The next morning arrived, and Link slept like a log, feeling refreshed in a way that he hadn’t felt in a long time… until the alarms went off in his head, as a knock came through the door.
“Mister Link? You’re expected at the Princess’s Private Dining Room at the Eatery, and I was sent over to let you know, just so you can have time to get ready, before we leave together!” a peculiarly familiar and feminine voice sounded on the other side of the doorway.
‘Sure life is funny,’ thought Link as he put on his now-washed tunic over him, now that he felt clean, really clean, after taking a bath… ‘ten years living in the wilds, without any real comforts… and now? Being welcomed into their midst as a fellow being, instead of a freak.’
‘Pity the bath is like the old fashioned way, but it was truly compensated with how everything here works, ‘cause magic,’ Link thought to himself as he readied himself, humming while thinking, ‘and how much have I missed this. Especially the hot water. Long live the pony who designed this bath!’
After fighting with his hair by using a brush as weapon, Link managed to even disentangle it from the rats’ nest it had transformed into without his knowledge.
‘Was my hair always this messy? Or was it because I couldn’t comb it properly until now?’
Shaking the thought off his head, Link tried to brush it into a different hairstyle, one more fitting for being with royalty… only to fail miserably, as the hairdo reverted in the blink of an eye into his signature hair style.
Shaking his head from that discovery, and with everything done, Link headed out, and met with a very familiar-looking earth pony maid, who was sent to guide him to his destination - to meet up with the princess. After an impulse to take his red cloak with him, he chose instead to leave it behind, since he won’t be needing it at the dinner table.
But, being cautious never hurt anyone, so he grabbed his pouch… just in case… or for dealing with any surprise visitors.
The hylian couldn’t help but snort at this mental thought: ‘Never thought that life could imitate art… or would it be game?’ he thought to himself, then laughed softly to himself as he thought in mock seriousness. “Next thing I know, I bet Princess Zelda will be there with Celestia to greet me,” although despite it being a joke, the thought of the displaced made him think differently.
“There probably is a displaced zelda out there,” he wondered inwardly as he kept on walking in the quiet corridors with his guide - who he couldn’t just place in his mind, ‘Have I met this pony maid before?’
Keeping to himself, Link and the earth pony guide eventually arrived at Celestia’s private dining room.
Knocking on the door, the maid said softly, “Princess Celestia? I’ve brought your guest as requested!”
From the other side of the door, Celestia’s voice came through, “Thank you, Serving Cup, you may leave now, and let the waiter know that we’re ready to place our orders!”
“As you wish, my Princess,” Serving Cup said as she opened the door, letting Link come in and leaving with a trot after closing the door behind him.
Link walked in to greet the alicorn that was now sitting in her place at the table, where he grabbed a seat that actually fitted him, and took a seat near Celestia.
As if knowing that the existence of a chair that fit him shocked him slightly, Celestia said calmly to him, “Oh, Link… Good morning, and I see you found the minotaur chair we use for foreign guests.”
Now at peace that the chair wasn’t somehow made just for him, Link turned to meet the Princess’s face, and replied back in greeting, “Good morning, Princess.”
At that moment, the doors opened once again with a creaking sound, and in came two young ponies.
To Link’s surprise, next to Trinity - whom he recognized from their visit at the hospital - was a pink, as in really pink, young alicorn that looked more slender and feminine, who immediately smiled at him the moment she realized he was there to join them for breakfast, before saying with a nice, well-tempered feminine voice, “Hello, mister Link! Nice to finally meet you! I am Amore di Cadenza, or Cadance for short!”
“Please, just call me Link, no need for the formalities.” Link said with a smile.
“And this adorable little filly is my cousin, Trinity!” Cadance said while she pushed her younger counterpart to the front, keeping her wing on her back.
“It’s nice to meet you, Princess Trinity.” Link said to her with a bow of his head, his curiosity still nibbling at his mind at her appearance, mostly with her slight wolf features and the mirror that floated above her back.
“Humm… nice to meet you… mister Link...” Trinity said softly before shrinking into herself a bit, only the wing placed on her keeping her from bolting towards Celestia’s back.
