16- Echoes of the Past
The Fox and the Filly- Echoes of the Past
Back in the day, there was only just the three of us that had tamers. Guilmon was partnered with Buttercup, a farm mare who wanted to overcome the tensions that simmered in her family. Monodramon was partnered up with Sky Chaser, a flyer who was close friends with many pegasi and had a dream of joining the Wonderbolts. As for me, I was lucky to have Pearl be my partner. When I met her, she wanted to be a designer in fashion, but was scared of how others would see her designs and her work because she lived in a town full of commoners.
Not a few weeks after they realized that all three of them were tamers, we had to fight opponents that only we could face. Digimon of different sizes, forms and variations. However, it was as these battles were getting more frequent that we began to wonder what the reason for it was. We got our answer from a rookie digimon that crossed over to Equestria, but they were not looking for a fight. They were looking for refuge instead.
The rookie’s name was Terriermon, and he fled here because in the digital world, it was being conquered and taken over. We brought him back to Pearl’s home and learned that many other digimon had tried to come over too, but were defeated shortly afterwards. Those ones were the ones that we ourselves had mistaken for invaders, but we did not know at the time. As for the ones who were causing all the problems in the digital world, that was the handiwork of a specific group. One that was able to have an army of digimon at their disposal. Terriermon told us that the digimon he knew called them the Sinister Seven.
To us, they were the Seven Great Demon Lords. A group of seven demonic digimon that were based on the seven deadly sins that we know of back home. Lucemon, the paradise of loss and the sin of pride. Leviamon, the abyss of despair and the sin of envy. Daemon, the hellfire of chaos and the embodiment of wrath. Belphemon, the roar of awakening and the sin of sloth. Barbamon, the schemer of gold and the embodiment of greed. Laylamon, the goddess of darkness… or at least, that’s what she claimed, and sin of lust. With the final one being Beelzemon, the duelist of finality and gluttony’s personification.
When we all agreed to go to the digital world to put a stop to them, that was when we met the sovereigns. More specifically, Baihumon, the digimon sovereign that guards the west. He explained to us that the invasion of the demon lords was because of a declaration from Lucemon, saying that with the numerous changes that were happening out in the real world that the digital world itself required change in order to match it. It required balance to keep everything in order, and to do that, he intended to eliminate all groups of opposition and have everything be controlled by him and his closest allies.
However, even though we were able to defeat most of them… there was one out of all the demon lords that made the biggest impact. Even bigger than Lucemon himself. That was Barbamon. He might have been a schemer, but he had a plan in order to see Lucemon’s vision through to the end. In his madness and experimentation, he created a lethal weapon. One that could either be injected into a digimon’s code or be used as a chemical weapon that digimon would inhale. If a digimon was infected with it, there was little time to get rid of it and the digimon would go into a crazed state. Gaining power and strength, but at the cost of their sanity and becoming nothing more than mindless pawns.
The Barba Virus.
There was little that could be done in order to stop it from spreading and soon, the whole digital world was in a state of panic. This wasn’t just a virus that could simply just go away like the common cold, it was one that would cause a pandemic. We lost many friends in the digital world because of the damn thing and Terriermon lost his sister, Lopmon, because of it too. Even we had no idea what to do because of this.
However, in an unexpected turn of events… Beezlemon, who we once saw as our enemy, actually led us to Barbamon’s labstation and to where the virus was being produced. He turned his back on Barbamon and Lucemon because he believed that their ways were dishonorable. He may have been one that was gluttonous for power, but Beezlemon thought that the power should be earned through battle, not given to you through a vial.
Even though we were able to destroy the lab, Barbamon and his plan had a lasting impact. Not just us, but on the entire digital world. Even if it was years after the war was over. The reason being that, in pursuit of power and for results, he did something unthinkable.
He infected one of our own with the virus… and in doing so, created a monster.
In the present, Rena was with each one of the tamers and their partners as they all were sitting around the cutie map in Twilight’s castle. Leona and Spike were next to Rena and Sweetie Belle, while Twilight and Rainbow were on the opposite side of the table. The pegasus herself was still under the weather after having to drink an elixir to fight off and remove any poison that she might’ve inhaled earlier as Scootaloo and Monodramon were next to them. Lyall and Button were in the middle of the table facing the kitchen while Apple Bloom and Guilmon were on the opposite side.
Rena had spent the last hour explaining everything, but it was only around now that when she stopped talking, Guilmon was beginning to shiver and flinch. Putting his claws on his head as if he had just witnessed something horrifying. “N-n-no… S-s-stop…”
“Guilmon?” Apple Bloom spoke, trying to get closer to her partner. “Guilmon, what’s wrong-?”
On Leona’s end of the table, all she could do was stare at the fox digimon. Silent for a moment, but soon taking a chance to speak. “Was he the one who was infected?” Leona asked, a look of concern and pity on her face.
All Rena could do was softly nod, but before she could say anything else, they heard Guilmon stress out even more. “S-s-stop… Guilmon don’t want t-to turn into t-that thing,” he whimpered, tears running down his face as he held Apple Bloom closer to her. “G-guilmon don’t want to be a-angry and h-hurt anymon again!”
