1 Never make promises [edited]

Judgment hall, The Underground

"Papyrus, do you want anything?"

Sans looked up at the shadowy figure of his fallen brother. The ghostly figure smiled and seemed to hold out a hand, as if welcoming him. He gripped Papyrus' scarf and held it to his broken rib cage. 'well bro, looks like I'll be joining you soon. too bad I couldn't delay them longer.' The skeleton grinned. 'on the bright side, I gave them their fair sets of resets. must have at least been thirty, maybe more.’ He looked down at his hand, rapidly falling to dust. Already his fingers were stinging, and he couldn’t move them anymore. 'I just hope that alphys is able to get the rest of the monsters to safety...' His smile faded slightly. 'well, at least what's LEFT of them.' His thoughts then turned to Asgore, the poor king would never stand a chance against this human. Despite his apparent toughness he never really had wanted to kill anyone, he was far too loving or, as Papyrus put it, "A big, fluffy, pushover!"

"Hng!" The pain of turning to dust was overwhelmingly intense, he looked up towards the ceiling of the judgment hall, the dusk like light quickly fading both from his view and his eyes. As he fell to his knees and everything was turning to black, he could only muster up a single thought: 'I love you, bro.' Oblivion was reaching to him, and he was ready to answer it. Oblivion rushed toward him.

A hand rushed toward him.

The hand reached him first, pulling him by his jacket into nothingness.

Canterlot Castle, Equestria

Celestia sighed. Another day, another session of listening to nobles whining and complaining about how "too much money was going to creating roads between cities" or that "somepony took my seat at my favorite cafe." She was bored out of her mind, wishing for a distraction.
And then, she got one. She winced as she felt a sudden burst of energy, blasting through her skull with an amazing power, far stronger than she could ever hope to muster. She looked up, and flared her horn in an attempt to locate the direction of blast of power. Her eyes narrowed as it seemed to come from the garden. She stood up from her throne, interrupting the noble below her. "And THAT is why I would like to sue Golden Hooves for stealing my servant from m-" The noble was cut off by the Diarch of Equestria raising a golden slipper clad hoof, much to her annoyance.

"I am sorry, my little pony, but I have a piece of business that I must attend to," the Princess spoke, hoping the noble wouldn’t make trouble.

The noble spluttered, "W-w-what? What do you MEAN important business?!? I AM HILLTOP CLIFTON, I CLEARLY HAVE THE MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM HERE!" Celestia sighed, of course she was making trouble.

"No, Mrs. Clifton, you do not,” Celestia said firmly. “I would suggest that you stop complaining and hire a new servant. Guards! Please escort Mrs. Clifton out of the throne room." She quickly turned and trotted up to the lieutenant in charge, "Tell the rest of the nobles that day court will be canceled for the rest of the day, I have felt something that requires my attention." With a salute and an “it will be done, Your Grace,” the lieutenant left to inform the nobles. Celestia watched him go, then trotted out to a side room of the throne room and quickly teleported to the Lunar Suite. 'I hope to Faust it isn't an enemy we need to fight,' she thought as she teleported.

*Knock knock knock*

"LUNA!" A blue Alicorn winced quietly, flipping over and pushing her head further into the warm embrace that was her pillow. Another knocking fit sounded, accompanied by a "LUNA YOU NEED TO WAKE UP!" ringing through the door.

The alicorn moaned and flopped the pillow over her head, and groaned quietly, "Hnnngggg, five more minutes, please, Tia... I have a headache." Another knock sounded out in the room this time more furious.

"Luna, if you don't get up I'm coming in and waking you up!" Celestia insisted.

Luna groaned again. "I don't want to, Sister!" she pleaded. The sound of teleportation flew in the room, the lunar Alicorn pulling her pillow over her head tighter in response. The sound of metal scraping on metal could be heard. Luna began to pull the pillow off her head in curiosity, when she was suddenly assaulted by a bucket of ice cold water. "PSHHSHSH," the dark blue Alicorn sprung out of her bed, spitting water out of her mouth and shaking water from her mane and coat. "CELESTIA! WHAT IN TARTARUS-"

"Luna I need you with me right now, I felt a massive power surge when I was in day court, I think a new enemy may have appeared or an old one may have broken free," Celestia babbled in one stressed sentence.

"Who?” Luna responded. “ Is it Discord?"

"No Luna, Discord's power would have been much more chaotic.This seemed to have an energy that was unnatural, like it was not meant to be on this world... or any other world for that matter. It is unlike Discord's, Sombra's or any other that we have faced. Not even Starswirl the Bearded produced that much raw magical energy... I fear for the worst."

"Then why not call for the element bearers?"

"Three problems with that. One: they may be strong, Luna, but they are far more useful against an enemies we know. For all their experience, they are very naive in their thinking. Two: they are like a glass cannon; they are amazingly powerful, but if even one of them is gone or corrupted then the entirety of the elements are useless. Three: the power of Harmony is only effective against true evil, and this may be nothing more than power. Either way, I will not risk them on an unknown. Now, let us go find this disturbance."

Castle garden, Canterlot Equestria

Celestia and Luna both rushed out of the doors of the castle to look for the disturbance. Upon reaching the garden, they were greeted by a strange sight. In the middle of a bed of golden flowers, two skeletons of creatures they had never seen were lying on the ground. One was larger and covered in a long, black coat and was lying face down next to the other skeleton. It was difficult to tell when the coat ended and the skeleton began. The second, smaller skeleton was lying face up and seemed to be bleeding, somehow. A large gash wound was sliced into its chest, cutting through what seemed to be a white t-shirt and a blue jacket. It was tightly gripping a red scarf, so long that was partially lying on the creature’s black shorts. Both Celestia and Luna approached cautiously, their horns glowing prepared to strike at whatever had sent these two poor remains. Celestia approached first. "These poor souls, what do you think could have done this to them?"

"Dark magic?” Luna questioned tentatively. “It seems like the most likely explanation to me."

"That still doesn’t explain their appearance Luna. Why would somepony kill another creature and move it to our garden? It just doesn’t add up."

"Mayhaps the taller skeleton will be able to give us some answers if we can inspect its wounds, if it even has any." Luna trotted up to the skeleton and was about to flip it onto its back when Celestia called out to her.

"WAIT! We just can't go messing with their bodies, they need to be looked at by a professional! We don’t know what did this! If we mess with the bodies that could corrupt the scene."

Luna waved off her sister. "Please, Celestia, we've both seen our fair share of battles, I think we should be able to figure out what happened to these poor creatures. I mean the small one obviously was sliced by a sword in the torso. I just want to see what happened to the tall one." She pushed the tall one onto its back, ignoring her sister’s complaints, and was shocked by what she saw on the skull. Two cracks, leading from either eye socket to the top of the skull and the top of its oddly shaped mouth respectively, decorated his face. She looked back to her sister, "See Tia? I mean, its death is rather obvious, its skull was cracked open while wearing a helmet, most likely from a mace or an Earth pony's hooves."

Celestia walked up to join her sister and glared at her, "I still think we should wait for a full investigation. Experience in combat does not make us professionals in the realm of forensics. I will call one of my detectives to make a full investigation of what happened here."

Neither of the alicorns noticed a dim pair of lights in the eye sockets of the larger skeleton, nor the slight movement of its hand towards the smaller one's body. Luna looked back down at them, planning to examine the cracks closer, and shrieked, jumping back several yards and propelling herself with her wings. Celestia also looked down to see what had scared Luna so much and was surprised to see the larger skeleton weakly reaching to the smaller one. She immediately activated her magic, prepared to destroy the abomination before her, when it spoke, quietly and weakly. "Plea̢se͡,̷ s͢-̵s͘-s̕av͡e m̨y ́s͝o̵n͘.͡ I͘ ha͏v͜e g̸i͞v͠en w͢ha̵t̀ ͏ĺi̷ttl̴e ͟magi̛c I͞ h͢a͜ve ́l-͢lef͞t ̛to ̨prol͘o͝ng his l̵if̡e.͡ I nèed͠ h̕im ͟t̵o li̛ve͠." His voice was difficult to hear, full of static, like he was speaking through an old radio.

Celestia let her horn power down, realizing there was no threat here, and looked at the skeleton. "I will try," she murmured softly.

The skeleton seemed to smile at this, and began to rapidly turn to dust before her eyes. It made a last attempt to touch its apparent son and whisper to him, "I̷ ͝l̴ơve͡ you, m̛ỳ̨ s̶̸͡o̷͟͟n͞͝.͏̸" before he turned completely to dust. Celestia picked up the smaller skeleton and the black cloak with the dust in her magic and carried it behind her.

"LUNA! Let's go! We must try to save this one's life. We can only hope it is not too late..."

2 Welcome the hero

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Hospital, Canterlot Castle

"Heart Savior, what can you tell me about... it?"

"Well Princess, I can say for certain that there is ABSOLUTELY nothing on Equus like this creature," he said, putting a hoof to his scalp and running it through his mane. "I mean, it doesn't even have ORGANS for Faust's sake! From what I can tell it is almost ENTIRELY made out of magic. He has almost no physical matter in his body and the magic that he has is rapidly running out, most likely from the giant gash in his chest. He seems to be naturally healing, however slowly it might be. One problem it has is that since its healing is so slow and the magic is draining so quickly, it will run out of magic far before it is fully healed." Heart Savior reached down and held up a canister in his hoof. "Princess, if we are going to save it we are going to have to ask for you to fill up this container with your magic. This will act as sort of a 'Magical Transfusion' able to store magic for the creature. The research team has devised a way to replace the magic flowing out of the creature, but the amount of magic required is immense. Due to his entire body being magic the creature needs to maintain a certain amount of magic in its body to maintain its physical form. It requires more than most ponies could produce in a week."

"Couldn't anypony gradually fill up the container? Why does it have to be me?" Celestia questioned.

"Theoretically a pony could fill up the container once,” the doctor answered. “However, if a normal pony was to attempt to do this they would likely fall into a coma from self induced magic deprivation. The intensity of such an action would be so magically traumatizing that they may never recover from it. It would leave them as a sort of magicless husk... I would dread to see the day that would ever happen to somepony. The reason I am asking you, Princess, is because you have more than a hundred times the magical reservoir of a standard pony, being an Alicorn, and a powerful one at that. You could easily recover the magic lost in a single night's sleep.” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “I will warn you beforehoof through, the process will leave you feeling a bit drained. After all, you are giving up more magic at once than many ponies could muster in a week."

Celestia still looked slightly skeptical, "Ok then doctor, how often will I have to do this 'magic transfusion'? I want to be able to raise and lower the sun effectively and still attend day court."

Heart Savior put down the bottle and waived his hoof around, "No, no, no, Princess! It won't take long at all! It also shouldn't interfere with your daily duties. The magic transfusion is not likely to drain you too much, most likely about ten percent of your power per bottle. You can easily continue with a normal schedule at that rate. I would like for this to be a daily thing to start off with, to maintain the creature’s health. After about two or three weeks you should hopefully be able to decrease the rate to every two or three days, as when the creature heals it will likely lose magic at a slower rate. I will, however, ask that we fill up two bottles now, as having an extra is always a good thing. In case of emergencies, of course."

The solar alicorn picked up a bottle with her magic, "How do I fill up one of these bottles anyway?” the Princess asked. “I've never seen them used before."

Heart Savior brightened up at this, "Well, Princess, they were originally made for infants who were born with a large magic deficiency. It was made to enhance their magic by adding as much as possible of it to them to allow for their magic to grow with it naturally, thereby expanding their magic pool. All we had to do was expand the amount of magic the storage device could hold; a normal one would simply explode if it had the amount of magic we are holding in it. To answer your first question, all you have to do is to channel your magic into this," he held up an orb-like device with a wire running into a machine, "and I'll tell you when to stop."

"Ok then. I'll do it. You're SURE it won't be too much of a drain?" Celestia bit her lip in worry. This was a devise intended to take her magic.

"OF course, Princess! I've run the figures on your medical records. With all the calories you intake you'll recover your magic in no time! I will ask however that you start your magic slowly, I want to be able to monitor how much magic is coming out so we don’t overfill the container."

Celestia snorted at the slight jab to her eating habits."I'll have you know that my dietary habits are perfectly fine! I'm not fat!" She huffed, grabbed the ball and began to push her magic into it.

"Never said you were fat, Princess," Heart Savior chuckled, "you made that inference on your own. Alright, now stop your magic flow for a second, I need to switch out the bottles."

Celestia let her magic stop flowing for a bit, her thoughts now focused on the creature in the bed before her. What would it be like? Could it communicate with them? Would it be good or evil? Would it even be reasonable? She had so many questions and no way of finding out about them unless the creature was to wake up. She could always find out with magic- there were plenty of spells that could do the job- but those were… less than ethical..

"-rincess? Princess? Are you there?" There was a hoof being waved in front of her face.

"Hmm, what is it Savior?" She shook her head to clear herself of the thoughts.

"I've been trying to get your attention for the last couple of minutes, you seemed to have spaced out there for a bit. You can continue filling the bottle now. Are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine doctor.” Celestia shook her head to clear her thoughts out. “I'm just wondering about our, er, guest... We have no idea what it likes or what it needs. It is simply an unknown to us. I hope this decision is a wise choice for us."

The doctor held up a reassuring hoof. "Princess, you are helping a creature in need.” He reminded her. “This is one of the most noble things that you could do. I'm sure everything will turn out just fine." He grabbed one of the bottles and hooked it up to a machine attached to the creature's chest. "There, now we will leave it to heal, hopefully we will see an improvement soon. I would like to talk to the creature and see what got him to this state. Till tomorrow princess." With that the doctor bowed and left.

Celestia sighed and got up to leave. If they were lucky, there would be a difference tomorrow. After all tomorrow would be a brand new day. However, as luck would have it, she found something different right then. As she reached the door frame, a cough sounded behind her and a weak voice spoke out.

"h-hey, pony... don't you know how to greet a new friend? turn around, and shake my hand."

3 A broken spirit

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Canterlot Castle, Medical Wing

Celestia spun around quickly. "You're awake!?" she asked excitedly. Finally, it was time for her to get some answers.

The skeleton's eyes were glowing dimly, its ever-showing teeth seemed to form a shallow grin. "seems like it, pony," it said weakly, "I'm awake for once, alive as ever, and kinda confused as to why."

Celestia walked up to the edge of the bedside and sat down on one of the few chairs in the room. "To be honest,” she said, “we are just as confused as you. You simply appeared out of nowhere in the middle of our garden in a critical state. We have tried to patch you up as best we can, Mr...?"

The skeleton attempted to move one of its arms, but stopped when a stab of pain went through it. It let its arm fall back down and said, "name's sans, sans the skeleton. i'd like to deliver on my previous offer-" he glanced down at the giant slash in his chest- "but tibia little bit honest I don't think I'm up to the task."

Celestia giggled a bit at the skeleton's pun. She was worried at first, but he seemed to be likeable enough. "I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of the land of Equestria. It is a pleasure to meet you Sans."

Sans eyes widened at this revelation. "a princess, huh? if I knew i was going to be in the presence of royalty after that fight I might have worn some better clothes. right now they're just the barebones of my wardrobe. i don’t suppose you’re as easygoing as asgore?” Celestia looked confused. “hmm, that look on your face… you have no idea who i’m talking about, do you? guessin’ you don’t know anybody else, either, like undyne or papy-" Sans jumped in panic and began to look around frantically, "oh, shoot! where is it, where is it, where is it?!"

Celestia stood up and looked at the skeleton curiously. "Where is what? Are you missing something?"

Sans looked back up at Alicorn speaking rapidly, attempting to push himself into a higher position as to see better. "a red scarf. Was there a red scarf with me when I was in your garden?” His voice took on a more serious tone, somehow, and his eyes darkened. “I NEED that scarf."

Celestia was slightly taken aback by this. Why would the skeleton need a scarf? He was clutching it whenever he was found, but she wouldn't think that a skeleton would get cold and need a scarf. Getting cold isn’t really something bones do. Then again, bones aren’t normally made out of raw magic, either. Shoving those thoughts to the back of her mind, she placed her two forehooves on the worried skeleton's shoulders, gently pushing him back to a lying down position. "Sans, please stay resting. You’re still wounded. Yes there was a scarf in your hand when we found you. We have it in the forensics lab now. We initially thought you had been killed and your body had been placed in our garden I can have it retrieved it if you would like. May I ask why you would need a scarf though? Are you cold right now?"

Sans cringed in pain as he gently set himself back down. "no, i'm not cold, and yes, please. i would like you to retrieve papy- I mean the scarf."

Celestia looked at the skeleton for a little bit, whose mood had been significantly reduced from his previously happy state. She then turned, walked out to the hall and spoke to one of the guards by the door. "Corporal, I need you to go retrieve the red scarf from the forensics lab and bring it to me."

The guard saluted. "It will be done, your majesty." He then galloped off towards the lab in all haste.

Celestia walked back into the room, "Sans, I have a question for you. You had said you were fighting someone before you were brought here, I can only assume that they were the ones to do this-" she gestured to the massive gash- "to you. I would like to know why you were fighting them. From the very, very limited view of you that I have seen so far, you don't seem like the type of person that would try to fight somepony. Why were you doing it? ...Does it have anything to do with the ‘Papy’ you keep mentioning?"

Sans haltingly sat up, his right suddenly going dark and his left eye glowing with an eerie blue light glaring down at his legs. Celestia took a step back; the amount of rage on his face was immense. His voice was perhaps the most serious she had heard from him, or in general. "That kid, that DEMON child, it took EVERYTHING from us." His voice began to quaver. "It took Mettaton, it took Undyne, it took the voice from the door... it didn’t even think to spare anything in its path, and it even went out of its way to try and kill every last creature before moving on. My brother, Papyrus, tried to talk to it..." Sans eye was now a burning a color of blue beyond what Celestia had ever seen. Even from there, she could sense the fury and magic emanating from him. "It sliced his head from his body without a second thought." Tears were now running from Sans eye sockets. "He only wanted to be friends! AND IT KILLED HIM! IT KILLED HIM! WHY?" Sans began openly sobbing.

Celestia stepped back towards Sans, lifted him up in her magic and slid him over so she could sit alongside him. She wrapped her wing around him and began to gently rock him back and forth. "Shhh, it's alright, I'm here." Truth be told, Celestia did not have very much experience with situations like this, but she knew what Sans needed most right now was a shoulder to cry on.

Sans continued to sob, tears of brilliant blue magic flowing openly. "I would have been dead too, if I hadn't been pulled here. May God have mercy on the souls of the rest of the monsters in the underground. Even if they are hiding, they will eventually run out of food. They don’t deserve to die in that way, no one does."

Just then the guard ran in with the scarf, only to see the skeleton crying and his leader hugging it. "Umm, I'll just leave this here," he mouthed to Celestia. He set the scarf on a table in the room, then rapidly backpedaled out.

Celestia lifted up the scarf in her magic and brought it to Sans, wrapping it loosely around his neck. Sans continued to cry softly, clutching the scarf as if it was his only lifeline while being wrapped in Celestia’s comforting wing.

After about an hour of slowly rocking back and forth and quiet sobbing, Sans finally fell asleep. Celestia slowly lowered him down so he could rest. At that moment Luna walked in.

"Tia, what are you doing here? We need to lower the sun and raise the moon."

Celestia gripped Luna's muzzle tightly with her magic and pointed to the sleeping skeleton. She then gestured for Luna to follow her out of the room.

When they were out of the room Luna immediately began to question Celestia."Tia, what was that all about? Did the skeleton awaken after I went to sleep?"

"Yes Luna, the skeleton did awaken,” Celestia responded. “I was able to have a short chat with him and find out a few things about him. First off, his name is Sans. He says he knows no more about how he got here than we do."

“Secondly, I would like for you to specifically look into his dreams and make sure that no nightmares happen to him. From what he has told me, he has gone through some serious hardships."

Luna looked confused, "Hardships? Of what sort?"

Celestia sighed, "He told me how his entire society was being slaughtered by a ’demon.’ What exactly this entails I do not know. He claimed to have watched his brother be decapitated by the monster after attempting to make friends with it. He also says that many of his friends were killed by it too, and those that are left hiding in his community are trapped with no way out. They are being starved to death without any support.” The princess shook her head sadly. “The amount of trauma that Sans has gone through has not been seen by the ponies of our land since the unification days. I would like to be able to get a psychiatrist in here to be able to talk to him about what happened. That and find out what kind of a threat the creature that he spoke of is to us. If that demon were to be able to get here as well..."

“Well,” Luna said, “chances are the skeleton’s arrival- Sans, was it?- is due to the taller skeleton that, er, died earlier. Without him, there should be no way for this ‘demon’ to come to our world. We should be safe from it.”

Underground, Judgement Hall

Chara was confused. Why wasn't she at LV 20 yet? It made no sense. She had finally hit the annoying comedian. She had seen him hobble off to die. It wasn’t that the comedian didn’t give enough EXP. Chara’d already checked, not a single extra point had even been gained. Something was different from the rest of the timelines... For one thing, the comedian didn’t give any EXP. For another, the underground lost its power a few moments after she hit him and saved. What was going on?

She walked back towards the core and was shocked to see the core itself was torn open. She backed up slightly, gripping the real knife tightly. "This, this is not normal," she muttered to herself, before grinning. "Finally, something new! This should be fun.."

4 Finding Truths

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Luna stepped onto her room's balcony and looked up at her night sky and glorious moon. “What are we supposed to do with him?” she thought. She pondered his dreams for a couple of moments, shivering at the memory. His dreams were, simply put, horrifying. Demonic grins, bleeding faces, and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. Part of her wondered how he was able to smile like he did, if he was tormented like this. But the most surprising thing was a sense of betrayal. The demonic creature seen in the dreams never showed any form of kindness that she could see, unless mass murder was considered kind in their world. Something was amiss here. Why would Sans show this emotion to a creature with such a killer intent? Why would he feel betrayed by a demon who had done nothing but wrong to him? “No, wondering of this will do us no good,” she muttered, shaking her head to clear herself of these mysteries. She could find the answered in the morning. In the meantime, there was one pony in particular who she believed could help. One who had proven herself time and time again.. She walked back into her room and sat down with a paper, quill and an ink bottle and began to pen a letter.

Dear Twilight Sparkle...

Ponyville library, Equestria

A purple unicorn darted around the library, several stacks of books and scrolls floating near her head, gripped in her magic.

“Spike! Where is Mane’s Mythical Monsters volume two?” the unicorn asked, “Princess Luna needs me to study a creature that’s supposedly never been seen before, and that book is the biggest chance we have of figuring out what it is!”

A small head poked out from under a pile of books, “I think Lyra borrowed it, Twi. She said she had some project she was working on and would bring it back in about a week or so.”

The unicorn sighed in exasperation, “Urghhh, the neighlastic books have the best documentation of mythical creatures and Lyra has the book that tells about Ghouls to Jabberwockies! Why did she have to check out that book NOW of all times?”

Spike looked up from organizing the massive pile of books at his feet. “ Why don't you just grab the series made by Hooften-Cloptins instead?” he rationalized. “It's almost as good and is easier to carry.”

“Because she’s a PRINCESS, Spike. I don't want to have ANY sub par work to show to her! It must be the best!”

“Twilight,” Spike said, making a motion for her to calm down. “I'm sure the princess will be fine with how you do the project, even if you don't have the best books. You are intelligent, hard working, and a great student. Don't worry.”

Twilight looked down at the dragon comforting her. “Thanks Spike, what would I do without you?”

“Probably have a massive panic attack,” he cheekily replied.

Twilight laughed, “Yes, I probably would. Now come on, let's prepare for the trip to Canterlot.”

Canterlot Castle, Equestria. The next morning.

Sans woke up gently, and slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. “huh,” he thought, “guess it wasn’t a dream. i’m really in a world run by talking horses.” He looked down at the device on his chest, which seemed to be pumping magic into his body. “not much to be done about my HP, but looks like i'm slowly gettin’ my magic back. i should really thank whoever is keeping me alive right now. without this magic, i’d have probably been dusted by now. how powerful are these ponies?”

A knock sounded at the door. “Hello? Are you awake?”

Sans chuckled softly. “nah, fast asleep.”

A pale orange unicorn in a lab coat walked in holding a clipboard in his magic. “Ah yes, Sans, is that correct?”

“yup, the name's sans. sans the skeleton.”

“Good, I just wanted to make sure that was correct. My name is Doctor Heart Savior, I’m the physician that was tasked with taking care of you. And I must say, you gave me quite the scare when you first came in. We’ve never had to deal with a creature like you before. None of our healing spells worked on you and you seemed to be rapidly losing magic. We were lucky enough to find a way to save you in time, much less find a way for you to start healing. We’re also lucky that the princess's have such a large magic capacity, otherwise we couldn’t have had a way to maintain the magic input you needed.”

“huh, so what you’re saying is, the chance of me living was down to the bone.”

The doctor snorted in amusement at the pun. “Yes, I guess you could say that. Now, onto your healing, you seem to be healing at a faster rate than expected. By our best estimates you should be out of the hospital in around five weeks, although, if you’re up to the challenge I would allow for you to move around the building in a wheelchair with an orderly helping you in around a week. In the meantime you are confined to bed.”

“oh no, I’m forced to stay in bed and do absolutely nothing. how will i ever survive.”

“It’s certainly a rough job, and I’m sorry for pushing it on you right as you’re trying to recover. Anyway, if you need any help just call for me or one of the nurses. We will be right there.”

“alright, thanks doc.”

“Just doing my job, Mr Sans. Not a problem at all.” He turned to the door and opened it. His eyes widened and he looked back at Sans. “Oh, are you feeling up for visitors?” The door opened the rest of the way to reveal Princess Luna standing in the doorway.

“hmm… yeah, i could pencil someone in.”

“Good,” Princess Luna stated, “ I have several questions for you that I would like to have answered.” She walked into the room, “Heart Savior, thank you. You are dismissed, this is private.”

The doctor bowed his head and replied, “Yes, your highnesss,” and walked out of the room, gently closing the door behind him.

Once the doctor was gone Luna looked at Sans. “Sans, my name is Princess Luna. Would you mind answering some questions I have?”

“depends, but probably,” the skeleton responded.

“Good.” Her eyes narrowed. “I need to know what the creature I saw in your dreams was. It is a security issue in the highest regard. I will not have my ponies being attacked by it if it is within my power to stop it.”

The skeleton's eyesockets seemed to go dark. “the creature, huh? lemme explain. you ever heard of a creature called a ‘human?’ ...that look on your face… so that’s a no, then. basically, they’re like me, but with more skin and muscle, and less morality. as for fighting it, you can’t. you just can’t. first off, you can't stop it. you can hurt it all you want, but it’ll just keep coming back, over and over. second, it’s fast, faster than you’d think. not as fast as me, but still very fast. it attacks relentlessly, no matter what you do to try to slow it down. third, it’s strong. it killed several of our best fighters with no problem. there was a robot specifically designed to kill humans. it destroyed that robot with a frying pan, in one shot. we never stood a chance. Finally, this is the most important part. never, EVER, trust it. i trusted it once. it cost me dearly...” Sans looked down at the scarf in his hands. “far too dearly.”

Pushing her worries about the creature back, Luna replied confidently, “Sans, we have dealt with many creatures like this. If it ever comes to Equestria, my sister and I can and will deal with it.”

“nope.” Sans looked back up at her, shaking his head. “trust me, if it's here then it's far too late to do anything. if it's here then we are all already dead.”

“Do you doubt my sister’s and my own strength? We control the sun and the moon!”

“wouldn’t fully know what those look like, never seen them before. to answer your other question, no, i don’t doubt your strength. i just know what the creature is capable of. and it only takes one, then you’re done.”

“Only takes one? What do you mean? The creature shall only have one shot at attacking me. Then it will be dead.”

The skeleton just shook his head, “if only it were that easy, it would be dead already. but it’s not. this thing is completely unstoppable for one reason. it can, well... imagine a creature that came back every time you killed it. but it doesn’t come back stronger, it comes back smarter. every time it dies it learns you. it learns your patterns, your health, where you will be, how hard you hit. and every time it comes back, you have no idea it knows. because every time YOU fight it, it’s your first time doing it. but to it, it’s the twentieth or thirtieth you've fought. and it’s DETERMINED to kill you. if you want it in layman’s terms, it can save at a specific period of time, and continue from there. it keeps the memories of what happens if it goes back to the save. you, however, don’t. that's why it’s unstoppable. not because of how strong it is, but because when you have unlimited shots at hitting a target, eventually you’re going to hit that target. i must have killed them at least thirty times. every time they got better at dodging until they finally got me. a small recompense for the hundreds of innocent it slaughtered.”

