//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: The Forest Temple // Story: Harmony of Heroes: Ultimate Multiverse Explorers // by Lucar //------------------------------// The ambience was immediately different inside the temple. Its mostly ruined state overrun by the vegetation of the forest gave it a mysterious and mystical feeling, but the atmosphere of the place made Sweetie Belle and Link absolutely anxious and uncomfortable with a constant feeling of danger and... wrongness. It was crushing! In the first room, the grass had totally covered the ground, vines and ivy were everywhere on the walls, and there were two trees. The two heroes barely took a few steps before they were suddenly attacked by two wolf-like creatures that Navi identified as Wolfos. The wolves were easy to defeat, but they weren't dumb beasts; if attacked from the front, they protected themselves with their sharp and solid claws, forcing Link to attack when they had their back turned. Beside that, they used the usual tactic of wolves: walk around the target and strike from their blind spot. Too bad for the wolves that Link wasn't alone, so while Link dealt with one of the wolves, Sweetie Belle dealt with the other. Or rather, she played with it while Link was fighting the other. She jumped on its head while avoiding its claws and turned the fight into a rodeo. Then, when she saw that Link was done with his Wolfo, she simply broke its neck. With the Wolfos dead, nothing stopped them from continuing to the next room, but instead, Link went to climb on the vines. "What are you doing?" asked Sweetie Belle. "There may be something up those vines," answered Link. "A rule that you must never forget in a dungeon is to look everywhere. You never know where you may find a hidden key or whatever other important treasure." "Noted. But wait, no need to climb, I can just fly up there to verify." She did so and found out that there was indeed a small treasure chest at the top of one of the trees which would have forced Link to use the Hookshot to reach it. Inside, she found a small silver key that Link immediately put away in one of his seemingly bottomless pouches on his belt. They then passed the door, traversed the hallway that followed (killing a giant Skulltula, a spider with its back looking like a skull), and entered what seemed to be the main room of the temple. There, they were witness to four colored flames (red, blue, green, and purple) disappearing before Poes of corresponding colors appeared and exited the room in four different directions. The disappearance of the flames caused a small elevator in the center of the room to move into the ground, becoming unusable. "Seems like we will need to find and defeat these Poes to use this elevator which probably leads to our objective," concluded Navi. Link and Sweetie Belle both agreed. It was pretty obvious what they had to do. But the hardest will certainly be to find the Poes. At least, while the entrance of the temple had been totally overrun by the vegetation, it wasn't the case here. There were still vines on the walls, but not a trace of grass, letting them admire the royal red carpet covering the center of the room (excepted where the elevator disappeared). Beside where they came from, the room had five other entrances, but most of them were blocked or couldn't be reached in the case of the East door (not without flying, at least) as it was on a ledge without any way to get on it. The West door had chains with a lock, the Northwest door was behind one of these time cubes like in the tomb, and the Northeast door was blocked by bars. For this last one, an interrupter looking like an eye was present on the wall above, and it was easy to understand that they had to fire something at it. Link attempted the Hookshot, but it didn't work. Only the North door, on top of a staircase, was already open. Of course, thanks to the key they got, they could open the West door. The Song of Time could unlock the Northwest one. Sweetie Belle could fire at the interrupter until it activated, and she could levitate Link to the ledge with the East door. "So, where do we go?" asked the filly. "Let's start with the unlocked door," decided Link. So they climbed the stairs in the North and passed the door, entering another hallway with a flying skull surrounded in blue fire named Blue Bubble. "What the heck is that name? Why name flying skulls 'Bubbles'? It totally ruins their creepy nature, and they look nothing like bubbles," said Sweetie Belle after they dealt with the skull. Link shrugged. "No idea." They then entered a round room, bars appearing on the door behind them, trapping them in it. The next instant, two Stalfos came out of nowhere, equipped with weirdly-shaped orange/red swords and simple round shields. They revealed to be fierce warriors as they easily parried or avoided Link's attacks, but Link was smart and simply waited for them to lower their guard to attack to hit them. And Sweetie Belle just knocked her target's shield away before slicing it vertically in half. She then simply watched Link dealing with his Stalfos. When the second was dead, the bars blocking the door disappeared, and a chest with another key appeared in the center of the room. "Is there even anything challenging to you?" asked Navi to Sweetie Belle. "Of course. There is always something stronger than you. But definitively not these Stalfos. They were good, but nothing compared to Meta Knight or Galacta Knight. Now