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It's been five thousand years since the Summit of the Gods was last hosted in Equestria, and after dropping off Discord in Ponyville, Celestia returns to Canterlot Castle to meet with the entire Norse Pantheon. Before she can arrive, though, she's stopped by a guard with a strange message, sent on the behalf of a mysterious figure from her past.
Now available as an audiobook! Reading by Illya Leonov.
In case you're unaware of the legend of Loki and Svadilfari, it goes as such.
There are two major groups in Norse mythology: the Aesir, and the Vanir. They had a big war once upon a time, but then grew tired of fighting and agreed on a truce. Asgard's walls were damaged in the war, and a 'builder' (actually an unnamed frost giant in disguise) appeared before Odin saying he could repair the walls if he received the Sun, the Moon, and Freya's hand in marriage as payment. Odin agreed to the terms, but only if the builder could do it in six months, which was an incredibly short time for the size of the city walls.
The builder had a horse named Svadilfari (Svadi) that could pull immense stones, and so he made amazing progress and actually started to repair the walls. With only one day before the deal's deadline and the builder looking like he was going to win, Loki appeared before the Aesir, and offered to solve the matter. Odin agreed. Loki then turned into a mare, and ran off with Svadilfari to 'distract' him all night. The frost giant flew into a rage when he saw Svadilfari run off, but didn't have time to do anything else, as his disguise fell off, and he was then subsequently obliterated by Thor, (the version I read said that he 'shattered his skull upon the rocks.')
Loki and Svadilfari returned the next day, but it was discovered that Loki was pregnant, and so she decided to have the foal. That foal was Sleipnir, and he was presented to Odin as a gift to be his faithful steed.
That's the original story. After reading this, my thought process then went as such.
-Shapeshifters are generally accepted as genderless in most sources of fiction. They might prefer one gender over the other, but can go either way, and from a psychological perspective, it's highly unlikely such an individual would define themselves as strictly male or female.
-Loki is well known in Norse mythology for 'getting around.' His children include Sleipnir the eight-legged horse, Jörmungandr the world serpent, and Fenrir the wolf. Discord could conceivably be the son of Loki due to similarities with chaos, mischief, and an amalgamation of animals.
-Svadilfari was a horse, which can easily be changed into 'pony.' What if the unnamed frost giant took him from Equestria and enslaved him somehow?
-Due to Loki being a shapeshifter with no preference to gender, what if s/he saw Svadilfari, fell in love, and nature took it's course?
The rest of the story fell into place from there. Sleipnir is born some time later, and becomes the steed of Odin. However, when he's tried to be given the Sun and Moon, he declares he doesn't want the responsibility, nor that he wants Freya as his wife. Instead, he'll have two children, and give the Sun and the Moon to each of them. Odin allows this, but only if those children were then pledged to the Aesir, so he decides to pledge them to Freya (Goddess of Seduction) and her twin brother Frey, (God of the Sun) therefore fullfiling the last part of the agreement. Sleipnir then later had two foals from two separate mothers, Celestia from Skinfaxi (shining mane) and Luna from Hrimfaxi (frost mane) and turned over their stewardship to them.
Makes sense, right? It does to me, at least.
Also, if you're having trouble visualizing Loki as a mare, try looking at this picture.
It's safe, I promise.
this is a great piece, making use of asguardian mythology and a bit of marvel... but i can never hear the name 'loki' and not think of 'The Mask'.
Which, combined as this scene is with ponies, made me think of a pic i saw of Pinkie pie about to put ON said mask. *Shudders*
This is surprisingly good. In the tradition of Asgard, I proclaim my call!
Why are the more popular religions so boring? Like seriously. The Bibles got some good shit, but Greeks and Norse got the MONOPOLY on good theisms. Loki, use any ability and guile to prevent the construction of the wall. Alright I got it... I'll get f
ed by a horse. if I'm gonna foil somebody's plot, I might as well get some myself AM I RIGHT?
smoothly. FreyExtra spaces.was true that she
doublespeakReminded me of 1984's doublethink.
