Virtue and Vice: Equestria

by enigmaMystere

Stealthy Shades #32

The fire flickers in the hearth, its warmth serving to combat the slight chill of a mid-autumn night. Here in this room of Canterlot Castle adorned with a theme of the nocturnal princess, in a tower only privy to a select few, five forms lounge around, awaiting the arrival of the rest of their group.

The first form is that of a sea-green unicorn stallion, his yellow and black mane and tail looking like he just got out of an argument with a few volts of electricity. He lies sprawled out on one of the multiple couches in the room, half of his body hanging off, threatening to take the rest with him as his slow breathing betrays his unconscious state.

The second is a black pegasus nearby, his green aviators glinting in the light of both the window and the fire. With precise movements, he finishes looking over a sword hilt in his hoof before stowing it in one of the many pockets of his vest and extending one wing to begin inspection of that as well. Every once in a while, if one were able to see his eyes, they would see them flick over to the unicorn, as if he is just waiting for something.

Another pegasus across the room sits comfortably near the fire. Though the body type and long eyelashes might cause one to think this burgundy pony is a mare, any look at the undercarriage would soon prove one wrong. The feminine stallion tweaks another small part on the strange metallic device he’s wearing before settling a little more into the chair as he moves a bit of dark orange mane out of his face, picking up a book and cracking it open.

The last two beings sit together on another couch. While one is your average looking bowtie-wearing earth pony mare, the other would have raised quite a few eyebrows not a decade ago. The purple chitinous form of a changeling nymph stays still as its owner watches the mare next to her. The grey mare, completely comfortable with this particular changeling even if it weren’t for the treaty that had been in place for years that lead to the shape-shifting species’ integration, draws an instrumental bow through the air. At times she seems to be playing an instrument, and at others she whips it through the air, her charcoal mane flowing as gracefully as the rest of her as she wields it like a weapon.

It is quiet, just as it had been for the past couple hours. The book in the red pony’s grasp gets flung to the side, an impatient growl escaping his throat. “Okay, what’s taking him so long?”

The other pegasus in the room shrugs. "Something probably just came up... Or he got lost in the castle again when he wasn't paying attention."

He turns to the goggle-wearing pony, an eyebrow quirked skeptically. “I doubt he can get lost four times without learning by the third.”

The green-maned stallion simply shrugs again. "Well, I have no idea then. I'm sure he'll be along soon."

The smaller of the two opens his mouth to speak when the door suddenly opens. His gaze snaps to the pink mare that barged in, blinking at her in stunned silence.

She looks around the room, apparently not even noticing the occupants. “Wow! This is so much better than I imagined!” She rushes over to one of the bookshelves lining the walls, practically running over the unicorn in her way. “So many ancient tomes!” She pulls one out, giggling giddily. “I bet there’s so much knowledge in there, long lost to the common pony!”

As the previously-sleeping unicorn flails and falls off the couch, much to the amusement of the room in general if not more so to the dark pegasus who'd been waiting for it, a stallion's voice calls from the hall as the door opens under a green magical aura. "Ruby, didn't we just talk about not running in the castle and bursting into rooms?"

She squeaks, her ears dipping in remorse. “Um… yes, Daddy…” She carefully puts the book back, narrowing her eyes and whispering to it. “I will read you, someday.” She turns to the door but stops cold, realizing that there was an audience to her antics. She stares at them in shock, emerald eyes wide as dinner plates, before shyly waving to them. “H-hi?”

As they all stare at her curiously, a green unicorn stallion walks through the door followed closely by a navy changeling nymph. The male shakes his head exasperatedly with the barest hint of amusement. "So much for breaking it to them gently..."

The nymph shrugs, giggling softly. “At least she opened the topic for us, if accidentally.” She jumps back as the young mare in question runs past her to where the other couple is currently sitting.

“Aunt Tavi!” Ruby eagerly hugs the earth pony, laughing brightly. “It’s so good to see you! How’s your band doing?”