“You said that no one remembers when these things happen, why do you remember then?”

“i never said no one remembers, i just said you wouldn’t remember. i remember it all. every death of a friend, every time they turn the world back the way it was just so they can do it all over again. and every time, it ends the same way. us dying, it winning. it's never satisfied, coming back time and time again. this has been the only difference in the timelines, it’s never done this before.”

Luna sighed, “Thank you for the information Sans, I just wish we had been able to ask the other one what their take on this was.”

The skeleton’s eyesockets briefly flashed, one glowing blue. “other one? what do you mean?”

“When we first find you there was another skeleton in a black cloak that claimed you are it's son,” she explained. “It's said it used the last of it’s magic to send you here before turning into a pile of dust before our eyes.”

The blue in his eye grew brighter. “another skeleton?” Sans looked down with a small smile. “gaster,” he said softly. “wingding gaster, it had to be him. Heh heh… thanks, dad. don’t know what i would’ve done without you.”

Luna looked down at the skeleton, smiling softly as well. “Again I thank you for the information Sans, I'm going to allow you to get some more sleep. Goodbye.” She turned around and walked out calmly, closing the door behind her. The second the door was closed she took off in a full gallop. 'Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap…'

Core, the underground.

Chara gingerly stepped through the wreckage of the once great construction. It appeared to be blown apart from the inside. As she scoured through the wreckage she found a piece of black cloth. “So you’re involved with this…” she mused aloud. “Something borrowed,” she said, glancing at the knife in her hand. “Something new,” as she glanced at the cloth. “Never seen this before… I wonder how this will go. ...Speaking of going… Where is the comedian, anyway?”

5 New Friends

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Medical wing, Canterlot Castle

Sans looked down at the scarf in his hands, sighing. "well bro,” he whispered, “we're out. we never have to back to that place again. we’re safe here, we’ll never have to deal with that… thing, again." He tightly grabbed his brother's scarf and fell backwards onto the bed. "never again."

A knock sounded at the door of the room.

"Hello?" A voice said from the locked door. "May I come in? I would like to talk with you for a bit!"

"oh, uh, sure. you can come in. i was getting pretty bonely anyway," the skeleton cracked with a small grin.

A purple unicorn walked into the room with a small purple and green creature in tow. A lizard-like creature, almost like Alphys… or even MK… Sans quickly shook off those thoughts and turned to his new visitors. "Hi!” one of said visitors said cheerily. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my number one assistant, Spike. You must be Sans. Nice to meet you!"

Sans chuckled at the unicorn’s enthusiasm, "yup, i'm sans. sans the skeleton, although i guess it’s pretty obvious. nice to meetcha, twilight sparkle and spike. i assume you’re gonna question me about a bunch ‘a stuff?"

Twilight Sparkle blinked owlishly. "Yes... I was going to ask you some questions, how did you know?"

Sans grinned knowingly. "well... you came in holding a clipboard and quill above your head, which means that you want to take some notes, and the lack of a lab coat shows you aren't a doctor. any doctor that comes in here is wearing one. you also brought your assistant along- the doctors here don’t do that. if you’re bringing an assistant along it means that you want a lot of things written down in a short while and you are going to be busy doing something else, presumably asking questions."

The unicorn stood slack-jawed, "Bu... Wha... You figured that all out from me simply walking in! How smart are you for you to figure that all out?!”

“hey, you’re underestimating me. i actually got half of me from the look on your face.” Sans was secretly glad his face-reading skills still worked in mainly pony-occupied dimensions.

Twilight gaped for a moment longer, before beginning to jot down notes furiously, muttering to herself all the while. "Subject... Very Intelligent... Deducing... Further insight required." She looked back up at the bedridden skeleton. "Have you figured out anything else from our limited exchange?"

Sans smiled even more at this. "well, from how you just muttered to yourself and immediately jotted down notes, i gotta say, you seem like a HUGE nerd." At this point, Sans was wondering if it was morally wrong of him to get this much enjoyment out of this.

Spike clearly didn’t as he started laughing, while Twilight began to blush heavily. "See Twilight?" The dragon managed to gasp out. "You just met the guy and he’s able to find that out about you, and he hasn't talked with you for more than five minutes!"

"Spike! Come on, cut me some slack!" Twilight complained. She looked back over to Sans and cleared her throat. "So Mr. Sans, since you figured out that I came here to ask you questions would you mind answering some of them for me?"

"sure purple smart, as long as you drop the mr."

"...Purple Smart? What?"

"well, you’re colored purple and appear to take pride in being smart, so purple smart seemed to fit you. i’m gonna call you purple smart from now on. unless i decide to call you something else."

Twilight shook her head in exasperation. "Fine, now onto the first question. Is there anything about your biology that we need to know about? We know that you are mostly composed of magic," she pointed to the container attached to Sans’ chest, "but asides from that is there anything else that we need to know?"

"well, if you need to know, i have one hp, which means that a single hit to me can be fatal. the only reason i survived as long as i did is because i had serious help getting here. i won't die from something a simple as me getting a stubbed toe, but a single stab, or slash, or any kind of attack with intent behind it will do me in. so, uh… moral of the story, don’t try to kill me and i won’t die."

Spike scribbled down some notes in the clipboard Twilight gave him just as furiously as she had before. Meanwhile, Twilight continued. "Is there any dietary needs that we need to worry about?"

"i can basically survive on ketchup, so it shouldn’t be too hard to keep me fed. asides from that, i’m not too picky.”

Spike began to write down more notes when Sans interrupted her. "oh, and any spaghetti you have as well."

"Any reason for those foods in particular?"

"i like ketchup and the spaghetti is for… my own reasons."

Twilight looked at the jacket and scarf that Sans was wearing. "Do you tend to get cold or feel the rain?"

"nah, i just like my hoodie because it’s comfortable and i like the look of it. i wear the scarf for my own reasons as well."

"Are there any allergies that we should know about?"

"work without legally required breaks and people with no sense of humor."

Twilight looked at the skeleton deadpan, who in turn sneezed.

"told you."

Twilight just sighed, "Do you have any resistances or powers that we need to know about? Just for future reference."

"well, i can spawn bones and use them as weapons, and i can turn souls blue. other than that, nothing comes to mind." can't let her know about the gaster blasters, those are my secret weapon. they don’t need to know about my shortcuts either.

"Turn a soul... blue?" Spike asked. "What good is that?"

Sans smiled again. "watch."

The room seemed to get darker as Sans’ eye glowed a greenish-blue. A heart sprang out from Spike's chest glowing purple, causing both Twilight and Spike to leap back. The heart suddenly turned from purple to blue. Spike suddenly began to float in the air, waving his arms instinctively. "Twilight? What's going on?" he asked, as Sans held out his arm. It only lasted a moment, as Spike fell back down to the ground. Sans quickly clutched his chest, his eye turning back to normal.

"heh, probably shouldn't use my magic until i’m healed up a bit more,” he chuckled weakly. “but you get the basic idea, turning a soul blue allows me to levitate people around. or whatever spike is, in this case."

Spike looked up from the floor indignantly. "I'm a dragon!" he informed Sans huffily.

Sans glanced down at him. "dragon huh? i don’t know much, but aren't dragons supposed to be, uh, big? and winged and fire-breathing?”

Twilight sighed. "He's just a baby dragon, he hasn’t fully developed yet. But Sans, I don’t appreciate you picking up my little brother in your magic and then just dropping him."

"sorry."

She sighed. "Well, I think that we have found out what we needed for now. Come on Spike, we need to go! Bye Sans."

"cya, purple smart and spike."

After the two left, Sans looked down at the scarf around his neck. "well paps, looks like this place is gonna be pretty interesting. i'm going to see if i can hitch a ride down to the cafeteria and get some food. if they have one that is." Sans ringed the bell by his bed to get the attention of a nurse in the hallway.

"Yes Sans? What is it?”

"would i be able to head to the cafeteria and get some food? i’d say i’m skin and bones, but even that’s not true," He replied with a grin.

The orderly just smiled and responded, "of course, is there anything else you would like?"

"nah, i’m just hungry right now."

Sans took of the scarf and put it in the bed before the nurse pulled up a wheelchair and helped him into it.

"Any reason you want to leave this behind?" the nurse asked.

"i just don’t want to get any sorta mess on it. it's special to me."

"Ah, OK. Off to the cafeteria."

As the two rolled off a small whisper sounded in the room, although it was far too quiet for anyone to hear. "HAVE A GOOD MEAL BROTHER! THANK YOU MS. PONY PERSON!"

Underground True Lab

"Listen here, you yellow lizard. You are going to do what I tell you to or you are going to WISH I had turned you into dust along with all of your friends. First off, you are going to do a bit of research and development for me."

"You already killed all of them, what more could you possibly do to me? Everyone I care about is dead."

“Feisty, are we? Well, it you’re so eager to find out, then let’s find out.”

For the next two hours, no more words were exchanged. Only screams.

6 Showing Talent

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Underground, True lab

Finally. It’s so hard to get dust out from under your fingernails. Almost makes this not worth it.

Somewhere deep underground, in a laboratory known only to a few, a deceptively innocent-looking child finished cleaning up their hands from their rather messy work. Really, cleaning up wasn’t fully necessary, but they liked being neat. Just something about them.

Now that they were finished, they picked up the knife they had put down on the table, and turned to face the only other person in the room. Alphys help back a gulp- how, she didn’t know- and faced the child just as strongly. She would have simply walked away, or ran away, more likely, but the ropes around her kept her bound to the wall. Dust was still slowly leaking out of several wounds, but she was still alive.

Just barely.

“So, now that our greetings have been taken care of,” Chara chuckled darkly, “let us get down to business. You will do as I say, or you will… you will experience what more I have to share. Believe me, I was holding back.”

The lizard looked down in slight defiance, which rapidly faded as the knife came millimeters away from her arm. Alphys flinched despite herself. "What... do... you... want?" The small reptilian monster said, trying to ignore the dust covering on her face and coat. Right now, the cost of cleaning was the least of her worries.

Chara smiled and held out a black cloth. "You are going to find me the owner of this fabric and I am going to meet them. That is what I want."

"Wouldn't Lesser Dog or Greater Dog be better at getting a scent? Oh wait, you killed them all," Alphys joked humorlessly.

"Ha ha, very funny. You are almost as good as that comedian, except he was actually able to get away."

Alphys seemed to brighten up at that. "He's alive? How?" she gasped out.

Chara grinned again. "See, that’s the problem, I don’t know where he is, how he's alive, or how to get to him, but this cloth is the best lead I've got yet. And I need to find him; I’m only LV 19, and you won’t give me nearly enough EXP. I need to be at 20 before I face f- Asgore. This is where YOU come in, my small friend. You are going to help me find him again."

"N- No! I'll never get you to him!"

Chara just tsked and shook their head. "Don’t you realize?” They would have sounded amused, if it weren’t for the dark tone in her voice. “We have had this conversation before, multiple times in fact. I am just seeing how far I can go before I break you permanently. All toys break eventually, but if you’re careful, you can keep them around longer." She tossed the cloth onto table next to the poor monster and prepared the knife again. "One such precaution is maintenance. When a toy isn’t working properly, you fix it. Fortunately, I have a tried and true method for fixing attitude problems in toys.”

Alphys didn’t react for a few seconds, confused at what the human in front of her meant.

Then it hit her.

“That moment of dawning realization and horror…” Chara chuckled again, then laughed. The moment of realization was one of their favorite things. Before Alphys could say something else, Chara reached under the table and shoved a packet of instant noodles into the lizard’s mouth. “They’re better dry,” they muttered, smiling. “You dying on me would not be in anyone’s best interest right now.”

For the second time that day, a torturous symphony of screams rang throughout the Underground.

Cafeteria Canterlot Castle

Canterlot Castle’s main lunchroom was meant to be a serious place. It was where the royal family ate, as well as where the guards ate. However, be it from Luna’s occasional silliness or the guards’ tendency to feel casual in such a place, it tended to be less serious than intended.

So Celestia couldn’t honestly say she was surprised when she came in to hear the end of a joke. "...so i told her 'a skullpture, what else would it be?' and she just started laughing like it was the funniest thing she had heard in years."

The crowd surrounding the wheelchair-bound skeleton burst out laughing as he finished his story.

Celestia gave a polite cough, causing some of the ponies to turn around to see what the source of the noise was. Of course, they immediately bowed once her presence registered with them. As more ponies noticed that the princess was there the room gradually became quieter and quieter until there was complete silence. "Rise, my little ponies. I am simply here to talk with Sans, you may go back to whatever it was you were doing."

The crowd of ponies began to move away, leaving just Sans and Celestia. Celestia took hold of the handles of Sans' wheelchair with her magic and began to roll him out of the cafeteria. "Sans, I would like for you to come with me so we can talk in private."

Sans looked around at the wheelchair. "don't have much of a say in this, do i? you’re basically forcing me to roll with whatever you want here."

Celestia sighed, "I'm going to teleport us to one of my meeting rooms"

"teleport? ok, but gimme a sec. i’m sure i have a pun for this..."

"I will warn you teleporting for the first time can be a bit nauseating for ponies." With a flash both were gone.

Meeting Room Canterlot Castle

"hmm, maybe- gah! jeez, didn't expect it to be that bright!" Sans complained as he rubbed his eye sockets. “you coulda warned me!”

“I did warn you, though,” Celestia gently reminded him.

“you said ‘nauseating.’ you didn’t say ‘blinding.’”

"Sister. I see that you finally brought him here," a familiar voice said.

When Sans looked up he saw Twilight, Spike, Luna and Celestia all looking at him. "huh, if i knew there was going to be a party i would have brought another bottle of ketchup. howzit going you three? luna? purple smart? purple small?" He chuckled out nervously.

Luna snorted, ignoring Spike’s complaining at his new nickname. "Twilight Sparkle has told us some worrying news about you, Sans, and we were wondering if you would be able to house some light on the subject."

Celestia just smiled, "Luna, I believe that you meant to say, 'shed some light on the subject,' correct?"

"Yes, that is what I meant to say, confound these new phrases!" Luna grumbled as she sat down.

“they can be beautifully confusing at times,” Sans winked.

Celestia looked back to Sans, clearing her throat. "While Twilight was asking you questions you showed her an ability that you had that allowed for you to manipulate the soul. This is rather worrying to me as soul magic has been outlawed for more than a millennium. I would like to know how you learned of this magic, how it works and what effects it has on our ponies."

Sans just smiled. "oh, that’s what this is about? darn, you actually had me worried there for a moment. here i thought there was some disaster that would spell the end of everything here too, but you're just worried about blue mode. blue mode lets me turn your soul blue, which lets me to grab ahold of it and move it around. it’s really no different from that levitation stuff you guys do. it's completely harmless, trust me. your body will follow the soul, allowing for me to pick up people without ever touching them. pretty neat trick when you have literally no muscles."

"I see," Celestia hummed. "Would you be able to show us this blue mode? Twilight has already seen it, however I would like to witness it for myself. In fact I would like for you to attempt if upon me."

At this Luna and Twilight shot up out of their seats, both saying the same thing. "WHAT?"

Celestia looked back at the two ponies behind her and blinked, then smiled. "Of course, I wouldn't ask my friends to do something I wouldn't be willing to do myself. Besides, Sans says it's completely harmless and I have no reason to doubt him."

Sans held out his hand and the room grew dark once more. Out of Celestia's chest came a yellow soul that glowed brightly. "that’s your soul, the very culmination of your being. justice, huh… you don’t see too many of those. as you might have already guessed you should protect it at all costs. it is a glowing heart that came out of you chest, after all. it seems kinda important to anyone. now, i'm going to turn it blue but i won't move you around as i'm not fully healed yet. you might feel heavier, but that’s about it. when i tried it with spike i felt some serious pain, it got me right down to the bone you might say. ...i gotta come up with some new material, i’ve used that one, what, four times now?" With that Celestia's heart turned a bright blue and Sans’ eye glowed a greenish-blue.

Celestia noticed. "Sans, is your eye supposed to be glowing?"

Sans looked up at Celestia drawing his eyes away from her soul. "huh? oh, yeah. my eye naturally glows blue when using my powers. it’s a skeleton thing. i always thought it was representative of my magic color."

Celestia looked slightly worried "Is it supposed to have a green tinge to it?"

Sans frowned, "no... why?"

"Because it does."

Sans' frown grew deeper, somehow. "that... doesn’t sound good, i’m gonna need to see if i can get that checked out." He released Celestia's soul, muttering something about kindness, and the room lightened up again. "can we head back to my room?” he finally asked. “i wanna make sure this isn't serious."

"Of course, Sans. Be sure to watch out, teleporting may be blinding for ponies sometimes." And they were off.

Underground True Lab

"Stop! Just make it stop! I'll do what you say! Just m-make it s-stop!" Alphys sobbed as she bled ash from the numerous wounds covering her body.

Chara smiled. It was a truly impressive smile, in that it almost looked genuine. "Finally broken, huh? Took you long enough. Now, I am going to cut you down from there and if I see you make a move we’re making this pain ride a trilogy. Do you hear me?" Alphys just whimpered pitifully. "I'll take that as a yes." Chara reached up and cut the rope holding Alphys to the wall and watched as Alphys collapsed to the floor silently crying in pain. "Now, let's see about getting you on the job."

[Editor’s note: “This chapter almost had the bee movie script in it. Be glad this editor has a tiny scrap of impulse control left over.”]

7 Beginning Ideas

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Underground True Lab

"Hey lizard, I brought you some new playmates!"

Alphys looked up from the large circuit board she was working on, a large bandage covering her right eye. "What do she want now?" she muttered to herself.

Chara came walking out of the elevator dragging a struggling burlap sack and an uprooted flower. "I found these two while I was out and about, and I thought you might like the company while you were working. We wouldn’t want you going stir crazy, after all; you're my only hope of finding that comedian!" She threw the sack at Alphys' feet and tossed the flower onto the table. "Happy belated birthday! Go ahead, open it up!" the child said with a sadistic grin.

Alphys set down the soldering iron on the table and reached down to open up the sack, curiosity overcoming her fear and hatred. That curiosity was quickly forgotten and replaced with shock when she undid the knot. A child, just barely still innocent, gagged and bound despite their lack of arms... "Monster Kid?!" She breathed out.

“What kind of name is ‘Monster Kid,’ anyway?” Chara scoffed. “That would be like calling me ‘Demon Kid.’ Who would do that?” They thought for a moment, before shaking their head. "I'm going to be out for a bit, get along you three! Don’t hurt each other too badly!" With that they went back into the elevator and returned upstairs.

Alphys quickly kneeled down and undid the knot keeping the monster child quiet and helped him out of the bag. "Are you alright?" Worry was evident in her eyes, although there were no visible marks.

"Yo..." Kid muttered weakly. “Why… why didn’t they kill me? They killed Undyne without a second thought… But why not me?”

"Guess they didn't see you as a threat and wanted to keep you alive,” the flower remarked snidely. “It’s not like you had any way of attacking them anyway, other than throwing yourself face first into their knife. Howdy, by the way." Struggling to push himself into a position where he could see what was going on around him, he continued his verbal assault.

Alphys looked over at the flower and noticed the bare roots, quickly rushing off to grab one of the extra pots from her previous experiments. When she returned she saw Monster Kid shakily standing up with Flowey talking to him.

"You do realize just how dead we are right?” Flowey chuckled, then laughed. It wasn’t a nice laugh. “I thought I was her BEST FRIEND, and look where that got me. The only one safe here is Alphys, and that’s only a temporary thing. When Chara has her finish whatever they wants her to do she's just as dead as us. Oh, and speaking of us? We’re just down here for Chara's amusement. The SECOND we become boring to them, we’re free EXP. Now do you understand how dead we are, kid? REALLY dead."

"What else can we do about it? Undyne was the strongest monster down here and Chara just killed her like it was nothing. Nothing! How can we even hope to beat them?"

Alphys chose this moment to cut in. "I might have a plan, actually." Both Monster Kid and Flowey turned towards the former royal scientist as she walked up to Flowey and put him in the pot, much to the flower's annoyance. "I’m going along with what Chara wants me to do, which is building a portal to get to Sans. However, I'm going to use it to get us out of here. I was planning on building a time bomb to go off after we had left so Chara couldn’t follow, but I think they would notice that."

Flowey just rolled his eyes from his spot on the table. "That’s NOT going to work. Have you ever noticed that Chara has the strange ability to arrive just before you are going to do something that would set their plans behind?"

Alphys blinked, "Yes, I have. I just thought that it was bad luck on my part, why?"

"It wasn’t bad luck. ...Well, it is bad luck that she can do this, but not how…” Flowey shook his head in annoyance. “Bah, just listen. Chara has an ability that allows for her to reset from certain points in time. So there’s one timeline where you actually DID do that thing that you wanted to. But Chara saw what you did, and reset time, and came back before you did it to stop you, and all that. The same thing was happening with Undyne, every time she would be killed, rather than staying dead, Chara would just reset and come back with the knowledge of what Undye would do. If it looked like she knew what Undyne was about to do, that’s because she DID. I saw her do it. She must have died forty times before she finally got Undyne's number."

Alphys just put a hand to her partially covered face. "So that's what she meant by having had this conversation multiple times,” she sighed. “That doesn’t make any sense though, there have been a couple of times where I've been able to pull off some sabotage without Chara interfering. This requires some research."

Canterlot Castle, Medical Wing

Sans' soul hovered in front of him. "huh, this is interesting," he remarked. The soul hovering in front of him was cracked in multiple locations, only being glued together by thin lines of yellow magic. "i guess we now know where i got my green eye from, light-blue and yellow makes green. my soul is literally being held together by celestia's magic. i'm kinda glad that my soul isn't actually kindness now, i'd hate to give up my fantastic attitude."

Celestia looked at Sans, confusion written on her face. "What does that mean, exactly?” Seeing the blank look on the skeleton’s face, she continued. “You keep using these words to describe souls. Kindness, Justice... what are talking about when you refer to them?"

Sans looked up from his soul, "oh, each color soul means that you have a specific trait that stands out. a yellow soul means justice is your most prevalent trait. my light blue-ish soul means i have a soul of patience. of course, all monster souls are mostly grey, but we still have the faint sub-colors. purple is perseverance, green is kindness, blue is integrity, orange is bravery, and red is determination. it’s funny how blue mode still makes your soul blue though. kinda confused on how that works, probably the same way asgore can have blue and orange attacks. don't really matter right now, though i do wonder if i get some of your power. soul splits are known to do that sometimes. not quite the same thing, but eh.”

Sans then pulled his soul back inside himself and summoned a bone, "let’s test that theory out. i’m curious now." After summoning the bone he snapped his fingers and the bone glowed in a golden fire. Sans chuckled, not entirely surprised. "nice, sun bones. not really how i thought my magic would work, but it works with me. looks like i've got some fire power now." 'i wonder if i can use solar blasts in my gaster blasters now? that’s for testing whenever i get out of the hospital and i'm alone.'

Celestia looked in shock at the wounded skeleton. "My powers? But... What? How?" She spluttered out.

"i'm guessing your magic healing me is fusing with my soul, allowing for me to use some of your powers. i'm not gonna have all of your powers but at least some of the basics. or, you know, i could be completely wrong in that and i had the power of the sun- something i haven’t actually even seen in my home world, remember- for all my life and never found it in my years of study. but i think that last idea was the bare bones of a theory. guess we just need to do some research on what’s happening here."

8 Future Plans

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Canterlot Castle, Medical Wing

Heart Savior looked down at the clipboard held in his magic, checking them over one last time. Yep, everything seemed to be in order. "Well, Mr. Sans, you appear to be healing up nicely. You are officially healthy enough to leave the hospital! All you have to do is print your name here and sign it here, and you will be free to go!"

Sans looked at Heart Savior in confusion, patting himself. "I'm not fully healed yet, doc,” he said, "but you're saying I'm cleared to leave?"

The unicorn glanced at his boney patient and then went back to the clipboard. "Yes, the hospital will be releasing you today. We have not dealt with any of your species, but we believe that you are healed enough that you will be able to function without the supervision of the hospital. As long as you keep eating and don’t push your magic too far. you will be fine."

Sans just smiled, more than he naturally did at least. "don’t worry, doc, I get it. I'm just giving you a good ribbing."

Heart Savior just smiled and shook his head. "You know,” he told Sans, “if anyone else were here, I do not think they would be patient enough to deal with you.”

“yeah,” Sans chuckled, “that’s kind of what I figured too.” At the doctor’s blank expression, he shook his head. “never mind. you wouldn’t get it.”

“Well, regardless, you will certainly be a patient I will never forget. You always seemed to keep a good outlook, even when you were almost, well... cut in half."

Sans continued to smile and grabbed the pen and clipboard from the doctors magic using his own. For once, it didn’t sting. "guess I have been feeling stronger lately, I actually managed to walk around the castle yesterday. it was an... interesting... experience. yeah, let’s go with that for now."

Yesterday morning, Canterlot Castle, Royal Bedroom hallway

Sans wandered about the massive castle in the early morning hours, before the sun had risen. Not out of any particular desire to explore, but simply because he was bored and couldn’t sleep. Pretty unusual for him. ‘the nurses have been complaining that they’re hearing noises from my hospital room,’ he thought idly . ‘what do they mean? i’m pretty sure i’m the only one here. ...yep, just me and paps’ scarf with me. ...maybe…’ Sans thought for a moment, before shaking his head. “no way,” he said out loud, loudly. “there’s no possible way papyrus is coming back to life somehow. it’s completely impossible and makes no sense. there’s no way that’s happening. literally impossible.” Pleased with his attempts to trigger narrative causality to make what he wanted to happen, happen, he continued on his way, only to be stopped as two doors opened. Two very large doors, decorated with a picture of the sun in exquisite watercolour.

“Sans?” Princess Celestia asked, one eyebrow raised. “What are you doing up so early, speaking suspiciously loudly?”

The skeleton jumped, rattling guiltily. “oh, uh… I didn’t wake you up, did I? I was just walking, ‘cuz I couldn't sleep. weird, I know.”

Celestia considered his answer, before smiling. “It is of no concern, Sans. You didn’t wake me, I was just curious. Say… would you like to see something cool?”

Sans nodded and walked into her room at the alicorn's beckon. Celestia walked over to her balcony, opening the curtains with a simple flare of her horn. As the skeleton followed closely behind, Celestia looked up at the sky and smiled speaking to Sans as she did so. "This is a privilege that very few get see other than for yearly events, I hope you enjoy the show."

Sans just looked up at the alicorn in confusion. "what are you talkin' about? what kind of priv-" The healing skeleton fell silent as Celestia's magic lit up the dim sky. The solar princess's horn grabbed hold of the sun and began to drag it into the sky leaving the skeleton in awe of the feat of power before him.

‘holy…’ was all Sans could manage at first. 'is that natural control over the sun or long-range telekinesis on a grand scale? either way, that’s… wow.’ Realizing the princess was waiting for a response, he cleared his throat. "well, that was sunexpected," Sans chuckled out nervously. "kinda interesting that I have that kinda magic flowing through me right now. makes me wonder what my potential will be when I finally heal up."

Celestia looked back down at Sans and giggled, rather uncharacteristically. "Many ponies are blinded in awe of what I do, I'm glad to see that you are able to keep your head on when seeing my powers in action. Calling you in here to witness me raising the sun was not my only goal today, I also wished to speak to you about the future of your time here. My sister and I have been discussing what will happen to you after you leave the hospital. Under normal circumstances, ponies are sent back to their home after an injury. You are a special case though, seeing as your previous home is... suffice to say, inaccessible at the moment."

Sans nodded wisely. He had told Celestia what had actually happened in the underground two weeks ago, while he was still bedridden, about how the human had come and destroyed all the life in the underground. Celestia was taken aback at the story and had asked if there was any way for her to help. He has simply shook his head and said there was nothing that she could do, everyone was already dead. Rather blunt, but he felt it got his point across.

"I would like for you to stay in the castle once you have been released from the hospital,” Celestia continued. “My sister and I have set up a room for you if you would like to stay here, as well as a counselor to help you get through all of the trials you’ve been in. Surely after what you’ve been through, you would appreciate it. My sister and student are also interested in studying the effects that my magic has had on you, with your permission of course. I, on the other hoof, would simply to have another friend around that doesn't just bow at the sight of me and will act an actual friend."

