Ponytale: The Reboot Strikes Back

Should she choose Compliment or Admire Resolve first? She was worried that choosing Admire Resolve too soon would ruin her chance of befriending Scootachick and getting to Mercy out of fighting her, but she wasn't sure what exactly she could compliment just yet.

After a moment of thought, she chose Admire Resolve.

*You told Scootachick that she has more determination than most adult humans, and she's sure to get far in life with that attitude.

Scootachick grinned at Jasper's words.
"I know right? I'm not gonna let anything stop me!"

Jasper would be attacked by Scootachick and Moldsmal with a barrage of pecks starting from the left side of the box that she was confined in alongside the pellets that the Moldsmal was making fall around in a random zigzag fashion, the pecks moving right gradually before abruptly stopping and her options reappearing.

She found that it was much easier to dodge the attacks when 1. she could move faster than one mile per hour (stupid game) and 2. attacks that hit her transparent body didn't count. The pecks were easy enough to avoid, but the moldsmal spores were a bit more erratic and tightly-packed. Several went through her body (tingly...) and a few missed her SOUL by a hair.

Then her options reappeared (she was forcibly re-centered). She chose *Scootachick again and chose *Compliment.

*You ask Scootachick to show off her awesome skills.

Jasper could hear a squee as Scootachick jumped up into the air and did a couple of flips while flapping it's wings as best it could to maintain elevation and while it did slow down it's descent considerably (Incredible considering it's constant rotating motion) it had to land, which it did with practiced ease.
"And that's just a warmup! Not many wanna stick around for me to show off. You're cool, human!"

The Moldsmal was also impressed, as Jasper's turn had come immediately.
* Scootachick doesn't want to fight anymore.
* Moldsmal is too impressed by Scootachick to care about fighting.

She had to admit that she was also impressed by Scootachick. Considering Scootaloo, she hadn't expected Chick to actually be able to fly. This really was a far different place.

She gave Scootachick and Moldsmal a friendly and thankful smile and pressed *Mercy.

"I gotta go. Twinkle's waiting for me." With that, she quickly but not impolitely hurried past them and down the corridor.

"Alright! See ya!" Scootachick said as it made way for Jasper.
Moldsmal gave a blurp of agreement and moved out of the way as well. Once Jasper was past them, it also gave another blurp asking if Scootachick could show some of it's other moves.
"You mean it? I-I mean of course!"

Once Jasper had made it to the end of the corridor, as if out of nowhere, Twinkle showed up again - rather suddenly too.
"Hello again my child. I'm sorry to have simply abandoned you like that, but by making your way here on your own shows you have the courage to traverse on your own. As such, I have something for you."
She then raised one of her wings and used her other one to take something from a pouch she had hidden under it - an old cellphone!
"This cellphone will let you call me anytime you want! I've got some groceries to get so I'm going to have to ask you to proceed again on your own. Don't worry, the path ahead should be completely free of monsters and Equestrians - the floor there can get treacherous at points but as long as you follow the instructions on the walls you should be fine. No more spike traps or anything!" She said, giggling a bit.
It sorta seemed like she was underplaying the danger Jasper was going to be subjected to, but since she had already gone through a far larger fall without injury, maybe it was not underplaying at all. Though, she did have wings so she had every opportunity to do so.
"Oh, and there's some candy just to the left of the next room, you're free to take one if you're hungry! It should keep you sated until we get HOME." She added before she turned around. "Be good now, my child!" She said before she disappeared beyond the pathway.

Jasper took a candy from the room as offered. If nothing else, it would restore health that she'd inevitably lose. How much HP did the candy restore, again?

She left the room and continued onward, and hoped the instructions to the next deathtraps were clear enough, and that she was actually smart enough not to fuck up.

After using the SAVE point and leaving the room, Jasper was greeted by the sight of a room with tiles in the middle that seemed really unstable, cracked in various places and some holes that were visible in between the cracks. Next to the tiles were what seemed to be air ducts? Some sort of ventilation was used in them, as warm air was blowing through them.

Of course Twinkle would say that the rooms ahead were completely safe... She can fly at least.
At least the cracks showed enough of the place below to indicate it wasn't a long fall. And it looked like there were ladders below!

Dammit, Twinkle. she thought. Hm, wonder if I can jump over it. And she tried.

Jasper just barely made it past the two blocks, but she would have little reason to celebrate as this was just the first of the many obstacles ahead...

After many trials and tribulations which may or may not have included several pitfalls...

