Sins of Harmony

Volume 3: Crisis to Ashes

Chapter 25: Service and Sufferance

January 26th, 1008 ANM

Midday

Maldives, Aeternum's ash hidden volcanic island

Underground network

Twilight had, reluctantly, come to accept her imprisonment on the island, her logic driven mentality saying she was in no danger if she didn't try to escape.

That being said, if she saw a likely opportunity to do otherwise, she'd leap at it.

She'd taken 2 days to consider the information Aeternum had revealed, despite it withholding details of future plans, or its methods of what she suspected it would try to do.

And yesterday, she made a few conditions to ensure she'd be a more cooperative hostage.

One, more proper living accommodations, though this was already promised. She insisted help be made, with whatever could be used, to make her stay more comfortable.

Two, and lastly, a guarantee of her being alive to her friends and family, and in turn, allowing her friends via the castle to continue using the Map in the castle to help solve social situations across Equestria.

The second proved, troubling, to say the least.

Yesterday, Twilight's old holding cell

"Anything in your new quarters will be fashioned from materials available. As you requested, books, though in a digital form, for there is no paper on this island. Furniture, bedding, all basic utilities and comforts we theorise from insight into your mind as an Element Wielder you may desire."

"You know what I'd like just from me being an Element wielder? Uhm..." Twilight was unnerved once more by the unnatural insight into her, and her 5 friends, and any other Element wielders/targets. But the voice echoing into the chamber interrupted her:

"But the agreement was to not reveal you until our conditions were announced. What purpose would allowing your survival to be known to your family and associates, aside from comforting them, fulfil?"

Twilight stamped her hoof, demanding: "You don't understand the relief it may give them? And wouldn't you want them off your back from thinking I may be dead, by you going back on your word, or any of your mad followers?"

"HEY! We are not-" One of the young Hundonesian dog Reborn members was stood guard outside the shut chamber, and had heard it through the door.

"SILENCE! Let her finish, she clearly has more to state as reasons."

One quick roar from the voice in the room silenced the now overwhelmed guard outside, a young radical feeling as if he'd just annoyed a deity.

In the room, Twilight also added: "And besides. That Map in the Crystal Castle in ponyville can't function without my connection to it, so there may be things across Equestria that my friends would be able to help with, but can't find them because I'm disconnected from the Castle."

"If you let me also establish a subtle link, I can reassure them I'm alive, and tell them to help maintain Equestria's bonds of friendship between ponies. And, it will make me comfortable, and I won't go insane with worry over unfinished work."

The voice in the room was silent, before it said in a rumbling tone:

"Very well. But wait a few days for the preparations for this connection to be made. You would have ended up staying a few weeks at least, maybe longer, given the preparations that must be done for the plans to go ahead."

"WEEKS!?"

Twilight exclaimed, but Aeternum didn't answer again.

Present

Maldives, Aeternum's ash hidden volcanic island

Underground network

Living areas

Standing in the new cavern accomodations, Twilight revelled in the magical energy that Aeternum had imbued into the circular chamber room.

She was still restrained by a metal brace over her horn, but here in her own room, she could use higher level magic than outside it. Everything but very powerful spells, which helped her change some materials Aeternum had provided.

Transformed from various rocky materials, and using Quintessenite to make it easier, she now had a bed, furniture, a desk, and replicas of what she had in her room back in the Ponyville castle.

She even draped some curtains and carpets, basic one tone coloured ones, over some of the rocky walls and floor, giving the cavern a more homely feel to it. After all, she wasn't voluntarily here.

Looking around, feeling much more comfortable, Twilight heard a voice from the doorway.

"Excuse me, Princess Twilight?"

Turning around, Twilight saw a new face, and a race she hadn't expected to ever see in her life in fact.

Slithering into the room was a Reticulated Python, very long, and rippling with muscles as her form came through the door. Slowly approaching, she stopped before Twilight, pulling her tail end through to pull in a medical bag of all things.

She sported grey paint on her head scales, and 4 familiar painted white dots, but faded with a few days old paint.

"Oh, uhm, who are you?" Twilight asked nervously. She was conscious of just how long this python female was. Long enough to eat a pony if she wanted.

With as much of a non threatening smile as she could muster, the python replied: "I should explain. You were in solace for a few days, and Aeternum was bringing in a few others to the island, more subtly than the ones in Singapaw were. We came by a submarine route, so we took longer, or just set off later. I'm one of the new arrivals."

Placing the medical bag on the floor, she raised her tail tip towards Twilight, in a equivalent of a hoofshake.

"My name is Jorani. I'm, in charge of helping you have a comfortable stay here."

Swallowing her shock, Twilight let the python shake her hoof by her tail slowly, while she admitted nervously: "I guess I was wrong to think all Aeternum's followers were, uh..."

