Definition of determination
1 a law : a judicial decision settling and ending a controversy
b: the resolving of a question by argument or reasoning
2 archaic : termination
3 : firm or fixed intention to achieve a desired end
Many things have come into being because of determination. Wars have been started, fought and ended because of it. People have been saved from horrible disasters, rescuers fighting against all odds. Many a man and woman have rose to great heights with its aid. In the right hands it can be a benefit to all, ending suffering helping those around the person that has it. Casting light into distant shadows that hide evil. In the wrong hands, however? The less spoken about the tyrants of history, the better, they are cursed and may lay forgotten for their crimes against all. Many things can happen, partially because of a peculiar trait of determination, its versatility. As it is neither good nor evil, that is the trait soley of the person using it. If one is truly determined to do something they will remain patient, waiting for their time to have an impact. Often times that waiting doesn’t have to be very long, only a few hours or days. In rarer cases it may take weeks or months, and in severe cases it may take years. But in this case it has taken centuries, ages of pain, boredom and hate. Waiting for the best moment to strike. And with all of the hate and rage being built up? That leads to cracks…
500 years after the Battle of the Martyred Empire
Celestia looked up at the night sky, surrounded by her friends and family, a day of remembrance for those lost all those years ago. To her right sat her soulmate, Sans, it had taken many years to finally get close to the damaged skeleton but for the past two centuries they had become nearly inseparable. They had their fair share of fights, yes that was true, but they were stronger because of it. He now served as an advisor in her courts, judging those who had done wrong and handing out punishments accordingly. They lived, laughed and mourned with each other whenever life happened.
To her left sat her sister, with Papyrus wrapped around her neck. The two had become close friends, often talking about cooking and the night sky. Because of their friendship, Papyrus gained a fascination with the stars, often spending his nights asking Luna about the skies and the mysteries they held. Behind the front four sat Asriel, the now growing goat, it had taken decades for his soul to fully develop, with Alphys, may she rest in peace, keeping close track of it while she was alive. He was now the equivalent of a teenager for boss monsters, though he didn’t ever act like a stereotypical teen, he tried to be mature and was always working. When Celestia asked him about it when Alphys has passed away he said,
“While I was a flower I acted like a child, only thinking about myself, but now I'm looking back at my actions and who I am now. I’m the last boss monster. I’m the only one. I have to not only live up to the standards of those around me but those behind me, especially those of my parents. I need to act as a true king, even if there are only three other monsters left.”
Next to him sat Twilight and Candace, both of them having dealt with their own losses. Candace her husband and Twilight the loss of her friends. Yes Twilight did meet new element bearers over the years, but the original five others would always hold a special place in her heart. All three of them gazed up at the sky as Luna worked her magic in remembrance. Of those here, of those coming, of those lost but not forgotten.
She smiled as she leaned over and rested the bottom of her muzzle on the short skeleton’s skull, “I love you,” she whispered.
The skeleton under her shifted slightly, leaning into the warmth of the alicorn, “I love you too.”
As the display drew to a close the group gradually said their goodbyes and went their separate ways, each off to their own lives.
Celestia looked down at the skeleton under her, “Shall we head out?”
Sans nodded and moved to get up, only for both of them to wince as a wave of magic caught them off guard. Sans’ eyes narrowed, “She’s back”
10 minutes later, Castle Courtyard
Sans and Celestia joined the rest of the reformed group with the addition of Discord. Celestia looked back to the ponies with her, “Element Bearers, I hope you are ready.”
The purple alicorn nodded, having teleported the current bearers of the elements to her location. “We are Celestia, time for this again.”
Steady Hooves, the current Bearer of the element of loyalty looked curiously at Twilight. “Again Twilight?”
Twilight nodded, “Around five hundred years ago I had to face this enemy. We were rather lucky that the elements of harmony worked on it, as little else did. Now we will face them again and win. I’m going to let you know before we go in there, stay back. Don’t rush on ahead, don’t try and attack this thing directly, don’t try and draw attention to yourself. When I fought this thing, It tried to kill Sans without any hesitation.”
The small skeleton nodded, “this thing will kill without hesitation, stay prepared.”
A voice called out from the other side of the door, “Yup! Though honestly, I don’t think any of the ponies behind Moonbutt, Sunbutt, and Sparkleass are really prepared for this… I mean, have any of them faced a foe that could do this?” A large red ‘X’ appeared on the two doors separating the group from the child, only for them to fly backwards in a flurry of dust and dirt. “I mean discord might have been able to do that… but even then, he’s not quite as viceral.”
The draconequus growled, “I agree with you there, I was never as cruel as you were. I suppose that is a good thing though. It let the others let me see the errors of my ways. You on the other hoof, are in no such place for redemption.”
