Sins of Harmony
Volume 1.5: Untold Tales
Garnet: Times of Innocence
12th September, 980 ANM
Dingolia, north western regions
The little dark red dog pup was asleep calmly, not understanding nor hearing if he was awake what his parents were saying.
But suffice to say, he was never to see them again, even only 6 months after he was born. Their parents had to give up one of their children, and their little boy had been the most sickly looking of him and his two brothers.
"We can't support him with the Kahz and Maka, but here he has a chance." The father, a large, thin, grey furred Hudonesian dog said. The mother, nodding gently, knew he was reminding her, so she wouldn't suddenly refuse to part with her child.
Little Da'lan had been the eldest, but ironically, the weakest. But only the cruellest of people would abandon an orphan left at their doorstep, no warning.
That night, when the village was quiet, the two dogs, having illegally immigrated amidst the more chaotic years following the Dingolian revolution, and less priority on border control, slipped into the village.
They found a large farming family house, looking like it was well off with the local cattle farming. The Dingolian cattle were non-sentient, but bred to be better meat producers.
Without much word, and making sure they shushed their other two pups in their mother's carrier, they left little Da'lan at the doorstep of the ranch.
6 years later, when they had the money to live better in Dingolia, his parents and brothers would return to the ranch to find him, and explain.
But he wouldn't be there, as his parents assumed this ranch would support him until then.
3rd May, 981 ANM
Dingolia, North Western regions
Newpaw village, Bracas Ranch and Orphanage
Little 7 month old Garnet, whom the ranch owners had named him as, irritatingly brushed the tuft of fur off his right eye, a trait of his he personally disliked. He knew he'd look weirder without it though.
He continued to eavesdrop on his adoptive caretakers, and the Dingo they were speaking with.
The ranch's owners, a pair of friendly Dingos and their 2 sons and 3 daughters, were talking with another dingo, looking happy and sad at the same time, somehow. Little Garnet was bright enough, even though he was quiet often, to hear them as he listened in from around the corner of the sitting room.
Words such as 'Payment', 'Debts', 'Well-cared for', and other things Garnet didn't know about much about.
His 'parents' spoke to him about it, explained things. They weren't his parents, but like with other orphans, he viewed them as nearly such.
"We can't support all of us, and, well, the whole town's been down since the storms hit last season. He's from a bunch of people who want to help rebuild our village, and the nearby mine and farms, ours too. And when he asked to adopt you, well, how could we refuse." The 'mother' said, trying to console the sad looking red dog.
"But I don't wanna go."
"I know, but think about it. The Dingo whose friends helped save our town from being abandoned wants to adopt you. His people have helped many villages across the country, and he says others have been adopted by them too. You'll like it."
His 'father' tried to reason, but Garnet asked then:
"He'll just not like me, like the kids at school."
The orphanage and ranch owners knew little Garnet was picked on, because he was a Dog among Dingos, and a little scrawny. Kids could be cruel, but perhaps that was because they were more up front and honest than adults were, who could often lie and deceive.
The children's parents hadn't helped, who believed, correctly, that Garnet's real parents had been among the wave of illegal immigrants following the revolution. Needless to say, Newpaw was a conservative village.
For this reason, his current 'parents' thought it all the better he should leave. After all, the Dingo, and the corporation he worked for that was saving their town. The newly established Hephaestus Research Company, and its predecessor, Hephaestus Incorporated, see a lot of good before its disbanding.
After some persuasion, Garnet left.
He would bid his friends, what few he had, in the orphanage and at school, behind. In truth, he only really cared about the orphanage parents and siblings, and a handful of dingos. Looking back, he wasn't really losing too much.
On the long car drive to the south, where he was going to his new home, the Dingo revealed himself as Jarak, and offered some more consoling for the little dog.
"Look, I know its hard, but we've got a lot of cases like you. Ones that haven't been treated equally, or even a few orphans abandoned. You'll make real close friends."
"There are others like me?" Garnet asked, hopefully. In his most foolish thoughts, he wondered if his parents would be there.
"Well, not like you, in body and all. But like you in what sort of life they've had, though some didn't get 'picked up' until much later than I did you."
Ganret mulled on these words, but despite what his later future held, Jarak's promise was largely true.
