Back at the cabin, Brimstone sat in front of Rachel, giving her a good look over at how much her transformation was doing to her, seeing what he could get while she was in her bra and underwear. Spike stood back, letting the two interact with each other while going over what happened back at the bar.
A hand in his pockets, fumbling with the ring he will give to Rachel when the time has come.
"So, how are you feeling?" Brimstone asked her as he looked at the scales growing on her arms. Her right arm looked completely covered from her shoulder down than her left, both top forearms were covered in a layer of fur but the rest of the right arm was taking longer.
There were more signs of scale coverage but he knew there was more to it internally.
"Peachy." Rachel said dryly as she felt the stallion dragging an end of a pen across her arm as a test if she could feel it.
She can but it was barely noticeable.
"Spike is really doing a great job." She said, looking over to Spike and gave him a smile, which he smiled back.
"So he has told me," Brimstone said. Glancing at her sides before motioning her to turn around so he could see her back.
Rachel grunted as she pushed herself to turn around on the couch.
There he did see a lot of patches of human flesh, noting that the fire didn't get all of her body. Along her spine he could see what seemed to be smaller spikes coming up, however what scales that were visible were covering her wings and wording tattoos but were not covering the scars from her abuse.
"Rachel, you know well enough to not pull that over me, tell me how you're really feeling after all of this." Brimstone said, taking his pen and scribbling down what he's seeing in front of him.
Her pony ears flattened against her head when being called out again.
Spike moved his head away from her to hide that smirk of his. He's gonna like how it'll be much easier to know her reactions just by her ears, being raised by ponies, he got to know what emotions they casted just by the motion of their ears. Her lying is one thing but he can now tell what other emotion she's feeling and easier to call out her bullshit..
Rachel barely turned her head to look over her shoulders and said, "Honestly, I'm…I'm not feeling well. There are days I can't even get out of bed and days where I have so much energy, same goes to my appetite, it comes and goes. My body hurts constantly all over… I don't blame Spike any of this, he didn't know I would end up like this, neither would I…"
"But?" Brimstone placed the clipboard down on his lap.
With a deep sigh, she said, "In some cosmic way, I feel like God is punishing me."
Spike turned his head back when she said that with a frown.
Brimstone raised a brow. Giving her a knowing look while motioning towards the dragon and she responded by Rachel shaking her head and he gave her a disappointed and annoyed look before sighing as she turned back around to face him.
"Rachel, you can't blame yourself, this is not what you think at all." He said, trying to be as vague as possible.
Though he knows that Rachel has to tell Spike or otherwise her secret will eat her completely. He wanted to go ahead and tell the dragon but it was Rachel's past and hers alone.
But dammit this girl was being stubborn as Tartarus! A fitting trait for a dragoness-to-be.
"Sure as hell feels like it." she muttered, rubbing her shoulders before raising her leg, crossing it over the other and began to rub her sore foot.
Brimstone narrowed his eyes on her feet. Noting they were red and were swollen twice their size, several of the toes didn't look right, probably on their way of being claws of some kind.
Poor girl.
"Wanna see me breathe fire?" Rachel then asked.
"Uhh babe, not a good idea, we don't have any more fire extinguishers." Spike quickly interjected, shaking his head.
"In another time yes, but right now I'm just here to get a physical." Brimstone said, scribbling more notes on his clipboard before asking, "Can you stand?"
Rachel stared at him for a while before using the back of the couch as a brace and slowly stood. Her legs were wobbly and she couldn't stand up long before falling back down on the couch.
"Does your feet hurt?"
"Well duh." Rachel grunted.
After a few more notes scribbled down, he put the clipboard in his suitcase and sighed. "Alright, that's enough for now, got everything I need." He then stood up with his things.
"You're leaving already?" Rachel asked with a frown.
"I'm sorry my dear, I'm on a very tight schedule and have a long train ride to the new facility." Brimstone said softly. "But I'll come by and check up on you when I can. I promise." He said, reaching over and gave her a comforting hand on her shoulder. Glanced a look over to Spike before nodding his head and pulled away. "Take care you two."
"You too, Professor." She said.
"Need me to take you back to the station?" Spike said, offering.
Brimstone shook his head. "No need, I know my way out. Thank you though." He said before taking his suitcase and headed to the door. "I'll keep in touch." He said, opening the door and went out of it, closing it behind him.
Rachel sighed, running a hand through her hair. "He didn't stay long."
"Brimstone's a busy guy." Spike said, walking over to the couch and sat next to her. "You doing okay?" He asked, reaching a hand over and placed it on her leg.
