a simulation of anything in particular?" If it's a hostage scenario or something along those lines, Saint Lazarus is extra-screwed. She is the worst at that sort of thing, especially if her future roommate is anything to go by.

[Morty]

[VIGIL Phone]

There's a deep sigh on the other side of the phone.

"There's several red flags here, starting with why they didn't come to us. Do they believe us to be infiltrated as well? But they don't think you are? Seems to me like someone might be trying to play you."

[VIGIL Entrance]

Calm Reed nods as she puts on her own ribbons. She has no questions beyond the one St. Lazarus already asked right now.

[UncleWolf]

Barracks

The swaddled grub almost instantly passes out, snoring quietly as it is made nice and warm and comfortable. He'd taken a glance around the room as he'd done so, but apparently he feels nice and safe enough to have passed out.

It'll probably be a while before he's picked up.

Edge of the Island

And a while later, several hours later, a winged figure lands at the edge of the island before the wings fold away and vanish. For a moment the figure wearing a trench coat kneels down with a hand on the ground. The coat's collar gets pulled up to keep away any chill, and slowly the figure walks over towards the barracks, humming and casting a hand out with a spin every once in a while in time to music. Anyone can stop the person of course.

[Recaiden]

"That brings us right back around to capture a demon, then," Geneva muses. "But! That gives us somewhere to start! I think I'll begin with a few more general solutions, then see about capturing a demon for study. Once we've got that resource testing will be easier and I'll be able to focus things down on more targeted solutions."

Did you know Geneva, that you can just order some demons? They're a standard supply that the base NPCs can get for you, no questions asked. For science, dueling, 'dueling', whatever. Just pay shipping and handling.

[Shadowcaller]

[VIGIL Phone]

"You misunderstand, Wen. They were planning to come to you but I offered to save them some time and inform you instead. For what its worth though, I think the facestealers are very real and that they are in Inside right now. However, I'm not sure MERC is equipped to deal with them or if we're going to earn a profit from it. This sounds more like your business if you think you're capable of dealing with a threat such as this." Dena explains. "So I'm going to give you the reins here. I mean, we could help you if you'd hire us. But something tells me that you'd decline that offer. It's too bad though, MERC and VIGIL have had good relationships in the past and you've hired us a couple of times. Always with positive results."

[VIGIL Entrance]

Cessie raises two fingers. "Two enemies, one horde and one singular 'boss' enemy. The 'boss' is going to be flying, the horde is earth-bond. In addition, there are a number of 'civilians' that you are supposed to not-kill, all clearly marked in blue. They're going to be attempting to flee the scene and you need to stop the enemies, all in grey, from 'killing' them. As this scenario is quite taxing for me to animate I'm going to be in a trance. I won't be able to communicate with you once it starts besides through my own summons so don't approach me. Is all that clear?"

[Academy - Geneva's Laboratory]

The scholar nods, though her attention now seems divided between Geneva and the sheer amount of stuff she's pulling out. "Of course... if I ever think of something. I have to ask though, where did you find all this? What is it used for?"

[Morty]

[VIGIL Phone]

"I suppose we've had a mutually beneficial relationship in the past," Wenomir admits. "This is not a matter we can ignore, either way. You were already hired by this... Libbitina, you said? Either way, what sort of arrangement do you propose?"

[Edge of the Island]

The newcomer will be approached by a pair of dusky-skinned people, a man and a woman, wearing clothing with the Vigil emblem and plaques reading "Air control".

"Excuse me," the woman says firmly. "We need to clear you after landing on the island."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Geneva's Mind]

Geneva has simultaneously given an easy out for this explanation and made it more painful.
Treat is as a lesson for a student of Celestia's? The only real context was at the height of the war.

Hence, there is an enormous amount of discomfort in this.
If I was just another teacher in Canterlot...I would tell you that it's dark zebra magic, blasphemous and dangerous to even look at.
That discomfort only seems to grow, as experience clashes with scholarly detachment.
From where I stand now, after the war...here...it's dark zebra magic, blasphemous and dangerous to even look at."

