Woona awoke slowly, a delicious scent filling her room. Rolling out of bed, she dropped to the floor with a thump, landing belly first on the throw rug someone had placed there just in case she did so. Pushing herself to her hooves, she blinked and caught sight of a slice of pie, sitting on a plate in the middle of the room. Walking up to it, she discovered it was the source of the delicious scent...but it had gone cold. She decided to stick it in her saddlebags for later, and search for a warm slice.
She paused as she did so, as several factors clicked in her mind. One, the slice of pie was bigger than her saddlebags. Two, Once the pie was in the bag, she couldn't see it...but she knew it was there. Three, she had struggled just to pick up the slice of pie to put it in her bag...but once it was inside, she felt no weight. Curious, she examined the saddlebag...only to gasp when she saw the magic embedded in the rune sewn into the front. "Pocket space," she murmured in amazement. "Mama's gotta teach me that!"
Slipping the bags off, she set them beside the bed, deciding that - since she wasn't going anywhere - she didn't need to carry her stuff with her. Slipping out the door of her room where it had been left open a crack, she began exploring the house, following the delicious aroma.
At first, she was concerned that she didn't see her Mama anywhere, though the large rocking chair moved as though it hadn't been vacated for that long, and the fire in the fireplace felt strongly of magic. Thinking about it, Woona came to the conclusion that Mama was there somewhere, and would likely appear the moment she made a mess or got into trouble. That's what Mamas did, right?
The delicious aroma distracted her from her thoughts, and she followed it into the kitchen, where she saw the source. Gasping happily, she saw a whole pie, steam still coming off of it from where it was cut open. She wanted it!
Unfortunately, it was up on the counter, far out of her reach. She would need to be clever to figure out how to get up to it. This would be her ultimate puzzle!
Her first thought was to use the drawers as steps to climb up to the counter. After a titanic struggle to get a drawer open, however, she discovered her folly. The top was higher than the tip of her horn. Even if she did manage to get into it, she wouldn't be able to get out. Obviously, a different strategy would be required.
Her next thought was to try and pull the pie down to her. However, it quickly became plain that Toriel had anticipated that, as a strong magic bound the pie to the counter, stronger than what Woona could bring to bear. Pouting, Woona turned to the cupboards.
After struggling to get them open, she looked through them for anything that might enable her to climb up to the counter. Unfortunately, all she managed to do was dust herself with flour. Sneezing, she backed out of the cupboard, only to bump into the counter, causing a glass to dump water on the floor where she slipped, turning the flour on her hooves sticky.
Noticing the stick, Woona had a brilliant idea! She would climb the walls! Focusing her magic, she attempted to manipulate the stickyness of the wet flour, only to discover certain limitations. At least one hoof had to be firmly affixed to the wall at all times to keep her from falling. Thinking quickly, she spread her legs wide and swung her weight around, using her four hooves as stick points to make her way to the counter.
Success! She was in perfect position to drop into the pie. One more swing would be all it would take, and she'd no longer have to keep her body completely flat. As she prepared to swing, however, she felt a painful tug on her tail. Fearing discovery, she slowly turned her head to look.
Some sort of infernal device had hold of her tail! Its twin slots bared angrily, clinging to her delicate butt hairs. This could not stand! One blast of magic...would cause her to fall to her doom as she lost her grip on the ceiling, possibly tear her tail off, and she'd lose all her progress towards getting the pie!
"Woona!" Toriel gasped angrily as she came in. "What are you doing on the ceiling? And...why is your tail in the toaster? That's for bread, not little ponies!"
Woona thought desperately, trying to come up with an answer that wouldn't anger her Mama. "Umm...I am Bwead?" she offered, hoping her brilliance would astound Toriel to the point she'd forget her anger.
At that point, her grip on the ceiling failed her. She let out a surprised cry as she fell...but the wicked toaster proved to be good, as its grip on her tail swung her out before releasing her, causing her to land in the pie! With success loud in her mind, Woona began to swim around the warm, delicious, butterscotch/cinnamon heaven as she began to eat her way out. "Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom..."