In all honesty, what destroyed his life as he knew it, and what began him on his descent so suddenly, was an accident. Nobody saw it coming, but no side reacted calmly to the situation. All sides were innocent, and guilty.
7th May, 987 ANM
Hephaestus Facility, Living areas
"Up you get!"
The blinding light, as his closest friend suddenly opened his bedroom curtains, had less effect than she'd hoped.
"Nice try Sketch, you forgot about that thing you like about me."
Groaning as he got up, the female Komodo, 7 years his senior, lightly slapped her forehead as she saw Garnet's fur tuft over his right eye. He always slept with his uncovered left eye pretty much buried in the pillow.
"Dammit, there goes the surprise."
Rubbing Garnet's right eye tuft with a smile, she leant against his doorframe, saying: "Still, I do love that little hair thing you got going on."
"I don't, it gets in the way."
"So why not cut it then?"
"Well, you like it."
Laughing a little, Sketch said: "Sometimes you're too sweet Garnet. Still the nice little guy I know."
Ignoring the red dog's somewhat sheepish look now, she asked more to the point: "You know what day it is, right?"
"Sunday?"
"Terrible pun Garnet." Sketch shook her head, while Garnet scrambled out of bed as he replied:
"Pun? Oh, right, SUNday, you're trick just then, ok. Well, what day is it?"
"Well, other than you arriving here, and me taking you as a roommate, 6 years ago, not much."
"You're still doing that? But you moved out 3 years ago."
"So? We're still friends. Better than anyone else around here, bunch of stiffs, bores or worse if you ask me."
Garnet pulled open the drawers under his bed, but paused as he saw Sketch still hovering by the door.
"D'you mind?"
Rolling her eyes, Sketch shut the door, letting Garnet get dressed with decency.
Sketch, otherwise known as Jia'lan Neken, was Garnet's closest, probably only friend. Everyone else in the facility was an acquaintance at best. Nobody was unfriendly, but still.
Sketch was a female Komodo, thin and short for her kind, but visibly strong. She was still taller than Garnet, and surpassed most Dingos and other races on site, save for a few visiting exceptions. She was a partial albino, her scales a yellowish-white, and her eyes a soft brown. On her right hind leg, a long thin burn scar ran up it, which she'd had since the age of 4, when her old life came to a violent end.
Like him, Sketch had hardships in her life. She was 7 years his senior, but when she was 4, in 977 ANM, her village was attacked by a rogue pack of Fire Drakes.
The pack had been made homeless by the Faroench Imperial Colony, which bolstered by a union of New Gryphon, Equestrian and Indo-Burmese support, sought to maintain its hold. But it was clear the empire was going to crumble, but they were doing their best to hold off civil unrest. That meant expanding borders, and that meant attacking an established fire drake colony sitting atop a valuable iron ore reserve in the mountains of West Changelia.
The homeless fire drake pack was few in number, leaving only the strongest, and most violent of their pack. They raided villages, surviving off pillaging until they found a new home, heading south until presumably a suitable volcanic region.
Sketch's parents were killed in the attack, and she was found nearly crushed beneath a dead Fire Drake. It had been downed, and struggled, killing a nearby Germaneigh Mare trying to rescue Sketch, before a pitchfork through the exposed, softer stomach killed the wounded Fire Drake. The stallion hat threw the pitchfork was crushed beneath the drake as it collapsed, with the nearby mare with him. Sketch's leg was wounded by this drake as it landed, burnt badly, but she survived from being crushed by the skin of her teeth.
Sketch, as nicknamed, had lived in a village that was near Singapaw, an international trading port for all of the Oceanic region. Her father had been a trade merchant with close ties to the Germaneigh ponies that frequented the village with goods.
Singapaw responded, as a nearby village attacked by Fire Drakes, who were eventually routed and killed for their crimes 5 months later by Hundonesian military.
Hephaestus had found her, as Singapaw was a big business hub they came too also.
They were rebuilding since the Hephaestus Incorporated was legally disbanded by international decree, after their two, once three, Wyvern owners split the company, and had a brief series of skirmishes that also revealed the influence they had in boosting the Dingolian revolution with technology.
As a legal agreement to legitimise the new Dingolian government, Hephaestus agreed to disband. But they simply resurfaced, more covert in some practices, but perfectly legitimate, under their new Komodo owner, and new Orang-utan CEO.
