Ampere started as the pup refused to back down, the rising ire for a moment dwarfed beneath the sheer surprise of the child's audacity in the face of her onslaught. Sure, she was small, but he was smaller and her hooves could crush those stupid teeth right from his skull if he so much as thought to snarl at her daughter.

Fury erupted then, goaded by her haughty thoughts, in a shower of sparks and electric air. All around her the foliage which had come to decay renewed itself within its raw composition, drifting like dancing dust motes but howling like the ill-contained energy that it was. With feathers still all on end and head thrashing back and forth at the pup, Ampere drew her energy into her own wolf; a much larger, and more imposing creature, if she did say so herself. Her lips curled in a sneer, matching the pup's defiance and fortitude with her own unbreakable resilience. Even the stupid fucking bird, far too small and weak for such a battle, was swayed by Ampere's unparalleled urge to fight and protect, though it continued to do nothing helpful as it flapped around screeching (much could be said of the blue mare herself many days, though the irony escaped her).

The arrival of Tae however stilled her hand, and though fingers were still flexed against her metaphorical blade, the sight of the second daughter and her position amid this fray struck Ampere enough to also heed Grusha's casual tone. She didn't notice it now, or rather didn't think about it as the notion slipped behind the chaos of Ampere's other thoughts, but the girls were so oddly calm with this fight. Shouldn't they be frightened? Ampere would ask herself later, why aren't they afraid?. Like the smoke of her talented daughter however, the realization dissipated, swirling as Ampere moved abruptly to turn back towards Grusha.

The wolf had already begun to slink back towards his bond-mate by the time Ampere manager to utter a clearly puzzled and flustered, "W-what?" It fell so noticeably quiet, ringing in the echo that her shouting had just expanded, but the sound surely could not match the hard edged stare she placed upon her child.

Bit by bit her feathers fell back in place, and her own wolf vanished with a pop and an acrid smell. It would be unwise to label her as calm however, which was obvious in the tension that ran across the dark of her hide, as if she had absorbed her electric creation instead of dispelled it. It was there too in the backward slant of her ears, in the widened tremble of her nostrils and the taut lines along her 'brows. Her gaze, normally so vibrant, was a dull lead that slid from girl to girl, taking note of both their wolves, their companions, their slaves.

She might have screamed and run headlong into the wilds if not for Gaucho's distinct touch, her name like a tether that he held and kept her grounded with. Her wings struggled against it in theory, the fight taken into the rapid beat of her heart while her feet remained still as stone. Ampere had faced many grevious wounds in her life, some of the worst being self inflicted, and the rest done at the hands of the stallion beside her. Those paled in this moment as her children bore blades made of wolf teeth and slid them nonchalantly between her ribs, pushing until at last the edges of her heart pricked and bled. How many more bonds could she endure? How many more chains could she carry before she crumpled?

Unable to speak, barely able to breathe, Ampere could only stand and glower.

It was surely the calmness of the twins that set Ampere on such a distant edge. That they bonded was enough to infuriate her. That they fought a monster to do so was enough to break her. Yet it was the nonchalance they treated both issues with that really did Ampere in. As if it was just something normal, no different to them than drinking milk or breathing air or sleeping at night. That misappropriation of the mundane, that's what broke the storm.

It began with listening to their small, tiny voices relive the tale. She first noticed it in the way Tae puffed herself up, infuriating pride. She caught it too in her daughter's stress of heroics, that the eggs were saved - then in Grusha's response that it wasn't forced (oh god's how she knew), improper righteousness. It was there too in the justification that trouble just somehow managed to find them, just like it found them so far from home, insufferable blame.

It didn't stop there though, even if that would have been enough. Already Ampere's feathers were lifting back to their edges. Already electricity was popping into life back at her sides. Already her lips were pursed on a thin line of rage. Yet the tale continued, this time with rhetoric, with instructor of how to feel, with a pointed finger level at her.
Fucking impossible gall.

