//:Coded

Chapters

Prologue - Gone
Episode 1 - Smothering Out the Light
Episode 2: Partners are Survival pt. I

Prologue - Gone

Several Years Ago

The sky above Manhattan suddenly began to lighten - from a lively natural blue to an eerie piercing white, the entire skyline shifted in the blink of an eye. The sun’s warm golden rays became obstructed by massive grey clouds, each of which strewn with hellish black tendrils seemingly comprised of viscous oil. The wind began to pick up as vicious cyclones to touch down at random around the city, the monstrous cones of cloud, wind, and debris tore entire city blocks from the map and shredded the fleeing citizens in its path with no regard for age, race, or sex. The screams of those damned souls could be heard, mingled with the thunderous roar of the preternatural twister, creating a guttural roar that could shake the foundations of the underworld.

The Eberstarks were enjoying a play day at a local park when the unholy phenomenon began. Jillian, a child of five and the Eberstarks only child, was the first to notice growing severity of the situation.

“Daddy, Mommy...Look the sky has fingers!” She called out enthusiastically. She ran up to her father, wind whipping through her golden hair and pulling at her baby blue dress. She beamed at her parents, her aquamarine eyes full of wonder at the peculiar spectacle in front of her.

The look on her parents faces told her that they didn’t believe her, she promptly puffed up her rosy cheeks and glare needles at the two of them.

Marco and Drea glanced at each other for a moment, then back at the scowling child before bursting out in laughter at their incredibly animated daughter.

Marco crouched down and meet his daughter face to face, his mint green eyes met her eyes, his golden locks, carried by the wind whipped out and tickled her face. Her quickly took the child up in strong, protective arms and raised her up above his head causing Jillian to giggle uncontrollably. “While the sky can have all the fingers it wants, but only I’m allowed to tickle this belly!” He began to press his lips on his daughter’s stomach and blow, creating a rippling motorboat effect.

His gentle stomach tickling was interrupted by an impossibly loud shattering sound, it was as if a thousand windows burst at once. That was precisely what happened, one of the “fingers” had run haphazardly into an adjacent skyscraper, bursting the mighty structure like an egg slammed onto concrete. Concrete rained from the sky with murderous intent. The children scattered, as panicked mothers and fathers ran desperately across the park after them. The children cried, freaked out from the deafening sound, then the “rain” began to land. Wet meaty thuds, the sickening crunches of snapping bones, and shrills of disgust penetrated the air as stone after stone began to smash into the unlucky park goers.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit!!” Marco yelled as he grabbed Drea and Jillian’s hands and began to run frantically away from the scene.

Drea was in utter shock, mumbling to herself as they ran through the park, and Jillian buried her head in the father’s chest, silently sobbing into his green and white polo shirt. All around them was gore, stones the size of a man’s torso had hammered many into the ground leaving only severed limbs and streaks of entrails. The smell of fire and blood were heavy in the air and the panicked screams that filled the air threatened to disorientate Marco as he tried to maneuver to safety through this hell. Lightning streaked across the sky as large pearl colored dome began to break through the tendril laden clouds, the clouds cracked open and eased the dome down with massive transparent lavender crystals. The Eberstarks couldn’t help but slow down and observe.

The crystal gripped each side of of the dome, like giant hands. Several dozen more descended from the clouds all going through the same motions as the first. In unison ever dome in the Manhattan sky split open, an explosion of air sounded causing everyone to clash their ears in pain, air rushed up from the city to in a mighty surge and the sky was illuminated in a blinding white flash. Everything was quiet, nothing but the uncomfortable shuffles of people getting back to their feet could be heard.

Suddenly the sound a deafeningly loud pop was heard, too close for comfort in Marco’s opinion. Drea let out a yell that would put a banshee to shame, Marco snapped back around only to find his wife doubled over in pain on the ground clutching her bloody stump of an arm. Well, it should have been blood, but instead what poured out from the unoccupied space on her shoulder was red pixels, all of which simply vanished into the aether after a second or two. The air behind Drea began to distort wildly, and crackle with electricity. Marco, for a brief moment, could smell ozone. The very fabric of reality itself was rent on top of Drea, instantly causing the young woman to burst into a shower of pixels and vanish.

“Mommy...”

“DREA NO!!!” Their college years, their first kiss, their wedding, their honeymoon, their child being born...It all flashed before him in that instant as the digital remains of his wife lightly rapped at his face.

The rend began to expand rapidly swallowing everything that it came into contact with. Buses, buildings, trolleys, poles, signs, nothing was safe. Marco ran with all his might, he pushed his body harder than he ever had. He lost his wife, but he’d be damned if he lost his daughter here. He slung Jillian over his shoulder to allow himself a greater range of motion, he sprinted down the street vaulting and quickly climbing over the destruction that littered the roads. Never thought my time in the marines would help in a situation like this, he thought. People cried out to him for help as he ran past, people missing limbs, and people with loved ones crushed under the rubble, they all seemed to demand his help, but he couldn’t stop he had no time for them. Jillian, only Jillian mattered now.

He rounded the corner to the block where they lived, their house was in sight now. A loud grumble caught Marco’s attention causing him to slowly swivel his head around to take a look, all the training in the world couldn’t prepare him for what he saw. Several blocks behind him stood a three story tall dinosaur. Its hide was plated with crimson scales, and covered with black scars. Green spikes adorned the top of its head and back all the way to the tip of its tail. Three titanic claws jutted out from each of the creatures hands and feet. Marco was paralyzed before the awesome creature, his mint green eyes stared in awe, incapable of breaking the gaze.

“What the shit?” Marco mumbled a bit too loud.

