Link opened his tired eyes. He saw Epona and the blue instrument lying not far from him. He observed his surroundings: he was in a building. Getting to his feet (actually hooves) he started to walk around the inside of the building. It looked new, like someone just recently made it. He heard Epona getting up beside him.
“Is that what you had to deal with in Termina?” she asked, suffering from something similar to mild motion sickness, “every single time?”
Link nodded.
Epona stared at him. “Every single time?! How did you not throw up? I can barely manage as it is!” she said as she sat in an upright position, trying not to lose what would be her only meal for three days.
Link walked over to the stream that passed through the hasty made tower. He gazed into the reflection in the water. Looking back to him was not the boy he was before he came here. No, it was a green pony with blonde hair, blue eyes and the Hylian royal crest on the upper part of his hind legs. He sighed, ‘the happy mask sales man isn’t here,’ he thought, ‘I guess I have to stay like this for my entire time here.’
Epona noticed link staring into his reflection, “don’t worry Link, being a pony isn’t so bad. I’ve had to be one my whole life and I’m fine.”
Link smiled slightly, and gazed back into the water. He noticed something glinting in the bottom of the stream. Dunking his head in, he pulled it out of the water and spat it out beside him. It appeared to be a shoe if some sort. But not like any Link had ever seen before. It looked vaguely like a type of shoe royalty might wear in Hyrule, except it was for a horse. It shone brightly on the concrete floor. Epona walked up to him.
“What’s this? A horse shoe?” she asked. Link shrugged, he had no idea what it could be.
“Well, you found it, I guess it’s yours,” she said, nudging it towards him, “go on, see it fits!” she said humorously.
‘Well, it’s just a shoe, what’s could possibly happen?’ Link thought, ‘it’s not like it’s going to turn me into something else like those masks…’ Link paused, remembering the brutally painful transformations he had to undergo to help save the people of Termina. He put his hoof on the shoe a searing pain shot throughout his body as his muscles grew as they took in the power of the mysterious object. When Link opened his eyes again he saw Epona staring at him.
“What happened?” she asked concerned. Link went to the stream to look at his reflection again.
Although nothing appeared out of the ordinary (besides being a pony), but Link felt a new found strength. He glanced at the hoof the he put the shoe on. A strange symbol had been etched onto his fur. The symbol radiated power, like the Goron mask in Termina.
“What happened?” she asked. He pointed to the symbol on his left foreleg, she nodded. “So… it’s not bad?”
Link shrugged, only time will tell. Fortunately, he and Epona had all the time in the world. He walked over and picked up the blue instrument in his mouth. He turned his head and deposited it into his small bag. He looked at the door to the tower, then to Epona.
“You’re going to try to save them aren’t you?” she asked. He nodded. She laughed slightly, “You can’t resist a chance to go an adventure huh?”
Link pushed the doors open and shielded his eyes from the sun. The sun was rising in the early morning sky the moon was looming menacingly above them and Majora was at the top of the tower. ‘Note to self: stop going into the lost woods.’
It was Termina all over again.
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“The moon is falling?! How is that possible?!” exclaimed Twilight as she ran franticly around the library. She had just received a letter from Princess Celestia that the moon was falling and Luna had left to deal with the problem.
“How can the moon fall?” asked Spike, “isn’t it in, like, space or something?”
“Yes it is! It’s not physically possible that the moon is falling! It must be a mistake,” said Twilight trying to calm herself down, “yes, it’s just a simple mistake. The moon is just getting bigger. It’s not falling, that’s just silly.”
“Whatever you say…” said Spike as he looked out the window at the moon. He had the strangest feeling that the moon was grinning evilly at the town. He shook his head and resumed his daily chores when somepony knocked at the door. He walked over and opened it. A green colt and a brown filly were standing outside.
“Uh, hello, were looking for a book about legends,” asked the brown filly, “do you have any?”
“Yes, there this way,” he said as he lead them to the history section of the library. He pulled out a book titled: ‘History of Ancient Equestria’.
