//------------------------------// // Mending Bonds // Story: A Link to Equestria // by Wandering Quill //------------------------------// ~-~-~-~-~-~▲~-~-~-~-~-~ ~-~-~-~-~-~▲▼▲~-~-~-~-~-~ “How are your quarters… majesty?” Celestia’s head rose at the sound of that deep, scornful voice. It took her no longer than a few seconds for the memories of her waking hours to flash before her, the truth of her location striking her like a rock. She tried to adjust her wing’s position, but the cackling of the shackles made their presence and purpose clear. She offered no reply to the demon-like human other than a bored snort. Her gaze drifted to the torches that decorated those walls of black stone around her, the strangely green fire that burned within them bathing the dungeon-like room with an emerald tone. Surveillance flames, she realized. Concentrated dragon fire. He’s constantly watching me. “Hm. I did offer the best of what I could find, Celestia,” Ganondorf continued, walking to the edge of a nearby wooden table. A rusted, iron chalice was placed over it, and the man took to inspecting it. “Of course, you understand that some… redecorations… were in order, do you not?” Once more, the question fell on deaf ears. The thief snickered shortly, rising abruptly to his feet and tossing the mug against the wall, the small object becoming completely deformed with a loud clank. “Where is the Light Force, Celestia? Spare yourself from this suffering and tell me where that wretched power is!!” A giggle escaped Celestia, which caused the Gerudo to snarl increasingly loud. As if to hide its lack of self-control, he turned around and crossed his arms, remaining in this position until the noise faded entirely. “The Elements…” Ganondorf spoke again, turning around. “Why could I not use them?” “Because you ignore the fundamental reason for the Element’s existence,” Celestia finally spoke, much to the man’s surprise. “They are Harmony. They are what cleanses the land from all that threatens peace.” “Ridiculous,” he simply replied, turning to walk away. “Useless.” “Do not tire yourself with futile attempts to control what you cannot.” Celestia’s voice rose as Ganondorf distanced himself from her. “They are exactly that. Futile.” The man stopped at the half-open door. “We shall see about that.” The loud bang of the door announced his absence. ~-~-~-~-~-~▲~-~-~-~-~-~ ~-~-~-~-~-~▲▼▲~-~-~-~-~-~ They say that unicorns sensitive to changes in the environment can predict future events. A chill crossed Rarity’s spine. Perhaps it was the temperature of that dungeon of never-ending stairs, descending to the bowls of the earth at a snail’s pace. After all, the only thing that lit their way was Twilight’s horn, a ‘flashlight spell’, like she called it, and it provided no heat whatsoever. It was them and these desolate, dusty stairs. Or perhaps it was the ‘hero’s’ outfit. She couldn’t quite put her hoof on it, but it fit him and it didn’t fit him at the same time. Somehow, she couldn’t quite picture the boy in another type of garment, and above all, a different color. Maybe green was just his color. Yet it simultaneously seemed like it was perhaps not his ideal clothing. As if it had been forced upon him. Or it could be the temple itself. When you think about it, Temple of Time is a name with pretty heavy connotations. You can’t just name a temple after one of existence’s parameters; it has to have implications. Link didn’t seem to mind it at all, though. In fact, he seemed pretty happy about it, eagerly walking by Twilight’s side, hands flex and relaxing constantly in anticipation. “The entry chamber is just ahead.” Twilight announced to the ponies behind her. “Keep your eyes open.” “Cool it, Twilight. We can deal with anything that pops up. Right, AJ?” Rainbow’s enthusiasm, however, was not returned by the cowpony, whose head had remained lowered since entering the temple. “What’s the matter?” “Nothin’,” she simply replied. “Jus’… thinkin’.” Rainbow couldn’t lose an opportunity to crack a joke. “Yeah, I can see smoke blowing from your ears.” “Quit it, both of you,” Twilight chided, carefully taking the last step. She stopped momentarily, struck by a sudden headache that forced her to cancel her spell. After recovering, the flashlight returned, and a quick search revealed the existence of several torches on the walls, which the unicorn easily set aflame with magic. The new compartment was a rather plain room, populated by four, pony-like statuettes, their big, perfectly circular eyes watching their every step while four other, lonesome pillars, arranged in a square, stood across them. While Rarity marveled at its surprisingly pristine condition, with