Ponytale: The Reboot Strikes Back

Our story begins with our protagonist, the human. Having come to the mountain for unknowable reasons, they found a hole in the caverns at the top of Mount Horse. When investigating closer, they stumbled due to a vine they failed to notice and fell for what seemed an eternity, passing out in the process.
Before they had woken up, they'd been noticed by a small creature, one that disappeared as they began to stir.

Upon waking up, they were greeted with a view of the hole they fell through, light cast down upon their prone form like a spotlight. Surprisingly, they found that they had sustained no injuries in the fall, despite the odds and how far they had fallen - which presented another problem. No vines were long enough to reach them, not to mention their probable weakness, so climbing out was not an option. They had fallen upon a bed of yellow flowers which grew in a neat pattern, too neat to be wildly growing ones. The surrounding area was barren of anything else however, besides a few supporting pillars. But there was a doorway at the end of a small corridor. One that might lead out of this place. And who knows; maybe the caretaker of the flowers was nearby and could help?

This was too vivid to be a dream. This was too fantastical to be real. She had no idea what comas were like, or how she would've even gotten in one in the first place. This was certainly not her idea of heaven or hell. Perhaps it was purgatory? No, this was too much wish fulfillment for purgatory.

She had no idea what this was. Well, she knew what it was supposed to be, but that didn't actually mean anything; she didn't know what was actually going on. Hm, maybe if she could move she could find out, both by exploration and process of elimination.

She found movement easy, testing out a limb or two before sitting up, then finally standing up. Well, that certainly defeated the dream theory: she was basically paralyzed in her dreams.

She took a moment to really look around. There wasn't that much to see that would actually help her, but it was truly a sight. The hole which she'd fallen down (her stomach momentarily churning in guilt and panic) was so far up, yet enough sunlight managed to make its way down here to almost light up the entire cavern. The chipped and cracked columns gleamed like the proud structures of ancient history they were. The craggy rock walls, although not as bright or clean as the columns, were just as interesting to look at if not more, although the way they seemed to hug the rock a little too tightly and aggressively was somewhat spooky. Maybe that was only because she knew what those vines meant.

She decided to get going. She knew what she needed to do, and why waste time, right? Well, there was a little time to waste to take things in, but other than that she needed to get this done. She moved on to the next room.

The room beyond the doorway was completely dark, save for a spot of light in the middle of it, where a small creature was watching straight at the new arrival.
"Howdy! I'm Peanut! Peanut the Breezie!" The small creature introduced itself. It had the look of a small blue horse with two antennae on it's head, a green poofy mane and bug wings on it's back.
"Hmm.. You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha? Golly, you must be so confused. Like how you didn't get injured in the fall! Roga didn't tell you anything, did he? He must be getting bored with all these resets. Somepony oughta teach you how things work around here!"
"I guess little old me will have to do. Ready? Here we go!"

Fantasy's features slowly faded away, leaving only her outlines visible to her apart from a red heart-shape where her actual heart would be. There were also some numbers with here name being visible next to something that read LV 1. Moving around would show Fantasy that the heart-shape followed her around. For all passersby it would look like a white box was drawn around Fantasy.
"See that there? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being. Your SOUL starts off weak, but it'll grow stronger if you gain lots of LV.
What's LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course! Increasing your LOVE also increase your HP, which stands for HAPPINESS POINTS. Also, don't mind the random capitalized words, that happens sometimes."
Peanut then looked to the sides and smiled coyly before looking back.
"You want some LOVE, don't you? Don't worry, I'll share some with you!" Peanut followed this with a wink that seemed to leave a sparkle in the air for a moment while he stuck his tongue out.
"Down here, LOVE is shared through little white..." He looked slightly confused for a moment, looking up and down a bit as he held a small hoof to his chin, tapping it lightly.
"Friendliness pellets! That's what they were. Their name sounds sorta odd though. I dunno why they were named that way, the king is a weirdo like that. Anyway, you ready? Move around, catch as many as you can!" Five pellets suddenly appeared around Peanut and slowly began to move towards Fantasy's SOUL.

She blinked seeing the Breezie. You're not Flowey, she thought. Although... he seemed to act exactly like Flowey, so she supposed it wasn't too much of a problem; predictability was good. If it was predictable, she knew how to beat it.

However, she didn't know who this 'Roga' person was, and since Chara was already a pretty vague character... that was a little detail that gave her slight concern. Slight. She had every confidence that she could do everything right, as long as she was nice and didn't murder people. Hard thing to do by accident, she should be fine.

She stepped forward. Her face gave away nothing about her thoughts or feelings, though her lack of surprise might've been a clue to her knowledge; or maybe she wasn't easily plussed.

Evidence for Peanut would point to the latter, as her reaction to being turned almost completely invisible except for a heart-shaped soul in the center of her chest only seemed to mildly surprise her, indicated by slightly widened eyes and some light examination of her now nearly-transparent body. The other developments around her she took in with barely a glance.

