Starlight Glimmer has a really bad timeby Discorded SheepcityUSAChaptersOn days like these, mares like you...It's a beautiful day outside......Birds are singing. Flowers are blooming...On days like these, mares like you...It was now getting late into the afternoon, a few hours after Starlight “kindly” asked that Twilight and her friends leave her to her business. Since then, her reaction time has been getting better and better with each time she was defeated. She was beginning to last a lot longer into the battle than before. She remembered quite vividly that the same thing happened when she’d faced Sans the first time and fell for his dirty little trick. “Alright, c’mon Starlight remember. Determination. LOTS of determination.” She said to herself as she chugged down another energy drink and at the same time, did the best she could in trying to dodge San’s attacks. Starlight knew she’d get this done eventually. She HAD to. At the rate she was going, there’s no way she wouldn’t. And it wasn’t just that. She just NEEDED to beat Sans. He’d gotten the better of her way too many times for her to just not continue trying. After this was done, she would be able to take comfort in knowing she would never, ever have to do this again. Though maybe doing a pacifist playthrough would help her feel like she atoned for her misdeeds in-game. That was a big MAYBE though. After this she would more than likely be spent on this game for a while. Starlight was completely ripped away from these thoughts and directed her full attention back to the screen. She’d made it to a point she’d gotten to several times now and was prepared to try and go through it again. Knowing that even after this huge attack that Sans still had another one to throw at her made a deep pit grow in Starlight’s stomach. The fact that this current one wasn’t even his “special attack” certainly didn’t help. Sans closed his eyes and prepared to strike. “well. here goes nothing. are you ready?” he asked, his eyesockets all of a sudden turning black and empty like Starlight had seen several times before this. “survive THIS and I’ll show you my special attack!” Sans launched the soul on the screen across the box and into the walls, bones coming out of the walls. She managed to bounce upward out of the way of the bones. Once that failed, Sans summoned more bones to scroll across the screen and Starlight managed to dodge out of the way of those as well. Supposedly running out of patience, Sans launched her heart across the box, somehow making it grow completely off screen and rushing past more bones. Starlight could feel a bead of sweat forming on her brow, but couldn’t be bothered to wipe it away. She needed every last ounce of attention she had to be directed to Sans, nothing more. “I’m so close, I can just feel it.” Starlight said to herself. “For Faust’s sake just LET ME WIN!” Her soul finally made contact with the side of the box, only for more bones to surface and for her to have to jump out of their path. The screen went black for half a second a couple of times and caused even more bones to try to attack her. Finally, an absurd amount of Gaster Blasters surrounded Starlight’s soul and began to open fire in a counter-clockwise pattern, making her have to move her soul several steps in front of them to avoid being utterly destroyed. Starlight had made it here before, and it was here where she had died and been the most frustrated she’d ever been in this playthrough. Aside from well…the obvious. Finally, the blasting stopped and Sans just began to mercilessly throw Starlight’s soul against the walls of the box, but something was different this time. Starlight had gone down to one health but Sans’ attacks were no longer doing any damage. Could this mean… Starlight realized what was happening, jumped up out of her seat, and raised her hooves to the ceiling, shouting for joy to the heavens. “YES! YES! I FINALLY DID IT, THANK CELESTIA ALMIGHTY IT’S OVER!” she shouted, tears of happiness forming in her eyes. It’d taken her a grand total of 17 hours to do it, but her greatest challenge in her life yet had finally been overcome. Starlight wasn’t sure if it was just pure irony that her greatest foe was someone that didn’t even physically exist, but at this moment she was too relieved to care. She looked at her screen to see what would happen next, only to see Sans setting her soul down, obviously looking completely drained and Megalovania beginning to fade out, leaving her in silence. “huff…puff…all right…that’s it. it’s time for my special attack.” The second those words showed in Sans’ dialogue box, Starlight’s stomach dropped. She’d completely forgotten about that. The worst part was that she was now down to only one health left. And if San’s previous attack was that bad, what could possibly be worse? How would she be expected to dodge anything else with only one chance left? “are you ready? here goes nothing.” Sans proclaimed proudly, intimidating Starlight even further. “N-No, p-please. No more, I-I don’t think I can take it.” She said as her hooves started to tremble nervously. She anxiously tried to ready herself for San’s final attempt to attack her… Only for nothing to happen. “…Um…you gonna, do anything Sans?...Ugh why do I keep forgetting that I’m actually talking to a computer?” Starlight asked herself as she rubbed her forehead in annoyance. After a few more moments of seemingly nothing happening, San’s dialogue bubble popped back into view. “yep. that’s right. it’s literally nothing. and it’s not gonna be anything either. hehehe…ya get it?” Sans asked, his dialogue suggesting he was somewhat snickering a little and he winked. Starlight just stood at her desk, keeping her unblinking eyes on Sans and taking in how badly he’d just trolled her. In no way was this anywhere near as bad as…that thing she refused to mention ever again because she also denies that it ever happened…but it came pretty close. Sans made her nearly have a heart attack for literally nothing. As mad as this made her, she had to admit the maker of this game was a mastermind in this department. Starlight continued to scroll through San’s text and not much to her surprise, it looked like it was getting much darker and even more disturbing than it was before. “i know i can’t beat you. one of your turns… you’re just gonna kill me. so, uh, i’ve decided.. it’s not gonna BE your turn. ever. i’m just gonna keep having MY turn until you give up.” San’s eyesockets once again reverted to the black emptiness that Starlight had come to dread so much since she started this endeavor. “even if it means we have to stand here until the end of time. capiche?” Then there was nothing. Again it appeared that Starlight was just staring across the screen at Sans and playing the waiting game, hoping for anything at all to happen. Every now and then Starlight would have to scroll through more of his text which continued to desperately try to get her to leave him alone. It struck Starlight in the heart pretty badly right then; realizing just how hopeless San’s situation was looking. He KNEW he’d killed her plenty of times, but no matter what he did, her determination willed her to come back and try again. His only hope of survival at this point was to literally bore her into doing ANYTHING else. She put a hoof to her chest and winced a little in emotional pain. Was this really worth completing the game? Putting someone she felt was as real as her, even though she should have known better than to believe he was real and had grown to despise from losing to him so many times, through this much torment? “To be honest…not really.” She answered herself. She still questioned if this game accurately reflected on what her moral standing was as a pony. She kept telling herself no. No it didn’t. She just wanted to see what happens. That wasn’t much to ask. She just wished she didn’t have to go through feels hell to do it. If she really wanted to make herself feel better after this was all set and done, the idea of doing a pacifist run again to lift her spirits kept returning to her. Making friends seemed to do that. She did it before to help her feel good so who says it wouldn't work now? It'd be a lot of work to go through the game again, but it'd be a much more pleasurable experience than THIS. Starlight realized then that Sans seemed to have gotten much more fatigued than she’d thought because now he was completely asleep. Trying to figure out what else there was left for her to do now, she aimlessly moved her soul around the small box. She made contact with the left wall, which to her shock, made the box actually move with it. Curious, she continued to ever so slowly move it to the left until she couldn’t move it anymore. She tried moving it again and