I know this is a really, really short chapter compared to normal, but that's because it's mostly to announce that the first part of my story of MCU Loki meeting my Loki is finally up! Woohoo! Some of you were apparently looking forward to it, or so you say. It was going to be a one-shot but I think it'll be two or three chapters now. So if you want to, you can go check that out. But don't forget to read this too :)
I'm pretty happy with the first part of that story, but having it be multiple parts does mean I'll have to juggle writing that and this, and I'm really bad at juggling stories. As evidenced by why this chapter took so long and is still really short. I spent like all my time on that this month.
On a different note, it's now been a year, to the day, since I started posting this story, and I just want to give yet another HUGE thank you to everybody! I never imagined this would get the feedback it has. (I also didn't think I'd pass the 500 review mark in less than a day after posting chapter 36).
Also, I never imaged I'd be writing this for a year, or that it'd be this long, or that the story would end up where it is right now. This story has pretty much been my life outside of school and I'm honestly fine with that.
By the way, I know one of the leg bones is a femur (you'll see what I mean in the first paragraph).
Even in the dim light provided by his maybe-magical crystal, Thor can clearly see the horse's ribs jutting out, and its leg bones (Thor doesn't know the name) also stick out of very noticeably from the rest of its thin body.
The sight disgusts and horrifies him, because unlike on Midgard, the horse cannot even die of hunger, yet undoubtedly feels the pain just as strongly. The horse is rather smaller than the horses in the stables, and Thor wonders if it's because the horse is younger, or if its growth has been stunted due to starvation. Well, it's obviously starving even if its growth hasn't been permanently stunted.
As if the obvious lack of food is not enough, then there's the fact this horse has been locked away in the dark among its own filth for Allfather knows how long.
It's incredibly cruel, and Thor can't think of what the horse would have done to deserve this. No, he corrects himself, there is nothing anyone could do that would make them undeserving of something as basic as nourishment, even if it is not technically necessary for survival here. Nobody deserves to be locked in the dark practically swimming in their own filth, either.
Thor never would have wished this fate on Loki. No matter how horribly he treated him in other ways, at least they'd never done this. Even when he locked Loki in entrance to the dungeons once for fun, he hadn't even been there for an hour. The poor wretches down here have obviously been down here for much, much longer.
Thor would not even wish this on the Frost Giants he's killed, who- in Thor's mind- had been nameless, savage beasts. Surely this fate is worse than death.
As horrible as this poor horse's situation is, Thor wonders why Heimdall thinks the Man of Iron would want to know about this.
Thor frowns. Some part of him is telling him he's seen this horse somewhere before, but unsure of where. Certainly not the stables. Almost immediately upon returning to thinking about Tony Stark, the answer hits Thor like a blow from Mjolnir.
He'd seen this horse the last time he'd visited Tony Stark. Or, rather, he'd seen what had most likely been an illusion, when Loki fled after talking about that female Jotun, Elsa, and how her sister Anna still loved her despite that. How everyone treated her as a monster. It had been rather familiar, to say the least.
The illusion of the horse at Stark's mansion had been of a colt, smaller than the horse in front of him. It hadn't looked starved, either, but the eight legs are a rather big giveaway that it was an illusion of this horse.
His mane is long and matted, clearly not having been trimmed or cared for in some time, and it looks to be the exact shade of Loki's hair.
This is one of Loki's... friends, is it not? The friends Thor and the others had mocked Loki about, had said were not real. Had hit him- no, had full out beat him- for talking to, since he looked like even more of a weird freak when talking to air.
They were wrong. Very wrong, and all this time, the horse had been here, without even Loki to talk to anymore, most likely.
If Thor had known... well, he certainly wouldn't have let the horse stay down here. What had the horse's name been, again? Bruce had mentioned it, and Loki had sometimes dropped names when seeming to talk to thin air.
"...Sleipnir?" Yes, that was it.
