It was a truly chaotic day, when Loki discovered his magic.

Five years old, and bright as day, any moment he wasn't poring over books, lisping out the simpler words to himself, or sick in bed, he was causing mayhem, anyway. It only made matters worse when he discovered his true potential for chaos-causing.

He was called to the throne room, and stood shamefacedly, fidgeting slightly, as his father chastised him for jumping out of shadows and scaring servants witless. However, he couldn't mask the mischievous smile that spread across his young face.

"Why, Gerard dropped his load of books on his foot, and he hurt his toes!" Odin tried to speak in a way his small child would understand. "Doesn't that make you sad? You like Gerard."

"Yeah…" Loki agreed. "But his face was funny…"

Odin face-palmed, and stifled a groan. "That's not the point, Loki."

Loki sighed, and shuffled one tiny booted foot over the other. "Well… I'm sorry he got hurt." He began. "But it's funny when they scream."

"But they don't think so, dearest." Frigga chipped in.

Loki's eyes grew tragically wide, and he glanced up at his parents in a pitiful manner, his lower lip wobbling.

"Oh, come on." Odin sighed. "Don't give me the puppy-eyes. What are you doing that for?"

"I don' wanna be in trouble…" Loki announced, tears gathering in the corners of his wide green eyes.

"You're not in trouble, my son." Odin told him. Anything to make that adorable little face smile, again.

It worked. All traces of remorse vanished in an instant, and Loki clapped his little hands together exuberantly. "Yay! Can I have a cookie now?"

Suddenly, his form wavered, and split in two. Frigga and Odin stared at the… now two of him, in shock. "What did you do, Loki?"

Loki stared at himself in wonder and glee. "I don't know, but it's awesome!" Immediately, each version of him split, again, and soon there were a dozen of him, tumbling over each other, laughing and chasing each other around.

Odin stared with wide eye at the spectacle before him. "Wha-Wha… I…"

"I'm a clone!" One of them announced. "So am I!" Cried another, their little voices filling the hall jubilantly. "Now, which one of us is the real one?"

Three tiny hands lifted into the air.

"Well… You always did want to have a larger family…" Frigga mused with an amused smirk. "And now, you have thirteen sons instead of two."

Odin groaned, and dropped his head into his hands. "Just the one was hard enough to manage!"

Loki seemed to be conferencing among himself, all the dozen of him leaning together in a huddle, as they whispered together. With a grin, they all bumped fists with each other, sent a half-guilty, half-excited look towards their parents, and fled from the room.

"Oh, dear…" Frigga sighed. "I guess I'd better go catch them all."

Most of them were already on their way to find their big brother, and they burst into his room, chattering excitedly.

"Thor!"

"Thor!"

"Brother!"

"Look at us!"

Thor did look, with wide, confused, yet somewhat thrilled eyes. "What did you do?"

All seven of them that were there shrugged simultaneously. "We don't know. But we're many, now! Won't this be grand?"

Thor jumped up, and excitedly nodded. "Oh, just think of the things we could do, with all of you, now!" He enthused. "We'd be able to carry far more cookies to our clubhouse! How many of you are there?"

"Oh, about a dozen." Said the one who was jumping on Thor's bed. "A whole troop!"

"Herd, you mean?" Thor wondered.

"I thought it was flock." One by Thor's elbow spoke up.

"No, no, an unkindness!" Yet another declared. "Like with ravens!"

"Racoons are a nursery…" The one who had begun doing Thor's homework pitched in.

"We'll go with troop." The one who bounced returned, and he seemed to be the one in charge, for all the other dark heads bobbed in assent.

Thor glanced round at all of them. "This is a little confusing." He understated.

"You'll get used to it." They assured him. "Come on! Let's have some fun!"

"Oh, but I have to do school…" Thor sighed.

The little one at the desk spoke up. "That's alright. I can do it."

Upon closer inspection, he wasn't even touching the quill, but waving his hands over the paper, the calligraphy appearing as he wrote with his fingers in the air.

All seven of the other children in the room gathered close to witness this phenomenon. "What are you doing?" One of them whispered in a hushed tone.

"Homework."

"Well, yes, but how are you doing it?"

"Very well, thank you."

All the Lokis regarded the one with unamused stares. "You're not allowed to be snarky to yourself."

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware. How come you make the rules?"

All the Loki turned to the one who had been jumping on the bed. "Yeah, who died and made you king?"

"You can't boss us around!"

"No tax… taxation without rep-y-sentation!"

"I declare a revolt!"

"Get the rope, boys!"

Thor clutched his head in bewilderment. "Would you stop? I'm so dreadfully confused!"

Fourteen green eyes turned and regarded him with remorse. "We're sorry, Thor."

"Yes, we didn't mean to make you confused."

"We were just playing."

"We wouldn't actually have tied him up."

"Good to know…"

"Perhaps you should only be with a few of us at a time?"

"So that you have a better grasp of what's going on?"

