A/N: Before reading this chapter, it is best to be familiar with Pinkie Pie's "cupcakes" song from S1. I think it's just called "Cupcakes." Though of course, if you look that up, you're going to hit all the grimdark stuff from the Cupcakes AU and I most certainly do not mean that.

...

94. Laufaginning

JOTUNHEIM

Perhaps there was a peak, Fluttershy theorized, over which the sun rose unimpeded by clouds, striking the snow and ice in such a way as to make it glitter beautifully. Perhaps that was how the plain the travelers crossed looked on a good day. However, where they were at the moment, the snow was stifling, choking the ground, an annoyance to drag feet through and leave tracks in. The clouds had robbed the sun of sky, and the bitter wind made it undesirable to be outside. It didn't seem possible that anything could be alive, be it animal, plant, or person, in such an environment, and Fluttershy began to think that perhaps it was here that Heide had referred to as the "dead world." It seemed dead enough. Its emptiness lent itself to the souls of the travelers, giving each to some extent a feeling of a blank space inside. It must have been terrible, Fluttershy theorized, to live in such a place all the time, and she felt for the Jötunns then, wishing they didn't have to wage war against them. For from what she had heard of this land, they did not have the privilege of having winter be cleaned up for them when it was over. No one was there to shovel away the snow, break the ice over the lakes, or coax the animals out of hiding the way it was done in Equestria. It didn't seem a place conducive to exploration or outdoor play. The chill just made her want to get indoors as quickly as was possible, and she wished then that they could hurry just a little faster toward the mountain castle and get between warmer walls.

After an indeterminable amount of time traipsing through the bleakness, suddenly, over an upward slope, everything changed. The sun broke through the clouds, and snow no longer fell. Instead of snow-covered dirt and rock, the plain gave way to a sheet of ice: a frozen lake over which the sunlight gleamed brightly, almost giving it a blue sheen.

"It's gorgeous!" Fluttershy gasped.

"Not that gorgeous," Jack said grimly, pointing downward.

Fluttershy looked into the depths of the lake and gasped with horror to see humanoid and animalistic silhouettes completely frozen within the ice below. She whimpered and trembled.

"Don't look at it," Rarity said softly, taking Fluttershy's hand. "Just keep your eyes on the mountain."

When Loki's feet hit the ice, he glid over it, slowly sweeping further and further forward as though wearing skates. The others were not so graceful. When Twilight stepped onto the lake, she outright fell on her behind, and Sif had to backtrack to offer her a hand up. Gwendolyn wobbled; Oswald gently nudged her in the back when she was about to tip too far backward, setting her upright again. Jack tripped and fell on his face, scrambling up to his own feet before anyone could even move toward him and failing not to look embarrassed.

"Uh…is it just me, or did the castle get castlier?" Pinkie Pie asked.

All looked up at the mountain again. It no longer had the appearance of a mountain at all, but of an enormous white fortress of many towers and battlements. Just like the frozen lake, it shimmered in the sunlight, which revealed its intricate Gothic carving, its many courtyards, its high walkways.

"It's gorgeous," Fluttershy gasped.

"Do not let it fool you," Thor warned. "Inside is nothing more than a tribe of barbarians."

"They weren't barbaric to us," Thorgil grunted.

"Some of us here said the same stuff about the elves and the fin-folk," Twilight pointed out.

"I get the point!" Jack groaned.

"I'm not sure how anypony who built something like THAT can be all bad," Rarity added.

"Then you shall see for yourselves when we enter," Thor insisted.

Between the lake and the castle grounds, a deep ravine was carved into the earth. Spanning it was a bridge of pure ice, as wide across as to accommodate four people walking side by side: arcing upwards to its center point, then descending to meet the yard of the castle.

"I see they fixed that," Jack remarked.

"…What'd you do to it?" Applejack snapped.

"Why did you assume I did something?" Jack shot back.

"He melted a hole in it," Thorgil offered.

"It's pure ice," Jack said sternly, changing the subject as quickly as he could. "We have to be careful going across it. Any one of us could slip right off."

Fluttershy looked to the ravine, which was frighteningly deep, and shuddered.

"What if we all held hands goin' across?" Applejack suggested. "That way, if one of us falls, the rest of us could pull 'em right back up."

"Or if one of us falls, that person drags the rest of us over," Fandral countered.

"Such a thing would not happen," Thor insisted. "With the strength of several Asgardian warriors, I am certain we could hold firm on the bridge."

"I don't know if strength matters when you're on ice," Twilight argued.

"I'd still feel better about it than all of us goin' alone," Applejack stated. "I just keep gettin' visions of a bunch of us slidin' right off an' only half of us makin' it to the other side."

"And even if we did all fall off," Rainbow Dash pointed out, "three of us can fly and one of us has super awesome magic that can put us on the other side."

"Or I can use magic to make a bridge in the first place," Twilight suggested. "One that's not slippery and doesn't curve like that."

"Across that valley, honey?" Applejack asked. "Without gettin' tired?"

Twilight surveyed the ravine again. It was quite wide. Spanning a chasm of that size would take a lot of energy. She decided it was better to play safe. "Good point. We'll try the ice bridge. I'm guessing you're picturing us all going in a big chain? If we do, then Fluttershy should either be in the front or the back, since she'll need a free arm to carry Baromett."

"Ooh, ooh!" Pinkie Pie cried. "I wanna be in front!"

"I can be in the back," Fluttershy informed the others.

"I believe it is wisest to let Lo – Ragnhild continue to lead," Thor suggested.

"Careful, Nora," Loki replied coyly. "We can't have you calling us by our real names in the company of the Jötunns. Who'd be the one getting us in trouble then?"

"Ragnhild!" Pinkie skated closer to Loki. "If you're in front of the chain, and I'm second, then what we should do is – " She leaned in close to Loki's left ear and began whispering frenetically.

"That's never a good sign," Fandral remarked.

"But is everypony on board with this plan?" Twilight asked. "To cross as a chain?"

"I think it sounds like a good idea," Gwendolyn answered.

"It seems sound enough," Sif agreed. "If nothing else, it will get us all across more quickly."

Murmurs of agreement came from all around.

"All right," Twilight resolved. "Everypony…line up!"

Loki took his place at the head of the group. Pinkie Pie's right hand slid into his left, clasping tightly. Behind her, Thor clasped her free hand with his right, and behind him came Sif. Then Rainbow Dash, Thorgil, Jack, Applejack, Gwendolyn, Oswald, Fandral, Rarity, Velvet, Cornelius, Volstagg, Twilight, Hogun, and Fluttershy with Baromett clutched in her left arm. "Lead the way, Ragnhild!" Twilight called from her place near the back of the line.

Loki proceeded to walk toward the bridge, and as he did so, Pinkie Pie followed, then Thor, then so on, so forth. Several paces before the bridge, suddenly, Loki's pace quickened; he broke out into a run. Pinkie Pie was quick to follow suit; after all, this had been her suggestion.

Seeing what the two ahead of him were doing, Thor had a choice: to stop in his tracks, holding them back, or to run with them. As did the others behind him. Perhaps any one of them could have dug in heels and stopped the chain from moving any faster. However, once the intentions of the chain leaders became clear, the rest of the group was of two minds. They either simply wanted to get across as quickly as possible or they wanted to have fun doing so. And so when Loki and Pinkie Pie ran, the others ran after them.

As soon as Loki's feet hit the bridge, he skated and slid; the others all fell into the same pattern after him, gliding over the ice, managing to stay down the center of the perilous path, sliding upward to the apex. Once the peak was reached, Loki completely let gravity take over and rode down the icy slope. That cued Pinkie Pie to do the same, and the others after her, until the entire chain was sliding down the other half of the bridge at a heart-pounding speed, reminding all that if they were to veer too close to the edge, they would certainly all plunge, but if they kept to the center, as they were doing, the bridge's danger would simply have flown by. And all to the sound of Pinkie Pie shrieking "WHEEEEEEEE!"

Loki touched ground safely on the other side, picking up his run again. One by one, the others did as well, but just as Fluttershy got off the bridge and onto solid ground, Thor tripped; this tugged both Pinkie Pie and Sif down into the snow, and, as the entire incident happened before anyone could think to let go of hands, eventually everyone else, tumbling them into a pile of sorts in the snowbank at the edge of the castle grounds and inciting a round of laughter.

"Look at us!" Thor guffawed. "A lot of women in finery, collapsed in the snow!"

"But we made it!" Fluttershy sighed with relief.

"I think if anypony wants to make snow angels or start up a snowball fight, now's the time!" Applejack laughed.

"DO NOT DARE!" Sif nearly shrieked when Loki took Applejack's suggestion to heart and scooped a mound of snow into his hands.

"We must move on," Thor encouraged, standing and brushing snow off his skirt, shaking white flakes out of his hair. One by one, the others did the same, and they made their way toward the great white fortress.

"I think this is the first time I'll have entered by the door and been conscious of it," Jack realized.

That was when the snowball hit Thor in the back of the head. Everyone knew where it had come from; no one had seen Loki put the snowball down when Sif had scolded him. All eyes turned to the trickster god, who grinned.

"If we had more time to spare," Thor stated, "I would retaliate. As it were, I am going to ignore that." He turned back and resumed his walk to the castle.

"What a killjoy," Loki murmured.

"We are here for a reason, you know," Twilight insisted.

"All right, all right." Loki sighed and let another mass of snow fall from his hands, making Twilight realize she hadn't even seen when he'd picked the second snowball up. He made his way to the front of the group once more as they crossed the first courtyard to the great gates of the mountain castle: double doors, monstrously big, appearing to be carved out of enormous diamonds. Loki knocked loudly on the doors, then turned to the others to offer one last bit of advice: "Let me do the talking on the way in. And when they open the door, scream."

The doors groaned open to reveal a pair of fur-clad louts – barely post-adolescent Jötunns – who eyed the traveling party with suspicion. "What are you doing out here?" one of them asked.

"And where did you come from?" the other added.

As per Loki's suggestion, all eighteen travelers screamed loudly in false horror.

"MONSTERS!" Loki cried.

The second lout rolled his eyes. "Midgardians."

"But they speak our language…" Loki turned back to the group. "They may be our only hope!" He swiveled back to face the louts. "P-p-p-please," he said weakly, forcing a stammer. "We are so cold…please let us inside…"

"Not until you tell us who you are and why you're here!" the first lout insisted.

"Our ship," Loki whimpered. "We came here with our husbands on a trade route, but somehow we got lost in the waters. They all died in the forest…it was a dragon! A terrible dragon! We only survived because they gave their lives and told us to run on! Now we don't know where to go or what to do…only that it's…so…c-c-c-cold…"

"Well…" The second lout turned to regard the first. "Who are we to turn down the company of such beautiful – "

"To refuse those who ask for help so kindly?" the other interrupted hastily. "Though we will need to know your names."

"I am Ragnhild," Loki introduced, curtsying elegantly but stiffly, making sure to let it show in his body that he was apparently suffering greatly from the cold. The others all picked up on his cue and shivered, hugging themselves for warmth. "My companions are called Nora, Solveig, Helga, Sunniva, Kaja, Hildegard, Kjerstin, Renate, Cornelia, Jacqueline, Jill, Twinkle, Melody, Sky Skimmer, Firefly, Apple Jewel, and SURPRISE!"

"You are dressed in much finery to be the wives of traders," one of the louts observed.

"Our husbands were known for journeying to lands where none other would go," Loki explained. "We were sailing as far north as possible, to find the edge of the earth and what strange treasures it held. We were sure to fetch so many more riches at market!" He nearly burst into tears.

Twilight felt he was laying it on a little thick, but it seemed to be working.

"And the sheep?" the second lout asked.

"Sky Skimmer's beloved pet!" Loki wailed. "But please, won't you let us in? We shall freeze!"

"Oh, of course, of course!" The first lout turned and beckoned. "Come in!"

The second followed, and after him came the rest of the group. The first lout leaned in to the second to whisper, "Well, they are pretty. The rest of the court will enjoy having them there. They seem very empty-headed, though. All I'm hearing them think is how pretty this castle is."

It is worth noting at this time that Loki's glamour, held firm as it was, completely shadowed his body and any reactions happening to it. By the time they entered the mountain palace, were Loki entering sans glamour, his fellows would all have seen that his skin was in the process of turning a very vibrant shade of giveaway blue. However, Ragnhild's pale skin prevented even Loki from knowing that was happening.

The halls of the mountain castle were far more straightforward than the twisting architecture of the fin-folk. The walls appeared to have been carved right out of ice, translucently white. Every now and again, the group would pass a Gothically arched window curtained by diaphanous fabric that shimmered white. Jack and Thorgil remembered these curtains as being woven of the particular Jötunn spider-silk that was able to take on the color of their surroundings.

Through another massive set of double doors, these gold and studded with diamonds, lay the great throne room of the Jötunn kingdom. Jack could not help but feel a slight frustration that after all the times they had been denied an audience with the king and queen of a land and only been given it after a roundabout path and a confrontation, here, all they'd done was show up, pretend to be lost, and get brought right to Glamdis and Laufey.

The two louts strolled into a room bustling with Jötunns – more louts, older men, women, some dressed in thick furs, some only in loincloths, some in simple dresses. The room itself had a ceiling vaulted high, giving it the appearance of a cavern of ice that had formed naturally. Spider-silk curtains were draped about the walls. Braziers of fire roared at the sides of the hall, and at the far end were two thrones, wrought gold with diamonds embedded. On one of these thrones sat a regal, intense-eyed Jötunn woman clothed in a deep blue gown and a heavy fur cloak, a crown of gold visible gleaming upon her nest of orange, curly hair. Beside her, in the other seat, sat a red-eyed male Jötunn in a multilayered leather loincloth that bared his muscular chest, accenting this with vambraces, epaulets, and poleyns that seemed to serve more of a decorative purpose than a protective one, as the majority of the man's skin was exposed. These could be none other than Glamdis and Laufey.

A host of Jötunn men of all ages were lined up near Glamdis' throne: her harem, Jack and Thorgil recalled. This did not surprise either. An equal number of Jötunn women were lined up near Laufey's throne: his own harem. This also did not surprise them. What made the blood of both bards to be run cold was the sight of the two women who stood before the thrones, in a deep and heated discussion with the Jötunn royalty. One was human in appearance, bewitchingly beautiful, strikingly pale with red-gold waves of hair that fell thickly past her waist and clothed in a gown of snow white. The other woman had skin of bronze, shimmering metallically, and her dark hair was plaited into a braid that whipped down her back as though it were an appendage. She wore no clothing, but while her body had the shape of a woman, its genital areas were smoothed over, nonexistent. If Jack was putting the pieces together correctly as he thought he was, then that was because the woman's entire body was her own creation, her vague idea of what a woman's anatomy should even be. Neither Jack nor Thorgil recognized this second woman, but they knew the first too well, and upon closer examination of the two, from what they could glimpse of their faces, the pair was related by blood, or at least chose forms that gave that impression, and that was an unfortunate clue as to the identity of the unknown. And neither of them, Jack and Thorgil thought worriedly, should have been there in the state she was.

Glamdis held up a hand to halt both women from talking. She looked up at the louts who had led in the traveling party, and as she did so, Laufey's gaze moved in the same direction, and the two women turned to face them fully. Jack and Thorgil then were able to confirm the first woman's identity and see the physical similarity in the other.

"What is the meaning of this?" Glamdis snapped gruffly.

"They were lost," the first lout explained. "They knocked upon our door. Could we have turned them away?"

"They are quite beautiful," Laufey remarked. "What are their names?"

"Ragnhild…er…" The first lout searched his memory. "I believe there was a Sunniva and a Kjerstin in there…oh, and one of them is named Surprise, I know that…"

"Hmm." Laufey didn't like something he found in the face of the one indicated to be Ragnhild, but he wasn't able to identify it.

"I thank you for your kind thoughts about our hall," Glamdis told the group, and Twilight was confused at first until she recalled the enchantment that Loki had cast to prevent the Jötunns from reading their minds.

"You're quite welcome," Rarity picked up. "It's positively a winter wonderland!"

Glamdis nodded. Then her face soured as she turned back to the two louts. "You cannot just go letting any strange women in that you find!"

"They're traders' wives," the second lout explained. "Widows! From Midgard!"

"All the same," Glamdis nearly growled, "I think I know your intentions in bringing them here, and I do not approve."

Thorgil and Jack fondly remembered why they had eventually grown to feel at home in Jötunheim on their first visit.

"As though you didn't keep Olaf One-Brow as decoration every time he came to call," the lout responded. "We only wanted company. We weren't intending to father children with them the way you did with your prize."

