The door into the back alley slammed open as a very cranky looking Saffron Masala dragged out a full black garbage bag with her teeth. The mare stomped over to the dumpster and tossed it in with a rough jerk of her head.
Saffron was a bit piqued at the moment, and emotion does play a part on even the most basic of spells. Thus levitating a garbage bag could have resulted in the bag exploding as easily as it could've made the bag compress into a trash diamond.
The poor mare wasn't having a good night. What with her father wanting to keep the restaurant open for most, if not all of the night, in the vain hope that some night wandering ponies would come in for some food.
Saffron paced around the alley, trying to calm down, yet failing due to an overactive mind. "This isn't going to help pay the bills." She fumed under her breath, paying little heed to the fog growing within the alley. "You had to move us here! We could've gone to Manehatten, or even Ponyville! But no! Canterlot will net us a lot of business! We'll be in the middle of the restaurant district! We'll make back our expenses, don't worry!" With a cry that was only half attempting to be quiet, she kicked the dumpster.
Rage for the moment spent, Saffron sank down on her haunches. Her head drooped, and she began to sniffle.
Then something slammed into the dumpster hard enough for it to budge it a few inches. The accompanying grinding of metal on stone didn't help her nerves (and now racing heart) either.
"Nnggghhh...." A groan from behind the dumpster made Saffron leap to her hooves defensively. Only now noticing the rapidly dissipating fog.
"Oowwwww..." Came something resembling Equish. Though clearly pained and somewhat gruff, the voice sounded masculine. "What.... What the fuck? Where....." The voice sounded out of sorts, almost like it'd just suffered a head wound.
Something stumbled out from behind the dumpster, almost falling to the ground, yet managing to shakilly keep it's footing.
The first thing Saffron thought of was Diamond Dog. Only a bright blue diamond dog, with a white chest and a rather large amount of floof on its chest. It had floppy ears and a curly tail. A red sash was tied around its forehead, mostly hiding some yellow symbol underneath. A blue rectangular device hung on a chain around its neck. However, strangest of all was the large red gloves on its forepaws.
The diamond dog shook its head roughly and blinked rapidly. It's gold eyes didn't look very focused. That may have had something to do with the growing bump on its forehead. It squeezed its eyes shut with a wince and roughly shook its head. On opening its eyes again, it blinked as if to focus. Steadying itself, the diamond dog looked around.
Saffron hadn't moved the entire time. Frozen stiff from shock and confusion alone. She somehow managed to stiffen even more as the diamond dog laid its eyes on her. The Diamond dog froze mid movement as soon as it saw her, its eyes widening to dinner plates.
They stayed there for what felt like minutes.
"H-hi..." The diamond dog said quietly.
"H-hello..." Saffron squeaked.
"Saffron what are you doing out here!" Saffron's father, Coriander Cumin, came barreling through the door, causing both the alleyways residents to jump a few feet in the air. On seeing the diamond dog, Coriander grinned. "You found us a customer! Wonderful!" He swiftly motioned for the diamond dog to come inside. "Come in! Come in! We have plenty of room!"
"Father! What are you doing?!' Saffron snapped, her previous state of shock now entirely shattered. "He just hit a dumpster, probably head first! He's probably hurt!"
"Well bring him inside anyway." Coriander said happily as he trotted back inside.
Saffron groaned, then looked at the still shocked and confused diamond dog. "Please come inside, I'll see if I can get something for your head."
The diamond dog simply nodded as Saffron took its gloved paw in her hoof and led him inside.
"It's not that bad, Tavi." Vinyl sighed as she rolled her vibrant red eyes, her shades sitting atop her horn.
"Yes, yes it is that bad!" Fumed the grey mare next to her.
Octavia, a normally stoic and calm mare, stomped down the road, abjectly pissed. "He only paid you half, all because there weren't enough ponies listening to you play!"
"It happens all the time." Vinyl calmly explained.
"That's just because you don't agree to a set payment ahead of time!" Octavia thrust a forehoof at her roommate. "You were great tonight, and the ponies who were there loved you!"
"Tavi, it's fine." Vinyl frowned at Octavia. "I'm used to it at this point, It's Canterlot. What are we gonna do, move?" Vinyl shrugged. "I'm just sad that you have to keep paying most of the rent. Say, you hungry?"
"It's fine. And don't change the subject!" Octavia snapped.
Vinyl inhaled to respond but stopped as a thick grey fog poured out of a nearby alley. Both mares stopped. "Well that's not ominous at all." Vinyl blinked with a small frown.
"Let's just back away slowly Vinyl... This is all probably a prank." Octavia said with more that a little fear in her voice.
