//------------------------------// // Now It's Time To Leave // Story: We Remember Everything // by Thunderscourge //------------------------------// A/N: While I do wish there were more, special thanks to Evilhumour, King Sombrony, ZeroInfinity, New Spark, hs0003, Fear the Dark, Killabyte, ArcaneVisions, and Ketvirtas for your comments last chapter! It is great comments like those that keep me writing! Thank you again, and I hope to continue hearing from you all! Chapter title now brought to you by Van Canto's cover of Blind Guardian's "The Bard's Song" I'd love to hear what you have to think afterwards in the comments, and remember, comments are ! After waking up, Loki decided to stretch his legs a little and get up. Standing at the mouth of the cave, he joined Illidan there as the latter continued his vigilance. Ikol flew across the cave to join Loki on his shoulder, yet none of them opened their mouths to speak. Loki could see that Illidan was in some kind of meditation, and so he decided not to disturb him. Instead, he just listened as voices outside of the cave continued their endless screams. Loki could not even begin to imagine what it must be like to be these souls, screaming madly because of their endless torment. And those who aren’t screaming are solemnly going about some dark moment of their life. A living Hel. “I thought it was cultists!” “I’m sorry it has to be this way,” a quiet, sorrowful voice joins the others. “I’m trying to save this country!” A disgruntled, annoyed voice pipes up through the mists. “Obviously fucking not!” screams a chorus of voices. “We had some good days together,” one of regret. A partnership ending, Loki mused. A betrayal. Loki kept his voice to a whisper as he spoke to the bird on his shoulder, Loki’s natural curiosity coming out. “Tell me, how are these lost souls any different than us?” The bird spoke in its telepathic fashion, speaking in a voice similar to Loki’s own except without his normal refined manner, “The time they have been here, and the degree to which they have given into their madness. From what I have observed, being slain does not particularly erase one from existence. It brings undeniable agony, but one’s soul would pull itself back together with the shepherding of Lady Death.” Pleased that he was receiving some answers from Ikol, Loki pressed him further, “Are there any drawbacks to being slain?” The bird is silent briefly before a forceful response emitted from the creature, “Lady Death could always choose to not let you return. Or a piece of your soul may not find its way home. I wish I could give you a system for the whole matter, but the one dictating it is a madwoman as you have observed. The tortured souls whose voices you hear linger are at the end of their own sanity.” That does not exactly sound great. Loki would prefer not to subject himself to such a miserable existence, and yet he had no knowledge of how to prevent just that from happening. “I care not to fall to that fate, and standing around here will not help me escape this land,” Loki noted with some venom, displeased by just how helpless he was left in this mysterious land. The bird squawked, “Correct you are, but what is there you can do? The mists shroud everything here. There is no leaving this planet.” Loki waved a hand at the ever present mists outside of the cave, his hand passing through some and coming away a little wet, “There must be a place that escapes the mists of this land. They must be powerful enough to stop Heimdall from seeing through them, much like those on Niflheim.” Given that until a certain point they shared a history, Ikol could relate to the Niflheim journey being spoken of, “That was an...interesting experience for us, was it not?” The young age of Loki when he first and last came to Niflheim had quite possibly assisted his fears, but arriving on the world only to come across a horse of creatures thought only to exist in books sent both the brave Thor and the young Loki running back to Frigga to go promise they would never, ever go someplace without her permission again. Loki snorted at his own memory, “A most frightening one. We did not stay long enough to become acquainted with the realm. It could be this very one, but who knows how many worlds there are with such masking mists?” Beside them both, Illidan slowly rose to his full giant height. His purple limbs stretched out and his wings flapped once as he came back to a full level of consciousness. Loki had to step aside to avoid being brushed by one of the giant wings that appeared to be nonfunctional, what with their relative size compared to his body and the holes to be found in them at various places. As if he had been listening in the entire time, Illidan looked down to Loki and spoke as if he was already a part of the conversation. “I am content with living my life here in solitude, at least for now. You have others you would return to, and one you would see leave this place with you. Let us find a way out of this place for you.” So they were going to be proactive now? That idea pleased Loki, even if the thought of crossing the unknown, dangerous realm did not. Illidan turned enough to point an arm at the nigh motionless Trixie, “You will carry your companion though. I will not be encumbered should a threat arise, and between us I daresay I am more powerful.” Loki would have hated passing off his own burden anyways, so the arrangement did little to perturb him outside of his royal upbringing that made him despise doing his own