Lightning flashed and lit up the sky while thunder cracked like a whip in the distance. The downpour that had been drenching Canterlot was now slowly moving away, leaving the city and surrounding neighborhoods sopping wet, but otherwise unharmed.

A broken computer monitor with a crack in its screen flickered to life within the Canterlot City junkyard, illuminating the muddy ground in front of it. Its screen was covered in static, like that of a broken television, and a tall, menacing figure kept reappearing each time the monitor flicked on and off. Each time the figure appeared, it grew a little bit closer to the screen. It eventually grew so close that its chest soon took up the entirety of the monitor.

The figure raised its hands the moment it was close enough to touch the opposite side of the screen. It reached forward and touched the glass, somehow pushing through it as if it were a digital effect in a 3-D movie.

The monitor's screen began to glow like a spotlight had been switched on inside the computer. Two massive claws attached to two spindly arms reached out of the monitor like an open window and grasped at the dirt in front of the device. The arms began to pull the rest of its body out. The figure—now a tall, extremely thin humanoid creature—slid out of the computer like a snake leaving its burrow. It got to its knees the moment it had fully exited the computer and soon stood to its full height. It towered over the tall mesh fences that formed the perimeter of the junkyard, allowing it to easily survey a great deal of the land surrounding it.

The creature was easily thirteen feet tall with a pair of deep crimson eyes that scanned its surroundings like the searchlights of a prison tower. It took notice of the piles of garbage and large industrial machines that surrounded it. It immediately knew where the portal had dropped it off.

"A junkyard..." the creature sounded none too pleased with its current location. It raised one of its claws and placed it over its face. It hated the smell of decomposing matter, inanimate or otherwise. It only liked the smell when a kill was fresh and decomposition had only just begun.

It took a moment to observe its current location even further. This was not the destination it was told would be its arrival point. A mistake must have been made while trying to punch a hole between the Digital World and the world of the humons. It sighed. It was understandable. Traversal between the real and Digital World had not been attempted since the war a thousand years ago, so it was only fair to assume a few errors were bound to occur.

The creature turned its attention back towards the mesh fence in front of it. Over the fence it could see a small city in the distance, with a larger more suburban settlement spanning out widely just off to its left side.

A sinister look spread across the creature’s face. The Royal Knights were known far and wide for their stances on peace and fellowship. They believed all digimon were stronger when they lived together in harmony. They believed it was through peace that true bonds of friendship could be forged and through these bonds digimon would grow stronger by learning to fight for others rather than just themselves.

If the fledgling knight was going to be anywhere, he most certainly would be in a settlement. The creature snickered to itself darkly. It began to imagine the humons trying to live up to the Royal Knights’ beliefs. Them standing in its way as it came to collect the Royal Knight who now was trapped in this world with no other digimon around to save him. A smile spread across its face as it imagined what the humons screams would sound like as it casually slayed them for getting in its way.

Two leathery wings soon stretched out from both sides of its back. It slowly began to flap them before taking to the air. A bright flash of lighting suddenly covered the sky, masking the creature as it turned itself in midair and began soaring towards the city. A crack of thunder came soon after, easily drowning out its wicked and lengthy laughter.

******

Sunset jolted upwards in her bed after witnessing the strange nightmare. She sat up completely and placed a hand to her forehead. She wasn’t quite sure what caused her to dream up what she had seen. A gangly-looking demon appearing in the city junkyard like the girl from The Ring? Maybe one of the movies she watched with Flash had something to do with it? But they were all unbelievably bad, so she sincerely doubted that was the case. Maybe it was something in the pizza? Or perhaps she just ate too much of it?

Her hand started to sink towards her throat as she lost herself in thought. It eventually touched a piece of jewelry she was wearing around her neck. Sunset looked down and soon realized that she was still wearing her geode. It felt warm to the touch, telling her that it had recently been used.

Sunset pursed her lips and began to lose herself in thought again. “Was I picking up someone else’s dreams in my sleep?” She whispered to herself. “And if so, then who’s?”

Too curious to sleep at this point, Sunset got up from her bed and walked towards the railing of her loft. She lowered her body down behind the railing in order to hide her modesty, just in case Flash happened to be up as well. Thankfully, he wasn’t. Flash was sound asleep on her couch wearing only his t-shirt and jeans with his shoes and socks tossed haphazardly on the floor alongside his hoodie. He clearly wasn’t dreaming, so she decided to check him off her list as a suspect.

She turned around to look at the clock on her bedside table. It read: 4:30 AM. She groaned and cupped her face in her hands. It was way too early for anyone in their right mind to be up, especially on a Saturday. She walked over to her bed and flopped down on her mattress.

She knew she wasn't gonna be able to get back to sleep now, her brain was already too overloaded with questions to even consider rest. Now she was going to be pissed off and cranky later in the day and essentially be a burden on everybody else she’d be forced to talk to.

She absentmindedly kicked her feet while she continued to sulk in her bed. Eventually one of her feet swung in an odd direction and ended up hitting something sharp that was lying on her floor. She squealed in pain, but managed to clamp her hand over her mouth before that squeal could be heard. She immediately sat up and lifted her foot onto the bed. She examined it until she found what looked to be a small piece of shrapnel stuck between her first and second toes.

She pulled the shard out of her foot with little, making much less noise this time. The wound it left behind was barely big enough to cause any bleeding. She examined the shrapnel further and discovered it wasn’t a discarded piece of metal at all, but something far more fragile. The shard broke to pieces in her hand. She brought the pieces up closer to look at them. They were purple in color and felt oddly familiar, kind of like... her eyes widened… kind of like an eggshell.

Sunset dropped the pieces of eggshell to the ground and started to run for the railing again. She was stopped halfway however when she heard something press down on the springs of her bed. Feeling an immediate sense of foreboding, Sunset slowly turned around to inspect her bed, only to see something she could barely describe in her current state of mind staring back at her.

The thing blinked at her and she blinked back. A long silence was held between the two before Sunset was able to say anything, and the only thing that came to mind was, “what are you?” The thing replied by leaping off her bed and latching onto her face.

******

Flash was snoring softly on Sunset’s couch. His arm was lazily draped over his face and his body was oddly bent due to the size of the sofa. It was clearly not built to be used as a bed, at least not by someone of his size, but nevertheless he was able to make it work. It took him one whole hour to finally get himself to sleep, and even before then he was certain he was going to feel like crap in the morning. But he was willing to stick it out if it made Sunset happy. He didn’t want to snub her kindness after all, since she did offer to let him stay the night just so he could avoid having to walk home in the rain.

He probably would have been able to sleep a few more hours in this position, at least until the later hours of the morning, but unfortunately this was not meant to be as a muffled scream soon echoed throughout the apartment.

"MMMMMMMMMMMPPPHHH!!!!"

"Jeez!" Flash flew off the couch upon hearing the sudden cry. He landed on his stomach, his head was now throbbing after hitting the floor. He got to his knees and shook his head to clear his vision. He waited a moment to let his headache subside, then started to think about the voice he had just heard. The voice that screamed sounded like Sunset’s. His eyes shot open. The voice that screamed sounded like Sunset’s!

