Chapter 3: Fight for life
Luna strode forward through the small tunnel made by the thick foliage. Her heart was hammering heavily in her throat. Here she was, a lonely little filly about to gaze upon the spirit that had gaurded the Kokiri since their birth. She still couldn't believe all of this was happening. As she approached a bend in the path, she could see a gentle light shining. Spike jumped from her head and flew ahead, leaving her sight for only a moment until she made the turn and her heart stopped. Standing before her, the mighty Great Granny Smith Tree towered above her. Luna had never even imagined her to be this wondrous. She heard something clearing it's throat next to her and turned to see Spike floating next to her. With a tilt of his head and a smile on his face, he said, "Luna, meet the Great Granny Smith Tree." As he then flies up in front of the large and gentle face of the tree, he said gently, "I brought the filly as you asked Great Granny Smith."
"That ya' did, Spike. 'At's a good dragon," she replied softly, "well get over here child and stop yer gawking. We haven't got all day."
Surprised out of her stupor, Luna quickly moved forward, craning her neck back to look up into the face of her protector. "I-I've come as you asked, Great Granny Smith Tree, i-in what way may I help you?" Luna asked, wonder quickly being replaced by nervous energy.
"Calm down child, you look as nervous as a rabbit in a wolfos' den," the ancient tree chuckled gently as she looked down at the tiny filly. Her heart grew heavy at the task she was going to place onto the shoulders of such a little filly. "Dear, sweet Luna. You have grown so much. I'm afraid we are about out of time however. A dark, evil storm is brewing quickly and has already turned it's sights on me." Fear quickly started to build on young Luna's face as the Granny Smith Tree continued, "your sleep lately ain't been all too peaceful, now has it? The same dream coming back again and again?"
As she spoke, Luna's eyes widened as flashes of memory pass before her eyes. The dreams quickly and suddenly coming back to her. A flash of lightning. She finds herself standing before a great wall made of rock and wood. The wood lowers itself, revealing what looks like a town beyond. An orange mare gallops past with a beautiful white filly on her back. The filly turns and locks her magenta eyes with her's for a fleeting moment and then they are gone. A noise draws her attention back to the entrance and she is met with the horrible sight of a tall mare as black as the darkest night. The nightmarish pony turns cold, heartless eyes upon her. The mare's wings snap open, blocking out the sky itself as the blackness engulfs her before the nightmare ends.
Luna's eyes dilated as fear from the dream flooded her mind. She struggled to keep her breathing in check as the Granny Smith Tree continued, "It is not a coincidence, child, that you are having these dreams. Yur sensitive to the dark. You can feel it coming," the Granny Smith Tree hesitated a moment before continuing, "and I've called ya'll in here to fight it!"
Luna looked up in confusion. "Me?!" was all her over clocked brain could manage to spit out. She started to lose control of her breathing at this point, causing her to take large gulps of air.
The Great Granny Smith Tree was silent for a time before softly saying, "Luna, a great and evil mare is trying to bring about the end of everything child. I'm sick. The evil one has sent one of her minions inside of me and I no longer have the strength to fight it off. I'm so terribly sorry to ask you this but I need your help. Will you please help this old tree and fight?"
The fear in young Luna's heart suddenly melted away at those words. As she worked over Granny Smith's words in her head, a spark of courage lit within her. Here was the guardian spirit of the Kokiri, the very one that had always watched over them like they were her very own children. And she needed Luna's help. With a nod of her head, she raised her eyes to the Great Granny Smith Tree. "I'll fight."
A proud smile spread across the tree's face as she gazed down at the courageous filly in front of her. "Ah've left something for you within me that should help you. Ah wish I coulda given it to ya straight out but I'm just so plum tired now. Hurry now." The Granny Smith Tree opened her mouth wide, creating a doorway for Luna to enter. Luna stared at the dark entrance as Spike floated down, coming to rest in Luna's mane.
"Don't forget about me, can't forget your new partner is gonna help you out too! Not gonna fight alone ever again," Spike exclaimed.
Luna smiled at Spike's declaration before running full tilt into the entrance of The Great Granny Smith Tree.
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Inside, both Luna and Spike marveled at the spacious chamber hidden within. They stood in a tall room must have easily extended up through half of the Great Granny Smith Tree. A winding path extended from the wall all the the way to the top. "Whoa," they said in unison. "This can't be natural," continued Spike, "this almost looks carved out. Do you think that the monster did this?"
