//------------------------------// // The four awaken // Story: Four Quarters of One // by Mikoyose //------------------------------// (Edited for manga accuracy) Green woke before the others and was greeted by harsh sunlight and the roaring of an angry crowd. He sat up with a groan, taking the time to look around. Bars surrounded them, a glance up and he saw a wooden top. The crowd seemed to go into a frenzy of shouts, he turned and saw that the cage was surrounded by colorful pastel ponies of every color. He blinked and rubbed his eyes as something hit his head, knocking his hat off and making him fall onto his back again. He groaned and rubbed the spot that was hit. A tan mare walks up to a podium and stomps on it to get the ponies to quiet down, that didn’t surprise him as much as hearing her speak. “Calm down everypony,” she began calmly, “I know you are all angry with these creatures and thanks to a few of our residents we have apprehended the culprits of the destruction of our fair city.” The crowd started shouting again. His jaw dropped, the horses back in Hyrule couldn’t speak at all or if they did he surely had never heard them. He put on his hat and shook the nearest copy, Red. He spoke in a hushed whisper, “Red, wake up Red.” He rolled over and muttered something about a house made of ice cream and candy, soon after he began drooling and Green reached back to his item pouch then started patting himself down when he didn’t find it. “It seems that one of them has woken up. Now stay calm ponies and we can find a reasonable punishment for them.” The crowd shouted suggestions, one was to tie them up and throw them in the Everfree, Green didn’t know what the Everfree was but it didn’t sound pleasant. Another was to send them to the moon or the sun. He didn’t know how that was possible and he kept shaking Red to no avail. He shook Vio next, not wanting to wake Blue at all. Thankfully Vio woke up, sitting up and rubbing his head. “So many books…” He winced as he felt a bruise, ignorant of the angered crowd and the, now silent, mare that was watching them now. “Vio we’re surrounded by talking ponies!” Green whispered urgently. Vio looked around at the cage they were in then out to the ponies staring daggers at them. “We’re in a cage and you’re talking about seeing talking ponies…” he stared at Green. “Did you drink some bad milk again? We’re just surrounded by angry horses is all.” The crowd gasped and started throwing things into the cage, rocks, jewels, horseshoes, and even pastries. The mare at the podium ducked under what she could and tried calming them down, telling them that the minions of Discord would get the punishment they deserve. It didn’t help and she ended up hiding behind the podium. Vio just stared at the mare. Red woke up after getting hit by a cupcake then a horseshoe that smashed the pastry. He sat up and wiped his face clean before tearing up as a stone hit him. Green was doing his best to avoid the projectiles and Vio went over to comfort Red before Green ran over and hoisted up Blue to use as a shield. A lavender unicorn mare walked towards the podium, stopping for a second to watch them whispering to a sniffling, teary eyed Red who had a horseshoe shaped bruise on his forehead. The unicorn shook her head and walked to the podium, using her magic to stop all projectiles from hitting her. “Ponies calm down! I have informed the princesses and they are arriving to punish these evil beings personally!” They all cheered. “They will be punished for foalnapping our younger residents and abducting our belongings!” They cheered again, shouting for them to be sent to the moon. They looked among each other, surprised that Blue was still sleeping, being covered in frosting and bread from the pastries. He ate whatever had landed in his mouth, enjoying it’s sweet taste, his dream turned from beating Green and taking the Princess for himself to being in a Castletown made of cake. He swallowed the pastries in his mouth and licked his lips. “Green can they actually send us to the moon?” Red asked fearfully, pulling Green's vision away from Blue. “I don’t think so.” Vio said, staring at the horn on the lavender unicorn. “But I pray to Farore that they can’t.” “We just arrived here didn’t we?” Red and Vio nodded, “Then we couldn’t have done that could we?” They thought about it for a second before deciding to wake Red up somehow. In the shadows of a building Shadow Link stood watching the crowd, a triumphant smirk on his face. “As I thought, this is great.” He laughed and sunk into the shadow world, the children had started panicking, now knowing that they would never see their parents again. He smiled, feeling no guilt or remorse. Being a shadow had it’s perks. He returned to the light world to watch, picking up a stone and using his slingshot to hit Blue in the gut. His eyes shot open. Every pony stared at the cage as Blue screamed in rage, pulling away from Green to hold his stomach. “WHO SHOT ME?!” he shouted out loud, turning to look at the three others. “Which one of you did it!?” he glared at them, the burning anger laying to rest on Green. “It was you wasn’t it!” he reached over his shoulder to draw his sword. He turned his head to look at the missing handle and shield. He laughed darkly, “Think I can’t fight without my sword?” He reached for his item pouch and patted his hip before realizing none of them had their items. Green waited patiently for him to calm down which he clearly wouldn’t. Vio took Red to the far side of the cage as Green and Blue began to stare each other down. “Blue look around you, there’s no time for this.” Neither of them budged though Blue did glance to his right quickly. “Looks like it, our 'king' got us captured.” he sneered. Green gave him a