Twilight’s heart pounded like a drum as she rocketed towards Sköll, the magic of the Æsir sparking off her every so often like purple flares and carving a blazing path through the fog bank.

Something… something moved just out of her field of vision. Something black, canine shaped. Twilight’s eyes narrowed. Sköll. It could be none other. Then she heard it.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Beating out a crescendo of noise that seemed to fill the air around her. The low drumbeat-like sound continued to echo.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Twilight’s eyes widened in realization at what it had to be. A heartbeat, belong to something much larger than herself. Her whole body shuddered, quivered in fear as her thoughts ran wild. Was this really such a good idea, she wondered. Sure, she felt the power and the might of the Æsir coursing through her very veins making her whole body feel awash with power, but Sköll… He was much larger than she and had far more experience thanks to his years.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

There it came again. That awful, horrendous sound. Twilight shuddered in spite of herself.

“So… Your mind is made up, youngling?” Sköll’s voice —his echoing, thundering voice— boomed out as cold air gripped Twilight from talon to horns. “You still seek to challenge me, young lindworm?”

He laughed once more, a horrible sound resembling that of a hurricane. Below the fog bank, ruined villages could be seen. It was as if a massive claw had carved a path through the longboats and homes and rendered them to ruin.

“Well, I must give credit where it is due. You are a brave one. A stubborn one. Possibly the most stubborn little lindworm I’ve ever seen in ages! Perhaps even more so than your mother!”

Twilight’s eyes widened in shock, and she briefly froze in place.

“Y-You… You know of my mother…?” she whispered.

“Oh yes. She would always try and fight the cold. To fight my embrace. Believing that, through conquering adversity she would find completeness, and that her young would be able to rise to any challenge placed before them,” he stated, seething yellow lamp-like eyes glaring into Twilight. “Sadly, she played the odds one too many times, and look where it got her. I had to send her away from this land. I did not want to, you understand. She was a good friend, with a heart as warm as the sun. Celestia… she, in fact, convinced me to ask out my future wife. But this was not her land, it was mine. Now you, the offspring destined to overcome those very same odds stand before me. But why do you fight me? To fight what has been preordained? Surely, you must know that if I do not bring Ragnarök, then another god will. There is no stopping it.”

“Is that what the mortals say, or is that what you believe?” Twilight asked of Sköll. “Are you just following what the myths and legends tell you to because they tell you it is what you must do, or are you doing this because you want to?” she asked. “Sköll, I’ve come to bargain! Leave the mortals alone, and I promise you, I will get the Æsir to believe you are not a threat and oblige your marriage with Sól!” Twilight explained.

“As much as I would appreciate a clear name, The Allfather would never believe you. You are a simple dragon. To talk to the gods is a holy and divine blessing, not a negotiation to prove that someone is not evil,” Sköll turned away. “I appreciate your efforts, but the Allfather and his followers will never listen to you. If anything, they might sentence you for speaking heresy of one of their own. You don’t want to end up like Hel did, the offspring of the God of Mischief himself?”

“No, but I have spoken with both Sól and Thor, and Thor actually agrees to your marriage!” Twilight pleaded. “He blesses it!”

“If you want me to stop, then prove Odin wrong. Change the Allfather’s mind. That is... if he will even want to speak with a drake from the mortal world…” He turned his back to Twilight. “If you can pull off this miracle, I will cease harming mortals.”

“I… I cannot,” Twilight admitted. “At least not right now...”

Inwardly, she doubted Odin would even want to speak with her, given she’d made bargains with Fenrir to try and regain some knowledge of her past.

“Do you know the definition of honour, Twilight Sparkle?” Sköll asked. “Honour, is to be recognised for what you do, to be appraised for what you do, and evaluated on everything you do. If I am to gain honour in a life of destruction and heartbreak, then I shall do it.”

“Honor! That also means to give adherence to what is right or to a conventional standard of conduct! This, if anything is anything but honorable! This is just rampaging against the mortals, for telling stories about you!” Twilight pleaded, hot tears staining her cheeks. “Please… Sköll, don’t prove to the mortals you are every bit the monster they say you are!”

“It is too late for that. Odin has decided I am a monster. The Allfather demands my death. And you are his messenger. His assassin from the throne of Valhalla,” Sköll turned back, the winds whipping up as he bore his fangs toward her. Suddenly, Twilight realized how bearing the magic of the Æsir must look to him. “That is my fate. My fate is to die at the hands of a god. Or rather. A god’s puppet. If you are to kill me, Odin will pardon your crimes for conspiring with my son. If not, at least you have validated his point, proved his stubbornness is the only way to rule a pantheon.”

