“I can’t BELIEVE you threw glass in his eyes.” Undyne confessed, frowning a bit at Shinedown as the half-Changeling stallion sighed and brushed some of his deep blue hair back. “I mean, that kinda thing’ll blind you for life! I remember when Chara took MY eye out, I mean…geez!”
“I said I was sorry. I mean I didn’t mean it THEN, but I do now.” Chara grumbled quietly.
“How come you never had that healed?” Shinedown wanted to know as he looked Undyne over, scratching his head as Undyne smirked a bit.
“It makes me look cool.” She said firmly with a big ol’ grin. “Like how you being able to do that thing with your voice is cool. Which reminds me, uh…could you…” She tapped her clawed fingers together, nervously blushing. “…I mean…if you wouldn’t mind? Derpy and Alphys got me REALLY into the show and-”
“Alright. For you.” Shinedown said, taking in a deep breath before holding his hoof over his chest, and doing a perfect imitation of a certain time-traveler that sounded ODDLY familiar to the residents of Ponyville, though they couldn’t quite figure out how. “Allonnnnnsy! I’m the Doctor!”
“Goosebumps.” Undyne murmured, in awe of that perfect rendition as she put a hand on her chest, Shinedown turning to Sans and giving him and Alphys a look.
“Speaking OF doctors ol’ chap, would you mind explaining yourselves?” He inquired in that same imitation of that famous character.
Everyone had gathered around in the town hall, all of their eyes on the resident scientists, eager for an explanation as Alphys nervously rubbed the back of her neck, the dinosaur-esque monster glancing briefly at Sans, then at Undyne, as her beloved gave her a thumbs up. Sans took in a deep breath himself, closing his eyes as he cringed a bit. “It’s kinda a long story. But I guess you got time, huh?” He inquired, speaking to the many, many assembled in Ponyville’s town hall. From the Cake Family to Doctor Hooves and Derpy, from Monster Kid to Toriel, everyone wanted to know just what they had to say as Frisk walked up to Sans, giving him a pat on the back as Chara sighed and sat by Asriel, who stood by Alphys and gave her a gentle shoulder rub.
“Deep breaths. You got this.” Asriel insisted warmly, Alphys nodding as she adjusted her glasses, and then spoke in her faintly buzzy, high-pitched tone.
“So, think of our timeline as a giant river.” Alphys reasoned. "This river will split off every once in a while into “tributaries”, tributaries made by choices that link to other rivers. This “prime timeline” of sorts can spawn other timelines that can be it’s equal or lesser depending on the circumstances, and how they end is very variable.”
“a lot of stuff in time is kinda fixed. there’s some stuff y’all can’t fix no matter how ya try. not everyone gets a second chance, or they waste it if they DO get it. good news is that if you made a good choice, you can make the timeline along another path and create another timeline from that. you can reach a happy endin’. and usually, the power to change Fate, DETERMINATION, is how this gets done, and humans possess gobs and gobs of the stuff. us monsters really can’t handle it, makes us…well…” Sans trailed off as Alphys adjusted her glasses again, the lens becoming glassy.
“Melt.” She said darkly, Undyne quietly nodding. “…our physical frames can’t handle it.”
“But then doesn’t that mean that…the Shadowlord was right? If our every choice makes a new timeline, then what DOES it matter what we do?” Twilight nervously inquired. “This all sounds terribly horrifying. The implications are staggering!” She insisted, holding her face and shaking her head back and forth.
“not exactly. See, the thing is that, besides the fact that timelines can change cuz of what you do, they don’t exactly last long. Gaster and Alphys and I studied this. Evidently the stupider or crazier decisions don’t make long-lastin’ timelines. They tend to die off pretty darn quick.”
“What do you mean “stupider or crazier”?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking a bit confused.
“There’s a timeline where, instead of you asking that question, you immediately ran out into the streets and began clucking like a chicken.” Alphys reasoned. “But that timeline almost immediately vanished into nothingness because it’s so unlikely you’d DO that, that it might as well have not existed at all. So really, there’s actually not as many timelines as you’d think. They really only veer off based on very important decisions.” She admitted. “Either very good ones, or very bad. It’s not near-infinite, but it IS high enough so that it becomes easy to FEEL like there’s no choice.”
