//------------------------------//
// Chapter 23: A Filly, A Human, And Two Skeletons 
// Story: Harmony of Heroes: Ultimate Multiverse Explorers 
// by Lucar 
//------------------------------//

Sweetie Belle stared at the skeleton, not sure what to do. He seemed clearly hostile, and she could feel that he had done something to her, but so far, he hadn't attacked yet, or attempted to.

"LOVE? All capitalized?" she asked eventually, not answering the skeleton's question yet.

"yeah, it's an acronym," answered the skeleton, without even questioning about the fact that she saw that he said LOVE with capital letters. "it stands for Level Of ViolencE. to put it simply, it measures someone's capacity to hurt others, to distance themselves from what they do. and i can see that you have a very worrying high level. you have killed a lot, huh? one does not reach 483 LOVE just like that. so, what is your explanation, little night-mare?"

"Not sure if I should validate that pun. I'm not a mare, I'm a filly, and while you may think that I am a nightmare in coming, I reassure you, I am not. That pun would really work on Luna however, but I advice to not call her that, so she won't get morally hurt and so you won't get physically hurt. You don't want her to have a bone to pick with you."

The skeleton held back a laugh, and his eye stopped glowing, making the weird feeling inside Sweetie disappear. "good one. classic, but effective. but, uh, could you answer my questions? i need to know if i have to take... violent measures against you. i generally don't care, but with that much LOVE, i can make an exception."

"Alright. Alright. My name is Sweetie Belle, and I'm an alicorn pony. And, yes, I have killed a lot. But if it can reassure you, I avoid killing innocents, and even villains sometimes. I really kill only if I feel that there is no other choice. Like, not long ago, I had to face an army to save a kingdom. You can probably guess that just with this, my LOVE raised a lot."

"so... you're some kind of hero? that's what you're telling me?"

"Yup!"

"and what is a hero like you doing in the underground? is there some supervillain running around?"

Sweetie Belle shook her head. "Uhuh. I'm just here to explore new worlds and make new friends. And help if needed. You know, you talk very funny. Excepted for when you use the word LOVE, you don't use any capital letter in your speech."

"well, that's because i'm a lazybones."

The filly's giggle made the skeleton grin.

"it's always nice to meet someone else who shares my sense of humor. by the way, the name's sans, and as you can see, i'm a comic."

...

...

"Sorry, I don't get this one," said Sweetie Belle.

The named Sans looked a little depressed at this. "i waited so long to make this joke..."

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle looked up, seeing there wasn't a sky up there, but the ceiling of a cavern. A HUGE cavern.

"So you said that we are underground?"

"yup," answered Sans. "the underground. home sweet home to us monsters. to be more exact, you are actually in snowdin." He then pointed to Sweetie's left. "in this direction is a door that can't seem to be opened from this side." Then, he pointed to Sweetie's right. "and in this direction, after a small trek, is snowdin town. after it is waterfall, hotland, and our capital called new home."

...

"New Home?"

"yup."

...

"Seriously?"

"yup."

...

"Why?"

"our king is great with names."

Sweetie Belle let out a small giggle at this. "Anyway. What was that thing with your eye? I could feel that you were doing something to me."

"oh, just a little magic trick," answered Sans before his eye glowed again, and Sweetie had that feeling again. "look down at your chest."

Sweetie Belle did, and she saw that there was now on her chest a blue heart. Tilting her head in wonder, she asked, "What is it?"

"this is your SOUL, your very essence," Sans explained.

"SOUL? All capitalized again? Is it another acronym?"

"maybe, but this one is up for debate. just know that this is the source of everything you are, and that if it is destroyed, then it's game over for you. as for my little trick, as you can see, it turned your SOUL blue. a nice trick if you want my opinion. thanks to it, you can only do three things: move toward me, more away from me, and jump."

"Oh I see! If you had decided to attack me, then I couldn't have moved to the sides to dodge! Tricky. Very tricky," commented the filly before she tested the magic and saw that it did stop her from moving to the sides.

