//------------------------------// // 23 - Meanwhile... // Story: Underworld Frisk // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Yawning and getting up out of the guest room bed, she hopped her way out of the home to see how everyone was doing. Being put in charge as a regent of Home Ruins meant that Mifty couldn’t be lazy as all get out, she had to do a good job for the beloved Queen Toriel. She was currently using the Queen’s home as a base of operations, staying in the guest room that Pinkie had once slept in. Hop, the less than feral Froggit, was already awake and had curiously enough procured coffee. Coffee making was now his one job and he at least knew how to do it. His reintegration back into monster society was going pretty well since Toriel and Pinkie left six to eight days ago. He smiled at Mifty as she hopped her way into the room; he obviously liked his new big sister. “Good morning, let us ‘Hop’ on to business now shall we… I hope you are taking your reading lessons to heart.” Mifty was educating the monsters of the ruins and many a discovery was being made about how intelligent each monster was, the Froggit had found herself teaching the suddenly interested monsters. There were many changes going about and the spiders were doing good work and had almost completed the additions to the ruins, aside from that they were about to leave the ruins for good to join up with their brethren on the other side of the cold, inhospitable to spiders, Snowdin. They had made more than enough money to pay for such a trip in safety and were really good at what they did. Silently wishing the spiders’ good luck in their endeavors, Mifty started going over what she needed to do today. Being that her name was a Mysteriously Informative Frog Thing, she had to live up to it. As she sat at the table with her assistant Hop, she started to sip the coffee and reminisce about how she ended up getting so smart. - It was a long time ago and Mysterious Informative Frog Thing was a small lonely little four eye frog, her parents were always so busy with how cramped things were in the Underworld before it was dug out. She wanted a snack and she saw a bowl with a little bit of candy sitting inside on a pedestal. Who in their right mind would leave such a bounty behind? She couldn’t read the sign, no matter how hard she tried and she just couldn’t figure out how to get a piece of candy for herself. Monsters didn’t have much of an education system to speak of. “Oh, hello there little one, I just came by to refill the candy bowl.” Turning around Mifty met a wondrous, if sad looking goat lady, she unwrapped a piece of candy and held it out to her. She flicked her tongue out and took the candy into her mouth, it was as good as she imagined. She watched as the lady filled the bowl with more delectable treats. She was curious about the goat lady that gave her the treat and followed her to a small patch of flowers in some light and watched as she tended to them. That had had been the first time Mifty had met Queen Toriel, she had always been an inquisitive Froggit and she had set her mind to learn all about the things around her after that meeting. She eventually set out of from the ruins and braved the cold snow, swamps and other places of the Underworld on her own. She had learned much including how to write, having gone on her travels to learn all she could about their world underground. She eventually returned to the ruins knowing that Toriel was the divorced queen of the monsters and the habits of just about every monster trapped in the Underworld. To the very present, Mifty would still shudder when she thought about trailing The Jerry for five days straight just for the knowledge she could acquire on it. She had learned a lot of things she would rather forget about and couldn’t. The Jerry was truly a horrific creature that even a grue wouldn’t eat and those monsters usually ate everything. - Sighing at the memories Mifty took another sip of her brew, humans threw out of the oddest flavors sometimes and she didn’t mind that they did. She certainly had interesting tastes. Even if they couldn’t get any of the better stuff humans had to throw down here, they took what they were given and liked it. Her assistant Hop was a godsend in making coffee for her. Knowing what she did about Toriel and her dream of opening a school, Mifty wanted to see her achieve that dream. The goat lady had inspired her to become what she was today, a Froggit that was informative about many things as her parents had named her. She had written a book with paper that wouldn’t fall apart when exposed to water. Though there were many mysteries in the Underworld, none were more interesting to Mifty than Papyrus and Sans the Font brothers. She had a recollection of someone named Gaster written down as having made the core of the Underworld, but she couldn’t remember much about him beyond what she remembered writing that suddenly no longer made sense as she was on her way back to the ruins from her long journey. That was around when the two Font brothers appeared in Snowdin before she swam her way back into the Home Ruins. It had bothered her that she somehow lost all