Volta the hippogriff tries to make a life for himself in the empire his father has hidden him from.
King Vini doesn't know what good luck is. All the hippogriff wants is a proper heir to his throne, but that's tough to do with his unicorn wife! His first child is a filly, and a unicorn filly at that. His next child is the male hippogriff he wanted, but comes with an ill surprise.
Late in the day, an orange filly with a red mane stared out a window in the hospital's waiting room. The tiny unicorn loved the storm outside. All the clouds were pink, and lightning danced among them. A smile grew on her face as she placed her hooves against the metal window frame.
"Such a disgusting downpour," came her fathers voice. "More like a mud storm than rain." Vini glared at the little brown drops striking the window, "We must consult with the weather team. Those blasted pegasi cannot schedule a storm without the emperor's consent."
Solara tried not to giggle; he was just so funny to her. Vini spoke with an old fashioned voice, and being a hippogriff, he had those weird claws, feathers and a beak. His mane was short and styled like a general's. His tail looked like a bird's. Plus, he got real defensive when you spoke about his color- he called it 'Royal Violet;' she called it 'Grape.'
It was hard to believe the two were related. They shared only one trait: Vini's emerald green eyes.
Solara's mom gave another series of yells from the other room. Her doctor said something unintelligible which was followed by another scream.
"Why's mom screaming?" Solara asked. "Is she mad?"
"She is giving birth," Vini said flatly. "From what we have gathered, it seems to be a painful process." Seeing the frightful look on Solara's face, he added, "But do not worry, she will be fine. 'Tis only the second time Luminescent hath given birth."
Not understanding Vini at all, Solara turned her attention back at the storm. She didn't care what her father thought about it, Solara thought the storm was beautiful. The rapping on the window, rumbles in the distance, brilliant flashes of light... she wished she could jump out the window and run in the rain.
In a feat of incredible timing, a baby's cry echoed through the room just as the rain started pouring twice as hard. Another cry came and lightning struck the building, teaching Solara not to touch metal in a thunder storm. She jumped to the floor, her mane spiked up with static. She giggled at the sparks dancing in her mane and coat.
Half an hour later, the doctor, an orange hippogriff in a white coat, entered the room and asked Vini and Solara to follow him.
"Please be a colt," prayed Vini. "A hippogriff colt."
The three walked in to find Luminescent lying in a bed, a pile of blue blankets placed on a table beside her. Luminescent brushed her stringy, orange mane behind her horn and gave Solara and Vini a tired smile. She scooted over on her bed and patted the spot next to her.
Solara was more than happy to jump up with her. She snuggled up to Luminescent's yellow fur and got a big hug from her mother.
"What happened to your mane, silly?" Luminescent teased. She tried smoothing it out, but her hoof was shocked and Solara's mane went frizzy again.
Solara giggled. "Lightning tickles."
Before Luminescent could respond, Vini stood beside her and took her hoof in his claw. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and asked, "We heard thee yelling; did thou need anything, Lumi?"
Popping sounds emerged from Vini's claw as Luminescent's hoof squeezed back. He squeaked and grimaced as she answered, "I just wanted to see you, Vini."
As Vini and 'Lumi' spoke, the doctor advising against breaking Vini's writing claw, Solara checked out the big bundle of blankets. Turns out, it was two small bundles, each holding its own baby. Solara focused on the right one, a dark blue, hippogriff colt. His eyes were closed, and he was chewing on some fabric he tore off the blanket. The baby on the left was exactly identical, except he was barely awake and smiling at her. His eyes were golden, like Luminescent's.
"They're so cute!" Solara squeaked. "Can we keep them?"
"That's what we were planning on," Luminescent answered. "They're your little brothers, after all."
"Th-th-them?" stuttered Vini. If Solara didn't know any better, she would have thought he sounded scared. But since she 'did' know better, she chose not to care.
Solara dove and gave her new brothers a big hug, ignoring a glare from the doctor. Both babies were now wide awake and giggling there heads off while she made funny faces.
"We cannot keep it!" Vini hissed loud enough for Solara to hear. He noticed her looking and then continued to speak too quiet for anypony except Luminescent to hear.
"Mr. Doctor Sir," Solara whispered, "what can't we keep?"
"The second-born twin." The doctor picked her up and placed her on a counter against the wall, away from the babies who should have been sleeping.
Solara looked back to her family. The baby who was awake earlier was tearing up, his claws reaching for her. The other seemed ready to push his brother off the table. Her parents were still having a silent argument.
"But why not? He's so cute."
