Thor: The Dark Realm

Sif didn't expect for the Marauders to be great enemies. And they weren't. At least for the godess of war. Their battle style?  Horrible. Judging by their foolish swishes with the swords as if they were knives, Sif guessed axes would of fit them better. Not much better....

One of the disoriented hits of the Marauders almost hit her. Sif reminded herself to tell the guard back in Horsegard to give this one a bit more food as a reward for his accurate strike, before she turned around and using her elegant blade dodged the next hit and disarmed her opponent. The pony shook in horror and ran away from her screaming. The godess knit her brows. She wasn't going to give this chicken extra food.

But meanwhile she had to turn around and face another of those bad warriors. Ah, such an annoying chore, being the godess of war:  you constantly fought complete amateurs!

Besides the fact, that they were horrible warriors, Sif knew almost nothing of her enemies. They were crude ponies ( all of them wearing helmets with cow horns. Was this imitation or just a stupid style? Everypony should of known, that Horsegardians hadn't used animal horns on the helmets for at least 3000 years or maybe 5000? ), who threatened Sif's  friend Hogun, a member of the Warrior Three, 's  homeworld of Vanaheim. In all of those years of fights Sif, Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg and Thor had learned to stick together, which was the only reasons Horsegard even interfered in this. Usually the Horsefardians wouldn't of been interested in such a small battle.

However, that was how it once was. Now Horsegard eliminated any threat in any world. Hiding behind the wish for peace was the Allfather's desire to find Loky. He has assigned Thor with searching through the nine realms and finding him, meanwhile ending the chaos his escape from his hideout in Horsegard and gathering of armies from different worlds, together with several assaults on Horsegard, caused.

But before they left for Vanaheim Heimdall informed Thor, that he couldn't see Lyra, hos equestrian marefriend. Sif was a bit dissapointed when the thunder god immeadieately went searching for her. Although she didn't consider it to be jealosy...it was jealosy. He was with her for a week. And he knew Sif since his foalhood. What was so special about her?

Sif looked at her surroundings. many Marauders were now retreating to the nearby pine wood. Only a single squad remained and retiliated against the Warrior's Three and the Einherjar. The  godess smiled as she saw how much fun Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg were having. The blonde Fandral was spinning with his sword making the enemies keep distance. Hogun's mace was lifting the Marauders in the air or throwing them away. With his long red and swirly beard and mane swinging, Volstagg was attacking with an axe.

Than suddenly the squad split in two. Wondering what caused this move, that would only aid their voctory, the Einherjar and the Warrior's Three stopped and looked with confusion. Sif didn't understand this tactic either.

But the reason was revealed to her soon enough.

A big rock beast walked and stood between the two squads. The Marauders greeted him and taunted at the Einherjar. The creature shared barely any resemblance to a pony, was 30 feet tall and made entirely out of rock. He held a huge mace in his mouth. When one of the Einherjar rushed at him, preparing to stab him, the giant just swished with the mace and sent the warrior away, causing another way of triumph amongst the Marauders.

Now the Stone Golem was a challenge, swords were useless. Sif had to climb his back...

Her line of thought was interrupted by the sound of the Bifrost. The godess turned around to see the god of thunder grinning at the golem.

" Great timing. All yours. " Sif told him and decided to stand back and watch.

The monster came closer and roared. It prepared to smash Thor the same way it dealt with the warrior, but he wasn't so stupid. Mjolnir spun around a point in the air and after the pegasus released it from his  grip, that was actually just a connecion between his mind and the hammer, it flew right into the face of the golem, causing the monster to break into the stones it was made of and fall down.

" Anypony else? " Thor mocked. The marauders looked like if Mjolnir had struck them instead. They had no choice but to surrender.

" Any signs of Loky? " Thor asked Sif, while the Einherjar were moving groups of Marauders prisoners through the Bifrost, that Heimdall opened and re- opened, since a constant beam would of destroyed the whole realm.

