When Twilight, her student and friends are sent to a mysterious world, they will need to time up with amazing creatures to very many worlds.
When Starlight Glimmer finds a mysterious item, it sends her, her teacher and her friends to a mysterious new world. Adrift in this new place and changed into something else entirely, the seven mares will need the help of this world residents to find a way home, and to save one of their own when she is taken by aggressive forces for a some purpose.
However, as the group travel this new world, they begin to unravel a mystery, one that if not stop could spell the end, not only to this world, but maybe Equrestia as well.
Digidestined of Harmony: Digital World Chaos: The Mysterious Object
Princess Twilight Sparkle was in her castle library organizing new books that had recently arrived when her student entered. Starlight Glimmer held a strange object in her magic as she approached her teacher.
“Hey, Twilight, do you know what this is?” Starlight asked curiously as she held the object in front of her.
Twilight looked up from the box of books and frown when she saw the black square-shape object. “I honestly don’t know.” Twilight said as she took the object from her student’s magical grip, “I found this when I first moved into my castle, but I couldn’t figure out what it does.”
Twilight took the object to a nearby table and placed the device on it. Starlight walked up to table as the young princess opened the device. She frowns when she saw the strange layout of the device.
“At first, I thought it was some kind of typewriter,” Twilight explained, “But as you can see, the keys are too small for ponies to use, and I don’t know what the top half does and there’s no place for ink and paper to go.”
Starlight looked at the device and frown as she tilted her head to the right. Something about the design struck a chord with her.
“You know, Twilight,” Starlight said, getting her teacher’s attention. “This reminds me of something a pony from my old village was trying to make when I first arrived.”
“Really, what was that pony trying to create?” Twilight asked, starting to get eager to hear more.
Starlight let out a faint sigh and looked back at the device. “The pony, a young stallion with a thing for tinkering, tried to create a typewriter that didn’t use ink or paper. And the prototype he had made was pretty impressive.”
“Did it work?” Twilight nearly shrieked with eagerness.
Starlight flinched from her mentor’s tone, and then sigh. She thought she would have gotten use to Twilight’s behavior by now, but she wasn’t and probably never will.
“No,” Starlight said solemnly. “I began my campaign to rid the town of cutie marks around the time he was finishing his prototype, and he fled before he could try it out. Thinking back, I think that stallion was the only pony that saw fault with my plans. I really wished I knew what became of him.”
Twilight watched as her student lightly ran a hoof along the edge of the device. She thought about saying something, but experience had taught her when to give somepony space, and this was one of those times. Instead, she turned her attention back to the mysterious device.
It felt like hours passed as the two ponies sat in silence and looked over the device they had found, but soon the silence was broken.
“So, you said you never figured out what this thing does, right?” Starlight asked curiously.
Twilight shook her head and took the device in her magic. “No, like I said, I found it when I first moved into the castle, and I never get the time to study it, but look at this.”
The young princess cast a spell on the device and Starlight gasp when glowing lines appeared on the device.
“This that what I think it is?” the unicorn asked breathlessly.
Twilight nodded and put the device on the table and looked at the lines appearing on the device. “Yeah, this device had a sort of lightening grid, similar to what is used in Cloudsdale,” the young princess said perplexingly.
“Hmm,” Starlight stared at the device. She had heard about the Cloudsdale grid and how it is still in the experimental stages. The grid is still considered to be too experimental for massive use, and only a few out-of-ways-towns like Ponyville were allowed to use it, to insure little no injury occurred or if something went wrong.
The young unicorn shook her head to clear it from all of these distracting thoughts and focused on the device before her. She studied the many keys on the bottom half of the device, and that’s when she saw it.
“Hey Twilight, look at the round button on the top left,” Starlight said and pointed to the mentioned button. “Doesn’t that look similar to the symbol of power used in many spells?”
Twilight looked at the button her student pointed to and it indeed looked like the mentioned symbol. That got her curious, and she looked around. Her face broke into a big smile when she saw the pointer she sometimes uses in her teaching and picked it up with her magic.
Starlight watches as her teacher lowers the pointer to the button and gently press it. The device came to life with a pleasing chime, and the screen lit up with the word DELL appearing on it. The two ponies were amazed and confused by what they saw, but both knew one thing…this required a little experimenting.
“We got the study this!!” Twilight shrieked giddily and caused Starlight to flinch slightly.
Starlight sighed quietly as she watched her teacher go into full-blown study/egghead mode as her friends called it, and flew around the room collecting things like paper, gills and about 16 bottles of ink. She came down next to her student in a landing that would have made Rainbow Dash proud and one which made Starlight jumped slightly.
“Twilight,” Starlight said once she had regained her composure. “I’m all for studying this thing, but didn’t you tell me you had things to do around Ponyville today?”
“It fine,” Twilight replied giddily, “This would be a quick study. We should be done in 20 minutes…”
(...3 hours later)
“I am so going to twisted Twilight’s tail into a knot so tight she wouldn’t be able to undo it for weeks!” said a fuming Rainbow Dash as she and her four best friends walked into the castle the young princess called home.
“My, don’t you think that’s a bit much, darling? Rarity asked in concern.
“Much?” Rainbow said relatively as she landed next to the white unicorn, “Twilight agreed to help finish the screening for the new Weather Crew member while Mayor Mare was at that thing in Canterlot and she didn’t show; I have a rep to protect now that I’m a WonderBolt!”
The group trotted down the halls and made a left heading towards the library where Twilight was no doubt in at the moment.
“Well, darling, you aren’t the only one slighted here,” Rarity replied. “Twilight agreed to help me finish an outfit for a very important client and she never showed. I, of course, get the outfit finish in time, but that’s beside the point.”
“Now, Ah’m sure Twi had her reasons,” Applejack said, stopping for a moment to fix the sack of apples and the thick bag of owl feed on back as they were close to slipping.
“I just hope that nothing bad happened to Twilight,” Fluttershy said in that usual quiet tone of hers.
“Oh, no worries, Fluttershy, Twilight is probably working on something that will send us on a crazy adventure where we team up these super-cute creatures that can turn into super-powerful fighting machines!” Pinkie Pie said in her usual chirpy tone and ended with some random sound effect.
The ponies stopped and looked at their friend as Pinkie made cricket sounds, but the group quickly regained their composure when Rainbow made her usual comment about Pinkie’s randomness, and they began trotting again. Soon the group arrived at the doors to the library and Applejack placed the bags next to the door as Rarity opened the doors. None of the expected to see both Twilight and Starlight hunched over some sort of glowing device. Around the unicorn and former unicorn were stakes of papers and empty ink bottles.
Applejack exchanges a worry look with Rarity who turns to Fluttershy who shook her head, and look at Rainbow Dash. The rookie WonderBolt just shrugged and looked at the last member of the group and gestured her to go and see what the fuss was all about. Pinkie just nodded and skipped over to the other members of their group, and tipped Twilight on the shoulder.
Startled, Twilight turned and looked right into the smiling of Pinkie Pie. “HI!” Pinkie said as the tops of her lungs.
Scared by the sudden action, Twilight screamed as the tops of her lungs and took off, flying higher than expected because of her wings. The young princess’s scream also startled Starlight and she teleported to the other side of the room. Pinkie found this entire thing funny and giggled heartedly as she waved up at Twilight.
“Pinkie, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked curiously as she lowered herself to the floor.
“Well, I saw Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy trotting over to your castle and I decided to come with them to do the usual “scold Twilight” party,” the pink party pony said in her usual rapid tone.
Twilight stared at her friend as she processed what Pinkie just said, and slowly looked at the rest of her friends. Her eyes than turned to the clock her friends had put in the library and her expression turned sheepish when she realized how late it was.
“I’m so sorry everypony, “Twilight said sheepishly.
“You better be!” Rainbow said rudely. “Do you know how lame it was, I hyped that you would show to help with the screening, and you were a no show! Where were you?”
“I think what Rainbow Dash is trying to say, darling,” Rarity said more politely after giving her brash friend a quick glare, “Is where kept you? It’s unlike you to miss appoints.”
“Actually, that’s sorta of my fault,” Starlight said as she trotted up to her teacher and gestured to the device on the table, “I found this while cleaning my room, and asked Twilight about it.”
The rest of the Mane 6/7 group gathered around the device and where both curious at what they saw.
“What the hay is this doodad?” Applejack asked, perplexed by the machine.
“We still don’t know,” Twilight said, “We don’t even know what to call it, but it can do a lot of things. It had something like an abacus on it, can take pictures, and do other things we’re only discovering.”
To prove her point, Twilight aimed the device at a random bookshelf, and pressed one of the many buttons on the device. The others gathered around as Twilight brought it closer.
“But how is that possible?” Starlight asked as she looked at the picture. “She was standing next to Rainbow Dash, so how did she get into the picture?”
Twilight sighed as she looked at the picture she had just taken, which had Pinkie Pie in it riding a unicycle while jogging several books. “It’s Pinkie, I learned not to question how she does things. You save yourself a lot of pain that way.”
“OOWW, what’s that?” Pinkie asked, suddenly appearing between the teacher and student and startling both.
Twilight sighed after she got over her “Pinkie” shock as she named it and looked at the icon on the top of the machines and frown when she saw it.
“That’s weird, I don’t remember seeing that there?” the young princess mused to herself, perplex by the icon’s sudden appearance. “I wonder what it does.”
The pink party pony then used the device without being told how it worked; moving the arrow icon to the mentioned icon, a dragon-like creature in front of a blue background, and click on it. The group gathered around as the icon filled the screen, only to go dark a second later.
“Oh my, do you think something wrong with it, dears?” Rarity asked the two ponies who has been studying the device.
“I can’t say Rarity,” Starlight said, “We’re still in the dark about all this device can do. We still don’t know how it does half the stuff we-WHAT GOING ON!!”
The entire group took two steps back when the screen on the device suddenly became filled with whitish blue squares, and then expanded passed the device itself. The group watched as the squares began to fill the room, both awe and little fearful as the squares overtook the entire room in the matter of seconds.
“Umm, Twilight, what’s going on now?” Rainbow Dash asked uncertainly.
“I really don’t know Rainbow,” Twilight replied nervously. “It’s like the device can create a field all of its own.”
Suddenly a powerful force came from the device pulling the seven ponies toward it. Twilight and her friends sensed danger and planted their feet on the ground, as the force from the device picked up volume and began pulling them toward it faster. Starlight wasn’t so lucky and was pulled to dangerously close to the device. She was saved by a quick lasso tether from Applejack.
The young unicorn was, however, close enough to the device that something black lashed out and wrapped around Starlight‘s left foreleg. This event was apparently so fast that no other pony saw it happen.
“STARLIGHT!! PUT UP A SHIELD!!” Twilight called to her student.
“I’M TRYING!!” Starlight screamed back. “BUT SOMETHING’S DRAINING MY MAGIC!!”
Twilight’s eyes widen and she tried to summon her magic, but she felt it drain from her horn quicker than she could build it up. She dared to look around her and was shocked by what she saw. Rainbow Dash was using her body to shield Fluttershy, and trying to use her wings to keep herself from slipping closer to the device. But even the strength the rookie Wonderbolt had built up in her wings didn’t seem to be enough to fight against this powerful force.
She looked at Applejack and Rarity and noticed something similar happening to her other friends. The farm pony had since grabbed the fashion designer and was holding her down while trying to keep her hold on her lasso. Much like Rainbow Dash, Applejack’s trademark strength was seemingly failing her as her strong legs couldn’t fight against the powerful pull, and she struggling to keep Starlight from the device. Even Pinkie, with her seemingly endless reality breaking powers, couldn’t fight against this force, as she tried thing from bouncing to cartwheeling, and it did nothing to put distance between her and the device.
What can I do to stop this?” Twilight asked herself.
Unfortunately, she didn’t get a chance to answer her own question as the group were very close to the device and a series of energy ropes snapped out from the device and wrapped around the ponies’ midsection. The group cry out as they felt their bodies being covered in energy. Once the energy had completely covered the group, they stopped struggling and were pulled into the device.
Once all the ponies had disappeared into the device, the squares that covered the room were quickly pulled away. The squares converged around the device and formed into a ball roughly half the size of a buck-ball. The ball remain on the desk for about five seconds before it pulse, and then began to rapidly compress into itself and finally disappear with a small pop, leaving room like nothing unusual had happened.
Digidestined of Harmony: Digital World Chaos: This Strange yet Familiar World
The digital world; a place of wonder and mystery, and once a place that some would call untamed beauty...expect if someone would to look from a bird’s eyes view, they wouldn’t see a glorious world, but seven misshapen continents, their data pouring from the edge of said continents.
A mysterious digimon, feature hidden due to the near darkness of the room he was in, sighed highly as he watched the digital world from a monitor.
“Datamon, report on the degeneration of the isles? The digimon said, his voice deep but formal.
A cylinder digimon with tube arms and legs entered into the only light source in the room, but the light wasn’t enough for someone to see the digimon’s full features.
“I am fear this update isn’t a bright one, LordDrakemon,” Datamon said depressingly. “At the rate of degradation, isle number 5 will completely degenerate in one-and-half earth year.”
LordDrakemon look at the screen in front of him, and with a wave of right hand, the screen zoomed in on the mentioned isle, which looked like a lopsided L. “Correct me if I am wrong, Datamon, but isn’t that the isle where the Valley of Beginning is located?” The mysterious digimon asked calmly.
Datamon sighed heavily as he looked at the screen, “Unfortunately, my lord, it is, and the process of trying to get the valley to relocate is going as you can imagine. Bunch of stubborn fools.”
Though Datamon whispered the last part under his breath, LordDrakemon still heard it and looked at the data digimon. While Datamon couldn’t see his master face, he knew that the mysterious digimon was glaring at him, and that caused him to flinch slightly.
“Show some respect, Datamon.” LordDrakemon said calmly, “The caretakers are just following years of traditions, and that should be respect instead of scorn.”
Datamon looked down at the floor, shamed that his master heard his scornfully remark. He quickly looks back up when LordDrakemon spoke again.
“Still, the Valley of Beginnings is important part of our world. We can’t let such a place vanish.” LordDrakemon look at Datamon and he flinch, “Send our best ambassadors to the Valley. We most convince them to re-”
The mysterious digimon was interrupted when a bang startled the two, though LordDrakemon kept his composure as he waved his hand. The screen he has been looking at instantly vanished and the entire room lit up, revealing a massive throne room.
The typical looking Datamon, with patches of exposed flash watched the interloper, a Gazimon with a crimson band over it right foreleg, ran frantically up to the two and then he looked at his master.
Nearly all of LordDrakemon is covered in a thick black robe, which is very plain, about the only thing on the robe is the gold chain near the neck line. The mysterious digimon’s head is the only thing not covered; LordDrakemon has a long, dragon-like beak, covered in a solid metal mouth plate. Strangely he has a third eye, right above his other two. Ever stranger is the digimon’s eyes; his right one is deep red and his left one is deep green and his third eye is a pale yellow with a slanted pupil. The only other thing that stands is LordDrakemon’s hair, which is a silver-gold color and styled in long spikes.
“How dare you, you lonely grunt,” Datamon shouted when his master was unresponsive. “Do you know what time is it?”
The Gazimon flinched at the data type digimon’s hush tone, and this caused Datamon to grin. He was about to tear into the lowly digimon again, when LordDrakemon spoke.
“Enough, Datamon. All digimon knew not to disturb me during my viewings, so this must be important,” the mysterious digimon said, scolding Datamon in a soft tone, and then address Gazimon. “So please, my faithful servant, speak.”