“Hurt anyone? Why would-” As Lyall tried to process everything, he realized what Guilmon was saying. His eyes widening as he looked towards Rena. “No… You don’t mean-?”
“Did he become Megidramon?” Leona decided to say for those who had not been present or alive yet at the time of the event. Unfortunately… doing so only just made things worse.
“NO!!! S-STOP!! G-GUILMON DON’T WANNA HURT ANYPONY AGAIN!! G-GUILMON SCARED!! S-SKY GOT HURT BECAUSE OF M-ME!!!” He screamed, terrified out of his mind as he continued to shake and holding onto Apple Bloom. The filly was doing her best in order to try and calm him down, but the rookie level digimon’s noise was doing little to help.
But it was as he was trying to calm down that Scootaloo soon asked something. “D-did he say Sky? What does my mom have anything to do with it?”
That was the one thing that Rena heard that she was scared to answer. But the fox digimon would feel worse if she didn’t tell her. “When Guilmon… lost control, one of the victims that was injured by his attacks was your mother. She might’ve recovered… but the damage that was done lasted much longer than that. On the surface, she was fine… but internally, it still hurt her.”
Now it was Twilight who was shocked by this as she realized what it meant. “N-no… you don’t mean…”
All Rena could do was nod as she looked at Scootaloo. “This is mostly a theory, but I think the damage Sky sustained on that day might have affected Scootaloo’s growth. Mainly… her wings.”
Leona clenched her paws, a mixture of anger and fear on her face. “Damn that Barbamon… Rena, do you mind if I explain something to them?”
“What is there to explain?” Monodramon then spoke up, “Barbamon is dead.”
“The nature of Guilmon’s existence of course, and the burden that his kind carry.” Leona pointed out.
“Do you really want Guilmon to be screaming off your head?” Sweetie Belle then asked the Coronamon, “My eardrums are sore and I’m in close proximity.”
“It's a much better alternative than all of you not knowing the powers lying within each of us don't you think? After all I would rather have all of you know beforehand to evacuate if a circumstance happens to me. Similar to what Guilmon suffered, for example.” Leona managed to say while suppressing her shuddering body as the thought of getting infected or worse to herself crossed her mind.
“Leona, this is much more difficult than that,” The Renamon explained to the Coronamon sitting next to her, “I was paying attention to Guilmon when we all met Scootaloo and Mono for the first time. Guilmon was refusing to look at Scootaloo. He can’t forgive himself for what he did.”
“I can tell, but if I can, I want to try and assuage his guilt even if its by an unnoticeable degree and I don't want the kid to blame Guilmon for the curse our forms bear. After all, imagine if you were turned into Kuzuhamon, I wouldn't want you or anyone else to suffer…” Leona tried to explain.
“Are you trying to ignore when we got our flanks kicked by Sangloupmon now?” Sweetie Belle then asked her, looking back to the Coronamon, “I know that you might have more knowledge than… well, pretty much everypony in this room. Even Twilight…”
“Hey!”
“She’s kind of right, you know,” Rainbow coughed.
“But I don’t think what you’ve said has really… well, helped,” Sweetie Belle spoke up, looking towards the nervous wreck of a digimon that was shivering by their spot. “If anything, it’s made him even more afraid.” This caused Leona to shrink in on herself a little. The filly’s words felt like a kick to the gut for her morale and self esteem as she looked at the filly.
“Do you have any real solutions to this then?” Button himself then asked, feeling the need to weigh in. “Because I can’t think of any.”
What happened next though was something that nobody in the room didn’t expect at all. Not even Rena or Leona anticipated this. The only real sign that something was going on was that Scootaloo was not in the spot that was right next to Monodramon. Instead, she trotted under the cutie map, reappearing next to Guilmon and throwing the digimon off guard when tapped him on the shoulder and hugged his claw.
“Hey big guy… I don’t think you would’ve ever thought that you would hear this from me but,” She then pulled her head in closer as she looked at him. “I-it’s not your fault. I… don’t care what you think, but I do know that this isn’t your fault. I forgive you.”
The floodgates inside Guilmon began to open almost instantly as the digimon immediately hugged the pegasus filly. Tears pouring out all over like two streams of water coming out of a hose. One of those streams hitting Leona on accident as Spike stepped away in order to get her a towel. Even Monodromon himself was honestly not expecting this outcome. If anything, he would’ve thought that she would not have forgiven him so easily. “Well, that escalated quickly.”
“Y-yeah,” Rainbow herself now stuttered. Most of this conversation had the pegasus learn that Rena was not quite the only digimon of Equestria, Scootaloo had a partner of her own and learning that there was a world within the freaking world they lived in. But even after all of that and what she just learned about Scootaloo, this was what caught her off guard the most as she watched both the pegasus filly and her friend lead Guilmon off to the kitchen to comfort him and away from the cutie map, “I-i mean… a lot of this has been eye opening, but I did not see that coming.”