Sans blinked owlishly, deciding to ignore the run-on sentence that she had clearly been holding for quite a while. "well then, princess... I guess I'll stay then. not like I have anything better to do."

Present, Canterlot Castle, Royal Bedroom Hallway.

Sans walked up to the two massive doors for the second time this week and knocked.

"Come in!"

Sans opened the door and walked in to see Celestia reading something on her desk. The alicorn looked up and smiled when she saw the skeleton. "Ahh, Sans! How nice of you to visit, I was just finishing reading a friendship report that my student, Twilight Sparkle, sent me. How are you today?"

"I'm doing pretty good, actually got signed out of the hospital today. doc came up and told me I was free to go. I came here to talk to you about where I could hole up, because right now I’m pretty much without a single shingle over my head."

Celestia stood up, "Good! I'm glad that you have been released from the hospital. Now I am able to show you where you will be staying, come and follow me." Celestia walked out into the hallway with Sans in tow. "Your room will be in the foreign dignitaries wing, my sister and I have set up a room that we think that you might like."

Sans grinned, thinking about it. “dignitary, eh? that would be a fun title to have. heya, the name’s Sans. Sans the dignitary.”

Celestia grinned as well. “We could make that your official title if you want, but be aware that there is a certain amount of work that comes with being a dignitary.”

Sans thought for a moment, before asking, “how many individual jobs?”

“What?”

“what number of individual occupations would this dignitary title consist of?”

“No, I heard what you said, but… I don’t follow...”

“what amount of occupations that stand by themselves would I be responsible for partaking in when I receive the title of dignitary to Equestria?”

“Sans…”

“work number.”

Celestia, after a moment of silence, realized what he was asking. “Well, it’s really only considered one job, so… that’s what you were looking for, right?”

“shoot,” Sans muttered. “I was hoping to get more legally required breaks out of it. more jobs, more breaks.”

Celestia chuckled at how much apparent work he put into avoiding work. “Well, here we are,” she said as they came to a set of two closed doors. “Go ahead and check it out.”

Sans opened and entered into a room that had a queen sized bed, a large, ornate bookshelf, and a door that presumably led to a bathroom. There was another door with a large closet, and a desk with copious amount of paper, ink and quills, set next to a comfy chair in the corner. Around the room several lamps decorated the wall casting bright light onto the surfaces of the room, reflecting through a set of glass doors that led out onto a balcony. That balcony overlooked a courtyard shared by the dignitaries of other nations.

“certainly bigger than my old room,” Sans commented in disbelief. ‘I could probably fit my entire room in one corner alone. heck, I could fit my room on the balcony.’

“I thought you might like it. Now I have to go to day court, so I’ll be away for a while. I will warn you to be watchful of other dignitaries that may come and go; the griffon diplomat is currently in town on business with a couple of companies here in Canterlot. I will tell you that he can get a bit… overwhelming at times. Also look out for my nephew, he has a disagreeable temperament.” With that Celestia walked out of the room.

Sans looked around the room before going over to the desk, setting the scarf he was wearing on the bed on the way there. He opened the closet with his magic and pulled out a pair of socks the closet had offered, casually throwing them in a corner. He then sat down in the chair, wadded up several pieces of paper and tossed them in a pile on the ground, spinning them up into a small, self sustaining, tornado. This picked up the paper and began to slowly spin, as Sans leaned back into his chair and looked at the tornado. “just like home…”

Underground, True Lab

The elevator to the true lab opened, allowing Chara to walk in holding a small sack. "Hey lizard!" The child called out, "I got you food for today! Come and get it!"

Alphys walked down the hall to the elevator, rubbing the scar that ran over her eye. She grabbed the sack and looked in it. "Glamburgers huh? Are you just trying to add insult to injury? What's the occasion?"

The child grinned dangerously. "Well, I know that you are doing good on your project to find the comedian, sooo a little celebration is in order! With this celebration come an ultimatum... I'm going to give you one more week for you to do work to finish the portal. If the portal isn't done in one week I'm going to kill Monster Kid and make you and Flowey watch."

“Question,” Flowey interrupted. “Why do you think I care? I’ve literally killed him myself thousands of times. Seeing him die isn’t going to affect me.”

Monster Kid, who had chosen to remain quiet, suddenly found something very interesting in the floor’s tiles.

“Self-preservation,” Chara chuckled. “If he’s dead, the only one I have left is you.”

“I’ll admit, that’s a good point,” Flowey responded. “But how do you know my death will influence her at all? She literally MADE me this way; why do you think she cares about if I live or die?”

“Um,” Alphys interjected awkwardly, “I DO care. I don’t want you to die.”

Flowey looked at her, before slapping himself in the face with a vine. “You were supposed to go along with it,” he sighed. “You were supposed to say yes, I don’t care if you kill him, it won’t bother me at all, all that crap. Your SUCCESSFUL creation was right- you are TERRIBLE at acting.” Alphys averted her gaze, both at his accusation of her making him the way he was and the memory of Mettaton.

“While this is all very amusing and adorable,” Chara told them, “I really must be off. I wonder if I can get that old turtle, he’s still in that stupid shop…” The child then turned around and went back into the elevator. “Good bye! See ya next week!” She said with an ominous chuckle. “Hey, Kid, you better hope she finishes it soon!”

Alphys went back into the true lab, and looked over at Flowey, who was still in the pot. “Well?”

Flowey looked back her, “Just give me a second… OK. Yup, that confirms it, she just saved. We got a track record, she WILL save right after checking on us. That gives us a window of about a minute where we can get out and arm the bomb.”

“Good, now we have six days to do this. Chara wants this done by next week, we’re gonna get done a little bit earlier.”

“Yeah,” Flowey muttered, looking at Monster Kid, who was still staring intently at the floor. “Earlier…”

9 Joy and sorrow

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Canterlot Castle, Sans’ room 5 days later

Sans sat up in his new bed, blinking in confusion at the bright, early morning sunlight. ‘what the heck is… oh, right. sun. that’s a thing up here. I’m still not quite used to that… maybe I should get some curtains or something. those windows overlooking the courtyard are pretty and all but it isn’t so nice when you’re trying to get some sleep.’ Sans flopped back down in the bed, ‘I really should get up, but-’

A knock sounded at his doors interrupting his thoughts. “Mr. Sans, I am here to clean your room! Are you awake yet?”

‘guess that settles that argument,’ the skeleton grumbled to himself, before responding with, “yeh, I’m up. just gimme a moment.” He rolled to the edge of the bed and pushed himself into a sitting position once again. Standing up, he walked over to the closet and grabbed one of the many identical blue jackets that one of Celestia’s friends had made for him. She had supposedly made a fuss about making such a bland creation (with such unusual sleeve placements), but Sans had insisted on keeping it simple. He pulled it over his shoulders, calling out to the voice, “k, you can come in now!”

The maid walked into the room and gasped in horror. “There is so much trash here!” she then scanned the room more and saw the self sustaining tornado of junk. “I... I don’t even...”

Sans just shrugged, “it's like my old room. you can clean up what you want, just be sure to leave the tornado and the socks in the corner. I’m gonna head out and see the Celestia, cya later.”

As Sans left he noticed her walk into the room with a slight limp and decided to use a Judge on the pony’s stats. Another skill he had kept hidden from Celestia. All monsters could naturally perform Checks (the most basic of spells), but Judges went deeper, actually being able to see EXP and LV. Not many could use them, but Sans had been required to learn before being hired for Last Corridor duty. ‘Clean Sweep. LV 1, EXP 0. HP 16/20, ATK 4, DEF 2. Maid for the royal family. Don’t trust her eyes, this “pony” seems suspicious.’ Sans blinked at the description. ‘That’s, uh... not what I expected. wonder what that's all about?’ Seeing that the maid had flinched, he noted to himself, ‘I’ll probably have to look into this for myself. she can sense my Judgement...’ With that thought behind him, he left the room.

Canterlot Castle Throne Room

Celestia was preparing for another round of complaints to come from her little ponies, a necessary job for her to perform. Did she truly deserve to be Princess, if she couldn’t be there for her subjects? She did have to wonder at times if some of the cases that came before her could have been solved somewhere else, though, as many of them required nothing more than a little common sense… Seriously! Who lets their own pet rabbits run free in their own carrot patch and then comes to complain about thieves constantly stealing their carrots and only leaving the tops behind? As she was getting ready to see the next inquiry a small bipedal skeleton came in through one of the side doors. Celestia smiled, this would certainly liven things up when a noble came in to complain. She leaned down to the guard next to her. “Private Swift Shot, would you please get a seat for our guest who has arrived from the dignitary wing? I think that he might like to sit in on some of today’s proceedings.”

“It will be done, your honour.” With that, the private nodded and headed of to grab a chair from a side room. Sans walked up to the throne.

“hey celestia, how ya doin’ today?”

Celestia smiled, “Much better now that I have someone to keep me company while dealing with all the proceedings, I hope you will be able to stick around as a sort of ‘adviser’ to me as I go through court cases.”

“so, I just gotta sit here and sometimes talk about things?” Sans blinked. “gotta say, this is looking up to be one of the easier jobs I’ve had.”

“You won’t be saying that for long,” she whispered to him. Before he could comment on the ominous message, the guard returned with a seat. Celestia directed him to place it next to the throne for Sans to sit in. “Now,” Celestia looked up, “Bring in the next case.”

Several hours later…

Sans groaned, putting one arm over his head and pulled. He may not have had muscles, but stretching still felt good after sitting in place for that long. ‘don’t think I’ve ever worked for that long in one sitting,’ he mused. ‘I guess having someone to split the load with really does help the time go by. or it could be time magic. you never know.’

“So Sans, how was the ‘work’ today? Not as bad as you thought it would be?”

Sans waved it off casually. “it was kinda fun to be able to work with a friend, to be honest.” If he had been paying attention, he would have been very impressed at the synchronized spit-take that the guards did. Especially considering they weren’t drinking anything. “guess sharing the load helps the hours go by.”

Celestia smiled. “A friend does help the time pass, doesn’t it? Would you be willing to come back and do this more often?”

Before Sans could reply a voice sounded out in the room that caused all the guards to flinch. “AUNTIE!”

Celestia facehooved while Sans glanced around for where the voice came from. Celestia looked over at the door that Sans had entered from several hours ago, seeing a blond unicorn walk into the room with his nose held high. She sighed in resignation, hoping her nephew wouldn’t bother Sans too much. Sans on the other hand couldn’t help but start to think of all the pranks he could pull on this unicorn. Not that he would. Not yet, anyway.

“Auntie, one of the maids put one of my tuxedos away in the wrong drawer! This has been after I told her to put them away in the correct drawer several times! It’s clear that she is incompetent at her position, and I want her gone and replaced with someone who can do the job-” Blueblood cut himself off as he noticed the skeleton in the room. “AHHHHH! AUNTIE!! A MONSTER, KILL IT WITH YOUR MAGIC!!” He shrieked.

Sans noticed a spider crawling along the floor just in front of Blueblood, and chuckled. “hey, that’s not very nice, it’s just a spider. it’s probably just trying to make some money for its family.”

Blueblood shrieked again as he saw the spider and ran out of the room, crying about ‘two abominations in the same room’.

Celestia looked down at Sans, secretly pleased at how it went compared to how it could have. “Well, Sans… you have now met my nephew, Blueblood. As you may have noticed, he has a rather… disagreeable attitude.”

“yeah, I remember you mentioning that before. not gonna lie to you, I already have some pranks I wanna pull on him. like, uh… dying his whole coat a beautiful shade of green. I think green might really be his color.” Sans stuck his hands in his pockets, shrugging. Somehow, these two actions didn’t conflict. “but I guess that’ll have to wait for another time. you also said that he was your nephew, so does that make him a prince or a duke or something?”

The solar alicorn sighed. “Yes, he is a prince and he is my nephew, not by blood though. I adopted his Great-great-great-great grandfather while he was just a foal when Luna was stuck on the moon, they have been in line for the throne for centuries. They serve mostly a ceremonial role now that Luna is back.”

“not to be rude, but he seemed kind of… entitled, and I don’t think he’s got any idea how to act too.”

Celestia just shook her head remorsefully. “I was more focused on raising my student, rather than watching over my nephew. I probably should have spent more time with him. He needed someone to correct him when he acted out… We still love him, even though he acts this way.”

“that’s nice of ya.” Sans idly wondered how Blueblood and Jerry would have gotten along, before shaking those thoughts away. No point pretending, and daydreaming about the impossible. “welp, I’m gonna head on back to my room. hope you have a good rest of the day, I’m gonna take a nap.”

Celestia chuckled. “Goodbye Sans. Have a nice nap.”

Underground True Lab

As the elevator went back up, Monster Kid turned to Alphys.

“Yo, I… I still don’t understand how we’re gonna do this… She can basically turn back time and stop something before we can do anything. Not even Undyne could beat her! UNDYNE! How are we gonna beat that?”

“Here’s how it’ll work, Kid.” Monster Kid looked over at his fellow captive, who hadn’t looked away from her project. “Chara is only able to go back to one point in time, and only in certain places.”

“It’s true,” Flowey cut in. “You can’t Save wherever you want, it’s only in certain areas. And for her, the closest Save point is above the True Lab and outside the normal lab. And she can only have one Save File active at once; if she had the power of multiple Souls, she’d have more Files available to her.”

“We are going to wait for her to go in the elevator,” Alphys continued. “We know that Chara’s save point is around forty-five seconds away, so taking into account the travel time for the elevator and her walking we can estimate that we have to set the bomb for one minute when she leaves. We’ll then go through the portal thirty seconds after she goes in the elevator. By the time Chara saves we will already be gone and the bomb will have fifteen seconds left. With fifteen seconds Chara won’t have enough time to get back and disarm the bomb, no matter how many times she resets. That’s the only hope we have.”

Flowey chuckled, darkly and humorlessly. “All our hopes are riding on one slim chance. And we’ve gotta do it fast; you’ve only got one day left. ...Thankfully, that gives us the chance we need. Chara and I…” The flower hesitated, before continuing on. “We’re very similar. And if she’s anything like I am, she’ll want to taunt us. Like a cat toying with a mouse. She’ll come down. Mention the deadline. Probably make a pun about knives to spite us, knowing her. And then she’ll leave, we’ll plant the bomb and go through, and that’s game.”

“But…” Monster Kid’s eyes shone, filled with worry. “What if it fails?”

“Then we’re dead.” Monster Kid wished he could have been shocked at the cold tone Alphys had taken, but he wasn’t. She had been like this for a while. “But we WON’T die. We’ll do this, and save ourselves.” Her eyes shone too, not with worry, but with something else. “We have to.”

Alphys and her friends were filled with DETERMINATION.

10 Reunion and Separation

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Underground True Lab

Chara waited impatiently as the elevator moved down, holding a sack of cinnamon bunnies she got from Snowdin. The Underground was actually starting to run out, and she didn’t want to give them any of her good food items, like the instant noodles. (She mentally scoffed at the idea of giving Alphys her noodles, when all Alphys did with them was cook them. Everyone knew they were better dry.)

It was the final day before she would kill Monster Kid. She would have also killed Flowey, but he was too useful to the lizard. Having been through several thousand resets beforehand, the flower knew more about science than you’d think. Didn’t mean she wouldn’t kill him later, of course. She chuckled at the lizard’s foolishness; did she honestly think that she was just going to waste all the free EXP that they would provide? No, she needed all the EXP she could get before facing the comedian again. She was able to defeat him before, but now he knew what to expect. Plus, who knew what new things he may have learned from wherever he was? MK and Alphys may not provide much, but Flowey would be a huge help. He was LV 9999, after all. If only he wasn’t trapped in that flower body, it was really limiting him. If he were a human or even a monster, he’d have been a huge help.

As the elevator reached the bottom she drew out her knife, opening the sack and letting the pastries fall onto the floor. “Hey! Lizard, how’s it coming? I got your food!” She stepped out into the stale air. “You better be done!”

Alphys rushed down the hallway wearing a welding mask, which she flipped up the front to revealing dark circles under her eyes, “I’m almost done! It will be finished by tomorrow, I swear! Just don’t do anything to Monster Kid, I swear it’ll be done by tomorrow.” She sounded desperate.

Chara grinned wickedly. “Well Alphys, his fate rests in your hands.” She walked down the hallway to where the portal was, inspecting it for anything that she thought might be suspicious. She wouldn’t have put it past them to try to sabotage it, but all they saw was what appeared to be circuitry and recently welded sections. “Everything seems to be going to plan. How close are you to actually being done?”

Alphys looked at her, weary. “Probably another eight hours of work, but I’ll get it done.”

Chara turned around and went back into the elevator. “Until tomorrow then, good luck. Your friend is depending on it.” As the elevator ascended she could only laugh. “This is going to be great! That comedian is going to finally going to be able to join his brother!” As the elevator reached the top she exited and walked back through the lab, out to the save point. She could only begin to imagine what it would be like; the comedian’s shocked face, their knife slicing through his bones- or perhaps she would use something else, like the frying pan- and the euphoric sensation of her LV climbing one more level. She paused a moment, her hand hovering over the save, her smile nearly splitting her face. “Tomorrow is going to be a beautiful day.”

*Determination.

As Chara turned away from the Save, a massive explosion shook the ground.

“What the-” she looked back over to the lab and saw smoke pouring from the windows. “NO. No-no no no!” She rushed back into the ruined Lab only to see a pillar of smoke coming from the elevator.

She reached out to her save and reloaded. About five seconds after she loaded a massive explosion rocked the ground again. “No!” Once again she reloaded and then sprinted towards the lab only to be thrown back by the shockwave. The child could only struggle to her feet as they looked towards the ruins of the only hope they had of getting to Sans. She wracked her brain for answers… Why? Why had this happened? ‘Alphys said she was almost done…’ Her eyes widened in realization. “Wow,” she chuckled to herself. “You would rather kill yourself and those in your care then give me a way to get to the comedian… I guess I never took you for that type of monster.” She walked back towards the save point, still chuckling. “Well, you outplayed me there… Guess you really did get to be the heroine of the story.” She gripped the knife tightly. “Unfortunately, you turned out to be a tragic hero, just like the one before you. Looks like I’ll have to find another way.”

Canterlot Castle Garden

The two monsters and the flower fell out of the portal along with various pieces of technology that they had been able to salvage, collapsing into a heap. “Do you think it worked?” flowey mused, looking back at the portal that was hovering a foot off the ground. As he spoke the portal cut off, leaving only air.

“Looks like it,” Alphys grunted. She pushed herself to her feet and glanced up at where the portal used to be. “The portal is gone so the bomb must have worked. We just gotta hope that Chara saved before the bomb went off.”

Monster Kid blinked, then smiled. For real. “Yo… we- we DID IT!” he cheered. He leapt onto his feet. “WE DID IT!” he cried out, “TAKE THAT CHARA, YOU CAN’T TAKE US OU-” his celebration was cut short as he noticed several spears were pointed in their direction, courtesy of the several ponies wearing armor that were surrounding them.

A guard wearing a red jacket approached them, glaring. “In the name of Celestia, I demand that you surrender,” he intoned.

Alphys held up her hands and sighed. ‘I was kind of hoping we’d not have to deal with sharp things pointed at us after we got away…’

Sans’ Room Canterlot Castle

Sans was reading a book on Equestrian history in his room. He was just about to start the chapter on what was called the “Reign of Chaos” when he suddenly felt a massive power wave flow through his skull. ‘wait, that feels like-’ he cut his thoughts short as he recognized the power he felt. ‘flowey. the flower’s here.’ His eye sockets darkened as he put the book on the shelf, not bothering to mark his page. He quickly donned his jacket and opened his door to find Celestia teleporting past Clean Sweep, who yelped in surprise, ‘this better not be what I think it is.’

He walked through the door, but ended up colliding with Celestia, who didn’t know he was coming out at that time. Celestia looked down in confusion at the skeleton who she had run into. “I am assuming that you felt that power and were coming to tell me, Sans?”

Sans shook his head. “not just that, I think I recognise the power of who what came in. an old enemy of mine. and no, it’s not chara. they’re similar though. the only main difference is what chara does is a bit more… permanent.”

Celestia nodded, not quite understanding but not wanting to ask just then. “Prepare yourself Sans, we are going to teleport.”

Sans looked up at Celestia and braced himself as if he was going to use a shortcut. With a flash they both disappeared.

Canterlot Castle Garden

The moment they landed Celestia already had her horn glowing, and was holding a large halberd in her magic. Sans summoned several glowing bones, half normal and half golden, his eye glowing a bright green. He quickly dismissed the bones, however, when he recognized who the ‘intruders’ were. “ALPHYS!” he called out in a loud shout as he ran over to hug his fellow monster.

Alphys, who was confused from where the shout came from, had only a moment to recognize the voice before she was blindsided by a skeleton hugging her. “Sans?” she asked in shock. She honestly didn’t expect to see him so soon.

“holy cow, you’re alive! how did you get here? how did you get away from chara?” The skeleton noticed Monster Kid and Flowey. “how did you get them away from chara? why is flowey here? we need to talk about-”

Sans was cut off by a cough. He looked up at the alicorn who was behind him, who was looking baffled. “Sans, would you... care to introduce me to your apparent friends?”

Sans smiled, “this is-”

He was again cut off, this time by Alphys. “Don’t worry Sans,” she said, “I can introduce myself.”

Sans again was in shock. This wasn’t the Alphys that he knew from when he fought Chara. This Alphys was much more confident and more in control, not the nervous wreck that he knew more than two months ago. This was almost a completely different monster… Especially with the scar she had over her eye and oh my god she had a scar over her eye. ‘what did chara do to you while I was here?’ he wondered to himself.

Alphys held out her hand to Celestia, ignoring the spears thrust towards her when she moved. “My name is Alphys, I am… well, was the Royal Scientist for Asgore, King of the Monsters and of the Underground. The two that are with me are Flowey and Monster Kid. I ask that you offer us shelter from Chara, whom we have just escaped from.”

Sans has briefly mentioned Alphys and her personality while discussing his previous life in the underground, but Celestia couldn’t see the similarity. The monster before her was completely different from how Sans had described her. Nevertheless, she cleared her throat and smiled. “Seeing as how you have just escaped what I can only assume was a very traumatizing event,” she told them, “I will offer you a safe place to stay, along with both of the others that you brought with you. I only ask that you answer some questions we have about how you got here.”

Alphys nodded in response. “That seems perfectly reasonable to me. Thank you for doing this.” She glanced back at Monster Kid and Flowey and then the guards that were surrounding them. “Do you think you could call off your guards? I’ve had enough pointy objects inside me these past months.” She gestured to the scar running vertically on her face, almost casually.

“Of course. Shining Armor, guards, stand down. Also inform all the other guards in the castle that these beings are not our enemies as to avoid confusion. They are seeking refuge from a much larger evil, treat them as you would foreign guests.”

The guards all saluted and said “It will be done, your highness,” and returned to their posts in the garden and the doors surrounding it.

Celestia looked back to the monsters in front of her, smiling benevolently. “Now come along, we must talk.”

Meeting Room, 1 hour later

“So then we grabbed all that we could, armed the bomb and went through the portal. Now here we are.” Alphys leaned back into her chair, tired from the long winded explanation. Both the princesses and Sans had needed thorough details to understand, and Alphys felt she owed them that much.

Luna stifled a yawn, not used to being up so early. “How do you know that this Chara will not be able to follow you? Wouldn’t she be able to possibly rebuild the portal and come here?”

Alphys shook her head firmly. “No way. I set up a few more bombs in the True Lab. Two were on the portal itself, one was on the computer, and another was on the elevator shaft so she couldn’t get back down easily. There are no blueprints for her to follow as I never made any so she couldn’t rebuild it even if she was to have the parts. The only thing that could have gone wrong is that Chara didn’t save just before the bomb went off, and seeing as how we are here right now and not currently dusting all over the floor of the True Lab, it looks like she saved within the expected boundaries of the time limit.”

Celestia frowned, “I am sorry for what you went through. Please, if there is an-”

Alphys cut Celestia off, “Listen, Princess, I don’t need pity.” Her eyes grew flinty, “What’s been done is done. We aren’t able to change that. The only one who can is Chara, and they clearly don’t feel like it. Our primary focus should be finding a way to beat Chara if they manage to come here. Flowey here,” she gestured to the potted flower, “has given us a unique opportunity to learn how to defeat her. In the past, he has had the ability to save that I mentioned, and used it in awful ways.” Celestia looked at the flower inquisitively, who at least had the decency to look ashamed. “Even though he isn’t the best creature in the world, he will allow for us to get a view on what Chara is doing, and with Sans’ battle prowess and your power we might be able to defeat her. I’m sure of it.”

Celestia was silent for a good minute. Eventually she spoke. “I truly hope it does not come to that, but if it does… we will help you. I promise.”

11 Settling In and Working out

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Alphys’ room, Canterlot Castle, 2 weeks later

Alphys awoke peacefully, gentle morning light speckling the room, filtered by the tree outside. Considering how her life had been before, at least two things- maybe three, she hadn’t had her coffee yet- were still surprising. Raising her arms and stretching, she thought about how these past two weeks in Equestria could not be any more different than the past two months. Good food, no threats and the most work that she had done was explaining the technology she had brought. At request, not knifepoint. She internally chuckled at the complete and utter awe that the best scientists of Equestria showed at her phone. “A device for long-distance communication that doesn’t rely on magic?” she distinctly remembered one of them exclaiming. She couldn’t imagine what her lectures about how she was able to make a mechanical body for a ghost would do to them. Although, she was dismayed at the whole Equestrian philosophy of science- as far as she had seen, they had nearly no technology. The scientists that she spoke to thought of technology as mere trinkets, a novel idea but nothing more. They never thought to expand beyond the magic they naturally held.

‘Might as well get up,’ she reluctantly thought as she glanced at the mechanical alarm clock on the table next to her bed. ‘It's eight thirty now, so if my schedule is correct that means I have about thirty minutes before breakfast with Sans, Monster Kid and the Princesses.’ The former royal scientist looked out onto her balcony, gazing at her creation that was currently soaking up the sun’s rays. Flowey’s initial reaction to the sun had been... amusing. He had acted like a child on a sugar high at Christmas. Alphys simply chalked it up to him having never been under direct light influence during his time being alive. Everything synthesized back underground.

Alphys donned one of the lab coats that she had brought with her and silently walked to join the potted plant out in the golden rays of the morning. “Enjoying yourself?” she said suddenly.

The flower jumped slightly at the breaking of the silence- at least, as much as a potted plant could jump- before looking up at the now grinning Alphys. “I WAS,” he replied, annoyed, “until you came and interrupted my early morning snack.” The flower looked down into the courtyard watching the guards change from the late night watch to the morning watch. “There are more of them around right now, you know. A week ago there were only four watching this area, and now it’s up to twelve.”

Alphys turned around and leaned on the white marble railing. “Well, I suppose that it's not every week that a princess gets married,” Alphys theorized. “Plus this spot has recently become famous for being a popular place for alternate dimension shenanigans. I’m sure that they just want to make thing safe here, ‘Royal Security’ and all that.”

Flowey shrugged, saying, “I kinda get it, but still. Three times the security? Not even Asgore would be that tight, he’d just probably pull the dogs from Snowdin and post them around the castle.”

“Asgore didn’t have to deal with several other nations that would be attending, as well as the ‘Security Risk’ that the guards keep talking about.” Alphys gestured to the Gryphon dignitary that was walking through the courtyard. “He just has to worry about fellow monsters, and who would have wanted to kill him?”

“Me,” Flowey told her in a frighteningly offhand tone. “I’ve tried several times, you know.”

“W-well, he... doesn’t remember that.” Alphys was uncomfortable at Flowey talking about such things, as such callous mentions of death were rare for monsters. She kept forgetting that Flowey didn’t actually have a soul. Deciding to change the topic, Alphys continued. “Besides, he would have been strong enough to handle himself. He’s the king, it’s his job to be strong. ...Well until they came…” She turned back around and put her elbows on the still cold stone, resting her head on her joined hands.

“Not much that we can do about it. Although, what you said is true.” Flowey looked over to her. “Asgore IS tough. If he really wanted to fight Chara, he’d stand a good chance of winning. ...My only fear is that he won’t want to. He tries to avoid fighting…” Both the flower and the lizard stood for several minutes, alternating between enjoying the silence and the morning air, and reminiscing on their time Underground.

Eventually, Flowey broke the silence. “Say, don’t you have to meet up with that smiley trashbag soon?”