its marble-white walls reflecting the light from the flames as if it had just been built, Twilight focused on finding an origin for the obscene amounts of magic that flooded the room. The search yielded no results, however; it was as if the power that swarmed her mind and body was emanated by the very walls. It was the next section of the temple that left the visitors’ jaws hanging in awe. Unlike the entrance, this room was massive, a round segment with walls composed entirely of stained glass paintings, illuminated from behind by an unseen source. They stretched from the entry arch to the one directly across the room, and both Twilight and Link were overjoyed to spot the caricatures of beings just like the Hylian in these paintings, some of them hoisting glistening blades while others held small chests in their hands, obviously caught in the act of presenting them. However, it was the fact that these boxes were being offered to a pair of tall, winged unicorns that drew their attention. Not just that, but in many other instances of the colorful windows, these men were shown amidst other ponies: atop hills to chart the Equestrian lands, alongside ingenious unicorns revising the process of building enormous, complex machines, even locked in festive combat with armed soldiers, both equine and human. “It’s a repository…” Twilight mumbled, walking very slowly along the walls so as to take in each and every detail of the beautiful pictures. “This data must be thousands of years old… I’ve never seen a book in the library about it…” “Hey, Twi…” The unicorn turned at Rainbow’s voice, finding the pegasus directly in the middle of the room with her other friends, casting an awed gaze at the ceiling. “You’re gonna want to see this…” Intrigued, Twilight stood by their side and looked up. The moment her eyes settled on the spectacle above, her jaw nearly hit the ground. The ceiling – which from afar was but a boring, pure-white mass of stone – revealed to possess a magnificent dome-like structure in its center. Just like the walls around it, the ceiling, too, was made entirely of stained glass, but unlike the rest of the room, it was a single, gigantic picture. The most prominent figure in the depiction was a golden, triangular shape, from whence an almost sacred light radiated; it floated down from the heavens, and bathed the green lands and soaring mountains below it with its beauty. On the right, with their glorified wings flared, were the unmistakable figures of the princesses, standing next to each other atop a mountain with their heads raised. Behind them was a large extension of forests; a palace rose majestically from its thick foliage under a sky blessed by both a crescent moon and a bright sun at least twice its counterpart’s size. On the left was the most peculiar character, one who appeared from a mass of golden clouds as though it were a heavenly figure: what was a clearly a human female rode a winged equine, its windswept mane appearing to be the flames of a fire while its coat was as white as snow. The human, a stunning fair lady, wore a long, light pink tunic, and held a soft green sword in one hand while the other held a gilded lyre. A similar aureole surrounded her head like a crown, further accenting her blessed form. “Could that be… the Light Force?” Twilight was the first to hypothesize, turning to Link for confirmation. The boy simply shrugged. “Princess Luna said that they were given the Light Force and that the Hylian were also given power… does that mean that… she… gave it?” Olivia flew higher above, stopping next to the woman’s portrait. “There’s something written on the lyre… H-Y-L-I-A…” Twilight’s eyes went wide. “…Hylia?” “You know that name?” the fairy asked, evidently surprised. “I… it was in the Sky Book… the Hylians worshipped this… Hylia,” the unicorn sought for Link’s eyes. “She’s… she’s a goddess, isn’t she?” The boy gave a faint nod. “Amazing… Hylia gave the Light Force to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna…” “We all saw how that ended, though,” Olivia cut in, fluttering to Celestia’s position. “That thing got us in this mess.” “So if that’s Hylia,” Twilight continued, seemingly ignoring the fairy’s words. “Then who is the pegasus she’s riding?” “Hey, it’s Nightmare Moon!” Everyone in the room turned at Rainbow’s exclamation; indeed, the stained glass she observed, one to the right of the entrance, depicted no less than the evil alicorn herself. In a storybook-like manner, the tale they had been taught since young about Luna unfolded, from the princess’s corruption to Celestia’s heroic act of banishing her foe to the moon. Something was different this time, however. Where