//------------------------------//
// The Mirror of Twilight 
// Story: Equestrian Epona 
// by Shritistrang 
//------------------------------//

Three Gerudo were sitting on a rooftop in Hyrule Castle Town. From their appearance, they could be triplets. All three looked basically the same, except for the colors of their hair. Their body measurements were the same, their faces looked the same, even their clothes and hairstyles were identical.

Two of them enjoyed the view over the town, as the sun slowly began to set. The third one, however, the one with the fiery red hair, fidgeted around uneasily on her sitting spot at the edge of the roof. "I don't get it," she muttered. "What are we even doing here?"

"Why are you so tense, sis?" the blue-haired girl next to her asked. "Try to relax and enjoy the scenery. Isn't it amazing? This is the first time we've been in Hyrule and yet, it feels like coming home."

"But why here? Why Castle Town, of all places? Wouldn't it make much more sense to go to Gerudo Valley first, Lotus?" Or was it Kotake? She really wasn't sure what their real names were anymore.

"Isn't it obvious, you two?" Vera smirked. "What we are looking at is our true destiny. The one thing we always aspired to do: Helping our lord take what should be rightfully his. Hyrule!"

Aloe gasped. "B-but you said we wouldn't harm anyone…"

"I said we wouldn't harm anyPONY! That's what you two were worried about, right? That your new friends from Equestria would hate you if you decided to go against them. Well, we're not. Equestria doesn't really bother us anymore, does it? We're in Hyrule now. Why should we be bothered what those stupid Hylians are thinking?" She laughed.

"She does have a point," Lotus nodded. "Why would they be important to us?"

"But that's wrong!" Aloe protested. "Twilight and the others would never want us to harm anyone."

"But don't you get it? Don't you remember what they did to us?" Lotus asked as she grabbed her sister by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "Search your true memories from Hyrule… what are those people like? They look down at us, they see us as thieves and outlaws. We have to live in the harsh climate of the desert, while they prance around in that happy little town of theirs." She turned Aloe's head around with her hands. "Look at them! Do you see what they're doing? Laughing, chatting, aimlessly wandering around in their safe haven, not even bothered in the slightest by the dangers outside of their town walls. Do they care what lives the Gerudo are leading? No, they don't! THAT'S why Lord Ganondorf wanted to conquer Hyrule, to aid his people. Who cares if he summoned monsters and demons to reach his goal? We raised him to do exactly this, don't you remember? We leave Equestria alone, I get it. We have friends there. But these bastards? They are NOT our friends! They don't DESERVE to live!"

Vera smiled. "I couldn't have said it any better."

Aloe gently took her sister's hands and removed them from her head. She looked at her with sad eyes. "But does that make us any different from Ghirahim or Queen Chrysalis? You two say this is our destiny, and I agree that I have a certain feeling of… belonging, when I'm here. But do we really have to repeat what we did in our old lives?"

"Don't tell me you'd be actually HAPPY with living in the desert now," Vera sneered.

"No, that's not it… but… can't we just go back to Ponyville and enjoy our old lives?"

"You said it yourself, they don't trust us anymore," Lotus said. "They kept us prisoner within our own spa. Pinkie Pie didn't even invite us to her party… PINKIE PIE! Do you understand what that means? We are not one of them anymore! No, Aloe… I'm not going back there. Do what you want, but I won't let this chance slip past my grip."

Aloe wanted to protest, but then she thought of what that would entail. Leaving now would mean leaving Lotus behind, her twin sister, the only remaining member of her family. The only solid spot in her life she could rely on. Her life would never be the same without Lotus at her side. So, with a heavy heart, she sighed and said: "Well, okay… but what do you even want to do? How do we start? The Gerudo? I think they're too much under Nabooru's influence that we could count on their help in any way."

"I know they wouldn't help us," Lotus frowned. "We are doing this for their own good, but they have been blinded by the traitor. We need another solution…"

"And I've got just the plan, ladies," Vera smiled. "What do you think why I brought you here in the first place? If Nabooru refuses to listen, there's only one person in the world our sisters would listen to." She pointed her finger at the Temple of Time. "Do you know what's kept inside these walls at the moment?"

"The Master Sword, obviously," Lotus muttered. "Why should we care about that old blade?"

"True, but that's not what I meant. In addition to the Blade of Evil's Bane, there's also another magical artifact kept inside the temple at the moment. A special mirror used to imprison a certain somebody…"

Aloe's eyes widened. "You don't mean…"

"HOLD IT!"

The three of them turned their heads when two other Gerudo arrived at the scene, jumping over from another rooftop. One of them was a stranger, but the other one was Nabooru.

