Rewrite the Stars

Neighsay was taken completely back to see this strange new creature in front of his cell. Not what he had in mind when he heard something that wasn’t the White Mantle guards nor the mind controlled humans he could hear lurking in the dark. Ever since Blueblood had thrown him in here and covered his horn in black crystals, he was unable to escape.

“Well…this is new.” He muttered. She looked draconic but he had never met a dragon with both scales and fur - she definitely wasn’t a kirin with her furled wings and taloned hooves.

The female lets out a huff before she turns to leave him here.

“Wait! Wait let me out, we can escape together!” He called out for her again. “I-I am a higher up within the Canterlot politics!”

He just hears the talons scraping the floors.

“I know things that are useful for the Princesses to hear, Blueblood’s plans and the portal that opened!”

Nothing again.

“Do you not understand me, you stupid animal?!”

As soon as he said that, she came back and kicked the door off its hinges, nearly hitting him and it fell to the ground with a loud bang and he let out a girlish scream.

“Could you like shut the fuck up?” Rachel snarled at him.

Neighsay's chest quickly rose and fell as she entered the cell and walked up to him.

"What in Equestria are you?" He asked, trying to figure out what she was.

Rachel’s ears pinned backwards as she looked down at her hooves. She scowled at the sight of them. “I have no freaking clue.”

To her, the taloned hooves were so freaking ugly! Like the universe didn’t know what to make her feet during the transformation and decided to give her both claws and hooves.

“Well, whatever you are, could you be so kind as to let me out?? I don’t want to stay here anymore than I have to.” Neighsay asked, tugging on the chains he was dangling off of. “And hurry before Blueblood comes back.”

Rachel tilts her head. “Why should I?” he doesn’t know that Blueballs is gone…huh.

Neighsay stuttered. “Were you not listening when I said I have very important information I could give to the Princesses about Blueblood’s plans and how the portal opened to the human world.”

“Oh, you mean his plan to bring about war and chaos between humans and ponies which he successfully has done?” She hummed as her tail flickered, feeling the tail fur brushing up against her leg, causing her to jump a little. “Oookay that’s something I gotta get used to.” she shuddered. She shook her head before looking at him. “You do realize Blueblood is gone right? Sombra is here.”

Neighsay’s grunted. “That’s impossible. Sombra has been gone for~”

Rachel gets into his face with a menacing growl. She didn’t want to hear that bs and he got the hint.

“Uh, okay he’s here.”

Rachel stepped back from him and crossed her arms. She eyes at him, the chains, the crystals on his horn. “I’m gonna go out of a limb that Blueblood recruited you after you got canned by the princesses and he turned on the redcoat. That is you and that’s why you’re here, Neighsay?”

Neighsay’s eyes widened. “How do you know my name?”

“My fianceé is good with description. So if I set you free and we leave, you're gonna come clean to the princesses?” Rachel asked as her ears peered down the hallway to hear some movement coming their way. “Might wanna be quick about it, there’s another wave of White Mantle goons and mind controlled humans coming this way and I want to get the fuck out of here and save my mate so please make the right choice.”

“Yes! Yes, let me out of these shackles and I’ll turn myself in!” Neighsay shouted.

Rachel quickly reached for the shackles, grabbed the chains, used her hoof to brace the wall and pulled as hard as she could.

The chains snapped and Neighsay dropped to the ground.

“You okay?” Rachel asked as the chancellor dusted his dirty suit off before standing up. She stood tall over him. If she had to guess, she was just at Spike’s height in comparison to how tall Neighsay was.

Tall but not too tall, she was okay with that.

“Yes thank you, now let's get going.” Neighsay said and the two shuffled out of the cell and bolted down the hall. “What’s your name?” He asked as they ran.

“Rachel.” Rachel responded, keeping her senses on high alert for any movement that wasn’t rodents and bugs crawling around.

Neighsay had to do a double take when she said her name. Looking up and down at her. “Rachel Lockhart??”

“Uh yeah, lemme guess, Blueballs talked to you about me?” She asked as they turned a corner.