And like Garnet, Sketch was adopted out of generosity, but also, because Hephaestus saw potential, and most of all, needed to employ cheaply whenever possible.
After all, Komodos made good spies, stealthy but powerful. And frankly, not many Changelings were able to be forthcoming to foreign work, with the Imperial stranglehold on migration from Changelia. And Hephaestus was expanding, subtly, into the mercenary business.
Jia'lan had lost her parents in the Fire Drake raid, and quickly accepted a helpful hand , even if not entirely benign, in her despair.
Sketch quickly proved herself, training in the Komodo militia through basic, then specialising, which was something she came to enjoy.
She was an infiltrator and interrogator on behalf of Hephaestus, and anyone she was leased to. She hardly ever killed, but when she did, the person truly deserved it in her opinion. She tried to see the best in people, knowing to bend the rules whenever morally acceptable, and had a sense of justice that others in her field seemed to lack.
Despite hardly killing, she was quite physically strong. Komodos were balanced in gender physicality, but she was unusually strong for an early adult by her kind's standards.
She lived here, a quiet job as an interrogator and spy on demand. In recent years, requests for her work had declined, meaning she had a more steady life. As such, she offered to 'adopt' Garnet, given her apartment on her pay had room for him. Under the clause of on company living quarters regarding family, Garnet was allowed to live with her.
At first, they shared rooms, until Sketch got a pay rise, and they moved to a bigger on site place, with separate rooms. Now, they were inseparable, metaphorically that is.
Garnet had aged well, given his kind matured faster than Komodos, but at age 7, he was the equivalent of barely a mature adult. At 14, Sketch, by her race's standards, was a more mature adult, but not much.
"Oh goody, just what I wanted on my roomie-versary." Garnet groaned.
Having collected their mail from the building's mailroom, Garnet had dumped some letters for Sketch onto the kitchen table, while Sketch finished her morning steak, cooked rare.
"What is it?"
"Garnet Neken, and Jia'lan Neken, your annual physicals are due. Please see enclosed letters for dates and tests required."
"Please, its Sketch. If you call me that it makes you, well, less special." Sketch replied, her wincing showing she didn't like Garnet using her old name.
She only let, and wanted Garnet to call her Sketch, because it showed how close they were.
4 years ago, Garnet saw that Jia'lan sketched artwork of anything she wanted: Nature, places, people and so on, and had a flair for it. When he confronted her in a friendly way, she told him she hid it, not wanting to seem soft or 'feminine' in her job. She had to battle a bit of sexism from her fellow interrogators at first.
Garnet promised to keep it secret, in exchange for a sketch of him.
She did one every month. In time, he gave her the nickname, and Sketch stuck.
Looking back at the letters, Garnet said: "Mine's not much, but I'll bet you have a lot for your infiltrator and interrogation jobs."
"Just infiltrator really, stuff like how quiet I am, stamina, so on."
24th May, 987 ANM
Hephaestus Facility, Administration.
3 weeks after the routine tests, and Sketch was called up for a meeting. But she wasn't the topic, it was Garnet.
"-conducting tests, ones that could benefit thousands of people across this country, the world maybe, if successful."
"He will be paid handsomely, and we'll ensure he's not given anything too risky. They'll be plenty of tissue and animal trials beforehand."
Sketch didn't know what to say. She'd protested, but they made a good case. And especially since it wasn't the first time. Garnet being a test subject of various medicines, vaccines and genetic therapy, wouldn't be a unique case. There were dozens of other volunteers for tests.
"Please miss Neken, Garnet will be helping a lot of people. If these products work on him, then they'll work on many. Diamond Dog DNA is more varied than say, Dingo, or Komodo DNA. More variables, more fool proofing of treatments. He'll be helping many people."
Uncertainly, Sketch replied sternly: "I'll ask him, but if he says no, then the answer is no."
"I understand. We have others we can take, but none are as potentially useful as Garnet is. His blood samples showed that well enough."
Evening
Hephaestus Facility, Living Quarters
Sketch's apartment
"You sure?" Sketch asked once again.
"Yeah. I mean, I already left to help my village get the money. This is just that again. I mean, its just a bunch of tests, nothing too dangerous, they promised." Garnet reasoned.
