Ruining Harmony 2: Pillars of Harmony

by Artaelian

Chapter Two: Broken Irvest

The port city of Port Equis hadn’t changed much to her eyes in the sixty years. The buildings looked like they always did, as if they had been painted but the salty sea air nearby had then decided soon after to cover them in salt water. It was an eternal battle between the city and the sea, though the port itself no longer used ramshackle wooden buildings, having changed to stone ones even as she and her friends had prepared to go back to Equestria all those years ago.
It was, Applejack decided, rather comforting. If indeed sixty years had passed, then the almost timeless Port Equis was welcome. She would even have a place to stay as she adjusted to the changes that had taken place elsewhere.

Her path took her past the central government office of the city, which had ended up as a tower some time before she had even heard of Irvest. The builders it seemed were never happy to just stop, the next layer had to be just a bit smaller than the one below, though eventually, they had got to the point where the next part of the building wouldn’t have even been big enough for rooms and stairs, and had given up. Before this white building, ponies of the city were staring at the hills nearby, making her wonder what it was they were looking at. She chose one at random, a unicorn with deep green fur, and a set of eyes that were both golden, though one was more to do with the bulb behind the glass than being natural, and steam came out in small puffs from the side of the device.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Yeah, uh, what’s everypony staring at?” Applejack asked.
“Oh that’s simple, the stronghold on the hill,” the unicorn mare pointed, “an hour ago there was a bell sound from it and the whole thing lit up orange like it is now.”
Applejack glanced at the stronghold, the grey stone building looked like a needle driven into the landscape, but there was indeed orange lights around the edges of it that pulsed. And there had been a reason that she hadn’t noticed it before, it was in the direction she had come from.
“Well shucks, that’s where I was an hour ago.” she commented.
There were gasps, and the crowd, which had paid her no attention took a step away from her all at once. That was unsettling, had she said something wrong? She looked to each face, getting more and more nervous at the stares.
“Well I’ll be,” came an old, frail voice from the steps of the government building, “seems I need to bring you up to speed.”
Applejack turned to this voice, and resisted having to take a step back, as she looked at the old man that Captain had become.

