Two: Uphill Twenty Miles in the Snow
Two: Uphill Twenty Miles in the Snow
Loki sat glowering in the Royal Breakfast Nook of Canterlot Castle, sitting across from two... winged unicorns, or whatever they were. He supposed they were his granddaughters, and they certainly matched the descriptions of his descendants that Odin had given him, but still, it was a lot to wrap his mind around.
The two mares had interrupted him mid-rant, just as he was cursing Heimdall, Odin, and every single Aesir, living or dead. The white one had put up some sort of magical blast-resistant shield, which was smart of her. Loki had been so startled that he instinctively flew at them like a bullet, only to rebound rather painfully off of the magic shield. They introduced themselves as Princess Celestia (the white one), and Princess Luna (the blue one), and told him that they were the daughters of Sleipnir, confirming his suspicions. And wasn't that just a kick in the pants? He had grandchildren, and no one had bothered to tell him until now.
Even so, it was unnerving to think that his horse of a son had reproduced, bringing two talking winged unicorn mares into the world.
“Clearly you both can talk,” Loki said arrogantly, leaning back on his cushion at the table. “So, talk. Tell me where I am, who you are, and what I am expected to do here. I believe I am trapped here, at least for the foreseeable future. What is expected of me?”
“Well, as I tried to explain before you flew at me,” Celestia said, exasperated, “I am Princess Celestia, and this is my sister Luna. We are, apparently, your granddaughters.”
“Yes, I got that. And I already apologized for flying at you. But you did startle me, and I did not exactly realize that I even had wings. I'm not usually a horse, you know.”
That much was true. Back in Asgard, no one had told him very much about what would happen to him once he landed in Equestria. No one had told him that the place had damn unicorns and pegasi running around it, either. Sleipnir himself was, more or less, a normal horse if you discounted the extra legs. So he'd been a bit caught off-guard by the reality of what the two mares were.
“Well, as I tried to explain to you before, we are Sleipnir's daughters. That would make you our... uh... grandparent,” Celestia continued, stumbling over exactly what Loki's relationship to her and her sister was. Loki just laughed.
“If this is actually real and not some harebrained scheme invented by my brother, I would be your grandmother. However, if you prefer to think of me as your grandfather, that is fine.”
“Yes. Right,” Celestia agreed. “Father explained the basics of why you were sent to live with us, but Luna and I would like to hear it directly from you. I, at least, got the feeling that Father did not tell us the whole story.”
“No, he would not have,” Loki sighed. “He probably doesn't know everything. You have to understand that on my world, your father cannot communicate with us. Not even me, unless I take the form of a horse myself. He would have been isolated from what was going on and would only know what the Allfather told him. As the Allfather doesn't know everything, either, he would not have been able to fully inform your father. Before I begin, however, I need to, ah, make use of your facilities. I was not given the chance to do so before I was transported here, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh, of course!” Celestia exclaimed, blushing. “Please follow me, it is right over here.” While Loki was using the restroom, Luna took the opportunity of his absence to speak her mind.
“Sister, I do not think this wise. Father told us he is devious, powerful, and violent. How do we know that he is not dangerous to our subjects? He even tried to attack us at first! What answer could he possibly give that alleviates what he has done?”
“I am aware of that,” Celestia replied. “But if we are to help him regain his sanity and atone for his crimes, we must understand his side of the story. Besides, I think he was telling the truth about his 'attack' on us. He didn't look angry when he flew at me, he looked scared.”
“How do you know that wasn't a trick?” Luna pressed.
“I don't,” Celestia replied. “But I have no other choice than to take the chance.”
A little, polite cough from the doorway put an end to that conversation. Loki had returned, and made himself comfortable on the cushion once again.
