Ponytale

by Scarlett Haze

Chapter 8 - Getting Snowdin

The walk you've been on is starting to get long as you find yourself sliding on another large patch of ice. You only let out a defeated sigh as you don't find a way to stop yourself from going through a thick patch of forest. The dense wood doesn't allow you to see anywhere around you and something just landed on your back. You continue to slide, despite attempts to change direction. You hit the edge of the ice and stumble a few more steps before looking behind you at what landed on your back. Impressively, the snow that landed on your back is in the shape of a small dog.

Shaking the snow off, you move on seeing a small doghouse and multiple poffs of snow on the ground. You inspect each one, remarking on their poff-ness to yourself. You reach one more and a little dog's head bursts from the poff, letting out a small and adorable yip. You react accordingly.

The poff breaks apart and the small dog turns out to be maybe a little larger than you thought? It now stands in full body armor and carries a spear, looking down at you at three times your own height. You panic accordingly.

The conflict starts and you wonder how you're going to handle this situation with the Greater Dog. You reach out to pet the dog, but find out that it's not only height that's an issue, but distance as well. Not wanting to look foolish, you just pet the air in front of you. In the meantime, your SOUL is intently watching a sleeping dog that is lying in the box.

You finish petting the air and then call the Greater Dog to you. It's large frame bounds toward you getting up close to your face. For such a small dog head, its slobber manages to still hit your face. You pet the dog and it starts to curl into you, forcing you to sit and allow it to also lie in front of you. You keep going and only stop when you hear the soft sound of snoring coming from the dog. Thinking the fight is over, you ready yourself to stand up and leave before the Greater Dog suddenly stands again and starts patting the ground with its front paws in an excited manner. Part of you hopes this dog also doesn't start having its neck stretch out like the other one.

You look around you for things to play with and look over at your stick. An idea forms and you hurl the stick for the Greater Dog to fetch. The two of you do this for a short moment before it once more lays on you, looking tired. You go back to petting the dog, but find yourself getting buried underneath the weight of the dog. You try to both pet and redirect the dog to get off of you. It works as the dog flops over on its back and hangs its legs in the air. You react accordingly.

You know that the battle is over and the both of you now stand up to look at each other. The Greater Dog jumps from its armor and lands in front of you in its small and cute fashion. His white fur and tail shake in appreciation for what you've done. It then gives a small lick to your face and jumps back into its armor headlong. You watch the armored dog walk off with its tail swishing from the neck. All of those dogs had to be protecting something in order to try and stop you. Were they working with Papyrus? If they were, Papyrus was either really lucky or was a more elegant speaker than she let on.

You think on this as you reach a rope bridge, cautiously taking steps and not wanting to look at what was below you. Eventually you see both sans and Papyrus blocking the way off the bridge. Papyrus points her hoof at you, a light of desperation and confidence in her eye. "Pony! This is where the final and most dangerous challenge of your entire existence will take place! This is the Gauntlet of Deadly Terror!"

Slowly, cannons, fire, spears, spiked balls on chains, even a small dog tied with rope around its chest, reveal themselves. They all seem aimed at you.

Papyrus takes a stoic pose and looks directly at you. "When the word is given, it activates! Cannons firin'! Spikes swingin'! Blades slicin'! Each one swinging up and down violently! Victory for you will become so tiny you'd have better luck counting every snowflake in Snowdin! Are you ready?"

You shake your head, but Papyrus already has revealed a controller and a big red button. "Because. I! Am about! To do it!" Papyrus raises her arm to smash the button, but it starts rattling as it remains up there.

Sans gives a look to Papyrus, "It's not activated. Or if it is, it doesn't look it."

Papyrus looks to be sweating. Wait, that was just a few wet snowflakes slowly falling from the side of her skull. "It's comin'! Just... hang on!" Her arm continues to shake, more violently this time as she looks conflicted about something.

"Papyrus, are you stuck? This is why hanging out with the dogs is dangerous," sans sighs and gives a look to you. "You know what I mean, right?" She asks you, "Arf-ritis."

Papyrus smashes her hoof to the ground, "This-! This challenge is far too easy to defeat the pony with!" She feigns frustration, "We can't use this one! I have standards and I want to be fair with my puzzles! I cook each trap with the level of expertise worthy of recognition! What this is, is just too direct and no standards along with it!" She waves her hoof, "Out! Out!" And with that, the gauntlet goes away and Papyrus seems relieved over it.

Papyrus lets out a sigh and holds her hat over her chest a moment. She looks back up to you and puts her hat back on. "What're you so gung-ho about? This was a decisive victory for Papyrus!" She lets out her whinny-laugh, but it trails off near the end. She just rushes off, leaving the bridge open again. You are able to step off the bridge and find solid ground again, taking in a breath of relief.

"I'm lost on what my sister is going to do," sans tell you. She shuffles into her pink coat a little more and continues, "You'd better remember what I told you about blue stop signs." You only nod and try to repeat to yourself that blue means that you stop.

Before you know it, you see a big sign decorated in multiple lights. You brighten up and read it aloud. "Welcome to Snowdin." You've made it and just in time to enter the first building to get out of the cold. Shutting the door, you feel the warmth of this place fill you with determination and its a comfortable area to just rest a little. You sit by a wall when you suddenly feel something else fill you, exhaustion. That journey in the cold and having to deal with the dogs and skeletons really made you weary. Your eyelids grow heavy and you let out a yawn before falling asleep.

