[DATE: June 29th, 2013, nine years after the events of Ten years too soon]
[LOCATION: Equestria, Industrial District, Canterlot City]
[TIME-FRAME: After the events of Equestria Girls]
All Twilight Sparkle could do was smile. Even though she had recently been crowned as a Princess, not much had changed. Even the populace never said more than, "Hey, Twilight!" when she passed by; and it was all thanks to a royal edict that Princess Celestia sent out: that anypony and everypony treat her like a normal Pony--meaning that they weren't to bow down to her, address her as "Princess Twilight", or do anything more than just treat her as if she had never been transformed into an Alicorn. Of course, even though she had the wings, she was nothing more than a Royal Alicorn, like her sister-in-law, Princess Cadance. What that meant, above all else, was that she had been magically transformed into an Alicorn, rather than being born as one, and that she was also not of Princess Celestia and Luna's Royal Bloodline--one that stretched back to King Nether and Queen Aether, the first Rulers of Equestria since the nation had been split into squabbling city-states and the first bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and the ones who dictated that their posterity should use only the titles of "Prince" and "Princess" after they had left Equestria to become Rulers of Existence, based off of the order given to them by the entity only known as "Harmony" to the Equestrian people. Of course, that being said, the only benefit that came from being a Royal Alicorn was being able to both fly and use Magic--because she and Cadance were not directly related to King Nether and Queen Aether (Cadance having been related to King Sombra instead and having had her grandfather from really far back being smuggled out of the Crystal Empire so that he wouldn't have been executed like the rest of Sombra's children), they were denied some of the more unique elements of Alicorn Princes and Princesses, like being able to power their Magic by the Sun and the Moon, nearly perfect eidetic memories, and incredible longevity that allowed them to live for millennia. This meant, above all else, that Twilight and Cadance would live normal lifespans for a Pony and then die of natural causes.
But that was detracting from the point. Even though all of that had happened to her, everything was just fine. Equestria was safe from the threat of the Changeling Swarm, King Sombra was dead, Nightmare Rarity and her forces had been defeated, and Discord was on the side of good. And what was more was that Twilight was with her friends--Spike, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Cadance, to be exact--and they were enjoying an excursion around Canterlot, looking at all of the sights to see and all of the places to be.
Well, at first.
"Hey! Look at that warehouse over there!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Turning to look at what Rainbow Dash had pointed out, Twilight indeed saw a warehouse. From the looks of it, it had been abandoned for years. Its roof was starting to collapse, its doors were old and rusty, and above all else, its walls were slowly eroding away.
"I don't know why you're pointing that warehouse out, Rainbow Dash," Twilight responded, "it doesn't look very special. In fact, it looks more like it's pleading for somepony to demolish it."
"Look closer!" was what Rainbow said back. Looking closer, it immediately became apparent to Twilight that there was a skull and crossbones painted on it--in the emergency spray paint used by the Royal Military.
"Rainbow Dash, I have a question for you," Twilight said.
"Shoot!" was Rainbow Dash's response.
"What can you see about that warehouse?" was Twilight's question, and Rainbow answered, "I can see a place where we can explore! It would be awesome!"
"Well, I can see that that warehouse is dangerous," Twilight said back, "do you see the skull and crossbones painted on it? In Royal Military-issue Emergency-use Spray Paint? That means that something in that warehouse is so dangerous that even the Royal Military went in there to explore it and got serviceponies killed in the process. That is not awesome."
"Aww, come on, Twilight! It'll be fun!" Rainbow replied, and with that, she flew into the warehouse, ignoring Twilight's further warnings.
"For Celestia's sake, Rainbow Dash..." Twilight muttered under her breath, and then turned and asked the others, "All right, who wants to help me find her?"
The general reply was "We're all going in with you, Twilight," and with a resigned sigh, she said, "All right. Let's go find her," and joined with the others in entering the warehouse.
At first glance, the warehouse appeared to be completely empty. No crates could be seen for the entire length of the building, racks of stuff were barren, and there was just... nothing. Not even a single scrap of stuff. Well, aside from the parts of the roof that had fallen onto the floor, the cobwebs and all, and the eight Ponies (well, seven Ponies and a Dragon, but who's counting?) who had just come in.
They expected to see Rainbow Dash, flying around and showing off. Instead, they found... nothing. Just... nothing.
"Uh-oh," Applejack said, a worried expression on her face, "Ah think Rainbow Dash plumb killed 'erself. Ah knew 'er recklessness would git 'er killed one of these days..."