"I knew it was too good to be true," Nabooru grumbled. "Twinrova… even after dying, you just couldn't quit, could you? Right after Princess Luna told me you two would be reincarnated, I just knew you couldn't be trusted. Well, whatever you're planning, I'm here to put an end to this."

Lotus smirked. "Well, hello to you too, Nabooru. Is that any way to treat your elders?"

"Silence! You're not my elders anymore. And even if you were, I wouldn't listen to a word you say." The Sage of Spirits drew her scimitar. "Defend yourselves!"

"This is pointless," Lotus said as she jumped over Nabooru's head when she attacked her. "Even without our friend Vera here, do you believe you can take the two of us on all on your own?"

Nabooru laughed. "Why should I be worried? I know you don't have your full powers back yet, while I have the powers of a sage. Also, I have a helper of my own."

"Oh… I'm not too sure this is a good idea," Din said. "I really can't fight your battles…"

"You're not a fighter?" Vera laughed as she suddenly appeared right behind the dancer girl. "You didn't even think of bringing a warrior to a fight, Nabooru? This is going to be easy." She grabbed Din with a strong grip.

Din winced a bit. "Ow, do you mind? I almost forgot how delicate mortal bodies are… I'm not here to fight you."

"Release her at once!" Nabooru shouted, but then her feet were frozen to the rooftop.

Lotus smirked. "I may not have my whole powers back, but they are still enough to take you on. Where are those sage powers of yours? Don't you think it's time to put them to good use?"

"If you insist…" Nabooru grumbled. Her eyes lit up in an orange light, and her whole body was suddenly engulfed in a sandstorm that appeared out of nowhere. The sage disappeared from the frozen spot, the sand was swept around her opponent, and in a twirl, Nabooru appeared right behind Lotus's back. "Surprise!" she grinned, just as she was about to strike her with her scimitar.

But then, she felt burning pain all over her backside. Realizing that her whole back had caught fire, she rolled around on the roof to put it out.

Aloe glared at her with eyes that were blazing with fury. "Keep your hands off my sister!" she shouted as she fired another small fireball at the sage.

Nabooru dodged the fire with another roll, but then her feet were frozen again by another spell from Lotus. "I knew it," Lotus said. "You aren't used to your powers yet, you are not as powerful as you want to make us believe. You'll never defeat the two of us on your own."

"Good job, girls," Vera smiled. "Now, do you want to kill her now or later? I say do it now and spare yourselves the trouble you're in when she rallies all the other Gerudo against us."

"You really shouldn't do this," Din said from within Vera's grasp. "I implore you to listen to your true feelings and let go of this plan of yours before it is too late."

"Who are you to tell us what our true feelings are?" Vera shouted as she tightened her grasp on the dancer girl. "What do you even know about us?"

"Seriously, who are you?" Lotus asked. "I've never seen you before in my life… my old one, I mean."

"You really don't need to know that," Din said. "All I can tell you is that you're dabbling in forces you can't possibly control. If you free him…"

"I've had enough," Vera grumbled. "Let's kill her, too."

Din gulped nervously. She knew that in this body, she was just as vulnerable as any mortal and could easily die. But she couldn't let them know who she was…

"I'll handle it. This will be over in a moment," Lotus said as she formed an icy spear in her hand and aimed it at Din's throat. "Sorry, sister, but you shouldn't have sided with her."

"Wait, don't! It's me you want, not her!" Nabooru shouted from the ground.

Growing increasingly nervous, Din muttered: "You… you can't… please, listen to me, I…"

"Enough! KILL HER!" Vera shouted.

Lotus drew back her spear, got ready to throw it, Din closed her eyes…

And then, she quickly squirmed out of Veran's grasp, jumped up and kicked Lotus in the face. Lotus was so surprised by this attack that she did not even try to defend herself. She fell down, as well as the ice spear, which shattered into little pieces.

"I told you not to do it, but it appears you won't listen," Din said. "Oh well, looks like I have to pound it in your skulls until you understand."

At the same time, she heard a voice inside her head: 'Sister! What are you doing? We made an oath not to meddle in the affairs of mortals.'

'I am not intervening as a goddess, Nayru,' Din replied. 'I am acting as a mortal, on their behalf. If I can't use divine powers to get some sense into them, I'll just have to use... what do the mortals call it? Oh yes, a good, old-fashioned smackdown!'

She knew Nayru wanted to protest some more, but she drove the voice of her sister out of her head. All she knew was that she had to stop them from reviving Ganondorf.

"So, it looks like you're a fighter after all," Veran said. "Doesn't really matter. We are three and you are only one."

"Don't think I'll go easy on you," Din said as she went into a martial arts stance.

"Fine," Veran sighed. "If you want to do this the hard way..." She spread her palm and a magical projectile of darkness, shaped like a bug, flew at the dancer. Nimbly, Din avoided the attack. But Veran kept sending more and more of the shadowy insects. "Using martial arts against a magic user... how idiotic can you get?" she grinned. "I can easily hold you off on my own. The two of you, go on ahead without me. I'll have this handled in a few minutes."

