Jötunheim

Chapter Two: Reunion
~BlackRoseRaven

The moon shone above, an imperfect face pockmarked by time and circumstance. Innocence and Antares stood beneath its pallid glow, studying its reflection in the water of the pond, crystalline fragments glinting like stars beneath the water.

“You ready to go all the way to Hell?” Innocence asked in a low voice that would probably have been more menacing if not for the way she screwed up her face and wiggled her foreclaws at him.

“I mean, it'll probably be less annoying than you.” Antares said reasonably, and Sin scowled at him before the stallion nodded and added meditatively: “On the other hand, we'll probably run into a bunch of the Dumb Kids.”

“I hate the Dumb Kids.” Innocence grumbled.

Antares shrugged, then reasoned: “Well, they're still our brothers and sisters and they deserve a chance, if only because Mom and Dad and Mutt love them.” Antares paused, then promptly ruined his facade of reasonableness by adding: “But what really matters is that we can prove we're the better kids by beating them up.”

“Let's beat 'em up!” Innocence shouted, thrusting her forelegs into the air, and then her horn gleamed before she snapped it down, sending a blast of magic into the pond.

The water splashed upwards as a glow suffused the pool, and as the ripples settled, the face of the pond almost seemed to solidify, its reflection imperfect: it mirrored only a glowing white circle, and the rest of the water was almost opaque black in how dark it had become.

Innocence grinned, then without hesitating, she jumped forwards, half-flipping herself... then squawking and flailing wildly as instead of neatly curling into a dive, she bellyflopped down on the white reflection of the moon and splashed painfully into the pond. But she barely made the water ripple as she vanished into it... or rather, through the portal it had become.

Antares rolled his eyes in amusement, and then he leapt forwards and dove into the pond, vanishing through the moon's reflection and immediately finding himself hurtling through naked, cold air, streaking out of a swirling, black and red sky towards a massive, sprawling mansion that rested in the grips of a niveous hinterland below.

Even as he spread his wings to control his flight downward, he felt something deeper than magic grasp him, something more arcane and powerful: it was like the dimension itself slowed his fall, loosened the bonds of gravity while gently encouraging his body to shift through the air. He landed with barely a thump in a wintry courtyard, where Sin was grumpily brushing herself off before she looked up and complained: “Dumb Kids!”

Antares idly tested the heated bricks beneath his hooves, looking across the small courtyard at the ornate double doors leading into the mansion, and then he remarked: “No, those are just Destroyers.”

'Just' Destroyers: pure Wrath demons with literal armor hide, draconic, bestial, and five times his size, standing on either side of the door and scowling grumpily at them. They were members of the Helherlið, the most elite of Helheim's forces, who were tasked with guarding its most sacred places.

Antares and Innocence loitered their way towards the door, Antares as always unable to stop himself from looking around at the marvelous architecture of this little world: the wrought iron fences laced with icy flowers, the rolling hills of snow in the distance, the great crags and jagged cliffs that stretched their way up to the whirling maelstrom so near above.

Underdark: the deepest heart of darkness, the little soul that governed the greater dimension of Helheim itself. You could walk across the entirety of this tiny universe in a few hours, probably cover every inch of the pocket dimension in a matter of days... although it would change, according to the whims of its rulers, although it would never stretch beyond a greatest distance, never fill beyond a preset depth.

Antares, for whatever reason, found all this more fascinating than Sin did: admittedly that was probably partly because Sin actually understood the magical mathematics of this place, whereas for Antares it all might as well be as unknowable and alien as the deepest part of the darkest sea.

Sin, meanwhile, was peering distrustfully at the demons, but Antares only grinned as he greeted: “Hey Tearclaw! Hey Vasso! How are you two doing?”

Both Destroyers stared at him for a moment, then traded looks before the larger of the two shrugged awkwardly and the smaller one cleared his throat. “Prince Antares. Princess Innocence. Welcome to-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, skip the speech.” Innocence huffed as she stalked up to one of the Destroyers, peering up at him moodily. He scowled back down at her, then grimaced before squeaking in surprise when she hefted him with telekinesis, staring in shock as Sin mumbled: “Antimagic runes, deny aura, dilution patterning. Not bad. Not great, but not bad.”

