The Legend of Sunset Shimmer: Ocarina of Time

by Ganondorf8

Chapter 43: To See the Truth that Lies Beyond

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I do not own anything regarding the Legend of Zelda, the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks. These are the properties of Nintendo and Hasbro respectively.

Seeing the truth can be fun, but it can also be scary! Let that sink in for a moment as we proceed with the usual.

Cast appearing in this chapter.

Sunset Shimmer - Link
Spike - Navi the Fairy
Applejack - Impa
Sweetie Belle - Mutoh

The Legend of Sunset Shimmer: Ocarina of Time.
By Ganondorf8
February 19, 2015
Chapter 43: To See the Truth that Lies Beyond.

As I felt my life-force being drained away as a result of this Re-Dead, I had to do something before I succumbed to it. I quickly remembered the first time I encountered these creatures back in the Royal Family's Tomb, and I used that one song which can paralyze them. If only I could reach for the Ocarina of Time, I could play it and freeze this thing long enough to open that treasure chest, and move away before it unfreezes itself.

Unfortunately, its hold on me was so strong that my arms were pinned to my sides, so I needed to come up with another tactic. That's when I remembered the second encounter in the destroyed Market, yet all I did there was avoid them as they were slow, and they don't pursue once you've gotten a certain distance away from them. Okay, maybe that wasn't the best example I could think of, but what else could I do to break free?

" Sunset Shimmer! You need to find a way to shake that Re-Dead off of you," said Spike.

" I'd love to be able to do that right now, but it's got my body trapped, and my strength has almost been depleted," I said.

" You can still wiggle about as they aren't very good at holding onto their prey, so if you struggle enough, you should be able to pull yourself away from it," said Spike. It sounded really weird to me, but I began to move my body in the hopes of getting it to let go. After a few moments, I was able to get the Re-Dead off, so I turned and punched it in the face which wasn't the kind of reaction I was expecting myself to do, but I guess when you're feeling frustrated, you want to resort to anything.

The Re-Dead's head got knocked back so much that I was certain it was about to fly off, but instead it caused the entire thing to fall to the ground where I took a few steps back before taking out the ocarina.

" That was way too close for comfort," I said breathing heavily.

" Are you alright?" asked Spike.

" I think it drained away a lot of my strength, but I still have enough to move. Right now, I could really do with a potion, or even a fairy to restore my health, but I didn't bother to go to the Potion Shop, or capture a fairy in a bottle. Spike, do you remember how that one song goes which has the ability to paralyze this monster on the spot?" I asked.

" The Sun's Song, and the reason you don't use it is because it has the power to change day to night, and vice versa in an instant," replied Spike.

" Well, I need to know that song before the Re-Dead gets back up on its feet, and drain away what little strength I have left. I know that the song can change the time of day, but I need to use it as I have nothing else which will work," I said. At that moment, it got up where my eyes opened wide with shock as its head was dangling off the side of its neck. No way could my punch have done something like that, but this was an undead monster, so it's possible given how strong I am.

When it suddenly grabbed its head, and pushed it back into place, it really made me want to throw up as the squishing sound it made was unnerving. " Spike, I really need that song, so can you please remind me how it was supposed to go? I'm drawing a blank which is why I need you to tell me, and if it continues to act in such a disgusting manner, I'm going to be sick!"

" Do you remember what was on that one tomb below the message belonging to the Royal Composer Sisters?" asked Spike.

" Gasp! Yes, I recall seeing the scribble of the melody," I replied.

" That's the Sun's Song, so try to remember how it goes, and play it before it's too late," said Spike. I then had to quickly comb through my memory to find it, and I played it upon recalling that event which caused the Re-Dead to freeze on the spot just moments before it was about to paralyze me again.

I had no idea how I remembered something that I only played once, but at least I could breathe a sigh of relief knowing that I was able to save my own skin with the help of Spike of course who began to bop me on the head. " Open that treasure chest, and take what's inside before the Re-Dead unfreezes itself for the song doesn't keep it paralyzed for very long."

" Oh right!" I exclaimed as I opened it revealing the Dungeon Map, but I had no time to check what the dungeon layout looked like as I needed to get away before the effects of the Sun's Song wears off. I ran back into the main area of the room where the other Re-Dead was, but it was ignoring me because I wasn't near its line of sight.

That means the one that drained my life-force won't be following me when it's able to move again, so I could relax for a while despite being caught in-between two monsters which were a lot more dangerous than I gave them credit for. " We should be safe here as neither of them will move towards me, but I hope that playing that song was the right thing to do given the effect that it has."

" You may not believe me this, but the power of the Sun's Song isn't applied when walking around inside of a dungeon. I don't understand why this is the case, but as long as you're inside of one, playing the song won't cause time to skip forward," said Spike.

" Now that I think about it, I wish that I had the Light Arrow you talked about back when I picked up the Fire Arrow as surely that would be very effective against the undead," I said.

" Even if you had it with you, remember that you don't have the Fairy Bow right now due to being back in the past where it wasn't in your possession. Then again, you wouldn't have the Light Arrow either for the same reasons. Maybe you should have picked up the Kokiri Sword back before leaving the forest, for you could have used it to hold your own," said Spike.

" Kokiri Sword?" I asked.

" I had a feeling you were going to ask that question, so I was prepared with an explanation for you. The Kokiri Sword is a hidden treasure among the Kokiri in that it is meant for someone who was destined to become its master, but most have merely borrowed it for a while as no one ever knew who was supposed to permanently have it.

It's essentially a shorter, weaker version of the Master Sword, but it would have given you the means of defeating monsters without having to rely on your magic all the time," replied Spike.