"He's a twin," the doctor countered. "The second-born twin is supposed to be a monster. One that brings bad luck to anything that comes to close. Usually they're ki-" he hesitated "-um- dealt with- before anything bad happens."
The newborn actually did push the other off the table. Luckily, the doctor had good reflexes and caught him.
"Like that?" Solara asked as the doctor re-imprisoned them in blankets.
"No, usually it's much worse than falling off a table. That, and the curse strikes others, not the twin in question."
"Then maybe he isn't cursed," Solara said, filled with hope.
Solara caught how her enthusiasm made the doctor sad. "Maybe, but there's no proof either way. Your mother refuses to believe it, but your father, as usual, is siding with paranoid tradition. It's understandable; a stallion in his line of work can't afford any unfortunate surprises."
"Well, I won't believe it." Solara unconsciously took a challenging step toward the doctor.
Her parents finally seemed to reach an agreement. Or, more likely, chose to stop arguing.
"Which was first?" Vini asked.
"This one." The doctor gave him the baby who pushed his brother off the table.
"We thank thee for thine assistance this evening." Vini turned to Luminescent and said something that shocked Solara more than the lightning. "That is not our real son. Thou may only keep that thing on one condition: Keep it away from us and our real son." With that, he stormed out of the room. Solara had no clue where he was going, they had the same ride home.
"Can he do that? Just take a baby from a hospital?" Luminescent asked the doctor.
"He's the emperor, it's his baby... there isn't much else we can do for it. Why not?"
Luminescent sighed, and looked at her 'monster.' He was struggling, and succeeding, to break free of his fabric cocoon. "At least we still have you."
Solara hopped of the counter, crept passed the doctor, and jumped on table to unravel her brother. He seemed fascinated by the sparks still dancing in her coat.
"Doctor," Luminescent asked, "how do hippogriff name their foals?"
The baby reached for Solara and was zapped. She felt her mane fall back down to her head. The static that kept it afloat was now jumping across his claw.
"Usually, we find a good word and change it a little, rather than plucking them strait from a dictionary."
"Pardon me?"
The doctor watched closely as the baby reached back to Solara and returned her static. Her mane, once again, achieved zero gravity and the baby had a fit of laughter. "He seems interested with electricity." He named off some words, "Static, shock, thunder, spark, volts... hmm. You could try... Volta, maybe?"
"Volta? That's a silly pony name," Solara argued.
"Then it's perfect for a hippogriff." The doctor started looking for something on the counter.
"Volta; I love it," Luminescent said. "My sweet, little Volta." She picked him up and cradled him in her forelegs.
"That's very well and all, but we still have business to attend." The doctor found a clipboard which he showed to Luminescent. "My bill, Your Highness. Plus five bits for the name, please."
Vini was sure to keep an eye on his boy. It took sixty seconds to leave that hospital, but only thirty for him to learn how slippery his child was. He had easily escaped his blanket and Vini's grasp in the waiting room. He had then crawled to a foal's place mat and drew with some crayons... on the table.
"Just one foal is all we asked for. Not two; only one." Vini wrestled with the baby hippogriff in his foreleg, trying to get outside to the royal chariot. It resembled a white, elongated claw and had golden details along the sides. Pulling it were two earth pony guards with armor to match. Vini saw how soaked the blue plumes on their helmets were and wondered if they stood there in the rain the whole time.
Luckily for them, the storm was settling with the sun. The clouds slowly turned from pink to grey while the rain lessened and lost its brown coloring.
"Silver Scar," Vini commanded, "take us home."
"What of Empress Luminescent? Won't she need a ride?" asked Silver Scar, on the right.
"She can walk." Vini gave no explanation as to why. As his new foal tried to crawl off the chariot, Vini grabbed and set him back down in front of him. "Stay, child."
The baby sat with a grumpy face and stared at him, as if daring him to look away for just one second. Great Echo, he acts a lot like we did. That is a trait we need to break.
Silver Scar and his recruit began to pull them back to the castle.
Luminescent
Luminescent paid her bill of one hundred and five bits to the nurse in the waiting room. In the Griffin Kingdom, the bill would be much higher and the babies would be kept under close watch for a while, to ensure they are healthy. The Hippogriff Empire, however, focused mostly on its bards and alchemists, leaving much to be desired in the ways of true medical science.
That was why she had to ride a quarter of the way across town to a hospital with a maximum capacity of twenty-five ponies. Building a hospital in the castle just wasn't worth the bits when you entire medical knowledge could be -and was- written down in a two-hundred page, fully illustrated journal.
"My Lady," the doctor called, looking out the window, "it appears your ride has left."
