Hecate's Orphanage

by BlackRoseRaven

The Prime

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty Two: The Prime
~BlackRoseRaven

Cadence swore under her breath as the power fluctuated through the tunnels, dust hailing down from the ceiling as the world shook around them. Something was going on above: they had almost gotten trapped in the system of bunkers when power and communications had suddenly gone out entirely, but thankfully the lights had turned back on, and while they weren't reading much in the way of communications, the closer they got to the surface, the stronger the signal was getting. She had expected the antennae to be ground-penetrating... maybe they switched to something else, though. I don't know. I still don't understand how most of this networking stuff works.

Her team followed closely behind her as they headed into a half-collapsed corridor: in spite of all the support, seismic activity had torn and twisted the halls into ruptured catacombs. Cadence grimaced as she pushed a fallen chunk of concrete aside, ignoring the gravel that pattered down over her before she said quickly: “Daddy, need your help.”

Sombra nodded, striding forward and leaning past her to study the ruptured floor beyond for a moment before he shoved his hooves against the ground. Fractures filled with black sludge before hardening, the broken floor lifting up slightly as if it had just inhaled deeply, and Cadence ran quickly across, wincing a bit at how hollow the floor still felt under her hooves.

The others followed, and only moments after Sombra crossed the ground, the crystal cracked and the earth spilled away, forming a deep sinkhole filled with ragged ends of metal bars. Cadence did her best not to linger on this as they headed into another cracked hall, before she cursed under her breath as the world shook around them with the force of whatever was happening above.

She blinked in surprise as her Mission Drive suddenly fizzled, looking down at it before a projection of the Sigil of Decretum appeared, a mechanical voice announcing calmly: “Warning. Invasion Response Protocol is now in effect. Please proceed to your designated operation zone.”

“Does that include us?” Moonflower asked awkwardly, and Cadence smiled despite herself over her shoulder.

“That's where we're going. Come on, we must be getting closer to the surface.” Cadence said: and, less than a minute later, she was proven right, although not in the way she had expected.

The tunnel ahead had simply collapsed, but the rubble formed a ramp up to the streets above, the ivory mare grimacing as she noted the visible sky was lit with an unnatural glow. “Alright, stay close and cover each other.”

The others huddled in as Cadence led the way up the makeshift ramp, and she grimaced immediately as she looked to the side and realized they had emerged right next to the corpse of the Ahriman. She shivered a little as she felt a hideous energy still emanating from it, heard a guttural croak, saw the faintest of shifts, but she also saw the open, shattered plates across its body, the green goo leaking out of its hideous wounds mixed with coolant and other fluids...

But worse still were the chains, long and clanking uselessly and all of them ending in ugly barbs and hooks that were sunk through the spirits of the Valkyrie mounts still cantering through the air, trapped in the snares that Loki had wrapped around them. And as much as she hated the Valkyries... their horses were usually smarter than them.

An explosion drew her attention, and Cadence narrowed her eyes as she saw two figures fighting amidst a horde of wooden shapes. She wanted to leap forward, to run, to attack, but she steadied herself as she instead ordered quickly: “Alright, Moonflower, cloak us as much as possible while we move in.”

A blanket of invisibility wrapped itself around them, the four vanishing from sight before Cadence slowly began to lead the way forward, keeping her pace slow and steady as they crept up on the battle ahead.

Hecate and Loki were locked in combat, the Jötnar mare snarling as she sent both vicious blasts of magic as well as strange, glass-like bubbles of force at Loki: he retaliated with powerful elemental magic of his own, far more ferocious than he had been before as Astra boiled and bubbled across his body, fighting savagely, but every time one of those translucent bubbles came towards him, he cowered away, doing everything he could to get out of their path.

Danzsöngr watched coldly from the middle of the audience of wooden puppets, before one of them suddenly turned towards her and asked in a jovial voice: “Who do you think will win?”

“My faith is in Mother Hecate, of course.” Danzsöngr answered fearlessly, before she added, as she felt the Astra of the puppet: “What do you think, Father Jafnharr?”

“What do I know? Not much, as it so happens. Perhaps I am only a shade of Odin most high after all.” replied the puppet with a shrug, clicking as it turned back to watch the fight.

“Why do you not attack me?” Danzsöngr asked, curious more than anything else, and the puppet's wooden grin seemed to stretch wider as it shrugged easily on its silver strings.

“That is not the task I have been given to do.” answered the puppet matter-of-factly, before it added knowingly: “Besides, fighting isn't what we're here to do, not really. It's not what Loki has asked us here for.”

Danzsöngr studied the puppet of Jafnharr silently for a few moments, then she returned her eyes to the battle before them, watching as Loki and Hecate clashed together. The Prime snarled as he pushed uselessly against Hecate's shoulders, searing her flesh where he touched, but she drove forward against him, pushing him steadily back as her body thrummed with such power it made the Astra that composed his body ripple, before Loki squealed in shock when she snapped her horn forward and he was blown out of the layering of Astra like it was nothing but cheap cloth.

Loki landed on his rump, mouthing wordlessly as he looked down at his hands as, for a few moments, his Prime Astra continued to struggle against Hecate, but the Jötnar mare slashed through this and dissolved it before she straightened, eyes glowing and mane crackling around her as Loki cowered and held up his hands, babbling: “Wait! Wait, I surrender! Okay, I give up, you win, l-let's talk about this!”

Hecate was silent for a few moments as Loki whimpered and leaned away, before the Jötnar mare asked in a low, dangerous voice: “Do you really think I'm stupid enough to fall for that?”

Loki blinked, and then he scowled as he let his hands drop, saying flatly: “Yeah, I kind of did, actually. Fine, let's do this the hard way.”

Loki snapped his fingers, and puppets lunged suddenly in on all sides: Hecate cursed as she immediately snapped her horn up, a dome of electricity and raw magic appearing around her, but the puppets carelessly slammed themselves against it from all sides, making Hecate snarl as she felt literal godlike power gathering and struggling to bind her down as she shoved back against it with all the magical force she could.

Loki clucked his tongue as he put his hands on his hips, then he glanced up and added mildly: “Hey, Swan. I know you're there. Do me a favor, though, and don't come like, flying out of nowhere to try and karate chop me, okay? You can't kill me.”

