There once was a legend told through time, a sword of unyielding power.
The legend began with a wind sorcerer named Vaati who terrorized the land of Hyrule and kidnapped many beautiful girls.
One day a young boy wielding little more than a sword appeared. When he drew his sword he was split into four: The-Four-Who-Are-One combined their powers to defeat the sorcerer and bind him within a remote part of Hyrule.
This blade was christened the Four Sword and the people built a shrine around the sword. There it lay for many years until Vaati broke the seal and kidnapped Hyrule’s princess: Zelda.
Zelda’s childhood friend, Link drew the sword and sealed Vaati once again.
Peace was returned to Hyrule until a dark being created by Vaati was sent out to capture the six maidens who had helped imprison the sorcerer along with the princess again. Link was sleeping in his home near the castle when he had a strange dream. There was a bright light that spoke to him, “Link… Link… Can you hear my voice?” it sounded familiar. As his dream continued on dark clouds swiftly covered the land of Hyrule. These ominous dark clouds brought fear to those who looked upon them. A sense of dread spread across the land. Link realized the one speaking was Princess Zelda, “Link… Hurry to Hyrule castle… Something isn’t right…” she finished before he woke up. Link left his bed an untidy mess as he put on his boots and grabbed his shield; his sword was being sharpened by the royal blacksmith. He put on his hat and left his warm home to the now dark and foreboding land of Hyrule. Link stood outside his home staring at the sky for a moment before he remembered Zelda’s words ‘Hurry to Hyrule castle.’ He tore his eyes away from the sky and ran to the castle with a single thought, what could have gone wrong now?
He didn’t stop running until he reached the courtyard where Zelda exited the castle to meet him. “Oh Link it’s you! Thank Din you came.” She began, Link greeted her more formally than usual.
“Hello Princess, what’s happened? Why are the clouds so dark?” He asked her. She looked at the sky for a moment before answering.
“I don’t know Link. Come inside, the Six Maidens who guard Hyrule are gathered here in the castle. We believe that Vaati may have been released once again.” The Princess explained. Link nodded and followed her into the castle.
“All six maidens are here?” Link asked as they walked on.
“Yes Link, all six. If it is true and Vaati has been released then we need to open the way to the Four Sword Sanctuary.” She answered without looking back. Link understood, he noticed some of the guards were staring out the windows instead of watching the Princess. Link ignored them as they navigated the large castle. They walked to the Temple where the maidens waited in silence, the silence only being broken by the thunder roaring outside.
“Princess Zelda. Link.” The maidens greeted as they entered.
Zelda turned to Link, “Link I am going to the Four Sword Sanctuary to make sure the seal on Vaati remains strong.” Link nodded in understanding and stepped back to allow the seven beings to open the portal. Link watched as a glowing light encircled the seven as their magic was being used the colors were: Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, a lighter blue, Purple, and White. Link watched the magic with no small amount of wonder on his face. The Six Maidens and Zelda raised their arms as magical flames appeared. A light bloomed out of the stone in the center of the ring the maidens had made. The portal was open for anything to come through. Their magic faded once it was complete, “Link, come with me.” Zelda said to him just before the portal became as black as night. All eight in the temple turned to the menacing portal as the dark being exited it. “Ah! Who-who are you!?” The princess asked it before she took a step back in shock, “It can’t be… You’re Link!” she exclaimed before turning around to the real Link then back to the impostor.
She looked between the both of them, they were the same in nearly every way besides the dark Link wore all black, his hair was the same shade of black and he had red eyes. He laughed at Zelda’s confusion before a barrier surrounded all seven girls; it filled with black smoke before the barrier became a dark crystal with the Princess and the Six Maidens each trapped within their own prison made from darkness. They were sucked into the portal, leaving only Link with his doppelganger. “What are you!?” Link shouted at his clone. It laughed.
“Don’t be a hero. You’ll never save them.” The dark being said before jumping into the portal, the dark energy disappeared from the portal when the other Link had gone through.
Link knew he didn’t have his sword with him but ran into the light anyway, “I won’t let you take Zelda!” He yelled and entered the portal. The light within was blinding. He felt like he was falling a far distance but standing in the same place as well, it was a strange sensation which ended shortly after. Once he could see again the first thing he saw was the dark Link. It laughed and ran.
“So you came after all?” he said before running to the side a sword that was stuck within a pedestal. Link ran to the dark clone, which just attacked Link with his own sword and knocked him back. He laughed again, “This is no fun. How about we make this even? Draw the sword so we can fight as equals.” He said. Link stood up and stared at the blade, he knew the consequences of drawing it. He turned to the dark version of himself before running to the sword; he gripped the golden handle and pulled the sword from its resting place. This time he felt himself being pulled, the world seemed to tilt and spin. The pulling sensation became worse, making him feel like he was being ripped out of his own body. The entire time Dark Link was laughing.
Once the sensation stopped Link looked at the sword and smiled; “Now you’re going to get it!” he yelled and noticed it sounded like he had said it four times at once. He turned to his left and saw three other clones of himself.
The Dark entity laughed again, “You’ve just doomed yourselves!” he said as a large one eyed dark blue bat appeared.
“You shall not ruin my plans again!” it yelled without a mouth. The four Links ignored each other and turned to the sorcerer. “That blade will trouble me no longer!” the being continued.
