The message Rachel received was loud and clear. Her mate was now in trouble, she's going to do all she can until he's saved and brought home.
Oh Spike, just what did you get yourself into? She thought as the gang continued the search.
"Rachel, slow down!" One of the girls called out, seeing Rachel frantically looking at each barren room, glancing in and then moved on.
She wasn't hearing them as she kept on. Running into another dark room, the headlamp shone a glimpse of large carved statues and murals with primal weapons hung on the walls.
Sunset quickly matched up to her and grabbed her wrist. "Okay, you need to stop for like ten seconds and relax."
Rachel rips her hand back. "I can't relax. I can't stop." She said with urgency.
"You're not going to find the staff like this." Sunset said. "I know things are at stake here but you have to stop before you injure yourself and your kid. It's not going to happen all at once."
"Easy for you to say that, Sunset Shimmer." Rachel growled. "You're not the one with everything hanging by a single thread."
"Rachel, please take a moment." One of the girls pleaded as they entered the room.
"We're all helping you, but we can't help you if you keep running around in this temple like your ass is on fire."
Rachel does feel like that.
"This temple is huge, I don't think we'll find it in one day." Elizabeth said.
"No one asked you." Rachel hissed at her.
The dog walked up to her. "Rachel, please," Spike also begged. However this time he looked at her with big puppy looking eyes and whimpered.
It took her a moment before letting out an annoyed growl and walked over to a bench next to a case of weapons and sat down. "There? Happy?"
"Other me must have the patience of a saint to deal with her stubbornness." Spike muttered.
"I wouldn't blame her." Serenity said as she and the girls took this moment to look around their current room.
Unlike the statues of various Dragonlords as they've seen, this room looked like it was dedicated to a more humanoid figure.
Elizabeth went up to one of the statues and looked upward. Though time has gone through and eroded the works of art, this one, next to a large artwork depicting a story of it, was more intact.
She tilted her head to the side curiosity before glancing over to Rachel, who was taking a drink of her cantine and back up to the statue. Elizabeth turned to look at one of the images on the wall and let out a soft gasp.
"Rachel darling, you might want to see this." Elizabeth called out.
Rachel let out a large sigh before getting up. "What?" Rachel grunted when she approached her.
Elizabeth glared at her hostility before pointing up at the artwork and statue. "Looks familiar?"
Rachel hissed at her before looking up. When she looked at the art, she felt her breath leaving her body.
The artwork had scenes of events carved and painted, one of the scenes was of the Dragonlord at the time, the same green and purple dragon Rachel seen in her vision days ago, kneeling in front of a woman who was also on her knees. The way the Dragonlord held the woman's head up was gentle as he kissed her.
She looked up at the statue, it was the carving of the same girl on the wall but looking at it now, Rachel knows who she was. Though she has never heard anyone mentioning her, seeing the art and statue sparked a name.
"Rúna," Rachel muttered.
"Who?" The girls asked.
The more Rachel stared at art, the more she felt like she knew what the murals were depicting. She didn't know how this was possible but she was beginning to understand what everything was saying.
"Rachel, what is it?" Cassandra asked, snapping photos of the artwork.
"This…this tells the story of the first Human Queen of the Dragons." Rachel responded. "The first and only one." She walks over to a panel where she sees Rúna being encountered by the dragons. She noticed the dragons were wearing matching emblems of two figures dancing around. She points at it. "That's the emblem of the DragonLord's hoard, his harem." She knows that from Dragon's Lair. She counted five of his hoard facing the human.
She walked around. "This room tells how she came to be, how she rose up."
"You know for sure?" Applejack asked. "This is all in a different language eons ago."
"Guys, I can't explain it but I-I do." Rachel said. She walked over to where it was just Dragonlord Nenog and Rúna were alone, looking over to where there was a burning village and the woman as a child. Going exactly how Rachel saw in her vision. She points at the green dragon. "That is Nenog, he was the last Dragonlord that ruled the Earth before everyone moved to Equestria. I remember hearing tales about him when I went and attended the Migration."
"You were allowed to go on a Dragon Migration?" Sunset asked.
"Who the fuck you think is the father to this kid?" Rachel points at her belly before continuing to look, taking in all the information she was receiving.
"What did this girl do to become Queen?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Did she sleep with him?"
"Not until after he claimed her in front of everyone over there," Rachel points at the one they were kissing and froze. "Okay, how the hell do I know that?"
Sunset watched her. "I've heard something about this in Equestria. Depending who your ancestor is, we all have something in our minds that is a direct link to our past lives, seeing bits and pieces of their memories deep within our minds…. Rachel, I think you're seeing yours."
"You may have a point." Rachel said. "Rúna was brought here by the dragons after they saved and brought over other refugees from her burning home," she explained as she gazed up at the artworks. "Over the years, Rúna worked her way up the ranks. As a child, she worked to serve the ones who saved her life, pledging to serve the Dragonlord. As time went on, she became a member of the Mordi, the humans who were given magic by the dragons…around that time, she developed a friendship with Nenog, and apparently, it grew from there." She went over where the members of his hoard confronted Rúna. "The Hoard grew jealous of the fact Nenog had been spending more time with Rúna than them so a couple challenged her."
