• Published 19th Oct 2016
  • 11,656 Views, 616 Comments

A new chance at one HP - Emeraldleafeon



Coming off of the genocide run, Sans will get a new shot at having one HP

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12 Fight and Blight

Cadence’s Room Canterlot Castle

The pink princess took a sip of tea from her cup, never breaking eye contact with the skeleton.

“so, uhh. whatcha wanna talk to me about?” The skeleton in question was sitting down with a small coffee table in between the pony and the monster.

Cadence smiled and set down the tea with her magic. “Well, I had a question about what you did yesterday at breakfast. I know that you used a spell, but I have no idea what it was about or what it did. I would just like some information on it.”

‘well, there goes my cover. I guess it’s time for plan b. good ol’ explanation intimidation.’ Sans smiled, non-threateningly. “oh, that little trick? it’s an ability I have called judge. it basically gives me the inside scoop on whoever I’m usin’ it on. things like EXP, LV and such, plus a basic description of them. it’s like a check, which is something a lot of people can use where I’m from. but it’s a little more in depth. the only difference is it lets me see if someone’s suspicious in any way.”

To Cadence’s credit, her only reaction to that was a tiny split-second eyebrow twitch. Were Sans not so good at judging faces, he might have missed it. 'gotcha.’ “it's not really a problem if you haven’t done anything wrong,” he continued out loud. “I used it a decent amount in one of my old jobs so I’m pretty good at using it. practice makes perfect, work hard for good results, all that after school special stuff. really useful for security, wouldn’t you say?”

Cadence’s face remained in its almost-neutral position throughout all of this, and put on a politely curious- ‘and ever so slightly worried-’ smile.

“Well, did you see anything suspicious while you checked?” the princess asked.

“nah, I was just making sure some of the staff were good. it’d make sense for the ponies trying to infiltrate would try to get castle staff under their control. none of the staff in that room seemed to be very suspicious, though, so your wedding seems to be safe so far.”

Cadence seemed to smile in relief, which was appropriate considering what she had just been told. “Well, that’s nice to know, I’m glad that you’re looking you for me and Shiny. It’s nice to see that some others are taking this wedding security business seriously. I would like to thank you for doing this.”

Sans shrugged. “I know that shining armor is the head of the guard and all, but it’d be a bad idea to leave it up to just the groom for the security of the wedding. a bit of extra security lower on the ladder wouldn’t hurt, and nobody would really see it comin’. ...well, except you, apparently.” While he was talking, his inner thoughts were taking a very different tone. ‘I know you aren’t who you say you are, but I just don’t have the evidence to prove it right now. if I was to act it would only be going off guesswork and judgement. doesn’t matter how good I am at either, they don’t tell me much other than you’re different than you say you are, and are getting stronger.’

“Well, Mr. Sans, thank you for being so vigilant and watching out for us. Though I do doubt that you will need to.” She nodded to the door of the room, politely. “On your way out, would you please send one of the guards in? I will need to speak with them.”

“sure.”

As he walked out of the door, Sans Judged the guard at attention. ‘Evasive Maneuvers. LV 1, EXP 0. HP 60/60, ATK 25, DEF 7. Prefers dodging over defending, and is too fast for most others to dodge. Consider investing in Temmie Armor. He’s got some shifty eyes for a guard, though... Keep an eye on this one.’ ‘yup, whatever’s goin’ on with cadence is messing with the guards too. whatever it is, it’s better at hiding things for her than the others. this is bigger than a simple security breach, this is a full-on invasion ready to happen. I gotta talk to Shining Armor about this… wait.’

Sans remembered something, at that moment. When he first met Shining Armor, he had also used a Judge. ‘Shining Armor. LV 1, EXP 0. HP 100/100, ATK 30, DEF 100. Ready to defend at a moment’s notice. Also good at noticing details.’

