//------------------------------// // It All Went By So Fast // Story: We Remember Everything // by Thunderscourge //------------------------------// A/N: Special thanks to Nethalar, D48, evowizard25, thewaffler, and ketvirtas in particular for your more in-depth reviews last chapter, but thanks to everyone who let me know how much they enjoyed it! Also to thewaffler for having a fun name! I hope that you continue to do so and let me know what you think about it, as the more you let me know about what you enjoy the more I can make the story fit that! One day on his way back to the castle he had adopted as his own, Loki found himself looking into a stream that ran smoothly through the woods. In the water he could see a reflection of his scraggly hair, tired eyes and generally unkempt appearance. This was not news to him. He had little experience with grooming himself as a horse after all, yet he did admit that he was beginning to care less and less as things other than vanity took root in his mind. It was these same thoughts that kept him from noticing the figure sitting atop his throne until he was mere feet from them. To his shock and surprise, it was not a pony. “Not expecting a visitor?” At least physically. Atop the throne sat a pasty skinned humanoid with long, blue hair of various shades with a familiar dark blue tiara placed on top of it. Familiar green eyes sat upon the feminine face, which itself sat upon a neck with a necklace Loki could have sworn to have seen in his dreams before without lying in the slightest. That necklace was, however, the only thing other than a pair of shoes to cover the otherwise completely bare woman. “Luna?” Loki asked, quite confused as to what he was seeing. He found himself averting his gaze after his initial analysis of her form, so as to be respectful. That did not stop him from noticing certain...things, such as how the mark of a night sky and its moon that normally was on her Equine hip was similarly on this form’s hip. Did she believe that to be a normal thing? The visitor laughed in Luna’s voice and made no effort to cover their bare body, “Surprised? I tried to replicate the female form of your race to the best of my ability. Shapeshifting is quite enjoyable I must say, especially the more you change.” Luna paused when she noticed that Loki was not indeed looking at her marvelous transformation for some unknown reason. This partially irked the princess, who thought he would at least be impressed with her. “Whatever is the matter with you?” she questioned, one part confused for every part indignant. Loki coughed nervously, still averting his eyes from her body, “While it may be custom for equines like yourself to normally walk about without much in the ways of clothing, where I am from it is considered...obscene to do so.” The former mare’s cheeks flushed red at his revelation that she was doing something very wrong, “Oh, my apologies,” with a quick flash a set of blue robes covered her body from neck to foot, Luna not knowing what exactly was obscene and going with an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach, “Better?” Glancing up to Luna, Loki felt a smirk grow upon his tired face before he could restrain it as he admired her form. She had a body not unlike the desirable Lady Sif, who was the most athletic and toned woman he had ever met outside of the Valkyries and those men-haters did not count in his eyes. Not after the time they nearly killed him and Thor for merely being male... Needless to say, Loki found himself quite impressed with the form she had taken and the accuracy of it as far as he could see, and from what he had seen. Loki looked from abdomen to green eyes, “Much. I must say that in this form you are quite ravishing. You are an impressive shapeshifter.” Luna bowed partially, the undertones of his words not comprehended, “Thank you. I tried to emulate your mother’s appearance the best I could since she is my only reference-” Loki retched loudly, abruptly cutting Luna off. “Luna, please do not equate yourself to my mother right after I say something like that. I may just need to repress this conversation.” Luna laughed nervously as she put the whole picture together, realizing that she may have just mentally scarred Loki. Loki shook the damnable memories from his mind and began to focus his energy, “Anyways, now it is my turn to show off.” In a spark, Loki’s green form found itself replaced with the orange guard with blue hair from his visit to Canterlot. Loki bowed in the alternate form, speaking with a voice that was as mocking as he could manage, “Random annoying guard at your service, my lord.” Luna made a mental note to herself to make sure that guard was reassigned to the Crystal Empire in the coming months, lest Loki seek him out to harass him more. This, however, amused her greatly and she laughed heartily in her new form, “Oh Loki, you are terrible.” Loki laughed too before shifting to another form, this time growing in height significantly instead of shrinking. His new, white fur glistened comically as he stood before Luna as her very sibling. Loki changed his voice to mimic Celestia’s