Digital Harmony

by Zennistrad


A Mon and Pony Show

Twilight rubbed her eyes as her vision adjusted to the blindingly bright light of her teleport spell. “Alright, girls, Fluttershy should be somewhere around he—”

Twilight looked around, and suddenly interrupted herself as she realized that the others weren’t with her. She was standing alone in what appeared to be some sort of rocky plains, a dusty badlands with numerous stones dotting the terrain. Several miles away, an ominous black tower loomed over the landscape.

“Girls? Girls, where are you?”

Twilight looked around frantically as she tried to find her friends. She scurried across the terrain, searching every stone as she tried to find some sign of the others. “No! No no no no no no no no! Where could they have gone? Where did my spell go wrong?”

Twilight continued her panicked search for several minutes before collapsing to the ground in exhaustion. Still breathing heavily, she attempted to calm herself.

“Get it together Twilight, get it together, they couldn’t have gone far...” She massaged her forehead with her hoof, trying to soothe the headache she’d started to develop. Something seemed to be amiss, however, and as she continued to nurse her headache she eventually came to a realization. The tiara representing the Element of Magic was no longer there.

Before she could descend into even deeper panic, however, she suddenly felt a familiar presence nearby. It was the same sort of feeling she had whenever she and her friends used the Elements of Harmony together. The feeling grew stronger, and Twilight’s body to glow softly, rising into the air as she became enveloped in a soft light. The glow quickly subsided, causing Twilight to float gently to the ground, bewildered.

“Wha... What just happened?”

Twilight looked around briefly for some sign of what had caused the mysterious event, but could not see anything out of the ordinary in the surrounding area. She soon noticed, however, that she was now wearing a strange device on the ankle of her right foreleg.

It was made of white plastic and rectangular in shape, with rounded edges covered in amethyst-colored rubber. In the center of the device there was a small translucent screen, and on the back was a strap connecting it to her ankle. As Twilight examined the device, the screen began to glow softly, bathing her in a familiar light.

It’s... It’s the Element of Magic! But how? What happened to it?

Twilight thought about it for a few moments, but couldn’t come up with any sort of  plausible explanation. She quickly decided it wasn’t important at the moment. For now, finding her friends was the top priority.

Twilight turned and looked to the strange black tower in the distance. Something tells me that tower has something to do with my friends. Staring at the tower, she shuddered as she felt a powerful sense of foreboding wash over her. And something else tells me it won’t be good.

A new determination arising inside of herself, Twilight flapped her wings and attempted to fly towards the tower. She rose less than a foot before she crashed to the ground, falling flat onto her face.

Twilight rose to her hooves, and spit out the dirt that had gotten into her mouth. Rainbow was right, I really do need to learn how to fly properly. I’ll just have to walk for now. With that, she trotted off towards the tower, in search her friends.

For roughly half an hour she walked, as the black tower slowly grew closer on the horizon. The rocky plains soon gave way to what appeared to be an abandoned quarry, with large boulders sticking out of the ground.

Twilight, having spent so long walking, decided to take a momentary rest. She sat down on the ground and looked towards the tower, still a good distance away from her current location. Sitting down on her haunches, she let out a heavy sigh as she set down her saddlebags down on the ground nearby, letting her wings drop limply to her sides.

Suddenly, Twilight’s ears perked up as she heard a strange scratching noise. Without warning, a pair of arms burst from the ground beneath her, drawing her blood as they grabbed her, raking their long claws against her wingspan.

Twilight screamed in pain as she flailed wildly, pulling her attacker out of the ground and throwing it off by several feet, and spilling the contents of her saddlebags across the ground. As she turned to face her attacker, she finally got a good look at it.

It appeared to be a bipedal mammal with grey fur covering its body, similar to a diamond dog, except it was shorter and had a pair of rabbit-like ears on the top of its head. At the end of its arms were long, black claws, the tips still coated in Twilight’s blood. On its neck was what appeared to be a collar, made of blackened metal and inscribed with strange symbols.

The creature let out a vicious snarl as it rose to its feet, turning to face Twilight. Twilight lowered her head, her horn glowing as she channeled her magic into it.

“S-stay back! I’m warning you!”

The creature ignored the warning, and swiftly pounced, baring its fangs as it leapt at Twilight. Too panicked too give even a moment's thought, she reacted by casting her most powerful offensive spell, one that would disintegrate the monster swiftly and painlessly. A blast of powerful magic erupted from her horn, knocking the creature out of the air and sending it tumbling to the ground. Snarling in rage, the rabbit-dog rose to its feet, completely unharmed by the attack.

Twilight’s jaw dropped in shock. “What? But...” Twilight stammered, barely able to register what just happened. “No! Th-that's impossible!" Twilight slowly backed away from the rabbit-dog, her heart beating so fast that it felt like it would burst out of her chest. Whatever the creature was, it was extremely resistant to her magic. Escape was the only option now.

Raising its head, the creature let out a loud, piercing howl. Several patches of ground nearby started to come loose, as several more of its kind started digging themselves out of the ground, surrounding her from all sides.

