Jötunheim

Chapter Seven: Roast
~BlackRoseRaven

“I already regret this.”

Innocence scowled at Antares as they followed a beaten dirt road away from Banding. Luna had dragged Antares and Innocence out on a pretense of 'shopping' and then abandoned them in a crowded market district to cheat a head start on their race, and they had lost more than an hour just figuring out how to escape the complicated labyrinth of a metropolis.

“Then why did you even agree to it in the first place? You're dumb.” Innocence complained, and Antares weighed his answers before he sighed and decided to be honest with his sister.

“Because they weren't going to tell us what we wanted to know anyway.” he said finally, and Innocence frowned at him. “Hey, special eyes or no, I know all of our parents' delaying tactics. Mutt was using every last one of hers and it wasn't like Dad was telling us anything either. And I think... maybe Luna was trying to throw us a bone with this test.”

“Yeah, but she's going to win. Because she's a cheater, if nothing else. She's probably already flying there as we speak.” Innocence said grouchily, and Antares smiled wryly.

“I mean, maybe.” He paused, then muttered: “I mean, yeah, she's gonna cheat and rationalize her cheating and be a dick, that's Mutt. But I don't think she's just gonna fly or teleport there, either, that would be too obvious and hurt her pride too much. She'll cheat just enough that she can convince herself we still could have totally won if she just wasn't so darn good.

“More than that, though, I think she and Dad actually are doing something else up here. Something that...” Antares thought about their current predicament, then said slowly: “That we might be giving them unwitting cover for. Drawing fire and interest from other parties.”

Innocence nodded slowly, then said gently: “You're a crazy person.”

Antares shrugged and replied mildly: “I mean, totally, yeah. But even if I sound crazy and paranoid, does that mean I'm wrong?”

His sister grunted moodily, and then she sighed and shook her head, mumbling: “Probably not. So where are we headed?”

“As far as we can push.” Antares hesitated, looking up at the darkening sky before he muttered: “Going to be night soon, though. It seems like day lasts a little longer here than on the mortal world, but the night sure moves in fast. We better find a place to camp, preferably off the road and with at least a little bit of protection.”

His sister nodded after a moment, then she cleared her throat awkwardly and said in that tiny, defiant voice that told him she was being serious: “I... don't think Mutt's a bad guy, though.”

Antares paused, then turned and smiled at his sister, saying gently: “I don't either. That doesn't mean we're not gonna end up fighting them, I'm gonna be realistic. But you know if we do end up on opposite sides, Mutt's only gonna be proud of you when you kick her ass, right?”

“Yeah. I know.” Innocence mumbled after a moment, and then she sighed and nodded again. “I just hope we don't have to. I'd rather beat up Thorn than Mutt.”

“Can't always get what you want.” Antares intoned wryly, and then he straightened and looked back and forth before he gestured at his sister to follow as he veered off the road. “Come on, I think I see a decent place to camp.”

Innocence grunted, then dawdled along in her brother's wake as he headed towards a smattering of wild crops in the distance. They pushed past these, Innocence absently grabbing an ear of corn from one of the stalks before she applied heat to it through magic, rapidly drying it before the kernals began to pop loudly beneath the skin.

Antares found them a nice little campsite on the other side of the corn, and Innocence munched loudly on popcorn as she watched him quickly set up the tent and lay out a fire pit. The stallion finished as the last of the light bled out of the sky, his eyes glowering at her through the formless night as he asked: “Are you going to help at all?”

Innocence grunted as she finished the last of her snack, then she flung the chewed-on cob at Antares, who deflected it with a pointed look. “Fine, fine. So impatient. I'm just gonna set up the flames tonight.”

“And an alarm ward. Please.” Antares added, and Innocence groaned before the stallion said dryly: “Fine, if you want to get dragged off into the darkness-”

“Hey, they're not gonna eat or molest me, I'm too evil. You're the good guy, Antares, you should go hide in the tent.” Sin retorted as she flicked her horn, blue flames bursting to life in the firepit. Then she sighed and said finally: “Go sleep.”

Antares blinked, and Innocence grumbled and glanced away awkwardly as she muttered: “Look. I know you're tired and you're probably just as frustrated as I am, if not more so. I know um... fighting Mutt and Dad hits a sore spot for you...” Her eyes shifted, lingering on the X-shaped scarring across her brother's chest, before she sighed and complained: “Stop making it hard for me to be nice to you! Just go to bed goddammit, I'll stay up and keep watch.”