She patiently waited for Peanut to finish his "Friendliness Pellets" dialogue, internally cringing at his cheesiness and the way his squeaky voice only seemed to make it worse. At least the cheesy facade wouldn't last much longer. She had to sneakily bite the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning as she calmly stepped out of the bullets' path.

"Silence, eh? That's a good sign! A sign of great friendships and adventures to come! Peanut and the Human! Trademark Pending!" Peanut waved his arms around crazily while pellets formed the letters, along with the trademark symbol.
"Although the stonefaced look is kinda disconcerting... Almost like you're bored. This should be something brand new to you!"
"Hmm... Did he find one that actually knows what's going on from the start?" He thought to himself as he frowned inside.
Peanut then made a new batch of pellets.
"Ah well, the writers can give you a generic sidekick personality once our adventure is over and we want it written down. Until then, my new best friend most definitely needs some LOVE to survive down here!"
And with that, the pellets were moving once more, though the pellets that formed the letters had dissipated.

She bit her cheek a little harder as she side-stepped the bullets again. She wondered how long it'd take to piss this little Breezie off.

Peanut had stopped when he realized the look Fantasy had given him was not a look of acceptance, heck, not even of annoyance. It simply just made him lose his temper for a moment.
"Is this a joke!? Are you braindead!? RUN. INTO. THE. BULLETS!"
He then stood there, watching at the dialogue box that was clearly visible (More specifically, the last piece of text), before sheepishly going over to the box and drawing rabidly on the part that said bullets - with something that looked like a chalkboard marker - then wrote a little something just below it: "Friendliness pellets!" Before 5 more pellets went towards Fantasy while Peanut went back to his original spot.

Okay, she couldn't help but chuckle at that. Poor little guy was a worse liar than Flowey, or at least he was worse at backpedaling. She dodged the bullets again; she'd briefly considered throwing the Breezie a bone, but she doubted that being nearly dead felt good, so she decided against it.

The pellets went past Fantasy once again, making Peanut sigh out of barely-contained frustration.
"It seems you also know what's going on here. Why do I never get to get close to actually killing someone? Roga, you just like to watch me suffer, don't you?" The breezie said as he looked up at the ceiling, as if there was somebody there. "You know what. Buck it."
Dozens of pellets appeared in a circle around Fantasy.
"DIE." Peanut said while laughing maniacally as best he could with his high-pitched voice while the pellets closed in around Fantasy's SOUL slowly.

Except they disappeared before they actually hit home.
Peanut stared at the SOUL for a bit before he felt something shift beneath him. He was quick to react though, and hopped to the side before a springboard beneath him had uncoiled.
"Hah! Missed me!" But there was something Peanut didn't account for. Another switch was pressed, which caused him to look down. Another springboard.
"...SON OF A-" He never got to finish his sentence however, as he was launched through the air towards the ceiling at really high speed, accompanied by a panicked yell from the breezie as he tried to slow his ascent but to no avail, as he kept rising towards the ceiling until he hit it with an almost comical thud and a small, almost indistinguishable crater appeared in the carved stone.
As this happened, a new, larger figure appeared from within the darkness of the room that was illuminated only from Peanut's position, taking one of it's forehooves off of a switch to what presumably connected to the springboard mechanism, another switch right next to it and already having been turned. This one appeared to be more akin to a horse in size, but it was different. For one, it's coat was a light shade of yellow, with a light blue mane. Second, it had wings more akin to those you'd see on a bird, rather than the membranous wings Peanut had.
"What a miserable creature, torturing such a poor, innocent, youth.” It said in a clearly female voice, giving a look of apology, as if saying she was sorry for not getting rid of the breezie sooner.

You are not Celestia. I was expecting Celestia. she thought, blinking in surprise. Who are you? She hesitantly waved to the pony.

The horse-like figure was slightly surprised at the wave, but could see the hesitance in it, which made her face shift from surprise to warmth and welcoming.
"No worries, my child. I am not here to hurt you. I am Twinkle Star, the caretaker of the RUINS." She said, gesturing to herself with a wing, then around the room. "I pass through this place every day to see if someone has fallen down. You're one of the lucky ones... Most don't survive the fall." She looked at the ground sadly. "In fact, you're the first human to make it this far in a long time." She sighed, as if she felt responsible for not being around to catch whoever else had fallen. She then shook her head slightly, as if to clear away those sad memories.
"Come, I will guide you through the ruins. It's full of puzzles and traps, you'll need a guide in order to avoid the fate that breezie was given, or worse." She said as she turned towards a corridor which had a door heading left, starting to walk down it.

Twinkle Star. Definitely didn't know this pony, and she chalked up her surviving the fall to Char- er, Roga. She followed the pony.

