Equestria
The Everfree (the “Castle of the two Sisters”)
Approximately 1500 years ago
So I had been around Equestria for around 25 years at this time. I aided the ponies against the Wendingos (a story for another time) and I also befriended the princess’ so all in all I was pretty happy and well known around Equestria. Of course with my luck it couldn’t last. This, Mares and Gentlecolts, is the story of how I turned from the light, and earned myself imprisonment.
I woke that morning with a bad feeling; then again I never did feel too comfortable with the Everfree ever since my arrival in Equestria.
I was greeted by Gerald, he had been my “Personal Servant Pony” (or PSP for short) since I was all but legally inducted into the Royal Family. We went through the normal procedures of my day, waking up, breakfast, weapon checks, you know normal stuff! Though today was different, in a way I was soon to discover.
“Sir” said Gerald in a bland Butlery kind of voice “I must inform you that Princess Luna has requested your presence in her personal chambers once you were awoken and fed.”
Gerald stated all of this without any change in the tone of his voice or facial expression.
“Awesome! Thanks Gerald.” I said as I pulled on my glove. I was so glad I had gotten Gerald to stop talking in “Medieval Speak” as I called it. Sure it’s kinda cool but after a while it starts to grind on your nerves, especially if you had grown up where that way of speech wasn’t very common.
As I approached Luna’s chambers my sense of unease hit overdrive, which I found extremely weird. Most ponies had been staying away from Luna, there were even signs forbidding anypony from entering but I wasn’t a pony so I ‘neglected’ to obey the signs.
Luna had come down with a horrible cold recently it was diagnosed as “Possibly, highly infective to other ponies and best kept away from ALL ponies. Although we are unsure of its specifics and origins” as the doctor said.
I knocked on Luna’s door once I arrived only to be polite.
“Enter!” Luna stated grandly, she sounded different in a way that I couldn’t explain. When I walked in she looked almost the same except her fur seemed slightly darker, and her eyes possessed a slight greenish tint to them.
“Hey Luna! Heard you wanted to see me?” I said smiling at her. She seemed to brighten up once she saw it was me looking more like her normal self.
“Link! Yes I did indeed want to see you! I… haven’t been feeling myself lately and I wanted someone to talk to, sadly you are the only one who ever visits me as my sister is much too busy to visit me.” Luna said, a sad note lingering on the end of her statement.
“Of course, Luna! I’m always more than happy to talk with you about anything! But don’t blame your sister! She keeps trying to visit but the castle staff keeps on preventing her from entering the area!” I exclaimed as I sat on the edge of her bed.
She nodded solemnly and seemed to accept that.
Then we sat there for a few hours goofing off, telling jokes, gossiping about events around the castle, and just talking. Afterwards though, I had to go as I was in charge of training the soldiers as well as keeping my skills intact. So we said our goodbyes and I left her room, heading to my personal armory.
While there I put on some extra armor as the soldiers had been getting a little more aggressive as of late, probably from the extreme beatings I had given them a while ago! Some still had bruises… but then I had some bruises left over from the last training session, even with my enhanced healing factor. Suddenly a blue Parasprite flew through the window into the Armory almost knocking into my head in the process.
“Whoa! Navi you crazy Sprite! You almost took off my head!” I exclaimed glaring at her.
“Not like you use it much anyways Link!” She said cheerfully sticking her tongue out at me.
Navi, my trusty companion and assistant. I had found her terrorizing a small town as they were petrified of Parasprites in general. I approached ready to just contain her, but she started talking instead! I decided to take her in and named her Navi for nostalgia’s sake!
I gave her a half-hearted glare but decided to let it slide just this once.
“C’mon Navi! We got some guards to train!” I said to her waving my hand as I buckled my scabbard on and headed for the door.
“You mean brutally humiliate them right?” Navi asked as she happily bobbed along behind me.
“Hush Navi, let’s at least give them the illusion of achieving victory! Also don’t taunt them again this time.” I mumbled the last bit.
“Well what was I supposed to do? When you hit him he really did sound like a pregnant Manticore!” Navi stated defensively.
