//------------------------------// // 4 Finding Truths // Story: A new chance at one HP // by Emeraldleafeon //------------------------------// Luna stepped onto her room's balcony and looked up at her night sky and glorious moon. “What are we supposed to do with him?” she thought. She pondered his dreams for a couple of moments, shivering at the memory. His dreams were, simply put, horrifying. Demonic grins, bleeding faces, and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. Part of her wondered how he was able to smile like he did, if he was tormented like this. But the most surprising thing was a sense of betrayal. The demonic creature seen in the dreams never showed any form of kindness that she could see, unless mass murder was considered kind in their world. Something was amiss here. Why would Sans show this emotion to a creature with such a killer intent? Why would he feel betrayed by a demon who had done nothing but wrong to him? “No, wondering of this will do us no good,” she muttered, shaking her head to clear herself of these mysteries. She could find the answered in the morning. In the meantime, there was one pony in particular who she believed could help. One who had proven herself time and time again.. She walked back into her room and sat down with a paper, quill and an ink bottle and began to pen a letter. Dear Twilight Sparkle... Ponyville library, Equestria A purple unicorn darted around the library, several stacks of books and scrolls floating near her head, gripped in her magic. “Spike! Where is Mane’s Mythical Monsters volume two?” the unicorn asked, “Princess Luna needs me to study a creature that’s supposedly never been seen before, and that book is the biggest chance we have of figuring out what it is!” A small head poked out from under a pile of books, “I think Lyra borrowed it, Twi. She said she had some project she was working on and would bring it back in about a week or so.” The unicorn sighed in exasperation, “Urghhh, the neighlastic books have the best documentation of mythical creatures and Lyra has the book that tells about Ghouls to Jabberwockies! Why did she have to check out that book NOW of all times?” Spike looked up from organizing the massive pile of books at his feet. “ Why don't you just grab the series made by Hooften-Cloptins instead?” he rationalized. “It's almost as good and is easier to carry.” “Because she’s a PRINCESS, Spike. I don't want to have ANY sub par work to show to her! It must be the best!” “Twilight,” Spike said, making a motion for her to calm down. “I'm sure the princess will be fine with how you do the project, even if you don't have the best books. You are intelligent, hard working, and a great student. Don't worry.” Twilight looked down at the dragon comforting her. “Thanks Spike, what would I do without you?” “Probably have a massive panic attack,” he cheekily replied. Twilight laughed, “Yes, I probably would. Now come on, let's prepare for the trip to Canterlot.” Canterlot Castle, Equestria. The next morning. Sans woke up gently, and slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. “huh,” he thought, “guess it wasn’t a dream. i’m really in a world run by talking horses.” He looked down at the device on his chest, which seemed to be pumping magic into his body. “not much to be done about my HP, but looks like i'm slowly gettin’ my magic back. i should really thank whoever is keeping me alive right now. without this magic, i’d have probably been dusted by now. how powerful are these ponies?” A knock sounded at the door. “Hello? Are you awake?” Sans chuckled softly. “nah, fast asleep.” A pale orange unicorn in a lab coat walked in holding a clipboard in his magic. “Ah yes, Sans, is that correct?” “yup, the name's sans. sans the skeleton.” “Good, I just wanted to make sure that was correct. My name is Doctor Heart Savior, I’m the physician that was tasked with taking care of you. And I must say, you gave me quite the scare when you first came in. We’ve never had to deal with a creature like you before. None of our healing spells worked on you and you seemed to be rapidly losing magic. We were lucky enough to find a way to save you in time, much less find a way for you to start healing. We’re also lucky that the princess's have such a large magic capacity, otherwise we couldn’t have had a way to maintain the magic input you needed.” “huh, so what you’re saying is, the chance of me living was down to the bone.” The doctor snorted in amusement at the pun. “Yes, I guess you could say that. Now, onto your healing, you seem to be healing at a faster rate than expected. By our best estimates you should be out of the hospital in around five weeks, although, if you’re up to the challenge I would allow for you to move around the building in a wheelchair with an orderly helping you in around a week. In the meantime you are confined to bed.” “oh no, I’m forced to stay in bed and do absolutely nothing. how will i ever survive.” “It’s certainly a rough job, and I’m sorry for pushing it on you right as you’re trying to recover. Anyway, if you need any help just call for me or one of the nurses. We will be right there.” “alright, thanks doc.” “Just doing my job, Mr Sans. Not a problem at all.” He turned to the door and opened it. His eyes widened and he looked back at Sans. “Oh, are you feeling up for visitors?” The door opened the rest of the way to reveal Princess Luna standing in the doorway. “hmm… yeah, i could pencil someone in.” “Good,” Princess Luna stated, “ I have several questions for you that I would like to have answered.” She walked into the room, “Heart Savior, thank you. You are dismissed, this is private.” The doctor bowed his head and replied, “Yes, your highnesss,” and walked out of the room, gently closing the door behind him. Once the doctor was gone Luna looked at Sans. “Sans, my name is Princess Luna. Would you mind answering some questions I have?” “depends, but probably,” the skeleton responded. “Good.” Her eyes narrowed. “I need to know what the creature I saw in your dreams was. It is a security issue in the highest regard. I will not have my ponies being attacked by it if it is within my power to stop it.” The skeleton's eyesockets seemed to go dark. “the creature, huh? lemme explain. you ever heard of a creature called a ‘human?’ ...that look on your face… so that’s a no, then. basically, they’re like me, but with more skin and muscle, and less morality. as for fighting it, you can’t. you just can’t. first off, you can't stop it. you can hurt it all you want, but it’ll just keep coming back, over and over. second, it’s fast, faster than you’d think. not as fast as me, but still very fast. it attacks relentlessly, no matter what you do to try to slow it down. third, it’s strong. it killed several of our best fighters with no problem. there was a robot specifically designed to kill humans. it destroyed that robot with a frying pan, in one shot. we never stood a chance. Finally, this is the most important part. never, EVER, trust it. i trusted it once. it cost me dearly...” Sans looked down at the scarf in his hands. “far too dearly.” Pushing her worries about the creature back, Luna replied confidently, “Sans, we have dealt with many creatures like this. If it ever comes to Equestria, my sister and I can and will deal with it.” “nope.” Sans looked back up at her, shaking his head. “trust me, if it's here then it's far too late to do anything. if it's here then we are all already dead.” “Do you doubt my sister’s and my own strength? We control the sun and the moon!” “wouldn’t fully know what those look like, never seen them before. to answer your other question, no, i don’t doubt your strength. i just know what the creature is capable of. and it only takes one, then you’re done.” “Only takes one? What do you mean? The creature shall only have one shot at attacking me. Then it will be dead.” The skeleton just shook his head, “if only it were that easy, it would be dead already. but it’s not. this thing is completely unstoppable for one reason. it can, well... imagine a creature that came back every time you killed it. but it doesn’t come back stronger, it comes back smarter. every time it dies it learns you. it learns your patterns, your health, where you will be, how hard you hit. and every time it comes back, you have no idea it knows. because every time YOU fight it, it’s your first time doing it. but to it, it’s the twentieth or thirtieth you've fought. and it’s DETERMINED to kill you. if you want it in layman’s terms, it can save at a specific period of time, and continue from there. it keeps the memories of what happens if it goes back to the save. you, however, don’t. that's why it’s unstoppable. not because of how strong it is, but because when you have unlimited shots at hitting a target, eventually you’re going to hit that target. i must have killed them at least thirty times. every time they got better at dodging until they finally got me. a small recompense for the hundreds of innocent it slaughtered.” “You said that no one remembers when these things happen, why do you remember then?” “i never said no one remembers, i just said you wouldn’t remember. i remember it all. every death of a friend, every time they turn the world back the way it was just so they can do it all over again. and every time, it ends the same way. us dying, it winning. it's never satisfied, coming back time and time again. this has been the only difference in the timelines, it’s never done this before.” Luna sighed, “Thank you for the information Sans, I just wish we had been able to ask the other one what their take on this was.” The skeleton’s eyesockets briefly flashed, one glowing blue. “other one? what do you mean?” “When we first find you there was another skeleton in a black cloak that claimed you are it's son,” she explained. “It's said it used the last of it’s magic to send you here before turning into a pile of dust before our eyes.” The blue in his eye grew brighter. “another skeleton?” Sans looked down with a small smile. “gaster,” he said softly. “wingding gaster, it had to be him. Heh heh… thanks, dad. don’t know what i would’ve done without you.” Luna looked down at the skeleton, smiling softly as well. “Again I thank you for the information Sans, I'm going to allow you to get some more sleep. Goodbye.” She turned around and walked out calmly, closing the door behind her. The second the door was closed she took off in a full gallop. 'Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap…' Core, the underground. Chara gingerly stepped through the wreckage of the once great construction. It appeared to be blown apart from the inside. As she scoured through the wreckage she found a piece of black cloth. “So you’re involved with this…” she mused aloud. “Something borrowed,” she said, glancing at the knife in her hand. “Something new,” as she glanced at the cloth. “Never seen this before… I wonder how this will go. ...Speaking of going… Where is the comedian, anyway?”