“There are no words.” Celestia’s eyes were shut as she willed her breakfast to stay put. “To describe how much I didn’t need to know that.”I loved this line. Like a lot.
“This drink, I like it!”He's not, is he?
“ANOTHER!”CyborgSamurai!!!
Glad you enjoyed it. I've a bet going with one of my pre-readers to see whether or not it's going to get featured. I owe him five bucks if it does, but I honestly don't think it will.
I also submitted it to EqD, and I owe him ten bucks if it gets approved there, lol
If I wasn't balls deep into writing one of the longer, more highly rated fics on the site I might consider it, but unfortunately I gotta stick with my bread and butter.
Thanks for the offer, though.
I'm no writer, but I'm gonna tell you what I think anyway, because I didn't pick this pretentious sounding handle just to read pony words. You're asking a lot for readers to both love MLP AND love Norse Mythology. This just hamstrings your outside readership (cuts their tendons, you might say).
My knowledge of Norse Mythology comes from a little bit of wiki research after playing Age of Mythology, and admittedly a little bit more from the movie Thor. In other words, I recognize all of the names and have just a flicker of meaning into their characters. None of it adds anything to this story.
This story's strong point is not the crossover, but the character interaction. Celestia and Loki is gold, but everything else felt weak. I think that clearly identifying the Norse Pantheon weakens the story because readers automatically fill in context that YOU, the author, should fill.
I'm going to be a dick and compare to your other work. The Zodiac Knights in Powers of Harmony work not because "Zodiac is Awesome!", but because they weren't introduced as "Look at these awesome OC Zodiac Knights!" It was subtle. It was a mystery for readers to figure out. By the time you introduced them as the Zodiac Knights (or their Echoes, at least), I was ready for it.
I really wasn't ready for a giant Norse Crossover. The only people that are are people that really love both MLP AND Norse Mythology, and that is a much smaller population of readers than you deserve. Your work is great, and I'll say that writing clop will lead you well if you want readers to put their context and fantasy into your story. As a bonus, I won't read it and I won't leave my feedback on it. But I've seen you build something great, and I think you should use the techniques that make it work in some of your other works.
So I think you do a pretty good job of making a plausible way Equestria could fit into the Norse mythology and you give enough info I think for those with rudimentary knowledge of norse mythology to understand. Indeed, no knowledge of it is really necessary to understand the meat of the story (by which I mean what the story is really about once you strip away the fandom and references and leave it just the emotional and intellectual core of it). I very much enjoyed this. Good stuff.
As a fan of ancient mythology, this story was highly relevant to my interests. You've done a fine job tying together both Norse and Equestrian lore.
These passages, however, were probably what went the greatest distance in earning this story another fave:
Frey would be constantly critiquing her form and control of the Sun, his twin sister Freya would get Luna drunk and then they’d work together to seduce everyone that wasn’t a blood-relative, Thor would be destroying all the fine china and complaining about the lack of meat, Odin and Tyr would be constantly on her case to to allow more accommodations for the handicapped in Equestrian law, on and on and on.
"Give him an inch and he’ll take a watering can, and before you know it, the mariachi bands will be playing once more.”Celestia paled. “I swear to you, I’ll destroy him myself before that damnable music ever befouls this realm again.”
The mental image of Freya and Luna's shenanigans was hilarious, and while it took me a moment of thought to "get" the joke involving Odin and Tyr, the realization was so worth it. Also, I'm not sure what's so wrong with giving Discord a watering can, but the fact that mariachi music is treated with such revulsion amuses me to no end.
>>2004677 but doesn't this means that when Loki brings in Ragnarok, Celestia and Luna have to fight for Asgard anyway? since they do pledge themselves under Freya and Frey just to control the Sun and the Moon, and I doubt Freya and Frey would do nothing when the times comes. 
.
>>2004677 I went along the lines that Discord and Loki were the more mild-tempered offspring of Sutekh/Set/Seth/Setekh/Suty (Hmmm... BLACK SUTY!! NMM came from him too! 
