After his actions in New York, Odin sentences Loki to live with his granddaughters: Celestia and Luna!
Crossover with The Avengers
9.12.2014- Cripes, I made the featured box?! Thank you all so much!
After his actions in New York, Odin hands down his sentence for Loki's crimes. Instead of execution or being locked in the Asgardian dungeon for the rest of his natural life, Loki will instead be sent to live with his granddaughters, to learn the virtues he is so desperately lacking.
Loki didn't know he had granddaughters. He had even forgotten he had a son in the first place.
And to make things even more complicated, said granddaughters are magical pony princesses in a magical land of talking, technicolor ponies called Equestria.
Disclaimer: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is property of Hasbro. Thor is property of Marvel Comics. No profit is being made from the production and sharing of this fanfiction.
Chapter One: Judgment Day
“Bring in the prisoner!”
The Allfather's voice was loud, demanding, and brokered no hesitation. Thor couldn't help but internally wince.. He'd been on the receiving end of that fury before, and he hadn't done anything near as bad as Loki had. Whatever judgment Odin was about to hand down on the one he'd once called “son” was not going to be pleasant, and Thor knew that if it hadn't been for the intervention of his mother, Loki likely would have been executed already. Indeed, he shuddered to think what would happen to the one he'd once called “brother” after all. Death wasn't the only punishment that the ruler of Asgard could hand down on a prisoner, and many of them would be unpleasant enough that he or she would be begging for death after a few seconds of enduring it.
The great doors to the opulent throne room opened, and Thor watched the prisoner being led in, constricted with magic-binding chains and under heavy guard. Thor could hear his mother choke back a sob- even after everything he had done, it was clear that Frigga still cared very much for her adopted son. Even he, too, had a very faint hope that somewhere, underneath the raving lunacy, some semblance of the Loki he'd grown up with was still in there somewhere.
Loki, for his part, just looked incredibly bored. “Really, not that I don't enjoy these little talks... oh wait, that's right. I lied. I don't enjoy these little talks. Can you make it quick? I'd really like to return to my cell. I was counting the specks of dust, you see. I had gotten up to three thousand and twenty-two, and now I'm going to have to start all over again.”
“Loki, please,” Frigga breathed, so softly that Thor, who was standing right next to her, had to strain to hear. Loki didn't give any indication that he'd heard her, except that his eyes did flicker briefly towards the woman he'd called “mother.”
“You would do well to hold your tongue,” Odin growled. “The only reason you are still alive is because of Frigga's intervention.”
“Mmm, yes, the guards you've assigned to my cell remind me of that daily,” Loki replied lazily, as though he really couldn't care less whether he lived or died. “Personally, I don't get the fuss. I didn't do anything that bad, really.”
“You tried to take over Midgard! You killed thousands of mortals!” Thor exploded, suddenly bursting with anger towards Loki. Such nonchalance from the man who'd attempted to enslave all of humanity!
“Only because your 'friends' insisted on fighting me!” Loki retorted. “I went to Midgard as a benevolent god, to free the mortals from the current drudgery. You cannot deny I would have been a better ruler than any of the halfwits they currently have governing them. I would make sure they were fed and well cared for, I would stop drafting their children to commit atrocities, and I wouldn't force the women into sexual congress with me. That's better than half of the so-called leaders they have now!”
“We are not gods,” Odin boomed, scowling at Loki. “We are born, and we die, like the mortals.”
“Give or take a few thousand years,” Loki replied dryly.
“ENOUGH. The reason I have called you here is because I have finally decided on your punishment. Through your actions, you have shown that you are lacking in empathy, kindness, loyalty, honesty, generosity, and most of all, you lack the ability to care for anyone except for yourself. I could give examples, but I think you know what I am talking about. As such, I have decided that you will be exiled to the realm of Equestria, to live in the house of your granddaughters until such time as they decide that you have learned those traits.”
Huh. That wasn't... that bad. Loki hadn't been expecting exile. He'd honestly thought he would have been executed, or at least tossed in the dungeon until he died of old age several thousand years later. But exile? It definitely wasn't the worst thing that could happen to him.
Then, Odin's other statements caught up with his brain. Then, he parsed the announcement of who he would be living with.
His GRANDDAUGHTERS?
He chanced a look at Thor, and the expression on the larger man's face was, pardon the pun, thunderstruck. Clearly he hadn't known anything about Loki's supposed grandchildren, either. And how was that even possible? By Aesir standards, Loki was barely out of adolescence! How could he have grandchildren already? He looked back to Odin, who had a grim little smile on his face.
“Surely you have't forgotten your own son? You do remember Sleipnir, don't you?”
Ah, Equestria.
It had been several hundred years since Sleipnir had last stopped in to see his daughters in the peaceful, candy-colored land they ruled. Unfortunately, the last time he'd come for a visit, his younger daughter had been possessed by some ancient, creeping evil that had forced the elder daughter to banish her to this realm's moon. As far as he knew, she was back now, and Celestia and Luna were sharing the throne as sisters should. They may have had different mothers, but they were royol descendants of himself, the great war horse. They were meant to rule together as the avatars of Day and Night.
He would have loved to have returned to Equestria before now, but he couldn't get away from his duties as his own grandfather's war steed. In fact, the only reason he was here now was because the Allfather had requested that he visit his daughters and let them know what would be happening. Loki, the fallen prince of Asgard, and Sleipnir's own father (or to be more precise, mother) was in need of rehabilitation. Privately, Sleipnir thought that his parent was a lost cause, beyond help, but he wasn't about to disobey a direct order from the Allfather. Besides, he wasn't complaining about the chance to go to Equestria. Quite apart from seeing his daughters, he liked being able to actually demonstrate his sapience, instead of having to pretend to be a dumb beast like he did amongst most of the Aesir.
Of course, he mused, as he approached Canterlot Castle, there were downsides to not having visited in several centuries: none of the palace guards recognized him. And, truthfully, he couldn't blame them for their alarmed reaction- an eight-legged war horse (or what the inhabitants of this realm would term an “Earth pony”) approaching would have scared any intelligent being.
So he did what anypony in such a situation would do: he strode straight up to the palace guards and said clearly, “please tell Princesses Celestia and Luna that their father is here to speak to them.”
“Um... your majesty? I am sorry to interrupt your breakfast, but there seems to be a madstallion at the palace gate,” a junior member of the Royal Guard said nervously to Princess Celestia. “Ah... he has eight legs and claims to be your father. Should I have him taken to the Royal Canterlot Psychiatric Hospital?”
Celestia set her teacup down with a clatter. “Father?! No, no, please, let him in and bring him here immediately. I must wake my sister, she hasn't seen him in a millennium.”
The guard nodded nervously, trying to take in the new information. He'd never even really contemplated the Princesses having parents. They had always just... been. But nonetheless, he went to lead the crazy eight-legged stallion into the Royal Breakfast Nook.
Luna had not been pleased to be awoken. But once Celestia explained the situation, the Princess of the Night raced downstairs to see the stallion she hadn't seen since before her banishment, squealing like a foal on Hearth's Warming Day. Sleipnir stood in front of the table, grinning. “Luna! My, how you've grown since I last saw you! And Celestia! You're looking as lovely as ever. It warms an old stallion's heart, you know, to see his little fillies together again.”
“FATHER!” Luna cried, sounding exactly like an excitable filly. “Tia said she didn't know when you'd come see us again; when I was freed from Nightmare Moon she told me that it had been four hundred years since you last came to Equestria!”
“Indeed,” Sleipnir agreed. “I had not been able to get away from my duties before now. And if I'm being honest with the two of you, it is because of duty that I am here now. I must speak with the both of you in private about a family matter.”
“Here is private enough,” Celestia said, her horn flaring a gold hue as she cast a privacy ward. “What do you mean, Father? A 'family matter?'”
Sleipnir huffed. “How much do you know about where I come from?”
“Not very much,” Luna replied. “You told us once, when we were fillies, that you come from a place where ponies don't really exist, and that the dominant species walks on two legs like Diamond Dogs, and lives for many years, like us. You told us you were very important there because you allowed their ruler to ride on your back, and that it was an honor.”
“You also told us once that you were related to the two-legged leader, but you wouldn't say how,” Celestia added. “You never mentioned any of your other family,” she continued. “We both know about our mothers, but not about your family.”
The eight-legged stallion frowned. He thought he had told them more than that, but he supposed it must have slipped his mind. The Norns knew he didn't like to talk about his immediate family much. “Very well. The land I come from is called Asgard, and it is the greatest of the Nine Realms. Equestria is not part of these Nine, but it is within the sight of Heimdall, the All-Seeing. That is how I knew to come here, to meet the mares who would become my wives, and your mothers. Odin, the Allfather, is my direct superior. He has two sons, one biological, one adopted. He is also... my grandfather.” Seeing the blank looks on his daughter's faces, he continued. “His second son, Loki, has great magical ability. Loki is, well, to be blunt about it... Loki is my mother.”
“But how is that possible?!” Luna exclaimed. “You called this Loki 'he.' A stallion cannot be a mother!”
“Well, he wasn't a stallion at the time, he was a mare, and he's not usually a pony,” Sleipnir explained. “Among his many magical talents, my mother is a shapeshifter. Unfortunately, from what I understand, after my birth he became a very warped individual- something about feeling overlooked and unappreciated, then he found out he was not Aesir, but Jotunn- the Jotnar are a different kind of two-legged being. They are also the historical enemy of the Aesir. It sent him over the edge, I suppose. Recently, he tried to take over a realm called Midgard. In the process he slaughtered over a thousand of its inhabitants.”
Both Celestia and Luna looked alarmed at this news. “Why are you telling us this, Father?” Celestia finally asked.
“Because Odin Allfather is sending him to live here with the two of you. Heimdall has seen the way that Equestrian society functions, and the Allfather believes it would be beneficial for my mother. Oh, do not look so worried,” Sleipnir added, catching a glimpse of the identical distraught expressions on the faces of his daughters. “Neither you nor your subjects will come to any harm. My mother may be insane, but he is not stupid. He is aware that this will be his last chance. If he squanders it, he will not be given another one, and will likely be executed. In fact, I am fairly certain the only reason he is getting this chance is because of the intervention of his own mother, my grandmother, if you will.” He paused, and took a deep breath. “I honestly do not care that much for him. He never paid much attention to me when I was a foal. In fact, I sometimes wonder if he even realized he'd given birth to me. But he still brought me into the world, and if there is anypony who can reform him, it is my daughters. If all goes according to plan, he will be arriving here in several hours' time. I suggest you get ready.”
“Wait! Father! You cannot just do this to us!” Luna exclaimed. “You're dropping a murderous maniac of a not-stallion who can get pregnant on us, after not seeing us for four hundred years? Why?”
The stallion sighed. “Believe me, daughter, I would not do this if I had another choice. I would rather not inflict Loki on you, at least not in his current state of mind. But the Allfather's word is law. I am just his horse, I cannot go against his wishes. However, I will try to visit you within the next few weeks to check on you, as well as on him. I will see you soon.”
He hugged his daughters goodbye, then trotted out of the palace, to a field a safe distance away. A violent beam of light shone down from the heavens, enveloping the stallion and energizing him away, leaving only a complicated sigil burned into the ground.
About an hour later, that same beam of light appeared again, this time dropping an enraged alicorn stallion none-to-gently into the middle of that same sigil. The alicorn was incredibly tall, even for an alicorn, and so thin that he appeared almost spindly. His coat was a dull green color, his mane, pitch black and tightly slicked down the back of his neck His tail was much the same as his mane. On his flank was an image of a serpent eating its own tail.
