//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: New World, Same Faces // Story: Legend of Zelda: Twilight's Moonfall // by Darkened Paradise //------------------------------// Chapter 1: New World, Same Face. “You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?” Twilight whinnied in surprise, jumping a few feet in the air and turned around, nearly falling over due to the weight of the flower bud on the back of her head. “Now, now, there's no need for alarm,” the zebra said, holding up a placating hoof, trying to calm the nearly hyperventilating filly down. When Twilight felt her heart beat slow down to safer levels, the zebra continued, “Now, if I may, I'd like to apologize for shoving you rather roughly earlier. I was in dire straits you see, and seeing a creature such as yourself wasn't good on my heart.” “Oh,” Twilight muttered, looking down. “Its fine.” “Thank you,” the zebra said, smiling as he bowed his head. “To make it up to you, I suggest a trade agreement of sorts.” “A what?” the small filly asked, confused. “Quite simple really,” the zebra said, blowing a pinch of blue dust from his hoof. As it coated over Twilight, he continued, “I will teach you of a way to remove your curse, but I ask that you recover my precious mask that little imp stole. This herb will help you along your way.” “What mask?” Twilight asked, her nose scrunching up as she sneezed. “What imp? And how will this dust help me?” “You saw a small foal wearing a mask, correct?” the zebra asked. At Twilight's nod, he continued, “That mask was a special possession of mine, but it seems that foal's sticky hooves must have swiped it from me.” “Thats it?” Twilight asked. Surely this was too easy, she thought. “Unfortunately,” the zebra said sadly, looking to the floor. “I must ask that you return in three days. I must be gone from this land before the third day expires.” “Why?” Twilight asked, suspicious. “And who are you?” “All will be revealed in due time, my little pony,” the zebra said. “As for my name, I have had many in the past. But for now, you may call me Muuzaji.” With that said, Twilight made her way to the door, only for him to stop her and continue, “However, before you go, a warning. This world has many familiar faces, but they are not the same as you know. Keep that in mind.” “What?” came the confused reply. The zebra only chuckled, nodding his head to her as he tossed her a small satchel. “You will see, young one. You will see.” Twilight caught the incoming bag and looked at him strangely, but sighed and made her way to the door. Taking a deep breath, she pushed it open, eyes wincing at the bright sunlight leaking through the cracks. -DAWN OF THE FIRST DAY, 72 HOURS REMAIN- “Hurry it up! We're gonna late for the Festival at this rate Blitz!” “YEAH!” “C'mon keep it moving! We've almost got this!” “YEAH!” “Hey, Snow? Do us a favor and stop that, will ya?” “YEAH!” “Err…” “YEAH!” “…I’m just going to lea-“ “YEAH” “…yeah…” The sound of hustle and bustle was the first thing that greeted Twilight as she stepped out into the warm summer sun. Ponies of various shapes, sizes and types were running about, all of them dressed in either a dark blue, a dark gray, or a dark green vest, calling out to each other as they rushed to finish their structures. Awed, Twilight walked into the town square, her hooves lightly tapping the paved stone streets of whatever town she was in. Some of the work ponies gave her an odd look as she passed, but most didn't spare her a second glance. As she continued to make her way into town, she couldn't help but feel as if some of these ponies were familiar to her. A loud growling interrupted her thoughts. Turning around, she found a large Saint Bernard, nearly twice as tall as she was (not including the flower), looking down at her and growling. “Uh, nice doggy?” Twilight gulped out, slowly backing away. It gave a loud, bellowing bark, causing the small filly to immediately turn tail and run for it, running towards a guard. The guard stood in front of her, yelling, “Hold there! I can't let an unsupervised Mare-Dragora foal like yourself run out there on alone! Its dangerous out on the Field!” “TELL THAT TO THE DOG!” Twilight snapped back, hiding behind the guard “Huh?” the earth pony guard stammered, his attention turning to the rushing giant ball of fur coming in their direction. “Oh, not again,” the guard groaned, going into his saddle bag and producing a dark orange-reddish nut. Just as the dog was about to pounce, the guard threw the nut on the ground, causing the dog to yelp back in surprise, running where it came from. “What was that?” Twilight asked, rubbing the light away from her eyes. Sighing, the guard went back into his saddle and produced a few more the nuts, giving them to her and saying, “You'll have to forgive old Nassy. She looks at everything as a chew tow, especially to Mare-Dragorae like yourself. These nuts here are called Spark Nuts; all you have to do is just throw them on the ground and