There was a thud from the alley. "Ow... That was my spine....." A deep, growly, yet clearly male voice spoke from somewhere within the alley. There was a series of pops and the sounds of scuffling. "Oh man, I'm gonna feel that in the morning. Mnnnggh.... Okay... Okay! Checklist!" Neither pony dared moved, despite how 'normal' this voice sounded.
There was more scuffling. "Let's see. Arms, check. Legs, check. Head, obviously. I'm not some Dullahan. Di- What the!? Wait! Wait. Right... Wolf... the whole sheathe thing. Don't scare me like that!" The voice in the alley chuckled.
Octavia spared a glance at Vinyl, only to gape as she saw that the DJ was having a hard time stifling giggles. "Vinyl!" She hissed as loudly as she dared. "What are you doing?! There's clearly some drunk pony in there! We should just get going! How knows what he might do?!"
"But Tavi, hmmmph! Th-the guy couldn't find his di-dick! Sssss- HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Vinyl's dam broke as she burst out laughing.
Octavia snapped her head over to the alley in horror as the voice from it abruptly stopped.
"Well shit, if I knew there was an audience I would have put on more of a show." The voice chuckled as a blue white paw, tipped in violet claws and wrapped in bandages. stepped out of the alley.
Octavia's jaw dropped and Vinyl's laughter died as the beast stepped out of the alley and stepped into the moonlight.
He towered over them, easily over double their height. He stood on two legs, and the same blue white fur on his feet covered the rest of him. His head was that of a wolf, bearing two midnight blue streaks across his muzzle and one over each eye. Gold eyes, sparkling with mirth stares down at the pair. A scar ran over his right eye and brow, yet looked to have not done any real damage. Tufts of fur, vaguely reminiscent of feathers came off the back of his jawline, the back of his head, the back of his shoulders, and out of the small of his back. A few fangs protruded here and there from his lips. His chest was bare save for a single leather strap crossing it, and very well defined muscles ripped beneath the noticeably scarred furry skin.
The massive Diamond Dog (For what else could it be?) wore an interesting choice of clothing. A midnight blue sleeve, bearing a pair of zippers for some unknown reason, covered his left arm. A belt was wrapped around his hand as well as his index finger. A set of gold spiked knuckles sat just below his own knuckles. The blue sleeve was attached to a leather shoulder pad, that in turn was attached to the leather strap crossing his waist. The strap connected to a brown leather belt at his waist. Which seemed to do little as it wasn't connected in any way to the ragged midnight blue pants he wore. A small white hexagonal object was attached to his belt on hir right hip. The knees of his pants bore pads of brown leather, the one on his right knee also had three metal spikes coming off of it. His right hind paw was the paw that bore the bandages around it. His right arm was mostly bare, save for a leather bracelet around his wrist, and belt around his wrist that also looped around his palm. Like his other hand, he bore another set of gold spiked knuckles.
The diamond dog looked down at them with raised brows. Then his face split into a sharp-toothed grin as his eyes narrowed mischievously. He crouched down, now eye level with them. "Ladies." He said huskily. "Nice night for an enthusiastic walk isn't it?"
Octavia nodded shakilly.
"Yeah it is." Vinyl as with a giggle.
Ovtavia's head snapped towards her roommate. Vinyl was blushing. Hard. A goofy grin was on her face.
"The name's Geralt Jameson." Geralt said with a smile as he glanced between the mares.
Octavia blinked. Vinyl giggled like a school filly.
Geralt raised a brow. "Now it may be different back home (doubt I'll be going back any time soon), but normally when someone introduces themselves, the other party introduces themselves in kind."
"Oh..." Octavia blinked. "Oh! Right! Yes! I am Octavia Philharmonica Melody. This is Vinyl Vincenza Scratch." Octavia gestured at Vinyl.
'You can called me Vinyl." Vinyl giggled stupidly.
"A pleasure to meet you both." Geralt nodded them looked around. "Say, you wouldn't have happened to see a smaller version of me running around would you?"
"Beg pardon?" Octavia asked in confusion.
"No." Vinyl responded simply, still a giggly mess.
"Ah, well see, I just showed up here, and, baring this isn't some bad Fallout 4 ripoff, my kid's around here somewhere too." Geralt explained standing. His face briefly screwed up in confusion. He briefly did a couple squats, then rubbed his knees. "So that's what it's like not to have joint pain. I can move again! God, it's like I'm thirty years younger!"
"Uh pardon?" Octavia asked, waving a hoof to get his attention. When his eyes fell on her she couldn't suppress a shiver. "Apologies but your kid? As in, small goat?"
