Ruining Harmony

by Artaelian

Irvest Saga part four

Five years after arrival to Irvest
---

Twilight smiled as the rest of her colleagues left the theatre, the door closing behind the last one echoed in the room. The theatre was large, and fifteen rows of tables and chairs lined up from the floor, six of each to a row. Before them was a simple dark wood desk and chair, and behind this, bolted to the wall were two very large blackboards, currently filled with diagrams and equations. She sighed and sat down, as a now slightly taller Spike walked around, picking up unused pieces of paper off the tables.

It had been five years since Sunshine Blaze had brought Twilight and her friends to the safety of Irvest, and Twilight had accomplished a lot during five years. She had studied everything about Irvest and how the ponies here used magic, and had quickly become a notable scholar. Now, five years later, she was one of the most respected and well known young scholars in Irvest, something she was proud of.

Her lecture that day had been about the potential uses and harm combining steam powered machinery and magic, and how they could be used together, something the Irvestians hadn’t considered. As she had proven during the four hour lecture, it was possible that in the near future, machines in Irvest could be powered using magic storing stones instead of coal and water. While this hadn’t gone down well at first, Twilight had shown that the machines functioned the same, did not blow up, and even gave the potential for making them smaller or more streamlined.

“That was great Twilight! They really liked your ideas today.” Spike said, serving only to inflate Twilight’s ego.

“Yes, it was, wasn’t it? I can only hope some leave today and in a few months, we’ll hear of it becoming reality.” she replied.

“That’d be good for you,” Spike smiled, holding the papers upright, and tapping them against her desk to sort them into a consistent pile, “do you know how famous you’d be for thinking of it in the first place?”

“Now Spike, you know I don’t do this for fame. I enjoy studying things and finding ways to improve on them.” Twilight stated, watching as Spike finished tapping the papers, and put them into the top drawer.

Outside, the sky remained as it had ever since she and her friends had fled from Equestria, a deep crimson red. At first it hadn’t caused much problems, but in Irvest at least, as the years dragged on, weather patterns had become uncontrollable and unpredictable, and Applejack often complained of crops being harder to grow.

Twilight had already begun to plan out a solution to this that she would present next, but all she had so far was that there needed to be a way to get or make water as required.

She turned slowly as the door to the theatre was knocked, and slowly opened. When it was fully opened, Twilight saw Sunshine Blaze, he was taller now, no longer the fourteen year old that had saved them from Ulysses and brought her and her friends to Irvest. He was now nineteen years old, and looked it. His mane was still wild and unkempt, still turquoise in colour, and his signature goggles had clearly been adjusted to still fit, but had seen better days.

“Twilight, come with me. It’s time I talked to you six.” he said.

--
Rarity had found adjusting to life in Irvest hard at first. She often wondered if Sweetie Belle was fine and well back in Ponyville. But like her friends, she had eventually adjusted, and easily settled into a new life. Ponies in Irvest wore clothes far more often than those back in Equestria, and her business, which had also been named Carousel Boutique, had taken off. In two years, she even had the need to hire assistants to help make all her orders.

The shop looked identical to the one back in Equestria, it was a round building, with white walls, purple spiral pillars and curtains inside. The ground floor held some of the designs on offer in the windows, three changing rooms, and a platform with mirrors where she took measurements. The first floor housed the sewing machines, fabrics and gems, and it was here, beside the six desks that five of her assistants worked to her exact pattern designs. The six desk was currently not in use, it was where Rarity worked, and she was currently walking around, making sure her assistants were still doing the best job she had trained them too.

“Now don’t forget the gems. Goldwing was very clear on what she wanted, a silvery dress with the subtle shine of gems. Only the best for one of the Sages.” Rarity stated the order specifications to her assistants.

“Yes miss Rarity.” They all chimed, continuing work on their designated part of the dress.

The door downstairs rattled the bell. Rarity took a deep breath as she walked to the stairs, putting on a smile. As she entered the ground floor room, she was surprised to see Sunshine Blaze stating near the door, looking at her.