managed to get it to move downward to the FIGHT button. “O-Oh no I’m really gonna kill a guy while he’s asleep?! Who does that?!” she yelled. She made it over the button and was fully prepared to press it, but hesitated again. She was about to actually do it. Her goal was just within her reach, but…why did she feel so bad about it, even though she knew she shouldn’t? It was all coding, programming, commands, and pixel art, nothing more. It was one of the times where she tried to hold emotion and logical reasoning to different standards… In the end though, logical reasoning won out. She needed to end this. Starlight clicked the fight button, only for Sans to once again dodge her attack. “heh, didja really think you’d be abl-“ at that moment, Starlight was so prepared to slam her hooves on her desk and yell “Fuck this shit I’m done!” to the heavens with all of her might, but Sans was stopped mid-sentence. Another attack that was executed without Starlight’s command, landed a blow on Sans. His pupils dilated and for the first time in the entire game, the corners of his mouth turned down into a very subtle frown. The hit-sound commenced and Sans toppled over with a huge gash slashed across his chest and tearing his T-shirt. Again, Starlight was prepared to scream, this time out of relief that it was done, but stopped when she got a better look at Sans. His wound that she had inflicted on him was BLEEDING. No other monster in the game ever did that, so why Sans? She could conclude that bones have bone marrow, and in turn, blood in them, but he was also bleeding out of his mouth. Was it that ketchup she saw him drink that one time, or was he a human in disguise or something? Those were questions for another time though. All she could focus on now was what else Sans could have to say to her after that. After so much hopless heartache and pain, Sans failed to defeat her, or even get through to her enough to make her stop. Even though he was smiling, his eyes looked completely miserable. “……….so…guess that’s it, huh?...just…don’t say i didn’t warn you.” he said, his sprite starting to stand up and his hand still holding onto his wound. “…welp…i’m going to grillby’s.” Sans looked as if he was trying to move off-screen but was so injured that he was struggling to even find the strength to stay on his feet. Once he did make it past though, another one of his text boxes popped up that struck Starlight harder than any of the other deaths that had been caused by her hooves. “papyrus, do you want anything?” Afterwards, the usual sound of a monster being killed was played, and Starlight’s max health increased to a whopping 99 and her LV to 20. Despite all of that though, all she could do was think about how unfulfilling it all was. Especially after hearing San’s last words, she didn’t feel accomplished at all. She felt like a murderer. Like everything she did was simply for nothing but power and to fulfill her curiosity and nothing else. And over the course of her playthrough of battling Sans, she had grown to despise him for the many sleepless hours she’d endured from fighting him. Then why didn’t she feel accomplished even when she’d defeated her enemy? Why’d she still feel empty? This feeling was all too familiar to her. It felt nearly identical to the things going through her head as she was trying to get revenge on Twilight. And she’d made the same mistake yet again, even as Sans had warned her otherwise. “…Well…no use in turning back now.” She said to herself as she walked back to the sparkling save point and saved her game. She looked at the clock on her computer. 3:00 p.m. She’d gone almost an entire day without sleep. And even then she still had Asgore to deal with. She couldn’t do that now, not after suffering through that. Starlight needed to rest. Starlight turned off the game, as well as the lights in her room, and crawled into bed. She didn’t care if it wasn’t nighttime, she needed sleep now more than she ever needed it before. She could at least take some solace in knowing that no matter how tough Asgore could possibly be in the Genocide route, there was no way he could be any worse than Sans was. At least she knew at this point that the worst was over, and that she could be playing on a much easier playing field once she resumed her game later. So she slowly shut her eyes and waited for blissful sleep to take her… She was awoken with a start by a familiar and grating voice whispering in her ear with malicious intent lacing it. “You IDIOT.” Author's Note I know the day this came out is stupid but I assure you it's a real chapter. Anyway, looks like the worst has actually yet to come Starlight. Sans may have caused some pretty bad emotional pain, but it only gets worse from here. Be prepared. It's a beautiful day outside...There was nothing. Nothing at all for what seemed like miles around, aside from pitch blackness. Not the kind of blackness one would get from waking up too early in the morning and it was still dark out, or the kind where the lights in the room were just turned off late at night. No, this was just a completely empty and soulless void that never ended. This was the sight that Starlight Glimmer woke up to as she found herself lying down in said void. Her exhausted mind couldn’t comprehend how this was possible, since this didn’t seem to have anything in it and therefore there could be no ground either. Nevertheless, she was laying on SOMETHING. She didn’t have time to ponder the defiance of the laws of physics that was happening here. She needed to just find out where she was and what was happening. “R-Rgh…what is this place?” Starlight asked herself as she stretched out her body to try and wake herself up a little. She looked in each direction the place had to offer and found the same in each one. Nothing. “H-Hello?” she called out. There wasn’t even an echo from her voice. This was starting to make her panic. Sweat formed on her brow and her heart rate increased dramatically. How did this happen? Where was she? She remembered she was playing on Twilight’s computer and tried forever to beat Sans in Undertale, ultimately failing to do so. A few days had passed since then and nothing much of substance had happened besides Starlight brooding in her room and pouting over her failure. Starlight tried to relax and think rationally for a moment. “O-Okay, let me think…I remember melting Twilight’s computer, pouting for a few days, going to bed and after tha-“ Starlight was interrupted from her own thoughts by the sound of a loud and chipper voice that was not hers talk. “Howdy!” it said. Starlight looked around in confusion for the source of the voice. There was something else in here? What could possibly live in this void? “Down here stupid.” it said again with what sounded like slightly more malice in its tone. Starlight looked down at the theoretical ground of the void and saw a white flower with yellow petals. Normally this wouldn’t be all that interesting, except the flower actually had a face. And the one it was giving Starlight right now was probably the most condescending and shit-eating smile it could muster. Starlight recognized the flower straight away, and her eyes widened in surprise and slight fear. ‘Oh no…oh fuck no.’ she thought to herself. She wanted to try and run away and get as far away as possible from this weed, but where would she go? There wasn’t anything here. “You look pretty surprised to see me, don’t ya? Thought you’d gotten away from me just because you melted the royal nerd’s computer right?” it giggled a little before its mouth grew into a menacing smile and grew fangs, as well as a pair of demonic eyes. “You wanted to leave me to ROT. Well think again. It’s not going down like that.” Starlight tried to relax and attempt to look like the superior one in this situation and narrowed her eyes, despite knowing just what this flower was capable of. It was going to be hard. “You’re not real Flowey. Leave me alone!” She growled intimidatingly. Flowey obviously wasn’t afraid at all and simply laughed slightly. “Sorry Starlight, that’s not quite how it works either.” The flower’s face turned extremely demonic again and its voice deepened. “I’m as real as you make me out to be.” Starlight’s brave façade lessened a bit at that and she backed away a few steps from Flowey in slight fear. “Hehe. Oh relaaaax, I just wanna talk. I’m not gonna hurt ya…probably.” Starlight’s voice trembled nervously at Flowey’s statements. She knew for sure Flowey couldn’t be trusted, but what else was she supposed to do? He was probably going to talk anyway with or without her responses. “W-What do you want?” she asked. “Just to talk about your life. Do anything fun? Make any friends?...ah who am I kidding? You have no real friends, do you?” Flowey asked with a smirk. Starlight’s ears folded a little. Flowey was hurtful for sure, there was no question about that. But that felt like it physically hurt. