//------------------------------// // Chapter XXVIII – Preparations // Story: To Devour a God // by the7Saviors //------------------------------// The meeting with Doctor Whooves turned out to be surprisingly uneventful. Sunset, the twins, and I actually wound up running into the Doctor on the way to his lab. The stallion was hurrying down the hall with his nose in what looked like a large black notebook and a troubled look on his face. He was muttering something to himself he probably hadn't meant for anypony to hear, but my Daeification had given me sharp enough hearing that I could make out every word perfectly well, even several hoof lengths away. Even then though, I couldn't understand what he was talking about. My best guess based on what I overheard was that he seemed to be worried about some project he and Derpy were working on. There was also mention of 'weaker Bias Factors' and 'recalibrating for higher compatibility'. I was intrigued, but then he mentioned something about a 'critical failure of Bias Factor functions' and 'accelerated Hive Cell corruption'. Needless to say, my interest dried up pretty quickly after that. Before I could worry too much about what I was hearing, Sunset grabbed the Doctor's attention by calling out to him. Pulled from his rather worrying ruminations, Doctor Whooves looked up to find the four of us heading his way. From there, things just sort of fell into place. Once he saw us, he'd quickly snapped his notebook shut and was once again all smiles and goodwill as he led us into the lab. He'd been surprised to see us all together, but once we explained how we'd met, he just nodded as if that made perfect sense. Just as Sunset had hoped, he'd skipped most of the introductions—though I did get a chance to learn a little more about Sunset and the twins. During the meeting, Sunset had grudgingly admitted that she'd had a normal, formal education just as I had. Though I noted that, unlike myself, she'd leaned much harder into the subject of how Hive Cells affected the body. That didn't surprise me given what she'd told me back at the warehouse. What did surprise me were the twin's background when it came to the study of Hive Cells. Evidently, the two were largely self-taught, picking up most of what they knew back when they lived on the Northside. They didn't go into much more detail than that, but I got the feeling there was a lot more to the story. Still, I knew better than to pry, and while I was a bit skeptical about their credentials at first, I realized that Doctor Whooves had to have recruited them for a reason. I didn't think he would have done so if their know-how wasn't at least mostly legitimate. Then again, Ponyville seemed to have slim pickings when it came to researchers so who knew? I decided to let the matter go, figuring I'd find out sooner or later. It didn't escape my notice that the Doctor said very little about his own history regarding HIve Cell research, but I also chose not to call him out on it. I honestly had no real reason for my silence on the matter other than an unwillingness to rock the boat. Unlike Sunset, I got the impression that whatever secrets he may or may not have been keeping were better left kept in the dark. Apparently, Doctor Whooves had decided that we knew each other well enough because he was quick to move on to other topics. It wasn't long before we wound up in the same labratory I'd seen shortly after my Daeification. He gave us a rundown of all the lab equipment, most of which I was already familiar with. None of what I saw seemed to have the same quality as what you'd find back in HQ, but I already knew that'd be the case going in. The equipment wasn't terrible or anything, but a higher budget for better tools wouldn't have gone amiss. The laboratory itself, though smaller than what I was used to, was a decent size. There was at least enough space to where none of us would get in each other's way if we were all working together. All in all the place was satisfactory even if it lacked some of the more convenient amenities of Canterlot's facilities. The last subject of the meeting was for my benefit and revolved around my contribution to the team. I specialized in discovering how Hive Cells worked and that particular branch of research included Avidaeous behavior. With that in mind, it was supposedly my job to uncover anything we hadn't already figured out about Avidaeos. Normally Avidaeos behavior wasn't that hard to figure out. The vast majority of those abominable creatures have only one objective, to feed. There's more to it than that, but everything else they do—any other purpose or reason—is secondary to that all-consuming need to devour anything and everything in their path. At least that's how it works normally. It's through this process of consuming matter both organic and inorganic that Avidaeos adapt and grow. It's how they evolve. How they learn. No matter how intelligent a single Avidaus may become though, they will always defer to the baser instincts of the Hive Cells that make up their body. For the longest time, this was an immutable fact, but over the years several oddities began to crop up. Researchers began to notice strange anomalies in the behavior of certain Avidaeos—quirks that didn't seem to almost, but not quite match what they'd learned. It was thought that Avidaeos never attack and devour their own, but that was proven not to be the case. It was thought that they could and would consume anything they set their monstrous teeth to, but that was also not the case. It took some time, but eventually, we were able to manufacture metals the Avidaeous either couldn't