"Yeah, but, its just, I don't trust this company. Not at least when it comes to experiments." Sketch said. As an infiltrator, she knew some of the dirtier secrets Hephaestus Research Company had, and its predecessor Hephaestus Inc.
"I wanna do this. I can help people so easily this way, without lifting a finger on my part. Easiest job ever." Garnet said.
Sketch would've smiled at the red dog's naiveté, but she couldn't. One, she didn't fully trust Hephaestus. But two, some 'experiments' had led to breakthroughs that saved many lives, or helped create beneficial technologies.
However, experiments also had negative consequences.
Sighing, she said: "Alright. But on one condition, I'll be going with you wherever you go. I'll be with you every step."
24th July, 987 ANM
Hephaestus Facility, Laboratories
As fate would have it, the tests they requested were ready to go ahead promptly, and weren't constrained by location. In fact, the HQ themselves had flown some personnel down to oversee the testing of Garnet themselves.
One benefit of all this, Garnet and Sketch didn't have to move. And with Garnet's testing payment, life was beginning to be easy for them. In fact, after a few months, it looked like Garnet would be more paying the bills than Sketch would.
Midday
Hephaestus Facility, Laboratories
Cantina
Sitting in the lunch cantina, waiting for Garnet to come out, Sketch didn't like this place.
Garnet had been here for 1 and a half months now, and he'd already undertaken drug tests, gene therapy, and even some vaccination tests. At worst, he was purposely injected with diseases then immunised, to test them while infected. Everything he took had already been tested on other races, animal or sentient, so nothing was guesswork.
But everything they gave him was rapid problem, rapid response, nothing gradual. On one occasion, Garnet was out of it for a day, bedridden, until he perked up by a vaccination the day after, 20 hours after he was injected.
She didn't like seeing him suffer on occasions where the tests weren't enough, but Garnet insisted it was helping. And it was in ways, as the vaccines, drugs and gene therapy were going a long way towards various medical treatments.
But she was suspicious, as whenever she asked what the future treatments were, she received no reply. So now, she decided to take the initiative.
She knew at lunchbreak, some guards were less alert, as any breach in security was expected at nightfall, not midday.
1 hour later
Hephaestus Facility, Laboratories
Genetics lab
As the cantina filled up, Sketch snuck into the Genetics laboratory, specifically the files room.
She had clearance to enter the lab, but not this room, so she'd caught a passing assistant who was carrying some files. The young Dingo male was in a hurry, holding plenty of files, and she offered to put them in the filing cabinet, at the front, for him to retrieve later.
He said she didn't have clearance to enter, but a quick drop off wouldn't hurt.
Now, she sifted through files, looking at anything to do with Garnet's future experiments.
She found it, buried away from other files, but lined up for the next two weeks as the first in a series of longer term projects.
Programs under the Lazarus Initiative, Subject Garnet
Overall success of the various projects regarding embryo modification, culminating in Project Draco [see subjects Razak and Kurze, Neisha [deceased subject], and contacts Smoulder and Cal'vel], has prompted development.
Focus shifts towards genetic modification of more extensive nature, on an already matured subject. Subject Garnet Neken, as a Hundonesian dog, is a species with much genetic variation. Other Dog test subject results, combined with his, will go a long way to developing programs that function across a wide genetic spectrum.
Genetic therapy, Project Ares
Stage: Tested on other sentient subjects.
Genetic therapy to artificially enhance subject's muscle mass, rapid growth, and naturally increase rate at which body generates muscle tissue and strengthens bones.
Tests on animal subjects and 2 sentients reveal success, though major side effect includes increase in height/length, but with muscle mass growth is not unexpected, so has been regarded as an acceptable effect.
Genetic therapy/drugs, Project Athena
Stage: Sentient subject test yet to begin [first candidate Garnet Neken]
Genetic therapy and drugs joint experiments designed at permanently altering the mental patterns and cognitive capabilities of subject. Tests yet to be done on a sentient, but initial animal tests show growth in brain tissue, and increased mental capability.
Note: Some animal subjects showed increased aggression in rare cases, but drugs designed to counteract aggression solve problem.
Footnote
Given extensive nature of experiments, the reversibility of these changes is the next step, and has seen success on animal subjects already, though implementing the changes has proven to take about 3 weeks, whilst the reversing has taken twice that time.
