The Rainbooms Meet Lamia

by Lord Shadow Eclipse

Chapter 2 (edited)

With the Rainbooms

The girls were having a good time sitting around the campfire and enjoying the food they brought. Once they were done eating, Pinkie stepped up with a hand in the air.

"Hey, girls! How about we sing a campfire song?!" she shouted excitedly.

"That sounds lovely, darling. But what should we sing?" Rarity asked.

"I have an idea," Sunset replied. "How about 'Jolene'? That's a good song to sing around a campfire".

"That's not bad, Sunset. I'll start," Applejack said before clearing her throat.

*****

With Lamia

As Lamia was slithering towards her city, she heard something rising from the woods. The longer Lamia listened, she immediately realized that she was listening to music. But it didn't sound like any music she had ever heard before.

"What is that melodious sound?" Lamia asked herself. "I want to hear more".

Lamia wanted to hear more of this new music from a safe distance. But the growling from her stomach brought her back to the reality of her not having eaten anything all night.

"Zeusdamn it! I need something to eat. I wonder if these humans brought food with them," Lamia said.

Like a snake, Lamia stick her tongue out and moved her head from side-to-side, trying to catch any good smells that blew her way. Once she stuck her head towards the ruins, she caught the smell of food. It wasn't any food she remembered smelling before, but it was enough to make her mouth water.

"That smells like a banquet fit for gods! Perhaps I should partake," Lamia said with drooling fangs.

But Lamia sure as Tartarus wasn't about to slither up to these humans and ask for their food. She had to play this smart.

"I know! I'll wait for them to go to sleep. Then I'll sneak up to them and take their food," Lamia said.

Her easy plan concocted, Lamia curled up behind some shrubs until she saw the light of their campfire go out. Then, she made her move towards the smell of food.

*****

With the Rainbooms

Once girls were finished singing, their raking canine Spike started to clap his paws together and whistle.

"That was awesome! I could hear that song over and over again," Spike praised.

"That's so sweet of you, Spike. It's a classic," Fluttershy said.

Rainbow let out a yawn. She stood up and did an overhead stretch.

"Well, it's getting pretty late. I think we should hit the sack," Rainbow said.

"I agree. We can't help out the professor if we're tired," Twilight said.

The girls all said their goodnights and made their way to their tents. All, except for Spike. He was looking off into the surrounding ruins.

"I should probably go pee before going to bed," Spike said.

He took off towards the outside of the ruined city. Thankfully, the moon was full and bright, giving Spike the best degree of illumination of the nighttime world. He weaved between the walls and houses until he finally saw the wilderness beyond the city. The trees of the forest stood tall like an impenetrable black wooden wall. But there were plenty of bushes in front of the tree line for Spike to use.

Spike walked over to the biggest bush he could find and began to relive himself. He let out a sigh of relief. Spike didn't think Professor Fossil would appreciate relieving himself within the site. Once he was done, Spike began to walk back to the city when he caught something in his peripheral vision.

A long, black shape was slithering between the bushes making its way towards the city. Even with the full moon, Spike couldn't make out the figure slithering in the shadows of the bushes. But the sight of the creature was making Spike's heart start racing.

"What the-? What on Earth is that?!" Spike shouted quietly.

Since the slithering creature was going into the city, he knew it would be making its way to his sleeping friends. Spike ran back to the city and tried to make his way around the creature and get to the campsite before the creature did. Whatever this thing was, it was moving fast.

By the time Spike got back to the campsite, the creature was already there. It was hiding among the shadows of the buildings, so Spike still couldn't make out what the creature looked like. Spike made sure to hide one of the pillars of a building so he can watch the creature.

Sticking to the shadows of the tents and buildings, the creature slithered between the tents as if looking for something. But there was a certain intensity to its search.

"What is it looking for?" Spike thought.

Spike squinted his eyes to make out what the creature was doing. He saw the creature make its way towards the tent that Twilight and Rarity were sharing. It pressed itself against the flap of the tent and began to try opening it.