Loki knew when it was his cue to act shocked. He put a hand on his breast, gasping loudly. "And here I had thought you'd accepted us into your home out of the kindness of your heart because we were lost!"

"Worry not," Glamdis said reassuringly. "No lewd behavior will be tolerated from these two or any other. You truly are from Midgard?"

"Yes," Loki answered somberly. "And we wish nothing more than to go home."

"I shall have Fonn and Forath show you quarters, and you may join us for dinner tonight," Glamdis announced. "We may as well make you comfortable, now that you are here. There doesn't seem to be anything undesirable in your brains. Or anything at all, to be honest. But after that, we will have to discuss where you go next. You can't simply stay here, you know, as much as THEY may want you to." Glamdis looked disapprovingly at the louts, then to Laufey himself.

"We thank you for your kindness, your majesty." Loki curtsied grandly, and the others followed suit.

"None of that 'your majesty' nonsense," Glamdis barked, as Jack knew she would. "Everyone here knows I am majestic. 'Mother' will do."

"I, on the other hand, shall take 'your majesty,'" Laufey asserted. "I won't have you calling me 'Father.'"

"Have you that little confidence," Glamdis asked Laufey, "or just that little heart?"

"I have a sense of where I belong and where they belong," Laufey responded.

In the meantime, the woman of the red-gold hair had stormed over to the group, pushing her way through to face down Thorgil, glaring sourly. Thorgil scowled right back. "I feel as though I've seen this one before," the woman stated deliberately.

"Well, you haven't," Thorgil barked. "My name is Jill, my father died in the valley of Yggdrassil, and I don't even know what realm this is!"

"You're in Jötunheim," the woman hissed. "Are you sure it's for the first time?"

"WHERE would you have seen me before?" Thorgil practically roared.

"ENOUGH, Frith!" Glamdis snapped, and the naming of the woman made both Jack and Thorgil shiver. "Stop harassing the Midgardians!"

Frith backed away, moving slowly back toward her mother's throne.

"Ohhh, this is Jötunheim!" Loki said melodramatically. "I had wondered what realm we'd ended up in! It did seem too cold to be Asgard! Though from what I hear, Asgard would have been the nicer place to land up in."

"Ragnhild!" Twilight didn't know what game Loki was playing, but she wasn't a fan. "That's rude!"

"Your friend is right," Laufey growled. "You should not compare us to Asgard."

"But don't you trolls and gods go back and forth between your realms all the time?" Loki feigned as much naïveté as was possible. "I thought you just had a friendly rivalry. Joking about which realm is better and all that! I was only playing along!"

Twilight then knew what game Loki was playing.

"We have an agreement with Asgard," Laufey hissed. "They stay in their realm and we stay in ours."

"And thank goodness we've been able to keep up that tradition so far!" Glamdis sighed. "I wouldn't want them breaking down our doors, more than I'd want to knock on theirs!"

The implications of this settled on the eighteen guests.

"There's been no contact at all?" Loki fished.

"No," Glamdis snapped. "Why are you so interested in this?"

"Ragnhild is known back home for being tactless and airheaded," Cornelius supplied. "She's our lovable little idiot!"

Loki was less than pleased, but he knew better than to react. "That is what they tell me," he sighed.

Twilight decided it was time to step in. "Since we're new here…could you introduce yourselves? I can tell you're the king and queen, and I'd like to know your names. Not that I can't work with 'Mother,' of course."

Glamdis nodded. "I am queen Glamdis of Jötunheim."

"And I, King Laufey," Laufey chimed in.

"And these are my daughters," Glamdis said, indicating the two humanoid women. "Frith Half-Troll and Frothi Half-Troll."

Jack and Thorgil visibly flinched at the second name. Jack had suspected, but it was quite different to hear his fears confirmed out loud.

Twilight curtsied. "I'm honored to meet – " Involuntarily, she let out a great yawn. It then hit her that she, and her friends for that matter, had not slept since the feast at Notland. She didn't know how long the journey through the garden of paradise had taken, but thinking back on it, they'd battled eel and ridden in the fin-folk barge across the Midgardian waters well into the night. Given the conditions of the sky outside and the fact that the Jötunns were all awake, it must have been morning.

"How long have you been traveling?" Glamdis asked.

"I guess I only just realized how tired I am," Twilight replied.

"We have been out all night," Gwendolyn pointed out.

"That will not do!" Glamdis announced. "I shall have you escorted to guest quarters where you can sleep immediately. We can't have you dropping off to sleep all over the mountain!"

She was then silent, and the room fell silent with her. Twilight wondered if somehow they'd offended her, but when a new Jötunn came running into the room, Twilight realized Glamdis must have been very loudly calling the newcomer with her thoughts.

The newcomer was a Jötunn woman; rather young-looking compared to the others, clad in a plain dress of light blue. "This is also my daughter," Glamdis introduced. "Fonn."

Jack and Thorgil looked up excitedly toward Fonn, who had arrived with a smile. "Yes, Mo – oh, w have a LOT of guests!" Fonn cried.

"The Midgardian women are lost in our land. Show them to quarters," Glamdis commanded.

Fonn nodded. She turned to the group of what she could only assume were, in fact, Midgardian women. "Follow me!" she beckoned, turning to exit the audience chamber.

"Thank you so much," Twilight told Glamdis. "This is really hospitable of you."

"Think nothing of it," Glamdis told her. "Now go, before you fall asleep on the floor!"

Twilight nodded, and she and her friends followed Fonn out of the chamber and down a new hallway.

Jack and Thorgil looked longingly to Fonn, wishing they could give away their identities to her. She'd been a friend. As if Fonn could hear their true thoughts and not just the repetitive trivialities Loki had placed for the Jötunns to find, the troll woman turned to face Thorgil. "You look familiar," she said cheerily. "Have I seen you before?"

"That's the second time today I've gotten that question," Thorgil answered. "Someone must have been here who looked like me, once."

"Perhaps." Fonn shrugged. "We do get all sorts of odd guests. Berserkers, bards, a couple young apprentices of a bard about a year and some back…and before you came, there was the spider-woman from Niflheim."

Twilight had the distinct feeling that statement was important. "A spider-woman from Niflheim?" she repeated.

"Well, you know some of the sons and daughters of Hel have been born to look like a spider from the waist down and like a Midgardian from the waist up," Fonn explained. "She only could have been from Niflheim. She came bearing a gift for Mother and Laufey, and she wouldn't let any of us see it."

That statement rang with suspicion throughout the hall.

"I wonder what it could have been," Fonn continued. "Most likely, it was just money. After all, Hel doesn't let crystals out of her realm anymore, not since the Asgardian Cauldron Wars, so it couldn't have been that."

She paused in the midst of a wide corridor lined with wooden doors. "There haven't been any Midgardians in Mother's harem for a while," Fonn explained. "Their rooms are all free now. You can rest there. But Mother will probably want you out before tomorrow night. It wouldn't do to have you all taking up this space, you understand."

"We wouldn't want to overstay our welcome," Rarity agreed. "Thank you, Fonn."

They opened up the doors to find cozy bedrooms with wooden panels forming the walls, floors, and ceilings, intricate murals painted on all. The beds looked plump and soft. The party dispersed throughout them as Fonn strode out of the hall.

As soon as the group was sure that Fonn was out of earshot, they all convened in the hallway between the rooms.

"So?" Twilight glared at Thor. "Anything you wanna say?"

"What about?" Thor asked.

"Oh, nothing," Twilight replied. "Just the fact that every one of your dad's 'allies' tried to have us imprisoned or sacrificed, and the minute we walk into the country of your worst enemy, they set us up with comfy beds."

"If they knew the truth," Thor hissed softly, "we would be meeting the edges of blades instead."

"This is one of my favorite places!" Thorgil insisted. "Everything here is so exciting and everyone here is actually nice to me when they know who I am! Glamdis was in love with Olaf, you know!"

"See how they treat you when they don't know who you are," Loki suggested. "Especially Laufey. Glamdis may have gone easy on you, but the king is a monster."

"I'm somewhat lost," Rarity admitted. "Aren't Glamdis and Laufey wed?"

"They are notoriously unfaithful to each other," Oswald explained. "She has her harem, and he his."

"Most choose other Jötunns for their mates," Gwendolyn added, "but both have been known to choose humans."

"Like Olaf," Thorgil supplied. "That's how Schlaup was born, after all."

"And Frith and Frothi," Jack said shakingly. "They're both half-trolls. Twin sisters."

"I can see you are afraid," Thor observed. "And you have every right to be. A Jötunn is bad enough. A half-troll is arguably worse."

"Why?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Those who are half human and half Jötunn have strange powers," Thor explained. "They can change shape. I am certain that was not the only form of either of those two women, or even the true form."

"But there's one power they DON'T have," Thorgil brought up. "They can't read thoughts. That's why Schlaup always felt like an outcast and ended up coming to my realm."

"So that's what he meant," Twilight muttered. "I remember him saying he didn't want to be left out again."

"I've heard that the children of humans and trolls are always torn between both worlds," Jack sighed.

"But now I wonder…" Thorgil interrupted. "I know it would never happen, but what would a child of a Jötunn and an Asgardian be like?"

"Truly a terrible foe," Thor answered somberly. "A shape-shifter with powers beyond those that Frith, Frothi, and Schlaup have, presumably. Such a union has never happened to our knowledge, but it only makes sense that the child would be powerful, and perhaps the greatest enemy Asgard would ever have."

Jack shuddered. "And Frith is bad enough. She shouldn't be here, though, and neither should Frothi. ESPECIALLY not Frothi!"

"And why not?" Gwendolyn asked.

"When Thorgil and I last saw Frith," Jack stated, "we were trying to undo a curse on her."

"A curse Jack put on her," Thorgil clarified.

"By accident!" Jack protested. "I was trying to sing her praises in a poem, and I wanted to compliment her hair, but I was afraid of her, and the magic the Bard taught me got out of control…and all her hair fell out. We figured out how to give it back! She lived with several of Freya's cats. I told her to take a third of their hair and lie in it under the moon, and it would restore her hair. But she took all of their fur."

"Because she was a greedy – " Thorgil broke in.

Jack cut her off before she could call Frith something incredibly unladylike. "All of the hair sort of…grew onto her. All over. Making her look like some strange beast. But even worse, the cats got angry because of what she took from them, and they chased her away. We never heard what happened to her, but I thought perhaps the cats had gotten to her…or at least that she would have come here covered in fur, or with no hair at all."

"But that WAS a year ago," Rarity confirmed. "A lot could have changed."

"For Frith, yes," Jack agreed. "But not Frothi. She's supposed to be dead. She was ALWAYS supposed to be dead."

"What happened to her?" Twilight asked.

"Well…" Jack replied, "there was a warrior the Bard knew. His name was Beowulf. The Bard helped him out on his great quest, and ended up writing a poem about him. I've been trying to memorize it, and I've almost got it…but I'm sure there's no time to recite it now. First, Beowulf fought a monster named Grendel who terrorized the hall of King Hrothgar. Then, after he killed Grendel, Grendel's mother, Frothi Half-Troll, wanted revenge. The Bard guided Beowulf to Frothi's undersea cave and possessed the body of a fish to help take him there. He had to get back to his own body as soon as possible to stop himself from wanting to turn into a fish entirely, but by the time Beowulf came back up, he'd killed Frothi. And the land celebrated this. That's why Frith was always so bitter at our realm. Because it's where her sister and nephew died. But now…Frothi ISN'T dead."

"Maybe it's another Jötunn with the same name!" Pinkie Pie suggested.

"Or maybe Discord is involved," Twilight said coldly.

"Why would your weird enemy bring back Frothi but not Grendel?" Thorgil asked. "Not that we want Grendel running around! Though…that would be a battle for the legends…"

"I wonder," Velvet muttered. Then she shook her head. "No."

"No what?" Jack snapped.

"Did your mentor see Frothi's death, or merely report back what Beowulf told him?" Velvet asked. "Half-trolls know how to tempt. She could have made him swear to secrecy for some deal they made."

"That is NOT what happened!" Jack practically screamed.

"She is beautiful," Fandral pointed out. "To say the least! A lot of men would do anything she said, even tell the world she was dead!"

"The Bard would have known!" Jack rebutted.

"And Beowulf wasn't just some idiot who gave in to half-trolls!" Thorgil asserted. "He was greater than that! Smarter than that!"

"Or so the stories would have you believe," Oswald murmured.

"We're not getting ANYWHERE discussing this!" Twilight pointed out before the arguing could go further. "That isn't even our story! We're the heroes now, and apparently, we have Frothi Half-Troll to deal with. But so far, it looks like if we leave her alone, she'll leave us alone. We need to focus on what's really important here."

Applejack nodded. "You heard what Glamdis and Laufey said. There hasn't been any contact between Jötunheim and Asgard."

"Which means no raids," Twilight inferred.

"Obviously they lie!" Loki scoffed. "Are you really going to take what they say as the truth of the matter? Why WOULD they tell us they'd sent warriors to burn Asgard to the ground?"

"But why would they lie to hapless Midgardians whom they consider airheaded?" Velvet countered.

"Unless they are on to us somehow…" Sif suggested.

"There's another possibility," Twilight pointed out. "What if they don't KNOW about the raiding parties? What if the attacks we saw were done by random civilians without Glamdis and Laufey knowing about it?"

"Then there's the other possibility," Applejack added. "That they're tellin' the truth, and that the Jötunns were never involved in this at all. Twilight thought somethin' weird was goin' on from the very start. It all keeps comin' back to those Dark Elf twins, and now we got some kinda…spider woman from another realm in on it."

"But on that note," Thor brought up, "the timing of her arrival, if that story were true to begin with, could only mean one thing. The gift she brought was Mjolnir."

"Why would Glamdis and Laufey accept a gift that they knew would cause a political split between the realms?" Gwendolyn asked. "I would think that if they had Mjolnir brought to them, they'd order it to be sent back immediately!"

"Unless that was the point of not letting anypony see it!" Rainbow Dash theorized. "They KNEW they had something that would stir things up, so they hid it until they could figure out what to do with it without starting a full-scale war!"

"There already is a full-scale war being planned!" Thor reminded her. "One the Jötunns should be fully aware of – "

" – if they're aware that Jötunns even came over the Asgardian border," Twilight interrupted. "If Jötunns even came at all!"

"You saw them with thy own eyes!" Thor asserted.

"Shhh…" Fluttershy cautioned. "You might want to keep your voice down. If this echoes, we'll be in big trouble."

Thor hushed his effeminate voice: "You saw as clearly as I the Jötunns attacking Asgard. All of us did."

"I didn't," Loki brought up, but was ignored.

"But you know what we didn't see?" Twilight realized. "Whoever took Mjolnir. The woman Fonn mentioned could have paid the guards off to lie about it and send us on the wrong track."

"And…send us to the place where she took what she stole?" Sif reiterated.

"I…don't know," Twilight admitted. "None of this makes sense."

"Least of all how either a Jötunn or a descendant of Hel would have been able to lift the hammer," Thor pointed out.

"Well, we are all very tired," Fluttershy reminded the group. "Maybe we should get some sleep. We might be able to figure things out more clearly when we wake up."

Velvet nodded. "We have been out all night. And the garden distorts time so that it passes more slowly to those traveling inside it; we have been awake for longer than there are hours in the night."

"Night, everypony!" Rainbow Dash walked into one of the rooms, flopped down on one of the beds, and passed out completely. The rest of the group followed her example, dispersing to random rooms and settling in on the beds, falling right to sleep and remaining in that state for hours.

...

Twilight's dreams were filled with oddities. In her dream, she was trying to talk to the Shoney while using glamour to disguise herself as an elf, but every time she opened her mouth to speak, Baromett ran past her and bleated, drowning out her voice. The Shoney accused her of stealing something from his hoard, at which point Twilight pointed out that the missing item, a large spoon, was actually balanced on his head the whole time, but he didn't seem to believe her. The entire setup was ruined when Loki burst into the room and told the Shoney that Twilight was just using a glamour to change her appearance.

Twilight's eyes snapped open. "Of course," she whispered. "The glamour."

She slowly rose out of bed, where she'd been sleeping in between Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. She then gave the room a once-over to make sure she was actually awake: yes, she recognized the paintings on the wood paneling. It was certainly the hall of Jötunheim.

Twilight also knew she was not yet done with sleep. She ached to lie back down and close her eyes once more. However, her revelation had to be shared before she could do so. She tiptoed across the hall to where she thought she remembered Loki entering a chamber. A peek inside the door revealed that she'd guessed correctly: the forms of "Kjerstin," "Hildegard," and "Ragnhild" lay prone on the bed in deep slumber. Loki was closest to the edge, thankfully, and Twilight crept quietly toward him, kneeling next to his female form. It struck her once more how drastically the tables had turned, that she was passing on such crucial information to someone who had become – or would become – one of her greatest foes yet. She gently shook Loki's shoulder. "Ragnhild," she hissed.

