84. The Islands of the Blessed

THE SPACE BETWEEN

PRESENT TIMELINE

Twilight paced back and forth through the control room, almost wearing a hole in the floor with her footsteps.

"Why would the Mists send us back a thousand years on the same world?" Applejack asked.

"I don't KNOW," Twilight emphasized. "THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT!" She took a deep breath to try and calm herself. "Let's just concentrate on what we do know. Thor met us before we met him. This must be where it happens! When we land, we're somehow going to find him!"

"And Loki, too," Rarity pointed out.

"DON'TREMINDME!" Pinkie Pie screeched.

"Still bitter, hon?" Applejack asked, concerned.

"Oooh, I hate being bitter!" Pinkie Pie groaned. "I hate bitter things in general. Bitter apples, bitter cupcakes, bitter pies…there was this one time that Mr. Cake made a turnover and – "

Rarity cleared her throat loudly.

"- Anyway," Pinkie concluded, "I'm STILL mad that he lied to me!"

"Well, we HAVE to run into him here," Twilight snapped. "I'm not that happy about it either, but we have to figure out a way to deal with that. I was wondering if maybe we stop him from causing more chaos here, but that doesn't make sense at all with what Thor told us about his past. No…there's something else."

"And only one way to find out what," Applejack stated.

"All RIGHT!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "Full speed ahead!"

"MOOOOOORE ADVENTURE!" Pinkie Pie cried, suddenly over her anger toward Loki.

Twilight smiled. "All right. Let's go."

The ship made course for 616th Midgard.

...

BELOW THE PARADISE GARDEN

In the garden, trees grew tall, vegetation flourished, animals frolicked. The life force was at its fullest there. In the center, its lowest branches bearing golden apples, was the great tree Yggdrassil, the connector of realms, a source of pure life. The Hesperides danced around Yggdrassil, climbing its branches. Sparkling rivers flowed. Flowers of all colors bloomed in a rainbow.

Underground, it was different.

Pitch-dark tunnels wound into a labyrinth of earth. In some of them glimmered the black stones that were produced when subterranean dragons defecated. In others – the knucker holes, where nightmares became real – there was no air flow, only bleak stillness to accompany the darkness. The roots of the plants above curled down into the tunnels, twisting like dead snakes.

Some of the tunnels were home to the landvaettir. The landvaettir had been around since the Age of Chaos, though they considered themselves absolved of more guilt than the Old Ones and their reign of destruction. Not, of course, to say they were guiltless. They preferred the life force, clustering in the tunnels that were closer to the great roots of Yggdrassil. Each about the height of a Pooka, they appeared as very furry creatures with beige coats, so thick they could be confused for great hairballs that sighed and trilled as they clung to the walls of the tunnels.

A force made itself known in the tunnels of the landvaettir. The furry nature spirits ceased their peaceful breathing and shuddered as the creature took more and more steps toward them. The sound of the creature's voice echoed through tunnel space that was usually silent beyond the general noises of the landvaettir going about life. And the landvaettir, feared guardians of nature and life among the Nine Realms, trembled as he approached.

Then he came into view: Discord, trotting merrily along, whistling a song to himself. Every now and then, he would softly break into the lyrics: "…howlin' at the moon, and sleepin' in the middle of a summer afternoon..." Whistle. "Whatever did we do, to make you take our world awaaaaay…"

He ignored the fearful, shivering landvaettir, continuing his trek down the tunnel until it opened out into a massive cavern, one that could easily have housed a human metropolis or an extended family of fully-sized Titans. As Discord was, he seemed merely a speck on the floor in comparison to the sheer volume of this cavern. This was the place where the roots of Yggdrassil were exposed, snaking along the roof and down the sides of the walls, thicker than the trunks of most trees known to mortals. Due to the lack of light, to mortal eyes, the expanse of the cavern would have remained unknown, invisible. Discord's eyes, of course, were special, but even to him, it was hard distinguishing, at first, where the edges of the roots ended and the dirt walls began. He looked up to the ceiling, which is where what he had come for was situated. At first, it just looked like a black ceiling…but Discord could pick out the twitches of movement. As he adjusted his own eyesight, brightening the sight, he could better make out the outline of the massive reptilian creature attached to the roof. The dragon hung suspended upside-down, his body twitching ever so often as his head moved about the roots. He was chewing. Chewing at the roots of Yggdrassil, at the very foundation of the Nine Realms, at the tree that touched several other worlds as well. Given enough time, that would inevitably cause the tree to topple, and worlds to fall.

Enough time, that is to say, being millions of years.

"So how's it going?" Discord asked.

The dragon heard his words from all the way down below, small as Discord was to him. He ceased his chewing, rearing his head up – which, by all technicalities, was actually down – and looked at Discord, who waved enthusiastically.

"Discord," the dragon sighed, his voice booming and echoing throughout the cavern. It was not, however, a deep or foreboding voice. Most would actually describe it as lilting and pleasant…given that they didn't see what it was coming from.

"Nidhogg," Discord replied. "Long time, no see. So, what have you been up to? Besides eating the roots of Yggdrassil. Oh, wait…that's all you've EVER been up to, isn't it?"

"You've been gone a long time," Nidhogg replied. "You've missed a few things. I have, in fact, been out."

"WELL!" Discord remarked. "THAT'S certainly a surprise. You MUST tell me what you did while you were out."

"Well, it began…" Nidhogg trailed off. "Oh, I know quite well that explaining my motivations will invite mockery from YOU."

"Me?" Discord put on his most innocent-sounding voice. "Why, I would NEVER!" A small golden halo appeared over his head.

"Since the beginning of time, I have eaten away at the roots of Yggdrassil so that one day, it may fall," Nidhogg explained. "Such an act could only facilitate the beginning of true Ragnarok and a fall of the worlds of order into the chaos we once knew, where I would reign!"

"Oh, I think you made a slip of the tongue there," Discord interrupted. "You said 'I would reign' instead of 'we would reign.'"

Nidhogg ignored that. "But one day, I wondered…is it not tedious work? Could I not cause it all to fall faster by moving on the earthly planes?"

"Like we told you for YEARS," Discord insisted. "Don't you remember those fun times at the old hangout when we would all gather together in the central chamber and joke about how you'd been working on the same plan for thousands of years with no results? Oh, no, wait, you wouldn't. You weren't there! You were here, working on the same plan for thousands of years with no results!" He laughed.

"I knew you would mock me."

"Why sound so disappointed about it, then?"

Nidhogg shrugged that off. "I decided to employ a new plan. One where I would infiltrate the Nine Realms and destroy them from within. A more…subtle plan."

"Subtler than causing negligible damage to a tree that would take eons to destroy?"

Discord's remark was met with a cold silence.

Then Nidhogg resumed: "Perhaps I was…too subtle. The plan ended up backfiring."

"Now, you can't just bring up a backfired plan without telling what it was," Discord pointed out.

"I entered Ringford in the form of a faerie," Nidhogg explained. "I let myself grow up there from the form of a child, let the faeries believe I was one of them. Though I could not conceal my TRUE name – faeries seem to know when you're lying about that – but then again, faeries also tend to believe that 'Nidhogg' is just a given name, nothing more. Symbolism, meant to echo the great dragon below. Nonetheless, in the courts, none actually went by true names. In public, I called myself 'Melvin.'"

"Nice choice." Discord nodded.

"I can't tell if you're being serious."

"Then I'm doing my job correctly. Go on, Marvin."

"I rose to the ranks of the royal family," Nidhogg continued. "In the meantime, I forged a plan and a sword. Many of the Asgardian kings had discovered that crystals from Niflheim could manipulate the life force into great magical powers, and they crafted those crystals into weapons known as 'Psyphers.' The young princess Mercedes had one of her own. A crossbow, Riblam." He let out a long, low growl at the thought of Mercedes.

"I take it you and the princess didn't get on well," Discord inferred.

"That part of the story comes later," Nidhogg explained. "I forged a Psypher of my own: the Belderiver. I bequeathed it upon champion after champion, forcing them into mercenary life to do the dirtier of my deeds. But there was a curse on the Belderiver." He laughed. "A curse I created. Those who used the sword too long would burn out their own life force."

"A weapon that drains your life force the more you use it?" Discord rolled his eyes. "For some reason, I'm having déjà vu." He conjured a leathery gauntlet over his right claw and pointed at it meaningfully.

"Oh, it was so much better than you think," Nidhogg corrected. "A Shadow Knight of the Belderiver did not DIE upon using the last of his life force. Instead, he would become an Echthros."

"A Heartless?"

"A Revenant," Nidhogg amended. "Rarer, and harder to create and control than a Heartless, but more powerful than your garden variety Shadow. A massive beast of darkness that roamed the land, looking to rip souls away from bodies."

"Oh, that IS chaotic!" Discord laughed gleefully. "I like this plan!"

"But it all fell apart because of that damned princess," Nidhogg cursed, "and that damned Oswald, my last Shadow Knight. I had acted as practically a father to Oswald, and he found me out for what I was trying to do. For I had another goal besides creating Shadow Knights. A goal that would lead me to more and more power. I had planned to usurp the faerie throne in Ringford. That would lead me to more and more power in both Asgard and Vanaheim, and from there, into the other Realms. Then I could TRULY destroy Yggdrassil once and for all! And the queen, Elfaria…or should I use her true name, 'Fimbulvetr', the Great Winter?...so fortunately passed away before our eyes from war wounds dealt by Odin. After the weakling princess, I was next in line for the throne. Mercedes was a child. She could be defeated easily. Or so I thought.

"But she survived Oswald, and she and her court came after me on a count of treason. I was overpowered. I had to retreat. I let them all think I had died. It was simpler."

"And you came right back to square one."

"To a plan I thought had no variables," Nidhogg growled. "A plan I thought was foolproof!"

"Oh?" Discord raised a brow. "Do I detect a little bit of CHAOS entering your orderly plan to take the tree out from underground?"

"The princess," Nidhogg snarled. "Her true name was Yggdrassil. I thought nothing of it. But somehow, some way, it was as real to her as 'Nidhogg' was to me. She died on the plane of Asgard. She DIED…and her soul became PART OF THE TREE! She fights me even now. The roots grow back almost as fast as I can destroy them. They taste sickly sweet. It's her damned influence!"

