Ponytale

by Scarlett Haze

Chapter 3 - FIGHT for the right to give MERCY

You sit there with the CELL PHONE and start messing with it. You've managed to get the screen to show you TORIEL's number but you're still confused at what it can do. You press a button and it starts ringing out, causing you to nearly drop it and let it hit the ground. Suddenly, you hear TORIEL's voice on the other line. You put the phone next to your ear.

"Hello, this is TORIEL," you hear. You reflexively yammer out and ask her if heaven was missing an angel. You then promptly facehoof and let out an embarrassed groan.

There is a few moments of silence before you hear Toriel laugh. "How adorable. I could pinch your cheek. You could certainly find better than an old woman like me."

You apologize to Toriel and explain that you're still figuring out how the phone works. You then bring the topic around and ask what she can tell about herself. "I'm afraid I don't have much to say... I'm just a silly little lady who worries too much."

You sit on the floor and chuckle. Hearing her voice makes you feel happy. You ask if she can be called 'Mom'. You then try to explain that if that's not fine then you can just... well, you don't know how to stop talking on this CELL PHONE, but you'll try anyway.

You can almost picture Toriel on the phone, trying to find an answer. "I... suppose... Would that make you happy? To call me 'Mother'? Well... you can just call me whatever you like!"

Hearing this makes you smile and you thank her. You promise to hang up now before either one can embarrass the other further.

The conversation ends and you remain seated on the floor. That was a silly little diversion. Still, to stay in this room... what did that yellow furred goat-mom have in mind?

You stand and go to find out, leaving the room.

The moment you leave, the ringing sound happens again. You get the CELL PHONE out again and try to make the ringing stop by pressing buttons.

"This is Toriel, erm... you haven't left the room have you? There are still a few puzzles ahead I still have to explain. It would be dangerous for you to try and solve them by yourself. Please, be good, alright?"

You promise 'Mom' that you will be good and both of you hang up the phone. You take this danger into account and step into a pile of leaves. With a look that says you are ready to traverse an unknown frontier and hearing the crunch of the leaves beneath your hoof, you are filled with determination. In the room, you see a Froggit on his own and cautiously approach it.

It starts to ribbit at you, leaving you confused. You then have an idea and translated the ribbits to something you understand through your magic. "I have some advice about battling monsters if you wish to listen," it croaks. "If you ACT a certain way or FIGHT until they are almost defeated, they may not want to battle you anymore. If that happens, please... use MERCY, little pony."

You think on the other battles and how you simply spoke with the dummy and Froggit. You can surmise that even with Toriel gone, this is how you can still 'win' against the monsters now. "Mercy... I'll keep that in mind."

You decided to look around and admire the RUINS. The purple bricks, various leaves, and vines in this room makes you question as to what happened to this place and where other monsters like Toriel could be. It can't just be her and these frogs. You do admire that it is well-lit as well, despite being completely sealed off from the sun.

You have enough of admiring the RUINS and move to a room in the North to find a candy bowl on a pedestal. On the pedestal is an etching that reads 'Take One.' Well, you've never been one to not take up a free piece of candy, even if its Monster Candy. You then grin as you CHECK the wrapper. It's not licorice flavor and that's good enough for you. You throw it into your saddle bag and leave, deciding to take the other path.

It looks like things are just simple right now. What puzzles did Toriel even have to worry ab-

As you say this, the floor beneath you cracks and you tumble down. You let out a scream and then flop into a pile of leaves. You sit up and attempt to calm down. You've already fell from a high place, so you tell yourself to not let this be a recurring problem. You see two doors to either side of the pile and go through one. You feel it leading you upwards until you climb out at the top. You step off the exit and are surprised by a monster! Or did you surprise the monster? According to the box that appears in this black and white realm, this monster, Whimsun, looks awfully shy. You go to say something and it spooks the Whimsun into running.

You press on. These monsters you've been encountering are rather shy or harmless. You feel confident as you climb back up through the other door and press on.

The CELL PHONE goes off and you answer it, hey, you're getting better. The phone only rang 5 times this time!

"This is TORIEL. For, uhm, no reason in particular... do you prefer butterscotch or cinnamon?"

This is a life-altering question. Not once did you have the thought to encounter such a choice so early in life. The delectable and lovable butterscotch? Or the sweet-spicy cinnamon? You falter, trying to say one or the other. You scream out your answer as butterscotch and feel a part of you has betrayed a long-standing relationship with cinnamon.

Toriel thanks you for the answer and you feel dejected as she hangs up. You try pleading with cinnamon that you could only save one, but you so desperately wanted to have both.

After your soul-crushing decision you go to take your next step and hear the CELL PHONE ring again.

"Erm, This is TORIEL. Y-You don't dislike cinnamon, do you? Wh-What I mean is, I know what you prefer but..." Her voice gets even quieter, like she's not wanting to offend you. "Would you turn up your nose if you found it on your plate?"

You get down on your hindquarters and praise the sun above the ground that you have been spared in your choice... before you realize that you may not get butterscotch.

"Thank you for being patient, by the way," Toriel continues as you have your mild bout of sorrow over losing butterscotch.