Gazimon gulp when his master spoke, feeling like he was being pulled down by some sort of invisible force, though that wasn’t anything new, but he still found himself unable to speak when in the presence of his mighty ruler. Thankfully, LordDrakemon was very patience, as it took the Gazimon nearly a minute to regain his composure.
“It seems, L-LordDrakemon, one y-your traps was recently activated,” Gazimon said nervously.
“Impossible,” Datamon snarled disbelievingly. “LordDrakemon sent those traps out eons ago! You can’t expect him to think that one of them had suddenly activated after all this time, you just-”
“Datamon,” LordDrakemon said calmly, though both servants heard that his voice had elevated just a hair, which meant he was reaching the limits of his patience with Datamon’s constant outbursts “I will tolerate your outbursts for so long in one day.”
The cyborg digimon turned and glared fiercely at his master, but the mysterious digimon didn’t notice, as he turned his attention to Gazimon.
“Is what you said true? Did one of my devices active?” the dragon face digimon asked politely, and Gazimon nodded slowly. “Tell me, from where was my device activated?”
“I think…from one of the worlds call Equestria?” Gazimon replied nervously.
“Interesting, tell me, did the other feature of my device also activate?” LordDrakemon asked politely, and Gazimon nodded. “This could very good news indeed. Tell me, my loyal servant, do you which landmass our guest is on?”
At this, the Gazimon become even more nervously, but he wasn’t going to skirt around the issue, not in front of his lord and master. “Unfortunately, my lord, the guests had arrived on isle 3.”
LordDrakemon’s brow wrinkled as his closed his eyes and lean into his throne. “This is a…disheartening development,” he whispered loud enough for his servants to hear, and open his eyes and look at Datamon. “Datamon, quickly contact the overseer of that isle and inform him of our new quests. You are both dismissed.”
Gazimon bow slightly before turning and hurrying out of throne room. Datamon, however, lingers for a few seconds, glaring at his master, before hurrying out of the room. If LordDrakemon notice his servant scornfully look, he didn’t seem to care as he wave his hand, and the room darken again as the holographic screen reappear.
The dragon-like digimon look at the image of isle three and could only wonder what the guests to his kingdom would have to endure.
(…)
Twilight groan heavily as she rolled onto her back, slowly opening her eyes to bright sunlight. She brought her leg up to block the rays, and froze when she saw the slender thing with what looked like claws on it. She turned it over a slightly and clumsily closed the claw like she had seen her Spike do dozen of times.
This at last confirms that the thing was part of her body, as she raise her other leg and stare at both. Her first thought was that she was dreaming, but the uncomfortable feeling going down her back put that thought to rest.
So, what happened? Twilight thought to herself as she used her strange limps to block the sun’s light from her eyes.
The young princess gasp as the memories came flooding back to her, and she roll over. She planned to get up and go looking for her friends, only to stop when she rolled onto stomach and press against that something that cause her to let out a sudden yelp.
Startled by this, Twilight subconsciously used her former front legs to push up. She cries out when she was suddenly rockets backwards and briefly see that her is taller than before. She let out another yelp as she fell onto her rear and once again use her alter legs to brace herself.
For nearly a minute Twilight just set there processing everything that just happened. Slowly her mind restarted and she looked down. There was something on her chest, and the objects on her chest were covered by some kind of fabric. She quickly realizes that her entire body was now cover in some of kind of outfit, and began to study it.
Twilight started at her back legs and saw that the there were covered in some kind of shoes of an unknown material. Much like her front legs, she could tell that something that had grown out from her back legs as she wiggled the grown items comfortably in her shoe. The shoes themselves were white with splashes of lavender on them.
Twilight next look at her legs and saw that they were covered in pair of pants, which made from denim if her remember her lessons with Rarity right, and dyed lavender. She also notice that the pants are tight on her legs but are quite comfortable. She couldn’t understand why she has a belt, the article of clothing was quite secure to her legs.
Finally-and with a heavy blush-Twilight look at her upper body. She is wearing a sleeveless lavender shirt that didn’t cover her smooth stomach and jacket made from nylon. The jacket is lavender like rest of her outfit, and has a gray rim at the bottom, gray cuffs at the end of the sleeves, and a gray section with a zipper that could be hidden because the front of the jacket could be buttoned up.
With her studies done, the young quickly looked away from her chest and studied the thing at the end of her legs. A sudden memory popped into her head, one where she was asking the minotaur ambassador about her body. The ambassador took it in good humor and answered all the questions the young princess threw at her.
“Arms, hands and fingers,” Twilight whispered to herself as she closed and opened her fingers to get a feel for them.
A sudden wind blew through Twilight’s hair and looked around. She knew she was no longer in her castle from the light shining down on her when she awoke, but what she saw shocked her. She is in some kind of field, with lush green grass and some trees nearby. She might had thought that she was in one of the open fields near the town, if it wasn’t for a tree that was on her right…it was made out of stone!
Twilight’s curiosity was peaked at seeing the oddity and knew she wanted study it, and began moving to get a closer look when-
“WHERE ARE MY WINGS!!!”
Twilight’s eye snapped open when she recognized Rainbow Dash’s voice. Without thinking, the young princess leaned forward, planting her hands onto the ground, and began galloping in the direction the scream came from. That quickly prove to a bad move; her longer back legs weren’t aligned with her shorter arms and it was chore to move without falling on her face. The ground was also more rough than she thought, the skin on her hands were quickly getting bruised.
Twilight stopped when something rub against her right hand and she pulled it away. She looked at her hand and sigh when she saw a small cut. The cut was nothing life-threatening, but she realize she couldn’t walk like she normally do and sigh again as she slowly pulls herself into an upright position.
The young princess took a moment to study herself and though it killed her, took a slower pace in the direction she heard the scream. She nearly fell several time due to a number of reasons, but she quickly adjusted to her new body somewhat and was able to pick up her pace a little.
It didn’t take her long to reach her friends, just a detour around a rather large stone tree, and her friends came into view, all awake and transformed like her, but otherwise unharmed. Twilight decided to hang back for a moment and study her friends.
She first looks at Rainbow Dash running around the area like a maniac, looking for her missing wings. Twilight notes that her speedster friend is wearing shoes like her own, jut cyan in color and little worn and bunch up socks. She wore a pair of black short with a cyan strap running down the right leg.
The young princess could feel her face heat up slightly when she notice her friend’s well developed legs, and quickly look up at her upper body. Rainbow wore a cyan shirt under her Wonderbots’ jacket. Finally, the young rookie has a cyan sweatband around her forehead.
Twilight noted that, outside of the jacket, her friend look like she was ready for a run, as she looked at the next girl, namely Fluttershy.
The shy pony was sitting with her knees to her chest and arms wrapped her legs as she stare blankly at the ground. The timed Pegasus’s outfit was simple; a fitting butter cream sweater that has a few tears in it, and a knee high skirt. The forest skirt was somewhat unusual with it’s vein-like patterns that spiral outwards as they went down.
The odd thing about the young animal caretaker is the small bandage on her right cheek. While the item was a little odd, Twilight noted, it seems to fit her as the young princess turn her attention to the pony-turned-whatever near Fluttershy, namely Rarity.
Rarity’s outfit, while plain in a lot of ways, still looked elegant at some level. She wore brown boots made of some unknown material that went up past the ankle and has a small heel on them. The white skirt with the purple diamonds pattern went down to the designer’s thighs and ends in pointed tips. The shirt, which was made from a fine white silk, hugs Rarity’s body comfortable and the sleeves are push up to her elbow.
Strangely, her sewing glasses hang off the neck of the designer’s shirt’s collar and a portable pin cushion is on her right wrist. Even stranger was the circle scar in the center of her forehead.
Twilight made note of her friend’s strange scar as she turn her eyes to Applejack. The farmer was sitting a few feet from Rarity and Fluttershy and calmly examining her altered form. The outfit she was wearing something one would expect from a farmer; a pair of worn denim overalls which has light dirty smudges on it, and a long, orange shirt under it and a pair working boot over the pants’ legs.
Applejack still had her hat but it has gain a string and is currently hanging loosely around her neck.
Twilight frown as she looked around; there’s some pony missing and the young princess was determined not to let said pony get the drop on her.
“Hi!” Pinkie exclaimed chirpily, suddenly appearing right in front of the young princess, “Whatcha you doing?”
Startled, Twilight cried out as she jumped into the air. She tried to use her wings to soften her fall, only to realize two late that she didn’t have her wings anymore and came down hard on her rear. The young princess moans as she rubs her butt. No matter the form, Pinkie is basically invisible when she wants to be.
Speaking of Pinkie pie…Twilight look up and study the outfit of the pink party planner. It was…unusual to say the least, the entire outfit was mismatch in some why.
While the boots are made out of the same material, the left boot want up to the knee and the right one barely want past her ankle, but there is a black sock with pink splashes that cover the rest of the distance. The skirt is also uneven, with the right side reach to the knee and the left barely reached to the thigh.
The skirt itself is white with spiral patterns of pink around it. Strangely, the left side is frilled and the right side is straight.
The shirt Pinkie is wearing is like the one Twilight’s wearing, sleeveless and with the stomach expose. Pinkie also is wearing a jacket, which is just as weird as the rest of her outfit. The jacket’s body is a bright blue and the sleeves are pink. The left sleeve reach slightly past Pinkie’s elbow and is so wide that the earth pony’s arm might have been swallowed by it if it wasn’t so short. The right sleeve is much shorter, barely reaching past the pink earth pony’s shoulder and cling tightly to her arm.
Finally, Pinkie were a light blue bandana sloppily tied around her forehead, and a small smudge of dried flour on her left cheek.
A familiar giggle brought Twilight out of “study” mode, and saw that Pinkie has her hand outstretched, obviously offering to help her up. “Silly Twilight,” The party planner said mirthfully, “You can’t fly like that?”
Twilight couldn’t help but smile sheepishly as she place her balled-up hand into Pinkie’s open palm. The former unicorn frown a bit as she awkwardly unrolled fingers so they fit into her friend’s hands. Pinkie just smiled as she helped her friend to her feet. She then dragged Twilight to the others, nearly causing the princess of friendship to lose her balance.
“Hey everypony, Twilight’s here!” Pinkie shouted at the tops of her lungs.
At the sound of Pinkie proclaim everyone turned their attention to their friend, and they were immediately on their feet, clumsily walking up the others and began questioning the studious pony.
“Where are my wings?”
“Sugar-cube, do you have any clue where we are?”
“W-What happened to us?”
“While I do fancy the outfit I have on, I would rather return to my natural beautiful body.”
“Girls, one question at a time, please,” Twilight said calmly, as she brought up her hands in a gesture she once saw the Minotaur ambassador use to calm some of her guards when they thought she was in danger.
Like normal, the very speedy Rainbow Dash was the first to shot off a question. “What did, you and Starlight do to us, and how do you plan to fix it so I can get my wings back?”
Twilight’s eyes snapped opened and she did a quick headcount. Panic started to fill her when she realized there is a pony missing.
“Where’s Starlight?” she asked frantically.
“I’m here, Twilight.”
Twilight snap her head to her left and breathe a breath of relief as she watch as her student came into view, holding the device the two were messing around earlier. Like the others, the studious princess studied her pupil’s outfit.
Starlight wore shoes much like the one Twilight has, but decked out in her colors, white pants and a sleeveless blue shirt under an open sleeveless jacket with the same color as her pony’s coat. The young princess frowns when she notice three things off about her student.
First are the pair of goggle hanging off the former unicorn’s neck. The item is lavender much like Twilight’s own outfits and seem out of place on the young magic user. The second thing she notices is the scar on her student’s forehead, it was just like the one on Rarity’s forehead, and this cause Twilight to touch her own forehead quickly feeling the same scar in the same location.
The final thing-what really catches somepony’s eye-is band around the young unicorn left bicep. The band is very simple, black in color, and only thing on it is the red symbol that Twilight couldn’t place.
“Starlight, what’s with that band?” Twilight as shed pointed a balled-up hand at the band.
Starlight blinked and looked at the band, and then back at her teacher. She looked ready to say something, but Rainbow Dash rudely interjected.
“Can we leave the fashion to Rarity, and get down to the more important things here, like how to get my wings back?”
The group looks at their impatient friend, some level glares at her, which cause the young speedster to smile sheepishly. Rarity looked ready to say something, only to be interrupted when something flew over their heads. The group crank their necks upwards and they eyes widen when they saw a yellow creature with fox-like traits, a bag hanging from her shoulder and obviously holding onto something, soar over them. The creature made a gracefully landing and sped off without missing a beat.
“Umm, what the hay was that thing?” Applejack asked confusingly.
Unfortunately no one got a chance to answer as they all heard an aggressive voice scream, “When we delete that traitor and those freaks, we will be one step closer to saving our world!”
The mares turned their heads and their eyes nearly jumped from their socket when they saw the group approaching them. The group members are all made out of fire…well six members were a made of the bright orange flames. The leader, well, the mares thought is the leader, was in front and looked like a tall Minotaur wearing black pants with flames on them, boots with metal skulls and wind on the tips and chains covering the creature’s chest, arms and waist.
The metal, skull-like mask and the two-tone mare it has seem to make this creature look beyond intimating.
The creature next to the skull-faced creature is very similar to the one that follow behind them; the only difference is this creature is made out of blue fire instead of red.
The group looks quite menacing overall, and every instinct the mares have are telling them to make a break for it. Unfortunately, the groups’ body just isn’t listening and they remain in place as the group of strange creatures got closer.
“Well, look what we have here,” the metal faced creature said with twisted glee, “Humans. I heard rumors about these lower creatures, but this is my first time actually seeing them.”
“SkullMeramon, why don’t we take them to the overseer? We will no doubt be rewar-Gahh!” the blue fire creature grunted when the leader, SkullMeramon, whip out his arms, two chain coming free and striking the creature across the face and sending him to the ground.
“As always, BlueMeramon, you’re thinking too small,” SkullMeramon said harshly, and looked at the girls with twisted glee. “If the rumors are true and humans can form bonds with digimon, imagine what we can accomplish if we have the humans at our side.”
SkullMeramon turned his attention to his other creatures and address them.
“My fellow Meramon, these humans were clearly sent to us by our great lord and master! We are to make these humans our partners and with their aid put end to the mutant-born infection that is causing our beautiful world to rot! Once we have the power these humans can give us, we march forward and remove those unnatural creatures until our world is return to its former glory.”
The creatures, the digimon, Twilight remained herself, cheered loudly and that caused her to get a step back, to position herself in front of her friends and concentrate. She wanted to put a shield around friends, but started to panic when she realized that she couldn’t feel her magic anymore.
She dared a glance behind her and took note of her friends. Most of them were keeping it together, even Fluttershy, though quivering, wasn’t as frighten as she normally would, and that cause the young princess to smile. She set her face with determination as she look at the group of digimon.
She did quick headcount, remembering they are eight in total, 6 Meramon, and the skull and Blue versions leading them. She dared a quick look around, to finally get lay of the land, and what she saw wasn’t good. The land was mostly flat, the only mount was to the left, where Twilight came from when she first awoken in this place. There weren’t even enough of these strong trees to use for cover.
Twilight looked at the flame creatures and saw they were still caught up in their leader’s speech to notice much. Her friends and she could try to make a break for it, but dropped that idea as she soon as she thought about it. She doubts they would make it far because they all were so unfamiliar with their new bodies.
What can I do? Twilight asked herself. How can I help but friends? Celestia…please, help.
Twilight heard a sudden thump, and looked at the ground, to see a medium-size rock had landed between the two groups. Everyone looked at the rock, which is starting to glow orange. The rock exploded a second later with a faint boom, and smoke thick enough to blocked the digimon party from view. It didn’t take long for Twilight to realize that the smoke is drifting towards the usual creatures like it was being moved by a Pegasus.