these ones are challenging warriors that would kick Link's butt in a few seconds even in a simple sword fight. But I'm sure that Link would be able to fight them with some training, he is a natural with a sword." "Uh, thanks. How strong are they?" asked Link. Sweetie Belle grinned. "To give you an idea, their strikes are so fast that they break the sound barrier. By the time you register that you have been hit, they have turned you into little cubes." ".....Wow... Yeah, I will need a LOT of training if I want to face them. But since they certainly live in another dimension, I don't think this will happen." "Galacta can slice space open to jump through dimensions. He could perfectly come here if he wanted, and if he knew where this universe is in the multiverse. Or I could lead you to them." Link shook his head. "No thanks." At this, they returned in the main room, and this time, chose to see what was behind the cube blocking the Northwest path. After making the cube disappear with the Song of Time, they passed the door that was behind and entered some outdoor area with some ruins and a small stream with a bridge. After slicing one of these carnivorous plants named Big Deku Baba and dealing with an Octoroc (the octopus thing) in the water, they looked around and saw a well at the left as well as a path in the upper level that couldn't be reached (again, not without flying). However, there were some vines covering a wall in the right that Link could climb to reach another passage, but Sweetie had to deal first with a few smaller Skulltulas (named Skullwalltulas, because they needed a different name because they simply walked on the wall) that were on the way. There was a door in the passage that led to a small room where they had to kill a Blue Bubble to continue. By killing it, they also made a big chest appear, the chest revealing to contain the map of the temple. "Already?" asked Navi in wonder. Link shrugged as he looked at the map. "I'm not complaining. This place seems vast. The inside of the Great Deku Tree, the Dodongo's cavern, and the Great Jabu-Jabu were nothing compared to it. I hope we will find the compass quickly too." "I smell a routine," remarked Sweetie Belle. "You are right. In all dungeons, there is always three items in common beside the keys: the map, the compass, and the big key to the room where the big bad guy of the dungeon awaits. The compass indicates the position of all the treasures and other important elements inside the dungeon where it is found. So finding the map and the compass early is very useful." "Seems like we made the right choice taking this path first," said the filly to this before they continued. They reached another outdoor area that was behind the Northeast door of the main room. They were on a balcony, and at their left, there was another balcony with a target above that screamed "Fire something at me!" Link used the Hookshot at it and he was successfully transported on the other balcony where he stepped on a switch that drained all the water in a well below. While he did this, Sweetie Belle dealt with all the monsters present, Deku Babas (normal and big), Skulltulas, and Octorocs in the water also present here. Link then jumped from the balcony and landed with a roll to not be hurt while Sweetie opened a small chest on a ledge that contained some rupees that she gave to the Hylian. With the well drained, they guessed that they had to go there next, and so, Sweetie jumped in it while Link used a ladder, arriving in a sewer where they found another small chest with a key. "That makes three keys," said Sweetie Belle. "Seems like there's nowhere else to go in this part of the temple." "Let's return in the main hall, then," said Link before he began to climb the vines here to return in the West outdoor area, followed by the filly. From there, they returned in the main room and used a first key to open the West door. After traversing another hallway with a Skulltula, they entered a room where they had to pull and push two giant colored blocks (one blue and one red) into holes to reach upper levels. Instead of simply levitating Link, they decided to place the blocks so Sweetie Belle wouldn't have to levitate Link each times they returned in this room. It was really easy. They just had to follow the arrows. And Sweetie Belle even kicked the blocks to make them slide into the holes instead of pushing them. Placing the red block opened the way to a ladder that led to the top level of the room where there was a locked door under an eye-interrupter that was guarded by two Blue Bubbles. After killing the skulls, they unlocked the door with one of the keys. "Woah!" shouted Sweetie Belle when she saw what was next. A twisted corridor! Link scratched his head as he looked at the corridor in wonder. "Well... That's new..." "No kidding. I went on a lot of adventures, but I never encountered something like this," said Sweetie Belle before she smiled excitedly. "That's exactly why I started to explore other worlds! To discover new wonders like that!" "I wonder if this will have consequences on other rooms," said Navi. "Can you even continue this way?" At her question, Link advanced, discovering that he continued to walk on the ground even thought it twisted to become a wall. "Yes, we can, it seems." So they advanced in the twisted hallway until reaching a weird room with a pillar at the center. There, Navi warned about a monster hanging from the ceiling and Sweetie used