Life for the Data

Chapters

Chapter 2 - Corona claws
Chapter 3 - Bug Slayer
Chapter 4 - Army Growing 101
Chapter 1 - Decoded
Chapter 5 - Enter Unto Equestria

Chapter 2 - Corona claws

Chapter – 2

Corona claws

Coronamon’s face rose from sand. Sand. Why was he in sand? Coronamon rose shakily to his feet and placed a paw over his forehead and scoped out the landscape. It was just dunes upon dunes of sand as far as he could see with what felt like the noon day sun beating down on him. He groaned, maybe he had fallen asleep after… Where was Lunamon? Why was he here? He should have been deleted either underwater or by the claws of a Kuwagamon. How did he end up in the middle of a desert zone with no Lunamon in sight? This was bad, Lunamon hated being alone, she would be panicking out the wazoo right now.

Well, he had better be going, what better direction than forwards. He began his trek through the lonely desert, hoping to find some trace of his lost friend and some trace to where in the Digital World he was.

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Do you know how fast it takes to tire out a Coronamon in the desert sun? Not long apparently. Why was he so tired this quick? His throat was parched and he heard himself panting. Something wasn’t right, he shouldn’t be panting, or even tired really. He was fire embodied! He should have had an advantage in the terrain, instead he was nearly out of breath and thirsty as heck.

He saw an odd red rock formation in the distance, it looked… pointy? Most mountains in the Digital World were odd, lonesome things that looked like something out of an old fiction novel. Which they probably were as their teacher said the Digital World was comprised of data from everywhere. He wasn’t quite sure; he never really paid attention to class, or even attended really.

But that’s when he felt it, his legs wobbled and his entire body ached. He fell to the shifting sands and lay there. He was immobilized, not muscle on him obeyed his command to move. Exhaustion, he realized, had caught up to him. He felt the sands covering his still frame, threatening to cover him completely and make this desert his new burial ground.

He watched as the light of the desert began to fade. This was it, deletion time. Deletion in a desert with no idea where he was, could be worse. Just then, his vision was struck with a layer of green. He felt himself being lifted from the hot sand and floated above the ground. A raspy voice spoke.

“What about this one then Echo? He looks like we may squeeze out a few drops.”

A different voice spoke, more female but equally as raspy, “Sure, why not. It’s not like they’re gonna complain about what we bring back anyway. We’re all starved as it is.”

“Alrighty then.” said the first.

Coronamon was hoisted onto the back of something black. Then he heard buzzing and they were lifted off the ground. So it was an insect Digimon, great, most insect types were viruses. He had a bad feeling about what the first one said though, ‘squeeze out a few drops’ was a rather menacing phrase to be heard when you couldn’t move.

He raised his head just slightly enough to see another one flying alongside the one he was riding. It was covered in black armor; holes littered its feet and horn. Blue compound eyes looked straight ahead, not even noticing his movement. It had light blue transparent wings and a grey-black tail. He saw the dunes rapidly leveling out. Soon the waves of sand transpired into a craggy earth, followed by horribly jagged points of rock. They came into a dark cave, the buzzing of the insect Digimon wings echoing everywhere dulling all other senses. Then, it was light again, sharply cutting at his tired eyes.

His eye’s gradually returned to normal, and he had to say he was impressed. The interior of the mountain was hollow, but not such an open roof that it cooked them all.

The walls of the red mountain were covered in holes, each with its own insect Digimon. They all watched them fly into another cave; this one wasn’t as dark though. Odd fluorescent green goo hung to the ceiling and clung to the walls, illuminating the cave. Soon, the rapid buzzing ceased, and they descended to the stone floor.

The first spoke, “My queen, we have found a creature in the desert sands, it is near death.”

A new voice spoke this one much clearer and had a sense of authority to it.

“Very good, bring it to the crusher. Get as much love from it as possible.”

The Digimon he was riding bowed, allowing him to see what must have been the digivolved version. A much larger version of the insect Digimon sat upon a throne of ebony. It was two, maybe three feet taller, its horn was crooked and it had actual aqua blue hair and a small crown upon its head.

Wait, what did it mean ‘crusher’? And ‘get as much love from it as possible’? He had to get away from here!

Summoning what energy he had left, he cried out, “Petit Prominence!”

Coronamon felt his body warm up, familiar strength regain its vigor in the burst of power. It was almost as if the desert finally said, ‘fine I’ll help’ and gave him a boost. His frame was lit aflame and the heat of the desert finally co-operated. The Digimon he was riding cried out in surprise and threw him off his back, Coronamon landing with an acrobat’s precision. The other Digimons’ horn began to glow; needless to say Coronamon predicted an attack.

“Corona-knuckle!” he yelled, punching the black insect directly in the face. It rolled head over heels as the force of his upgraded punch connected.

The other one was charging an attack as well.

“So you want some to huh? Corona Flame!”

All of the fire on his body sank into his head crest; it glowed white hot before releasing a large fireball at the small insect. It screamed rather comically before being launched with explosive force, and probably some third degree burns.

But before he even had a chance to turn to face the large one, he was enveloped in the same sickly green aura. His body was restrained and he was floated up to the ebony throne.

“My my, you are quite the little bundle of energy aren’t you?” said the larger one.

“Let me go!” he yelled at... her?

She laughed rather annoyingly, “Or you’ll do what? Light on fire again, cast a fireball spell only to have it reflect back at you?”

Coronamon paused for a moment, “Fireball spell? What?”

Now it was the black Digimons turn to be surprised, “That wasn’t magic? Then what were you doing hmm?”

Coronamon stopped thrashing, “Magic? You mean like Wizardmon magic?”

The large black bug looked him over, “What on Equis are you?”

Coronamon found out he could point a claw at himself, “Me, I’m a Digimon, aren’t you?”

The bug nodded, “No, I have never heard of a creature known as a Digimon, I am Chrysalis, queen of the Changelings.”

Coronamon felt his eyes widen, “W-Where am I?”

“You, small lion thing are in the old hive of the changelings, located in the desert just south of Equestria’s borders. Also known as the ‘badlands’, I’ll let you figure out why.”

Coronamon didn’t believe what he was hearing. Just an hour ago he was with Lunamon, nearly drowning because of a stone they found, now, he was having a discussion with a big bug that wasn’t a Digimon and called itself Chrysalis. His head hurt.

“Listen little lion thing, I think we may have gotten off to a bad start, how about we re-introduce ourselves?”

Coronamon was set down on the floor, “Um, okay. My name’s Coronamon, I’m a Digimon from the Digital World. I’m at rookie level and am a base type of beast but with fire abilities.”

“Hello little Coronamon, “I am Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings, ruler of a no-ones land and plotting revenge on those who deprived us of our food source.”

“Oh, okay so not a Digimon. Great, so I’m in the real world but in some kind of alternate reality.”

Chrysalis raised a brow again, “What do you mean, ‘in the real world?’”

“I’m from the Digital World, a world made up of all the left over data that humans made over the years. The Digital world is full of Digital Monsters or Digimon for short. We inhabit that plain of existence; there are many varieties of Digimon, all come in different strength sizes and color.”

“And what is data?” she asked innocently.

Coronamon realized just how far away from home he was, “Data is the information that fills computers and other technological devices. I don’t know everything about it, I bet if Lunamon was here she could tell you a lot more.”

Chrysalis scratched her chin, “I have no idea what a Human is, or what data and these computers you speak of are, but perhaps it could serve as new home for my Changelings, we’ve had to resort to using the crusher to get food.”

“By the way, what does the crusher do exactly?” time to pass judgement.

“I think the name explains a good part, but it uses special crystals imbued with Changeling magic to make all the love that a creature had within them drained. We use it for larger creatures or un-sentient species, but we’ve had to resort all the way to crushing the love out of some of our own to feed. It is a very hard life.”

“Y-you kill your own for food? Can’t you eat like a cactus or something!?” Coronamon half-yelled, it was a disgusting revelation.

“I’m sorry, but we don’t eat physical food. We literally absorb love, it nourishes us and the more love a creature has, the more plentiful the harvest. When we aren’t crushing the love from living things, we send scouts into Equestria to collect it and return to us. They don’t always come back…”

Coronamon now at least partially got it; it was like deleting a Digimon and absorbing its data, nothing physical but still very revitalizing.

“Is that the cause to your appearance? You don’t look so loveable.”

“Watch your tongue Coronamon,” she hissed, “we may not be loveable in appearance, but we are masters of deception. Our special ability is to change our appearance to another, usually filling the role of a loved one that had just left, or a friend that you haven’t seen for a while, even making our own versions of a pony and living a normal life. Some have gone rogue, others mad, minds unable to take the stress of being so many ponies at once, it can be hard, which is why I made it law that we only have a max cap of three active pony forms at once.”

Now that was something interesting. But there was something that was bugging him.

“So, if you guys feed off love, then why are you living in a mountain in the middle of a desert?”

Chrysalis seemed to shrink a little, “That is my fault. I went to Equestria, finding it full of love and tolerance, so I seeked out its rulers. I was found by a pony named Princess Mia moray Cadenza, or Cadence, I feared the worst, and locked her in ancient forgotten caves beneath Canterlot, their capital. I took her form, finding that she was having a wedding not long from then, unfortunately, her groom found out I was not his bride, and threatened to alert the guards. I could not simply send him to the caves as well, I had felt his love for her, tasted it, it was… intoxicating. Placing a mind control spell, I made him forget about me not being his bride, and the event continued.”

She stopped to look at Coronamon, sizing him up.

“Well?” she asked out of the blue.

“W-what, what do you mean well?” stuttered Coronamon, surprised by her sudden un-answerable question.

“What do you think so far, where had I gone wrong? I have asked my subjects, but they are all biased and said I did nothing wrong. I fear my ability as queen is fading as I cannot see the holes in my own plan.”

Coronamon thought about it for a while, “Well, is there any more?”

She nodded, “Yes, I had him set up a force field in order to feint an attack, when in reality, it gave my anxious subjects time to prepare. Nobody got in, or out. Perfect for an assault, we were not discovered, but then, they came.”

“Who? I need more info.”

“Princess Celestia’s prized Elements of Harmony, a force that had saved Equestria from a dark creature that wanted to bring eternal night, or a god of chaos, looking to extend his reign. Now, I felt that my disguise was sound, and then I found I missed an important detail about my disguise. Twilight Sparkle, sister of the groom, student of Celestia, and a good friend of Cadences. So much in fact, she had foal sat Twilight when she was younger, and even made their own personnel dance! She began to see the holes in my disguise as you see them in my hooves; I had to get rid of her. But, yet again, I was foiled by my own maneuver, sending her to the same caves as Cadence, they worked together to escape and crashed the wedding.” She stopped for a moment, reminiscing on events past.

“I had to reveal myself, initiate the attack early and fight off the regent of the sun! I was fueled by the love of Shining Armor, the groom, and it was blurring my vision. What was supposed to be a simple plea for entry into the country, ended up as a full out assault. Ultimately, we were defeated by the very thing that brought us there, love. Shining Armors mind spell was broken, Princess Cadence was helping, and I was getting cocky. Shining Armor and Cadence combined with their love for one another and created a shock wave like spell that flung every one of us out of the country itself, back to where we came.”

She looked back down to Coronamon, expecting a verdict.

Coronamon sat there, scratching his chin.

“Well I suppose that if you hadn’t acted so harshly against one of the Princesses in the first place, let alone the bride to an upcoming wedding, then none of us would be here, and I would be deleted in the sand.”

“You have to understand, I could not just let an Alicorn go yelling that there were monsters in the city, I would have never gotten my hearing.”

“Still, explaining calmly that you weren’t a monster, and in fact another royal figure looking for a hearing, chances are she would have listened.” reasoned Coronamon.

“Well, perhaps. But if she didn’t, I would have been sent to the dungeons for sure!” Chrysalis countered.

“Even if you did, I doubt that the Princesses would have not been interested in an odd creature claiming to be a queen.”

“Well… You know what, your right. *Sigh*, I should have really thought the plan over more; I suppose all I really needed was a good un-biased talking to. Thank you Coronamon.” Chrysalis actually bowed a little, though she stayed sat upon her throne as if it would be stolen the moment she left it.

“No problem, everyone makes a bad decision when they panic, and you said that Shining Armors love was clouding your vision, you weren’t at your best.”

Coronamon’s voice was reassuring, and it seemed to help as the queen smiled a little, just a little.

“You know what little Coronamon, I think I like you. You have a way with words and can handle yourself in combat.”

Coronamon smiled at the comment, and then his stomach growled loudly.

“Oh right, I haven’t eaten since breakfast. Then we went exploring and…”

Chrysalis raised a brow, “We, you mentioned a Lunamon earlier, I imagine you two are acquainted?”

Coronamon looked up, “Yah, were good friends. But that’s not what’s worrying me, it’s the fact that she HATES being alone, she starts to act a little… odd.”

Chrysalis snickered, “I think you have an admirer Coronamon.”

Coronamon blushed a deep pink, rather well outlined on his fire red fur.

“W-What? No! We’re friends, that’s it! I help her with her chores occasionally, and she agrees to come on the occasional adventure with me!”

“Ooh, an adventure, how romantic.” teased the queen.

Coronamon only stuttered, and blushed a deeper shade of pink. Chrysalis laughed at his reaction.

“I’m joking, that’s what friends do right? Joke? I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of friendship experience, any missions I went out on were always much more mature.”

“O-oh, okay, I knew that.”

Just then, a sound echoed through the stone hallway, the eerie green making it seem like a monsters approach.

A Changeling buzzed within viewing range, “Princess, it’s another bandit raid!” he cried out.

Chrysalis rose from her throne, “Take all those not worthy for battle underground and assemble all who are willing to defend our last hive!”

He gave a curt bow before buzzing back into the dark cave. Chrysalis began to take steps down from her throne.

“Bandits? Like ponies that want to steal things?” asked Coronamon.

“Worse, they’re a band of ponies and outlaws along with other such creatures that where exiled from Equestria. They have found and marked our hives location and send occasional raids to try and defeat us.”

“Chrysalis, I might be able to help.” offered Coronamon.

She shook her head, “You are strong, but, you are an easy target. I do not plan to lose the first friend I’ve had since the days Changeling hives were feared, and there was more than a single one remaining.”

She buzzed off down the hall, leaving Coronamon alone in the green lit cave. He wanted to run after her, but his stomach protested. He looked around for anything to eat, and only found some of the green goo. He gingerly reached out a paw to one pile, scraping up a little; he licked it with closed eyes. It tasted like… not bad actually, it was kind of sweet, but still had enough of its own unique flavor that it was desirable. He filled up on the green stuff, hoping it wasn’t feces or something and moved on.

She had said he was an easy target, he was about to prove her wrong. These bandits were attacking a dying race, he wasn’t about to let that happen. He began to march down the lukewarm tunnel, determined to see justice served.

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“Wait… nope, nothing. I’ve definitely lost it. The magical signature is completely gone.” stated Twilight, disappointment in her voice.

One of the night guards yawned, Luna turned and frowned, “It seems that we should be returning, lest one of us fall asleep where we stand. The sun will be up in a few hours, sorry for wasting all of your time, hopefully we can resume our search tomorrow or perhaps even today.”

Twilight nodded, “I need to get some sleep, I planned to re-sort the shelves today.”

Luna nodded as Twilight left in a flash of light. She turned to her night guards, “We will make for the nearest clearing and take off from there.”

She watched them as they all nodded in conformation, “Yes princess!” they all yelled in unison.

She moved ahead, already spotting a patch of fading moonlight on the forest floor. She would need time to think about this, a creature with the ability to shift space. That was a topic that required much thought, and discussion with her sister. They reached the clearing; she spread her wings and took off. She loved a good flight every now and then. The wind beneath her wings, over her fur, she could feel normal then. Not a princess, not a regent of the moon, just another Alicorn taking a midnight flight. She loved it, but alas, she had duties and an image to keep.

Still, what that rabbit thing was deserved a thought or two of its own. First off, she had confirmed it was not a rabbit as it had four ears and an antenna. Next, how it had gotten here, it seemed too small to have done it on its own; it also ran in the face of danger so it wasn’t really a threat. So, it might have been an accident, but that was odd considering the lack of other creatures or magical artifacts. The matter was troubling Luna too much, she would sleep and talk with Celestia later, and had her nap, naps were important.

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Coronamon had reached the mountains entrance, it hadn’t been easy. The entrance was a good ways off of the ground, at least a thirty foot drop. He surveyed the area ahead; the same desert was present, only this time it was speckled with black and clouds of dust, showing sign of activity. He scaled down the entrances main wall, landing firmly on his two paws. He ran towards the clouds, this was gonna be fun.

He was a fair ways away but he already heard the sounds of clashing metal, and magical blasts. He entered the dust cloud, and was greeted by the body of an odd creature. It had the body of an eagle, but with a lion’s rear. It was also mangled, the head was missing. He gulped down the green vile collecting in his throat, these were real creatures, but the changelings needed an ally now of all times. He trudged on; ignoring the gore of the battle, bodies of both forces littered the sand, leaking red and green blood from their bodies, or what was left of them.

The sounds of the battle was becoming little more than a whisper, was he going the wrong way? This question was answered by a large blast of magic clearing the dust. Coronamon covered his eyes from the torrent of sand, opening them to find a rather disgusting sight. Bodies seemed to pile the highest near the center, a river of green blood flowed from a mound of changeling bodies, upon then stood three horned ponies, rivaling the queens height. Speaking of the queen, she was standing in front of the group, horn glowing with bright green energy.

“Y-YOU MONSTERS!” she screamed at them.

