Cloudsdale in Flames

Pyro flew across the sky, followed by his army of dragons, which flanked his sides and spread out to cover more space in the sky. He was still able to command them easily, with the help of his amulet.

They left some more towns and villages of the Southern Kingdom in flames after they prepared with everything they needed for their planned invasion: weapons, armor, supplies, etc. The armada of hundreds of dragons made their steady way to Cloudsdale, bringing down any obstacle in their way.

Pyro chuckled and spoke to himself while he watched his dragon soldiers picking up speed as their target came within sight. "This is it… Oh, yes. My ancestor was a fool… He really didn't aim much higher than his full potential… Time to show them what my plans can do…"

Sheva rolled her eyes while she flew beside him. "Hurray for you and your plans. Cheers." She nearly bumped into another dragon as they flew through the dark clouds, in the black sky. Even with their vision, it was difficult for the dragons to see where they were going. "Hey… This isn't helping at all!"

"Silence! With the night for us to hide in, nothing will stand in our way to victory. It will be a full surprise against them!" Pyro growled and grinned while he stared at the cloud city that would soon be his."

The strongest dragons gathered around him to receive their orders. They snarled at the rest of the impatient army and shoved them back before Pyro flew closer to them.

"We shall take no prisoners. Anypony we find, we destroy. Let none of them stand in our way now!" He roared and initiated the battle with a fiery attack of black flames that engulfed Cloudsdale.

The ambush from the armada took Cloudsdale completely by surprise. The pegasi citizens screamed and flew everywhere, trying to run around the clouds to get to safety. Guards and warriors rushed around to try to protect everypony as well as they could, while the Weather Patrol dashed around tirelessly to fight the smoke and the flames that threatened to overcome the city.

Rainbow Dash flew out of a pile of clouds from her home to see what was going on. "What gives…?!" She gasped and dodged some of the black flames, then took in the attack that quickly unleashed upon the city. "Oh, no! This can't be happening…!" Without any hesitation, she rushed through Cloudsdale and helped put out what fires she found on her way, boosting the Weather Patrol with her speed.

She stopped when she got closer to the dragons. "Oh-dragons?! What are THEY doing here?!" Before she could do much else, she spotted the the Wonderbolts as they rushed out of their headquarters, countering some of the dragons with different techniques. "Oh, yeah!"

"Move out! Third formation, on the double!" Spitfire commanded to her squad while they dodged attacks and confused the dragons with their lightning fast maneuvers.

Some dragons let out a sonic roar that paralyzed many of the defending pegasi. Then, when the defenses were weak, a line of blue dragons formed in front of Pyro, preparing their violet fire.

"Aim… FIRE!" Pyro charged forward after the dragons shot the synchronized fire blast. He attacked some guards with his claws, fangs, wings, and fire, taking down anypony that got in the way.

Amongst the disaster, a slender, agile figure moved swiftly and nimbly to scan the damage. Miseria flew around Cloudsdale quietly, witnessing the attack from a distance. "Ooh. Wow, talk about some major destruction. Hee-hee! It's beautiful… But eh. Novice's work. No biggie."

~~~

Twilight nearly turned pale while she spotted the attack from her telescope. She and Spike were still in Canterlot, but she could see the fires and explosions even from that distance. "Oh, no… What's happening up there?! Spike, we have to hurry. I think Cloudsdale is under attack!"

"Cloudsdale?! B-but… I thought… I thought Canterlot was the one that-whoa!" Spike cried out when Twilight levitated him into her back and started to gallop. "Tw-Twilight, wait!"

"There's no time. It's serious out there! I hope they're already sending forces over there… I have to tell the princess, she's got to help them out! C'mon, Spike! They're in danger!"

"Alright, alright, lead the way! I'm sure soldiers are already flying up there to help them, but-whoa, careful!" He cringed as they almost slammed against the corner, which she slipped away from.

~~~

Meanwhile, Miseria continued to scurry around the clouds above the city. She giggled while she destroyed the dragons' equipment, and beat down some of the dragons themselves. When she injured them with her powers, she simply laughed at them and moved away.

