The fate of the world was about to be decided, but something was different. All it took was the involvement of a demon and a decision from Chara to change it all.
Chara knew something was up. As soon as she saw the strings attached to Frisk, she knew that the genocide wasn't on their part. Now at the end of the world, Chara knows that she has to do something to save Frisk and the universe itself from the controller, but doing so sends Chara to a new world, changing both Chara's life and that world's history.
[Frisk and Chara are both girls in this, with Frisk being about 7-8 years old and Chara about 13-14.]
My little pony is owned by: the red and white alicorn OC and a toy company Undertale is owned by: the annoying dog
Cover art is owned by me
Takes place at the end of the Undertale genocide run and just before the season 3 premiere of mlp
Note: This is going to be a short story. I'm guessing up to about 5 to 6 parts at most, including the intro and epilogue.
Darkness… it had surrounded me in many forms for my entire life. It made me depressed and mistrusting when I lived in my old village, eventually making me become… suicidal as well. It surrounded me when Asriel and I accidentally poisoned dad with buttercup flowers. It made me go over the edge with hate against humanity, causing me to try to kill the humans we saw when we started our plan. It’s what surrounded me for years after the failed plan, keeping me in a state of near death, remaining barely conscious in a coma like state.
It’s what controlled Frisk, and influenced me.
When I was woken up with Frisk’s determination, I was surprised and slightly confused. I was now awake as a spirit, following this kid through the ruins, unable to leave them. I was also filled with a sort of hope, the hope of a second chance, no matter how small. That hope was crushed however, when Frisk attacked that froggit. I had seen them attack the dummy beforehand and just assumed that they were confused about what to do, but this was clear murder. They had killed the froggit with no hesitation, no change in their neutral face except for a small look of curiosity and achievement.
I only noticed the strings after we killed Papyrus.
By then I had started to join in on this, helping with the mass genocide of any monster that got in our way. Our gold, EXP, and LV had all been rapidly increasing while doing so, helping me kill easier, giving Frisk advice, and even taking over in some moments. Even so, the death of Papyrus had left me a little shaken. He had believed in us, wanting to help us become better. It had ticked me off that Frisk had just walked away without care, and that caused me to lash out against them, trying to attack them with my ghostly form. They didn’t even notice, continuing to move on, just entering Waterfall. However, some of the energy from my attack had hit the strings, causing them to become visible as they vibrated. Confused, I had floated over to them and tried to make sense of them. It was only when the battle against Undyne started that I realised what it meant. Someone was controlling Frisk.
I tried to end it then and there, but before I could do anything, I felt a horrible sensation. It was like a switch was flipped inside my mind. Much of my remaining desire to be good and stop this genocide went away, being replaced by my previous hate and glee for killing. I tried to resist but the power was too much, and suppressed me. Gaining all of the EXP from Undyne when she died was the final blow, fully bringing me back under the dark influence of the controller.
It stayed this way as we continued butchering monsters, all the way to the palace. But then we were faced with our final monster to kill, Flo- Asriel, my brother. This is where the few strings attached to me broke, all of my hate flooding away. I couldn’t kill him. I put my foot down, refusing to do this. I couldn’t kill my brother, my best friend. However, in my emotional rebellion, I had forgotten one important detail. The controller didn’t need me to kill Asriel, just Frisk.
So I watched in speechlessness as Frisk repeatedly slashed at Asriel, each swing destroying more and more of him, until there was just a small scattering of plant matter. That’s when a new darkness surrounded me, cutting me off from Frisk and the outside world. This gave me time to think about what happened, and form a plan.
10 minutes later
I stood in front of Frisk, facing them with a slightly creepy smile.
“Greetings.” I said, my dialogue beginning.
“I am Chara.”
“Thank you. your power awakened me from death.”
I continued talking to Frisk and the controller, keeping their full attention on me. Little did they know that I was already at work, using the determination I had to form crude yet effective magical knifes, all behind Frisk.
“At first, I was so confused, our plan had failed, hadn’t it? Why was I brought back?”
…
“You. with your guidance, I realized the purpose of my reincarnation.”
“Power”
“Together, we eradicated the enemy and became strong.”
“HP. ATK. DEF. GOLD. EXP. LV.”
“Every time a number increases, that feeling, that’s me.”
“Chara.”
“Now we have reached the absolute. There is nothing left for us here. Let us erase this pointless world, and move on to the next.”
Then for the first time since I met Frisk, I saw a clear emotion on their face. Indecision. Was Frisk fighting back? Was the controller starting to doubt their motives? Or…
The last possibility filled me with rage. They wanted to be able to toy with the underground. They wanted to be able to reset so they could do this again!
It was then that they made their decision. They chose to erase the world.
“Right… you are a great partner.” It was then when I flashed my ‘creepy face’, letting my eyes be filled with darkness as I continued to smile at them. “We’ll be together forever, won’t we?”
It was then when I struck, sending the couple dozen magic knifes I had flying towards an unsuspecting Frisk. A sound resonated throughout the abyss, similar to that of a soul being split in two before shattering.
Meanwhile
"What the hell?!?" I yelled as my view of Frisk and Chara suddenly erupted into static, with the last thing I saw beforehand Chara looking like she was from a creepy pasta and attacking me. I knew that this was going to happen, it always does in the genocide route. What made me shout was that as this happened, the connection between me and Frisk got severed, leaving me in the dark about what was happening.
Was there a glitch of some kind?
...
There is a glitch... she knows. I should've kept a better eye on Chara after I reasserted control over her when Undyne died. I had thought that after that, I had her permanently under my control, especially after she killed Sans. When she refused to kill Flowey was a big alarm that I didn't listen to, and the fact that I knew about the genocide ending previously should've made me at least properly secure the connection to Frisk.
'It doesn't matter now.' I thought as I started to turn into a huge mass of shadows and darkness. I advanced into the screen of the magical computer that I had been 'playing' from, entering it as I made my way towards the prize I just lost.
‘It worked!’ I thought as I saw the strings break in half, releasing Frisk from the influence of the controller. I ran up to Frisk and catched her as she collapsed, realising that she was unconscious.
‘No! No! NO!’ I mentally screamed as I tried to wake her up, getting no response except for a slight moan from her. My entire plan had been riding on her staying awake! Why hadn’t I thought about the fact that she could’ve been too exhausted to even stay awake! I then proceeded to try to wake her up in any way possible for the next several minutes.
Luckily, she started to wake up by minute seven. “Frisk! Wake up!” I practically shouted into her face, successfully making her more awake.
“Wh-wha… What’s going on?” She asked as she rubbed her eyes.
“There’s no time to explain, I need you to reset NOW!”
Shaken by my determination and she pulled up the ‘Reset’ button, preparing to press it but then pausing, looking at me with curiosity. “Why exactly do you want me to reset? Also, who even are you?” Trying to keep my fury under control, I tried my best to explain what was going on and who I was. They were somehow taking it pretty well until I mentioned the genocide that they did, breaking down into tears. “I re-remember it! Why did I k-kill everyone!?!” Before I could respond however, I heard a deep laugh behind me.
Whipping around, I saw what looked like a shadow human standing thirty yards away, staring at me with a look I knew all too well. “Frisk...reset now!” I yelled as I pulled out my knife, preparing to fight a rapidly closing in evil human. I was too slow thought, and got knocked back as he rammed into me, sending me crashing into Frisk. The controller grinned at this as he stood above us, ready to strike down at Frisk with a dark axe in his hands. ‘No!’ I thought as I felt determination flood into me, compelling me the launch up and stab the human in the chest.
