[FFML] [fanfic][MLP:FiM][Code Lyoko] Code Lyocolt, chapter 3

[Mythril Moth]

Disclaimers deactivated! Return to the fic now!

Chapter 3: Scratch the Surface

"Good morning, Dancer."

//Oh, good morning, Twilight!// the virtual pony replied. //Did you sleep 
well?//

"More or less," the unicorn replied. "I just wish I knew what happened to my 
Smarty-Pants doll after..." She sighed. "Oh well. That old doll's been at 
the center of chaotic episodes that completely disrupted Ponyville twice 
now. It's probably for the best if she's lost..."

Dancer tilted her head. //But she was important to you, right?//

"She's just an old rag doll," Twilight said dismissively. "So, what have you 
been up to?"

//I've been trying to find out more about this world,// Dancer replied. 
//It's been difficult, because a lot of the data sectors in the 
supercomputer appear to be corrupted.// She frowned. //Some of what I *have* 
found is puzzling.//

"Oh?"

//I...don't think I had a virtual form until you turned on the 
supercomputer,// Dancer replied. //It's as if I was formatted as a pony when 
the system started up. And I think...whoever created the computer, and this 
world...wasn't a pony.//

"Wasn't a pony? What do you mean?"

//I'm not sure. Some of the data I've extracted references things that make 
no sense. I can't explain it,// Dancer said, shaking her head. //And like I 
said, the entire memory core here is a complete mess. I do know two things, 
though.

//There IS something else in here with me. When you turned on the 
supercomputer, it woke up.//

"Yeah, we kinda figured that out."

//The other thing,// Dancer continued, //is that somepony left a message. 
It's heavily encrypted. I've started decoding it but it might take most of 
the day.//

"Be sure to let me know when it's done," Twilight said. "Anything we can 
learn about all this will help. Especially if we're expecting any more 
incidents like yesterday..."

//In the meantime, let me tell you what I *do* know...//

* * * * *

The walls of the cottage shook as the throb of pounding bass pulsed through 
the floor. A unicorn wearing purple shades nodded her head in time with the 
beat as she stood behind a turntable. After what the neighbors would say was 
far too long, the noise level tapered off. Still nodding and softly 
beatboxing to herself, the mare trotted up the stairs from the basement to 
the living room, then headed to the bathroom to drop something other than 
sick beats.

In the empty, quiet basement studio, a shadowy mist seeped up out of the 
very foundation, oozing up the cables snaking from the turntable, and 
settled into the still-spinning record. As it revolved, the faint, staticy 
image of an eerie concentric eye superimposed itself onto the record...

* * * * *

//There are five sectors,// Dancer said as a wireframe map appeared on the 
right-hand screen, displaying four detailed, differently-colored sectors 
arrayed around a black sphere adorned with the same eye symbol that had been 
on the monsters that had attacked her. //Desert, mountain, forest, and 
polar...and one that doesn't appear to be accessible. I think there used to 
be a holographic world map of Lyocolt, but...// She frowned. //It looks like 
a lot more hardware is supposed to be connected to the supercomputer than 
actually is.//

"I've got...four screens, four scanners, and a control board," Twilight 
said.

//Hmm...yes, you're definitely missing some components.// Dancer shrugged. 
//I don't think it really matters. I mean, you can talk to me and send your 
friends into Lyocolt...//

"I'd like to make the next trip over, actually," Twilight said. "It'll be 
easier for me to understand what's going on if I'm right there where it's 
all happening."

//Alright.// Dancer tapped her chin with a hoof. //Also, I'm trying to 
figure out why your friends couldn't access the towers. According to my 
data, anything *except* those monsters should be able to enter towers.//

"Maybe they've been sealed somehow?" Twilight suggested. "Somepony fixed 
them so nopony but you can get in?"

//Possibly,// Dancer replied. //I'll look into it. Now, let me explain some 
of the finer points of what you can do from your end...//

* * * * *

An hour or so before lunchtime, Vinyl Scratch was chilling out on the living 
room sofa, flipping through a trade magazine and sipping a cold glass of 
asparagus juice. Her roommate, the snooty and somewhat uptight cellist 
Octavia, trotted into the room, looking rather cross.

"Scratch? How many times have I asked you not to leave your infernal 
pounding noise running when you're not in your studio?"

The unicorn blinked. "Huh?"

It took her a moment to realize the floor was vibrating.