“Damn you, Heimdall! Open the Bifrost! DO NOT LEAVE ME HERE! I would rather go back to the dungeon than stay here as a horse! Send me back to Asgard, kill me if you must, but DO NOT LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE OF HUMILIATION. Open the damned Bifrost, Heimdall!”
Celestia and Luna had seen the flash from the castle and had come out to meet the stallion who was their grandmother... grandfather... whatever. What they came upon was an infuriated alicorn stallion stomping around in a circle and periodically stopping to shake his hoof and swear at the sky.
The two alicorn mares looked at each other. “So, uh, any chance you want to go introduce yourself to him?” Celestia asked.
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…
It had been two days since he had been unceremoniously dumped into the realm ruled by his granddaughters, and Loki was bored. Apart from the conversation they'd had the first day, neither one of the two mares had much time to spend with him. Which was, after all, to be expected. They were running a country. Loki had very clear memories from his childhood of the Allfather being busy with with matters of statecraft, leaving very little time for either one of his sons. Of course, even then, Thor, as the oldest, would get more of their father's rare moments of freedom.
It wasn't exactly that Loki really wanted to spend time with his granddaughters, exactly, but still, some contact would have been nice. To make matters more complicated, the younger of the mares slept in the daytime, as she was the sovereign of the night (apparently). The elder, it seemed, kept more traditional hours.
And, apparently, they hadn't come to an agreement about what they were going to do about him yet, so Loki was confined to the palace. When he tried to go outside the first day, a guard apologetically stopped him. “I am sorry, Your Highness, but Princess Celestia has instructed us to keep you inside the palace until a decision has been reached.”
“A decision about what?” Loki asked curiously. He wasn't aware of any decisions that needed to be made. The guard looked remarkably uncomfortable.
“About whether or not it is safe for you to go outside, Your Highness,” he finally answered. “Princess Celestia has told us that you are... not from around here and might not know what to watch out for. Equestria might seem peaceful, but it can be a very dangerous place for the unwary.”
Loki looked at him skeptically. The guardspony was a saffron-yellow pegasus stallion with a mane the color of seafoam, about the least threatening combination of colors as could possibly be combined. From what he had seen of the ponies scurrying about the palace in various capacities, this seemed to be true of the entire species. If one kicked you, it would probably hurt, but overall, the ponies seemed very harmless. Loki knew the folly of judging an adversary purely on looks alone, but ponies as a species just didn't seem like they posed any real threat. To anyone. “Really,” was all he said. The guard just looked even more uncomfortable, if that was even possible. Loki thought that if the pony had had magic, he would have tried to sink through the floor to get away from him.
“Ah,” he said smoothly, once it dawned on him. “It is not my safety my granddaughters are worried about. It is that of all of you.” He punctuated the remark with a predatory smirk aimed at the guard.
“I... I... I wouldn't know, Your Highness,” the guard stammered in response.
Grinning much like a manticore that had found its dinner, Loki leaned in very close to the hapless guard. “What is your name, soldier?”
“S-sure Shield, sir,” the pegasus replied. The alicorn's grin just widened that much more.
“New recruit, are you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, I suppose I can say one thing for them: my granddaughters are more perceptive than I give them credit for. They were right about one thing.”
“A-and what was that, Your Highness?” the guard looked like he was ready to pass out from sheer terror.
“Oh, don't worry about that, Sure Shield. If I wanted you dead., I would have killed you ten minutes ago. You never would have seen me coming.”
Chuckling to himself as he made his way back towards his room, Loki gave the near-catatonic pegasus a jaunty wave. Not that he actually had any ill intent towards the stallion... Loki wasn't that cruel. The poor bastard was just doing his job. Loki was just so damn bored...
“I heard he tried to EAT Sure Shield!”
“Don't be stupid, Dandelion, he's the grandfather of our Princesses, not a monster. Sure Shield's an idiot, anyway, he probably just misunderstood. I bet the Royal Grandfather was just hungry and said something to Sure Shield, and Shield took it as a threat.”
“Well, I heard he propositioned Strawberry Macaroon when she tried to bring him dinner! She said he suggested disgusting things he'd like to do to her!”
“Aw, hell, Mocha, you can't honestly believe that. Macaroon's just trying to cover her flank. She probably thought she'd get to fuck an alicorn and got offended when he turned her down. And you know she'll sleep with anypony who doesn't turn her down, and a few that do. Let's see, who has she admitted to bedding in the past month alone? Warrior Ethos, Ghost Strike, Fountain Pen, Croque Monsieur, and probably a whole bunch of others. And who could forget last year, when she caused an international incident when Rosegold walked in on her and the ambassador from the Penguin Nation? I didn't even know that was possible.”
“Get your mind outta the gutter, Exhibit, Strawberry Macaroon's got not standards, but you do you really think think she'd just hop into bed with a creepy alicorn stallion who's related to the Princesses?”
“Yes!”
“And wouldn't any alicorn stallion be related to the Princesses by necessity?”
“Shaddup, you're not half as funny as you think you are.”
Word about Loki was spreading like wildfire among the palace staff. A hoof-full of maids gossiped amongst themselves as they prepared that night's dinner. They might not be the most credible of mares, but at least Exhibit A, who was working as a maid to put herself through Canterlot University's law school, seemed to be immune from Loki-hysteria. She might have been more than willing to impugn the motives of her coworkers, but at least she seemed willing to give Loki the benefit of the doubt.
Of course, those mares had no idea that they were being overheard. Princess Luna's listening spells were subtle enough that she could place them all around the palace with nopony being the wiser. She was very curious about the stallion who had arrived claiming to be her grandfather, and if the palace servants could be relied on to do anything, it was gossip like a bunch of schoolfillies.
Luna would also be lying if she said she didn’t feel a kind of kinship with the not-really-an-alicorn. If his story was to be believed, loneliness and despair had driven him to desperation, just like it had with her. Maybe Loki hadn’t fallen into the trap of fiddling around with an arcane, ancient evil that possessed him, turning him into a destructive dark spirit like she had. If his story was to be believed, he had always been a monster of some sort, although he didn’t know it, and definitely didn’t consider himself monstrous. The revelation of his true identity, that he was what he hated, had been the grain of rice that tipped the scale, so to speak. And in the aftermath of that catastrophe, he had fallen into the hands of beings that sounded much, much worse than what a normal pony could even begin to comprehend. But Luna could.
Maybe he had committed atrocities, but so had Luna, as Nightmare Moon. Father had said that Loki had killed over a thousand of whatever the dominant being on this “Midgard” was. But Nightmare Moon had mercilessly slaughtered far more than a thousand ponies, and that was without counting the members of the many other species that had incurred her wrath. If Nightmare Moon’s first plan had worked, as well, the death toll would have been near a billion- the entire population of the world at that time. If it had worked after she had been freed from the moon, she would have been responsible for the deaths of eight billion- the current world population. Maybe Loki was a murderer, but at least he hadn’t tried to annihilate every single living thing on the world he’d tried to conquer. Luna could not say the same for herself.
It wasn’t as though the sovereign of the Night could not understand her sister’s concern. But Celestia herself didn’t really have a leg to stand on, either, when it came right down to it. Equestria was at peace now, but it hadn’t always been. Before her corruption and subsequent banishment, Luna had lead troops alongside Celestia in wars against Griffindell, the Draco Archipelago, various Diamond Dog packs, Austroolia, Zebrica, and the Kingdom of Cows. As a result of that war, the Kingdom of Cows had been utterly destroyed, the refugees flooding neighboring countries, including Equestria. How many enemy combatants had Celestia slain herself? How many more had died as a result of Celestia’s orders? How many noncombatants became collateral damage?
After her return from the moon, Luna studied the history books. During her imprisonment, Celestia had gone to war against the Penguin Nation, Griffindell again, Minotauria, and one more war with the griffons. Granted, most of those wars were in self-defense, but not all of them were. Luna remembered very clearly that the war with Austroolia had begun because Celestia felt that the kangaroo king had disrespected her authority.
Even if you discounted the Nightmare Moon incidents, the two princesses had a body count of more than merely a thousand. Luna could not hold it against her grandfather- she had done worse, and not only as the corrupted alicorn she’d become after falling to Nightmare Moon.
So, she decided that she needed to talk to Celestia. It was their duty to rehabilitate the stallion. If not Celestia’s, then it was hers. Twilight Sparkle and her friends had saved her. It was time to pay it forward. If a complete monster like Luna had been could be reformed, surely a single, depressed stallion could be?
“Celestia, we need to let Grandfather go outside., and meet other ponies. It is not good for him to be kept inside all the time, and if we are even to begin reforming him, he will need interaction. Besides, he’s bored. He has taken to flustering the maids and guards, and other servants. Even if he hasn’t done anything they allege, he is proving to be enough of a distraction to them that something must be done.”
Surprised, the Day Sovereign turned to look at her sister. “Luna, it’s the middle of the day. What are you doing out of bed?”
“That doesn’t matter,” Luna replied. “I am telling you that we simply cannot leave our own grandfather cooped up in this castle all the time. I think it would be a good idea to allow him to explore Equestria.”
“I can’t,” Celestia stated flatly. “Not after what Father told us he had done. And I know he explained himself, but really, Luna, do you believe a single word of it? He felt overlooked and unappreciated, so he committed terrible atrocities, and that only because of the creatures he fell into the hooves of?”
“Yes, sister, I do believe it,” Luna said softly. She did not elaborate, nor did she need to.
“That was different, Luna. You were not in control of yourself at the time.”
“And neither was our grandfather!” the darker mare exclaimed. “Are you really so naïve that you believe I had nothing to do with Nightmare Moon? In my despair I began to play with forces I could not control, that I did not want to control. So what if it would likely have killed me if I had refused? I welcomed it, Celestia! I knew at the time the results would be cataclysmic, but I did not care! Do you think it impossible, sister, that perhaps our ancestor might share the same follies as us?”
Celestia stared openly at her younger sister. Luna never spoke of her time as Nightmare Moon, although the older mare had been trying to get her to open up about it since her return. Celestia knew that Luna’s loneliness had helped bring about Nightmare Moon, but it had never occurred to her that her sister had gone out of her way to cause it.
“But what of his attack on that other world? Where he killed thousands?”
“Celestia, neither you nor I have the right to speak of that. How many kangaroos did you kill in your attack on Austroolia? And you forget that if I had succeeded as Nightmare Moon I would have extinguished all life. But you are willing to make a fuss over beings in a completely different world.”
Celestia bristled at Luna’s accusation. “What gives you the right-“
“I have the right as somepony who has done far, far worse than whatever it was our grandfather did,” Luna shot back.
Celestia deflated at the cold tone in Luna’s voice. “I just… don’t know what do to, Luna.”
“Then let me handle matters tomorrow. You need do nothing. In fact, that would probably be best. I would quite like to get to know my grandfather. You may do as you wish, but I warn you against interfering.”
“It is not that I do not want to know him,” Celestia replied. “I just don’t know if I should.”
Luna glared at her for a few moments, then relented. It wasn’t as though she didn’t understand Celestia’s feelings, either. She had tried so hard to become a good ruler, and whatever follies she had in the past, she seemed to have made steps to rectify them. “Why don’t you think about it today? And tonight? You need not move quickly. I have gotten the impression from both Father, as well as what our grandfather has said, that he will be here for quite some time.”
The next morning, Loki awoke to a knock at the door of the room he had been assigned for the duration of his stay in Equestria. Yawning, he shuffled over to the door, expecting one of the palace servants to be bringing him breakfast, which he wasn't looking forward to. It seemed like all of the breakfast foods available in this realm were made of hay. Loki did not particularly care for hay. Half-awake, Loki opened the door, expecting to see one of the palace maids standing there with his breakfast. Instead of a maid, however, the dark blue alicorn who'd introduced herself as Luna stepped inside.
