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// Chapter One: Wake Up, Applejack 
// Story: Ruining Harmony 2: Pillars of Harmony 
// by Artaelian 
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“Wake up, Applejack.”
The voice pierced a haze around her mind. She wasn’t sure who she was, what the voice was, was that even her name? And for that matter, why did she refer to herself as she? What was its opposite?
“Wake up, Applejack.” the voice was a bit louder now, as if it were closer.
Wake up? What did that mean? Wasn’t she? What was its opposite?
“Wake up, Applejack, Equestria awaits!”

She opened her eyes to a haze. Her green eyes blinked the mist away and saw a soft orange and yellow room. She was upon a table like thing, which seemed to be a hastily improvised bed, but there were warm patches at her sides. Once the mist blurring the room was gone, she looked a bit more immediately around her, and found there were more patches of warmth on her body, in addition to the ones underneath her. They were attached to cables and wires which reached out to machines, at which a strange tall creature stood, it had the legs of a lizard and goat, arms of a lion and eagle, a long snake like in its curvature and flexibility for a body, a head of a pony and horns of a deer and goat.
It did look rather odd and unnatural, but she found herself frozen in place, as if something wasn’t quite right. The creature turned to glance at her, and smiled.
“Oh good, you’re awake, I was getting a bit worried.” it spoke in a male voice. Again she found herself questioning how she knew what a male was, and her confusion seemed to show on her face as the creature picked up on it.
“Don’t worry, it’s natural after what we had to do to save you that you would be wondering what anything is,” he said, approaching slowly, enough to move the cables and wires from her, “I am able to tell you what happened and why you are here, but first, a drink.”
He snapped his fingers and a glass of chocolate milk appeared in its hand, which he put before her. Cautiously, she drank it down, and felt the cool liquid fill her.
“Right, before anything else, try speaking, it has been quite some time since you last got to say anything to anypony.”
“Who,” she coughed, her voice was scratchy sounding, even despite the drink, “who are you?” she asked.
The creature helped her up, again offering her a drink which she took, finding this time it was a different liquid. He smiled, and slowly led her to some stairs.
“I’m Discord, and I’ve been keeping watch over you, keeping you safe for some time. It is a long story.”

In the room at the top of the stairs, she noticed that there appeared to be a farm and small village set up within the room. How this was possible, she chose not to question, after all Discord had made water and other drinks out of the air, so a whole village within the confines of a room would be nothing to him, right?
She hoped that logic would stand on its own without her needing to keep it up in her mind. Discord meanwhile was looking at her, rather intently, though saying nothing. What was his plan? As she began to wander, with Discord ever watchful, she saw statues of ponies of all shapes and colors, each seemed to be doing their own thing. In the air were statues of ponies with wings, while ones with horns mingled among ones that looked, well, normal.
“Ah don’t understand.” she stated. Discord only sighed.
“Is nothing familiar?”
Applejack looked around again. Now he questioned her, there was something about the village. Mainly the farm. Of all the things to include, why the farm? What purpose was there for a farm, which had real crops and trees being fed by water, when the residents of the village were statues which would never eat the stuff grown. And for that matter, why were such terms and ideas in her head, what was a farm?
She thought for a moment, a farm was where ponies worked to grow food. How she knew that she wasn’t sure but to her mind, even in its current state, it was as if she just knew, deep in the core of her being, what a farm was for. There was a moment of understanding, something had happened to her, and she had no memories, but there was someone who knew why and he was watching. She looked to Discord, confusion etched into her glance.
“Ah want answers, you promised.”
“Of course, in these times, betraying ponies would not do.” Discord replied.

The top floor held another machine, which had a seat in it and more wires, but crucially, a helmet. She looked to it, and to Discord, who stood looking at it, silently. He pointed to it, and his calm face showed concern.
“This machine will restore your memories. Sixty years ago, thanks to myself and the technology of this country, we were able to catch you and your memories. But, no matter how you feel of me once they are returned to you, please, remain calm. I have been protecting you from harm all these years, so please,” Discord actually lowered himself to look at her, “please don’t be angry or upset at my presence.”
She was confused by this, but slowly nodded. Turning to the machine, she walked to it and sat on the chair, shivering as Discord placed the wires on her head, followed by the helmet.
“The buzzing will be normal by the way, it's just the machine using the power supply.” Discord said.
Sure enough, there was a click and an instant buzzing sound. The helmet flickered and a display appeared. For a moment she was confused, seeing the scenes before her. There were two ponies, which appeared as colored blobs, followed by a green one, then a red. A flicker, things were more defined now, and she was looking at the ponies who had been blobs before, but this time, there was a small yellow pony held by one of them. A flicker, and she saw a field of apple trees, the green mare and red colt from before beside her, they were all upset. A flicker, she was in a place with building taller than the trees, and she felt sick, but there was a rainbow that had exploded in the sky.
A flicker, this time she was racing a blue pony who had wings and a rainbow mane. A flicker, she was in the home of a purple pony with a horn, and a white one also with a horn, there was a tree in the window. Flick. Discord was there, but he seemed, well, bad, as if she hated him. Flick. Now she was seeing another pony, a blue stallion this time with a horn and black material on his body, he was disfiguring, and she screamed physically as bones that couldn’t, shouldn’t exist tore out of him.
And it ended. Discord removed the helmet and wires, and left more water near her, which she drank.