physical labor, “Fair enough.” The prince of Asgard turned and approached Trixie as the latter remained still, her only sign of life being her chest rising and falling. With some slight struggle he managed to raise her over a shoulder again, with her limp body hanging on one side as Ikol continued to perch on the other. Loki was finding himself grateful once again for how light Trixie was, who was slimmer than ponies normally were even before she was left to die on this forsaken world. A history of starvation would do that after all. On his way back to the mouth of the cave Loki passes the much heavier body of the warden. Her helmet was removed and her face seemed to either be asleep or dead, for it did not stir as Loki passed her. Still, she was bound to the ground and the Betrayer was showing no signs of releasing her before they left on their possibly long, deadly quest... As he joined Illidan at the edge of the cave, the latter now fully stretched out, Loki could not help but question what they were going to do with their hostage, “What about her?” The Betrayer gave an annoyed grunt, as if he did not really care, “Maiev knows how to fast, and as nasty as those wounds you gave her are I have seen her survive far worse. Besides, she will not perish until the Lady Death has deemed it time for her to.” Loki was not going to contradict the large demon, and if he wanted to leave the possible threat behind then he would not take issue with the matter. Just as he expected jurisdiction over Trixie, he would afford that same privilege to the satyr with his obsessive warden. The only one who seemed to actually care was in fact the one being left behind, as a weak groan came from behind the two men. “Illidan…” The Betrayer turned around to face her with a smug face, “You stay right here Maiev. I will not be gone too long,” after turning back to the foggy terrain, he began to walk off while finishing his mocking tone, “You once took a few months off from keeping me company. I could surely do without yours for some.” Loki could swear that he heard a small sob just as Illidan beckoned the prince to his side. “Come. Let us find a way for you to return home.” With that, the two men set off into the mists of the land, neither knowing where they were headed but both determined to find their vague destination. When Luna finally left the Nine Realms to return to her own, it was not with good cheer and refreshment like her other visits. She was not returning with either of the loved ones she had so desperately wished to one day come back with, and instead she just had grief as her company. While touching down in the open courtyard Trixie once practiced her magic in, Luna found herself tired from her recent adventure. It was not too often that she expended the entirety of her magical potential to make a point...this was not helped by the period of time she went entirely without the magic, which made her usage of great quantities of it feel physically exerting. She just wanted to lay down on the grass and sleep off her misery, but of course somepony had to notice her landing and disallow her any peace. “Luna!” Luna did not raise her black hooves from the grass as the day’s light began to dim above her. The voice of Twilight was not grounds to get up and stop thinking about how miserably she had failed at finding information pertaining to Loki and Trixie. “Princess Celestia, come, quick!” Luna had no idea how long it took for her sister and her sister’s student to arrive at her side, but when she hazily opened her eyes both were there. She honestly did not want to talk about what happened, and hoped they would just leave her be if she closed her eyes. “Luna…” Celestia spoke softly, her voice dripping with sorrow. To that Luna looked up again with half lidded eyes, the princess of the night sensing that her sister knew something was wrong. With Luna’s silence, Celestia lowered herself down gently to the ground before brushing her face against her sister’s. Her tone was solemn as she did so, “Discord filled me in.” Twilight could tell that something was severely wrong, though the young Alicorn had no idea as to what it possibly could be. She had learned about what happened to Trixie recently with the Ursas, but Luna had seemed at least okay after that since Trixie had survived such a terrible event… The fact that Luna was acting so solemn in addition to Trixie’s critical condition made Twilight gasp, “Did something happen? Is Trixie okay?” “A monster took my lover,” Luna turned her head away from both Celestia as well as Twilight, “and Trixie from me.” That earned another gasp from the former Unicorn, “They took Trixie? Why would they do such a thing? Don’t they know what condition she’s in?” Her response resulted in Luna burying her face in the grass while droning on in a monotone voice, “I don’t know. No-one knows. We have no idea where they have gone, and there is no trace to follow. I…” As she trailed off Celestia turned to her student, whispering softly to her, “Twilight, can we have a moment please?” “Of course.” “Thank you.” After the student had departed, with some hesitation caused by her worry for her fellow student, Celestia turned back to her hurting sister who upon further inspection had tears rushing down her face over already wet fur. The pain Luna must be feeling made Celestia’s own heart ache for her sister. If something were to happen to Luna, Twilight, or even in her own unborn foal, Celestia was unsure what she would feel or do. For Luna to