" Back then, I had no idea how to use a sword given that where I'm from, using a blade is pretty much a non-issue. Because of that, I had no intention of finding that sword in the forest despite being told that I needed one in addition to a shield to have been of use. In fact, Diamond Tiara should have stopped me from going forward to seeing the Great Deku Tree because I didn't have a sword and shield, but she let me through anyway because she wanted to see me suffer.

Anyway, I have the Dungeon Map, so let's take a closer look at it," I said. Taking the map out of a pocket and unfurling it because it was curled up when I took it out of the treasure chest, I was surprised to discover that the Bottom of the Well was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be. In fact, I was expecting it to be a massive complex, but this place was smaller than the temples which felt both disappointing and good to me.

" It makes you wonder how people got killed seeing as this dungeon is small," said Spike.

" Maybe they all met their fate at the hands of that creature with the numerous hands, or perhaps something similar claimed their lives. Either way, it shouldn't take long for us to explore this place, but do we even really need to? I figured as soon as we find what we're looking for, we can just leave because this place will be sealed when Applejack comes along.

According to the map, the room on the first basement is the largest in the dungeon, so I guess all we need to do is just search the adjacent rooms until we find the eye....did I just say basement?" I asked.

" Yes you did," replied Spike.

" So there are no floors?" I asked.

" Oh this place features floors like what we've seen in the previous dungeons, but in the Bottom of the Well, we're just going down underground because it's said that the further you go down below the surface, the stronger the undead hordes become. However, considering that there is nothing more of interest in the lowest basement, we'll be restricting our searches to the first basement and maybe the second one," replied Spike.

" Maybe the eye of truth is behind one of those locked doors," I suggested.

" That would be a good hiding place provided that we can find the keys," said Spike.

" But what about the water that flows about?" I asked.

" Saria did say that you need the song passed down by the royal family, so that there must be a Triforce symbol somewhere. Maybe causing the water to drain on the first basement will reveal new paths, but at least you won't have to walk about underwater considering you don't have the Zora Tunic and the Iron Boots with you right now. I'd say that the room on the far west of the first basement would be the best place to search for any keys," replied Spike.

" First, we need to get out of this room," I said.

" Collecting the five silver rupees would be the way to solve that puzzle," said Spike. I saw that three of them were situated over the pool of strange liquid with the skeletal hands sticking out of it. In my mind, I didn't want to cross over that stuff, but I had to if I wanted to get out of here. Stepping carefully onto the pieces of wood which were on the surface of the liquid, I was able to get a closer look at the hands, and just seeing how horrid they were almost caused me to fall in.

" This is without a doubt one of the worst experiences I've ever had," I said.

" Just don't think about that liquid too much, and it won't make you feel uneasy," said Spike.

" The liquid isn't the worst of my problems! Those skeletal hands are just so creepy, and I feel like they could suddenly reach out to grab hold and pull me into that stuff which may kill me instantly. When I get out of this dungeon, I never want to have to go through anything like this ever again, but I know I will because of the Shadow Temple.

Whoever came up with the idea of the upcoming temple was nothing short of being sadistic in nature! Okay, I needed to get all of that pent-up frustration off of my chest, and I'm feeling slightly better, but I still don't like any of this," I said.

" One step at a time," said Spike. It took about two minutes to collect the silver rupees, and when I made it to the ladder, I started to climb before I became frozen on the spot because that first Re-Dead tilted its head towards me. At first, I was afraid that it was about to rise up and walk over to where I was, but I was relieved to know that it merely turned its attention back to whatever it was doing. Spike took solace with my reaction that he felt the same way knowing that we dodged quite the bullet.

" That was a close call Sunset Shimmer as I don't think you can survive a second life-force drain from a Re-Dead." He wasn't even kidding as I needed to regain my lost strength, and I curse myself for not getting a potion or fairy. Climbing up the ladder netted me the fourth silver rupee, and at the top was the last one which unlocked the door when I picked it up. When I opened the door, I found myself staring at a dead-end which made me feel annoyed, but then there was a skeleton propped against the corner.

" We're at a dead-end," I said.

" The wall in front of us could be a fake," said Spike.

" What about that skeleton over there? What are the spirits saying to you?" I asked.

" They are repeating the same thing that the one we saw earlier said...."look for the eye of truth"....I can understand that the eye is significant to our quest, but there is something known as being too obnoxious when it comes to telling us information," replied Spike.

" That Green Bubble should be flying around again, so I'll wait until it goes by before walking through this wall," I said. A few moments later, the flying monster went by as I could hear the flapping of its wings, so I walked forward where I passed through the wall to the other side. To my right was a large dirt pile which made me curious, but I decided against checking it out because I could see a shadow in front of me which probably belonged to a Skulltula, or one of the big versions.

That's when I ran forward until I noticed a path going to the right, so I went in that direction where I dropped down to a slightly lower level. " We should be safe from that Green Bubble down here, but then what do you suppose lies in the room in front of us?"

" Who knows for certain, but we'll be finding out once we get there. By the way, you need to be careful of monsters that may try to attack you from above. Case in point, you can see a shadow in front of you, so that is probably a Skulltula waiting for you to get close to it. If you want to destroy it, you'll need to get close enough for it to want to come down and attack," replied Spike.

Sure enough, he was right about there being a shadow, and when I looked up to the ceiling, there was the Skulltula in question looking down at me with a menacing look across its undead face. While it would be nice to be able to pick it off from up there, I had a feeling it would just turn around of its own accord should I try to shoot at it with a Deku Seed fired from my slingshot.