The dinosaur’s attention had now turned to the father, daughter duo. It stared into the man's eyes for a brief moment before its pupils shrank and it let out a demonic, bellowing roar. The sound wave shattered every window on the street, and made the air feel heavier than an eighteen wheeler. Marco instinctively covered his daughter’s ears and neglected his own safety. Though the creature's mouth was still agape in a roar words could be heard coming from its maw, as if the language traveled through the air by magic.

“Blaze Blast!” Is what it sounded like the monster uttered, but what did that mean, Marco mused.

He regretted asking. The moment the question left his mind a red glow began forming in the red dinosaur’s throat. The air around Marco and Jillian began to heat up, and distort. In a violent display of power the inner flame was released, the deadly blast of red super-heated plasma soar over Marco and Jillian, barely missing them and impacting not even a block away.

The sound was like thunder amplified a thousand fold, and the heat was unbearable. His ears rang and one side of his vision was dark, but he didn’t care about that. He cared about his empty arms. He frantically scanned his area in search of his daughter, the monster had moved on. A tiny pale hand with a golden bracelet poked up through some destroyed stone not too far away, Marco cringed, he knew it was Jillian. He ran up to the arm that jutted out of the destruction, as if clutching the light of the sun. He squeezed her hand...She squeezed back. There was hope.

No hope. After digging like a madman for 10 minutes, he had finally uncovered his daughter. She was just barely clinging to life, a steel rebar pierced her chest too close to her heart, all her limbs smashed to gory pulp, and the side of her head burst open and exposing pulsing brain matter. She didn’t have long. Jillian used the last of her strength to try and tell her father something, her mouth moved, but no words came out. Marco understood what she said, and could only clutch her hand tighter as her grip faded until it became nonexistent. Jillian convulsed once then went limp. She was gone.

Marco’s face twisted with the sadness and anger of loss, he slowly unlatched the bracelet from Jillian's arm and held it tight in his fist. There, on hands and knees, in the smoldering crater of where he had made his life, the man began to weep the truest, most painful tears of his life.

“God please, just-just let death take me away from this hell...” He beat his fist against the ground in a rage until the appendage was bloody and broken, what did he care? Space began to rend under his fist, and his body began to sink into the weird digital null space. His feet began to disperse into pixels and he started to feel light headed.

“Eventually, I fail everyone...” He pressed the bracelet against his shirt, today was Jillian’s birthday and the bracelet, her present. He remembered how she had pouted when they gave it to her earlier, but she soon grew attached to it. Her moving lips played out in his mind, this time accompanied by the sounds they had tried to convey...

“...Best...Birthday...Present...”

He lifted the shining gold bracelet to his face and lightly kissed it. It burst into golden pixels. He looked around the darkness that surrounded him, and noticed that he could see several other cities from wherever he was. Whatever this event was, it was worldwide.

“So the world ends today.” Marco said glumly.

“It doesn’t have to.” Said a ghostly voice that was booming with pure power, some specter has saw fit to torture him this day. Through the darkness, two large yellow eyes cut through and glared at Marco.

“What was that? Who’s there?”

“You can save it.” The voice said calmly.

“How? What the hell can I do, I’m just one man..One failure of a man.”

“Take the device, it will lead you to a world full of possibilities...you may yet save your world.” On command a twinkle of light fell in front of Marco, a device of great power held within.

With let to lose, and a chance to redeem himself from his ultimate failure, took hold of the twinkling light before him. His vision faded, and he burst into multi colored pixels.

Present

The sky above Ponyville suddenly began to lighten - from a lively natural blue to an eerie piercing white, the entire skyline shifted in the blink of an eye. The sun’s warm golden rays became obstructed by massive grey clouds, each of which strewn with hellish black tendrils seemingly comprised of viscous oil. The wind began to pick up as vicious cyclones to touch down at random around the town, the monstrous cones of cloud, wind, and debris tore buildings and trees from the map and shredded the fleeing citizens in its path with no regard for age, or sex. The screams of those damned souls could be heard, mingled with the thunderous roar of the preternatural twister, creating a guttural roar that could shake the foundations of the underworld.

Twilight Sparkle, her assistant Spike, and her five friends: Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy were all huddled up in her home. Twilight had protected the tree from the storm with a large magic force field, but the spreading cracks in her spell told them that it the shield wouldn’t hold. Every time debris collided with the lavender barrier, it flashed and the cracks grew. A terrible howl was heard from outside the window, Applejack daring a peak, looked up to see the entirety of town hall careening towards them.

The structure collided with Twilight’s shield, shattering it instantly. Town hall and its debris kept on going and plowed directly into the library. The six mares and lone dragon all shut their eyes tightly and held on to each other for solace in death, this was the end. They all felt light headed, and slightly dizzy but nothing else.

“Are we dead?” Spike asked.

“No, not as long as I draw breath.” Celestia said in her calm regal tone. She strutted up to the seven friends, every feature of her screamed elegance. The way her polychromatic mane waved in the nonexistent breeze, the sway of her hips as she walked, and the piercing gaze of her magenta eyes all made her a beacon that radiated hope in this dark time.

Celestia had teleported them to the hall of the elements just in time. Another second and they would have been paste smeared along a gravel road.

“Princess!!” Twilight cried, “Wha-what is this storm?”

“This is no storm Twilight; it’s not a natural phenomenon.”

Surprisingly, Fluttershy was the first to speak up with a relevant question. “Then, um...what is it? If it’s okay for me to ask.”

“This has happened before, the ones who cause it call the event ‘coding’, neither I nor Luna know why they do this but we know that if it isn’t stopped, Equestria will be destroyed.” Celestia channeled her magic into her horn and trotted over to the vault. She undid the sealing spell and opened the massive doors revealing the chest containing the elements of harmony.

“Last time the elements, Luna, Discord, and I alone weren’t enough to stop the coding. One from our enemy’s world came to our aid.” She issued the mares their respective elements. “Using strange magic he created six devices one for each element of harmony amplify their power.” She lifted up a secret compartment at the bottom of the box, revealing the mysterious creations. She issued them out accordingly. “We were told these would save us from the coding.”