“Good morning, grandfather. I hope you slept well?”
“Ah... yes, I did. Thank you,” the alicorn-ified God of Mischief replied. “What can I do for you?” Luna looked nervously at the floor. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all?
“I was... I was wondering if you would like to go out for breakfast with me this morning,” she finally said, not looking up from her hooves. “Exhibit A informed me that you do not like hay, so maybe you'd like to be able to get something else?” she suggested nervously, hazarding a glance at Loki's expression. It looked as though it had been carved from stone. Luna's heart sank. Of course he wouldn't want to have breakfast with her, he barely knew her. And blood relation or no blood relation, nopony would want to spend time with somepony they viewed as their jailor. Luna's ears unconsciously drooped. “I apologize for bothering you, grandfather,” she said, turning to leave. “I will have one of the maids bring you a hay-free breakfast.”
“Wait.” Loki's voice stopped her. “I would love to. But your sister said I was to be confined to the palace.”
“I am also a princess of Equestria,” Luna replied. “As long as you are with me, it will be fine. And I know that if I was in your horseshoes I would want to go out. When I was trapped on the moon I spent the first century or so desperate for a donut.”
Loki's next question died on his lips as Luna's words registered. “You were imprisoned on this realm's moon?” Even by Aesir standards, that was harsh. What could this harmless-looking, and frankly cute, mare possibly have done that warranted such treatment? And how had she survived? Being trapped on the moon should have been fatal, from what Loki knew of Asgard's moon, at least. Luna just smiled bitterly, recognizing the stallion's question.
“You told Celestia and me what you did to end up here in Equestria. Let's just say that you are not the only pony to have ever felt ignored in favor of your sibling.”
Loki was absolutely appalled. If he was understanding Luna's implications properly, then it would have been the sibling that she felt overlooked by who'd done such a thing. And as far as he knew, he only had two grandchildren, so that would make Celestia the one who'd trapped Luna on the moon. Even Thor hadn't done anything so absolutely barbaric as that to him, although he'd come close on occasion. “Celestia trapped you on the moon?! What kind of daughters did my son raise?! Even the Aesir wouldn't do that, and believe me, they do not hesitate to hand out brutal punishment!”
“Oh no, it wasn't like that,” Luna replied, eyes widening. “I deserved it.”
“You deserved to be condemned to a slow and painful death on a floating space rock? In Asgard, there is the death penalty, but at least they carry it out quickly and efficiently!”
“No, you don't understand,” Luna replied. “I control Equestria's moon. Being sealed in the moon would not hurt me, it just got me out of the way until I was no longer a threat..”
“Forgive me for saying so, granddaughter, but you do not look like much of a threat,” Loki said skeptically. Luna let out a bitter little laugh.
“You did not see me then. You spoke of being controlled by an outside force- those Chee-tarry things. Because I was jealous of my sister, I made a bargain that in the end would have destroyed every living thing in Equestria. You said you killed around a thousand? I would have killed a billion. In order to stop that, Celestia sealed me in the moon until such a time when I could be extracted from the force I had entangled myself with.”
“I... see,” Loki said. For the first time since this whole debacle began, he started to wish he had known about his granddaughters before this. While his intervention probably wouldn't have made much of a difference, Loki still wondered if things might have ended differently for the both of them. He and Luna were both were younger siblings, both overshadowed by the elder... technically they were ancestor and descendant, but maybe they could have been friends. Maybe they each could have helped prevent the other's fall to darkness. Maybe. “In that case, I would love to have breakfast with you. There is just one problem- as I understand it, you and I both are 'alicorns,' I think the term is. I am told there are only four ponies in existence that are alicorns, and all are royalty. Wouldn't this make us too conspicuous? In Asgard, the royal family would not go out among the commoners, at least, not without being in disguise.”
Luna grinned. “Who said anything about not going out in disguise?” Her horn glowed briefly, and the mare’s body shimmered with a pearlescent blue light. When the light died away, a lighter blue, somewhat shorter mare was standing there. It took Loki a little longer to realize that she no longer seemed to have wings. She was now a normal, wingless unicorn. “Wings are easier to hide with magic than horns are,” Luna explained. “All you have to do is a simple disguise spell.”
Loki suddenly looked embarrassed. “Ah… while if I was in my usual body a disguise spell would be quite easy, I seem to be unable to control my magic in this form. It would probably just blow something up. I haven’t had this much trouble with magic since I was a child.”
“Really? Father said you were quite talented with magic.”
“He is correct,” Loki replied rather arrogantly. “Unfortunately, I do not understand how to control it in this form. I do not understand what I am doing wrong.”
“Are you sending the power to your horn?” Luna asked curiously. She had never heard of a unicorn, much less an alicorn, who had difficulty channeling their magic. Plenty had difficulty actually casting it properly, but sending it in the direction it needed to go should be second nature. Loki looked startled. “My… horn?”
“Yes, your horn. That is how unicorns, as well as alicorns like us cast magic,” Luna explained. “I suppose you do not normally have a horn?”
“That is correct,” Loki replied. “So if I channel my magic to my horn, I should be able to use it?”
“Yes,” Luna answered.
“Let’s try this, then,” Loki said. “How exactly did you cast your spell? In my normal form, a disguise spell would be cast by the caster thinking about what they wanted the disguise to look like, then letting their magic alter their form until they looked the way they wished to.”
“That is… essentially what I did,” Luna replied. “Do you want to try?”
“If I would like breakfast I suppose I will have to,” Loki said. The alicorn stallion closed his eyes, and focused the magic he could feel inside of him, mentally “poking” it along until it reached his horn. Oddly, the bony appendage felt warm and tingly, something Loki hadn’t been expecting. It felt different from the way his magic usually did; instead of feeling cold to the “touch” and vaguely slimy, this felt warm, tingly, and almost “fluffy,” if such a term could be used to describe something intangible. The stallion focused on what he wanted his glamour to look like, focused his magic more intently, and… promptly rocketed backwards across the room, propelled by the magical discharge from his horn. Loki slammed violently into the bookshelf, collapsing in a heap at the bottom as books rained down on his head. Swearing, he staggered to his feet. Luna rushed forward to help him.
“Oh my goodness, are you alright?” she cried, extending out a hoof to help her grandfather up. Loki glowered, warring internally as to whether or not to snap at the mare to get out of his sight to salvage his wounded pride, or to accept the hoof offered. He was about to accept the hoof when a book bounced off his head, his eyes going cross-eyed from the impact.
“LEAVE ME!” he shouted. Luna drew back, as though she had been burned. Loki grimaced; that came out a lot more hostile than he’d intended. “I apologize. I meant no offense to you, but given this turn of events… it is best that you leave me. I will stay in the castle today. Perhaps we can get this breakfast another time, when there is less of a chance that I will… have an accident. Now, go, I am sure you have other duties to attend to.”
“Y-yes, of course,” Luna stammered, trying to hide exactly how hurt she felt. Not that she had really expected much, since Loki didn’t seem too pleased to be here in the first place. Still, he had tried to do something nice and had been rebuffed. “I apologize for having intruded.”
Walking back to her own rooms to get some sleep, Luna could have kicked herself. Stupid, she thought. There is a reason you do not instruct anypony in magic, you always buck it up! Would you have gotten it right if someone tried to teach you to use magic that way?
As she was preparing to go to bed for the day, however, another thought occurred to Luna. Maybe she wasn’t the right pony to try to teach Loki how to use alicorn magic, but there was somepony else would would be. Somepony else who had to adjust to alicorn magic after a lifetime of using a different kind of magic. Granted, unicorn magic was essentially the same as alicorn magic, except that the latter was far stronger. But when Twilight Sparkle became a princess, she had to learn how to control magical power that had suddenly increased exponentially from an already very high level. If there was anypony that would be able to explain how to use alicorn magic to Loki, it would be Equestria’s newest princess.
Practically hopping out of bed, Luna rushed over to her desk. Levitating a pen in her telekinesis, she quickly wrote a letter to Twilight.
Twilight Sparkle:
I need your help with a top-secret project relating to Equestria’s national security. Aside from myself, you are the only pony so far to know about what I am calling Project Grandfather- even Celestia does not know about this as of yet, and it is absolutely imperative that you do not tell her, nor tell any of your friends. If all goes well, we will be able to tell them eventually , once the project is completed successfully.
Luna giggled softly to herself as she wrote the paragraph. This was super exciting! Just like one of those books about spies she liked to read sometimes, or a movie. Although she really wasn’t kidding about Twilight needing to keep it a secret, even from Celestia. Somehow the younger alicorn thought that the elder wouldn’t approve. Not that it was going to stop Luna.
Once again, I reiterate that you must not tell anypony, especially my sister. If it is convenient for you, please have Spike send me a reply to this message, and if it is, I will meet with you in Ponyville tomorrow at 4:00 PM. We have much to discuss.
Laughing at how daring and spy-like it sounded, Luna closed the letter with one final thing:
Remember, this is a matter of national security. Your discretion is of the utmost importance.
Sincerely, Princess Luna
Sending a burst of magic at the letter and watching it burst into flames, Luna smiled. As she got ready for bed, she felt reassured. Twilight would be able to help, and Loki would be able to learn to use his magic under the tutelage of another who hadn’t always been an alicorn.
Spike was extremely excited. He had finally scrounged up enough gems (and avoided eating them long enough!) to make the gem cake of his dreams. And it was finally done! Layers and layers of succulent gemstones embedded in moist vanilla cake, all topped with a luscious buttercream frosting that Pinkie Pie had helped him make. And he was certainly ready to chow down!
All of a sudden, however, he got the familiar nauseous feeling that meant a letter from one of the princesses was on its way. He turned away from his beautiful cake just in time, as he couldn’t hold it back anymore. With an almighty belch, Spike coughed up the letter. “TWILIGHT!” he hollered. “YOU HAVE A LETTER!”
“There’s no need to shout, Spike, I’m right here,” Twilight said, exasperated.
“Oh. Hehehe… right.”
“I got a letter?” the purple alicorn asked. Spike nodded, handing the scroll over to Twilight, who took it in her telekinesis and began to read it. Her eyes widened. “Spike, I need you to take a letter and send it to Princess Luna immediately. Tell her I accept and will see her tomorrow afternoon.” Spike did so, and sent it off.
“Can I eat my cake now?” he asked.
“Of course,” Twilight replied. “Just make sure you clean up when you’re done, alright?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Spike said, barely listening. He’d already turned his attention back to the decadent dessert that awaited him.
Twilight stepped out of the kitchen, lost in thought. Luna needed her help! And it was apparently so important and secret that she couldn’t tell Princess Celestia about it.
All of a sudden, the purple mare’s blood ran cold. No… it couldn’t be, could it? Luna had a secret project that Celestia couldn’t know about? What if it meant that Princess Luna was going over to the dark side again? What if the project Luna needed help with was the resurrection of Nightmare Moon? She should let Celestia know immediately!
But then another thought came to her, one that chilled her more than the idea of Nightmare Moon returning. Princess Luna had said it was a matter of national security. What if there was a threat to Princess Celestia, one that would be even worse if she found out about it?
“SPIKE!” Twilight called. “When you’re done with your cake I need your help- can you find me some books on stopping treasonous plots?!”