"That's weird," Scratch muttered, setting aside her magazine. "I coulda 
SWORN I turned it off..."

"Well, you didn't," Octavia said sniffily.

Scratch rolled her eyes. "Pop a gasket, why dontcha? I'll crank it down. 
Sheesh."

* * * * *

Twilight's friends piled into the library after lunch; the six mares and 
Spike descended into the basement lab. The unicorn had explained that 
Digital Dancer had new information for all of them about the supercomputer.

"The message has finished decoding," Dancer informed them once they had all 
taken positions around the control screens. "It's a video recording...I'll 
play it now."

A flickering video image appeared of a creature the likes of which the 
ponies present had never seen. Bipedal, with pale, hairless ivory skin and 
two arms. A thick, not quite shoulder-length mane of pinkish-silver hair, 
meticulously styled. Sharp green eyes, lined ever so slightly as though with 
age, magnified by silver-rimmed spectacles perched on an impossibly small 
nose, which rested above a flat, thin-lipped mouth that, like the eyes, 
seemed to be lined with age. This being was clad in a dark rose-pink sweater 
and a maroon skirt, over which it wore a pristine white lab coat.

//Greetings,// the strange creature spoke in a feminine voice that, to the 
ears of those present, seemed somewhat aged, yet still firm and clear. //If 
you are viewing this message, then a terrible mistake has been made.

//My name is Dr. Aelita Belpois. Please listen carefully; it is imperative 
that you, who have somehow reactivated the supercomputer, are made to fully 
understand the danger you and everyone you know and love are now in. For in 
reactivating the supercomputer, you have almost certainly reawakened the 
most dangerous virtual entity in the history of artificial intelligence.

//By the time you discover this message, it will almost certainly already be 
too late...XANA is likely already awake, and won't rest until you are dead.

//XANA is a multi-agent artificially intelligent entity with the capability 
of manifesting and controlling digital aspects in the physical world. In 
order to do so, XANA must activate the command towers located within the 
virtual world that resides inside the supercomputer. The computer is unique 
in that it generates a form of energy which can manipulate reality. XANA 
uses the towers to take control of this capability, and uses it to attack 
the real world.

//In the past, we have been able to stop XANA on several occasions, but 
despite our best efforts, we have been unable to completely destroy him. We 
are also unable to dismantle or destroy the supercomputer itself, for 
reasons which are far too technical and complicated to explain here. Our 
final, desperate act was to place the supercomputer aboard a missile and 
launch it into a collapsing wormhole. According to my husband, the odds of 
the supercomputer surviving this journey, let alone ending up anywhere that 
life exists, are impossibly small, but having spent much of our lives 
fighting XANA, we were unwilling to take any chances.

//We have programmed a guardian intelligence, created from my own 
personality engrams, to serve as a monitor and defensive weapon against 
XANA. In the event XANA awakens, this guardian must be safely delivered to 
any activated towers--towers that have turned red--and deactivate them.

//You must be extremely careful to avoid allowing the guardian program to be 
destroyed by XANA's monsters. You must also take care to work swiftly, 
because any damage XANA causes in the real world will be irreversible. We 
were forced to lock out the 'Return to the Past' program because using it 
increases XANA's power. Whatever you do, DO NOT attempt to unseal this 
program! It will only make fighting XANA that much more difficult for you.

//I wish you the best of luck, and I am deeply sorry that this burden has 
now fallen upon you.//

The recording faded to static. Twilight looked around at her grim-faced, 
horror-stricken friends, and at the virtual visage of Digital Dancer. Her 
ears drooped. "I...I'm sorry, everypony. This...this is all my fault..."

"There's no way you coulda known, Twilight," Dash said.

"Yes...please do not blame yourself. Why, we have dealt with forces which 
threatened to destroy Equestria before. We can certainly do so once again!" 
Rarity added.

"Yeah! This XANA thingie's no match for our friendship!" Pinkie chimed in.

"It...it couldn't possibly be worse than Discord..." Fluttershy said 
quietly.

And then the entire library started to shake.

* * * * *

"SCRATCH! TURN. IT. *DOWN!!*"

"I *can't*! It's stuck! I--AAAAAH!!"

Vinyl Scratch collapsed to the floor of her studio, blood trickling from her 
ears. Upstairs, a similar fate had befallen Octavia.

The possessed sound studio cranked the bass even higher.