They glared at each other for a moment, and then Antares smiled a little despite himself before he shook his head, saying finally: “I guess you're right, Sin. I'll sleep for a few hours, you have an orgy with the darkness for a few hours, or whatever.”

“You're the one who apparently masturbates so furiously even Mimir watches it.” Innocence retorted, and Antares gave the mare a flat look before the mare flipped him off. “Get.”

Antares made a rude gesture in return, then smiled before he quickly turned and headed into the tent. He stayed awake long enough to roll out a sleeping pad, but it was barely a minute after he laid down that he fell asleep.

He woke up a few hours later: too short for a normal pony, but he wasn't really a normal pony. He also didn't usually sleep like that, but... the stress and frustration of it all, he guessed his brain had been desperate to escape from it and his body willing to comply.

He yawned as he emerged from the tent and walked over to sit by his sister. He smiled and nodded at her, then gratefully accepted a popped corn cob when she offered it to him, the stallion biting into the dry snack and crunching it slowly between his teeth.

“Needs butter.”

“Yeah. And salt.”

The rest of the night passed in quiet: Innocence napped on and off, and Antares spent a lot of time thinking, and a little bit of time writing in a notebook about their journey so far. When morning came, they packed up, and headed back to the road without incident: a nice change of pace from the struggles Antares was used to.

They traveled north by hoof for three days, only taking the occasional break and stopping in the safest place they could find each night. Antares guessed they had probably covered several hundred miles in the last few days: they kept up a quick march, and the terrain was largely favorable to travel, even as roads gave away to trails, then to nothing but wild, untamed nature bereft of civilization.

They were in a beautiful world, and Antares just wished they had more time to linger. But they had places to be and wagers to win, so they weren't able to afford much time to just enjoy the scenery... although that didn't stop Sin from taking little breaks now and then to stop and snap pictures with the camera she had brought, or from straying off the path and finding trouble every now and then, and simply teleporting to Antares when she was done with whatever mischief she had been up to.

Sometimes he wished he was able to abuse magic like his sister could.

But on the other hoof, Sin wandering off gave him the chance to run. He would gallop through the fields and up hard slopes, leaping across ravines and fearlessly drive across rushing rivers, going out of his way to find difficult terrain: the harder the obstacle, the better.

He liked to challenge his body, and the focus of his mind. He kept his packs over his wings as he climbed sheer and jagged cliff faces, thrilling in the knowledge that if he fell, he fell: nothing would catch him on the way down, not even his own wings.

It meant that the third night was spent on top of a particularly-strange shaped tower of rock that Antares had climbed up, and Innocence had simply teleported on top of. He didn't bother to set up the tent, only tossing out their bedrolls to lay on beneath the stars, a small blue fire flickering and casting eerie light across the top of the tower of mossy rock.

They were above the treetops, and the stars were so bright that it felt like if Antares flew up into that darklit firmament, he could snatch one of them and bring it back down to take home as a souvenir, as easily as stealing a glittering gemstone from the bed of a river. He smiled despite himself at the thought, staring up at the stars, wondering if these constellations ever changed; if that was really the darkness of space beyond, or just some vast sphere that embraced this entire realm, keeping it safe and hidden from the chaos and the Void.

“If every parallel world exists on the mortal plane, shouldn't we be able to fly to them through space?” Innocence asked curiously. “Do they all have their own solar system? And what about Heaven and Hell? I know they're both shielded inside their own dimensions, but are those dimensions really apart, or are they like worlds too, or if you flew far enough through space, would you eventually reach some kind of border to one or the other? Some place where two different realms, two different realities converge, and maybe you could travel through it, and come out somewhere entirely different?”

“Spheres within spheres, capsules inside capsules.” Antares said, and then he smiled a bit. “I bet the barrier between worlds would be sticky, though. Hard to travel through. Too gross to touch, rather than dangerous. I can think of a lot more ponies who would be stopped by 'eww gross' rather than 'oh no it might kill me.' That's probably why no one has found out.”

Innocence snorted, then said proudly: “Well, when I finally grow up, I'm gonna be a cosmonaut, and I'm gonna fly through space until I find the answer!”

Antares couldn't help but laugh, and Innocence grinned at him until he relaxed and smiled at her, saying finally: “I'm glad you're my sister.”