Jasper saw the glint of a save point in the room ahead and, upon entering it, also noticed a table. It was old and slightly dusty, but not overtly so despite the ages the Equestrians and monsters have been stuck in the Underground.
What stood out, however, was a small block of cheese. It was really old, smelled strongly and had many big holes in it. It also, weirdly enough, seemed stuck to the table.

Opposite of the table was also a mouse hole. If she were to listen closely, Jasper would hear skittering noises. It was clearly inhabited. Possibly the mice have lived here ever since they found that cheese, but couldn't bring it over to their home before they have had to go and hide from the Equestrians and monsters...

Lastly, there was the save point itself, next to the table and glinting with a sense of familiarity.

Jasper went to the Save Point, and once again her senses heightened when she SAVED. She looked at the cheese, and the mouse hole. Then back at the cheese.

It didn't look too hard to move. Worst case scenario seemed to be that the bottom of the cheese was stuck. She could probably tear most of it off.

She shuffled over to the cheese, and, not wanting to touch it with her hand, grabbed it with a corner of her hoodie. She pulled.

The cheese tore off satisfyingly well, but given how long it had been sitting there, the smell had time to develop and while it was manageable from a distance, when Jasper's senses heightened during the saving process she could really start to appreciate the aged beauty that was the fine odor fight back against the instinct to gag as the overwhelming stench had begun to assault her nostrils. At least, it would have happened if Jasper had a sense of smell. Nonetheless, the smell was most definitely going to stick to that corner of the hoodie for a looooooong while.

It seemed to be worth it, however. An elderly looking mouse scuttled out of it's hole - far larger than the mouse itself, actually -  and saw the piece of cheese in Jasper's covered hand. Hearts appeared in front of it's eyes in a comical manner while it licked it's lips.

It didn't occur to Jasper that the stink would stick to her. Well, it sort of had, but she figured that within the future environments it wouldn't matter too much. Besides, it was only a little piece of cheese.

Jasper chuckled at the old mouse, and handed the cheese over gently. Wonder why Frisk didn't take the cheese off the table in the first place. she thought, Maybe she couldn't reach it? She's a fair bit shorter than I am.

The mouse stared in awe as the cheese was placed beside it. It was as if God himself had come down to bring an offering of good will to the rodent. It squee'd, jumping in place out of joy before running circles around Jasper. Eventually it's excitement died down enough for it to do something strange. Pressing a hidden button on the wall, the mouse made a small hatch open, from where it procured something.

A clothespin! It had a note attached to it as well which read, in very small letters:

If you're reading this, thank you for helping me get the cheese off of that blasted table! I had ordered it 40 years ago from this dairy company but in my old age I forgot about it for a while. Once I had remembered to check my front porch out, I was shocked to discover it glued to the table! Nothing worked! I tried everything from a wooden arm I slid underneath it after much effort to a full-blown mechanism that would have ripped the cheese from the table... Unfortunately that last one had failed due to me pulling the wrong lever. I figured that if someone were to help me out, they deserve a reward. And given how long this cheese has been lying here, I thought a clothespin would be a good one. I know you humans don't like smelling old cheese, so put this on your nose!

With thanks, Mickey McMouserton XVII

* The thought of the mouse re-enacting a scene from The Emperor's New Groove all by itself fills you with amusement.

While Jasper was reading the note, the mouse had managed to push the cheese into it's hole and come back out with a little ball of the stuff. Taking a bite out of it, the immediate area around the mouse was filled with the sound of an angelic choir as it's hopes and dreams had finally been realized.

...shit, I have no use for this. Jasper thought. She pocketed it anyway, figuring someone else might if not her. She didn't tell the mouse about it, though, believing it might hurt his feelings. She smiled at the mouse's cute and overly-cartoonish antics, thanked him, and moved on to the next area.

The next room was a small one, with the next doorway seeming to have a few spider webs in the corners.

However, what was in the middle of the room was something that Jasper found to be more important.
A ghost in the middle of the room.

OOC: LET THE DOOT DOOT BEGIN!

The ghost in the middle of the room looked very bland, and as if someone hastily draped a grey bed-sheet over themselves and cut little eye holes out in the sheet itself, much like an incredibly cheap Halloween costume. The only kind of outstanding feature of this ghost was an equally grey ethereal waistcoat that covered its body, leaving the face which was looking forlornly up at the ceiling with wavering white circles for pupils, making it seem like the ghost could burst into tears at any moment.