"Ohh… What's this? How cute! You wanna play destruction? Alright, then, let's play destruction. But it's not like Chaos… You better be ready to be destroyed for good! Yeeah, that's right! That's how far this nice game goes!" She raised her hoof and laughed when she released storm clouds upon the dragons.

~~~

Twilight panted while she ran through the halls of the palace, when she didn't find Celestia in the throne room. She smiled a bit once she came across both Discord and Celestia, near the dining hall. "Princess Celestia! Oh, good, I finally found you! You've got to help Cloudsdale. It's under-"

"I already know, Twilight. The foreign army of dragons is attacking it with everything they have got. I already sent reinforces to support the city, but I'm afraid that won't help much. Once again, we'll have to count on you and your friends to help us, it seems…"

Twilight nodded and gave her a determined smile, as always. "Of course, Princess! You can always count on us!" After Celestia smiled at her, she looked outside, and her smile faded into concern while she looked at the night sky. "...Princess… About the night… We should find a way to fix it, before, well…"

"Don't worry, Twilight. I'll do my best to deal with it as I can. You go and gather your friends. We have to act quickly, give them as little chance to spread out as possible. Meet the Royal Guard outside of the palace grounds when you're all ready to follow us. Discord and I will head out now."

~~~

The Wonderbolts and security pegasi continued to try to hold their own against the dragons, doing the best they could. It obviously wasn't enough, for the army was only minutes away from taking them over.

Spitfire looked at the Wonderbolts that remained flying. "This is no time to give up, everypony! Give it all you've got! We've got to bring these dragons down, understand?! Now, charge! Let 'em have it!" She led an organized barrage of lightning, blizzards, and twisters while she and the others approached the enemy. She was the first to give the dragons the worst of what they had prepared, and the quickest.

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes as her temper flared. "Oh, I'll show them…!" She sped off, and used all of her skill to shove Pyro, along with other dragons, back and out of formation, then throwing them off their course with her rainbow attacks. "You don't mess with Cloudsdale, bunch of scaled brutes!"

Pyro hissed and glared at the light blue pegasus while his amulet glowed and released its power once more. The fallen dragons stood up against their will, even with their injuries, and rampaged through the clouds, moving slowly, but destructively.

He caught sight of Spitfire while she tried to launch an attack against the weary, manipulated dragons. "Oh, no you don't..." He smirked and shot a blast of dark energy from his mouth, watching it fly towards the yellow pegasus.

Spitfire gasped and tried to move away when she saw the attack coming towards her. She tried to dodge it, but it flew faster than her and hit her on one of her sides. She screamed in pain for a few seconds, then fell down, unconscious. Her fellow, trusted Wonderbolt members, Soarin and Fleetfoot, had to interrupt their attacks to catch her.

Rainbow Dash stared with shock as her idols were defeated. "N-no way... How could they... The... The Wonderbolts..." She growled and moved even faster towards Pyro. "What do you think you're doing?!"

She unleashed a tornado and lightning, barely letting any time pass in between her attacks. "You think I'm just gonna let you destroy my home AND beat the Wonderbolts like that?! You're not gonna get away with it, trust me!" She dropped more lightning, and a blast of her rainbow energy, upon him.

Pyro flapped his strong wings to undo the tornado and quickly dodged the lightning. "Hm, let's see. The rainbow mane, the nasty temper... Heh. Well, you must be none other than whom they call 'Rainbow Crash'. Is that right, you little winged pest?"

Rainbow Dash tried to attack Pyro again. "Hey, it's Rainbow Dash, scale head!"

Pyro smirked and dodged her again. "Big difference. Different name-same fate!" He flew upwards and blasted black fire at her. While he continued to attack the Element of Loyalty from above, he noticed that the creature of Madness and Destruction had made its appearance and now interfered with his army's attacks. However, he simply chuckled smugly at the realization and discovery. Excellent... Just as I'd planned...

