The Moon In The Dark: Alt-Endings and Doomed Detours

by WorldWalker128

(Skims several chapters) Gotta Catch 'Em All...But can't.

"Hello," the snowman replied. "I am a snowman. I want to see the world...but I cannot move."

"I could take you with me," Woona offered. "You'll fit in my saddlebag."

"Umm...I find that a little hard to believe..." the snowman replied cautiously. "Though maybe a piece-"

"I've already got hundreds of spiders in one of my pouches," Woona countered as she pulled out an empty pouch from her saddlebag, marking it with the rune for 'cold'. Putting the pouch back in, she levitated the snowman into the air and deposited it into the pouch.

You got the snowman...somehow, Chara muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Nyeh heh heh heh! Once I capture you, human! I shall have all the things that I- eh?" Papyrus paused mid-declaration as he noticed himself being levitated upwards. "Hey! It's not your turn yet! What are you- Umph?!" Papyrus' words were cut off as he was shoved headfirst into Woona's Bag of Holding. Woona was sporting a confident and satisfied smile as she shoved the rest of her opponent inside his new temporary prison.

"You did it. You really, actually did it." Chara face-palmed. "I don't know whether to applaud, laugh, or just shake my head." Woona flipped the flap closed and buttoned it shut before replacing it on her back. Nearby and hiding behind some trees, Sans stepped out from his hiding place and approached the satisfied filly and ghost and looked at her back uncertainly.

"Uh, Woona? What exactly are you doing?" He knew that she didn't mean his brother any harm, because if she did then chances were that there would have been nothing anyone could have done to stop her from dusting Papyrus, but this was still puzzling.

"Oh! Hi Sans!" Woona greeted, smiling happily. "Well, back in the forest I told the snowman that I'd take him with me to the surface when I was able, so I stuffed him into my bag. Then, as I was walking through the woods to the town and you warned me that Papyrus might take a more direct route to capture me I had an idea. Monsters all seem to want to go to the surface, so what if I just stuffed them all in my bag and took them with me when I left? We'd all go to the surface at the same time, and there'd be no crowd pushing and shoving!" Sans understood the logic there, and it was fairly decent reasoning from a child's point of view. Granted there was still the issue of how she'd get through the barrier, and whether or not her bag would have enough space for the many thousands of monsters living in the underground. But one thing at a time.

"That's not too bad an idea, kiddo." Sans praised. "But what if they get hungry or they don't want to be in there? What's to stop them from fighting their way out?" Considering Undyne's usual defiant attitude, escaping would definitely be something she'd try if she ever got stuffed inside. Luna looked down at the ground, disappointed that she hadn't thought of that.

"He's got you there, Woona. Unless you've got some way to make a cage or something from rune magic-" Chara clapped a hand over his mouth. Sure enough, her head jerking back up again with determination blazing on it showed that he'd stopped himself too late.

(Later)

"If you won't free your captive monsters willingly, pony, or surrender your SOUL to me, then I'll just have to take them by force!" Undyne crouched down and then leaped from her stone perch and dove at Woona spear-first. "NnnGAAAAH!" Smirking, Woona opened her back and lifted out an old fishing net she'd found in the junk pile at the bottom of a waterfall. At every knot holding it together she'd stuck a small piece of paper with a runic symbol meaning 'hold' on it. With some simple telekinetic manipulation the net was moved to where Undyne would land, and upon landing the ends were raised up and tied off. "Hey!" Undyne shouted indignantly, already struggling to free herself at the scraping of her armor on the cave's stone floor making an awful din. "This is cheating! Fight me fair, you little brat!" Undyne created several spears in retaliation, only for her intended attacks to miss horribly when Woona's bag was dropped onto Undyne's head, cutting off her line of sight. Woona quickly stretched the mouth of the bag to accompany Undyne's frame, and then right the bag and closed it.

Muffled sounds of objection came from it for a time, but quickly quieted as its most recent denizen realized that the other captives weren't harmed and that she wasn't getting out again unless Woona allowed for it. Woona nodded in satisfaction, and once more placed it upon her back and continued her journey at a leisurely pace and humming a cheerful tune.

(Later Still)

The spiders, marked with the blue star of Woona's magic, rushed out of the pouch, swarming out to the spider girl and the spiders all around her. She stared, eyes wide, as they crawled up her, chittering comfortingly and chidingly. "But...how...?"