Gaucho's own disruption beside her caused a ripple of momentary calm, her electric sparks hovering together rather than growing, her lead stare shifting imperceptibly towards him, her body wavering in the magnetism of his presence and the way it moved. Yet his wrath, so rarely, truly seen by the blue mare despite the flames he coveted, did not burn the way she had hoped. He agonized over the herd, but she writhed for their children. Gaucho was not wrong, but she was not going to let that be the simple end.

"Do. Not. EVER." she punctuated each word with a lingering, cold stare, its fervor framed by the wild and mismatched markings of her face. The wind cast her mane to coast in dark waves against her nape, a rising tide that accentuated the storm of her voice. "Leave the Throat unsupervised again," she hissed, low and subtle, a disguised threat of violence.

Cruelly she worked her electric hands towards her daughters, finding the song of their inner currents easily enough. She aimed to snuff out their magic for the time being, and on a separate pulse, their bond too. This wasn't something Ampere could manage for long, but they needn't know that, and she was sure that they didn't know that, because these were but children not even a season old, and they needed a grand reminder of just how small and stupid they still were. Ampere was reminded of this nearly daily, why shouldn't they be?

"OR ELSE I WILL TAKE EVERYTHING FROM YOU!" she thundered, pulling taut the grip on their magics and their bond so that it would run silent; dead and cold and so helplessly lost to them. Let them feel terror for a moment, it seemed they needed a lesson in its humility. "YOU ARE CHILDREN" she roared, her feathers and hairs rippling with the magnetic pulse of the sparks that hummed in blue life around her. "OUR CHILDREN - SO BEHAVE AS SUCH! Only foolish warriors run into battle untrained. Only idiots ignore their commands. How could you be so reckless with your lives, as if they mean nothing! YOU COULD HAVE DIED!" she growled, the anger taking her steps towards them, teeth clicking towards their heads.

There is shouting, but she does not notice over the screaming still echoing inside her.
There is a monster, but she does not notice it above the demons that are her daughters.
There is a void, but she does not notice Gaucho leave when he supported her enough to stand alone.

She does not notice because her attention is so rapt upon the continued defiance of the girls. As if incapable of humility, unable to stay silent, Grusha fired out a final remark. Ampere might have drawn back then and erupted into a full blown storm if not for the fact the fucking girls were running into danger after literally just being told not to.
The storm was there, make no doubt, but with everyone suddenly gone from her side and flinging themselves into the fray, the rain fell internally in a chaotic disarray. Shouting at them now became shouting for them. Thundering her point across was now thundering to reach them. Taking from them, was now giving back to save them.

Concentration broke, Ampere's grip on her daughters slipped and away they went, skeleton and ghost, towards the fire and the big bad wolf. Somewhere in the back of Ampere's mind she noticed yet again the utter lack of self preservation. Fear was a good teacher, but these girls seemed to think they had already learned of the world, that they could merely laugh in the face of danger and escape intact if not better. In moments beyond this, when Ampere had time to think and remember and breathe, she would compare her daughters to her own youth, recognizing the reckless nature in them that electrified her. Yet, her memories would remind her, she had never ignored her mother, had never provoked her greaters, had never disregarded the terrors of the world. She had wrought mischief, had been challenging, had dared and explored and tested limits - but all in good time, all with plenty of peaceful moments and naps and obedient learning. These, these babes were not even beyond their first season and already they had such gall?

She was not impressed.
There is something wrong with them the back of her mind would press once more, a timid whisper of this unknown. There seemed an unrecognizable force in them. Maybe it was the twin thing, maybe it was some shadow cast by Gaucho's blood; whatever it was, it was more than just two daring foals.


These thoughts settled like sand in the bottom of a river bed though as Ampere, the upset water turned into rapids, moved forward in chase. She did not immediately see the commotion, but what she did see was her children, three now, involved with it while Gaucho ushered fire like lungs might breathe. She was confident he had a handle on whatever threat was present, so for the time being she focused on making sure their fucking prodigy didn't bait death.

