When there's madness, when there's poison in your head
When the sadness leaves you broken in your bed

"MOM!"

Iskra raced across the sand, its grains spraying up behind his heels like pepper as he ran. Sparks shed from beneath his wings like a comet's trail, fading before they hit the ground.

"MOOOOOOM!"

He squawked out anxiously, little legs threatening to trip him in his haste. Sweat stained the folds of his muscle as he moved, and his baby mohawk of a mane and half grown tail waved merrily in the wind of his speed.

"MOO-"

His cry cut short as he spotted her blue and black shape sprawled on the sand, near her usual tree where she roosted. She didn't seem to have heard him, which was absurd, so he instantly knew she was not all here - faded so to speak. The realization brought a slowness to his pace, the excitement seeming to drain out. His features became crestfallen, his lower lip jutting out with a mild pout, while his 'brows creased with disapproval. The feathers splayed against his rump and behind his ears snapped shut, slicking down, while his wings reshuffled on his back, tightening with the lean look of upset. Lazily he moved now, hooves knocking carelessly against each other, sand kicked up in front of him and spraying back with a barely noticeable bite.

"Mom," he said sharply, ears flicking uncertainly before folding back somewhat. He drew upon her, glancing first at her then around them, his motions jerky, a bit nervous.
He heaved a huge sigh before leaning down and pulling on a metal plug that was jutting obtrusively from a cactus. It jarred against his teeth, and Iskra grimaced at the strange, cool feeling on his tongue. A drop of two of the liquid substance burned on his tongue and he gagged on it as he dropped the tool, dumping it dismissively beside his mother. Next he looked her over, and set to work with something too practiced to have been his first time.

Iskra nosed Ampere's splayed wing back against her side. He nudged her sprawled legs closer under herself. He tugged her tail into a less revealing position against her rump, and gripped her mane in his teeth to hoist her neck up on her front legs. Her head was still cock-eyes, so he bumped his muzzle under hers and hauled it straight with a grunt. Drool and sand smeared along his cheek as he did so, and he exclaimed, "yuck," as he leaned in and wiped it against her neck instead. Gently he reached one of his wings out to finish brushing the sand of her face, mindful of the spit rope hanging from the edge of her lips. They were smeared up over her top teeth, so she looked like she was sneering. He cracked a smile at that, and used the tips of his wings to move her lips, pantomiming her talking. He even gave her a fake, dramatic voice, giggling as he did so.

A shiny, round object fell out of the crook of his wing as he played though, and its movement caught his attention with a gasp. His wings flashed towards it, Ampere's lips falling back into place, expressionless. "Oh no you don't!" Iskra exclaimed like a tutting mother hen, "You're gonna stay here with me, nice and safe and warm," he admonished with a nod as he delicately rolled the object back under his wing.

He circled around Ampere then, sidling up along her left side, crawling under the loose hang of the wing curled messily against her side. Iskra hugged close to her side, nestling up against her neck, leaning on her foreleg under the bow of her head. His magic warmed the air around him, moving the object purposefully from his special place. He moved it between his legs, where his teal gaze watched it with wonder and imagination.

Iskra smiled at the little egg.

Iskra

I will hold you in the depths of your despair
And it's all in the name of love

When there's madness, when there's poison in your head
When the sadness leaves you broken in your bed

As Ampere groans and grunts beside him, Iskra claps his wings over the egg, hiding it from view. The excitement still courses through his body though, little half-tail at his rump wriggling with the energy. "Mom!" he greets her with a megawatt smile, its impact so intense his eyes beam with it too. Ampere ducks her head away from his enthusiasm, gurgling with pained disdain, but Iskra purposefully ignores it.

Little Spark

His heart warms at the use of her affectionate name for him. It's moments like this that it's easy to love her. He always has, always does, of course, but some days are harder than others. Admittedly this isn't the best day, given her state, but the fact she's willing to reciprocate is something, and Iskra will take anything.

"Hi mom," he greets, reining in on his enthusiasm to help ease her return to the waking. "Your spout is over there," he motioned with his head, but she didn't see, "By your right hip," he clarified helpfully. He didn't really want her drinking more, but he knew she appreciated it, and it made her happy, kinda. Whatever it takes, he thinks.

