Life is a pain but that is a part of livng
In a small nondescript suburb in Western Australia, there was a young boy, around thirteen and tall for his age, relatively fit and living quite a simple life.
He was walking back from a comic con. Dressed as Loki Laufeyson from Thor 2 with the actual armored costume and cloak. He was also carrying a wooden carved version of the Teseract sceptre at mid length with a metal blade at the end and an LED in the blue dome. His hair was naturally brown, but he had dyed it black for the occasion and swept it back similarly to how it had been done in the movies.
In short he looked badass and lethal.
Which meant approximately nothing seeing as he got jumped by a group of six people.
Their first move was the edge of a shovel to the back of the head followed by a brick being smashed against his shoulder. The sceptre imitation dropped to the floor.
Falling forwards the boy rolled into a defensive position, already bleeding from the cut in the back of his head. Spinning round he managed to catch the shovel with his uninjured right arm before it swung again, stepping forwards he rammed his injured shoulder into the mans stomach wincing at the pain it caused
Taking the shovel in a one handed grip he swung wildly towards the woman with the brick, she fell almost instantly. He swung again at the man on the floor, crashing the handle over his head, he stopped moving.
The other four charged, though not synchronised and not even slightly ready. They were all to busy looking left and right to make sure they weren't charging alone. So they didn't see the kid move to the left and take the stance of a spearman. The blade of the shovel snapped off of the wooden handle in someones neck leaving a splintered stick in the kids hand. This was in another mans neck before he could actually register. There was no remorse, no sorrow, adrenaline had kicked in and he was a fighter that was inexperienced enough to not even bother with defending himself.
Dragging the stick across he smashed it against one of the remaining two's heads before receiving a crushing blow to his lower back. Collapsing on the ground the stick rolled away from his hands.
he got kicked twice in the ribs. His left arm useless and his right scrabbling for a weapon.
He grinned briefly as his fingers curled around the handle of his sceptre
Rolling quickly he got to his feet his left arm limp at his side but his right held the sceptre a a spear.
The grin that crawled onto his face was psychotic and insane. The streetlight caught his face and made it look something demonic. The unarmed man in front of him scrambled backwards, the look on his face would have translated to something along the lines of 'why did we have to pick this kid? For Gods sake he's taller than any of us!'.
The spear was thrust, the man fell.
As he staggered away the kid reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, you may expect it to have been smashed but hey, it was a Nokia so it was fine. Putting in three zeros he continued to walk, looking over his shoulder at the name of the alleyway he spoke into the phone hiding his pain rather well given the circumstances. Hanging up he continued walking towards his home. just across the street now. He could wait a few minutes for medical help and he didn't want to be in the same ambulance as any of those thugs.
Switch to first person:
(It will probably stay this way for the rest of the story but no promises).
Staggering back to my room I sighed as the pain rolled over me.
I had some problems with my spine, my left shoulder was broken, my left leg was in pain I think it had something to do with the spine problems and to top it off, I was bleeding heavily from the back of my head.
Hell of a fight, I was lucky to be alive, let alone to have won. Good thing I had made the end of my spear sharp.
I reached for the phone next to my bed, fully intending to call an ambulance over to my house. Just before my fingers could close around the phone I blacked out.
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I was honestly surprised to be waking up.
Pulling myself up from the grass floor, the first thing I noticed was that I had use of my left arm. It hurt like hell, yes. But the shoulder was in the right spot and there was no blood. That made me check the back of my head. Again, no injury but still painful. I forced myself to my feet, legs also in pain but less than before and my spine didn't seem like it should be located in the heating system of hell. Looking around I realised I was in a park somewhere, hedged in, night time, full moon overhead...
"What the f@#k!"
The moon was almost unmarked, two or three craters at best. And it was humongous. Taking up about a tenth of the sky.
Sceptre in hand I staggered out of the park, following a stone path. My eyes flitted around some more trying to figure out where I was, there was some stone castle behind me that I couldn't recognise from anywhere. It seemed to be built on some plain somewhere. As I reached the outskirts of the park I had to walk for another hundred metres or so before finding a gap in the hedges. As I walked through I was honestly surprised to find a hedge maze. I continued walking along the path around the maze looking for a sign of someone who I could get directions from.
