Rachel was sitting inside one of the trailers outside of the Temple early in the morning. She sat in front of a TV and a VHS player.

In her hands was a thick manila folder.

“I'm sorry, but what did you just say?” Rachel asked the lawyer. She, Spike and Igneous were at the park when this Sebastian fellow walked up to them.

She and Spike shared a look.

“There has to be some sort of mistake,” Rachel said, looking back at the lawyer.

“I can assure you, it's not.” Sebastian said, kneeling down as he put the briefcase on the ground. He unlocks it before opening it up.

He pulled out the envelope and held it up to the Queen.

“I was told with specific instructions to give this to you at this particular time and date. Darline had a… way of predicting things that ended up true. It was to make sure your father, Damian, never gets his bastard hands on it.”

Rachel passes Iggy to Spike before taking the folder.

It had a particular scent. Rachel sniffed it before gasping. Hands began to shake.

The folder had her mother's scent. Her perfume she used to wear, smelling like lilies and cherry blossoms.

The top of the envelope had her mother's handwriting with her nickname.

Doppelganger.

Rachel's hands shook as she opened the envelope, scattering the contents on the bed she was sitting on.

Three marked videotapes, a metal antique box and an old yellow note, along with old documents was all that was in there.

She picked the note up and read it.

My dearest Rachel,

By the time you read this, I am well long gone. The items I left for you are for your eyes only. You may not believe everything you're about to see, but I can assure you, my love, you'll come to understand it all.

I have only one request, watch the videos on the day they are marked for.

turn the page over.

Rachel turns the note around and she lets out a shuddered gasp.

It was a sketch of her. Rachel in her dragon form, sitting on her throne.

With how old the note was, there was no way anyone could have drawn this until at least now.

Rachel set the note down and looked at the tapes.

Days of this week were marked.

And to her surprise, the first tape was marked today. The second one marked in three days time..

And the last one was marked with WEDDING DAY.

“What the actual fuck?’

“Well look who's awake.” Twilight smiled when she saw Spike coming into the common room with Iggy.

So far it was Twilight and the girls, Shining Armor and Cadence and Flurry Heart.

“Hey every pony.” Spike greeted as he set his son down so he could run around the room and come up to join the others. “Are we the only ones awake?”

“So far yeah. They should be up soon.” Cadence responded.

Flurry Heart got up and ran over to her uncle and hugged him. “Sorry I missed you yesterday!”

Spike grinned and hugged his niece. “Well you're here now.” He chuckled.

She looks up at him. “Where's aunt Rachel?”

“Yeah, where is the bride? We need to talk to her about yesterday.” Shining asked.

Spike sighed. “She's dealing with something at the moment, she'll show.”

After that lawyer handed her the envelope, Rachel shut down. He couldn't get her to talk or interact with anyone when they came back to the Temple.

“Good. Because you know that she has to give up control of the Portal.” Shining said. “Don't get me wrong, she has done remarkable things during the War, but in order for us to reestablish peace with the Humans, they have to have it.”

Spike nodded. “Rach is fully aware. She'll give it up, just let her have a minute.”

Flurry then moved away and ran over to Iggy who was playing with the toys. “Hey Iggy, wanna play?”

Iggy looks up at his cousin, tilting his head to the side before getting in a playful stance. Gave her a squeaky roar before jumping at her.

Flurry squealed and ran away, letting herself get chased by the baby dragon.

The parents of the group glanced over to watch the kids play.

“Shoot, he likes to play fight, does he?” Aj asks as she too was watching.

“Be careful you guys, don't want you to get hurt.” Fluttershy warned.

Rainbow blew her bangs. “They aren't gonna get hurt, this is normal for baby dragons, right, Spike? Twilight?”

Twilight, Shining and Spike chuckled at that.

“Flurry will be fine. It's how they play mostly. I still remember wrestling with this guy here when he was that small.” Shining grinned, nudging at Spike's side.

“I distinctly remember always coming at you from tall places and sneaking up on you,” Spike remembered, then suddenly got his older brother in a headlock.

“Hey you!” Shining laughs trying to get out before Spike messed with his mane.

Twilight sighed with a chuckle. “Some things don't change.” She said as the two were playfully wrestling themselves.

“Boys will be boys.” Cadence said.

She looked back at the kids and stiffened. “Flurry? Igneous?”