Sans' eye then stopped glowing, releasing her SOUL which turned black before disappearing in Sweetie Belle's chest.

"a black SOUL, uh? that's a new one. i'm not one to judge on that kind of stuff, but i hope that this is not a reflection of who you truly are," said Sans with some threat in his voice again, but this time without the glowing eye.

"You're not sure if I am telling the truth then," Sweetie Belle said matter-of-factly.

"do you blame me? when facing someone with that much LOVE, it's normal to be wary. you could be a mass murderer with very good manipulation skills for all i know. and it's not because you're a child that i will let my guard down."

"Trust me, if I was as evil as you think I am, I would have already killed you and moved on. Also..." Sweetie Belle pointed to her left. "We have a visitor."

From his position, Sans couldn't see where she was pointing at, so he had to move from the wooden structure to look, making sure to have Sweetie Belle in his field of view and revealing by this occasion that he looked paunchy, that he had a blue hoodie on a white shirt, black shorts, and a pair of pink slippers.

Further away in the pointed direction was a small bridge above a pit and passing through some kind of wooden gate or barrier, the bars too wide apart to stop anyone from passing. And there, on this bridge, was a young human child with yellow skin, brown hair, and blue clothes with purple stripes. It was hard from here to see if the child was a boy or a girl, but they looked as if they were caught with a hand in the cookie jar. They probably expected to not be remarked from there, eavesdropping on their conversation.

"well, look at that, a human. surprises sure don't stop today," Sans exclaimed. "heya, kiddo. don't ya know how to great a new pal? approach and shake my hand," he finished as he extended his hand.

Cautiously, the human approached, the skeleton barely taller than them. For some reason, the human's eyes were constantly closed, or were so narrowed that they looked as if they were closed, and even as they approached, it was still hard to determine their gender. However, they clearly looked more wary of the skeleton than of the little equine, and they couldn't be blamed for it. A skeleton will always look scarier than an adorable little horse.

But the human still approached Sans and slowly put their hand on his.

Only for a farting noise to be heard.

And all tension instantly disappeared.

"heheh... the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it's ALWAYS funny."

This got a laugh out of both the human and the filly despite the last one glaring at the skeleton. "Hey! Why do they get the whoopee cushion and not me?"

Sans glanced at the filly. "kinda forgot with all that LOVEly stuff we have been talking about."

Sweetie Belle then saw something behind Sans. "Hey! Another skeleton is approaching!"

Sans looked over his shoulder to see that the filly was right. "oh, that's my brother, papyrus. huh... human, you should go hide behind that conveniently-shaped lamp over there."

The human looked questioningly at Sans before they nodded with a small "Okay..." and walked behind the lamp which was just exactly shaped like their body.

Papyrus then arrived, easily two times as tall as his brother, very slander-looking with a white chest plate, an orange cape, blue briefs with a golden belt, orange gloves, and knee-high orange boots.

And he looked at Sans with an annoyed expression while the smaller skeleton moved close to him, still keeping Sweetie Belle in his field of view. Papyrus didn't seem to have remarked the filly yet.

"sup, bro?"

"YOU KNOW WHAT 'SUP,' BROTHER! IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T... RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES! YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!?"

"talking with our new guest."

"A GUEST?" asked Papyrus before he finally remarked Sweetie Belle. "UH? WHO ARE YOU? I DON'T THINK I HAVE EVER SEEN A MONSTER LIKE YOU AROUND HERE. AND I KNOW EVERYONE!"

"That's because I'm a pony," answered Sweetie Belle.

"A PONY? MMH... I DON'T THINK I HAVE EVER HEARD OF A CREATURE LIKE YOU. ARE YOU SURE YOU AREN'T A HORSE? YOU DO LOOK LIKE AARON. ONLY YOU ARE SMALLER, WHITE, DON'T HAVE HIS SUPERB MUSCLES, DON'T FLOAT, DON'T SMELL AS BADLY AS HIM, HAVE BACK-LEGS, WINGS, AND A HORN. AND THOSE WEIRD BLACK MARKS ON YOUR POSTERIOR."

