Valhalla?

by Kumei

Everything you know, with ponies.

The large man trudged through the streets, alien still to the ponies of Ponyville, despite nearly six weeks of residence. Doors still shut as he passed, windows slammed, and a general feeling of discontent seemed to follow him. With a great sigh, Sigfrid continued his way to Sweet Apple Acres to help with the chores, for reasons fairly obvious, namely Big Mac's strained shoulder.

After about fifteen minutes, he passed the main gates on the road to the farm, and immediately began working. The sun was up, but had only been since he departed from Fluttershy's cottage not quite an hour ago. Normally he would have been at Twilight's library for his lessons, but she had become satisfied in his linguistic capabilities at least for now, and gave him a day off before she started her next topic, so he figured he'd get some extra time helping the Apples to try to get on their good side. Today was the day, he told himself, that they would at least trust him with a hand ax for self defense in the forest, he was sure of it.

---

As noon broke, nearly the entire southeastern quadrant had been harvested, due mostly to the Viking's efforts, though Big Mac refused to stand by, helpless, and even Apple Bloom tried to help. As he wiped his brow clean from sweat, he approached the old mare who had carefully watched his every move on the farm for the last month and a half.

"Miss Smith," Sigfrid began, "I mean Granny, I have something I would like... to discuss." After a moment of carefully eyeing the lumbering man, Granny Smith finally let out a breath and nodded.

"Sure, why don'tcha join us fer lunch? Ah reckon y'got an appetite a'brewin, ain'tcha? Now, Ah won't take 'no' fer an answer, Ah'll hear ye out over some grub, an' we'll just see if ye kin get what yer after." Sigfrid spent just a moment as though he were going to object, but finally nodded in resignation, and followed the three by-now familiar ponies back to the house as they broke for lunch.

The meal was awkward, and the four sat in silence that seemed only to be broken by the occasional crunch of the crisp cucumbers or the occasional slurp of water, while the tension was nearly visible between the near-bear of a man and the old pony's eyes, an unspoken conversation evidently waging between them. Finally, Granny Smith blinked with a sigh. "Go ahead, take yer little axes with ye, ain't gonna do ye much more good than a couple a heavy sticks or rocks, we had 'em dulled fer safety, but ye shouldn't be agoin' out to that forest with nothin' but yer brawn and wits. Ye'll return 'em afore sunset, I trust ye'll see to that much at least."

Sigfrid clapped his hands together, then thumped his chest heavily with a fist as he gave a slight bow. "Thank you, Granny, I'll not let you regret this decision."

---

The timberwolf snarled as the dull hand ax crashed through another layer of natural armour, skidding to a stop after it landed from it's pounce. The other three timberwolves began moving in, all of a mind to simply overrun their prey, who simply roared back, sinking into a low stance, axes nearly dragging on the tall grass.

The next wolf pounced, and Sigfrid stepped to the side to crash his ax into it's side, only to have to fall back and roll another wolf off him, as it took his apparent distraction for an opportunity. The viking rolled back to his feet, beginning to get frustrated, how was he supposed to kill them when the only opportunities they presented were covered by their pack?

After a few more minutes of the deadly dance, Sigfrid finally met a charge with a fist, following up with a devastating downward slam with his other ax, at least buying a little time with one fewer creature while it sorted out where it was again. All of the combatants by this point were fairly battered, though the huge human had proven quite resilient and had managed to at least match every blow with ferocious swings and seeming to only grow stronger with every connecting swipe.

The next wolf steeled itself and pounced, only to be met with a swift kick connecting firmly into it's snout while another crushing blow rained down upon his next would-be assailant, only to be caught off guard by a third which made a ragged gash across his arm. The man roared again, and again he renewed his ferocity as he rained heavy blows left and right, when suddenly a brown and white blur shot by, taking a timberwolf with it. Rather than question it, Sigfrid simply took it as an advantage suddenly turned unfair, as he simply began tearing the remaining wolves apart, with no apparent regard to his increasing injury count.

Snapping limbs, crushing torsos, and just plain carnage filled the final few minutes of fighting, as absolutely no attempt at mercy or other such minor niceties were afforded to the wooden monsters, their wooden pieces simply being crushed to splinters at best. Finally, no quadruped remained, save for the creature who was now approaching him, who probably was the one who swooped into the fray in a blur of brown and white, and now that he took the time to look, he noticed that it was nothing he'd seen to this point, certainly never in person.

There, practically prancing to him, was a creature with the head, wings, feathers and forefeet of a great eagle, and the body and tail of a lion or other such big cat. Finally, it spoke, revealing to be a female. "Well aren't you an interesting creature, bet you're glad I came along when I did, huh? Doesn't look like you were doing too well before then!"

