//------------------------------// // And So It Begins... // Story: The Black Digi-Knight // by jsk244 //------------------------------// I wake up to the sound of birds and a breeze through leaves. My brain is foggy and fuzzy, not wanting to work right it seems. For a moment I think it’s just normal morning drowsiness, but then I get it. Why was I outside? The last thing I remember...wasn’t much to be honest. I couldn’t even remember going to sleep. I force my eyes open and see a tree canopy blotting the sky above me. So I really was outside, and with no tent above me. The trees look pretty ancient and big too, so this was probably a thick, old woods. I doubt I went to sleep here, willing or otherwise. “Shit.” I grumble, freezing as I hear my own voice. I lift a hand to rub at my throat, but have to stop as giant metal claws get in my way. When I look down, I see a black, hide covered hand holding the grip of an enormous claw weapon of the same color. “What the hell?!” Sitting up, I see and hear more armor clacking over my entire body. The claws reach all the way to my elbows, held tight by several thick belts on the inside. On my shoulders were two round pauldrons with a spike jutting out diagonally from the top. Thick, yellow cords of metal bind it to my silver chestplate, which is made of several plates held by the same kind of cord. Around my waist, a crotch guard that fanned out along the sides of my thighs for greater mobility, and my feet were covered in enormous shin guards. They had the same color scheme as my chest piece, and had to end abruptly due to my quite frankly absurdly shoe size, if I could wear any that is. Each of the three talons I had were equal to my hand in length, and my soles were probably a foot thick in places. With a little work I undid the clasps on one arm, and flexed my free clawed hand in the air as I looked it over. Then, reaching up to my face, I could feel a long muzzle with a helmet over my head and strands of hair sticking out the back behind the stylish horns on top. I tugged some out, grunting from the pain, and saw that the strands were as yellow as my armor highlights. Feeling something shift on my back confirmed there being some kind of bifurcated shield back there. A familiar shield, on a familiar-but-not body. My body now apparently. “What the hell is going on?” I growl in shock. The armor was incredibly advanced despite resembling a knight's attire. Even as I stood and turned in every conceivable direction to look at myself it was never cumbersome. The front of the chest also had lines and plating laid in a way that was decidedly technological. I could even reach back without much discomfort while wearing my gauntlets, allowing me to retrieve the two pieces of shield settled onto my back. I felt a brief resistance, perhaps from some kind of magnet, and then I pulled both pieces around to my front and clicked them together. I stared at the blank shield face, emotions and mind awhirl, before tiling it enough to let it’s polished surface reflect my face. A BlackWarGreymon, from Digimon Adventure 02, stared back. While not able to recall anything about how I got here, or to my growing horror, myself, I still indeed knew about this form. In fact I had startling recall over everything involving Digimon, the franchise and the true monsters themselves. BlackWarGreymon (BWG) in the second season had become a powerful foe and anti-hero in direct opposition to the Digidestined. Born from the black spires left over from the time of the Digi-Emperor, his unnatural birth made him seek purpose and reason in life. He nearly in fact brought the Digital World crumbling down from his need for an answer, and only redeemed himself near the end of his life. Struck down by the true enemy of the season, he valiantly sacrificed himself in order to seal the gate between worlds, hoping it would stop the villain. Sadly it failed, and even came to hinder the Digdestined during the final battle when trying to stop the bad guy. He would remain a notable character from the series overall, mostly as being WarGreymon’s opposite and a powerful enemy. “But what does this mean…?” I ask out loud. Why was I BWG? I know I was human just hours ago; my memory was riddled with holes but I still knew things. Facts and information that told me I was human. That I came from a life where Digimon was just a cartoon, a fantasy. But as I tried to think back, I found myself bombarded with more and more data. Facts, figures, dates; It all kept pouring in, not just about humanity but Digimon in general. “Argh!” It hurts! Why does it hurt?! I feel my legs give out as I try to cradle my head and keep it from exploding. Too much information, it was just...too much! “STOP IT!” I roar. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” I blank out...and when I recover, the clearing has changed. I’m laying on my side for one, with my pauldron digging uncomfortably into my shoulder. My head feels light, empty almost, but there’s still a feel of something flowing around inside of it. It’s the hardest thing to describe; like I’d been colorblind and now could see correctly. I try to think of just one thing, and suddenly information about it flows to the forefront of my mind. When I stop, it goes back into the strange undercurrent. Trying to think of a comparison draws of thoughts of computers, the internet, and saved files on a hard drive. So basically my brain is now like a living computer; how fitting for a Digimon. As I push myself up I look around to see the more physical changes my blackout rent. There are deep gouges all across the ground and surrounding trees, some hanging on by the barest of threads. One old and sturdy oak even creaks and slowly falls away from me as I watch. But the most startling thing, is the burning, circular path of destruction that sweeps down well over a hundred yards of demolished woodlands. I can only assume I used an attack, perhaps using what was it? Terra Destroyer? Thinking about it brings up confirmation in my mind. The strain of my brain shifting to its more organized form must have made me into a beserker for a moment. Thank god it’s over; the forest could have been totally destroyed if I had cut loose for more than just one attack like that. “Great power means great responsibility.” I paraphrase a timeless saying. “God...I might not know why I am, but I have to watch it while I’m in this body.” I take an hour or so to get more acquainted with my new form, and to try and guess where I might be. My