as well, Luna already pounding her fist down as tears of laughter streamed down her face, “How about this? Am I doing this correctly, sister? Are my hindquarters too large, just like my big head?” “Tia would have a fit,” Luna managed to cough out during her laughing fit, her hands wiping the tears from her eyes. Loki shifted again quickly, this time to an even bigger pain in Luna’s eyes: that being a pink monstrosity they both agreed they disliked, “Of laughter I hope!” Luna rolled her eyes as she calmed down, “I have seen better.” The other shapeshifter returned to his regular equine form and let out a breath to demonstrate the tired feeling he now had after that brief exercise, “I will admit it is quite tiring to cast such magic while I am still unaccustomed to this form. Nothing some practice will not fix though.” “Have you tried to resume your normal form? We have not worked on it, but I am curious if you have done so on your own.” Despite all of their practice the past few weeks, Loki had not actually tried to accomplish that feat. He had worked on smaller, less difficult forms as well as non-complex ones, but he was worried about possibly messing up his own true form, “Not yet. Care to watch?” Luna nodded and Loki started to focus, energy gathering at his horn, “Note that I will be wearing clothes after this,” after a moment’s contemplation and no spellcasting, Loki added, “Hopefully.” Luna lifted her brows, not to mention the corners of her mouth, in an amused fashion as she spoke bemusedly, “It would not be the most terrible tragedy to befall us.” He rolled his eyes and promptly ignored her as he continued to focus his energy. In her own transformed state Luna happily watched Loki’s equine form disappear in a flash, only for the form from his dreams to replace it. The green eyes and long black hair remained the same on him, but Luna found herself inspecting the rest of him. Now his pale body was clothed in green, black and brown leather of what appeared to be a fine quality. On top of his head rest a golden helmet with two ram-like horns that made Luna want to laugh, Loki’s sense of fashion obviously...different. “This is…” Loki could not finish his own words as he observed each of his arms, glad that they were not hooves for once. Luna lifted a foot out to touch his chest and get his attention. As Loki looked up to her she smiled, green eyes meeting green eyes, “Good to be in your own skin, is it not?” He returned the warm look with one of his own, feeling genuinely happy unlike most of the despair he had been facing in recent times. He had managed to overcome something with the help of this newfound ally, and that instantly set aside that moment from many in his then recent memory. That feeling, however, was fleeting, as a realization dawned upon him. Loki sighed, “Yes, I will admit it is. But this is a trick. A spell. I am unsure why my natural state of being has changed, but that is another issue altogether. Thank you for your assistance these past few weeks.” Luna nodded to his thanks and kept smiling at him even after his face had fallen, still glad to see that her ‘friend’ could now feel more comfortable. Comfortable...that word brought another idea to Luna’s brain. Nodding at Loki’s very odd garb, Luna spoke her mind, “You know, you need not be so naked in your pony form if you please. I could have clothes made for your specific desires should you wish it.” Loki looked to his own clothes as well and grinned, finding the idea of an equine version of them to be quite amusing. Whatever would the others back home think to seeing a horse version of his clothing? They made fun of it as it was. For that matter, what would they think of seeing a Loki-equine? That would surely be an interesting laugh. “That would be most gracious of you. I could always conjure up clothing to be honest, with the right practice, but real garbs always feel the best.” Luna chuckled at his honesty, “And they do not tend to disappear when you run out of energy, as little as it takes to maintain them. So, would you care for some ostentatious dress akin to what you are wearing?” “Well excuse me princess, here I thought that my clothes were quite dashing,” Loki jested, not actually feeling offended. It was not as bad as being called a cow, per say, like his brother was fond of doing. Luna stuck her tongue out partially at him, “I find it quite adorable to be honest.” That made the prideful prince of Asgard scoff, “Adorable? Am I some rabbit?” Luna lifted her foot up high to touch Loki’s forehead instead of his chest, “Yes. With the two long ears protruding from your helmet, you are my dear bunny rabbit.” Loki realized this was going to go nowhere and remembered he actually had things planned for the day ahead of him, so he took a hand to her foot and removed it from his head, “As amusing as this is, I was just preparing to leave and attend to something when you arrived. Would you mind visiting back tomorrow?” “Of course. It is not as if we do not have any better things to be doing, our fluffy rabbit.” Loki groaned as she burst out into a fit of laughter. “How high did she jump?” “I’m