The devices resonated with the elements of harmony before. Suddenly the screens on all the devices turned glowed bright red and a high pitched beep wailed out from each device. A heavy drawn out bass sound permeated the hall, several pillars and curtains were instantly turned into pixels, and the smell of ozone filled the room. Before the Princess, the elements of harmony, and Spike stood two strange creatures. Everypony in the room gasped and their jaws went slack. What in Tartarus was going on?

“Nuh, uh, uh...We shall have none of that my little ponies.” The taller creature said. It stood about six feet tall, and wore a black, red and silver jumper that covered most of its body. Its hands and feet were covered by gloves and boots of a similar color pattern, both with a single metal plate on them. It wore red cloak that was tattered and burned, yet still served its purpose. His eyes were hidden by red tinted goggles and his hair was long wild and black.

“Boros, they have the devices, what should we do?” This time the stranger creature spoke up. He appeared to be some sort of dragon. It stood a little shorter than the the other creature. It was covered in red scales with a white underbelly, a peculiar symbol decorated his abdomen. The same symbol, as well as black bands were adorned his extremities. The creatures bat wing like ears twitched at the sound of his own voice. His yellow eyes stared vehemently at the enemies in front of him as he spoke.

“Who the hay are you and what are you doing to Equestria?” Rainbow Dash yelled as she charged the cloaked man, only to be tackled to the ground by his draconic partner. Drool dripped from the red creature’s muzzle as he towered over Rainbow Dash. Where his spittle dripped, stone sizzled, leaving nothing but vapor behind.

The man snapped his fingers and the space beneath the six elements bearers tore open, exposing them to the vast nothingness of the digital null space. “I am not obligated to answer your questions. My only obligation,” a smirk formed across his face, “is to vanguard your world’s coding.” He said as he watched the mares sink into nothingness and burst into pixels.

Spike could only watch in horror.

“And now for you princess.” Boros said with a sadistic smirk. He held up a device similar to the ones Celestia had given to Twilight and company. In one smooth motion he flipped a thin blue card out of a small satchel slung across his chest, he twirled it around in his hands for a moment before sliding it through a small slit in his device. The device glowed with a furious light and electricity danced along the card as it was pulled through.

“Digimodify, digivolution ACTIVATE!”

Episode 1 - Smothering Out the Light

Episode 1

Smothering Out the Light

Canterlot was faring better than the rest of Equestria’s cities during this crisis, but only because of Captain Shining Armor’s barrier spell. Raging tornadoes slammed into in the pink shield shaking the city with each impact. The howling cyclones carried with them the husks of great trees and enormous boulders all of which aided in battering the persistent barricade, yet it would not yield. The changeling invasion showed Shining Armor something, something his wife tried to bury away from him under cute comments and distracting pecks on the lips; a fact that he brought up often, but was put down just as often, the fact that he wasn’t strong enough to protect the city.

Something about the good Captain changed that fateful day. Every day, since the conclusion of his honeymoon with Cadence, Shining Armor had started training. Harder and longer than ever before, constantly pushing himself past his prior limitations, constantly honing his skills - The Captain was alive with new found life, none of which was spent on his wife. In the years since then, he had become stronger, faster, and more adept at magic; He had sparred with Luna, and taken magic lessons from Twilight for seven years. He had amassed power, power which he now used to protect his city. His city, his princesses, and his wife... The wife whom he had not seen since this wild fiasco started.

The white unicorn stared down on the gleaming city of Canterlot from his observation balcony at the castle. Canterlot, the city of pearl sat there in all her beauty. White cobble stone streets wove an intricate matrix of trenches through the elegant structures of the regal city. While normally bustling with activity, the roads of Canterlot were clear this evening, everypony had been evacuated to designated shelters as a precaution for the storm.

Celestia had ordered the guard on high alert and warned The Captain that this was no ordinary storm. So there he stood, clad in the golden armor raiment of the Sol Guard with helmet held to his side and conviction in heart as he used his magic to telepathically give commands to his officers.

The tendril filled clouds coating the sky began to darken as a pearl egg shaped orb began to sink through the cloud veil. Several giant crystals clutched at the orb, pulling from opposing sides. Lightning arced across sky creating a blinding white flash over all of Canterlot. It was as if the sun itself had exploded. Thunder sounded off, masking the metallic roar of some terrible beast.

The burning red had receded from Shining Armor’s vision, and for a brief moment he saw it. A massive serpent, larger than several sections of Canterlot combined sailed through the air towards the city. Lightning flashed again, illuminating the beast. The serpent was covered in gold and chrome armor, blue lights began to light up on on several parts of his body as he closed in.

The beast's jaw spread open as if to speak. It began to draw green energy into its mouth, power began to coalesce in the monster’s throat. The wind carried its message to Shining Armor. A voice like nails scraping across metal overlain with a hundred pained yelps assaulted the pony’s ears.

“Giga Sea Destroyer!” The echo made to Shining Armor much too late for the guard captain to do anything about the telegraphed strike.

A massive lime green burst of power came barreling at the shield surrounding the city of canterlot. The blast was as large and luminous as a sun and burned with such heat that the air in the city wavered, playing tricks with one’s eyes. The blast slammed into Shining Armor’s shield, pressure the likes of which the stallion has never felt threatened to crush his sinuses as the force from GigaSeadramon’s blast was translated from magical exertion to bodily pain. Everything wanted the captain to fail, the energy ball squealed with a constant high pitched cry that ran ploughs across his brain, the temperature was blistering, and it felt as though he was trying to pass a foal through his eye sockets, but Shining Armor held fast.