have lost two of those closest to her... “I wish there was something I could do or something I could say to help your pain, but…” Celestia brought her long legs to wrap around her younger sister, her white fur meshing with Luna’s black fur, “I’m sorry. This is far outside of my power to do anything.” Luna moved her head to now bury in Celestia’s chest, “If I was there, I could have helped them. I couldn’t be there for them again, and now I don’t even know if they are dead or alive.” Celestia brought her lips to Luna’s forehead, being careful to avoid her long horn, “You must keep hope. They both would not want to see you give up.” Luna shifted herself to look at Celestia, the younger sibling’s tears welling up but not falling as she spoke with sorrow, “I’m not just grief torn. What would you do if Discord and Twilight were taken from you, possibly forever, by an impossibly strong being?” That earned a frown from Celestia, who had already been thinking along those lines. She had no answer as to what she would do, not having suffered a loss in close to a thousand years. “I see your point. Do try to reign in your emotions however. I know you are hurting, but I do not want to see you fall into that same darkness you’ve only just emerged from these past years.” Luna gave no verbal response, instead just breathing in and out as she tried to gather herself. Her eyes dripped some more tears before she shook them away and rose to her hooves. After getting up Luna announced her attention, “I...I am going to go rest.” Before Celestia could even open her mouth, Luna disappeared in a flash of black. The elder sister sighed, not bothering to rise from the ground as she instead turned her attention to the other one there. “You think she is going to be okay?” Discord asked with a small degree of concern. Celestia was not going to ask him when he arrived, for his intrusion of privacy was well known. She would know, as it was one such incident that led to the surplus weight in her lower body. Celestia sighed as Discord floated over to her, “No, I don’t. Not until this matter is resolved, and possibly even after.” Discord tried to lighten the mood with a small piece of humor, “With her being all mopey she won’t be any fun.” “You’ll help her,” it was not a question, but rather a command from Celestia. Discord scowled in return before landing and placing his hands on his hips. “No need to tell me to. I may be a fan of chaos and doing what one pleases, but what’s the fun in her being all whiney.” Celestia had a headache ever since Discord returned, but she was not sure if it was a result of the news or her recent chemical imbalances. That was one thing she was glad for Luna about, for Celestia could not begin to ponder what it would be like to face these issues while pregnant. As if Discord could read her thoughts, he gave a knowing smile to the mare with foal, “So, do you have something you want to say to me?” From her position on the ground Celestia both rolled her eyes and her body, going over to her side to show off her ever so slightly distended stomach. Too exasperated from all of these events happening and tired from working all day, Celestia could not manage much more than a monotone for her lover, “Congratulations. You’ve brought a chimera into the world. I take it you already knew.” Her current lack of enthusiasm irked Discord, who looked down at her stomach with a risen eyebrow, “Oh come on, I know you can do better than that.” Celestia brought a hoof down to the developing foal-chimera being inside of her, her eyes turning to her own stomach rather than Discord, “We should discuss the details of your involvement in its life. I know you like your freedom, but as a parent you now have responsibilities.” He was quiet a moment before sighing. “If you say so.” “Discord—” As Celestia began to speak again he snapped his fingers and vanished. Left alone now, Celestia closed her eyes as she slowly rubbed her ever growing stomach, “That could have gone better.” She had not intended to get pregnant, but it required two to vertical tango and Celestia knew she could not have picked a more dubious other half. Would he stick around? Grow bored of her? What would Discord do? That was not something Celestia could predict, and it made her fear for her child’s future. If he decided to go back to his old ways in the future, how much would that hurt their poor child’s emotional state? Celestia found that she was the one crying now. She knew she had nowhere as close to a right as her sister had, but was she disallowed to find sadness in her own life and that of her unborn child? “I know he’s no Sombra, but is it wrong to have expectations of him?” Celestia snorted as she thought about Discord actually being a father, “Your father’s a child. You’ll probably be more mature by the time you are five.” There was no response to her, not even a kick given the very early stage of the pregnancy. Still musing to herself, Celestia thought back to her poor sister who might have just lost everything. “Why must so many things that go wrong happen to our family?” She curled up in as close to a ball as her large body would allow, a part of her greatly anticipating the moment she could curl up with her foal. A day she could spend in loving peace, without the melodrama that she had grown so accustomed to in her long life. “I promise I won’t let you go through anything like what my sister and I have gone through.” Her poor foal would never have to suffer like they had. That Celestia vowed.