Ponytale

by Scarlett Haze

Chapter 6 - Uwaa!! So Chilly♪

You continue on the path, keeping ready for any surprises. Papyrus seemed confident in the puzzles ahead, so you also needed to be set for anything. You hear voices ahead and go to greet them when you stop and see Papyrus and sans speaking with one another.

"Well, Undyne is fine and all, but don't you think she's a little too stressful on your bones?" sans asks Papyrus.

"I can handle her trainin', you don't have to worry over me," Papyrus calmly speaks with her sister. "Besides, I'm supposed to worry about you."

"Heh, you're patelling me that it's going tibia okay?" sans asks with a chuckle.

Papyrus grits her teeth loudly and looks over sans' shoulder and toward you. Her angered expression turns to surprise.

Sans turns to where Papyrus is looking and then back at Papyrus. The exchanges between Papyrus and sans looking in your direction becomes so fevered that you could see them spin for a moment. Papyrus stops her skull from rotating and lets out a gasp, "Is-! Is that a pony?!"

Sans looks past you and then bumps her sister, "That's actually a rock you're looking at."

Papyrus looks deflated after sans tells her about her discovery. "Oh..."

Sans gives a look to her sister, and bumps her again, "But, uhh, what is that in front of the rock?"

Papyrus raises her head and then gasps again before spinning sans around and whispering to her. You hear her excited chatter. "Is THAT a pony?!"

Sans nods once, "Yeah."

Papyrus does a flip, her head going over her heels and lands on the ground before quickly attempting to retrieve her skull. "Wahoo! I've done it! Undyne-! and the-! with the Royal Guard-! I'm gonna be popular!" Papyrus looks ready to burst from the sheer excitement and then realizes she's causing a scene. She clears her throat(?) and points a hoof to you, "Alright, little pony! You ain't gettin' past here! I, The Great Papyrus, will stop you from even taking another step!" She points to sans, "Preliminary puzzles, go!"

Sans stares blankly for a moment, "Err... what?"

"SANS! You didn't bring the first line of puzzles?!" Papyrus screeches.

"You didn't ask until now," sans argues. "And they're still in my station past the pony, so I can't go back."

"OoooOOooh, you crafty and sneaky pony, utilizing my sister's laziness!" Papyrus heroically states with a shaking hoof. "No matter! You will fall to my puzzles ahead! We'll see how well you get snagged in my trap and then brought to the capital!" She rushes away, letting out her whinny-laughter.

Sans sighs and looks at you, "Yeah, I think that went well, don't you? So, see you ahead, right?"

Your head is still buzzing at the activity that occurred. Papyrus could talk a big game at least, but now you're concerned about how well she could back it up. Sans only nods and walks away, leading you further down the path. You still needed to get to a warmer area, and if it was past Papyrus' deadly and dangerous puzzles, you'd need to go through them.

You suck in a breath and continue on as your CELL PHONE starts ringing. For a moment, you get really excited. Maybe it's Toriel! Answering your phone you hear a nervous voice on the other end. "Oh! I uhhh... h-hold on..." You raise an eyebrow in confusion as you hear the voice whispering to herself a moment. "I'd like to- ahh! Wait, no, yes! A pizza...? Toppings! Right! Can't have plain pizza! Ha, ha..."

You ask who this individual is on the other side and you hear the voice clear its throat and give more nervous laughter. "Not important! Just... I... I'll just text you the order right now!"

The CELL PHONE starts screeching out letters and you end the call. You don't know who that was on the other end, but it does allow you to try and call Toriel yourself. You call her number and hear it ring for a few moments. With no answer, the call ends and you feel left alone again. However, the time it took you to speak with the stranger and attempt to call Toriel was not a lost effort as you see another sentry station ahead. You get excited again, thinking that there could be more of those silly skeletons around.

The station looks a little different, like it is a miniature house with the front wall missing, an emblem of a dog's head hanging above. You go to look inside when a black masked dog rises up slowly and shifts his eyes around.

"Was somethin' moving out there?" The dog asks as you are frozen in place. "Because if there was something moving, a pony as an example... I will make sure it doesn't move again..."