"So, long story short, the roots thing didn't work then, and it's not really working now," Discord recapitulated.

"What else can I do?" Nidhogg snarled.

"Well, for one, you can join me and a little group of old friends I'm putting together," Discord stated.

"Old friends?" Nidhogg replied.

"You know," Discord said, "the Titans, Mirage, my brother, the Ethereal, Galan – oh, I keep forgetting, he's 'Galactus' now – and I've even got Mephisto thinking about it."

"You are attempting to reunite us all," Nidhogg observed.

"It's more fun than collecting baseball cards. Anyway, I'm looking at a long-term proposition. The more of us can be found and liberated from whatever prisons the goody-goodies of the multiverse held us in, the more quickly we can put things back the way they were when WE ran the show. But you'll understand…for that, I would need you to NOT be stuck down here eating a tree that won't die."

"And for THAT," Nidhogg retorted, "I would need to be sure that you were a good investment."

"Oh, I'm CERTAINLY that," Discord promised. "All you'd have to do to see that is come back to the surface to go on a little trip with me. A vacation, if you will. We'll stir things up a little in the Nine Realms."

"And what would YOU do that is better than infiltrating positions of power?" Nidhogg asked with contempt.

"I tend to have a strategy," Discord told him. "Admittedly it is repetitive, and I should probably get new material, but so far, it's produced sufficiently entertaining results on four different worlds. The key is to pick out the absolute most chaotic beings in the targeted area, put them together, even the odds against whoever it is that isn't letting them be chaotic, and let nature take its course."

"And your track record?"

"I've lost every battle, but I'm winning the war."

"Hm." Nidhogg thought it over. "I suppose…if Laufey and Glamdis could be stirred – "

"The king and queen of the Jötunns?" Discord scoffed. "Oh, come now, Nidhogg, have a little imagination! Here's a tip: don't let a silly little thing like the boundaries of life and death stop you." He produced the Resurrection Stone; rolled it along his claw. "I've got a special little device here that I've tweaked to help me get anyone I want out of the afterlife, and a stockpile of souls ready and waiting to be turned loose. So, again. If you could pick ANYBODY…"

Given the darkness of the room and the angle at which Nidhogg was still craning his head, Discord couldn't see his face. But Discord knew Nidhogg was grinning. And Nidhogg said a name.

"EXACTLY," Discord said. "And if you're going for THAT one, then you might as well bring along…" He stated another name.

"Was there not a splinter faction of sorts?" Nidhogg recalled. "They moved to another Midgardian territory after a falling-out with the humans. Weren't they set on creating a superweapon?"

"Yes, I think I know which one you mean," Discord confirmed. "They never set the weapon into place, but a certain member got very angry about it and stormed off in SUCH a huff. He's still alive, you know. We could bring him in…"

They volleyed names back and forth until they could think of no more.

"But would they work together?" Nidhogg asked.

"Give them a common reason and they will," Discord replied. "And I think they already have that."

"It could potentially start a war that spanned the Realms," Nidhogg remarked. "I rather like this plan."

"Enough to see if it would be a…oh, how did you put it…good investment?"

"Yes," Nidhogg replied. "I will see this little idea through."

"Then we'd best get moving," Discord suggested. "After all, we can't just bring them all in down here. I think we both know where we have to go."

"Indeed we do," Nidhogg confirmed. "But first…let me make myself more presentable."

He slithered down from the ceiling, transforming as he did so from a dragon into a dark, fluid mass that shrank and shrank as he lowered to the ground. When he did touch ground, Nidhogg was slightly shorter than Discord. The mass took a shape, solidified. He was then in the body of a faerie, pale skin, a golden mane of hair that fell thick past his shoulders. His baggy pants were of a gold-colored fabric; his loose tunic, baring most of his chest, off-white. His feet were laced into brown boots. An emerald green jacket with puffed sleeves covered it all, and protruding from his back were two iridescent wings.

"So that's what you looked like as Marvin," Discord observed.

"Melvin," Nidhogg corrected sternly.

"Whatever." Discord shrugged. "Now let's make like a World Tree and leaf."

"Not humorous."

The pair began to walk down the tunnels, passing the landvaettir, who were even more distressed by the sight of Nidhogg. The pair then began to navigate the maze of tunnels to find the one that would take them directly up toward the realm they sought.

On the way, they passed the entrance to a dark, still tunnel where no air flowed. And from it, Discord and Nidhogg heard a distinct sound: that of a woman sobbing loudly.

"Is it just me," Discord asked, "or do you hear someone crying in that knucker hole?"

"I do," Nidhogg replied. "You don't suppose it could be one of the knuckers…"

"No, couldn't be."

Knuckers, which took on the shape of whatever the person before them feared most, generally avoided Old Ones. The like of what Discord and Nidhogg feared wasn't anything they could transform into.

"But what mortal creature would have gone so far in and survived?" Nidhogg wondered out loud.

"Perhaps it's something a little more than mortal," Discord theorized.

"Then the question becomes why she – it – would choose to spend its time in a knucker hole."

"Only one way to find out." Discord gave a shrug and walked in. Nidhogg followed.

They had to go rather deep into the tunnel, which only made the circumstances more suspect. That far in, whoever was crying had to have gone in on purpose, or would be already dead. Turning a corner, they saw the sobbing figure huddled on the ground, up against the wall. She looked humanoid…from the waist up. Down below, her silhouette had a few more legs than the average human.

"What do you think you're doing in here?" Nidhogg asked sternly.

"Oh…" She wiped her eyes, trying to erase her tears before she spoke. Discord and Nidhogg could make out that she had to take off a pair of spectacles in order to do so, and replaced them when she was done. "I've just had the most TERRIBLE thing happen, and…and this was the only place I could think to go!"

"Into a knucker hole," Nidhogg stated condescendingly.

"I like being around fear," the woman admitted. "It's comforting. Especially…especially when your only friend turns on you! I can't believe he would just betray me like that! Oh, if only I…if only I could get my HANDS on him!"

Discord and Nidhogg looked to each other. They knew they were thinking the same thing. "What did he do to you, dear?" Nidhogg asked.

"It's a long story," the woman sniffled.

"But just so we're clear," Discord replied, "it DOES end in you wanting revenge, right?"

"Yes!" she bawled. "All I want now is what was rightfully mine!"

"Then we've got time to hear about it," Discord stated.

...

THE SEAS OF 616TH MIDGARD

The Starlight landed a distance away from where it had first touched down on this planet. Instead of the eastern coast of America, it sailed through the waters above the British Isles. The six Equestrian travelers stood up on the deck, admiring the view. The wind was chilly, but the mists over the waters looked pleasantly haunting.

"I want to go over a few things before we meet up with anypony," Twilight announced. "I know this might sound a little redundant, but I want to make sure we're all on the same page. We know things about the future that they don't. We CAN'T let any of the details slip. In fact, we're better off pretending we haven't been to the future at all. If we tell anything to anyone, that might change how they act and THAT will change all of history."

"Aw, c'mon," Applejack replied. "You're exaggeratin' again."

"I'm not," Twilight emphasized. "If we say the wrong thing, we could do a LOT of damage. What if we told Thor and Loki that Loki was a Jötunn? Loki would go berserk on THIS era. The heroes of this time might not be able to stop him as easily as the Avengers. Or maybe he would be stopped sooner, but that would put one of this realm's GODS out of commission for who knows HOW long! Or what if we said that Thor was going to fall in love with someone on Midgard who wasn't born yet? He might alienate someone he's in love with now, and ruin a friendship and potentially an important alliance! And that's just a SMALL part of what would happen if we messed up!"

"But you did a time travel spell to try and change history once," Rainbow Dash reminded her. "To tell yourself not to worry about a disaster that you thought was coming because you saw yourself come from the future and tell you not to worry about something. Nothing changed then!"

"That was a MINOR spell," Twilight reminded her. "It was VERY simple compared to what we're working with. And what I went through is known as a self-contained time loop. Which is either the only outcome for that possible spell, or I got lucky. After all, it WAS just me trying to get a message to myself. Nopony else got involved."

"I got involved!" Pinkie reminded her. "I helped you break into the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the royal library, and then we went around in circles hiding from guards about three times before you found out that the Starswirl the Bearded wing was in front of you the whole time!"

"True," Twilight confirmed, "but you weren't part of the casting of the spell, and you weren't there when past me got a visit from future me."

"But aren't they BOTH past you now?" Pinkie asked.

"Well…I mean…when the me that was always past got a visit from the me that was future then but past now."

"Unless we end up using the Starlight to travel to Equestria's past," Pinkie Pie theorized, "which would mean that it was the you that you thought was in the past really in the FUTURE, and the you that you thought was in the future in the past would be in the future again!"

"PINKIE. PIE," Rainbow Dash broke in. "STOP. This is giving me a headache!"

"So does everypony remember what to do?" Twilight grilled.

"We don't mention a word of what happened to us on 616th Earth in the future," Rarity confirmed.

"Which was in the past," Pinkie added.

...

The ship sailed consistently west until the sun began to set.

"Do you feel that?" Rarity asked suddenly.

"Feel what?" Fluttershy replied.

"It just all of a sudden feels…peculiar," Rarity stated. "In quite a pleasing way."

"It does!" Fluttershy realized. "It feels like we're sailing toward something wonderful!"

"It feels like magic," Twilight observed.

All of a sudden, as the sun touched the horizon, it flashed brightly. There was a jolt, and all six aboard felt themselves suddenly transform.

...

THE ISLANDS OF THE BLESSED

"OooooOOOOOH!" Rarity fumed, standing up on all fours as a unicorn. "I WISH there was some way to be warned when that was about to happen!" She kicked at the two-legged pants her body had ripped through. "This is the second pair I've lost this way!"

"Maybe I can get the computer to detect when we're approaching auras that change our form," Twilight suggested. She, too, was a unicorn once more. All six had been transformed to their true forms as ponies, and consequently were shrugging their way out of the human-tailored clothes. Twilight took a look around at the ship's new surroundings. "It's…weird. It's almost like we passed into another world…but why come back to 616 in the first place if we were going to end up here?"

The ship still sailed on calm waters, but the mists were gone, and the temperature was noticeably warmer. The sky glowed with the bright colors of early dusk, predominantly red, and the setting sun sparkled brilliantly across the water. Every color, in fact, was more vivid than it had been before the passing.