She dropped the Destroyer, who only continued to stare at her before the mare sniffed and marched past, headbutting the double doors open and striding into the entry hall beyond with a loud: “Momma! Antares and I are here!”

“Sorry guys, guess I gotta get back to babysitting. Say hi to the kids for me.” Antares excused himself with a wink, then strode past and flicked the doors closed behind him before he glared at Sin, who huffed and glowered back as she stomped her claws against the silken red carpet underfoot.

“They're just demon servants.” she complained.

“That's evil talk. And worse, bitch talk. Don't be an evil bitch, you can be one of the two but not both.” Antares reprimanded.

Sin groaned and flung herself against the ground, and Antares paused as he drew his eyes through the massive entrance hall, noting that there had been a few changes since he'd been here last. The suits of armor that had decorated the halls had all been removed, and the staircase that had once led to the basement levels had been covered up, or perhaps had somehow ceased entirely to exist.

Then again, this mansion could change based on its occupants' moods...

Innocence's eyes flicked up from where she was laying prone as a door opened, a tall, leather-winged stallion striding through to look at them with calm, practiced disdain. He was dressed in a perfect, pristine suit that clung to his powerful body, his eyes respectful even if distant as he greeted: “Lord Antares. Lady Innocence. Queen Morgan awaits you in the cradle. Shall I take you there?”

“Hey, Caliginos.” Antares greeted cheerfully, and then he kicked Innocence a few times until she rolled to her claws with a grumble. “Just tell us how to get there. Looks like the place has been remodeled a little since we were here last.”

“Yes, sir. A necessary precaution.” Caliginos said, and Antares' eyes narrowed slightly at this. “A lift in the rear of the west wing still exists. It waits to be used, then it shall cease to be.”

“Cool.” Antares said lamely, and Caliginos nodded solemnly before he strode across the hall and vanished through another door. “Well, uh. Good talk.”

Innocence grumbled, then shook herself quickly before she headed to the door that the demonic butler had entered through, muttering: “Literally could just say 'we got an elevator for you,' but no, have to be all mysterious and shit.”

“Language.” Antares said mildly, before he added: “Also, we're literally in Hell. You gotta let them have some mystique, otherwise what's the point?”

Innocence snorted as they shouldered through another door into a long gallery, and then she immediately scowled as a voice teased: “Yes, dear, just because you don't have any style doesn't mean the rest of us have to live our lives so stodgily.”

“Hey girlfriend.” Innocence said sourly, with an exaggerated tilt of her head and a monotone drag of her vowels. “What's up with the twincest twins?”

The gorgeous mare on the other side of the gallery smiled as she stepped out from behind the wheelchair in which a stallion rested: she was pale white, with a long, flowing black mane that spilled almost to her ankles, her dark emerald eyes sly and unforgiving. She bowed her head slowly, but the unicorn never took her eyes off them even as she lowered her head almost to the floor, saying softly: “Oh, my brother and I are very fine... it's a pleasure to see you two again, we've been so eager to...”

“To spend some quality time together.” intoned the stallion in the wheelchair, his smile not reaching his tired, sleepless eyes as his lanky, helpless frame leaned back in his seat, absently smoothing the blanket in his lap. He was gaunt, his dark mane cut short, but they had the same pale coat, the same black mane, the same merciless aura.

The only real difference was their horns: hers was blade-like, black and edged with white, and his was a piercing spire, that looked like it was made of bone rather than alicorn. They both emanated a toxic, earthy magic, and Innocence pursed her lips for a moment before she asked blatantly: “Are we gonna fight or are we just gonna stand around here talking?”

“Shouldn't we at least pretend to make nice?” teased the other mare with a wide, false smile.

“Okay, okay. Hello, Countess Sibyl Nisus, Count Augur Nisus. It is very nice to see you today. How are you? That's great!” Antares said without pausing and without forcing more than a modicum of cheerfulness to his voice. “Cool, we're going to go see Mom.”

