New Legacy

Ch.58

“Rora?” I asked meekly of my beloved Rider as I looked ahead at Vroengard on the horizon.

“Yeah?” Rora asked from next to me, just as dumbstruck at the sight of the beryll blue barrier that had erupted over the entire massive island that on its own could be an island nation if not for all of the mountains dominating it. Then again, if the wargs get involved…

“Do you see a giant magic barrier that is pulling on our essence like an overjoyed child trying to get us to play with them?” I questioned as I fought against the urge to take flight personally and outpace the ships.

“Oh, I thought you were going to ask if I wanted fish for dinner.” Rora snarked playfully and I punched her in the arm. “But yeah, I really want to get in there. Like, right now.”

“Go on ahead. We won’t even reach that barrier for a few hours yet at our current pace. You can fly much faster at your full size, please feel free to scout ahead.” Celestia said, since she was topside while Luna was restoring and apparently upgrading Rora’s armor, much to Rora’s protest. She liked the work her warg friends did on it and it felt insulting to have someone else alter it, but Luna wouldn’t have any of it since it wasn’t optimized for an alicorn.

“Well, let’s go. First though…” Rora smirked and reached into my cleavage, causing me to roll my eyes when she began retrieving my lighter, more ‘lewd’ armor. Seriously, all that made it lewd was the fact it had an open-front combat skirt and a malleable breastplate that supported more than concealed my breasts. Well, our breasts if the way Rora was rapidly charging herself up with the still-sleepy Eldunarya was an indicator.

“I sense Cadence is no longer pouring her essence and power into someone. She’s at rest, so hopefully she is okay. Please report back what you find.” Celestia informed us and then requested, to which I gave her a thumbs up before Rora finished armoring up and kissed me. I moaned at the sensation of being absorbed until we were once more a crystal draconequus.

We took off with a powerful flap, then transformed into my full-size serpent form before flying with all haste for the massive mountainous island. With my full size and available speed due to my streamlined shape, powerful wings and magic, we made it to Vroengard within 20 minutes, easily hours ahead of the ships. “Rora, this is nothing like what I remember.”

Which was a good thing. Whatever the barrier is, it let us slip through with nothing more than a tingle and a cessation of the eager pull it had on our essence. Inside, it seemed as if all of the monstrosities had been killed simultaneously and were now being eaten by the less mutated or at least non-harmful creatures. The Snalgli particularly seemed much less aggressive and were passively slithering about and nomming on the vegetation.

Once over the mountains creating a barrier, we saw a surprisingly intact Doru Araeba with many people congregating and clearly enjoying themselves. At least until they looked up and fled in terror! We stayed above and looked warily at Thorn as things continued below without us interfering. If Thorn is here, then Murtagh is too. What are they doing here?

“Cousin, if you can hear me, please come on down. The people here are skittish and won’t be comfortable with you looming on high like an apex predator waiting for prey.” Murtagh openly spoke to us, with telepathy. Murtagh was always iffy about that though, why the change?

We complied though. If he’s willing and able to be civil, then we will be too. We slithered down the mountain and I couldn’t help nomming on a Snalgli on the way down. Mm~! Juicy and crunchy! I think I may have been too grossed out to try escargot when I was Milly Miller, but mm~! I can see why these things are considered a favorite meal for dragons. Shame they’re only native to here...or are they? What are the laws on invasive species?

“I see you’ve already tried the local delicacy. They are quite delicious. I could do without the slime, but it too is fairly pleasant.” Thorn conversationally spoke as we neared and I extended my forelegs/arms to rear back just in case. “There is no need to be aggressive. We are free, thanks to whatever sorcery the Crystal Heart possesses.”

“Good. We’re going to transform now.” We informed Murtagh and Thorn before we did so and approached with the two of them looking at us in surprise. “What? Never seen a Rider fused with their Dragon before? We consider it a new form of ‘Riding’ since the dragon’s body takes the physical priority, but the Rider has full control unless sharing. We find it amazing.”

“I’ll say. So what do we call you? Shimora?” Murtagh smirked when we groaned at him instantly joining in on the name game. Why? Why must people insist on renaming us an admittedly nice-sounding Japanese name?