The two fathers stopped playing instantly and looked to where the kids were supposed to be.

Everyone pales.

The kids had taken off!

“Oh fuck!” Both fathers shout in unison.

Rachel held the first tape in her hands. Hesitates to see what could be on it.

She knew that she didn't kill her mother, but it did trigger a chained reaction that resulted in her mother's death.

A part of Rachel doesn't want to know what was on these tapes and those documents.

However, she couldn't contain her curiosity, so she turned the TV on, put the tape in the player, pushed it in and pressed play.

Rachel held her breath as the video began playing.

At first there was white noise and static, but the video came on.

To her surprise, the first thing that popped up was herself as a baby. Her baby self was only eight months, wearing a pink and white striped onesie, a little bald. She was curiously reaching for the camera.

“Hi there, pretty girl.”

Rachel trembled when she heard her mother's voice from behind the camera.

Baby Rachel smiled and laughed, her hands waving. Her brown eyes sparkled.

A hand appeared and stroked between her eyes and tip of her nose slowly, causing the baby to drift to sleep.

The camera then moved, setting it on a surface, getting it adjusted.

Rachel was already in tears, covering her mouth when her mother came to view.

Rachel was always told that she was the splitting image of her mother. Long blonde hair, warm brown eyes, a beautiful smile despite being constantly shrouded in darkness being around Damien.

“Mom….” Rachel whispered.

Her mother looked at the camera. “Hello my love, I know how this seems. Why am I taping videos that were meant to give to you twenty five years in the future when as you can see,” she twists her body to check on baby Rach before going back to the camera “you are here with me now? The videos you are about to see will explain everything.

“It's hard to explain, as you can see, but…” her mother sighed. “Sorry, I haven't done this in awhile so bare with me.”

She closed her eyes, her hands set in front of her on the table.

Rachel watches, and couldn't believe what was happening. At first she couldn't tell what was happening, but then her eyes fell to her mom's hands.

Her mother began to grow actual claws, her ears nearly poked out of her hair into a point.

“No… no fucking way.” Rachel gasps breathlessly, her hands dug into her hair, seeing her mother change on camera.

When her mother opened her eyes and parted her lips, revealing her once warm brown eyes were gold and draconic like, having sharp teeth.

Exactly how Rachel looked when she came through the mirror portal a year ago.

Rachel hits the pause button. “Holy shit, holy shit!”

Her mother turned into a Mordi!

Rachel never once saw or heard her mother talk about this. This was years before the Portal reopened, before the Mordi regathered.

Rachel quickly unpaused the player and let it play out.

Her mother sat up straighter. lifted her right hand and snapped her fingers, a blue flame sparked before it disappeared completely.

“As you can see my dear, you and I have a lot of similarities. However, while I am a Mordi, you…became a dragon queen.” She then smiled at the camera. “I'm not a warrior and what flame you just saw is all I can do with the fire, but I was gifted with Sight. I can see the future, and right now, as you are currently watching this tape, you are currently at the end of a terrible war. “

Rachel paused again. The frame on the screen was of her mother giving her an apologetic look.

The Temple was quickly on high alert as everyone was looking for the two kids who had taken off.

Spike was panicking, and couldn't believe his son was missing again. His chest was hurting as it was getting harder to breathe as he and Twilight teamed up with Helen to look through the Temple.

“We'll find him, don't freak out.”Twilight assured Spike as they looked through many chambers. “It's going to be okay.”

“Iggy, where are you! Come to daddy!” Spike called out. He looked to Helen then. “How much have you and the other Mordi cleared the Temple out? Is there anything that could hurt him?”

Helen shook her head. “We cleaned up the majority of the place but there are chambers and rooms we have yet to clear out or find.”

“Great, just great!” Spike continued the search.

Flurry was playing with Iggy as the two explored the sacred place.

“Keep up Iggy.” Flurry called to him, seeing him running after her on all fours, having fun.

Flurry eventually covered Iggy in her magic, lifting him up so he was flying with her. Iggy was laughing, having his arms out as if he was flying as well.

Rachel at that moment was going through the documents as the video continued.

“You see, Rachel, as you know, we are the descendents of the first human queen. Queen Rùna. But as you know when the dragons were chased to a different world, her daughter was taken. The documents you see before you are what my great great grandmother had to find her family. Trying to find our lost history. She was adopted and began the quest to finding the truth, the past.”