Luna nodded as she strode forward. She knew that she didn't have the time to be marveling so she moved towards the start of the rising path. Before she could reach it however, a noise coming from the shadows caught her attention. She barely had time to react as a tiny, three legged creature that vaguely resembled a blue bear darted forward. It's claws only met air though as Luna jumped straight up. Her heart was in her throat as she got a good look at the creature. Her sudden return of fear made her freeze up, which caused her to fall and land directly on top of the creature. By shear luck, her hooves came down at the base of the creatures skull, breaking it's neck and killing it instantly. Luna quickly shot backwards, her heart still pounding erratically as she stared at the now still beast. "Wa-was that it? Was that the monster?"
Spike fluttered over, his eyes aglow as an ancient magic of understanding rose within him. "No, this was just a small fry. Something called a Ursaling." Luna's heart fell as her hopes of an early victory were dashed. Spike opened his mouth to continue but before he could say another word, a small blue fire enveloped the dead ursaling and within moments, nothing remained of it's body. The pair was silent for several seconds, both staring at the now empty spot. "Okay, that was just plain creepy," Spike finally said.
Luna could only nod her head before turning and drawing her sword. She got lucky this time and she knew it. She did not want to be taken by surprise again. Spike quickly took his spot in Luna's mane before she started up the rising path. She walked for what felt like an eternity. Every silent moment dragged on in her mind forever. After making it about half way up the path, a scuffling noise was heard ahead of her. She looked in the direction of the noise and found three ursalings shuffling towards her quickly. She got down into a ready stance, her sword in her mouth as she eyed them. She suddenly remembered a similar situation where Cheerilee fought off three attacking timberwolves. In her mind she pictured the graceful dance of death that the swordsmare displayed and she moved forward to meet the first ursaling. She ducked under it's swiping claw, her sword meeting it's middle as it was cut in two. Using her momentum, she then spun around, doing a full spin, catching the second beast by surprise and separated the monster's head from it's stubby neck. Seeing the sudden demise of it's kin, the final ursaling froze just long enough for Luna to leap up, driving her sword through it's chest.
Luna panted heavily as the strange blue fire claimed her fallen prey. A smile of confidence crossed her lips. She did it! She could do this! She beamed proudly as she pulled her sword from where it had gotten stuck in the floor. "WOW, that was awesome!" yelled Spike as he flitted back and forth, "they were all like 'RAR!' and you were all like 'WHOOSH!' and then they were all like 'BLARG!' So cool!!"
Luna blushed slightly at the excited dragon fairy's words. "Come on, we gotta keep going." Spike, with a silly grin still plastered on his face, took his seat on Luna's head before she continued on, a new sense of confidence in her stride as she spotted a door at the very top. 'That must have been what the three were guarding' Luna thought to herself as she approached the door and opened it.
Inside, her heart slightly sank at what they found. At the far end of the room, on the other side of a long pit, was a large treasure chest that looked like it was made of part of the tree. "That must be the gift from Granny Smith!" exclaimed Spike as he flitted forward but stopped as he spied what was at the bottom of the pit. Jagged spikes ran along the whole length of the floor of the pit, promising death to anything that fell within. "But how are you supposed to get over to it?"
Luna was already looking around the room, taking everything in and trying to find some way to continue. She may be able to jump pretty far in thanks to her gliding but that expanse was too much even for her. There were three torches around her, only one of them lit, casting an eerie darkness around the room and making it hard to full see anything above them. She swore she saw movement however so she looked around to try to find some way to make the room brighter. She spotted her solution quickly as she trotted over to a long, jagged piece of wood sticking out of the wall. She sheathed her sword and took the piece of wood in her mouth. After saying a quick and silent apology in case this was about to hurt, she gave a tug and yanked the wood from the wall. Now armed with her new branch, she walked over to the burning torch, lighting the end of her stick ablaze. Knowing she didn't have long, she quickly trotted over to the unlit torches, spreading the fire to each of them.
Tossing the piece of wood down into the pit as it was reduced to ashes, she looked around at the now lit room. She quickly found that she was right about the movement in the ceiling as a large spider descended to hand about halfway across the pit. The pony and spider stared at each other for several moments before quickly turning around. It looked in that direction for a few seconds before looking back to Luna. It continued as Spike's eyes lit once more. "Smith spiders. Paranoid creatures that always have to look around them to make sure an enemy isn't behind them."