A few seconds went on in silence as the three of us didn’t move, staring at the sight before us. Then, the controller broke it as he gave a small chuckle, bringing the axe down on to my exposed back. This brought a cry of pain from me and a gasp from Frisk. The blow sent me flying to the ground, yelling in pain as I hit it. Even though I was losing blood quickly and starting to black out, I saw Frisk jump for the reset button, about to press it. Seeing this, the controller started to lunge forward, aiming his axe at Frisk.
I couldn’t let it end like this.
I grabbed the controller’s ankle, sending him falling to the ground before Frisk. They tried to get to her, but I refused to let go, pulling them towards me instead. They started thrashing around in a furious panic, screeching and yelling all the while. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Frisk resetting, causing a bright light to come from everywhere as the world went back in time a couple of days.
Meanwhile
I watched with an odd mixture of sadness and curiosity as the world reset, starting the long process of putting everything back where it belonged. However, I didn’t bother to glance at it, instead, I looked at Chara and the ‘controller’. At first, when I had originally arrived, everything just seemed like the end of a normal genocide run, nothing serious. That changed however when Chara made her move, cutting off the connection between Frisk and the controller, something that shouldn’t of happened, along with all that happened afterwards. What interested me the most however was the controller.
In the universes with ‘original timelines’, Frisk’s actions in the underground are either controlled or influenced by a so called ‘player’, which I learned about after visiting the ‘home’ universe. This however, was more akin to a demonic spirit than a player. Their level of interaction with Frisk and her adventures proved that. What concerned me the most was who exactly this controller was. They definitely weren’t related to Error Sans, since he wouldn’t mess with an original timeline universe, and most glitches in the multiverse wouldn’t be able to affect these kinds of universes either. So that meant that this thing was very powerful and likely only recently created.
I teleported the luckily weak and unconscious demon to a secure location in the Omega timeline to be dealt with later, before moving my attention to Chara. I noticed that she wasn’t being affected by the reset like normal and was instead slipping out of it, into the universe’s local void. I realised that the axe the demon had struck her with had affected her somehow, possibly the same thing that let the demon move around between dimensions, interesting. I quickly fixed the error for the timeline and replaced this universe’s Chara with a clone of sorts to keep it stabilized. I then proceeded to take Chara with me as I went through the multiverse, looking for a location to settle her down.
Usually I’d put her in the Omega timeline, but I didn’t want to risk affecting it with whatever forced her out of her own universe. I kept looking until I noticed something odd. Their was a universe here not related to our own. Usually different ‘genres’ kept in their own areas of the multiverse realm, with some connected to each other. For example, there was a nearby two genre pockets for ‘Fallout’ and ‘Halo’ that were overlapping, creating dozens of universes that had both genres deeply involved. While this was usually normal, the universe I found wasn’t part of that connection, but instead a regular universe in our space.
After conflicting with myself for a few moments, I decided to send Chara to that universe for two purposes. One was to hopefully help Chara recover from the mess she’s been through. The other was to include this universe into the ‘overlapping zone’ to keep anything bad from happening to it. I started to float towards the universe, making sure that whatever the axe cut gave her wasn't going to severely damage the universe's codding along the way.
Just before I sent Chara down into it though, I felt a presence appear behind me. I whipped around, expecting Error Sans to be there, ready to ambush me. Instead, I was met with an amazing site. It was a giant Alicorn with a red mane and tail, white coat, and caring blue eyes. She also had a mark on her flanks, displaying an ink pot and quill. She was currently looking at me with an emotion on her face that I knew too well, determination.
“State your business for approaching one of my sacred worlds. Answer carefully, otherwise I will not hesitate to send you back to where you belong.”
While I probably couldn’t get hurt, Chara could’ve easily since she wasn’t a multiverse being. Remembering this could happen if I messed up filled me with determination of my own to protect her.
“Hello. I assume that you’re the one who watches over your dimension? I’d like to ask for a favor.” I then moved to the side a bit to show Chara floating behind me, sleeping almost peacefully. “My friend here needed a new home universe since she could no longer live in her own. I had seen that this universe here was within the space between both of our genre realms, yet wasn’t related to ours. So I’d like to make that possible.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment before looking at me with a steady gaze. “That would probably for the best for both your friend and my universe. I’ll keep an eye on her, but I suppose we have a deal.” With that, she and I shook hands/hooves. I then focused my energy on putting Chara safely inside the universe before fully returning to the multiverse realm just outside.
“Thanks again Mrs. Faust. I’m sorry I nearly did that without your permission.”
She looked at me with a motherly aurora not too far off from Toriel as she responded “It’s alright my child, you were being rushed and you found the perfect opportunity. I might’ve done the same in your position. By the way, if you don’t mind me asking, what is your name?”
A small smile formed on my face as I answered “You can call me Core Frisk.”.
Back to Chara, because this story is about her!
“Auugh. What happened?” I mumbled as I slowly opened my eyes, trying to make sense of what happened.”
‘Wait a second… Frisk!’
I immediately looked around, trying to find Frisk while identifying where I am. I succeeded with neither, since I couldn’t find Frisk and I was in a forest clearing, which confused me. How did I even get up here? The only way to break the barrier was with seven souls, and I’m pretty sure that Frisk didn’t do that.
Not her, but someone else!
I then remembered the controller and started to panic as thoughts and theories started flying through me head.
‘Did we win!?!’
‘Is Frisk alright?’
‘Did we manage to reset?’
‘Was that all just a dream?’
‘Did that demon take Frisk’s soul and the others to break the barrier or something?’
I paused as I realised which one of those was the most likely. Especially since only one involved getting to the surface. Before I could do anything however, I heard a bush rustle nearby. Backing away from the bush, I pulled out my knife as I saw several glowing, yellow eyes stare at me. All of a sudden, three wooden wolves leaped out of the bush, slowly closing in on me.
‘What the hell are these?’ I mentally shouted as I checked my inventory for anything that I could use. All I had was the knife, my heart locket, and some instant noodles. Exiting it, I dropped into a fight stance, ready for the familiar soul vs. soul battle that I had become accustomed to over the years. However, that wasn’t the case as the wolves attacked anyway, knocking me back into a tree.
“So that’s how it is huh? Well it doesn’t matter, I’m used to this old song and dance as well.”
Now knowing what to expect, fighting the wolves was pretty easy. The first two had been killed pretty much instantly due to them blindly rushing at me. The third was a bit harder, but I managed to cut their leg off and finish them off, reducing it to a pile of twigs and leaves like the other two. Noticing my low HP, I ate the instant noodles, bring my HP up to 16/20.
‘I thought that those bring my HP up higher?’ On closer examination, I saw that 4 HP was currently shaded over, preventing it from being healed. After a bit of thinking, I realised that it was from the slash in my back from when the controller attacked. Speaking of which, I should probably get help for. Just as I started walking down a path that was connected to the edge of the clearing, what I just thought and saw sent me to a halt.
‘I have a maximum of 20 HP… which means that I’m somehow at LV 1! How is that even possible?! Besides, why am I even in a solid form, I don’t have the soul to exist like thi…’
I checked my stats and saw the tiny red heart float out of my chest. After making sure it wasn’t somehow Frisk’s soul, I started wondering about what this meant and how I had my old soul again, walking down the path in the meantime.
