Chapter 6
Kickstart
Zelda awoke to the very close sound of a bestial roar.
She had found a small freshwater stream the day before, and had followed it until sundown in the hopes of finding a larger tributary, along which a town would almost surely be located. What she found was even better: a dirt road that looked much too established to be a simple game trail. She followed it long into the night, when she arrived at what seemed to be a dilapidated, overgrown fortress or castle of some sort. She didn’t complain, because, for one, she needed any shelter she could get, and secondly, this building confirmed the existence of some sort of civilization in this strange, foreign world she had found herself in.
Now, however, this castle didn’t seem so inviting. Even in the early morning light, the looming pillars and walls of the castle seemed ominous. This wasn’t helped by the rhythmic thump of some very large creature plowing towards her position. A glance outside caused Zelda to widen her eyes in shock, and she ducked back inside the entrance of the castle.
Outside, thundering towards the castle was a blood-red hydra. It seemed fairly young, as it was only a couple meters taller than her, and its head-to body size ratio seemed a bit large. Nevertheless, those six heads were snapping and hissing, tasting the air with their forked tongues as it plodded steadily towards Zelda’s hiding place.
She ducked deeper into the castle, galloping down the twisting corridors, not bothering to remember the way back. There was a mighty roar and a crash, and Zelda knew that the hydra had caught her scent and was now inside the castle. She bounded up a long, slowly spiraling staircase, all too aware of the booming of the hydra’s feet as it squeezed through the corridors in an attempt to reach her.
Zelda reached the top of the staircase and, to her dismay, found herself in an observatory of sorts at the top of a tower. The hydra was surely at the stairs by now, so Zelda slammed the ancient door shut and frantically tried to find a way out.
The hydra thundered up the last of the stairs and crashed through the door, reducing it to little more than large, glorified splinters of wood. The many-headed monster roared triumphantly at the cornered Zelda, and lunged. A cerulean aura surrounded the dozen long shards of wood that made up the remains of the door, and quickly impaled them through the bottom of each of the hydra’s heads. The hydra collapsed to the floor, lifeless, leaving a bewildered Zelda simply staring at the dead beast.
The shards were still glowing, and, for the first time, Zelda noticed the same color of light emanating from her horn. She blinked in surprise, and the magical aura was gone. The splinters fell limp, and a wave of lightheadedness swept over her. She stumbled to the side with an onset of vertigo, and within seconds, she blacked out.
Their first destination was in the Everfree Forest.
When Princess Celestia first informed the group over a lunch/late breakfast at noon, it was received with a general shock from the Ponyville-dwellers.
The Element Bearers, Spike (who had finally awoken and was filled in on everything he missed, sans the death of Emerald Gaze), Link, Epona, and Princess Celestia were seated at a large, circular oak table adorned with bowls of fruits, salads, eggs, toast, and other breakfast and lunch items to feed the group adequately.
“You mean…the Everfree Forest?” Rarity asked, hoping that she had misheard. “The one just outside of Ponyville?”
“The one with the old castle where we found the Elements of Harmony?” Twilight asked, just as bewildered.
“The one filled with animals and plants and lots and lots of trees?” Pinkie added quite redundantly through a mouth full of half-chewed fruit.
“There is only one Everfree Forest in the world,” Celestia stated, putting an end to the unnecessary questions. “You must go there, and find Evrus, Patron of the Forests and Guardian of Generosity, using this.” She levitated a golden, compass-like device onto the table, and they all stared at the strange apparatus with open curiosity.
The compass was about four inches in diameter, and an inch-and-a-half thick. The needle was an elongated diamond-shaped silver plate with a small red gem embedded in one end of the needle and minute runes along its edges. Underneath it was a complex maze of interlocking gears, rings, and screws, all with the same tiny engravings on their surfaces.
“What is it?” Pinkie asked, reaching across the table and poking it with a hoof.
“Oi! Don’t touch me with them filthy hooves o’ yers!” cried out a small, tinny voice, startling the pink party pony into slipping and falling flat on her face on the table top.
While the others looked around with quizzical looks on their faces, trying to identify the source of the disembodied voice, Princess Celestia simply glared at the compass. “Cothigard, you know it’s impolite to insult the cleanliness of others.”
“Ach! All you biologicals are all oily and disgusting,” the voice continued, “If that filth gets on me, it’ll tarnish me mechanisms an’ I’ll be bloody useless! Is that what ye’ want?”
“Uhh, Princess?” Rainbow Dash asked apprehensively. “Where’s that voice coming from?”
“Are ye blind ye rainbow-headed pansie? I’m right here!” The compass needle began whirling violently, before pointing at a wide-eyed Rainbow Dash, who wasn’t sure whether to be angry, offended, confused or surprised. She settled on the latter.