"Like I just said, I feel like shit, but I'll get through it." Rachel said, putting her hand over his and grabbed it. They interlocked their fingers where they joined as one. "I really thank you for sticking around me for all of this. Can't ask for a better mate."
Spike's heart fluttered as he leaned closer and brushed a kiss on her cheek. "No thanks necessary. I'm always here for you." He said.
He casually glanced down at her body, though it was still a bit mismatched, there was something alluring about her but didn't make any notion about it. He instead got up, letting go of her hand and went over to her clothes she had took off and came back with it, assisting her on putting them back on.
The two then just hung out, ate something before heading to bed early.
Trigger Warning
Viewer's Discretion is Advised
"Hmm, just a little bit more." Rachel muttered to herself as she painted in the art room in the tree castle. She was painting on a medium size canvas; painting swirls of gold and green and deep hues of blue that make up the galaxy. Two planets were in the center of that galaxy. She dabbed her paint tipped brush, the color of amber on one of the planets and smiled. "There."
She then painted a small feather on the bottom right corner of the canvas, her usual signature and nodded in content. "Perfect." She crossed her arms and admired her work.
Rachel placed the brush in a cup of water before rubbing her hands on her apron. "Another work completed." She giggled.
A sound of glass shattering somewhere in the castle caused the human to whip her head around towards the archway entrance.
"What the…." she trailed off as she took the apron off, setting it down on the stool that was right next to her before walking up to the arch. She stuck her head out down the hallway.
"Hello?" she calls out.
No one responded back.
The castle suddenly had this eerie sensation that Rachel couldn't shake off. Rachel was about to slink back into the art room before more sounds alerted her.
Rachel turned her head back outside the hallway. "Spike? Twilight? Starlight, is that you guys?" she called out.
Again, no one responded back to her. However the sound from someone there was apparent.
With a sigh, Rachel steps out of the room and follows the sound. "Guys? C'mon guys if this is a prank, ha ha you got me, now come out." She said as she wandered closer to the source of the sound. Coming from the kitchen.
However, no pony responded back to her.
"Honey? Are you cooking something?" Rachel called out as she stepped in the kitchen. Hoping it was her purple dragon cooking.
There was literally no one in the kitchen. The stove was on but it was what was on the stove that caught her eye.
She slowly approached it with caution, her heart began to pound out of her chest as she saw what was on the burner of the stove.
There was a set of mangled up keys, two keys were damaged but the three that weren't were on the eye to the point it was burning bright red.
"G-guys?" Rachel's voice crackled as she slowly backed away from the stove. She felt a large presence behind her, thinking it was either Spike or the girls, she turned to look over her shoulder.
Only to catch a glimpse of a fist slamming against the side of her head. Rachel's whole body spun before she fell to her knees. Her eyes were flashing white and a moment she felt disoriented before she felt someone grabbing a handful of her hair and forcefully slammed her skull on the crystal floor. Slamming so hard that the skin just above her brow split open.
The perpetrator slammed her head a few times before yanking the human girl up, she let out a shout, trying to get them off of her but she couldn't.
"Surprise, sweetie." The voice that spoke made Rachel's blood run ice cold in her veins.
"No...no." Rachel gasped, rolling her eyes to see who it really was. Her chest felt so tight she couldn't breathe. "Y-you're not here, you're not here!"
"Oh, that's what you think!" her father roars as the large human man throws his daughter at the island counter.
She slammed against it with a shout before she fell to the ground. Her father stood over her with a sadistic smile on his face.
"Oh, what's the matter? Not happy to see good ol' dad?" he taunted, tilting his head to the side as he stared down at him.
"Fuck you!" Rachel shouted before she shot up from the ground and went to hit him.
Her father grabbed her wrist mid punch before twisting it sharply to the right, causing agonizing pain before twisting her whole arm behind her back and holding her in place.
This is a dream, it's a fucked up dream! Rachel thought frantically. She knew her father wasn't really in Equestria. There was no way he was here! "Princess Luna, if you can hear me, help me out!" Rachel calls out for the Princess of the Night as she tries to break free of this apparition's hold. Only she would be able to stop this nightmare.
But like her boyfriend and others, there wasn't anyone responding to her. "Luna!" Rachel then screams.
"No one's around, kiddo!" Her father said before slamming her over the counter next to the burning stove top. Pinning her up against it with his body so she couldn't move.
Rachel tried calling out to the princess again but no words escaped her lips.
No one was coming.
No one!
"You know, this life you made for yourself here, it's all a lie." her father said, she could feel his god awful breath on her neck. "Your friends don't know what kind of a person you are. How would they react to what you did?"