Rachel looks at the scenes of the battle, she sees Rúna, wearing a type of ceremonial combat mask on and fighting them head on. Fighting until one of the five lay dead and another injured. "This woman fought like hell to defend herself from the Hoard…that was until Nenog stepped in and entervined."
She closed her eyes and shuddered, remembering Spike did something similar to her what feels like ages ago, when it was five months ago… Rachel opened them up again and looked. "Nenog, he proclaimed his love for her right in front of everyone, casting his Hoard away for their treachery." her eyes fell back on the kiss. "They were both in love…"
The longer Rachel stared, the more she began to recognize Rúna more.
When Sombra had her, he used his magic to try and mess with her, only for both of them to slip into a place, the colosseum like the ones in the paintings. The woman that sat on the throne watching, holding the Blue Celestial in her hands….she awakened that last push of magic needed for Rachel to complete her change. The woman that looked similar to Rachel…it was Rúna.
"Wait, hold up, Sunset, you said she was seeing memories of her past life…" Rainbow Dash looked between Rachel and the statue. "Her past life was a queen? And she's a queen now?"
"Looks like history repeating itself here." Cassandra said, snapping photos of Rachel from behind.
There were still a lot of memories missing since Rachel didn't know the whole story, but she does see some similarities between her and Spike with Rúna and Nenog.
She did, however, point to the artwork that had the Queen holding the blue staff. "That's the staff I'm looking for." Rachel told them. Staring at the blue staff, with the streak of black like a pupil looking at her as she ascended to the throne. "I'm not leaving until that staff is in my hands."
There was a low rumbling sound the second Rachel said that. The walls of the temple began to shake, floors began to vibrate beneath their feet.
"Is that a sinkhole formin?!" Applejack yelped.
"Let's get out of here!" Lucy shouted.
Rachel glanced at the depiction of the staff one more time before she followed with the rest of the girls. However, when they emerged out of the room, they saw, not a large hole bringing everything down to the abyss, but the actual walls of the Temple was shifting. A new wall slid into place where they came from, another direction of the hallway shifted as well, creating a new pathway right next to the room they just came out of.
The rumbling would continue for a full straight minute before everything became still.
Their way of marking where they've been was now rendered useless, the whole Temple shifted.
"Ooooh this is not good." Sunset muttered. The whole gang stood there in shock, staring at the new wall that blocked where they had just come from. Some looked in disbelief.
Rainbow Dash ran up to the wall and proceeded to try and push the wall. "Guys, we have to push it back!" She tried to get a grip and push but there wasn't anything for her to grab and the stone walls weren't going anywhere.
"Has this happened to you the last time you were here?" Serenity asked Rachel.
"No! No, this didn't happen before." Rachel placed a hand on her belly as she continued to look at the wall.
"Does this mean we're going to be lost?" Spike asked with a whimper.
"Okay, let's not panic, we just have to retrace our steps." Cassandra panted, adjusting her glasses.
"Something tells me that we can't do that." Elizabeth whimpered.
As everyone was starting to panic, Rachel and Spike whipped their heads around when they began to hear a new sound.
Sounds of heavy footsteps marching this way.
"Everyone, hide." Spike whispered.
The gang ran back into the room they were just in. All of them scrambled to find a place to hide, knocking into things and themselves to get into positions. Hiding behind racks, pillars, dark corners of the room, just trying to hide.
"Where's Rachel?" Lucy asked, poking her head out from her hiding place, the light on her headlamp shining everything.
"Turn off the fucking lights!" Rachel hissed.
Lucy lifts the light up. She sees Rachel up high on one of the tall statues, clinging to the side of the head with her claws digging into the stone to keep herself up. Using a lot of upper body strength to keep her clinging to that stone head. "Oooh, how did you get up there so fast?"
Applejack, who was hiding next to her, grabs Lucy and pulls her back into hiding and all the lights turned off.
About two-three minutes later, they began hearing voices.
"Goddamnit, the fucking walls moved again?!" what sounded like an American man cursed.
"This is getting old, really, really fast." Another American sounding man grunted.
Using helmets with lights on, two soldiers came in, both carrying assault rifles. The gang tried their best to hide from the lights. Holding their breaths as the two walked in.
"I just want to get back to the throne room." Soldier one snarled, "Getting sick and tired of coming back into this room."
"If those damn archeologists hadn't blown up that room a couple of weeks ago, this place wouldn't be going crazy." Soldier two grunted before getting on the radio.
Then their radios activated. "Jameson, Leroy, what the hell is taking you guys so long to get back into base?" A female voice called out from their radios.
The two soldiers glared at each other before Soldier one responded. "Kepler, this is Leroy. The walls changed on us again, Jameson and I are back in one of the weapon rooms."
"Dammit it's like this place came alive. Okay, find your asses back here. Forget finding Avery, just get you two back here. Watch out for the hostiles, their attacks are getting bolder and bolder every minute."
"Hostiles?" Rachel muttered as she watched these guys.
The girls below moved when they saw the men turning around.