Until he closed his eyelids for a single moment, a second of relief from the strain was all he needed. Too bad a single moment of weakness was all the attack needed to break through. Shining Armor opened his eyes to the sight of his barrier shattering before the mighty power of the attacker, shards of magic fell to the streets like shattered glass as cracks spread out along the dome. The blast slammed into the buildings of the pearl city. Everything it touched turned to molten green slag; Shining Armor knew them, the ponies in those buildings, he knew them all...

GigaSeadramon’s orb continued burning through the block until it suddenly stopped and begin to burrow into the ground. The green sphere expanded rapidly until to burst outward, quadrupling in size and engulfing the surrounding city blocks. The smell of charred flesh, and sulfur entered The Captain’s nostrils. It was a terrible smell, an odor he had been trained for, an odor that he wished would never sully Equestria...War.

GigaSeadramon flew over the city, its gold and chrome body shining from the reflected light of the burning city. The distinct hissing of air pressure doors could be heard from the body of the great serpent as several hatches opened up, the silhouettes of monstrous creatures were seen dropping out into the city.

Shining Armor reached out to his soldiers minds with his telepathy, he felt all of their pain and fear as his consciousness melded with theirs. “May the lightning of your glory be seen and the thunders of your onset heard from east to west, and be ye the avengers of innocent blood!” He let the fervor of his speech spill into to the minds of his, no, of Equestria’s soldiers . He let the soldiers know that even though he was frightened just as they, and that their combined passion for what they protect will pull them through. "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in Canterlot, we shall fight on the clouds above and the streets below, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength, we shall defend our home, whatever the cost may be… we shall never surrender!" He could hear the roars echo through his mind, thousands of soldiers filled to the brim with fighting spirit ready to defend their home to the death.

He cut his link to his men and levitated his helmet on to his head. “Now, it starts.” He said as he enveloped himself in a blue forcefield. The shield swirled with powerful concentrated magical energies matching the glow from his eyes.

Shining Armor raised his head high as he began to magically float himself down into the heart of the smoldering city.

*CODED*

The crimson dinosaur began to glow furiously as his body floated several feet in the air. The air howled with a high pitched shrill that shattered every window in the Hall of Elements. Luminescent streams of ones and zeros wrapped around the creature until bands started to solidify into a black and red spherical shell. A low predatory growl sounded off from within the shell and for a brief moment Celestia believed she saw a dragon within the impossibly small orb.

Cracks began to ripple across the surface of the orb as flecks of data started to fall off. Large chunks shed off exposing a white hot glowing figure towering nearly thirteen feet where before, mere a six foot reptile stood. As the the residue of the shell began to dissipate into pixels the creature’s form began to cool and lose its light. His form was similar to what is was before, but much larger now. The most noticeable difference was the inverted color scheme, the beast had turned mostly black with rune inscribed red bands. Its head sprouted 2 horns and its batwing ears were a lot less pronounced, it also now sported a white mane.

An ornate drape drifted through the air and landed across the creature’s muzzle, it promptly burst into dark purple flames and was completely incinerated.

Celestia cautiously ushered the trembling baby dragon behind her throne with the gently nudging of her wing. “I don’t know what you or your beast is planning, but...” She clenched her teeth and raised her head to stare the human in the eyes, golden yellow magic filled her eyes and power coursed through her as she prepared to defend herself and Spike. “YOU WILL NOT HARM MY. LITTLE. PONIES!” She bellowed, her magic modulating her voice into a deeper, darker tone than usual.

Several massive slabs of stone were wretched up from the floor by Celestia’s mighty telekinetic grip, each one easily weighing several tons. She brought them closer to herself, defense was her main concern right now. The belt of debris started to orbit around the alicorn, slowly at first but gradually picking up speed until the rocks appeared to be a solid band of whirring death. Satisfied with her protection, she launched a stone straight at the human. The moment the stone left the band a mach cone formed around its uneven body, not even halfway across the room an earsplitting bass erupted from the stone and it shattered the sound barrier. The force of the sonic boom shook the entire structure and jostled columns loose. The improvised projectile was on a crash course with the human's head and there was no way for him to avoid it.

The stone impacted with a loud crack, dust and stone chips rained down obscuring Celestia’s vision of her foes. That mattered little to the deity though, she was sure she had gotten them, nothing can avoid a projectile moving at those speeds from this range. A victorious smirk formed across Celestia’s face.

“Blackgrowlmon...Leave nothing left of her.” Uroboros snapped his fingers and cackled like a mad man.

Blackgrowlmon’s yellow eyes shone through the grey cloud of floating debris from Celestia’s improvised missile. The sun goddess noticed far too late that her attack had failed. In an instant Blackgrowlmon was upon her like a feral predator, his movements but a blur to the old mare. He lashed out at her with three bone white claws, each sharper than obsidian blades, a move Celestia predicted. Using every ounce of her godly speed she narrowly avoided the beast’s horizontal strike by leaping into the air. She unfurled her wings to take flight and press her advantage, Blackgrowlmon wasn’t having any that. Using his powerful legs Blackgrowlmon threw himself into the air after Celestia. He came at her like lightning, fast and fierce, she could do nothing but fold her wings around herself and brace for impact.

He slammed into her with enough force to shatter a dam, the hall of elements rattled once again from the energy of their battle. Celestia hit the ceiling first, her face taking the brunt of the impact. Blackgrowlmon used the remaining inertia to grind Celestia’s body along the ceiling, rending stone and flesh as he went, he wrenched his claws out of the ceiling and spiked her broken body like a volleyball. Celestia plummeted like a meteor, shattering the sound barrier as she shot through the air. Her body impacted the marble floor of the hall creating an explosive shock wave that spit out tons of stone and caused the floor to buckle and cave in towards the crater.

Spike could see the silhouette of the princess’s battered, broken form trembling amidst the cloud of debris. She lay in the center of the crater, her breathing heavy and laborious, defeated.