Geralt blinked then barked a laugh. "Ha!" He wiped away an imaginary tear. "No, kid as in child, offspring, or descendant."
"Oh no! You've lost your child?!" Octavia gasped as Vinyl suddenly lost her grin, the apparent urgency breaking her from her schoolfilly crush haze.
"Well, yes and no." Geralt bobbed his head back and forth. "Yes Alex is my child, but Alex also happens to twenty-one. We were going to a convention together and-" Geralt stopped mid-sentence, seemingly remembering something. "One sec." He held up a finger and dashed back into the ally. "A Ha! There you are! Oh nice, the bags are here too!" Geralt came back out with a large black backpack on his back, a large duffel bag slung over his shoulder to sit on top of the back pack and-
"Is that a keytar?!" Octavia asked aghast as she stared at the shiny black keytar in Geralt's hands.
"Don't you diss the keytar!" Geralt said with a hint of a snarl.
"Tavi! You should know better than to hate on somepony's choice of instrument! You used to hate my music!" Vinyl said with an angry frown.
""B-but Vinyl, that was different. Th-that's..." She waved a hoof at the keytar.
"Tell you what." Geralt rolled his shoulders, popped his neck, loosen up his wrists, slung the keytar's strap over his shoulder, and turned it on with the flick of a switch. He played a few experimental keys, furrowed his brow, pressed a few buttons on the command board above the keys, hit a few more experimental keys, then grinned and nodded. He looked at the mares. "I'll tell you my story while we look for Alex. I can play you some music too."
As fate would have it, all three of their stomachs grumbled. Octavia blushed, Vinyl frowned, and Geralt chuckled.
"Maybe we should see if some place is open this late too." Geralt adjusted the keytar and began walking down the road, with a surprised Octavia and a giddy Vinyl following in his wake "Now, this tale starts on a day like any other. One where a dad and his kid go to an anime convention." Geralt began as his fingers danced over the keytar.
"So, you're name is Alex?" Saffron asked as she set a steaming plate full of rice and curry down in front of the hungry dog.
Alex nodded as he took a spoon and wolfed down a few spoonfuls of rice and curry. "Oh so good....." Alex mumbled. He swallowed then look at Saffron as she sat down across from him. "Thank you for the food."
"It's the least we could do." Saffron smiled. "How's your head?"
Alex nudged the ice pack wrapped around his forehead by a sash. "It's getting better. Waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in sucks though."
Saffron winced. "Well, I hope we can take your mind off it." Her smile returned. "So how'd you get out there?"
Alex blinked, then shivered as he set his spoon back onto the plate. "My dad and I were going to an anime convention. I got the tickets for us because he'd been going through a bit of a rough patch."
"That's nice of you." Saffron wasn't sure how this convention connected to Alex showing up here, but she was sure it'd connect somewhere. Her face fell slightly. "Why was your father going through a rough patch?"
"It would've been mom's and his twentieth anniversary." Alex winced. "However last year.... Dad caught mom cheating on him..."
Saffron blinked, then her face twisted into a snarl. "That bitch!"
"With a woman..." Alex continued. "In their bedroom...."
Saffron wanted to punch something. "That. Fucking. Bitch!" She spat each word. Alex's story brought back some of her own memories. Memories she didn't want to remember.
"Oh you have no idea." Alex growled, gloves clenching. "I don't know why she'd do that to us, but that's not the point of this story." Alex took a steady, calming breath. "He's fine most days. He's snarky, and loud, and loves to generally be a goofball, and he's a massive nerd! Yet recently, I've noticed that something was off. he wasn't his normal boisterous self. I knew that it was the anniversary that was the problem. He still missed mom despite what she did."
"So you got the tickets to try and help him feel better." Saffron connected the dots.
"Exactly." Alex nodded, pointing a glove at her. "So my dad's a fan of a bunch of things, but anime most of all. He raised me on Digimon, so that's the first place I wanted to take him. Try and bring back some of the happy memories."
Saffron smiled. "That sounds wonderful."
"Now this next part gets weird. See, there's this story of a guy called The Merchant. Guy dresses up as a Merchant Non-Playable Character from a video game and has a stall open at cons where he sells all sorts of gaming merchandise." Alex explained.
"That doesn't sound too strange." Saffron cocked her head to the side.
"Here's the thing." Alex took a few more bites of rice and curry, swallowed and continued. "You go and see this guy, whether your in costume looking for a piece to help with said costume, or you just pick up something from his table, and then poof. You're gone."
Saffron blinked and say up straight. "What?"