"We are not the same. Horses and ponies are both equines, but we aren't the same species."

"she isn't a monster, i can assure you," said Sans. "she dropped here, and we have been talking since."

Papyrus gasped. "YOU MEAN SHE COMES FROM OUTSIDE THE UNDERGROUND?! OH MY GOSH! THIS IS ALMOST AS GOOD AS IF A HUMAN HAD ACTUALLY DROPPED HERE! IT IS A GREAT OCCASION TO PUT OUR PUZZLES TO TEST!" he shouted before he glared at Sans. "PUZZLES THAT YOU HAVEN'T RECALIBRATED! YOU HAVE JUST BEEN HANGING AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION, BEING YOUR LAZYBONES-SELF!"

"come on, paps. i've gotten a ton of work done today. a skele-ton."

Darn, Sweetie could almost hear the badumtss. She held back a laugh, and Papyrus loudly groaned. "SANS!!!!"

"come on. you're smiling."

"I AM AND I HATE IT!"

Sweetie Belle muffled another laugh. "He threw me some bones."

"OH NO!! NOT YOU TOO!!! SANS!!! IS IT YOUR DOING?!!"

"nope. she just has amazing joke tastes, like me."

Papyrus groaned louder at this. "WHY ME?!"

"Geese! Chill! Want some snow?" asked Sweetie Belle as she grabbed some snow from the ground.

"papyrus doesn't need to chill," replied Sans. "he's already very cool."

"Good point." She dropped the snow. "By the way, ice to meet you! I'm Sweetie Belle!"

"she has been a real sweetie."

"I haven't yet gotten an occasion to foal around."

"well, hold your horse."

"NYYEEEEEEHHHHH!!!!! SOMEONE HELP, PLEASE!! THIS IS THE WORST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!" suddenly yelled Papyrus.

And then, someone burst into laughter, and the human dropped from behind the lamp, clenching their belly as they began to roll on the ground.

"Oops. Seems like someone couldn't hold in longer," said Sweetie Belle.

Papyrus suddenly gasped again. "OH MY GOD! SANS? IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?! A HUMAN?!!"

"seems more like a hyena right now."

"OH? SO THAT'S NOT A HUMAN?" Papyrus asked disappointed. "UNLESS THIS IS A HUMAN IMPERSONATING A HYENA? THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A HYENA."

"you have never seen a hyena."

"TRUE."

"but you got it right for the human impersonating a hyena."

"OH MY GOD! SO THIS IS REALLY A HUMAN?!"

"yup."

"OH MY GOD! THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!"

Sweetie Belle finally lost it too and began to roll on the floor in laughter. These two were impossible!

"and the pony is impersonating a hyena too now."

Papyrus looked worried now. "OH, I HOPE THIS ISN'T A NEW SICKNESS."

"don't worry. it'll quickly pass. give them a few seconds. look, the human is already getting better."

"HEY! YOU'RE RIGHT! SO THEY WILL BE ABLE TO TRY MY PUZZLES? NO NEED TO BRING THEM TO OUR HOME TO TAKE CARE OF THEM UNTIL THEY AREN'T SICK ANYMORE?"

"it should be okay, yes. and look, the pony is getting better too. that hyena sickness is already gone."

"Please, you two, stop! Or I will start again!" shouted Sweetie Belle as she calmed down.

"STOP WHAT? WE HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING! ESPECIALLY SANS. HE NEVER DOES ANYTHING EXCEPTED NAPPING, EATING, AND JOKING," deadpanned Papyrus as he glared at Sans.

"that's still a lot."

"ANYWAY! NOW THAT THE HUMAN ISN'T SICK ANYMORE..." Papyrus began before he cleared his throat as he turned toward the approaching human child. "HUMAN! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU!!! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN... THEN!!! I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT. IN ANY CASE! CONTINUE... ONLY IF YOU DARE!!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!" he finished with a loud laugh as he ran away excitedly.

"well, that went well," commented Sans before he turned to fully face Sweetie Belle and the human. "with all this, i couldn't present myself. i'm sans. sans the skeleton. and, well, you just met papyrus, my little brother."

