The Moon In The Dark: Alt-Endings and Doomed Detoursby WorldWalker128Chapters(Getting Up) Vengeful Breakfast(Snow Problems) The one monster that no human has ever killed(The Punchline & Determination) All this time...had it really been this simple???(A Talk Over Dinner) Judge, Jury, and Vengeful Vigilante(Skims several chapters) Gotta Catch 'Em All...But can't.(Getting Up) Vengeful Breakfast "Of course I will!" Flowey told Woona, much to her joy. "Down here, LOVE is shared through..." As he spoke, a small white pellet rose out of him. "...little white...'friendliness pellets'. Now, since you have so little LOVE, I've made this one extra strong. Don't let it miss your soul!" Gasping happily, Woona moved her soul to collect the 'Friendliness pellet'. However, as it hit her, pain like nothing she'd ever known - like a knife in her very soul - wracked her whole being. She let out a scream of pain as her HP dropped to one, and Flowey's face contorted into an expression of wicked contempt. "You idiot!" Flowey cackled. "Down here, it's kill or be killed! Who'd pass up an opportunity like this?!" He laughed wickedly as he surrounded Woona's soul with a slowly constricting circle of magic bullets..." "DIE." Flowey commanded, his voice dripping with malice as his seedy assault closed on Woona and once more struck her SOUL. Woona's scream was short, and as the world around her went dark the last thing she heard before blacking out was Flowey's vile laughter. ... ... ... Woona's eyes opened and she gave a pained grunt before she opened her eyes and quickly closed them again to the bright sunlight shining down into her eyes. Covering them with a leg, and sat rolled over so she could stand and then looked around in confusion. The cave-like room she lay in looked familiar. "I've been here before..." she muttered softly as she looked about. "haven't I? Or was that just a dream?" She rose from the flowers she'd seemed to have landed on, and feeling her stomach rumble, she paused and looked down at them to find that though they were flowers that she'd eaten in the past, they were far too crushed into the grassy patch to taste like anything other than the same grass it grew in. Disheartened slightly but strangely sure that there must be more in the next room she looked about for a way out and in the dim light discovered a smooth stone hall. Seeing no other way out save for the hole in the ceiling that her tiny wings wouldn't be strong enough to get her to, she took it. Coming to a stop in front of the stone archway she stared at the single patch of light that shone down upon a single and eerily familiar smiling flower growing in another small patch of grass. Woona hesitated for a few seconds more, then cautiously stepped towards with her pace growing slower and slower as a feeling of discomfort washed over her. For some reason the flower's eyes on her made a brief memory of intense pain rush through her. "Howdy!" the smiling flower greeted cheerfully. "I'm-" "Flowey the Flower." Luna finished, and a look of surprise filled her face, echoed by Flowey. Flowey blinked, and a look of suspicion filled his face. "That's right...right?" Flowey's eyes narrowed. "I take it we've encountered one another before. Strange, since i don't recall ever meeting you. No matter!" Woona jerked as she felt her SOUL being tugged from her body and into a familiar black square surrounded by a white border. Her 'dream' coming back with complete clarity, Luna beat her SOUL against the wall of the box to no avail while Flowey conjured us his 'Friendliness Pellets' and surrounded her SOUL. "No! Please don't hurt me!!" Woona begged loudly, sobbing. "Hmm..." Flowey hummed, putting on a thoughtful face. Luna's face betrayed a glimmer of hope, but then Flowey's face morphed into an evil and malicious grin. "Nah! I'm just gonna kill you!" Woona despaired as the bullets slowly closed in with Flowey's accompanied laughter, but suddenly, her stomach growled again, reminding her, now of all times, that she was still hungry. A gleam entered her eyes, and Woona smirked a toothy grin at Flowey. Seeing this response in the face of her certain demise when just a second ago she was despairing, Flower paused. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Ignoring the fact that her SOUL was still trapped in the box, Woona licked her lips and advanced on Flowey. Flowey's certainty of an easy victim faded as realization that a hungry young herbivore was only two steps away from his very much so plant body. "You wouldn't dare!" He yelled. "I could kill you with just a twit- AAH-MMP!" Woona's mouth enveloped Flowey's head and she bit down hard. Not being accustomed to direct physical attacks, Flowey froze for half a second in shock and agony as Woona's teeth ground his stem between them. This half second was all it took for Woona to get a second bite, and then the FIGHT was over and Woona gulped. Woona sighed in relief as the box containing her SOUL faded and disappeared entirely, allowing it to return to where it belonged, but her relief was short-lived as she heard approaching padding steps quickly approaching. "Are you alright?" a soft voice called out to her. Letting out a gasp, Woona scooted away from the gentle voice. "Go away!" she shouted, terrified. "Don't hurt me!" Author's Note As I'm sure those of you who've read the original story have noticed, the quote boxes are taken directly from The Moon In The Dark. The quoted areas mark where an Alt-path is starting, and if it ties back into the regular story, where it (otherwise) would end as it usually would. Obviously her eating Flowey would have had consequences to the Pacisfist run beyond her simply not interacting with Flowey at later dates, but since Flowey doesn't have a SOUL, would it really count as a kill as far as STAT-keeping goes? Even if it did, in-game when you kill Flowey and then encounter him again later he informs you that due to his own Determination, every time you reload he can come back too. (Snow Problems) The one monster that no human has ever killed You got the snowman...somehow, Chara muttered, rolling his eyes. Are you going to do that every time I pick something up? Woona countered silently. Yes. Then I'm going to stop picking stuff up. Chara was silent for a time. Fine, not every time. Giggling, Woona went back south to proceed east across the ice. "So what's in the forest outside the paths?" Woona asked as she trudged to a stop on the other side of the ice and looked up at the tower pines. Chara shrugged. "Mom never let us go there. She said something about the locals' manners being abominable." Woona scrunched up her face. "Abo- obama- abomina-" "Abom-min-nable." Chara slowly enunciated "It means awful. Why?" "Well, I promised mom that I'd befriend every monster in the underground, so if people live in the woods, I'd need to make friends with them too. Have you ever met them?" "Uh, no!" Chara replied, frowning. "I just said that mom never let us go there. Besides, what are you going to do if they don't want to be friends with you? What if they'd rather kill you and take your SOUL? Not everyone needs a friend to be happy." Woona shivered, and not just from the cold. Still, she was determined to keep her word, and marched in between the huge powered pines. At first it was slow going, but the deeper in she went the less snow had made it through the thick trunks and branches above which made it shallower on the ground. Now that it wasn't as nearly as deep as she was tall her pace quickened, and she left the well-tread path behind. But with her traveling getting easier it also became darker until the branches high above her made her surroundings as dark as a night where storm clouds cover the moon and stars. But more than that, as the dark deepened and woona was forced to cast a spell of light so she could still see where she was going she also noticed a distinct lack of animal noise. She hadn't expected much since this place seemed to be going through winter and on top of that she was deep under ground, but she hadn't seen any monsters since Sans and Papyrus either. Other than the soft crunching of old snow and brittle tree twigs under hoof it was completely silent. "I don't like this..." Woona whispered. To speak any louder than a whisper in a place quieter than a library felt wrong. "You have zero problem letting a demon take up residence in your SOUL, but total silence in a forest bothers you?" Chara scoffed. "It's just a forest! When I was alive I almost never saw animals down here, so I doubt we're going to run into bears or wolves, and even if we did they'd be bear or wolf monsters which would make them so weak compared to use that even you could probably kill them we ease! Especially if you used that beam you shot off into the woods earlier." "No! I won't kill anyone! I-" A branch snapped and Woona whirled towards it to see- Nothing out of the ordinary. Just trees and snow. And more trees and a few pine needles littering the ground. She spun again and again searching for possible danger until she felt dizzy and fell to her stomach, eyes whirling in her head. Chara rolled his eyes and looked down at her prone form. "You do know it was probably just Smiley again, right? We already know he likes jokes and pranking people." "Smiley? Oh, you mean Sans?" Woona asked as she rose and brushed herself off. "I-" A second snapping branch, this time from in front of her, followed by an odd low growl silenced her, and her head whipped forward to see a big shadow ambling towards her. It stood upright like Sans and Papyrus and Toriel, but it had incorrect proportions to be any of the, even with the growling aside. "H- he- llo?" Woona asked, voice shaking as she looked up at two glowing red eyes. She took half a step back, and the newcomer took ambled several steps closer into the circle of light projected by the spell to reveal a tall chubby gray-furred creature with bushy black eyebrows, a square-shaped head, glowing red eyes, yellowed fangs and slender almost stick-like arms and legs. "Wait." Chara said, his expression and voice deadpan. "Is that a-" "You made a mistake coming here, little human!" the creature bellowed, glaring at Chara's ghostly form. "I devoured your kind in ages past, and now I shall do so again!! The Yeti do not suffer intruders on their territory lightly!" Ignoring Woona, the Yeti stomped forward and lashed out with its equally stick-like claws in an attempt to grab hold of Chara, only to have his limbs go through Chara's torso unharmed. "What trickery is this?!" He bellowed, pausing and stepping back. "Ch- Chara? What is he?! Why is he attacking you?!" Chara ignored the Yeti's angry examination of him and looked at Woona. "When monsterkind were locked away after the old war, not all of them were banished at the same time. Some either escaped the battlefields or else never got involved at all and hid deep in forests, swamps, deserts, the sea, or high up in frozen mountains. You ever hear stories of creatures called the Kracken, Loch Ness, the Slender Man, or the Chupacabra?" Woona thought for a few seconds, her eyes looking up and slightly squinted. She shook her head and Chara sighed. "Don't know why I thought you would have. Anyway, those are all types monsters that had managed to avoid being banished down here or getting killed over the centuries. This guy here," he pointed at the Yeti, which was now examining Woona with suspicion written on his face. "I recognize from an old computer game. There was no way to actually win it. All you could do was try to get as high a score as possible while skiing down a snowy mountain. I guess his kind were what inspired it." "What's a computer?" "Enough of this!" The Yeti declared, and scooped Woona up from the snow, holding her vertically from beneath her forelegs. Woona squeaked in protest and tried to free herself by squirming to no avail. "Ghost-monsters attach themselves to objects. Since I've never seen him before you came along, this ghost-human probably attached himself to you! I don't normally attack other monsters, but if you've allied yourself with the humans, then you've betrayed your own kind!" The Yeti opened his mouth obscenely wide, and pulled Woona towards it. Screaming, Woona instinctively fired a new beam of energy at the Yeti, shoving it away from her with the force of a train slamming into a building. The Yeti crashed through three tree trunks as Woona fell back to the ground, causing two of them to topple and leaving a gaping hole in the third before being out of sight. Woona shakily picked herself up to Chara's clapping. Grinning and his eyes appearing to be black empty holes, he bent forward and congratulated her. "Well done, little sister! You saved yourself from becoming lunch, and made your first kill at the same time! You're well on your way to-" "He's not dead." Chara paused, and looked the way that the Yeti had been thrown. "He's gone for now, but you said my strength would go up if I killed a monster. I feel the same as I did before." "What." A fierce roar that sounded like a mix of a gorilla roar and a dog growl echoed through the trees. The only way he could have survived that would be if he had consumed a human's SOUL in the past. He did say that he'd eaten humans before, so it is possible... "We need to go. Now!" Chara didn't sound afraid, and really he wasn't. But if Woona died and her SOUL was consumed he'd probably end up right back where he'd been before if he wasn't consumed along with Woona, and this time he doubted anyone would be naive enough to carry one such as him away from his grave. "But which way leads back? I got all turned around earlier!" "Just follow your tracks back the way we ca-" The Yeti suddenly came rapidly stomping back within eyesight, this time from their right. Woona was off like a shot through the trees, in completely the wrong direction. Seven minutes of endless fleeing later Woona was tired and out of breath, and it was unknown where the Yeti was. Seeing a large pile of twigs and pine needles nearby Woona quickly burrowed beneath them and at a reminder from Chara pulled her tail under as well. Panting heavily and desperately trying to be as quiet as possible Woona listened for any indication that her attacker was near. One minute passed by with no sounds beyond her slowly steadying breathing. Now two minutes had gone by. Three. Four. By the fifth minute Woona was back to breathing normally, and was almost about to poke her head out when a loud stomping caused her to freeze in place and hold her breath. "I know you're here someplace, little traitor!" He called. "Your reckless tracks in the snow led me right to you! This place may be bare enough of snow to hide you for now, but it's plain for any to see that there are not more tracks leading away from here. Come out so I can feast on you and your human ghost!" His steps passed them by, but didn't walk far enough away to mean that he'd left. Woona heard a snorting snuffling sound like he was sniffing the air. Woona's lungs began to ache, but she ignored it as her hunter stepped closer to the pile. Just when it seemed she could hold it no longer a popping sound followed by a familiar voice brought an intense feeling of relief. "Heya, Chills. What's got you all worked up?" It's Sans! Woona internally celebrated. She didn't know him too well yet, but he seemed like a nice guy. 