Twilight gasped as the ponies entered the CORE, casting a few diagnostic spells to learn about this wondrous new place. "I could spend hours here just learning about everything," she squealed.
"Yeah, but isn’t all the cool stuff further away?" Rainbow rolled her eyes. Twilight frowned.
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Rainbow, y'all will get your chance to fangirl later. Let Twilight have hers." Twilight flew around with the others in tow until they came to Mettaton’s hotel. Luna held the door open with her magic as the six walked through. Some sort of metal contraption was signing autographs for a long line of monsters. It was essentially a metal box with arms supported by only a single wheel.
Rarity’s face took on a look of confusion. "How is a metal rectangle that... absolutely fabulous?"
"OH, IT’S QUITE SIMPLE, DARLING!" an oddly seductive voice replied from the robot. "I’M METTATON!" he twirled around and posed. Applejack could practically see the gears turning in Rarity’s mind for clothing ideas. The front of the robot was a series of yellow and red squares above a series of dials. Rarity found herself blushing. "OH, MY..." the robot said with his squares shifting to become a raised eyebrow. "THIS IS QUITE INTERESTING. WHAT SORT OF MONSTERS ARE YOU? I WASN’T AWARE OF ANY FOUR-LEGGED MONSTER TYPES!"
Fluttershy took the lead in explanations, startling Twilight.
Holy mother of Celestia! Is this a changeling or is Fluttershy actually being... not shy!?
"Well, the simplest explanation is we’re not actually monsters. We’re, um, ponies! And I guess technically from another world..."
"OH, MY, THIS IS A DEVELOPMENT! WHAT, THEN, BRINGS YOU TO OUR WORLD?"
"We’re here to visit yer king, uh... Asgore? Fluttershy and Princess Luna here’ve already met ‘im on a previous visit," Applejack explained.
"OH! WELL, THEN, I CERTAINLY WON’T KEEP YOU! THOUGH... YOU WOULDN’T OBJECT TO A FEW PICTURES, WOULD YOU? THIS IS MOST CERTAINLY NEWSWORTHY!"
"Well, I guess not," Twilight shrugged, looking at the others for any uncomfortable or otherwise dissenting looks. "Yeah, we’d be fine with a couple."
Ten minutes later, they were done, and the ponies went on their way, waving goodbye to the celebrity.
"You know, the way Undyne made him out to be, I thought Mettaton would be a great deal more unpleasant," Luna remarked.
"Maybe she just dislikes him?" Fluttershy suggested.
"Must be," Rarity decided. "I thought he was simply lovely!" she squealed with stars in her eyes.
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Eh, I get why she wouldn’t like ‘im. Bit of a pretentious layer underneath the glitz ‘n’ glam in mah opinion."
"You’ve been awfully quiet, Pinkie," Rainbow remarked.
"Eh, I’m just saving my energy for the pun-off I’m so going to have with Sans!" Pinkie explained with a giggle.
"I have to witness this," Fluttershy said with a cheerful laugh.
"AGREED," Rainbow chuckled with an incredulous look. The group kept a brisk pace through Hotland and soon reached the lab. The door was open a crack and a few flashes of something yellow crossed it. Twilight attempted to rein in her curiosity, but it refused. She knocked lightly before heading in. A yellow lizard monster in a lab coat was messing with a large tech piece with some kind of large screen. Their head swiveled as Twilight entered and a gasp came from their throat. Twilight waved.
"Hey there!" She greeted the monster with friendliness. "I’m Twilight Sparkle! You look like a scientist?"
"O-oh!" the lizard monster exclaimed. "Y-yes, I’m Dr. Alphys, the R-Royal S-Scient-tist of th-the Underground. Um... What... What are you?" she blurted.
Crap crap crap you blew it Alphys c’mon why are you so bad you stupid-
"I’m a pony, an alicorn to be specific. I’m teeechnically from another world. If that’s something you’re interested in..."
"Hold on, you’re from another world?" Alphys asked, suddenly alert. "What’s it like? What kinds of sentient creatures live there? Are there humans?"
Twilight had found her brain’s soulmate. "Hey, guys, I’m gonna be here a while with Dr. Alphys, you all go on ahead!" she called to her friends. She turned to Alphys, who’d produced a pink, heavily-stickered clipboard, and began telling her about Equestria and the various races in the lands beyond- the somber, dignified kirin, the proud griffons, the determined, hardy yaks, the changelings, the hippogriffs and seaponies, the dragons, and the various types of ponies in Equestria. Alphys ran out of paper as Twilight began talking about the history of Equestria. Noticing, Twilight levitated a few sheets from her saddlebags, prompting Alphys to ask about the magic. The two eventually spiraled into the kind of discussion only complete, shameless nerds could have technology, magic, history, and Alphys was stunned to hear how many of the enemies of Twilight’s friends had been won over by friendship and the role emotion played in Equestrian magic, noting the similarities to a lot of anime. Twilight’s questions about anime made Alphys drag her to watch Mew Mew Kissy Cutie with her.
