Ruining Harmony

by Artaelian

Irvest Saga part one

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, who were carrying Spike, Applejack and Rarity, had begun to fly side by side since leaving Ponyville, which was now a large distance behind them. Just ahead of them, still leading a quick pace was Sunshine Blaze, carrying Pinkie Pie. Around them, the sky begun to change into a crimson red, as the sun, which had still been rising in the morning sky, and the moon, which had long since set, begun to draw to the middle of the sky.

Below, as they flew over various little towns, the worried and panicked screams of Ponies echoed through the air. Rainbow Dash looked down at one point, and saw the ponies of one town staring in horror as the sun and moon both rose to the same point of the sky.

“What’s going on?” Rainbow shouted over the wind to Sunshine Blaze.

Rarity gasped softly. “That’s what it was like that in my portal! Something dreadful about the princesses…” she trailed off.

“I don’t have an answer for this, he hasn’t done this sort of thing before, not even close.” Sunshine Blaze shouted back.

Looking ahead, Rainbow Dash saw that they were now fast approaching the ocean. On a beach, a small group of ponies stood around a ship. While from this distance, she could only notice the ponies were looking up at the sky, she could see the ship. Rather than the standard wood boats usually found in Equestria, this boat was purely metal, plates showed signs of being bolted to more metal underneath. It was painted white, which had chipped more towards the bottom, and the metal had a green tint where there was no paint.

In the middle and back of the ship stood two, very tall metal pipes, which gently released black smoggy clouds that floated away into the darkening sky. From this distance, the faint chugging sound the ship made could be heard.

And it was here that Sunshine Blaze begun his descent, eventually placing Pinkie Pie on the ground. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy followed suit, and they stood behind Sunshine Blaze, as the ponies now looked at them.

The group of ponies mostly looked the same, dark colour coats of blue and orange, each had cutie marks with a seafaring theme, but most had distinct differences. One blue earth pony seemed to have his front left foreleg encased in metal, with pulsing green lights running along certain edges. Another, an orange pegasus, had one normal wing, but his right also was similarly encased in metal.

One of the blue earth ponies stood forward. He stood much taller than the rest and wore a black hat with a white feather in it, the front half of him had a black coat on, with black straps fastened up with silver buttons. A metal plate covered the left side of his head, and an unnatural eye sat where his real eye should have been. His right front foreleg was also encased in metal, and the two small pipes vented out steam even as he stood still. The blue glow of his eye flashed over Rainbow Dash, then Applejack, Spike, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie in turn, as they all stood still, being held in place by both fear and wonder.

“Ye said ye’d be bringing six lasses. I count five an’ a wyrmling.” Captain said, his blue metal eye turning alone to look at Sunshine Blaze.

“Why does it matter if one hasn’t got here yet? You and the crew won’t be doing anything unsavoury with them like you normally do on port calls.” Sunshine Blaze snipped.

“If things weren’t lookin’ bad, I’d slap ya for that. But still, where’s the last lass eh?” Captain questioned.

A sudden white flash and sickly moan with the smell of charred hair indicated the arrival of Twilight Sparkle. Sunshine Blaze looked at her for a moment, before returning his focus to the Captain.

“Six. Get on the ship, we don’t have time to waste.” Sunshine Blaze shouted.

The crew sprung into life, the unicorns lifting up a gang plank, hooking one end onto the ship. The crew begun to walk up as fast as possible, with the unicorns setting up a different gang plank, which the captain walked up. As Sunshine Blaze begun to walk to a gang plank, Twilight ran in front of him and blocked his path.

“What is going on?” she asked, her voice low and angry.

“Do you REALLY want to waste time right now learning the answer, or would you rather be some distance away and safe first?” Sunshine Blaze asked back, taking flight, where he was stopped by Rainbow Dash.

“Will you answer the question?” she shouted.

“I will once you are all on the boat. Unless you six really do want to die today.” Sunshine Blaze replied.

Rainbow Dash looked down at Twilight and waited for a reply from her as to what they should do. Twilight only sighed, and begun walking up a gang plank, the others following behind. From here, Rainbow Dash saw that, rather than walk on the metal, wood planks had been attached over the deck. She followed with her friends and sat in the middle of the deck, while around them, the crew followed the Captain’s yelled orders.

The ship shuddered, and begun to move.

The shore slowly crept away.

