The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

Makeshift Creations

"Okay... okay. No biggie... Let's do it. Right where we left off..." Penn muttered to himself. He clicked the specific file on his laptop and began cracking his knuckles one by one as he waited for it to open. A few seconds later, the word document was sitting before him, exactly as he'd left it weeks before, with the cursor blinking at the end of an unfinished paragraph.

He hadn't touched any of his writing projects since he'd been "brought back" by Monster Reborn. With how Sunset kept treating him like he wasn't himself, combined with the lingering echoes of his own existential crisis, it had felt wrong to change anything "he" had written, like he was taking over someone else's work. His writing was something that he had always considered one of his defining traits, and now that he was face-to-face with needing to define who exactly that was he was worried.

If he couldn't write, or take back control of his own projects at the same quality, then it would be the last nail in the coffin of his precariously-hanging sense of self.

He reached out to the keyboard, ready to start typing, only to feel a ripple of fear and pull his hands back again. He tried again, then a third time, punctuating the last attempt with a groan and pressing both palms against his forehead.

"Okay, maybe if I go back over the last chapter..." he muttered, scrolling back up several pages.

"Hey, where's my coffee maker?" Talia asked, poking her head back through the kitchen door. She didn't seem to notice that she had LITERALLY stuck her head through the door, forgetting to open it.

Right. This was the one about the college student being haunted by a coffee-addicted ghost.

"I told you, I don't OWN a coffee maker."

"Okay, but where is MINE?" She only had to raise her voice slightly to make him flinch and send unpleasant chills crawling up and down his spine.

"It probably burned down... in the fire that it started. Fifteen years ago."

Penn couldn't help feeling a painful pang. For once, he identified less with the one having to deal with an invisible roommate and more with the one finding out that they had been dead for some time. On the bright side, he could go back over the scene where Talia learned about her own death and see if it lined up with his own experience.

Unsurprisingly, reading the fictional girl's descent into an existential crisis didn't do much to help him avoid his own. Still, he managed to find himself becoming lost in the narrative, reading back up to the point that he had left off with in a matter of minutes.

Still, when he found himself staring at that blinking cursor again, he couldn't bring himself to think of what ought to come next.

He tried to think of his tried and true formula: characters, event, reaction. He had his characters, he knew them as well as he knew himself (better, probably, given the current situation). He knew the event he was trying to lead up to: a haunted shopping trip to the local coffee shop. He needed to know how the characters would react to their surroundings and to said event. That was where the story would come to life.

But somehow, getting from point A to point B felt like trying to cross a huge pit with nothing underneath him. There was nothing to build on, nothing to fall back on. He was trying to walk on air.

He didn't want to believe it. It wasn't THAT unlikely, given the fact he had been under stress and was out of practice, but he still didn't want to admit it. Admitting it would make it real, and-

"What's the matter? Writer's block?" Reason asked, half-teasing him.

Aaaaaaand she'd said the cursed words.

He reached up and shut the screen of the laptop with a decisive click.

"I need to clear my head..." he muttered.

"GIVE ME HALLOWEEN OR GIVE ME DEATH!" Missy screamed at the top of her lungs, fighting with all of her might to escape "Penn's" grip. Sunset was sure that it was only thanks to his size and weight that he was able to eventually drag her out the sliding doors, often stopping as Missy's levitation abilities nearly overpowered him.

Sunset sighed as she handed the credit card Isis had given her to the cashier. "I'm sorry, she's... really into Halloween..."

The clerk simply chuckled as she looked over the assortment of candy in their cart. "You break it, you buy it, huh? It's alright, she's not the only one who gets mad about corporate sending us that stuff." She looked in the direction of the rest of the store, giving a polite nod to the official-looking individual watching the transaction. "I mean, the manager's definitely banning you guys, but at least you spiced up MY day!"

Sunset forced herself to smile through the rest of the checkout process in spite of her embarrassment, and she was soon pushing the cart out through the front doors. It didn't take long for her to catch up to her companions in the parking lot. Missy seemed to have accepted her lot in life, huffing indignantly as she was carried towards the car.

"Well, I hope everybody likes candy canes..." Sunset muttered, looking at the Christmas candy threatening to spill over the sides of the cart. Missy hissed like a cat, holding her fingers in an inverted cross in the direction of the holiday-themed candy.

"Well, we can always send them to Noir, he loves ANYTHING minty." "Penn" chuckled to himself before gripping Missy a little tighter. "The ONE time we try going into a city to get supplies like NORMAL people, and you just had to have a meltdown, didn't you?"

"It should be ILLEGAL to sell anything related to Christmas in October!" Missy huffed, sticking her nose haughtily into the air.

"Penn" tapped his chin as a smile toyed at the corners of his mouth. "You know, I used to have a roommate who would drink eggnog year-round if he could get it! By Christmas, he was 75 percent eggnog instead of water! We used to joke about needing to stage an intervention and how futile it would be!"