"Ensemble," Octavia corrects automatically as she hugs the teenage filly back, "and they are doing fine, Ruby." She smiles affectionately before adopting a more serious face. "But what are you doing here? This isn't exactly a place for a young pony like yourself."

“Oh, that’s easy!” She beams, saluting playfully at the older pony. “Meet your newest teammate!”

The earth pony blinks at the pink unicorn. "Pardon?" She looks to the two adults at the door, as do all the others in the room.

The green stallion clears his throat awkwardly as he looks down at the floor. "Well, I... that is, she... umm..." He seems to be almost chewing on his words.

The nymph next to him places a hoof on his shoulder, smiling softly before stepping forward. “What Rhino is trying to say is that she’s proven that she can be trusted.” She gestures to the gray pony. “Not to mention well-trained, thanks to you, Octavia.”

A small twitch comes from Rhino, but nothing else as the black-coated pegasus speaks up, taking off his shades to look at the other stallion clearly. “Trust and training is good, but can she even be ready mentally for what we do?”

The sea-green unicorn on the floor answers before anypony else can, a smirk on his face. “Come on Atom, give the girl a chance. She’s been trained by the great Octo-mom over there!” He waves a hoof to the cellist.

The indigo changeling glares at the stallion, eyes narrowed slightly. One of the chrome accents of the nearby couch flows out into a tendril, waving in front of his face in warning.

The stallion holds up his hooves defensively, shrinking away from the metal tendril he has learned not to deal with in the past. “Ok, shutting up now about that.”

“Thank you, dear.” Octavia leans over and plants a kiss on the purple nymph’s cheek. She turns back to the pink filly. “Now Ruby… I can see by your father’s expression over there that you have him convinced enough to let you come, which says quite a lot, but I just have to ask… are you sure you want to start doing what we do?”

She nods, her face turning solemn. “I am. I want to protect those that can’t defend themselves.” She glances at the stallions by the hearth, slightly nervous. “I… didn’t expect to see you all, if I’m to be honest…”

Atom chuckles from his seat, shuffling his wings a bit as he waves a hoof to the stallion on the floor. “I’m pretty sure you could take Volt if you wanted to.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Ruby sighs, running a hoof through her mane. “I guess… I didn’t see him as part of a team like this… or him.” She nods towards the burgundy stallion, sheepishly smiling. “No offense.”

He shrugs, grinning wryly. “I guess I’m the unassuming type. Kind of a boon, in our business.”

As he gets up, Volt can’t help but to comment. “That and we can sometimes talk him into wearing a dress for the mission if it requires it.”

“Hey,” he points at him, frowning deeply, “shut up. Besides, I’ve noticed it’s always you who suggests that. Care to explain that trend?”

Volt just smiles cheekily. “Because it’s funny to see you fight it so hard only to pull it off so well, too well sometimes.”

Octavia leans down to the filly as she watches the exchange. “Don’t mind them, they’re both silly. I will say though, you have a very worthy goal for wanting to work with us.”

She smiles softly, gently nuzzling her cheek. “Thank you. Though I do have to ask… what did Enigma mean by your ‘business’? What, exactly, could looking like a mare help with?”

Rhino clears his throat once more, drawing the room’s attention back to himself. “Well, I believe I can answer that while I talk to you all about why we were all called here today. Sorry, Ruby, you were sort of a bonus today, not the main reason.” He pulls a folder out of his saddlebag and walks toward one of the other doors in the room. “Everyone to the briefing room, please.”

The pink mare turns to Octavia, eyes wide in excitement. “You have a briefing room, too? Is it like in the movies?” She grins, hopeful.

The cellist giggles softly as the others begin filtering through the door after the stallion. “Exactly what are you expecting? I’m curious what they think these rooms look like in movies these days.”

“Oh, like something from the future!” She waves a foreleg grandly as she moves to follow the others. “These big screens, magical holograms, stuff like that.”