“You asked me to tell you my side of the story. Very well. For most of my life I thought I had been born into the royal family of Asgard. As a child, it was a good life. I was a prince! My parents were the rulers of the realm, and I had an older brother whom I looked up to very much- he would be your great-uncle Thor, assuming Sleipnir is actually your father. Anyway, Thor was always very strong and good at fighting. Those traits are very highly prized on Asgard, and because my brother had them in abundance, he was everyone's idea of what a prince should be like. I, however, was comparatively weak next to him, and I preferred studying to fighting. As a result I became adept at magic, but that is not a well-respected talent in Asgard, at least not among princes. We are expected to be warriors, not scholars and magicians. I was shunned, cast out, made a fool of, while my brother became ever more popular and beloved. It went to his head, and by the time we were young adults, he had become very arrogant. Periodically, the Allfather falls into the Odinsleep. I do not know if your kind have anything similar I can compare it to, but essentially, he falls into a deep sleep from which he cannot be awoken, for months, sometimes years. He cannot control it, but he can tell in advance when it is coming close. He could feel that it was drawing closer, so he decided to crown my brother king to rule in his stead while he was sleeping. But I knew that if Thor became king, cataclysm would follow. The idea of my arrogant, foolhardy brother on the throne should have terrified anyone sane, but all over Asgard, people were celebrating the idea. So I staged a plan to disrupt my brother's coronation. I would be lying if I said my motives were entirely selfless, but I knew that having Thor as king would only lead to despair, and not just for me.”
Luna tried not to flinch as she heard the newly-minted alicorn stallion relate his tale. While there were definitely differences, parts of Loki's story were disturbingly familiar to her. Specifically, the bits about feeling left behind while a beloved sibling received all the adulation. She was entirely sure was she successful, however, as Loki quickly shot her a sympathetic look.
“So what did you do?” Celestia asked breathlessly, also stealing a glance at Luna. Unlike Loki's sympathy-laden gaze, however, hers held a note of caution. The alicorn stallion just smirked.
“Well, you see, at that point I did not want to harm anyone too badly. So I tricked a few of Asgard's traditional enemies, the Frost Giants, to storm the weapons vault during my brother's coronation to disrupt it. It all went according to plan, the coronation was put on hold, and Asgard was safe from my brother's idiocy for another day. Unfortunately, I had miscalculated one important thing: exactly how stupid Thor can be. That is when things started to go horribly, horribly wrong.”
Both mares were on the edge of their metaphorical seats. Luna especially could understand what her grandfather had been through, what drove him to do the things he'd done, at least what he'd told them so far.”W-what happened?” she asked, barely daring to breathe. Loki grimaced.
“I hadn't planned on my halfwit of a brother to actually lead an attack on Jotunheim- that is where the Jotnar live. Apparently the insult to him hurt his pride so much that he could not allow it to stand, so he rounded up his friends. And me,” he added as an afterthought. “He convinced Heimdall to give us all passage to Jotunheim, despite the Allfather's expressed wishes.”
“Heimdall... Father mentioned him,” Luna said. “This is the stallion that can see everything in the universe?”
“Eh... not exactly,” Loki replied. “He's not usually a stallion, and he can't see everything. But close enough. What matters is that even though the Allfather had ordered him to not allow passage for Thor and his friends. But Heimdall was embarrassed that the Jotnar had found their way into Asgard without him noticing, so he defied orders and arranged for us to go to Jotunheim. There, Thor provoked a fight and very nearly got one of his friends killed in the attack. You see, Jotnar are incredibly cold- their body temperature is close to zero degrees Kelvin.”
“What's a kelvin?” Luna whispered. Celestia just shrugged, being as unfamiliar with the term as her sister was.
“Their touch causes frostbite,” Loki continued. “The only being that can be touched by a Frost Giant and not be harmed is another Frost Giant. While Thor's friend suffered horrific frostbite when a Jotunn grabbed his arm, I was unharmed, and started to turn blue, just like a Jotunn.”
The stallion paused, looking at his hooves on the tabletop. “Finding out I was actually a Jotunn, and not Aesir, was absolutely horrifying. You have to understand- the Aesir think of the Jotnar as monsters, the kinds of beings that lurk around in the shadows waiting for you to make a wrong move. Misbehaving children are told to shape up or the Jotnar will come and get them. I am not sure if you have boogeyman stories here or not..”
“It would be like finding out we weren't actually ponies, but were hydras or cockatrices instead,” Luna said.