The one in the center just smiled, “Monsters eh? Never seen you so angry your majesty, we musta don somtin’ wrong.”

The other two chortled after he finished, they looked identical, both grey coated with black manes.

“How could you! We are the last hive! If you kill us, there will be none left!” she yelled in response.

The red one in the center laughed, Coronamon spotted multiple scars covering his body, and some were fresh.

“Exactly, do you know da bounty that Equestria has put on ya? 200 bits per Changeling, if we kill you all, we get rich off da corpses!”

“You idiots! Equestria is a land of peace, the corpses will get you nowhere but a one way ticket back to where you came!”

The red one just smiled maniacally, “Worth a shot. Let’s get ‘er!”

“Corona Flame!” he yelled, firing a blast from his crest.

The red horned pony recoiled slightly, before putting up some kind of shield to block the blast.

“Ooh, looks like we missed one, get it boys!” he yelled, eyes filled with death.

The grey ponies laughed and charged their horns. He took a fighting stance, each of his crests bursting into flames.

“Come and get some!” he yelled.

The grey ponies charged, heads lowered and horns forming some sort of glowing lances.

“Petit Prominence!”

He felt himself heat up, flames engulfing him completely. As the two ponies drew near, he jumped into the air, easily dodging their attacks. As they looked up to see him, he fired off a volley of fire balls at them. The each started to trot backwards in fear as the fireballs scorched the sand and burned their skin.

“Corona Flame!”

His hands lit up this time, each glowing with white hot fury. He fired off the two fire missles, each met their mark on the grey feeling unicorns.

There was an explosion, screams, then silence.

Coronamon finally reached the ground, touching down in a kneeling position. Oh the wonders of eating, he hadn’t felt this good all morning!

“Hehe, well looky ‘ere. I got myself a flamin’ lion. Hey bud, just so you know, I ain’t gonna be so easy to kill.” He said, voice carrying the same maniac mock tone.

“Wouldn’t have it any way else.” Countered Coronamon, flames re-appearing on his crests.

“Not without some help, you won’t.” said Chrysalis.

Coronamon felt energy begin to fill him. He looked her way to find that she was directing her energy to him. He felt something, it felt good.

Soon, an series of runes appeared beneath Coronamon, and a shield of energy surrounded him.

Both the queen and the bandit watched as it the egg shaped energy grew, and grew, and grew.

Soon the energy dissipated, the egg shattering in a shell like fashion, revealing that he was not the same.

“Firamon!” he yelled, digivolution complete.

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“What in the name of…” Chrysalis never finished, instead, this new guy sped on ahead using wings he had apparently sprouted.

“Fira Claw!” he yelled, flames flowing over his claws.

The Bandit King barely had time to put up a shield before the attack struck, shattering it anyway.

“Fira Bomb!”

The winged lion charged his forehead, sending a flaming ball of fire at the red unicorn at near point blank. It struck him, and sent him flying away, into the dust of the desert.

The winged lion leaped into the air, wing propelling him above all else.

“Flame Dive!”

Chrysalis watched as his entire body was encased in flames, before streaking down like a meteor where the Bandit King had landed. There was an explosion, then nothing.

“Well, that escalated quickly…” she commented, predicting the Bandit Kings death.

She walked cautiously towards the small crater that had formed where the new lion crashed. Or attacked, it was hard to tell with these Digimon. When she reached the crater, she found the bottom to be layered with glass, that pony definitely didn’t survive. She reached the center of the crackling pit, finding Coronamon asleep in the very middle, not a scratch on him.

“Okay… that’s a bit odd.”

This entire event confused her, first, the Bandit King himself attacks them, then, Coronamon disobeys her and joins the defence, though she admits that she probably should have let him. If she had, a lot less Changelings would have died. Next, she gives him what was left of her power to help him defeat the Bandit King and he… Did she do that?

There was a runic circle then flash and he had become a large flaming lion, she couldn’t explain that, she would definitely need to question him later on. Chrysalis lifted the small lion Digimon onto her back and began her return flight to the hive. Though his body was warm, that didn’t help comfort her, she had lost more than two thirds of the hive in that attack, and they needed to leave, soon. Another bandit attack would leave the Changelings extinct, she wasn’t about to let that happen.

She stepped inside of the old mountain, looking it over, she would miss this place. It had served as her fortress for centuries, and now they had to abandon it, or risk extinction. She remembered the days when her Changelings could roam free about the desert, when they could fly high above everything else with no fears. When she had siblings and the other hives would come to visit. Before the Cataclysm, an event that left them endangered. And now she, the last queen, was part of a ding race, one destined to die by times ruthless hand.

She felt Coronamon shift on her back, reminding her of his presence. Maybe, just maybe he could help them escape that fate. Maybe, if they tried, they could gain entry into Equestria. A thought came to her head, they had enough Changelings left, maybe they could make their own village. A sanctuary for Changelings in Equestria, a place that they wouldn’t be continuously hunted. She sighed, that was a dream though, an impossibility. Chances are, Coronamon would use them as stepping stones to find his friend. He had fire in his heart, more that literally, and it searched for his friend. He would like Equestria.

That settled it; she would announce their moving to Equestria, even if Coronamon was the only one to make it, then they had done some good.

She reached the interior of their home, cleared her throat and began to address her subjects.

“Attention all Changelings, we have defeated the Bandit King himself! But this victory is not one to celebrate, for we have lost many.”

She watched as Changelings head popped out from their homes in the walls, each eager to see who returned.

“I fear that we may not live to see more than a year, for we are now not only the last hive, but also some of the last Changelings alive. But, even so we must be strong! We WILL move to Equestria, we WILL make our home there. We will NOT be hunted by the angry and insane, we will have peace! I know it is scary, but even if you don’t want to go, we must, we don’t have enough Changelings to defend the hive and our low food supply means death is imminent here.”

She watched as Changelings looked and conversed with one another, obviously gossiping about what happened.

“We leave upon sun down, prepare yourselves until then.”

With those words, Chrysalis flew up to her chamber in the mountain, Coronamon still sleeping soundly. It would be a few hours until sundown, until then, she would wait for Coronamon to wake and ask him what exactly just happened. Was she the one to change him? Was it the nature of her Changeling magic mingling with a creature from another world, or was it something he had been holding back?

Whatever the reason, they had plenty of time to talk, given he woke up soon. Chrysalis buzzed back into her chambers, finding it slightly dimmer than usual. She searched around and found a pile of the fluorescent secretion gone, devoured. She looked back at her passenger, had he eaten that? Well, that was a stupid question; he was the only one who required physical food. How did he stand it? She had tried it once, it was horrible! It was sweet with a very undesirable flavor. The only real use of it was for lighting, which was its original design. A Changeling adaptation to the dark tunnels, and it gave a rather menacing lighting effect. Of course, it deteriorated over time and needed to be replaced, that pile was getting old so his behavior was acceptable.

Just then, he began to stir.

“Ugh, my head… what happened?” he asked, voice groggy and confused.

“You changed, a lot. You went from being a 3-foot tall bipedal lion, to being a 6-foot tall winged flaming lion that killed the Bandit King.”

He suddenly perked up, “You mean I digivolved! Awesome! I didn’t know I could do that!”

She set him down, “Digivolved, what is that, some sort of rapid temporary evolution?”

“Well, sort of, only it requires energy, a need, and a full stomach. I met all the requirements I suppose, you gave me energy, I had the need, and I ate just before the battle. Sorry about the goo by the way, I was hungry.”

“So, if I ever need your help, I can give you power to become stronger?” she asked, this could be valuable information.

“Well, only if you really need it. As you can see, it’s temporary and tiring. If we ever meet an enemy to beat ourselves, you can always give me a little juice and POW! Firamon.”

Chrysalis scratched her chin with holey hooves, “That is quite the ability, do you have any stronger forms?”

“Yes in fact, I do. There are six different stages to a Digimon, first is a Fresh Digimon. A Fresh one has almost no form and is VERY vulnerable. Next is In-training, a stage higher, they can defend themselves better, but are still weak. Then there’s Rookie, my level, we’re a kind of all a rounder. We are small, have plenty of firepower and don’t require constant energy to sustain this form.”

“Right, so you’re a rookie, I suppose the name fits but what did you become?”

“I went to the next stage, Champion. It’s a slightly costly form, but a champion is a powerful Digimon, capable of leveling villages in minutes. After that, is Ultimate. They are truly feared and rare Digimon who pack quite a punch. Though they require a lot of data, or energy to sustain their form, it is a balanced cost for the amount of power gained between forms.”

Chrysalis nodded, “So Champion, powerful, Ultimate, more so, what is the last one?”

Coronamon sat down, “Mega. A Mega Digimon has godlike power and can crack the very code of the Digital World. They are the rarest, almost always requiring a tamer or special event to reach the form. The few mega’s that have been seen have been known to mess with the very code of the digital world, changing its shape and purpose for their own dark causes. I doubt I’ll ever see Mega, let alone Ultimate, too much power to reach that level of strength.”

Chrysalis sat as well, eyes wide, “Alter the very shape of a world… to have such power. They remind me of the royal sisters, Celestia and Luna, they control the sun and moon.”

“Really? And they’re not evil? That’s great! Nearly every Mega that the Digital World see’s is evil.”

Chrysalis laughed sheepishly, “Too bad that I’ve gone and gotten on their bad sides. 200 bits per Changeling hostage is quite a price.”

Coronamon nodded, “It is, but as you said, your masters of deception and you’re going extinct, you are expansive creatures.”

“Thanks for the reminder.” She said, voice leaking large amounts of sarcasm.

Coronamon just smiled sheepishly, then there was the sound of buzzing.

They both looked down the hallway, seeing another Changeling come into view.

He landed a few feet away from the queen, “Your majesty, we are all ready. It is nearly sundown, we might as well leave.”

She nodded, “Thank you Double Vision, you may go.”

The Changeling bowed before flying back down the tunnel.

She looked over to him, “It seems that our time has come. we are leaving this place for Equestria.”

Coronamon raised a brow, “We’re leaving? But isn’t this your home, your palace?”

She stood, raising a hoof, “Do not remind me Coronamon, this is hard decision. But, I rather that we survive than die at the end of a bandit’s sword or by our own bellies.”

He stood up himself, “Sorry,” he apologized, “I didn’t mean to open fresh wounds. We had better get going.”

She picked him up with her magic, placing him on the odd saddle-like growth that appeared on every Changelings back. She never liked that thing; it made her feel like she was meant to be ridden upon. It didn’t help that her passenger was the perfect size to do so. She let him have so much slack for some reason. This friendship thing was weird, it made her judgement less than strict and she felt sort of… bubbly. It was almost like being fed love, only that it was a little less… pure. It gave her strength, but not as much as love did. Perhaps friendship was like a watered down version of love? Whatever the reason, it did not matter now. They had purpose, they were a team. He fought well, she could make him better.

She lifted herself off the ground via her wings and flew out of the cave that was once her throne room. She would never see that ebony throne again; no doubt it would become the new Bandit Kings throne once they raided this place. She hated those idiots, thinking that Changeling corpses would mean a get rich quick scheme was in order.

But the only one she hated more than those damnable bandits was herself. She had messed up the invasion plan from the beginning; it wasn’t even an invasion plan to start with. Hen every bandit raid, she found herself a little stunned during the combat, as if she couldn’t end their lives even for the sake of her Changelings. Then today, she didn’t even have the strength to slay a single bandit, fear had gripped her when she had seen the bandit hoard. She told her Changelings to be strong, and they were. They slaughtered the bandits, but then they came.

The Bandit King and his infamous henchmen, the Grey twins. Her changelings fought valiantly, but they were overpowered by the unicorn’s magic. Then came Coronamon, seem ably powered by the noon desert sun. He easily dispatched of the Grey twins, then with a little help from her, destroyed the Bandit King before he could release an attack. He was cool like that.

“Ahem?” something coughed overhead. She looked around and realized that she was buzzing above her subjects.

“Ah yes, thank you Coronamon. My dear Changelings, we have suffered a great loss today, many have fallen in defending our last hive. We are all that remain of the Changeling race, and I plan to keep our race alive! We will fly to Equestria, enter through the Everfree forest and hide out there. It will be much easier to prepare food if we are near our prey. It will take time to prepare a proper hive there, but I know that we can manage. We have suffered hardships that no other can endure, and I plan to keep it that way. Let us fly, for Equestria, for our new home!”

There was a chorus of cheers, followed by the sound of hundreds of wing beats. She flew upward, out the mountains hollow top while her subjects flowed out the main entry. This was just the beginning; they needed this, a way into Equestria. Even if they were caught, they could make the excuse that they were going extinct and she knew that Celestia would never abandon them. She hoped, at least.

This was it, now or never. She increased her wing beat, flying ahead of the swarm, guiding them to their new home.

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Chapter 3 - Bug Slayer

Chapter – 3

Bug Slayer

Lunamon’s eyes opened lazily. She sat up a, and looked at her surroundings. She was in some sort of wooden hut, the walls were slanted naturally and in the center of the room, there was an empty cauldron. So no, it was not a dream. This complicated things.

What was that striped horses name again?

Ah yes, “Zecora!” she yelled.

No response. Lunamon tried again, the results were the exact same. No response with the sound of animals going about their daily business, right, she was also in a forest that wanted her head. Great.

Lunamon jumped from the cot and began searching the room; it was a little spacier and a lot less scary in the light. The walls were bright enough, the cauldron no longer had a menacing feel to it and the masks almost set it off as pleasant. She looked around a little more, finding some potions and concoctions of some sort stored in various cupboards and shelves. Some glowed in neon hues, while others were masked behind paper covers. Each had a small label on them, in a language she couldn’t understand.

Wait, did they write in a different language than they spoke, or was this just some different dialect? She looked the room over again, and then spotted a note stuck just above her cot. She walked over to it, snatching the paper off the nail and began to read another language, this one much more understandable.

Dear Lunamon, I have gone to town, but do not frown, I have included a map, so you do not get stuck in an animal’s trap.

She lowered the note, noticing another piece of paper stuck to the same nail. She grabbed it, turning it around to reveal it was indeed a map. It looked as if Zecora had drawn it herself, which she probably did, simply having a dotted line leading to a building with the words Ponyville underneath it.

“Huh,” Lunamon said to herself, “so she was visiting a town called Ponyville, might as well join her.”

She replaced the note on her cot before moving out of the home/brewery. She closed the door behind her, looking over the forest before her. It had changed since last night. The trees were shorter and they no longer had faces, each looked absolutely normal. The sun just barely rippled through the leaves, but it got through enough to light the forest, giving it an almost glowing effect. She liked it.

Lunamon smiled, and began skipping through the woods. She would look at the crude map occasionally, but it was obsolete, there was a slightly worn path ahead of her, making the trip much easier. She continued her skipping and soaked in her surroundings, the ever green forest making her sights light up, melodies of the song birds mixing in to give it a magical feel. She liked it more.

She hopped around a small bend, finding an opening just ahead, spilling the sunlight into the dimmer forest. She smiled wider, this was it, not far now.

Her skip stopped, becoming a light walk, light beginning to blind her as her eyes adjusted to the new intensity.

She heard her footsteps change from their swishing rhythm to a crunching sound and she began feeling dirt beneath her feet. Her eyes began to adjust more properly, allowing the sight of a cottage to be seen, just to her right, to her left, a path and the tops of building in the distance. The bloom on the edge of her vision became non-existent, letting her eyes to work without burden.

There was a gasp to her immediate right. She turned to see a butter yellow winged horse beside her.

“Oh… oh my, aren’t you pretty. Who made that little dress for you? Was it Rarity, she never told me she was making animal dresses, oh how cute. But what kind of animal are you, I haven’t seen a white and purple rabbit with four ears before.” the pink maned horse said in a voice soft as silk.

Lunamon looked over her apparel, “This, it sort of came with my form, no on made it for me, and my name is Lunamon, not four eared rabbit. Is that all you horses could come up with? Rabbit this and rabbit that, I mean come on, think of something like, oh I don’t know, purple hopper at least.”

At first the winged horse stopped moving, then it just started to stutter, then it began to sweat. Had she done something wrong?

“Uhm, sorry if I offended you, but I’m new here and probably need an update on your customs.”

The winged pony fluttered a little, “N-No, you just talked though, and bunnies, even if they have four ears, don’t talk.”

Lunamon blinked, she was going to have to explain this to everyone wasn’t she?

“I’m not a rabbit, my form is based off one, I used to be a Digimon, but now I’m just Lunamon. Nice to meet you…”

The on smiled weakly, hiding behind a curtain of pink hair, “I’m…Fluttershy…”

Lunamon easily picked up on her name, four ears have their advantages.

“Well Fluttershy, where were you headed?” Lunamon asked.

“I was, um, just heading into town…”

Lunamon mentally smacked herself in the face, she had just walked out of the forest, nearly insulted an inhabitant and then asked her where she was headed like a stalker.

“Sorry for being so snoopy, but I need to find Zecora, or at least someone willing to take care of me.”

Fluttershy perked up instantly, as if she had never been afraid, “Oh, I could take care of you, I have so many other animals as well, I’m sure that you’ll all get along just fine! Uhm, if that’s okay with you…”

Luna smiled warmly in return, “That would be great! I might even be able to help around your place.”

Lunamon turned back to the town in the distance, “But I still need to find Zecora, just to tell her I’m leaving, that forest gives me the willies…” Lunamon shuddered from the memories; the Timberwolves fangs still dripping with sappy saliva filled her head.

“Eugh, I never want to go back in there.”

“Oh, okay then. I was just going to head back to Ponyville so I could get some extra carrots for Angel, my pet rabbit, I would be happy to help you find Zecora.” said Fluttershy, voice quiet as ever. Lunamon wondered if she was the only one who could hear her.