recollection of ever meeting the scientist named Gaster, but she knew he was somehow tied to the Font family that had taken to living in Snowdin. Aside from that Mifty had recently gotten some information about Toriel passing through Snowdin and then carrying on to Waterfall region with a new companion in tow. The Home Ruins recently started trading goods with Snowdin and things had really opened up for both living areas, all the supplies everyone had were actually in surplus. The Home Ruins were no longer a closed off piece of monster society, one that had let those poor innocent humans through. The ones that the queen wanted to see the goodness in. Now they were actually becoming more and more active and so were their neighbors. There was a vast change in the air for all the monsters who had met Pinkie Pie, the catalyst of joy and laughter. It had all happened so fast and in such a short amount of time. Among the ways in and out of the Home Ruins, swimming, digging and the door in the basement of the queen’s house were among the only ways into the Home Ruins. Swimming was dangerous for monsters that weren’t aquatic like Froggits’ and digging required careful planning to not having things collapse on you. As such the door was the safest way in and out of the Home Ruins. That was aside from being a ghost type monster like Napstablook who could go through walls, but couldn’t go through the barrier holding all the monsters in. “Now that I think of it, why can’t the ghost monsters go through the barrier holding us all down here in the Underworld?” Mifty was now once again curious; she had never thought to study the barrier that kept them in the Underworld. Goodness knows others have tried to study it and nothing came of that, except for the idea of bringing it down by overpowering it. “What’s physically keeping the ghost monsters down here? What is powering the barrier and how has it stayed this strong for this long? In all the studying that any scientist has done, why have they never asked that question? Why was it believed that seven human souls would break the barrier? What if humans have been sacrificing their souls to keep the barrier as strong as it is… would that mean that seven isn’t actually enough? How can humans pass safely into the barrier, but can’t leave once they are through it? It was the question whether or not any humans have actually been incapable of going back through the barrier, if so then why?” As she continued to sip the coffee, Mifty began to realize how uneducated monsters were that they never given it much thought to how each monster was different in many ways. Some monster could have seen something that others would have missed. She personally was a thinker and was seeing personally to the prosperity of the Home Ruins. The bear from Snowdin was a good politician to talk to even if he wasn’t smart in any other arena than a political one. She had made sure the monsters of the Home Ruins had jobs to do and kept them busy. She wasn’t about them to lazily fall into a funk again, that same funk almost broke their queen’s heart! Only the daily task of tending the flowers was what kept her going if barely at that. Mifty felt something nudge her and she came to her senses, Hop had apparently been worried about her going off into thought for too long and brought her mind back to the present. “Right, thanks for getting my out of that rather thoughtful state Hop. Now where can I get a phone? I have to call Queen Toriel!” A phone lowered from the ceiling on a whole lot of strands of webbing. Looking up Mifty could see the monster spiders were still around and performing their duties, they heard her ask for help and they gladly and generously gave her a phone for free without asking for compensation. “Things really have changed around here for the better. I thank you my dear friends, I don’t know how I can ever repay your kindness. It is thanks to everyone’s efforts that we will not let Queen Toriel down.” A spider held out a sign that said ‘no problem’ on it and Mifty smiled before she tapped out a number on the phone and heard it ringing. She had to ask the queen what she knew of the barrier and how it worked, it could be important to the future of the Underworld. She might have hit upon an idea that would break the barrier without the power of human souls, much less without stealing Pinkie’s big heart. She wanted the queen’s consort to be around to make Toriel inexorably happy and her idea just might help things. The spiders were still in the midst of their preparations to leave the Home Ruins; it had been long since they had seen the other half of their colony and soon they would make that trip in perfect safety. Thanks to Pinkie, they now knew what they were all capable of when they worked together to really put all of their tiny little hearts into it. - Sans was a lazy guy, he was everywhere at once and sometimes nowhere at all. He’s seen many pathways and realities. This time however, something was very wrong. Something had changed drastically. The pony didn’t know of the power of saving, heck he wasn’t sure how the pink one even ended up here or how she had altered things. He was a very smart