“Whatever those are, I am sure it would be something similar, yes,” Loki agreed before continuing on. “At the time, things were looking bad for us. I was certain that my brother's foolishness was going to get us all killed. We were going to die on this frozen hellhole of a realm, and it was going to be all Thor's fault. Maybe I'd disrupted his coronation, but at least I hadn't sent us on a suicide mission! Then, the Allfather arrived to defuse the situation and collect us. He was furious with Thor. I truly thought he was going to disown him, and I couldn't help but feel satisfaction at that. The beloved prince had royally screwed up, and finally Asgard, as well as myself, would be safe from his folly. But the Allfather did not disown him, not exactly. He sealed his powers and banished him to Midgard, with the caveat that once he learned how to behave like a proper ruler he could rerturn. Based on my brother's prior behavior, I was sure that Thor would never learn his lesson, and would remain on Midgard for the rest of his life. And as we are a very long-lived species, that would be quite a while.” Loki grinned.
“Midgard... that is the place that you tried to take over, Father told us,” Celestia said accusingly.
“Not at that point,” Loki replied. “That would be later. At that point, my main concern was with keeping Thor off the throne of Asgard. But again, I miscalculated. I did not expect my brother to fall in love with a mortal woman. He claims he reformed due to her influence,” the stallion sneered. “But that wasn’t my concern at the time. I wanted to know about why I had not been hurt when the Jotunn touched me, so I broke into the same weapons vault that was targeted during the coronation, to touch a Jotunn artifact. As I suspected, I turned into a Jotunn. That was when the Allfather found me, and I demanded to know the truth. He told me. I was not born Aesir, was the unwanted son of the Jotunn king, Laufey. Apparently I had been sickly at the time of my birth, right in the middle of a war with Asgard. That was considered an ill omen, so my father chose to let me die of exposure, hunger, and thirst by abandoning me in the temple. Before nature could take its course, however, the Allfather found me. I do not know if he intended to use me as a political bargaining chip, or if he just felt bad for the poor abandoned baby, but he picked me up, ignoring the damage that I would have done to his skin. My natural magic, however, took over and made it so I looked Aesir- it was likely instinctive, trying to protect me from the creature that found me, that was decidedly not a Jotunn. I had so many question, but after telling me the basics, he fell into the Odinsleep. And… I lost my mind. I will spare you two the gory details, but it led to Thor returning to Asgard and fighting me on the Bifrost, the way Aesir travel between realms. I attempted suicide by purposely falling off of the wreckage.”
Celestia and Luna looked at each other incredulously. They didn’t have any logical reason to disbelieve the stallion, but they didn’t have a reason to believe him, either. The whole thing sounded so absolutely incredible, in the traditional sense of the term. Neither mare thought he was outright lying, exactly, but both felt that he was leaving some rather important details out. After all, he hadn’t mentioned trying to take over the realm of Midgard.
Luna, however, had grown somewhat sympathetic to him over the course of the story, and decided to press further. “But you are still alive,” she finally said.
Loki laughed, but it was completely devoid of any joy or mirth. “Yes, I am still alive. My suicide attempt failed to kill me. Instead of falling endlessly through the void until I died of whatever would take me, I landed among a race of beings called the Chitauri. And if I had thought the Jotnar to be monstrous…” he laughed bitterly. “The Chitauri make them look like a bunch of fluffy kittens. Once I landed among the Chitauri, I really did not have a choice other than to do the things I did. I was to lead an invasion of Midgard, and lead the Chitauri to victory. If I failed… death would have been a mercy. I did, indeed, fail, but was saved from whatever the Chitauri had planned for me by bringing me back to Asgard for punishment. That is why I am here. The Allfather decided I needed to learn the virtues that your kind apparently espouse so well, as well as to meet my granddaughters in the hopes that your behavior would, what’s the phrase… rub off on me. So, now I must ask of you: are you willing to help your old grandfather?”
Luna had been moved by Loki’s tale. She, too, had been forced into committing atrocities against her will by a malevolent force. Nightmare Moon had also promised her that total annihilation would be a relief if she failed, or tried to rebel in any way. And the monster had kept her word. Luna could not think about her time as Nightmare Moon without being filled with despair and remorse for what she had done.
Celestia, on the other hand, was not as convinced. Yes, Loki had seemed honest when he told the story, but she also had the feeling that he was leaving a lot out. However, she also knew that Luna had only told her a fraction of what she had done as Nightmare Moon, as it was too painful for her. Father had indicated that Loki had committed atrocities, but so had Nightmare Moon. If Loki had been as corrupted by the Chitauri as Luna had been by the dark force that possessed her, he likely had no choice in the matter.