“Um, Twilight, how long do you think we’ll be gone for?” Fluttershy asked, breaking the silence among the friends.

“I don’t know Fluttershy. I guess however long it takes to form a plan to defeat Ulysses.” Twilight replied, looking at the sky as the sun and moon finally came to a stop, side by side in the middle of the sky.

“That’s exactly where they stopped in my portal,” Rarity said.

“You don’t think Ulysses had some degree of control over what we encountered in the ‘futures’ he showed, do you?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking around the group.

“It’s possible. We left Ponyville burning as a result of his attacks, similar to what was in yours Rainbow, and the sun and moon are side by side, like Rarity just said, they were like that with her. So, Ulysses very well may have had more influence than what I noticed.” Twilight replied.

The six fell silent again, as around them the crew shouted at each other, maintaining the ship, and a slight hum was all that could be heard of whatever powered the ship. As Twilight watched, Equestria was getting further and further away.

“Captain! I think you should look at this.” one of the crew shouted.

Twilight looked at this crew member, and noticed he was looking at a different part of Equestria. Following where his line of sight went, her eyes came across Cloudsdale. A dark blue half sphere floated above it, the rest seemingly being covered by the sky. Twilight spared a moment to look at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, who had both been born at Cloudsdale, and they too watched.

‘Return with my Element of Loyalty, or Equestria shall suffer other tragedies like this.’ Ulysses’ voice filled the air. He sounded cruel, and his voice was almost a whisper.

Twilight returned her attention to Cloudsdale, and her jaw dropped. From the half of the sphere that was visible, dark wind funnels reached down, and slowly begun to pull the city up, while others appeared to form a wall to prevent evacuation. Thinking fast, Applejack bit down on Rainbow’s tail, from there Twilight, along with Rarity and Pinkie Pie instinctively jumped at Rainbow Dash, managing to catch her before she could fly off and help Cloudsdale.

They kept watching as they held Rainbow against the deck, her voice frantic as she protested being held against her will. Cloudsdale was now rapidly approaching the visible half of the sphere.

“I don’t understand, why are none of the pegasi flying away?” Twilight asked, her eyes landing on Fluttershy, who was laying against the deck, her forehooves over her eyes as she cried uncontrollably.

‘How lucky the pegasus are… wings to fly in the sky… and oh! Oh! How I LIVE to pull their feathers, one… by… one. See them try to fly! Their wings useless as they meet their fate… come now, Rainbow Dash… you can stop this. Give me the Element of Loyalty and accept your demise!’ Ulysses’ voice filled the air. This time he seemed mocking and needlessly cruel. And as he spoke the final word, Cloudsdale reached the sphere, and begun to disappear into it. In less than five seconds, Cloudsdale was pulled within the sphere, lost to the world.

Twilight, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie let Rainbow Dash go, and Twilight saw that her friend had been reduced to a sobbing wreck. Unlike Fluttershy, who Twilight knew had covered her eyes so as not to watch, Rainbow Dash had watched the event, right up to Cloudsdale disappearing into the sphere.

As they let go of Rainbow Dash, Twilight could hear her speaking quietly to herself.

“The weather factory… the clouduseum… the wonderbolts… he just…” Rainbow muttered, clearly still trying to understand fully what she had just witnessed.

Twilight slowly begun to think of the gravity of the situation. Ulysses had harmed many in Ponyville to get to them, and now had removed Cloudsdale out of the sky, to where only he knew, possibly killing untold thousands with the act, all to just try and get at Rainbow Dash and take the Element of Loyalty, which still hung around her neck. Thoughts flooded her head as she sat there. How many more would Ulysses kill or harm, to taunt them into coming back? Why had the Elements, supposedly locked safely in Canterlot, turned up out of nowhere to them? Where were the Princesses? Had Ulysses done something to them to gain control of the sun and moon?

The sound of hooves on wood made Twilight look to her right, seeing Sunshine Blaze slowly approaching her and her friends.

“I feel it is time we talked.” he said.

“Oh, now? NOW YOU WANT TO TALK?” Rainbow Dash’s mood suddenly flipped. She shot to her hooves and was now pressing her nose against Sunshine Blaze.

“Calm down blue, you may be angry and upset, but still, Sunshine Blaze seems to have some idea as to what is going on. So let’s listen to him.” Twilight said at Rainbow Dash, glaring.