skeleton, also a really dangerous monster even if his health wasn’t that great. In comparison his brother was actually stronger than he was, however he was smarter, agile and more cunning. While his brother Papyrus could take a hit, he himself couldn’t which made him a glass cannon. The irony of being cannon made of glass was not lost on him. Having once promised the voice on the other side of the door that he’d look out for the next human that came by, Sans knew who that was supposed to be. Only now that there was someone else, he was confused at how things had changed so drastically. Pinkie was not human so he couldn’t be held to that promise that he gave Toriel about her, but he was interested in the pony. He was still watching out for a seventh human that wasn’t the adopted child of Toriel and there was no sign of them yet. “Does Pinkie really have the power to save us from the loop?” Sans mused out loud and in a serious tone before her heard Papyrus scream up at him, something about picking up a sock? “No.” “Sans, you’re going to come down here and pick up your sock right now!” The Sock Avoiding Papyrus ran into the room and grabbed Sans to drag him down the stairs and then threw him at the sock in question in the middle of the living room, much too both the brothers shock Sans just sat their floating in mid air upside down above the sock. “Sans, how are you doing that?” “I actually have no idea, but I don’t want you to ‘sock it to me’ for saying that this is kind of neat.” Sans held out his arms in a shrug and smiled as a rim shot played. He got a little introspective as he floated above the sock, how did the sock even get down here? Eh, he’d worry about it later. Hopefully his pet tornado wasn’t doing anything with that dust devil he didn’t like. “So I’m just going to ‘hang around’ here for a while, you know, while you go find help for me. No, seriously, I think I might actually be stuck like this Papyrus. Oh and can you get me a root beer ‘float’ from Grillby’s while you’re at it?” - On the path to Snowdin there stood a snowman, he wasn’t lonely since a part of him was going on a wondrous journey. Something brought his attention away from the distant piece of himself leaving the Temmie village. It was a local called Snow Drake and he brought a friend with him that looked like a large mobile ice cube in the shape of a pony. “Hello there, Ice to meet you.” The snowy duck said with a jovial tone of voice. “You’re not Ice, I’m Ice!” The walking ice sculpture stated angrily. “If you’re nice then why are you yelling at me angrily? I’m Snow Drake by the way!” The frozen duck stated. “If you’re no drake then why are you even pretending to be one?” The ice cube pointed a rectangular block for a leg at the drake. “Sleets me, all I know is that I’m one cool customer.” The Snow Drake answered in return. “So don’t leave us out in the cold.” “Well leave me out in it; I’m okay with it being a bit nippy.” The rectangular ice pony said. “Well so long as you don’t frost bite me, I’m okay with that.” Snow Drake said before striking a pose with the living ice sculpture while giving a jazz hands kind of wave with his wings as his newest friend did the same. “So, like our routine? Come now don’t freeze up on us.” “Yeah, please give us an idea of how our routine is." The ice sculpture stated jovially. "We’re such a frosty pair!” “I would ice my partner here, but it’s already too late for that.” The Snow Drake waggled what passed for his eyebrows. “At least he isn’t freezing up anymore.” “Oh no, am I melting!” The ice sculpture sounded scared for a moment before he burst out laughing, a laughter shared between the three cold faring beings. “I like you two.” The snowman gave a broad smile; he just had to ask since it seemed kind of obvious. “Have you two met Pinkie Pie by any chance?” The two strangers nodded, what followed was a stone cold serious conversation about having a sense of humor that good. Also how to let loose a blizzard of fun commentary, a joke about Ice cycling and things really began to snowball from there thanks to the snowman. - The Temmies’ had finally finished repairing the deck in the most haphazard of fashions and they somehow made perfect repairs to the ship. Temmantha was sad, not because the ship had been hurt or because of all the injured Temmies’ around her still recovering. No Temmantha was sad that she couldn’t hug the big chunky skeleton anymore; he disappeared in a flash as soon as he got her off his face. “We do what we want, because we are Temmies’!” Shouted Temmantha the blond Temmie pirate with boots that walked around on her hind legs, she would move on and get more belly rubs and cuddles. It was the perfect plan, glad tem thought of it! “We are the pirates!” The Temmies’ shouted back enthusiastically, except for one who looked a little lost. “What about me, tem beat First Mate Temmie and stopped being pirate?” First Mate Temmie had beaten the ever loving tar out of herself, but in the end she still got belly rubs for it from Pinkie Pie. She liked her friends who weren’t Temmies’, but they had other things to do and she was still with her pirate friends who were all Temmies’. “First Mate Temmie got belly