The twins traded amused looks before Sibyl said kindly, as she reached up and gently squeezed her brother's shoulder: “There's no need to be rude, Antares Mīrus. You should stay a while. Chat. Have tea. Time moves differently here in Underdark. You don't need to rush about your business. Our parents can wait.”

“Be that as it may, it would be rude to keep our mother waiting.” Antares said tactfully.

“Yeah so why don't you fuck off before I shove your collective heads up your collective asses?” Innocence added rudely, and the twins scowled at her, which only encouraged her to scowl back and grumble: “Well, you're being shitheads, and shit goes in the butt.”

“Oh my God.” Antares groaned and dropped his face in a hoof before he mumbled: “Can I please just leave you here to get your ass kicked while I go and talk to Mom?”

“Oh, but siblings should love and protect each other. A big brother has a duty to his little sister, wouldn't you say?” asked Augur almost pleasantly, before he gave a grin as his shape seemed to flicker, the facade falling away for a moment as his horn gleamed menacingly. “You don't want to abandon your brotherly duty, do you?”

“I mean, kinda, yeah.” Antares said blandly with a shrug, and Innocence shot him a venomous look-

Sibyl snapped her horn sharply out, and Antares and Innocence flinched as a flash banged through the gallery, blinding and deafening the two. Antares swore as Innocence shouted a volley of curses before she grunted in pain when a blast of force slammed into her and knocked her skidding away from her brother.

She immediately created a shield, and a monstrified stallion smashed into the other side of this: a sickly, swamp-green beast that grinned at her, black veins pulsing through his features and too-long, too thin body as his bone-like horn thrummed with toxic light, vile breath rasping against her shield as he shoved sharp hooves into her magic and growled: “Ready for round two?”

Innocence responded by snapping her horn upwards, exploding her shield in a massive concussive shockwave that sent the demonic unicorn skidding backwards with a wince. “Bring it on, bitch!”

Antares snorted, then absently tilted his head to the side, an arrow of magic shooting by as his eyes flicked up to lock onto the caster: a demonic mare, the same rotten color as the stallion, her bladed horn brimming with ill light and her eyes smoldering with dark energy. Black veins pulsed through her body as she smiled at him with a mouth of curving teeth, her long, oily hair whipping around her like living tendrils as she teased: “I won't blame you if you run away.”

“Unfortunately, I think that I would.” Antares said drolly, before he quickstepped backwards, narrowly avoiding a surge of black spikes that ripped out of the floor before they launched themselves at him one after the other, the unicorn parrying each and every attack even as he called: “Hey, I'm still open to talking things out, no need to go all Envy demon on me!”

The demonic mare smiled before she vanished from the spot, reappearing in a blast of noxious smoke above Antares, but he immediately created a white wall of energy that the mare crashed into before it flung her backwards like a trampoline, the stallion grimacing as he hurried back a few steps to avoid inhaling any of the toxic fumes.

Her twin, meanwhile, grinned as he dodged back and forth, his body becoming sticky, shadowy gunk that zigged and zagged its way through Innocence's blasts of magic as he closed in on her. His sickly body flexed with supernatural strength as poison drool dripped from his jaws before he roared and pounced-

Innocence drew her head back as her horn glowed violently, and then she suddenly winked and instead half-flipped backwards, snapping her horn out upside-down at a faint, dark disturbance in the air, and the clone diving at her exploded into black goop as the real demon was blasted out from beneath his illusory cover, howling in frustration more than pain as he was knocked rolling down the gallery before he blinked quickly to his hooves with a snarl of frustration.

Innocence landed with a loud thump on her back, then she snorted as she stretched her forelegs out to either side, asking grouchily: “You really didn't think your slime bullshit was going to work on me more than once, did you, fucknut?”

“Language.” the demon scolded, and Innocence promptly flipped him off with both foreclaws, the stallion narrowing his eyes before he growled: “Classless amateur.”

“Amateur... classlessness!” Innocence shot back lamely, and then she rolled quickly onto her belly before her eyes narrowed as the stallion gave a gurgling snarl.

