//------------------------------// // The Numemon Village and The Nightmare's Omen // Story: Digital Harmony // by Zennistrad //------------------------------// Tall. Black. Ominous. A number of words came to Rarity’s mind as she watched the control spire approach from Submarimon’s cockpit, standing at the center of the island, but the one that stood out most in her mind was evil. Just looking at it was enough to give her a serious case of the willies; she could feel the malevolent aura coming from it. At the same time, however, she couldn’t look away, feeling that she couldn’t afford to take her eyes off it, as though it would suddenly come to life and attack her. The very idea of a tower becoming a monster was absurd, of course. But in another world, anything could happen. Like the talking narwhal-submarine that she was riding in along with a miniature hairless ape. As said vehicle approached the island, she began to make out the details of it; the shore was a sandy beach, dotted with occasional patches of long grass, with a large wooden dock with several canoes near the edge of the water. Built further away from the beach were several small huts built from driftwood, clearly a village that survived primarily through fishing. Beyond the village was a deciduous forest that covered the rest of the island, with the control spire looming massively over the canopy. Submarimon quickly pulled over to the docks, and opened his cockpit, allowing Cody to climb out. Rarity quickly followed, double-checking her saddlebags to ensure they were securely attached to her. Standing on the docks, Cody held out his D-3, and Submarimon was engulfed in a pure white glow. Rarity watched in fascination as a stream of white light emerged from Submarimon and flew into Cody’s digivice, while Submarimon’s body rapidly shrunk, becoming submerged in the shallow water. “Oh dear, is he alright?” asked Rarity. “He’s fine,” replied Cody, “just give him a second.” After a moment’s silence, a much smaller figure leapt out of the water, and landed straight on the docks. It looked like an Armadillo with a golden-orange carapace, and frill-like whiskers sticking out the side of its head. It took a moment for Rarity to realizes what had happened. “Submarimon?” she asked “is that you?” “Actually, in this form Ah’m called Armadillomon. This is what Ah normally look like.” Rarity looked sad for a moment as she recognized Armadillomon’s accent. “Right... Of course.” Almost right away Cody took notice of the sad look on the unicorn’s face. “Something wrong?” he asked. Rarity looked up at Cody and sighed. “Well,” she said, “I know it sounds a bit silly, but Armadillomon’s accent reminds me of my friend, Applejack. We don’t have a lot in common, but she’s one of the best friends I’ve ever known.” Rarity sniffled briefly, fighting to hold back the tears that arrived as she remembered the time she’d spent with her friend. “I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I’m worried about her. She’s a very strong pony, and I have no doubt she can take care of herself, but she could be anywhere in this world, amongst all kinds of horrific monsters. I hope more than anything that she’s alright.” Cody and Armadillomon both looked back at Rarity understandingly. “Don’t worry,” reassured Cody, “We’ll find your friends, I promise. Right now, though, we should head into the village and take care of the control spire.” Rarity quickly gathered her composure, and nodded in agreement. “Alright, then, let’s go.” With a nod from the others, they headed out towards the village, keeping their guards up in case of attack. ———————— Rarity bit her lip in disgust at the sight of the creatures that populated the village as they approached. Slugs. Giant, green slugs, which oozed and drooled as they wandered the village aimlessly, their red eyes glowing a sickening red due to the dark rings that encircled their formless bodies. As if to emphasize the point, her mind reiterated that they were giant slugs. She had the resist the urge to retch simply looking at them. “You’d better get used to seeing Numemon” said Cody, “They’re pretty much everywhere in the Digital World.” “Oh, well isn’t that just wonderful,” Rarity exclaimed dramatically “I get to experience an entire world of giant, hideous slugs!” “You know,” said Armadillomon, turning to Cody, “when it comes to melodrama, that girl could give Mimi a run for her money.” “Tell me about it.” “I am not being melodramatic!” shouted Rarity, “After all that I’ve been through, I deserve a chance to vent! Do you have any idea how much I’ve lost today!?” “Uh, Rarity?” Cody interjected. “I’ve lost my entire world! My mother and father, my sister, everything I’ve ever worked for!” “Rarity!” “And my friends! My friends are still trapped in this alien world, and Fluttershy had been abducted by dark forces! It couldn’t possibly be any worse!” “Rarity, they’ve spotted us!” Just like that, Rarity’s attention had been pulled away from her own rant, and towards Cody. Sure enough, the Numemon had all turned towards the group, and were approaching as