Without any hesitation, Spike started furiously barking at the creature. There was no way he was going to let this creature near Twilight and Rarity. The creature shot backwards in surprise and tried to look around and find the source of the offending sound. Finally, the creature turned towards Spike and looked at him with glowing amber reptilian eyes.

The beams of flashlights began shining through the tents, followed by the sounds of worried shouting and struggling. The creature took the opportunity to slither away from the tents at alarming speed. The figure was a blur as it slithered away deeper into the city.

The tents opened up to reveal the girls in their pajamas holding flashlights and were obviously worried. Spike ran to Twilight and jumped into her arms.

"Spike, what's going on?!" Twilight asked.

"I was peeing outside the ruins, and I saw something slithering around the tents!" Spike replied. "I started barking as it was trying to make its way into your tent!"

"What was it, sugarcube?" Applejack asked.

"I don't know, it was too dark to see! But it slithered away after I started barking," Spike replied.

"Which way did it go?" Pinkie asked.

Spike pointed with his nose. "It took off deeper into the city!"

Sunset grabbed a long stick and swung it like a sword. Rainbow did the same thing.

"Let's go see what this thing is! If it's hostile, we'll have to pony up!" Sunset said.

The girls ran off in the general direction of the creature. There were going to get the bottom of this, one way or another.

*****

With Lamia

Lamia was scared out her wits. Everything happened so fast, but she was fast enough to get away before the humans saw her. All she knew was that a dog started barking and magic lights shone from within the tents. Perhaps these people were users of magic.

"I was about to steal food from witches! Or perhaps they were children of Helios! Either way, I must have offended them!" Lamia thought with dread. "If they catch me, it may take more than the gods to save me!"

The girl-turned-monster slithered down the familiar streets of her city with blinding speed despite her size. She made her way towards the temple where the people would worship her.

"The hidden sacrificial sanctuary! If I can just make my way there, I'll be safe!" Lamia said.

Lamia gambled a look behind her. Sure enough, there were visible beams of the magic light the humans wielded shining from a good distance behind her. The sight of the lights caused Lamia's heart to temporarily stop beating. But fortunately for her, the temple was just within sight.

The darkness of the temple was a welcome blanket for the scared Lamia, who took a moment to breathe. As mush as she wanted to reminisce about the days where she would watch her worshippers sing and dance and perform ceremonies for her, she had much more pressing matters to attend to.

Just behind the statue of her, there was a single large floor tile that was actually a hidden door. She lifted it up and quickly slithered down the stairs. With her snake-vision, she could make out the interior of the sanctuary.

The interior was a large rectangular prismoid room that was vertically going down to a large sanctuary room. The floor of the sanctuary held a large altar that jutted a good four feet off the ground. Behind the altar stood two statues: one of Lamia in a victory pose clutching a heart in her right hand and another of the goddess Hera in a pose that resembled a dead corpse.

This was a place where the temple priestesses would give animal sacrifices during the yearly Lamia Festival, where the people would celebrate Lamia and her protecting the town for another year. Behind the statues was another hidden tunnel that led outside the city. Lamia would use this tunnel to get to the sanctuary to receive the animal sacrifices she would eat.

Lamia slithered behind the statues to find the tunnel, only to find rubble blocking the entrance. Lamia slammed her tail on the ground in frustration.

"Zeusdamn it! The tunnel must've collapsed sometime over the past 3,000 years!" Lamia yelled.

Either way she felt safe now that she was within her sanctuary. She beat the humans to her temple, opened the secret door, and made her way towards her hidden sanctuary. Remembering this made Lamia come to a terrifying realization.

"I never closed the door to the sanctuary!" she shouted.

As if trying to add salt to the wound, Lamia could hear the sound of footsteps from the top of the sanctuary's staircase. The pursuers have found the secret entrance and they were making their way down! Lamia looked around for aa place to hide. But there was nowhere she could hide except for the rafters.