He leaned forwards and spat several rotund black balls of slime at her, and Innocence grimaced as she deflected this quickly one after the other with sharp slashes of blue flame, searing the gunk out of existence before the blades of burning magic smashed one after the other into the transformed Augur and drove him backwards with a hiss of pain.

He glared at her through scalded features, blue flames dancing and hissing over his body before he shook himself quickly, then charged forwards with a snarl. Innocence glared back at him, magic crackling around her body as she sent a blast of lightning at him, but it crackled harmlessly across skin that almost gleamed like rubber, the mare realizing with disgust that he had coated himself in his toxic sludge.

Her eyes narrowed as she snapped her horn forwards and hammered him with telekinesis, but she saw his skin almost dent inwards before the blast of force slid its way past him, grinding a trench through his body that knocked him off-balance but barely impeding his charge. She swore under her breath before she leapt backwards, swinging a claw out and unleashing a wave of black shards at the grinning demon... oh shit!

They tore through black sludge like a shotgun blast, but of course it was just a distraction, a copy that collapsed into goop as Augur snapped out of invisibility and dove at her with a roar-

“Eat it!” Innocence snarled as she leapt forwards, slamming a fist forwards as it glowed brightly before slamming into the stallion's face with a meaty crunch. Augur's eyes bulged as he flew bonelessly backwards with a gurgle, hitting the ground hard and skidding to a stop several feet away in a dazed heap, his muzzle visibly cocked and broken.

Innocence only grinned as she flexed her claw, now girded in a heavy bladed steel gauntlet of gleaming black and white metals, eerily flexible, eerily alive: a Talon, designed to amplify her natural abilities, both armor and arm.

“Overkill.” Antares observed as Sibyl broke away from the fight with him to hiss at Innocence furiously, snapping several blasts of magic at the mare. But Innocence made a show of yawning and stretching, completely ignoring the noxious, demonic magic that uselessly arched around her before Antares trotted quickly up to the distracted demon-mare, and before she could turn her eyes back to him, he hopped gracefully in the air, then slammed his head into hers hard enough to make him wince, but sent the mare crumpling to the ground in a dazed heap.

The twins both breathed raggedly as Sibyl's eyes fluttered, and Augur snarled slowly as his jaw gradually healed. They began to push themselves up as Antares and Innocence stepped back and readied themselves, but then all four were distracted by a quiet clapping, followed by a droll voice noting: “I suppose this is still the way our family prefers to say hello.”

Antares and Innocence both looked up with grins at the stallion who strode calmly, silently towards them: a tall, barrel-chested unicorn, broad and strong, with a beautiful blue coat and a white mane and matching, neatly-groomed beard. He was younger than either of them, but his face was older, worn by responsibility, grizzled by restraint; his one dark eye studied them meditatively, but not without love, Antares thought.

His lips curled in the thinnest of smiles as he bowed his head slightly towards them, idly adjusting the half-cape that flowed over the right side of his body, hiding his prosthetic foreleg from view. Not because he was ashamed of it, Antares knew, but because Thorn's whole life was playing politics, and outside of Decretum, most ponies and demons got real nervous when they saw high-end cybernetics like Thorn's.

“Still weirds me out that you're a robot.” Antares said blandly.

“I am not a robot.” Thorn said pettishly, giving that slight scowl that always delighted Antares. “I have a prosthetic limb. I don't even qualify as cybernetic under Clockwork Empire standards.”

“Robot!” Innocence shouted, and then she waved her claw wildly until the gauntlet vanished off it so she could bounce towards him, glaring up at him as Thorn grimaced and leaned back a little, then winced when she reached up and poked his eyepatch several times. “I know you got an eye under there too, robot, a robot eye! Also why do you still have the old symbol of Grandma on there?”

“Because.” Thorn said simply, and he gave a slight smile as Innocence huffed at him before she glared as her horn sparked. But Thorn's own horn gleamed in response, the ring that decorated its base lighting up with his magic, and Innocence huffed again as her magic was neatly dispelled before it had even fully formed.

Then she grudgingly, awkwardly rose her forelegs and slowly wiggled in to half-hug him, half-pat his shoulders, grumbling: “Hi.”