His statement made both Missy and Sunset recoil slightly. Shaking off the question of just how much eggnog a single person could drink (even Pinkie had her limits with the thick beverage), Sunset reached into the cart and picked up one of the few non-smashed candies and tossed it into her mouth. "Still, at least the marshmallow snowmen are nice!"

"A force?" Sunset felt her brow scrunch up in confusion. "That's... specific."

"Penn" shook his head. "Not A force, THE Force. Proper noun, capital F."

The two of them were sitting on opposite sides of the campfire. Sunset had, with no small amount of coaxing, been prompted to recall her side of events in the underground after Penn had died. When she'd begun describing her descent into pure rage, he'd become more and more concerned, eventually stopping her when she'd mentioned her weapon leaping from Frisk's hand and into her own.

"Do you remember when Coulson told you about the Jedi?" He pointed to her saber. "The guys who use lightsabers for weapons?"

"Yeah. He also mentioned a set of bad guys who use only red ones..." Sunset muttered, taking the handle in her hand and giving it a light toss. "Wasn't too happy to hear that."

"Well, that's true..." He rubbed at his neck for a moment. "But their weapons aren't the only things that make them unique. They can also access a..." He leaned back, tapping at his forehead a few times as he tried to jog his memory, "It's been described as an energy field, one created by all living beings. It transcends space, time, and most often manifests as telekinesis... Or some limited foresight abilities, I guess."

"Foresight?" Sunset stopped tossing her saber up and down to give him a disbelieving look.

"Usually just the running gag of saying 'I have a bad feeling about this' every time they walk into a dangerous situation, but there ARE more advanced users who can get visions of the future using it." He smirked as the disbelief shifted into surprise. "Honestly, precognitive reflex is the only way to block a laser blast and reflect it back at your opponent. I've had my suspicions since the Dalek warship, but I wasn't certain until now."

"So... what? You think I can use this 'Force' because I have a lightsaber?"

He shook his head. "Swap it around. I think, HOWEVER that thing wound up in a hardware store in West Texas, it found its way to you because you're Force-sensitive..."

Sunset pondered the situation for a few more seconds. As much as she hated to admit it, a surprising number of events were making a lot more sense. "Okay... then let's test it!" She pushed herself to her feet and handed him the saber. She didn't wait before taking several steps away from the fire, putting a healthy distance between the two of them. "Ready?"

He held the weapon at arm's length, clearly keeping his grip loose. "Ready!"

Sunset held out her hand, reaching for the device.

Okay... Just like before... That is MINE. It belongs to ME. It belongs WITH me... She tried to "call out" to it in her mind, beckoning it to come back to her the way she had in the underground... but nothing happened.

She gritted her teeth, focusing harder on it. "Come on..." she whispered. "To me..."

"Penn" glanced at her, then at the handle, giving it a small shake. "I don't think it's working."

"Yeah, I know..." Sunset muttered, straining herself harder. She'd moved from trying to just call it to focusing on the same mental pushes that she used to levitate things with Equestrian magic.

"You look like you're gonna bust a blood vessel-"

Sunset finally chose to give up, releasing the breath she'd been holding. "Ughhh." Sunset groaned as she walked back, snatching the item from his hand and returning to her seat. "Maybe it only worked in the Undertale universe, like how I haven't been able to use aura since we left Remnant?"

"That... or maybe you're not in the right mindset." He folded his hands under his chin. "When you did it before, what were you thinking?"

Sunset felt a chill run down her spine as she thought back to that awful moment. "I... I saw Frisk holding it... and I KNEW there was no way you would have let them get it... or get past YOU... alive. I didn't even have to ask, they just had this awful smile on their face." She felt the hairs on the back of her neck standing up as that same rage tickled at the edges of her soul. "I was... angry. They had done something so evil, and they had the audacity to SMILE about it, to take pleasure in the suffering of others!" She felt a pang of shame as she moved on to what had come next in her mind. "I... I wanted them to pay. I wanted to hurt them and take from them... Take and take and take until I was satisfied. Until I felt like I'd evened the score."

Several seconds of silence passed, save for the crackling of the fire.

"That might explain it..." he finally muttered. "Sunset, you said that Undyne and Penn- the OTHER Penn- wouldn't LET you kill Frisk, right?"

"I'm glad they didn't..." Sunset looked down, ashamed that the steps had even needed to be taken to stop her from such an act.

"I think it wasn't to protect Frisk. It was to protect you." He interlaced his fingers as he continued to stare into the flames. "Just like there are Jedi and Sith, there are two sides to the Force, light and dark. Light is empowered by selflessness, compassion, and, well, probably everything you'd associate with the Elements of Harmony. The Dark Side, however..." he shook his head and tutted softly. "A connection to the dark side grows stronger with hatred, pain, giving in to your emotions and letting them rule you. Most often, the final step on a Dark Side user's training is to kill in anger. To strike down another living being out of hatred and wrath is considered by most to be the point of no return into the dark."