Loki's eyes slowly opened. "Twinkle…?" Even in a half-daze, he knew to keep in character.

"The glamour," Twilight whispered. "That was why you didn't see the raiding party. Because you can tell when somepony is using a glamour most of the time. They weren't Jötunns, Ragnhild. They were glamoured to look like Jötunns, and they needed you out of the way so you wouldn't see it!"

"You're quite tired, Twinkle," Loki whispered.

"I know," Twilight hissed, "but why else would they have specifically gotten you out of the way and made sure you were the only one who didn't see anything?" She then gasped quietly as memories became clearer. "And Pin – Surprise told me you were tied up with spider silk. Spider silk! It was a spider that brought the gift to Laufey and Glamdis!"

Loki thought it over. "I'm going to make sure we see this mysterious treasure, no matter what," he vowed. "But might we please sleep now?"

"Okay," Twilight agreed. "But I had to tell you. I'm onto something, right?"

"It does seem to add up," Loki admitted, "but I trust Laufey and Glamdis about as far as Jacqueline can throw them."

"Which is what they were counting on – "

"Twinkle," Loki yawned, "go back to sleep. We can talk about this later."

"All right." Twilight stood to full height. "Goodnight."

"Hmm" was Loki's response before he passed back out.

Twilight crept back to her chamber, briefly wondering what time it actually was before lying back down between Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. As soon as she closed her eyes, she felt bliss, and she was able to let herself go from the waking world to the thick abyss of dreams.

...

Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight all jerked awake with a start when Fonn rapped gently on the door. "Wake up!" Fonn urged. "You've slept all day, and it's nearly time for supper!"

"That long?" Twilight grumbled, laboriously heaving herself off the all-too-comfortable mattress and onto her feet.

The trio and their Jötunn escort walked out into the hallway, where another Jötunn woman, nearly identical to Fonn and clad in a green dress, was knocking at the other doors. This woman did not say a word; she merely knocked and then moved on.

"My sister Forath," Fonn introduced as the party assembled once more in the hallway. When all were accounted for, Forath and Fonn exchanged a nod. "Come with us," Fonn urged. "Mother and Laufey are waiting."

Fonn and Forath set off at long strides down the hall, and the eighteen travelers and their sheep followed closely behind.

Partway down the hall, Fonn turned to Thor. "I'm…flattered by your thoughts," she said, "and I'm not one to judge what one woman thinks of another, but I'm afraid I have no interest. I've simply never been attracted to a human before. That's more of Mother's territory."

When she turned back to lead the group, Thor aimed a precision death glare at Loki for putting such an amorous glamour on his mind.

"Does Forath not speak?" Sif whispered to Thorgil.

"She speaks to whales," Thorgil offered with a shrug.

Fonn and Forath led the group to a small courtyard outside the walls of the fortress. When Jack and Thorgil had last seen it, it had been set up for great festivity; it was crowded with tables and Jötunns, all gathered for the memorial of the passing of Olaf One-Brow, celebrated not with a somber funeral but with an upbeat remembrance of his life. This time, the circular, glassy floor, reminiscent of the ice lake on the other side of the rift but not so slippery, was only set up with two Jötunn-sized tables and about four crude wooden Midgardian-sized tables all shoved together to make one large enough to seat eighteen. Only a small crowd was gathered there compared to Olaf's memorial service – just Glamdis, Laufey, their harems, and their children by their harems. Which did still add up to a lot.

"Have a seat!" Fonn beckoned, gesturing to the makeshift Midgardian table. The group moved to sit in eighteen of the nineteen chairs that had been placed around it, wondering why there was a nineteenth until Baromett hopped happily up into the seat.

"It's a lot different from last time we were here," Jack whispered after Fonn had left. "There were a lot more Jötunns, and Forath sang whale songs – "

"What are you whispering about?" Laufey asked, passing by the table.

Loki was quick to maneuver the glamour around Jack's mind.

Laufey scowled. "I did not let you stay here with the expectation that you would whisper about how badly you perceive me to smell." He then strode toward the main tables to take his seat near Glamdis.

"Ragnhild," Jack growled, "you are having far too much fun with that."

Loki didn't even attempt to hide his smile.

Food was distributed. As Fonn and Forath placed dishes of grouse, rabbit, elk, pudding, bread, grapes, and yak cheese upon the "Midgardian" table, Fonn took the time to politely remind the group that "The only rule is to keep one foot on the floor at all times while eating." Flagons of cider were also passed about.

Thor downed the contents of one flagon before lifting it up to throw on the floor. Loki caught his arm. "Now, now, Nora," the latter scolded. "That isn't very ladylike!"

As the group ate, those with a view of the Jötunns' table couldn't help making an observation. "Louts are staring," Sif said in a hushed tone.

Surely enough, most of the louts were peering over at the ones they believed to be Midgardian women, staring intently and flashing toothy smiles.

"I don't like it," Sif went on. "I think we all know what they want."

"We certainly don't need to read their thoughts," Loki agreed.

Some of the younger Jötunns ("cubs") had finished their meals already and left the table to make way toward a gate to an adjacent courtyard, where it could be seen through said gate that they were entering a series of play-fights. Thorgil sighed wistfully: "I guess it would be too unladylike to join in with them." She thought back to when she had brawled all of the young Jötunns, tournament-style, during her visit.

"Actually," Loki suggested, "following the young ones might be safer for us in the long run than sitting here where we'll be stared at like a juicy roast stag all night."

The traveling party hurried up to finish eating before proceeding into the other courtyard where the cubs were. This yard was filled with snow, just under knee-deep for the humanoids. One of the cubs looked up from where he'd wrestled a brother to the ground. "Did you come to play with us?" he asked innocently.

"Yes, we did!" Thorgil cried, running into the fray. "And I challenge you to take me on!"

"A Midgardian girl!" the cub laughed. "That'll be easy!"

"CAREFUL, Jill!" Rarity gasped. "YOU'RE WEARING A SKIRT!"

"Not a problem with my glamour," Loki whispered into Rarity's ear. Sure enough, as Thorgil and the cub entered a wrestling match, no matter how Thorgil twisted about, even when she was fully flipped over the cub's shoulders to land hard in the snow, her skirt always fell at an angle that covered everything important. Rarity once again found herself admiring Loki's particular talents when it came to fashion.

"Then I guess that means we can join in too!" Fandral laughed, and he, Volstagg, Hogun, and Sif ran forth to challenge three more cubs. Rainbow Dash soon followed. In the meantime, Thorgil was holding her own well against her opponent, and both were laughing giddily.

Thor watched with disapproval. He was surprised, even disappointed, at how easily the people in his inner circle of friends had gone to throw their lot in having fun with Jötunns. Were they not the enemy? Were they not –

A snowball smacked into Thor's face, interrupting his train of thought. He knew exactly who was to blame. Slowly, he turned to face Loki, who had run out a few paces from him in order to get a good pitching distance. Standing next to Loki was Pinkie Pie, who had a pile of snowballs gathered in her arms.

"RAGNHILD," Thor growled. "SURP – "

Ten more snowballs pelted him.

"And that's why my name is…SURPRISE!" Pinkie Pie cried.

Thor gave a yell, scooping up a mass of snow and charging full speed at Loki and Pinkie Pie. "AAAAAAGGGHHHHH!"

Loki and Pinkie Pie turned to run, but not quickly enough. Thor dumped the snow over both their heads. Pinkie Pie was beginning to regret having made him mad, but getting a clearer look at Thor, she saw he was actually smiling. "TAAAKE THIS!" she yelled, quickly scooping up a snowball and lobbing it. It sailed far past Thor.

"You have missed, Surprise!" Thor laughed.

"No I didn't," Pinkie Pie laughed. "And it's pronounced…SURPRISE!"

Curious at Pinkie Pie's comment, Thor turned to trace the path of the snowball with his eye.

"…all very interesting architecturally," Twilight was saying to Velvet. "I know the mountain was just a glamour – actually, I think they used the word 'fog bank' – but the way it's carved inside, I think it actually WAS a mountain before they – " The snowball exploded on the back of her head. "HEY!"

Velvet laughed. "I think you're being challenged to battle."

"Oh yeah?" Twilight whirled around. For a moment, she almost forgot herself and was preparing to use magic, but then realized that was most likely a bad idea given the identities they'd all constructed. So she scooped up a snowball the old-fashioned way, pitching it hard at Loki.

It fell short by half the distance between them.

"No…like this." Velvet lobbed a snowball of her own; it pelted Thor in the chest.

As the snowball war escalated, with cubs, Gwendolyn, Applejack, and Cornelius moving to join in, Fluttershy decided to move away from the chaos and try a more peaceful activity. "I'm going to build a snowpony," she told Jack, Rarity, and Oswald. "Do you want to help me?"

"Why, of course!" Rarity agreed.

"Is it like a snowman," Jack asked, "but…"

Fluttershy nodded. "We can work on it over there."

The four moved to a quiet corner, where Fluttershy began rolling snow together to make the legs of the snowpony. Baromett lent a hoof, rolling a large ball with his nose until it reached Fluttershy and she could use it for the body. Jack knelt in the snow next to her in order to lend sculpting assistance.

Rarity shook her head. "I'd love to help, really, but the design you're working on is so…plain." She knelt adjacently to the pair. "I think I shall just work on my own."

"Then I shall assist you," Oswald decided, getting down into the snow so he could follow Rarity's command.

The two snowponies took shape: Fluttershy, Jack, and Baromett's creation turned out a basic form, looking like a cross between Fluttershy and Twilight's true forms; it was only at the last minute that Fluttershy decided to turn it into a unicorn. Rarity, in the meantime, was in the process of building a Cadance-esque alicorn wearing a draping gown; Oswald obediently followed her direction to scallop the hem here, mold the snow to look as if the gown were bejeweled there. Seeing the artworks come to life, several cubs ran to that corner of the courtyard and began their own work. In the end, three equines made of snow were erected there.

"That looks wonderful, Rarity!" Fluttershy gushed. She turned to see the creation of the cubs: "And that – " She gasped in horror before falling to the ground and screaming.

"Why, whatever is the matter?" Rarity asked as she, Oswald, and Jack turned to look at the Jötunn snowpony. Upon seeing it, Rarity let out a shriek of fright; Jack shivered. Only Oswald seemed unperturbed, though he did give the snow creature a stony stare.

Immediately after she had screamed, Rarity was hit with a snowball, right on the shoulder. Her shock was forgotten, and she whirled upon the culprit; Applejack tossed a snowball up and down in a hand. "Yeah, that was me," she teased. "Whatcha gonna do about it?"

"You. Did. NOT!" Rarity took a snowball in each hand and went running after Applejack, who turned, laughing, to make an escape. As they breezed by Twilight, one of their snowballs ended up catching her in the stomach.

"HEY!" Twilight yelled, getting ready to throw more ammo of her own. Then her gaze fell upon the Jötunn snowpony, and the snowball fell right out of her hand. Staring in shock, open-mouthed, Twilight approached the sculpture slowly. By that time, Fluttershy had gotten her bearings again, and stood to watch Twilight approach the snow sculpture.

The equine depicted was taller than either of the other two, and sported four more spindly legs. Its mane was wispy, its body muscular. However, the most striking feature was the face. It didn't seem to have any particular distinction from an ordinary horse's face, but the way its eyes had been carved suggested a sort of malice. Overall, nothing in the design itself – except perhaps the eight legs, but Twilight had seen stranger – elicited fear, but somehow, fear came over her anyway when she looked at it.

Twilight turned to one of the cubs who had sculpted it. "I've never seen a pony like this before," she said. "Can you tell me more about it?"

"It's not a pony," the cub answered. "It's a Nightmare. Like the ones cousin Frith rides."

"A Nightmare," Twilight repeated, looking at the sculpture again. There was in fact something about it, she realized, that reminded her of Nightmare Moon. "Aren't nightmares just bad dreams?"

The cub shook his head. "Nuh-uh! They're really strong magical creatures! Cousin Frith is one of the only ones in the whole realm who even knows how to tell them what to do! They live in the darkness and they come out of fear. Sometimes, cousin Frith calls them another word, but it's hard to pronounce. It's like…'ecktrow.'"

"Echthros," Twilight realized.

"Yeah!" the cub cried. "That's it!"

"A Nightmare must be an Echthros of pure fear," Twilight deduced. She wondered how strong it was compared to the fire-cats and the Shadow Walkers. Those had both been commanded by one of the Old Ones themselves, but the Nightmare struck Twilight as a different beast altogether. After all, it only took a mere sculpture of one to scare her. She wasn't sure even the Revenant held that much weight.

The cub nodded. "It scares us too. But that's why we like them. That's only one kind, too. Most of them look like horses, but sometimes cousin Frith has other ones that look like other animals, or clouds of smoke. And sometimes the horses only have four legs like a Midgard horse."

Twilight decided she had a new reason to dislike Frith, and did not want to get on the half-troll's bad side.

"If it's too scary, we can knock it down," the cub suggested.

"Oh, no!" Fluttershy shook her head frantically. "It is very scary. But you did a good job making it. I wouldn't want you to destroy all that hard work!"

"I would," Rarity huffed under her breath.

"It's…weird," Twilight realized. "But the longer I look at it, the less scary it gets." Which was true. "I don't think you need to take it down. Thank you for telling me about it, though."

"I think you're actually a little smarter than you seem," the cub observed. "You just don't think too deeply on the outside."

"Thanks," Twilight replied.

She moved to where Thorgil, Sif, Rainbow Dash, and the Warriors Three were catching their breath against the courtyard wall. "Whew!" Rainbow Dash sighed. "That was a workout! Hey, why'd you drop out of the snow war? I think your side was winning!"

"Are there sides anymore?" Thorgil asked, watching Gwendolyn and Cornelius team up with three cubs to pelt Loki relentlessly as Velvet drew back an arm, making as though she were about to throw her snow at another cub, before turning on a heel and striking Rarity in the chest.

"I think I just learned about a new Echthros," Twilight explained. "And not one I'm looking forward to meeting."

The sun disappeared below the horizon, and a horn blew; the cubs all dropped whatever snow they held and ran back to the courtyard of ice so they could return to the fortress' interior. The traveling party soon followed. They found Glamdis and Laufey waiting for them, standing at the head of the table.

"We need to figure out what to do with you," Glamdis stated. "We let you stay one night, and you remember our agreement."

"Oh, of course, of course," Loki replied, strategically planning out his half of the conversation; he knew he had to make his move. "We have so enjoyed your hospitality, and all of your family has been so kind to us. Especially the young lady Fonn. She has been so helpful in helping us feel at home here, and she's told us so many interesting stories. She even told us about the last guest you had. The spider-woman."

"Velma?" Glamdis replied.

"Fonn did not give a name," Loki answered. At least he'd been able to collect one piece of information, but he wanted more. "She did say the woman was a kind guest, though. So kind, she even brought you a…what was it again?"

"That is no business of Midgardians," Laufey grunted.

"Ohhhh?" Loki's tone was laden with interest. "Now I'm all the more curious. What sort of gift is fit for the king of Jötunheim?"

"It really wasn't much special," Glamdis said casually.

"Then you won't mind telling me what it is," Loki argued.

"Why all this interest?" Laufey asked, eyeing Loki with suspicion. Attempts to read the mind of "Ragnhild" simply turned up "I want to know what it is" and little more. He had a hard time believing that the question was so innocent, however.

"Laufey," a voice interrupted. "If I may."

The king and queen turned to see Frith and Frothi, the latter of whom being the one who had interrupted, standing behind them, having listened in on the whole conversation.

"If they wish so badly to see the gift that was brought to you," Frothi suggested, "why not let them? After they prove they're worthy of seeing it, of course."

"It really was NOT that special," Glamdis reiterated. "I swore to secrecy, but I feel that if they saw it, they would only be disappointed."

"Somehow I doubt that," Loki stated, surprised but not about to complain that Frothi had stepped in to further his scheme. "How might we prove ourselves?"

"There are all sorts of silly tests we've devised," Glamdis sighed. "But they're only formalities to show the people who take them how impossible they are. You wouldn't be able to beat them."

"Well, then, what would be the harm in us trying?" Loki countered. "If they are impossible anyway. Let us have a little fun trying our hand. Let us say that if we CAN pass your challenges, you would let us have a look at this gift. Apparently it would only disappoint us anyway. What do you have to lose?"