“Navi, we’ve talked about your brutal honesty before!” I said to her as we entered the training area.
The training grounds were very well designed. With an open ceiling allowing Pegasus flight, but a magical field keeping rain and other harmful elements from drifting in. A very valid fear with how close we were to the Everfree Forest. There were plenty of randomly placed rocks to serve as cover, or projectiles depending on how you preferred to fight! On the opposite side of the field were my training partners; 5 Unicorns from Celestia’s personal Battlemage group, 5 Batponies straight from Luna’s Elite Night Guard, 5 Pegasi from the Wonderbolts fighting battalion, and 5 Earth ponies from Survey Corps. Basically, they were the Best of the Best from all branches and races under the Princess’ rule.
“Heya losers! Ready to get your flanks handed to you all again!” Navi hollered at them neglecting to respond or acknowledge my previous statement.
The ponies, whom I affectionately called the A-Team, turned towards us, smirks lining all their faces. Gravel, their designated leader for these sorties, stepped forward.
“If I remember correctly, Navi, we gave Link a good run for his Bits last training session!” Gravel called out a chorus of “Yeahs” and “You know its” emerging from the rest.
“Well then,” I said quickly before Navi could rile them up any more, “How about you all try putting your Bits where your mouths are!” I hollered at them drawing my sword with a flourish.
3 hours later
I stumbled into my room covered in cuts and bruises, the group had really brought their A-Game today, but I’d still been able to knock them all unconscious. Thankfully I had a spare sword that was enchanted to where it was constantly dull, that way I didn’t run the risk of causing permanent damage to them!
“Wow they actually got good Link! That bit with the swords in the rock was really inspired!” Navi said bouncing around excitedly.
“Yes Navi, I thought so too!” I said with a smile. Absently lighting the candles in my room as it was already getting dark. Wait a minute.
I quickly looked up at the clock I had been given for my rooms, one that actually worked. The time read 3:30pm, which was strange since Celestia only lowered the sun at 6:30 on the dot, without fail. I quickly ran to the window and saw a sight I still remember to this day. The sun and the moon were both visible and fighting for dominance of the sky. Ponies gathered in the courtyard watching the sky with mixtures of confusion, fear, and awe. I knew something was wrong, quickly grabbing my real Master Sword and ran towards the throne room, ignoring my earlier aches and pains.
“Link! Hey! Link! Wait up!” Navi yelled after me quickly zipping along to catch up “What’s wrong Link? You seem more intense than usual!” Navi asked as I skidded around a corner firing my Longshot into the wall to keep up my speed.
“The sky! Somethings wrong with the Sun and Moon. If there’s a problem there, then only 2 people are likely to know what’s happening. One of whom is too bedridden to even do her part! So we’re going to see Celestia” I said, still running while doing my best to dodge those in the hallways watching the sky.
As I got closer to the Throne room I noticed two things; one there were very few ponies in the halls now, but many unconscious guards, and two… I could hear the sounds of a fight. Feeling some serious magic power being thrown around.
“Hey, Link! Do you feel that?” asked Navi, looking slightly nervous.
“Yeah I do Navi, and I don’t like it!” I said, my already intense look growing worse “Seems like somebody is being too noisy, how about we go and ask them to quiet down!” I said a slight grin appearing my face, cracking a joke.
Navi shook her head slightly “Even with this you have the time to crack jokes, sometimes you really surprise me Link” she said as a slight smile touched her face.
I ran down the final hallway and kicked the Throne Room doors open just in time to bear witness to the second ever use of the Elements of Harmony.
“Sister, please don’t do this!” Celestia cried as she dodged another lance of magic.
“Tis too late Sister, no more will I stand aside! No more shall you enthrall our precious ponies with your light as they ignore my magnificent Night! If the ponies won’t see my Night because of your precious light, then… THEN I SHALL MAKE THE NIGHT ETERNAL!!” boomed a familiar voice. I turned to look at it and saw Luna, but not as I remembered her. Her mane had turned dark and… look do I really need to describe Nightmare Moon to everyone? No? Good!
