The Stars That Bind Us

Alarms were set off as word of the young prince was kidnapped spread across Equestria. The War Council held a special session at the Dragon Palace, the troops ready, combining all the creatures in the armies ready to go.

In the obsidian and gold colored chambers, all the leaders gathered.

"Okay, can someone please tell me how King Sombra got ahold of military vehicles and made it to where the weapons can pass through powerful barriers??" Rachel asked, in the room was both her mate, Ember who had attended past meetings and Malik. Tensions were tight as all eyes were glaring at the Humans.

Casting aside of their casual modern clothes, dressed in armor and silk.

All eyes on Staff Sergeant Amir.

“It seems to be a distinct pattern of this. Care to explain, Staff Sergeant?” Celestia askedwith a calm, but clearly firm tone.

Annoyed even more at the humans withholding valuable information. As a result a baby was taken and more lives lost because of it.

The humans looked squeamish with all the threatening glares, especially coming from the two dragons who were hit the most of this travesty.

Amir stood. “First and foremost, you have my deep apologies my lady and…lor~”

“Save your damn apologies, how could you guys let not only a nuke but other high military assemblies slip from your hands? More yet, why the actual fuck would you bring them here in the first place?!” Rachel snapped. Her eyes red from the tears she shed of her now missing son.

First her mate, now her son?! She was more than ready to end all the lives who were responsible for this.

Spike had to put a firm hand on her shoulder, holding her back as she was looking like she was about to launch across the table to get to the humans.

Even though the feeling was highly mutual.

Amir looked to the rest of the humans and let out a sigh. “During the early days of the conflict, we brought in our weapons piece by piece. Vehicles, arsenal, anything that our Chief and the UN declared necessary when coming to the new world. We believe that during our movement, some of our cargo was misplaced.”

“A sock gets misplaced, jewelry gets misplaced. Just last week my wife misplaced the remote to the Telly,” Malik said. “Mates, you don’t just bloody misplace your stuff especially when it comes to items of war. No offense, I know I am meant to be just a witness and stand guard, but this is just gross negligence.”

“Oh no, you’re right,” Spike said. He turned to the humans. “There were seven of those things that attacked us. How could you lose seven of them?”

The humans collectively paled. The rest of the War Council did not like how the silence screamed.

“The war hasn’t been going on that long, the Portal closed roughly a month after your guys stormed. Most certainly not long enough to bring in seven.” Rachel huffed. “One I can understand, two maybe. But seven helicopters were in the hands of Sombra, that assault destroyed our sanctuary, had Sombra taken our son.”

One of the humans, not Amir, stepped up. A skinny looking fair skinned man dressed in similar jumpsuits as the others of the entourage. He looked no older than nineteen, barely an adult. “We had them brought in before the assault.”

“Private Hoffman!” Amir snapped at him.

The council looked heated when the private spoke up.

“Excuse me?” Celestia glared. “Before the assault?”

Amir waved his hands. “Please excuse this Private. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. A young boy here.”

“No, this has gone long enough. We’re just creating a bigger multiversal crisis.” Private Hoffman said to the speaker before turning to the rest of the races. “We began smuggling our military efforts long before a war began. Had plans on creating a military outpost somewhere along the desert.” The private explained. “It’s been going on for a couple of years, that’s what I heard guys saying.”

“Private Hoffman, you are ordered to cease talking at once!”

“Sorry sir, but I can’t just keep my mouth shut when we live in a world where magic exists and precious cargo ends up missing.” Hoffman defended.

“No no, please, by all means, continue to explain to us how you royally fucked up.” Ember growled.

“If you say a couple of years, this means it wasn’t Sombra who stole them.” Celestia said. “It seems Blueblood has been busy hitting your outposts.”

“We will be renegotiating our Treaty once the portal opens and communications are back on. Going to look at what you built right under our noses, but as of right now, we cannot wait for the portal to open.” Luna said. “I say we have played defense long enough, it is time for us to go on the offense and strike Sombra.”

“Now you’re speaking my language.” Rachel agreed. “But first and foremost, Igneous has to be found. As much as I want to kill Sombra, getting our son back is top priority.”

“Allies hid lies and chose to neglect, this we can all recollect. A child’s life hangs in vain, we go to attack and will cause all pain.” Chief Druid Leaf spoke. “The tyrant waits in his fortress for some of us to snap, we just might be walking into a trap.” He looked at Rachel and Spike at that.

“I agree with the Chief here,” Pharynx said. “As much as getting the kid is important, we might be running head first into a trap. With this bomb he has, he might be using Igneous as bait to get all of us together before blowing our asses up.”

“It’s a risk we have to take.” Spike grunted. “We’re not going to just sit around long enough to let Sombra do whatever he wants to Igneous. He’s a baby for damn sakes. I know this is my first meeting and all, but I say we attack."

"If you just storm the base, you'll only get yourself slaughtered." The Staff Sergeant quickly spoke.

"Unless you can tell us more of what else the Humans brought in that clearly goes against the established Treaty, using our kindness and generosity for your personal gain, for your sake, I suggest you stop talking." Celestia irritatedly growled.

While Amir hated and glared at the rest of the council, the other humans looked ashamed about their actions.

"We have to plan carefully, we can't just waltz into an Ursula Major's den." One of the leaders spoke. "With all of our combined armies, Sombra's hellspawn still outnumber~"

Unable to just sit around and talk as her emotions come to a boiling point, The Queen excuses herself from the table and quickly leaves.

"Uh, you might want to go after her." Malik said to Spike.

"He's right," Ember said. "I'll finish up with these guys." Her normal snippy attitude she carried dwindled when it came to this.

A mother's heart can be strong and fragile. As strong as Rachel is, she's in a very vulnerable state.