Reaching out for the electrical currents around and within Zero she tried to haul him back and away from the flames and the wolf so near him. Meanwhile her shield was spinning out from between her shoulder blades, expanding into a metal sun, smooth and gleaming and ready to protect as she ran after the twins. They had a head start on her, but she had years on them and her legs quickly ate the ground. Her shield sung ahead of her, accelerated by magic to continue to serve her elder child as she tried to have it help block him. Meanwhile her body aimed to careen around and serve as a buffer between the danger and her girls, physical presence and teeth reaching out all trying to herd the foals away from the danger rather than into it.

"All of you," she grunted between labored breaths, her blood hot with adrenaline, "Move!" she hissed, teeth snapping.

Pure chaos spun around them like a storm, each body a drop of rain caught in the vortex of tragedy and confusion. Ampere at least had the clarity to attend to her children, and by some grace of the gods they finally had the sensibility to heed her.

The moment of impending doom passed like an ocean's swell as all three children managed not to tangle themselves up with the Wildfire and the creature. Like any wave that break however, another would be swiftly behind it, granting just enough time to breathe before you were underwater again. Zero took that time to spin towards her, smoke a trail on his wing that curled her nostrils with distaste. "That's Mesec!" he pleaded, his words nonsensical beneath the thrum of her heartbeat and the shouting all around. That's Mesec some other part of her repeated, echoing the voice of her son.

She was abruptly aware that she was standing still, breathing hard and fast, and not just because she'd sprinted over. Wing beats overhead snapped her out of it, and she threw her head tot he side instinctively, blue eyes rolling up while beside her Zero was already, thankfully, corralling the girls the rest of the way to safety. She expected to see Kygo, but the parrot was terrified of everything that was happening and had flown to the safety of a nearby tree, his feathers shaking as their bond supplied her with an unhealthy dose of fear every so often. Who she saw instead was Lucius, and the sight of the roc sent another echoing stream of "It's Mesec!" through her conscious, only this time she actually heard it.

The realization ran like a hot jolt through her, causing her skin to crawl with a noticeable shudder. Muscles clenched so tight it hurt, Ampere spun on her haunches, her small body twisting easily and granting her for the first time a clear view of the fight raging on. Swaths of fire and shadow danced around each other as Gaucho and Mesec engaged, like the Sun and the Moon at war, light and dark, good and evil. Her stomach flopped into her throat, and she thought she'd find her legs had given out on her when she asked them to move, to run, but they didn't. Afraid of Gaucho's reputation on the battlefield, fearful of his fierce protective nature, unaware of his knowledge in who he faced, Ampere was sure the Wildfire would kill the Nightwind.

Her strides ate the ground as Ampere raced desperately towards the stallions, chaos melting away into an absolute focus with each stride. She set it against the beast perched upon the back of the inferno - it was like watching a solar eclipse - and with it she reached; not just with her limbs, or her voice, but with all that she had. Wading through his darkness like a pale glimmer of light, Ampere extended an unseen hand to haul the Moon's son from its depths, offering him what he had always given her.

If she could just grab Mesec, the true Mesec, then this would stop. So her ability set itself like teeth to pinch taut the electrical wire that connected his vein of magic, to collapse the beast back into the man he was. Yet, her focus, exact as it was, existed only briefly as the madness within and around her consumed her with palpable despair. It might not last the length of her attempt; she wasn't even sure if she could revert him. So she didn't stop, and threw everything at them in the hopes something would do the trick. Her momentum carried on as she flung her body at theirs, as she screamed, "IT'S MESEC!". It was all a hysterical need for them to stop, tortured by this physical manifestation of her inner turmoil.

[Ampere tried to block Mesec's shifting magic as she throws herself at them and shouts]