As they enter the room, all of the ponies and changelings assembled face towards a large, blank wall. Each of them sits in a comfortable chair behind a large horseshoe-shaped desk, the open end towards the wall. Rhino sits behind the middle of the desk, his horn lighting up as a large green arcane circle begins drawing itself on the wall. Gel sits next to him while the seat on his other side is empty. Everypony else seems to have just sat wherever.

Octavia comments as she starts heading towards a seat next to Luster. “Well, we don’t do holograms, but we do fine with what we have, I think.” She winks.

Ruby sits down next to her father, staring in awe at the magnitude of the circle before her. “Wow, dad… I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that big…” She holds up a hoof, pointing at Volt without glancing at him. “Say anything, and I’ll get Aunt Luster to… do what she did earlier. But worse.”

Rhino comments simply. “She’d have to beat me to it if he really made a comment like that to you.” He gives the other unicorn stallion a meaningful look.

Volt takes it all in stride as he chuckles nervously. “Hey, contrary to popular opinion, I do have some lines I won’t cross…”

“Good.” The emerald male smiles before turning to his daughter. “This circle is the biggest one you’ve seen, because essentially it is designed to be big, as you’ll see in a moment. But before we do that… Ruby, I want you to promise me that whatever you see, whatever you hear, whatever you learn in this room, can never be repeated to anypony outside of us, the princesses, and a few select others who I will let you know about if it comes to that. Do you understand?”

“I understand, dad.” She smiles softly. “I promise you I won’t tell anyone you don’t give the okay for.” She glances at the circle on the wall, tilting her head to one side. “So… I think I see light in there, somewhere… what does it do, exactly?”

“Simply put, it reflects what its counterpart has in it.” He shifts his folder slightly, showing the edge of an identical runic circle below it glowing on the table. “With that…” he casts a glance over to the navy nymph, his wife. Seeing her give him a nod, he continues. “I suppose… welcome to what we do.” His horn flashes once and suddenly the circle on the wall reflects the folder in the smaller one exactly, moving in time as the stallion opens the folder, revealing a picture of a griffon. “This is our target this time.” He moves another page out and slides it next to the first, showing an intricate chalice. “And this, is the reason.”

“Wait,” the young pony next to him holds up a hoof, brow furrowed in confusion, “what do you mean, ‘target’? Who is this guy?”

“This guy,” the page turns, revealing one with a smaller photo and lines full of information on the griffon, “is Baron Fletch Wing of the Griffon Empire. He is our target, in that he either has to be captured for war crimes, or at the very least, no longer be in possession of this chalice.”

Atom speaks up. “I’m gonna take a stab in the dark and assume it’s not just because that cup is probably worth more than an entire rack in the guy’s wine cellar, right?”

Rhino nods, “Correct.” He pulls out another couple of photos, one showing a closeup of the cup’s rim, and another of it’s base. “As with most things we have to deal with when it involves a single item: it is magical and dangerous.”

Ruby scratches the side of her head, frowning slightly. “I’m sorry, dad, but… how often do you deal with items like that one?”

He puts a hoof to his chin. “Well, we generally have a mission every few months, and about half the time it has to deal with an item so…” He looks to the room at large, “What do you guys think, around three or four times a year?”

Enigma speaks up, raising his voice slightly to be heard from one end of the table. “Between four and five a year, I think. Last one was a candlestick, wasn’t it?”

He nods. “Right… the one that was actually cursed to make whoever was holding it become addicted to setting things on fire… that was a nasty one, especially since it popped up in the driest part of summer. Nasty one, that one. Still, at least Gel got to have fun during it, right love?” He turns to the nymph beside him.

She smirks coyly, shaking her head as she lowers her gaze. “It was actually silly, the way she kept trying to set me aflame. But, as you were saying… this goblet has something special about it?” She glances at her daughter, smiling at the cute pout on her face. “I’ll tell you the story another time, sweetie, don’t worry.”