" None. I think even he has a better taste. You saw how they fight. Well, not really, since you considered saving your mare more importrant than... "

" Siiiif... " Thor smiled " Come on, Lyra is a special mare. "

" And what happens after 60 years? She dies and you remain with a broken heart. Thor, she's not the only pony, who loves you! " Sif's words should of been clear enough to finally reveal what her true feelings were. However, the thunder god continued speaking about his equestrian love:

" Actually, she is immortal. Result of Hase's immortality machine. It made the whole Ponyville immortal. "

" What ?!? " Sif was more confused than ever " You're telling me he made a whole town immortal. But that's outrageous! "

" He did it, because he never wished to lose his friends. " Thor replied, but before he could continie his argue with the godess of war, he heard a familliar laugh. Too close to the one of...

Both Thor and Sif turned around and took their battle stances. Loky was there, wearing his green cape, black vest with  golden ornaments, mostly circles and crescents, his long black mane was falling down the back of his neck. But most importrantly, he still had the Tesseract controlling scepter.  The Tesseract was now in Horsegard's weapon vault, kept from the best Einherjar and the Destroyer, but the scepter was still pretty dangerous. Suddenly Sif realized the reason why so many ponies had supported Loky, instead of turning him back - he had them under his mind control.

" Bravo! You looked hardly through all of the nine realms! So hardly that I almost thought you care about me! " Loky laughed, while flying in the air about 10 feet in front of his brother and Sif.

" I care about you, Loky. " Thor replied, but Sif noticed how he changed the position of his hammer in order to be ready to throw it at any time - just in case.

" Wooo... Love and friendship! " the son of Laufey teased him " The Midgardians have made you soft, my brother. Let me guess - now you are going to call them and use their sunshine and rainbow to turn me good? "

" I wish... but I can't. The Elements were needed. Now they're gone. " Thor frowned, while his brother grinned:

" Oh, yes, i've heard of it. I heard they were having some visitors from a gardener's nightmare and they needed to let their precious magic- soaked Elements in a stone tree. How interesting is that! And how lucky for them to be lacking any major villains now. Perhaps I should pay them a visit. Let's see how are they dealing without them. "

" You forget the Avengers. " Thor noted and Loky obviously got annoyed. The team was Equestria's new defense.

" Oh, right. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was somepony who can really test their true strength? Somepony like me? Well, sadly I haven't got time for them. I nearly forgot I should kill you! " Loky's movements were quick. A normal pony wouldn't be able to dodge the hit. The god pulled a dagger out of his vest and with his mouth threw it at Thor. Luckily, the thunder god expected a simillar move and blocked the deadly flight of the blade with his hammer.

" I wouldn't expect it to be so easy, of course. " Loky commented as he landed

" Probably it would require some magic. "

Without any warning Loky pointed his scepter at Sif and fired a blue bolt. Sif dodged it with her shield and rushed at the god of mischief. She swiped with her sword, but Loky blocked it with is scepter. Than he tried to stab her with the sharp part of it, but the godess of war made a step aside and while Loky still hasn't prepared for another attack smacked him with her shield. The son of Laufey made a few steps back and licked the blood off his lips. He grinned and spoke to her:

" Sif... still good with the sword! Let's see how your agility will help you now! "

A few copies of Loky appeared and surrounded her. Sif knew, that his mirror images, those that weren't real , wouldn't cause any damage to her, but she didn't know which one was real, so she had no choice but to fight as if they were all real.

Although a magician, Loky still knew a thing or two about close quarters combat. He surely knew the godess of war would recognize any small difference between the copies if he didn't give them enough time to mimic his moves, so he took it slowly and all of the copies attacked as one. Thus Sif couldn't tell which one was real. But the slow movements were no match for her and soon the god of deceit was alone again. Sif rolled under him, but Loky guessed her tactic and jumped in the air, while turning around and firing another magical bolt. By this time however Sif was in a kneeling position and protected herself with her shield. Loky created ghost copies once more and attacked with full power, ignoring the fact, that Sif would recognize him, this time he only wanted the copies to distract her the first second after she got up so that he would finally land a succesful hit. He aimed his scepter for her head, while she was looking around, still not seeing the incoming danger, when his brilliant plan was ruined by a lightning.