“C-Celestia...” Spike peeped, like a terrified rodent.

She used what strength she had left to turn her face to him. The left side of her face was turned to bloody pulp and hamburger, more fitting to be poured into a slop bucket and fed to filthy animals than to reside on the face of royalty. She mouthed one word to the baby dragon, no sound came out. Spike did his best to hold down the bile rising in his throat as he looked at the horrid state of his friend. The hall goes deathly silent, the light pit-pat of water on marble is the only sound moving through the air.

Blackgrowlmon, lands on Celestia’s body with a single foot prompting a bloodcurdling shriek from the alicorn. He looks down her, she the helpless prey and him the hungry predator. Yellow eyes lock with magenta eyes, both stares showing the will of a warrior.

“This is where it ends sweetheart,” Blackgrowlmon said coolly as dark purple mist began leaking from his mouth. “Exhaust Flame!”

Dark flames erupted from his mouth. The pyre of pestilence cascaded over Celestia like a mighty avalanche consuming a lone domicile until Spike’s view of the white alicorn was completely cut off.

Sunlight began to pierce the raging cloud veil that covered Equestria. The noble light of the sun shone on the hall of elements and poured through the shattered windows. The plume of dark flame that swallowed Celestia began to bulge outward, slowly revealing the battered alicorn as she fought to repel the infernal flames of Blackgrowlmon. Her shield glowed with the same golden energy as her eyes as she continued to draw power from the sun, expanding her barrier with rapidly increasing power surges.

“GO, RUN. FIND. SHINING ARMOR. TELL HIM. WHAT HAPPEN HERE!” Celestia choked out between ragged breaths.

Spiked stared into his friend's eyes. He was angry that he couldn’t help her, and mortified at the thought of what he was about to do. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists tight as he stood up tall and proud. Spike wiped away a single tear from his eyes as he turned his back on Celestia and dashed out of the Hall of Elements through a large hole in an adjacent wall.

Celestia watched as Spike fled, so much ran through her mind: Equestria, Canterlot, The Elements of harmony, Twilight, Luna. She knew what she would have to do if she wanted to save them all, she had to put down these two monsters who started it all. The monsters who stood before her. Celestia allowed the sunlight to flood her being as she continued to repel the stream of black flame. She began gathering power and chanting a ancient incantation.

"Per virtutem solis sit lux in caelo hausit!" Runes of power were formed around the princess as the spell started to take effect.

The shield glowed furiously, the entire hall was bathed in blinding golden light. Suddenly the bubble exploded outward expanding faster than Uroboros or Blackgrowlmon could react to it. Soon the entire structure was encompassed in destructive sunlight. A forceful golden aftershock ripped through all of Canterlot, blasting out any and all digital invaders. It wouldn’t get rid of the monsters but it would give her ponies precious time to regroup and recuperate. But most importantly, she had killed the two responsible for this atrocity.

Celestia lay there in the epicenter of ruin of the Former Hall of Elements, the wounds from Blackgrowlmon’s flame covered her entire left wing, and her front left leg. The flame had both seared off all her feathers and most coat, the flesh was black and charred and what wasn’t was the stuff of nightmares. The flesh that wasn’t burned was afflicted with severe necrosis, grey and brown lesions covered her leg and wing. The flesh around the decay was raw and yellow, several of the open wounds oozed with black and red pus that reeked like a rotting corpse. Celestia didn’t care, she will live. Her ponies will live.

She lay her head down and closed her eyes in preparation for rest, but a sudden rustle under the rubble stirred her from the sweet release of rest. From the crumbled stone and incinerated mantles crawled out the man and his beast, both looking like they had seen better days. Boros clutched his right shoulder, the expression on his face said that his eye was shut and that every breath pained him. One of Blackgrowlmon’s horns had had been snapped off, leaving no more than a bloody stump in its stead.

“No...” Celestia squeaked out, barely able to draw enough air to speak.

Blackgrowlmon’s eyes narrowed on the white alicorn as he limped over to her drained body. He placed a foot on her and began to apply pressure. Bones started to give with loud, wet resounding snaps and pops. Celestia was helpless all she could do was whimper in a sound that was something between a muffled wail and sobbing. The pressure stopped.

“Why don’t you go ahead and finish it?” Boros asked in an irritated tone.

“The master said this horse had a sibling, another like her, a sister.” He said completely calm as if the events prior to now had not transpired. He looked down on Celestia and narrowed his gaze at the princess. “Why don’t you be a dear and tell us where you sister is?”

“Y-you, you’re not the ones directly responsible for this? You two aren’t all those creatures’ masters?”

Blackgrowlmon let out a courtly laugh and held his stomach. “Sorry to disappoint sweetheart, but if WE were the masters your world would be coded by now.” He turned his claws over in front of his face and blew on them as if clean them off. “Now answer the question. Where is your sister?”

Celestia could stifle her laughter, it came out louder and more obnoxious than she had the right to make it. “I will tell you NOTHING, as we speak my sister prepares her trump card to ensure your failure.”

“Hmm..Fuck it. Blackgrowlmon, knock the bitch out and bring her with us. It does us no good to kill one of them. If we keep this one the other will eventually come for her.”

The black beast towering over Celestia gave her a toothy grin. “Well it’s been fun dear, but now it’s time for you to sleep. G’nite sweetheart.” He swung his giant arm striking Celestia on the side of the neck and sending the princess off the dreamland.

