Ponytale

by Scarlett Haze

Chapter 10 - Where Water Falls and Spears Fly

You wind out of Snowdin a second time and move past Sans' station. The rushing waters as it falls from above let you know that the cold snow and weather is no more. The monster kid is walking with you now and you ask what he's doing here. "Am I ruining your sneaking? Yo, sorry. I tend to utilize the group tactic when trying to find her, at least at the start. Don't worry, I'll split up ahead. She's one of the coolest monsters ever and I want to grow up to be just like her."

You cautiously ask who he's talking about but see him veer away quickly as you reach a shallow runoff of water and large boulders falling from the side. The wall of water seems to be split in the middle and you curiously walk to it. The water is running so smoothly that you can see your reflection. You then see some dust in the reflection and brush where the dust is with a hoof. You check yourself and you're a lot cleaner than the reflection reveals.

Looking back up you are surprised by your reflection smiling evilly back at you, prompting you jump and defend yourself from it. You take in rapid breaths as your heart beats loudly in your ears. One last look at the water's reflection and you see yourself. It's you and nothing else. That meant that whatever made that reflection was on the other side of the water. You muster up courage and yell as you jump through the water and look for anyone behind the waterfall. Your hunt led you into a small area and a dusty tutu placed in the corner of the place.

You take up the tutu and brush some of the dust away. If you could wash it, you would. For now, you decide to put the tutu in your saddlebag and give it a small heft. It's filling up with a few things. The cinnamon-butterscotch pie has remained in tact, the spider cider has also been kept to itself, and your CELL PHONE remains silent. You dial Toriel's number again, just to see if she answers. The phone rings a few times and Toriel doesn't answer.

Sighing, you put the CELL PHONE away and continue past the falling rocks. The light gets darker and you take slower steps to not trip over things. The grass ahead of you is higher than your head and you don't find another way around it so you step in. Your slow steps stop as you hear a familiar voice above you.

"Hey, Undyne... I have the daily report for you." Papyrus nervously starts.

The other voice is too soft or too far away for you to hear it, but its clear that whoever is speaking is stern and serious.

"The pony? Right, the one I... called... you... about." Papyrus is really starting to shake out there. "Of course I fought them! I wasn't backin' down for nothin'!" The other voice is speaking with Papyrus as calmly as they can, but you almost sense disappointment in the tone.

"Capture? W-Well- I- I- I... No. I didn't capture them. Even with my best efforts I failed." Papyrus' honesty shines again, but the amount of regret in her tone is well regarded as the voice gets a little louder.

"You're going to-?! No! You can't take the pony's soul! There's no need for them to be destroyed, they are-!"

Papyrus' voice is cut off, leaving you in silence for a long while in the grass you try to peek over to catch a sight of Undyne or Papyrus.

"I... understand," Papyrus reluctantly sighs. "I'll help you in any way I can..."

You feel betrayed. After the date, the silly antics, and getting to know Papyrus for the skeleton she is, you feel alone again. You haven't noticed that you've rustled some of the grass and made a noise. The loud clanging of metal armor forces you to stop in place and you can see Undyne looking from above. It is a towering figure that holds a glowing spear of magic in its hand. You shrink down, feeling the absolute power of her presence despite being that far away.

You see Undyne stay there for a few seconds and see her back away slowly. You can't move as the mere aura around Undyne hangs over you. She's absolutely terrifying.

"Yo, she was just looking at you, man!"

You look beside you and its the little monster kid again. How'd they come back to you?

"I'm jealous of you, man, that was AWESOME! What have you done to get her attention, eh? Heh heh." The monster kid leads you out of the grass. "C'mon! Let's see her beat up some bad guys!" You see the monster kid sprint for a few steps before it falls flat on its face. It doesn't cry, but instead peels itself from the ground and then continues running forward.

Monsters are weird.

So are the puzzle sections in this damp area. The bridge seeds are as they say, but having to line up four of them to create the bridge is complex. You work at it enough and you hear your phone go off. Someone is calling you! You excitedly pick up the phone and hear the sound of bone rattling.

"This is Papyrus! Before you ask how I got yer number, let me just ask about what you're wearing."

That was rather forward. You question Papyrus as to what that question was going to achieve. "It's a question from a friend. She was talking about the fact you were wearing a bandanna. Is that right?" You know Papyrus is attempting to try and give information to Undyne and check the tutu in your bag. You'd feel ridiculous wearing something that old, but you feel like you have no choice. You tell Papyrus that you are wearing the bandanna.

Papyrus seems to be a little antsy at your answer, "Bandanna, right. Gotcha. Wink, wink, and nudge, nudge. Thanks for the info!" She hangs up and you fit yourself into the tutu. If Undyne was searching for somepony with a bandanna, she'd not find it. The bandanna is hidden in your saddlebag and Operation: Don't Get Caught By The Terrifying Armored Monster begins. You'd have thought of a better answer, but being pressed for time, this was all you can get.