He shot to his feet and immediately ran to the stair to see if his friend was alright. “Sunset! Are you up there?! Is everything alright?”

The fiery haired girl’s response was to thrash about her loft out of eyeshot, her screams still muffled slightly due to some currently unseen cause. Flash backed up from the stairs in hopes of seeing what Sunset was doing over the railing. He could see her upper half. She was currently stumbling about, hitting every piece of furniture decorating her loft as she tried to pry some fuzzy purple thing that had been suction-cupped onto her face.

She soon lost her balance and backed herself right into the railing. Her feet left the floor and she soon found herself falling backwards over the top of the rail and towards the floor several feet below.

“Woah!” Flash sprung into action before he even thought to so. He lined himself up with where Sunset was going to land and held his arms out to catch her. She ended up landing on top of him however, leaving them both sprawled out on the floor like a pair of cheerleaders after a failed toss and catch routine.

They both groaned in pain as the thing leapt off Sunset’s face and shot off into the room to find somewhere else to hide.

******

Some time later, in another part of Canterlot, in a purple bedroom filled to the brim with books, beakers, and science projects, Twilight Sparkle was tucked away in her bed underneath her big, fluffy, astronomy-themed comforter (a blanket that depicted all the major constellations exactly as they’d appear in the night sky). Spike was peacefully curled up beside her and was enjoying the combined warmth of both the bed and his best friend's body.

The two had been enjoying their peaceful night's slumber, only for Twilight’s phone to suddenly ring and rouse them both from their pleasant dreams.

"Ugghh..." Twilight groaned loudly as she begrudgingly lifted herself off the bed. She reached for the smartphone on her bedside table and pulled it up close so she could read the time without her glasses. It was 6:00 in the morning and the caller ID said Sunset was on the line.

"Why's she calling me this early in the morning?" Twilight grabbed her glasses from the bedside table and shifted into a seated position on the side of her mattress.

A loud groan and the feeling of movement near her hip reminded her that Spike was still trying to sleep right next to her. “Twilight, please go back to bed.” Spike grumbled, keeping his eyes closed as he pressed himself tighter into a ball.

Twilight giggle. "I've got a call, you goof, and I’ve already looked at caller ID. It’d be rude to let it go to voicemail at this point." She brought the phone to her ear but refrained from pushing the accept call button on her screen. "And it's from Sunset, so it could be something important."

Begrudgingly, Spike lifted himself from the bed's tender embrace and began to stretch. "So answer it already." He said with a groan. "It's not like we're going to get any more sleep tonight anyways with your ringtone playing on repeat."

Twilight stifled a second giggle before pressing the button on her phone. She didn’t hear anyone immediately answer, so she decided to take point. "Hello? Sunset?"

"Twilight! Oh thank Celestia you picked up!" The girl on the other end of the line sounded frantic and winded. It made Twilight feel uneasy.

"Sunset, are you okay? You sound exhausted." Twilight asked out of concern.

"You could say that." Sunset admitted. "But that isn't important right now. Listen, I need you and the other girls to get over here as soon as possible."

Twilight hissed in annoyance and pinched the bridge of her nose in between her fingers. "Sunset, it's 6:00 in the morning on a Saturday. I'm sure whatever's going on can wait a couple more hours." She expressed in her groggy tone of voice. “I wanna go back to bed.”

Sunset's voice began to grow more frantic. "Twilight, don't hang up! You have to listen to me!"

"We’ll speak again later, Sunset. Right now, I need to get some more sleep. I suggest you do the same." Twilight moved her finger to push the end call button on her touch screen. “Good night.”

"Twilight wait!" Twilight paused upon hearing the severity in Sunset's voice. "Twilight… the egg hatched."

Twilight's eyes widened in shock. She practically yelled into her phone, "what?! You actually hatched the dragon egg?!"

Spike, upon hearing this, stared up at his owner in confusion. "Dragon egg?" He muttered to himself concernedly.

"It wasn't on purpose, okay?!" Sunset exclaimed defensively. "Look... just get over here as soon as you can. We managed to corner the dragon under my fridge, but I don't know how long we’ll be able to keep him there."

Twilight pursed her lips, suddenly feeling quite curious after hearing Sunset’s choice of pronoun. She began to play with a strand of her hair as if listening to gossip. "Who's we?" She asked playfully.

"Twilight!" A growl came from the other end of the line that didn’t sound like Sunset. Twilight soon remembered that a baby dragon was currently loose in her friend’s apartment.

"Sorry, you're right.” Twilight apologized. "I’ll start making calls. We'll meet at your apartment as soon as we can."

"Thank you." The relief in Sunset’s voice could practically be felt through the phone, but it didn’t completely hide the anxiety still present in her voice.

Twilight soon heard a beeping come from her phone's speaker. Sunset had ended the call. Twilight immediately switched over to her contacts page and began flipping through the names in her list in order to find her friends. Her contacts were alphabetized, so Applejack’s name was the first she came across. Twilight leapt from her bed and began sneaking quietly out of her room and towards the foyer of her house. She whispered to herself as she pressed the call button, "I'd better ask Applejack if she can pick up the rest of the girls on her way here. We'll be able to get to Sunset's house much faster if we can all take the same car."

Spike jumped off the bed and ran after her. "Wait a minute, I'm coming with you!" He exclaimed. "There's no way I'm letting you girls face a dragon alone! Those things are wild ugly beasts! All the movies I’ve seen say so!"

Twilight didn’t reply. She was too distracted waiting for her phone to stop ringing.

A voice soon came over the speaker, making her release a breath she wasn’t even aware she was holding. “Twilight is that you?” Applejack questioned. Twilight didn’t know why she was feeling so relieved. She knew Applejack was normally awake at this hour. She supposed it was just the stress of the situation finally getting to her.

“Twilight, if you can hear me, say somethin’. It isn’t like you to call me this early in the mornin’.” Applejack spoke louder and more clearly, as if trying to speak to someone who was hard of hearing. Twilight shook her head, finally realizing how distracted she had become. She really needed to do a better job of keeping her mind in check. She was getting distracted far too easily.

“I’m sorry, Applejack. My mind seems to be all over the place lately.” Twilight explained.

“It’s no problem, sugarcube, Ah understand. Now what’s the problem that has you callin’ me at the crack o’ dawn?”

Twilight’s breath caught in her throat the second Applejack asked that question. She remembered that Applejack was the one who was most against their experiment with the geodes yesterday. She wasn’t sure how the farm girl would react when she told her the news.

Twilight paused and cleared her throat. She was afraid to make her friend angry, but she could see no other option than telling her the truth. Sunset needed their help after all, so the sooner they got to her apartment, the better.

“Applejack, I need you to grab your family's truck and start picking up the girls from their houses. The dragon egg we had left in Sunset’s care has hatched.”

She waited for a reply, but the line remained surprisingly silent.