“That would be nice, especially since I know nothing of Ponyville.” Lunamon looked again to the town, were all the creatures here so kind? It was a lot nicer than the Digital World, thrice as many times as the woods in this world.

Fluttershy smiled warmly, “Okay then, let’s get going. If that’s alright with you…”

Lunamon nodded, “Yep, all ready.”

Fluttershy nodded as well, and then began walking towards Ponyville. Lunamon joined her, in much higher spirits as well. Finding a nice person other that someone who lived a solitary life in the scariest place she’d been was a welcome change. They began to march for the town, which was much closer that she expected, nearly as soon as they began, the building had become noticeable closer, odd.

She ignored the oddity, taking it as just another difference compared to the Digital World. They didn’t chat, just walked forward, sights set on the small inhabitation.

Lunamon decided to break the silence, “So, what can you tell me about Ponyville before hand?”

“Oh, so many things!” Fluttershy nearly exclaimed, “All the ponies are really nice, there are plenty of shops and parks for everypony to enjoy. I have a few friends there, each one is pretty important too. Rainbow Dash runs most of the weather schedules here, Rarity owns a shop for all sorts of beautiful dresses, and Pinkie has parties for every pony on every occasion, even if it is a little silly.”

She paused, making sure that she wasn’t boring Lunamon. After confirming she was still intrigued, Fluttershy continued.

“Then there’s Applejack, she helps run Sweet Apple Acres with her brother and grandmother, Big Mac and Granny Smith. And finally, there is Twilight, she runs the library in town and is also the student of Princess Celestia.” Fluttershy finished with a smile, remembering her friends always made her smile.

Lunamon just smiled smugly, “Hey now Fluttershy, is that bragging I hear?” she teased.

Fluttershy instantly blushed, “Oh no no no, not at all, it’s just that when I remember my friends… eep.” She then continued to hide her face behind her hair, more or less.

Lunamon giggled at her reaction, “I’m just kidding Fluttershy, and they all sound real nice. I think I would like to meet them.” She said wholeheartedly.

Fluttershy came out from behind her hair, “O-okay, if you really want to. Maybe we’ll find Zecora along the way.”

Lunamon smiled, “Great, I can’t wait, let get going! Where to first?”

Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin, “Well I suppose Pinkie will come and meet us, so Twilight’s place is closest.”

Lunamon raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean, she’ll meet us? She doesn’t even know were here ye-”

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSPP!!!” came an unknown voice.

Lunamon looked ahead to see a shadow, she followed it up to see a pink pony frozen in mid-air.

“Oh, hi Pinkie.” said Fluttershy.

Pinkie landed rather quickly and proceeded to look over Lunamon, “I haven’t seen you before, did you get that dress from Rarity? GASP! That means you were here before! I might have missed somepony else!”

With that, the pink physic killer left in a blur of motion, not even leaving a dust trail, just seemably flying away.

Lunamon stood mouth agape, “What just happened?”

Fluttershy smiled sheepishly in her shy way, “That’s just Pinkie Pie, you’ll get used to it.”

Lunamon wasn’t so sure, something that could do all that in a real world must have been a Digimon in disguise, nothing else could break so many laws of physics.

She decided that thinking about it was a bad idea, and so she began to follow Fluttershy to Twilight’s house.

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┗┻┻┻┻┛ (Congrats if you know what this is, and it’s no ordinary fist either. The binary will return shortly. Also, the binary is actual binary if you must know, it says something.)

Something stirred in the woods, a huge creature rose from its brief slumber. It couldn’t see, that was new, though it could make out everything around it perfectly. Suddenly greatly increased hearing and smell swarmed its mind, no, it was a male now. Nonetheless, he could smell and hear everything in his immediate area, allowing for a perfect 360 degree ‘view’. It was a good replacement, if a little bland. He opened the large shield like carapace off it’s back, revealing four huge wings. He began to flap them in rapid motions, creating a massive buzzing sound. He began to rise above the tree line and point itself to its desired destination, he smelled the same Lunamon here, and he wanted a good revenge meal, so it would do. He clicked the massive mandible in front of his face, sharp enough to cut stone like paper. His jaw opened and released a devastating roar, sending all life in the area scurrying.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH” he screamed, more feral than in rage.

He tilted itself forward, massive wings carrying its red bulk to where it wanted to be, and if any of those other smells interfered, they would make a nice snack.

01110011 01100011 01100101 01101110 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100001 01101110 01100111 01100101 (That’s a bit long, the prior will do.)

Twilight moved a book back into its place, Spike being asleep from the reshelving and staying awake last night worrying about her. She smiled, he acted so tough just keeping his cool, but deep down, he cared about everypony like they were family. She placed the final book in its rightful place and backed up to make sure everything was in place.

“Let’s see, Starswirls guide to magic… check, and then on this side secretly hollow book containing the Elements of Harmony… check. Everything in between… check. Great! Everything is sin place, now I can relax a little, where did I put those study papers…”

She began rummaging through a stack of papers on her desk; it pained her she couldn’t just call for Spike as he was asleep. Princess Luna had sent a message saying that she wanted every bit of info on four eared rabbits, the Canterlot library had none but there was a chance that her library had something. In all factuality, she had found a book written by the libraries old owner, but he was known as mad. She doubted the unpublished script held any real info, but it was something.

“Ah ha!” she quickly slapped a hoof over her mouth, listening for any signs of an awoken dragon. After none came, she breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked over her notes that were relevant towards the four eared rabbit.

Apparently, it was very elusive, had terrifying power and could become more powerful if it was charged with energy in a

time of need, so much so that it could take control of the moon. She highly doubted the last part, but the elusiveness would have explained why any of them only really got glimpses. Obviously, becoming more powerful if charged with energy was plausible, but they probably only did it in a time of need, if at all. The old stallion had probably just wrote that t make this creature sound more cryptic, like it was some kind of hero.

She looked over the rag tag book one last time, flipping through its pages with haste; Princess Luna would be here soon to collect the report. Why she wasn’t just asking for it to be sent via dragon was odd, but there wasn’t really arguing with a princess.

Just then, she heard the door clink open, she had since put a bell above the door to see if she could catch Pinkie sneaking. Of course, it didn’t work so it was just there for effect now. She turned around to see a pleasant sight.

“Oh, Fluttershy! Good to see you again, how have you been? Or are you here for a book?” she began.

Fluttershy smiled sheepishly, “Hi Twilight, I just came here to introduce Lunamon to you, she was rather eager to meet all of my friends in fact.”

Twilight raised a brow, “Lunamon? That’s an odd name for a pony.”

Fluttershy shook her head, “She’s not a pony, say hello Lunamon.”

Twilight watched anxiously as a shadow appeared. She watched it grow until something stepped into her doorway, something she definitely wasn’t expecting.

There it was, the four eared rabbit. It stood two legs tall, (Leg=foot) with four ears and a large antennae. She walked in rather politely, if you could tell, she was wearing a dress! A four eared rabbit wearing a dress! What was Rarity thinking?

“Uh, hello Twilight, nice place you have here.” she said, voice like strands of moonlight. Well maybe that’s a hyperbole, but it was nice.

Twilight looked back to the book, then back to this ‘Lunamon’. The drawing and the figure in front of her were exact matches, or as close as the ‘drawing’ could, it looked like a baby Cake had drawn it.

“U-Uh hi, and thank you I guess, Spike and I keep this place as tidy as possible.” she replied, surprised by Lunamon’s kindness.

“Who’s Spike?” she asked bewildered.

Twilight blinked, “Oh, he’s my assistant, and a baby dragon. I hatched him from an egg when I was younger and we’ve been friends since.”

Lunamon looked a little disturbed, “So, you took his egg away from his family, forced open his egg and then raised him as your own?!”

“What, no, I just, well…” she looked upstairs, had she really? It seemed so simple the day his egg was carted in front of her, so much simpler when the princess had said she could keep him. Spike never seemed to mind, then again, he never knew his family…

“Lunamon that was rather rude, Twilight would never - ever - take a baby away from his family!” accused Fluttershy.

Lunamon was about to reply when an outbreak of screams was heard from outside. Twilight rushed to the door, finding a place among the low jaws at the sight of the huge red bug cutting apart everything.

“Oh no, it’s Kuwagamon! He must have found a way to follow me!” cried Lunamon.

Twilight looked down at Lunamon, “You know him?!”

Lunamon nodded, “Yes, he’s a virus attribute, insect type Digimon that loves to cut thing up before… well let’s just say he isn’t nice!”

Twilight looked to the massive creature; it rivaled a dragon in size, at least two stories tall. It had four arms and each was being used to cut and shred everything in its path.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” it cried with spite.

“We have to do something, or it’ll rip apart the town, and kill everything in it!” pointed out Lunamon.

“WHAT!?!” yelled both Twilight and Fluttershy in unison.

“Well, he’s a Digimon, so he’ll try and absorb everything, instead he end up killing everyone.” she stated overly calmly.

“You make this sound like an everyday occurrence.” snapped Twilight, “Which isn’t good in any of my books.”

Lunamon shrugged, “It’s pretty common place where I come from, a bigger Digimon comes in, deletes everybody and absorbs their data to become stronger. Of course, this is a real world, so he’ll just wind up killing everybody instead.”

Twilight felt an eye twitch, “Well good for you, but we really need to do something to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“Okay, I guess we could attack him.” said Lunamon.

Twilight looked at Lunamon like she was an idiot, “No, I think that we had better make a big bowl of bug stew, WHAT ELSE WOULD WE DO!”

“Whoa whoa whoa, okay, calm down Twilight. Well first, he’s Champion rank so my attacks aren’t going to do muck but make him angrier; I’ll need a power up of some kind…” Lunamon looked around a little, and then saw Twilight’s horn.

“What does that thing do exactly?” she asked, meanwhile another building was cut in half.

Twilight looked up, “My horn, it allows a unicorn to cast magic. Wait a second, I know! I read a little about you, given the pony who wrote it was crazy, but it said that if you power a four eared rabbit, then they gain more power!” she exclaimed, aiming her horn at Lunamon.

Lunamon’s eyes went wide, “Whoa now, no need to fire that thing at me, I’m just saying that we should test this in a safer environment before you blow me up.”

A strand of hair stood up in Twilights mane, “No time, power up, now!”

“Oh dear…” whispered Fluttershy as Twilight fired her horn at Lunamon.

“Wha- no- TwiliGH-” Lunamon never finished as the energy struck her, enveloping her in an aura of lavender energy.

Twilight smiled as the energy formed an egg shape over Lunamon, and began to grow, bit by bit.

The Kuwagamon seemed to sense this, moving towards them, smelling its target.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

Then, the egg stopped growing, it fell apart like bit of glass, revealing what it had incubated. What stood before them was no longer Lunamon, instead, she was replaced by a six foot tall rabbit thing, taking a fighter stance and wearing some kind of mask. And were those claws on her feet?

“Lekismon!” cried the newcomer.

“Wh-how…?”asked Twilight flabbergasted, she expected perhaps a size change, but not a total remake of Lunamon’s form, including her name.

Lekismon looked at her new form, “Well, that turned out for the better. Great, now we can do some damage!”

The Kuwagamon wasted no time trying to get the first strike. “SCISSOR CLAWS!”

The Kuwagamon’s hands began to glow before striking with lightning speed, directly at Lekismon.

“Luna-Lekismon!” cried Twilight with concern.

But where the Kuwagamon struck, there was nothing. She looked in the opposite direction, expecting there to be a hole in somepony’s wall.

“Moon Night Bomb!”

A burst of dark water like energy came from the air, striking the Kuwagamon on his dome like head. He cried out in anger, shaking off the drowsiness and looking up to see Lekismon making her decent.

“TRAP SCISSORS”

The Kuwagamon cried, trying to grab its prey with its huge pincers. He was bested by Lekismon’s speed again as she made another counter attack.

“Tear Arrow!” she yelled, seemingly forming a bow from nothingness and firing a pole from her back.

It struck Kuwagamon in his chest, making him stumble backwards and miss. As she landed she continued to fire a volley of arrows his direction, some were more of a distraction so others could make it to their target. But her luck could only last so long.

Kuwagamon lashed out randomly, it senses scattered in the volley of arrows. He struck rabbit.

“Gah!” Lekismon cried out in pain, feeling the Kuwagamon’s claws easily cut through her armor and skin. She landed against a building with an audible thump, cracking the wall.

“POWER GUILITOINE”

Lekismon felt the Kuwagamon’s strong razor pincers entrap her, lifting her up into the air before beginning to squeeze.

Lekismon felt the blades cut through her skin like a warm knife through near melted butter, slowly making gashes appear. She began screaming in pain, the pincers moving it as slow as possible to prolong her pain.

“I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER! YOU TOOK MY EYE’S, MY HOME AND MY NEXT MEAL, ALL AT ONCE!” Kuwagamon yelled in rage.

Dark spots began to fill Lekismon’s vision, marking the beginning of a headache to join her pain. She felt herself getting light headed, she was losing blood, that was something else you had to watch when you were alive.

When she thought it was over, a beam of blue energy fired from the air, landing a blow on the Kuwagamon’s left pincer.

“GAAAAH!” it bellowed with rage, green blood trickling out of the newly formed gash. What the Kuwagamon failed to notice was the fact that Lekismon was now free, and she had made up her mind on her next move.

She jumped onto the undamaged mandible of the Kuwagamon, firing herself into the air.

“MOON NIGHT KICK!” she yelled into the noon air, a little ironic that it this move she was using, but it was her best.

She fell more like a beam of light than a rabbit, landing her foot in the very center of the Kuwagamon’s head with martial art accuracy. The resulting crack told her it worked, as a sliver of the Kuwagamon’s carapace broke off and jutted into his small brain.

It didn’t even respond; simply fell to the earth, already dead.

Once it hit the ground, Lekismon was hasty to get away from the now bleeding skull, given, it wasn’t much blood, but it was still enough to stain her.

But when she hit the ground, she knew something wasn’t right, why? Because the ground saw it fit to sucker punch her is why. She felt her strength wane, form return to Lunamon and watched as the light began to fade… what a pretty new pony, she was all blue and sparkly, ooh, it looked like she liked moons too. Oh well, they could meet later, she was tired.

And it all faded to black.

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“FINALLY!” yelled Coronamon as he fell behind a rock, they had been travelling through the desert for a good ten hours now, and he was exhausted.

Chrysalis huffed at his actions, “I have been carrying you for the past ten hours, so you have nothing to complain about!”

Coronamon rolled onto his back, facing the queen, “I know, but I shielded you from the cold and had to survive all the bumps without water for all ten hours.”

Chrysalis joined him by the rock, “I know, but there is an oasis nearby, a very large one at that. And don’t you get power from the heat?”

He nodded a yes.

“Then why are you behind a rock?” she asked, almost concerned.

He sighed, “I don’t know anymore, at first I was with Lunamon finding a rock, then I’m suddenly here, next thing I know I’m stuck in a desert without most of my power and a weakness to the sun!”

He threw his arms into the air, “I used to feed off the sun, and my kind was made from solar data! It’s disgusting… I’m disgusting.” He said, rolling away from the queen.

The queen watched him a little while, he reminded her of herself when she lived the life of a pony too long. Afterwards, her point of view would change and she would see herself as a monster. It had happened to other Changelings before, and some had broken down from it. Just because they had the ability to change their shape and feed off love, doesn’t mean that they were immune to mind games. They had yet to evolve a trait for that.

Actually, thought Chrysalis, that would be called semi-sentience…

What was she doing…Oh yes, a responsibility of a friend is to be there for your other friends.

“You aren’t that bad, I mean, we change all the time. You are just beginning to change, it’s not bad really. It comes with quite a few advantages.” She hoped that would do, she wasn’t good at comforting others.

Coronamon rolled to see her again, “I know, it’s just that I’m not a Changeling, I shouldn’t be changing. Unless that weird rock had anything to do with it, I doubt it though, this is all probably one big freak accident.”

Chrysalis raised a brow, “What odd rock, I’ve wanted to know for some time now, but I just hoped you would mention it.”

Coronamon shrugged, “I don’t know, it was an old rock that changed when we touched it, from rainbow symbols to fiery red to dark blue. It was the neatest thing I’ve ever found, it even copied attack types, like when I touched it with fire, it began to heat everything up, including Lunamon. She tried putting it out, and then it began to spray water like a fountain and nearly drowned us both.”

Chrysalis raised a hoof to her chitin chin, “Can’t say I’ve ever heard of a stone like that, then again, my knowledge only comes from reports and the occasional book found during missions. I’m also only a couple centuries old, Celestia and Luna’s age’s range in the thousands, maybe they can help.”

She looked from behind the rock, seeing her other Changelings hiding likewise, and looking beyond the sun lied Equestria. Too far to see, but memory served her well and they were near, at least another hour or so of flight and they would see the beginning of a plain. Beyond that the Everfree lied, and beyond that even, Canterlot, their - or at least Coronamon’s - destination.

“We’d better get moving soon, the sun will be too high for us to reach the oasis at this rate.” She said, “Up you get, not much time left now.”

He nodded, jumping onto Chrysalis’ back. They had just taken off when he chose to speak again.

“Oh and Chrysalis…”

She looked back to him, “Yes, Coronamon?”

He smiled lightly, “Thanks for trying to cheer me up back there - it didn’t work - but thanks. It’s the thought that counts.”

She smiled, “Your welcome, I was never good at helping lift others spirits, so don’t expect many of those moments from me.”

Coronamon chuckled, “That’s almost a good thing.” he said smugly.

