Five hours after turning on the supercalculator, Twilight and the others had familiarized themselves with Lyoko and how the computer worked, each of the eight Ponies (well, seven Ponies and a Dragon, but...) being fully capable of using it should any of the others become incapacitated or somehow unable to use the supercomputer in the event of XANA attacking Equestria. Among other things detailed in the notes that Waldo Schaeffer had mentioned were Lyoko's five sectors, the Ice Barrier, the Mountain Range, the Desert Basin, the Forest, and Carthage, how the return trips to the past worked (and how they should be used sparingly to keep XANA from getting too powerful), and how to access Lyoko using the scanner cabinets located in the room between the main lab and the supercalculator's housing. It was all very, very complex--Applejack having the biggest struggle with understanding how it worked, especially with the "fancy maths", as she called them, and even Twilight having a bit of a struggle with figuring it all out--but eventually everypony got it all down and even Applejack could access and use the computer with relative ease. Then, Rainbow Dash turned to Twilight and asked a simple question.
"So! When're we going to see Lyoko up close and in person?" was the question.
"I guess we could go right now!" Twilight answered. "Applejack, you come along as well, Rarity, you stay behind and work the virtualization process, and everypony else... well, just stay behind for now. We'll be sort of an advance party."
"Man..." Spike muttered under his breath, "well... I guess it's okay, because I can still be with Rarity and all, but still..."
Ignoring Spike's mutterings, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack got into the elevator and then took it down to the scanner room. Upon entering it, it seemed very uninteresting--aside from the tall cylindrical objects that surrounded a hatch that led to the supercalculator room and a ladder that led back up to the main lab (Probably in the event of elevator failure, Twilight thought to herself), the scanner room looked relatively empty. Then she looked closer, and saw the bundles of wires coming from each of the cylinders--the link that allowed solid matter to become ones and zeroes and then become digital avatars on Lyoko. Once again, the fact that it all had been made without the use of magic crossed her mind.
Rarity's voice coming over the intercom and asking, "Twilight? Are you ready to go or not?" snapped her back to reality.
"Yeah," Twilight answered, "I am."
"Okay, then!" Rarity responded. "The others are waiting for you!"
Turning around, Twilight saw that two of the cylinders (Scanner Cabinets? Was that what Waldo called them? she thought to herself) were now occupied by Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who were looking extremely impatient. Blushing, Twilight then stepped into the only vacant Scanner Cabinet left and turned around. At that moment, a set of doors slid in and closed on her, sealing her in the closet-like interior of the Scanner.
Rarity's voice then came over the intercom, saying, "Transfer!" while a glowing ring-like object (the actual scanner itself? Twilight wasn't too sure) came down and swept its glowing lights along the entire breadth of her body; going down before coming back up.
Then, while Rarity called out "Scan!" over the intercom, several glowing pulses of particles streamed around Twilight, almost as if to get a match on her body type.
What are the others going through? she wondered. I'm sure it's just as unpleasant as what I'm going through.
Then, finally, Rarity called out, "Virtualization!" and at that moment a massive gust of wind swept Twilight off her feet while the ambient light of the Scanner Cabinet grew ever blindingly brighter.
That's when she blacked out.
When she regained consciousness, Twilight noted that she, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were floating above a large plateau, which was also suspended in midair above a large body of what appeared to be water and several other plateaus floating near it, only connected by large threading bundles of what appeared to be wire. The plateaus were dry and rocky and almost looked like a floating desert. The Desert Basin? Twilight asked herself. Then, she felt the sensation of falling before hitting her rump on something hard--namely, the first plateau they had seen. She barely even had time to scream before she impacted.
Upon impact, a loud "OOF!" came out of her and as she looked around, dazed but undaunted, she decided to look at her body. Looking down, she saw that instead of forehooves, she had hands, and that she now had a very... um... "interesting" for lack of a better word outfit covering her initially naked body, which now looked more like a Human female, complete with white skin, purple-with-a-lavender-streak hair, arms, legs, and large--for lack of a better word--breasts. Covering her top was a violet midriff shirt that exposed her belly with long, tapering sleeves and her Cutie Mark on the chest, and covering her legs was a long, flowing, violet dress.
Almost immediately, Twilight muttered, "Oh, no... not again..." before getting up and looking over at Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Upon initial examination, they superficially resembled her, being white-skinned human females, but that they still resembled their Pony selves and wore different outfits than her. Rainbow Dash, who was looking rather miffed, had her rainbow-colored hair done up in a ponytail, wore a midriff-styled halter top with a set of goggles around her neck as well as some very short shorts, and had some small breasts. Applejack, who was showing a wide, goofy grin, had her blond hair done up in a long and flowing ponytail, wore her trademark hat along with a denim shirt and leather jacket as well as some leather pants that seemed like they were designed to draw attention to the wearer's midsection were it not for the denim pants underneath, and had average-sized breasts.
"Having problems with your endowment, Rainbow Dash?" Twilight asked, almost snarkily.
"No!" Dash snapped back. "What does 'endowment' even MEAN?"
"Oops..." Twilight muttered to herself, realizing that she had used slang from the Alternate Universe. "Erm... having problems with your chest, Rainbow Dash?" she asked, rewording her question.
"No," Dash responded once again, tugging on her hair, "it's my hair that I have a problem with! It's stuck in this stupid ponytail! And... it's... impossible... to... get... out!"
"Oh, come on, Rainbow Dash!" Applejack then said. "It's not that bad once ya git used to it!"
"Easy for you to say, Applejack!" Rainbow Dash retorted, still yanking on her ponytail in a futile attempt to get it out. "I... HATE... PONYTAILS!"