Captain had become the current governor of Port Equis in the sixty years she had been in the stronghold, the previous one she had known about, his name escaping her, had sadly died in his sleep of natural causes some time ago. Applejack felt sad for him, he had been a nice stallion, helped her and her friends who were strangers in Irvest.
Captain sat opposite her, maps of the world before her. While there were many countries, which she was assured had changed in the time, mostly due to Ulysses, she focused on Irvest and Equestria, the two that now shared the same problem of, well, Ulysses.
Irvest had a great canyon through it now, that simply hadn’t existed before, which split the southern half of the island from the northern half, the only thing that had survived the split was the mountain of the sages, which sat in the middle of it. Port Equis had been the only town or city on the island to escape any effect of the split.
It turns out Irvest owed the fact it hadn’t sunk beneath the sea to Discord and the Sages. They had quickly repurposed parts of six strongholds to hold back to time vortex which was unmapped. When she asked why this was, Captain explained the time vortex still moved, while it was contained, it just followed whatever purpose it had been created for.
The strongholds, she was then explained to, had once held her and her friends, in a star shape. Applejack’s was the only one of two in the south of the island, and there was another nearby.
She made a note to ask the locations of the others, to search for any hints of her friend’s fates, and looked to Equestria. It had changed even more than Irvest had, the seal where Ulysses was contained marked and seven bigger strongholds stood in a circle around it, with Discord’s castle being the eighth point.
Applejack wasn’t explained to as to why strongholds, but she did note the eight each had names, most of which she instantly recognised; Canterlot, Cloudsdale, Appleloosa and Ponyville. Once cities and towns, they had become part of the few surviving settlements and resisted the time vortexes and time corruption being unleashed by Ulysses even as she and Captain sat and spoke.
It was a lot to take in, and when Captain fell silent, she looked to the maps. This was a very different world she had woken up in, so different she barely recognised it. Was this what her and her friend’s failure had done? How bad would the world be had they failed to stop Nightmare Moon or Discord?
“There is some other things I should probably mention, details you weren’t told before and wouldn’t have known.” Captain cleared his throat.
“More? Ah don’t know, this is already a lot to take in.” Applejack muttered.
“I know, but there have been other threats to the world. Some ponies named Cadence and Shining Armor tried to get married, only for the Changelings and their Queen to cause problems. Sad that, they beat the Changelings off, but it tore the pair apart. And barely six months later, King Sombra reappeared in the north of Equestria. Well, nopony stood in his way as he marched down, Discord hasn’t stopped him yet because it gives a slight diversion now and then to Ulysses.”
Applejack had no clue what a changeling was, or who King Sombra was either, but Captain wasn’t done.
“Then Tirek broke free from Tartarus, he and Ulysses fought as Tirek sought a strong source of magic, and the raw power of time drew him like a moth to a candle. No one to this day is sure what happened, Tirek made it to the seal, went through and that was the last anypony saw, all we know is, Ulysses continued on as if Tirek hadn’t been a threat at all.”
“What kind of monster did me and my friends fail to stop.” Applejack sighed, hanging her head in shame.
“Oh I don’t think Ulysses could take on Tirek, only Alicorns can. Real alicorns, not jumped up children playing with things and forces beyond their understanding. Its likely Ulysses cheated and sent Tirek elsewhere in time to avoid the fight.”
Somehow, this didn’t make Applejack feel better. She gasped when the building shook, and hurrying to a window with Captain, she looked to the horizon. Beyond the sea, a black pillar of cloud rose.
“Applejack, Ulysses is looking into this time zone, he is aware of you. Be careful!” Discord’s voice filled the room, sounding strained as if he were fighting Ulysses.
“Captain, Ah need the locations of the other strongholds here in Irvest, Ah need to get any clues as to what happened with the others.”
Captain nodded, returning to the map, he rolled it up for her.
“The nearest is to the east of Port Equis, it was where Pinkie Pie recovered. The locations of the others are kept a secret from us all here, the sages will know where they are,” he pointed at the east, “once you have your clue, head to the center of the island, Goldwing should be able to tell you where to go from there.”

He seethed, and raged, watching the orange mare, the only one denied to him by that mismatch snake. How dare he be denied? She was beyond reach for the moment, and a bone hoof sat under the time vortex that was growing in Irvest. He would see where she went, and he would capture her.
He calmed down. Once, he had a plan. Use the Elements of Harmony to make himself the alicorn he should have been at birth, but those six just had to stop him using them. It mattered not, he would recover them, and keep those six from them this time. He looked at his body, it had long twisted and broken, it no longer resembled the unicorn he had once been, but a skeletal mockery of, well, it was rather impossible to say. Not even his head looked equine anymore. He watched as she headed to another stronghold, the time nails that blighted Irvest’s landscape. Where once the countryside had been a wonder, the strongholds now stood in contrast to it, and mocked it.
The only good thing had been the trapped time vortex he had placed to try and break through the barrier and into Irvest. While it had failed, he had tricked that big red centaur into going through it, in the promise of a fight for the raw power of time. The fool had fallen for it, saving him any effort, and now he sat there within it, he could feel, wandering and forever searching for freedom.
He grinned. It mattered not. One thing did.
“Applejack.” his other, now former hoof, reached towards her image, this hoof now looked like the claws of a dragon, but the designer had put three on the same arm.
“I will get you, Applejack, and you will sleep.”

Author's Note:

At the time I wrote the first Ruining Harmony, I barely did anything with Irvest. It was also around season two, and there were so many villains to come in the show.
This chapter is the start of me exploring Irvest more, while I wrote everything about it and never used it all in the first story, this one will detail the island and how it has changed. You also get to see how the other three villains play into the story now, so while its alternate universe, the events of the show still played out somehow, and will be a sub-theme explored as the story progresses.
Rather exciting yes? And the cliffhanger, I know this story has a Dark tag, but it should be a bit clearer now, or you may think anyway, at how that tag plays into things. There's no bad things, I'm not going to pull gore or horror stuff on you all suddenly.
I hope you'll come back for the next chapter. Until then, take care.