After breaking 2 more pots and getting some of her magic meter filled, which Derpy guessed was a good thing, but didn’t know because she’d never used anything with magic, she went off to climb the stairs to floor 1 of the castle.
Derpy couldn’t help but feel bad. Despite the fact that the corpses of those 2 guards disappeared in a puff of smoke (Which obviously made no sense to her, but she thought it probably meant something.) the thought that she’d killed 2 people just kept weighing down on her mind. Was she really that angry? Willing to kill just because she saw a stranger die in front of her eyes? It made no sense.
And yet… it did? He was a kind old man who didn’t deserve to die. And if what she heard was true, he lost his nephew not too long ago. It was enough to get her angry for sure, but murderous? This couldn’t be Derpy being herself, could it?
Deciding that she wanted to be true to herself, Derpy set a goal. “That’s it. From now on I’m going to just avoid my enemies all together. No more killing!” She said, ready to face her next challenge with a more gentle touch.
At the top of the staircase, Derpy cut down a set of bushes blocking her way. She found herself to the right side of the castle’s entrance. There were 3 guards guarding the entrance. 2 were carrying swords (duh) and the third was carrying a dagger, which made no sense. Not wanting to fight, she cut another bush that was in her way, and started galloping to the castle entrance.
Inside was a giant red carpet, with a row of torches on both sides. Wasting no time, Derpy ran through the open doorway on the left that no one was guarding (How bad is the security here?) She followed the red carpet in this next section of the castle to the hallway on her right. Above she saw a bridge with a blue suited guard walking across. She passed the bridge into another doorway, leading to another hallway.
Seeing 3 guards ahead, and 2 pots ahead of them, she decided to put 3 and 2 together to stop them from slowing her down. She leaped over the 3 guards, using her wings to get a good distance, and grabbed one of the 2 pots. She threw it at one of the guards and watched as he… Died and disappeared in a puff of smoke? “Wait, pots can kill guards in one hit? I thought that was just going to knock him out!”
The 2 guards looked at Derpy with anger, and Derpy looked back with an awkward smile. “Uh, I just don’t know what went wrong?”
Seeing that the guards weren’t affected by her cuteness (or were just really good at hiding it) she ran through the next doorway to her left. She went down another hallway, finding a door with a stairwell that had 2 guard statues on either side. She walked down the stairs and into the 1st basement of the castle, where a treasure chest was sitting next to a statue of a guard, and an actual guard in blue armor.
“Stop right there criminal scum! Nobody breaks the law on my watch!” He said, making Derpy feel as though she was up in his face for some reason.
“But I’ve broken the law several times already. I left my house after dark, stole a lantern, killed 3 guards, and infiltrated the castle. Seriously, you guys need better security.” She said, still confused by how Hyrule works.
“Silence!” He said, thrusting his sword towards Derpy, only to get blocked by her blue shield. She jumped over the guard and opened the treasure chest behind him to get the map inside. Not even bothering to question why they’d keep a map of the castle in a chest in the 1st basement, she ran over to the door to avoid fighting, only to find it was locked. “What!?” She yelled, not wanting to fight. “How can it be locked?” She asked.
The guard laughed. “Did you really think we’d keep all the doors in the castle unlocked?” He asked.
Derpy shrugged. “It would make about as much sense as everything else I’ve seen.” She admitted.
He thrusted his sword again, only to have Derpy jump up, and land on the blunt side of his sword. She smiled awkwardly again. “I don’t suppose you’re ok with giving me the key, are you?”
“You’ll have to kill me to get it!” He proclaimed, tilting his sword so as to make her fall off, which she did.
“I thought you’d say that.” She said, rolling on the ground to get her hooves to the floor, and got back up. She blocked his next blow with her shield, while wondering what to do next.
Thinking quickly, she knocked his sword out of his hand using her shield. She stood on her front hooves, and bucked his head with the back ones, knocking him down to the floor. She hit him much harder than the guard she did this to last time, in the hopes of knocking him unconscious.
She got down and checked if the guard was awake. He was moaning, but Derpy wasn’t sure if that meant her plan worked. Times like this, Derpy wished she was friends with a doctor, preferably one with a funny accent. Derpy loves funny accents. She giggled to herself, and saw the guard was getting up.
She panicked, and hit him in the back of his neck only to… watch him disappear into a puff of smoke. “Wha…but…I…he…what!?” She said in response. “I…I only…I didn’t mean to-” She saw the key sitting where the guard used to be. “Uh…but……….alright.” She said, giving up.
Welp, now she had 4 dead guards on her conscience. This was definitely a bad day.