“time is a mess most of the time.” Sans admitted. “but hey, these “authors” that we know about, for all we know, THEY might not have free will. Everyone is just flyin’ by the seat of their pants and tryin’ to do the best they can with what they got.”
“So what we do might actually matter after all?” Fluttershy nervously inquired as Asriel took one hoof and smiled warmly at her.
“You should always act like EVERYTHING you do matters.” He said. “Cuz the tiniest act of friendship can blossom into something even greater.”
“Yeah, look at Frisk. All he had to do was some flexing contests, a bit of amateur psycho-therapy and a joke contest or two and he won everyone in the Underground over.” Undyne confessed. “He’s a big ol’ wuss with an even bigger heart.” She said with a cheery, fangy grin.
“And I’m gonna rip it out.” A voice intoned quietly as it watched them all through a telescope, shaking its head back and forth, its grin the work of demons as Sombra stood by it in the dark shadows…
…
…
…
…Frisk let out a soft yawn, curling up inside his bed as Toriel kissed him on the forehead. “Sweet dreams, sweetie.” She said, Asriel having been kissed goodnight as well as he laid in his own bed above Frisk, the two enjoying a nice bunk bed in the shape of, of course, race cars. Because as we all knew, race cars were cool. The moon cast soft rays through the curtains of the window as Toriel closed the door, Asriel’s chest slowly rising and falling beneath his own covers as Frisk snuggled up tight under the down comforter he had, visions of buttercups dancing in his head. Or rather, many, MANY Floweys, to be truthful.
What was he dreaming? Simple.
“You spin me inside-outside, and then you hold me so tight! We’ll dance and party all night, mambo-mambo-le! So kiss me in the moonlight, you know it always feels right, we’ll dance and party all night! Mambo-mambo-le!”
“This is what he dreams of?” Sombra remarked, Frisk doing the Mambo, Mamboleo, Mambo, Mambole. “…amusing.” He confessed.
“Ahhh, no matter what timeline I got to, it always brings such a smile to my face to see the kid.” His friend intoned as he put his hands in his pockets and chuckled, showing off a toothy smile.
“When do you NOT smile?” Sombra intoned calmly, giving his compatriot a calm look, raising a black eyebrow up as a familiar chuckle wafted through the air, and with a snap of his fingers, the figure locked the door, closing Frisk and Asriel off.
“And ohhhh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. This just won’t do.” The figure added, looking Asriel over, shaking his head. “Ol’ Azzy shouldn’t be here. He should only be manifesting before he’s about to fight Frisk or after. Shouldn’t be walkin’ around all normal. No, nobody should be here in this timeline. It really is so, SO damaged. Just can’t be allowed.”
Sombra nodded, his eyes glowing as a faint illusionary spell wafted over the room, dimming all light, silencing all sounds that could be heard from within as the caped unicorn waited, his compatriot making his way toward Frisk, cracking his neck a bit.
“I’d better start with him. It’s always hardest meeting some of them, outside of…Papyrus.”
Frisk’s eyes shot open, a voice he had heard before echoing through the room as he rose up from the bed, green eyes wide in shock as the half American, Half Asian child gaped in surprise and alarm and fear. It was Sans, and yet…it was not. For Sans’s body was pure black, his eye sockets red as blood, foul and unnatural, his form almost minimalist in design. It was as if he’d been boiled down to his most basic state, there was no detail on his body. No creases in the dark jacket he wore, no indentation of where the finger bones met, his smile and fingers an ugly, disgusting shade of yellow that made Frisk think of rotting teeth, with a red shirt to match the pitiless sockets that gazed at him. Within those blood red sockets on the right side was a single white pinpoint pupil, within the other a dark blue pupil with a foul, unnatural yellow iris, another little black pinpoint blazing forth from within. He seemed to be eternally crying, blue streaks running down his cheeks from his eye sockets, his smile…
Wrong. Everything about this Sans seemed wrong, unnatural, disturbing. His grin was the work of demons as he looked Frisk over. “Welp. Ya woke up. This coulda been so much easier.” He said, holding up a finger and twirling it about as blue wires unfurled from around them, wrapping around Frisk, turning his soul a shade of light blue that Frisk was all-too-familiar with. A creeping, ugly feeling began to rise up off his body as this Sans shook his head back and forth. “Looks like ya don’t got any sins on you. That’s a little comfort to me, kid. Now just hold still…these little babies are real sharp. So just relax. They’re so sharp, you won’t feel a thing…” The strange new Sans remarked, his voice like someone had taken Sans’s normal deep tone and twisted and corrupted it, as if static was infecting every syllable and it was echoing in a dark abyss that no man was meant to step into.
