//------------------------------// // Prologue: Misstep // Story: Underworld Frisk // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// The large red dragon had been spooked off by Fluttershy’s angry stare and now they were on their way back down the mountain, all six ponies talking about how their day was going so far and what they would do once they get back home. The already noted protagonist of this entire story, Pinkie Pie the pony, gave a joyous shout as she bounced around in front of everyone. It was about how she was going to throw them all a ‘we survived a dragon and made it go away peacefully’ party. She was two tones of pink; her fur was bright pink and her hair was darker shade being more of magenta in appearance. Her mane and tail were filled with wild untamed curls that were first given to her by an exploding rainbow. On her flanks she had two blue balloons with yellow strings and one yellow balloon with a blue string, it represented her special talent for parties and making others happy. Her five friends were all laughing about how she decided to deal with the dragon in the goofiest way possible, sure it didn’t work but the result of it did look funny. They came back to a point they had crossed over earlier in their journey that required an easy to make jump and looking to her pal Fluttershy, Pinkie couldn’t help but see that the beautiful pink haired pegasus looked squeamish about jumping the gap again. Looking to her other friends pleadingly, they all sighed and nodded. Pinkie smiled gleefully as she started bouncing in place as she would get to cheer on Fluttershy again. For a pony with wings that could fly, Fluttershy sure was scared of heights and widths and even sometimes lengths. “Come on Fluttershy, remember all it takes is a hop, a skip and a…” Pinkie had done her hop correctly, however her skip went wrong and she fell flat on her face. Given Pinkie’s body was generally heavier than normal mares because she ate a lot of sweets and how many times she previously jumped the gap between the two ledges, her weight suddenly slamming down hard into the edge of the ledge caused it to break off. This sent Pinkie, the mare who ate way to many snacks, falling with these last words to be heard by her friends. “Hey, are you calling me fat! Why you, when I get back from this fall I’m going to…” Not only did those words confuse her friends, it took them five seconds to snap out of their stupors. It was because Pinkie didn’t go over the edge of the cliff screaming bloody murder like a normal pony probably would have in the situation where falling usually ends with a rather abrupt and exceedingly painful stop. Then again Pinkie wasn’t a normal pony and she went over the edge screaming to the sky about being called fat by nothing but air. Wouldn’t you be a little confused too? Considering she just fell out of shouting distance her friends should probably take some quick action before it’s too late, unfortunately for them it already was. “Oh my goodness, we have to save Pinkie!” Her friend Rainbow shouted fruitlessly, she was quite fruitless as she had cloud with a multicolored lightning bolt on her butt. Applejack was the one with the fruits on her rear end and wouldn’t have done it fruitlessly and now being the sole remaining Earth Pony of the team by virtue of what just happened to Pinkie Pie she became far more noticeable, but it didn’t make her happy. Rainbow leaps over the edge to be swiftly followed by Fluttershy; they didn’t see a falling pink speck and searched around the mountain looking for their friend. They didn’t know what thought was scarier, the fact that Pinkie might have just died in an accident or that they couldn’t find hide or hair of her body which was brightly colored and should have been relatively easy to spot again a grey backdrop of the mountain. They would stir up a search party of at least thirty pegasi to fly around the mountain to find their wayward friend. And what a WAY she fell through an invisible WARD, one that ended up warping her to another realm entirely. Pinkie’s disappearance would puzzle them all greatly until one day in the distant future, but this is not their story. No, this is Pinkie Pie’s story and we’ve focused enough on the other elements which are now background noise to the plot at hand, or is it hoof? Well there will be hands so it makes just as much sense. - Light, that was the first thing Pinkie saw, a soft halo of light filling her eyes. She was slowly coming to her senses as she sat up on her exceedingly wide flanks. “Hey, you just called me fat again didn’t you? Sure I’m a little pudgy, but I’m not fat!” Pinkie yelled angrily at the air again while shaking a hoof at the light above her having expected it to answer her with something other than the fact that she doesn’t recognize the true ‘weight’ of her problem at the moment. She should probably look around and take in her situation. “No, I’m not moving on with this story until you apologize!” Pinkie once again addressed the air fruitlessly, because she also didn’t have Applejack’s tight flanks from working hard every day. Even Pinkie would have to admit that