“Hello.” Thorn said, gently hugging her back with one foreleg, and then he smiled over at Antares as the stallion approached, before wincing only slightly as Antares flung himself onto his little brother in a tight hug, Thorn patting him on the back as he muttered: “This is why you get into fights everywhere you go.”

“I know. It's fun!” Antares said cheerfully as he hopped backwards, and without missing a beat, he grabbed Sibyl before she could stab him with her horn and hauled her quickly forwards in a half-friendly, half-warning chokehold. “Look! Thorn's here!”

“We see that.” growled Augur as he walked towards them, grimacing as painful clicks came from his muzzle as his bones fused and healed, his eyes glaring holes in Antares as he growled: “Let go of my sister.”

“Fine, fine. Only 'cause you asked so nicely.” Antares allowed Sibyl to yank herself out of his grip, and the toxic twins both scowled at him before Augur snorted and brushed past, Sibyl striding quickly behind him as Antares called loudly: “Happy to do this again any time! You know where to find us!”

“Next time we won't be playing.” Augur grumbled, but it was a toothless threat as the stallion sat back in his wheelchair, grimacing as the toxic colors faded from his body and he lost his tone and mass, slumping with a soft breath. His sister immediately started to fuss over him as her own demonic characteristics vanished, picking up his blanket from where it had fallen to wrap it around her sibling and kissing his forehead as she murmured soft reassurances to him.

“Gross.” Innocence said loudly, and Antares gave her an amused look as Thorn merely cocked an eyebrow at her, while the twins both shot her scathing looks. “Hey, I don't care what you guys do in private, but don't start boning in front of us.”

“Oh, don't worry, I wouldn't want to make you jealous.” retorted Sibyl scathingly, and then she paused before leaning down and firmly kissing her brother, who smiled as he returned it, and Innocence made a gagging noise that abruptly cut off when the sibling's kiss broke so Sibyl could add conversationally: “Maybe all this feigned disgust is just because you miss fucking mommy and daddy so much. Gymbr taught you all about love, isn't that right?”

Innocence's eyes narrowed dangerously as her horn crackled with malign magic, but Thorn quickly and efficiently defused the situation as he said pleasantly: “My siblings have an important meeting with Queen Morgan. If there's nothing else, we'll be on our way, and I recommend that you go on yours.”

The ring around Thorn's horn gave a menacing gleam that both of the twins visibly flinched at before Augur mumbled and Sibyl quickly pushed him on, keeping her head down as they hurried past. Innocence and Antares both watched them go, but before either of them could open their mouths, Thorn caught the shoulders of either of his siblings, simply squeezing them pointedly before he let them go once the twins had vanished through the other side of the gallery.

“I hate them.” Innocence said plaintively.

“You do not, and they don't hate you. We're of different cultures, but the same blood runs through our veins, including all our parents' best and worst quirks.” Thorn said, before he turned and headed to the exit, and Antares and Innocence traded looks before shrugging and following him.

His siblings hurried up to either side of him as he led them through the labyrinth of corridors, both Innocence and Antares peering at their younger brother curiously, but the stallion pointedly ignoring them until they finally reached a rear room, the unicorn unlocking the door with a flick of his horn and inviting them to step inside. “This is where I leave you.”

“What?” Innocence blurted, unable to hide her pout. “I mean... I don't care, I hate you and stuff, but um. Hey, you have to come see Momma too, you jerkass!”

“I already did.” Thorn said bluntly, and both Innocence and Antares stopped and stared as Thorn hesitated, but then said almost grudgingly: “I have been asked to attend to a different matter. And please remember that I am the chief administrator of the Clockwork Empire. Queen Morgan is my mother, but also Queen of Helheim. I must be more... subtle in providing aid than you are.”

“Oh, so you mean we're better than you?” Antares said with a roguish grin and a pose, and Thorn sighed, but the slightest of smiles quirked at his lips.

“Yes, if that's the way you want to look at it, fine.” Thorn said, and Innocence immediately preened as Antares winked and flexed.

