//------------------------------// // Loki's Arrival // Story: A Tale of Two Worlds // by The King of Gingers //------------------------------// Loki’s body burned and ached. Opening his eyes, he gazed down at the ground. His vision slightly blurred, his fingers burned against the scorched earth. The muscles of his legs screamed in agony as he forced them to stretch out and bring his body upright. His back added its painful voice to the growing chorus of objections when he straightened himself up, feeling his vertebrae snapping and popping back into place. His shoulders creaked and groaned as he pushed them back, shoulder blades almost meeting across the top of his spine. Tilting his head back slightly, Loki suppressed a groan of exertion. A sound met his ears, and at first Loki attributed it to perhaps the babbling of a brook nearby. A split-second later, his mind fully interpreted the sound: a voice, stuttering. With painful deliberateness, he turned. Loki's eyebrows rose of their own accord, his face trading its usual blank neutrality for one of genuine surprise. Standing before him was what he could only describe as a tiny horse- barely high enough to reach his chest. It coloring was garish to say the very least- a lemon-yellow coat and light pink mane and tail. Its mouth lay open, slack-jawed in horror as she stared back at him. Upon her head she wore a wide-brimmed hat, its crown ringed with flowers, their colors ranging across the pastel spectrum. "Monster!" Screaming at the top of her lungs, she turned suddenly, fleeing into the forest. As she turned, Loki got a look at her body from the side, and was finally able to see her wings tucked against her ribs. “A pegasus?” He whispered to himself, making no move to stop her escape. Her hat flew off her head as she vanished into the forest. It flipped over itself, carried by the breeze, before coming to rest on the ground at Loki’s feet. Staring down at it Loki bent at the knees to reach down, grabbing the discarded bit of clothing. As he reached down to grasp its brim with his fingers, he saw his hand and paused momentarily. His entire hand had turned a dark, icy blue, his fingernails the color of freshly fallen snow. No doubt his face was now a matching blue, his eyes a deep, blood red. Curling his hand into a fist, it took but a thought to peel away that blue flesh, replacing it with the lighter, more natural tones of his Asgardian heritage. His stomach churned at the sight, the memory of his adopted father's lies rising unbidden to his mind. Turning his eyes back to the hat in his hand, he tossed it back and forth between his hands contemplatively. His cape shuddered in the breeze, and in the distance he could hear the call of some strange beast. Casting his gaze opposite he forest, a field of healthy green grass rolled way into the distance, ending in a tiny, rustic village. Further off into the distance, Loki could barely make out a mountain-side kingdom glittering in the mid-morning sun. “You'd like nothing more,” he whispered venomously, turning his eyes to the sky, “than for me to march down there and claim it all as my own, wouldn't you?” The blue sky gave no answer, and yet Loki could almost feel Heimdall's gaze sweeping over him. “How easy that would make it for you, guardian. Unluckily for you, I am not as stupid as all that.” A scream cut through the relative quiet of the day, and from the pitch, Loki instantly attributed it to the frightened pegasus. Curse the luck, the tiny coward had probably found herself at the mercy of some fell beast deeper in the forest. He cast his gaze toward the village, then back at the forest. The wheels turned inside his godly brain, mulling over every option available to him in but a few seconds. Raising a hand, Loki closed his eyes and muttered a few words of invocation. A shaft of ice grew from a small mote of dark blue at the center of his palm. Within seconds he held a seven-foot stave, its bladed tip curved inwardly. Bending forward to duck under the low foliage, Loki made his way into the edge of the forest, holding his frigid staff out in front of him to push apart some low-hanging vines.. "Consider yourself lucky, pegasus," Loki breathed. "Your convenience is your salvation." The Everfree Forest closed in on Loki from all sides. ----------------------------- Fluttershy's breath came in quick gasps as her hooves pounded against the floor of the Everfree Forest. Her eyes were still pinpricks of fear, staring out ahead of her as she ran. Her wings remained resolutely locked against her, her panicked mind unable to comprehend that the appendages would at all aid in her escape. The dense foliage of the Everfree Forest suddenly gave way, and Fluttershy's eyes burned as sunlight suddenly