Just a heads up this chapter is all story, very little clop is mentioned

*??? hours later*

Sludge was sore, more sore than he's felt in a long time even, and what's worse is the ground felt stiff and hard unlike the beds he had grown use to while taking advantage of Twilight and Spike. His eyes were still closed, and he wanted to continue trying to sleep off the soreness, but the ground was too stiff to continue sleeping. Instead he focused on other sensations with his eyes still closed, afraid that cracking his eyes open would introduce a lot more soreness. Groggily he started to hear a familiar sound, a sound that was actually one he was so used to that he didn't recognize how loud it was.

It was the sound of whistling wind that he'd usually only hear from flying leisurely.

He immediately sat up with a start, eyes wide open, but immediately slamming his head on a roof of some kind with a loud metallic bang. "OW!" He exclaimed in a start, holding and rubbing his head. "Hey!" Sludge heard while rubbing his head, "Quiet down! You'll be seeing the dragon lord soon....ish, maybe."

Sludge was disoriented, to say the least. Dragon Lord? Why am I here? What was I-

And then he remembered. The things he did moments before things suddenly cut to black, at first he was smiling, remembering the "terrible" thing he did fondly as a victory, but then he remembered the last thing he saw was that orange dragon getting ready to shoot flames at him. Panicking, he checked his body for burns, looking at his arms, stomach, legs, and rubbing his face to make sure it was still scale smooth instead of charred and flaky. Instead what he found was bruises and soreness spread across his whole body. He was pretty sure he even had a few cracked bones from how much parts of him hurt.

After a sigh of relief that his good looks were unharmed, he then TRULY began to look around. The first things he saw were gray metal bars, thick enough that he couldn't break through them with his weight, but spaced enough apart that he could reach his arm through the bars. The next thing he noticed was the roof and floor of his cage were just dark metal, likely steel, it was at this point he concluded he was in a large cage. After this he looked past the bars and saw some clouds flying by, and the tops of mountains. It didn't take him long to figure out he was high in the sky, especially with the wind he was hearing.

"You said I'm going to the Dragon Lord, right?" Sludge asked his captor or captors whom he couldn't see above the cage.

"Yes prisoner, that is exactly where you are going, for the crime of assaulting Ember's little chosen one." The same voice had gruffly replied, "Also, you really need to go on a diet dude, this cage was already heavy to begin with, we've had to take several breaks already trying to fly you home." The same gruff voice replied, with a tone that, admittedly, damaged the serious tone that Sludge had been initially feeling.

"Speaking of which," the voice continued "Guys, I think its time we stop for another rest, I can see one of you is having trouble breathing, and my arms are getting tired again." There was a few cheers above Sludge that he heard, though winded for sure, as he felt the winds blowing past him shift upward to be that of descent. Sludge was still trying to process all this, and think of a way out of it by the time they landed. The cage jostled and Sludge fell over face first into one of the bars, "OOF!" as a metallic clang was heard along side the crushed gravel beneath the cage.

Some of the dragons around him laughed as he rubbed his nose disgruntled. "That was funny" one of them said, laying down calmly afterwards on their back, his head spines shaped oddly on his head to look as if it was actual hair, covering his eyes blocked Sludge from seeing if he closed his eyes. The dragon's overall colors were a mix of purple scales and a yellow underbelly and wings. He looked rather scrawny, but familiar, after him was a dragon he didn't recognize, the one that was speaking to him earlier. His scales were brown, and he had a scar over his eye, and looked a lot less familiar than the other dragon, even if Sludge couldn't place either of them. His underbelly was tinted a slight iron red, and the eye with the scar over it was grayed over. He looked quite strong and tall even by most dragon standards, even without the intimidating extra details Sludge wouldn't want to be on his bad side.

"I still can't believe Ember only sent us two to carry this guy, should've sent two more, I don't even know why this job was given to me." The purple dragon lamented, to no individual in particular, gesturing at the open air above him. "I mean, sure I didn't want to do anything else, but heavy lifting? Look at me, I don't look like the kinda dragon that bulks up." The purple dragon complained further. The brown scaled dragon lifted his head to acknowledge the other dragon, silently staring at him, but finding no reason to disagree with him before turning around to look at Sludge in his cage.

"Done wiping the pain off your nose, big guy?" the gruffer dragon said, "Honestly the mood needed a bit of lifting because even before the grueling task of carrying your rear to her highness, having to listen to her yelling because of just how angry she was at you was rather annoying to boot."