1 hour later
I saw the trees and brush space out ahead as it lead to an open plain. ‘Finally!’ I thought, ready to leave the forest behind me. Between my walk from the clearing to here, I had come fought another group of wooden wolves and barely avoided being seen by some lion and scorpion hybrid. As I exited the forest, I looked around and checked my surroundings, which brought very promising results. In front of me was a small river that had a bridge stretching across from it. Beyond it was what looked like a small medieval town, and beyond that was a mountain with some sort of castle on that.
‘So apparently we went back in time… great.’ I noted as I looked around even more. To the left was more of the river and what looked like train tracks. To the right, the river formed into a small lake before continuing towards the mountain. What really got my attention though was the cottage just a couple hundred feet away from me. I started to walk towards it but stopped myself and started having a mental battle about what I should do.
‘We need to know where and when we are, and this could very well be our only chance!’
‘We don’t know that! Besides, there’s going to be humans!’
‘Why not monsters? If we went back in time, then maybe we went far enough that we’re at the time where monsters lived on the surface.’
‘Do you see Mount Ebott anywhere?’
…
‘Exactly.’
‘Listen, we don’t know what’ll happen if we don’t get the cut on my back dealt with soon. It’s likely got an infection by now, and we don’t know how much worse it’ll get.’
‘Bu-’
‘Also, it’s about time we put our hatred of humanity behind us. They’re not all going to be bad. Frisk, the 6 souls, and I are all examples of that.’
‘...fine.’
With that decided, I walked towards the cottage swiftly, determination flowing through my body.
After about a minute of walking, I reach the cottage. I couldn’t help but feel as if the setting was familiar, especially the town itself. I couldn’t tell why, but it just was. When I had been walking up to it, I saw a bunch of random animals hanging out near the cottage. Whoever lives here must be some sort of animal caretaker, maybe a veterinarian. After realising I was just thinking about this to stall for time, I decided to just get it over with. I knocked on the door a couple of times, standing back so it wouldn’t hit me if it swung outwards. After a minute of silence and muffled moving, I see the door open slightly, a figure starting to become seeable.
“Um, hello? Do you need…” The sentence stopped as we both fully got a view of each other. What was in front of me was not a human but a pony, a pegasus to be exact. She had a yellow coat, along with a baby pink mane and tail. Her teal eyes looked at me with an odd mixture of fear, confusion, and excitement. All of a sudden, I remembered where I saw her from.
Flashback
‘Just what are these things supposed to be for!?!’ I mentally shouted in frustration as I followed Frisk through the trash dump section of Waterfall, watching the strings with a stare that could give a demon nightmares. As we walked through, a noise started to become noticeable beyond the splashes of Frisk’s feet and the shifting of the trash around us. Getting ready for a fight, Frisk started sneaking towards the source of the noise until we were reached a pile of scrap electronics and metal, the noise coming from behind the pile.
“Gotcha now… huh?”
The noise we’d been hearing turned out to be an old TV, playing what looked like a modern cartoon show. How the TV was even working, let alone picking up a cartoon that was likely made decades after it was created was beyond me. As Frisk started to turn around and leave, I decided to try to see what cartoon is was before I was spiritually dragged away. All I saw was a bunch of multicolored ponies, along with a title.
'My little pony: Friendship is magic'
‘So idiotic.’ I thought as I turned around and followed Frisk.
Flashback end
I stared at the pony for a few more moments before falling onto the ground, losing consciousness as I heard an "Oh no!" come from the pony as I fainted.
‘What was that? Also, why am I lying down?’ I thought as I opened my eyes. However, all I saw was pitch black. After making sure I wasn’t blind by looking at myself, I got up and looked around, trying to figure out where I am.
The only thing that was different from the darkness was a creepy looking door in front of me. While I didn’t like the bad aurora coming from the door, I didn’t see any other exit and my curiosity was running quite high. Ignoring my instincts screaming at me to turn away, I walked up to the door, examining in further. The door itself was wooden, with a dark grey color and a lighter grey metal handle. The frame of it was a dark cyan crystal, with a few small spikes sticking out of it. What was the most interesting though was the grey crystal at the top, swirling with some sort of purple and green mist.
Pausing for a second, I took out my knife in case there was anything on the other side. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door, fully expecting something to be on the other side.
There was just a wall.
Confused, I pushed on the crystal wall to make sure there wasn’t anything behind. Sighing, I closed the door and turned back around, only to see that the room was entirely different. Instead of the dark expanse that was there before, in it’s place was what looked like a throne room. The walls were a mixture of white and purple in a similar fashion to a sunrise or sunset. There were several blue crystal pillars on the walls throughout the room, with many windows between them. The floor was an interesting shade of blue, with a red carpet streaking through the middle towards a throne.
Sitting on the throne was a pony, wearing a tiara and jewelry that suggested that she was royalty. She was a little shorter than an average adult human, with a blue coat, along with a wavy, purple mane and tail. What was most notable was that she had a shiny look to her fur and hair, as if she was some sort of colored ice sculpture. She also had a very long horn on her forehead, measuring up to about half of my height.
These observations were banished from my mind however when I saw that she was glaring at me, filled with enough power and determination that I took a couple of steps back. Deciding to try to lighten the situation, I decided to speak up.
“Um, hello there. I’m Chara, who are you?”
She continued to stand there, unchanged by my question. After asking a couple of more and trying to get a response, I realised that she wasn’t listening to me. It was as if she was ignoring me yet hating me at the same time, which made things even more tense. Deciding that I should go before she does anything, I start backing away from the throne, speaking up as I’m doing so.
“Well, I gotta go. I guess it was nice seeing you, goodbye!”
Just as I turn around, I’m met with a shockwave that sends me flying back, sending me halfway to the throne and a bit off to the side. Groaning, I sit up and look at where the blast came from. The giant doors that once stood there were now broken, with one of them even being sent off it’s hinges onto the ground. Surrounding it were what looked like four guards in silver armor, lying on the ground either moaning in pain or unconscious. In the doors place was something that was basically a nightmare. The pony had a dark grey coat and black mane and tail. His eyes’ sclera was green instead of white, with a blood red iris and evil purple smoke spewing out of them. The armor and accessories that he wore suggested that he was a king.
I looked back at the pony on the throne, seeing that she had narrowed her glare at the new pony. It was then when I realised that my body had the same look it had when I was a spirit, meaning that they didn’t see me. It was then when the pony on the throne spoke.
“Sombra, why have you turned your back on the empire. You were one of my most trusted officers!”
Sombra only chuckled at this, responding in an unnatural voice that sent shivers down my spine.
“You are a fool Sancta. You and your ancestors have ruled without respect from the rest of the world. You and your followers are weak. Every time a challenge approaches us, we either back down or rely on help. Today’s the day that ends, my dear queen. Today, the empire will enter an age of prosperity and greatness, all after you die of course.”
At this, black crystals appeared below Sombra, sending him surfing towards Sancta with a dark scythe in his magical grip. Sighing, Sancta sits up, levitating out a pair of matching swords, ready to meet Sombra’s charge head on. Just as their weapons clashed, the world started to black out, bringing me away from the battle that just started.