"Just you wait and see, loser. You're really gonna get it!" Rainbow Dash flew at him with blinding speed and attacked him with a fully powered Sonic Rainboom, which blasted away many other dragons, as well as Pyro himself. It also covered the whole city.

~~~

Celestia paced around the palace grounds, trying to keep herself together after she received the urgent message from the nurses. She and Discord almost made their way out when the nurses found and told her that Luna had escaped her room and ran off from the medical wing, and the palace.

"Oh, just what we needed... I'm sure she's going to go after the dragons. She must have heard about the attack on Cloudsdale. If she tries to interfere without her magic... Oh, she could be killed!"

The captain of the Royal Guard stopped in front of her, ready to receive further instructions once he sent out his forces. "Your Highness..."

"That's right, I'd forgotten. I'm sorry, Stone Shield, I'm coming. I have to take care of this... Discord, please find Luna and stop her; make sure she doesn't get involved in anything that might hurt her. She needs to rest as much as possible-that collar is constantly draining her energy. I'll take care of things here."

Discord nodded and floated away from her. "Alright, I'll bring her back." He smiled at her, then teleported out of sight, leaving Celestia to deal with the captain and Miseria, who had quietly stayed behind.

Miseria smiled and leaned back. "Guess that means I can look around, huh? Everything's so fun now..."

Celestia raised an eyebrow as she looked at the relaxing mismatched creature. "Miseria... Please don't make things worse. If you could help us, I would greatly appreciate that."

"Ehh, I'll see what I can do."

~~~

Luna had hurriedly walked out of the palace, pushing herself further to get out of Canterlot. She was now on the lonely dirt road path that led to Ponyville and Cloudsdale. "I... I have to get to Cloudsdale... There must be something I can still do against that army!"

She looked up at the cloud city in the distance. It was almost surrounded by fire and the dragons that tried to destroy it. She grunted a bit and opened her wings, after she took a deep breath. "I can't let it go on like this... I'll stop them. I'll do everything I can! I can still fly... Dragons, I'll make you pay for this yet!"

Suddenly, Discord appeared above her. "Ah, Luna! Here you are, you stubborn, naughty girl. I've been looking everywhere for you."

"I wish you hadn't looked so well." She walked forward, her eyes fixed dead ahead, so she didn't even look at him. "I don't have time for games, Discord."

Discord rolled his eyes, completely unfazed. "Oh, /spanwhat a surprise. For a first, I'm not here to play games myself." He blinked and shuddered. "Wow, that sure sounded weird. Felt strange, too. Didn't it?"

"Would you look at that, you're finally up to something serious for a change. Good, because I'll need your help. We need to save Cloudsdale. Discord, we have to do something, now."

Discord looked up at the city and sighed. "Yes, we certainly do, don't we…" He shook his head as he turned back to Luna. "But… Luna, I'm afraid you won't have anything to do with this battle." He lifted one of his eagle claw fingers and appeared a glass wall that Luna bumped into.

She shook her head, then glared at the almost invisible wall, after she lifted her hoof to touch it. "Wh-what-Discord! Hey… Take this off!" She tapped on the glass, then hit her hoof against it to try to push it down or break it, but found that it was quite resistant. "Stop wasting time! I need to help!"

He chuckled while he watched her struggle. "Sorry, Luna… But Celestia wanted me to find you, tell you that you'd have to pass this one, and make sure that you actually did."

Luna glared at his playful smile, then hit the wall of glass again. "She has no right to make that decision for me. I am a princess as much as she is, leader of Equestria as well. I can make decisions on my own-I'm certainly not a filly that she or others need to look after!"

"O-ho, ho… Calm down, Little Luna. You know you always have had quite a bit of an impatient temper."

"Stop it! There's no time to waste! This is my fight as much as it is yours. In fact, it is my mission more than it is of any of you! So don't you interfere! I can do this-and I will!" She turned away from him and grunted while she tried to break the glass once again, when trying to walk around it didn't work.

Discord folded his arms and gave her a deadpan look. "Oh, Luna, Luna… Still sulking, Luna. Haven't you had enough? I've had to listen to that for centuries, in my very active imagination. C'mon… Always so serious, so passionate. You have to be realistic, open your eyes… As eager to hog the spotlight as you may be… I'm afraid there isn't much for you to do in your current condition, you see. Oh, you'd amount to hardly anything. You can't even raise the moon, and your flight is nothing special."