Episode 2: Partners are Survival pt. I

*Coded*

Two golden yellow eyes shone in the background, each piercing the unnatural darkness with malicious light. The gaze of the orbs was focused on the figures before them, two of them were of his warriors, and the other was that of his spoils. A massive purple arm waved through the air, and on command, light flooded the chamber. There, in the middle of the chamber, sat what could only be described as a giant rabbit clown. The creature’s body was mostly covered in sleek, dark purple fur except for a thick, green band that ran straight up its torso, face, and across its shoulders. A large white clown collar with a smaller purple pattern adorned the strange creature’s neck, each prong of which ended in a small white bulb. His head was small in relation to the rest of his humongous frame, but it was large enough to hold all of the monster’s devilish features. Two large, corroded wing-like ears were flared up from both sides of its head, and between its golden eye’s sat 3 horns. Its mouth formed a wicked grin, displaying the creature’s razor sharp teeth.

“Speak.” Cherubimon said. His voice boomed across the room, forcing Uroboros and BlackGrowlmon to cringe.

“Master,” Uroboros said as he kneeled down. “we have captured the white princess.” BlackGrowlmon tossed the beaten, burned body of Celestia on the floor of the chamber and kicked the unconscious alicorn over to Cherubimon. “However, the blue one remains out of our grasp. The white one refuses to confer any information as to her sister’s whereabouts.” Uroboros kept his eyes on the floor in front of him, he dare not look into the eyes of his master. He had failed half of his task, and he knew that Cherubimon didn’t take failure lightly.

“I’m sorry master,” he eked out.

A low rumble began to echo throughout the plain blue space. Was Cherubimon laughing? The dark master laughing was either a good sign, or the heralding of the apocalypse. If Cherubimon was infuriated to the point of insanity because of Uroboros’ failure then the human would suffer. No, all of humanity would suffer.

The chuckling died down. “I expected this, but no matter, as long as we have at least one of them neutralized the Elements of Harmony pose no threat to us.”

Cherubimon waved his arm through the air in a wiping motion. In the wake of his motion the air shimmered and rippled until the image of several humans rebuilding a devastated city hung in the air like a disembodied television screen. It panned over several faces until finally stopping on a young woman.

“Keep impressing me Uroboros. At this rate the continued existence of your world is assured and the reconstitution of your loved one, a promise.” He waved his arm through the air again, dispelling the image.

BlackGrowlmon’s energy finally ran out. The massive draconic creature started to shrink rapidly as grey and white pixels floated away from his form. Now in his rookie state, Guilmon, he knelt to Cherubimon alongside his tamer.

“My liege,” Guilmon said, carefully choosing his next words. “I believe that Uroboros and I have made a dire error in judgment if the Elements were what we seek.”

The rabbit’s expression suddenly darkened as a deep scowl found itself quickly replacing his satisfied smirk. “Explain.” He said simply, but forcefully.

Guilmon cringed at Cherubimon’s voice. The mega level digimon had been calm up to that point, but now his voice seemed to burn into mind and dig deep, implanting fear and dread in the most primal areas of the subconscious.

“Six mares were also present when we arrived, each wore golden regalia with a gem embedding at its core, and each mare also had a digivice.” He choked on his next words. “W-we coded them. The building we were in contained murals of those mares and their regalia defeating foes with a wave of prismatic energy.” Guilmon looked up to scan Cherubimon’s expression. There was none and that was more telling than anything the master could have done.

Cherubimon broke out of his stone faced daze with a start, immediately slamming his fists on the floor of the chamber. “YOU WHAT!?” He fumed. He turned his head up and released a powerful roar, one whose sounds defied all logic, and whose force caused reality to waver around him. He glared knives the two failures before him, the gritting of his teeth echoed throughout the chamber.

“Do you want us to pursue them Master?”

“Ye- No, you shall have nothing more to do with them. You will return to their world and assist in the fighting.” He tapped his claws on the floor in thought. As long as the Elements of Harmony are active Equestria is anchored to this plain and will be immune to coding. He raise an claw up to his face and scratched at his chin. “Actually, you two may have made this a lot easier.” Indeed, they now had the Elements of Harmony on their turf, and being coded into the digital world could drop them anywhere, but wherever they were it is almost certain that those mares were lost, scared, and confused. All I have to do is alert the Lord’s other generals, problem solved, on two fronts.

The low rumble of Cherubimon’s laughter fill the room again. “Uroboros, your digivice.” He held out a hand towards the human.

“Yes, master,” Uroboros replied as he stepped forward and held out his digivice.

The small walkie talkie like device floated through the air towards Cherubimon. The device had red grips with a black center, a small screen with up and down arrow keys and a small, pink button was on the front of the device. Below the screen sat a small touch sensitive pad. The right side of the device led up into a short stubby antenna.

It reached Cherubimon’s claws after a moment of floating. The massive digimon closed his hands on the device, the sound of glass and machinery being crushed filled the room. Soon red light poured out from between his claws as he slowly opened his hand.

“A gift, more power to help you subdue the denizens of Equestria.” His lips parted in a mischievous smile as Uroboros took hold of his new digivice. “Do what it says on the screen, try it out.”

The digivice was going off repeatedly and pulsing with power in Uroboros’ hand. The human looked down at the flashing screen and did as his master commanded.

“BIOMERGE ACTIVATE!” He cried out.

*Coded*

Luna’s entire descent into the secret tunnels beneath the castle was unpleasant. The caves were dark, murky, and stunk with the odor of suspended fungi particles. Water dripped from the ceiling in constant streams, all of which pooled into a tiny groove in the middle of the ground and bled off in random directions. The cave was sunken in a supernatural silence; the soft clip-clop of her hooves seemingly being devoured by the shadows of the cave was more than enough to keep Luna tense.

The Nightguards that she was previously escorted by were dismissed. What Luna kept in these caves would stay between her and Celestia. In these caves lay the countermeasure, born from the minds of the goddess sisters, conceived by the eldest and implemented by the youngest.

Three thousand years ago after the first attempt on Equestria by the strange beasts, the Sun and the Moon believed that the best way to fight these creatures was with one of their own. Together they replicated the design of the devices that were made to amplify the power of the Elements of Harmony. Soon afterward they had created life; however, it didn’t accept the power of the harmony, and the project was quickly abandoned by Celestia, who deemed a creature who couldn’t accept harmony as a hindrance to Equestria.