“There’s no need to be shy, Trinity.” Link said.
“Now, Triny, do be nice and take a seat next to me,” Celestia pouted at her, before her eye turned to Link and winked at him, before saying to the young princess, “and as we eat we can get to know each other… what do you say?”
Trinity, after Cadance released her delicately, slowly stepped onto her seat as she said, “Sorry… I’m just not comfy around strangers…”
“Once we talk, we won’t be though.” Link said in an attempt to break the ice.
The hybrid smiled timidly at him, before saying, “that… that is what Caddy always tells me…”
“And I know my stuff!” Cadance said to her as she took a seat besides Trinity, ruffling her mane a little with a forehoof, causing her to giggle.
Link smiled warmly at two before laughing softly at their friendly relation with each other.
“How old are you?” he asked.
Cadance blew Link a raspberry, as Trinity giggled at her answer, and Celestia looked sternly at him, making him sweat bullets from the pressure.
“Now now, Link! You never ask a lady that question! But, since you wanted to get to know us, I’m at fifteen!” Cadance replied in mock seriousness… before breaking into laughing into her hoof.
“And I am seven!” Trinity volunteered, slightly emboldened by her cousin’s answer.
“Humm… it depends, my little human… my avatar’s age… or my real age?” Celestia said in all her regal posture… before snorting a laugh at Link’s face over this little theater at the table.
“Your… avatar?” Link asked in confusion.
“This body is my way to interact with this world that we created, the three of us together,” Celestia said to Link, “had to come to this world as a filly, though, without my previous memories and most of my power sealed, and didn’t gain my Cutie Mark until a certain event came to pass - letting me regain access to my memory and power, which now allows me to move the Sun and Moon without worry, which before costed the unicorn tribe plenty of their own as they lost their very magic in doing so, but we managed to restore them when we came to our full power.”
“Since we’re on the subject of age, I think I’m...” Link paused as he thought about it, doing the math of how old he was before being sent away to this place. “I’m… jeez. I’m forty one,” Link said in disbelief, as despite his current age, his body and face did not look that age.
A flash drew their attention to the space above the table, where a white and golden scythe materialized above the dinner table - coming out of thin air - as it came spinning blade point first, before shifting form into a long sword as it embedded into the ground next to Link, who jumped out of his seat from the surprise of a sword suddenly appearing and nearly getting him on the leg.
Celestia’s eyes widened for an instant at the appearance of the sword, right before schooling her features, thanking the distraction that no one paid attention to her.
A woman with multi-colored hair stood in hologram form - her form wearing a white flowing toga dress with far too many gold accessories, sandal high heels as her footwear - above the embedded sword on the ground. She was smiling down at Link, Celestia and Trinity, “My little ponies, and human, I am the Goddess Palutena, Princess of Equestria and Fiance of a Celestia from another world. I…”
“Stop messing with the timeline!” came a manly british voice over the hologram, making the human female turn to the side to face the one interrupting her.
“Excuse me for a moment,” Palutena smiled pleasantly with her eyes closed before turning around.
“Oh like you’re one to talk, Mister ‘I don’t even know my own name!’ ” Palutena retorted, and Link was sure he was listening to the whirring noise that was far to familiar for him. “And would you remember to actually release the handbrake on the Tardis!? The poor girl!”
More noises came over the channel, while the three princesses and human just turned to see one another, as if confirming that yes, they were all watching the same thing.
The embedded sword on the ground helped them know that it was indeed true, and patiently waited until the white-dressed female named Palutena returned to them… from her argument.
“Sorry about that, just a little disagreement.” Palutena said sheepishly before being interrupted again by the same manly british voice, making her frown.
“You are worse than Donna Noble!” The male voice retorted, to which Palutena pointed a finger behind her without turning around - a buzz of electricity jumped away from her finger, making the masculine voice.
“Now that ‘That’ is over with…” the female straightened her dress out, before continuing, “as I was saying, my name is Palutena, and I was just sending this little present to Link. You don’t know me yet, and I won’t say much more than that. This is my token Link, it comes in three handy dandy forms for your use. Oh and another thing!” Palutena paused as if gaining an epiphany, she conjured something and threw it at Link.