"Unless…this is still part of 616," Twilight wondered out loud. "Or the only way to get to it is from 616. It's…attached, somehow. Maybe?"

"I'm just glad to be back on all fours again," Applejack admitted. "Yeah, I was gettin' used to just the two, but this just feels more natural."

"Do you suppose this is a territory of ponies?" Rarity wondered.

"Could be," Twilight replied. "It could also be a place where everyone takes on their true form."

The ship was still maintaining course. "I wonder where we're going!" Pinkie Pie broke in. "Do you think it will be somewhere fun? Or somewhere scary? Or somewhere that's scary in a fun way? Or fun in a scary way?"

Eventually, the sight of land crested the horizon. "LAND HOOOOOO!" Pinkie cried, hopping up and down excitedly.

"SWEET!" Rainbow Dash practically squealed.

Up ahead, a brilliant island with emerald green grass was visible. All six gathered at the prow, quite excited to see what was ahead.

As they neared the island, they could see it was part of an archipelago, all covered in green grass and populated with homes that were small but beautiful. Several beings – mostly humans, but some that most decidedly were not – played or worked in the yards, and an air of happiness seemed to permeate them.

"We should dock and say hi!" Pinkie cried.

"I…don't think so," Twilight replied.

"Why not?" Pinkie pouted.

"Because…the ship's still going," Twilight answered. "And besides…I get this weird feeling that we're not SUPPOSED to dock there. At least not now. They're…something separate. I can't really tell what it is about this place, but SOMETHING'S off."

The ship decided to gently beach itself on the shores of the largest island. Across its surface, the six could view a deep green forest of hazel trees, tall mountains, and the hints of deep valleys. Atop a hill – nearer to them than any mountain, but still a good walking distance away – there was perched a building of gray stone, one built to resemble a small church or castle.

"I guess here's where we get off," Applejack announced.

The six descended from the ship onto the island. "It really is different," Applejack remarked. "Couldn't put my hoof on why…"

"I think we have to head for that building," Twilight suggested.

"It does stand out," Applejack agreed.

"Race you there?" Rainbow Dash challenged.

"All right," Applejack said, "but NO WINGS."

"Done." Rainbow Dash halted, letting Applejack take a place next to her. "Hey! Aren't the rest of you in?"

"I am not simply going to go barreling through the woods, getting twigs caught in my mane and sweating all over!" Rarity balked.

Twilight sighed, joining the stance for the beginning of the race. "But ONLY so we don't lose sight of you. If we get lost in these woods, I'm not sure what would happen."

"Well, when you put it like THAT…" Rarity joined in the lineup, and Fluttershy and Pinkie followed suit, Pinkie Pie hopping up and down in place.

"Ready?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"READY!" the others replied, suddenly feeling more gung ho about friendly competition.

"On your mark…get set…GO!" Rainbow Dash cried, and they all took off into the woods.

"WOOHOO!" Pinkie squealed as she ran, and burst into laughter.

"HA!" Rainbow Dash barked. "I'm gonna beat ALL of you!"

"You wish!" Applejack replied, bolting ahead of Rainbow Dash.

"This is actually helping us make double time!" Twilight cried happily.

"NOW who's wishin'?" Rainbow Dash taunted, edging ahead of Applejack.

And then Rainbow Dash and Applejack collided with the two humans, knocking them over. One of them, on the way down, angrily cursed, "ODIN'S EYE!"

"Ohmygosh!" Rainbow Dash halted, looking over the people she and Applejack had crashed into. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean that! You okay?"

Applejack, Fluttershy, Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity also moved in to look at the pair. Both were teenagers, perhaps of fifteen years: one male, one female. The girl – the one who'd screamed – had golden hair to the length of her chin, framing her pale face. She was dressed in a tunic and breeches that had obviously seen better days. The boy, on the other hand, had dark brown hair. His skin was light, but tanned, indicating he'd spent many days working in the sun. He too was clothed in a beaten-up tunic and breeches, but around it he wore a cloak of bright white that almost shimmered. In his hand was a black wooden staff; he used it to prop himself up as he got to his feet.

"Will you watch where you're going? And we're doing just fine, thank you very much," the girl snapped before turning to her male companion. "They asked if we were all right."

"I know," the boy replied. "I heard them too."

The girl was first taken aback, then, for reasons the six Equestrians couldn't discern, suddenly miffed. "I suppose you're talking to them in bard-speak."

"Actually," the boy said, growing confused, "they spoke perfect Saxon." He frowned, observing the six. "You're not from our realm at all, are you?"

"Nope!" Pinkie Pie confirmed happily.

Twilight wasn't sure how wise it was to reveal that right off the bat, but there wasn't really a way to conceal it given the forms they all had taken.

"Pardon us," Rarity asked, "but would you mind terribly telling us where we are?"

"You…don't know?" The boy appeared even more confused.

"Oh, by Odin's beard, how do I break this to you…" the girl grumbled. "If you don't know where you are, that means you're DEAD."

"WHAT?" all six cried in unison.

"It's the Islands of the Blessed!" the girl insisted. "It's an afterlife. Like Valhalla, except the women don't have to wait on Odin's table. If you got here and you don't know where it is, you obviously all died in some terrible accident!" She grinned madly. "I hope it was bloody, and you all went out with a fight."

"THORGIL!" the boy chided, and the others gleaned this must have been the girl's name. The boy sighed. "I apologize for…her. She can be a brat and a loudmouth sometimes."

"EXCUSE ME?" Thorgil roared angrily. "Well, you don't smell like a rose either!" She turned to the others. "I apologize for Jack and his constant belief that he's better than everyone else and how he's always on a high horse. …So to speak."

"I do NOT think – " Jack began to retort. He then sighed and shook his head. "No. I'm not going to get into a fight over this. Thorgil is right; the Islands of the Blessed, where they are, is an afterlife. But it's…different. I've heard about many people that went but came back. You might not be dead."

"I think we'd know if we were dead," Applejack pointed out. "After all, we know exactly how we got here. Our boat took us."

"…Your boat," Thorgil repeated, deadpan.

"It's parked right down there!" Pinkie Pie extended a hoof to where the Starlight was beached. "It WANTED us to come here!"

"Now that's a SHIP!" Thorgil cried, astounded.

"How can a boat want you to go anywhere?" Jack asked.

"After all you've been through, you're still questioning things like that?" Thorgil sounded quite exasperated.

"I'm still stuck on this 'afterlife' thing," Rainbow Dash admitted. "So…it's NOT just dead people who come here."

"It's complicated," Jack answered. "I can't really explain it. But maybe they can."

He gestured up to the gray building, and all eight could see that several humans in white robes were standing out front of it.

"Where IS that, anyway?" Twilight asked.

"The School of Bards," Jack replied. "It's why we're here."

"Is it fun?" Pinkie asked. "Or is it scary?"

"How in the name of Hel are we supposed to know?" Thorgil snapped back. "We don't even know what a school is supposed to be like!"

"You've never been to SCHOOL?" Twilight sounded positively horrified.

"I'm guessing it's more common where you're from," Jack inferred.

"EVERYPONY GOES TO SCHOOL!" Twilight yelled. "HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO GO THROUGH LIFE WITHOUT SCHOOL?"

"We did it," Thorgil said with arms crossed, "and we're just fine."

"Though our life is about to get schooling in it," Jack pointed out.

"Well, it's the closest lead we got to anythin'," Applejack observed. "Whaddaya say we come with ya to that School of Bards? See what they have to say about why we're here?"

"I don't know…" Jack deliberated this.

"Oh, come on!" Thorgil groaned. "What could the harm possibly be?"

"Thorgil…can I talk to you?" Jack asked.

Thorgil sighed. "We'll be back. Don't move."

"OKAY!" Pinkie Pie agreed before freezing completely in place.

Jack led Thorgil a few paces away before telling her, "They're not human."

"So?" Thorgil replied.

"Don't you remember EVERY OTHER TIME we've dealt with things that aren't human?" Jack hissed. "Jötunns! Elves! Fin-folk!"

"My half brother is a Jötunn," Thorgil reminded Jack in a warning tone. "Also, are you REALLY going to keep on about not thinking you're better than everyone else after THIS? Look at them. They're just talking ponies! They're not Jötunns or elves or fin-folk…and you're not giving the hobgoblins any credit, either!"

"Well…I guess there's no harm in just taking them up to the School," Jack decided. "If they're dangerous, the bards will know how to deal with them."

"Then it's settled," Thorgil stated, and she turned and walked back toward the six Equestrians. "Hey! You're going to the School of Bards with us!"

"All RIGHT!" Rainbow Dash cried happily.

Seven began to move up the mountain. Then Twilight thought to turn around and say, "Pinkie, you can move now." Pinkie Pie unfroze and joined the group.

"So you know our names now," Thorgil said; Jack seemed unwilling to take part in conversation, content to just stare at the path ahead and scowl. "What about yours?"

The six names were said in succession, as always. Thorgil flinched a little when Fluttershy spoke; the pale yellow pony had been keeping to the background so much, Thorgil hadn't quite registered her existence.

"So what was all that earlier, with you thinking Jack couldn't hear us?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, I so happen to be descended from the line of King Hengist," Thorgil boasted. "And everyone with his bloodline has a gift with horses."

"They can't literally talk to them, though," Jack grumbled.

"If you're descended from a king," Pinkie Pie bubbled excitedly, "does that make you a PRINCESS?"

"HA!" Thorgil laughed. "HAHAHAHA! As though you'd ever see ME prancing about in some silly gown. 'Oooooh, I'm just content to sit and weave and sing sad songs all day and do nothing until my prince comes along!' Bah."

"I like the way you think!" Rainbow Dash cried.

"None of the princesses I know act like that…" Twilight grumbled under her breath.

By that time, they had reached the entry to the building: a great stone arched door. The white-robed people all had eyes locked on the traveling party.

"HIYA!" Pinkie Pie cried, waving a hoof.

The white-robed people all nodded, smiling. One, a redheaded man, stepped forward and gestured toward the door. "Enter," he said. "We've been expecting you."

"You'll want to proceed to the main room at the end of the hall," another added, one with dark hair and similarly dark eyes. "The Headmaster will see you there."