“Well, all I feel right now is soaked and out-dated… or in pony terms, ‘old’...” Leona sulked. “Life experience doesn't seem to mean anything anymore the second you travel to another dimension-” Her partner Spike came back a few moments later and placed a towel on her shoulders as he looked back at her.
“Not exactly Leona,” Twilight soon spoke up, “Maybe you can still use it.”
“What do you mean?” Leona asked, doing her best to not set the towel that was being used to dry her off on fire. Of course, it was after she was dried off and when Spike was beginning to clean the mess on the floor that the alicorn spoke up again.
“Well, Rena might have shared what has happened in the past, but with the fact that Scootaloo’s encounter earlier, what you know can help us develop a plan now to prepare in case something like this happens again. Besides, aside from Spike and the rest of the tamers here, there is little that we know about digimon and little that we can do in the instance that another attack happens.”
For a moment, Leona just stared. Puzzled by the massive explanation that the alicorn gave her. But not until Rena added something to it. “She means that you can still tell us about it to prepare for whatever might come next.”
“Heh, never thought of you as a Twilight translator, sis,” Lyall snickered.
That sly comment did not really sit well with Rena. If anything, it gave her all the more reason to have Leona listen to her. “You can also kick Lyall wherever you like.”
“Wait, wha-?”
“No going back on that promise!” Leona stated, the urge to take every opportunity to torment Lyall engraved into her after all their banter since she had arrived in this world. Just because she was older doesn't mean she had to be mature after all. “So what does everyone want to know? Aside from the fact all ponies should run from any unknown digimon for self preservation reasons, carbon based life forms are very… fragile lets say.”
“Well, maybe explaining what you were trying to mention earlier?” Twilight suggested.
“Which part? I mentioned quite a few things, some of which I probably should ask permission before revealing now that I think of it.” Leona replied sheepishly as she glanced at the other digimon in the room, except for Lyall. She didnt care if he gave consent to his secrets being revealed or not.
“Well, you mentioned that some digimon had… I think you called it a burden?”
“Ah yes… well first let me ask has anyone explained what digimon are made of to you? It’s best to start this explanation there.” Leona said, sitting up straight and getting unusually serious as she put her paw on the crystalline table.
“Well, that’s what confuses me… part of me thinks that it’s just data and information, but I also think it’s different because when you’re injured, the wounds look rather real,” The alicorn admitted, all while Button himself now decided to join Scootaloo and Apple Bloom in the kitchen with Guilmon. “Sweetie Belle told me of Rena’s condition when she got hurt, so that’s how I know the second part.”
“Well, let me ask you this in return. If a page in your book gets ripped, does it affect what's written in it?” Leona asked. The question had the princess of friendship ponder it for a minute, but before she could reply, the Coronamon beat her to it. “Yes we are made up of data, but the forms we are taking here in front of you are little more than solid illusions that we use to be able to interact. And like with a book, the data composing our existence and our physical forms are connected, but not defined by the state of the other. Though, destroying our physical forms would still kill us in a way similar to burning a book erases what's written within it.”
Twilight’s eyes widened, almost looking like she was in shell shock the moment that she heard the words ‘burning a book’. Of course, that did not last long as Spike walked over and snapped his claws. Waking her up from the trance as the dragon looked back at his partner. “Good one with the book analogies. Though, stay clear of anything involving burning… she was scared to have me burn scrolls to Celestia before she learned that it doesn’t actually destroy anything.”
“Noted, but that won't stop me from getting my point across. She wanted the knowledge, and i'm going to give it to her straight. After all, we don't have time for me to figure out alternative explanations.” Leona said with a shrug.
“Never said that you had too. Keep going.” Spike smirked, before looking back at Twilight as she seemed to get herself refocused.
“So now that you know the base of a digimon’s existence, you should also know this. Unless certain circumstances take place, we can never die permanently,” Leona said as she continued, although she winced and shuddered a bit at this part. “But whether we retain our sense of self or memories in the process is a pure game of chance, where the odds are never in your favor.”
Hearing that made Twilight gulp for a moment, the possibility of dying or coming back without having any memories made her shiver. But her curiosity led to her wanting to know more. “W-what is something like that called?”
“This is a bit comedic, morbidly so, but many of us refer to this as ‘getting egged’, though some may think of it as reincarnation.” Leona said with a lopsided smile. “I will say this from experience, it's not fun.”
“It’s probably called that because when a digimon dies and comes back, it reverts to an egg state-” Monodromon paused at that, before looking back at Leona with a look of shock on his face. “Wait… you died before?!”
“I think I'll just go join up with the girls.” Sweetie Belle now said, leaving Rena’s side and joining up with her friends and Guilmon in the kitchen and dining area.
“Yep, just ask Rena,” she said, pointing behind at Rena as she continued to explain. “After being defeated back in my old world, which was followed by said world’s death, the next thing I know, I am waking up in this one face to face with the cute girl and wondering where I am after snapping out of the shock of the experience. I honestly thought I was hallucinating since the pain of being ripped from existence by Millenniummon had vanished in the process.”
