The Legend of Luna: Ocarina of Friendship

by Hajimebrony

Darkening horizons

Chapter 2: Darkening horizons

Deep within the Kokiri Forest, there stood the peaceful village of Kokiri. The residents lived in general peace, only having to deal with the occasional beast that wandered into the village. Standing over the village was it's guardian, friend, and life giver: the Great Granny Smith Tree. The Great Granny Smith Tree had watched over this place longer than she could remember. She was there when the first Kokiri had made the forest their home. She was there during their hardships. She was there for their joyous days. She watched the Kokiri grow and prosper and came to love them as her own children. Yet as the Great Granny Smith Tree stood there as she had for ages, she knew she would not be able to be there for the ponies that had come to rely on her forever. She felt the darkness building all around her and she knew that if there was going to be any hope of her children surviving the coming darkness, she would have to make her move quickly. "Spike," mumbled the ancient tree, casting her gaze around her clearing, "where did ya get off to, Spike?"

A tiny, purple orb of light descended from Granny Smith's leaves, an apple core falling to the ground from where it had been resting. The creature made it's presence know to the ancient spirit by moving in front of her. Upon closer inspection, one would see that the ball of light was actually a dragon fairy, resident creatures of the Kokiri Forest who long ago made a pact with the forest ponies and now accompanied them as companions and friends. "Right here Granny Smith, is anything wrong?" Spike inquired in a slightly high pitched voice that carried only the faintest hint that this dragon fairy was male.

"The darkness ah feared has finally started to rear it's ugly head," the tree spoke slowly, making every word ring through the tiny creature before it, "ah need ya'll to go into the village and bring me back the pony with no dragon fairy."

Spike, of course, knew the pony in question. Everypony knew of the strange filly. Spike had even once ventured out and watched Luna for a short time, curious to see a pony with wings. He noticed that even though most kokiri would treat her with general kindness, it was obvious that nopony actually accepted her except for one timid looking yellow kokiri. Spike snapped out of his thoughts and gave a quick salute. "I'm on it!" he stated before turning out zipping out of the glade. Flitting around the now lively village, Spike found himself looking from one pony face to another but he could not find the one that he was tasked to locate. Stopping briefly, he thought about where he might find Luna. As he thought, the delicious smell of fresh dandelions hit his nose and Spike momentarily forgot about his mission, his wings taking him to the source of the delicious smell.

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Inside Fluttershy's house, Luna had realized just how much of a pig she was being in front of her friend and decided to slow down and enjoy the flavor of what little sandwich she had left. Just as she was about to take a smaller bite, however, a purple blur filled her vision for just a moment and she quickly realized that her sandwich was now gone. Looking around, she saw the last of her sandwich disappear into the mouth of a smaller, purple dragon fairy. "Hey," yelled Luna, startling her friend out of her own little world, "that was mine!"

It only took a moment of scanning for Fluttershy to spot the dragon fairy that Luna was now glaring at angrily. "Oh my, the poor dear must have been hungry, was that enough to fill you up?" Fluttershy asked in her normal, caring voice.

"Oh come on, he already had enough to eat out of MY sandwich," complained Luna but quickly stopped before continuing. She had learned long ago that it was never a good idea to get between Fluttershy and her love of creatures. She closed her eyes and shuttered at the memories of when Fluttershy was denied the right to care for a small group of animals. The rage in her screams still left her with nightmares to this day. Her anger having ebbed away, she opened her eyes to find a tiny pair of green eyes staring right back at her.

The two continued their silent and slightly awkward stare down before the dragon fairy flitted up a little bit and exclaimed, "oh my gosh I found you! Hey, the Great Granny Smith Tree has summoned you for an audience, it's no time to be just sitting around looking dazed. Come on! You're coming with me, let's go!"

Luna continued to sit there, trying to process what the little creature was saying when she felt Fluttershy grip her in a tight hug. "Oh my, Luna, you finally have your own dragon fairy. Isn't that just wonderful? And the Granny Smith Tree wants to see you personally, what an honor." Fluttershy was practically glowing from the happiness she was feeling for her friend.

Luna finally snapped out of her daze, blinking a few times at the slightly confused looking dragon fairy. "My dragon fairy? And The Granny Smith Tree wants to see me?"

"Whoa whoa whoa there. Slow down. I'm just here as..." was all Spike could get out before the yellow earth pony jumped up with surprising speed and caught him in a hug, locking away any chances at escape.

"Oh this is so wonderful," gushed Fluttershy, tears streaming down her face in her happiness, "you finally came for Luna."