I was tempted to just scoot away and let the sisters fight it out but I felt a dark presence in Luna, one I had felt before in the frozen North, and I didn’t like it! So as Luna Nightmare charged up a blast that most certainly would have disintegrated Celestia, I quickly used my Longshot on a wooden beam in the roof. As I felt it tug me along I kicked off a column and swung around to kick Nightmare in the face with both feet in a way that would make Spiderman proud! It knocked her horn to the side causing the magic lance to shoot through the roof instead, sadly breaking the beam I was using to Longshot as well.
I started to fall as the Long shot retracted, and had to think fast. I quickly drew my Sword and placed my feet on its hilt to where it was lined up to hit the ground first, then I pulled off my belt a small crystal with a little blue light in it and quickly screamed “Nayru’s Love” in a perfectly manly and not at all frightened way so as to activate it. Then, surrounded in a glowing blue diamond of magic, I hit the ground. My shield took the brunt of the impact and shattered, leaving my Sword to pierce into the ground, keeping me from suffering any damage from the fall. I quickly pulled my Sword from the ground and spun around to face the Nightmare.
“Link” gasped Celestia, sounding relieved.
“You!” Nightmare screeched, surprised and shocked, one hoof on her cheek where I had kicked her.
“Me,” I said happily “you might want to get that looked at by the way, it’s definitely gonna leave a bruise!” I chirped giving my sword a twirl.
“I see,” Nightmare said, sounding slightly sad “so Celestia has corrupted even you with her light. You who turn into a creature of the Night at the slightest whim! Truly there is no hope for her.” Nightmare seemed to get angry about that, “I will just have to make sure you can’t help her, then I can free you from her influence at a later time!” with that, she charged at me.
Before she reached, me I glanced back at Celestia who seemed to be crawling for a box that had been in between the thrones, so I decided to stall Nightmare until Celestia could successfully use her plan. At first I didn’t see her as I asked “Wait... how can light corrupt?” She then hit me like a freight train.
Thus began one of the hardest Battles I have ever fought. She tried everything, fired lasers that I reflected with my shield, shot balls of magic which I batted away with my Sword. She even attempted to grapple me, but I bashed her with my Gauntleted fist. Suddenly Celestia yelled at me.
“Link! Restrain her!” I turned to see her surrounded by the Elements of Harmony as sparks of magic flickered from one Element to the next.
I nodded my understanding. I dodged as Nightmare tried to tackle me, pinning her down instead. Celestia slowly approached struggling to maintain all the Elements at once; I knew then that she would only be able to fire one blast with them.
“Luna I do not know what has happened to thee, but I hope that the Elements can purify thine soul!” Celestia said, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Then she reared back and fired the Elements.
I felt Nightmare try to escape my grasp. Then as she realized she couldn’t escape, she brought all her magic to bear in an attempt to block the Elements. Their spells clashed mid-air and they fought back and forth. Never had anypony ever thought that anything could resist the Elements. I could see Celestia visibly struggling to uphold the magic. I decided that if this went on much longer… we would fail. I had to do something fast, I quickly pulled my Ball and Chain from my Magic Pouch and wrapped it around Nightmare, who was too busy focusing on her magic to notice. Once she was chained up I reached out, and grabbed her horn blocking the magic. Her magical lance slowly weakened, allowing Celestia’s magic to creep closer.
Nightmare’s magic fought against my Gauntlets, but I held on tight. Fighting it even as some of her tainted magic started to creep up my arms. Suddenly I pulled her around leaving her back exposed for the Elements blast, which quickly struck her. I felt the magic hit her, and I smiled in what I hoped was a comforting way as I was happy that she was being restored, but then. I felt her body become less, there. She seemed to slowly melt before my eyes, like an ice cube in warm water. She was gone and the last dregs of their warped magical cocktail hit me like a drunk Manticore, and all I saw was darkness. A darkness filled with shadows and evil laughter.
