6 days later

After finishing the night's fight with a single kick, Rachel was back in the locker room.

Though the fights were fairly quick, seeing Snowball's face as each fighter he sent out to have her fight only to get either knocked out with a well placed kick to the head or beaten to a pulp was a sight to see; she was still a bit aggravated.

And Spike was the cause of it.

He's all for leaving this place and being with her, but each time she brings up Equestria or their child, he becomes hesitant. She sees that he wants to tell her something but something holds him back. Whatever was holding him back was increasingly pissing her off.

Her mind began wandering in certain territories that only infuriating her more.

Her phone began going off in her bag. Rachel quickly reached for it and answered it.

The twins and Iggy came up on a face chat again. Seeing her baby instantly lighten her mood.

"Hey guys!" Rachel chirps.

"Hey girly." The twins greeted in unison.

Iggy sees his mother and made happy, croaking sounds, reaching out for the phone as if reaching out to her.

"Aww hi baby. I miss you. My God he's getting so big already!"

"Big and moving already." Gemcity said.

Ruby moved the phone to show the mess the happy baby made.

Rachel let out a gasp. "The cabin looks like a tornado whipped through there. What happened?" Her jaw dropped. Seeing the massive mess, she could see some of the guards were cleaning it up. "Are you saying Iggy did that??"

"Yes." The twins said before the phone got turned back to face the three.

"You failed to mention that baby dragons move at a couple weeks old." Ruby grunted.

Rachel couldn't help but giggle, covering her snout. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I knew baby dragons are just complete terrors but I didn't know Igneous had that trait. That was my bad." She said, but didn't stop giggling.

She felt bad that she wasn't there with Iggy. Her heart aches as to be so far away from him.

"So, have you kicked a week's worth of fighters' butts yet?" Gemcity asked as she scratched under Iggy's neck. He made short purring sounds, just like his father.

Rachel sighed deeply. "Three out of seven. Think I have about a couple of weeks, which sucks majorly."

"Why don't you just go off on Snowball and get it over with?" Ruby asked. "He has no chance against you. Finish up so you can be with your goblin child."

"Trust me, I want to badly. But knowing myself, I would straight up kill him, I don't trust myself to just torture him to set everyone free. If he dies, so is everyone trapped here, including Igneous's father."

The twins looked at each other, noticed that Rachel didn't say Spike's name.

"Okay, what did he do this time?" Ruby asked.

Rachel shrugged. "It's probably nothing." She grunted.

"Rachel, I know that look. What did he do."

"More like what he isn't doing. When I bring up certain topics, he becomes hesitant and changes the subject. I know he doesn't want to go back to Equestria after what happened, but something is holding him back, I can tell." Rachel explained. "Being with me is no problem, he wants to be with me."

"What about Iggy? How can anyone resist meeting this cutie?" Gemcity asked as she continued to make Iggy purr. Which was the only thing she could think of that would make the wiggly baby sit still.

"I can tell he wants to, but he's scared." Rachel said before shaking her head. "He's the first one that was so excited at the thought of being a father when we thought we were pregnant before. He was the first to talk about having kids, being a family more than I was. And now we do have a kid, he's scared of meeting him. I don't know what to say or do."

"Have you thought of video chatting the meet?" Ruby asked. "It'll be a small step."

Rachel made a look. "I don't want Spike's first meeting with his son to be through a screen. I don't want to scare him off or worse…"

The twins shared a look before turning back to Rachel. "You think he'll leave like Terrain?"

Rachel had a soft look but nodded. "That bastard left me after I had a miscarriage, saying it wasn't his kid that I lost when it clearly was. A part of me fears Spike will do the same."

She watched Iggy enjoying his scratches before he decided he had enough and pushed Gemcity's hand away before reaching out to Rachel. Wanting to be held by her again.

"I wanna hold you too, bud. Just a little while longer." Rachel softly said, touching the screen as if to touch him.