“I do apologize, Rainbow Dash,” Princess Celestia said with badly masked irritation. “Cothigard tends to be a bit grumpy towards everypony for some reason or another.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow in incredulity. “Hold on now,” she interjected, trying to grasp the situation. “Is that compass talkin’?”
“Yer’ darn right I’m talkin’, ye wee little lassie!” the compass stated, the needle turning to face Applejack. “An’ my name, as Cellie has so kindly said twice to all ye deaf ninnies, is Cothigard, an’ ye best start usin’ it.”
“Why’s he such a meanie-weenie-grumpy-pants?” Pinkie asked, her forelegs crossed and a pouty look on her face.
Celestia rolled her eyes. “Let’s just say that you should never tamper with an ancient magical artifact, let alone attempt a mind-reading spell on it.”
“Well, Princess Celery,” the compass started once more. “I’ll have you know that-”
Before they could be subjected to another rant from the “meanie-weenie-grumpy-pants,” Celestia placed Cothigard into a saddlebag which she levitated over to Twilight. The compass’s cries of indignation were, thankfully, muffled by the thick cloth, sparing the group from what was undoubtedly a string of insults about as creative and colorful as the ponies currently gathered in the room.
“As I was saying,” the princess continued. “Cothigard is a magical compass that points towards whatever you ask him to.” She paused, thinking for a moment before amending, “Well, he might, as long as you haven’t made him especially angry. You will use him to lead you to Evrus, who will restore the Element of Generosity.”
Link nodded. “Sounds simple enough,” he said, nodding his head in understanding. “When do we leave?”
The simple question caused a wave of sudden realization to wash over the group. They hadn’t fully realized that they would be leaving so soon until now. They may be gone for months attempting to awaken the Guardians and replenish the Elements of Harmony, and, with those shadow beasts running amok, there was a chance that they might never return.
Celestia saw the apprehension of the others, and her heart sank with guilt. “You may all leave whenever is best for your liking,” she said softly. “But remember,” she continued in a more urgent tone. “Time is of the essence. If the guardians aren’t awakened in time, the world is doomed to fall.”
Link’s gaze swept across the others seated at the table. Many of their faces, namely Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Spike, looked hesitant, unwilling to leave their friends and family back in Ponyville. Twilight, too, looked worried, but most likely for the safety of a certain dragon.
“I understand if they don’t want to leave just yet,” Link began, addressing the Princess. “But I’m willing to leave immediately. We don’t know how fast our foe is mobilizing his army of demons, and it would be better to leave as soon as possible so that we can stay one step ahead of them.”
Everyone was silent, absorbing what Link had just said, before Epona responded, “Well, I’m going with him, no question about it.”
Before anyone could say anything otherwise, the shrieking of sirens echoed through the halls. The floating orbs of magic, which had become nearly invisible in the sunlight, began flashing with angry red light.
Everyone looked to Celestia, frightened and confused looks on their faces. Link and Epona stood alert. The alien sound of the warning siren conveyed a clear enough message to the two: there was danger.
Midna emerged from Link’s shadow, settling just above head-level and assessed the situation at hand. “Princess,” she asked over her shoulder at Celestia. “What’s going on?”
Celestia began to speak, but the doors to the dining hall burst open and what seemed to be a small army of Royal Guards flooded into the room, the new Captain of the Royal Guard leading the way. “Your Highess,” the Captain began in an urgent tone. “Canterlot Castle is under attack.”
The first thing Zelda was aware of when she awoke was the extreme nausea that made her stomach tighten in protest. After groaning in discomfort and rolling onto her side, she noticed the soft sheets beneath her, and the warm glow of a fire through her closed eyelids.
“I see you wake my unicorn friend, I was quite afraid you had met your end.”
Zelda’s eyes shot open at the sound of another voice, and she sat up quickly in her bed.
She seemed to be in a single-roomed hut of sorts. The room was vaguely circular, with seamless wooden walls lined with shelves that held a mind-boggling amount of herbs, flowers, mushrooms, fruits, and bottles filled with unidentifiable liquids. The floor was bare compacted earth, with little tufts of grass here and there around the edge of the room.
Strange, tribal masks adorned what spaces on the walls weren’t occupied by shelves, or the two circular windows that peered out into a black night. A single, wide door occupied the wall farthest from Zelda, and a bubbling cauldron was perched atop a small wood fire in the very center of the floor.
Tending the cauldron was what Zelda recognized from Hyrulean texts of foreign lands as a zebra. This zebra, however, was adorned with golden bands around its hooves, and a series of similar rings decorated its neck. A symbol on its flank vaguely resembled a sun, but looked very stylized and abstract.
