//------------------------------// // A Rare Encounter // Story: Digital Harmony // by Zennistrad //------------------------------// Cold. It was very, very cold. Cold and wet. In her semi-conscious state, this was all that Rarity knew of her surroundings. The coldness seeped into every crevice of her body, chilling her to the very core of her being. Most worryingly of all however, she noticed that she wasn’t breathing. Rarity knew right away that something was terribly, horribly wrong. Snapping her eyes open, she found herself to be surrounded by water on all sides. She was drowning. For a brief moment she tried to gasp for air, but she stopped herself when she realized she didn’t want her lungs filled with water. Desperate for oxygen, she frantically swam upwards towards the surface, trying desperately not to pass out from lack of air. After what seemed to her like an eternity, she finally emerged, letting out a large gasp, taking in as much air as she could manage. As she threaded the water to stay afloat, she took her surroundings into careful consideration. She looked downwards to find her saddlebags still attached to her sides, completely drenched. Fortunately, she had taken the precaution of having Twilight cast a protective spell to shield its contents from the elements, she didn’t want their contents damaged, after all. The water she was in appeared to be freshwater, much to her relief. As filthy as the water was, saltwater would be even worse for her complexion. She quickly noticed that her Element of Generosity was gone, no longer being worn around her neck. Before she could concern herself with this, however, she noticed that she was wearing a strange device on her right foreleg. Bringing it closer to herself, she examined it further, a rounded rectangular device made from white plastic, with dark purple rubber on its edges, and a small screen on the center. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen. What was stranger, however, was that it felt familiar to her. Is this... The Element of Generosity? she thought to herself. Whatever could have happened to it? Deciding it wasn’t important at the moment, she looked outwards at the surface of the water, trying to find some sign of dry land. To her dismay, however, she found nothing but water in all directions, as far as she could see. Panic slowly began to build within her as she realized the severity of her situation. What about the others? Did they also end up in the water? What if they’d already drowned? She began to hyperventilate, fraught with worry over the fate of her friends. No, she thought, I have to stay focused. I’ll never make it out alive if I start panicking now. Mentally calming herself, she chose a direction and began swimming, hoping that she would soon reach the shore before she exhausted herself. ——————— Cody and Armadillomon sat on the sandy beach by the lake, eating from a box of snacks Cody had brought with them. They had spent a good time traveling together, and had finally arrived at the edge of the lake, deciding to take a short break to regain their energy. To call the lake large would have been a massive understatement, it was so large that neither of them could see the other shore. Were either of them familiar with North American geography, they would have compared it to one of the Great Lakes on the northern borders of the United States. Suddenly, a loud beeping noise was heard, causing Cody to pause in his eating. “Looks like y’all got a message,” said Armadillomon. “I know, I got it,” said Cody. He reached into his deceptively large pocket and pulled out his D-Terminal, reading the message. ========== Hey guys! You wouldn’t believe what I just found! While on the way to the control spire I met this purple pony named Twilight Sparkle, and she’s actually an alien from another world! Pretty awesome, huh? Anyway, it turns out she and her friends came to the Digital World to rescue another pony named Fluttershy, but they ended up getting separated. If any of you guys see another strange pony, let me know, okay? - Davis ========== Cody stared at the screen for several moments, unsure to make of what the message he just read. “What’s it say, Cody?” asked Armadillomon. Cody sighed. “It’s nothing. Just another one of Davis’s pranks. Let’s hurry up and finish eating, we need to get going.” The two quickly finished their snacks, and Cody left the box on the surface of the beach. That was the great thing about the Digital World: littering wasn’t a problem since everything was made of data, and would disintegrate with no harm to the environment. “Y’all ready?” asked Armadillomon, standing next to the surface of the lake. “Uh-huh,” replied Cody. He pulled out his digivice and shouted the command to activate Armadillomon’s digivolution. “Digi-Armor Energize!” Armadillomon swiftly jumped into the lake as the Digi-Egg of Reliability emerged from Cody’s digivice and merged with his body. “Armadillomon, Armor Digivolve to: Submarimon, the Reliable Guardian of the Sea!” As his digivolution completed, Submarimon appeared, half-submerged in the lake’s water. “Hop in!” he said, opening his cockpit, and allowing Cody to climb in. With that, the two headed towards the center of the lake, in the direction of the control spire’s island. ——————— For the most part, the journey was uneventful. Submarimon had been travelling for some time along the surface of the lake, keeping a metaphorical eye out for any digimon on his sonar sensors. Surprisingly enough, there weren’t any hostile digimon nearby. Either that, or they can’t be detected, thought Cody. He really hoped that wasn’t the case. Cody shuddered, thinking of what could happen if Submarimon de-digivolved when he was still inside. Fortunately, his thoughts were interrupted when Submarimon suddenly spoke up. “Cody! I’m detecting something on my sonar!” Cody winced. At least they knew it was coming, whatever it was. “You ready to deal with it?” “It’s not heading towards us,” said Submarimon, “It seems to be... sinking?” Sumbarimon’s eyes widened in sudden realization. “Cody! I think it’s drowning!” “What!?” Cody exclaimed, “We have to help!” ——————— Rarity didn’t know how long she’d been swimming. All she knew is that she’d been doing it for far longer than she was comfortable with. She’d never taken any formal swimming lessons, and as such had to do with a simple dog-paddle. She silently cursed herself, wishing she could move through the water with the elegance that a professional swimmer would. As she continued, fatigue slowly began to creep its way up Rarity’s body. It became increasingly difficult to keep herself afloat, especially with her saddlebags weighing her down. She’d considered simply letting them drop to make things easier, but she couldn’t bear to part with the only material possessions she had with her at the moment. It almost made her doubt she was worthy of the Element of Generosity. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Rarity’s exhaustion caught up to her. Knowing she was too tired to keep moving, she took a deep breath before sinking into the water, hoping the oxygen would keep her alive as long as possible. She began to weep softly as she sank into the depths of the lake, her tears drowned out by the surrounding water. The lake’s water flooded into her lungs as she quietly sobbed, and her thoughts turned to her family back home. She was going to die, and none of her loved ones would know what had happened. I’m sorry, Sweetie Belle, she thought, I told you I’d be back soon, didn’t I? If only I’d known... Just before Rarity lost consciousness, she could just barely make out a shape in the watery distance, approaching her rapidly through the lake. A... A narwhal? ——————— Submarimon swiftly approached the unconscious figure as it sank into the depths of the ocean, revealing itself to be a small white unicorn with a violet mane, wearing a pair of saddlebags. He swiftly pulled under it and caught it with his fin, stopping it from sinking further into the lake. Cody looked at the unicorn curiously. “Hey, Submarimon, what kind of digimon is that?” “Beats me,” he replied, “I’ve never seen anything like it.” “Well, whatever it is, let’s hurry and get to the surface! I don’t think it’ll survive much longer like this!” “Got it!” Submarimon quickly rose upwards through the water, careful not to drop the digimon on his fin. He soon breached the surface of the water and opened his cockpit, allowing Cody to climb onto his fin and pull the digimon in. As the two got in, Submarimon’s cockpit closed, and Cody examined the digimon before him. Setting its saddlebags to the side, he positioned the digimon on its side and placed his hand on its body, searching for some sign that it might still be alive. She, Cody thought, correcting himself. There was something about the digimon that gave a distinctly female appearance, though he couldn’t quite say what it was. “This doesn’t look good,” he said, moving his hand to the digimon’s neck, “she has a pulse, but she isn’t breathing.” “Don’t worry,” said Submarimon, “I have an emergency life support system. Open the second compartment on your left.” “Got it.” Cody quickly located the compartment and opened it. Inside was a surgical mask, connected to a clear plastic tube, similar to the kind used to deliver anesthesia in a hospital. He quickly pulled out the mask and examined it. “So I just place this on her mouth?” “That’s right,” said Submarimon, “It’ll pump any water out of her lungs, and try to restore her breathing.” Cody nodded slightly, and placed the mask over the digimon’s mouth. A loud, mechanical noise came from Submarimon, and Cody watched as the digimon shuddered from the water being sucked out of her lungs. When the last of the water was extracted, the digimon gave out a shivering gasp, and then went quiet. Her chest began rising and falling slowly, indicating that she was breathing normally again. Cody lifted the mask off of her muzzle and placed it back in the compartment. “You keep heading for the island,” he said to Submarimon, “I’ll keep my eye on her.” ——————— A gentle light creeped into the edges of Rarity’s vision as she slowly regained consciousness. She could tell almost right away that she was no longer underwater, the coldness of the lake’s waters was no longer surrounding her. Am... Am I dead? she though. No, I can't be. she realized, I'm still breathing, so I must be alive, right? Rarity certainly hoped that was the case. With a soft moan, she slowly opened her eyes, allowing them to adjust to the light. What she saw was a scene unlike anything she could have imagined. She was confined in a very small space, lined with metal panels and various electronic displays, similar to some of the ones on ENEIGHAC. Over her head was an glass dome, through which she could see the surface of the water stretching out in all directions. But what startled her the most was the being she was trapped in there with. Sitting at the front of the room was a small bipedal creature, only about a foot taller than her, with a mostly hairless body. She could tell right away from the clothes that it wore that the creature possessed advanced intelligence, they were far too intricate to be the work of a primitive mind. This, combined with advanced machinery of the room lead her to a single conclusion. Rarity had never believed in aliens before. Sweetie Belle had told of her effort to find an alien spaceship during one of her failed attempts at discovering her cutie mark. Her friend Apple Bloom had seen something fall from the sky, landing in one of the farthest corners of Sweet Apple Acres, and set off with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to investigate. In the end, it turned out to be nothing more than a barrel of kumquats, accidentally dropped by one of the local delivery pegasi. The whole idea of an alien spaceship crash-landing in the Apple family’s orchard was plainly ridiculous of course. Everypony, with the obvious exception of the self-proclaimed “Cutie Mark Crusaders,” knew that aliens didn’t exist. But that didn’t change the fact that an alien was very clearly right before her. Rarity knew that the creature couldn’t possibly be from her homeworld of Ungula; not only was it unlike anything she could have imagined in her wildest dreams, its clothing was impossibly well-made.  With her keen eye for details, she could see that not a single thread was out of place, and the fabric was woven with a level of precision far beyond anything she’d ever seen. Some parts of the outfit were just plain bizarre; its shoes covered the entirety of its feet, with long laces on the top pulling the sides in tighter, similar to a girdle. The creature seemed to have noticed Rarity stirring, and shifted in its seat, turning towards her. “Oh, hey,” it said, speaking in a scratchy, male voice, “you’re awake! Are you alright?” Rarity decided, at that moment, that the best course of action was to follow her first instinct. She screamed, as loudly and as high-pitched as she possibly could.