" I have a question," I began.

" What is it?" asked Spike.

" This might sound completely out of the blue, but I was wondering how Hyrule managed to get to where it is. I mean, we both know what happens in the future, yet I'm curious as to what it was like living in the past before the kingdom came to be. If you can't answer my question Spike, then that's okay as I wouldn't expect you to answer about something that happened long before you were born. The reason I'm interested is because this world has really grown a lot on me, and I should know as much as I can," I replied.

" Much of Hyrule's past is shrouded in mystery as there isn't much that was recorded, yet what was passed on is enough to provide a clue as to what the kingdom was like long before it became what it is. I believe that I told you about the war that took place centuries ago when a tribe of demonic creatures rose from the depths in order to claim the Triforce right?" asked Spike.

" Yeah, I remember you telling me about that albeit briefly," I replied.

" As you probably know, when the Triforce was created, people discovered that it had the power to grant their desires, so conflicts arose where everyone strived to use the golden triangles to have their wishes come true. The demon tribe heard of the Triforce, and declared their intent to claim it for themselves. The wish of their leader whose name has been lost was to rule the world, and having no one his equal to oppose him.

The Great Goddesses discovered that the gift they left behind for the people ended up corrupting them, so they commanded one of their most loyal servants to take matters into her own hands, and find a solution to the problem," said Spike.

" Why couldn't they have done it?" I asked.

" If they had gotten involved, this world wouldn't exist," replied Spike. He was correct because what I learned from Princess Celestia, who in this world was one of the Great Goddesses, was that she and her sisters would have chosen to destroy Hyrule and start things over again if they believed it was was incapable of being saved. In their minds, by choosing to go with a lesser being to handle things, they wouldn't have had the urge to correct the situation in their own manner.

They essentially held back because they were afraid of their own power? No, that doesn't sound right to me....I wish that Princess Celestia had been more forthwith with her explanation as there are obvious holes which need to be filled in. " This one goddess was known as Hylia, and she enacted a plan that would ensure the protection of the Triforce as well as the people who didn't get corrupted....no one knows what that plan involved."

" Surely there had to be something that explains what happened," I said.

" All that's known is that the people along with the golden power left this world for centuries, and eventually would return to the surface which is where the earliest settlers of Hyrule began to emerge. From there, the Temple of Time was built, and the Ancient Sages sealed the Triforce in the Sacred Realm where it would remain for eternity until it was claimed by Ganondorf," said Spike.

" You honestly have no idea as to where they went?" I asked.

" History never wrote this information down, or it did but ended up being lost as I said already. Perhaps someone out there has a fully recorded history, or maybe the royal family has some kind of records, but such information is most likely kept in seclusion," replied Spike.

" While that wasn't the kind of answer I was hoping for, it does give me an idea of how this world operates, and it saddens me to say that the Triforce was both a blessing and a curse. If it wasn't for that golden power, none of the problems that afflicted Hyrule would have existed, so maybe someone should have destroyed the Triforce before it could have been misused?" I asked.

" If it were to be destroyed which is possible, I think you'll know what the result would be," replied Spike. Considering that the Triforce was left behind to serve as both a symbol and guiding light for Hyrule, destroying it would have given the people no sense of hope. This world would have crumbled away, and while I would never have been brought here, everyone else wouldn't even exist. I once tried to destroy the portal between the human world and Equestria because I wasn't able to get my hands on the Element of Magic.

If I had gone and done that, Twilight would have been stuck there for a long time, and Equestria would have most likely fallen apart without one of the elements to keep it all together. Yet another reminder of why I'm being tormented, so now I wish that my curiosity hadn't gotten the best of me. I walked forward deep in thought, and forgetting all about the Skulltula hanging above which dropped down. It spun around which knocked me off my feet where I landed on my rear before I shook my head in confusion.

" Why did I just go and do that?" I asked.

" Because you were daydreaming," replied Spike. Yeah, I deserved to get hit for not focusing, but now I am concentrating, so I took out the Fairy Slingshot, and fired at the Skulltula every time it turned around to expose its belly until it was defeated. My aiming was starting to get better as it only took me five Deku Seeds, but I suppose that's three too many given how simple it is to defeat one of these monsters.

" There's a small treasure chest in front of those vines," I said.

" The shadow of that Skulltula must have been covering it up somehow," said Spike.

" I doubt the eye of truth would be that easy to find, so I expect this chest to contain something like some ammunition for the slingshot, or maybe some bombs if I'm really lucky," I said. When I opened it up, I pulled out a small heart which first left me with a sad expression, and this was followed with a confused one. " What is this supposed to be?" As soon as I said that, the heart disappeared which prompted me to repeat myself slightly differently. " What was that supposed to be?"

" That was a Recovery Heart which restores your life energy," replied Spike.

" So my strength has been restored?" I asked.

" Actually, one of those hearts only restores one heart of health, so I'm afraid you still need to recover everything else," replied Spike.

" Did someone seriously hide something so trivial inside of a treasure chest? Sigh....I suppose this was to be expected although right now I'm feeling irritated in that I still need to fully recover my health. Hopefully, there are jars in the next room I can smash, and hearts will fall out," I said. Once on the ledge, I opened the door and entered a room which was filled with coffins.

Six of them altogether were grouped in two pairs of three on either side of the room, and next to five of them were unlit torches with the last one having a torch that was lit. " This feels like some kind of graveyard given the coffins in here, but why would these be located down here instead of in the graveyard where they belong?"

" I'm not sure why, but I suspect that there is something inside of each of those coffins," replied Spike.

" How do we go about opening them?" I asked.