height puts me in the range of seven to eight feet tall, and all of my physical skills are far above a human's. I can easily lift and cut several of the felled trees around, as well as leap high into the air and land without it hurting thanks to the muscles in my feet. To say nothing of the odd technology seemingly ingrained into my shield and armor that lets me fly. The shield simply needs to be split in two, and on my back, and I can easily command it to lift me up via some form of telepathy. My armor is all removable thankfully and I take a moment to simply enjoy the warm sunny day as a ‘naked’ Greymon. I’d say I was handsome given my muscle tone and hair, but it’s definitely a little odd to see I have something like a smoother, smaller Agumon head under my helmet. The woods I’m in span all around me in every direction, but while in the air I did spy several mountains to the east and southwest. More lay in every direction but these were the closest landmarks to navigate by. Nothing to tell me whether this was the Digital World or human one however. Finding out the answer to that would go a long way to helping me decide what to do next. “Better go on foot for now.” I declare. If this was the human world seeing a flying monster would get me shot at or have folks fleeing. I also had a convenient direction to go by; the carved path of my wild attack pointed toward one of the nearby mountains, so I would follow it and hope for civilization. Requipping my gear, I set off, mind heavy yet with my heart light. This was an amazing adventure, after all, and telling myself that kept other worries at bay. The trek was slow and uneventful for most of the time. My size caused issues once the trees came back together with my head reaching the lower limbs. Leaves would block my sight and several branches struck me as I tried pushing them out of the way. My feet also kept stumbling over roots and bushes too, further aggravating some of the slipups I made. But I soldiered on; My decision against flight still stood for as long as I didn’t know the world I was in. Unfortunately I could feel the hours pass, and the longer I spent in the woods, the more I felt I’d picked the wrong direction. That changed when I spotted smoke through the canopy ahead. It was still a fair distance off, but seeing it meant I had at last found civilization. Or perhaps a simple camper, but that might be better for me. Easier to handle introductions after all when you only have one person to worry about. I pushed on, but froze as the wind changed. I could smell something coming from ahead. It had been hidden until now but, now...that wasn’t good smoke. Ash, blood, decay; someone was under attack, maybe even a town! I strained my hearing forward and sure enough, there was screaming, and a terrifying roar. “Shit!” Time to forgo caution and go full speed ahead. I power up the jets and shoot up into the air, dashing forward with a kick. I’ll contemplate how that worked later. Without the trees slowing me I reach an antiquated looking village in seconds, seeing fires covering the ground and consuming several buildings. Ruined walls and carts litter the streets, and figures are rushing through the shadows of alleys and under rubble. I see the problem behind all of this too; a shadow swoops over the village and lets loose a terrible roar that vibrates inside my helmet. I look up and see a dragon. “...the fuck?!” The beast was easily more than twice the size of any building in the village, his wingspan matching his length if not more. Scales a deep purple, almost black, with a mane of charcoal black hair that rolled down his neck like a mohawk. His eyes were a sickly yellow, madness dancing in them, and his fire was a vibrant purple. He was doing fly-bys of the village at the moment, but it was obvious he’d done a lot of groundwork before from all the marks and pawprints in the earth below. Yet what unsettled me the most was that I was certain he wasn’t a Digimon. Dragons, real fire breathing lizards like him, didn’t exist right? Hell now I really don’t understand where I am. But first thing’s first. With a sharp whistle I catch its attention. “Hey ugly! Over here!” It turns to look at me, hovering over a building he’d just set on fire. “Leave this village alone or else.” Not the best threat, and his reply growl showed how little he was cowed. I’d still drawn his attention however and he flapped his wings to dive at me. With my size and greater maneuverability I easily dodge, and then turn to point one of my claws at him. “That was your one free shot bub. I might be new to this body, but it sure as hell isn’t lacking in skills. Turn and fly off or I’ll test them on you.” It was technically true. While I couldn’t recall any personal experience with fighting, there were instincts and instructions flowing through my brain now that told me how to battle. All the strengths and weaknesses that came with being a BlackWarGreymon, as well as some primal instinct to fight no matter the foe. I guess fighting came naturally to Digimon, especially a Mega like I am. It’s what told me to drop to the ground when the dragon reared its head back, narrowly avoiding the fire it breathed at me. My hands barely touched the ground before I push off, zooming up toward him like a cannonball. I take the open stance it has to deliver a powerful kick that dents its scales and belly, which makes it howl in surprise. It clearly didn’t expect me to be so strong. When it tries to swipe at me with a claw, I use one of mine to bat it away, and then kick out again to send it to the ground. Its impact wrecks another building and sends several teetering on the edge into rubble. But the dragon just gets up and roars, more pissed than ever. “Rawr.” I taunt. “What’s wrong buddy - never fought a Digimon before? Have I got some surprises for you.” It kindly replies with a section of wall it picks and tosses up. I dodge out of the way, and then avoid a second before flames consume me. I raise my arms to block my eyes and ride out the flamethrower. My armor through this warms up notably, but to my surprise, I hardly feel it beyond that. What should I thank; my Black Chrome Digizoid armor, my natural draconic traits, or Digimon durability? Either way, the purple flames burst apart when I sweep my arms out, and my foe’s expression is priceless. I smirk. “You’re fucked.” I laid a beatdown on the beast for several minutes after that. It’s tough scales and large size let it take quite a beating from me, but also left it