blazed into her field of vision. She cried out, snapping her eyes shut, slamming her hooves down into the soft earth and skidding to a halt. Her sides moved in and out rapidly as she gulped down deep breaths of air, her tail, wings, and legs twitching every so often. Fluttershy forced herself to breathe in and out in a more controlled manner: she took in a draught of oxygen, held it, and slowly released it. She repeated the process over and over, using the technique to try and calm her frazzled nerves. Eventually her body began to calm, her heartbeat slowing down to only slight above its normal rate. Her tail lay behind her, the graceful, curled tip resting on the ground as it always did. Even her wings had stopped shaking. She allowed herself a small smile, tilting her head up and opening her eyes to take in her new surroundings. What she found wasn't particularly troubling or interesting: it looked as if she had burst into some kind of natural quarry, a clearing of nothing but dirt and rocks of all sizes. A gentle breeze blew against her body, and in the distance Fluttershy could hear what sounded like a river raging through the forest. As serene as the scene around her was, Fluttershy was struck by a sudden, horrible thought. That thing was loose in Equestria! And she'd run away from it, without warning a soul of its presence. Fluttershy spread her wings and bent at the hooves, tilting her head back to stare up at the clear blue sky, her mind racing. She needed to get out and warn the others of that monster! A sudden, loud bang made her squeak in surprise, her wings locking back against her sides. Looking down, she saw a rock rolling away from its resting place atop another, larger rock. Her heart, already trying to pick up the pace, slowed as she breathed a sigh of relief. A gentle nudging at the back of her left forehoof made her tail crack like a whip in surprise once again. Almost as soon as the panic hit it was gone, replaced with a more rational explanation: it was nothing but a small critter trying to move past her hoof. Looking down, she lifted up her hoof to allow whatever it was to pass. Freed of the imposition of her hoof, another small rock started rolling of its own accord across the ground. For a moment her brain simply refused to accept what she was seeing. It was so at odds with what she was expecting that for a brief flash she imagined she was looking at some strange kind of beetle or crab that only mimicked the appearance of a small rock. As it continued to roll away, she saw other rocks of all shapes and sizes beginning to roll with it, in sync with its motions. The rocks began to converge on a gigantic boulder yards from where she stood. The animated pebbles began to climb atop it, coalescing into an animated creature that was becoming frighteningly familiar to Fluttershy. Four great masses of rocks and pebbles began to form, fashioning themselves after great club-like hands and huge, flat feet attached to thick-bodied limbs. At the center of the rock congregation, the suggestions of a face began to form; it bore no head in the traditional sense, its entire torso shifting around to reveal the split of a massive maw set below two black, shiny eyes of volcanic rock. A great cry erupted from the creature, several flat rocks rubbing against one another in its immense body to produce that animal call. Slamming its giant hands down into the ground, the creature grunted as it pulled itself up. The earth split, its hunchbacked form stumbling forward on its two malformed legs. A quarlem. The name came into Fluttershy's mind unbidden, and suddenly she knew exactly how much danger she was in. Quarlems were fiercely territorial magical creatures. The beast turned slowly, the unbalanced weight of its hunchbacked boulder making its movements deliberate and ungainly. It regarded Fluttershy with its unfeeling black eyes, its large mouth slackly open, baring rock-teeth made of shale sharpened to fine points; just perfect for ripping fur, flesh, wing, and bone. With a mighty roar, the quarlem began its slow and inexorable charge, the rocks of one of its hands shifting about- changing from the general shape of a flat three-fingered hand into the suggestion of a hammer. It raised the newly-made weapon in preparation for flattening Fluttershy into paste. Fluttershy screamed for the second time that day as her body reacted before her brain could keep up, her wings spreading and her hooves bending. She pushed off the ground and took to the sky just as the quarlem brought its hammer smashing down in a clumsy over-arm arch, the ground quaking underneath its blow. She flew over its shoulder, pumping her wings as fast as she could. The quarlem reached out with its other hand in a show of