"Story goes you get sent off to some other world." Alex grimaced. "Dad and I learned that the hard way. Last thing I remember is buying a Gaomon figure and this." He bumped the device around his neck.
"You're from another world...." Saffron blinked.
"Yep." Alex nodded.
"I guess that explains the fog I saw. Were you falling, you hit that dumpster pretty hard." Saffron glanced up at the ice pack.
"I don't know. Can't remember, got my bell rung." Alex shrugged and took a few more bites of food.
"What's a Gaomon?" Saffron asked, looking at Alex inquisitively.
"This is a Gaomon." Alex gestured to all of himself. "Gaomon's a Digimon. A Rookie level, a stage early on in their life cycle. How that translates to life now......" Alex's eyes widened and became a little unfocused.
"Alex? What is it? What's wrong?" Saffron's eyes widened in worry.
"It just hit me that I've left the only world I've ever known, along with my family, friends, and stuff. I'm also in a body not my own. Yet, the fact that feeling this furry isn't bothering me, is bothering me, because it should be bothering me!" Alex's voice began to raise as he started taking heavy gasping breaths. "I'm in a new world with absolutely nothing! I'm in a world full of colorful talking ponies and I don't know of anyone that would be willing to help me! And I've got this sick feeling that dad's out there somewhere, probably having the time of his life, because he can fucking start over! And a part of me is mad that he'd get to be so happy because he'd just be pushing away the pain he's been ignoring!"
Saffron sat frozen. She honestly didn't know what to do. Alex was in the midst of a full meltdown. Thus, she did the one thing that helped her when she was freaking out.
Alex's freak out was cut off prematurely as Saffron leapt over the table and tackled him to the floor in a hug. There was a moment of wide-eyed shock as Saffron hugged the stuffing out of the poor Dig-dog. Then the moment ended and Alex wrapped his arms around Saffron, squeezed her as hard as he could, and sobbed into her shoulder.
A sound suddenly made both of them freeze mid-hug.
Music, familiar to Alex and strange to Saffron began to flow into the restaurant. As it grew grew steadily louder, the meltdown was all but forgotten. Both rose to their feet and hooves respectively and walked towards the front door.
On opening it, Alex's jaw dropped.
A WereGarurumon stood in the ally that lead to the street, wearing a couple recognisable bags and playing a very recognisable keytar. He rocked out like he was on stage performing his own solo. His eyes closed as he danced to his own music. Alex noticed a couple ponies behind him. A white unicorn mare with a tone-toned electric blue mane was headbanging to the music, and a charcoal grey earth pony mare with a black mane stared at the jamming digi-wolf with her jaw agape. A brief glance showed that Saffron too had her jaw hit the floor.
As the final notes echoed through the night the wolf let out a happy sigh and opened his eyes. His eyes fell on the tow mares first. "So what do you think? I can't take credit, I'm just playing someone else's music."
"Tavi... I think I'm bi now....." The white mare said with a very evident blush on her cheeks.
"Good to know Vinyl...." The grey mare nodded.
"Geralt, h-how old are you again?" Vinyl asked, with a somehow greater blush.
Alex froze at the name as Geralt knelt down and smirked at the mare. "I was fifty seven...... Now? I have no clue. I feel at least thirty years younger." Geralt chuckled. "Why do you ask Miss Vincenza?" He growled out the last word.
"No real reason..... I just wanted to make sure before I take you back to my place and bang you like a barn door in a hurricane." Vinyl said with a giddy grin. "We may have to keep it down for Octavia though."
The grey mare visibly choked. "Vinyl! We are in public!"
"Hey, don't be mad at her. Mare just knows what she wants." Geralt grinned wolfishly as he winked at Vinyl, which caused the mare to giggle like a school filly. "That is to say, if she can handle the red rocket."
"Oh Faust there's two of them." Octavia facehoofed.
"Are you kidding? I want this silver fox's knot!" Vinyl grinned evilly.
"Now I know you're doing it on purpose!" Octavia groaned loudly, throwing her head back in exasperation.
"Now Vinyl, it wouldn't be very gentlewolfly of me to simply take you back to your place and fuck you." Geralt pointed a violet-claw-tipped finger at the the white mare. "These things need to be savored, like a three course-dinner. We'd have to start with a date of course." Grinning he stood and began to turn around. "And if I'm not mistaken we found the perfect place that just so happens to be ope-"
Geralt froze as he turned and saw the two in the doorway. There was a burnt orange unicorn mare with a poofy deep purple mane, wearing gold earrings and a gold tiara-like headband. However what caught his attention more was the blue and white bipedal Akita, with boxing gloves for hands, standing next to her. The look on its face was a mix of horror and disgust. Geralt immediately knew who that was. He winced a little at he realized that they'd heard, in somewhat gruesome detail what his plans with Vinyl Scratch were.