Applejack had some really nice musculature back there. That hot sweaty Applejack wiping her brow and letting her hair flow free in the wind was highly appealing to Pinkie’s sensibilities. “What’s wrong with having a little pudge in the rear? Seriously though, stop being so mean and trying to distract me with sexy thoughts!” Pinkie was now highly flustered and now distracted with thoughts of Applejack’s flanks and blushing profusely from it; she did have a crush on the mare and had wanted to eat Applejack’s pie when she got back down the mountain. Of course Pinkie didn’t just have a crush on Applejack; she loved all her friends equally. Not that Pinkie would ever come out to the five mares that she wanted some sugar from them and there were a few stallions she had her eyes on, she was also interested in Gilda who she thought needed to calm down a lot and laugh a little. She was quite the pansexual pony. Due to these distracting feelings, Pinkie finally started taking in her surroundings and her situation instead of staring off into space. “This isn’t over yet! Even if you can bounce a coin off Applejack’s flank, not to mention Gilda’s tail was really fluffy and long, then there's that really cute beak. Also stop making me so hungry with talks of pie and sugar!” Pinkie once again shouting at the air as she took in the small grove around her, she was sitting amid a pile of flowers that had luckily broken her fall without injuring herself too much, though her left hind leg was slightly bruised. “Ouch, I couldn’t actually feel that until you mentioned it!” Pinkie was getting peeved at nothing again and decided to move on with her life by calming down. Sighing to herself and leaning her head forward with her eyes closed, she calmed down and then felt something was really off. It was at this moment that she noted her mane was not inflated to its full beautiful curliness and was now elegantly straight with a few fresh scented petals in it. “Wait, you really think my mane is… no, I’m not forgiving you even if you compliment me!” Huffing audibly and crossing her hooves over her chest while sitting in her spot refusing to move, Pinkie slowly thought of why her mane and tail were flatter than a pancake after a steamroller went over it and why it was so straight. In all likelihood her hair popped in the aftermath of landing on the flowers, both of which helped break her fall. Speaking of which, the flowers she was sitting on were kind of digging into her coat. Her mane and tail couldn’t inflate back to their beautiful wildly curled state even if she wanted them to, even then her straight hair was still quite nice to look at. “Oh yeah, well we’ll just see about that!” Pinkie once again addressed the air and looked cute while doing so. She put her left hoof in her mouth and blew into it, her hair flopped outward as air exited her ears. At that moment Pinkie took on a sad frown as she should realize what a relatively small problem this was, she was still the same adorable and friendly Pinkie even if her mane was popped. She should be more worried about where she’s stuck and the fact that her cutie mark is now gone, which was just as likely a reason her mane wouldn’t inflate. “Wait… what!” Pinkie looked at her flank and saw that her cutie mark had in fact disappeared and she looked at it for no other reason than the fact that she felt something was off with her. She could already tell something screwy was going on here, as if it wasn’t obvious enough that she was imagining voices in her head. “You’re not a voice in my head, you’re the…” Pinkie was quickly cut off from talking to the air by hearing some strange cackling in the only pathway leading forward, incidentally she couldn’t see any other way out and she doubted she could climb across the ceiling in this state to reach the hole she fell through. Especially given that almost all of her cutie mark powers have disappeared along with her mark, said mark which allowed her to do reality warping things like teleport when no one was looking at her. “Pinkie noticed that her story is already getting off to a bad start with the fact that she’s starting off in a dark room with a strange source of light and hearing what sounds to be a demonic cackle ahead of her. Not to mention she’s now dealing with a rather big annoying pain in her flank!” Narrated Pinkie, who thought she really could ‘stand up’ to 'take a joke' about her habit of swallowing sweets whole without chewing. “Pinkie stood up and… ah fiddlesticks!” Pinkie realized that she stood up and took the joke and after a minute she started giggling at her own actions, shaking her head with mirth she moved forward and realized she still felt a weight at her sides. She still had her saddlebags, even if she didn’t necessarily have her reality breaking powers to help her out of this mess, at least she still had the ability to carry things. The pony moved forward down the hallway slowly and she heard a slight cackle and peaked into the doorway and saw some light and another small grassy spot with something on it. She didn’t know what to expect and she had absolutely no clue that she was in the