Ponytale: The Reboot Strikes Back

Jasper dodged easily and calmly. She selected her next actions, pausing before *Cheer to consider what to tell Napstablank.

"That's a very nice suit." she said finally.

Napstablook paused for a moment, and the very edges of his frown lifted slightly, "Oh..." he mumbled, sounding like he was about to continue but stopping himself beforehand as his frown returned quickly afterwards.

During his turn, Napstablank just stared at Jasper, and around her SOUL would appear the ghostly outlines of letters. They jumbled about and eventually formed a sentence, strangely enough not hurting if they made contact with Jasper's SOUL, and started quivering slightly - much like the ghost's eyes.

REALLY NOT FEELING UP TO IT RIGHT NOW... SORRY...

[ACT]*

*Cheer

"I like your battle theme. It's really catchy."

Napstablank again gave a very minute smile after a pause, "Oh... I uh... made it myself..." he said, a tiny bit of pride entering his voice. His smile disappeared though, much like last turn, but it did stick around for a little bit longer.

On his turn, Napstablank cried, again, in exactly the same way as the first turn. His tears came out, curved a little in their trajectory, and fell towards and around Jasper's SOUL.

Jasper had a bit of a harder time dodging these tears, and one of them actually hit her. There was no force behind it, but Jasper still winced as she felt like her entire body had just received a hard punch. No it was more than that: like her core- her... her life force had just taken a hit, been weakened, and that pain and weakness radiated out to her entire body.

On the board it was only two hit points out of twenty, but when applied it was actually a lot to take out of a person.

[ACT]*

... *Cheer

"You're really strong, y'know that? I don't just mean your attacks (which is also impressive: I've never seen anyone turn tears into weapons), but... you're really strong, carrying on like you are, despite the weight on your... ethereal shoulders."

Napstablank stopped completely, and the skittish smile that came and went appeared back on his face once more. "Oh... wow... no one's ever said that to me before..." He responded, sounding rather surprised.

On his turn, his smile hadn't vanished like before, and with a more cheerful tone of voice he spoke up. "I uh... want to show you something..." Napstablank said, crying once more. But instead of the tears falling like normal down towards Jasper's SOUL, they defied all physical logic and started building on top of the ghost. Layer by layer, the tears slowly manifested themselves in the form of a top hat, adorned with a single blank card. "I call it... Dapperblank."

After that, the ghost merely waited patiently for Jasper's response.

Jasper pressed the buttons again, a noticeable, genuine smile on her face.

"That looks cool!"

The ghost paused upon hearing Jasper's response. His smile wavered slightly, but it didn't seem like it was going to return to the frown from before. "Oh wow..." Napstablank said, and a few tears fell from his eyes and harmlessly in front of Jasper herself.

All of a sudden, the FIGHT ended and colours returned to the world for Jasper. Napstablank was still lying on the ground, his top hat slowly fading away but his smile remaining resolute. "I... normally come here, to the ruins, because no others are around." He said, sounding far less like he was on the verge of bursting into tears. The ghost floated upright and looked at Jasper, "But today... I met someone nice... they even liked my hat... and music..."

Napstablank then froze and looked very sheepish, "Oh, sorry, I'm rambling again... I'll just... get out of your way..." With that, the ghost slowly faded away just like his hat, but a whispered, "Thank you" came from Napstablank before he fully disappeared.

Jasper smiled wider. She'd just made his day. Or... well, maybe just his hour. Or minute. But it was a moment of happiness, seemingly one of far too few in the ghost's life.

Jasper moved on to the next room.

The room beyond Napstablank's spot was empty save for two doorways, one of which was flanked by spider webs. The strands of silk were intricately woven and upon closer inspection it became apparent that it formed a message. Coincidentally there were some coins on the ground that looked like they were made of gold, 5 of them to be exact. Perhaps this was their currency?

The other doorway was similar to the other doorways Jasper had seen along the way, but one could also hear breathing in the room beyond. The acoustics of the place were certainly top notch for simple breathing to carry this far.

First off, that's creepy.

Second off, who left those coins there?

There were too many of them in one spot for it to be a coincidence. Either those belonged to someone, who'd dropped them or for some reason was using that open-air spot as safe-keeping (she supposed that was a real possibility, given how trusting and trustworthy ponies were), or they'd been planted.

Gee, I wonder who could've done that. Flowe- er... fuck, what was the pixie-pony's name?

Jasper picked up the coins. Then she looked around, waiting for someone to jump out and claim them (and possibly start a fight with an apparent thief), then when no one came, announced, "Hey, I found these coins! If someone dropped them here, claim them now!"

5 seconds. 10 seconds. 30 seconds, and then another 30 just to be safe. She wondered if a mere minute was long enough to wait, but decided that if no one had responded to her shout in that time, then they couldn't hear her or there was no one around to whom her question concerned.