easily or outright refused to eat through. We found a way to make magic work against them, and there's even been evidence of Avidaeos that could speak. So many things we thought impossible had come to pass. So many traits we thought invariable had been challenged. With all this in mind, I guess you could say that my job was no different than that of any other researcher who came before me. The only real difference is that my job would be heavily focused on the study of one Avidaeus in particular. I was more than a little hesitant at first, but after seeing the Cannibal for myself, I have to admit, I was rather eager to learn more about it, even if that meant going out into the field—something I was much less eager to do. In any case, we hammered out a few more minor details and the meeting wrapped up not too long after. With that done, I said my goodbyes to Sunset and the twins and followed Doctor Whooves to the observation deck of the training room. I'd initially been surprised when the Doctor mentioned he was coming with, but it made sense once he'd explained it to me. "Well of course I'll be accompanying you, Miss Sparkle," he'd said with a small chuckle, "somepony needs to be there to keep tabs on your physical and mental condition under duress," his smile faded somewhat as he continued, "I suppose this courtesy comes a bit late given the events of the other night though, eh?" I assured him it was fine and didn't really blame him given the circumstances. I did wonder about needing him there if it was just training, but he was quick to inform me—warn me, rather—that even if it was training, it could be just as intense as the real thing. After what I'd seen of Bon Bon and Applejack's demonstration I had no reason to doubt him. Feeling more nervous than I'd been a few moments ago, I followed Doctor Whooves up the stairs and into the observation deck. As I stepped inside the room I found none other than Cheerilee and Derpy waiting for me. The former sat at one of the large consoles beneath the many monitors overhead. She looked to be in deep discussion with the latter mare who stood beside her with her arms crossed a serious frown that didn't look quite right on her normally amiable features. Both mares turned at the sound of our entry, their expressions brightening up, though only slightly in Derpy's case. Is it just me, or does she seem... weirdly anxious? It might've been my imagination, but I couldn't shake the feeling that she was worried about something. There was the conversation she was having before I came in. The conversation had ended too abruptly for me to catch any details, but it didn't look like good news was being discussed. Not only that, but it was also something in the way she moved. Again, I could've imagined it, but even if was just perceived, that apprehension did nothing to ease my own nervousness. Whether it was the case or not though, it certainly didn't show in her tone as she spoke. "Oh, hey, Doc, Twilight," Derpy greeted as she approached, "I wasn't expecting you two for another half hour or so." "Yes, well I did have a whole thing planned but, er..." the Doctor cast a wry look in my direction, "it appears Miss Sparkle and the others became fairly well acquainted before the meeting. So I figured we shouldn't waste any time seeing as our schedules are rather packed for today." "Fair enough," Derpy replied with a surprisingly adorable little giggle. She stopped before us and turned to me with an apologetic smile, "hey, Twilight, it's good to see you again, but you kind of caught us at a bad time." "Oh, um... sorry," I frowned, "you did say we were early. Should I come back later?" "No, no, it's fine, I just need to have a quick chat with the Doc here. Shouldn't be more than a few minutes," Derpy assured before jerking a thumb over her shoulder, "why don't you go talk to Cheerilee in the meantime? She'll bring you up to speed on training procedures." "Uh... alright," I replied, my brow furrowing as my unease grew, "I'll see you in a bit I guess?" I turned to Doctor Whooves, who gave me an encouraging nod before he and Derpy stepped past me and out the entrance to the observation deck. Once the door slid shut I heaved a quiet sigh and made my way over to where Cheerilee still sat. Apparently, rather than sit here watching us talk, she'd made herself busy, typing away at the console as she scanned the many monitors before her. I wasn't sure what she was doing exactly, but she must've heard my approach because she paused her rapid typing and swiveled her chair around to face me. "Twilight Sparkle, we meet again," she greeted with that welcoming smile of hers, "how was your time in the Outer District? The work wasn't too difficult I hope?" "Oh, no, no it was fine. The work was simple enough," I tilted my head curiously, "you, uh... sure do get around. Every time I see you it seems like you're doing one job or another." "I wear a lot of different hats, it's true," Cheerilee replied with a nod and a shrug, "but that's simply the way things work when you're understaffed like we are." "Understaffed?" my brows furrowed in bemusement, "but I've seen plenty of staff around the Branch." "The majority of those are likely volunteers or interns," Cheerilee explained, "generally citizens working on their own time without pay. Setting aside the Hunters and including myself, the number of employees we have on an actual payroll barely breaks the double digits." "Wow," I muttered in surprise, "I had no idea..." "Yeah, most small towns are like this," she sighed, "the Delegates are doing what they can, but there are only so many bits to go around these days." "Well