open to almost all of my attacks. Nothing it did in return hit; I could see every claw swipe from miles away, and I’d already proven its flame ineffective. Didn’t stop it from trying twice more, but I ploughed through each time and kicked it in the jaw. Once, it managed to smack me with its tail, and I’ll admit he sent me flying. But it left no marks and my retaliation made me laugh. It’s not everyday you can replicate the Bowser fights from Super Mario 64. It wrecked more of the village however, which dampened my mood. I could only hope the villagers had all long fled from the area by now. With a stomp I slammed down on its muzzle, forcing it to bite its own tongue and sending the head flopping down like a ragdoll. Bruises were visible all over its body and rivers of blood were seeping from all the orifices of its head. In human terms I’d say it was looking at several broken bones, a concussion, severe internal bleeding, and perhaps a life with dentures. The dragon however, again, simply pushed itself back up and roared at me while staggering like a drunk. I shake my head. “What the hell is it going to take to keep you down?” I mutter angrily and cross my arms. “Even a mad dog would know better by this point than to keep fighting, so why…” The dragon roars, and flares its wings, preparing to no doubt scorch the entire road in flames. I pull the shield off from my back and hold it up, wanting to see how good it was this time. The fire parts around me with ease, and the force isn’t hard enough to push me back. I look up at the dragon, a taunt on my lips again, but it dies when I look into its eyes. This close I could make them out better, and I saw something my far off first observations had missed. They were empty as well as mad; whatever intelligence should have been behind them was clearly missing. An uneasy feeling grew in the pit of my stomach. When it stops blowing, it collapses and gulps for breath. Its wounds weren’t so easy to ignore anymore, even if he kept pushing on so much. I slowly replace my shield, and look around at the village. Only a few buildings remained from our fight and his earlier rampage. So much wanton destruction, but what did it mean after seeing his soul so clearly dead? “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” I talk to it, knowing it couldn’t understand me. “But your eyes are dead. Empty. Bereft of feelings save for some mad frenzy that lead you here.” I look back at him, solemn as I intone, “A frenzy I bet isn’t even yours.” The dragon, true to form, simply howls and claws its way drunkenly toward me in a charge. Up until now I’d been hitting him mostly with kicks and backhands, not wanting to kill needlessly. This time however, I raised one of my claws and channel an inner power into them. ”Dramon Killer.” I swing my arm down and three blades of energy cut through the air. They speed past his head, and neatly sever its left wing from his body. It howls in agony, stumbles, and comes crashing down a few feet from me. Blood begins to pool in the street as I look on. When it sees how close I am, it forgets about the pain and tries to snap its jaw around me. I let it, mostly, until when it tries to clench its jaw. Then I grab it and dislocate so hard that I see the scales pop and shred along its mouth. It lets out a noise more comparable to a mewling kitten and this time pushes away from me. “Whether or not you’re a mad dog - or a mindless puppet - it all ends the same way.” I declare. “You attacked this village and killed who knows how many. You die here, today, by my hand.” For a second I think I see something flicker back into its eyes. Maybe the injuries have finally broken through to the mind under all the fury and insanity. Maybe I was wrong about it being completely mindless; a suppressed mind could recover if given enough of a jolt I theorize. But that flicker fades, and it opens its flopping jaw wider and starts to gather more flames. It would probably kill itself just by doing so, since it could easily splash back over itself, but what did he care? It probably would bathe the entire area in fire too, completely destroying the village at last. ”Dramon Killer!” The fire flickers and dies, the dragon's eyes glazing over as death takes it. Like a falling tree it slowly tumbles, and when it crashes to the ground the head rolls away from the rest of the body, coming to a stop in front of me. I fight back the powerful urge to vomit. Having Digimon instincts help with that. Shaking my head, I close the eyelid closest to me so I don’t have to look at it anymore. “Find peace in the afterlife, brother.” I pray for my fallen kin. At the end of the day, we’re both dragons of a sort. That’s close enough to mourn his passing, especially if he’d not been in his right mind this entire time. Maybe I could keep it in mind that this was a mercy kill too, once I had time to really analyze my first day in the life of a Digimon. With the battle over, it was time to find a villager and hopefully endear myself to them for saving what I could. Slaying the dragon attacking them would hopefully stop any fright from my form for a while too. I tune an ear, trying to listen over the crackle of fire for any sounds out of place, when suddenly I hear a gasp when rubble shifts to my side. I look over and freeze in shock. Looking back, is a short, young male pony. Barely two feet tall at the tip of its head, his coat is a deep forest green with a faded grey mane full of ash. He was clearly hurt all over; cuts and blood coated his fur and one leg seemed to be too sensitive for him to put down directly. There was no horn on his head or wings on his back, but as I looked over his form more I could just about see something marking the sides of his hips. That alone told me enough about what he could be, as unbidden more memories surfaced to the forefront of my mind. Further driving me mad in trying to figure out just what the fuck was going on with me. “How the hell…?” I say, reaching forward toward the little pony. I stop when it, he, screams and runs away, shouting at the top of his lungs with words I don’t understand. This is too much; I have to get away. First I have amnesia, then I’m a Digimon, I fight off a freaking dragon, and now there’s another type of fucking cartoon character fleeing from me?! I kick on my jets and blast off into the sky, heading back into the woods as my breathing quickens. What the fuck was happening?! While direct knowledge of who I was eluded me, there were enough clues and hints in