Once Luna received the response from Twilight stating that the purple mare would be glad to play hostess to Luna, she was able to sleep easily that day, waking up in time to raise the moon. She bounced around the castle on the way to do her duty, so full of nervous energy that everypony noticed- including Celestia. “Sister, are you well? You seem to be shaking. Do you have a fever? Should I alert a doctor?” Luna shook her head.
“No, I am fine. Just a little excited, I guess. I wa s reading the latest Daring Doo book. Twilight Sparkle recommended it to me, and I just got to a very exciting part. I didn't want to put it down, but I have to raise the moon. I cannot wait to get back to it!”
“Really?” Celestia asked. Something seemed off about that, but she wasn't sure what. Luna liked Daring Doo books? She hadn't realized that. But Celestia was beginning to realize that she did not know a lot about her sister, especially since she'd returned from the moon. Luna had been an enigma back then, and she was still an enigma. But perhaps Luna really was a Daring Doo fanfilly, and was just anxious to get back to her book.
“Oh yes, I'm just at the part where Daring Doo is trapped in Ahuizotl's fortress and she is filling the chamber full of pirhanas up with water so that they will be able to eat her. It is dreadfully exciting.”
“Ah,” Celestia replied noncommittally. It shamed her somewhat to admit it, but Celestia did not particularly care for the Daring Doo books. Unlike the majority of the series' readers, Celestia knew that the stories were not, in fact, fiction, and that she found Daring Doo herself to be utterly unpleasant and intolerable to be around for any length of time. Of course, being the ruler of Equestria, she couldn't exactly vocalize those thoughts about one of her subjects, so to keep herself in check, she avoided any and all discussion of one Ms. Doo. “Well, in that case, I bid you goodnight, sister.”
“Have a restful sleep,” Luna replied, anxious to get her sister out of her mane so that she could move on to more important business... that business being a certain recently transplanted relative. Celestia lowered the sun, Luna raised the moon to take its place.
One change that Luna and Celestia had agreed to make upon the former's return from her lunar exile was that Night Court would only be held once a week, as there was less demand for it. In the past, Luna would have resented that, seeing it as an affront to her abilities in statecraft. Now, however, she saw it for what it was, really- a more efficient use of her time. Without having to sit around on a throne the whole night waiting for maybe one or two ponies to come request an audience with her (on a busy night), she was able to turn her attention to more pressing matters. Like catching up on the history she had missed, or going over the laws passed in her absence, or any number of things infinitely more interesting than just sitting around all night.
Of course, tonight she had en even more important task than usual. Tonight she would be informing a certain relative of her plans for his education in alicorn magic. Once Luna was certain that her sister had actually retired for the night, she headed down to the area of the castle where Loki was staying.
The alicorn stallion was, for his part, sitting in his room, fuming. Ever since that morning’s humiliating magic episode, he had spent the entire day attempting magic in this form. He could not understand what he was doing wrong- no matter what he tried, he was incapable of performing magic in this form. Briefly, he wondered if Odin had done something to block his powers, but he dismissed that thought. He could still feel his innate, natural magic inside of him, although it did feel different than normal. If he was forced to describe it, he would have to say that it felt less… malignant than usual. Which was disconcerting, but less disconcerting than the fact that he couldn’t use it, even for innocuous things. It was a disgrace! He’d never had this much trouble with magic, even when he’d been a child and still learning. Certainly there had been a few cases where he had blown things up, and a memorable incident where he’d turned a pair of trousers homicidal while trying to do a laundry spell, but at least something had happened in those cases!
Lost in his thoughts, he almost didn’t hear the hesitant, gentle knocking on his door. Once it registered, however, he called out: “come in!”
For the second time that day, his younger granddaughter entered the room. “What do you want?” Loki sighed, really hoping that she wasn’t here to pester him about magic again.
Luna was slightly taken aback by Loki’s dour demeanor, enough so that for a moment, she considered scrapping her plan and apologizing for intruding. But she gathered up her courage to address the stallion. She didn’t know how long he was going to be in Equestria, and if he was going to be here for any length of time, he was going to need to be able to use his natural alicorn magic. And it wasn’t like she could send him to Magic Kindergarten… something needed to be done. “Are you still having difficulty with your magic?” Luna asked. Loki glowered at her.
“I do not see how that matters.”
“As you are an alicorn, magic is innate to you,” Luna replied, trying not to bristle at Loki’s combativeness. “If you do not use it periodically… well, I don’t really know what would happen, but it would likely be hazardous to your health. When I was… away, I tried to go for a while without using my magic, because there really wasn’t a reason to on the moon. By the third day, I was quite ill, and on the fifth day, my magical backup violently discharged itself from me- that’s where the biggest crater comes from.” It wasn’t a lie, not exactly. Luna did have a magical backup, and it did discharge itself so violently that it created an enormous crater, but the magic that had made her so ill wasn’t her natural magical baseline, but the corrupt energy from Nightmare Moon.
The explanation made sense to Loki, but he wasn’t happy about it. “If that is the case, it seems that I will die, now doesn’t it? I cannot do it, and I certainly will not be taught magic by my own grandchild.” The very idea was humiliating. If anything, he should be the one teaching her. But Luna shook her head.
“I understand that you are not comfortable with me teaching you. But I will not allow you to not learn to control your magic here. There is somepony else, somepony else who was not born as an alicorn either, who had to learn to control their power the same way you will have to. There are obvious differences between you and her- though she wasn’t born an alicorn she was always a pony. But like you, she had to deal with a sudden, drastic change in her magic. I have already written to her. She is expecting us tomorrow at 4:00 in the afternoon.”
“And if I refuse?”
“I can always order the guards to bring you with me,” Luna threatened. “You may be my grandfather and my elder, but I am still a princess of Equestria. I have been charged with seeing to your welfare while you are here. And you, despite all of the power you are said to have, cannot access it yet. I do apologize, grandfather, but if I do not have another choice, I will use everything at my disposal to see to your well-being.” Luna wasn’t entirely sure why she was acting so antagonistic. Her whole point in doing this was to help Loki, not piss him off. But he seemed so resistant to everything she tried, and she didn’t understand why. She thought they had gotten off to a good start. So why the sudden change?
Loki was surprised at Luna’s behavior. Of his two granddaughters, he had to admit he preferred the younger one. But he still wasn’t sure what to make of the situation, and after discovering that he couldn’t use magic, he was suspicious. He didn’t think the Allfather had done anything to his powers, but what if Celestia or Luna had? But if they had, would Luna be offering to help him? Or maybe Celestia had done something without Luna’s knowledge, or she had known and didn’t approve?
Family politics had always given Loki a headache.
“Who is this, that you will be taking me to see?” he asked, shelving those thoughts for the time being. Luna smiled, pleased that he was accepting the idea.
“Her name is Twilight Sparkle,” the mare replied.
“And you think she will be able to help me.”
“I think so,” Luna replied. “She wasn’t always an alicorn either, so maybe she will have some insights into your problem.”
“Very well,” Loki stated. “I will go with you.”
“Good,” Luna stated flatly. Then she added- “it is best if you speak of this to nopony. Celestia especially. She does not know of this, and I intend to keep it that way.”
That, Loki could understand perfectly. He’d kept many a plan secret from Thor in his lifetime. And if his suspicion was correct, and Luna was trying to help him through whatever limitations Celestia had placed on his powers, it was only logical. “Understood.”
“Meet me in the palace courtyard at 3:30 in the afternoon,” Luna ordered. “We will fly to where we are going. From what I have seen you do not have difficulty with flying, and if we were to take a royal carriage we would attract attention that we would not want.”
Loki hadn’t actually flown on purpose since he came to Equestria. Sure, he’d flown at both Luna and Celestia when they scared him, but that was more instinct that anything else, a primal part of his brain reacting to a perceived threat. But he had at least done it, which was more than he could say for his magic.
“Fine,” he said. Then, something else occurred to him: “Don’t you sleep during the daytime?”
“Technically I do not need to sleep at all,” Luna replied. “But yes, when I do choose to sleep, I do so in the daytime, so that I can perform my duties as the regent of the night.”
“I… see,” Loki replied. He’d never heard of any being that did not require sleep before. Luna grimaced.
“To be fair, I do get grouchy if I go for a week without sleep, but one day will not harm me. I will see you in the afternoon, grandfather.”
Around 3:30 the next afternoon, Loki stood in the palace garden, out of sight of any Royal Guard members. This was on purpose, as Luna had told him to be discreet about it, but also because he was interested in the plants and animals in this part of the garden. None of these plants or creatures existed on Asgard, or if they did, he’d never heard of them, and he hadn’t spent enough time on Midgard to know much about such things on that realm. He was examining a very strange hopping creature that seemed terrified of him, always hopping further and further away. Just as he was getting ready to go chase after the strange thing, he heard a soft rustle of wings behind him. He turned, to find Luna standing there.
“It is called a wallaroo,” she said, “and trying to get any closer to it is futile. They are not very friendly.”
“What is it doing in your garden?” Loki asked. Back in Asgard, critters weren’t generally allowed on the grounds of the royal palace, with several exceptions- the Allfather’s ravens, Huginn and Muninn, could often be seen flying about, and his mother’s pet cat was allowed run of the palace. Luna shrugged.
“Celestia thinks they’re funny,” she said. “Personally, I think they’re a nuisance, and a reminder of one of the worst things I did before I became Nightmare Moon.”
Loki didn’t press, although he was very curious as to what she meant by that.
“Are you ready to go?” the mare asked. “Since you don’t know the way, you will fly behind me. When we arrive, you will need to wait outside for a few minutes while I fully explain the situation to Twilight Sparkle. I did not do so in the letter I sent her, and she can be… somewhat high-strung. It would be best if I clear up any misconceptions she might have before she meets you.”
Loki wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that, but he could accept when he didn’t have much choice in the matter. “Very well.”
“Please, follow me. By flight it does not take long to get to where we are going.” The alicorn mare spread her wings and took off. Loki followed suit. It was a bit bumpy at first, being only the second time he’d flown since becoming a horse-thing, and the first time he’d done so on purpose. But, fortunately, he did not seem to have the same problems controlling his powerful wings as he did with his magic. Soon, he too was airborne, following his granddaughter/
Luna was right- by flight, it only took about half an hour to reach their destination- a small town a little ways south of Canterlot. The place Luna and he finally touched down at appeared to be a tree- a tree with windows.
“Please wait here,” Luna instructed. “I need to debrief Twilight on the situation, and I don’t want her to panic.”
And with that, the alicorn mare marched right up to the door in the tree, and knocked on it.
Loki watched as Luna knocked on the door to the tree-house. The door swung open, but Loki could not see through Luna's body. Whoever, or whatever, had opened the door was small enough to be obscured completely by the great mare's body. He caught a few snatches of conversation, but not really enough to make sense of what was going on. Then, Luna disappeared inside the house, leaving him all alone.
Feeling rather foolish, Loki sat down on the ground, trying to ignore how undignified it was. He had to remember that he was no longer a prince in Asgard- what would have been considered humiliatingly common back there did not apply here, and certainly, no one was about to bring him a gilded chair so that he could sit comfortably.
A few moments later, however, he noticed three different ponies, ones he'd never seen before, walking towards him. At first, given their small size, he wondered if they were dwarf versions of the ponies, but he quickly realized they were foals. There was a little yellow one, a normal pony, if a bright yellow miniature horse could be considered “normal,” a small orange pegasus, and what at first he thought was a brown unicorn. Once they got a bit closer, though, he realized that the “brown” foal was actually covered in mud and limping. The other two were trying to support her.
“Ah cain't believe Diamond Tiara actually did that!” the yellow one ranted, her voice tinged by an accent Loki had never heard before. “T'aint right! She could have really hurt you! I cain't believe she actually went that far!”