The one-eyed unicorn looked between his siblings, and then he sighed and turned away, saying dryly over his shoulder: “Don't be late. Take the elevator straight down, and Nistle will meet you at the bottom and take you to the cradle.”

Sin and Antares both groaned loudly, but Thorn was already walking away, Innocence huffing before she shouted: “She's the only person less fun than you are!”

“He.” Antares said automatically.

“It.” Innocence grumbled, and stuck out her tongue.

“Them?” Antares supplied helpfully, and then he yelped when Innocence slung him into the room, sending him staggering across protective runes with a huff.

He paused, grimacing a bit as he glanced around: this concrete box was filled with runes that shifted like snakes over the walls, almost hissing as they constantly whirled and transformed: even he was smart enough to see that any interruption would cause a massive power surge that would likely flash-fry or explode anything inside the room. This was heavy security, all to defend a simple elevator with a wrought-iron curtain.

Antares smiled wryly as he pulled this back, and then he frowned as he looked into the empty lift cabin. Innocence cocked her head curiously as she walked in, and Antares licked his lips before he joined her, pulling the simple lever to go down.

The elevator clicked and clanked as it descended, Innocence continuing to scowl at Antares as he didn't speak for a few moments as he processed what that bad feeling in his gut was. Then, without looking at her, he asked quietly: “Where's Mutt?”

Innocence frowned, then blinked, raising her head quickly. The two were silent as the elevator rolled to a halt at the bottom level with a screech, and the metal gate that blocked them in was gently drawn back by a strange, ephemeral black figure, neither mare nor stallion, the strange, unseeable-yet-there phantasm saying softly: “Yes. Come with us. We shall bring you to your answers.”

Antares and Innocence traded looks, and then Sin tried to summon up her usual bravado as they stepped into a cool metal hall: the path to the cradle was through a massive, sprawling facility that, like the mansion above, was subject to the whims and fancies of the owner, but its facade was always mechanical, industrial, filled with complex laboratories and far-reaching facilities where demons and golems worked night and day on all manner of research and experiment. “Hey, you uh... gender... queer.”

“Hello, Innocence Sparkle. The pleasure is ours, if not yours, we assure you.” said the phantasm as it floated eerily through a doorway and out onto a metal walkway that overlooked a massive production facility below, where automatons were being endlessly produced along enormous, machine-operated conveyor belts. “And Antares Mīrus. How are you, brother?”

“Good, uh... sibling. Siblings? Persons.” Antares answered awkwardly, and the strange, glowing eyes of the phantasm seemed to smile as the creature looked back over its shoulder at him: amorphous and ever-changing, it was like smoke and slime, like ink and oil, slathered over the vague frame of a pony, but which kept pulling itself apart, spreading beyond its lines, overflowing its limitations.

“We are us. Call us what you will, we do not care.” Nistleheart of the Endless Mist said softly, and then the creature smiled, a mouth forming in that darkness, bilious strings dripping from its maw as it faced forwards and lazily rolled through the air. “Come, come. To the Queen Mother.”

All they could really do was follow: both Antares and Innocence knew from experience there was no point in trying to piss off Nistle or probe their odd sibling for information, so they just followed obligingly. The creature led them all the way to the Great Doors: one of the few unchanging things in this expansive facility, the last defense before the very heart of both home and dimension.

Nistle opened them with just a gesture, and the two unicorns walked through into a massive, partitioned hallway. They walked down the center of this, past enormous, looming statues, Innocence staring overhead at the empty garden that grew along the rooftop, beneath a thin magical veil. Once upon a time there had been an endless party of spirits and specters there, but after Hel had died, the party had finally ended, and those restless ghosts had moved on...

The siblings reached the end of the hall, and stepped onto soft grass. They left behind a world of steel and metal and walked over a gentle, sloping lawn towards the front of a small, familiar cabin, Antares smiling briefly at the old memories this place brought up as he knocked on the door before impulsively calling as he opened it: “Hey Mom! I'm home!”