surprised she didn’t land on the moon! She actually hit the ceiling she went so high!” Loki had been...busy when his enchanted snakes revealed they had scared a certain pink pony witless, and so he had set aside time to look more into the matter. He found himself quite pleased with the blue Pegasus he found himself talking to, the mare none-the-wiser of his transformed state. His wings were completely hidden so as to not arouse suspicion, and as such other ponies were just passing him off as an absurdly tall unicorn. Loki smiled down to the blue mare, glad that not every equine he ran into was insane or extremely quirky, “Now that you have accomplished my task, I propose that we properly introduce ourselves. I am Loki Odinson, known from where I come for my trickery.” He quickly noted the pride in her voice, “I’m Rainbow Dash, Equestria’s number one flier and always up for a good prank. You got any other ideas?” Something about her name rang a bell in Loki’s mind, but he ignored it as his thoughts began to formulate a plan, “Your friend’s name is Pinkie Pie, correct? How heavy a sleeper is she?” “I’m not kidding when I say she can sleep through a hurricane. Why?” Rainbow questioned. With a quick flash, Loki summoned a bottle he had been working on the past few days. Seeing the Witch-Doctor’s house had gotten him to think about brewing potions and this was one such experiment of his that he was eager to try out. “I have some tricks unusable to one without magic, but there are many other ways to have a good time,” he floated the small bottle over to Rainbow Dash, “Take this dye. Sprinkle some on her while she rests and she will awake to find herself no longer able to live up to her name for a day or so.” Realizing what the clear bottle of purple fluid might do, Rainbow snickered, “What color will she be? I got to think of some jokes before.” He shrugged nonchalantly, “It can be whatever color you wish, as you only need shake the bottle vigorously to change it, but I suggest something darker as it will be more of a contrast to her regular coat.” Rainbow Dash tucked the brewed substance away into her satchel bag when an idea struck her mind, “Would you mind pulling off a prank yourself? I’d love to see you in action with your magic!” Deciding that he had some free time, Loki decided he may just as well, “I may just do that. Do you have any friends in particular who you care to have some fun with?” “Well, the only one who is around right now is Twilight, I think.” Loki remembered the bookworm who had keyed him in on a good deal of information he needed and who lent him the map he desired, “I know where she resides. Care to follow?” “You bet!” Twilight Sparkle was lazily reading a book in her home when something brushed up against her tail. At first thinking it to be Spike inconsiderately brushing against her, she ignored it. Then she felt the same thing brush against where her Cutie Mark lay. Her eyes shot open at the feeling of scales, and her ears quivered at the sound of a hiss. “Snake!” she yelled as she shot to her feet and dashed across the round room at full galloping speed. After she got as far away from the place she had been reading as possible, Twilight let out a breath and looked back to where she had been before. No snake was in sight, and neither was her assistant. Twilight called out to her aide, “Spike, what’s with all the snakes around Ponyville? Take a letter! We need to have this fixed-” Something behind her tapped her on the head, making Twilight twist around to see that a black snake was hanging out of her bookshelf and looking at her. “How did it even get up there!?” she squealed as her whole body began to shake. “Boo,” the snake whispered to her softly. Having had enough of this bad dream, Twilight ran around to her staircase while yelling, “Talking snake, talking snake!” Only, the snake reappeared on top of the staircase. The snake snickered sinisterly, “Our hero, folks. Can defeat monsters, but quivers at the sight of a harmless reptile.” “Getoutgetoutgetout!” Twilight leapt over the snake and dashed right to her bed, pulling her blankets over her as fast as she could to try and hide from the monstrosity. “Hi.” The snake was in the bed. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-” Rainbow Dash had been observing her friend through the windows of the treehouse, so Loki took it as his cue to end the prank when she fell down out of the sky laughing her hindquarters off. He was surprised she was still able to breathe with all of her laughter, but was at least pleased that the creature he had conjured did its duty. “Any others?” he boredly questioned, having thought this to be quite easy a prank. “I bet Fluttershy could use a visit at her cottage. She’s probably done tending to her animals by now.” “What need I do to have my fun there?” “Well, Fluttershy is really into animals. Almost to a creepy level,” Rainbow grew a thoughtful expression as she considered the idea more, “Haven’t pranked her in forever since Pinkie doesn’t allow it. I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s all just some harmless fun.” Loki was pleased to see that she