Spike sighed, utterly defeated. The one thing he could never fight against was a mare's tears. "Yep, that's me, companion of ol' Luna over there," Spike said after forcing a smile, trying to get away from the overjoyed pony. After looking at the slowly growing look of hope on Luna's face, he knew there really was no turning back. He had never really had a problem with the thought of becoming the partner of a kokiri, he just never thought it would happen so unexpectedly. Finally getting away from Fluttershy, he looked over at Luna. "Come on, we can't leave Granny Smith waiting." With that, he flew over positioned himself on the top of her head, finding a nice, comfy spot atop her mane. 'Maybe this won't be so bad' he thought to himself.

By now, Luna's heart was up in her throat. So much was happening all at once and she felt that if she slowed down to think about it, her mind wouldn't be able to handle it. So with a quick smile and nod over to Fluttershy, Luna dashed out the door. She galloped through the village, a giddy smile spreading across her face. 'Things are finally going to change' she told herself 'I'll finally be normal. I'll finally fit in with the rest of the village.' She could see the large entrance to the glade of The Great Granny Smith Tree getting closer when her way was suddenly barred by the one pony that Luna had forgotten about. His presence quickly ending her state of euphoria. Angel now blocked her way.

"Where do you think you're going, Bird Brain? Only real kokiri get past here to see The Great Granny Smith Tree," Angel looked down at Luna with the same smirk he always did but was slightly surprised to see a mischievous smile spreading across her face.

This was it, this was where she would finally be able to have her revenge. "You mean like this?" she asked, tilting her head forward to show Spike, who was still gripping onto Luna's mane tightly. He wasn't yet used to the jerky feeling of riding a pony compared to the smoothness of his flying.

"Yeah, we need passed," Spike managed to squeak out,"summons from Granny Smith."

"What?!" exclaimed Angel, staring at the dragon fairy in disbelief. He gritted his teeth, looking left and right before finally saying, "well, you still can't get through because you don't have anything to defend The Granny Smith Tree with. To get past this point, you'll need a sword." His face had regained it's former smirk, not giving Luna her desired victory.

"What do you mean you won't let us past?" Spike flew up from Luna's mane, absolutely vivid, "we have urgent summons from The Great Granny Smith Tree and you're slowing us down!" Spike was shouting by that point but Angel only stared the small creature down defiantly.

"I'm the protector of this passage and if I say you don't get through without a sword, then you aren't getting through without a sword!"

After a few moments of staring at Angel, Luna sighed and turned around to leave, knowing that just talking would not change Angel's mind. She trotted away, her mind abuzz with furious thoughts directed at the white pony who dared block her. "Can you believe him?" Spike piped up, "who does he think he is? And why did you just give up like that? Where are you going? We need to get to the Great Granny Smith Tree now!"

Luna didn't turn to look at Spike as she replied, "we're going to give him what he wants." If Angel wanted to see a sword, then he was going to get exactly that. Luna felt a determination which she had never known filling her as she strode through the village with a hard look in her eyes. But there was only one place she knew of that had a blade. And that was the building that now loomed in front of Luna. The home of Cheerilee. Luna quickly spotted the purple pony at the side of the home, resting from her morning exercises. Trotting up to her with as much confidence as she could muster, she called out, "Miss Cheerilee!"

The guardian pony opened her eyes and looked over at Luna, a smile quickly spreading across her face. "Luna, you're back already?" Cheerilee noticed the look in Luna's eyes and the smile slightly dropped, "is everything alright?"

Deciding that dancing around the subject would get her nowhere, Luna simply said, "I need a sword."

Cheerilee was left dumb stuck at this for several moments. While several ponies had approached her, asking for training, she never would have expected this from a pony like Luna. Normally, she would just send the pony away but something in Luna's eyes stopped her. "Tell me what's happened and then I will consider your request."

For the next few minutes, Luna told Cheerilee what had occurred in the short time since they had seen each other this morning. Spike popped up every few moments to add in his two bits and finally Luna ended with, "that's why I came to you, you are the only way I could think of to get a sword. Will you help me?"

Cheerilee remained silent as she pondered the events that had been laid before her. A summons from The Great Granny Smith Tree was a very serious matter and while she knew that if she simply accompanied Luna to the passage, she could make Angel stand aside. However, Cheerilee felt something was very wrong with all of this. A sword might not be such a bad idea. With a nod, she made her decision. "I will give you a sword," both Luna and Spike's faces lit up, "on one condition." Cheerilee continued, rising from her sitting position. The smiles quickly disappeared, being replaced with a look of dread from Luna, she didn't like the sound of that.

"What condition?" Spike asked.