* * * * *

Twilight's ear twitched. "Okay, I've TRIED to be nice about that mare's 
obnoxious music, but this is the last straw..."

"Oh, come on, Twilight," Pinkie said. "Scratchy's music rocks! Well, no, 
it's more like it...wubs?"

"Wubs me th' wrong way, y'mean," Applejack muttered.

"Yes, I'm most definitely not wubbing this," Rarity complained.

"Yyyyyyeah whenever you ponies are through making bad puns?" Spike said, 
digging in one ear with a claw.

//Everypony, listen!// Dancer said urgently. //I'm sensing pulsations--//

"We're ALL sensing pulsations," Twilight said through gritted teeth. "It's 
this mare who lives nearby, she's a DJ--"

//No, I mean *evil* pulsations,// the virtual mare clarified. //I think 
XANA's launched another attack...//

The purple unicorn groaned. "Wonderful." She shook her head. "Pinkie, Dash, 
you go deal with Vinyl Scratch. Applejack, Rarity, you're with me. 
Fluttershy, Spike...you'll have to work the scanners."

"Oh, no...I couldn't possibly..." Fluttershy said nervously.

"Would you rather go to Lyocolt and fight monsters?" Twilight asked.

The yellow pegasus let out a frightened squeak. "Well...when you put it that 
way..."

//Don't worry, I can talk you through it,// Dancer assured the timid mare.

"And do I get any say in the matter?" Rarity demanded snippily.

"No," Twilight replied curtly.

The white unicorn sighed theatrically. "Oh, very well then..."

//I've located the activated tower,// Dancer said. //It's in the desert 
sector.//

"We'll be right there," Twilight said.

As the two unicorns and Applejack stepped into the scanner tubes, Fluttershy 
perched herself nervously in front of the control board, while Spike put on 
the headset. "Oh my goodness," Fluttershy whispered. "So many buttons..."

"It's not that hard," Spike said. He pulled a roll of parchment out from 
underneath the control board. "See? Twilight wrote it all down just in 
case."

//And anything she missed, I can help you with.//

"Um...alright..." Fluttershy's eyes scanned the parchment. 
"O-okay...um...scanners on..." She began nervously pecking at the control 
board with her hooves.

//Set the transfer coordinates,// Dancer prompted.

"Coordinates set," Spike said after a moment of furious hunt-and-peck 
typing.

Fluttershy consulted Twilight's checklist, then began tapping controls 
clumsily with her hooves. "Transfer Applejack...transfer Twilight 
Sparkle...transfer Rarity..."

"Scanner Twilight," Spike said into the headset. "Scanner 
Applejack...scanner Rarity..."

Fluttershy's hoof mashed down on the Enter key. "Virtualization...I hope..."

* * * * *

The three mares landed lightly on the dusty brown digital terrain; Dancer 
was already waiting for them nearby.

"...okay now see, *y'all* don't look like some kinda rodeo clown out of mah 
worst nightmare," Applejack groused.

Twilight Sparkle was clad in a facsimile of the black spandex catsuit she 
had worn during the misadventure involving the Royal Canterlot Library and a 
time-travel spell. Green-tinted wraparound sunglasses covered her eyes, and 
a ninja sword was strapped to her flank. Rarity sported a tasteful, elegant 
black-and-gold karate gi.

"Oh, this IS rather nice," Rarity said, examining herself.

"Quickly, the tower's this way!" Dancer said, turning and trotting off down 
a narrow pass. The ground beneath them trembled; angry red ripples pulsed 
through the ground, moving in the direction the virtual mare was heading. 
The others quickly fell in behind her.

After several minutes of travel, Dancer suddenly skidded to a halt, rearing. 
"Stop, everypony!" she cried.

A gaping chasm stood between the four mares and the activated tower.

"Wonderful," Twilight said. "Now I wish I'd made Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash 
come with us."

"I forgot to tell you this," Dancer said, "but you really don't want to fall 
into chasms like this. If you do, you can't rematerialize in the real 
world--you'll be lost forever."

"No fallin', gotcha," Applejack replied. "So...any idea how we get across 
this here canyon?"

"I have an idea," Rarity said, as dozens of needles limned in a pale magical 
aura darted away from her, trailing strands of light. As the others watched, 
she started to sing while she worked.