If Shining Armor was as good at picking out details as his bio said, he should have noticed something off already. Which meant… ‘I can’t go to him right now either. he’s prob’ly under a spell of some kind, he’ll be of no help. can’t go to the princess, either. if I’m wrong, I’m basically accusing their niece of treason. and even if I’m right, I don’t have enough evidence. there’s only a few people I can talk to, people they couldn’t have impersonated…’ “alphys,” he muttered aloud.

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

Sans started, before relaxing and looking back at the guard at the door. “oh, it’s nothing,” he told the guard. “I’m just being boneheaded and talkin’ to myself right now. by the way, the princess wants ta talk to you. you might wanna head on in.”

The guard blinked, then nodded awkwardly. “Ah! Of course. I. Will go do that. Now.” he quickly stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

Sans looked down the hallway, checking that no one was around to see him. He smiled, and suddenly everything stopped. When the world started again, Sans was no longer there.

Alphys’s room Canterlot Castle.

Sans appeared in an instant, filling a space in the previously empty room. He glanced around rapidly, sighing. ‘she’s not here… where’s she at?’

A scratchy voice answered his thoughts, almost exactly on cue. “Hey, trashbag, if you’re looking Alphys she’s off doing a lecture about technology and its role in the underground society. She’s not gonna be done for at least two hours.”

Sans glanced over towards the door of the balcony that were currently open and saw the talking potted flower. “well, if it isn’t the weed.” the skeleton stepped outside into the daylight and leaned up against the railing next to Flowey’s pot. He looked over to the flower with a toothy grin. “So how’s life in pony land been treating you?”

“It's better than the underground, that's for sure. Clean water, unfiltered sunlight and nourishing soil. No former best friend turned demon child out to kill me, too, so there’s something. But there are a few things that I find annoying,” He gestured to his pot with his leaves. “My current living conditions are a bit lackluster, and there’s a skeleton that keeps messing with me. Oh, and the lack of a soul is still a MINOR annoyance. So overall, better than the Underground but I’m still not completely satisfied.”

Flowey turned back to Sans after a few seconds of silence and flinched. He hadn’t seen when, but at some point, Sans’ eyes had gone completely black. “Uh, heh heh… No hard feeling about the trashbag thing, right? I-I mean, it’s a joke, it’s meant to be funny, I didn’t-”

Sans’ eyes stayed dark, as his grin turned predatory. “hi, still not completely satisfied.”

“...No.”

The skeleton’s eye blazed out in a flash of green flame, lighting his face ominously. His voice was low and carried a note of dark satisfaction.

I’m sans.

Flowey looked down at the ground below. He knew it would make a point, but in the end, he decided making a point wasn’t worth the death and reset. “I swear trashbag if you came here just to make puns, I will END you.”

“nah, I actually came here to talk to alphys about something serious but since you’re here I might as well tell you too…” Sans’ eyes went back to normal and his smile shrunk into more of a concerned grimace. “I’m sure you of all beings would understand my Judgment spell, right?” Flowey looked down and crossed his leaves, muttering a sour confirmation. “well, there are a couple of ponies here that seem to be... wrong. princess pink is one of them. she keeps increasing her HP above her max, and her ATK is increasing too. for a princess of love she has a surprisingly high LV of 5. sunbutt has an LV of 3 and moonbutt has an LV of 4, but they’re much older than heartbutt and have been in wars. it doesn’t add up.”

Flowey thought for a moment, remembering what he had observed while he was here. “Now that you mention it, there are a couple of ponies here that seem a bit off. Most of the guards that are around Cadence’s room don’t act like the other guards. When the guards for our room get off they tend to joke around. Those guys don’t talk AT ALL unless you speak to ‘em first. They just sit there and watch, like robots.” He thought for a moment, before adding, “Well, normal robots at least.”

Sans frowned. “my maid’s description said something was off about her, and one of the guards’ specifically mentioned his shifty eyes. there wasn’t really anything direct in hers, but it was still out of place. I’ve gotta do some more investigating,” he said as he pushed himself off of the railing and went back into the room. “if you seen anything else come and tell me. ok?”