“Sans.”

“Yeah, that’s the trashbag’s name.”

“So call him that.”

“I would, if it weren’t for my critical inability to care enough to do so.”

Alphys gave up and answered his original question. “Yeah, got to meet him soon. I just want to soak up the sun for a bit longer, though.” She stood there about a minute and then grabbed Flowey’s pot. “Well, time to get going.”

“Hey! Put me down!”

Alphys chuckled. “Nope, you’re coming with me. We are going to have breakfast- actual breakfast, I know you’re a flower and all but a few sunbeams aren’t enough- and it’s going to be nice. I know you can eat, I saw you do it in the True Lab. I don’t know how though. I’m going to have to investigate that a bit later, maybe I’ll give you a check up.”

“Don’t even THINK about it! You may have made me but you can’t tell me what to do.”

The lizard grinned. “Well, you’re under the age of eighteen and I am the one who made you, so I technically am your mother, and therefore have parental control over you. If I said that you had to get a check up, you would have to get a check up.”

“Wha- buh- you- that’s not even remotely how it works, you IDIOT!” Flowey snapped at her. “For one, just because you made me doesn’t mean you’re my mom! You made Mettaton’s body, do you consider yourself his mama?” He continued on, not giving her a chance to answer. “And secondly, I am NOT under eighteen! I’m several hundred years old, way older than YOU! ...Andyesresetscountdon’tevensaytheydon’tshutup!”

Flowey finally stopped and caught his breath, looking up to gauge her reaction. She looked… surprisingly amused, given the verbal beatdown he had just given her.

He then noticed she had never stopped walking, and the window he was at was already around a corner.

“Well played,” he muttered begrudgingly as they continued on to their breakfast.

Dining Room Canterlot Castle

Sans yawned as he walked into the dining room, tired. It wasn’t entirely that nine o’clock was earlier than he normally got up- although that was certainly a factor- but more that he’d spent more time awake so far than he normally did. Once you get used to sleeping sixteen hours a day and being awake eight, it was hard getting used to them swapping. But he had to meet up with Alphys and the Princesses for breakfast and he couldn’t miss that ...Oh, and the flower. It too. Stuffing his hands back in his pockets he sat down in one of the chairs that surrounded the massive table in the room. “mornin’ all.”

Celestia, who was sitting at the head of the table, smiled and returned the greeting, “Hello Sans, how are you today?”

Sans shrugged and sank deeper into his seat. “tired, sleepy, exhausted, lazy, fatigued, zonked, drained, weary. I like leavin’ a lot of options on the menu.” He looked over to Candace and Shining Armor who had been sitting at the table, “how’s the planning goin’?”

Shining Armor smiled, “It’s going well! Things are going exactly to plan: we are preparing the castle, and a shield around the whole of Canterlot will be going up soon to make sure that the ‘threat’ we keep hearing about won’t be able to get in. Invites have been sent out and all the supplies are arriving.”

“sounds like you’re gettin’ pretty engaged in this. invites, huh? wonder how purple smart’s going to react to having her brother being married off.”

Shining thought for a moment, about the nickname ‘Purple Smart.’ ‘Who does he mean by that?’ Then he realized the skeleton’s use of the word “brother,” and his pupils promptly did their best to hide in his eyes.

“OH MY GOSH, I FORGOT TWILY” He turned to Candace and shook her, still wide-eyed as before. “How could I forget my own sister?! I’ll be back, I’ve got to write her an invitation along with some for her friends, don’t worry about me I had toast already it’ll be enough okay bye!” He rushed off, presumably to start the invitations, and almost ran over Alphys, who was carrying Flowey, and Monster Kid on his way out.

“you know, I don’t think he’s got all his priorities set,” Sans said to nobody in particular. “he forgot his sister, and he’s already proposing toasts.”

Monster Kid looked back at the unicorn that was rushing down the hall, before asking, “What was that all about, yo? I’ve never seen him move that fast before…”

Alphys shook her head. “He probably forgot something for the wedding,” she told him before looking back into the room. “Well, good morning Princess.” It was a few seconds before she noticed Cadence in the room and awkwardly added am “es” to her sentence.

Celestia smiled good-naturedly. “Good morning Alphys, Monster Kid, Flowey. I trust that you had a restful sleep?”

“Yo, your beds are still the comfiest things ever!”

“Yes, it was great. Once again I would like to thank you for providing us a place to stay. Your generosity has really helped us out.”

“Mediocre at best.”

All the monsters stared at Flowey.

“What? She’ll appreciate the honesty. Plus, do you really think putting my pot on a bed will do anything for me?”

Celestia waved a hoof. “It was really no problem, this castle has more rooms than I know what to do with. More than half of them just sit empty, gathering dust. It is nice to see them get used for once. Flowey, if you are bothered by your sleeping conditions, we can arrange to…”

Sans tuned Celestia and Flowey out- something about sleeping in the garden- and turned over to Cadence. Ever since arriving in the castle, he had made a habit of subtly Judging several ponies he met. Some were amusing (“Princess Luna- long ago, she had thrown a temper tantrum and was told to go sit in the corner and think about what she’d done”), while others were heartwarming (“Spykoraneuvelitar, nicknamed ‘Spike’- the odd one out, but always right at home with his friends”). But sometimes, like with Clean Sweep, he would find an odd one. Case in point, the first time he met Cadence.

Sans remembered back to when he had first Judged her. ‘Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, nicknamed “Cadence.” LV 5, EXP 2396. HP 2939/2500, ATK 100, DEF 120. Princess of Love, soon to be married to Captain Shining Armor. This pony seems awfully cold for a Princess of Love…’

Sans frowned. At that LV, sleeping should only be raising her HP by very little. It had been early in the morning when he had first met- and consequently, first Judged- her, but that didn’t change how much she should have gained. He had first Judged her about a week and a half ago, but it was worse the second time, three days ago.

‘Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, nicknamed “Cadence.” LV 5, EXP 2396. HP 3289/2500, ATK 110, DEF 120. Princess of Love, soon to be married to Captain Shining Armor. This pony seems awfully cold for a Princess of Love…’ Essentially the same thing, except with 350 more HP and 10 more ATK. That wasn’t how HP worked. You didn’t just gain more and more without your base rising as well. And ATK only raised upon gaining more LV, and she was still LV 5. Just to confirm, Sans decided to Judge one more time.

Again, everything was the same, except for the HP and ATK. 3289/2500 HP, 112 ATK. Something was wrong here. ‘ first clean sweep, and now her… they’re connected somehow, but how? ...I’m not able to prove anything right now, but I’ll have to investigate.’

“Well, how about we now have breakfast?” Celestia gestured to table filled with pancakes, waffles, eggs, orange juice, apple juice and, oddly enough, a cake. “I hope you all enjoy.”

Canadce’s Room Canterlot Castle

“Urgh! Why did Candace have to deal with those simpletons?” Princess Cadence asked, and hopped up onto the bed, scowling. ”She’s a princess, not some commoner. Is this truly how Equestrian royalty treat themselves? I don’t understand their infatuation with the lower class.”

Cadence thought for a moment, about one guest specifically. He was suspicious of her, she knew it. She could feel his sheer distrust washing over her, overpowering anything else he felt towards her. That would not do. Her horn lit up in a vivid green magic, as she cloaked herself in a pillar of green flames. She had to deal with him.

“Shining Armor, would you please come here my love?”

“Yes, dear.”

“Would you please request that the skeleton named Sans come to me, so that I can speak with him?”

“Of course, dear.” And with that, Shining Armor set off to find Sans, leaving Queen Chrysalis alone in her costume’s room.

12 Fight and Blight

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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?”

13 Lost and Found

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Canterlot Dungeon

Sans and Celestia looked into the cell at their prisoner. The captured queen, covered in several chains and magic suppressors, glared back.

“Chrysalis, I know that you have kept Cadence alive,” Celestia formally began. “She is the Princess of Love and, furthermore, an alicorn. Alicorns can and will always know if another has been killed or banished. You will tell me where Candace is or you will pay the price. What say you to this bargain?”

“Ha,” Chrysalis laughed morosely, “my only hope for my children is gone… What more do you think you could do? Killing me now would only put my pain to an end.” Just as formally, but much more spitefully, she responded, “I spit upon the bargain you place.”

Sans stepped up to the bars of the cell, in the exact opposite image of formal. “ya know, there are a buncha’ changelings that we have captured, your children aren’t all dead and they haven’t all fled from the city.”

Chrysalis looked back up, staring at the skeleton for a moment. Eventually, she spoke, in a slow and careful tone. “If I was to tell you where she was... would you allow for me to see my children?”

“You will have to tell us where Cadence is first, so we may go and recover her.” Celestia looked sternly at Chrysalis. “If she is there, then and only then will you be able to see the rest of the changelings.”

Chrysalis considered the bargain. On the one hoof, Princess Cadence was the only advantage they had over the ponies. If she wished to fight back and win this admittedly bad situation, they could not afford to lose whatever advantage they could get. But on the other hoof, the other changelings… The fallen queen sighed. “Very well… I have kept her underground in the crystal tunnels beneath Canterlot. She has food and water to survive for the next week. I swear upon the swarm she is there… I would just like to see my children.”

“Very well, if she is there then I will take into consideration you seeing the cha- ...your children.” Celestia turned to exit the dungeon, nodding to her companion. “Come Sans, we have much to discuss.”

Sans stood looking at the queen for a moment, not noticing Celestia’s words. ‘just what did she have to go through to lead an attack against equestria? she musta’ realized even if she took down celestia, she’d still have to fight moonbutt and any other royal guards. she also would have to take out all of the other cities around the country… how desperate was she?’

“Sans!” Celestia said suddenly, cutting off his internal monologue. “Come, we must go find Cadence.”

“yeah, I’m comin’, I’m comin’. hold your horses.”

Crystal Tunnels beneath Canterlot

‘Something has happened.’

Cadence, Princess of Love and fiancée to Shining Armor, was laying on the hard crystal floor beneath her. She had been laying there in boredom for what she estimated was about two hours, too weak to do anything else. It was because of that that she deduced something happened. With nothing else to do, Cadence had taken to memorizing Chrysalis’ patterns. Not her physical patterns, her patterns with dealing with Cadence. She had been fed and “watered,” as the changeling queen had put it, about three hours ago. Normally, Chrysalis dropped in to taunt her about two hours after that, through the crystals all around her. Talking about how she would “take over Equestria” and how “Shining Armor will be mine.” According to the schedule Cadence had figured out, the queen was an hour late. She would only be late if something happened.

The only questions were what, and how the what influenced everything else. What had happened? Did she launch the attack? Unlikely, since Chrysalis had said it was going to be in a week. Was she discovered? Possible, but improbable. Maybe something else had happened? And what were the results? Were Auntie Celestia and Luna safe? How was Twily? Would she recognise that Chrysalis was impersonating her? Had she already? Was Shining Armor OK? Did she already attack? If the attack was done, was is successful? She sighed and flipped over on her back, looking up at the purple ceiling. The worst part of being trapped wasn’t the fact that she was alone, it was that she was alone with her thoughts.

“...haven’t checked here yet, maybe this’ll be it...”

Candace’s ears perked up, catching a sound she hadn’t expected to hear: a voice. Who was there?

The head of a pony, wearing a helmet, poked around the corner. Seeing Candace, he smiled widely and looked back at where he came from. “Guys! Go tell Celestia and the captain that we found her!” The guard looked back at Candace, offering to help her up. “Corporal Steel Hoof of the Canterlot guard’s second battalion here to help, Your Majesty.”

Candace unsteadily got back to her hooves, taking a deep breath. Save the waterworks for when she was out, she told herself. “Thank you corporal, would you please escort me to the surface?”

The guard saluted. “It will be done, Princess. Follow me.”

Celestia’s Room

“So Sans, would you care to finally explain your ‘Gaster Blaster’ in detail now? You said you didn’t want to explain it until Chrysalis woke up. Now that she has awoken I would like a full explanation of your Gaster Blaster and your teleportation ability. You had said that you weren’t completely honest with your abilities before Chrysalis launched her assault on Canterlot. I would like a full list of your abilities and what they all do.”

Sans sighed, looking up at the solar princess. “well, I guess it had to come out sometime… here we go. you’ve pretty much seen most of my abilities by now. my ability to summon and control bones, my blue mode, my gaster blasters, and my shortcuts. my bones are pretty simple, I can summon bones of different types and sizes. the standard white bones will injure someone upon contact, while light blue bones will only hurt someone if they are moving. think of blue stop signs.” He summoned each bone as he spoke, gesturing to to them as he mentioned them. He summoned a third bone before continuing, this one being lit afire. “bones with flames on them are relatively new to me, since they use your solar power as a base. if I had to guess, I’d say they act similar to orange attacks from my world. basically the opposite of blue, just so you know.” He brought his soul out and gestured to it next, turning it blue. “and of course you know about blue mode. stronger gravity, lifting things up, yada yada.” He tapped his soul after he was finished, turning his soul back grey.

Celestia nodded. “I understand your bones and blue mode, but I am more concerned with your ‘Blasters’ and teleportation ability,” she told him.

Sans snapped his fingers and summoned a small gaster blaster, about the size of his head. “gaster blasters were developed by the royal scientist before alphys, named w.d. gaster. hence the name gaster blaster, he named it after himself. they draw energy from between time and reality, a plane commonly referred to as the void. void magic is very malleable, so you can add whatever you want to it. I usually just add my magic, but now that I have the ability to use some of your magic I can make it into a solar beam. so far, like the bones all it seems to do is turn the attack orange. handy though, I can’t do orange myself. anyway, when it's fired… well, you saw the power that it had.” Sans gestured vaguely towards the direction of the dungeon.

“my shortcuts, or my ‘teleportation ability,’” he over-pronounced each syllable for emphasis, “let me move anyone or anything through space in an instant. I can show you if you want.”

Celestia nodded again. “If you could show me, I would appreciate it. Getting an idea of what your true abilities are will shrug off some of the… problems that you have caused by withholding this information.”

Sans shrugged and smiled, placing a hand on her back. “ok then.” He snapped his fingers causing the world to freeze for the two. “welcome to my shortcut,” he told her. “they’re usually less dramatic than this; I can take people through shortcuts without them ever realizing it. hold on, this might disorient you.” He snapped his fingers again, and the two appeared in Alphys’ room. “well, here we are.”

Celestia looked around at the frozen world, noting Alphys and Flowey who appeared to be having a conversation, while a pony was wrapped up in a bundle of vines in the corner. “This is certainly is an interesting view of the world,” she commented. And it was true; she felt like she and Sans were under a spotlight, and the rest of the world was dark.

Sans just snapped his hand again, causing time to start again.

“I’m just saying it-” Flowey started again, before flinching. He looked around, before noticing Sans and Celestia. He glared lightly at Sans for a moment, before turning back to Alphys. “I’m just saying it would be better to have Sans look into them if they’re suspicious. He noticed them first, and his Judge would be more reliable than any old sensor!”

“But why should we rely on him if we can work without him?” Alphys argued. “If I can make a sensor for this kind of thing, he’d have less work to do.”

Sans coughed, causing Alphys to jump. “wouldn’t that be a good thing?” Sans smiled at the scare he caused the lizard monster. “I only have one job right now. the more jobs I have, the more legally required breaks.”

Alphys looked over at Sans, squinting. “Sans, how many times have I told you? Don’t do that! And why didn’t you warn me?” This was directed at Flowey. “I know you notice when he does that, don’t deny it. When he came in-” Alphys then noticed Celestia, freezing for a second before hurriedly straightening out her lab coat. “Good morning your majesty, do you have an update on the queen?”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, she has awoken. She has given us information on where Cadence is being held in exchange for the ability to see some of her children.” Celestia then gestured to the pony held in several vines. “Now, Flowey. Why do you have my subject tied up and gagged?”

Flowey spoke up, “She was acting just like she was before the invasion, she’s probably a changeling. We were going to go get Sans to verify and then tell you, but I guess here you are.”

Sans looked over at the captive pony and judged her. ‘Clean Sweep. LV 1, EXP 0. HP 20/20, ATK 4, DEF 2. Maid for the royal family. Don’t trust her eyes, this “pony” seems suspicious.’ “yup, says she’s off, just like all the other changelings. she has zero LV though, so she might not have been completely involved with the invasion.”

Celestia looked down at the disguised changeling, causing its eyes to widen and panic slightly. “Flowey, would you remove the vines from her mouth? I would like to speak with her.” Flowey considered it for a moment, before retracting the vines.

Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but ‘Clean Sweep’ beat her to it. Green flames flowed over the pony, revealing the natural carapace, “Please! I haven’t done anything! I swear! I ran away from the hive and was on my own when the attack came!” The changeling began to blabber.

Celestia frowned. “Where is the real Clean Sweep? Changelings replace their prey to get love, we have learned as much from the other changelings we have interrogated. So what have you done with her?”

The changeling continued to speak quickly, his body shaking. “I didn’t replace them! I made them up! I swear to you!” The panic got more intense. “Please don’t hurt me! I swear I’ve done nothing wrong! I was told to be here, but I didn’t want to, I-” The changeling suddenly went stiff, a small vine piercing its neck, then fell to the ground snoring slightly as her body relaxed.

Celestia looked over to Flowey in shock, before her shock turned to anger. “Flowey the flower, what did you do that for?!”

The flower chuckled. “I don’t think using ‘the flower’ as part of my name is going to make me fear you any more…” He stopped laughing after a few seconds and turned to the changeling. “Its heartrate was going to unsafe levels, so I put a natural tranquilizer in its system. If you want more information, you’re gonna have to wait until it’s calmer.”

Celestia nodded, calming down. “How long until she is awake?”

“The sedative should wear off in about 8 hours. If you want to talk to her, do it then.” Flowey thought for a minute, before adding, “and stop nodding. Your head’s going to fall off with how much you do it.”

Celestia looked conflicted.

‘She wants to nod to confirm,’ Flowey thought to himself in glee, ‘but she also want to not nod as much. Flowey, you’ve still got it.’

The princess’ inner turmoil was brought to a halt as a guard decided to burst into the room at that very moment. He looking around frantically, before spotting Celestia. “Your Majesty!” he told her quickly. “We found her! Princess Cadence is safe!”

14 Return and Planning

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Medical Wing, Canterlot Castle

“Do you need anything else, your majesty? Lemonade? Cake? ...Candy? Anything? You were down there for a long time, you’re allowed to want something!”

Cadence just shook her head, saying, “No private, I am fine. The glass of water and the food from when you first brought me here were fine.”

“But-”

“Actually private, it would is best if the Princess doesn’t have any sweets for her first few days back,” Heart Savior interrupted. “Since Princess Cadence was in the tunnels for a significant period of time without food, her body might not have the best reaction to a sudden influx of nutrients and food.” He held his ever faithful clipboard in his magic as he approached the two. “Princess Cadence may be an alicorn, but we don’t know how a sudden increase will affect her body. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not be known as the doctor who got the Princess sick. So, for now, we’re going to stick to a treatment that we know works.”

The private looked down and returned to the doorway, muttering, “Yes doctor, I understand.”

Cadence giggled at the downcast guard and then looked back over at Heart Savior. “He’s going to be ok, right?”

The Doctor justed waved in the guard’s general direction “He’ll be fine, give him a couple hours and he’ll bounce right back to his normal peppy self. Now, for the reason that I originally came here. Princess Celestia and Sans the Skeleton- he’s the one who defeated Chrysalis- are coming to visit. I want to make sure you are feeling up to the visit.”

Cadence perked up at this and nodded. “Yes, it would be nice to see Auntie Celestia again,” she told him, “I was planning on seeing her, but then the whole changeling invasion happened.”

“good to hear you’re feeling alright then,” an unfamiliar voice said. “we were worried you’d ended up royally sick or somethin’.”

Cadence looked up towards the doorway and smiled at the large white alicorn walking in. “Auntie! How are you?” She also noted the small statured skeleton leaning on the wall towards the entrance of the room, and offered him a courteous nod. “And you must be Sans. I must say, you are shorter than I expected.”

Sans pushed himself off of the wall and walked up to the bed, “yup, I’m short. helps a lot, people set their expectations lower. and you're the real cadence, nice to finally meet you.” He offered his hand. “stick ‘em here.”

Cadence held out her hoof to shake his hand. When she did, a large farting sound filled the room. For a few seconds after, the room was silent save for Sans’ chuckles. “ahh, the good old whoopie cushion in the hand trick, gets em every time. didn’t bring any with me here, remind me to say thanks to the pink one later.” Beat. “the other pink one, I mean.”

“I will, Sans.” Celestia turned her attention over to her niece, smiling. “Now, Cadence, how are you?”

“I'm good Auntie, just a bit hungry and sore from all of the time spent down in the tunnels,” Cadence answered honestly.

“I am sure you will be happy to know that we have captured your imposter and several of her followers. They are currently being held in the dungeon awaiting trial for their actions.”

“Auntie, I would like to speak with Chrysalis after Shiny and I finally do our wedding,” Cadence told Celestia. Holding up a hoof to ward off questions, she continued. “As much as she came down into the tunnels I never truly was able to talk to her about why she did what she did. If I could speak with her, I may be able to understand why, and we may be able to come to a consensus.”

“Of c-”

“Um, Princess Celestia?”

Everypony in the room (and Sans) turned their heads to see who had come in. Masking her annoyance at being interrupted again, she pleasantly asked, “Yes, private?”

“We have a problem. One of the maids says that things are happening in Sans’ room. Something about a scarf attacking her when she opened the armoire, I couldn’t catch all the details.”

“wait, was the scarf red?”

The guard shrugged, causing his armor to clank. “I don't know, she ran out of the room screaming and I was told to tell the Princess what was going on.”

Before the guard could continue his story, Sans interrupted him. “I’m gonna go see someone. meet you at my room, k?”

The guard attempted to intercept him only to be held back by Celestia's hoof. “Private, Sans knows what he is doing, he will be fine. I trust him.”

Sans walked out of the room, the private following after. Ignoring the cry of confusion coming from the guard at the sudden lack of a Sans outside, Celestia turned back to Candace with a straight face. “I’m sorry to cut this meeting short my niece, but this is could be a severe breach. If an angry spirit is attacking ponies in my kingdom, I will defend them however I can.”

“It's ok Auntie, I know this is important!” Cadence thought for a moment, before getting an idea. “Auntie, do you think you can send Twilight up to my room? I heard that she and some of her friends had come for the wedding, and I would like to talk with them.”

Celestia agreed and quickly trotted out of the room, leaving Candace alone with her thoughts. 'Well, Celestia. I had a feeling it was only a matter of time.’ She mentally sighed, frustrated. 'Of course, I might be wrong on this assumption. But somehow, I don’t think I am. Now if only you didn't try to hide it from everypony, even yourself. If you keep this up, everypony- everyone- will see you as Princess Celestia of Equestria, and nothing more.’ Candace's eyes glinted mischievously as plans started to swirl through her head. If Celestia wouldn’t recognize her own feelings she would make her.

Alphys’ Room, Canterlot Castle

Sans teleported into the room and spun around, looking for his prey. Both of them, to be precise. Once spotted, he teleported over to one and picked it up in its pot, also putting his hand on the other’s lab coat. Surprising both the Flower and Alphys, who in turn gave a squeak, Sans teleported holding onto both of them.

Sans and Alphys landed on the floor right outside of Sans’ room, the skeleton’s breathing having slightly intensified. Alphys pushed herself to her feet and tried to recapture the balance she lost from the sudden arrival of Sans and their subsequent teleportation.

“Sans,” she questioned angrily as she adjusted her glasses, “how many times have I told you to not to do that?!”

Sans set Flowey’s pot on the ground as the flower still attempted to get over his disorientation. “four times, seven if you count just teleporting behind you. listen, I know you might be mad at me for bringing you here so suddenly, but if what I think is going on is actually going on, you two by far have the most experience in this field. now all we have to do is wait for celestia.”

“Three in a row…” Flowey complained. “You could have at LEAST given us warning, or just walked over to us that second time… Trashbag...”

Sans’ retort died in his mouth as all three turned their heads towards the sound of galloping. Celestia rapidly approached with three guards in tow, Earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus, respectively. Sans gestured towards the doorway with his head, “if what I think is going on in there is actually happening, we won't need guards. I appreciate the sentiment though.”

Sans then opened the door slowly, peeking inside as he did so. His eyes fell on the trash tornado first, which seemed to have an extra sock in it. The next thing he noticed was the curtains were open, exposing the windows. The third thing was the red scarf floating gently beside window surrounding it. More specifically, the first thing he noticed was the red figure surrounding the scarf. The large ghostly figure turned around at the sound of the door opening, its face noticeably brightening in recognition upon seeing the face from the door.

Alphys fell over, the guards scrambled for their weapons and Flowey was slowly muttering “what,” but Sans heard none of those. The only thing he heard was a word, coming out of his own mouth unconsciously.

“bro…”

15 Truth and Joy

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“bro…”

“BROTHER, THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS CONFUSED AND SCARED! I HAVE ATTEMPTED TO GIVE A PONY A HUG, BUT MY BODY SEEMS TO BE LACKING IN THE PHYSICAL DEPARTMENT! THIS IS VERY DISTRESSING TO ME! WILL I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, NEVER BE ABLE TO HUG A PONY AND BECOME FRIENDS?”

“What?! But?! How? Wha? You should be dead!” Alphys exclaimed. “We had your dust and we had witnesses saying they saw you die, and, and- how are you here?”

“THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS TOO GREAT FOR DEATH! DEATH IS BELOW ME! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!”

Sans, after a short internal conference, decided to laugh instead of cry. “Bro, you're… you’re back.” Somehow, both ended up happening.

Celestia walked into the room, guards in tow. “I see that you know this, ghost, then?”

Sans, who was now holding his brother’s scarf, nodded sedately. “yeah, this is my brother. or at least my brother’s scarf, who is now my brother.”

Papyrus looked over towards the ponies who had entered the room, barely having to tilt his head down to see Celestia. “HELLO, LARGE PONY, SMALLER PONY, SIMILARLY SMALLER PONY AND PONY OF RELATED SIZE TO THE TWO AFOREMENTIONED! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE FRIENDS?”

Celestia gave a motherly, if somewhat bewildered, chuckle. “Of course I would like to be your friend Papyrus. You know, I have a student that could learn from you.” She giggled and turned to the guards to dismiss them. “I am happy to say that we will not be needing your qualifications, you three are dismissed.”

As the guards exited the room, Alphys began to inspect Papyrus. “I-I’ve never dealt with something like this before…” she muttered. “The closest thing I have to compare you to is Flowey, and his situation is still different from you...” She trailed off, before looking over to Sans. “Sans, could you draw out Papyrus' soul please?”

“uh, sure.” Sans held out his hand straight towards Papyrus' scarf, which had been passed to Alphys, made a fist and pulled towards himself. “not sure why you’d want to see it, but-”

Sans was interrupted by a gasp coming from his brother. The soul he had pulled out was similar to any other monster soul. It was mostly grey, with a faint bit of yellow. The only difference was the size; where any other soul would be big enough to comfortably fit in Sans’ hand, Papyrus’ soul…

“WHY IS MY SOUL SO SMALL?” Papyrus exclaimed. “IT’S BARELY THE SIZE OF YOUR FINGER, SANS! THE HUMAN HAD A SOUL MUCH LARGER! AM I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, INADEQUATE?” Upon completing this thought Papyrus began to panic, rapidly talking to himself. “NO, NO NO, OF COURSE NOT, DON’T BE SILLY, ME! THERE IS NO WAY THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL NEVER BE INADEQUA- EVER BE INADEQUATE! YES! BE AS BIG AND STRONG AS EVERYONE ELSE!” He brought his head close to his soul, squinting. “GROW, SOUL, GROW!”

Alphys chuckled, gently pulling him away from the soul. “No Papyrus,” she assured him, “your soul is so small because you’re still recovering from being dead, not because you’re inadequate. From what I can tell in this short time, you have something similar to what Flowey has. In fact, the only reason you actually have a soul right now because you have gotten a boost in growth from Celestia's magic. Its because of this boost that you can feel things and have emotions at all.”

“Yeah,” Flowey added. “I’m running on pure determination, so I can’t feel anything. No soul, no feelings, nothing like that.”

Alphys looked down for a second after he said that, silent, before resuming. “Your soul also appears to be growing slowly even as we speak. It won’t be much longer.”

Papyrus seemed to calm down at that.