yeah," I argued, feeling somewhat bad about the situation, "but given how well off Canterlot is, I'm sure we can spare a little more aid, right?" Cheerilee was shaking her head before I even finished speaking. "I'm afraid it's not that simple, Miss Sparkle," she said with a sad and slightly pitying smile, "Canterlot is a major city—the capital city. Our most important resources are built and maintained there and whether we like it or not, that's where the bits need to go. "If this were the Age of Peace, I'm sure we'd have no problem getting what we need, but we're a world in steep decline. So much so that ponies have taken to calling this a post-apocalypse. The End Times. The Age of Ruin. And the worst part of it all is that they're not entirely wrong." The light in her eyes, that spark that had been there since I'd met her dimmed slightly for the first time as she continued. Her expression fell into something resembling melancholy and the look was enough to bring me down right along with her. "What you have to understand is that they're not just talking about the Avidaeos. Things might seem stable on the surface, but dig a little deeper and you'll see that society as we know it is on the brink of collapse. Ponies, changelings, minotaurs, griffons, even the dragons. We're all just hanging on by a thread in the grand scheme of things." It didn't take me long to realize that she was right. When I thought about towns like Ponyville and even some of the things I'd noticed in Canterlot, I couldn't help but agree. One need only look at the situation regarding Northside and the many bills and construction-related proposals that had gone unpassed or ignored because Canterlot simply didn't have the funds to enforce or support any of it. It truly was a sorry state of affairs and Cheerilee's words put all of it into perspective for me. I knew on some level that things were bad, but that had only been where Avidaeos and the state of Ponyville were concerned. I hadn't really given much thought to the world's economic crisis as a whole. Still... "I'm not so sure about the dragons," I said with some skepticism, "no matter how I look at it, they still seem to be doing just fine for themselves." "Ah, but that's where you're mistaken," Cheerilee countered with another shake of her head, "while the dragons may not want for resources, that doesn't mean they don't have problems of their own to contend with. Remember, theirs is a brutal eat-or-be-eaten culture and that's not just about survival. That mentality bleeds directly into their socioeconomic structure as well," she grimaced, "I fear it likely the dragons will destroy themselves long before the Avidaeos wipe them out." "You really think so?" I asked, a little unsettled by her grim proclamation, "are things really that bad in the Dragonlands?" Maybe I should ask Spike about it the next time I see him... "Worse in some cases," she sighed before perking back up with a clap of her hands, "but I think that's enough doom and gloom for one afternoon. What's say we get you prepped and ready for your training session?" "Yeah, that sounds... good," I agreed wholeheartedly, "but before that, I have to ask... have you been to the Dragonlands?" "Oh Celestia no!" she laughed, "I just happened to pick up the knowledge somewhere along the way," she gave me a playful wink, "I used to be a teacher if you can believe it. Now if you'll come along with me to the equipment storage room, Miss Sparkle. I'll explain everything as we go." Yeah, I can definitely believe it alright, I thought as the impeccably dressed mare stood up and motioned for me to follow her to another door I hadn't seen on the deck's far right side. As we walked, Cheerilee explained the ins and outs of what I'd be doing during training. As I understood it, the goal, at least for today, was to get me acclimated to actually wielding a Daeus Arm. Not just a single Daeus Arm either. Showing me into the storage room, which looked a lot like a more compact version of the prep room/garage area, Cheerilee told me I'd be trying out all the Daeus Arms. I suppose I should've seen that coming given what Shining Armor had told me about his training days. He'd wanted to go straight for the buster blade originally but they made him try all the Arms. Ultimately he'd gone with the long blade after realizing how unwieldy the buster blade could be. For new recruits who had their hearts set on a particular weapon, the reality often didn't match up with the ideal. This was so often the case that Wendigo eventually mandated that trainees try each and every Daeus Arm. With me having no idea what I wanted to use or what would work best for me, I couldn't really complain. The Arms on display more or less mirrored what I'd seen back in Derpy's 'sanctuary' with a few visual and mechanical tweaks here and there for usability. I wandered around the Training Arm storage for a time, looking over each Arm in abject indecision. Short Blade, long blade, buster blade, charge spear, boost hammer, variant scythe. And on the other side of the room were the ranged weapons. Assault gun, sniper gun, blast gun, shotgun, and arcane stave. I wondered at the placement of the stave but figured it might make sense to count it as a ranged weapon given its capabilities. And because I was a New Type I could potentially use all of these at any point. My Daeus Arm would make use of blade, gun, and shield, whereas the majority of Hunters had use of only one or the other and a shield. I could use not only long and short-range weaponry at once but swap out the type of Arm if I wanted to. I feel like that should've made my decision