preternatural speed, grabbing tight to Fluttershy's tail. She cried out as her escape was violently arrested, looking down to see her tail captured in the giant brute's fist. Fluttershy flapped her wings for all she was worth, trying to keep herself as separate from the horrible creature as she possibly could. The quarlem made to pull her closer and swipe at her with its hammer, but Fluttershy stopped flapping her wings and let herself fall closer to the ground. The hammer swung wide above her, the breeze of its passing making her mane flap about her head. The quarlem raged and tried to bring the hammer down on her from above. Fluttershy's survival instinct proved to be too much for the beast, flying upward to try and free herself. Its rage building from the audacity of the pony-thing's refusal to just lay down and die, the quarlem let out a mighty roar of frustration and slammed Fluttershy against the ground. Her head struck the ground with a flat thump, the breath knocked from her lungs. A sickening pop spoke of a wing that had become dislocated. Her hooves lay atop her haphazardly as she sprawled on the ground, her eyes dazed and unfocused. Through unfocused eyes, Fluttershy could see the vague outline of the quarlem above her, raising its hammerhand and letting out another roar of malice. She tried to force herself to get up, to turn herself onto her side and get her hooves underneath her so she could take off running in any direction. Her body refused to respond, her limbs numb to her frantic need to escape. The quarlem's silhouette brought its hammerhand down onto her, and Fluttershy closed her eyes and braced herself for oblivion. "Halt!" A voice rang out across the clearing, and the quarlem's motions stopped instantly. The flat end of the hammer floated mere inches from Fluttershy's face, bits of dirt and tiny pebbles flaking off its form to patter her once-clean yellow coat. She let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding, her hooves curled so tightly against her body that her legs were beginning to cramp terribly. The beast straightened up and turned, seeing the form of Loki standing many yards behind it. He stood before the edge of the forest, resolute and defiant, the bottom end of his ice staff held against the ground next to him. Behind him, thick vines swayed in the breeze, draped between the gnarled trees of the Everfree Forest. "Battle someone that might give you a challenge, monster." Loki bellowed that challenge, sliding onto his back foot and raising his staff in a defensive position. His ice-blue face grew alive with a challenging smirk, red eyes dancing with mischief as they stared into the volcanic eyes of the quarlem. He showed no fear, no weakness to the creature, daring it to bring its weapons to bear down upon him. The quarlem's simple, magical mind balked at being so openly challenged on its own territory. The pony-thing underneath it forgotten, it squared its lopsided shoulders to its new opponent. The rocks of its hammerhand blasted apart as several spikey bits of quartz appeared, turning the hammer into a crude mace. Raising it into the sky, it brought it down to the ground in a display of aggression. With another roar it charged, swinging its mace over its head in preparation to smash the intruder into a greasy strain. Loki tensed, leaning further back on his defensive leg, raising his staff in preparation of the beast's strike. The quarlem was upon him within seconds, swinging its weapon down on the Asgardian prince. Its mace never connected with anything solid however, for as soon as it came within striking distance of Loki, the god's presence shimmered and the mace passed right through it. The image vanished as its structural integrity was breached, leaving nothing but the faint tang of electrical discharge in the air. As the charge failed and its swing connected with naught but an illusion, it tipped forward and rolled out of the clearing and into the forest. The nestle of thick vines tangled the quarlem up as it tumbled feet-over-boulder into that thick forest web. The dull thing struggled with all its might, but the vines were the most insidious of traps; the more it pulled on them, the more vines it loosed from their resting places, which fell down and wrapped around its limbs. With an air of smug calmness about him, Loki emerged from his hiding place. He lay his ice staff on his shoulder, walking with a slow and easy gait, his eyes on the strange beast caught in his carefully-laid trap. His horned helmet gave him the appearance of a predator having captured some unaware grazing beast in a cunning snare. The beast, for its part, did another surprisingly sensible thing as it once again shifted the rocks of its macehand around; this time into