In Waterfall, the rest of the ponies were introducing themselves to Asgore and Undyne. Undyne, defying Fluttershy’s expectations at least, quickly began bonding with Applejack over a love of cooking. The two even baked an apple pie together, Pinkie somehow supplying whipped cream. Undyne certainly didn’t fail to be both amused at and impressed by Rainbow’s ego. She joked that Papyrus would bond well with Miss "I'm So Awesome" and Fluttershy, overhearing, agreed wholeheartedly. She also pointed out that Pinkie had wanted to meet Sans. Asgore, hearing that Pinkie intended a pun-off, invited Luna to New Home for tea and discussions about creating some form of political tie between Equestria and the Underground. Luna agreed. She enjoyed puns, but she found herself enjoying Asgore’s company more with every word they exchanged.
Undyne led the ponies through the marsh to Snowdin Town. They found Papyrus hugging a crying Sans. Undyne hurried over. "Woah, you okay, Sans? What happened?"
"It’s... private, Undyne. Let’s just say Sans has had something on his mind for a very long time and he only just now felt comfortable telling me. I don’t blame him for hiding it, either, Undyne," Papyrus explained. The captain looked uncomfortable.
"Well, I... I trust you, Papyrus. Um, Sans?"
"huh? oh, yeah, undyne?" he said, hardly looking up.
"Well, this might be a bad time, but... Um, ya know Fluttershy?"
"yeah? what about her?"
"She, uh, well, she came back and she brought a friend who wanted a pun-off with you. And another who thinks she’s more awesome than you, Pap."
"IMPOSSIBLE!" the taller skeleton cried. "WHO IS THIS PONY?" he asked.
"Right here, Mr. Scarf Man," Rainbow said nonchalantly, flying over. "The name’s Rainbow Dash. Emphasis on the Dash," she grinned smugly, flexing her wings and tossing her mane. Sans wiped his eyes.
"well, i don’t guess ya really wanna be present for the legendary pun battle that’ll be takin’ place with flutt’s friend, do ya, bro?"
"Oh, definitely not. Come, pony! We will settle who is most cool in a battle of style, strength, and cookery!"
"I’ll go watch them," Undyne said, chuckling with an eye roll. "Make sure they don’t burn down the house."
"I’ll help ya. Rainbow don’t exactly know the meanin’ of restraint or moderation," Applejack lamented with a sigh.
"So, skeleton," Pinkie strode up with a challenging grin, "I pink you’re the one I’m challenging?" Rarity and Fluttershy seated themselves on the porch of the house to watch. Rarity pulled out a sketchpad to begin drawing out ideas for a new line inspired by the Underground.
Sans grinned. "hold your horses, now. i don’t even know your name!"
"Oh, Pinkie Pie!"
"sans. ice to meet ya."
"I had snow way to know I’d meet such a punny guy today!"
"right back at ya, except i pink you’re female?"
"Yes, but I already used that one."
"hey, ya never said originality was neighcessary," Sans pointed out.
"Eh, fair," Pinkie decided. "Mare I ask where you’re from?"
"this place, snowdin," Sans shrugged, gesturing to the town behind him.
"Mother of Celestia the name of this place is a pun," Pinkie exclaimed with a gasp.
"yup," Sans said with a grin. "hey, i like ya, pinkie pie. wanna head to grillby’s for a bite to eat?"
"Sure! What’ve they got there?"
"burgers, fries, soda... just generally unhealthy stuff. it’s great."
"Lead the way!" Pinkie giggled, bouncing after him.
"i totally won, by the way."
"Yeah, especially with neighcessary. That was really clever!" Pinkie exclaimed.
Fluttershy laughed and went in with Rarity to watch Rainbow and Papyrus with their competition.
Applejack waved as they came in. "Who won the pun-off?"
"Sans won," Rarity said with a soft laugh. "Once it started I wasn’t very surprised."
"Neither was I," Fluttershy agreed. "So, what’s our awesomeness duo doing?"
"Cookoff!" Rainbow exclaimed from the kitchen. "I’m totally winning our competition, by the way!"
"They’re actually tied," Applejack sighed. "Rainbow won the arm-wing wrestle and Papyrus won the pose-off."
Fluttershy laughed. Rarity worked herself into an artistic groove and Fluttershy relaxed on the couch. Undyne shrugged and flicked on the TV, where Mettaton was in the middle of a news segment on the ponies. He was showing the pictures he’d taken earlier and Fluttershy didn’t pay too much attention until she heard him say something about Equestria. Her ears pricked up and she watched.