“Should I take care of this one?” Sombra remarked calmly, looking over at the slumbering Asriel as Frisk’s eyes widened.
“NO!” He yelled out. “DON’T!”
“Aww, that really is just like you. Always thinking of others.” Sans’s doppelganger intoned.
“What…what ARE you?” Frisk asked, his eyes wide in confusion. “You look like Sans, but…Sans would never wanna hurt me or Asriel.”
“If it wasn’t for his promise, ya woulda been dead where ya stood.” The strange Sans chuckled darkly. “But you’re right, I ain’t your normal Sans. I get called Error Sans…by those lucky enough to get away from me. And they sure ain’t many.” He added with a rotten smile, closing his eyes as he shook his head back and forth. “See, people like you are kinda a problem, Frisk. There should only be ONE timeline. I can’t let you just fiddle around with places like this. No, you shouldn’t even be here. You gotta go.”
“I agree on THAT!” A voice rang out. “Star Blazing!”
A pulsating, shimmering series of star made of pure, raw magical power slammed into Sans, knocking him clear through the walls as Sombra turned, seeing Asriel standing up tall, holding a clawed paw up. “CHAOS SABER!” He then proclaimed, as a mighty, heart-insignia’d sword appeared in his outstretched hand and he brought it towards Sombra, who calmly ducked, slamming into Asriel and knocking him through the wall as Toriel let out a cry, seeing Asriel flopping out into the kitchen their room was right next to as she rose up from her chair in the living room, dropping her copy of “72 Uses For Snails” on the floor, Discord dropping the cup of tea he had before it suddenly shot back up into his hand.
“Oh! I didn’t know we would be having COMPANY.” The Spirit of Chaos intoned with a small, wry chuckle as he looked over at Toriel. “Well, I usually love uninvited and unexpected guests, but I think we may need to teach our new guest a few manners.”
“I wholeheartedly AGREE.” Toriel insisted, cracking her knuckles as, meanwhile, a small bucket full of snails all breathed a sigh of relief, thankful they would NOT be turned into bootlaces tonight.
Luckily, Frisk was now free as well, and he leaped off the bed, racing to Toriel and Discord’s side as Asriel staggered up and Error Sans rose in the air, hovering about as his one eye faintly glowed with unnatural power. “I actually FELT that.” He remarked. “Congrats on your one hit on me. Cuz you aren’t getting a repeat performance.”
He held up a hand, the blue wires shooting forth as Discord nonchalantly clapped his hands. The wires stopped an inch away from all of them, and with a POOF and a POP, they’d turned into licorice that Discord began passing out to Asriel and Frisk as Toriel leapt at King Sombra, who ducked and dodged to avoid Toriel’s furious sweeps, her paws enveloped in fiery flames.
“You have SOME NERVE going after my children as they sleep!” She commanded.
“Everything is going to end.” Sombra intoned softly. “You’re only making this much harder on yourself and your beloved little ones.” He told her, holding up his front hooves, blocking Toriel’s burning paws, cringing a bit at the blazing heat as a bead of sweat dribbled down his head.
“Erasing everything is not the answer!” Toriel insisted. “That is like saying that you have solved your problem of needing to clean your room by burning your home down!”
“No comments from the peanut gallery, Tori.” Error Sans said, snapping his fingers as an ugly, bulbous Gaster Blaster formed behind him, that same foul, unnatural shade of yellow blazing forth as Sombra flopped to the ground suddenly, Toriel falling almost on top of him as he kicked her up, into the path of the beam…
Only for Frisk to shoot through the air, tackling her out of the way as they rolled across the living room floor and slammed into the wall, the Gaster Blaster beam blowing open a huge chunk of the house as Error Sans turned it on them-
Discord’s tail shot forth, wrapping around Error Sans as he turned to Toriel. “My apologies, Tori. Evidently your friend here would like to do some interior decorating. Well, let us OBLIGE him!” He proclaimed, dragging Error Sans around the room, slamming him against the wall before launching him through the air. The twisted copycat of Sans barreled straight through another wall, flopping outside as people’s lights turned on in various houses, everyone peeking outside to see what was the matter. “Ahhh. This place has good feng shui now. We’re really airing out the room, wouldn’t you say?” Discord inquired before he let out a gasp, Sombra’s horn stabbing into his-
“YEOOOOOOOWWWW-HOOO-HOOO-HOOOOOO!” Discord proclaimed, sailing through the air, flopping into a tree a quarter of a mile away as Sombra stuck his tongue out in disgust and began wiping his horn off.