an axe-shape, the blade of the axe tipped with the same kind of flat, sharp shale. It began to hack at the vines, desperately trying to free itself. Loki raised his staff, bracing himself against the ground. "And yet, rock creature," he spoke, the curved blade of his staff beginning to bloom with power. "I think you were slightly smarter than my brother." Thrusting his staff forward, he unleashed the full fury of his Frost Giant heritage, a blizzard of frigid wind erupting from the tip of his spear. Tree branches turned brittle and broke with loud snapping sounds; vines seized up tight around the creature; leaves became thin, brittle flakes that broke apart like glass in the tempest. The creature itself continued to struggle as much as it could, but Loki's magic could not be denied. A thick coating of ice formed around the creature, slowing and finally stopping its flailing limbs as Loki's blizzard locked the creature into a deep, cold stasis. The winds soon died down and Loki surveyed his good work. The forest rang out with the creaking and groaning of ice. Looking behind him, he caught a glimpse of the prone pegasus. Without even looking at it, he raised his staff and directed a blast of energy at the quarlem. Its body screeched in protest as the energy impacted before bursting forth in an expanding blossom of rock, ice, and dirt. Slowly going to one knee, he got a better look at the pegasus. His first impression was that, whatever relation this creature might have with horses he knew, they were tangential at best. The form was there- four legs, four hooves, a tail, a mane. But the proportions were off. A small, almost dainty muzzle below the largest eyes on the largest head he'd ever seen on such a small body. Her coloring made him wonder how evolution could ever allow such a garish creature to survive. Most odd about her was the strange symbols emblazoned on her flank: three butterflies. Loki could discern little meaning from such strange runes, though if he were to hazard a guess, they were used as some kind of identification. His musings here interrupted when he heard something crashing through the underbrush, journeying from the general direction of the village. Voices followed the sounds, indistinct at this distance. Loki was up and on his feet in a flash, turning to run past Fluttershy's prone form and disappear into the forest. Concentrating, he banished the garish golden helmet upon his head as he turned to hide himself behind a low, fat tree. Pressing his hands against its aged bark, he leaned his head to the side, peeking around its wide-bodied girth to see who or what was barreling through the forest. The three shapes that emerged from the forest made his eyebrows shoot up and his mouth gape open. By Valhalla and the Nine Realms, this day was getting stranger by the second. ----------------------------- "Over here guys! It's this way, by the Everfree Forest! Hurry up!" Rainbow Dash called over her shoulder to her friends, flying off toward the forest's edge. Rarity and Pinkie Pie hot on her heels, Rainbow stopped and stared down at the carbonized circle of grass. Pinkie Pie crinkled her nose and brought a hoof up to her face, while Rarity favored the blue pegasus with a half-lidded look of derision. "Is this it, Dash?" Rarity spoke in that aristocratic and subtly condescending tone that made Rainbow want to punch the proper pony in her flank. Rainbow was about to make a retort when Pinkie retched. "Ew! This smells like burnt toast wrapped in fried puke! Ew ew ew ew!" She stamped her hooves in protest. Dash and Rarity looked at each other in confusion. Neither of them smelled anything that bad. True, the circle of burned grass didn't exactly smell pleasant, but such a reaction seemed a bit overblown. Rarity harumphed softly, tossing her mane to the side. "I cannot believe you dragged us all the way out here to see some strange circle of burned grass, Rainbow Dash! The way you described it, it sounded rather interesting. But this..." Rarity regarded the circle with mild distaste, before giving dismissive wave of her hoof. "This is only mildly interesting, at best." Rainbow furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. "Aw c'mon, guys!" She spoke, beating her wings to fly up a few feet and point up into the sky. "I did see something really cool, like I told you! There was this huge black cloud and this gigantic aurora, see? And then these three lightning bolts struck the ground, right here. The weirdest thing was, I thought I saw something come down with the lightning...like it was riding it all the way down!" Rainbow was panting with the speed and intensity of her explanation, nervously shifting her gaze between her two friends. Pinkie Pie and Rarity exchanged a