“The smoke from the exploding rock is drawn to things like large sources of heat, but it wouldn’t last. So, humans, if you want to save your tails, come with me!”
DigiDestined of Harmony: Digital World Chaos: These Beautiful but Dangerous Creatures
“If you stand there gawking the smoke will clear,” the fox-like digimon from earlier said calmly.
Unfortunately, the mares-turned-whatever were to shell-shocked to do much of anything...until a ball of sizzling fire whizzed over their heads. The group looked behind them and saw fireballs being thrown at random. They also see the smoke is starting to thin out, and that all the incentive they need to get moving.
The group turns their attention forward and clumsily ran toward the fox. The digimon cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing about this strange behavior. Instead she took out a rock from her bag, and jumped into the air. She throws her rock and brings her arms in, a faint light glowing in front of her.
“Diamond Storm!!” The fox thrust its arms out and small diamond shards are sent flying.
The shards connect with the rock and it explodes a second later, blanketing the area behind the girls in a thick smoke, as the fox digimon landed and sprints off. The digimon quickly took the lead and dared a look behind her. She frowns when she sees just how clumsy the humans are; they are barely staying up right. About the only one that isn’t experiencing problem is the rainbow hair one. Still, she notice that the human females are making progress and are getting more stable with each step their took.
The fox looked forward and began leading the humans, turning a few turns until they came to a small slope. The fox jumps down and the ponies-turned-humans follow by sliding down the edge. They watch as the fox ran into a cave and follow closely behind her.
“By Celestia,” Twilight said in awe.
The group could only gawk as they look at the stones hanging off the cave‘s ceiling that are also glowing with just enough to cast the cave into a faint light. But what really catch the former ponies’ eyes are the five small creatures looking at the group with cautious eyes. Next to the small creatures is the fox, leaning against a cave wall arms crossed and looking at the ponies-turned-humans with the same caution. Still, she didn’t stop the group from approaching the little digimon.
“Oh my,” Rarity said as her eyes looked on a digimon with orange and white fur, a long black horn sticking out of its head and blue patches on it fur, “They look… amazing!”
“They’re adorable!” Fluttershy screamed in an uncharacteristic way as she tried to picked up a small blue digimon with a white belly and face, only to have it flinch away from her.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash are surprisingly quiet as a bug-like digimon with it’s lower half stuck in its cocoon look up at the young speedster with a timid look to its eyes. A blob like digimon with a horn sticking out the top of its head and small ears at its side seems to be the only digimon that isn’t afraid around the ponies as it bounce up to Applejack and look the farmer in the eyes.
“But what the hay are these things?” Twilight asked as she studied the strange creatures, namely the pale yellowish green cat-like digimon.
“We’re called Digimon,” the fox said calmly, “Or if you’re asking about specific, the little ones as called In-training digimon and I am a Rookie digimon.”
Twilight, curious, looked between the two digimon as the cat-like digimon got a bit closer to her. It looks like the digimon wants to be picked up, the caution that it showed earlier gone. Twilight looked at the “rookie” digimon and she just nodded slightly. The young princess look back at the digimon and slowly bent down, holding her arms out in what she hopes is a welcoming gesture.
The digimon seem to understand as it got close enough for Twilight gently pick up the creature. She patted the digimon gently and in turn the cat-like creature lean in and began to purr. This also seems to have a positive effect as the other in-training digimon look at the ponies-turned-humans like they wanted to be picked and the former ponies picked them up.
Starlight, who had hang back during this entire event, notice something happening between her friends and the digimon they are currently holding. It almost looks like light is being transferred between her friends and the digimon they’re holding. But that was silly, right?
“Hmm,” the Rookie digimon said, “I haven’t known these young digimon for long, but this is the first time I see them this friendly.” The digimon’s eyes widen slightly like she remember something. “But where are my manners. I’m called Renamon. That’s Nyaromon, Tsunomon, Gummymon, Demi-Veemon, and Minomon.”
As Renamon named off all of her little friends, she pointed to them and everyone in the cave looked at the digimon. Twilight suddenly look at Renamon, her own eyes widening a bit like she also remember something.
“Oh yeah” Twilight said, slightly embarrassed by her own lack of manners, “Well, I’m Twilight Sparkle, that’s my student Starlight Glimmer, and these are my friends; Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy.”
“Hmm,” Renamon looked at each of the ponies-turned-humans, “I must say, those are some unusual human names.”
“Umm, would you believe we’re actually ponies from a land called Equestria?” Twilight said lamely.
Renamon pushed off the wall she has been leaning against and walked up to the young princess. Twilight let out a nervous giggle as the digimon seem to study her eyes. After nearly a minute, the rookie digimon pulled away and returned to her wall.
“I have been around this world many times, and I had heard that other worlds existing outside of the Digital and Humans worlds, and I don’t think you’re lying,” Renamon said calmly, which cause Twilight to smile, “but I don’t know if I choose to believe you, not just yet.”
“Fair enough,” Twilight said awkwardly.
The young princess looked ready to say something else when the sound of footsteps and all too familiar voice reached her ears
“Fan out, they’re here somewhere!”
Renamon also heard this as she made a quiet gesture with her right paw as her left paw lightly touch the wall. Twilight saw that Renamon was looking towards the mouth of the cave, and followed her glance.
What she saw next nearly blew her mind.
The light near the mouth is rapidly dimming. No, Twilight realize, that isn’t completely right. The light-stones aren’t just dimming, the light is actually getting darker and within 15 second the light has darken to the point where she can’t see outside anymore. She looked back at Renamon planning on getting answers when she felt digimon in her arms began to shake. She looked down and was surprised to see how scared Nyaromon has become.
She felt sorry for the cat-like digimon, as she began to pat her on the head in the same way she has seen her sister-in-law when her daughter was scared. While the effect wasn’t anything dramatic, Twilight felt Nyaromon relax slightly into her arms and that brings a small smile to the young princess’s face.
That’s smile is quickly wipe away when she sees something flicker, and her head snap to mouth of cave. One of the Meramon is using it flames as a light and is currently using to try and see into the cave. Renamon, thankfully, saw this and darkened all of the stones into a deep, dark light save from the few that the digimon and ponies-turned-humans were under.
For the next few minutes, everyone waited on edge, rooted in place and breaths held as they watch the flame swipe left and than right, but didn’t move closer. The young digimon are clearly scared and some are even whimpering. Thankfully, the ones holding them were able to calm them down.
None of the ponies-turned-humans saw the faint light encircling their wrists, as they were too focused on the front of the cave.
“There’s nothing in here,” the Meramon said as the flame wink out, and they heard footsteps.
The group didn’t move a muscle until they could no longer hear the digimon’s footsteps, only then did they let out the breaths they had been holding.
“Beg yar pardon, Miss Renamon, but why are those varmints after ya?” Applejack asked politely.
Renamon sighs as she brighten a few of the light-stones so they're a little more light in the cave, but kept the stones leading from the mouth of the cave are shining dark light.
“Those Meramon are led by a frantic SkullMeramon whose is in a vicious campaign to try and rid the digital world of mutant-type digimon,” Renamon said sully. “He actually believes that “deleting” all of the mutant-types will reverse the rotting of the digital world?”
The mares-turn-women exchanges confuse looks clearly showing that they are lost.
Renamon sighed, and said, “To understand what I meant, I believe it I will have to explain some facts.”
“Not like we’re going anywhere,” muttered an impatient Rainbow Dash, glaring at the darken entrance.
If Renamon had heard Rainbow Dash, she ignored her and looked at the group, and said, “To start things off digimon used to be categorized three way; Vaccine, data and Virus. These types also help to determine certain traits in digimon, and sometime, strength.”
Renamon paused in her explanation, to allow her new friends to absorb everything she had just said. The ponies-turned-humans are still confuse, but some were starting get the general idea, both Twilight and Fluttershy are looking at the digimon in their hands, examining them to see if they could spot any difference. Sadly, they couldn’t see anything and look back Renamon, who took that as her cue to continue.
“Mutant-types had always existed, but they were considered a sub-class at best. That all changed when the digital world began to rot. Many mutant-types began to emerge with many different abilities and traits,” Renamon said and pointed at Nyaromon. “See those black triangles on Nyaromon’s ears.”
The group gathered around Twilight and looked at Nyaromon’s ears. The four thin triangles, two on each ear, are easy to spot on the pale yellowish green fur. The group look back at Renamon, confuse at the point the digimon is trying to make with the marks.
“Those marks are not something you usually find on the Nyaromon species,” Renamon explained, “It means that her digivolution line is set and nothing can change that.”
“Digivolution…” Twilight said, rolling the word her mouth.
“It’s similar to your aging process, where digimon will grow and change,” Renamon said, as if reading the young princess’s mind. “Digivolving, however, had additional figures, but like aging several factors help to determine what a digimon will digivolve to next. However, mutants like Nyaromon and that Tsunomon will only digivolve a certain way.”
Renamon paused once more to let her words sink in. While they are still lost, that didn’t stop one of the humans from taking a step forward.
“While all of this is quite fascinating, darling,” Rarity said politely, “This doesn’t explain why those brutes were chasing you?”
Renamon sigh and looked at the ground. She looked at the ground for nearly a minute before looking up at the group. “Since the mutant-types began to emerge around the time the Digital World began to rot, some believe the mutants are the cause of it. SkullMeramon is one of the more vocal of these digimons, and he’s enough charisma to gather a small following. To make matter worse, he believes that any digimon that comes into contact with a mutant will eventually become a mutant themselves.
He has been chasing me for the last three days because I refuse to give up these young digimon.”
Twilight gasp as she notice Renamon’s appearance for the first time. The fox-like creature has patches of blacken spots as well newly burn section of fur. Her gloves have long tears in them, and the most disturbing thing on the creature’s figure is the large gash over her right eye.
How could we have missed this? Twilight asked herself with shame.
Thankfully, a certain former pink party planning pony wasn’t just going to sit around and do nothing. “You poor girl,” Pinkie said sincerely, suddenly appearing in front of Renamon and startling her. “You have been through so much projecting these little guys-” Pinkie’s entire face suddenly lit up, “-But don’t you worry, your auntie Pinkie Pie has it all covered.”
Renamon, having regain her composure, sighs and said, “That is kind of you, but I don’t really need-”
“Done!” Pinkie suddenly said, startling the usually calm digimon for the second time in the last minute.
Renamon blinked and then looked down when she felt something on her body. The black spots and burns have been cover in fresh bandages, and she could even feel something wet under them. She looked at Pinkie with wide eyes as the former pink party pony was stuffing a mini-first-aid kit into her hair.
“But, you, the thing, I didn’t even, umm,” Renamon stumbled as she try to find the words for the confusion she is feeling.
“It’s Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said automatically. “We all learn not to question it.”
Renamon stared at pinkie Pie for nearly a minute, who was busying looking at her wrist. The rookie digimon didn’t know what to make of this strange human. She wouldn’t get any answer as a voice suddenly came from the mouth of the cave.
“You in there, come out this instance!”
Renamon’s shoulders tensed up as she suddenly shot forward and took off her bag. She shaved the bag into Pinkie’s hand and looked at Twilight.
“There are six explosive rocks in my bag. Take two of the glowing yellow one and place one at the top at the end of the cave and tip it three times. The top will disincarnate so you can climb out of it. Use the second yellow rock to block the hole and get as far away as you can,” Renamon explained hastily.
“What’s going on?” Twilight asked, trying to keep the panic from her voice.
“That voice belonged to the overseer of this isle,” Renamon explained quickly. “And if the rumors are true, not only does the overseer have a hairline temper, but SkullMeramon has been bugging to allow him to travel the world once he had rid this isle of all mutant digimon. So there’s no telling what kind of mode the overseer is in.”
Twilight looked between the digimon whom she now considers a friend and the bag that belong to said digimon. She didn’t want to leave her new friend, especially if she what saying is true. Still, what could she do, her magic isn’t working in this world.
“Mutant-type Renamon,” the voice of the overseer said commandingly, “We are aware of your tricks and have the entire area surrounded!
Twilight got close to Renamon and looked the digimon in the eyes. “Do you think we should take the overseer’s word?” the young princess asked suspiciously.
Renamon sigh heavily and looked towards the mouth of the cave. “He may have a temper, but he’s also experience, and can’t risk calling his bluff.” She looked at each of her new friends and took in the condition of the young digimon. They were scared but seems to find comfort in the human’s arms. She looked back at Twilight and said, “Stay behind me and try not to make any sudden moves.”
Twilight nodded and patted Nyaromon one more time. Together the ponies-turned-humans formed up behind Renamon and the group move towards the mouth. The rookie digimon press her right paw on the wall and the lights in front of them lit up and the lights in the back dim. The group emerged from the cave and what they saw caused them to gasp.
In front of them is a digimon a few inches taller than their current human bodies. He is dress in a leather outfit with gray metal plating on its legs, arms and shoulders. A deep blue helmet covers his three red eyes and spiky blonde hair, and a red bandana is tied around his left arm. The most disturbing thing about this digimon is the two guns that are currently level at the group.
Behind the overseer are six digimon of similar design. They are humanoid digimon with limbs longer their bodies covered in leather bands, belts, and sharp claws on their hands. The digimon also have large leathery, tattered wings and horns extending out from their head that curve up at the end. The digimon have devil symbol on their chests.
The group is divided into two different colors, three black and three white.
“Those are Devimon and IceDevimon,” Renamon whispered, like answering the question Twilight had on her mind. “Those digimon are at the champion level, the level above mine own. Beelzemon, however, is at the mega level, the highest level a digimon can reach, and thus we can’t fight him.”
Twilight looked the group. While most of this “digimon” talk was still going over her head, she knew a fight they couldn’t win when she sees one. Still, what could these digimon be after, was Twilight was wondering.
Like answering the young princess mental question, Beelzemon holstered his left gun and bowed mockingly. “Ah, the infamous mutant-type Renamon, we meet at last,” Beelzemon's tone is clearly mocking, but if Renamon was offended by it, she hid it well. “But this isn’t about you.”
The overseer straightened and scanned the area. He grins when he sees Starlight and points to her. “You, who wear the symbol of our lord and master, are to come with us,” he said with a certain level of venom in his voice.
Twilight, sensing danger, got between the overseer and her student, holding out her left arm in front of Starlight. Beelzemon sneered and reached for his other gun.
“There they are!!” a familiar voice suddenly cried out.
The large gathering turned their heads to the right and watched as SkullMeramon and his group ran up to them. When SkullMeramon saw the overseer his face beamed and he rushed over and eagerly grabbed Beelzemon’s hand.
“Grand Overseer, you have answered my pray!” SkullMeramon said gleefully. “You finally see that my path is the right one.”
“Let me go, you pathetic excuse of a virus,” Beelzemon sneered as he pulled hand free and shaved the other digimon hard.
SkullMeramon stumbled slightly but kept himself upright. He didn’t seem offended by the higher-level digimon’s commits in the least bit.
“Grand Overseer, our lord and master has sent these humans so we can finally-” SkullMeramon was suddenly cut-off when Beelzemon aimed his gun at him.
“I have had enough of your disillusions,” Beelzemon snarled darkly.
“Please, my lord,” the BlueMeramon said as he got closer. “I know my brother can be reckless, but he doesn’t deserve what you’re planning.”
The Blue fire-like digimon is silenced when Beelzemon pull out his other gun and aimed it at the other high-level digimon.
“You are no better,” Beelzemon said coldly. “I was wise to your games for your first visit. You intended to wear me down and give into your ridiculous plans. But I’m done with you all.”