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. I-I have friends.” She answered. Flowey couldn’t help but laugh loudly at that. “You’re joking right? I don’t get how you’re not seeing the bigger picture. I thought you were smart.” Flowey chuckled a little. “You REALLY think they’ve forgotten what you did to them? Literal identity theft, kidnapping, giving time and space a good spanking just to see them suffer, I could go on all day. Buuuuut…in the end they did decide to let you in…not out of friendship, oh no. What kind of person actually BEFRIENDS someone like YOU? Wanna know what it really is?” Starlight felt worse and worse over what she’d done with every one of Flowey’s words. By all accounts she shouldn’t have been listening to him, at all. She knew just how bad he was; she’d witnessed his cruelty firsthoof in Undertale. The bad thing was about this though, at least to her, what he said made sense. She really didn’t want to admit it, but that’s what it looked like. Nopony just forgets about the bad things someone did for the sake of friendship. The things she did could’ve done some really terrible things to the timeline and had very permanent effects on her new friends and it was all her fault. They were her friends though, right? Flowey snickered again at the sight of tears forming in Starlight’s eyes. “What they’re REALLY offering to you…is pity. Worthless pity. They only feel sorry for you because you’re so pathetic and such a big crybaby . Oooooh I can just hear you crying like a little filly all those years ago clear as day.” To Starlight’s surprise, Flowey’s face suddenly contorted and morphed into the shape of Starlight’s own face in the state it was when she was a filly. It looked like it was crying and sobbing loudly, sniffling in between sobs. “S-Sunburst wait! D-Don’t leave me, please! I-I don’t have anyone without y-you!” it cried. Flowey’s face then changed again into his normal face, but now with a huge and toothy grin and the pupils in his eyes were missing. “BUT NOBODY CAME.” He laughed loudly. Starlight was nearly full on sobbing now. Flowey wasn’t pulling any punches in trying to make her suffer. Bringing up that painful memory was probably the worst thing he could have done to her at this point. Not just that, but he was hitting all the right chords to hit her in the emotions. She’d been thinking about all these things on her own over the past couple of days and it looked like she wasn’t the only one that realized some of these things weren’t adding up. Flowey’s face changed again, this time turning completely normal and he stared at her with that smug smile he’d first had. “After all, you haven’t really changed THAT much, have you? For someone that claims she’s a reformed pony, you sure do seem eager to kick smiley trashbag’s bucket. What is it? Frustration, anger, hatred, what?...I think you and I both know the answer to that.” Flowey’s stem all of a sudden started to raise out of the ground, slowly and making grotesque cracking sounds as it did so, his face turning back into his evil and soulless smile. His stem was now covered in thorns and separate vines and roots began to grow out of him to somewhat resemble the shape of arms. Starlight’s eyes widened in horror and she backed away even further, looking up at Flowey’s growing height. “S-Stay away from me! Get back!” she yelled, on the verge of fully screaming in fear. Flowey didn’t pay her any heed, and one of his root arms wrapped around Starlight’s body, restraining her legs and one wrapping around her horn, raising her up to his eye level. Starlight tried to light up her horn to hit him with magic, but the vine around her horn prevented any magic from escaping. Flowey laughed at her failed attempt to attack. “The answer…is that you’re empty inside…JUST LIKE ME.” Flowey laughed as he swung a vine directly at Starlight’s face… “AGGGH NO!” Starlight screamed as she shot up in her bed, her sheets covered in sweat and breathing heavily. Her eyes quickly darted around the room to take in her surroundings and make sure she was okay. Sure enough, she was back in her room in Twilight’s castle of friendship, and NOT in the thorny grasp of Flowey the Flower. Starlight felt her forehead and made an attempt to calm down, her heart rate starting to slow to a normal pace now that she knew she was safe. “O-Oh dear Celestia that was intense.” She mumbled quietly. “D-Do I really think that badly of myself?...wow I think I’m taking this game a little too serious.” She looked over to her right at the table to the side of her bed, where a soda she’d drank a while ago before bed sat half-empty. She picked it up in her magic, trotted over to the window, and poured the rest of it out, vowing to never drink that before bed again. She then closed the window, prepared to go back into bed and hopefully back to sleep. Before she did though, she caught sight of her computer desk in the corner of the room. The computer that was there before was Twilight’s that she let her use, and she’d melted it in her rage when Sans...did that thing which should never be mentioned, to her when she last played Undertale. In hindsight, she probably overreacted. Twilight forgave her after that, but she still needed a computer. So Starlight ended up paying for a replacement computer for Twilight (which she now kept in her own room), and one for herself. If she ever did anything that anger-inducing again, she’d at least want it done to her own property and not her friend’s. Looking at her new computer, thoughts of what happened just now, and her last playthrough of Undertale, came flooding back. Apparently the rage had gotten in her head so badly and the game had been reminding her of what she did on so many levels that it was getting in her mind and making her feel even worse. If she was ever going to sleep again, she needed closure. She needed to get done with this game and never go back to it ever again if she wanted peace of mind. Starlight was not going to wait for another nightmare of Flowey belittling her for her theory to be confirmed. She was beating the Genocide route even if it mean another all-nighter and another melted computer. And given the nightmare she just had, caffeine and sugar was out of the question. Starlight sat at her computer desk and booted it up, putting her headphones over her ears. She clicked on the Undertale icon on the desktop and started the game. Sure enough, her file was still there. Thank Celestia for Steam Cloud. Her file loaded and she found herself in the familiar environment of the Judgement Hall and started to move her character to the right where Sans was inevitably going to be waiting for her. As she did this, a few thoughts came to mind about her choices last time she played and what they resulted in. That thing that happened to her last time of which nopony should ever speak of, would not happen again. She could guarantee that. Starlight exhaled deeply. “Alright Sans. I’m done playing games with you. This time, it ends.” Author's Note Luna's moonlight shone through the window, reflecting off the crystaline surfaces of the castle. It seems like her journey is nearly over. Starlight is filled with DETERMINATION. (But anyway, I know this chapter was pretty dramatic. But look at the tags. It's a dramatic comedy, not everything is going to be all laughs all the time. ) ...Birds are singing. Flowers are blooming...“Starlight? Starlight are you okay?” Twilight shouted from the other side of her enemy-turned- student’s bedroom door. They were supposed to be having a meeting with her friends to discuss any friendship issues that may need their assistance on the map’s call. Nothing of substance had come up lately but even then, Starlight still missed an important bonding opportunity with her new friends. This was worrying to Twilight so she tried to get Starlight to open up, but so far had made no progress. Twilight’s friends also surrounded the door, visibly concerned (some more than others) over what it was Starlight was even doing in there. “Did any of you even see her at all last night?....Do you think she’s dead?” Rainbow asked. “She ain’t dead Rainbow, she’s jus’ bein’ stubborn and ain’t openin’ up. Or maybe she’s a real heavy sleeper and hasn’t woken up yet.” Applejack responded with a deadpan. “Seriously, why’d the most morbid possibility come to yer mind before anythin’ else?” Rainbow shrugged a little. “I dunno. It’s not the happiest possibility but it’s there. Ponies die in their sleep all the time…oooor maybe someone from her old village still hated her and tracked her down and stabbed her to death, who knows?” “U-Um…Rainbow can you please not?” Fluttershy said with a whimper at the thought of blood being splattered all across the bedroom walls and sheets. “Oh, I know for sure how to find out!