However, she couldn’t get over the fact that the story of what had driven the not-really-a-stallion to desperation was terribly uncomfortable in how familiar it seemed… Nightmare Moon had screamed similar grievances at her as the dark alicorn had tried to extinguish her life.
“Alright,” the Sun Alicorn decided. “We will help you, but there will be rules.”
That was almost too easy, Loki thought. Granted, he had told the truth, more or less. He’d left out some of the more… unsavory things he’d done on Earth, and he might have slightly overstated the influence the Chitauri held over him at the time. When he landed among them, he had been a crazed thing, barely sane enough to spell his own name. The Chitauri had made an offer to him, one he had readily accepted at the time. Looking back now, he knew he likely would not have survived long if he had turned down the offer. He had honestly not overstated the threat the aliens posed. They were vicious, brutal creatures who cared very little for even the lives of their own kind, let alone those of the beings whose realms they invaded.
Loki was a cold and calculating man, but he wasn’t that far gone.
A few weeks here and I will be free, the humanoid-turned-alicorn thought to himself. I just hope that the Allfather knew what he was doing…
To Be Continued
Stats
Page generated in 0.021 seconds
Total duration
603 users online
1,195,550 hits today, 2,454,720 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
3631572
Oh god, that's adorable.
Good chapter.
I have a soft spot for redemption stories but I also really like the premise of Loki being the Princesses' Grandfather(mother, whatever) but completely unaware of everything they've built & the trials they've been through.
Will he be impressed by Equestria or sympathetic towards Luna's decent into darkness, so much like his own? Probably not at first, but I hope he thaws. Just not too quickly.
3632157
Well, I have a feeling that Loki would get along relatively well with Luna, because of their similar falls to darkness, which will be shown in this story from chapter four onwards, although it will likely take some time for them to completely trust the other.
Celestia, on the other hand... well, that remains to be seen.
Thanks for reading!
Well, this is alright, except for the MASSIVE WALLS OF TEXT describing the plots of Thor and Avengers Assemble.
All I can think of in these two chapters is this25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3xravmaTi1qiiiaao1_500.jpg
It's going to be fun seeing how the Canterlot Nobility reacts to Loki. I'm especially looking forward to seeing what act of stupidity Blueblood will pull and how much he will suffer from whatever punishment Loki decides to gives him.
I'll follow this just to see Loki vs. Blueblood.
I have to agree with 3632795. The movie retelling was really too long and probably unnecessary. After all, most of the people who read this story will probably have seen the movies already. So the chapter was basically a long slog of reading stuff we already knew. Condensing that to one or a few paragraphs and then moving on to new stuff would have made a better chapter.
"Loki told them the events of the two movies, while emphasizing this bit and leaving out that detail. Luna&Celestia responded like so, then new stuff happened." Just adjust that to actually be appropriate for a work of fiction, maybe fill it out with a few extra details, and voilà. All the readers would still know perfectly well what was going on, and it would have moved along much faster.
I look forward to him meeting Discord. That would be a merry meeting.
3634272 on the contrary, The point of the scene is not infodump, but characterisation - how exactly Loki tells the story. So not only us knowing the story doesn't make the scene redundant - it wouldn't work if we didn't.
3634272
Well, my whole point in having Loki relate the events of the movies was to establish that he's not necessarily reliable when it comes to discussing what he had done in the past. I purposely emphasized the whole "finding out he's a Jotunn" thing and left out the Destroyer incident, as well as most of what he did in Earth in The Avengers.
But maybe I did go overboard and into infodump. Thank you for your feedback, however, I appreciate it. I always like to know if something I did didn't work very well, and I'll try to keep your comment in mind as I write future chapters.
3635313
That was, in fact, what I was trying to do. I guess I didn't do it very well.
3635313 I know the main point was characterization, but it is quite possible to achieve that with a much shorter passage. One author I've read who was pretty good at the technique is Robert Asprin. His Myth Adventures series was something like 15 novels long when he passed away, so in each new book he had to find ways to recap parts of the older novels without simply rewriting them.
