The forest scenery flew by him as he constantly dodged the tree branches and bushes in his way. He heard the footsteps of his pursuer catch up to him quickly. He heard it roar once more and looked behind him in fear. The manticore loomed over him, it's bloodstained teeth bared. The claws unsheathed out of its paws, glinting evilly in the little light the forest provided. He looked at the claws in fear as it rushed at him in slow motion. His body also moved in slow motion, failing to get out of the sharp bone’s way. Before he got stabbed, a dark circle appeared under him. Fire circled around him as a hand shot up and grabbed him, pulling him to the darkness.
“Such a pity,” he heard a voice say. It sounded as if two swords were clashing against each other constantly: short and sharp. Two red dots glared at him malevolently from the pit. “Such a young colt. To die this early. You didn't even accomplish anything either. What a waste.”
The hand then pulled him in the dark circle. He struggled against the circle’s pull, yelling in pain when the hand tightened around his body.
“Venturing in a world where cruelty knows no bounds,” the voice whispered directly in his ear. “Such naive behavior should not be allowed. DIE!”
The hand then pulled him in the darkness. He struggled and choked in the hand’s hold-!?”
THUNK!
“OW!”
“Took ya long enough to get awake,”
Link opened his eyes slowly to see the pink menace hover over him. The white moonlight shined through his bedroom window of Lyra’s house. He found that he was on the floor. The fairy glared at him harshly.
“Did you forget about our promise?” he asked. He hovered over him and bonked himself on Link’s head. “Get your clothes on.”
“What?” he asked, still disoriented from the nightmare. Seemed like Princess Luna didn’t show up to expel it again. That was the third time in a row.
The fairy sighed. “It was a good thing you woke up anyway. You were tossing and turning all night. But aside from that, we got a Great Fairy to visit.”
“Oh right,” Link quickly put on his hat and tunic and rubbed his eyes to get the drowsiness out. He was about to approach the door before he froze. “I can’t wake Lyra up like this.”
“Go through the window,” he said. “I’ll show you the way to the spring. It isn’t that far from here.”
Link nodded and opened the window. He hung from the ledge and gently dropped down. He looked around to see that it was completely deserted and motioned the fairy to come down as well. He gently glided down and started to fly, Link following close behind him.
“At this point, I don’t even care if my mistress chose you or something,” he murmured to Link. Link perked up in interest. “I just want her to be okay.”
“What happened to her anyway?” Link asked. He looked around to find that he was in the park now. “You make it sound like something happened to her.”
“Something did happen to her,” the fairy said. “I can’t really explain what it is though. You’ll have to see in order to understand.”
They both got out of the park and started walking closer to the edge of town, making Link grope out his back before realizing that he left his sword at Lyra’s house.
“Just where is this spring anyways?” Link asked. He felt extremely vulnerable without his sword. The fairy just hushed him and continued on. After sometime, they arrived at a very dingy looking house. It was completely run down with broken windows and a partially broken roof. He saw the fairy go in without hesitation.
“It’s in here,” the fairy said. “Don’t tell me you think this is haunted.”
“It could be, since I fought ghosts before,” Link said. He remembered the time when he had fought those ghosts down in the cellar pathways. He quickly shook his head when he remembered how his father looked, bleeding and helpless on the floor. He took a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with.”
He entered the house and followed the fairy. The inside looked exactly as it did outside: all broken and dusty. The fairy climbed over a piece of debris that blocked the basement stairs. “This place is good for hiding our fairy spring. Nopony usually comes here and it would be a waste of money to demolish this building, since it’s so far out of town anyway. We could always move but our mistress likes being near town, seeing all the ponies bustle about and hearing a bit of news of the outside world while she’s at it.”
“Just show me where to go,” Link climbed over the wooden mess and descended downstairs. When he reached the floor, he saw a big hole in it.
“What are you waiting for?” The fairy asked. He started to fly down. “Jump down.”
The fairy flew down the hole. Link could see the light from its aura get smaller and smaller until it disappeared. Link gulped and took a few steps back. He ran forward and jumped in the hole. It was because Link had done this before, he didn’t scream. It didn’t make it any less terrifying though. Luckily for him, the spring came by faster than expected and he gently floated just as he reached the bottom. He looked around to see the spring surprisingly busy. Pink fairies like the one with him floated about, seemingly crowding something. He couldn’t see where the Great Fairy was though.
“I have brought the one the Great Fairy requested!” His fairy announced, causing a small chorus gasps and banter to run through them. “Let him through so he can speak.”
All the fairies moved apart to reveal another set of pink fairies pressing against themselves tightly. Though, there was something different about these fairies other than the ones crowding around it…
“Go on,” the fairy urged, bumping against Link’s head. “She’s waiting for you.”