~” Pinkie said with a bright smile. She lightly pushed Twilight aside and put her ear to the door, seeming to concentrate very carefully. “Hmmm…” Rarity observed the odd behavior of her friend (not that it was anything particularly new) and raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Pinkie, whatever are you even doing?” “Listening for breathing. I know how creepy that sounds out of context but she won’t open up so-“ Pinkie wasn’t given the chance to finish her sentence, as a very audible and angry voice yelled out from the other side of the door, making Pinkie cringe and her ears ring. “FUCK! THIS GAME MAKES ME HATE MY EXISTENCE!” the voice, clearly belonging to Starlight yelled, followed by the sound of glass breaking. Pinkie, still visibly uncomfortable, backed off from the door and held onto her ears in pain. “Well…at least we know she’s not dead.” She said with a slight whimper. The second Twilight heard those words spoken in Starlight’s voice, she knew what was happening. Those were the same words she herself had yelled after she’d tried and failed to beat Undertale’s Genocide run not too long ago. It was an even shorter time ago that she’d introduced Starlight to the Genocide run and had gotten annihilated by Sans. “…Oh no, not this again.” Rainbow, having been the first of the group to play the game at all, recognized that amount of rage can only be induced by one thing, and it made her snicker. “O-Oh Faust is she...T-Twilight you did NOT show Starlight, the most angry and easily triggered pony alive, Undertale’s Genocide run.” Rainbow asked, trying to contain her laughter. Twilight groaned a little and put her hoof to her face. “…I did.” She said, obviously regretting that decision on her part. Rainbow completely lost it and she fell on the floor laughing out loud. “O-OH MY CELESTIA TWILIGHT YOU’RE A MAD GENIUS! STARLIGHT FIGHTING SANS IS A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN!” She yelled, rolling on the floor and holding her stomach. Fluttershy’s eyes widened a little when she heard just what was causing Starlight to scream so angrily. “O-Oh goodness…Twilight um…doesn’t introducing Starlight of all ponies to the most unforgiving video game boss in history seem a little bit…um…sadistic?” she asked. Twilight took her hoof off her face and looked at Fluttershy with a look that clearly communicated ‘You’re kidding right?’ and shook her head. “Considering what she put me, Spike, and several other realities through, this was being merciful…which is the entire point of that game. I’m hoping it teaches her something. You do bad things and there will be consequences. THEN we work on helping change for the better.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “…That and ya wanted to see her rage over it cause ya thought it’d be funny.” “…And I wanted to see her rage over it because I thought it’d be funny. It ended with my computer being turned into electronic pudding. Look, I didn’t expect her to try this AGAIN okay? She’s just more determined to get through it than I thought.” Twilight continued. Rarity shook her head. “Oh darling we understand. I can’t say this wasn’t warranted but….gracious I never thought video games could have this kind of effect on ponies. It’s just like that time Pinkie accidently knocked out a shiny Pokemon on her game last year.” “Oh yeah…I still have flashbacks.” Pinkie said unusually cheerily with a slightly more demented smile than usual and a twitching left eye. “I hate critical hits with every single fiber of my very being; you have no idea.” She said rather bitterly but with the same cheery demeanor about her. Twilight rolled her eyes a little at that. She tried to get Starlight to open up the door again my giving it another knock. “Starlight, can we please come in? We’re worried.” She asked softly. There was a slight pause of seemingly nothing happening; nopony dared to make a sound while not even knowing what would happen next. The only sound the group heard after nearly seven seconds of complete silence was the sound of Undertale’s “Game Over” screen initiating from the other side of the door. Not long afterwards, the door slowly opened to reveal Starlight in definitely the worst shape they’d ever seen her. Disheveled mane, bloodshot eyes that looked ready to pop out of her head at any minute, and a deep frown grazing her mouth. “…What?” Starlight asked with an unamused expression, clearly not happy about being interrupted from her game. “U-Um Starlight? Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked with a nervous stutter. Starlight quickly shook her head and tried to put on the happiest face she could, given her circumstances at the moment. “O-Oh never better! I’m just peachy this morning~” she said with a smile. Her mouth may be conveying a pleasant mood, but her exhausted eyes completely blew her cover. “Uh, you sure because you kiiiinda look like a zombie.” Rainbow Dash added. Starlight looked at Rainbow Dash, her incredibly fake of a smile turning into a slight grimace. “Well excuse me if I don’t look drop-dead gorgeous after getting approximately zero hours of sleep and spending that time staring at a computer screen. Fuck you too.” Starlight said with a sour tone in her voice Rainbow took mild offense to that. “Geez sorry.” She said. What she was thinking though was something along the lines of ‘So a side effect of sleep deprivation is bitch syndrome. Good to know’ “I’m sorry darling, but you really haven’t slept since last night? Do you even know the bags that leaves under your eyes? It’s atrocious I tell you!” Rarity gasped, obviously shocked that Starlight would be willing to suffer the consequences of staying awake so long over a video game. “I feel I’d be terrified if I really gave a crap about how I look right now. But I don’t. I’ve only got ONE thing on my mind right now and it’s right in my reach. I won’t let victory slip from my grasp. Not when I’ve gotten so close.” She said with a serious and determined look in her bloodshot eyes. Twilight’s ears folded a little and she frowned. “Oh Celestia. You’re really going to try to fight Sans again?” she asked with worry in her voice. “No. Not try. I WILL beat him. No matter how long it takes me, I will beat Sans and then I can just put all the horrible things I did in there behind me.” Starlight tried to sound as confident as she could despite her fatigue. “Uh, sugarcube ya do know that nothin’ in that game is…ya know…alive right?” Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow. She immediately regretted asking that question, because what followed was a now-hysterical Starlight Glimmer viciously shaking her by the shoulders. “DON’T YOU DARE TELL ME THAT WHEN FLOWEY THE MOTHERFUCKING FLOWER INVADES MY DREAMS AND WON’T LET ME SLEEP! THIS ISN’T JUST ABOUT THE GAME, MY MENTAL STATE AND MORAL COMPASS IS AT STAKE HERE! I DIDN’T KILL MY ROBOTIC HUSBANDO JUST TO STOP NOW!” She yelled as loud as she could. Applejack managed to get out of Starlight’s grasp, though it didn’t make her any less dizzy from the shaking. “U-Ungh, hear ya loud and clear.” She said with a slightly shaky voice. “Waaaaait what was that last part?” Pinkie asked with a somewhat questioning and sinister smirk, and it made Starlight get just a little bit red in the face. “….Nothing.” Starlight started to back up into her room and put a hoof on her door. “Look, I appreciate your concern but this is something I NEED to do myself. It’s a personal, soul-searching sort of thing that I need to do on my own. I’ll be fine…trust me.” Starlight quickly slammed her door shut before any of the group could object and they all looked at each other in confusion over what to do. “Um, do we try to help her or…?” Rainbow asked with a really confused look. “Well, under any other circumstance I’d say we should but…Starlight seems too adamant about doing this herself. And judging from her behavior last time she tried this, she’s not going to quit. I’d say if she doesn’t beat the game in the next couple hours that we pry her off the computer. But, hey she’s fought him so many times already, maybe she’s got the patterns down!” Twilight said with a smile, trying to remain optimistic about the situation. What followed was the sound of the Game Over screen coming from the room again, and even more furious screaming coming from Starlight. “FAUST DAMN IT, SON OF A BITCH!” “…She’ll get it eventually.” Twilight said with her ears dropping a little. “Though really, that fact is sort of what bothers me the most…” Author's Note Yeah considering that Twilight knows that Starlight's eventually going to win, next chapter might not be so much on the comedic side.