The facade of memory opened into a sterile white room: the moment Innocence and Antares stepped inside, the door slammed shut behind them, sealing them in. They traded looks, then walked forwards, passing through a curtain into the next room: just as bright and eternal, just as cold and beautiful, with polished marble floors, high, domed steel ceilings, and countless monitors mounted on the walls and floating eerily through the air.

And in the center of it all was their mother, laying back in a cold, curved sarcophagus, an eternal cradle which hovered eerily in the air, massive wires and tubes anchoring it to the floor below. It hummed softly, the crimson coffin-cushions inside the cradle spotless and shaped to gently grip the body of the pony within, the mare who rested with her eyes closed, and the massive crystal embedded in the center of her chest gleaming with incomprehensible power.

Her eyes opened, gorgeous and amethyst, and she smiled tenderly at her children as she sat up with a yawn, the countless monitors with their countless displays all immediately pausing their feeds as the mare gently slipped out of the cradle. She stood, tall and majestic, her coat gorgeous purple, her strong wings edged in black, her horn proud and tall. Her mane and tail were like living, beautiful darkness, both with a single streak of purest light glowing through those smoky expanses.

“Antares. Innocence. It's been too long since I've seen either of you with my own eyes.” she said softly, and then she smiled and reached up to touch her Promise: a collar of black leather, tight around her throat, secured with an ornate clasp in the shape of a lunar lily. “If only Scrivy and Luna were here to see you too.”

“Mom I... wait, what?” Antares frowned, blinking in surprise, but Morgan Heldóttir – in another life, Twilight Sparkle – tut-tutted and opened her forelegs pointedly, and Antares couldn't help but smile a bit as he sighed and walked forwards-

Innocence bodychecked him out of the way, then charged into her mother's embrace, and Morgan laughed and hugged her daughter tightly. Antares huffed, and Innocence looked over her shoulder at him and blew a raspberry. “I'm the baby!”

“Sure, Sin, sure, you're the baby.” Antares said wryly as his eyes returned to his mother, but admittedly her behavior did a lot to relieve him, even if... “You, Mutt, and Dad are all soulbound. How uh... how can they be missing?”

Morgan smiled at him as she opened her other foreleg, and Antares rolled his eyes but smiled despite himself as he walked forwards, hugging her tightly. The large mare nestled them both close for a moment, the crystal dome that stood out of her chest thrumming with her love before she allowed them to slip away, gazing tenderly between her children before she returned her eyes to Antares and answered: “I'm... becoming accustomed to acting as Queen. But Scrivy and Luna are still... adventurers, more than rulers. So we devised a way that we could all be apart, even across dimensions. We've been testing it out, and it helps those two blow off steam and they feel more like they're able to help out.” She softened, smiling gently. “Even if they help more than they've ever really appreciated just by being here with me.

“We were sent a message a few days ago. A warning, from the only person who can see further and deeper than Heaven or Hell.” Morgan continued in a quieter voice, and Antares frowned as Innocence cocked her head. “Mimir, who still watches from Yggdrasil. Luna interpreted it as... asking for help, even if it seemed to me like he was saying the opposite...”

“Wait, Mimir? I thought he was gone, like the rest of the Aesir.” Antares asked in surprise, but Morgan shook her head with a small smile.

“No. He only... withdrew from the Nine Worlds. Your parents went to find him, but...” Twilight sighed, saying wryly: “Well, you know Luna and Scrivy. I'm sure they ran into some kind of trouble along the way, and... I can't dedicate the time and effort to finding them that I'd like to, with all of Helheim to look after.”

“You want us to find them.” Antares said after a moment, his eyes widening, before he cleared his throat and said as casually as he could through the excitement already filling his veins: “I mean, I'm sure we could, you know, try and work it into our very busy schedules, we're very busy, busy, you know, but I guess that maybe if you asked nicely we could probably-”

“Well if you're too busy I can always ask Thorn-”

“We'll do it, we'll do it better, too!” Innocence shouted immediately, almost leaping into her mother, and Morgan blinked and leaned backwards before the scaled mare cleared her throat awkwardly and asked lamely: “So um. Where are they, anyway?”

Morgan smiled at them, and answered with one word:

“Jötunheim.”