“Oh, fuck off.” Innocence said with a blush, glancing away and rubbing at her face, and then she nodded once before murmuring: “Me too. I still... feel like I don't deserve it some days.”

“Don't worry. That's just 'cause you're dumb.” Antares answered, and Innocence huffed, but couldn't hide her smile of gratitude all the same.

The night passed, and day came, as it always did: Innocence and Antares hopped off the tall stone column, the mare using magic to hover to the ground, Antares diving headlong towards the treeline and only using his wings to slow himself down at the last moment, sharply gliding across the sea of leaves, then dropping neatly between several branches and sliding down the trunk of an old, leaning oak and back to the ground below.

They took their time a little more today, enjoying the walk through the forest. There was more of a sense of magic here: the colors were brighter, the animals seemed to speak and act in community with each other, the air itself seemed to sparkle as whispers and giggles filtered through the trees around them.

Nature chorused happily around them, ceding eventually into an actual song, music floating through the trees and luring the two ponies forward. Innocence peered curiously out from beneath her hood as Antares smiled despite himself, the two beckoned through the trees to a meadow that was ringed with large, round stones, where strange humanoids cavorted and danced.

They were tall and thin, graceful and perfect in their movements: they had skin like polished stone, and long, beautiful hair tied back in complex braids and woven knots. They were sharp-eyed, with tall, pointed ears, and their clothing was richly-ornamented with beaten charms, and yet they moved so fluidly, so perfectly, that no metal ever jangled, no bell ever rang out unless the wearer made it.

Elves.

Before either of the ponies realized they had been lured to an opening in the trees, an elf appeared in front of them as if from thin air, smiling and bowing deeply as he invited: “Please, come in, join us!”

“I mean, okay.” Innocence said cheerfully, and then she hopped easily into the clearing as the elf slipped to the side. Antares rolled his eyes, but followed after his sister, noting the way the music swelled and the air itself seemed to laugh, vibrating with the energy and the excitement of the fae-folk.

Innocence hopped happily over to a log to sit, and she grinned as an elf immediately slipped in and offered her a bottle of wine, the mare winking as she snatched it and popped the cork off. “Now hey, these guys know how to party!”

“They do party hardy.” Antares agreed as he sat beside his sister, smiling slightly and accepting his own bottle of wine. He let the music flow through him as he leaned back, holding the bottle easily in one hoof, watching the elves caper and dance, listening to the songs that filled the air as the musicians leapt to and fro without missing a note or beat, as the stories the crowd of elves were telling rose and fell in perfect time with the music, as the whole meadow laughed and swam with the energies, the magic of the fae...

Innocence giggled as she took a deep swig of her wine, breathing out fumes of grape and alcohol as her eyes shone with bedazzled delight. And it was hard to resist: they were perfect in their structured chaos, never too loud, never too quiet, always pushing, pushing, pushing, as more elves offered food and friendliness, as they encouraged them to drink and eat and revel with them to the point that Antares was stomping his hoof and Innocence was cheerfully swinging her bottle back and forth as wine dribbled down her face, mixing with the crumbs from the food she'd shoved into her mouth-

She grinned at him, and Antares winked before he suddenly spun his bottle around and smashed it on the log, and the dancing and singing and joy shattered with the glass, the air becoming calm and cool and still as the emotionless elves glared at him from every angle.

Antares yawned loudly as Innocence huffed grouchily, guzzling from her own bottle before she scowled when an elf calmly snatched it away, graceful and brisk and perfect. They moved with not just supernatural delicacy, but mechanical precision as their dancing lines broke neatly into a standing audience that surveyed the two ponies from all sides with merciless calculation.

“You have intruded upon our territory.” an elf said as he emerged from the crowd like a ghost. He was clad in a cloak that flowed over golden armor, his autumnal hair braided back in ponytail, his eyes cool and ruthless as they seemed to read every last detail of the two ponies. His hands pressed together as if to pray at level with his waist, and for all his emotionlessness, Antares could read the flex in them, looking for an excuse, wanting a reason to draw the sword from its scabbard at his side. “And you compound the insult by spoiling our grace.”

“We're just passing through. We're heading to Yggdrasil.” Antares said with a smile, then he whistled at Sin as he shook the broken bottle, and the mare grumbled before she leaned over, horn glowing and rapidly restoring the shattered object to pristine condition. “Sorry about the bottle. Didn't want you guys to rob and-or molest us, though.”