SkullMeramon opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t get a word in as Beelzemon fired both of his guns point blank. The ponies-turned-human cried as they watch the two Meramon fall backward, their bodies dissolving as their fell.
Unknown to every being present at the time, one of the Meramon popped something into his mouth and chewed. He grins when he swallows and patiently waits to make its move, watching as the body of the two different Meramon-types completely dissolved into data particles.
Beelzemon holstered his guns and returned his attention to the group, namely Starlight. Twilight, while shaken by everything she had just witnessed, gathered her courage and kept her place as a guard between her student and the unknown factor.
“As a princess of Equestria, I demand to know why you want my student,” the young princess demanded calmly.
Beelzemon was suddenly in front of Twilight in the blink in an eye, causing her to flinch slightly. “Cute,” the over overseer said coldly, “But you are nothing more than a commoner here, princess, so move.”
Twilight refuse to move and this anger the overseer who grabs her by the outstretched arm. He raised her off her feet and then tossed her to her right; the sound of fabric being torn filled the air as Twilight landed hard on her side. Nyaromon is flying free from her hold in the process as well.
“Learn your place in this world, girl,” Beelzemon said coldly, letting the torn piece of fabric loose from his hand, “Or next time, it would more than just material from a simple jacket.”
The overseer turned his attention back to Starlight and began to move toward her. Twilight, despite the pain shooting up her side, reached out and grabbed the overseer’s ankle. Beelzemon looked down at Twilight with a bit of anger.
“I wouldn’t let you harm my student,” Twilight said through the pain.
Beelzemon sneered and pulled the gun at his back free. He leveled it at Twilight’s head and began to pull the trigger, only to stop when a stream of bubble blocked his vision. He easily batted the bubbles away and looked at the digimon that sent the bubble. Nyaromon, while still looking terrified, have found new resolve from seeing the person who comforts it earlier in danger.
The overseer isn’t impressed and pulls his other gun out and levels it at the in-training digimon. Twilight looked at the gun pointed at her and the gun aimed Nyaromon and felt helpless. If she still has her magic she could put up a barrier and then teleport them out of here.
But, she doesn't have magic in this world, and that makes her feel more helpless than she has in a long time.
“STOP!!” a familiar voice cried out.
Everyone stopped and looked as Starlight got a little closer to the overseer. Twilight look up and is shock to see the resolve on her student’s face. She didn’t need to be a mind reader to know what her student has in mind, and she wouldn’t deny the pride mixing with fear as she what is coming next.
“If I agree to go with you, will you spare my teacher and that poor digimon?” Starlight asked calmly.
Beelzemon stared at the mare-turned-woman for about half a second before holstering his guns. He pulled his leg free from Twilight’s hold, “accidentally” hitting her in the face with his heel in the process, and closed the gap between him and Starlight.
“I will,” Beelzemon said coldly, “But know if you try anything, even after we take you, I can insure you that your friends and teacher will suffer a fate worse than death.”
Those a little loopy from taking that hit early, Twilight is still able to gather herself enough to look at her student. She was surprise when she couldn’t find any fear she saw in her student’s eyes.
“I wouldn’t run,” Starlight replied sternly.
“Good,” Beelzemon said coldly, “Just one fine detail to take of.”
He snapped his right hand out and looped it around Starlight’s goggles. He broke them off with one pull and let them drop nonchalantly to the ground. Everyone, even the overseer’s own troops, looked at the item in confusion.
“Goggles bring back memories I rather not relive,” Beelzemon said nonchalantly. “Now come, our lord and master doesn’t like to be left waiting. And leave that laptop here, it worthless now that it’s served it function.”
Starlight growled but did as she was told and put the laptop next to her broken goggles. She gave one last look at her friends, old and new, and look up at the overseer. Beelzemon crack a cold smile as he took Starlight into a surprisingly gentle embrace. He suddenly jump into the air, black angelic wings bursting out from his back, and flew away. The six Devimon quickly followed after their commander, not even bothering to look at the other ponies-turned-humans as they left.
Twilight struggle to get up, but she is more disoriented than she first thought and fell back into her stomach, screaming, “Starlight! STARLIGHT!!”
DigiDestined of Harmony: Digital World Chaos: Time to Partner up and Digivolve
“Are you okay?” Nyaromon asked as Twilight worked herself into a sitting position.
Twilight offered the cat-like digimon a small but sad smile and patted her on the head. “I’m going to be,” Twilight replied sadly, “And thank you for trying to help, you were very brave.”
Nyaromon bashfully looked away as a light blush formed on her face. Twilight might have laugh at the little creature’s actions, but her mind was on others things at the moment. She looks at the items that belongs to her student, and began to stand up. She immediately fell back onto her rear when a wave of lightheadedness hit her.
“You sure you okay, darling?” Rarity asked as she and Twilight’s other friends gathered around her.
“I will be,” Twilight replied as she tried to stand again, only to had the same results as before.
Twilight gave her head a quick shake, to try and get the cobwebs out, but quickly found that was a bad move, her head was swimming worse than a second again and it is getting hard to make out certain things.
Did the hit she took a few seconds ago affect her more then she realized?
“Don’t take this the wrong way, Twi, but you look worse then a rookie weather pony after their first big storm,” Rainbow Dash, trying very hard to keep the mirth from her voice and failing.
The young princess felt strong arms wrap around her own and knew that the former Pegasus and farmer were helping to her feet. They took it slow, and this allowed Twilight to focus enough to finally see thing clearly. Rainbow was on her right, with her new digimon friend on her outside shoulder, and Applejack is on the left, the digimon she has befriended next to her right foot.
Twilight smiled at her friends, thankful to have them with her. Whatever good feeling the young princess was feeling at the moment were quickly crush when she heard a scream, and everyone looked in front of them to see something horrible happening.
One of the Meramon was currently beating on another Meramon, whose is crying for his fellow fire-like digimon to stop. The other Maramon didn’t comply, he just laugh in a crazy manner. The craze Meramon pulled back his right arm and it balled up as it erupted in flames. He thrust his fist right through the Meramon’s chest. Meramon #2 could only stare up at his fellow Meramon as his body dissolved into data particles, which were absorbed by Craze Meramon.
Twilight pulled herself free and looked around the area. With a pit forming in her stomach, she realized that the other Meramon had disappeared. She looks back at Craze Meramon and saw that he’s getting closer to them.
“D-Chip: Absorption,” the young princess heard Renamon whispered angrily as she got between the ponies-turned-humans and in-training digimon, to protect them.
Craze Meramon just scoffed at this and said arrogantly, “Your kind may be known for their combat prowess, but even you can’t handle someone like me.”
“W-Why did you do that to your f-friend,” Fluttershy asked suddenly.
Twilight looked at the usual timid pony and saw how pale she looked. She also noticed how tight her hold on DemiVeemon is, it’s obvious she saw something that scared her deeply.
“Please,” Meramon said coldly, “The only reason I followed that bunch of weaklings was so I could absorb the data of any mutant they deleted.”
“But for what reason?” Twilight asked, thinking she was saying it to herself, only to flinch when Meramon looked in her direction.
“This world is ending and nothing can stop that, so why not go out with a BANG!” Meramon explained loudly. “I will continue to absorb as many digimon as I can, and I WILL CHALLENGE LORDDRAKEMON HIMSELF AS THIS WORLD ENDS!!”
Meramon thrust his arms out and began to laugh insanely. The ponies-turned-human took a step away from the insane digimon, all disturbed by his proclamation. The craze digimon suddenly stopped laughing and looked at the group. They didn’t like how he was looking at them, and that caused them to keep another step back.
“Hmm, I wonder what will happen if I take the data of humans?” Meramon mused softly to himself, and began walking towards the group.
The Meramon held out his right hand and a fireball formed above it. He tossed the ball right at the group. The six former ponies dove to the ground, the ball of fire barely missing Rainbow Dash by a hairline. The group looked as Meramon readied another fireball, and froze when they saw his malice-filled grin.
Suddenly Renamon and the in-training digimon got in front of the former ponies acting as a shield. Meramon wasn’t impressed with this and raise his other hand, materializing another fireball.
“Get up and run, run as away as you can,” Renamon told the group as their struggle to their feet.
“What do you plan to do?” Twilight asked in concern.
“We are digimon, fighting is part of who we are,” Renamon replied calmly. “But you shouldn’t be dragged into this when you have no stake in this world.”
With that said, Renamon lunch into the air and prepare to fight the craze digimon with the lower level digimon following close behind. Twilight watched as her new friends rushed toward their end, and felt the pit in her stomach grow. She wanted nothing more than to jump in and fight with her new friends. But what could she do, when she didn’t have across to her magic.
A sudden noise broke Twilight from her deep thoughts and she looked at the fight. She watched Renamon took a blow to the head, fell to the ground, rolled into a ball and jumped to her feet in one fluid movement. She next jumped up and delivered a hard punch to the Meramon’s face.
The craze digimon just smirk and swung his arm, contacting with Renamon’s side and sending her to the ground. The Rookie digimon took a sharp breath as she struggle to get air back into her lungs. Meramon loomed over the down digimon and readied a fireball,
Twilight growled. She didn’t care that she didn’t have her magic at the moment, after all, ponies do wondrous things all the time, and most of them don’t have magic. She wasn’t the only one ready to jump in and help her friends, as she looked around and saw the determine looks each were sporting. Even Fluttershy, the one whose will shy away from danger, has a determination on her face that looked so out-of-place on her face.
Twilight smiled slightly and looked forward. The entire group became synced as they all took a step forward. The second their foot touched the surface, a light shined from the ground and the group looked down. They watched as beams of energy whip from the light at their feet and wrapped around their left wrists and snap against their palm. The group watched as the beam broke in half and formed into different items.
Twilight studied the device in her hand. It reminded her of the letter P, only with a wider handle and a stubby body. The grip on the device was completely round and fitted perfectly in the former mare’s hand. There were three buttons on the center of the handle with thin grooves connecting them in an upside-down arrow. Finally, there’s a screen on the top of the device incase in Twilight’s cutie mark, and when she looked at the back of the device, she saw a slot of seem kind.
The young princess looked at her wrist and saw a simple bracelet, colored in her pony coat and out line in gray. She heard a beep, but that noise is drowned out by a series of cries and looked back at the battle still unfolding. The younger digimon had been taken out of the battle, and Renamon had gotten in front of them to shield them from the craze Meramon.
The champion digimon batted the lower level digimon to the side, and grinned maniacally as he raised his right hand and a fireball formed in the palm of his hands. Twilight gasp as she realized what was going to happen and took a step forward to help.
Twilight heard that beeping sound again, but didn’t look at the device as a beam of light shot from it. The sudden act knocked Twilight back, but she kept herself upright as four more beams joined the one shot from her device, and one each hit a digimon.
“Nyaromon digivolve to…Salamon!”
“Gummymon digivolve to…Terriermon!”
“DemiVeemon digivolve to…Veemon!”
“Minomon digivolve to…Wormmon!”
“Tsunomon digivolve to…Gabumon!”
When the lights died down, the group was surprise to see what happened to their new friends. Twilight look at the creature that was once Nyaromon, who know looks like a puppy with a cream coat, blue eyes and a collar with strange marking on it. She could also see the black markings on Salamon’s ears from her precious form.
She next look at Terriermon and notice how he looks like an upright puppy with a horn and long bunny-like ears. His coat is mainly white with light green on his arms legs and ears. The ears themselves were nearly longer than Terriermon’s body, and ended in third pointed tips.
Veemon isn’t all that different from his previous form, he features are just more detailed, and he’s taller. Probably the most noticeable figures on the digimon were the yellow marking under his red eyes, and the upside-down triangle on his forehead. Than there’s Wormmon, whose is just a green, caterpillar-like digimon with red X on his forehead and blue circle on his end.
Gabumon is probably the most detail out of the group, with a pale orange body cover by a frost blue coat of fur, with a blue horn sticking out and a strange picture on its stomach.
Twilight is transfixed by all she just witness, one thought running through her head. This must be the digivolution thing Renamon was talking about, the young princess thought in both shock and awe.
Even Renamon and Meramon were a little taken back by this, but he quickly recovered and prepared to attack. Renamon saw this and jumped into the air. She launched a diamond storm at the fire-type digimon, and while the attack did little to hurt him it was enough to distract him enough for the newly digivolved digimon to charge.
“V-Head-butt!” Veemon screamed as he rammed his head into the Meramon’s midsection.
The humanoid digimon sledded a few inches back, but kept his balance as Veemon rolled off of him and allowed Salamon to attack.
“Pretty punch!” the puppy-like digimon screamed it thrust its paws in the same area that Veemon just hit and jumped off.
“Silk threat!!” Wormmon cried as a thin strain of threat shoot out from its opened mouth and hit Meramon in the face.
Stunned, the Meramon stumbled slightly and Terriermon and Gabumon took this as their cue to attack, as they got in front of the champion digimon.
“Blue Blaster!” Gabumon shouted as a semi-thin beam of blue fire shot from his mouth.
“Bunny blast!” Terriermon screamed as a trio of green balls of energy flew from his mouth.
The two attacks collided in the tender spot created by Salamon and Veemon, further damaging the fire-like digimon and causing him to start wobbling. Renamon didn’t let her opponent gather himself as she fired another diamond storm into the Meramon’s tender spot. A minor explosion happened and the Meramon was finally knock to the ground.
The rookie digimon gathered in front of their new partners, and waited to see what the Meramon was planning to do next. Behind the digimon, the mare-turned-women also waited on edge, some even hoping it was over. A shudder went down the group’s collected spines as Meramon began to laugh insanely.
“Not bad, not bad at all,” the fire-type said as he stood up, and looked at the group with a wide smile, “I actually felt that. But for someone who had absorbed nearly 2 dozen mutant digimon, it was only a tickle on my midsection.” The smile disappeared from the digimon’s face. “Now, let me show you how the data of those digimon changed me.”
Meramon lifted his arms up at his side, a flame appearing in each palm, and the wide smile returned. With a short cry, the fire-type slammed his hands together, burst of fire escaping from the sides. With the fire still escaping from the sides of the digimon’s hands, he slowly pulled them apart. The group could only look on in shock when Meramon created a three-foot pole of pure fire.
Meramon grabbed the fire pole at its center and gave it a quick spin before charging. Renamon was the first to go on the attack, dodging the swing aimed for her head. She aimed a punch at the fire-type’s midsection, but Meramon was faster, thrusting his pole up and striking Renamon under the chin. The rookie digimon recovered quickly and tried to her hit opponent with an uppercut. Meramon was once again faster and thrust his pole into Renamon’s gut.
A small explosion occurred and Renamon was sent flying back. She landed on her side hard and skidded on ground before coming to a stop a few inches in front of the ponies-turned-humans. Pinkie Pie was instantly at her partner’s side, helping her up while showing her rarely seen serious side.
Back on the battlefield, both Salamon and Veemon tried to attack Meramon in his tender spot. The fire-type just batted the two away with a single swing of his pole. Gabumon and Terriermon tried to attack from a distance with their attacks, but Meramon just redirected the attacks to the ground and want in from the attack with a kick. The kick was rather slow and the two rookie digimon easily dodge it by jumping into the air. The two realized too late that the kick was a diversion as Meramon sent the two flying with swing of his pole.
The wind was knocked out of the two and Meramon grinned as he began to advice on Gabumon, one of the mutants he was aiming for. He stopped when he felt something against his leg. He looked down and saw Wormmon trying to tie his legs with his thread. The fire-type just spread his feet apart and the thread was instantly broken and Meramon continued all like nothing had happened, Wormmon to frightened to try and do anything else.