all the knowledge within me to point at certain facts. I was human, a guy, into girls, enjoyed television shows, books too, went through all the levels of school and college, had a job, etc. The key was finding the clues that pointed to these kind of things. I compared my mind to a computer earlier, but in this regard it was more akin to a book. There were pages that had more wear and tear to them; a feeling of being well worn and used in comparison to some others. It was no more apparent than between Human and Digimon data. The former had the most memories with fingerprints covering their surface, while the latter was cold, hard, and pristine. So it was from this that I knew I’d watched Digimon as a series when I was a kid, and even some time into my teenage years. Facts about BlackWarGreymon were dogeared pages, while say, Bearmon required hitting the index to find. I also had watched such shows as Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Dragonball Z by the same logic. Granted that wasn’t too accurate; It wasn’t as if I had a whole library of human history in my brain. But anything I had ever touched on during my life seemed to have all the facts filled in that were missing, and it was staggering to think over how much was skimmed by me and probably the rest of humanity. A few good fucking gigabytes I’d wager, with no jpegs or other media files involved. Thus we get to the point of my little freakout and subsequent flight from the village. It was less worn than most of my memories so it probably was more recent. But I still could recognize a My Little Pony character when I see one, since apparently I was something my memories called a ‘brony’. Amusing name really for a fan of the show. All told then that meant that my situation worked thusly: I awoke in the woods with no memory of myself, in the body of an iconic Digimon, slayed a real live dragon, and saved a village full of ponies from the series My Little Pony. That’s like, three crossovers all at once. Thinking about it still made me lightheaded. Trying to contemplate why this was happening made my head hurt so bad I could see spots. After setting down I’d found the nearest river and shed my armor to wash up. I hadn’t known it at the time but likely one reason the little stallion, colt more like, had fled was because I was drenched in blood. Cutting the dragon’s head off had sprayed the stuff all over the place and turned my black armor and skin into a gross, sticky mess. Since I didn’t think I’d need to find out my own twelve uses for the stuff I started scrubbing it off. My hands did most of the work alone, and some leaves worked decent enough as a towel to scrub the worst bits. Once I deemed myself clean enough, I stood there in the current and let it flow past around my waist. I was reviewing everything I knew about Digimon and My Little Pony personally, and looking to see if something jumped out as being the cause of my condition. Closest anything came to that was from season four, Digimon Frontier that is, with Koji’s brother, Koichi. But while I could hardly claim to know, I didn’t think I was some sort of near-death spirit, or that this form was borrowed from another being. The fact I was in the land of Equestria was the driving point behind that. Wouldn’t I be in the Digital World if I was like Koichi? What did My Little Pony have to do with all of this? As far as I knew, this world didn’t even have the levels of technology needed to form a digital counterpart. The sun began to set while I stood there ruminating on this strange adventure of mine. I hadn’t known it was this late, but then again, I didn’t know when I first woke up either. The sun’s position had not been on my mind. Then again, if Celestia moved the thing, perhaps it was high noon all day until the end. Something to see later when I had free time. I look down and see a few fish have gotten used to my standing still and were nipping at my hide. A flash of my hands and I snag two, before tossing them onto shore and grabbing another pair before they could move far away enough. Gotta love inhuman reflexes. I move out of the water and don my armor again so as to be equipped and then set about building a fire. I would camp out here for the night and go back tomorrow morning to see how the village was fairing. Even if they feared me I’ll still try to help; moving the corpse wouldn’t be easy and there was plenty of rubble to sift through. I’d show them I mean no harm, and from there figure out if it was just a regional thing or if that little colt really had been shouting in a different language. I could only hope there wasn’t a language barrier, since that would just makes things tedious. I wonder how fish cooked over an open fire tastes? “Ugh, I guess I better gut them…” In the morning, like planned, I slowly flew back toward the little village. The fish had been filling, if not a little more like sushi with how raw I’d left them. At least I knew that my digital composition would make any diseases moot just in case. There was no smoke rising into the air so that was good at least, but now there seemed to be patrols of flying pegasi. As I neared, I could see something glinting in the sunlight, but from afar it was hard to say what. Not wanting to scare them again, I set down a few yards out inside the woods and worked the rest of the way on foot. No doubt they heard my approach, but again nothing you can do when a giant lizard in thick trees. When I break through the treeline however, I could tell things were about to get serious. The village was full of soldiers decked in gold and dark blue armor. The patrols up above were pegasi in the same guards as the ones below, and as I emerged they all started shouting things. Nothing was said in english to my dissapointment. The golden guards seemed to pull back, taking many of the villagers with them, to safety. The dark blue guards moved forward to intercept me, all of them carrying spears or lighting horns if a unicorn. As I held up my hands to show I meant no harm, I spotted one very familiar colt being tugged along by a mare. He was pointing at me and shouting something, which made the mare even more terrified and had the nearby guards tensing. Shit, what did that mean? One guard in especially detailed armor stepped forward and pointed her horn at me. She barked a command, and again I couldn’t understand her. I think I got the gist however. “I mean you no harm.” I say, keeping my voice low and calm. “I’m the one who slayed the dragon yesterday. I