Rachel combs at the paper, seeing travel papers, notes, drawn maps over many years.

“The search was passed down to her daughter, my grandfather, and my father and I.”

Rachel then got to her mother's work. Seeing old photos taken of the temple itself, and her mother taken in it with her grandfather. Her mother looked like she was in her teens.

The Temple of Draconia was rediscovered many years before anyone else!

Rachel looked through the photos taken of the old ruins, seeing things Rachel herself saw when she came to find the scepter.

When it showed a familiar wall, Rachel's jaw dropped.

The wall that held the cursed mordi was fully intact!

“I found my way on the other side of the sealed up wall. Many ways to go through the Temple as you already know. Your grandfather didn't want me to venture inside, but I did.” Her mother continued to explain.

Rachel felt cold when she saw photos of the cursed mordi, sealed in their crystal prisons asleep!

“Mom, what the fuck?!”

The picture of the Cursed Queen sent shivers down her spine. The Blue Celestial's pupil was wide when the photo was taken.

“When I touched the crystal, the Blue Celestial behind it saw me, and granted my ability of Sight.”

Rachel then saw her mother return to her more human form when her baby self was starting to fuss.

Her mother turned and tended to the baby. “It's okay, Little Doppelganger.” She hummed a little song to lull the baby to sleep.

Her mother tended the baby then returned to the camera. “Sorry about that. Now where was I?” She thought about what she was saying before giggling. “Right, my Sight. After awaking the Mordi inside me, I urged my father and I out. Both of us swore that no one should discover this Temple until it was time.

“I first noticed the visions as…cryptic dreams. Strange images and sequences that I had to interpret. At first they didn't make sense but as time went on, I learned how to read them and they evolved into visions so detailed and clear it's as if I was there. I saw life, beauty, marriages, even death…including my own.”

“Why didn't you do anything. ” Rachel asked the recording. “If you saw your death, why didn't you stop me from tampering with the truck? Why didn't you stop dad from killing you!?” Hot tears streaking down her face as emotions ran high.

“I couldn’t.” The video literally responded. “Once I saw my death, I ended up locking my timeline. No matter what I did, my path would lead to my demise…it's inevitable. It was my mistake to see how I end..” her mother sniffled, seeing her starting to cry as well. “They don't tell those with visions of the future to not seek how you die or else your timeline is forever locked. What isn't a mistake is you… at least you know you didn't get your Mordi heritage from your father, that would have been so…so much worse.”

As Flurry and Iggy ran through one of the many corridors, Iggy's rounded head spikes began to glow.

Causing the two to stop.

“Hey Iggy? Why is your head thingys glowing?” She asks.

However, Iggy could not speak so he just made critter noises.

Iggy looks around before seeing a tunnel.

Feeling as if something was calling to him, Igneous starts going into that tunnel.

“Hey, where are you going?” Flurry asks, following him.

“Our history, Rachel, is full of great amazing things, the Mordi were warriors who served the great dragons, to the mighty Titans that guarded and protected the Earth itself.”

“What are the Titans?” Rachel asks, wondering if the video will explain it.

Her mother just smiled, putting a finger up to her lips and hushed her. “Shhh, spoilers, Doppelganger. I can't really give out much too. If you want to know more about the ancient guardians, you'll have to investigate that on your own time.” She then winked at the camera. She then looked at the machine. “Okay, I don't have much time on this tape so I have to be quick. You just got out of a terrible war and you don't want to give the Portal up.”

“Wow okay, really trudging to creepy territory.”

“Sorry.”

Rachel made a look. “Stop that.”

“No.” her mother teased on the recording. “Your life has changed so much, you've undergone so much trauma, so many losses, you feel like humanity itself has failed you, don't let your grudge consume you. Your anger will destroy you like it did your father. It's not to defend his actions because I too had seen his demise - good job by the way.”

Rachel snorted.

“You are now a ruler of a great race, you have to lead by example. You believe controlling both sides will make your family safe, it won't. You know there will always be those who want to destroy what you have for their gain. But it can't always be on you to save everyone.”

Iggy goes down a long set of stairs with Flurry, going to one of the uncharted sections of the Temple. Coming into a large room with a deep, deep ominous pit.

Iggy peered down the pit, sensing something was calling to him down there.