Flowey looked back up at the sun, gathering more energy. “Sure thing, smiley.”

Ponyville Golden Oak Library

“I just got a wedding invitation from my brother… A WEEK before his wedding! I’m going to go to Canterlot, and we are going to have a long talk about him keeping in touch with his family!”

“Er, pardon me, Twilight,” a white unicorn interjected, “but who exactly is this ‘brother’ of yours? I don’t believe you’ve ever mentioned him...”

Canterlot Castle

Sans paced through the halls of the castle, Judging anypony he came across. From what he could tell, around a third of the royal guard had something happen to them compared to only around a fifth of the staff. Something major was about to go down, maybe a coup or an attack. Either way, he had to be prepared.

As he walked towards a corner he heard Cadence approaching, speaking with her guards. He rapidly tried to push open a door, only to find it was locked. Closing his eyes and praying it was just a broom closet, Sans pushed with his magic and the world stopped. When it started, Sans was (to his relief) in a broom closet, right as Cadence walked past.

“And what is the status of swarms B1 and B2?”

“They are moving upon your orders, my queen. They are ready for the assault and are waiting just beyond the barrier. B1 in the left garden and B2 in the entrance to the hedge maze. There will be no escaping there.”

“Good, good. That fool Celestia won’t know what hit her. And with that skeleton looking for outside threats he won’t have any idea what’s coming. This has all worked out even better than I intended!”

Within the closet, Sans grinned. ‘if only you knew, “queen.” if only you knew.’

Once the group was out of earshot, Sans stepped out of the closet and looked in their direction. ‘gotta tell celestia,’ he thought to himself triumphantly. ‘I’ve got the evidence now.’ And with that, the world stopped once more.

Throne Room, the Next day

“You are sure you heard her say this?” If what Sans was saying was true, then Cadence was committing treason. That made no sense, Celestia knew Cadence well. She would never do something like that.

“yup, when she walked by she mentioned something about swarms b1 and b2 being ready for an assault- they’re in the gardens, by the way- and ‘that fool celestia won’t know what hit her.’ if that doesn’t tell you something’s up, nothing else really will. I’ve got it recorded on my phone if you want to see.”

Celestia shook her head, not concerned with what the ‘phone’ would tell her. “You also said something about her being… off, correct? What do you mean by that?”

Sans rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “well, remember when you asked about my powers?” he slowly said. “I may have… left a few things out. like my ability to judge. judging is basically a spell that I can use to see a monsters, or in this case pony’s, LV. LV stands for LOVE- Level Of Violence. a way of measuring one’s capacity to hurt. it also lets me get a read on a pony’s HP and a basic description. this spell never fails, and Cadence has been gaining significantly more HP and ATK than she should have.”

“That doesn’t tell me much other than she is getting strong-”

Sans held out a hand to silence Celestia. “let me finish,” he politely asked. “she also has a higher LV than both you and Luna. that doesn’t make sense to me and is what initially surprised me. I can explain you and moonbutt having LV because you’ve been alive for thousands of years and are the rulers of entire nations. but from what you’ve said, cadence hasn’t been around as long and there hasn’t been a war in equestria in more than 600 years. who has she been killing and why? that by itself was worrying enough to me, ignoring the slowly rising stats. then I started checking the guards and staff. around a third of the guards and around a fifth of the staff have stuff off about them. this just screams coup to me.”

Celestia thought for a long while, before shaking her head slowly. “I will call her in and confront her personally,” she told him. “I will get to the botto-”

“I SAID I NEED TO TALK TO CELESTIA!” The solar alicorn was cut off as the doors to the throne room were blasted open, revealing a purple unicorn with a mane resembling that of an unchecked lawn. “Celestia, Cadence is wrong, she must be an imposter. She acted like she didn't even recognise me! She’s rude, unrefined, and not the Cadence that I know! She didn’t even remember the hoofshake song! Something’s wrong, Celestia!”

“see? even purple smart agrees with me.”