Chrysalis wore a face to rival a me gusta meme, he loved those meme’s.

“Ha, sorry. But really,” he said, voice suddenly serious, “thank you, it really helped afterward.”

Chrysalis smiled, the feeling of friendship flowing more freely from Coronamon. She wondered, was she just following an old animal instinct to get love from him, or was she really making a friend. Well, currently she would pick one of her subjects over him, but that might change. Emphasis on might.

Don’t take her wrong, he’s a nice guy, but perhaps a little too nice. He might not totally agree with some of their… tactics on getting love if no spot is available. Sure, kidnapping a princess, alright that was bad, but there used to be an entire town full of Changelings, the entire populace. None knew their next door neighbor was a Changeling. Until one day, a single one admitted it, then another, and so on.

Now, you might think that means that they could love one another, but let me tell you why the town eventually died off. Because they were feeding off the love left behind by the prior inhabitants, who were all… dealt with. Once that ran out, the town slowly starved, a pity really, it was a great hub for information and a rather great example of what Changelings could do - until it died, in which case it became a signal of what was to come. She missed that town; of course, this was before they were hunted down to extinction.

When the princess sister war was over, three centuries before Chrysalis was born, Changelings were hunted for their chitin, some maniacs and scarred ponies from the war believing it to hold the ability to change their form if they brewed it right. Unfortunately, it was more like stabbing urban Changelings down, some of her predecessors’ children. She never understood how her ancestors worked out a relationship with Equestria, it was shaky at best, they were tolerated, not loved. Celestia was tired from her time fighting Luna, or Nightmare Moon, and so she just watched and covered everything up.

After two centuries of extermination though, Celestia had seen enough, from that day forth she had every law and by-law reshaped to embrace love and tolerance. In a way, the Changelings were responsible for the way Equestria was, but they suffered heavily. Less than 400 Changelings remained, not enough to repopulate properly you say? Nonsense! A Changeling Queen has about a hundred children alone at the beginning of her cycle, Chrysalis had had hers. The Changelings had the ability to breed themselves, but with only a single one every now and again. A Changeling child born among the serfs is something celebrated by the hives queen herself.

One other thing factored into this equation, after the love and tolerance laws were in place, and all Changelings had fled back into their elusive homeland, all ponies that had killed or were in deals within the illegal killing of Changelings, were exiled to the Badlands. Guess were the Changeling homeland was, the Badlands. Celestia never looked that way again, believing I to be full of nothing but bandits and madponies, after a while, it was believed that nearly all Changelings had been hunted, and all that remained was the occasional straggler. Of course, Chrysalis wished to change this, after losing contact with a hive not far to the east, she began sending scouts north, looking for a new hive.

They came back with tales of a land ripe and full of love, a perfect place to make a hive. She gathered her best, and had a backup squadron readied in case they needed to force themselves in. She ended up nearly drugged with love and used the backup squadron to try and conquer all of Equestria. She had little time there, reading the occasional book from the royal library, and even getting a little information from Cadence while she was imprisoned. What really set her over the edge was finding lost files in Celestia’s room going back to the Changeling holocaust. She brought this up to Celestia, who said that the Changelings were a dead race, and what happened should be left to rest with them.

Now here she was, flying to an oasis so she could last the rest of the trip to ask for a second chance. And maybe, just maybe, a place to truly call home.

“Um, Chrysalis, you’re doing it again…” stated Coronamon.

Chrysalis was lifted from her mind by the common voice of Coronamon, only to find herself getting very close to a palm tree.

“Oh, thank you Coronamon.” she said, buzzing around the tree.

She looked down, and found the perfect place to land, right next to one of the many pools that dotted this oasis.

She landed gracefully, lowering herself to let her passenger off board; he was gone in less time than it took the pink pony to shoot five Changelings with her magical, tail ran Gatling Twilight.

He didn’t even really stop when he got to the water, just slid for couple legs and stopped knee deep before drinking as much as possible. Obviously, the water skins they scavenged from an old raiding party were going to come in handy.

“Fill the skins my subject, our key piece requires them.” she ordered.

The Changeling carrying a pack of four water skins nodded, wading into the water himself. He uncapped the skins one-by-one and filled them to the brim, corking them shut again once the task was complete. Chrysalis looked between the thick palm trees, finding the sun to be nearing its zenith.

“Quickly now my children, even the oasis water will not save us from direct sunlight in this place, to the thicker bushes!” she hissed.

Each nodded, following her orders and trotting deeper into the bush like oasis.

As Coronamon left the pool, he had to ask, “Why is this oasis so big, I thought they were like small pools of water supporting a tree or two.”

Chrysalis nodded, “They usually are, but this specific one has many pools, it was a bit bigger years ago but time has regressed this one further.”

Coronamon nodded in complaisance, following the small army of Changelings into the deeper parts of the refuge. He watched the sun get dimmer and the air get a little cooler, giving effective relief to the weary travelers.

Some Changelings were already setting up a camp, others getting more resources; I occurred to Coronamon that they were going to be travelling by night for some time now. He sighed, this trip was boring; his were literal adventures which included him going to places none had been or few returned from. This was one big permanent vacation to another country, just a well-known trip.

Oh well, he thought, At least were away from the bandits.

Coronamon sat down beside a pile of gathering wood, what was soon to become their night fire, as he did so a patch of bushes from behind rustled. He thought of it as just some Changelings going for more materials, but there was something else nearby.

A pegasus with a bandana wrapped around his head smirked, “Oh how the boss is gonna like this!” he said before fluttering towards a small mound of sand. Any others eyes would have seen at as a common dune, he saw it as base.

He flipped the cover off the camouflaged cubby, “Oh how he is gonna like this indeed.”

Chapter 4 - Army Growing 101

Life for the Data – Chapter 4: Army Growing 101

Coronamon sat around a dwindling flame; it flickered under the slightest breeze as the ice cold desert winds were beginning to chill even him. The Changelings had long since fallen asleep, he voted to take guard duty. It wasn’t like he could sleep anyway, there was way too much on his mind for that to be a remote possibility. His mind was asunder, trying to define which world was better. He liked his home; it was odd and came with endless possibilities. But this world… it was different as well, having some pretty crazy stuff, up until so far, and then it started to make sense. He loved his home, his village, but he couldn’t just leave the Changelings to the fate of extinction.

Then came another addition to the already mind boggling equation, Lunamon. She was here as well, he could feel it. He had since formed a kinship with her, a sort of long range locator that allowed him to tell if she was there or not. It was currently a very weak ‘signal’, as he could just feel her conscious on the edge of his mind. She was here, and if he found a way home, he couldn’t just leave her on this world... Could he? Coronamon was no dummy, he knew the stone was able to copy a Digimons ability or attack; perhaps it went farther than that.

There was a chance, just a small one mind you, that she had wished to be here. To be something else, to be somewhere different, but what, where? He shook his head as it began to hurt, he was no dummy, but he was also not a scholar.

He rested on his back an looked to the sky, what little peeked through the thick overhead palm trees was meager, but it still allowed a good view of a massive moon, pocketed by hundreds of tiny raters and markings. He watched it slowly move across the night sky, his mind still trying to comprehend why they were here.

A bushel shook behind him.

Coronamon was on his feet in no time, already igniting his fist, readying himself for combat. He stared at the same spot for a few minutes, then lowered his fist full of flames when he was sure it was safe. As he turned back around, a small tube slowly extended from the bush like a snake preparing to strike, it emitted a landing squarely on Coronamon’s neck. He reached back, but the embedded needle’s poison worked quickly as it sank into his brain in seconds. Coronamon fell to his knees, wondering why the world had decided to become blurry all of a sudden.

More of the stalks gradually revealed themselves, firing off more of the poison tipped darts into the unaware Changelings. Soon, after the final dart met its mark, the culprits moved into the dim firelight. Robed in camouflage such as leaves and sticks, they grabbed each Changeling one by one. One though, simply stood and watched. A wicked smile was masked by the flora he wore, but it showed nonetheless. He lead them onwards, towards their secret desert base.

As the reached a small mound of powder, the leader reached beneath the fake layer of magical sand and unlatched the trap door, large enough to be two ponies wide. Each Changeling, and Digimon, was thrown unceremoniously into the hollow, the bandits in tow.

The leader was last to get in, closing the dry wooden door behind them. Once closed, he gave himself a moment to adjust to the extremely dark tunnel. Once they were though, he smiled. It was that good old dark sandstone tunnel held up with the occasional brace that kept the desert from falling on their heads. He saw a flickering light just ahead, showing him the way. He waved a hoof to follow once they had all picked up a Changeling. He led them down a deep dark, dry tunnel that sloped slightly downwards, pitch dark save for the occasional torch that let them know where the wall was.

After an uneventful journey, they had reached the more solid sandstone of the badlands desert. It opened into a massive chamber which was hung with stone stalactites on its relatively smooth roof. The room itself was large enough to fit the Changeling hive`s main chamber in it twice, have a massive pit in its center that served to deepen the mighty cave. The bandits were unfazed by the sight, save for one near the rear who looked with awe, probably a new guy.

The leader reached a small anti chamber beside the entrance to the pit, shedding his camouflage which had since caused large amounts of sweating. His ragged and soiled once silver mane fell to his neck and blended with his deep black coat. He was an earth pony, but a very strong looking one. A scar adorned a place directly under his jaw where a Sand Stalker had attempted to shave him with its tail. The creature’s kind deed was met with a spear between its body armor and a slow, debilitated death. It tasted good with some coconut and oasis water.

Pale Shadow smiled with the memory, that was his first kill out here, and he was beyond hungry, so he ate without a whim –though he cooked it first. He was found by some of the bandits covered in the animal`s blood and a belly full of meat. They recruited him without a second thought. Stupid bandits, he thought, I was just really hungry was all.

The remaining ponies threw down their captives and began to shed their camouflage likewise. Each threw the sweaty rags on the ground and then hefted their catch onto their backs and continued their march down the spiral ramp that led into the heart of the base. A small throne sat in the very center of the hovel, made of bone and brown carapace. Pale Shadow dreamed of sitting on that throne, the bandits listening to his every order without hesitation or risk being cooked alive and eaten.

An old and scarred horse sat upon the bone throne and looked over the force. His twisted and mangled mouth turned into a smile that would give a dragon a queasy feeling if it was aimed at him.

“So, these are the changelings that you told me about, eh, Pale?” he said, voice as gravely as his appearance, which resembled a common crater site.

Pale Shadow stepped forward, “Yes mighty Blood Moon, I spotted them yesterday with one of the Pegasi guards.” And I also dampened the poisons effects, you old coot.

Blood moon nodded, “Good, now, tell me Pale, where is their Queen?”

Pale blanked, he never said anything about a queen.

“Um, I don’t believe that they came with a Queen oh mighty one.”

Blood Moon smirked deeper, and this time Pale Shadow shuddered like the entire world just froze over.

“Hehehe… Did you think I was dumb? A stupid old stallion who got sent here for looking bad? You imbecile, I knew your type the moment you fell through that hole and into our pit, the moment I heard your hooves. The beat of them, the rhythm, the iron on them. You’re a voyageur that got trapped here long ago, and I see you eying my throne, you want to control us. Use us for whatever you please, perhaps even challenge the Bandit King. Your smart Pale, but your also dumb.”

Pale Shadow smirked ever so slightly; he had under estimated the pit ruler, now he was in for it.

“Maybe, you old baboon, but there is something even YOU missed.”

Blood Moon’s smile was gone in an instant, “And what, oh tiny Equestrian, is that?”

Pale’s head lit for a moment, revealing a hidden horn, “That the Changelings serum was weak, the explosives, and my ability to wake any from a slumber.”

Blood Moon stood, “KILL THEM ALL!!!” he screeched.

But it was too late; the few that Pale had rallied attacked the rest who were still loyal to Blood’s rule over the sand pit. Pale Shadow himself lit his hidden horn and reached out to every Changeling’s mind.

Wake up. he commanded.

Soon, every Changeling was bright eyed and bushy tailed, charging horns and swapping forms. Pale Shadow smiled and ran to the very confused looking new guy.

“It’s all right your majesty; you can drop the disguise now.”

The pony looked at him for a moment, and then lit up in an emerald cloak of flame.

“Good eye Pale Shadow, now, if you would be so kind as to awaken my friend, Coronamon, then we shall be off.”

He nodded, lighting his horn and reaching about the crowd. He found a peculiar lion thing being guarded by a

disguised Changeling. He went into his mind for a moment, and then spoke the magic words.

The small lions eyes fluttered open, the he jumped to his feet, lighting his hands on fire and turning to the nearest bandit. He released both fireballs directly into the unfortunate bandits face, rendering him useless without eyeballs.

“All retreat!” ordered the Queen.

Soon, a column of Changelings, disguised and the like, began to break away from the combat. Coronamon joined the advance in a different direction on one of their backs, acting as a covering fire. They followed Pale Shadow up the ramp, who then lit his horn and triggered the well placed explosives that were embedded in the walls. He calculated that if they kept up this pace, without hindrance or stops, then they would get out with ten seconds to spare.

Too bad that the Pegasi were having no part in a mid-battle escape.

Pale Shadow looked bug eyed at the Pegasi dropping down to take random swipes at the group as they retreated back to the surface. The Changelings kept them a bay, but not before they got in front. A small group of eight burly Pegasi landed in the mouth of the cave, blocking their path.

Pale Shadow furled his brow, “You idiots! If we stop now, then none of us are going to survive!”

One stepped forward, a goofy grin on his face, “Hey man, take it easy, were just all going to die! Ghahahaha!”

Pale noticed the others having the same inappropriate grins, had they been into the poison stock? That would certainly explain the attitudes.

“No matter, quickly, get them out of our way!” yelled Chrysalis.

There was a flurry of magical green blasts, each aimed at the Pegasi that wished only for imminent death. Said druggies moved with surprising speed, though their flight patterns were shaky and disorganized, they still attack from both sides. The Changelings began to move again, the way now clear, even if there was a few skirmishes from the drugged bandits.

Even if the way was clear, Pale was sweating more than usual in the stuffy cave. Those morons chewed up precious time, let’s see here… we have about three seconds to get out…

Pale Shadow flinched for a second, then ran the calculation through his head again, nope, he was right. Darn. He heard mangled cries from behind, the sound of rocks pounding all who were unfortunate enough to be under them, and the terrible beating of his heart. It was gaining on them, dust licking at their heels.

Pale Shadow picked up his pace; they weren’t going to make it… The something incredible happened, something unexpected. There had long since been a gas pocket beneath the cave, lying in wait for some idiot to trigger it. Just then, one of the explosives primed it, firing off a shock wave of concentrated non-toxic gasses the group’s way. It grabbed a hold of them, throwing them the next forty feet or so up the tunnel.

The Queen was the first to regain her bearings; the cave was still collapsing if the sound of tons of rock and sand falling were any indication of such. She blasted the trap door with a beam of energy, clearing a path for them all.

“Out out out!” she ordered.

The Changelings rose, many shaking their heads from the gaseous tidal wave that had given more than a few headaches. They followed their orders with glee, jumping out of the crumbling pit. The first one out helped the next, who helped the next, and so on. Soon, the entirety of the Changeling race was lying and panting outside of the small hole that was once a mighty cave. It gave off one last thwoomp, burped out a cloud of dust, then settled.

The surrounding area was a pile of bodies and tangled hooves, each struggling to regain their footing. Some stayed down; others cringed over broken wings and carapace. One in particular fussed about the glass that melted into his fur.

Pale Shadow stood and looked to the hole in the ground that had served as his home for some amount of time. It now lay as a massive crater embedded into the sands of the endless desert. He smiled; at least one thing went right. His small victory was soon ended as a wave of magic grabbed him and pulled him towards the queen. He smiled sheepishly as she looked down at him.

“Uh, yes Your Majesty?” he asked.

She brought him closer, “Now, why would a bandit destroy his entire base unless he wasn’t a bandit? You were called Equestrian, you do have pony shoes on, and I can see that your grimed mane is still slightly styled. Who are you really?”

He sighed, looking down, “My name is Star Glow, really, it is. I was a royal guard for Canterlot, first rank, no stars. I was sent here after I dealt with an offender violently, to say the least. After my trial, I was listed among the bandit list and exiled to this desert. I walked for two days having nothing but my armor and a spear, along with a single canteen. I had since drunk away the canteen; I hadn’t eaten anything in the dungeons for two days as well, leaving me starved. When I was attacked by a Sand Stalker, I killed it, and with no other truly viable options, I cooked and ate it…”

Chrysalis nodded, “Obviously, they found you in your starved state and saw something that could kill.”

Star nodded, “Yes, now I never had any intentions of becoming a bandit, I was a guard once you know. But they took me in, showed me where the water and food were, and said that they could use a stallion like me. I started to think different; I had those charges stolen from their cache a long time ago, days after I arrived. I set them as a plan to blow the place up one night, but my mind was slipping. I saw the throne every day, I wanted it. To have free reign over the idiots in the pit. Of course, you happened along one day. I caught one of the pegasus guards charging down into the pit, he said something about black bugs, so I looked into it.

“Aren’t you all a little glad I did? I found out you were Changelings, so I had the poison set to be lower in dose, that way I could wake you all easier. I needed this place gone, so I could have my name back. I hate it here, no way of keeping clean, no real good food, or even some decent clothes. I was stuck in a world of grime, filth. Now, I know you all invaded Canterlot a while back, but, I think that with the amount of lives that were just extinguished, I’ll never have my name back. I had planned to destroy the hovel when we were all above ground. But, recent events have drove me to do otherwise.”