Then, Rarity's voice came in from overhead, startling everypony.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Rainbow Dash, but these notes say that your Lyoko Avatar can only be changed through altering its source code once it's been initialized," she stated, "and that your initial Avatar is based off of your subconscious self."
"WHAT?!" Rainbow Dash squeaked out after recovering from the initial shock of hearing Rarity from overhead. "You mean I'm STUCK with this stupid ponytail?! And that my subconscious LIKES ponytails?!?"
"Yes. I mean, no," Rarity stammered, "it means that your subconscious has a feminine flavoring to it, that's all!"
"BUT I HATE GIRLY STUFF!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "I'M A TOMBOY, THROUGH AND THROUGH!"
"That's not what the Scanners say," Applejack said, grinning, "and you know that through an' through, sugarcube!"
And with that, Rainbow Dash let out an exasperated gasp and gave up trying to get her ponytail out.
That's when the laser shrieked past them.
It wasn't necessarily a laser, what they saw looked more like a particle accelerator projectile as lasers didn't move that slowly, but it was still weapons fire. And it was enough to prompt everypony to turn around and see what had shot off the beam.
Behind them was a large, red crab-like creature, with six eyes arranged in two rows and three eyes to one row, four legs that each ended in a razor-sharp point, and spikes on its large, circular carapace.
That was the second time Twilight saw it, and the first time Rainbow Dash and Applejack saw it.
The eye looked back at them from the top of the creature's carapace, directly above its eyes, unblinking, and now looking menacing, and it scared the three of them into immobility.
Rarity screaming, "GET OUT OF THERE!" was what snapped them back into reality and caused them to sprint at full speed. But as they ran, the creature charged up another blast, its lower "eyes" linking together three particle streams before firing one large projectile at them, hitting Applejack in the back and causing her to topple over the edge of the platform.
"APPLEJACK!" Twilight and Rainbow Dash screamed, and without any further notice, Rainbow dove after the now-falling pony, ignoring Twilight and Rarity's warnings about falling into the water below and leaving Twilight alone to deal with the creature that had attacked them.
Turning back around, Twilight watched the creature advance towards her, making a sound almost as if it were laughing at her and mocking her.
At that moment, she heard its voice.
It's hopeless, it said, almost as if the creature were speaking directly into her head, I have you right where I want you. Just resign yourself to fate like the others, and I guarantee that my master won't kill you, your friends, and I guarantee that your world will be left untouched by him.
The others? Twilight asked. You mean Applejack and Rainbow Dash?
No, the creature responded, you know who I'm talking about. Now, why don't you resign yourself to fate?
And at that moment, Rainbow Dash came up from over the edge of the plateau, a set of cerulean blue wings sprouting from her back, a wide grin on her face, and Applejack safely in her arms.
"Thought you could take care of us that easily, ya stupid crab?" Rainbow Dash said.
Then, while the creature stared in abject horror, a scream pierced the air as a blue streak of light came directly on top of the creature.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! IMPACT!" was the scream, and at that moment, Twilight could have sworn that she saw a samurai in a yellow and brown jumpsuit and with brown hair land on the creature, stab it in the eye-spot on its carapace with a Katana, look directly at Twilight and company in a mixture of shock and bewilderment, and then jump off.
As the creature staggered, it exploded into a mess of red fragments, a shockwave emanating from it before collapsing in on itself and then disappearing.
"Twilight, what in tarnation was that?" Applejack asked.
"I have no idea," Twilight said, "none at all. And Rainbow Dash... you have wings?!"
"Sure do!" Dash answered, dropping Applejack off. "And it's the coolest thing ever! I can fly around like nopony else can!"
"And she plumb saved me," Applejack then continued, "and ah owe 'er fer that!"
"Not at all!" Dash responded. "I've saved you guys more times than I can count! And Twilight, since you're an Alicorn in the real world, I think you have a set of wings, too!"
"I do?" Twilight asked, and with that, she concentrated on spreading her wings like Rainbow had taught her before leaving for the world beyond the mirror, and like she had said, a set of lavender wings sprouted from her back and lifted her into the air. It wasn't graceful, per se, but she did take off.
"Wow! This is so cool!" Twilight then said, "I can fly here! And I can do it better than in the real world!"
"Yes, charming," Rarity then said, "now why don't you put those wings to good use and get somewhere where you might not be attacked as promptly!"
"All right, Rarity," Twilight then said, and with that, she landed back on the ground, folded her wings up, and after explaining, "I'm still not very comfortable with flying," walked along with Applejack while Rainbow Dash flew in the sky, doing all sorts of aerial stunts.
"It was weird, Jeremy! There were three of them, and one of them was flying like Aelita!" Ulrich told Jeremy.
"Are you sure you saw that?" Jeremy responded.
"I'm positive! You should have seen it, too! You watch everything that revolves around us, for [yay]'s sake!" Ulrich responded.
"Language, Ulrich!" Jeremy retorted, disgusted by Ulrich's use of the f-word. "Now. Did any of them fall into the digital sea?"
"No," Ulrich then said, sighing, "but one of them nearly did. She looked like a cowgirl and she was being carried by the flying girl!"
"Hold up, hold up," Jeremy then said, "first you say you see three Lyoko Warriors you've never seen before and now you're saying that they're female? What evidence do you have that they're female?"
"Their breasts!" Ulrich responded angrily. "I saw them as plain as day!"
"Okay, if you can confirm that they were female, then you probably weren't seeing things," Jeremy then said, causing Ulrich to respond, "THANK YOU!"
"But now the question remains..." Jeremy then continued, "who were these new Lyoko Warriors?"
"And more importantly, where did they come from?"