books sugarcoated the narrative by focusing on the lives of commoners, they concealed a much grimmer side of the struggle that these windows had no problem in exerting. What was clearly a wide army of armored ponies marched under stormy night skies into a forest, their mission to reach the ruined castle seen with such splendor in the illustration above. Ominous clouds, stained with the darkest shade of blue, spiraled around this fortress, casting the anger of their thunders upon the lands, commanded by the silhouette that flew above all. Yet not all was darkness. Three spheres of light guided the ponies to their fate, bathing the woods in a hallowed glow and shunning the nightmare’s malevolent creations away. These three spheres of light were consistently depicted in all of the subsequent panels, always shown as some sort of miraculous guide to the forces of Celestia. One last picture showed three ponies of each of the three races, each of them holding one of these spheres in their hooves while the alicorn of the sun’s wings, spread wide behind them, protected the ponies from the sinister clouds that crept from either side of the panel. Then… they simply ceased to exist. The next portraits showed nothing they didn’t know: encircled by the Elements of Harmony, Celestia strode forward into the night sky, and when the two powerful entities met, the threat that was Nightmare Moon disappeared at last. Twilight looked around frantically, searching for another hint on the three spheres; but they were nowhere to be seen anymore. Without a word more, the unicorn dashed into the next room, theories about the truth of the triad of objects occupying her mind all the way. This had to be it; the relics that Celestia had mentioned. Her disappointment was almost palpable when the contents of the new section revealed to be scarce; instead of inheriting the richly decorated aspect of its predecessor, it had returned to the sparseness of the entry one. It was a massive segment, no doubt; perhaps even bigger than the historical repository. However, all it contained was a gigantic stone statue set on a pedestal, big enough to contain two characters inside. While she identified Princess Celestia standing next to an elaborately designed harp - one familiar to Twilight – she couldn’t recognize the other pony. Clearly a unicorn mare, she wore some sort of armor over a long robe, its breastplate taking on the aspect of five horizontal lines adorned with seven circles. From the position of a hoof on her chest and head directed upwards, she was in the act of singing, most likely accompanying the other pony. “I was wondering what had happened to her.” The sound of Rarity’s crestfallen voice startled Twilight, prompting her to turn around in a short leap. Her fellow unicorn stood at the entrance, casting a forlorn gaze at the immortalized ponies. “Her… she’s Natural Scale.” Twilight gave a sheepish grin. “Sorry, I’m not exactly versed in music…” “It’s fine.” Rarity sympathetically smiled, walking closer to the librarian. “They used to have a statue of her in Canterlot, but they removed it. She was a student of Celestia’s once too, you know?” Though she didn’t expect an answer, Twilight nodded regardless. “She studied music. She was the first pony ever to study that with Celestia, so she sang with her every day and every night, every day of the week. I tell Sweetie Belle about her whenever she tells me that she doesn’t want to sing.” “You want her to be like Natural Scale, right?” Rarity nodded in reply, the sheer thought of having the sister she saw like a daughter making the fur in her coat stand on end. “I would be so proud.” “There’s no exit from here.” Olivia declared from the other end of the room, where a stone slab made of a distinctively different material blocked the path ahead. Link walked forth, taking the Ocarina of Time from his pocket. “Stand back, I’m gonna try something.” “You know that not everything opens up with a song, right?” “It’s the Temple of Time, the Master Sword is right there!” “What’s going on?” Twilight piped in. “He wants to play a song to the door,” the fairy deadpanned. “Says the ‘Master Sword’ is behind it.” “The Master Sword?!” A song echoed throughout the temple by now. Looking past Olivia, the unicorn found Link standing in front of the door, already playing the little musical instrument to the stone slab. She approached him silently, the rest of the ponies inching closer as well in the same quiet manner, should any noise they produce distract the Hylian from his performance. When the music stopped, silence lingered in the room, the last few notes of the melody fading to silence in the far ends