glance, and began to snicker. After a few seconds, they couldn't contain themselves any longer and broke out into hearty guffaws; truthfully, only Pinkie Pie guffawed. Rarity simply brought a hoof in front of her mouth and tittered in her girlish manner. "Oh, Dashie," Pinkie spoke, almost rolling on the ground with the strength of her laughter. "You always pull the best pranks! And this one! What a doozy!" She burst into a fresh set of giggles, her entire body shaking with the force of her bubbly, effervescent personality. Rarity shook her head and smiled, before raising an eyebrow as she caught sight something sitting in the grass a few yards away. Trotting away from her two friends, Rarity summoned her levitation spell and picked the thing up, bringing it closer. Somepony must have lost a hat around here. The poor dear, thought Rarity. It was such a beautiful hat, too. The flowers appeared to be fresh, their pastel colors pleasing to the eye. Why, if Rarity didn't know any better, she might think that this hat belonged to... Rarity had no time to dwell on her sudden realization before the ground shook underneath her. Pinkie Pie's giggles were interrupted as she was knocked off her hooves and onto her side, tilting her head to keep it properly aligned with the world. Even Rainbow Dash could sense that something had happened. The three of them turned and looked at the Everfree Forest, their suspicions roused as that quake subsided. Rarity returned to her friends with the hat in tow, her unease building. "Girls," she spoke, floating the hat up so they could see. "Look what I found on the ground. It looks exactly like one of Fluttershy's hats." Rainbow Dash floated closer and used her hooves to grab the hat out of Rarity's spell, examining it as Pinkie Pie righted herself to stand by Rarity. The fashionista's sense of dread continued to grow as she turned to stare at the edge of the Everfree Forest. She did recall that Fluttershy had spoken something about moving some spiders (shudder!) into a new home in the forest (double shudder!) before they were to meet for a spa treatment today. Another quake rocked through the ground and up their hooves, accompanied by a a loud, reverberating bang. Rainbow Dash settled down onto the ground, setting the hat down before her, her eyes trained on the edge of the forest. Already she had put two and two together. She turned to her friends and gave them a serious look. "C'mon, guys! I think Fluttershy's mixed up in some kind of trouble in there!" She motioned back to the circle of charred grass with a forehoof. "And if it has anything to do with whatever it was I saw, it could be really bad trouble! Come on!" Without waiting for her friends' agreement, Rainbow Dash took off into the forest, tucking her wings down underneath her. Rarity followed, her love for her friend outweighing any fear she had of Everfree. Pinkie Pie ran as well, eschewing her usual happy-hopping gait for something with a bit more speed. For a while, the three of them simply ran, the sounds of their breathing and their hooves on the ground adding to the cacophony of forest sounds surrounding them. Rainbow Dash was wondering what sort of strange monster had been deposited in Equestria by that freaky storm; Rarity's stomach was chilled as her worry for Fluttershy grew unabated; Pinkie Pie was worried for Fluttershy as well, but she was Pinkie Pie, so her hyper little mind was also working on a new chimicherry recipe, as well as wondering what kind of music to play at her next party. The forest thinned out quickly, and soon the three friends burst into the same clearing Fluttershy had happened upon mere minutes before. Rainbow Dash slowed to a trot, examining her surroundings quickly, before her eyes caught site of something that definitely didn't belong. "Fluttershy!" She called out, spreading her wings and flying over to the still body of her friend as fast as she could. Landing next to her, Rainbow Dash bent down wrapped a hoof underneath the pegasus' head, shaking her gently to try and rouse her. She felt the presence of Rarity and Pinkie Pie near, but didn't acknowledge them; Dash was far too concerned with the health of her friend. "Gosh! She looks like she was in a bad fight!" Pinkie worried on her bottom lip. Fluttershy's right wing lay against her body at an odd angle, her body was covered in dust and debris, and a thin line of blood ran from one of her nostrils and down her face, dripping off onto the ground below. Rainbow Dash shook her head a little harder before Rarity stepped in and shooed her away. "Stop it, Rainbow! You're going to hurt the poor dear even more!" Rarity leaned down and pressed her ear to Fluttershy's side. Closing her eyes and trying to tune out her