“I can kill you.” Cadence said coldly, as she emerged from beneath the cloak of invisibility, and Loki grinned at her before he simply beckoned to her with one finger, and Cadence grimaced as she was hefted into the air and carried helplessly towards the god.

No, not helplessly, she thought: her whole body felt heavy, but not bound. She could feel the pressure around her, but that was it, only pressure, just carrying her. She could struggle wildly against it, or, she could move slowly and carefully, keeping her eyes locked on Loki's as she shifted a front hoof ever-so-slightly.

He grinned at her with amusement as she floated towards him, reaching up to flick her Third Eye as she said mildly: “You know, I think this is from the wrong religion or culture or something, kind of clashes with the rest of you. Why would you stick a dot on your forehead, anyway? Seems kind of dumb and all.”

He paused, then almost absently reached up and caught Cadence's wrist when she attempted to drive her dagger into the side of his head, clucking his tongue loudly before he mocked: “Now hey, that wasn't very nice at all! I just said dots are stupid, didn't I? Don't put one on my head, too.”

He paused, then grinned as he leaned in close, adding easily: “You've gotten better though, Dancing Song! Next you might just-”

Cadence drove a hoof into Loki's gut, and the satisfaction of watching his eyes bulge out in shock was almost as pleasing as the feeling of her head slamming into his face before she unleashed a blast of white force that knocked Loki crashing backwards, howling in pain as he grabbed uselessly at his blinded eyes. Cadence caught herself on her rear hooves and lunged after him, but she crashed into an invisible barrier, snarling and slashing uselessly against it before she tried to leap around it-

She thumped into another invisible wall, and then her eyes widened as she saw through the Astra and realized she was snared inside some kind of magical cube, Loki rubbing moodily at his face as he sat up and said distastefully: “That was kind of bitchy, babe. I mean. Kind of really bitchy.”

He paused, then scowled, and Cadence twitched in surprise as the cube of magic disintegrated around her before Moonflower leapt in beside her and posed, saying bravely: “If you want to hurt her, you'll have to go through me!”

“We ain't gonna just sit back and let you do what you want no more, Loki. The game be over.” La Croix added as he stepped up on Cadence's other side, before she smiled as her father gently grasped her and helped her up to her hooves, smiling at her before he turned his calm, fearless eyes towards Loki.

Loki snorted in contempt, then he squeaked when the dome of electricity exploded behind him, shattering puppets and sending their charred wooden remains flying in all directions as Hecate straightened and growled: “No matter how powerful you are, you are ultimately alone, Loki. Your Primordials are gone. Your Voidborn have been destroyed, one after the other. All you have are empty shells and wooden toys.”

Loki smiled thinly, his eyes flicking towards her before he stiffened ever-so-slightly as a voice said gently: “Brother, it is not too late. 'Tis never too late to turn back on thy path. 'Tis never too late to repent, and to cease digging this wretched hole.”

Sleipnir smiled as he strode towards Loki in his full armor, shield on his back and hammer sparking against his side. He approached Loki fearlessly, then suddenly leaned forward and embraced him, Loki flinching, then wheezing and gasping as Sleipnir picked him up, uselessly flailing at the stallion as he rasped out: “Thor! Thor, dammit, too tight!”

Sleipnir blushed as he quickly set Loki down, smiling awkwardly as Loki staggered backward before falling on his rump with a wheeze, glaring up at the stallion, then sulking when Sleipnir gently patted him on the head, saying kindly: “I apologize, brother, 'tis just so good to-”

Loki shoved a hand against Sleipnir's muzzle, and for a moment there was an honest flash of pain across his face before he shook his head and said quietly: “I told you before, and I'll say it again, Thor... we are enemies. That is that. Now, if you really don't want to fight me... leave. Leave, like Freya-”

“Freya is here, too. Not fighting thee, of course, but protecting others. There are many here, Loki, all heroes of great power. And that is also why I come to thee.” Sleipnir said gently, and he smiled faintly before he shook his head and took a single step backward, even as he looked longingly at his brother. “Loki... thou shall not survive. 'Tis suicide. What did thou bring, but ghosts and beasts and a scant few puppets? Thy officers are scattered. Thy Jarsongildi is no more.”

Loki chuckled softly at this, and Sleipnir frowned slightly as Hecate narrowed his eyes, the trickster grinning slightly before he said softly: “The Jarsongildi, the Jarsongildi. Yes, they were important... important sacrifices.”

Loki smiled coldly, straightening as he held his hands out, saying contemptibly: “The Jarsongildi were those whose wills were strong enough to resist being destroyed in the Void... and those who were capable of resisting my control, who could have been a threat if they'd turned on me. I suppose only Melinda was really aware of that, though... maybe Veliuona had some idea, too. But no. You see, the Jarsongildi did my bidding, but my Voidborn ultimately weren't being sent out into the world to do my bidding... they were being sent out to die.”

Loki flexed his fingers before Astra twisted around him, his body flaring with power as he said coldly: “Because when they shattered and dissolved, their energies still returned to the Void. And I gained more power. Much more power, from their deaths. For what am I? Primordial or God... I am neither. I am stuck between them, just like I have always been stuck between good and evil, right and wrong, forced to play the role of the shadow and the scapegoat.”

“Of course. That's why you used living weapons. But not all of those Voidborn you sent against us were powerful enough to be considered threatening.” Hecate said, and Loki smiled coldly as he looked over at her, tapping his nose slowly.

“You should know better than that, Hecate! I would have thought Valthrudnir would have taught you better: to be a threat, you don't have to be strong. And I'm more worried about a coward stabbing me in the middle of the night than I am some powerful mighty warrior like Thor here running at me with his hammer.” Loki accented this by pointing at Sleipnir and knocking him flat with a blast of magic, but Sleipnir didn't twitch or try to fight, only looking with sorrowful eyes at his brother. “You just shoot a mad dog. But bedbugs bite.”

He paused, then smiled coldly as he rose a hand, and the air wavered as the Ahriman moaned in the distance, reality quaking around it as he said contemptibly: “But I did make use of the cowards and the traitors and all those other nasty Voidborn. Sure, I was able to order them around, but even I turn my back and rest my head sometimes, and I knew that even if I had them all line up for the firing squad... no, no. Messy. Undignified. And I couldn't risk someone like Melinda turning on me. But thankfully, she stayed willfully ignorant until the end, and-”

“She did not. She believed in us.” Moonflower said quietly, and Loki laughed shortly.