"Okie-dokie L…just okie-dokie!" Pinkie Pie replied. The others were silent, wary, unsure quite how to proceed beyond following the one instruction they were given.

They walked through the archway into a stark white hall. Several closed doors, surprisingly not white – hazel, with the wood left its original tint – with arched frames studded the hall, and occasionally, a person donning a white robe that was even paler than the surrounding walls would exit one and enter another, some striding calmly and others urgently running while holding stacks of rolled-up parchment.

At the end of the hallway, a larger arch was visible, double doors of hazel wood with brass handles. Before the eight reached it, Twilight concentrated on the doors, her horn glowing. The doors swung open, revealing a large chamber lined with bookshelves.

Jack shot a glare Twilight's way, but walked ahead through the doors nonetheless.

Noticing Jack's less than polite reaction, Fluttershy made a point of saying "Thank you, Twilight," before she, Twilight, Thorgil, Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash followed.

Inside the room, more white-robed people were stationed, most occupied with the books, either seeking them on the shelves or sitting on the chairs stationed around the room in order to read them. It was quite reminiscent, Twilight thought, of Hogwarts. Even more doors branched off from there. Four people had gathered in the back of the room. Three wore the standard white robes, but one was clothed in a coat of black, revealing a dark woven shirt and pants beneath. He carried a staff similar to Jack's, leaning on it ever so slightly. He was tall and thin, and chestnut-colored hair flowed to his shoulders, his eyes piercing dark. When he noticed the newcomers, he quickly said something to dismiss the others around him, who nodded and backed off so he could approach.

"Welcome," he said with a playful smile. "Pleased to see you made it. Though I was only expecting two."

"You expected us?" Jack asked, confused.

"Dragon Tongue sent word ahead," the black-coated man answered. "Come with me. We should probably speak somewhere quieter."

He stalked toward one of the side doors; the party of eight followed. This door led to another, smaller white room, this one shaped like a pentagon. On each wall was a door, and bookshelves lined the walls in between. A ring of soft armchairs adorned the floor. The black coated man gestured to them. "Sit."

The others obliged. Jack opted to sit next to Thorgil, and regarded Twilight with suspicion as she sat down on the chair next to him. Rainbow Dash took Thorgil's other side, and Pinkie Pie bounced in next to her, followed by Fluttershy, then Rarity, with Applejack completing the circle.

"Now that we're all settled," the black-coated man opened, "do you have any questions?"

"Yes," Thorgil snapped. "First of all, who are YOU?"

The man chuckled. "I am the headmaster of this school. Rather recently appointed, actually. I am known by many names, but perhaps you would know me best as Taliesin."

"Taliesin - !" Jack gasped. "The Bard – er, Dragon Tongue spoke of you during our early lessons. He said you were one of the most famed of the bards."

"I think I even came across that name in some of my readings," Twilight supplied, "but I didn't find much."

"I don't know that I would be well known in your realm," Taliesin informed Twilight. "I haven't passed through many that are populated with equines since the days of Legend. Suffice to say I am a skilled bard indeed."

"So…where are we?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Thorgil said this is some kind of afterlife, but I'm pretty sure we're not dead."

"I wasn't sure myself," Jack admitted. "When Thorgil and I came here…Thorgil had contracted the flying venom."

"Flying venom?" Rainbow Dash interrupted.

"A sickness that kills," Jack clarified. Seeing Taliesin interact with the ponies had relaxed his attitude toward them somewhat. "We were on our way home, but we knew we couldn't bring the venom there. We lay down on the ground when Thorgil got too weak to carry on (At this, Thorgil gave a derisive snort, clearly unhappy to be referred to as "too weak"), and I had thought…we were done for. But when we awoke, all our injuries were healed, and the B – Dragon Tongue was waiting there for us to take us here. We'd thought he was dead too. I asked him if we were dead, but he swore we weren't. It all seems too good to be true, though. That he survived the draugr and we survived flying venom. Even Thorgil's hand healed, and she had lost the use of it when facing down the Devil in Alfheim."

"I TOLD you!" Thorgil insisted. "It was the hound of Hel!"

The six ponies present were awestruck, wondering what exactly these two had been through.

"So Dragon Tongue brought us here," Jack finished, "and left us to go to the school on our own. He said we'd passed the test to enter. I guess…he had business elsewhere." What Jack didn't say was that he already missed his mentor, his wisdom, his caring nature, even his sharp tongue when he was angered.

Taliesin nodded. "The Islands of the Blessed are a place for the dead; that is true," he said. "But they are more than that. They can be a waystation between life and death. Dragon Tongue spoke the truth. You and Thorgil are both very much alive. But you have become something just a little more than mortal."

"He said we would return," Jack explained. "To our realm. Just…not permanently."

"You will return," Taliesin confirmed. "But the work of a true bard does not allow him – or her – to rest. Now that I know your story…I'm interested in yours." He turned to Twilight. "I recognize that necklace. It seems you are not quite mortal yourselves."

"That's right!" Twilight remembered. "The Elements make us ageless. That must be how we were able to come here without dying."

"If you put it simply," Taliesin replied. "What brought you here?"

"The Mists of Avalon," Twilight answered. "They brought our ship here. This is actually the first place we've been able to take our true form in a long time."

Taliesin nodded knowingly. "Then a turning point is coming for the Nine Realms and all they entail."

"Figures," Applejack sighed. "Those Mists make sure we always gotta show up when somethin' bad happens."

"You're probably not that happy to see us," Fluttershy said softly, apologetically.

"On the contrary," Taliesin replied. "Whatever is coming would have come whether you were here or not. You balance the scales in the favor of the forces of Life. I can tell you have already been through many hardships…but many good times."

"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie confirmed. "We've done all SORTS of cool stuff and met a lot of great new friends!"

"You have not come to us in the traditional manner," Taliesin stated, "but you have more than earned the right to enter this school. Jack, Thorgil, you were destined to become students here. Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, I believe we have much we can teach you as well. For as long as is necessary, you may call this place home and learn what we have to offer."

"Oh, thank you, Taliesin," Fluttershy said gratefully.

"You will see that there are four other doors here," Taliesin explained. "Each leads to a dormitory for two. You will have to figure out how to divide the rooms among yourselves. I will have traditional clothing arranged for you." He saw Jack open his mouth with intent to interrupt. "Don't worry, Jack. We wouldn't take the staff or cloak of St. Columba from you. You may wear them with your new clothes. The same goes for the amulets of the Elements, though I suspect those are less easily removed. Someone will bring robes for you shortly. In the meantime, I suggest you all get acquainted with each other. You will be working with each other, hopefully on good terms, as long as you study here. I'd also recommend the books on the wall. You can find a lot of useful information there. Now, if everything is settled, I do have business to attend to myself."

"Thank you!" Twilight reiterated.

"You are welcome," Taliesin said before turning and leaving the room.

Thorgil got up and crossed the room to one of the dormitory doors, opening it to reveal a small room with two cots, two small wardrobes, and two washing areas. "It's like a cloister," Thorgil observed, "only it's actually decent for living in."

"So…who wants to room with who?" Twilight asked.

"Thorgil will room with me," Jack insisted sternly.

"Okay," Twilight said sternly, "I get the feeling you don't like us. Why don't you just tell us right now what your problem is instead of just being angry and leaving us to wonder what we did wrong?"

"He doesn't like you because you aren't human." Thorgil bounced back into a sitting position on her chair. "He's had bad experiences with Jötunns, elves and fin-folk."

"Elves have no soul," Jack stated, "and fin-folk have no honor. Jötunns are worst of all."

"And hobgoblins have both souls and honor," Thorgil pointed out. "You just conveniently seem to forget them every time!" She turned back to the ponies. "I think you seem like creatures with souls. You've been nice enough so far, anyway."

"Um…thanks?" Twilight replied.

"That isn't fair," Fluttershy told Jack. "I've known some elves…well, house-elves…and they had plenty of soul. I've never known any fin-folk, but we've met all sorts of different creatures, and most of them are perfectly friendly."

"So which ones aren't?" Jack asked.

"Old Ones," Twilight answered. "And even some of them can act friendly. They're the oldest…things…in the multiverse. They seem to just be after chaos and destruction."

Jack nodded. "I know about a lot of the old gods. Like the Forest Lord."

"I'm bettin' he wasn't a friendly one," said Applejack.

"He tore down an entire fortress in order to reclaim the land," Jack confirmed.

"It was a sight," Thorgil stated. "You should've been there to see – "

Jack shook his head. "No. It was horrifying."

"Says you," Thorgil snapped. "Anyway, can you at least give them a chance before you go barking at them about how you're so perfect and they're not?"

Jack sighed. "I guess it's not fair for me to guess what you're like," he stated. "Besides, Taliesin said we would be working together. So…I'm…sorry."

"Apology accepted," Rarity said.

"I, for one, like you," Thorgil stated. "Especially Rainbow."

"Awesome!" Rainbow Dash cried. "So…what's up with you two? You've OBVIOUSLY had a lot of adventures."

"It's a long story," Jack informed her. "But I'll try to make it short. I lived in a Saxon village in the realm I guess you'd call Earth. That's where the Bard started training me in his knowledge. Thorgil was a shield maiden for a troop of Northman berserkers. The berserkers came to my town, and my sister…well…a girl I thought was my sister and I were both kidnapped by them. Thorgil's adoptive father, Olaf One-Brow, intended to sell us into slavery, but instead, we ended up in the court of a king, Ivar the Boneless. His wife Frith was a half-troll and beautiful, but very cruel. She demanded I sing her a praise-song, but somehow, it went wrong. I cast a spell that caused her hair to fall out. She took Lucy – the girl I thought was my sister – hostage, and wouldn't return her unless I could find a way to return her hair. Olaf, Thorgil, and I went into Jötunheim to find the answer. Olaf…didn't even make it to the hall of the troll queen. He was slain by a dragon. We were shown the way to Mimir's Well, the well of knowledge at the base of Yggdrassil, by the Norns. Thorgil and I each drank from it to get the knowledge of how to put Frith's hair back, but we each had to give up something precious. Thorgil wanted to give her life, but I stopped her by giving her a rune of protection the Bard had given me. That made her value life too much to be able to go berserk again. When I gave up the rune and she gave up being a berserker, we could both drink from the well. The song-mead in it gave us more skill as bards, but it also gave us the way to put Frith's hair back. She was supposed to take a bit of hair off Freya's cats so we could use it to replace her old hair in a ritual. But she got greedy and took all the cats' hair, and…"

"And you should have SEEN her running for her life, covered in cat hair, from a pack of bloodthirsty cats!" Thorgil punctuated.