'Chills' grunted and turned away from the pile of forest waste that his nose was leading him towards. "A small blue horse-like monster wandered into my woods in the company of a human ghost. You know the law as well as I do, and you also know what they've done to my people over the centuries since the war." "So...what then? You were going to kill a monster because they're being haunted? I saw what you did to the trees back there. You don't do that unless you-" "That was not my fault!" He yelled back at an unfazed Sans. "When I was about to consume the little traitor and her human haunt, she fired a beam of magic that forced me back through them! She's dangerous, Sans! Moreso because of her ghost!" "So you're calling a little pony monster dangerous for defending herself from your attempts to kill her by eating her alive. I may not be a genius, Chills, but I think there are some holes in your logic." Chills waved a hand in Sans' general direction and grunted again. "Bah! This isn't something that should concern you, Sans! Leave before i lose patience with you!" Sans shrugged. "Well, okay then. I was going to invite you to Grillby's for a hot drink, but if you're in one of your moods I guess I-" Woona, not wanting to lose her one chance at survival (without needing to break her promise to Toriel in the process) scrambled out from her hiding place and darted in the direction of Sans's voice. Luck was with Woona, and Chills was currently facing away from them when she did so. Sans, on the other hoof, did see her, and quickly crouched down and opened his jacket. Woona crawled inside his hollow stomach and Sans quickly zipped his jacket back up again. "-can just leave you to your vendetta. Have a 'pine time' out here in the woods!" Sans chuckled "Ugh, Sans! Your jokes are-" Sans snapped his fingers and vanished, leaving the Yeti behind, and taking Woona to safety. Author's Note In case you haven't already guessed, this is the monster they ran into: Anyone who grew up in the 90's should recognize this guy. I tried to find sound effects that I could use for the Yeti's roar, but the one I wanted I had to pay for, and I'm not paying $3 for a single sound effect that I will probably only use for just this one story piece. A shame really, it sounded scary. Originally, I intended for the Yeti to catch her and eat her like in the Ski Free game, but as I went on I started wanting to see Sans actually work to keep his promise to Toriel. He says that he's supposed to be protecting you in-game, but when does he actually ever do that? (The Punchline & Determination) All this time...had it really been this simple??? And...it gave me the idea. After all, Dad's body was much stronger than mine in terms of recovery, and he'd recover as long as he had reason to. I was much more biological. And a Monster can cross the barrier if they absorb a human soul..." "You convinced Asriel...to take your soul?" Woona asked worriedly. "It was a perfect plan. We'd cross the barrier, find a peaceful way to gather six human souls, absorb them, and break the barrier. But...when I saw the humans, the ones who had made the barrier that had trapped the monsters, the ones who had made my life on the surface so horrible I was willing to..." He cut himself off before saying more, not wanting to upset Woona further. Woona frowned for a moment as she thought over what Chara had just told her. But as she was thinking and feeling sorry for Chara, something occurred to her that pulled her attention from the original subject. "Chara, you said that a monster can cross the barrier if it absorbs a human SOUL..." "That's right." Woona nodded. "So then could a human do the same if he or she absorbed a monster's SOUL?" Chara nodded again. He was just grateful the topic though still related, had changed direction because he hadn't really wanted to talk about it. "I don't see why not. If it works one way, it should work the other, but the problem with a human absorbing a monster's SOUL is that most monster SOULS vanish around the same time their body dies. The only monster SOUL a human could absorb would have to come from a boss monster like dad's, or mom's." Or Asriel's. He mentally added. "So then...the only thing that really seems to be needed for going through is one monster SOUL and one human SOUL and it doesn't matter who is alive or not. Why didn't you two just hold hands and walk through the barrier?" Chara blinked. He had thought Woona was just being curious, but this was different. "What?" "Well, if it takes one SOUL of each to go through, and if a monster and a human held hands or one was carrying the other, or they were hugging, and they both still had their SOULS, then wouldn't that still count?" "I- I don't know. Maybe?" (Later) After a time, Asgore managed to calm down and gently set Woona and Chara back down, wiping the tears from his eyes. "It is wonderful to meet you, Woona," he greeted warmly, his voice deep and strong now. "And it is good to see you again too, Chara. Now, is there anything I can do for you both?" "Actually yeah, dad. Woona had an idea of how we might be able to get everyone out of here without needing a seventh SOUL." King Asgore raised an eyebrow and looked over to Woona. "Truly? Doctor Alphys has had no luck with such a task, and neither has anyone else. What's your idea?" "Pick me up, and just walk through it." Now both eyebrows were raised. "I know how it sounds, dad, but we have literally nothing to lose by trying it." "Very well." Asgore leaned over, and picked up Woona, who exclaimed in amazement at just how high up she really was. Asgore was a fairly tall man compared most humans, who when fully grown were usually much taller than ponies, and Woona herself was still a small foal. Asgore smiled at her reaction as he turned and walked carefully across the throne room to the door that led to the barrier. When they arrived before it he stopped and looked down at Woona. "This is the barrier. It may look like a tunnel of light that stretches out into the distance, but in reality it is a solid wall. No weapon or spell has ever been enough to even scratch its surface no matter how many of each were used against it." He held back a sigh. Every effort of every kind had failed, and with each failure a greater feeling of hopelessness had filled his kingdom. He himself was included, and though he refused to burst her bubble he doubted this attempt would be any different. "But we aren't going to be attacking it! We're going to show it that monsters can live and work peacefully with others! Let's go!" Woona declared, voice full of certainty and determination. Asgore could not help but smile at her innocence, and stepped closer to the barrier. He reached out a hand to it... Silver-white. The lighting had gone from dim to everything being blindingly silver-white. The arm he had reached out with quickly moved to cover his eyes, and after ten long seconds it finally began to dim. When it had finally all faded away it was darker than it had been on the opposite side, but in the distance a faint light sifted in from outside. Asgore stood stock-still unable to move. All this time, had it really been this simple??? Had all they really needed to be free was a single human that cared enough to help them in order to be free? Asgore looked down at Chara, tears welling in his eyes. My sons both died as children when they could have grown up together on the surface! The blood of six more children are on my hands! My wife left me because I could not let my bitterness go- "And all it would have taken was for us- for me to take the path of kindness instead of hostility!" Asgore whispered in a pained voice, the agony of sorrow wracking his mind and body alike. Forgetting Woona and Chara were there, he let her drop to the ground and sank to his knees, his hands gripping his horns. Asgore's mourning wail echoed through the cavern and out into the woods above, startling the wildlife as well as several travelers making their way through the forest. Epilogue After Luna and Chara managed to calm Asgore somewhat the trio made their way to the surface, and over the next several days to Canterlot where Celestia was overjoyed to have her sister returned to her unharmed and in good health. Luna explained the plight of the monsters, with Chara and Asgore adding details as she went along, and after a time Celestia agreed to send help, and within the next three months monster kind left their prison. One by one each walked out with a pony by their side. Once more they walked the surface of the world and basked in the sun and moon's light. But though most were glad to have their freedom, and were grateful to ponykind for their generosity, there was one monster who felt no gratitude. One monster who could have cared less for the barrier being destroyed. Flowey the Flower looked on at their happy little lives, still feeling almost no emotion, and still overall a bitter bud. From time to time reports would come in of hm causing trouble of mostly minor result, but after more than two decades of this Celestia had had enough and ordered that he be captured and brought in. For his assortment of crimes ranging from something as minor as vandalism to those as major as assault and attempted murder, he was placed in a a outdoor prison in the hedge maze garden and turned to stone. Future generations would think him just an odd decoration, and would plant live plants around him. King Asgore and queen Toriel, despite Luna wanting so much for the two of them to get back together, never did. Though Toriel was willing to give him another chance for Chara and Luna's sake if nothing else, Asgore's revelation that all six of those children died for literally nothing, and worse, they died for nothing because of him were too much for him to bear He eventually Fell Down, much to the sorrow of his kingdom, his wife, Luna, and his son Chara. Chara became an official member of the equestrian royal family, and when Luna began to become jealous of her sister getting seemingly all the attention and affection of their subjects, he reminded her that most ponies were not nocturnal creatures, but pointed out that the Thestrals are nocturnal. This was small consolation, but this in combination with Chara's unending moral support were just enough so that Nightmare Moon never came to be. In the coming centuries, the Thestral population would become the night time equivalent of Canterlot's daytime citizens in terms of activity, and Canterlot would become the pony version of humanity's New York City: The City That Never Sleeps. The skeleton brothers moved to the surface and had a house built that looked almost identical to their house in The Underground. Though Papyrus never joined the monster kingdom's royal guard, Luna saw to it that he became a member of Equestria's royal guard instead as a trainer for keeping them in shape. He was thrilled. Sans...didn't really change much aside from eating healthier foods than normal and having more materiel for his jokes, much to the amusement of some, and the annoyance of others. Undyne remained captain of the royal guard, though once Asgore Fell Down she served under queen Toriel instead of Asgore. Periodically she'd check up on Papyrus and Luna to see how well they were doing, and to occasionally offer encouragement to whatever group of trainees that Papyrus was training with at the time. Her old house, still inhabited by magical fire that burned but did not consume needed to be abandoned full-time, and a new fish-shaped house, this one modeled after a shark instead of a piranha, was rarely used, as she usually worked and slept in the new castle her and her people built for Asgore and Toriel on the surface. She never stopped trying to get stronger, and encouraged those around her to do the same. Sadly, her life would come to an end in battle when Tirek from the centaur lands would learn that there existed not one, but two races practically made of magic that he could use to accumulate more power. His brother would not arrive in Equestria in time to prevent him assaulting the monster kingdom. Alphys would marry Undyne and live quite happily with her for many years until the advent of Tirek. By then they had raised several adopted children together, who were just as big nerds as their parents. Much to Alphys' (and Undynes) delight, upon the development of time-travel magic by Starswirl the Bearded, she was able to get her claws on more anime from the past, and in mint-condition no less. To this day it is said she's still secreted away from the world watching her shows, or perhaps mourning, or some combination thereof. As for The Annoying White Dog, ~~this was not the way the world it forged was meant to go according to its intent, still, it was better by far than things could have gone, and at least now he could arrange for an actual bed to sleep in along with all the ear scratches, belly rubs, and treats any canine could ask for.