“Part of me thinks the cute part was added on purpose-” Lyall first said, but a glare from Rena shut him up before he could continue. “Shutting up now.”
“Thank you,” Rena sighed. “Now, as you were saying Leona.”
“I actually am wondering if I should let Twilight calm down first… if she is anything like mine was before that world ended, then she might try dissecting me to figure out how I am still me.” Leona said, feeling a bit wary.
For a moment, Twilight was silent. It looked like she was either drifting off into space or she was still trying to process the massive info dump that Leona hit her with. After what felt like two minutes, she blinked and shook her head. Regaining her focus as she looked back at Leona. “I would ask how… but honestly, I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. No dissecting necessary.”
“That… is a bigger relief than you think,” Leona said, no longer on edge as she let out a sigh of relief. “Now where was I?”
“You were on the part that you first arrived here I think,” Monodromon answered her question. “You know, before Rena gave Lyall a death stare.”
“I think it’s her version of Fluttershy’s stare, but to each their own.” Rainbow Dash added, now feeling a bit better and no longer having to worry about poison slowly draining her life away.
“Ah, right. So now that we got the traumatizing part of being a digimon out of the way, let's start explaining the fun subject that is the burden of our existence,” Leona said while recomposing herself and then looking at the table. “Do you mind if I borrow you power? It's better if I show them this next part.”
“You mean you need me to cast a spell?” Twilight asked, tilting her head in confusion.
“I’m talking to your table, Twilight. Remember, information based lifeform?” Leona said with a smirk.
That just had Twilight, Spike and Rainbow look at each other with a rather puzzled look, before looking back at Leona. “Leona, I think the table only works because of the Tree of Harmony. We don’t-”
Administrative access required. Please put in access key.
The message was seen floating above the table, followed by what looked like a set of holographic keys. Something that started both the ponies and the dragon, but made Leona smirk as she looked at what was in front of her and cracked her knuckles.
“Well then, either I find this Admin or I manage to crack the password.. Challenge accepted!” Leona said, as she approached the table.
One hour later
Leona’s eye twitched as she tried another password, having failed to get any information as to who the admin was, only to get another incorrect password notification. “That's it! I give up, this table is starting to be a-” She grumbled in frustration moments later, cutting herself off at the last second since there were still children in the room. Although, in her personal opinion, everyone but Rena was a child.
Speaking of Rena, the Renamon soon decided to take a turn as she looked back at the terminal. “Hmm… Are you who I think you might be?” She pondered, before typing in a string of numbers.
382594
“What are you talking about, Rena? And is there any meaning to those numbers you put in?” Leona asked, burnt out and sprawled over her chair. Of course, what she did not expect was for those numbers to shift and form a name.
NEO
“There was one being that we met in the digital world that wasn’t a digimon, but was seen as an important link by Baihumon and the Sovereigns because they were a record keeper of all events that happened in both the past and present. The numbers I put were another way of inputting their name,” she replied. “They also liked to mess with us when it came to figuring out passwords on doors.”
“I… see.” Leona said with a visible twitch. “Things sure are different between alternate worlds it seems.” she then muttered to herself, wondering if she could get away with finding out more about this guy from the sovereigns, before beating them up of course. Messing with people was her gig, and she felt like they were stepping onto her turf with Rena’s comment.
After a few more clicks, an orb of blue light was seen on the table as Rena slid the holographic keyboard away. “Alright, it’s all yours now Leona. Use what I brought up and mold it to your heart's content.”
“Alright.” Leona said before hopping up onto the table. “So, I personally don't like the cumbersomeness of controls, thus I am going to edit it directly. May the other digimon in the room shield the organic’s eyes please?”
“Can’t you just check to see if it’s set on inverted controls?” Monodromon asked.
“To lazy.” Leona admitted honestly, before shouting. “Digitize!” The single line had Rena, Lyall and Monodromon look away as Twilight and Spike closed her eyes. Yet, the only one who this did not apply too was Rainbow, who fainted shortly afterwards.
“I warned her…” Text that felt like it was sighing lit up over the table as the light in the room seemed to dim a bit. “Anyway, everyone should probably gather around, I am not explaining this twice. It's very stuffy in here.”
“I think we’re all here at the moment,” Twilight then spoke up. “Well, except for Rainbow. Spike’s getting her a pillow for her head.”
“I think that the CMC should be here for this also, I rather have as many people know for their safety as possible.” another set of text scrawled out.
“Hold that thought.” They heard Spike say as she set the pillow under Rainbow’s head before going over and calling them over. Even Guilmon joined them too, but he seemed more focused on something else.
“Hunh… where did Leonamon go?”
“In the table, big guy.” the lights in the room dimmed further as the table started to glow like a projector. “Now that everyone is here, get comfortable because this may take a while-”
“Ah! Apple Bloom-mon, quick! Leonamon is trapped in the table!! Guilmon must free her!!”
