“So then I said, ‘Oatmeal? Have you lost your mind?’”
Back at the school computer lab, Gomamon enthusiastically carried on with his story. Tai, Matt, Sora, and their digimon partners stood nearby, alongside Joe and Tentomon. They didn’t bother trying to disguise their exasperation with Gomamon’s antics.
Sitting separately at one of the numerous computers, Izzy payed close attention to the screen in front of him, looking for any sign of the others from the screen. His patience was soon rewarded when the screen suddenly began to glow
“Stand back, everyone!” He warned, “the digiport’s opening!”
Izzy got up out of his chair and moved himself away from the computer screen, allowing for plenty of space between himself and the monitor. The computer screen’s glow intensified, and in another burst of light, another group emerged from the monitor.
The other stood back and looked at the new arrivals with surprise; along with the Digi-Destined their partners, a group of ponies had also appeared out of the monitor.
“Woohoo!” Pinkie cheered, “That was super-duper spectacular amazing! You were like, ‘digiport open’, and I was like ‘here we go’, and then we went like ‘Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh!’”
“Hey, what is that song you’re singing, Pinkie?” Kari asked, “I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before.”
“Cody, your clothes! They've changed!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Yeah, they do that when we travel between worlds.” Cody replied. “Nobody really knows why.”
“Hey, enough!” said Tai, staring at the ponies with a frown of disapproval. “Davis, you have some explaining to do.”
“What? What makes you think this is about me?” Davis replied defensively. “These ponies are our friends, and they need our help!”
“Huh? Ponies?” Tai said, raising an eyebrow in bewilderment.
“Oh my goodness! Are these computers?”
Twilight squealed in excitement as she approached one of the numerous grey boxes placed beneath the room’s tables, reaching out hoof to examine the machine.
“H-hey! Get away from that!” Izzy exclaimed, “That’s school property! Do you have any idea how much trouble I’d be in if you damaged it?”
Twilight ignored the panicked Izzy, continuing to marvel at the sight of the machine before her.
“Amazing! It’s so small! I never imagined a computer could fit into such a tiny space! To think that you’d have such advanced technology! It’s...” Twilight paused in her speech, trying to think of an appropriate word to describe the sight before her. “It’s... It’s prodigious!”
Just as he was about to speak up, Izzy stopped dead, completely dumbstruck. “I, uh... Come again?”
“See, Izzy?” said Davis, “Twilight’s an egghead, just like you! Seems she’s pretty excited to learn about Earth, given that she’s an alien and all.”
Izzy stared back in disapproval. “Har har. Very funny, Davis.”
“What? It’s no joke! She’s really an alien pony!”
“Really, Davis, do you honestly believe I’m going to fall for that again?”
“Not my fault you fell for it twice in a row,” Davis grumbled. “But I’m really not joking this time! She’s from another world, I swear!”
“He’s telling the truth,” Cody chimed in. “These ponies came here from another world. They’re here to rescue their friend that was abducted into the Digital World.”
Izzy’s expression suddenly went blank, as though he were struggling to process what Cody had said.
“You..” He stammered, “You mean she’s really...”
“Here we go again”, Sora sighed. Her expression was matched by the other Digi-Destined, a conspicuously large bead of sweat appearing on each of their foreheads.
Without hesitation, Izzy jumped out of his chair in a blur of sudden movement. Within moments he was kneeling over Twilight with a near-frenzied look on his face.
“What is your world like? What kind of government do you have? Is there a single government or are there different nations? Does your planet have any moons? What kind of sun do you have? How could your species possibly form a civilization without opposable thumbs?”
“Izzy! Calm down, you’re scaring her!” Tentomon flew up beside the frantic Izzy, scolding him harshly.
Izzy suddenly snapped out of his fervor, looking down at Twilight to see her still reeling in shock.
“Sorry about that,” Izzy said sheepishly, “I, uh, guess I got carried away there.”
Twilight smiled. “It’s alright. I can certainly understand wanting to learn more about another world.”
“No fair!” Davis whined, “How come you believed Cody that she was an alien, but you didn’t believe me?”
“Well aside from you crying wolfmon,” said Armadillomon, “Ah reckon it has something to do with Cody here being the world’s worst liar.”
“What? No I’m not!” Cody said.
Armadillomon raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Could you do me a favor and answer me a question?”
“Sure,” Cody replied.
“What kind of pajamas do you wear to bed?”
“What?” said Cody indignantly, “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Just answer the question, Cody.”
Cody’s eyes darted back and forth around the room, sweat beginning to form on his brow. His face scrunched visibly as he replied. “I, uh... I just wear regular pajamas. No big deal, really!”
Armadillomon simply stared back, clearly unconvinced.
“Alright!” Cody admitted, “I wear pajamas with feet! Are you happy now?” He then paused in anticipation, as though he were expecting a response. “Huh? You guys aren’t laughing at me?”
“Now you’re just being ridiculous,” said Armadillomon. “These folks are your friends, Ah reckon they’d like you no matter what you wear to bed.”
“... I suppose it was kind of ridiculous to think that,” Cody admitted. “Thanks, Armadillomon.”
“What I want to know is, what are these so-called aliens doing here?” said Matt.
“That is a rather good question for them to be asking,” said Rarity, “why don’t we introduce ourselves to each other? I’m sure it would be within our best interests to know each other’s names if we’re to be working together.”