"Step by step, putting it together...stitch by stitch, need to make it 
strong enough to walk on...I'm sewing...us a briiiiiiiiidge..."

And with a few minutes' work, she had done precisely that: constructed a 
stylish and sturdy virtual cloth bridge. The others stared at her as she 
trotted onto the plush fabric. She turned to face them. "Well? What are you 
waiting for?"

The others glanced at one another, shrugged, and followed her.

As they crossed the bridge, Dancer turned to Twilight. "Your friend is 
amazing," she said, "but...was it really necessary for her to sing?"

Twilight shrugged. "Sometimes the ponies around here just break into song 
for no apparent reason. You get used to it."

* * * * *

"SCRATCH! OPEN UP!" Dash yelled, pounding on the door.

"Maybe she can't hear us?" Pinkie suggested.

"No DUH, with all this noise," Dash replied. "Oh well, only one way in..." 
She flew back several feet from the door, then rammed it full-speed. The 
door gave way with a loud crash and a shower of splinters. The noise became 
almost unbearable. Dash futilely covered her ears with her hooves.

"Here," Pinkie said, passing her some earplugs. "I always keep earplugs 
stashed all over Ponyville. In case of earplug emergencies."

While Dash was inserting her earplugs, Pinkie rushed into the cottage. She 
reappeared just as Dash walked into the living room. "Omigoshomigosh! 
Dashie! They're out cold! Both of them! And I can't stop the music!"

Dash raced downstairs, observing the two unconscious mares. "Oh man, that 
can't be good." She trotted quickly over to the spinning turntables, 
studying them for a minute. She started turning knobs, then pulling loose 
cables. Nothing seemed to work; in fact, the music grew even louder, and 
Dash was thrown off her hooves.

As she stood up, she shared a glance with Pinkie, and they gathered up 
Scratch and Octavia and carried them upstairs and out of the cottage.

Once they were a safe distance from the horrific noise disturbance (and had 
drawn a crowd of onlookers), they removed their earplugs. "You think that 
XANA thingie is behind this?" Pinkie asked.

"I dunno, but it might be," the pegasus said. "We'd better get these two to 
the hospital."

* * * * *

"The tower's just ahead," Dancer said.

//Um...everypony?// Fluttershy said timidly. //I think 
there's...m-monsters...coming r-right at you...//

"We see 'em," Applejack said, skidding to a halt. "Ugly critters."

Three enormous, red, crab-like monsters, each with four long, spindly legs, 
blocked the path to the tower. They glared hatefully down at the four ponies 
with an array of glowing blue-white eyes. The now-familiar symbol of XANA 
was emblazoned across the tops of their shells.

The center crab fired a laser blast at Rarity; the ground at her feet 
briefly reverted to wireframe. "Really! How uncouth!"

"You need to attack their weak point!" Dancer said nervously, sidling to the 
edge of the path to take cover behind a large rock.

"An' just where th' hay is THAT?" Applejack asked.

"Only one way to find out," Twilight muttered. Her horn glowed, and her 
sword rose into the air, spun to face the giant enemy crabs, and flashed 
toward them at surprising speed. It glanced off the shell of the nearest 
crab, doing no appreciable damage and angling off to the right.

A forest of gleaming needles appeared around Rarity and flew at the crab 
which had shot at her. Two of them embedded themselves in the symbol on its 
shell; the monster flinched and shuddered, legs creaking and groaning as it 
stumbled.

//That's it!// Spike called. //The eye symbol on their shells is the weak 
point! It doesn't look like it, but Rarity just did massive damage!//

"Got it," Twilight said, eyes narrowed as she brought her sword around 
again. Dodging a laser blast that got entirely too close, she turned her 
sword and struck again. This time, it buried itself to the hilt in the XANA 
symbol on her target's shell; the crab twitched spastically for a moment 
before exploding into blue polygons.


Rarity's crab had recovered slightly, and taken a shot which actually hit 
the white unicorn. She scowled and hurled more magic needles at it. After 
four more hits, it joined its brother in oblivion.

Applejack, meanwhile, had taken three hits from the remaining crab as she 
tried to move into position to attack it. She leaped high into the air, 
twisted her body around, and rammed the horns on her ridiculous hat into the 
crab's weak spot. It dropped to the ground but failed to explode; an assist 
from Twilight finished it off.

"Okay, looks like the coast is clear!" Twilight said. "Dancer, hurry up and 
deactivate the tower!"