“The Great Fairy?” Link asked. “I don’t see her anywhere.”
The fairy bumped into him again anyways, causing him to walk forward. The fairies formed two lines on each side of them. He could hear their pleas.
“Please save our mistress!”
“Is that the one? Is this colt the one going to fix her?”
“You have to help us please! If our mistress requested you, then you must be special!”
“Help what exactly?” Link thought. “I don’t see the Great Fairy anywhere.”
He approached the different bundle of fairies at his fairy’s urging. He could see the difference between them clearly now. The were much more bigger and much more solid. They also didn’t give off a blinding light aura, exposing their body structure. Link wondered if this is what the fairy’s truly looked like, but he had to admit that they do look kind of ugly then…
The swarm of fairies in the middle approached them, spinning rapidly in a circle. He could see all of them kept their attention towards him, unnerving him a bit.
“Greetings hero!” All the fairies said in a chorus of high pitched voices. They all circled around him rapidly again, making him feel dizzy. “I knew you would come.”
“Err...who are you exactly?” Link asked. The fairy with him bonked his head again, making Link glare at him.
“You still don’t know who she is?!” He hissed at him in a lower voice.
“Could you spare me the trouble then?” Link whispered back, annoyed. The fairy sighed.
“That’s the Great Fairy idiot!” Link’s eyes widened as he darted his head towards the numerous fairies floating together. “Yeah, you look surprised now. I thought I told you that something happened with her.”
“You did but…” Link trailed off. The group of fairies all sighed together.
“Yes, I know my condition is unique,” she said. “My body has been separated by an unknown force. Luckily, I was able to retain at least one-half of my body. But I need at least three-fourths of my parts in order to rejoin together in a smaller version of myself.”
“Why did you call me then?”
“Because of the fact that you’re the only pony that knows about us and is still connected with the outside world. My fairies can’t go out and search without the fear of being exposed. So I call upon you with a plea: will you go and please find the rest of my body?”
Immediately, the rest of the fairies murmured about this new development. Link felt another bonk on his head from the fairy.
“What!?” The fairy with him said. “Why him!? He’s just a stupid little colt!”
Immediately, some others started to agree with him, with a few fairies defending him.
“HUSH!” The Great Fairy shouted. Silence filled the room as all the fairies complied with their mistress’ order. The Great Fairy split her group and made them fly so that one part of her body confronted a group of regular fairies. “This colt is the only way we can preserve our secret and accomplish the task at the same time. Plus, I can sense the mark of my other sisters on him. I have pretty good reasons to trust him, don’t I?”
“That still doesn’t cover that he’s still a colt,” the fairy retorted. Link quickly grinded his teeth in anger at the fairy’s continued mistrust of him. “If he can truly-”
“Stop this now!”
The fairy froze mid-insult. “That voice?!”
The other myriad of fairies moved away to show one fairy. It flew up to him and got up in his face.
“Why don’t you give him at least one chance? You were no better than him, yet I still gave you a chance, dear.”
“Dear?!” Link looked at the second fairy in astonishment. All the other fairies started to snicker at the scene.
“But I-” his fairy tried to counter before he was shushed again.
“When will you learn?” the female fairy sighed. “At least give him a chance. I actually believe my mistress’ words, unlike some other people here. The Great Fairy already explained what was going to happen before hand so why are you all complaining now?”
“Fine...honey.”
“Honey!?” Link looked at the other fairy in astonishment. He has a wife? Link found it hard to believe that anypony liked him at all. Much less find himself a mate. He quickly shook his head and looked back at the Great Fairy. He saw that she had an amused look on her many faces.
“I believe that it is settled,” they all gathered back and hugged together tightly again. “You will accompany him to find the rest of my parts in town. I trust you will not raise a fuss?”
“Yes mistress…” the male fairy said dejectedly. Most of the Great Fairies smiled.
“I hope you would understand that this task won’t go unrewarded…” At that, Link’s head perked up. “But you would do well to master your gift from my other sister first.”
“That wind spell?” He asked. The Great Fairies nodded. “Er… I don’t even know how to do it in the first place. How should I go about it?”
“There are places called libraries for a reason,” The Great Fairies said sagely. Link blushed at that, not having thought of going to one in the first place. “It is a great source of knowledge. I understand they are not your favorite places to go, but I assure that you will be surprised at how much knowledge of the world you can gain just by reading a few of the right books. It will not help you just with your spell, but your journey as well.”
“I’ll help as best as I can then,” Link said before wincing. He was planning on leaving town as soon as he found some fish food for his informant, but it looked like he would have to stay a little longer.