"I do not like the way she is asking so eagerly," Laufey told Glamdis, not even attempting to lower his voice.

"But she makes a good point," Glamdis argued. "We wouldn't have anything to lose. We could set up all the challenges tonight for them and see how they fare. After all, it's quite clear that they do like childish games like snowball fights."

"And supposing they win," Laufey growled.

"Then I don't see what they could do with the item anyway," Glamdis replied.

"Besides," Frith pointed out, "if we gave them all five challenges…there is a chance that some of them could die." She said this with an unnerving smile.

"Then we just wouldn't – " Glamdis began.

"All five," Laufey insisted, "or nothing."

"We shall gladly accept that challenge," Thor stated.

Glamdis found this odd, but shrugged it off. Perhaps, she thought, these were women overly obsessed with getting into Valhalla. "Very well, then," she decreed. "Tonight, you shall be put through five tests." She turned to Laufey. "How do you want to arrange this?"

"Three at a time," he answered. "The others can stay in the quarters until their turn comes."

"That means three don't participate," Glamdis pointed out.

"Four gives them too much of an advantage," Laufey argued.

"Then why not just one at a time?" Frith asked haughtily.

"THAT wouldn't be giving them ENOUGH of a chance," Glamdis argued, "and he knows it. The challenges may be impossible, but this won't be any fun unless they have at least the ILLUSION of being able to win!" She turned back to the group. "Three of you will complete each challenge – "

"What about the sheep?" Fonn asked.

"Who said YOU could listen in?" Frith barked.

"The sheep and Sky Skimmer count as one together," Glamdis decided. "You shall wait in your chambers until you are called to each challenge. You may not be allowed to know what they are beforehand. And if you succeed at three out of the five – "

"All five," Laufey growled.

"All right, all five challenges," Glamdis relented, "you shall be allowed to see – not touch or take – the item, which isn't worth winning five impossible challenges anyway. Fonn will show you back to your quarters. Now, away with you!" She clapped.

"Thank you again, Mother," Jack said gratefully before turning to follow Fonn and the rest of the traveling party back into the mountain fortress.

Once the courtyard had emptied out save for the king and queen themselves, Glamdis turned angrily to Laufey. "I will NOT have them dying on my watch," she insisted, "Valhalla in the balance or not!"

"Then you shall have to see to it that they do not," Laufey told her.

...

The group of eighteen paced the hallway in between the bedrooms, speculating about what was to come.

"It's not like we haven't won impossible challenges before!" Rainbow Dash pointed out.

"Challenges we were told were literally impossible?" Twilight countered.

"Do not forget we have certain…advantages they are not expecting." Loki winked.

"And what is more," Thor brought up, "I believe I may know exactly what challenges lie in wait for us. Ragnhild, does this not remind you of another encounter we had with the Jötunns in Legend?"

"Of course…" Loki recalled. "Utgard-Loki. And here I was thinking it was Thrym's story we were in."

"But I do not know for certain," Thor disclaimed. "We shall be able to tell after the first challenge."

"Which shall most certainly be mine," Loki theorized.

"Someone's coming!" Jack hissed, hearing footsteps in the hall.

Fonn turned the corner. "They've got it all set up for you," she informed the group. "We need three of you to start. I would pick the three with the strongest stomachs.

Loki and Thor gave each other a knowing look; Fonn was confirming their theory. "I shall go," Loki suggested. "And I wish to take Hildegard and…SURPRISE!...with me."

"This way!" Fonn beckoned, leading Loki, Gwendolyn, and Pinkie Pie away.

"Did that prove anything?" Twilight asked once they'd gone.

"Perhaps not," Thor offered. "But perhaps everything."

...

The castle's kitchen was enormous, stuffed with brick ovens, ingredient cupboards, and heavy iron cookware of all sorts. Food was roasting on every open flame; Frith, Frothi, and Forath were in charge of preparation, making many of the same dishes that had been found at the feast.

"But we've just eaten," Hildegard whispered.

Pinkie Pie's eyes alit on an oven where what was unmistakably treacle sponge pudding was baking. "I've always got room for a good dessert!" she whispered back.

In the center of the kitchen, a wooden table had been set. It was sized for Jötunns, though on one side were three chairs that had been raised so the seats were a comfortable height for those of more Midgardian proportions to sit. On the other side, Glamdis and Laufey sat, flanking an unfamiliar Jötunn man who stared intensely at the trio with glowing orange eyes.

Loki nodded. "This is what I think. Looks like we're in for a second course."

"Take a seat," Glamdis commanded. Loki, Pinkie Pie, and Gwendolyn made their way to the three chairs that were obviously intended for them; Fonn joined her sisters in preparing food.

"To whom do I speak?" Glamdis asked.

"I am Hildegard," Gwendolyn reminded her. "My companions are called Ragnhild and Surprise."

"Actually," Pinkie Pie corrected, "it's pronounced…SURPRISE!"

"Hildegard, Ragnhild, and…SURPRISE!" Glamdis addressed. "The three of you shall perform the first challenge, which Laufey and I shall judge. This is Logi." She indicated the strange Jötunn with the bright eyes.

Logi merely grunted by way of introduction.

"Your task," Glamdis explained, "shall be to eat more quickly than Logi. If the three of you can finish your dishes faster than Logi can clear his, you shall win."

"It hardly seems fair that this is three against one," Gwendolyn pointed out.

"Logi has been known to eat faster than five Jötunns…and then some," Laufey informed them, almost amused.

"I am not sure we can keep up, especially so soon after the feast," Loki said dramatically. "But we did volunteer to try. It wouldn't be sporting to give up now."

Fonn, Forath, Frith, and Frothi carried the dishes they'd made to the table, laying them down. Steaming grouse, fresh treacle sponge pudding, roasted rabbit, warm bread, a bowl of juicy fruit. Identical dishes were laid upon each half of the table, Logi given the same amount as Loki, Pinkie Pie, and Gwendolyn combined.

"You shall begin at the count of three," Glamdis declared.

Pinkie Pie eyed all the desserts on her half of the table, licking her lips.

"One!"

Gwendolyn nervously wondered how much more her stomach could hold.

"Two!"

Loki and Logi locked eyes over the table as though trying to stare one another to death before the challenge could begin.

"THREE!"

Four hands reached out and clutched food, bringing it back to four mouths.

Logi could bring an entire leg of grouse up to his mouth and somehow consume it all in one bite, moving on for more. An entire grouse disappeared in five bites, and then he was on to a loaf of bread, shoving it into his mouth at what seemed an impossible rate.

However, he'd met his match on the other half of the table, and then some. Gwendolyn ate as quickly as she could, but was hardly able to meet the rate at which Logi made food disappear. However, her two teammates hardly needed her at all. Loki and Pinkie Pie divided the food, sending meat Loki's way and desserts and baked goods to Pinkie Pie. And each was able to eat at the same rate as Logi. Loki knew that his godly powers accounted for his own ability to make food disappear, but he was entirely unsure what sort of magic Pinkie Pie was using that she could put an entire loaf of bread into her mouth, chew a couple times, and then swallow it all.

Glamdis' jaw dropped. Laufey scowled. In practically no time, Loki and Pinkie Pie had cleared the table; it was only Gwendolyn who dragged as Logi hurried to get rid of his own food – by the time the other two had finished, about a third of Logi's plates were still full. All that was left on the other side was the one apple in Gwendolyn's hand, which she tore into ravenously. Pinkie and Loki watched her anxiously, worrying the one apple might be the factor that lost them the entire challenge, but Gwendolyn downed the last bite just as Logi put a hand on his last loaf of bread.

"Ragnhild, Hildegard, and…SURPRISE!...have won!" Fonn cried happily, clapping. Forath smiled. Frith and Frothi's glares matched Laufey's.

"So they seem to have," Laufey snarled, his gaze fixed on Loki. There was still something he disliked intensely in the looks of this "Ragnhild," and he wasn't about to let her, let alone the others, get away so easily. "It is almost as if there was no challenge at all."

Loki smirked in return. "There hardly was," he replied.

Gwendolyn and Pinkie Pie both knew that was the worst possible thing he could have said.

"In that case," Laufey said, standing. "Perhaps you should know. Logi is no ordinary Jötunn. You should know what the word 'Logi' means in your own realm: wildfire. The three of you have proven that you could eat more quickly than wildfire. This was something we had believed impossible, but it seems we have underestimated you." He grinned. "Perhaps we gave you the wrong challenge."

Logi smiled maliciously, his bright eyes sparkling all the more. Now that it had been pointed out, Pinkie Pie could see how his pupils were actually fire itself, burning behind the two round windows into his essence.

"The challenge has been changed," Laufey announced.

"That hardly seems fair!" Glamdis objected. "They won!"

"In no time at all," Laufey argued. "And I do not think you will object to the new challenge. It does not endanger them. I wish to see if they can create food faster than wildfire can consume it. After all, this is a kitchen. Everything they need is here." He walked behind Loki's chair; Loki twisted to look Laufey in the eye. "We shall give you a moment to get situated. You may use anything in this kitchen. Prepare food and put it on the table, and if you can keep the table filled faster than Logi can consume it, THEN we shall grant you the victory."

That wiped the smile off Loki's face. Before he could even open his mouth to make a remark, Pinkie Pie cried, "Now THAT sounds like a CHALLENGE!"

"Surprise!" Gwendolyn gasped. "What are you – "

"Oh, come on!" Pinkie Pie argued. "Back home, I had to make HUGE dessert orders quicker than lightning all the time! There was never a moment's rest because a party could happen at ANY MINUTE! And I was the one throwing half of them! Just gimme a minute to find where everything is, and then all you two have to do is follow my lead!"

Tension was lifted from Loki's face. He nodded. "Do what you must," he told Pinkie Pie, hoping that her skill could in fact cause Laufey's changing of the rules to backfire on him.

Laufey, on the other hand, was not so confident in the pink-haired woman's skills. He wrote off her boasts as empty, as jokes cracked by a woman who only thought she could cook faster than wildfire could destroy.

Pinkie Pie dashed through the kitchen, opening every cupboard, dragging out certain ingredients and leaving others. She also accrued a collection of pans of various sorts, pilling them up on one of the counters, which she marked as the base of operations. When she had everything she wanted and had located all the ovens, she declared herself "Ready!"

"Take as long as you need on the first dish," Laufey informed her. "After that, you cannot let the table empty."

Frith actually laughed.

"Come on!" Pinkie waved Loki and Gwendolyn up to join her at the counter. "Okay, here's what we're gonna do," she told them. "Ragnhild, you cover THAT oven. Hildegard? You're in charge of THAT fire. We're gonna have three desserts going at a time." She passed a cupcake tray to each of them, keeping a third for herself. "Just do what I sing you to do, and the timing should be perfect!"

"…Sing?" Gwendolyn repeated.

Loki grinned. "Oh, this should be fun."

"READY?" Pinkie Pie slammed a bag of flour onto the counter. "LET'S GO!" She began to bob her head to the beat of an unheard tune as she scooped a cup of the white powder into a bowl. "All you have to do is take a cup of flour, add it to the mix!"

Loki and Gwendolyn followed suit, dumping flour into bowls of their own.

Pinkie Pie rained sugar and salt into her bowl: "Now just take a little something sweet, not sour, a bit of salt, just a pinch!"

Again, Loki and Gwendolyn copied her movements and timing.

Pinkie Pie reached for ingredients methodically, keeping up her song as she, Loki, and Gwendolyn progressed their recipes:

"Baking these treats is such a cinch!

Add a teaspoon of vanilla!

Add a little more and you count to four

And you never get your fill of…

Cupcakes!

So sweet and tasty!

Cupcakes!

Don't be too hasty!

Cupcakes!

Cupcakes, cupcakes, CUPCAAAAKES!"

Three trays of cupcakes went over the oven flames. "Now let's get to work on the icing!" Pinkie declared. This launched her into another song by the same tune:

"First you take the butter and you whip it 'round

Then add a vanilla swirl!

Sugar and milk till the bowl is filed

And you give it one more whirl!

Ragnhild, now's the time for the sour not sweet –

Throw some lemon juice so yellow!

Hildegard, some peppermint will give you flavor

And impress our Jötunn fellows!"

The cupcakes came out of the ovens and were quickly iced; the desserts were placed before Logi, who began to shovel them into his all-consuming mouth.

"TIME TO KICK IT UP A NOTCH!" Pinkie Pie threw down three cake pans.

"Sugar, flour, and cocoa make the sweetest trio!

Ya gotta break some eggs!

Stir it up with water boiling hot as wildfire,

And set it all to bake!"

Pinkie knew the catch would be that the ovens wouldn't be able to cook the cakes fast enough to match Logi's eating speed on their own. She paused momentarily to reach mentally downward, into the fire at the heart of Jötunheim's life force, calling as a bard for the fires to do her a favor and cook just a little more quickly than was natural. The forces of nature obliged, not minding bending to create a few desserts. The cakes were thrown onto the table just before Logi had touched the last cupcake.

After that, Pinkie commanded dessert after dessert, with a new song for each:

"…Melt a little caramel to bring out flavor…"

"…Whip up that meringue!..."

"…Roll it in pecans for a crunch to savor…"

"…The strawberries are the thing!..."

The dishes piled up and up before Logi, to even the surprise of the incarnation of wildfire himself.

"…Eggs go in in single file, don't dump them all!

Don't let the whisk unnerve you!

Shake it up and bake it up and set it out

And the dish is ready to serve! You

Have cookies!

So chocolate-chippy!

Cookies!

With milk for dipping!

Cookies!

Cookies, cookies, COOKIES!"

After the bowl of cookies was placed on the table between the angel food cake and the chocolate pudding, Glamdis cried, "STOP!"

Loki, Gwendolyn, and Pinkie Pie halted immediately; the former two almost dropped the pans in their arms and the latter actually did with a clatter. All were afraid they had somehow offended.

Glamdis gave them a warm smile. "You have FAR surpassed this challenge!" she announced. "You may return to your quarters and tally one victory. I would go now before my husband attempts to change the rules yet again."

"We thank you," Loki said with another grandiose curtsy.

He, Gwendolyn, and Pinkie Pie made for the door but were stopped when Glamdis commanded, "Wait."

All three slowly turned back toward her.

Glamdis had joined Logi in eating the desserts. "If you still have nowhere to go," she suggested, speaking around a mouthful of chewed cookie, "we may be able to take you in as cooks and let you earn your keep."

"We shall think about it!" Loki said hastily before he, Gwendolyn, and Pinkie Pie scurried out into the hall.

Once the trio had made it a fair distance away from the kitchen, Pinkie Pie screamed, "WE DID IIIIIIT!"

She and Loki smacked a loud high five, and the rest of the way back to the bedchambers, Pinkie whooped for their victory as Loki and Gwendolyn smiled gleefully.

...

"On one of our adventures," Thor explained, "we encountered the fortress of a Jötunn named Utgard-Loki, who challenged us to many feats that seemed simple but were in fact nearly impossible. Five feats, to be exact. After we proved ourselves in each challenge, Utgard-Loki let us leave unscathed on the promise that we never return. That is what I believe we have gotten ourselves into now. The first of the challenges was an eating contest against wildfire itself, one that L…Ragnhild excelled at. If she returns victorious and reports that as her task, I shall know what others to expect."

"And if she doesn't come back victorious, but that was still the contest?" Twilight pressed.

"Then it matters not," Thor answered, "for, as you heard, losing any challenge loses us our chance."

The return of Loki, Pinkie Pie, and Gwendolyn was heralded by the thundering of six feet down the hall; the trio gleefully ran back to their companions. "We have won!" Loki announced.

"WE ARE THE QUEENS OF THE KITCHEN!" Pinkie Pie screeched.

"Was it as I suspected?" Thor asked.

Loki nodded. "Yes. Logi. However, there was a difference, and one worth noting."

A look of confusion swept over Thor's face. "Go on."

"It began as an eating contest, as you would have expected," Loki explained. "However, when the three of us were able to prevail, Laufey changed the rules. We were then forced to create food more quickly than Logi could put it away."

"And we ROCKED AT IT!" Pinkie Pie screamed.

"I did not know that being led by a song would help so much," Gwendolyn admitted.

"I would expect similar twists in each challenge," Loki warned Thor. "This is a new cycle, after all."

"I consider myself warned," Thor replied. "However, it seems the heart of each challenge shall remain the same, and that is how we should select our volunteers."

"So what comes next?" Twilight asked.

"A footrace," Thor answered. "However, the contestant was the mind of Utgard-Loki, which was incredibly fast."

"The minds of Glamdis and Laufey are not so," Loki stated.