Link frowned in confusion until the object phased through the hologram and wacked him on the head. Cadance and Trinity giggled at Link’s misfortune as he rubbed his head and watched the offending object.
Which turned out to be a strangely made buckle for his belt.
The further Link looked at the strange buckle - from its metallic making, to the crystalline sphere in its middle - the more he felt confused about it.
“Sorry it took so long from my perspective, but I had to make some interesting modifications to my token before I could send it. And I had to mess with the morphing grid,” Palutena explained rolling her eyes.
Something clicked in Link’s mind when the goddess mentioned the morphing grid. “Wait, a power rangers belt!?” he exclaimed with disbelief in his voice as he pointed to the buckle sitting on his lap.
“Yes, Link. Guardian of Trinity, you will be the Twilight Ranger!”
Link just stared at Palutena with a true deadpan expression on his face, while Trinity giggled at Palutena’s antics, as if the two of them shared a little secret.
“But wait, get this! When you morph the sword doubles as a flute! So you can still use those ocarina songs of yours!” Palutena exclaimed excitedly, before going into full-on exposition mode, “okay! what you do is raise the sword, and then you say, ‘Release restraints!’, before stabbing the sword into the ground, right after the lock on your morpher releases from your belt, so you grab it, and press a button on the morpher, where a key will flick out, slot it into the sword’s hilt which will have a keyhole, then cover your face with your right hand and say ‘From the heavens; Guardian of Trinity, Twilight ranger!’ then grab the sword pull it from the ground and do a few swings with it,” Palutena explained with gusto…
… until a brown haired human man with wild short hair entered the shot, “are you done recording that message, Palutena?”
Palutena smirked to the man, “Damn! And I almost had them believing this was live, anyway! Seeing as the spell’s broken,” Palutena paused to shrug, “Link... take care of Trinity - she’s more important than you know,” Palutena warned wagging her finger in front of him.
Celestia watched this with barely contained amusement, as she was somepony who could tell when someone was being trolled masterfully.
Cadance was watching this while eating popcorn that was proffered by one of the waiters on her discreet orders, while Trinity watched wide-eyed with awe at the description being told by the visitor.
“I promised Celestia that I would,” Link said as he looked over at the princess of equestria.
Palutena smirked, “You just replied as if this was a live feed didn’t you?” Palutena laughed before being pulled away by the dashing man she had argued with prior, the transmission ending with a plop.
Link deadpanned again, ‘I think that Palutena might have been one of the reasons for the time reset that the Batter had mentioned when I met him’, Link thought grumbling to himself.
‘Oh Link… I exist outside time, so I know when shenanigans happen! And you are at the center of them!’ Palutena’s playful voice ringed inside Link’s mind, as she laughed merrily at his reaction of shock - written all over his face, if one were to judge his fish impersonation - while the three ladies at the table snickered, as if knowing what had transpired without Link opening his mouth to say a thing.
Link went dead silent as he looked around the room. “...I-is it safe to speak now?” he asked, knowing that this other goddess can hear his thoughts.
“Don’t mind her, Link - she’s a good friend of mine, so I can vouch for her… even if she likes to troll people a little too much, as she called it at our last meeting… and helps others when it hits her fancy, even if the ways she helps with are strange or you don’t understand why or for what reason,” Celestia said to calm the near-hysteric hylian down, before saying to him in a conspiratorial tone, “you’d better put that sword elsewhere, or somepony might cut himself with it!”
“Right,” Link said as he reached over to pull the sword from out of the floor. With little effort, the blade came out of the floor, leaving a hole shaped like the blade as Link examined it closer, “I might need to make a sheath for it, if I actually intend to use it as a weapon,” he said as he went to put it away in his pouch, it’s magic shrinking it down to make it fit.
Link remained quiet for a minute to see if any more tokens would come flying out of nowhere to hit him.
“I think my son Silver Bullet might be of service to you, if I introduce you to him, Link,” Celestia said to Link as she waved her wing to the waiting service - to which the waiters approached them.