If sentient subjects cannot have treatments reversed, full compensation will be guaranteed, particularly with risking side effect of increased aggression from Project Athena. In that case, treatment drugs and other ailments will be part of compensation.
-All results from Projects Ares and Athena shall provide useful insight into long term goals of the Lazarus Initiative.
"Lazarus Initiative?"
Sketch mouthed, as she had quickly taken out a notepad and written a summarised version of all she was reading. As with sketching, she was a fast writer.
Looking through, she found Project Lazarus, a brief, vague plan, that was an overall directive of the entire Genetics division of the Hephaestus Research Project. It was written by, surprisingly, the owner of Hephaestus, the Komodo, Karrav:
Lazarus Initiative
Primary Objectives:
-Discover viable genetic modifications for agriculture, medicine, or scientific purposes. Benefits to various Oceanic states and trade partners will help bolster Hephaestus's influence, and recover after breakup of old Inc. predecessor.
-Find useful modifications for military purposes, potential for bioweapons programs and competing with rumoured 'supersoldier' initiatives in the Caninberian People's Union, and the New Gryphon Republic.
-In accordance with the old wishes of the owners of Hephaestus Incorporated, Varkan, Tul'rok, and Sa'ral, the Wyvern founders. Any and all genetic programs will be used to give any new methods into potential to recover Wyvern population via cloned breeding and in embryo or living genetic modification.
This final goal is of utmost importance, as I personally stress how much of an injustice the extinction of the Wyvern race was. Hunted to extinction after they attacked each other out of survival, weakened in trying to quarantine and subdue a virus that was plaguing them, which escaped when a laboratory was attacked during the Wyvern/Changeling war. Then, they were hunted like animals for sport, the arguments being they might be infected still, and risk the disease that killed them jumping to others, but more importantly, that they were savages, worse than dragons because of being as beastly as them, but smart enough to develop the atomic bomb with less resources and time than the New Gryphons or Caninberians did. By all knowledge, they're extinct now, Varkan taking his own life out of grief.
But not all knowledge is true, or permanent.
The next stage, Project Phoenix, will proceed as planned. I shall personally oversee it, along with a Project tackling more difficult DNA subjects, Project Eclipse. Any challenges that can be overcome in genetics now will go a long way in future.
Now curious, Sketch checked how much time she had, and made sure she was out of sight. Good thing the files room wasn't a high priority area, and she had a good 20 minutes till.
Project Phoenix, scheduled for 988-989 ANM breeding efforts, at Singapaw facility. Fire Drake surrogates lined up and ready.
-Aims:
Through artificial insemination of Fire Drake female volunteers, Wyverns, clones of a remaining Wyvern subject, shall be bred. No genetic alteration will be done, these will be direct clones of Varkan, to prove the viability of cloning Wyverns in the first place. Modification for the sake of eventual population genetic variance will come at a later stage.
Project Eclipse [to be carried out after Project Phoenix, due to less priority] Scheduled for 990-992 date, Unicorn surrogate volunteers pending.
-Aims:
Unique DNA signature, found in DNA and dark magic enlaced crystal fragment, confirmed to be a trace of vanished Unicorn King Sombra, of the Frozen North, disappeared along with Crystal Empire in 18 BNM, making DNA 1005 years old.
Dark magic has preserved fragment enough to extract and duplicate full DNA strains, so an initiative is made to clone this subject, to see if it is possible to clone a heavily magic infused sentient with such powers accessible from birth.
-Company owner Karrav states that Unicorn contact that collaborated on Project Tiresias [now complete with largely success, see Subject Charge Bolt, now named Ohmen Magnes], helped identify DNA subject as King Sombra. Project Eclipse shall go a long way in efforts to create a magical force to counteract the political dominance Equestria holds unfairly over the rest of the planet. More importantly, magical abilities usually manifest randomly, so pre-built abilities will be more easily controlled, as 'dark magic' takes hold at a physical level more readily. Psychological consequences of a 'born dark' Unicorn unknown, because psychology dictates evil is made by experience, so a 'dark magic' user, born into a good life, will likely not act out.
She couldn't help it, and decided to keep Project Tiresias in mind. If it was an already fully complete project, it would be made public, not so secret. So she would have access anyway.
Keeping her notes, she didn't begin to process everything she knew until she was out of the files room, and back at her apartment.