rubs, victory for tem is you! We forgive transgressions against First Mate Temmie, right?” The rest of the crew shouted their support at Temmantha’s words. “In the pursuit of belly rubs we trust!” “Can tem try to help other friends? They give good belly rubs.” All the pirates were behind First Mate Temmie’s suggestion; none of the Temmies’ were upset that First Mate Temmie got belly rubs and victory when they didn’t. In fact they were all just really happy for her. The insane crazy little guys weren’t an overly vicious bunch and were just sadly looking for love, cuddles and rubs of the tummy in an over the top aggressive manner that was just plain adorable. They’d be the perfect friends for a certain group of shape shifters back in Equestria. - In Snowdin the rabbits, bears and many other residents were actually happy to start trading with the Home Ruins. In fact they were happy to hear that there were monster still there. Betty and Carol were getting more business than ever lately. Ever since Toriel came through the town, it had brought about a rise in emotional closeness between all the residents. It occurred especially in those who heard the story of the three tribes that Pinkie told, the editor of the Snowdin newspaper put it to print in a story and it became quite a hit that breathed some life into the town, aside from what having reopened connections with the Home Ruins brought. The story of coming together had been such a heartwarming tale, especially when it went into detail about the frosty snow creatures that fed on hatred and anger being defeated by caring and companionship. “I wonder how Pinkie and her friends are doing.” Betty hummed to herself as she sold some warm clothing to monsters that weren’t as good at handling the cold. “I don’t know, but I wish them well… can you watch Tina for me Betty, I have so much to do and she’s been getting a little underfoot if you will.” Carol was happy to have so much business, she was also happy to be making so many new friends with the monsters that haven’t been seen in a long time. “Sure thing Carol, I love my niece and I can look out for her while you taking care of all your new guests.” Betty reached down and ruffled Tina’s ears causing the little rabbit girl to smile up at her. Friendship and the warmth that came with it had appeared in Snowdin and the monsters were slowly waking up from a long emotional winter. - In what was once a quiet, dreary and lonely part of Waterfall there was now some music and excitement. Onion-san had made a lot of knew friends, among them were the two new best friends she had made since meeting Pinkie and Toriel. Shyren and Argent weren’t the only ones to visit the lonely Onion-san, as of this day now Clammy and Napstablook were planning on doing so as well. They were all becoming good friends and the composing ghost was the one to take up teaching them all he knew of music. Quite a few of the monsters there in that area were shy and these five were making a support group for the local monsters of Waterfall to get together and stop being so lonely. Quite a few were here to learn how to make music from Mr. Blook’s impromptu lecture. “So that’s how an arpeggio works.” Napstablook got some awed sounds from his knowledge in helping these other monsters learn about what it took to make a band; Argent would be helpful as he was a good agent to Shyren. The ghost would later make for an excellent music teacher and there were several other monsters that were already interested in the music that was being made here by the person who wanted to be a composer. Clam Girl was good with a violin and flute, Onion-san definitely liked drumming with her big tentacles, Shyren could sing, play a tambourine and a xylophone. Argent was the most surprising as the large mouthed eel monster could play a cello and bass guitar with his tail. Napstablook was good with just about anything including an electronic piano he brought just to show the other monsters as he taught them. It was even getting hard for Napstablook to even be depressive with so many monsters that liked him and he himself personally really liked Ms. Shyren. Napstablook hoped that Pinkie, Gyftrot and Toriel were all okay. Sure it was okay for him to continue on feeling like garbage after a meal, but he wasn’t alone anymore and he was truly happy to stop being so darn shy. He especially liked the commentary and feedback on his musical expertise. - King Asgore had heard many strange things were going on in the Underworld, a strange pink creature who had a soul that was as powerful if not more so than that of a humans. He tended to the flowers in his personal field and pondered the other strange rumors as he did so. He had heard that his ex wife Toriel was on the move, but he didn’t know why. Was she coming to see him? It made his heart flutter slightly. He was a tall and wide goat monster with a lot of muscle to him; of course the ones in his head were thickest as his ex would proclaim clearly without remorse. The seven to ten or so foot tall goat monster wearing dark armor sighed sadly and thought of what Toriel coming to visit him meant, did she forgive him for what he had to do or was there