Back on the sidelines, Twilight could feel her dread growing with each minute that passed. She wanted nothing more than to help, but she knew she couldn’t, not without her magic. And there were other factors to consider, like how the digimon was clearly stronger than the body she and her friends found themselves in.
“Run-” a voice said quietly, “Take the young ones and run as far as you can.”
Twilight and her friends looked at Renamon, and the young princess felt a pit in her stomach form. She didn’t like the look in the digimon’s eyes…they were so vacant, as the fox-like creature stared ahead and watch as the new rookie digimon muster the strength to stand and continue the fight. She didn’t need to be well-read to know what Renamon was planning and it didn’t sit right with her. She knew that her friends were feeling the same thing.
“What about you, sugarcube,” Applejack asked in concern. “Ah don’t think ya’re in shape to take that varmint.”
Renamon gave the farmer an emptied smile as she began to stand up. “My life ended long before this point. I think it’s time I even things out.”
The fox-like digimon began walking towards the battlefield. It was clear what Renamon was planning, but the former ponies were to shock to do anything.
“NOOOO!” Pinkie screamed as she tackled Renamon to the ground.
Startled, Renamon barely caught herself by thrusting her arms out before her face and ground had a rather nasty meeting. She tried to pick herself up, but found the former pony was heavier than she was expecting. It didn’t help matter that the former pink party planner was cuddling Renamon’s side with her cheek.
“What are you doing, Pinkie,” Renamon asked as she manage to get into a seating position, despite Pinkie still holding onto her.
“Silly, I not letting go out there,” Pinkie replied seriously, “Not so you can die.”
Renamon frown slightly as she finally managed to free herself from the vice grip the slim and small human had her in, and looked at Pinkie with a small smile.
“It’s not that I don’t appreciate your concern, but I truly have nothing left to live for,” Renamon said clamily. “If I can save you and those young ones, then I’m known I had done one noteworthy thing in my life.”
With her peace said, the fox-like digimon stood and began walking towards the battlefield. She didn’t gave very far as something suddenly pulled on her tail, and she fell again. This time, she wasn’t able to catch herself in time and she had a nasty meeting with the ground. She picked herself up and looked behind her to see a rope tied around her tail. She followed the item and wasn’t all that surprised to find Pinkie Pie holding it.
The former pony looked ready to say something when a light suddenly began to shine from her bracelet. The group looked at Pinkie’s bracelet as something formed from it. Silently, Pinkie grabbed it as the light died and revealed a small disk, roughly the size of a quarter. Before anyone could study the disk, another light began to shine, and Pinkie quickly fished out her device from her hair.
The new light was coming from the slot on the back of the device, and you didn’t need to be a well-read princess to know what that means, as Pinkie silently slipped the disk into the slot. The device beeped and Pinkie looked at the screen to see the words “install digivolution” flashing on it.
Pinkie held the device out and a beam of light shot from it, hitting Renamon. The fox-like creature gasped lightly as she felt that energy surge around her and into her body. Soon the energy had completely covered her, forming into an egg-like shape.
“Renamon Digivolve to…” the egg pulsed once and broke apart, revealing, “Kyubimon!!”
The newly minted Kyubimon was a sight to behold. She looked like a four-legged version of her rookie form, with the fur on her legs style to look like fire, with a red and white collar made out prayer bells. Probably the most eye-catching figure of this new form was her new nine tails
Strangely, the gash on her eye was still there, and it looked slightly larger and a little more jigged.
“I know I had said alright, but that was AWESOME!” Rainbow Dash screamed.
Kyubimon looked at Twilight and said, “I will draw Meramon’s attention so you can get your partners out of harm’s way.” Twilight nodded and Kyubimon smiled slightly.
“Let’s go, Storm!!” Pinkie exclaimed as she appeared on Kyubimon’s back with her party cannon at the ready.
Kyubimon, or rather Storm, just gave her new partner a sideway glance, but said nothing as the two headed off towards battle.
(…)
“I must be rusty,” Meramon mused to himself. “It shouldn’t have taken me this long to beat the data out of you. Or maybe, you have a higher endurance than I realize, not that it matter anymore.”
The craze digimon had a firm grab on Gabumon’s horn, holding him in the air as he pressed his pole against the young rookie’s stomach. Around the champion-level digimon were the rookie digimon, batter and beaten but still alive.
Meramon grinned devilishly as he pulled his pole back, ready to end this with a final strike. Suddenly, confetti exploded right in the fire-type’s face, blinding himself long enough that he didn’t see Storm rushing in and connecting with a head-butt. Meramon grunted as he felt the blow and released Gabumon. The fox-like wasn’t done, using her build momentum to carry the crazed digimon away from the beaten rookies, which allowed their partners to get to them. Meramon was able to free himself by striking Storm in the side with his pole, and rolled into a ball as he rolled along the ground. He jumped to his feet and looked at Storm with an unreadable expression.
“I really didn’t want to believe it, but it seems pairing with humans can help a digimon to digivolve faster,” Meramon stated coldly, his weapon disappearing. “But it doesn’t matter if you and I are at the same level, there’s still an ocean between us in power.”
To prove his point, Meramon created to flicker of fire in each palm and slammed together. Flames began to spew from the side of the digimon’s hands, but he didn’t pull them apart like last time. Instead he absorbed the fire back into his body, and a ripple traveled through his body, splitting off in two different directions. One went to his back and small wings of fire formed from his shoulders, while the other traveled down his legs and form a three-set of wheels under his feet.
Grinning like a madman, Meramon leaned forward and lightly pressed his knuckles against the ground. A single burst of flames exploded from the wings on his back and he rocketed forward, a small trail of flames left in his wake. In one fluid and nearly impossible-to-see-movement, Meramon spun around counterclockwise and threw out his right leg.
“LOOK OUT!!” Pinkie screamed.
With a light gasp, Storm pulled her head back, just enough that the blow that would had cut her across the face only grazed a cheek, a small flicker of fire burning her cheek before winking out. Storm quickly gathered herself and looked at her opponent…only to find him gone.
“TO OUR RIGHT!!” Pinkie screamed and Stormed snapped her head to the right.
She saw the craze digimon aiming another roundhouse kick from her face, and she acted quick, jumping away from her opponent. She took another two jumps back before platting her feet on the ground. Her nine tails extended with a faint snap and blue fire ignited on the tip of all of her tails. Each fire also had a fox-like face in it. “FOX-TAIL INFERO!!” With a snap of her tail, Storm sent all nine of the fire balls at Meramon.
The fire-type just grinned arrogantly and jumped, going into an aerial split to avoid two fireballs. He next went into a handstand, miraculously holding onto a fireball to bypass three. He dodged the last three by simply jumping off the fire he was using for leverage and barrel rolled to the ground, landing in a certain position.
“Yes, even I found that unnecessary,” Storm replied flatly.
The digimon and former pony readied themselves as Meramon charged at them for another round. Back on the sidelines, Twilight watched the entire fight as it played out, and her frown grew with each blow that was exchanged between the two digimon.
{Even with Renamon’s changed form, that digimon is proving to much for her} Twilight thought as she winced when the fox-like digimon barely avoided a kick aimed at her front left leg. {Not only can this digimon alter his own body at will, that alteration also grants him different abilities. Renamon is clearly no match for him. If only there is someway to slow him down.}
The young princess felt something pressed against her leg and looked down at Salamon with a curious frown. The puppy-like digimon turned and pointed at something, “How about we use that?” she asked in a light Manehattan accent.
Twilight followed her partner’s paw and saw a stone tree. She was confused at first, until she noticed the shape the tree was in, the truck of the tree was nearly completely worn away. She figured it wouldn’t take much for the tree to fall, and that’s when a plan came to her.
“YOU’RE A GENIUS, umm, Salamon?” Twilight asked uncertainly, and the digimon nodded and Twilight smiled before she addressed her friends. “Gather around, everypony, we have a plan.”
The group huddled around Twilight as she lay out her plan.
“I don’t know,” Wormmon said doubtfully, “How do you plan to get that Meramon to that tree?”
“Just leave that to your ol’ auntie Pinkie!” Pinkie suddenly chirped in.
Startled, some of the digimon jumped into their partner's’ arms while some hid behind their partners. The digital life-forms looked warily at the human who suddenly appeared, but the former ponies seem unaffected by this sudden appearance.
“You know what you have to do, Pinkie?” Twilight asked seriously.
Pinkie just gave a thumbs-up and slithered away, seemingly disappearing into the ground.
“How does she do that?” Veemon asked Fluttershy curiously, his eyes never leaving the spot that former pink pony was in just a second ago.
Twilight had to bit her lip to keep herself from saying her usual pre-loaded “Pinkie phrase”, instead she began to usher the group to the tree.
(Back in the battle)
Things weren’t going so good for Storm, the Meramon was faster than she thought…or, more than likely, she was getting slower. She’s probably was getting slower, if the large gash across her right leg meant anything, or if her short breath told her something. But, she wasn’t all that surprised, when Pinkie disappeared; she was now fighting to find the Meramon when he moved at blinding speeds.
The fox-like digimon was looking around trying to a line on her opponent, when she suddenly felt some extra weight on her back. She didn’t need to look to know that her former pony partner has returned.
“Storm, we have a plan!” Pinkie said seriously, and leaned down to relay the plan she just heard.
“That might actually work,” Storm said calmly. “But I have to agree with Wormmon, how can we lure Meramon to that spot?”
“Just leave that to your auntie Pinkie Pie,” Storm could hear the sly grin her partner was wearing as she felt the transformed human climb to her feet.
The former pink party planning pony next jumped off of her partner’s back, doing a mid-air triple somersault before doing a “superhero” landing all while wearing her trademark smile.
“Hey you?” Pinkie called playfully, “Catch me if you can!”
Pinkie then took off running in the direction of the tree where the trap is-hopefully-laying in wait. Meramon just watch as the human began to do random things, like cartwheels and back flips, obviously trying to get the fire-type’s attention. Meramon wasn’t falling for it, but that changed when Storm sent her fox-tail inferno his way.
“What’s the matter?” Storm taunted mockingly, “Surely you can take one injured data-type and a lone human.”
To drive her point home, Storm sent another FTI at Meramon and then hurried after her partner. though injured the data-type was able to catch up to Pinkie and the former earth pony jumped into the champion’s back. Meramon winked out using his speed to try and hit Storm in her injured leg. The fox-like creature was able to dodge thanks in part to Pinkie’s warning.
Storm bank to the left and circled around, jumping over the other champion and striking him with one of her tail. Now enraged and bored with this game of cat and mouse, he gave chase. He tried to use his blinding speed, but found that his speed had started to decrease meaning he was reaching his limits, but he wouldn’t give up, not after all he had done to get to this point.
Pinkie looked behind her and smiled when she notice the decrease in the Meramon’s speed. She looked forward and began to count in her head. 3...Pinkie tightened her grip on her partner’s collar. 2...the muscles in Storm’s back legs tensed as the tree came into view.
1..., “NOW!!” Pinkie screamed.
Storm launched herself into the air with a powerful push of her back legs and soared over the tree. Pinkie looked down and saw Gabumon and Terriermon using their attacks to chip away at the remains of the tree’s support. Once the remaining support was gone, Salamon and Veemon used their attacks to knock down the tree…right on top of Meramon.
The fire-type actually saw the tree falling and might had the chance to move…if Wormmon hadn’t shot a silk thread into the crazed digimon’s right eye. The attack, while not truly harmful, was enough to stun Meramon so he couldn’t get out of the way in time.
The entire group was surprised when Meramon was able to brace himself and let the tree fell onto his shoulders, keeping him upside as he smiled arrogantly at the ponies-turned-humans and digimon.
“Pinkie, get off!” Storm screamed as she circled around and made a made dash at Meramon.
“Okie dokie lokie!!” Pinkie replied, and jumped off, curling into a ball and rolling on the ground for a brief moment before springing into an upright position.
Storm jumped into the air and sprung herself into a ball. The fox-like creature became cover in blue flame which quickly folded out into a dragon’s head. “Dragon wheel!!”
The group watched as the dragon head-like attack whooshed by them and struck Meramon just as he threw tree off of him. He braced himself as the dragon wheel pushed into him. He withstood the dragon wheel…for about 5 second before he lost his footing, and was sent flying with the attack.
“NNNOOOOO!!” Meramon screamed as the attack took it toll on him and he exploded into data particles.
For the next few seconds, everyone in the area was quiet as they watched the remains of the attack dissolved and the data particles dissolved into the air.
“Oh my,” Rarity said, saying the first thing that came to mind, as Fluttershy let out a weak moan and fell to the ground.
“I know I said this twice, but that was AWESOME!!” Rainbow screamed as Applejack simply nodded.
“YOU WERE SO COOL, STORM!!”
Startled, the group snapped around and saw that Pinkie has Storm, back in her Renamon form, one of her trademark bear hugs. Storm, while exhausted from the fight, was fine, though some noted the confused look she was wearing.
“Why do you keep calling me Storm?” the Renamon asked curiously.
“Easy Silly,” Pinkie replied playfully, “Because they must be a billion-zillion of you, it would be cooler to give you a nickname and to help you stand out.”
“That…actually makes sense,” Storm replied perplexingly, which cause Pinkie to giggle slightly.
The air was broken by the party pony’s laugh and the group gathered around to offer their own thanks for the unusual pair for saving them, though some were still shaken by the events they just witnessed. Twilight was about to join her friends when something caught her eye. Turning on her right heel, the young princess made the short walk and came to a stop at the items that were left by her student.
“Starlight…”Twilight muttered shamefully as she bent down and scooped the discarded item up.
“It would be alright,” Salamon said encouragingly, placing a paw on her partner’s leg. “We can get her back.”
The young princess looked at the puppy-like digimon with small, sad smile and patted Salamon on the head. If only she had that same kind of confidence as her new partner, but she just wasn’t so sure, there were to much to consider in this situation, and she didn’t know where to even start.
“If you are willing, I may know of a why to save that girl that was taken by the overseer,” Storm said, as she and the group gathered around Twilight, to show they support in helping to rescue Starlight.
Digidestined of Harmony: Stories in the Starlight: Dreams of the Forgotten
“You will remain here until the overseer had everything ready for your transport,” Said a black robot-like digimon with a blue shoulder and a red shoulder. “And don’t try anything funny, I will be watching you the enough time you’re here.”
Starlight watched as the digimon, HiAndromon, if she remembered right, closed the door and she heard a faint click. With a faint sigh, the young unicorn-turned-human looked around her room.
The room was very plain, just four stone walls, an eye-level window with prison bars in it, and a queen-sized bed right in the center. About the only other thing in the room was a nightstand to the right of the bed. Otherwise, the room was barren.
“What can try when I don’t even have my magic,” Starlight muttered to herself as I looked around the room.
When she couldn’t find anything that might have helped her with an escape, Starlight walked up to the bed and took a seat on it. She looked at the door and frowns as she thought things over.
“If I still had my magic I could teleport out of this place,” Starlight muttered to herself as she looked over her shoulder at the window. “Or I could use that spell I learned to shrink myself and slip through the bars and escape quietly.”
She spent the next five minutes thinking of all the spells that she could have used to escape. But quickly stopped as she realize she was only putting herself in a foul mood, and decided just to take a quick nap.
Starlight frowns when she saw her shoes, and looking under her right one found some mud and dirt. She was about to use her magic to untie them and her frown turned bitter when she was remained of her magic-less state.
“You know what,” Starlight muttered to herself, as she looked the bed, “Who cares if I get a little dirt and mud on these velvet bed sheets, even though they had clearly been washed recently.”