~~ he has been discovered to be the only non-inertly magical creature to have magical capabilities. After witnessing it live for over two hundred years, walk up and down walls, and sometimes even through them, not to mention see it bark at something and then watch it change shape, Celestia and Luna both concluded that at some point in the past it was Discord's pet, and that keeping it happy (because why would you harm something so friendly and cute?) was simply the best thing to do. THE END Author's Note This one actually started to go in another direction, but I reminded myself of what I'd wanted here and cut it out. If you feel like reading it, here you go: When he lowered his arm seven figures around the same height stood before him in a row. They said nothing, and they did not move, though he got the distinct feeling they were watching him, and judging silently. "Hi!" Woona greeted loudly. "Are you the guys that keep the barrier working?" Asgore felt their attention leave him, so they must have focused on Woona. They said nothing, but the one standing in the middle nodded. "Could you please let us through? It's been a really long time since they were locked down here, and I fell down here by mistake awhile ago and miss my sister." The figures looked at one another, then back at Woona. The leader shook its head. "Pweeeease?" Woona asked in a sadly-sweet tone, her expression morphing to that of a sad puppy. Several of the guardians shuffled in place and looked uncomfortable, including the leader. It had been thousands of years since they'd seen anything so adorable as this, and their 'special defense' STATS were low as a result of disuse. One of the guardians were unfazed however, and he adamantly shook his head and brandished a weapon at her. Woona made a noise of fear and snuggled deeper into Asgore's arms. Asgore was about to retreat for her sake when something unexpected happened: one of the guardians struck the one that had threatened Woona in the head with a fist. It staggered, and then turned in shock to face the one that had assaulted him only to find the others that had also hesitated facing it with their weapons pointed at him as well. Taken aback, he took a defensive stance against his unstable allies, his faceless head turning to look between them. Asgore felt a nudge at his side and he looked down to see Chara. "Dad! They're distracted! Let's go!" Chara said, pointing past them where a patch of light in this strange void of light existed. Asgore looked at the guardians who seemed to be bickering amongst themselves, and then down at Chara and nodded. (A Talk Over Dinner) Judge, Jury, and Vengeful Vigilante "no matter what you decide to do, no matter what happens in the core and beyond..." Stepping up from the table, Sans walked around so he could stroke Woona's mane. "promise me...you won't die." Woona smiled widely. "Promise!" she proclaimed, filled with DETERMINATION to keep her word. Asgore sighed in sorrow at yet more innocent blood splashed upon his clothing. The un-moving body of the young equine child lay before him, the memory of her having called him 'father' as well as what he could have sworn was an outline of his adopted child standing over her, weeping, tore at him like the others' demise had, just as it had when the others died by his hands, his will. But as he stared, the outline faded and vanished. Perhaps it had merely been a product of his guilty conscience? "At least....at least" He took a shuddering breath to steady himself. "at least this will never need happen again after today." Tears fell from his eyes as he grasped Woona's odd soul in hand and carried it over to the waiting six human souls, which were trying in vain to break free from their holding containers. They knew what was coming, and even in death, fought the inevitable, final demise of Absorption. Asgore looked to them with regret, but steeled himself. Was this not, after all, what needed to be done? If I falter now, my people will surely be trapped down here for the rest of eternity. Reaching down with his empty hand, Asgore reached for the last empty Soul Canister and opened it- only to watch it shatter to hundreds of pieces as if it were mere glass. Looking over his shoulder, the king's moist eyes blinked in confusion at the sight of a lone, short skeleton wearing a blue jacket, shorts and slippers with one outstretched arm aimed at the destroyed canister. He knew this skeleton by reputation through the captain of his guard, though not in person. This was Sans, younger sibling of Papyrus, whom Undyne was currently training. From what she'd told Asgore, Sans was generally lazy, loved telling jokes, and had what were probably the lowest combat stats in the entire underground. But as a shiver ran down his spine Asgore noticed something, and recalled an old memory from during the old war: one of Sans' eyes was brightly glowing. Ordinary skeleton monsters' eyes didn't glow. A Revenant? I thought they all died in the war! No, only one of his eyes are glowing. So a half-breed, then? Sensing Asgore was distracted, Woona's soul slipped out of Asgore's grip, and seemed to vanish into the air as she Reloaded to the last place she'd slept. The current timeline however, continued onward, and would until she awoke. Click me! I'm nescesary! Despite his grinning face, the narrowed eye ridges spoke quite clearly that Sans wasn't happy. "Normally, your majesty I'd be polite and give a bow to ya'. But for some reason..." He tilted his head and looked at Woona's corpse lying in a still-expanding pool of blood. "I'm just not feeling it today." Sans closed his eyes, lowered his arm and stuck his skeletal hands in his pockets and started walking nonchalantly towards Asgore. "It's a shame this all happened, really; it's a such a beautiful day outside." Asgore swallowed and fought the urge to take a step back with every step forward Sans took. "Birds are singing, flowers are blooming...on days like this, ruthless bastards like you..." Sans stopped and opened his eyes again, then jerked his left arm from its pocket. Sans' entire body was engulfed in blue magic, and with three small pops of light, three draconic skulls appeared. "Should be burning in HELL!!" Author's Note A few of you may recall this from the comment section of the original story. I tried to think of a way to flesh it out more, but who among you ACTUALLY want to read about the process of Asgore murdering Woona? I know that I don't, and I'd strongly dislike writing it. Also, I'm sure some of you are wondering why Asgore would not have known Chara was still around beforehand. The idea for this came about before the chapter with the Mettaton performance was written, and as such at the time I didn't know that he would manifest to where others could see him. (Skims several chapters) Gotta Catch 'Em All...But can't. "Hello," the snowman replied. "I am a snowman. I want to see the world...but I cannot move." "I could take you with me," Woona offered. "You'll fit in my saddlebag." "Umm...I find that a little hard to believe..." the snowman replied cautiously. "Though maybe a piece-" "I've already got hundreds of spiders in one of my pouches," Woona countered as she pulled out an empty pouch from her saddlebag, marking it with the rune for 'cold'. Putting the pouch back in, she levitated the snowman into the air and deposited it into the pouch. You got the snowman...somehow, Chara muttered, rolling his eyes. "Nyeh heh heh heh! Once I capture you, human! I shall have all the things that I- eh?" Papyrus paused mid-declaration as he noticed himself being levitated upwards. "Hey! It's not your turn yet! What are you- Umph?!" Papyrus' words were cut off as he was shoved headfirst into Woona's Bag of Holding. Woona was sporting a confident and satisfied smile as she shoved the rest of her opponent inside his new temporary prison. "You did it. You really, actually did it." Chara face-palmed. "I don't know whether to applaud, laugh, or just shake my head." Woona flipped the flap closed and buttoned it shut before replacing it on her back. Nearby and hiding behind some trees, Sans stepped out from his hiding place and approached the satisfied filly and ghost and looked at her back uncertainly. "Uh, Woona? What exactly are you doing?" He knew that she didn't mean his brother any harm, because if she did then chances were that there would have been nothing anyone could have done to stop her from dusting Papyrus, but this was still puzzling. "Oh! Hi Sans!" Woona greeted, smiling happily. "Well, back in the forest I told the snowman that I'd take him with me to the surface when I was able, so I stuffed him into my bag. Then, as I was walking through the woods to the town and you warned me that Papyrus might take a more direct route to capture me I had an idea. Monsters all seem to want to go to the surface, so what if I just stuffed them all in my bag and took them with me when I left? We'd all go to the surface at the same time, and there'd be no crowd pushing and shoving!" Sans understood the logic there, and it was fairly decent reasoning from a child's point of view. Granted there was still the issue of how she'd get through the barrier, and whether or not her bag would have enough space for the many thousands of monsters living in the underground. But one thing at a time. "That's not too bad an idea, kiddo." Sans praised. "But what if they get hungry or they don't want to be in there? What's to stop them from fighting their way out?" Considering Undyne's usual defiant attitude, escaping would definitely be something she'd try if she ever got stuffed inside. Luna looked down at the ground, disappointed that she hadn't thought of that. "He's got you there, Woona. Unless you've got some way to make a cage or something from rune magic-" Chara clapped a hand over his mouth. Sure enough, her head jerking back up again with determination blazing on it showed that he'd stopped himself too late. (Later) "If you won't free your captive monsters willingly, pony, or surrender your SOUL to me, then I'll just have to take them by force!" Undyne crouched down and then leaped from her stone perch and dove at Woona spear-first. "NnnGAAAAH!" Smirking, Woona opened her back and lifted out an old fishing net she'd found in the junk pile at the bottom of a waterfall. At every knot holding it together she'd stuck a small piece of paper with a runic symbol meaning 'hold' on it. With some simple telekinetic manipulation the net was moved to where Undyne would land, and upon landing the ends were raised up and tied off. "Hey!" Undyne shouted indignantly, already struggling to free herself at the scraping of her armor on the cave's stone floor making an awful din. "This is cheating! Fight me fair, you little brat!" Undyne created several spears in retaliation, only for her intended attacks to miss horribly when Woona's bag was dropped onto Undyne's head, cutting off her line of sight. Woona quickly stretched the mouth of the bag to accompany Undyne's frame, and then right the bag and closed it. Muffled sounds of objection came from it for a time, but quickly quieted as its most recent denizen realized that the other captives weren't harmed and that she wasn't getting out again unless Woona allowed for it. Woona nodded in satisfaction, and once more placed it upon her back and continued her journey at a leisurely pace and humming a cheerful tune. (Later Still) The spiders, marked with the blue star of Woona's magic, rushed out of the pouch, swarming out to the spider girl and the spiders all around her. She stared, eyes wide, as they crawled up her, chittering comfortingly and chidingly. "But...how...?" Woona finally managed to get her mouth unbound. "They told me what they were saving for," she explained. "So I made a heated pouch I could carry them all through Snowdin in." "I've also got a bunch of other monsters in the bag, but I'm not going to bring them out until the king tells me how to get back to the surface and I get there. Once I do I'll just take everyone out of here in my bag!" "Clever, but I don't think my pet will fit in there and I simply cannot bear the thought of leaving him behind." She gave her giant cupcake-spider an affectionate glance and Woona felt a little sad at the idea of it being left all alone. Seeing the young filly's sympathy, Muffet assured her that though seeing the surface would be nice, as long as she had her family she'd be content. "Don't let me hold you back, dearie. You've already helped me enough." Muffet gave Woona a gentle pat on the head and wished her well when Woona departed. (Later vs Predator) "A Mirror behind me?" MTT rotated so as to face the 'mirror'. "Now! Flip the switch!" Alphys exclaimed. Instead of doing so, however, Woona readied her bag...and learned that it wasn't quite big enough around to accommodate MTT's wider-than-average and angular body. "I told you it wasn't going to work with this one, Woona!" Chara chastised. "We're going to need to fight here!" He reached for the switch, only for MTT to turn around shaking a finger at them. "Naughty, naughty, little beauties! I already know about your magical bag from Doctor Alphys' camera system throughout The Underground!" MTT tossed aside his microphone. "I also don't appreciate you lying to me about the mirror! Lying isn't nice, you know!" "Neither is trying to kill a helpless little filly!" Chara shot back. MTT leaned forward at an angle with his face-lights making a frown. "She's hardly helpless, darling. She simply chooses not to harm others. There is a difference, you know!" MTT clenched his fingers together, leaned far over forward and threw a punch at Woona, knocking her backward to the edge of the rising elevator. "That is the difference right there! I am both dangerous to you, and willing to kill you to get what I want!" Woona struggled because the wind had been knocked out of her, but managed to stand again once she could breathe normally again. Chara hovered protectively over her, fists clenched and teeth bared angrily at MTT, eyes black. Woona felt dark ripples through her innate magic from Chara, and watched as his odd knife appeared in his hands. Woona placed a hoof on one of his legs and he looked down at her. She shook her head at him. "We can beat him without that. Put it away." Chara waved his knife at MTT. "But he just-" "I've gotten hurt and walked away okay before, Chara. Even if I do lose I can just go back and we can try again another way. We already have a plan. We just need to do it." She gave him a confident smile. Chara hesitated, looked between Woona and MTT, then nodded and dropped the conjured weapon, letting it dissolve back into energy. "If you two are done can we get to the part where I take your SOUL and go through the barrier?" MTT asked, giving an exaggerated sigh of boredom and crossing his arms. "I have simply so much packing to do, and my fans are growing impatient!" MTT pointed at at a large number that appeared as he pointed, displaying a number just above five thousand steadily dropping. "Alright Woona. How do you want to handle this?" Chara asked, once more watching MTT. "We just do what Doctor Alphys said to do! We need to flip his switch! If it shuts him down, then we'll have all the time we need for me to adjust the bag's mouth!" "Oh, my switch doesn't do that, darlings!" MTT stated, now suddenly uncomfortably close to Chara's face. MTT tried to strike him first with a fist. When it failed due to Chara's ghostly nature MTT shrugged and rolled through Chara's apparition to strike at Woona instead. Seeing this Woona threw herself to one side and rolled on the floor to dodge. She gave a short but hard flap of her little wings and used the momentum from them to get back on her hooves. Woona absently noted that the number of 'ratings' went up a little with her stunt, but was more focused on the fact that Chara was now behind MTT. "Now Chara!" Woona called as MTT once more turned to pursue Woona. Chara whirled around and reached for the large switch labeled 'Switch'- How helpful! and gave it a hard shove to the right. MTT froze in place like a cheating ex-boyfriend of Medusa. "Yay! We won!" Woona cheered. "Actually, you didn't." MTT corrected before seeming to have a seizure. There was a small explosion which once more pushed Woona off her hooves and filled the area with smoke as well as broke the small light bulbs on the lift, blinding them all with the dark. Several seconds of darkness later the lift came to a stop inside a large equally-dark room. As the smoke dissipated a single bright floodlight turned on, illuminating the outline of a tall slender figure standing in front of it. "Oohhhh, YES! I-" Transformed though he was, more agile he might have been than he was before, and probably with more attack power albeit less defensive capability, there was one fatal flaw with it: being that Mettaton was now much thinner than he had been as a box, it was now also much easier to literally bag him, which Woona wasted no time doing as she was already a bit hurt from earlier. "Mmph! Mumph Moomph!" MTT objected as Woona tried to pull the bag not just over his head, but down his