another reason? “Oh the memories...” The king sighed to himself; he remembered when the human child and his son accidentally poisoned him with buttercups. It had been truly an accident; it made him remember at least one human in a fond light. He much preferred these flowers he tended to that were known as Gorse or Ulex, he would never eat any of the ones in his personal garden but they were edible and tasted pretty good. Plus the flowers were really quite hardy if in need of tending to get rid of all the thorns. These were the flowers Asriel brought back to the Underworld before he died. The large goat man sighed as tears fell freshly from his eyes; what was Toriel up to and why she was coming to see him. It bothered him that his ex wife, who had been inactive for so long, just suddenly left the Home Ruins from whence she had barricaded herself in a long time ago to get away from him. While they may not be together anymore, he was somewhat happy to hear that she was still alive. Asgore never bothered to even think that Toriel and the pink creature with a powerful soul were even remotely connected in some way. It was well known that Asgore wasn’t the smartest guy in the world, since Toriel was the one that was considered to have all the brains in the relationship they had. Nobody would ever be able to disabuse any monster of that fact. For what he lacked in brains, Asgore made up for it entirely in pure raw physical strength and a great compassion for his people. - Celestia was compassionate about her ponies and had her sister back, and then she made a big mistake. Luna and Cadence had both gotten onto her about it and she was properly chastised. She sent her faithful student Twilight Sparkle after a full grown dragon, which most ponies knew were highly magic resistant and why it was so dangerous to even attack one given they were armored against most forms of attack. Heck, Celestia even knew that only an alicorn or a bunch of royal guard unicorns working in concert could even hope to suppress a single dragon much less a few. The Wonder Bolts would at best have annoyed it enough to attack the nearest settlements and earth ponies weren’t exactly the best idea to combat an actively aggressive dragon. Not once had Celestia stopped to think of what would happen if one of the element bearers had gotten hurt or perished, she was grooming her student for a bright future and she had immediately lost one of Equestria’s greatest defenses against powerful beings like Discord in the Elements of Harmony. It was ironic that they didn’t lose Pinkie Pie to the dragon, but a fall off a dangerous mountain where she disappeared and it has been long time with no sign of her except for the one thing that proved she was still among the living. Celestia never liked the idea of choosing stones and Cadence was even less thrilled about the old earth pony tradition of finding a perfect soul mate, but there was nothing they could do about it. The choosing stones had a ridiculous accuracy when it came to finding a perfect partner for the earth pony that it belonged to, around eight hundred years ago Celestia got one and to this day she still has it. Personally, Celestia just doesn’t like what her choosing stone says about her. It didn’t have the name Sombra on it at all and the name it did have was something of a bit of contention for her. There were names on it now that she’d rather make sure her faithful student didn’t know about, considering she had only recently checked her stone for the first time in the last eight hundred years and was a bit shocked at what she saw. On Celestia’s personal choosing stone, there were a lot of blank spots and among those spots that were not blank were some surprising names. The name Sunset Shimmer had saddened Celestia greatly, Twilight Sparkle which didn’t surprise Celestia all too much and much to her unenviable dislike of seeing it at all as still being on the stone, Discord. Discord was the very reason why Celestia hadn’t checked the stone at all after she got one about two hundred years after Luna was sent to the moon, the very first name to pop up was Discord’s which had her feel completely disgusted with the notion that such a stone could find a perfect partner for you. “With Pinkie Pie being incapable of being found by a spell, the elements of harmony can’t be used in the case of an emergency.” Celestia had to say it out loud to herself to understand why exactly this was a horrible thing, she had become too reliant on some certain knowledge she had. This is what she was stuck with now. “At least I know the Element of Laughter isn’t entirely gone, but the name Toriel is too foreign a name to even someone as well traveled as me.” Walking over to the balcony she considered the names that had appeared on Cadence’s choosing stone, because the princess of love was curious as to what her choosing stone would have on it. She had recently gotten one thanks to Twilight’s message about them and the news that Pinkie Pie was alive. There was a lot of irony surrounding how the choosing stone reacted to Cadence, millions of names flickering all over the stone. At least one of them hadn’t flickered and was someone Cadence