"Lucy and I went home safe," Jack continued, "and I thought that was the end of it. But I later found out…Lucy was a changeling. The elves of Alfheim played a cruel joke on the hobgoblins by stealing hobgoblin children and switching them out with human children. The human children became the elves' pets. With Lucy, the hobgoblins wanted revenge, so they stole an elven child to replace the real Lucy when she was young. My father thought she was so beautiful and perfect, he never told anyone that he saw the babies get switched. But Lucy…was heartless and cruel. She went back to Alfheim, and we went after her – "

"You're conveniently forgetting the part where you caused the earthquake in Bebba's Town that caused all the water to go underground until you could convince the Lady of the Lake to give it back," Thorgil teased.

"…It was an accident," Jack murmured. "But the monks at St. Filian's deserved it. They were taking all the money given to them at collection and using it on their own luxuries, then abusing the people they were supposed to exorcise of demons! That was why we brought Lucy there. We thought, at first, she was possessed by a demon. We went to Alfheim to get the water back as well as my sister. But…Lucy wanted to stay there, with her real parents. And Hazel, the girl that she replaced, had lived too long with hobgoblins and didn't want to go home with me. I lost two sisters down there. Well, Thorgil, Pega, and I – Pega was another girl I knew from home – ended up interrupting an elven sacrificial ritual, and we broke the glamour spell on Alfheim. That was when Thorgil's hand was paralyzed. But we returned the water, and we could go home again.

"And even after all that, the forces of Life and Unlife weren't done with us. A monk we knew and trusted – "

"YOU trusted him!" Thorgil argued.

" – had betrayed a mermaid a long time ago and forced her into slavery," Jack continued. "The mermaid died, and her spirit came to our village as a draugr, wanting revenge. The bard, Thorgil, and I voyaged to the fin-folk land of Notland to speak to her at her tomb and stop her from attacking. The Bard locked himself in the tomb to stop her himself when nothing else worked. That's…when I thought he was dead. Thorgil and I were stranded on a deserted island by the fin-folk, but we survived. That's where I found the staff and cloak of St. Columba, one of the most powerful bards ever known – next to Taliesin, that is. Thorgil's ship found us to bring us back home, but first, we had to stop at Bebba's Town. The Bard had an elven daughter, Ethne, who wanted to try to redeem herself doing holy work. We had to make sure she was all right. When we left her, she was at St. Filian's, in terrible condition. She thought the more she suffered, the better of a person she was. Flying venom struck Bebba's Town and nearly killed her. Thorgil saved her by passing the rune to her, but in the moment she took the rune off, she caught the venom from Ethne. Ethne overcame the venom and led the survivors of St. Filian's into something better than it had been, but we…well, you know the rest."

"That was pitiful," Thorgil groaned. "You drank song-mead, and that's the best you could come up with? Couldn't you at least sing them that praise-song about me? 'Thorgil Silver-Hand'?"

"If I wrote our adventures into poems," Jack insisted, "it would take three days to hear!"

"So you're BOTH bards?" Pinkie Pie asked to confirm.

"Yes," Jack answered, "though Thorgil needs more work than I do."

"I do not!" Thorgil argued. "My poems are just as good as yours!"

"When they're not filled with nothing but gore and death!" Jack retorted.

"My first one wasn't!" Thorgil snapped back.

"Oh, the four lines about how we fell down the hill after drinking from Mimir's Well?"

"Yes!" Thorgil insisted. She turned to the ponies. "It's short. You should hear it."

"I WANNA HEAR A POEM!" Pinkie Pie cried.

Thorgil stood, clearing her throat. Then she began: "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water – "

The six ponies chorused, "Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after!"

Thorgil gasped.

"YOU wrote that one?" Rarity asked in disbelief. "Why, it's said in nurseries!"

"I TOLD you!" Thorgil pointed at Jack. "I TOLD you they'd be saying my poem and not yours!"

"I…" Jack was at a loss for words. "It was…only four lines…"

"Four very good lines." Thorgil sat back down haughtily.

"But you said it was about you," Rarity realized. "Why did you name yourself 'Jill'?"

"That's the name I was born with," Thorgil admitted, grumbling somewhat. "Call me Thorgil."

"Okie-dokie, Thorgil!" Pinkie chirped.

"So what's your story?" Thorgil asked.

"Also long," Twilight stated.

"We seem to have time," Jack pointed out.

"Well," Pinkie Pie began, "it aaaaall started when I was a little filly who lived on a rock farm – "

"I think we need to start a little further along than that," Rarity told her.

"Okay!" Pinkie Pie nodded. "So once upon a time, Twilight used to live alone in Canterlot with only her assistant, Spike. And she found out that an evil pony named Nightmare Moon – "

"Further ahead," Rainbow Dash groaned.

"How about Twilight tells it?" Applejack suggested.

"STORY TIME!" Pinkie cried, bounding up and down on the chair and looking at Twilight.

"Okay," Twilight began. "Well, we come from a world called Equestria, though I guess technically, it's the Fourth…"

She commenced summarizing the many adventures that she and her friends had gone through. As the story went on, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy took over, and all six alternated telling the parts they knew best. They stopped, however, after the tale of Olympic Greece, keeping cognizant of Twilight's warning about revealing the future of 616th Earth.

When they'd finished, Thorgil looked positively ecstatic. "You're REAL warriors!" she cried. "And not even shield maidens!"

"Thank you," Fluttershy replied, blushing.

At that point, the door to the main room opened, and a white-robed bard entered carrying a stack of white cloth. "Here are your robes," she said, passing one to each member of the circle, careful to hand over Jack and Thorgil's first. "Your lessons will begin tomorrow at dawn. Please report to the courtyard."

The recipients thanked her for the garments, and the bard left. Jack unfolded his robe. Thorgil looked at hers with disgust; "It looks like a dress."

Rarity slipped hers on. It was perfectly cut for her four-legged figure, with a long train. "A little plain," she remarked, "but then again, I suppose that is the point. It is comfortable."

"We still haven't figured out rooming arrangements," Twilight pointed out. "Jack and Thorgil probably should room together. After all, they know each other best."

Jack nodded. The look on his face was one of professionalism, but Rarity caught the hint of a blush on his cheeks.

"After that, I think we should do the usual arrangement," Twilight decided. "I'll room with Pinkie Pie, Rarity can go with Applejack, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy will have a room."

This was met with nods of assent.

"What time even is it?" Thorgil walked back into her room and looked out the window at the opposite end. Jack followed.

"It's already night," Jack pointed out.

"Then we should probably sleep," Twilight decided. "We've got a big day tomorrow."

"Doing whatever you do at school," Thorgil grunted.

"Trust me," Twilight said, "you're going to LOVE it. Learning is one of the most fun things in the multiverse!"

"Yeah, sure," Rainbow Dash said. "If you're Twilight."

"Hey!" Twilight snapped.

"Well, um…good night," said Fluttershy. "It was really nice to meet you."

It took Jack a moment to come up with a response. At last, he said, "It…was nice meeting you too."

"See you tomorrow, Rainbow," Thorgil said with a grin.

"You know it!" Rainbow Dash replied.

They retired to their rooms in pairs, closing the doors to settle down for the night.

...

SVARTALFHEIM

The sky was a dark purple. The rocky ground was completely barren, and the charred bones of the Dark Elves still littered it, scattered amongst the stones. It was onto this land that Discord and Nidhogg stepped, their companion from the knucker hole in tow. The three took a moment to look around.

"How dreary," Discord remarked.

"They'd never think to look here," Nidhogg pointed out. "They all believe it to be dead wasteland."

"Well?" Discord asked. "Shall we start?"

"I see no reason why not," Nidhogg replied.

The young woman just nodded, unsure what the two Old Ones were going to do.

"Now, let's see…" Discord made the Resurrection Stone materialize in his claw. "First, let's cut to the chase."

There was a quick twist of his hand, and a bright flash of light appeared on the empty patch of ground before the three, a great BOOM accompanying. When the light subsided, a Dark Elf clad in black armor stood before them. When Discord had last seen him, his face had been split between black and ice blue. Currently, he had no dead half; the dark tone of his skin was unbroken.

"It seems I miscounted when I said you were resurrected three times," Discord told the elf. "In my defense, I wasn't aware I was going to come back in time and do this."

The elf wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. He looked around, first, to confirm that he was indeed in Svartalfheim and not Niflheim. Then he gave a low chuckle. "This is interesting. I'm certainly not in Niflheim anymore."

"Oh, I KNOW this game!" Discord laughed. "That's what you said when I resurrected you a thousand years in your future. You DO know how to play the game and not give yourself away, don't you?"

"I consider myself good at games," the elf replied slyly. "Now, I take it you're responsible for this, and I want to know what you want. …You're not quite human, are you?"

Discord laughed even harder, getting the joke in retrospect. The elf had known, for a thousand years, who Discord was, and never let on once.

"Who is that?" the woman asked.

"Allow me." The elf stepped forward, approaching her directly, and gave a slight bow. "I am Lord Malekith of Svartalfheim. Though I hear they have taken to calling me 'Malekith the Accursed.'" He got a good look at the woman then. "And who are you?"

"M…Malekith?" the woman repeated. "You…you ARE back from the dead…"

"So it seems," Malekith replied. "You still haven't answered my question. Someone as lovely as you must have an equally lovely name."

She was quite pale, almost white as snow. Her raven hair was pulled back into a ponytail at the back of her head. She wore a pair of clunky bronze earrings; her dark eyes were framed by large spectacles. Her mouth was a bright shade of purple that didn't come from any artificial coloring. She wore a purple sweater over her upper half. Below the waist, her body gave over to that of a spider. Her prominent abdomen was a distinct emerald green, with a darker stripe at the place from which her spidery black legs stemmed. Only six, Malekith noticed, instead of eight.

"My name is Velma," she answered. "Of the family of Green."

"I've seen your kind," Malekith recalled. "A descendant of Hel, through her daughter Odette, I presume?"