" Since the one coffin has a lighted torch next to it and has already been opened, my guess is that lighting the other torches will cause the remaining coffins to open up, and reveal their contents to you," replied Spike. Walking up to the open coffin, I took a look inside which made me feel wrong on so many levels, but the interior was made of fine wood complete with a polished finished.

These coffins were pretty fancy despite being located down here, but would opening them make me a graverobber? Maybe, but then these aren't in an actual graveyard, so what I was about to do was more along the lines of being curious.

" My fire magic should be useful here," I said.

" The true intention here is to use a Deku Stick by lighting it on fire via that torch, and using it to light the other torches. Since you don't have a stick on you, using your magic is pretty much your only means of lighting those torches. The question now is, do you want to open up any of these coffins?" asked Spike.

" I am a little curious as the eye of truth could be hidden inside of one of them, as who in their right mind would want to open something like this? On the other hand, there could be monsters hiding inside, and with my strength being as low as it is, I'd be running the risk of getting killed. There are no jars around in this room, so maybe I should just open up one or two coffins," I replied.

" If that's what you want to do then go for it," said Spike. Turning my attention to the coffin behind the open one, I used my magic to ignite the torch, and it caused the lid to slide off breaking into pieces as it hit the ground. Nothing came out from the coffin which made me feel really nervous, so I slowly stepped over to it and looked inside where my eyes opened up wide in shock over what I was seeing.

" Is that....a mummy?" I asked.

" Uh-oh," began Spike.

" What do you mean uh-oh?" I asked.

" Of all the things that you could find inside of a coffin, this would be the worst possible thing. You might want to back away right now because you're about to be attacked by something familiar, yet different," replied Spike. As I was wondering what he was talking about, the mummy suddenly rose up from the coffin, and in response I stumbled backwards where I tripped on my own feet landing on my rear. It then tilted forward where it landed on its feet, and simply stood there with its head looking down at the floor.

" So what do we have here?" I asked.

" This is a Gibdo, the mummy man which is a nickname people have been giving it for years now. Anyway, you may think that this thing is just a pile of bandages, but it does have quite a lot of power. They behave like Re-Deads, so if their eyes gaze upon you, it will paralyze you on the spot where it will slowly walk over and grab onto your body in an effort to drain your life-force. Gibdo's are harder to shake off than their undead cousins, so you may get drained of a lot of your strength if you're not careful," replied Spike.

" Just what I didn't want to hear....another monster that can kill me in a matter of moments," I moaned.

" The light does affect them, so you can use the Sun's Song if you want to freeze them in place for a while. Gibdos are not immune to magic mind you, and they don't particularly like fire magic, but before you go and fling a fireball at it like you're about to do right now, let me tell you a little bit more.

When struck with fire, a Gibdo has a tendency to become a Re-Dead because they are often used as the base body where bandages are wrapped around it. On a rare occasion, using fire to burn away the bandages will result in it becoming a Stalfos, and since you don't have those powerful weapons, you should avoid this thing at all costs," said Spike.

" Since it came out from a coffin, I'm afraid of opening up the others as they could be holding a Gibdo in each of them," I said.

" You never know until you try," said Spike. Eyeing the Gibdo closely to make sure that it doesn't spot me, I slowly shuffled towards the coffin that was on the opposite side of the one that was open when I entered the room, and used my magic to light the torch. The coffin lid slid off and smashed on the ground, and I quickly turned my attention towards the Gibdo who still has its head looking down at the floor.

Just being so close to such a hideous creature was enough to make me want to scream, but I had to focus as I didn't want to be paralyzed. Turning to the now opened coffin, inside was a small key which was a relief as it meant I could get out of this room, and not have to come back in here ever again. Once the key was in my pocket, I ran to the door where I opened it and was back in the main room.

" Huh? That Skulltula is looking away from me!" I exclaimed as it had its back to me.

" They have a tendency to do this although why it happens is a mystery, but you can take advantage of it by shooting it in the back with some Deku Seeds. Even after hitting it, it will still have its back to you because it doesn't know that you're behind it. Skulltulas aren't exactly the brightest monsters in the world," said Spike.

Taking out the Fairy Slingshot again, I fired at the Skulltula twice before defeating it, and for once I used the exact number of seeds needed. It helped that it was looking in the opposite direction, but I guess that it doesn't really count because there's no challenge involved.

" That didn't feel satisfying," I said sadly.

" Sometimes you have to resort to such cheap tactics if you want to defeat monsters," said Spike.

" I know, but if I'm given the easy way to take care of situations, I don't gain the experience needed to become stronger," I said.

" There will be challenges coming your way when we eventually enter the Shadow Temple. Anyway, that small key can unlock one of the locked doors, but you'll need to decide which door to pick unless you can find another key somewhere in here," said Spike.

" You know, we should check out where the water is coming from as Fluttershy did say that we need to play Twilight's Lullaby. Maybe removing the water from this floor will open up some new pathways, so let's try and find the source," I suggested. Jumping back down into the pit where the chest containing the small heart which I felt upset about, and climbing up the vines on the other side, I had to keep down because the Green Bubble had come back yet again.

When it went by and around the corner, I finished my climb and headed south. " How about that? We're back where we started, so maybe we should just go all the way around to the other side?"

" That pool of water over there looks suspicious," began Spike.

" In what way?" I asked.

" I think I can see some kind of crawl space down there, but I can't say for certain as it's too dark to see anything," replied Spike.

" Well, there is a way we can determine what's down there, yet it might be a little too disgusting," I said.

" Oh no! Don't tell you plan on taking a swim in that water?" asked Spike.