“Then it is settled,” she said. “I will give you as much time as you need to find my other parts. They will be wandering all over town. Make sure that nopony sees them when they are hovering over to you, as their motor skills are clunky from being separated from the main mind, which is me. I will see you later, hero.”
With that, the Great Fairies all dissipated, leaving nothing but the other crowd of fairies.
“I trust that you will be well,” the female fairy said. “Just...don’t cause any unnecessary trouble. Everyone knows how much trouble you tend to attract.”
“Stop that!” The male fairy said, embarrassed. “Our little guest here doesn’t need to hear that!”
All the other fairies laughed while Link gave out a few chuckles of his own. The female then flew over to Link, catching his attention.
“I’m sorry for my mate’s attitude,” she said. “But I really hope you can find it in your heart to help us. I think you can already see how much we care about our mistress and how we feel about her condition.”
“You can count on me!” Link said with a grin. Even though he wouldn’t be leaving town as soon as he thought he was, helping others always made him smile himself. Plus, he would be getting something out of it so…
“Come on, colt!” The fairy said. “We’ll search later in the morning. We can’t look if the both of us are tired.”
The fairy flew up the ledge, only to come back when he realized Link couldn’t fly.
“Anyone want to help me teleport him?” He asked sheepishly. All the fairies gathered around Link and started swirling around him. He then felt everything go black while his insides sloshed all over the place. He reappeared outside the broken house, struggling not to spit out whatever was leftover in his stomach.
“First time teleporting while you were awake?” The fairy asked. At Link’s queasy nod, he sighed. “Yeah, that happens sometimes.”
After Link’s moment of nausea passed, he yawned.
“Let’s get back to Lyra’s place before she recognizes I’m not there,” he said sleepily. The fairy nodded and they started to walk back to town. “I’m surprised. I didn’t know you had a… mate is what it's called?”
“I’m surprised myself,” The fairy said, much to Link’s astonishment. “I never seemed to be the type to get a mate, but she came along. It's- what was that noise?! Hide!”
Link’s ears registered the frantic tapping that came from the ground and immediately hid in a conveniently nearby bush. The fairy besides him lowered his glow brightness, almost to the point of lighting out. He stuck his head out to see somepony in a cloak rushing out of the forest. The figure looked left and right frantically, almost as if it was scared of being followed before. The cloaked being then made a sigh before slowly going towards town.
“What are you waiting for?!” The fairy hissed at him. “Go after it!”
“Why?”
“Our mistress doesn’t remember much about how she got cursed. Just that it was done by somepony in a cloak.”
“You’re suspecting it's that guy?” Link asked. The fairy nodded venomously.
“Go before he disappears!” The fairy floated outwards, flying around where the cloaked pony once stood. “He left track marks! We can follow it to wherever that guy is heading to!”
Curious and alarmed, Link made his way towards the fairy. He inspected the ground and indeed saw the liquidy tracks on the ground. He dipped his hoof into it and sniffed it, though immediately recognized the familiar coppery smell of it.
“Blood…” he whispered before his eyes widened and he immediately dug his hoof into the ground, wiping off the remaining vile liquid that stuck to his leg. “Oh my goddess!”
“No doubt about it now,” the fairy said before quickly flying in the direction of town. “There’s still time to catch him! Hurry up!”
Link immediately ran towards the fairy as it flew close to the ground, searching for marks. He noticed that the marks got less and less noticeable as he reached town. Though, it seemed the fairy could still track it.
“On the other side of town,” the fairy urged him. “On the outskirts. Let’s catch him before he tries to enter the forest or leave town again.”
Link nodded and got out his sword from his hat. He quickly sheathed it as he followed the fairy, leading him to what appeared to be a small cottage. It ran uphill with a small lake beside it. He quickly noticed the cloaked figure climbing up the hill, clearly tired out from whatever he was doing before.
“HEY! YOU THERE!” The fairy shouted. The cloaked figure froze and slowly turned around. Though his face was still concealed, Link could see that he had a very long, pink mane. “YEAH YOU OVER THERE! WE FINALLY CAUGHT YOU!”
“W-wha-” the figure said in a feminine-like voice before being shushed by the fairy. The fairy got up in his face.
“We know what you did to our mistress,” the fairy said. The figure shook his head vehemently.
“B-but I didn’t do anything!” The cloaked figure said, making Link realize that this pony was actually a girl instead of a boy. “W-who was y-your mistress? P-please don’t hurt me!”
“I’m going to do much worse than that!” The fairy roared. “Fix what you have done to our mistress right now and I might consider mercy!”
“Hold on-” Link tried to say before the fairy started on him too.