But they didn’t need a creature that yielded to the call of harmony. They needed a merciless beast of righteous fury.

Luna understood that harmony was not the end worth fighting for, using dark magics she began saturating the creature and the device with the most primal parts of her soul and the rawest emotions her heart had ever carried. She created a bond with the creature, a link of understanding through which she shared the will to fight for freedom and one’s desires.

That magic changed her.

And now, here she was at the door to the room where the worst chapter of her life began, once again preparing to throw herself away for the greater good of Equestria. Luna braced herself, both mentally and physically, for what she was about to do. She threw out her magic and latched on to the massive titanite double doors and slowly pulled them open. The stone slabs crept apart, creaking loudly the entire time. Stale air burst forth from the decrepit laboratory sweeping her mane to the side. Spitting dust out of her mouth, Luna cautiously steps inside. Magical candles automatically light the room as their master returns to her once bustling sanctuary. A path of furiously burning blue torches guides the night princess towards her goal.

Ahead of Luna lay her “child”, contained in magical stasis the creature had not changed since the day it was created from the residual energies of its kin. She now loomed over the unmoving form. A teal baby dragon, perhaps a foot taller than spike rested peacefully under her muzzle, its fire colored horns and wings giving it an air of passion despite its stoic expression. Luna glided over to a pedestal a few feet from the dragon, a stark white device with a single button on its left side a screen in the center and two buttons on the right sat on top of it. The device was rectangular in shape, but the corners were beveled inward.

Luna reached out to the device with her magic encasing it in a dark aura. The hatchling dragon creature’s claw twitched as its mother’s essence touched the digivice. Luna poured more magic into her digivice cause the device to turn dark blue with black trim around the screen. Tendrils of dark power encompassed both device and wielder, slithering their way across Luna’s coat, they began to solidify into dark ornate armor plates. Her canines began to extend and sharpen as her form grew taller and lither. Mute until this point, the first words she spoke since her descent into these dreadful caves would be to nopony, just herself.

Remember what you fight for, channel the Nightmare, give her targets and a purpose. “This time,” She paused and silently prayed for her sister to give her strength. “The night shall be Equestria’s salvation.” She declared as her eyes turned serpentine and her voice became more sinister.

*Coded*

The six mares plunged into the infinite darkness of the digital nullspace, kicking, screaming, and laughing. Six forms that were once flesh and blood, became digital code; emotions and feelings, became algorithms.

“What the buck!?”

“Ah hay!!”

“*Eep*”

“AHH!!”

“Whee!!”

“WHOA!”

The panicked party of ponies plummeted through a shifting sea of random pixelated colors. Occasionally the mares would flicker in and out as if they could cease to exist at any moment. The only thing holding them together was the power pouring from the elements of harmony and the strange devices that Celestia had given them. The colors began to fade away, slowly at first, but then entire bands of red and green started to become absent until finally, nothing was left but static darkness.

“Oww,” Twilight mumbled as she rubbed the back of her head. She was relieved that they finally landed on something solid, regardless of how hard she had landed.

Whatever the mare had landed on, it was moist and crisp, kind of like ...

Twilight’s eyes fluttered open and were immediately assaulted by the bright stinging rays of a midday sun. The ever present smell of wetness fought with the odor of decaying plant matter for dominance in her nostrils. Once her eyes adjusted to the light, she scanned the area around her, noting the tall trees, humidity, fungus, and layers of dead leaves.

“A rainforest?” she asked nopony in particular.

Twilight rolled over from her back, but as she did she felt something slide off of her belly and fall to the forest floor. She stood up, albeit quite shakily, and turned to where she felt the objects fall. On the ground in front of her lay a black leather choker with a pouch containing what Twilight figured was a deck of cards. Clipped onto the belt was a small device that looked like some sort of small watch to Twilight. Its body was entirely dark purple with hot pink buttons, a hot pink ring surrounding the screen, and a lavender clamp. On either side of the strange watch was a slit, as if something were meant to be run through it. Twilight took a mental note of the feature. Wanting to study it more later, she picked up the belt with her magic and strapped it around her neck. She was about to trot off in search of her friends, but she noticed that her head was significantly lighter. Feeling around her horn with a hoof she confirmed her fears, the Element of Magic’s crown was missing. With a heavy sigh, she decided that she would have to search for it later. Her friends came first, and they could be hurt.

*Bebebeep, bebebeep.* As if responding to her concerns, the device started to come to life. Its loud beeping echoed throughout the entire forest causing nearby birds to panic and scatter from their treetop homes. Twilight hastily summoned her magic and fumbled with the device hanging from her neck. She brought the screen to her face, the symbol of the element of magic and her cutie mark appeared on the tiny LCD screen and flashed a few times before disappearing. A purple translucent ring popped out of the screen, the holographic ring had roughly the radius of a tea saucer (At least that was Twilight’s assessment). A pink diamond began travelling erratically around the ring, which Twilight had deduced was a compass, because of the N, S, E, and W on the four sides of the ring. Suddenly the diamond stopped and pointed adamantly to the South, directly to Twilight’s left. The mare, curious as to what the device was tracking, trotted over to where it was point until the single diamond turned into four triangle at all for sides of the ring indicating that she was right on top of whatever it was that she was searching for.

It was a bush, and a rather large bush at that, but still just a bush.

“Urgh...” Bushes don’t grunt, Twilight thought to herself.

She prodded the bush with a hoof, and felt around randomly until she hit something soft, jiggly, and furry.

“Teeheehee *snort*. Somepony owes Pinkie a date!” An oddly familiar voice said through laughter.

“Pinkie?”

“Yep, Yep!” The pink party pony said as she thrust her head out from the bush.