"And not so many of us can talk at the same moment."

Thor nodded. "Okay. How about we pick three to go with me?"

Seven hands raised, all volunteering as tribute.

"Oh, but we can't all go…" The head Loki sighed. "I'll stay with him, and you, and you. You do Thor's homework with however you're doing it, and the other three of you… go cause havoc somewhere else."

The others nodded, and set about their tasks, immediately.

"What shall we play, now, Thor?"

Thor tapped his chin, a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"Good evening, General Tyr." Loki nodded respectfully to the aged warrior who taught them weapons training, and walked on.

"Prince Loki." He nodded, and went back to the dagger he'd been sharpening.

"Good evening, General Tyr." Another tiny voice piped. Tyr glanced up to see Loki standing before him with a cheerful smile on his face.

He hesitated. His old age must be catching up with him. He could've sworn Loki had just passed by, and greeted him… Oh, well. "Prince Loki." He nodded.

Not another minute passed, before, "Good evening, General Tyr."

"Wait a second…" Tyr looked up to see the young boy, once more, standing before him, tilting his little head curiously. "Are you alright, General?"

"I… I…" Tyr honestly had no idea. "Evening…" He finally sighed.

There was silence, as Loki walked on. Tyr furrowed his brow, and watched him depart with a strange expression on his face. Hesitantly, he bent over his dagger, again.

"Good evening, General-"

"Alright, what in the nine-" Tyr looked up to see Thor standing before him with a bewildered look. "I just said hello…"

Tyr blinked. "Um… That is… Prince Thor."

Thor nodded pleasantly, and bolted off, quickly darting behind a tree where his three brothers were howling with laughter.

A tiny hand reached up to snatch a cookie from the plate, in the kitchen.

"No." The cook, Lady Katherine shook her finger at the little prince. "You'll spoil your dinner."

"Oh, please?" Thor clasped his hands together hopefully. "Just one wouldn't hurt, would it?"

"I know you." Katherine sighed. "It would be just one, then just one more, then just another…"

"No, honest!" Thor smiled beguilingly. "Just the one. I'm so hungry…"

Katherine had always had a bit of a soft spot for the young princes. "Alright then. Where's your brother?"

"Here." Cried two voices at the same time. Katherine looked up to see two identical Lokis, side by side.

She blinked, rubbed her eyes, but they both remained. Her face was the picture of confusion.

"Do we all get a cookie?" The both of the Lokis asked as one.

"No." Katherine backed up, in confusion, unsure of which child was the changeling. "No cookies for any of you."

She glanced down to see the entire platter was gone, and a third Loki, cackling madly, as he ran off with all the cookies.

"You rascals!" She shrieked, but the young princes were already far out of earshot.

It wasn't long after that, that Frigga sought out Thor to find the remaining Lokis. By the time she found the last three, who were still with Thor, she had all nine of them tied loosely together, on a string, trailing behind her like so many ducklings.

"There the rest of you are…" She sighed in relief, as she saw the four of them stuffing their faces. "Come, Loki, I need to teach you to become one, again."

"But I like being many!" The head Loki protested. "You'd have to give me a bigger room to fit me all, and raise my allowance, because there are twelve of me to pay for, after all, and if I all huddle together, I'm just as big as one grown-up, and there's so much fun I can all have, together!"

"Maybe so." Frigga chuckled. "But it's hard to keep track of you all."

"That's the point." The Loki at the end of her string giggled.

Frigga knelt down, and gathered her twelve little Tricksters close. "Loki, the reason you can do this, is because you have a gift. A talent. I'd like to teach you how to use that gift, but I shan't do it, if there's going to be a dozen of you at a time."

The Lokis glanced at each other. This sounded like fun… Even more fun than having a dozen of him.

"What about me?" Thor wondered, his pudgy face covered in chocolate and cookie crumbs. "Do I have the talent? Can I be many?"

"No, you have another talent." Frigga assured him. "Both my boys are very special, and you're both gifted in different ways."

Thor and the Lokis smiled at each other, and scooted in closer to their mother.

"Listen carefully, now, Loki." Frigga instructed. "You must focus very hard on disappearing the shades."

"Shades?"

Frigga nodded. "Illusions of yourself, equipped with consciousnesses. They're called shades."

"We're just illusions?" One of them piped, sticking his hand through his fellow's head. "Cool!"

"Focus, dearest." Frigga chuckled.

One by one, the shades began disappearing, and soon, it was only the head Loki, sitting in Frigga's lap. "I did it!"

Thor applauded wildly, as Frigga placed a kiss on her little son's head. "I knew you could." She declared. "I'm proud of you, little one."

Loki glowed cheerfully, and puffed out his chest. He finally had something he was good at, a talent all to himself. Thor could command the storms, but he could be many. Perhaps he could do more things than just the shades.

The possibilities were endless, and with a delighted grin, he turned to his mother, thirsty for knowledge.

TheOnlyHuman.