//:Coded

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.