friends' breathing, she picked out a weak but steady heartbeat and let out a deep sigh. Leaning back up, she looked up at Rainbow, who was floating a few feet away, a worried look on her face. Her horn glowed, and with a bit of effort, she lifted Fluttershy's body off the ground and pushed her toward Rainbow Dash. The pegasus' eyes went a bit wide at suddenly having another pony shoved toward her, but she soon got the message and held out her forehooves to receive Fluttershy's limp body. "I want you to fly to the Ponyville Hospital as fast as you possibly can, Rainbow Dash," Rarity spoke quickly. "Find Nurse Redheart and explain the situation. She can take it from there." Rainbow Dash looked down at Fluttershy in her arms, before straightening up and offering a quick nod. "You got it, Rarity! I didn't get this cutie mark for being the slowest pegasus in Equestria! I'll have Fluttershy there in no time!" Spreading her wings to their fullest, Rainbow Dash was off into the sky like a shot, the extra weight and drag of the companion in her arms no match for her determination. Fluttershy's health, perhaps her very life, rested in Rainbow Dash's hooves. She wouldn't, couldn't, let her friend down. In a few seconds, Rainbow Dash had disappeared into the sky. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were left alone in that clearing. Rarity looked around, furrowing her eyebrows. "What do you suppose did that to her, Pinkie Pie?" Rarity looked down at the ground, her eyes drawn to a sea of tiny, sharp pebbles. They seemed to encompass the whole ground, intermixed with small spots of dampness on the ground. Looking up, she saw no clouds in the sky that would explain the small damp spots, so she put the detail out of her mind. Pinkie Pie could only shrug in response to the question. "No idea, Rarity. Everfree Forest is so full of big, mean animals that it could have been, well, anything!" She offered a shrug, pursing her lips in thought. "If only Fluttershy were here! She'd know what it was that did that to her! And not just because she's such a big expert on all kinds of animals, but because she was here when it happened!" Pinkie Pie nodded with a smile. Rarity could only facehoof in exasperation. Any other pony she would call out on being completely insensitive, but not Pinkie Pie. Such behavior was just, as many ponies would say, 'Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.' The two ponies gave one last look around before, with a silent agreement, they turned and made their way out of the clearing. Rarity disappeared back into the forest, Pinkie Pie in tow. Before she too could disappear into the Everfree Forest, the pink pony stopped suddenly and turned her head to stare across the clearing into edge of the clearing. She narrowed her eyes and glared at a big, fat tree that looked like it had been there forever; her Pinkie Sense was tingling something fierce, but she couldn't put a hoof on why. Shrugging her shoulders, she turned and hopped behind Rarity, her bouncy tail and equally bouncy mane adding an extra spring to her step. ----------------------------- Loki pressed himself tight to the tree, willing himself hidden from those three strange ponies. The pink one seemed satisfied that nothing was amiss, as she shrugged her shoulders and bounded back into the forest, her strange mane and tail acting more like a kind of candy than hair. Breathing a sigh of relief, Loki turned his back on the scene and slowly went over the events in his head. Turning to gaze upon the tree that had been his hiding spot for that past few minutes, he reached up and swiped a hand across its bark. With a few flourishes of his hand, a perfectly flat pane of mirrored ice twinkled in the noon-day sun. Looking at himself in that ice mirror, Loki pondered the spell he was about to use. He hadn't used such a spell in quite a long time. Certainly not since the Asgardians had stopped making regular journeys to Earth. He momentarily wondered if he could handle such a spell while keeping himself hidden from Heimdall. Loki banished the thought immediately. He was the God of Mischief, a master of magic and sorcery. He could handle a little transformation spell while keeping himself hidden. Closing his eyes, Loki let the warmth of the spell wash over him. His long, green cape began to shorten, preparing for the changes about to overtake his body. The first feeling- or lack of feeling, rather- he began to notice was a numbness in his fingers and toes. Slowly, his digits began to draw back into his palms and the soles of his feet. His spine began to shorten and his ribs shifted around, elongating in places and shortening in others. His weight redistributed itself, until he could no longer stand on his feet. With a grunt of