The small child grinned and launched a glowing wave of magic at Sans, who teleported out of the way, only for Steady Hooves, who was standing behind the skeleton, to get hit. He screamed as Twilight teleported him away, along with their other elements.
“GO!” yelled Twilight, “I’m going to take care of him and get the elements charging!”
Sans nodded to Twilight and looked to discord, “you ready prank buddy?”
“Quite,” said discord in a velvety voice as he began to loop in on himself while floating, “I do believe it is about time I show you the power of a Chaos Spirit.” He popped back into his normal body with a slight glow. “As all good fights should be,” He grinned menacingly, “they will begin with a snap.”
The world around Chara began to crumble, bits of the floor started to float in the air and whip around them. ‘Might as well play this out for a bit before I pull out the rug from under the Skeleton.’ they thought. A stone flashed to their face causing the child to dodge and fall flat on their stomach, only for them to immediately do a pushup to avoid the bones launched at them from the tile below.
The small child grinned, “COME ON! Is that the best-” She ducked as she dodged another wave of bones came close to taking off her foot, “Seriously Sans, Frisk could launch a better attack than that whenever they did a pacifist route!” She leapt forward, knife gripped tightly, “Make this challenging!”
The three fighters danced around the courtyard in a flurry of dashes and teleports uprooting chunks of earth and causing them to float (courtesy of a particular Chaos Spirit), making a multi leveled arena of desperate attacks and close calls.
“So kid, what exactly are you trying to get out of this?” Sans asked as he stood on a giant venus flytrap.
“Mostly just want you dead first, Then the traitor.” She pointedly sent a glare at Asriel, who was standing guard nervously by the elements as they charged, buster swords in hand. “Then I’ll move on from there! After you three I don’t have a whole lot on my plate.”
“Not happening, little miss murder,” said Discord as he swung a large bust of Ryan Reynolds made of chex mix. “I happen to enjoy many of the ponies and monsters that are here, that’s not happening-” he grunted as he hefted a 14 and a half foot grandfather clock, “on my watch!”
The child sidestepped the crashing object only to be pinned in place by a cage of blue bones. Sans stepped forward, “so, what’s your plan now?”
The child looked over at the elements, that had now finished charging and were waiting for a shot, “Well… Sans, do you remember the last time I saved?”
The skeleton groaned, “just gonna prolong this? replay this fight over and over just before you get hit by the elements, until we finally get a lucky hit, only for this to happen again in 500 years?”
The child grinned, “Not exactly… We will be meeting in five hundred years though… Just not in the future.”
Sans eye sockets widened, his cry for the elements to fire halted. His mind being sent back to five centuries ago.
Chara’s knife flashed up as she sliced off her own arm and the bone pinning her there with a scream of anger. Then dove out of the way of the elements, causing a trail of blood to fly out onto the stone floor.
Sans in the meanwhile stumbled back, 500 years of memories flooding his younger self. Flowey was also having a similar episode, Cringing as memories of him becoming Asriel overwhelmed his current form. Chara’s knife glew red, and then held it up and pressed it to their bleeding remains of an arm. A sharp hiss filled the room as the child cauterized the wound with the magically powered knife, gritting their teeth all the while.
“Y-you know? After 500 years of planning how I was going to escape that it still hurts just as much as I had imagined it would.” Chara grunted out in pain, “I guess you never can just mentally prep yourself for having to cut your own arm off.” The small child shakily stood up, wincing as they subconsciously attempted to use their stump of an arm for support.
“Sans!” Celestia called out, “Are you alright!?”
Celestia only received a soft groan in return, a single boney hand rubbing his forehead, Flowey in the meanwhile burrowed back underground to save himself from any possible attacks.
Chara stabbed their knife into the ground next to them shoving their hand into their pocket, grabbing whatever they could reach in desperation and shoving it into their mouth to prevent them from bleeding out.
Celestia once again called out to Sans. “Are you alright? Do you need any help?”
Sans quickly shook his head and teleported over to the white diarch still wincing slightly from the pain, “listen tia, the demon just pulled off the mother of all loads. asri- i mean, flowey and i got five hundred years of memories we have to sort through right now. can you and moonbutt deal with the kid for a little bit while we deal with this?”
“Are you sure? I thought you wanted us to maintain a barrier?”
Flowey’s head popped up next to Sans, “Honestly, if you could, please tag in for a moment. We really need a couple of moments to deal with what just happened.”
The diarach tilted her head slightly, then grimly smiled, “Of course, I will buy you two as much time as you need,” She looked up and called out, “Sister! It is time for our fight!”
Luna grinned, “Yes! We shall show you exactly how strong we are!” The rulers horns lit up, covering their bodies in bright blue and golden magic. When it faded both were covered in intricate armor and had large weapons in their magic. Luna twirled her zweihander in her magic its waved blade casting beams of light off in a multitude of directions. “We had wanted to bash the rust off of our skills in combat.”