Walking over to the side of her home, Cheerilee grasped one of her wooden practice swords between her teeth before tossing it over to the stunned filly. "You're going to have to prove to me that you are worthy of holding one of my blades by striking me at least once."

Luna's jaw dropped, fear quickly filling her heart. She watched as Cheerilee took another practice sword and moved into an open area, her eyes never leaving Luna's. "Come on Luna, you can do that. Right?" Spike said in an encouraging tone.

Luna knew that she had no chance at beating Cheerilee but she also knew that if she didn't, she would be denied her chance at her future. Steeling her nerves, she levitated the sword in front of her with her magic. Cheerilee frowned at that. "That's not a good idea Luna."

Luna was confused, how had she already made a mistake? She used to sneak behind her home and pretend she was a warrior like cheerilee with long sticks she would find. She knew that she could move anything faster with her magic than if she tried to simply hold it. Cheerilee saw the look of confusion and sighed and in a blur, kicked a random rock in Luna's direction. Startled, she just barely managed to catch the rock with her magic an inch before it struck her face. This, however, caused her to drop the sword to the ground. With nearly blinding speed, Cheerilee lunged forward and struck Luna across the head, causing stars to explode in front of her eyes. "Dead," she stated simply, waiting a few moments for Luna to become clear headed. As Luna looked up to yell at the swordsmare, she quickly cut her off. "You can't hold more than one thing with your magic yet, can you?" Holding her sore head and biting her tongue, Luna simply nodded. "And while you are busy holding your sword with your magic, what if an enemy does exactly what I just did?" Luna couldn't deny the wisdom of the words. "You will hold the sword as I do," she ordered as she moved back to original spot. Luna shakily stood and retrieved her dropped weapon, this time holding it firmly between her teeth.

For the next 30 minutes, Luna attempted to strike the nimble fighter using anything her creative mind could think of.
It was to no avail however, as Cheerilee effortlessly jumped to and fro, dodging every attempt. Luna was quickly become exhausted and running out of ideas. 'Maybe I'm really NOT good enough to do something like this.' Luna shook her head, banishing the traitorous thought from her head. She locked her eyes on the pony before her once more and stared with a look of savage determination. 'If only I could find just one opening, I could...' her thought was interrupted, however, as a purple blur shot past her and stopped just short of Cheerilee's eyes. Spike had watched all of this with a growing feeling of impatience. Granny Smith was waiting on him and he was just sitting there watching Luna struggle against an obviously superior opponent. It had only been at that moment that he had made his own decision. If he was going to be a partner to this little filly, he was going to have to start helping her in any way he could. This brash move surprised Cheerilee as she reared back on her hind legs. Luna saw the moment she had been waiting for and she leaped forward, beating her wings to give her a boost of speed. Cheerilee, however, knew by instinct that the attack was coming and jumped straight up. Lune felt the tip of her weapon brush her opponent's hoof as she fell forward, her energy finally drained. Luna gasped for breath and sweat poured down her body as Cheerilee landed heavily next to her. Spike flew down to check on Luna as Cheerilee stared down at the heaving filly. Luna saw the stare and felt her heart break as Cheerilee turned and, without a word, walked into her tree home.

She had failed. She wasn't good enough after all. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as she choked back a sob. Rolling into as tight a ball as she could, she wanted to disappear from the world. Spike wanted to say something but could think of nothing at all. Neither heard the hoofsteps returning. "Why are you crying?" The question snapped Luna back to reality as she quickly looked up, seeing Cheerilee looking down at her with a compassionate smile. Cheerilee bent down and nuzzled against Luna's cheeks, wiping the tears away. "Shouldn't you be happy?" she asked.

Luna turned her eyes away. "I couldn't hit you. I didn't pass," Luna forced back another sob as she said the words.

"Really?" Cheerilee asked, "because I distinctly recall you hitting my hoof." Luna looked up in surprise. Surely a

graze like wasn't enough to impress Cheerilee. Tilting her head back, Cheerilee pulled something that she had carried on her back. Luna's eyes widened as she that it was not only a sword, but the famous Kokiri Sword, a weapon that was said to have been used by the very first guardian of the Kokiri Village and was considered a true treasure. Setting the weapon down only long enough to nuzzle Luna's head once more, prompting her to stand, Cheerilee picked the sword up once more and positioned it across Luna's back, noting with a smile how it seemed to fit just perfectly in the space between Luna's wings. After securely tying the sword around Luna's body, Cheerilee stepped back to admire her work. The dark blue of the sheath seemed to match Luna's coat perfectly. "It's almost like it was made for you," Cheerilee remarked.