At the command of his hammer, after the clouds gathered, a lightning struck after the clouds gathere, something unexpected by both Sif and Loky, so it was surprising for both of them, as both fell away after that. Thor instructed the nearest Einherjar to take care of her if she was injured and headed to the place where his brother had fallen.

By the time he reached it Loky was standing, standing on his hindhooves while leaning on his scepter and his grin made his intentions clear. After Thor was near, the god of mischief returned to his normal position. The two of them walked in a circle, without that anypony of them broke the eye contact, since that would give the other an advantage.

" So Thor... how is it on Midgard? I've heard you didn't just stand still while you were there. You travelled through whole two dimensions, you even had to save the past... and that's when that pegasus frenemy of yours broke the connection. I'm very curious what happened afterwards. Did you fail and return to the past and mobilize all forces to stop him when he wouldn't have a chance? " Loky's calm green eyes hid his evil intentions well, but this effect was broken by his words.

" Loky... why won't you ever understand the good side of ponies? " Thor' s answer showed his enormous grief and sadness.

" Because I know none, Odinson! Now prepare to die! " Loky's answer came as quickly as the bolt from his scepter, but Thor managed to block it again.

" You give me no choice, brother. " Thor spoke and the hammer flew towards the good of deceit. Overwhelmed by the fake feeling, that Thor was hit by his attack, because his words kind of sounded like a farewell, instead of defending himself Loky jumped in the air for a finishing move and the result of the mistake soon fell upon him, or more like flew towards him. Carried by the momentum of the magical hammer, Loky crushed in a pine tree 20 feet away and when he fell on the ground, Mjolnir, who nopony but Thor was able to lift, ended up on his chest, holding him on the ground. The fight was over, at least for the god of mischief. Thor and Sif, together with two guards, soon appeared by his side. He summonned the hammer, but a second after it raised from Loky's chest his hooves were bond with magic- restricting chains and his staff was taken away. Loky stood in the front of the Marauders as it moved towards the Bifrost sight.

However, not less interesting as the first in the line was the last one. An untrained eye would of thought him for an oversized Marauder, what the Einherjar took him for. The creature's armour was darker than the one of the most marauders and two curved horns went past his neck. He was wearing a mask with 4 small horns, two on each side and there were more horns on his back and shoulders. He was larger than the Marauders and even taller than the Horsegardians, but nothing seemed too suspicious about him. But if the guards knew who he truly was, they surely wouldn't mishandle him this way, because this was Kurse.

The huge ship was quietly soaring through the space. All of it's inhabitants were asleep, when suddenly an alarm sounded. Inside of the ship, in the control room, red letters shone across different devices, letters from a long forgotten language. In the main room there were two pony- like figures, standing in a vertical position with their heads covered by strange covers. At the sound of the alarms the steel covers split in strands, which went aside, revealing the faces of Malekith the Accursed and his loyal lieutenant Algrim the Strong. They crumbled on the ground and breathed heavily. The sleep was never pleasant. Some other dark Elves, all of them with their muzzles covered by their masks( only malekith and Algrim were allowed not to wear them ) , rushed to help them. Both of them refused and after a minute of heavy breathing and falling they got back on their hooves.

" The Aether has returned, my lord. " Algrim reported to his master, reading the red letters.

" It is in Horsegard. "

" Good. " the Dark Elf ruler approved and demonstrated this with an insidious grin

" Algrim, do me this honour. "

Held by the dark oreol of malekith's magic, a kurse crystal appeared next to Algrim. The lieutenant nodded in responce. it would of been his honour to serve the king. Without any further delay he took a mask, given him by one of the other elves, adjusted it to fit his muzzle, so that the horn can come out, and quickly stabbed the crystal with it. Before the eyes of the Dark Elves he quickly grew in size to become a big beast. Malekith seemed delighted. The ruler commanded quickly:

" The Horsegardians are in Vanaheim. Their victory is certain. Join the line of the prisoners and infiltrate Horsegard from the inside... Kurse. "

The beast nodded in responce and soon vanished from the main room. One of the smaller ships, that reminded a blade of a sword without the handle, flew away from the big T- formed ship. The dark elf quickly commanded something on a language, that only he and his servants understood and after mere seconds the ship vanished.