Luna huffed a breath, glaring at him while she crouched down. "I don't want to do anything like-"

"Even if your efforts were worth something significant… What would you do, hm? Flutter all those dragons away?" He quickly dodged a hoof and caught another that almost smacked him on the side of the face. "Ooh, my. Perhaps you'll just knock all of them right out cold, you're all fired up."

Luna kept her wings raised while she protested angrily. "I can still fight! All I have to do is get up there!"

Discord sighed and waved his claw. "Oh, dear… You are the stubbornest mare I have ever met, you know that? You've always been-ever since you were a filly."

She shook her head and let out an irritated sigh. "Now's not the time to reminisce, Discord. Ponies might die up there!" She groaned and lost her balance when she tried to fly for just a few seconds.

"Do you know what happens to a living creature after the energy is drained out of them? They die, Luna. That collar is taking your strength from you, the more you push yourself. What good will you be to them if you're dead, too?" He followed her while floating in the air, though she ignored him for the most part.

"It… It doesn't matter. My duty is to the kingdom… Not to myself. I have plenty of strength left. I can fight them, and… If you help us, me, instead of wasting our time here… We'll beat them even faster!"

"For goodness' sake..." Discord sighed exasperatedly and appeared right beside Luna, wrapping his body around her before she even noticed right away.

"Discord, what are you doing?! Stop it! Let me go! No!" Luna looked around as they appeared in the palace's infirmary seconds later. "Why are we here?! We should-"

Discord touched her lit horn and faded the magic away, remaining calm. "I didn't want to do this, Luna, but you left me no choice. You must get some rest soon, so this is perfect." He snapped his fingers while he stared at the Night Princess, gradually setting in her the same sleeping spell that he had used on the Mane Six a while ago. "Don't worry, this will help you feel a lot better."

She tried to struggle out of his grip. "Discord, no! Don't! Let… Let…" She tried to protest more, but could hardly find the will to do so, as she forgot about everything except the fact that the bed of the infirmary into which she started to slip felt irresistibly comfortable. "Me… go…" He couldn't lay her down soon enough.

He snickered when her eyes began to close, her head drooping. "As you wish, Night Princess." He released her from his body, right onto the bed, and covered her with the blanket. He shook his head when light snores began to come out of her mouth. "That will keep you busy and down for the count for a while. Be a good girl and stay here. Don't even sleepwalk."

To his satisfaction, Luna was so sound asleep that she gave him no reply. He looked down at the collar that had exhausted her and got half of his job done, only by her walk from the palace to Cloudsdale. "Hm… It really is a lot stronger than we thought… But at least it worked for something good now."

