An Undertale of Equestria

by David Silver

23 - Battle in the Snow

With a sudden crash, he brought down his fist where I had been standing. Did Trixie grab me? No, that was me. I had jumped out of the way, only to do it again as he came at me. My little body, unlike Trixie and Sweet's larger pony forms, could stand on the snow without breaking through and I found myself dodging and leaping out of the way of wild fist swings. Dimly, I remembered the pain of being slugged across the face, or the dull wild ache as he caught me dead center of mass and sent me flying. How many times had I failed this fight?

My heart was hammering wildly as I jumped back from a wild spray of snow. "Stop moving. It will not hurt long. I don't want to hurt you."

"Then don't hurt me!" I squeaked as his fist calm down flat, leaving a mark in the snow as I scrambled away. "I don't want to fight you. You don't want to fight me."

"I have to." He grabbed an icy sheet in the snow and hefted it over his head. "You're stopping us. You're against the shadow."

"You're not the shadow!" I zig zagged as he prepared to hurl that sheet at me. "You're something older than the shadow. Talk to Sweet Tooth, please."

With a great heave, it hurled at me, only to explode violently. A few shards flew past me, narrowly missing. Trixie clambered out of her hole, panting. "Yes... stop right there... brute... Listen to my familiar." More quietly, she rolled her eyes. "Trixie does not want to relive this again."

Long Night clenched his fists, trembling, but not trying to smash me. "Why are you trying to stop me?" His arms sagged. "Why won't you let me bring them back?"

That was a lot better than being pounded on. "Who do you mean?"

"Everyone." He thrust a fist into the snow. "I want to go home..."

Trixie slowly pulled herself up to the surface, grunting and heaving. "Your home is a long time ago. We're very sorry, but how is hurting my familiar going to undo that?"

"If..." He suddenly swept up some snow at me, but it wasn't a fist at least. "If the shadow wins, my friends come back." He looked directly at me, his darkened eyes staring. "I want my friends back."

I offered a hand towards him. "We can't go back, but you don't have to be alone. Sweet used to feel just like you."

"It's... true." Sweet struggled to get herself out of her hole. "Little help, please?"

Long reached right into the hole and plucked Sweet free as if she weighed nothing. She smiled at him as she was held in the air. "Oh! Thank you. Long Night was it? That's a nice name, but that wasn't the one you were born with."

He looked baffled. "Why?"

Sweet tilted her head. "In our home, there was no night. What did your mother call you?"

He froze, shock washing over his face. "Y-you're right... There was no night. It was all night..." He set Sweet down before he crashed, shrinking to his original size, the shadowy forces becoming a faint glimmer of potential darkness. "What was my name?"

Trixie hopped up to more secure snow and began walking carefully towards us. "We'd be happy to help you find this name of yours, but we also need to complete our mission."

Sweet and I waved at Trixie. That wasn't the time to be hurrying him along. I smiled at him. "So hey, what can you remember?"

"Not much," he barely whispered, then turned to Sweet. "Remind me. You were there."

Sweet put a hoof on her chest. "I was, and I'd be glad to. Do you remember, when ponies had dinner and were calm, and it was still. If you just went out of your house and listened, listened really hard, you could hear the whole world breathing?"

A slow smile spread over his face. "I remember..." He slowly stood up on his pony hooves, reaching a hand towards Sweet. "Why do you have four hooves, and I only have two?"

Sweet tilted her head. "I was a monster when they found me, and saved me. Maybe you're a different kind of one." She stepped closer. "But being a monster is what you do, not what you are. Will you be my friend instead?" She smiled gently. "I'd like somepony else to talk about the old city... Do you remember beetle pies?"

"Mmm." He put a hand over his belly before he laughed, a sincere sound laced with a lifting sorrow. "You've made me hungry. Your name is...?"

"Sweet Tooth." She bowed. "Pleasure to meet you. Let's keep calling you Long Night. It really is a nice name."

"Sweet." He nodded at me. "Familiar." Turning to Trixie. "Trixie. I'm sorry. I can't go with you... I have to talk to the shadow, find out why it lied to me."

Trixie shook her head. "It lies because it has no morals. Dark ponies seem very nice to Trixie, once they are aware of what they are doing."

That felt too cut and dry to me. "No... The shadow has to have a reason for doing what it's doing too. Nobody does bad things just because they can."

Trixie scoffed. "She will believe it when she sees it. Still... You have proven Trixie wrong once before, so she will not discount the possibility, familiar, just don't make this an ongoing habit." She moved to the sled and picked it up in her magic, moving it so it wasn't pointing at the disturbances in the snow. "Come along, we have time to make up."

I held up a mitted hand at her. "One second. Long, are you going to be alright?"

"No." He shook snow off of himself. "Sweet, maybe we'll meet again." The faintest moment of a smile appeared. "I'd like that."

Sweet reached for him, but he jumped up into the high branch of a tree, and was gone, bouncing from one to the next out of sight. She sighed softly. "Poor thing."

Trixie huffed. "You don't remember it, but Trixie does. That 'poor thing' hurt Trixie's familiar more times than she cares to count." She hopped onto the sled and said. "Come, you did well, familiar. Trixie does not understand how you can still feel bad for him."

I hopped up beside Trixie. "He tried, sure... but I can get over that, he can't get over what's been done to him, and he shouldn't have to."

Sweet clambered up next to us. "I don't understand? Did he hit you? You look fine."

I flashed a big grin at her. "It's hard to explain."

Trixie sat up straight as her magic propelled the sled forward along the snow. "It's easy to explain. Trixie's familiar is Great and Powerful, like she is. He cannot be stopped so easily. Master of time itself, he makes Starswirl the Bearded look like a little foal in comparison when it comes to time magic."