She decided to continue, “I’ll give the other girls a quick call and let them know you're on your way. Sunset sounded frantic over the phone, so we need to get to her apartment as soon as possible. You think you can get to all our houses within thirty minutes? I’d like to give Sunset a rough estimate on how soon we’ll be able to arrive.”

Again she only received silence as a reply. Twilight was quickly growing more concerned. “Applejack? You there?”

A sigh came over the speaker. “Sugarcube, be honest with me… this is gonna be the start of another crazy adventure, ain’t it?”

Despite everything that had happened thus far that morning, Twilight couldn’t help but laugh at Applejack’s question. She answered with just as much levity, “Yes, Applejack. Yes, I think it is.”

*****

Back at Sunset’s apartment, Sunset and Flash were camping out in front of her fridge where a high-pitched snarling was coming out from underneath. The creature she had more or less deemed a dragon had been using the underside of her icebox as a hiding place even since the two of them had come out of their near commas following her fall from the loft.

Since then, they had been watching the creature nonstop for what felt like hours. Sunset didn’t even think to start calling her friends until after an hour and a half passed, just to make certain the creature didn’t try to zip off anywhere while she was distracted. Eventually, she did chance it of course, and was thankful to Flash for filling in for her completely while she was talking to Twilight. She also used this time to put on a pair of modest pajamas over her underwear in order to make the situation fair less awkward between them.

It had now been exactly forty five minutes since Sunset had made her call to Twilight, but she and the other girls had still not yet arrived. She began to wonder if they were taking their time getting dressed or cleaned instead of rushing over to help her. She had to admit, she could at least see Rarity doing that even in the midst of a crisis, but she was also annoyed with herself for thinking so lowly of a friend.

A sudden knocking came from Sunset's front door, pulling her away from her current train of thought.

She took in a few deep breaths and composed herself, "that must be the girls." Sunset said, turning away Flash. "Please watch the dragon and make sure it doesn't go anywhere."

Flash gave her a fake salute and replied. "Roger."

Sunset quickly made her way towards the front door and slowly opened it with all the nervous energy of a person trying to escape a sinking ship. Despite this, she greeted her friends with the calmest tone of voice she could manage, "I'm glad you girls make it here on su–oof!"

She was tackled to the floor by a girl in white tights and a pink skirt before she could finish.

"SUNSET ARE YOU HURT?! DID THE DRAGON ATTACK YOU?! DOES IT LOOK COOL?! WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY “WE” WHEN YOU WERE TALKING TO TWILIGHT ON THE PHONE?!! ANSWER MEEE!" Pinkie Pie shouted frantically as she shook her friend by the shoulders and bashed her back against the thankfully rug covered section of the floor.

The others rushed in behind Pinkie, and just like Sunset had surmised, they were all dressed in usual day clothes.

"Sunset, we came as soon as we could." Rainbow Dash proclaimed. She ran past Pinkie, who was still shaking Sunset in hopes of receiving answers to her many questions, and began searching every nook and cranny around the room as if looking for a lost personal item. “So where are you keeping Junior?”

Applejack and Rarity pulled Pinkie to her feet and off Sunset’s stomach, allowing the redhead to roll over and stare at Rainbow as she ran about the floor. “Junior?” She questioned.

“Yeah, Junior. As in, Rainbow Dash Junior. The baby dragon we’re all going to tame and raise and use to burn “you suck” messages into Crystal Prep’s lawn." Rainbow explained. "He’s hatched now in the human world, so that means we can’t possibly send him back to Equestria.”

Sunset placed her hand over her face and sighed. “Rainbow, I already told you, we can’t keep it. And why would you ever think that hatching it in the human world would prevent us from sending it back to Equestria?”

Well, it’s kind of like birds, right?” Rainbow Dash tried to explain. “If you touch an egg or baby bird the mother bird will completely abandon it because it smells different then the other baby birds the mother had. So since this dragon hatched here in our dimension, he’s got to have like a whole new dimension of smell to him. No mother dragon in Equestria is ever going to want him back now, so it’s probably best that we just keep him here and look after him since he clearly has nowhere else to go.”

To everyone’s surprise, Fluttershy was the one to argue with her. “Actually Rainbow, that theory was disproved a very long time ago. In reality, birds have relatively small and simple olfactory nerves that extremely limit their sense of smell. In fact, only a few types of birds have extraordinary olfaction, but this is due to specialized adaptations and as of yet no bird’s sense of smell is cued to any human scents. It’s also not correct to assume that dragons and birds would share the same characteristics, considering most dragons in fairy tales are considered to be more similar to reptiles than avians.”

Rainbow folded her arms and glared at Fluttershy, causing her to shrink back in fear. She turned her head away in huff, clearly disappointed that she had been called out on her ruse. “Yeah well, how would you know, Ms. Animal Expert? It’s not like you’ve ever met an actual dragon before.”

Applejack scratched the back of her head in confusion. “Doesn’t Princess Twilight regularly bring Spike over whenever she visits? He’s a dragon… well, technically.”

Rainbow shook her head violently as if throwing a tantrum. “No, no, no! That Spike doesn’t count! He’s a dog in this world so he only counts as a dragon if we meet him in Princess Twilight’s world.”

“But we did meet him, Dashie! Remember?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, suddenly chiming in. “That time we all had to go into that magic sinkhole on that tropical island because our spring break cruise ship got caught in that magic storm?”

Rainbow Dash groaned and dragged her hands down the sides of her face. “Ugghh! Don’t remind me, Pinkie. I’m still apologizing to people for some of the shit I pulled while we were on that trip.”

Sunset got back to her feet. “Besides that, dragons in Equestria are largely intelligent creatures. They can talk, reason, and think on the same cognitive level as any human being, and they can recognize their own young just as easily, if not more so. To think that they rely on scent of all things to make that distinction is frankly insulting and quite possibly an extremely racist thing to say about their species.”

Rainbow threw her arms in the air in defeat. “Alright, I get it! My excuse sucked!” She exclaimed in frustration. “Can we just focus on getting him out of here, since my hopes of ever owning a dragon have been completely dashed.”

“I’d appreciate it.” Flash shouted all the way from the kitchen. “I’ve been sitting here on Sunset’s tile floor for more than two hours and my legs have fallen asleep.”

The girls all walked over towards the kitchen and peered around the table to see Flash sitting in front of the fridge. "Flash? What are you doing here?" Twilight was one to ask this question.

"He was spending the night here with me before the egg hatched." Sunset explained as she came up behind her friends.

Rarity smirked at her. "Was he now~?" Her voice held a tone that reminded Sunset of a reporter, one who had just stumbled on a juicy scoop and couldn’t wait to share it with the world.

Sunset flinched backwards. "Platonically!" She suddenly shouted. "We were sharing a pizza before it started raining earlier. I said he could spend the night instead of drenching himself by walking home."