"Crazy? Psychopaths? Radicals? I got called that too, but I followed what my heard told me. And, it showed me what it intended to do, and I wanted to be part of something greater for once in my life, without being treated differently for my views, or what I am."

"Huh. I guess, Aeternum's attracting all sorts of followers. Ones who didn't really feel right in the world on their own." Twilight deduced. Internally, she wandered if Aeternum was exploiting those in search of a group to belong to, or those who felt desperate, or felt like outcasts. Exploitation, or helping them, was a question she kept to herself.

Looking at the medical bag, Twilight said: "Why that?"

"Just a few tests, mostly to make sure that horn restraint isn't doing extra harm, and just checking on you during your stay. Plus, if you ever want to talk about anything, I'll be more than happy."

"Thanks, I guess. You're kinda the first person on this island I don't feel threatened by."

"That's a first. I couldn't use my medicine skills in Indo-Burma areas because they thought I would eat instead of healing patients." Jorani commented, her scaly brow furrowing slightly.

"Ah, hehehe, yeah.." Twilight remarked, now intimidated by the 24 plus foot of python in the room with her.

Gazing about, Jorani then asked in a friendly manner: "Say, you really brightened up your room."

"Might as well make it feel like home."

"You did a good job compared to some others I've seen." The Python remarked, laughing at some recent sights.

"Really?"

"Yes. Some of them have just a few rags, others just a workdesk or something. The Wyvern Varkan, hasn't done a thing, just a bare rocky room, even smaller than this one, even if he's sharing with the Komodo he came with."

"Well, if you don't want your room to feel depressing, I'm sure I could pull a few strings with the big, uh, thing in charge."

In her mind, a Python of all things being her first [hopefully] friend on this island was not what Twilight envisioned.

She'd take what she could get while she was here.

Mid Afternoon

Maldives, Aeternum's volcanic island

The hybrid magical and technology fuelled energy that Aeternum now ran on had many uses.

After the arrival of a few more members to the island in secret, the number of organics on the island now number 24, though it anticipated no more than 30 on the island, the rest of any 'cult' followers it used remaining hidden in other lands.

It gave them resources and ways to be self sufficient, though the biggest challenge any of them faced was food. The darkness by the ash prevented plants, and in turn most animals, for much area around the island.

But it had created an underground hydroponics farm, taking cues from stolen internet design specs for future vertical farming concepts. Using electric lighting, heating, and volcanic produced nutrients, any crops could be grown.

In fact, some of the arrivals after the Singapaw group had been told specifically to bring seeds for that purpose, for food diversity.

Meat eaters were supplied with fish, kept as fresh as possible from the once a week hauls a large swimming drone would gather. It was the only role that Aeternum completely did on behalf of the organics in its service.

But it had told them that it expected service, and it found work easy enough to do for them, most of it research based.

Northern volcanic mountain face

Lava stream slopes

The north side of the island was where all the lava flowed now, the steam from the island's shore where the lava ran to not too much. It was runny, but more importantly were the unnaturally straight channels carved into the mountain face nearby.

Out of the mountain, numerous, more pure streams of molten rock and metal flowed, separated into the channels by the different types of ore or pure metal in other cases.

Around the slopes, a handful of protective suit wearing dogs worked with a few drones, measuring different molten volumes of the rock and metal in heat proof holders, measuring their melting points, weight per volume unit, and the purity of the metals.

While Aeternum could do many things, it valued having these organics around. It could order them to do things on its behalf with precise instructions, and use drones to help them or make sure instructions were followed. That way, it could actually fulfill more tasks at once.

Underground network

Forging chambers

In the deeper depths, one of the now empty secondary magma chambers was turned into a manufacturing facility of sorts.

But this chamber wasn't designed to manufacture the living drones, beings of metallic and rock skin, and Quintessenite brains and nerves.

This chamber was much more straightforward. Parts manufacture. And right now, Aeternum was genuinely interested in a development that one of its newly arrived servants told it about.

A Minotaur, one of only three arrived members to the island that came form the Eoropean continent, specifically a Grecian Minotaur. A recent recession had resulted in the company he worked for going bankrupt, so Aeternum's offer was something of a blessing. But he offered something Aeternum hadn't anticipated just yet.

"You use injection molding techniques I see. Why not 3D printing methods?"

"We lack the suitable design specifications. And it is uncertain if 3D printing will overtake methods such as-"

"A week ago a paper was published saying it was now tested that 3D printers could be faster than injection moulding." The Minotaur male, Natham, added quickly.

"...If we could acquire some designs, they could be easily adopted to our needs."

"Don't you have a connection to the internet? Magical, technology, whatever?"