" Not a swim, but more like plunging my head into the pool, and seeing what lies down there in the depths. I know it isn't the most pleasant idea I've come up with, but it should give us an answer. I'd ask you to do this for me Spike, but that isn't really your specialty, and you are a majestic creature who shouldn't be jumping into anything that can be described as questionable," I replied. Despite his protests against me doing this, I walked over to the edge of the pool where I got down onto my knees, and plunged my head right into the water.

It was rancid due to the horrible smell, but I could see a crawl space on one side. When I popped back up and breathed, I shook my head back and forth to get rid of the stench. " There is a way forward down there, and yes I'm aware that my head is going to be stinking up my general area, but you might as well get used to it until it wears off. When we find the place where the water level can be drained, we need to come back here and see where it goes."

" Maybe that smell will keep the monsters away," suggested Spike.

" Fat chance of that happening," I said. Walking through the fake wall because I realized that going all the way around would take too long, I found myself staring at that giant X again, and this time I knew there was a hole right in front of it. The big treasure chest was so tempting, but I just knew there was a trap in front of it, so I chose to ignore it and headed to the locked door on the right.

I approached and unlocked it with the key, and the room beyond was one that made absolute no sense at all. " What's the point of this room!?!? There's a ledge all the way over there, and a huge hole in the middle which will probably take us back down to the lowest level again if I fall into it, so again what's the point of all this?"

" Maybe there is an invisible floor somewhere?" asked Spike.

" And if there isn't?" I asked.

" Then we're going to be backtracking," replied Spike.

" If this room has a deep pit, then I suspect the other locked room will be similar. I don't think I'll find the other key to the second locked door as it will just be a waste of time, so I'm going to go find the source of the water because I really want to get out of here," I said. Leaving the room, and going back into the central area, I was thinking about how we had to walk through an invisible wall to get to this section. Was it possible than that the remaining three walls were also fake?

Since I knew what lied to the west was the room with the Gibdo, I decided to go in the opposite direction and walked in the direction of the east wall. I did have to wait for the Green Bubble to fly by before proceeding, and on the other side of this wall was something I didn't want to see again. " Oh no! No! No, no! No-no-no! Not that thing again! I don't want it to get anywhere near me."

" You can relax," began Spike.

" How can I when there is a Like-Like right in front of me?" I asked.

" For one thing, it's behind bars so it can't even reach you no matter how far it might be able to stretch its body. The other thing is that you have nothing that it can steal as your tunic is all you've got for clothes, and I don't think none of us want to see that," replied Spike.

" Sorry for overreacting, but your description of them really has me on edge whenever I see them," I said.

" You needed to know what they were capable of, and I provided you with an answer. Here comes that Green Bubble again, and you don't have time to get the Fairy Slingshot out. Luckily, its flames are currently gone, so you can use your fire magic to take it out," said Spike.

" Then I could've used my magic those previous times?" I asked.

" Not when it has its flames covering it as it will be immune to fire at that moment," replied Spike. Hearing those words made me smack my head really hard because of how stupid I sounded, so I used my magic without even looking at the Green Bubble, and destroyed it in a single burst of flames. With that out of the way, I walked to the next corner where Spike told me to come to a stop because he could hear something speaking to him.

" I can hear the voice of the spirits coming from this side of the room. " Danger from below!", is what they are saying, so don't move forward anymore otherwise you could be in trouble."

" It must be another hole in the floor which will drop us down to the lowest level," I said.

" Take a couple of steps back and head to the left," suggested Spike. Following his advice, I soon came across the source of the water which was some kind of statue with the water pouring out of its mouth. It wasn't the most impressive looking statue considering how crude it looked, but at least we were finally able to find it after searching inconsistently.

" Now we just need to find the crest," I said.

" It's right below your feet," said Spike.

" It is?" I asked as I looked down to see that it was there, and once again I smacked my head. " I really need to pay more attention to my surroundings as that crest was so obvious to spot because of how big it is." I then took out the Ocarina of Time and played Twilight's Lullaby which caused the water to stop flowing out of the statue, and the rest of it to drain away which now allowed me to access that crawl space.

Running back down to where the pool was, I jumped down as it was now empty, and crawled through the space which lead into another part of the room. There was another wall with vines covering it in front of me along with a shadow, and that prompted me to look up and see another Skulltula lying in wait.

" I don't know why, but I'm sensing something evil coming from the next room," said Spike.

" I'm feeling the same thing, but what do you suppose it is?" I asked.

" It could be that creature Saria said that has numerous hands, or it could be something else entirely. I also realize that your health is quite low at this moment, so maybe going into the next room isn't a good idea," replied Spike.

" We need to get that eye if we want to go to the Shadow Temple," I said.

" But, you may not be able to survive what with the health that you currently have," said Spike.

" You should have more faith in me than that," I said. Walking forward which caused the Skulltula to drop down, I aimed the Fairy Slingshot at it, and fired two seeds when it turned its back towards me. Once it was destroyed, I climbed up the vines and to my left were two jars which I smashed against the wall. Out of one jar came a blue rupee which was okay, but the second one contained two small hearts which I happily picked up.

" That should be enough health to see me through the next room, but I can't say that with a straight face." I know that Fluttershy warned me of an evil presence in the dungeon, but she wasn't exactly specific with the details. That Re-Dead drained a lot of my strength, and without the means of recovering it, I needed to be extra careful. I opened the door which locked itself behind me with iron bars, but what was in front of me was very surprising to say the least. " Are those....hands sticking out of the ground?"

" That must mean the creature we were warned about," replied Spike.

