Life for the Data

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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