I spotted an armoured horse standing at a gate that seemed to lead into the castle. Something was off about that picture. There was a spear leaning against the wall, maybe the actual guard was in the guardhouse, but that didn't explain the fact that the horse was standing stock still as though it was the guard. Crazy right? Right?
The horse spotted me, smelt me probably, although I wasn't bleeding anymore my costume was still caked in blood.
It stepped back, to be expected I probably smelt like a kill, then it grabbed actually grabbed the spear and levelled it at me. If that wasn't mind-bending enough it spoke. Spoke! A spear holding voice talking horse standing in front of me looking all the world as though it was prepared to kill me before I got any closer, and he probably knew how to do it if the spear was anything to go by.
"Stop! Do not go any further!"
Raising my hands into the air I dropped the sceptre and did as the horse seemed to be saying.
"What the hell are you anyway?" He (I assumed he was a male thanks to his rather gruff voice) muttered probably in what classified as an 'under his breath' tone.
"Human," I could feel my voice shaking as the spear moved in front of my face. "and you?"
"Earth pony," He said, obviously insulted. "What the hell did you think I was!"
"Hey I don't think I've ever met, or even heard of, a talking earth pony before. Its not my fault I didn't know what you were." I was Fairly certain I had gotten quieter during the sentence.
He seemed to think about that for a few seconds before sighing and speaking, this time in a quieter tone, there still wasn't any emotion though. "Listen, I'm sorry but you're trespassing on royal property. Which is punishable by death, so either I can call someone to escort you to the prison, or I can kill you here. If you go to the prison you can plead innocent and you might get to leave with your life and I'll get the rest of the royal guard to side with you if you don't resist arrest."
Not trusting my voice I nodded. Then seeing his confusion managed to get the words out of my mouth, "I accept arrest."
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Next day, I was in court, there were a lot of other horses here, now I'm no specialist, and I don't claim to be, but I didn't think that wings and horns were actually real life occurrences in horses. But given that I had held a conversation with an armed and armoured stallion last night it didn't take much of a stretch to see Pegasus and Unicorns as real entities.
True to his word there were three uniformed horses on my side of the courtroom, the guard from last night was alone in the witness box and there were two suited horses with law-books sitting in the opposition.
This was all well and good but I still wasn't prepared for the white horse that was about seven feet tall. Most of the other horses would have been around four and a half feet. She had a multicoloured mane that flowed in a wind that didn't seem to actually be there, she had wings, and a horn.
'Yep, definitely the ruler.' I thought.
No one else seemed to notice but there was a dark horse with a blue mane that came out behind her, she seemed to be almost hiding. But there was an expression on her face that looked like it could have been anger, but I am no good with horse expressions so I don't know.
Rolling my wrists in the cuffs I readied myself for what was almost guaranteed to be a boring court case.
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Three hours later I was right. It had been rather uneventful, I'd been charged with minor trespassing and been sentenced one week in a 'soul cell'. When I had asked what a soul cell was the guard who had 'captured' me had explained that it was a cage that has a spell cast on it that shuts down biological functions so you don't age, don't need food, don't need water, and don't even need to breathe. But your mind is left conscious so you can 'contemplate why you're there'. Completely harmless. I sighed as I walked with the guards towards the jail entrance. My wrists still cuffed. They led me through the castle and past the detention area I had been in last night. We reached the main cells. Clean as anything. Seriously, they were boxes of white light with a gold window of energy taking the place of the bars. Several other horses and other creatures were locked up in the cells they could move around and didn't seem to be in the 'soul cells' they had mentioned. I was put into one of the cells, the gold light came across the doorway, and I was told to get comfortable. My sceptre which had somehow become metal during my trip to the cells was put in the belongings box along with my cloak.
I sat in the corner of the room, shoulders braced against the two walls ass on the floor.