When she turned and saw something large, she grabbed Neighsay’s shoulders and pulled them both back, pressing up against the wall and motioned him to be quiet.

She peeked over the corner and saw there was a rather large three headed dog sniffing the ground, guarding a rather large dark door.

“He’s got a Cerberus??” she murmured. She didn’t know Cerberus’ existed in this world!

“That’s Lexie.” Neighsay whispered. He looked at her form again. “She guards the dungeons… You’re Rachel Lockhart? Aren’t you supposed to be human??”

She slaps her furry tipped tail over his mouth to shut him up. “Yes I was, now shut up.” She hissed him before turning back to the cerberus. The white three headed dog with bloodshot eyes sniffed the ground. With two of the heads sniffing the ground, the third on one the left was looking around.

From what Rachel could tell, the three headed dog was taller than her, if she had to guess, fifteenish feet tall. If memory serves her from reading books in this world and from what she heard from her Earth, Cerberus’s are immune to fire so blasting it will do nothing but piss it off. She’s strong but Rachel has no idea how strong she got and knew it would prove more of a challenge than the ponies and humans she fought.

“We need to find another way out.” Rachel whispered when she pulled her head back.

Neighsay shook his head. “The only way out of the dungeons is past Lexie. I memorized the way when I was taken. If I had these confounded crystals off of my horn, I could use my magic to lull her to sleep.”

“You kidding me?”

“Does it look like I’m kidding??” He points at the crystals on his horn. “These crystals are what is preventing me from using my magic. So you are going to have to~”

He was cut off when Cerberus’s heads poked around the corner and bared their teeth at them and growled.

Both Rachel and Neighsay screamed out of surprise and Neighsay books it down the other way.

Rachel goes to follow before the hellhound swings her large three heads like a battering ram and hits the she-dragon, knocking her down to the ground. She went to get up before the large paws came down on her.

She stuck her hands out and grabbed it, trying not to let it come down on her. Letting out her own growls and snarls, with one hand trying to hold the paw up, Rachel took her other hand, claws out and slashes across its pads.

Cerberus let out a painful yelp and backed up. Blood was quickly dripping from its paw. One of the heads proceeds to lick it to try and soothe the pain while the other two heads snapped at Rachel.

While one head and paw was preoccupied, it was limping, but it was coming after Rachel.

Rachel got to her hooves with a grunt and leapt into the air, her wings automatically spread out, giving out a quick single flap and she was up in the air for a moment. Balling both of her fists, she slammed it down on one of the hound’s heads. “Bad girl!” she snarled,

The center head yelped while the left head grabbed her by the waist midair, teeth chomping but unable to pierce through the thick fur and scales underneath. Rapidly shook its head furiously trying to chomp down on her.

Rachel let out a hiss and began punching it on the side of the head and muzzle, trying to get it to let go.

Neighsay ended up coming back, this time with a large sword he swiped from one of the fallen guards. “Here!” He called out to Rachel and tossed it to her.

Rachel tried to catch it but missed and scattered on the ground. Cerberus kicks the sword away and lets it fall into a nearby drain.

“You gotta be shitting me!” Rachel snarled as she continued to hit the dog.

The center head snapped at her, trying to bite her legs and tail, kept getting kicked and clawed in the face by her hooves. The head on the right was still nursing the bleeding paw.

Neighsay had to think, he knows he can’t physically go toe to toe with the hellhound and his magic was out of commission for a moment.

Unable to think of anything, the Chancellor had no choice but to race up to the fight. He jumps up and lands on top of the dog. He climbed up to one of their heads and grabbed onto the collar and pulled.

The center head yelped, the left head finally let go and flung Rachel into a wall.

Cerberus bucked and shook, trying to throw Neighsay off of her. Neighsay held on as long as he could before the hellhound slammed itself into a wall, slamming him against it.

The force of the impact was enough to knock the black crystals off.

As soon as Neighsay was off, Lexie turned back to Rachel, seeing her collecting herself.

She got into a stance. “Come on!” She snarled.

Both she and the hellhound charged at the same time.