The constantly turning enemy gave Luna a sudden idea. A crazy smile crossed her lips as she started backing up towards the door. "You may want to hang on," she stated as she stared at the smith spider. Her timing would have to be perfect if her plan was to work. She remained still for a few turns of the spider, getting it's rhythm down in her head. As it began it's turn away from her, she shot forward like a bullet, launching herself into the air towards it. Before it had a chance to turn back, Luna landed momentarily on the stunned creature's head, pushing off of it for a second leap. Luna's eyes narrowed as she approached the ledge. Almost falling short, the small filly grabbed the edge of the ledge and pulled herself up quickly. Her heart once again beating quickly, she took a moment to marvel that her plan had actually worked. She looked back to find that her kick had caused the smith spider's delicate thread to snap, sending to spider to it's death below. "There goes my way back," she muttered to herself as she turned her attention back to the chest.
Walking up to the chest, she marveled at how it was even bigger than she was before popping the top of it up. Looking inside, she found something she had only seen once before in Miss Cheerilee's house, a slingshot. The Y shaped piece of wood holding a strip of elastic between it's prongs connected to a ring of wood that looked about the right width for her hoof to fit through. She lifted the small weapon out of the chest and tested the ring. Luna was shocked when the ring suddenly shrank down to perfectly fit her hoof. She lifted it up and examined it, liking the new feeling. As she looked at her new weapon, something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. Turning her attention to it, she found what looked like a switch with an insignia of an apple of it nestled near the ceiling on the other side of the pit. Her angle from the other side had left it hidden until now. Filled with curiosity, she looked around until she found a small pebble at her feet. Loading the rock into her new slingshot, Luna took careful aim, not fully sure if she was doing it properly. Her first shot fell short of her target and luna grumbled silently as she loaded another rock, aiming higher this time. This rock, however, hit just to the right of the switch. Finding only one more rock near her, Luna pulled back on the elastic and let the projectile fly. It hit square on and Luna jumped up, giving a loud cheer before she was silenced by a rumbling.
Before she could wonder what was going on, a platform fell from the ceiling, creating a comfortable bridge across the pit. "Nice shot!" marveled Spike. Now beaming with pride and feeling like nothing could stop her, Luna trotted across the bridge. "But what do we do now?"
Luna stopped just short of the door, the question sinking in. There had only been one path and one door that they had seen. Where was this monster that she was supposed to be fighting? It's not like there was really anywhere for it to hide. Turning the question over in her head, Luna exited the room, walking over to the edge of the spiraling path and sitting down. Was there something she could have missed? Her eyes darted down across the large room but she saw no other door, no other path. As her eyes scanned the path once more, something caught her attention down in the middle of the floor at the base. She had not been able to see it when she had entered because of her angle but now from her higher vantage point, it looked like a tiny pinpoint of light on the floor. Like she was looking at a lamp through a screen of some sort. "Do you see that?" Luna asked her partner.
"See what?" inquired Spike as he looked in the direction where Luna's hoof pointed to. After several silent moments of staring at the floor, his eyes widened as he shouted, "a fake floor! I bet there's more stuff deeper down. Come on, let's go down there and see if there's a switch or something that'll let us through." Spike fluttered over and slipped into Luna's mane but was confused when the pony didn't move from the ledge and only continued to stare down at the floor below.
"We don't have time for that," she finally spoke up as grabbed the slingshot in her teeth and removed it from her hoof. After holding the item to one of the hooks on her bracelet, she watched as it shrank down and took a metallic sheen to it as it transformed into a charm. With her new gift safely stored away, Luna started backing up, her eyes locked on the ledge.
"Luna, what are you doing?" Spike asked in a somewhat nervous tone. 'She couldn't possibly be thinking of doing something that stupid, right?' Spike's silent question was quickly answered as Luna ran forward and leapt off the ledge, going into a sharp dive straight at the center of the floor below. Spike held on for dear life as they neared what he thought would possibly be the end of his partner's short adventure. At the last moment, Luna thrust all four of her hooves forward, making contact with the thin floor. The shock traveled through her small body that the wind was knocked from her lungs and dazed her. But her efforts payed off as the floor burst from the impact, sending her and a terrified Spike into a now tumbling free fall before hitting a small pool of water below. As Luna floated to the surface, a now drenched and very angry Spike shot out of the water, shaking himself dry quickly. Luna struggled to paddle to the edge of the pond, her body almost having seized up from the two impacts. Dragging herself to dry land, she allowed herself to slump down, her body taking in deep gulps of air trying to recover from the hit.