" I wonder if those hands can move?" I asked.

" Considering they are attached to pretty long arms, I would say yes to that question, but I recommend not getting too close otherwise they will grab you. Now where do you suppose the creature is hiding?" asked Spike.

" I have no idea, but I think those hands may have something to do with getting it to show up," I replied.

" Why would you think that?" asked Spike.

" Fluttershy said that we would need to "summon it in a way that is sure to grab its attention" which were her exact words, and I suspect that the word "grab" is the key to getting it to appear. I think I need one of those hands to grab me as I don't see any other option, and we're locked in here so we can't leave. My only concern is whether the hands are capable of inflicting damage. If they are, I'd be risking my health as I have very little of it," I replied.

Of the four hands sticking out of the ground, all of them looked dangerous, but I decided to walk slowly towards the one to my left that was closest to the door. The hand then reached out for me, and my instincts told me to jump backwards to dodge it, yet I knew I needed it to grab me, so I moved in again where the hand grabbed onto my head holding me in place with a pretty powerful grip.

All of a sudden, a sandstorm of dirt appeared nearby, and rising from underground was some kind of hideous blob-like monster which had a long neck, no arms although it did have stubs, and a rather elongated jaw. I struggled to break free from the hand, but the monster got up close before it lowered its neck down, and took a bite at me which freed me in the process.

" Well, there it is for us to deal with," said Spike.

" But what is it supposed to be?" I asked.

" This is Dead Hand, an undead monster that attacks with its infinite hands which grab hold of you while it walks over to attack you with its mouth. You can destroy its hands, but they will constantly re-spawn so there's really no point in attacking them. In order to defeat this thing, you need to aim for its head and it will only lower its neck down when something is right next to it.

It's movement while slow is also really creepy, so make sure not to allow that to distract you. You should be happy to know that it doesn't inflict much in the way of damage, so unless you end up getting hit lots of times, you should be able to beat this thing without too much difficulty," replied Spike.

" Is there anything else I should know?" I asked.

" If you damage it enough times, Dead Hand will turn around and run away in fear before disappearing, and from there you will need to summon it back again by having one of those hands grab you. Be careful of those hands as they will disrupt your momentum by grabbing you at the most inappropriate times, and leave you vulnerable to an attack. Also, Deku Nuts, Deku Seeds, and magic have no effect on it, so don't try to use any of that," replied Spike.

" That means my only means of attack....is through the use of bombs," I said.

" Now do you see why you need to use a sword?" asked Spike.

" I'm starting to get the message," I replied. I had to hold my Bomb Bag constantly to make sure not to drop it otherwise I'll be at a real disadvantage more so than I already am. Dead Hand continued to shuffle its way over to me, and Spike was right in that its movement was creepy to look at, but I needed to concentrate on defeating this thing before the situation gets out of hand. I tried to move backwards, but the hand that grabbed me before did so again.

Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough as it bit me again, but then as soon as I got free, it continued to bite. To me it looked like it was determined to chew me to pieces, and wasn't concerned with its own well-being. Taking the Bomb Bag from my belt and holding it in my left hand, I reached into it and took out a bomb which I placed into Dead Hand's open maw of a mouth. It exploded and inflicted some damage, but it continued to attack with its mouth which was starting to feel pretty painful.

" Quite the creative method of using a bomb," said Spike.

" It does have quite the mouth, so I figured that putting the bombs in there would yield the best results," I said. As I prepared another bomb, the same hand grabbed me again, and Dead Hand was about to bite me again, but the bomb exploded which damaged not only it, but me as well as I was at the epicenter of the blast. It was enough to send the monster retreating the other way, and disappearing underground but I had a little bit of a problem where my tunic was on fire.

" Okay, I wasn't expecting that to happen." It took me a few moments to put out the fire, and I made sure to keep my distance from that hand as it's been the bane of this fight for me. " My own bomb exploded while I was holding it....I don't think I've ever felt such dismay over something like that."

" Bombs will explode when you take them out of the bag, so you need to toss them as soon as possible. You're lucky as bombs don't cause much damage to humans which is something I can't even begin to explain, so just take my word for it," said Spike.

" So now I need to let one of those hands grab me to summon Dead Hand back," I said.

" If only you had something to pinpoint its location, then you could use a bomb to bring it out of hiding," said Spike.

" Well, I don't have the means to do that, so I'm going to have to do things the hard way," I said as I made my way over to the hand on the right. When it grabbed me, I was shocked to see Dead Hand pop up next to me where it took a bite before lifting up its head. I moved into the center of the room as I needed some space, and I was fortunate it chose to follow me. When I allowed it to get up-close, it lowered its head where I proceeded to take out a bomb, and lodge it into its mouth where it exploded and damaged it again.

That's when it suddenly lashed out and bit my arm causing me to drop the Bomb Bag, so I needed to quickly pick it up again, but it was able to bite me on the same arm which was really annoying. As soon as I picked my bag up, I planted another bomb in its mouth which exploded inflicting more damage, and then it repeated its disappearing act on me by going back underground.

" One more round of bombs in that fashion should do the trick," said Spike.

" You were right about this monster being an easy battle," I said.

" Don't allow it to make you feel over confidant as this is just a small sample of what we may end up experiencing in the Shadow Temple," said Spike. Once again, he was right in that I needed to remain professional instead of acting like some kind of big shot. I allowed the second hand to grab me which caused Dead Hand to reappear, but this time he was in the opposite corner of the room, so I had to wait for him to shuffle his way over to me.