The stallion spun the empty wine bottle once, then he offered it to the elf: another swept in immediately, moving soundlessly, and gracefully plucked it loose from Antares' hoof before retreating just as quickly. Antares didn't bother to look in the direction the elf had come from: he knew by now it would have vanished into the trees, where the other warriors were waiting.

“Our charge is not to guard Yggdrasil. I do not care what your business is there. But you have imposed yourselves upon us and we require a tribute before we may allow you to pass. And perhaps recompense for your mockery of our kindness.” the elf said, calm, cold, unfair and unflinching.

Sin growled in frustration, but Antares only grinned as he popped to his hooves. He felt more than heard the bows nocking in the trees around the clearing, not allowing his eyes to shift away from the elf leader's as he said pointedly: “This seems a little different from the old stories I've heard about you guys. You invited us in, you tried to get us drunk, you're pretty mad at us now-”

“We do not experience anger like you do, cretin.” the elf dismissed with distaste, looking down at the stallion with a disdainful eye. “Not that your servant kind is blessed to have such 'emotions,' in any event. I see that even after thousands of years of being released into the wilds by Odin, you still breed yourselves as pack animals, and meat stock.”

“Oh, hey, great idea!” Antares said enthusiastically, grinning even wider as he winked at the elf. “I challenge you to a flyting! Whoever gets mad first loses, basically. If we win, you let us pass. If we lose, our lives are forfeit.”

“We will kill you and eat you both.” the elf said, and Antares wasn't entirely sure the elf was bluffing.

“I mean, okay, cool, yes, you could do that if you win, although I don't think that's what I would do to me if I won.” Antares said carefully, before he added quickly: “And like I don't want to kill you or eat you. I definitely don't want to eat you, guy.”

“Do you speak for you both, horse, or does your broodmare speak for herself?” asked the elf.

Innocence snorted and stomped her claws angrily at this, snapping: “Hey, I can speak for myself, thank you!”

“Very well. Then as you shall both speak for yourselves, every elf present shall speak for himself or herself as well.” stated the elf, and Antares groaned as Innocence huffed.

“Fine.” she grumbled, then scowled when Antares firmly bodychecked her, complaining as she shouldered him back: “I'm not gonna screw up!”

“So if one shows anger, all lose?” asked the elf, almost curiously, taunting them with how little he cared. Or rather, trying to.

Antares smiled kindly at the elf, nodding once as he invited: “Don't worry, guy, tell you what. If you don't feel confident about your guys not losing their tempers, we'll definitely be more than happy to out-insult all of you. All at once or one at a time, bring 'em on!”

“Arrogant.” the elf said, and then he added, with the faintest hint of distaste: “No. I am certain my men will find your words as meaningless as I do.”

“And women!” Antares said helpfully.

“Yeah, and women!” Innocence flexed a foreleg and posed for a moment, glaring at the elves. “Bitches will give you stitches! Uh. Verbally, in this case. Yeah!”

Antares smiled his goofy smile, and the elf blinked slowly before he sighed and gestured at them. “You may proceed.”

The stallion nodded, then clicked his tongue and nudged: “You agree to the rules of the flyting, right?”

The elf scowled almost imperceptibly and repeated: “You may proceed.”

Antares nodded helpfully, then stepped forwards and thrust his hoof out as he said calmly and courteously in Asgardian: “Thus are we bound, thus are we readied, so shall it be as we have set forth.”

The elf seemed taken aback by this, tilting his head slightly before his lips spread in a thin smile as he answered in a dialect similar enough for Antares to get the gist of it: “Thus promised, so agreed. I accept your challenge, your rules, and your prize. Let us begin.”

The humanoid slid forwards smoothly and simply tapped Antares' horn with his finger, the unicorn wincing and crossing his eyes to look dumbly up at his spire before he dropped his hoof and complained: “Wow, okay, sure. Just do that then, huh? Too good to shake my hoof?”

But he had felt the sizzle of magic, the weight that settled in the clearing, and he saw the way the other elves looked on intently, as their leader answered dismissively: “You are cattle. And you will be treated as such.”

“Uh, hello? We're horses, not cows, we have one stomach and we don't make hamburgers.” Innocence said plaintively. “And you sure as shit aren't touching my tits for milk.”

“You're not pregnant so you're not lactating anyway.” Antares said before he could stop himself.

Innocence huffed, then frowned, then asked uneasily: “Wait. Are cows... always pregnant?”