"Rachel," Ruby sighed. "You know that we have our thoughts about him, and how he did you dirty by leaving, but I don't think Spike is that stupid enough to just completely abandon you. He's not Terrain. If he leaves again, he's as good as dead by us."

"Harsh."

"No, we'll straight up murder him if he does something like that again. You don't deserve to get hurt anymore by him." Gemcity grunted. "Iggy doesn't deserve that."

"You two just need to sit down and talk. Lock yourselves in a room so he doesn't have anywhere to escape and talk. Hash things out. And do it soon because I don't know how much longer we can handle this Tasmanian Devil."

Iggy raised his hands up in the air and let out a roar.

However the roar was so cute it made the females gush.

As they pushed, Rachel's phone started beeping. She checked to see what it was and saw Malik's number pop up.

Her mood turned. "Okay I gotta take this. It's Malik. Iggy, be good to your aunties, I love you and I'll see you soon." Rachel said, blowing her baby a kiss. As much as she wants to be with him, she remembers that she has other responsibilities.

That of being a War Queen.

After saying their byes, Rachel answered Malik.

Again, it was a video chat, it took a second to get the video up. She sees her Second pressed up against a rock mound, sounds of gunfire and shrieks echoing around him. She could just make out one of the humans next to him shooting at something before ducking down and reloading.

Alarmed, Rachel sat up. "Malik, what's going on?" She asked as she heard the battle going.

"Uh yeah, sorry to interrupt you Dorothy but we have a bit of a situation here." Malik said as he briefly got up, his hands set a flame before throwing a fireball at something she can't see and hearing an explosion in the background. "We received word that there was a disturbance near the Settlement. Ember set a war pack and I out to see what it was and - oh fuck!"

Racjel watched as Malik jumped and rolled out of the way, barely catching sight of a black smokey tentacles slamming down where he just was. She heard screaming as some of the humans, Mordi and dragons.

Malik turned the camera and a familiar sight was shown. Ghastly looking creatures with distorted faces walking all spider-like, making a horrible demonic shriek. Alongside were black looking cat creatures with tentacles attacking and killing anyone that got near them.

"Shriekers." Rachel snarled. "The fuck is with them??"

"We call them Hellcats. Fucking bastards." Malik snarled as well, using his magic again, creating a fire shield to protect him and the soldiers near him. "With the portal opening soon, they are trying to take control."

Rachel was angry, gripping the phone tightly, not being a part of the fight. "Have you sent out reinforcements? LOOK OUT!" She shouted a warning as something shot at him.

Something hit her Second and the phone got knocked out of his hands, all Rachel saw next was black, but she could hear the fight.

Her heart raced as she heard the sounds. Not knowing if he's okay or everyone else. "Malik! Malik! Can you hear me, does anyone hear me!" She calls out. "Is anyone out there? What's happening!?" She called out in Draconic.

I gotta get there! Rachel thought, panicking. Quickly teleport there and help out the fight.

However she knows once she teleports herself and back, her energy would be wiped out and will leave her in a vulnerable state. She felt helpless and useless.

After an intense few minutes, the phone gets picked back up and it was Malik. "Sorry about that, bloody bastards are tough but I'm tougher."

Rachel let out a sigh of relief.

"These things don't like bright light, I know we're saving the lights for Sombra but may I suggest we use them??"

"Light them up!"

Malik nodded before turning the phone, Rachel could see that there were ponies, Changelings and griffons in the fight. "You heard the Queen, light these bastards up at will!" He barked.

The unicorns of the group nodded before they and the dragons took out devices from their bags. Small but powerful machines designed mostly for Sombra but desperate times cause desperate measures. A combined efforts of human, pony and dragon craftsmanship.

They set the devices down on the ground, grabbed the handles, pulled them up, gave them a twist to the right and slammed it down and pressed the button on the right side.