Sunset's eyes widened as she was struck by the realization of just how close she had come to toppling over that edge. "So... if they hadn't stopped me... I would have been like that forever?"

He shrugged again. "Nothing's absolute when it comes to the Force. Sith have returned to good, good have fallen into evil, but... it's rare. Your anger was frighteningly self-sustaining, from what Undyne told me."

"Great. So not only do I have an evil-colored lightsaber, I can only use the EVIL force." Sunset set her chin in her hands. "This gets better and better..."

"Sunset, the Dark Side is EASY to use, and you weren't exactly in a good place." He leaned forward. "I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit for getting back OUT of that dark mindset. If you want to connect with the light side, you're going to need training." He gave her a gentle smile. "I'm sure you'll be just fine. It's easy to slip into the dark going solely by instinct and emotion, but the light side takes a lot of training and focus."

"What kind of training?"

He finally broke contact between his hands, leaning back away from the fire. "Hard to say, but I'll start looking into it. We didn't see a lot of the training in the movies, but there's a lot of extended universe content I could dredge through... I'll let you know when I find a good place to start." He shot her a playful smirk. "I can tell you this much: you're gonna have to be a lot less skeptical about my ability to lead guided meditation."

Sunset rolled her eyes, but the joke was enough to bring a small smile to her face. "Whatever... Nerd."

He folded his arms over his chest, giving her a smug wink. "You know it."

"Okay, what if I try working on a different story?" he whispered. He had taken the laptop into the driver's seat, this time. It was the spot he was most comfortable, but the computer only barely fit between him and the steering wheel in an extremely awkward manner. Still, if it could help un-stick his writer's block, he was willing to cram himself into the trunk with it. The small discomfort was nothing compared to the buildup of creative energy in his gut. His fingers had started drumming on the steering wheel as the muscle memory of typing for hours on end begged to be used again.

Once again, he scrolled his way down to the place the "previous" Penn had left off. This time, he'd actually bothered to finish the chapter. That was something easier to pick up, a semi-blank slate.

It was a sunny day in the kingdom of Luriel. It had been just over a year since the previous royal house had fallen to the invaders, and the whispers around town seemed to confirm that the last of the resistance had been stamped out. A delighted shriek drew Syria's attention back to the cave entrance. She watched as the human child staggered her way out into the sun. She was barely able to walk, a shameful display, really. By this age, most hatchlings would be almost fully-grown and ready to contribute to the eyrie.

He paused. Syria was a gruff character, the head huntress of a colony of small dragons masquerading as a larger one for local legends. She wasn't the kind who would take the time to appreciate a sunny day. To her, the weather shouldn't matter unless it changes the wind.

He highlighted the entire fresh section and hit the backspace key. You know, maybe Bennet Foddy was right about starting over being cathartic... He decided to shift tactics. No storybook opening with a weather report, just straight into what he did best: character writing.

The human had a remarkable talent for hitting the exact tone to pierce eardrums, and screaming seemed to be the only way she knew how to communicate her needs. The only place Syria could get any peace these days was up on the surface. That was why, when she saw the human child beginning to stagger their way out of the cave entrance, she was nothing but irritated. Apparently, the sense that nothing was sacred was ingrained into humans from birth. Several other members of the eyrie were flanking her, somehow enchanted to see her walking on two legs. It was as if they didn't realize this meant she would be ten times as difficult to keep track of.

He paused and leaned back, realizing that there was something he had yet to check. "Isis... what age do children learn to walk?"

"Anywhere from nine to eighteen months, depending on the individual."

"Okay, so her walking by the one-year anniversary of being abandoned works..." He whispered, feeling a slight amount of relief. Something still felt off about this attempt, however. A child's first steps ought to be SOMEWHAT celebrated...

"Maybe I'm starting with the wrong character..." he muttered to himself, once again deleting his fresh work. He pressed his palm to his forehead. "But who isn't going to be too busy fawning over her first steps to give a good narration? One hundred and twenty-four dragons make up the eyrie, I've got to have at least ONE more who isn't going to be freaking out like a proud parent!"

He racked his brain again and again, still trying to get the creative juices flowing. He wasn't desperate enough to enter the "get SOMETHING written down, even if it's lousy" mindset, yet, but he was rapidly coming up on it.

"Uh-oh."

"Yeah, this isn't a problem I'm used to dealing with..." "Penn" muttered.

"So... I guess setting up the tent isn't really gonna work tonight?" Missy asked.

All three of them stared out at the campground that Isis had programmed into their GPS... which was currently under assault by heavy sheets of rain. "Penn" had been forced to turn the windshield wipers up to their maximum speed hours ago, and it didn't seem like the weather was going to let up any time soon.

"On the bright side, we stocked up on sandwich supplies, so lack of a campfire isn't going to stop us from eating!"

Sunset took a deep breath. "Gotta admit, I'd kinda taken it for granted how little it rains in this part of the US. What are our options?"

"Well, we could keep driving until we find a hotel we could stay at for the night!" Missy suggested.