) the Destroyer (who was also one of the great Tom Baker-era Doctor Who one-shot villains. He was just so friggin' evil, and he totally got off on it.).
He was the god of darkness and chaos, also a usurper and traitor who killed and dismembered his brother Osiris, then possibly tried to molest Osiris' son Horus (HE WAS A PEDO TOO!! THIS GUY WAS FRIGGIN SUPER-SANDUSKY-LEVEL EVIL!!) 
And then there's the fact that his physical form was likely an amalgum of different parts of creatures... A CHIMERA!!
Of course, there are also the older myths that have the Egyptian god of chaos and evil as Apophis/Apep, a giant snake. But that kinda doesn't work too well with Pony. There are only little snakes to scare Twilight in Pony.
Though, there are some later representations that describe Apep as a dragon... but that would make all the dragon evil. And then there would be fanfics where Spike is the son of Apophis and has his evil spirit inside him and make him grow really big and evil and eat all da ponies in the bloodiest and most brutal grimdark gore fic every conceived (cuz you know some fanfic writer would do it).
>>2073903 I have to agree on technical terms. This would be more in line with 'alternate universe', rather than a crossover, since it's not actually utilizing any published fiction or non-fiction story as part of its basis. Rather, it's utilizing a human religious mythos and tying it into Equestria as an alternate origin story.
It's no more a crossover than is the inclusion of monsters from Greco-Roman mythology.
Give him an inch and he’ll take a watering can, and before you know it, the mariachi bands will be playing once more.”Celestia paled. “I swear to you, I’ll destroy him myself before that damnable music ever befouls this realm again.”
God my side were killing me after that.
Realizing a mariachi band is about to play is like being killed by hitmen. Right before it happens you scream *slowmo* ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh nnooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!
>>>“Fair enough, I suppose.” A mirror appeared before Loki, and she examined her appearance with a critical eye. “Know this, though. A day will come when you’ll have to make a choice between your family and Asgard, and if you side against me, I won’t show you or Equestria any mercy.”>>>
Alondro merely grins from within his realm as he speaks softly to himself, his eyes glowing golden for a moment as his Mistress sees through him, "And know this, Loki, little one of the infant gods; my glorious Lady of Blood and Slaughter has taken a great liking to Equestria. Cause so much as one pony to stumble, and She will rend you into quantum strings scattered throughout the branes." Alondro's mistress doesn't play games. She wins them.
You really shouldn't have added that backstory in the first comment there, because that combined with the story itself really makes me want a full crossover from you now. I'll wait until Powers of Harmony is complete, though, before I start demanding things.
Also, where did that picture of a ponified Loki come from? Looks like it's part of a larger comic, and I think I might want to seek it out some day.
Norse mythology is awesome to no end, and though I can understand why you are using the Marvel interpretation of some parts of it (for purposes of reader familiarity) I can't help but feel a bit disgruntled. I hope you stick to some of the widely regarded parts of the stories not featured in the movies (such as Thor being a Ginger). Premise is still awesome though!!
Of all the Mythologies I love Norse Mythology the most. Yeah you added some Marvel lines here and there but still... will there be another or is this just a one shot? Heh, it would be interesting to see the Mane Six interact with the other gods in some way. Good lord LOL, I can just see Thor and Rainbow going at it and I can see Odin taking a father like liking to Twilight.
>>2004677 Wait I read on wiki that the gods blamed Loki for the builders horse being able to do so much work and threatened to kill him if he didn't fix it, and thus Loki agreed. Very interesting read on everything else though! From Freya and such. At first when I read the story on wiki I thought the gods were dicks for outright killing the builder for being a giant even though he did most of the work and they had a deal.
>>2410911 Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was referring to this line:
Give him an inch and he’ll take a watering can, and before you know it, the mariachi bands will be playing once more.”
One of Q's best stunts was making a mariachi band appear on the bridge of the Enterprise and since Q and Discord are the same actor (and basically the same character), I thought it was a subtle reference. Clever, too.
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