you'll be able to stun and shock her away.” [Twilight Got Spark Nuts! These special kind of nuts aren't edible, but they are useful for distracting or stunning enemies. She can either throw them directly at her target or in the ground immediately before them.] “Thanks,” Twilight mumbled, pocketing the nuts in her bag. Looking back up at the guard, she asked “Um, why is everypony so busy?” “Oh, are you new around here?” the guard asked, looking surprised. At Twilight's nod, he continued, “Well, its the Centennial of the Great Festival of Time. Preparations were severely pushed back when a sudden string of accidents struck, so most of us have been working triple-shifts ever since.” “What kind of accidents?” the little filly asked. “Well,” the guards pony said, “I don't know but the other areas, but Ponyville-” “Wait, what!?” Twilight screeched, looking around. “This is Ponyville!? But I-!” “However, before you go, a warning. This world has many familiar faces, but they are not the same as you know. Keep that in mind.” “Are you alright, miss?” Twilight stopped, recalling the crazy zebra's words as she looked up to the guard. “No, I'm sorry for the outburst,” she said, “You were saying about the-” A loud explosion cut her off, as the guard stood in between her and several smaller other small shapes, conjuring up a shield. The shapes turned out to be three other fillies, a pegasus, a unicorn and an earth pony, all wearing eerily familiar maroon tunics on their backs, but all sported the same red bandannas around their necks. “Ow,” groaned the orange earth pony, rubbing her the back of her head as she got up. “I guess that wasn't the right amount of gun-powder.” “I'll say,” the yellow unicorn pony said, getting up while helping the white pegasus. “Yeah, I think we added too much,” finished the white pegasus, flapping her wings and blowing off the black dust that remained on her coat. “C'mon!” the unicorn filly said, running off. “If we hurry, we could use what we have left with Silver and Diamond!” As the three fillies ran off, the guard lowered his shield and sighed. “Those Bombers,” he grumbled. Turning to a rather still Twilight, he continued, “Don't mind them. They're just the town's local troublemakers. They mean well, but they need to learn that explosions don't solve everypony's problems.” After shaking her confusion away, Twilight thanked the guard for his protection and made her way North, but not before finding an old, beaten up book on the ground. Picking it up, she flipped through it, recognizing it as a dossier of sorts, detailing just about everyone that lived in this version of Ponyville, as well as their jobs, their marital status, and a collective summary of their problems. [Twilight found the Bomber's Notebook! This notebook seems to be a complete list of everypony living in Ponyville, and then some! ... why do they this anyways?] Somewhat perturbed by her sudden finding, Twilight pocked her new reading material and proceeded to go through the rest of town, making small mental notes at the changes. As she continued down her path, she found herself in front of a stone structure roughly two stories high, and two small mirrors sticking out of them, just outside the wall. As she moved around she could see into the top of the building. Her mouth went agape as she saw two immense parabolic mirrors. “A telescope?...what is a telescope doing here?” she wondered, going through the open door way. The inside was well lit, torches adorning every wall, and standing in the center was an older unicorn pony, clad in a star studded cloak as well as a pointed hat, mumbling to themselves as a nearby quill took notes and a chalkboard, filled with equations, worked itself out. “Um, excuse me?” Twilight spoke, up, trying to get the elder pony's attention. Upon failing to do so, she continued, “Hello?” The elder pony grumbled, the quill scratching furiously as it tried to catch up with the rapid mumblings of its owner. Twilight, a little miffed at being ignored, walked up and continued, “Hey! Listen! Hey!” “Do you mind?” the older unicorn asked, turning to the small filly, the cacophony of bells tied to her braided hair ringing as she did. “I'm trying to calculate when the moon will fall onto the earth!” Twilight stared at the mare, her head cocked to the side. "Huh?" Shaking her head, she took a look at the board, and then back at the mare. “Well,” she started, not trying to sound at all insulting. “that seems scientifically impossible, but you're kind of doing it wrong.” The older mare's nose scrunching in confusion, she and Twilight trotted over to the board. She looked over the various calculations being worked out and said, “What do you mean? I've done everything right so far.” The elder mare just sat there, and then realized, saying, “Speaking of which, how does a filly as young as yourself even know what I'm doing?” Twilight merely looked over the board and, once realizing she didn't have a horn to lift the chalk, pushed a