“So you have seen now, Applejack, how Irvest and we Sages have failed the world. Twilight Sparkle was the first to return and she was stolen from under our muzzles.” Goldwing looked dejected, unable to look Applejack in the eye. Applejack was unable to respond for a moment, but she placed a hoof on Goldwing’s shoulder.
“Ya didn’t fail anypony. How could you have known what was gonna happen?”
“But we should have, we should have never let our guard or the barrier down. If we hadn’t, there would be six of you facing off against Ulysses.” Goldwing sighed.
“Yeah ‘cus that worked so well sixty years ago.” Applejack couldn’t help but be sharp with that comment.
“Come now, Applejack, surely you don’t believe that.”
Applejack took a deep breath and let it go slowly.
“We faced him in the throne room he made, and that battle went well. But he was just faster when we tried to get the elements back, that was our downfall.”
“So don’t depend on them,” Goldwing looked sideways at Applejack, “if that’s what caused you to fail last time, then don’t depend on them. Discord’s plan depends far too much upon them, but there must be another way.”
Applejack again remained silent. Discord hadn’t mentioned what he had done with the Elements of Harmony once he had escaped again and set about trying to be better than Ulysses, and while she had listened and worked with him so far, she had no doubt this was to prove a point, that he, the very god of chaos, could best anything that he wished. She was sure once Ulysses was gone, it would be Discord himself that would become a problem for the world once more.
“You must go, Applejack. Discord will know soon that you are done here, and he will take you to Equestria.” Goldwing smiled. Applejack nodded.
“Thank you, for everything, Goldwing.” she said, lingering for a moment before she turned and left. Goldwing looked up, as if she expected to see Discord and speak with him, but she looked at the ceiling, for several minutes she waited, but when it was clear Discord had no intention of turning up, she sighed, and left, setting about the task of rebuilding Irvest’s ruling power.
Applejack strode back out among the ruins of the Sages temple, to the midday sun. She sighed, the hows and why of them being in the Irvest strongholds made sense, but there was still little answers as to why Ulysses had taken her friends. There was a reason, he had never acted without a purpose, from taunting Rainbow Dash to trying to show himself as being superior to Twilight, Ulysses had an ego and he was the type who liked to inflate it himself because no one else would.
Discord popped into existence before, and without speaking, he grabbed Applejack and popped back out. She stumbled in the throne room he had set up in Equestria.
“Whut in tarnation?” she muttered as she shook her head.
“Something’s gone wrong, Applejack,” Discord pointed at a map which showed the locations of the strongholds he had set up in Equestria, each was a point in a circle around where Ulysses was trapped, “just minutes ago, all strongholds ceased communication and all I heard was screams. I don’t know what’s going on anywhere.”
Applejack looked at Discord, and his face filled with fear troubled her. What was he not telling her that would make him, an immortal feel fear? He rightly feared the Elements of Harmony, but he was using them.
“Discord, what are you hiding from me?”
Discord blinked once, then twice, and deflated. He pointed at the map.
“Seven strongholds exist around Ulysses. Much like the ones in Irvest, they were set that way for a purpose. In Irvest, the recovery the rest of you went through was also directed at Twilight, since despite looks, she suffered the worst and without your friendship, she would have died regardless. In Equestria, they hold back the destruction of time itself at bay, using the very things Ulysses tried to take and caused the rip in time.”
“The Elements of Harmony.” Applejack muttered.
“Correct,” Discord nodded, “in six, they are set up and use the natural magic within them to hold back the threat to Harmony itself, while the other two have different purposes, the most crucial is the Bloodpact Stronghold. Without it, the Elements would be unable to focus on Ulysses.”
“Alright then, you can send me there right? Ah’ll go sort it out.”
Discord went to say something, but stopped.
“I trust you, Applejack. You may not do the same, but we need each other right now, or the world will end.”
He held his talon out and snapped his claws. Around Applejack, the world distorted.
When the world returned to normal, she found herself in a courtyard. For a moment, she wondered if Discord had returned her to Irvest, as the buildings were white marble and didn’t look much out of place to Port Equis. There were even steam powered carriages, planes, ponies who had lost limbs had steam powered replacements, but beyond the city itself were the familiar fields of Equestria, there was even the mountain with Canterlot upon it.
Though Canterlot had clearly changed, in her time, the tallest spire was known to be where the princesses slept. It was now dwarfed by another white spire, though there was a black cloud surrounding it.
Turning back, she saw the Bloodpact Stronghold stood in the middle of this strange city, it too was white marble, with gold embedded on the surface in Irvestian style. At the peak was another black cloud, and she gulped.