It was Flash's turn to smirk, “you know you’re not making this sound like any less of a date, right? I mean seriously, what you’re describing sounds like a scene from a bad romcom.” He began to list off what Sunset said on his fingers, “the handsome guy comes over to the girl’s house with food. They hangout and eat together, expecting nothing at all to happen between them, when suddenly, a freak storm stops the handsome guy from leaving. The beautiful protagonist decides to let the handsome guy stay the night, completely unaware that passionate feelings are starting to bloom…”

Sunset swatted Flash over the head before he could continue. “I’m gonna stop you there, lover boy, before you accidentally fool everyone into thinking you still have feelings for me.”

Flash rubbed the back of his head and flushed red in embarrassment. “Yeah, good call.” He smiled sheepishly. “I am one heck of a storyteller after all…” Sunset took his words at face value, but the other girls could tell he was feeling something other than just embarrassment at the moment. They weren't certain, but they kind of thought he sounded… disappointed?

Sunset made her way over towards the fridge, drawing most everyone’s attention back to the problem at hand. Fluttershy however found herself quickly distracted when she heard some soft whimpers coming from the front door. She immediately turned herself around and looked back to see Spike shivering outside the doorway with his tail tucked between his legs.

Fluttershy quickly grew concerned. She walked back through the front door and knelt down next to the frightened puppy. "Is everything okay, Spike?" Her voice, like always, was warm and comforting, almost like a mother trying to sooth her saddened child.

It didn’t take long for Spike to notice that she was kneeling right next to him. He cleared his throat and tried to calm his nerves. He didn’t want to look like a scaredy-cat in front of the her, especially since she and others might need his protection just in case the dragon inside went rogue. He tried to speak clearly, but there was a clear tremble in his voice. "Y-yeah I'm g-g-good." He lied. "I'm just giving y-you girls a h-headstart. I'm not s-standing out here because I’m a-afraid or anything." His tremoring body said otherwise. “No siree.”

Fluttershy smiled at him sympathetically. She moved hands around the little dog's sides and carefully picked him up. "Don’t worry, Spike, I know you're not scared." She said soothingly. "You’re our big strong guard dog. Isn’t that right?” She rubbed her nose against his in clear sign of affection. “You came here to protect us, in case me or any of the others get scared." Spike looked up from his place in Fluttershy's arms. He could see that she was smiling at him. He smiled back.

"Y-yeah... Of course!" He exclaimed, suddenly feeling far more confident. "Don't you worry Fluttershy, I'll protect you!"

She giggled lightly. "Thank you, Spike. I feel safer already." She lifted the tiny dog and let him nuzzle his muzzle against her face. She carried Spike into the apartment and back towards her friends, who were already beginning to try and coax out the dragon.

Flash pointed towards the underside of Sunset's fridge. He and Sunset noticed that the snarling that was coming out from underneath was sounding far more aggressive than before. The dragon could obviously tell that more people had entered the room.

Sunset turned towards her friends to give them a quick forewarning. "You each can take a look, but be careful, this thing is incredibly temperamental, and as Flash and I have recently learned, it takes very little to set him off."

The girls shared a few worried expressions. They soon turned back and each gave her a nod. Flash slowly got up from his seat on the kitchen floor in order to give the girls some room to take a look. Fluttershy placed Spike back down on the ground before laying on her stomach in order to see. The rest of the girls all took turns mimicking her until they all had gotten a good look at the creature hiding underneath the fridge.

The dragon was a round and oddly furry creature with visibly no limbs to speak of. It's fur resembled that of a fox, but it had eyes and ears that more vaguely resembled a cat. It was backed up against the wall behind the fridge, snarling at them like a trapped raccoon. It snapped its jaws a few times at them in an attempt to look threatening. It only succeeded in making itself look more adorable by flapping its toothless infant gums.

The last to view the creature was Rainbow Dash, who was taken by surprise. She suddenly burst out laughing. "That's your baby dragon?!" She hollered. "You two really need our help dealing with that discount Furby?!" As she continued to laugh, she began rolling around the floor, gaining her a pair of annoyed scowls from Flash and Sunset.

"He’s so cute!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. She laid back down in order to reach for the creature but only received another snap in response. "He's like a fluffy purple soccer ball! I wonder if he bounces?"

Rarity grabbed Pinkie and pulled her back before she could make another attempt at grabbing the creature. “Pinkie stop it! That beast is obviously agitated enough without you antagonizing it. Besides, you have no idea where it’s been.”

“Inside an eggshell mostly, I’d imagine.” Pinkie replied.

Twilight took Pinkie’s place on the floor and began to observe the creature with a much more curious eye. The dragon snapped at her, but she was far too astonished by its presence to even consider backing away in fear. "This... is..."

The others turned to look at Twilight once they heard her speak. "...INCREDIBLE!" The group jumped back in surprise. Twilight had just shouted far louder than any of them thought she could ever manage.

"A reptilian creature of this design has never before been thought possible! It hatched from an egg, yet its physical features match almost one to one with multiple mammalian species. This is just me hazarding a guess, but this creature may not be a dragon at all. What we might be looking at is some variation of an Equestrian monotreme.”

“Mono-what?” Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I think she said it was a monotreme.” Pinkie Pie repeated. "Now I don’t know what that is, but it kind of reminds me of the character Monokuma, which I hope doesn’t make the two words related, because we’re gonna be in very big trouble if they are.”

Sunset shook her head. “No Pinkie, that word has nothing to do with a psychotic teddy bear. A monotreme is a scientific term used to define mammals that lay eggs rather than give live birth.”

"We don’t know that just yet.” Twilight said excitedly. She lifted herself onto her knees and turned her head back to look at her friends. “We need to study the creature first; check its blood and body temperature, see if it has the correct body parts to produce milk, that sort of thing. Only then can we know for certain if my theory is correct.” She adjusted her glasses with a smug look upon her face, somehow making her lenses glow even despite the room not being that brightly lit.

Twilight felt someone's hand slap down her left shoulder, surprising her back to reality. "Calm yourself down, sugarcube. Your startin' to drool." Twilight looked down and noticed a wet spot on her shirt. She blushed as she wiped her mouth clean of any signs of her previous excitement.

Applejack continued, “besides, we can't do any sort of studyin' on the critter yet. We still haven't even figured out yet how to get him out from under Sunset’s fridge."

Twilight let her friend's words sink in. She began rubbing the back of her head. "You're right, Applejack." She said in embaressment. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be getting ahead of myself."

"It's alright Twi, we all know how you get when you're around these kinda scientific thingamajigs." Applejack smiled at her friend before turning back towards Sunset.

"Did you get any word back from the Princess, Sunset?"

Sunset shook her head. "I was able to send her a message through my journal after Flash and I managed to corral the dragon under my fridge, but she hasn't replied back yet though. I hate to say it, but for now we're on our own."

A quick, yet sudden, roar came out from under the fridge, quickly drawing everyone’s attention.

Twilight glanced down at the underside of the fridge and began to ponder their situation. "Well we can't just leave him under there." She explained. "We can’t properly survey him if only one of us can view him at a time. Plus, I don’t think any of us wants to spend prolonged periods of time laying on Sunset’s kitchen floor.”

Flash shook his head and chuckled. “Trust me, you don’t.”