saved this village.” They all exchanged looks of confusion, snapping back to attention when their leader ordered them to. She started talking to me, and by the hostile tone and her glowing horn I could guess things were only going downhill. “I can’t understand what you’re saying you know.” She stomps a hoof and keeps talking. My eyebrows furrow as something in her words feels oddly familiar. It all connects when she beckons one officer forward, who has a saddlebag full of rope that he begins to wind out. They were trying to arrest me! “Hold on a minute!” I shout, stepping closer against the spears rising and horns priming. “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing? I killed the fucking dragon - I can still see it from here even!” I point to the corpse, which indeed is still laying on the street it fell on. My words however seem to make the captain or whatever angry, as her expression darkens and she steps back. A shout sees all the unicorns firing off spells at me. I panic, covering my head and bracing for something like stunners or disarming techniques. What I get instead is several, comical pings as the spells reflect off my armor and fly back at the casters or into the air. In the shocked silence after that, I lower my arms and look around. One or two unicorns are knocked out, but the rest of the guards are all looking at me in shock, some even horror. The mare captain looks poleaxed, but shakes it off before I can do something. Another command has the guards raising their spears and that’s when I decide to react. ”Black Tornado!” A rapid spin of my body calls up a dark tornado of energy, battering the guards away and destroying all of their spears. The captain herself goes flying the farthest, having moved in closer than the rest, and as I slow I see her slide to a halt. Some of the pegasi still in the air shout in worry over their companions. I know however that they’re all just either knocked out or stunned. I barely put anything into that attack for just that reason. “Back off!” I order, glaring at the ponies still up. “I’m not some pushover - I’m not even here to fight you all dammit!” One brave fool decides to dive bomb me from behind, but I see his shadow and step aside at the last second as he crashes. I pick him up and make sure nothing’s broken, before tossing him onto another stallion nearby. “Fucking perfect…” Of course, with things already spiralling out of control, you just know it’s only going to keep rolling along. A powerful, bone rattling shout echoes over the village and sends many hooves over ears to block it out. For me it was just as bad; my hearing was likely stronger than theirs, and my helmet resonates with it enough to make my skull ache. I manage to keep from flinching or showing anything outward as I turn to find the source of the yell. Princess Luna, in all her glory, lands with a earth shaking boom about ten feet from me, decked in resplendent armor themed to the night. It wasn’t too unlike how Nightmare Moon’s armor looked; black instead of light blue, and the helmet was replaced with a sort of ‘battle’ tiara. She looks around at the fallen guards and shoots me a look of pure hatred. “!!!” She barks words at me in The Royal Canterlot Voice, actually pushing some of the ponies near her back and making me really want to find some earplugs. It’s like standing next to a massive speaker at a concert with horribly feedback screeching through it. Of course just like everyone else there’s a failure to communicate, and it has nothing to do with her yelling. “They started it.” I whine childishly, knowing there’s no point trying to argue. Luna’s face turns perplexed for a moment, before she snorts and paws the ground. “Oh, not you too…” I sigh. Indeed she ignites her horn and fires off a spell at me. I lift an arm to block it, but to my shock it actually lands and sticks where it strikes. Ice begins to blossom and spread over the gauntlet, until I raise my other arm and smash it off. Luna says something else, and then proceeds to fire several of the same, hah, ice blue spells at me. Some of them land at my feet and ensnare them, while others strikes my arms again. I smash and flail to keep the worst of it all from affecting me, but her rapid spellwork soon has me stiff as a statue under at least three feet of crystal clear ice. My eyes follow her as she turns away and begins looking at some of the unconscious guards. She obviously thinks I’m under lock and key now, but oh boy was she wrong. With a flex of my muscles, I brute force my way out of the ice in a shower of shards. I even roar to get her attention, which causes her to whirl and gape at my cold, but ice-free self. “That’s actually pretty good work.” I compliment her, casually brushing a pauldron off. “The fact the magic stuck to me must mean something too. I bet being an alicorn has perks when facing a Digimon.” My casual nonchalance only irks her greater than before. She fires up a massive spell that sends sparks shooting off the tip of her horn, and then blasts it toward me. I reply by catching it...somehow...in my hands. With her staring slackjawed at my move, I hastily look at how the hell I’m even doing this. A thin shell of energy seems to be resting over my palm, containing the spell without setting it off. Not wanting to push my astounding luck further, I chuck it off to the side, where it safely detonates on a poor tree. Correction, a poor ice sculpture; I have the feeling it’s been frozen down to a layer that it can no longer be called a tree. She was going to blast me with something like that?! “...You’re already pulling out the big guns, I can tell.” I deadpan. Facing her, I see another spell coming up on her horn and decide it’s time to get physical. I blast off with the help of my jets and soar up to her before her next incantation’s finished. She reels back, but I grab ahold of her horn and yank her head down into a rising knee. The impact shatters the tiara and I hear a few bones go crunch. Then, while still dazed from all of this, I toss her into a building, and she sails out the other end before impacting the far wall of another. “Have a taste of what I can dish out then!” I shout toward her. With my eyesight I can see her getting up and casting a green aura over her face. The blood from her mouth and nose remain, but she no longer resembles a Picasso piece. The act of doing so makes her scream in rage, and she flies into the air and charges another big spell. This one is red, and violent with its discharge. Thinking