one of her cannons to fire a beam right above her without even looking before stepping to the side, killing some disembodied monstrous hand that fell where she had been. "A Wallmaster! Be careful! If it grabs you, it transports you back at the entrance of the temple!" warned Navi. "More will probably come to take its place. Look at the shadow at your feet or hooves." "Thanks. Link, step aside," instructed Sweetie Belle before she fired another beam, killing another Wallmaster. Link quickly moved aside to avoid it as it fell from the ceiling. "As nice as it is to kill these abominations of nature, we should continue." So they jumped on the central pillar, and jumped toward the next door at their right, which was also locked. They quickly unlocked it as Sweetie killed a last Wallmaster. They entered a room with a staircase and a painting of the red Poe beside it. When they approached the stairs, the red Poe disappeared from the painting with a laugh. "Oh! It thinks it's smart, hiding in a painting!" said Sweetie Belle as she frowned at the now empty painting. She then cut the painting to shreds with one of her beam swords. As they moved down the stairs, they saw more paintings, and Sweetie fired a beam at the one with the red Poe in it. The painting burned, but the Poe moved to the last painting. With nowhere else to go, the Poe was forced to go out of the painting when Sweetie fired at it. The Poe was then easily sent to the afterlife, freeing the red flame and materializing a small chest with a key. "One down," said Sweetie Belle. "Three to go," said Link. "I don't know how I would have done without you." "You would have probably found something to force it out," said Navi. "The dungeon's item," said Link. Seeing Sweetie Belle's questioning look, he explained. "In some dungeons, there's an item to be found that helps progressing in the dungeon. Inside the Deku Tree, it was a slingshot. Inside Jabu-Jabu, it was a boomerang. And in here, it seems that it will be something to fire at the eye-interrupters and the paintings." "So that's something else to find beside the big key and the compass. It shouldn't take long with all these eye-interrupters we saw," the filly said. They then moved toward the exit door at the bottom level of the room. The next room they entered was a circular room just above the one where they had fought the two Stalfos, but this one had a round hole in its center so they had to watch out, and again, bars blocked the exits. A Stalfos then came to challenge them only to be quickly defeated. A platform transporting two more Stalfos then came from the ceiling and filled in the hole, and the fight continued. Like before, Sweetie Belle quickly dealt with her Stalfos only to discover that this one reformed after a time. She huffed at this before she used a shield to totally crush the skeleton. For good measure, she then assembled the crushed bones into a pile and sent an explosive ball at it, sending bits of bones in all directions. At the same moment, Link finished with his Stalfos, and a big chest appeared in the middle of the room. Inside, Link found a bow with a quiver full of arrows. "Neat! That's exactly what you needed!" said Sweetie Belle. "So, should we retrace our steps to activate the eye-interrupters?" "We should as well," agreed Link. "There was one in the main hall and two in the room with the blocks. The one in the hall should be just a shortcut to reach the East outdoor area if needed," said Navi. Sweetie Belle and Link both nodded before they exited the room by the West door. They returned in the main hall to quickly activate the interrupter, then activated another one in the block room that made a chest containing more arrows drop from nowhere. They then activated the last interrupter above the door to the twisted hallway. It untwisted the hallway, turning it back to normal. Thanks to this, they were able to enter the room with the Wallmasters with a different angle, letting them reach a very well decorated chest that contained the big key that they were looking for. "All that remains is the compass," said Sweetie Belle as she fired a beam above her and moved to the side, killing a Wallmaster. "The compass isn't really needed anymore now that we have the big key," said Link. He then looked at the hole that previously led to the door to the red Poe's room. "I think that we should jump in it. It probably leads somewhere new now." "Okay, but I'm wondering something. How will we return in the room where we found the bow, now? With the hallway untwisted, it's inaccessible." "Good point, but I may have an idea. Have you remarked that the interrupter above the door to the hallway was silver while all the others were golden?" "Oh? Oooohh! You mean that it could be used again?" "Maybe." "Nice thinking! Hum... Maybe I should go down the hole first to see if this isn't a trap." Link agreed, and Sweetie Belle flew down the hole. She discovered that it led to a room with two Blue Bubbles that she quickly killed, unlocking a door. Seeing that there was a path, she flew back up to Link and told him about it. She then carefully levitated the Hylian down the hole into the room where they passed the unlocked door. The door led back to the West outdoor area, in one of the alcoves on the path in the upper level. Following the path, they dealt with a Big Deku Baba that blocked the way and entered a door in another alcove that led, according to the map, to a room without other exits, meaning