Digital Harmony

by Zennistrad

Interlude 6: Magic

“I’m home!”

The door to the apartment loudly pushed open, and a young woman’s voice called in. Davis, shoveling a bowl of instant-ramen into his mouth with a pair of chopsticks, turned to the kitchen entrance to see his older sister stroll in, still wearing the reddish-brown uniform of a local fast-food chain.

“Mmmmph.” With a loud sluuuuuurp, Davis swallowed the last bite of noodles he’d taken. “Hey, Jun. How was work?”

Jun let out a sigh. “Awful. Someone threw up all over the bathroom and guess who had to clean it up?”

Davis winced. “Yikes. Sorry to hear about that. Look on the bright side, at least you’re making some money off it, right?”

“Barely,” Jun grumbled. “Where’s everyone else, anyway?”

“Dad’s still at work, Mom went out to the laundromat,” Davis replied. “And I think Twilight went out to go meet with Izzy about something. Apparently, they’re working on some big project they’re going to show us later.”

“Sounds pretty interesting,” Jun replied. “I’ll admit a lot of this Digital World stuff is over my head, though.”

Before Davis could reply, he was interrupted by a very loud scraping noise, as though something extremely heavy was being dragged across the floor. Sure enough, he turned to see Veemon pushing a precarious tower made from three separate kitchen chairs stacked on top of each other, positioning it in front of the cupboard.

“Veemon!” Jun cried out. “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

“Hey, watch your language!” said Veemon. “In case you’ve forgotten, there’s kids here!”

“Har har, you’re hilarious,” Davis huffed.

“Anyway, I was getting tired of having to ask for everyone’s help to reach all the things I wanted,” said Veemon. “That’s the problem with you humans, you always build everything too big! So I figured I’d improvise. I couldn’t find any Veemon-sized ladders, so I made one for myself!”

“Veemon, you’re being ridiculous!” said Jun. “Put those back where you found them!”

“Jeez, you sound like Davis’ mom. Just relax, I’ve got this.” Ignoring Jun’s continuing protests, Veemon climbed up haphazardly stacked chairs, and opened the cupboard door.

“Jackpot!” Veemon leaned forward, reaching towards a box of crackers. He grasped the box in his fingers, and stood up triumphantly. “Hah! And to think you were worried I would— whoa!”

The rickety tower of chairs began to wobble uncontrollably under the weight of its occupant. Veemon flailed his arms in place, struggling to maintain balance.

“Veemon!” Jun shouted. “Hold still, will you?” She rushed over to the side of the precariously-stacked chairs, reaching out with her arms towards Veemon.

“Wait! Don’t!”

CRASH!

With a cacophonous sound, the tower collapsed onto the ground, on top of both Jun and Veemon. The box of crackers Veemon held in his hands flew outward, flung across to the other end of the room.

Davis reflexively reached out to catch the box. Strangely, it almost seemed to respond in kind. Its trajectory abruptly changed, swerving sharply in midair, before landing perfectly in Davis’s grip.

“Huh,” said Davis. “That’s weird.” He turned towards his partner and his older sibling, who both lay in a heap beneath several chairs. “Are you guys okay?”

“Ugh...”

“See!?” said Jun. “What did I just tell you!?”

————————

By the time Izzy had dropped Twilight at the apartment, the sun had already begun to dip below the horizon. Davis and Veemon had seemed oddly quiet that night, and she couldn’t help but notice the odd look that Jun gave the both of them.

She finished her dinner, which Davis’ parents had made vegetarian out of courtesy, and went off to bed. It was not a very sophisticated bed by any means, just a patch of extra blankets laid out on the floor of Davis’s room, but it was more than comfortable enough to rest in, and she couldn’t help but be grateful that she had any place to stay at all.

She lay down on all fours atop the makeshift bed, horn glowing with a light spell as she flipped through the pages of a graduate-level astrophysics textbook that Izzy had lent to her, greedily devouring the contents within. The translation spell she’d used to decipher the Japanese characters was difficult to cast, especially given her weakened magic, but the depth of the knowledge she’d gained from it was well worth the exhaustion afterwards. She didn’t even notice the impossibly loud snoring coming from Davis just across the room.

As she turned to the twelfth chapter, she let out a yawn, her vision already becoming blurry with fatigue. Within minutes, she had fallen sound asleep.

————————

Twilight knew exactly what to expect when she opened her eyes again. The same apartment room that she had stayed in, greeted with the still novel, yet somehow already familiar faces of her friends from planet Earth. She did not expect to find herself standing in the center of the floor in the Books and Branches Library.