“How do you think they produce milk?” Antares asked, and Innocence stared at him with horror.

“I'm drinking pregnant milk! Cow milk is pregnant milk?” Innocence shouted, then she spat loudly several times, jumping off the log and spinning around in a circle as she grabbed wildly at her wine-stained muzzle.

The elves all stared, the elf leader holding out a hand to stop his soldiers from stabbing the mare even as he surveyed them with contempt, and Antares winced as he awkwardly reached into the spinning mess of scaly mare and gently caught her by the shoulder, squeezing it gently as he said pointedly: “We can worry about that later.”

“No! I'm worrying about it now!” Sin whined, and then she scowled at her brother, grumbling: “This is all your fault.”

“How is this my fault?” Antares snapped, and then he awkwardly cleared his throat as his sister glared at him before he gently patted her on the head and said finally: “Let's argue about this after we yell at the elves. Let's yell at the elves. You'll feel better.”

“Okay.” Innocence grumbled, and then she huffed and blew a bit of her mane out of her face, asking grouchily as she flicked her hood back: “How do we do this?”

“The rules are set. The game is made. I ask nothing further from domestics. Only that when you lose you do so with what little dignity your kind can afford.” the elf said, and Innocence huffed as Antares shrugged. “You may proceed.”

“Thanks, buddy. I'll go first then. It's like this, Sin, just listen.” Antares cleared his throat loudly, then looked at the elves and recited in a chipper voice: “You're such proud and glib and pretty creatures, so smooth and fair! Your armor is so polished, and you all have such great hair! You must spend all your time preening, safe and... secure.”

Antares stopped, scowled, then muttered: “Shit, this rhyming stuff is hard.”

“Oh, I get it!” Innocence said brightly, but as she opened her mouth, a spear was sharply leveled at her face, the mare wincing as the elf leader quirked a smile.

“We take turns.” he said, soft and inarguable, and then he looked at Antares and replied calmly, smoothly: “I will not ask for rhyme or prose from a beast that spends most of its time in the mud. Nor do I expect fancy or metaphor, because I know your small brain cannot grasp them. As you have proven, even the basest form of poetry escapes your empty skull, sucked out the holes in your head by the vacuum of knowledge inside.”

“Wow, harsh.” Antares said mildly, and then he sighed when Innocence growled loudly at him as the elf with the spear relaxed and stepped back. “Ugh, fine, go ahead. Don't embarrass me.”

“Fuck you don't embarrass yourself.” Innocence huffed, then she looked up at the elf before grunting as she stood up on her hind hooves, thrusting her foreclaws out and shouting: “Why don't you sit down, boys and girls, while we ponies from the mortal world, remind you of your place hiding out of sight, because you know you could never put up a fight, against us heroes from the mortal coil, because you pussies have never had to toil, away your lives in the dirt and sleet, so go on, get out of here, just skeet!”

Innocence crossed her forelegs and nodded firmly, then she dropped to the ground, looking extremely proud of herself as Antares slowly dragged a hoof down his face with a look of pain, and the elf leader slowly cocked his head to the side before the mare shouted: “Represent!”

“Oh for the love of god, Sin...”

“So the newt proves she is more worthless than her sibling. A truly incredible display of lack of wit, of lack of rhythm, or rhyme or point. Unless, perhaps, you take pleasure and victory in being useless; then I must applaud you on your unmatchable uselessness.”

“Thanks! I'm awesome!” Innocence said proudly, and Antares frowned slightly as he slowly cocked his head towards her.

“Hey, that's my line.”

“Nuh-uh!” Innocence blew a raspberry at him, and Antares sighed and rolled his eyes. “Now come on, let's rap!”

“We're not 'rapping,' Sin. Look, listen, I'll try and be clearer this time about what we're doing here.” Antares said, before he turned his eyes to the elf lord and said in a bolder voice: “So a dandy elf would tell us of uselessness, with his frippered locks and his armor that has never seen battle, with his unmended cloak and his entourage of grinning fools, elves cloistered in their alfheim far from the home they abandoned, sneaking like rats into the giant's land while the giant strode boldly into theirs?”