that it probably contained a treasure. In there, they had to fight a cousin of the Wallmaster named Floormaster (so it just walked on the floor with its fingers). It wasn't hard to kill, but once it was defeated, it separated into three smaller Floormasters that Sweetie quickly destroyed with beams. This materialized a chest with a key. They then returned in the outdoor area and passed the last door at the end of the pathway which led back to the room with the blocks, on a ledge that made it inaccessible from this side. They then returned to the top level of the room and used the bow on the silver interrupter, which had for effect to open it again, twisting back the hallway so they were able to return to the room where they found the bow. From there, they passed the East door to continue the exploration of the temple. The next room was exactly like the room of the red Poe, but this time, the paintings were of the blue Poe. Using his bow, Link helped Sweetie in destroying the paintings one by one until the Poe was forced out, and the heroes quickly dealt with it, freeing the blue flame and materializing a big chest containing the compass. "About time..." grumbled Link. They climbed to the upper level of the room and used one of their two keys to unlock the door there, entering a room similar to the one with the Wallmasters. Speaking of, Sweetie Belle immediately killed one above Link. From the angle they were, nothing could be done in this room, so they had no choice but to jump down and climb back up to the only exit at the right leading to the hallway which wasn't twisted. After dealing with two Green Bubbles (same as blue, but with green flames and just flying back and forth in a path without minding the heroes as long as they weren't in the way), they unlocked and passed the door at the end and entered a room that had a pit filled with lava with moving platforms on it. The goal here was to jump on one of the moving platforms to fire an arrow through the torch on the pillar in the center to melt the ice covering an eye-interrupter and activate it, but Sweetie Belle simply fired a fire beam at it, letting Link fire an arrow without worrying about the rest. As they expected, it twisted the hallway, letting the heroes enter the previous room in the right angle to reach a hole into which they jumped. They fell in a room with a checkerboard floor that had a staircase leading to the East outdoor area, on a ledge. There was another path South, but it was dangerous as the ceiling dropped on them! There were holes, thankfully, but Skulltulas waited in ambush in some of them, so they had to keep an eye on both the ceiling to see where were the holes and the floor to spot the Skulltulas' shadows. On the way, they had to walk on a switch to unlock the door at the end, and they opened a small chest with more arrows for Link. Passing the door, they entered the room where the green Poe awaited them in its portrait. Link fired at it with his bow, but instead of forcing the Poe to come out, it caused a bunch of blocks to drop from the ceiling. The blocks formed an image of the green Poe, and they had to push them to reconstitute it. With some teamwork, they managed to do it very rapidly, starting with Sweetie kicking away a blue block that had nothing to do among the others. Once the image was reconstituted, the blocks disappeared in the floor and the green Poe appeared and quickly joined the other two in the afterlife. "One left," said Link. "But where could the last one be? We explored all that we could access in this part of the temple." "I only see one possibility: the purple Poe probably appeared in one of the already explored rooms now that the three others are gone," guessed Navi. "Which leaves us to explore the temple again until we find said room," Sweetie Belle said with a sigh. Thankfully, they didn't have to go far to find the purple Poe. After passing a door and traversing another hallway with a Skulltula, they returned in the main hall from the East door on the ledge. There, they found the purple Poe in the center of the room, doing they-weren't-sure what. When it saw them, it then laughed and created three doubles of itself that were actually illusions. It wasn't a problem however as Sweetie fired simultaneously a beam at the four of them, hitting the real one and destroying the illusions, letting Link hit it with an arrow. The Poe disappeared and repeated the process, only to be hit again by Sweetie's beam and Link's arrow. A last beam killed it, freeing the purple flame. With the four flames back in place, the elevator came out of the ground. "Finally! Now, we can reach the big bad guy and save your friend!" Sweetie Belle said. Link nodded. "Let's hurry." They walked on the elevator, and it led them to the basement of the temple, in a somewhat circular room where they discovered that they could make the wall spin by pushing the 'handles'. They had to do it to open the way to alcoves where they had to walk on switches to rise grids that blocked said alcoves as well as the path to the final room. Three switches for three grids. In one of the alcoves was also a chest guarded by a Skulltula, the chest containing arrows. Once the way was open, they unlocked the final door with the big key and passed it. In the last room, they climbed stairs to an arena with the Triforce symbol in the center and surrounded by six pictures, and Sweetie Belle had a feeling of how the coming fight will play out. However, nothing