"Well, I don't see why she wouldn't have killed herself," Rarity said, her tone condescending but her facial expression just as worried as Applejack, "after all, this place is more decrepit and rusty than that cage of a room that 'Handsome Jack' fellow kept me in. He was so rude, always referring to me as 'Butt Stallion', but he was so suave... I almost wish I hadn't killed him."
"Huh?" Spike asked.
"Don't worry about it," Rarity replied.
That's when they heard Rainbow Dash's bloodcurdling scream.
Startled, Fluttershy let out a squeak followed by a little "Eep!" before hiding herself behind Twilight.
"DASHIE'S BEEN HURT!" Pinkie Pie cried out, and it spooked poor Cadance into firing off a Pulse Spell that tore a hole in the roof. "Oops... Sorry, Cadance..." she then said, trying to comfort the frightened young Princess.
"Try to warn me before you scream like that, Pinkie Pie..." Cadance stuttered, "please..."
As they looked around, trying to figure out where Dash's scream had come from, Applejack's ears perked up. "Ah can hear 'er!" she exclaimed. "Follow me!"
And with that, she sped off, the others desperately trying to keep up with her in the dizzying maze of fallen roof, empty racks, and debris. She let up so that Spike could mount on Twilight, but even with the young dragon mounted on his friend's back they still had trouble keeping up with Applejack.
When they finally caught up to her, she had stopped in front of a grisly scene. Rainbow Dash was on the floor, a gash across her chest and blood slowly staining her cerulean blue coat.
"Rainbow Dash! What happened?" Twilight asked.
"I'll tell you what happened," Rainbow Dash answered through gritted teeth, "I was flying around in here when I sliced myself across the chest on one of those holes in the ceiling! Now help me take care of this cut before I bleed out!"
"Well, I can't say I didn't warn you," Twilight responded, "and I think you should have listened to my warnings! Still, let's get you cleaned up."
And with that, the others started taking care of Rainbow Dash's gash. Rarity used some fabric she had bought from one of the local stores to fashion some bandages, Twilight used Healing Magic to numb down the pain and get the blood back into Dash's body while Cadance removed whatever infection and Tetanus Bacteria that she found in her body, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy held onto her hooves--Pinkie her right hoof, and Fluttershy (gingerly) her left--so that she could squeeze onto something when it hurt (with Fluttershy giving a surprised "Eep!" whenever she did so), Spike used his fire to sterilize and cauterize the wound and the bandage, and Applejack helped Rarity to bandage up the wound when all was said and done.
"There! All better!" Applejack said.
"Thanks," Rainbow Dash responded, "for a moment there I thought I was done for."
Then, out of the blue, Pinkie Pie stood up and pointed towards something they had failed to notice. "What's a freight elevator doing in a warehouse?" she asked.
"Erm... Good question, Pinkie Pie," Applejack answered, "what is a freight elevator doin' in this here warehouse?"
"Maybe this warehouse has several underground storage levels?" Twilight responded dryly.
"Cool!" Rainbow Dash said. "Let's go check it out! ...And Twilight, I promise I'll be careful..."
Resignedly, Twilight said, "All right, Rainbow Dash, if you so insist..." and turned around expecting to see the others.
"Uh, Twilight, the others are heading for the elevator already," Spike said. Sighing, Twilight went into the elevator and looked around.
"It looks like it might still work," Twilight said, "but I doubt we'll find anything more interesting than empty storage racks and creepy looking rooms." Then, idly, she decided to scan the elevator with an All-Sight Spell. Like she expected, it was an ordinary elevator, except...
Instead of being solid, like the rest of it, the area between the "up" and "down" buttons on the elevator's control panel was hollow. And there was something in it. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she decided to take a closer look at it, and found that the seemingly unmovable area between the "up" and "down" buttons was actually a cleverly-disguised panel that swung open to reveal an unlabeled number pad. On the inside of the panel were the numbers 3, 5, 1, and 9 and an arrow pointing upwards written in paint. While everypony else gathered round, Twilight tried to figure out what the numbers meant.
"A year when Ponies look up to something? No..." Twilight mused to herself, before something clicked in her head. "Ah-ha! If I'm correct..." she said, and gingerly pressed the third, fifth, first, and ninth buttons on the unlabeled number pad before closing the panel and hitting the "up" button.
"Um... Twilight? Ah don't think that'll do anythin', partner," Applejack said, when the garage-door like door of the elevator closed on them. "WOAH!" was the startled response of everypony, Twilight included, when the elevator started to descend into the depths of the warehouse.
As it descended further and further, it became apparent to everypony travelling on the elevator that this trip was taking them somewhere that hadn't been included in the original design of the warehouse, and when it finally stopped, the door opened back up and a large, almost-vaultlike door, with a latchlike device that opened up to allow the rest of the door to open to the group, stood in front of them.