As they walked down the corridor, with a surprising amount of light illuminating the way, despite having no discernable source, Twinkle made an effort of striking a small conversation between the two.
"I apologize, but I didn't quite catch your name back there, my child." She asked. As she was, the pair came to a room with two sets of stairs on either side of the opposite end of the room, with both stairs leading to a platform above, with a doorway just after it. In the middle of the room, between the stairs, there were leaves on the ground, with a light shining from above, shining a bit more light on the mystery of where the light was coming from - no pun intended.
Unbeknownst to the mare, Fantasy would see something shimmering beneath the leaves, something only she could see. Maybe if she were to wipe away the leaves she could see it clearer?

She opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out. Should she answer with her pony name or her real one? Neither hurt, really... except maybe her pony name would give her new pony companion incorrect ideas about human culture, however insignificant.

"Jasper Breckenridge." She answered with her real name.

Oh, and look: a save point. She went over to the leaf pile and dug it out, hoping that what she was doing didn't look too weird.

Twinkle smiled as Jasper revealed her name. Not many of the humans had chosen to do so willingly.
"That is a beautiful name." She said, the warmth of her smile giving away everything that words could have conveyed.
When Jasper went to dig at the leaf pile, Twinkle raised an eyebrow and went over to see if she could see what Jasper had seen. Seeing nothing, she shrugged and went to the top of the stairs to wait for her companion to join her. But she would not be letting her go that easily.
"I'm sorry to interrupt you, my child, but we should keep moving - it's starting to get late." The mare in question said, waiting until the pair would go through the door into the next room, which would contain the first puzzle of the ruins.

She knelt down and touched the twinkle. It was warm against her palm. Nothing happened.

Hm. She concentrated, willing the twinkle to respond. Still nothing. Open. No. Save! Nope. Hey! I'm here! Respond, dammit! It refused.

Her brows furrowed. What was she doing wrong? Please? The one time it was not a magic word...

Maybe she was approaching it wrong. Maybe it wasn't about words so much as it was willpower. The theme was DETERMINATION, after all (had it just capitalized itself in her thoughts?), and when she thought of it like that... it... well... it seemed embarrassingly obvious.

She concentrated. Harder. She concentrated on the twinkle and refused to let it shrug her off. She wasn't leaving until it responded and she nearly flailed onto her back when a black box suddenly popped up, displaying two buttons: SAVE and CANCEL.

She resisted looking up at Twinkle, not wanting to explain what she was doing to the pony who couldn't see half of the situation, and tried pressing SAVE. Thankfully that didn't require as much effort and just acted like a button. She heard a bee-de-beep! and felt a strange, warm wave (erm, not that kind) pass through her and, for just a moment, her senses seemed to heighten: the leaves beneath her went from brick red to vivid crimson; she noticed every crack, chip, and dent in the grey stone stairs surrounding her; the air was terribly, almost repulsively stale; and the shadow of the looming ruins caught her attention for the first time: it made the room feel grand, yet claustrophobic: she realized that she was in a glorified, dilapidated cave. One of many. And not even one of those pretty ones in the movies with the crystals or the luminescent fungus. These were...

...ruins.

And there were people down here. Living in these conditions.

She hit CANCEL once she was done Saving. She stood up and walked up the steps after Twinkle, not offering an explanation.

Twinkle's eyes furrowed as she watched Jasper fumble with the leaves, her motherly instincts making her think something was not quite right with the fallen child.

Something must have happened to her - she fell a long way down after all, so possible hallucinations were not something for her to disregard. But eventually Jasper had made her way up the stairs and fell behind Twinkle who began to lead her through the ruins, starting with the first room.
"There are many dangerous puzzles in the RUINS, my child, so I must ask you to stay close to me." Twinkle said as she quickly completed the puzzle, having lived here for so long she was very much accustomed to going through the motions to complete the puzzles without any hassle.

This continued until the pair had come up to a room with a target dummy in the center.
"Ah yes, this is a good opportunity to show you how to survive on your own." Twinkle said as she moved next to the dummy. Jasper would notice that there was a door behind Twinkle that was already open, just like in Undertale. So far it was only minor changes to what was in the original game.
"When you encounter a monster or Equestrian, you will enter a FIGHT. When you're in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation. Stall for time and I will come to resolve the conflict. Try it out on this dummy!" She said, gesturing towards it with a wingtip.

She didn't notice any difference in the room. She walked up to the dummy as Twinkle instructed, and instantly the rest of the room faded into black. The dummy was now in greyscale, her body had faded into an outline again and her soul was visible as a red heart (what did red symbolize, anyway?), and she had OPTIONS before her:

[FIGHT]     [ACT]     [ITEM]     [MERCY]

And suddenly she found herself paralyzed except for one arm. She supposed it was to prevent cheating or neglecting the buttons, and the former was probably a method of the latter considering how these interactions worked. She pressed [ACT], selected *Dummy, and then *Talk.