Woona finally managed to get her mouth unbound. "They told me what they were saving for," she explained. "So I made a heated pouch I could carry them all through Snowdin in."

"I've also got a bunch of other monsters in the bag, but I'm not going to bring them out until the king tells me how to get back to the surface and I get there. Once I do I'll just take everyone out of here in my bag!"

"Clever, but I don't think my pet will fit in there and I simply cannot bear the thought of leaving him behind." She gave her giant cupcake-spider an affectionate glance and Woona felt a little sad at the idea of it being left all alone. Seeing the young filly's sympathy, Muffet assured her that though seeing the surface would be nice, as long as she had her family she'd be content. "Don't let me hold you back, dearie. You've already helped me enough." Muffet gave Woona a gentle pat on the head and wished her well when Woona departed.

(Later vs Predator)

"A Mirror behind me?" MTT rotated so as to face the 'mirror'.

"Now! Flip the switch!" Alphys exclaimed. Instead of doing so, however, Woona readied her bag...and learned that it wasn't quite big enough around to accommodate MTT's wider-than-average and angular body.

"I told you it wasn't going to work with this one, Woona!" Chara chastised. "We're going to need to fight here!" He reached for the switch, only for MTT to turn around shaking a finger at them.

"Naughty, naughty, little beauties! I already know about your magical bag from Doctor Alphys' camera system throughout The Underground!" MTT tossed aside his microphone. "I also don't appreciate you lying to me about the mirror! Lying isn't nice, you know!"

"Neither is trying to kill a helpless little filly!" Chara shot back. MTT leaned forward at an angle with his face-lights making a frown.

"She's hardly helpless, darling. She simply chooses not to harm others. There is a difference, you know!" MTT clenched his fingers together, leaned far over forward and threw a punch at Woona, knocking her backward to the edge of the rising elevator. "That is the difference right there! I am both dangerous to you, and willing to kill you to get what I want!"

Woona struggled because the wind had been knocked out of her, but managed to stand again once she could breathe normally again. Chara hovered protectively over her, fists clenched and teeth bared angrily at MTT, eyes black. Woona felt dark ripples through her innate magic from Chara, and watched as his odd knife appeared in his hands. Woona placed a hoof on one of his legs and he looked down at her. She shook her head at him.

"We can beat him without that. Put it away." Chara waved his knife at MTT.

"But he just-"

"I've gotten hurt and walked away okay before, Chara. Even if I do lose I can just go back and we can try again another way. We already have a plan. We just need to do it." She gave him a confident smile. Chara hesitated, looked between Woona and MTT, then nodded and dropped the conjured weapon, letting it dissolve back into energy.

"If you two are done can we get to the part where I take your SOUL and go through the barrier?" MTT asked, giving an exaggerated sigh of boredom and crossing his arms. "I have simply so much packing to do, and my fans are growing impatient!" MTT pointed at at a large number that appeared as he pointed, displaying a number just above five thousand steadily dropping.

"Alright Woona. How do you want to handle this?" Chara asked, once more watching MTT.

"We just do what Doctor Alphys said to do! We need to flip his switch! If it shuts him down, then we'll have all the time we need for me to adjust the bag's mouth!"

"Oh, my switch doesn't do that, darlings!" MTT stated, now suddenly uncomfortably close to Chara's face. MTT tried to strike him first with a fist. When it failed due to Chara's ghostly nature MTT shrugged and rolled through Chara's apparition to strike at Woona instead. Seeing this Woona threw herself to one side and rolled on the floor to dodge. She gave a short but hard flap of her little wings and used the momentum from them to get back on her hooves. Woona absently noted that the number of 'ratings' went up a little with her stunt, but was more focused on the fact that Chara was now behind MTT.

"Now Chara!" Woona called as MTT once more turned to pursue Woona. Chara whirled around and reached for the large switch labeled 'Switch'- How helpful! and gave it a hard shove to the right. MTT froze in place like a cheating ex-boyfriend of Medusa. "Yay! We won!" Woona cheered.