In the world of real life
I open my eyes quickly, my hands curling into fists as I look around, trying to spot the battle. However, instead of the throne room or the darkness from before that, I am inside a hospital room. The room itself is quite bare, with just the bed I am lying on, a small nightstand, a door, and a window. Taking a brief glance out the window, I confirmed that I was indeed in pony land, since the buildings were the same that I saw before. That and I saw several of the ponies themselves walking around.
As I looked around, I noticed that my knife was gone, along with my striped sweater and black shirt, which was replaced with a really oddly fitting nightgown. There was one other thing that was missing though that I became really pissed about.
‘Where is my locket?!’
The door then opened, breaking me from my rage-induced thoughts. In came a pony doctor. He had a light blue coat that somehow fit well with his dark blue mane and tail. I also notice that unlike the ponies I’ve seen so far, this one had bat wings, along with pointed ears and a pupil quite similar to a cat’s. When he saw that I was awake, a smile grew on his face as he approached. “It’s good to see that you are awake, I am Doctor Nightvein, may I ask who you are, my child?
I ignored him calling me a child and decided to answer his question. “My name’s Chara.”
Nightvein became even more happy and proceeded to ask a bunch of questions. Most of them were alright and just related to things like medical history and things about humans, but I refused to answer the few ones that were about my past. After it looked like he was finishing up with his questions, I decided to ask a couple of my own.
“By the way, where is my stuff? Also, what happened when I was unconscious?
“Hold on, I’ll go get your items for you.” At that, he turned around and left, only to return a minute later, carrying the knife and locket on a small tray balanced on his wings. “Sorry about the clothes, but Mrs. Rarity is currently fixing it up for you back at her boutique.”
“Now to answer your second question. Well Mrs. Fluttershy had arrived here in a panic about a couple of hours ago. She was carrying you and asking us if we could help her. We were a bit reluctant for a few reasons, among them being that we’d never seen a creature like you before and thought that fluttershy was overreacting. Although thoughts on the later disappeared when we saw the giant gash on your back. How did you get that, by the way?”
Before I had to answer that, I was luckily saved when the door opened and a nurse entered. Seeing her, the doctor mumbled a quick “Excuse me.” before trotting over to the nurse. The two seemed to start to get into a heated argument, so I decided to try to break it up.
“This probably isn’t my business or anything like that, but what are you talking about?” At this, the nurse perked up and responded before the doctor could.
“There are some visitors that want to see you, but Doctor Nightvein thinks that you need more rest before talking to them.”
“It’s true!” Nightvein retorted, giving the nurse a quick glare before turning his attention back to me. “You’ve been here for less than a few hours. As it is, you look like you could fall asleep at any moment.”
‘You’re not too far off.’ I mentally state, thinking back to me staying semi-awake/alive all of those years before Frisk showed up. While most would think I was forced to stay in that position, I had to fight every second of it staying in there. It was very difficult, and I lost control and died a couple of times back when Asriel was a flower and had control over the timeline. I then turned my attention back to Nightvein, who was apparently listing off multiple reasons why I shouldn’t have visitors.
“-mental exhaustion, and stress to your body from the injury.” He finished, taking a deep breath.
“I actually don’t mind if I talk to the visitors for a bit.” When he was about to protest, I added “Only for a while.”, which seemed agreeable to him. Both he and the nurse left then, but before they were out of the room, I saw the nurse give the doctor a look that said ‘I told you so.’
After a few minutes of waiting, the door opens yet again and six more ponies come in. I recognize Fluttershy immediately, and I presume that the white unicorn with the purple mane and tail was Rarity since she was levitating my shirt. The other four I only remember from the TV. Upon seeing me, the pink ‘normal’ pony gasps, jumping into the air and literally pops up right next to me, speaking a mile a minute.
Then in a small *poof*, she disappears yet again. I looked around the room but didn’t see her, so I just turned my attention back to the rest of the ponies as the lavender unicorn stepped forward and started speaking. “Hello Chara, my name is Twilight Sparkle. These are my friends Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack. The one that just left was Pinkie pie.” She explained, pointing to each present pony as she named them.
So I then went through another round of questioning, except this one was a bit more personal. I tried to answer them to the best of my ability, but I had to lie on a few of them, as well as avoid any involving my time in the underground and some of the more unsavory memories of my life. About 10 minutes into the questioning, Rainbow Dash asked me something that got me emotional.
“Hey Chara, do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“Yeah.” I said before I could stop myself. ‘Why did I say that?!’
Dash looked at me a few moments longer before grunting in impatience and saying “Well, what are they like?”
Deciding I might as well try to answer, I go ahead and say as much about Asriel as I could. “Well, he was a great brother, even if he was a bit of a crybaby at times. He was so innocent and kind, yet strong and supportive at the same time. We would always go off and play together or try to make something. He w-was my best friend.” As I finish up, I start struggling to keep my emotions back, feelings of sadness and loneliness starting to build up. Then Applejack had to make it worse.
“Ya’ll said ‘was’. Care to explain?”
I barely keep back a sob as I mumbled out my response. “I-I’d rather not t-talk about it.”
They decided that then would be a good time to leave. I thank Fluttershy for bringing me to the hospital and Rarity for sewing up my clothes. They say their goodbyes and leave. However, Applejack decides to stay behind a minute. “I’m sorry bout bringing up a sore subject Chara."
“It’s a-alright Applejack. You didn’t mean to.”
Taking that as a good answer, Applejack turns to leave. Before she reaches the door however, she looks back at me and says “By the way, ya’ll can tell us the full truth when ya’ll are ready to.” With that, she closed the door, leaving me alone to my thoughts.
All of a sudden, my held back emotions burst out, leaving me in a sobbing and emotional wreck. I barely manage to put on my shirt and sweater before falling asleep in a restless nap.
“Not to be rude, but why am I with you guys again?” I ask, looking out the window of the moving train with a bored expression.
“Well, a few hours after I had sent a letter to Princess Celestia about you, I got one back from her. She has some sort of test for me to do, which is why we’re here. Due to the convenience, she decided to have you come to Canterlot to meet with her instead of waiting for a latter date.” Twilight replied, going through her bags of studying and test supplies.
‘Killing two birds with one stone huh?’ I thought, making sure to not actually say it because of the fact that Fluttershy was sitting right next to me. Across from me in the other set of seats were Twilight and Dash. Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack were in another set of seats across the aisle from us. Also with them was Spike, an actual dragon! Even if he was a baby one, I had to admit that that was pretty cool. Apparently he was Twilight’s assistant/sort of brother.
For the next 30 minutes, I continued to look outside the window, looking at the landscape passing by us. To be honest, it was quite beautiful. We were passing by large, open plains that stretched very far away, only broken by forests, rivers, or the occasional building. However, seeing that we were about to start going up the mountain to Canterlot and therefore lose that sight, I decided to turn my attention to my attention to something else that had been bothering me.
Opening my right hand, I took a moment to focus before bringing out my soul. It looked just the same as it did when I arrived to this world. It was a bright red and healthy soul, pulsing with life and determination. Surrounding it at the edges was a layer of black as dark as a shadow, likely a scar from when I was a spirit. From what I was able to figure out, due to this layer and the natural magical field that surrounded the planet, I was able to manifest my determination into a magical form. I had practiced what I could at the hospital before I was released, and it did showed me something very interesting
Like my brief encounter with the controller at the abyss, I could channel my magic for combat purposes through my knife. When I did, the gray steel turned into a bright crimson. Not only would this make physical attacks with the knife more powerful, but it also allowed me to make magical attacks in the form of either magical slashes or a shot of pure energy. It also allowed me to conjure up to about a couple dozen red, magical knifes at one time, similar to Undyne’s spears.