Sludge returned the look, finished rubbing the pain away, before noticing that both the dragons were complaining about their jobs. "So both of you were forced to do something you don't want to do?" Sludge asked, less to confirm and more to keep them talking and giving him more context.

"Oh yea!" Replied the relaxing purple dragon, "I've been doing my best at just chilling, relaxing, doing what I want, but ever since Ember took over, our favorite resting spots are "inconvenient" or we're "Too rude" and how we're "thoughtless" and junk, its a real pain-" "Fume." the other dragon interjected, "What?" the dragon, apparently named Fume replied, "We probably shouldn't bad mouth the dragon lord in front of the prisoner. You and I both know that all she needs to do is ask him how the trip was, and suddenly for mocking her behind her back we could be made to do more tedious bull crap."

"Oh.... That's right dude, forgot that could happen, my bad." Apologized Fume.

The brown scaled dragon sighed, before turning to Sludge, "So, his name is Fume, my name is Gust, and I believe your name was Sludge. I'd pretend to care more, but seeing as you're a prisoner, the obligations to "Give friendship a chance" are non withstanding. From this point forth, we're going to try and be very quiet to keep any incidents from happening, hope you don't mind." He said, the last part of what he said dripping with sarcasm, "You heard that, right Fuze?"

Fuze shrugged and said, "Yea, man, I got it. Man, would've been nice if Fizzle was here though. He'd jump right on board with the trash talk and make carrying this guy a lot easier." There was a long pause from Gust before Fuze realized he had kept going, "Ah right, shutting up now dude, my bad, hehe." Now lying down fully relaxing against the gravel and doing what he does best.

Sludge, naturally, was sitting there listening intently, now grasping his situation wholly, he was going to the new dragon lord for some kinda punishment, said dragon lord apparently being both furious and ordering other dragons around to do things like "work". He could understand where these dragons were coming from, he hated that idea too, it was partially why he no longer hung out in the dragon lands. Sludge needed to think of a way out of what was to come though if he wanted to avoid that punishment however.

After a few minutes of silence, eventually both dragons had gotten the rest they needed, and began to fly him further towards the dragon lands. Sludge continued to carefully plan out how he was going to talk to them during this time, but beyond that, he also wanted to know how much time he had before he arrived to the dragon lands. He hoped they would have to land again and they still had a ways to go. Sludge knew the nature of dragons more than anyone, he believed, that when it comes down to it, at their core, they're NOT for this kind of thing.

He had talked to several dragons all his life, naturally being one, and almost all of them took pleasure in being mean to others, a few even boasted eating and killing ponies. The idea that their new ruler was trying to build friendships with namby pamby ponies always strongly irked him, in that there was no personal gain in doing so aside from the act alone and the emotions they gave. He didn't care about that, and he was sure most dragons didn't too. Otherwise when that upstart Garble started talking about revenge or war on the ponies, some dragon would've said something against him, even if it was so much as "That sounded like a hassle".

He then thought about how these two dragons, both of them, seemed to have many complaints about the current dragon lord making them do things. Something told Sludge they were just as unhappy with the current dragon lord as he was, but for some reason couldn't leave or didn't want to fight to wrench the staff from her weak hands....

"Ah." Sludge quietly exhaled, he gets it. They didn't want to have to worry about what she'd do if they stabbed her in the back and failed to take the staff. Obviously telling a dragon she wasn't cruel enough as a dragon lord when they ask why you betrayed them is just going to make you get all of their anger. Sludge understood that, Sludge understood that perfectly, and he knew exactly how to abuse that, but first he'd need answers. He doesn't know what Ember does to protect the dragon staff, or when she brings it out, but he's sure that from what her father said about a dragon lord being small and weak, and the legend of Scales, just taking the staff can make one a dragon lord.

So why haven't these two kindred spirits just ripped it out of her hands when her grip seemed loose, or when she no doubt puts it down to sleep?

Once again, he heard Gust give the order for another rest stop. It had been only 10 or so minutes, so this explains why he's yet to reach the dragon lands despite taking a long enough nap to leave him so sore. Sludge had been initially curious to what bruised him so badly, but thinking about what happened to knock him out was completely forgotten in light of his current predicament and plan. It was time to start figuring out what he could do, even if it meant rambling to their silence.