On days like these, mares like you...It was now getting late into the afternoon, a few hours after Starlight “kindly” asked that Twilight and her friends leave her to her business. Since then, her reaction time has been getting better and better with each time she was defeated. She was beginning to last a lot longer into the battle than before. She remembered quite vividly that the same thing happened when she’d faced Sans the first time and fell for his dirty little trick. “Alright, c’mon Starlight remember. Determination. LOTS of determination.” She said to herself as she chugged down another energy drink and at the same time, did the best she could in trying to dodge San’s attacks. Starlight knew she’d get this done eventually. She HAD to. At the rate she was going, there’s no way she wouldn’t. And it wasn’t just that. She just NEEDED to beat Sans. He’d gotten the better of her way too many times for her to just not continue trying. After this was done, she would be able to take comfort in knowing she would never, ever have to do this again. Though maybe doing a pacifist playthrough would help her feel like she atoned for her misdeeds in-game. That was a big MAYBE though. After this she would more than likely be spent on this game for a while. Starlight was completely ripped away from these thoughts and directed her full attention back to the screen. She’d made it to a point she’d gotten to several times now and was prepared to try and go through it again. Knowing that even after this huge attack that Sans still had another one to throw at her made a deep pit grow in Starlight’s stomach. The fact that this current one wasn’t even his “special attack” certainly didn’t help. Sans closed his eyes and prepared to strike. “well. here goes nothing. are you ready?” he asked, his eyesockets all of a sudden turning black and empty like Starlight had seen several times before this. “survive THIS and I’ll show you my special attack!” Sans launched the soul on the screen across the box and into the walls, bones coming out of the walls. She managed to bounce upward out of the way of the bones. Once that failed, Sans summoned more bones to scroll across the screen and Starlight managed to dodge out of the way of those as well. Supposedly running out of patience, Sans launched her heart across the box, somehow making it grow completely off screen and rushing past more bones. Starlight could feel a bead of sweat forming on her brow, but couldn’t be bothered to wipe it away. She needed every last ounce of attention she had to be directed to Sans, nothing more. “I’m so close, I can just feel it.” Starlight said to herself. “For Faust’s sake just LET ME WIN!” Her soul finally made contact with the side of the box, only for more bones to surface and for her to have to jump out of their path. The screen went black for half a second a couple of times and caused even more bones to try to attack her. Finally, an absurd amount of Gaster Blasters surrounded Starlight’s soul and began to open fire in a counter-clockwise pattern, making her have to move her soul several steps in front of them to avoid being utterly destroyed. Starlight had made it here before, and it was here where she had died and been the most frustrated she’d ever been in this playthrough. Aside from well…the obvious. Finally, the blasting stopped and Sans just began to mercilessly throw Starlight’s soul against the walls of the box, but something was different this time. Starlight had gone down to one health but Sans’ attacks were no longer doing any damage. Could this mean… Starlight realized what was happening, jumped up out of her seat, and raised her hooves to the ceiling, shouting for joy to the heavens. “YES! YES! I FINALLY DID IT, THANK CELESTIA ALMIGHTY IT’S OVER!” she shouted, tears of happiness forming in her eyes. It’d taken her a grand total of 17 hours to do it, but her greatest challenge in her life yet had finally been overcome. Starlight wasn’t sure if it was just pure irony that her greatest foe was someone that didn’t even physically exist, but at this moment she was too relieved to care. She looked at her screen to see what would happen next, only to see Sans setting her soul down, obviously looking completely drained and Megalovania beginning to fade out, leaving her in silence. “huff…puff…all right…that’s it. it’s time for my special attack.” The second those words showed in Sans’ dialogue box, Starlight’s stomach dropped. She’d completely forgotten about that. The worst part was that she was now down to only one health left. And if San’s previous attack was that bad, what could possibly be worse? How would she be expected to dodge anything else with only one chance left? “are you ready? here goes nothing.” Sans proclaimed proudly, intimidating Starlight even further. “N-No, p-please. No more, I-I don’t think I can take it.” She said as her hooves started to tremble nervously. She anxiously tried to ready herself for San’s final attempt to attack her… Only for nothing to happen. “…Um…you gonna, do anything Sans?...Ugh why do I keep forgetting that I’m actually talking to a computer?” Starlight asked herself as she rubbed her forehead in annoyance. After a few more moments of seemingly nothing happening, San’s dialogue bubble popped back into view. “yep. that’s right. it’s literally nothing. and it’s not gonna be anything either. hehehe…ya get it?” Sans asked, his dialogue suggesting he was somewhat snickering a little and he winked. Starlight just stood at her desk, keeping her unblinking eyes on Sans and taking in how badly he’d just trolled her. In no way was this anywhere near as bad as…that thing she refused to mention ever again because she also denies that it ever happened…but it came pretty close. Sans made her nearly have a heart attack for literally nothing. As mad as this made her, she had to admit the maker of this game was a mastermind in this department. Starlight continued to scroll through San’s text and not much to her surprise, it looked like it was getting much darker and even more disturbing than it was before. “i know i can’t beat you. one of your turns… you’re just gonna kill me. so, uh, i’ve decided.. it’s not gonna BE your turn. ever. i’m just gonna keep having MY turn until you give up.” San’s eyesockets once again reverted to the black emptiness that Starlight had come to dread so much since she started this endeavor. “even if it means we have to stand here until the end of time. capiche?” Then there was nothing. Again it appeared that Starlight was just staring across the screen at Sans and playing the waiting game, hoping for anything at all to happen. Every now and then Starlight would have to scroll through more of his text which continued to desperately try to get her to leave him alone. It struck Starlight in the heart pretty badly right then; realizing just how hopeless San’s situation was looking. He KNEW he’d killed her plenty of times, but no matter what he did, her determination willed her to come back and try again. His only hope of survival at this point was to literally bore her into doing ANYTHING else. She put a hoof to her chest and winced a little in emotional pain. Was this really worth completing the game? Putting someone she felt was as real as her, even though she should have known better than to believe he was real and had grown to despise from losing to him so many times, through this much torment? “To be honest…not really.” She answered herself. She still questioned if this game accurately reflected on what her moral standing was as a pony. She kept telling herself no. No it didn’t. She just wanted to see what happens. That wasn’t much to ask. She just wished she didn’t have to go through feels hell to do it. If she really wanted to make herself feel better after this was all set and done, the idea of doing a pacifist run again to lift her spirits kept returning to her. Making friends seemed to do that. She did it before to help her feel good so who says it wouldn't work now? It'd be a lot of work to go through the game again, but it'd be a much more pleasurable experience than THIS. Starlight realized then that Sans seemed to have gotten much more fatigued than she’d thought because now he was completely asleep. Trying to figure out what else there was left for her to do now, she aimlessly moved her soul around the small box. She made contact with the left wall, which to her shock, made the box actually move with it. Curious, she continued to ever so slowly move it to the left until she couldn’t move it anymore. She tried moving it again and managed to get it to move downward to the FIGHT button. “O-Oh no I’m really gonna kill a guy