Nothing happened. She didn't get any text.

Wait a minute..."Um... hi?" Ah, so she'd gotten permission to speak. Okay.

The dummy didn't respond.

She shuffled her feet a bit. She knew this was what she was supposed to do, and that the dummy wouldn't respond, but that didn't make it any less awkward. Maybe they were shy? Maybe if she tried, she could actually get a response from the poor ghost. However, she found that she could no longer speak, as her 'How are you?' refused to leave her throat. Maybe she was on a time limit. She'd have to be mindful of that in the future, at least in conversations.

The dummy did not seem to be much for conversation. Most likely due to the fact that it had no mouth that it could move.
If Twinkle was aware of the awkwardness that Jasper was experiencing, she did not show it. Instead she was showing satisfaction and approval of the human's choice. Some did not heed her words and instead used violence to achieve satisfactory results, which she frowned upon. Violence solves nothing.
"Very good, Jasper! I'm proud of you!" The FIGHT had ended as a result of Twinkle's interference, but she didn't acknowledge it nor make any remark of it.
"The next room awaits!"

As the pair entered the next room there was a pattern on the floor, laid out with tiles that were a shade lighter than the others that lined the room. Twinkle frowned as she remembered what this room was about.
"Oh dear, I forgot about this. This room has a spike trap around the corner. Maybe some puzzles are too dangerous right now for you to try to solve on your own..." She held out her wingtip for Jasper to hold on to as she started to walk through the corridor leading to the spike trap. There were a couple of Froggits and a creature Jasper did not recognize from the original game - looking something akin to a chicken with a horse head and orange fur - in the corridor but they scurried off upon seeing Twinkle, who sighed.
"I just can't imagine why they're avoiding me... I've done nothing to earn a foul reputation among them, have I?" She asked herself, momentarily forgetting Jasper was with her even as she lead them through the spike maze. She did feel sorry for Jasper though. As a result of her insistence on having the human be led through the maze, she was subjecting Jasper to the negative view the other monsters and Equestrians had for the mare, without having any chance to show what she was like.

That moment, she made a choice. When they walked into the next room - a reaaaaaallly long corridor, she made it known. "My child, this room contains a challenge I would like for you to complete. I want you to go to the end of this corridor without me being by your side." She gave a look of apology before turning away.
"Forgive me for this." She said before she ran off, surprisingly fast although maybe her pegasus nature aided her on this? Regardless, now Jasper was alone for the first time since meeting Twinkle.
However, the corridor was different from Undertale's. While she could see the entirety of the room, she could not see Twinkle once she had gotten some distance away from her. In the game Toriel was hiding behind a pillar at the end of the corridor, but this was different. In fact, the pillar was absent. It was just an empty room with some creatures, including a few Jasper could recognize as Moldsmal. But if she did not simply walk in front of them, she should be fine.

Furry... horse... chicken.

Um.

Okay.

She coughed and closed her eyes tight against the dust cloud Twinkle left behind. When it dissipated, she looked around the hallway: there were a few monsters here and there (the moldsmals were cute), but other than that it was empty.

There was no pillar. That meant there was no Twinkle.

Where was she, then?

Only mildly concerned, she proceeded through the hallway, not sure if she should spare glances at the local monsters or not. She didn't know if it'd be rude to deliberately avoid eye contact or if looking at them would offend or provoke them. She ended up glancing at a few anyways, and it would be clear that she was kind of afraid of them. And very afraid of a fight.

Jasper found that the monsters mostly ignored her despite the eye contact and only by getting close enough a FIGHT would start. Some of the Moldsmal made slime noises as was expected of them, but one particular Moldsmal's noises seemed to agitate one of the chicken horse things. She could hear the rather onesided conversation well enough though.
"No I'm not! I don't even lay eggs!"
The slime monster simply responded by making blurping noises that seemed to resemble chuckling, causing the opposition in this "argument" to ruffle its feathers and puff up it's chest before turning and walking away haughtily.

"Um, hey." She called out to the chicken-horse hesitantly. "Everything alright?"

The Moldsmal and chicken froze in their tracks (Less so with the Moldsmal than the chicken) and turned their heads towards this newcomer.
The chicken gasped as it realized what it was looking at. "A HUMAN!"

Jasper's features went transparent as the FIGHT began.
* Moldsmal and Scootachick stepped up!

The girl's stomach dropped. ...shit. Shit SHIT SHIT!

She practically smacked the [ACT] button and selected *Scootachicken.

Various options made themselves known to Jasper, all with different possible outcomes.
However, there was a message below the options.


* Your DETERMINATION gives you insight into the nature of Scootachick!

* SCOOTACHICK - 8 ATK 3 DEF
* Wishes to fly some day. Works hard at it too, despite being made fun of.