"Right!" Dancer replied, charging full-tilt at the side of the tower and 
phasing through.

The virtual mare trotted slowly toward the center of the floor; as she 
crossed each of the concentric rings, they lit up brightly, with an echoing 
digital chiming sound. Once she reached the center, she found herself lifted 
into the air; she tilted her head back, eyes closed, as she ascended to 
another level.

She landed gently on a floor identical to the one below; the rings here made 
the same pleasant echoing chime as she crossed them. When she reached the 
dot at the center of the circle, a holographic display appeared in midair 
before her. She reached out with a forehoof and tapped it. Her digital 
hoofprint pulsed brightly, before words appeared on the screen:

DIGITAL DANCER

CODE

LYOCOLT

As soon as these words finished forming, the shimmering displays scaling the 
walls suddenly plunged violently downward. Somewhere at the base of the 
tower, a surge of energy erupted skyward...

* * * * *

The pounding dub music that had been shaking a large section of Ponyville 
abruptly cut off. Vinyl Scratch and Octavia had been rushed to the Ponyville 
Hospital, where Nurse Redheart had examined the two unconscious mares, and 
informed Pinkie and Dash that they'd make a full recovery in a few days. 
Relieved, the two ponies had returned to the library.

* * * * *

After sending a letter to Princess Celestia and doing some nice relaxing 
reading, Twilight paid Digital Dancer one last visit before tidying up the 
library and going to bed.

"I think I'm starting to understand more of what's going on here," Dancer 
said, studying the holoscreen.

//What do you mean? I thought Dr. Belpois' message explained everything 
pretty clearly.//

"Not entirely," the virtual mare replied. "I think XANA was originally 
*imprisoned* in the supercomputer, and then escaped...but somehow, was 
driven back into the supercomputer, which it looks like at some point he was 
trying to destroy from the inside. Now, though, it looks as though he's 
taken a different approach--he's sealed himself inside the core of Lyocolt 
and fortified it."

//Turning his former prison into a stronghold?// Twilight asked.

"Exactly."

//So that's why there's a barrier protecting it...//

"Which XANA probably created after Dr. Belpois tried getting rid of him by 
shooting the supercomputer into that wormhole."

The walls of the tower suddenly began to pulse an angry red. "What in 
the--?!" Dancer glanced wildly about, eyes wide as she reared in alarm.

The concentric symbol on on the floor changed from soft blue to bright red, 
and a holographic display flashed into being in the air before the virtual 
mare. She stared at it and gasped. "It...it can't be...!"

//What's wrong, Dancer? What's happening?// Twilight asked.

"It's XANA...he's...reconfiguring Lyocolt..."

//He's doing WHAT?!"//

"Reconfiguring..." Data began to fly across the holographic display rapidly 
as Digital Dancer ran her hooves across it, eyes darting from side to side 
as she frantically attempted to make sense of and, if possible, reverse 
whatever the malevolent virus was doing. After a few moments, she collapsed 
heavily to the floor, and the tower returned to its normal, serene blue.

//Did you stop XANA? What's happening?// Twilight asked nervously.

"I..." Dancer sighed. "I couldn't stop it. XANA is too powerful, and the 
program he executed was embedded in the virtual environment before I was 
even created."

//So...what did he do, exactly?//

"See for yourself," Dancer replied, absently reaching up and tapping a 
forehoof against the hovering screen.

On the screen to Twilight's right, the virtual map of Lyocolt and its five 
sectoors appeared once again. "This is Lyocolt as it was when you 
reactivated the supercomputer," the virtual mare explained. She tapped her 
screen again, and the map changed, exploding violently outward and 
reconfiguring itself into something completely unrecognizable, with multiple 
sectors and no sign whatsoever of the ominous black sphere.

//What the...?// the unicorn gasped, startled.

"This is Lyocolt as it exists now," Dancer said. "XANA has merged the 
existing virtual world with another virtual world he absorbed at some point 
in the past. There were five sectors; now there are ten."

//Ten sectors...//

"There are well over a dozen towers in each sector," Dancer continued. "With 
that many towers at his disposal, XANA...may be too powerful for anypony to 
stop."

//We'll stop him,// Twilight promised. //And maybe we can find a way to get 
you out of there and into our world.//

"I'd like that," Dancer said with a smile.




==================
Mythril Moth
www.mythrilmoth.net