nearby stack of books and a chair, saying, “Well, you derived wrong here, when you should have done it here instead,” From her new vantage point, she grabbed a piece and started on her corrections. “This integration here is done wrong too.” As she tried to move to her next correction, she fell over and hit the floor, not having realized her size. The older mare just sat there, her hoof under her chin. Going over to where Twilight fell, she lifted the smaller filly on her back and said, “I knew that! I was just...” Twilight interrupted her, adjusting herself on the older mare’s back as she continued, “And this cross product here shouldn't all be cross products. Here it should be a dot product of these two, crossed by the dot product of these two.” “Alright, alright!” the older mare groaned, taking off her hat and tossing it onto a nearby rack, revealing a youthful periwinkle blue face with magenta, pink and violet hair falling down to her back, with two braids hanging from her sides. Blowing away a few strands of hair, she rubbed her temple and continued. “So my math is a little off. Sue me.” “A little off?” Twilight asked, amazed. “Keep it up and I'll throw you to the moon myself,” the mare snapped, lightly glaring at Twilight. “Fine fine,” Twilight said. After a few seconds, a sudden realization came to her, and she asked, “Wait a minute. What did you mean when you said you were calculating how fast the moon was falling to the earth?” The periwinkle mare raised an eyebrow, asking, “You haven't looked up, have you?” At the small filly's shake of her head, the older mare sighed and moved towards the gaping aperture in the building. “Here, take a look.” What Twilight saw not only shocked her, but disturbed her as well. Firstly, the moon was out during the daytime. That in itself wasn't too horribly bad, but the fact that it was adorned with some kind of disturbing maniacal grinning face and was moving closer made it rather disturbing. Also, that masked filly that cursed her was standing on top of a clock tower of sorts, dancing on the building's roof as if calling it down. Ignoring the fact that the moon's gravity should have just torn the town apart, she pulled back and stared blankly at the older mare. “Speaking of which,” the elder mare said. “You're not from here, aren't you? And by here, I meant this world.” “What do you mean?” Twilight asked, her eyes looking to side. “Don't be coy, kid,” the elder mare said. “I may be old, but I'm not senile. (Yet, anyways.) You're from Equestria, aren't you?” “Bwhu?' Twilight started, before shaking her head. “How did you know?” “Well, for starters, the wards tipped me off,” came the reply. “Second, I'm from Equestria myself! My name is Star Swirl.” Twilight just sat there, silent for a few seconds. “You alright in there?” the newly dubbed Star Swirl asked, waving a hoof in front of the small filly. “Hello?” “But Star Swirl was a stallion!” Twilight suddenly shouted out. “You know, as in Star Swirl the Bearded!” Star Swirl whacked her face with her forehead in aggravation before crying out, “Oh, is that what they're calling me now?! My title is Star Swirl the Braided! You know, after these braids? The ones with bells on them?” She lightly tapped said braids adorned with said bells, causing a light ringing to echo in the building. When Twilight didn't answer, she groaned, “Faust-dammit all! Of all things for Clover to misspell, why THAT!?” “Wait, what?” Twilight squeaked, uneasily, “Clover, as in Clover the Clever?” Star Swirl the Braided snorted. “Yes. She was little my cousin and my student. She was an incredibly brilliant mare for her age, but she couldn't spell worth a damn! She's was a genius when it came to magical theory and practice, but she wasn't exactly what ponies of your era would call clever.” “But,” Twilight squeaked, her mind slowly cracking. “All the books she wrote?” The 'legendary' unicorn rolled her eyes, and replied, “She dictated. I was the one who actually wrote and edited them.” Unable to comprehend the fact that the paradigms of her personal heroes were taken from her, thrown to the ground, stomped on, set on fire, and then messily glued back together, Twilight fainted away. When she came too, the sun light was long gone, and Star Swirl was back at her telescope. “Oh, you alive?” the older mare asked, tearing her eyes away from her instrument. Before Twilight could even answer, a loud rumble, followed by a whistling screech, and then a loud crash . The crash was a result of an odd tear shaped stone coming straight through one of the building's walls and crashing on the floor right in front of Twilight. Yelping in fear, Twilight quickly stepped back, unsure if what had just fallen was dangerous or not. “Take that and get going,” Star Swirl ordered, giving her a saddlebag. “Those Bombers are sure to come running after seeing THAT fly through my window. And they don't take nicely to Mare-Dragorae like yourself.” [Twilight obtained a Small Saddle Bag! With it, she can