He sighed with quick relief, floating away from the bed. "Phew! Wow, that really took some effort!" He appeared a safari hat and put it on, while a dark-colored vest matching the hat also appeared on him. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Princess of Sleep… The hunting awaits!" He teleported towards Cloudsdale again.

~~~

Miseria was getting a kick out of watching dragons fall from the sky. She teleported the wings out of many of them, and actually hurt them with the spells she used to do so. After she was done tormenting that group, she laid on a fluffy cloud and drifted away to find more unsuspecting victims.

She cleared her throat and sang at dragons that were about to destroy some of the rainbow and snow factories. They were soon entranced by their memory, stumbling towards her. What awaited them was a net that wrapped around them and zapped them. "Ahahahah! This is too much fun!"

She waved her hoof aside and struck other dragons with her magic, affecting them despite their immunity. "And the best part is… It won't make Discord mad! Of course it won't-these are the 'bad guys'. I just think they're guys with a horribly bad taste, no big deal, but whatever… To each their own."

She chased other dragons with dark clouds that dropped lightning on them. "Don't run, you cowards!" She giggled again, then looked around. "I wonder when the big mean guy is. It'd be interesting to tell him a thing or two about his tastes. He really has to learn…" She sighed and rolled her eyes while she zapped other dragons with her tail. "Bug off, will you?"

The dragons that she had entranced began to groan and move of their own accord, after they were free from the electric net, of course. To Miseria's surprise, they looked around with confusion, trying to make sense of why they were there. Some of them showed no interest in the city attack or even finding out what was going on and flew off, scattering across the land. However, it was only the dragons that she had bewitched.

"Hm… Now, that's really odd, isn't it…?"

Pyro glared at Miseria while she continued to fly around the broken city. "So there she is… The newest addition to the Chaos monsters… Heh, heh, there's no hurry. I shall deal with both of them soon enough…" He opened his wings and hid away from Miseria, flying away from the city when he had the chance.

He growled when he saw that many more dragons were released from his amulet's spell, via Miseria's own hypnotic magic. He had learned long ago when to choose his battles or know when to strategically retreat, leaving only the unworthy fools to fend on their own. After having seen a potential threat of defeat, he turned around and simply lowered on the clouds to do nothing-he left the remaining dragons to fend for themselves.

Miseria tried to fix the destroyed and broken cloud buildings, to at least give the citizens some shelter. She sighed with frustration when she saw that instead of fixing things, she constantly (and unintentionally) made them worse. "Hold on a second, that's not the right, hey! No, no-no, wait!" She gave some burst cloud building a deadpan look. "Oh, not again."

Burning masses of clouds now chased the pegasi off from their hiding spots, trying to entangle them in flames. The pegasi guards that managed to bring the enchanted clouds down gave Miseria a glare, while others flew away from her in fear.

Miseria cringed a bit when the cloud 'floor' rumbled and toppled down some pegasi foals. "Sorry! Wha-hey! I'm trying to help you ponies! Geez..." She tapped her hoof on the air and released a couple of fillies from a dragon's grasp. She then watched them run away to the guards, just before she approached and talked to them. "Ohh… You're welcome! Hmph!"

She put her hooves at her waist with an indignant look, then glanced at Rainbow Dash, who had quickly flew near her to confront her. "So, no luck saving your city?"

"Just what in the storm clouds are youdoing here, Miseria?! You're only gonna make things worse than they already are! Listen, the last thing we need is a recently-beat villain to come and-"

Miseria frowned at the pegasus. "Oh, hey, cool it! Rainbow pegasus thingy, why would you ever refer to me in such a cold way? I'm only here to help, you brute. You'd be lost without all I've done."

"You know perfectly well that it's 'Rainbow Dash'! Now get out of here! Can't you see things are already bad without you interfering?! I'm not going to waste my time on you-I actually want to, you know, HELP."

"Oh, you fool! I'm actually-"

"Go on, get! Look at this! It's a mess-can't you see the place is falling apart already?!"

Miseria raised her thin, brown eyebrows in surprise. "No... Really? But, Loyalty thing, I... I thought this was just a little game! You cloud ponyfolks really have no stamina, I mean... Look at all of this! It's the farthest thing from real destruction that I've ever seen! Really, dear... Even Brother can do much better than this. I can't believe you're actually this weak."

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth, then rolled her eyes. "You're just saying that to make me angry and get me to do something stupid. That's right, I know what you want. You won't get a show outta me."

"Oh? And what is it? 'What I want'? Really, Rainbow, if you'd just listen to me, I was just-"

Rainbow Dash flew a bit further away from Miseria, looking at her fellow pegasi while they struggled to hold their own against the remaining dragons. "Ugh. Just get out of here, Miseria. You've done more than enough, and you're not going to trick me this time!"