3635512 It takes some practice. I have to admit I'm not yet very good at it either.
Don't worry about info dumping. Loki's perspective as well as his typical deviousness really comes through here. Nothing he said was a lie, just not the complete truth. And anyone who complains is just a lazy reader.
3640402
That was essentially what I was hoping to get across. I'm glad it worked for you!
You were right Hulk! Wall of words hurt eyes!
Hulk: Hulk rubs eyes now. But not what make Hulk hurt.
Huh? What do you mean, Hulk?
Hulk: Loki. Puny god. Now puny pony. But Loki good showman. Likes to tell tales.
So you like him retelling the story of the movie?
Hulk: Yes. Puny Celly and Puny Luna know nothing. Instead of making one small thing- missed chance.
A missed chance? How?
Hulk: Puny god likes to show off, good show. Author missed chance to show Luna and Celly think and fell about Loki. Each pony must have different thoughts.
Oh! So you mean, that the writer could have given the reader a better chance to understand Luna and Celestia from their own perspectives?
Hulk: Maybe. Hulk not sure, but more like chance to see writer's idea of Celly and Luna.
I think I get it now. We see the alicorns react to the story, but not understand other things, like how the alicorn sisters are now part Jotun. And Great Grandpa is king of all Gods.
so far when i read the description i had my major reservations about this story and after reading up to this point i must say im somewhat intrigued by it so... i will continue to read on and we shall see where it goes ,with the thoughts/ questions in mind such as"will they be able to truly be able to get through to Loki and positively influence him for the better" or "will he just be a total ass and shrug their help off once it's convenient for him " and also other things like will great gran daddy Odin come for a visit to his great grand daughters finally as well as friea to meat her great granddaughters? well we shall see as i continue to read on
Ok so here's my question... how would Loki not know about a Hydra or Cockatrice? (since both of those are represented in the Greek Mythos, both original and marvel) And considering how long Loki may have lived, I would think he would also know about said mythical beasts, if anything those two creatures would have existed in the Folklore of Earth, or in Asgard being taught about them in school in oh say something like their own History class... also you spelled royal wrong... In all honesty I would have thought Lokis comment to be something along the lines of. "Wait those still exist here?" But that's just me...
4583745
well i guess its because Loki, Odin, Asgard etc is of Norse mythos and not Greek
Welp. He left out the fact he planned to give the Chitauri an artifact that would allow them to conquer the universe, and made it sound as if he was bullied into taking the position of ruler of earth, but all things considered... that was surprisingly honest, for Loki
Really? If I were Loki, I'd be hoping that the Allfather had severely overestimated the alicorn rulers
Oh, I don't mind talk chapter, at all. I once read a book that was nothing but one long dialogue between a time traveller and the woman he had captured, in an attempt to ensure she wouldn't tell the world about his time meddling. It was absolutely glorious
Oh, and, you mean "dialogue"
Remarks and corrections:
> I am not sure if you have boogeyman stories here or not..
Double period at the end.
> I had so many question
Should be "questions".
> I did, indeed, fail, but was saved from whatever the Chitauri had planned for me by bringing me back to Asgard for punishment.
Comma after "had planned for me", otherwise it sounds like bringing him back to Asgard was what the Chitauri had planned for him. Also, that should not be "by bringing me back", since the subject of the sentence is "I". He didn't bring himself back. Something like "by allowing myself to be brought back" would be more correct.
4583745 Easy, he is Norse.
I think you might have meant "She was not entirely sure she was successful,...".
That should be zero kelvins. It doesn't involve degrees, it should not be capitalized, and it's a count noun, so it should be plural unless it's one kelvin. Also, while it's not entirely inaccurate to say that the heat energy is close to zero point energy, it will make any physicist cringe. Zero kelvins is infinitely cold, so you're never anywhere near it.
It will not be that easy Loki Of Asgard.
Istead of letting Loki be all: "Woe is me, Jotunn among the Aesir!" Odin should have told him about Bestla.
3631689 Returns on nightmare night dressed as a spider, so cute :3
The movies Thor and Avengers in a nutshell
Also only after I read the fanfics did I realize how similar Loki and Luna's stories are.
9601621
Same