The elder sister shook her head as her long halberd was held defensively in front of her, “Sister, I believe the term goes, ‘shake the rust off’, even so I too am looking forward to this.” The sun goddesses eyes seemed to have an ethereal glow to them, “Let’s show this child the true power of celestial guardians.”
Luna huffed at her sisters correction, “Very well,” she said as she spread her wings, “Let us begin!” The blue alicorn rocketed forward, with a large swing, aiming to decapitate the small creature in front of them.
Chara, to their credit, was paying attention to the whole conversation in front of them and grabbed the knife, deflecting the blow with some effort. “Seriously, can’t a kid have a moment to deal with a lost arm in peace?” Chara then ducked backward as a beam of golden light seared past where their arm was.
“I’m afraid not, you are currently our problem now. And we plan to deal with you as best we can.”
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Twilight and the rest of the elements looked on in awe as the two leaders of their country fought the small child in front of them. Only to get a sharp flick on the ear for her inattentiveness. She turned her head towards the source of the pain, “What the heck!”
Sans simply shrugged, “th’ best way to get your attention off of your teacher. now listen, sunny and reflect-o-ass over there are going to try and hold off the kid as long as they can, you in the meanwhile need to start chargin’ up again,” Sans looked up at the yellow monster in the lab coat a few dozen feet away, currently engrossed deep in a machine. “hey alph! plan b ready yet?”
The monster scientist looked up from her work, “Almost, I’ve run into a small problem though, the machine isn’t going to be able to extract if I’m not within 10 feet of them.”
Sans frowned. “that's a little too close for comfort for me, any way to extend the range?”
Alphys ducked as a particularly loud explosion from the fight behind them rang out, “Its as far away as I could get it to work. Normally a soul has to be in a DT extraction machine in order for it to work, you know that Sans. It's a miracle that we think it can pull it from a living being AND at a distance.”
“i know, i know, just worried bout you.”
“I’ll be fine. Now you six!” The scientist snapped drawing the attention of the element bearers, “When we pin Chara down and activate the machine we should be able to pull out the determination from them, or at least enough to stop them from saving and loading. When I say the word-”
A sharp ping sounded as wall of bones shot up while a layer of vines snaked along them blocking a stray beam of magic from hitting the party.
Alphys nodded to the two, “Thanks. Now as I was saying, when I say the word I’ll need you to fire the elements,” the yellow scientist looked over at flowey, “can I count on you to get us the opening we need?”
The small flower nodded, “Won’t be a problem. Now that their down an arm should be comparatively easy to actually get a hold of them. Then again, this is Chara we’re talking about, just be prepared for her to try and struggle.”
Sans nodded to the flower, “lets do this,” the skeleton turned to the alicorns who were still fighting the small child. “tia! moonbutt! tag out! the flower and I are taking over!”
Celestia jumped back as the murderous child took a particularly nasty lunge at her. “Luna! Ready the shield again!”
Sans stepped forward as flowey dove underground, a dual colored wall of magic closing behind them. “alright chara, round two, or three, unless you want to keep counting all of those times back in the underground, then were up to what? Over forty now?”
The child scoffed, “are you for real? You know this won’t ever end. Watch!” The small killer jumped back to the center of the room, and reached down with their remaining hand to save. “This will just keep happening over and over again, and I’m goin-” She yelped as a mass of vines started to wrap around her arm. Pulling her to the ground harshly. Moving quickly, chara flipped the knife around in her hand, cutting the offending plant part and jumping to her feet to avoid another set of vines aimed to impale them.
San his own attack, summoning a gaster blaster behind him. “well kid, maybe if i beat you enough times you’ll stop,” behind the large skull a row of seven more blasters appeared, “maybe another hundred rounds or so will help you change your mind.” Sans closed his eyes, and shoved his hands into his hoodie, dozens of blasters now filling the throne room each of their jaws filled with swirling blue and golden magic. “maybe giving you enough of a bad time will get you to stop.”
Chara ducked as the first blaster fired, then rolled as the next lazer passed where she was moments ago. “Come on you crappy joker, you know i always-” the child grunted as they deflected a smaller laser with a magically charged blade, “win in the end, you can’t stop me.”
Sans shook his skull, “maybe, but…” he trailed off as two vines speared where chara was moments ago, “i’m not exactly alone here, am I?” he grinned.
Chara stood up from her dive, knife still in hand, “Really?” She laughed, “You think a tratorious PLANT and a bunch of PONIES is going to stop ME?” The small child crouched down eyes staring at a pebble in front of them then looked up at the skeleton with murder in their eyes, “Oh no, its going to take MUCH more than THAT!”
“then let me oblige ya,” Sans smirked as he teleported onto the largest blaster, “to quote some of your own kind, this is where the fun begins.”
