Digital Harmony

by Zennistrad

Some Day You Might Use That Gun Again...

Once again, Vespimon had found herself sitting in front of the massive computer monitor in the center of Gennai’s former base. Her body trembled as she obsessively searched through the databases, hoping to seize any information that could prove her wrong.

It couldn’t be true. It had to be a mistake.

Yet the pain she saw in the dying digimon, imprisoned by Myotismon after forcibly taking over the base, was all too real. The Digital World, even as a world of computer data, existed just as much as a world of flesh and blood. And the more information she absorbed from the databases, the more it became clear. The connection to the planet Earth. The role that the human Digi-Destined played in protecting it. The way that both worlds seemed to be deeply intertwined with one another. But these answers only raised a further, even more disturbing question.

Why would Dragomon lie to me?

Vespimon stopped to ponder the answer. A multitude of possibilities came to her mind, and none of them were even remotely pleasant to think about.

But another thought soon came to her mind, of the world she had chosen to leave behind. A world that, at every turn, had refused to give her the respect she was due. A world that pushed her to the ground and trampled her. A world where she was a doormat for everyone else. Her hands clenched together tightly, fists shaking.

“No!” Vespimon slammed the keyboard, the monitor screen flickering and fizzling into static. “I don’t care! I don’t care if it’s real! I’ve come too far to turn back now! I’m going to make this world my own, and nobody’s going to stop me!”

———————

The television screen glowed with a brilliant light, and in an instant, the space in front of it that was once empty was now occupied by six humans, their digimon partners, and five ponies.

True to Izzy’s word, the surrounding environment was a desert, filled with sandy slopes and rocky crags that jutted sharply out of the ground. Large amounts of trash were scattered across the landscape in every direction, with barrels, crates, tires, abandoned furniture, and broken appliances liberally dotting the ground surrounding the T.V. monitor they had exited from. The sun was already nearing the edge of the western horizon, leaving the parched air with a noticeably cooler temperature as a shimmering red and gold blanketed the sky.

“Wait, why’s it evening all of a sudden?” said Rainbow Dash.

“We are in an entirely different world, Rainbow,” Hawkmon replied. “I would imagine the time difference would be noticeable, especially now that time itself passes differently here.”

“Well, I for one believe we have a much more pressing concern,” said Rarity, wrinkling her nose. “Just look at this mess! It’s a disaster! I’d thought we were traveling to a desert, not a garbage dump!”

“Hold that thought, Rarity,” said Cody. “Armadillomon, haven’t we been here before?”

“Ah’ve gotten a bit of deja vu mahself, now that you mention it.”

“Hey, look over there!” Yolei chimed in. “Isn’t that the village where we fought Starmon?”

Yolei pointed into the distance, towards a settlement of wooden houses and buildings, with a water tower standing prominently over the settlement. Even further beyond was a range of rolling hills, with rocky outcroppings sticking out of a dense forest. The heavily wooded sides of the mountains gave the entire range a darkened appearance.

“Hey, you’re right!” Davis added. “I wonder if we’ll get to see Deputymon, too?”

“Wait, who are you talking about?” said T.K.

“Oh, that’s right! You and Kari weren’t here last time,” said Davis. “We’ll have to introduce you to each other. I’m sure you’ll get along great now that Starmon’s not all crazy and brainwashed!”

Ken’s eyes stared straight ahead at the town, focused and unblinking. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” he retorted. “We don’t know what we’ll find out here. The enemy could be ready to attack us at any moment.”

“Gosh Ken, don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh?” said Wormmon. “I know you want to make everything better, but you shouldn’t push yourself too hard.”

“I gotta agree with Wormmon there, you’re being way too grim,” Veemon said. “Izzy didn’t even say there was a control spire here. We should be able to find that energy signature thing with no problem!”

“We can’t afford to let our guard down for even a moment,” said Ken. “Finding what we’re looking and stopping Vespimon is a matter of life and death.”

Without another word, Ken increased his pace, leaving the others behind as he strode right into the center of the town with his partner. Davis and T.K. exchanged an uneasy glance, before leading the rest of the group to follow.

———————

The center of the town showed absolutely no sign of activity. The windows were all shuttered, and the doors closed tightly. A dry breeze blew with a low whistle, carrying with it motes of digitized sand and dust.

As Ken walked further into the settlement, he approached the water tower, carefully placing his hand on its side. Wormmon looked up at him curiously.

“What are you doing, Ken?”

“I’d memorized the location of every control spire I’d created as the Digimon Emperor,” he replied. “There used to be one here, in this tower. But I don’t feel any dark energy coming from it now. They must have rebuilt the water tower without it.”

“Dark energy? I’m not sure what you mean...”

Ken sighed. “I used to be able to feel the darkness that radiated from the spires. That’s how I could tell where they were at all times. I don’t remember exactly how I created them, but I think that sensitivity to darkness was what allowed me to do it.”

“And you can still feel their presence even though you’re not the Digimon Emperor?”