The six friends and Spike formed a half circle before Sunshine Blaze, and waited for him to speak. Around the deck, the crew and captain had also stopped. Sunshine Blaze coughed, clearing his throat, and prepared to speak.

“If you were hoping for answers as to why Ulysses sought the Elements of Harmony, or how he even learned of them, then this won’t answer your questions. But for whatever reason, he came for them. A direct result would suggest in his efforts, the princesses of Equestria are gone, most likely not dead, Ulysses isn’t that powerful,” Sunshine Blaze looked up at the sun and moon, “but to leave you six in Equestria, unprepared for the true horrors of Ulysses’ powers, that isn’t going to happen. Far away, about a week by ship, is the land where he was born. He can never return there, sages having long put up a spell to prevent his return. You may have heard of this place, it’s called Irvest.” Sunshine Blaze spoke with confidence, despite the lack of answers to unspoken questions.

“I know of Irvest. They and Equestria don’t get along.” Twilight stated.

“Exactly. Equestria prides itself on advancements while still living with nature, while we from Irvest hold pride in machines. As such, the land I am taking you to will be safe, but alien to you six. Where once light in the night was provided by candles, lights in Irvest is a metal wire heated to high temperatures. But I will be there to help you get used to it, we will be there some time.” Sunshine Blaze replied, smiling.

“But why can’t we just form a plan here and sail back? I want to pound that guy for what he did to Cloudsdale!” Rainbow Dash raised on her back hooves and kicked at the air with her forehooves.

“That’s probably his plan. He’s good at changing plans fast, as you may have noticed. He’ll expect an immediate return to face him. No. You six will come to Irvest, become stronger for the day we come back. He won’t expect it if we return at random.” Sunshine Blaze narrowed his eyes, looking very unimpressed at Rainbow Dash.

“Ah can’t be away too long, what about the farm? And Big Macintosh? Granny Smith? Even little Applebloom.” Applejack said sadly.

“And I can’t leave Sweetie Belle alone.” Rarity threw in.

“I’m sorry, but going back for your relatives is also out of the question. If Ulysses has moved fast, he’ll have realised who they are in relation to you, and will probably use them against you two. Below deck is a room ready for you six to stay in. Go make yourselves comfortable, we’ll be at sea for a week.” Sunshine Blaze was not being swayed, and walked away from them, no longer willing to let them gripe about things they could not leave behind for long.

Twilight watched as Sunshine Blaze walked to the Captain’s side, and the pair begun to talk. At one point, Sunshine Blaze lowered his goggles and flipped the toggle switch once, relaying whatever he saw to the Captain.

“Can you believe him? Cloudsdale disappears by some spell, possibly killing thousands, and we can’t turn back for that. Applejack and Rarity are leaving family behind, and he doesn’t care. It’s like he doesn’t know how hard this is for all of us.” Rainbow Dash grumbled.

“Ah young lass, if only ye knew the truth. None of ye can understand what youn’ Blaze has been through.” one of the nearby crew said, as he walked past.

“I think,” Twilight stood up, “we should give him the benefit of a doubt for now girls. Unlike Ulysses, Sunshine Blaze has only tried to help, not harm. I’m sure with time, he’ll reveal his reasons. Come on, we’d better find this room.” she finished, waiting a few seconds for Spike to climb on her back and sit.

At the wheel, Captain and Sunshine Blaze watched the six friends walk below deck.

“When are ya planning to tell them more about you and Ulysses?” Captain asked.

Sunshine Blaze put his goggles back on his forehead, watching as the rainbow coloured tail of Rainbow Dash disappeared from sight. He sighed and looked around at the crew, who had resumed work across the deck.

“I’ll tell them all they need to know before they are to come and face him. If they knew before, they may be less willing to listen to me.” he replied.

--
The land of Equestria had been changed dramatically in the short few hours since Ulysses had unlocked the sealed dark magic. In between where Canterlot and Ponyville were, and some distance from the spot where Cloudsdale had been, Ulysses now stood, obsidian and other black rocks rose from the ground around him, even elevating him into the air.

The ground twisted, cracked and rumbled as it formed a black castle, with fountains and waterfalls made to hold and pour lava instead of water. The outer walls stood between six towers, which reached lower than the main castle itself. The center of the castle was a tower, which cast a shadow far across the landscape. In the new throne room he had just made at the top of the central tower, Ulysses laughed.

“Soon, I will have them all.” he said to himself.