while he’s asleep?! Who does that?!” she yelled. She made it over the button and was fully prepared to press it, but hesitated again. She was about to actually do it. Her goal was just within her reach, but…why did she feel so bad about it, even though she knew she shouldn’t? It was all coding, programming, commands, and pixel art, nothing more. It was one of the times where she tried to hold emotion and logical reasoning to different standards… In the end though, logical reasoning won out. She needed to end this. Starlight clicked the fight button, only for Sans to once again dodge her attack. “heh, didja really think you’d be abl-“ at that moment, Starlight was so prepared to slam her hooves on her desk and yell “Fuck this shit I’m done!” to the heavens with all of her might, but Sans was stopped mid-sentence. Another attack that was executed without Starlight’s command, landed a blow on Sans. His pupils dilated and for the first time in the entire game, the corners of his mouth turned down into a very subtle frown. The hit-sound commenced and Sans toppled over with a huge gash slashed across his chest and tearing his T-shirt. Again, Starlight was prepared to scream, this time out of relief that it was done, but stopped when she got a better look at Sans. His wound that she had inflicted on him was BLEEDING. No other monster in the game ever did that, so why Sans? She could conclude that bones have bone marrow, and in turn, blood in them, but he was also bleeding out of his mouth. Was it that ketchup she saw him drink that one time, or was he a human in disguise or something? Those were questions for another time though. All she could focus on now was what else Sans could have to say to her after that. After so much hopless heartache and pain, Sans failed to defeat her, or even get through to her enough to make her stop. Even though he was smiling, his eyes looked completely miserable. “……….so…guess that’s it, huh?...just…don’t say i didn’t warn you.” he said, his sprite starting to stand up and his hand still holding onto his wound. “…welp…i’m going to grillby’s.” Sans looked as if he was trying to move off-screen but was so injured that he was struggling to even find the strength to stay on his feet. Once he did make it past though, another one of his text boxes popped up that struck Starlight harder than any of the other deaths that had been caused by her hooves. “papyrus, do you want anything?” Afterwards, the usual sound of a monster being killed was played, and Starlight’s max health increased to a whopping 99 and her LV to 20. Despite all of that though, all she could do was think about how unfulfilling it all was. Especially after hearing San’s last words, she didn’t feel accomplished at all. She felt like a murderer. Like everything she did was simply for nothing but power and to fulfill her curiosity and nothing else. And over the course of her playthrough of battling Sans, she had grown to despise him for the many sleepless hours she’d endured from fighting him. Then why didn’t she feel accomplished even when she’d defeated her enemy? Why’d she still feel empty? This feeling was all too familiar to her. It felt nearly identical to the things going through her head as she was trying to get revenge on Twilight. And she’d made the same mistake yet again, even as Sans had warned her otherwise. “…Well…no use in turning back now.” She said to herself as she walked back to the sparkling save point and saved her game. She looked at the clock on her computer. 3:00 p.m. She’d gone almost an entire day without sleep. And even then she still had Asgore to deal with. She couldn’t do that now, not after suffering through that. Starlight needed to rest. Starlight turned off the game, as well as the lights in her room, and crawled into bed. She didn’t care if it wasn’t nighttime, she needed sleep now more than she ever needed it before. She could at least take some solace in knowing that no matter how tough Asgore could possibly be in the Genocide route, there was no way he could be any worse than Sans was. At least she knew at this point that the worst was over, and that she could be playing on a much easier playing field once she resumed her game later. So she slowly shut her eyes and waited for blissful sleep to take her… She was awoken with a start by a familiar and grating voice whispering in her ear with malicious intent lacing it. “You IDIOT.” Author's Note I know the day this came out is stupid but I assure you it's a real chapter. Anyway, looks like the worst has actually yet to come Starlight. Sans may have caused some pretty bad emotional pain, but it only gets worse from here. Be prepared.
It's a beautiful day outside...There was nothing. Nothing at all for what seemed like miles around, aside from pitch blackness. Not the kind of blackness one would get from waking up too early in the morning and it was still dark out, or the kind where the lights in the room were just turned off late at night. No, this was just a completely empty and soulless void that never ended. This was the sight that Starlight Glimmer woke up to as she found herself lying down in said void. Her exhausted mind couldn’t comprehend how this was possible, since this didn’t seem to have anything in it and therefore there could be no ground either. Nevertheless, she was laying on SOMETHING. She didn’t have time to ponder the defiance of the laws of physics that was happening here. She needed to just find out where she was and what was happening. “R-Rgh…what is this place?” Starlight asked herself as she stretched out her body to try and wake herself up a little. She looked in each direction the place had to offer and found the same in each one. Nothing. “H-Hello?” she called out. There wasn’t even an echo from her voice. This was starting to make her panic. Sweat formed on her brow and her heart rate increased dramatically. How did this happen? Where was she? She remembered she was playing on Twilight’s computer and tried forever to beat Sans in Undertale, ultimately failing to do so. A few days had passed since then and nothing much of substance had happened besides Starlight brooding in her room and pouting over her failure. Starlight tried to relax and think rationally for a moment. “O-Okay, let me think…I remember melting Twilight’s computer, pouting for a few days, going to bed and after tha-“ Starlight was interrupted from her own thoughts by the sound of a loud and chipper voice that was not hers talk. “Howdy!” it said. Starlight looked around in confusion for the source of the voice. There was something else in here? What could possibly live in this void? “Down here stupid.” it said again with what sounded like slightly more malice in its tone. Starlight looked down at the theoretical ground of the void and saw a white flower with yellow petals. Normally this wouldn’t be all that interesting, except the flower actually had a face. And the one it was giving Starlight right now was probably the most condescending and shit-eating smile it could muster. Starlight recognized the flower straight away, and her eyes widened in surprise and slight fear. ‘Oh no…oh fuck no.’ she thought to herself. She wanted to try and run away and get as far away as possible from this weed, but where would she go? There wasn’t anything here. “You look pretty surprised to see me, don’t ya? Thought you’d gotten away from me just because you melted the royal nerd’s computer right?” it giggled a little before its mouth grew into a menacing smile and grew fangs, as well as a pair of demonic eyes. “You wanted to leave me to ROT. Well think again. It’s not going down like that.” Starlight tried to relax and attempt to look like the superior one in this situation and narrowed her eyes, despite knowing just what this flower was capable of. It was going to be hard. “You’re not real Flowey. Leave me alone!” She growled intimidatingly. Flowey obviously wasn’t afraid at all and simply laughed slightly. “Sorry Starlight, that’s not quite how it works either.” The flower’s face turned extremely demonic again and its voice deepened. “I’m as real as you make me out to be.” Starlight’s brave façade lessened a bit at that and she backed away a few steps from Flowey in slight fear. “Hehe. Oh relaaaax, I just wanna talk. I’m not gonna hurt ya…probably.” Starlight’s voice trembled nervously at Flowey’s statements. She knew for sure Flowey couldn’t be trusted, but what else was she supposed to do? He was probably going to talk anyway with or without her responses. “W-What do you want?” she asked. “Just to talk about your life. Do anything fun? Make any friends?...ah who am I kidding? You have no real friends, do you?” Flowey asked with a smirk. Starlight’s ears folded a little. Flowey was hurtful for sure, there was no question about that. But that felt like it physically hurt. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. I-I have friends.” She answered. Flowey couldn’t help but laugh loudly at that. “You’re joking right? I don’t get how you’re not seeing the bigger picture. I thought you were smart.” Flowey chuckled a little. “You REALLY think they’ve forgotten what you did to them? Literal identity theft, kidnapping, giving time and space a good spanking just to see them suffer, I could go on all day. Buuuuut…in the end they did decide to let you in…not out of friendship, oh no. What kind of person actually BEFRIENDS someone like YOU? Wanna know what it really is?” Starlight felt worse and worse over what she’d done with every one of Flowey’s words. By all accounts she shouldn’t have been listening to him, at all. She knew just how bad he was; she’d witnessed his cruelty firsthoof in Undertale. The bad thing was about this though, at least to her, what he said made sense. She really didn’t want to admit it, but that’s what it looked like. Nopony just forgets about the bad things someone did for the sake of friendship. The things she did could’ve done some really terrible things to the timeline and had very permanent effects on her new friends and it was all her fault. They were her friends though, right? Flowey snickered again at the sight of tears forming in Starlight’s eyes. “What they’re REALLY offering to you…is pity. Worthless pity. They only feel sorry for you because you’re so pathetic and such a big crybaby . Oooooh I can just hear you crying like a little filly all those years ago clear as day.” To Starlight’s surprise, Flowey’s face suddenly contorted and morphed into the shape of Starlight’s own face in the state it was when she was a filly. It looked like it was crying and sobbing loudly, sniffling in between sobs. “S-Sunburst wait! D-Don’t leave me, please! I-I don’t have anyone without y-you!” it cried. Flowey’s face then changed again into his normal face, but now with a huge and toothy grin and the pupils in his eyes were missing. “BUT NOBODY CAME.” He laughed loudly. Starlight was nearly full on sobbing now. Flowey wasn’t pulling any punches in trying to make her suffer. Bringing up that painful memory was probably the worst thing he could have done to her at this point. Not just that, but he was hitting all the right chords to hit her in the emotions. She’d been thinking about all these things on her own over the past couple of days and it looked like she wasn’t the only one that realized some of these things weren’t adding up. Flowey’s face changed again, this time turning completely normal and he stared at her with that smug smile he’d first had. “After all, you haven’t really changed THAT much, have you? For someone that claims she’s a reformed pony, you sure do seem eager to kick smiley trashbag’s bucket. What is it? Frustration, anger, hatred, what?...I think you and I both know the answer to that.” Flowey’s stem all of a sudden started to raise out of the ground, slowly and making grotesque cracking sounds as it did so, his face turning back into his evil and soulless smile. His stem was now covered in thorns and separate vines and roots began to grow out of him to somewhat resemble the shape of arms. Starlight’s eyes widened in horror and she backed away even further, looking up at Flowey’s growing height. “S-Stay away from me! Get back!” she yelled, on the verge of fully screaming in fear. Flowey didn’t pay her any heed, and one of his root arms wrapped around Starlight’s body, restraining her legs and one wrapping around her horn, raising her up to his eye level. Starlight tried to light up her horn to hit him with magic, but the vine around her horn prevented any magic from escaping. Flowey laughed at her failed attempt to attack. “The answer…is that you’re empty inside…JUST LIKE ME.” Flowey laughed as he swung a vine directly at Starlight’s face… “AGGGH NO!” Starlight screamed as she shot up in her bed, her sheets covered in sweat and breathing heavily. Her eyes quickly darted around the room to take in her surroundings and make sure she was okay. Sure enough, she was back in her room in Twilight’s castle of friendship, and NOT in the thorny grasp of Flowey the Flower. Starlight felt her forehead and made an attempt to calm down, her heart rate starting to slow to a normal pace now that she knew she was safe. “O-Oh dear Celestia that was intense.” She mumbled quietly. “D-Do I really think that badly of myself?...wow I think I’m taking this game a little too serious.” She looked over to her right at the table to the side of her bed, where a soda she’d drank a while ago before bed sat half-empty. She picked it up in her magic, trotted over to the window, and poured the rest of it out, vowing to never drink that before bed again. She then closed the window, prepared to go back into bed and hopefully back to sleep. Before she did though, she caught sight of her computer desk in the corner of the room. The computer that was there before was Twilight’s that she let her use, and she’d melted it in her rage when Sans...did that thing which should never be mentioned, to her when she last played Undertale. In hindsight, she probably overreacted. Twilight forgave her after that, but she still needed a computer. So Starlight ended up paying for a replacement computer for Twilight (which she now kept in her own room), and one for herself. If she ever did anything that anger-inducing again, she’d at least want it done to her own property and not her friend’s. Looking at her new computer, thoughts of what happened just now, and her last playthrough of Undertale, came flooding back. Apparently the rage had gotten in her head so badly and the game had been reminding her of what she did on so many levels that it was getting in her mind and making her feel even worse. If she was ever going to sleep again, she needed closure. She needed to get done with this game and never go back to it ever again if she wanted peace of mind. Starlight was not going to wait for another nightmare of Flowey belittling her for her theory to be confirmed. She was beating the Genocide route even if it mean another all-nighter and another melted computer. And given the nightmare she just had, caffeine and sugar was out of the question. Starlight sat at her computer desk and booted it up, putting her headphones over her ears. She clicked on the Undertale icon on the desktop and started the game. Sure enough, her file was still there. Thank Celestia for Steam Cloud. Her file loaded and she found herself in the familiar environment of the Judgement Hall and started to move her character to the right where Sans was inevitably going to be waiting for her. As she did this, a few thoughts came to mind about her choices last time she played and what they resulted in. That thing that happened to her last time of which nopony should ever speak of, would not happen again. She could guarantee that. Starlight exhaled deeply. “Alright Sans. I’m done playing games with you. This time, it ends.” Author's Note Luna's moonlight shone through the window, reflecting off the crystaline surfaces of the castle. It seems like her journey is nearly over. Starlight is filled with DETERMINATION. (But anyway, I know this chapter was pretty dramatic. But look at the tags. It's a dramatic comedy, not everything is going to be all laughs all the time. )
...Birds are singing. Flowers are blooming...“Starlight? Starlight are you okay?” Twilight shouted from the other side of her enemy-turned- student’s bedroom door. They were supposed to be having a meeting with her friends to discuss any friendship issues that may need their assistance on the map’s call. Nothing of substance had come up lately but even then, Starlight still missed an important bonding opportunity with her new friends. This was worrying to Twilight so she tried to get Starlight to open up, but so far had made no progress. Twilight’s friends also surrounded the door, visibly concerned (some more than others) over what it was Starlight was even doing in there. “Did any of you even see her at all last night?....Do you think she’s dead?” Rainbow asked. “She ain’t dead Rainbow, she’s jus’ bein’ stubborn and ain’t openin’ up. Or maybe she’s a real heavy sleeper and hasn’t woken up yet.” Applejack responded with a deadpan. “Seriously, why’d the most morbid possibility come to yer mind before anythin’ else?” Rainbow shrugged a little. “I dunno. It’s not the happiest possibility but it’s there. Ponies die in their sleep all the time…oooor maybe someone from her old village still hated her and tracked her down and stabbed her to death, who knows?” “U-Um…Rainbow can you please not?” Fluttershy said with a whimper at the thought of blood being splattered all across the bedroom walls and sheets. “Oh, I know for sure how to find out!