The Equestrian Avenger

                Luna flailed against the unknown person who dragged her down several paths. Finally, the person tossed her to the ground in front of them. Luna sat up and looked behind her; dead end. She turned her attention to the person, who was most definitely a man. His lanky stature was silhouetted against the bright moon.

“Who are you and how did you get into my labyrinth?” He demanded.

"‘Tis is thy labyrinth?” Luna frowned. “Who art thou?"

“I asked you first,” He said. “And yes, this is my labyrinth. It is my prison, so therefore it is my labyrinth.”

“Thou art a criminal,”

“In a way,” He passed the horned helmet from one hand to another. “Now who are you?”

“I am Luna; Princess Luna, goddess of the moon and co-ruler of Equestria.” Luna squared her shoulders importantly. “Who art thou?”

“Equestria,” The man murmured. “You said you were a ruler there?”

“Yes, alongside my sister.”

“Who is your sister?”

“I shall tell thee her name when you give me yours.”

The man reached down and offered her his hand. Luna obliged, allowing him to help her off the ground.

“My name is Loki. Your sister’s name wouldn’t be Celestia, would it?”

Luna yanked her hand free of Loki’s. “How doth thou knowest that?”

“I came to your land once-not long ago, actually. I met your sister when she found me on the mountain, badly injured. She nursed me back to health,” He paused. “Your sister, Celestia, she is kind.”

“My sister never spoke of you,” Luna started.

“Oh, but she spoke of you. Princess Luna, her jealous little sister, possessed by an evil spirit and imprisoned on the moon. Tell me; are you still after Celestia’s throne?”

“It was never her throne I wanted. And thou would be envious if your sibling was loved and praised for the one star she controlled, whilst thou art hated for the fictional tales about monsters coming out at night, where I manage a moon and billions of stars. You would be so envious that you would make a deal with a deceitful demon who-instead of advising you on how to become a better ruler- takes over your body and uses it to seek revenge on a pony that has been dead for years!”

“That’s…quite a story,”

“Thou doth not have any idea,” Luna deflated a little. “And now here I am, stuck on an unfamiliar planet because my sister sent me here to…to…” What had Celestia sent her here for?

Loki raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. “Perhaps I should take you back to my camp. You look like you need rest.”

“Rest,” Luna argued. “Is the last thing I need. I am a nocturnal being; my internal clock is set to watch over the night.”

“A night that you don’t control,”

“I don’t care whose night it is. Please, just let me keep this privilege. I cannot remember the last time I was awake during the day.”

Loki considered this for a moment before smiling. “Nope,” He lashed out, squeezing a point on Luna’s neck that made her fall unconscious. He let her crumple into his arms and carried her back to his small camp, where he set Luna down in his blanket pile, tugging a few over her body.

He sat back, watching her for a moment. “Luna,” He repeated her name quietly.

She was beautiful, just like her sister, yet in a far different way. Celestia was irresistible and warm hearted, capable of loving even the sourest of beings. She was painstakingly beautiful and carried a warm, sunny aura that made you want to smile.

Luna, however, was strikingly gorgeous. She radiated power and demanded respect from anyone she came across. In a way, her headstrong personality reminded Loki of Thor. He quickly dismissed this thought. He wanted nothing to do with the childhood memories of his brotherhood with Thor.

Those were over as far as he was concerned.

Loki lay on his back and stared up at the stars, tracing together constellations to pass the time. Slowly, his eyelids slid over his eyes, and he too fell asleep.

-oOo-

Luna was alone, and in the pitch dark. Not even her night vision could pierce its inky blackness. Carefully, she waved a hoof-no, hand in front of her face. Even in her dreams she was a human now-nothing.

Carefully, Luna raised a foot off the ground and placed it forward. The ground was solid and warm, like the floor in front of a fireplace. Feeling a little silly, Luna spread her arms out and shuffled forward, feeling for anything; a wall, a table, a bed. It could have been Slendermane and Luna wouldn’t have cared. She wasn’t scared of him anyway, and he was actually a nice stallion. He just had attachment issues.

“Luna…..”

She froze and pulled her arms down. “Who is there?”

“Luna,”

The blue haired princess turned in circles, her eyes fighting to cut through the curtain of darkness.

‘Is this what it is like to be blind?’ Luna thought.

She closed her eyes and tried to force her way out of the dream, to no avail.

“Luna!” The voice became shockingly louder, and suddenly, a beam of light swept onto the ground, shedding light on what Luna presumed to be a human Celestia. The long four-toned hair was mussed and dirty, and the white dress she wore was torn and covered with dirt and streaks of blood. Her skin was bruised and filthy. The sun goddess was lying on the ground, her arms supporting her upper body.

“Luna, find Loki,” She called.

“Celestia,” Luna ran toward the beaten form of her sister, but the light disappeared as quickly as it had come, leaving Luna in total darkness. Luna dove on top of where Celestia had lain, finding nothing but the warm ground. She closed her eyes, and then opened them. She found no difference.

‘Find Loki…find Loki…Loki…Loki…’ Luna milled the name over in her subconscious state, letting her mind’s voice play it over and over.

“Loki,” She whispered it now, the syllables rolling over her tongue. She liked the way it sounded. It sounded…well, low-key. Something relaxed and peaceful. “Loki,” Each time she spoke it, it became an octave louder.

She had heard it before. It was…a name, yes, a name. Celestia had made it sound important. She had said it before this dream too.