Evening
24th July, 987 ANM
Hephaestus Facility, Living Quarters
Sketch's apartment
"Wait? They told you?"
"Yeah, they said I should know, and so I don't hear about it later on, or in ways I might not like." Garnet said.
Sketch was quiet, as she knew exactly what that meant. She had received a warning, though she wasn't fired for it. For snooping around in files she wasn't cleared to do so.
She knew she hadn't seen anything incriminating, so they didn't go further than a warning to her against any more unauthorised access.
"Garnet, they told you, because I found out. I snuck in, and I looked at what they had planned. I didn't like how you only found out the day you were to start each thing."
Sketch told him everything, and eventually, Garnet had to process it all.
Some news, like Project Tiresias, revealed how a Unicorn that lost his magic almost entirely, was granted magnetic telekinesis to compensate, made easier by his remaining magical physicality. Also, it was a compensation for what a rogue Hephaestus Inc group did, under Tul'rok, who had been mentally unsound since Sa'ral's death a week or so before he had Charge Bolt tortured and 'interrogated' without Varkan approving. The Hephaestus Inc. effort, the last one before they split into two groups, one under Varkan and the other those that followed the disappeared Tul'rok, was classified beyond her clearance, only that it was an extremely secret matter, but had reason for the creation of the Lazarus Initiative.
A handful of years later, and in 981 ANM, Charge Bolt was granted new abilities, but mutated to part Changeling out of necessity. He took on the name Ohmen, and the rest was history. The Unicorn that collaborated with them remained unknown, living secluded in Northern New Daeland.
But for Garnet, this was indicator that the risks were worth it, even with the untested mental experiments under Project Athena.
But deep down in her gut, some things said in the files disturbed her. Like Karrav being so passionate about both bringing back the Wyverns, and two, 'equalising' the balance of power that he says Equestria, under Celestia, unfairly held.
Karrav had been a protege to the three Wyverns, mainly Varkan, but not much else was known. Maurik, the Orangutan CEO, was clear enough but Karrav was an enigma. He showed fierce loyalty to anything Varkan had though, and but was much more cold and calculating, and was never seen far from Faral Kol, once Varkan's second in command.
She thought there was a hidden agenda in all these experiments, and Project Lazarus was it. It wasn't incriminating, nor was it innocent.
But with her close friend, and adoptive brother, getting mixed up in all this, she couldn't help but be afraid for him, and the potential risks involved in some experiments.
Sentient subject test yet to begin
That single line in the files summed up all her fears. Never before had any tests Ganret been taken been the first among sentients. But someone had to be the first, and this time it was him.
Sketch would keep to her promise, and stick with Garnet through these trials. But she saw now that a hidden agenda was driving the entire company's genetics division, perhaps the entire company. All companies wanted dominance for the sake of influence, it was good business. But this drive was beyond financial concerns, it was political in some deep parts of it, at the highest levels.
And Garnet was a willing, but unknowing subject to their efforts to expand their capabilities.
Within 2 decades after these tests, it would come back to haunt the company, and much of the globe, in ways no one could have predicted at this time.
Part of a 2, maybe 3 parted story of Garnet's history.
It was requested, it was considered by me, and now here it is.
The entire moral is that while 'sane', Garnet is largely being set on paths of life by other people.
Dropped off because he couldn't be supported, getting the short end of the stick among his birth siblings.
To some relief, taken in by Hephaestus as part of an eventual testing program, with full compensation, and away from a somewhat judgemental, conservative village. He hadn't been there long, and him leaving with the Hephaestus dog that helped refund the mining village and ranch village was a boon for his morale.
But its Sketch, his friend, that begins to look out for him. In his story, until she's dead of course, Sketch is largely the proactive one, making sure nothing too bad happens.
Part 2 is next, and if anyone's versed in Garnet's history in the Volumes enough, you know what is coming up fast. The various projects that Sketch snoops into also offer plot insight, why she becomes suspicious, and also some worldbuidling.
The Unicorn that helped with Ohmen getting his powers in 981 ANM, Starswirl, was still withdrawn at this stage, at only nearly 5 years since he was ejected from the Elements at that stage.
Next chapter[s] will be shorter, as I had a lot of background to cover in one chapter here.
Please review/critique as one would.