Celestia looked to Twilight, then Sans, and back to Twilight. After a moment’s deliberation, she sighed.

“I will call her in. These are accusations I cannot ignore.”

Ten Minutes Later

Cadence entered the throne room flanked by four guards. “Yes, Auntie Tia? What did you want to see me for? I am rather busy planning for the wedding, so if we could make this fast that would be great.”

Celestia frowned, concerned. Sans and Twilight Sparkle were correct, this wasn’t the Cadence that she had allowed to ascend. “Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, you are being brought here under accusations of planning to stage a coup. How do you plea?”

Cadence scoffed, seemingly offended. “Auntie, I would never plan a coup! How could you say such a thing?”

“There are two witnesses we have saying that you are planning something,” the solar diarch told her professionally. “One testified of you speaking about an attack on me, and how you had several ‘swarms’ ready to attack. The other has known you for a long time and says that you are acting unlike yourself. What is your response to these accusations?”

Cadence stared at the three in front of her, before chuckling. The chuckle quickly turned into full-blown laughter, which became stronger as Celestia’s frown deepened. “Do you have a response? We are waiting.”

Cadence’s laughter eventually began to die down after a minute. “Of course, I’m just surprised it took a weak skeleton and a unicorn that was completely ignored the day she came for you to notice.” Cadence began to light up in a green fire. “Please understand, dear Celestia, I never lied to you. I wasn’t planning a coup...”

The fire quickly flared up and reached the ceiling, before dying down to reveal a green pony-like creature nearly the same size of Celestia. It had a hard chitinous surface instead of fur, and holes dotted her body. “I was planning an invasion!” When she spoke, her voice held an unnatural resonance. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Queen Mandible Chrysalis the Third, rightful and treacherous queen of the changelings!” She looked down at the guards that were with her, who had begun to smile. “The plan has been moved up a week, you four. Inform the swarms they are to begin the assault immediately!” The guards saluted and flew off.

Celestia stood up from her throne, her winged flared. “Do you think that you I would allow for you to hurt my little ponies?” she asked Chrysalis. Her horn glowed in a bright golden light. “I may have failed and let you all come among my subjects, but now that you have so foolishly revealed yourself, I can protect my subjects from you! Feel the justice of the sunrise!” Right as she finished her declaration, a massive beam of light rushed towards Chrysalis. Chrysalis, more out of reflex than anything, fired back a green beam originating from the twisted horn on her head.

Celestia and Chrysalis stared each other down as their attacks clashed. Twilight was panicking and watching them helplessly, but Sans stopped and considered the situation. ‘if memory serves, and it does, sunbutt’s ATK was about 150. that’s definitely higher than hers- chrysalis or whatever. hers was only 122 last time, and now it’s only-’ his inner monologue suddenly stopped as he got the information from his Judge. ‘Queen Mandible Chrysalis the Third. LV 8, EXP 7272. HP 5000/3000, ATK 163, DEF 120. The master of deception. Trust nothing she says.’

this whole time… she was…

Sans looked back in horror as he heard Celestia’s cry of pain. When he looked back, he could only stare in shock as the alicorn fell to the ground, her horn crackling with green magic as the foreign magic infiltrated her body.

Chrysalis seemed as surprised as Sans did. She looked at her own hooves in wonder, before cackling loudly. “My, it seems Shining Armor’s love for Cadence is even stronger than I thought!” Her gaze was redirected to the other two. The unicorn was out of commission for now. The skeleton, probably helpless. She had already won against her greatest threat.

Celestia looked up, struggling to keep her eyes open. She moved to stand up, but her legs collapsed under her. The last thing Celestia heard before she lost consciousness was Chrysalis saying, “Now put her into a cocoon, her power will be useful at a later time.” She felt a cool, slightly rough hoof with a hole touch her side, and then everything went black.

Alphys Room

A large bug-like pony burst into the room, only to be pinned to the wall though its barrel by a large spiky vine, killing it instantly. On the other side of the vine, a flower shook its head at how easily the intruder had fallen.