torso. However, MTT would not go down easily, and quickly gripped the sides of the bag with his new and much more adept fingers. As the two struggled against one another, MTT's ratings continued to rise, though Woona, despite her large magical reservoir for her age was draining quickly. As MTT increased how much force pressed upward Woona had to compensate by pulling down harder, and every second that passed increased the rate of drain. Just as Woona's magic meter reached the low red zone the elevator doors slid open and Alphys stumbled into the room holding a remote control. She pointed the antenna at MTT and pressed a button. MTT's body gave off a series of sounds that sounded like a fax machine, and then stopped resisting Woona's capture attempts. Like a magician's vanishing act, MTT's form seemed to vanish without a trace without even creating a bulge in the walls of the bag, and Woona, gasping for breath, closed it. The floodlight turned off to be replaced with the low-light stage lights, and the ratings counter faded out. "Thanks...Alphys!" Woona said between breaths. Alphys gave a thumbs-up, though she seemed a little distracted. "If you had a way to get through the barrier it wouldn't be a bad plan, but as things stand right now there's only one sure way that we monsters know of, and...well..." Alphys wrung her claws as she walked alongside Woona and Chara and seemed to be trying to avoid Woona's eyes. Woona raised an eyebrow, but waited patiently for Alphys to continue. After an awkward silence that lasted for about a minute, she did. "The only way through short of destroying the barrier, which would be a moot point if you were just going to carry everyone out in a magic bag, would be to take the SOUL of a boss monster, or if one of us were to take and absorb yours." "Or one of the monsters not in the bag could absorb one of the already-captured SOULS, place Woona in the bag as well and then carry everyone else out." Chara suggested as the trio came to a stop at the elevator door. "!" Alphys, not for the first time in her life felt as if she'd failed her people. Failed them because a child had a simple solution for a problem that she and her predecessor- who had that been?? had been unable to solve. "Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much more that bag can hold, but I don't think it will be much more." Chara gave Woona's bag an unsure glance. Despite gaining no additional weight as monster after monster were crammed inside it like fish down a whirlpool, there were occasions in which one side or another would randomly bulge outward for a few seconds before going back to normal like people in an overcrowded tent. "That bag is currently holding just under two hundred monsters inside it, on top of whatever miscellaneous items Woona's added to it. Your numbers have probably only gone up since I died, so even if dad goes for that idea it would still take quite some time before everyone could get out." "Well, whatever we do, we still need to talk to dad first! Let's go!" (Sooner rather than too much Later) Bet you're expecting Asgore's theme, huh? "You are such an idiot!" Flowey mocked in an echoing voice as Woona and (invisible to him) Chara approached. He had watched Woona's progress from afar (though he'd been puzzled as to why she seemed to talk to nothing at times) and he'd caught on to her plan fairly quickly. In one of his own 'runs' in the past he'd thought of something similar, but had dismissed the idea without giving it real effort. "Do you really think that after abducting so many of his citizens against their will- some on public television no less, that Asgore is just going to play nice and let you go? Really?" "Yep! Once he hears my plan, how could he say no? No one gets hurt, monsters are free, I go back home, and we get to be a family!" Flowey rolled his eyes, but on the inside he was already planning on how to thwart Woona's plan if the king did agree to try her idea. A monster was only tough if they desired to fight. If Asgore was friendly to Woona and distracted by her, then he could strike at Asgore with lethal effect. Flowey could then claim the already captured SOULS, and in doing so could use their combined DETERMINATION to overpower Woona's own and completely RESET the timeline. If she tried a second time, then he could simply do so again and again until she eventually gave up and chose another path. No matter how DETERMINED to see this plan succeed despair would eventually defeat her where brute force could fail. (Several Flowey-induced RESETS later) Woona glared at Flowey as she came to him once more at the entrance to The Ruins. Flowey smirked at her in turn. "So, little pony," He began in a sickly-sweet voice. "feel like giving this plan up yet? This will be...what, the fourth time we've met here?" "Why are you trying to keep us all here?!" Woona shouted at him. Flowey's smirk faded. "Because you're so dead-set on trying to leave. Do you have any idea how boring and predictable the monsters down here are? You should by now. You're the first person to stir things up around here in the last two thousand years!" His face changed into a his evil grin. "And I'm curious to know when you'll grow just as bored as me and make your first kill!" He cackled as he sank into the ground leaving a horrified Woona behind with his echoing laughter. When she shook it off, she shouted to the empty room: "I'll never kill anyone, Flowey, and I'll never give up! You hear me? Never!" (Snowdin woods, five more RESETS later) a song "Don't you know how to greet a new- oh screw it. You and I both know who I am and who you are. But that having been said I'm curious," Sans said with eye sockets empty. "why do you keep going all the way to the end just to come back here again? Is it nostalgia that keeps you here? Or maybe you keep chickening out at the meeting with Asgore, or maybe we even get freed from here just for something horrible to happen outside on the surface and you're trying to find a way around it." Sans shrugged. "I don't remember all of what happened each time, and frankly, after so many RESETS it's all starting to blur together. But I still want an answer, Woona." Sans leaned over and stared down at her. With the despair that Flowey was hoping to seed in Woona finally taking root (no pun intended) she couldn't meet his eyes at first, but she did answer: "Every time I get to Asgore Flowey kills the king, steals the six SOULS, and then RESETS back to when I first came here. I've tried talking to Flowey, I've tried getting there first by explaining my problem to the River Person so I could avoiding FIGHTs to get there before he does, and I even tried surrendering to Undyne so she'd take me straight to Asgore. That last one almost worked, but in the end daddy still died and after killing Flowey Undyne tried to kill me next to break the barrier, and then mommy showed up and started FIGHTing Undyne to protect me! I want everyone to be happy by getting them out, but no matter what I try someone still gets hurt! It's hopeless!" Woona sagged in the snow and started to cry. Sans' eyes became visible again as the memories from those particular timelines were refreshed. "Well kiddo, now you know how I feel most of the time. So what are ya gonna do now?" Sans sat on the ground in front of her, ignoring the calls of Papyrus in the distance this time. This was more important. "I don't know!" Woona softly wailed. "Are ya gonna give up? Stay here with us?" Woona hiccuped and wiped her eyes with a leg, looking up at him. "I don't- I-" Woona didn't want to. She wanted to see her sister and the sky again, but she was at the end of her rope. She'd tried everything she could think of besides Flowey and Chara's darker suggestions (though Chara had stopped making that kind a long time ago save for use against Flowey), and she was still trapped here with all and any progress she made swept away in an instant at what should have been the end of her journey. "No one down here would hold it against you if ya did." If they knew. Only a handful of us recall slivers of previous timelines. "Most monsters down here think you're one of us, and we both already know that Toriel loves you like a daughter and my bro will like a favorite niece or side kick. I consider you a friend, and we both know you've given it your best each time you've tried." Sans offered a bony hand to her. "What do you say? Shall I take you home?" Woona looked at Sans' hand, and considered. She might never get to see her sister again if she gave up, but at the same time she had run away because of her sister in the first place. Woona glanced at the roof of the cavern, then back at Sans' hand. Sans waited patiently, and Chara held his piece. If Woona decided to stay, Chara had no complaints since everyone he cared about was either down here, or long dead already. Woona nodded, and placed a hoof in Sans' hand. Epilogue Another ending Sans took Woona home to Toriel, who was relieved to have her adopted daughter home safe, and pleased to finally meet the comedian who she'd shared many a laugh with in the past. Although centuries went by, and Woona began to occasionally munch on the grassy circles found in The Ruins (and in a few other places around The Underground) she still physically aged very slowly, and it would be close to a full thousand years before she'd be an adolescent. The rest of daily and nightly life in The Underground largely went on as it had the last several thousand years. though as time marched on and no additional humans fell into their prison a subtle despair began to erode at what little hope the king managed to instill. Eventually other creatures did fall into The Underground, but as with Woona, most of them were mistaken for more monsters, though when they eventually died of old age or from some violent means or sickness it was discovered otherwise. Unfortunately though much like monsterkind their own SOULS would quickly break apart after their body died. Still, after extensive study and simple observation, Doctor Alphys was able to direct the royal guard to the latest of the surface dwellers to fall as he was dying in a hospital and the final SOUL needed was obtained. At long last King Asgore absorbed the SOULS and destroyed the barrier, freeing mosnterkind and allowing them to ascend to the surface....only to discover that the once vibrant and beautiful land that Woona knew as home was now a dark wasteland, and strange black insectoid equines that the surface dwellers knew as Changelings were quick to assault the new 'invaders'. Through the combined efforts of the royal guard, Woona, and several newer bloodlines of Boss Monsters (due to the crossbreeding of the thought-to-be monsters that fell into The Underground over the last several hundred years) the Changelings were driven back, and driven out. Seeing the ruined lands above in detail Woona (and Chara), in the company of several friends she'd made over the years (including Papyrus, Red and Monster Kid) set out to find her sister if she still lived, or any of ponykind for that matter. They journeyed first to the now-thriving Gryphon lands, and from there on to the Frozen Far North where they vanished into the wilderness. After that they were never seen again by the monsters of Surface Kingdom (and Asgore STILL wasn't any good at naming things or places), though sometimes Toriel would dream that her daughter and her companions were alive and well in a small snowbound nation with a bright blue glowing crystal at its center living amongst crystalline ponies similar to Woona. Because of this, despite what anyone told her she never believed that they were dead. Undyne had retired from the royal guard years before Asgore broke the barrier and the job had gone to someone just as eager (and skilled) as she had once been for the position. She moved in with Alphys, whose own retirement was just a few months away. After many years of watching the same anime shows over and over, they eventually set out to write and animate their own show. It was often quite random, and for its main plot was a combination of a cooking show and over-dramatic over-the-top combat sequences. (Asgore's favorite character remained the Kung-Fu Kung-Pow chef with his (literal) knife dancing for most of season one, but changed to Brutas the Brewer with his drunken boxing technique for season two. The show ended with their nation going through a period of famine due to all the Food Fighting.) MTT frequently guest-starred as a voice-actor in Undyne and Alphys' show after interest in his other performances died off, and would eventually take up learning to play instruments as a one-man-band. In the end he'd needed additional arms to pull it off, but was still happy with the results and took up being a traveling performer. Burgerpants found himself without a job now that no one other than the spiders were still living in The Underground, and eventually got a new job as a manager in retail in the Customer Service department. Poor bastard. Muffet decided to remain in The Underground due to her spiders being much more vulnerable to being eaten by predators living on the surface world. Eventually The Underground as a whole was renamed 'The Spider Kingdom', and the occasional Changeling spies that were caught were thrown inside and sealed in for a week. If they lasted that long Muffet let them go free. They almost never did. Although monsterkind had once more attained life on The Surface, it was forever-after bathed in perpetual dusk as there now was no one around to raise and lower the sun or the moon, and crops were difficult to grow. Still, they had room to grow and expand, and in time other nations were discovered and trade agreements set in place, and the lands formerly known as Equestria slowly became green and beautiful again. They were Free. They were Living again. They were Home. THE END "..." "..." "..." In a darker corner of The Spider Kingdom Flowey sighed. "Well, I'm bored. Aaaand this time I can't RESET because Asgore used the SOULS already. Fan-tastic." Flowey grumped to himself while The Spider Queen slowly and silently slid down a line of webbing behind him. "Fufufu!" she laughed. Flowey whirled around and readied an attack but found himself picked from the ground by one of her hands. "My my! What a lovely little flower here all by itself. Say," Muffet paused, tilting her head and examining him. "aren't you that little pest that has been shredding my spiders' beautiful web tapestries lately?" Flowey began to sweat nervously and launched his attack. It struck Muffet, but due to her LOVE being higher from those tasty bug-horses she'd eaten during the Second War his assault barely scratched her. Muffet chuckled again. "I guess that answers my question." She pulled him in close to her face as her teasing smile became predatory and not at all pleasant. Her words gaining a hiss, she continued "how about I show you what we do to vandals around here?" Still gripping Flowey tightly in one hand, Muffet ascended back up her silk strand into the murky darkness above, Flowey struggling in vain all the way. Author's Note Sorry this one was a little late. I've just got several ideas all at once but I can only write them one at a time, and as I write them they sometimes take on a life of their own and go on longer than I mean to.