“Well Papyrus,” Celestia cut in, “it appears that you are doing well, which is good to hear. Now that I am able to finally meet you after all of the things I have heard about you, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Princess Celestia, diarch of Equestria and raiser of the sun. This is a formal welcome to the land of Equestria, and I hope you have a wonderful time here.”

Papyrus put his ethereal arm to his equally intangible chest. “A Princess!? The Great Papyrus accepts your welcome! Thank you for your kindness!” Papyrus then turned to Alphys and flowey, “I am... Friends with a Princess! Nye Heh Heh! Even rulers cannot resist my awesome-”

Papyrus put an ethereal arm to his equally intangible chest. “A PRINCESS?!” He gaped at her for a second, before turning to his brother.

“(SANS, IS SHE ACTUALLY A PRINCESS)”

“(yeah)”

Papyrus’ other arm also found its way to his chest. “A PRINCESS! THE GREAT PAPYRUS ACCEPTS YOUR WELCOME! THANK YOU GREATLY FOR YOUR KINDNESS!” Spinning, Papyrus turned to talk to Alphys and Flowey. “I AM… FRIENDS… WITH A PRINCESS! NYEH HEH HEH! EVEN RULERS CANNOT RESIST MY AMAZING CHARM! ...OH HI, FLOWERY, GOOD TO SEE YOU HERE.”

Celestia then turned to Sans, amused. “Is-”

“-he always like this?” Sans finished her question as Papyrus continued to gush to Alphys and Flowey, nearly overwhelming them, “pretty much, ever since he was a baby bones he was always peppy and willing to make new friends. not everyone accepted it at first, but over time he basically became loved by everyone who knew him personally.

Celestia turned to look at Papyrus, who was still talking with Alphys and Flowey.

“I would say I’m surprised to see you, but I can’t because I’m not because I can’t.”

“Huh? W-wait, what does that mean, Flowey?”

“A WORD GAME! IT’S QUITE SIMPLE! THE FIRST CAN’T REFERS TO HIM NOT BEING ABLE TO SAY HE’S SURPRISED, THE NOT MEANS IT’S BECAUSE HE’S NOT SURPRISED, AND THE SECOND CAN’T IS BECAUSE HE IS INCAPABLE OF BEING SURPRISED DUE TO HIS LACK OF A SOUL!”

“Papyrus, could you, uh, try to be a little more gentle around him? I’m sure it’s a sensitive subject.”

“Oh, sure. Let me just go and get offended at someone for saying I have no soul. Oh, wait. I can’t get offended. Because I have no soul.”

Celestia giggled as Papyrus babbled even more, turning back to Sans. “Well, he certainly seems in good spirits for having been dead,” she commented. “Twilight Sparkle would have been a quivering mess on the floor by this point.”

“yeah, papyrus never really let anything get him down. even when he was dying he believed in the demon that was killing him, saying it could change.” Sans shook his head affectionately. “he really is something.”

“Indeed.” Silence. “Well, this seems to be under control, and I believe that you and your brother would like some time alone, so I will be off..” Celestia bowed her head formally. “Until later, Sans.”

Sans simply waved. “cya, sunbutt.”

Canterlot Castle Medical Ward

Cadence looked up at Celestia as she re-entered the room, curiously without her guards. “So, what called you away anyway?” she asked politely.

Celestia’s face grew a happy smile. “Well, Sans’ brother is back. Not as Sans knew him, but he is back nonetheless. I decided to leave them alone for a while with his closest friends.”

“That’s nice,” Cadence said, her face mirroring Celestia’s. It quickly turned thoughtful, however.

“Cadence?” Celestia asked. “Is there something wrong?”

‘It’s now or never, Cadence. Well, probably not, but it’ll be a while. ...Well, not really, I can see her tomorro- you know what, I’m just going to do it now anyway.’

“Cadence?”

“Aunty,” Cadence carefully began, ignoring Celestia’s concern. “I have a question for you.”

“What is it? You can ask me anything you want, you know this.”

“I want to know what you think about Sans. The skeleton.”

Celestia’s ear twitched slightly, but asides from that her face offered no clues. “About Sans? Why do you ask?”

“I’m just curious.”

“Well…” Celestia pondered for a moment, “I will say that in the short time that I have been able to be in his life and him in mine, we have become good friends. I feel that I am able to trust him, more so than any other ambassadors I’ve met. He is also close enough that I think that I am able to portray what I am really feeling to him without being judged as Princess Celestia. He views me just as Celestia. He is a wonderful friend that I trust wholeheartedly, especially after the incident with your wedding.”

“Do you feel anything else?”

The solar alicorn’s ear twitched again, her mouth curved in a slight frown. “Well, mayb- No. I don’t think so.” Celestia then looked back down at Cadence, her face bright. “I’m sorry for rushing off again so suddenly,” she apologized, “but I have a meeting to attend to. Yes. A meeting with an ambassador of Saddle Arabia. Once again, I apologize my niece.” She then exited the room and turned in a direction that certainly did not lead to the Ambassador’s hall.

‘Well, Cadence you gave her something to think about at least.’ She internally continued her monologue, “You still got it.” She whispered to herself.

Cadence turned in the direction Celestia had trotted off in, grinning. ‘One day soon. Celestia. You can’t hide your feelings forever.’

Underground, MTT Resort.

“Bleug. I got glitter on my tongue again.”

Somewhere deep underground in another universe entirely, a small child sat at a table, eating a Glamburger. She put it on the table for a second, wiping something sparkley off of her tongue, before turning back to the burger.

‘About ten days of food left,’ the child thought, holding her burger in one hand and absently pushing the blade of her knife through the glitter that fell off of her burger with the other. She wasn’t trying to draw anything in particular, she was just bored.

Soon the child had finished her meal. She stood up, trying to wipe the glitter and dust off of her knife. The glitter was easier. The dust, not so much. The dust had a habit of following her and sticking to her clothes, as if crying out about what she had done.

“How did they pull that off anyway?” she wondered out loud to herself for the ninth time that day. “It must have been the weed. He must be able to tell when I save. Makes sense, I suppose. Does not mean I have to like it. I never should have left them alone.” She walked away, tugging at the blue and purple shirt in annoyance. She much preferred green and yellow.

“But it does not matter in the end,” she continued, looking up. “I will find you, Comedian. And when I do, well… To quote someone I hate, you are going to have a bad time.” She giggled, a terrible high-pitched sound of innocence tainted with unspeakable malice. “When I find you, you are going to wish you had just died when I struck you before.”

The girl suddenly turned around and stabbed her knife into the table roughly. She pulled it out just as roughly with her small hands, leaving ugly, uneven cracks on the table’s surface.

“You’ll wish you were already dead.”

16 Logic and Love

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Royal Laboratory, Canterlot Castle

Alphys looked up from the clipboard she was holding, turning to her companion. “Well, Papyrus,” she began, “from my current scans you appear to be in good health. Though, all I have to compare you to is Napstablook and Mettaton. Incorporeals are extremely rare in the Underground and that Mad Dummy fellow never did let me give him a checkup.” The scientist adjusted her glasses slightly. “Your current scans show that you are slightly lower than Mettaton was before he was, ah, killed, and you are still growing your soul back. By my estimates, you will be very strong for a ghost, but just take it easy until your soul grows back fully.”

“NYEH HEH HEH!” the transparent face laughed as he moved his arm to where his heart would have been, which ended up just slightly below his scarf. “THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL STRIVE AT ALL TIMES TO BECOME STRONGER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BECOME THE GREATEST GHOST EVER SEEN!”

Unperturbed by Papyrus’ outburst Alphys then turned to Flowey, who was sitting next to Papyrus. “Now onto the interesting part of all this.” She moved Papyrus’ page under the next one. “I’m going to be blunt with you here, Flowey. Your lack of a soul is hurting you. Without a soul, your body is only running on Determination. And due to the lack of the specific magical atmosphere of the underground, you, well…”

Alphys took a deep breath.

“Your body is deteriorating. From my estimations, as things stand you have less than two weeks before you’ll no longer be able to move.”

Flowey’s eye’s widened slightly, before looking down. “Huh… I wasn’t expecting that. Deteriorating, huh… Can we even do anything to stop that?” The flower seemed to wilt in on itself for a second, before taking a breath. “No,” he muttered too quietly for anyone to hear. “I’m not giving up. This is a world worth living in.” Taking another breath, he continued, louder. “So, what’s the plan?” He looked up at her. “I mean, either I die or find some way to counter this. Maybe we can…” His ideas fell silent as he looked at her. “You’re messing with me,” he said, deadpan.

“What do you mean?” Alphys asked innocently, trying to keep a straight face. “What I told you is-”

“Alphys. Just stop. You’re even worse at acting than… Uh, Monster Kid? Sure, let’s go with that. Monster Kid. Seriously, you made me go through that worry?”

“...Okay, I was joking with you.” The lizard smiled widely, happy to deliver some very different news. “In fact, you’re going in the opposite direction. You are starting to grow a soul, similar to how Papyrus is growing one, albeit much smaller than his right now. It’s still in the beginning stages of growth, but it’s there.” She flipped the paper around for him to see a small black and white scan of the flower, a small dot displaying in the middle of his stem. “It’s because of this little thing that you were worried at all. Congratulations Flowey, you have a Protosoul.”

Flowey ignored Papyrus’ happy gasp and considered that for a moment, one eyebrow raised. He hadn’t even noticed how he had worried, an emotion so foreign to him. For the first time since the invasion, he had felt more than indifferent about something.

“Hmm,” they thought aloud. And as an afterthought, “hmm.”

“HMM INDEED, FLOWEY!”

“Well, that’s new,” he finally said in response, mostly just needing something new to say. “You have any idea how it’s there or what to do?”

Alphys turned back to her clipboard, flipping a few times. “Your body has been collecting ambient magic ever since we got here,” she explained. “Equestria’s ambient magic is different from the Underground’s, and it has fused with your Determination and is now attempting to create a soul. At your current rate of growth your soul will only be fully formed in around two years, assuming it grows linearly and not exponentially. Keep in mind that’s only a very rough estimate; even if it is linear, it could be a couple of months or years off. I will continue to monitor its growth though, just to be safe.” She then turned to the skeleton in the room. “As for you Papyrus, I will continue to monitor your health and will let you know if anything comes up.”

Alphys then turned to the final being in the room. “Now onto you… Thorax? Is that correct?”

The small changeling nodded silently. He shifted in his seat slightly, clearly uncomfortable being the center of attention. Spike had been the first one he had truly felt comfortable around.

“Well, from what we’ve gathered from research and scans from other changelings, you are slowly becoming different from the average drone.” She gestured to two pictures on her paper, both of changelings. “The first picture here is a regular changeling drone and the second is of you. From what Doctor Heart Savior and I can tell, you are changing from a normal drone into something else. Your body type and magic signatures are more similar to Queen Chrysalis, to that of a queen or king of a changeling. Over the next few months, we expect you to grow in size and gain a large amount of magical prowess. I will also be monitoring you with the other two.” The scientist then turned to face all three of them. “If you feel any change whatsoever, I expect for you to alert either me or Heart Savior. Understand?”

The answers she received were affirmative.

Celestia’s room, Canterlot Castle

Celestia sat on her bed, gazing absently at the pristine wall in front of her. There was nothing on this particular wall. It was just that, a wall. A blank, unexplored wall that she hadn’t paid any particular attention to, for no real reason beyond she had never thought it important or necessary. In the back of her mind, she found it rather symbolic. Sighing, she fell back onto the soft covers, letting them envelop her. Her recent conversation with Cadence was weighing heavily on her mind.

‘What do I think about Sans?’ she pondered. ‘Well, he kind of came out of nowhere, to start. Literally. He’s one of the last survivors of a dimension that went through a world-ending event if his word is to be believed. And why wouldn’t I believe him?’ She absentmindedly batted a hoof at one of the many pillows towards the head of her bed. ‘He jokes around a lot, but his intellect is off the charts. Twilight said he had basically psychoanalyzed her just from looking at her face. And his conviction is strong; if it’s to protect somepo- someone he cares about, it’s strong enough for him to stand up to someone even if he knows it’s hopeless. From what he said, he could have been trapped in a loop of time for years, maybe decades, without anyone truly understanding…’ Celestia remembered the skeleton she had met so long ago, and how he had poured his heart out and cried himself to sleep on her shoulder. He seemed so different from the pun-making monster she knew now. ‘He had all that bottled up in him for so long with nopony to talk to… I’m glad I was able to help him before it consumed him.’

Princess Celestia rolled off the bed, landing on all four hooves and walked towards her bathroom. As she entered the bathroom she noticed the bubble bath that she had ordered earlier was ready. Using her magic she took off her crown and necklace, and waded into the bath, leaving nothing but her nose, eyes, ears, and horn above the bubbly surface.

‘Now that I think about it,’ she hummed to herself, ‘we are similar in many ways. Both of us love practical jokes, although Luna always was just a little more for jokes than I was. Speaking of Luna, we both lost a sibling that has only returned recently. We both care about the people around us greatly, and have seen catastrophes before our eyes. He also understands many things in a subtlety that few ponies can match.’ Celestia gently blew away a mound of bubbles that were floating towards her nose. ‘He’s also willing to talk with me like a regular pony. Not as royalty, but as friend… as someone who truly cares about me, for me.’ She had already known it, but she still smiled at remembering. ‘He cares about me… I’m not the high and mighty Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria… to him, I’m just Sunbutt, a good friend… right? I mean, it’s just friendship, I’m sure, he wouldn’t be friends with me because of that… and why am I wondering about that? What possible reason…’

The solar princess of Equestria sat there for several more minutes, soaking in the comforting heat of the bath and pondering what her relationship with Sans was, eventually reaching a conclusion that she didn’t realize was there on a road she never really thought about.

‘I think I’m in love…’

Another mound of bubbles appeared around her nose, and this time she was content to look at it and let it land, admiring its sudden but not unwelcome appearance.

The Far North

The howling winds of the frozen north hadn’t stopped. They never stopped, with nothing to stop them. Further south, the land was more hospitable, made for trivial things like life. But here, the eternal cold, choking snow and howling winds never died. All winds were destined to die, but this wind enjoyed a long rule over a kingdom of forgotten history. Nothing moved here, nothing but the snow and the winds watching over this land. Nothing moved.

But then something did.

A crystal, peeking its head out of the ground innocently. It rose from the snow, looking around to see if this would be an okay home for it to live in. It looked so different than it remembered, but that could be fixed.

By the crystal’s power, the winds fell silent for the first time in one thousand years.

Satisfied, the crystal began to rise. And at first, a floor rose with it. Then walls, then more walls. It expanded outwards, some areas rising faster than others. There were no rumbles, no tremors. Everything ascended out of the snow smoothly, not making a single sound, as if shy about coming back after so long.

Finally, everything had come back. The crystal sent out one last wave of power, and then slumped to the floor, tired. It had spent everything bringing its kingdom back. And the crystal heart was happy.

As the wave traveled along the kingdom, the inhabitants there slowly awoke. Their thousand year nap had finally ended.

All of them. Including one.

A dark shadow, not really caring about all known laws of reality, floated through the air, not created by anything or connected to any surface. The only thing the shadow seemed connected to was a red horn, curved and unnatural, floating just as easily as the shadow it called home. It passed over the crystal heart, lying on the ground, and after a second of consideration, the crystal’s surface grew hard and gray. Satisfied, the shadow picked up the lifeless crystal and carried it along to the top of the castle.

A gravely voice, as dark and foreboding as the shadow itself, raged over the kingdom, causing the inhabitants to shiver. Above, icicles that had been frozen for years on overhangs and spouts snapped in two just from the malice the voice held.

“ThE CurSe wAS liFtEd, TimE unDoNE. thE pAst cOmeS bACk to FiGHt. GrAveyArds shIFt aNd cOrpSes BrEAthE, ThE DeAd cOmE bacK to LIghT. tHis PerFecT WorLD TheY hOLd So DeaR iS mIne to tAKe bY MiGht.”

Bright green, surrounding a core of blood red, with an ominous purple waving off of them. Two eyes, described this way, pierced the blizzard looking nowhere in particular, everywhere at once, and directly through the snow at a city miles away, with a palace he knew housed an old enemy of his.

“cURseD crYStALs AnD daRKeNeD SkiES, tHe SHaDoW KiNG WiLL OnCE MOrE RISE!”

17 Shadows and Start

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Throne room, Canterlot castle

‘necromancy... that’s a word I never thought I’d hear used seriously.’

Sans stood next to Celestia, hands in his jacket pockets and a deep expression on his face. From what he could tell, there seemed to be an army coming from the far north, towards Canterlot. A guard had rushed in, telling of how their camp had been attacked by what seemed to be undead ponies. Their eyes had glowed with an unnatural green light, and their bodies falling apart, only held together by dark crystals.

They had overwhelmed the meager garrison that was guarding the research base in just a few hours. Perhaps the scariest part wasn’t their sheer numbers, or the fact that when one would fall, three would take their place. It was the fact that every ally that fell would rise, their eyes too glowing green, and join the attackers in fighting what had once been their friends.

The guard claimed there were only five guards left at the base out of the twenty guarding it, and six more researchers. Considering he wasn’t followed, he believed himself to be the last survivor. Sans had wanted to question him further, but Celestia had him taken to the infirmary, to ensure it wasn’t a sickness or plague of some sort.

Celestia turned to her ‘adviser,’ frown on her face. “Thoughts?” she asked bluntly.

“it doesn’t sound natural, that’s for sure,” he answered with a similar frown. “I wouldn’t know how to deal with it, since true necromancy is basically just a myth with monsters. the closest thing we have is dust reanimation, and even then that can only be used with monsters that were close to you. as for what’s actually happening, it sounds like an invasion, but there’s one thing that doesn’t make sense. an army needs a base or a city to start from. there isn’t anything up there, asides from that research base.”

“That had been on my mind as well.”

“wait, there’s one more thing. it’s a research base. why would some powerful necromancer waste resources and magic to attack a research outpost? ...unless there were some kind of superweapon there.” Sans looked up to Celestia, grinning mischievously. “‘tia, were you researching doomsday weapons up there?”

Celestia snorted despite herself. “Of course not,” she told him, “that research base was there to study the effects of permafrost and other northern ecologies upon unicorn magic.”

“scandalous.”

“If the army truly is undead,” Celestia continued, electing to ignore his comment, “there would not be much needed in the way of supplies, as necromancy is a rather self-sufficient spell. The army being undead also brings up the question of where that many bodies would come from. If the guard’s description of the size of the army was true, there must have been several thousand corpses, if not more. Where would a necromancer get that many bodies?” She shook her head. “You would need to have found a city graveyard or have killed several towns in order to fill up the ranks of their soldiers.”

“it almost sounds like there’s some sorta lost civilization up there, coming back for revenge.” Sans blinked at Celestia’s slowly widening eyes. “you don’t have any of those right?”

“It can’t be…”

“I’ll take that as a yes. so now we have long-lost kingdoms in this world too. exciting.”

“It’s not certain,” she told him, although it was more for her sake than for his. “It could be somepony new for all we know. I hope it’s somepony new… If it is, that would be a lot easier to-”

“Your highness!”

Celestia was cut off by a cry from another guard rushing into the room. He had a panicked look on his face.

Celestia hesitated for a moment before asking, “What is it, my little pony?”

“I bring terrible news,” the guard gasped. “It’s back!”

Celestia was silent.

“it’s back,” Sans repeated. “nice. so, uh. what’s ‘it?’”

“The Crystal Empire,” Celestia said grimly. “And that means he’s back as well.” She turned to the guard. “Could you please send a letter to Twilight? Ask her to come as soon as possible.”

“just purple smart?” Sans asked her.

“...All of them,” Celestia corrected. “Ask for all six of the Elements. And Spike. And Luna. No, wait, I’ll get Luna myself. The Elements and Spike. Tell them to come as soon as possible.”

“It will be done, your highness.” And with that, the guard ran off.

“hey, cel?” Sans’ voice cut off Celestia’s train of thought. “not to push, but just what’s going on here? who’s the big cheese that you’re so worried about?”

Celestia took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. “Sans,” she said slowly. “Do you remember how I said Soul magic has been outlawed for thousands of years?” She continued, not waiting for a response. “He is why it is outlawed.” Her horn glowed, and the last thing Sans heard was a decidedly not calm “LUNA, WE HAVE A PRO-” before she teleported away.

6 hours later, Throne room, Canterlot Castle.

“So… why exactly are we here right now, Twilight?”

“Rainbow, I don’t know,” Twilight told her friend in exasperation. “I told you this when we first got the letter from the Princess, I told you again when we were on the train up here, and I told you again when we were walking to meet the Princesses! I. Don’t. Know. If it were just me I’d think it were a test of some kind, but we’re all here, so it’s surely not that, unless Celestia plans on testing all of you because I was actually supposed to teach you what I know about magic and I didn’t know that and-”

“Geez, Twi, breathe,” Rainbow told her. “I’m just askin’. And besides, I doubt she called us all here for a pop quiz.”

“Rainbow Dash, dear, I know you are curious- I am as well- but please stop pestering Twilight and let’s wait for the princesses. You too, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity added to the distressed pink pony beside her.

“But Raaarityyyy,” Pinkie whined, shaking in place, “I’m bored! I wanna do something!”

“Now, now, Pinkie,” Applejack drawled. “Ah’m not rightly sure why the princesses’ve called us here, but Ah’m sure it’ll be somethin’ important.”

“Oh, I hope it’s not too important…” Fluttershy quietly added. “I’ve already had a lot of excitement recently, after the wedding. I was hoping to spend the day gardening…”

“Relax,” Spike assured her confidently. “Even if it’s something big, we can take care of it.”

At that moment a golden flash caught their attention as Celestia and Luna appeared on the thrones in the room. Sans walked out from behind Celestia’s throne, causing Fluttershy to quietly squeak and hide behind Pinkie. She was sure he hadn’t been there before.

“I see that you have arrived, my little ponies,” Celestia began. “Now, onto the reason I called you here. Earlier today a guard delivered grave news to me.” Sans allowed himself a small smile, before returning his face to the neutral expression he had on before. “A research base that was stationed in the far north came under attack from an army of undead creatures. This base is presumed to have been wiped out completely, with only the guard that reported this news to me having been confirmed to been alive.”

Twilight gasped. “Don’t tell me it was Winter Weather’s Outpost for Frozen Sorcery!”

“It was Winter Weather’s Outpost for Frozen Sorcery,” Celestia sighed, knowing it was one of her favorites.

Luna then cut in before Twilight could respond. “We presume that this attack was led by a powerful sorcerer of the dark arts from many centuries ago, named King Sombra. We had defeated him and sealed him beneath the ice, but in a final act of defiance he cursed the kingdom he had conquered with a spell that caused it to disappear with him. It seems that he has released the spell and is now back for vengeance. To counter any attacks that may happen, We have sent an advance force led by Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance to the closest city to the outpost, Stalliongrad. You six will be going to the place where this all began, the Crystal Empire.”

“The Crystal Empire is an important place in Equestria,” Celestia continued where her sister left off. “Can anypony tell me one of the more defining aspects of a crystal?”

“They’re sparkly?” Pinkie asked.

“They’re made of repeating patterns of geometric shapes?” Twilight rattled off.

“Ooh, ooh!” Rarity cried. “They reflect and refract light!”

“Very good, Rarity,” Celestia told her. “All of you,” she added upon seeing Twilight’s ears fold down. “Much like a crystal, the Crystal Empire reflects light all throughout Equestria.” She flared her horn and grew a small crystal on her floor, as well as a map of Equestria just before it.

“If the Crystal Empire is filled with love and warmth, that love and warmth will spread throughout Equestria.” The alicorn lit her horn, and a soft pink glow spread through the crystal, landing on the map.

“If the Crystal Empire is ruled by fear and hatred, however…”

Celestia’s horn suddenly began to glow darker, her aura becoming a cloudy, purple and black disaster. She shot a beam at the crystal, and it began to grow in size. The Elements and Spike watched in horror as the crystal’s shadow overtook the entire map, dark crystals shooting out from the shadow and turning “Equestria” into something unrecognizable.

Sans threw a single bone into the pile of crystals for good measure.

Celestia returned her horn to normal and dismissed the crystals, leaving the bone lying there. “You will be going to find King Sombra’s core,” she began again, “a blood-red horn that his death was sealed into, allowing for him to come back even after complete destruction of his physical body. Sans,” she nodded to the skeleton, “Flowey and a squad of six of Luna’s best Lunar Guard will be accompanying you in your mission to find and destroy the horn. We have information of an artifact that will make your job easier. It is called the Crystal Heart. If you are able to find this and activate the heart, your job will be significantly easier, as its power will weaken Sombra. However, be warned that if the Heart falls into his hooves, he will be nigh unstoppable. Luna and I will be leading separate forces to other cities in Equestria where Sombra might strike. They will be little more than distractions Sombra set out to divert us, but we still cannot let him spread damage and panic.”

Sans then spoke up from his spot leaning next to Celestia. “celestia’s going to be teleporting all of us to the edge of the city or as close as we can get without setting off alarms. from that point we’re gonna try and infiltrate to the central castle and take out the core before sombrero realizes it's being attacked. if he realizes we’re there you six need to go and search for the crystal with flowey while me and the squad try and hold him off. from what lulu and ‘tia told me,” Twilight seemed horrified at Sans’ use of nicknames for the princesses, while Spike held back snickers, “taco boy was pretty strong before he made his kingdom disappear, and with the reported size of his army he seems to have gotten significantly stronger while waiting for his time to come back. so that means you’re definitely going to be on a timer before we need to get out or be killed.”

Celestia nodded, unfazed by Sans’ choices of names. “We have little time to prepare, I’m afraid. Elements, go retrieve your respective pieces. Sans, go inform Flowey that he will be needed for the mission soon. Luna, go tell your guards what they will need and prepare them for their mission. I will be preparing the forces for defending the other cities.”

Four hours later, Celestia’s bedroom.

Sans sat down next to Celestia, who had just come out of a meeting with several officers.

“Sans,” began Celestia, “Do you know how long it's been since I’ve been in a battle? Besides Chrysalis of course.”

Sans shook his head.

“It has been nearly seven hundred years since my last real battle. It was against the Gryphonic empire. That battle secured the right for my ponies to live without them being threatened by a large outside force. I lost several friends in that last push against the Gryphonic forces, all of which I still mourn to this day.” The Solar alicorn looked out onto the window overlooking her city. “Now those I thought to be gone are coming back to haunt me and the ponies I sacrificed so much for to protect. I don’t wish to lose more of my friends and subjects. Sans, I don’t want to lose you. You are more important to me than you think you are. I’m not sure what I would do if I lost you, I’ve lost Luna before and I’m not sure I could take another being removed from my life that is as close to me as you are.”

Sans chuckled lazily. “no worries, ‘tia. I’m not going anywhere. even if I die or something out there, I cheated death once, so it can’t be that hard. like riding a bicycle.”

“Only you would compare death to a bicycle…” Celestia trailed off, her conviction wavering.

“...‘tia?” Sans couldn't see her face from the angle she was standing, but he could tell just from her voice that something was off.

“Sans, I wanted you to know I…” Celestia stopped, before sighing. “I hope you do well in your mission.” It would have been unfair to burden him with that knowledge just before he set off into danger. She just hoped he didn’t catch on.

“well, alright then. it’ll go well. like I said, no worries. I’m not planning on leaving anytime soon… that’s a promise.”

Either he hadn’t caught on or he had chosen to let her be, and Celestia was horribly certain it was the latter. Maybe she should just tell him, to get it out of the way and so he wouldn’t keep thinking about what she meant to say… But if she did, he would definitely be thinking about it on his mission… But if she didn’t and she lost him-

A knock sounded at the door, interrupting her mental argument, and a guard poked his head in. “Your highness? I’m sorry to interrupt, but we just received word that Stalliongrad has come under attack. Prince Shining Armor is requesting reinforcements and reports the amount of undead is in the thousands. He also says that he saw a shadowy figure in the rear of the formation that he suspects may be King Sombra.”

Celestia closed her eyes, thinking about all the potential outcomes, before standing up and turning to the guard. “Get two squadrons of wonderbolts and three of the ERAF to Shining Armor in support,” she told him. “Tell Luna that her force that is headed to Mareiland is going to need to be rerouted to Stalliongrad in order to reinforce Shining, and tell Steel Hoof the same for his force towards Vanhoover. I will still lead my forces to Galloping Gorge just in case of a separate group coming to attack. It will be close enough that if they need a quick reinforcement I can send some over or come myself. Sans, go retrieve Flowey and be ready to teleport, we now know where Sombra is.”