"So.... I get you're unhappy with with Ember's rule-" "Dammit~." Gust quietly sighed, Sludge continuing uninterrupted, "But why hasn't any dragon just stolen the staff from her yet? I mean she is pretty weak so if she just has it in her hands you could rip it out probably."

"Well, that's because-" Fuze started, but Gust immediately quieted him down, "SHUT UP!" Gust replied quickly, "We do NOT want to risk being forced, accidentally, to tell Ember that we spoke of the defenses of the dragon staff with a prisoner. Last thing I want is to end up being one of the first of us banished by that.... Geh." Gust let out a sound of quiet disgust, stopping himself from insulting her for his own sake. "I'm frustrated, and we're already late, Fuze, you watch the prisoner, I'm goin on a fly or walk for a bit to cool my head, and I repeat, DON'T. TALK. TO HIM." Gust then flew off a distance away.

"Man, he's got to let himself unwind somehow, dude clearly hates his job." Fuze said while watching him fly away. Sludge, however, unbeknownst to Fuze, was smiling evilly at the dragon flying away, seeing just how poorly the dragons Ember was trusting with him thought of her. "This might be easier than I thought." Sludge had spoken aloud, eliciting a, "Huh" from Fuze.

"Nah, bro, its alright, don't worry about it, just realized something pretty cool." Sludge replied, somewhat copying the tone of Fuze ever so slightly. "You realized something cool bruh? What was it?" Fuze replied, eager to get his mind off of the boredom. "Nah man, its crazy, I mean, totally wild, but I'm not sure its a good idea to share." Sludge said, egging on the curiosity of Fuze. "Come on dude, you can tell me, I promise I won't tell.... Unless Ember orders me to tell, I mean." Fuze said, correcting himself slightly.

Sludge smiled, "Alright man, I do want to share, but I got a few questions." He said, Fuze now giving his full attention to Sludge. "Sure man, what is it?" Sludge smirked slightly harder, before replying, "What orders has Ember given to absolutely everyone?"

*10 minutes later*

Gust was on his way back. He was gone for longer than he wanted, but Fuze was getting on his nerves with his carefree nature. He knew how ruthless Torch could be to those he thought wronged him. There's a reason there are so few large dragons within the dragon lands, after all. He was a monster more than a dragon, the only one he ever cared for was his idiotically imperceptive "daughter". He's still fairly sure she was just a trophy of a couple of dragons he struck down recently, because he knows from his own family that Torch has been around for hundreds of years. The maternity stage of dragons is fickle, and ancient dragons can't exactly lay clutches anymore on the count of how large they are and how small their eggs will be. For a dragon to "survive" Torch, they need to be the same size, and the eggs would just fall and break out of a "hallway" that large.

Dumb bitch probably thinks she's his legitimate daughter, not that he doesn't treat her like one. She can't even pick up on just how much power the staff actually gives her and ends up disrespecting her old man by speaking against him with the staff in her hand. Gust REALLY hated Ember, not because she was too kind, even if that bothered him too, but because she was willingly ignorant to a lot of things that are left unspoken, so long as she felt insulted by what they COULD imply. He hated girls like that with a deep passion, they were also his favorite to-

He saw the cage and cut his thoughts short, now was the time to think about the mission and cut as many traitorous thoughts from his mind as he could. He landed on the ground, creating an impact where his feet landed that made a tidal wave on the soil. He was still upset but couldn't keep putting this off, so he approached the cage to get ready for yet more long heavy lifting.

The first thing he noticed though, was that Fuze was looking more pensive than usual, standing guard with his mouth curved downward. Gust felt wary as he knows Fuze would be smiling at a time of not doing anything like this, but Fuze was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice Gust arriving. After that, he looked over at the prisoner, Sludge, and saw he was on his back, relaxed, smiling. Suffice to say, to Gust, this didn't raise the idea that they didn't talk. At the same time, he knows that asking could get him into trouble with the wrong question from their dragon lord.

"*Sigh* Fuze. Fuze? FUZE!" Gust eventually startled Fuze who had been so lost in thought he even stopped hearing his own name. "Right- uh- sorry Gust, what's up?" Fuze said with some uncharacteristic attention. "Its time to pick up the prisoner and to keep moving, grab the other handle. "Uh.... Right, yea, I'll do that." Fuze replied, as he flew up and grabbed one part of the cage.