The sight was, of course, familiar to her. Yet there was a strange quality to it that she couldn’t quite describe. If she were to try, she would have said she felt... detached from it, somehow. Like she was there, and yet she wasn’t. And even that couldn’t accurately describe the way her perceptions of her longtime home had changed. All her mind could think of to describe what she saw were metaphors, and not a single one of them adequately captured the experience.

Standing on a ladder leading to the top of one of the many bookshelves was her friend and faithful companion, Spike, carefully placing a book in its correct, indexed location. Yet something about him was different as well. Apart from the unexplainable distance Twilight felt, she’d also noticed that Spike was ever-so-slightly taller. Most other ponies would have not even noticed it, but she had measured the purple dragon’s height every month of his life since he had first hatched. It had been almost two years since there had been any measurable change in his stature, not counting a freak incident involving dragon greed, yet he was nearly a full inch taller than he was the last time Twilight saw him.

Her attention as well as Spike’s were pulled away when a loud knock came on the door. Spike rolled his eyes. “Hey, can’t you read!? We’re closed!”

The knock continued, louder than before. Spike, grumbling, climbed down the ladder and marched to the door.

“Didn’t you hear me before? We’re closed!” he said, forcefully pushing the door open. “For crying out loud, it’s almost-”

“-sunset?” a gentle voice finished his sentence for him, with just a hint of playfulness to its tone. Spike found himself staring not at the eye-level of an ordinary pony, but at the white-colored forelegs of a much taller figure.

“Ack! Princess Celestia! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it! Please, come in!” Spike promptly put on a very twitchy-looking grin as he made an arm-sweeping gesture of welcome, showing the Princess of the Sun into the door. Twilight couldn’t help but giggle at Spike’s flustered behavior; in a lot of ways, it showed how much he took after her.

As Celestia carried herself into the center of the library, she took a quick glance around the room. “You've done a remarkable job taking care of this place all by yourself.”

“Thanks!” said Spike.

Celestia's face darkened as she looked downwards to meet Spike at eye level. “You mustn't work yourself too hard, Spike. I still worry about you. A dragon your age shouldn't need to be alone.“

She paused momentarily. Twilight had noticed that despite his enthusiasm, there was a vulnerability in Spike's eyes that he couldn't hide.

“My previous offer still stands, you know,” Celestia continued. “You’re free to come live with me any time you wish.”

Twilight body abruptly straightened. “Wait, what?”

Spike sighed. “Thanks, Princess. But... as much as I’d like to stay with you, I just can’t do it. This library isn’t just my home. It’s my responsibility. If Twilight were here, she...”

“S-Spike, what are you talking about?” Twilight stammered. “I am here! Didn’t you notice?”

Despite her best efforts, her words were met with silence. A single tear had begun to form in the corner of Spike’s eye. Princess Celestia gazed at him with pity in her eyes.

“Spike...”

“Shut up!” Spike blurted out. “I’m not crying!”

Twilight suddenly felt her stomach twist into a knot. She tried to call out her assistant's name once more, only for the sound to die the moment that she opened her mouth. As Celestia knelt down to hold the distraught young dragon in her embrace, a fog began to roll in, and Twilight’s senses became shrouded in darkness.

The last thing she saw before the library vanished was Spike sobbing into Celestia’s wing.

Author's Note:

This should be the last interlude for now. Next chapter we'll be getting right back into the main thrust of the action.

Comments

[the other sans]

Jun let out a sigh. “Awul. Someone threw up
Jeez, you sound like Davis’s mom
By the time Izzy had dropped Twilight returned at the apartment
which Davis’s parents had made

1. Awful.
2. Extra S at the end.*
3. Extra Returned. It's redundant since you already put Dropped earlier.
4. Extra S at the end.*

*Note: You don't need to put an S after the apostrophe if the word/name ended with an S originally.

Ooh, seems were having a case of Season 1 time skip happening but instead of Earth and the Digiworld, it's Equestria instead. Huh... now I can't remember how long Tai was returned originally for that brief moments... was it weeks? Now multiply that by the days everypony spent on Earth... it's been months!

[SuperPinkBrony12]

7952113 When Tai first came back to the human world in Adventure 01, he was only back on Earth for a few hours, but in the Digital World I believe at least two weeks had gone by since his disappearance.

[ponylover2]

Awesome chapter my friend and I can't wait for the next upload for this story I'll be waiting my friend and keep me posted on the story thanks

[the other sans]

7952214 Assuming around half a day went by for the main six translating into two weeks for Equestria then the very least they've been gone for about... three months? I can't remember how long they've been on Earth and my current estimates are very loose and forgiving.

[FiredragonX]

Daww!

[chrisharte97]

Nice chapter.