By the time she had finished her sentence, Sans was already gone.

“Private,” continued Celestia, “go inform the Elements of Harmony and the infiltration squad that they will be moving out to the Empire within the half hour. We must not let the sacrifice of these ponies in Stalliongrad go to waste.”

18 Shadows and Evil

View Online

Edge of Crystal Empire, Late afternoon

Master Sergeant Raven Feather resisted the urge to shiver in his armor. It may have been insulated, but it was designed for climate that was significantly warmer than the one he was currently in. A dozen degrees below average, maybe a little lower… But nothing this cold.

He and five other ponies from Class A of the Lunar Guard had been assigned to escort the Elements of Harmony, Sans the skeleton and Flowey the flower into the Crystal Empire in order to destroy the magic core that held (what was left of) the necromancer’s life force. So far the mission had been a success; they had teleported in about a quarter mile away from the edge of the empire itself and had made it into the inner part of the city completely undetected. The mission so far had been very easy, but that was due to the entire city being all but deserted, with windows shut and doors locked. Only a few ponies wandered about in the street, seeming lost and confused. And not one of them had raised hoof against them.

They were now at the entrance of the castle itself. Raven had only seen a few castles in his time, but this one was certainly the most intimidating. Dark and foreboding, it seemed as if it wanted to eat the whole squad alive. The bearer of kindness was almost frozen in fear from the oppressive atmosphere it radiated. The only reason she had made it this far was because of the, admittedly loud, support of the other bearers. (This bugged the rest of the squad and Flowey as it was supposed to be a stealth mission.)

“Come on, Fluttershy, you can do it!” encouraged the scratchy voice of the light blue pegasus, “We all need to be there if we are going to take on this Sombra guy!”

“I... I really don’t like this place though…” The timid mare whispered, almost to herself. “It’s like, it’s like... nature just died here… There isn’t anything. No little animals or plants, no birds on lamp posts, no mice or rats running around underhoof… It’s just unnatural. I want out!”

“I’m with Fluttershy,” Pinkie added, worried. “This place gives me the heebie jeebies. And my Pinkie Sense hasn’t told me anything since we arrived!”

Raven Feather sighed. “Look, ladies. We need to get inside and find the Crystal Heart, and we’ll be needing all horsepower we can get to find where it’s at. Since Sombra doesn’t have it right now even with all his power, we must assume that either it is hidden well or that he is unable to get to it.”

“or activate it,” Sans added, nodding. He was carrying Flowey in one arm and gently covering his mouth with the other, in case the flower decided to say something that put their companion through even more stress. “listen, flutter. the sooner we get in there, the sooner we it’s over and we can all go take a nap or somethin’. if we’re lucky we can get in, find the heart, kill the core and get out. if we’re unlucky… well, let’s hope we don’t have to get into that.”

Twilight shot him a look. “Seriously Sans?” she asked. “Why would you even bring up that last part?”

The skeleton shrugged. “just felt like we needed to understand the difference between lucky and unlucky,” he replied. “personally, I’ve been pretty unlucky in my life. you guys on the other hand, well, you’ve been pretty lucky.”

Raven Feather cleared his throat, disrupting their banter. “It’s time we move out, everypony.”

“Everybody,” Flowey corrected. He tried to say something else, but was interrupted by an apple being stuffed into his mouth. He shot a glare at Applejack, who shook her head before turning back to Raven.

“There’s a battlement up top that we can fly to and begin searching the keep from there,” Raven continued. “We’ll group up into two groups to cover more ground. Senior Airpony Steel Down and Airponies Heavy Hoof and Silver Hoof will be joining you four,” he gestured to Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Flowey, one at a time, “in scouting out the west side.”

“Didja hear that, Flowery?” Pinkie asked excitedly. “We’re on a team! We’re a team!”

“Yep, we’re a team,” Flowey muttered. “And how lucky I am for it. ...And it’s FLOWEY, not FLOWERY.”

“I, on the other hoof,” Raven said, turning to Sans, Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack, “will be taking you four along with Airponies Hard Shot and Inferno, and we’ll be exploring the east.”

“Are you sure that’s alright?” Twilight asked him. “I don’t doubt your airponies for a second, but I believe both me and Sans are the most magically capable here. Shouldn’t one of us be with them so it’s safer?”

“they’ve got flowey,” Sans told her. “he’ll keep them safe. not because he wants to or anything, just because he likes killing things.” Flowey considered that for a second, before deciding it was a good thing and nodding.

“That doesn’t make me feel any better…” Twilight muttered to herself.

“Relax, egghead,” Rainbow said. “If he tries anything on us, I’ll be there to stop him.”

“If you run into any important contacts and have to engage,” Steel Down told them, gathering their attention, “be sure to call it in to the other group. Luna herself added a communication spell to your armor, tap the right pauldron twice for com access.”

“Ohhh…” Rarity theatrically groaned. “I had forgotten about the horrid armor until just now...”

“It’s either that or nothin’, Rares,” Applejack reminded her. “An’ trust me, y’all want somethin’ to protect yerself with.” Rarity pouted, but said nothing more.

“Umm…” Fluttershy interjected. “I don’t mean to be a bother, but, um, which part is the pauldron?”

“It’s right by your withers,” Steel said. “It’s the round part with the moon emblem on it.”

“Are we all prepared now?” Raven asked. He took in the nods from everyone there, and nodded himself. “Good, let’s set out.”

Later, Sombra’s Castle

Sans and the rest of the group moved quickly, with him and Twilight taking out undead patrols with swift burst of magic. They searched rooms quickly, only stopping for thirty seconds at maximum if the room showed any promise of containing anything of interest.

“I think this might be a fake wall,” Inferno reported. He quickly jumped out of the way as Sans snapped his fingers, and a Gaster Blaster shot directly at the wall.

The group examined the wall after the blast, and noticed how it was scratched and burnt, but definitely still standing. “real wall,” Sans decided, and the group moved on.

Around half an hour in total had passed before they had gotten a call in from the other team. “We have engaged and terminated an undead patrol that was guarding the entryway to the crystal heart,” Steel Down’s voice sounded. “It seemed to repel any attacks by the negative energy reanimating the undead, but only for itself. There was also a dark magic trap that caught the Element of Generosity when she attempted to retrieve the heart. Flowey destroyed it. We’re now extracting up towards the battlement and will attempt to fortify there. Be advised that we are noticing patrols in greater quantities, and patrols seem to be more durable now. Out.”

The skeleton thought for a moment, considering the message they had received. Before one of his teammates could ask him what was on his mind, he made his decision and turned to the three guardsponies. “listen, you guys are going to have to protect the elements. me and birdy are going to the battlement, picking up flowey, and looking for the core.”

“...I should be overruling you right now,” Raven Feather told him. “But continue.”

Sans continued. “if you don’t hear back from us for at least an hour, you need to retreat. if we don’t win here, we can’t afford to lose the elements.”

“You say that as if you’ll be in serious danger,” Twilight pointed out.

“That’s because we are,” Raven told her bluntly. “There’s a very real chance that the core is being heavily defended, perhaps even by Sombra himself.”

“But that means you might die!”

“yep,” Sans sighed. “what we’re about to do is dangerous. and if we don’t do it, we’ll just be in more danger.” He shook his head for a moment. “this is why I hate making promises. it doesn’t matter how long it takes, they’re always at risk of breaking.”

“Let’s go,” Raven told him. “We need to move quickly. Think you can teleport us there?”

“with all this dark magic floating around?” Sans chucked, distracted from what he had been thinking about. “yeah, I could. it’ll probably take us somewhere else entirely, but I could.”

“So no teleporting, then. Well, let’s get going.”

“sure.”

Later still, Sombra’s Castle

Once again Sans found himself moving quickly through the wild and dark hallways of the castle. If anything, this time was even quicker than last time, now that he didn’t have to watch out for six other ponies. The other team’s report hadn’t lied; they were now constantly having to dodge patrols. Every corner they turned and every stairwell they came across had troops, waiting and guarding. There wouldn’t be this many guards just scattered around, so if he had to guess, Sans would say they were getting close. As they turned the next corner, staying out of another patrol’s line of sight, they saw a group of undead guards standing next to a large set of double doors.

Sans glanced back at Raven Feather. “I think you might want to call this in. it's too heavily guarded to be nothing.”

The sergeant nodded and turned to report to the rest of the squad and the route they had taken, while Flowey looked up at Sans.

“You think that Sombra’s in those doors?” He asked. “That he teleported back to defend his castle?”

“I’m not a hundred percent sure, but based on how much stronger the guards got when we found the crystal heart, I’d say so. he’s probably behind those doors now, lying in ambush and waiting for us to try and destroy his core.”

Raven, who had now finished telling the rest of the squad what was going on, joined flowey and Sans in their conversation. “So, how are we going to approach this? Are you able to teleport inside?”

Sans just shook his head. “never been there and there’s still a ton of dark magic, so it’ll be tricky taking people with me. unless you like maybe being moved into solid mass, it’s a bad idea. I’ll take out the guards in the front and then we’ll go in. it’s safer, and if king edge really is in there, he’ll have less guards to call in for support when we’re fighting.”

Sans held up a single boney hand.

A Gaster Blaster appeared directly in front of the guards that were posted at the door.

Sans closed his hand.

Before they could react, the blaster fired, instantly vaporizing the guards and blasting open the door. Sans, Raven and Flowey rushed into the empty room, but stopped at the darkness within. A light dusting of smoke covered the mostly empty room, making it difficult to see to see through the darkness. Even the light from outside didn’t help them see. Most smoke tended to reflect at least a bit of light, but his smoke drew in light and killed it.

The door slammed shut behind them, but none of them turned to look at it. They kept their gaze on a tall, imposing throne in the center of the room. As they watched, two glowing eyes opened slowly and pierced the smoke. “The LIviNg AnD DeAd joiN aT laSt.” A black unicorn with red highlights on his mane exited the smoke, horn glowing. “It MatTErs noT, fOr FaTE hAs AlreADy PasSeD.”

“Sombra,” Raven growled.

Sans’ eyes darkened, and his hand twitched. He felt his magic flow through him, and sent it towards the figure. Sure enough, it was what he suspected.

‘Somber Heart/King Sombra. LV 13, EXP 12940. HP 0/0, ATK 230, DEF 100. The King of Shadows, skilled in necromancy, crystal magic, soul binding and will breaking.’ Sans pushed his magic even further. ‘Soul type: Perseverance. Also contains high amounts of Integrity, and trace amounts of Determination.’ Sans let go of the Judgement spell. That tiny bit of determination had to be what kept Sombra from simply falling apart. ‘so that explains that 0 hp thing, I guess.’

Satisfied, Sans scoffed towards Sombra. “never really believed in fate myself, to be honest. if fate existed, I’d be dead right now.” Sans lifted his hand again and summoned another Gaster Blaster, his eye becoming a shining green beacon in the darkness. “now let's see if you are really as unkillable as they say you are.”

Sans closed his hand and the blaster fired, causing the unicorn to hit the back of the throne and collapse into a cloud of black smoke. Suspicious, Sans fired again, dispersing the smoke a little. After a few seconds, he lowered his hand.

“You know it’s not done, right?” Flowey asked him, one eye raised.

“of course,” Sans muttered, distracted. “this is too easy, and things are never this easy.”

Sure enough, the smoke gathered together, and Sombra reformed on his throne, a truly awful smile on his face. “aTTacKs ArE FuTILe, yOu CANnOt KiLL wHAt CAnnOT DiE. YoU shaLL PaSS whErE yoU LIE!”

Sombra’s horn lit up showering the whole room in a violet light, and a lance of purple raced towards Sans and Flowey. Sans disappeared in an instant and reappeared behind the sorcerer, launching bones as soon as he found his bearing- as in, immediately. Again they pierced the tyrant's body, only for him to pull the bones out - now bloodstained- and hurl them back at Sans.

“YoUR fiGht Is PoiNtLeSS,” Sombra taunted, “yoUr PowERs WEAk. yoU CANNot kilL ME!”

“listen, sombrero man,” Sans sighed in resignation, “you need to chill with the creepy voice. I realise that you are trying to be scary and all, but you’re, uh… not really succeeding at that. ‘sides, I’m not the only one you should be worried about.”

At that comment a large thorny vine pierced Sombra’s barrel and came out the top of his neck. A swarm of white bullets followed, all piercing his body. The king shuddered and fell silent, his eyes darkening, before once again falling to smoke and reforming to rejoin the “living.”

“ThE tiMe DrAws NEar, For yOu anD THoSe yoU hoLD deAR,” responded the necromancer as he once again launched a furious wave of attacks, both from his horn and from the waves of undead minions he called upon and spawned.

Flowey sighed as he was pulled away from a wave of crystals spreading across the ground, courtesy of Sans. “I’m starting to think that this guy really is unkillable… we need to find that core, and fast.”

Raven Feather snorted as he pounded yet another corpse back to where it came. “You think? I’m just not sure as to where he’s keeping it… He regenerates at the throne, so maybe it’s encased in it?”

Sans grunted as the Gaster Blaster he was was using as a shield was destroyed by a beam from Sombra. “it’s a good a guess as any.” He glanced over at Flowey, who was occupied with strangling multiple corpses at once. “hey, weed. I’ll try and distract him, you think you can break open the throne with your vines?”

Flowey threw his victims against the far wall and smirked at Sans. “Across all the different timelines that we’ve fought, Sans… and you think a simple stone throne can stop me?”

Sans laughed dryly at that, flicking a hand and idly setting up a cage of blue bones to encase several minions. “I dunno know, you’ve been stopped before by a child with a stick before. you sure you’re up for destroying the throne?”

Flowey rolled his eyes dramatically, ducking through the crystal floor to dodge a dark blast. “We both know that child is a special case.”

“fair point. now ready up, we go on three.”

“One,” began Flowey.

“Two,” Raven continued.

“dIE!” Sombra shouted.

“three!” finished Sans quickly.

At that moment all three moved. Sans summoned a massive swarm of bones and sent them all at Sombra, clashing with the crystals Sombra had just launched towards them. Raven Feather moved to protect Flowey from the abominations that were now flooding in through the doors. Flowey grew vines with red flowers on the ends. The flowers quickly bloomed into metal drills, and he began to drill into the throne, slowly making progress through the dense stone.

Sans called out to Sombra over the clash of bones and crystals. “you know, this isn’t like most of my fights. you’re already dead where you stand. all I have to do is enforce it!”

Sombra considered Sans for a moment, before chuckling and flaring his horn. Unlike the other times, where his horn was an ugly mixture of purple, green and black, this aura was a fairly uniform blue. Flowey stopped as he and Sans were encased in a blue aura.

“YouR GreATesT feARs cAn NevER cHangE or HiDE. WatCH as i CAll UpoN tHE ThiNg yOU FeAr mOSt!”

Sombra’s horn crackled with dark energy again, and Sans suddenly felt a violent tugging at his soul. He looked down, and his revealed soul was writhing in a pool of purple and green. He snapped his fingers quickly, turning his own soul blue and dispelling the dark clouds that were floating around it.

Confident in his success, he looked back up to gloat to Sombra, but paused. Sombra seemed just as smug as he was before, but he wasn’t the center of the skeleton’s focus. Behind him, a brightly glowing orb of light flickered quickly between light green and blue. A smaller orb of purple and a darker green flashed inside it.

“What’s he doing!?” Raven called.

Sans had no idea. Something to do with what he just did to their souls. Whatever it was, it was definitely better if he didn’t get to do it. “flowey, destroy the throne quick!”

Flowey only nodded before returning his focus to rapidly drilling into the throne, carving out large chunks of obsidian. Above him, Sombra grunted in pain.

The orb of light suddenly shifted, flashing rapidly from red to blue. Sombra gave another wicked smile despite the pain he was in. “thE INStrumENt yOU fEAR Is noW HerE. WeLcOME yoUR DOOM!”

The orb spluttered and sparked as Sombra pushed more magic into it. Flowey looked up, still drilling into the throne, as it began to emit a high-pitched whine. They all felt, rather than heard, a low rumbling underneath the squeal.

And suddenly, after several seconds, everything fell silent and something fell out.

It hit the ground and stayed there, unmoving. Despite the now static green light coming off from the orb, it was too dark to see what it was. The most they could tell was that it seemed vaguely green.

Flowey gasped lightly.

The whole room froze. Even Raven turned to look at it, as all the corpses had collapsed when it fell.

Sombra slowly approached the shape on the ground and shoved a hoof into it. “WhaT maNNer oF cReatuRe is thIs?” He looked back over to Flowey and Sans, the former’s pupils having shrunk in fear and the latter’s filled with confusion. He began to laugh, loudly and darkly. “A cHilD? ThiS iS yOUr gReaTEs-” His laugh was replaced by a quiet gurgle as a knife found its way into his throat.

The child picked itself up and looked around. “Ahhh… His voice was getting rather annoying. You are welcome for me shutting him up. Now, where am I?”

Sombra once again regenerated at the throne, ignoring Sans’ gasp and more furious than ever. “YOU DARE?” he questioned, purple fire burning from his eyes.

“Geez, Mr. Dark and Broody, you need to chill. At least greet me before threats.” The small child turned to the throne, knife glowing. “Well… I suppose you did bring me to a place with new friends to play with. It was getting terribly boring back down there. So, as thanks, I shall do just a LITTLE property damage to you, and then I will kill you. It would be foolish to just leave free EXP lying around now, right?”

The child walked lazily to the throne and swung her arm, knife in hand. Her knife carved through the throne, and a mark of red stayed behind and cut itself deeper into the stone. If she was surprised, she did a good job at hiding it. She slashed again, and once more. After the third slice, the throne began to crumble and crackle. She swung once more, and the throne fell apart, a dark red energy escaping through the top.

“No! nO! HoW DAre YoU aTtaCk Me? i aM yoUr SummOnER! YoU ArE tiEd to mY wiLL! OBEYING ME IS YOUR FATE!”

The girl turned to look at him, before giving a laugh darker than one he had ever given. “I never was one to believe in fate.” Without taking another step, she suddenly swiped her arm out, leaving a frozen red mark in the air. Her arm returned to her side, and the mark suddenly leapt forward towards Sombra. It cut into his chest before he could dodge, and he fell forward with little more than a gasp. A purple heart appeared over his body, shaking violently-

And Chara grabbed it in her hand and squeezed until it shattered.

“Now, onto the others…” She turned back around, a smile on her face which vanished when she saw who her opponents were. Her eyes narrowed, “Oh. You.” Her grin returned stronger than ever. “Well, well, well. After killing an evil unicorn, I expected a lot of things- but YOU weren’t one of them! So this is where you had run off, is it? How are you doing, it has been so long since I have last saw you, huh? Oh, and Flowey! We really need to catch up! Especially after you left oh so rudely! Give my regards to Alphys, by the way.” The knife in her hand gleamed evilly.

Raven Feather leaned to Flowey, who was trembling with fear, and whispered, “You know this thing?” Flowey could only nod stiffly in response.

“chara…” Sans growled out. “I thought I was finally done with you.”

Chara laughed again. “Oh, comedian. You always find a way to make me laugh, don’t you? ...Actually, wait, never mind. This is the first time you have made me laugh. Hmm.” Chara considered that, before shrugging and turning back to the monster. “In any case, you were wrong. You will NEVER escape me.”

“chara…” Sans’ eye blazed green, and a blaster appeared beside him. It was joined by another, and another. “listen to me, demon. we’re done being hunted for your twisted game. this is your final chance to turn back. go back to the underground, and never step foot here again.”

“Hmm, yes, I shall take it into consideration…” Chara seemed bored by the conversation. “Honestly, my least favorite thing about you is how much you insist on standing in your way. We all know I will win, so why are you even fighting?”

“how do you know you’ll win?” The skeleton’s words sounded more like a threat than a challenge.

“It’s simple, comedian. I can do something that you can’t.”

Chara’s hand moved to the side, and seemed to push down on something invisible-

*Determination.
*File SAVED.

“That.”

Sans breathed heavily through his teeth, and turned to Flowey. Flowey looked shocked, and barely responded to Sans’ look.

Chara hummed to herself, and decided on something. “You know what? I think I will let you live for now. Go on, little skeleton. Run and hide with your friends. I think I shall see what this world has to offer me. Only THEN will I come for you.”

Sans stared her down for a few seconds. “you know, I hate you.”

“I hate you too, comedian. See you then.” And with that, Chara walked towards the wall, struck it with her knife and made her own way out.

Everyone watched her go, with Flowey slowly stopping his trembling and Sans’ eye reverting from a green blaze back to a dark void.

“we have to go.” Sans grabbed Flowey with one hand, and Raven with the other. He thought for a moment, and gathered his magic.

Chara felt the world stop, and smiled to herself. Hunting prey was so much more fun when it ran.

Five minutes later, Canterlot Castle

Celestia teleported into the throne room to see the Elements of Harmony, and Luna’s special forces unit. They were all surrounding Flowey and were speaking to him questioningly. Coughing lightly to get their attention, they all turned to face her.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight greeted warmly.

“My dearest student, I am glad to see that you are unharmed. How did your mission go?” In truth, Celestia already had a fair idea of how the mission went. All of Sombra’s creations were no longer reanimated, which could only mean he had been defeated.

“Well, after all of the zombies that were attacking us died, Sans teleported up to us and told us we needed to leave,” Pinkie returned. “He was really serious, it was kinda creepy…”

Celestia turned to Raven Feather, concerned. “Where is Sans now then? He did teleport with you, correct?”

The Sergeant bowed his head, “Indeed, your majesty. Sans did teleport us back, after a brief conflict with a creature that Sombra summoned into this world. He was unable to subdue the creature, but retreated with us after being, for lack of a better word, ‘spared.’ After returning with us Sans teleported off again. He appeared to be shaken by the creature.”

Celestia frowned. That didn’t sound like Sans at all, he had faced down Chrysalis without so much as a blink. “Did this creature have a name?”

“Yes your majesty, I believe Sans referred to it as…” Raven thought to himself. “I… I’m sorry, your majesty, I can’t remember what he-”

“Chara.”

Celestia’s eyes widened at Flowey’s voice. She looked down, and saw him in his pot. His petals were drooping, and he sounded defeated. “It was Chara.”

“You…” Celestia shook her head. “Are you certain that is what he said?”

“I was there,” he reminded her, but he didn’t have the energy to be snarky. “It was Chara. She’s here.”

Celestia was silent for a long time. Inside, her mind was racing. If the demon Sans had described was truly here…

“Master Sergeant Raven Feather, I will need you to give a full debriefing to Luna when she returns. I need to go now, I’m afraid.”

“Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked. “Where are you going?”

“Sans.” Celestia teleported away, not bothering to explain beyond that single word.

Ten minutes later, Celestia’s room

When Celestia found Sans, her heart nearly broke in two. He was sitting on the bed in his room completely still, with a very confused Papyrus holding on to him. Papyrus appeared to be saying something to Sans, but if he heard it, he didn’t answer.

Celestia walked in, and tried to get a look at Sans’ face. She didn’t know what she was expecting. Perhaps he was just asleep, or angry. He may have even been crying, like the day he came to her world. But instead, he looked completely apathetic. Like with his brother, if he knew Celestia was there, he didn’t show it.

She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Eventually she gave up and sat beside Sans. One of her wings stretched out to Sans, and she pulled him into a hug. Papyrus looked at her, nodded and, without a word, sat down on his other side and wrapped his arms around his brother.

‘It was Chara.’

Flowey’s defeated voice echoed in her mind, and she shook her head slightly. Just from what Sans had told her, she knew of the danger Chara possessed. Now that the demon was here, what were they going to do?

Editor's note:
Honestly, this story is a joy to help with. I feel like the last line of defense for it before it goes out, and that just makes me feel nice. I remember when I read the first chapter of the story. It had potential, but it needed editing. And then a request for an editor was made. And then I offered to edit, and, well... it's just been good times all around. I won't lie when I say editing for this story is often the highlight of my day. For this chapter specifically, I was in the middle of dinner when I saw the message. I, uh... I think my supper's still in the fridge.
I should go eat that eventually.
But, yeah. I'm just glad I could be a part of this, and I can't thank EmeraldLeafeon enough for accepting my help. It'll be a while until a new chapter is out, but that's fine. Just because it'll be gone for a little bit doesn't mean it's fated to die off. And even if it is... I'm not one to believe in fate.
I guess that makes three.

Author's Notes:

Ok. We now reach the ending if the latest chapter and there are a couple of things that all of you guys need to know.

First, this will most likely be the last chapter for at least three months. I'm going into basic training for the US Air Force in mid December and I'd like to spend these last few weeks before I head out with family and friends. This DOES NOT mean that this story is canceled. Far from it. This story is a passion of mine, a way for me to release stress and a way for me to expand my creativity. All I request of you readers is to be patient. That and theorize, I always like reading you guys theories or questions, even if I can't reply.

As a final note I would like to give a BIG thanks to my editor,

Zum1UDontNo

, he is an amazing person. If he wasn't aboard this story would probably a quarter of the quality it currently is.

19 Desperation and Joy

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Crystal Empire

Chara stepped out of the castle, idly stretching her arms. At the peak of the stretch, Chara could hear her joints popping, making a satisfying sound. It felt nice to stretch.

Red eyes glinted dangerously off the knife in her hand, reflecting the sunlight. Last night had been… busy, all things considered. The, now former, occupants of the castle had tried to resist her. It went about as well as everyone else’s attempts at resistance. Which is to say not at all, she thought, just a tiny bit smugly. None of them had even gotten close to causing her a reset. The child sighed and shook her head. After yesterday’s boring events, maybe the town would be more interesting. She had noticed that ever since she had killed that dark king the castle got a bit brighter and more of those ‘ponies’ were walking about. Her smile from her previous day’s work was returning.

“Don’t you worry comedian,” the child spoke in a tone not meant for anyone to hear. “Once I’m done with my new friends here, I will be sure to pay you a visit. That is a promise!”

If one was to view from afar, all they would have seen was a small green dot move down the stairwell and into the town. But even from that distance, they would have no troubles hearing the screams.

Canterlot Castle

Sans awoke slowly, the light from the window making him blink. The sun cast a gentle warmth on him as he slowly rose.

The skeleton thought for a moment, before flopping back down. Too early to get up.

“Oh, I’m sorry sans, I didn’t mean to wake you,” a soft voice whispered to him from the right. “I had to do my morning duties.”

“mmm?” The skeleton groaned and rolled over. “‘s ok, you didn’t know i was gonna get up, had to wake up sometime...” Sans, against his better wishes, rose back up from his pillow. He looked over at Celestia, who was now sitting next to him. “guess this would be the best way for me to wake up.” He sat up and stretched, listening to his joints pop.

The solar goddess smiled, “I guess it was. You really needed that sleep, didn’t you, Sans?” She nuzzled the skeleton as her wings enveloped him. “We’re all here for you, Sans. Luna, Papyrus, Heart Savior, Monster Kid, Alphys… I’m sure even Flowey is in support of you.” Celestia leaned in and looked directly into Sans’ eye sockets, “Sans, I’m here for you. I care about you more than you know. I will always be here for you.”

Sans blinked, smiled and then leaned into Celestia, “thanks…” he whispered softly, before sighing. “it’s just… this whole thing… I just feel so emotionally drained. more than usual. can’t even make a pun.” The skeleton looked around the room, “where’s pappy at?”

Celestia hummed in thought. “I believe he mentioned something about a ‘feel betteri spaghetti’ or something like that. Luna asked him what that was and he seemed to freeze for a moment…” The alicorn grew a devilish grin. “Papyrus had wrapped himself around Luna and proclaimed what it was. I believe it was something along the lines of-” Celestia puffed out her chest- “THIS SHALL NOT DO, LARGE BLUE PONY, YOU SHALL ENJOY THE FEEL BETTERI SPAGHETTI TOO! YOU SHALL BECOME THE GREAT PAPYRUS’S APPRENTICE FOR LEARNING THE SECRETS OF PASTA AND ITS GLORY!” Celestia sat back down, having spread her wings at some point in that sentence. “After that, he ran off with Luna to what I assume was the royal kitchen. That was around… ten minutes ago, I’m not sure when they will be back.”

“the staff are gonna love that I’m sure,” Sans chuckled.