Alphys looked up at the Changeling in disgust, partly out of the dead body and partly out of what it was. “Well, looks like Sans was right. Something is going on.”

Flowey grew a demonic grin, clearly enjoying himself far too much. “At least they die easily,” he laughed. “I wonder how much more there are going to be for me to mess up?”

He looked around for any more victims, before wincing as the world stopped. When everything came back, he didn’t need to look back to know Sans was behind them. The skeleton put down Monster Kid, who had been in his grasp. “flowey, cadence just revealed her true form in the throne room. she’s some kind of bug queen, probably in charge of all the other bug ponies around. I need you to keep monster kid and alphys safe. I’m going to go deal with her.”

“What’s in it for me?”

“you get to squash any bugs that come near you.” Outside the window the barrier surrounding the city shattered, allowing for thousands of changelings to flood into the city.

“Sounds good to me. I’m a bit rusty, this’ll be good target practice.” He summoned a few pellets, chuckling madly. “I heard you guys like love. Well, I got a whole BUNCH of the stuff! Come and get it!”

Sans looked away from the flower and instead to Alphys and Monster Kid. “as bad as this sounds, stick by him. he’s the best chance you’ve got at surviving. well, if this doesn’t go as planned it’s been nice knowing you. time to do some royal pest control.” With that, he went back to the throne room while everything was stopped.

Throne Room

Chrysalis looked down from her throne at the captured elements of harmony, that were being held in the strong grip of several changelings. Most of them were limp, but Rainbow Dash was still struggling. “You put up a good fight,” she told them in a condescending tone. She stepped down from the throne, and looked out at the mass of changelings that filled the skies, “Now, my children! GO AND FEED!”

Several changelings cheered and flew into the air, only to fall down after being struck by a white laser that flew through the sky. Those who had been hit got back up quickly, only to wince and fall back down. “hey, queeney. I’ll be honest with ya. attacking my friends like that really bugs me.”

Chrysalis looked down for the owner of the voice and saw Sans dressed in his usual blue jacket. Around his shoulders was a red scarf, just a little too long. “Well, if it isn’t the judge. You know, this actually worked out quite well, despite your interference. Now, tell me little skeleton. If I have defeated the Princess who controls the sun, what chance does an insignificant being like you stand?”

Sans smiled wider and went to open his mouth… before stopping dead. He looked at Chrysalis, then over to the cocoon Celestia was held in. Then back to Chrysalis.

‘This is amusing,’ Chrysalis thought as she tasted his emotions. Shock, confusion, fear and a sense of not knowing what to do. Laughing, she decided to push him a little further. “Aww, what’s wrong? What has you so scared?”

“...for the first time in my life…” Sans looked legitimately horrified. Chrysalis leaned forward.

“...I don’t have a pun for this situation.”

‘...WHAT.’

“I mean, did that bug one earlier really count? it was a pun, yeah, but nothing about what you had said.”

“WHAT.”

“yeah, I know. normally I can-”

“Are you even taking me seriously?” the queen all but shouted at him. “Do you not see what I can do?! Why are you worrying about puns at a time like this?!”

Sans’ eyes widened, and he cracked one of his trademark smiles. “well, I mite not be too worried about it, to be honest.” Chrysalis could hear him whisper “nailed it” to himself, which only infuriated her further.

“You… dare… mock ME!? I AM Queen Chrysalis of the changelings! I will not be mocked! BEGONE!” She launched a green bolt of magic at the skeleton, filling the room with a cloud of dust. Using her magic, the bug queen cleared all the dust out of the room and looked at where she had shot, revealing a large blackened crater. “HA HA!” she crowed victoriously. “Not even a piece remains of him.” She looked over at the terrified ponies in her guards’ hold and especially at Celestia, who appeared to be crying. “You now see what happens to those who oppose the hive! Not even his stupid scarf is left now.”