All Lyall could do was facepaw himself, followed by Rena doing the same thing shortly afterwards as the filly tried to restrain Guilmon from doing anything crazy.
“I would say that I saw this coming, but then that would make me a jerk for assuming that this Guilmon has the same IQ as the rest.” Text followed by the image of Leona facepalming lit up the table again as multiple loading bars began to pop up. “Rena, let me know when everyone is situated.” Following that final message, even MORE loading bars flooded the space over the table.
“Everypony’s good right now.” She said, giving the table a thumbs up, “Though, we might want to do this quick. I’m not sure how long the girls could keep Guilmon restrained.”
“This should help with that then, for now,” A final message popped up as the entire room seemed to dim like a movie theater as the loading bars were replaced with a fake movie production logo now that Leona finished her setup.
As soon as the logo faded a model of primary village, the birthplace of many digimon, formed over the table. Giving everyone a full view of what Leona was showing them. “Not counting the first generation, every digimon is born from an egg. This here is a location in the digital world called primary village, which is where digimon are usually born.” the view then zoomed in onto a cluster of eggs, one of which proceeded to hatch into a small red blob with large black eyes and bat-wing like ears. “I am going to be using Guilmon’s family line for this presentation since its the easiest for all of you to relate to.”
“But Guilmon have no family before Buttercup…” Guilmon muttered to himself.
“On that note, someone gets him a nickname, it's too easy to get us digimon confused with each other as it is, having the same name as someone else of the same species with the same appearance is just going to get annoying.”
“You know… we could always call him Steve until he chooses a name-” The sentence from Lyall was cut shot by the paw smack he received across the face from Rena as he looked back to her. “W-what the hell, Rena?”
“I rather not have you give Guilmon the same name that we gave our last puppy.”
“Aaanyway… So this little red blob that came out of the digiegg is known as Jyarimon. It's the infant or fresh stage of the Guilmon family.” the screen then shifts to a fast forwarded process of time passing and the baby digimon moving around with the sub text ‘events in this display may leave out details for the sake of time.’ till it returned to normal. “Now, before anyone starts to Coo or anything do know that even newborn digimon can melt off the face of any organic should they feel threatened.”
“How though? It looks just as adorable as the cake twins?” Spike then asked
There was a moment of silence, before a piece of text now hovered over by where Rena was sitting, along with two buttons. “Parental consent required for the following imagery: Y/N?”
“Request denied.” Rena said plainly, pressing the second option.
“Understood. Eventually, through luck or care a fresh digimon will reach the point where it has gathered enough energy to solidify its existence and Digivolve into a toddler or In-Training stage. Here, this Jyarimon will now digivolve into Gigimon.” It then showed the baby digimon be consumed in a bright light as its skin dissolves to reveal a hollow 3D grid that morphs and regrows the layer of skin and finally stopping once it's in the form of a slightly darker red ball with four legs, a tail and larger ears similar to the last ones but with black tips as its eyes became yellow and more defined rather than just a pair of dots. Moments later the Gigimon opened its mouth cutely and smiled at the audience as it wagged its tail.
“Still looks too cute and harmless.” Spike said, which was followed by a chorus of ‘D’aww’ from most of the Equestrians in the room.
“For the sake of self preservation, this excerpt of trivia has been prepared.” An image of a small pink creature similar in shape to a christmas tree angel with a heart on its chest and large blue eyes appeared on the screen. “This is a Digimon known as MarineAngemon. To the non digimon viewers of this program, please try and guess the details of this monster, you are permitted to ask the digimon in the audience for help.”
“When did this become ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’?” Monodramon asked himself.
“Um… Its wings?” Scootaloo asked.
“The collar on its neck?” Sweetie Belle then added on.
“Maybe the heart on its chest?” Apple Bloom took her turn to speak.
“All of the above?” That had everyone look towards Button, who just shrugged as he was drinking out of apple juice box with a straw, “What? It’s an option right?”
“Any other attempts? Remember, asking the digimon in the audience for help is allo- very much recommended.”
That was followed by Spike looking over to where Rena was, before she whispered a few things to him. That was followed by the dragon giving what almost would be considered as the textbook definition of the digimon on screen. “It’s a Mega level digimon that looks like a pixie. It stays away from violence, but has a move called Kahuna Waves that can make other digimon lose their fighting spirit,” That just had everyone in the room stare at Spike, including Twilight as the dragon sat on the table. “What? Did I forget something?”
“No, I just… I think we’re just surprised that you just did a Twilight right now.” Scootaloo blinked.
“Sounds like a better answer than what we could come up with honestly.” Button shrugged.
“The answer given is correct.” Suddenly the screen shifted to show a life sized replica of Twilight with the MarineAngemon floating next to her head to show how small it was along with the Gigimon from earlier next to her hoof, both representations of digimon were the size of the alicorn’s head. “A small tidbit that is not often mentioned though is that MarineAngemon can create tidal waves if it so wished despite its small size, so this should be a reminder that a digimon’s physical size has no relation to how much power it has.”