"Wait! HE is the little brother?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"you shouldn't judge someone on their appearance," Sans replied to this with a wink at the filly.

"Well, as for me, I'm Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle the alicorn pony."

"Uh... And me, I'm Frisk," said the human before giggling. "Frisk the human."

Mmh... From the voice, Frisk seemed to be a girl. But at her(?) age, it could be hard to say sometimes. Some boys could sound very effeminate before they reach their teens. And her(?) appearance didn't help at all.

"Sorry to ask this, but are you a boy or a girl? I really can't tell," she asked.

"Uh... I'm a girl," Frisk answered.

"Okay. Nice meeting you, Frisk. Now, Sans, what was it about capturing Frisk?"

Sans sighed. "it's a long story. i will make it short for you. a long time ago, humans and monsters lived peacefully on the surface, but one day, war broke out, the humans won, and they trapped us here, in the underground, putting a powerful magical barrier. now, the only way we found to break the barrier is to collect seven human SOULs. i'm a sentry, so my job is normally to capture any human i may encounter but... heh... i'm not up for it. however, papyrus is a human-hunting fanatic. as you saw, he is very excited about this. don't hold it against him, he doesn't know about the whole SOUL part. he probably just thinks that the captured human will either get a chamber at the castle or be allowed to exit the underground. for him, this is just a game, and a mean to be recognized and to reach his dream: becoming a royal guard."

"I see..." said Sweetie Belle. "Seems like a complicated situation... But... Maybe I can help? I don't know how powerful a human SOUL is, let alone seven, but I'm very powerful too. Maybe I can break this barrier.

"sorry to say this, but i doubt. only a god could be that powerful, as this is exactly what collecting seven human SOULs does."

"What?"

"yeah, i forgot to mention this. collecting the SOULs and throwing them at the barrier isn't enough. instead, the SOULs must be absorbed by a monster. any monster absorbing seven human SOULs becomes a god, and their power can destroy the barrier."

Sweetie Belle looked at the skeleton in wonder. "Wow! Uh... Wow! Like, if any monster kills seven humans, they become a god? Just like that?"

"yup. just like that. but it's not as easy as it sounds. a human SOUL is as powerful as almost all the monster SOULs put together. for a monster to kill a human is already a miracle. so, seven? it's pretty much impossible. and of course, you must ensure that the human SOUL doesn't break, which is not always easy. uh... i think we got off track here. all this to say that unless you are a god, i don't think that you will be able to break the barrier."

Sweetie Belle shrugged. "I can still try. I'm not a God, but I'm as powerful as some, so maybe I can still do it. It really depends of what kind of God you're talking about."

Sans stared at the filly with a deadpan expression. "ya're not foaling with me, uh?"

"Nope!"

Sans stared at Sweetie Belle a few more seconds before he shrugged. "welp, i'll have to believe your words. we've nothing to lose if you can't destroy the barrier, excepted some hope maybe. well then, i'm gonna await you beside papyrus at the first puzzle." He then walked toward a tree, went behind it, and disappeared.

"Uh? He can teleport? He seems to have more hidden tricks than that blue SOUL thing," Sweetie Belle commented before she turned to look at Frisk. "So, you don't mind if I tag along? I could help you through these puzzles and defend you if monsters attempt to capture you."

Frisk nodded. "I don't mind."

The two then began to follow the path Papyrus took, reaching an area with a box where the path forked. Before continuing, Frisk suddenly stopped, looked at her left, and reached out to touch... nothing, seemingly. But Sweetie Belle could feel something resonating at Frisk's touch, and an energy coming out of the human to answer this.

"Uh? Is there something invisible here?" she asked.

"Well... You will think that I am crazy if I tell you..."

The filly let out a giggle before replying. "Don't worry. I have seen a lot of crazy stuff."

"Uh... Well... I have a power... I can't explain it... If I die, then I just... reload. And here..." She waved at where the invisible thing was. "There is a Save Point. So, now, if I die, I will reload here, and everything that happened between the moment I touched the Save Point and the moment I died will have never happened. I don't know why I have this power, I just know that it works because I have a lot of determination."