Twilight gasped loudly and tried to calm herself. It wouldn’t do to have a heart attack before they even knew where they were. Much to her surprise, Applejack trotted out behind Pinkie. The farmer shook her head groggily and fluttered her eyes in an attempt to get her bearings.

“Anypony get the name of the cart that hit me?” She asked, holding her head. “W-where are we Twi?”

“I’m not sure Applejack, but from what I gather we’re in so-”

Pinkie’s tail began to twitch furiously, the pink party mare’s eyes shot wide open in surprise and her pupils shrink to pinpricks. She jumped at Twilight and Applejack with all the strength she could gather in her hind legs. She threw her forelegs out and hit her friends with a full body tackle, knocking the wind from all 3 mares, and sending sprawling across the clearing. Before AJ and Twilight could recover Pinkie covered them both with her body just a large purple insect slammed into the ground right where they were standing not even a second ago. The impact rattled the ground beneath the friend’s hooves and made the trio shake as if they were at the epicenter of an earthquake. The sound was deafening, Twilight could’ve sworn that a hundred of the royal guard’s cannons had gone off next to their ears. Dirt, stones, leaves and splinters flew out in every direction from the huge dust cloud let by the creatures crash, none of the ponies knew what had landed, but they didn’t care to find out either.

Something begins to stir in the brown cloud, causing the ponies to huddle together and stand on guard. The dust suddenly disperses from a powerful gust and wind, Twilight raises a hoof to shield her eyes, Applejack covers her face with her Stetson, and Pinkie just stares expectantly as mud and plant matter fly past her face. Loud buzzing accompanied the strange burst of wind. Reluctantly, Twilight’s curiosity got the better of her and she looks up, wanting to know what caused the disturbance. The purple mare’s jaws drop as the mystery creature begins to regain its composure. It was some sort of insect, as Twilight had suspected, but what she didn't expect was for it to be two stories tall, have four arms that each ended in five flesh rending claws, and a maw the size of a pony, and mandibles lines with razor sharp teeth.

The devices with the ponies all started to beep wildly and flash red, Twilight lifted her up to her face and pointed it at the giant insect, immediately a pop out image of the creature. Words began to scroll under the hologram- “K-Kabutarimon: champion level, insect digimon.” She choked out confused.

All of this was too much, Twilight couldn't think, she could hardly breathe, luckily, a certain pink pony already had a plan - well plan probably wasn't the best word for it.

“Hi!” Pinkie chirped at the two story tall blue beetle. “I’m Pinkie Pie and-it's-super-mega-fantasitic-to-meet-you-AHHH!!Meet-you?-that-means-I-don't-know-you-so-I-have-to-throw-you-a-welcome-party-but-we're-not-in-Ponyville-so-I-don't-have-my-welc-” Pinkie’s rambling was interrupted as the creature turned its head to face the bouncing pony.

“Electro Shocker!” The creature bellowed, his mouth not moving.

Twilight, sensing the change in energy flow, erected a barrier spell to defend her friends from whatever was coming. Purple and white electricity gathered in a single point at the monster’s chest. The energy formed a ball that grew and pulsed until it was nearly the size of its head. It took less than half a second for the beast to gather the energy and fire the destructive blast at the ponies. Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack’s coats all stood on end as the ball of lightning careened towards the lavender forcefield, small amounts of residual electricity arced and jumped across their bodies in a beautiful, but deadly display.

The ball of energy met Twilight’s shield in a brilliant flash, the mares inside the bubble all either turned away from where the two energies met or snapped their eyes shut. Twilight winced in pain from the magical feedback as the shield and attack battled against each other, something would give soon. Between keeping herself and her friends magically grounded against the electricity and holding off the deadly ball lightning, her magic pools were draining fast; something had to give. To get fried by a high voltage surge of electricity or to be splattered by and explosive static discharge, that was the question.

No. The unicorn thought. On a whim she pushed energy into her shield and forced Kabutarimon’s blast into the ground in front of them. The resulting explosion, sent force rippling through the bones of young mares, Twilight’s felt her insides quake as she was lifted into the air and thrown backward as the shield shattered and blast threw them across the ground. In the brief window of time after the explosion, while all of them were still touching the ground, Twilight dispersed the electricity arcing across their bodies.

“Humph,” Applejack grumbled as she got back to her hooves. “This is lookin’ pretty bad, Twi...Twi?!” The farm mare whipped around quickly to try and find the librarian. She spotted Twilight laying limp in Pinkie’s hooves as the pink mare sobbed into the pony’s purple coat, Twilight had a large gash above her right eye where a stone had struck her and split the skin in the same manner one would split a nut with a hammer. Applejack bit her bottom lip and took her Stetson off and placed the accessory over her heart, for a moment she wondered if her friend was alive, but not long after the question had risen she saw the steady rise and fall of the unicorn’s chest.

“Dang it, Twi,” She said looking over her shoulder. “I’m sorta out of mah league here.” Applejack banished any thoughts of self-doubt and swallowed hard, her friends needed her, and right now she was the only one who could protect Pinkie and Twilight.

Kabutarimon watched Applejack’s charge, mouth dripping with the prospects of feasting on the small pony’s flesh. It’s instinct was to destroy all invaders to the digital world, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t indulge in pleasures of the flesh as well.

“Hmmm, quick to be grilled aren’t you? I won’t delay you then. Electro Shocker!”

A small figure about the size of a pony intercepted the blast of electricity point blank. “Kabutogaeshi(Helmet Reversal)!”

Applejack’s device displayed a compass similar to the one that Twilight used to locate her and Pinkie, except her ring was granny smith green and pointed directly at the strange new creature.

“You shall not harm her!” yelled the creature as he landed in front of Applejack. The furry, armored creature looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with the mare behind him. “Are you ok, Master?”

“M-master?” Applejack stuttered stupidly.