Starlight sighed and looked back at her shoes. She has been spending a little too much time with Rarity, was the former unicorn thoughts as she lean down. She frowns as she tried to get a hold on the laces and found it much harder than she first thought, the laces kept slipping from her clumsy grip.
Starlight’s face became set as she went to work, spending at least a minute and half to gain better control of her new hands. She wasn’t satisfied when she was able to grab the laces and untie her shoes. So, she spent the next five minutes untying and retying her shoes until she felt like she had total control over her new limbs.
Once she was satisfied with her progress, she took off her shoes, socks and jacket and put the jacket onto the nightstand, before lying on the bed. She stared up at the ceiling trying to put everything that happened to her together. Unfortunately she couldn’t put things in place, and she decided to try and get a little sleep, though she doubted she could to sleep with everything that had gone on.
(…)
Turn out that she was more tired than she first thought, as she fell asleep five minutes after laying her head on the pillow. The human Starlight frowns when she saw her former pony-self, Glimmer, for lack of a better name, overlooked a familiar town, and knew what this dream meant.
She was dreaming about the time she discovered the village that would be a starting point to rid Equestria of the curse that were cutie marks. The village was perfect, it was an isolated mining town. That meant that the town was far enough away from other town that nothing unexpected should happen, and that would give her enough room to carry out her noble goals with little problems.
And if that snowboarding stallion was a sign, conceiving the ponies of this town that cutie marks were the root of evil was going to be an easy feet, was what Starlight knew that Glimmer was thinking as she grinned arrogantly and walked into the town.
Starlight watched as the dream move at a quick pace, as her old-self talked to ponies around her age or slightly younger than her and told them that the source of their grief wasn’t the their conflicting world-views, but their cuties marks. Things went easier than she had expected, the ponies were onboard without much work, and within two and half weeks, most of the younger ponies were convinced that it was cutie marks that where the problem and not to follow them when they first appear.
Glimmer, once she had converted all of the youths of the town to her cause, decided it was time to tackle the more closed-minded residences of the town, and thanks to a young baker she knew the perfect place to start.
So, leaving her little group behind, she made the track to the house in the center of the town. The house stood out more than the rest due to the many trashcans filled to the brim with parts from different devices. Starlight remembered feeling uneasy seeing this of all this, but she remembered her older self pushing down this uneasiness and walking up to the front of door. She raised a hoof and was about to knock, only to miss the mark when the door opened.
Glimmer let out a light gasp as her hoof lightly hit the owner of the house right between the eyes. The pony, a middle age unicorn stallion, seemed only mild surprise by the sudden blow, but shrugged it off as he moved another full trash can into the roll before he looked at Glimmer nonchalantly.
“Oh, it’s you,” the stallion said nonchalantly. “You may come in. You want to talk to me about something, right?”
Caught completely by surprise, Glimmer simply nodded and followed the stallion into his house, with the human Starlight following behind them. Glimmer was surprised by what she found in the house. The place was littered with parts striped from different machines, taken apart to the point where she couldn’t tell what machines they came from. Strangely, the parts were in some sort of organized chaos, they were placed in spots that look like they serve similar function. Even more surprising was the floor, it was clean, no parts littered the floor.
“See anything you like?” the casual tone of the stallion brought Glimmer out of her stupor, and she looked at the stallion getting a good at him for the first time.
Surprisingly, the stallion was nearly completely black; a black mane blended well with his black coat. The only thing that separates the mane from the stallion’s coat was a thin purple strap running down the center of the mane, which Glimmer noticed was a straight forward cut. There were light wrinkles around the stallion’s mouth and eyes, and the eyes were a deep shade of purple that Glimmer had ever seen in her life.
Also, the eyes seem to pierce deeply into Glimmer even if the pony in question was just giving the mare a causal stare. Finally the stallion cutie mark...Glimmer quickly looked away from what she considered the worst thing in Equestria and looked the stallion in the eyes.
“Yes,” Glimmer said after taking a moment to compose herself, “Have you ever felt like you life would be better if you didn’t have anything to determine your destiny by?”
The stallion gave a Glimmer a look that the unicorn didn’t pick up on, but the current human Starlight recognized it immediately. It was pity...the stallion was pitying her past self ands she knew why.
“Kid, let me stop you before you go any farther,” the stallion said softly, “whatever you’re about to say about cutie marks, I will just take it as the words of a grieving child.”
Glimmer was taken aback by this comment. Stunned into complete motionlessness, Glimmer could only watch as the stallion began to collect some parts and study them. Glimmer finally recovered and leveled a fierce glare at the stallion's back.
“What did you meant by that?” the young unicorn asked sharply.
The stallion looked at Glimmer with that same look as before, and said, “Kid, I had seen your types before. Something in your life molded you into the mare that stands before me. Ironically, most ponies like you had tried to accept what happened to them and move on.”
Starlight felt her past self’s anger continued to build, but the stallion didn’t notice, or didn’t care; he just grabbed a lens from an old movie projector as he continued to talk.
“You, however, are one of the rare types, one you can’t let go of that pain, so you redirect into something common, like a cutie mark. Hmm, if I compacted this by a few centimeters it might work,” the stallion mused to himself as he looked over the part.
Starlight couldn’t take this stallion’s words anymore, and exploded into a furry. “WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF MY PAIN, YOU POOL EXCUSE OF A PONY!!?”
The stallion sighed as he put the lens into a box marked “maybe” on the front and looked at Starlight with a calm expression. “Kid, tell me what’s on my flank, and please just say what you see.”
Starlight scowled as the stallion turned and show his flank to the enrage unicorn, but answered none the less, “It’s a pickaxe striking something.”
“Right,” the stallion said calmly, “And what does that mean to you?”
Starlight’s patience was starting to run thin with this stallion and was about to put the middle-age pony in his place, when she was shot down by a casual look from him. What was it about that stallion’s eyes that seem to pierce her mind in such manner that she couldn’t keep herself composed?
“Y-You’re a miner, right?” Starlight replied, her voice trembling a little.
The stallion sighed as he took another part and placed it another box, one that was nearly filled and label “not” on the front, after a short study. “While it’s true I am a miner, it wasn’t because of my cutie mark that I chose my job.”
This confused Glimmer…surely the stallion’s cutie mark was the reason behind his current job. The stallion must had sense the young unicorn’s confusion because he looked at her with a sympathetic eye.
“Kid, my cutie mark represents my talent in mastering different tools, not just a single item. Because of this flexibility, I could have been a construction worker or even a sculptor. Even this-” the stallion waved a hoof around his part-filled house, “-my hobby of trying to make a typing machine that doesn’t need ink or paper is an extension of my mastery of tools. But, I choose to use my skills to become a miner to honor my father and grandfather who I lost at a young age.”
Glimmer was at a loss. No, she must had misheard, there would no way that a single cutie mark meant so much. Yes, that had to be it; the stallion was simply fooling himself, just so he could give his otherwise meaningless life some form of meaning.
Starlight couldn’t help but faceplate as these memories flooded her. It was almost embarrassing, watching her dream/past-self going through this meaningless dance as she made up these excuses just to justify her goal to rid cutie marks form the face of Equestria. She wanted nothing more than to reach out and scold her dream/past self for her childish action.
Unfortunately, she was in a dream, and thus was forced to just watch the dream to it end. Or she would, if a sudden noise hadn’t pierced through her dreaming mind.
(…)
“…You better get up,” HiAndromon shouted through the door, “The overseer is coming soon.”
Starlight opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling, the events of her dream still playing in her mind. She remembered that she tried to convince the stallion that he was wrong, but he would hear none of it, and eventually shooed her away. She remembered leaving the stallion’s place feeling both bitter and determined to prove that the stallion was wrong and she was right, which led her to discover how to take cutie marks from other ponies.
She had planned to use that newfound power to take the stallion’s cutie mark, but that planned was ruined when she learned that he had volunteered to watch the mines and chased off a pack of diamond dogs, and was never seen again.
Starlight sighed as she let all of these thoughts fade into the back of her mind and she set up, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. She put her socks and shoes on and as she was lacing up her footwear she drafted back to that time once again. She had remembered feeling jaded that she didn’t get to take the stallion’s cutie mark, but she eventually pushed the memory of him deep into the back of her mind. If it wasn’t for the device she found that led her to this place, she probably would have never remembered the stallion at all.
Sighing for the third time in the last minute, the transformed unicorn looked over her work, making sure the laces to her shoes were tied good enough, and stood up, grabbing her jacket off the nightstand. She walked up to the door as she heard the lock clicks and the door opened. She walked through the door without a moment of hesitation and just nodded at her guard as they waited on the overseer.
“I wonder what happened to you.” Starlight whispered under her breath. “I wish I gotten your name, I wish I could tell you have right you were.”
DigiDestined of Harmony: Digital World Chaos: The Rocks That Digs up Memories
“Renamon-,” Twilight began politely but was interrupted by a certain pink hair former pony.
“Silly Twilight, call her Storm,” Pinkie said playfully.
“…Right,” the young princess replied awkwardly, and cleared her throat before addressing the fox-like digimon, “Can I ask you a few things…Storm?”
Storm looked around the large, open area the group found themselves in, checking the few hiding places that were in eyesight. When she was certain there were no surprises, she looked at the former alicorn and said, “I don’t see why not. But we shouldn’t linger long; our window isn’t that large to begin with.”
The princess from another land nodded and thought back to the idea the otherworldly creature lay out; Storm had explained to the mismatch group about the supplies drops that the world’s leader, Lord Drakemoon, have order to be delivered to the remaining towns, and how one would be arriving within the next day and half to the overseer’s fortress. Storm figured that when the overseer would ship Starlight out.
The plan was to sneak into the fortress and grab Starlight before she’s was ship to LordDrakemon’s own fortress. The only problem with that plan was distance; the overseer’s fortress was a two and half day hick from the group’s current location, and that meant they wouldn’t make it to the transport before it left. Thankfully, the train that delivered the supplies had a stop at a nearby town, and was a four hour hike to that town.
Twilight gave her head a quick shake, and looked at Storm. “Maybe we should walk and talk?” the young princess suggested and Storm nodded.
The group resumed their hick, taking in the sights while keeping an eye out for any signs of trouble. But that didn’t stop the former ponies from talking to their new partners to try and get to know them better.
“So, young princess, what did you want to ask me?” Storm asked politely.
“Umm, you can call me Twilight,” the former unicorn/alicorn said with noticeable blush on her cheeks, and the digimon nodded her understanding. Twilight took a quick breath, to gather her thoughts before asking, “I’m just been curious about these mutant-type digimon, you didn’t get to go further with your explanation before we were interrupted.”
Storm nodded and looked at the Salamon by the princess’s side, “Like I told you before, mutant-types had many powers non-mutants don’t. At the same time, mutants can also have a trait that may work against them, like being able to digivolve in a certain way.”
Twilight looked at the puppy-like digimon at her side and focused at the markings on her ears. In truth, she was still a little lost on this whole digivolving process, but that didn’t stop her curious mind from wandering more. She only wished she had a quill and some paper to write all of this fascinating stuff down.
The young princess suddenly gasped and looked at the computer in her hands. She remembered that she could write things down on this device, and stumbled to open it. She dropped it nearly three times as she searched for the program she wanted. She began to type slowly, mainly due to her still somewhat unfamiliar with her body, but she was determined and soon had gained enough experience with her fingers to type slowly.
Once she was finished typing down this information and saw something called “autosave” flashing, she turned back to the fox-like digimon. “You have already informed us of this already, but I’m still confused about the other abilities mutant-types process. Can you explain it in more detail?”
Storm nodded and said, “Remember that Maramon Pinkie and I fought?” Twilight couldn’t hide the shiver that went down her back as she nodded, telling Storm to continue. “Well, he must have absorbed a mutant that allowed it to control his own energies to a certain degree. Normally, a Maramon wouldn’t be able to do what that Maramon showed us during our fight.”
Twilight nodded feverishly as she frantically typed on her computer. The large group stopped and waited on the young princess to finish. Once Twilight had written everything she just lean, she looked at Storm with curious gleam to her eyes.
“Can I ask you one more thing before we get moving?” Twilight asked and Storm nodded. “What did you say when Maramon began to attack, something about a chip.”
Storm reached into her right glove and took something out. The fox-like creature handed the small chip to the transformed princess. Twilight studied the item, looking at the orange leaf-like image curved into the surface with a strange character couldn’t identify.
“That is called a D-chip,” Storm said, as if reading Twilight’s thoughts. “It can temporarily rewrite a Digimon’s data to give them special abilities. The one you are holding is a Grade 0 healing chip.”
Twilight was awestruck at the power that such a little item could carry. Her mouth opened into an O shape when she realized something and looked at Storm. While digivolving to her next state had seemed too sped up her own healing, there were still signs of the trauma she experienced during her travels, most notable her scar across her eye.
Storm must have sensed the princess of Friendship thoughts, as she gave her a somewhat sad smile. “That’s a grade 0 chip, so it wouldn’t be very effect on a rookie-level digimon like myself.”
Twilight looked at the chip again, slightly confused by a few things, but realized she didn’t have time to dwell on anything and returned the chip to the right owner. Storm just slipped the chip back into her glove, and without a word, the group resumed their hick.
(…)
“Darling, is there any place we could rest,” Rarity whined as she looked down at her shoes, “These are highly fashionable but they aren’t made for long travels.”
“Rarity, we only been hiking for two hours, you can’t possibly be that tired,” Rainbow Dash said in a competitive tone. “I can go for another six hours, tops!”
The fashion designer leveled a glare in the Wonderbolt direction and said Wonderbolt returned the favor. Before anything could get out-of-hand, Gabumon got between his partner and her friend.
“Please, friends shouldn’t fight,” the digimon with the fur pelt said in a shy tone.
The former unicorn and Pegasus looked at the digimon and Gabumon looked at the ground shyly. Rarity, after a brief pause, smiled and patted the digimon on the head affectively.
“We’re not fighting, dear,” Rarity said, using the tone she uses when talking to her little sister. “We’re just tired.”
Gabumon smiled a small smile and wrapped his partner’s leg in a tight hug. Rarity’s smile grew a little as she continue to pat the strange creature on the head. In a weird way, Gabumon reminded Rarity a lot about how Sweetie used to be behaved, before meeting her two best friends and helping her to come out of her shell.
The fashinata and her partner separated when they heard Storm addressing the group.
“If you like, there’s a farm just close by. They’re quite friendly, I had stayed with them before.”
“what kind of farm is it?” Salamon inquired.
Storm smiled at the puppy digimon and said in a motherly fashion, “It's a rock farm that specialize in farming what is called forever ice rocks.”
This naturally made the entire group confused...what were these forever ice rock they friend were talking about? Well, one in the group wasn’t confused, Pinkie Pie just squealed in happiness and began jumping in place.
“Ow, Maud would love a ice rock that would always be super-duper cold!” The pink party planner exclaimed excitedly, and before any pony could say anything, she took off.
The group watched Pinkie left a dust cloud in her wake, and Storm looked at Twilight like she wanted to say something. Whatever she wanted to say was lost when she suddenly yelp and fall flat onto her face The group watched as the fox-like digimon was dragged across the ground thanks to a rope that was tired to her tail and the other end held by Pinkie.
The digimon looked at their partners with a where-did-she-get-that rope question in their large eyes. The transformed ponies exchanged looks before looking at their new partners.
“Darlings, we learned quite a way ago not to question Pinkie,” Rarity said casually. “Now, we mustn’t linger.”
With that said, the group hurried after Pinkie and Storm. It take long for the group to reach the farm that Storm told them about, and what they saw caused their mouths to drop open.
Before they stood a farm...or what remains of one. The main building, a barn which looked a lot like the one on Sweet apple acres, had several holes in it and some even still were still smoking. To the right of the barn, was the remains of a small storage shed, now just smoldering rumble.