of the temple. But nothing happened. Incredulity dawned on Twilight and Link’s features. “That was anticlimactic,” Rainbow dully noted from the back of the room. “I don’t get it,” the boy mumbled. “M-Maybe it’s another song. Maybe there’s another way in.” “…It’s over…” The depressiveness with which these words had been uttered surprised even the ponies, and even more when they realized just who had spoken them. Rarity was the first to move forward. “Twilight? What do you mean?” “We needed the Master Sword to defeat Ganondorf… Now we don’t have that, the princesses are gone, and all I have from her is that stupid scroll.” “Still, I hardly think that-” “Don’t you get it?! Discord’s back, Nightmare Moon is back, everything we fought to defeat returned! Hay, why doesn’t Chrysalis try to invade Canterlot again too?!” Olivia shrunk back at the mention of the unfortunate event. “And this time, we don’t even have the Elements of Harmony! We don’t have the princesses! We don’t have anything!” “What about him?” Rainbow hazarded the question, only to reel back at the sight of a sobbing lavender mare. “…He’s just as helpless as we are.” Twilight paused momentarily to look at the Hylian in the eyes, and her distraught stare in that brief silence hurt like the edge of a sword slicing his neck. “It was all about the sword.” The pegasus was none the more convinced, however. “But we can’t just give up! We have the scroll! We have ourselves!” But her words fell on deaf ears, as the unicorn was already walking away. She stopped next to Celestia’s statue and slowly rose to her backlegs to touch the sculpture with a hoof. The dim trail of a tear blemished the side of her snout, the speck of water shining faintly under the light of the torches. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” As Twilight made her way towards the temple’s exit, Olivia and Link exchanged worried looks (or, so he assumed she was feeling). Their thoughts were likely more or less the same: they had been declared useless at the eyes of the only mare that believed in them from the beginning. The boy still searched for solace in the rest of the present, but between Rarity’s sad frown and the steady glare the pegasus punished him with, he had nowhere to turn. Even Applejack, who had remained quiet throughout the visit, chose not to face them in the eye. He was left with the coldness of the stone obstacle. It taunted him, mocked him because he could not find the key to unveiling its secrets. The experience he gathered from surpassing the obstacles placed to him by Ganondorf and even the Goddesses themselves had taught him one thing, however: there was always a way past a door. This one, in a place that ironically equaled his namesake, would be no exception. They say that the Princess of the Sun once had a student she loved like a daughter. ~-~-~-~-~-~▲~-~-~-~-~-~ ~-~-~-~-~-~▲▼▲~-~-~-~-~-~ “I see you have plans of your own.” Suddenly, he was no longer proceeding towards the royal throne. The walls had disappeared, the floor and ceiling had collapsed, and everything became a great, infinite blanket of stars and darkness. Before him swirled the shape of an alicorn, its body entirely composed of a starry texture, its eyes bright spheres of light that threatened to blind those who looked into them. This was none other than the spirit of Nightmare Moon, the corruption bred from greed of a princess of the night. Ganondorf, however, knew better than to be afraid of something like this. Quite on the contrary: he was utterly annoyed at the intrusion. “Keep your doubts to yourself. You’re here because I allowed you to,” he ruthlessly replied. “You seem to forget that I helped you escape centuries of imprisonment in the Twilight Realm.” “I am starting to ponder whether or not that sentence would have been a lighter burden.” The alicorn’s eyes narrowed, and it took a step forward. “We have a deal to honor.” “Indeed we do. Perhaps another term to our contract is in order.” “You realize I only intrude whenever it is necessary.” “No, you do not. Should I ever feel the need for your ‘intrusion’, I shall request so myself. Otherwise… begone.” “Hm. You seem rather distracted,” a foreign voice spoke, and just as abruptly, the world faded back to existence. Ganondorf blinked several times and rubbed his head, the constant zapping between planes of existence beginning to take their toll. With every time Nightmare Moon would claim his body, it would be as if he ceased to exist momentarily, only to return soon after; not an entirely pleasant feeling. Once his vision was clear enough, a draconequus took shape before him, briefly startling him and earning a snigger from the