A dark portal opened and the four Links were sucked into the dark abyss. The original Link could only watch as his dark counterpart waved him goodbye. He blacked out.
Meanwhile in a land currently in chaos; six ponies used the magic of ‘Friendship’ to return the creator of the chaos, Discord, to his imprisonment as a statue. “Come on ladies! Let’s show him what friendship can do!” a lavender unicorn wearing a tiara said to the other five ponies.
“Wait, wait, wait!” a pink pony said as she stood beneath a cotton candy cloud that was raining chocolate milk, her mouth was open to catch some of the milk. She jumped back to her friends, who were giving her a really? Look. Discord sat in his chair and yawned, expecting the six to fail yet again. The other five ponies wore necklaces with a gem that matched the image on their flanks while the lavender one had the tiara. A magical aura surrounded the six as their gems began glowing.
Discord was thinking about what other kinds of chaos he could cause and felt a powerful energy being manipulated by something evil, he grinned. The gems soon began shooting magic in the shape of the gems at Discord; he ducked as one flew over his head. “Hmm. What’s this?” he said as he watched the ponies’ eyes turn white with power. “No!” he said as a rainbow shot out of the ponies’ aura, curved in the sky and hit Discord directly, his body began turning to stone. As it did he used his magic to reroute the dark portal he had felt to end up here, he found there were four within it. “You can’t stop them! The four will release me again!” he said just before he fully became a statue. His words worried the Princesses and they sent a few guards to scour all of Equestria to search for Discord’s ‘minions’. The eldest of the Princesses, Celestia, told her most faithful student, a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, to keep an eye open for anything strange. Little did she know that four tunic wearing beings had appeared in a large clearing within the Everfree forest. Their clothing was each a different color: Red, Green, Blue, and Violet.
The four heroes lay asleep on the soft grass; the one wearing Green was roused from his sleep before the others. He rubbed his head as it throbbed slightly. He examined his suroundings and saw the other three before seeing the dark forest that surrounded them, “Where are we?” he said aloud before standing up to wake the others, he felt as if he had fallen from a high place though there seemed to be nowhere they could have fallen from.
“Is that you Green? Where are we?” the one wearing red asked Green when he noticed the forest around them.
Green shrugged, “I don’t know Red. Go wake up Blue, I’ll wake up Vio.” Green said, Red nodded and they woke the remaining two. Red woke the one that wore Blue, and Green woke the one that wore Violet. Green shook Vio awake before he heard Red shout.
“Ow!” Red fell back clutching his nose; Blue had punched him upon waking.
“Don’t wake me up again.” Blue had said before he rolled over, facing away from the others.
“Green, do either of you have any idea where we are right now?” Vio asked Green. Again, Green shrugged as he examined Red’s face before getting up and walking over to Blue.
“Wake up Blue!” Green yelled at his blue counterpart. Blue didn’t budge. Red walked over to join Green and took a steel rod with a round ruby on the end out of a pouch on his waist. He aimed the ruby and a fire shot out of the rod, lighting Blue’s tights on fire. He woke up with a shout and rolled around until the fire was quenched.
“I’ll kill you Red!” Red yelled after he got up. Red hid behind Green and stuck his tongue out at the angry Blue. Green and Vio ran over and held Blue back as he tried attacking Red. Flailing his arms in their grip.
“Blue! Calm down! Look around us!” the two said in unison.
“Why! That little jerk burned my… we’re in a forest.” blue realized their location and calmed down shortly after. Green and Vio released him when he asked them to. Together they searched the clearing and found nothing that looked remotely familiar. A deep growl was heard from the forest to their left. They turned to the noise and watched as a large lion with a scorpion tail and bat wings walked out of the foliage. It roared while rising on its hind legs.
The four Links drew their swords, the steel gleaming in the sunlight. Lining up shoulder to shoulder they raised their shields as one. The monster before them swung its tail menacingly and slowly advanced towards them. They each had some equipment: a bow, Roc’s feather, a flame rod, a lantern, a magic hammer, Pegasus boots, a boomerang, a hefty supply of bombs, the blue bracelet, and a slingshot. The sword allowed each of them to have the same equipment the original had. The four of them drew the bow and nocked an arrow; the lion beast eyed the item curiously.
Green aimed for a spot near the beast and fired the arrow. It flew, sunlight reflecting off the head, and stuck itself in the ground, dangerously near its paws. The Manticore stepped back. The other three shot their own arrows, making the monster back away to the edge of the clearing. Blue shot a second arrow that flew between the monsters ears, cutting some of its large mane off before bouncing harmlessly off of the armored scorpion tail. The beast then turned and ran back into the dark forest. Blue raised his bow, “Yeah! Run you chicken!” he taunted and cheered for a while before Vio and Green told him to stop shouting.
“Why? We just beat that thing!” he exclaimed. Vio pointed off behind them as four pairs of glowing eyes appeared followed by growling. “Oh.” Blue continued.
“Vio, Red, Blue, Diamond formation!” Green ordered. The others obeyed and they stood back to back as the four eyes entered the clearing. The owners of the eyes were wooden wolves.
Blue grinned, “Hey look we have some timber now.” He laughed and grabbed the fire rod, aiming it at the nearest wolf. The rod sent a flame out, the wolf jumped back, out of the fire rods range. Blue frowned, “Come here doggy.” He said to the single wolf, approaching it with the flame.