The elf's lip curled slightly, and Innocence brightened a little as she started: “Oh, I think I get it, we-”

“Leave it to an animal to bark at what he doesn't understand. Pathetic mongrel, sniveling his way through life, wearing scars so proudly on his chest that the wise eye sees speaks of defeat, not honor. And ironic, that someone who could not save the ones he loved most would taunt us about the world we had to leave behind. Perhaps we won't kill you when you lose. That would be an act of mercy, for a pathetic wretch like you.”

Antares' eyes widened slightly at this, and then he whistled a bit before Innocence stepped forwards, cracking her claws as she said: “Don't worry, Antares. I got this.”

The mare cleared her throat loudly, then grinned before she suddenly stomped forwards, elves immediately raising their spears in warning, but the mare didn't so much as flinch as she glared up at the elf in front and shouted: “I'm gonna suck your eyeballs out of your head, then tongue-kiss them down your throat so you can watch me ram my claw up your ass and pull you inside out by the stomach!”

There was silence for a few moments following this, even Antares rendered speechless, and his sister grinned as she asked: “So does that mean I win?”

“No.” the elf said with disgust, and then he continued contemptibly: “Whoremother, you-”

“I'm not a mom.” Innocence interrupted.

“Wait, that's the part of the statement you take an issue with?” Antares questioned.

“Yeah! It's the not true part-”

“So you are a whore?”

“No! I just like prostitutes.”

“But you don't like mothers.”

“I don't like the idea of being a mother. I could probably be a whore. I mean not all the time. But I could be a sex worker.”

“Assuming ponies would pay you.” Antares muttered, and Innocence glowered at him.

“Hey! So many ponies want to have sex with me! I'm super hot!” Innocence retorted.

The elf cleared his throat, and the two ponies winced as spears and arrows encircled them from all sides, aiming sharply at them as the elf leader said in a cool, deadly voice: “We are not finished. Unless you have decided to forfeit.”

Antares shrugged, and Innocence blew a raspberry loudly at the elf.

The elf narrowed his eyes at this as he said in a low, cruel voice: “Failures. Both of you. A broodmare and a blustering tot. Children, here to try and complete an adult's work; neither of you aware of what footsteps you follow in, or the heights that you aspire to reach. You are both wretched works of depravity and I will no longer simple my words for your empty ears; you deserve nothing but scorn and contempt, to be treated as the wretched and worthless dregs you are, rusted chains that can bear no weight, useless tools that have lost their shine and edge, yammering prattlers that have lost all sense of do and duty and would prefer to try and cock like the crow.

“What say you to this, children? Your derision is meaningless to me. All paths lead to the cliff, horses; tumble down. Follow in your ancestor's hoofsteps and kill yourselves before we do.”

Antares yawned loudly at the elf leader, then he smiled at him and said kindly: “I think you've done very well for yourself here, with the limited resources you clearly have. It looks like you've gone to great lengths to protect your people, bringing them out here to the last place that Valthrudnir would ever look for you, away from even the remotest part of civilization, probably keeping yourselves alive by robbing the occasional passerby and using your elf magic to grow food and tame animals.

“I really envy this kind of life. It must be quiet.” Antares gave another big smile. “How far you've come. You should pat yourselves on the back! All you need now is to establish a nice little village here and you could live just like they do in Banding or Furrowfall.”

The elf leader's hand clasped in front of him, tightening as he looked coldly down at the equine, Antares smiling his childish smile up at him as Innocence frowned, before the elf said contemptibly: “I didn't hear an insult, child. Do you forfeit?”

“Oh, I don't forfeit. And I guess it doesn't surprise me you didn't hear an insult. Your warriors might have, though.” Antares paused, then added: “Or would have. If you had any left, that was.”

Bows creaked. Spears shivered and then stiffened, nettling in around them. The elf lord narrowed his eyes dangerously, then gave a thin smile.

“Perhaps you are right.” he said.

Antares continued to smile even as his wings flexed, lightly tapping Sin's side, and the mare readied herself as the elves hemmed in tighter, before the elf leader said contemptibly: “I almost forgot. I promised to allow my men to speak as well.”

Spears stabbed sharply in and arrows flew from all sides, but Antares wrapped himself in his crystalline wings with a wince, the appendages glowing with magic and deflecting the attacks as Innocence vanished in a blink of magic. She reappeared on the other side of the field, but it was less than a second before a volley of arrows hailed down on her, the scaled mare cursing as she created a barrier of black stone and ducked behind it out of the storm of missiles, swearing as she grabbed an arrow that had managed to tear into her shoulder. “Poison!”