‘And that’s only what I know.’
It was then when I noticed that all conversation in the train car had stopped. Looking around, I saw that everypony was staring at me with expressions of shock, confusion, and intriguement. I followed their gaze to my hand, where my soul was floating right on the palm of my hand.
“Uh Chara, what is that heart?” Rainbow Dash asked, suspicion starting to creep into her voice.
‘Oh right, forgot to show them that. Well, now's a good time, so I might as well.’
I stare up at them, looking at them for a moment before saying “It’s my soul.”
“H-How?!?” At this I look at Twilight, who is staring at my soul intensely. “There’s only a couple spells that can show a soul even remotely to the simplicity that you did it, and those are in the Royal archives in Canterlot! How are you able to do that?”
After a moment of thinking, I replied. “I dunno.” I say, shrugging my shoulders and making my soul disappear. The train car returns to normal as the girls continue their discussions, although Twilight continued to cast glances at me every now and then.
20 minutes later
“Finally, that train ride took way too long!” I said in happiness as the train slowed itself to a stop by a fancy looking train station.
“Come on Chara, it wasn’t that long!” Twilight said as she levitated a few bags over, likely carrying all of the supplies she had brought with her.
“She’s got a point Twilight. The ride takes three hours!” Rainbow Dash said as she lazily glided above us. Twilight only huffed in annoyance as she headed for the door, being followed shortly by the rest of us. Stepping out onto the deck of the train station, I got my first close up view of the city itself.
I was both impressed and disappointed.
On one hand, the city itself was made beautifully. The buildings had a nice renaissance look to it, with perfect mixes of purple and white and gold making elegant buildings. The streets were paved with a smooth cobblestone surface, and in the distance I could see the rising towers of the castle itself. On the other hand was what inhabited the city. Most of the ponies in sight were wearing a rich clothing and jewelry and had a snobbish look on their faces. Granted, some of them didn’t have that look on their face, but those were unfortunately in the minority.
Looking back at our group, I was surprised to see a group of five guards approaching us. I eyed them cautiously until I saw the leader of the group, a pegasus stallion, hug Twilight, a wide smile on both of their faces. After a minute of talking, Twilight waved us over and introduced us.
“High, these are my friends, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie pie, Chara, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. Everyone, this is Sergant High Strike of the Royal guard. He’s a friend of Shining and will be escorting us to the castle.”
“Twilight darling, why do we need an escort? We’ve been fine without one the last few visits here.” Rarity inquired.
“I’m not too sure myself Rarity. However, Celestia’s probably still on edge after the changeling invasion and doesn’t want to take chances. That and the fact that no one has ever seen a human before probably means that she’s being extra cautious.” Twilight responded as we started to walk down the street towards the castle.
For the most part, the trip to the castle was actually okay. There were a few ponies who gave us disgusted or snobbish looks and whispered to one another when they saw me, but besides that, it was easy. The castle was a bit of a different story however. Here we, or more specifically I, got stared at by many of the nobles, guards, and servants inside the castle grounds. And then we had to run into who I learned was the worst of them all.
“Well well, if it isn’t auntie’s pet and her followers.”
From one of the corridors up ahead came the most stuck up and snobbish pony I had seen yet. The idiotic unicorn had a white coat and royal yellow mane and tail, a compass rose cutie mark, and was staring at us with blue eyes that stunk of over confidence and pride. He was wearing a small suit piece that didn’t match him at all.
Twilight narrowed her eyes before replying. “Leave us be Blueblood, we have no business with you.”
“Ha ha, miss Sparkle, I’m afraid you’re wrong, it IS my business ever since the Grand Galloping Gala. Then again, I suppose that it went as far back as when auntie took you in, heavens knows why she decided to pick up a filthy runt like you when she could’ve chosen somepony more excellent and talented like me.”
He then noticed me and somehow put on a face of disgustment. “I see that you’ve attracted even more filth since we last met. A dressed up hairless monkey at that. Not even worthy of being a peasant! Why did auntie even decide to let it in? Then again, that little lizard slave of yours lived here for years, so it shouldn’t be too surprising I suppose.”
I gritted my teeth as I listened to this bastard’s mockery. I knew that my trip here would result in taunting like this, but it still made me angry none the less. What really got me however was how he was insulting my friends. I’ve learned to take punishment from several years of abuse and danger before I went underground. Many of the bruises and injuries I sustained when I was there were actually from me protecting or helping others. I couldn’t stand and watch while they were put through the same pain that I dealt with.I then paused what I was thinking and realized was I just thought.
‘Are these ponies really my friends?’
While I had usually been kind enough, I had a hard time trusting people and making friends. I had only made a few while on the surface, and did little better during my time with the monsters. Even then, those both covered several years. Yet I trusted these ponies not even a day in, a trust that usually took months or years. ‘Maybe it’s because they took me to the hospital and helped me. I did trust Mom, dad, and Asriel pretty quickly after all.’
I got brought back into the present when I heard High Strike respond with an impatient tone. “Prince Blueblood, we need to go to Celestia now, so if you don’t mind moving out of the way, we’ll be leaving now.”
High Strike then started to step forward, until to be blocked by Blueblood’s hoof. “Don’t worry sergeant, I think auntie won’t mind if you arrived late. I bet she wouldn’t even mind if you didn’t come at all.”
At this I realized three things. A chilly, hostile feeling had settled over the group.There were also no guards here besides High Strike and the escort. There should’ve been at least a few others guarding the halls or patroling them, but I didn’t even hear anyone else besides us. The third thing was the look that Blueblood had in his eyes. Hidden behind his cockiness and pride, there was something much more sinister, something that I recognized as soon as I saw it. After all, Frisk and I had been a victim of it.
Another presence.
I whipped out my knife just as two ponies came out of the hall ahead of us, both wielding swords and galloping straight towards us. One of them went for High strike as the other charged at me, bringing his telekinetically held sword down in an arc towards me. Reacting quickly, I parried the blow and sent one of my own, causing him to block it with his sword. I then used my other hand and threw a punch at his face, catching him off guard and sending him to the ground. Before he could do anything else, I hit him again with a couple more punches and a kick, knocking him out.
Hearing a whoosh behind me, I bring my knife up in a defensive position as I turned around. Good thing I did, because not a moment afterwards another sword clashed against my knife. This sword was more fancy, being closer to a rapier then a full sword. Smirking, Blueblood sent a couple more slashes at me, causing me to take a couple steps back.
Looking to my left, I saw High Strike hold off two more ponies as a third was beaten back by another guard just behind him. Beyond them, I saw the remaining guards and Applejack hold off another half dozen ponies, while a couple pegasi were fighting above them with Rainbow Dash. I also thought I saw Pinkie blast a couple of ponies with a party cannon of all things.
Behind Blue Blood, I caught sight of Twilight conjuring up a shield as the final few ponies sent spells at her or the rest of our friends behind her, keeping them from being harmed.
“Guess it’s just me and you Blueblood. Just what I wanted.” I said with an evil smile on my face as I charged. He responded with a yell as he sent his sword down, intercepting my knife before he tried to get another hit on me. I dodged this as I conjured up four magic knifes, sending them straight towards this. Surprised, he barely got out of the way before they flew past him, one of them nicking his suit.