“Blue, don’t!” Vio warned him a little late as the wolves howled. He stopped the flame and watched as the darkness between the trees was filled with more glowing eyes. He chuckled nervously as more wolves entered the clearing. Green and Vio examined the enemies before them and came to the conclusion.
“Run away!” Red shouted the order before anyone else could. They listened to him and ran away, using the Pegasus boots to stay ahead of the pack. Running through the dense forest, the strangeness and creepiness was lost on the heroes as they sprinted away from the wolves that were left far behind.
Soon the trees began to thin out as they exited the forest. They ran in a straight line, Green in the front followed by Red then Blue, and finally Vio. The four of them looked back as Green hit a tree; the other three colliding with him. They fell back; a loud crack was heard as they hit the tree. They groaned on the floor for a second before rising. Vio and the others looked into the forest to see the yellow eyes of the wolves that had arrived seconds earlier recede into the dark forest. They sighed in relief before they heard soft thudding. Turning around they realized they had run into an apple tree, due to the apples that littered the grass. Their stomachs growled so they ate every apple that had fallen, leaving the cores on the floor. Vio looked around and saw more apple trees, evenly spaced and in rows. “We must be in an orchard.” He surmised.
The others looked around and heard running coming from farther away. They didn’t want to get in trouble for unknowingly eating apples that kept the owner or owners in business so they ran. They were out of sight when an orange pony wearing a Stetson hat and a large red stallion wearing a yoke galloped to the tree.
“What in tarnation?” the orange pony spoke, she was shocked to see the entire tree void of fruit. Her eyes moved from the tree to the apple cores, “Somepony’s been eatin’ our crop.” She said.
“Eeyup.” The stallion agreed.
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The four had run until they ran out of stamina, the boots helped them run faster but they could still tire out. They leaned against a nearby tree as they caught their breath. “How… big is… this orchard!?” Blue shouted angrily between breaths.
“It… seems big.” Red answered.
Vio and Green looked around. “Well where in Din’s name are we?” Green wondered aloud.
Vio shrugged, “I don’t know Green. We can cover more ground if we split up. But we should do that as a last resort.” He said to the other three. They agreed before the four traveled through the immense apple orchard in silence.
Meanwhile the orange pony and the red stallion had finished their chores and were searching for the one who ate every apple in one of their trees, especially so close to Apple buck season. “Okay Big Mac. You go lookin’ in the West field an’ I’ll keep lookin’ here.” The orange mare said. The stallion nodded and galloped towards the indicated part of the orchard.
“Kin ah help sis?” a high voice asked from behind the orange mare. She jumped a little before turning to the voice. A small red maned filly with a large bow in her mane stood there.
“Sorry sugarcube but the ponies that ate our crop might be dangerous. Just stay inside an’ take care of Granny Smith. Let the big ponies handle it Applebloom.” The orange pony said to the young filly, Applebloom. The filly pouted and stomped away muttering.
“Ah am a big pony.” She planned on getting a spare lantern and searching for the offender herself with the help of the Cutie Mark crusaders.
The four boys expected to be attacked several times by moblins, guards, or any other kind of monster but weren’t. They kept their guard up nonetheless. Several times they stopped to eat more apples and rest, the sun soon began its descent on the horizon. “We have to find shelter.” Green said.
Blue, with a roll of his eyes responded, “We knew that oh obvious leader of ours.” He spoke sarcastically. Green ignored him as they looked for any sort of village, finding nothing aside from more trees. They continued searching until the sun had set and the moon was high in the sky. The four pulled out their lanterns to light the darkness. The flames within the lanterns sent their shadows dancing on every tree. One behind them moved more than the others as a dark being walked into this world holding a blue mirror. He looked at the four then turned in the direction of the town he had seen from this land’s Dark World. He smiled mischievously as he formulated a plan. He laughed softly and returned to the Dark World to head to the village.
“Let’s see what I can cause to ruin tomorrow for you four.” He said as he walked away, a disembodied shadow moving between the trees to those with a trained eye.
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At the same time Discord brought the four to Equestria, Vaati had felt them leave the abyss he sent them to. He had long since turned into his human form, a fair skinned, pointy eared, young man, clothed with a purple hat and cloak. The hat had a gold trim with a ruby in the center over his forehead. Using his magic and with a flick of his wrist, Vaati summoned Dark Link, “My creature of darkness. I need you to follow those foolish heroes and end them by any means necessary. Do you understand me?” he commanded.
Dark Link rolled his eyes, “I heard you, open the portal and I’ll go.” He said crossing his arms. Vaati throws him the Dark Mirror and opens the portal.
“Use this to help you finish faster. Don’t come back if you failed.” Vaati said, his hands filling with magical energy. Dark Link nodded and walked into the portal, it threw him to the floor in the same clearing the others had landed in. He stood up and heard growling from around him, he turned and saw yellow eyes fill the dark woods.
“I don’t have time for this.” The dark entity said moving into the Dark world as the Timberwolves attacked. They collided with each other. Dark Link watched their forms from the Dark world. They were now shadows in this world. He laughed mockingly at them and walked away, the wolves trying to attack the shadow. They eventually gave up after several futile minutes. Dark Link continued to walk exiting onto an orchard. There he saw the four running away and was about to chase them then he saw two ponies gallop to the tree they were at. What shocked him was they spoke. He approached them cautiously from the Dark World. They didn’t notice the shadow creep towards them. They split up and a small filly came up to the orange pony, they spoke some more and the small filly walked off. Dark Link followed it to a home with a large red barn off to the right of it. He watched the filly stomp into the home. He would have followed her but he saw a trail leading away from the home to a fence. The fence led to a town in the distance.