It's an absolutely horrible explanation and the exact opposite of something any good teacher should tell a student, something that is clearly causing her some pain to say.
She wants to give a nice practical lecture here, it's what she would do for probably literally any other topic, but...
That may not be entirely fair, I never had the opportunity to properly study Rarity's book, but...from everything I've seen, everything I've experienced, its entire purpose seems to be to corrupt and destroy. It seems to have been behind the balefire bombs, I know it was behind that Pink Cloud used to kill the Princesses, and it...a very potent tool of necromancy preyed on one of my best friend's minds, leading her to do horrible things to herself and others. A lot of us made terrible mistakes, but no one else carved apart their soul, just to make gifts for their friends.

[UncleWolf]

Edge of the Island

When the pair of guards arrive, they'll find Renee standing there, shrugging to adjust her squirming and living trench coat. It was a pale white-green affair, seemingly made of toughened flesh and armor and it writhed with a mind of its own upon her shoulders as she got it to settle down. She seemed to be tossing out the odd handful of sugar for the local "pests". She keeps the stump of her wrist in a pocket but she gives a cheerful smile and wave at the pair when she's approached. "Heya! Dunno if you know me but I'll figure you don't. I'm Renee. I'm just here to pick up a friend of mine that got carried away in his duty." She admits.

[Rebonack]

[Geneva's Lab]

"Hmm?" Geneva mumbles, looking up as she busies herself with assembling something that looks... important. "Oh! Well, I have to make quite a bit of my equipment. Quite a bit of this stuff is for machining parts and prototyping. The rest of it is evenly divided between detection equipment, diagnostic equipment, and devices designed to manipulate various types of naturally occurring bridges here in the Nexus."

It is a BUNCH of stuff.

Seriously.

Very technical looking stuff.

And looking at it all?

Ambrosia might get the distinct impression that Geneva is a giant nerd.

[Geneva's Mind]

'Blasphemous dark magic' was more or less what she was expecting, but she was hoping for a LITTLE more information than that.

~There's some material like that, stuff that I had to learn the hard way is best left along,~ Geneva mutters. ~When I first got to the Nexus and started to really grasp this place I was SO excited! New types of magic to learn about, most of which you don't even need a horn to use. Magic anyone can use. I heard about a library of magic in the City, a place called Howard Philip Memorial Library. I... umm... well... Let's just say that I'm really fortunate that they keep their REALLY dangerous books under lock and key.~

Geneva poked at a few things she really shouldn't have.

Thankfully she managed to escape more or less unscathed.

Then?

~Carved up her soul to make... So, this might be a bit of a leap in logic but is the process that was used to make you also used to make Persimmon?~ Geneva asks, feeling a little queasy at the question alone. The implication is awful. Somepony did that to Persimmon intentionally.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Geneva's Mind]

Sadly, in this instance, there isn't enough pre-existing knowledge to give Geneva a better explanation, even if her ghost was inclined to.
Outside of the megaspells, most of my experience with Equestria's brand of necromancy was from something everyone referred to as "The Black Book". As best I can tell, it was a sentient dealer of dark knowledge trying to cause as many problems as possible.
Enough so that the Princess wanted it destroyed.

There's a moment of silence, on the topic of Persimmon, before she answers.
Persimmon's situation is far worse than mine, ethically speaking. My friend made her gifts of herself. Persimmon and...others like him, I don't think they were all willing.

[Rebonack]

[Geneva's Mind]

~So the book itself... did it have someone's soul inside it, too?~ Geneva asks. Seems like a reasonable enough conclusion. ~Did... they do that to themselves? Or did someone else stick them in there?~

How would one put one's whole self into an object?

That seems like it would interrupt the process due to soul-rending agony. Literal soul-rending agony.

~I'm not sure I can really make sense of the idea of taking a soul to pieces. Can souls even HAVE pieces? I mean... I know souls that stick around can end up as ghosts.~

Since ghosts are a very real thing in Geneva's Muller's home universe.

She gives her head a little shake.

~But wait, if you're made from a piece of your friend's soul, then why are you you for lack of a better term? Shouldn't you be whoever carved up their soul to make this artifact?~

Then?

Then she looks sad.

~So... Persimmon, he may very well have been violated to make that thing he is now. I feel almost sick to wonder... is that his skin or somepony else's?~

That's a nauseating thought.

~Why would your friend do all this?~

[Lord Magtok]

VIGIL Entrance

Saint Lazarus draws her sword, resting the flat of the blade against her shoulder as she waits for the event to begin. Before we do that, though, there's one last question we should probably get out of the way.