“Iggy, wait up!” Flurry flew down after him, stopping at the room.

Her horn lit up and flashed the room in her magic aura.

Large murals were carved and drawn around them. Flurry didn't know what they meant but she saw images.

Four dragons on the four quarters of the Earth on separate altars. Each dragon had symbols she could only guess were elements of the world.

Each four looked like they were absorbing something.

“Igneous, we should go.” Flurry said, turning her attention to the baby prince.

Iggy cooed curiously, extending his hand down into the deep pit. Wanting to follow what was calling him.

The spikes on his head glowed brighter and so did his eyes and claws.

Balls of light began to rise out of the pit and go into the baby.

His body began to glow and he started to change.

“Uh oh….” Flurry ears dropped.

“Enjoy your time with your family. There will be times you think you'll never find peace, but you will. Things will be rough and seem hopeless, but you'll be okay. You, my love, will live a long, loving life. You can’t forget who you once were, your past,” her mother looked back at Baby Rachel and smiled. “Current and future, they are all you… okay I'm running out of tape so we will have more talks next time. I do have one more thing to say before the tape runs out.”

“What is it?”

“Hold on tight, right about…now.”

The second the tape ended, the entire Temple and round two mile radius began to experience a massive earthquake.

Rachel yelped as she held onto the walls of the trailer. The glow of the Bloodstone necklace was shining brightly, she pulled her staff out of the pocket dimension and saw the black pupil was bouncing all over the crystal as it glowed as well. Whatever was happening was setting both stones off.

“Oh God, what the fuck now!?” Rachel yelled.

She heard a loud crashing sound and a loud roar echoed out as the earthquake stopped and there was silence.

It lasted a minute before something huge landed just outside the trailer, causing it to lift and fall. She let out a shout, bouncing off the bed, crashing into the wall and falling to the ground of the trailer. This heat she was feeling was so blazing hot, not even her dragon proof scales and fur could withstand it and made her sweat profusely.

The door began to scratch at the door, making scared crying noises.

Her nose picked up its scent and her blood chilled. “Igneous?”

The scratching stopped.

Rachel stood up, ran out of the door to see just what was outside.

Once outside, Rachel lets out a surprised scream.

There was a large dragon-like creature about the size of a school bus. Eyes, claws and spikes on its chunky body looked like marbleized rock and lava. Black fur with pieces of volcanic rocks on certain parts of his body. No wings.

It cries loudly, putting their head close to her.

“Igne…ous?” Rachel croaked.

No, no there's no fucking way! “Iggy, is that you, baby?”

Iggy responded by sobbing louder, clear that he was frightened.

“Oh my god! Oh my baby boy, what happened!?” She puts her hands on his snout now realizing it was her baby.

Then sensing more footsteps, literally everyone began rushing out of the temple. All armed to the teeth and pointing at her son!

“No, no!! guys stand down, stand the fuck down!” She had her arms out, shouting out that order as loudly as she could. Igneous screams more out of fright, curling himself into a ball. “It's Igneous, it's Igneous! Lower your weapons now!!”

Spike had no words whatsoever as to see his baby seemed not only following his dad's footsteps of growing ridiculously tall as a baby, but had an extreme makeover of epic proportions.

And is still a baby with his head on his mother's lap and curling his body around her trying to get as small as possible.

The intense heat at first had covered the air has now cooled off. There was still a crowd but they were giving the family some space.

“Holy shit, that's a baby.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Oh poor Iggy! Sweet thing,” Fluttershy whimpered.

“What in tarnations happened to the little guy?” Applejack asks, waving herself with the hat.

Twilight couldn't believe what she was seeing, hands covering her face.

“Someone…please explain to us why our son is like this?” Rachel asked, trying to soothe both her frightened baby and herself.

“I-I have no clue what happened.” Spike said. “Flurry and Iggy snuck off and we'd been looking for him.” He sat next to the two, hand against his son's neck.

“They what?”

“Has anyone seen Flurry?” Shining asked everyone.

“Shoot shoot, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Uncle Spike, Aunt Rachel!” Flurry Heart, thankfully was unharmed, flaps her wings hard flying over to them.

Her mom teleported up to her, wraps her arms around her daughter in the air as the two descended.

Shining raced up to them and hugged her. “So glad you're okay,”

Flurry hugged for a second before stepping aside, going up to her uncle and aunt and cousin. “I'm so so sorry, it's my fault.”