was on the same page as him, “You are quite correct. Now, what experience does she have with aquatic beings?” “I adopted my pet tortoise Tank from her, but she doesn’t really keep much fish-things around. Probably because she feeds them to the other animals.” The hypocrisy of that action made Loki quite confused, but he decided to ignore it, “Odd. Well then, I know how to handle this.” Fluttershy was minding her own business and trying to get her rabbit to eat his food when something caught her attention. It had eight small limbs and a squishy round body on top of them with an eye on either side of the body. And it was crawling across the floor in circles nearby her. Ignoring the disobedient rabbit she had been trying to feed, Fluttershy turned her full attention to the new creature in her house, “Oh, hello there. What’s your name?” The creature turned to her and started to move towards her, letting out squishy noises as it crawled across the floor. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid I didn’t catch that.” The creature reached where she stood and lifted one of its small limbs to her hoof, revealing that it had some kind of suction cup on the bottom of it that stuck to Fluttershy. Then it stuck another limb to her, and another, and another and it did this until it was fully wrapped around one yellow hoof of the animal caretaker. “Umm, okay, you sure have a lot of arms mister-” The odd creature quickly scaled up her hoof and crawled onto her face, its suction cups sticking to her fur and the limbs wrapping partially around her. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want you on my face mister squish. Please get down?” Mister squish did not listen as it revealed what it had underneath its tentacles: a beak. “Biting bad, biting bad!” Fluttershy yelled as she began to run about the room, her nose being softly grabbed between the beak. With a strong twist of the head Fluttershy managed to dislodge the creature, it bouncing across the floor and making more squish noises, “Bad mister squishy. You don’t crawl on others faces like that-” From its new position the now angry mister squish shot out a black jet of ink that crashed right into Fluttershy, who squealed as she became drenched in a torrent of icky liquid. “Eeep!” Loki deemed that enough pony harassment for the day and turned to his prank partner, “Your turn. I expect to hear good things when I return, and I look forward to hearing what devious color you turn that pink foal.” “Hehe, you bet!” Loki yawned on his throne as he went over the events in his sleep the night before. He refused to close his eyes lest he relive what was waiting there, but the general exhaustion he felt made this quite difficult. He almost missed Luna entered the room completely, jolting himself upright as she approached him with a playful and curious look. “Loki, wherever did you get that staff?” Staff? Loki looked down to his side where a golden scepter with a blue orb towards one end lay. He groggily tried to remember something about it but found himself unable to do so, quite confused as to how it got there. How had he not noticed it, he wondered? “This…” Loki pushed the spear looking scepter away from him on the throne, memories coming back to him about it, “This is nothing. Just something I found in my travels.” Luna approached him and kept her gaze on the object Loki certainly did not want her to touch, “May I see it?” “I’d rather you not. What if it is cursed?” Loki warned as if he had no idea what it was capable of. “Oh Loki, whatever could it do? After all you seem to be just fine by it,” her horn lit up and the scepter lifted into the air away from Loki and towards her. Inspecting the overall small scepter closer, Luna admired its craftsmanship while again sticking a tongue out at him, “See I’m perfectly fine.” Loki felt himself grow agitated the more she held it away from him for reasons he could not explain, “May I please have it back?” Luna laughed at his tone and placed the scepter back down, rolling her eyes at him, “Oh fine, here’s your precious scepter.” Loki felt his stress leave as she did this, only for it to partially return as she asked, “So, you have been traveling?” He decided to be snarky to deflect the topic, “I do have a life outside of our meetings, I must admit.” She understood that sentiment completely and smiled with her eyes closed, “I wish you had been here a millennium ago. It would have been quite nice to have somepony to share with that was not mother.” Loki’s eyes glossed over the scepter before they made their way to Luna, “I find it hard to remember what I was even doing at that time...I wonder if that was the time period when Thor lost his prized weapon and had to pose as a bride to retrieve it.” “Your brother pretended to be a girl? Is this the same brother who is the musclebound brute you speak of with such reverence?” Luna could not help the sound of oncoming laughter from her voice, very amused by the very premise Loki brought forth. “The one and only. There were many frills.” Luna lost her composure completely and laughed loudly once before responding, “How did this come