pain and effort, he went down onto all fours. His neck was beginning to grow now, muscles thickening and stretching out. His ears climbed up his head, growing larger and gaining pointed tips. The most painful changes were taking place on his face, as his nose flattened out and merged with his growing jawline. Fur, a dark icy blue, grew in irregular patches all over his flesh. His leggings and leg armor had disappeared, leaving him mostly naked, only the torso section of his green bodysuit and his golden chest armor remaining. With sickening cracks of new bones growing and reorganizing themselves, Loki was suddenly the owner of triple-jointed rear legs. His hands and feet had flattened out, and hard hooves pushed their way out of the soft flesh of those rounded appendages. Stamping his hooves as the pain began to reach its crescendo, he was acutely aware of a tail growing from the top of his flanks, black to match the color of his new mane. His mane was styled in much the same way as his hair had been, slicked back with frayed, messy ends. His face fully elongated, for a moment he thought himself finished with the pain of transformation. A sudden and sharp pain in the midst of his new forehead made him count at the ground, whinnying as his horn began to take shape. It grew by degrees, excruciatingly slow as the nerve endings built themselves from scratch underneath the horn's hard outer shell. His nostrils flared and his eyes closed tight as his entire body quaked, his legs shaking underneath him as his weakened body struggled to cope with the powerful spell he had forced it to endure. Slowly, he pulled his legs closer together, straightening himself up and stretching his neck out. Tilting his head forward, he opened his eyes to stare at his new form in that mirrored sheet of ice. Staring back at him was a young, dark-ice-blue unicorn stallion with a slicked-back black mane and magenta eyes. He stood barely taller than the four ponies he'd witnessed that day, his height adjusted to what he presumed would be the average for a male of their species. The only clothing he wore was now the torso portion of his green bodysuit, as well as the golden chest armor, modified to fit his new form. His cape, shortened sufficiently, lay atop his back, barely long enough to reach his flanks. Turning his head, he regarded his flank and his new cutie mark. He had considered giving himself a cutie mark to symbolize his talent for deception and trickery, but had decided against it. Instead, he'd decided on something simple- three heavily stylized versions of ice crystals, fashioned after the shape of a snowflake. Summoning his helmet back to his head- with a modification for size and to allow room for his horn- Loki galloped out of the forest with as much haste as he could muster. He was sure his wards against being seen had held throughout the transformation, so his next concern was finding this Ponyville and setting himself to the task of inserting himself into the pony's society. His hooves carrying him with more haste than his two feet would have allowed, he made it through the Everfree Forest and out into the grassy hills in almost no time, making a beeline for the village in the distance. ----------------------------- Applejack hated hospitals. They were such clean and sterile places. The smells, the sounds, the light itself seemed wrong to the hard-working farmpony. Every bed was made to be generically comfortable, all the food was made to be easily palatable by anypony that had to suffer a visit; even all the reading material was unchallenging and bland. Hospitals had no personality, as far was Applejack was concerned. It took something as serious as a friend being in the hospital to get Applejack to set one hoof inside. Even injuries sustained on the farm couldn't be counted on to get the orange-furred mare to take a trip. She'd rather fix it herself in her own home than to come here and sit under the buzzing lights and be fed tasteless food. "Thank you all for coming..." Fluttershy lay on her bed as she had since Applejack had arrived. The pegasus had been asleep when Applejack first got there, panting and sick with worry. She had been in the market, selling her apples as usual for that time of the day, when Pinkie Pie had rushed up to her and started talking about a mile a minute. After she'd gotten the pink party pony to slow down and actually explain things on a level a normal pony could understand, the story she told made Applejack abandon her cart for the day and rush to the hospital as fast as her hooves would take her. "Shoot, sugarcube, what kinda friends would we be if'n we didn't come t' see if you were okay?" Applejack reached out to gently ruffle Fluttershy's mane. All around the