"AND, THE MOST DELIGHTFUL PART IS YET TO COME, DARLINGS! EQUESTRIA IS NOT ONLY A LAND OF FRIENDSHIP AND HARMONY, BUT THE INHABITANTS ARE BLESSED WITH SUNLIGHT AND MOONLIGHT! I HAVE IT ON GOOD AUTHORITY THAT ONE OF THE LEADERS OF EQUESTRIA AS WELL AS ONE OF THEIR HEROINES HAS BEFRIENDED OUR KING! PERHAPS FREEDOM FROM THIS UNDERGROUND PRISON IS CLOSER THAN WE THINK. BUT THAT’S NOT MY PLACE TO SAY. I’LL BE POSTING A POLL ON THE UNDERNET FOR ALL OF YOU TO VOICE YOUR THOUGHTS! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THESE PONIES? ARE THEY THE KEY TO OUR FREEDOM? THIS IS METTATON, AND I WILL BE SEEING YOU TONIGHT FOR THE PREMIERE OF ACT 2 OF MTT: THE MUSICAL, WITH MUSIC PROVIDED BY MY TALENTED COUSIN NAPSTABLOOK!"
"oh... i’m not that good..." a ghost said as he? they? materialized on the screen.
"OH, NONSENSE, BLOOKY! MY SHOWS WOULDN’T BE NEARLY AS WONDERFUL AS THEY ARE WITHOUT YOUR MUSIC BACKING THEM! *ahem* ANYWAY, METTATON AND NAPSTABLOOK, SIGNING OFF!" The screen went black as Undyne turned it off.
Fluttershy knit her eyebrows. "Huh. I hadn’t thought about... about being able to free you all... But..." she pondered the thought. "Honestly, it wouldn’t be right to leave you all down here when we’ve got so much to share."
"Hey, don’t worry yourself about it. There’s several thousand monsters down here. I know you want to help, but that’s a lot of monsters to bring so soon. Heck, how many ponies even know about our existence?" Undyne asked.
"Nine," Fluttershy admitted. "Me, Rainbow, Pinkie, Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, Starlight, Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia. And I guess Spike but he's not a pony."
"Yeah, I know your whole thing is friendship and acceptance but c’mon, we are monsters and I’m sure the word has a fairly negative stigma in Equestria."
"You’re not wrong," Applejack admitted. "But, at the same time, y’all are a different kind o’ monster from the ones we know as monsters."
"Yeah, but..."
"Hey, we’re done, guys!" Rainbow called, holding a pan of muffins with potholders covering her hooves.
"INDEED! YOU ALL MUST TRY MY FAMOUS SPAGHETTI!" Papyrus called.
Rainbow laid out the muffins and handed one out to everyone. Fluttershy nibbled with a smile. Undyne chomped the whole thing in a single bite after unwrapping the baked treat. "Mmm... this is great!"
Papyrus set out a few plates of the noodly concoction with a couple forks. Undyne chowed down. Fluttershy used her wing to grab a forkful of spaghetti and immediately choked once she took a bite. She forced herself to swallow it and smiled weakly. Rarity was not so polite.
"This... this is not very good, Papyrus. I will be frank."
"Aw, I thought you were Rarity!" Pinkie’s voice announced her presence from the stairway. Sans was beside her, grinning.
"SANS."
"yeah, pap?"
"Sans why can’t you use the front door?"
"too lazy for that, i guess."
Papyrus rolled his nonexistent eyes. "Sans, you’re practically too lazy to breathe."
"eh."
Magenta light shimmered in the room for a moment. Twilight leaped toward the nearest pony- Applejack- and tackled her. "GUYS THIS WORLD IS AMAZING! ANIME IS SO COOL AND ALPHYS IS THE BEST AND I LIVE HERE NOW."
Rainbow Dash burst into laughter, falling to the floor in her fit of hilarity.
"Miss Rainbow Pony, are you alright?" Papyrus asked with concern.
Rainbow took a few breaths to steady herself. "Yeah. I'm fine. Don't worry," she managed to sigh, wiping a tear from her face. "Twilight's a dork and the world is in balance."
Sans let out a snicker. "you plan those one-liners, or do you just wing 'em?"
"SANS, I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL KICK YOU OUT," Papyrus huffed, stomping his foot.
"Why am I a dork?" Twilight asked with a whimper.
"Because we love you, darling, and you should know it's a term of endearment by now," Rarity commented.
