//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: My Little Worm 
// by Alex12 
//------------------------------//

The darkness wavered, beginning to resolve into shapes, and sounds, and sensation. Something about my body felt wrong, but that could have been the pain.

"Ugh..."

"She's waking up!"

"Are you alright? Do you know where you are?"

Well, I guess it didn't work, then. Guess we'll have to go back to the drawing board.


I tried to respond out loud, but all that came out was a groan.

"Everybody, give her some space! And I want to know who locked her in there!"

Huh? Locked...what? Wait, 'everybody?' It worked?


I blinked repeatedly, willing my eyes to focus, and they did. Faces were staring down at me. Human faces, attached to human bodies. I was home.

Maybe I should have thought more about what I'd do when I got here. "I just spent four years living as a magic pony in a land of magic ponies." It sounded like a good idea at the time.

***

I couldn't tell my dad what had happened, not without proof. That evening, once I'd gotten a clean bill of health from my "ordeal" in the locker, I managed to get some time alone. I sat on my bed and stared at my alarm clock, concentrating. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, a grey glow surrounded it, and it began to lift in the air. I grinned, and resisted the urge to celebrate properly. I may not have had a horn anymore, but I still had my magic, though it was a lot harder without that focus. Experimentally, I focused on a mental image of the other side of the bed, and then pushed. The universe momentarily folded in, and I felt a comforting feeling of suction, before suddenly, I was there.

Despite not having my cutie mark anymore, I still had that special talent.

***

I resolved to tell my dad about everything. I hated lying- honesty was one of the most fundamental parts of harmony, after all- but I had needed to confirm that it wasn't just an incredibly detailed hallucination first. I also realized that I had to brush up on, well, everything. Even though apparently not much time had passed while I was gone, from my perspective, I'd had four years to forget how things worked here. I didn't want to slip up. But there would be time for that later.

When I went downstairs, I found him sitting at the kitchen table.

"Hey, kiddo. You feeling alright? You know, from yesterday? I've been on the phone with the school, and if you're not up for it today..." He trailed off, letting me know it was my choice. I sat down across from him.

"I'm feeling okay, dad, but I need to talk about something. It's going to sound crazy, but I need you to hear me out, okay?"

"Okay..." He was obviously concerned, but listened as I told him everything. How I'd somehow gone from being trapped into the locker to getting spit out of a magic mirror in an unfamiliar body in front of a group of talking ponies. Learning magic. Finding friends. Trying to get home. I didn't leave anything out. The whole story took over an hour to tell.

"...And I can still do magic. I tested it last night. It's tougher than it was, I guess because I don't have a horn to focus it through, but it's real." To prove this, I levitated a napkin and sent it fluttering across the table, sheathed in an aura of magical energy.

He stared at me.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you last night, but, well, I needed to make sure. I know it sounds crazy."

He continued staring. Had I broken my dad?

***

"And here's our rec room, where we come when we're not on-duty and just want to hang out. You're welcome to stop by anytime you're free. As you can see, we've got a well-stocked kitchen if you get hungry-"

"But I wouldn't eat anything Carlos makes. I swear his power screwed with his taste buds." The boy who had been sitting watching TV turned it off and stood up. "So you're the new girl? I'm Dennis, Clockblocker when we're in costume." He held out his hand for me to shake.

"Taylor, or Harmony, on-duty."

"You didn't even give my chocolate-dipped fried peppers a chance!" Aegis cut in. I could tell that this was a running joke between the two, and privately resolved to introduce Carlos to Pinkie Pie if the opportunity ever arose. Dennis ignored him.

"Harmony, huh? Let me guess, sonic powers?"

"Not even close." I grinned. "Teleportation, some telekinesis, and a few other little things. Mainly teleportation, though. Long story." I'd decided, and dad agreed with me, to minimize the 'magical' aspect of it. It wasn't exactly a secret, but given what I'd read, 'magic' capes were generally considered oddballs at best.

Whatever Dennis was going to say was interrupted when the other door to the rec room slammed open, and an angry-looking Sophia Hess stormed in, muttering something about "that cloudy bastard." She had almost passed us before she noticed me. I could tell because she stopped dead in her tracks and stared.

"Taylor? What? No. Bullshit. Bull-fucking-shit. No, I refuse to believe that this loser is a cape. Ugh, just, just get out of my way." She stormed past us, heading toward the hall we'd come from.

"Sophia, wait!" I teleported in front of her as she kept walking. "Listen, I know you never liked me, but-" She puffed into intangibility and walked straight through me before solidifying and continuing on. I teleported in front of her again, and tried wrapping her arm in a telekinetic aura, "but we're going to be on the same team. We're going to need to work toge-" Sophia again entered her shadow state, slipping out of my magical grip and once again passing straight through me. I teleported again, abandoning the possibility of a forcefield as excessively antagonistic. I wanted to make her listen, not imprison her, "together. Can we just start with a clean slate?"

I teleported back to the rec room, narrowly avoiding Sophia's fist slamming into my jaw. Great, just great. Dennis put his hand on my shoulder.

"Welcome to the club. Don't worry, I think she hates everybody."

I thought of Emma, my closest friend for most of my life, who was now firm friends with Sophia.