Sigfrid had no idea who this Griffin was, but immediately realized that she had the mind of a warrior, one he could relate to. "No, I was doing fine, I had them all under control, but I thank you anyway, it would have taken a while longer had you not distracted them. I'm Sigfrid, and it goes without saying I don't belong here."

The griffin chuckled, looking him up and down. "Hah! As if, you'd totally have been Timberwolf chow if I didn't 'distract them,' and you know it!" She laughed a while longer, trying to brush a small patch of blood out of her feathers before continuing. "Anyway, the name's Pr- erm, I mean Gilda. Say, you seem like you've still got some fight in ya, You wanna go a round or two with me? It's been too long since I could properly blow off some steam, and I feel like you'll be much better than anypony in Ponyville, so how about it?"

Sigfrid smirked. "You're on, Gilda, if I win I get to say I totally saved you're butt from these matchsticks!"

"Hah, as if! When you lose, I'm gonna tell everypony that there was only one, and you needed my help or else you'd have been worm food!"

They both narrowed their eyes at each other, good spirits never leaving their faces, and spoke simultaneously: "Deal."

---

Rainbow Dash was flying around, practicing some simple tricks idly as the Everfree Forest passed beneath her. She was looking for somepony, well, somebody. She knew she wouldn't miss her, it's hard to miss the only griffin in the area, even from afar, and she really should've been here by now, but maybe she got lost, yeah, that's it. It's gotta be it, she doesn't come out to Ponyville often, so she may have just taken a wrong turn, or maybe she wanted to check the scenery out on her way?

Suddenly, the rainbow-trailed pegasus heard some sounds... like metal clinking off stone... a single scream, was that...?

"Gilda, hang in there! I'm coming for you!" Rainbow Dash shouted, entering a steep dive towards the forest below.

---

An ax swung wild after being knocked aside into an unearthed boulder, not that the defender came out unscathed even after the deflection. The griffon cried out, blood slowly flowing from yet another wound, though the huge man before her was hardly any better off. She was actually pretty impressed that he was still standing, with all the blood he was loosing and all the gashes he sported.

Suddenly, a shout from above, a familiar voice to both combatants, though only barely heard.

"Oh by the beak of-" Gilda began, before Sigfrid took advantage of her temporary distraction, hooking a leg in the beard of his ax and pulling her front leg wide before he swept the other leg the same direction with a powerful kick. Gilda landed on her shoulder with a [i[thud as the viking's other ax hooked the first leg once more, pulling her onto her back. He held his arm high, cold steel, wet with his own blood, glinting in the sun, as he brought it down mightily into the ground next to the griffon's head.

"Gilda, are you o- SIGFRID! GET AWAY FROM HER YOU MONSTER!" Sigfrid barely had enough time to glance to his right before a blue blur ripped him from the ground and slammed him into a tree. "WHAT! THE BUCK! IS WRONG! WITH YOU!" Every pause was accentuated with a hoof to his chest or face, when the crazed mare was interrupted.

"Dash, it's fine," A bloodied Gilda stood, panting heavily, "it was just a friendly sparring match. Say, big boy," she turned her head slightly to look at the human to wink, "Was it good for you?"

Sigfrid coughed, turning his head to avoid spewing flecks of crimson on Rainbow Dash's blue fur, before snickering his response, "Hah, you know it, I just wish you could've held out a little longer so I could have had a bit more fun!" He laughed at that, Gilda trying to hid a small blush while she stammered something about being distracted. "Say, Dash," he continued, after another coughing fit racked his body, "You mind taking me back to Ponyville? I think I should probably get some of this looked at, especially the broken ribs you probably just gave me."

This time it was Dash's turn to blush, before Gilda spoke up. "No, it's fine, you may have won but you're still worse off than I am, I'll take you there. I was on my way there anyway, just climb on my back."

Sigfrid nodded, and after Rainbow Dash finally let go of him, he strode somewhat uneasily to Gilda, and half fell onto her back as he finally let himself rest. It had been a good day, after all, even if Granny Smith was probably going to kill him when he woke up... wherever he woke up. Eyes heavy, the last thing Sigfrid heard was Gilda, softly "shh"ing him as she took off with her large wings.

Author's Note:

Hey look! I did a thing! I worded, and it doesn't seem like it's too bad, I hope you guys don't think too poorly of it, despite no proofreading and a promise of very little revision.

So, Gilda's a thing, and her part with play out just a little bit differently than it did in the series. Turns out, you throw a viking berserker into Equestria, and you start to deviate from canon just a little, mm?

Anyway, let me know what you think, what needs work, what needs explaining, and what actually needs fixing, i.e. legitimate issues with character or plot.

Take care now, my fellow bronies, and love thy something or another.