Is all Hope Lost?

A large circle of leaders from other nations from Tanzebra, the Dragon Lands, Eleena, the Changeling Kingdom, Mt Aeris/Sequestria, and other non-pony kingdoms were gathered around for a meeting on the situation. Ember, Thorax, Queen Novo, Imari, King Savimbi, Zuberi, Silver Horn, Lighthoof, Conok, Prince Rutherford, Thunderhooves, Grandpa Gruff, and Kifaru were sitting together. Discord and Zecora were among the circle as well in this little discussion, and they waited for someone to at least make a statement about the dire situation for the whole world.

"Now are we ready to attack?" said Ember

"Yeah. I want to make Roseblood pay for attacking my poor village!" Said Thunderhooves with a huff. He himself was more than ready for a fight with the wicked mare. "No monster attacks our tribe and gets away with it!"

Grandpa Gruff made a bold laugh, and coughed two times after having something stuck in his poor throat before adding: "And what she has done to our own home!"

"She's got Rainbow Dash under her crazy spell." said Gilda. "Now I want to bring her back!"

Ember was the next one to speak in this circle: "Not to mention they got Spike in her evil clutches. No one tries to hurt my own friend and get away with it!" There was a small uproar from the dragon and changeling side of the council, considering the fact that these two were the closest to the baby dragon being held up by Roseblood, all thanks to Ember and Thorax being his best friends and all.

"Okay, okay," Discord intervened in this uproar. "I am greatly flattered that you are all in full support of this, but we still need to come up with a plan to take down Roseblood and restore everything back to the way it was. We cannot just waltz our way in front of Canterlot and say: 'Come out Roseblood! Now you will pay the Piper!', it's too risky to just do something like that."

Zecora looked a little stern, and she said to the council: "Discord speaks wisely. I never thought I would say this before, but he is absolutely right. Some things require the element of surprise. Perhaps it is best to attack before sunrise."

"Tonight?" Asked Zuberi.

"We need to come up with a plan that will work fully." said Imari. "This Roseblood is capable of pretty dark magic.

"Well we want revenge!" said Gruff. "No one attacks our home and gets away with it!" the other griffons, including Gilda and Gallus shouted in agreement with their new leader.

Conok had to pound the table with his hammer to keep them quiet and calm. "Silence!" he shouted in a booming voice. His voice was powerful, it startled everyone in the room. "Can you not understand the situation at hand? If we all cannot work together and try and bring peace to the planet from everlasting chaos from this mare, what will we become? Nothing!"

Everyone was silent by the booming, assertive voice of the leader of the Zebrican Minotaurs, and they didn't know what to say, for they feared of making him angry some more for speaking out of term. At last, Imari spoken by saying: "We can always use the help of the kudus. And there are more eland besides me and my subjects."

"Fair enough." said Ember. "The more help, the better. One thing my dad told me, even though dragons can grow gigantic like he is now, numbers can still help us win a battle."

"And it might take a lot more than fire breath to take down all those monsters, or the brainwashed ponies."

"But those brainwashed ponies are all unwilling subjects that I know and love. The last thing I would want is to send them all to the castle in the sky above." Zecora mentioned. "Those we need to be careful. If we killed any one of the brainwashed ponies, than it would cause a great problem."

"Maybe if we do kill any of them, then it would be what they would want." said Zuberi. "They have been forced to be Roseblood's servants under her dark, evil magic."

"Yeah. You know Rainbow Dash. She would rather die than be a slave to an evil monster." Gilda agreed. "That, and it's best to die flying than die in a sloppy way, and on the ground."

"Imari, I think I do know a good Kudu who can help us." said Zecora.

"Yes. Prince Spiral." Savimbi remembered. "He is an honorable antelope, and he never backs down from a fight."

"Oh, I know him." said Imari. "I have known him ever since we were calves. We used to spar horn-to-horn with one another to test our strength. Even though he had longer horns than mine, he was no match for my strength. He and the Kudu living under his rule can be of great help to us and the cause.

"Spiral is truly a good candidate." said Zuberi. "He can be clumsy at times, but he knows how to pull through."

"Do you know where you lives?" asked Discord curiously.

"I do." said Savimbi. "About thirty miles east to where my village is. Of course, your friend: Discord can help you with that."

"Indeed." said the Master of Chaos. "I can just easily teleport us over there no problem." and he got that gloating, boastful look on his face to show how capable he was in teleportation.

"Perfect." Said Kifaru.

"But we cannot just wait more for her to attack." Said Silver Horn. " we need to act fast in stopping Roseblood, and not dawdle in trying to figure out a plan."

"Yes, and if they are smart, they might all try and invade all our homes." Lighthoof added. "It will only be a matter of time before that happens."

"We will attack before that even happens." Said Zecora. "I promise you all that."