“Well, I knew it was only a matter of time,” the orange one huffed. “She's been getting worse lately. I just can't believe she really did it. But don't feel bad, Sweetie- she's just too much of a scaredy-pony to do something like that to somepony who might actually fight her back! You notice she's never done anything like that to Snips or Snails, right?”
“Come on,” the muddy unicorn said dejectedly. “I just want to go home and have a bath, to get the mud off. Rarity is going to kill me if she finds me like this.”
“Sweetie Belle, Ah don't think that's a good idea,” the yellow one interrupted. “You need ta go to the doctor! Ah think you sprained your ankle.”
“Guys, look!” the orange pegasus interjected, pointing a hoof straight ahead at Loki. “That guy's an alicorn! Maybe he can help!”
Loki stiffened in surprise as the three fillies approached him. They were moving carefully, but not as though they were afraid of him. They were moving slowly so that their injured friend could keep pace with them.
“Can I help you?” he asked when they reached him, more curious than anything else. The three fillies had come to him without fear, with full confidence that he was harmless. No one in Asgard would have done that. Really wanting to know what was going on, he stood up.
The little orange pegasus filly seemed to be the leader of the group. She stood up to her full height (which wasn't really very much) and introduced herself. “I'm Scootaloo, and these are my friends Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle fell and got hurt, we think she twisted her hoof. Can you help us, Mr. Alicorn?”
“How are you an alicorn, anyway?” the yellow filly, the one apparently called Apple Bloom asked. “Ah thought there were only four alicorns.”
“Apple Bloom! Don't be rude!” the muddy Sweetie Belle admonished.
Loki chuckled. Back in Asgard, none of the children would have been brave enough to approach the creepy, traitorous younger prince, much less speak to him so disrespectfully. Loki found it to be a nice change, even if it was rather jarring to be addressed so presumptuously. He decided he liked the foals.
“My name is Loki. I am the grandfather of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,” he answered. Apple Bloom eyed him suspiciously.
“You don't look old enough to be nopony's granddaddy,” she accused.
“He's an alicorn!” Scootaloo retorted for him. “Aside from Twilight, how many alicorns do you know that aren't part of the Royal Family? And Princess Celestia is, like, a million billion years old but she looks younger than your grandma.”
“Yeah, Ah guess you're right,” Apple Bloom conceded.
With that out of the way, Loki turned back to the problem at hand. “Why are you so muddy? Did you fall and hurt yourself?” he asked Sweetie Belle.
“Um... I guess,” the muddy filly answered. Loki didn't have to be the God of Lies to realize that she wasn't telling the truth. Clearly, her friends realized it too, since they both turned to her in exasperation.
“Sweetie, ya can't lie to an alicorn!” Apple Bloom reprimanded.
“Yeah! He'll lock you in a dungeon or something!” Scootaloo added. Sweetie Belle sighed. She didn't want to admit the embarrassing truth of what happened to some random pony she'd just met, let alone an alicorn who claimed to be the Princesses' grandfather!
“D-diamond Tiara was teasing us about not having cutie marks yet,” Sweetie explained hesitantly. “When I tried to leave, she tripped me and I fell in the mud. I landed strangely on my hoof, and I think I might have sprained it.”
Loki frowned. This Diamond Tiara sounded unpleasantly reminiscent of some of Thor's brutish friends, especially that Sif woman who constantly hung around him. Running into a ponified version of Sif was not something particularly high on his priority list, but he supposed it couldn't be helped. Besides, Sweetie Belle had said something else that caught his attention. “She was mocking you for not having a cutie mark? What is a cutie mark, and why is it so important?”
Once again, the three fillies looked suspiciously at him. “How do you not know what a cutie mark is? You're an adult! And an alicorn!” Scootaloo looked offended at the very idea. “You even have yours! It's... uh...” the filly's voice trailed off as she got a good look at the stallion's mark. The snake eating its own tail seemed to unnerve her, but she gathered up her courage. “You know, it's the mark you get when you discover your special talent. All adult ponies have it.”
“Ah,” Loki nodded in understanding. He had been wondering what the picture on his ass was. “Now I know what you mean- I have always called it something different.” There was no need to tell them that he'd had it for all of two days and called it “that weird picture on my ass” for those two days. “And why is it considered so shameful to not have a cutie mark?”
Again, the fillies looked at him incredulously. “Because not having your cutie mark means you don't have a special talent,” Sweetie Belle finally answered. But Loki shook his head.
“Just because you do not have this cutie mark does not mean you do not have any talents. And to me, at least, it seems like fixating on this one thing would be detrimental to your well-being. Let me tell the three of you a story. I have an older brother who is very skilled in battle. From the time both of us were very small, he was told what a great warrior he was, what a brilliant battle strategist he would become as an adult, and how he would bring endless glories to our homeland. It made him arrogant, and it made him stupid. Now the only thing he knows how to do with any competence whatsoever is hit things with his hammer. And it is all because he believed that useless crap about his 'special talent' being battle.” The alicorn stallion looked sternly at the fillies. “I am sure that the three of you are exponentially more intelligent than my brother. Do not be in such a hurry to find this special talent of yours. It will come in due time.”
“But it's not fair!” Sweetie Belle burst out, tears welling up in her eyes. “Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon always make fun us, and they pushed me in the mud! And they'll just do it again tomorrow, and my ankle hurts!”
Loki's frown deepened. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were reminding him more and more of the more unpleasant and ignorant members of Aesir society. He was beginning to like the three fillies as well- it was refreshing that they willingly approached him and talked to him so easily. For the first time in a long while, he actually felt the beginnings of an emotion other than apathy, rage, or despair stirring within his heart. It took him a while longer to realize that the feeling was, in fact, compassion.
He remembered a spell taught to him as a boy, by the woman he'd called “mother.” It was a spell to heal minor injuries, and she had taught it to him after a particularly vicious dust-up between himself and Thor's friends. It was a long shot, especially considering how wonky his magic had been over the past couple of days, but he felt compelled to try. “Hold still, little one,” Loki ordered. Sweetie Belle complied, and Loki's horn began to glow with a soft green light. The mud immediately dropped off of Sweetie's body, and the glow concentrated around her hoof before dying away. Tentatively, she flexed it, and upon discovering that it was no longer hurting her, Sweetie cried out happily, nearly tackling Loki in her excitement to hug him. Startled, Loki almost drew back, but stopped himself at the last second, allowing the filly to cuddle him. It was almost... nice.
“Thank you, Mr. Loki! It doesn't hurt anymore!” she said happily. Loki smiled- not his usual cold rictus, but a genuine grin.
“I'm just glad it worked,” he said. Then, he turned again to all three of them. “Now, why don't you show me where I can find this Diamond Tiara? I think I need to have... words with her.”
“So you see,” Luna finished her explanation of the situation to Twilight. “I am not sure why his powers do not work here in Equestria, but I think it may have something to do with the fact that he wasn't always an alicorn. I was hoping you might have some insight on that, or at least be able to help him learn to control his powers.”
“But Princess!” Twilight protested. “I was always a pony! Your... grandfather... you said he's not usually a pony at all, never mind an alicorn! I don't know very much about the magic of other species on this world, let alone those from other worlds! And what you described his usual form as... I've never heard of anything like it, unless you count those 'human' things Lyra Heartstrings is obsessed with!”
“I am surprised at you, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said, a touche of disapproval in her voice. “I have never known you to turn down an intellectual challenge, and more than that, I have never known you to turn down somepony who needs help. It is quite unlike you.”
Twilight looked as though she had been slapped. “That's not it at all, Princess!” she exclaimed. “I just have no idea where to start. What do I do? I barely know anything about this stallion, let alone what the problem is! I just don't think I would be able to be of any help to him.”
Luna sighed. She should have foreseen this, given Twilight's perfectionist streak. “I know the prospect is daunting. But there is nopony else I can ask. Grandfather does not trust me, and he trusts Celestia even less. Worse, I think he actively dislikes her. But you, Twilight Sparkle, are a blank slate, as it were. You have the advantage of not having always been an alicorn, and the fact that Grandfather is not familiar with you. If it turns out that you cannot help, nopony will think any less of you.”
“He might,” Twilight replied stubbornly. Luna shrugged.
“Possibly. But he was just as skeptical as you are, so I doubt it.”
Twilight was silent for a few moments, then stomped her hoof and tossed her head decisively. “Alright. Fine. I will do what I can.”
“Excellent!” Luna clapped her hooves. “He's right outside. I had him wait there while I spoke with you, so as not to overwhelm you. Grandfather, there's somepony I would like you to meet,” she called out as she opened the door. “This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, who I told you about? She might be able to... help... you...” the night alicorn's voice trailed off as she realized that the area outside of Twilight's residence was devoid of a certain alicorn stallion.
“Um, Princess?” Twilight offered hesitantly. “I... don't think he is here.”
“And I just don't know what we did to make Diamond Tiara hate us so much,” Sweetie Belle complained. “I mean, I barely ever spoke to her before she got her cutie mark, and then when she did she just kept going after us!”
“Ah've known her for a long time, because her daddy does business with mah family,” Apple Bloom added. “Mr. Rich is a nice stallion but Diamond Tiara has always been super mean. She just got worse after she got her cutie mark.”
“Sometimes, you cannot understand what motivates someone to behave the way they do,” Loki answered. “And it never worth your energy to attempt to figure it out, either. Perhaps it is simply easier to say that they are not worth engaging with.”
“That seems... kind of mean,” Sweetie Belle said nervously. “I thought we were supposed to try to share the magic of friendship with everypony?”
The magic of friendship? Loki thought to himself sarcastically. What in the Nine are these girls learning?! Instead of giving voice to that thought, however, he just said, “not everyone deserves the 'magic of friendship.'”
“How can you say that?!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “Everypony deserves to have friends!”
“And it sounds like this Diamond Tiara does have friends,” Loki explained patiently. “What I am saying is that you, specifically, do not have to go out of your way to try to befriend her. Do you remember how I told you about my older brother?”
“The one that smashes everything?” Scootaloo asked eagerly. Loki chuckled.
“Yes,the one that smashes everything. Well, at one point I had great respect for my brother, even though he was a complete dunderhead most of the time, with occasional moments of brilliance. But that did not mean my respect for Thor extended to his friends. One was a great big glutton who liked smashing things as much as my brother did, and then eating everything he could find. Another was very headstrong and foolish, always rushing in before he thought things through all the way. One barely every spoke and was brutally efficient at what he did. The last was a vapid, silly girl who fancied herself a warrior-”
“Wait, why couldn't she be a warrior?” Scootaloo interrupted.
“I never said she could not be a warrior,” Loki replied. “Indeed, in my homeland there are many female warriors, and this woman did go into battle alongside my brother and his friends, as well as myself. I merely meant that if she had been honest with herself, she only stuck around because she was mooning after my brother, not out of any true desire to defend our homeland. Of course, she would deny it if confronted about it, but it was obvious to everyone. Even old Hedwig who was mostly blind and completely crazy. She even once remarked on it to me. Of course, she also thought I was her long-deceased husband, but that just goes to show that Sif was being blatantly obvious if even the crazy old woman who thought a teenager was her husband could see it...” Loki shook himself out of his memories. He had no idea if old Hedwig even still lived, and memories of Asgard were not what he was here to focus on, so he cleared his throat. “Anyway. That's why she fancied herself as a warrior. You, on the other hand... I have no doubt that you would make a fine warrior maiden if that was what you wished.” Scootaloo preened, looking incredibly pleased with herself. “What I was saying is that while I greatly disliked my brother's friends, it didn't mean that they were entirely friendless. In fact, I am certain that they could not care less what I thought of them. And so, I do not particularly care whether or not they think they deserve my friendship, because they do not.”