“UGH. Can’t! Get! Clean!” He grumbled. “Ah, well. Discord is not the only one who knows how to fight dirty.”
CLANG! A pot slammed into his head as Frisk and Toriel began whacking it over and over and over with heavy duty spoons, the Shadow Lord staggering about as Asriel readied his Chaos Saber and pointed it at Error Sans before racing forward. “You’re about to enter a world of pain of which you are unfamiliar!”
“How about you try to kill me first, THEN gloat?” Error Sans remarked, calmly stepping to the side and TRIPPING Asriel, making him fall flat on his face as the little goat boy fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book, moaning as he struggled to pull himself out of the ground, head now half-buried in the grass as Error Sans made his way towards Asriel, blue strands wrapping around the kid’s back legs, yanking him up…
Just in time for the REAL Sans to show. Error Sans barely teleported away as a furious, baleful, absolute HATEFUL-looking Sans stood there, his face grim and gritty as he glowered coldly at his foe, Sombra twisting his body and knocking Toriel and Frisk off their feet as he tossed the pot atop his head away and rose up more fully, shadows wrapping around the two. As Error Sans and Sans faced each other, Toriel and Frisk gasped in pure horror, Sombra’s face seeming to morph and twist, his full power to prey on people’s fears through his DETERMINATION becoming clear. Eyes melting out of the sockets, tentacles rising up, mandibles where a mouth had been, endlessly screaming, he LIVED IN HIS OWN EYES, HE LIVED IN HIS OWN EYES…
“how…dare…you…” Sans whispered coldly as Error Sans smirked a bit, taking the time to breath in Toriel and Frisk’s fears as everyone in Ponyville looked around at each other, then instantly decided to act as one, racing to stop the Shadowlord.
“Oh, you don’t that that? I’m the one trying to make things right. There should only be ONE timeline. One path.”
“that’s a load and you know it. what do you call Chara trying to take Frisk over? Or Frisk goin’ on through, being all lovey-dovey to everyone?” Sans growled out, Gaster Blasters manifesting behind him just as they did for Error Sans.
“Even then the Prime timeline makes it clear it’s one of those two. If that Frisk wanted to reset and do things again, so be it. But you being here? No, no. That won’t be tolerated. There should only be one Frisk. One Papyrus. One SANS.” Error Sans said with a dark smile.
“then why don’t you start with yourself? you’re not normal.” Sans snapped, Error Sans frowning darkly.
“Oh, you needn’t worry about that. When my job is done and they’re all gone, then I’ll be gone too.” He remarked, not wanting to admit how close to home Sans’s dig at his blatant hypocrisy had gotten as he held his hand up, and Sans did the same. Their blasters fired with a peal of thunder cracking as Sombra swept and tossed ponies off of him left and right, snarling and growling, fangs turning blood red as they quavered and quivered, his full power now being manifested, their absolute terror and horror beginning to overwhelm them. He wasn’t holding back like he had before. He wasn’t eager to die.
No. He would have everything end along with him. It was the way it had to be. He rose up in the air, a dark secondary cape draping off his body as he rose up, arms spread wide, his eyes burning like red and green fires as Discord managed to tug himself off the tree, barreling straight towards the dark being as he rose in size himself, tackling Sombra, knocking him back. “I! HAVE HAD! ENOUGH! OF YOU!” He proclaimed, kicking Sombra squarely in the face again and again with his hooves, knocking him further and further across the expanse, sending chunks of town square flying left and right as they tumbled and rolled around on Ponyville. Eventually the two collided with a pole as it slapped down on top of them, Discord managing to lift it up, Sombra on the end as he swung it around and around, launching Sombra through the air.
