Grandfather's Coming For A Visit

by GoesKaboom


Eight: Parent and Child

Until Loki had fallen from the Bifrost, Thor had never really thought all that much about his brother's presence, or lack thereof. When they were children, and even as young adults, Thor often just... forgot about Loki. When his brother wasn't right in front of his face, it was easy to forget that he existed. Even when Loki was around, Thor treated him usually like an afterthought. Sif and the Warriors took up more of his attention than Loki did. Even when Thor could clearly see that Loki was feeling overlooked and becoming bitter, he just didn't care that much. Loki had always been by his side, and always would be by his side.

Then came the coronation and everything that followed. Loki fell from the Bifrost, and that was supposed to have been the end of that. He had committed suicide. Odin had decided to seal off Loki's rooms once the period of mourning was over, and rarely ever spoke of his younger son. Loki was dead; there was little point in dredging up the painful past.

But after Loki's death, Thor found himself noticing his absence. Walking through certain parts of the palace, Thor expected his brother to pop out from behind a support beam or a tapestry and place some stupid spell on him, like the time Loki forced Thor to cluck like a chicken for an entire afternoon. Or, when a feast was held, Thor half thought Loki would should up twenty minutes late and start making fun of everyone who got drunk while eating all of his favorite dishes. But that was impossible. Loki was dead.

Until he wasn't. When Loki reappeared on Midgard, at first Thor had barely dared to believe it. Loki was alive? Loki had actually survived falling through the void of space and time? That was wonderful news! Or at least it was, until reports started coming in of what Loki was doing on Midgard. So Thor had set out to recapture his brother and bring him back to Asgard to face justice. Every second he'd spend fighting Loki was incredibly painful, only driving home the point that the brother he had grown up with was truly gone. That Loki had actually died when he fell, and this Loki was just someone who looked alarmingly like him. He couldn't rationalize this current Loki with the one he'd grown up with.

In the end, with the help of some Midgardians with special abilities, Loki was defeated and brought back to Asgard. And that was when things got even weirder.

Odin had proclaimed that Loki's punishment was to be forced to stay with his grandchildren. That in and of itself was strange- Thor and Loki were barely old enough to be parents by Aesir standards, let alone grandparents, unless the mother of the child was a mortal. But that didn't make sense for several reasons- first off, Loki had never particularly cared one way or another about Midgard, and certainly never expressed an interest in having sex with Midgardians. But it wasn't possible for Loki to have Aesir grandchildren, so a mortal was the only option that made sense. And secondly, Loki had literally just tried to subjugate Midgard, and had both, directly and indirectly, contributed to the deaths of several thousand mortals. Even if Loki's grandchildren were Midgardians, it would be the height of idiocy to send him back there..

And then the biggest shock of them all came: apparently, Loki wasn't actually a grandfather at all: he was a grandmother. Loki had actually given birth to Odin's horse, Sleipnir, and Sleipnir had gone on to sire foals on a completely different realm, and those foals grew up to become the rules of that realm. Loki was going to be sent there to rehabilitate himself.

So Loki had been shunted off through the Bifrost to the realm of his granddaughters a few days ago, and Thor had tried to forget about it. Loki would learn the errors of his ways surrounded by a family disconnected from his Aesir one. This family was blood-related, too- perhaps he would be able to separate his heritage surrounded by relatives that were neither Aesir nor Jotnar. Maybe he would change and become a better person, eventually being allowed to return to Asgard. Or not. Maybe Loki was so far gone that nothing would save him. And if he tried to take over this other realm... Thor didn't actually know what would happen, but he knew it would not be pleasant for his brother.

Really, he should just forget about Loki. The odds of Thor ever seeing his brother again were quite small. Even if he did redeem himself, would Odin really allow Loki back into Asgard? Loki was out of his life now.

But he couldn't stop thinking about his brother. How was Loki doing? Was he healthy and happy? What were his horse grandchildren like? How was he adjusting to being permanently in a body so different from his usual one? Had he been behaving himself? Thor wondered all of these things, but he knew he wasn't likely to get an answer to them. He had no way to contact Loki, short of actually going to the realm of Equestria itself.

Suddenly, Thor grinned. He had an idea. A brilliant idea, one that in no way could possibly go wrong.


Frigga sighed, checking around to see if anyone was nearby. Nobody was.

It wasn't as though she cared if someone saw where she was going. She was the Queen of Asgard; she could go wherever she damn well pleased, whenever she damn well pleased. But courtiers and servants talked, and if word of what she was doing got back to Odin, he would be... concerned.

Was it really so wrong for a mother to care about the welfare of her child? Even if she hadn't birthed him herself and he'd grown up to become a homicidal maniac, she had still raised him. He was still her little boy, and she wanted to know what had become of him. Sending Loki to Equestria had been her idea, and she wanted to check up on him, but Odin had been against it.

“And what are you going to do if he hasn't changed at all, Frigga?” Odin had sighed heavily. “What will you do then? You tried to be a good mother to him, but maybe it wasn't enough. If it simply is the way he is, you cannot do anything about it. I do not want you to suffer over something you cannot change.”

