//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirteen: An unexpected guest. // Story: A Red and Green brush // by Netherweaver //------------------------------// Chapter Thirteen... (Sorry guys, no wedding yet!) It had been about a week since I proposed to Luna, and she had already done all the planning. I was still putting off my one duty, because I couldn't be bothered finding Rainbow's house. Elliott had moved in with her about a day after the proposal. I finally decided to get my backside in gear and find him. As I opened the door, I noticed a box with a simple notice on the lid: Please. I picked the box up and took it back inside, being careful not to drop it as it seemed important somehow. "Luna, could you come here for a minute?" I said, inspecting the box for any kind of traps. Luna finally arrived in the living room as I put the box down on the coffee table. "This was on the doorstep and I don't know what to make of it..." "Opening it might be a good idea." She said, her mane still damp from the shower. I slowly took the lid off, wary of any sudden clicking sounds. As the lid came free I was confronted with something I didn't expect in the slightest. Looking out of the box was a baby Griffon. I was so shocked I almost fell over, and I was sat down so falling over wasn't too easy. As I looked back to the box, the baby was still there. It looked at me with it's big, round eyes and I couldn't stop myself from slowly taking it out of the box and carefully cradling it in my arms. Luna was almost as shocked as I was, but as soon as I had retrieved the baby from the box she started d'awwing. She sat down and I slowly passed the tiny baby to her, being as gentle as I could. She cradled it in her arms almost reverently. "This little thing is just so cute!" she squealed. Inside the box there was another note: Please look after this little child, you ponies are her last hope. Her mother rejected her as she was the runt of the clutch, and I only just caught her fast enough to stop her plummeting to her death. I can only hope you can find room in your hearts to raise this little child as your own. Please, be good to her. You are her last, and only, hope of survival. Hail to the lunar skies, Duskwing. "Luna..." I said, stunned by the note. "Yes Max?" "Looks like the little one will be staying here for a long while..." "What do you mean?" "We are her last hope." I said, still stunned by the gravity of the situation. "You... you mean she has nowhere else to go? No-one else to turn to?" "She was rejected Lu, pushed out of the clutch and sent plummeting to her death." "I see." She said "We must travel to Canterlot!" She said, becoming a true ruler once again. Her royal jewellery floated down the stairs, and she put it on, slipping into the hoofguards and placing the tiara on her head. She practically grew four feet as her royal aura took hold of me. "I still don't know how your jewellery does that..." I muttered as we walked out of the door, holding our new daughter gingerly. The little baby suddenly seemed so much more precious now I knew she didn't have any other hope. "Guards! We require transport to Canterlot!" She yelled, putting the traditional Royal Canterlot Voice to use. I barely had time to cover the baby's ears before she yelled. "Lu, we still haven't got a name for the little one!" I said, realising that we couldn't call her 'baby' all her life. "We shall decide in the carriage, but for now, let us celebrate our glorious daughter!" She said, trying to keep the volume down to keep from deafening our child. The carriage arrived promptly and we climbed in. "I still like the name 'Twilight'." Luna insisted. "There's already one Twilight in Ponyville Lu. I like 'Skye' more anyway." I said back. "Hmmm, Skye, I like that. The domain of her mother and her aunt. It's decided. Skye Celestia..." "Hey, why don't we give her our surname?" I said. "But I don't... Oh wait, its traditional to take your husband's..." "Skye Celestia Reynolds." "Oh my, that sound beautiful Max. I didn't know you had such a nice surname!" "I don't, but I decided to take my Mother's after going through all these changes." I sighed. "Oh... Is it..." "No, I just felt that being a new person meant I needed a new identity. I didn't do it for any other reason." I said sternly. "Okay." Luna replied, taken aback by my scathing reply, seeing that she had touched a pretty raw nerve. We spent the rest of the journey taking turns holding Skye. By the time we had arrived in Canterlot it was almost time for the sun to go down. As we stepped out of the carriage, Luna looked towards the skies, her eyes becoming pure black as she manipulated the moon into place, revealing the starry sky. The residents looked shocked. "I have an important address to make, and I need the power of my moon to do so. Do not fear." She announced, placating the majority of the residents, apart from Blueblood. I silenced him with a murderous glare as he opened his mouth to protest however. "Don't even think about it Blueblood, or I'll tell Rarity where you live..." I threatened as he opened his mouth once more. The thought of that was enough to send him sprinting. We walked to the palace, where a confused looking Celestia sat scratching her head. "Celestia, we have an important address to make in the morning." Luna said, walking up to her sister. "Oh! so that's why the moon is up! Okay, your room is okay for you to use..." Celestia said, standing up. She trailed off as soon as she saw the black band in Luna's ear, and the matching band on my finger. "You