“So… That’s how it is… is it?” Twilight whispered. “I… I just wanted to let you know I tried to reason, tried to talk. But as it seems you want nothing to do with me, and just want to be a monster. So it means I must play the role you have given me… Sköll, son of Fenrir, the fame-wolf and the fen-dweller. I must play the role of the dragon who stops the monster.” she laughed bitterly. “Ironic isn’t it? For years, we dragons were always the ones doing the pillaging, and now… I must save everyone from someone doing just exactly that!” she whispered sadly with Sköll nodding in agreement and looking away briefly in shame.

“Truer are the words of Odin. To let evil be cleansed by holy pyre, led by the hands of Valkyries or noble heroes. There is to be only good in this world. To let the balance tip over and let Odin reign supreme in a world governed with nothing but light, completely expelling any and all who do not fall within that category,” Skoll howled, the skies darkening all the while. “If that is to be the case, then I will stop Odin’s words from poisoning his fellow gods and mortals. I will save everyone from the Allfather’s wrath…”

As Sköll and Twilight went to battle, purple flames lighting up the afternoon skies Gilda flew towards the site of battle, wings spurred onwards by a force she couldn’t quite understand and heart pounding like a drum. Why she was heading towards this fight, she didn’t know. Maybe it was guilt, for abandoning Twilight and telling her how she was only a means to an end the night before or maybe it was something else. She wasn’t sure.

The battle was easily visible even though a thick fog bank. Flashes of purple and white flame were visible in the distance, and Gilda could have sworn her eyesight was better than it usually was. She could make out a small figure darting to avoid massive claw strikes, then igniting the claws with purple flame. The residue left over from each strike coated the ground, causing all sorts of havoc for the land below.

“Twilight…” the griffon then whispered, just dodging ice shards sent her away by Sköll, who seemed determined to keep her away from the battle.

“Stop young one,” the monster wolf’s voice rang out in her head. “I will not have any more caught up in this battle. I do not want any more casualties than I have already committed. Killing one more innocent… I will not stand for it!”

A thick wall of ice jutted up in front of Gilda, stopping her dead on in her tracks.

“La vinteren gå gjennom huden din!” (Let winter run through your skin!) Skoll called out, causing a violent snowstorm to burrow into Twilight, the snow slicing her wings and skin, sapping her strength all the while. “Hvis jeg skal dø, så i hvert fall, vil jeg dø utføre handlingene avbildet av Allfather!” (If I am to die, then at least, I will die performing the actions depicted by the Allfather!)

Gilda punched the ice wall over and over even as she heard Twilight roar out in pain. “Hold on Twilight, I’m coming!”

Why she thought she could stand against the wolf was a good question, but she knew she had to help Twilight… somehow.

As for the dragon herself, she melted away the snow sapping away at her strength with a burst of fire. Her next action was to send a powerful blast of hot purple flame into Sköll’s face making him let out a howl of pain.

“This is pointless, Sköll!” Twilight continued to plead all the while. “You are only proving yourself to be the monster all the mortals said you to be! What would Sól think!?!” she shouted.

“Odin proved I was the monster all the mortals said I was! He violently attacked me, banishing me from Valhalla and forever depicting me as a scourge on existence!” Skoll retorted. “He is to blame for the road I have walked. Do you still have faith in a god who exiles those because of their titles? Of their destinies? Of their birthright?”

“Never… never said I did!” Twilight agreed. “What Odin did to you and your father was wrong, yes! But now, you are only vindicating him! I ask again! I ask what would your wife Sól think?” she asked tears once again staining her face. “What, I ask, would she think?” Twilight demanded.

Hesitation. That’s what she sensed in Sköll at that moment. He did seem to be thinking those words over, and he had relented in his onslaught. And if Twilight didn’t know better, she heard what she could have sworn to have been muffled… sobbing? No, that couldn’t be. Could it?

Gilda heard the sound as well. How could she not, being as close to the battle site as she was. She continued to tear at the icy wall in some desperate attempt to break through and reach Twilight, but no matter how hard she sliced at it, it still wouldn’t even chip for her.

“What is the point in existing? What is the point in life if all we exist for is to be judged, to be cordoned off to a particular aspect thanks to a one-eyed man sitting atop the throne of heaven?” Sköll asked, looking into Twilight’s eyes. “What is the point of anything if we are doomed to be dealt a losing hand?”

“We manage. Life hurts, and it manages to punch us when we’re down more than a few times than we’d like, but you know what we do? We pick ourselves up off the ground again. We prove that we are not fate’s puppets.” Twilight soothed rubbing her claw gently across Sköll’s face and through his fur. He had turned from mist into a more physical form and was now a giant black wolf crying, his tears forming patches of ice on the ground wherever they hit. Despite what a monstrous creature he was Twilight could feel only pity for him.

“How will Odin feel about all of this? To know that I am defying my fate?” He asked, his claw reaching into hers. “If he knows that I have strayed from my path, all in the name of love for Sól. He will bring Gungnir down upon me, in an attempt to erase me from existence…”

“And how do you know Thor and Sól will not attempt to argue in your favor?” Twilight asked. “Do you give up so readily? Fate isn’t what is decided for us, not by a long shot. No, it’s what we make of it.” Twilight stated.