“If you can, head back to your house. I’m calling all of you there to talk.” he said.

“Oh, sure that shouldn’t be a problem. You go on ahead, I’ll tell my assistants to close up when they’re done for the day.” Rarity replied, turning around and heading back up the stairs.

--
Fluttershy still lived at the home provided by the governor of Port Equis, but spent most of her day at a building at the edge of the town. Unlike the others, she hadn’t had a strong start to her life in Irvest, but when the idea of running a pet home, to house pets for ponies that were heading off on vacation, had come to Twilight one night, her friends had all chipped in what little they could to get her started.

The building at first had been a simple stone shed, with barely enough room for the pets she would take care of, let alone Fluttershy herself. But as word spread of how good she was, the money had come in fast, and had been enough to hire builders to make a three story building. She had also gained a helper one year, a little pegasus by the name of Shining Rays. He was enthusiastic, and Fluttershy had never met another pony so good with animals like her.

“Fluttershy,” Shining Rays poked his sky blue head with a yellow mane through the door, “I’m going to go clean out the litter trays on the third floor. Call if there’s something else I need to do,” he said.

“Thank you, Shining Rays,” Fluttershy nodded happily, still reading the sheet of paper on the oak desk before her. A lot of the pets had very specific needs she noted. One particular dog, Sir Darlington, had an allergy to nuts. Turning around to look at the floor behind her, Fluttershy watched as Sir Darlington chewed the bag of nuts he had found somewhere. The first time he had found a bag, she and Shining Rays had reacted quickly to get them out of his stomach, but after the fifth time, Sir Darlington had worked out that, while she paid attention, he wouldn’t get to eat them.

And so Sir Darlington had taken up to finding the bags of nuts when Fluttershy and Shining Rays weren’t looking, often right in front of them as they read papers on a new arrival. When they had noticed he had found a sixth bag, and wasn’t any worse off, Fluttershy had simply decided the owners had no clue what really made Sir Darlington sick, but due to his habit of always somehow finding a random bag of nuts, had blamed them. He had been there two weeks, and despite clearing the ground floor of any trace of nuts, Sir Darlington had always managed to find a bag.

Fluttershy shook her head and looked back at the paper. Where Sir Darlington found the nuts was a mystery, and questioning it would probably have a disastrous result, similar to questioning Pinkie Pie’s ability to traverse a whole town in a matter of seconds.

Fluttershy only looked up at whoever had walked into the building when he coughed. She went slightly pale when she looked directly into the eyes of Sunshine Blaze.

“You’re... you’ve... come to take us back to Equestria?” she asked, deflating a bit.

“What? No. Not yet at least. I just need to talk to you and your friends back at the home the governor provided you. Can you leave this place now?” he asked.

“Oh um, I... I guess Shining Rays will be ok. I’ll let him know.” Fluttershy answered.

Sunshine Blaze didn’t say anything else. He turned around and left the building, leaving Fluttershy still. Sir Darlington ceased chewing the bag of nuts, and walked over to Fluttershy, resting his head in front of her, and begun to whimper. Fluttershy looked down at Sir Darlington, and begun to cry as she petted him, knowing what Sunshine Blaze would soon ask of her and her friends.

--
Applejack, like Fluttershy, still lived at the home she and her friends shared, but spent most of her day at a farm she had bought just on the outskirts of Port Equis. While it wasn’t the Sweet Apple Acres she longed to see again, Applejack’s farm had done well. Several ponies, both mares and colts, helped tend to the large farm, and Applejack oversaw it all.

Applejack currently sat on a hill overlooking the east field, watching as the helpers worked, bucking the trees. Her thoughts wandered to Granny Smith, Big Macintosh and Applebloom, and if they were even still alive back in Equestria after Ulysses’ sudden attack. She shook thoughts and images out of her head when they begun to wander on to the thoughts of her family laying dead among the blazing ruins of the farm.

She turned her head to her right when a flapping of wings drew near. Beside her, landing gracefully was Sunshine Blaze. He smiled as he sat, looking over the fields.