came to attack them. Frowning, Sweetie Belle walked toward the exit of the arena only for the path to be blocked. "I though so." Sweetie Belle and Link then heard a sound from behind, and they quickly turned around to see that they weren't alone anymore. Out of nowhere, a dark-skinned man on a huge black horse had appeared. The man had red hair and a large pointed nose, and was wearing some black and brown leather outfit that didn't seem to be quite an armor but still seemed solid enough. He still had pieces of black armor that covered the shoulders, the knees, and the back of the hands, and he also had armored brown boots. Said black armor pieces even had yellow gems encrusted in it with spikes on the knees. Finally, the guy had a jewel on his forehead. As for a weapon, the man used a three-bladed spear. Let me guess. It's our unfriendly neighborhood the evil overlord, thought Sweetie Belle. If he isn't, then I'm ready to eat a hat. Then, after a small chuckle, the man put on some skull mask that let out blue fire from the eyes before they began to glow. And the horse began to float in the air. It isn't magic that makes this horse float, remarked the filly then with a frown as she felt the energy used by the guy. The energy actually felt more like the one used by the Poes. Supernatural. Then, Ganondorf (because it was obviously him) entered one of the pictures with his horse and disappeared in it with a deep, dark cackle. Sweetie Belle and Link immediately placed themselves back to back as they eyed the pictures. Sweetie Belle saw Ganondorf appear in one of the pictures, his horse galloping down the path in it, and she readied a beam for when he would start to come out. However, to her surprise, the man turned around. At this instant, Link fired an arrow at another picture, and Sweetie Belle looked and saw that he hit another Ganondorf who had been in the process of exiting the picture. Ganondorf then retreated into the picture and disappeared in it. She had been facing an illusion. Too bad for him, it could have worked if Link had been alone, which wasn't the case here. Ganondorf still tried his luck with this, only he used more illusions to trick the two heroes, three this time plus the real one. It still wasn't enough however as Sweetie Belle still managed to fire at the real one as he was exiting one of the pictures. Ganondorf then tried a third time with five illusion, meaning that there was a rider in all the pictures. It was Link's quick acting that let him fire at the real Ganondorf just before he managed to fully exit one of the pictures. Ganondorf left his horse who disappeared back in the picture, and the man began to float around before he sent an energy ball with his spear that Link managed to smack back toward Ganondorf with his sword. The two then began to play a mortal game of pong with the ball until Galondorf eventually missed and took the ball in the face, stunning him, leaving him open for the heroes' attacks. He didn't remain stunned long however and he immediately began to float again after he recovered. Ganondorf then raised his spear and both heroes quickly ran as bolts of electricity began to rain behind them. The man eventually sent another energy ball, and Link barely avoided it as he was still running from the raining lightning. However, as Ganondorf cackled again, Sweetie Belle materialized and wrapped her whip around the man's leg before slamming him on the ground, and Link took the occasion to strike him again only to eventually receive a punch on the face from the man as he recovered. Ganondorf then grabbed the whip still wrapped around his leg and tugged to send Sweetie Belle in the air before he attempted to do to her what she did to him with much more force. Thankfully, the filly turned into metal before the impact, and even then, she still felt some pain. Free from the filly's weapon, Ganondorf floated again and sent a ball this time at the recovering filly who used a mirror to protect herself, but the dark mage avoids this time the deflected ball as well as the arrow fired by Link before he sent several fireballs all over the arena. When he saw the heroes avoid them, he then sent another energy ball at Link who deflected it back at him. Ganondorf avoided the ball again, only for Sweetie to fly on the path of the ball before using her bare hoof to deflect the ball at Ganondorf from behind him, hitting him in the back and stunning him again. He didn't remain stunned long however and parried both heroes' swords with a swing of his spear before, with a fast move, he thrusted his weapon at Link to impale him while avoiding a swing of Sweetie's sword by lowering himself. Link quickly used his shield to protect himself, but he was still sent flying by the hit. Sweetie Belle managed to pierce him at this moment, but Ganondorf immediately answered by swinging his spear at her, forcing her to move away to avoid it. Link then came back, avoided another thrust of the spear, and pierced Ganondorf too with his sword, followed by Sweetie Belle again. With a scream of agony, Ganondorf's body began to spasm while blue fire enveloped it, and he slowly began to break down in it. Then, a portal appeared in the center of the arena, and the burning man slowly began to float toward it as a voice was heard. "Mmh... This looked a little too easy for you two. I should have put more power in this phantom. At least, you both showed some good skills. Just know that it won't be as easy against