Nine Realms

Now, waking up in a strange place was nothing new to Twilight and her friends at this point. In fact, if they were being perfectly honest, they were actually starting to acclimatize to it a little bit, having far less of a headache this time around than they did when they first arrived in Midgard or Jotunheim. But, what made this experience worse was that it was also accompanied by some sort of regular banging sound from nearby. Metal on metal, and it echoed through their skulls, leading to more than a few disgruntled moans as they got themselves up from the floor.

"Okay...where are we this time?" Spike asked.

Twilight, taking a moment to rub her temples, stopped to have a look around. It was a small and enclosed space, like some sort of closet, with the rune-engraved stone they’d used for transportation just unceremoniously dumped in the middle of it. It was also fairly close together, leading to a sense of being rather cramped for all concerned. Wherever they were, they were already inside some building somewhere, and as such, Twilight made her way over to what appeared to be a door, gently pushing it open.

"There's...a little bit more light out here."

The others nodded, and followed her out as she began to push the door open in earnest. As they left that closet, or whatever it was, they found themselves in a far larger room. It was some kind of storehouse, with the walls lined with row upon row of weaponry. Shields, swords, axes, you named it. There was no kind of melee weapon one could imagine that wasn't here in some form. Naturally, it drew Rainbow's attention immediately, and she flew over to look at some of them.

"Neat. What, we around some soldiers or something?"

Rarity, who now also walked closer to the displayed weapons, looked them over with her ever-critical eye before letting out a brief "hmmm".

"Well, wherever we are, these are some fine creations. I mean, I may not be much of a weapon person myself, but I know something well-built when I see it."

Curious, Twilight went over to see what her alabaster friend was talking about. Sure enough, there did indeed appear to be a great deal of fine craftsmanship on display with these weapons. Gold lining in the hilt, perfectly-sharpened blades, a good deal of decorative runes to them. They seemed to be of a far higher class than the weapons they'd seen by others during their travels through the other realms. Whoever, or whatever had made these things, they knew their stuff. But, the young Princess could not dwell on that right now, as she was instead focused upon that ever-present banging sound from nearby. Glancing around, she looked to yet another door, taking a few steps towards it before narrowing her eyes.

"I think...there's somebody out there."

Walking beside her, Applejack took on a more serious expression.

"So...what do we do?"

Twilight considered that, only to be kept from doing so when, all of a sudden, the knob of that door began to turn. In an instant, the alicorn panicked, and gestured to her friends to retreat back into the closet they’d just come from. Thankfully, her friends didn't need to be told twice, and so rushed back in, with Twilight closing the door behind her just enough so that she could see what was going on out there in the weapon room. She watched the other door slowly creak open, and then, from the other side, a new being, one she'd never seen before, started to enter. It was generally human in shape, but far shorter. In fact, it was probably short enough to actually look Twilight and her friends right in the eye. But this newcomer, a male, was stocky in his build, and was clad in garb not dissimilar to that of the humans of Midgard. His beard was a dark brown, and braided heavily, which was something Pinkie couldn't help but comment on.

"Okay, seriously, what is it with people and beards in these realms?!"

Of course, the others gave her a quick "shhh" to that, before settling their gaze once more on the diminutive figure on the other side of the door. They couldn't hear everything, but they could heard that he sounded rather unhappy right now, as he grumbled all the way to one of the walls where the weapons were stored.

"Do this, Fafnir! Do that, Fafnir! I swear, one of these days..."

But, as they watched this, the ponies failed to note Fluttershy backing her way to the wall at the rear of the closet. And then, as soon as she'd done so, she let out a brief "eep" sound. Instantly, she covered her mouth from having reached it, but the damage had already been done. This stranger, Fafnir, turned, his eyes narrowing at the closet.

"Whoever's in there...come on out!"

Twilight knew there was little point in hiding now, and so, after taking a deep breath, she opened the door, revealing herself and her friends. There was a tense moment between them all, as Fafnir regarded them all carefully. Twilight, for her part, could only think to give a little wave right now, which only served to elicit another grumble from the short man before them.

"Ugh! Great! And now, on top of everything else, we've got intruders from Jotunheim!"

He turned, ready to rush out of the door and, presumably, call for reinforcements. But Twilight, reaching out her hoof, called to him.

"Wait!"

Fafnir stopped, looking to them with incredulity, but he said nothing as Twilight continued.

"Sir...I assure you, we're not your enemies. Yes, we've just come from Jotunheim, but we passed through there on our journey. We're from a land called Equestria, and..."

She paused, taking a moment to look to her friends, before looking back to Fafnir.

"...and we're trying to get back."

Fafnir, for his part, seemed wary of that story, but as he continued to look on at Twilight's soft expression, he began to lower his defences somewhat. After a while, he let out a sigh, raising a hand and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I'm gonna get an earful for this. Fine!"

He gestured to the other nearby door.

"Come with me The King will want to see you."

Twilight, hopeful that an avenue of diplomacy had been opened to them, smiled to this, giving a quick bow of her head.

"Thank you, Mr Fafnir."

Fafnir himself rolled his eyes, then started to walk back to the aforementioned door. But, as he opened it, he stopped, looking back to the ponies.

"Oh, and for what it's worth...welcome to Nidavellir."