“You did a good thing starting up a farm. Before, Port Equis relied on produce shipped here from elsewhere in Irvest.” Sunshine Blaze opened the conversation.

“Yeah, it reduced what was needed. The governor sure seemed happy. Though crops are becoming harder to grow...” Applejack said.

The wind blew past the pair as the conversation died as quickly as it had begun. Applejack sighed and looked at the crimson sky.

“Ah know why you're here. You want to talk, and take us back.” Applejack flatly stated.

“Talk, yes. I’m gathering all your friends back to the house. Come back there when you can.” Sunshine Blaze replied. He smiled, stood up and took flight again, leaving the farm behind him.

Applejack looked down at the helpers, and sighed again.

--
Sunshine Blaze had trouble getting near his next location, due to a large crowd that had gathered. Normally, ponies knowing who he was and what life he had so far led had usually made it easy to get where he needed. But it clearly wasn’t the case for his current destination.

His current destination was a very bright pink building, with balloons of varying colours tied to pretty much anything that they could be tied to. One door in here was simply not enough to deal with the crowd going in or coming out, and as such the front had four sets of double doors, two for entering and two for exiting. From the roof, a fair amount of pipes protruded and pumped a lot of steam into the air. Above the four doors was a large painted sign which bore the picture of a familiar looking pink pony with puffy pink mane and blue eyes, and the words ‘Pinkie Pie’s Confectionery Emporium’.

With an annoyed groan, Sunshine Blaze stood at the back of the large queue, and slowly drew closer to the building, Pinkie Pie’s painted face looming above him. Some ponies did indeed recognise him, but such was the draw of Pinkie Pie’s business, that he couldn’t talk them into letting him go ahead in the queue.

It took him roughly fifty minutes to get inside the building, where the queue seemed to get faster. The inside of the shop had yellow floorboards, and pink painted walls, along which shelves held various sweets that could be picked up and taken to the counter. In between the inner lines leading in and out was a pale blue coloured stand, which held the same mix of chocolates and sweets. It was another two minutes before he got to the front, and saw Pinkie Pie face to face.

“Heya Sunshine Blaze!” Pinkie Pie said quite loudly, drawing some chatter from around the room.

“Hello Pinkie Pie, could I have a word?” he asked. He was already very annoyed at the length of time it had taken to even get near Pinkie Pie.

“Okie Doki Loki! I’m sure somepony will step in for a moment and serve sweets and cakes and muffins and...”

“Right now please Pinkie, I’m tired from standing as it is.” Sunshine Blaze snapped a little.

Pinkie Pie picked up on his annoyance and stopped rambling. She looked at another store worker and nodded her head, before leading Sunshine Blaze to one side. Pinkie Pie remained smiling in the quieter part of the store, while Sunshine Blaze breathed a sigh of relief at finally sitting down.

“So what’s up?” Pinkie Pie questioned.

“I’m getting you and your friends together at your house. Do you think you can leave now?” he asked back.

“Um, I’m sure I could, but I like to do my closing time shows. Will I have time to come back for that?”

Sunshine Blaze smiled. In the years the seven friends had been in Irvest, only three had become famous across the country, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie had become famous simply because of her extraordinary closing time shows. It had baffled, even scared traditional shop owners at first, as closing time was an uneventful task, and they had petitioned against her shows. But they had quickly drawn tourism to Port Equis, for which the whole city had benefited, even the harbour had changed its run down, worn out sheds for more sturdy brick buildings, and this fact alone had made the other city shop owners withdraw their protest in favour of bringing in far more money.

Pinkie Pie herself had been oblivious to the entire incident, even when one rather unsavoury shop owner of the store across the street, a certain colt by the name Glittering, had decided that a petition would not stop the pink pony across the street, and the cold steel of a dagger would. Sunshine Blaze wasn’t too sure of the details himself, but as he had heard, that night had ended with Pinkie Pie, the would be assassin, Glittering and even the local police ponies having a party before they returned to the police station. And even though she had been in the same room as the pony who wanted her dead, and the pony hired to do the deed, Pinkie had just assumed they and the police had come for a very late welcoming party they hadn’t prepared for.