“Are you feeling well, young mare?” the zebra spoke in a deep, yet feminine voice. “Or are you still in disrepair?”
“I-” Zelda’s response was little more than a dry croak. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I’m just a bit nauseous, but otherwise I feel fine.”
The zebra nodded sagely. “This is news I am glad to know, for you have fought a most fearsome foe.” The zebra strode over to a pitcher and took it in her mouth, pouring a clear liquid into a wooden cup. “To kill a hydra is no small task, and how you did so, I must ask.”
The zebra brought the cup of water to Zelda, who nodded in thanks. The unicorn was still unsure as to what had actually happened at the old castle, but it was obvious that she had caused it.
“I’m not quite...sure how.” Zelda kept her eyes trained on the zebra. “All I know is that some pieces of wood thrust themselves into the hydra’s head, and my...horn,” she tripped on the word, once more reminded that she was not in her own body. “My horn was glowing, and then I passed out.”
The zebra seemed to raise an eyebrow at hearing Zelda’s recounting of events. “Are you not aware of the magic you hold, which foals can use at two months old?”
Zelda shook her head reluctantly. “I-I’m not from here…”
The zebra looked unconvinced. “If near or far is where you’re from, magic is still used by some. So, tell me unicorn of tan, are you from another land?”
Zelda still did not fully trust the chronically poetic zebra, but it seemed that she had no choice at the moment but to do so. “Yes…I used to live very far away from here…”
The zebra nodded, still looking unsure, but not questioning Zelda’s declaration. “I, too, come from far away. From Zebrica, I came here to stay. My name is Zecora, and this is my home. Surely you have a name of your own.” As Zecora finished, she looked at Zelda expectantly.
Accepting the inevitable, Zelda introduced herself. “My name is Zelda, of Hyrule…”
“We must evacuate you and the Elements of Harmony to a safe location. Princess Luna and the Royal Night Guard are leading the counter-attack on her own orders.”
The stunned looks on the faces of the Element Bearers did not seem to infect Celestia, however, as she simply nodded somberly and said, “Very well, Captain. Let us go.”
Everyone quickly gathered their belongings, before the guards escorted them through the winding halls of the castle at a brisk trot. As they traveled, the sounds of battle grew unnervingly close. The clashing of metal, the battle cries and screams of pain sent a wave of Déjà Vu washing over Link. It was not lost on them, however, that the shouts of ponies mingled with otherworldly shrieks and roars.
Several large tremors, accompanied by the deep rumblings of explosions, caused them to lose their balance as they were running, and they had to make several detours around collapsed bridges and halls. All the while, the warning sirens cried out, and the light orbs continued flashing their warnings to the remaining occupants of the castle.
At last, they reached the throne room. The guards piled behind the entrances, sealing off the room, and the captain led Celestia over to her throne. Without breaking stride, her horn flashed with a brilliant golden light, and the throne slid to the side, revealing a secret passage.
“Come,” the princess told the others who stood gawking at the secret tunnel. “We must retreat before the enemy reaches us.”
Link was standing to the side of the doorway, waiting for the others to file into the passage, when there was a cacophony of crashes as every one of the tall arched windows lining the walls of the throne room shattered. Six giant, black, winged monsters swooped into the room, trumpeting angrily as they engaged in combat with the guards. The Ponyville mares uttered various sounds of shock and horror as the beasts began tearing through the ranks of Equestria’s finest with disconcerting ease.
They wouldn’t stand a chance if Link didn’t do something otherwise.
“Midna,” Link started, but his shadowy companion had already guessed what he was thinking, and held a reddish-orange crystal suspended above her hoof.
“Ready when you are, Link,” she said with a small smirk, the fire of determination visible in her eyes.
Link turned to the wide-eyed mares behind him. “Seal the door,” he said simply. “I’ll meet with you in Ponyville!” Without waiting for an answer, he nodded to Midna, who sent a spark of Twili magic into the crystal.
Instantly, Link’s body became enveloped in the black tendrils of magic, which warped and pulsed as if it had a mind of its own. Link’s body began to shift and morph, before becoming smaller, with paws replacing hooves and sharp teeth replacing flat. The dark magic that had surrounded Link for mere seconds faded away and in his place was a black-furred, blue-eyed wolf, with a small, black and grey filly with a fiery orange ponytail perched atop his back.
Without hesitation, Link and Midna leapt into battle and the throne slid back into place, becoming part of the wall once more with a flash of gold. Now, the only way out of the warzone for the two non-Equestrians was through six angry Twilit Kargarocs, and an army of otherworldly monsters.
The invaders were going to need a bigger army.