The dark being decided that he could find the four again and ran into the town. He stood by a stall while he watched the ponies speak to each other and ignore him, all besides one. A chestnut stallion with a darker brown mane, and an hourglass on its flank stared at the bodiless shadow. Dark Link looked over the ponies and the marks on their flanks. He stared at them, seeing wings on some and horns on others. “Interesting, Pegasus and Unicorns, or is it Pegasi?” He wondered aloud as they flew past and walked around; unable to hear the shadow. The sun began to set by the time he returned to the Orchard. And he found the four when the sun had set.
------------------Canterlot------------------
Luna, Princess and guardian of the night, was standing on her balcony looking over Equestria. She searched for anything strange-as was her and her sister’s duty, using her magic to extend her sight farther. She gazed over the city of Canterlot; a few ponies were roaming from a late date, or from a bar. Nothing she hadn’t seen before. She turned her gaze to the farther cities, Las Pegasus, Manehattan, Appleoosa, Cloudsdale, The Badlands, and finally to Ponyville. She saw nothing strange in the first five cities, just the usual empty streets or occasional passerby, but in Ponyville she saw a shadow move past a light. The strange part was that there was no body, only a moving shadow. She watched as the shadow stopped near a building; a bipedal creature appeared from the shadow and threw a few stones to break the windows of the home.
------------------Ponyville-----------------
The lights within the home turned on and a grey earthpony looked out the window to see the creature run away, a silhouette in the darkness. Dark Link used his own power to create four clones to cause more mischief in the town. Each clone changing their own clothes to copy the four. The clones would turn back into shadows to blow holes into the side of the buildings before they reappeared inside and stole property, they then returned to the Dark World and left the stolen items there. The real Dark Link broke into a large tree and took a small dragon from there, taking him into the Dark World, “Twiliiiiight!” the dragon shouted as they left the world. The four continued to cause as much damage as possible. One broke into a carousel looking building and took a few of the chests filled with gems into the Dark World along with a small Filly that was there, she screamed and called out for her sister.
A white unicorn watched as the filly and Link sank into the shadows, as did many other ponies. They immediately began trying to dig away at the ground where their loved ones had disappeared. Many began crying as they stared at the spot their children or family member had disappeared to. They began throwing things at the clones as they brought more chaos.
The real Dark Link, meanwhile, stood before the scared children in the Dark world and gave them the same lecture he gave the children of Kakariko, “Hello young ones. Welcome to this, a world where there are none to tell you what to do. Here you can do whatever you want! There are no rules!” he shouted so he could be heard by all. A murmur spread among the fillies and colts. That murmur grew louder and more excited as they thought of all the possibilities. They thanked the dark being before running off to play, all laughing happily besides an orange Pegasus and a white unicorn.
The dark clones continued to break into homes and steal objects that seemed important, jewelry, anything in a chest, things that were locked away, etc. They also took the younger ponies that were found, including the Cakes’ foals. Dark Link watched from the sidelines as his clones wrought havoc on the citizens of the town. The ponies retaliated by trying to capture the shadows, only to have them escape even from a magical field.
Once he deemed their destruction enough, Dark Link destroyed his own clones and stood in a large tree to see the sadness he had brought along with the anger that spread throughout the citizens. He grinned at his handiwork and returned to the Dark World to watch the four. He was stopped by a purplish-grey unicorn with a yellow mane and tail, “Um Mister. I miss my mommy. Can I go back?” she asked politely.
Dark Link just laughed and walked away saying, “You’ll never leave.” He heard the filly gasp then begin to cry, he continued laughing as the filly ran off to tell the others.
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Back in the orchard the four had found a small tree-house and decided to stay in it just for the night. The small house barely accommodated the four boys as they huddled up to sleep, not being small enough to fit upstairs. They were unaware of the many ponies fearing for their loved ones and mourning their loss, besides a chestnut brown stallion who was watching shadows move around without bodies.
A tan colored pony with a grey mane and tail had several ponies together before her, “Citizens of Ponyville!” She said into a megaphone to make her voice loud enough for all to hear, “Tonight four horrible creatures have foalnapped our youngest citizens. They were assumed to be bi-pedal beasts with swords.” She continued. “We must send out teams to search for the culprits. They were seen to be wearing strange clothes, Green, Blue, Red, and Purple. They may be dangerous, be careful ponies” She finished. The crowd spoke among itself before coming to attention as the mayor assigned the ponies to teams and sent them out to search the town, saying the beasts couldn’t have gotten far. They each carried a flashlight to search in the night.
The teams each set out to find the ones who had endangered their loved ones and force them to return them then leave to wherever they came from. None were happy and most wanted to buck the creatures into the ground.
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The sun was just rising over the horizon when Green, Blue, and Vio woke up. They rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and stretched before leaving the small room. They stood out on the balcony of the tree-house and looked inside when they noticed their angry counterpart wasn’t with them. Red and Green were about to enter but Vio stopped them, he gripped and held their shoulders. They turned to him and he shook his head, “Let him sleep, it’ll stop him from complaining.” Vio explained. They looked back one last time before following Vio down the ramp and through the trees.
