Sins of Harmony
Volume 3: Crisis to Ashes
Chapter 53: Clearing the Last Calm Air.
Late Morning
March 29th, 1008 ANM
Equestria, Canterlot
Palace Avenue
Someone in the palace, or more than one, had loose lips, or were willing to have their pockets lined by the media.
And the moment the news broke, some politicians went utterly out of their way to push their agenda in ways this could help them.
Councillor Trenchhoof sat in his carriage, his personal assistant gazing out at the gathering before the Royal Palace's main gates.
A massive crowd gathered out now, all chanting and roaring their vigorous speech against 2 known occupants. Trenchism, the political movement opposing any and all things to do with Aeternum, had gained momentum ever since Tul'rok started making the creatures act more violently globally.
"There's a few hundred at least, maybe a thousand. I thought somepony from the palace would have come out to the gate besides the statuesque guards."
His assistant, Iris Trotette, who gazed out the window, nodded her head in agreement. She was a dull brown in colour, young, but capable, yet also rather plain for a Unicorn mare. She had been on board with his Trenchism policies from the beginning, and was crucial in aiding his work and speeches being just provocative enough for his campaigns while he was a Councillor.
She had, oddly, seemed less energetic in recent days, starting over a week ago.
"Information says they've got the creature under lock and key, as they should. But Varkan is being allowed to help, weaponless but free roaming. He's turned ever since Aeternum took a more violent turn."
Iris gave a little smirk of mirth at this, while Councillor Trench saw a few guards ponies restrain a few more rowdy protestors, who had begun throwing things at the gate.
"Traitor."
Trenchoof had read recently released information, that Varkan had found the Calamaks, a Cathiawar noble family, the ones who ordered the attack on his cloning facility. But revenge, or denied revenge, on them, was one thing among many he'd done when he went rogue.
Not even the small scale genocidal intentions of a noble family, scorned by a lost family member to the Changelia War's one atomic bombing, could outweigh what Varkan had done, recently, and longer term.
After all, all paths of Aeternum's beginnings of acting out were trceable back to him dabbling with Celestia's horn for his own gain. It all began back then.
Yet whatever Aeternum was planning was to do with things ever longer term than that.
Canterlot, Royal Palace
Midday, Astronomy tower
A pair of night guards stood watch outside her doors, while the three occupants did their work in the Astronomy tower. Celestia was budy arranging the rescue mission operation with General Hardhooves, and getting contact and payment for the mercenaries Varkan recommended from past use.
Varkan was being put through his paces, whatever knowledge he'd gained being put to strategising. But Luna had requested this take place in the Astronomy tower, where the spacecraft inbound could be observed if need be.
With them, Starswirl stood. He had sort of created Aeternum with the Elements, and he knew how its essence worked. And all Tul'rok was in the short of it, was simply the same being with a different mind.
On a few sheets of paper, Varkan had been doing some calculations, a calculator beside him. He was tasked with calculating exactly how much energy was going to be used by Tul'rok, by the time portal beaming it all gathered over a long time, ready to use in a much shorter time.
Writing the final number, Varkan breathed as he saw the number. Beside him, Starswirl quietly mused aloud.
"Okay, no propellent is detected from the craft, so some sort of propellentless engine is being used. I thought, based on what I've read of technology, that those were against known physics, but there you are." Starswirl
"How much energy for what they plan on doing?" Luna asked.
"However its used? They need to accelerate the moon, and the Earth's spin, as much as they will lose from the magic aftereffects when lifted. So, as much Kinetic Energy as they have in their motions already, about, say, 1.06 times 10 to the power of 28, most of which is for the moon."
Luna blinked a little, the number stuck in her mind. Starswirl thought for a moment, and recalled:
"About the same energy if over a hundred billion kilos of matter were converted entirely into energy."
Varkan was quiet, while he seemed to ask more to himself: "I think I was right to ask Aeternum to do that backup plan."
Luna looked at Varkan, as she asked with suspicion: "Backup?"
"My deal. In case I couldn't bring back my race on Earth. I had Aeternum carry a long endurance cache of Wyvern embryos, all viable with its help, on the ship. It promised to seed a planet with Wyvern kind whenever it found one, probably a few 10s of thousands of years from now at its rate the ship leaving the system is going."
"Why didn't you say anything of this!?" Luna demanded. Backing up a little, the Wyvern male growled:
"It wasn't relevant, and they weren't endangering the planet at all! Now I don't have to worry about my kind so much if they're out there later on!"