The heads snapped, paws swiped, Rachel dodged it, rushing in, grabbing the dog by the belly. As hard as she could, she picks Cerberus up and goes backwards, throwing the dog over her shoulder and watching it crash into another wall, causing a dent in its path.

Lexie whimpered, shaking her head as it came back to her paws. The three heads snarled and got up once more and charged at Rachel.

Just as she was about to grab one of the heads, Neighsay jumped in front of her, his horn glowing orange and an ethereal lyre appeared out of nowhere.

Lexie stops in her tracks once the lyre appears.

Soft, angelic music began playing.

To Rachel’s surprise, Lexie the Cerberus was beginning to fall asleep! It didn’t take long before the hellhound curled up into a ball and fell asleep.

“Hmm, see, I told you so.” Neighsay smirked in satisfaction.

“Okay, that went better as planned.” Rachel huffed. “Thanks for the music, but let's go before she wakes up.”

“Yes.” Neighsay nodded before the two left the dungeons and began their ascend up the winding stairs.

Sisters Celestia and Luna were waiting for Spike to approach Canterlot. They had already locked down the streets, having their subjects hiding and using barriers to protect some homes and the castle.

“Are you sure this will work?” Celestia asked Luna as the two were in the air, their wings holding them upright. Their weapons - sun sword and scythe - in their hands, both dressed in their battle armor.

“It will have to, it's the only way to stop him without hurting Spike. If it doesn’t work, then we have to resort to more drastic measures. It’s not the first time we faced a raging dragon.” Luna said.

“This was thousands of moons ago, dear sister.” Celestia said, “Times have changed…” It was hard for her as well. Spike has always been in a special place in her heart, seeing him caused so much destruction was something she couldn’t handle. “We have to help him, he is also a victim in this mess.”

“I hate to say it, I don’t think those under the debris and bodies all around, our subjects won’t see it that way.” Luna said, staring out in the open.

The sisters looked out in the distance and saw the dragon flying towards them. The sisters get ready.

Spike flies in, the second he enters Canterlot airspace, fire immediately shoots out of his mouth and lets a heavy stream down the streets. Setting what buildings that weren't protected up a blaze.

The sisters donned their helmets and flew at him. Unicorn guards below were set up and ready.

Below on the streets, a large rune was carved, Unicorns were casting their spells to set in place.

Luna attacked first, flying up to Spike, using her scythe, she swung in the air, slicing a black portal open and many tendrils shot out.

The tendrils wrapped around Spike’s neck and hand, throwing the dragon to ground.

Spike roared and pulled, struggling to pull the darkness off of him before breathing fire at it. The tendrils disappeared.

Celestia launched herself at Spike. Swinging her sword at his snout, only to be caught by his claws and swatted at her. She moved out of the way before her horn glowed, the earth below began to shake and then rise up. Rocks and dirt shot up and began consuming him.

Spike fought against it, smashing the rock and breathing fire, creating shards of glass from the dirt that fell around them.

The rocks and dirt formed against Spike, creating a rock like cage, concealing him fully inside of it.

“I don’t know how long I can hold, he’s too strong.” Celestia grits her teeth, feeling Spike fighting inside. Concentrating all her energy on the earth's magic.

“We just need thirty seconds!” Luna said as the rune carved in the streets began glowing a bright purple color.

They have to keep Spike in place that long for their trap to be released. It would take him to a place where it’ll hold him until whatever he’s experiencing wears off.

The rock cage was violently shaking, pieces of stone fell each time he slammed his body against it.

Ten seconds.

Fifteen seconds.

When it hit for twenty seconds, the rocks exploded, sending the debris out and his tail spun and smacked Celestia, sending her tailspin and leaped in the air.

He slashes at Luna, only to have her move out of the way. She comes back to him with her scythe. The crescent blade glowing white before slashing across his large snout. Blade cutting through the tough scales.

Spike let out a roar before breathing fire at her. Luan held her arms up to protect her face as the blast propelled her backwards. The dragon continued to fly around Canterlot, and began destroying everything in his path.