“Thanks Mr.” said Epona as she and Link left the library after checking the book out. They stopped at a nearby bench. Epona opened it. As soon as he saw it, Link noticed he couldn’t understand the text. Epona looked at him, then laughed slightly, “I’m guessing you can’t read this?” she asked, “don’t worry, I can read it to you.”
Ok, from what I understand there are four places nearby, a forest, the plains, the mountain and the clouds. Each place has a temple or palace that was dedicated to four of the six alicorns. The four were killed fighting a demon known as ‘Discord’. They each had an object of power that had aided them in the past. Only two of the original six alicorns remain, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They were the only two alicorn in history to be blood related. Many have tried to breach the temples but all were unsuccessful.” Epona and Link gazed into the sky past the advancing moon. They saw the outlines of the flying ponies called pegasi.
“I wonder what it’s like to have wings…” said Epona quietly to herself. She turned to Link. “Ok, so like you said yesterday,” she paused, “or was it tomorrow? Three days ago? Ugh, like you said, we should go find your missing stuff.”
Link nodded, he lost most of his stuff on the trip here. But the two most important things he lot were the mirror shield and his gilded sword. ‘And how am I supposed to use a sword and shield with just my mouth?’ he thought, ‘I could strap it around my neck to shield it, yeah, that might work. But how am I supposed to use the sword? It will be next to useless. Besides, I’ll find it on our way back.’ Epona shook him out of his thoughts.
“So Link, you’re the big ‘hero of time’ and stuff, where do we go first?” asked Epona.
Link thought about Epona’s question, ‘can’t go to the clouds, no wings. The mountain would take too long to get all the supplies and get there. The plains… we don’t know what’s out there so I guess we’re headed to the forest.’ Link turned to Epona and told her their first destination. She nodded.
“I guess the forest is going to be the easiest. Maybe you can find that ‘object of power’ the book was talking about,” replied Epona as they got off the bench and started to head towards the forest. When they arrived at the outskirts of the town they saw a sign. Like the book, Link couldn’t understand what it was trying to say.
“Hmm, it says ‘DANGER Everfree forest ahead’,” said Epona, “I guess that’s the name.”
The two were about to enter when they were stopped by a yellow Pegasus.
“Oh, um, sorry you can’t go into the forest. It’s too dangerous,” she said.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. My friend used to live in a forest not too long ago,’ said Epona. The Pegasus stared at them.
“Um, where there big scary monsters and poisonous plants?” she asked.
“Well, there was a legend that anyone who goes in it will become a stalfos,” said Epona, “but my friend has been there hundreds of times and he’s always ok.”
The quiet yellow pony looked at the two, the one brown coat with a black and white mane looked curiously at her while the other one with the green coat and the blonde mane was staring into the depths of the forest. Finally, she asked, “um, if you don’t mine me asking, what’s a stalfos?”
“A living skeleton,” replied Epona like she saw the things daily. The yellow pony gasped in shock.
“He lived with living skeletons?!”
“Well, not exactly, only people who didn’t live in the forest and got lost turned into stalfos. Link would have turned into a skull kid,” she replied. The yellow pony’s eye twitched slightly as she fainted right in front of them. Link raised an eyebrow at Epona.
“I guess they are afraid of skull kids,” muttered Epona as she turned to Link, who himself was looking at a stray beam of light reflecting off something in the forest.
Link slowly started to walk into the forest with Epona following. ‘I hope that’s the mirror shield,’ he thought, ‘the yellow pony might not be the bravest, but she seemed like she knew what she was talking about when she was speaking about this place. Better keep our eyes open.’
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Majora giggled slightly as he gazed at the descending moon. ‘Nobody knows what’s going on,’ the demon thought, ‘not even the green boy and his dumb horse can save them this time!’ Majora’s orange eyes glinted evilly off the sunlight. ‘Even if he does try, he won’t get the things that can stop me! Not this time!'