A couple of days later, tension around the Settlement was intense. As much as the staff and workers were trying to keep things on the down low on the threats of the Human Leaders, walls were thin and both Spike and now Rachel have really good hearing.
Which added even more stress to them than they were already feeling.
The lights were dimmed in the room, Rachel had tried to rest but she felt like everything was overstimulating her. Fluorescent lights in the room, even as dimmed as it could get, were giving her migraines; the smells of medicine, other ponies and humans to the basic cleaning supplies was making her queasy. She already had problems with smelling chemicals from perfumes before.
Tasting sulfur constantly was not helping her at all.
"I hate this," Rachel muttered, sitting up on the bed and rubbing her eyes with her hands. She ended up poking herself on the side of her nose with her new claws and winced. "Not cool." She groaned.
She shook her head before looking to her left and saw that Spike was resting in the chair he claimed since they got here. As much as he could anyway.
Studying his much darker purple scales curiously. Though her memory of the whole siege has not come back to her nor moments leading up to them, it didn't take a scientist to guess how he darkened them.
Rachel stared at him before she raised her right arm, pulled her sleeve back to look at her arm. It was strange seeing both fur and scales. The underside of her hand and up the length of it was covered in gold scale, when she turned her arm to look at the top side, she saw blonde fur that was close to the shade of her hair.
She ran her fingertips through the fur, it was soft and definitely similar to a pony's coat. She dragged her claws through it and noticed that her coat grew through the small spaces between each golden scale underneath. "Talk about being double coated." She muttered.
The sound of Spike grunting softly caused her to stop examining herself and turned to look at him as he woke up.
"Hey," she greeted him as he sat up.
"Hey yourself," he responded, rubbing the crud out of his eyes before looking at her. "You get any sleep?" He asked her.
She shook her head. "Not really." She said, "Hard to sleep with every sense I have in me is in overdrive. I know I have to get used to it, but damn." She sniffled and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand. "How are you?"
He shrugged in response. "Exhausted and stressed, but there is a silver lining to it." Spike gave her a small grin.
"What is?"
"You're here, alive." He then poked at her side, causing her to squirm and giggle a little.
She's still ticklish, at least that's good.
"Do you need anything?" He asked her then.
Rachel sighed, "Maybe help explaining to me what the actual fuck I'm turning into? She asked, waving at herself. "Tests are still coming up invalid, and I'm pretty tired of being poked on what human skin I have left since they can't pierce both scales and this." She motions at the fur along her arms. "I'm turning into both pony and dragon."
Spike thought about that. "Yeah the only tests came back is the increased influx of both magics in you, trying to out balance the other. "
Meaning they are trying to compete against one another in her.
"I do have some sort of theory on why your body is reacting like this." He said, rubbing the crud out of his eyes. "From my experience from the Mirror portal at least."
"I'm all ears," Rachel said, her new pony ears wiggling. "Literally."
With a small chuckle, Spike nodded. "Now, when Twilight and I crossed over to the human world, learning that when ponies crossed over, turned to humans, surprisingly when dragons crossed over we, meaning I since I'm the only one who crossed over, turned into a dog. When you absorb pony magic, it must've confused you as a dragon and is turning you into one. When we put dragon magic in you, it's trying to correct itself by making you pony and as a result, " Spike motions at Rachel's body. "Pony magic thinks you're a-" he froze mid sentence when he saw that there was a landmine he was about to step on.
Rachel nodded her head, letting that sink in. "So in a cosmic sort of way, that's your subtle way of saying that pony magic is calling me a bitch?" She jokingly asked.
Spike shook his head, not falling for that trap before the two snickered.
"I know I am one but that's just a bit on the nose." She chuckled.
Spike was so glad that she was able to continue to make sarcastic jokes.
He then sighed, "How are you feeling?"
"Like crap." Rachel said before leaning back, her head hitting the pillows. "I look like one of my creepy dolls."
With a grunt, Spike reached over and flicked her nose, causing her to scrunch up her face. "Okay that's enough, you don't look like one of your dolls. You honestly don't look that bad."
She narrowed her eyes. Why must she tell him about the flickering of noses bit she and Ruby do.
Spike let out a chuckle at her expression before they heard a knock on the door.
The two turned to look and saw Brimstone.
"Afternoon, you two." Brimstone greeted them as he entered. "Rachel, how you feeling?"
"Feeling pretty miserable but gladly still alive." Rachel said as she grabbed Spike's hand.
Spike chuckled softly, his thumb rubbing across her fingers, holding her hand as tenderly as he could.
"Please don't tell me you're about to draw more blood from me?" Rachel asked. Would really rather not to get jabbed again or go through any magic intake.
"Uh no, my dear. With all the invalid results, we would have to wait until you complete the change." Brimstone said. "You can't be here while you go through this I'm afraid."
Rachel quickly sat up, grunting sharply from discomfort.
Spike helped her up before turning to look at Brimstone. "Why? What's going on?" Spike asked.
Brimstone took out a cough rag from his pocket and coughed into it. "As you both may know of the looming threats the Human Leaders have on us, correct? "
"Yeah, we do." Rachel muttered. It's not something she wanted. She left her homeworld to get away from not only her demons but away from the conflicts the human world was undergoing with themselves, and now they are threatening to storm here.
"I do hope the Princesses can do something to persuade them not to invade through the portal, but it takes just one of those leaders to break from the treaty and come here." Brimstone said before looking at Rachel. "And with us studying Mother Cells, someone might mistake what we're doing for what The White Mantle has been doing with the other humans. One soldier with an itchy trigger finger sees you and-"
"Yeah that's not gonna happen. " Spike growled.
The professor nodded, putting the rag back in his pocket. "This is more out of caution and paranoia but rather to be safe and sorry and be away from this stress. I had hope to have us monitor you Rachel but it seems you will have to be relocated. "
"Where would I go?" Rachel asked, clearly seeing how serious this was.
"I don't know, but it has to be somewhere where you can not only rest but not be surrounded by constant stress." Brimstone responded.
"Obviously someplace where Blueblood can't find her." Spike grunted.
He knew hiding in Canterlot wasn't an option, neither was going back to Ponyville, that's for damn sure. Dragonlands was a no as well and the Empire was a maybe.
"I wouldn't mind staying at the cabin." Rachel suggested. "It's secluded, the only ones really know where it is is us three and the twins. Throw in some barriers or some type of cloaking spell or whatever making it much harder to find than it already is. " As long as no magic touches her, she's fine with a few protection spells."
Spike hummed at that before he nodded. "Okay, could that work? " He asked the professor.
"It's risky but we don't have much of a choice. Spike, you'll have to be the one to document and see it to her needs."
"I'll guard her with my life." Spike said.
"You do that." Brimstone said. "Alright I'm going to go make some preparations and we can proceed with the transfer." He said before leaving.
Rachel sighed heavily before leaning against the purple dragon. He wrapped an arm over her shoulders and held her. "You sure you gonna be okay away from Twilight for a while? We don't know how long this will take."
Spike nodded. "Twilight can handle herself, she doesn't need me. I'm here for you, that's all that matters to me."
Rachel nuzzled against him. "Thank you, for everything that you've done. And what you'll be doing later on."
"I'd do anything for you. " He said, holding her close.
By the end of the day, the Settlement sent Rachel and Spike to the Evergrove National Forest to stay at the cabin Rachel owns.