“We met already in the training grounds when I was sparring with Sans,” Link pointed out.
Celestia almost grinned at the answer Link gave her, waiting until she had given her order to the waiter, before asking him, “oh? And what do you think of him, Link?”
“We didn’t talk about much, all he did was dull our weapons with a spell before I started my spar with Sans” Link explained to Celestia.
Trinity tilted her head adorably in confusion, her face contorted into a frown, “Why would he do that, he never blunted his weapons while training me?” Trinity turned to Celestia, her expression one of yearning, “Auntie, can you tell me why?” she pleaded a bit, her tail waving from side to side like a nervous twitch, while Celestia eyed her with a little worry as to the sudden and unexpected question thrown at her, right before the waiter approached the filly, where she placed her order quietly, only being heard “egg, sausage, and bread with salad, if you please.”
Clearing her throat, Celestia replied to her, “well now, my little Triny, that is one thing I’ll be talking to your dear cousin when I next see him when he starts training you on metal made ones,” before adding in thought, “perhaps it is because the training weapons he uses with you aren’t metallic in nature, rather than dense wood, and the whacks really serve as motivation to avoid getting whacked, don’t you agree?”
“There’s also the fact that both of us were wielding strong, deadly weapons made from metal - weapons that aren’t from this world.” Link explained.
“Ohhh!” the young filly exclaimed in understanding, as a plate was placed at her place, followed by Celestia and Cadance.
“... Sir? You haven’t placed your order,” asked a waitress pony who was patiently waiting for Link to acknowledge her existence, as she simply stood there with a notebook and a menu chart floating in her telekinesis.
“Oh, sorry... Uh, before I order, do you know what French Toast is?” Link asked hopefully.
The waitress just looked up to the air thoughtfully, pencil tapping her chin… before she answered him, “Well, sir, there is prench toast, which is bread battered in egg and spices, then placed on a skillet to be browned… and then there is the manish toast, which is made with hay covering the bread and vegetables, and is battered too and cooked… what is this ‘french toast’ you speak of? If possible, we might be able to make it, if you know what goes in it.”
“Its something from my world, but I believe it may be similar to the prench toast you mentioned. I’d like to have that with some bacon, an egg sandwich, and perhaps a glass of orange juice.” Link asked with a smile.
“Understood, sir… a griffin regular combo,” the waitress muttered as she wrote down the order, before leaving to have the order delivered, “will be back in a few minutes.”
Trinity giggled at Link’s eager face, and asked him with a genuine smile of relief, “Link…? You eat meat like me?”
“I’m an omnivore, but I prefer meat more than vegetables.” Link said as he looked over at Trinity.
Trinity’s eyes actually lit up at his answer, “Ohh! You’re like me! Then that means I’m not as weird as those ponies said!”, as she started to eat, her face much more relaxed as she enjoyed her meal.
“Now dear, remember that the griffins are omnivores too,” Celestia said in between bites, as she cleared up her fruit salad with pastries on the side.
“Auntie Celly, there are very few griffons living within Canterlot, so she’s bound to feel isolated,” Cadance said to Celestia while eating her omelette with greens and mushrooms.
Celestia turned sad at this, as she added, “yes, even now some of my subjects seem too… set up against foreigners, including ponies from other places…” eyeing her plate mournfully for a few seconds.
“There’s nothing wrong with eating meat, now if it was meat of a sapient being or a pet, though… then that would be problematic.” Link said. A funny thought crossed his mind. ‘I wonder what octorock tastes like…’ He thought.
“Eeek! Eat a fellow pony? Or a pet? Gross!” The filly exclaimed in disgust, showing her tongue while Cadance giggled at her antics.
“Sir, here is your order,” the unicorn waitress said politely to Link as she hovered over to his place his large breakfast, “may you have a nice meal, sir,” she added at the end before leaving the human to his breakfast, which Trinity looked at with awe, while Cadance and Celestia looked in shock.