Sleipnir hadn't even seemed to notice Thor up until now, glassy eyed just like Loki and seeming lost in his own little world. Thor can't blame him. If he was stuck down here in the disgusting filth and darkness, he would try to imagine himself somewhere else, too.
Was Sleipnir talking to Loki just now, Thor wonders? He once again remembers, very guiltily now, mocking Loki for it and even beating him up and telling him to stop being even more of a freak. Odin had been absolutely livid when he'd heard Loki doing it. It seemed like Loki stopped, but sometimes he'd blurt out something he probably only wanted to say in his head. Gradually, even that had ceased.
It seems Loki and his friends finally started talking again on Midgard, if Thor's last visit was any indication.
Sleipnir now regards him with eyes more intelligent than any steed Thor's seen, and the horses in Asgard are smarter than those on Midgard. The way Sleipnir is looking at him, it's obvious he somehow knows what Thor's done to Loki. In fact, the horse practically projects his thoughts so Thor hears them in his head, or at least the meaning.
Go away. Loki doesn't like you in his head. You make the... flash-backs and bad dreams come. The tone of the voice in Thor's head sounds scared, exhausted, and maybe a little childish. It's as if he's actually hearing what Sleipnir's voice would sound like. Perhaps this is what Loki heard in his head when they said he was talking to nobody. There's a pause, and then We don't need you.
Thor frowns in confusion. Loki's head? That makes no sense. He's also confused that the words aren't actually spoken, but rather enter his head. At Tony Stark's mansion, Sleipnir had sung a tune out loud, some tune Thor vaguely recognized but has no idea where he heard it. Why would he speak aloud there, but not here?
"This is not Loki's head." Thor says, and Sleipnir cocks his head to the side in a manner almost like Loki, clearly skeptical. Thor and, well, everyone but Loki, had said Sleipnir was all in Loki's head. That he wasn't really real. If that's all he heard, would he really think it true?
Sleipnir still seems confused, though, his expression clearly saying what's running through Thor's head, about how everyone said he was in Loki's head.
"This is a dungeon in Asgard." Thor elaborates, hating having to admit this.
You lied. Sleipnir's eyes seem to accuse, though it still seems like he hasn't totally wrapped his head around the implications yet.
Thor lowers his gaze. "If I had known that you were down here, I would not have allowed it. I would... not have said what I did about you. You heard that, did you not?" Sleipnir just gives him a very unimpressed look at the apology.
Not that Thor thought he should be forgiven that easily.
Why is Sleipnir even down here? What could he have possibly done? How is he even down here? Clearly, he's not imaginary, but where in the Nine Realms did he come from?
Surely Father must know about this, being the Allfather. Actually, now that Thor thinks about it, Father is most likely the one who is responsible for Sleipnir being down here. Thor's hands clench and he actually growls. How could Father allow this?
Thor hadn't known about this when he told Loki on numerous times that Sleipnir wasn't real, that him and the others were just in Loki's stupid, crazy brain. He wonders if Mother had known, but he can't imagine her ever letting this happen. He doesn't want to imagine Father letting this happen, but he has to have known.
So Father has to know, and he had still lied to Loki and said they weren't real. He'd been absolutely livid whenever Loki talked about his friends, whereas Thor and his friends just thought it was weird. Father had also lied by not telling them he, too, has magic. Yet he'd sewn Loki's lips shut when Loki lied about a statue of Buri being broken. He sometimes whipped him for other lies and almost always wound up screaming in Loki's face.
Thor actually feels rather ashamed of Odin, something he never thought he'd feel about his father. It's wrong to lie about this, but it's even more wrong to punish Loki for lying only to lie himself.
Dr. Banner had said that Loki had to make up his own "Monster Family" because Thor and his family hadn't acted like they were supposed to when they took Loki in. Father had never intended for Loki to be part of the family and made that clear at every opportunity. Mother had probably been the nicest to Loki out of anyone in Asgard, not that there's much competition at all, considering how he was treated. Well, Mother is the nicest after Heimdall, who had saved Loki when Thor and the Warriors Three dragged him to Jotunheim after the Jotuns invaded during Thor's coronation.
