Two Heirs, One Throne

Scar

"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?"