Nearby a small filly, Applebloom, was galloping towards her clubhouse saying, “Oh no, ah’m gonna be late!” she was oblivious to the three beings not too far to her right. She stopped at the tree when she saw that a certain scooter wasn’t there. “Hmm, maybe Scoots and Sweetie just walked?” the filly wondered aloud before starting the climb up the ramps to the door. Stopping when she heard snoring from inside. She grew nervous; did they fall asleep while waiting? I must be really late. She thought as she pushed open the door, “Ah’m sorry…..” she froze when she saw the being that was clad in blue snoring in a corner, a blue hat, that matched his outfit, folded neatly besides him. The filly was too shocked to move.
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“Hey look, a village!” Red exclaimed, pointing to said village.
Green smiled, “Maybe we can find out where we are! Let’s go.” Green led the way to the village. The first thing they noticed was how quiet it was. There wasn't a single sound besides the wind blowing some dirt off the streets. The three shared an uneasy look and walked along, feeling eyes watching their every move from the buildings.
“I don’t like this.” Red spoke, staying close to his other counterparts. The other two said they felt the same way, it was too quiet for their liking.
“Hey Green, look at that building over there.” Vio said, pointing to a building that was larger than the others, “There’s a map on it.” He added, pointing to a large paper plastered on one of the walls. The three ran to it but were disappointed to find they couldn’t read what was written on it. Vio stared at it then looked around; he saw the castle on a mountain that was depicted on the map off in the distance along with a city made out of clouds pretty far away as well.
He looked back and pointed at a small town near a forest, “I think we’re here.” Vio said before explaining the castle and the cloud city he had seen along with the forest in the distance. They looked around and left the building.
“Well we should split up, find someone and ask them where we are, let’s meet up back here if we find out or not.” Green said, the other two nodded. Green directed Vio to the large tree in the distance, and directed Blue to go deeper into the town while he investigated where they were now. Vio, Red, and Green wished each other luck and separated.
-------------Crusaders Clubhouse---------------
Applebloom cautiously approached the Blue being that was still snoring, after getting over her shock. “Hello?” She whispered. The being didn’t hear her. “Are you a monster?” she continued to ask. He didn’t move. She slowly reached out a hoof and pushed him softly, he snorted causing the filly to leap back in fear. He reached behind himself and scratched his back, his five fingers shocking the filly more. He grumbled a few unintelligible words and adjusted his position. After a few seconds of cowering, Applebloom approached the being and poked it again, it grumbled, she poked it one more time, it growled. She poked it one last time and the being shouted.
“For the love of Nayru! I will hurt you if you wake me up one more time!” She backed away in fear before screaming and running out the door.
“Applejack, Big Macintosh! Monster!” Red groaned at the noise and went back to sleep.
----------------Ponyville - Red------------------
Red was walking along, humming as he looked at the buildings. Stopping when his eyes met one made of candy. He smiled widely and ran towards the confection building; arms outstretched and expecting a soft cushiony impact. He ran into the side, his expectations instantly disappeared as he fell back from hitting wood. “Ow!” He rubbed his head before standing up and tapping the wooden building with a frown, “Stupid fake candy house.” He muttered before kicking the wall, regretting it as he stubbed his toe. Grunting in pain he held his foot and hopped on his other leg. Angrily, he turned to leave the fake candy alone but noticed a door and walked up to it, it was pink and had a single golden handle Blue peeked through the small heart shaped hole in the door before pulling it open and entering. He felt like he was being watched but with a quick glance around the empty restaurant looking place he found no one. He grew nervous from the feeling and searched for any kind of trap or someone to speak to.
His eyes found to the pastries across the counter and he walked towards them in a trance. With one last quick look around, Red reached for the tempting pastries. Before he could grab one he heard a scream, and looked to his left to see a pan growing bigger as it came closer, hitting him with a loud ringing clang. Blue collapsed, a muffin hitting the floor, as a pink pony stood above him holding the pan, Red's face imprinted in the flat end. “Nopony is going to steal these cupcakes while Pinkie Pie's on duty!” the pink pony said with a scowl that turned into a gasp, “I know you! You’re that Meany mean pants who foalnapped the Cakes’ foals! I’m taking you to Twilight.” Pinkie Pie said before tying up Red with streamers and placing him across her back. She exited Sugarcube corner in a gallop towards the giant tree library.
---------------Ponyville - Green-----------
Green moved from house to house to look through the windows; he couldn’t see anyone so he left the homes alone. The large empty space was creeping him out. He knocked on several doors and never got an answer. After a short time of walking he came across a carousel looking building, complete with small horses above the door. He looked at the sign and frowned when he couldn’t read it. Sighing he walked up to the door and looked through a window nearby, he saw some movement and opened the door. “Hello?” he said loudly and recieved no response. He walked farther inside and saw dresses along with various fabrics with gems attached, including Rupees.
He also noticed a space where the walls and ground were faded that obviously showed something was missing. Suddenly a roll of fabric flew past his head. He drew his sword and turned to the attacker but was met with rolls of fabric that seemed to just fly at him. He swung his sword to cut through it but the fabric wrapped around his sword and pulled it away, more fabric doing the same with his shield, before wrapping around him. He fell to the ground, unable to move from the layered fabric but struggled nonetheless. He saw his sword float and his shield. He just stared at the two objects before the shield bashed him in the face, making him black out. “Ugh, green is such a hideous color.” An elegant voice said as a White unicorn came out of where she was standing. “Although it does not look so bad on him… Maybe if I added some gems then…” she said, starting out smiling as she had an idea then the smile turned into a scowl as she remembered this creature had stolen them along with her sister.