"This is a dream, you're not here!" Rachel screamed as she tried to get him off of her but she was pinned. She was pinned, helpless, scared and all alone.
"Oh I'm always here, Rachel." He then, so disgustingly tender, touched her head. Petting her blonde hair. "In here, living rent free and there is absolutely nothing you can do."
With that hand, it glided down, feeling his fingertips glide from her neck and all the length of her spine.
He let out a small chuckle before grabbing a handful of her shirt and ripping the whole back of her shirt completely off.
"No no!" Rachel cried out as she continued to struggle. "Don't! Stop!" she pleaded with him. She knew what was coming next and she tried in vain to wake up.
But it fell on deaf ears as her father reached over to the hot stove and grabbed the burning keys. He held it the way the red hot keys were sticking out between his fingers that wouldn't burn him.
"Wake up, wake up, wake up, please fucking wake up!" Rachel repeatedly said, trying to wake up from this dream.
But to no prevail.
"You try to run away, live your life in paradise and forget where you come from. I'm here to remind you of what you are." Her father laughed. The keys seemed to glow brighter and brighter in his hands.
"Rachel!" Rachel gasped when she heard a voice calling to her, but at the same time, the hold her father had her in tightened.
The man hovered over her ears and said. "I OWN YOU!"
Then he pressed the keys deeply into her back.
"Rachel, wake~!" Spike was desperately trying to wake Rachel up before she shot up out of the bed and let out this scream he never heard her let out before. She was flailing her arms and rolling all over the bed.
He grabs her. "Baby, baby it's okay, wake up, wake up!" he calls out but it seemed that Rachel was stuck inside what dream she was having, eyes were glued tight.
In a state of panic, Spike crawls out of the bed, picking her up.
"No, NO!" She screamed as if she was in terrible pain, trying to push him away. "Get off of me!"
"H-hold on." Spike said, trying to stay calm as he carried her to the bathroom. Carrying her to the shower that was in the cabin, though being a tight squeeze due to his size, Spike managed to get them both inside.
"It's going to be okay, it's going to be alright." Spike soothingly told her as he reached over to the faucet, turning on the cold water and letting it rain down on them as he lowered both of them to the ground. Having the shower door open so they would fit.
He whispered soothing things in her ear and held her close. Though the water was calming her down, the cold water evaporated into steam when it hit Rachel's skin. Spike could feel her body temperature was scorching hot from all over.
Her screams turned deep sobs as Rachel shifted in Spike's hold, wrapping her arms around the dragon and buried her face in his chest.
"It's just a dream," he whispers. "It's over now." He rubbed her arms and back. "It's over."
Rachel grabbed Spike as if he was her complete life line, clinging to him and never letting go.
….
An hour later, the young couple was in the kitchen area. Rachel was sitting at the table with a blanket over her shoulders, Spike approached her with a cup of fresh coffee.
"Thank you." she muttered in response, her legs were jittering. Her hands shook as she grabbed the cup and took a drink.
Spike grabbed the other chair and pulled it closer to her and sat down next to her. He reached over and rubbed her back as she drank.
"I'm sorry…" Rachel said softly to him. "About earlier…"
"You have nothing to apologize for," Spike responded. Looking at her in a soft gaze, he saw that she was visibly shaking. "Are you feeling better now?"
Rachel didn't respond to that.
Spike sighed softly, "It's okay if you're not," he said. He could see that she was not okay, not by any means.
Rachel took a couple more sips of the coffee, her body getting used to the extreme heat radiating from the cup so the palm of her hands were on the sides comfortably.
When she wasn't talking, Spike sighed, shaking his head. "Baby please, talk to me." he said before moving from her back and grabbed her hands.
"There's...there's nothing to talk about. I had a nightmare." she muttered. Rachel wasn't even looking at him when she spoke.
Spike stared at her for the longest time. "Rachel...if you're worried that I'll judge you for anything, let me remind you that I am in no position to judge you, you of all people should know that." He grabbed her cup from her hands and set it down on the table. He got up from his seat but only got down on his knees to face her. His hands were still grabbing hers. "I want to help you, but you have to let me in...please." he begged her.
Rachel looked up finally and looked at Spike.
She couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Years ago, I made the biggest mistake I ever made. A mistake that I regretted every waking day." She wiped her eyes with her hands, and found them trembling. She squeezed her eyes shut and balled her fists before uttering her confession. "When I was thirteen, I had made an attempt to kill my abusive father, and…..
" I ended up killing my mother in the end."