the real me!" "I should have known..." muttered Sweetie Belle. The fake Ganondorf then began to trash in pain as it began to disappear into the portal. "What a worthless that ghost was! I will banish it to the gap between dimensions!!" shouted the real Ganondorf as the ghost finally disappeared and the portal closed. And then, everything was silence until a blue light appeared in the center of the arena where the portal had been. "Yeah, this guy seemed far too weak for being an evil overlord worthy of the title," commented Sweetie Belle. "Just a pale copy. This Ganondorf may actually be a real piece of work, especially if he can open portals to the void just like that. And apparently, he's observing us." Link nodded before he walked into the blue light, quickly joined by the filly. A crystal then appeared around them and transported them to the Chamber of Sages, in the middle of the Temple of Light in the Sacred Realm. It was a seemingly endless blue chamber with several blue pillars. They were on one such pillar, on a symbol of the Triforce, surrounded by six pedestals, green, red, blue, orange, purple, and yellow. Each pedestal was emblazoned with a symbol. Another blue light then appeared on the green pedestal, and out of it came a young green-haired girl in Kokiri clothing. Seeing how Link looked at her with fondness, it was obvious that the girl was Saria. So Sweetie Belle remained behind as Saria began to talk. "Thank you... Because of you, I could awaken as a Sage... As the Sage of the Forest Temple..." "Saria..." muttered Link as he knelt to be at the same height as the girl. "I'm so glad you are alright. I... I missed you." Saria smiled back at him. "I missed you too. I always believed that you would come back, although this is not to stay like I would hope. This is just not your destiny. And this is not my destiny to remain at your side. We can't live in the same world... But it is nice to see you again." "I'm sorry..." "And I'm sorry too. At least... As the Forest Sage, I will help you. Please, take this medallion." Saria then raised her arms, and in a flash of light, a green medallion appeared above Link, slowly floating down until he took it. The Forest Medallion. While he took it, Saria looked at Sweetie Belle and said, "Please, take care of him," before the area was plunged in light. "Saria will always be... your friend..." The next thing they knew, they were back in front of the Great Deku Tree. Sweetie Belle looked up at Link just in time to see him swiping tears. She put a hoof on his leg. "This may be a goodbye, but remember, Friendship is eternal, no matter the distances, just as long as you don't forget her." Link looked down at the filly and smiled before he knelt to pet her in thanks. It was then that they spotted a little tree sprout now present just in front of them. The next instant, it fully came out of the ground, knocking the both of them on their back as the sprout revealed to be much bigger and possessing a face. When they recovered, they looked at the sprout in astonishment. "Hi there!" began the sprout. "I'm the Deku Tree sprout! Because you two and Saria broke the curse on the Forest Temple, I can grow and flourish! Thanks a lot!" "Oh... Hey! We had been talking about you! We were wondering why you hadn't sprouted! That was as we thought, in the end," Sweetie Belle said. "Indeed. The curse placed by Ganondorf was stopping me, and because of this, I couldn't do my duty. But now, at least, I will be able to protect the Kokiris and keep the monsters away. I am sadly not as powerful yet as my father, so my influence won't spread far." "At least, the Kokiris will be safe as long as they remain in the village," said Link. "Then, I will defeat Ganondorf, and they will be able to wander the forest like before." "I know you can do it, especially with the help of your friend. I can feel a great power in her. Ganondorf should be worried." The sprout laughed at this before he proceeded to reveal to Link his origins. Link knew that he was Hylian, but he didn't know how he ended up in the forest under the care of the Deku Tree and the Kokiris. Apparently, before the King of Hyrule managed to unify the country, there had been a great war. To escape it, a Hylian mother came in the forest with her baby boy. However, the mother was gravely injured and had no choice but to entrust the baby to the Deku Tree before giving her last breath. The Tree accepted, sensing the great destiny of the boy, and so, the child was raised as a Kokiri. This child was Link, whose destiny was to save Hyrule by breaking the curses on all the temples before defeating the source of the evil: Ganondorf. The sprout then wished them good luck before they left him to continue their quest, their job in the forest done. However, it was starting to get pretty late, and they hadn't eaten anything since they respectively arrived in this world and woke up from the seven-year-long sleep. So they decided to pass the night in the village where the thankful Kokiris didn't mind giving them some food (Sweetie made sure to let her Pokémon out so they could eat, to the amazement of the locals). Link still had his home here, but it was rather small now, leaving Link no choice but to sleep on the floor while he left his old bed to Sweetie Belle. The filly at least gave him a sleeping bag that she had in her pocket dimension, making it bigger because it was too small for him. And so, they both spent the night in peace and comfort.