Everything was quiet for a moment, and then the room seemed to darken significantly. “you know,” a voice rang out, “whenever I fight someone for the first time I usually tell them not to step over a certain line. you... you didn’t even give me a chance. you took three full leaps and destroyed the line before I even had a chance to draw it.” Sans stepped out from behind a pillar, his pupils gone. “listen. there’s something you oughta know.” He looked up at the hive queen, his eyes still completely dark. “ignoring everything else you’ve done, this scarf is precious to me. and you went and called it stupid.” Sans’ eyes seemed to become even darker than they were before, as his voice suddenly deepened significantly.

T h a t w a s a m i s t a k e .

Chrysalis growled in anger, seemingly unphased, and launched two more bolts of magic at the skeleton. To her annoyance, he merely stepped one foot to the side. Sans ducked behind a pillar and quickly appeared behind her, launching several bones at her. All of them bounced off of a green shield that now surrounded the queen. Again she fired bolts at the skeleton, who was quickly disappearing and reappearing around the room to launch bones at Chrysalis from different angles. Not a single one got through. “Come now! Do you think that your simple bones are going to pierce my shield?”

A single bone shot up from where Chrysalis was standing, leaving a shallow cut along her side. “yes, in fact. yes I do.”

Chrysalis snorted and took to the air. “You’ve been dodging this whole time, let’s see how you feel about an opponent that does the same.”

Sans smile grew and his eye glowed. Green, to be precise. “nah,” he said as he held out his arm, “I prefer you on the ground.” Chrysalis was engulfed in blue magic and flung to the ground, her shield shattering on a layer of bones set there and piercing the joints of her wings. Enraged, she fired a massive beam of energy at the skeleton.

The skeleton teleported besides the Changeling queen and leaned on her casually. “seriously holebutt, that didn’t work the first time. why do you think it's going to work now? you just aren’t able to hit me.”

Chrysalis roared in frustration and fired right beside herself only for the skeleton to teleport away again. She winced as the explosion of her own spell hit her, but then grew a wicked grin. “I may not be able to hit you,” she said as she turned to the cocoon stuck to the wall, “but I can still hit your friends!” She charged up a beam of magic and fired it directly at Celestia’s cocoon. “Block this if you dare, skeleton!”

Once again a large dust cloud filled the room. Chrysalis smiled, until she heard a voice from her left. “so, uh. I had wanted to test this on my own time and in private, but… I guess this field test is as good as any.” Sans stepped out from behind a skull that was nearly the size of Chrysalis herself. The skull was decorated with a few cracks but was otherwise unharmed. “So, this is what I call a blaster. a gaster blaster, to be precise. it gathers energy from the spaces between time and reality and unleashes it as physical energy. as you can probably tell, it hurts. a lot.” The skull, which looked eerily like a dragon skull, opened its mouth slightly while its jaw split and began to charge a swirling mix of blue and golden energy. “it’s going to fire soon, so I’ll make this message quick. don’t ever attack my friends again.”

The blaster fully opened its jaw and fired a beam of energy, glowing orange. The speechless Chrysalis was sent flying into the far wall. Sans walked over to the queen, now unconscious and did a quick Judge. ‘200/3000.’ ‘still alive,’ Sans thought to himself. He looked at her for a moment, before using several bones to open up the cocoon that Celestia was trapped in. A quick glance at the remaining changelings and a gesture to his blaster quickly made them drop the elements and fly off.

As Celestia walked over to Sans to inspect the knocked out queen, Sans looked out to the sky, watching the changelings fly away. He turned back to Celestia and winked. “does this mean I’m certified for pest control now?”

Author's Note:

Longest chapter to date, and by a longshot!
I knew that you guys wanted a fight scene so I decided to pull both chapters 12 and 13 together into one mega chapter of awesomeness™ for you guys to have. Since I have finals soon most of my time will be spent studying and this chapter of nearly 5k words will have to do... So... uhh. Bye?
*pokes head back in* oh, and remember to leave a like if you can, it really helps the story grow.