“Wait.” Thorn transformed and was thankfully not nude, instead wearing simple tunic and trousers. “So are you a new form of dragon? We knew you were an odd serpentine dragon now, Shimmer, but fused in this way, are you a new-new species?”

“Um...perhaps. Why?” We blinked and he smirked lecherously, causing us to blush. “Um...maybe another time?” We meekly deflected and he playfully snapped his fingers in a ‘dang it’ manner that made us giggle. “Anyway. So what happened? What’s going on?”

“Cadence, the rightful heir of the throne of Broddring, an alicorn goddess, was Sombra’s prisoner for seventy years. Essentially the instant she ascended instead of having the luck of being slaughtered like her entire family. She made a last desperate gambit for escape by infusing herself into Nasuada, who brute-forced her way out of her bindings, stole the Crystal Heart, then tore straight across the Empire for me. For here.” Murtagh informed us proudly.

“Wait, Nasuada is here?! Where?!” She was the primary reason we were pursuing Cadence. Cadence was important, but our aunt warned us to get Nasuada or we were doomed!

“She is inside, resting. She has had a stressful imprisonment combined with torture, both cruel and sexual, for a month. Follow this with a couple of days of frantically escaping and seeking something without sleep? She’s down and out for now.” Thorn informed us with a gesture towards the central governmental-looking building we were standing in the plaza of.

“Assuming you’re here, is anyone else about to show up on our doorstep?” Murtagh asked tiredly, as if resigned to already have to deal with politics. We cringed, because that was exactly what was going to happen.

“Yes. Princesses Celestia and Luna of Equestria with 5 of their airships will be here in a couple of hours.” We then looked around, warily noticing all of the people emerging from hiding and approaching cautiously.

“Oh, yes. Everyone! This is Shimora! She is a Dragon Rider too, rejoice for assistance is coming!” Murtagh shouted and looked at us mischievously. You rat bastard! You just-eep! Put us down! Neither of us have ever crowd-surfed, help~! Don’t touch our butt! S-stop stroking our tail~!

🥚

Luna would not stop snickering, Celestia couldn’t help the warm smile and amusement in her eyes. We were upset that everyone on Vroengard now knew us as Shimora and not by our individual names despite explanation and even splitting up to show them. It was unanimously decided by the citizens to call us Shimora when fused and we caved to their insistence.

“There you are, Alberta. I’ve been waiting for weeks.” An earth pony huffed as she jogged up to a robed wolf wearing fur armor underneath. Why does the mare have her eyes blindfolded? Why is she carrying a lantern if she is?

“Sorry about that, my portal ended up in the north for some reason.” The stacked wolfess chuckled. Hey, wait. She’s not a local species! Her bust size is also a dead giveaway. She’s from Kala’s dimension.

“You have terrible luck. Well, should we head to the capital to aid that army and make an offer to the Displaced? Urta and Wiatr thinks they can help another Displaced. Also, she needs to make a Token.” The earth pony sighed and the wolfess grabbed her snout and pointed her at us. Why us? “Oh. Hello! We have an exciting offer for you!”

“Not a good idea to do it now, hun. They’re needed here.” The lupine lady gently conked the blind mare’s head. “Listen here you, hm, two. We could very much use your assistance with an important matter once your adventure is finished.”

“Come on~. They’ve already got all the pieces together. They’ve just gotta waltz up to Sombra with the Crystal Heart and he’ll just cease to exist! Let’s get more involved here and just blast that bastard from space! We’re going to be setting up shop here anyway!” The blind mare declared and the wolfess sighed before bringing out a communicator like Kala’s.

“Okay. Command. Pointless question: The locals are essentially on the verge of winning, it’ll just take a lot of time and carting the Crystal Heart into Sombra’s range...fuckin’ really? Really?!” The wolfess’ tail fluffed up incredibly and her bust even engorged in obvious arousal to pair with her scent as her expression became gleeful and manic. “Okay! You got the coordinates?! Good! Hey everyone! Get on the southeast mountains if you wanna see something epic!”

“Huh?” We wondered what was happening right now. Setting up shop? Still, we did as suggested while many others got onto the ships that hovered just above the mountaintops. We watched for a bit...then a nearly blindingly bright beam of turquoise energy streamed from the heavens and struck somewhere on the continent, causing us all to gape in shock and horror.