I awoke to more darkness and at first I thought I was still unconscious, until my eyes adjusted and I took in the room, lit up only by stars. I looked around as my eyes adjusted to what little light there was. I easily recognized my room for when I stayed in the castle, which wasn’t very often normally, but I had been living here since Luna fell ill so it definitely looked lived in. I groaned slightly as my body took advantage of my now functional brain to loudly voice it’s pain. All my cuts and bruises from training seemed trivial now. I looked down at my body and realized I was only wearing the shorts I kept under my tunic, which made it much easier to see all the damage.
My hands looked badly burned, almost black, with the exception of my glowing gold triforce piece. My arms had many large bruises making them an ugly purple, with the addition of many crisscrossing red lines and gashes where my skin had been cut. I gulped at the damage, sure I had been injured before in the past but never this badly, and I was surprised my body had anything to complain about since I could barely even feel or move my arms. I decided I didn’t even want to look at my legs and decided to seek the escape of sleep and hope it all looked better in the light of the morning, and if all else failed, I could be distracted so much by getting answers that I wouldn’t notice the pain.
When I woke up the next morning I noticed a very tired looking Celestia staring at the window, her horn aglow with magic as she raised the sun.
“Hey Sunbutt” I coughed out weakly managing a small grin; the pain I had hoped would vanish had only intensified as time had gone on.
“Oh Link! You’re awake!” Celestia said, looking both shocked and relieved at the same time. “You took quite a beating when you leapt to the rescue, again…” she seemed hesitant on how to discuss what had happened.
“Yeah, I’m fine! It’ll take more than whatever that was to kill me, at least I hope it’ll be something epic and not something silly like a dart of mistletoe!” I said flashing her my trademark grin.
She looked slightly confused at my little joke but just shook it off, “Well with your sense of justice, it’ll probably be either heroic, stupid, or both” she attempted a small grin, but I could tell her heart wasn’t really in it.
“Nice to hear you speaking normal English instead of your Equish Celestia, makes it easier to understand you. That and your Equish makes me feel like I’m in a Shakespeare Tragedy” I chuckled slightly wincing in pain.
“Oh Link! Are you okay?” asked Celestia looking worried and slightly panicked.
“Yeah I should be fine... just look… in my bag… and hand me a… purple potion” I said gasping slightly from the pain.
Celestia quickly walked to a nearby table where my gear had been neatly stacked next to a fresh tunic and hat for me. She used her magic to dig through my bag’s inventory, and quickly retrieved a bottle of a strange purple liquid which she brought over to me.
“Thanks,” I groaned out, before quickly chugging it down. Suddenly my pain vanished as the potion went to work, sealing wounds and healing bruises within seconds. Soon I was looking perfectly fine and I easily got out of bed.
“Link! What magic is this?” Celestia asked, looking absolutely shocked at my rapid recovery yet smiling all the same.
“Just another of my many skills, along with the help of the Zebras I met a couple years ago. They showed me some new herbs I could use for my potions!” I exclaimed with a smile as I walked over to my gear and started putting it all back on.
“Now…” I said, turning towards her as I buckled on my sword sheath and shield, “What’s happened while I was sleeping? And what happened after your little light show at the end of the battle?”
What followed was a long, boring explanation about her struggling to explain the situation to her subjects while knowing nothing. The only thing we did know was confirmed as the sun set that night and we both sat under the moon and cried together at the image of the mare, on the moon.
1 Week Later
That was the hardest week of my life. It was one full week of intense training as I accused myself of failing my duty to them. It was one week of crying every night as I saw the moon. One week where I could do nothing! But at the end of the week, something in me snapped. I couldn’t just stay here and do nothing, I was starting to go stir crazy! So I marched out straight to the throne room to find Celestia.
I stormed into the throne room, startling a few petitioners as I walked straight up to Celestia, “Celestia,” I said my voice deadly serious, “We need to talk. In private,” I clarified, after looking at all the guards and petitioners.
Celestia looked slightly confused and startled, but nodded and motioned for everyone to leave, “What is it Link?” she asked.
“I just remembered something…” I said, “When we fought… her… I felt something I hadn’t felt since the Crystal Empire…” I looked straight at her, “I felt the presence of Sombra.”