A new world!

Lyra literally had no words when Thor took her with him up the Bifrost. It was amazing! Though they were travelling very fast, she could see all the celestial objects she once witnessed through her telescope from up close. But this didn't last very long, since soon the galaxy her world was in was nothing more than a swirled star cloud was parseks behind her, and new stars and constellations, ones, that she had never seen before, were revealed around her. Soon they enetered another galaxy and it wasn't long before she found herself in a strange circular room with an armoured pegasus standing in the middle, with a big sword stuck in the platform he was standing on. The unicorn looked around her and noticed she and Thor had come from a strange glass beak with metal framing. On the inside of the golden room there were tooth wheels of different size.

" Vanaheim, Heimdall. " Thor turned to the brown stallion. He pushed Lyra aside and told her:

" Be careful until I return. Some Horsegardians aren't overfond of ponies from your realm. "

" So... what do I do? Do I stay with... "

" Heimdall. " her love interest ended her doubt about the vigilant's name.

" He's friendly. Yes, I think it wuld be a good idea. "

Thor instructed her to stand aside while he was being sent to the other realm. He returned to the point where they initially stood and nodded to the pegasus with the golden armour. He nodded back and stuck his sword even deeper in the platform. White light filled the beak, and it looked like Thor's image was being blurred and sucked into the light, until finally he dissapeared. The pony removed the sword from the hole, the gears on the walls spun and the beak moved, ending up on the ceiling.

This whole thing was a bit to much to handle for a first visit in Horsegard, but Lyra succeeded to keep her excitement contained and not constantly gawk at the room, and instead tried to learn something more from Thor's friend:

" Hello! " she spoke unsurely.

" Hello. " he replied with a calm voice. The guardian of Horsegard didn't look like a pony who was affected by the surroundings. The perfect guardian, only focused over his task.

" I'm... "

" I know who you are. " the pegasus interrupted her.

" Oh. Does Thor mention me sometimes? " Lyra hoped, that her love interest hadn't forgotten her until today.

" A day doesn't pass without him coming to ask me what are you doing. " a small sign of humor sneaked into the voice of the observer of the nine realms.

" Wow! " Lyra surely didn't expect such care and interest from the god.

" I would never guess! "

" Many ponies of his family were concerned about that. The Allfather thinks a king should only focus over his own world. " Heimdall answered her.

" The Allfather is...? " all of this Horsegardian therminology was new for the unicorn.

" Odin Allfather is the king of Horsegard and my king as well. "  the pegasus noted.

Lyra felt, that the conversation was getting rather monotonous, so instead of asking more questions about the realm she wouldn't fully understand either way, she just stood on the exit of the " Observatory" and watched.

She never imagined there were mountains in Horsegard, however there were, rising high and surrounding the huge city from all sides but towards the Observatory, on which two sides the unicorn could see the vast lake, surrounding the Hornburg, as she remembered Thor saying, if that was the name of the city, pouring it's waters out of this world, to the infinity of the stars bellow. The structures were magnificent, and in the center of all, on the end of the rainbow path, stood the golden palace, consisted of something like pipes, or at least so they looked to Lyra. She gasped as she walked out of the Observatory and looked at all of these wonders.

" Horsegard seems to have such an effect on all Midgardians. " she heard Heimdall speaking from the inside of the room. Curious what he ment, she turned around and walked back to him.

" What do you mean? Other ponies were here too? " she glared at him with a questioning gaze.

" Yes. It wasn't too long ago. " the vigilant confirmed.

" A group of 12 + ponies, including the former benders of the Elements of Harmony and Thor... "

" What do you mean by former? " since Lyra wasn't in Ponyville when the Everfree went wild, she knew nothing of this accident, so Heimdall had to tell her about it.

" How do you know about that? I thought you have never left Horsegard! " Lyra was completely confused.

" You forget, that I see everything in all of the 9 realms. Only an extremely powerful spell could conceal something from my gaze. " Heimdall replied to her.

" Than... how couldn't you see me? Was it so serious? " the unicorn mused out loud.

" What was so serious? " the guardian, that didn't move until this moment, came down from the platform and his golden eyes locked with Lyra's.

Lyra became very concerned. She gulped and made a few steps back, saying the vigilant of Horsegard what has happened:

" Well... " she muttered.

" I was researching a very interesting gravitational anomaly. By the way, do you know what might have caused it? "

" The Convergence. " the stallion replied and refused to give Lyra further information, until he learned what had happenned.