Miseria gave the pegasus an indignant look while she frowned and huffed a breath through her nose. Hmph! So much for gratitude. Talk about a rude brute.

Meanwhile, Discord finally arrived in Cloudsdale, at least where they could see in, and where he could get most of the dragons to retreat. He blinked when he spotted the two arguing mares in the midst of the ruined clouds, then turned his tail into a water hose and doused them to stop their bickering. He watched them quietly after the dripping, soaked girls both gave him glares. "...Well, I'm glad to see that you two are finally getting along. Good job, girls."

Miseria giggled while her tail produced sparks from the water. After a few zapping sounds, she was completely dry again. She jumped in Discord's arms and nuzzled him. "Oh, Big brother, you are SO late!" She hugged Discord, then gave Rainbow Dash a look during their embrace. "I'll have you know that the Loyalty thing has been so mean and rude to me, ever since she found me. All I did since I came here was help them with my powers and do the best that I could! I did everything that you said I should do for them!"

Rainbow Dash glared at Miseria while she pushed a block of black storm clouds out of the way. "Hah. 'Help'? C'mon! You're making everything worse! And, you're doing it on purpose!"

"Now, Rainbow, why would I ever do something like that? Something like, you know... assist in the further destruction of a pony place? Oh, no... It's not like I live for that, or like I was actually attracted up here not to help the needy, but by its major destruction alone... It's nothing like that whatsoever." Miseria held her hooves together, put on a smile, then appeared a halo over her head, letting out an innocent giggle.

Rainbow frowned suspiciously, then helped some of the injured move along. "Listen, you two... I need to get these ponies to Princess Celestia so she can help them... I'm sure she brought a medical team along. Cloudsdale's hospital was destroyed, the doctors are so very busy, and-"

Discord smiled and nodded. "As a matter of fact, she did. I helped set up the tents back in the other end of the city-since it's safe and all… After we all cleared the area. You need to keep up, Rainbow Dash. Stay sharp, 'cause your friends are also coming over here to help in what they can."

Rainbow sighed and nodded, then gave Miseria a look. "We're finally pulling through, so don't you get your meddling hooves anywhere. Unless... You helped cause all of this! We've got reason enough to suspect, since what you've done before isn't foal's play!"

Discord looked at Rainbow and tried to calm her down. "Now, now..."

Miseria gave Rainbow an annoyed look. "And what does THAT mean, now?" She floated a bit higher into the air while their suspicious and indignant glares met once more.

"You said it yourself, didn't you? You're attracted to destruction-madness, too. But you can't do it yourself anymore, destroy anything in your path, so you had all these scale head dragons do it for you! You want to destroy Cloudsdale for good, so you came here to make sure the dragons that you grouped together did just that!"

"That's the silliest accusation I've ever heard! You have such a lousy, lying, hoof-pointing imagination ever! I never said anything like that... 'Being attracted to destruction', please! That never came out of my mouth." Miseria smiled a little and tapped her hoof in the air to appear a small puppet version of herself. She pointed at Rainbow, and it flew towards the pegasus. "Now observe, will you?"

The puppet started to repeat what Miseria had said earlier. "It's not like I live for that, or like I was actually attracted up here not to help the needy, but by its major destruction alone... It's nothing like that whatsoever."

Miseria made the puppet disappear, then stuck her tongue out at Rainbow Dash as she folded her front legs together. "You should listen more carefully before you start accusing others!"

Rainbow Dash groaned and shook her head. "Look, I'm just saying... As soon as that dragon-winged pony or... whatever that guy was! As soon as he got close and personal, thinking he was winning... We barely held him and his thug dragons off, but then you had to show up and make everything worse!" She gasped and flinched when part of the cloud floor rumbled again.

Miseria suppressed a hiss. "Now you think this is MY fault?! You know, that offends and insults me in so many levels-it's completely uncalled for, really... Do you really think a great master of destruction such as I would ever be responsible for a sketchy, unoriginal, rushed, tacky, cheesy, and badly-played act like this?! You insult me-THIS is a completely tasteless joke!" She folded her front legs together and turned her indignant face upwards. "And I didn't do it."

"Well, gee, I wonder what would make us all think that." Rainbow Dash frowned, then looked around to see if her friends had arrived. Still no sign of them-in that area at least, but it wasn't like she couldn't let Miseria have a piece of her mind on her own. "Maybe 'cause you tried to drive us insane-literally, you tried to kill the princesses-especially Celestia, and you destroyed and unhinged like, about a third or more of Equestria. Maybe that could be a bit of the reason. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you did work alongside those thugs. Now, if you'll just let me-"

Miseria hissed this time, and shot blue sparks from her tail while she glared. Her eyes turned just a dim yellow, and the cloudy area around her began to sizzle and dissolve with her aura. "You lying, dumb-!"