"The big one's going to be a flier. Can you jump higher than you can throw me?" she asks, figuring the underlying implications should be obvious. If Calm Reed can, no problem, everything's fine, this challenge will be easy. If she can't, we may want to resort to a good old-fashioned fastball special. Hrm.

[Morty]

[VIGIL Entrance]

"I don't know if I can jump high enough to catch a flying beast," Calm Reed admits. "But I've never thrown someone wearing full armour very far, either."

[Edge of the Island]

The two guards look at each other. Fortunately, guarding the airspace of a place like Vigil helps one get used to all sorts of weirdness. But there's still some limits.

"What does this friend of yours look like?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[Geneva's Mind]

There's a lot of interesting questions here, some that she isn't particularly qualified to answer at the moment. Not without having studied the Book.
But she can take a stab at them, anyway, via logic.
If the book is the container to a soul, I would have to assume it's a particularly foul one. There seems to be some degree of expression of the original soul in objects containing them, judging by these figurines and Persimmon. I couldn't say whether it was voluntary or not.
If it wasn't, why bind something so vile to something filled with such knowledge?
Similarly, I...don't know about Persimmon. Might be better to ask him, he would probably know.

There's a longer pause, in regards to the pieces of souls and the reasoning for doing this.

After a good several long moments, the image of the six ponies the statuettes bear the likenesses of: a white unicorn with a lovingly styled purple mane, an off-yellow pegasus with a flowing pink mane, a light blue pegasus with a highly distressed rainbow mane, a sturdy orange earth pony with a yellow ponytailed mane, an all-too-gleeful pink on pink earth pony who seems to be very knowingly winking, and then Geneva's ghostly friend herself.
They stand there for a moment, all happy and together.
Then they begin to drift apart, all but the white unicorn fading away.
We were as close as any friends could be. We were sisters in all but blood. At least, until the war and duty dragged us apart.
Duty is thought with something akin to disappointed disgust. Mostly in herself.
She wanted to bring us back together. Or, at least, remind us that we were always together even when work kept us apart.
The white unicorns horn glows, and little pieces of her coloration begin to tear away from her, settling around her in the forms of the statuettes, and a lot of them.
I wouldn't have said you could tear apart your soul the way she did...but she did it. I don't even know what it did to her. I...I didn't pay attention. We just thanked her, went out for dinner, and then it was back to work. The other girls didn't know what she did. I don't think I let myself think about what she did.
But she did it.

[UncleWolf]

Edge of the Island

"He's about two feet long, weighs fifteen and a quarter pounds, looks like a giant grub and loves to wear masks." Renee explains, holding her hands out to portray his size. "Goes by Junior. If there's any doubt, ask Wenomir. He knew my mother, Pat. He can attest that it would be something she'd create." She adds. "I had him watching someone at my father's Spooky party and he decided to take a ride with her."

[Morty]

[Edge of the Island]

The guards look to one another. Neither is particularly keen on being the one to wake Wenomir in the middle of the night.

"Who was it that you had him watch, exactly?" one of them asks.

[UncleWolf]

Edge of the Island

"Not sure, really. Dresses up in tactical army gear? Had to take an aircab to get here? If you give me a moment, I can get him to get her attention and she can bring him here if you aren't going to let me in."

And with just a bit of thought there comes a distant SKREEEEEEEEEE from the Barracks.

Blanche's Room

Junior wakes up, a bit groggy and warm and snuggly, but he's been summoned...and he can't get himself unwrapped from his swaddle. SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! He calls, wriggling and rolling and squirming to try and get to the door.

[Arkhosia]

Blanche’s Barracks

The grub's screeing has an almost immediate effect. Blanche jolts awake, a hand snaking under her pillow as she sits up with alert ears. She relaxes as she realizes there's no immediate danger however, letting out a sigh.

”Oh god, what is it?” the catgirl questions groggily, looking down at the grub for a second before she realizes the problem. leaning over, she helps to free Puddin' Jr from her jacket before sliding out of bed. "Do you need to go outside or something?"

[Shadowcaller]

[VIGIL Entrance]

"I will note that destroying the 'boss' will end the encounter. The minions will just return endlessly otherwise." Cessie clarifies. "Though they will only appear at set locations you so once the 'civilians' are far enough away, they're safe. Any other questions before we start? Since the encounter will be pretty intense and hopefully not last too long." If they played their cards right at least.