“I still think it's sad,” Sweetie Belle said resolutely. “Maybe if you had tried you would have been good friends!”
“Would you want to be good friends with Diamond Tiara after everything she has done to you?” Loki asked, honestly curious. Ponies were still kind of a mystery to him- and if they were willing to become friends with, or at least attempt to become friends with, ponies who were cruel to them, then it was a commentary on how different they were from Aesir. Or, for that matter, Jotnar.
“Well, Ah wouldn't,” Apple Bloom stated bluntly. “Even when we were foals she was a nasty piece of work.”
“I'm with Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo agreed. “Diamond Tiara has been nothing but horrible to us since she met us. Why should we even want to try to be her friends?”
“But Princess Twilight says that friendship is magic and we should be friendly to everypony,” Sweetie protested.
“Nopony's sayin' we have to treat her the way she treated us,” Apple Bloom replied. “Just that we don't have to like her.”
They were approaching the school playground, and the figures of two more small ponies were playing around on the playground equipment. Oddly, at least to Loki's eyes, they appeared to be wearing clothes. So far the only ponies he'd ever come across wearing clothes of any type were the Royal Guards, and their clothes were technically barding armor. Maybe that didn't count. “Is that them?” he asked.
“Yep,” Scootaloo answered, a look of disgust twisting her facial features.
“All three of you, listen to me very closely,” Loki said, grinning. “Here's what we're going to do...”
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were still laughing over their latest humiliation of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Did you see the look on Sweetie Belle's face when I tripped her?” Diamond Tiara cackled. Silver Spoon snickered.
“Haha, yeah, she looked so dumb! Did you see the mud dripping off her muzzle?”
“Yes, I did,” Diamond Tiara replied. “I was actually aiming to trip Apple Bloom but that stupid unicorn got in the way. At least one one those Cutie Mark Losers fell in the mud even if it wasn't the one I wanted.”
“Yeah... about that...” a third voice interrupted. Both fillies looked up to see the exact ponies they had been making fun of standing in an aggressive triangular formation, with Sweetie Belle at the front. However, it was Scootaloo that had spoken. “You need to apologize to Sweetie for pushing her in the mud.”
“No I don't,” Diamond Tiara sneered in response.
“Ah really would, if Ah was you,” Apple Bloom added. “For yer own good.”
“say you're sorry,” Scootaloo growled, “or we'll have to introduce you to our new friend.”
“Your new friend?” Silver Spoon asked out of some morbid curiosity. Diamond Tiara shot her an annoyed look.
“Of course they don't have a new friend! Nopony is dumb enough to want to make friends with a bunch of blank-flank losers like them. If you didn't want to get pushed in the mud you should have gotten out of my way! Now get lost before you have another mud bath.”
“ENOUGH,” a loud male voice commanded. All five fillies looked up to see an absolutely enormous pegasus stallion descending from above like an avenging angel. He hit the ground with a loud thud, and straightened up, fixing a stern glare on Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. It was about then that Silver Spoon realized the stallion was not a pegasus, but an alicorn.
“This is our new friend, Prince Loki,” Scootaloo said proudly. “He's Princess Celestia's grandfather.”
“G-grandfather?” Silver Spoon stammered, wishing she could take back every nasty comment she'd ever made to the Crusaders. If this stallion really was the grandfather of Princess Celestia, and he'd taken a liking to the three fillies, who knew what he would do? Silver Spoon suddenly had a very vivid mental image of herself and Diamond Tiara languishing on the moon.
“Yes,” Loki replied. “Celestia and Luna are my son's daughters. I understand that you two are Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?”
“Um... yes, sir,” Silver Spoon answered meekly.
“And may I ask why you two feel entitled to harass these three?”
The silver-colored Earth pony looked at the ground. Honestly? She didn't know why she always joined Diamond Tiara when her friend suggested picking on the the other fillies. Neither Apple Bloom nor Sweetie Belle had ever really done anything to deserve the torment, and Scootaloo never really instigated anything, it was always Diamond Tiara. Really, the more she thought about it, the worse she felt. The Cutie Mark Crusaders hadn't ever done anything to her, so why did she hate them?
Diamond Tiara, on the other hand, had no compunction about standing up to the strange stallion. Instead of unleashing invective on him like she usually did with everypony else, however, she turned to creeping obsequiousness. “Oh, sir, you have to understand, they deserve everything I've ever done to them. They're awful!”
Keeping his face purposely calm, Loki asked lightly, “Oh? Would you care to give me an example?”
“Well... they're poor,” Diamond Tiara said confidently. “And they don't have their cutie marks, so they're useless.”
“And what does having a cutie mark mean for usefulness?” Loki asked. “From what I know, a cutie mark only shows what a certain pony is especially good at- their 'special talent' as it was explained to me. Merely being good at something does not make you better than anyone else. I have already told the story of my brother to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but I believe you need to hear it as well. He was told from childhood that he was good at one specific thing. Now as an adult he is a complete idiot. Having a 'special talent' does not make you special. You would do well to realize that you are no better than anyone else.” Then, he got very, very close to Diamond Tiara's face, and said in a low voice, “you are very lucky that we are not in my homeland, mortal. There, you would face punishments that your tiny little mind could not even begin to comprehend for assaulting friends of the Prince. As I am but a guest in this land I will not give to you what you so richly deserve. However, know this, little pony- I will be watching you, and if you try anything again I will not hold back in the slightest.”
Of course, most of that wasn't true. Back in Asgard, most Aesir would expect the prince to handle an incident involving one of his friends himself, and would look the other way unless he actually killed the perpetrator. They certainly wouldn't have gotten involved. And he had no intention of actually causing permanent damage to the small pony, since it would only delay his return to Asgard. Well, unless she really annoyed him. But Diamond Tiara didn't need to know that.
“I... I understand,” she stammered out. “I'm sorry, okay? I won't do it again!”
“See that you do not,” Loki replied sharply, before turning his attention back to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Would you kindly escort me back to where I met you? I assume my granddaughter will panic if I am away from there too long. She might think I have gone off to conquer this realm.” Before he left, however, he levitated a mud puddle over and dumped it on Diamond Tiara's head with his magic. “Now, fair is fair, do you not agree?”
“Breathe, Twilight Sparkle! There is no need for you to panic!” Luna commanded, even though she was a step away from panic herself. “My grandfather has probably simply wandered off to go look at something. Ponyville is a fascinating place and he might have just seen something interesting.”
Twilight looked flatly at the older alicorn. “Do you really believe that?”
“...no.”
“Do you know why he might have wandered off? Or maybe he ran into Pinkie Pie- you know how she can get sometimes...” Twilight wondered aloud, although clearly she was trying to force herself to remain calm.
“I just don't understand! I told him to stay put!” Luna lamented. “He was brought to Equestria to better himself- maybe my sister was right and he is too far out of control to be helped. And Father- what will he think of me when he finds out I lost his parent? I am the worst grandfoal ever!” Luna was steadily getting herself more and more worked up, despite her original goal of remaining calm. She felt like a failure. She had failed to show Loki how to use his magic properly, and now she'd failed to keep track of him. Loki seemed to be able to fly well, or at least, he could fly without crashing into things randomly. He could be anywhere by now, and she had no idea what his intentions were.
Because the older alicorn knew that Twilight could get agitated very easily, she had left out the more sordid bits of Loki's tale. Luna had told Twilight the basics- that Loki's home life had been troubled, that he acted out and got into trouble when he fell into the hands of malicious beings. But she had also left out the bits about Loki's attempt to take over a realm, and the murders he had committed. Not that the older mare thought that the younger could not handle the knowledge; rather, Luna wanted Twilight to meet Loki and make up her mind about him herself, without prejudging him based on what Luna had told her. But now it seemed like Luna's plans would have to be scrapped. Loki was out there somewhere doing... whatever it was he was doing, and while Luna had been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, she had to admit that his disappearing out into Equestria the second she turned her back was suspicious. And if Loki was planning to take over Equestria, then Luna might need Twilight's help to stop him.
“Twilight...” she began, heart heavy, “there's something else I need to t-”
“KYAHAHAHA! Come on, Mr. Loki, do that again!” a high-pitched, young-sounding voice cried.
“That.... was... AWESOME!” another interrupted.
Twilight and Luna both watched in amazement as the alicorn stallion in question approached the library in the air, holding three giggling fillies in his telekinesis as he flew. “Oh. I suppose you noticed I was gone then?” he asked, calm as could be.
“Uh... yes. Grandfather, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said, deciding that she was going to have words with him when they got back to Canterlot. “Twilight, this is Loki, my... grandfather.”
“It's very nice to meet you, sir,” Twilight said politely. Loki, on the other hand, was looking at the purple alicorn in shock.
“There's more of you...” he said, more to himself than to anyone else. “And they didn't tell me. YOU!” he howled, turning to a very surprised Luna. “How many more of you are there!?”
“How many more of... what?” the befuddled mare asked.
“The Allfather told me I only had two grandchildren! Clearly he lied to me! Tell me the truth- how many granddaughters do I have?!”
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.”
“What do you mean, how many granddaughters do you have?” Luna asked, baffled. “As far as I was ever told, Father only had two foals- Celestia and myself.”
“But then why is she an alicorn, too?” Loki asked, waving a hoof around frantically in the vague general direction of Twilight Sparkle. “The little ones told me that all alicorns were members of the Royal Family. How many children did my son have, and why did no one bother to tell me about them? I only found out about you and your sister involuntarily- someone should have said something!”
Twilight was beginning to look quite alarmed, and Loki was getting frantic, so Luna stepped in. “Grandfather, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle, who I told you about? She wasn't always an alicorn, much as you were. Those foals were correct in that she is now a member of the royal family, although as far as I know she is not biologically related to us. She was born a unicorn, but her power eventually became so great that she was able to become an alicorn, with the help of her friends. But even though she has been a pony since the day of her birth, even the least powerful alicorn is still exponentially more powerful than the strongest unicorn, so she she had to learn to control her magic all over again. Imagine, if you will, Grandfather, that your magical abilities had quadrupled or even quintupled in the space of several hours- it would be like needing to learn how to walk all over again. Twilight's powers, after she became an alicorn, were much, much stronger than anything she had ever tried to wield before. That is why I hoped that she might be able to help you learn to control your own powers.” Turning to Twilight, she continued.
“I apologize for not giving you more of a warning about this, but neither Celestia nor myself knew about his arrival until several days ago.”
“Neither did I,” Loki interrupted.
“Well, yes,” Luna agreed. “Grandfather had even less warning than we did. But given the nature of the situation, you will have to forgive me for not giving you more details.”
“But Princess,” Twilight protested. “I don't know how to help him! I tried to tell you before, but I don't know anything about non-pony magic!”
“Well, he is an alicorn now,” Luna replied.
“Um...” a small voice spoke up. All three adults started- they had completely forgotten about the foals. Sweetie Belle seemed unnerved, but steeled her courage. After all, she had been around the older ponies with her sister enough to know when Twilight was nearing her breaking point. “Mr. Loki can use his magic. He fixed my ankle and helped me get the mud off after Di- I mean, after I fell.”
“Is this true?” Luna asked Loki, who shrugged. It felt weird, doing a movement like that in a quadrupedal body.
“Well, yes, I suppose so. She was injured and upset, so I used the same spell I would use on myself after a battle, or after I'd had a confrontation with my brother or his friends.” Belatedly, he realized what that meant. “Oh! My powers are back!” Excited, he tried to lift a smallish boulder off to the side of Twilight's house... and failed. His horn briefly glowed, but quickly sputtered out, the backlash from the failed spell sending him face-planting into the ground. Groaning, Loki staggered back to his feet.
