Royal Laboratory, Canterlot Castle
Alphys looked up from the clipboard she was holding, turning to her companion. “Well, Papyrus,” she began, “from my current scans you appear to be in good health. Though, all I have to compare you to is Napstablook and Mettaton. Incorporeals are extremely rare in the Underground and that Mad Dummy fellow never did let me give him a checkup.” The scientist adjusted her glasses slightly. “Your current scans show that you are slightly lower than Mettaton was before he was, ah, killed, and you are still growing your soul back. By my estimates, you will be very strong for a ghost, but just take it easy until your soul grows back fully.”
“NYEH HEH HEH!” the transparent face laughed as he moved his arm to where his heart would have been, which ended up just slightly below his scarf. “THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL STRIVE AT ALL TIMES TO BECOME STRONGER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BECOME THE GREATEST GHOST EVER SEEN!”
Unperturbed by Papyrus’ outburst Alphys then turned to Flowey, who was sitting next to Papyrus. “Now onto the interesting part of all this.” She moved Papyrus’ page under the next one. “I’m going to be blunt with you here, Flowey. Your lack of a soul is hurting you. Without a soul, your body is only running on Determination. And due to the lack of the specific magical atmosphere of the underground, you, well…”
Alphys took a deep breath.
“Your body is deteriorating. From my estimations, as things stand you have less than two weeks before you’ll no longer be able to move.”
Flowey’s eye’s widened slightly, before looking down. “Huh… I wasn’t expecting that. Deteriorating, huh… Can we even do anything to stop that?” The flower seemed to wilt in on itself for a second, before taking a breath. “No,” he muttered too quietly for anyone to hear. “I’m not giving up. This is a world worth living in.” Taking another breath, he continued, louder. “So, what’s the plan?” He looked up at her. “I mean, either I die or find some way to counter this. Maybe we can…” His ideas fell silent as he looked at her. “You’re messing with me,” he said, deadpan.
“What do you mean?” Alphys asked innocently, trying to keep a straight face. “What I told you is-”
“Alphys. Just stop. You’re even worse at acting than… Uh, Monster Kid? Sure, let’s go with that. Monster Kid. Seriously, you made me go through that worry?”
“...Okay, I was joking with you.” The lizard smiled widely, happy to deliver some very different news. “In fact, you’re going in the opposite direction. You are starting to grow a soul, similar to how Papyrus is growing one, albeit much smaller than his right now. It’s still in the beginning stages of growth, but it’s there.” She flipped the paper around for him to see a small black and white scan of the flower, a small dot displaying in the middle of his stem. “It’s because of this little thing that you were worried at all. Congratulations Flowey, you have a Protosoul.”
Flowey ignored Papyrus’ happy gasp and considered that for a moment, one eyebrow raised. He hadn’t even noticed how he had worried, an emotion so foreign to him. For the first time since the invasion, he had felt more than indifferent about something.
“Hmm,” they thought aloud. And as an afterthought, “hmm.”
“HMM INDEED, FLOWEY!”
“Well, that’s new,” he finally said in response, mostly just needing something new to say. “You have any idea how it’s there or what to do?”
Alphys turned back to her clipboard, flipping a few times. “Your body has been collecting ambient magic ever since we got here,” she explained. “Equestria’s ambient magic is different from the Underground’s, and it has fused with your Determination and is now attempting to create a soul. At your current rate of growth your soul will only be fully formed in around two years, assuming it grows linearly and not exponentially. Keep in mind that’s only a very rough estimate; even if it is linear, it could be a couple of months or years off. I will continue to monitor its growth though, just to be safe.” She then turned to the skeleton in the room. “As for you Papyrus, I will continue to monitor your health and will let you know if anything comes up.”
Alphys then turned to the final being in the room. “Now onto you… Thorax? Is that correct?”
The small changeling nodded silently. He shifted in his seat slightly, clearly uncomfortable being the center of attention. Spike had been the first one he had truly felt comfortable around.
“Well, from what we’ve gathered from research and scans from other changelings, you are slowly becoming different from the average drone.” She gestured to two pictures on her paper, both of changelings. “The first picture here is a regular changeling drone and the second is of you. From what Doctor Heart Savior and I can tell, you are changing from a normal drone into something else. Your body type and magic signatures are more similar to Queen Chrysalis, to that of a queen or king of a changeling. Over the next few months, we expect you to grow in size and gain a large amount of magical prowess. I will also be monitoring you with the other two.” The scientist then turned to face all three of them. “If you feel any change whatsoever, I expect for you to alert either me or Heart Savior. Understand?”
The answers she received were affirmative.
Celestia’s room, Canterlot Castle
Celestia sat on her bed, gazing absently at the pristine wall in front of her. There was nothing on this particular wall. It was just that, a wall. A blank, unexplored wall that she hadn’t paid any particular attention to, for no real reason beyond she had never thought it important or necessary. In the back of her mind, she found it rather symbolic. Sighing, she fell back onto the soft covers, letting them envelop her. Her recent conversation with Cadence was weighing heavily on her mind.