"Negative. I have been monitoring traffic reports, it appears that several roads in the area have been completely washed out. It would be highly inadvisable to drive in the dark in these conditions. The rainfall has exceeded all meteorological predictions. My apologies, it appears my choice of campsite has stranded us for the night."

Sunset gave the drone an affectionate pat. "Don't worry, Isis. I guess even supercomputers can't predict the weather with perfect accuracy, right?"

"Not yet."

"Well... at least we're going to have the sound of the rain to lull us to sleep!" "Penn" shifted the car into park and reached down to the lever of his seat to lower himself into a reclining position.

"Wait... you're suggesting we sleep in the car?" Missy asked.

"Unless you feel like keeping a field spell going all night..." he trailed off, giving her a skeptical look. Missy held her hands up in a show of surrender, moving to avoid him as he leaned back. "How bad do you think it is, anyway? I sleep in here every night!"

"He's not human," Sunset muttered.

"You know... at this point, I'm inclined to agree..." Missy grumbled from her spot sprawled across the back seat.

It was half past 3 in the morning and neither of them had been able to fall asleep. The rain was STILL going strong, and Penn was sound asleep in the driver's seat.

"I am surprised you two are struggling so. The sound of rain is almost universally considered soothing and easy to fall asleep to. You show no such problems in sleeping while Penn is driving for multiple hours."

"Well, there's a difference between sleeping in a moving car and sleeping in a parked one..." Sunset mumbled.

"Such as minor tactile input from irregularities in the driving surface?"

"Yeah, that would be one of them..." Sunset yawned and turned over for the twentieth time. "Just... it's different, okay?"

"Hm. This is a fascinating behavioral discrepancy. It will warrant more study in the future."

"Geez... how far is it to the ocean?" Undyne asked, taking a perch in one tree and trying to see if she could spot the shoreline.

"Five hundred and eighty-five miles."

Undyne couldn't even fathom that kind of distance. She groaned and leaned back, letting herself spin around the top of the tree. "Are you KIDDING me?"

"Well, don't look at me. You were the one who took one look at my memories of the class trip to Corpus and decided that's where we were going! There were closer places to go if you just wanted the ocean!"

"Yeah, but you said there was a BATTLESHIP in Corpus! I wanna see a human battleship face-to-face!"

"You DO know the U.S.S. Lexington is NOT gonna be a giant spaceship with a wave-motion cannon mounted to the front, right?

"Pfft, yeah! Of course not!" Undyne scoffed, even as her expectations dropped several orders of magnitude. She finally righted herself again, making certain she was still pointed towards the correct spot on the horizon. "Well, I guess we'd better get going, huh?"

Just as she was about to push off to start running again, Undyne felt a chill run up her spine. She paused, re-examining her surroundings. It was the feeling of a hateful gaze lingering on her back, and she wasn't sure where it had come from.

"It's the middle of the night, practically in the middle of nowhere, why would anyone be out here-"

She saw the flash of red light before she heard the searing whistle of the projectile. She crossed her arms in front of her body, barely summoning up a shield in time to protect herself. The projectile exploded in a huge ball of fire that rocked her world and sent her flying backwards.

"Wait, that sound... I KNOW that sound-"

"PENN! Fight now, think later!" Undyne ordered as she tumbled head-over-heels through the air.

"Sorry!"

If there was one thing that had come more easily to them as time went on, it was communication. Even if their conscious minds still didn't always line up, their unconscious ones had gotten more and more in sync. She didn't need a signal when he made more shields appear under her feet, letting her push off enough to right herself before she hit the ground. Once her mind was able to tell up from down again, she wasted no time in summoning a spear into her hand, and another one of Penn's shields materialized on her opposite arm unbidden.

"WHO'S THERE?" She barked, readying her throwing arm.

This time, when the next attack came, she was ready. The attempt to stab her in the back didn't make it much farther than a pinprick before her reflexes spun her in place, allowing it to pass by her with little more than a scratch. She moved to grab at the attacker, but there was only empty space.

"Huh?"

She felt a leg sweep at her heels, knocking her feet out from underneath her. Undyne growled as she dug her spear into the ground, catching herself. With little more than a thought to her partner, she had a shield to push off of, allowing her to spin around her weapon like a top. Confident that her attacker had been pushed back in every direction, she landed back on her feet and yanked the spearhead out of the ground. She looked in every direction, but she still couldn't see any sign of who had been attacking her.

"Come out and FIGHT me!" she shouted into the darkness. There were too many trees in this area, plenty of which had low-hanging branches. It meant that she had to watch above her as well as in every direction around her.

"We're not on a homefield advantage. They could be hiding anywhere."

Undyne was about to agree with him when fresh movement caught her eye: someone coming out from behind a tree. She kept her guard raised until the figure stepped into a beam of moonlight.

"Sunset?"

Sunset nodded, giving them a small wave. In the back of Undyne's mind, she could hear alarm bells ringing as their friend drew closer. She didn't need to feel the scratch that had been left across her back to tell that she hadn't been using the lightsaber. Instead, her hands seemed to be clasped behind her back.