"I have a surprise mom," he continues as she fumbles with the item. "Guess what it is!" he attempts to turn it into a game, to make this last longer, to make it more fun.

Iskra

I will hold you in the depths of your despair
And it's all in the name of love

When there's madness, when there's poison in your head
When the sadness leaves you broken in your bed

Even her usual half-attention upon him can't wound him now as his excitement bubbles up - plus she ,i>hugged him kinda, with her wing, so she knew she was still with him, even if she wasn't looking at him.

Originally her coughing pulled a frown onto his face, but before he could ask her if she was okay, his eyes wearily watching the odd, odorous liquid she liked continually trickling down, she was replying to him. Her tone was flat and dull, completely unwilling to take a bite of the fun game he offered, and his ears fell back a bit in disappointment. Surprisingly though, she was faking him, and began to rattle off one absurd thing after another. "Mom!" he giggled. "No!" he exclaimed delightedly, then "nooope," smugly responding to each wrong answer, at other times unable to even form words and just bursting into fits of laughter as she said one outrageous thing after another.

"A WHALE!?" he nearly shrieked, rolling to his side, wings and legs flailing over-dramatically. In his zealous response to her silliness, he forgot about the whole point, and his precious egg flew out of his grasp and flopped down into the dirt with a soft pouf as the sand cushioned and held it. Its top gleamed innocently pale, round, shiny, and hard. Iskra, now rolled over and risen to his feet so that he could hop around, paused mid-way through his antics as he realized what had happened. Hurriedly he moved towards it, leaning down with his nose to ensure it was okay.

"No," he breathed, referring to his mother, though his focus was wholly on the egg. "It's this," he proudly exclaimed, sparing her a glance, smiling. "I found this little egg!"

Iskra

I will hold you in the depths of your despair
And it's all in the name of love

When there's madness, when there's poison in your head
When the sadness leaves you broken in your bed

Even before that first word left her mouth, Iskra could see a change in his mother. He wasn't sure exactly why though, even if he understood what it was, and so his smile faltered, but didn't completely fade. He had no idea it was him, that it was his prize, that drew the storm racing upon her features - brought the terrible darkness into her eyes. Iskra was accustomed to being ignored by her, he was used to grief welling in her when she beheld him, hell he was even a little familiar with the sharp cut of her anger.

Iskra did not recognize this hatred though.

"Wh-what," he began, the confused query hanging in the space she left after her first, startling "no". The happy crest feathers behind his ears shrunk down, folding back over each other, while his eyebrows curled wearily over his gaze, transforming the happy spark of his eyes into the endless, soulful depths of the sea. Her voice slammed back against him however, unrelenting, and he pulled tighter into himself, wings taut against his sides as his smile not entirely fizzled out into a wrinkled frown.

His name screamed from her lips with such rancor that he took a shuddering step back. His ears fell flat against his neck, and his eyes shimmered as they widened, fearful and still so lost. His tail and his rump feathers tucked, his body curved in and crouched down, trying to shrink, to escape, to avoid. This wasn't fun.

Still, he instinctively loomed over his egg, protecting it, though he'd never imagine his mom would pose a threat.

Her body seemed to rattle with the force of her outrage - he had no idea it was a sloppy failure of standing, a testament to the poison she willingly took. It frightened him though, and quickly his magic snapped the egg up and tucked it back into the crook of his wing as she continued to shout. Her eyes were cruel upon him, tracing this movement with a snake's intensity, and he took another cautious step back, but she only seemed to loom forward for that.

"B-b-but why!?" he cried out, frantic to understand.

Iskra

I will hold you in the depths of your despair
And it's all in the name of love

When there's madness, when there's poison in your head
When the sadness leaves you broken in your bed

Ampere hadn't taken a drink for a moment now. The alcohol was still dripping freely though, splashing against her side, soaking into her fur and giving her a certain odor. It was making her sour. As much as it had saturated her hide though, so too had it mind, and Iskra wondered if this response was partly the amber liquid's fault.

He hoped so, because then it would be easier to forgive her for such injustice.