store various important items that she's collected on her journey. It could do with being bigger though...] [Twilight obtained a Tear of the Moon! With a strange an ethereal power, its glow promises peace and protection. But can you do with a shiny rock?] Nodding dumbly, Twilight took the stone and ran out. As the warm night sky washed over her small plant-like body, Twilight made her way to a park, stopping at a nearby bench to catch her breath. Deciding that the bench was the best place for the night, she made herself comfortable, noting an elderly earth mare carrying a heavy sack on her back. The guard nearby merely nodded to the old woman, although he looked as if he was merely sleeping standing up. Just as Twilight was about to nod off herself, the elderly mare was suddenly shoved to the side by a young whitish-gray pegasus, who grabbed her sack in the process. “HELP!” the elderly mare cried, trying to get up. “STOP THAT THIEF!” “See ya later, suckers!” the pegasus crowed, getting ready to fly away. Twilight, not thinking straight for several reasons, jumped off bench and leaped at the pegasus, the stone glowing in her bag. Twilight grimaced as she felt a several small bumps appearing around her neck, and screamed when two vines burst from them, grabbing the pegasus by one of his legs, pulling herself up to bring her teeth clenching down on his tail as tried to fly away. “OI! GET OFF ME YA STUPID BRAT!” the pegasus yelled, spinning around and trying his hardest to get the filly off. Twilight refused, using her tiny hooves to climb his body and hit the bag, causing him drop it. The package started hissing and smoking once it hit the ground. In his aggravation, the pegasus thief spun, kicking the vines with his other leg to cause them to retract and knock Twilight off of his tail. Just before she hit, Twilight felt a strong yet gentle hoof catch her, before pulling her behind a cloak of some kind. “Hit the deck, young'n!” the older mare cried out, holding her clock in front of Twilight and her own body. The bag started to smoke and after a few seconds, it exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere. When the explosions stopped, all that was left of the bag was just ragged, burned and foul smelling piece of fabric. “Well, that coulda gone a mite better,” the elderly mare grumbled, releasing her cloak, revealing an aged lime green earth mare with silverish-white mane. Turning to Twilight she said, “Thank you kindly for trying though. But whats a little filly like yerself doin' out at this time of night? Ain't yer parents worried?” When Twilight looked down, the older mare sighed and said, “Well don' you worry none sugah. You're more than welcome to stay at my place for now. Its a bit dusty, but it beats sleepin' outside. Heck, it’s the least Ah could do for yer help.” Smiling, Twilight hugged the older mare's foreleg and said, “Thank you miss...um...” Chuckling, the lime green mare said, “Call me Smith. Or Granny Smith, if you want. Just about every other pony in this town calls me that anyways.” Leading her to another point in town, Smith stopped in front of a shop built into a wall made of cobblestone. A small sign with a red apple-shape adorned the side, and the words, “Apple Explosives” were left out on display. Twilight could only stare. This world's version of the Apple Family were...explosive manufacturers? As they stepped inside, the rustic of smell of soot and ashes hit Twilight's nose. Snorting, she looked around, and noticed that, despite the poorly lit nature of the shop, it still had that same homely feeling that the Apples from her family still had. As she looked around, she noticed a dark brown griffon curled up next the wall closest to door. “Granny!” she heard a concerned voice call out. Looking back to the counter, Twilight saw the familiar face of Big Macintosh, but instead of his expressionless drawl, he actually portrayed emotion. It was somewhat jarring, if she were honest. “Ah'm fine Mac,” Smith said, raising a placating hoof. “Our shipment was wrecked though.” With a sigh, Macintosh said, “Ah don't care much for the shipment. Ah'm just glad that you're alrigh'. An' whose this one?” Grinning, Smith put her hoof on Twilight's back and said, “This here little filly's the one that tried to save our shipment! Tartarus below, she's more competent than them guards that are just standing around!” “Uh huh,” Mac drawled slowly, raising an eyebrow. Taking a look at the plant-like foal, he looked back up and said, “And would it be correct of me to assume you're lettin' her stay for the night?” “Of course!” the matriarch said. As Macintosh went off to prepare, Smith led her to the said room, which was probably the cleanest in the store. Turning to the filly, she smiled and said, “Thanks again for helping me, sugah. Now sleep tight, and we'll see ya in the morning, savvy?” Left a little dumbstruck and still trying to wrap her head around the events that had just happened, Twilight could only nod.