"Pinkie, I know you like to go all out for your parties, but this is overkill, even by your standards," Twilight said to the super party pony, who was on the ceiling of a building, trying to finish up panting a Viking warship and having some issues with it. "I get that you want to make Thor feel at home, but going to the other world and looking up everything about him and his culture? Isn't that a bit much?"
"There is never overkill when it comes to parties, Twilight!" Pinkie shouted down before she swung across the Viking longboat with a paintbrush clutched in her mouth, adding the finishing touches to the boat. She slipped out of the rope at the peak of the swing, flipping in the air and landing next to Twilight. A smile spread across Pinkie's face as she looked up at her handiwork, while she nodded with approval.
The Viking longboat covered the top of the roof, with dozens of mannequins designed to look like Viking warriors were battling with each other inside of the ship. Fake fire raged around the rest of the ship, while arrows and some of the bodies were laying on the ground along the outside of the building, making Twilight place a hoof on her face and shake her head.
"Think he'll like it?" Pinkie asked with a hopeful smile, getting Twilight to roll her eyes.
"I'm just glad that you didn't meet your human counterpart in the other world. Both realities would probably implode if that happened," Twilight muttered to herself, before she glanced through the open doors of the building at the room inside. She could see ponies talking and partying with smiles on their faces, despite the fact that most of them were wearing horned helmets and all had on fake beards.
"You wouldn't believe how many hours worth of reading I had to do to learn about his culture, his people and everything else about Thor. Did you know that he had a brother? Or that one time he wore a dress to confuse a foe of his?" Pinkie asked Twilight, but Twilight failed to answer as she was too busy staring up at the seven foot deity that had landed behind Twilight.
"Yes, that was not one of my better days," Thor admitted with a hearty smile before he glanced up at the Viking longboat, looking it over before he tilted his head to the side for a second. "I do not recall any of the ships to be that color of pink, but it has been a while since I last battled with Vikings. Greetings Princess Twilight and Pinkie, maker of parties. Thor has arrived."
"Yay! You got my letter!" Pinkie exclaimed happily as she bounced around Thor. "I've been wanting to throw a party for you for such a long time, but I wasn't sure which one to throw for you. A welcome to Equis party? A welcome to Ponyville? Congrats on becoming a god of Equstria? Thank you for saving us? Too many to chose from! So instead, I just squished them all into one super awesome mega fun bomb party! Come on, let's go!"
Pinkie zipped into the building where the party was going on, leaving Twilight to let out a sigh as she looked up at Thor. "So what brought you to this party? You probably have thousands of different things that you need to do. I know that tomorrow the princess wanted me and my friends to start looking for the alter. And you're probably getting prayers from all over the planet? So why are you here?"
"Ale!" Thor bellowed with laughter as he followed Pinkie into the building, forcing Twilight to press a hoof to her face to keep from laughing out loud. She followed the god of thunder into the party and found a sight that she would never forget in all of her years. In the center of the floor stood Thor with a barrel of ale held high above his head. A hole had been punched in the side of the barrel and from the puncture poured ale right into Thor's mouth.
"Go go go!" the crowd chanted as Thor down the entire barrel of ale, before he threw it to the side and picked up another barrel. One of the ponies at the party punctured the side of it and, if it was possible, Thor began to drink at a faster pace than he had before.
"That cannot be healthy," Twilight said to Pinkie as Thor finished off the barrel, smashing it to splinters against his head to the roar of the crowd. "And you said that ale was made specifically to his liking?"
"Yep, an elixir for the gods. And he's downed enough to knock out everypony else at the party," Pinkie said in an impressed tone as Thor lifted another barrel over his shoulder, looking at the crowd with a coy smile and asking them if they wanted him to go on. "If he wasn't a god, I would fully expect him to be dead right now. Must be nice being so powerful."
"Maybe, but there's a huge responsibility that comes with it," Twilight said in a knowing tone, getting Pinkie to pat her friend on the shoulder as Thor finished off his third casket.
The party continued on after that, with Thor regaling the crowd with tales of his epics and battles with other gods and monsters. He told them tales of the heroes of Midgard, of the wonders of Asgard and the chilling depths of Hel. Sometimes the crowd cheered. At other times they were horrified. And once the crowd nearly all vomited at his story of how he had to carve his way out from the inside of a serpent with one of its own ribs.
"Wonderful party, Pinkie. It almost reminds me of the parties we would have back on Asgard," Thor said after he had finished regaling the crowd with his tales of wonder, with most of them clutching at their stomachs or trying to wrap their heads around some of the beings he had described. "It was almost a perfect match of the parties back home."
"Wait, so the party wasn't perfect?! What was wrong with it?! Was it the ale? Or the lack of actual Vikings?! What was it?!" Pinkie roared as she hopped up onto Thor's chest and tried to shake the god of thunder until he answered, but she only shook herself instead.
"At Asgardian parties we ended every celebration in a massive brawl that would go on until the morning!" Thor said with a boisterous laugh that was powerful enough to shake the room. "And I take it that neither of you wish to brawl with not just an Asgardian god, but also the undefeated champion of party brawls?"
Both of the ponies shook their heads and Thor let out a loud laugh, before he sat down in the corner and rested his hammer against the wall. Pinkie and Twilight shared a look with each other as Thor closed his eyes, seemingly dozing off despite all of the noise in the room. For a long time Pinkie and Twilight watched as Thor "slept" until his eyes snapped open and a thin smirk crossed his face.