"So, if you die, then you reload the timeline to the Save Point? That's one OP power that you have. I will have to make sure that if you die, then I won't be caught in the reloading. I don't want to forget everything."

"So you believe me?"

"Of course! Like I said, I saw a lot of crazy stuff. A human child with the power to reload like in a video game just by sheer determination is just one more among all the rest. After all, like I said earlier, I'm a filly with powers that can compare to Gods. If you're crazy, then I am too!"

This made Frisk laugh.

"So, by the way, what are you doing in this place?" Sweetie Belle suddenly asked once Frisk stopped laughing.

Frisk had been expecting a question like this one, but she remained silent several seconds before she answered. "I would rather not tell..."

Sweetie Belle eyed the human before shrugging. "Okay."

They then walked toward the box beside which was a sign that said that anything that was placed in this box could be recovered in the other boxes like this one a little everywhere in the Underground. Frisk opened the box and found in it a pair of gloves. After staring at them, she put them back in the box and placed in a few other objects before closing it.

"A very useful box," commented Sweetie Belle. "I should note this idea. Boxes or chests spacially connected to each others would be great to transport objects through dimensions without using portals."

"So you come from another dimension?" asked Frisk. "I suppose that I should have guessed, after everything you said."

"You don't seem shocked by this."

"I can reload timelines. Compared to this, a being from another dimension is lame."

"Touché."

After that, they were approached by what looked like a big duck with a giant snowflake on their head and some reptilian parts like a scaly belly. The duck didn't seem to want them any harm, but suddenly, Sweetie and Frisk's SOULs appeared on their chests, the human's SOUL revealing to be red.

"Ice to meet you." he then said before crescent-shaped projectiles appeared here and there and began to fly in different patterns.

Carefully moving to avoid the projectiles, Frisk whispered to Sweetie Belle "Laugh," before she began to laugh at the duck's joke.

Sweetie Belle glanced at Frisk while she used a small shield to protect herself from the projectiles, and began to laugh too. The duck looked proud at this.

"See?! Laughs! Dad was wrong!"

In thanks, the duck gave Frisk some gold coins before running away happily, shouting "I did it! I did it!"

Sweetie Belle looked after him as the duck disappeared into the woods, her SOUL disappearing back into her chest (as well as Frisk's). "Erh... What happened?"

Frisk giggled. "Snowdrake must have been very nervous about his comedian skills, so it triggered his magic to attack us. In truth, he only wanted recognition. It seems that inexperienced monsters' magic can easily be triggered for various reason, especially when they get close to me. But when they're calm, they're okay to approach. They generally don't mean harm."

"Uh... that's... inconvenient. Wait, how do you know his name?"

"When I have an... encounter with a monster, I can CHECK them and learn who they are and some other information. It's also how I understood that to calm Snowdrake, we had to laugh at his joke. Again, I don't know why I can do this. There's just this voice in my head and... Well..."

"It gets weirder and weirder, Frisk..." said Sweetie Belle with a raised eyebrow at the human. "So, does this mean that you can... uh... CHECK me, right now?"

"Uuhhh... Right now, no... But maybe if you attempt to attack me..."

Sweetie Belle nodded and made her horn glow while facing the human. It seemed to work because their SOULs appeared on their chests again. Frisk stared at her and then gasped.

"Woah! You weren't kidding about your power! That's a lot of ATK you have! And the voice seems shocked by the amount of LOVE you have."

"483 LOVE Sans said if I remember correctly."

"Yes, that's as the voice said," confirmed Frisk. "And you have 17909 ATK and 56 DEF. And the voice says that you are a powerful being from another dimension wanting to make friends and have fun."

"Nice!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed before she giggled. "Of course, that's not taking into account my weapon, my armor, when I let my power fully out, and when I use my singing to boost myself."

Frisk gulped. "I don't think I want to know."

"Don't worry, as long as you don't start killing innocents left and right, you have nothing to fear from me."