“We must get you to Twilight immediately.” The posh pony said, using her magic to levitate the cocooned body along with the sword and shield. She opened the door and left, the body and two objects in her magical grasp. She trotted elegantly towards the large tree.
-------------Ponyville - Vio------------
Vio had reached the immense tree and tried to read the sign outside it, he surmised that it was a library from the image of a book on the sign. He examined the tree as he came to the door. Reaching for the doorknob, he stopped himself, looked through a window, then knocked. He heard footsteps within but none answered. He saw two eyes angrily staring him down through the window in his peripherals but when he looked they disappeared from sight. He knocked a few more times and still received no answer so he decided to enter. When he opened the door a single book flew at him. He ducked and raised his shield as more books flew at him. What did I do? Vio thought as the bombardment continued.
He pushed through the books, the blue bracelet doubling his strength, and entered the building to see the tree was completely hollowed out inside. A lavender pony with a horn that was glowing. “What the?” he said before the glowing shot off the horn and hit Vio, he fell to his knees as the world slowly darkened as he fell asleep with a single thought Was that a unicorn!?
Said unicorn used her magic to raise the books off the floor and return them to their shelves. “I need to report to the princess that I’ve found Discord’s minions.” She said, using her magic to flip him onto his back, “Wait, wasn’t there four of them?” she wondered aloud before she took the sword, shield and item pouch off of the body. She opened the pouch and took out the contents and memorized them as well as organizing them neatly on a table, “Hammer, bow, feather, metal stick?” she stared at the fire rod for a second before placing it on a table, “Slingshot, boomerang, lantern, bombs!?” she stared at the blue explosives in shock before cautiously putting them down. “I have to get the others.” She said, just then her door opened and Rarity entered with Green still wrapped up. She looked at Vio and then at Green, “Well at least that one has a good color on him.” She commented before speaking to Twilight, “Twilight dear, I see you’ve caught one of those brutes. I have another one here, he just broke in my home again!” she said dramatically.
Rarity put Green next to Vio and put the sword and shield next to the other ones, Twilight looked at them both and trotted closer to them. She put the swords and the shields side by side, sword by sword, shield by shield. “They’re the same! Exactly the same!” she exclaimed as she examined the items more closely, “Not even a single thing different.” She continued as she looked at them. Rarity joined her in examining the golden handles of both swords, “There is one difference darling.” She said to Twilight. The lavender unicorn looked at her friend, “What is it Rarity?” she asked. Rarity pointed to the pommel of both swords, “That one has a green gem and that one has a purple-no-violet gem.” Twilight saw this before looking at the shields, Rarity couldn’t find a single difference in the shields.
They heard hooves clopping followed by a gasp and they turned to Pinkie Pie with Blue on her back. “You found the other meanies!?” she said before putting Blue with his other counterparts. Twilight took his sword and shield and placed them next to the other ones, “Another match!?!” she exclaimed as the only difference was once again the gem in the pommel, this one was blue. “Ooh! Ooh! They’re triplets!” Pinkie said while bouncing near the three heroes’ heads. Twilight and Rarity moved to the unconscious heroes, they were in fact identical. Twilight used her magic to search them; she took the other two item pouches and took out the items, they were the same items as Vio had.
“Let me go or I swear to Din I’ll blow you up!” a voice said loudly from outside.
“How’re ya going to go about hurtin’ me while y’all are tied up?” they heard a familiar voice answer. Applejack came in hauling a rope in her mouth as she struggled to pull Blue inside. This one was identical to the other three but he didn’t have a hat and continued to threaten the ponies.
"I'll burn you all alive and cut you to ribbons if you don't let me go!"
-------------------Earlier------------------
Blue was still sleeping in the crusaders clubhouse. Applebloom ran around the orchard and had found Applejack,
“Applejack, there’s a monster in the clubhouse!” she said.
Applejack rolled her eyes, “Ah’m sure it’s nothing sugarcube.” She said as she continued bucking an apple tree; the apples fell out and landed in some well-placed baskets. Applebloom pulled on Applejacks mane.
“He said he was going to hurt me!” she shouted. Applejack finished bucking another tree before turning to Applebloom,
“Ain’t nopony gonna hurt mah little sister. Let’s go teach this ‘monster’ a lesson.” She fixed her hat. Applebloom nodded and galloped off, Applejack following.
They reached the clubhouse and Applebloom walked up to the door and opened it enough to see inside, the red thing was still lying there. She looked out and pointed at the door, “He’s still in there!” she whispered. Applejack cantered to the door and opened it.
“Hey ‘monster’! Ah’m here ta kick your flank!” she shouted smugly.
“Shut up I’m trying to sleep!” the hylian answered angrily.
Applejack stared at him in disbelief rather than in anger, “Did y’all threaten mah little sister?” she asked him.
“What if I did?” he answered, sitting up. She grabbed her rope and threw it at the Hylian; it wrapped around him and kept his legs close to his chest and his arms stuck to his sides. He struggled in the rope, “Can’t someone sleep for a second here!?” he shouted, trying to reach for his item pouch, his pointy hat left behind, still neatly folded.