---

You awaken suddenly, like you had just experienced a nightmare. You try to recollect what it was that shook you so badly, but you can't... or maybe you just don't want to. You want to think further but see a bunny monster behind a counter looking at you curiously. "I did wonder if you were a toy left behind or not," the bunny shopkeep says aloud as you pull yourself back up on your hooves. "You're a traveler, right? Must've been a while since you found a bed. I'd have carried you next door to the inn, but you seemed real peaceful on the floor."

You continue to wake yourself and accidentally drop some of the gold coins in your saddle. You pick them up and the shopkeep seems more interested in the gold that you're putting back in. "You know, I sell some nice things here. That bag looks really empty and with just those gloves, you're under dressed for this kind of weather. I mean, unless your light coat of fur is enough to keep you warm."

You see something that looks like a scarf and point at it. The shopkeep tells you the price and you put out that much gold on her counter. She hands you the... wait that's not a scarf, its a kerchief! Or were they called bandannas? Either way, you feel a little cheated and then stop at the painted abs on it. You may wear it around your neck, but you feel like the design alone makes you tougher AND that you've gotten the better end of the deal.

Smelling the room, you know that something cinnamon was baking. She seems to pick up on your intent and reveals baked treats in the shape of rabbits. Your stomach gives a little growl and you waste little time in plonking down your coin and nabbing one of those cute critters and eating them. You then look up at the shopkeep and at first feel guilty, what with her being a bunny monster and all. Her laughter tells you that you that you didn't need to worry.

You relax and start talking with the shopkeep, asking her about Snowdin and just what you can do here. She thinks for a moment, "You don't look like someone from the capital, and you must not be too into your history classes to know about this place." She relaxes and pulls back a bit. "Snowdin was one of the first towns to be settled by the monsters able to handle the cold. Ever since we left the RUINS, we've just... expanded throughout this underground. We all used to live in the RUINS and..." She stops. She seems sad about something, but quickly pushes on. "It's all boring details anyway. The only thing you need to know is that in Snowdin, Grillby's is where you can get an actual meal, the library has any information you may want to look for, and as I've said, the inn is next door if you want to nap there instead of my floor." She then realizes something and starts chuckling to herself, "Of course. You may just want to only see those skeleton sisters rush around out here. Everything in town has livened up since their appearance. They just appeared one day and they... err... asserted themselves."

You thank the shopkeep and step out of her store and into the town. It is rather festive as some of these monsters are decorating a tree and setting presents around it. You go up to one and ask what this is about. "Well, some awful teens were tormenting a monster with tree-like horns. They were throwing on multiple decorations and generally being a nuisance. We all came together and decided to bring gifts to this monster to make it feel better. Now we uphold this tradition by putting gifts underneath a decorated tree."

You make mention that you have a similar holiday like this, but the story about it is very different. One of the younger monsters grins at you, "Guess it doesn't matter how either one started, as long as it reaches the same ending. You're a kid, right?" This question seems to come out of nowhere and before you can answer, the kid continues. "I can tell because of those stripes on you." You look down at your fur and then back at the kid. He seems rather proud at his conclusion and decide to leave him with it, not wanting to look confrontational.

Grillby's comes up and you stop at its door. You're not sure if you want to come in or not. It wouldn't hurt to look inside. You push through the door and see Grillby's as it is, a literal hole in the wall known as life. The lone bartender, a fire that will listen and never speak. The patrons, either completely unaware of themselves or their surroundings or just allowing themselves to be carried by the flow of the drink in their cups.

There is one group that catches your attention and you feel unprepared for this situation. It's the dogs. All five of them. One is at a separate table, dealing cards to an unseen opponent. The others are gathered at a table, the Greater Dog taking up a full side all on his own. Are they going to act up with you around?

You choose not to find out as you go back outside.

The next building you see is the library and go to enter when you stop yourself. You step back and look at the sign again, confirming that you weren't reading wrong. That sign above the door reads 'Librarby'. You want to cry a little.

Entering you go to speak with the monster that runs this library that the sign is wrong. Before you get a word out, he puts a hand up, "Yes... We know... its misspelled." Well now you have nothing to really complain about, so you instead do some grumble reading with some of the books inside. You keep seeing the symbol you've noticed in Toriel's own collection through many of the tomes you just flip through. You stop at one and read a passage. "Love, hope, compassion. This is what many say monsters SOULs are made of. However, the absolute nature of a SOUL is unknown. After all, ponies have proven that their SOULs don't need these things to exist."

You feel a little hurt by that and put the book back. The other books are more informative about monsters and the war. For example, when a monster dies it fades to dust and its dust is spread over the one thing they love to 'keep its essence'. Monsters are also made of magic while ponies aren't. Ponies can control magic and are technically stronger, but monsters are able to have more control and freedom with magic that ponies just cannot. Monsters are attuned to their SOULs and as such, their power lies in their will against other forces. If the force against them is malicious and dark, Monsters are weaker.

You feel a little more understanding of the monsters around you. They aren't bad, just... eccentric, you suppose. There is only one other book you look through. "The fear of ponykind was finally weak enough for us to leave HOME. We went through the harsh cold, the damp swampland, and the searing heat to get to where the capital would now stand. This capital was called NEW HOME. And once more the king had shown his lack of naming prowess."

You chuckle and put the book back. You think this is more than enough knowledge to have right now. You go to leave the library and stop once more. That knowledge of SOULs resonates again and you think on your nightmare from before. The few seconds it takes for you to try and move again is torture. You exit the library and keep going. You have no need to fear false dark visions like that. You are stronger than that. And that hope fills you with determination.