He looked up to the Changeling Queen; eyes a little watery knowing he was never coming home, truly to home.

“I ask of you, Queen Chrysalis, to let me join you. I have a home no more, and a castle to defend gone as well. Perhaps, could you find it in your heart, to take me in like you did the lion?”

Chrysalis looked down at the retired guard, he wanted in? Just like that? Admittedly, this place would be forever safer without the base there and he had saved them, like Coronamon did. She sighed, there was a heroic pattern coming along here, one where the Changelings were all damsels in distress.

She thought about it for a moment longer, the upsides where that he had combat experience, probably had some armor stashed away somewhere, and he had the talent of waking others from their slumber. How did he do that again?

“Very well Star Glow, I suppose we could do with all the help we can get. Grab what you need, we leave within the hour.”

Star Glow smiled as wide as a chasm, “Thank you your majesty, I shall not disappoint!” he then dashed off in a seemably random direction.

Chrysalis shook her head before a Changeling walked up to her, “My Queen, many of us were injured from the explosion, the majority of the wounds are broken wings. We have to travel by foot.”

Chrysalis groaned; this was not exactly how things were supposed to be going.

“Very well, treat as many of the injured as possible, we move while the moon is still high.”

The Changeling nodded, bowing before cantering back into to reforming crowd of Changelings. She felt a presence near her foreleg and looked down to see Coronamon picking shards of glass out of his coat.

“I suddenly have a hatred for the desert.” He said nonchalantly.

She smiled, “Here, let me help.”

Her horn lit up, and began picking shards of fresh glass from his coat. She felt something stir inside her, the feeling that she hadn’t felt in centuries, something she had forgotten she could feel. A warm stirring in her chest, the feeling of a mother to a child. The feeling made her sick, how could she be feeling that just by helping the small, cute little lion with the fresh pieces of glass that he had made by accident from his coat like a nit-picky child… Oh.

She frowned in but the slightest way as she realized she really was acting motherly towards the small creature, no matter what way she put it. As the final glittering gem of burned sand was removed, she smiled again, there, now no more of that.

Star Glow came back as a clanking mass of metal, having retrieved his armor and spear. Chrysalis turned to greet him, lips turning upwards as she saw the rusted version of the classical royal guard armor.

“Good to see your ready, we have some wounds to treat, so sit down, make yourself comfortable.” commented the Queen.

Star hailed a salute, securing his spear into the ground and sitting down upon the gritty desert. He stared straight forward, though his eyes flew around the area searching everything that wasn’t behind him, even the few months he had lived here had made him weary of the desert.

Chrysalis nodded, returning to overseeing the medical operations.

(ஜ۩۞۩ஜ)

Something stirred in the desert, making the sands drift to and fro. A thing arose from the sand, enraged by its rude awakening. Its muddled scales shimmered a handsome brown in the moonlight’s glow. Massive red-orange eyes searched its surroundings; the entire desert shifted with a breeze, two centuries or so underground made it look like he had been dropped off on another planet. A low, grinding growl sounded from its foul maw, it wasn’t a morning guy, this was night, but you get the idea.

(ஜ۩۞۩ஜ)

Something sounded in the distance, something different than the usual growl or howl that emitted from the shifting sands of the Badlands. It sounded like hundreds of tiny pebbles grinding together and being blown away by a hurricane that was destroying a city full of boulders.

Star Glow looked its way, trying to spy whatever had made the sound. He raised a hoof to his forehead, glimpsing at every grain of desert powder. Then something made itself noticeable, a mound of sand being pushed up from underneath, like something was tunneling under it.

He turned to his new Queen, “Your majesty, I believe a swarm of Sand Stalkers is coming to see what the commotion is.”

Chrysalis looked up from the wound she was treating, then spotted Stars pointing hoof and followed it to the mound.

“Everybody, we have trouble, ready your spells for combat!” she ordered.

What few Changelings could stand did so, lining up with their Queen and readying spells.

Coronamon stepped up beside Chrysalis, “What is it Chrysalis, bugs?”

Chrysalis looked out to the dunes, “No, Stalkers are a race of arachnids; they have a tendency to form packs and hunt for any food available in the desert. They have large bladed tails, ten eyes, eight legs and a brown husk, the tails are venom-less, but still large enough to cut a Changeling in half.”

Coronamon shuddered, “Oh, well forget I asked…”

As the mound approached, it became more and more apparent that it wasn’t a pack of Sand Stalkers. The mound was too large, too fast, and not split up by this point.

Then something happened that nearly blew Star over, a fin the size of a parasail erupted from the sand, tall and rigid with lengths of skin in between the bony plates.

“SAND DRAKE! EVERYPONY RUN!” he cried, moving out of formation and bolting into the oasis.

Many of the Changelings joined him, but some stayed with their Queen and Coronamon, their mightiest warriors.

As the dune reached its climax, it exploded. The same earth shaking howl emitted from its maw, showing off rows of jagged bloodied and rotting teeth. It lowered its head, rivaling the size of a cave opening and four glowing fiery orbs looking them over. It glowered at them, not even being kind enough to move its mouth and foul stench do to centuries of rot. Each set of eyes moved separately from the other, looking over the rebelling group, though nearly each was shaking. Nearly.

Then all four eyes rested upon Chrysalis, and it stopped. It moved away its mouth and seemed to smile, however that was possible as its mouth could have been mistaken for sandstone. It then chose to speak, though it was hard to tell what it was saying as it sounded more like a caste falling apart.

“Chrysalis, how good to see you again, my liege. I am very sorry for scaring your people like that; I know how fragile they can be… Anyway, what are you doing at the oasis, which has grown considerably from my time?”

Chrysalis returned the smile, “Your apology is accepted, old friend, but not needed. As for our location, we were headed to Equestria to try and establish a colony there.”

The mighty sand dragon twisted its head, bones creaking from after centuries of misuse.

“That is, more or less, good to hear. Why then, are you yourself going?”

Chrysalis’s smile disintegrated faster than the air in the drakes lungs, “We… we are the last, Kalahari. I am the last.”

Kalahari’s eyes widened to the size of the Changelings, “No… I remember your people like it was yesterday, when you finally said it was my time to rest. You had at least three families, one of which was in Equestria already”

The mighty creature smashed a claw on the ground, “I should have stayed, I should have helped defend you like the others. Your people were once a mighty desert thriving species, now you are to tell me that you are dying?! How, who is responsible!?”

“Please, calm down Kalahari,” she yelled to the raging desert roamer, “if you stayed, you would have simply died with us!”

Her words did nothing to soothe Kalahari, “No, tell me Chrysalis, and I shall help you get vengeance.”

“NO!” she snapped, enraged by the dragons offer, “We need no vengeance, too many have died trying to establish simple contact. What we need is to be quiet about or entrance, get in through the Desert Canyon. We will live as a quiet whisper, as was or species intended to.”

Chrysalis breathed in and out, trying to calm herself, “I know how you feel about my kind, Kalahari, but we need to lay low until we have regained our strength. And if you must know ancient one, the Equestrians are, by extent, responsible for our downfall.” She then looked to the ground, “As am I.”

Kalahari looked solemnly upon his oldest friend, feeling sorrow for her affairs, “Very well Queen, I will not strike an Equestrian on sight, but the smallest remark about you, or our allies, and I will happily turn them to dust.”

Chrysalis looked up to the sand breathing dragon, “What do you mean, an Equestrian, and our allies?”

He smiled again, grinding centuries old bone and marrow, “I mean I am joining you, I can see the green staining the ground, though the battle might be over, you have injured. You would not make it to Equestria without burning alive, so I am going to offer a lift. I will act as a medevac of sorts, and transport those who cannot carry themselves.”

He looked at the stunned Queen with his four eyes, “There is nothing you can do to change my mind, and consider this my re-enlistment to the Changeling army.” he said before moving over to the wounded.

She felt her jaw clicking a few times in disbelief, then stuttered and spoke, “V-Very well, I guess I welcome you back, Kalahari. Everybody, this drake will carry you back to Equestria, we set off as soon as we find Star Glow.”

At the mention of his name, the ex-Equestrian jumped out of the woods, “Here, Your Majesty!”

She glanced his direction before helping another onto Kalahari’s back, “Ah yes, you. Now, onto the Sand Drake’s back will you? We need to leave as soon as possible.”

Kalahari looked at the rusted equine, then snorted, a tunnel of sand coming out with it, “Very well, Equestrian, but don’t blame me if my wing hits you a few times.”

Star waddled up the three story tall beast, smiling sheepishly, “I would never dream of it, um, can I get some help up?”

Kalahari smiled, and before Chrysalis could stop him, he grabbed the guard in his jaws, throwing him up into the air and landing him on his back with an audible ‘whump’.

Star Glow might have groaned a ‘thank you’, but Kalahari didn’t care, being able to do that was reward enough for him.

Once Coronamon was loaded on Chrysalis’ back, she jumped into the desert air, moving forward and giving the go ahead for the rest of the Changelings. They buzzed into the sky, followed by the thunderous sound of Kalahari opening his timeless wings. They were underused, but still large enough to carry the load he now bare and a little more with the distance they had to cover.

He hoisted himself into the air, wings creating a full sized sandstorm in his wake. As soon as he was up, he flew next to Chrysalis, spotting the creature on her back.

“And what is that, a new pet?” he asked laughing.

Chrysalis chuckled, and let Coronamon answer, “I am no pet, thank you very much, I am a part of this colony as any other is. Though I guess I am rather new and temporary, I still don’t like people, or dragons, calling me a pet just because I am small.”

Kalahari grinned, “Ah, so a snack then.” he joked.

Coronamon just rolled his eyes as Kalahari laughed in his deep gravely way.

“I am of course joking, young one, welcome to the family.” he finished, voice about as baritone as measurable.

Coronamon just lay back against the Queen, looking at the twinkling stars. As for Chrysalis herself, she was looking back at the column of sand and slate that they left when Kalahari took off, and remembered why his favorite line was: “Here, have some more!” as their enemies coughed up their lungs.

It was going to be tough to hide the massive ally in the plains area she planned to inhabit, but if anyone could hide something, it was a Changeling. Also, it wouldn't hurt to have a dragon on their side if things got bad, just some army building 101 she knew. But even as they glided through the night air, she could feel this wasn't going to be easy, and it was going to be much harder before it got better. Oh well, they would make it to see another day, the always did, and there was more than one way to do it.

Chapter 1 - Decoded

Chapter 1 – Decoded

Lunamon knocked away another low hanging vine. She hated this jungle, so why was she here? She was following Coronamon to this, ‘really neat rock’ he had found in the jungle. What he would be doing in such a place escaped Lunamon; he was always the more adventurous type. She supposed that on one of his, ‘glorious adventures’ he had finally stumbled upon something of worth. She doubted it. Coronamon was always going on little quests, hoping to find something valuable or exciting.

“Gah!” she cried suddenly as she went face first into a pile of mud. She raised her head spitting out the vile material, and looked behind her to see the culprit. A root, stupid jungle!

“Hey, you alright?” called Coronamon, just realizing that Lunamon was no longer behind him.

He came running back to her side, helped her out of the mud, took one look at her face and broke into teary laughter.

“What’s so funny?” she asked in a rather upset tone.

Coronamon’s giggles quieted down just enough to answer, “*Hee hee*, your face is covered in mud! *Oohaha* that’s funny.”

Lunamon could feel a vein bulging, which was odd because they didn’t have any blood, or even real organs. But more to the point, she was a dark type of Digimon, and you did not want to get a dark type Digimon mad. She grabbed his back and gave a harsh shove. He barely had time to say ‘huh?’ as he too fell face first into the mud puddle. She let off a faint snicker as his un-amused face rose from the puddle, mud boiling near his flaming head crest.

“Hardy har har, very funny Lunamon, let’s just go please.” Coronamon said as he rose from the puddle.

“Very well, but I doubt that this so called, ‘glowing rainbow stone thingy’ is so impressive.”

“Aw come on, I added thingy to the end, which means it so awesome that I couldn’t decide a name!” he retorted.

“Still in denial, you have yet to show me it and until proven real, it shall remain a fantasy.” She replied with crossed arms.

Coronamon grumbled a bit about her stubbornness and lack of faith before they moved on. The rest of the trip was boringly uneventful, not a single mishap father in. Lunamon watched the jungle somehow get thicker and thicker. Soon, they had to wiggle between some of the trees. It only took about ten minutes, but they soon came to a humungous tree. Lunamon looked over it with awe, it was obviously ancient. Its bark was splitting in some places and the thick branches that topped it were covered in abundance with deep green leaves.

“Come on, it’s just inside.” Coronamon’s voice broke Lunamon’s stupor.

She looked to see him pointing at a large unnatural crack in the center. For the existence of her, she would never know she missed it.

“You think this is awesome, wait until you see the rock.”

Lunamon nodded, and then followed Coronamon inside the wooden behemoth. It was surprisingly cool; the air seemed to be still, and tense. Coronamon led her to a small chamber, most likely at the core of the tree.

Lunamon looked around for the stone, there was light in here even though it was completely pitch black half way through the tunnel.

“Here,” said Coronamon, “have a look at that.”

Lunamon watched in anticipation as Coronamon shuffled around the edge of the room, letting Lunamon see… a small stone only about 3 inches in length and a single inch in diameter covered by rainbow eldritch lines sitting on a small stone pillar.

“That’s it?” She said as she raised an accusing finger to the tiny stone, “You dragged me through miles of jungle, all of which could have had a Kuwagamon in it, to see a small shiny stone.”

Coronamon cringed, “I know it’s small, but look at it, all those funny looking rainbow lines have to mean something.”

Lunamon face palmed, “I was going to take care of the Punimon today; I had to ask the village elder if I could come with you and now a whole day has been wasted because of this rock!”

She emphasized her hate for it by striking the rock. Coronamon watched awestruck as it fell to the floor in a clatter. He stared at it for a moment longer before he noticed a change in the stones pattern.

“What’s this?” he said to no one in particular and picked up the stone. The stone now had a set of black lines running where the rainbow ones usually were.

He watched it for a while, and then it changed again. Now fiery red lines ran along the stones surface.

“Hey, Lunamon! Check it out, it changes color!” he said, shoving it in her face.

She was quick to push his hands away, “Wonderful, if it could magically transport us to another dimension or to the real world, I would be impressed. But until then, it remains a puny little insignificant time wasting rock.”

Coronamon cringed at her reaction, “Aw come on, it seems to copy our types. See, when I touch it, it becomes red, when you touched it, it became black.”

“Oh that’s just great.” she replied, voice dripping with sarcasm, “Now if we’re ever in a fight, we can hit an enemy to figure out what type it is while they delete us and absorb our data.”

Coronamon frowned, but returned to playing with the stone. He twisted it around some, threw it in the air, and even gnawed on it a little. Then he had an idea, he lit one of his paws on fire, held the stone and hugged it against his chest. Soon, he felt a heat being given off of it. He took it away from his chest then placed it on the stone pedestal again.

“Hey, look, it copied my attack type! It’s heating up!” he exclaimed excitedly.

Lunamon looked the stones way, and then it gave off a heat wave.

“Whoa, cool it down Coronamon; it’s going to burn me!” Lunamon waved an arm, trying to cool the stone down.

“I can’t! It’s going on its own!” he yelled to her, as a part of the tree caught on fire.

“Tear Shot!” she yelled, calling upon her Digimon power.

Lunamon’s antennae stood up, it massed together a ball of water and hurled it at the raging stone. The water met the stone, which hissed then soon stopped burning everything. It changed color to blue, and then started to leak water.

“Huh, your attack made it watery.” observed Coronamon.

Lunamon felt that vein bulging again, “That thing nearly burnt me, and this tree down and all you have to say is that I made it watery!?”

Coronamon raised his paws in defence, “Okay, okay, are you alright? It didn’t burn you did it?”

Lunamon looked over herself, “No, but it was close. If I hadn’t put it out, it may have deleted me and burned down this tree.”

Coronamon looked over to the stone again, “It’s really dangerous isn’t it? I guess I know why it’s stuck so deep in the jungle and inside of a tree.”

“Exactly, “ huffed Lunamon, “which is why you shouldn’t go ‘adventuring’, and stay around to help out at the village more often.”

“I guess you’re right, we'd better leave it.” he said before replacing to he pedestal.

Coronamon looked over the stone one last time, then began moving back down the wooden tunnel. Well, they were anyway.

“RRUUUUAAAAAGGHH!!!” something cried from just outside the tunnel.

They looked at one another in fear, before returning their gaze towards the exit. Soon, a humongous red head covered in black symbols and with a green jaw and large pincers entered their vision.

“KUWAGAMON!” cried out Lunamon.

“RRRUUUUAHG” roared the mighty insect Digimon, reaching for them with a huge scissor hand.

“Back inside!” yelled Coronamon.

They both retreated into the mighty tree, the Kuwagamon’s arm thrashing at their heels. They reached the room with the stone again, only now it had turned into a fountain. Water gushed from the stone upwards in a jet stream, and had effectively covered the floor with at least half a foot of water, that shouldn’t be happening. Lunamon looked at the floor, it was perfectly parallel, not a single bump or dinge anywhere. She sloshed down the hall a little to find a horrifying sight. The Kuwagamon had covered the entrance with a huge hand, and was stopping to flow of water. It planned to drown them!

“Coronamon, we have a very serious problem, the Kuwagamon is going to flood us out!” she cried, running awkwardly back to the main room.

“I noticed, we need to do something now!” he said, water already reaching their thighs.

Lunamon sat and stared at the stone for a while, what were they going to do? They could stay in here and drown, or, head back the way they came and get deleted by a virus Digimon.