“Don’t you try to stop me!” The fairy said. Though, Link wasn’t about to be pushed away from the fairy this time. He could practically see the tears already coming down her face.
“Why don’t you listen to me first!” He yelled. “Your mate said something about giving ponies second chances! Why are you already disregarding that!”
“...you did NOT just bring my mate into this,”
“Yeah I did! Let’s hear her out first before making any assumptions!”
“...fine. But if she kills us because we let our guard down, I’m blaming you.”
“Fine,” Link said before turning towards the cloaked figure. “First off, what’s your name?”
“I-It's Fluttershy,”
“Didn’t quite catch that. Can you speak a little louder please?”
“Fluttershy,” the mare said a little louder, shocking Link.
“Fluttershy?!” He repeated. “As in the element of kindness?!”
The mare nodded and lifted her hood up. Sure enough, the tear-stricken face of Fluttershy looked back at him, just like it did in the newspaper articles and history books. He looked at his fairy companion and found he went dead silent.
“W-what’s your name?” Fluttershy asked, snapping Link out of his thoughts.
“Call me Rift,” he said, smoothly transitioning over to his fake name. As far as he knew, all the elements of harmony were friends with each other, including Applejack. He couldn’t risk anything with Fluttershy either, even though all the second-hand sources told him that she was as harmless as a butterfly. “What are you doing so late out?”
Fluttershy looked to the side, “I-I cannot say,”
“But there is blood on your hooves,” Link pointed out, making Fluttershy flinch. He could still see and hear the subtle drops of blood dropping on the dirt floor. It honestly started to get more annoying than horrifying. “How am I supposed to think you are not some murderer?”
“I was checking o-on my animal friends in the forest,” Fluttershy confessed. “My friends keep telling me not to go, since the forest has gotten so dangerous in such little time. B-but I get so worried about them that I go anyway, but I was too late this time.”
He did remember reading about how she loved animals like they were her own children so he could at least confirm it was true, since he was hearing it from Fluttershy himself.
"I'm sorry for reminding you of that," Link said. He knew what it was like to think of a death of a loved one. Hearts may heal over time but the thought of it doesn't get any better. The fairy suddenly flew up to Fluttershy, his wings drooping more noticeably.
“It seemed that I was mistaken,” the fairy said. “I’m really sorry for putting you on the spot like this, even when I knew what your nature was like. Besides, the Great Fairy mentioned something like a purple cloak instead of a brown one anyway.”
“You could’ve mentioned that earlier and save us all this trouble,” Link said annoyed. “And it took you this long to figure out you’re in the wrong?”
Fluttershy blinked before turning sparkly-eyed. She zipped up towards his fairy companion. “I have never seen your species before! You look more like a parasprite, but you can talk. What’s your name?”
Both males froze. “She saw me, didn’t she?”
“She totally did,” Link confirmed, nodding his head. Both of their eyes widened before they both started panicking.
“I d-don’t understand,” Fluttershy said, reverting back to her shy personality. “I-is that a bad thing I saw you?”
“I’m… not exactly supposed to be seen by other ponies,” the fairy explained. Fluttershy only tilted her head. “It's… complicated.”
“I s-still don’t understand,” the fairy sighed, clearly annoyed and looked towards Link, who only shrugged his shoulders helplessly in this situation.
“Just don’t tell anyone,” the fairy said seriously. “You know our secret, but we know yours too. If it does come to it, I will make Rift tell your friends that you still go into the forest.”
“Don’t bring me into this!” Link cried out, shocked that his companion could even suggest that. “I don’t want to blackmail her!”
“P-please don’t tell my friends!” Fluttershy said. “I d-don’t want them to know I’ve been lying to them!”
“Promise to keep my secret safe?” The fairy said. “It's extremely important to me that no one knows about our kind. We will speak more of this later, but me and my temporary partner here are tired.”
“Should I Pinkie Promise?” Fluttershy asked. Link raised an eyebrow.
“Pinkie Promise?”
“Something that our friend does in order to make sure we don’t break our promises. You DO NOT want to break a promise like that ever.”
“No need for that,” the fairy said. “I trust that we will keep our secrets to ourselves. We will see you later when we can.” With that, the fairy flew back into his hat. Link felt him snuggle up in his mane before everything went still. He looked at Fluttershy apologetically.
“Sorry for my...friend,” friend was a very loose word to use. “When he wants something done, he will do whatever means necessary to complete it.”
“It’s f-fine,” Fluttershy said shakily. “Me seeing him must’ve been r-really important f-for him to act this way. Though, why is he okay with you seeing him? Y-you can answer that only if you want to of course!”