Growling, he fired off a few blasts of magic before leaping at me with his sword. In response, I shot several energy blasts at the spells, destroying them. I then proceeded to block his strike, leaving as at a stalemate as we pushed our weapons against each other, neither of us willing to back down.
“I got to admit, I’m surprised a filthy animal like you has lasted this long with a kitchen knife, although that will soon end.” Blueblood said, grinning like a madman, or pony, as he tried pushing even further, which made little progress as I pushed back just as hard, putting us back into the same position as before yet not strong enough to go past that point.
“I can say the same for you, spoiled brat.” I took advantage of his shock and anger by kneeing him in the chest, causing him to flinch in pain as he slightly lessened up his push. Seeing this opportunity, I pushed his blade back before sending a series of slashes and jabs at him. While he dodged or blocked all of them, they steadily wore away at him, exhaustion already seeable on his face. His sword wasn’t holding up any better, as it was scratched and dented in multiple places along the blade and one of the cross guards was broken.
I made a final push as I forced him back, using a boost of determination to send him back several feet. We used the distance to stare at each other for a few moments, evaluating each other. While I was sweating and panting, I was barely tired and ready to keep going. Even so, while Blueblood still looked exhausted, he was still in fighting condition. I crouched down slightly, ready to charge at him to end the fight, when something unexpected happened.
One of his ponies crashed down right next to them, Rainbow Dash on top of them as she sent several punches at the pony, breaking his nose and knocking him out. Before she could do anything else however, she got lifted up in Blueblood’s telekinetic field. With a look of anger and annoyance on his face, he smashed Dash into a nearby statue before magically throwing her against the nearby wall. Seeing that she was dealt with, he released her from his magical grasp and turned back around towards me, only to receive a punch from me that sent him against the wall as well.
Blueblood’s pov
‘That horrible welp! I’ll have it hang from that!’ I looked up with a hateful glare as I readied one of my most powerful spells, only to have it dissipate in shock and fear as I saw the creature. Or what was left of it. A black and red mist was surrounding it, giving off a feeling of almost pure horror. It’s knife had a red glow on it as if it was both enhanced and nearly at melting point, sending shivers down my spine. What was the most horrifying however was its face. It had a smile that matched with a psychopathic murderers. Meanwhile, their eyes had drastically changed, with their brown pupils being replaced by a bright red while the white’s of their eyes were filled with black, looking like a demon. Some sort of black liquid was even starting to spill out of their eyes and mouth. It then spoke.
“This is going to be fun.”
Chara’s pov
The battle only lasted a couple more minutes after I apparently became a ‘hell spawn’. Just as I attacked Blueblood again, royal guard reinforcements finally arrived, defeating Blueblood’s ponies as I beat the pony himself into a bloody mess. Luckily, everypony was pretty alright, with the worst injury on our side being a cracked rib from one of our escort. Surprisingly, Rainbow Dash was also quite alright, with just a few extra bruises then everypony else and a mild concussion. Out of everypony in the battle, Blueblood was the one who was injured the most. Besides multiple cuts, bruises, and a couple major lacerations, he had a broken leg and two broken bones in his front right foreleg. He also had a black eye, was missing half a dozen teeth, a broken nose, and displaced shoulder. The worst however was his horn, which had a large crack in the middle that extended almost to the tip.
It would’ve been worse too if Twilight and a few of the guards hadn’t managed to pull me off and calm me down. To say that they were shocked and scared when they saw my face was an understatement. Heck, I was too when I saw my reflection in one of the nearby mirrors. Luckily, I went back to normal almost immediately. After the fight, we got ourselves cleaned up and rested for a bit before going to see the princesses.
Now, I was waiting outside the entrance to the throne room with Spike while the others were waiting somewhere else, a curious and amazed expression on my face as I looked at the views available. Off to the left was a view of the city itself, while to the right showed a view that stretched on for dozens and possibly even a hundred miles, showing a large swatch of plains and forests, with the occasional settlement, road, body of water, or mountain breaking it.
The sound of walking draws me to the nearby stairs, where Twilight was looking down with a sad and concerned expression. ‘Did the test go that bad?’
Spike, who was sitting at the bottom of the steps, also noticed her. Unlike me however, he somehow didn’t notice her face. “Ah, Twilight! That was fast! Let me guess, you got a perfect score!” Twilight gave Spike a surprised look before returning to her previous expression and continued walking, with Spike noticing this time.
She only stopped when she was next to me, saying that ‘it was time for me to go in’, before being semi-comforted by Spike. I say semi-comforted because he looked like he was trying to help Twilight but wasn’t doing much except for guessing scores that she got. With a reluctant pause, I wave goodbye to Twilight and walk up to the throne room. As the doors closed behind me, I could’ve sworn I heard singing.
Throne room
“Wow.”
That was all I had to say as I looked at the giant room before me. The throne room itself looked like it was from the renaissance era, with a red carpet leading to a throne. On the walls were multiple colored windows and banners depicting the night and day. I walked up to one of the nearest ones, looking at the majestic masterpiece that was in front of me. I then noticed that the one next to it had a few very familiar ponies in it. Six in fact.
“Hello, Chara.”
I looked over and saw that there were two very regal looking ponies watching me with curiosity as they waited. I immediately realized that they were the princesses, dropping into a bow, only to be confused when I heard the white one, who must’ve been Celestia, chuckle.
“Don’t worry, my little po-human, there’s no need for such formalities here. Besides, your not even a subject of mine, although for the foreseeable future you will be treated as such. I am Princess Celestia by the way, and this is my sister Luna.”
“Um, thank you Prin-”
“Just call me Celestia, like I said you don’t need to be formal here.”
“Sorry Celestia. So, what did you and Luna want to talk to me about?” I asked, even though I already had a good idea as to what they were going to ask.
“Well, many of the original questions have already been answered by Twilight and her letter, but not all of them. My first one would be this, are you willing to harm anypony or anything?”
I raised an eyebrow at this, since I had fought Blueblood about an hour ago, but decided not to mention it yet anyway. “Unless they threaten me, my friends, or anyone who didn’t do anything bad or evil or they have bad motives themselves, then I won’t be hurting anyone unless a notable exception is made, but overall I won’t be harming anyone innocent.
Content with my answer, Celestia asked a few more questions before getting to Blueblood. “What happened with your fight with Blueblood. We have heard of what happened from Twilight and various guards that participated, but we’d like your perspective as well.”
I gave a deep breath and a moment to clear and organize my thoughts before I began.
“Well, we were originally walking in one of the halls heading to the throne room when Blueblood appeared from one of the corridors up ahead. He stopped us and taunted and insulted us for a good few minutes. To be honest, I was half tempted just to knock him out right there.” I chuckled at the thought before becoming serious again and returning to the story.
“After a bit, High Strike tried to get us past him when he blocked him off, trying to use Strike’s lower rank to keep him from moving past him. At that moment, I realized the situation we were in and saw something that made it much worse. He was being influenced.”
At this, both Celestia and Luna looked surprised and looked at each other before looking back at me and halting the story. “Hold your story for a moment, how were you able to tell that he was being mind controlled?” Celestia said, her surprise gone and replaced with a calm and stony look, only laced with a bit of curiosity and what might have been dread.