(Getting Up) Vengeful Breakfast "Of course I will!" Flowey told Woona, much to her joy. "Down here, LOVE is shared through..." As he spoke, a small white pellet rose out of him. "...little white...'friendliness pellets'. Now, since you have so little LOVE, I've made this one extra strong. Don't let it miss your soul!" Gasping happily, Woona moved her soul to collect the 'Friendliness pellet'. However, as it hit her, pain like nothing she'd ever known - like a knife in her very soul - wracked her whole being. She let out a scream of pain as her HP dropped to one, and Flowey's face contorted into an expression of wicked contempt. "You idiot!" Flowey cackled. "Down here, it's kill or be killed! Who'd pass up an opportunity like this?!" He laughed wickedly as he surrounded Woona's soul with a slowly constricting circle of magic bullets..." "DIE." Flowey commanded, his voice dripping with malice as his seedy assault closed on Woona and once more struck her SOUL. Woona's scream was short, and as the world around her went dark the last thing she heard before blacking out was Flowey's vile laughter. ... ... ... Woona's eyes opened and she gave a pained grunt before she opened her eyes and quickly closed them again to the bright sunlight shining down into her eyes. Covering them with a leg, and sat rolled over so she could stand and then looked around in confusion. The cave-like room she lay in looked familiar. "I've been here before..." she muttered softly as she looked about. "haven't I? Or was that just a dream?" She rose from the flowers she'd seemed to have landed on, and feeling her stomach rumble, she paused and looked down at them to find that though they were flowers that she'd eaten in the past, they were far too crushed into the grassy patch to taste like anything other than the same grass it grew in. Disheartened slightly but strangely sure that there must be more in the next room she looked about for a way out and in the dim light discovered a smooth stone hall. Seeing no other way out save for the hole in the ceiling that her tiny wings wouldn't be strong enough to get her to, she took it. Coming to a stop in front of the stone archway she stared at the single patch of light that shone down upon a single and eerily familiar smiling flower growing in another small patch of grass. Woona hesitated for a few seconds more, then cautiously stepped towards with her pace growing slower and slower as a feeling of discomfort washed over her. For some reason the flower's eyes on her made a brief memory of intense pain rush through her. "Howdy!" the smiling flower greeted cheerfully. "I'm-" "Flowey the Flower." Luna finished, and a look of surprise filled her face, echoed by Flowey. Flowey blinked, and a look of suspicion filled his face. "That's right...right?" Flowey's eyes narrowed. "I take it we've encountered one another before. Strange, since i don't recall ever meeting you. No matter!" Woona jerked as she felt her SOUL being tugged from her body and into a familiar black square surrounded by a white border. Her 'dream' coming back with complete clarity, Luna beat her SOUL against the wall of the box to no avail while Flowey conjured us his 'Friendliness Pellets' and surrounded her SOUL. "No! Please don't hurt me!!" Woona begged loudly, sobbing. "Hmm..." Flowey hummed, putting on a thoughtful face. Luna's face betrayed a glimmer of hope, but then Flowey's face morphed into an evil and malicious grin. "Nah! I'm just gonna kill you!" Woona despaired as the bullets slowly closed in with Flowey's accompanied laughter, but suddenly, her stomach growled again, reminding her, now of all times, that she was still hungry. A gleam entered her eyes, and Woona smirked a toothy grin at Flowey. Seeing this response in the face of her certain demise when just a second ago she was despairing, Flower paused. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Ignoring the fact that her SOUL was still trapped in the box, Woona licked her lips and advanced on Flowey. Flowey's certainty of an easy victim faded as realization that a hungry young herbivore was only two steps away from his very much so plant body. "You wouldn't dare!" He yelled. "I could kill you with just a twit- AAH-MMP!" Woona's mouth enveloped Flowey's head and she bit down hard. Not being accustomed to direct physical attacks, Flowey froze for half a second in shock and agony as Woona's teeth ground his stem between them. This half second was all it took for Woona to get a second bite, and then the FIGHT was over and Woona gulped. Woona sighed in relief as the box containing her SOUL faded and disappeared entirely, allowing it to return to where it belonged, but her relief was short-lived as she heard approaching padding steps quickly approaching. "Are you alright?" a soft voice called out to her. Letting out a gasp, Woona scooted away from the gentle voice. "Go away!" she shouted, terrified. "Don't hurt me!" Author's Note As I'm sure those of you who've read the original story have noticed, the quote boxes are taken directly from The Moon In The Dark. The quoted areas mark where an Alt-path is starting, and if it ties back into the regular story, where it (otherwise) would end as it usually would. Obviously her eating Flowey would have had consequences to the Pacisfist run beyond her simply not interacting with Flowey at later dates, but since Flowey doesn't have a SOUL, would it really count as a kill as far as STAT-keeping goes? Even if it did, in-game when you kill Flowey and then encounter him again later he informs you that due to his own Determination, every time you reload he can come back too.
(Snow Problems) The one monster that no human has ever killed You got the snowman...somehow, Chara muttered, rolling his eyes. Are you going to do that every time I pick something up? Woona countered silently. Yes. Then I'm going to stop picking stuff up. Chara was silent for a time. Fine, not every time. Giggling, Woona went back south to proceed east across the ice. "So what's in the forest outside the paths?" Woona asked as she trudged to a stop on the other side of the ice and looked up at the tower pines. Chara shrugged. "Mom never let us go there. She said something about the locals' manners being abominable." Woona scrunched up her face. "Abo- obama- abomina-" "Abom-min-nable." Chara slowly enunciated "It means awful. Why?" "Well, I promised mom that I'd befriend every monster in the underground, so if people live in the woods, I'd need to make friends with them too. Have you ever met them?" "Uh, no!" Chara replied, frowning. "I just said that mom never let us go there. Besides, what are you going to do if they don't want to be friends with you? What if they'd rather kill you and take your SOUL? Not everyone needs a friend to be happy." Woona shivered, and not just from the cold. Still, she was determined to keep her word, and marched in between the huge powered pines. At first it was slow going, but the deeper in she went the less snow had made it through the thick trunks and branches above which made it shallower on the ground. Now that it wasn't as nearly as deep as she was tall her pace quickened, and she left the well-tread path behind. But with her traveling getting easier it also became darker until the branches high above her made her surroundings as dark as a night where storm clouds cover the moon and stars. But more than that, as the dark deepened and woona was forced to cast a spell of light so she could still see where she was going she also noticed a distinct lack of animal noise. She hadn't expected much since this place seemed to be going through winter and on top of that she was deep under ground, but she hadn't seen any monsters since Sans and Papyrus either. Other than the soft crunching of old snow and brittle tree twigs under hoof it was completely silent. "I don't like this..." Woona whispered. To speak any louder than a whisper in a place quieter than a library felt wrong. "You have zero problem letting a demon take up residence in your SOUL, but total silence in a forest bothers you?" Chara scoffed. "It's just a forest! When I was alive I almost never saw animals down here, so I doubt we're going to run into bears or wolves, and even if we did they'd be bear or wolf monsters which would make them so weak compared to use that even you could probably kill them we ease! Especially if you used that beam you shot off into the woods earlier." "No! I won't kill anyone! I-" A branch snapped and Woona whirled towards it to see- Nothing out of the ordinary. Just trees and snow. And more trees and a few pine needles littering the ground. She spun again and again searching for possible danger until she felt dizzy and fell to her stomach, eyes whirling in her head. Chara rolled his eyes and looked down at her prone form. "You do know it was probably just Smiley again, right? We already know he likes jokes and pranking people." "Smiley? Oh, you mean Sans?" Woona asked as she rose and brushed herself off. "I-" A second snapping branch, this time from in front of her, followed by an odd low growl silenced her, and her head whipped forward to see a big shadow ambling towards her. It stood upright like Sans and Papyrus and Toriel, but it had incorrect proportions to be any of the, even with the growling aside. "H- he- llo?" Woona asked, voice shaking as she looked up at two glowing red eyes. She took half a step back, and the newcomer took ambled several steps closer into the circle of light projected by the spell to reveal a tall chubby gray-furred creature with bushy black eyebrows, a square-shaped head, glowing red eyes, yellowed fangs and slender almost stick-like arms and legs. "Wait." Chara said, his expression and voice deadpan. "Is that a-" "You made a mistake coming here, little human!" the creature bellowed, glaring at Chara's ghostly form. "I devoured your kind in ages past, and now I shall do so again!! The Yeti do not suffer intruders on their territory lightly!" Ignoring Woona, the Yeti stomped forward and lashed out with its equally stick-like claws in an attempt to grab hold of Chara, only to have his limbs go through Chara's torso unharmed. "What trickery is this?!" He bellowed, pausing and stepping back. "Ch- Chara? What is he?! Why is he attacking you?!" Chara ignored the Yeti's angry examination of him and looked at Woona. "When monsterkind were locked away after the old war, not all of them were banished at the same time. Some either escaped the battlefields or else never got involved at all and hid deep in forests, swamps, deserts, the sea, or high up in frozen mountains. You ever hear stories of creatures called the Kracken, Loch Ness, the Slender Man, or the Chupacabra?" Woona thought for a few seconds, her eyes looking up and slightly squinted. She shook her head and Chara sighed. "Don't know why I thought you would have. Anyway, those are all types monsters that had managed to avoid being banished down here or getting killed over the centuries. This guy here," he pointed at the Yeti, which was now examining Woona with suspicion written on his face. "I recognize from an old computer game. There was no way to actually win it. All you could do was try to get as high a score as possible while skiing down a snowy mountain. I guess his kind were what inspired it." "What's a computer?" "Enough of this!" The Yeti declared, and scooped Woona up from the snow, holding her vertically from beneath her forelegs. Woona squeaked in protest and tried to free herself by squirming to no avail. "Ghost-monsters attach themselves to objects. Since I've never seen him before you came along, this ghost-human probably attached himself to you! I don't normally attack other monsters, but if you've allied yourself with the humans, then you've betrayed your own kind!" The Yeti opened his mouth obscenely wide, and pulled Woona towards it. Screaming, Woona instinctively fired a new beam of energy at the Yeti, shoving it away from her with the force of a train slamming into a building. The Yeti crashed through three tree trunks as Woona fell back to the ground, causing two of them to topple and leaving a gaping hole in the third before being out of sight. Woona shakily picked herself up to Chara's clapping. Grinning and his eyes appearing to be black empty holes, he bent forward and congratulated her. "Well done, little sister! You saved yourself from becoming lunch, and made your first kill at the same time! You're well on your way to-" "He's not dead." Chara paused, and looked the way that the Yeti had been thrown. "He's gone for now, but you said my strength would go up if I killed a monster. I feel the same as I did before." "What." A fierce roar that sounded like a mix of a gorilla roar and a dog growl echoed through the trees. The only way he could have survived that would be if he had consumed a human's SOUL in the past. He did say that he'd eaten humans before, so it is possible... "We need to go. Now!" Chara didn't sound afraid, and really he wasn't. But if Woona died and her SOUL was consumed he'd probably end up right back where he'd been before if he wasn't consumed along with Woona, and this time he doubted anyone would be naive enough to carry one such as him away from his grave. "But which way leads back? I got all turned around earlier!" "Just follow your tracks back the way we ca-" The Yeti suddenly came rapidly stomping back within eyesight, this time from their right. Woona was off like a shot through the trees, in completely the wrong direction. Seven minutes of endless fleeing later Woona was tired and out of breath, and it was unknown where the Yeti was. Seeing a large pile of twigs and pine needles nearby Woona quickly burrowed beneath them and at a reminder from Chara pulled her tail under as well. Panting heavily and desperately trying to be as quiet as possible Woona listened for any indication that her attacker was near. One minute passed by with no sounds beyond her slowly steadying breathing. Now two minutes had gone by. Three. Four. By the fifth minute Woona was back to breathing normally, and was almost about to poke her head out when a loud stomping caused her to freeze in place and hold her breath. "I know you're here someplace, little traitor!" He called. "Your reckless tracks in the snow led me right to you! This place may be bare enough of snow to hide you for now, but it's plain for any to see that there are not more tracks leading away from here. Come out so I can feast on you and your human ghost!" His steps passed them by, but didn't walk far enough away to mean that he'd left. Woona heard a snorting snuffling sound like he was sniffing the air. Woona's lungs began to ache, but she ignored it as her hunter stepped closer to the pile. Just when it seemed she could hold it no longer a popping sound followed by a familiar voice brought an intense feeling of relief. "Heya, Chills. What's got you all worked up?" It's Sans! Woona internally celebrated. She didn't know him too well yet, but he seemed like a nice guy. 