They backed away as the device activated. The gears turned and began to light up, light filled with magic energy caused them to lift in the air.

The light grew brighter and brighter before they exploded, everything became white as pure light energy shot throughout the battlefield.

There were loud screams echoing around them. Screams of the demonic creatures. Some of the humans who wore special goggles to deflect the light raised their guns and began shooting at the creatures.

They shot as long as the white light lingered. When everything finally returned to normal, the fight was over.

There were cheering everywhere. Rachel pressed the phone against her chest, letting out a deep breath that she was holding. "Fucking hell." She muttered before raising it back up. "Good job everyone."

"These light bombs were a badass idea." Malik chuckled before sighing.

"Yes they were. I'm going to call Ember. She was supposed to tell me if anything came up." Rachel then grunted. Though the high of seeing the battle won was good, there were casualties that needed to be documented. Ember was supposed to keep her in the loop. "Why didn't you call me the second she send you guys out??"

"Ember said that since she was Dragonlord longer that she had superiority. She knew what she's doing."

"She's Guardian. I'm trying to bring the true Dragonlord home. Easier said than done but I'm trying. Ember was supposed to keep me in the loop."

Great, now that's two Dragonlords that pissed her off.

"Document the casualties, hang around the Settlement for a few days to make sure things are squared away before heading back home. Meanwhile I gotta go and yell at Ember." She ordered.

"Will do. And Rachel, be careful."

"Will do, Scarecrow." She said before hanging up.

She gives herself a moment to compose herself before she goes to curse out Ember.

The door to Snowball's office opened and Spike stepped in. "You called for me?" Spike asked, not particularly happy that he was called in so he had a look on his face.

Snowball sat on his desk, rubbing the temples of his head.

"Yes, yes, come in boy."

Spike closes the door and steps closer to him. He crossed his arms while waiting to hear what the pig wanted.

Snowball looks up at him. "Rachel is your mate right? Is there any way you can convince her to not make me lose any more fighters?" He asked. The creatures he had Rachel are now unable to fight for a while or not at all with how gruesome she is. "I may be a bastard but I have bills to pay, she's making me lose money."

Spike blinked, trying to comprehend what he just asked before losing his composure and busted out laughing.

Snowball snarled as he watched Spike laughed as if he heard the funniest joke ever.

"I-Im sorry, you're asking me to ask her to stop?!" He laughs, wrapping his arms around his stomach, feeling like he's about to bust a gut.

"I'm losing money! I have those that will grill me alive if I don't fork over payments. Just tell her to take it easy!" Snowball snapped.

That only made Spike laugh harder. Laughing so much he had tears in his eyes.

Snowball's face flushed red before taking the remote out of his pocket and slamming it on the desk for him to see it. "Stop laughing this instant!"

It took a second for the dragon to stop laughing, but still giggling. Wiping his eyes with his hands. "Oooh shit, sorry but that was too funny. I can't ask her to do that." He smirked.

"Why not? Don't you like, wear the pants in the relationship or were you the bitch?"

Spike snarled. "Rachel has always been a fighter. She doesn't pull any punches for no one, stubborn as hell but she doesn't stop for no one until she gets what she wants." He said, keeping his feet planted on the ground to force himself to stay put. "If you want to stop losing fighters, give her what she came here for."

Snowball grunted. "You think I can just give you up that easily? You think the ponies in Equestria could forgive and forget the dragon that destroyed lives?"

"If you don't want to die yourself, let me go." Spike snapped. "If you go against her, you will not win. I'll be rooting for her. I doubt anyone here in Ironstone will come to your side if you cross my dragoness."

Even though Spike himself is having issues trying to talk to her, issues about going back, he'll go back with her and be with their son.

Before Snowball could say something, Spike turned to leave.

"If you value what life you have left, you'll reconsider." He warned Snowball before leaving the office.

Spike really needs to talk to Rachel.

Author's Note

Couple therapy anyone?