“Good idea!” said Twilight, “We’ll start things off. My name is Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity.” She pointed a hoof at each of her friends in sequence, indicating to the others who they were.
“My name’s Tai, and this is Agumon,” said Tai, introducing himself and his partner. “I take it you’ve already met my sister Kari?”
“That’s right,” said Twilight, “I can already tell you two are close.”
“My name’s Matt, and this is my partner Gabumon,” said Matt, “T.K.’s my brother, if you couldn’t tell.”
“My name’s Joe, and this is Gomamon,” said Joe.
“Wow, you’re name’s Joe?” said Pinkie, “That’s amazing, I also know a Joe back home! Do you make donuts, too? ‘Cause the other Joe I know owns this really nice donut shop, I mean it’s not as nice as sugarcube corner, but he makes really good donuts, and this last year we were both participated in a pastry bake-off, and it was really really really close, so close the judges couldn’t even decide who won, so it ended up a tie! We decided it didn’t matter because we had so much fun, and we got to eat so many delicious pastries and—”
“Slow down! You’re giving me a headache!” Joe held his hand to his head, slowly massaging his temples. Pinkie shrank back, looking visibly upset with herself.
“Aw, lighten up Joe,” said Gomamon, “she seems like a real barrel of fun! Don’t let him get to you, Pinks, he’s always like that.”
Joe rolled his eyes. “Glad to see someone’s on my side. Sora, why don’t you introduce yourself?”
“Of course,” said Sora, “my name is Sora, and this is my friend Biyomon.” She gestured to Biyomon, who waved to the ponies.
“Hi there!”
Rainbow Dash visibly flinched as Biyomon greeted them, her eyes darting around the room, trying desperately to avoid making eye contact.
“Is something wrong?” said Biyomon.
“I’m... I’m fine,” said Rainbow, “just, um, a little nervous about being in a new world.”
“Don’t worry Rainbow, it’ll be fine,” Twilight reassured Rainbow, before turning to face the last new human. “And you would be Izzy, then? Davis told me all about you on the way here. I’m looking forward to learning more about your world from you. Ooh, this is so exciting!”
“The feeling is mutual, Twilight,” said Izzy. “I’d also like to introduce you to my partner Tentomon.”
“How do you do?” said Tentomon.
“Oh my gosh, so many new friends!” Pinkie cheered. “I’ve never met so many of them at once! Do you know what this calls for?”
“We can throw a party later, Pinkie!” Rainbow interjected, “We’ve got more important things to worry about right now!”
“Ah’m afraid she’s right about that, Pinkie,” said Applejack, “right now we’ve gotta figure out just what the hay’s going on here.”
“First things first,” said Izzy, “we’re going to need to know how you ended up in the Digital World to begin with.”
Suddenly, Twilight was interrupted when the lights in the room went off all at once.
“Hey!” Twilight exclaimed, “What’s going on here?”
“You kids still playing with your monster friends in there?” The others all turned towards the open doorway to a man in a janitor’s uniform, with long black hair and a tired expression. “You need to get a move on! Building’s closed!”
“Sorry, mister Konaka!” Tai replied nervously, “We were just finishing up, I promise!”
“And don’t you dare let your little freakshow mess with that computer hardware! That stuff’s expensive!” The janitor gave out one last complaint before heading out into the corridor, grabbing onto a cart of cleaning supplies and pushing it out of sight.
“We can introduce ourselves properly here tomorrow,” said Ken, “for now we should focus on finding these ponies a place to stay for the night.”
“We can probably have each pony we found stay at our houses,” said T.K. “Hopefully our parents will understand.”
“Wait a second, you guys live with your parents?” said Rainbow Dash. “How old are you?”
“As I understand it, children are the only humans who can become Digi-Destined,” said Twilight. “Davis told me all about it on the way here.”
“What?” Rainbow exclaimed, “That’s.. that’s ridiculous! Who’d trust a bunch of foals to be the guardians of the entire world? Do you have any idea how dangerous that’d be?”
“Hey, are you saying you don’t think we can do it?” said Davis. “We’ve beaten all kinds of bad guys before! We know what we’re doing!”
“Settle down, you two,” said Twilight. “They’re not the ones who made the rules, so don’t go blaming them. It’s not our business to tell them what they shouldn’t be doing. We’re the outsiders here, remember?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Rainbow begrudgingly admitted. “But what are they going to do to help us now?”
“Like I said, we’ll let you stay over at our homes in the meantime,” said T.K. “I’m sure our parents will understand, they’ve probably gotten used to seeing weird things happening. I wouldn’t recommend letting anyone else know that you’re not digimon, though. I could see that getting messy.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” said Ken, “we’ll let each pony that we found stay with us until we meet here tomorrow. That means Applejack will stay with T.K., Pinkie will stay with Kari, and Twilight will stay with Davis. Rarity will be staying with Cody, and Rainbow Dash will stay with Yolei. Any objections?”
Twilight looked back towards her friends, listening for their approval. “Seems like we’re all good,” she replied.
“What about you, Ken?” said Yolei.
“Wormmon and I will be taking the train back home,” said Ken. “Joe will drop the rest of you guys off in his van. It’ll be a tight fit, but you should be able to make it.”
Joe sighed. “I can’t wait until you guys are old enough to get your own driver’s licenses.”