"If." Starswirl echoed, looking at Varkan, the first being he saw upon his freedom from the Elemental Magic in Celestia's horn, with a pitying look. He jabbed at Varkan: "You're basing your race's future on a hope that Aeternum can be trusted to do it."
"Its got a better chance of working than anything so far has. And its sort of what I intended in Dingolia, create life quickly with its energy." Varkan commented.
"So, you must finally think you've done your work then, finally won? At least out there. I hope you're satisfied with all the ones you've hurt, deceived or betrayed in the process. If it keeps it promise, your kind flourishes while others fall into peril perhaps, for what you did to do it." Luna spoke low to Varkan, thinking she had him finally figured out, why he said he'd given up on trying to help his race recently.
At that moment, Varkan's eyes widened a little, as the gravity of what he'd done sunk in.
"I saved my race, but doomed all others."
The Wyvern was blankly staring down at the diagrams, while Luna heard Starswirl give a quiet cough:
"If I may.. We all made choices, mistake or not, that resulted in this."
"Me more than others." Varkan grumbled, which made Luna speak suddenly.
"Its natural to make mistakes, or desperate choices. You were pressured over decades to do such things."
"But I've doomed all the other races." Varkan whispered.
"No, Tul'rok did. Aeternum made a mistake, its not as powerful as we thought. It kept Tul'rok down for its own safety, not seeing the festering, warping mind Tul
rok was getting. I kept my sanity intact because I knew what enchantments and mindset t have when I merged with the Elements of Harmony." Starswirl stressed. He jabbed a hoof at Luna then:
"Luna, you made the mistake of letting your desperation to not be in your sister's shadow cloud your judgement. Could you forsee the dark Magic King Sombra used when you confronted him may affect you, in your clouded mind, lead you astray?"
"No." Luna murmured. True, when she and her sister confronted King Sombra long ago, before the Crystal Empire's vanishing, there was brief combat, and some dark magic hit both of them. The Elements were supposed to have helped, but the trace that resided in Luna afterwards survived and festered due to her feelings of inadequacy.
One little dark magic catalyst pushed her towards her stint as Nightmare Moon.
Turning to the Wyvern, Starswirl said: "I made the mistake of not intervening in the right places during the Civil War, otherwise the whole mess of what these spacecraft are trying to fix may not have happened. But like with you not seeing your mistake, not seeing Tul'rok festering in both yours, and Aeternum's case, you can't blame yourself for things you couldn't control, no matter how hard you try."
"I arranged for it to save my kind, not doom others." Varkan replied.
"Tul'rok's rising made what was a backup plan, into a bid of leaving a doomed world behind. That was not your fault, so stop acting like it was, buck up, and make sure you have a good plan like you often do!"
Starswirl angrily shoved his hoof in the surprised Wyvern's face, who then paused, as he said calmly:
"I can't see anything we can do."
"I can."
Luna then spoke up suddenly, as she'd noticed something on the diagram, the time portal. She jabbed a hoof at the portal on the diagram:
"That is our method. You have your backup plan, we can make ours."
"You've lost me." Varkan replied. Starswirl stroked his short beard with a hoof, before he shifted on his braced leg, murmuring:
"Time portal. If things can come from the future to here, like those aliens running around somewhere now, we can, send things forwards and come back."
"Exactly. We gather volunteers. However long it takes, we use the portal!"
"Its encoded to Aeternum's signature, so not even Tul'rok can send things through to the other side, he's changed his signature too much. Nothing is getting through, unless it has Aeternum's signal." Varkan held some regret as he all but obliterated this seemingly hopeful plan.
"BUCK IT ALL!" Luna swore loudly in her Canterlot voice, her magic sending the table and diagram flying, and sending the Wyvern and Unicorn elder to the ground with their heads shielded.
Breathing calmly, Luna then paused. Standing up, Starswirl grumbled to himself:
"No need for such language, honestly."
"You done?" Varkan stumbled up, nursing his bruised elbow wing ruins.
Luna then looked at Varkan, a glint of an idea in her eyes:
"Aeternum sends the spacecraft through the time portal, which means they must have had the signal in them. Tul'rok controls them, but the signals may be simple versions that he can easily hijack. They may still be the same. We find out the signal, and we use that to send through someone to alert somepony who will have the power to stop Tul'rok, the one sending the power itself."