“Flurry, what happened?” Spike asks calmly.

“I-I really don't know.” Flurry starts. “We were playing around when we found this pit, Iggy was glowing and next thing I knew he changed. I'm so sorry, I was watching him.”

“Glowing?” Rachel asks.

The princess nodded. “He stuck his hand in the pit and this light came up and went into him.”

“Like he was absorbing it?” Twilight asks.

“Or something like that.”

“Oh Iggy!” Rachel groans, petting her baby's snout.

Iggy made his critter noises before looking at the two with worry.

“Bud, we're not angry, okay? You're not in trouble,” Spike assured, also petting Iggy's head. “We need to get whatever is inside him out.”

“Holy hell.” Malik then shows up. “Uh Dorothy, why is there a kaiju on you?”

“Don't you start, Scarecrow.” Rachel grunted in response.

There was a gurgling sound coming from the baby's large stomach.

“Uh oh, don't tell me the big guy's hungry.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Or needed to go to the bathroom…” Aj muttered.

“Ig?” Rachel says his name as Igneous stood up, moving his head away from her lap.

Everyone motioned to step back as the baby started to move, to pace around.

The parents stood up, trying to get Iggy to stay down. The gurgling sound got louder and louder before he tipped his head back, looking high at the sky.

His head spikes glowed before opening his mouth, letting out a roar as a concentrated beam of bright light shooting straight up in the sky.

Light took out of Igneous as the particles floated back to the Temple, going back into the pit.

As the light was leaving, Iggy started to change once more, going from his new large form, shrinking back down to his smaller self, his yellow fur and purple scales returned, still left him sobbing once the light was expelled from him.

As soon as he was small again, Spike and Rachel raced over to him, scooping him up in their arms. The baby clinging to both parents.

After a brief check up, Igneous was completely fine. The Mordi and other dragons went to check out what the prince had discovered and see just what the hell happened. Thankfully no one was hurt.

All the allied leaders were in the common room. Flurry was sent to the room where she and her folks were staying, having Fluttershy, AJ and Dash keep an eye on her along with a few guards.

Rachel was holding Iggy, after giving him a quick feeding was out like a light like nothing happened.

“So, what exactly happened?” Luna asks. “A baby should not have that much power to absorb whatever he did.”

“Igneous is a little stronger than average dragon babies. The product of both royal scepters are known to have magic properties.” Spike said, looking at his sleeping son.

“Tensions between us and Humans are already thin, what just happened will put them in a spin.” Chief Druid Leaf said.

“Okay, thanks,” Twilight just got off the phone before looking at everyone. “Okay, I just got off with Other me. She said there was a seismic shift but so far there were no alarms.”

“Good. So until we figured out why Iggy turned the way he did, no one says anything about this to the Humans.” Rachel says. “Agreed?”

There was a collective agreement.

“For now on, no one else goes exploring, Igneous will stay with us at all times until we head home.” Spike said before looking at Twilight. “Can you ask the other you to send a message to Starlight to get it to Ember?”

Twilight sighed. “We'll have to meet up with them tomorrow, so after the meeting we'll go to them.” She then hands the phone back to Helen, telling her thanks.

“Does your book take in drawings?” Rachel asked Twilight.

“As long as it's directly on the page it should.”

“Good,” Rachel nodded.

“Maybe it is best to send Igneous back home.” Celestia suggested. “We cannot have any more surprises.”

“Yeah, that's not even a debate.” Spike grunted.

“Then make sure the kid doesn't get big again, we don't need another rampaging dragon.” Some pony guard commented.

Spike and Rachel gave that pony an unsettling glare, causing the guard to shrink back.

“Please stop talking.” Celestia ordered the guard.

“Speaking of the meeting, we need to talk to you about that, your highness.” Lady Trinity said to Rachel.

The Queen shook her head. “I know what I need to do. Don't everyone worry about that.” She looked at her boy.

Iggy sneezed, she dodged his tiny poof of flames before relaxing again.

“What am I going to do with you, sweet boy?” Rachel sighed, kissing his snout.

She thought of what the first tape said. What her mother said, letting her words sink in.

Did her mother see what her grandson just became?

It seems there's still so much more to learn about this Temple…and her mother.

Author's Note

Flurry giving Iggy a lesson on how to give your caretakers the slip.