"Actually, you didn't." MTT corrected before seeming to have a seizure. There was a small explosion which once more pushed Woona off her hooves and filled the area with smoke as well as broke the small light bulbs on the lift, blinding them all with the dark. Several seconds of darkness later the lift came to a stop inside a large equally-dark room. As the smoke dissipated a single bright floodlight turned on, illuminating the outline of a tall slender figure standing in front of it. "Oohhhh, YES! I-"

Transformed though he was, more agile he might have been than he was before, and probably with more attack power albeit less defensive capability, there was one fatal flaw with it: being that Mettaton was now much thinner than he had been as a box, it was now also much easier to literally bag him, which Woona wasted no time doing as she was already a bit hurt from earlier. "Mmph! Mumph Moomph!" MTT objected as Woona tried to pull the bag not just over his head, but down his torso. However, MTT would not go down easily, and quickly gripped the sides of the bag with his new and much more adept fingers. As the two struggled against one another, MTT's ratings continued to rise, though Woona, despite her large magical reservoir for her age was draining quickly. As MTT increased how much force pressed upward Woona had to compensate by pulling down harder, and every second that passed increased the rate of drain.

Just as Woona's magic meter reached the low red zone the elevator doors slid open and Alphys stumbled into the room holding a remote control. She pointed the antenna at MTT and pressed a button. MTT's body gave off a series of sounds that sounded like a fax machine, and then stopped resisting Woona's capture attempts. Like a magician's vanishing act, MTT's form seemed to vanish without a trace without even creating a bulge in the walls of the bag, and Woona, gasping for breath, closed it. The floodlight turned off to be replaced with the low-light stage lights, and the ratings counter faded out.

"Thanks...Alphys!" Woona said between breaths. Alphys gave a thumbs-up, though she seemed a little distracted.

"If you had a way to get through the barrier it wouldn't be a bad plan, but as things stand right now there's only one sure way that we monsters know of, and...well..." Alphys wrung her claws as she walked alongside Woona and Chara and seemed to be trying to avoid Woona's eyes. Woona raised an eyebrow, but waited patiently for Alphys to continue. After an awkward silence that lasted for about a minute, she did. "The only way through short of destroying the barrier, which would be a moot point if you were just going to carry everyone out in a magic bag, would be to take the SOUL of a boss monster, or if one of us were to take and absorb yours."

"Or one of the monsters not in the bag could absorb one of the already-captured SOULS, place Woona in the bag as well and then carry everyone else out." Chara suggested as the trio came to a stop at the elevator door.

"!" Alphys, not for the first time in her life felt as if she'd failed her people. Failed them because a child had a simple solution for a problem that she and her predecessor- who had that been?? had been unable to solve.

"Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much more that bag can hold, but I don't think it will be much more." Chara gave Woona's bag an unsure glance. Despite gaining no additional weight as monster after monster were crammed inside it like fish down a whirlpool, there were occasions in which one side or another would randomly bulge outward for a few seconds before going back to normal like people in an overcrowded tent. "That bag is currently holding just under two hundred monsters inside it, on top of whatever miscellaneous items Woona's added to it. Your numbers have probably only gone up since I died, so even if dad goes for that idea it would still take quite some time before everyone could get out."

"Well, whatever we do, we still need to talk to dad first! Let's go!"

(Sooner rather than too much Later)
Bet you're expecting Asgore's theme, huh?

"You are such an idiot!" Flowey mocked in an echoing voice as Woona and (invisible to him) Chara approached. He had watched Woona's progress from afar (though he'd been puzzled as to why she seemed to talk to nothing at times) and he'd caught on to her plan fairly quickly. In one of his own 'runs' in the past he'd thought of something similar, but had dismissed the idea without giving it real effort. "Do you really think that after abducting so many of his citizens against their will- some on public television no less, that Asgore is just going to play nice and let you go? Really?"

"Yep! Once he hears my plan, how could he say no? No one gets hurt, monsters are free, I go back home, and we get to be a family!" Flowey rolled his eyes, but on the inside he was already planning on how to thwart Woona's plan if the king did agree to try her idea. A monster was only tough if they desired to fight. If Asgore was friendly to Woona and distracted by her, then he could strike at Asgore with lethal effect. Flowey could then claim the already captured SOULS, and in doing so could use their combined DETERMINATION to overpower Woona's own and completely RESET the timeline. If she tried a second time, then he could simply do so again and again until she eventually gave up and chose another path. No matter how DETERMINED to see this plan succeed despair would eventually defeat her where brute force could fail.

(Several Flowey-induced RESETS later)

Woona glared at Flowey as she came to him once more at the entrance to The Ruins. Flowey smirked at her in turn.