The unicorn guard that had escorted me to the cell called began in a monotone. "You have been sentenced to one hundred and sixty eight hours of soul cell imprisonment, you will be released from movement constriction once the time is up, and released from the biological spells once you physically exit the cell. We apologise in advance if you are kept within the cell itself longer than the time of punishment lasts, we may be late retrieving you." As he finished speaking a blue light encompassed his horn and I lost my ability to move, my eyes were fixed on the clock and I could see the seconds ticking away, strangely my eyes seemed to be remaining moist.
Three days went by and nothing changed, those in the cells around me gave me a few weird looks but nothing actually happened.
Five days. There had been a bit of noise on the surface, but I just thought it was a parade or something. We didn't see any guards after that.
Six days. I was getting a little stir crazy, if I didn't move soon then I was certain I was going to lose it or go mad or whatever you call it.
Seven days. Looking at the timer I had to keep myself sane with nothing but the mantra of 'seven hours to go, six and a half hours to go, six hours to go...'
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The timer ran out and I rolled my shoulders standing up straight in my cell, I was surprisingly not cramped. You would think sitting incapable of movement for seven days would drive anyone crazy but I was patient. Admittedly I had gotten a bit looney during the last two days but that had faded as soon as I could move again. Walking up to the cell door I poked the golden 'window'.
"F@#K!" I roared as I snapped my hand back from it, my fingers already blistering. After several minutes of quiet cursing I calmed myself down before muttering under my breath. "Well that didn't work."
I didn't expect a reply but I got one anyway, looking to my right I saw a black and gold unicorn just sat in the centre of the cell to my left. "Why do you think none of us do that?"
"Maybe because you have an understanding of how the cells work?" I realised I was being sarcastic, but he was being purposefully annoying!
Several years later, everyone around me had starved and died. The guards had never shown up. I was for all intents and purposes immortal and left on my own in a cell with a spear a cloak and no means of leaving. During my boredom I discovered that I could cause images to appear, though I wasn't entirely certain that wasn't just my hallucinating.
With nothing better to do I spent the rest of time honing my 'skills'.
I also did a lot of mock combat with my spear. I discovered accidentally that I could summon fire, and seemed to have an endless array of knives in my pocket.
Conclusion: I had somehow gained the powers of the god of mischief Loki Laufeyson. Or I had gone mad. I preferred the first option, but the second was more likely.
So what to do with unending time and infinite knives? Simple. Target practice. Creating the illusion of a dartboard on the wall I stood at the opposite end of the cell and threw knife after knife after knife until the whole wall was covered. Then I retrieved all the knives and returned them to the bottomless clip of a pocket I had. Even this eventually got boring, so I fell to combining the two, lighting the knives on fire before throwing them. This was fun, but then I realised that I could rig the fire to explode on impact. This lasted a good few years of fun. Eventually though, even that got boring. I moved to spear-work again and the cycle continued for centuries.
After that I began trying to sing. Summoning a microphone and recording along with some paper and a pen.
I wrote down a song first. It was a sad song and I swear I had gotten it from somewhere other than my imagination:
Yesterday I died, tomorrow's bleeding. Fall into your sunlight.
The future's open wide, beyond believing. To know why, hope dies.
Losing what was found, a world so hollow.
Suspended in a compromise.
The silence of this sound, is soon to follow.
Somehow, sundown.
And finding answers.
Is forgetting all of the questions we called home.
Passing the graves of the unknown.
As reason clouds my eyes, with splendour fading.
Illusions of the sunlight.
And a reflection of a lie, will keep me waiting.
With love gone, for so long.
And this day's ending.
Is the proof of time killing, all the faith I know.
Knowing that faith, is all I hold.
And I've lost who I am, and I can't understand.
Why my heart is so broken, rejecting your love, without, love gone wrong, lifeless words carry on.
But I know, all I know, is that the end's beginning.
Who I am from the start, take me home to my heart.
Let me go and I will run, I will not be silent.
All this time spent in vain, wasted years, wasted gain.
All is lost, hope remains, and this war's not over.
There's a light, there's the sun, taking all shattered ones.
And I've lost who I am, and I can't understand!
Why my heart is so broken, rejecting your love, without, love gone wrong, lifeless words carry on!
But I know, all I know, is that the end's beginning!
Who I am from the start, take me home to my heart!
Let me go and I will run, I will not be silent!
All this time spent in vain, wasted years, wasted gain!