"Yes!" Velma answered happily; when she smiled, she revealed the metal braces on her teeth.

"We found her in a knucker hole," Nidhogg informed Malekith.

"And she has quite the tale to tell you," Discord added. "Why don't you go ahead and explain, Velma?"

"Well…I…" Velma frowned, feeling unsure.

"Come now." Malekith placed a hand gently under Velma's chin, turning her head up so she faced him, eyes locking right through the lenses of her glasses. "You can tell me, Velma."

"I…" Velma began to tremble with giddiness. "All right. I was best friends with Death. There was…a disagreement over who should be the next to take up the mantle of Death."

"Is there not only one Death?" Malekith was confused.

"The concept stays around," Discord answered, "and the personality assimilates, but the title gets passed. Honestly, I'm surprised I'm the first and only Discord."

"I thought I would be next," Velma went on, "and even Death said he thought I would be deserving. But he…he stacked the odds in his own favor! After telling me how good I would be at reaping souls, how much better I would fill the shoes than him…he let me believe I would be the next one, that I would receive all the memories of Death that came before, but he turned on me at the last minute when he thought I wouldn't notice! It wouldn't be so painful if he hadn't made it out like I was his best friend! He made me think he CARED about me! How…how could he just turn on me like that?" The tears ran down her cheeks.

"There, there," Malekith said softly, stroking the side of her face. He could guess at what had happened. Death was not known for dishonesty. There had been some sort of misunderstanding; Velma didn't know the whole story. But he knew what Discord and Nidhogg knew, and that was so long as the young spider-woman believed she'd been betrayed, she would be a useful ally.

"All I want now is to take what is mine," Velma sobbed. "I want to make him pay, and I want to become Death!"

"As you deserve," Malekith told her. Yes, he thought, a useful ally indeed, if he could get her to stop crying and channel her feelings as anger instead. His fingers found the edges of her glasses. "Here…" He removed the spectacles. "You look so much better without these."

"But I can't see – " Velma began to argue, her vision reduced to a blur of colors.

"Shhh. Close your eyes," Malekith commanded. Velma did as told. He lightly pressed a finger to each eyelid, and Darkness seeped in under the lids from his hands. He removed his fingers when the process was done. Velma opened her eyes, blinked a few times.

"I…I can see everything perfectly!" she gasped. "Oh, thank you – "

"You do not need to thank me," Malekith told her. He then reached back behind her head, undoing her ponytail so her hair hung loose. "It's a start…we'll have you looking the image of Death itself soon enough." He looked up to Discord and Nidhogg. "And what do you want with us?"

"Nothing in particular," Discord answered. "Just…do whatever you feel like. Go where the muse moves you! If you want revenge, well, then, get revenge. If you want a war, well, then, start a war. But those are only examples."

"You're more transparent than you think," Malekith pointed out. "But you and I seem to want the same thing."

"After this, we won't be as much involved," Nidhogg stated. "But first, we must make sure we have done all we can. What is it you do want?"

"The draconequus said it," Malekith answered. "War. A chance to tear down the walls of Asgard, first, for their continued…annoyance. Then the rest of the Nine Realms shall fall."

"But for that, you'd need a plan," Discord pointed out. "And even more importantly, allies. Good thing you're on your home territory. Oh, wait…" He made a show of looking dramatically left and right. "Oh, dear. It seems as though all your allies are dead!"

"Stop TEASING US!" Velma snarled.

Malekith suppressed a laugh. That was what he had been hoping for from the spider-woman.

"You want me to stop teasing you?" Discord asked. "All right. We'll cut right to the chase. We HAVE allies for you. As for a plan, you're on your own."

"First, a family reunion," Nidhogg said, putting out a hand.

A mass of darkness materialized, forming a sphere over a nearby patch of wasteland. It cracked open like an egg, revealing two beings inside; the shell fell away and dissipated. The two looked immediately confused; they'd obviously been plucked midsentence from elsewhere.

Malekith recognized them both immediately. There is a common misconception that the term "Dark Elf" comes from the color of the skin. While many Dark Elves are in fact dark and many Light Elves are in fact light, variants of all skin tones existed among both races. The terms were derived, in fact, from the branch of magic each was affiliated with. Dark Elves were closer to Darkness; Light Elves, closer to light. The elves that Nidhogg had summoned to the wastelands of Svartalfheim were even paler than Velma, but they were Dark Elves, and from a splinter group of them that Malekith was surprised to see anything from.

Both had dark lips, nearly black, and white irises in their eyes. Their hair was also white, almost gleaming. One was male, and the other female. The man wore a long black tunic offset with black epaulets and a crimson sash. To contrast, the woman was clothed in a magnificent gown of crimson and burgundy, with a flowing skirt and long sleeves; a belt of wrought gold covered her waist and stomach. The pair sported twin scars, exactly identical, running across each face over the bridge of the nose, appearing to cut the face in half horizontally by a hairline. They both turned to look first at Nidhogg, who had ripped them from their doings in their home realm, and then at Malekith, who they recognized just as he recognized them.

"It has certainly been a long time…Nuada," Malekith greeted, stepping toward the black-clad man. He gave a nod toward the woman. "Nuala."

"What am I doing here?" Nuada asked, looking about. "I never thought I'd see Svartalfheim again."

"Your father never was a favorite of my cousins," Malekith replied. "I was glad to see him go. You, on the other hand…I knew there was far more promise in you."

"My father is a coward," Nuada agreed. "But treading old ground is worthless. I've left him behind."

"Oh?" Malekith's grin widened. "And here I was thinking these two had ripped you away from him."

"You are behind the times," Nuada told Malekith.

"Last I heard, Balor had built his Golden Army in order to extinguish the Midgardians…and then lost the spine to use it. As I said, I was glad to see him and his kind leave my realm."

"It was, in essence, why I had to separate from him," Nuada explained. "I would have unleashed the Army upon them all. My father locks it away. He uses peace to mask cowardice. My hope, one day, is to use the weapon he could not."

"I see." Malekith nodded. "And you, Nuala?"

For a moment, she looked as if she were to say something, but Nuada interrupted: "Where I go, she goes."

Nuala gave a slow, deliberate nod.

"I see," Malekith replied. "While waiting for the time to strike with the Golden Army, why not join me in a venture?"

"It depends on the venture," Nuada stated.

"War and revenge," said Malekith. "On all realms connected to Yggdrassil. Make them fall before us."

"And how do you plan on that?"

"It will come to me," Malekith chuckled. "All I know is that we are all going to get what we rightfully deserve. Dominion. They will see that you were right, Nuada."

"I always had thought you more admirable than the others," Nuada admitted. "I want to see what you have in mind. If you can find a way to assert our dominion without using the Golden Army…"

"Perhaps giving you a few more teammates will shed some light on things," Discord suggested.

"I do not trust them," Nuala spoke up, looking to Discord and Nidhogg. "Lord Malekith…you realize that by creating war at their beck and call, you play into their hands."

"I realize that," Malekith answered, slowly, deliberately.

And Discord knew then as he had on 616th Earth that Malekith was thinking the exact opposite. He was trying to figure out exactly how to turn on Nidhogg and Discord, to put himself in full control of the situation. Which would be nothing short of entertaining to watch. In the meantime, there was a stage to finish setting.

"Very well," Discord said. "Now that we've finished up with your allies in the realm of the living, let's call in a few of the dearly departed."

Another flash of light. Standing before Malekith was another Dark Elf, one clothed in a bright golden robe. Upon seeing Malekith, his face was frozen in a look of disbelief; it looked as though he might cry. "Lord…Lord Malekith…it's…it's you…"

He threw himself to his hands and knees, bowing before Malekith. "I do not know if we are dead or alive," he said shakily, "but to see you again…when I never thought I would see another Dark Elf…"

"There, there." Malekith bent slightly, enough to place a hand on the other's shoulder. "It pleases me to see you…" He looked up at Discord.

Discord mouthed the word "Algrim."

"…Algrim," Malekith finished. "Your loyalty has not wavered, I see. I think you will be pleased to know that we are not dead."

Algrim looked up to face Malekith. "We are not…?"

"A stronger magic than that of Niflheim has set us free," Malekith explained. "I can see that the destruction of Svartalfheim has upset you."

"I was the only one left." Algrim struggled to keep his voice from breaking. "The only one…it was all destroyed…Odin, he…"

"I know quite well what he did," Malekith interrupted. "Svartalfheim lives on in you and me, Algrim. And in Nuada and Nuala. We can rebuild what was lost."

"You have my loyalty," Algrim promised. "You led us all once…you can do it again…"

"And I will," Malekith said solemnly. "We shall have our revenge on Odin, Algrim. He will pay for what he did to us…what he did to you."

"Thank you…"

"You may rise."

Algrim did so, and Malekith motioned for him to take his place next to Nuada and Nuala, where Velma had already moved. Malekith looked expectantly toward Discord.

"I appear to have run out of Dark Elves," Discord said with a shrug. "But maybe you'll be able to do something with this."

A flash. A tall, muscular man clothed in thick black armor, a mask hanging over the lower half of his face, concealing his mouth. All Malekith could see was his eyes…eyes surrounded by slightly scaly skin, pupils that stared with the intensity of those of fish. Already, Malekith could guess what the armor was hiding. "A kelpie…?"

"Half-kelpie," the newcomer corrected. "And you're a Dark Elf!"

"Not just any Dark Elf," Malekith retorted. "Lord Malekith."

"I have never heard of you," the half-kelpie said with contempt.

"I am known throughout most of the Nine Realms," Malekith pointed out. "It is Midgard that has the least knowledge of me. So you are half Midgardian."

"This is not Midgard, is it?" the half-kelpie growled.

"Welcome to Svartalfheim," Malekith introduced, spreading his arms. "Or what remains of it since the Jötunns had their way with us and Odin spat in our faces. Am I to understand you also have a grievance against Odin?"

"I have a grievance!" the half-kelpie snapped. "Not against Odin, though!"

"Tell me," Malekith commanded.

"I was known as King Yffi," the half-kelpie explained. "But I suppose I am king no more. I had taken a fortress of my own, a town of my own to rule, all by my own force! I had to keep it guarded by the forces of Unlife to prevent the old gods and the landvaettir for taking it for their own. I had almost everything I could wish for, and I even had two tasty hobgoblins delivered into my hands, ready for roasting with hazelnuts and setting to the feast table! But a young upstart calling himself a bard BROKE the circle of Unlife! He let in the landvaettir, and my entire fortress was overtaken by the old gods! DESTROYED!"

