Shard of Magic [Worm crossover]

by blake0831

Interlude 12

The Dragoncraft flew over the Canadian Wilderness.

The last few days were rather hectic, even for Dragon. Coordinating relief and rebuilding efforts in Brockton Bay in the aftermath of the Leviathan attack, attempting to continue tracking of the remaining members of the Slaughterhouse 9, checking on the monitoring of various S-class threats across the globe were some of the responsibilities that Dragon had voluntarily taken onto her virtual shoulders.

One of the still working feeds watching the cells within Baumann Parahuman Containment Centre had worried the Canadian Thinker. Glaistig Uaine aka The Fairy Queen, the only cape who was a voluntary inhabitant of the infamous Birdcage had seen the footage on the Leviathan fight and something in there had caught her interest. One of Dragon's subordinate Virtual Intelligence (itself was an earlier project by her deceased creator Andrew Richter) flagged and analyzed the footage of Glaistig apparently conversing to herself about the possibility of making a visit to the 'Queen who was touched by Chaos', but apart from the deduction that whoever she refers to was currently in Brockton Bay, Dragon has no clue of the specifics of the desires of the Fairy Queen.

Speaking of perplexing events...

Dragon brought the Dragoncraft to a slow hover over a square clearing among the trees in the forest.

A Canadian Ranger patrol had caught sight of the oddities and alerted Dragon. She had dispatched a reconnaissance drone to survey the forest, only to find a ten foot tall word spelling out 'DRAGON', complete with her personal emblem were rather prominently laid out over a clearing, the lettering was printed out by laying the darker soil over the pristine white snow. The word was accompanied by an arrow pointing to a nearby, suspiciously square clearing nearby.

Curious as to who was calling for her, Dragon had loaded into a suit and piloted a VTOL Dragoncraft to the indicated site. Narwhal had insisted on following along as backup, as a precaution that this could be a trap. The force shield covered cape was the only one who both knew about Dragon's true nature as a fully sapient (though shackled) Artificial Intelligence and a close friend.

As the Dragoncraft landed and the rear bay doors were lowered, three figures walked out from the tree line where they had been concealed before. Dragon share a look with Narwhal before marching out to meet the three. With both parties out in the noon sun, Dragon could better see the three who had presumably called her here.

All three had a similar build, that of a quadrupedal equine with a pair of wings on their backs like the Pegasus of Greek Mythology, and an unicorn horn sprouting from their foreheads. But that's all the three had in similar to anything Dragon had seen before. The legs didn't actually resemble that of an actual horse, being much more stocky and tubular. The faces were a blend of horse and human, having an equine muzzle and ears but also large and expressive forward facing eyes. Dragon shifted her observations to the individuals.

The large and stocky stallion on the left, the one with a blood red body coat and dark gold mane pawed the ground with impatience, his face rather grumpy looking. It easily carried three large human-sized bundles slung over its back. The seafoam green stallion in the middle that was smaller than its brother fidgeted in place, his large and long dolphin like tail (a hippocampus?) swishing in uncertainty behind it. The smallest of the three was a willowly alabaster mare with a serene look on her face and was balancing a large steel covered briefcase on her back between her large wings.

Dragon stepped forward and activated her speakers. "Hello?" she cautiously greeted. "Who are you?"

The three were silent, merely looking at her. Were they mute? Or were they Case 53s who didn't know their own identity?

"Do you know who you are?" Dragon inquired, only to be met with silence again.

Aware of Narwhal shifting on her feet behind her, Dragon tried again. "Why do you want to meet me?"

That prompted a response. The horns of the blood red stallion and the alabaster mare glowed and the objects on their backs were levitated over to Dragon and dumped onto the ground in front of Dragon. Dragon jerked in shock as she identified the unconscious but unharmed humans. They were Saint and the DragonSlayers! As Dragon 'blinked' in surprise over the humans, Narwhal cautiously picked up the large briefcase and opened it, revealing it to be some sort of a portable custom made terminal that looked familiar to Dragon.

Shaking herself out of her shock, Dragon stepped aside around the bodies and looked at the three beings. "Why?" she asked in puzzlement, as Narwhal took the opportunity to use her forcefields to restrain the DragonSlayers and carry them into the Dragoncraft.

The horn on the alabaster mare glowed, and a stick began to write on the ground nearby, digging deep into the snow into the soil underneath. "EXCHANGE."

Dragon blinked again. "Exchange? For what?" she asked, tilting the head of the suit.

The stick wrote the response. "TEACH."

"Teach?" Dragon echoed. "You teach me?" she questioned, only to be answered with a simultaneous shake of their heads.