That's when I realized I could just break free from this grip holding me down, so I started to wiggle about in the hopes that the hand would release me. After a few moments of struggling, I managed to escape, and proceeded to Dead Hand who was still making its way over, and as soon as it saw me, it lowered its head where I placed a bomb into its mouth. When it exploded this time, it was enough to defeat it, and it fell over where its mouth hung out really badly.

" Not the most dignified way of being defeated is it?" I asked.

" At least you were able to defeat it without taking too much damage," replied Spike.

" I took enough to make me feel really weak, but not to the point where I would suddenly drop down dead," I said. At that moment, the body of Dead Hand disappeared and a big treasure chest appeared at the back of the room, so I walked over to it where I opened it up, and pulled out some kind of strange looking magnifying glass. " So this must be the eye of truth? I guess it is a special version of a magnifying glass seeing as one side of the lens is blue and the other is red."

" Actually, this is known as the Lens of Truth, a powerful item which allows you to see the truth for what it really is. When you look through the lens, things that are invisible will become visible to you, and anything that looks to be there will merely be a fake. Even though there are plenty of things like that in the Bottom of the Well, you should use this outside of the well in case you discover something that you didn't see before.

One thing you should know, is that it costs one magic point every second to be able to see the truth, so be sure to use it wisely otherwise you may run out of magic power when you least expect it. Your own magical power won't work on the lens, so don't even think of trying it," said Spike.

" To think that so many people gave up their lives for this," I said.

" You can't feel sorry for them as they believed themselves to be worthy enough to claim the Lens of Truth, and as you know they all ended up perishing inside of this dungeon as their spirits continue to linger about. My suspicion is that most of them lost their lives by fighting against Dead Hand as most wouldn't know how to fight something like that without a sword at their disposal," said Spike.

" If anything, I'd say obtaining this treasure is enough to make their spirits rest in peace," I said.

" Quite the noble sentiment," said Spike.

" They lingered here because no one had been able to claim the lens for a long time, but now that I hold it in my hands, they no longer need to remain here, so they can finally move onto the afterlife. We're done in this room now as well as with this dungeon as we got what we came here for, but I do want to see what was in that other big treasure chest as my curiosity makes me want to check it out," I said.

When I took a single step forward, my foot banged into something which caused me to yell out in pain before grabbing it with my free hand, and hopping up and down for a few minutes. " There's something else in here, and it gave my foot quite the painful jolt, so would this be a good example of using the lens?"

" All you have to do is hold the lens up to your eye, and it will do the rest," replied Spike. First, I had to put away the Bomb Bag as I didn't need to be holding it now, and when that was done, I peered into the lens to see what my foot had banged into, and it turned out to be a small chest which must have been in front of the other one.

I never noticed because of not going to the back of the room when I was fighting Dead Hand. Personally, I just wanted to burn this chest to ashes for what it did to my foot, but doing that would just be petty, so I kicked it open with my other foot, and I pulled out a giant yellow rupee.

" What's this?" I asked.

" That's a huge rupee," replied Spike.

" I know that," I said.

" No, I mean that it's a huge rupee which is worth 200 rupees," said Spike.

" Seriously?" I asked.

" Now you should be able to buy as many potions as you need! Come on! Let's find a way to reach that other chest, and get out of here as Impa should be arriving in Kakariko Village any time now. That battle with Dead Hand did take some time despite what it may look like, so I'd say you only have one chance to get that other chest otherwise you'll have to simply abandon it," replied Spike.

Heading back into the previous room, the Skulltula reappeared with its back to me, so I took out the Fairy Slingshot, and fired seeds at the monster defeating it after two shots. Then, I leapt down below and crawled my way through the crawl space where I came out the other side, and the Green Bubble once again had re-spawned as it was flying around just like before.

An idea then popped into my head which involved trying the lens in this area just to see what would happen, so when I raised it to my eye, I saw that the false wall disappeared, but another wall vanished further along, and a third section disappeared to the north.

" There were more fake walls than we originally suspected," I said.

" I told you the Lens of Truth allows you to see what the truth is," said Spike.

" The fake wall that was to the north....if I remember the arrangement of the central area of this room, then the big treasure chest should be on the other side. It will also let me see just where the trap was as it has been bothering me for some time now," I said. Making my way north and using the lens to remind me where the fake wall was, I was happy to see that beyond was the chest in question, and I learned that in front of it was a hole which was the trap I had suspected.

Opening the chest, I pulled out the Compass which I realize wasn't as good as I was hoping for in this dungeon given that the main chests had been plundered. " There are lots of other chests strewn about this place, but we don't have the time to check out what each contains. We need to get out of here as right now Applejack and Twilight believe us to be heading to the Temple of Time."

This time travel confusion was really starting to get ridiculous because of what I just said, but I had to ignore such insecurities and leave the dungeon by going back the way I came. Lucky for me that the Green Bubble had already flown past, so it was clear sailing to and through the fake wall only to be stopped by the Big Skulltula from back when we first started.

" We're in the home stretch now Sunset Shimmer, so you know what you need to do here," said Spike.

" Just give me a moment to deal with it Spike," I said as I put the Lens of Truth away, and took out the Fairy Slingshot where I destroyed it before continuing on by crawling through the crawl space that went back to the start. Once I exited the dungeon, and quickly embraced being outside in the sunset, I climbed up the ladder and ran all the way across to the entrance of Kakariko.

From there, I ran down the steps and to the left where I jumped headfirst into the water because of wanting to get the smell out of my hair....it didn't go away which I assumed it would, but that wasn't the only reason for what I did. Just as I had jumped in and under the water, a robed figure came by and walked up the stairs where they entered the village. This was obviously Applejack, but I guess she wanted to enter without being suspected by anyone who could be a follower of Ganondorf.