"Well, I don't think that this was originally built with the rest of the warehouse", Twilight mused to herself, "it looks too new..."
It, specifically, being a large room with a rotunda at the center, a set of four computer monitors--a main monitor and three smaller ones, one on each side (left, right, and top) of it--and a keyboard on the far side of the rotunda, a chair on the near side of it, a large circular framework suspended above the whole room but just below the ceiling, and a ladder, as well as a bed and some other necessities of life that almost made it a bit more like home.
As the Ponies stepped out of the elevator, they fanned out and looked around. Applejack and Rarity discussed the possibility of making food while down there with the kitchen appliances in the room that were almost mint-condition, Pinkie Pie pulled out one of her CDs, put it into the nearby CD player, and started dancing along to her favorite songs, Fluttershy timidly sat at the table in the room, Rainbow Dash laid down on the bed, Cadance and Spike looked around in amazement, and Twilight went up to the computer monitors.
This definitely isn't like any computers we have at home, Twilight thought to herself, it's far too advanced. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that there was a flashing button on one of the smaller monitors. Upon pressing it, the main monitor flashed to life with the image of a person; not a Pony, Griffin, Dragon, Minotaur, or the like, a Human being. Not that Twilight immediately realized that; her experiences had her think that they were just recolors of Ponies found in Equestria that looked like he did. He was white and looked old and fatherly, with grey hair and a grey full beard and mustache with glasses that were tinted so that his eyes weren't visible, but a warm, kindly expression on his face nonetheless, and he wore a long, white labcoat with a brown shirt underneath.
"Guys! Come here!" Twilight immediately shouted, and almost just as quickly, everything stopped and everypony gathered around the console where Twilight was, except for Rainbow Dash, who had been sleeping until Rarity poked her awake and made her see what was going on.
"What in tarnation is that, Twilight?" Applejack asked, pointing towards the person in question.
"I don't know..." Twilight answered.
And then, almost as if he had heard Twilight's voice, the man came to life.
"Hello," the man said, "my name is Waldo Franz Schaeffer-Hopper, the one responsible for what you see here. I am a Human Being."
"WHAT?!" Twilight yelled, and as if on cue, the video stopped. "That's impossible! Humans don't look like that! They look like... they look like... us! But almost exactly like him! ...Maybe he is a Human, just not one from that Universe..."
"Come again, Twilight?" Applejack asked.
"...Remember that world I went to in that magic mirror?" Twilight responded.
"...Oh yeah..." Applejack answered, causing everypony else to go, "Oh yeah!" as well.
After everypony finished talking, the video resumed.
"I come from a city called Paris, in a country called France, on a planet called Earth, which is a planet that orbits a star called Sol that lies 186 Light-Years away from your home planet," the man continued, "and if you have found this computer and are listening to this message, then you are in grave danger."
"You see, this computer connects to a virtual world called Lyoko, one that houses a dangerous Artificial Intelligence called XANA, spelled X-A-N-A in all caps and pronounced 'Zana', that is barely being held back from going rogue by the efforts of me and my young daughter, Aelita; and that could cause catastrophe in your world if allowed to roam freely, due to my negligence and my obsessing over completing Lyoko; causing me to increase the computer's--and by extension, XANA's--memory and processing power by two-thousand five-hundred seventy-six qubits through reversing time by twenty-four hours an equal amount of times."
Stopping the video by doing so, Rainbow Dash asked, "How?" before being silenced by the angry stares of everypony else, allowing the video to resume.
"How is not important right now," the video continued, almost as if it had heard Rainbow Dash's question, "what is important is that you understand what you must do. If you understand that you and your world are in grave danger, then you must leave this place for time to destroy. XANA is too dangerous for you to handle and if he is allowed to enter your world the results could be catastrophic for you and everyone you know and love."
"But we just got here!" Applejack said, stopping the video once again. "That ain't fair!" After finishing her remarks, the video resumed playing.
"But I understand that there may be the twinges of an adventurer in your hearts," the program continued, seemingly acknowledging Applejack's remarks, "and so, if that is the case, I offer you an alternative--if you wish to explore Lyoko and see the wonders offered to you by doing so, and by extension accept the risks associated with doing so, then follow my instructions and write them down, if you so need to."
"First, go back to the elevator you no doubt used to come here and press the 'down' button on its control panel twice, once to leave this laboratory, and again at the first landing you come to. This will take you to the lowest room of the building, one I had built myself while restoring the elevator; and when you enter it, you will see a console. Ignore everything else on it and flip the switch that says 'LYOKO'. That will power up the primary supercalculator used to link your world to Lyoko and grant you full access to this computer, which includes my notes that I have made to help you familiarize yourself with the supercalculator and its components, including the return trips to the past I have mentioned. Then, once all that has happened, you will be able to see the wonder that is Lyoko."