Luminescent stepped next to him and saw that predictable sight. Their chariot was a white speck down the road.
If we had a doghouse, Luminescent thought, feeling like a bear that had been poked a few too many times.
"Father left?" Solara asked, sitting next to the table. Volta was loosely wrapped in his blanket, watching her draw with the crayons.
"Yes dear," she groaned, "I'll have to walk you home now." She was careful to mask her anger. The only thing that kept a frown off her face was the thought of Vini trying to find a couch they didn't have.
Levitating the foals onto her back, Luminescent said, "Hold onto you brother, he might fall." As she opened the door, she thanked the doctor for his help.
"No problem, it's my job," he said. "Come back anytime; I'll be glad to take your money."
Luminescent laughed, gave him a final wave, and headed home.
Vini
The castle was the shining gem in the city of Besra. Built on the banks of the Talon River, its white marble columns and tall arches were a breathtaking view to any foreign diplomat. It stood proud in the center of the city, the home of the royals for the last ten thousand years or so.
None of this grabbed Vini's attention. He felt so many emotions blotted his mind that it was hard to keep the newborn from running off. He was overjoyed to be a father again, scared of the second child, angry at Luminescent for wanting to keep it, and guilty for leaving her at the hospital. He could sense a thought forming, but couldn't quite hear it. Then it came.
Shouldn't have done that. We should not have done that. Vini's reason finally broke through the clouds of emotion. As Silver Scar and the recruit slowed to a stop at the castle doors, Vini was having seriously scary thoughts of what his wife might do for revenge. He would rather go to war with every nearby nation, watch his empire burn, and be a griffon war prisoner than see his wife tonight.
"Scar," Vini said, "we need thee to send an escort to Luminescent."
"Finally realize your mistake, did you? About time," he laughed. Scar was an old friend, he could say practically anything he wanted to the emperor without fear of being fired, imprisoned, or executed.
"Yes," he admitted. "And would thou kindly buy a couch? We may need one this night."
"You'll need it more than one night, Vini." His blunt mockery was frightening the recruit to death. "I'll see what we can find."
Scar told his recruit to buy a couch, while he went to find Luminescent. In the meantime, Vini tried to find a safe place to sleep.
Luminescent
When night had truly taken its place, Luminescent had walked halfway home and her legs were tired. Volta and Solara were heavy, sleeping weights on her back. Seeing the grey pony in armor jogging up to her was a pleasant sight.
"Scar" she called, "did you have a nice walk?"
Scar stopped in front of her and replied, "Oh, it was wonderful. I got to pull a chariot with the quietest colt in town, all the way to the castle. Then I was given permission to find you." His voice was so cheery that Luminescent didn't know if he was using sarcasm or not. "How was yours?"
Bottling her rage for later she said, "Pleasant. It's a nice night to be walking."
"Your children would beg to differ." He gave a quick glance to the sleeping foals. "Need any help carrying them?"
"Yes, please." As she levitated them onto his back, a confused look formed on his face. "What's wrong?"
"You had one foal going into the hospital, right?" She confirmed. "And you have two with you now." Another nod. "And Vini had one as well. Does that mean...?"
"Twins." She waited for him to freak out like Vini did. He didn't, he only sighed.
"This should be fun."
Solara
Solara was having a great dream. She was running around in the earlier storm, splashing in the puddles, and catching the rain in her mouth. It tasted delicious. But, like all good dreams, they end to early because somepony always interrupts your nap.
Somepony was trying to whisper, but failing miserably. "In the guest room? It's a little big for him. Even Discord got the small chambers with a crib." It sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite tell.
"He called the other one Discord?" She knew that voice. The speaker didn't even try to stay quiet. "That's two foals he named without me! Can't he wait five minutes?"
Solara opened her eyes and found Scar and Luminescent chatting together. Solara was on the floor of the guest room, Volta at her side, wide awake. The guest room was plain and simple: one large dresser, a big window, Two lamps next to the door, and a king sized bed. Scar was leaning on the dresser and her mother was sitting on the bed.
Volta made the cutest baby noises in his arsenal. Solara responded with a squee that was nearly as adorable. Nearly.
"Sunshine's awake," Scar announced.
"Hey sweetie, you tired?" Luminescent asked in a soft tone.
"Not anymore."
Luminescent smiled. "Then why don't you show your brother around his room." When Solara agreed, she walked with Scar to the door and said, "Good night, Sweetums. If you need us, we'll be looking for Vini."
"Wish him luck," Scar said. With that, the two left.