“That sounds like it can flood some parts of a city.” Lyall mentioned, scratching his chin with a paw as he pondered what Leona was saying..
“Yeah, about that…” Monodromon was going to continue, but a look from Rena had him let it go in an instant. “Nevermind. Go ahead and keep going.”
“Once a digimon reaches the In-Training stage it becomes capable of combat with other digimon, and will then slowly work to get stronger till it is able to digivolve once more into the child form for digimon known as Rookie.” the Gigimon next to the replica of Twilight then digivolved into an exact replica of Guilmon as the MarineAngemon model faded away. At this moment images of Rena, Monodramon and various other rookie level digimon appeared on the screen as well. “Here, the Gigimon has become a Guilmon and I have displayed various images of other rookie digimon alongside the size comparison models.”
“Who’s idea was it to give a dog boxing gloves?” Button asked, “That’s like giving a cat a pair of paw pads.”
“These guys look pretty cool,” Sweetie Belle added on, “Though, I wonder what the rabbit one next to Leona is.”
A piece of text that spelled out ‘Lunamon’ appeared under the bunny and under the one mistaken for leona the text ‘Coronamon’ appeared.
“Wait, so they were named after Princess Luna? How does that work?” Scootaloo herself now asked.
“Ah don’t think that’s intentional, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom told her, “Ah think that’s just an accident. The digital world probably have not heard of Princess Luna.”
“Random fun fact, Digimon species are named based on their appearance. Lunamon is named after the legend of the rabbit on the moon. The fact that ponies aren't mistaken for digimon as well could also be seen as an oddity though because of digimon like Unimon.” As this text appeared on the screen a replica of Unimon appeared next to the replica of Twilight. It was about the same size as Celestia and could almost be mistaken for an alicorn. Well, aside from the fact that, as the fillies said, looked a lot uglier in appearance.
“Leona, I think you’re rambling,” Rena interjected. “Can we go back to our regularly scheduled programming?”
The projections seemed to pause for a second before all the images of the various rookie Digimon faded away along with the model of Unimon. “Returning to topic, once we get to rookie this is when things start to get complicated. To start, there are 3 categories of digimon: Data, Virus and Vaccine. Details on these types can be asked about another time,” Moments later, the images of Renamon and Monodramon returned and over the two of them the text ‘Vaccine’ and ‘Data’ appeared accordingly. “All three digimon displayed are of a different category. Which means that, as you can guess, would mean Guilmon falls under the Virus category. It’s not easy to tell what category most digimon are, but for the Guilmon family it’s easy to tell due to the hazard symbol on their chest.”
“How come?” Twilight herself asked.
“The hazard sign on his chest is normally associated with objects or places that contain harmful toxic chemicals or materials back where we are from,” Rena decided to answer this one for Leona now, steering clear of any subject involving nuclear energy. The last thing that they need right now is having to explain that to her and have Twilight ask about what Chernobyl was. “Of course, that doesn’t exactly mean that Guilmon himself is toxic. If anything, it’s just a mark on his chest that kind of represents who he is. Like how ponykind has cutie marks.”
There was a pause from Leona, before she continued the presentation. Having an idea of what Rena was thinking about. “After rookie, there is the champion stage, which is essentially adulthood in digimon. But this is where the burden starts, for a combination of your personality, past actions and strength will affect a digimon’s evolution from this point forward.” Following this statement, a drawing of a line with each of guilmon’s previous forms connected to each other in procession by lines appeared before three new lines went from guilmon’s image to the image of what the model began to turn into and two alternate colored variants. And suddenly Twilight’s up until now life size replica began to shrink until she was to scale of the new digimon that was in guilmon’s place, which looked like a much larger and more aggressive version of guilmon but with horns and a white mane. “This is Growlmon, one of the Champion forms of Guilmon.”
“Oh my goodness.” Spike said, with most of the Equestrians saying similar sayings of shock and surprise. Of course… everyone except one.
“That looks so cool!!” The stray comment from Apple Bloom now attracted their attention now as the filly looked at her friends while sitting on Guilmon’s back. “What? Ah can’t be excited for my partner now?”
“Growlmon is capable of taking out entire buildings with its signature move Exhaust Flame.” Leona decided to add to the description.
“Ah… uh… guess that’s cool as long as we keep it under control-” Apple Bloom said, before turning to the table. “Uh girls… Is Twilight okay?”
Spike looked back, before letting out a groan. “Leona, I know that this is different, but anything involving burning would have Twilight act like that. She’s probably thinking of Ponyville being on fire right now.” He told her, with another snap of his claw to wake Twilight up and out of her daze.
“Fire is common in the digital world. I apologize beforehand, but it's going to come up a lot still.” The warning was the only one that Leona gave out before she continued. “After Champion we have the Ultimate stage… please do not misinterpret this as the strongest, it's a translation error that has stuck around ever since the beginning,” The image of Growlmon then changed to a more upright position as the tail became mechanical and various bits of armor appeared over the upper body making it look like a cyborg T-rex with arm blades. “This one is known as WarGrowlmon. And by war it means war war, the average WarGrowlmon are known for being fierce combatants and don't know much outside of battle. They are literal living weapons in a sense.”