Antares bounced himself into the air with a platform of white energy, then flapped his wings hard, sending out a flash of light that stunned and surprised the elves below. He shot to the side, zigzagging between arrows and several blasts of magic that were shot into the sky after him, before the stallion neatly flipped his body, shielding himself with his wings as he dropped behind the barrier Sin had created.

The mare grumbled as she ripped the arrow loose from her shoulder, her dark blood rapidly filling the wound and sealing into new flesh as the stallion asked: “You okay?”

“Panacea for blood, remember? Worry about yourself. I'm too cool for it to hurt me but it'll probably kill you.” Innocence said mildly, and then she squeaked and covered her head as several magic mortars landed behind them, tearing up the earth as they exploded with tremendous destructive power.

She blinked a few times, then scowled as she realized Antares was hugging her, the stallion's wings wrapped around them both. She pummeled his chest with her claws, then kicked him off and jumped up to lean over the barrier, shouting furiously: “Why don't you eat on someone your own size?”

She snapped her horn out, sending a massive surge of lightning towards the elves: several of the warriors were pounded to the ground by the intense blast of chain lighting, but the magic users leapt to the front, channeling a barrier that deflected the attack. Innocence huffed as she slipped back down behind the barrier, then scowled as Antares asked dryly: “Eat your own size?”

“Shut up I was thinking of two different things. Go do something useful.” Innocence grumbled, and Antares shrugged before he almost absently reached up and caught an arrow a moment before it could sink into Innocence's skull, the mare squawking and staring at the arrowhead only a few inches from her eye.

“Sure.” he said blandly, then leapt into the air as Innocence blinked out of reality. The stallion shot towards the treeline, where elves were calmly waiting in ambush as they nocked arrows and prepared their weapons.

Antares suddenly veered upwards, narrowly avoiding an arrow, slicing his horn through a treebranch above before he spun around and kicked it hard, sending it rocketing into the face of an elf that had just leapt out of hiding with a dagger. The humanoid flipped violently all the way to the ground, landing in a broken sprawl, but the rest of the ambushers didn't so much as flinch as they fired arrows and soundlessly, gracefully leapt through the trees at the stallion.

They were perfect and poised, and utterly unprepared as the stallion crashed into one of the elves like a ton of bricks, knocking the humanoid flat before he could react and kicking off him to launch himself straight at an archer.

The archer fired, and Antares grinned as he twisted himself out of the way and caught the arrow between his teeth, winking at the stupefied elf a moment before he slammed into him and smashed a hoof into his face.

He skidded around in a half-circle, then spat the arrow out and looked at the three remaining, declaring: “My name is Antares Mīrus, and I-”

One of the elves flung a dagger at him, and Antares flinched as this sank into his shoulder, stumbling back a step before he howled: “Who the hell does that?”

The two elf archers fired a flurry of arrows at him, but Antares deflected them with a wing before he ripped the dagger free from his shoulder with telekinesis and flung it quickly back. The elf that had flung it leapt forwards and caught it in midair before attempting to drive it into Antares' face, but the stallion lunged into the attack, his horn gleaming as he deflected the dagger, then rapidly fenced the elf assassin backwards before he blew a loud raspberry as he blasted the elf off his feet with a tremendous surge of ivory magic.

One archer slipped sideways as the other leapt over the rocketing body of his companion, and fired another arrow at Antares: the stallion deflected this with his horn, then leapt upwards and slammed an uppercut into the elf's gut with such force that the humanoid was launched into the trees above, and fell free of the branches in a crumpled heap a moment later. Antares snorted, then without looking, ducked under an arrow that sank into the ground behind him, the stallion saying wryly: “That's not gonna work, pal. Try leaving.”

The elf looked at him from his perch in a tree, cool and calm, and then the archer turned and vanished into the canopy. Antares wasn't sure if he was actually gone or not, but either way, he had other things to focus on for the moment.

He turned and headed back into the meadow, and grimaced as he saw Innocence slinging spells wildly at the elves, shouting furiously the entire time she did so, pelting the humanoids with every element imaginable and then some. The elves were stoic in their resistance, but Innocence was rapidly overpowering them: she had all the rage of her Móðer and all the talents of her mother, as terrible and relentless as a wildfire.

Antares whistled, and Innocence huffed as she looked at him, pausing in her assault on the elves before she grumbled and flicked her horn, sending one last blue fireball rocketing into an elven archer and knocking him crashing out of the meadow. The stallion flapped his wings, landing gently beside her and leaning in as he said mildly: “We should be trying to restrain ourselves. They're humanoids. They're fragile.”