'Chills' grunted and turned away from the pile of forest waste that his nose was leading him towards. "A small blue horse-like monster wandered into my woods in the company of a human ghost. You know the law as well as I do, and you also know what they've done to my people over the centuries since the war." "So...what then? You were going to kill a monster because they're being haunted? I saw what you did to the trees back there. You don't do that unless you-" "That was not my fault!" He yelled back at an unfazed Sans. "When I was about to consume the little traitor and her human haunt, she fired a beam of magic that forced me back through them! She's dangerous, Sans! Moreso because of her ghost!" "So you're calling a little pony monster dangerous for defending herself from your attempts to kill her by eating her alive. I may not be a genius, Chills, but I think there are some holes in your logic." Chills waved a hand in Sans' general direction and grunted again. "Bah! This isn't something that should concern you, Sans! Leave before i lose patience with you!" Sans shrugged. "Well, okay then. I was going to invite you to Grillby's for a hot drink, but if you're in one of your moods I guess I-" Woona, not wanting to lose her one chance at survival (without needing to break her promise to Toriel in the process) scrambled out from her hiding place and darted in the direction of Sans's voice. Luck was with Woona, and Chills was currently facing away from them when she did so. Sans, on the other hoof, did see her, and quickly crouched down and opened his jacket. Woona crawled inside his hollow stomach and Sans quickly zipped his jacket back up again. "-can just leave you to your vendetta. Have a 'pine time' out here in the woods!" Sans chuckled "Ugh, Sans! Your jokes are-" Sans snapped his fingers and vanished, leaving the Yeti behind, and taking Woona to safety. Author's Note In case you haven't already guessed, this is the monster they ran into: Anyone who grew up in the 90's should recognize this guy. I tried to find sound effects that I could use for the Yeti's roar, but the one I wanted I had to pay for, and I'm not paying $3 for a single sound effect that I will probably only use for just this one story piece. A shame really, it sounded scary. Originally, I intended for the Yeti to catch her and eat her like in the Ski Free game, but as I went on I started wanting to see Sans actually work to keep his promise to Toriel. He says that he's supposed to be protecting you in-game, but when does he actually ever do that?
(The Punchline & Determination) All this time...had it really been this simple??? And...it gave me the idea. After all, Dad's body was much stronger than mine in terms of recovery, and he'd recover as long as he had reason to. I was much more biological. And a Monster can cross the barrier if they absorb a human soul..." "You convinced Asriel...to take your soul?" Woona asked worriedly. "It was a perfect plan. We'd cross the barrier, find a peaceful way to gather six human souls, absorb them, and break the barrier. But...when I saw the humans, the ones who had made the barrier that had trapped the monsters, the ones who had made my life on the surface so horrible I was willing to..." He cut himself off before saying more, not wanting to upset Woona further. Woona frowned for a moment as she thought over what Chara had just told her. But as she was thinking and feeling sorry for Chara, something occurred to her that pulled her attention from the original subject. "Chara, you said that a monster can cross the barrier if it absorbs a human SOUL..." "That's right." Woona nodded. "So then could a human do the same if he or she absorbed a monster's SOUL?" Chara nodded again. He was just grateful the topic though still related, had changed direction because he hadn't really wanted to talk about it. "I don't see why not. If it works one way, it should work the other, but the problem with a human absorbing a monster's SOUL is that most monster SOULS vanish around the same time their body dies. The only monster SOUL a human could absorb would have to come from a boss monster like dad's, or mom's." Or Asriel's. He mentally added. "So then...the only thing that really seems to be needed for going through is one monster SOUL and one human SOUL and it doesn't matter who is alive or not. Why didn't you two just hold hands and walk through the barrier?" Chara blinked. He had thought Woona was just being curious, but this was different. "What?" "Well, if it takes one SOUL of each to go through, and if a monster and a human held hands or one was carrying the other, or they were hugging, and they both still had their SOULS, then wouldn't that still count?" "I- I don't know. Maybe?" (Later) After a time, Asgore managed to calm down and gently set Woona and Chara back down, wiping the tears from his eyes. "It is wonderful to meet you, Woona," he greeted warmly, his voice deep and strong now. "And it is good to see you again too, Chara. Now, is there anything I can do for you both?" "Actually yeah, dad. Woona had an idea of how we might be able to get everyone out of here without needing a seventh SOUL." King Asgore raised an eyebrow and looked over to Woona. "Truly? Doctor Alphys has had no luck with such a task, and neither has anyone else. What's your idea?" "Pick me up, and just walk through it." Now both eyebrows were raised. "I know how it sounds, dad, but we have literally nothing to lose by trying it." "Very well." Asgore leaned over, and picked up Woona, who exclaimed in amazement at just how high up she really was. Asgore was a fairly tall man compared most humans, who when fully grown were usually much taller than ponies, and Woona herself was still a small foal. Asgore smiled at her reaction as he turned and walked carefully across the throne room to the door that led to the barrier. When they arrived before it he stopped and looked down at Woona. "This is the barrier. It may look like a tunnel of light that stretches out into the distance, but in reality it is a solid wall. No weapon or spell has ever been enough to even scratch its surface no matter how many of each were used against it." He held back a sigh. Every effort of every kind had failed, and with each failure a greater feeling of hopelessness had filled his kingdom. He himself was included, and though he refused to burst her bubble he doubted this attempt would be any different. "But we aren't going to be attacking it! We're going to show it that monsters can live and work peacefully with others! Let's go!" Woona declared, voice full of certainty and determination. Asgore could not help but smile at her innocence, and stepped closer to the barrier. He reached out a hand to it... Silver-white. The lighting had gone from dim to everything being blindingly silver-white. The arm he had reached out with quickly moved to cover his eyes, and after ten long seconds it finally began to dim. When it had finally all faded away it was darker than it had been on the opposite side, but in the distance a faint light sifted in from outside. Asgore stood stock-still unable to move. All this time, had it really been this simple??? Had all they really needed to be free was a single human that cared enough to help them in order to be free? Asgore looked down at Chara, tears welling in his eyes. My sons both died as children when they could have grown up together on the surface! The blood of six more children are on my hands! My wife left me because I could not let my bitterness go- "And all it would have taken was for us- for me to take the path of kindness instead of hostility!" Asgore whispered in a pained voice, the agony of sorrow wracking his mind and body alike. Forgetting Woona and Chara were there, he let her drop to the ground and sank to his knees, his hands gripping his horns. Asgore's mourning wail echoed through the cavern and out into the woods above, startling the wildlife as well as several travelers making their way through the forest. Epilogue After Luna and Chara managed to calm Asgore somewhat the trio made their way to the surface, and over the next several days to Canterlot where Celestia was overjoyed to have her sister returned to her unharmed and in good health. Luna explained the plight of the monsters, with Chara and Asgore adding details as she went along, and after a time Celestia agreed to send help, and within the next three months monster kind left their prison. One by one each walked out with a pony by their side. Once more they walked the surface of the world and basked in the sun and moon's light. But though most were glad to have their freedom, and were grateful to ponykind for their generosity, there was one monster who felt no gratitude. One monster who could have cared less for the barrier being destroyed. Flowey the Flower looked on at their happy little lives, still feeling almost no emotion, and still overall a bitter bud. From time to time reports would come in of hm causing trouble of mostly minor result, but after more than two decades of this Celestia had had enough and ordered that he be captured and brought in. For his assortment of crimes ranging from something as minor as vandalism to those as major as assault and attempted murder, he was placed in a a outdoor prison in the hedge maze garden and turned to stone. Future generations would think him just an odd decoration, and would plant live plants around him. King Asgore and queen Toriel, despite Luna wanting so much for the two of them to get back together, never did. Though Toriel was willing to give him another chance for Chara and Luna's sake if nothing else, Asgore's revelation that all six of those children died for literally nothing, and worse, they died for nothing because of him were too much for him to bear He eventually Fell Down, much to the sorrow of his kingdom, his wife, Luna, and his son Chara. Chara became an official member of the equestrian royal family, and when Luna began to become jealous of her sister getting seemingly all the attention and affection of their subjects, he reminded her that most ponies were not nocturnal creatures, but pointed out that the Thestrals are nocturnal. This was small consolation, but this in combination with Chara's unending moral support were just enough so that Nightmare Moon never came to be. In the coming centuries, the Thestral population would become the night time equivalent of Canterlot's daytime citizens in terms of activity, and Canterlot would become the pony version of humanity's New York City: The City That Never Sleeps. The skeleton brothers moved to the surface and had a house built that looked almost identical to their house in The Underground. Though Papyrus never joined the monster kingdom's royal guard, Luna saw to it that he became a member of Equestria's royal guard instead as a trainer for keeping them in shape. He was thrilled. Sans...didn't really change much aside from eating healthier foods than normal and having more materiel for his jokes, much to the amusement of some, and the annoyance of others. Undyne remained captain of the royal guard, though once Asgore Fell Down she served under queen Toriel instead of Asgore. Periodically she'd check up on Papyrus and Luna to see how well they were doing, and to occasionally offer encouragement to whatever group of trainees that Papyrus was training with at the time. Her old house, still inhabited by magical fire that burned but did not consume needed to be abandoned full-time, and a new fish-shaped house, this one modeled after a shark instead of a piranha, was rarely used, as she usually worked and slept in the new castle her and her people built for Asgore and Toriel on the surface. She never stopped trying to get stronger, and encouraged those around her to do the same. Sadly, her life would come to an end in battle when Tirek from the centaur lands would learn that there existed not one, but two races practically made of magic that he could use to accumulate more power. His brother would not arrive in Equestria in time to prevent him assaulting the monster kingdom. Alphys would marry Undyne and live quite happily with her for many years until the advent of Tirek. By then they had raised several adopted children together, who were just as big nerds as their parents. Much to Alphys' (and Undynes) delight, upon the development of time-travel magic by Starswirl the Bearded, she was able to get her claws on more anime from the past, and in mint-condition no less. To this day it is said she's still secreted away from the world watching her shows, or perhaps mourning, or some combination thereof. As for The Annoying White Dog, ~~this was not the way the world it forged was meant to go according to its intent, still, it was better by far than things could have gone, and at least now he could arrange for an actual bed to sleep in along with all the ear scratches, belly rubs, and treats any canine could ask for.~~ he has been discovered to be the only non-inertly magical creature to have magical capabilities. After witnessing it live for over two hundred years, walk up and down walls, and sometimes even through them, not to mention see it bark at something and then watch it change shape, Celestia and Luna both concluded that at some point in the past it was Discord's pet, and that keeping it happy (because why would you harm something so friendly and cute?) was simply the best thing to do. THE END Author's Note This one actually started to go in another direction, but I reminded myself of what I'd wanted here and cut it out. If you feel like reading it, here you go: When he lowered his arm seven figures around the same height stood before him in a row. They said nothing, and they did not move, though he got the distinct feeling they were watching him, and judging silently. "Hi!" Woona greeted loudly. "Are you the guys that keep the barrier working?" Asgore felt their attention leave him, so they must have focused on Woona. They said nothing, but the one standing in the middle nodded. "Could you please let us through? It's been a really long time since they were locked down here, and I fell down here by mistake awhile ago and miss my sister." The figures looked at one another, then back at Woona. The leader shook its head. "Pweeeease?" Woona asked in a sadly-sweet tone, her expression morphing to that of a sad puppy. Several of the guardians shuffled in place and looked uncomfortable, including the leader. It had been thousands of years since they'd seen anything so adorable as this, and their 'special defense' STATS were low as a result of disuse. One of the guardians were unfazed however, and he adamantly shook his head and brandished a weapon at her. Woona made a noise of fear and snuggled deeper into Asgore's arms. Asgore was about to retreat for her sake when something unexpected happened: one of the guardians struck the one that had threatened Woona in the head with a fist. It staggered, and then turned in shock to face the one that had assaulted him only to find the others that had also hesitated facing it with their weapons pointed at him as well. Taken aback, he took a defensive stance against his unstable allies, his faceless head turning to look between them. Asgore felt a nudge at his side and he looked down to see Chara. "Dad! They're distracted! Let's go!" Chara said, pointing past them where a patch of light in this strange void of light existed. Asgore looked at the guardians who seemed to be bickering amongst themselves, and then down at Chara and nodded.