“Link… I knew you’d be hungry, but… won’t you have difficulties to rise after the meal?” Celestia asked with concern, as she saw the stack of six prench toast, an egg sandwich which had bacon in it, a slab of ham-looking bacon on the side, and a pitcher of orange juice with a glass on the side.
“Probably not.” Link said before snickering, “most Humans don’t eat a lot, well, except for the fatter ones,” he said as he took two slices of prench toast to start with.
“Enjoy your meal, and when you’re done we’ll talk about my job proposal.” Celestia offered as she focused on her meal, followed shortly by the two younger princesses.
The rest of the meal was a peaceful one, only interrupted by the clatter of the utensils on the plates.
Once the meal was over, and the waiters had taken the used plates back with them, Celestia asked Cadance, “Cadance, would you be so kind as to take Trinity with you for a walk? We’ll be joining you shortly…”
“Sure, auntie!” Cadance said to her, before saying to Trinity, “let us walk this meal off, shall we?”
Trinity only nodded with a small smile on her face, as the two of them left the dining room… and for Celestia to ask Link, “Link, would you be so kind as to accompany me? I’d like to talk with you as we walk.”
“Sure.” Link said, wiping his mouth with a napkin before heading over to join Celestia.
Once they made their way out of the dining room, and after what felt to Link like fifteen minutes, Celestia broke the ice.
“Link… how would you feel, if I were to offer you a post as knighted bodyguard for Trinity and Cadance?” Celestia asked Link with unusual seriousness in her voice, as the offer brought Link to a grinding halt within his mind.
“For two princesses at the same time?” Link asked in surprise.
“You’ll be posted primarily for Trinity, and serve if needed as a joint bodyguard with the guard posted for Cadence, she’s undercover, since my niece insisted that she wanted to earn her keep, and works as a babysitter for some ponies in town,” she then turned to see Link as they kept walking, “I know it is much I ask, but I’d rest well if you were to keep your eyes open for the two of them, since some trouble rose up last time Trinity went with Cadance into town.”
“Understandable, she is of royalty and would be targeted by certain people.” Link said with a nod.
“It is worse than that - one of the hoodlums that tried to get her while separated from Cadance said something about ‘selling her’ to a collector.” Celestia’s tone chilled Link with how cold it turned near the end as she glowered, “and sadly for us, they managed to escape before Cadance or her guard managed to capture even one, leaving the poor filly scared out of her mind in the process.”
Link took this moment to think about it. “What did they look like? Any chance they might of left something behind?” he asked.
Celestia shook her head, her glare causing Link to raise his eyebrows in surprise at the intensity of them, before saying, “It happened six months ago, anyways… and trust me on this subject, Link… if they actually had left anything behind, I’d know by now who did this… and would have made certain, that such an action would never happen again.”
“There goes that plan...” Link said with a sigh. “I thought maybe I could try this crazy idea of mine that would help me track them down.”
“Link, if you were to accept this job, it’d become necessary for you to pass through Royal Guard training for me to actually be able to sign the paperwork, does that suit you? The salary would be slightly higher than regular guard duty, due to posting as privately hired bodyguard for the Crown.” Celestia said thoughtfully, looking at him with interest as to what would his answer - and possible demands - be.
“Shouldn’t be as hard as surviving in the Everfree Forest, so yeah. I accept the job.” Link said, it is a good starting job for the time being.
Link noticed that Celestia’s smile widened before getting schooled back into her serene, regular one, as she asked to him, “I’d appreciate it if you could keep an eye on my little Trinity in the meantime while you pass the training, and I’ll cover your food and lodging while you get approved, would you do it?”
“I already said yes, Celestia.” Link pointed out.
She sighed in relief, before answering, “it is true, Link - but thanks for confirming your resolve to me anyways.”
“Well, you did cover my expenses at the hospital, plus the food and lodging you proffered me as a guest - even took time off your schedule to include me in your life… so why don’t I start giving back a little for your kindness?” Link said to her with a smile on his face matching hers, as she smiled more freely at his answer.
‘And my main reason I’m accepting this job, is that I need answers for why Trinity has the Twilight Mirror, or why she has small features of Wolf Link,’ Link said to himself as they kept on walking in companionable silence.