"What are you DOING here?"

Sunset didn't answer, continuing to walk closer.

"No no no no.... This isn't right! This feels familiar."

It's CREEPY is what it is! Why isn't she talking-

As Sunset passed through another beam of moonlight, her smile seemed to grow more sinister, and Undyne caught a flicker in the color of her eyes.

"UNDYNE, MOVE!"

Fear that wasn't her own seized at her heart, and without her permission, her legs sprung her upwards. She felt the scorching heat coming off of the bullet that passed just between her legs, whizzing forward and exploding against Sunset, who shattered like a stained glass window. As the trees around them began to smolder and threaten to catch alight, she could make out the shapes of two figures below them.

For once, Undyne didn't feel any need to yell at Penn for taking control without saying anything.

"What was-"

"FIGHT NOW, EXPLAIN LATER!" Penn's voice screamed in her mind. Her entire body was filled with fear that wasn't her own, and she could feel herself forced to make the choice of which instinct to follow: fight or flight.

She'd never been one for flight.

By the time gravity had taken hold again, she was ready.

"Don't trust your eyes..." Penn's voice faded away as she felt him recede to the back of her mind. As he did, the fear also decreased, allowing her to think clearly.

She called on her magic, focusing it into her palm before slamming it into the ground upon landing. The ground around her erupted with circles of blue light, which materialized into a field of upwards-facing spears in every direction. When she heard the sound of another projectile, she added a trio of orbiting shields around her which blocked the blast entirely.

She gave her opponents a turn to retaliate as she focused on her next spell. A series of ricochet spears would be plenty to take out the trees for a wide area and leave them nowhere to hide. She hated to destroy them so wantonly, but at this rate they were going to burst into flames, anyway. Better to cut down some trees than to risk a forest fire.

She almost didn't see the tiny figure darting in and out of the spaces between her field of spears. By the time she realized what was happening, they were already on top of her. She lunged with the spear in her hand, but they simply stepped up and onto the blade, jumping up and over the revolving shields to plant a boot directly under Undyne's chin. With her concentration broken, the field of spears faded away and her projectile spell shattered, sending uncontrolled bolts of yellow energy flying in every direction.

For a little thing, she packs a punch!

Undyne could see a second kick coming, driving the heel of her other boot towards her head, and she did the only thing she could think of: she opened her mouth and welcomed it.

She bit down on the girl's ankle like a bear trap. Rather than the ripping of flesh and the taste of blood, however, she found herself chowing down on a thin, shimmering pink energy around her body, one that barely allowed her to slip free. The two of them grappled back and forth for a moment. This girl was some kind of acrobat, climbing and swinging across Undyne's body as fast as she could try to shake her off. She seemed to be trying to get Undyne off-balance, which might have worked a few weeks ago, but her new and improved form was a lot steadier than she had once been. The girl changed tactics, grabbing hold of Undyne's hair and swinging by her ponytail to deliver a series of vicious kicks across her head and torso. She polished off the attack by using Undyne's chest as a springboard and her hair as an anchor, propelling herself up and over Undyne's head as she finally released her grip. Undyne spun around to pursue her, but found herself staring down the barrel of a gun.

This time, there was nothing she could do to react in time. She took the firey blast point-blank, and the world became a dark blur as she was flung through the air. She numbly counted three- or perhaps four- impacts as she was flung through multiple tree trunks, reducing them to splinters.

"Ow..." she groaned once she'd come to a stop. (Or, at least, she THOUGHT she'd come to a stop. Her inner ear had yet to be convinced.) She'd taken worse hits, but this one had been squarely between her eyes, and a fire spell of some kind, to boot.

"I'd say it's nothing personal, kid..." a cocky voice declared.

"Undyne, you've got to get up!"

"Y-yeah, just gimmie a sec to catch my breath, Penn..." she groaned. Her stomach was lurching up into her throat and the world refused to stop spinning.

"But considering who you're talking to right now, it's pretty personal."

As the world finally came to a stop, she got her first good look at her attackers. One was a tall man in a black bowler cap and white coat. He was holding a cane that seemed to double as his weapon. The other was a short girl with a thin frame, dressed in shades of pink, white, and brown to match her mismatched hair and eyes.

"I don't know who the hell you are... but you messed with the wrong monster..." she growled.

The two assailants glanced at one another. A moment later, a delicate hand placed itself on Undyne's shoulder from behind. She hissed as she felt the sheer malice radiating off of it. It was enough to make even the light brush of the fingers feel like a branding iron being driven into her skin.

"Oh, perhaps you don't, but I think there's someone in there who DOES..." a voice crooned, tranquil in a way that contrasted completely with the killing intent and hatred Undyne could feel in her soul. "Did you REALLY think that death in another world would be any escape from ME, Penn?"

Okay, so that answered the question of WHY they were attacking her. Penn, now would be a great time for a cunning comeback plan!