"The party may continue. Thor is not needed at the moment," Thor told the two as he rose back up, getting Twilight and Pinkie to look at him with confusion.
"What do you mean, Lord Thor?" Twilight asked.
"I was listening for prayers that required the immediate aid of Thor. None of them do, so for the time being I may continue to enjoy your party," Thor clarified before he caught a look of uncertainty that Twilight was giving him. "Do my words give you cause for concern, princess of friendship?"
"No, it's just...how do you do it?" Twilight asked in a hesitant tone, getting Thor to raise an eyebrow. "How do you balance an entire nations prayers and needs and decide which ones need your help and which one don't need your attention?"
"Centuries of practice," Thor replied with a kind smile to Twilight. "And sometimes with less than stellar results. Twilight, only recently have I started to take my role of god of Midgard very seriously. For the longest time I was a lost soul, consumed by his own arrogance and thirst for battle. It took weeks of torture and a team of heroes for me to finally see the error of my ways."
"What manner of being could torture you for weeks?" Twilight asked with terror in her voice.
"The same one that butchered thousands of gods. But I digress. What I am trying to say Twilight, is that the role of a god, or a ruler, isn't to wait on your subjects hand and foot. Nor do you ignore them and leave them to fend for themselves. The universe is far to cruel for that. But there must be balance. People, or ponies, cannot grow if they do not overcome their own obstacles. But when the universe sends terrors or monsters to destroy everything they have tried to built, that is when I step in. I help in small ways and I don't often solve a persons problems for them. But I will aid them in finding their own answers."
"That...makes a lot of sense. thank you, Lord Thor," Twilight replied with a small bow before a smile of kindness crossed her face. "Out of all the gods that are out there, I'm glad we got you."
"And I am glad that I came here. I have learned plenty in the short time I have been here," Thor replied with a nod before he saw that the ponies had rolled out another barrel of ale. "But if you excuse me, it seems that there is still ale to be drunk and a party to be celebrated. And Thor has never been one to-"
Thor was cut off as an explosion of lunar light filled the room, followed quickly by one princess of the night, one mare named after a season of the year and a filly who was as pale as a ghost. For a brief second the mother of the filly looked around the room, before she spied the god of thunder and ran over to him desperately.
"Lord Thor!" she half said half exclaimed as she skidded to a halt in front of the god of thunder, looking from him to her daughter while trying to get the words out of her mouth. Without waiting for another word Thor took the filly from her back and laid her on the ground, placing his hand upon her forehead and narrowing his eyes.
"She has a fever, Lord Thor. A fever that will not break no matter what magic or medicine we try," Luna said to the god of thunder, filling Thor in when Summer was unable to speak. "It started with a dream she had of fire last night. I banished the dream, but she has not awoken since and this fever has gotten worse and worse. Nothing we do works to cure it. Even submerging her in icy water didn't change her temperature at all!"
"Aye, and I can see why," Thor replied as he lifted his head to face the mother and princess. "I sense a dark magic is the cause of Autumn's sickness. A magic the likes of which I have not felt in a long time. Black magic."
"But who would want to cast this upon my daughter? What has Autumn done?!" Summer said in a frenzy, glaring around the room in hopes that the attacker was within striking range. Thor did not reply, but he did extend his hand and summon Mjolnir to him before he slowly moved the head of the hammer over the filly. The hammer glowed slightly and Thor's eyes darkened, before he rose this his full height with an air of power.
"It is as I feared. This is not simple, evil dark magic. This is the work of a divine. This is the work of a god."
"Toraxo," Summer seethed and Thor nodded his head to show that she was correct.
"Toraxo? The god of the changelings?" Luna asked, not catching on as quickly. "But why would he want to harm a filly? What would he even have to gain through doing it?"
"To make a statement. To show that he will do as he pleases, despite my warnings," Thor thundered with a power strong enough to shake the entire building, getting the ponies that had been hiding within to cower underneath of the tables. "Tis will be his final mistake."
Thor spun and began to walk to the door, but before he could leave Luna placed herself between him and the door. "Remove yourself form my path, princess of the moon. The god of the changelings will pay for daring to harm a child under Thor's care."
"Lord Thor...if I may," Luna began in a nervous tone, able to feel the sheer power radiating off of Thor. "I understand your rage and your desire for vengeance. I can't say I don't disagree with you. But Toraxo is the god of the changelings. He is the god of a nation powerful enough to rival Equestria. And while we may be on decent terms with them now, getting into a war with their god...may drag both of the nations you two reside in to war as well."
"They would be fools to wage war against the god of thunder," Thor replied in a dangerous tone, making lightning crack outside of the building and causing thunder to shake the ground.
"But they will if their god tells them to. And then we're stuck in a war that we can't win, not with so recently having survived the attacks from the titans," Luna tried to reason with Thor and found, to her relief, that the thunder was starting to fade from his eyes. "I am not saying you shouldn't go or that you shouldn't confront Toraxo, especially if he has done something as cowardly as harming a child. But I beg of you, please do not fight him unless you have to. Please."
"Very well, princess of the night. If Toraxo is willing to remove the curse that affects young Autumn, then Thor sees no reason to crush his skull," Thor replied, before his eyes filled with lightning and turned them a crackling blue. "But if he does not, he shall feel the wrath of Thor. A wrath that has slain worlds."
Thor then thrust his hammer heaven ward and flung himself through the rook of the building, leaving dozens of ponies to wonder what was going to happen to their land next. Luna sighed and kicked off through the hole that Thor had made, following after him while using her magic to contact her sister and Discord. She had the feeling she was going to need both of them.