“Look, kiddo. I won't pretend to know what or what didn't go through that crazy witch's head, because she was a crazy witch. Absolutely worst-tempered gal I've ever met, too, and Thor, hey, you know I've met plenty.” Loki said pointedly, and Sleipnir smiled faintly as he sat up. “Not that it matters, though. Say she did figure me out, that all of this was just so that I and I alone would have the power to manipulate the Void, so that I could lure the Primordials into a furnace, because... they were definitely really excited about the 'becoming one with the Prime' part but not so hot on the 'let me kill your ass' part. But at least they knew they were being sent out to die and could appreciate it, you know! They just... didn't want me doing the killing. Weirdos.”

Loki clucked his tongue, and then he turned cold as he spun towards Hecate, pointing at her as she said darkly: “And now I'm supercharged and powerful enough to destroy the last people who could possibly stand against me, who you have nicely all gathered together. I've overloaded all your portals, and the stupid animals that weren't killed outright are going to be struggling to close the nasty holes in reality left behind before too many of my Hræzla crawl into their realities. And they are my Hræzla, by the way. The things in the Void are smart enough to listen... at least when you have a big enough whip.”

Loki flicked two fingers, snapping a lash of Astra against the ground before he said softly: “I enjoyed the games while they lasted, and I've been patient for so, oh so long. But it's time for all this to end.”

“I'm sure you have time for one last question.” Hecate said, and Loki gave her a mincing bow and smile before the Jötnar mare asked: “Why do all this now? You could have easily hidden in the Void or another part of the world. There was never any reason to accelerate your operations, or even reveal your identity, even back when you were Thokk. What drove you to this, Loki?”

But Loki only smiled cryptically, covering his eyes, his ears, and then his mouth before he spread his arms wide and said: “Have to keep some secrets, babe.”

Hecate smiled thinly in return, and Cadence gritted her teeth before she set herself. But before she could lunge forward, a strong hoof gripped her shoulder, and she looked in surprise to see Thorn now standing beside her, black veins pulsing through his body as he said coldly: “Loki. Your invasion has failed and your forces have been neutralized. Surrender now or prepare to be destroyed.”

“Hey, your kid's getting pretty reckless, talking to me like that. Weren't you listening?” Loki gave a callous grin as he let his body go loose even as power irradiated the air around him, his eyes haunted even as he declared in a triumphant voice: “This was all planned.”

The Ahriman cried out in misery as the Valkyrie steeds screamed and yanked at their chains, going berserk as the other spirit-steeds rushed down, smashing in and out of reality and cracking the sky like broken glass that monstrous, unreal things began to eagerly worm their way in through as Loki spun around with a laugh before his body thrummed, transforming in a second back into the monstrous Prime as he thrust his claws above his head.

Rifts tore into reality across Endworld, Husks and empty-eyed Lost Souls storming in through these along with more of the hideous, deformed beasts: Terrors that didn't so much serve Loki as were drawn to the exciting energy of the physical plane, the smaller beasts allowed to run wild, the larger ones reined by stolen machinery, transformed into living battleships that spilled Husks and parasite cargo across Endworld.

Hecate lunged, and a puppet jumped in her way, stalling her just long enough for Loki to seize Thorn with his powers. Cadence leapt immediately forward as well, but Loki blasted her away with a psychokinetic shock before he thrust the stallion towards Hecate when she smashed the puppet away, the trickster asking coolly: “So will you go through-”

Thorn's corrupt arm twisted around on itself and seized Loki by the face, the Prime shouting in frustration as he jerked back and forth before a massive force slammed into his gut, Thorn flying free to smoothly catch himself on his front hoof and drop into a roll away as Hecate carried Loki backward on her horn, then flung him into the air with a tremendous blast of magic before she straightened and created an immense crystalline sphere above her head.

She flung it forward, and Loki swore before he lashed out with a wild array of magic, but all his powers were absorbed into the sphere as it spun slowly towards him, Loki's eyes widening before he snapped: “I won't let you catch me again!”

He vanished from the spot, and the sphere vanished along with him, but Hecate's eyes flicked to the side, watching as he fled from her magic. Except something struck her as wrong, the mare frowning slightly before she looked sharply behind herself a moment too late.

Loki kicked her hard in the ass, knocking her stumbling forward before he blasted her backwards with a wave of Astra that knocked her floating helplessly into the air, clinging to her body and burning over her like fire. She snarled at him, eyes flashing as she locked on to him and the sphere appeared behind the trickster, but he only grinned and twiddled his fingers at her before he harmlessly slipped backwards through the sphere, and Hecate's eyes widened as she realized too late that he had somehow confused their energy signatures.

The sphere slammed into her, and Hecate screamed in agony as it shredded her energies, nearly twisting her inside out as reality rippled around the devastating attack. In the distance, Thorn's eyes widened as he felt his mother's pain, and Danzsöngr shouted, Cadence spinning away from the attacking monsters and puppets in shock in time to watch as the sphere exploded in a tremendous, obliterating flash.

Hecate fell, a smoldering meteor, chunks of burning machine and genetically-modified flesh hailing down after her before she crashed to the ground in a ruined heap. Thorn immediately broke rank and ran for his mother, but Loki appeared out of nowhere in front of him, the Prime thrumming with rage and victory and a strange sense of sorrow as he growled: “No use taking care of the bitch if you don't always eliminate the pup.”

Loki leaned forward, but Thorn's eyes glowed with rage as he bared his teeth and snarled

I WANT YOU TO HURT. I WANT YOU TO DIE.

with all the force and authority and rage and hate he could muster, lashing out with the most vicious, the most cruel hex he could generate.

Loki flinched in surprise as his Astra steamed for a moment, before he whispered: “As if that isn't the plan already, stupid.”

The Prime shook himself out, then he growled in disgust and started to reach forward, but then he was knocked off his feet as he was instead smashed by a powerful blast of gravity magic, Moonflower shouting: “You keep your filthy claws off him!”

Loki rolled back to his feet, then he snarled, ignoring the next hex Thorn cursed him with and instead simply booting the stallion away before he blasted Moonflower off his hooves with a surge of Astra, asking disgustedly: “So I should put my claws on you instead, then?”