Celestia’s grin remained, although it was less impish and more motherly. “Ah yes, I’m sure those two will have a grand time together. I’m also just as sure the kitchen staff will have just as grand a time cleaning up Luna’s mess. They’ve had to do it often enough in the past.” Celestia’s eyes grew distant. “When we were younger, before the Nightmare Moon disaster happened, Luna loved to ‘cook.’ More often than not though all she accomplished was making a barely edible ‘meal’ and dirtying up half of the dishes in the kitchen. Did you know she once put salt and garden herbs in a cake?” The older sibling shook her head. “Ever since she’s come back she hasn’t had time to enjoy her old hobby, she’s been far to wrapped up in catching up with the modern era. I hope this will allow for her to lighten up a bit.”

Sans continued to smile, “yah, papyrus is pretty much the same way… loved to make his spaghetti. our fridge was always halfway full of noodles and sauce. never actually ate the stuff… he just wanted to share it with everyone around him. in fact, when that demon came down…” Sans stopped talking for a moment. Celestia cleared her throat, and Sans nodded. “when it came down, he tried to give it a plate. he even went out and got a microwave, asked alph for stickers so he could make all of the settings say spaghetti. he figured it’d make them laugh.

“of course that little demon blew past all of his work and killed him.” Sans’ fists clenched tightly, his face now having formed a tight grimace. “and now that brat is here and saved. nothing short of a miracle is going to save us now.” He flopped back down on the bed, his arms forming a ‘t’. “it just seems so… pointless now. I couldn’t beat them, flowey didn’t stand a chance, undyne died saving monster kid. what are we gonna do?”

Celestia’s face had grown dark during the latter half of her friend’s monologue. She grabbed the defeated skeleton with her magic, and lifted him into a sitting position facing her, though his head remained downcast. When she let him go he flopped back down. Exasperated, she instead grabbed him with her hooves and held him up. “Don’t EVER think like that, we will find a way to stop them. Life is not pointless, I can promise you that. I know how you feel right now, to feel like everything you love is ripped or going to be ripped away from you. I had to send my sister away for a millenium. Life isn’t always fair, but we are able to overcome that. Sans, ponies care about you. I care about you.” She used her hooves to lift his skull. “I love you, Sans, and I don’t want to see anything happen to you. We will get through this and we will stop them.” The alicorn stopped her tirade.

Sans blinked, looking up at her. If he had eyebrows, they’d be raised. “you know, tia… if you wanted me to not focus on the bad stuff, gotta say, dropping a bomb is a good way of doing it.”

Celestia turned to look at the skeleton in a questioning manner.

“you did notice the elephant in that sentence, right? the l-word?”

The solar alicorn’s face turned the same shade of lovely pink that her sunrise was right now. “Well…umm… Would you like for me to take it back and try again later?”

The skeleton shook his head. “nah, what’s done is done. redoin’ things leaves a bad taste in my mouth.” His face turned a light shade of blue, barely noticable. “besides, can’t say with absolute certainty that I don’t feel the same, so your confession worked. I think. so, uh, thanks. but that is gonna have to wait until this is all over.”

Celestia frowned her previous blush mostly gone. “I agree, we need to stop them before we are able to do anything else… I have sent some of the ERAF scouts up to the North for flyovers of the Crystal Empire. The initial run should be back in a few hours, hopefully they will give us an idea in the empire. I hope the empire isn’t completely gone…”

The small skeleton shook his head. “tt's definitely not completely gone, at least not yet. the empire is way bigger than the underground and it took the kid several days to clear it out.” Sans clenched his hands. “it’s always thorough. we’d probably have about two or three weeks before she would show up, and that’s if we don’t do anything.” Sans’ eye glowed, faintly but visible. “before, I was mostly fightin’ them out of spite. didn’t like them, wanted them to be punished. but now? that place had an evil overlord for years, and it was just taken out. I wouldn’t want to have my first few hours of freedom to be living in fear of death by some creep with a knife. they probably don’t either.”

Celestia looked thoughtful for a moment, glancing at Sans. "I don’t want to raise your hopes,” she began,” but the Elements of Harmony might have some effect. They did stop Nightmare Moon and Discord, they might be able to stop Chara.”

“they’re those gems from the history books, right?” At the princess’ nod, Sans sat silently for a moment, before continuing. “I’m not sure they would work… but there’s no proof that they wouldn’t. the elements are really powerful, world altering even, but I’m not sure it would be enough to stop them. no matter how strong they are, they can’t turn back time like it can. planning will be basically useless. chara’s forcing us into a dangerous game, and the only winning move is not to play. she’s making sure we do.” The skeleton put his hands to his skull. “urgh, I just don’t know what to do. ‘m not fit for a guard or a planner. I’m just a lazy guy with cool tricks.”

Celestia put a wings around Sans again. “I’ll start having some of my officers thinking about what to do,” she assured him. “They’ll be briefed about what they are up against. Don’t worry about this for right now. We have dealt with world ending enemies before. This one won’t be any-” Celestia paused. “Well, I’m not going to say this won't be any different, this is certainly more terrifying. But it is beatable. We will find a way. Now, lets get breakfast.”

“sounds like a plan,” Sans agreed.

4 hours later, Canterlot Castle Throne Room

“You want us to do what?”

“you heard me, purple smart,” Sans said. “trust me, I like it as much as you do.”

Rainbow Dash hovered, quivering in excitement. “So we beat Nightmare Moon, Discord, and now we get to beat the guy that killed Sombra!?” She cut off the skeleton before he could reply to Twilight. “We’re breaking records here! Just imagine the look on that guy’s face when we blast ‘em!”

“not as much as she does, though,” Sans muttered.

Twilight turned to her friend, incredulous. “Rainbow Dash, you realize that we are fighting something on a different scale here? This ‘Chara’ is basically controlling time. We have to fight a TIME MANIPULATOR!”

“I know right?” Rainbow cried. “We’re gonna be so cool! They’re gonna be all like, ‘You can’t stop me I control time’, then we’ll be like ‘Oh yah? Watch this!’ and then we’re gonna activate the elements and they’ll be all rainbowy and they’ll be like, ‘NOOOO, my powers!’” Rainbow Dash stopped flapping her wings and fell to the ground dramatically with a hoof in the air. “They’re gonna be all ‘Bleg…’ and skeletony’ll be all like “you hurt a lot of ponies and that was a mistake, and we’ll be like ‘We showed you!’ Ha ha! This is going to be awesome!”

Twilight facehooved.

“Rainbow, what Ah think what Twiligh’ means is that th’ time warper might be able ta stop our powers with their time stuff,” Applejack replied for the exasperated purple unicorn.

“YES! My point exactly! Thank you Applejack!”

Sans cut in. “listen, I know you may not like doing this, but as of right now you are the last shot we have of beating this thing. if you don’t stop chara here and now she’s only going to get stronger. I could only stall her at LV19- if she gets to 20, everything is doomed. there’s a strong possibility that a lot of ponies are going to die if you fail. actually, we’ll all die if you gals don’t stop her.”

Applejack paled at the tone of his voice.

Dash glared at Twilight, “See? We need to kick this creep’s flank! All we have to do is fire the elements at this thing and we get a new window!”

“not quite,” Sans muttered. “were it so easy, I wouldn’t be here in the first place. this isn’t gonna be easy, believe me. if it were, I’d have stopped them in the underground myself.”

Rarity looked up at Celestia who was sitting on the throne. “So when are we going, your majesty?”

Celestia looked down, “We are waiting for more information. Once we received word from the scouts, we are going to strike. As of now we are going to be waiting for the next couple of hours, then we will launch the strike.”

Author's Notes:

Well... hello there!
*Rubs paw behind head awkwardly* Sooo... uhhh, been a while hasn't it?
*holds out paws in an attempt to calm down people* Listen, before you guys go all insane on me I have a really good reason for the... *looks back at the last time a chapter was posted* almost ...five month... gap in chapters. I know that many of you read the last chapter that I posted, and joining the Air Force is part of the reason I haven't uploaded in that time. I legitimately haven't had much time to myself, and the little time I do have is for the MANY things I need to get done. But, besides that, I'm now training to become a broadcast journalist! yay! That's the other reason I don't get to write for the story as much, I'm writing over 1000 words a day for my soon to be job... gets kinda tiring being at a keyboard or behind a camera, I just want to get out and do things. NOW this DOES NOT mean I am going to cancel the story, I actually have the ending plot points I want to write chosen out. I'm seeing this story through and am not going to leave it in the hiatus hell so many others are in. Also I'd like to give a BIG shout out to my editor for being there even after all this time I've been away, Zum1UDontNo. Thanks for reading the rant, DFTBA,
-Emerald
P.S. If someone could make ghost Papyrus and Luna fanart, that would be AWESOME
P.S.S. There would have been a Easter Egg in the story if fimfiction would have let me type in white text

20 Horror and Fight

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Airspace along the way to the Crystal Empire

Sans looked out over the vast expanse of mountains sprawling before them, the snowy drifts reminding him uncomfortably of Snowdin. Flowey and Alphys were sitting next to him while Papyrus sat wrapped around his shoulders, his skeleton form not visible. He had insisted on coming, despite Sans saying it was too dangerous. ‘BUT THAT’S EXACTLY WHY I SHOULD BE COMING!’ he had argued. ‘WE NEED ALL THE GREATNESS WE CAN GET TO SAVE THE DAY, AND THAT INCLUDES ME!’ Thankfully, Monster Kid had been persuaded to stay at the castle. Flowey was asleep in his pot, absorbing what little energy he could from the sun’s rays to prepare himself for battle.

The skeleton sat back down into the cushioned seat of the carriage, closing his eyes. The pegasi flying the carriage barely noticed the shift in weight. This was it, the final battle. This was the fight that would determine the fate of this world… well, hopefully. Sans had already had one such fight with the demon. It had ended with time and space being torn apart, and his dad dying to bring him to another universe.

‘well, at least I got some backup for this one,’ Sans thought somewhat cynically. ‘least I won’t be alone if we find a third world to drop into.’

Trailing behind Sans’ carriage were several others, each carrying important ponies to the battle. The immediate one following them held Celestia and Luna, the latter occasionally sipping from a flask of coffee to keep herself awake during the early morning hours. Following them were two more carriages. The first held Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity. The second held Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle and an armed pegasi; Rainbow Dash had offered to give him a break and was helping to pull the carriage they were in.

Ahead of them, Sans could barely see the trails left by a squadron of pegasi. The Wonderbolts had flown ahead, with the intention of reaching the Empire early and evacuating any survivors they could find. They would also be keeping watch for Chara, in case she made an early appearance, and clearing a landing zone for the carriages when they arrived.

Once the carriages touched down, Alphys would get to the ground and watch from a distance. The Elements of Harmony, the Princesses, Sans and Flowey were to be the main combat unit. When they found Chara, Sans would engage her with Flowey to tire her out. Sans was tricky enough to be able to survive against the demon for a long time, and Flowey could keep an eye out and warn them of any sudden saves or reloads.

Once Chara was weakened (preferably lower than 5HP, though Sans was willing to take what he could get), Celestia and Luna would ambush Chara and entrap her with magic. While she’s trapped, the Bearers would use the Elements of Harmony, hopefully defeating Chara for good. Best case scenario, it takes away her Determination and knocks her unconscious. Worst case scenario, it kills her and she can reload, aware of what the Elements were and what they would do. Sans desperately hoped that last one wouldn’t happen.

‘at this point, we can’t afford it. if it knows what’s coming… well. at that point, not much else to be done.’’

Sans felt a light tapping on his shoulder. “You know, worrying about the battle isn’t actually going to help, right?”

“this coming from the habitual worrier,” Sans replied. “not like there’s much else to do. hey, you know your part, right?”

“For the third time, yes.” At Sans’ stare, Alphys sighed. “But if it makes you feel better… I’m the last line of defense. I watch the battle and if it all fails, I message Spike to start evacuating Canterlot and everywhere else. Seriously, Sans, I’ve never known you to be this tense about… anything. You’re usually so laid-back.”

“this ain’t just anything, it’s everything. if we can’t stop chara, we lose. done deal. everything we worked for, gone.”

“I feel like that’s not everything.”

Sans paused for a moment, then chuckled. “can’t get stuff by you, can I… long story short, for the first time since the underground, there’s something on the line. something worth losing. and that… terrifies me. there’s even a promise on the line. you already know how bad I am with those.”

“REALLY?” Papyrus cut in. “I WAS NOT AWARE OF THIS DEVELOPMENT, BROTHER!”

“made it with the royal sunshine herself, to not get myself killed. never been good with promises, but in my defense, I made it before the demon arrived here.”

“Well, it shouldn’t be that bad, right?” Alphys asked. “Like, I know I probably just invoked the wrath of a thousand demons by saying that, but really. You’ve killed Chara, what? Thirty times? Fourty? And she’s gotten you once.” The lizard shrugged, adding, “It shouldn’t be that hard to almost kill them one time.”

“alph, how can you be so calm right now?” Sans asked in genuine wonder. “we’re goin’ to a fight that decides literally everything.”

“I... I don’t know Sans…” Alphys swallowed, before looking up at him. “It’s just... when I got on this carriage, I had this feeling of hope wash over me. Like, I know everything is going to be alright, you’re going to make it out of this alive. Everything is going to be ok. And it felt like everyone was with us, that everyone’s hearts were beating together.”

Papyrus piped up from Sans’ shoulder. “YES BROTHER, I TOO HAVE A FEELING THAT WE SHALL WIN THIS, THOUGH… PERHAPS NOT TO THE SAME LEVEL AS ALPHYS.” The ghostly skeleton looked over at the scientist. “ARE YOU SURE THAT YOU ARE FEELING THAT WAY? THEY ARE VERY STRONG. I WAS KILLED BY THEM, I CAN CONFIRM THAT FIRST HAND.”

Alphys’ eyes steeled as she looked at both of the skeletons. She took a deep breath. “Yes, I know this will end well. I just know it. You have the support that you need and those that care about you.”

Sans just shook his head. “I hope that you’re right…”

Alphys just smiled and looked back out over the scenery, smiling at the silence that had enveloped the carriage. The mountains and snowdrifts felt pleasantly nostalgic to her, reminding her of Snowdin.

20 minutes later, Airspace above Crystal Empire

“Yes sir, the landing zone is ready.”

Sans didn’t bother to correct the orange-maned Wonderbolt- Fire Streak, his name was- as he stood up. The carriage was circling around the Crystal Empire and they were just about to descend, now wasn’t the time to get silly about titles.

“Be ready with any equipment you need, it would be best if we can be in and out as fast as possible.” The veteran Wonderbolt, anticipating the skeleton’s next question, continued. “The creature was spotted at the ramparts of the castle. When she saw us, she returned to the inside and was last seen headed towards the great tower.”

Flowey growled, waking up suddenly. “Her save point,” he said. “She’s expecting us, and she set up her save point ahead of time. We won’t be able to trick her into saving into an ambush.”

“MAYBE SHE JUST WANTS THE FIGHT TO BE UP THERE AND SHE’S PREPARING IT AHEAD OF TIME?” Papyrus suggested. “SHE MIGHT NOT BE GOING TO ‘SAVE’ IMMEDIATELY, THERE MAY BE ANOTHER EXPLANATION. PERHAPS SHE SIMPLY HAS A FLAIR FOR THE DRAMATIC WHEN CHOOSING BATTLE LOCATIONS, AND-”

“Nope,” Flowey cut him off. “She literally just saved. I felt it. She DID go up there to save.”

‘so the fight’s happening in the castle, huh.’ Sans shook his head. ‘not gonna be as easy as we hoped, but at least it’ll give any citizens left the chance to get out.’

The stallion spoke up, cutting off Sans’ train of thought. “We’re going to be landing about three hundred yards from the main gate, so if the creature decides to come out we’ll have time to get away to a better position.”

Alphys nodded. “That sounds good, now please excuse me, I have to gather my materials and prep them for the encounter.” As she turned away her eyes grew distant, preparing herself for the job she hopefully wouldn’t have to do.

“She worried about it?” he asked. “It kinda sounded like she wanted the conversation to be over as soon as possible.”

Sans shrugged. “pretty sure she’s just hoping it goes better than last time. you worried?”

“A little.” Fire Streak looked at the castle. “We’re trained to save ponies and do stunts, and we can fight pretty well too, but… we’re not trained for this. I kinda miss the more peaceful days… Being a Wonderbolt full time is stressful.”

“well, we’ll make sure they come back.” Sans looked down at the castle, where the demon was surely waiting. Somewhere. “tell you what,” he said. “if we succeed here, you gotta quit your job and find something else. we’re not gonna save everything just for you to spend the rest of your life doin’ something ya don’t like.”

“That sounds fair to me,” the pony responded, smiling wistfully. “I’ve always wanted to be a teacher…”

Sans breathed deeply, his hollow rib cage expanding to fill lungs that never existed, as he himself fought the growing nervousness. “alright, chara,” he whispered. “second verse, same as the first.” He snaps his fingers and summoned a blaster beside him, floating alongside his head. Its eye sockets, normally dimly lit, were glowing almost as bright as his were. “this time louder and a whole lot worse.”

10 minutes later

The combat unit had moved up to the main gate of the castle itself, preparing for the assault on Chara herself. Alphys and a groups of guards were following close behind, carrying a few cameras and magical reading devices. Atop the pile of technology was a pre-written scroll of distress and a bottle of contained message magic that would send the letter right to Spike. Flowey’s pot was being carried by Sans, although it was just for convenience; he knew that went it came down to it, Flowey would be able to tunnel wherever he needed to, even through solid crystal.

“I’m only letting you do this because the other choice is literally the apocalypse, trashbag.”

“love you too, angst weed.”

“Everypony ready?” asked a nervous Twilight Sparkle, stopping their banter. Her hooves reached up to assure herself that yes, the Element of Magic was still on her head, it hadn’t fallen off on the way there.

“Let us go forth!”

“Yeah, let’s go!”

“Okie-dokie-loki!”

“We’ll teach that darn varmint what-for!”

“I’m scared, but… with you all by my side…” Fluttershy took a deep breath, then nodded. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Alright…” Twilight nodded to Celestia. “We’re all ready. Let’s go.”

Celestia’s and Luna’s magic enveloped the massive doors, pulling them open with a massive groan.

“Luna and I will move towards the center. Guards, spread out and look for survivors. If you do find them, take them back to the camp and evacuate them as fast as possible. We can treat their injuries later, I’m afraid.”

The guards following Luna nodded, choosing not to respond so they could keep their senses sharp.

Luna and Celestia entered the courtyard first, both of their horns glowing brightly. Sans and Flowey followed, Sans clutching the small fragment of Flowey’s soul in blue magic. Hopefully, throwing Flowey would allow him to get into battle more easily. He hadn’t liked the plan, but agreed to it anyway.

Celestia looked back at her faithful student, who lit her horn up and unleashed a wave of magenta magic. After a few seconds, she looked up and shook her head. Chara wasn’t hiding anywhere around the nearby perimeter.

The royal siblings quickly advanced to the center of the fortress, Twilight recasting the spell every time. It was designed to detect signs of life in the area, so it didn’t matter how Chara tried to hide herself; the demon was powerful, but not enough to will her own heartbeat into silence.

When they reached the center, Twilight cast her spell again, this time on the area beyond the door in front of them. She focused for a few seconds, and then looked at her teacher. “There’s a heartbeat out there,” she said. “I think it’s a survivor, it’s too fast to be someone who’s calm and in control like Chara. Pretty far out, probably a few hallways away. I’d estimate seventy beats per minute, give or take ten.”

“Seventy?” Celestia asked, confusion clear in her voice. “That’s extraordinarily fast…”

“it’s the demon,” Sans assured them. “remember, it’s a human, not a pony. just guessing here, but their heart rate is probably a lot faster than yours. I think alphys mentioned something about humans averaging 80 a minute, or something.”

Twilight thought for a moment, then nodded. “That would make sense. So it is her.” There was a pause as Twilight digested that information. “It’s actually her...”

“yup.” Sans chuckled despite himself. “and if I know it, it’s gonna want a cool place to fight. it’ll be in the throne room.”

Celestia waited a moment, to make sure they were finished and ready, and then she and Luna flared their horns. They pulled open the doors to the hallway-

“Oh my-!”

“WHOA!”

The two siblings looked into the hallway, disgust and shock clearly written on their face. Before them laid a crystal pony in a suit of armor, collapsed on the ground. His eyes were aimed up at them in fear, his mouth open in a silent scream. His terrified expression was only made more off-putting by pool of dried blood below his head, and the spear impaled through his chest. He was clearly not looking at them, his face was simply frozen in terror forever. The sight of a pony killed so brutally, however, was still disturbing to everyone there.

Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight immediately turned green and expelled the small meal they had before their journey. Rainbow landed quietly, dry heaving at the unfortunate pony’s fate.

“Yer tellin’ me that that thing did this?” Applejack questioned quietly, her hat tucked over her eyes.

“yeah…” growled out Sans. “this is it’s handiwork, all right. I’d hate to imagine what that creature would do to us if we didn’t dust, probably set of some sort of macabre monument to all the things it's slaughtered.”

“I knew from, from what you had told me that this creature was truly hideous,” Rarity stammered. “But I-I had never anticipated something quite like this!”

Twilight took a deep breath, and then another. “This is terrible,” she choked out. “I didn’t know- this is just… this is terrible.”

Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak. All that came out was a quiet whimper, and she closed it again.

Luna lowered her gaze, sighing softly. “If it were a thousand years since I saw something like this,” she said, “it would be a thousand years too soon. To think, I could have done this, had I not been stopped…”

The group stood there for a moment in silence, mourning the soul that they barely knew. Inside, even Celestia was shocked at this. There was darkness in Equestria, she knew this. It would be foolish to deny it. King Sombra had been a dictator with no cares for any but himself. Discord had been a mad ruler, denying the ponies under him rest and twisting them into dancing marionettes for his own amusement. Tirek, long ago, had attempted to leave all creatures powerless, simply to feed his own desire for wanton destruction.

But none of them had been like this. None of them had been willing to torture others individually. There was something horrifyingly intimate about Chara’s trail of blood.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, Rainbow looked up. “We’ve got to stop it now,” she decided. “If not for us, then for him. And everypony else, too.”

“Yes, we must.” The princess of the sun and ruler over all Equestria stood up and looked to the rest of her group. Her little ponies, and her friends. She would not allow this to happen to them. She promised this to herself, she would not let it happen.

One by one, the group continued on. Rainbow turned around and looked at Pinkie, the only one who hadn’t said anything.

“C’mon, Pinkie, we have to get moving,” Rainbow said. Pinkie didn’t respond.

Sans looked over at the normally happy pony, her poofy mane now slumping down around her body in straight lines. Her tail, typically wagging around or at least swaying from side to side, was dragging along the floor.

Rainbow continued to try and move Pinkie. “Come on! We’ve gotta go!”

The small party pony let herself be dragged, only saying one thing as she was pulled from the gruesome scene. “She died terrified…”

The unit followed a trail of bloody corpses towards the center of the castle, each body showing different states of brutality. Some ponies only had their throats slit, others had hundreds of cuts on their bodies, and an unlucky few were completely dismembered, with the bodies parts of various ponies being found several feet away from their torsos. Some were strung up, kept in the air by all four limbs from ropes hanging from pieces of architecture around the halls like macabre piñatas. These bodies were in a better condition, but had vast pools of dried blood below them with small shallow stabs on various points of their bodies. One pony had clearly put up a good fight, with a number of wounds covering his body. He was stiff and had likely died standing up; it would have been more inspiring if his body hadn’t been kicked onto its side.

“They were tortured to death,” Luna ground out through her clenched jaw, “I swear when we find this horror of a demon I will slaughter it with no remorse. Just like it did to our subjects…”

Celestia only nodded in response. Nightmare Moon had never been this bad, but Celestia suspected there was a part of herself her sister saw in the demon, a small part that enraged and terrified her.

Throne room

The remainder of the journey to the throne room was uneventful, if one counts finding more bodies in various states of destruction as uneventful. Once they finally arrived they found the former necromancer’s throne room, it’s doors blown off its hinged courtesy of Sans’ battle with the deranged king.

“It's do or die time,” said Flowey in an attempt to psyche up the unit.

“I’d really prefer if that second option wasn’t there, Flowey,” Fluttershy quitely complained.

“Hey, we don’t really have that option anyway, if we fail everything goes downhill. Stop being a wuss already.”

Luna quieted both of them with a stare. “Prepare yourselves, they may come at us batting.”

“Swinging, sister,” Celestia lightly corrected.

“Do you really think this is the time for that, sister?”

Celestia smiled and readied her horn. On the count of three, the small group flooded into the throne room. Asides from the pile of rubble that was the former king’s throne, it looked like there was nothing there. However, there was clearly a small child sitting among the throne pieces, idly pushing around the smaller bits of rubble on the floor. The ceiling appeared to have caved in, letting a single beam of sunlight light up cavernous room.

The child looked up at the sound, and grinned.

“Finally! You took forever getting here. You never were one to dawdle, comedian. Tardiness is not a good look on you. And on an unrelated note, nice scarf. Whose grave did you rob, your brother’s?”

Papyrus remained silent, not wanting to let Chara know he was there. “nice sweater,” Sans shot back. “did you want to pretend you were someone else?”

“Oh, no,” Chara shook her head. “I had just gotten this before being brought here by that shadow guy. I had been debating it for a short while, but I had eventually decided you were not worth waiting for, and I went to kill f- Asgore.” She looked up at him, recovering from her verbal stumble. “But I had just barely changed and started down the stairs, when I was suddenly dragged into this saccharine landscape. Oh, I forgot to mention, this is your first time seeing the sun, isn’t it? So sorry to ruin that for you.”

“nah, don’t be. knowing you’re actually dead is the only way I’d feel comfortable here. it’s not actually that fun running away.”

“Ironic, coming from someone who ran away from the chance to save their brother. You knew I killed him, and yet you did nothing. You keep talking all high and mighty, and sure, I did kill a lot of people. But at least I am better than the cowards that sit there and LET it happen. Am I correct, Flowey?”

The flower in Sans’ grip said nothing, even as said grip tightened. Sans, however, remained as silent as Flowey.

“Now,” Chara said, “going back to the subject of my sweater. Do you know how hard it is to clean blood out of this type of fabric? It is absolutely ridiculous! This is my favorite shirt, and now there are ugly red stains on it. I wish the little horses here just disintegrated like your brother did.”

“they’re ponies,” Sans replied. “you know, you were actually a lot more tolerable before you started, you know… talking. can you just go back to shutting up and staring at me?”

Chara stared at Sans and adjusted her grip on their knife, a smile tearing its way across her face. Her head tilted to an abnormal degree, and her eyes started shedding what appeared to be tears, but ashen gray instead of clear.

“...yeah, never mind,” Sans muttered. “I think you actually might be better now.”

Chara wiped their face on their sleeve, standing up to look at the group confronting them. “Well, no time like the present, I suppose. Who should I start with… how about you?”

*Determination.
*File SAVED.

Chara looked at Celestia, and raised her knife-

Both of the diarchs launched a beam of pure magic at the child, vaporizing them instantly.

Flowey winced, as did Sans.

“You see?” Luna stated. “She will only have one shot at attacking me. Then she will beeeeeee̷e̵e̸e̷e̶ĕ̶̞̺͛e̷̺̎E̷̜̣͋Ȅ̸̠͌Ẻ̵̪E̶̮̔ͅĚ̸̩̈́Ḛ̴̛̘Ē̷̙̓͜E̴̼̓̌E̵̫͕͕̪̩͂̃̉̒E̴̗̳͓͑́̈́E̵̟̣̋̾Ĕ̷̡̧̛͓̦̓͆̋͜È̸͇̫̩̉̊Ȅ̸̞̠̏̀̂-

Throne room

Chara looked at Celestia, and raised her knife-

Both of the diarchs launched a beam of pure magic at the child, which was swiftly sidestepped. The edge of her sleeve was burnt, but she was otherwise unharmed.

“Reload,” Flowey called out unnecessarily.

Celestia looked over at Sans. “She dodged?”

“yup, you killed her the first time but she knows your opening move now. pretty much always going to dodge it at this point.”

Celestia blinked. “Ah. I think I now finally understand what you meant by learning.”

“yep, that’s why she won after thirty tries, instead of losing after one.” Sans nodded, gesturing to the throne room as a whole. “so, what I need you and moonbutt to do-”

“HEY!”

“-is make a barrier, flowey and me’ll be inside wearing them down. we don’t actually wanna kill them yet, we just need to wear them down so they can’t dodge the elements. if you can, try to make it a one way barrier. that way, you can fire in but they can’t get out.”