The sisters quickly regrouped. "Okay, this is harder than I thought." Celestia huffed.

If they can't get Spike to stop moving on the ground, they would have to put him down for good.

Rachel and Neighsay were running as fast as they could down the halls of the chateau. The guards raced after them, a combination of magic, arrows and human artillery coming at them at all fronts.

"Go go go go!" Neighsay shouted as he used his magic to shield the two from the projectiles.

Every few moments, Rachel would stop to breathe bursts of blue fire at the guards, burning what she could in hopes of burning this hellhole to the ground.

"One of the doors to the outside is just up ahead!" Neighsay called out.

As the two raced for the door, four black portals opened, causing them to stop. Hellish noises and shrieks came out of them as several ghastly looking creatures with distorted faces crawling spider-like out of them.

"The fuck are those things?? " Rachel asked.

"Shriekers." Neighsay responded with a gulp. "Another inhabitant from Tartarus."

"Do we fight or do we run?" Rachel questioned as the Shriekers creepily made their way towards them.

One of them opened its twisted mouth, it didn't show any teeth but black goop dripped as it let out a horrific sound.

"RUN, DEFINITELY RUN!" Neighsay yelled and the two ran from them and the demons were in hot pursuit.

Sombra was determined to make sure no one escapes!

Neighsay used his magic to throw up a rock barrier as a means to keep the Shriekers at bay.

It bought them a few seconds before the creatures seeped through the miniature cracks, bodies turning into black goop, pushing themselves through before forming back together and continuing the pursuits.

"Know any magic that fights against demons???" Rachel asked him as they burst through another set of doors opening to another corridor.

"I may be a powerful unicorn, but I don't deal with creatures of Tartarus! I am part of the EEA! A school pony!" He snapped at her. "There's another set of doors outside nearby!"

The two ran with the Shriekers ganging up on them.

As they ran up to a set of double doors, more portals opened. This time the two didn't stop and wait, they ran past the portals as more Shriekers came out, bursting open to a dark and stormy weather outside. Rain from an incoming hurricane was hitting the cliff side mansion.

Rachel and Neighsay came to a skidded halt when they came up to the rocky edge, harsh waves of the sea colliding into the rock walls.

"Okay, can you fly with the both of us?" Neighsay asked, frantically looking up at her.

Rachel blinked. "Uh, what do you mean fly?"

His jaws dropped. "You have wings clearly and you don't know how to fly?!?"

Rachel growled in frustration, "you see this?" She waves her hands at her body, wings flexing and tail rapidly lashing around. "I just got through transforming like fucking thirty minutes ago! I literally just got these wings so no I don't know how to fly!" She then motioned to Neighsay. "You're a freaking unicorn, teleport us the hell out of here!"

"I don't do that kind of magic under this much pressure!" Neighsay snapped back at her.

Hearing the horrible sounds of the shriekers caused them to whip their heads towards the direction. Seeing more of them coming!

Rachel suddenly grabbed Neighsay by his shoulders. "What are you doing?!"

"One of us is getting both of us out of here!" Rachel shouted as she dragged Neighsay.

And both of them jumped. Either she figures out how to use her new wings, Neighsay gets them out or they hit the rocks and ocean below.

Either way it's better than not to be in Sombra's lair.

The two screamed as they fell. Rachel tried to get her wings to move, trying to flap to get airborne. She quickly discovered that she doesn't know how wings work, especially ones covered in fur!

Neighsay screamed, trying to concentrate. His horn sparked and fizzled out repeatedly.

As the rocks and ocean were quickly upon them, Neighsay finally managed to use his magic to open a portal and the two fell through. Neighsay falls and lands in a wagon full of hay.

He groaned before sitting up, patting his body to make sure all was there before throwing his arms up in victory and laughing.

"Yes! Oh yes! I'm alive! I'm aliv-"

He was cut off by Rachel falling on top of him. Her weight upon impact caused the wheels of the wagon to break and both were on the ground.

"Gonna feel that later." Rachel groaned, shaking the hay straws out of her hair.

Neighsay digs his way out from under her and glares up at her.

"Sorry," she said.