The Prime stepped forward, reaching down to grab Moonflower before his eyes widened in surprise as Stronghold Halfdragon slammed across his front, her claws ripping savagely through his chest. He staggered backward with a snarl of pain, crimson flaring across his body before he thrust his claws forward, the ground erupting into spikes around them, but Stronghold swiftly seized Moonflower in one hoof, yanking him into the air as her wings gave a mighty flap before she spun around and slammed the stallion like a club against Loki's head, knocking the Prime staggering backwards before he was forced to cover himself as Stronghold roared out a blast of golden flame over him.

She swept quickly backwards, then flung Moonflower bad-temperedly to the ground before she dropped in front of him. But a grin played at her lips all the same as she said contemptibly: “Stay behind me so I don't lose track of you and kill you by happy accident.”

“Stronghold?” Moonflower asked disbelievingly, and then he nodded hurriedly when she glared over her shoulder at him, deciding not to question it as he blurted out: “We have to save Thorn!”

“We have to kill Loki.” Stronghold answered, and she ran straight at the Prime, who glared at her furiously before he simply thrust a hand towards her, and the Draekin's eyes widened in shock as she stumbled over her own claws before she snarled, even as her body began to steam.

“Kill them! I order you to kill them!” the Prime thundered, and Stronghold gritted her teeth so hard they began to crack, her whole body trembling and flexing before she rose her head proudly.

“No.” she uttered, and then she leapt forward, slashing a claw out at Loki, and he gasped in pain as he reflexively brought up an arm that was torn to ribbons by her attack. He flinched backwards with a curse, then staggered further as the Voidborn turned on him, driven purely by the force of her own will as she slashed and tore at Loki, rasping: “You didn't give us life, you didn't help us. You're a liar... we exist, because we are! We owe you nothing!”

Stronghold lurched forward, and Loki stumbled out of the way before he snarled as her hot golden breath exploded out over him. But this time he retaliated with a blade of force that sliced first through the blast of golden flame, and last through the ground behind Stronghold.

The Voidborn trembled as part of her shoulder and half of her face slowly slid away, shattering into motes of energy before she turned a trembling but defiant look up at Loki. They glared at each other for the longest time, before Stronghold suddenly half-turned to look back at Moonflower, tilting the whole side of her face towards the stallion as he stumbled helplessly towards her before she said softly: “Don't waste this chance.”

Stronghold thrummed, glowing with golden light, becoming an effervescent beacon that blinded Loki before she exploded in a tremendous blast of holy hellfire, and Moonflower flinched back as the blast ripped through the world around them with enough force to scar the earth, but to him, the heat felt soothing, the flames stroked almost gently across his body, even as the force of the blast firmly turned him away from Loki.

He ran, blindly, then leapt out through smoke and fire to find Thorn being attacked by puppets: even as strong as he was, he was being battered backward by the raw power of the god-puppets, and his own magic wasn't nearly strong enough to defeat them.

Moonflower easily blasted one of the puppets into the air with a thrum of gravity, then he smashed it apart with a psychic hammer he put a little too much force behind. He ignored the presence of Loki as the Prime turned after them with disgust as the smoke cleared, shouting: “Is that really how you avenge your friend? By running away? Hey, you want a job, I got a slot open for coward of the-”

Loki realized too late there was something thundering towards him before he turned and stared a moment before Scrivener Blooms, in Tyrant Wyrm form, charged straight over him, tramping him into the ground before both Brynhild and Morgan leapt off his back and slammed down on top of the Prime, hammering into him savagely with their hooves. Loki slammed them back with a double-blast of force, but Morgan became a twisting shadow that raced into the ground and Luna blasted Loki with a burst of frostfire before her Jötunnfang formed and viciously began to pummel the Prime into the earth.

Loki caught the massive ice fists with a snarl, then he screamed as spikes of shadow ripped up through his body before they sharply withdrew, then exploded up through him again, making him flinch enough that the Valkyrie's ice fists were able to crush down on him.

Luna felt the thrum of power too late to react before her Jötunnfang were disintegrated by the massive blast of force that ripped up from the earth, knocking her out of the air. She began to twist to recover, then gasped in pain when Loki slammed a fist into her stomach, knocking her crashing backward before he stomped on the ground, the earth shaking with enough force to spit Morgan free from a fracture, and even in shadow form, Loki was able to slash a claw through her and hurt her as he ripped the Astra from her body.

Morgan reformed and hit the ground with a gasp before Loki stomped on her skull, cruelly crushing down as he snarled: “See, you three...” He looked up as Scrivener came charging forward, inhaling in preparation to blast him, but Loki quickly snapped a hand upward, and a massive blade of rock ripped up from the earth and tore through Scrivener's chest, making him hurk out a useless steam of mist as he was left speared on the rock. “You three, I knew could be a threat. You did great against Valthrudnir, sure! But that was part of the problem.”

Loki pressed down, Morgan's skull cracking, her muzzle breaking as Astra shocked over her body, stopped her from changing form. Luna dove in, but Loki simply held up a hand and caught her in a crystalline sphere, the Valkyrie hitting the wall of this with a dull thunk before she looked up in shock as thin, pointed rods of ice formed around her prison.

Loki clicked his tongue, and Morgan clenched her eyes shut: not at the flare of pain through her own body, but at Luna's screams.

“I, however, have learned my lesson about playing with my food. So I'm just going to go ahead and kill all of you right now, because I don't really relish the thought of...” Loki halted and looked up in disgust as Sleipnir smashed his way past several of his puppets and charged straight for him, and on the other side, he could sense Cadence rushing to the aid of the Valkyrie too.

He glared at Sleipnir, then cursed as the huge earth pony ground his hooves into the earth, setting himself against the waves of force that washed over him, using his shield to push back as he roared: “Brother! There is still time!”

“Oh go away you goody-goody!” Loki shouted angrily, flicking his hand firmly, and the street rumbled before collapsing beneath the earth pony. Then the Prime half-spun, slamming a fist backwards into Cadence as she jumped at his back before he snarled in frustration, staggering as spirits came out of nowhere and grabbed eagerly at him before blades of crystal ripped through the earth around him.

He shattered both spirits and crystals into motes with simply a gesture, then he glared at Cadence and knocked her backwards before he howled in pain when a blast from Morgan's soulstone core ripped into his body, knocking him flying into the air. He caught himself in mid-flip, twisting rightside up with a snarl before he pointed down at the earth, shouting: “Take their souls!”