“Holy-!” Spike gasped at that, “That looks like he can be as tall as Tirek!”
“It hasn't grown any since the champion form which was 9 meters tall...” Leona mentioned, followed by text that was followed by text that read ‘deadpan sighs’ floating up off of the table as she continued. Though, at the start of the next topic, the subject in question made Guilmon shiver. “Back on topic, this is the part where Guilmon’s greatest burden lies, Mega. There are two evolutions that he can obtain after his Ultimate form due to his immense power, one of which is capable of causing the digital world to literally collapse. It will not be shown due to the individual present having trauma with it. Instead its other Mega form will be displayed.” Moments later the models on the table vanished in a bright light that began to coalesce from the bottom up into the form of a white and red knight wielding a lance and shield, its long red cape flowing in a non existent wind behind it.
Something that made Leona’s own partner, along with the rest of the children, stare in awe. “So cool…”
“Requesting consent to show the Mega forms of Rena and Mono: Y/N?” A new pop up appears, you could almost taste the dissatisfaction from Leona seeing the kids all fawn over the displayed mega level digimon.
This time, the question got a different answer from Rena as she pressed the first button instead. “Go for it. Just… don’t do anything too crazy.”
As the text box faded, light coalesced once more to reveal the forms of two small humanoids that were to scale with the one already displayed. One of a blue being with grey armor and a cybernetic arm and the other of what looked like a black latex wearing shrine priestess in yellow fox armor and holding a staff as the names of the three mega’s appeared over the displayed digimon. ‘Gallantmon’, ‘Justimon’ and ‘Sakuyamon’
“Is that mine in the middle?” Scootaloo’s eyes widened, which was followed by seeing Monodromon nod his head. “Buck yeah!!! Mine looks awesome!!”
“Scootaloo!!”
“What!? Just look at him! He looks like a comic book character that came out of the pages to kick some flank!” The pegasus filly grinned, not even noticing the reason why Twilight called her out at all.
“Mine looks a bit neighponese… ish,” Sweetie Belle commented as she tilted her head. “Just how strong is Saku… ramemon?”
“Sakuyamon,” Rena had to correct for her. “And I am rather strong if I do say so myself. It’s just been a long time since I’ve changed into that form. Like thirty years long.”
“Be warned, young ones. Not just our personal status can affect our evolutions, but also your emotions can affect us…” Leona stated before having a shadow descend over the forms of the three mega evolutions. “It's your responsibility to control your emotions and help keep us from turning into true monsters.” after this the lights in the room returned to normal and the visual display from moments ago was nowhere to be seen.
That had the whole room go silent for about five minutes straight. The silence being broken by Lyall as he looked at everyone else. “Well, that got dark rather quickly.”
“That is ironic, coming from you, Mr. Digimon of light.” Leona said as she soon appeared in a flash of light from the table. “Man, it's stuffy in there. It's almost as if it was deliberately made smaller so that I could barely fit.”
Twilight herself, took a moment to process everything before blinking her eyes and shaking her head. “Well, that was rather eye opening. At least, we know about that now.”
Of course, just as the alicorn said that, they all could hear Rainbow Dash yawning for a moment as the pegasus slowly realized that she was lying on a pillow and looked up. “W-what happened? D-did I miss anything? Why am I on the floor?”
That just had Rena let out a sigh before looking back at her. “Sorry, Rainbow, but Leona made it very clear for you not to look at it… and she already said that she wasn’t going to do the whole thing twice.”
At first, Rainbow was going to say something, but then just let out a sigh as she groaned for a moment. “Well, I guess that since all you are done doing… whatever it was you’re doing, how about some ice cream? That’ll help get your mind off things right?”
“Sure thing!” Scootaloo proclaimed, with the girls nodding their heads shortly afterwards.
“Count me in!” Spike spoke up as well.
“I hope I don’t get a brain freeze this time…” Button mumbled. Lyall and Monodromon also had the chance to catch back up with their partners, but not before Leona was able to deliver a round of well deserved justice just below Lyall’s belt buckle. Which had him topple over in pain before Button called him back into his digivice.
As they all left, it only left Twilight with both Rena and Leona as she let out a deep breath. Even though she did not expect for Rainbow to do something like this, it did happen to give her an opportunity to ask a couple of questions without having to worry about the possibility of Apple Bloom’s partner freaking out. “Rena, mind if I ask you a couple of specific questions? They’re related to what you told everypony in the beginning when you were telling us about.”
“What kind of questions?”
“Well, Monodromon got me thinking on it after he mentioned how Barbamon is technically dead,” The alicorn explained, before asking something new, “What happened to the other demon lords?”
“Almost all of them were defeated in battle and had their code broken down into nothing more than bits of data,” The renamon recalled as she looked to the coronamon next to her, “However, there was one exception.”
“An exception?” She asked. “Who?”