"What the BUCK were you thinking?!" shouted Spike angrily as he flitted down into the sight of Luna, "you could have killed yourself and then what? We'd all be done for!" Spike continued to ramble on as Luna slowly got her breathing under control.
Forcing herself to her hooves shakily, she turned to the now silent Spike. "Still alive though," was all she said with a light smile.
Spike crossed his arms and frowned heavily, "even still, if you do something stupid like that again and get yourself killed, I'm going to kill you."
Luna giggled at the dragon fairy's concern and nodded her head, "deal." With that out of the way, Luna finally looked around at her surroundings. She found herself standing in a massive chamber. The pond she had fallen into separated the chamber into two parts. On the side she was on, there was a simple door to her left. The other side, she noticed was raised from the water in a way that she couldn't get over to it. Luna spied a large door on the other side of the chamber and she felt deep down that that was where she needed to be.
"Guess there's nowhere to go but over here," Spike stated before flying over to the door on her left. Simply nodding, Luna walked over to the exit, Spike flitting once more down onto Luna's head as she drew near. Opening the door, Luna found herself in a long hallway. She quickly spotted another door at the far end and started trotting down the hall, only to stop as a strange bush like creature popped up from the ground in front of the door. Spike didn't even need magic to know this one. "It's a smith shrub. They're normally just pranksters who don't leave their safe haven deeper in the forest. What's one doing in here?"
As if to answer his question, the smith shrub yelled in a high scratchy tone, "none may pass!" before spitting a seed the size of Luna's head at them. Luna nimbly dodged to the side only to find another seed already speeding towards her. She dodged left and right as the shrub continued it's onslaught. Growing frustrated at this annoyance, Luna reached out with her magic, grabbing ahold of a seed as he flew to her side. A midnight blue aura enveloped the projectile, stopping it in midair. The smith shrub stopped it's firing in shock as it watched it's own seed be launched back at it. It couldn't sink back into the ground fast enough and was hit with enough force to separate it from it's safe ground. Before the shrub could get's to it's stubby feet, Luna was bearing down it with her sword drawn. The creature's eyes widened as it gave a little screech of fright. "Please don't kill me! I was just following orders!"
"Who's orders?" asked Luna, bringing the tip of her sword closer to the cowering monster.
"It was Boss, if we didn't listen, we would have been killed on the spot. But let me go and I'll tell you a secret." Luna thought for several seconds on if she should trust the smith shrub or not before pulling her sword away. "Boss is a night creature who can't handle the light."
"That's it?" asked a rather annoyed Spike.
"Yep!" called the smith shrub as it leapt back into it's hole, "later! I'm outta here!" And with that, it was gone.
Luna still found herself annoyed but knew that every little fact could help out. Even though her confidence thus far told her she would be fine. Striding to the door, she opened it to find a fairly sized, circular room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. On the opposite side, Luna spotted what looked like a small tunnel. She decided that there was no time to just sit there and wonder so she walked into the room, only to have the door slam shut behind her. As she whipped around to look at the door, she heard scratching noises above her. Looking up, she found the ceiling to be covered in ursalings. "Buck," was all Spike could say before ursalings started raining down on them. Luna quickly drew her sword and leapt forward to a safe area, cleaving a falling ursaling in two as she did so. Looking around at all of the monsters as they filled the room, Luna couldn't help a manic smile to cross her lips as she leapt towards the first batch of victims.
Spike was amazed as he held on for dear life. Luna tore through the ursalings with a savageness that he had never seen before. It was only a few short minutes before Luna stood in the middle of an empty room, panting heavily. The last of the mysterious blue fires disappeared, taking with it the last mutilated corpse that had fallen before Luna. Sheathing her sword, Luna began laughing hysterically. The adrenaline coursing through her veins along with her newest feats in battle left Luna feeling like nothing at all could touch her. Spike quickly became worried for Luna's sanity. Luna's laughter stopped abruptly as she looked at the tunnel ahead of her. 'Whoever this 'Boss' monster is, I'll take them out in a heartbeat just like I did these beasts' Luna told herself with a confident smile plastered on her face. With that thought, she quickly moved to the tunnel, finding she could easily kneel down and crawl through. Once through the tunnel, she found that she was on the side of the chamber with the pond. Looking over to the large door, her smile grew to an almost sadistic level as she walked forward. Spike wanted to say something but found himself afraid to bring the attention of this new side of Luna to himself.