"So, little pony," He began in a sickly-sweet voice. "feel like giving this plan up yet? This will be...what, the fourth time we've met here?"

"Why are you trying to keep us all here?!" Woona shouted at him. Flowey's smirk faded.

"Because you're so dead-set on trying to leave. Do you have any idea how boring and predictable the monsters down here are? You should by now. You're the first person to stir things up around here in the last two thousand years!" His face changed into a his evil grin. "And I'm curious to know when you'll grow just as bored as me and make your first kill!" He cackled as he sank into the ground leaving a horrified Woona behind with his echoing laughter. When she shook it off, she shouted to the empty room:

"I'll never kill anyone, Flowey, and I'll never give up! You hear me? Never!"

(Snowdin woods, five more RESETS later)
a song

"Don't you know how to greet a new- oh screw it. You and I both know who I am and who you are. But that having been said I'm curious," Sans said with eye sockets empty. "why do you keep going all the way to the end just to come back here again? Is it nostalgia that keeps you here? Or maybe you keep chickening out at the meeting with Asgore, or maybe we even get freed from here just for something horrible to happen outside on the surface and you're trying to find a way around it." Sans shrugged. "I don't remember all of what happened each time, and frankly, after so many RESETS it's all starting to blur together. But I still want an answer, Woona." Sans leaned over and stared down at her.

With the despair that Flowey was hoping to seed in Woona finally taking root (no pun intended) she couldn't meet his eyes at first, but she did answer:

"Every time I get to Asgore Flowey kills the king, steals the six SOULS, and then RESETS back to when I first came here. I've tried talking to Flowey, I've tried getting there first by explaining my problem to the River Person so I could avoiding FIGHTs to get there before he does, and I even tried surrendering to Undyne so she'd take me straight to Asgore. That last one almost worked, but in the end daddy still died and after killing Flowey Undyne tried to kill me next to break the barrier, and then mommy showed up and started FIGHTing Undyne to protect me! I want everyone to be happy by getting them out, but no matter what I try someone still gets hurt! It's hopeless!" Woona sagged in the snow and started to cry. Sans' eyes became visible again as the memories from those particular timelines were refreshed.

"Well kiddo, now you know how I feel most of the time. So what are ya gonna do now?" Sans sat on the ground in front of her, ignoring the calls of Papyrus in the distance this time. This was more important.

"I don't know!" Woona softly wailed.

"Are ya gonna give up? Stay here with us?" Woona hiccuped and wiped her eyes with a leg, looking up at him.

"I don't- I-" Woona didn't want to. She wanted to see her sister and the sky again, but she was at the end of her rope. She'd tried everything she could think of besides Flowey and Chara's darker suggestions (though Chara had stopped making that kind a long time ago save for use against Flowey), and she was still trapped here with all and any progress she made swept away in an instant at what should have been the end of her journey.

"No one down here would hold it against you if ya did." If they knew. Only a handful of us recall slivers of previous timelines. "Most monsters down here think you're one of us, and we both already know that Toriel loves you like a daughter and my bro will like a favorite niece or side kick. I consider you a friend, and we both know you've given it your best each time you've tried." Sans offered a bony hand to her.

"What do you say? Shall I take you home?" Woona looked at Sans' hand, and considered. She might never get to see her sister again if she gave up, but at the same time she had run away because of her sister in the first place. Woona glanced at the roof of the cavern, then back at Sans' hand. Sans waited patiently, and Chara held his piece. If Woona decided to stay, Chara had no complaints since everyone he cared about was either down here, or long dead already.

Woona nodded, and placed a hoof in Sans' hand.

Epilogue

Another ending

Sans took Woona home to Toriel, who was relieved to have her adopted daughter home safe, and pleased to finally meet the comedian who she'd shared many a laugh with in the past. Although centuries went by, and Woona began to occasionally munch on the grassy circles found in The Ruins (and in a few other places around The Underground) she still physically aged very slowly, and it would be close to a full thousand years before she'd be an adolescent. The rest of daily and nightly life in The Underground largely went on as it had the last several thousand years. though as time marched on and no additional humans fell into their prison a subtle despair began to erode at what little hope the king managed to instill.