Starswirl thought on this plan, and realised something: "We can send it from here, the moment the portal next opens. Just a message, with the right code. Aeternum will pick it up, whenever it is sent."
Thinking for a moment, Starswirl said to Luna and Varkan: "I'm going to consult the library for some spells I could use. I think we have someone with us that can also help in the dungeons."
As the wizard began to leave, he said to the Wyvern and blue Alicorn: "I'm sorry I called you two out on mistakes, but we all have made them. Celestia has made them, Discord still makes them. And if the other thing being arranged works, he may live yet to make more."
With that, Starswirl left the astronomy tower with a teleport flash, leaving only Varkan and Luna in the tower room.
Pacing a little, Luna then heard Varkan wonder briefly:
"Just off topic, but aren't you a little out of your sleep time for this?"
"I take quick naps when I can on days when I must be up outside of the night for long times. Its how I'm so even tempered right now." Luna said, though the Wyvern sensed the slight clenching of teeth in her speech.
He looked her over, and aside from the expected bags under her eyes, she still regarded him with tension, albeit less than before. Varkan was then a little quiet, before he looked her dead in the eye:
"I'm, so sorry, for everything that I've done from Singapaw onwards. I made so many mistakes since then, and now Faral is missing, Princess Twilight and Discord are in the hands of a lunatic quasi god, and I hate to think what Tul'rok might be doing to some of the reborn clan people that joined it as cultists."
Luna's gaze softened a little, as she admitted: "I was hurt by what you did. I thought we were getting along, you trusted me enough to show that facility earlier than others. That meant a lot from you."
"If you hate me, I understand."
"I don't hate you! I could never hate you, especially with why you do these things! You may make those choices, but its why that makes you less wicked than those brainwashed Trenchist citizens down there think you are!" Luna urged.
Walking over to the astronomy tower window, Varkan had his back turned as Luna walked up alongside him, looking out the same window at the dreary, cloudy overcast sky, even at midday.
He looked down, snorting a little as he remarked:
"A lot of those Trenchists down there. How'd they even figure out I was here?"
"Someone has loose lips." Luna added, thought she saw the flash of suspicion across Varkan's face. Turning to Varkan, Luna spoke calmly to him, his normally glinting red eyes a little more dull:
"Varkan. Like Starswirl said, I made mistakes with all things to do with Nightmare Moon. I know what you should do, if my mistakes are anything to learn from."
"What's that?"
"Help us however you can. You have a brilliant mind, and an open one, even if your personna is cold, and your friends few. I am willing to trust you, given you turned away very quickly as soon as Tul'rok took over from Aeternum. You are a good judge of character, so if you turned, then I can trust you won't turn back to him."
Luna then jabbed a hoof onto Varkan's chest softly, saying: "But I need you to trust me again, so I can fully trust you. You turned to Aeternum because you needed power, and trusted few. So please, let us, let me, be help to you."
"...I did only bring Faral Kol with me." Varkan said quietly.
"And speaking of her, I'll convince them to rescue her, and the python also prisoner with them it seems, when the team goes in."
"Just trying to get them means a lot." Varkan remarked with some shade of thankfulness.
Luna then gave a little laugh to herself, remarking: "Its amusing actually. My sister learned to be humble from centuries of rule, and the mistakes throughout."
Varkan shifted nervously, thoughts going back to the Alicorn horn he had stashed somewhere he'd rather not say on his person.
"But me and you? We learned faster through making more, substantial mistakes." Luna gave a brief smile, before Varkan then added:
"Understatement much? Nightmare nearly ended the world, and something I had a hand in triggering may well soon do that or actually succeed."
"The I guess we're both guilty on that count." Luna added. Varkan grimaced, as he pointed out:
"You've paid your dues for your crimes. I haven't, yet."
"You can work off crime by helping stop Tul'rok from doing anything beyond the orbit correction. You can get out of this with few stains on your character."
"If not, I'm liable to be a stain on their hooves if they get them on me." Varkan pointed a clawed finger out the window, towards the Trenchist gathering/mob at the palace gates a few stories down.
"Trenchoof is a windbag, exploiting paranoia, ignore his ramblings and those that follow it foolishly." Luna dismissed.
"He'd have a fit if he learned we were planning on getting in contact with Aeternum, with no Tul'rok in it, for help?"