Probably the biggest damage was to the fields to the left of the barn, they were bare, with only a few forever ice rock left in the ground. And to top things off, there were several large holes, some smoking even.
The entire group stood there, staring at the carnage before them. They wanted nothing more than to jump in and help whatever poor digimon that was caught in this mess.
Yet, none move, they all just stood there with their mouths hanging open. Well, nearly everyone was in shock, but no one saw as a certain farmer’s jaw become set and her hands balled into tight fists.
It felt like an eternal past before someone said something.
“Why the hay are we are we just standing around here for?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “let’s get down there and help!!”
Out of habit, the transformed pegasus jumped into the air and tried to zoom down to the farm using her wings. She hit the ground hard because she had forgotten that she no longer had her wings. But that simple action was enough to get every ponies out of their stupor and proceed to farm to offer their help.
Only Applejack remained rooted in place, eyes never leaving the farm. This didn’t go unnoticed be her partner digimon, as Terriermon tipped the apple farmer on ankles.
“You okay, cowgirl?” the bunny/dog digimon asked in concern.
For a moment, the transformed pony didn’t respond, she just put her hat on her head and angled it so most of her face was hidden by the shadow the item cast.
“Ah fine,” Applejack replied quietly and picked up the bunny/dog as she follow after her friends.
(....)
“This isn’t as bad as I first thought,” Twilight state as she seriva the damage up close. “The biggest damage seems to be the shed and the fields.”
If you say so,” Applejack said monotonically.
Twilight looked at her friend, concern by this sudden change in the usually upbeat farmer. The young princess notice the change in Applejack about the time they reached the farm, but didn’t want to jump to any collisions just yet. Plus, she had more pressing matters to attend to, like finding any digimon
“We’re found someone!” the voice of Veemon shouted.
Twilight, Salamon, Applejack and Terriermon broke into a light sprint and hurried to the back of the barn. The group came upon their friends and two unconscious digimon leaning against a wall of the barn.
The two were humanoid in appearance and were roughly the height of the transformed ponies, though it was hard to tell due to them sitting on the ground.
The digimon on the right was clearly a female, and was wearing a purple kimono that reached to her ankles. The sleeves were short reaching to the elbows and the shoulders were exposed. The digimon wasn’t wearing any type of footwear, and wotr thin, metal bands on her wrists. Her mane was tied into a short ponytail with large bangs hanging off the sides of her head, which highlighted her face somewhat.
On the kimono was a unique symbol; the symbol was basically a square with two lines sticking out of the bottom and top. The line ended in short ratingles, and the entire thing was covered in what made someone think of a lamp shade.
The male digimon next to the female looked very similar in design. He wore a blue, sleeveless tunic and yellow pants. He also wore metallic boots and thin metal band similar to the ones that the female wore. His face was covered by a metallic gray faceplate, and there was a small beetle horn sticking out of his forehead.
Like the female digimon, the male’s outfit was covered in a strange symbol. This symbol was a large dot in a circle, magnet shape on the top and line on top of that.
Twilight looked between the two, wonder when they would wake up so she could ask them for their names and what happened here, when she heard a beeping noise. She lifted the arm which held that band that appeared with her device, and was shocked a light shine from the top of the brace and soon an three-dimensional image appeared over the item. The young princess was more shocked when she saw information appear aside a picture of the female digimon.
“Demi-Kazemon, the newly discovered child form of the legendary warrior Kazemon,” Twilight read outloud. “While she lacks the skills and refinement of her older self, she make up for it with her high spirits and great determination.”
Twilight pointed her brace at the male digimon, and it beeped as the image and information changed.
“Hornmon, the child form of another legendary warrior. While he doesn’t process the strength of his older forms, he can still can be force to not be taken lightly, when his friends are in danger.”
Twilight lowered her arms and studied the digimon. Say for a few cuts and bruises, the two were virtually unharmed, and they were coming to.
Hornmon opened his eyes and look around. His body tensed when he saw the group of humans and digimon looking down at him. His horn began to charge with electricity, and, sensing danger, the group took a step back.
“Listen,” Twilight said in claiming voice, “We don’t mean you any harm. I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle, my friends and I just want to help.”
The transformed alicorn than listed off her friends and their partners, but her words didn’t bring any comfort to the scared digimon. If anything, he began more scared as he struggle to stand and tried to attack the group. Thankfully, Storm got in front of the group, but kept herself in relax stance as she stare into the bug-like digimon’s eyes. Hornmon recognized Storm and relaxed, allowing the energy on his horn to die down.
“I know you,” Hornmon said in a hoarse voice. “You had stayed at my farm a few times.”
Storm nodded and looked ready to say something, but was interrupted by Applejack, who spoke in an uncharastically harsh tone.
“What happened here?”
The transformed ponies looked at their friend awkwardly. Where she was always forward with a lot of ponies, she rarely use such a tone as the one she just used. But Applejack ignored her friends’ eyes and kept her focus on the injured digimon. Hornmon, however, didn’t find fault with the young human’s tone, and he began to explain things as he checked on Demi-Kazemon.
“I really can’t say what happened. A small group from the Gobi-Gotsu united front suddenly attacked. I didn’t have time to gather myself before they starting their attack. Luckily, my wife and I weren’t hurt to badly...are you okay, dear?”
As Hornmon was busy tending to his wife, the transformed ponies and their partners turned to Storm for information. The fox digimon took a moment to collect her thoughts before the group.
“I have heard of this united front. The group is just one large gathering of two digimon named Goblimon and Gotsumon. They are really nothing but thugs and thieves, attacking and plundering the small towns and settlements in this area. But I find this attack a little unusual.”
“Why that?” Wormmon asked meekly.
“Because, outside a few spa uses and food storage, forever ice rocks doesn’t have much value. So why did a bunch thieves steal something so useless?”
The transformed ponies and their partners exchange looks. While this world was still new to them, Storm made her explanation very easy to understand and that got them brainstorming as to why thieves would want something so worthless. While the group was busy brainstorming, Applejack got close to the warrior couple.
“Do you know if these vermits have a place they hang their hats?” the farmer asked in a harsh whisper.
Hornmon looked at the transformed Earth pony and saw the fire hidden in her eyes. Though hesitant, the young warrior knew that there was probably no talking the young one out of the action she was probably planning.
“I believe the bandits have a small campsite west of this location,” Hornmon told the young “human” reluctantly. “But since the attack was a while ago, the bandits had probably moved on.”
That was all Applejack needed to hear. She looked at the group, and was pleased that her friends were still talking among themselves. She smiled a cold smile as she used this to sneak Terriermon and herself out without everyone noticing. Well, that wasn’t entirely true; Twilight did manage to catch Applejack leaving when she noticed she wasn’t with them.
The young princess decided to let her friend be for the time being, to sort out whatever she was going through.
(...)
As Applejack made her way west of the ice rock farm, memories from her childhood began to flood her mind. She remember, when she was a filly just a few years older than Applebloom, coming home from school and showing her mom the picture she made in class and ecstatic Butter Cup pinning the picture on their fridge.
She next recalled how she would eagerly helped her father in the field, and if they get their chores done early, they would spent the rest of the day playing. A bitter and sad smile crossed the farmer’s lips as she remembered the picnic she had with her family shortly after Applebloom was born.
Applejack’s smile was quickly replaced with a bitter scrawl as the next memory came to light. She recalled the beaten and bruised bodies of her parents laying the ground in front of their barn. The barn itself was in poor shape, with numerous holes in it and a quickly growing fire that threaten to consume the barn at any minute.
Applejack was brought out of her sorrowful flashback before she get to the worse part of that old memory when she felt something tipping her cheek. She turned her head to the right and saw Terriermon, perched on her shoulder, looking really worried.
“You sure you’re doing good, cowgirl?” the bunny/dog digimon asked in concern.
Applejack was about to say something when a noise caught her attention. Quickly ducking behind a large stone tree, the transformed pony peeked her head out. What she saw both fascinated her and confused her. There was a group of six digimon out in the open. The group was split in half; three were green goblin-like creatures with red mohawks, wearing a dirty brown loincloth and matching vest, and wielding wooden clubs. The other digimon was just a mess of loving rocks made up a humanoid shape.
Apple looked at the group and wondered if this was the one she has been seeking for the last twenty minutes? She heard a beep and looked at the brace at her wrist. She remembered what Twilight did earlier and aimed the item at goblin-like digimon.
“Goblimon, an evil virus digimon known for hunting in packs and it rather low intelligence, and its even shorter attention span.” Applejack turned her brace to the rock digimon and it information popped up a second later. “Gotsumon, the rock digimon. It’s cheerful and mischievous personality hides it explosive temper.”
Applejack lowered her ars and looked at the group. If this was the group that raided the farm, why were they still so close. The farm couldn’t be more than a couple yards away, so how come they aren’t further away?
“So what do you think cowgirl?” Terriermon inquired curiously. “Are these the guys that rough up that couple.”
Applejack couldn’t be sure, she still found it weird that the bandits were still so close to the farm they just raided. So she decided the best of course of action was to pull a “Twilight” as her friends like to call it and gain a little more information before she proceeded.
The apple farmer took her partner in her hands and kept herself low to the ground as she tiptoed closer to the group. Lucky for her, there was a rock formation large enough to hide her and close enough that she could listen to the bandits.
“I hope the boss get done with his business soon,” one of the Gotsumon said, clearly tense. “I don’t like being so close to one of the place we just stole from.”
“Don’t worry your rocky head off,” a Goblimon said causally. “With the beating the boss gave those so-called “warriors,” I wouldn’t bet on them coming after us.”
Yeah,” a second Goblimon chimed arrogantly. “The way the boss rough up that Hornmon was really fun to watch. To bad we’re in a hurry, or I would have stayed and given those so-called “warriors” a little something extra to remember us by.”
The Goblimon began to laugh cruelly and soon the Goblimon joined their friend and together, their laugh turned into boasting. They talked about they were going to do to the warrior couple if they had been given the chance, and every word Applejack heard was making her blood boil. She couldn’t stand how causally these verimts were talking about ruining both the lives and the livelihood of the couple. And with each new thing she heard, her anger jump to a height she thought she wasn’t capable of reaching.
At the same time, the farmer wasn’t aware of the slight glow that outlined her hands. Terriermon noticed and was about to say something, when a Goblimon said something that sent the apple farmer into a rage.
“Well, if you ask me, we did these so-call “Warriors” a favor by only damaging their farm in the way we did. Maybe now they were would grow something better so we could get a little extra cash next time we show up!”
The three Goblimon began to laugh boastfully, and that laugh was the last straw for Applejack. With a roar of pure rage, the transformed pony jumped from her hiding spot, and ran towards the Goblimon. The farmer’s fists became engulfed in a orange aura as she thrust her right fist forward and connected with a Goblin's face. The goblimon digimon fell hard onto the ground with a dazed look on it face.
The other two Goblimon and the lone Gotsumon, as the others rock digimon had mysterious vanished, look at the human in confusion as Applejack spun around on her heel and sent a Goblimon to the ground with a solid backhand. She delivered a strong karate chop to the third Goblimon forehead to knock him flat on his back.
Applejack turned and looked at the rock-like digimon darkly, as the Gotsumon began to back away from the enraged transformed pony. Applejack was so focused on the rock digimon in front of her, she failed to see the other two Gotsumon coming in from her right. Thankfully, she wasn’t alone, as Terriermon jumped in front of her and began spinning.
“Terrier tornado!” The farmer looked behind her just as the bunny/dog digimon sent the mini tornado at the two rock digimon that knocked them flat on their butts. Terriermon looked at her partner with a cocky grin. “I got your back, cowgirl.”
Applejack couldn’t help but by infected by her partner’s cockiness. Together she felt like their could take on these vermits and got some needed justice to that couple. The confidence she was feeling was suddenly lost when a booming voice filled her ears.
“What the heck are you doing to my boyz?”
Applejack could feel her dread growing as the digimon the voice belong to come into view, and began to realize that she might be in over her head.
(...)
“Rarity can I ask a favor?” Twilight asked, as she took a seat at the table.
The fashionista looked up from the curtain was trying to mend with DemiKazemon’s help and smiled at her friend. “what can I help you with, darling?” she asked calmly
The young princess fidget slightly as she took out the goggle that belonged to her student and gently set them on the table.
“I was wondering if you can fix the band on these?” Twilight asked.
“Hmm…” Rarity took the item off the table and gingerly ran her thumbs across the elastic band. “Elastic is one of the more difficult fabrics to mend. It would be easier to the replace it.”
the transformed unicorn look at her host and held out the goggles.
“Dear, do you know if you have an elastic on hoof, prefurred one in this shade of purple?” Rarity asked politely.
The young warrior looked at the item in her guest’s hand and than at Rarity. “We do have elastic lying around, but I don’t think we have any in color you want.”
Rarity looked at the item in hand and was stuck by an idea. “Do you have dyes?” she asked calmly, and DemiKazemon nodded. “Than could I trouble you bring me those items?”
“After you and your friends helped my husband and I, it the least I do,” DemiKazemon replied with motherly smile as she got up from the table.
Rarity smiled gently and looked at her digimon partner. “Gabumon…” the transformed pony frown as she recalled finding an unconscious farm hoof who just happened to be another Gabumon. “Hmm, Pinkie may had the right idea with giving our partner’s nicknames, to help identify you more easily.”
She studied her digimon partner, and took in everything about the shy digimon; from his lizard-like body, to his wolf-like fur pelt. Rarity smile ear to ear as a fitting nickname popped into head.
“What do you think of the name Frost, dear?” Rarity asked kindly.
The pelt wearing digimon looked at his partner with a small, shy smile and said, “I like it.”
Rarity couldn’t help but giggle at her partner’s shyness before asking, “Would you like to learn how to dye fabrics?”
“I would,” Frost replied shyly, which caused Rarity to giggle some more.
Twilight watched this entire exchange with a soft smile, and looked down at Salamon. It still amazed her how fast her friends were bonding with their new partners. She made a note to write down a report on this matter when things had settled.
The young princess turned her attention back to her friend when Rarity began talking to her.
“Now daring, what’s on your mind?” the designer asked curiously.
Twilight blinked in surprise and said with a squeak in her voice, “I am really that transparent?”
Rarity just laugh lightly and want back to figuring how to use her hands to feed a strain of fabric through a needle head. “I would like to believe I have known you long enough to see when you have something on your mind.”
Twilight sighed as she picked up her digimon partner and sit her on her lap. She began patting the dog digimon on the head and Salmon quickly dozed off into a light slumber, as Twilight gathered her thoughts.
“It just, I notices how Applejack been acting since we came here, and I was wondering why,” the young princess said, after a moment pause.
The humor suddenly died from Rarity’s eyes and she set the needle down on the table. she sighed heavily and stared at the items on the table. Twilight looked at her friend and waited for her to gather thoughts.
“I think seeing the state of this farm brought back a lot of unpleasantries for our dear Applejack,” Rarity spoke quietly, after a long and awkward silence.
“what do you mean?” twilight asked uncertainty.
Rarity sigh sadly and picked up her needle and thread. “It’s not easy to talk about, but one night a strange group of creatures wandered into Sweet Apple Acres, and tried to steal from the apple family. Applejack’s parents confronted the bandits and the ensuing fight started a fire.”
Twilight gasp just loud enough to wake her partner and Salamon looked at the transformed alicorn in slight confusion.
“I had about something like that happening,” Twilight said slowly, “But I always thought it was a creature from the Everfree Forest that caused it.”
“What’s the Everfree frost?” Frost asked curiously.