two are engaged?!" she squealed in excitement, almost knocking Luna flat in a hug. "Yes we are Tia, now get off, we have something more important to discuss in private." Luna said, throwing her big sister off in an impressive feat of strength. She led the way to her old bedroom. We entered and Luna threw up several layers of magic around all the windows and doors. "Tia... meet Skye, our adopted daughter." I showed Celestia the tiny blanket-wrapped griffon. "She... She's a Griffon..." Celestia said, stunned. "Well I never. My little sister is getting married and has adopted a daughter." Celestia said with a sniff. "I... I don't know what to say Luna... I'm so happy..." Celestia said, tears starting to run down her face. "You don't need to say anything Tia, you're going to have to be the one marrying us anyway." Luna said, beaming at her big sister's praise. "Just try to stop me..." She said, "Oh, isn't little Skye just adorable!" She said, having recovered from the fact that her sister had adopted a child of a completely different species. "Oh, she... oh dear, she's only a mortal..." "Nope, I can control Life remember? So I just switched her body to stop ageing so fast at about 15 years old, and made it so she won't ever age a day past 25." I said, proud of myself for giving my daughter the biggest gift I could. The sisters were stunned by this. "Not as useless as you thought, eh?" "No, your the best father that this little baby could ask for." Said Celestia, smiling at my foresight. "Now, let's get her something to eat." Celestia said. Luna had been conjuring up bits and pieces for Skye in the carriage, and she had eaten them all voraciously. Celestia brought up a link to the Griffon King. "Excuse my interruption, King Grimtalon, But I was wondering what baby Griffons eat?" Despite his dark sounding name, Grimtalon was a kindly ruler with a brilliant sense of humour and the capacity to love everything. "Oh, that's easy, just give them ground sunflower seeds mixed with milk and honey, that's the best replacement for raw meat!" He said, sounding just like a wise, slightly mad old wizard. "Why do you ask my old friend?" "There was an... incident and my sister has adopted a rejected baby." Celestia said. "WHAT?! I told them idiot mountain griffons not to throw runts out any more! But, alas, it makes my heart soar to see that the baby was rescued and has found a safe home." He said, his amber eyes burning like the flames of hell. You could practically feel the rage through the mental image. "Now, Luna, I want you to know that Griffons will not grow properly with only one parent. You must take care of the baby, and it will take a long time to mature." "That's not a problem at all, old friend, I'm engaged so the baby will always have a father!" Luna said, happy that she had the griffon king's blessing for her daughter. "You're getting married? Oh happy days! You must tell me when it is, I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Grimtalon exclaimed, looking as if he was about to explode. "Now, I must be going. I can't leave you without a wedding present, can I?" He said, breaking the link. "Erm... Wow..." I said, still confused by what had just happened. "Wait, if you can make food with your magic, why did we have to pay all the restaurants?" "I can't make very much at a time, but it's just enough for a baby." She said. "Oh." I said. Celestia went over to a complicated looking contraption, and spoke into it. "Chef? Yes, I know you're just about to go home, but could you send up some ground sunflower seeds, some milk and some honey? Yes, I am about feed a baby griffon, how did you... oh, never mind, you're a griffon yourself." She said down some sort of tube, hearing the replies through another, smaller pipe she held to her ear with magic. The chef came personally with the things, and knocked on the door. "Hello? I got that stuff you wanted ma'am." He said, and Luna opened the door. Thankfully, I had been around for so long my human form didn't spook many people any more. He came in, and set down the ingredients. He then began to mix them in a very particular ratio, about 2 cups of milk to every half cup of sunflower seeds and every cup of honey. "You need to get the mix just right or it won't taste very nice." He explained to me, seeing that I was holding the baby. He stirred the mixture together, and handed me a small bottle filled with the mixture. "Here you go Skye." I said as I gently fed her the contents of the bottle. Luna and Celestia were too busy mooning over her to notice the chef mixing up a huge batch of the mixture. "If you preserve this with your magic, it should feed her for about 3 months." He said, tapping Luna on the shoulder. "Thanks Aeron, we really appreciate this." Luna said to the chef as a blue glow enveloped the barrel. "No problem Princess, just make sure to take care of the little gal." He said. Celestia left after him, leaving me, Luna and Skye together. Luna rooted around in the cupboard where she had left the things she didn't want to take with her to Ponyville, and found the cot that Celestia had made for her. "This has lasted rather well..." She sighed, and pulled the cot out and put it at the foot of her bed. "Big day tomorrow, better get some sleep." She climbed into bed as I tucked Skye into the cot. Skye looked content with her new cot, and squawked softly. The squawking didn't surprise me that much, as she was half eagle. I climbed into bed next to Luna and drifted off into sleep, and we managed to make it through the night without Skye waking up.