Upon closer inspection, Jasper would be able to see a single dark line going vertically down the ghost's face, equally spaced between the eyes and ending just above the mouth of the ghost. Also, if Jasper approached, the ghost would seem to be sleeping... except not quite, as it apparently thought the way to sleep was to continuously say the letter "z" over and over again. Perhaps it was merely pretending.

Oh. Ohhhh crimity no... She'd completely forgotten about Napstablook. Undertale, I love ya, but some of your battles are just tedious as fuck, especially when I've (indirectly) experienced them at least a dozen times. She didn't want to do this. She really didn't want to do this. She doubted anything she said would really get through to Napstablook. Seriously, it was like talking to herself on a bad day.

She wondered if she could just step over him... her? Ghost? She wondered if she could just step over... Blooky. She was a fair bit taller than Frisk, and her legs were definitely long (everything about her was long, except her face and hair), and even if she did step in him a little bit, it wouldn't hurt, right? H-... Blooky was incorporeal, and as far as she knew, corporeal couldn't really touch incorporeal.

But wouldn't it hurt his feelings, to be ignored and stepped in like that? Well, I mean, technically he wants to be ignored, hence the fake sleeping. But she also had to befriend everyone in the Underground, or at least everyone she met.

Ughhhhhhh. She was nice, she was not an extrovert. Give her a corner and a book, dammit!

Alright, gotta befriend him. And be genuine, too. Not that she didn't care about him- it was hard for her not to care about someone's well-being -but she wasn't particularly interested in a conversation where she tried to be friendly and supportive and it just rolled off the gu-... ghost. Like water off a duck, they say. She wasn't interested in expending energy in a futile effort where someone else could probably actually make a difference.

Well, now that she thought about it, she didn't know how many people actually did try.

She left her thoughts and looked at the ghost, and realized she'd probably been staring blankly around the place for a good few minutes now in trying to figure out what to do. While her blank expression didn't change, she mentally smacked herself in the head. The ghost was probably feeling all self-conscious now, or worried that she was judging him or about to do something mean!

She had to act fast. Now, how did the interaction with Frisk go? Didn't she try to ask the ghost to move? Well, there's no point in herself doing that, she was surely tall enough to get around on her own.

[ACT]

*Napstablank

...what? What kind of a... who the flip is "Blank"?!

*Ask to move
*Shove

...can't I make my own option? Jasper put her fingers to her lips, resisting the temptation to nibble on them, and furrowed her brows. Is this really all I get? Why couldn't she just start a conversation like a normal person? Would a conversation be too frightening? Did she have to be so indirect? Why did she have to take such a convoluted and... uninterested path to the beginnings of an acquaintanceship? Ugh, whatever. Until she figured out how to make her own options...

Jasper selected *Ask to move.

The ghost continued on with saying the letter "z" over and over again, but as time went on while Jasper was considering what to do, Napstablank started to quieten and eventually stop uttering the single letter. Instead, the ghost just carried on looking at the ceiling, still looking like it was on the verge of crying. However, as Jasper chose to ask Napstablank to move, the ghost started to repeat itself yet again. The "z"s went on and on, and the only break in the never ending onslaught of the final alphabetical letter was the sad specter's pathetic whisper of, "Are they gone yet?"

"Nope." Jasper answered simply.

"Oh... then I'm still asleep... I guess, if that's okay with you. Z... z z z..." Napstablank responded forlornly as he went back to his "sleep".

Agh! Fuck this! Jasper walked up to the ghost... and gently poked him with her foot.

The moment Jasper's foot connected with the ghost, the world flickered for the human and she was drawn into a FIGHT. Well, connected was the wrong word for it, her foot phased through the ghost as if it was only partially there.

Napstablank now floated in front of Jasper, rising up and down slightly as - from seemingly nowhere - incredibly catchy music started to play. With Napstablank where he was, Jasper would properly see the finer points of detail on his ghostly form.

Finally, Jasper would see the words, "Here comes Napstablank" in front of her, just above her four choices.

[ACT]*

*Check

Jasper didn't waste time.

*NAPSTABLANK - ATK 10 DEF 10
*This monster at the very least has a snazzy waistcoat...

After the rather brief description of the ghost, not that there was much to describe, Napstablank would finally begin crying, tears in sets of two randomly falling around Jasper's SOUL, some of which would hit if she didn't move out of the way. Not that it would be difficult, the space between tears was sizable enough for her to evade the damaging tears with relative ease.