" I was suddenly sucked into another place, or even another realm, maybe. It was very dark and the place had Horsegardian architecture, but the most interesting thing was between two big rocks, the lower on the same platform I was standing on. It was a strange, moving liquid, coloured black and red. It moved towards me very fast and I thought it was hostile, but when I opened my eyes again after I had closed them from shock, it was gone. So later I..."

" You're not safe here. " the brown pegasus warned her and went out of the room. A second later he returned with two guards with strange armour.

" Try her. " he ordered them. The guards nodded and suddenly, completely unexpected to Lyra, they swung their swords at her. They glew in blue, but a second before they hit her they hid behind their shield.

A powerful surge of magic, coloured in black and red, was released from Lyra, that threw her on the ground. Luckily, nopony else fell, since Heimdall had also hidden behind the shields of the guards. The shields shone with the same light as the swords before, but even with the magical protection, they were pushed all the way to the exit.

" There is exterior magic inside of you. It might turn out to be more than you can handle. " Heimdall noted, after he got out from behind the shields.

" Take her with you. She must speak with the Allfather. " he turned to the guards.

" Wait, Thor said I should wait here! " Lyra protested.

" Do you have any idea what's inside of you? " Heimdall asked.

" No. " the surprised mare replied.

" Do you? " she turned to the him.

" Sadly, no. " the guardian frowned.

" Only the Allfather will know. "

Two of the guards stood on Lyra's side and she realized there was no choice, but to move it. Anyway, she was partially grateful for that, since this way she'd be able to take a closer look at Horsegard.

As they walked on the rainbow path, the mint-green unicorn constantly divided herself from the two Einherjar, gasping at the different sights of the Citadel of the Gods. The two stallions chuckled while waiting her, but showed no sign of protest, even when Lyra started asking them about all the different aspects of Horsegard.

" What is that thing's purpose " she asked, looking at a high tower with something, that resembled a crossbow on its top. However it was a lot longer and became thinner at the top, instead of spreading, like how it would have been if it was a crossbow. The mare couldn't find out more about the device's construction, since the both sides of it were covered in long metal pannels.

" We use this energy turret and all of it's alikes, spread everywhere in Horsegard, " The guard swung with his hoof, showing the massive city there were nearing. From what she had understood from Thor's stories, Lyra always imagined Horsegard as a lonely world with only the Hornburg and the Bifrost on it, but actually it was a civilized world, and the Hornburg was surrounded by a big town, whose borders they were nearing. The rainbow path went over it, straight to the gates of the huge building, the Hornburg.

" , to defend Horsegard from attacks. There haven't been much recently - there was some ice giant problem 4 years ago, but it was minor and the turrets didn't get in use. In fact, I've never seen them in action, but I'm sure they work. " the Einherjar finished his sentence.

Suddenly, a raven landed just in their way. The two guards kneeled and lowered their heads, placing their weapons on the ground. Lyra looked at them with confusion, and than walked to the raven and spoke:

" Shoo! "

The raven just tilted his head to the left side and looked at her, as if she was doing something very stupid and for a moment Lyra realized she might be actually doing something stupid.

" This is either Hugin or Munin! What are you doing? They are mentally connected to the Allfather! " one of the guards whispered and instructed her to kneel. But before she could do so the raven flew away and instead the guards came back on their hooves.

" Sorry. " she apologised to the guards, but they just smiled weakly:

" I think he'd understand. After all, most ravens are birds, who can be "shoo" ed away, but these two should not be threated like that. But concidering the fact, that you're a Midgardian, I think he'd understand. "

Than suddenly their march was stopped by yet another obstacle, but this time a lot bigger: it was a big boat with two metal wings on its two sides. As it stopped in mid- air, the wings, which formerly went back, went up and the ship slowly descended on the path. Another guard jumped from inside and spoke:

" The Allfather wishes to speak with the pony from Midgard. "

Since she noticed the two metal rods with holes on their top, who concerningly resembled weapons, Lyra thought it would be best to follow the Allfather's orders. She got aboard the flying boat and the two guards, who accompanied her by so far, saluted, using an unfamilliar metod. The mint- green mare tried to reply with the same salute, but nearly fell off her hooves. The two guards smiled again, while the pilot of the boat showed her how to salute the Horsegardian way. After she tried for the second time, it looked good, so she could hear the two guards clapping, while the boat was flying towards the Hornburg.