"So where does your grievance lie?" Malekith asked. "The Midgardian bard? The landvaettir? The hobgoblins you never got to eat?"

"All of them," Yffi responded.

"Then we shall take care of all of them," Malekith vowed.

"And what makes YOU think you can do that?" Yffi snapped.

"You question LORD MALEKITH?" Algrim interrupted. "He led our people through devastating wars. He has fought immense monsters. He nearly had Surtr under his control!"

"Surtr, the god of flame…" Yffi considered this. "Is this true?"

"Yes," Malekith replied.

"And why do you care so much about settling my score?" Yffi prodded.

"Because it will be one of the spoils when we conquer the Nine Realms," Malekith explained. "Join me and my army, and you will have every bard destroyed, the landvaettir shaking at your sight, and every hobgoblin in Alfheim to set upon your table."

There was a moist "smack" sound: Yffi loudly licking his lips. "I do love a good roasted hobgoblin," he admitted.

"Then it is settled." Malekith waved him to stand near the others, and Yffi obliged.

"Now, try THIS one on for size." Discord called up another bright flash. The man who stood before Malekith then had red-orange skin, the color of flame. He was immediately recognizable as a child of Muspelheim. A golden headpiece with a black onyx stone set in it held back a tidal wave of bright white hair. The man was clothed in black trousers, a length of red cloth billowing behind, attached at the waist, functioning as a cape for the lower half of his body. His chest was completely bare, the fire-colored skin glowing.

"King Onyx?" Malekith was slightly taken aback.

"Lord Malekith!" Onyx replied, then laughed. "What IS going on here?"

"We are no longer dead," Malekith told him.

"I can see that," Onyx observed.

"You have come to me for a reason," Malekith went on. "My aim is conquest of the Nine Realms. The others…" He motioned to where Velma, Nuada, Nuala, Algrim, and Yffi were gathered. "They all have their reasons to join me. But what reason do you have?"

"You wouldn't know," Onyx realized out loud. "You were dead when the end nearly came to Asgard."

"Ragnarok?" Malekith was, again, slightly surprised.

"Many of the prophesied events came to pass," Onyx explained. "As one of the events that would lead to Asgard's salvation, I was to be killed by the World Tree. I believed there was no way Yggdrassil itself would kill me, and in order to preserve my life, I burned down every other tree in sight. Then, I thought, if I survived, I could take the ashes of Asgard and rebuild them into my new kingdom! Do you think I was happy, having only Muspelheim and the patch of Asgardian volcanic land known as Volkenon? But, as fate would have it, there was a loophole in this prophecy, and I was killed nonetheless." He gave a sigh. "And I did not even get Odin's daughter to marry. A pity. She was a beautiful thing. Fair hair, graceful…" He turned to look at Malekith's allies again. "Not unlike that elven woman…"

Nuada stepped protectively in front of Nuala.

"Then perhaps Asgard shall be your spoil when all is divided," Malekith thought out loud. "Asgard for you, Midgard for Yffi, Svartalfheim for me, Alfheim for Algrim, Vanaheim for Velma, perhaps?"

Onyx laughed again. "As though you would give up Asgard. Don't try to buy me with false promises, Malekith."

"Then consider this," Malekith offered. "You have little to return to. There is much you hate and much you did not get. Would you rather take your chances with me, or on your own against Odin, who surely has come to life if it was not true Ragnarok?"

"You make a fair point," Onyx admitted. "The Vulcans I knew on Asgard are all dead, and the Vulcans in Muspelheim have likely turned loyalties. Then again, should you fail me, I could still go back to them and observe for myself where their loyalties lie."

"Should I fail YOU!" Malekith laughed.

Onyx was surrounded by darkness then, held down by pinions of black stone. A vision of two great eyes – Malekith's eyes – opened before him, filling his vision. "IT IS YOU WHO SHOULD WORRY ABOUT FAILING ME," Malekith's voice boomed, filling Onyx's reality.

Onyx's body shifted; he was transforming into something much larger. The pinions broke. A hulking shape stared down the eyes and replied, "That was not wise, Dark Elf."

"YOU HAVE BROKEN YOUR CHAINS," Malekith told the shadowy behemoth, "BUT LOOK WHERE YOU STILL REMAIN."

Onyx roared and charged, barreling across the darkness. It seemed eternal. Onyx changed course more than once, but there was no end to it all.

"REVERT," Malekith's voice commanded, "AND YOU WILL FIND YOUR WAY OUT."

Onyx obeyed. He became the humanoid form once more, and the darkness abated to show that for all the running he'd done, he hadn't actually moved an inch from where he had been standing.

"Your power is great," Malekith admitted, "but not great enough. However…against ordinary mortals, it will be quite devastating."

"Then I suppose I stand with you," Onyx decided, walking toward the others.

"Have you got any more for me?" Malekith asked, looking to Discord and Nidhogg.

"Well, there is one…" Discord replied, "but…oh, I don't know. I'm just not sure how well he'll get along with the others. Perhaps I shouldn't give you the extremely powerful young sorcerer with legendary magic and skill in glamour that rivals the Light Elves – "

"Discord," Nidhogg snapped, "stop dragging it out."

"Oh, well, fine." There was another flash of light. "But don't say I didn't warn you." Discord practically laughed then.

As Malekith looked upon the last person summoned from the dead, he was genuinely confused. "…An Asgardian?"

The young man had light skin and golden hair. Atop his head perched a plum-colored hat, fashioned somewhat after a turban, with a great golden feather protruding from it, leaning to the left. His shoulders were cloaked with a purple cape fastened by a golden chain; under that, he had no shirt. His forearms were wrapped in purple bands. Baggy white pants went to his knees, lavender forming the sash and the cuffs. From the lavender sash, a small dagger hung. Black tights covered his lower legs, leading to his flat golden shoes.

The youth looked at his surroundings, curious. "Well," he remarked at last. "This doesn't seem much like Valhalla."

"The furthest from it," Malekith concurred.

The youth surveyed Malekith, then all his allies, then Discord…and then his eyes settled on Nidhogg. "Melvin," he growled. "I thought we had done you in for good."

"Which is what I wanted," Nidhogg replied.

"How…DARE you!" The youth advanced toward Nidhogg.

Malekith laughed. "And what are you going to do to him? Stab him with that feeble dagger?"

"Before you attack me," said Nidhogg, "I implore you to think about what you are attacking me for."

"For treason against Princess Mercedes," the youth hissed. "If you aren't stopped now, you may very well kill her – "

"I'm afraid that would be redundant," Nidhogg said plainly.

This stopped the youth in his tracks. "What…?"

"Mercedes is already dead!" Onyx laughed. "I should know. I did her in myself!"

"Mercedes…" the youth repeated. "Dead…"

"In fact, that was how I died," Onyx admitted. "Her true name was Yggdrassil. So the World Tree did kill me, after all. But not before I dealt her a the killing blow."

"And now she has become part of Yggdrassil itself, tied to it by her true name," Nidhogg concluded. "Never to return."

The youth's breathing grew quick and shallow. Then he turned to Onyx. "YOU!" he cried, lunging. Then his body began to change in shape, at first becoming a dark, formless mass.

"DOWN!" Malekith screamed, throwing a hand out toward the youth. He was struck down by a blast of Darkness; returned to his human form, he lay on the ground.

"I…should transform…and swallow you whole," the youth snarled to Onyx. "As you saw…the power of the Darkova is still in me."

At that statement, Malekith smiled broadly, pointed teeth exposed.

"What good would it do you?" Onyx replied. "It wouldn't bring her back. Nor would it put her in any of the lands of the dead you might enter. I fought her in self-defense. She challenged me to kill me, after all."

"Not without reason! You must have struck the first blow!"

"If we are to speak semantics."

As the youth rose, Malekith spoke. "Before you attempt to kill Onyx again, I want to know something."

"WHAT IS IT?" the youth roared. "WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT TO KNOW?"

"Where all of this anger comes from," Malekith said calmly.

Then the youth realized he recognized the Dark Elf. "You…you are Lord Malekith."

"Indeed. And you are…?"

"Ingway," the youth answered. "Bastard son of Lord Odin and of Princess Ariel of Valentine."

"Not just ANY Asgardian!" Malekith laughed. "A son of Odin himself!"

"By blood alone!" Ingway argued. "He would never accept me as a son. I destroyed Valentine for him. I caused the Crystallization Cauldron to explode and turn on my own kingdom during the first war between his nation and mine, all so he would call me son. And yet he spurned me. He left me to the wastelands, claiming the victory as his own! All I had, all I ever had, was my sister Valentine, though if she still lives, which I certainly DOUBT, she will still bear me ill will for all she knows. She knows I cursed her people. She knows I cursed her lover, Cornelius, in order to steal the secret of the Darkova from the Titanian throne – "

Malekith raised a hand to stop Ingway from speaking. "The Darkova is an incredibly infamous power. And yet you claim to have it?"

"You saw," Ingway answered. "Had you not stopped me, I would have unleashed it upon Onyx."

"And you may be the only one here besides me who could think to stand against him in that way," Malekith stated.

"You speak as though I do not know the weight of my powers," Ingway snapped. "As it is…my sister has rejected me, despite how I tried to protect her. I could not complete my revenge on Odin, who I had planned to destroy with the Darkova."

"You know he would have come back," Malekith posed.

"And I would have destroyed him as many times as was necessary," Ingway retorted. "But that was lost to me. And now…now I hear that the woman I love is dead…BY HIS HAND!" He spun to face Onyx again.

"What do you want, Ingway?" Malekith asked.

"To tear him limb from limb." Ingway's eyes remained locked on Onyx.

"No, Ingway," Malekith said sharply. "What do you WANT?"

"Did I not just tell you?"

"In your heart of hearts, it isn't him you resent. We both know this, Ingway."

Ingway held back, pondering Malekith's words. He had been brought up with the tales of how the Dark Elves had always remained enemies of Odin and Valentine alike, all because of Malekith himself. The only reason he was even hearing Malekith out was because of Malekith's opposition to Odin. There was no way Ingway could trust Odin anymore. Speaking with someone so against him felt absolutely right.