“Thank you for agreeing with me, Flash.” Twilight smiled. “But me being right doesn’t help us at all with our current problem. So that brings up the all important question: how do we coax a creature we know nothing about out from the safety of the underside of Sunset's fridge?"

Rainbow Dash smirked confidently and cracked her knuckles. She pushed past her friends and pulled Twilight up from the floor. "Stand back everybody, I've got this." She fell down onto the floor as if she were about to do a pushup and began army crawling towards the fridge. The dragon’s snarling grew progressively louder each time she slunk closer to the icebox.

"Be careful, Rainbow. It doesn’t sound like he’s very happy with you." Flash warned.

Rainbow shrugged off his warning. "He's fine." She exclaimed. “It’s not like he can do anything to me anyways. The fuzzy doof has no teeth.”

Fluttershy still felt worried. She had experience working with stray animals thanks to the regular volunteer work she did for the Canterlot Animal Shelter. She learned from these experiences that many animals had a tendency to attack if cornered and were just as likely to thrash about violently if grabbed incorrectly. Some strays were even recorded to have injured themselves willingly in order to escape capture. Fluttershy didn’t put it past the dragon to attempt to do the same.

“Please be careful with him, Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy pleaded. “He looks kind of fragile.”

"Don't worry Fluttershy, I won't hurt him." Rainbow Dash reassured. “I'm just gonna grab him and yank him out into the open. From there, we can lock him in a box or something till we can decide what to do with him.”

The others didn’t fully agree with Rainbow Dash’s plan, but were willing to go along with the part where she pulled the dragon out into the open. Rainbow soon reached the edge of the fridge and stretched her arms out underneath it. "Come here you little hairball." The dragon growled as her hands slowly began to wrap around it. It glared at Rainbow as she began to lift it off the ground. It then did something none of the teens were expecting, it shouted at them, but in a language they could understand.

“Little Iron Beads!”

A small iron ball, roughly no bigger than a marble, suddenly shot out from the dragon's mouth at a speed comparable to a fired airsoft pellet. The ball soared in a perfect straight line above the ground and ended up whacking Rainbow right under her left eye. She immediately let go of the creature and put her hands over the new welt now forming on her face.

"SON OF A–" Rainbow stopped herself from cursing before climbing out from under the fridge. "Dammit!" She rose back to her feet and began stomping her foot in frustration. She soon began pacing around the room as if expecting the walk to help alleviate the pain. She and others could hear the dragon snickering at her as she stomped around.

Rainbow turned and marched back over towards the fridge. She pointed at the opening leading to the baby dragon’s hiding spot and shouted, "screw you, you little turd!"

Rainbow turned to look at her friends and pointed at her injury. “Did you see what that little shit did to me?!”

The others did not reply because they were too busy gaping at the fridge in disbelief. Applejack was the first one able to speak their mind. “Did… did that critter… just talk?”

"I… I think it did.” Twilight confirmed.

"We think it's the only thing he knows how to say." The group turned to look at Sunset, who was glaring at the fridge somewhat pointedly. "At least, that's all he's ever said to us." Sunset lifted the bottom of her pajama shirt and Flash rolled up the sleeve of his hoodie. Flash's left arm and the side of Sunset's stomach were both completely covered in random red welts.

Applejack hissed at the sight of their injuries. "Geez, if Ah knew the dragon was causing that sorta damage to you, Ah would have gathered the girls a whole heckuva a lot quicker. Sorry y’all.”

Sunset waved her off dismissively. “It’s fine. Most of these were caused when we first found him hiding under my fridge. The rest came when we tried to do what Rainbow Dash did before I thought to call Twilight.”

“What?! You knew he was going to do this to me?!” Rainbow pointed at her injury a second time. “Why didn’t you warn me?!”

Sunset placed her hands on her hips and fixed Rainbow with a flat expression. “Flash already said you weren’t making him happy.”

“But you could have told me he shot tiny metal beads from his mouth!”

“Would you have believed me?” Sunset asked, raising a brow. “Or would you have completely ignored my warning and rush in all gungho to grab him like you always do?”

Rainbow furrowed her brows at her. “Just give me a heads up next time.” She sounded like she was making a threat rather than a request. “I’m not as thick-headed as you make me sound out to be.”

Sunset sighed and placed her on her friend's shoulder. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Rainbow.” She turned back towards the rest of her friends. “Anybody else got any ideas?”

The group grew silent as they all began to brainstorm. The silence lasted for a few minutes, but eventually Fluttershy decided to speak up. "Maybe he's hungry?"

The others looked towards her in confusion. "What do you mean, darling?" Rarity asked.

Fluttershy quickly became nervous, everyone's eyes were on her. She continued to speak, albeit more softly, "well normally, when baby lizards start hatching, they come out of the shell very hungry and very mobile. Sometimes this hunger can make the newborns cranky and can lead to different kinds of aggressive behavior."

The others nodded, seeing the logic in her words. "Maybe if we give him something soft to eat, he'll calm down and I could try talking to him." Fluttershy pulled the necklace she got from Camp Everfree out from under the collar of her shirt.

"Well it's as good a plan as any," Sunset said with a shrug, "and pretty much the only one we have right now, so I guess it will have to do." She turned to look at the rest of her friends. "What should we try to feed him?"

"I think I have some canned dog food in my backpack, but I left it back in Applejack’s truck. I'll go and get it." Twilight bolted from the room and out the apartment's front door. After a few minutes, she returned with a purple backpack she normally only used for school.

"I'll go get you a can opener." Sunset said. She quickly dashed towards the kitchen counter and started digging through the many drawers that held her utensils. Eventually, she found it and handed it to Twilight.

She reached into her bag and produced a small can of wet dog food, as well as a small dog bowl with Spike's name printed on it. Rarity cocked an eyebrow at the bowl in confusion.

"Do you always carry Spike's dog dish around with you, Twilight?" Rarity asked curiously. “It seems like an odd item to keep on your person at all times.”

"I only take it with me when Spike and I go out on long trips away from the house." She explained. "All the pet care books I’ve read say it’s a good idea to carry extra food with you when you're going to be away from your pet’s normal food dish for a long period of time."

She scratched Spike a few times behind the ear before placing the food bowl on the floor. He instinctively ran up and began wagging his tail in excitement. Twilight giggled, “Sorry, Spike. The food isn’t for you this time. But I promise, I’ll feed you later. Okay?”

Spike’s ears flattened against his head and let out a soft whimper. He trudged back over towards the others and took a seat next to Fluttershy’s feet.

Twilight placed the bowl near the edge of the refrigerator and stepped back to rejoin her friends. They all moved to the other side of the kitchen table and watched with anticipation to see if the food would be enough to draw the baby dragon out.

The room grew silent, nothing could be heard except for the sounds of the dragon’s breathing. Minutes passed, until suddenly the group heard a soft thump, like a rubber ball being bounced against a carpeted floor. Another thump came soon after, followed by another and another. The dragon bounced out from under Sunset's fridge to eye the bowl suspiciously. It glanced up at the teens from the other side of the table then back towards the bowl.