Discord, who had been watching the whole argument in complete silence, finally interfered. He placed his claw and paw on Miseria's shoulders to try and calm her down. "Now, now... There's no need to get things out of control in here." He snapped the end of his tail, and had Rainbow's mouth zip close with a dark blue zipper. He ignored her glares and muffled grumbling. "I think the pegasi have more than enough things to worry about in here, little sister. Don't you? Let's go back to Canterlot and wait for Celestia there. You've done more than enough for today to make your big brother really proud."

Miseria growled, then stopped. "Wait." She stopped in mid-air, flapping her wings to stay in the air. She quietly raised her hoof at Discord when he tried to protest. "...Brother, can't you feel it? Focus. This... This mean presence... It's still around this place. It's hiding around here somewhere. Heh, I feel it... He's trying to hide from us. Around..."

"I don't understand, Miseria. All of the dragons have already been-"

"...The area... But it's not Ponyville. Maybe further down... Or up? Okay, so those options are out."

"Miseria, once again, I'm not under-"

Miseria paced around while she remained deep in thought. "It's got to be that place, then. It's the only location for that guy to be at."

Discord raised an eyebrow while he tried to detect any unusual presence. However, he couldn't reveal the disguising effects of Pyro's amulet necklace. "...I think the leader left already, Miseria. I don't sense anything."

Miseria sighed and shook her head while leaning against Discord. She was in her small form again, she only covered the back of his head and some of his neck. "Oh, not here, silly! He's here, but... not here, not like you think he is!" She jumped forward and flew on, leaving behind her a broken Cloudsdale, a confused Discord, and a suspicious Rainbow Dash. "Bye!"

She still had to work the details out, like... Like making sense to others with her deductions other than herself, not to mention further clues about the ugly, insipid villain.

Despite that, she made Discord tag along with her when she noticed that he was left behind. She left him to try to figure out her unintentional riddles. "Hmph. Silly rookie; he's using good disguises, brother, I'm sure. But they're not gonna work. I was still able to sense a bit of it..."

Discord sighed and turned back to look at Cloudsdale, which they left further behind. Well, Twilight and the others will help Rainbow Dash out... I have to tell Celestia about Miseria's ideas as soon as possible. She really could be on to something.

They watched the few dragons that had remained on the city ruins, defeated, as they were taken away to prison. He and Miseria already knew that the dragons would not confess anything useful-they remembered little, for it was clear that they were mostly under the influence of some spell. The villain had been cautious; Discord needed to inform Celestia that they would need to organize their time, not waste it with pointless interrogations.

As he left with Miseria, he was sure to snap his fingers and help some of the most damaged parts of the city repair themselves, much to the relief of the citizens, the already exhausted relief/rescue team, the Mane Six, and Celestia.

Author's Comments:

I swear I meant to post this a while ago-I did! But… As I expected… Break has been less than kindly to me, I swear… Things are horrible (but I won't complain about that). I've barely been able to use my computer, if at all. As I expected, it has mostly sucked, and I've been restricted. Thanks to the magic of Google Drive on the iPhone/iPod, I was able to finish this chapter in the first place! Although... Maybe not as well, accurately, and easily as I would have very much liked.

But I'm glad to finally post it! I hope you like it… I liked the action in it… You know, Cloudsdale under attack; the sky city, pegasi flying in terror… Dragons took to attacking the skies. It was short-lived, as you can say. Everypony was so brave! Especially Rainbow Dash… Whom I feel I probably should have worked on a little more. She's not precisely my favorite pony, but I have to admire her courage, especially here. And her idolizing of the Wonderbolts. Whom I also liked to play quite a bit. They're all so brave!

And of course Miseria had to be awesome here, too. I should probably explain how she can be in apparently two places at the same time. I realized I might have had a continuity error... Then again, it can totally be excused with her ability to create clones, like her brother! Right?

I also really liked her bickering with Rainbow Dash. And then Discord interferes-he's so sweet, trying to set their argument aside, and get them to stop arguing! Very level-headed. And, as usual, his interaction with Luna was very sweet. Of course he'd taunt her, of only just a bit.

I also discuss the amulet, Pyro's magical item, a bit more! Looks like some of his dragon army was able to break free from the spell after all. But the collars that the dragons wear are not the same as the duplicates of The Grace of the Empire that Pyro has put around the ponies' necks. Dragons don't have magical power, so they don't need those.

Again, sorry I took so long, and I do apologize for future delays. Life… You know how that thing can be. Very troublesome and time-consuming. Alas, I still shall try to work my hardest on everything I get on my shoulders! Thank you very much for your support! I hope you had (have) good and happy holidays, and a good year… Cheers for the one that's to come...