Chara dove behind the throne as lasers blasted her previous position, looking up she sent a blast of magic through her blade at a blaster that had appeared above her and was about to fire only to have to move again. The ground beneath her, now vacant, location, burst open as a vine once again attempted to entrap her. Landing on one foot, she flung herself at the skeleton on the giant skull, the knife glowing a vivid red. Sans stepped to the right causing the initial cut to strike the bone beneath leaving a massive scar. Chara emboldened by this, swung several more times causing the evasive skeleton to step back, duck or teleport away from each attack, all the while launching his own golden bones at chara, each of which shattered into yellow motes of light when struck by the child’s blade. Chara pressed her advantage, rapidly deflecting the pellets that had attempted to strike her in the back, and then once again throwing herself back at Sans.
Ducking beneath a strike, the skeleton waved three more bones in the way of Chara, “well kid, as nice as it is getting all close and comfy with you, i’m gonna to take a quick break,” sans snapped his fingers, summoning several dozen more blasters. “don’t worry though,” he winked, “i’ve got plenty more friends for you to play with here, ciao.”
Chara screamed in frustration as her quarry once again teleported away, launching into the web of flying skulls, stabbing them as they attempted to fire.
Sans landed softly besides flowey, who was sending more pellets at the human.“can’t you make those vines move any faster? i’ll dismiss the big boy the kid’s standing on and i want to make sure that you can catch her. ” Sans asked flowey as a wave of bones launched themselves at the dodging child.
The small flower shook its head, “Not if I want it to be strong enough to hold her, if I make them any smaller she’ll just pull right out of them. My big vines are far more effective when they’re right next to me.”
Sans put a hand to his jaw, “so you want to knock her around a bit more and get in closer?”
Flowey chucked, “Sounds like a plan to me trashbag.”
“alright, lets go.”
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The child turned demon known as chara grunted, being hit in the stump of her lost arm by a golden beam. This fight was turning out to be more difficult than expected, her health was… well it wasn’t fine, but she wasn’t dead. She had used almost the rest of her healing items to stem the bleeding from having to cut her arm off, and while Flowey and Sans didn’t do massive amounts of damage, it added up over time and was eating into her reserve. She needed to end this quickly. Otherwise the reset would be annoying, having to cut off your own arm is not fun, especially if you are doing it multiple times. Crimson eyes narrowed as she glanced over at her two opponents in this magical dome and watched as the traitor dove underground. A low growl rumbled in her throat, time to get in close.
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Sans stepped back and summoned two Gaster blasters as Chara suddenly turned and charged at him, both skulls firing their deadly payload and missing, as Chara jumped over the beams in a tight arc, landed and continued to sprint. Shoving a cinnamon bun into her mouth, the child once again leapt up, smashing the bones sent to intercept her into specks of dust.
Sans narrowed his eye sockets, ‘36/92 HP, if i can get them to around 15 that should be the ideal HP for the weed to get her.’ Sans pulled a hand out of his hoodie pocket and raised it above his head, summoning five, then ten, then fifty, then one hundred bones, all aimed at Chara. “well kid,” he grinned, “see if you can deal with this.” The bones launched forward like bullets, destroying themselves on the blade of the child, the ground around her, or in rare cases, slipping past their defenses and impacting on her legs and torso, slowly whittling down her health into the perfect range. ‘just a bit more, 4, 3, 2, 1’ “Flowey, NOW!”
A mass of vines sprung up from the ground, snagging Chara’s arm and yanking her to the ground, with Flowey poking his head out of the dirt from behind the child throwing more vines around her torso and lifting them into the air.
“Alright!” Flowey screamed over the suspended child, I’ve got a decent hold on them! Fire the elements now!”
Sans turned to the 6 ponies outside of the barrier, “you heard the plant. fire!”
Twilight nodded, “Right! Lets go girls!”
The elements swirled around the bearers lifting the 6 of them into the air, before firing at chara and flowey. The room filled with a white light, blinding everyone.
Sans shook his head, attempting to see through the smoke kicked up in the blast, only to teleport back, as chara lunged out at him knife once again in hand. “how are you still here?” he growled at the child.
Chara laughed, “I have no clue comedian, but your little light show gave me the chance to get the jump on you, and that's all I needed.” Her arm raised up, the blade glowing a brilliant red. A multicolored blade shot out of the smoke, intercepting her knife before it could descend and launch determination at Sans.
“You know Chara,” a quiet voice spoke, “I would appreciate it if you didn’t attack my friends like that.”
Chara whirled around to face the smoke, eyes blazing. “What?!”
The voice spoke again, as a tall figure became clearer. “I just said, don’t attack my friends like that.”
“Who are you?!” Chara growled.
“Come now Chara,” the figure said as they stepped out of the smoke, revealing a tall goat like figure clothed in rainbow robes with another multicolored blade in hand, “don’t you recognise me? It's me, your former best friend...