After ten minutes of silence, she looked up at him.
“I see you recall events before the moment.” Discord replied.
“Ah promised not ta get angry or nothin’,” she spat out, “but git talkin’, how’d ya get free again?”
Discord sighed, and pointed at her.
“Your last memory, the last one you saw. I could watch them while waiting for you to wake up, I saw what you saw.”
“Ulysses.” Applejack muttered.
“Sixty years ago, you and your friends risked your lives to reclaim the Elements of Harmony and free the world from him. You failed. Before you could do anything, he fatally struck you all down, and in his imbalance with time magic, he begun to destroy the world.”
Applejack remained patient, mostly now out of shock rather than anger at Discord. They had died? But she was still alive.
“But in the moment, when the normal harmony of the world is chaos, it awoke me, and well, changed me. I am Discord, spirit of disharmony and chaos. In a world where chaos is harmony, harmony becomes the new chaos. I used what little remained of my true powers of chaos to manipulate the time distortion, I rescued you six, stole back the elements and arranged for you to be brought to these strongholds to revive you.”
Discord held his arms out, and Applejack marveled. This was how she was still alive, to bring somepony back from the edge of death must have taken a lot of power, and a machine bigger than she had expected, but she was proof it worked. Discord however wasn’t done speaking.
“But the world has changed in sixty years, Applejack. Even I couldn’t defeat Ulysses, I could only contain him. As I fought, seven souls came to my side, and with them, we sealed him away.”
“Well that’s alright then, ain’t it? He’s sealed, ah’m alive, and the others are too right?” she smiled.
“If only things were that simple. The seal could only contain him in one spot, and it’s failing,” Discord snapped his fingers, and the room they were in changed to a castle balcony, looking out towards the land. Applejack adjusted for a moment and recognised the landscape as being Equestria, but something was wrong, in the distance was a huge sphere of glowing colors, and seven flickering lights, “there is the seal. But its failure is just the tip of the iceberg of problems. The reason I looked after you the most, Ulysses can still reach and interact with the world from within the barrier. He has taken your friends. I do not know if they are alive or dead, just they are now inside the barrier, and whatever state they are in, he is using them to push back. If he had you, the world would be dead now.”
Another snap of the fingers, and they were back in the room with the memory machine.
“Alright, so things are bad, so why wake me?”
“I need you to help. I know I have no right to ask of this considering the last time we met, I turned you against your element and friends, but I cannot do this alone. The sages of Irvest, and the seven souls maintaining the pillars need you. I need you to save Irvest, and show the seven souls that there is still hope yet of defeating Ulysses once and for all. Can you help me, please?” Discord got on his knees.
Applejack blinked. She certainly hadn’t expected him to do that.
“So the alternative is to do nothing and we all die?”
“Not right away thankfully, if you say no, I could find another way to keep him sealed, but it would be like trying to stop a burst dam with tape.”
She sighed, looking around the room for a moment as she thought.
“There’s no way Ah’m letting him get free and do as he pleases, ah’ve a score to settle, one sixty years in the making!”
“That’s the spirit! There isn’t a rush just yet, get your bearings in Irvest and seek out the other strongholds your friends were in. While of course they aren’t there now, Ulysses did something to the sages of this country, without them, one of the seven strongholds will fail.”
Discord opened a doorway to the outside. Slowly, and blinking in the midday sun, Applejack walked outside.
The place she had been in was like a stronghold in itself, though tower shaped. It pulsed a faint orange as she looked to it, before turning her attention to the area around it. Nearby, about ten minutes walk away was the city of Port Equis. The tall white conical tower had black marks in it, and damage, and the city seemed to be in a state where the damage had been left. She couldn’t see much change however, and so she turned to Discord.
He was gone, he had left at some point without saying a word, which made her sigh. With nothing else to do, she began the walk into Port Equis.