underworld. “I’m in the underworld?” Pinkie asked out of the blue clearly unsure of whether or not she truly was, since there was no way for her to possibly know that she was at this moment in time. “But you just said…” Pinkie was a little confused and couldn’t finish her statement; only now did she finally bother to wipe away the flowers stuck to her cute bulky rump and the petals out of her now silky smooth mane. She moved forward feeling slightly aggravated for no reason whatsoever as if there was someone taunting her about how adorable she was when she gets angry. Moving closer to the light Pinkie saw a small smiling flower looking up at her. “Howdy there, I’m Flowey, Flowey the Flower. Welcome to the underworld.” This was said by the disturbing smiling flower of pure unadulterated evil that just giggled at the pony, just before he released a wave of invisible energy that washed over the area. Pinkie felt something wrench itself out of her body. It wasn’t painful at all, it just felt really weird. “Oh no need to tell me your name, how about we get this started?” “See that heart? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!” This was said by the exceedingly creepy evil flower that nobody wants to meet in a dark alley, especially because it would definitely stab you in the back multiple times and then throw salt and lemon juice in the wounds. Pinkie felt entirely wary of this flower and hadn’t yet managed to say anything to it and was about to when the flower rudely cut her off before she could, even then she was standing there staring at the representation of her soul which was a large pink pulsating heart floating before her. “Your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow stronger if you gain a lot of LV.” This was a blatant lie by Flowey who will continue to lie to Pinkie Pie. As far as Pinkie could already see, her soul was thrumming with power already, not that she knew that he was going to start telling blatant lies. Instead she stayed quiet and kept listening to this soul stealing flowers spiel, because she didn’t want to look like a crazy pony by yelling at the air again where her eyes were currently looking. “What’s LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course! You want some LOVE, don’t you?” Pinkie probably should not take the love this guy was offering or even trust him to have her best interests in mind; she should also probably start figuring out how to move her heart around at this point because having it floating outside her body like this was really quite dangerous to her continued health. “No thanks.” Pinkie quickly said shaking her head and denying the flower, somehow knowing that the LOVE this flower was talking about wasn’t the friendly kind of love. “Don’t worry; I’ll share some with you anyway!” Flowey said with a bright if creepy smile as he stuck out his tongue out and winked creating a sparkle of energy, he was not endearing himself to Pinkie since she could tell he was evil by having ripped her soul from her body to float in the air in front of her. The flower created five ovals of energy and moved them into the air to spread out. “Down here, LOVE is shared through little white friendliness pellets. Are you ready?” Another blatant lie, Pinkie didn’t even need to be a mind reader to know that because this flower was acting quite sketchy and the odd music playing in the air wasn’t helping her building bad feeling about this either. “Move around, get as many as you can with your SOUL!” Flowey launched the little pellets of pain and Pinkie watched as they enclosed on her heart with worry as she didn’t know how to move it out of the way. Obviously if Pinkie knew that she could ‘DANCE’ two steps to the ‘LEFT’, then her heart would be out of the way of the firing pattern that the malevolent flower is currently attacking her soul with. Suddenly and miraculously, Pinkie did a two step beat sideways trot to the left feeling rather skittish about the little incoming twirling orbs of energy. Her floating heart followed her short dance and flew out of the way of the five bullets that would have caused her pain and deal damage to her soul. One of the orbs passed harmlessly through her body, the attack was just meant to hurt her soul after all. “Hey buddy, you missed them. Let’s try again, okay?” Flowey didn’t look very pleased that Pinkie had somehow figured out that he had ill intentions for her. Pinkie was looking up at the air for some reason, as if asking what she should do next. She wasn’t watching out for her soul, which she should really be keeping a tight eye on throughout all the sordid affairs she was about to walk into. Especially if she wants to survive the next attack that Flowey was already launching at her. The pony’s eyes widened and she tapped danced backwards and to the right, moving her heart out of the path of those bullets the flower had launched at her in her inattentive state. She had avoided the attack and noticed that Flowey now looked particularly mad at her and with good reason, he was evil and he so wanted to dupe her into believing his cheerful disposition was his actual nature. Then again who