It sniffed at the food, instinctively looking for any smells that seemed dangerous or off-putting. It glared at the food before glancing at the teens one last time. It took a cautious bite of the dog food and chewed it contemplatively, studying its texture and taste. It soon swallowed and greedily licked its lips. The dragon liked the dog food and quickly began scarfing down the rest as if it hadn’t eaten in days.

"Well would you look at that?" Applejack said, tipping her hat. "Y’all were right, Fluttershy. That was a good plan."

Fluttershy blushed in embarrassment after hearing the complement.

"Quick, see if you can talk to it now!" Twilight exclaimed. Fluttershy nodded and started creeping towards the creature. She grasped her necklace tightly and felt its warm magic radiate out from between her fingers.

"Hello there little guy." She greeted the furball warmly. The creature stared up at her in bewilderment, but did not run away. It remained silent as Fluttershy lowered herself onto her knees. "Do you understand me?" She asked.

While they were talking and the other teens were distracted by the exchange, Spike stealthily snuck up on his food dish. He didn’t realize how hungry he was before they had reached Sunset’s apartment. He wanted to at least have a bite of the wet food Twilight had brought along. It was his favorite brand too, so this was an opportunity he could not pass up.

He snuck up tentatively behind the baby dragon and slowly outstretched his tongue towards some of the food that was hanging outside the bowl. He ended up collecting it, enjoying the taste of multiple different processed meats on his tongue, but in the process also ended up kicking the bowl by accident. The baby dragon turned around in surprise and took notice of Spike’s close proximity to the food dish. A low growl rumbled out of the creature’s throat, it clearly didn’t feel like sharing.

The group's eyes widened and before anyone could intervene the dragon pounced on Spike sending both tumbling into a frenzy of gnashing teeth and flailing limbs, like two feral cats fighting over an alley. Spike eventually broke free of their tussle, but soon found himself being chased with the dragon in hot pursuit.

“Spike!” Twilight was the first to break off from the group, desperate to save her pet from danger. She ran straight in front of them and scooped Spike right off the floor before the dragon could bite down on his tail. The dragon ended up bumping into her legs and falling over onto it’s back. Twilight held Spike close and glared at the dragon as it looked up at her.

It bolted back for the fridge, only to find Rainbow lying in wait for it. “You're not getting away this time!” She dove for the creature and slid across the floor like a baseball player trying to take home plate. It leapt as she came for it and landed on her head. It then jumped a second time, reaching an impressive height for something that didn’t possess legs, leaving Rainbow to continue sliding forward and crash face first into the leg of Sunset’s couch.

The dragon began to fall towards the ground. Applejack ran right under it with the intent of catching it like a football. “Ah got ‘em!”

“Little Iron Beads!”

Two iron balls were shot this time, striking Applejack clean in the forehead. She winced and staggered backwards, unaware that the dragon was now on a collision course with her face. It opened it’s jaws wide and bit down on her nose. It had no teeth, so it didn’t hurt the young apple farmer, but the sensation of having another creature’s toothless maw wrapped around her sniffer was still very unpleasant.

She grabbed the dragon and tried to pull it off. She was surprised to find it was clamped on tight like a vice around her nose. “Let go of mah nose, yah varmint!” Her voice sounded nasally, which made sense because the dragon was holding both her nostrils closed.

“Don’t worry, Applejack! I’ll get him!” Pinkie Pie announced. She pulled a tennis racket out from her hair, surprising everyone standing around her, and pulled it back to take a swing. The dragon noticed the weapon she was about to attack it with and placed its body against the lower part of Applejack’s face. It leapt off her, out of the way of Pinkie’s swing, and back into the air. Unfortunately, this left Applejack to take the full brunt of Pinkie’s full arm swing.

The young farm girl was sent reeling to the floor with a red net-like mark covering her face. Pinkie placed a hand over her mouth and stared at her friend in shock. “Oopsie.”

The creature began falling towards the floor again, but this time landed in Rarity’s hair. The fashionista began to scream and started to run around the room in a blind panic. “It’s in my hair!” She hollered. “Get it out! Get it out! Get it out! Get it out! Get it out! Get it out!”

Sunset ran up to help her. “Alright, alright, just hold still.” Rarity stopped running and began to bawl, her mascara running as tears rolled down her face. Sunset raked her fingers through Rarity’s hair, but was having a hard time finding the dragon. The color of its coat made it blend extremely well with color of Rarity’s hair. Eventually, she found a pair of golden eyes staring back at her and immediately thrusted her hands forward to grab the dragon. It leapt out of the way before she could grab it and instead she ended up pulling a good deal of Rarity’s hair in its place.

“OW!” Rarity screamed.

Sunset grimaced at her friend. “Sorry.”

The dragon landed on the floor and began darting its eyes around in search of another place to hide. Before it could make another move however, Flash slammed down a large plastic tub over the creature and placed his foot on top of it to keep it from escaping. “Not this time, buddy.” He said, smirking at creature. “Playtime’s over.”

He turned his head towards the leopard gecko on his shoulder and gave him an affectionate pat on the head with index finger. “And thank you for letting me use your spare terrarium, Ray. You’ve been an all-star through this entire thing.”

Rainbow picked herself up off the floor. She had a large red mark on her face from when she hit the leg of the couch. Her friends groaned upon seeing her injury. “Okay, that’s it.” She marched past Pinkie, grabbing a hold of her tennis racket as she pushed her aside. She stood in front of Flash and glared down at the trapped baby dragon. “Flash, move your foot. I going to make a fucking hat out of that thing.”

"AAAGGGHHH!" Fluttershy suddenly screamed. Rainbow assumed it was because of the threat she just made. She sighed in defeat and turned back towards her frightened friend.

"Calm down, Flutters. I didn’t mean it... mostly. I'm just going to rough him up a bit. Give him a spanking or something.” She looked down at the tennis racket in her hand. “Probably with this.”

Fluttershy trembled, but didn’t immediately respond. She slowly lifted her arm and pointed towards the window on the other side of the room. "T-there's a m-monster outside the window."

The others blinked at her in confusion, before turning to look at the window. Their eyes soon widened in terror.

A tall gangly figure, cloaked in the early morning darkness, was staring into the room from the other side of Sunset's window. It had long steer-like horns pointing off horizontally from both sides of its head, and its eyes glowed a deep crimson like the side of a firetruck. Its gaze was piercing, but it didn’t seem to be focused on them. Its sights were pointed at the small creature currently trembling under the plastic terrarium.

A sinister voice somehow echoed through the glass, "I've finally found you."

The monster raised its slender arm and pointed its hand at the window.

"Death Claw!”

Its massive hand smashed through the glass, sending multiple shards scattering across the floor.

"AAAGGGHHH!!" The teens all screamed. The monster's claw slammed down in front of Sunset's couch, knocking the furniture aside as it stretched further into the room. The baby dragon slammed itself against the side of the terrarium, desperately trying to knock Flash’s weight off of it so it could make it’s escape.