fast I pull back a hand and charge up a ball of energy over the tip of my metal claws. “Terra Destroyer!” It’s much smaller and compact than the normal form of my attack, and it zips up at ten times the speed because of this. Her spell flies directly into its path and explodes harmlessly in mid-air, but then she comes flying out of the cloud with hooves forward. Instead of dodging I pull a risky maneuver by waiting until she’s within reach. When she’s only a foot or so away, I turn to the side, grab her hind legs, and spin until I can swing her overhead and into the ground. Her body leaves a crater from the velocity she was going and more bones snap loudly along her legs and chest. I got the feeling her armor was now more hazardous than helpful. Princess Luna is wheezing weakly as I step back, giving her space to heal and regain her bearings. I might be willing to strike hard, but if I can still resolve this peacefully I’ll give it a chance. “Stand down, Princess Luna.” I order, voice stern. “I’m strong enough to face a dragon and wipe the floor with it. I’m certainly more than a match for you as well if this continues.” She says something, but the wheeze it comes out in muddles the context. I’m not sure if she’s cursing me or saying something agreeable. She tries to stand as well, but one leg looks to be bent wrong and she can’t put much weight onto it. Make that two, as she cries out and nearly breaks her front legs again from the effort. After a little more struggle I decide to show pity and reach down to lift her up. She protests yet calms when she realizes I’m not sinking my claws into her. I take that as a good sign. “See? I’m not the bad guy here Princess.” I say. “Let’s just take a deep breath and talk this out, alright?” Too late do I notice that the aura around her horn has darkened. Or that she’s gone eerily still in my grip. As I start to set her back down, the earth under me rumbles and blasts up in a pillar of rock. It smashes into my chestplate and knocks the wind out of me, sending me up into the air like a ragdoll and releasing Luna from my grip. The world spins around me for several seconds before I try stop, but by then she’s thrown another spell my way in the form of numerous floating pieces of rubble. Each blasts me higher into the air, knocking me akimbo again. I only stop at what must be eighty feet in the air because one fragment of wall slamming into my back. I shake my head, trying to focus, and see that there are several more rocks circling me. “Aw fu-!” She slams them all into me, cocooning my body in stone before it is shot down at critical velocity from above. Then she forces it to go even faster, and like a meteor I impact the ground somewhere within the forest. Dazed, bruised and ears ringing I stumble out of my shell while swiping wildly at the air around me. “Dammit! That fucking hurt!” I shout angrily, answered immediately by a haughty laugh as Luna flies in overhead. “Fuck you too then bitch! I tried for being nice - now I’m going to pound your damn ass into the next millennium!” Jets fired and I flew up to meet her. She was obviously healed now and raring to go another round with me. Well the jokes on her; This time I wasn’t going to let her heal. She’ll be black, blue and red all over once I get my claws on that skinny ass of hers! And to open up my next can of whoopass, I swipe the air and send three claws of energy at her. She dives out of the way, but my other hand comes up and swings out more. This catches her off-guard, and a blue magical shield comes up to block. My energy claws knock her back a little but the shield holds, until I come shoulder charging in and shatter it like sugar glass. Her hooves scramble and strike against my armor to no avail, before I headbutt her and backhand her down into the forest. She vanishes into the undergrowth but doesn’t remain there for long. Two enormous trees uproot in auras of blue magic before they swing at me like giant clubs. My claws slice them in half, but that gives her four instead of two to beat me up with. A Black Tornado turns them into sawdust when I recover. As the fight progresses, I find myself admitting that she was a more apt opponent than the first few blows led me to believe. While I was clearly more powerful physically, she had magic that could affect me and let her fight from long range. I wasn’t lacking in ranged attacks either, but her defenses were solid in holding most back. She was also much more quick and nimble in the sky than I thought; bobbing and weaving through whatever I didn’t simply flood the area with. But as the minutes passed the gap between us began to widen. Luna began resorting to more spells and shields as her stamina dropped, while I still felt fresh enough despite my few wounds to keep going full tilt. I also could tell that she was pulling on more and more of her power to fight me off, while I simply kept to the same pace I always had. Secretly I was amazed at how powerful this must make me compared to others in this world. If Princess Luna couldn’t keep up with me at this level, then honestly who could? But I’d also started to get a bad feeling about all of this; bad luck and poor first impressions could only explain so much about her actions while fighting me. A lot of the high end spells she was casting at me now were borderline cataclysmic in terms of might. The forest around us had been torn and shredded beyond recognition, as well as given the full elemental treatment of fire, water, ice, lightning and earth. The entire region was likely suffering from the backlash of our clach, and it honestly worried me how some of them had come close to striking the village still within viewing distance from us. It was like she didn’t care anymore about collateral damage, and I found myself actually having to take hits and deflect them with my shield to avoid the worst from reaching any possibly civilians. Speaking of, her latest spell was looking particularly nasty. Black lightning arched over her form as she built up a white ball of energy that it all condensed into. If I didn’t know better I’d swear it was some kind of...dark magic. The thought tickled a memory in my mind, which in turn led to another being nudged. I didn’t have the time to think about it however; pulling my shield off my back I hunker down to block it. If I moved there was every chance she’d hit the village at this angle, and this one looked to be the kind of thing you wreck a mountain with. Luna releases her spell with a roar of