Opening the large door, Luna strode into the dark room beyond. Luna could not to the other side but she felt that the room she now found herself in was massive. Bringing her magic into her horn, she lit the room with the soft glow of her magic. What she saw made her breath stop in her throat. Laying before them was a massive bear that looked to be made of the night sky itself. Stars twinkled across it's hide as Luna stared at the sleeping monster. The beast's slumber was not to last, however, as Luna's light reached it's closed eyes. As they slowly opened, the bear rose to it's feet, casting it's gaze down to the little filly that stared at it in wonder. Spike's eyes began to glow and he said in a terror filled whisper, "Ursa Minor."
Ursa Minor's roar filled the chamber as it's hide became brighter, filling the chamber with light. The roar shook Luna from her stunned wonder as her eyes quickly narrowed, drawing her sword quickly. Standing up on it's back feet, the bear swiped it's large paw at the intruder, Luna barely managing to dodge to the side as the claws gouged the floor where she had just stood. Needing a moment to think, Luna ran around to the monster's back, hoping to buy herself a few moments to think. She knew that she needed to get at the head but there was no way for her to get all the way up there. Quickly yanking her slingshot from her bracelet with her magic, the item grew to it's normal size as she slipped it around her hoof. Loading her weapon with wooden shrapnel she found on the floor from Ursa Minor's attacks, she let loose her attack. Her aim was dead on but her hopes fell slightly as she saw that it did nothing more than annoy it and alert it to where she was.
With surprising speed for such a large monster, Ursa Minor spun around and swung for Luna once more. It only found air however as Luna flapped her wings to help her jump back quickly. As she backpedaled, she tripped over something and hit the ground. Taking a chance to glance down at what had tripped her, she saw what looked like a large nut and her smile returned. Luna had always loved a good prank and immediately recognized the nut. It was a smith nut. A completely harmless thing but when struck against a surface, it emitted a bright flash and a deafening bang. Seeing her chance, she grabbed the seed with her magic and dashed to the side, dodging yet another deadly swipe from Ursa Minor. Fitting the seed into her slingshot, Luna took aim and let it fly. Her aim was perfect as the seed hit right between Ursa Minor's eyes and went off just as planned.
The stunned monster fell down, hitting the ground as it clutched at it's blinded eyes, roaring in pain. Luna was once more filled with confidence as she ran towards the beast. Before she could reach her target however, the bear made a blind swing and finally connected, launching the filly through the air and slamming her against the far wall. Luna's world was suddenly filled with more pain than she had ever known. She slumped to the ground as her legs gave out beneath her. She was having trouble breathing. She looked over with bleary eyes as she saw Ursa Minor rise to it's feet, looking over in her direction, it's eyes now filled with rage.
All of the confidence drained from Luna's heart and was quickly replaced with fear. She suddenly understood just how serious all of this had been. She understood just how lucky she had been up to this point. And as Ursa Minor charged forward, baring it's teeth, she understood with a chill that she was about to die. That thought rang in every corner of the young filly's mind as the beast grew closer. As she stared her oncoming death in the face, Luna's mind blanked and she screamed, the sword falling to the ground. Her terrified screams continued as he magic suddenly grabbed ahold of the fallen sword and launched it forward in an instinctual move to survive. Ursa Minor never saw it coming as the sword pierced through the roof of it's open mouth, exiting out the top of it's skull and embedding itself in the ceiling. It was dead before it even hit the ground.
As Luna stared at the fallen monster, still not fully understanding what had even happened, the monster erupted in blue flame, burning down until not a trace of it was left. Luna continued to stare at the now empty space, still not fully believing that she was still alive, as a pillar of light appeared in the center of the room. Luna struggled to her hooves, limping towards the light, stopping only long enough to yank the sword from the ceiling with her magic. As Luna entered the light, she felt a sense of weightlessness as she floated up, the light carrying Luna away from the sight of her first, great battle.
What the little pony didn't know was that it would not be her last.
Author's notes: AND WE'RE BACK EVERYPONY!!! My deepest apologies on this chapter taking so long. I hope that it still is up to the expectations some seem to have for it. This was the first chapter that included actual battle so I hope to hear how you all liked it. I purposely made the first dungeon rather simple. As Luna continues on, the dungeons will, in true Legend of Zelda tradition, become longer and much more complicated. If you spot any errors or if there are any problems you have with the chapter, PLEASE feel free to say so in the comments. I am always looking to make my work better. I hope to get the next chapter out much faster.