rapidly as a group of slugs possibly could. “Oh, good heavens! They’re heading straight for us!” Rarity exclaimed, horrified, “we’re not going to have to fight those things, are we?” “Looks like we don’t have a choice,” replied Cody. Reaching into his pocket, he began to take out his digivice. Before he could hold it out in front of him, Armadillomon interrupted. “Now hold on there, pardner. Don’t you think Ah oughta save my strength in case something bigger comes along? Ain’t no sense wasting a digivolution on something as weak as Numemon.” “Are you sure?” replied Cody, “I don’t want you getting hurt because of this.” “‘Course Ah am,” said Armadillomon, “Ah’ll have these overgrown slugs back to normal before you know it.” “Alright, but be careful.” The Numemon now being almost dangerously close, Cody and Rarity watched as Armadillomon charged into the fray. “Are you sure he’ll be alright?” asked Rarity. “I think so,” replied Cody. “Numemon aren’t very strong. Their main attack is...” Cody hesitated, unsure if he wanted to say it out loud in Rarity’s presence. “Is what?” “Trust me, you don’t want to know.” “Diamond Shell!” Armadillomon called out as he curled into a ball, bowling over several Numemon and causing the dark rings around them to shatter and disintegrate. The other Numemon were quick to react, pulling what appeared to be piles of pink dung out of thin air. “Oh dear Gods!” exclaimed Rarity, horrified. “They’re not going to—” “They are,” interrupted Cody. The Numemon began throwing their dung at Armadillomon, sending a storm of excrement towards him. Armadillomon swiftly rolled out of the way, expertly weaving between the thrown piles so that not a single one hit him. Rarity could feel bile beginning to rise in her throat. Pulling herself away from Cody, she averted her eyes, and struggled to keep herself from vomiting at what she saw. As the last of the piles landed, Armadillomon uncurled his body and turned to face his attackers. He swiftly charged towards the remaining Numemon, who had conveniently remained in a tight cluster as they had attacked. “Diamond Shell!” Armadillomon once again bowled over the Numemon, shattering their dark rings and leaving them scattered across the ground. Only a single Numemon remained unharmed by the attack, and it quickly began producing more of its “ammunition” as Armadillomon uncurled. He easily dodged the last pile of dung and leapt towards the Numemon, claws extended outwards. “Diamond Scratching!” With a swipe of his claw, Armadillomon shattered the final dark ring, and sent the last Numemon flying a short distance backwards. Pausing to catch his breath, Armadillomon looked around, and saw that there were no more Numemon under the control of the dark rings. Given how small the village was, it was unlikely that there were any more, so he went back to join Cody and Rarity. “Good Job, Armadillomon!” cheered Cody. “Ain’t nothing to it. Say, what’s Rarity doing over there?” Cody looked over to where Armadillomon was pointing, and saw Rarity emptying the contents of her stomach in a nearby bush. ———————— A short time later, the three had met with the villagers, who thanked them for freeing the Numemon. Rarity had been trying her hardest to be polite to the Numemon, but it was clear to Cody and Armadillomon that she was only inches away from losing her composure entirely. The Numemon didn’t notice. “Gosh, you’re pretty!” said one of the Numemon, crawling uncomfortably close to Rarity’s face. “T-t-thank you,” stammered Rarity, her nose curling from the extremely foul odor. “And, please, for the love of Faust, brush your teeth!” The Numemon grinned widely, revealing half of its teeth to be missing, and the rest to be full of holes. “Duhhh, okay!” As they sat at a table in one of the huts, Cody and Armadillomon talked with one of the Numemon about the control spire, in hopes that they would discover who was responsible. Meanwhile, increasingly horrified Rarity tried to get several other Numemon, who had completely surrounded her, to stop telling her how pretty she was. “Do you know who did this to you?” Asked Cody. “I have no idea!” replied the Numemon. “The control spire, it appeared out of nowhere, and then the dark rings came and took us!” “Well, do you know what you were being told to do while you were being controlled?” asked Armadillomon “Somebody had to be controlling you if you were wearing them dark rings.” The Numemon puzzled for several moments, appearing to be deep in thought. “Oh!” it exclaimed, “there was this voice, and she was really scary! She made us do all sorts of bad things!” “She?” replied Cody, “So the one controlling you was a girl?” The Numemon stared at Cody, confused. “Dahhhh, I dunno.” Cody sighed and stood up. He clearly wasn’t going to be getting any more information from these digimon. “Well, I suppose that’s better than nothing. Come on, let’s go.” “Y-yes, let’s.” stammered Rarity, who was backed up against a wall by the Numemon. ———————— As they exited the cottage, Cody, Rarity, and Armadillomon said their goodbyes to the Numemon, and prepared to