“Ah need to get you to Twilight’s. Applebloom stay back. This thing could be dangerous.” The orange pony said, pulling the rope and dragging Blue along with it.
Applejack dragged the Hylian along; he was shouting and threatening as they moved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twilight became fed up with Blue and used the same knockout spell she used on Vio to shut him up and set him besides the others. They looked at the four then to the swords and lastly to the items. “This is weird, it’s like they’re trying to be like each other, in every way.” Twilight said.
The others agreed. “We must tell the town that we have apprehended the ruffians who assaulted our town last night.” Rarity said. Twilight carried the four out in her magic and left their things in the library.
(Edited for manga accuracy)
Green woke before the others and was greeted by harsh sunlight and the roaring of an angry crowd. He sat up with a groan, taking the time to look around. Bars surrounded them, a glance up and he saw a wooden top. The crowd seemed to go into a frenzy of shouts, he turned and saw that the cage was surrounded by colorful pastel ponies of every color. He blinked and rubbed his eyes as something hit his head, knocking his hat off and making him fall onto his back again. He groaned and rubbed the spot that was hit. A tan mare walks up to a podium and stomps on it to get the ponies to quiet down, that didn’t surprise him as much as hearing her speak. “Calm down everypony,” she began calmly, “I know you are all angry with these creatures and thanks to a few of our residents we have apprehended the culprits of the destruction of our fair city.” The crowd started shouting again.
His jaw dropped, the horses back in Hyrule couldn’t speak at all or if they did he surely had never heard them. He put on his hat and shook the nearest copy, Red. He spoke in a hushed whisper, “Red, wake up Red.” He rolled over and muttered something about a house made of ice cream and candy, soon after he began drooling and Green reached back to his item pouch then started patting himself down when he didn’t find it.
“It seems that one of them has woken up. Now stay calm ponies and we can find a reasonable punishment for them.” The crowd shouted suggestions, one was to tie them up and throw them in the Everfree, Green didn’t know what the Everfree was but it didn’t sound pleasant. Another was to send them to the moon or the sun. He didn’t know how that was possible and he kept shaking Red to no avail. He shook Vio next, not wanting to wake Blue at all. Thankfully Vio woke up, sitting up and rubbing his head.
“So many books…” He winced as he felt a bruise, ignorant of the angered crowd and the, now silent, mare that was watching them now.
“Vio we’re surrounded by talking ponies!” Green whispered urgently. Vio looked around at the cage they were in then out to the ponies staring daggers at them.
“We’re in a cage and you’re talking about seeing talking ponies…” he stared at Green. “Did you drink some bad milk again? We’re just surrounded by angry horses is all.” The crowd gasped and started throwing things into the cage, rocks, jewels, horseshoes, and even pastries. The mare at the podium ducked under what she could and tried calming them down, telling them that the minions of Discord would get the punishment they deserve. It didn’t help and she ended up hiding behind the podium. Vio just stared at the mare.
Red woke up after getting hit by a cupcake then a horseshoe that smashed the pastry. He sat up and wiped his face clean before tearing up as a stone hit him. Green was doing his best to avoid the projectiles and Vio went over to comfort Red before Green ran over and hoisted up Blue to use as a shield. A lavender unicorn mare walked towards the podium, stopping for a second to watch them whispering to a sniffling, teary eyed Red who had a horseshoe shaped bruise on his forehead.
The unicorn shook her head and walked to the podium, using her magic to stop all projectiles from hitting her. “Ponies calm down! I have informed the princesses and they are arriving to punish these evil beings personally!” They all cheered. “They will be punished for foalnapping our younger residents and abducting our belongings!” They cheered again, shouting for them to be sent to the moon.
They looked among each other, surprised that Blue was still sleeping, being covered in frosting and bread from the pastries. He ate whatever had landed in his mouth, enjoying it’s sweet taste, his dream turned from beating Green and taking the Princess for himself to being in a Castletown made of cake. He swallowed the pastries in his mouth and licked his lips. “Green can they actually send us to the moon?” Red asked fearfully, pulling Green's vision away from Blue.
“I don’t think so.” Vio said, staring at the horn on the lavender unicorn. “But I pray to Farore that they can’t.”
“We just arrived here didn’t we?” Red and Vio nodded, “Then we couldn’t have done that could we?” They thought about it for a second before deciding to wake Red up somehow.
In the shadows of a building Shadow Link stood watching the crowd, a triumphant smirk on his face. “As I thought, this is great.” He laughed and sunk into the shadow world, the children had started panicking, now knowing that they would never see their parents again. He smiled, feeling no guilt or remorse. Being a shadow had it’s perks. He returned to the light world to watch, picking up a stone and using his slingshot to hit Blue in the gut. His eyes shot open.
Every pony stared at the cage as Blue screamed in rage, pulling away from Green to hold his stomach. “WHO SHOT ME?!” he shouted out loud, turning to look at the three others. “Which one of you did it!?” he glared at them, the burning anger laying to rest on Green. “It was you wasn’t it!” he reached over his shoulder to draw his sword. He turned his head to look at the missing handle and shield. He laughed darkly, “Think I can’t fight without my sword?” He reached for his item pouch and patted his hip before realizing none of them had their items. Green waited patiently for him to calm down which he clearly wouldn’t. Vio took Red to the far side of the cage as Green and Blue began to stare each other down.