Luna, finally coming out of her stunned silence, looked up at Cheerilee with a look of wonder in her eyes. "Is it really alright for you to give me this?"

"I have a feeling that you are going to need this sword in the coming events, hold it with pride. I have another gift for you before you leave as well. Lift your right hoof." Luna did as instructed and Cheerilee moved forward, bringing out what looked like a beautiful silver chain with numerous smaller chains dangling from it. After a few moments, she had clasped the silver chain around Luna leg, just above her hoof. Luna looked at it, marveling at it's simple beauty as Cheerilee spoke up once more, "This bracelet has been passed down in my family since before memory. It hold the power to shrink objects for use later. All you have to do is hold the desired object to one of the attached chains and the object will be transformed into a charm. All you have to do to make it return to normal is pull it back off the chain."

Luna stared at the wonderful gift, absolutely speechless. Cheerilee wrapped Luna in a tight hug. "You're destined for great things, I know it," Cheerilee whispered to Luna, "now go and prove it to everyone." Cheerilee released Luna and, with tears of happiness springing forth from her eyes, Luna turned and began running back in the direction of The Granny Smith Tree's glade.

Luna cried happily the whole way through the village, her former fatigue forgotten in her joy. Only the sight of Angel waiting in the distance caused her to slow down and compose herself, wiping the tears from her eyes. With a glance up at Spike, the pair nodded and strode forward.

Angel quickly moved to block the advancing mare just as he had done earlier. "Didn't I say that you couldn't come through here Bird Brain? You got feathers in your ears now?" Luna only smiled as she turned, showing Angel the Kokiri Sword strapped across her back. Luna would have been lying if she said she didn't get a certain pleasure from the stunned look that filled the colt's face. "Wha- bu- tha- how do you have that sword!?" Angel finally managed to say.

"Don't matter, you said she needed a sword to get past you," Spike stated, getting in front of Angel's face, "as you can see, Luna's got a sword to get your albino flank out of the way."

Angel stood motionless for a few moments before bowing his head with a look of defeat. As he moved to the side, Luna swear she heard Angel mutter, "first Fluttershy, then a summon by Granny Smith herself, and now even the Kokiri Sword? It's not fair. Why won't anyone see all that I do?" Before Luna had a chance to feel sorry for the broken looking pony, he whirled around with a look of anger in his eyes and shouted, "I'll still never call you a real kokiri BLANK FLANK!" With that said, he turned and ran off into the distance.

"Eh, don't listen to him, he's just jealous," Spike floated lazily down to Luna's field of vision, "now come on, Granny Smith's been waiting way to long for us."

Luna nodded as Spike positioned himself atop Luna once more. Luna stared at the large entrance, her heart hammering in her throat from excitement. After taking a deep breath, Luna stepped forward toward her destiny.

Author's note: Changed a few things around with the legend of zelda universe here with this chapter. I felt that shields at this point would be an odd thing to introduce so Angel didn't request one. This doesn't mean that there will be no shields however. It just means they will be brought in in later chapters. I also needed to think of a way the inventory system would work here when I thought of the charm bracelet. It's a little bit of a nod to the old Zelda cartoon and I just loved the thought of how well it would work. Again, if anyone notices anything wrong with the chapter or have something you might want to add, please feel free to leave a comment about it. I am always looking for feedback with my stories.

Comments

[Discorded Q]

Firsht!!

This is an overall excellent story! Great melding with the story, and an excellent mix of character... Nicely done. You've achieved my approval.

[RainbowDerp]

I love the way you handled the inventory for 2 reasons. Number 1 is Link could only ever really have 1 thing actively equipped in his hands at any one time. The other is that there was a limited inventory in ocarina of time, if I remember my games correctly, so the charm bracelet is an elegant solution...because saddlebags are awkward.

[Hajimebrony]

12235 Thank you kindly for your approval. I was nervous beyond belief when I was submitting the story so I'm glad that at least one person enjoys it. That's enough reason alone to keep working at it. The next chapter will be more battle oriented and is looking a little longer so far so it might take a little more time.

[Hajimebrony]

12389 Thanks for the input on the bracelet. I was worried for a minute that I hadn't properly explained it.

[Archangel]

This is pretty good! Can't wait for the next part! Definately tracking this one.

Not a bad start. Needs more chapters already though!

[Hajimebrony]

Quick update everyone!! The new chapter is finished! However, I promised my friend that he would always be the first to read my chapters. Not just promised, but Pinky promised. And I, for one, do not want to break one of those. The chapter will be in the mail by the end of the day, so I should be able to upload it here by Monday. I thank you all for your patience. The wait is just about over.