The black and white realm appears as you see this dog is able to stand upright and is scanning for any motion. "Don't move an inch..." The dog growls, a blue sword moving toward your SOUL. You freeze and try to think of any way to avoid the shot, but find your SOUL cornered, you cringe as you see the sword move through. You then look around you and realize that you weren't harmed. What must have happened for that to happen? Did this dog miss?

You don't know how to resolve this mess, but a dog can't say no to being pet right? You rub your hoof through the dog's fur and it reacts in total surprise. "AHHHH! I've been pet! Pot? Pit? Pet? Pat? Put?" It waves its blue sword again and you once more freeze in place, watching the blue sword move through again without harming you. Was the color the trick?

Regardless of what the solution was, the dog is shifting his eyes more wildly than before as the realm falls away again. "I-I couldn't have been pet by something not moving! That's-! That's just-! I can't handle the pressure! Where are my dog treats?!" The masked dog slips back down in its station and you feel a little concerned about its reaction. You didn't mean to surprise it. With the path clear you keep going on your way, occasionally looking back at the dog station with a little worry.

You see sans once more up ahead and greet her with a wave. She remains chill in her toasty coat and only nods to you. "I have something important to tell you about my sister. Super secret stuff, really."

You ask sans about this super secret and she looks around for anyone listening in before continuing. "Alright, so she has this special attack, right? If you see a blue attack, don't move. It won't harm you if you remain still." She starts making an octagon shape in the snow in front of her. "Here's an easy way for you to remember. See that shape? Pretend it's a stop sign. The sign is red, right? Means you should stop. So, instead of red, make it blue. So, if you see the attack, just think about a blue stop sign, got it?"

You open your mouth to say something, but can't really understand how sans has managed to make her language so colorful. You merely give a nod and step away, only to find yourself sailing across a large patch of ice toward a sign. You hastily make a grab for the sign to stop you and successfully stop in the middle of this ice patch. The sign reads out that to the North, West, East, and South are ice, but East is also the direction of a town called Snowdin. You look for a direction that signifies East, and just hope where you're going is the right way as you push from the sign and slide the rest of the way across the ice.

Stepping onto snow again, you find sans and Papyrus once more waiting for you across a square area. They're in another conversational bout.

"Yer gettin' lazier and lazier each day! First the puzzles, and then napping during the night! What is wrong with you?" Papyrus questions sans.

Sans remains unaffected by the questions, "Nap at night? That's sleeping, isn't it?"

Papyrus shakes her head, "Don't try to outwit me by askin' questions when I'm supposed to be askin' questions here! Yer just lookin' for an excuse to fall back on." Her head rotates enough to catch sight of you and Papyrus begins to address you. "So, you're takin' the challenge? Well, in order to put a stop to you, my sister and I have devised puzzles throughout this area! This one in front of you will be mighty shocking."

Papyrus reveals a glass orb and holds it out, "Behold! The invisible electricity maze! By touching the walls of the maze, you will be forced to feel an unpleasant shock! Unless you're pleased by getting zapped, to which I may not have an appropriate backup plan." Papyrus, having found out this small issue looks nervous again, but sees your cautionary attitude as evidence you don't like getting shocked at all. "Alright, whenever you're ready, just step right through, if you dare."

You nervously take small steps, not wanting to trigger anything. There is a difference in the air and your mane is starting to frizz at the ends. You take another step and hear the sound of coursing electricity. This sound is coming from Papyrus as she is getting scorched by the heat of the electricity running through her bones. You step back and see the skeleton stop jittering in place before she starts yelling at sans.

"Sans! What did you do to this maze?!" Papyrus angrily accuses her sister. "I'm not the one that should be lightin' up like a tree for holiday purposes!"

Sans points to the orb, "The pony should be the one holding that."

Papyrus blinks and looks at the orb, "I... I knew that... Just wanted to... show how deadly the maze was... heh heh." Papyrus moves through the square in a deliberate manner, occasionally stopping herself and turning before continuing on. Finally, she stands in front of you and places the orb on top of your head. "Hold it there. Don't let it fall off." Papyrus explains before rushing through the maze again, not realizing that she's left a trail in the snow. "Alright, now. Give it yer best!"