hatred and it lances forward faster than I can blink. When it hits my shield, I get sent back, way back, as it pushes and tries to pierce me. But even if her magic could affect me, it still was no match for the Black Chrome Digizoid of my armor, which doesn’t even conduct the black lightning through to the rest of me. As the spell begins to fizzle out, I realize I’m back on top of the village. Not a pony in sight; the guard had obviously evacuated everyone once the battle between me and their princess began. So at least I didn’t have to worry about blocking anymore then, which I sigh in relief over. Just then, Princess Luna comes flying over, panting and flapping her wings somewhat erratically. “That took a lot out of you, huh?” I ask, looking at the front of my shield. Not even a scorch mark, although it feels a bit hot to the touch. “All for nothing too it seems. You’re not going to win this one Princess Luna.” As I say her name, the memory that had tickled at my brain earlier finally comes back up. My eyes narrow as I think over what it contains, and then I come up with a way to test my theory. Aside from being a Virus type, there was another notable feature to being the counterpart of WarGreymon. While we too could draw on the energy of the world around us for attacks, my powers allowed me to tap into a second energy source. I have felt it lingering in the back of my mind, whispering, calling to me even. It wanted to be used while so much of it was in the air around me, and for the first time I decide to call on the darker aspect of my new form. Lifting a hand up, I turn it upside down and cup my claws a little as I begin to draw in this new energy. From the air, land, and everything besides me come thin wisps of black miasma. With how slow and careful I am, you can almost hear whispers coming from each strand, saying dark and terribly things just beyond being legible. It pools into the area above my hand, forming a dark orb of power that grows as I begin to mix it with the more natural energy I’ve been using. But I pay my charging attack little notice. My focus is instead on the Princess of Equestria ahead of me, and how my power is affecting her. Sure enough, after I begin to draw it in she squawks and drops, nearly falling out of the air. The thickest swaths of black miasma are pouring out of her toward me, and I can see distortions in the air as they pass parts of her body. Like a hazy mirage an image barely begins to overlap Luna’s where the darkness is thickest, the detail standing out enough for me to make them out. Black fur, light blue armor, pale starry mane, slit pupils. “...Or should I say, Nightmare Moon?” Princess Luna/Nightmare Moon hisses at me, an odd duality to her voice as the mirage of her inner self overlaps with the outer shell. So I wasn’t just in Equestra; I was about a thousand years too early to see the events of the show. Going by how the mare in front of me was acting, I’d say I’m close to the breaking point that leads to her being sealed away too. Just my luck to come across her and agitate the slumbering demon inside. No matter, this would still end in my favor. “Funny thing about BlackWarGreymon.” I comment, still building up my attack my blending the two energies over my hand. “We’re the exact same as a normal WarGreymon in terms of base stats. The data says then we should be evenly matched, but that’s not true at all. Kind of like how you and Princess Celestia - sisters, co-rulers - aren’t so evenly matched at all. A shame she couldn’t be here because I bet then I’d have a real challenge on my hand.” Luna, seemingly picking up on my taunt, tries to blast me with a beam of ice. I smack it aside with my free hand and continue my little lecture. “You see, I’m a Virus type, and that’s given me access to something very powerful. Dangerous, but powerful. Like my counterpart I can draw on the ambient energy of the planet around me, but on top of that...I can draw out another source of potent energy. Every living thing experiences it at one point or another in their life, and unlike some emotions, these can often cling to places long afterwards. Sometimes forever if heavy enough. “I’m talking, of course, of negative emotions. Fear, Anger, Hatred, Despair, Rage, Doubt, even Pride…” I chuckle, feeling that very emotion coming in hot and strong from her. “After all, if one is too prideful, they’ll often do terrible things as a result of it. For you though...ahh yes, I can sense the jealousy, the sadness emanating from your heart. So much anger and hatred for me too - not that I blame you completely. But you’ve let something very nasty spawn inside of you Luna, and while I’m not about to change the future if I can help it, I think defeating you will be okay. They’ll just have to wait a few more days at worst before your little temper tantrum kicks in for real.” Lifting my arm up over my head, I let the ball of compact energy I’ve been preparing begin to expand. It doubles, triples, quadruples in size within seconds, until I’m holding a miniature sun flecked with black streaks bigger than I am. Luna’s eyes comically widen to immense proportions as she takes in the sheer scale of my attack, before she charges a new attack to counter mine. I just laugh. “It won’t do you any good against this one. Terra Destroyer!” I announce, throwing it overhand at her. My attack sails over to her faster than she can prepare. Just before she’s obscured I can see the aura on her horn changing to a pure white, and then she’s to the far left of where she was. My ball of caustic negative and ambient energy sails past and plows itself into the ground, digging out a deep trench as it moves without slowing for a second. I feel a deep sorrow in my heart at the sight of such fertile land being ruined by my own hand, but take comfort that Luna herself had already damaged it greatly. Then, just as it starts to pass beyond the horizon, it detonates. The explosion that results from my attack obliterates everything within half a mile of the epicenter. The cloud of hot ash and lightning rises far above the lazy little clouds floating around, and the shockwave rocks even me when it finally gets back to our position. I hold my breath, stunned, and look over to Luna who is also looking as shocked as I am. I’d just done even more damage to the landscape than we had together over the whole course of the battle. “...You know, I might be willing to reconsider the whole ‘being arrested’ thing after doing that.” I point toward the mushroom