With the water up to her neck, Lunamon said what she believed would be her last words, “For the record, I believe this is all your fault!”

“Water to our necks and you blame me eh? Figures.”

“What do you mean, ‘figures’?!”

“I mean that – *glargle*”

That was it, no room left to float to, no room to breathe, no room to live. Lunamon looked towards their death cause, grabbing the infernal sliver of stone she could feel the water still being given off by shard. She held it close to her, just wishing that they could be someplace different. The real world sounded nice, but that wasn’t what she wanted. They could go to the real world but they would never be real, just data, about to drown then be absorbed by a rogue insect Digimon. She wished with all her will that they could be real, could have the feeling of life, even briefly.

Then, the stone let out a brilliant flash, illuminating the dark room for a split second and within that second, two figures disappeared from the water. Then the liquid drained away.

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01001100 01110101 01101110 01100001(Luna)

Luna sat upon her own lunar blue throne, looking over the empty hall that was Canterlot’s throne room, feeling a boredom to rival her time on the moon. Nopony ever came to her night courts, well, that was not wholly true. Occasionally, a pony would come to her about how night clubs were negatively affecting the youth of Canterlot. She failed to see how night clubs were bad, they were ponies enjoying her night, having fun and making the best out of a reckless young life. She had participated in a night club once, a musical one ran by a DJ named DJ-PON3. Obviously, that was a stage name, but nonetheless, she quite enjoyed it. Sure, they had all seemed a little shocked to see their princess participating in such an event them, but they all joined her soon enough. That was also the night she learned that alcohol had increased in intensity and flavor quite a bit since her... leave.

And the night she learned that there was a ‘press’ and ‘media’ that the ponies now had, in which her story of joining the club that night was plastered over every newspaper in Equestria, and a few beyond the borders as well.

Just as the night reached its zenith, she felt very strong magical pulse. She rose from her seat, horn glowing from the residual energy given off by the ripple in the very fabric of space. Every unicorn awake would have felt that, and every one would have had varying levels of headaches depending on how far they were. She sensed it was an admirable distance away, somewhere in those accursed woods which had swallowed the old castle. There were stories of goblins and beasts worse than dragons that lurked in those woods, seriously? Goblins and beasts, where the citizens came up with such ideas was beyond her. Surely a creature stronger than a dragon would have destroyed the woods by now, and goblins were wiped from Equestria long ago.

The doors flew open as a unicorn guard came running inside the throne room.

He gave a brief bow before speaking without asking for permission, “Your majesty, a large ripple of magic was detected from the Everfree forest not long ago, we received information from Twilight Sparkle that it was of space bending origin. She requests that a team be sent at once to research the anomaly.”

“Well, that was quick. Very well, send a regime of night guard to Ponyville at once, tell them I will be leading this expedition into the woods.” She had full intentions for finding out what was powerful enough to bend space, that was her domain.

The guard bowed again, then turned to leave.

“Oh and guard,” Luna’s voice rang out, reaching and stopping the guard in his tracks.

“Yes your majesty, what is it you require?” he asked.

“If you would, next time we speak, at least allow me to address you first.” She replied, almost upset she was not able to do so.

“My apologies your majesty, I felt the wave as well and was a little panicked.”

Luna waved a hoof, “I care not the reason, just that formalities are something I wish to practice more often.”

“Yes your majesty, it won’t happen again.” He said with a curt bow.

Luna smiled, “Thank you, now we best be off, we wouldn’t want this little anomaly to escape our grasp, it could prove as useful research.”

He nodded again before galloping down the hallway to alert the night guards. Luna made her way down the steps from the thrones, walking calmly towards the door. She had feeling this was going to be more than just a space anomaly, ever since her return Luna found that things were a lot less simple, and that even their small problems ended up being some sort of pandemic eventually. This event would most likely turn up no different.

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01001100 01110101 01101110 01100001 01101101 01101111 01101110 (Lunamon)

Lunamon’s eye’s fluttered open. She slowly put one hand on the ground, and then another. She pushed herself up, dusted herself off then gathered her bearings. She was in some sort of forest, no longer trapped in the jungle. With… wait, where was Coronamon? She looked around, and then her gaze became more frantic. She searched everywhere in her immediate area, calling his name out loud. But, there was no response, just the rustling of the leaves and the shiver of the grass under a midnight breeze.

She looked up through a break in the leaves, and saw a full moon. She felt herself get lost in its majesty. It was a lot larger than she remembered, so bright and full… It was intoxicating. She stared at it for what must have been an eternity, and then it hit her. Literally, a broken branch had fallen on her head.

“Gah!” she cried out in surprise.

She remembered where she was, who wasn’t with her and how she was going to have to wait out an entire night without anyone. She hated, HATED, being alone. There was no one to lean against, to watch over her when she slept, no one to have a simple conversation with. No one to defend her.

She was reminded of the last one as a growl emanated from the surrounding woods. She screamed unintentionally and began to run in a random direction. She didn’t look back, didn’t even care where she was going, she just ran. Fueled by fear and something she didn’t recognize, she just ran. Ran and ran and ran and ra- *THWUMP* crashed into a tree.

She fell over backwards, clutching her nose and crying slightly from the pain and more so towards the fear. She felt something drip from her nose, something just a little warm and just a little runny. Wait, a nose? She rose up, sniffling a little, and felt her face a little more carefully. She found she did in fact have two small slits a small ways above her mouth. Currently though, they were filled with an odd liquid she didn’t recognize, perhaps she still had water in her new nose. No, that didn’t make sense. She raised her hand in front of her face, a beam of moonlight guided itself to her hand, which was covered in… blood. She had blood leaking from her new nose after hitting a tree. Her mind was beginning to piece things together, they were nearly drowned, and she made a wish, a wish to be… real. She wanted to live an actual life, to be alive.

But, nobody said she would be alone. She didn’t want to be alone, it was dark and chilly and scary. But, here she was, alone in the middle of the woods, alive. But perhaps not much longer, because when you die after you’re alive, there’s no coming back.

Now, she heard the growls again, this time closer. Much closer. Too close, she surveyed her surroundings, and found a disturbing amount of yellow eyes closing in on her. Each one belonged to some kind of wooden wolf. She cursed her excellent night vision and began to run away again, and this time she watched where she was going. She heard one let out a terrifying howl, sending a chill down her spine, one she planned to keep in her body. She ran and ran, then spotted a tree with low lying branches. She made a bee line for it, quickly grabbing the nearest branch and ascending to safety. The branches were spaced out rather far for her small frame and she had to jump to some of the other branches or else suffer the fate of being a hungry pack of wolves next meal. She finally reached a safe height, and not a moment too soon as a wooden wolf jumped up, snapping at her heels.

Other wolves tried to jump up, only to have the braches break and fall back down again. Lunamon sighed; she was safe, for now. She sat down on the branch she was residing upon, taking a breather. Just when it seemed like this was a worst case scenario, another creature growled and caused the wood wolves to stop jumping at her, and look around. Soon, another monster stalked out of the flora to reveal an even worse creature. It had the body of a Lynxmon that looked like it was put out, and wings like a Devimon. A large tale with a stinger was attached to its rear, swinging lazily back and forth. The wolves all cautiously watched it approach, then slowly let it make its way towards the tree that she was sheltered in. She watched in horror as the new monster reached the base, licking its chops hungrily. Then, a wolf cried out and tackled the beast, which was joined by the rest of the pack. The new creature proved itself to be far more powerful than the wolves anticipated.

It swatted away the one on its back, delivering a quick strike from its tail causing the wolf to go limp. The new one continued to threaten the pack with its tail and then lashed out. It quickly began tearing at the wolves furiously, wooden armor no match for its devastating claws.

Lunamon realized her chance had arrived and climbed around to the opposite side of the tree before making her way down. She hit the ground running, not wasting a moment to escape the mad monsters. She heard the battle ensuing just behind her, but soon enough; a victorious howl filled the air. She didn’t care who won, she just wanted out of this madness. Not that this was much different from the Digital world, it was just that they were all actually dying, death was something no one survives. She did not want to join in natures ultimate ending so soon, and so she ran. And ran, and ran, this was beginning to form a pattern in her head as she ran for anywhere but there. She was alone, it was dark out, there were creatures that wished for nothing less than to make her into a gourmet, and she was alone. This was the worst day of her new life.

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01001100 01110101 01101110 01100001(Luna)

Luna tread within the forest with upmost caution, she may have been an Alicorn with an entire squad of night guard with her, but a hydra alone would be a challenge. If they met multiple ones, she couldn’t assure the safety of her subjects. A pack of Timberwolves would be difficult to spot in the dead of night in an environment that they adapted to. A Manticore would be no problem, but a dragon could cook them all alive with a simple blow of its mighty flame breath.

She heard exactly what most feared would be their end, a pack of Timberwolves were on the hunt. It sounded like a rather excited howl, like they were chasing fast prey.

They continued their trek deeper into the dark woods, following the directions of Twilight Sparkle who led them onwards with a lit horn.

“Okay, I’m feeling some increased magical activity more towards that pack of Timberwolves we heard earlier. We should head southward, the magical anomaly is somewhere in that direction.”

Luna nodded, following Twilight’s directions. This entire search excited Luna, an anomaly that could bend space, a magical thing that may be able to be harnessed! They could easily progress further if they had the knowledge of long range teleportation for those who weren’t even magical.

Another sound was heard, this one much more like a deep growl than a howl.

One of the guards perked up, “That sounded like a Manticore your majesty, we should lay low.”

“Thank you Night Strike, you heard her, everypony stay low and follow Twilight. I want this done with minimum confrontation.” ordered Luna.

The entire team obeyed, lowering their form and moving more stealthily. They slowly crept up on the sound, which was followed by a chorus of barks and roars. They hurried their pace by a fraction, wishing to see what was exactly going on. They reached a barrier of foliage, sticking their head from a small bushel, they all watched in awe as a single Manticore challenged a pack of Timberwolves. Just then, Luna noticed something most unusual, a small white and purple rabbit thing jumped from the tree the small battle was taking place in front of. She watched it run off on two legs before disappearing into the underbrush.

Her attention was returned to the fight as a triumphant howl was released. She saw there was only a single Timberwolf standing, but soon, it too fell from wounds it had sustained. She knew she should be rather upset at the sight, but that was nature. Predators killed predators for their prey, simple as that, even if the prey was an odd two-legged rabbit with four ears.

This place had gotten odder and odder.

“Princess, the magical anomaly is moving south, towards Ponyville.” specified Twilight.

“When did you notice it moving towards Ponyville?” she asked, and had a hunch on what that rabbit thing was.

“Just seconds ago, Princess.”

Bingo.

“The anomaly is alive, it is a creature that has jumped dimensions, whether by accident or by its own source. I strongly doubt it could do any damage though, it looked like a small rabbit thing to me.” stated Luna.

“Really!?If it is, we could learn so much from it!” Twilight’s horn wavered, “Wait, I’m losing my anchor on it, it’s losing residual energy from the transport, we won’t be able to track it very much longer!”

Luna stood from the bush, “Then let us go, I do not wish for such small creature to be harmed while it can be saved.”

The night guards joined her in rising, Twilight seemed a little queasy about the bodies, but followed Luna and the guards as they ran after the little creature.

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01001100 01110101 01101110 01100001 01101101 01101111 01101110 (Lunamon)

Lunamon wasn’t thinking straight. She could see, hear and talk, but couldn’t think straight. Her mind too filled with questions. Why was she in the middle of the woods, where was Coronamon, and what would get her first? She slowed down to a walk, too tired to start running again. She was tired of everything already; this place was beyond scary to her. Alone and without a guide, she wandered the woods aimlessly. When she came here she had felt a little tingly, now the feeling was gone. That was the last sign of feeling to her, the cold in the air was beginning to slow her actions. She felt the cold steal her dexterity as she wiggled her fingers. A stiff wind covered her, sending a fit of shivers down her body.

When it seemed like it couldn’t get any worse, her stomach growled. Oh, right, she’d not eaten any food because she went out into the jungle with Coronamon before supper. Wonderful.

She added hunger to her list of reasons to hate life, before, food wasn’t really a problem. It was an inconvenience to be hungry, but now, it could be fatal from not eating enough. She didn’t dare touch any of the flora either, too much of a chance it could be poisonous in these dangerous woods.

She wandered further into the trees and found some sort of hut. It looked like it was made out of an old tree’s stump. The top was gnarled, and the base bent, but there was an unmistakable door embedded into the tree.

She crept up to as if it could explode at the slightest of actions, which it very well could the way things were going. She raised a hand and knocked lightly and hoped that there wasn’t just another monster living here, she really didn’t have a whole lot of choice though, she needed shelter. There was the sound of something approaching, then a new voice spoke, sounding rather annoyed.

“By the stars in the sky, when will there be sleep for I?”

The door’s handle twisted and the door flew open, “If you need a remedy, come ba-”

An odd striped horse thing stopped talking as she looked down at Lunamon.

“What is it my eye’s see, a little blue dressed bunny?”

“H-hello?” Lunamon was cautious; the striped horse had the potential to be just as dangerous as everything else in the woods.

“You are not a bunny, but you do look a little funny.”

“H-hey, that wasn’t very n-nice.” stuttered Lunamon; the cold was really getting to her.

“My apology, small bunny.” replied the striped horse, in her ever so cryptic way.

“M-my name i-is Lunamon.”

“Well Lunamon, you should really have a coat on.”

“I-I know, which is w-why I c-came here. I’m really c-cold, may I come inside?” Lunamon could feel her legs go numb.

The horse seemed weary, but relented, “Yes you may, but do not stray, my newest potion must be left without motion.”

Lunamon nodded then followed the striped horse inside. She saw various bottles and sacks hanging from the ceiling, each gave a mystic look to the place. A large cauldron sat boiling something blue in the center while masks of various sizes and color lay about.

She was guided to a small cot; it was only about half a foot above the ground and two feet long. It had a quilt as covers and a plush looking stark white pillow.

“I set this up for Apple Bloom; my bed simply doesn’t have the room.”

Lunamon walked over to it, smiling as she saw it was the perfect size. “T-thanks miss…”

The striped horse smiled in kind, “Zecora is my name, and potion making is my fame.”

“Thank y-you Miss Zecora, I would h-have frozen, or been e-eaten out there.”

Zecora waved a hoof, “Just Zecora if you don’t mind, though I have never seen one of your kind.”

Lunamon pointed a finger at herself, “M-me, I’m a Digimon, well, I don’t t-think I qualify as one anymore.” she said, still shivering.

Zecora raised an eyebrow, “A Digimon you say, well we don’t see one of you every day.”

“D-do you even know what a Digimon is?” Lunamon asked.

“Not a clue, though, a lot you seem to have been through, is that true?”

Lunamon jumped into the small cot, “Y-Yah, I’ve had a few close calls t-today. Though I don’t know what was worse, the wooden w-wolves or the weird lion thing.”

“A Timberwolf and Manticore you’ve met, they are far worse than any house hold pet.”

“Noted, thanks again Z-Zecora. Good night.”

Zecora smiled and nodded, “Good night little Lunamon, tomorrow morning I might be gone.”

Lunamon snuggled under the sheets covering the cot, it was surprisingly comfortable compared to the village beds, which were piles of hay or scavenged parts. This entire place reminded her of the village magicians place, Wizardmon, albeit in a tree and with stuff hanging from the ceiling. She felt the heat returning to her legs, and hands, and face, and generally everywhere. The bed was soft and the pillow lush, she could feel sleep creeping on her eye lids. She was still hungry, but it could be a LOT worse. She decided there and then, this Zecora was going to be her new friend. Lunamon’s eyes shut; her mind still conscious wondered just how Coronamon was doing, then, an endless dreamscape.

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Chapter 5 - Enter Unto Equestria

Life for the Data

Chapter 5 – Enter unto Equestria

A sand lizard sat atop a stone, his throne. He looked down at the many specks of sand that made his lands, all ten inches of it. An invasion force of one was sent from a rivalling tribe; he valiantly stepped down from the throne and went to battle. Each lizard kicked up dust and left nasty gashes (about the size of a pin scrape) against their mighty hides.

But before the attacker could claim his prize and declare victory, a massive gust of wind like no other sent him fling away, leaving the near death lizard dumbstruck. Soon, a mighty claw touched down mere millimetres away, nearly cleaving him in half. He suddenly forgot about his mortal wounds and retreated to his brother’s rock for cover.

Kalahari spotted the tiny creature, snorting, “Lizards.”

He lowered one of his wings allowing for the remaining Changelings to climb off board. Soon the Queen and what few Changelings left with the ability of flight touched down as well. Kalahari made sure to flex his wing a little which caused Star Glow to falter, falling off.

Star removed his face from the stone, helmet saving his muzzle from becoming bloodied and gave Kalahari a poisonous glance. The Sand Drake pretended to afraid before laughing and walking into the gorge. Chrysalis could not help but smirk at the Ex-Equestrians misfortune, though she coughed and began to walk alongside Kalahari followed by Coronamon. Kalahari’s trained eyes tracked the walls, watching for pesky Sand Eels. The eels were relatives to the Canyon Eels that lined Ghastly Gorges walls, but were smaller and could leave the walls to make the kind of kills not possible to their larger brethren.

He spotted a small grouping of holes in the wall and fired a stream of sand their way, covering it with quickly hardening sandstone and effectively neutralizing the threat. Chrysalis shuddered as the sand solidified, memories of the foul creatures returning to her mind.

Coronamon looked at the filled in holes with wonder, “What were those?”

Chrysalis looked down at him, “Sand Eels, like Canyon Eels only smaller and can come out of their walls. If even one got out, you might find yourself cornered with a monster that looks a little like Kalahari only with hundreds of tiny razor teeth.”