"No, he'd use that to gather more supporters." Luna jabbed back, as she turned to the diagram on the floor. She used her magic to replace the overturned table from her outburst, while Varkan said bluntly:
"If this all works out, if Tul'rok gets beaten, whether we have the moon and days as they were under control, or in their natural restored state if Aeternum's plan works, where does that leave us? I mean, I may well lose the company, have to go into a lesser, quieter life. Not that I wouldn't welcome it, but, what about you and me? I want to leave things on a good note if we never cross paths after all this. That would be enough for me."
"Why not more?" Luna asked innocently. Varkan went quiet, adding pointedly: "I'm not the most expressive being. Its why I've never had many friends. Faral was heartbroken years back when I said I didn't share her romantic feelings, even though we were still friends."
"Do you still have that problem?" Luna probed.
"...I don't know. I've gotten used to being distant for safety."
Luna understood, as after Nightmare Moon and her return, she kept her head down for nearly a few months at least, afraid of contact outside of her sister and the closer guards, such as Captain Blacklight.
"Its not the most healthy of lifestyles, I know this myself. If this succeeds, and you need a friend, try and keep me in mind." Luna's words were ones that slightly warmed the Wyvern's core.
Throne room
It hadn't taken long for them to come down with Luna's suggested plan, while Varkan and Starswirl had helped her iron out this sketchy, but simple plan.
"Send it in while the energy is coming out. It will be thousands of years passing for it in what seems like a few minutes for us maybe, or less. We send a message, it can take its sweet time getting stuff ready for a while, but for us, help may come seconds after we send the message, maybe even before."
"Lets keep it simple for now. We just wait for the energy to start coming then, and rely on whatever is sending it to come in and get Tul'rok out of power?" Celestia understood, not sure of it herself.
"Aeternum will not tolerate Tul'rok being more violent, sees it as needless, always did. If we can get it to come on through and wrestle power back to itself, Tul'rok won't be an issue anymore." Varkan urged. He had known Aeternum's attitude enough from what time he had with it. Starswirl too agreed, as he said with it:
"Its derived from the Elements of Harmony. At worst, he'll indiscriminately destroy and create. Tul'rok's specifically targeting out of spite, not Aeternum's means. Besides, Aeternum's business seems to be to leave Earth for good after this, looking at the plan."
Unsure, Celestia knew Luna had suggested this plan as a backup, just like Varkan's apparent Wyvern startup Aeternum agreed to do in the unforeseeable future among the stars. With a nod, Celestia agreed:
"Its a good backup, in case all our own efforts fail. You can do it as soon as the gateway opens for the energy process when it begins?"
"Yes. I can even reexamine our drone captive, Socium, to get an idea of what sort of signature to give to those who send the message to the portal. A radio or beamed transmission of sorts." Starswirl thought.
"I'll get in contact with the New Gryphons, tell them to get their SETI program to send a message for once, not wait to receive one." Celestia knew who to call for that. But at that time, she then also added:
"Also, Varkan, there is something that I require your attention with. Recently, marines from Equestria and the New Gryphons entered the deeper tunnels of the abandoned Maldives island site. They have a live feed, and they found something that they think you, being there once, might help identify."
"You sent them down there, not knowing what is down there?" Varkan asked, his thoughts turning dark.
"What is down there?" Celestia urged.
"Get me on the comms with them now, before they go any further."
A few minutes later
Late Evening, local time
Maldives island site
Caldera basin
Night was falling over the dorment volcanic island, and the lights of the moored Equestrian, Pandina, Dingolian and Indo-Burmese naval ships both distant and near the shore glimmered in the dusk skies and sea water.
In the caldera, ponies, Gryphons and a handful of Dingolians and Pandas worked to regroup their efforts with the recent 'help' from someone with inside knowledge of this place.
The inactive volcano was littered with equipment the marines brought for their exploration, but they had only entered into the first tunnel down from the Caldera, a long yawning chasm many hundreds of feet deep, descending into utter blackness below.
Some flares had been dropped down, but they were only barely visible down wherever the bottom of the deep hole was. A 10 metre wide hole, bored straight down unnaturally amongst the volcanic rock walls.
It had been a shock, hearing that the traitor Wyvern Varkan had turned back, but his reasons why made the marines wary of where they were heading down into.
Their captain was on the comms directly to Canterlot's war room, where General Hardhooves had handed a live feed over to him:
"You sure this is that?"
"Yes, the main chasm. That's where the exhaust from the first spacecraft on take off went. Don't venture down there or else you will meet radioactive residue from the thermal rocket exhaust."