Link smiled dryly. “I’m afraid I don’t want to, unfortunately. Like he said before, it's complicated.”
Fluttershy nodded before frowning. “Rift, was it? I h-haven’t seen you around before?”
“I’m new here,” he answered, transferring back to his fake story. “I’m a traveler with somepony else, see? I’m currently staying at Lyra’s place for now. I would love to talk more, but I am also tired. I will see you later to discuss more about this.”
“I see,” she murmured. “I g-guess I will see you later also.”
Link nodded and waved her goodbye before leaving himself. He felt a shuffling in his head as the fairy appeared before him again.
“I can’t believe she saw me…” the fairy mumbled. Link glared at the glowing ball.
“You could’ve handled the situation more calmly you know,” Link said. “Fluttershy was nearly about to cry openly!”
“I did what I had to to conserve my species identity,” the fairy said indignantly. “This is more important than you may think it is.”
“Another thing: Fluttershy mentioned your name before and I realized that I don’t know it myself. Would you mind telling me what it is?”
“Us fairies don’t have names,” the fairy said. “We each have a unique magic frequency that we can recognize by ourselves, so names are never a problem.”
“Isn’t it tough though?”
“Not really. We do still use a form of nicknames for our mates, the normal ones being dear and honey as seen...before…” The fairy blushed in embarrassment. Link ignored it as both his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.
“It’s getting tough for me,” Link confessed. “Do you have anything for me to call you by?”
“I don’t care to be honest,” the fairy replied. “Call me whatever you want.”
Link grinned evilly, making the fairy beside him gulp. “I will regret saying that, won’t I?”
“In due time,” Link said, the cheesy grin still on his face. The fairy groaned and re-entered his hat as they approached Lyra’s house.
(At Sunset Village)
The moon shined upon Sunset Village as midnight approached. Sounds of construction could be still heard as various buildings were being restored to their former glory from the bandit raid a while ago. The only other pony awake was a royal guard sitting near the cliff-side, looking at the scenery with a sigh.
Sword continued looking at the sky with a dull expression on his face, his front hooves crossed behind his head. He was lying down on the soft ground, the blades of grass tickling his back as the wind blew by occasionally. A flurry of thoughts went through his head before it came back to one main stream.
“Why am I the one stuck here?” Sword thought to himself angrily. He tried to flatten his black mane down in frustration. He took a deep breath to calm himself. Getting angry over nothing won’t do him any good. “Besides, I knew what I was getting into when I signed up to be a royal guard. I knew from the last years of my life and what happened from that incident that I wanted to get strong. To be powerful enough to protect everypony from danger. I have grown into a good swordspony, yet why am I still not satisfied?”
“Brooding again, I see.”
“Hey Orca,” Sword greeted his teacher. He sat up as Orca plopped down beside him, a concerned look on his face. “What’s up?”
“I find you sitting out here more and more,” Orca said. “Frankly, it's starting to worry me. You know you can tell me anything, right?”
“I know that,” Sword said wearily. “I’m just...thinking about more things than usual now.”
“Letting those thoughts out to other people can be beneficial,” Orca said. “Mind telling me what’s on your mind?”
“...I feel frustrated,” Sword confessed. Orca leaned forward in interest.
“About what?” He asked when Sword wasn’t responding. Sword snapped up again.
“I...just don’t feel strong enough,” He said. “I’ve trained and trained all this time. I’ve been getting stronger and stronger by the day. Yet, I still feel as if I’m nowhere close to where I can be.”
Orca was silent for a moment, before responding suddenly, “I think I know what your problem is.”
“You do?!” Sword said before he was shushed by Orca.
“You’re reaching your limit here,” Orca said. “It’s only a matter of time that you would outgrow this village.”
“You mean go on a journey?!,” Storm said, catching onto the hint quickly. “Like Link?”
“Go inside,” Orca ordered, abruptly changing the subject. “Dwelling here will only make you sleep deprived the next day. It’s no use trying to think about it now. We’ll talk more about this later”
“But-?!” Sword tried to argue before he was shushed by Orca again. “Fine.”
Sword stumbled down the hill with Orca watching him from the hill. When he was out of sight, Orca sighed.
“Your problem isn’t that you’re not strong enough,” Orca thought as he watched the crescent moon in the sky. “It’s that you’re reaching your limit. There is only so much that this small village can provide you with to get strong before you reach a stopping point. I let go of Link because he already reached his limit within the month’s time I trained him. But the truth is with you that you reached your limit a long time ago. It was only a matter of time I suppose, that I couldn’t keep you here any longer.” Orca sighed again as he made way towards his own home, the dark thought still plaguing his mind.