Coronamon looked back at the sealed holes, thankful that they were holding as the creatures inside pounded against the new stone, but he was confident he could take one.

They continued their march into the crevasse, which soon began to divide into multiple sections. Kalahari lead them through with little difficulty, having lived here for a few years after he was resigned from the old army.

The time they spent was uneventful, a small canyon wall covered with tiny holes was quickly covered by Kalahari as they neared it, and the occasional rock fell from either time or the wind, which had a tendency to blind those without sandstone for skin.

As they came to a cross road, Kalahari stopped.

Chrysalis stepped beside his now lowered head, eyes deep in thought, “What is it old friend?”

Kalahari’s four eyes searched the wall for landmarks that should have easily survived the canyons tearing winds and dry climate, instead, he found them covered with sand, thick and course.

“I am lost; these walls are new, meaning the canyon has spread in the past century or so. I apologize, but it is all in the air from here on out my Queen.” he responded, looking at the queen with two red eyes.

She nodded, “It is quite alright, I should have suspected they would do that after a few years. Darn it all, if only we could travel the same older routes, but those are now covered in guards.”

As they began to devise a way to traverse the new canyon, Coronamon turned to the Changelings.

“So, what do you think Equestria is like?” he asked, giving the occasional glance towards the two old timers.

The one in front shrugged, “I don’t know, something like lush fields and air saturated with love. The Hive Mind gives words, not images.”

Coronamon crossed his arms, “You know I never really got that whole ‘Hive Mind’ thing.”

The Changeling thought about it for a while, “Well, I suppose you could think of it like this: You have a mind, you can think, sing, dance, et cetra, but, with the Hive Mind, everyone else’s singing and motions are shared, allowing us all to hear and feel. It’s more of a on and off thing really, some say we always had to be connected to it, but nowadays, we just tune in every now and then to see what’s up.”

Coronamon nodded, thinking it sounded more like the internet really.

“Okay, then what’s your opinion on that guy?” he asked, pointing a paw at Star Glow, who was examining some really good looking sand right now.

“Him?” queried the Changeling, pointing at Star, “He’s a nut, we can all sense it. He’s lost a few marbles after he left Equestria, don’t really blame him though, The Wastelands a dangerous place not meant for the faint of heart. That and Sand Stalker meat has venom running through it that can damage your brain.”

Coronamon nodded before Chrysalis called that they had figured a way out. They began to follow which way the wind flowed strongest, hoping that that meant an area it was draining into. Soon, the temperature began to drop from the usual fifty plus, to a much more preferred Summer temperature of around thirty degrees. Kalahari shivered, to him, this felt like winter.

Soon, blades of grass began to poke out from the sand, seeking what little moisture the air carried with it. Coronamon spotted a flower, it was small and looked a little sickly, but it was plant life nonetheless. A brisk tailwind caught them all off guard and then they saw it. Just beyond the crevasses mouth lay a field of gleaming grass swaying in the afternoon sun, little birds fluttered around the canyon mouth that so conveniently served as their home.

Chrysalis stared and smiled. She had seen this once before, but at the top of a mountain city. She heard all her children begin to muster near the front, each wanting a glimpse of the great new spectacle. She herself buzzed to the top of Kalahari, puling some up with her. Each watched with twinkling compound eyes as the very land was soaked with magic and love.

Each whooped and hollered at the sight, know that this meant an easier life for all.

Chrysalis buzzed in front of her subjects, clearing her throat, “All of you, this is Equestria. Land of the loved and kind. We have made it, yes, but the work does not end here. We must begin the construction of a new Hive and begin to send scout into nearby pony settlements in order to begin harvesting the so much needed love that we require. Kalahari, I do hope I can rely on you to dig us a hole large enough for yourself and us. We will install the rooms and corridors, but what we truly need is a place to call home.”

The dragon smiled, seemably cracking the edges of his jaw, “With pleasure, I do wish to get out of this cold though, I will need a few months to adapt to the climate here, lest I freeze in the Winter.”

She nodded, “Thank you old friend, you may do as you wish with yourself after, this is all our new home now.”

Kalahari waved a massive clawed foot, “As I said, I have returned to the Hive. I will help rebuild your empire to the end of my days. Let us go forth, eh? I already see a spot that may be weak enough for me to dig into easily.”

Chrysalis nodded, feeling a tear slide down her carapace. This was it, their new life.

They all failed to detect the scrambling Pegasus guard pony that had merely seen the Drake, Queen and horde of Changelings before retreating back to the outpost. Another invasion was coming, and he had to let everypony know!

.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı. Ponyville Hospital .ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.

A small beep echoed through her mind. The beep was monotonous, keeping at a constant pace and matching her heartbeat. Lunamon tried to open her eyes,. Only to close them quickly as artificial light pounded her eye holes. She let the light seep through her eyelids before trying again, this time with much greater success.

She found herself staring at the roof, having been placed in a rather uncomfortable bed. She shuffled against the back and sat up, looking around the room. It was a small, square white walled room with various medical tools and equipment scattered about.

She moaned, grasping her head with a single claw; find the other one to be immobilized. She looked to her right, finding a heartbeat monitor to be monitoring her heartbeat. Right. She had one of those now.

She looked down to see her arm in a cast, probably a result of the fight yesterday. Kuwagamon could be so mean…

The sound of a door opening caught her attention, she observed it as a doctor holding a clipboard entered.

“Miss Lunamon?” he queried, not even looking up.

“Yep, so I’m in the hospital, right?” she asked, taking another glance at the room.

“Yes you are, now, you have a broken arm, and some fractured ribs. We healed all the smaller wounds but those two we could only speed up and sedate, or else you would be gasping for breath now.”

Lunamon nodded, she knew it was bad; Kuwagamon had a tendency to rip their prey to shreds, she was lucky to have gotten away with a few broken bones.

The doctor flipped to another page on the clipboard, scanning its contents, “Alright then, let’s have a look.”

He trotted up to her bed, carefully scanning her arm with a little magic beam. Lunamon giggled as the magic tingled under her cast, and then he moved onto her chest, scanning her midsection. Once done, he wrote down some notes on the clipboard before placing it to a hook on his coat.

“You are healing at a marvelous rate, I estimate that by this time in two days you’ll be well enough to leave and do… whatever it is you creatures do.”

She nodded, giving her thanks to the doctor as he left, before she sighed and leaned against the backboard, this was going to be a long two days.

.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı. Badlands Canyon outpost .ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.

The guard crashed into the side of the small building, making a sizeable dent in the wall. He scurried inside, grabbing a sheet of paper and quickly began writing a notice down for Canterlot. Once done, he lit the dragon hearth fire and threw the scroll in, watching it fly up and out of the chimney. He watched it eagerly as it left; as if a Changeling could catch the magically transmuted paper within the mile he had seen them.

Once it left his vision, he sighed, slouching and trotting back into the small marble construct. He sank into one of the wooden chairs on the top floor, looking lazily out to where he had spotted the small army. As he stared, his view was again poisoned by their presence as they marched boldly out into the field.

They had the Sand Drake at their head; the poor thing was probably being controlled. They began their invasion by marching into the plains and the big one began to tear up the ground. He watched bewildered as it began to sink into the earth at an alarming rate, the Changelings hovering overhead. Well, some were, others were sitting around the creature, looking up as if jealous that they couldn’t fly. Which was ludicrous, because they obviously had wings.

He watched and leaned over to see that the massive drake had made a sizeable hole in the ground, the Changelings now opting to follow in as the tip of its tail began to disappear.

“Do they know?”

The guard fell over in his seat, finding himself to be looking up into the Queens eyes.

“I’ll ask again, does Canterlot know?” she asked, more stern this time.

“Y-Yes, and we will win! You’ll never take Equestria!” he cried out, preparing to be knocked out or even killed.

“What are you doing?” she asked, puzzled by his behavior.

He opened an eye to see her looking quizzically at him, “Y-You aren’t going to kill me?”

“Why would we want to do that?”

The guard blinked, “Oh right, you try to stuff us in pods!” he realised, again preparing for the end.

She sighed, “What is it with you ponies and your pods and, ‘Changelings are massive killing machines?’ We’re pretty much like ponies, only we feed off love. Also, We don’t put you in pods unless your hurt, dying, or want to be in a pod.”

The guard looked at her with cautious eyes, wondering if what she said was true, “I always thought that you were all ruthless killers…”

Chrysalis sighed, rubbing her temples, “I find it ironic that the most peaceful country on this world is so paranoid of

everything else, even though most aren’t much different from your average citizen.”

He guard rolled over, shuffling away from the Queen, “So, you aren’t going to hurt me…?”

Chrysalis shook her head, “Or put you in a pod, or attack you, or threaten you, or even harass you. Actually, I want to ask something of you.”

The guard raised his ears, “Really, and why would I want to do anything for you?”

“Because there is an entire Changeling Swarm in Equestria, digging a new hive and wishes to ask for an audience with the Royal Sisters.” she replied, looking him in the eyes.

He scratched the bottom of his helmet, then trotted down the ladder inside and began to write a new note.

Dear Canterlot:

This is Private Quill Feathers of the Badlands outpost. I would like to reprimand my last letter and replace it with this one. I have been contacted by the Changeling Queen, the same from the last invasion. She has asked for an audience with both Princess Celestia and Luna, I would exercise caution as she has informed me that the Sand Drake they have in their party is helping them make a new hive here in the Southern Plains. I do believe that either you come here, or I am afraid that they may again come to you.

Sincerely,

Private Quill Feathers of the Equestrian Border Guard.

He rolled up the scroll and stamped a hot wax seal to it. He then threw it in the dragon hearth fire and watched it dematerialize. As he did so, he felt his resolve break and he ran screaming out of the guard house.

Chrysalis watched him leave, groaning as he remembered his wings and took off towards a barely visible town. She placed his seat back in its rightful place and sat in it, surveying the operation of her children and smiled, she could see so much from here, and soon, hopefully she could look at it without fear.

.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı. Canterlot Castle .ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.

Another note burst into material form in front of Shining Armor. He plucked it out of the air as well, this time though, he had to remove a seal. He opened it, scanning its contents with a raised brow. Once he finished, he put it in a small pouch attached to his armor.

He walked out of the building that served as the Royal Guard and approached the palace. The guards straightened beyond what seemed possible as he approached, looking forward and opening the doors for him. He wasn’t quite used to the slightly improved behavior of the guards since he had become a prince, and he often found himself visited by the snobbish Blue Blood.

One day he was going to make sure that wasn’t all that turned blue.

He strode up to what was now his Aunt’s throne room, he figured since this was a high priority message, both the princesses should see it.

Upon opening the door, he saw a rather bored Celestia without Luna present; of course, she was in Ponyville investigating an odd creature that turned up recently.

Celestia smiled upon seeing her new family member, “And what have I done to get the honor this welcome visit?”

Shining couldn’t help but smile with her as she spoke, “Just a message I thought was very important. It’s about the outpost on the Badlands border, the guard stationed there spotted heavy Changeling activity and sent two notices, I thought this one best suggests the situation.”

Celestia suddenly looked very serious, plucking the note from his magic and unfurling the scroll. Her eyes rolled along the pages, picking out every word and detail that she could read. Upon finishing, she read it again, then another time.

“She just want to talk?” asked Celestia, puzzled by the Queens sudden change in tactics.

Shining nodded, “As far as I can tell, of course, she did take over my mind so there is a chance that the guard was being afflicted as well.”

Celestia nodded, making sure there was not some hidden message among the script.

“Very well, I suppose it is due time we had a much more Equestrian way of diplomacy. Though I am no fool, and would be very appreciative if you muster some of your best guards to join Luna and I while we go to see her Majesty. Also, I am doubtful they were able to make a Sand Drake serve them, there were rumors that the Changeling armies before they’re great disappearance had such creature in their ranks, but I never saw one, and neither did any other trustworthy source since then.”

Shining nodded, bowing before leaving the room to Celestia and her devices. As he walked down the old hallways he felt a slight fire rekindle in his chest as his rage for the Queen of Changelings returned. Cadence warned him that letting grudges fill him was bad for his health, but he couldn’t help it, she had abducted his fiancé and then impersonated her and even went as far as to try and take over the kingdom as she was revealed.

Just thinking of her made him stomp his hooves a little harder in a march and even make his spear throws more accurate. The last one scared him a little, sure he hated her, but not to the point that he would drive a spear through her chest just for being her.

Another important point brought up by Cadence was that it was her nature to be deceitful. She really had no choice but to find love for her subjects, even if it meant a little intervention of those who were the most in love. She had made it sound as if it was like Celestia foraging food for everypony in a dragon’s lair.

He sighed, marching into the barracks and looking at those few who were present, “Atteeeensheun!!!” he yelled, causing the guards to stand up by instinct.

“Alright, you lot go out and gather my elite squad, you know the ones, tell them to meet back here, we got a new card in the game for Equestria.”

They nodded, flying and running out of the building. Shinning trotted deeper into the barrack, grabbing his helm and sword. He strapped on the extra leg braces with magic, and then attached the swords sheath to his side. As he was double checking his equipment, a member of his elite squad trotted in, giving a salute before moving on to don his armor.

As the elites trotted in, each gave a salute before grabbing their armor, some helping those who couldn’t get to the rear leg straps. Once they were done, they lined up in the front and Shining inspected them.

“Flawless as always Elites, now, we got ourselves a protection mission, high priority. The Princesses themselves are going to be meeting with our old friends the Changelings. Oh and it gets better, the scout there said that he spotted a Sand Drake. For those of you who don’t know all of your dragon history, the Sand Drake can breathe sand that quickly solidifies into sandstone and even heat it to glass, effectively making it a little more dangerous than your average Fire Drake because of its tremendous size and ability to make literal cover for itself at will.

“The Princesses are going to be meeting the Queen herself for diplomatic relations, I estimate it’s gonna go south real soon so be ready for anything, Changelings are crafty buggers as I am sure you all know. Now, are you ready to protect some precious cargo?!”

“SIR YES SIR!”

“Alright then, two chariots are already prepared, our first stop will be at Ponyville in order to pick up Princess Luna, who is investigating the existence of an odd creature there.”

They stood static, never moving and simply listening to their captain’s orders.

“Let’s move ‘em out!”

“Hoorah!”

The elites began to march out, gathering in front of, then entering the square military chariots. Two hitched themselves to the front, prepping themselves for the journey ahead.

Soon, Celestia stepped out of the palace flanked by two guards. She stepped into the chariot in between the two military chariots before they took off for Ponyville.

.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı. Ponyville Hospital .ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.

Lunamon was made aware of a presence as something entered from the shadows. She looked over her shoulder to see a pony, tall and regal with a dark blue coat and moon bearing regalia. She strode up to Lunamon’s bedside silently, face unreadable.

“I assume you are the creature everypony has come to call Lunamon?” the questioned startled Lunamon, but not enough to not answer.

“Um, yes, and you must be some royal figure.” she replied, seeming a little afraid of the stone faced monarch.

“Yes, I am Princess Luna of Equestria. I saw you as two creatures yesterday, what was that all about?” again her question was odd to Lunamon, but she answered regardless.

“That was my Champion form, Lekismon, I Digivolved when Twilight gave me enough energy to do so. Though, as I am sure you saw, even that wasn’t quite enough to fight that monster perfectly, though if I made it to my Ultimate form, nothing could have stopped me.”

The Princess turned her head quizzically, “Digivolved, Champion and Ultimate, you must slow down for Twilight was able to reveal little to me.”

Lunamon blushed, “Erm, sorry your majesty, think of it like this: I am a sponge. I only take energy if I need to and if I get enough, I change. The more energy I get, the more powerful the transformation. I am currently in my Rookie form, the third form for my kind. The next is Lekismon, then Crescemon, after that is my Mega form, and nobody really know what you’ll become at Mega.”

Luna nodded, “So If I fed you a large amount of energy now, would you change form?”

Lunamon shrugged, “I’m not quite sure anymore, generally, we change when we are in danger. I’m not quite whole Digimon anymore, so I can’t tell you, but the best answer is ‘probably’.”

Luna nodded again, “Would you like to try?”

Lunamon scratched her head with her free arm, “Weeelll, It does feel a little funny, and yesterday was my first time, so sure, let’s try it out.”

Luna’s horn began to glow, feeding Lunamon her energy. Lunamon instantly felt something different about the energy; it felt more of a match fit to her own. She felt something on the edge of Luna’s abilities; the very moon itself seemed to reside in her.

Before Lunamon knew it, she was covered in a light film, causing her to stand and form an egg shape. The egg swirled and Luna watched in wonder, trying to figure out how the transformation worked. Soon, it shattered and before her stood Lekismon, all signs of her wounds gone.

Lekismon looked over herself, “Huh, neat, all my broken bones are gone, didn’t know that happened.” though her voice was a little deeper, Luna could easily tell it was her.

Luna looked her over, noting the moon crests that adorned her body, “What is your connection to the moon?”

Lekismon looked down at one, “I’m not quite sure, though I feel a little more powerful while under it, and this places moon is just beautiful. I’ve never saw one so flawless, it literally stunned me when I looked up at it.”

Luna blushed, “T-Thank you, no one has ever made such a comment about my moon, not even sister.”

Lekismon smiled, “I am very serious about it, it’s marvelous.”

Luna blushed a little more before a doctor came running in, instantly noticing the newcomer standing on the bed.

“And who are you?”

“It’s me, Lunamon, well, was, now I am Lekismon.” She flexed her arms, “Look, nothings broken anymore.”