Valkyrie steeds suddenly whirled through the sky towards them, screaming as they shot down and hammered through the resisting ponies: they trampled and battered through the warriors, ripping shreds of spiritual energy from whoever they contacted, and Thorn cursed as both he and Moonflower were battered to the ground.

Even as reinforcements came from all sides, there was little they could do, Thorn realized. He could hear Loki roaring and peppering the area with fireballs, he could feel the draining effects of the steeds ripping through their ranks, and if the Valkyrie mounts weren't reaping souls, then they were breaking reality, allowing more monsters in. Even if they had destroyed most of the puppets, what did it matter? The Terrors were almost indestructible. The Husks were so numerous that even as renewed Hexad and Drone forces pushed into Decretum, they were being overwhelmed...

And Hecate... his mother...

His parents...

Thorn looked at the Mission Drive half-submerged in his corrupted limb, and he trembled for a moment before he looked up and whispered: “Forgive me.”

Thorn pushed himself to his hooves, then he tapped on the Mission Drive as he looked up at the decaying satellite glowing in the sky above, saying weakly: “Activate Ithavoll Protocol, Stage Three. 'For in these great and glorious halls, there are none more deserving of its riches and wealth and tribute, than those who stand as its eternal guard...'”

Thorn Blackfeather straightened, proud and tall and damned, staring into the sky as war raged and ripped around him. And in the only fortified rooms that had survived the ruin of the castle, the rooms that had been built not only to resist being destroyed from external sources, but even more so against what terrible secrets these steel cages held, computers activated and lights flickered to life, illuminating no less and no more than thirty stasis pods. Pods, that one after the other, flickered with eerie bright lights before they hissed calmly open, spilling probiotic liquid carelessly over the floor.

Ponies emerged from each capsule, strange and imperfect Replicants that awoke in confusion until they heard the screams of war from outside. Monitors flashed to life around the room, displaying an image of Hecate that began to calmly speak, but she went ignored as the Replicants fumbled across the room in their strange bodies towards the lockers filled with equipment.

All the equipment was alien to them, yet they understood what it was, and what to do.

War was calling them.

Fearlessly, they prepared. Fearlessly, armored Replicant mares entered the teleporters on either side of the room, feeling familiar presences, and yet not bound to any of them as they emerged where the teleporters had distributed them: in the hottest spots across Endworld.

In the hangar, Freya, Throna and Terra fought side-by-side-by-side against endless hordes: first it had been endless Husks, and now it was terrors, parasites from the Void that looked like massive, awful hands with protruding bug-bodies jutting from the wrists, painful to look at and hungry for their energy. Countless were dead, but the parasites kept coming: but that was fine. They would continue to kill until there were no more left to fight.

And then, all of a sudden, Freya halted, staring in shock at the ceiling. Terra shouted at her and Throna winced as she created a forcefield around them, snapping: “What in the name of-”

Two mares exploded through the ceiling, both dressed in body armor, one armed with a wand and the other a spear. They were ferocious, ripping like a whirlwind through the parasites around the trio before both mares froze and looked sharply at Freya, and Freya stared back at them before one of them remarked: “You'd better warn the others! Strange seeing you fighting beside demons... but I suppose not as strange as when we caught you in bed with one!”

Freya laughed weakly, and then she gave an honest smile as her eyes filled with tears, but she wiped them away before she threw her head back and roared. And both mares anchored themselves before they threw their own heads back and joined her, Terra stumbling in shock and the Void creatures shrieking and falling over themselves in terror as they fled from the sound and the fury.

There were only thirty, but every Replicant was an army by herself: one alone ran to the aid of a Hexad platoon pinned down by a god puppet, and with a single mighty blow, smashed through both a barrier of ice and the construct behind it. A single Replicant leapt to the aid of Courtly Love's base, matching a massive Terror blow-for-blow, shattering its armor with her bare hooves alone as she mocked its weak flails against her.

Cowlick smashed a Terror away from her with a girder, then swung it around like a baseball bat to hammer another monstrosity into the atmosphere before the giant demon roared in frustration as a blast of magic from a god puppet smashed her to the ground. She wiped blood out of her face, then growled as she started to pick herself up before a Replicant – not Muse, not Necrophage, they were both at the other side of the barracks roof protecting Silver – appeared beside her, shouting: “No, no, like this!”

With a roar, the Replicant stepped forward, flinging the girder that Cowlick had dropped and sending it smashing through a god puppet before it continued to shoot onward to slam into one of the massive Terrors floating in the distance, the living battleship slowly listing to the side and falling from the air. Then the Replicant grinned and offered a hoof to Cowlick, and Cowlick couldn't help but grin back as she Replicant exclaimed: “I've never fought alongside your kind before, demon! But if putting up with your stink means I'll get to hunt more of these beasts, I'll gladly stand beside you!”

“Then do me a favor and make sure you keep up your half, girly. I don't want to do all the work for you.” Cowlick retorted with a snort, grabbing the Replicant's hoof and letting the mare less than a third of her size yank her easily up to her feet.

“Alright, come on! Everyone on your hooves, they're already coming up the sides of the building again!” Cowlick roared back at the rest of the ponies on the roof, and then she scowled as Rustproof stuck a cigarette in his muzzle, snapping: “Hey!”

Rustproof blinked, then he winced when the Replicant snatched the cigarette from him before she shoved it into her own muzzle, rolling it curiously between her lips before Cowlick calmly sparked her hooves in the direction of the mare. A lucky spark caught on the cylinder as the Replicant ignored the rest that pattered against her face, then she took a deep drag before blowing out a long stream of smoke through her nostrils as she remarked: “Thirty, before I finish this smoke-stick.”

“Thirty-five, before you get thirty.” Cowlick retorted, then she stomped a hoof with a grin as another wave of Husks and strange Void-beasts stormed onto their roof from all sides.

Aster shouted a curse as she blasted a Husk away with crimson flames, then flinched as Void monster leapt at her, but Lancer roared as he staggered past her and slammed a hoof into it in spite of the wounds across his body. He collapsed on his face with a thump, but the monster was knocked away as well as the Dogmatists they had supporting them struggled to hold the line on the other side. But they were caught between sectors, and enemies were coming down on them from all sides...

“You fight like the men always claimed they did! Rough, stupid, but never giving up! I like that!” declared a Replicant as it landed beside them, and Lancer looked up dumbly before two more Replicants landed around them, grinning as the one in the lead promised: “This won't take long.”