Father made sure Loki kept his distance from the royal family. Thor never made him feel anything close to welcome, either. Not even when Loki was a baby, when Thor hadn't been able to see past his blue skin.
Is Sleipnir actually Loki's family? Thor doesn't really have a way to find out right now. Sleipnir doesn't provide any useful answers, honestly not seeming to know.
When he lowers the light crystal a bit, Thor notices a latch on the door and unlocks it. The metal screeches in protest, and the bolt clearly hasn't been touched in a long time. The sound almost makes Thor jump, and Sleipnir definitely does jump, as well as some of the other prisoners.
"Where are the others? There are more of you... more friends of Loki, correct?" Thor asks. There had been others, he remembers. A very large wolf had also made an appearance on his last visit to Tony Stark's mansion, and he's pretty sure the snake around Loki's neck was yet another friend, even if it sometimes looks rather fake. There was something about a girl, too, he thinks.
They're not here. Sleipnir's gaze says, though he seems a little uncertain.
Thor takes some time to look for them in the other cells. The cells are really more like cages, where other poor wretches waste away. None of them seem like Loki's other friends (three of which are animals, Thor's pretty sure) but one prisoner near him has a shaved head, marking his status as a slave.
Slavery is another thing Midgard and Asgard differ on nowadays, though Thor knows the Midgardians used to have slaves as well. Certainly in Thor's lifetime. Maybe if Midgardians lived as long as Thor does, slavery would still be common there.
They've shifted their views, though, and Asgard has remained the same. And most Asgardians consider themselves more advanced than 'mere mortals'. Thor had heard that slaves were punished in the dungeon, but he thought it was more like the upper, rather more pleasant floors of the dungeons. Not this.
Even the criminals and slaves down here, in the other cages, don't deserve this, and Sleipnir probably hasn't even done anything. Aside from simply exist. Did Odin consider him a monster?
When he returns to Sleipnir's cage, there's a sound of something moving, and Thor notices that Sleipnir has backed up to huddle in the corner of his cell, eight legs trembling fiercely. He blinks and realizes he is the cause of this.
One thing is for sure. Thor cannot leave him down here. He slowly pulls the door open, which leads to even more of the sound of metal screeching.
"I mean you no harm." Thor tells the horse, who clearly does not believe him. "I'm going to get you out of here, I swear on Mjolnir." Oaths are not taken lightly on Asgard. "I will take you to Loki, where you'll be happy and fed more than here."
Thor is hoping Sleipnir will approach him so he won't have to actually step inside the filth, but it's clear Sleipnir's not convinced. Then again if he's seen what Thor's done to Loki, it would make sense if he didn't totally trust Thor.
Well, whether he has the horse's trust or not, Thor's going to get him out of here. Taking a deep breath and holding it, he slowly steps in. He knows what squishes under his boot, but he'd really rather not think about it.
Slowly, he makes his way up to the horse and reaches out. Sleipnir flinches visibly but doesn't have anywhere near the energy to fight him. He's not even standing, and when Thor tries to pick him up, he offers no assistance. Whether that's out of stubbornness or if he's too exhausted to stand anymore is a mystery to Thor.
Thor has to stoop down a little to put his arms under Sleipnir's body and make sure he won't collapse. Sleipnir's legs are just a hair longer than Thor's own are. The thunderer finds himself wishing Sleipnir was more of the size that he'd appeared to be at Tony's mansion, when he'd seemed to be a young colt. Actually, it would be nice if he were even smaller than that. He mutters this more or less to himself. Loki can change himself, he'd even become Tony once.
Sometimes, he'd changed his appearance in Asgard, too. Once he'd gotten weirder, it had been pretty easy to tell it was him even when he was in a different body, like it had been easy to tell when he was in Tony's body during the last visit.
