Lightning Strike’s aircraft took just two hours to fly from the Glittering Vale to Edingcolt, and from the air, Applejack was given her first view of the city. She had never personally gone to the city before, but it was settled on high hills, all the streets and homes were made of the same drab grey coloured stone.
Like Port Equis, Edingcolt had plenty of buildings that spewed heated steam into the air, and with the wind, most of the steam formed a permanent grey cloud above the very center of the city, with most eventually dispersing after a time around the edges. The lower homes she could see were home to Earth ponies and Unicorns, while the pegasi took the homes closest to the top of the hills. And on the highest hill was a castle.
“See that castle?” Lightning Strike asked.
“How could Ah miss it?” Applejack replied.
She was right, the castle seemed to have the stronghold she was waiting for attached to it, the newer stone a contrast against the darker stone of the castle.
“Back when Irvest was four separate countries, that was the seat of the royal family of Acchiam. When he comes back here, the Sage Starry Skies lives there, he can see the entirety of the area he is expected to take care of.”
“But ain’t ya afraid he was killed by the black pillar strike?” Applejack asked.
Lightning Strike didn’t reply.

The news when they landed was indeed grim, and ponies gathered around the town square to debate about it. Debate in this sense meant shouting, getting angry and breaking up small fights. But there was no changing the news. Ulysses’s attack on Irvest had done a lot of damage, a canyon now split Irvest almost in half just at the base of the Mountain of the Sages, and it went from the Glittering Vale in the west to Altremis Forest in the east, a span of around five hundred and seventy miles. And the strike, having focused on the sages, had utterly damaged the temple they typically resided in.
The four sages always trained ten students, each in a rank order, should anything happen to the Sage, the first student would take over. If something happened to the Sage and first student, then the second would become the new Sage in their place and so on. Ulysses’s attack had killed three Sages, and of their students, none had survived. The only Sage to survive was Goldwing, because she had been returning, even her students had all died in the attack.
And the count of dead only worsened when the rest of the temple and cities in the path of the strike were taken into account. The toll was very high, and there wasn’t even an early estimate.
“This can’t be happening.” Lighting Strike muttered.
“It is though,” Applejack was in shock herself, “Ah need to get to the stronghold.” she added.
As she began to leave the shocked crowd behind, she could hear wails of dispair, yells of anger and chanting. Ulysses had made a lot of enemies, but when he could harm others without being near, what hope did they really have?

The castle was open when Applejack got to it half an hour later, finding a direct path to the stronghold attached to it. The door of it was similar to what she had seen twice already, and the inside was no different, save for Discord being there.
“Ah, there you are Applejack, I was waiting for you.” he said with a smile, the fact his voice didn’t stop or change tone told her it really was him.
“All but one Sage is dead, and their students are also dead.” She replied.
“I know. There was nothing I could do. Irvest is going to need time to heal, but fortunately, I think I have a solution.” Discord tapped the memory machine, which was in the middle of the room.
“You see, the original idea of these strongholds, of all of them, was to strike at Ulysses in a way he could understand but never prevent, fear. The great equalizer of mortals. As each of you awoke and regained your memories, the plan was for the towers to shine across time to him, even if they didn’t exist and no one else could see them, to let him know the end was coming. But with just you left, I think I can adjust their use and give Goldwing needed help.”
Applejack had already figured it out before Discord could say anything.
“Yer gonna change them to strengthen the barrier around Irvest, as if the other three Sages were still there.”
“It won’t be too hard, Ulysses was basically being kept out by Harmony. It explains why I couldn’t find this place when I got free after a thousand years.”
She watched as, without another word, Discord rose through the ceiling and disappeared. That left her alone with the memory machine.
Rainbow had been her best friend and sporting rival, it was going to be difficult to watch her memories, but Applejack still activated the machine to watch.
It played through her early life memories, including the rainboom, and what she saw and thought when Ulysses attacked Equestria over sixty years earlier. And then the final moments before they were beaten played.

Rainbow flew as fast as she could as Twilight was flung by Ulysses toward the ground. She could feel the grip of magic at her legs and wings, trying to slow her down.
“Ngh! NO! You won’t win!” Rainbow yelled.
But the magical grip was too strong. Rainbow could only watch helpless as Twilight hit a boulder, her back breaking in half. The grip got stronger and held her in the air, pulling her toward Ulysses. He was laughing.
“You are losing, first Pinkie, then Fluttershy and now Twilight Sparkle. What good are these then? You claim to be fast, to do anything, but you failed three friends now. So, all they are good for is this.”
Rainbow screamed in pain as the grip pulled in opposite directions against her wings,and she felt them pop and break. When she could scream no more, she felt Ulysses let them go, and her wings drop, to her side, though so damaged she couldn’t directly feel them.
“How does it feel to be worthless?” he gloated.
“I dunno, you tell me, flankhole.” Rainbow spat. She had lost three friends and her wings, but she wouldn’t let him take her pride. He sniffed.
“Defiant to the end.”
Ulysses threw her at the ground. This didn’t kill her, but she lay there, watching a foot come toward her, and everything went dark.