Looking back, as ordered by Varkan quickly, the climbing robes and cable equipment had been stopped before it even was begun to be lowered.
The Captain, a large Earth pony mare, remarked with bitter attentiveness: "So where is the way to go?"
"Where the reborn and I stayed. Southern end of the island, some tunnel networks. The takeoff of the first craft may have damaged it in places, so get ready to dig perhaps. But get in, and I can guide you."
Meanwhile
Midday, local time
Equestria, Canterlot
Royal Palace, War room
"With all due respect, none of us fully trust you."
"Deal with it, I can actually tell you where not to go and what things are. Now call back when you're in the tunnel, or if you can't find it."
Putting down the microphone, Varkan sat back in the seat, one of a few around a table, and watched the camera feed on a few of the joint marines going around.
Nearby, with a drowsy yawn, Luna mentally decided to see how this went before she made the choice to stay up, or take another power nap for daytime work.
Around them, with Celestia having left to settle the crowd of Trenchists outside, there was an unusual group watching the marines get ready to enter the island, and not all from the war room.
Around the war room, with Varkan and Luna, General Hardhooves and Prince Blueblood also watched, the latter two sometimes shooting Varkan suspicious looks from time to time.
Canterlot, Royal Palace
Dungeons
"Ya remember this place?" Applejack asked.
"Yes, sort of. Its a little, uh, blurr, fuzzy, something."
Socium whirred a little as it watched the projected image on the screen, the drone inside one of the prison cells for security. Inside, working on finding the Aeternum 'signature' or something similar if it had changed over the millenia on the portal's other side, Starswirl watched the progress of the marines ready to enter the island half avidly.
"So, this may be something like what we come across when we head for the island Twilight and Discord are at." Rainbow Dash thought, watching intently. When it came to stuff that mattered, she could pay attention very well.
"It doesn't look very friendly." Fluttershy remarked, looking at the desolate, but non-ash fogged landscape of the mile wide island and volcano.
"Its a hellhole, a quiet one though." Caarim muttered, as he got ready to probe Socium's mind again to help nail down the 'signature' they needed.
"Its quiet there at least, for now." Applejack remarked, though she saw the marines on the footage, even in the darker dusk light, were heavily armed with either technology or magic booster means.
This was the first site Aeternum grew, and that team they were watching was about to descend into its underworld.
All the while, the assets above and beyond the world grew ever closer, now within one day of beginning their thrust to go into a circular orbit.
Time was running short before they were almost in place.
Same Day, later
March 29th, 1008 ANM
Early Evening, Local Time
Sowta Prancap island site, West Africka
Southern mountains
The joint naval bombardment was incessant, as the outer mountains rumbled under the constant barrage of artillery shells, missiles, and magic enhanced projectiles. But the underground tunnels proved tough, only half as many so far as wanted having collapsed. But thankfully, the parts known to be where the prisoners and organics were, reborn helpers or not, was not part of the collapsed parts.
Yet unseen far above, having exited from the 2 unseen alien ships still in orbit, both of which stayed together for being allied with each other, a shape descended fast, but at speeds slow enough to remain undetected by sonic boom or by heat.
The pair of ships had already subtly dropped off a second crew member in the north western continent, to find the ones they needed to reveal themselves to.
Now they needed to send more to this key area, where conflict was predicted. Tul'rok may anticipate an attack from the organics, and in that moment, they would strike to gain what they needed to do to return.
The capsule unfolded into a winged shape, the surface shimmering as the utterly alien, small craft, descended down towards the island, unseen by all known scanners.
As the craft descended, the surfaces shimmer even more, and the craft vanished from sight, a slight ripple in the air as it passed through.
As the breath for one premature raid was held, unknown forces sent their asset into the thick of it, the more defended island to soon see another daring raid, while the navy softened it up for them beforehand.
And even more unknown forces still were unaccounted for by the world's species, Tul'rok, or even each other.
Sometimes though, as with enemies in the case of Tul'rok, help can also come from the most unexpected places.
Or for the matter of it, unexpected times as well.
The first of many events unfolding before the big operation of Tul'rok's begins, but already there are holes in his plan that could be viable means of overcoming him.
And then there's the wild cards of what came through uninvited, and how they came through. By definition, they found a way through, but on that side of the portal, they had plenty of time to find out how to do it.
I can promise more to do with Twilight, whom I've omitted a bit recently, further down the line, the moment the big plan kicks off.
As usual, please review/critique as one would. Detailed reviews welcome.