about?” Loki sighed as the memory came back to mind, remembering how amusing it had been and how annoying it had been to rectify, “Thor had stupidly lost his weapon, Mjolnir, and we needed to recover it. Do not ask me how he managed to lose something he can summon to him at any time and can solely wield. My brother managed the impossible quite often.” “Mew-mew?” the world he said sounded quite weird to Luna and she desired explanation. Loki’s disdain was ever apparent as he repeated the name, “Mjolnir. It is a powerful hammer said to be the weapon of a king because of its power to both create and to destroy. It is for this reason that my brother wields it, the heir to our throne.” “You have mentioned previously he would utilize the destruction aspect quite often,” Luna spoke sadly, not condoning reckless use of force by any. “Well, with more realms than he could count and even more wars, my brother rarely found himself without something to fight and slay,” he paused as he glanced down to the scepter again, “Such an innocent realm…” Luna lifted a brow at his saddened tone, “What are you musing now, Loki?” He shook his head and sighed, before looking back up to her with a small and fake smile, “Oh, nothing you need worry yourself with.” “I am pleased to hear this,” Luna gave him a smirk all too similar to his normal ones, “Now, Loki, there was something of great importance I wished to discuss with you.” “Is that so? Come on now, whatever could be so vital that a princess would consider it important to another royal being?” “I think we should see other ponies.” Loki blinked momentarily as he tried to make sense of her statement, “Come again? I was under the impression we were doing just...fine.” “Loki, do not fret, it is not you. It is me,” Luna reached a hoof out to his shoulder on top of the throne, “I just believe that limiting our social interactions to one another is not very healthy. You really ought to meet other ponies.” “And however do you suppose I do this?” Luna smiled at his question, having something in mind just for this reason, “There is a festival of sorts going on in Ponyville in a few days time. I think it would be a good opportunity for you, and you would not even have to do so alone. Many of the competitions will involve partners after all, so I may still accompany you. But I would not be your only company” Loki thought briefly before he came up with an answer, yawning as he spoke, “I will attempt to attend this event.” The night princess noted his dead-tired appearance and frowned at it, “You appear exhausted. Have you been resting well?” “Would you not know already?” Loki joked, knowing her ability to dreamwalk quite well. To Loki’s relief she shook her head no, “No, I would not. I have been respecting your sleep and leaving it be. Would you care for me to check on you again?” He sighed and he too shook his head, “I would rather you not.” “Is something the matter?” his concerned companion asked, now a little worried for his well-being. “There are just a great many things on my mind. May we leave it at that?” Luna gave him a reassuring smile, “Of course, but if you ever need my aid just let me know.” The days passed by and on the morn of the event Luna found herself waiting at the Ponyville festival, ready to celebrate it with Loki as well as bring attention to how she too could form friends. Despite her long period of waiting, Luna found herself very alone despite the occasional groveling of a subject who passed by. “Loki?” she spoke out, hoping that maybe he would answer her. Silence met her. The feeling of dejection made Luna’s heart feel crushed. Why would Loki not be there? Should she check on him in the forest? Why would he go back on his word? “We have never been stood up before by anypony…” With a nose turned up in the air, Luna huffed. “He better have a good explanation for this.” She would just have to have fun without him. Show him what happens when he does not hold to his word. A good distance from Ponyville, a dark lair with a large populace was lazily sitting about. They were all trapped inside of their own fortress of mazes and puzzles and had no way out, so why bother? At least, that’s what they thought in the time they had been trapped there. “It took some effort to find you here.” The group of trapped souls looked up the the exit, once sealed but now opened. Their leader, a wounded a weakened creature by the name of Queen Chrysalis stood up from where she previously lay and inspected the source of the voice with narrowed eyes. “And who is this who seeks me out? Friend or foe?” A bipedal creature with a staff in its hand bowed to her as it stood in the doorway, one arm gesturing towards the offered freedom. “Friend, your highness. I am Loki, prince of Asgard,” he stood up from his bow and grinned at her, “And I am burdened with glorious purpose.” A/N: Yes, you will have to live with that cliffhanger. Anyways, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! If you did please let me know what you liked in the comment boxes below! Seriously, every bit I hear from you helps this college student get motivated both in life and in writing!