“No, not mind control. There’s a difference between being mind controlled and influenced. Trust me, I know. I’ve been on both ends of it before. And before you say anything, no I don’t have the intent or ability to do either anymore.” This caught their question before it was spoken, letting me return to the story.
“We were then ambushed from the front and behind by ponies that were with Blueblood. After I knocked one out, he and I fought for a little bit, leading to somewhat a stalemate. We were about to clash again when Dash crashed one of his ponies down next to him. He then took Dash in his magic and slammed her into a couple of objects and a wall before knocking her unconscious. I then lost my temper and it was all a blur until Twilight and some guards stopped me after the fight was over. I had apparently went demonic on him and beat him to a pulp.That’s what happened.”
As I finished I looked at both of the princesses, judging their reactions. Celestia’s face was still neutral and hard to judge. Luna however, had a more seeable reaction. She was concerned and in thought, with a few traces of shock leaving her face. I waited a full minute for them to say anything, and I was just about to say something when Luna spoke for the first time.
“Your story matches and fits with the others and seems to be accurate. Although nopony else mentioned something influencing Blueblood, even if we had our suspicions. Pray tell, how did you know and experience all of this.” At that, I then proceeded to tell them about my life in the underground. From my arrival, to my death, to when I confronted the controller.
“-then I blacked out. When I woke up, I was in the forest near Ponyville. That’s much of my life, and afterlife, in a nutshell.”
After the princesses finished processing what I said, they stood their with shock, amazement, concern, and slight confusion. “To think that a child like you could go through so much.” Celestia mumbled, before she focused and looked at me. “Well then, I think now we should get down t-”
“Wait, I have one more thing to ask, my dear sister.”
Luna looked at her before gesturing to proceed. After taking a deep breath, Luna said something that surprised me. “I would like to see thy ‘demonic’ face, if you wouldn’t mind Chara.”
After thinking about it for a moment, I agreed to show them. I spent the next few minutes focusing. Using my determination to focus my powers so that my demonic face was on. After making sure, I opened my eyes and looked at them, deciding to go the extra mile and give them a murderous yet gleeful smile. Celestia backed up a step, horn giving off a slight glow for just a second before dissipating, clearly shocked and alarmed at my looks. Luna however, wasn’t shocked. At most, she was curious and a little concerned. Looking at my face as if she was a scientist for a full minute before backing off. “Alright Chara, you can stop now.” I happily ended the power and used a handkerchief I had to wipe off any of the goo that dripped out.
With that out of the way, Celestia started off on where she was earlier. “Alright, so Chara. I’d like to show you something important.” At that she levitated a crystal over and activating it, showing a vast city that had the roads shaped into a snowflake, the center dominated by a crystal palace. It looked like something straight out of a fairy tail.
“This Chara, is the Crystal empire. A thousand years ago, the empire was ruled by an evil unicorn king who went by the name of King Sombra. He ruled with an iron fist, and used slavery, fear, and dark magic to rule over the citizens. Together, Luna and I successfully banished him, but not before he placed a curse on the empire and caused it to disappear. The empire has recently reappeared, and it’s likely that Sombra has too. You will accompany Twilight and her friends there, where you will all try to find a way to counter this evil and protect the empire.
I will admit that I had doubts about sending you. However, seeing that you are not only loyal and smart but also good in combat, Luna and I have decided that it was for the best to let you join them. You can of course decline though, as it will be a dangerous task.”
I thought about it for a full minute before responding. “If it’ll be dangerous with me, then it could be even more dangerous to them without me. Besides, I’m not leaving my friends, so I’ll come with.”
Celestia gave a warm smile before nodding. “Then it is settled. You will meet with the others at the train station and head to the empire with them. Sergeant High Strike and a contingent of guards will join you to help bolster the defences. While you’re gone, we’ll try to find a way to let you go back to your home world if you wish.”
Surprised at this offer, I nodded. “Thank you Celestia and Luna. I’m not too sure if I will want to go back, but it’s nice to have the option. I’ll see you two once we’re finished at the empire.”
With that, I walked back outside, hearing a farewell and good luck from the princesses as I made my way to the train station.
“I *huff* won’t tell you *huff* how to destroy the crystal heart.”
“Are you sure? It will mean that you will have a quick death. I might even keep you as a servant.”
“I said it before and I’ll say it again. I will not tell you.”
“Very well then. I suppose we’ll just have to continue with the ‘interrogation’. Say, since you’ll be spending the rest of your likely short life down here, you probably won’t need any magic.”
“W-what are y- AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Real world
“Mmmmmpppphhhhh!!!” I barely manage to block my scream as I wake up. I frantically look around the room, knife in hand, looking for any threats. Only then I realise where I am. A train on the way to the Crystal empire.
Sighing, I put down the knife and rub my face, trying to clear my mind and remember the dream. ‘It was that queen again. She was in, a dungeon? Yes, a dungeon! She was being tortured about something involving a crystal heart? What the hell is tha-’ I am interrupted from my thoughts as one of the guards walk into the room, looking around for a moment before settling her eyes on me.
“We’re nearly at the empire. Get your possessions and meet us at the front car.” Before I could respond, she turned around and left.
‘Well that was rude.’ I thought as I grabbed my knife and ran out the car door, not noticing the dark mist that was at one of the nearby windows before it dissipated.
10 minutes later
“Damn, this is colder than Snowdin.”
We had just stepped out of the train and were met with a winter wasteland, with a heavy blizzard coming from pretty much everywhere.
“I’m not sure where the hay ‘Snowdin’ is, but we better get to the empire before we all freeze.” High Strike commented as we started walking off towards a shining blue dome in the distance. We had barely walked a minute when a figure approaching from the blizzard. Getting ready for a fight, I grab my knife in case they attack. I also see a couple of the nearby guards tense up.
“Twilight!”
“Shining Armor!”
The pony then stepped out into view, lowering his black scarf and face mask. Twilight rushed up to him and hugged him, causing me to lower my caution. When High gave me a nod, I fully lowered my knife.
“Twiley! It’s good to see you. You too High!”
I tune out their conversation and look around as they talked, checking the surrounding area. Besides the dome, the train station, and some nearby mountains, it was all snow. Luckily, I didn’t see any signs of Sombra so far. Then again, I don’t exactly know what those signs are.
“Hey Chara, you coming?”
Hearing my name, I look over and see Rainbow Dash waving me over as the others started walking away. Blushing, I run to catch up to them.
“Something keeps trying to get into the city. We think it’s Sombra.” Shining Armor yelled over the howl of the blizzard.
“But Princess Celestia said that I was being sent here to find a way to protect the empire. If King Sombra can’t get in, then it must already be protected.” Twilight reasoned. Shining looked like he was about to say something else, but then the sound of the piercing wind was broken by what sounded like a mixture of a war horn and a demonic wolf howling.
“Ah! I-it’s one of the things isn’t it!!!” Fluttershy said panicky, darting her head back and forth. I heard the sound of leather against metal as several of the guards pull out their weapons, I myself take out my knife and prepare to summon several magic ones.
“We have to get to the Crystal empire, now!” Shining said just as a geyser of black smoke burst out of the snow several hundred yards behind us. At the top, two green eyes appeared, purple mist billowing out of them. With that, we all turned and started running. I heard another howl and what sounded like snarling, likely meaning that the smoke demon thing was chasing after us.