All is lost, hope remains, and this war's not over!
There's a light, there's the sun, taking all shattered ones!
Yesterday I died, tomorrow's bleeding.
Fall into your sunlight.
Then I tried to sing it, recording it. I thought I did okay but when i listened to it, gods I sounded horrible. I kept trying for years until I had perfect control of my vocal chords. When I sung it was harmonic and beautiful. Narcissistic, yes. Inaccurate? I'm afraid not.
I tried other songs and it took up centuries but even then it eventually got boring.
Oh how I longed for conversation.
Years later I was given something interesting. Not the conversation I wanted, but something arguably better. Freedom!
Freedom from the boring plain white room with the golden laser window. It came in the form of a lighting bolt to the indestructible wall of the cell. Easy to get in, hard to get out. Walking to the edge of the hole in the wall I looked down to see a several hundred metre drop, looked up to see a cliff face that became the wall of the castle. Turning back into the room I retrieved my sceptre from the corner it was leaned up in. I walked back to the hole in the wall looked up. Pulling two knives out of my pockets I held them in a reverse grip coating the blades in green fire I began using them as climbing hooks. Stab pull, stab pull pullout, stab pull pullout. That was the procedure for several minutes as I climbed up the side of the cliff. When I reached the castle I started looking for a window to enter through. It didn't take long. Smashing it with the knife in my hand I rolled through the new hole in the wall. Returning to my feet I began walking. I was only mildly surprised to find the place abandoned. when I reached the courtyard I laughed at how overgrown it was. The sceptre in my right hand I swung my left, burning the three metre grass to a crisp in seconds. Continuing on I left the abandoned castle behind and made my way towards the chasm I had found during my 'escape'.
'Be a shame if everything's extinct.' I thought bitterly.
Once I reached the chasm I spotted a bridge about five hundred metres away.
Closing my eyes I began focusing, I had never tried this with a distance greater than five metres. When I had tried to use it to get out of the cell I was dumped back in it, burning like I had just run headfirst into the barrier. I felt the burst of power and when I opened my eyes I found myself standing next to the bridge I had been looking at. There was a purple mist on the other side, moving towards me very quickly. I barely had time to register before I was thrown backwards and the ropes holding the bridge up on my side undid themselves. Rolling to my feet I clutched the sceptre and fired a blast of energy at the purple mist. Unfortunately I missed. Sighing I imagined myself on the other side of the chasm and poof I was there.
Narrowing my eyes I thought. 'That should have been more difficult...'.
I looked to the sceptre to find that it was glowing vibrantly. 'Maybe I took the energy from this?'
It didn't matter. There was a rough hewn path before me, I had to assume it led to somewhere. Taking off at a sprint I flew across the dirt path faster than I ever remember having moved before.
'Seriously, I think I'm kicking up a literal storm here!'
A song came into my head and I began to sing, I don't know why. It just felt right.
"I'm alive!
Alive!
So you were six feet underneath me, I felt a pulse I swear you moved.
And digging deep deep down I recognised, just how much you had to lose.
And if you wanna get outa here. (wanna get outa here.)
Save yourself!
But you'll never get anywhere. (Never get anywhere.)
Not without my help.
(Say it with me.)
I'm alive, I'm alive! When you're dead inside!
I'm a slap in the face, to your lullaby!
Got you all tongue tied cause you're living a lie my friend!
Say it with me? I'm alive I'm alive!
When you're dead inside!
I'm your wakeup call and you know I'm right!
So make a move, let it bleed, take your heart off your sleeve.
But I'm the only one who's gonna save your life!
I'm the one whose gonna save your life!
(I'm the one whose gonna save your life!)
(I'm the one whose gonna save your life!)
So how far did you go for shelter?
How long did it take you to find?
A place to sell your providence and to pawn your piece of mind?
And if you wanna get outa here. (wanna get outa here.)
Save yourself!
But you'll never get anywhere. (Never get anywhere.)
Not without my help.
(Say it with me.)
I'm alive, I'm alive! When you're dead inside!
I'm a slap in the face, to your lullaby!
Got you all tongue tied cause you're living a lie my friend!