Her own ticking time bomb, waiting to explode on the world.

Spike nodded. "I'm sorry, I have to go," he announced to the council before he turned and left.

As Spike went to track down where his Queen had gone, he took a look around. Now taken back the mantle as Dragon Lord, walking down these familiar hallow halls brought about a new sensation. Passing other dragons who both bowed to him with respect but also uncertainty.

Since it wasn't known until recently the True Dragonlord was revealed. Those who served Ember were undoubtedly duped. Some looked to him as untrustworthy. To be hidden from the rest of them.

But none could deny the pain the parents were feeling. The pain of their stolen prince. The pain of the Queen all came to trust and followed into battle for the past year alone.

Spike eventually found Rachel in what will become their chambers. She stood over the empty bassinet. A light colored blanket in her hands.

He didn't say a word as he watched her.

Rachel trembled as she stood over it. Her heart is on the verge of forever shattering. Forever unable to pick the pieces together if the unthinkable happens. She raised the blanket up to her snout, still has remnants of her baby's sweet honey-like newborn scent.

Recalling the months she spent carrying him in her womb. Recalling all the dark and horrors she faced in this war, telling herself that she was doing it as a means to an end, to make the future safe when he comes to the world.

Rachel believed she had known all kinds of pain in her life. She thought she experienced every known torment and abuse either worlds could throw at her.

This pain. This was nothing like she ever felt.

"You know…. There was a small bet a lot of dragons and our friends had going on," Rachel spoke softly to Spike as she hugged the blanket. "While I was pregnant, they bet if I was either going to lay an egg or give birth to him as normal?" She looked up to him. "I told them that if I spent months of my stomach growing to only have to shoot an egg out of me and had to wait years for it to hatch, I'd lose my ever loving mind?" She stifled a strained chuckle mixed with soft cry.

Spike held the Blood Staff in his tail before silently walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her from behind. She held into his arms with a shudder.

"We have to get him back…." She whispered. "We have to, Spike." Her voice breaks,

"We will," Spike promised. "We're not going to stop until he's back." He then let out a snarl. "Sombra is going to pay for this. He's going to die for what he has done to all of us."

"With how the Council was debating, Igneous is there. I-I can't think of what Sombra is doing to him." Spike could feel her trembling body.

One of the strongest creatures he has ever met was reduced to this. Sombra will pay for this.

"Instead of waiting, why don't we just go?" Spike asked, causing her to turn.

"What?"

Spike nodded. "Obviously the Council is split, I've been in enough of these meetings in the past to know that they'll argue with nothing ever getting done. We have armies, we have devices to fight against the hellspawn. I am not going to just sit here.

"Dragons were built for war, we got more numbers than what the council has given us. We can recruit the Ancients and Elders. I know Torch will love going into battle once more."

Rachel thought about it for a moment and nodded. The Blue Celestial hummed in agreement from the corner of the room.

"We have more than enough. But he has stockpiles of weapons. Before Sombra came back, Blueblood had been developing ways to use human resources to go against our magic." Rachel said.

"We're stronger than you think. We need to plan, and I got one… Just need a map to the bastard's fortress."

"And know if Igneous is actually there." Rachel added.

"That I can provide." The voice of Discord echoed in their chambers before he made himself known.

The couple strengthened when the Spirit of Chaos appeared.

With a snap of his bear claws, a detailed blueprint appeared on a table across the room.

The rulers approached to look at it. It was a map of the whole chateau.A circle of a room somewhere on one of the bottom floors was marked.

"I had taken the liberty of finding out where the baby was placed once I heard the news." Discord said. "It's heavily guarded and trapped but he's in that chamber."

Rachel nodded before gazing at him. "Thank you so much for this, Discord."

Discord waved his hand off at her. "Don't go soft on me, girly. You need to be on your A-game if you want to rain down hell on that pony's head."

"And Hell's coming to him." Spike agreed as he studied the prints.

Rachel looked at it as well and pointed at the dungeons. "There's mindless thralls and a Cerberus guarding there, but if the dungeons had a chamber where Igneous is hidden there, we can try to use the path where Neighsay and I used to escape. It'll be a way in." Rachel said as she took a quill, dipped it in ink before drawing a black line to where they had escaped and drew the pathway as best of her memory to the dungeons.

"Clearly, Sombra will be expecting a grand assault, so I have a plan. We'll split up into two squads." Spike said. "One will lead an attack up front here," Spike grabbed the quill and drew a large circle outside of the chateau. Out in the courtyard. "While the second team will storm inside and extract Igneous and bring him out. Once he's safe, we'll merge both teams and take Sombra down once and for all. I'll cover the extraction."

"Nuh-uh, you're not going to leave me behind." Rachel growled. "We're doing it together."

Spike shook his head. "I'm not leaving you behind. You'll be in charge of the assault. You said it before, you saw the War and fought since the beginning, you're going to see it till the end. You need to focus on keeping the bastard's forces focused on the battle. Do what you do the best. Once Igneous has been extracted, given to you, you'll take him to this checkpoint, " Spike drew a circle that was away from the fight. "Hand him off to your Second and come back. We'll take Sombra down once and for all."

"What about the Nuke?" Rachel asks. "If it goes off, we all will lose. By luck it'll destroy Sombra in the process but we'll all die."

"I say kill the humans that were used for the construction while you're there." Discord suggested. "There are two ways that bomb can go off: there's two keys and a combo. Let's hope Sombra doesn't have either or. They are too intertwined with whatever Blueblood had done to them mixed with daddy's magic to be saved. From what I saw, the creatures that were taken are far to gone, death will be a mercy for them."

"If that's what it takes to save Iggy, I'm game." Rachel said coldly.

Spike nodded. "Then we got a plan. Let's gather everyone, we move out."