Fluttershy chuckled lovingly and wandered out to find her pettable pup pal while a fountain of words that managed to come together to form semi-coherent thoughts on anime spewed from Twilight's mouth. The dog noticed Fluttershy before she noticed it, and yipped in excitement to get her attention. She grinned and flew over to pet it, but before she reached the dog it yapped out a series of barks. A massive, hulking figure stumbled out of the building labeled "Grillby’s." Fluttershy pinned her ears back as it stomped closer and closer, the lack of light in the Underground obscuring its face. She backed into a lantern pole and whimpered in fear, shutting her eyes. The creature came into the light, the smell of grease and dog treats heavy on its breath.
Fluttershy risked a peek to find that the huge creature was just a fluffy white dog in an oversized suit of armor. She laughed in relief, reaching up to pet the pup. It shied away from her touch somewhat nervously. She smiled and slipped a shiny yellow ball out of her saddlebags. It perked up, ears pricked and tail wagging. Fluttershy bucked the ball out into the snow.
Both dogs tore after it, the larger one leaping out of its armor and thus becoming smaller. Fluttershy giggled, beginning a full game of fetch with the two. Eventually two other dog monsters in black robes walked outside Grillby’s and took note of the situation. They wandered over to Fluttershy, chuckling.
"Oh, hello!" Fluttershy said with a smile.
"Good afternoon, Ms.?" one of them raised an eyebrow.
"My name’s Fluttershy. You two?" she asked.
"I’m Dogamy, and this is my mate Dogaressa," Dogamy’s husky voice said as he nuzzled Dogaressa. "I see you’ve already met Lesser Dog and Greater Dog," he added with a snicker.
"I take it Lesser Dog is the one with the neck that turns into a long furry balloon when pet?" Fluttershy quipped as she tossed the ball back out.
"Indeed!" Dogaressa exclaimed with a laugh.
"We saw those pictures of you on Mettaton’s news segment a little while ago," Dogamy said. "Is... well, is it true? Do you... have..."
Fluttershy knit her eyebrows and simply nodded. "It’s true," she murmured quietly.
Dogamy and Dogaressa exchanged a look. "What’s it like there?" Dogamy asked. "Like... what are the ponies like? How different is it from the Underground?"
Fluttershy thought for a moment, waving to Lesser Dog and Greater Dog as they went into Grillby’s to take a break from fetch. "Well, there’s the obvious difference of being able to see the sky," she chuckled.
"Obviously," Dogaressa giggled.
"Um, your first question is kinda easier to answer. There’s three types of ponies– unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies– but then there are all the other races. The dragons to the south, led by Dragon Lord Ember, the yaks to the north with Prince Rutherford, the hippogriffs and seaponies led by Queen Novo in the southeast, the griffons to the east, and the changelings led by King Thorax in the southwest. Then there’s the kirin and zebras beyond the Everfree Forest."
"Wow, it sounds pretty diverse," Dogaressa commented.
"It’s a little sectional, since you’re not going to find too much interspecies interaction in a typical Equestrian city or town," Fluttershy admitted, "but most ponies welcome any visitors."
"So... would they welcome us?" Dogamy asked.
"I don’t know," Fluttershy said honestly. "The term ‘monster’ has had a very... negative past with many ponies, especially in the Fillydelphia region and outside the Everfree Forest. Some ponies have lost family members to some of the... well, monsters, that inhabit our world. Applejack, one of my friends, lost her parents to a chimera– that’s a beast that combines a snake, a goat, and a tiger– and Ponyville’s been attacked numerous times."
"I see," Dogamy remarked sadly.
"It’s just that... well, very few of the creatures we call monsters have any ability to speak or any notable intelligence at all, so it really is a complicated situation. And I feel obligated to help, because I can, but I know Undyne said there’s several thousand monsters underground, and that’s just a lot, but I’m the Element of Kindness, so it really hurts to not, and–" Fluttershy forced herself to stop talking and breathe.
"Hey, don’t worry yourself, okay?" Dogaressa said comfortingly.
A shout from the house of the skeletons interrupted their conversation. "COME BACK HERE WITH MY SPECIAL ATTACK, YOU DASTARDLY SCAMP!" Papyrus screamed. A little white dog rushed out into the snow, a gleaming bone in its mouth. The dog scampered to the safety of Fluttershy’s hooves and she chuckled.
"You’re such a cute little rascal," she muttered. "Give him back his special attack, okay?"
The dog gave a single wag and traipsed over to Papyrus, dropping the bone at his feet before dashing off into the snow.
"Hm. He never listens like that to me! How did you do it?" Papyrus asked in fascination.
"I didn’t yell at him," Fluttershy said with a shrug before sneezing. "Faust’s horseshoes, it’s cold out here. It was nice to meet you two, but I’m gonna head back inside to warm up."
"Sounds good," Dogaressa said with a smile. "It was nice meeting you, Fluttershy!"
"Come, pony!" Papyrus said with a grin. "You haven’t tried my ravioli yet!"
Fluttershy giggled as the two ambled into Papyrus’s house.