“He hit me!” Innocence whined, pointing at a scrape on her face. “So I hit him back!”

Antares drew his eyes over the meadow, covered in burns, crumpled bodies, and blackened chunks of crystal, and he couldn't help but note: “It looks like you hit all of them back.”

She huffed again, then glared at the little knot of elves that remained at the edge of the field. The elf leader grimaced as he walked forwards, two warriors with massive shields on either side of him and two mages muttering chants behind him, although they all seemed aware that their counterspells weren't going to be very effective against the mare.

“What are you?” the elf asked with disgust: no fear, no anger, just more derision and distaste. They had certainly mastered the art of condescension even in the face of death, Antares had to give them that.

“Ponies.” Antares answered with a shrug, before he said positively: “Hey, though, you didn't die!”

“Neither did you.” The elf leader moved fluidly, sharply, lunging forwards as his sword flashed out in a deadly instant-

Antares caught the strike against his own horn, his eyes narrowed, the two glaring at each other before spire and sword flashed, metal and alicorn clashing violently as the two dueled for supremacy. The stallion moved with grace as the elf hacked and cut at his horn, then, when he realized his shining sword could make no purchase against the material of the unicorn's horn, he twisted his sword and cut downward-

Antares gracefully deflected the blade away from his face, winking up at the elf before he teased: “Hey, don't cheat.”

The elf stabbed forwards, then slapped his sword in: he fenced with the blade held stiffly vertical, trying to open an opportunity to hack down into the stallion's face, but Antares gracefully defeated every attempt, his eyes gleaming, his smile never leaving his face before he suddenly slapped the elf's sword aside and leaned in to slash across his body, the elf lord leaping backwards a second too late, then looking down at the cut across his breastplate with shock.

He trembled with rage, then looked up and snarled, vain features becoming ugly with his anger as he shouted: “How dare you!”

“Hey, guess that means I won. You're definitely mad. Big mad.” Antares said mildly, and the elf roared before he sharply flung his sword at the stallion's face, but Antares deflected this straight up into the air, then he winked before squawking when Innocence leapfrogged him and caught the blade as it fell, the mare landing with a grin and posing with the sword held above her head like a trophy.

The remaining elves and the few that had managed to pick themselves up immediately moved forwards, but the elf leader snarled, seizing the shield from one of his bodyguards before he spun and flung it angrily to the ground,startling the rest of his band. He stood, long arms hanging limp, hair disheveled, eyes glowing in frustration before he ground his teeth together, then dropped his head and growled: “Get out of here.”

“Well, thank you for your hospitality and-”

“Leave!” the elf shouted furiously, straightening, a flush of anger and humiliation in his cheeks as he clenched his hands into fists, and Antares cleared his throat loudly as he turned and trotted quickly out of the alfheim.

Innocence blew a loud raspberry at the elves, then tucked the sword into the straps of her pack and hurried off after her brother. She was followed out by several flung instruments and a last volley of curses from the elf lord, the mare hurrying up beside her brother to whisper: “Are they gonna follow us?”

“Nah. We made our point and the elves can't break a promise. I mean. Mostly.” Antares said after a moment. “We'll take a few extra precautions maybe, just in case, but... I think we're good.”

“We're better than good. We're pretty fuckin' awesome.” Innocence said with a grin, nudging her brother firmly, and Antares smiled despite himself with a roll of his eyes.

“We're something.” he half-agreed, and then he said mildly: “Although you know it would have been better not to set the meadow on fire. I'm gone for five minutes and you're back to your evil ways.”

“Fuck you, I don't pull my punches for no weirdo jerkdorks.” Innocence said proudly, before she yanked the sword loose from where she'd bound it, grinning as she waved it back and forth using telekinesis. “And also I got a sword out of it. I don't think he got pissed just because of you, Tarry. I think he got pissed because us domesticated whores got the better of his whole-ass brigade so badly.”

Antares sighed, but knew that his sister probably had a point. All the same... “Just be careful next time...” He paused and peered at her, frowning slightly before he asked slowly: “Unless you wanted to draw that robot in.”

Innocence shrugged innocently, and Antares sighed again, but couldn't really scold her.

After all, it wasn't like it was the worst idea Sin had ever had.