Sleipnir may not weigh much (and even if he did, Thor's really strong), but he's still big and unwieldy, so it's not like Thor can just scoop him into his arms. He has to act as a crutch for Sleipnir, since the horse's eight legs would probably give out otherwise.
It's slow, but he manages to walk Sleipnir to the doorway of the cell. At this rate, it will take hours to get Sleipnir out of to Heimdall's dome. The horse is obviously very tense and doesn't like Thor touching him, but clearly doesn't have the energy to fight.
As Thor practically drags the exhausted horse out of his cell, taking great care not to bump him against the bars, Sleipnir lets out a sort of huff, and slowly starts to shrink, until he's even smaller than he'd appeared at Tony Stark's mansion. The smaller size just makes him seem even more frail than his larger, equally emaciated form.
Apparently, Sleipnir has at least some magic, just like Loki, even though Thor only saw shimmering instead of green energy when Sleipnir transformed. Well, that had been the case with Loki too, he thinks.
Perhaps that is how they communicated- through magic. Thor has no idea how that would work- would they need to be related for that to work? Are they related? Do they share the same magic? Despite living with Loki for over a thousand years, Thor knows very little of magic.
"You have magic." Thor finds himself saying to Sleipnir, who probably thinks Thor will hate him for it. Thor doesn't, though, and he keeps talking in a low voice. "Both my parents do as well, but they did not tell me until recently." Both his parents having it is now common knowledge in Asgard, though Thor doubts the news had travelled this far. But maybe Sleipnir had already heard from Loki? After a bit, he adds "I swear I will not hurt you for your seidr."
He pulls off his cape- the bottom of which is now absolutely repulsive after what it's been drug through in the cell, and wraps the red fabric around the now-tiny colt like blankets around a newborn babe before cradling the bundled horse against his chest. Sleipnir's eight legs, now folded up against his body, feel weird against Thor's arms and chest. Like he's really holding two young horses instead of one.
Thor shuts the cell door to another screech of protesting metal, but they're so far down that there's no way the guards in the upper dungeons will hear it.
Perhaps it's just because Thor's body is warmer than the cold air in the lower dungeons, but Sleipnir actually seems to snuggle up against Thor's chest through the bundle of cape instinctively. Thor at least hopes he's providing some warmth through his body heat to the poor horse.
With a small Sleipnir cradled to his chest, Thor walks back down the hallway.
It's only after taking about three steps up the staircase that Thor realizes that just walking out may not be the best way to get out of here. Even though he's Prince, he doesn't think just walking out past the guards with a prisoner he just freed would go over well at all. Ultimately, the guards report to Odin. If Odin finds out about this, he'll probably try and stop Thor from bringing Sleipnir to Midgard.
If only there were a way to avoid the guards...
There's another staircase going down from this hallway of the dungeons, spiraling below the stairs Thor had taken down here. He rearranges Sleipnir slightly in his arms until he can hold up the crystal and consult the map Heimdall had given him.
The map labels the stairs going down as an exit, but there's no map for what's at the bottom. It seems Heimdall ran out of space to draw on the fruit basket's tag and that was probably the only paper he had. If it hadn't been for the pen in the basket, Heimdall would not have had anything to draw with, either.
Thor tucks the map in his pocket and holds his glowing crystal high as he descends even further. He was already really far below the palace, but this staircase isn't actually that long. Sleipnir stares at the crystal the whole time.
This dungeon Sleipnir was just freed from is horrible enough, and Thor is somewhat reluctant to learn what's below it. From the rate things seem to be degrading, it's probably comprised of torture chambers or something.
Thankfully, he finds it to be simply an empty hallway without even any cells, though there are barrels stacked against the wall. It seems rather deep for mead storage, but he's not sure if that's what's in the barrels.
The crystal's light doesn't reach the end of the corridor, and when Thor reaches an intersection with another corridor, he keeps going straight.
He might be imagining it, but his crystal seems to get steadily brighter as the minutes tick by and eventually he finds a staircase going up. It's a good thing Sleipnir's smaller, because it would have been a tight fit otherwise.