bemused expression. “How are you going to get us out of this one?” The crowd watched, interested in what was going on between them. The unicorn watched these two, anger practically radiating from them, the one clad in green hid his anger better than the Blue one. “Calm down and maybe I won’t leave you in here.” Green answered. Blue clenched his fist. Dark shot another seed at the back of Blue's head, he turned around and glared at the ponies. “Who threw that?!” he grabbed the bars and shook them. Looking at the unicorn he recognized. “You…” She looked around then pointed to herself. Blue nodded, “You and that orange horse dragged me around hogtied.” Red couldn’t help but laugh, earning Blue's anger. “I’ll get to you in a second Red.” He turned back to her. “Let me out or I swear to Din I’ll blow all of you up and turn this town to cinders!” he shook the bars, they bent thanks to the power bracelet he still had on. The unicorn’s eyes widened and he smirked before prying the bars open. Green and Vio rushed forward, grabbed him and pulled him away from the bars. “What do you think you’re doing Blue?!” Vio shouted, “We don’t need to get into more trouble!” the crowd watched in silence, they’d never seen a being able to bend steel so easily. “Green hold down Blue and I’ll talk to them okay?” Green nodded and held back the seething Red while Vio walked over and did his best to fix the bent bars. “I apologize for my friend there, he can get a bit overworked easily.” he smiled and slid his hand through the bars, “My name is Vio,” he points to Blue and Green, “That’s Red and that’s green.” “I’m Red!” Red shouted from the corner waving “I like your mane, it’s colorful.”. Vio chuckled and turned to the mare, “What’s your name?” He held out his hand still. She looked at his hand, and he pulled it back in and took off the power bracelet before holding it out. “Here, this is a way to prove I’m not going to hurt you.” She levitated the bracelet and kept watching him. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. Tell me, why did you foalnap the colts and fillies?” She asked. “We haven’t foalnapped them. We’ve been on a farm for a while. That’s where I’m guessing your friend found Blue here. We left him sleeping in a treehouse somewhere.” He explained, then an orange stetson wearing pony with a blonde mane walked up. “So y’all were tha’ ones that ate mah apples.” she had a southern accent not much different from Talon's from Lon Lon Ranch. “Yes but we were hungry and it was the only food nearby but that’s not important," he looked back to Twilight, "tell me miss Sparkle what happened.” the orange mare glared at him and looked at Twilight as she explained what she saw and the eyewitness accounts. As soon as she said that they sunk into the ground Blue had calmed down and Green let him go. They huddled up as a rainbow maned pegasus flew over to the unicorn and the earth pony. “Twilight why are we talking to these things? We saw them take the foals so why don’t we just punish them now? I’ll do it myself.” Blue turned around and looked at her. “You couldn’t take me.” he said. She flew up to the bars. “Oh yeah? Want to prove that?” he turned and looked at her as she landed. “Any time, any place, any way.” he told her with a smirk. They glared at each other until Vio spoke with Twilight. “I have an idea, we know how to get them back but we need our equipment. One of you can stay with each of us to make sure we don’t step out of line.” The others nodded, a look of determination on their faces, each a mirror image of the others. Twilight accepted and spoke with the crowd about who would be guarding them aside from herself. They all raised their hooves and she asked which ones wouldn’t hurt them. The hooves went down as she explained a few things, she didn’t know what they were capable of and she wanted somepony who knew they could overpower any of them without a fight. Applejack stayed there, volunteering as did Rainbow before a pink mare jumped up and opened the cage. “Alright, Vio you go with Ms. Sparkle, Red you go with,” Green was cut off as the pink pony lifted him up and set him aside before hugging Red. “I’m sorry for hitting you with a frying pan. Let me make it up to you!” she then threw him onto her back. “Can it be with cake and cookies?” he asked, wanting to try the pastries that he had seen in the fake cake building. She looked at a couple of ponies, a tall thin orange pony and a small plump blue pony with a swirly pink mane. “Mr. and Mrs. Cake, can I give my new friend here a little treat?” They glared at him, “He said that he’d get your foals back and I’ll make sure he does!” she smiled at them. “I can’t really look if I’m hungry.” he smiled with her, hoping they would let him. They looked at each other and told them he could have one after they found their foals. “Yay! Let’s go miss pony!” he pointed in a random direction and she bounced away with him on her back. “I’m pinkie pie by the way!" she told him. “I’m Red!” he answered. The others watched them leave before Green went back to giving orders. Telling Blue to go with Rainbow, he shook his head and cracked his knuckles, startling the ponies before walking away. “I need my hat.” He said, walking towards the farm in the distance. Rainbow followed him and Twilight gave Vio his bracelet back, asking the two left to follow her. They nodded and stepped out of the cage, apologizing to the crowd and promising them that they’ll get the foals back. Green noticed a lone shadow moving on the floor, he nudged Vio and nodded to it. Vio looked and his eyes widened, Applejack saw this and looked at the empty space; seeing nothing. They looked at each other in a silent conversation, Applejack made a silent vow to make sure they don't hurt anypony else.