Iskra stood, quaking beneath the unrelenting presence of his mother. If she noticed this, or something else (he didn't truly care about the reason), then she seemed to soften because of it. Over her initial shock, Ampere quieted, but Iskra knew she wasn't done. The eye of the storm, so to speak, but he knew that was just a brief respite, and that there was still another bit of hell to get through as the rest of it was due to pass. His features set into a grim expression of endurance.

Still, he was grateful that she answered him, and slowly his ears perked up to better listen to what she had to say. He'd no idea the passion she held for this topic - much of Ampere's passion had been buried beneath depression and alcohol since his birth. The mare he thought he knew as his mother, as Ampere, was only a fragment of the one everyone else knew. It was oddly alienating, and was one of the reasons he continually didn't give up on her. There had to be something better in her, right? He'd heard as much, and he didn't think there was that many liars out there.

A companion egg he thinks with ill-contained excitement. That was even better than just a regular egg! Given he found it by the beach he was figuring it was a gull, or maybe a turtle, or some other desert reptile. His mom knew a lot though, and he was sure she was right.

A companion Iskra dreamed, thinking of everyone else he'd ever met that had one. They'd always been fascinating, but he never expected to have one himself. They seemed too special, too magical, and he knew a little bit about his mother's feelings on them (they were part of her name after all). He just, had never expected to feel the brunt of her crusade, had never known her crusade even existed until now.

Nervously his wings shuffled and reshuffled at his sides, mindful of the egg he had stowed away there. "I'm taking care of Squishy really good," Iskra said softly, but firmly, defending himself against her first points. He was of course referring to the golem his older brother had left in his care, as if it somehow revealed his responsibility and how it equipped him to care for a newborn creature.

"And this egg was all by itself!" he tried to justify. "So I think it'd want to be with me, or-or anyone, so it's not alone anymore. That's why they bond - because no one wants to be alone, and sometimes you are even if you got friends. 'Cause they touch your heart, but not your soul, and that's the part that really gets cold and sad if it's left alone too long."
Ampere was bonded, didn't she get it? She was sad because dad was gone, but that was her heart - she still had Kygo in her soul, and he was sure that's the only thing that got her through it (him and alcohol, maybe because that touched the soul too...).

Iskra

I will hold you in the depths of your despair
And it's all in the name of love

When there's madness, when there's poison in your head
When the sadness leaves you broken in your bed

Iskra was poised in front of her still, stiff with tension, but still with defiance. Yet the more he argued, the longer he watched, the less he saw of his mother. Something ugly settled upon her, or maybe it was always inside of her and it just now broke out onto the surface, but it was there all the same. Her very features took on a new light, heavily shadowed and creased, and she seemed like a different horse altogether for all her smug condescension and outrageous wrath. Slowly, but surely, Iskra's ears sank to his head and his tail tucked against his rump. His body was shrinking somehow, pulling into itself tighter, on the defensive but also submissive as he made himself small and unassuming. His feathers were so tight the shafts poked into his skin, and his teeth were grit so hard his jaw began to hurt.

Aside from how Ampere was speaking to him, it was also what she was saying that tore into him. At some point he started to cry, but he didn't even notice until his cheeks grew hot and moist, and that realization seemed to strike him even harder, causing a strangled sob to burst from his chest and set his lips to quiver. That she disregarded Squishy so carelessly, as if his older brother Zekle hadn't purposefully set the golem in his care, was crushing. That she accused him of ruining the egg's life by taking it, and that she, the most selfish horse he'd ever met, had the audacity to label him as such was a lash across his back (and his heart).

Yet her words he could endure, even her hideous transformation he could withstand, but as she moved to become physical, teeth and hooves reaching out for him, Iskra yelped and screamed. He stumbled back, wings flared in fright, the only saving grace to his balance, "NO MOM!". She lunged and her teeth snapped just beside him, her exhale hot and stale against his nape, pungent with liquor and regret. "I HATE YOU!" he screeched as he spun out from under her, turning, tears glinting off his cheeks with the movement. He reached furiously with his feet for the sand, sprinting off with all the speed he could muster, wanting nothing but distance between them.

Iskra

I will hold you in the depths of your despair
And it's all in the name of love