Gust was made very wary because of this, when someone acts this much out of character, its gotta be because someone shared something important. The problem was Gust has no idea what Sludge could've told Fuze to have got him like this, especially seeing as how he was a dragon who abandoned the dragon lands after the Gauntlet. Either way, he flew up and started flying Sludge's cage for what would likely be yet another 10 minutes. Nobody said anything the entire trip like before, but this time he was mulling over the scene he came back to. It was bothering him what he didn't know, not knowing something, especially something right before you, is something Gust has come to hate seeing in their leader, and he hates he's experiencing that sensation right now knowingly.

Eventually, they landed again, but this time, "I'm going to clear my head on a- a walk too, captain sir boss Gust." He said, with more respectful terms than usual, on top of his actual name. He also blatantly looked at Sludge too after he said that, before he started to walk away. Gust was now aware that whatever they talked about, he was going to get a similar talk as well. He glanced over at Sludge, but instead of seeing what he was expecting, which was a pair of eyes looking at him with a sinister smile and a plot behind them, he instead got this dragon, lazily napping in his metal cage.

Gust went back to being angry, why was he so wary of this fatso whose lazily sleeping away what could very well be a coming death sentence? Why was he so wary of how his current work partner was acting? Why did the fact he didn't know bother him so much? Well, he knew that last part, but he hated it all the same. He sat down and clasped his claws together, resting his head on them to try and stop himself from thinking. Even then, his mind wandered, because he was never one who could silence his mind when something preoccupied it. His mind wandered to what they could've said, what plot does the rapist in their cage have, why does his partner seem to be thinking so heavily upon whatever they said.

A lot of them were things he dared not share with Ember willingly. Not only that, but they only got worse, the more he thought. He knows the orders that Ember has given to stop dragons from taking the dragon staff, as well as the usual protections in place. Its possible that relaxed idiot told this prisoner everything while he was gone, he could see it. If he did though, what plans could he come up with? At this point, he couldn't help but lift his head from his claws, but instead of seeing that same dragon sleeping soundly like before, he ended up making eye contact.

And that imprisoned dragon was smiling.

....He had to know, because his own thoughts would come up with plans so much worse, that if Ember merely said, "Speak your mind" he'd unload all these plans to her and oust himself immediately, he knows it. He strongly suspected the staff reads the users intent, and when they give orders, it gives the orders based on the intent and thoughts of the user, giving no discrimination to the thoughts of others at the same time. For example, he was easily able to understand that the dragon staff was used on Garble to hug everyone, after the Gauntlet was resolved, and that he was ordered not to tell anyone.

Yet at the same time, when Ember yelled for everyone to agree with her father in a commanding tone when she first became dragon lord, nobody immediately agreed even though the staff has proven capable of overriding free will, only for it to be revealed she was already kidding when she gave the order. If she intended for him to be honest with her, he couldn't hide the nefarious plans that have come to mind. He suspects this is why uncaring and cruel dragon lords are preferred by the other dragons, throughout history, but enough musing, he knew his own mind was giving him no choice now.

He had to know what this fatso was planning.

He sighed, stood up, and walked over to the cage and sat in front of Sludge, and then opened his mouth to speak, "I'm not going to talk with you, but I'm not going to interrupt you. Say what you will but I make no promise that I'm listening." This was the best way for Gust to cover his tracks and not show compliance to the one they have hostage, on the off chance Ember asks the wrong questions to him. The less he engages with Sludge, the more he can swear to be a neutral party in all of this at the barest minimum.

"....In that case, what I'm about to say is just me rambling on about a crazy plan- a plan specifically, to become the dragon lord, and a plan that'll hinge entirely.... On how predictable our irritably good dragon lord acts and what she does. A plan that will make her pay due to how easily she is riled up over so little if it works, or make all the consequences of this plan fall entirely on me if it fails."

"...." Gust stared on, his attention clearly on Sludge, leading Sludge to crack the biggest smile he's had for the day.

"All you'll have to do is admit you were distracted by what she was doing, if it fails. If it succeeds, well, I already know the results will be its own reward, but I'll try to add a bit more."

"...."

Sludge had felt he had stumbled into some great allies this time around.

*At the dragon lord throne area, quite some time later.*

There were five orders that Sludge had learned from his two guards that Ember used to protect the staff and Ember.
1) No other dragon could touch the staff so long as Ember remained dragon lord.
2) Torch was to guard the staff at all times when the staff was not in her hands.
3) No dragon is allowed to try to become the dragon lord while she is the current dragon lord.
4) No dragon can harm Ember under any circumstances.
and finally 5) No dragon can lie about plots to steal the staff.