You bring yourself back together and go to move past this tough choice, which leads you to another puzzle... well, its not so much a puzzle as it is a pushing exercise. On a path, you push a rock over a button and it holds it down. The spikes that were impeding your progress retract and you press on.

Being surprised by a Froggit, you offer a wonderful compliment. It blushes and lets out a ribbit. This time, unlike last time, the box that keeps your heart from floating away reappears, making you have memories of the encounter with Flowey. Suddenly, the Froggit starts raining down flies. You try to avoid the flies as they go toward your SOUL . Eventually, it stops, but you are ready to strike out vengefully. Reflexively you swing your stick at the Froggit and watch it take the shot and letting out a pained noise.

In response, the Froggit seems do to nothing to the box... until you see something resembling a frog in the corner. Curiously your SOUL moves close to it and get hurt by the frog jumping into it. You feel were the pain came from and find a cut along your cheek. This Froggit wasn't messing around. You see no other option but to run.

You sprint through the room, passing some puzzles without thought, not even realizing it. Taking a breath, you wipe the cut at your cheek and tears well up in your eyes. You go for the Monster Candy in your pack to calm your nerves. You don't normally lash out like that, and it scares you a little knowing what you did.

Another part of you does tell you that you could've stood your ground and beat that little punk that hurt you. It would've been worth it.

You leave the Monster Candy in your mouth as you just keep going on, savoring its taste.

Reaching another button puzzle where you would need to push rocks, you attempt to move past the bad experience. You absentmindedly take hold of a rock and hear a loud harumph come from it. "WHOA, there pardner! Who said you could push me around?" This southern-sounding rock takes you by surprise. Not even the rocks are normal here. You apologize and step back, not sure how to explain what you want from it. You find enough words to explain that you would like for it (him? her?) to move to the button that is in front of it.

"So yer ASKIN' for me to move to that there button?" The rock answers and gives a somber sigh. "Hey, anythin' for ya, pumpkin."

The rock starts moving on its own, eventually settling on the button as the spikes from across the room retract to the ground. You pass the rock and thank it for helping you on your way. Suddenly, your front hoof strikes something gelatinous and look down. It's a line of small molds... Moldsmals.

You see them wiggle at you and in response you shake your own hips in response. Huh... what a pleasant conversation. You step over the Moldsmals and try to ignore one of them attempting to pull you back in with a sexy wiggle. You pass by a mouse and a piece of cheese that has fused itself to the table on top of it.

You then reach a spot where there is clearly a ghost lying on a patch of leaves right in front of you. You hear a buzzing sound coming from it for some reason. You poke at the ghost and ask for it to move. From its expression, it is somber and sad. You attempt to cheer it up by giving it a smile, but all it does is start to cry. You try to make your SOUL avoid the incoming water droplets.

This doesn't deter you from attempting to make this Napstablook character feel a little better and decide that maybe giving it (her? him?) a small joke will at least stop it from hanging its head. This gets the ghost to let out a weak chuckle and the box suddenly comes up with shaking text that reads "Really not feelin' up to it right now. Sorry." Well, at least you weren't hurt in this, if you could call it, attack. Maybe one more shot at cheering up this spirit will do the trick. It looks (relatively) much happier and says that it wants to show you something.

You think this is an incoming attack and go to start avoiding any attacks when you see Napstablook's tears go...up...what? The tears start shaping a hat on top of its head. "I call it, dapperblook. Do you like it?"

You tell Napstablook that you do, remarking that tears shouldn't normally create a hat at all and it pulls it off so well.

"I usually come to the RUINS because there is nobody around," Napstablook eerily drones out in its ghostly voice. "But it's today that I met somebody nice."

A pause occurs between you and the fake sleeping ghost.

"Oh. I'm rambling, aren't I? I better just move out of your way..." Napstablook phases through the bed of leaves it was lying on and leaves you free to go on your way once more.

The rest of the journey was uneventful. Spiders holding bake sales and Froggits talking about boring topics were the only things that occurred before you reached the next area. Overall, you are one Spider Cider richer. You see a dead tree with red leaves surrounding it in front of you when you hear the sound of TORIEL nearby.

"Oh no, that trip took longer than I wanted, that pony is probably bored to tears right now," Toriel starts and goes to ring you on her CELL PHONE. She then notices your presence and the cut on your cheek. "Oh, dear! You're hurt! How did you manage to get here?" She keeps asking on how you are as you feel her press something against your cheek, a lovely patterned bandage. "Ooh, I'm so terrible, it was irresponsible for me to leave you like that just to try and surprise you with-"

She stops from talking and leads you around the tree to what looks to be a quaint home. Its so tidy and cute in the middle of these RUINS. The sight of it fills you with determination.

"I guess I can't hide it, can I?" Toriel murmurs. Your nose picks up the scent of something sweet and spicy alongside the delectable and loveable smell of something else alongside it. "Come inside, small one. I want to help celebrate your arrival with a nice treat."

Your mouth waters. Toriel has really gotten in good with your dessert side with what must be a pie of some sort.

You enter Home.

Comments

[mastermenthe]

6640478
Because there is a group on fimfiction of a bunch of prereaders and editors who are available.

[Kauetheadventurer246]

Are you going the pacifist route or genocide route?