~” Pinkie said with a bright smile. She lightly pushed Twilight aside and put her ear to the door, seeming to concentrate very carefully. “Hmmm…” Rarity observed the odd behavior of her friend (not that it was anything particularly new) and raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Pinkie, whatever are you even doing?” “Listening for breathing. I know how creepy that sounds out of context but she won’t open up so-“ Pinkie wasn’t given the chance to finish her sentence, as a very audible and angry voice yelled out from the other side of the door, making Pinkie cringe and her ears ring. “FUCK! THIS GAME MAKES ME HATE MY EXISTENCE!” the voice, clearly belonging to Starlight yelled, followed by the sound of glass breaking. Pinkie, still visibly uncomfortable, backed off from the door and held onto her ears in pain. “Well…at least we know she’s not dead.” She said with a slight whimper. The second Twilight heard those words spoken in Starlight’s voice, she knew what was happening. Those were the same words she herself had yelled after she’d tried and failed to beat Undertale’s Genocide run not too long ago. It was an even shorter time ago that she’d introduced Starlight to the Genocide run and had gotten annihilated by Sans. “…Oh no, not this again.” Rainbow, having been the first of the group to play the game at all, recognized that amount of rage can only be induced by one thing, and it made her snicker. “O-Oh Faust is she...T-Twilight you did NOT show Starlight, the most angry and easily triggered pony alive, Undertale’s Genocide run.” Rainbow asked, trying to contain her laughter. Twilight groaned a little and put her hoof to her face. “…I did.” She said, obviously regretting that decision on her part. Rainbow completely lost it and she fell on the floor laughing out loud. “O-OH MY CELESTIA TWILIGHT YOU’RE A MAD GENIUS! STARLIGHT FIGHTING SANS IS A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN!” She yelled, rolling on the floor and holding her stomach. Fluttershy’s eyes widened a little when she heard just what was causing Starlight to scream so angrily. “O-Oh goodness…Twilight um…doesn’t introducing Starlight of all ponies to the most unforgiving video game boss in history seem a little bit…um…sadistic?” she asked. Twilight took her hoof off her face and looked at Fluttershy with a look that clearly communicated ‘You’re kidding right?’ and shook her head. “Considering what she put me, Spike, and several other realities through, this was being merciful…which is the entire point of that game. I’m hoping it teaches her something. You do bad things and there will be consequences. THEN we work on helping change for the better.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “…That and ya wanted to see her rage over it cause ya thought it’d be funny.” “…And I wanted to see her rage over it because I thought it’d be funny. It ended with my computer being turned into electronic pudding. Look, I didn’t expect her to try this AGAIN okay? She’s just more determined to get through it than I thought.” Twilight continued. Rarity shook her head. “Oh darling we understand. I can’t say this wasn’t warranted but….gracious I never thought video games could have this kind of effect on ponies. It’s just like that time Pinkie accidently knocked out a shiny Pokemon on her game last year.” “Oh yeah…I still have flashbacks.” Pinkie said unusually cheerily with a slightly more demented smile than usual and a twitching left eye. “I hate critical hits with every single fiber of my very being; you have no idea.” She said rather bitterly but with the same cheery demeanor about her. Twilight rolled her eyes a little at that. She tried to get Starlight to open up the door again my giving it another knock. “Starlight, can we please come in? We’re worried.” She asked softly. There was a slight pause of seemingly nothing happening; nopony dared to make a sound while not even knowing what would happen next. The only sound the group heard after nearly seven seconds of complete silence was the sound of Undertale’s “Game Over” screen initiating from the other side of the door. Not long afterwards, the door slowly opened to reveal Starlight in definitely the worst shape they’d ever seen her. Disheveled mane, bloodshot eyes that looked ready to pop out of her head at any minute, and a deep frown grazing her mouth. “…What?” Starlight asked with an unamused expression, clearly not happy about being interrupted from her game. “U-Um Starlight? Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked with a nervous stutter. Starlight quickly shook her head and tried to put on the happiest face she could, given her circumstances at the moment. “O-Oh never better! I’m just peachy this morning~” she said with a smile. Her mouth may be conveying a pleasant mood, but her exhausted eyes completely blew her cover. “Uh, you sure because you kiiiinda look like a zombie.” Rainbow Dash added. Starlight looked at Rainbow Dash, her incredibly fake of a smile turning into a slight grimace. “Well excuse me if I don’t look drop-dead gorgeous after getting approximately zero hours of sleep and spending that time staring at a computer screen. Fuck you too.” Starlight said with a sour tone in her voice Rainbow took mild offense to that. “Geez sorry.” She said. What she was thinking though was something along the lines of ‘So a side effect of sleep deprivation is bitch syndrome. Good to know’ “I’m sorry darling, but you really haven’t slept since last night? Do you even know the bags that leaves under your eyes? It’s atrocious I tell you!” Rarity gasped, obviously shocked that Starlight would be willing to suffer the consequences of staying awake so long over a video game. “I feel I’d be terrified if I really gave a crap about how I look right now. But I don’t. I’ve only got ONE thing on my mind right now and it’s right in my reach. I won’t let victory slip from my grasp. Not when I’ve gotten so close.” She said with a serious and determined look in her bloodshot eyes. Twilight’s ears folded a little and she frowned. “Oh Celestia. You’re really going to try to fight Sans again?” she asked with worry in her voice. “No. Not try. I WILL beat him. No matter how long it takes me, I will beat Sans and then I can just put all the horrible things I did in there behind me.” Starlight tried to sound as confident as she could despite her fatigue. “Uh, sugarcube ya do know that nothin’ in that game is…ya know…alive right?” Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow. She immediately regretted asking that question, because what followed was a now-hysterical Starlight Glimmer viciously shaking her by the shoulders. “DON’T YOU DARE TELL ME THAT WHEN FLOWEY THE MOTHERFUCKING FLOWER INVADES MY DREAMS AND WON’T LET ME SLEEP! THIS ISN’T JUST ABOUT THE GAME, MY MENTAL STATE AND MORAL COMPASS IS AT STAKE HERE! I DIDN’T KILL MY ROBOTIC HUSBANDO JUST TO STOP NOW!” She yelled as loud as she could. Applejack managed to get out of Starlight’s grasp, though it didn’t make her any less dizzy from the shaking. “U-Ungh, hear ya loud and clear.” She said with a slightly shaky voice. “Waaaaait what was that last part?” Pinkie asked with a somewhat questioning and sinister smirk, and it made Starlight get just a little bit red in the face. “….Nothing.” Starlight started to back up into her room and put a hoof on her door. “Look, I appreciate your concern but this is something I NEED to do myself. It’s a personal, soul-searching sort of thing that I need to do on my own. I’ll be fine…trust me.” Starlight quickly slammed her door shut before any of the group could object and they all looked at each other in confusion over what to do. “Um, do we try to help her or…?” Rainbow asked with a really confused look. “Well, under any other circumstance I’d say we should but…Starlight seems too adamant about doing this herself. And judging from her behavior last time she tried this, she’s not going to quit. I’d say if she doesn’t beat the game in the next couple hours that we pry her off the computer. But, hey she’s fought him so many times already, maybe she’s got the patterns down!” Twilight said with a smile, trying to remain optimistic about the situation. What followed was the sound of the Game Over screen coming from the room again, and even more furious screaming coming from Starlight. “FAUST DAMN IT, SON OF A BITCH!” “…She’ll get it eventually.” Twilight said with her ears dropping a little. “Though really, that fact is sort of what bothers me the most…” Author's Note Yeah considering that Twilight knows that Starlight's eventually going to win, next chapter might not be so much on the comedic side.