Twilight stood rooted to the ground as the creatures turned towards her, growling viciously as their eyes burned with malice. Paralyzed with fear, she stood helplessly on the ground as she wracked her brain for an escape from certain death. She knew the monsters were highly resistant to her magic, to the point where even her most powerful disintegration spell  would not affect them. She was far too panicked to concentrate properly on a teleport spell, and her wounded wings prevented her from flying. She could try to run past the rabbit-dogs through the gaps in their circle, but they would almost certainly catch her and kill her if she did.

There was only one thing that could possibly save her now.

SOMEPONY HELP ME!

————————

Davis and Veemon sat down on top of a boulder, leisurely eating from a bag of snacks that Davis had brought with him. Per Ken’s plan, they had been traveling north for at least a half hour, and were now taking a break to conserve their strength. They both knew from experience that the control spires were always guarded, and Veemon needed to save his energy for whatever they would encounter. Davis pulled a canteen out of his jacket and held it above him, pouring the water into his mouth.

“Hey Davis, could I have some of that?”

“Yeah, here.” Davis tossed the canteen to Veemon, who eagerly guzzled its contents.

“Hey, don’t slobber all over the lip! I only brought one of those!”

Veemon wiped his mouth off as he finished. “I, uh, don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” he said, tossing the canteen back to Davis.

“You drank the entire thing!?” exclaimed Davis, exasperated.

“Hey, you’re not the one who’s been running for the past hour! You’d be thirsty too after that!”

“I suppose you’re right,” Davis conceded, “but I’d prefer if you’d tell me before doing that.”

Veemon opened his mouth to respond, but his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a faint noise in the distance.

“Something wrong, Veemon?”

“Shh! Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Veemon suddenly jumped to his feet. “Someone’s in trouble!”

“Veemon, wait!” Davis called out as Veemon jumped off of the boulder and ran towards the source of the noise. Davis quickly followed, struggling to keep up with his partner, who was deceptively fast for his small size.

They soon arrived at another section of a quarry, where they saw a group of Gazimon, under the control of the dark rings, who had cornered another frightened digimon. Both of them briefly wondered what it was; it resembled a Unimon, but was less than four feet tall from the head down, and had lavender hair and a dark purple mane. It didn’t seem to notice the two approach from the side, being far too frightened by the Gazimon.

SOMEPONY HELP ME!” it screamed.

Veemon assumed a fighting stance. “Don’t worry, I’ll save you! Charge!

“Veemon, wait!” Davis called out as his partner rushed into the fray, “You forgot to digivolve!”

Vee Headbutt!

————————

This is it, Twilight thought. She was done for, she knew it. These creatures had cornered her, and she was helpless to defend herself. In a single moment, her entire life flashed before her eyes. Every lesson she’d ever learned, every friend she’d ever met, every mistake she’d ever made. And in a moment none of it would matter. She closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the inevitable moment of her destruction.

“Don’t worry, I’ll save you! Charge!

“Veemon wait! You forgot to digivolve!”

Huh? Twilight opened her eyes, turning towards the source of the new voices. The rabbit-dogs, startled by the sudden cry, did the same. Standing behind him was a strange, ape-like creature with his entire body covered in clothing, the most noticeable of which was a flame-colored jacket and a pair of goggles.

Running towards the rabbit-dogs at was what appeared to be a young, lizard-like dragon with blue scales, and a yellow letter “v” on its forehead.

Vee Headbutt!

The dragon lowered its head and charged the group, colliding with one of the rabbit-dogs. The force of the impact caused its collar to disintegrate, and sent it flying several feet into the air, creating a small cloud of dust as it landed unconscious on the ground.

Vee Punch!

Before the other rabbit-dogs could react, the dragon swiftly ran up to another and threw a powerful throat punch, destroying its collar as it was knocked out. By this time, the other rabbit-dogs had already gotten over their initial shock, and with blinding speed they all pounced simultaneously at the dragon.

The dragon was faster, however, and leapt straight upwards, launching itself several feet into the air. The rabbit-dogs all collided with each other, leaving them in a heap on the ground where their target previously stood. At the peak of its jump, the dragon did a mid-air flip, positioning itself so that the top of its head faced the ground.

Vee Headbutt!

The dragon’s skull impacted the ground with tremendous force, sending the rabbit-dogs flying in all directions, their collars disintegrating from the force of impact. It slowly got up to its feet, rubbing the top of its head.

“Ugh... Why does my special attack have to involve giving me a headache?”

Twilight stared blankly at the dragon. The scene that unfolded before her was almost too difficult for her to comprehend. This dragon, which looked absolutely nothing like any dragon she had ever seen or read about, had taken on almost a dozen of the rabbit-dogs by himself. He couldn’t have been any older than Spike, and yet he defeated a group of dangerous magic-resistant monsters entirely by himself. And then there was the hairless ape that he had arrived with, which was unlike anything Twilight had ever imagined.

“Alright! You did it, Veemon!” The hairless ape ran towards the dragon, and raised his hand high into the air with an open palm. “High five!” The dragon returned the gesture, leaping into the air and bringing his own palm onto the ape’s.

“Who da mon?” exclaimed the dragon, proudly, “I da mon!”

Twilight couldn’t take it anymore. Everything about this situation was completely alien to her, she could not possibly have been prepared for any of this. Finally reaching her breaking point, she asked the one question that had always been on her mind from the start.

WHAT IN CELESTIA’S MANE IS GOING ON HERE!?