It was over in moments: the Replicants smashed the enemies around them into chaos and ruin, and then they were quick to escort Lancer, Aster, and their Dogmatist troops out of the open towards a checkpoint, where another Replicant was laughing loudly, grinning as she stood on top of the heavy gate with a massive machine gun in her hooves, blasting apart the Husks following behind them as she roared: “I like this world!”

And Thorn Blackfeather stood as it all happened, roars and explosions and the sounds of war renewing across all of Endworld before he glanced to the side as a Replicant appeared beside him. She looked at him coldly for a moment, and then she reached up and grasped his shoulders as she leaned into his face, studying him intently before she said quietly: “Yes, you are her son. Incredible, the Night Maiden has a son.”

“Can you do something about the spirits?” asked Thorn with a gesture towards the warring steeds, and the Replicant grinned at him.

“All business! Maybe you're Freya's son instead!” she teased, before she straightened, eyes hardening as she added coldly: “And yes. I feel...”

She stopped, then stepped away from Thorn and whistled sharply, and one of the Valkyrie steeds suddenly twitched before it spun around and charged straight towards her. Without hesitating, the Replicant leapt and spun, landing neatly on the spirit of the horse, and it roared: a sound that made the other Valkyrie steeds suddenly twist and rear into the air, rapidly forming into a V-shaped squadron as the Replicant, the Valkyrie on her mount, roared: “To me! To me!”

“What... what are you doing?” Loki shouted in disbelief, before a Replicant – a Valkyrie – appeared in front of him and slammed a hoof into his face, knocking him crashing backwards before another set of hooves smashed him into the air, and two more slammed their front hooves savagely down into his head.

He was crushed into the ground with a look of stunned shock, twitching once before one of the Valkyries said contemptibly: “Never did learn, did you, trickster?”

Loki snarled, a blast of force erupting through the air and slamming everyone around him away before he leapt to his feet, roaring: “What have you done?”

Thorn Blackfeather was undaunted as he strode calmly towards Loki, replying coldly: “Almost every Valkyrie that died in service to the gods was rewarded with a second life. Valthrudnir recognized what a threat those souls in particular were to him: Valkyries can kill gods and Jötnar alike. He retrieved thirty of these souls successfully during his exploration of the worlds and made them into trophies in a pocket dimension that he alone could access... or someone who shared his genetic traits.

“Hecate retrieved these souls and we engineered new bodies and new lives for them. Meet the Class VII Replicant, the Valkyrie, the final Ithavoll Protocol.” Thorn finished, as the Valkyries fell in on either side of him, eyes locked coldly on Loki.

“You enslaved them?” Loki asked incredulously, and Thorn smiled thinly before Luna laughed harshly, grinning coldly as she set herself with Morgan and Scrivener on the Prime's other side, Cadence and her team falling in quickly around them.

“No, wretch. I see now... the power to defend a world. The power to create a world. The power to destroy a world. Guardians... that is what Ithavoll is.” Luna muttered, before she straightened and snarled: “No, they are not slaves! They are free, are thee not, my sisters?”

The Valkyries roared in response, and Luna continued angrily: “What does thou think, they fight, so they must be enslaved anew? Nay! A Valkyrie lives for war! A Valkyrie lives for freedom! A Valkyrie lives to crush those who would harm the innocent, who would tamper with the worlds!” The Valkyries roared again in agreement, and Brynhild straightened, raising her head proudly, thrusting her hoof in the air as Prúðbikkja appeared above her in a flare of light, horn-tip glowing like a beacon. “We are Valkyrie! And thou, who would harm us, who enslave our brothers, who would destroy the only good that the Aesir and their kin have ever done, we will stand against thee and fight to the last breath!”

“Nice speech.” Loki said contemptibly, and then he looked over his shoulder in disgust, asking: “And you'll really listen to that kid over me?”

“We do not have to listen to any man any more, worm.” growled one of the Valkyries.

“This man or horse or whatever he is, he bears the blood of a Valkyrie in his veins and speaks like a warrior jarl! Aye, I'll do what he says... so long as all he says and does is point me in the direction of clods like you.” snarled another Valkyrie, and the others roared in agreement.

“That's too bad.” Loki said quietly, and there was silence for a moment before the Prime thrust his claws out to either side, reality cracking around them as the laws of physics lost all meaning, ponies and Valkyries and everything else floating haplessly into the air.

The earth cracked and lifted beneath them as if it too was being pulled upward, and then Loki thrust his hands into the air: only, this wasn't Loki anymore. It was only the Prime, as it thrummed with malevolent power, swirls and fractals of color exploding through the air around it as they were whirled up towards a vortex of light and wild elemental sound. Cadence reached helplessly out, snaring one of her teammates as they were spun through the cyclone of energy, gasping in shock: was this the true power of the Prime? She couldn't even feel Loki's energy anymore, the force was so great and childishly malevolent.

“Stop!” Sleipnir roared as he staggered forward, and then he gritted his teeth as he yanked out his hammer before he leapt forward, but he was blasted out of the air by a thrum of force before the earth itself seemed to turn against him, waves of rock smashing and battering him away and sending him rolling backwards to land in a heap. He swore, then straightened and tried to charge again, but this time the earth rose up like teeth and bit at him, driving him back once more as he swung his hammer uselessly back and forth, unable to do more than chip away at the stone.

He stepped forward and flung his hammer in desperation, but Mjolnir was shocked out of the air by a bolt of lightning and launched back at him by a ripple of earth, Sleipnir catching the hammer easily and grimacing as it sparked in outrage. “Loki! Loki, by our Father's name!”

But there was no Loki: there was only the impossibility of the Prime, a totem of color and distortion that warped reality around it, that bent both chaos and raw elements to its will. Brynhild gasped, feeling fire burning at her body, and Scrivener contorted as even in Tyrant Wyrm shape, he was dragged as easily along as the rest-

Morgan stretched blindly out, and caught Scrivener, who held her tight against his chest before he forced himself to twist just enough that his tail lashed out, Luna gasping as this snapped against her before she seized into it for dear life. Then she stretched out as they whirled through the storm, catching one of her sisters, who caught the next, and the next caught the next...

“Brynhild!” shouted the Valkyrie, and she grinned, and Brynhild knew the mare was Hild as she teased: “To live again... and to die in your arms! How unlucky am I, sister?”