"And not to mention, I heard Chrysalis is working with Roseblood, which wouldn't surprise me." Said Thorax. "Thay definitely cannot be good news."

"What?" Said Ocellus. "Where did you hear that, your majesty?"

"One of my guards on the inside snooped around Canterlot, and he said that Chrysalis made a pact with Roseblood."

"Oh great. Now Chrysalis is involved in this." Said Discord. "It seems that we are not the only ones seeking am army."

"Come on. They can't be any match for us dragons, and our fire breath." Ember pointed.

"That kind of arrogance will get you killed, dragon lord Ember." Said Imari

"Yeah, it almost got my entire race killed, if not for Seaquestria." Novo added. "We certainly cannot underestimate Roseblood like we underestimated the Storm King."

"We cannot let the same thing happen to all of Equestria." Silverstream added. "Roseblood sounds way worse than the Storm King was. And who knows how long Spike will survive in that castle."

"Yak smash! Yak smash!" Said Rutherford. "Us yaks want to crush Roseblood to death!"

"Make her suffer!" Yona added in enthusiam.

Sandbar gave himself a facepalm, and he asked the yaks: "is that your answer for everything?"

The yaks looked at one another and turned back to Sandbar, and flatly replied in unison: "yes."

Everyone groaned at that little response, but they would have expected it from these kind of brutes. "Why am I not surprised that you barbarians would say thay kind of answer." Zuberi insulted them.

"Hey!" Rutherford exclaimed in anger. "Who are you calling barbarians?!"

"You'te the ones with bad temper!" A Cape buffalo bull lashed out.

"Oh, we're the ones with bad tempers huh?" Said a female yak. "You Zebrican Buffalo are ones to talk in such talk!"

An all-out argument erupted from both these bovines, taking this debate out of topic.

"Friends!" Zecora called out. "FRIENDS!" It was no use, the two sides wouldn't stop fighting and bickering in defense of their own interests.

Discord then conjured an air horn, and blared it with a mighty wail. That got both sides their attention, and immediately stopped their fighting. "Thank you. Now, can you not see that this arguing will get us nowhere?"

"Sorry." Said both leaders.

"Better. Now, we will strike soon, with Prince Spiral's help, and other help from zebras, eland, buffalo, and other free ponies from faraway lands will be a great help for us a." Said Zecora. "Discord. I think you know what to do."

"Gotcha."

"Soon, we will strike!" Zecora announced to the others, and the free ponies in the cave also cheered with a great uproar.

Meanwhile, Spike was looking down at the window in the throne room, feeling quite sad and more scared since Nightmare Moon has returned, and Daybreaker was born.

Roseblood probably made these two leading figures more powerful with the dark magic, and hope began to fade away slowly again.

"Oh do cheer up, Spike." Said Daybreaker, walking up to him with Nightmare Moon close to her. "There will he a special place for you once our queen takes over the whole planet."

"You'll probably even ne given enough gems to make you explode with your guts all over the walls." Nightmare Moon added before laughing.

"Oh ho sister, you are quite a tease and a joker."

"Ask anyone." The two sister began laughing evily, and heard Roseblood come in.

"Ah, there you are, Spike." Said the mare chuckling. "Everything is going splendid. And that speech in Ponyville was absolutely better than I expected it to be."

"That... wouldn't surprise me." The baby dragon replied with a sigh.

"Oh, don't be sad, Spikey." Roseblood daid in a mock-sympathetic voice. Hugging his right side. "You will have everything you can ever ask for, and then some. You are my new pet."

Spike was thinking she was probably lying about that kind of promise, and knew she might not keep her word, despite the words of milk and honey.

"Now, I have something I want to show you."

Spike gulped, and slowly turned around. "What's that.... my queen?"

"Behold!" She used her magic to conjure an army of dark, demonic beast from Tartarus. These monsters looked pony-like, and stood on all fours.

Another scary feature was their mouths having scary, large incisors poking out of their mouths, and reptilian-like tails coming from their rears.

They had a color of red, with some of them pink, and others a reddish-purple, and long, sharp, hook-like claws were sticking out of their feet, making them all the more intimidating. These monsters seemed to smell of fire or brimstone, or at least something burning hot. They had rather stout bodies with sharp spikes growing out of their backs, and having sharp horns in a goat-like fashion for many, while some had straight horns standing upwards like a cow would have.

"Whoa! What are those?" Asked Spike.

"These are ifrits. My own personal servants. They all come in shapes and sizes, and are the perfect soldiers for the queen of hell like me."

"Ifrits?" Spike asked.

He heard some pig-like squealing coming from these beasts, and low, demonic growls from these monsters, and he felt like passing out looking at these creatures, even in a picture.

"Bow before your queen, my children!"

They all roared and cheered for her and bowed to her in respect, like their god.

"Oh no." Spike muttered