The place has plenty of blue flowers and going near them you can hear voices from it. Just looking up and around, you can see shimmering far away lights above. A flower next to you sounds somber as you remain focused on the lights above. "Monsters would wish their wishes to the stars in the sky. By hoping with all of your heart, that wish came true. Now we only have these sparkling stones on the ceiling to act as our stars."

It seems sad as you hear the echos of wishes past call up that they will one day see the real stars on the surface. They have set up the room with a telescope like they would in seeing the stars from far away too! Peering inside, the lights of the stones read a message that is written on the lens. It reads, "Check Wall," and points upwards. You don't fully understand what this means, but if there is some kind of secret to be found on the wall, you would at least try to find it.

You knock along the walls and finally find something that sounds hollow. Swiftly turning in place, you give a swift buck against the wall and reveal more of this cavern. It leads to something of a dock and faded words on the wall. You walk with the wall, attempting to pick out what you can read.

"Why had the ponies attacked? It had seemed they had nothing to fear. They are unbelievably strong and almost unbeatable, so much so that it would take the SOULs of nearly every monster to match the single SOUL of a pony. It is not to say that ponies have no weakness, they have a flaw with their SOULs that makes them last longer even after physical death. If a monster can defeat a human, then that monster can claim the human's SOUL and with it, the untameable power."

You stop at an illustration of what the original writers must have seen as the monster they described. It is absolutely disturbing to even look at for longer than a few seconds and you turn from it. There's nowhere to go so you sit on a piece of wood on the water and think on what to do next. You don't realize that the loose wood you are now riding on is now floating across this dark water and you're on your way to another dock on the other side.

You make it across, but the darkness makes it hard to see where you are. You are then stopped by the forceful impalement of a shining blue spear that fades away. Seeing where it came from, you see Undyne staring you down and holding another one of those spears. You scream and run for your life as volley after volley of spears come for your SOUL. That look of unbridled will that Undyne has as you weave and duck from getting hit keeps on you. How did she know it was you? You have a tutu on! How could she have seen through your disguise?

Running into the tall grass ahead, you curl and make yourself as small as possible to not get found by Undyne. Her armored footsteps get louder and louder until she is right on top of you. She raises her gauntleted hand and snaps forward to grip at you. This was it, you weren't going to escape now.

"What the-? Hey!"

You open a single eye and see Undyne is gripping the monster kid that has been around by its face. Undyne seems unimpressed by her catch and sets the kid back down. You can practically smell the frustrations emanating from the armor. It smells like cooked fish. You watch as Undyne walks away and you let out your held breath.

The monster kid starts hopping up and down excitedly as it moves with you out of the grass. "Yo! Did you just see that? Undyne touched me! I'm freaking out, man! I'm not going to wash my face ever, ever, ever!" The kid then bumps you, "If you were just a little more lucky that'd have been you. Don't feel bad about it, there's other chances that she'll be around for." The kid runs off again and you are left with your feelings of dread.

Still, you pass the crystallized cheese and raise your head enough to see sans by a telescope. Seeing the familiar face you trot up to her and give sans a nervous smile, not yet wanting to let loose to her that if you faced against Undyne that you may just faint out of sheer terror.

Sans gives a few quick adjustments to her telescope, "How's it been, bud? I've been busy about this telescope business. Hear it pays the big ones, we're talking 50kG. So, I thought if it pays that much for big ones, then why not try something for the small ones, namely me." She motions you to the telescope, "Go ahead, have a peek inside, I want to make sure its working right."

You give a shrug and peek in, but all you see is a red dot. You move and adjust it for a few moments, but the red dot remains. It is right then you hear sans snickering as you pull back. You explain about the dot and she nods, still snickering. What was she so giggly about?

As you walk your CELL PHONE goes off and you answer. "Hello again, it's Papyrus. Uhhh, listen, about that question about what you were wearin'. That friend who wanted to know has a rather... unfavorable opinion of you. I couldn't betray you to her, so I stood in a mirror and attempted to rehearse my answer. So, when she asked, I answered her with complete confidence that you were not wearing a bandanna and instead you were wearing a dusty tutu! The plan covers you as I knew that you told me you WERE wearing a bandanna."

She sounds uncomfortable for a moment, "I felt bad that I had to lie like that to Undyne and to paint you in that kind of light as the kind to wear tutu's. But I made the commitment to myself that your safety was more important than your personal image."

Your winding trail leads you to more ancient writing and you read it carefully. "The power to take SOULs, this is what ponies feared. It wasn't much, but now you could understand why there were so many monsters that you've encountered along the way. Despite being weaker, they want your SOUL and they all want it for the same cause as you do. They want it to get past the barrier and to the surface above.

You take that thought with you as you pass clear water and see something off about your face. Actually, it's not your face, it's your eye, the eye that was on sans' telescope.

You can hear sans' snickering again despite her not being where you are and cry out her name in playful frustration. After howling her name to the ceiling above you, you wipe the ink from around your eye and feel filled with determination.

Comments

[Scarlett Haze]

6760286
vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/undertale/images/2/26/Flowey_wink.png/revision/latest?cb=20151030151239
C'mon now, I can't reveal everything now can I?