chimera. “What do you wish, Spirit of Chaos?” the thief spoke as nonchalantly as he could muster. “Oh, please, what is the difficulty of simply calling me Discord?” the spirit answered, floating towards the throne. With a snap of his fingers, the place fitting only for an alicorn was quickly adjusted to a regular chair, where Discord quickly sat down. “You see, I have a question…” The direction the conversation was beginning to assume did not please Ganondorf in the least, and he made his annoyance clear with his words. “…what manner of question?” “You see, you seem to have destroyed the only thing that could possibly hold me back, so…” Another snap of his fingers created a glass cup filled with water. Taking a sip, the distinct odor of wine appeared confirmed that the purple liquid that took the water’s place was, indeed, wine. “What exactly still ties us together?” “…Are you, perhaps, suggesting-” “Oh no no no! I would never suggest anything!” The cup floated to Ganondorf’s side, and Discord beaconed for him to grab it. “I am simply asking myself why I should still abide to you.” The moment the cup touched his lips, it exploded into droplets of water, effectively wasting the last of the man’s patience. He curled his hands into fists and willed himself into the air, a purple flame beginning to envelope his entire body. Discord allowed himself to raise an eyebrow, curious about this sudden display of magic. “Perhaps you would prefer that I showed you exactly why you should bow before me,” he spoke, his voice surprisingly calm, a sharp contrast with the violent way with which he showed the back of his left hand to the chimera. “When you were shamefully defeated by those pitiful alicorns a thousand years ago, a goddess descended upon Equestria and granted them an incredible power. I, too, was blessed with such power.” As if to confirm his words, the triangular mark on the hand shone with a golden light. “This power was created with the express purpose of balancing your chaotic nature. Why do you think you had so little influence over this castle before?” Discord truly gasped. “What the… that is impossible… you could not have known…” “A… friend… has generously granted me with some knowledge of your kingdom.” Simply mentioning Nightmare Moon in those terms stung his tongue. “You see, Discord… I still hold all the cards.” The chimera snarled audibly, slowly floating off the throne. “Now then… you are to find the remaining parts of the Light Force,” Ganondorf instructed, setting down on the ground. “Find… and extract them by whatever means necessary.” ~-~-~-~-~-~▲~-~-~-~-~-~ ~-~-~-~-~-~▲▼▲~-~-~-~-~-~ “SUUUPRIIIIIIIISE!” While Link was kept from falling to the ground by Rarity and Applejack as a cloud of confetti impacted his face directly, Twilight proceeded into the treehouse with the same excitement she’d carried from the Temple of Time, practically ignoring the heavily decorated library, the banners sprawled all over the walls, and simply heading up towards her room. The loud crashing of her door echoed throughout the house for some moments, with Pinkie regaining her momentum almost immediately. “Oooh! You’re Link! You’re Link, right? You have to be Link, because that’s what the name of the Hero is!” The Hylian’s eyes couldn’t grow any wider from the sudden bombardment of questions that ensued from the pink pony who assaulted him without a word of warning. It took Rarity to split the twosome, with Pinkie heading off to the other side of the library in a string of incomprehensibly fast statements. “Excuse her. She’s… easily excitable,” the unicorn briefly explained, trotting ahead. “Pinkie, dear, this is hardly the time for a party.” Pinkie was hardly detracted from her goals. “I know that! But it’s when you say that when you don’t need a party that you need a party the most!” “I… see,” Rarity sighed, looking around; she really had set everything up in preparation for Link’s arrival. “Where is Fluttershy, dear?” “Home! She was soooo tired when she got to Ponyville!” “Hm. I see.” “Hey, huh, Rarity…” Applejack spoke from the entrance. “Ah can’t stay. Applebloom’s pro’ly mighty worried.” Rarity held a hoof to her head. “Oh, you are certainly right. Poor Sweetie Belle must be worried sick as well.” Pinkie instantly deflated at the sound of those words. “Aw… no party?” “We’d love ta, Pinkie, but… It’s jus’ not the time, ‘kay?” “Link?” Olivia suddenly called out loud, flying anxiously from one side of the library to the other. “Where’s Link?” Pinkie took a quick look around as well; her attention, however, settled on the lack of a certain decoration she’d set up specifically for this occasion. “…where’s the bottle of cider?”