“Hey mom, I’m home!”
Cody’s voice called from the doorway. Two days had passed since their last trip back from the Digital World, and most of the Digi-Destined had settled back into a somewhat normal routine. As he entered, he carried his protective armor folded neatly into a paper bag, and his bamboo shinai across his shoulder. Armadillomon followed him closely behind, and nudged the door closed with his nose.
“Hello? Mom?” Cody called out again. When no answer came, he placed his weapon and bag neatly in the corner, and walked into the living room.
There, Rarity sat atop an elevated stool in front of a small desk, her saddleback resting at its side. On the desk were a large number of cut gemstones in a variety of colors, each of them roughly the size of a grape. She carefully levitated one of the gems in front of her face, squinting to examine it closely with a single eye.
As they approached, Rarity’s ears perked upwards, and she turned to face the new arrivals. “Ah, there you are! Did you two have fun? I believe your mother’s out getting groceries, by the way.”
Cody and his partner stopped in their tracks, staring at Rarity with their mouths agape.
Armadillomon let out a whistle. “Well, there’s something you don’t see every day.”
“Hmm?” said Rarity. “What do you mean?”
“Those gems!” Cody blurted out. “Where did you even get those?”
“Oh, these?” Rarity replied. “I brought them with me from Equestria, in case I’d needed to design an outfit for an emergency. Most of my fabric was ruined by that grimy lake, but I figured these jewels would be perfectly fine once they dried off.”
“But... why would you even risk losing something so valuable?” said Cody, “Those gems must be worth a small fortune!”
“A small... Oh no, dear, you must be mistaken!” Rarity said, letting out a laugh. “I found these gems over in a quarry near Ponyville. Anyone with a keen eye can find plenty of them lying around out there.”
Armadillomon looked upwards at Cody. “Sounds like them precious gemstones are a lot more common where she comes from, wouldn’t you say?”
“But what are we going to do with them now that they’re here?” Cody replied. “All those gems must be worth at least a million Yen. Someone could break in and try to steal them.”
Rarity gasped. “A million? Good heavens! Granted, I haven’t the faintest idea how much a Yen is worth, but if these gems are truly as valuable in your world as you claim...” Rarity trailed off mid-sentence, staring at Cody as though lost in her own thoughts. A gleam suddenly appeared in her eye, and a pearly-white grin split through the center of her muzzle.
“Ideeeeeaaaaaaa!”
“What?” said Cody, “What is it?”
Rarity’s horn glowed, and her saddlebags were levitated to the edge of the desk. In a single smooth motion, the remaining gemstones were pushed inside, and the bags were hoisted across Rarity’s body.
“Just what in tarnation are you doing, Rarity?” said Armadillomon.
“You two are coming with me!” she replied, trotting excitedly towards the door. “We’re going shopping!”
———————
“Waaaaah! Too fast! Too fast! Help me, Hawkmon!”
A panicked cry pierced the streets of Odaiba as a pink-haired blur sped across the sidewalk, the numerous passerby shouting and pushing as they moved out of the way. Following closely behind was a smaller blur with all the colors of the rainbow, and even further, a large and very exhausted-looking bird.
As they approached an intersection, the rainbow-colored blur finally caught up to its larger companion. The two were brought to a sudden halt just before the sidewalk met the street, and Yolei unceremoniously fell onto her rear, with Rainbow Dash desperately clinging onto her shoulders. A skateboard, propelled into the air, promptly landed to the side of them, its wheels still spinning as it fell onto its wooden deck.
Breathing heavily, Rainbow Dash released her grip, still managing to hover in the air despite her sweat-soaked feathers.
“That... was... awesome!”
Yolei stood up, wincing as she rubbed a hand against her backside. “Tell that to my tailbone. I’m lucky I didn’t break anything just then!” She suddenly grimaced, inhaling sharply through gritted teeth. “At least I hope I didn’t...”
Rainbow Dash cringed reflexively. “Ack! No, I didn’t mean it like that! I... I know the feeling, trust me.” She quickly glanced around, seeing that the other pedestrians had given them both a wide berth, many taking the time to stand back and stare. “But oh my gosh, did you see how fast you were going?! I didn’t even think humans could move like that!”
“Don’t look at me! I wasn’t trying to!” Yolei whined. “I don’t ever want to go that fast again!”
Rainbow shrugged. “Hey, suit yourself. But if you ever need a racing partner, I’m your mare!”
“There you are!” Hawkmon’s voice called from down the lane. Frantically flapping to keep himself airborne, he landed beside Rainbow and Yolei, his entire body barely managing to stay upright.
“Yolei... are... you... alright?” he huffed.