Rarity chuckled a mirthless chuckle and patted her partner on the head. “It just a place from my world, darling,” she replied and then looked at Twilight. “What happened next truly horrified everypony in Ponyville.”
Twilight swallowed the lump that formed in her throat as she silently gestured for her friend to continue.
“The fire did scare the bandits away, but it spread quick and soon the entire barn was engulf by the blaze. The entire matter was made worse when the apples realized young Applebloom was in the building.”
A round of gasp want around the room, but the loudest came from the transformed pony princess. The designer looked at her friend as Twilight began to put the pieces together.
“They went into the building, didn’t they?” Twilight said breathlessly.
Rarity nodded as her face grew dark. “They managed to get the little darling out, but they suffered grievous injuries. By the time help arrived, it was far too late, the apples had sub-come to their injuries,” she said quietly.
The room fell into a tense silence after that, as DemiKazemon returned with the items Rarity requested. The transformed unicorn thanked the digimon and she got to work right away. She first showed Forst the best way to dye elastic and then she turned her attention to the goggles on the table.
Twilight was deep in thought about everything she just learned and came to a few of her own ends. The story Applejack told Applebloom and her friends so long ago didn’t sit right in her, in a certain way, but now she knew the whole picture and it just made her a little more sad, when she realized the real reason Applejack left Ponyville when she was a filly.
The young princess decided that when her friend returns, she would give her a big hug.
(...)
“Now than, tell why you been roughing up my boyz,” the green digimon asked menacingly, glaring at the apple farmer and her digimon partner.
The digimon in question made Applejack think of an uglier version of the Goblimon she and Terriermon has been roughing up. The digimon had arms that were nearly as long as its body and both wrists were wrapped; the right wrist was covered in leather and the left wrist was wrapped in cloths.
Strangely, the ankles of the digimon were wrapped in the same material, only on the opposite ankle. The digimon was wearing a thigh high leather skirt, and carrying spiked, bone club in it right hand. probably the most striking features on the digimon was the metal spike on its shoulders, it long jaw with jagged teeth showing and a long fang sticking out of each side of the mouth and its long white hair.
Applejack aimed her brace at the digimon and it data appeared a second later. “Ogremon. A virus digimon known for it fierce temper and ever fiercer will to seek out stronger opponents to prove it strength.”
“Huh, a DigiDestined,” Ogremon said nonchalantly. “I didn’t think there was any left after the world starting to go to the pot.”
Applejack cocked an eyebrow at the term “DigiDestined”, but choose to ignore it for the time being as Oremon took a step forward and pointed it club at the farmer.
“How about you tell me why you’re laying a beating on my crew, and I might just go easy on you,” the ogrish digimon stated threateningly.
Applejack, despite the anger was feeling at the moment, choose to keep her mouth shut. Terriermon was a different story, however.
“Hey, tall, dark and urgly, why did you attack that farm?” the bunny/dog digimon asked pointedly.
At first, Ogremon seem a bit angry and confused, but it wasn’t long before his confusion cleared up and he began laughing in cold manner.
“HAHAHA, that worthless pot of land,” the green virus digimon said arrogantly. “I did that lamb couple a favor, if you ask me. What’s more more useless than chucks of ice that never melt, farmer, that’s what! Maybe now that I did a number on their land, they should just pack up and leave.”
Well, that was it for Applejack, hearing the ogre disrespecting the farming professional and calling the couple running the farm lame, was enough to set the transformed earth pony into a rage once again.
She roared angrily as she charged at Ogremon, her fists lighting up in that same aura from before. She jumped up and tried to punch the digimon right between the eyes. Ogremon cocked an eyebrow and sidestep to the right.
The blonde hair girl could only gasp as she flew past the digimon and said digimon drove his elbow into her back. Applejack hit the ground hard and felt all the air escape her lungs, making her head spin a little.
“Ha, little girl, you really thought you could take me on,” Ogremon said mockingly, as he raised his club over his head, “But no human is match for me.”
The virus digimon was about to swing his club down when a small tornado stop him. He look to his right just as Terriermon rushed the larger digimon.
“Bunny blast!” rookie digimon screamed as he fire green energy pullets from his mouth.
Ogremon just brought his club up and block the attack. He next thrust his free arm forward, his fist glowing purple.
“Pummel whack!” the ogrish digimon screamed as a purple energy face came flying out of his fist.
Terriermon wasn’t able to react in time and took the full force of the attack. He screamed as he sent flying through the air and landed hard on his back. With the wind knocked out of him, the bunny/dog digimon struggle to get to his feet as Ogremon strolled up to him.
“Ha, I don’t know what today is, but you puny digimon and human thought you can take me on?” Orgemon sneered mockingly, as grabbed Terriermon by the ears and lifted him up to his eye level. “But you’re a hundred year too young to take on the great and powerful Orgemon.”
Applejack finally gathered her wits and got onto her hands and knees, and looked in time to see Orgemon raise his club, ready to deal the finishing blow. She became rooted in place as she flashed back to the night of her parents’ death. She still remember the strange bird-like creatures as they loomed over her parents, broken and beaten, and in an act of desperation, she had thrown a lamp into a nearby hay barrel, in hopes that the fire would drive the creatures off.
The trick worked and the creatures fleed. Unfortunately, the fire quickly spread...and, she was snapped back to reality when she heard a cry and saw as Terriermon managed to get on final hit, right in Ogremon's face. But all it did was irritate the virus and he threw Terriermon to the ground. She watched as Ogremon kicked the beaten digimon a few times before he raised his club high ready to finish what he started.
Not again, Applejack thought, as her anger began to flare.
That night continue to flash across Applejack’s eyes and this caused her anger to grow. When she saw the club going down, her anger reached it peak, and with an angry cry jump to her feet and charged. Orange energy in the shape of squares exploded around the farmer’s hands as she punched Orgemon’s in the face.
The virus digimon was sent flying to the side, dazed by sudden attack. Applejack used to this time check on her partner. She was relieved when she saw that Terriermon was battered and bruised but was otherwise unharmed.
“Ah’m sorry,” Applejack said regretfully. “Ah made a mass of things again. Ah didn’t mean to get you hurt.”
Applejack just closed her eyes tight as the tears began to flow. She had become so lost in that old memory that has she couldn’t see anything in front of her, and this has cast her once again.
“Ah’m just the worse,” Applejack muttered to herself.
“Did anyone tell you tears are cold?” A weak voice said jokingly.
Applejack opened her eye and saw Terriermon looking at her with a weak smile. A relieved smile bloomed on the farmer’s face as she scooped her partner into a gentle hug.
“Ah’m so sorry,” Applejack moaned, “Ah never meant to get yah’re hurt like this.”
“Hey, what’s a course lumps between friends,” Terriermon said lightheartedly.
Applejack smiled at the courage her digimon was showing. A sudden noise caused the two to look to the right and saw that Orgemon had recovered and was in the process of getting to his feet, shaking off the cobwebs as he gathered himself.
“You up for another round, cowgirl?” Terriermon asked as he jumped out of Applejack’s arms.
“Yah should yah’re up for this?” the farmer asked her partner.
Terriermon just grin in Applejack’s direction and for some reason that filled the earth-pony-turned-human with confidence. She looked at Orgemon, who had gotten to his feet and was coming at them in a light sprint, and suddenly the energy before before returned and a light shined from her brace.
Applejack looked at her brace, and remember what happened with Pinkie, brought her hand to the item. The energy around her hands moved to the brace as a D-chip materialized and she took it out. She took out her digivice and moved to insert the chip into the slit.
“Hold up, cowgirl, you should say something before you put that baby in,” Terriermon said playingfully, and got the message behind Applejack’s choked eyebrow. “Because it would be cool to do.”
Applejack could only shake her head, and wonder why this little guy wasn’t Pinkie’s partner. Still, she humored the little guy and held out the d-chip in front of her.
“D-chip, Ready!” Applejack said and put the chip into her device, “Install Digivolution!”
The farmer thrust her digivice out and a stream of energy came from it. Terriermon absorbed the energy and began his digivolution as he was encased in an egg-like object.
“Terriermon digivolve too…” the egg plused and than broke open revealing Terriermon’s new form, “Gargomon!”
Applejack was surprised by her partner’s new form; it was basically just a bigger version of Terriermon’s normal form, but with pants and a a green mask covering his head and most of his ears, and a red diamond painted on the forehead. He wore a belt across his chest and a pair of strange weapons covered his hands.
Orgemon was mildly surprised by this new development, but that didn’t stop him from his charge. Gargomon responded to this by jumping into the air and going into a barrel roll as he soared over the ogre-like digimon’s head.
“Gargo Laser!” the bunny/dog digimon screamed as pellet of green energy fly from his weapons.
Orgemon, however, proved to be a bit faster, as he was able to thrust his club over head and spin it around blocking or deflecting Gargomon attack. A few Gargo laser pellet did manage to slip past Ogremon's defenses, but they hit his shoulders harmless.
Orgemon snapped around and fired his pummel whack just as Gargomon was coming in for a landing. But the newly digivolved digimon prove to be truly light on his feet, as he cartwheeled to his right and avoid the attack.
“Why look at the fellew flipping around like that,” Applejack said softly to herself, and frowns when she saw something.
It was a Goblimon, either a new one or one that Applejack and Terriermon took out early and had recovered, was coming on from behind Gargomon. Applejack didn’t need to be Twilight to know what was going; Gargomon was to busy dodging Ogremon’s attacks to notice the vermin sneaking up behind him.
Applejack growled as she charged forward, her arms once again exploding with that orange energy. If there one thing the farmer hated more than dishonest, it was dirty move like Ogremon and his followers was pulling, and the anger she was feeling at the moment seems to be feeding that strange arua, it was glowing brighter with each passing second.
“FLIP!! GET DOWN!!” Applejack screamed as she ran from the side.
The newly named Flip dropped low and the club aim right from the back of his head missed by a hair. The Goblimon didn’t have time to be surprise as he got a straight punch to the side of his head. Ogremon watched as the Goblimon fell to the ground, dazed and moaning, but otherwise alive. He looked as Applejack, aura surging around her fists, joined her partner and looked ready for another round.
“You think you scare me?” Ogremon asked menacingly, “Think again!”
The virus type began to ready his attack, but Flip and Applejack wasn’t having any of that. They both charge forward and closed the gap before Ogremon could blink.
“Animal uppercut!” Flip screamed as he combined his attack with a powerful uppercut from Applejack.
“LOOK LIKE OGREMON BLASTING OFF AGAIN!!!” the virus digimon screamed as he was sent flying into the horizon.
(back on the farm)
Pinkie was helping to move some rumble from inside the barn when she suddenly straightened up, gasping loud in the process. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and looked at the former pony. Suddenly, her hair shot straight up and her body violently shook, for about three seconds.
“OOH, that was a doozy,” Pinkie said cheerfully, as her hair snapped back into it original position.
“What was that?” Storm asked curiously.
“Oh, that was just my pinkie senses telling me somepony was using an anime reference that doesn’t belong,” the former pink party pony replied nonchalantly.
The Renamon watched as her partner walked over to one of her friends with a cock eyebrow. She made a note about this new development with Pinkie, and want back to her own job.
(back on the battlefield)
“Well, that was anti-climicate,” Flip said as he change back to his Terriermon form.
The dog/bunny looked at her partner with a cocky grin, but it was wiped away when he saw the look Applejack was giving him. He opened his mouth say something, but stopped when the farmer dropped to her knees and wrapped the digimon in tight yet gentle hug.
“Ah’m so sorry, Flip,” Applejack said apologitically. “Ah hope ya can forgive me from what Ah put you through.”
“It okay,” Flip said cheerfully. “I’m one touch digimon.”
Applejack looked at her digimon partner as her eyes started to get a little misty. She once gain hugged the little guy and the little digimon returned the favor to the best of his power. The two stayed like this for about a minute before Applejack stood up and placed Flip comfortable on her left shoulder.
“Now, Flip, ‘bout we go and see what we can find in these vemirts’ hideout,” the farmer said positively, but frown when she notice her partner giving her a look. “ya okay, sugarcube?”
“What with the name Flip,” the bunny/dog digimon asked curiously.
Applejack just giggled as she made her way in the direction Orgemon came from, certain that where they had store their loot.
“After Ah saw you flip around like you did, I figure that was the perfect nickname for ya. Why, don’t like it?” Applejack asked.
Flip was quick to shake his head, and gave his pony-turned-human partner a smile that made her think of Pinkie’s smile; both had the kind of smile that was highly infectious, as the farmer found herself smiling at the two continued to search for the bandits’ ill-begotten look.
(A short while later...back at the ice Rock farm)
Twilight sighed faintly as she set down a handful of broken wood, and worked her shoulders to relieve some tension in them. How she missed her horn and her magic, but she wouldn’t deny the strength and stamina her body now process. While it wasn’t much to write home about, she knew that her natural body wouldn’t be about to work nearly 40 minutes without the aid of her magic.
The young princess let out another sigh and decided a short break was in order, to much labor was still hazardous to one’s health, regardless of one’s body. She left the area she had been working in, and took a deep breath of fresh air. She felt a sense of accomplishment as she looked around; her friends, their digimon partners, and the farm hooves had made great progress; the fallen debris had been cleared away, and the holes that were made had been pitched up.
It was nowhere near complete, but it was still progress, and for that Twilight felt like smiling. That feeling was quickly washed away as the farm made her think of Applejack, and she began to worry about her friend; it has been over a hour since she had taken off, and even with her digimon partner by her side, this new world was filled with dangers.
Twilight could only hope that her earth pony friend hadn’t down anything to reckless, given her odd behavior when she saw the state this farm was in.
“Still thinking about Applejack, darling?” Rarity asked, as she and Frost joined the young princess side.
Twilight let out a mute sign and looked at her friend. She wanted to ask Rarity, the mare who had known Applejack the longest, if she ever seen Applejack like this before, but decided against it. Instead, she just nodded and turned back to the farm, there was still much work that needed to be done.
the two were about walked back to the farm when Rarity presented the young princess with the fixed goggles belonging to Starlight. “It may not be my best work, but it should do.”
Twilight smiled gratefully as she took the goggles from Rarity and looked at them. If she didn’t know that the fabric was new, she would have sworn the band was never broken in the first place. She moved to put the item into a jacket pocket, but stopped as she looked at the goggles.
Something was nagging at her, from deep within her mind. She knew that these goggles believe to Starlight, but a strange urge was telling her to put them on, saying the item would be safer if she wear it instead of just keeping them in a pocket. Twilight tried to fight this urge, from about five seconds before she put item on her head and worked her mane through it so there wouldn’t be any discomfort.
“So-” Twilight looked at Rarity, “-How do I looked?”
“Hmm,” Rarity rubbed her chin as she looked at her friend. “While not my first choice from accessorizing, darling, it works on you. I dare say it makes your outfit look complete.”
Twilight just smiled, glad that her fashionable friend had agreed with her choice and two walked back to the farm.
The transformed ponies and their digital partners were just reaching the farm when they heard a noise followed by a cry. The two ponies looked up in time to see a large piece of debris falling right towards them. Out of instinct, the two transformed ponies ducked down, took their partners into a tight hug and braced themselves for the impact to come.
“YEEHAA!” the familiar cry caused both ponies to open their eyes and watched as Applejack soared over their heads, and hit the debris away, her fist glowing orange.
Twilight and Rarity got straightened up as they looked at their friend, who titled her hat up and gave them a cocky grin. The former unicorn and her unicorn friend could only stare at the strange energy their friend had around her fists and wonder what it was.
“Digi-soul!” the group heard somepony say softly, and looked to their right to see Hornmon with dear-in-the-headlights look.