Sludge, despite these orders, has seen a loop hole to break through these seemingly iron clad rules, but it hinged heavily upon Ember's own actions, and more importantly, opinions. Sludge looked up from his cage at the pile of rocks, and saw Ember staring down at him, with a very clear blazing fury. He smiled up at her despite her clear anger, which made Ember narrow her eyes and he felt like she was gritting her teeth, barely holding back, hands gripping the staff tightly. Perfect.

Sludge looked around him and saw many dragons have gathered for this administer of punishment. He was fairly certain almost every dragon who participated in the Gauntlet for the dragon staff were here, plus quite a few others. They were all somewhat disinterested it seemed, save for a few key outliers glaring at him with extreme intensity, one of which being the upstart dragon named Garble. Sludge decided to lay on the ground in his cage and smile as if he were the comfiest he's ever been.

"He does the unspeakable, and then relaxes in the cage like he's going to take a long nap?!" Ember said, anger clearly seething in her voice. There was a silence, before Sludge looked up, winking one eye open, "Yea, cause I got used to it in here, somehow its kinda comfortable." Sludge said, nonchalantly, Ember's face now turning redder by the minute, before yelling, "Drag him outta that cage, and hold him still, Sludge, I order you to- to not fight his grip and only speak the truth!" Ember was clearly having trouble thinking from how angry she was.

Gust smiled widely, "With pleasure, Dragon Lord Ember." as he popped open the top of the cage with a key, a select few bars falling to the ground to allow the prisoner to walk out. Gust walked up to Sludge and gripped his arms, turned him around, and pinned them to Sludge's back, walking him out. "OW! I know you said it was a pain to carry me here, but you don't need to break my arms over it in your grip!" Sludge exclaimed.

He saw Ember smile at this, with that, the plan was going accordingly. The roughness of Gust helped sell it, but Sludge, being petty as he was, chose to remember that.

A massive torrent of flame blew from Fizzle's mouth straight into the air to get everyone's attention, "Sludge, you are here for the violent rape of Smolder the dragon, witnessed by the reputable Twilight Sparkle, and attested against by Smolder herself in officially marked letters. How do you plead?"

Sludge scoffed, he was told that they were modeling a judgement system similar to the ponies, in order to be more fair, but this felt ridiculous, it was clear to him the judge, Ember, was already biased against him.... He laughed out loud at the whole thing thinking about how unfair it technically was despite it being made for fairness.

"Excuse me, are you laughing?" Ember was caught between shock and anger, "You're accused of violating one of my friends, and you're laughing?!" Ember was losing her cool, but she stopped herself and took a breath, trying to calm down. "You should answer the question or I'll do my worst right now." Ember said coldly. Sludge recognized he was pushing his antagonism just a bit too much, so he went for his "defense".

"I plead not guilty, of course." Ember's glare left her face as it was replaced with shock, as everyone in the audience turned to Sludge with a bit more interest knowing he was just ordered to tell the truth. "I mean, after all, I did what any dragon would do and got revenge, I'm not guilty of anything, she deserved it." At this, every dragon in the audience looked at Sludge with wide eyes, not expecting such an uncaring reply, before looking at Ember. She was like them, her eyes wide, but her face was practically glowing red and she was gritting her teeth openly.

There was a nod between Fizzle and Fume, who had talked just a bit before this trial, "Are you claiming that the crime of rape is not a crime?" Responded Fizzle before Ember could formulate words within her anger.

"No, rape is absolutely a crime under Ember's rule, my claim is that its dragon nature to take advantage of weakness and take revenge on those we think wrong us." Once again, everyone looked to Ember, and they could see cracks forming on her stone throne from where her hand was gripping. Her fury was actually making some of them shake in fear for what was to come to Sludge by proxy of imagining themselves in that position. Despite this, however, Sludge kept going.

"She should've known better than to get in the way of me taking advantage of Spike, yet another weak dragon too kind for their own good, and should've let him learn his lesson about not trusting someone claiming something like I was." Ember stood up, muttering fury quietly under her breath, "Its dragon nature to break the weak like I tried with her, we've always hated goody goody people, its why we have stories like Scales, dragons aren't supposed to be kind, fair, or otherwise, we're supposed to be cruel." Ember was almost seeing red as she was stepping down from her throne, everyone's attention focused completely on her, "You tried to "break" her?" Ember had said, too quietly for Sludge to hear, not that he'd care.