Chuckling quietly, Rhino soon gets serious again as he motions to the chalice pictures. “Now, unlike the last one, this item isn’t cursed or necessarily evil, however, the way it is being used now, is. According to the Princesses, this is known as the Essence Chalice, or more commonly, the Chalice of Life. It has the power, from what I was told, to drain life force from one being, allowing it to be drank by another. This was apparently used in the past to save ponies on the verge of death, at the cost of a few years off the donor’s life. However, this griffon doesn’t use it for nearly a purpose so noble…”

“Obviously.” Enigma sighs, propping his head on a foreleg. “If he was being charitable with it, it wouldn’t even show up on our radar, right?”

“Right.” Rhino nods grimly as he flips again, showing pages of clipped police reports from griffon newspapers, missing prisoners, the occasional missing servant, occasionally a strange politician disappearance. “It appears the Baron is using the chalice to take, not to give. Being an object, it simply does what it was meant to do, not knowing that it sometimes is being used to drain being to the last drop before being added to an already healthy body. The Baron is going on sixty years old now…” he flips open another page, showing the same griffon from the first picture lifting weights, “Yet he has the body of one in his mid-twenties. I’m sure you can connect the dots.”

The sole teen in the room frowns slightly, grabbing the picture of the cup in her magic. She looks at it for a few moments, her expression melancholic. "It's hard to believe that something so beautiful can be used for something so... awful."

Her father stops his briefing, reaching a hoof over and bringing her chair closer to his so that he can keep a foreleg around her. “That’s why we’re here, Ruby. To stop things like this. It’s not always quite this grim, but as you can see, it sometimes is. Do you still want to help?”

She sits in silence, eyes flicking from picture to projection for a moment. Then she nods, straightening up in her seat. "I do. They need a hero."

"Then they'll have eight." The pegasus on the end chuckles, resting his metal-clad forehooves on the table. "We've dealt with worse, after all."

Rhino gives a proud smile, squeezing the young mare's shoulders gently. "That's my girl..." His voice goes back to his original volume as he continues. "Now then, it's been decided that the chalice can be too easily abused this way, so that it why it is our base goal. Enchanted as it is, it is incredibly durable, I won't bore you with the details unless you ask, but suffice to say the circle engraved in it's base must be altered, then overloaded to render it a simple harmless fancy cup." He looks around to the room at large. "Any questions before we move on to where we'll be going on how we'll get there?"

Gel raises a hoof. "I have one." She narrows her eyes slightly as she points to the date of the clipping of the ambassador's disappearance. "You realize this is dated at the end of summer, don't you?"

He nods. "I do... it was shown to me as a time frame. The way I understand it, griffon politics are nothing like our own, so actually it's not all that uncommon for some high ranks to drop off the radar for a few weeks or so to let things cool down. However, they can never afford to be gone this long. I would think the reason this caught attention was the status of both the Baron and his opponent... shameful as it is, it's far easier to get attention when an incident reaches the front page, not just a note about prisoner inconsistencies they write off as accounting errors." He rubs the bridge of his nose with the hoof not around his daughter. "I'll not fault them for us only getting this now, even from these clippings, one could never really draw conclusions until you started seeing the old bird, then recognize the chalice. We just... need to make sure to stop it, now that we know about it."

"If that was the case," Enigma scratches his head, examining the projection more closely, "why is it the latest of the ones there?" He points at each one in order. "They all have dates, even the photos, and can clearly be seen ranging from mid-June to late August... yet there's nothing after that headline."

Ruby frowns softly, brow furrowed. "But... wouldn't that suggest the Baron has just been working to keep things less obvious?"

"It could, but it's just as likely that he doesn't need any more stolen life, at the moment. However, there's still one thing that bothers me..." The navy nymph sighs, shaking her head as her horn lights up. She pulls another folder out of her husband's bag, showing it to him. "This one came at the same time as that one, love - earlier today. I was there when it was assigned, remember?" She opens it up, reading aloud. "'Retrieve a stolen blueprint'. I think this would've been a good one for Ruby to start out on." She nods towards the projection, an eyebrow quirked. "Why an S-Rank over a B-Rank?"