"Leroy, I get why we need to go to Equestria, but this creepy ass infested temple is making me not want to do this." Jameson said.
"We have to kill these things before they start bringing in everyone within a month, it's our duty." Leroy said with a grunt. "Besides, you want to piss off Lockhart? That big bastard has a temper worse than these fuckers. Think he takes pleasure in killing those things."
Rachel covered her mouth to stifle a gasp. No, for fuck sakes, no not him!
If her father was here, it really can't be good. The military must've reinstated him… All Rachel knows is that if her father was here and he sees her, she's dead. He'll kill her on the spot!
As those two talked and went to leave, Spike, being bunched up against Cassandra, began sensing something and he began to tremble, tail tucked between his legs in fear. "S-somethings here…" he whispered as a series of clicking sounds began echoing the chambers.
The soldiers held their guns up and began looking around. "Fuck, here we go again." One of them grunted. Their backs against each other and looking up at the high ceilings.
Rachel moved from view when the lights shone in her direction. Moving towards the other side of the statue's head, she froze. Hearing something dropped from above and landed next to her, hearing this low hiss that chills her blood.
Rachel slowly turned her head, adjusted her grip to see what was beside her. She sees a dark figure clinging right close to her, something that has multiple points in the darkness.
Her hand trembled with the light in her head before turning it on. Instantly regrets it. There was a large ash white skinned creature with white scales in various places, had straggly dark strains of hair with bone with spikes that goes along it's head and back with two white horns about a foot long sticking out of the hairline. Dragon looking green eyes with black scleras, large pointy ears, sharp teeth. The nose was snub looking, wearing a short loin cloth right up close to her. When it opened its mouth, it let out an inhumane shriek and lunged at Rachel.
Rachel let out a scream before being tackled. Both her and the creature fell off of the statue, both crashed below.
The two wrestled on the ground before the creature got on top of Rachel, dug it's long dagger like claws into her shoulders before it leaned over and sank its teeth into her neck. Rachel let out a hellish scream as she fought to get it off of her.
The girls shouted and went to help her. One soldier turned and aimed their light and gun at them while the other took aim and shot the creature on top of Rachel.
"Freeze!" Leroy barked at the girls and dog while Jameson went over to the other two, pulled the body of the dead creature off of her. Rachel lay on the ground, her heart racing, her neck and shoulders bleeding and in pain, breathing erratic. There was a mix of her red blood and this black substance, the creature's blood splattered all over her.
"Sirs please, our friend is pregnant, don't hurt her!" Sunset shouted before the gun aimed at her.
"Shut it. Jameson, how's the other one?" Leroy barked.
"She's alive, unbelievably." He responded as he knelt down and began minister first aid for her.
"Just who the fuck are you guys and how the hell you get in here?" Leroy interrogated them. When one of them moved, he barked at them to not move.
Jameson helped apply bandages and basic first aid to Rachel before helping her sit up. "Easy there."
Rachel pants as she placed a hand on her stomach. "My baby… is.. is it.." she couldn't form the words. That thing and she took a twenty foot drop and the way it was on her. Could very easily have harmed the baby. If she loses this baby, all of this would be for nothing.
As Jameson goes to radio this in, he is interrupted by a spear whizzing through the air, piercing him right in the head and falls to the ground, having Rachel gasped out loud.
Serenity let out an ear piercing scream as Leroy whipped around, seeing his comrade on the ground dead. He looks at Rachel before looking up.
All of them looked up and saw there were more of those creatures clinging to the ceiling, some holding spears and blades. A couple looked like females with their horns bowing more and wearing chest pieces covering their exposed breasts.
"RUN!" Leroy screamed at them as he began shooting at the creature's as they jumped and went to attack.
Rainbow Dash sped up to Rachel, quickly grabbed her, pulling her up before everyone made a run for it. Leaving the soldier behind as they ran out of the chambers.
The gang bolted down the new pathway, hearing the screams of the soldier and bullets flying, followed by those blood-curdling noises the creatures were making.
They continued to run before they came to a stop where they were faced with four passages.
"Which one?" Elizabeth asked, frantically looking at the paths, looking behind them to see if more of those things were following. "Just what were those things?!"
"T-they were everywhere, oh God, those soldiers were dead!" Serenity cried.
Cassandra and Spike looked over at Rachel, looking over at her wounds. Spike pressed his ear up against her womb, listening in for a moment before nodding.
"Okay, okay, the baby's good, breathing hectic but what the hell just happened, I am too." Spike whimpered. "You okay?"
Though Rachel was relieved the baby was okay, she was not okay. "I don't know. But those things just showed up out of nowhere!"
Cassandra looked at the bite neck of hers. Any longer and that creature would've ripped the flesh off.
"This wasn't what we signed up for, Sunset." Applejack grunted.
"I know, none of us knew this was going to happen!" Sunset shouted.
"We have to leave, now!" Serenity sobbed.
They heard more of those creatures coming down the path they came from.
"We gotta go." Lucy yelped. "Which way do we go?!"
"Eenie, meanie, miney that one!" Dash shouted, pointing at the path on the right.
Not arguing, the gang continued to run with those things in their tails.