cloud, voice deadpan. Princess Luna simply stares at me agog. Suddenly there’s a crackle of fire behi- I blank out for an indeterminate amount of time and regain my senses while in a hole about twenty feet deep and three feet wide. There are licks of flames all around me, trying to burn my flesh, but my hide and armor aren’t affected. I still pat myself down and try to stand up, only for a wave of fire to shoot down from the opening and turn my surroundings into a kiln. It’s all I can do to hold my arms up and crouch under my shield in the limited space I have. When it abates I can see parts of my armor are red from the heat, and not wanting to risk another flame bath I fly out of the hole to find the attacker. Oh, oh of course it’s her. Princess Celestia in all splendor is hovering right beside her little sister, looking down at me with the deepest look of anger and hatred she can muster. A glance at Luna tells me she’s managed to vanish the last traces of Nightmare Moon, and looks aptly weary and frightened while talking to Celestia in hurried whispers. It doesn’t take a computer brain like mine to know what’s going on; Little Lulu is lying through her teeth and painting me as the monster. Since I can’t even talk to them it means that there’s no getting out of this by talking to the more rational, demon-less, peaceful sister. Could I take on two alicorns at once? It would be a disadvantage in numbers, but aside from taking more hits I could probably...wait, what’s Celestia doing? Oh shit… From a saddle I hadn’t noticed, the elder sister begins to pull out six jewels, each of which begins to float in the air around her. Five of them are simply colored generic ones, similar to a Rupee from Legend of Zelda. The sixth however is a six pointed purple star, which takes its place overtop Celestia’s horn at the center of the formation. While fittingly freaking out and sweating bullets, I see her try to offer half of them over to Luna. Luna though flinches back, as if struck, and if it wasn’t for Celestia keeping her eyes firmly on me I’m sure she would have seen it too. The younger sister says something that seems to make Celestia, reluctantly, take them all herself, and she flies down to land daintily on the ground in front of me. Her muzzle moves and I can tell that she’s passing sentence on me. Dozens of scenarios and plans pass through my brain as I try to think of a way out of this, but then one thought in particular hangs over me. I might not remember who I was exactly, but someone out there did. I had a family back home, friends too, and the longer I stayed here the more they might think I’m dead. Through my alien anatomy and digital build, I remain fully aware of the panic attack gripping me as my breathing increases and my vision narrows. But then comes to the surface something else; I had held it back for so long now but no more. All the negativity swirling around me, flowing through me, began to rise in force as my own thoughts dipped into that realm. I was gripped with freezing Terror, heart wrenching Despair, and so…so much Rage. “I WILL NOT. BE. SEALED!” I roar, my power flooding out and whipping up the air around me. The ground trembles and cracks as I draw it in, an endless cycle that builds up rapidly until Celestia and Luna are being pushed back. “I HAVE DONE NO WRONG! I CAME HERE TO HELP, AND THIS IS THE REPAYMENT I RECEIVE? NO! I WOULD RATHER KILL YOU ALL THEN LOSE EVERYTHING!” My mind is at war with itself, but my course is set in. I raise my arms and begin preparing the largest, most destructive Terra Destroyer I can muster. It quickly blossoms past the size of my body, and starts reaching building height before Princess Celestia begins her own counterattack. The Elements of Harmony begin to swirl and glow around her wings, and her horn charges up with immense blinding power. Much like an episodes of Dragonball Z, we are clearly about to clash attacks. In seconds I’ve gathered all the negative energy I could and piled it into the ambient that makes up the core of my attack. Now as large as the dragon I slayed, it’s a boiling mass of orange and black that flares up along the surface like a miniature sun. “Embrace death in my dark star, Princess! Mega Destroyer!” I howl. I throw it at the solar royal and it carves a trench as it dips down toward her. Just after it blocks her from my sight, I see a rainbow of lights shine from the other side, and my attack halts. Seconds pass in agonizing wait as they duel it out. Would my attack win over the Elements? Or could they purify it of half its power and plow through toward me? It would seem it was Option C, as my own attack begins to fly back until I’m holding it with my hands again. Growling, snarling and cursing madly I push back, energy coursing over my arms as I try to keep it stable enough to push back. We seem evenly matched, with my death ball holding strong against the endless rainbow of the Elements. But I know I can win this; the Elements couldn’t keep going forever, or if not them than Celestia would surely faint from the strain. Then I could- An icy blast strikes my head and nearly blows my helmet off. Dazed, I turn to look where it came from, and see Princess Luna. Her look is vicious and the thing of nightmares, only growing as my horrible realization likely shows on my face. In the split second I’d taken to look at her, combined with the stun of the blow, I’d let my focus on the clash fade. With a high pitched keen my attack detonates, and I’m sent flying back on a river of colors that wrackes my entire body in pain. Shockingly however I’m still alive, and moving, so even as it washes over me I slowly push myself up. Princess Luna looks understandably horrified now herself. “I won’t...let you…!” I try to talk, but my tongue feels funny. I try to push myself up from where I’m kneeling, but my left foot isn’t responding. Looking down, I feel dread as my skin notable shifts from black to grey, the petrification taking hold at last after fighting my natural immunity to magic. “No! No no no no no! Nooooo!” Despite my screaming I know I can’t escape now. My armor isn’t activating my jets and over a quarter of me looks to be stone now. Again I’m taunted and mocked by Luna as she grins, and I send her the most hateful glare I can muster. “You’ve ruined any chance...any chance I had of returning home!” I growl. “I swear, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, I will make you pay! Do you hear me! I will-” The stone reaches my head, and it’s lights out.