That was when he realized what he wanted.

"Vengeance…against Odin," Ingway snarled. "And on his world, which cast me out. There is nothing on that world worth protecting anymore. It may as well have fallen to Ragnarok!"

"Then help me to fell it," Malekith implored. "Help me to fell all the realms but Svartalfheim, which is already fallen. To build them anew. To have the home you never could have had so long as Odin stood in your way."

Ingway was silent for a while. Then he laughed. He laughed for so long, the others all wondered if he had simply gone insane. Then he said, "Why should I not? There is nothing left for me. Perhaps this is what was meant to be all along. I never belonged in Odin's realm. The only place it makes sense for me to belong…is in the place that is as far from it as I can get. Very well, then. I will join your crusade. Allow me one condition, though."

"What would that be?" Malekith asked.

"Let me deal Odin's final blow. At least for this of his lifetimes. We can speak of what is to be done with him after he returns again. There are so many other realms where you may destroy their rulers. You may have all of them…if you leave Odin to me."

"Then it is done," Malekith vowed. "You will have your chance to destroy Odin. Of course, if you fail, I will be forced to take over. Now hear my condition out."

"You're about to ask me to give up my resentment toward the Inferno King, aren't you?" Ingway sighed, looking back to Onyx.

"I will be destroying the same realms," Onyx told him. "It may as well be in the girl's name."

"In the girl's name." Ingway closed his eyes. Mercedes, he thought. I know that as the World Tree, as Life itself, this is not what you would have wanted…but what can I do? You were the last thing I had. I MUST deal these blows in your name. For this existence that I attack is what took your life away from us all, took the only thing left that was truly good and kind. The rest is waste. "In the name of Mercedes, I join your fight." He sighed. "And the Inferno King is safe from me. For now."

"As for the rest of you," Malekith told the others, "don't let them alone with each other, in case the young sorcerer breaks his word."

Velma, Nuada, Nuala, Algrim, and Yffi nodded assent.

"But I hear you are quite skilled with glamour?" Malekith pressed.

"I devoted many years to studying the art," Ingway confirmed. "How do you think I was able to pass myself off as Cornelius long enough to learn of the Darkova?"

The plan was beginning to form in Malekith's mind, and Ingway was the key. "You were right to give him to us after all," Malekith admitted to Discord and Nidhogg. "Now, will that be all?"

"Not quite," Discord answered.

"Another ally?" Malekith sighed.

"Actually…" Discord reached behind his back. When he brought out his arm, it clutched a familiar ram-horned helmet. "Ta-daaaaa!"

"The helmet of Bor?" Malekith was confused.

"With a small alteration." Discord tossed the ancient helmet into the air. Malekith caught it. "I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out."

From the moment the helmet touched his fingers, Malekith knew. He grinned, baring his pointed teeth again.

"It's enchanted, isn't it?" Velma guessed.

"What sort of power does it give the wearer?" Onyx asked.

"All in good time," Malekith replied.

"Well, it's high time we get going," Discord said, turning to walk away. He waved back at the group he and Nidhogg had summoned; "You kids have fun now!"

Nidhogg stalked after Discord, and they made their way back to the tunnels. "And what do we do now?" Nidhogg asked.

"We wait," Discord answered. "You can go back to chewing on roots if you want to. I'll let you know when it's time to – "

"I don't know that I would want to wait as long as you," Nidhogg said sternly.

Discord was taken back, but then he laughed. "Well, well! THIS should be interesting!"

Back on the field, Malekith's new army had gathered around him. "I am beginning to see the path we must take," Malekith announced. "And Ingway is the key. Oh, Ingway. It is a pity, really, that Odin cast you out when you had so much potential. Were I in his shoes, I would not have done the same."

"Such beautiful words," Ingway answered. "If only there were an ounce of truth in them."

...

Chapter 84:

· The idea of the tunnels comes from Nancy Farmer's Trolls Trilogy, particularly "Land of the Silver Apples." I think it should by now be apparent that those books are the other MAJOR work I'm drawing upon for this storylet.

· In the Farmer books, the creatures are referred to as both "landvaettir" and "Yarthkins." The latter is more common, but "landvaettir" just sounds better to me and closer to what the name probably is. They are regarded as old spirits who are to be feared, but ultimately do good.

· Yes, Discord is singing the song "Discord" by Eurobeat Brony (later remixed by The Living Tombstone into a more popular version). He knows what a fourth wall is.

· The "dragon" design of Nidhogg is my own based on the classical mythology. He's eternally chewing on the roots of Yggdrassil, trying to get it to topple. However, his personality and "faerie" design come from Odin Sphere. "Nidhogg" is Melvin's true name. In canon, it's just supposed to be an allusion – that Melvin was named after Nidhogg – but here, I'm making it literal because I don't have anything better to draw upon for my Nidhogg characterization and Melvin makes a fun dynamic with Discord. This also gives me a nice Get Out of Death Free Card for Melvin.

· Yes, more and more OS exposition. The early chapters are always exposition.

· Knuckers, in the Farmer books, are creatures that take on the appearance of the worst fear of whomever looks at them. And then kill whomever looks at them.

· The time travel spell is an allusion to the MLP ep "It's About Time," where Twilight does create a Stable Time Loop.

· I decided the Islands of the Blessed should be a land where everyone has to take their true form unless they make an effort to be otherwise (after all, bards have to switch minds with animals as part of their final exams).

· The Islands are a tough concept to pin down. They are an afterlife, but the Farmer books do have many people that go and come back. The ending is actually kind of debatable as to whether Jack and Thorgil go there because they died or because they are alive and get a new chance at studying the Bard arts. So I kind of went a middle ground. This also means that Hades didn't get to have a say in it. If you were wondering, the Islands of the Blessed are covered in red tape from Hades' standpoint. The reason the Mane Six feel like they "can't dock" at certain places is because that's where the dead who have met final rest there are.

· And here I introduce Jack and Thorgil, the principal characters of the Trolls Trilogy. Jack is the main character, but Thorgil is SO much more fun.

· This takes place DIRECTLY after the last page of "Islands of the Blessed."

· Jack isn't very open-minded about other religions or cultures in canon, so I'm playing that up.

· The exterior of the building and the white robes were given to me by Farmer. The rest of the school's design (the interior) is mine.

· "Dragon Tongue," or "the Bard," is the older mentor character from the Trolls Trilogy. He spends the three books guiding Jack and Thorgil and ends the last one by dropping them off on the Islands and leaving.

· I had the idea to use Taliesin because of Catherine Fisher's book "Darkhenge." And that's specifically the version of Taliesin I'm using. More will come on that front later. This, of course, takes place centuries before Darkhenge.

· The Forest Lord and the Man in the Moon are two canon "Old Ones" from the Farmer books, but I'm not sure if I want to do anything with them yet, seeing as those connotations are also given to more benevolent spirits (specifically the "Forest Lord" from Princess Mononoke and the "Man in the Moon" from Rise of the Guardians). So the "Old One" focus here is going to be on Nidhogg. I'm planning, anyway. Sometimes my plans change mid-storylet.

· WATCH AS JCMORRIGAN MAGICALLY DISTILLS A TRILOGY'S WORTH OF ADVENTURES INTO FIVE PARAGRAPHS. But really, it's to catch you up on "What the hell are these characters doing here?" Stuff relevant to this storylet will be explained further and the settings trod upon.

· In "The Sea of Trolls," Thorgil actually does write "Jack and Jill" about herself and Jack drinking from Mimir's Well and rolling down the hill, and she proclaims that people will be saying her poem long after they've forgotten Jack's epics.

· I actually went back and looked at Malekith's resurrection scene in the 616th Earth storylet again. I originally didn't have his resurrection in this one set as a certainty back when I wrote that part, so I decided to try and cover my tracks by having Malekith feel playful enough that he remembered what he said when he was resurrected THIS time and repeated it 1000 years later as a joke.

· Actually, his faction went through a lot of changes since I first conceptualized it. A lot of these people ended up getting in at the LAST MINUTE the more I thought about who would fit.

· The spider-woman is Velma Green from "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Wrath of the Spider Queen." A random choice? Yes. But there are two major connections that led me to picking her. One: in WotSQ, she is for some reason allied with the Dark Elves, which is random, even for GAoBaM. Two: in Odin Sphere, Odette, the queen of the dead (who I am here stating as a daughter of Hel) is actually spider from the waist down (she hides it under her skirts during cutscenes, but it comes out during battles). It was an easy leap to say Velma was related to Odette. You'll see here that I'm taking her from her "high school loser" design to her "spider queen" design. Also, her backstory is going to be kind of AU because of how I'm portraying Death. "Underworld High School" couldn't have existed as it does in GAoBaM; I'm probably going to move that whole story of the reaper election either to Shibusen from Soul Eater or the shinigami academy from Bleach.

· About Nuada and Nuala…I have no Hellboy experience beyond the film "The Golden Army," which I have only seen once. But I have MAJOR nostalgia for it because I watched it with a friend who is huge into elves in all media and gushed about Nuada so much, she infected me with a liking for him. From there, the Malekith connection was obvious to me. Balor's tribe is a splinter faction of Malekith's (and they are blood related, but distantly) in this 'verse.

· Algrim, as you probably know, is the Tales of Asgard version, whom you saw briefly last chap.

· Yffi comes from "The Land of the Silver Apples." The Trolls Trilogy doesn't actually have all that much by way of major villains, but Yffi is fun. He's a warlord who sings about how he wants to eat hobgoblins. What's not to love? Also, yes, the "young upstart bard" was Jack.

· Onyx is from Odin Sphere.

· I'm deliberately not showing you Onyx's (or Ingway's) monster forms now. That comes later. OS fans already know what they are, but still, I wanna build suspense where I can.

· And finally…Ingway. One of my FAVORITE Odin Sphere characters. I fell for him so hard it's ridiculous. Now, I'm sort of stretching his alignment a bit. He's not a plain old villain, really. It's more complicated. But I figured he would be EXTREMELY bitter after all he's been through, especially if he knew Mercedes was dead. Plus, I wanted him back, and the best way to get that was to have him be a chaos-maker that Discord would want to resurrect. Don't worry, though. His complications will be explored as we move along.