would trust a creepy talking flower that just pulled your soul out of your body for no good reason? “Is this a joke? Is your brain working? RUN INTO MY BULLETS…. friendliness pellets!” They way Flowey’s angry face went back to a cheery smile really spooked Pinkie and this time the bullets were faster, but Pinkie still tap danced safely out of the way of them and back to the center of the invisible field her heart was trapped in that she didn’t know about. After that Pinkie started dancing in place making her heart do a cute jig and that made Flowey positively angry, as shown by the now positively evil appearance of his face which really scared Pinkie Pie. “You know what’s going on here, don’t you?” “I have a pretty good idea.” Pinkie answered honestly as her eyes looked off blankly into space again, before focusing back on her heart to make sure Flowey didn’t pull a fast one. The cutesy music petered out and Pinkie looked uneasy about the situation as she should be. “You do? Well fancy that, but you won’t live long enough to make me suffer your idiocy.” Flowey let off another powerful burst of energy and suddenly Pinkie’s floating heart was constricted in place as a sphere of glowing dots surrounded it. “DIE!” The flower’s face morphed into a horrific visage and started giving off a bone chilling cackle as the sphere started slowly enclosing on Pinkie’s constricted soul. If this were a horror story Pinkie’s heart and soul would be swallowed by this evil little flower, Deus Ex Machina time! Nothing happened and no one came immediately to Pinkie’s aid. The sphere of glowing energy was shrinking further and further, Pinkie looked at the air in a highly panicked manner and then closed her eyes whimpering. The flower continued its evil cackling and just as the sphere of energy pellets was about to touch Pinkie’s heart, a wave of invisible energy washed throughout the room and all the pain pellets immediately evaporated leaving Pinkie’s heart safe from the attack. The flower that just tried to take away the pony’s soul looked quite perplexed by this sudden change of events. Pinkie opened one eye and then the other when she saw a figure standing in the shadows of the doorway behind the flower, obviously the one who just saved her soul from being ripped away. A glowing orb of fire formed and launched at the flower knocking it away into the shadows with a comically shocked look on its face. Then the one who had just saved Pinkie stepped out of the shadows as Pinkie’s heart automatically stuffed itself back into her body. “What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor innocent soul. Ah, do not be afraid… um... what are you?” She was a bipedal figure wearing some loose purple robe of some sort. She had beautiful eyes, soft short white fur and some cute floppy ears. She was some kind of goat person given the two little horns on her head and she was highly attractive to Pinkie. “I’m Pinkie Pie and I’m a pony, thank you for saving me!” Pinkie, when saying thanks, looked at the air above the as of yet unnamed goat lady's figure for some odd reason. Pinkie winked at the air trying to continue being subtle about nothing, then went back to looking over her savior. Something about this being made Pinkie’s heart pound and she felt her face heat up the longer she looked at her. She just wanted to run up this being with the soulful eyes and kiss her on those tantalizing lips with the cute little fangs sticking out of them, but for some reason she didn’t as she was now glaring at the air again. The music that seemed to radiate around the nice goat lady sounded sad and somber in a way. “I am Toriel caretaker of the Ruins; I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen into the underworld. You are the first new soul I’ve seen in a long time; for a second there I thought you might have been human judging by how you’re soul looked. You are the first pony I’ve ever met and the most recent arrival I’ve seen in a long time.” Toriel seemed like the friendly sort and she looked it too, even if there was a somber sad air in the music about her that Pinkie just couldn’t quite understand yet. Nobody this pretty should feel this sad, though the fireball thing might have made Pinkie slightly wary of her. Even then Toriel had quite an inviting face and it felt like she had a personality similar to Fluttershy, plus Pinkie really wanted to cuddle with her. “Come Pinkie, I will guide you through the catacombs. This way please.” The soft spoken lady said please, so Pinkie started to follow after the sweet sounding and pretty Toriel wondering what her future would hold. She was also wondering how she got here, but instead of focusing on that too much she was now staring at Toriel’s butt as she walked ahead of the pony and through the archway leading into the ruins. Had Pinkie watched her step, she never would have met a new friend that she was inexplicably attracted to. “I’m not attracted to her, so stop saying those things already.” Pinkie quietly hissed in denial to the air itself with notably red cheeks, as she followed that shapely posterior going up the stairs just ahead with her blue eyes.