The two climbed out of hays and looked around their new surroundings. Both of them gasped out loud.

It was Canterlot, everything was on fire!

"Oh no." Rachel whispered, her hands covering her mouth.

"What in Tartarus??" Even Neighsay could not believe what he was seeing.

Then, a large shadow flies over them. Rachel's eyes widened as she felt hot tears streaming down her face.

It was Spike.

"Rarity, what have you done…?" Rachel whispered in horror as she watched him fly, trying to destroy the castle.

Her mate, her beloved, her fiance, soulmate, was turned into the very thing he feared the most… A monster.

"Okay, I'm lost, we just went from bad to worse!" Neighsay yelped.

The two then saw more figures flying after the dragon, the Princesses.

"At least they are taking action." The chancellor murmurs before seeing Rachel take off. "Where are you going now?!"

Rachel didn't respond as she raced towards the direction. She could feel her wings trying to work, but like a newborn baby, they didn't know what to do.

All she knew was that she had to get to high ground. In her new form, would he even recognize her in his state of mind??

She approached up to a tall church, she looked up at the scaffolding looking at the belfry.

Bingo.

Rachel leaps up, grabs hold of the siding of the church, her claws digging into the brick and wood for support and begins climbing up. Her heart thumped each time she heard her mate roared and buildings were being demolished.

She climbed as fast as she could before she came to the tippy top. Her hands bracing the roof for support.

"SPIKE!!" Rachel screams out as loud as she could from the top of her lungs to get his attention.

He obviously didn't hear her as he continued to fly, now fighting the Princesses.

"SPIKE!" Rachel called out again, this time with a bit more umph in it. A small roar escaped her lips.

That small roar did cause his head to turn and look around before the Princesses continued their assault on him.

Knowing what she has to do, she let out a series of coughs, banging her fist against her chest. "I can do this, come on, come on!" She psyched herself up.

She took in a deep breath, opened her mouth and let out a roar. Each roar she let out was sounding like a human and dragon, it still didn't register to Spike. Her throat burned as she kept at it and at it until she let out a huge colossal roar, shingles from rooftops shook, glass shattered.

Her voice carried in the wind, it caused the Princesses to stop fighting. Spike's earfins flutter when he hears the sound of another dragon.

Snarling, he flies away from the castle and the two Alicorns, following the dragon call.

Rachel belts out one roar after another. Roaring until she lost all air to her lungs, causing her to gasp out breathlessly.

As she catches her breath, Spike responds with his own roar. She looked up as she saw the large beast coming in for a landing. His wings kicked dirt and debris as he touched the ground.

His neck lowered to where his eyes were looking at her.

"Spike!" Rachel called out. "Baby it's me! It's me!"

By God she hopes he recognizes her!

Spike snorted and growled, baring his teeth at her. Past the smell of smog and smoke, he noticed that this small furry creature smelt… oddly familiar. He tilted his head curiously as he leaned closer, smelling her ambrosial scent.

Something about her was making him feel different. His heart began fluttering some. Rachel could see he started to relax some, his eyes were shifting to something she herself recognized every time Spike gazed at her.

"It's me, Spike. It's me." She whispers. "Ooh babe, what did they do to you… " she raises a hand out. Bravely reached and placed it on his large snout. He closed his eyes as he felt her gently touching him with a low sound.

He was recognizing her!

"It's going to be okay, it will." Rachel said assuringly.

That was when she ended up noticing the purple glow around them.

"Um what??" Rachel gasped.

The trap was finally triggered. The purple glowing rune illuminated the area. Coming out of the ground were large chains, one wrapped around Spike like a collar, one clamped down on his muzzle, grabbing his limbs.

Spike began thrashing about, trying to break free but found himself unable to. Letting out frightening snarls.

"The fuck is happening, what the fuck is happening?!" Rachel cried out, not knowing that she assisted this.

Spike resumed his angry tantrum, trying to break free.

Then, the earth began to open up and before she and her mate knew, Spike fell into the hole, disappearing down below. Hearing Rachel's screams above as the hole was sealed up.