"The ash veil prevents it. But, agents dispatched discretely worldwide have been spying and absorbing a wealth of information from the world, for use, and for the island organics to use for their own, entertainment, accordingly. In essence, we will be downloading the internet, but we will always be up to a week behind the rest of the world in terms of data."

"That explains why you didn't know about it." Natham remarked, looking out over the glow of the lava filled moulding chambers.

Overheard, a faint rumble sounded, the mountain's constant activity always making such noises.

Underground network

Lower level labs

Staring down the veritable alley of wells, each filling with a strange smelling liquid from odd vats above them, Varkan and Faral examined the container in their hands.

It had drawn into the 4 eggs Varkan had managed to salvage, taking a tissue sample from them.

Trusting in the greater power that had created these amniotic vats, Varkan threw a sample into each vat 'well'.

Breathing out, Varkan walked down the gangway, with Faral laying a reassuring hand on his back:

"Now, they will grow in numbers very quickly. And diverse."

Mumbling, the Wyvern murmured: "At least they'll be safe. As will the four we brought."

Living quarters

Evening

Varkan and Faral's joint quarters

The custom made warming chambers kept the four Wyvern eggs at optimum temperature, while they were folded into the back of Varkan's small room. Faral, being a close friend, offered to share a room with him in wake of the new arrivals. He hadn't' objected, but asked that they sleep in separate beds.

As Varkan had finished checking the four eggs one more time, Faral said with some humour in her tone: "Its actually quite warming, how concerned you are about them."

"I know the others are fine, under watch, but fine. But, these four are my responsibility, as will be the ones in the lower chambers."

"No wonder you rejected my feelings. You've blasted right past the mate part of your life to the overprotective father stage." Faral bluntly remarked, but her respect for him clear in her voice.

Pausing, Varkan looked her in the eye with some regret: "I, I said some things I regret to you, when I dragged you to take out Garnet...While he was still alive at least. I know we're friends still, close, longtime. But, if its anything, I am sorry I don't share the same feelings. I actually wish I did. But, I don't, why I don't know."

Shaking her head at his self seriousness, Faral merely gestured to his bed in the room:

"You should rest. We have no serious plans for a few weeks at least. The eggs will be fine."

Stifling a yawn, Varkan agreed with her, and began to shuffle over to his bed.

Through the ceiling, a louder than normal rumble sounded.

Faral stared oddly, remarking: "That wasn't the volcano, was it?"

"No. I don't see why it has to test that thing at...what time is it?" Varkan asked himself.

"20:31, local time. And those tests are on a schedule, so I ask you to contend with them."

A voice sounded overhead, somewhat nagging to them.

Faral, losing her composure, snarked back: "I don't recall Tul'rok being so short tempered. You really have got your own personality, haven't you?"

"Yes, Aeternum doesn't understand courtesy to sleeping patterns very well, does it?"

"And that's Tul'rok." Varkan added sleepily, getting his bunk ready.

"You are living within a volcanic mountain. Such test noises should become routine if you stop complaining."

Aeternum's last announcement into the room seemed to echo its state of mind: Self-righteous and a humourless smart aleck, but irritatingly justified on too many occasions in its rebuttals.

Midnight

Maldives, Aeternum's volcanic island

Eastern shoreline

The swimming drone crawled up the mountain slope quickly, ducking into the small hole akin to a gopher burrow.

It had swum all the way from Dingolia's west coast, one of many 'seeker' drones. Akin to the urchin swimmer hybrid drones, except smaller, and not able to fight at all.

Crawling down into the network of small tunnels, it hooked up a few tendrils to the nodes where it now lay, connecting into the links to Aeternum's overall 'network' brain.

Petabytes of data from the internet digitally stored were uploaded.

Nearby, one other drone uploaded less information, but it had gathered it from a magical text library, which was not digitised, so direct spying was needed in a disguise as a historian, researcher or student, or just made invisible by a magical originated spell.

For the while, Aeternum's island settled into a routine, while the rest of the world was unaware of its actions inside the ash veil.

For now, all both sides could do, was wait for one move to be made.

Just an establishing chapter for the 'antagonists', and Twilight's situation. Not all the followers in the Reborn gang are complete lunatics or radicals. Some have valuable skills, others are friendly first and foremost.

Also, Twilight was given the right to a few luxuries in her quarters. Others, expressed themselves in other ways.

And Aeternum isn't a completely polite host in running the joint., as even his organic 'host' Tul'rok quips about.

Next chapter will be on Equestria, and Twilight's establishing of her friends to keep up the 'Map work', as a gesture that she is alive still, and well. But it will be a while before she's fully used as a 'hostage'.

In terms of conflict, other things will arise, some more personal than the big 'plan'.

As usual, please review/critique as one would.