was already dating, that being Shining Armor. Speaking of Shining Armor, he could never know that Cadence had a lot of other suitors she could turn to incase things didn’t turn out well between them. Especially not when his sister’s name was on Cadence’s choosing stone as well, Celestia was wary of her going near Twilight like that. He would also be shocked to find that Cadence also had a good match with Applejack. Apparently hearing the name of the element of honesty immediately hardened that name into the stone since love and honesty were definitely two traits that worked together when it comes to a commitment. “Yes, it is a name that even we cannot fathom as to where it comes from sister; something is interfering with our spells to find the pink one. Now what are the chances of us getting our own stone of choosing? Does it only work for those with the power of earth ponies?” Luna had been curious about choosing stones since hearing of them, they were strange and wondrous rocks and she had seen the one Celestia had without her sister knowing about it. She was a little surprised that her sister could possibly be won over by Discord, but thought it was cute that Twilight and some pony named Sunset were on the stone as well. “Hearing the name of one who could be our very own beloved interests us so. Know that we are still upset with thee even if we are on speaking terms.” “I pray for your swift return Pinkie Pie.” A slightly bedraggled Celestia muttered something under her breathe, she still had two alicorns’ that were still rightfully upset with her decisions to send Twilight up against a dragon. Twilight didn’t even beat the dragon in a spectacular manner that Celestia had expected she would, it had been Fluttershy that did it by staring the dragon down into a quivering pile of pure fear. - It was blazing hot in the hot lands as per usual and in a nearby laboratory where a yellow lizard in a lab coat worked, there was said lizard watching the events nearby on a camera. She was watching as the powerful pink pony took a shovel to her crush for a painful looking pounding. The lady lizard who wore glasses froze up when she saw the shovel dig into the armor at the start of the fight on the bridge over lava, then the pony was up and over Undyne who was promptly smacking her across the back seconds later causing her armor to crack and fracture. As horrified as she was, the lizard creature couldn’t help but look at the scientific process behind the armor being broken down with what looked to be an average shovel. The first impact had caused the armor to vibrate as it was rent open in the front, then when it was hit from behind it caused the vibrations to counter the force back towards the front of the armor creating the numerous cracks. The pink pony the yellow lizard had been watching was quite a notably dangerous creature when armed with a shovel. With an analytical mind, this lizard person studied the angry equine shredding completely through the armor plating around one of Undyne’s shins with a sideways swing. The pony then proceeded on to perform the incredible feat of tearing Undyne down with raw strength and what appeared to be an understanding of physics beyond what was considered normal. All this while taking a lot of hits in the process, the shirt and colorful pteruge skirt the pony was wearing had to be really tough to survive hits from those spears like that. The last attack was what had the lizard the most intrigued; she moved the footage back and put it into slow motion and watched in amazement as the pony rapidly stabbed her way up the armor that was left on Undyne starting from the still armored leg to the still armored arm with what the pony called the Shovel Shatter. In one upward motion of incredibly fast stabs, the armor and Undyne were on their last legs before that devastating golf swing that shattered every single bit of armor that had been stabbed at. It was like watching an anime hero in action. While the last blow had taken Undyne down, it thankfully didn’t kill her much to the lizard’s joyful relief. She tensed up when she saw the pony approaching Undyne only to sigh again as the pony became friendly once more and went to go get that lovely fish girl some water, which made the lizard somewhat thankful that the pony understood Undyne wasn’t doing so hot. “Oh p-p-please be okay Undyne… why am I not getting any audio? Did those circuits overheat again? Did some monster chew through the wires? What’s going on over there?” The figure watching them saw that the two injured monsters started talking to one another and then Undyne looked particularly horrified about something. A second later the goat lady pulled out a cell phone from her backpack and started talking into it. After that the injured were each soon mounted to a four legged being to be carried in the direction of her lab. “Oh no, they’re coming here! They are coming with Undyne, to here… and coming… oh my goodness what do I do, what do I do? Do I put on a dress or do I prepare Mettaton for a fight? I’m so horribly conflicted right now!” This reptile recluse of a monster was royal scientist Dr. Alphys, who was now currently having a panic attack.