"I teach you three?" Dragon tries to clarify. "Teach you about what?"

"HOW TO BE GOOD." The stick wrote on a new patch of snow.

Dragon stared at the odd request. Good? What? Dragon looked again at the trio. "Are you- What are you? Case 53s?" she blurted out.

The three merely shook their heads in unison. "NO. DIFFERENT." the mare wrote out.

Dragon paused to gather herself. "Why me?" she asked.

The horn on the seafoam stallion glowed and the written-on patch of snow smoothed itself back to a pristine state. "YOU ARE SUITABLE. YOU UNDERSTAND US."

Dragon paused again. Why did these strangers trust her so much? In what way does Dragon 'understand' them? Why did they trust her enough to 'teach' them 'how to be good'?

Dragon shook her head and looked at the three. "If I agree to this, do I get to know who you are? Or what you are?" she asked carefully.

The alabaster mare only smiled enigmatically.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

So I take it I'm going to have to know about Worm in order to understand this story?

[Blue68]

9795724
This takes place after the Endbringer event with Taylor that is all I will say

[CrimsonPlays]

9795724
to understand a lot of stuff in detail yes, but the author has done a good job at giving out the personalities of everyone so far and the general info of the world, except heartbreaker who really doesn't need a lot of screen time to get his general gist, or the S9.

[Late_Night]

for those who are confused, the endbringers are now alicorns
and apparently wanna be good now

[Ranakastrasz]

9885440
Brainwashing for the greater Good :D
Ofc they were arguably AI intelligences before, and not people, but still.

[Architect Ironturtle]

Is Eidolon an Alicorn? Please tell me Eidolon's an Alicorn, he'd totally FLIP. It should be an omake if nothing else.

[BronzeGear]

This is awesome!
Please! Keep going!

[Reishin Amara]

A SEAFOAM stallion...oh boy, I see where this is going.

A bit surprised no ones written a Worm displaced yet.

[TheDriderPony]

Fantasic story and criminally underviewed. Bit of a shakey start, but it quickly ramps up in quality. I hope to see it return someday.

[Ariel Schnee]

The one on Spacebattles is more updated.

[NachoTheBrony]

Thanks so much for this nice story.

[Ranakastrasz]

10721208
It has been a while since I read this story, or posted that, so I am not entirely sure what the context was. Probably Taylor's power vs Eidolon's Power. (I don't even recall her cape name in this fic)
That said, most likely it is the thing where the raw amount of energy and biomass behind the entities, and Eidolon, having free access to all unallocated shards (to my understanding) means his power level is comparable, albiet inferior. The amount of energy involved exceeds that of supernovas. There being 10^88 or some other rediculous number of alternate universes, and the entities being able to detonate all alternate earths in each and every one does suggest a higher level of power. Entity communication uses Supernova levels of energy.

Of course, this is all irrelevant, because writers can't do math. and FTL of any type violates real life physics so it is hard to say. But Cosmic tier vs Solar Tier, Cosmic tier, even with partial access, wins.

As for accessability, Eidolon gets to choose three general goals which his power selects other available powers to fill, which take seconds to minutes to fully access. Prolonged use drains those powers, and they never recharge, presumably because the cycle is broken and they lack power feeds.
Taylor on the other hand has access to a number of low level powers, and can select a goal and get a power tailor made for it, after some amount of time, after which she always has it. However, it takes a long time, and likely doesn't wear out.

[Spellflame]

10721224
Her raw power

[Spellflame]

Update?

[Spellflame]

10480628
Thankyou!!!!!

[Spellflame]

10789214
Works

[Spellflame]

10789321
Here is another worm/mlp
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12621766/1/

[Greatazuredragon]

Lol.

Great story so far, hope you get back to it eventually.

[Ariel Schnee]

10789327

It's also on Sufficient Velocity at https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/world-building-worm-my-little-pony-alt-power.41049/ , and Spacebattles under the new name Reconstruction at https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/reconstruction-worm-my-little-pony-alt-power.559117/ .

[Cobalt Comet]

An excellent story, hope you continue it someday.

[link4]

9795724
to be fair, i know nothing and i'm enjoying this.

[link4]

9885440
3 endbringers all in one location, right after levi? hot damn

[Celestia GF of the Void]

Having just found this story, I really really hope it doesn't stay as dead as it apparently seems to be. Please come back to this and continue, it's so very good.

[The Real Lamp Shady]

Oooh, I hope this will be updated at some point. Please write more!

[sinewystatue382]

hay do more chapters i can't wait to see more soon