"So yes, I raped her, but I'm not guilty, I don't feel guilty at least, because I know how dragons are supposed to be, I know for a fact I'm a true dragon who sees what it wants, and takes what it wants." Ember was now more than half way to Sludge, when she pointed the bloodstone scepter at Sludge, the whole thing shaking in her hand. "You...." At this point, Fuze had opened his wings and started to fly away a bit, but Ember was too furious to notice, and the crowd was too distracted by the trial to care.

The only one who noticed was Garble, who was trying to figure out what Fuze was doing.

"You, I can't even begin to. That's not a defense, you just did what "any dragon" would do? You just.... I- I can't.... You.... I absolutely hate you." Ember was speaking with such a large amounts of cold furious anger that even Gust behind Sludge had felt chills. At this point however, Fuze was listening closely for something to be said. Garble was looking up at Fuze acting uncharacteristically, staring at his old buddy trying to figure out what he was doing.

"You, you are not. I refuse to accept that you are.... You are a monster. You're not a dragon, you're just a-" Fuze smiled hearing those key words, before frowning, and taking a dive towards the throne. "Fat-" Gust, having kept his eye on Fuze this whole time, now saw him diving towards the throne, the plan had succeeded up to this point, his part was coming soon. "Evil-" Garble began to panic, his friend was about to destroy those pile of rocks and hurt himself. He wouldn't call himself a good dude, but he still cared about his group, "Bastard!" Ember yelled, pointing the Bloodstone Scepter right at his face, the end of her sentence heard by all, just before everyone heard Garble yell, "FUZE WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" And a massive smashing sound was heard.

Ember saw a stone fly over and smack a dragon standing further behind the cage, and momentarily looked away from Sludge, turning her head behind herself, still pointing the scepter. 'well' Gust then thought, 'here goes nothing' as he let go of Sludge's arms the moment Ember was distracted.

Immediately, Sludge gripped the tip of the staff pointed at him, and wrenched back as hard as he could, even going as far to jump backwards using his weight. Gust had already stepped out of the way expecting this, and all the dragons had only turned their heads when they heard a loud, "NO!" shout from Ember. What they saw, all of their eyes were wide and jaws had dropped. Sludge was holding the staff instead of Ember, her grip had lessened in confusion, and in that moment the weight and strength of Sludge had immediately pulled it from her hands.

"You said I'm not a dragon you idiot." Said Sludge, "Seems like I just became the lord of them."

Ember immediately tried to get up to take the scepter back, but found herself pinned to the ground by Gust. "Wha-?!" Was all Ember could say before her face was shoved into the stony Earth to keep her from breathing fire at anyone. "NO!" Garble had shouted and immediately tried to charge Sludge to take the staff from him, but-

"FREEZE!" Sludge had shouted holding the staff. At that moment, Garble stopped his movement, Ember stopped struggling, and Gust was smiling feeling the success of the plan by how everyone that wasn't part of it were now unmoving. Some stones fell down from the collapsed throne as Fuze climbed out, "Whoo! That was awesome! And also hurt like crazy! Haha!" He then looked at Sludge holding the staff high in the air, and went, "Whoa, the plan worked? that's even crazier man." Had they not been frozen, both Garble and Ember would've turned to look at him with betrayal on their eyes.

"Oh yes, Fuze, it worked alright. A new dragon lord has arisen, I re-establish all the orders that Ember made to protect the staff, but now with me being the dragon lord instead." Ember immediately felt her hopes dash for recovering the situation, "And now.... Its time for the punishment of the guilty loser, and now retired dragon lord, Ember, and that loyalist who tried to charge me."

*To be continued next chapter*

Author's Note

Sorry there wasn't any clop in this chapter, but I wanted to establish plot progression, next chapter there's definitely going to be sex though, both "shown" and "implied".

The key to the dragon staff in my mind is the intent of the user and the wording they use, Sludge's planned hinged on Ember thinking so low of him that she basically did what Smolder did, and denied the nature of dragons, but to the degree of disassociating Sludge from the species. Thereby creating a loop hole where he was not a "dragon" the staff's orders commanded.

But just because she doesn't see Sludge as a dragon, doesn't mean the staff itself doesn't.

Ember fucked up royally, and Smolder is going to pay for it.