Sweet tilted her head. "Starwho the what? Who is that?" Sweet gently nudged Trixie's shoulder with a hoof. "He is special, but I didn't understand any of that."

Trying harder seemed in the cards. I took her poking hoof off of Trixie and held it. "When I or someone I care about a lot gets hurt where I can see them, I skip back to before that happened, so I can fix it."

Her eyes went wide behind her pink glasses. "What? Are you jo-- Of course you aren't... No wonder you avoided being eaten by me when I was so hungry, and how you're winning against the shadow..." She tapped at the sleigh thoughtfully. "If you're so powerful, why are you trying to find an answer instead of just beating up the shadow?"

"That wouldn't be right." I squeezed her hoof. "I'm also still holding out a little hope doing it the right way might let me get back home."

Sweet drew her hoof back. "If you don't get home, will you feel bad for doing it the 'right' way?"

I hesitated. "That's... a good question. I guess not. I mean... I'm not a psycho. If I can do it right, without hurting people, why shouldn't I?"

Trixie suddenly threw a leg over me. "Being Trixie's familiar isn't so bad. If you stay, Trixie will be sure to treat you well."

Sweet smiled at us both. "I think you are more than a familiar to her."

"W-what are you implying?" Trixie scowled at Sweet, almost daring her to continue.

Sweet shook her head. "I think you two are good friends."

Trixie blinked. "Oh... Yes, we are that." She squeezed me. "You are Trixie's friend, are you not?"

I swung around her and hopped up on her shoulders, hands on her head near her ears. "Definitely!" She wasn't a replacement for my family or friends, but she was a friend.

Trixie snorted softly. "Little ruffian, get down from there." She tried to shake her head, but I was quite attached to her. "Oh fine, enjoy your Great and Amazing seat as we fly through the snow."

Under the influence of her magic, we went soaring across the snow, sending out a light spray of the fluff stuff to either side. From on top of Trixie, I could see further than I had. We were coming towards what looked like a rundown refinery of some kind. Did ponies even have refineries? I guessed they did, since there it was, with great big tubes going and coming from it and smokestacks above, though no smoke was currently coming out. It was definitely not running. "What is it?"

Trixie shrugged, making me wobble. "She isn't certain, but the records she read said it was built recently, then abandoned almost immediately. Perhaps the new owners ran into the shadow and fled rather than trying to deal with it."

Sweet pouted and scuffed at the sled. "I can't imagine going through all the trouble of building something like this, just to give it up. It must have taken a lot of work."

"Trixie imagines it took a team of ponies working for several months to construct it." She tilted her head at the building as we slowed, pulling up to the front door. "And now we get to explore it. It's time to find the shadow and be rid of it."

I slid down off of Trixie and spotted a sign over the metal door leading inside. 'Flim and Flam's Berry Juicery,' it read, with a little picture of some crystal berries in a bunch just under the words, and a picture of two smiling ponies facing each other. It seemed somehow sad, with the whole place shut down.

Author's Note:

Hello shadow point #4! We're going to find you, and we're going to solve you so hard!

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Mid boss, passed. Now to brave...

Something built by Flim and Flam?

Thus the shadow shows no bounds for its evil plans.

[Tonto the Trotter]

Kinda worried that Frisk doesn't seem able to keep track of their deaths anymore, but seems aware that they've happened. I imagine that would be quite disturbing if they thought about it too much. Trixie seems to be perfectly aware of the number of deaths though, which might make her feel less forgiving to the people that fight them. Also I liked that Sweet brought up the fact that Frisk hadn't abused their power so they could just kill or destroy whatever threats they encountered, lets Frisk's pacifist nature and their determination to succeed and go home, shine ;).

And I see Flim and Flam are now in the story in some way ^^. I look forward to seeing what the duo were up to, I've always found their inclusion in fics to be hit and miss, but I feel they'll shine well in your story, especially with how well you've portrayed Trixie.

[David Silver]

6677392 Trixie is a dear pony, one of several that were turned away from Ponyville on drummed up charges!

[Tonto the Trotter]

6677440 Yeah that's my view on her too. I've seen fics were she gets blamed for that Ursa Minor showing up! Hello? Ponyville citizens? Two colts ran into the woods and aggravated the giant, magic bear. Stop blaming the travelling magician who just had her home wrecked. Ponyville ponies can be such jerks >.<. No wonder she wanted a little revenge in the series, they pretty much ruined her life =/.

And the Flim Flam's were all for doing business legally initially, hell they probably only started scamming the Apples when they realized they wouldn't be able to do business legitimately. Tankfully the Crystal Empire seems to be more welcoming of outsiders. I nominate Crystal Empire as the new capital of Friendship!

[David Silver]

6677508 Let's see how well they did in this frozen paradise!

[Emtu]

It amuses me that Flim and Flam's place is the next stop and they were (sort of) in today's season finale.

[farsan]

Heh... It seems that Trixie is ready for the Dating Simulator scene, isn't she?

[David Silver]

6679023 Trixie will have to insist on not being called a mom if Frisk tries to move the relationship that way. Trixie has standards!

[farsan]

6679713

Certainly! If you can have a Friendship Date, you can have a Mother/Familiar Date with no awkward romantic implications at all!

[The card holder]

Nobody does bad things just because they can.

Haha... heh... ha...

I wouldn't be so sure about that.
After all, if you CAN do something, you HAVE TO, right?

[Doctor REDACTED]

As soon as l saw flam I said SHHHHHIT

[Doctor REDACTED]

6687599 no that applies to those that work on the plane of fate and destiny,basically Murphy's Law workers

[Fistfire]

than she cares to count." She hopped onto the sled and sad. "Come, you did well, familiar.

said

[David Silver]

8767621
Fixed! I do hope you are enjoying the story.