"If you say so," Lotus muttered as she got back up from the ground. "Come on, sis." And together, they ran off.

Din started sweating as she had to evade a swarm of shadow insects that kept buzzing around her. She wasn't even able to attack, she had to focus all her concentration on not getting hit. 'Fighting as a mortal is more difficult than it looks like,' she thought to herself. 'Link always makes it look so easy...'

Nabooru gritted her teeth as she tried to free herself from the ice that was still keeping her stuck to the roof. She saw the trouble Din was in and realized she wouldn't be able to defeat Veran on her own.

"I have to get free somehow," she muttered. "I am the Sage of Spirits... I can use that to my advantage somehow..." She concentrated and thought of the hot, burning sand of the desert. The relentless heat that every desert wanderer could feel under his feet and in the air all around him. She called upon that heat and focussed it on her frozen foot. And after a while, the ice started melting. Carefully, Nabooru reached for her scimitar, waited for the right moment... and then jumped back into action. Just as Din was attacked by another swarm of shadow bugs, she intervened and sliced the darkness into half. A spin attack, accompanied by a gust of desert wind, dispersed the rest of the swarm.

"Quite foolish of you to send your accomplices away," she said. "Now there's two of us and only one of you. Would you care to surrender now?"

Veran snarled in anger. "You won this battle, but you haven't seen the last of me." She turned her form into a shadow and disappeared.

Din took a deep breath. "Thanks for the help, sage... I thought I could take her on by myself, but looks like I was mistaken."

"You fought for a good cause, and we won, that's all that matters," Nabooru said. "But now we have to hurry and catch up with the other two."





Meanwhile, in the Temple of Time…

"They still haven't put any guards here," Lotus chuckled. "I know this used to be nothing but a sanctuary, with the Master Sword and the gateway to the Sacred Realm sealed away behind the Gates of Time… but you would think the king would understand that after the opening of the gates, the Master Sword and the mirror are unprotected this way."

"He probably didn't expect anyone to sneak into town this easily," Aloe said. "And the other Gerudo are now on his side… sister, are you really sure we should be doing this?"

"If we back off now, we are going to be punished anyway," Lotus said. "So we can as well go all the way. Look at how close our goal is… and when our lord protects us, they can't do anything to us anyway. Come on now, or do you want me to leave you behind?"

That was more than enough to convince Aloe to follow her sister further inside. Finally, they stood in the chamber of the Master Sword. It shone brightly on top of the pedestal.

"Looks really nice, doesn't it?" Lotus asked. "Too bad we can't do anything with it. Only the hero can wield it, and our powers are not nearly high enough to even cause a scratch in it. Let our lord decide what to do with it after we release him."

She kept on walking, to the backside of the chamber. At the back wall stood a tall mirror, with a surface as smooth as polished marble. Mystical runes were dancing over its front side.

"This is it," Lotus muttered. "The Mirror of Twilight. Can you feel it? All the power within it, and most importantly, the power waiting behind. Are you ready?"

Aloe wasn't ready for this at all, but she wasn't about to let her sister face it all alone. She took her place next to Lotus, in front of the mirror. They started mumbling words in an ancient, forbidden language. Words of power that were meant to shatter any seal.

But then, a glowing circle appeared on the wall next to them and a Hylian boy in a green tunic, a small blue fairy, a princess and a Hylian woman in brown garments stepped into the room.

Zelda gasped. "They are breaking the seal on the mirror! Link, stop them!"

In the corner of her eye, Aloe noticed how the hero was raising his bow, aiming an arrow right at them. But a simple motion of her sister's hand, and a small, but effective barrier of ice separated them from the others and stopped the arrow dead in its tracks.

"Blast it!" Link shouted as he drew his blade and started running around the ice, the strange woman in the brown tunic following him.

But then, the spell was finished. Together, Aloe and Lotus spoke the final words, and the magic within the mirror shone at them in a brilliant light.

But following the light was the darkness. It drove the brightness away and started creeping over the temple floor. And just as Link came around the ice barrier, he saw how a figure emerged from within the mirror. A tall, armored man with red hair… the face from his nightmares…

"NO!" he shouted and raised his blade. It came down on the figure in a shimmering arch…

Only to be stopped by Ganondorf's gloved hand. The grandmaster of evil sneered down at the Hylian boy. "I don't think you quite understand, boy. This…" he glanced at the harmless blade he was holding. "Is not the sword you defeated me with."

One powerful punch of his left hand, and Link was sent flying backwards, down to the floor. Ganondorf kept the simple, Hylian blade in his grasp… and with a powerful motion, crushed it in-between his fingers.