“Woo! Yes! Orbital laser for the win~! Ha! Eat that you tyrannical fuck! Yes! Good news everyone! King Sombra the usurper of Broddring is no more! Long Live Queen Nasuada and King Murtagh!” The wolfess shouted into a megaphone and everyone, us included, were still in shock, but the news caused most to cheer. “Hey hero! Come on down here!”

“Okay…” We uneasily muttered and flew down to the lupine alien who just had her government use an orbital laser strike to kill the main antagonist of our adventure. No big. The fact her people can wipe us all out like we’re nothing has been well displayed, surely nobody will try to poke the friendly sleeping bear. “Did you just kill a whole city of innocent civilians?” We asked when we approached and the female wolf shook her head.

“Nah, just the people in the castle. We’re able to scale and fire lasers to a square meter of accuracy with only a margin of error. The city around the castle got shook up, no doubt, but the castle itself is glassed. Well, besides the egg that was there. Mission control had a Time Squad pop in and nab it seconds before flash-fry. That means no temporal magic can be used around there for a long time, like maybe centuries, but yeah, that egg is supposed to be in safe hands now.”

🥚

Arya was absolutely baffled. She was holding a beautiful emerald egg, why was it warm? With a flash, she yelped and gasped as a wondrous sensation filled her breast and she was now clutching an emerald dragon to her chest as her mind expanded beyond her wildest imaginings.

🥚

“Oh...okay. Right. Kala kept waxing poetic about your Empire and all...we can see why she’s so high and mighty about it.” We sighed and cracked our neck. “We’re assuming you didn’t do this for free?”

“Of course not. So long as that despot was alive, we only had so limited an access to this dimension. Now it’s free game for us to help you reach the stars and exploit the crap out of your universe’s resources! Of course, that’ll take centuries. Remedial uplifting programs for primitive societies take a long time. Oh, I’m Alberta, your handler.” The wolfess declared with a held-out hand which we shook.

“We’re Shimora-damn it. We’re a Dragon Rider pair. Shimmer the Dragon and Rora the Rider. We’re fused right now and because everyone insists on calling us Shimora, we guess it’s an apt name for us while in one body.” Might as well own it. We’re already one in mind, heart and soul. What extra barrier is a body? At least this isn’t permanent and we can split up whenever. Wait. It’s been hours. Why haven't Rora’s magic reserves drained?

“Nice to meet ya, Shimora. Anyway, I’m sure you’ve got all kinds of endgame content you want to get to, but welcome to the sudden DLC! Oh and apologies ahead of time.” We blinked at the odd terminology-Oh~! We panted and groaned as our womb filled with something solid. Familiar. D-did an egg just get shoved into us remotely?! “Be a good mummy to that darling cinnamon bun you hear? Don’t worry about taking your time there either. Whenever you come back you’ll either be right here or whenever after you want to come back.”

“W-what~?” We panted as we cradled our stomach and then yelped when we fell through a hole in reality with Alberta along for the ride!

“Like I said, welcome to the DLC! I’ll be back home at the office helping coordinate your case since you didn’t make a Token yet. Thankfully it’s not a serious desk job or I’d hate you for becoming my responsibility.” Alberta made finger-guns at us and then seemed to splash into the starlit ether the dimensional wormhole was made of.

“What is going on?!” We screamed before we fell onto a snowy mountain top. We groaned and stood up, cradling our deceptively flat stomach in worry for the egg within us. Oof, this egg feels different. So very different. Our body also insists it isn’t ready to hatch yet despite being at the proper size. Yes Rora, this is what it’s like to have an egg inside you.

“You’re helping another Displaced whose world was eradicated. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to talk to me any time. By the way, this psionic tech Eris provided from the future thanks to your world’s psychic-based magic is the tits!” Alberta said in our head and we huffed before being thankful that despite being more mobile and thus exposing more gambeson, that my armor wasn’t as conductive for temperature.

“So you can hear this?” Rora asked as I moved through the blinding blizzard and then blinked in bemusement at finding myself in a snowy castle courtyard. A massive courtyard full of the corpses of warriors from different time periods and countries judging by the armor and weapons. What is this place? I looked up at the lone turret rising from the keep and shivered as I moved towards it to get out of the snow.