“We're not dead yet! Push back against the storm!” Brynhild shouted, and Hild nodded sharply before she gritted her teeth.

They focused together, chaining their powers as one before Cadence crashed into Scrivener, dragging her own team with her in a chain, and without a word she poured her own power into theirs. Morgan gritted her teeth as she seized into this magic, molding it, shaping it as the core of her heart glowed and fumed with energy, energy she poured back against the Prime...

It was devouring their energy as it pushed its powers against them, but she could feel their magic all the same starting to suffocate it. The Prime roared in rage below, and Morgan trembled before she cried out for help, for a miracle, for something, anything, and her cry echoed through the Valkyries and the Swan...

Danzsöngr vanished for a moment, and she found what she was looking for, waiting patiently for her, a hand already extended. Danzsöngr seized those pale fingers, and in that moment of stepping through the Astra, she heard tenderly: Anything for my little girl.

They reappeared a short distance away, and Hel grumbled as tossed her cane away before she laced her fingers together and cracked them loudly, shouting: “Hey! Prime time! Look over here, I'm a real god! Goddess! Thing... just... hey, just look over here, you giant jerk!”

The Prime shifted, and its attention seemed to move to Hel, who grinned widely before she whispered: “That's it.”

The Prime roared, and the air reverberated with its cry: even as the storm ahead grew larger, rebuffing both Valkyries and their mounts, it weakened at the same time, allowing Morgan to shield the group caught inside it with greater ease and Thorn to finally catch Moonflower's leg as he whirled by.

The powers of the Prime lashed out towards Hel, and Hel easily redirected them, mocking: “I taught you better than that, Loki! Loki, come on, don't you want to finish the job? Or are you crying in there, trying to hide behind your big mean friend?”

“H-Hel...” Loki snarled, then he shouted angrily: “Hel! You should have stayed hidden away in your hole! You don't have the power to stop the Prime!”

“Holes get lonely. And no. I can't focus the power to stop you or the Prime.” Hel retorted, before she gritted her teeth and rose her hands above her head, generating a swirling ball of ivory light between them. “But I sure as my name can give you some incentive.”

Hel slung the sphere forward with a gasp, staggering into the throw, and the Prime seemed to stare before the orb crashed into it and exploded in a blast of disruptive energy, the entity flinching with a roar of surprise.

Hel wheezed as she formed another sphere and flung it, the explosion making the Astra covering the Prime distort as Loki shouted furiously: “What do you think you're doing?”

“Old trick...” Hel flung another sphere, and the Prime flinched in visible pain as Hel stopped for a moment to wipe sweat from her forehead, wheezing: “Pollute... pollute the waters. Do it in buckets. One after the other...”

“What are you...” Another sphere slapped into him, and the Astra covering Loki visibly warped, the Prime clutching at itself before Loki snarled: “You'll die long before you corrupt the Astra!”

“Yep. But I'll sure as heck leave a mark.” Hel retorted, creating another sphere of energy, before she flung it hard, and this time it smacked into the Prime's head, making it distort violently before Hel crowed: “Home run!”

The Prime roared in frustration, and then he stepped forward and shoved a claw towards her, and Hel was blasted away like a rocket, crashing bonelessly down into the street with a sickening crack and rolling to a dead halt.

But with his attention distracted, the storm above his head was disrupted, and Valkyrie steeds darted in to catch their partners as they fell. La Croix became ethereal, and Moonflower grabbed both Sombra and Thorn, wheezing with the effort it took to levitate himself and them towards the ground as Cadence dove straight down at Loki-

Loki snarled and half-spun, slashing a claw through the air, and Valkyries were blasted off their mounts and knocked away by massive rips that tore through reality. Cadence ducked back and forth through this before Luna shot down beside her, the two twisting and dancing through both rifts of Void energy and blasts of power from Loki, before Cadence suddenly stepped through reality, appearing behind Loki-

The Prime spun around and smashed her away with a fist before it swung its palm up, and Luna was caught in a massive torrent of flame that launched her skyward with a scream of pain, carried dozens of feet into the air by the conflagration before her limp floated for a moment, and she opened her eyes to see Morgan diving towards her.

Their eyes and souls connected, and Luna knew they had one chance, as burning feathers floated around her, as she began to slowly fall in a smoldering meteor towards the ground below, ignoring the threats and shouts from Loki: Loki, who wasn't even their most dire threat.

No, the Prime was. If the Prime took over Loki completely again, it would reshape reality itself, and this time there would be no Hel to sacrifice herself to wake Loki back up, to force the arrogant trickster to try and fight in place of the... the force that had overtaken his body, that he didn't seem to realize he was just a puppet of.

But they had one trick left.

Luna pleaded for it, and Morgan trembled, but agreed, and their hearts beat in rhythm with Scrivener's as he helplessly conceded to them.

Luna gave a cracked grin as she fell, and she spread her arms wide as she whispered: “Scrivener Blooms. Do it.”

Below, Scrivener gritted his teeth before he suddenly reared up, grasping his wounded chest before he arched his back, clenching his eyes shut as he tore his Tyrant Wyrm chest open, revealing his thrumming core as his body half-melted. And above, Luna fell limply before Morgan dove into her like a missile, knocking her on-course with Scrivener before she became a twisting, living blackness that swarmed over the Valkyrie, that invaded her greedy jaws, that filled her veins with pulsing power-

Luna slammed through Scrivener's open chest like a missile, and the Tyrant Wyrm erupted in a messy explosion of mire and dark fire that twisted violently in on itself after a moment, becoming a perfect sphere of blackness. Loki stared at this in confusion, and then he reared back as the egg of shadow shattered, and released a single pony to the world.

“This? What, this is your last ditch effort to survive?” Loki asked incredulously, but the pony only smiled. The beautiful, effeminate pony was long-limbed and gorgeous, from her onyx hooves to the tiara of three horns that formed a crown on her head: two small, natural ones on either side of a proud soulstone horn, which thrummed in time with the soulstone core in her chest.

She floated even with her black wings furled behind her, marble body calmly flexing as she hovered slowly towards Loki before she yawned and stretched out her beautiful, white-metal Talons as the Prime mocked: “Well, alright, how do you-”

Loki staggered backward as the creature gestured at him, and then he looked down as he heard a wet slap. He trembled for a moment, then mouthed wordlessly at the sight of his arm laying on the ground before he clutched at his shoulder with a disbelieving scream. His whole body shook with agony and terror, shaking his head violently before he looked up as the creature said softly, as its emerald eyes glowed with ruthless determination: “This is the end.”