"Not everybody."

***

I focused on the flow of mana, shaping it to my will and binding the energy into a single structure, contained within the small crystal that floated in front of me. Magic, Mind, and Matter, unified in purpose.

"Hey, Harmony! What are you doing here?"

Fortunately, I had just finished setting the binding on the minor enchantment I'd placed into the piece of quartz, or I would have had to start over. I let the crystal drop from my telekinetic grip into my outstretched hand and looked at Kid Win. To be fair, he was the team's Tinker, and while officially any Ward could use the workshop, in practice it was his domain.

"I wanted to try making something. Here, catch!" I tossed the enchanted stone to my teammate, grinning. The instant his hand closed around it, he vanished, reappearing ten feet away from his original position. He dropped the crystal in shock, and I teleported it back to my hand before it hit the ground.

"What the heck was that? You didn't say anything about being a Tinker!"

"It's kind of complicated to explain, but it's not Tinker technology. I'm not even really sure it's technology, honestly. Think of it like a sort of tracer for my power that lets me kind of bypass the Manton effect. I mean, that's not exactly accurate, but you get the idea." While magic wasn't actually limited by the Manton effect, it was orders of magnitude harder to teleport someone unless I was touching them and took them along with me. "I can teleport this crystal, and anyone touching it, as easily as I can teleport myself. I figured I might as well do something useful while I'm waiting for my costume to come in."

Kid Win stared at me, his expression unreadable.

"You'll still have to run it by the higher-ups before anyone can use it."

I wasn't sure, but that could have been a trace of disappointment in his voice. I let it pass for now- I was still too new to the team to try and press on what appeared to be some kind of sore spot.

"I don't think it'll work for anyone else, but don't worry. I'm not going to try anything stupid." I smiled at him. "Anyway, I just finished. I'll leave you to your inventions."

***

When I got to the rec room, the only person there was Vista, watching TV with a bored look on her face. She perked up when she saw me, and turned off the TV.

"Hey, Missy, what's up?"

"I didn't know you were here! Chris was being boring, and there's nobody else here. They're all at home or patrolling." Missy leaned in and whispered conspiratorially "I think my parents use this as a daycare so they can be gone more often." She leaned back, a bored look on her face again. "But there's nothing good on TV, and Chris took apart the Nintendo for something."

I thought for a moment, and an idea came to me.

"Do you want me to tell you a story?" Missy looked skeptical, but I hastened to add, "Not a little kids story. A story with adventure, and action, and a brave girl and her friends who save the world. It's one of my favorites."

Missy nodded, and I smiled, clearing my throat.

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria..."

***
Timeskip
***

"Harm, are you sure you know what you're doing?" I look at Kid Win, though given the armor he's wearing, I can't actually see his face.

"Not really, but it might work, and we really lose nothing if it fails. And don't call me Harm."

I focus. Harder than I've ever focused on my magic before, on anything before. I mentally recite who matches to what. Clockblocker:Laughter. Kid Win:Generosity. Tattletale:Honesty. Gallant:Kindness. Bitch:Loyalty. And me, as the only real magic-user on the planet, Magic.

If this doesn't work, I'll look really stupid.

Just as I'm about to give up, I feel it. A spark of energy, of something greater. Even though my eyes are closed, I can suddenly see. See my friends, both the ones supporting me in this crazy plan and the ones counting on me. See the monster bearing down on me, water streaming behind it. See brave people, heroes and villains alike giving their all to stop it. I raise my hand and open my eyes, and a wave of rainbow ripples out.

Leviathan is enveloped in light of all colors, increasing in brightness. It becomes blinding, and then fades. I am just able to see that there is now a large statue of Leviathan, poised mid-rush, standing in the ruins.

"Oh...good. It worked."

Weakness hits me, my knees wobble, and I sink to the ground, unconscious before I land.

***
Timeskip
***

Scion had turned on us. Scion. How could we stop that?

He'd been the one to kill Behemoth. He'd effortlessly destroyed something that was only momentarily inconvenienced by nuclear weapons. None of the Endbringers had ever even injured him.

"Celestia preserve us." The words slipped out, a sign of how helpless I felt. How helpless we all felt.

"Will I do?"

That voice! 

I turned, filled with desperate hope.

"Discord!"

****

In orbit above the Earth, the Simurgh was suddenly wracked by what would have been the worst migrane anyone had ever suffered had the concept of migranes been applicable to Endbringers.

****

"Me! Oh, Taylor, you've no idea how hard it was to track you down. After all that effort? I had to make sure you landed back in that wonderfully chaotic world you called home!" The draconequus's voice suddenly turned questioning. "This is the right place, isn't it?"

I nodded dumbly, before managing to find my voice.

"I don't know how much longer it'll last. Scion went bad. You remember, I told you about him."

Discord thought for a moment before brightening. Literally, his head flashed with light.

"Of course I remember! The strongest being in your world! And now he's spreading chaos, death, and destruction. And while I'm all for spreading chaos, death and destruction ultimately means less opportunity for chaos." Something shifted somehow, and without actually altering his shape or features, Discord changed from being merely unusual and chaotic in appearance to something much more terrifying. "And nobody threatens my friends." With a flash of light that turned into glass, he vanished.