You sheepishly partake in the balance act with the glass orb and pretend to get lucky at certain turns in the maze before reaching the other side, much to Papyrus' disbelief. "You are one sneaky and slippery snake. The way you solved that maze like it was nothing... Then you will be in the unfortunate position of the next puzzle being harder than you can ever believe! As it was conceived through the mind of sans, I reckon that you will be stumped, stopped, and stashed away!"

Papyrus dashes away once more, her neighing laughter fading into the distance. Sans seems more relaxed as Papyrus leaves and looks at you again. "Thanks again. This has been a while since Papyrus has had this much fun, even moreso than that costume party we had a few week ago. Ever since, she's been wearing that outfit and hat. She likes to think of it as her 'working gear' whenever she goes out with it." She lets out a weak chuckle, "She's the coolest sister." She readjusts herself and her pink coat again. "If you're looking for clues on the next puzzle, I'm not telling. Trust me, it's gonna be a lot more fun for you if you don't know where you're going."

You only shrug and move on, passing by more strange monsters and keeping calm through each encounter, including the one with the hat. The hat was a glorious one, but you had to restrain yourself from getting too caught up with it. You also had a heck of a time pushing a snowball around an area and placing it into a hole. It passed the time at least. Until once more you are met with the sight of sans and Papyrus.

"A-ha! The pony arrives again!" Papyrus exclaims. "Are you ready...for...?" Papyrus looks around the area and then back at sans. "Sans... where is your puzzle?"

Sans points to a sheet of paper on the ground, "Right there. Believe me, they aren't getting past this one so easily."

You approach the paper and balk at it's contents. It's... a word search! And here you are without a quill or ink to go with it! You briefly consider your options. Going back for supplies is not going to be a viable action and you also can't stay here either. You look up to the skeletons and approach them, ready to ask for something to write with.

This proves too much for Papyrus as she stomps the ground in frustration. "Sans! That thing didn't do anything! What were you thinkin'?!"

Sans looks a little ashamed, "Uh-oh, maybe I should've used the crossword instead..."

Papyrus rolls her eyes, "Like that would've helped! Even if it did work, it's far too easy. Now somethin' like that section called Junior Jumble, now that's a hefty challenge!"

Sans seems surprised by this, "Are you kidding? There's no way the crossword is less challenging in comparison to that baby bones mind exercise!"

Papyrus looks to you, "Alright, you solve this. Which one's the harder of the two, Crossword or Junior Jumble?" How you got roped into this question is beyond you. You don't want to come off as a poor mediator anyway and you force yourself to choose between the two. You reluctantly let Papyrus know that you believe Junior Jumble is more difficult.

Papyrus seems to rattle in joy, "I knew it! All ponies MUST be incredibly intelligent if they have the same problems with those puzzles as I do!" Papyrus goes off, letting off her usual laugh with an added kip of happiness in her gallop away.

Sans shrugs and smiles again at you, "You're doing a lot of nice things for my sister, especially with the Junior Jumble debacle just now. She got herself stumped trying to solve the horoscope once, ya know?"

You smile back at sans, letting her know that if you can do more to let you be aware. She says nothing in response, but keeps her smile up as you continue down the path.

You stop at a table with a plate of spaghetti at the side of the trail and find a note underneath it. Reading it, it says-

Pony, I want you to appreciate and enjoy this spaghetti placed before you now. (However, what you won't realize is that by consuming it, you will have fallen into a perilous trap! While you slurp up the noodles and taste the savory sauce, you will slowly forget about the fact that you are not progressing and therefore are more susceptible to getting captured! A victim to this gag played by The Great Papyrus!

Neigh-Heh-Heh,

Papyrus

You lower the letter and roll your eyes. You suspect that you weren't meant to read the words in parenthesis. This plate of spaghetti and the unplugged microwave beside it are at least conscious efforts to hinder you, so you can kind of respect that? You look at the plate and attempt to lift it from the table, finding it frozen stuck where it is. Guess there's no spaghetti for you in the near future. But one day, you can see that little mouse come out from its hole in the wall and heat that spaghetti up with the microwave. Just the thought of this hopeful future fills you with determination.

Comments

[ChaosFerret]

Liking this so far. Tracking this.

[Kauetheadventurer246]

I wonder who flowey really is.