She walked into the spider bake sale. Spider juice (made with spiders, she knew... hurk), 12 bits. Nope, she didn't have that. Spider donut (also made with spiders... tolerable, because it was okay for solids to have crunchy bits in them... even if those crunchy bits were spiders (hurk)), 5 bits.

Yep.

She purchased the donut. It was now in her inventory (which was surprisingly spacious, considering she had no more than mere pockets on her person).

She left the spider room and went into the Heavy Breathing room. Undertale wasn't scary for more than a few minutes, and she could come back. Whatever was waiting for her, she could face it.

In the next room there was a creature sitting on a beanbag. It looked like a massive German Giant rabbit with a wrinkled face & clothes one would wear on a cold winter's day and it was clearly far too large for the beanbag (In fact the ears were slightly folded in order to not scrape the ceiling), yet somehow the cushioning of this big bunny held fast. In it's 2 arms it held two sticks with what looked like cotton balls at the ends on each hand. Judging by the xylophone in front of the huge hare they were percussion mallets. The heavy breathing was a clear sign that it was ill. It had it's head turned towards Jasper.
"Ah, so you were the youngling who was making that noise!" It said in the voice of an old man, one in his 70's or 80's probably. "Hmm. Only seen depictions of them but I'd wager you are a human." He said matter of factly.
"No wonder Twinkle Star passed through with such haste. Always found the time to listen an old man ramble and care for him. Speaking of which actually, could you pass me that pad?" He continued, pointing to a small fire with a pot on top of it, containing a small red bag that jingled a bit with what seemed to sound like marbles or rice. It was hot, but barely below "burn-your-hands" hot. As if to accentuate his need for it, the old rabbit gave a raspy cough.

"Thank you." He said as Jasper gave the pad before placing taking out another pad from his wool hat and placing it on the stove, replacing it with the fresh one.
"Ahh, that's better... Now then, I'm sure you must be busy, but maybe you would have some time to hear the tale of our people from Old Dandelion? I was assigned here as a tour guide of sorts but those days are behind me. Now I share the stories of our kind's past with our young. Care to stay a while and listen?" He said, lifting the percussion mallets slightly.

Jasper nodded, and sat down on the floor.

~~ Memory ~~

"Our story starts way in the past, in a time where Equestrians, Monsters and Humans lived on the surface world. Magic was widespread and there had been peace for longer than any could remember. But the humans had grown fearful of us monsters. They grew fearful of a legend that a monster could become a godlike creature with the soul of a recently deceased human. A war had soon ensued.

The equestrians tried their best to repair the relations between our two species, but it was for naught. In the end they decided to side with us in the War for the Surface World. A war that we lost and lost the two leaders of the equestrians as well as our own king and his son. They sealed us here in Mt. Equus, or Mt. Horse as it is known to your people, with a magic spell that none have been able to dispel. Mayhaps the princesses of old... No, best not dwell on that. Our new leader has since been gathering souls of fallen humans that have wound down here in an effort to break the magic barrier, hoping to power through it. Meanwhile the equestrians have made efforts to make a home underground and still desire for peaceful relations between humans and monsters. Indeed, 5 humans have fallen down here already and had lived peaceful lives, pledging their souls to the destruction of the barrier. A 6th still lives in Snowdin." Suddenly Dandelion stopped playing and looked at Jasper with a warm smile.

"And now you have fallen as well. Most of us would hope that you would follow in the footsteps of your predecessors, but we also know we cannot tell you what to do. Human souls are far stronger than those of monsters and equestrians. Forcing you would be a fool's errand, even if you are but a child." He said before shaking his head and chuckling.
"Ah but I must apologize for my rambling. Twinkle Star must be worried sick for you. Go on now." He said, pointing to a doorway in the distance.
"And if you see a turtle with archeologist gear and a beard, tell him Dandelion says hello, would you?"

"Uh, will do." Jasper said, "And I'm hardly a child: I'm 19." And she went on her way, giving a friendly wave goodbye to the rabbit.

Once Jasper was gone Dandelion frowned slightly. "Poor dear... Lost her father at such a young age. And all because of a misunderstanding... I worry for the human..."

After yet another series of trials that included a room that seemed to rotate and repeat itself...
Jasper arrived at a room with a giant blackened tree, a welcome if strange alternative to the vines that she'd seen growing over the cracked walls of the ruins thus far. At it's base were more of the autumn leaves that she'd seen scattered all over. At least these didn't seem that out of place - a tree towered above them after all. But that did beg the question: What happened here to turn such a great big tree from a living giant to a shadow of it's former self? Upon closer inspection, it seemed as if chunks of it had been torn off and carried off somewhere, seemingly towards the building in the distance if the small bits of the wood-turned-coal littering the path to it were of any indication. In fact, in front of one of the windows, there was a SAVE point, glittering amidst leaves in front of the window. And it also smelled like someone was cooking something...