(A Talk Over Dinner) Judge, Jury, and Vengeful Vigilante "no matter what you decide to do, no matter what happens in the core and beyond..." Stepping up from the table, Sans walked around so he could stroke Woona's mane. "promise me...you won't die." Woona smiled widely. "Promise!" she proclaimed, filled with DETERMINATION to keep her word. Asgore sighed in sorrow at yet more innocent blood splashed upon his clothing. The un-moving body of the young equine child lay before him, the memory of her having called him 'father' as well as what he could have sworn was an outline of his adopted child standing over her, weeping, tore at him like the others' demise had, just as it had when the others died by his hands, his will. But as he stared, the outline faded and vanished. Perhaps it had merely been a product of his guilty conscience? "At least....at least" He took a shuddering breath to steady himself. "at least this will never need happen again after today." Tears fell from his eyes as he grasped Woona's odd soul in hand and carried it over to the waiting six human souls, which were trying in vain to break free from their holding containers. They knew what was coming, and even in death, fought the inevitable, final demise of Absorption. Asgore looked to them with regret, but steeled himself. Was this not, after all, what needed to be done? If I falter now, my people will surely be trapped down here for the rest of eternity. Reaching down with his empty hand, Asgore reached for the last empty Soul Canister and opened it- only to watch it shatter to hundreds of pieces as if it were mere glass. Looking over his shoulder, the king's moist eyes blinked in confusion at the sight of a lone, short skeleton wearing a blue jacket, shorts and slippers with one outstretched arm aimed at the destroyed canister. He knew this skeleton by reputation through the captain of his guard, though not in person. This was Sans, younger sibling of Papyrus, whom Undyne was currently training. From what she'd told Asgore, Sans was generally lazy, loved telling jokes, and had what were probably the lowest combat stats in the entire underground. But as a shiver ran down his spine Asgore noticed something, and recalled an old memory from during the old war: one of Sans' eyes was brightly glowing. Ordinary skeleton monsters' eyes didn't glow. A Revenant? I thought they all died in the war! No, only one of his eyes are glowing. So a half-breed, then? Sensing Asgore was distracted, Woona's soul slipped out of Asgore's grip, and seemed to vanish into the air as she Reloaded to the last place she'd slept. The current timeline however, continued onward, and would until she awoke. Click me! I'm nescesary! Despite his grinning face, the narrowed eye ridges spoke quite clearly that Sans wasn't happy. "Normally, your majesty I'd be polite and give a bow to ya'. But for some reason..." He tilted his head and looked at Woona's corpse lying in a still-expanding pool of blood. "I'm just not feeling it today." Sans closed his eyes, lowered his arm and stuck his skeletal hands in his pockets and started walking nonchalantly towards Asgore. "It's a shame this all happened, really; it's a such a beautiful day outside." Asgore swallowed and fought the urge to take a step back with every step forward Sans took. "Birds are singing, flowers are blooming...on days like this, ruthless bastards like you..." Sans stopped and opened his eyes again, then jerked his left arm from its pocket. Sans' entire body was engulfed in blue magic, and with three small pops of light, three draconic skulls appeared. "Should be burning in HELL!!" Author's Note A few of you may recall this from the comment section of the original story. I tried to think of a way to flesh it out more, but who among you ACTUALLY want to read about the process of Asgore murdering Woona? I know that I don't, and I'd strongly dislike writing it. Also, I'm sure some of you are wondering why Asgore would not have known Chara was still around beforehand. The idea for this came about before the chapter with the Mettaton performance was written, and as such at the time I didn't know that he would manifest to where others could see him.
(Skims several chapters) Gotta Catch 'Em All...But can't. "Hello," the snowman replied. "I am a snowman. I want to see the world...but I cannot move." "I could take you with me," Woona offered. "You'll fit in my saddlebag." "Umm...I find that a little hard to believe..." the snowman replied cautiously. "Though maybe a piece-" "I've already got hundreds of spiders in one of my pouches," Woona countered as she pulled out an empty pouch from her saddlebag, marking it with the rune for 'cold'. Putting the pouch back in, she levitated the snowman into the air and deposited it into the pouch. You got the snowman...somehow, Chara muttered, rolling his eyes. "Nyeh heh heh heh! Once I capture you, human! I shall have all the things that I- eh?" Papyrus paused mid-declaration as he noticed himself being levitated upwards. "Hey! It's not your turn yet! What are you- Umph?!" Papyrus' words were cut off as he was shoved headfirst into Woona's Bag of Holding. Woona was sporting a confident and satisfied smile as she shoved the rest of her opponent inside his new temporary prison. "You did it. You really, actually did it." Chara face-palmed. "I don't know whether to applaud, laugh, or just shake my head." Woona flipped the flap closed and buttoned it shut before replacing it on her back. Nearby and hiding behind some trees, Sans stepped out from his hiding place and approached the satisfied filly and ghost and looked at her back uncertainly. "Uh, Woona? What exactly are you doing?" He knew that she didn't mean his brother any harm, because if she did then chances were that there would have been nothing anyone could have done to stop her from dusting Papyrus, but this was still puzzling. "Oh! Hi Sans!" Woona greeted, smiling happily. "Well, back in the forest I told the snowman that I'd take him with me to the surface when I was able, so I stuffed him into my bag. Then, as I was walking through the woods to the town and you warned me that Papyrus might take a more direct route to capture me I had an idea. Monsters all seem to want to go to the surface, so what if I just stuffed them all in my bag and took them with me when I left? We'd all go to the surface at the same time, and there'd be no crowd pushing and shoving!" Sans understood the logic there, and it was fairly decent reasoning from a child's point of view. Granted there was still the issue of how she'd get through the barrier, and whether or not her bag would have enough space for the many thousands of monsters living in the underground. But one thing at a time. "That's not too bad an idea, kiddo." Sans praised. "But what if they get hungry or they don't want to be in there? What's to stop them from fighting their way out?" Considering Undyne's usual defiant attitude, escaping would definitely be something she'd try if she ever got stuffed inside. Luna looked down at the ground, disappointed that she hadn't thought of that. "He's got you there, Woona. Unless you've got some way to make a cage or something from rune magic-" Chara clapped a hand over his mouth. Sure enough, her head jerking back up again with determination blazing on it showed that he'd stopped himself too late. (Later) "If you won't free your captive monsters willingly, pony, or surrender your SOUL to me, then I'll just have to take them by force!" Undyne crouched down and then leaped from her stone perch and dove at Woona spear-first. "NnnGAAAAH!" Smirking, Woona opened her back and lifted out an old fishing net she'd found in the junk pile at the bottom of a waterfall. At every knot holding it together she'd stuck a small piece of paper with a runic symbol meaning 'hold' on it. With some simple telekinetic manipulation the net was moved to where Undyne would land, and upon landing the ends were raised up and tied off. "Hey!" Undyne shouted indignantly, already struggling to free herself at the scraping of her armor on the cave's stone floor making an awful din. "This is cheating! Fight me fair, you little brat!" Undyne created several spears in retaliation, only for her intended attacks to miss horribly when Woona's bag was dropped onto Undyne's head, cutting off her line of sight. Woona quickly stretched the mouth of the bag to accompany Undyne's frame, and then right the bag and closed it. Muffled sounds of objection came from it for a time, but quickly quieted as its most recent denizen realized that the other captives weren't harmed and that she wasn't getting out again unless Woona allowed for it. Woona nodded in satisfaction, and once more placed it upon her back and continued her journey at a leisurely pace and humming a cheerful tune. (Later Still) The spiders, marked with the blue star of Woona's magic, rushed out of the pouch, swarming out to the spider girl and the spiders all around her. She stared, eyes wide, as they crawled up her, chittering comfortingly and chidingly. "But...how...?" Woona finally managed to get her mouth unbound. "They told me what they were saving for," she explained. "So I made a heated pouch I could carry them all through Snowdin in." "I've also got a bunch of other monsters in the bag, but I'm not going to bring them out until the king tells me how to get back to the surface and I get there. Once I do I'll just take everyone out of here in my bag!" "Clever, but I don't think my pet will fit in there and I simply cannot bear the thought of leaving him behind." She gave her giant cupcake-spider an affectionate glance and Woona felt a little sad at the idea of it being left all alone. Seeing the young filly's sympathy, Muffet assured her that though seeing the surface would be nice, as long as she had her family she'd be content. "Don't let me hold you back, dearie. You've already helped me enough." Muffet gave Woona a gentle pat on the head and wished her well when Woona departed. (Later vs Predator) "A Mirror behind me?" MTT rotated so as to face the 'mirror'. "Now! Flip the switch!" Alphys exclaimed. Instead of doing so, however, Woona readied her bag...and learned that it wasn't quite big enough around to accommodate MTT's wider-than-average and angular body. "I told you it wasn't going to work with this one, Woona!" Chara chastised. "We're going to need to fight here!" He reached for the switch, only for MTT to turn around shaking a finger at them. "Naughty, naughty, little beauties! I already know about your magical bag from Doctor Alphys' camera system throughout The Underground!" MTT tossed aside his microphone. "I also don't appreciate you lying to me about the mirror! Lying isn't nice, you know!" "Neither is trying to kill a helpless little filly!" Chara shot back. MTT leaned forward at an angle with his face-lights making a frown. "She's hardly helpless, darling. She simply chooses not to harm others. There is a difference, you know!" MTT clenched his fingers together, leaned far over forward and threw a punch at Woona, knocking her backward to the edge of the rising elevator. "That is the difference right there! I am both dangerous to you, and willing to kill you to get what I want!" Woona struggled because the wind had been knocked out of her, but managed to stand again once she could breathe normally again. Chara hovered protectively over her, fists clenched and teeth bared angrily at MTT, eyes black. Woona felt dark ripples through her innate magic from Chara, and watched as his odd knife appeared in his hands. Woona placed a hoof on one of his legs and he looked down at her. She shook her head at him. "We can beat him without that. Put it away." Chara waved his knife at MTT. "But he just-" "I've gotten hurt and walked away okay before, Chara. Even if I do lose I can just go back and we can try again another way. We already have a plan. We just need to do it." She gave him a confident smile. Chara hesitated, looked between Woona and MTT, then nodded and dropped the conjured weapon, letting it dissolve back into energy. "If you two are done can we get to the part where I take your SOUL and go through the barrier?" MTT asked, giving an exaggerated sigh of boredom and crossing his arms. "I have simply so much packing to do, and my fans are growing impatient!" MTT pointed at at a large number that appeared as he pointed, displaying a number just above five thousand steadily dropping. "Alright Woona. How do you want to handle this?" Chara asked, once more watching MTT. "We just do what Doctor Alphys said to do! We need to flip his switch! If it shuts him down, then we'll have all the time we need for me to adjust the bag's mouth!" "Oh, my switch doesn't do that, darlings!" MTT stated, now suddenly uncomfortably close to Chara's face. MTT tried to strike him first with a fist. When it failed due to Chara's ghostly nature MTT shrugged and rolled through Chara's apparition to strike at Woona instead. Seeing this Woona threw herself to one side and rolled on the floor to dodge. She gave a short but hard flap of her little wings and used the momentum from them to get back on her hooves. Woona absently noted that the number of 'ratings' went up a little with her stunt, but was more focused on the fact that Chara was now behind MTT. "Now Chara!" Woona called as MTT once more turned to pursue Woona. Chara whirled around and reached for the large switch labeled 'Switch'- How helpful! and gave it a hard shove to the right. MTT froze in place like a cheating ex-boyfriend of Medusa. "Yay! We won!" Woona cheered. "Actually, you didn't." MTT corrected before seeming to have a seizure. There was a small explosion which once more pushed Woona off her hooves and filled the area with smoke as well as broke the small light bulbs on the lift, blinding them all with the dark. Several seconds of darkness later the lift came to a stop inside a large equally-dark room. As the smoke dissipated a single bright floodlight turned on, illuminating the outline of a tall slender figure standing in front of it. "Oohhhh, YES! I-" Transformed though he was, more agile he might have been than he was before, and probably with more attack power albeit less defensive capability, there was one fatal flaw with it: being that Mettaton was now much thinner than he had been as a box, it was now also much easier to literally bag him, which Woona wasted no time doing as she was already a bit hurt from earlier. "Mmph! Mumph Moomph!" MTT objected as Woona tried to pull the bag not just over his head, but down his torso. However, MTT would not go down easily, and quickly gripped the sides of the bag with his new and much more adept fingers. As the two struggled against one another, MTT's ratings