“Loki,” But someone other than her sister had voiced the name. Luna groped through her thousand year old memory, searching for the carefully preserved memory that had mentioned Loki. It was a person, someone she had met recently. And then it came to her.

Luna gasped and her eyes snapped open, meeting the peach colored sky of dawn instead of the infinite black of her dream.

“Loki,” She murmured.

“I find it flattering that you speak my name in your sleep,”

At a sensible pace, Luna sat up to meet the gaze of the man who, until now, had remained faceless to her mind’s eye.

He sat cross legged, his hands folded in his lap. Loki’s hair was long and black, smoothed against his head and flipping out at his shoulders. His pale skin stretched over his cheekbones. He wore a patient smile, his eyes observant and friendly. The gold helmet lay in the grass beside him.

“Thou art Loki,”

“I am,”

Without warning, Luna sprung on top of him, wrapping her arms around his neck and flattening him to the ground. “My sister has spoken of you!”

“She has?” Loki struggled to sit up, resuming the cross legged position. Luna now rested in his lap and she pulled away to look him in the eye.

“She has! Celestia sent me here to get help! That is why I am here!”

“Help?” Loki’s face pushed into a look of concern. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Luna admitted. “All I remember is Celestia telling me to find thee and then she pushed me into a portal that leads to here, I suppose,” She paused, then added, “But now that I have found thee, thou can help us.”

Loki looked away from Luna, frowning. The corners of Luna’s lips dropped. “Thou cannot help, can thou?”

Slowly, Loki shook his head. He looked back at Luna, watching her expression morph from realization to disappointment to complete helplessness.

Luna turned and crawled out of Loki’s lap, standing with her back facing Loki. She headed for the exit of the clearing.

“Luna,”

“Yes?” She turned to look at Loki.

“I’m sorry.”

“It is not thou I am upset with. It is the fact that I can to nothing to help my country’s crisis that I am sad about.

“Will you come back?”

“Of course,” Luna promised. “Just allow me some time to myself.”

-oOo-

“No…no…no….” Discord tossed book after book of the shelf, disappointed with each title he saw. Finally, he threw another book across the room. “This is ridiculous!” he shouted.

“What is?” Discord turned to see Vega, free of Celestia’s horseshoes peel away from the dark shadow of a dusty corner.

“This,” Discord gestured wildly to the small section of the library around him. “I can’t find anything on that planet Celestia was talking about.”

“Maybe I can help.”

“And how can you help? I’ve torn apart all of these books and I can’t find anything.” And torn apart they were. Books were scattered in piles and loose pages lay like leaves on the floor. A few bits even floated through the air.

Vega took in the mess around her as a scrap of aged paper landed on her nose. She twitched it to get it off. “Well, for starters, Celestia said it was a scroll.”

Discord’s arms, which had been folded, dropped to his sides. His smug expression turned to utter disbelief. “Pardon?”

“A scroll,” Vega blinked. “You’re in the right section, just not the right…sub-section.”

Discord looked around him and slumped his shoulders. “Well this is embarrassing.”

“The scrolls are that way,” No sooner had Vega pointed her hoof than Discord blown her over in his desperate attempt to find the precious information.

She climbed to her feet and spread her tiny wings, flittering up into the air to follow him.

“Why do you want it, anyway?” She perched on the top of the bookshelf Discord was currently rifling through, tilting her head to the side.

“Celestia tried to bargain another world for her own,” Discord muttered, unfurling a scroll, then tossing it aside. “We have Equestria, but why stop there, eh?”

Vega narrowed her eyes. “You’re crazy.”

“Ahahaha!” Discord held up a scroll triumphantly. “There’s a method to my madness, little friend,” He reached up and plucked the tiny alicorn off the bookcase, tucking her under his arm like a hoofball, holding the scroll ahead of him. I look of wild glee was scrawled across his jumbled face.

“We must find Chrysalis! She’ll think this idea is fantastic for sure!

-oOo-

“GET OUT!” Vega, who had been waiting by the door to the royal bath chamber, jumped to her hooves. The doors were flung open, and Discord was pitched horns over hoof and claw outside. He smacked into the opposing wall, sliding down with a high squeak.

Vega trotted over and sniffed the seemingly unconscious draconequus. Vega straightened, deep in thought for a moment.

“Cotton candy,” She decided. “You smell like cotton candy.”

One of Discord’s yellow eyes popped open and rolled up to meet Vega. She gave him a wide grin. “So what’d she say?”

-oOo-

Thor and Luna sat at a small table just off the dining hall. The muted sounds of guests could be heard through the doors.

“How are you enjoying your food?”

Luna answered only out of politeness. Mad as she was, Luna was a princess, regardless of what world she was on. Celestia would’ve expected her to make an excellent impression.

“It looks wonderful, thank you.”

Thor himself had spoken only out of politeness; Luna hadn’t touched her food at all. He figured it was because she was from a different planet and therefore wasn’t familiar with the cuisine of Asgard.

In reality, Luna was starving. She had missed four meals and on top of that, she had eaten a light lunch the day Celestia has sent her to Asgard. It was merely the matter of Luna’s unfamiliarity of using a knife and fork. That and the plate that sat before Luna consisted mainly of meat.

Thor, himself caught the latter half of Luna’s problem. “You’re vegetarian aren’t you?”

“Y-yes,” Luna stammered.

“I apologize,” Thor rose from his seat and pulled the plate of the table. “I should have been more considerate.”

“I think I should take part of the blame,” Luna protested. “I should have said something.”

Thor only smiled and slipped through the door, off to fetch Luna a salad.