pegasus' bed, her friends smiled and nodded in agreement. Twilight had been the last to arrive, Rainbow Dash having flown off to tell her of the situation after she'd dropped off Fluttershy. The purple mare turned to Fluttershy and raised a quizzical eyebrow. "What I don't get is, if you were attacked by a quarlem, how on earth did you get out of it?" Twilight tilted her head wonderingly. Fluttershy had been awake long enough to fully relate the story as best she could remember, often having to stop to take sips of her water or simply catch her breath. Nurse Redheart had stated that she did have a concussion; her dislocated wing had been easily and painlessly fixed while she'd been knocked unconscious, and she'd be back in the air again in no time. In answer to Twilight's question, Fluttershy took a sip of her water and heaved a small sigh. "I'm not really sure, Twilight. I remember someone got its attention before it was able to hurt me..." She reached up to her bandaged head with her forehooves, gently rubbing her temples. "Oh, it's so hard to remember. I passed out shortly after that. The next thing I remember, I woke up in this hospital bed..." Twilight opened her mouth to voice another concern, but was interrupted when a new voice spoke from the doorway. "Perhaps I can be of some assistance: I destroyed the quarlem and saved your life." Everypony's head turned to regard a strange-looking pony standing in the hospital room's doorway. He was a blue unicorn stallion with magenta eyes; nothing unusual about that in any way. His attire, however, made him stand out from any pony the six friends had ever encountered. His golden armor was somewhat similar to the armor worn by Canterlot's Royal Guard, but it was far too angular to be a perfect match. The helmet atop his head bore a pair of long, curved horns, giving him the appearance of some kind of fierce predator. Behind him stood Nurse Redheart, who peeked over his shoulder to speak. "I'm so sorry to barge in unannounced, dears," Redheart sighed, giving Loki a sidelong look. "This stallion seemed to know Fluttershy, so I signed him in and lead him up here. I hope that's all right." Loki regarded the six ponies, one at a time, taking in their expressions and gauging their reactions. A mixture of confusion and mild fright, but no suspicion that he could see. Excellent. Raising a forehoof, he continued to explain his situation. "I am Loki, a traveler from a realm far beyond yours. Earlier today, I arrived in your world of Equestria on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. I am afraid the after-effects of my travel methods might have given the false impression of a monstrous appearance, for I frightened the pegasus known as Fluttershy and she fled into the forest. I could not, in good conscience, leave her to some unknown and possibly dangerous fate, so I gave chase. "Finding her in a situation far outside her control, I intervened. I have considerable skill in the use of magic, so I was able to dispatch the quarlem. Unfortunately, I was unable reach Fluttershy before it had done her some harm." Bending his forehooves, Loki lowered his head and the front of his body in a show of contrition and deference. "I ask your forgiveness, Fluttershy. I should have been able to reach you before that monster lay a single hand upon your head." Straightening himself up, Loki gazed upon Fluttershy in her bed, surrounded by her friends. The pink pony, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash he recognized. Two new additions- a purple unicorn with a strange cute mark depicting several diamond shapes, along with an orange pony with a rustic-looking hat upon her head- stared at him along with the ponies he had seen before. Fluttershy's cheeks grew bright red and she tried to hunker down into the bed, her voice barely cracking the decibel level of a whisper. She mumbled something that Loki could not hear, but he presumed was some kind of expression of thanks for his heroic intervention on her behalf. For a few moments, a heavy silence descended upon the hospital room, as six pony friends stared at that strange newcomer to their land. Finally, the pink pony broke off from her friends and trotted up toward Loki. She apparently had no concept of personal space, as she got as close as she could, leaning up to put her face mere inches from Loki's own. He leaned his head back and stared down at her as she examined him, narrowing her eyes in much the same way she had done back in the forest. A chill ran up and down Loki's spine. Pinkie Pie glared at Loki for a few more seconds before all scrutiny melted away from her face. She leaned back and put on her best, most friendly 'welcome-to-Ponyville' grin. "Where didja get that super-cool hat, Loki?"