head out to the forested area to destroy the control spire. They turned away to leave, another one of the Numemon came out of a nearby hut, carrying a wooden bucket on its back. “Here!” he said, approaching Cody and the others. “Have a bucket of chum for your travels! Consider it a thank you from us!” Cody and Armadillomon hesitantly eyed the bucket, which was filled with rotten fish entrails. Rarity took one look at the bucket, and, unable to take any more from the Numemon, raised a hoof to her forehead and fainted. “Uh... thanks, but no thanks,” said Cody, flatly. ———————— Rarity’s eyes slowly opened, and were greeted with a seemingly impossible landscape. As far as she could see, there was nothing but grey rock and dust, with numerous dark clouds looming overhead, partially obscuring the starry sky. She looked overhead and saw one of the clouds slowly begin to move, revealing the glowing orb behind it. To her utmost shock, it wasn’t Celestia’s Sun or Luna’s Moon, or even any other sun or moon, for that matter. It was Ungula. Her world. Rarity stared, mouth agape, at the world in the sky above her. How could this happen? she wondered. “Surprised?” Rarity’s hair stood on end at the sound of the voice from behind her. It was a powerful, haughty, feminine voice, a voice that was almost dripping with madness. And it was almost exactly the same as her own voice. Rarity turned around to face the figure that was standing behind her, a pony that was in many ways just like her, and in many other ways almost completely different. She bore the same cutie mark as Rarity, but had a much larger body, the same size as Celestia and Luna. The hair on her body was dark, the same color as the night sky, and her ethereal mane and tail glittered with stardust, with a single white stripe running through each of them. The larger unicorn looked at her other self and smiled wickedly. “N-nightmare!” exclaimed Rarity, her voice wavering from sheer terror. “No! That’s impossible! You were—” “Destroyed?” interrupted the Nightmare. “Not so. The Darkness is not so easily vanquished.” “B-b-but they were vanquished! The Nightmare Forces were purified!” The Nightmare only laughed in response, a powerful, echoing laugh that sent shivers down Rarity’s spine. “Did you really think the Nightmare Forces were the true masterminds behind my existence? They too were but mere pawns to an even greater power. Or did you never wonder what caused the moon's inhabitants to be corrupted to begin with? He still lurks in the shadows, plotting his next move.” “He? What are you talking about? Who is he? Tell me!” The Nightmare smiled. It was the sort of smile that would make even the most powerful known beings in existence fear for their lives. “The Lord of Darkness. The Depraved Monk of the Deep. Dragomon has risen, and soon the very Essence of Light shall be at his mercy!” The Nightmare laughed again, even louder and more terrifyingly than before, as her body faded into oblivion. ———————— “Are you alright?” Rarity’s eyes slowly opened at the sound of Cody’s voice. She found herself lying on the ground, with Cody and Armadillomon standing over her, concerned. “What happened?” she asked. “You were out cold for a second there,” replied Armadillomon. “Guess y’all couldn’t handle a little bit of fish entrails,” he joked. “That’s not funny!” snapped Rarity. “Did anything happen happen while I was unconscious, by any chance?” “You were only out for less than a minute, so you didn’t miss anything.” replied Cody “It looked that you were having some sort of nightmare, which was odd.” “A nightmare?” said Rarity, confused. “Strange, I don’t remember having any sort of dreams at all.” “Well, I suppose it’s not that important,” said Cody. “We should be heading out for the control spire now, anyway.” “Of course.” Rarity picked herself off of the ground, and tightend her saddlebags. She joined Cody and Armadillomon as they walked to the outskirts of the village, into the forested area behind it. “Bye!” said the Numemon, in unison. Cody waved goodbye to the Numemon as they traveled into the forest, while Rarity and Armadillomon kept a watchful eye out for anything that would attack them. ———————— Some time had passed since the Numemon said goodbye to their visitors, and they had done their best to try to get things back to normal in their village. Several Numemon were out fishing on their canoes, using large nets to reel in whatever fish they could. One of the Numemon fishers threw his net into the water, only for it to get caught on something. He pulled on the net, to no avail. He then pulled again harder than before, with similar results. Before he could try a third time, a massive body erupted from the water, overturning the boat and throwing the Numemon into the lake. Thankfully for him, the water was freshwater, and not saltwater. Gasping for breath as it swam to the surface, the Numemon looked in horror as a massive lobster digimon swam towards the island, and marched straight into the village, sending the other Numemon into a panic as it went straight through into the forest.