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// Chapter Five: Strike on the Sages 
// Story: Ruining Harmony 2: Pillars of Harmony 
// by Artaelian 
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Applejack and Diamond Core arrived back to the Glittering Vale city, to find it in much the same state as when they had left. It made Applejack cringe as she saw ponies of all kinds being pulled from the rubble of buildings, and beside her, Diamond Core sat on the ground.
‘She’s going through how Ah felt when Ah saw Ponyville all them years ago.’ Applejack thought, seeing the devastated look on Diamond Core’s face.
“My home, he’s all but broken the city.” Diamond Core muttered, looking to be on the verge of tears. Applejack put a hoof on her shoulder and said nothing. This made Diamond Core look at her, but any tears that were threatening to burst and flow ceased. It was clear, without words, that Applejack was telling her to be strong for those who needed her to be in that moment, there would be time to vent the frustration, anger and sorrow later.
Diamond stood up and slowly set about moving rubble of a nearby building. True to the namesake of the Glittering Valley, even the rubble shone from the number of gems within the marble.
Not wanting to stand around and look useless, Applejack set about helping Diamond. Ten minutes in and they found an old mare, her legs grazed and bleeding, but no serious and lasting injuries. There was word that not so many were being found in such situations, but  what surprised Applejack was one fact. There were no fatalities as yet. Despite the earth splitting power of the black pillar, no pony had died, and she was thankful for such a small mercy.
But with the power he had, why had Ulysses held back? Applejack cast her gaze to the Mountain of the Sages. Irvest was a large island, a trip from Port Equis to Edingcolt in the north could take eight hours by vehicle on road, and in effect was four separate countries united as one by the four Sages. The mountain therefore had been the logical seat of power, visible from every part of the island, and the temple, as the Sages had once been religious rulers from each of the united countries rather than what they presently were, stood at the top on a plateau that had been made from the top
This temple had crumbled, she now noticed, and a weak, golden beam shone from the only tower that still stood in defiance of the black pillar that was still attempting to strike Irvest to no current avail.

The barrier that held Ulysses out, when she had last walked the island, had always been maintained by four giant magic filled spheres atop the towers. The sages never told anypony how they worked, and they never left Irvest, they didn’t want to risk Ulysses capturing someone and learning how the barrier worked. She had seen it stand for six years to great effect, and she figured it must have stood for years before she had come here with her friends. But in the sixty years she had been in the stronghold, the barrier had been dropped. Clearly Ulysses had taken advantage of it, and it had been hastily restored before he could destroy Irvest and make it nothing more than rocks just below the sea. But to see only one tower and one sphere working bode ill. And that was when Applejack came to a conclusion that she had no doubt some in Irvest had worked out by now, and by sunset, everypony on the island would know.
The black pillar had been focused on the Sages, a strike to try and stop them preventing Ulysses’ plan of destroying the island. The rubble that was the Glittering Vale stood testimony to his plan, he had clearly assumed all the Sages were dead and had moved to the second part of the plan, but he had failed.
“Discord, Ah don’t know if you can hear me, Ah need to know where to go next.” she said.
There was a snap of someone snapping talons together, and there was Discord. Or his head at least.
“So sorry, Applejack. This is a recording. I’m having a bit of a tough time in Equestria. This automated message is to tell you, from,” there was a pause and the tone changed to a more electrical sounding voice, “The Glittering Vale,” another brief pause and Discord was speaking again, “that you need to head north to,” pause, “Edingcolt,” pause, “travelling on foot would not be advised, if at all possible, take one of their delightful vehicles, the faster the better. I will reply to you when I can.”
And a beep preceded the disappearance of Discord’s head. Applejack sighed as she headed to find Diamond Core again, and wondering what Discord was doing.

Discord was busy, and sweating. He rarely felt fear, he could count on one paw how often he felt it. This was the third such time. Equestria was in a bad situation, the black pillar striking at the Bloodpact Stronghold, regardless of his solutions to stop it, and to add to it, it arched off its attack and headed to Irvest. He felt the Bloodpact Stronghold weaken, as the Sages were taken by surprise.
And Sombra had just launched his most aggressive attack yet on the Crystal Empire and the Stronghold there.
“I’ve never been one to fear, not really. Well, twice before,” he sighed, “but it looks like I’ll need a miracle right now to turn this situation around.”
He glanced towards the seal, watching as cracks began to form in it. Ulysses was just seconds from breaking free. And there was a light.
Discord rubbed his eyes, the light was different to the maelstrom of conflicting magic, but it was there. There was somepony insane enough to get close to the seal! He watched as the light left the ground and flew into the forming cracks, and a scream echoed across the land.
The black pillar ceased, and the cracks that had been just seconds from uniting and freeing Ulysses healed up. Discord’s jaw dropped. What had he just witnessed was what he needed. He thought for a moment of who could dare to get that close, and grinned.
“Oh so that’s where you went. Well, I won’t approach you, Ulysses will blame me for that, and if you’ve found something I can use later,” Discord grinned, “just watch yourself. Now, back to Applejack.”
Discord waved his hand and watched what Applejack was doing. There would be a dull moment soon with her he hoped, then he could go mess around with Sombra for a bit of rest and relaxation after that bothersome moment.

Diamond Core was too busy helping her city recover to be able to help Applejack, but the mare had at least pointed her in the right direction. Just south was one of the airfields in Irvest, which would have been fine, or hoped to be fine at least. It took Applejack an hour of walking, taking in the countryside views of Irvest, a sight she hadn’t seen for a long time. There were more villages now she noticed, all small places, but each had an Equestria feel to them as she passed them by, the steam released by their vehicles and powered devices were at least hidden and not on show as the rest of the object in question was made around it.
The airfield had suffered slightly, she found on arrival. Nothing major, but there were broken windows, and fortunately for her, most of the aircraft had been outside at the time, so the only roof section that had collapsed had done so on to the ground. But what amazed her was how the pilots were all too willing to fly her to Edingcolt.
“Are ya kidding? Your a heroine, stood up to Ulysses. I mean sure that didn’t end too well, but it slowed him down at least.”
“I’ll take ya to Edingcolt faster than any of these others, or I ain’t Lighting Strike.”
And those were just the polite ones she decided to recall. In the end, she had decided on having Lighting Strike fly her there. She had decided him because his aircraft was small and had weapons, if Ulysses tried to attack again, then at least they wouldn’t be defenceless.
“Alright,” Lighting Strike, a pegasus, fired up the engine, “can I ask what you need to go to Edingcolt for?” he asked.
“Ah’m trying to find the places my friends were.” she replied.
“Oh I see, that makes sense you’d want to see where they were buried. Or stored. I don’t know the right term. But hey, going to see where the famous Rainbow Dash was taken to sixty years ago, she was your best friend right?” he asked, smiling.
Applejack just nodded. It wasn’t easy to know she was still alone, when Ulysses had her friends, and less so when she recalled what he had even tried to do to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
The aircraft set off, and in minutes, the ground was far below.