Jasper didn't have time to wonder about that any longer as Twinkle Star had appeared from the door to the building and had walked a few steps before she noticed the human.
"Oh! Jasper my child! I didn't expect you to make it so far so quickly! I'd just finished baking a pie and put it out to cool down before coming to find you!" She walked over and gave the human a hug.
"Were you wondering about the tree? My father did this. He burned it to turn it to coal after trimming it of all the leaves. More energy-efficient and growing such a large tree was too big of a task for such a small family, even moreso now that he's gone. I occasionally come here to shave off pieces from it so I can warm up during the colder times of the year. You might not believe it, but it is actually the middle of winter here in the Underground right now."

She then opened her mouth in an o-shape, as if realizing something. "That actually reminds me! I prepared an curriculum for you! You're going to be stuck down here for a long time after all, so I figured it would be a good idea for you to learn about our culture, customs and such! But that is a topic we can discuss further another time, it is late after all and you must be tired. So it is good you made it HOME safely." She said, walking past the tree and gave a wave at the building in front of them. Despite the size of the room and the giant tree in front of it, the building itself seemed very modest and not nearly as extravagant as one could be. Especially since this was a pegasus that was living here. Didn't they live up in clouds in the show?

"How hard is it to grow a tree?" Jasper asked, "All you'd really need to do is water it now and..." One look around the ruins inside the mountain answered her question. "...oh." Good luck finding a reliable source of water that can sustain something that big.

"Wait... how long am I going to stay here? I thought I was just gonna go."

"Yeah, magic can do a lot but it isn't the stuff of miracles. There is an underground waterfall here in the Underground, but the path there is closed right now, past the village of Snowdin. Many years ago an... unsavoury character moved in there and I've not been outside the RUINS since." She said somberly.
"But enough about that! It's late and the pie must have cooled down enough by now that we can have a slice or two before bedtime." She said, clearly avoiding the subject of Jasper leaving so suddenly.
"She wants to leave right away... Just like that one did..."

Unsavory character? "Uh, sure. I guess I could stay the night. Thank you for your hospitality." Jasper said.

Twinkle showed Jasper to the kitchen where a pie was sitting on a countertop. Asking the human to sit down at the table in the living room, Twinkle took a knife from a drawer and, with surprising dexterity and strength considering the wing's purpose, cut up a couple of slices for the two while another took what seemed to be whipped cream (With a picture of a robot horse and a big V under that face) and sprayed a dose for each before setting them down on the already set table in the living room.

The kitchen was well kept and seemed well stocked. A grandfather clock tick tocked on the wall next to the table while the fireplace kept the house warm and cozy, with a poker ready if needed (Somewhat unnecessary since it was only coal but who was Jasper to argue?). A half-finished book laid on the recliner next to the fire. If Jasper hadn't shown up, perhaps Twinkle could have finished it by the end of the day. A case with a sapphire necklace that gave off a slight glow was hoisted on the wall of the staircase leading down.

Instead, now she was hosting a human guest and treating them to a slice of butterscotch pie.
"I usually have this with some strawberries but it is the middle of winter here so sadly I can't give any. I hope you'll like it though!" She said before digging in to her own slice. Or at least she was before she stopped herself and frowned as she looked at something on the table. A feather.
"Oh for land's sakes, I thought I wasn't gonna molt for a few weeks still!" She muttered before she remembered her situation and gave off an awkward chuckle to Jasper. "Sorry, I kinda forgot I have company. I'll just take care of this later." She said before returning to her piece of pie, taking extra care to not have any feathers snap off due to her handling (manipulating?) of the cutlery.

Jasper sat down and dug into her slice while she watched the mare's feathers with some fascination.

"Hey, um... what's with that necklace?" she asked after a few minutes. "Above the staircase."

Twinkle first looked at Jasper quizzically and then past her towards the corridor where the staircase was located after which her expression fell dramatically.
"It... It belonged to my father. Was his most prized possession, a gift from one of the princesses... Before the War, that is." She said, looking down at her pie slice and moving one of the crumbs around with her fork idly. Her hair blocked her face from view of Jasper, but she'd clearly hit a touchy subject.
"He's... no longer with us. I'd rather not say anymore..." With that, she returned to her dining, the atmosphere a lot bleaker now.

"Oh." Jasper sank into her chair a little bit. "Sorry..."

A silence stretched out. Jasper's mind raced to fill it before repairing the situation would become forced.

"So what do you normally do in the Underground?"

Happy to change the subject, Twinkle's expression lightened up a bit. "I take care of the RUINS like I mentioned earlier. The flowers at their back, you must have noticed them when you fell down? I keep the place tidy, the plants healthy and do my best to settle disputes. At least, when I'm not being avoided... I said something in the past that has since made most of the monsters here not willing to associate with me directly. Only Dandelion would see past my words... He's too good for me." She said, smiling warmly at the memory of the old rabbit chuckling with her at a joke she'd shared with him.

"Hm." Jasper nodded understandingly. It took her a few more minutes to think of something else to say; she took a bite of pie to give a reason for her silence. "So... what all is there to enjoy in the underground?"