A Final Boss Awakens!

[Undyne]

I'll try to adjust my posts to you guys. This one turned out a bit long, not sure why

Ambrosia turned out to be as chaotic in its layout as it was in its architecture. Undyne wondered if the princess had simply let everyone build their houses as they came without setting up properties, paths to be kept empty for streets and other infrastructural rules, because this place was a maze. The citizens were surprisingly comfortable with the jumble and gave good directions towards Pokute Palace though.

After a few minutes of traveling along a large open road Undyne stopped the horse and Jeremy came to a halt behind her. "Everything alright?"

"Oh, yes. I just need to get out of my armor." She had noted the looks a few people had shot their way. Sure, armed and armored visitors weren't a completely unusual sight but for a community living so close to Camelot but the display of military strength was still mildly unsettling, especially since Undyne's armor looked nothing like the ambrosian Royal Guard's. But, removing the armor ought to be as easy as summoning it, right? No, it turned out to be even easier. Almost like her spears, she was able to remove the armor from her body with a simple thought, watching as it dematerialized and left her in her more casual clothing - that is to say, her tanktop, jeans and boots. How curious... but nice! She stretched her arms over her head to shake off the feeling of heavy armorplates and grunted with relief. "This rules! I bet I could summon my armor right the same way."

Jeremy sighed. "I wish I could do something like that. Summoning what you want at will? Sounds gre-" He was interrupted mid-sentence by an explosion on a nearby building. Undyne and him both turned their heads and Jeremy's eyes widened as he saw a few pieces of concrete flying at him. Undyne reacted faster: she pushed her weight into her saddle's stirrups and launched herself off while guarding her face with her forearms while simultaneously re-summoning the armor she had just discarded. Just as the pieces were about to hit Jeremy she got between him and the danger and took the hits with her chestplate and armguards. Then she bent forward and ended her dive with a roll that fell a bit short when the weight of her armor pulled her back, so that rather than elegantly getting back to her feet she ended up on her back, looking up. Jeremy was frozen in the saddle for a few seconds, then scampered, trying to get on the ground. "Undyne! Are you okay?"

"Heh... don't wet your pants, Burgerpants", Undyne said as she once again de-summoned her armor and stood up. She dusted herself off, ignoring the couple of people that had noticed her leap, and climbed back in the saddle. "I had my armor on. Didn't take a scratch. Besides, I'd rather take ten hits than to let a civilian take one. Remember, I'm the captain of the Royal Guard. I protect everyone."

"Uh... yeah, but... couldn't you just have blocked the projectiles with your spear?"

Undyne blinked, then cleared her throat. "Well... I guess it was more heroic to jump in the way."

"..."

"Anyway, let's get back on track!" She shot a glance towards the area where the explosion had happened, but saw nothing unusual. Well, people were scampering away from a small group that might have been the cause of the ruckus. A big purple monster with large tentacles, a bunch of... penguins, if she remembered human history correctly, and two humanoid figures that were obscured by the floating purple monster. She dismissed the issue with a shrug. As chaotic as Ambrosia may be, they were bound to have law enforcement who would take care of that.

Despite that the two of them lost their way several times even with the directions given by the helpful citizens, their fast mounts and a headstart of time meant that they arrived at Pokute Palace before Desco, Sans and the ambrosian Royal Guard. Completely unaware that she had been only a couple dozen meters away from another Underground monster, Undyne dismounted and left the horses to drink from the trough that the palace personnel had left for these occasions - although she didn't realize that she was supposed to tie them to the wooden pole next to said trough, and just left them to roam. She dabbed a bit of water on the gills on her neck to wet them then headed towards the entrance. "Well then, let's see who I can ask around here."

"I don' think you're gonna have to look much, you two." A girl was leaning against the archway that the two of them were approaching. Her dark clothes had at first hidden her but now Undyne wondered how she'd not noticed her. The colored hair and punk-rocker-esque attire stood out quite notably. "You kids new 'round here?"

"... wait, you're talking to us?" Undyne asked when she realized that the girl was referring to them both when saying 'you kids'. "First of, I'm twent-"

The girl raised her hands. "Chill out, geez. I don' care how old you are, you're both fresh arrivals, so I'm callin' you kids. Probably got here straight from the Nexus, huh?"

"The Nex- oh, yes. Right. Pretty much, yes." She eyed the other girl over. "We're looking for someone in charge that we could speak to."

"Well, you found me. Name's Sylvia Black, leader of Ambrosia while Princess Guu's absent. And you two are?"

"Undyne."

"... Jeremy."

Undyne decided to speak up again before Sylvia could ask them more sidetracking questions. "I heard - I mean, we heard that this Princess Guu knows more about this place. I'm searching for some friends that I lost, and I was hoping that someone could tell me when she's back so that I can ask her."

"Time don't work like that in the Omniverse, Undyne. It's kinda confusing but sometimes minutes here are days elsewhere, or the other way around." Sylvia shrugged. "She might come back tomorrow, or in a year. You dig it?"

"... I guess." Undyne rubbed her chin as if grooming a nonexistant beard.

"Who you lookin' for anyway? I might know somethin'."

"A bunch of people... all monsters. A bipedal white-furred Boss Monster with goat horns and ears, his name's Asgore... a yellow-scaled drake girl, who's kind of socially awkward, named Alphys... and two skeletons, one tall and one kind of short like a kid, named Papyrus and Sans."

"Don' think I heard of any of them. But well, there's a skeleton living in Ambrosia..."

"Not the one with a beard."

"Then nope. You could stay in Ambrosia while waitin' for Princess Guu to come back though... or I could search the databanks for you." She waved for them to follow her and led them into the palace. Undyne asked as they walked.

"I meant to ask, by the way - this Ambrosia, is it common? For monsters to have a community like this, I mean."

"Not quite. Most people around here are outcasts who can't find any place to live, or any half-decent gig. There's a couple other places in the Omniverse but they're rare. An' if I catch you giving the stink-eye to more people in the palace, I'll have you kicked out, fishy."

Undyne was startled. The girl addressing her this brazenly was not something she was used to. "I actually have trouble believing that there's humans living here and you treat it as normal."

Sylvia stopped in her tracks and glared at Undyne, despite being shorter. "Listen here. I hate prejudiced idiots, so if you have a problem with humans you can get out of here this minute."

Undyne raised her arms. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... it's just that humans aren't exactly the best where I come from."

"Yeah, you'll have to leave that behind here. Humans and monsters coexist in Ambrosia, although there's species-ism in a number of areas. We don't take kindly to that sort of thought here."

Undyne took a deep breath, remembering Frisk. "Got it. Humans and monsters coexist and are considered equal, at least in Ambrosia."

Sylvia continued to walk, nodding. "Ambrosia is a "sanctuary for the odd", we like to call it. No matter your species or looks, you're accepted around here. It's a bit chaotic but you'll find that it's rather fun." She eyed Jeremy over her shoulder. "What about you? Cat got your tongue?"

As they walked to whatever room Sylvia was going to lead them to - likely the one to conduct a database search - Undyne involuntarily began to smile. A community of monsters not stuck in a confined underground space, and where not all humans were evil? This place wasn't bad...