“Beezlemon,” Rena answered for her. “The Sovereigns recognized his betrayal as honorable considering that he resisted his gluttonous temptations to do something that would utterly tear him apart. So, when the war was over, the Sovereigns allowed for him to face against Pearl and I in a duel and when we beat him, his data was reverted back into an egg and placed in the care of a village that Baihumon himself watched over. He only recalls a few memories and is right now in his rookie stage, Impmon.”
“Wait, do you mean that we have an Impmon running around and I never knew!?” Leona asked incredulously. “Thats a potential prank partner just waiting to be met!”
“The subject never really came up,” Rena reminded her. “But out of curiosity Twilight, why are you asking about the Demon Lords?”
“Well, if Barbamon’s gone, but the virus that he made is still causing problems, then who exactly is behind this?”
“Good question,” Leona said, visibly worried despite having been joking around moments before. “Hopefully we can find out before it's too late.”
All the fox digimon could do is let out a deep sigh as she looked back at the coronamon. “I hope so too.”
Meanwhile…
Right around now, Tsukaimon was losing his mind. Not only did he have to bear witness to the digimon that he served infect herself with the virus that Phantomon gave her, but now that she was defeated, he was the one that had to be the bearer of bad news to their boss. Who was not one to tolerate failure of any sorts. The last time that someone had to report a failure, Phantomon brought in a Devidramon that he referred to as ‘minion forty-three’ and blew him up in front of those to serve him just to show them what would happen if they failed him again.
As the rookie digimon returned to the reaper’s chambers, he was scared out of his mind. Thinking of what Phantomon would do to him the moment that he told his boss of their failure. But before he could calm himself down, the reaper digimon floated from his spot near the ceiling. Scythe on his shoulder as he looked at the rookie with his cold blue eyes. “So… you have returned,” The reaper turned its head and looked behind him, seeing no one else coming in before looking back at the rookie. “By yourself no less. Explain yourself then.”
Tsukaimon gulped, taking in a nervous breath before exhaling as he told him everything. The original plan that Witchmon had, the ambush, the moment that they realized that the one they were trying to kidnap was a tamer, the battle that ensued, Witchmon injecting the virus into herself and then her defeat shortly afterwards. The rookie was scared that telling him all of this was like forfeiting his life away. That he was to feel Phantomon’s scythe come down on him at any moment.
But nothing like that happened. It was weird… but after he was done telling everything, all his boss did was close his eyes and let out a sigh. “So she was not a waste of my time after all… Very well, you may go.”
That comment not only stunned Tsukaimon, but confused him too. Left him with a question that only Phantomon could possibly solve. “M-my lord…? I-is there something I’m not getting here? I-i just told you about how we failed-”
“No, you told me about how Witchmon failed. Even with the virus, it was only a mere sample of what I am working on. With enough time, I’ll be able to re-create what was taken from me.”
The rookie just looked back at the ultimate level digimon, puzzled out of his mind. “A-apologies, Lord Phantomon, but I don’t believe I follow…”
Phantomon just stopped, before asking a question, “Tsukaimon, right? Would you have happened to be told of the Equinox War? The one from thirty years ago?”
“Only the stories.” The rookie replied honestly.
“Did any of those stories include a demon lord named Barbamon?” The tone in Phantomon’s voice began to change, sounding more intense and rigid as he slowly turned around.
“Y-yeah. The stories said that he had a virus that made many digimon lose control and attack their own friends and family-”
“Of course they would say that,” Phantomon retorted. “But they’re wrong. I was the one that came up with the virus, but Barbamon stole my research, my notes, everything. He got the credit for something that was MY achievement!!” His scythe was soon slammed onto the ground, startling Tsukaimon as the reaper digimon continued. “Because of that bastard, all of my old notes and everything that he stole was burned to the ground by those damned tamers!! I had to start over from scratch… it has taken thirty years, but with what happened to Witchmon, I can see that my work has not been in vain.”
“M-my lord…” Tsukaimon swallowed the nervousness that build up in his throat as he tried to ask one last question. “W-what is your plan?”
Phantomon only had one answer. “In the years since the war, every digimon in the world has gone soft, including the ones that have tamers,” he explained. “They have forgotten the feeling of fear, anguish, and despair. They have forgotten the feeling of death. But once my research is complete… I’ll be able to requaint them with it personally.”
End Chapter 16
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nice work.
9817407
Thanks. Glad to hear it
About the darkness and while they can't show the mega form of Guilmon corrupted... They could show Skullgreymon as a example... If they want to make sure that the message is burn in the brain
9818926
I think the message has already been received at this point
9818941
Just to make sure and they don't think something could be 'cool'
9818960
I think discussing Growlmon got that point across
6898045
I shipped Renamon and Impmon. At least when I rewatched Tamers five years ago. They would have those midnight talks on the rooftops where she would tell him to stop being such a dick and he would tell her to live a little, let her hair down. I remember some of his comments to her being a little suggestive, or at least him calling her "Toots," showing that there was at least some interest. And Impmon went through an AMAZING character arc that really fleshed him out as a well-rounded character worthy of her affections.