"Is that the truth," Thorgil asked, "or just what you think of them? I'm not going to let your hate of them trick us into underestimating what we're up against!"

"Well, if it's speed you're looking for, it should TOTALLY be me that goes," Rainbow Dash announced.

"Uh, Firefly?" Applejack chided. "You're s'posed to be a Midgardian right now. And Midgardians don't have wings."

"Yeah, but I'm still pretty fast on my feet," Rainbow Dash reminded her. "You remember how far I left you in the dust in the Running of the Leaves!"

"I don't quite remember it that way," Applejack argued.

"Firefly's right," Twilight insisted. "Of the six of us, she is the fastest on foot." She looked to Rainbow Dash. "Then again…it's usually more feet we're talking about."

"Trust me," Rainbow Dash reassured Twilight. "I'm used to 'em." She pointed to her human feet. "I got this."

"I am one of the fastest on foot as well," Thor stated, "yet I feel it best that I wait to participate in a different challenge. There is another to which I shall be better suited. However, Solveig is also outstanding at footraces among our friends."

Sif nodded. "Then I too shall go."

"That leaves one," Thorgil realized. "And I'm going to make that one me."

"You can't possibly outrun a mind!" Jack cried.

"I can so!" Thorgil hissed. "And keep your voice down, unless you want to give the game away that the game's been given away to us!"

"Then it is decided," Thor said quietly. "Firefly, Solveig, and Jill."

Jack sorely hoped that Thorgil's boasting hadn't just gotten them into a mess.

It was Glamdis herself who came to fetch the volunteers for the next challenge. "Choose three who are fleet of foot," she ordered.

"That'd be me!" Rainbow Dash stepped forward. "And I just so happen to want my good friends Solveig and Jill to run with me!"

"You know how to make your decisions quickly," Glamdis observed. "I like that. Now come with me."

She led Rainbow Dash, Sif, and Thorgil away, and the others returned to playing the waiting game.

...

One of the most spacious halls in the fortress had been converted into a racetrack, an ellipse painted over the floor in a rusty red tone. The track itself was about the span of a mile. Two male Jötunns stood upon the track already, deep in conversation; one would give a rather winded speech, then the other would give a short and gleeful reply that sent the first one into a fit of head-shaking and eye-rolling. Chairs had also been set up around the track for spectators, much more than those who had gone to see the eating contest; while Laufey and Glamdis had front row seats and Frith, Frothi, Fonn, and Forath were easily visible among the crowd, other Jötunns had also come to see the spectacle, most recognizable from the earlier banquet. They murmured amongst each other as Rainbow Dash, Sif, and Thorgil moved to take their place on the track next to the two Jötunns.

"Ah, you're here," the taller of the two Jötunns said. "At last. Shall we go over the rules?"

"That would be best," Sif affirmed.

"Bring it on!" Rainbow Dash cried.

"Two of you shall race against me, and one against my friend," the Jötunn explained. "Your first runner and I shall make one lap around. When your first has completed the track, she shall switch off against your second and run another lap whilst I complete my second. The third and final lap shall be run by my friend and your third runner. That is as clear as I can make it; am I understood?"

"You are," Sif stated.

"I'm just so excited!" the shorter Jötunn babbled. "This is my first actual race like this on an actual race track. Though you can see how shoddily painted this is. Not like the murals on the walls. Haven't you ever noticed how detailed those are? Myself, I've always wanted to see one painted where – "

"HUSH," the taller hissed angrily.

"…Perhaps they'll turn this race into a mural," the second said quickly before shutting up.

"Uh…can you give us a minute to decide who goes first?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"That was the plan," the taller admitted. "It would have been illogical and, frankly, cheating to do otherwise."

"Great," Rainbow Dash replied. She waved Sif and Thorgil around her, then spoke in a whisper: "I think I know what's up with these two. Jill, I want you in first. We know Solveig has…a bit of an advantage, so I want to save her for our secret weapon in case the first lap doesn't go well. But if you start to fall behind, then just focus on his feet and where he's going. If you can get the basics, you can at least follow closely enough. I want to take that other one on myself. I think I have an idea what his game is, and if I'm right, then I know exactly how to win it."

"I shall trust your plan," Sif stated.

"And I'm not going to fall behind," Thorgil insisted. "I'll go first, and I'll show you how fast I can really go!"

"Then let's BREAK!" Rainbow Dash elevated her voice, and while she and Sif moved off the track, Thorgil approached the starting line. The shorter of the two Jötunns moved off the track as well.

"Are you ready?" the taller Jötunn asked, crouching into running position.

"To beat you into the dirt?" Thorgil replied. "Always." She too crouched.

"ON YOUR MARK!" Glamdis yelled. "AT THE READY!"

The pause seemed to last forever. Then the word "BEGIN!" echoed throughout the hall, and both Thorgil and the Jötunn were off, practically flying down the track. For the first few moments, it seemed Thorgil would be able to hold her own based on her skill alone; she and the Jötunn man were equal for pace. However, as they began to turn one of the curves, the Jötunn pulled ahead slightly, then more, then more.

Thorgil was angered, and put all her energy into making her feet hit the ground faster and faster, but soon she had to admit to herself that she was falling far behind. She then remembered Rainbow Dash's advice. She turned her eyes to the Jötunn's feet, focusing on them and how they were simply moving up and down, pressing against the ground, then moving forward. A simple run, and she knew exactly where he was headed. It had been clearly marked in red.

Thorgil was amazed when the distance between herself and the Jötunn began to close. She wondered how on earth Rainbow Dash had known what to do, and why focusing her thoughts had an impact in the first place. She then concluded it had to have something to do with the fact that she was racing a mind. It seemed an unbelievable concept, and there was no proof of it, but she was certain of the fact.

The Jötunn crossed the finish line several paces before Thorgil could, and continued the run for his second lap. Thorgil put on a final burst of energy before crossing the line, and as she skidded to a halt, Sif took off, nearly a blur. Sif remembered Rainbow Dash's words from the start, focusing only on her opponent's feet: up and down, up and down, such a simple process to carry someone somewhere so fast. That, combined with Sif's own skill and muscle, put her even closer behind her opponent than Thorgil had been; then Sif made up for lost ground completely, running side by side with the tall Jötunn. They crossed the finish line at the exact same time, cuing Rainbow Dash and the slightly shorter Jötunn to get going.

The two took off at the same speed. Rainbow Dash waited and watched her opponent; any second now, she thought, he would –

He turned to cut completely across the track, and she was right with him. Once he reached the centerpoint of the track, he turned again, now making a right angle, and Rainbow Dash followed. She didn't expect him to get back on the track, and he didn't; he crossed it, and she kept pace. Perhaps it would have made more sense to stay on the track and see if she could hit the finish line before him, Rainbow Dash thought, but she felt it would be best to match his movements, to simply keep up. If she didn't, and if she let herself get off his track and onto her own, there was a strong chance he would simply surprise her by coming out of nowhere and winning the race.

But she had to do more than keep up, she realized. She had to win. That meant at the very end, when it was crucial, she would have to do something even this Jötunn couldn't predict.

They zigged and zagged all over the hall. There were only a few times the Jötunn's strange turns took Rainbow Dash by surprise, but she quickly corrected, knowing the key was not to let the surprise keep her too stunned. She just had to roll with whatever was thrown her way.

The Jötunn zigged, and Rainbow Dash zigged. He zagged, and she zagged. The finish line neared, and he was ahead of her by a few paces.

Rainbow Dash dropped to the floor and somersaulted. Once she'd completed a full rotation, she did another, and then another. It was not by running but rolling that she passed the Jötunn, who had to take a moment to stop and wonder what she was doing. Rainbow Dash rolled right over the finish line; the Jötunn stepped over it a moment later.

A roar of cheering erupted from the Jötunn crowd surrounding the race track. Rainbow Dash stood, throwing both arms in the air to assert her victory, then bowed, first at one side of the chamber, then to the other.

She felt a tap on her shoulder, then turned to see her opponent smiling at her. "Congratulations on the win!" he gushed. "I mean, I am a little disappointed that I lost. I really thought I had it. Wait, are you going to get some kind of prize? Money? A ribbon? I would've liked a ribbon, but I'm not really sure where I'd put it – "

"That is enough," Glamdis called to the track. "I would like both of you boys to return to where you came from now."

"Yes, Mother!" the taller Jötunn answered.

"All RIGHT!" the shorter added, and took off running while his companion walked at a slower pace.

In the audience, a pair of Jötunns identical to those who had run stood from their seats and stepped forward. Each runner walked toward the one who matched him, then walked right through and into him; each pair was merged into a single Jötunn.

"As you might have guessed, they were no ordinary Jötunns," Glamdis explained. "Your first contestant was the smartest mind in all of Jötunheim, belonging to one of my sons. The second was the mind that…switches topics the most quickly…in Jötunheim: one of Laufey's sons. I am impressed that you were not only able to outrun a sharp mind, but also an unpredictable one."

"Eh, it was nothin'," Rainbow Dash boasted. "I race all the time back home. No big."

"Consider that two challenges won," Glamdis said happily, "and three remaining." She turned to Laufey. "Which is turning out much different than we expected, isn't it?"

Laufey just grunted.

"You may go," Glamdis said, dismissing Rainbow Dash, Sif, and Thorgil.

The crowds cheered the three on their way out, and Rainbow Dash yelled "Thank you, thank you!" all the way through the room.

Once the three had entered the hallway, Sif asked, "I must know: how did you know how to outrun them both?"

"Well, after thinking about what they were," Rainbow Dash explained, "I figured out the one you two ran against had to be one of the really smart ones. Back home, Twinkle is ALWAYS saying stuff that the rest of us don't understand because of how smart she is. So what you've gotta do is just figure out the basics of what she's saying and ignore all the fancy words she's using. Sometimes you've just gotta ask her to get to the point, but here, we KNEW what the point was. It was the finish line. So I thought maybe the way that worked in a race was if you just concentrated on their feet and the finish line. The other one, though? THAT one was random, a lot like Surprise. Sorry. …SURPRISE! I knew that if I could keep up with HER back home, I could keep up with that guy. But the key was figuring out what I could do that would throw even a really random mind off! And trust me, I lucked out. Glamdis might've said one of them was the smart one and the other was JUST the random one, but…SURPRISE! is plenty smart, so I figured that guy would be too. He probably picked a few of those random directions just to fake me out."

"It seems to me you are also very intelligent," Sif pointed out, "to have discerned all of that."

"Iunno." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I just remember stuff I see and do."

...

"WELL?" Pinkie Pie asked excitedly when Sif, Thorgil, and Rainbow Dash returned. "DID YOU WIN? WAS IT AGAINST SOMEPONY'S MIND? WHOSE MIND WAS IT? WHAT DID THEY THINK ABOUT?"

Rainbow Dash turned to give a knowing look to Sif and Thorgil. "See what I mean? Used to it."

"We raced the smartest mind in Jötunheim and the most random mind in Jötunheim," Thorgil explained. "And we bested them BOTH!"

"Sounds like you had to…THINK FAST!" Pinkie Pie commented.

One would almost have expected to hear two drumbeats and the crash of a cymbal.

"I'm thinking of a poem about it right now!" Thorgil boasted. "It all began one night when the winds were cold enough to freeze a man to death where he stood and turn his blood to ice…"

"We'll have time for that later," Twilight told her. "Right now, we have to prepare for the next challenge. Nora, what was up next last time?"

"I was given a drinking horn seemingly filled with ale," Thor explained, "and asked to drink from it. The other end was connected to the sea. Utgard-Loki was amazed when I was able to drain the sea in a few swallows."

"Even the fish?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Ew."

"How…could you…DO THAT?" Fluttershy scolded. "YOU DRAINED A WHOLE OCEAN OF LIFE JUST FOR A GAME?"

"I did not know what it was at the time!" Thor argued.

"I'm thinkin' Sky Skimmer's not the best for the next challenge, then," Applejack suggested. "Don't worry, sugar cube. There's been a twist on the last two. I'm sure there'll be some kinda twist here that stops the whole ocean from drainin' out. But who do we send just for drinkin'? That don't seem like it needs three. I'm guessin' that's where the twist comes in."

"Well, actually," Twilight offered, "if it were just a drinking challenge, and we've already sent…SURPRISE!, I would say you, Apple Jewel. If they hand you something that's fermented, I know you're able to drink more than a few mugs of hard cider and not be as tipsy as some of the rest of us."

"True," Applejack agreed. "Though we'll need at least one, uh…" She was hesitant to say the word "Asgardian" where it might be heard. "…SPECIAL human to do the work when it comes to drinkin' somethin' as big as the sea."

"Then it shall be me!" Volstagg volunteered. "I am no stranger to drink at any celebration!"

"As we all saw in Notland," Fandral laughed.

"If it doesn't make a difference to you, I'll go for this one too," Jack volunteered. "Drinking the sea doesn't seem as dangerous as some of the things we might be facing."

"You've faced plenty of dangers!" Thorgil argued.

"And I think he's done earned himself a break," Applejack said. "So we got our team!"

When Frothi appeared, she crept silently into the hallway, startling most and making a few wonder how much she'd heard that she wasn't supposed to have. "Your next three volunteers are requested," she informed the group. "I suggest you choose those with a…celebratory edge."

"I'm goin'," Applejack said, stepping forth. "An' I'm takin' Sunniva and Jacqueline with me."

"Good," Frothi responded. "Follow me." She turned to stride gracefully out of the hallway, her braid whipping about animatedly.

Applejack, Volstagg, and Jack walked after her. Volstagg couldn't help but admire Frothi's form; she was quite attractive in his eyes. He shook his head slightly, cleared it of the thoughts. It was exactly what she would have wanted: for him to fall into that trap.

Jack, on the other hand, was repulsed. The shape she'd taken was too pretty, too seductive. It wasn't natural, and only served to prove that it wasn't real. Jack didn't even know what other forms she had, but they were more apparent in her outward appearance than the one she was trying to project simply because the lack of them was so poignantly covered up.

...

The room where the next challenge was to be held was small, with only a table and two chairs furnishing it. The table held up a large barrel keg with a valve nozzle attached to the front; before it, three metal flagons were set. The chairs were filled; Glamdis and Laufey sat within them. Their children were notably missing this time, and after Frothi had directed Applejack, Volstagg, and Jack to where she meant them to go, she turned about, left the chamber, and closed the door behind her.

Glamdis stood. "This is a celebratory drink to commemorate the victories of your last challenges," she announced, "but it is also a challenge. We wish to see how many drinks of this hard apple cider you can actually handle."

At least it was cider, Applejack thought to herself. That fact alone made her think more of home. Yet she was thoroughly suspicious of the flagons and the keg. That setup made it even easier to drink than an ale horn would have, and so far, the challenges had not been made any easier than what Utgard-Loki had offered.

"Fill the flagons as many times as you wish," Glamdis explained. "The challenge ends when all three have stopped drinking. I shall let you know when enough has been drunk to win. However, if you must stop, I advise you to do so and announce it."

"HA!" Volstagg laughed. "As though there has been drink I could not match!"

Glamdis raised an eyebrow. "That is not heard often from traders' wives."

"Sunniva was always the life of the party back home," Applejack explained nervously. "Took the rest of us a while to get used to it."

"Oh, I did not mean to judge," Glamdis replied. "It's actually refreshing to hear that traders' wives have other things to do besides knitting by the fireside and waiting for their husbands to come home. Now, your challenge begins when the first flagon is filled. Take your time; there is no limit."

"You'll reach the limit soon enough anyway," Laufey commented as Glamdis sat back down.

Volstagg approached the table, using the valve to fill the first flagon eagerly. Applejack filled hers next, and Jack third. They waited until all three had filled their flagons with cider – a comforting amber-brown – before taking the first drink. They nodded toward each other and put the flagons to their lips, ready to down the liquid.

All three reeled. The cider was not just chilled; it was so cold, the three were surprised it had not turned to ice. It made their throats sting with the cold on their way down and settled like lumps of ice in their stomachs.

Applejack's mind flashed to the frozen lake they'd crossed to get to the castle. She had a good idea where the other end of that keg was connected.

"How are we supposed to drink THIS?" Jack wondered out loud.

"Giving up already?" Laufey asked.

"No!" Jack snapped. "I was just asking!" He turned to Volstagg and Applejack. "How are we supposed to drink this?"

"We force it down, I suppose," Volstagg answered.

All three attempted another drink. Jack's teeth chattered. Applejack shuddered all over. Volstagg used his free hand to vigorously rub the arm with which he clutched his flagon. The icy cider was making them feel winter-cold all over. After another few torturous sips, Applejack muttered, "This ain't workin'."