"I can smell your blood, little knight. It was easy to find you." The monster lifted its other claw and grasped onto the frame of the windowsill. It pulled its thin body halfway through the window and leaned in further to reach for the teens.

The girls, Flash, and Spike were stuck frozen in fear. The creature that laid before them was vaguely humanoid in appearance with a body covered completely in a skin tight leather suit. Belts, bandages, and skull and bat designs unadorned multiple places all over its body, and a pair of huge holey wings were pressed tightly against its back given the confined space of the room. Its diabolical gaze and appearance sent a chill down everyone's spine.

Rainbow Dash grabbed Fluttershy and walked her backwards towards the rest of their friends, who were beginning to huddle. "W-What the h-hell is that thing?" Rainbow Dash could feel herself quivering.

"The devil in a gimp suit?" Pinkie replied with uncertainty.

The malicious looking creature continued to pay little attention to the teens, as it pulled itself further into the room in pursuit of the smaller creature. Lifting its claw, it casually swatted the group to aside and onto the floor. Ray and Spike quickly dashed away in order to find a safe place to hide while the teens slowly picked themselves up off the floor.

The monster flicked the tiny terrarium off into some other part of the room and raised its claw over the baby dragon. The infant stared up at the demonic hand with a deep look of horror etched squarely on its face. It turned to make a run for it, only for the claw to come crashing down upon it.

"There’s no use in running now, Dodomon." The monster chuckled wickedly. It lifted its hand, clutching the baby dragon between its fingers as if holding it in a cage. “My general has given me express orders to make certain you don’t make it back to the Digital World, and by my honor as a member of the New Devimon Corps, I will make certain those orders are carried out.”

The teens were soon back on their feet, their eyes quickly moving towards the demon upon hearing the dragon’s screams of agony. The monster was crushing the infant beneath its fingers. Fluttershy gasped, "that monster is going to squish him! We have to help!"

Sunset shot away from the group much faster than anyone was expecting. She didn’t have any powers that would aid her in a fight, but she still charged the creature as if they were an equal match. She reached down as she ran and plucked a large piece of shattered glass off the floor. The others had to assume she planned this assault within the few seconds it took to rise back to their feet, because Sunset grabbed the glass with such expert precision one would think she purposely planted it there. She twirled the glass in her hand so the long sharp end of the shard was pointed towards her body.

Her friends screamed at her in worry, “Sunset!”

The demon turned its head upon hearing their voices. “Leave him alone!” It catch sight of Sunset just in time to watch her plunge the shard straight into its upper arm. The fiend howled in pain before retracting its arm to grasp the wound in its other claw. It could see streams of blood leak out through its fingers as they fell from its body and pooled on the floor.

The baby dragon stared in amazement as it hit the ground. It couldn’t believe what it had just seen. It had caused nothing but trouble for the girl and her friends, but she was still willing to rush in and defend it even despite how much the monster outclassed her.

The demon hissed and eyed the fiery haired teen with a deadly glare. "You miserable… stupid brat.” He tightened one of the straps on his arm to halt the bleeding. “How dare you strike me!” It swung its uninjured arm at Sunset, backhanding her across the room.

The baby dragon’s eyes widened in shock. He watched the girl soar through the air before landing in the caring embrace of her friends. They surrounded her and began checking to see if she was injured. From what it could see, she looked dazed and a bruise was forming on her cheek from where she had been struck, but she didn't look too terribly injured otherwise. Even still, the fact she was hurt at all had set a fire in his stomach that told him to waste the creature that attacked her.

The baby dragon began to growl. If those other girls, that boy, or even that dog tried to attack the monster again, it would most certainly kill them. A strange but familiar hatred, like one the dragon had never felt before, surged through his mind. That girl had risked her own safety to protect him. He had been nothing but a nuisance, but she still protected him. Memories he couldn't place clouded his mind. Blurry vague images from his own perspective...of him protecting creatures like himself...they called themselves something...digimon...he was protecting his fellow digimon?

These children were they..?

The dragon shuddered violently on the floor. He felt more angry now then he may ever feel for the rest of his life. The dragon grit its gums together and gazed hatefully at the giant demonic figure. It did not know why it had these memories—nor where they even came from—what he did know however, was that they gave him a feeling…a determined feeling...a feeling that told him the crimes that this monster just committed would not stand. It felt it needed to protect the girl that protected it. It needed to protect them all.

The tiny dragon roared in voice much deeper than anyone was expecting, catching the teens and even the demon completely off guard. The dragon's body was suddenly enveloped in a blinding white light. Sunset and her friends were forced to avert their eyes while the fiend was only able to stare on in shock and amazement.

“Dodomon digivolve to…”

The low voice the teens had just heard suddenly began to lower several octaves more as the glowing form of the dragon slowly began to morph and change. The small creature's body suddenly shifted and grew to a size that roughly reached their waists. Its new body laid horizontal with the floor with two small arms and two powerful looking legs supporting it.

“Dorumon!”

The light exploded off the dragon’s new form, blinding everyone and forcing them to turn away as the flash subsided.

Once the flash had completely vanished, the monster quickly turned around to reclaim his quarry only to find it already charging towards him.

“Dino Tooth!”

The new creature leapt from the floor and bit down forcefully on the demon's wounded arm. The monster recoiled backwards as it shouted in pain, dragging itself and the new creature back outside through the destroyed window.

Rainbow Dash was the first to look back at the scene after she heard the commotion. Both creatures were missing from the room. "What the hell just happened?!" She asked.

"They both went out the window!" The teens looked down to see Spike rushing towards the windowsill. Without hesitation, they all followed him to look outside.

The devil creature was now standing at its full height and was shaking its arm wildly. It launched the smaller creature off with a powerful flick of his wrist, sending him flying down the road. The smaller creature, Dorumon they heard it call itself, landed on its feet and skidded gracefully to stop a short distance away from its opponent.

Even in the darkness of the early morning, the teens could clearly make out the new form of the creature now battling in front of them.

Like they first surmised, it now resembled a dragon in body shape, complete with a tiny pair of wings growing from its back and a vibrant white and purple coat covering its entire body. Sharp black claws extended from each of the creature's fingers and toes and a set of sharp white teeth now filled the creature's maw. Its tail resembled that of a fox, and a deep crimson gem was embedded into the center of its forehead. Dorumon lowered itself closer to the ground as it stalked towards his opponent.

"So you managed to skip the In-training stage and jump straight to rookie." The devil spoke with mild amusement. "Impressive, but it matters very little. You're still no match for me!"

"Demon's Ray!"

Two blasts of dark energy shot out of the demon's hands towards Dorumon. The smaller creature quickly leaped out of the way and began charging the larger, all the while dodging more blasts each time they were fired.

Sunset's face quickly furrowed with concern. She turned towards her friends, all of them carrying similar looking expressions. "He needs our help!" She voiced passionately. The other's nodded in agreement.

The teens and dog all rushed towards the front door and down the stoop onto the street to witness the battle continuing in front of them. The demon fired another beam of dark energy from its claw as Dorumon leapt to the side to avoid it. The dragon creature leaped from the street as soon as he was close enough to reach the monster.