Making her way to the wall, Lamia used her claws and stomach scales to quickly and quietly climb up the wall until she got to the rafters. As she was climbing, she could see the beams of the magic lights coming down the stairs. Upon reaching the rafters, Lamia laid herself on the top of the rafters, which groaned under her weight. She hoped beyond hope that the rafters would hold until the humans left. Lamia just had to stay quiet and be patient.

*****

With the Rainbooms

The girls were really hauling it to find their nocturnal guest. The creature, whatever it was, was really quick. Rainbow would've used her speed, but the limited range of the flashlight and the tightness of the buildings would've resulted in her striking the buildings.

But they were able to see the shape of the creature enter the temple in the center of the city. They might be able to trap the creature inside.

"There it is! It went inside the temple!" Twilight said.

"Wait! Say we do trap the creature inside, what do we do then?" Rarity asked.

"Perhaps we can simply see what the creature is and try to find out why it came to our campsite," Sunset replied.

"Maybe it isn't even that dangerous. Perhaps we can reason with the creature," Fluttershy said.

The girls decided to play it by ear when they got to the temple. They entered the temple and shone their flashlights all over the place. There was the pillars and the Lamia statue, but no creature in sight.

"Spread out," Sunset whispered. "If you see anything, let us know".

The girls all spread out to see where the creature could've gone. Each one decided to check a separate part of the temple. Pinkie looked behind the statue of Lamia, turned around and waved her hand in the air.

"Girls! Over here!" Pinkie loudly whispered.

The girls all went to Pinkie and shone their flashlights at the place Pinkie was pointing to. There was a large floor tile sitting next to a hidden staircase that led underground. They all deduced that the creature fled down the stairs to evade them.

"Okay, the creature went down the stairs to flee," Twilight said. "We'll go down there to check it out. We stay close together and be on-guard".

The girls went down the stairs to the underground. As they walked, a thought crossed Twilight's mind.

"Hey girls, how come Professor Fossil never mentioned this hidden staircase and tunnel?" Twilight asked. "She's usually very thorough when examining the sites she works on".

"Well, the tunnel was hidden by a floor tile, darling. Perhaps she never thought to look for any hidden tunnels," Rarity replied.

"Okay. But we chased an unknown creature into this place. How did it know where the tunnel entrance was?" Twilight said.

The girls didn't respond. They all must've been thinking about what the creature was and how it knew about this tunnel. It immediately came to the temple and went down a hidden tunnel underneath a temple. Whatever this creature was, it had intimate knowledge of the temple.

After a few more minutes of walking down a staircase, the girls walked into a large sanctuary with statues of Lamia and Hera at the far corner of the sanctuary hall. The girls stared at the statues and marveled at the preserved state of the statues. But they had more pressing matters to attend to.

"The creature is here somewhere. We search in groups," Sunset said.

The girls split into groups of two with Twilight, Fluttershy, and Sunset being a group of three. They all knew the creature was hiding somewhere in the sanctuary.

*****

With Lamia

Lamia watched as the girls and a small dog walked through the sanctuary and saw them attempting to search for her. She took the time to examine the girls.

They all had strange devices in their hands that shone bright beams of bright light. Perhaps these were witches that held the power of the sun in their hands.

Lamia could feel the beams under her start to groan under her weight. Being thousands of years old, the beams were rotting. She feared that the beams couldn't hold much more.

"Please leave! Please leave! Please leave!" Lamia whispered fervently.

But the only answer to her prayers she got was the creaking of wood. It was growing louder and louder with each passing second. Finally, the beam Lamia was laying on snapped, sending her plummeting down to the sanctuary floor. She landed on the ground in a painful heap.

Rubbing her head, Lamia rose up and shook the dizziness out of her head. The next thing she knew, she was blinded by bright light. She squinted her eyes to see the girls and dog all staring at her with shocked faces.

"Zeusdamn it," she thought.