"I'd hoped you would last longer than that," Glamdis sighed.

"I didn't say I was QUITTIN'!" Applejack asserted. "We just gotta find a new way around this." No sooner had she said it than one occurred to her. "Y'know…I just thought of what…SURPRISE! would do."

"Somehow be able to drink it all and say it wasn't cold at all?" Jack asked sarcastically.

"Well…prob'ly that," Applejack admitted. "But also, she'd try to make a game out of it. Make this more fun. Just hear me out…maybe, just maybe, this'd be more tolerable if we were drinkin' TO somethin'."

"Like what?" Jack asked.

"Like…to family," Applejack suggested. "Try it now." She lifted up her flagon, thinking of home, of Big Macintosh, of Apple Bloom, of Granny Smith. "To family!"

"To family," Jack responded, thinking of Giles, Alditha, Hazel, and Lucy.

"To family!" Volstagg chimed in, recalling his own parentage.

They all drank deep. It still froze them, but it seemed more natural to swallow more after such a meaningful toast.

"And next…to our close friends," Applejack offered, thinking of Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy.

"To close friends!" Jack chorused, thinking of Thorgil and Pega.

"TO CLOSE FRIENDS!" Volstagg bellowed, thinking of Thor, Loki, Hogun, Fandral, and Sif.

They drank again.

"To mentors!" Jack suggested, with the Bard in mind.

Another drink.

"To victory!" Volstagg offered, his mind on the dragon of Vanaheim.

Another drink.

For as many good things as they could think of to drink to, the three kept finding more and more worth toasting, and soon it was forgotten that the cider was that cold at all. After finishing his first flagon, Jack declared, "I have to stop. I'm feeling dizzy."

"I'm good," Applejack replied, looking to Volstagg. "You?"

"Never better!" Volstagg replied.

They refilled their flagons and kept going; even though Jack was no longer drinking, he alternated with them in thinking of toasts, such as "To learning!" and "To faith!"

It was three flagons before Applejack announced, "I've hit my limit. Any more of this and I'm gonna start losin' track of what I'm sayin'."

Volstagg refilled his again.

Cutting through the mental haze of alcohol, Jack and Applejack still rattled off more toasts for Volstagg to drink to, and he still came up with them for himself:

"To the sun an' moon!"

"To poetry!"

"To the gleam of a sword before battle!"

That last one made Glamdis all the more curious about just what sort of woman Sunniva was. At the very least, she decided, an unconventional one. At last, she stood and announced, "You may stop!"

Despite the command, Volstagg finished off the contents of the flagon. "It may be as cold as Niflheim," he remarked, "but it is still good cider indeed."

Glamdis regarded Volstagg with suspicion. "How are you not drunk after all that?"

"Well…y'know that Sunniva…she…she's been in a lotta contin' drinktests." Applejack realized what she'd said. "Drinkin' contests. Back home. Where we came from." She bit her lip. She was starting not to make sense, and the one thing she still knew in the back of her mind was that she was not supposed to be talking about her past. She resolved to stop talking so as not to give the game away.

"Is that so?" Glamdis asked.

Applejack just nodded. Jack, observing this, decided it was best not for him to speak either.

"I admire you, Sunniva!" Glamdis laughed. "And here I was thinking Midgardian women were boring. You have won this challenge. As you have probably guessed, this too was not as it appeared. The end of this keg is actually linked by magic to a frozen lake, and the magic that connects the two places turned the frozen water into cider."

"Not the one with the animals frozen in it out front?" Volstagg asked, thinking of Fluttershy's horror that Thor had drunk a sea full of life…and his own concerns about sanitation. Mites in kelp lager were one thing. Drinking out of a lake filled with the preserved bodies of animals of all sorts was quite another.

"Goodness, no!" Glamdis said in horror. "No one would make you drink that! You've been drinking out of the lake we built the courtyard on. The one where we held supper. Nothing has ever lived in that lake, and the waters are pure and clean. We get our drinking water from it."

"Ah, very good!" Volstagg replied.

"You may return to your chambers," Glamdis stated as Laufey merely sulked in his chair, dismayed that the "Midgardians" had won yet another impossible challenge. "Will you be needing an escort? Apple Jewel and Jacqueline seem…rather tipsy."

Applejack shook her head before nearly falling over on the spot and catching herself mid-stumble. Jack had tried to exit via the door already, and had walked right into the wall next to the doorframe instead.

"Worry not." Volstagg first looped his right arm through Applejack's left, then his left through Jack's right. "I shall see to them!" He led his companions out the door and into the hallway.

"What a strange woman," Glamdis remarked. "I do hope there are more like her."

...

The rest of the group was at first concerned when they saw Volstagg leading Applejack and Jack down the hallway. Noting their worried countenances, Volstagg informed them all, "We won! Apple Jewel and Jacqueline are less experienced at holding their cider, that is all!"

"THREE DOWN, TWO TO GO!" Rainbow Dash yelled.

"So you're okay?" Twilight asked Applejack.

"Yeah," Applejack replied. "I'm just tryin' to stay quiet 'cause when I say stuff, I get my murds all wixed up – WORDS. ALL. MIXED. UP – an' I keep thinkin' I'm accidentally gonna say somethin' that gives everythin' away. Jack's quiet too an' I think it's for the same reason. But thanks, Twilight."

Jack nodded in agreement.

"Uh…Apple Jewel…" Twilight said in a low tone. "I think keeping quiet might be a good idea. We're Twinkle and Jacqueline, remember?"

Applejack clapped a hand over her mouth before nodding fervently.

"Must we continue the subterfuge even when no one can hear us?" Fandral sighed. "I'm failing to see the point."

"We will call each other the names we are used to calling each other," Loki argued in a whisper. "And if the walls SHOULD have ears, we may have said incriminating things, but they will be all the less incriminating if appearances are kept up."

"So what happens next?" Twilight asked.

"The challenge Laufey has probably been awaiting the most eagerly," Thor replied. "A giant troll-cat…which is in truth Jörmungandr himself. We had to lift its tail. I fear that with a monster that dangerous – "

"Careful now," Loki scolded. "You are talking about one of my children."

" – we should expect something more sinister," Thor finished, paying Loki no mind.

"Is this where you come in?" Twilight asked.

Thor shook his head. "I am waiting for another test of strength. The final challenge. I believe we should send our strongest warriors to face the beast."

"Then I shall go!" Cornelius volunteered.

"And I," Hogun added.

"And I!" Fandral chorused.

"I would," Oswald said, "but if Nora and I are thinking the same of the last challenge, then perhaps I should wait."

"Now, hang on," Twilight interrupted. "You're all assuming this is going to be some dangerous battle. But all we really know is that it involves a giant cat that's really a serpent. I actually think Sky Skimmer should go, since she's the best with animals."

"ME?" Fluttershy was nearly horrified.

"It'll be just like the manticores in the Everfree Forest," Twilight told her. "It might just need someone to pay attention to it instead of running at it with a weapon. And if it actually does just want to fight, well, you've lasted out some pretty dangerous situations with the rest of us."

"But I can't use…you know," Fluttershy whispered, and Twilight knew she meant her katana. "Not without them figuring out."

"You're still stronger than you give yourself credit for!" Twilight asserted. "I really think you should go!"

"But only if you want to," Rarity broke in. "After all, dear, three of us don't have to participate at all. If it's too frightening, then by all means, you can withdraw and we'll make sure you don't get any challenge."

"Uhm…" Fluttershy thought it over. On one hoof, Rarity's offer was tempting, and she wasn't sure how long she could hold her own against a monster if she didn't have the powers and weapons Kyubey had given her, or, for that matter, the ability to use her wand. It struck her how much she'd been leaning on those things as crutches in dire situations. But on the other, Twilight had a point. Whether they were going to fight Jörmungandr or simply lift up his heavy tail, they still needed someone who was able to deal with animals and talk to him. And Loki wasn't an option; he'd already been sent to one challenge, and couldn't be sent to speak to his offspring. Though, Fluttershy entertained the notion, he could be sent in glamourized as somepony else…but that was a dangerous gamble, to have him switch bodies for one event and hope it could all be done without notice.

"What do you think I should do, Baromett?" Fluttershy asked, looking down at the sheep.

Baromett looked back up at her with bright eyes. "Baaaaa!"

She knew what that meant. It was a declaration of the faith Baromett had in her ability to surmount challenges. Fluttershy nodded. "I want to volunteer."

"Then I shall withdraw," Fandral said with a nod. "Sky Skimmer, Kaja, and Cornelia are our team!"

When Laufey entered, his smile was too great for anyone's comfort. "Give me three of your best warriors," he demanded.

Fluttershy squeaked, unable to make a sound.

"I shall go," Cornelius said, stepping forth. "And Sky Skimmer and Kaja shall come with me."

Laufey's grin increased. "Then follow me. After you have said whatever goodbyes you need to."

Fluttershy looked nervously back at her friends.

"Don't worry!" Rainbow Dash told her. "You got this!"

"YOU CAN DO IT!" Pinkie Pie screamed, leaping up into the air; confetti burst from her general vicinity. No one asked where she'd been keeping it this time.

Fluttershy nodded. She turned to follow Cornelius, Hogun, and Laufey. And as she did so, Baromett fell right into step beside her.

...

An enormous set of iron double doors loomed before the trio, their sheep, and their royal escort. But before that, a couple of louts had wheeled out a rack of simple iron weaponry.

"Take whatever you wish," one of the louts said. "But only one for each."

Looking over the rack, Hogun selected a mace. Cornelius took a moment to find the right broadsword. Fluttershy wondered if she should even bring a weapon, given all Twilight had told her about how her ability to work with animals would be a greater asset than her ability to wield a sword, but she figured she had better take one just in case. Of course there was no katana; she settled for a double-edged blade that was fairly thin and light.

Laufey gave a nod, and the louts wheeled the rack of weapons away, leaving Hogun, Cornelius, and Fluttershy with their intial choices. The louts returned to open the doors, and Fluttershy, Baromett, Cornelius, and Hogun entered without being bidden.

They entered a room that was as large as the hall purposed for the running track. Halfway up one of the walls, there was a ledge fenced off by what at first looked like translucent glass, but Fluttershy realized was probably very thick ice. Several figures were seated there, and one more was visible entering and joining. It was easy to deduce that Glamdis, Laufey, and a few more Jötunns were there for the show, protected from the action by the ice.

Across the room was a pair of enormous gates set into the wall, also wrought out of iron. Their bars were wrought in intricate circular patterns, and through them, something was visible on the other side, ramming against the gates and causing them to temporarily bulge outward, straining the locking bar that held them shut. That something appeared to be of an orange hue, and it made a yowling noise.

Trembling, Fluttershy stepped backward, behind Cornelius and Hogun. The latter two, on the other hand, advanced toward the gates with weapons brandished.

The creature made a final push, and the lock snapped. Into the room burst an enormous cat, twenty feet tall. Its frame appeared to be more similar to that of a housecat than to that of a lion or tiger; its fur was bright orange and unevenly matted. Its eyes glowed brightly, and its mouth, constantly open to emit the yowling, was filled with pointed teeth bigger than sword blades. The cat took one look at Fluttershy, Baromett, Hogun, and Cornelius and let out a scream of anger, swiping a paw outward.

"NOW!" Cornelius cried, and he and Hogun rushed the cat, weapons swinging. Fluttershy stood frozen in place, her sword trembling in her hands.

The cat swept its paw at Cornelius again, claws extended. Cornelius leapt over the limb, doing a somersault in midair, before bringing the blade down upon the wrist of the creature. Cornelius pressed a foot to the paw to launch backward and land back down on the ground. When he looked up to see the damage, he gasped. There was no wound. His sword, however, was bent at a 90 degree angle where it had connected with the cat's skin.

"Distract it!" Hogun commanded, making a rush. Cornelius nodded, darting back out in front of the cat as Hogun turned to make for the cat's rear. The cat's paws whipped outward again and again, and each time, Cornelius made the leap, flipping in the air. Muffled applause was heard from the Jötunn audience at his acrobatics.

Hogun had moved into position to where the cat's tail whipped about violently. He waited, timing the moment, before seizing the end of the tail. In surprise, the cat jerked its tail upward; Hogun took advantage of this and used it to drop onto the cat's back. Running up the length of its spine, he had his mind set on driving the mace into its eye. That part of the cat, Hogun knew, would not be invincible.

The cat dropped onto its side, rolling. Hogun was ready for that, leaping at the first sign of the cat's change of position and landing neatly on the animal's belly. However, that put him at the mercy of all of the cat's paws. The front two paws seized him, squeezing him tightly, and brought him up toward the cat's jaws.

"NOOOOOO!" Fluttershy screamed. If only she'd done something, she thought –

Something surprised the cat enough that it dropped Hogun, who rolled onto the ground. Baromett had run full speed at the cat's side and was ramming it again and again, crying a triumphant "BAAAAA!" despite having done absolutely nothing but be a diversion.

The cat leapt up to its feet. Cornelius and Hogun had regrouped, but before they could coordinate a dual attack, one swipe from the cat slammed into both of them, sending them flying against the far wall. When they hit it, they fell still. Baromett, running either on survival instinct or fear, charged back to Fluttershy with a flustered "BAAAAAAA!"

Fluttershy looked from her terrified pet to her downed allies and back to the enormous cat, which was crying out, practically begging for more challengers. Fluttershy had had enough. She stormed toward the cat, blade at the ready, screaming, "HOW COULD YOU? HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?"

The cat gave her a scream of anger in return. It raised a paw high into the air, ready to bring it down on Fluttershy and smash her flat.

Fluttershy winced, bracing for impact, and in doing so, she let go of her sword.

As soon as the CLANG of the sword hitting the ground hit the cat's ear, the animal froze. Fluttershy, wondering why no giant paw had hit her, cracked an eye open to see the cat gently putting its paw down and rising to a tall sitting position where it could better observe her.

Fluttershy then gasped, looking down at the sword. "Of course!" She looked back up to the cat, meeting its great judging eye. "You saw the weapons, and you knew we weren't friendly! Oh, gosh! I'm so sorry! If I'd have known you didn't want to fight, I wouldn't even have picked up the sword! I guess I just let everypony get to me when they said it was going to be a battle. But I shouldn't have just walked in here and threatened you with a sword."

The cat hissed.

Fluttershy looked down at the floor, ashamed. "Can you forgive me?"

There was silence. Then a deep rumbling sound: the cat's purr.

Fluttershy looked back up at the cat's face with a smile. "I bet you're just a big softie," she teased, walking toward one of the cat's paws and stroking the massive leg gently. "Who's a good kitty?"

The cat gently lowered its head to the ground. Fluttershy moved her hand to scratch it under its chin. She felt that a hand that tiny couldn't have made much difference, but the cat seemed to appreciate the gesture anyway.

Up in the Jötunn audience booth, watching from behind ice, Frith turned to Laufey. "Show her what she's REALLY cuddling up to!" the half-troll demanded.

In a bright flash accompanied by a thunder-esque CRACK, Fluttershy found herself in a different scene entirely. Gone was the mountain hall of bright white and gray; instead, she was surrounded by darkness. The head before her was no longer that of a cat, but of something scaly and horned, with a bright reptilian eye whose slitted pupil was fixed upon her; the only light visible in the area. That head was attached to something that would have been too big to see even in adequate light. Taken aback, Fluttershy screamed.

The serpent growled at this display; Fluttershy quickly collected herself. "That's right," she said. "You're Jörmungandr, aren't you?"

The growl began to sound like a purr once more.

Fluttershy resumed scratching the enormous serpent under the chin. "You're not so bad after all," she decided. "I'm sorry if you were insulted."

She then lowered her voice to the quietest possible whisper she could manage: "I know Loki. He cares about you a lot. I can tell him you said hello if you would like."

Jörmungandr made a brisk humming noise that Fluttershy took as approval.

"Is she still…?" Frith asked in shock.

"She has won, Laufey," Glamdis said. "Return the illusion and bring her back."

Out of the darkness, the bright hall returned piercingly. The cat turned in two circles before settling down for a nap; the floor shook when it lay its body down.

Cornelius and Hogun both got up laboriously from where they'd been knocked into the wall. "What happened?" Cornelius asked groggily, looking from Fluttershy to the sleeping cat.

"BAAAA!" Baromett offered.

"That doesn't really explain anything," Cornelius told the sheep.

The great iron doors were opened from the outside. "She has won," Hogun realized.

"We should go," Fluttershy suggested. "He's sleeping."

"We certainly wouldn't want to wake him," Cornelius agreed.