‘What do I think about Sans?’ she pondered. ‘Well, he kind of came out of nowhere, to start. Literally. He’s one of the last survivors of a dimension that went through a world-ending event if his word is to be believed. And why wouldn’t I believe him?’ She absentmindedly batted a hoof at one of the many pillows towards the head of her bed. ‘He jokes around a lot, but his intellect is off the charts. Twilight said he had basically psychoanalyzed her just from looking at her face. And his conviction is strong; if it’s to protect somepo- someone he cares about, it’s strong enough for him to stand up to someone even if he knows it’s hopeless. From what he said, he could have been trapped in a loop of time for years, maybe decades, without anyone truly understanding…’ Celestia remembered the skeleton she had met so long ago, and how he had poured his heart out and cried himself to sleep on her shoulder. He seemed so different from the pun-making monster she knew now. ‘He had all that bottled up in him for so long with nopony to talk to… I’m glad I was able to help him before it consumed him.’
Princess Celestia rolled off the bed, landing on all four hooves and walked towards her bathroom. As she entered the bathroom she noticed the bubble bath that she had ordered earlier was ready. Using her magic she took off her crown and necklace, and waded into the bath, leaving nothing but her nose, eyes, ears, and horn above the bubbly surface.
‘Now that I think about it,’ she hummed to herself, ‘we are similar in many ways. Both of us love practical jokes, although Luna always was just a little more for jokes than I was. Speaking of Luna, we both lost a sibling that has only returned recently. We both care about the people around us greatly, and have seen catastrophes before our eyes. He also understands many things in a subtlety that few ponies can match.’ Celestia gently blew away a mound of bubbles that were floating towards her nose. ‘He’s also willing to talk with me like a regular pony. Not as royalty, but as friend… as someone who truly cares about me, for me.’ She had already known it, but she still smiled at remembering. ‘He cares about me… I’m not the high and mighty Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria… to him, I’m just Sunbutt, a good friend… right? I mean, it’s just friendship, I’m sure, he wouldn’t be friends with me because of that… and why am I wondering about that? What possible reason…’
The solar princess of Equestria sat there for several more minutes, soaking in the comforting heat of the bath and pondering what her relationship with Sans was, eventually reaching a conclusion that she didn’t realize was there on a road she never really thought about.
‘I think I’m in love…’
Another mound of bubbles appeared around her nose, and this time she was content to look at it and let it land, admiring its sudden but not unwelcome appearance.
The Far North
The howling winds of the frozen north hadn’t stopped. They never stopped, with nothing to stop them. Further south, the land was more hospitable, made for trivial things like life. But here, the eternal cold, choking snow and howling winds never died. All winds were destined to die, but this wind enjoyed a long rule over a kingdom of forgotten history. Nothing moved here, nothing but the snow and the winds watching over this land. Nothing moved.
But then something did.
A crystal, peeking its head out of the ground innocently. It rose from the snow, looking around to see if this would be an okay home for it to live in. It looked so different than it remembered, but that could be fixed.
By the crystal’s power, the winds fell silent for the first time in one thousand years.
Satisfied, the crystal began to rise. And at first, a floor rose with it. Then walls, then more walls. It expanded outwards, some areas rising faster than others. There were no rumbles, no tremors. Everything ascended out of the snow smoothly, not making a single sound, as if shy about coming back after so long.
Finally, everything had come back. The crystal sent out one last wave of power, and then slumped to the floor, tired. It had spent everything bringing its kingdom back. And the crystal heart was happy.
As the wave traveled along the kingdom, the inhabitants there slowly awoke. Their thousand year nap had finally ended.
All of them. Including one.
A dark shadow, not really caring about all known laws of reality, floated through the air, not created by anything or connected to any surface. The only thing the shadow seemed connected to was a red horn, curved and unnatural, floating just as easily as the shadow it called home. It passed over the crystal heart, lying on the ground, and after a second of consideration, the crystal’s surface grew hard and gray. Satisfied, the shadow picked up the lifeless crystal and carried it along to the top of the castle.
A gravely voice, as dark and foreboding as the shadow itself, raged over the kingdom, causing the inhabitants to shiver. Above, icicles that had been frozen for years on overhangs and spouts snapped in two just from the malice the voice held.
“ThE CurSe wAS liFtEd, TimE unDoNE. thE pAst cOmeS bACk to FiGHt. GrAveyArds shIFt aNd cOrpSes BrEAthE, ThE DeAd cOmE bacK to LIghT. tHis PerFecT WorLD TheY hOLd So DeaR iS mIne to tAKe bY MiGht.”
Bright green, surrounding a core of blood red, with an ominous purple waving off of them. Two eyes, described this way, pierced the blizzard looking nowhere in particular, everywhere at once, and directly through the snow at a city miles away, with a palace he knew housed an old enemy of his.
“cURseD crYStALs AnD daRKeNeD SkiES, tHe SHaDoW KiNG WiLL OnCE MOrE RISE!”