With a powerful THA-THUD, Sombra slid down a nearby tree, but rose back up, growling as he thrust a hand forward, eyes narrowing.
“You want an end to your fear? THERE…is your enemy.” He whispered coldly, his voice wafting through everyone’s ears, Frisk and Toriel and the inhabitants of Ponyville all stiffening, Twilight Sparkle struggling not to give in.
“NO! N-NO, I…no…” She muttered out, her eyes becoming almost solid green with red pupils herself, Spike clutching his skull as he howled in pain, the others in Ponyville all turning as one, mouth slightly agape.
“Destroy…destroy our fear…” Spike groaned out, Rainbow Dash shambling towards Discord, the closest in the large group that leapt on top of him, whacking him again and again with their hooves as Sombra smirked and rose up on a pillar of solid darkness, twisting his hooves about, focusing his might. Discord cringed, pony after pony launching onto him as they tried to pin him down and stomp him out.
“What are we gonna do?” Asriel murmured, hiding behind a chunk of his mother’s house as he cringed, standing by Shinedown as he helped the little goaty monster stay hidden in the shadows. “They fight REALLY dirty! If we could just take one of them out first, it’d be so much easier…”
“Listen. I’ve an idea.’ Shinedown said softly, whispering into Asriel’s ear as his eyes went wide in shock.
“W-We can’t do that! That’s…that’s AWFUL!”
“He’s going to murder everyone. We have to at least try.” Shinedown reasoned softly, with a slightly firm, dangerous edge as Asriel cringed. The dark glint in his eyes made the little soft-hearted monster cringe. Maybe he really WAS of Sombra’s blood after all.
“…okay…” Asriel murmured softly, hanging his head as he snuck over towards another bush, Shinedown clearing his throat whilst Error Sans had pulled out his blue wires, and was launching Sans left and right through the air, laughing. “You idiot! You don’t have the HP I do!” He said with a pitiless smirk.
“SANS? WHATEVER ARE YOU DOING?! AND WHEN DID YOU CLONE YOURSELF?”
Error Sans stiffened, his eyes going wide, mouth slightly gaping as he wheeled around, looking in the direction of the voice-
“Hello.”
Shinedown giving him a smirk.
“And goodbye.”
THRUCK! Error Sans let out a pained gasp, little words that read “ERROR” pulsating around him…Asriel’s Chaos Saber through his back, Asriel cringing as he shook his head. “I’m sorry! You didn’t give us a choice! I’m sorry!”
Error Sans stiffened, normal Sans dropping down, Shinedown barreling forth and catching him, arms outstretched as Error Sans’s head slowly turned around, his grin horrific, mockingly staring back at Asriel as Sombra gazed in shock.
“I KNEW…you had it in you…” He whispered out, before vanishing an instant later with a POP, Sombra gasping as his mouth hung open.
“Damnable…this is not over!” He insisted with a fervent growl, thrusting a hoof down towards the ground, a blinding flash of green light nearly blinding all of them as they cringed, struggling to regain their bearings. And when the light had faded…
He was gone as well, Asriel panting as he flopped to his knees, Toriel and Frisk racing to him as Shinedown helped Sans up to his feet. “Sorry for that. I know using your brother’s voice is dirty pool, but we had to beat him somehow…”
Sans nodded, giving him a shrug as he closed his eyes. “hey, I understand. but for future reference, uh…”
His eyes shot open, blank, horrifying sockets staring back.
“D O N ‘T Y O U E V E R D O T H A T A G A I IN.”
Shinedown flinched. Damn. He forgot how scary Sans could be sometimes…
…
…
…
… “Damn it.”
Error Sans folded his arms over his chest, frowning as Sombra began wrapping some bandages around his chest. “Stop it, ya stupid horse! I’m not a Baby Bones!”
“You took a sword to the chest. You need rest.” Sombra remarked with a frown.
“What we need is a new plan. The problem is easy. I shoulda seen it sooner. When they’re all together like that, they always, always find a way to overcome everything.” Error Sans said as Sombra nodded calmly.
“It is their nature.” He admitted. “It’s quite impressive. And aggravating.”
“We need to do something about that. With their friendship gone, their timeline will follow.” Error Sans said as they sat hidden in the deep Everfree Depths, his eye glittering like a cold ruby in the center of a blazing fire. “The heart. First we attack their heart.”