Fluttershy strode quickly from the room; when Baromett, Hogun and Cornelius caught up with her in the hallway outside, they could see that she was trembling. "You are shaking," Hogun observed.

"I'm fine," Fluttershy told them. "It's just…I always used to be afraid of grown-up dragons. That was the biggest one of them all. I guess I'm not completely over my fear yet."

"You shall have to tell us what happened," Cornelius demanded. "What trick did you use to bring down the beast?"

"Well, actually," Fluttershy told him, "we went about it all wrong…"

...

"WELL?" Pinkie Pie cried as soon as Fluttershy, Baromett, Hogun, and Cornelius rounded the corner. "WELL, WELL, WELL?"

"The challenge is won," Hogun explained. "But treating it as a battle was a mistake."

"We let Laufey frighten us into thinking about it all wrong," Cornelius added. "Sky Skimmer was the only one smart enough to realize that Twinkle was right. We never needed to battle the beast. It was only made angry by our weapons."

"But I figured that part out by accident," Fluttershy admitted. "I feel a little bad that it didn't occur to me earlier. I just walked right up to the poor creature and let it think I was going to try and hurt him."

"Laufey tricked us," Hogun pointed out. "He practically put the weapons in our hands. He wanted us to die."

"Well, that comes as no surprise," Loki remarked. "I'm more shocked he didn't figure out a way to try and kill us earlier on."

"So what's next?" Twilight asked.

"The final challenge is a wrestling match," Thor told her. "The opponent is old age herself. I was able to win for reasons you know."

"Won't that…give you away?" Twilight realized.

"She is right," Oswald concurred. "When mortals are able to best old age, there will be questions."

"I had not thought of that," Thor admitted. "We must either lose or be found out!"

"Losing is the more pleasant option," Oswald decided. "If we were to be found out…war would begin right here."

"Wait!" Twilight realized. "There's another way. I have a plan."

"How can you have thought of another way so quickly?" Thor asked her.

"Trust me," Twilight told him. "Once all the pieces came together, it was kind of obvious. Now, I'm going to need you all to listen to me, because if we're questioned afterward, we need to know what to do."

She quickly, quietly explained.

"Why, then, it's almost as if our victory were guaranteed from the start!" Rarity gasped when Twilight was done speaking. "Shall it be you and me, then, Twinkle?"

Twilight shook her head. "One or the other. It'll add more to our case if Nora, Kjerstin, Renate, or Helga goes first and loses. That will put them in the clear."

"It was my challenge in the past, and shall be again," Thor stated.

"And I already had volunteered," Oswald reminded Twilight.

"Melody?" Twilight asked.

"If it's all the same to you, I think I shall leave this one to you," Rarity answered. "I'd rather not get all sweaty and icky. Besides, you know the plan better."

Twilight nodded. "So Kjerstin, Nora, and I will go. That means Melody, Helga, and Renate get to take a break."

"I'll admit I'm a little relieved," Rarity said. "These challenges sound quite exhausting!"

Frith arrived soon enough to escort the next three volunteers. "This shall be the final challenge," she announced. "Send the strongest three of your remaining six. I must say, you have done quite well so far. Whether you win or lose, the bards shall certainly sing of this day in many realms."

"Most certainly," Rarity agreed. "After all, we shall be the ones singing."

Frith raised a brow. "You are bards?"

"Why, y – " Rarity realized she'd made a mistake, given too much away. "…I am," she relented when she realized she couldn't backtrack. "I had studied the arts back home. What, did you expect me to live the life of a common housewife?"

"Fair," Frith said with a nod. "Then who shall come to the fifth challenge?"

"I will," Twilight said, stepping forward. "And I'm bringing Kjerstin and Nora with me."

"And not the bard?" Frith asked.

Twilight realized Frith was far too interested in that factoid. "No," she stated.

Frith smiled. "Then come along."

As Frith led Twilight, Oswald, and Thor away, Fandral asked, "Why do I have the feeling that won't turn out well for us?"

"And everyone was worried about ME being the one to give us away," Loki sighed.

"I didn't give much away!" Rarity argued. "Just that I and I alone am a bard! That's not SO incriminating, is it?"

"We will find out," Velvet told her.

...

Frith guided the way to a chamber smaller than that used for the race against the two minds or the confrontation against Jörmungandr. The walls were of the same icy hue, and the floor similarly empty. And, as before, a set of chairs was grouped against the far wall, and Glamdis and Laufey had front row seats. Frothi, Fonn, and Forath were visible seated amongst the small crowd of Jötunns, and while neither Twilight, Oswald, nor Thor could have recognized them, the two louts whose minds had raced Rainbow Dash, Thorgil, and Sif were also present. Frith took her seat in the last empty chair.

A lone Jötunn woman stood at the other end of the room. Tall and muscular, she looked incredibly strong, and was dressed in armor – a breastplate, tassets, disembodied vambraces and cuisses, with chain mail to bridge the gaps of skin, making the entire suit flexible. Her hands and feet, however, were bare. Despite her physique, it was apparent that she was older than Glamdis; wrinkles carved their way across her face, and her orange hair was streaked with silver.

"Your opponent will be Elli," Glamdis announced. "You will face her one by one. If any of you can hold your own against her in battle, then we shall consider the challenge won."

Twilight nodded. "Nora? Kjerstin? Do either of you want to go first?"

"I shall." Oswald stepped forth. Twilight and Thor waited against the wall containing the entry door.

Oswald and Elli approached each other deliberately, meeting in the center of the room. They stood still for a moment, sizing each other up. Then, without warning, Elli lunged, putting Oswald's upper body in a tight hold. Oswald wriggled, giving the barest impression that he was struggling, before allowing Elli to flip him head over heels and pin him to the ground. He made sure to twitch as though attempting to escape a couple times while letting Elli hold him firmly there.

"I believe Kjerstin has lost," Laufey announced. "Let her go."

Elli stood, and Oswald made a show of getting to his feet, brushing nonexistent wrinkles out of his skirt. "She is much tougher than she looks," he stated before returning to stand next to Twilight.

"I shall go next," Thor volunteered, striding forth confidently. Looking at Elli, he knew he had to lose, but was not looking forward to letting himself be humiliated in such a display as Oswald had made. Did the prince of Asgard not deserve better? He resolved that he would not let himself be made a fool of by a Jötunn for whom he knew he was a match.

When she seized him, he pushed back. He shuddered against her force, squirming out of the hold she'd placed on him and maneuvering an arm around her back to attempt to force her to the ground.

"Oh, no…" Twilight muttered, fearing Thor's ego would mean the end of their quest.

However, when Elli regained a hold on Thor, blocking his attempt to get an advantage over her, he relented, letting her pin him to the ground.

"It seems Nora has lost as well." Laufey's grin increased as he watched Thor slink back to the wall.

"Then I'll try." Twilight walked out into the center of the room, where Elli awaited. Again, Elli and her opponent faced each other, stock-still, for a few moments. Elli's arm shot out.

Twilight's hand closed over Elli's wrist, holding her arm back.

"What!" Elli barked, twisting her arm; she wasn't able to break Twilight's grip.

Frith chose that moment to lean over to Laufey and whisper something in his ear, something that piqued his interest.

Elli lifted her foot to plant a kick in Twilight's stomach. When the foot connected, Twilight was not moved, as though she were a pillar. Twilight thought over how best to end the match; she certainly had time to think about it, as Elli was as of yet unable to land a blow that did any real damage on her. Twilight wasn't keen on the idea of pinning Elli to the ground. She instead slid her feet across the floor, positioning herself behind her opponent, and reached out to grab Elli's other wrist. Twilight then brought Elli's arms together and held them behind her back; struggle as she might, Elli could not break free.

"It seems Twinkle has…WON?" Glamdis stared in awe.

Twilight let go of Elli when the declaration was made.

"But how?" Glamdis sputtered. "Elli is old age itself. The only way anyone could have done THAT to her is if they were – "

"That hardly matters," Laufey interrupted. "These three Midgardians have won the fifth challenge." He looked out to Twilight, Oswald, and Thor. "You may return to your quarters to wait for further instruction."

"Thank you," Twilight said before bowing quickly and then walking out of the chamber with Thor and Oswald.

"I still don't understand," Glamdis muttered. "Even an Asgardian would struggle. They, too, age, though not in the same way we do."

"Laufey," Frothi asked coyly, "what have you found out?"

"Found out?" Glamdis repeated.

"I know that look on him," Frothi explained. "He knows something that has given him an idea."

"Indeed," Laufey replied. "Frith has informed me that one of the three women who has participated in no challenge is a bard."

"You had better not be thinking about anything that will hurt them," Glamdis growled.

"I believe you will like what I have in mind," Laufey told her.

...

"WE DID IT!" Twilight yelled as she, Thor, and Oswald ran back to the group. "We won!"

"Now we simply must wait until we are inevitably questioned," Thor stated. "Once Twilight gives her explanation, however, we shall certainly be able to see Mjo – "

"The thing," Rainbow Dash interrupted. "Mjolnir" was another term too volatile to say out loud.

Soon, Forath appeared in the hallway, striding toward the group. All looked to her expectantly. "Have the king and queen requested an audience with us?" Loki asked.

Forath somberly shook her head.

"Why not?" Thor inquired.

Forath pointed to Rarity.

"Me?" Rarity was taken aback.

Forath then pointed to Velvet, then Fandral.

"What do you want with US?" Rarity snapped.

Forath's hand curled in a beckoning motion.

"Well…" Rarity looked around at the others. None of them had any idea what was going on. "I suppose. Renate, Helga, we should go with Forath and see what we are wanted for."

Forath led Rarity, Velvet, and Fandral away; Twilight watched worriedly. "That's not a good sign," she said once the four were gone.

"Indeed not," Thor agreed.

"So what do we do?" Rainbow Dash wondered out loud.

"It would be most diplomatic of us to wait," Loki informed her. "The situation will soon become clearer to us."

...

The chamber chosen was the arena where Rainbow Dash, Sif, and Thorgil had raced the two minds. Most of the chairs had been cleared away, leaving only one row on the far side of the track. The audience was filled with only two: Glamdis and Laufey. Forath left after leading the trio to that room.

Rarity, Velvet, and Fandral approached the Jötunn king and queen, and Rarity bowed respectfully, prompting the other two to do the same.

"It has come to our attention that you are a bard," Glamdis said directly to Rarity.

"Er…yes," Rarity confirmed.

"Laufey has convinced me that it is hardly fair that three of your party did not participate in any challenge," Glamdis stated, and Rarity could feel her stomach drop a mile. "In light of this new information…we have added a final challenge for the three of you. However, it can hardly be called impossible. You'll find it much easier than what the others had to face."

Rarity did not find those words reassuring.

"What do you have in mind?" Velvet asked.

"The three of you shall work together to tell me a tale," Glamdis stated. "It must be a tale that interests me. If I like what you have to say, then you shall win. Laufey and I shall give you a while alone to decide on what you wish to tell. When we return, you had best be ready to begin. As a bard, this should not be a challenge to you."

"I'm only in the early stage of study!" Rarity protested. She had hoped that the new challenge would call upon her to do some sort of elemental magic. However, while the challenge issued was far more basic, it was still one the art of which she couldn't say she'd mastered. She thought over Jack's flowery language when he told stories, and over Thorgil's abrupt sentences that described gore and bloodshed. Both were scintillating to listen to, more so than anything she had to say. Why, she lamented, had Taliesin not begun her training in that art? Though she realized he had. The nights in the hazel wood were meant to prepare her by letting her observe. Without detail and observation, a story was just a series of events, a news bulletin.

"That makes no difference to me," Glamdis informed Rarity before she and Laufey rose from their seats to cross the room.

"WAIT!" Rarity cried. "How long do we have?"

"Until we return," Glamdis reiterated. She and her husband left the enormous chamber, shutting the door.

"Oooooh!" Rarity moaned. "I can't tell stories the way Jacqueline or Jill can!"

"I doubt that," Velvet told her. "I feel as though you are better at it than you believe. You are not one to abuse language, Melody."

"But now I'm under pressure!" Rarity growled. "Which is VERY effective when I have a fashion deadline to meet, but not when it comes to THIS! What story am I supposed to tell, anyway? Please…PLEASE tell me one of you has an idea!"

Velvet and Fandral looked to each other nervously.

"What if I ruin our chances at victory because I can't tell something as simple as an interesting story?" Rarity moaned. "Ooooh, I should NEVER have mentioned being a bard! This is all my – "

The door to the room creaked open, and Rarity was stopped midsentence, horrified that Glamdis and Laufey might have chosen to come back and all she'd done was waste what scant time she'd been given by complaining. However, it was not Glamdis and Laufey who entered but two louts with buckets of soap and water as well as a generous supply of rags and sponges. Rarity watched as they silently knelt and set to work washing away the racetrack painted on the floor. The paint came away quite easily, obviously meant to be used for temporary applications.

"THAT'S IT!" Rarity cried, rushing toward the louts.

"What's it?" Fandral asked. He received no answer.

"Excuse me!" Rarity said in her sweetest, most melodic voice as she approached the two Jötunn males. "You wouldn't happen to have any more of the paint you used to make this track, would you?"

Both were confused. One answered, "We have more."

"In just this red?" Rarity pressed. "Or do you have more colors?"

"We have all colors," the Jötunn replied.

"Perfect!" Rarity cried. "I don't suppose you would be able to help a poor Midgardian woman out by letting her use some of that paint, would you? Oh, I wouldn't take all THAT much. Besides, I don't suppose you'll be needing all of it right away."

The louts thought it over.

"I would be so very grateful," Rarity emphasized, willing herself to sound sweeter.

"All right," the other Jötunn relented. "I don't know why you want them, but you are right – we weren't going to be using more paint tonight. We'll bring you whatever you want when we're done cleaning up this track – "

"Leave the track to us," Rarity urged. "The three of us shall have it gone in no time. I need the paint…rather soon."

"What colors?" the Jötunn asked her.

"As many as you can carry," Rarity emphasized. "Oh, but make sure you bring at least one hue of each of the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. I shall also need black…oh, and a lot of brown."

"White?"

Rarity shook her head. "The canvas I intend to work on is already white. Thank you SO very much!"

The louts left, and Rarity mentally urged them to hurry. The one time it would have been useful, she lamented, for them to actually be able to read her mind. It then kicked in that she hadn't a moment to spare. She picked up two sponges, handing them to Fandral and Velvet. "Quickly!" she urged. "We have to get this track cleaned off the floor!"

"Can we not just leave it and take care of it after you have done whatever you intend to do with the paint?" Fandral inquired.

"Dear sweet Celestia, no!" Rarity gasped. "First of all, that wouldn't be proper etiquette at all! But more importantly, I need this track gone if I'm going to paint on the floor."

"What do you have planned?" Velvet asked as she and Rarity knelt and began to scrub. Luckily for them, the paint peeled away quite easily once made wet.

"I've got an idea for how to turn this challenge into something a little more my style," Rarity replied. "We're not going to TELL Glamdis a story. We are going to SHOW her."

Once Fandral got moving, the trio was easily able to clean up the track. The louts returned with several buckets of paint and a handful of paintbrushes. "Like you asked," one of them announced as the materials were laid on the floor.

"Oh, thank you SO much!" Rarity emphasized. "You've no idea how much this means to me. Now, I'll need room to work…"

"Understood!" The louts left the room.

"All right!" Rarity picked up a paintbrush, dipping it into a bucket of brown paint. "We need to begin by making the trunk of Yggdrassil. I'll take the upper branches. There's more flourish to be had there, what with Asgard being there and all. Velvet, I'd like you to paint the midsection. You'll be in charge of Midgard. And Fandral, if you'll be a dear and paint the roots for me? Be sure to give them a lot of swirl. These aren't any old roots, after all. They've got to twist and intersect!"

Under Rarity's direction, the three split up and set to painting, recreating the drawing of Yggdrassil that Sif had taught Rarity to make. The Nine Realms were set in place upon it, taking up as much space as they could. Every now and again, Rarity would chastise one of her fellows for making the painting too plain: "No, no, no! Helga, Niflheim is supposed to be even colder than Jötunheim. You have to make it look that way! And Renate, Notland wasn't that blue. All around, it was more of a teal shade."

They had by no means finished all they could by the time Glamdis and Laufey returned, but what they had painted on the floor was more than enough to tell many tales. When the Jötunn king and queen re-entered, they were flabbergasted.

"…This is not what we tasked you with," Laufey grunted.

"But I am interested to see why you chose this," Glamdis said with genuine curiosity.

"First, have a seat at the roots of Yggdrassil," Rarity urged, gesturing to the thrones, which had been shoved against the far wall to allow more room to paint.