Say it with me? I'm alive I'm alive!
When you're dead inside!
I'm your wakeup call and you know I'm right!
So make a move, let it bleed, take your heart off your sleeve.
But I'm the only one who's gonna save your life!
I'm the one whose gonna save your life!
(I'm the one whose gonna save your life!)
I'm the one whose gonna!
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
Whoa! Oh! Oh!
Whoa! Oh! Oh!
Whoa! Oh! Oh!
I'm alive, I'm alive! When you're dead inside!
I'm a slap in the face, to your lullaby!
Got you all tongue tied cause you're living a lie my friend!
Say it with me? I'm alive I'm alive!
When you're dead inside!
I'm your wakeup call and you know I'm right!
So make a move, let it bleed, take your heart off your sleeve.
But I'm the only one who's gonna save your life!
I'm the one whose gonna save your life!
(I'm the one whose gonna save your life!)
I'm!The!One!Whose!Gonna!Save!Your!Life!"
I stopped short as I heard the sound of another song, this one seemed to have a much lighter tune and seemed to be meant to cheer people up.
As I skidded to a stop, (Actually skidded, turned, right foot forwards, left foot back, continuing on for several metres pushing a mound of dirt in front of me and everything.) I found myself facing a group of technicolor horses.
The pink one seemed to be teleporting as she sung.
Deciding that I wanted as little to do with the insanity as possible I decided I would ask for directions and leave. If they tried to stop me I would teleport and if it came down to it, I was holding a sceptre and armed with knives.
"Excuse me, but how would I go about getting to the nearest town?"
At least that was what I tried to say.
I got to about the second word before I was met with a chorus of screams.
The yellow furred pink maned pegasus jumped behind a bush.
The orange furred blonde maned regular took a defensive stance.
The purple furred Blue red and purple maned unicorn charged up her horn and span to face me.
The White furred Purple maned unicorn fainted, then jumped up from the floor and screamed.
The blued furred and rainbow maned pegasus bolted into the air and seemed ready to pounce.
And then the pink horse that had been singing earlier just seemed to rise up out of the ground in front of me and began talking, and I kid you not, at ten words a second.
"JDFGOUHJPUEHFPUDHGPOUHWgFIHDOIYsdOIvjgwueaiusfgkadshfoiguhignajgoghaiugurhmUNPIUHewFONOIYn!!!!ThigkhuhWiligjhBehweuSofhuMucgFUN!!!"
I blinked and then decided to try and talk to one of the 'sane' ones.
"Is she alright?" I asked gesturing to where the yellow pegasus had hidden.
The white unicorn trotted over and stuck her head out from behind the bush before speaking in a ridiculously posh voice. "Just a bit scared by your sudden appearance is all." She seemed to be slightly accusing.
"Can she come out?" Realising this probably sounded suspicious I continued. "I'd like to apologise."
"The white unicorn turned back to the bushes. A couple of seconds later the pegasus came out from behind the bush.
Dropping down to my knees I brought myself to just below her height. Even so she seemed scared.
"I'm sorry for scaring you, I didn't mean to. Can you forgive me?"
She nodded.
I tried to smile endearingly my mind scrambling furiously for my name, glancing down at my armour the smile became sincere as I remembered the name associated with what I was wearing. "I'm Loki, Who are you?"
Her voice was too quiet for me to hear but I could still somehow understand what she was saying. "I'm Fluttershy."
"Fluttershy? Thats a nice name."
Again her voice was a little louder this time. "Loki's a nice name too."
My reply was genuine. "Heh. Thanks."
After that everyone was strangely more welcoming of me.
"I'm Rainbow Dash! Fastest flier in Equestria!" I stepped back as the blue pegasus swooped in in front of me, hovering at my head height. I wasn't that much taller than them, but 4 and a half feet does look awfully small when you're standing next to someone who's six foot two. I supposed that if they stood on their rear hooves they would probably be taller than me. All this passed though my head and I began without thinking. "Do you really want to compete titles?" I wanted to take it back, but hey I had started and what sort of person was I if I didn't follow through.
Her reply wasn't angry, no it seemed to be suggesting friendly competition. "Yeah. What've you got?"