Toriel, for her part, fell back against the wall, laughing as she struggled to get control of herself. Once she did have control of herself, she walked over and lifted Woona out of the pie tin. "At least you enjoy it," she murmured as she carried Woona to the sink. "But now you need another bath."
Woona smiled happily, licking her lips.
Once Woona was clean, Toriel decided the next thing to do was teach her to read Monster runes. First, she decided to see just how much of her own written language Woona knew, and if she could work from there. Much to her delighted surprise, not only could Woona write - if somewhat messily - her entire alphabet, but it proved to be the same spoken alphabet as that used by the Monsters, just written with different pictures. This made teaching Woona much easier, as she was able to just show her what new picture was the same as the old picture she already knew. Towards that end, the first thing she wrote out for Woona was both of their names...Toriel and Woona.
Woona was overjoyed, and eagerly dove into the lessons, eager to learn to read everything, especially with how many books Toriel owned. After a time of learning to read and write when her hooves and horn both grew tired from trying to hold and use the pen, Toriel decided the next step in the lesson was to take Woona around the house and tell her the names of anything she didn't recognize.
They started in the kitchen. The first thing Woona had explained to her was the refrigerator, which she came to understand was the Monster version of what she knew as the 'cold box'. She learned the names of each different pan, and each different cooking utensil. She also learned that Toriel provided the flame for the stove burners with her own magic...which then sidelined into magic lessons, teaching Woona how to conjure magical fire. While Toriel's flame was a bright reddish-orange, Woona's flame - when she managed to conjure it - was a ghostly blue-white.
After that, they moved into the living room, and the title of each book was read to her. She was disappointed at first to learn how many were educational or otherwise sounding dull, but she was pleased to hear there were at least some story books. As they passed towards the hall, however, she notices something in the corner of the bookcase. "What's that?" she asked, pointing.
Toriel glanced towards the corner of the bookcase, only to frown. "That's a photograph," she said quickly, before rapidly ushering Woona into the next room to start naming things.
Woona understood what wasn't said. Something about the photograph was painful for Toriel. She decided not to ask about it. She did, however, decide she would examine it later, to discover what it was that disturbed her about it.
After a long day of study, Woona curled up tight in her bed. However, she wasn't sleeping. She kept her eyes and ears open, listening for the sound of her Mama curling up in her own bed. Once she heard that, she made her way out of her room, glad the door had been left open a crack.
Sneaking over to the living room, she managed to grab the photograph in her magic, pulling it down to her to examine the picture. She readily recognized her Mama in the picture, smiling happily and laughing. Next to her was a laughing goat man with long horns and a goatee, his arm around her. In front of them were two children holding bouquets of yellow flowers. One was a goat boy who greatly resembled the two elders, and was holding the flowers over his chest, smiling widely. The other child held the flowers over his face, and was definitely not goat based. Woona wasn't able to determine what sort of being that child was. The only other thing of significance to the photo was stains at the corner from teardrops.
Flipping it over, Woona discovered writing on the back, but she wasn't fluent enough in Monster runes yet to directly translate. Climbing up carefully to the table - using the staircase her Mama had built for her for the reading/writing lessons - Woona laid the photo next to the chart of picture-to-picture conversions and began carefully transposing the writing on the back of the photo to another piece of paper, in pony runes.
Finally finished, she examined what she had written.
The Dreemur Family
Asgore "Fluffybuns", Toriel, Asriel, and Chara-Gerson
Woona sat back, flipping the photo back over to compare the picture to the description. She was pretty sure she understood now what it was about the photo that made her Mama sad...but she didn't know why. She would have to find a way to discover the answers...hopefully without upsetting her Mama.
Putting the photo back where she found it, she took her transcription back to her room with her, stuffing it behind the stuffed animals before crawling into bed. She found herself filled with the DETERMINATION to make her Mama happy again.