"Sounds like fun!" Rainbow Dash said, stopping the video once again. When the video resumed, the person's face went somber.
"However, there is a catch," he said. "If you do this, you must promise to me that if XANA goes rogue and starts attacking your world, that you will fight back against him and keep it confined to a Shadow War that only you and whoever came with you know about. If the people know about Lyoko and XANA, they will probably try to stop you and experiment on Lyoko and XANA, which will only agitate him further and make him angrier."
"I must leave now," the video then said, "and return to my home. But remember my words; and if you decide to take my alternative, promise to me that you will uphold to my rules. I cannot stay for reasons I won't specify, but know that my mission is of the atmost importance. Goodbye."
And with that, the video stopped, the Human's face forever frozen on the main monitor.
"Well?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Are we gonna promise him that we're going to fight this XANA-thing in secret if he attacks us so that we can explore this Lyoko-place?"
Twilight looked back at her, then at the others. "Do you promise to do so, everypony?" she asked.
"Ah promise with the fullness of mah heart," Applejack said.
"I promise," Rainbow Dash then followed.
"Um.. Y-Yes, I-I promise..." Fluttershy squeaked.
"I promise with all of my energy, and you know that I hold fast to my promises, dear," Rarity then chimed in.
"I Pinkie Pie Swear! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" Pinkie Pie burst out.
"I promise," Spike stated.
"As do I," Cadance then said, following up her promise with her and Twilight's old chant, "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Stamp your hooves and do a little shake!"
Then Twilight turned and looked at the computer. "Then I promise to fight XANA if he attacks us, and to keep and maintain it as a secret shadow war, only to be fought by us and us alone." She then followed up her promise--one that affirmed the promises of everypony else--with a Latin phrase she had learned while she was in that world beyond the mirror, "Surgent umbrae cum vincere omnes, invenies nobis repugnantem."
"Umm, Twilight, what did you just say?" Applejack asked.
"It's a phrase in Latin. It means 'When the shadows rise to conquer all, you will find us fighting back.'," Twilight answered. "I think it would be a good phrase for us to remember."
"Agreed," everypony else chimed in.
Then, Twilight went on the elevator, and followed the man's instructions to the letter, pressing the "down" button twice and then entering the second room she arrived at. When she looked out at it, she was astonished--it was mostly empty except for a console that stood at the end of a walkway, but on the floor beneath that walkway was a web of wires and machinery.
And to think it was all done without Magic... Twilight thought to herself. This must have taken some time to complete!
Walking up to the console, she saw the array of lights that made up most of it, and then she saw the switch titled "LYOKO".
That was the first time she saw it.
It was a bulls-eye, with four prongs extending out from its outer ring. One prong came from the top, another came from the bottom, and the other two surrounded the bottom prong on either side, shorter than it and the top prong. It almost seemed like it was an unblinking eye, staring back at her.
The thought made her blink. Then, she shook off the feeling that had crossed her mind and flipped the switch from the off position to the on position; and what happened next astounded her.
From the center of the floor, a large column rose up and a smaller column then rose from its center. And then, almost as if it had been unshackled from chains, the device lit up in a show of light and sound, one that nearly overwhelmed Twilight before falling down to a manageable level. After recovering from the sensational assault, Twilight then returned to the elevator and went back up to the primary laboratory.
"So?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"It's done," Twilight responded, "we're connected to Lyoko."
In the Digital Sea, XANA stirred. He had been dormant mostly since escaping from the Replika known as "Cortex", but this new development piqued his curiosity. It almost seemed as if another Supercomputer had connected to his former prison, the world known as Lyoko. Interested, he immediately connected to and activated the Tower located in Sector Five so that he could see what this development was. Almost immediately, he was flooded with a plethora of information, ranging from silly videos to rather... umm... "naughty" material, almost as if the internet had gained a whole new branch that was just as big, if not bigger, than its parent. And when he traced the material to its source, it all pointed towards one word: EQUESTRIA. And then he learned of the source of the development that had initially piqued his curiosity: a Supercomputer that eight young horse-creatures were looking through.
Oh Waldo, XANA thought, you were quite busy when you 'left for an unspecified amount of time' and left me with your daughter, weren't you, old friend? Well, it looks like I have a new world to conquer, and it's all thanks to you! And with that, he laughed to himself and disconnected from Sector Five's Tower, deactivating it in the process, and made sure that his arch-nemeses, the Lyoko Warriors, remained unaware of his recent stirring-up.
After all, he had plans to make.