“That must be Sombra!” High Strike yelled as the guards followed behind us, the unicorns among them occasionally firing a bolt of energy behind them. Luckily we weren’t too far from safety, as I could see the dome rapidly approaching. Before we could get there however, I heard a crash and yell for help behind me. Turning my head around, I saw that Spike had fallen and was trying to get up. Twilight rushed up to him and helped him up, but it was too late. Smoke Sombra appeared above them, giving an evil chuckle before what looked like a house sized blade made out of dark crystals appeared in his grasp, immediately swinging downward towards Twilight and Spike.
"NO!"
I jump in front of the two, determination and magic coursing through me as my knife glowed, magic increasing the size of the knife blade to a size similar to Sombra’s own sword. It wasn’t a moment too soon either. Just as the blade finished forming, his crystal sword collided with my kni- er sword, making cracks appear in both. Before he could respond, I pushed his sword out of the way before sending a blast of pure determination at him, hitting him straight on the face.
As he growled in pain and anger, the guards started firing more shots at him, causing him to retreat. We all ran to the dome, dodging random energy shots and crystal attacks from Sombra. As I went into the dome, I look back and see him glaring at me with the hate and terror of a demon. I only smirk at him as I walked all the way through, making sure that everyone else is inside.
“Is *huff* is everypony *huff* alright?” Twilight asked between breaths, warily looking around at us.”
“He got a… lucky hit on my horn, but otherwise I’m alright.”
I turn around and see that Shining armor was examining his horn, which had multiple black crystals on the end. He tried to use his magic, but the crystals blocked it, sending the magic back into his head and making him stumble a bit in pain. Twilight gasped and rushed over to him, giving a worried look as she looked at his horn herself.
“We better get to the palace and find out all the details.” I say, snapping everyone back into focus. With that, we walked towards the city.
30 minutes later
‘Alright, the outskirts I can understand, but why are there no ponies here!?! I mean, it’s the city center after all! You’d think that there’d at least be some guards.’ I think as I look around. I can see that some of the guards see this too, giving varied looks of cautiousness, curiosity, and worriedness. I decide to address the problem myself.
“Hey Shining armor, why aren’t there any guards or civilians around?” He looks surprised at the sudden question, but then calms down and explains.
“Well, most ponies are still inside their homes. See, when Sombra took over the empire, he enslaved or brainwashed the population, forcing them to work in the mines or construct various structures and monuments. According to our reports, not only were they poorly treated, but also often tortured and forced to witness public execution. While times back then were less harmonic and things like hardship and war were present, most ponies were still very innocent. That, and the fact that to them no time has passed at all, they’re still coping.
As for the guard, most of them had been killed or imprisoned when Sombra ruled. The remainder and some others were brainwashed and forced to serve as his soldiers. Many had been killed when the princesses originally attacked the empire, and the rest are either too injured to serve or are coping with the traumatic experience like most others. Currently, only about half a dozen are still on guard, and they’re posted in the palace itself. Hopefully with the additional couple dozen guards here, things will be less stretched.”
We then continued on in silence as we arrived at the palace, only broken by Rarity gushing over the palace and Dash playing a joke on her. Once we went inside, all the guards except High Strike left to take their posts. As we made our way to the throne room, Shining decided to ask me a question of his own.
“Say, I know it’s a bit late to ask this, but what exactly are you?”
“Shining!” Twilight hissed. “Don’t ask such rude questions.”
I gave a small smile and held my hand up. “It’s alright Twilight. Well Shining, I am a human. I’m not actually from this world, believe it or not. I had arrived here after an, incident, and appeared in the Everfree forest. I had managed to make my way through the forest, but not before being attacked by those wooden wolves. After passing out, I woke up in the hospital and met the staff there, along with the girls. Afterwards, I went with the girls to Canterlot. Turns out Celestia decided to use the chance of summoning Twilight and the others to see me as well. It all went pretty well until we were ambushed by a controlled prince. After that, I just talked with Celestia, boarded a train, and arrived here. You know the rest.”
Shining nodded before pausing and giving a questioning look. “Controlled prince?”
Twilight elaborated. “It was Blueblood. We think that he was somehow controlled or influenced, maybe by Sombra. Knowing him though, convincing him to attack us wouldn’t have been that much of a challenge. Infact, he wa-”
“Hey Chara, you ok?” Applejack asked, bringing the focus of everypony to me. I realised that as we had been walking on, my face had become more and more negative, a look of melancholy appearing on my face. It took me a bit, but I realized why with a startled thought. These halls reminded me of the throne room from my dreams.
“Yeah, I’m alright. Just feeling a bit down I guess. The architecture just reminds me of a couple of dreams I had.” Applejack looked like she wanted to press on, but stopped when Fluttershy shook her head. Sighing, she dropped the subject and let us continue on in silence. Shining then decided to talk again.
"By the way, thanks for saving Twilight and Spike earlier. I thought they were gonners for a moment." At this, Twilight perked up.
"Oh yeah! Thank's Chara!"
"It's no problem. I won't let any of my friends die." I responded. 'Especially after Asriel.' We kept walking for a few more minutes before we arrived at the doors to the throne room. In front of them are two guards, who I presume are some of the only ones still on duty.
“Alright, let us in.”
“Yes, sir!” The guards shouted as they pull open the doors, revealing…
...no.
...How?
The throne room looked almost exactly like the one from my dream, except this one looked a bit more cheerful. While most of the group walked in and Twilight did a little dance who I presume is princess Cadance, I wasn’t entirely ignored. Applejack saw my look and immediately grabbed the sleeve of my sweater with her mouth, pulling me both away from the room and out of the trance I was in.
“H-Hey! What are you doing!?! Shouldn’t we be in there! What if they say something important?”
“Then Twilight can tell us about it afterwards.”
“What if they notice that we’re gone and get worried!?!”
“I already told High Strike what I was going to do, so if any of them notice, he’ll cover for us.”
“I… *sigh* fine.”
I continue being led for another minute or so before she stopped and released her grip. Before I can say anything, she glares at me and starts talking.
“I can tell that you’re bottling up your thoughts an’ feelings Chara. It wasn’t bad at first, but I can tell it’s been getting worse and worse since the fight w’ Blueblood. You’re not okay Chara, I can see that, and I’m not going ta drop the subject like before. I’ve been stubborn before, and it caused me and the ponies around me to be hurt. It’s likely nothin compared to your problems, but please just tell me. Ah’ won’t tell anypony else unless you’re okay with it.
“It’s really that bad huh. So, there’s no convincing you to drop it again?”
“Nope.”
“I see… if I do tell you, listen to everything I have to say without any interruptions. Also, try to keep an open mind.”
With that, I told her everything. No sugarcoating or lying, the whole truth. From my childhood experiences, to my time in the underground with my new family and my time with Frisk, up to now. The whole time, Applejack was intensly listening, occasionally grimacing or smiling depending on what I said, but didn’t say anything until I was done.
“I’ll have to admit, I didn’t expect ya’ll ta have gone through all of that. Hay, nopony should. Are ya at least feeling better now?”
“Yeah, a little. It felt good to just let loose and tell someone, instead of lying or keeping it bottled up. Thanks Applejack.”
“No problem Sugarcube. Honesty is the best policy, at least in my book. Now come on, we better get back before the others get worried.” With that, we turn back around and head back to the throne room.