irrelevant, but it only made it harder to choose. All the while Cheerilee stood by, patiently waiting for me to make my decision as she continued to explain my training process. According to the mare, Wendigo used something called a thaumic projector to train recruits. I learned that day that thaumic projection was the next logical step in the implementation of virtual reality. Virtual reality itself had been around for some time, but limitations had only allowed for partial immersion of one's senses including sight, sound, and smell. Thaumic projection, which was a much more recent development, allows for full immersion of all senses including taste and touch. The fully immersive effect is what I'd witnessed during the demonstration. Newer recruits like myself and Fluttershy would only be working with partial immersion for the first few days of training. The projection room would manifest an enemy or two and maybe a few pieces of terrain but mostly remain unchanged. I wouldn't see anything crazy like entire cities or an army of Avidaeos. The thought of facing that down sent chills down my spine, but at the same time, I couldn't help but marvel at the capabilities of such a device. Suddenly enamored with the idea of seeing the thaumic projector at work up close, I chose to go down the row of weapons in order starting with the short blade. I'd known my enhanced strength would make the weapons less cumbersome, but I hadn't realized just to what extent. Even the short blade, the smallest weapon in the arsenal, was a massive thing that would've dwarfed even the largest of the two-handed swords used by ponies back during the Age of War. With that in mind, I'd expected to still have to put in some kind of effort. But when I pulled the short blade free of the rack on the wall, I wound up underestimating my own strength and nearly stumbled backward into Cheerilee with the thing. The short blade had been far lighter in my hand than I'd expected, a fact I'd tried to explain among several frantic apologies. Thankfully Cheerilee had been fully prepared to sidestep my blunder. To my relief, she just laughed it off and told me it hadn't been the first time that had happened. It seemed that was a common misjudgment made among first-time Arms users. I was giving the massive blade a few experimental swings, gawking in amazement at how effortless it was to do so when the door to the storage room swung open and Derpy stepped inside. It took me a moment to notice her, but when Cheerilee called out to me I turned to see the wall-eyed pegasus giving me an assessing look. "Oh, hey, Derpy," I greeted, lowering the short blade with an awkward smile, "are we, uh... ready to go?" "Hm?" Derpy replied distractedly. The mare looked like she was lost in thought as she watched me, but thankfully snapped out of it before I could get too uncomfortable, "Oh... oh yeah, yeah. Did Cheerilee explain everything?" "Just about," Cheerilee replied, nodding as she reached into the pocket of the black vest she wore over her white collared long sleeve shirt, "all that's left is to give you this." She pulled out a small device and held it out to me. I took it and looked it over with an inquisitive frown. It took me a moment to realize what I was looking at but when I did, my brows rose in surprise. "An earpiece?" I asked, looking from the device to Cheerilee, "I know my brother and the rest of the Hunters in Canterlot use them but I was under the impression that Ponyville still used handheld comms devices?" "All staff members outside of coordinators and field operatives use handheld comm devices," Cheerilee corrected, "we don't have enough of these to give one to every single pony in the Branch so we use them sparingly." "That one's yours," Derpy added, nodding to the earpiece in my hand, "make sure you don't lose or break it. Not only would getting a replacement be a huge pain in the flank, but the cost would come out of your paycheck." "Right, I'll... keep that in mind," I assured, "I'm assuming I'll be using this out on the field, but were you wanting me to use it during training too?" "Of course," Cheerilee said, "I'll be the one providing you instruction through that earpiece during your training, at least for today. You'll likely have your Captain running you through your paces going forward." "Makes sense," I nodded before turning to Derpy, "so...?" "Right, right, the projection room. Follow me," Derpy said, heading back out of the storage room. As Cheerilee took her place back at the main console I followed Derpy to a door on the opposite side of the room. She pulled the door open to reveal a metal staircase leading down, likely to the large projection room below. Rather than lead the way inside, she instead motioned for me to head in. "Head on down and Cheerilee will let you know what to do next," she said, "I'll be keeping an eye on you along with the Doc and Cheerilee." "Right, um..." I turned to look over the observation deck with a frown, "where is Doctor Whooves anyway?" "Ah, he had to go take care of some last-second business," Derpy replied with a shrug, "he'll be here in a bit. In the meantime, come check in with me once you're done. I'll need to ask you a few questions about your experience." With that, she gave me one last reassuring pat on the shoulder and walked back over to where Cheerilee was sitting. I watched her go for a moment, then headed down the stairway, putting in my earpiece as I went. With short blade in hand and heaving a quiet sigh, I pushed open the steel door at the bottom and stepped into the circular projection room. Well, I'll be getting a much-needed workout if nothing else...