//------------------------------// // Chapter 41: In the House of Thunder and Lightning // Story: Chaotic Harmony: Do Over // by shirotora //------------------------------// They say when you die, you’re greeted by a cold void with a warm light in the distance, beckoning you on, or a great pearly gate. Sometimes it’s an endless field of grain or a grand palace. It’s even been portrayed as something more bureaucratic. ‘They’ apparently don’t know jack. Because as it turns out, what greets you is a bedroom. Also, there’s no wondering if you’re dead or not. You just knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you are. At least, that was my experience. Yeah, that’s right. Story telling from beyond the grave~ WooOoOo~ What, you thought I was gone for good? I’m telling the story in past tense, meaning it already happened. How would I be telling it if I were? Use your heads, people. Anyway, yeah. I was dead, and in a rather nice, if spartan, bedroom, staring at the ceiling. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but it made sense. Why the hell would gods need some lengthy system to process the dead? Why would you have to wait in line for the afterlife? You’d think they’d have streamlined it after however many thousands of years. It wasn’t long before I heard a rapping at my chamber door.  “Enter?” I said, a little hesitant. The door opened and a raven flew inside. A very familiar raven. “Poe?! They killed you, too?” I asked, feeling my anger rising. Who the hell murders a fucking bird? “Yes to the first,” Poe said, “but not exactly the second.” I stared, dumbfounded. He was a smart bird, and had picked up quite a few words, but he was never that articulate. He chuckled. “I must admit, your reaction is rather amusing.” “Don’t torment the man, Poe,” said another voice, deep and powerful. Poe rolled his eyes. “Must you call me that, lord?” I watched, slightly intimidated, as a massive, golden lion with a white mane entered the room. “I rather like the name. It suits you in this form,” the lion said. “Ah, Shirotora. I have been expecting you.” As I watched him enter the room, I noticed one very important feature. his coat seemed to shimmer with rainbows, like an oil slick... Like Celestia’s and Luna’s. The lion smirked. “Oh, perceptive, aren’t you? Yes, I am what you would call a god. In fact, I’m Celestia’s and Luna’s cousin; the God of Storms, the Mighty Thor!” He rose up in a masculine pose, flexing his muscles. “Uh...” I articulated. “Yes, you may bask in my glory,” Thor said. “Must you act like such a buffon?” I jumped up at the voice that suddenly came from right beside me. A coyote with orange fur... I mean yellow... Green? The color is ‘yes’... and ‘no’? It was like every time he moved, colors shifted like shadows, as if he were passing through color. “Yes, I must,” Thor said. “It’s fun and people’s reactions are priceless.” The coyote facepawed. “And I’m supposed to be the chaotic one.” “Oh, come, now, dear brother. Don’t put yourself in a box,” Thor said. “But, we’re all in a box,” I pointed out, gesturing to the room. Admittedly, I wasn’t being clever, or snarky, my brain was just broken and trying to sort things out. The two gods looked at me before letting out boisterous laughter. “He has us there, Loki,” Thor said. “He has you there,” Loki replied. “I said nothing.” “Uh... What... what’s going on?” I asked, completely baffled by the fact that there were two gods visiting me and talking as if we were old friends. “Ah, yes, forgive me,” Thor said, giving a boisterous laugh. “I want to invite you to dinner.” “D-Dinner?” I asked. “You want to invite me to... dinner?” “Admittedly, it isn’t just to enjoy your company, not that we won’t,” Loki said. “We have a matter to discuss with you, something that will be mutually beneficial.” Finally, my brain started to catch up to my situation, including what happened before I died, and... what I left behind. “Oh, dear,” Loki said with a playful smile. “I do believe his brain finally started working again.” “I-” I started to speak, but froze when I saw Thor’s expression had lost its playfulness. He spoke in a very serious tone. “You’ll want to hear what I have to offer.” And so, I was prepared to dine with gods. And I do mean ‘prepared’. As in, servants washed me, and fitted me for a fancy suit made of silver thread. It was all very extravagant, especially for a Norse god. Of course, he wasn’t necessarily the same Thor. Or, rather, humans may not have known enough about him and made things up. Loki seemed rather down to earth and 'normal', after all, so maybe they just made up most of it. As I walked into the dining room, though, I was met with Thor, Loki, and another I wasn’t familiar with, all wearing nothing at all and having a good old fashioned Viking feast. Thor looked at me and asked, “What’s with the fancy getup?” I gawped at him before noticing the mischievous twinkle in Loki’s eye. Never mind what I said about him before, he was exactly what the Norse said he was. As I took my seat, I looked the new guy over. He looked almost like a pony, but with more scales than fur, both black as pitch, two small horns behind his ears sweeping straight back, leathery wings, and eyes that were a piercing emerald green. I wasn’t sure who this was, but I was sure Thor would introduce us. So, I took my seat, the only one open, across from the new guy, with Thor and Loki at either end. “Well, at least you look good,” Thor said, raising a glass. “Now, eat up. It’s always best to talk business with a belly full of good food and better mead.” I don’t think I’ve ever had so much meat. There was just about every kind of edible animal on the spread, from beef and pork, to duck and even gator. I hadn’t had gator since Earth. And the Mead? Literally divine. Yes, mead with a capital ‘M’. This was the real stuff, the stuff humans tried to imitate, the Nectar of the Gods. The taste was literally indescribable. There's nothing to compare it to, not even the usual general descriptors like 'sweet' or 'savory' could apply. I ate like a man starved. Granted, I had eaten nothing but dried rations and a lizard I caught for the past three days, so I almost was. After a bit, the feast started to wind down. When we were mostly done, just nibbling on bits, I decided to ask the question I was meaning to from the moment I walked in. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, are you goin’ to introduce us?” I asked, gesturing to the other guest. “Introduce you?” Thor said, mirthfully. “You’ve known each other for over a year, now.” I looked at the other, I was guessing he was a dragon pony, like Flurrershy, but more dragon. Loki smirked and said, “You don’t recognize your precious, little pet?” “Mah...” I looked back at the dragon pony. “Wait... Poe?” “My true name is Jetaga,” he said, “but yes, you know me as such.” “So... you were my bird... for a year...” I said, confused. “Why?” “Curiosity, at first,” Loki answered. “It was originally I that asked my dear brother to keep an eye on you.” “But... why, though?” I asked. “Because, you are the first of his children in Equestria, untainted,” Thor explained. “His... his children?” I asked. “I... I’m a demigod?!” “What? Oh!” Thor let out a mighty laugh. “No! No, no, no. ‘Children’ as in, he created your kind, not that he is your father.” “Oh,” I said, a part of me disappointed by that. “Wait. I thought Kronos created the tigerians?” Loki scoffed. “That bastard didn’t create any beings. He only corrupted them, stole them. Mine weren’t the only ones, merely the only ones to survive. I created your kind. The tigerians were my magnum opus, a perfect blend of physical and magical prowess.” “Besides, Kronos is too stuck up to ever make anything with chaos magic,” Thor said. “Anyway, back to the topic at hand. It started as curiosity, but then you got mixed up with the cult of Kronos. Poe-” “My name is Jetaga,” the former bird said, irritated. “-told us of your battles against Kronos’ servant.” “You mean Blue Moon?” I asked. “No, the mare,” Loki corrected. I furrowed my brow. “The mare? The one from the Spire?” “Yes. She is a more powerful foe than she has revealed,” Thor said. “She is Kronos’ Herald.” “Ah’m guessin’ when you say ‘Herald’, you’re meanin’ somethin’ more than the typical definition of the word,” I said. “Very astute of you,” Loki said. “Gods are not able to enter the mortal world. They can send their power through, but it’s difficult and lacks any sort of precision. For example, Thor could sent forth his power to encourage rain to come to a place that has been suffering a drought, but even then it isn’t easy. He can't, however, strike some evil doer down with a bolt of lightning. “Thus, in order to exact precise change, we have two methods available to us. The first is through the creation of divine elements. These are certainly the most common, as they can be designed to function under specific circumstances or used only by people that fit specific criteria, like each of the Elements of Harmony. “The other method is far less common, but potentially more powerful. We select someone to be our champion, to represent us in the mortal realm; a Herald. A Herald is imbued with a portion of our power and becomes a conduit of our will. It is a mutual contract, allowing the Herald to use a portion of our power as they see fit, in exchange for carrying out our will when called upon.” “And that, dear Shirotora,” Thor said, sitting proudly and looking at me with an intensity that bored through my very soul, “is why you’re here. I want you to become my Herald.” As his words danced around in my head, I found myself more and more confused. “But... you said a Herald was a way for a god to influence the mortal world. How would that work if I’m dead?” Thor grinned. “Simple. We send you back.” My eyes widened. “You can do that?” “We did it with Jetaga, didn’t we?” Loki asked. “He died more than seven hundred years ago.” “Really?” I asked, looking at the dragon-pony. Jetaga sighed and nodded to Loki. Loki nodded back and said, “For sixty years, Jetaga labored under the belief that he was working to free a benevolent dryad from an imprisonment imposed upon her by the great demon Grogar. When he succeeded, he learned that, while she told him the truth, she did not tell him the full truth. She was, in fact, a dryad, but she had been corrupted by Grogar.  “When he released her, what greeted him was not a beautiful nature spirit, but a corrupted creature that feeds on one’s emotions. She took his mind and forced him to sire a new brood of creature before killing him.” Thor took over from there. “He came to me, pleading to allow him to return to slay the creature he had foolishly helped escape. However, that was not to be. One cannot simply return one to life just like that. Besides, a new race had been born, and the gods are forbidden from taking action that could lead to any race’s extermination. “However, as foolish as he was, his heart was pure. So, I took him in as my servant, to be my eyes and ears among the mortals. Sending his as his former self would have been impossible, so I sent him in the form of a raven.” “Where he met me,” I finished. “Correct,” Thor confirmed. “So, if sending him as his former self was so difficult, does that mean I won’t be able to go back as myself?” I asked. “Oh, you will be yourself,” Thor said. “It comes with the package of being a Herald. That is one of the only ways a mortal can return to the living world as they were.” “Oh... so... I can get my life back?” I asked, hopeful. Thor and Loki smiled and nodded. Jetaga chuckled. “It will be a shame. I enjoyed our time together.” “Oh?” Thor said, smirking. “You say that as if you won’t be seeing him for a while.” Jetaga cocked an eyebrow. “I can not go with him.” Loki smirked. “Says who?” “I can not just be resurrected, and I am bound to serve my lord,” Jetaga said. To which Loki replied, “Yes, and to follow your lord wherever he goes.” “Correct,” Jetaga said. “Including the mortal world, if the part of me you’re bound to goes there,” Thor said. Jetaga’s eyes widened. “Wh- You mean... I can return? Truly return, as I am?” "Yes," Thor said, grinning like a fool. "The other way for one to return to life as they were is if they are the familiar of a Herald. You have more than earned your second chance, my friend." I couldn’t help but laugh. “So, what are we waitin’ for? Let’s get this show on the road! I better get back before Jynx kills me.” Thor’s smile faded. “Unfortunately, we can not do that, just yet. You are going to be facing great hardships, and you will need to be properly trained, not only in basic combat and magic, but also in how to use your new powers.” Loki grinned. “That, and you need to learn what you can truly do as a child of Loki.”