As Thor climbs another flight of seemingly endless stone stairs like the one he'd descended earlier, Sleipnir's reek becomes even more noticable now that he's not surrounded by excrement. He smells like he hasn't had a bath in ages, not that Thor's at all surprised, given the conditions he'd been in.
Finally, Thor arrives back in the palace halls, and squints at the almost blinding light. He hadn't been down there for even anywhere near an hour. How much worse must it be for Sleipnir, who was down there for Allfather knows how long?
Thor really hopes he won't run into the Allfather right now. Or the Warriors Three, or Sif. As he walks, he realizes he's literally tracking shit through the halls with his boots, even after climbing all those stairs. Oops.
Tony would probably say that's fitting, he thinks.
Thor gets several odd looks for carrying his bundled cape, although he's draped a bit of the red cloth over Sleipnir's head, both to hide him from the view of others and to block out some of the light, which had clearly bothered him even more than the crystal's light.
He decides if anyone asks, he'll say he was out hunting. Or that a new foal was born, or something. So he doesn't have a great lie, but thankfully he only passes servants, slaves and guards, and it's not their place to ask questions of their prince.
Thank the norns he doesn't run into Odin on his way to Heimdall's dome.
Once he arrives, Heimdall eyes the cape and gives Thor an approving look. Clearly, this is what the gatekeeper meant by saying he hoped Thor would do the right thing. It is the right thing.
Thor frowns. "How could Father have allowed this?"
Heimdall doesn't answer, but maybe he's not allowed to. Or, like Thor, he has no idea why Odin had done this.
"Is he Loki's?" Thor asks next, wondering if Heimdall will be able to answer that.
"Aye, Loki birthed him." Heimdall says, and if Thor had known that earlier, he definitely would have bullied Loki for that, too, for being argr. Although he's not even sure how that works. Had Loki gotten pregnant as a man or something?
It does explain Sleipnir's magic. Although, Thor has to wonder why he doesn't have magic, if both Mother and Father do. Maybe if he had, he would have been nicer to Loki, although not having it is no excuse for what he did.
He's planning on asking Heimdall about Loki's other friends (or Monster Family, as Banner had called them) but Heimdall interrupts. "The Allfather approaches, my leige. You must leave."
Heimdall lowers his sword in his platform and Yggdrasil appears. Before he's whisked away, Thor asks him "You will not tell the Allfather of this, correct?"
"I will not be here. I have a nice spa trip to enjoy, do I not?" Heimdall replies with a ghost of a smile before Thor's whisked off to Midgard.
The light where he ends up, beating down from the sun, is even more blinding than the light in the palace. Thor's in a small town that he'd recognize anywhere.
Puente Antiguo, where he was banished around two and a half years ago, and where he first met his beloved Jane Foster.
So, yeah, it's a short chapter but I still like it. We get some more Thor progress, that's always good. Really, other than a complete sadist, who could leave Sleipnir down there? Maybe Thor will help out the other prisoners sometime?
I imagine Sleipnir sort of watched most of Loki's life from down there, which might have made it seem even more like he was in Loki's head.
Another reason for Thor ending up in New Mexico is, really, dumping a starving, real Sleipnir off at Stark Tower really wouldn't go over well at all. I almost wonder if Clint's farm could help Sleipnir, too.
Writing Jane, Darcy and maybe Erik Selvig will be fun. Especially Darcy. Although it might be kind of hard too. Especially since they've never heard about Loki, and presumably he's going to come up.
Well, I've missed the holiday boat again. If I ever have a Christmas scene in this, it won't actually line up with Christmas in real life.
See you... sometime. It depends on when I work on my short Loki meeting Loki story and when I work on this.
For Christmas, I got an awesome hoodie that looks like Iron Man's armor and if you turn it inside out, it looks like Cap's armor. I mostly wear the Iron Man side though :)
Next chapter should be back to the usual length.