“Yep! Now then. Previously that Displaced was going to be dropped right into the snow as an egg and just die. We had other resources to pull to prevent that of course, but since you’ve got a similar background, Miss Shimmer, you’re more suited to helping her. Evidenced by your body readily intercepting her Displacement destination.” Alberta informed us and I felt all flustered.

“Yeah, Shimmer’s a special gal.” Rora fondly replied while I pushed on the heavy wooden doors to enter the similarly cold interior of the keep, but at least it wasn’t directly exposed to the snow.

“Now then. Saphira, yes, you’re pregnant with an alternate version of your adopted sister. Join the club. Her development is going to be odd compared to what you may be used to. She’s naturally anthro for one. Her egg will hatch inside of you. Then you’ll have to carry her to maturation. Dragons here are weird. Like Australia or New Zealand weird.” I cringed at Alberta’s info dump and rubbed our tummy worriedly.

“So, dragons here bear the eggs until they hatch, then carry the hatchling to adulthood? That’s fucked up.” I commented and then felt a bit ill. “Wait. You mean I have to carry her for just a few months, or for decades? Are we stuck having unbirthed someone for several years?” In either case, at least we can return home to straighten things out in the aftermath of Sombra’s defeat. Thank goodness for that temporal warp thingy Kala mentioned her universe had in place.

“A few months if you wish, but the natives take decades. Also, unbirthing and age regression are a thing here, so the birth rates are really low because it’s rare for people to age to death.” Alberta answered and I shared a gulp with Rora. Well, if time is no object, then that also means we could spend those decades of our immortal lives working on our magic and other skills so we’re better prepared for helping Alagaesia when we get home.

“We’ll take the duration route.” We replied with Determination. Brr, first, repairing this place. Thank gosh Rora practiced with the earthen magics of the wargs.

🥚

We sat in our comfortable chair, rubbing our smooth swollen womb. It had only been a month and Alberta warned us she was going to hatch soon. We could feel it. Whatever odd instincts the dragons of this world have, we’ve been imbued with them. Thus we sought out someplace warm in our mountaintop castle of a home and settled in.

We cringed and hissed when our belly contracted and cracked the egg within, then shimmied uncomfortably in our plush chair as the newly-hatched yet still unborn child helped break the egg down by thrashing about. Then we felt the umbilical cord connect and we sighed in relief with a rub of our belly as the infant began the next stage of her development.

The shell of the egg rapidly dissolved in our amniotic fluid and enriched it as we sat back and relished in the sensation which was new for us both. Then we sighed and looked towards the double-paned glass window at the snow building up on the windowsill outside. I told you to put the glass on the far outside, Rora! Sorry.

🥚

We watched in apathy as yet another fool tried to break into our home. He was like all the others, a craven money-driven adventurer seeking the treasures of Coldstone Castle, rumored to be filled with riches. Unlike some others, he didn’t even have family, friends or loved ones for us to psychically guilt him into returning to, so we would leave him to perish in the cold and the curse this place had upon it when we arrived.

The treasure was real and it was cursed. The dungeon and other basement space of this place is filled to bursting with gold, but only one born of Coldstone could lay claim to it without being enervated by it. We rubbed our massive pregnant swell, easily large enough to rest on the floor if we let it while standing at the window. The treasure mattered not to us, so we were safe and our daughter would inherit that treasure.

“Oof!” We fell forward onto our belly and groaned as we rubbed it to soothe our sleeping daughter. Saphira was usually much more sedate, but when she got to kicking she-. *Splash* Oh~ it’s time~! Hnng~!

🥚

We traced our beautiful daughter’s jaw sadly after having cleaned her up and put her in what was once our bed for the past twenty years. “You can’t stay to mentor her. She’ll need to go out into the world and find her partner on her own in this cruel Equestria.” Alberta reminded us.

“We know…” We bent down and kissed our sleeping daughter’s brow, hoping that someday she may call upon us from our Token, a stone carved with the Gedwey Ignasia the size of a chicken egg. “Grow up kind and strong, young one.” We whispered before the floor swallowed us.

The newborn adult groaned and opened her sapphire blue eyes in confusion, feeling lost along with an odd sadness. When she sat up and looked at her surroundings, she was puzzled. When she looked down at heaving sapphire blue K-cup basketball spheres on her chest she screamed in shock.