But today, Odin was on Vanaheim, visiting the Vanir king on a diplomatic missions, and wouldn't be back for several days. Frigga's intentions were to visit Heimdall and ask after Loki. But first she had to get to Heimdall's observatory without drawing too much attention to herself. And how much sense did that make? She was the queen. Technically she could go wherever, and no one could stop her. But if someone mentioned it to Odin, and Odin asked Heimdall what she had been doing, she knew the Gatekeeper would not lie to him.

“My Queen,” Heimdall greeted respectfully when Frigga entered the observatory.

“Heimdall,” Frigga replied. “I would know... how is my son doing? Is he well?”

Heimdall paused for a moment, a pensive expression on his face. Frigga knew he was looking through time and space to locate Loki, as well as to isolate any instances that would be of interest to the queen. She'd seen him do it a million times- it never failed to be unnerving, though. Finally, he turned back to her to make his report.

“Loki's sojurn to the realm of his granddaughters did not start out smoothly. It seems the older one offended him. He does appear to be getting along well with the younger, whose own fall to darkness mirrored his own.”

“Oh,” Frigga said. That did not sound promising at all.

“It is not what you think, my Queen,” Heimdall answered. “Princess Luna of Equestria has rehabilitated herself already, and I believe her interest in Loki is connected to that fact. While I cannot read her mind, I believer that she wishes to see that Loki is given the same chance that she was.” The Guardian paused, looking inward again. “He is having difficulty controlling his magic, so Princess Luna has taken him to a friend of hers who might be able to help him.”

“He cannot control his magic?” Frigga asked, worry creeping into her tone. “Why? Neither Odin nor I did anything to bind his powers...” I think she added mentally. Odin hadn't said anything to her about it, at the very least.

“I do not know,” Heimdall admitted. “I do not see anything specific that would have caused that effect. Perhaps he is simply not used to controlling his magic in his current form.” Once again, he paused and looked inward. “Oh. He seems to have befriended some of the children of that realm- at least, he helped three of them stand up to their bullies.”

“Really?” Frigga asked, surprised. That didn't really sound like something Loki would have done. Maybe this other realm was having more of a positive effect than she had originally even hoped it would. She asked if there was anything else she should know, and when Heimdall replied in the negative, she took her leave. “Please let me know if anything happens that need to be brought to my attention. He may be in exile, but Loki is still my son and I will not allow him to come to harm.”


“You want us to do WHAT?!” Sif shrieked. The Warriors Three looked as though Thor had lost his mind. Thor huffed impatiently, glancing around at his friends as though they were incredibly dim-witted.

“As I said, I need to travel to the realm my brother has been exiled to. I wish to see him. Since I do not possess the magic that he does, I will need to use the Bifrost to travel between realms. If Heimdall does not allow me passage, I will need your help to overpower him and take control of it myself.”

“Are you insane?” Fandral demanded. “You would do such a foolish thing for someone who has tried to kill you how many times now?”


“That someone is my brother,” Thor replied darkly. “You would do well to remember that, Fandral. And yes. I want to see him.”

“Couldn't you just go ask Heimdall how Loki is doing?” Volstagg tentatively offered.

“How would I know if he is telling the truth?” Thor retorted. Sif and the Warriors exchanged glances. Thor had always been stubborn, but this was really above and beyond anything he'd ever done before, even leading the attack on Jotunheim. At least that time he hadn't suggested taking the Bifrost by force if Heimdall wouldn't allow them to go.

“Thor, Heimdall does not lie,” Volstagg replied. “Why do you think that you cannot trust him?”

“I just... I need to see how Loki is doing for myself,” Thor replied uncomfortably.

“So you're just going to go to realm he has been sent to, damn the consequences?” Sif asked incredulously. “Do you even know what to expect when you get there?”

“Well, it's... Loki's granddaughters are Sleipnir's, uh, foals,” Thor said. “Since they're supposedly the rulers of the realm it must be a land of horses. And since Loki is supposed to learn from them, they must be intelligent.”

“You do not even know for certain what is in that realm?” Hogun asked dubiously. “Yet you wish to go charging in there blindly?” Thor looked at his friend in surprise- not only had he expected Hogun to back him up, the other man rarely spoke so much at once.

“Well. No, not really,” Thor replied. “But it can't be anywhere too dangerous, or they wouldn't have sent Loki there. Mother never would have allowed it, and even if it is dangerous I can defeat anything that comes my way.”

“You're really serious about this, aren't you?” Sif asked.

“Yes,” Thor stated.

The woman-warrior sighed. The thing she did for Thor... this had to be one of the strangest and most ill-advised. “I'll help you, but you must reconsider. We already know there are ways of traveling without making use of the Bifrost. I would strongly suggest looking into those if Heimdall will not open the Bifrost for you.”

“I agree with Sif,” Volstagg spoke up. “Fighting Heimdall is ill-advised. And Loki could travel between realms without needing the Bifrost.”

“Are you forgetting that Loki had more magic than I do?” Thor asked peevishly. “I do not know if it is even possible for me to move between realms as he did. I also do not know where this 'Equestria' is.”

“That is why you should wait, at least a few days,” Sif said. “Find out more about this realm before you go there.”

Thor glared for a moment, then grudgingly agreed. “Very well. But I will expect all of you to help me when I do decide to go.”

To Be Continued