"Did you think I wouldn't see what you did? Now, no matter what universe you run away to, no matter where in the multiverse you hide..." the voice floated down to beside her ear. Undyne's vision blurred as tears filled her eyes, and her entire body was trembling. "I'll find Sunset Shimmer. I'll find her little angel, too... and to top it all off, I'm going to get the pleasure of killing you twice."

Undyne had no idea who these people were, but Penn's fear was threatening to completely dominate her. Every thought her partner was capable of having seemed to have frozen, which meant she was on her own.

There was only one way she might be able to save both their lives, but she was going to have to hit fast and hit HARD.

Luckily, that was her specialty.

She had one more spell up her sleeve, and she unleashed it at the absolute maximum strength she could muster. A wave of green magic washed over everyone present, locking all of their souls in place.

Undyne hated to run, but she was outnumbered and the only person who could make sense of this situation was scared senseless. There was no one to protect here except for the two of them. She staggered to her feet, leaning on one of her spears to help her keep her balance. As her blood started pumping again, she could feel her strength quickly returning. She glanced at the man in the bowler cap.

"You got a lucky shot, but that's only gonna carry you so far..." she growled. "That won't work next time."

"Neither will THIS."

Undyne's blood turned to ice. There was no way that any of them could be capable of moving right now... But when she turned around, she saw that the third assailant seemed almost completely unaffected by the green magic. A tall, gaunt, pale human woman in a black dress stepped out of the shadows, her shadowed eyes glowing red. She seemed to be shrugging off Undyne's magic as easily as one would brush away an old cobweb.

For a split second, Undyne pondered whether or not it was a good idea to run and turn her back to this woman. Penn's voice tore through her brain at a deafening pitch, drowning out any and all thoughts of fighting.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, UNDYNE!"

And so she did. Undyne pushed off with as much force as she could, leaping into a dead sprint in the opposite direction of the woman...

But nothing happened.

Undyne realized that, just as she'd trapped the other two humans in a spell to halt their movement, the woman had used a spell of her own to suspend Undyne in the air, leaving her with no way to run.

Undyne felt herself being lifted up until she was above the trees, dread mounting in her gut as she floated higher and higher. When the force suddenly changed directions, she was slammed down again at dizzying speed. The force of her impact with the ground felt like being hit by an asteroid, and sent a shockwave that rippled through the leaves of every tree nearby. Before she could even try to get air back into her lungs, she was violently jerked upwards again, flying twice as high before slamming down again. It felt like gravity had been multiplied a hundred times over, and she left a crater with a diameter twice as wide as her own body.

As she was lifted up a third time, Undyne had an idea. A crazy idea, something that Penn had only brought up as a joke, but everything about this was absurd. Maybe crazy can solve crazy...

This time, when she reached the apex, high enough for her to see for miles in every direction, she pulled together just enough strength to create a small shield. It wasn't enough to stop her descent or protect her, but it was just solid enough for her to push off of with her foot. This time, when she plunged downwards, Undyne had a tight spin. She pointed herself headfirst at the ground, reached her hands forward, and prayed that all of Mettaton's jokes at her expense before she set out on her own were about to pay off.

"Th-these changes to your physiology..." Alphys stuttered. "They're finally beginning to slow down, and I think I've come to an understanding about them!" She walked up to the whiteboard in her lab, pointing to an illustration of what looked like an armored fish. "I-In the past, I always theorized that Undyne's closest evolutionary relative was the dunkleosteus, but now, as your body has adapted to housing a huge surge in magical power..." She moved her pointer to a picture of a large, much more familiar creature: a great white shark. "I-I believe that she's shifted to a different evolutionary branch, one capable of harnessing more power!"

"ALPHYS, DARLING, ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT UNDYNE IS TRANSITIONING FROM A DUNKLE-WHATSIT TO A SHARK? SHE'S MORE DEFENSIVELY POTENT THAN EVER!" Mettaton gestured to Undyne, and a display appeared on his screen of her stats. "HER DEFENSE IS TWICE HER ATTACK POWER!"

"Y-yes, I have a theory about that, too!" Alphys stuttered. "I think she's adapting to have the best of both worlds! Just like how she has both lungs AND gills! She's keeping the natural sturdiness and toughness of her original ancestry, but gaining the traits of her new lineage that would benefit her the most in speed and strength!"

"Sounds pretty cool to me!" Undyne grinned.

"WAIT A MOMENT..." Mettaton rubbed the bottom of his boxy upper body as if it were a chin. "A SHARK THAT SPENDS MORE TIME OUT OF THE WATER THAN IN IT? WHO LIVES ABOVE THE WATER'S SURFACE AND SPENT HER WHOLE LIFE IN UNDERGROUND TUNNELS?"

"DOES THAT MAKE YOU A LANDSHARK, DARLING?"

Undyne narrowed her eyes in suspicion, even as she heard Penn bursting into laughter in the back of her head. "Land shark?"