"So Volta," Solara cheered, "this is a dresser. You put clothes in it." She spoke that way about everything in the room- the door, the window, the curtains, the bed, and a tiny candle next to the bed.
Now that she thought about it, Scar was right, this room was too big for him. It was even bigger than her's. "Why do you get the big bed?"
Volta wasn't listening, he was busy staring at the clouds. His claw was reaching under the window like he was trying to grab one.
"Do you want a cloud, Volta?" He whined in a cute way. Volta was getting very good at that. "Well, I don't think they would miss just one..." Solara tried to grab one with her magic, and after two failed attempts one glowed blue and floated down to the window. As it got closer it got bigger, forcing Solara to crush it with her magic. The cloud gave little resistance and went from the size of the room to about half the size of the bed. She mentally told it to stay crushed as she slipped it through the window and placed it in the corner near the door.
Volta's face was lit up with joy as he jumped onto his cloud. Well, he tried. Volta fell into the side and floated to the top like a bobber. Solara pushed him down a few times to find that he would float back to the top no matter what. Good thing too, because he fell right to sleep on the small white sea.
You're awake, you're tired, you're awake, you're tired. Make up your mind! she felt like saying. Instead she whispered, "Sleep tight, Volta. Don't let the cloud bugs bite."
She used the built in snuffers on the lamps to darken the room, and only the tiny candle was left to keep the baby company.
"There he is," Scar announced. Finding Vini took him and Luminescent about five minutes. The guards stationed around the castle were more afraid of Li'l Lumi than The Great Vini and ratted him out in a second. Otherwise, the library would have been a great place to hide.
Vini was on a short, purple coach, apparently trying to have an intelligent conversation with his new son. Discord, the guards had called him. He was sure the conversation was rather one sided.
Luminescent startled Vini by levitating Discord over to Scar. "Keep him away from here," she steamed. "I don't want to give the kid nightmares." A green bubble enveloped her and Vini; the Sound Barrier spell, if her silent yelling and the vibrating floor was anything to go by.
More scared of Luminescent than loyal to Vini, he dragged Discord over to the corner of the library. Scar hid the baby behind a wall of books while he peaked around to watch the bigger baby cowering on the couch.
Volta
Through his eyelids, Volta saw the lights in his room go out. There were a couple hoof steps and the sound of the door closing.
Finally, alone.
Volta spun on his cloud a few times, enjoying the floating sensation. What he didn't enjoy was listening to Solara trying to teach. She was a lot of fun until he found something new. Then she would just go on and on with the most irritating voice, trying to give him a brief definition of what it was.
'Do not put that on my tail.'
Sure, he learned a lot from her-
Wait, what?
'Get it off. Now,' spoke a voice in the back of his head.
Volta looked around, but no pony was in the room with him. He looked by the door, under the bed, and in his cloud, but still nothing. He was alone; just as he thought. So who was talking?
'Come on, I wanna see what's happening!' the voice yelled.
Where are you? Volta thought.
'Down and to the left you big idiot! Now take this book of my tail!'
What's a book? Volta asked.
After a couple minutes of confused arguing, Volta learned that he and the voice were not in the same room, and the 'big idiot' was the guy sitting next to the one he was talking to.
The voice had also convinced Volta to come to his rescue. Using his so-called 'wings' to scoot across the floor, he traveled five feet before encountering his first opponent: the door.
'Just jump and pull. It's not that hard.'
Volta pushed off the ground and on his first try, he missed completely. The second to fifth attempts, he barely tapped the doorknob. On the sixth he smashed his beak on the door, but managed to get his claw around the knob.
Ouch, Volta thought as the door swung open. He was out of there sooner than he imagined.
Volta slunk into a hallway with four doors on his right. Where were you again?
'I don't know, find out.'
No way was he going to open another door, but the closest and farthest ones were slightly ajar. They seemed as good a place to start as any. Volta pushed open the door just across from his. Inside was a room slightly smaller than his, but looked like some pony actually lived there.
Dark, winged creatures were scattered about the room, some on the dresser, others hanging from the ceiling. Beautiful tapestries clung to the walls, however nothing in the room meant anything to Volta. Except for one. On the bed was a small orange unicorn tossing a ball in the air.
Solara was looking strait up at the ball, so she didn't see Volta slide in. Volta couldn't have left the room faster if he tried.
Sliding up the the far door, Volta peaked behind to find another hallway running perpendicular to the last. Strait ahead was an indent put into the wall big enough to hide the two guards and a table currently occupying it.
The guards were playing a card game of which Volta was unaware. All he noticed was that they were ponies he hadn't met before, and so was the voice.