“I can do that,” Celestia nodded. “A basic shield spell should work, on a grand enough scale to keep her inside.” She flared up her horn, but stopped as Sans waved his hand. “Oh, what is it?”

“here.” Sans reached to his shoulders and pulled Papyrus off his shoulders, handing the scarf to the princess. “he’s safer out there,” was all he said after.

Celestia looked at him, and nodded. Nothing else needed to be said.

The solar pseudo-goddess wrapped the orange scarf around her own neck, before turning and launching a giant half sphere around the throne room, leaving just enough room for the recording party and the elements on the outside. She looked over to Luna who in turn wrapped her own shield around her sister’s, creating a wall of morphing blue and yellow magic. Beautiful in its waving auras, and strong enough to not let anything from the outside in. A cage, that kept everything outside safe.

Sans closed his eyes and tossed Flowey onto the ground, who quickly tunneled into the rock-hard floor. He then stuck his hands in his pockets, grinning an empty smile at Chara. “well kid, just you, me and the flower. you know, I actually lost count of how many times you died. around thirty, I’m pretty sure…” The skeleton shrugged. “let’s just say thirty-one and call it a number. capiche?”

The child laughed. “You act as if rising numbers make me upset. I don’t care if we reach nine hundred, I’m fine with dancing to my own mania. We all know this song doesn’t end until I win, anyway.”

“sure, sure,” the skeleton said, grinning at some unexplained joke. “just wanted to make a clear point of reference anyway. now, I’m not normally one to repeat lines, but I’m gonna make an exception in this case. after all, it really is a beautiful day. birds are singing, flowers are blooming… and the sun shines bright.

“on days like this, kids like you don’t deserve to be basking in the sunlight. kids like you…”

Sans’ right eye blinked into oblivion, a gaping void taking its place. His left eye, meanwhile, flared into life, a blaze of green that nearly lit up the room.

“Should be burning in hell.”

Sans snapped his fingers, and Chara felt the familiar sensation of the world stopping. As soon as it started again, Sans appeared to the left of Chara. Chara turned to rush toward the grinning skeleton, but paused when she saw him standing completely still. Her instincts suddenly screaming, she ducked to the ground, right before the gaster blaster that was where he had been five seconds ago fired above her head.

She didn’t have a moment to rest, as a circle of friendliness pellets appeared around her. She jumped up, but was slammed to the ground, her soul glowing blue. Grinning at the excitement, she swung her knife in a circle, creating a red whip to appear out of her blade. It destroyed every pellet, before the red aura faded away back into her weapon.

“you know, I kinda wanted to ask about that,” Sans mentioned, casually sending a wave of bones across the floor at her. “the whole red energy thing is pretty new. you definitely couldn’t do it back in the underground, otherwise you’d have done it earlier. I’m guessing it happened when you came here?”

“How astute of you to notice,” Chara spoke as she slipped in between the bones, grunting as a vine courtesy of Flowey pierced her shoulder. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a sandwich, chewing as she spoke. “Ih hahs to do wiff thiff worll. Ah think my-” she swallowed, smiling as she felt her HP and ATK growing, and her wound disappearing. “I think my excess amount of determination is manifesting itself as outside magic. Even I could tell magic is everywhere in this place, and I’m not literally made of the stuff.” She swung her knife, causing a red beam to come screaming as Sans. The world stopped for a moment, and it passed by where he used to be, impacting the barrier and dissipating. “Like that,” she said. “It works like that.”

Flowey ducked under a swipe and dug through the crystal, reemerging a fair bit behind her. “Can’t say I like this new development,” he frowned. “It’s making you unfairly hard to squash.”

“You’re one to talk,” the child laughed. “Always ducking and hiding away, you two. I’m the one that’s supposed to do that, not you. And speaking of things we’re not supposed to do…” She turned to Sans, idly leaping over a wall of bones with spiked edges. “Wasn’t it you who wondered why people never used their most powerful attack first? It’s because we learn.” Chara got close enough to swipe at Sans, and her smile grew when he dodged away. “If you do your strongest thing first, I’m just gonna learn from it! You know that’s how I work!”

“well kiddo,” the skeleton said, summoning a blaster, “nothin’ I’ve thrown out has been my strongest. you should know that, you’ve seen enough of them.

“but not all of them.” Another wall of bones was launched at Chara, this time covered in a golden aura of flames. “you’re not the only one who’s gotten stronger. I’ve got a few new tricks up my sleeve. normally, I’d say I hope you’re ready… but I really hope you’re not.” His arm raised, and four more gaster blasters appeared at his side, golden energy glowing in their jaws. At his signal they opened fully-

And all four were sliced in half by beams glowing a wrathful red.

“You truly think I’ve only gotten STRONGER, you trashy comedian? Of all your jokes, that has to be the worst one yet.” Chara dodged another wave of bones jutting from the ground, before slicing a vine off before it even reached her. She bent down and picked the writhing vine up, squeezing it for emphasis. “I do not just grow in strength. I learn. I learn, I adapt and I overcome. And at the end of it all, I finally put an end to the cycle and kill.” Another blaster appeared, and Chara stepped to the side, watching the beam of pure karma pass inches from her face. “You may kill me once. Or twice. Or as many times as you can, in fact. You have my blessing. Because the more you kill me… the better I get at killing you.”

Sans reached out to envelop the child’s soul in a twister of blue magic, and flung her back into the spikes made of femurs behind them. Chara stabbed her knife into the ground, slowing her propulsion backwards and landing amidst the rubble of the throne. She stared at Sans and grinned, daring him to launch another attack at her. Prepared to dance around it like she had so many times before.

And so, she was completely caught off guard by the small, silent pellet of magic that landed right on her neck, and exploded. For such a small attack, it hurt.

Noticing she was slow to get up, Sans gestured with his hand. A bone rod, glowing bright blue, rose up from the ground and impaled Chara through the shoulder. The child instantly stopped moving, staring intently at the blue bone passing through her body. If she so much as moved an inch, it would likely kill her.

“you know, monsters don’t normally like doing this,” Sans said. “we find it cruel, and unfair. like, seriously. if we do stuff like this without justifying it to ourselves, it can actually hurt our soul. but, you know what?” Sans’ eye blazed to life again, glowing a bright green. “you’re worth it.”

Chara blinked at what the monster meant, before a searing pain suddenly shot through her body. She looked down in shock at the bone going through her shoulder, now glowing orange instead of blue. She tensed up and made to move, but it quickly reverted to being blue again. A small trickle of blood worked its way down the bone, a red mark slowly making its way down to the floor.

3 HP. She was left with just 3 HP.

Chara breathed heavily, the pain making it hard to think and her sins weighing heavily on her neck. An unfamiliar feeling of guilt, one she only ever felt when fighting the skeleton, shot through her. 2 HP left.

Despite herself, Chara began to laugh. She looked up at Sans and Flowey, who had appeared by the skeleton’s side. She laughed and laughed, and kept on laughing. She couldn’t help it, she just had to laugh. She kept laughing, until tears ran down her face. She kept laughing, at the world, at the monsters and at herself.

But it wasn’t funny.

1 HP.

“I suppose you want to kill me now?” Chara gurgled. Her throat burned with the taste of her own blood, and she still laughed. “You finally stopped the demon? You finally killed me? Congratulations! Let me give you a big hand!” She paused to laugh again, the laugher breaking off into a coughing fit that left her hissing in pain. “You really think killing me will fix everything? I thought you had learned. Turns out that is something only I do. I can reset. I can reload. I can make all your hard work go away. Did you forget about that?”

Sans shook his head, a smile on his face. “nope, didn’t forget. I just had a different plan. why fight you again and again, and lose on the sixtieth time…”

A small rustling brought her attention to his rear, where the elements had moved to join them in the barrier. The six of them looked down at her, some with sorrow and acceptance, others with anger and pity.

“...when we could just win on the thirty-first? we’re taking you out now, demon. a little monarch’s reign ended on the throne of a tyrant. fitting, huh?”

Chara looked at the six ponies in front of her, their elements slowly powering up. A deep, instinctual part of her told her that she did not want this to happen. Whatever it was, it would not kill her. It would do worse.

“I just wish you had made this easier. that’s my only bone to pick with you.”

Chara’s eyes grew wide as she saw the elements join together, a blinding light emerging from them. The six ponies began to float into the air, glowing brighter and brighter. “Wait… Wait! No, stop! STOP!” Her voice rang out on deaf ears, a beam of pure light washed across her. She looked down in terror as her body slowly began hardening into stone, and she desperately reached to the side. A look of concentration crossed her face.

“She’s trying to reload!” Flowey shouted. “Fire the elements! NOW!”

*Determination.

Everything grew quiet as Chara’s now stone body sat there, her knife forever pointing down toward the ground and her other hand spread wide, reaching for something only she was able to see. Her face was focused but terrified, eyes wide in concentration and her mouth open in a silent scream. Everything was perfectly still for a moment. If her reload had succeeded, everything would have been brought back to where it was before they had fought. Before they had encased her in stone. After a minute of silence, everyone looked at Flowey.

“She didn’t do it in time,” he said simply. “We did it.”

“it’s over…” Sans muttered. “it’s actually over… we did it.” He chuckled, then laughed. “we did it! we finally won!” Sans turned back towards the group, to see Celestia and the others celebrating-

And stopped suddenly as everything went black.

21 Battle and Redemption

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Definition of determination

1 a law : a judicial decision settling and ending a controversy

b: the resolving of a question by argument or reasoning

2 archaic : termination

3 : firm or fixed intention to achieve a desired end

Many things have come into being because of determination. Wars have been started, fought and ended because of it. People have been saved from horrible disasters, rescuers fighting against all odds. Many a man and woman have rose to great heights with its aid. In the right hands it can be a benefit to all, ending suffering helping those around the person that has it. Casting light into distant shadows that hide evil. In the wrong hands, however? The less spoken about the tyrants of history, the better, they are cursed and may lay forgotten for their crimes against all. Many things can happen, partially because of a peculiar trait of determination, its versatility. As it is neither good nor evil, that is the trait soley of the person using it. If one is truly determined to do something they will remain patient, waiting for their time to have an impact. Often times that waiting doesn’t have to be very long, only a few hours or days. In rarer cases it may take weeks or months, and in severe cases it may take years. But in this case it has taken centuries, ages of pain, boredom and hate. Waiting for the best moment to strike. And with all of the hate and rage being built up? That leads to cracks…

500 years after the Battle of the Martyred Empire

Celestia looked up at the night sky, surrounded by her friends and family, a day of remembrance for those lost all those years ago. To her right sat her soulmate, Sans, it had taken many years to finally get close to the damaged skeleton but for the past two centuries they had become nearly inseparable. They had their fair share of fights, yes that was true, but they were stronger because of it. He now served as an advisor in her courts, judging those who had done wrong and handing out punishments accordingly. They lived, laughed and mourned with each other whenever life happened.

To her left sat her sister, with Papyrus wrapped around her neck. The two had become close friends, often talking about cooking and the night sky. Because of their friendship, Papyrus gained a fascination with the stars, often spending his nights asking Luna about the skies and the mysteries they held. Behind the front four sat Asriel, the now growing goat, it had taken decades for his soul to fully develop, with Alphys, may she rest in peace, keeping close track of it while she was alive. He was now the equivalent of a teenager for boss monsters, though he didn’t ever act like a stereotypical teen, he tried to be mature and was always working. When Celestia asked him about it when Alphys has passed away he said,

“While I was a flower I acted like a child, only thinking about myself, but now I'm looking back at my actions and who I am now. I’m the last boss monster. I’m the only one. I have to not only live up to the standards of those around me but those behind me, especially those of my parents. I need to act as a true king, even if there are only three other monsters left.”

Next to him sat Twilight and Candace, both of them having dealt with their own losses. Candace her husband and Twilight the loss of her friends. Yes Twilight did meet new element bearers over the years, but the original five others would always hold a special place in her heart. All three of them gazed up at the sky as Luna worked her magic in remembrance. Of those here, of those coming, of those lost but not forgotten.

She smiled as she leaned over and rested the bottom of her muzzle on the short skeleton’s skull, “I love you,” she whispered.

The skeleton under her shifted slightly, leaning into the warmth of the alicorn, “I love you too.”

As the display drew to a close the group gradually said their goodbyes and went their separate ways, each off to their own lives.

Celestia looked down at the skeleton under her, “Shall we head out?”

Sans nodded and moved to get up, only for both of them to wince as a wave of magic caught them off guard. Sans’ eyes narrowed, “She’s back”

10 minutes later, Castle Courtyard

Sans and Celestia joined the rest of the reformed group with the addition of Discord. Celestia looked back to the ponies with her, “Element Bearers, I hope you are ready.”

The purple alicorn nodded, having teleported the current bearers of the elements to her location. “We are Celestia, time for this again.”

Steady Hooves, the current Bearer of the element of loyalty looked curiously at Twilight. “Again Twilight?”

Twilight nodded, “Around five hundred years ago I had to face this enemy. We were rather lucky that the elements of harmony worked on it, as little else did. Now we will face them again and win. I’m going to let you know before we go in there, stay back. Don’t rush on ahead, don’t try and attack this thing directly, don’t try and draw attention to yourself. When I fought this thing, It tried to kill Sans without any hesitation.”

The small skeleton nodded, “this thing will kill without hesitation, stay prepared.”

A voice called out from the other side of the door, “Yup! Though honestly, I don’t think any of the ponies behind Moonbutt, Sunbutt, and Sparkleass are really prepared for this… I mean, have any of them faced a foe that could do this?” A large red ‘X’ appeared on the two doors separating the group from the child, only for them to fly backwards in a flurry of dust and dirt. “I mean discord might have been able to do that… but even then, he’s not quite as viceral.”

The draconequus growled, “I agree with you there, I was never as cruel as you were. I suppose that is a good thing though. It let the others let me see the errors of my ways. You on the other hoof, are in no such place for redemption.”

The small child grinned and launched a glowing wave of magic at Sans, who teleported out of the way, only for Steady Hooves, who was standing behind the skeleton, to get hit. He screamed as Twilight teleported him away, along with their other elements.

“GO!” yelled Twilight, “I’m going to take care of him and get the elements charging!”

Sans nodded to Twilight and looked to discord, “you ready prank buddy?”

“Quite,” said discord in a velvety voice as he began to loop in on himself while floating, “I do believe it is about time I show you the power of a Chaos Spirit.” He popped back into his normal body with a slight glow. “As all good fights should be,” He grinned menacingly, “they will begin with a snap.”

The world around Chara began to crumble, bits of the floor started to float in the air and whip around them. ‘Might as well play this out for a bit before I pull out the rug from under the Skeleton.’ they thought. A stone flashed to their face causing the child to dodge and fall flat on their stomach, only for them to immediately do a pushup to avoid the bones launched at them from the tile below.

The small child grinned, “COME ON! Is that the best-” She ducked as she dodged another wave of bones came close to taking off her foot, “Seriously Sans, Frisk could launch a better attack than that whenever they did a pacifist route!” She leapt forward, knife gripped tightly, “Make this challenging!”

The three fighters danced around the courtyard in a flurry of dashes and teleports uprooting chunks of earth and causing them to float (courtesy of a particular Chaos Spirit), making a multi leveled arena of desperate attacks and close calls.

“So kid, what exactly are you trying to get out of this?” Sans asked as he stood on a giant venus flytrap.

“Mostly just want you dead first, Then the traitor.” She pointedly sent a glare at Asriel, who was standing guard nervously by the elements as they charged, buster swords in hand. “Then I’ll move on from there! After you three I don’t have a whole lot on my plate.”

“Not happening, little miss murder,” said Discord as he swung a large bust of Ryan Reynolds made of chex mix. “I happen to enjoy many of the ponies and monsters that are here, that’s not happening-” he grunted as he hefted a 14 and a half foot grandfather clock, “on my watch!”

The child sidestepped the crashing object only to be pinned in place by a cage of blue bones. Sans stepped forward, “so, what’s your plan now?”

The child looked over at the elements, that had now finished charging and were waiting for a shot, “Well… Sans, do you remember the last time I saved?”

The skeleton groaned, “just gonna prolong this? replay this fight over and over just before you get hit by the elements, until we finally get a lucky hit, only for this to happen again in 500 years?”

The child grinned, “Not exactly… We will be meeting in five hundred years though… Just not in the future.”

Sans eye sockets widened, his cry for the elements to fire halted. His mind being sent back to five centuries ago.

Chara’s knife flashed up as she sliced off her own arm and the bone pinning her there with a scream of anger. Then dove out of the way of the elements, causing a trail of blood to fly out onto the stone floor.

Sans in the meanwhile stumbled back, 500 years of memories flooding his younger self. Flowey was also having a similar episode, Cringing as memories of him becoming Asriel overwhelmed his current form. Chara’s knife glew red, and then held it up and pressed it to their bleeding remains of an arm. A sharp hiss filled the room as the child cauterized the wound with the magically powered knife, gritting their teeth all the while.

“Y-you know? After 500 years of planning how I was going to escape that it still hurts just as much as I had imagined it would.” Chara grunted out in pain, “I guess you never can just mentally prep yourself for having to cut your own arm off.” The small child shakily stood up, wincing as they subconsciously attempted to use their stump of an arm for support.

“Sans!” Celestia called out, “Are you alright!?”

Celestia only received a soft groan in return, a single boney hand rubbing his forehead, Flowey in the meanwhile burrowed back underground to save himself from any possible attacks.

Chara stabbed their knife into the ground next to them shoving their hand into their pocket, grabbing whatever they could reach in desperation and shoving it into their mouth to prevent them from bleeding out.

Celestia once again called out to Sans. “Are you alright? Do you need any help?”

Sans quickly shook his head and teleported over to the white diarch still wincing slightly from the pain, “listen tia, the demon just pulled off the mother of all loads. asri- i mean, flowey and i got five hundred years of memories we have to sort through right now. can you and moonbutt deal with the kid for a little bit while we deal with this?”

“Are you sure? I thought you wanted us to maintain a barrier?”

Flowey’s head popped up next to Sans, “Honestly, if you could, please tag in for a moment. We really need a couple of moments to deal with what just happened.”

The diarach tilted her head slightly, then grimly smiled, “Of course, I will buy you two as much time as you need,” She looked up and called out, “Sister! It is time for our fight!”

Luna grinned, “Yes! We shall show you exactly how strong we are!” The rulers horns lit up, covering their bodies in bright blue and golden magic. When it faded both were covered in intricate armor and had large weapons in their magic. Luna twirled her zweihander in her magic its waved blade casting beams of light off in a multitude of directions. “We had wanted to bash the rust off of our skills in combat.”

The elder sister shook her head as her long halberd was held defensively in front of her, “Sister, I believe the term goes, ‘shake the rust off’, even so I too am looking forward to this.” The sun goddesses eyes seemed to have an ethereal glow to them, “Let’s show this child the true power of celestial guardians.”

Luna huffed at her sisters correction, “Very well,” she said as she spread her wings, “Let us begin!” The blue alicorn rocketed forward, with a large swing, aiming to decapitate the small creature in front of them.

Chara, to their credit, was paying attention to the whole conversation in front of them and grabbed the knife, deflecting the blow with some effort. “Seriously, can’t a kid have a moment to deal with a lost arm in peace?” Chara then ducked backward as a beam of golden light seared past where their arm was.

“I’m afraid not, you are currently our problem now. And we plan to deal with you as best we can.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight and the rest of the elements looked on in awe as the two leaders of their country fought the small child in front of them. Only to get a sharp flick on the ear for her inattentiveness. She turned her head towards the source of the pain, “What the heck!”

Sans simply shrugged, “th’ best way to get your attention off of your teacher. now listen, sunny and reflect-o-ass over there are going to try and hold off the kid as long as they can, you in the meanwhile need to start chargin’ up again,” Sans looked up at the yellow monster in the lab coat a few dozen feet away, currently engrossed deep in a machine. “hey alph! plan b ready yet?”

The monster scientist looked up from her work, “Almost, I’ve run into a small problem though, the machine isn’t going to be able to extract if I’m not within 10 feet of them.”

Sans frowned. “that's a little too close for comfort for me, any way to extend the range?”

Alphys ducked as a particularly loud explosion from the fight behind them rang out, “Its as far away as I could get it to work. Normally a soul has to be in a DT extraction machine in order for it to work, you know that Sans. It's a miracle that we think it can pull it from a living being AND at a distance.”

“i know, i know, just worried bout you.”

“I’ll be fine. Now you six!” The scientist snapped drawing the attention of the element bearers, “When we pin Chara down and activate the machine we should be able to pull out the determination from them, or at least enough to stop them from saving and loading. When I say the word-”

A sharp ping sounded as wall of bones shot up while a layer of vines snaked along them blocking a stray beam of magic from hitting the party.

Alphys nodded to the two, “Thanks. Now as I was saying, when I say the word I’ll need you to fire the elements,” the yellow scientist looked over at flowey, “can I count on you to get us the opening we need?”

The small flower nodded, “Won’t be a problem. Now that their down an arm should be comparatively easy to actually get a hold of them. Then again, this is Chara we’re talking about, just be prepared for her to try and struggle.”

Sans nodded to the flower, “lets do this,” the skeleton turned to the alicorns who were still fighting the small child. “tia! moonbutt! tag out! the flower and I are taking over!”

Celestia jumped back as the murderous child took a particularly nasty lunge at her. “Luna! Ready the shield again!”

Sans stepped forward as flowey dove underground, a dual colored wall of magic closing behind them. “alright chara, round two, or three, unless you want to keep counting all of those times back in the underground, then were up to what? Over forty now?”

The child scoffed, “are you for real? You know this won’t ever end. Watch!” The small killer jumped back to the center of the room, and reached down with their remaining hand to save. “This will just keep happening over and over again, and I’m goin-” She yelped as a mass of vines started to wrap around her arm. Pulling her to the ground harshly. Moving quickly, chara flipped the knife around in her hand, cutting the offending plant part and jumping to her feet to avoid another set of vines aimed to impale them.

San his own attack, summoning a gaster blaster behind him. “well kid, maybe if i beat you enough times you’ll stop,” behind the large skull a row of seven more blasters appeared, “maybe another hundred rounds or so will help you change your mind.” Sans closed his eyes, and shoved his hands into his hoodie, dozens of blasters now filling the throne room each of their jaws filled with swirling blue and golden magic. “maybe giving you enough of a bad time will get you to stop.”

Chara ducked as the first blaster fired, then rolled as the next lazer passed where she was moments ago. “Come on you crappy joker, you know i always-” the child grunted as they deflected a smaller laser with a magically charged blade, “win in the end, you can’t stop me.”

Sans shook his skull, “maybe, but…” he trailed off as two vines speared where chara was moments ago, “i’m not exactly alone here, am I?” he grinned.

Chara stood up from her dive, knife still in hand, “Really?” She laughed, “You think a tratorious PLANT and a bunch of PONIES is going to stop ME?” The small child crouched down eyes staring at a pebble in front of them then looked up at the skeleton with murder in their eyes, “Oh no, its going to take MUCH more than THAT!”

“then let me oblige ya,” Sans smirked as he teleported onto the largest blaster, “to quote some of your own kind, this is where the fun begins.”

Chara dove behind the throne as lasers blasted her previous position, looking up she sent a blast of magic through her blade at a blaster that had appeared above her and was about to fire only to have to move again. The ground beneath her, now vacant, location, burst open as a vine once again attempted to entrap her. Landing on one foot, she flung herself at the skeleton on the giant skull, the knife glowing a vivid red. Sans stepped to the right causing the initial cut to strike the bone beneath leaving a massive scar. Chara emboldened by this, swung several more times causing the evasive skeleton to step back, duck or teleport away from each attack, all the while launching his own golden bones at chara, each of which shattered into yellow motes of light when struck by the child’s blade. Chara pressed her advantage, rapidly deflecting the pellets that had attempted to strike her in the back, and then once again throwing herself back at Sans.

Ducking beneath a strike, the skeleton waved three more bones in the way of Chara, “well kid, as nice as it is getting all close and comfy with you, i’m gonna to take a quick break,” sans snapped his fingers, summoning several dozen more blasters. “don’t worry though,” he winked, “i’ve got plenty more friends for you to play with here, ciao.”

Chara screamed in frustration as her quarry once again teleported away, launching into the web of flying skulls, stabbing them as they attempted to fire.

Sans landed softly besides flowey, who was sending more pellets at the human.“can’t you make those vines move any faster? i’ll dismiss the big boy the kid’s standing on and i want to make sure that you can catch her. ” Sans asked flowey as a wave of bones launched themselves at the dodging child.

The small flower shook its head, “Not if I want it to be strong enough to hold her, if I make them any smaller she’ll just pull right out of them. My big vines are far more effective when they’re right next to me.”

Sans put a hand to his jaw, “so you want to knock her around a bit more and get in closer?”

Flowey chucked, “Sounds like a plan to me trashbag.”

“alright, lets go.”

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The child turned demon known as chara grunted, being hit in the stump of her lost arm by a golden beam. This fight was turning out to be more difficult than expected, her health was… well it wasn’t fine, but she wasn’t dead. She had used almost the rest of her healing items to stem the bleeding from having to cut her arm off, and while Flowey and Sans didn’t do massive amounts of damage, it added up over time and was eating into her reserve. She needed to end this quickly. Otherwise the reset would be annoying, having to cut off your own arm is not fun, especially if you are doing it multiple times. Crimson eyes narrowed as she glanced over at her two opponents in this magical dome and watched as the traitor dove underground. A low growl rumbled in her throat, time to get in close.

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Sans stepped back and summoned two Gaster blasters as Chara suddenly turned and charged at him, both skulls firing their deadly payload and missing, as Chara jumped over the beams in a tight arc, landed and continued to sprint. Shoving a cinnamon bun into her mouth, the child once again leapt up, smashing the bones sent to intercept her into specks of dust.

Sans narrowed his eye sockets, ‘36/92 HP, if i can get them to around 15 that should be the ideal HP for the weed to get her.’ Sans pulled a hand out of his hoodie pocket and raised it above his head, summoning five, then ten, then fifty, then one hundred bones, all aimed at Chara. “well kid,” he grinned, “see if you can deal with this.” The bones launched forward like bullets, destroying themselves on the blade of the child, the ground around her, or in rare cases, slipping past their defenses and impacting on her legs and torso, slowly whittling down her health into the perfect range. ‘just a bit more, 4, 3, 2, 1’ “Flowey, NOW!”

A mass of vines sprung up from the ground, snagging Chara’s arm and yanking her to the ground, with Flowey poking his head out of the dirt from behind the child throwing more vines around her torso and lifting them into the air.

“Alright!” Flowey screamed over the suspended child, I’ve got a decent hold on them! Fire the elements now!”

Sans turned to the 6 ponies outside of the barrier, “you heard the plant. fire!”

Twilight nodded, “Right! Lets go girls!”

The elements swirled around the bearers lifting the 6 of them into the air, before firing at chara and flowey. The room filled with a white light, blinding everyone.

Sans shook his head, attempting to see through the smoke kicked up in the blast, only to teleport back, as chara lunged out at him knife once again in hand. “how are you still here?” he growled at the child.

Chara laughed, “I have no clue comedian, but your little light show gave me the chance to get the jump on you, and that's all I needed.” Her arm raised up, the blade glowing a brilliant red. A multicolored blade shot out of the smoke, intercepting her knife before it could descend and launch determination at Sans.

“You know Chara,” a quiet voice spoke, “I would appreciate it if you didn’t attack my friends like that.”

Chara whirled around to face the smoke, eyes blazing. “What?!”

The voice spoke again, as a tall figure became clearer. “I just said, don’t attack my friends like that.”

“Who are you?!” Chara growled.

“Come now Chara,” the figure said as they stepped out of the smoke, revealing a tall goat like figure clothed in rainbow robes with another multicolored blade in hand, “don’t you recognise me? It's me, your former best friend...

“A S R I E L D R E E M U R R”

A new chance at one HP

by Emeraldleafeon

1 Never make promises [edited]

2 Welcome the hero

3 A broken spirit

4 Finding Truths

5 New Friends

6 Showing Talent

7 Beginning Ideas

8 Future Plans

9 Joy and sorrow

10 Reunion and Separation

11 Settling In and Working out

12 Fight and Blight

13 Lost and Found

14 Return and Planning

15 Truth and Joy

16 Logic and Love

17 Shadows and Start

18 Shadows and Evil

19 Desperation and Joy

20 Horror and Fight

21 Battle and Redemption