" I see that the progression of the village is coming along very nicely."

" Lady Impa!?!? What are you doing here?"

" Shhhh! You must not speak my name out so loud Mutoh, for no one must know that I am here right now. I have come to Kakariko in order to take care of something important, and it must be handled with delicate care," replied Applejack.

" My apologies for not understanding your plight," said Sweetie Belle.

" There is no need for that as you were not aware that I had come here for a specific purpose. I am happy that you and the other carpenters have been able to carry out the vision I had of making Kakariko a wonderful city where anyone can come and live here in peace, and for that you have my heartfelt gratitude," said Applejack.

" Things could actually be going a little faster," began Sweetie Belle.

" How so?" asked Applejack.

" My fellow carpenters have been going all over the place without any sense of direction, and they haven't done nearly as much work as you may think. To top it all off, even my own son has no desire to follow in my footsteps, and instead wishes to follow his own path in life which is going nowhere fast.

Bah! I have a feeling his mother has been a bad influence on him, or perhaps he's doing this of his own free will, but I still feel like he is breaking away from tradition by choosing not to become a carpenter. All of my workers are nothing but lazy bums who desire a big meal when they worked so little for it," replied Sweetie Belle.

" Perhaps I should have given you some better workers," said Applejack.

" No, they are really good at what they do, and are some of the best carpenters around, but I just wish they were more serious. At the current rate we're going, the progression will most likely be finished within the next seven years. Once the project has been finished, I plan on leaving this village and explore the world because I want to know what lies beyond the walls of this village," said Sweetie Belle.

" And your fellow carpenters?" asked Applejack.

" They'll insist on coming along on the journey because if they remain here, they'll end up amounting to nothing which would be a real waste of their talent. So why have you come here for the first time since you opened this village up to the common-folk? I mean no disrespect to you of course Lady Impa, for you do not need to explain yourself to someone like me," replied Sweetie Belle.

" You are someone whom I have trusted for many years Mutoh, and so you do deserve to know the reason for my sudden visit. I trust that you are aware that the shadow beast has been causing trouble for many years in the village?" asked Applejack.

" Of course, and it chooses to reside deep below the well," replied Sweetie Belle.

" The shadow must be sealed beneath the well so that it cannot escape, and so I have been commanded to come here, and cast a powerful sealing spell which will imprison the beast. To be able to complete the spell, I must make my way over to the windmill to speak with Discord with regards to draining the water. He shall most likely protest against such an action because he has watched over the windmill for years, but he knows that this must be done in order to protect Kakariko," said Applejack.

" Stop the windmill? I'm afraid you're too late for that Lady Impa," said Sweetie Belle.

" What do you mean?" asked Applejack.

" If you take a good look over there at the windmill, you can see that it's stopped moving, so someone must have beaten you to it by draining the water. While I have no doubt that it won't ruin your plan on creating that seal, you do have to wonder who was able to figure out your intentions," replied Sweetie Belle. Applejack then ran through the village making sure to keep her identity a secret, and she soon arrived at the well to discover that someone had indeed drained the water.

While she had no idea that I was the one who did it because I needed to get the Lens of Truth before the seal was put into place, she was worried that her plan had been compromised, so she went to the windmill in order to pay Discord a visit.

Back outside, I popped my head out of the water because I remembered that I don't have the Zora Tunic on in this time period, so I can easily drown if I spend too long underwater. At least my hair was no longer giving off a horrible smell as the purity of the water has cleansed the stench off of me.

" Glad to know that you finally got rid of that smell," said Spike.

" I thought that my idea would actually work, but I guess this was a better option given how pure the water really is," I said.

" Now that you have the Lens of Truth, we should head back to the Temple of Time, and return to the future as we need to go to the Shadow Temple, and rescue Impa who is trapped in there. Have you ever played the Nocturne of Shadow that Sheik taught you? If not then now would be the time to see where it will take you when you play it. You can either walk all the way back to the temple, or play the Prelude of Light to warp there in an instant," said Spike.

" Actually, I don't want to return just yet," I announced.

" Don't tell me you plan on staying here in the past, for we already had that discussion," said Spike.

" Oh I intend on going back to the future because we need to stop Ganondorf, but I had something else in mind that I want to do. I was thinking that maybe we can go back to places we've been before during this time, and use some of the items I picked up during the later stages of my quest to see if something new can be done.

I know it sounds like a waste of time, but I'd like to check things over again. At the same time though, I just want to embrace this world for the way it was before things changed, and maybe learn something new about myself," I said.

" That's not a bad idea wanting to go back and see what you may have missed," said Spike.

" Glad to see that you agree with me," I smiled.

" There are a lot of things that you missed, so now is the time for you to go and collect as many of them as possible. We can't afford to spend too much time doing this, for we do need to go back to the future. So where do you want to go first?" asked Spike.

" Back to where this all started," I replied.

To Be Continued.

Comments

[GMZ_Casper]

I finally managed to get this far into the story, and I am enjoying it so far. A few more chapters and I can finally get caught up. There is something that is bothering me with this chapter, though...

Bah! I have a feeling his mother has been a bad influence on him, or perhaps he's doing this of his own free will, but I still feel like he is breaking away from tradition by choosing not to become a carpenter.

If this Mutoh is the Hyrule version of Sweetie Belle, shouldn't that be 'his father'? So far, everyone have kept their original gender, so I would figured this was the case as well.

Anyway, I'll talk about this whole story as a whole, after I get caught up and faved it. Keep up the good job.