Alphys and Mettaton glanced at each other, each one snickering. "Well, it IS Saturday night..."

"I THINK A MARATHOOON IS IN ORDER!"

When the dust cleared from the third impact, Salem felt a twinge of anger. It appeared that, at the moment of impact, the creature had managed to slip out of her grip. The only sign of her escape was a hole dug into the center of the crater.

The spell cast over Roman and Neopolitan seemed to break now that she was gone, and they were both observing the hastily-dug escape with skeptical looks.

"So... she can swim through dirt?" Torchwick folded his arms. "That's... unexpected."

"It won't help them..." She took a moment to reach out into the shadows, calling on a select few of the creatures she'd brought with her. The centipede-like Grimm known as Centinels rushed out and swarmed into the hole, swiftly burrowing through the ground in exactly the way they'd been made to do.

"Uhm, I don't mean to doubt you, your highness," Roman still said the word with a hint of sarcasm. He didn't doubt her power, and he HAD proven to be obedient to her, but it was out of fear. It would take time for her to groom these two into proper servants. "But those don't look like they can take out the Penn-fish-lady on their own."

"They are merely clearing the path. We have both learned the hard way not to underestimate the trap-laying skills of that abomination's second soul." She tightened her hand into a fist. On her signal, a massive creature slithered out of the woods: a King Taijitu. It plunged into the widened hole with an angry hiss, taking off in pursuit of her prey. "There will be nowhere they can run now that my pets have their scent." She smiled as she watched more of her dark minions pour into the tunnel, eager now that the hunt was coming to a close.

"And now that the one separated from the pack is as good as in our hands... we can focus on bringing back all the rest. The ones who took everything from us."

Neopolitan used her illusions to summon up an image of Sunset Shimmer and the little angel that had flanked her at Amity Colosseum. She quietly strode up to the simulated victims before viciously stabbing through each of them multiple times with the blade at the end of her umbrella, shattering the illusion.

Roman grinned a wicked grin, the kind only someone on the cusp of well-deserved revenge could muster as he lit a fresh cigar. "You know, it's hard to find someone who truly understands that the only score that rivals cold hard cash is some well-aged revenge."

And Salem simply smiled. She was in no hurry, but to one who had spent eons waiting to act out her spite on the creations of the gods... any kind of satisfaction with a timetable of less than a century was almost titillating.

Soon, the ones responsible for her loss in Remnant would be groveling at her feet. Perhaps chasing them down like this was petty, but when one had infinite time and a glassy crater where their plans for the future used to be, a little pettiness was a well-deserved treat. No matter how far they ran and how long she chased them, Salem would have her satisfaction before she began to rebuild. There was no way that she could found a solid kingdom on a base of unanswered humiliation.

Sunset Shimmer, Elijah Bakersfield, and the Ghostrick Angel of Mischief would be buried in the foundation of her new beginnings, and she would make it unbreakable.

Penn was about to punch his laptop.

He had rifled through every file in his works-in-progress folder, dredged the forums of r/writingprompts, and even tried writing self-indulgent fanfiction, but nothing seemed to flow. Every word was like pulling a tooth, taking ages to extract from his brain. Each sentence was agonizing, and always felt like garbage when he reread it. He hadn't even made it so far as an entire paragraph.

He'd been trying and trying all week, but no inspiration seemed to come.

Just as he had every night that week, he set the laptop aside and stepped out of the car. Without a word, he began walking away from the campsite and into the cool, dark night. He'd tried changing his location, his project, even went back to the tried and true paper-and-pen to try and start the flow of words running again, but nothing helped.

He was well and truly stumped, and that didn't bode well for his sense of identity. What kind of "Penn" couldn't write?

"Maybe the ink's just run dry?" Reason mused. "You've been riding your entire identity on your GLORIOUS RETURN to your W.I.P.s. Of course creativity's going to shrivel up under that kind of pressure!"

He rolled his eyes as he wandered further away from the camp, but she made a good point. The only pressure that had ever forced creativity out of him had been the last-minute panic of an upcoming deadline, and that was rarely his best work.

So what do I do? Just forget about the existential crisis that this is supposed to be helping me resolve? Pretend I'm NOT looking for some way to get Sunset to stop looking at me like I'm a complete stranger?

"What, is the fact I'm with YOU not proof enough? Since when does her opinion matter to you so much, anyway?"

Well, YOU'RE partially to blame for her not trusting me, genius. Maybe if you hadn't gone full 'Exorcist' and possessed my dead body, she'd be more willing to trust this face! He sighed and shook his head, enjoying the feeling of the crisp autumn wind on his face. Besides... if I can't write, then am I really Penn? The nickname COMES from my writing! His walk began to pick up in pace as anxiety began to settle in. What am I supposed to do if I can't write? I've got the urge, the desire, but if I can't carry it out then what am I supposed to do with all this creative energy? If I have the desire but not the ability, maybe it really IS just the echo of someone else's soul in this body-

"HEY, WATCH IT!"