The doctor looked at her with disbelief until he noticed the Princess of the Night standing at her bedside.

He bowed quickly before she spoke, “Worry not doctor, I have simply fed her energy that caused a transformation, this is the same patient as before, only in a new body.”

The doctor looked up, then to Lekismon, “Oh, uh, sorry your majesty, but could you get her off the bed?”

Lekismon looked down and realized that yes; she was standing on the bed. She hopped down, nearly hitting her head on the lights and landed beside the princess.

Before any could speak, a Royal Guard walked up to the room, “Your majesty, I am here to guide you to the chariots, your sister is already here and wishes for you to come.”

“Cely? Why is she here, oh, perhaps this is about you Lekismon?”

Lekismon shrugged, “I’ve been out of it for a day so I guess that means words spread.”

Lunamon nodded, “Take us to her, guard.”

The guard turned and started down the hall. Luna and Lekismon followed once the doctor made sure that Lekismon really was healed.

Once outside, the guard directed them to a chariot guarded by two military chariots flanking and leading the white-gold chariot in the middle. Upon arriving, Celestia exited her chariot, spreading and stretching her wings from the flight.

“Sister, it is good to see you!” yelled Luna, embracing her sibling.

Celestia smiled warmly, “You act as if we have not seen one another for years.”

“Just a day feels like years sister.”

Lekismon couldn’t suppress a ‘daaaaaaw’ as the two sisters hugged one another.

Celestia looked up to see her, eyes seemably scanning every bit of her being.

“I assume this is the creature that you talked about?”

Luna looked back to Lekismon, “Yes, though she was different earlier. She is something called a Digimon, and can absorb free energy to transform herself. I gave her some power to study the effect, which also came with the added bonus of mending her broken bones. Did I mention she saved the town earlier?”

Celestia shook her head, “You managed to leave out that detail. Now, may I know her name as to thank her more formally?”

Lekismon gave a curt bow, “My name is Lekismon, an honor, your majesty, the both of you.”

Celestia’s smile returned, “A well-mannered transforming rabbit warrior, quite the find Luna.”

Luna giggled, “Yes it is, now, what is it that was required of our presence?”

Celestia’s features hardened suddenly, “We have received a request to meet the Queen of Changelings for diplomatic relations.”

“That disgusting creature?” hissed Luna.

Celestia sighed, “Yes, though that is why we have the military here to defend us should we find ourselves being caught in a trap. Actually, Lekismon, would you mind joining us? If you saved a town then you must have some considerable combat abilities.”

Lekismon was surprised, but began to consider, “I guess, though this is a little sudden, what’s a Changeling?”

“A Changeling is a crafty bug-like creature that can change its very appearance and feeds on love. The Queen is basically the same, instead larger and can retain more power. They attempted to invade Canterlot a few months ago, failing as we Shining Armor and his fiancé Princess Cadence repelled them using a massive love shield that rooted out and flung the monsters away.” Answered Luna, her voice deeper than before.

Lekismon nodded, “And how strong are they?”

“They should have lost considerable amounts of strength since they feed off of love, so I doubt they will be as much trouble as before, though the queen may have horded power to preserve her strength.” said Celestia, a little less intense than Luna.

“Hmm, fine, sounds like you might want the help. I’ll join, just as long as I get something to eat soon.”

Celestia found her smile returning, “Great, in fact, why don’t we get something to eat right now? I know a certain Café that has the most delightful Daffodil Sandwiches.”

Lekismon licked her chops, “Sounds great, let’s go.”

Celestia chuckled at her eagerness before they set out, leaving the guards to their devices.

One of the Pegasus that was pulling Celestia’s chariot looked to his partner, “So, what was your Friday like?”

.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı. Southern Field bound .ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.

Lekismon held her head out the window, fascinated by the chariots ability to fly. She had heard tale of a dark master once having a chariot drawn by Devidramon, but always assumed it was just an old in-trainings tale.

Now here she stood, giggling Luna behind her and wind blowing into her hair a few hundred feet above the surface.

She pulled her head back in, “So, where are we headed?”

“The Southern Plain, just out of the Badlands Canyon entrance. They note stated that a Sand Drake had helped them build a new nest there, but that sounds rather farfetched and the guard was under a little pressure since the Queen of Changelings herself was asking him to take a note.”

Lekismon acknowledged, sticking her head back out the window to see the forest below give way to a stunningly large field. The grass bristled at the slightest provocation and flowed with the wind making it look more like a green ocean than a field of long grass and Lekismon spotted something she could only describe as awesome.

“You guys may want to see this…”

Celestia made no move to look but Luna was dying to know what the wind in her mane was like again and so stuck her head out of the opposite window.

“That’s… That’s incredible… Cely, you really need to see this.”

Celestia sighed as Luna crawled back inside and stuck her own royal head out the window, making sure to grab hold of her crown with magic.

Then she saw what everypony else had spotted and felt her jaw slacken. Before them stood a growing cathedral, already the tell-tale signs of a city were coming into view only made completely from something black and shiny. She looked at the center to see it was hollow; a massive hole had somehow been bore into the very earth to house them under the growing city mimic as it was constructed. So far, they only had a few homes on the edges of the crater, but if one looked closely enough, they could see the dozens of tiny black shapes moving to construct their homes.

She also spotted a massive bunch of sandstone underneath the growing foundation move on its own accord and realised it was a Sand Drake.

“Well…” she said once she was back inside, “that is our destination…”

Luna scowled, “They are not just invading, but already moving in! We should tear the very structure down with magic, just as they would have done to Canterlot!”

“Hush Luna,” hissed Celestia, “They have obviously no intent of attack or they would not be making a permanent structure knowing that we could destroy it so easily. No, I am guessing that the Queen has finally come to terms with her inability to attack us and so has turned to a more peaceful solution. We, as Equestrians and its leaders, must answer this call with respect and dignity or desert our title as a peaceful nation.”

Luna huffed not being able to prove herself in combat like Celestia had tried, not only once at the Changeling invasion, but also when Lekismon defeated the massive red bug that threatened to slice the entire town into pieces not long ago.

They touched down in the plain two to three miles away from the growing city and began to disembark. Once out they could see the new Hive as just a speck in the distance. Celestia got out and began to wonder, why did she feel like smiling at the construction of a possible enemies home?

.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı. The Hive .ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.

Chrysalis couldn’t help but smile at the construction of a new home in a possibly enemies territory. Her children had begun construction immediately after Kalahari widened the hole to be larger and added a layer of sandstone to the wall so they would not crumble. After that, the incredibility of Changeling constructs came into effect as pillars were erected from the ground to hold the new hoes in place. Chrysalis had ordered houses to be built to show that they wished to change their lifestyle to be better accepted into pony society.

Hopefully, Celestia was wise enough to see this and realize this was no trap. Kalahari had begun to make sure the pillars were secure before emerging from the hole so the new home would not render him trapped beneath the tough Changeling spittle. She herself was hovering just above the maw of the hole, spotting the chariots touching down a few miles away.

“This is it, don’t screw it up again!” she chided herself.

She buzzed down to the first layer of homes, gathering some of her Changelings as to appear formal and opting to leave her warriors behind. She met the ethereal sister in the middle, though she had to admit she was a little afraid of the large force of Royal Guards she had brought with her.

Once facing one another, she bowed before the rulers of the land, noting the odd bipedal rabbit creature that was among them.

They did not share the same courtesy, but she had expected as much. Celestia was the first to speak, “Greetings, Queen Chrysalis. You had requested an audience with us?”

Chrysalis continued to stay bowed, “Yes, your majesties, I know that we have had… less than successful meeting in the past, but I am here to change that. I have with me the last of our kind, the last Hive. I am the last Queen, and these are some of my last subjects. We have come here to escape the continuous bandit raids and blistering desert conditions to ask for the ability to construct a Hive here and integrate with Equestrian society as we had once before.”

Celestia nodded, so she did remember before their great disappearance, perhaps she could shed some light on that subject. But more on that later, there are things they had to discuss.

“I understand that construction of a Hive has begun regardless, not a very kind message you are sending Chrysalis.”

The Queen of Changelings cringed, “I understand, but we had to begin construction immediately, lest we be caught by Luna’s night and freeze.”

Luna snorted, “I wish…”

Celestia glared at her sister, but returned to Chrysalis after Luna shrugged, “Very well, I would like to know the purpose of the Sand Drake you have among your ranks.”

Chrysalis nodded, “He was once part of my Legion, his name is Kalahari and he serves me. We discovered him as we fled the Badlands after the Bandit King lead a large scale assault on us… That was when we numbered still in the hundreds, now, we are no more than 90 of us left. We are dying, only you can save us.”

Celestia stared wide eyed at her statement, “Only 90…?”

“Yes, we were hunted down by the very bandits you exiled into the Badlands, the very one who hunted us previous, before my birth. They continued their habits and slowly killed what few of us left off. I had no knowledge of Equestria until two years ago.”

Luna stepped forward, “If there is only 90 of you, then you should have been more thoughtful of your strategy! Be gone!”

“LUNA!!!” cried Celestia, mane flaring into the air while the Royal Canterlot voice made the very ground shake, “IT IS OUR FAULT THEY ARE DYING, THEY HAD NO CHANCES!!! IF WE HAD NOT FOUGHT, THEN THIS WOULDN’T EVEN BE HAPPENING!!!”

Lekismon cringed, but decided to join in as well, “Luna… how could you…?”

Luna looked to her raging sister and then to Lekismon. Her very mane seemed to deflate as memories of the once elusive Changelings resurfaced. She remembered having one as a friend, before she became Nightmare Moon.

“I-I am sorry… My sitter is right, you deserve a second chance…” with that Luna flew into the air, away from any of them.

“Luna!” cried Celestia, “Luna, please, come back!”

Chrysalis watched her fly above the clouds, likely to stay there for some time.

Celestia turned back to Chrysalis, “You have my permission to continue with construction of your Hive, but until Luna decides she is ready to return to us, then I cannot make the decision of you becoming citizens of Equestria.”

Chrysalis nodded, “I understand, this must be very hard for her… I heard of her transformation, and I understand completely.”

Celestia smiled weakly, “Perhaps you are truly a good pony, good day Chrysalis, we will be returning to make a camp outside your Hives limits and we will continue discussions tomorrow.”

Chrysalis bowed, thanking her and returned to the Hive bearing good news.

As for Celestia, she marched back to the chariots with a heavy heart and the news that they would be staying here for some time.

Once there, Shining approached them, “How did it go? We saw Princess Luna fly above the clouds, why?”

Celestia sighed, “Not well Shining Armor, while the Queens intents seem pure enough, her species is dying and some old memories were resurfaced in Luna’s mind. We will be setting up camp here tonight.”

Shining suddenly seemed nervous, “Where are the tents Shining?”

He let out a breath, “We-we didn’t bring any because this was classified as a short meeting between two royal figures and we expected this to go quickly.”

She groaned, “You are very lucky to be related to me Shining Armor. What are we to do now, Canterlot is half a day away and I do not feel like arriving here at noon just to leave at sunset and arrive back home near midnight. The sun is setting, does anypony know where we can sleep?”

One of her chariot stallion spoke up, “We could always bunk with the… Changelings… or not…” his speech slowed as the guards gave him VERY stern looks, enough for him to suddenly be happy he was hitched to the cart and so couldn’t be pinned as a Changelings right now.”

Celestia sighed, “I suppose we might have to, it would help with relations and even let us see what they are up to. Of course, they would have to be hospitable enough to do so.”

One of the Elite spoke up, “With all due respect your Majesty, do you really see it as wise to sleep in a Changeling Hive?”

“Does sleeping in a chariot or on the ground singing campfire songs sound any better?” she snapped, looking him in the eyes.

“N-no, your Majesty.”

“Then we sleep with the Changelings.” she said, marching off before anypony could stop her.

Each pony looked among each other before following their princess’s lead, marching towards the Hive. Once unhitched, one of the Pegasus leading the cart handed the other a brown bag of bits, the receiver smiling and shaking the burlap bag before stashing it in his armor.

.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı. The Hive - First Ring .ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.

Chrysalis smiled as her children completed the first ring, The homes were habitable now, but they would all be sleeping in the newly dug cave beneath for tonight as- what was that?

She and some of the other Changelings gathered at the Hives edge, looking for the source of the noise. Soon, one in the air yelled out that the Equestrians were coming.

“Steady my subjects, they would not attack after we have been given permission to build here.” she looked to make sure none were very close to her, “I hope…”

Soon, the Princess of the Sun herself was mere feet away from them, “I do apologize Queen Chrysalis, but it appears we have no tents. I do hope we are not intruding, but we request sleeping here until relations are finished.”

Chrysalis blinked, “What… Erm, sure, we just finished the outer ring, and we ourselves planned on sleeping in the cave below. So long as you don’t vandalize or disrupt us, you’re welcome here your highness.”

Celestia gave a curt bow, “Many thanks, now, where will we be staying?”

Chrysalis was shocked by the movement, but shook it off and turned to the group she was with and began to point out certain Changelings, “Mirror, Echo, Copy, Ditto, and Reflection, guide our guests to their rooms, will you?”

Each nodded and took small groups of the Equestrians away, tucking them in the black, square homes and showing them to their rooms.

“I am sorry but there really is no regal place for you, your Highness, until we have finished construction.”

Celestia nodded, “It matters not, so long as I have a roof over my head I will be content.”

Chrysalis smiled, “Well then, good night.”

Celestia nodded as the Queen buzzed into the hole, followed by dozens more, but only dozens. She watched with sorrowful eyes as the few Changelings here flew with her into the hole, there were more at the invasion… and this is all that was left.

Celestia felt a tug at her side as a Changeling wanted her to follow. The action was met with the ringing of swords and clatter of spears as her guards pointed their weapons at the poor soul. He squeaked at the action, instantly cowering behind his own forelegs as if they were indestructible shields.

Celestia sighed, ordering them to lower their weapons and followed the shaking Changeling to a house not far away.

As Chrysalis descended, she spotted the large hole that Kalahari hade bore for himself. The Sand Drake was nearly as large as the city, having a massive space in the wall that he planned to turn into a tunnel to the surface when they woke.

She herself planted her royal tush down in one of the many sandy holes that adorned the cavern wall and began to sleep. She completely forgot about the now leaping Coronamon who was trying to desperately reach one of the high beds. He eventually gave up and marched towards Kalahari’s hole, climbing atop the slumbering dragon and falling asleep on his rocky back.

.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı. Canyon wall .ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.

A Sand Eel broke free of the sandstone binding him to the surface. He croaked and other stuck their heads out of their holes listening to him. He began a complex series of whistles and growls, each of them suddenly joining him. Soon, the entire pack was on the ground, slithering towards their brethren and gathering more and more enraged eels into the riot. Soon, the entire canyon seemed to move as the raging eels slithered, following the scent of the Changelings.

.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı. Luna .ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.

Luna’s horn faded as the moon rose above the horizon. She lay back down on the cloud she now called her bed and wiped away the tears that had formed under her red puffy eyes.

Really, she shouldn’t be crying, it should have been the Queen, for her entire race was nearly dead and she had

openly insulted them for being so few in numbers. She stood, crying and duty complete. She was going to apologize the crap out that Queen! She would have no choice but to accept her forgiveness, lest her ears fall off in protest.

She stood at the edge of the cloud, looking down at the small village. But before she took off, her eyes wandered slightly and caught sight of something absolutely terrifying. The canyon was alive, hundreds of eels slithered out of it and towards the new town. She doubted that they were going for a goodnight hug from Chrysalis either.

While her sister slept and so did everypony else in the Hive, she sprang up from the cloud and darted in front of the horde of eels, summoning a great storm cloud to aid her.

Thunder roared and lightning flashed as she combated them from the air. The eels slithered in agony as a single lightning bolt spread through the ground and effected a large area, causing many to begin convulsing violently as the electricity wormed through them. She was not quite able to stop the horde as at least half of it stormed past her defences and attacked the city. She was about to fire one of the clouds final bolts when a storm of icy arrows sprang forth and began impaling the eels.

She watched Lekismon along with what few guards that slept with her and began to repel the eels. She landed by them, firing her last bolts into the crowd as the cloud began to turn white from its energy expended. They fought back the eels with steel, ice and magic, forcing them to diverge and split among the thin black roads.

“Spread out!” ordered Luna, taking to the air.

Few remained of the Sand Eels, though they tried to tunnel their way to safety, the Changeling membrane held strong as they were repelled by the black substance, forcing them into corners the guards could operate in.

Soon, their numbers were but in the dozens and they began to chase them out instead of killing them. As soon as Luna was sure the last one was run out of the small Hive, she turned to see nearly the entire Hive itself smiling at her. They whooped and cheered as Luna floated back to the ground, guards and Digimon following suit.

Luna felt her cheeks get hot with all the attention, then she saw Chrysalis. The tall bug walked up to her, her face unreadable.

Then she smiled as well, “Thank you Princess Luna, had it not been for you, we would have all perished in the Sand Eels surprise attack. You have saved us, thank you all so much.”

The ending of her statement was directed to all the guards in front of her, but Luna knew that the beginning was solely for her, and now the Changelings trusted, if not praised her.

“It was the right thing to do, and I could not simply let you all be shredded in your sleep by the beasts. Now, I will be staying up tonight, being the Princess of the night comes with nocturnal responsibilities. Good night, Chrysalis.”

Chrysalis bowed, before buzzing back into the pit that served as their home. Luna flew into the air to watch the city before she would attend to her duties. She really didn’t know why, but suddenly the black coated streets of the growing settlement seemed a little brighter and her chest got a little warmer whenever she saw it now. Tonight was going to be a good night.