“Blue look around you, there’s no time for this.” Neither of them budged though Blue did glance to his right quickly.
“Looks like it, our 'king' got us captured.” he sneered. Green gave him a bemused expression. “How are you going to get us out of this one?” The crowd watched, interested in what was going on between them. The unicorn watched these two, anger practically radiating from them, the one clad in green hid his anger better than the Blue one.
“Calm down and maybe I won’t leave you in here.” Green answered. Blue clenched his fist. Dark shot another seed at the back of Blue's head, he turned around and glared at the ponies.
“Who threw that?!” he grabbed the bars and shook them. Looking at the unicorn he recognized. “You…” She looked around then pointed to herself. Blue nodded, “You and that orange horse dragged me around hogtied.” Red couldn’t help but laugh, earning Blue's anger. “I’ll get to you in a second Red.” He turned back to her. “Let me out or I swear to Din I’ll blow all of you up and turn this town to cinders!” he shook the bars, they bent thanks to the power bracelet he still had on. The unicorn’s eyes widened and he smirked before prying the bars open. Green and Vio rushed forward, grabbed him and pulled him away from the bars.
“What do you think you’re doing Blue?!” Vio shouted, “We don’t need to get into more trouble!” the crowd watched in silence, they’d never seen a being able to bend steel so easily. “Green hold down Blue and I’ll talk to them okay?” Green nodded and held back the seething Red while Vio walked over and did his best to fix the bent bars.
“I apologize for my friend there, he can get a bit overworked easily.” he smiled and slid his hand through the bars, “My name is Vio,” he points to Blue and Green, “That’s Red and that’s green.”
“I’m Red!” Red shouted from the corner waving “I like your mane, it’s colorful.”.
Vio chuckled and turned to the mare, “What’s your name?” He held out his hand still. She looked at his hand, and he pulled it back in and took off the power bracelet before holding it out. “Here, this is a way to prove I’m not going to hurt you.” She levitated the bracelet and kept watching him.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle. Tell me, why did you foalnap the colts and fillies?” She asked.
“We haven’t foalnapped them. We’ve been on a farm for a while. That’s where I’m guessing your friend found Blue here. We left him sleeping in a treehouse somewhere.” He explained, then an orange stetson wearing pony with a blonde mane walked up.
“So y’all were tha’ ones that ate mah apples.” she had a southern accent not much different from Talon's from Lon Lon Ranch.
“Yes but we were hungry and it was the only food nearby but that’s not important," he looked back to Twilight, "tell me miss Sparkle what happened.” the orange mare glared at him and looked at Twilight as she explained what she saw and the eyewitness accounts. As soon as she said that they sunk into the ground Blue had calmed down and Green let him go. They huddled up as a rainbow maned pegasus flew over to the unicorn and the earth pony.
“Twilight why are we talking to these things? We saw them take the foals so why don’t we just punish them now? I’ll do it myself.” Blue turned around and looked at her.
“You couldn’t take me.” he said. She flew up to the bars.
“Oh yeah? Want to prove that?” he turned and looked at her as she landed.
“Any time, any place, any way.” he told her with a smirk. They glared at each other until Vio spoke with Twilight.
“I have an idea, we know how to get them back but we need our equipment. One of you can stay with each of us to make sure we don’t step out of line.” The others nodded, a look of determination on their faces, each a mirror image of the others. Twilight accepted and spoke with the crowd about who would be guarding them aside from herself. They all raised their hooves and she asked which ones wouldn’t hurt them. The hooves went down as she explained a few things, she didn’t know what they were capable of and she wanted somepony who knew they could overpower any of them without a fight. Applejack stayed there, volunteering as did Rainbow before a pink mare jumped up and opened the cage.
“Alright, Vio you go with Ms. Sparkle, Red you go with,” Green was cut off as the pink pony lifted him up and set him aside before hugging Red.
“I’m sorry for hitting you with a frying pan. Let me make it up to you!” she then threw him onto her back.
“Can it be with cake and cookies?” he asked, wanting to try the pastries that he had seen in the fake cake building. She looked at a couple of ponies, a tall thin orange pony and a small plump blue pony with a swirly pink mane.
“Mr. and Mrs. Cake, can I give my new friend here a little treat?” They glared at him, “He said that he’d get your foals back and I’ll make sure he does!” she smiled at them.
“I can’t really look if I’m hungry.” he smiled with her, hoping they would let him. They looked at each other and told them he could have one after they found their foals. “Yay! Let’s go miss pony!” he pointed in a random direction and she bounced away with him on her back.
“I’m pinkie pie by the way!" she told him.
“I’m Red!” he answered. The others watched them leave before Green went back to giving orders. Telling Blue to go with Rainbow, he shook his head and cracked his knuckles, startling the ponies before walking away.
“I need my hat.” He said, walking towards the farm in the distance. Rainbow followed him and Twilight gave Vio his bracelet back, asking the two left to follow her. They nodded and stepped out of the cage, apologizing to the crowd and promising them that they’ll get the foals back. Green noticed a lone shadow moving on the floor, he nudged Vio and nodded to it. Vio looked and his eyes widened, Applejack saw this and looked at the empty space; seeing nothing. They looked at each other in a silent conversation, Applejack made a silent vow to make sure they don't hurt anypony else.