continued to rise, though Woona, despite her large magical reservoir for her age was draining quickly. As MTT increased how much force pressed upward Woona had to compensate by pulling down harder, and every second that passed increased the rate of drain. Just as Woona's magic meter reached the low red zone the elevator doors slid open and Alphys stumbled into the room holding a remote control. She pointed the antenna at MTT and pressed a button. MTT's body gave off a series of sounds that sounded like a fax machine, and then stopped resisting Woona's capture attempts. Like a magician's vanishing act, MTT's form seemed to vanish without a trace without even creating a bulge in the walls of the bag, and Woona, gasping for breath, closed it. The floodlight turned off to be replaced with the low-light stage lights, and the ratings counter faded out. "Thanks...Alphys!" Woona said between breaths. Alphys gave a thumbs-up, though she seemed a little distracted. "If you had a way to get through the barrier it wouldn't be a bad plan, but as things stand right now there's only one sure way that we monsters know of, and...well..." Alphys wrung her claws as she walked alongside Woona and Chara and seemed to be trying to avoid Woona's eyes. Woona raised an eyebrow, but waited patiently for Alphys to continue. After an awkward silence that lasted for about a minute, she did. "The only way through short of destroying the barrier, which would be a moot point if you were just going to carry everyone out in a magic bag, would be to take the SOUL of a boss monster, or if one of us were to take and absorb yours." "Or one of the monsters not in the bag could absorb one of the already-captured SOULS, place Woona in the bag as well and then carry everyone else out." Chara suggested as the trio came to a stop at the elevator door. "!" Alphys, not for the first time in her life felt as if she'd failed her people. Failed them because a child had a simple solution for a problem that she and her predecessor- who had that been?? had been unable to solve. "Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much more that bag can hold, but I don't think it will be much more." Chara gave Woona's bag an unsure glance. Despite gaining no additional weight as monster after monster were crammed inside it like fish down a whirlpool, there were occasions in which one side or another would randomly bulge outward for a few seconds before going back to normal like people in an overcrowded tent. "That bag is currently holding just under two hundred monsters inside it, on top of whatever miscellaneous items Woona's added to it. Your numbers have probably only gone up since I died, so even if dad goes for that idea it would still take quite some time before everyone could get out." "Well, whatever we do, we still need to talk to dad first! Let's go!" (Sooner rather than too much Later) Bet you're expecting Asgore's theme, huh? "You are such an idiot!" Flowey mocked in an echoing voice as Woona and (invisible to him) Chara approached. He had watched Woona's progress from afar (though he'd been puzzled as to why she seemed to talk to nothing at times) and he'd caught on to her plan fairly quickly. In one of his own 'runs' in the past he'd thought of something similar, but had dismissed the idea without giving it real effort. "Do you really think that after abducting so many of his citizens against their will- some on public television no less, that Asgore is just going to play nice and let you go? Really?" "Yep! Once he hears my plan, how could he say no? No one gets hurt, monsters are free, I go back home, and we get to be a family!" Flowey rolled his eyes, but on the inside he was already planning on how to thwart Woona's plan if the king did agree to try her idea. A monster was only tough if they desired to fight. If Asgore was friendly to Woona and distracted by her, then he could strike at Asgore with lethal effect. Flowey could then claim the already captured SOULS, and in doing so could use their combined DETERMINATION to overpower Woona's own and completely RESET the timeline. If she tried a second time, then he could simply do so again and again until she eventually gave up and chose another path. No matter how DETERMINED to see this plan succeed despair would eventually defeat her where brute force could fail. (Several Flowey-induced RESETS later) Woona glared at Flowey as she came to him once more at the entrance to The Ruins. Flowey smirked at her in turn. "So, little pony," He began in a sickly-sweet voice. "feel like giving this plan up yet? This will be...what, the fourth time we've met here?" "Why are you trying to keep us all here?!" Woona shouted at him. Flowey's smirk faded. "Because you're so dead-set on trying to leave. Do you have any idea how boring and predictable the monsters down here are? You should by now. You're the first person to stir things up around here in the last two thousand years!" His face changed into a his evil grin. "And I'm curious to know when you'll grow just as bored as me and make your first kill!" He cackled as he sank into the ground leaving a horrified Woona behind with his echoing laughter. When she shook it off, she shouted to the empty room: "I'll never kill anyone, Flowey, and I'll never give up! You hear me? Never!" (Snowdin woods, five more RESETS later) a song "Don't you know how to greet a new- oh screw it. You and I both know who I am and who you are. But that having been said I'm curious," Sans said with eye sockets empty. "why do you keep going all the way to the end just to come back here again? Is it nostalgia that keeps you here? Or maybe you keep chickening out at the meeting with Asgore, or maybe we even get freed from here just for something horrible to happen outside on the surface and you're trying to find a way around it." Sans shrugged. "I don't remember all of what happened each time, and frankly, after so many RESETS it's all starting to blur together. But I still want an answer, Woona." Sans leaned over and stared down at her. With the despair that Flowey was hoping to seed in Woona finally taking root (no pun intended) she couldn't meet his eyes at first, but she did answer: "Every time I get to Asgore Flowey kills the king, steals the six SOULS, and then RESETS back to when I first came here. I've tried talking to Flowey, I've tried getting there first by explaining my problem to the River Person so I could avoiding FIGHTs to get there before he does, and I even tried surrendering to Undyne so she'd take me straight to Asgore. That last one almost worked, but in the end daddy still died and after killing Flowey Undyne tried to kill me next to break the barrier, and then mommy showed up and started FIGHTing Undyne to protect me! I want everyone to be happy by getting them out, but no matter what I try someone still gets hurt! It's hopeless!" Woona sagged in the snow and started to cry. Sans' eyes became visible again as the memories from those particular timelines were refreshed. "Well kiddo, now you know how I feel most of the time. So what are ya gonna do now?" Sans sat on the ground in front of her, ignoring the calls of Papyrus in the distance this time. This was more important. "I don't know!" Woona softly wailed. "Are ya gonna give up? Stay here with us?" Woona hiccuped and wiped her eyes with a leg, looking up at him. "I don't- I-" Woona didn't want to. She wanted to see her sister and the sky again, but she was at the end of her rope. She'd tried everything she could think of besides Flowey and Chara's darker suggestions (though Chara had stopped making that kind a long time ago save for use against Flowey), and she was still trapped here with all and any progress she made swept away in an instant at what should have been the end of her journey. "No one down here would hold it against you if ya did." If they knew. Only a handful of us recall slivers of previous timelines. "Most monsters down here think you're one of us, and we both already know that Toriel loves you like a daughter and my bro will like a favorite niece or side kick. I consider you a friend, and we both know you've given it your best each time you've tried." Sans offered a bony hand to her. "What do you say? Shall I take you home?" Woona looked at Sans' hand, and considered. She might never get to see her sister again if she gave up, but at the same time she had run away because of her sister in the first place. Woona glanced at the roof of the cavern, then back at Sans' hand. Sans waited patiently, and Chara held his piece. If Woona decided to stay, Chara had no complaints since everyone he cared about was either down here, or long dead already. Woona nodded, and placed a hoof in Sans' hand. Epilogue Another ending Sans took Woona home to Toriel, who was relieved to have her adopted daughter home safe, and pleased to finally meet the comedian who she'd shared many a laugh with in the past. Although centuries went by, and Woona began to occasionally munch on the grassy circles found in The Ruins (and in a few other places around The Underground) she still physically aged very slowly, and it would be close to a full thousand years before she'd be an adolescent. The rest of daily and nightly life in The Underground largely went on as it had the last several thousand years. though as time marched on and no additional humans fell into their prison a subtle despair began to erode at what little hope the king managed to instill. Eventually other creatures did fall into The Underground, but as with Woona, most of them were mistaken for more monsters, though when they eventually died of old age or from some violent means or sickness it was discovered otherwise. Unfortunately though much like monsterkind their own SOULS would quickly break apart after their body died. Still, after extensive study and simple observation, Doctor Alphys was able to direct the royal guard to the latest of the surface dwellers to fall as he was dying in a hospital and the final SOUL needed was obtained. At long last King Asgore absorbed the SOULS and destroyed the barrier, freeing mosnterkind and allowing them to ascend to the surface....only to discover that the once vibrant and beautiful land that Woona knew as home was now a dark wasteland, and strange black insectoid equines that the surface dwellers knew as Changelings were quick to assault the new 'invaders'. Through the combined efforts of the royal guard, Woona, and several newer bloodlines of Boss Monsters (due to the crossbreeding of the thought-to-be monsters that fell into The Underground over the last several hundred years) the Changelings were driven back, and driven out. Seeing the ruined lands above in detail Woona (and Chara), in the company of several friends she'd made over the years (including Papyrus, Red and Monster Kid) set out to find her sister if she still lived, or any of ponykind for that matter. They journeyed first to the now-thriving Gryphon lands, and from there on to the Frozen Far North where they vanished into the wilderness. After that they were never seen again by the monsters of Surface Kingdom (and Asgore STILL wasn't any good at naming things or places), though sometimes Toriel would dream that her daughter and her companions were alive and well in a small snowbound nation with a bright blue glowing crystal at its center living amongst crystalline ponies similar to Woona. Because of this, despite what anyone told her she never believed that they were dead. Undyne had retired from the royal guard years before Asgore broke the barrier and the job had gone to someone just as eager (and skilled) as she had once been for the position. She moved in with Alphys, whose own retirement was just a few months away. After many years of watching the same anime shows over and over, they eventually set out to write and animate their own show. It was often quite random, and for its main plot was a combination of a cooking show and over-dramatic over-the-top combat sequences. (Asgore's favorite character remained the Kung-Fu Kung-Pow chef with his (literal) knife dancing for most of season one, but changed to Brutas the Brewer with his drunken boxing technique for season two. The show ended with their nation going through a period of famine due to all the Food Fighting.) MTT frequently guest-starred as a voice-actor in Undyne and Alphys' show after interest in his other performances died off, and would eventually take up learning to play instruments as a one-man-band. In the end he'd needed additional arms to pull it off, but was still happy with the results and took up being a traveling performer. Burgerpants found himself without a job now that no one other than the spiders were still living in The Underground, and eventually got a new job as a manager in retail in the Customer Service department. Poor bastard. Muffet decided to remain in The Underground due to her spiders being much more vulnerable to being eaten by predators living on the surface world. Eventually The Underground as a whole was renamed 'The Spider Kingdom', and the occasional Changeling spies that were caught were thrown inside and sealed in for a week. If they lasted that long Muffet let them go free. They almost never did. Although monsterkind had once more attained life on The Surface, it was forever-after bathed in perpetual dusk as there now was no one around to raise and lower the sun or the moon, and crops were difficult to grow. Still, they had room to grow and expand, and in time other nations were discovered and trade agreements set in place, and the lands formerly known as Equestria slowly became green and beautiful again. They were Free. They were Living again. They were Home. THE END "..." "..." "..." In a darker corner of The Spider Kingdom Flowey sighed. "Well, I'm bored. Aaaand this time I can't RESET because Asgore used the SOULS already. Fan-tastic." Flowey grumped to himself while The Spider Queen slowly and silently slid down a line of webbing behind him. "Fufufu!" she laughed. Flowey whirled around and readied an attack but found himself picked from the ground by one of her hands. "My my! What a lovely little flower here all by itself. Say," Muffet paused, tilting her head and examining him. "aren't you that little pest that has been shredding my spiders' beautiful web tapestries lately?" Flowey began to sweat nervously and launched his attack. It struck Muffet, but due to her LOVE being higher from those tasty bug-horses she'd eaten during the Second War his assault barely scratched her. Muffet chuckled again. "I guess that answers my question." She pulled him in close to her face as her teasing smile became predatory and not at all pleasant. Her words gaining a hiss, she continued "how about I show you what we do to vandals around here?" Still gripping Flowey tightly in one hand, Muffet ascended back up her silk strand into the murky darkness above, Flowey struggling in vain all the way. Author's Note Sorry this one was a little late. I've just got several ideas all at once but I can only write them one at a time, and as I write them they sometimes take on a life of their own and go on longer than I mean to.