Is that you?
'Where!' came the voice's excited cry.
Right -Volta slid up the closest guard and tapped his hoof- there. Did you feel that?
'No.'
How about now? Volta slid over and poked the other one, but this time the hoof bopped his beak in retaliation.
'Are you actually doing anything, or are you just messing with me?'
Volta slid up to another pair of guards. This time, however, one spotted him.
"Awww, look at him!" The female guard ran to Volta and scooped him up. "Isn't he adorable?"
"Um... yes?" was the other guard's response.
Whoa, whoa! Put me down, Volta thought, wishing they could hear.
"Oh, you just have the cutest, wittle eyes and those tiny quas!" she said, holding up his claws to show that they were indeed tiny.
Please don't talk like that, Volta begged. He had heard enough baby talk from Solara, he never wanted to hear it again.
'What's wrong, wittle guy?'
Stop! Volta struggled to escape from the grasp of this large, feminine beast that held him in an unbreakable bond.
"Oh, you're so adorable, I could just die from it!"
"Well, we wouldn't want that, now, would we?" said the other guard, putting his hoof on her shoulder. "Why don't you let him run along."
"Run along?! In this castle?" She leaned away from him in shock. "Are you crazy?" The guard turned back to Volta and asked, "You wouldn't make it very far, would you wittle guy?"
Volta hung from the female guard's forelegs. That's it, I give up. Good luck, Voice, I'm trapped.
'Really? You already gave up? Truthfully, I expected you to make it farther than that. You, sir, are far less skilled than I gave you credit for.'
The guards' voices flew past Volta, unregistered, as he deciphered that message. Was that an insult?
'No, it was a statement. I merely said that you were unqualified to be part of my rescue party. It's nothing personal.'
Volta screamed in his head, I am too, qualified!
'I'm not so sure,' the voice stated, 'to give up so early is a sign of weakness.'
Just wait, I'll find you. Volta squeaked to the guards and both gave him surprised looks.
"I don't know how you pulled that off," the mare glared at the guy, "but we made a deal." She put Volta down and backed off. "Go find you mummy, boy."
"He's not a dog, dear." He leaned down to Volta and whispered, "Run! She wants to eat you!"
Volta wasted no time as he zoomed away from his captors, off to save his only friend.
Four hallways and ten guards later, Volta had yet to find the mysterious voice. Finally, Volta sat down in a large room next to two ponies. One was grey and tall like the rest. The other was his size and blue. Neither cared enough to even look at him.
"Ouch, that's has to hurt," said the grey one.
'Oh, what does he want now,' the voice said.
The blue bird looked over and was surprised to see some pony else with him.
Haha, he looks silly, Volta thought.
'Oh, yeah? Try looking at the pony I just found!'
I bet yours can't compete. Volta reached over and tapped the baby on the beak.
'Stop that.'
At that moment, something clicked in Volta's mind. What just happened?
'The smaller idiot tapped my beak.'
Is... is that you! Volta waved franticly to signal who he was. The sign did not go unnoticed.
'I think it is! Quick, get me out of here.' Volta helped push the book off of his new friend's tail. As soon as it was off, Discord scooted circles around the book chanting, 'I'm free, I'm free!'
"Whoa, when did you get here?" The guard picked them up by the scruff of their necks and held them close.
'Oh, c'mon! You gotta give me a head start, first!'
"Hey there, Volta. Do you remember me? Your Uncle Scar? Can you say that? Say 'Scar.'"
'Don't' was the one word Volta needed to say to put an end to all the baby talk. Just that one word, so easy to say in his head, and only one syllable out loud. All he had to do was translate his thought into one, single, word to end the most irritating, mind-numbing, insufferable garble the world had ever heard.
"Nar." So close.
"So close, Volta," Scar said. The smile fell off his face. "How did you get here?"
"Scar!" yelled the yellow new member of their group. "What are they still doing out of bed?"
'Yikes!' the twins screamed in their heads. The Volta suddenly found himself shoved behind a wall of fur and tried to run away.
Scar was no more brave, his voice trembling as he spoke. "W-well, um, you see, Lumi, the thing is..."
"For the last time! Don't. Call. Me. Lumi!" 'Lumi' whipped her head around. "Stay!" she yelled at the purple stallion sneaking behind her. He froze. She turned back to Scar and said, "Take them to their rooms, now." She took a deep breath, and marched away.
The twins scooted their way around Scar to join the adults as they stared at the door Luminescent left through.
"She hit me," Vini said, holding his eye.
Scar looked to him and very sincerely asked, "Do you really think I can do anything about that?"