“Yes... but not for me. For everything else.” Loki hissed, trembling before he flexed his body, a new limb forming out of the Astra as he straightened, burning with colors of humiliation and rage. “Good for you. Got a big gun. I'm still a thousand times stronger than you are and doing nothing more than fulfilling my destiny, my fate! Marching the armies of the dead upon the world, being what Daddy wanted me to be, Valkyrie! You can't-”

“We deny Fate, and we deny you. We shall make our own; we shall shape what the Norns failed to.” The creature paused, then it rose its head slightly, saying calmly: “Yes. We are Norn. As for you?”

Norn's eyes flashed, and Loki was blasted into the air, snarling as he barely managed to stop himself before the creature was in front of him. “You are nothing.”

Norn slammed a blow backed by tremendous magical power across his face, knocking the Prime flipping wildly backward before black swords of magic formed around him, shooting through his body from all sides and exploding into deadly magical shrapnel. Loki writhed beneath the attack before he lashed back with a blast of primordial power, but Norn slapped it aside with disdain and shot towards him again.

They crashed together, the force of their contact enough to rupture and shake reality as they struck each other with both raw force and magic. Loki moved almost desperately, while Norn laughed as it fought, taunting, mocking him with teasing psychic strikes, both to distract him and letting him know that he left himself open here, that he was vulnerable there, that he was inferior that he was weak that at any time I could end this, Loki.

Loki screamed in frustration as the horrible thing he was fighting easily spoke into his mind, and he slashed a claw out, smashing it backward before he leapt onto it, seizing the core of soulstone in its chest-

Norn unleashed a massive laser of energy that erased his entire limb from existence, the Prime knocked flying backwards even as its arm quickly regenerated before he snarled as Norn unleashed another laser from her core, tracing it after him as he zigzagged through the air. He twisted in towards her suddenly, but he was stopped by a massive fist of black crystal and shadow that nearly crushed his entire upper body.

A second fist formed and slammed towards him, but Loki ducked under this before two more claws of shadowfire formed and clapped him mockingly between them, making him spasm helplessly as he threw himself backwards. But the four claws immediately seized into his limbs, yanking them all wide and holding him in place before Norn placed her hooves on either side of the core in her chest and fired her laser into him, the Prime roaring in rage and pain as the sapphire laser slowly began to cleave through his body.

Loki spasmed, then unleashed a shockwave of force that shattered the hands holding him and knocked Norn flipping backwards, the creature catching itself before a meteor slammed into her. She was dragged backwards under it towards the ground, but then she caught herself in midair as she shoved her hooves up, bracing herself against the sky itself, body shaking with the effort as the meteor cracked with the force it was bearing down against her with, then exploded into shrapnel when she pushed back against it.

She was blinded for a moment by smoke and flame, before chains of energy cut through the smog, seizing into her core. She cried out, then spasmed in agony when her core was ripped out of her body, Loki grinning in triumph as he caught the soulstone sphere in one hand and opened his mouth-

Norn's core exploded in a massive blast of light and sound, leaving Loki stunned and gasping before a hoof slammed into his face. He screamed, cowering like a child beneath a hail of blows before the Prime twitched in shock as a second set of hooves began to slam into him, trying to flee as not one, but two Norns laid into him.

He crashed into a third, which slammed him viciously towards the ground with a tomahawk and up to the waiting hooves of another, who kicked him through the air like a toy to the third. They knocked the Prime back and forth between them like a toy before Loki managed to spin around and smash through one of them, shattering the copy like glass, and the other clone vanished as well as the real Norn spread her forelegs, asking mockingly: “Is this all the glory we can take from the Prime?”

Loki roared at her, then lunged, and again they clashed together savagely. But as infinite as Norn's power was, the Prime healed in moments from even the worst beatings, and while Loki was off-balance and humiliated, his powers were still great enough to be a threat even to the combined being that the three had become. And Norn had to know, too, that in spite of how easily it was dominating Loki now, it wouldn't last forever: she was using all her power to humiliate Loki, but no injury remained for long, not even wounds that would have killed the mightiest of gods.

Cadence and Danzsöngr could both see it: the fight was stupendous, shaking reality around them, putting out so much energy that it was actually attracting stupid Voidbeasts to them, but even the mightiest of Terrors was obliterated when it got between the powers of the two, who barely seemed aware of anything anymore except for each other. Again and again they crashed together, until Cadence felt it.

A short distance away, Hecate stood at the top of the ruins, her body broken from the magic that had washed over her, her eyes blazing with passion and emotion. As Cadence watched with awe, the Jötnar mare forced a foreleg above her head before she snarled as bloody tears ran from her eyes, and yet she never flinched, never wavered, as she whispered: “This is for Thesis.”

The whole world shook with the glassy sphere that Hecate summoned, before she stepped forward with a roar, throwing it with all her might even as her quaking legs gave out from beneath her. Loki felt the rage and the energy, half-spinning as his eyes widened at the sight of the orb of Jötnar power racing towards him, before he gasped in shock as Norn seized him from behind, shadows racing across the Prime's body and interfering with his powers. “What... what are you doing? We'll both be caught in that magic!”

“I thought you weren't afraid to die.” Norn answered mockingly, and Loki snarled as he rammed an elbow back into her, but she refused to flinch, only squeezing him tighter. He flailed, but without even a gesture, Norn summoned her Jötunnfang of shadow, fists slamming cruelly into Loki's body and making him gag and spasm.

The sphere whirled towards them, and Loki shook his head in disbelief before he screamed as the magic washed over them, shattering the Jötunnfang and immediately beginning to shred the Astra from his body. He felt himself being dragged violently into the invisible maelstrom inside the translucent cage, screaming in agony as Norn still clung to him, almost hugging him back against her body as he wailed helplessly as all the powers of the Void were negated by the force of the Jötnar.

The translucent sphere shrank slowly around the two, crushing them both as it drained the life, the energy from them, as it separated the primordial from the god, the divine from the shadow from the corrupt.

There were two, and then in a whirl, there were five, and then, as the Jötnar magic crushed down, there was a tremendous, world-shaking blast.

And then there was nothing more.