"Link!" the woman in brown gasped as she ran at his side. "Are you all right?"

"I've felt better, Epona…" Link muttered.

Ganondorf laughed as he raised his hand high above their heads. On the backside of it, the Triforce of Power shone brightly. He looked at Link and Zelda. "How come we always seem to meet in important places like this? The three of us, always destined to meet… except that this time, I shall have my revenge!"





At the same time, in a dark place…

Veran bowed down in front of the silhouette of the shadow horse. "My apologies, my lord... I was unable to remove the Sage of Spirits. But Twinrova will succeed with their task and revive the king of evil."

The echoing voice laughed. "Good. Very good. I admit, I underestimated you, sorceress of shadows. And I'm glad you proved that your loyalty lies in fact with me, instead of that fool Ganondorf. Do the twins suspect anything yet?"

"Of course not, my lord," Veran said. "On the contrary, they are more convinced that ever that their only destiny is to serve Ganondorf. But what about Ghirahim?"

"He is as clueless as they are," the shadow horse chuckled. "At this very moment, he is bringing the Element of Kindness to his new hideout, to lure in the Equestrian Sages. Eventually, he will succeed, as will Ganondorf. But by the time they realize that their plans were all orchestrated by me, it will be too late. And then there will be nothing that they, the goddesses or the heroes will be able to do. And chaos will be spread… sweet, beautiful chaos."





Princess Celestia was alone, standing in a white, empty void. She looked around and could see nobody around. No pony and no other being. But she knew she wasn't alone.

"Discord!" she shouted. "Show yourself!"

"Celestia!" the familiar voice of the master of chaos spoke up behind her. "You decided to pay me a visit? How nice of you. Welcome to my little hacienda."

Celestia turned around and saw Discord lounging in a hammock in front of what looked like a holiday resort, in front of a beautiful beach, all of which she was sure weren't there seconds ago.

"Cease the pleasantries and explain yourself," Celestia said. "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?" Discord asked innocently. "Enjoying a little vacation, away from all the stress? You should try it, you are always so tense." He snapped his fingers and a Hawaiian shirt appeared on Celestia, accompanied by a pair of shades.

Celestia angrily shook the clothes off. "You know exactly what I mean. Equestria is facing certain doom at the hands and hooves of dangerous individuals, and you do not lift a claw to help. You said you wanted to prove to me… to us all… that you've changed. Well? Here's your chance!"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, my dear princess," Discord said, sipping a bit of orange juice. "I'd love to help, honestly, I really do. But I just can't."

"You can't?" Celestia expected anything, an excuse, a riddle, a banana pie to the face, but certainly not this. "What do you mean?"

"I said I can't because I just can't," Discord said vaguely. "I can't tell you all the details, but there are certain things that even chaos can't handle. So let's just forget about these unpleasant things and let us enjoy the finer things of life." He offered her a bowl. "Peanuts?"

"Discord!" Celestia said sternly. "He has Fluttershy!"

That took the master of chaos by surprise. "Fluttershy? Dear, sweet little Fluttershy? The pony that couldn't hurt a fly? The only one who truly considered me a friend? That same Fluttershy?"

"Yes," Celestia said. "A demon in the guise of a unicorn kidnapped her and transformed her into a monstrous beast against her will. And even worse, he wants to force her to commit acts she would consider horrible herself. I know perfectly well you wouldn't do a thing that would risk endangering her. So I ask you again: Why aren't you there, helping her instead of hiding away like a coward?"

"M-me, a coward?" Discord stuttered. "You must have mistaken me with somebody else, Celestia. I'm no coward…"

"Liar!" she shouted. "You are hiding away, doing nothing to help those you consider themselves your friends. You don't even jump at the chance of spreading chaos. What has happened, Discord? What could possibly be the reason for you to stay away from Equestria right now?"

"Because…" Discord took a deep breath. "I can't do it, Celestia."

"You can't do… what?"

"I can't face him. The shadow that's holding the strings in all of this. The creature inhabiting the form of a horse. The one who orchestrated everything, from Ganondorf's invasion of Hyrule to Luna's fall to the dark side. He did it all. And I can't do a thing to stop him."

"Why not?" Celestia asked. "If you know who he is, why can't you take action? Is he more powerful than you?"

"It's possible. I haven't seen him in a very long time. But his power is not the reason I'm not doing anything."

Celestia was confused. Discord admitted he was afraid? Discord admitted there was something he was unable to do? That didn't fit the picture she had of the lord of chaos at all.

"Who is it?" she finally asked. "Who is it that you can't face?"

Discord looked at her, his face a strange mix of sadness, fear and regret. Looking extremely out of place on his face. "He is my brother. That's why I can't face him. Because he is my brother."