“I’m sure you will Pinkie. I’ve been meaning to see one of these shows for a while. Now if you excuse me, I have somewhere to be.” Sunshine Blaze stood up and made for the door.

“Aren’t you going to walk with me to the house?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“No, I haven’t talked to Rainbow Dash yet. Tell me, where’s the airshow taking place?” Sunshine Blaze smiled.

“Up at the park behind the Council building.”

--
The crowd roared with anticipation, making Rainbow Dash smile. It hadn’t been easy at first at these ‘airshows’, they had been dominated by the strange ‘airplanes’ and ‘zeppelins’. But with determination, and a lot of quick talk, Rainbow Dash now headlined at the shows.

Well, more she headlined with her team, the Irvestbolts, named after the team in Equestria. She chose that name as a dedication, since she had no way of knowing if her heroes, the Wonderbolts, were even alive anymore back in Equestria.

In the middle of the grassy field, the unicorn announcer used his magic to amplify his voice. “And now fillies and gentlecolts, the moment you have waited for! Watch in awe and go wild for the Irvestbolts!”

Rainbow Dash glanced at the five other pegasi behind her. Each one wore a darker blue and yellow stunt suit, with goggles over their eyes. It wasn’t a secret that Rainbow didn’t have a creative mind when it came to such things as stunt suits or names, but she didn’t mind. The darker colours of the original Wonderbolt stunt suits, to her, served to further her original idea behind the team, to be a slight tribute to her heroes.

“Let’s go guys, time to make them leave with their jaws hanging!” Rainbow Dash spoke loudly over the roars and chats of the crowd. She flapped her wings once, and led the way into the sky.

--
Rainbow Dash couldn’t stop smiling as the crowd roared after the show. It had been another success, it always was, and made all the better by the appearance of the sages Goldwing and Dusk.

She had made it a point to at least try and see what Goldwing looked like at any possible moment during the routine. Goldwing was a white pegasus, about half as tall as Princess Celestia, though obviously lacking a horn. Her mane and tail were yellow and shone like gold, which was something Goldwing had run with, wearing hoof shoes and objects on her wings where they folded in the middle that was golden in colour, if not actually made from gold.

Around the room, the rest of the team were getting out of uniform, talking among themselves about how the show had gone. As Rainbow looked around, her eyes landed on the sight of Sunshine Blaze.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. It had come across as harsh, due to the adrenaline still running through her body.

“I need to talk to you and your friends, can you return to your home?” Sunshine Blaze asked.

Rainbow Dash smiled.

--
The seven friends sat on their coloured pillows, as Sunshine Blaze stood before them. He had said nothing for the half hour since he had arrived with Rainbow Dash, which made the friends feel nervous. They braced themselves for what he would say when he coughed.

“The world is dying. Slowly, but it is dying. Across the world, crops grow less plentiful, and while water isn’t a problem, at this rate, we will all die from malnutrition, despite having plenty of water. I don’t know why Ulysses’ actions put the sun and moon together in the sky, but we have to do something, and soon.” Sunshine Blaze said flatly.

“I was actually about to plan such a way to boost crop growth.” Twilight added, with a smile.

“That’s all well and good, but even that would be temporary. You all know what has to be done.” Sunshine Blaze let his eyes look at each friend’s face in turn.

“We have to go back and defeat Ulysses.” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Correct,” Sunshine Blaze nodded, “but there is something important that we must do first. Be awake and ready to leave with me at 8am tomorrow. I must show you the power you are facing, the power I’ve seen him wield before.”

Sunshine Blaze begun to walk to the stairwell to leave, but paused when he saw Rarity looking at him, as if she had a question. Rarity herself saw that Sunshine Blaze had stopped, and now seemed to wait on her.

“Just what relation do you have to Ulysses?” she asked.

Sunshine Blaze seemed visibly uncomfortable with this question, and a slight hint of an internal debate with himself, but he sighed and looked Rarity in the eyes.

“He’s my adopted brother.” was his reply.