“What the-?! I don't understand! It was working a few moments ago!”
Luna tapped a hoof on the ground thoughtfully. “Grandfather, did you notice that the magical backlash this time was less violent than it was back in Canterlot Castle?”
“I still hit the ground,” Loki pointed out.
“Yes, but you stayed more or less in the same place,” Luna replied. “I think... and this may be incorrect, but I think there is a binding spell on you, and that it is beginning to weaken. That is why you were able to help Sweetie Belle. Your powers slipped through the spell that time. This time, your magic was stopped by the spell, but because the magical matrix is weakening, you were only thrown to the ground instead of propelled backwards.” She stopped for a moment, lost in thought. “As far as I know, it is possible to create a strong binding spell that is on a time control, although I have never attempted to perform one. I also am not sure what would happen when the spell began to weaken.”
“Star-Swirl the Bearded wrote about the effects of poorly-cast binding spells in one of his books!” Twilight exclaimed. “I do not remember which one exactly, but I can look it up for you, and then we can run some tests!” There was an excited sort of glee on the purple mare's face that made Loki want to back away slowly.
“What I do not understand is why my magic was able to work when I used it to heal Sweetie Belle's ankle,” Loki mused. “If there was a binding spell placed on me, it almost certainly would have caught that, since a healing spell takes more power than a telekinesis spell. If that was case, the barrier would have caught the healing spell and let the telekinesis spell through. Unless, of course, the spell-caster was remarkably incompetent, although if he or she was at that level of uselessness I confess I find it improbably that they managed to successfully cast anything.”
“What if it was meant to let some spells through and not others?” This time, it was Scootaloo who spoke up. “I mean, I don't know very much about magic, but in the latest Harry Trotter book, Nightmare Nocturne cast a spell on Harry that only let him cast really simple spells like using his horn as a light. What if a spell like that got put on Mr. Loki?”
“Scootaloo, the Harry Trotter books are a very inaccurate representation of magic! For one, nopony is strong enough to survive splitting their soul even once, let alone into seven pieces like Nightmare Nocturne. And magic school is absolutely nothing like Mugworts!” Twilight said, scandalized. “If anything those books are offensive, speciest propaganda. All the Earth pony and pegasus characters are either evil or incompetent, and I, for one, found the portrayals of the zebras, penguins, and griffons offensive in the extreme.”
“Scootaloo has a point though,” Apple Bloom interrupted. “Granny Smith told me once that when she wuz a filly there was a bad unicorn who used her magic t'steal stuff and hurt ponies. When she finally got caught the sheriff used his own magic to bind hers so she couldn't do bad things anymore.”
“Oh, the Chianti case,” Twilight replied. “Yes, that did happen, but Shiny Badge's magic wasn't strong enough to contain hers for very long and it wore off. If Chianti had been an alicorn it is very unlikely that it would have worked in the first place. Of course it was all moot a few weeks later when she got hit by that train...”
“Maybe a unicorn didn't cast the spell,” Loki suggested darkly. “Perhaps the Allfather or his wife did before I was sent here. I was weakened enough that I might not have noticed. Or perhaps one of my granddaughters did it.”
Luna looked horrified and angry at the same time. “Grandfather, are you accusing me-?!”
“No, no,” Loki consoled her. “But you said it yourself. I heard what you said to Princess Twilight here- you did not want her to tell Celestia about me being here. And after what I have seen of my elder granddaughter's behavior over the past several days, I do not blame you in the least.”
“You would accuse Princess Celestia of cursing you?!” Twilight burst out in shocked fury. Loki smirked.
“Ah. I see Luna dear has not told you everything. Now why is that, I wonder? Because she did not want to upset you. Well, little pony, allow me to enlighten y-” he never got to finish his sentence. Luna had swept him and Twilight up in her own telekinesis and unceremoniously stuffed the both of them into the library, slamming the door behind them.
“That was very reckless!” Luna admonished. “First you wander off, then you go around announcing your presence, then you accuse my sister of putting a binding spell on you! You are correct in that I did not tell Twilight the whole story, because I wanted to give you a chance to explain it yourself!”
“...oh,” was all Loki said.
“And you-!” Luna rounded on the other mare. “I am well aware of your fondness for my sister, but did you have to antagonize my grandfather immediately? We do not know what is causing his magical mishaps, and if I may be so bold, Celestia has not done anything to particularly endear herself to our grandfather!”
“Indeed,” Loki snarked.
“But that is not an excuse for what you did back there! You should not have gone off alone,” Luna rebutted.
“But I was not alone, I was with the little ones,” Loki replied. “The small unicorn- Sweetie Belle, I believe her name was-? was injured, so I helped her and went with all three of them to confront the source of those injures. I did nothing wrong- rather, I did what I wish someone had bothered to do for me when I was that age.”
“That's not the point!” Luna exclaimed. “Nopony knows that we are currently not in Canterlot, and if word that you were out here by yourself, or worse, in the company of foals, then ponies might get the wrong idea of your intentions.”
Loki quickly picked up on the implications, and bristled in indignant disgust. “If you are accusing me of having perverse intentions- I would never do something so disgusting and dishonorable! If you were not my granddaughter and my powers were not bound I would slay you where you stand for such an insult.”
“No, that's not what I mean!” Luna exclaimed, horrified. “Not at all! But certainly you must have noticed the stir your arrival caused in the palace. I merely meant that if somepony realized that both of us were gone and then noticed that you were out and about without me, and hanging around with fillies, they might get the idea that you had kidnapped me, or were looking for blood sacrifices or a snack!”
“Oh,” Loki replied, somewhat mollified. “I thought you were implying... never mind.”
“Will somepony please just tell me what the buck is going on?!” Twilight interjected.
Outside of the Ponyville Library, the three fillies stood, trying to process what had just happened. “Did... did Mr. Loki just accuse Princess Celestia of cursing him?” Sweetie Belle asked, eyes wide.
“Ah think so,” Apple Bloom replied. “He seemed nice but maybe he really is just a crazy pony.”
“I don't know,” Scootaloo answered. “Princess Luna looked really scared when he brought up Princess Celestia. Maybe she really did do something to him!”
“To her own granddaddy?” Apple Bloom asked skeptically. “Ah dunno... it just don't sound like something Princess Celestia would do.”
Scootaloo uncertainly shuffled her hooves. “What if... what if there's more to Princess Celestia than what we learn in school? What if she's not as nice as everypony says she is?”
“What are you talking about?” Apple Bloom asked.
The pegasus filly took a deep breath. “You guys know my dad... doesn't have a lot of money, right?”
The other two nodded- it was the reason that if they did anything together they usually went to the farm or to Rarity's shop. Scootaloo lived with her father in a dilapidated apartment complex on the edge of Ponyville. After Scootaloo's mother passed away, the stallion had taken on two jobs to help provide for his daughter, but it wasn't enough; not with the debt that his wife's medical treatments had incurred towards the end of her life. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Scootaloo looked deeply uncomfortable. “Well, uh... last Hearth's Warming I got a box of stuff from the Equestria Widows and Orphans Fund. Ponies donate things to be distributed to foals who won't get lots of presents. A lot of it was really boring- old toys and books, and horseshoes that don't fit. But there was a textbook from Austroolia in there, too.”
“A textbook?” Sweetie Belle wrinkled her nose. “That's a boring present.”
“I thought so too,” Scootaloo continued, “but then when I got the feather flu I didn't have anything better to do so I looked at it, and I really learned a lot! Did you know that Princess Celestia attacked Austroolia like a thousand years ago because she thought the king of the kangaroos disrespected her? The war killed like half of everyroo in Austroolia.”
“But that was a thousand years ago...” Apple Bloom protested. Scootaloo shrugged.
“Maybe. But the griffon who lives across the hall says that even more recently Celestia invaded his homeland. And he thinks she had the penguin emperor assassinated.”
The three fillies were silent for a moment. It had been all over the news- the previous year, the Emperor of Pengin had died under suspicious circumstances. The official cause was ruled to be structural failure of the ice-bridge that collapsed while the emperor's procession was on it, but many penguins (and penguins, and griffons, and other species) suspected a terrorist attack or other foul play. But this was the first time they'd ever heard of anypony thinking the benevolent ruler of Equestria was involved.
“He really thinks the Princess did it?” Apple Bloom finally said. Scootaloo nodded.
“Yeah, although you could ask him yourself. We could go visit him! If we're going to save Mr. Loki we're going to need a grown-up's help and we can't really ask our families.”
Sweetie Belle, however, was skeptical. "I just don't think that Princess Celestia would do something like that!"
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Come on, Sweetie, you saw how Mr. Loki reacted to Twilight! I don't think it's a coincidence! He said his powers were acting up, right? She must have done something to him to keep him from using them!"
"But then what are we supposed to do about it?" Apple Bloom said. Scootaloo grinned.
"Remember in history class we learned about the Penguin Freedom Front when Pengin was invaded by the griffons?"
"Yeah. So?"
"Maybe we can get our cutie marks in stopping unfair punishments!"
“And you think this griffon guy might be able to help,” Apple Bloom was warming to the idea. Scootaloo nodded vigorously.
“Mr. Grayfeather is really smart! If the Princess is really up to no good and is out to get Mr. Loki, he'd be able to help us. And if we can save Mr. Loki, we'll get our cutie marks in saving our country from a bad pony!”
That was all it took. “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS PATRIOTS! YAY!”
Ten years ago, if you had told Gregory Grayfeather that he was going to be living in Equestria and babysitting a bunch of young ponies, he would have laughed in your face and told you that you were crazy. Everybirdy knew that Greg hated ponies, and that he wanted nothing more than to see his home country invade and crush the pastel annoyances once and for all.
Then the Aquila Regional Weather Factory outsourced most of the jobs to Cloudsdale, the Parliament passed a bunch of new laws regulating the Griffindellian industrial sector, and many positions that used to be occupied by actual living griffons were now replaced by automation. President-General Gustwind was adamant that it was time for Griffindell to become a modern, respectable country. So Greg found himself in a crappy apartment outside of a crappy pony town called Ponyville, commuting to the same damn weather factory his old job had been outsourced to.
Funnily enough, however, he decided that once he'd lived amongst them for a while, ponies weren't so bad after all. He found he really did get along with some of them, especially a stallion on his same shift at the factory. His name was After Dark, and he was a good guy, just trying to live his life as well as he could. His wife had died of grass sickness, leaving him with a young chick- er, foal- and a mound of debt from her medical treatments, but After Dark had stood up and done his best. And that made him practically an honorary griffon in Greg's mind. Plus, he liked the filly- Scootaloo. If he'd ever had a chick, he would have wanted him or her to be like Scootaloo. So he didn't mind looking after her if After Dark had to go cover someone's shift and there wasn't anywhere else for her to go.
But even though he'd begun to dislike ponies as a species less, that didn't mean he liked their leader at all. In fact, he hated her. Not only was it a matter of species pride (Equestria was the traditional enemy of Griffindell), it was personal. Greg's father had seen his family killed right in front of him in the last war, when he was just a little chick, and passed that rage on down to his son. He'd always made sure that Greg knew the real monster in the world wasn't living under his bed, or in the hall closet, but in a palace in Canterlot, in Equestria. George Grayfeather was a lot of things, but diplomatic wasn't one of them. “Son,” he'd told Greg, “one day, the world will see that the Pastel Menace isn't a goddess, or a good and just ruler. They will see her for the monster lurking underneath. And when that happens, you will be able to stand up and tell the world, 'I told you so!'”