Discord was there to comfort Applejack as she tried not to be sick. Of all the memories so far, that had been by far the worst to watch, let alone with the sound of Rainbow’s wings being broken.
“H-how,” she gulped for air, “how did she survive?”
“Well that was a lot more difficult than for the rest of you,” Discord swayed his hand, “I had to bend time myself to grab her at the last second before his foot crushed her. But she suffered a lot of internal damage. As for her wings, they were beyond saving.”
Applejack sighed, it had been obvious from what she had witnessed that Rainbow had lost her wings.
“If Ah know Irvest though, there was a replacement?”
“Oh yes,” Discord smiled, waving his paw Applejack got to see what Rainbow Dash looked like now, her coat was its normal light blue, but where there had once been matching coloured wings, there was now a box on the middle of her back, and copper and brown fabric wings, “she got the first prototype for new, natural feel wings. What surprised me, unlike the rest of you, she was still awake sixty years ago. No memories, but she took flight as soon as she woke from the operation, utterly unaware she wasn’t flying with her natural wings. I had to make her sleep soon after, so the internal injuries had more than enough time to heal.”
Applejack glanced back at the memory machine. There was one more memory she knew, Pinkie had another when she woke, so did Rarity. She pressed the button and watched.

Rainbow looked at the room around her. She was on a cloud, which something in her mind told her it was fine and safe. Yawning she stood up.
“Where am I?” she asked. She wasn’t bothered about who she was, but where she was seemed more important. Slowly she explored, finding there were various items on clouds that dotted the room, some she had to fly to, not questioning why the box that was embedded into her back made noises and released steam as she did so.
The items were just photos, and she could see in the reflection, each had her in them. The biggest cloud was filled with photos of her with an orange filly with a purple mane. She didn’t know who this was, but they seemed to idolize her with how they looked.
“Alright, I don’t know where I am, but at least I know who to find and ask about who I am.” Rainbow smiled.
The next floor had a machine in it, and a door outside. She considered just heading outside, but there was something about the flashing buttons. She pushed the bigger one first.
“I knew you would push this one first,” Discord’s recorded voice met her, “this machine will give you back all your memories, just press the smaller button and sit in the chair. Stay calm no matter what, and everything will be answered.”
Rainbow stood still for a moment after the recording finished. She glanced at the door,
“And no,” the recording began again, “I’ve expected you to debate just heading out that door. If you try before getting your memories back, you’ll find the door locked. I know how impatient you can be.”
Rainbow Dash groaned, pressing the smaller button. She would sit in the chair, staying calm as it secured a hat on her head and began to replay her memories back to her.
Thirty minutes later and when she found herself free and heard the door unlock, Rainbow remained sitting there.
“Alright, so I’m an awesome mare, fastest flyer, got my wings torn out, doesn’t explain these, but until I saw them, I was sure I was fine,” she flapped the mechanical wings once, “And if I’m fine, then my friends are, and they’ll follow me as I go kick Ulysses’s flank for destroying my awesome wings!”
She flew at and out the door.

Looking at Discord, Applejack noticed he was shaking his head.
“She woke up just before you, and she is the reason I realized Ulysses had been capturing the others. Rainbow Dash is such a hardhead, she flew through the seal in Equestria to fight Ulysses before I could stop her.” Discord sighed.
“Eh, I’m sure she’s alright.” Applejack grinned.

Alright was putting it mildly. Ulysses knew she had entered the seal, and currently, she was asleep, but as for actually having her, it was like owning a set of keys you knew were somewhere in your home, but you couldn’t find.
Rainbow, put simply, had gotten lost. And after a few days of flying, with her wings getting harder to use, had found a cloud. To the mare herself, it had only been a few minutes since she set down to nap and rest, unaware that to Ulysses and the world outside, six months had passed since she awoke and flew in a rage from Irvest, across the sea, across Equestria and into the seal, flying for a further six days before her nap.
Ulysses had no doubt she would awaken from it soon and finally find him, where he intended to destroy her new wings, and any part of her body that could give her control of any further replacements. He would break her pride and will before he ascended.

Author's Note

So apparently, FIMFiction has a paragaph count now, and it keeps telling me I have too few. And that's on an estimated 2,017 words in this chapter. I wonder how people who write chapters of just 100-900 words feel about this change?