"Hi Alexia." Geralt said awkwardly, forcing a smile.
"Alexia?" The orange maer blinked. "You're a mare?"
Alex looked at the mare with a cocked brow. "Yeah."
"But you sound...." The mare began weakly.
Alex shrugged. "I've always been a tomboy. That a problem, Saffron?" She finished with a bit of and edge to her voice.
Saffron blushed a little. "N-no! Of course not! It- You just surprised me!" She sputtered.
Alex rounded on Geralt, only to see the digi-wolf smirking smugly at her. "I'm so proud. The Tsun is strong with you. I raised you well."
"I fucking hate you!" Alex snapped thrusting a gloved fist in her father's direction.
"Is that the scent of angst on the air? Funny I thought you got through all of that during puberty." Geralt grinned.
"I am not in the fucking mood!" Alex snapped. "While you've been traipsing around the streets all night, I've been here worried fucking sick!"
"Which one is the dad again?" Vinyl stage whispered to Octavia, only to get a grey hoof knocked upside her head.
"Awwww, have you been stressing out?" Geralt's smile faded from a mischievous one to a more warmer one, as he walked over and kneeled in front of his Digi-Akita-fied daughter.
"Yes!" Alex began to sniffle as tears prickled at the corners of her eyes.
Saffron thought it best to take a few steps back and let the pair have their moment.
"Y-you- you've been so down since mom left and I-I just wanted to make you feel better. A-and there was the con and now we're here! And we don't have anything and we're all alone here! And now you're hitting on a pony!" Alex babbled as the tears began to fall.
"Awwww. Come here hon." Geralt opened his arms and Alex plodded forward and planted her face into his chest.
"Why did mom leave!?" She sobbed.
Geralt gently stroked Alex's fuzzy head. "Because you're mom's a cunt."
Vinyl snorted a laughed and got another hoof to the head for her trouble.
"I know you're a grown up, but your still my little girl. Even though you're an adult and you know this, it still needs to be said that your mom didn't leave because of you, or me. She left because she was a selfish bitch." Geralt grimaced. "Yes, thinking about her still hurts, but I'm trying to move on."
"Can I be part of the healing process?" Vinyl called out, raising a hoof.
"Faust Dammit Vinyl!" Octavia roared. "They're having a fucking moment! Will You SHUT THE FUCK UP!?"
Everything went dead silent.
"Tavi.... You swore..... That was kinda hot." Vinyl grinned.
"That's it Vi-" Octavia didn't get much more out as a giggle from Geralt's chest cut her off.
"Heh. Heh heh. Hahahahahaha!" Alex laughed her head off as she pushed herself away from her father.
The laugh was contagious, soon infecting Geralt, Saffron, Vinyl and finally Octavia.
After a minute or two, everyone finally settled down, with an occasional errant giggle here and there.
"Mom was a fucking bitch wasn't she." Alex sighed.
"Yep." Geralt nodded. "We can be salty all we want now, but just you wait, someday we're going to look back on this time and pity her. Because we're digimon in a world of colorful ponies! Colorful ponies that aren't as sweet and innocent as you'd think!"
"You're Faust-damned right we're not!" Vinyl whooped.
Alex's face split into a toothy grin. "You're right."
"Now with all this heavy emotion and a healthy amount of music on my part, I find myself quite hungry." Geralt looked at Saffron. "Saffron, was it? Are you still open?"
"Yes we are still open!" Coriander Cumin came bustling out. "I'm sorry to eavesdrop but you were rather loud. I've already set everything up inside."
"Thank you..." Geralt's smile faltered. "We unfortunately don't have any money.... None that would apply here at any rate." He nodded towards the bags on his back.
"Don't worry, I can pay for everything." Octavia say trotting forward. "It's on me, for our new..... friends?"
"Sure." Alex shrugged.
"How about butt buddies?" Vinyl grinned.
"You might want to get some water inside Vinyl." Geralt said with a smirk.
Vinyl blinked. "Eh, why?"
"Because damn you thirsty!" Geralt booped her nose with a claw.
"We can figure that all out later, come inside. Get some food inside you!" Coriander laughed jovially.
"Gladly." Geralt grinned as Vinyl, Octavia, and Saffron walked inside.
"Dad, I think I'm going to like it here." Alex smiled at her father.
"I think I will too, hon. I think I will too."