Eventually other creatures did fall into The Underground, but as with Woona, most of them were mistaken for more monsters, though when they eventually died of old age or from some violent means or sickness it was discovered otherwise. Unfortunately though much like monsterkind their own SOULS would quickly break apart after their body died. Still, after extensive study and simple observation, Doctor Alphys was able to direct the royal guard to the latest of the surface dwellers to fall as he was dying in a hospital and the final SOUL needed was obtained. At long last King Asgore absorbed the SOULS and destroyed the barrier, freeing mosnterkind and allowing them to ascend to the surface....only to discover that the once vibrant and beautiful land that Woona knew as home was now a dark wasteland, and strange black insectoid equines that the surface dwellers knew as Changelings were quick to assault the new 'invaders'.

Through the combined efforts of the royal guard, Woona, and several newer bloodlines of Boss Monsters (due to the crossbreeding of the thought-to-be monsters that fell into The Underground over the last several hundred years) the Changelings were driven back, and driven out. Seeing the ruined lands above in detail Woona (and Chara), in the company of several friends she'd made over the years (including Papyrus, Red and Monster Kid) set out to find her sister if she still lived, or any of ponykind for that matter. They journeyed first to the now-thriving Gryphon lands, and from there on to the Frozen Far North where they vanished into the wilderness. After that they were never seen again by the monsters of Surface Kingdom (and Asgore STILL wasn't any good at naming things or places), though sometimes Toriel would dream that her daughter and her companions were alive and well in a small snowbound nation with a bright blue glowing crystal at its center living amongst crystalline ponies similar to Woona. Because of this, despite what anyone told her she never believed that they were dead.

Undyne had retired from the royal guard years before Asgore broke the barrier and the job had gone to someone just as eager (and skilled) as she had once been for the position. She moved in with Alphys, whose own retirement was just a few months away. After many years of watching the same anime shows over and over, they eventually set out to write and animate their own show. It was often quite random, and for its main plot was a combination of a cooking show and over-dramatic over-the-top combat sequences. (Asgore's favorite character remained the Kung-Fu Kung-Pow chef with his (literal) knife dancing for most of season one, but changed to Brutas the Brewer with his drunken boxing technique for season two. The show ended with their nation going through a period of famine due to all the Food Fighting.)

MTT frequently guest-starred as a voice-actor in Undyne and Alphys' show after interest in his other performances died off, and would eventually take up learning to play instruments as a one-man-band. In the end he'd needed additional arms to pull it off, but was still happy with the results and took up being a traveling performer.

Burgerpants found himself without a job now that no one other than the spiders were still living in The Underground, and eventually got a new job as a manager in retail in the Customer Service department. Poor bastard.

Muffet decided to remain in The Underground due to her spiders being much more vulnerable to being eaten by predators living on the surface world. Eventually The Underground as a whole was renamed 'The Spider Kingdom', and the occasional Changeling spies that were caught were thrown inside and sealed in for a week. If they lasted that long Muffet let them go free. They almost never did.

Although monsterkind had once more attained life on The Surface, it was forever-after bathed in perpetual dusk as there now was no one around to raise and lower the sun or the moon, and crops were difficult to grow. Still, they had room to grow and expand, and in time other nations were discovered and trade agreements set in place, and the lands formerly known as Equestria slowly became green and beautiful again.

They were Free. They were Living again. They were Home.

THE END

"..."

"..."

"..."

In a darker corner of The Spider Kingdom Flowey sighed. "Well, I'm bored. Aaaand this time I can't RESET because Asgore used the SOULS already. Fan-tastic." Flowey grumped to himself while The Spider Queen slowly and silently slid down a line of webbing behind him.

"Fufufu!" she laughed. Flowey whirled around and readied an attack but found himself picked from the ground by one of her hands. "My my! What a lovely little flower here all by itself. Say," Muffet paused, tilting her head and examining him. "aren't you that little pest that has been shredding my spiders' beautiful web tapestries lately?" Flowey began to sweat nervously and launched his attack. It struck Muffet, but due to her LOVE being higher from those tasty bug-horses she'd eaten during the Second War his assault barely scratched her. Muffet chuckled again. "I guess that answers my question." She pulled him in close to her face as her teasing smile became predatory and not at all pleasant. Her words gaining a hiss, she continued "how about I show you what we do to vandals around here?"

Still gripping Flowey tightly in one hand, Muffet ascended back up her silk strand into the murky darkness above, Flowey struggling in vain all the way.

Author's Note:

Sorry this one was a little late. I've just got several ideas all at once but I can only write them one at a time, and as I write them they sometimes take on a life of their own and go on longer than I mean to.