Glamdis and Laufey gingerly walked over the floor mural, careful not to smudge anything, and took their places where they were directed. From where they sat, they had a view of the entire mural. It could not match the true sight of Yggdrassil itself; no image of the tree ever could. However, it was gorgeously painted, its trunk spanning the chamber's floor, its branches spreading bountifully from the top and bearing leaves of emerald while its roots twisted wildly until they barely touched Glamdis and Laufey's feet. Painted around the tree itself were the Nine Realms, represented in miniature murals that showed a location and an event.

"Every realm has its own aesthetic, of course," Rarity began. "But more importantly, every realm has its own story. For example, if we are to begin in Midgard…" She walked toward where an image of Nancileigh was painted beside the tree trunk. "We would find the home of a young boy who was whisked away on quite a harrowing adventure by berserkers." She gestured to where the dragon-headed ship was painted on a deep blue sea.

She told, in brief, Jack and Thorgil's story, though she left the parts about Jötunheim out of it, as well as their names. The truth made the best tales, but some things had to be omitted in the name of safety. She spoke of the Islands of the Blessed and of Taliesin, including what little she knew of him having been ousted from a mysterious realm not connected to Yggdrassil. She spoke of Notland and of the Cult of Cthulhu, though not of the fact that she was part of those about to be sacrificed; instead, false names were given to "a band of heroes" who managed to escape by fighting the eel, and Wharl was given the starring role of that tale in the end.

Alfheim had been painted, divided in three: its more-brilliant-than-life glamour, the wasteland the glamour left behind, and a natural beauty that would grow once Alfheim was able to regenerate without the illusive magic. Rarity spoke of selfish elven royalty, of kidnapped Midgardians, of the mysterious Lady of the Lake, of the noble hobgoblins.

She knew not what to say of Nidavellir, of Muspelheim, of Vanaheim, or of Niflheim, so she simply gave the scant details: one was the dwarven forge, one was the twilight realm of Surtr, one was a bright land of superhumans, and one was the cold world of the dead. They had been painted in bright, fiery orange; in deep rose hues as of the setting sun; in pastel green and blue; in deep navy contrasting with white ice.

Asgard was a tricky topic; Rarity feared even mentioning it would incite anger in Glamdis and Laufey. However, they listened intently as she spoke of the Cauldron Wars and of the bravery of even more unnamed heroes. Glamdis even smiled warmly upon hearing this tale. Perhaps that was because she was drawn in by all the color Rarity had put into the miniature images of Ragnanival, Titania, and the Valentinian wasteland (Rarity would have gone on to detail the forests of Elrit and Ringford, as well as Horn Mountain, but time had cut her short).

Walking over Svartalfheim, a dark and bleak landscape, Rarity remarked, "This is Svartalfheim. Once, it was populated by a great many dark elves, but war left it a dead world – "

Hearing the words escape her mouth, she was gripped by the revelation. Perhaps it was a coincidence. Or perhaps the evidence was stacking up. Jötunheim was by no means a dead world; she severely doubted it was the place Heide had foreseen Odin's assault.

Fandral cleared his throat loudly; Rarity had been silent for several minutes, contemplating whether Heide had seen the march on Svartalfheim instead of Jötunheim or even Niflheim. "Er…right," Rarity resumed. She glossed over the conflict that had wiped out the Dark Elves, fearing it was yet another touchy subject, as the Jötunns had been involved in that war.

"That brings us here." On the opposite side of the trunk from Midgard, Jötunheim was painted, a winter wonderland of white and blue. Rarity had specifically ordered no gray, despite the group's first impression of the landscape. "Quite an interesting story, really. It began with a ship full of traders and their wives, bound for the northern regions of Midgard. However, when a storm blew that ship off course, its crew found themselves in what seemed to be a beautiful paradise. One, in fact, where this very tree was visible. Of course, these poor Midgardians weren't aware of the danger lurking beneath the beauty."

And she recanted the fictitious tale of how the "husbands" had all perished in the garden, leaving eighteen women and a sheep to find their way to Midgard and dine with the Jötunn royalty, all because a couple lusty young Jötunn men liked the looks of them. From there, these women proved themselves almost inhumanly strong, defeating challenge after challenge the Jötunns laid for them.

"The last of which was for three of them, so named Melody, Helga, and Renate, to tell the honorable Queen Glamdis and King Laufey a story," Rarity concluded. "And that story has just been told."

There was silence as her words hung heavy in the air, colorful in the minds of Fandral, Velvet, Glamdis, and Laufey, but only so beautiful as they were because they were bolstered by the artwork on the floor.

Fearing the silence meant the worst, Rarity cleared her throat. "Er…the paint will wash off easily. It was the same that was used to paint the track."

"I am not worried about that," Glamdis replied. "In fact, I almost wish this were a more permanent fixture. It is gorgeous! And to think I was afraid. See, last time Frith had a bard speak to her, he spoke a magical poem that made all her hair fall out. I had half a mind that would happen to me! Though I doubt you could have made Laufey any uglier."

Laufey just grunted in response. He was used to that particular jab.

"You have told me not just one story of interest," Glamdis admitted, "but several. And in such a creative way! You may consider this challenge won."

Rarity gasped, happily looking back and forth from Fandral to Velvet.

Glamdis put up a hand. "However, before you are rewarded, we have questions to ask you. Return to your companions and inform them that I expect to see all eighteen of you…and your sheep…in the throne room as soon as possible."

"Oh, right away!" Rarity promised, bowing again before turning to leave. Fandral and Velvet followed.

Laufey left as soon as his interest was no longer held, but it took Glamdis longer to leave the room as her eyes traced every piece of the mural.

...

As promised, the entire traveling party assembled before the thrones of Glamdis and Laufey. Their children and harems were again present, Jötunns surrounding the foreigners, making Thor rather nervous. It was almost as if they were preparing to hold off an escape attempt.

"You have overcome all six tasks," Glamdis reiterated. "Five of which were meant to be impossible. Do not think that we have overlooked how odd this is. How could traders' wives eat and bake so much, run so fast, drink so much, talk to Jörmungandr, and stave off old age COMPLETELY? You are more than you say you are." She fixed her eyes on Twilight. "And at least one of you is immortal."

"Sort of," Twilight corrected. "You're right. There is something special about us. Something we tried to keep a secret. We didn't know how you would react. But Apple Jewel, Sky Skimmer, Firefly, Melody…SURPRISE!...and I have to confess something." She looked to Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. "Girls, let's show them."

The six stepped forward, as they had planned to do since before Twilight had marched off to face Elli, brushing back hair, maneuvering their amulets over their necklines so they were clearly visible. The six gems glimmered with a light that came over them as soon as they had been chosen to be revealed.

"The Elements of Harmony," Glamdis said in awe. "The six of you are the bearers."

"We weren't sure how you would react," Twilight stated.

Glamdis nodded. "Only fair. There are many who, upon learning what you were, would stop at nothing to kill you. Rest assured, you are safe within these walls. And this certainly does explain a lot. First and foremost, how Twinkle was able to halt old age entirely. And of course, the Elements would open doors to many more abilities beyond mortals. To run faster, to eat more, to calm the wildest beasts. Yet I still am not sure how Sunniva was able to drink almost an entire lake of cider…"

"We're not sure how Sunniva does it either," Twilight offered.

Glamdis turned her attentions to the rest. "Did you know about your friends' powers?"

"Aye," Thor replied. "And we have sworn to keep their secret, for they are indeed true friends to us."

Glamdis turned to Laufey. "I hope that puts an end to your suspicions."

"That it does." Laufey stood. "You have earned what was promised. You may see the item Velma gave to me. I shall bring you to where it is kept."

"Could Glamdis come too?" Fluttershy asked. "Not that it's anything against you…it's just…" Laufey had said he was no longer suspicious of the group, and yet he still looked at them out of the side of his eye.

"I would not want to be alone with someone who had spent the entire night glaring sourly at me and my friends either," Glamdis said with a nod. "Fonn, Forath, please go with them."

"This way." Laufey moved toward a door in the back of the throne room. Fonn and Forath followed him; Fonn beckoned eagerly. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Baromett, Thor, Loki, Sif, Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun, Gwendolyn, Oswald, Velvet, Cornelius, Thorgil, and Jack fell into step behind them, and they left Glamdis and the other Jötunns back in the throne room.

Laufey, Fonn, and Forath took the group down a hallway that sloped downward; its ice-white walls darkened the further they descended. "I will remind you that you were warned," Laufey reiterated. "There is nothing for you to gain from the item. Not even we have been able to judge what to do with it for days."

"As I thought," Thor muttered.

It was Gwendolyn who caught the discrepancy. "Days?" she repeated. "Was it not brought to you yesterday?"

"No," Laufey informed her. "Velma arrived several days ago to present it to me."

"But…" Thor couldn't formulate an argument that would not give him away completely.

The hallway made its end at a dark iron door. "I do wonder what brings the bearers of the Elements of Harmony to this land," Laufey remarked. "It does not seem like it could be an accident."

"Laufey!" Fonn scolded, to the relief of the others, making them all glad Fluttershy had spoken up and gotten her among the escorts. "We made a promise!"

Forath nodded emphatically.

"If you must see it," Laufey said, swinging the door open.

Beyond the portal lay a dark room, bare of any furnishing save for one pillar in its center. That was where the item lay. The light that hit it when the door opened made its metal gleam, illuminating it just enough for all to see.

It was not Mjolnir.

"It's…a helmet," Rainbow Dash stated.

It was so much more than a helmet, Thor wanted to say. It was the helmet of Bor, father of Odin, who had battled Malekith the Accursed and the dark elves of Svartalfheim. It did not deserve to be in a Jötunn hall in Thor's eyes. He wanted to rip it away, run out of the fortress, call for Heimdall to take him home with the relic. However, he knew that was not the path to be taken. Furthermore, while the treaty between Asgard and Jötunheim forbade inhabitants of either realm to cross the borders of the other, it said nothing about disembodied pieces of armor.

"You were warned," Laufey reiterated.

"SERIOUSLY?" Rainbow Dash stormed into the room, looking more closely at the ram-horned helmet. "WE WENT THROUGH ALL THAT FOR THIS? SURPRISE BAKED CUPCAKES FASTER THAN FIRE COULD EAT THEM. I RAN FASTER THAN A MIND. SUNNIVA DRANK HALF A LAKE. SKY SKIMMER CALMED DOWN JORMUNGANDR! TWINKLE BEAT OLD AGE IN A FIGHT! MELODY TOLD YOU THE STORY OF EVERYTHING! JUST SO WE COULD SEE…THIS?" She seized the helmet, lifting it up. "At LEAST tell me it's magic! What, does it make you super strong or invisible when you put it on or something?"

"You were NOT granted the right to touch it!" Laufey barked.

Rainbow Dash settled the helmet of Bor over her head. She waited. She swung her arms experimentally, waiting to see if her speed or strength had somehow increased by wearing the piece. "Nothing," she sighed. Then, more angrily: "NOTHING." She removed the helmet from her head. "It's not even magic! It's just. A! Stupid! HELMET!" In rage, she threw the helmet to the ground.

It landed topside down, the area where a head would go facing up. To the awe of all present save for Laufey, it began to spin. At first, the momentum could have been written off as due to Rainbow Dash's throw, but soon the helmet's spinning became faster and faster, like a top, and completely of its own accord. Rainbow Dash watched, hypnotized, as the inner helmet began to gleam.

The helmet then flattened, becoming part of the floor: becoming a hole in the floor. The light that emanated from it became brighter, and soon it appeared there was no helmet at all, but merely a swirl of colors in the center of the room. The hole grew, beginning to engulf the floor. When it expanded to reach the pillar, the pillar sank into it.

Rainbow Dash hurried out of the room to stand by her friends and watch from a safe distance. The swirling portal didn't stop growing until it had reached the size of the entire room's floor, at which point its colors merely spun about, betraying space below.

"What is it?" Fonn asked in awe.

"A portal to another realm," Laufey answered. "Not something any of you should have known about. Velma told Glamdis and me that the armor contained a portal, but she would not say to where. She offered it as a gift. We had no way of knowing it did not lead to Asgard, where we are forbidden, or Niflheim. So we could not use it."

"This is all WEIRD," Twilight emphasized.

"We must go into it," Thor decided.

"What?" Fonn was taken aback. "Why?"

"We are only Midgardians," Loki pointed out. "We are not forbidden from Asgard. I doubt we'd be welcome, but we are not forbidden. As for Niflheim…it is a chance we shall take." He did not believe Laufey's words that he had never used the portal, let alone for ill. However, despite Loki's distrust, Laufey had been telling the truth. Neither he nor Glamdis had dared venture into the portal the helmet contained.

"Fonn did not ask how we were able to take such risks," Oswald pointed out. "She asked why we would."

Twilight looked to Fonn. "I know this is going to sound weird," she said, "but…a while ago, we lost something. Something important to us. We thought we might never see it again."

"Is it something related to your dead husbands?" Fonn asked sympathetically.

"Yes," Twilight lied. "There's a chance…a very real chance…that what we lost when they died is on the other end of this portal. I can't tell you much more than that."

"Full of secrets," Laufey remarked.

"You're going to have to trust us," Twilight urged.

Laufey thought it over. "I suppose I have nothing to lose from you going in. Do it fast, however. It will close."

"Right." Twilight looked to Thor. "Ready?"

"Aye," Thor confirmed.

Six Equestrians, ten Asgardians, two Midgardians, and one sheep all leapt into the multicolored void, falling into its depths and out of sight of Laufey, Fonn, and Forath. No sooner had they jumped than the portal retracted, turning once more into nothing but a helmet lying abandoned on the chamber floor.

...

Chapter 94:

· The chapter title comes from "Gylfaginning," the epic poem where you can find the original text of the Utgard-Loki myth. The title translates to "The Tricking of Gylfi," so if I've done this right, the title of this chapter SHOULD mean "The Tricking of Laufey."

· As you've probably figured out, the two stories that I intended to recreate here were the Lay of Thrym and the tale of Utgard-Loki.

· The first paragraph was something I wrote when I was just sick to death of winter and I wanted to take out my frustrations. This fic acts as a journal for my feelings sometimes, but what work of fiction isn't that for its creator every now and again?

· Everything in Jötunheim's design here comes from Sea of Trolls. However, in that book, Glamdis reigns alone. As I had to get Laufey in there, this is another one of those cases where I try to play it close to canon details but have elements of obvious AU.

· In SoT, Grendel's Mother is named "Frothi Half-Troll." I decided that my definitive Grendel's Mother would be Angelina Jolie's character from the Robert Zemeckis "Beowulf" film. That movie is one of my guiltiest pleasures. Half of it is fanservice, and a lot of it is pointless. I liked it anyway, and one of the things that put it up there for me was Jolie's performance as the leading villainess. I also loved how it made both Grendel and the dragon products of temptation, turning it all into a morality tale of sorts where the original poem has altogether different themes. As you can see, I've retooled things here so that the Zemeckis version of the story altogether is my default Beowulf. It actually worked perfectly with SoT logic. Half-trolls are shapeshifters (Schlaup can turn into a landslide when he's mad and Frith looks like a human woman in order to seduce kings to do her bidding), and the Zemeckis version of Grendel's Mother is certainly that – a larger creature that shifts into a more appealing humanoid form in order to tantalize humans. The parallel to SoT's Frith was perfect, so I had to use that as my Frothi.

· I haven't decided exactly how Loki's birth went down, but he is half-Jötunn and half-Asgardian in this canon. Hence my little comment about how an Asgardian half-troll would be one of the greatest enemies of all. Because he already is (JC, don't explain the thing).

· Enjoy normal dreams while you can still have them, Twilight.

· Glamour-skirts: explaining how come our traveling party can participate in athletic contests while wearing dresses since…just now.

· Glamdis actually is a very kind host in SoT.

· The Nightmare is an Echthros that will be more important later. In SoT, they're seen as eight-legged horses that Frith rides. They come in other shapes, of course. It's one of the highest classes of Echthroi in the multiverse.

· Yes, every single dessert related song Pinkie sings is meant to be sung to the tune of the cupcake song from S1.

· I'll just say it here since it wasn't spelled out: since the Element of Magic makes Twilight ageless, old age can't affect her AT ALL, personified or not.

· Laufey is right; he and Glamdis have never used the portal. No Jötunn has. That doesn't mean the portal was unused, or that he doesn't know someone else used it. Malekith made Velma put it there for a reason, after all.

· The idea of a headpiece as a portal to another realm comes from a certain fandom…which shall remain nameless until next chapter, at which point it will become quite obvious. In the meantime, give it your best guess as to where the other side comes out!