My Little Tale

MT. EBOTT 20XX

A soft feeling spread across their back. It seemed so calm and peaceful, as if nothing could've gone wrong, still in bed, just waiting to be woken up by the sun...

Except, that did not happen. They opened their eyes and were surprised to see that the sun was eclipsed by the cave's rocky walls. They could barely see the sky from where they laid. They lifted their head and took in their surroundings.

They had fallen from a considerable height, almost enough to break several bones. But it appeared as if a dense patch of yellow flowers on the ground broke their fall, and spared them from death. The human closed their eyes and sighed.

They steadily lifted themselves up and managed to stand upright. They looked around once more, trying to search for an exit.

They spotted a hallway, darkened by the shadows cast from above. It appeared to be the only exit from the pit.

And so they made their way, near the wall, as the light from the pit began to fade into darkness.

They suddenly stopped feeling the wall, noticing a small bright spot in the middle of an obscured cave. A strange flower had a little smiley face carved onto it, and was pointing directly at the human. They thought that this flower was just merely there to scare someone...

That is, until it began to talk.

"Hey there!" Called the flower in a happy tone.

The human didn't flinch, and merely held the pillar next to them, staring at the strange flower.

"Hey! Don't be afraid, come over so we can have a little talk!"

The human didn't seem to like this.

"C'mon! I can help you get out of this place! I promise!"

After a few long steps, the human got close enough the talking flower that they could hear them far more clearly.

"So, you're new to the UNDERGROUND, aren'tcha?"

"Boy, you must be so confused!"

"By the way, I'm Flowey, Flowey The Flower!"

"If you want to get out of here, someone's gotta teach ya how things work in the UNDERGROUND!"

"Hmmm,"

"I guess little old me has to do," Sighing a little bit.

All of a sudden, the human's perception of color faded into a simple black and white scheme. They didn't know what was happening, or why it was happening, yet Flowey, rooted to the ground, seemed happier than before.

"Now,"

"You see that heart in front of you?"

"It's your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!"

"Your SOUL starts off weak, but it can grow stronger if you gain a lot of LV,"

"What's LV stand for, you ask?"

"Why, LOVE, of course!"

"You want some LOVE, don'tcha?"

"Here, LOVE is shared by... Little red drops of BLOOD."

All of a sudden, giant vines erupted from the ground and rapidly surrounded the human. They immediately tried running away, but a stray vine made them trip over to the ground,  giving opportunity for the rest to completely encase the human. Still, they struggled to free themselves, only making the flower's grip on them tighter.

The flower began to laugh.

"Hahaha! You IDIOT,"

"Hasn't anyone told you yet?"

"In this world, it's KILL, or BE KILLED,"

They didn't want it to end like this.

"Now that you know the rules, how about we try executing them, hm?" An unpleasant smirk on its lips.

They were slowly lifted from the ground, and put onto a standing position. The vines lessened their grip on the human in the upper part of their body. They glanced down and saw an opening in middle of their chest.

They looked up again, and saw a sort of cactus spike pointing directly at them, with the flower still smiling. A deadly smile, at that.

"I've waited too long to let this one pass by..." The flower thought out loud.

"Now, do me a favor and d..." A frown formed on its face.

It smelled funny... It smelled like smoke.

The flower turned around and let out a scream of agony, letting go of the human right away, making them hit the floor with a thud. The flower pulled the vines down and sunk into the ground, a small fire following suit.

A moment passed, and the human lifted themselves up, holding a hand on their head. They glanced up, and saw yet another being unknown to them.

The being in front of the human was by far, the strangest thing they have seen yet. A sort of horse, but much smaller and friendly-looking. The being wore a large dress that covered most of its body with a strange symbol drawn on it. The being itself, having a yellow toned fur, gave a patient smile, along with those vivid blue eyes. Its mane, a bleached pink, was perfectly arranged all the way down to its hooves, as was its tail, stripes decorated with a small yellow knot near the end.

"Ah, hello my dear!"

Calmly pointing its hooves at itself, "I am Fluttershy, caretaker of the RUINS,"

The human seemed to be shivering.

"Don't you worry, little one, I am not like that being,"

"I can take you to the ruins if you so wish, my child,"

"It is safe there, I promise,"

They stopped, considering their options for a moment.

The mare extended its hoof carefully in a sympathetic way. They took it, and were lifted from the ground.

"Come this way, dear,"

They followed the mare throughout a dark path until they began to see light from a left corner.

A large entrance flanked by stairways and by a small garden made of yellow flowers was made visible to the human. Its purple bricks contrasted with the orange-tinted torches on each side of the entrance.

"This is the entrance to the ruins," The mare stated as she approached the stairs.

They, however, were admiring the flowers, due to how bright they shined against the torches. It was as if the sun itself had come here to fill this room with the sky of the outside.

Before they knew it, they were happily crinkling in the small garden with joy, almost forgetting what happened earlier.

A voice echoed through the room, ' Determination ', they heard it whisper.

The unknown voice caused them to jump a little, glancing around for the source of the voice.

A slight chuckle was heard, "Little human, we should continue over this way,"

The human, now looking at the mare above, quickly nodded, and stood up from the small garden.

Climbing up the stairs and passing through the entrance, they saw the mare trotting along some stone pressure plates and pulling a switch down, causing the closed entrance in front to slide open with a loud thud.

"Here in the ruins, there are a lot puzzles to be found,"

"Please do get accustomed to seeing them, my dear,"

They examined the room in detail, from the switch's metallic clinking, to the stone pressure plates, and in what order the mare pressed them to open the entrance.

"Follow me to the next room, dear,"

Before they did, they glanced at the sign left of the entrance, intrigued by what it said.