"Dino Tooth!”

It dug his teeth into the demon’s left bicep. The demon monster screamed in pain, then grasped Dorumon's body in its right claw. "YOU ARE AN IRRITATING PEST!"

It ripped the smaller creature off its arm, a violent spray of its own blood shooting from its wound. The monster began to squeeze Dorumon between its palm and fingers, like it was trying to crush him like an empty soda can. Dorumon screamed in a more human sounding voice than it had been using prior.

The teens and dog gasped in shock.

The monster chuckled evilly.

Then a garbage can came flying and bashed it in the side of its head.

The demon loosened its grip as it staggered backwards, but refused to let go of its quarry. As soon as it could straighten itself, the demon turned to see where the sudden trashcan had come from. It then saw one of the humons, the one wearing the stetson, hefting a second fully-loaded garbage can over her head like it were a football. The small piece of jewelry she wore around her neck was glowing.

"Now ya probably don't hear this very often but... GO PICK ON SOMEONE YER OWN SIZE!" Applejack chucked the second garbage can like it was the lightest thing in the world. The demon caught it in its free hand and crushed it easily.

It dropped the can and opened its free claw to point at the girl. "I'll kill you for that!"

The demon suddenly felt itself begin lifted off the ground, almost like it was a lost balloon suddenly taking flight. The creature looked down and noticed its body was enveloped in a bright purple aura.

The rainbow haired humon was suddenly at its feet. The monster's crimson eyes widened, she had appeared in the time it had taken him to blink.

She grabbed onto the monster's right ankle with both of her hands and smirked at him madly. "You better hold on to your leather pants, Stretch, because I'm taking you for a ride!" Rainbow Dash suddenly began sprinting down the road at a pace her friends could not even perceive. They could only watch as the levitating demon was pulled along with her like a kite blowing wildly in the wind. The sudden burst of speed caused the monster to accidently let go of Dorumon allowing him to fall gracelessly back to the pavement below.

Twilight released her hold on the demon allowing it to fall to the ground as well. A loud thud was heard farther up the street followed by the sounds of intense screaming as the monster was dragged across the road. She and the others all rushed to Dorumon's side. They helped him sit back up on his haunches.

"Are you alright?" Sunset asked.

Dorumon looked up at the fiery-haired girl, his expression was one of pure astonishment. "You all just saved my life… again." It's voice was lower than before, but carried a high level of intelligence that the teens found surprising.

Loud screaming could be heard coming back down the street. The group turned to see Rainbow Dash running back towards them with the lanky demon still dragging behind her.

Rainbow let go of the monster's ankle and let it skid past the group before coming to halt a few feet away. She rejoined her friends. Behind the group, Applejack hefted another garbage can over her head. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie dug through one of the open trash bins for something to use as a weapon.

The devil slowly rose off its back and onto its feet. "REPUGNANT, IRRITATING, HORRID LITTLE HUMONS!” He turned around and pointed both his claws in their direction. “I WILL SLAUGHTER YOU ALL!"

A rotten egg splattered across the demon's face as he finished his threat. The others turned as it began rubbing the gunk out of its eyes. Pinkie Pie was holding an open carton of six rotten eggs she apparently found in the trash in the crook of her arm.

Pinkie began hucking the eggs one by one at the creature as she shouted. "Get out of here Stinky McLeather-Britches, nobody wants you here!" Once the final egg was lobbed, Pinkie Pie threw the egg carton over her shoulder and struck a sassy "that's all I have to say to you" pose.

The tall fiend rubbed a small amount of the egg gunk off his closed eyes, allowing him to once again see. The creature growled angrily and raised his claw towards the group.

“Devil’s R-”

The monster paused. Its face was suddenly beginning to feel hot. It looked down over its mouth and chin, the rotten egg gunk was beginning to glow and released a high-pitched ring that was quickly growing louder. Before anyone—besides Pinkie—knew what was going on, the egg gunk suddenly exploded like a pack of colorful fireworks was strapped to its face. The blast sent the monster flying backwards and onto its back a second time.

Rainbow Dash began laughing. She rushed over to Pinkie's side and quickly high-fived her. "Pinkie Pie, you are amazing!"

For a moment, the large imposing demon laid motionless on the pavement. It contemplated the situation it found itself in. Humons were never reported to be this strong in the Digital World's records. History always said they had the power to incite digivolution, but it never stated that they'd have abilities like digimon did. These weren't normal humons, the demon decided.

It had been careless and didn't consider the possibility. It needed to regroup and formulate a new strategy with the information it had learned. It would make sure not to fail the New Devimon Corps a second time.

The gangly monster quickly returned to its feet and flapped its holey wings to get into the air. He stared down at the eight teens, their dog, and the knight he was forced to let get away because of their meddling.

The monster shouted, "this isn't over! I will slay that knight, even if I have to gut everyone of you meddling humons to do so!"

The demon flapped its wings quickly and rose higher into the air. He began flying into the dark of the morning's horizon until the group could not see it anymore.

"Well, if nothing else, you can definitely say the guy's commitment is admirable?" Flash said sarcastically.

The teens that had been crouched around Dorumon rose back to their feet and began looking amongst each other for injuries. "Is everybody alright?" Sunset asked. She received a smile and a nod from each of her surrounding friends.

She turned to Rainbow Dash, "Rainbow?"

Rainbow Dash smirked. "Gimpy didn't even touch me." She stated proudly.

"Twilight!" Twilight looked down to see a rather excited puppy leaping at her leg. She kneeled down and opened her arms, allowing him to jump from the street into her embrace.

"I'm really glad you're okay, too." He nuzzled her face. Twilight smiled and nuzzled him back.

Pinkie Pie smiled the widest of them all and inexplicably pulled all her friends into a group hug, even despite some of them standing a good distance away from each other. "Yaaay friendship!" She shouted. The other teens and dog all shook their heads, not willing to question their friend’s strange abilities, and returned her hug.

"Excuse me... " The group's eyes all widened in realization. They all turned as a clumsy unit and stared at the purple-haired dragon standing roughly at their waist height. He looked up at all them and continued to speak.

"Thank you for giving me your attention." He stated formally. "Firstly, I would like to apologize for my actions while in my fresh stage. I am now aware that the way I was acting before was both rude and brash, and I hope that you will all forgive me. Second, I would like to thank you all for the assistance you have provided me today. You can all rest assured that I will be providing you the same kindness and that I will be ready should our enemy ever choose to attack us again."

The street suddenly became silent as Dorumon waited for a response. The teens only stared wide-eyed at him, they had been so caught up in all the excitement that they had completely forgotten that Dorumon was in their presence. Dorumon cocked his eyebrow in slight irritation. "You know it's usually customary for one to respond when being offered an apology." He waited another few seconds, but again received no response. “Do you all really have nothing to say to me?”

“Oh no, yes, sorry, I do have something to say.” Rainbow said, suddenly chiming in. “What the fuck is going on?!”

Next Chapter: Chapter 3: Glimpses of the Past Estimated time remaining: 34 Minutes