“A little sore, but I think I’ll be fine,” Yolei replied. “I just need to remember to get some ice when we get back home...”
“Glad... to hear... you’re alright...” said Hawkmon. Letting out a final wheeze, he promptly keeled over, falling flat onto his face.
“Hawkmon!” Yolei gasped. “Ohmigosh, are you okay?”
Hawkmon let out a loud snore. “Mmmmm.... five minutes...”
Rainbow Dash grinned. “I think he’ll be alright.”
———————
The department store lights were bright and garish, shining down on numerous elaborate displays of clothing. Suits, hats, pants, ties, dresses, gowns, blouses, shirts, collars, jewelry, buttons, shoes, belts, robes, lapel pins, bows, bow ties, and even ascots were neatly arranged throughout the floor, each sorted meticulously into designated sections.
Standing in the middle of the womenswear section was Cody, carrying a stack of folded dresses that was taller than he was, legs wobbling beneath the weight.
Standing beside him, Armadillomon looked upwards at his partner, and then back to Rarity. The white unicorn carefully levitated another dress in front of her, inspecting it closely.
“Oh my goodness, look at how gorgeous this one is! It’ll take some effort to modify it for a quadrupedal body shape, but I do believe I could work wonders with this!”
“Ah don’t mean to offend, Rarity, but don’t you think you’ve gotten enough? Y’all ponies don’t even normally wear clothes, for pete’s sake!”
“Well, excuse me for bothering to care about the impression we leave,” Rarity huffed. “Humans wear clothes all the time, and they’ve done nothing but stare at our naked bodies since we’ve arrived!”
Armadillomon raised an eyebrow. “And you’re sure that ain’t got nothing to do with the fact that you ain’t from Earth?”
“Regardless, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to look fashionable while we’re here,” Rarity retorted. “Ooh, what’s that?” Her eyes were suddenly drawn to another dress rack across the aisle, several feet away from where they were standing.
“S-somebody help me...” Cody wheezed, knees beginning to buckle.
“Ah’m sorry, Cody, but you’ll have to ask someone with opposable thumbs.”
———————
To say that the store clerk was having a weird week so far would be an understatement. As if the day before wasn’t stressful enough, today he’d to deal a literal unicorn.
More precisely, a tiny white unicorn that checked out an entire heap of clothing and then dumped a massive pile of precious gemstones on the checkout counter.
“I deeply apologize if I don’t have any money at the moment,” she’d said, “but to my understanding, these jewels are rather valuable on your world. I think that should be more than enough to cover the expense, wouldn’t you?”
The experience was so surreal that he couldn’t even be bothered to respond before the unicorn levitated a group of plastic bags from behind the counter, and carefully folded and placed the clothes inside.
“Rarity, stop that! We don’t even know if they’ll accept those as payment!” The protests came from a small boy the clerk hadn’t noticed before, standing next to what he’d recognized as one of those ‘digimon’ he’d heard about on the news. He could only assume the unicorn was also one of them.
“Nonsense, dear. You said those gems were worth at least a million Yen,” the unicorn turned to answer, before turning back to the clerk. “How much did you say it was for this transaction?”
A million Yen. She was giving him a million Yen. Those clothes she was checking out weren’t even worth half of that. “Um... about a hundred eighty thousand?”
“Good, that should be more than enough to cover it. You will accept my payment, won’t you?”
The unicorn batted her eyes at the clerk, flashing him a pearly-white smile that somehow managed to create dimples on her otherwise equine muzzle. He began to sweat, a single thought dominating his mind.
How is that thing so adorable?
“I’ll... I’ll ask the jewelry department what this is worth,” he relented. “Just go ahead and take what you want.”
“Well, only if you insist,” the unicorn replied. “I’m very grateful for your generosity, darling.”
“H-hey, hold on a minute! You can’t! Mmmph!” Before the boy could object, a large number of bags were levitated into his arms, stifling any complaints he could have made.
The unicorn happily trotted out of the store, her human companion slowly following after her. The armadillo glanced up at the clerk, and spoke one last time before departing.
“Sorry for the trouble, fella. Y’all take care now.”
As the unusual visitors made their way out the door, the clerk noticed that every person in the checkout section had stopped in their tracks, staring straight at him. Slowly, he picked up the phone beneath the counter, and dialed an all-too-familiar number.
“Hey boss, I think we have a problem,” he spoke into the receiver. “No, it’s not the girl with the plant monster, we banned her yesterday. Look... just come down here and help me out, okay?”
The clerk let out a sigh as he hung up the receiver. Somehow, despite everything, it was still better than his last job.