[VIGIL Phone]

"Simply that we play off our strengths, you enter Inside and start a obvious investigation. You know, roughing people up and such. Use magic-stuff to detect shape-changers and beat them up, the works. MERC will instead go low, stay out of sight and see what happens when you give the hive a good whack. So you take all the credit for the eradication of the shapeshifter plague, thus pleasing your sponsors and we take all the payment from our contractor. If we end up doing more than the payment was supposed to cover, you'll cover it. But I doubt it will come to that." Apparently Dena is under the impression that MERC is more subtle than VIGIL. Lets see how that holds up...

[Geneva's Lab]

Ambrosia gives the equipment a quick glance, but it should be clear she's never seen devices like these before. "Is that so? What form of portals are there exactly? Since I came to this world through one of them and unlike most portals, it still exists." She pauses. "Hold on, you were the mind behind that portal project, weren't you? Enabling people to travel back to their home universes."

[Rebonack]

[Geneva's Lab]

"Yes! Lots of kinds. I mostly deal with Neighnstein-Roseluck bridges. More colloquially referred to as wormholes. Any form of teleportation that isn't macro-scale quantum tunneling employs them to some degree. A stable wormhole is how you get a portal. A transient one generally looks like teleportation. Just POOF! and someone appears," Geneva nerds out. "The Nexus has several long-term stable bridges. Several periodic ones, too. But most people who are bridged here come through transient wormholes. They get dumped with no way home."

Like Geneva did.

She gives an enthusiastic nod.

"That's right, Project Bifrost. The end-game goal is to create a bridge device that would allow VIGIL to create access points to otherwise inaccessible worlds. It would allow people to travel back home if they want to and open up new avenues of trade. Part of the reason I joined VIGIL is that they seemed best equipped to keep such a resource safe."

Assuming the base doesn't explode.

Again.

[Geneva's Mind]

Geneva considers all that information.

Considers it carefully.

And there's one thing that really bugs her about it.

~Then why are you you and not her?~

[Morty]

[Edge of the Island]

The guards sigh.

"Well then, let's go there. You between the two of us, please."

Best to get it over with. The two will lead Renee in the direction of the screech.

[VIGIL Phone]

"It's an idea," Wenomir says. "A two-pronged assault. They might not be expecting it. I'll give it some consideration and speak with Cessie."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Geneva's Mind]

There isn't a worded response to this, just a very simple graphic.

The little statuette, burning with a faint white haze tinged in purple.
Some distance away, the purple unicorn stumbles and falls to the ground. A lavender haze surrounds her and begins to rise upwards like smoke.

A flicker in both images, and then the lavender is seen settling around the statuette instead.

[Shadowcaller]

[VIGIL Phone]

"And you'll call me back when you've done so? This can't exactly wait, Wen. How long do you figure it'll take for you and P-cess to make a decision?" Dena argues.

[Geneva's Lab]

"Inaccessible worlds, like the demon one?" Ambrosia inquires with a raised eyebrow as she regards Geneva cautiously, wondering if the griffin realized just how dangerous she was. A mind like hers applied to the right thing could spell utter disaster. "It's a noble projected regardless of its military applications though. Really, I'm impressed Geneva. I haven't seen anything like this in the nexus before. However, be careful to what your creations are used for. Remember that there are no winners in war." She points out, pausing a moment before adding. "Which reminds me, did Wenomir mention the link between dragons and the 'demons'?"

[Lord Magtok]

VIGIL Entrance

Saint Lazarus shakes her head no, no more questions. Her blade's at the ready, her mind's on the mission, we're ready to go.

[Rebonack]

[Geneva's Mind]

Silence.

And a look of quiet horror on Geneva's face.

"She... she built a soul trap," the pink-haired woman mutters. "She didn't know, did she? She wouldn't have ever done something like this to her friends if she had known what she was doing..."

Right?

[Geneva's Lab]

The hippogriff fluffs her feathers at the accusation.

"It isn't a weapon," she insists. "It's a tool for peace and prosperity."

That's what they always say about weapons, isn't it?

It takes a moment or two, but she gradually relaxes. "No, um... no, he didn't mention anything like that?"

What would demons have to do with dragons, anyway? Draconequus aside, dragons are just normal flesh and blood races.