“But fate is created by the Allfather. He marks the roads that we are all to walk. We might choose to ignore our fates altogether, but in the end, Odin will have the final say in everything,” Sköll sighed to himself. “If you divert from your path, Odin will find you. Then you will have to prepare for what comes after.”

“If I must face the Allfather himself, then so be it!” Twilight stated. “Blasphemy or not in his lands… Well, to put it simply he can go vögeln himself. Him and the horse he rode in on.”

Gilda’s jaw dropped from behind the ice walls as thunder broiled in the sky above. And with one single bolt of lightning, the wall of ice was shattered entirely, shards raining down onto the world below. puncturing everything that they struck. Gilda was thrown backward by the force of the blast and slammed into some rocks slipping away into unconsciousness.

“And what horse would that be, Twilight Sparkle?” A voice split the air around them. A voice they both knew all too well. Or, at least Sköll knew all too well.

“Oh, sche…” Twilight hissed, biting her lip. Karma was one of the biggest bitches she could have thought of. No, not Karma she realized. Spies.

“It would seem that perhaps you dare to challenge me. To challenge the nine realms and the order they stand for…” Odin appeared before Twilight in another flash of light, Gungnir in hand and All-Seeing Eye clear as day. Two ravens, Huginn and Muninn flew above him. Twilight realized they had probably been watching her every move since she awoke in these islands. “For conspiring with that of Fenrir and now of Sköll. It would seem that their evil is poisoning your mind. An evil that I must eradicate.”

Sköll growled fangs bared before standing in front of Odin. “And what would you do to her? Drop her into the sea like you did Jörmungandr? Bind her to an island forevermore like you did my father? Throw her into the lands of the mists like you did Hel?” he demanded.

“I would simply have her exiled from the mortal coil. Gungnir driven into her heart, expunging her flesh from this world.” Odin pointed the spear at Twilight, runes beginning to light themselves all the while. “Someone who is willing to conspire with the actions of two gods who will bring about the end of the world is to be put down. To be destroyed before they commit to the darkness they harbor. The darkness you harbor, Twilight Sparkle.”

“And you are any different?” Twilight asked. “You threw and bound Loki’s children into fates they did not ask for, all because of some prophecy that may or may not come true! You created your own worst enemies! You created your son’s killer!” she shouted, the flames on her back broiling hotter than ever. The little charcoals in her heart had ignited into a blazing inferno.

“That’s enough!” Odin howled, lightning pouring down all around him, knocking Twilight into the nearby mountain. “I will not listen to your words of treason, Twilight Sparkle! You are a mortal! A Fleshling! One who is nothing more than a martyr willing to die for a cause that is unjust!” He darted towards her, Gungnir poised and ready to strike. “On my honour. No, my DESTINY as the Allfather, I will see you and those who stray from fate DESTROYED!”

Lightning lit up the air, and all went black.

Daybreak. Gilda had heard of the news from Sól, who had screamed and blasphemed at the heavens shouting untold curses towards Odin. She sobbed for a good hour or so after the news came to her. She had failed to protect Twilight. She had failed.

Her eyes still wet with tears, she looked out towards the horizon where Sól had created a beautiful display of sunlight and clear skies to mourn for the loss of the dragoness who had tried so desperately to save her lover. As for what happened to Sköll, nobody was sure. He had not been seen since. Maybe Odin had killed him as well, or maybe Sköll had vanished from the lands forever in shame and grief. Grief for Twilight, and shame for not protecting her and being the indirect cause of her death, to begin with.

“So… So what do I do now? How… How do I break this to Celestia?” Gilda asked her breath ragged before a voice answered her.

“Hello Gilda,” a male’s voice replied. Gentle and warm, but still firm like that of a hardened warrior. “Do not grieve. All is not lost…”

“Don’t… Don’t grieve?” Gilda asked snapping at the voice. “Twilight’s dead, and all because I couldn’t-” she started before choking back another sob.

“You couldn’t protect her anyways, you know that…” the male stated and Gilda growled at him.

“Don’t you think I know that? That was the Allfather himself who smote her! And now…”

“She is in unknown lands. At least… At least to you. But not to me. I can be your guide to where she now resides. Hello Gilda, my name is Horus.” the voice explained and Gilda’s eyes went wide in shock. No, it couldn’t be… could it? And yet… this would explain the strange dreams and feelings she had been having. Why her vision was greater than normal now, why she had dreamed of Seth.

“Okay then… So what do I… No, we do?”

“Listen well…” Horus began...

Author's Note

So yeah... that just happened. Yep, that happened. Twilight's dead, and Gilda is Horus' host. Also, huge thank you to Shadowmane for providing a voice to Sköll and Odin, and because I forgot... To Vertigo for Anubis in the last chapter.

So, what now? Speculations and critique are welcomed.