And it seemed that the time was now, if the three foals standing in the doorway to his apartment was anything to go by.
“Mr. Grayfeather, you have to help us!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “We've found out something terrible and we don't know what we can do about it! Princess Celestia has cursed a friend of ours, and we think she's going to do something even worse to him!”
“Scootaloo, shut up,” the little yellow Earth pony filly standing next to her hissed. “Don't just yell about it where anypony can hear! What if someone tips her off!”
Okay, granted, Greg thought it was going to be somebirdy in a higher position than a couple of elementary school-aged pony foals, but whatever. He could work with that.
“Your little friend is right, Scootaloo, this sounds serious. You shouldn't talk about it so recklessly. Come inside.” He ushered the foals into the apartment before shutting the door behind them, securely latching it and engaging a deadbolt. The white unicorn filly looked apprehensively at this, but steeled her courage, following Scootaloo to sit on his sofa.
“So what is this you're telling me? Princess Celestia cursed a friend of yours? Not that I don't believe that she is capable of that, but why would she target a foal?” Greg asked, wanting to make absolutely sure he knew what was going on.
“No, he’s not a foal,” Scootaloo answered. “He’s another alicorn- her grandfather. And I swear I’m not lying, he’s at the library with Princess Luna and Princess Twilight right now. Please believe us- we have to save Equestria from falling to a horrible fate! I know you’ve taught me the stories of your home, and I read that book about Austroolia! I know what Princess Celestia is capable of, and we have to stop her! But the three of us can’t do it alone. We need an adult’s help but we can’t go to any other grown-up ponies except for Mr. Loki and he’s not going to be able to do anything if Celestia vaporizes him while he can’t fight back! Nopony will take us seriously…” Scootaloo looked horrified at her own implications.
“Please sir, we know it sounds crazy,” Sweetie Belle said quietly. “But we’re really not making this up.”
And Sweetie Belle was right. It did sound crazy. Luckily for them, Greg Grayfeather was pretty damn crazy himself.
“I believe you,” he reassured the fillies. “But an operation like this… we have to move carefully. And you are right- three fillies and one griffon won’t be able to do much against the might of Canterlot if we take it head-on. So we will need to come up with a plan. And the three of you will need to be very careful especially.”
The fillies spent three hours in his apartment discussing strategy, looking over his books, and trying to come up with ideas. Greg himself chimed in occasionally to offer advice or to shoot down absolutely preposterous ideas, but for the most part his mind was elsewhere. Celestia was even worse than he thought. Imagine, terrorizing foals like that! Nobirdy in Griffindell would even think of harming chicks- it was an absolute disgrace, was what it was. He wasn’t sure if the fillies even knew how much danger they were in from uncovering this in the first place. Celestia, who had ordered the murder of so many of his species over the years… would she even blink at utterly annihilating a few pony foals who posed a threat to her rule? There was an old griffon legend that said if Celestia learned of a threat to her power, she would destroy anybirdy that was part of it and trap their souls so that they couldn’t pass on to the Holy Aerie. Greg hadn’t believed it at first- nobirdy, nopony, nobeing was powerful enough to defy the Holy Aerie, even Celestia. But he wasn’t willing to risk the souls of innocent young ones. And he was sure that the fillies would go to the Holy Aerie after their time on the mortal plane was done- hopefully when they were very old mares. Even just knowing them for a short time, he knew that they had the souls of griffoness warrior maidens, and the Great Griffon would see that, and reincarnate their souls as chicks next time, so that they could truly be worthy of the Aerie after their second life.
He would not put that in jeopardy.
Making sure that the Cutie Mark Crusaders, as they called themselves, were otherwise occupied, he sneaked into his kitchen and grabbed the telephone. Gritting his beak and dialing a number he swore he never would, he waited a few moments before the voice on the other end of the line picked up.
“Yeah? Whaddya want?”
“Gellert? Yeah, it’s Greg. I’m gonna need a favor…”
Loki and Luna sat at the table, snacking on some cookies, for the fourth hour in a row. Twilight had immediately bounded off to try to research the problem, and they hadn't heard from her since. The little dragon she kept as an assistant had done everything he could to make them comfortable, but they were getting bored. And Loki was still no closer to controlling his magic, something that frustrated him very much.
Finally, just when it seemed like four hours of boredom were about to become five hours of boredom, a loud shout jolted both grandfather and granddaughter out of their torpor.
“Oh? You found something?” Luna asked, looking up from her hooves. Twilight had the manic look she always got when she found something interesting in a book, and she was levitating a heavy book in her telekinesis. Twilight nodded frantically.
“King Sombra apparently had several wives and many concubines,” Twilight explained, with some distaste. “As such, many ponies in that area of Equestria are descended from him. Most of the time they turn out to be completely normal, but sometimes, the dark power of their ancestor manifests in them. Usually even this isn't much of a problem- they just tend to like dark places and have an affinity for the milder forms of shadow magic. But 700 years ago, one of his descendants was born even more powerful than usual- she might even have been more powerful than me before I became an alicorn, it's not really clear on that. Anyway, Ink Splatter, as she was called, learned about her heritage and wanted to bring back the power of the Crystal Empire. Combined with her power, she started poking around into magic that nopony should ever go near.”
“Oh no,” Luna said, realizing quickly where this was going. Twilight nodded.
“Yes. It is believed she tapped into the same corrupt energy that gave rise to Nightmare Moon,” she continued. “Ink Splatter was already very powerful, but with the help of whatever it was she was exploring, she became an even more dangerous. This says here that she slaughtered her way through twenty battalions of royal guards without taking a scratch. Something had to be done, but Celestia realized quickly that she couldn't be killed.”
“Why not?” Loki interrupted. Twilight started. She didn't realize he had been listening, but she supposed it made sense. This was all for him, after all.
“The kind of power she had would just jump to somepony else if the carrier was killed,” Twilight explained. “It can only be banished, like what happened in Princess Luna's case, or contained. So Princess Celestia engineered a spell that would contain not only the corrupting power, but Ink Splatter's own inborn power.”
“So Celestia did curse me!” Loki exclaimed. “I knew it!”
“Actually, I don't think so,” Twilight replied. “Hear me out,” she added, seeing Loki's angrily disbelieving look. “The spell itself needs so much power to work... one alicorn couldn't do it alone. Even two might be pushing it. If we were to do it today, it would take Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and probably myself to make it work. At the time, it took Princess Celestia, twenty powerful unicorns, five zebra shamans, a Diamond Dog petromancer, and a penguin to cast the spell. Nineteen of the unicorns, all of the zebras, and the Diamond Dog died in resulting magical discharge, the penguin was rendered insane, and the surviving unicorn was badly burned in the explosion. Celestia herself was seriously wounded. But it did get Ink Splatter under control. Well, for a variable value of control... she committed suicide three days later.”
“How is this supposed to help us?” Luna asked, eyes widened in horror. That kind of carnage for one spell... it was unthinkable.
“I was getting to that,” Twilight said, a bit annoyed at being interrupted. “The spell was designed to neutralize Ink Splatter's corrupt powers, but if she was ever able to overcome them, she would be able to trigger the release mechanism. The spell was called an Elemental Blockade, and it is made up of several parts, all based on the Elements of Harmony. If whoever the spell was cast on can show the virtues inherent to the elements, it would release a bit of the power at a time. You said that the backlash from attempting to cast a spell was less after you spent time with the Cutie Mark Crusaders?” she addressed Loki this time, who started.
“Uh. Yes, that is what they were called? Yes, before, if I tried to cast a spell I was sent flying across the room. I was able to use the spell to help the little unicorn, and then when I tried to use my magic outside this tree, I was only thrown to the ground.”
“So it seems you must have de-activated one of the spell's seals!” Twilight exclaimed.
“Wait a moment,” Luna said. “We have not established this is what has happened to my grandfather. If, as you said, it took nearly thirty beings and killed most of them to cast the spell the last time, how could Celestia have cast it? I think I would have noticed a death toll that high in the palace courtyard.”
Twilight looked a little uncomfortable. “Well... if you go further on in the book, it shows that Princess Celestia came up with a way to simplify the process... it would only have taken her and maybe ten unicorns. Or, if another alicorn had helped her, only two casters, and the backlash explosion would have been much smaller...”
“No, there weren't any explosions after Grandfather came,” Luna said. “Is there another explanation?”
“Some cultures believe in an even greater power than Princess Celestia,” Twilight replied. “The griffons believe in the Great Griffon, who is supposed to be equivalent to the strength of ten Princess Celestias, although there's no evidence that this Great Griffon exists. The Penguin Nation believes in a strange two-legged being called the Empress Yukimashiki, who had great magical power who saved their species from burning to death in a hot summer. And there does seem to be some archaeological evidence that this Empress Yukimashiki existed, but... I don't know why she would have cursed your grandfather.”
Actually, to Loki the story of a two-legged being saving the lives of some penguins sounded vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't put his finger on why. Maybe it was a story from Midgard? He wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, Midgardians came up with the strangest things sometimes.
“So what you're saying is that you think that he has had this Elemental Block placed on him, but you have no idea who would have done so,” Luna said, raising an eyebrow. Twilight raised an eyebrow right back.
“Do you have any other explanations? I can't find any record of any illnesses or other spells that would cause a reaction like this. Since he told me that he had a lessening of the symptoms after he helped the Cutie Mark Crusaders, that's the best we have to go on for now.”
“Then is there any way we can test this?” Loki asked curiously. “Back home, there was usually a way to determine what spell, if any, was used in a situation.”
Twilight thought to herself. “Well... I know some spells for detecting other spells, but if what's been cast on you really is an Elemental Blockade none of them will be strong enough to determine whether or not it really is one. It will just give me a false positive, because clearly something has been cast. But I think I can come up with something. Give me some time, I think I can do it that way.”
Well, it was better than nothing, Loki thought to himself. “Very well. Granddaughter, we will let Twilight Sparkle work on this problem. Now, don't you think we should head back to the palace? We wouldn't want my... darling other granddaughter to notice we are missing and panic, now would we?”
Luna winced, realizing that Loki was right. If Celestia discovered that both her newly-reformed sister and not-so-reformed grandfather were nowhere in the castle, it could cause problems that neither would want to deal with. “You are probably correct. We will come back in one week's time to check on your progress. Will that be acceptable, Twilight?”
“O-of course!” the younger alicorn agreed quickly. She saw the other two out of her home, waved goodbye, and waited until they were out of sight before quickly going back into the library and locking the door behind her. “Oh Spike,” she sighed. “What did I get myself into?”
Much to Thor's surprise, the library of Asgard had plenty of information on Equestria. Not only had his nephew gone on to sire the rulers of the land, both of his parents had apparently had dealings with the planet well before either he or Loki had been born. Odin wasn't much of a surprise, really- Thor would be surprised to find any species he hadn't ever had dealings with, but Frigga... Frigga didn't usually leave Asgard. She had other things to concern herself with here, and she wasn't exactly one for exploring. But she had indeed gone down to Equestria and met with many of the sentient species there. Although curiously, he could not find a record of her ever coming into contact with the ponies that seemed to make up the dominant culture on the planet. Hm. Interesting. But he supposed he'd have time to ask her about it later. He had more important things to do. Like go meet his great-nieces, check up on his brother, and possibly fight some of the crazy creatures that inhabited that land. Thor decided he'd really like to go toe-to-toe with a hydra, since he'd missed out on thrashing the organization named after the creature that had caused such trouble for Steve Rogers.
Armed with his new-found knowledge, Thor headed out to Heimdall's observatory. He had an adventure to go on.