Avoiding anypony's eyes, and there are many on him, the stallion grunts awkwardly as he starts to ramble quietly. "Well... one must prioritize things... the blueprint isn't a rush job and even if we were to go on both at once the more experienced members would have to go on the Baron's mission... Of course I want to be there for her first mission, yet I'm needed to disable the chalice... I had to make a judgement call, you know? It's not like she has to be in the middle dangerous part of the mission anyway... and we'll all be there to keep an eye on her..." The longer he speaks, the more it sounds like he's thinking of these things as he goes.

Volt shakes his head. "I wonder how long he can keep going like that..."

"Probably as long as we let him." Atom answers.

In response to this, Octavia leans forward. "While some of those are valid, I'm not sure I see your logic connecting them all."

Enigma holds up a hoof, grimacing slightly. "Rhino, I'm sorry, but I have to agree with her. You've clearly got some kind of deeper reason than those. I mean, you're sweating like that thief who got caught trying to pickpocket Atom."

A smooth hoof takes Rhino's, the changeling it belongs to smiling softly at him. "It's okay, love. You've got to trust in your team if they are to trust you. Isn't that something we've been told since day one?"

Grumbling quietly as he bring his wife and daughter close, the stallion sighs. "Well it's not like I was being untruthful... I just thought it would be better to start Ruby on this mission for a number of reasons: It shows her fully the kind of thing we do so she can be sure she wants to continue, we would all be there to help her out, it is an important mission that needs to be done as soon as possible, I wanted to be sure she didn't get the impressions our missions were easy... and maybe I was just hoping that no matter how much I didn't want her to get into this kind of thing... she would still be good at it if she wanted to be."

The mare in question is silent as she listens to this, gaze fixed on the open folder before them. When she finally speaks up, her voice is small, vulnerable. "Dad, you... you can count on me." She closes her eyes and turns to face him, nuzzling his neck tenderly. Her tail swishes idly as he embraces her, feeling just how much he cares from the simple act. "I promise not to let you down..."

Not caring that the others were there for the moment, the stallion nuzzles her back and even plants a kiss on her forehead. "You could never do that, angel..."

Watching on with a small smile, Octavia looks to the purple nymph on her side. "Well, it's a bit of a far cry from our usual dour briefing attitude, but I think I like this better, don't you?"

She nods, smiling softly before slowly shifting to a wry one, elbowing her playfully.

"Oh no, the same goes for me, but you know what I mean." The earth pony looks over to the other family. "Looks like we're ready to continue."

Comments

[Little_Draco]

Wasn't it who watches the watchmen?

[Rhino]

4172955 That's what it is sometimes interpreted as, but the literal translation is as it was said above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F

[Raybony]

Hmm, interesting. I guess this is put in the future of The Start of Something New, which I guess it's good.
Dude, you are not fooling anyone. You so want to put me in this crossover as well, well let me tell you, no.
Oh come on, what's so bad about being in this story?
It's just my own rule, never to appear on someone's story as a guest more than once, unless they make a sequel of that story. Plus, what would I do in there? I can't just say that I joined the team, or teams, I don't know, just because I'm related to one of the elements. Not to mention that we would need to be online at weekends to write my parts, seeing as I'm an Enigma when it comes to my character.
You are secretly a mare with a stallion look?
What!? No! I wasn't making a joke out of Enigma's name. And I'm being serious when I say what kin of roll would I be able to do.
They did say that they have a stealth, tactic and I guess fighting team. Maybe be part of the fighting team, and serve as the asshole of the group who still takes missions seriously in his own way. or....
Or what?
You are a mercenary that works as a body guard for a villain.
....That's it, I'm out of here.
Oooohhh, I ,like the mercenary idea.