“Not as much as I used to,” said Ken. “But now that Vespimon’s bringing them back, I... I’ve been feeling their presence in the Digital World more and more. If she was really born from my own psyche, then I’d be able to sense them as long as she can. We’re both two different parts of the same thing, after all.”

“Ken...” Wormmon looked up at him with wide eyes.

“Hey, Ken! Wait for us!” Davis’s voice suddenly called from afar

Ken turned around to see the others catching up to him. Leading the rest of the group, Davis ran up alongside Veemon to confront him.

“Come on man, you know you can’t just run ahead on your own like that,” said Davis. “We’re all in this together!”

Ken frowned. “I don’t see why I need you to hold me back, Davis. We came here to find something, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

“Well, that attitude isn’t going to help us find anything!” said Veemon. “We don’t even know what it is we’re looking for, and you think you can just go ahead and find it all on our own?”

“Alright, that’s enough.” Twilight stepped in between Davis and Ken, raising her hoof. “We don’t need any bickering right now. What we need is to find out what’s going on here and how we can track down this energy signature. For starters, have any of you noticed how empty this town seems to be?”

“Hey, you’re right,” said Kari. “I haven’t seen any other digimon since we arrived.”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure Starmon and Deputymon were the only ones here last time we came,” Yolei replied. “Maybe we should probably go ahead and look for them.”

Rainbow Dash let out a groan. “Ugh, boring! We spent like, half of the time in that pirate place searching an empty town! Why can’t we just get them to come to us?”

Yolei blinked. “What do you mean, Rainbow? How exactly would we do that?”

A grin crept its way across Rainbow’s face. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this!” Her wings flared, and in an instant she shot skywards, before hovering in place a comfortable distance above most of the town’s buildings and inhaling deeply.

“Hey, everyone! We’re here! Come out and meet us!” Rainbow shouted at the top of her lungs, the sound of her bellowing voice carrying for hundreds of feet in all directions. The others winced painfully at the volume, and as she descended back towards the ground, Rainbow was met with a series of confused and annoyed glares.

“Ah beg your pardon, Rainbow,” said Applejack, “but just what in the hay do you think you’re doing?”

“What? I was just trying to help!”

“Guys, look!” Cody called out and pointed to one of the myriad wooden buildings. One of the shuttered windows opened, and a Floramon peeked out. As the others turned to look, the digimon let out a startled cry and forcibly closed the window.

All around them, other digimon began peeking out of the surrounding houses, each showing similar startled reactions.

“Intruders!”

“We’re under attack!”

“Somebody call the sheriff!”

“What!?” Yolei exclaimed. “H-hold on a second! Rainbow, what did you do?”

“H-hey! Don’t look at me!” Rainbow replied. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Eep!” Kari suddenly let out a sharp cry, grabbing her backside with both hands. “Everyone, get down!”

“Justice Blast!”

A gunshot sounded after the attack call, echoing cacophonously in the desert air. As each member of the group dove to the ground, a massive bullet that was roughly the size of a football careened over each of their heads.

In the direction that the bullet came from was a digimon with a massive revolver for a torso, smoke wafting from its barrel. Beady yellow eyes were visible from beneath a massive ten-gallon hat that covered his entire face in shadow, and the rest of his body was dressed in cowboy gear, with shining spurs and a pair of smaller revolvers holstered at his sides.

“This town ain’t big enough for all of us, no sir, no way,” he spoke in a slow, mush-mouthed drawl.

A second digimon, standing beside him, stepped up and crossed an arm in his path, gesturing at him to stay back. His body was shaped like a silver star with stubby arms and legs, and a pair of eyes in the center.

“Whoa there, pardner. You ain’t forgotten about them already, have you? Them’s the Digi-Destined!”

Author's Note:

This one's yet another chapter that I had to split into multiple chapters for the purposes of pacing, and to make sure I didn't take too long to publish. Thankfully, this version managed to preserve all of the most important plot points.

The chapter title is also a bit of a sly reference, but you may have to Google it to find out what exactly it means. ;)

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Deputymon and Starmon? Well, the digidestined could use some extra fire power, just keep Deputymon away from the ponies.

Also, it looks like Vespimon moved straight from denial to anger, next up is bargining.

[Alondro]

I shall read this only if it includes Renamon and she has sexy times with Spike.

Zarbon? If you please.

Zarbon, "Mmmmmm!"

Thank you, Zarbon.

[Zennistrad]

8189862 i.imgur.com/ztdBN.gif

[Marwile]

I don't need Google to recognize Checkhov's Gun.

[zachary12]

nice work.

[Zennistrad]

8190226

Nope, not quite! Here's a hint: it's the origin of a phrase that pony fans might recognize as an episode title.

[Alondro]

8189991 Misson: Complete.

[FiredragonX]

I feel like Fluttershy reaction could been better but then again this is when the cracks are being to show so maybe the breakdown is going to come later.

[Zennistrad]

8202318 Not sure if that was a mistake or if it was an error in the Google Doc upload, but it should be fixed now.

[chrisharte97]

Nice chapter dude