//------------------------------//
// Watching Cloudsdale Break Apart 
// Story: Agents of Discord 
// by Scarlett Haze 
//------------------------------//

	Beyond this point, my mind is fuzzy on details.

If you couldn't figure out already, it was because of Luna... or Solar Eclipse... I don't even know what to call it. Look, in short, it's bad. Not only was I getting moody because of Discord's attacks and mental games, but I was also getting massive headaches from... fuck it, I'll tell you what it is. Nightmare Moon, or rather the last surviving piece of it.

I can remember having a conversation with it, but the details were all scattered. Didn't seem to make sense until later.


***


"Where?"

My body now set itself into a stone throne room, it was very damp, very dark, and most importantly, I felt like it was a very familiar place.

"Where's the-?"

Torches lit up the room, covering the once dark room in an orange glow. I did find it interesting that I wanted to have light and it came on, but it also felt commonplace. My eyes drew to the throne and what was on it. A black alicorn sat on the throne, her eyes drawn to one of her hooves.

"Your mind is a mine of horrid memories of pain and emptiness, something that I readily appreciate," she said, an aura wrapping around the hoof.

"Each experience of those moments you've forced yourself to become hardened, cold, and secluded. Until you met others you could open up to, namely your friends that now are locked away in the grip of Discord's talons."

The aura pulled away revealing an armored gauntlet of blue, making the alicorn smile. "It's only through going back to those memories and becoming an unfeeling creature that you can win against Discord. You know he will use your friends as bait, as a way of torment, but if you have no feelings for them, he loses his only tactical advantage against you."

I felt ill listening to those words, I couldn't stop being a friend just like that to any of them. True, I barely even knew of Marian, but I felt like it was unfair to just drop her off without really knowing about her.

"Wait, you NEED me to defeat Discord, but that means it has to be on my terms. I'm not turning my back on Rich, Linda, or even Marian," I responded with malice.

The alicorn gave a sideways smile, like she knew that I'd be defiant.

"That's what I want to see. A situation that puts you through conflict, and the only answer you can find is doing the opposite of what you need to do," She watched as wisps of the aura came around her, letting me see what was happening as she continued to talk. "If you win, you lose. And yet, in your defiance, if you lose, you lose."

The alicorn let the aura shroud her, her voice becoming more like mine as she spoke.

"Sadly, even now you don't control your physical form fully. Oh, it's true that you can still talk with your 'allies' and your 'compatriots', but when we reach the gates of Canterlot's castle, you'll be left with only your sight as I take your hooves and end Discord's life," she said, ending the speech with the aura blowing off, showing the alicorn self that I saw in my dream.

With a sudden rumble, the alicorn's eyes shot open. "Wait! What is he doing? He couldn't be-!"

The alicorn poofed out of existance as a familiar chuckle echoed through the stone halls.

"Hello! Hello! A rather ye olde setting for a mind, surprised to see one like this in ages."

Instead of reacting with anger like I would, I acted more tired and upset. The short conversation with Solar Eclipse had made me lose a lot of energy for some reason.

"What are you doing in my head, Discord?"

Discord stepped out, in his humanistic form, just as I saw him the first time. He looked more curious than wily than I had anticipated.

"I was wondering the same. I picked you because you were thick-skulled, someone that would do anything to get something done his way and no other way."

Both of us stepped around each other, not leaving eye contact for the eternity it took to go in a full circle.

"So that's what's wrong... this makes the game so much more complicated than I think both of us anticipated," Discord murmured.

I gave a nod, letting him confirm his suspicions. He pulled his eyes from me and gave a snap, although no flash followed. His eyes seemed to show a different color and a sideways smile came on his face.

"This looks so much like I anticipated, not dark, dank, depressing, or any other 'd' word that I can think of that's negative."

I rolled a shoulder and heard a pop before I spoke up.

"So you're just here to enjoy my head? Wouldn't expect you to do anything else of great importance, except steal my girlfriend from me."

Discord's eyes returned to normal and scratched his chin for a moment. "Well," he said, letting the word elongate before snapping his fingers again. Finding myself in a theatrical chair beside Discord, he pointed out to the screen. He wore slim glasses and seemed to try and act like a professional artist.

"This is the latest theatrical event that I've directed and produced, using nothing but a budget of seven bits, a Q-Tip, and laser-guided scissors."


***


Rainbow Dash woke up, still reeling from the attack on Canterlot and upset that she still had to go to work in Cloudsdale.

"This isn't right, here we are in the middle of some controversy and we're still moving clouds around."

Getting off her bed, she set her hooves on the cloud floor and remarked that it felt a little weaker than it usually was.

"Well, I guess I've been neglecting to remodel the house for awhile. I'll need to do it later."

Dash prepared a quick breakfast and went for the door, finding out that the door collapsed as she pushed against it.

"What the-? Not the door too!" Dash complained, picking herself up and seeing other pegasi finding similar problems with their homes.

"Something's going on here, and I aim to find out what."

Dash went straight to Cloudsdale's cloud factory and found out that many workers who were usually laid back or who worked in another department were all rushing around the mechanism.

"Cloud fill is at optimal levels, no blockages, and yet the clouds are not going out," a supervisor exclaimed.

"Where are the manual cloud makers?" A worker asked.

"They're all gone! We don't know where they are!"

Dash kept away from the activity and began to look around for any hints for where the manual cloud makers were. As she prepared to enter in a room, a blur of gray passed by her and she felt an immediate pain to her head. The pegasus fell down as her vision blurred, seeing the gray streak continue on its way.