“Discord, can ya hear me? Are the strongholds supposed ta have black clouds at their peaks?”
“No, Applejack,” Discord replied, his voice was faint however, “but something is interfering with my magic, that must be the cause. Get to the top and find out. And be safe.”
Applejack took a long breath, and set out to the stronghold.
When she finally navigated her way to the base of the Bloodpact Stronghold, there was a frenzy of ponies running and flying about, carrying the elderly or anything of value away. Among it all was an elderly orange pegasi with turquoise mane. Applejack’s heart skipped at the sight of the signature goggles, with toggle on the side. She hurried over to him.
“Now is everything out of the top six floors? That monster is going to bring the stronghold and the bloodpact pillar if we can’t figure out a way to stop it.” he questioned some young stallions before him.
“Yes sir, but how can we fight it? To do so would be to destroy everything.” one stallion replied. The pegasi looked up at the top of the tower.
“I don’t know how he got corrupted by the time corruption, but if we don’t act, that will be just as bad. I will have to go up there and try to fight him.”
“Is that really you, Blaze?” Applejack asked as she got closer. This made the pegasi blink and look in her direction. He stared as if he had seen a ghost.
“Applejack? Is that really you?” Sunshine Blaze asked right back.
“Yer darn tooting it is. Woken up and raring to kick the flank of Ulysses fer trying ta kill me.”
Sunshine Blaze chuckled, pushing the goggles over his eyes. He toggled the switch on the side and seemed to be content with what he saw, as he pushed them back up.
“It really isn’t safe here though. Ulysses has really got us this time. I give it about an hour before the monster at the top brings the stronghold down. With the Bloodpact Pillar gone, it won’t take too long for him to get out of the seal and end the world.”
Applejack looked up, then looked back at Sunshine Blaze.
“Ah think we have some time fer me to be told what this here pillar does.”
Sunshine Blaze sat in the lobby of the Bloodpact Stronghold. Before him was a map of every floor, with floor number. Applejack could see that the stronghold consisted of around forty floors, the pillar being at the very top of the tower and exposed to the air.
“When Ulysses and Discord met,” Blaze began, “they struggled for control of the elements, and you six. Discord was close to failure when he got you six set up in Irvest to recover, but things changed, as I met him. I explained to him that it was my fault you had all been defeated, and I hadn’t really understood what I had asked. He didn’t blame me, but he told me there was a way I could help. Since I am related to Ulysses, he could use my blood link to my brother to finally pin him in place. And so important it was that Discord even ensured that there would be living relatives should I pass during all this time.”
Sunshine Blaze nodded at the stallions that she had seen him talking to earlier.
“Those three are my eldest, Steam Cloud, Summer Drizzle and Night Whisper. I have a daughter or two too.”
“You’ve been busy.” Applejack nodded.
“Had to be. Discord made it clear how vital it was to keep the bloodline going if it was required. Five foals, five extra chances should things go wrong now and again. But looks like it was all for nothing.”
Sunshine Blaze pointed at the part of the map showing the pillar.
“Every day I have to be at the pillar to give some of my life to it. Its barbaric, but its the only way. And now, I can’t get to it, none of us can. That thing up there could break it once the last bit of life energy is gone, and everything we’ve worked for will be torn down.”
“Wait, you have ta give yer life for this?”
Sunshine Blaze nodded.
“Pegasi age normally, but we typically live around to one hundred and twenty. When we last met, I was barely twenty-two years old. And with this stronghold to maintain, I may be eighty-two, but I have age significantly more, I have the body of a pegasi that is one hundred and eighteen.”
Applejack gasped. Was this happening to all the strongholds? Were ponies dying to help Discord keep Ulysses at bay for another day? She felt angry and disgusted by this revelation, the look was clearly reflected in her face as Blaze held a hoof up.
“It is just this stronghold, and Discord made it clear what the cost would be before I agreed to it. But if we could just use the pillars against him, just once,” Blaze shivered, “Ulysses is keeping the barrier up now just as much for his own safety as it is for our own. We’ve had the ability to close the time rip for a few decades now, but just as we did, that was when the sages informed us that Twilight Sparkle was stolen. To take that shot now would be to kill her and the others in the barrier.”
“So that’s why.” Applejack muttered. It didn’t help that Dash had flown into it of her own volition, worsening the situation.
“I don’t know what we can do though, unless I’m at the top for that shot, and the others aren’t in the seal, we’re helpless.”
Applejack stood up, a look of determination in her eyes.
“Show me the way up. Ah’m going to fix this.”