"Huh?" Penn drew up short, coming to a complete stop. His subconscious had managed to warn him just in time before he'd walked straight into what looked like a vertical pool of black liquid. He quickly took a few steps back, only to find himself looking more closely at it.

"Okay... what are the odds that I would, while just randomly walking wherever my feet take me while I have an existential crisis, walk RIGHT up to a mysterious interdimensional portal?" he muttered out loud.

"Do you want the answer according to statistics or pataphysics? Because numbers say REALLY LOW, but the laws of narrative causality say REALLY HIGH."

He stepped forward again, trying to examine the black substance more closely. It almost had the appearance of ferrofluid, but it seemed... thicker. It was gently rippling like a pond that a stone had been thrown into, but every now and then he thought he could catch a glimpse of light on the other side.

"Hey... I've got an idea. Maybe this is the multiverse trying to help you break your writer's block!"

Penn blinked, trying to understand. "What, like... I was supposed to walk right up to this?"

"Yeah! Sunset and Missy are asleep, you need to sort yourself out, and a portal shows up literally right in your path! This has got to be fate or something, right?"

"So... what should I do?"

"We could take a peek inside... Not for long, but it's not like you can sleep anyway, right? Go in, pick SOMETHING to be your inspiration, come back, and get over this writer's block before bedtime!"

Penn felt a hefty amount of trepidation, but he had to admit that he liked the idea of the universe presenting him with a solution to his problems. That, and... there was something about it that just felt... fitting. He didn't know why, but it just seemed to have a genial aura around it. He reached out, running his finger through the black substance. It was surprisingly warm, warmer than the air around it, and he felt a sense of calm wash over him as he touched it, like the sensation of dipping one foot in a hot tub on a chilly night: he wanted to be immersed, to have that gentle darkness all around him so he could finally think in peace.

"Let's go! In and out, 20-minute adventure!" Reason whispered.

"Sunset Shimmer..."

"Hmmph..."

"Sunset Shimmer."

Sunset cracked her eyes open and was greeted by the soft glow of Isis's processor. The drone had made its way into the tent.

"Wha- What is it?" she mumbled, closing her eyes again. If she was lucky, she'd be able to go right back to sleep after this.

"You requested that I document and inform you of any abnormal activity from Penn following his return from the dead."

"Y-yeah, you can tell me in the morning..."

"This seemed urgent."

Sunset rolled her eyes, now almost fully awake. "Fine... what is it?"

"Penn has entered a dimensional portal alone."

"Oh..." Sunset closed her eyes again. A moment later, the pieces connected in her head, and she bolted back upright. "WHAT?"

"Huhwha-" Missy sat up, rubbing at her eyes. "What's going on?"

"Penn left the camp without warning and entered a dimensional portal alone. One which was not present when we arrived."

Sunset and Missy glanced at each other, not even needing to speak to communicate their intentions. They both rose to their feet, dressed and ready to go in less than a minute. Isis hopped up onto Sunset's shoulder, swiftly guiding them down the same path "Penn" had taken to sneak out while they were sleeping. Soon, they found themselves standing in front of a foul-looking black portal.

"Why would he go here?" Missy whispered. "This thing gives me the chills, and that's not just the wind!"

"And he went alone." Sunset folded her arms. "So, this guy claiming to be Penn-"

"SUNSET!" Missy shouted, slapping her on the shoulder.

"Well, does this SEEM like 'Penn behavior' to you?" Sunset gestured to the dark pool. "Walking into evil portals alone in the middle of the night? Does that seem like something PENN would do?"

Missy looked as if she was going to argue, but she eventually just settled into stubbornly folding her arms over her chest. "We don't KNOW it's an evil portal."

Sunset reached up and unclasped the necklace that held her geode. She held it by the string, letting it swing freely as she held it towards the portal. The geode reacted, pushing away from the black substance like a pair of repelling magnets. After a few seconds, it was hanging almost parallel to the ground, trying to escape back to the safety of her neck. Missy stared wide-eyed at the potent reaction of the magic.

"Okay... that DOES seem like a bad sign."

Sunset re-fastened the geode around her neck, giving the portal a determined look. "I'm getting to the bottom of this, once and for all!" She turned back to look at the drone. "Isis, if 'Penn' comes back through this portal without me, I want you to make sure that he doesn't leave until we get some answers out of him!"

"Affirmative."

The drone flew up, positioning itself in the branches of a nearby tree to keep watch. Sunset turned to Missy, who still seemed upset that she seemed to be losing the argument of whether or not "Penn" was Penn.

"You coming, partner?"

Missy glanced back and forth between Sunset and the portal several times before sighing in defeat. She floated over to Sunset, wrapping her arms around the larger girl's neck in a firm grip. "Fine, but this is IT! After this, the debate is settled! Either Penn is Penn or he's not! No more arguing!"

Sunset nodded. "Agreed." She took a deep breath and held it as she forcefully walked into the black portal.

One way or the other, they were getting answers tonight.