' Not everything must have a happy conclusion nor an unsatisfactory one. '

The next room was voided with the noise of rushing water. The walls that previously seemed to be in perfect shape, now look degraded, having every so often a large gap which allowed for vines to fill in the space. The walls were sometimes decorated with signs of various sizes, but they were unable to read most them from afar.

"Dear, to make progress here, you might need to flip some switches,"

"But don't worry! I have painted those that need to be used for you,"

"If that is alright with you, of course,"

The human smirked and nodded.

Following her over a small bridge above the water, the mare stopped just behind a spiked floor and awaited for them to solve the puzzle.

Almost in a blink, the switch was pulled, and a thud was made audible.

"Good! Now onto the next one,"

Before the mare could reach the next set of spiked floors, another thud brought them instantly down. She turned around to face the human child, who was already next to her eagerly awaiting for more.

She smiled softly, "Very well done, little human,"

Both made way to another room, circular in shape and again, wildlife beginning to penetrate the walls. Roughly in the middle of the room, was a dummy barely held by a wooden stick.

"Now, a human like yourself may risk being attacked by monsters, here in the underground,"

"But, don't worry, dear!"

"When you encounter a monster, you will enter a FIGHT,"

"During a FIGHT, you can try talking to them peacefully, without resorting to violence,"

"Sometimes, a monster will rethink their choices and let you be,"

"Try stalling for time, or give them a nice compliment!"

"You must be prepared to face these situations, my child,"

"Now, do you see that dummy?"

"Try starting a conversation with it,"

The human was confused by this, but nevertheless complied to her orders. They walked next to the dummy and found themselves to be in that same ambient, only the colors black and white distinguishable from each other.

Three options came to mind.

FIGHT the dummy, ACT out a conversation with it, or, SPARE it from its horrendous fate, whichever it was anyways.

They had to choose carefully if they wanted to gain the full potential of this training.

They needed to do the right thing here.

But these options were so intriguing, all of them.

If they were to choose one, then all of the other options wouldn't be worth it.

And they could never see how the situation would play out if they were to choose that option.

They needed to see all of them, all of the options, but which one...?

All of a sudden, the dummy had tired itself of the human's aimless shenanigans and flew out of their vision.

They turned around and looked at the mare. She seemed troubled by this.

"Uh," Unsure what to say.

She glanced the dummy, which was now hanging on the ceiling, utterly defying gravity.

"Come with me, dear!" Making up her mind.

**

They had entered the next room, which had a strange set of paths, all of them zigzagging the room in a random frenzy. They thought this was a joke.

"There's another puzzle in this room,"

"I wonder if you can solve it?"

The human examined the room carefully. Soon after, they came to the conclusion that this room had nothing related to a puzzle, so they decided to move on to the next corridor, the mare following and quickly making way further ahead.

The human could see the reflections of water in the ceiling, but before they could see what it was in its entirety, the human stumbled across a monster.

Again, he was brought into that ambient, the ambient of a FIGHT. But this time, against ...

A frog.

The human decided to check what this frog could do before they were to decide which action to take.

They asked for its name, to which it grudgingly replied 'Froggit', it didn't seem like it was having the best of days.

Just as they were about to take action, Fluttershy stepped in and glared intensely at the frog. Froggit felt guilty all of a sudden, and hopped away. It seemed as if it dropped ten gold coins, the human, without question, stored them in their pocket.

Now that the frog had gone away, they continued following the mare, until she stopped in her tracks. They were surprised to see a large room with spiked floors surrounded by water up further ahead. Perhaps there was a way to deactivate them or maybe walk past them without being spiked to death.

"Hm," The mare thought out loud.

"Maybe this is a little too hard for you,"

"Here, hop on my back," She said as she lowered herself to let the human climb onto her.

Now on her back, they watched as she made her way past the spiked floor as if it was nothing, doing zigzags around the room and eventually reaching the other side.

They hopped off of the mare's back.

"There we go!" She said to them with a smile.

"This way, dear,"

The room they stepped in was much more bigger than any they've been before, as part of it was obscured by the slight fog that voided the other end. It was a very long hallway.

She sighed, "I must ask you something..."

She looked away.

"I, need you... to..."

"Walk to the other side of the without me,"

"Please forgive me," She nearly cried as she sprinted out of view.

...

The human just stood there, processing the current situation.

...

Apparently, they had to run.

And so, they did.

They began walking, shortly after, a jog. They summoned all of their strength and ran as fast as they possibly could.

The coldness of the hallway helped them keep up the speed, but the fog didn't help them from nearly crashing against a pillar near the end of the room.

"Ah!" The human heard coming from somewhere.

"Oh no! Dear, are you alright?" The mare trotted from behind the pillar next to the human, who was now resting their palm against the wall and panting.

"I should've known you'd be tired of running this far so quickly,"

"Pardon me for this, I will never do something like this again,"

"I should have walked with you the whole way, I-"

The human, trying to control their breathing, signaled the mare to calm down.

"B- But are you alright, dear?"

They nodded, standing up straight now.

"Oh, thank goodness,"

"Dear, I will bring you home right now, I will not let you be alone again!"

The human shook their head.

"What? Dear, if I leave you alone, you'll end up hurting yourself, and..."

...

"I-... I understand, but I do not want you to feel alone and hurt,"

"Oh!" A thought occurred to her.

"Here, have this,"

The mare gave them a small grey mobile phone, which was neatly decorated with tiny stickers of various types of animals.

"This way, we can keep in touch while I prepare things back at home for you,"

"If you so wish, stay here, and I'll come back for you when I'm finished,"

"Be good, will you my child?"

And so, the mare left them alone at last, with a phone and a pair of exhausted lungs, ready to explore the rest of the ruins by themselves.