"Lets hear you first." I replied smiling confidently whilst my mind scrambled for any titles I could remember.
"Youngest pony ever to perform a sonic-rainboom!" She began grinning like a king. "Coolest pony by twenty percent! And Fastest flyer in all of Equestria!"
"Probably the loudest too." I grinnedat her insulted face. "Right, lets see, Prince Loki, Lye-smith, Fire lord, God of lies and god of mischief."
Her face was perfect.
"You're a god!?!"
"Of sorts." I smirked. "Anyhow, I don't believe I've met any of your friends?" It was a statement as well as a question.
The orange furred, blonde haired regular was the first to reply. "I'm Applejack Smith, pleasure to make your acquaintance sir." She bowed slightly, obviously because I had just stated myself both a king and a god.
Rushing the words and trying not to sound panicked at the prospect of special treatment because I was a 'higher class' I interupted the next one with the words. "There's no need to bow! Or call me sir or give me any extra rights just because I'm a god." They obviously hadn't expected that, except perhaps the purple unicorn, who just so happened to speak next.
"Glad to hear it, I'm Twilight Sparkle by the way." She was... confident but there were still nerves behind the facade. I nodded and the white unicorn spoke next. "I'm Rarity Belle. Pleasure to meet royalty." She curtsied slightly.
"Please don't, it makes me feel awkward." Before I could continue, or Rarity could reply, there was a ball of pink joy in my face.
"I'm Pinkie Pie! Are you any good at singing because I think I heard you singing earlier, the song was a bit dark though! But you're nice, and so was the song, the lyrics were just a bit mean. Do you wanna be my friend? i would love having a new friend! Ooh! Ooh! I could even throw you a welcome to Ponyville party! Do you think that would be fun? What are you anyway?" She finally stopped.
Slowly I began to answer her questions. "Yes that was me singing earlier, I don't think I'm that good though, not bad just not good. I would love to be your friend and I think a party would be great. I'm a..." For some reason my brain couldn't decide what I was meant to say. Then it hit me, it should have been obvious. "An Asgardian. Now what were you all doing in the forest?"
Twilight was the first to reply. "Trying to track down the elements of harmony so we can stop Nightmare Moon."
"Nightmare Moon?"
Rarity was surprisingly the one to pick up the story. "An evil alicorn trying to bring about eternal night."
"Ah. I can see how that could be a problem." I replied my mind running over the amplifications. "How long has it gone for?"
"What?" Rainbow asked.
"Turning to face her I spoke again. "The night, the lack of sunlight. Have crops begun failing yet? Are we staring at starvation and just now trying to fix it? Or is this a reaction to her first move?"
Clearly none of them had thought about the problems a sunless eternity could cause them. Twilight's voice was shaking when she replied. "Just this morning, not even a few hours ago."
"So a straight up first reaction then? No long lasting damage to the planet as of yet?"
"Not that we know of."
"Good, do we know where these 'elements of harmony' are?" I began trying to create a strategy without realising it.
"In the old castle of the Everfree. It's supposed to be further down this path." Twilight and the others began trotting along again. I began running, the blue pegasus took to the skies and the others increased speed to keep up with me.
"Big stone castle," I asked. "Abandoned for ages and used to be the royal palace?"
"That sounds like it, why?" Fluttershy asked.
Smiling grimly I revealed a rather desolate fact. "Because there is only one bridge across a humongous chasm to it, and it got cut whilst I was attempting to cross it." Nodding to Rainbow and Fluttershy I continued. "You two should be fine for obvious reasons, but as for you four. I can teleport but I don't know if I can bring any of you with me."
"Unsure of yourself?" Rainbow asked obviously thinking she had found something to tease me about.
My response broke that away to nothing. "No, just never had the chance or reason to try teleporting another living being before."
We continued running for several hundred metres before the wolves leapt at us.
So what did you think? Next update should be within the next couple of weeks, please leave some feedback on what I missed, I haven't got a proofreader yet so if you find a mistake please tell me.
I do not own MLPFIM nor do I own Marvel. The songs where Shattered by Trading yesterday and I'm Alive by Shinedown.
See you sometime within the next four weeks.