"D-... Derp-...?"

Rainbow Dash fell into a state of unconsciousness as Cloudsdale began falling apart.


***


Twilight awoke and made an immediate plan for the day. She had to talk with Celestia and Luna about what happened last night and what their thoughts were on Fix's sudden need to round up the town to fight Discord. While in her morning state, she looked out the window to see a cabinet fall outside her window.

"Guess Ditzy is up unusually early for deliveries," she murmered, turning her attention back to the mirror and her brushing of teeth.

After more time getting cleaned and groomed, Twilight looked out again to see more furniture falling, some impacting other homes around her.

"That... can't be Ditzy..." Twilight managed to let out, still trying to shake the morning cobwebs from her mind. Going outside the library, she looked up to see Cloudsdale unusually lower than she had seen it before. Further more, it seemed that the falling sinks, mechanical gears, and other things seemed to be coming from it.

"The second sign, Cloudsdale's falling!"

Twilight attempted to do some protection of the places around her and the houses, catching objects and throwing them away from houses. The effort was at first strenuous until Celestia and Luna came to assist Twilight.

"Try and split the town into three sections and get any unicorn out here to try and help deflect these as soon as possible," Celestia yelled over the sound of crunching wood.

The three mares split and slowly gathered a few volunteers that were willing to keep the area safe.

After a tense hour of heavy objects falling from the sky, everypony saw the shadow of Cloudsdale eventually pass over Ponyville and descend with a loud BOOM into the plains nearby.

Twilight looked over to the crater and saw the once proud weather factory utterly destroyed. She looked around the sky of descending pegasi for rainbow colors and didn't see any. With each pony that landed from the sky, Twilight asked one question, "Have you seen Rainbow Dash?"

Each pegasi couldn't answer, all shocked that their homes were gone. Livelihoods ended. Even talk of some not being found.

Twilight began thinking of the worst, Rainbow Dash, her pride in her other friends and home, may have been crushed in her effort to keep the cloud city in the air. She began crying, now unsure if one of the best ponies she had known was alive or not.

The response by some of the firefighters and rescue workers was slow in comparison to Twilight's panicked running. She had to know, to see if Rainbow was in the rubble. To see if she was alive, hurt, but alive. Her usual need to plan and keep things together didn't matter for her.

She reached the crater to see Rainbow at the lip, covered in bruises and soot. Twilight slid down to Rainbow and stopped, unsure of what to do. She had remembered the practice of what to do in the event of someone who was injured, the most basic of medicinal magic, but found that at the moment, none of it would come to her.

"Dash... Dash, please, tell me you're alive..." Twilight choked out, tears still going down her face.

"We need to get this pegasus to the hospital, boys, check inside, may be more down there," a firefighter ordered as he tried to pull Twilight away for the medical team to take over.

"Ma'am, this is a serious situation, please just remain calm and-"

"Calm?! That's my friend they're taking! Where's she going?! DASH!" Twilight screamed, struggling against the firefighter's grip on her.


***


Discord waited for the screen to go to black before removing the glasses from his face.

"As you can see, it's still not fully completed, the movie, I mean. We still need to shoot some more key scenes, a bit of a comedic spot in one section-"

"You killed her."

I turned to Discord, a look of rage and embitterment all to my own as he sat there.

"You fucking bastard, you killed somepony. And all you can do is JOKE ABOUT IT."

Discord twirled the glasses on his finger for a moment, "Miss Dash is not gone from this world, I will assure you. At this moment, however, she's taken up residence at the hospital for some broken bones and internal bleeding."

"Now you understand," Solar Eclipse whispered out, unseen by both myself and Discord in whatever corner of the mind he was hiding in.

"Killing him will do the world a service, not only will it make sure that lives are saved, but they are given order. Our order."

Getting up from the seat I turned to face nothing, "You mean the order that YOU want! I want no part in it! But you're damn right about ending Discord's life, it would make everything a hell of a lot better!"

Discord seemed to take some minor interest in the debate that had now developed and put a claw on my shoulder, of course thrown off by myself backing away a step and raising my fists.

"Both of you want to kill me? A god? First off, good luck trying, but secondly, I think I can make everything a little easier on all of us with a little... bet."

He was greeted with silence, so he continued. "My bet, and what I am most interested in myself... Is let Bait fight me, not with you, Sir-slash-Missus Possesser, but him."

I immediately nodded, already ready to knock Discord out.

"How dare you make such a bet? Clearly this physical form is not strong enough without my guidance and power! Such a bet would be foolish and I would stand to gain nothing except for what I already have planned."

Solar Eclipse's lack of interest made me irritated, but part of me agreed with what he/she said.

"Including my power?"

The room became suddenly brighter, the form of Solar Eclipse's shadow between myself and Discord.

"You mean to imply that if the boy wins-?"

Discord crossed his arms and stared down the dark beast, "Gets full title, crown, and abilities of myself, Discord, God of Chaos."

"However, with such a bet, that does mean if Bait loses, or you interfere in some way... then you die," Discord ended, a wicked smile crossing his own face.

I lifted out my hand, already ready to do anything I could to get this finished. If I were to in fact get Discord's ability, it would give me something advantageous to use to rid myself of Solar Eclipse for good.

"He did not make the deal with you, idiot," Solar Eclipse mocked, making me only further irritated.

"Maybe not, but as the physical form, I get some say in this, and it's an enthusiastic 'Hell Yes'."

Discord nodded to say he understood and put a claw out to the shadow as he clasped mine.

"I agree to your terms," was all Solar Eclipse said before I was ricocheted back into reality.