Dawn of the First Day
Drawn from the depths of her slumber, Astrid awoke to the sound of something or someone causing some sort of commotion just outside of her room. She grimaced and rolled over onto her side, hoping to block out the noise so that she could go back to sleep. She absentmindedly reached for her blanket so she could pull it over herself, but her hands came up empty as she groped around blindly.
Astrid groaned as the noise persisted despite her desire for silence. It sounded like someone was talking. Their voices were mostly unintelligible, resulting from a combination of Astrid’s own grogginess and the distance between them, but as she continued to unwillingly listen the more apparent it became that it was not just a few people talking, but rather a large gathering, all chattering away with no consideration given towards her need for rest. It especially did not help at all that one of her legs felt as though ants were crawling on her skin, indicating that she slept in an awkward position.
“Dad,” Astrid grumbled halfheartedly, not really concerned with the fact that her father probably was unable to hear from downstairs. “Could you tell them to keep it down? I’m tryin’ to sleep.”
Much to her annoyance the talking and chattering persisted, and Astrid once again tried to find her blanket, being more attentive this time. However, she was mildly perplexed when instead of the soft covers of her bed her palm was met by a peculiar, and rather prickly sensation against her skin. For a brief moment Astrid wondered what was going on, until her eyes finally fluttered open, and she realized that she was not in her bed, or even in her house. Unable to move her body from panic, Astrid glanced around, taking in the sight that was the hay filled interior of the freight car.
“Oh."
It was a simple exclamation that did nothing to encompass the severity of it all that had happened, from the moment she first touched the fragments to disappearing from home to crying herself to sleep in a seemingly unattended train car, forced its way back to the forefront of her mind. Eventually the panic faded, leaving little more than a feeling of morbidity hanging over her head as she regained her faculties and sat up. She looked down at herself, hoping beyond hope that she had somehow reverted back to her own body in her sleep, but instead found that she was still stuck as. . . whatever in the world she happened to be at the moment. Her body was still shrunk down and disproportioned, her hair was still an unnaturally vivid shade of orange. In short, everything that she was, that she used to be, was no more, replaced by something she could not even begin to describe.
A rat scurried past, its furry body brushing up against Astrid’s hand. She screamed in disgust as she hurried away from the rodent. The rat disappeared in the stacks of hay, leaving the girl more than a little bit perturbed at the thought it being around her.
Astrid sighed, staring at the floor. She didn't really want to do anything other than just go back to sleep and forget about her troubles, for all of the good that would her. As to what she would do when she woke up again, she had not a single idea. She was at a complete and total loss as to what she should even do right now at this very moment. Deciding to just leave the issue alone until later, Astrid laid back down as she closed her eyes, her hand moving up to her chest to grip necklace. Her eyes shot back open however when she realized that something was very wrong as she felt around her neck, her hand grasping at nothing.
Her necklace was missing.
Almost instantly the weariness vanished from Astrid’s mind as the panic from earlier returned with a vengeance, and she darted her head left and right in search of her missing necklace. It was nowhere to be seen however, and before long she deduced that it must have sunk into the straw.
“Oh no, oh no no no no, please don’t do this to me!” Astrid rambled as she furiously searched through the layers of straw. Just when she thought it had disappeared for good she felt something cold and hard bump against her finger. She quickly closed her hand around it, and immediately Astrid felt a monumental amount of relief sweep over her as she retrieved her necklace, holding it close to her chest for fear of losing it again.
She had not even realized she had been crying the whole time until the tears fell pattered against her knee, and she curled up on her side in a desperate attempt to forget everything, knowing it would only further break her heart.
“Hey, did you hear that?”
Astrid’s head snapped up at the sound of the unfamiliar voice, her attention drawn to the door.
Another voice spoke up, saying in a bored tone, “I don’t know, what did it sound like?”
“It sounded like something snuck on board to me.”
“Well, then go in there and chase it off. I don’t want to file a report saying that another shipment had an infestation.”
Astrid scrambled around, already in a state of absolute panic as she frantically tried to decide what she was going to do, looking around for anything that could keep her from being discovered. The sound of footsteps drew closer by the second, although as before they sounded odd to her ear, as though whoever was approached were wearing wooden sandals. With no other option available to her other than let herself be caught, Astrid dove into the hay, ignoring the possibility of rats while covering herself as much as possible before staying as still as possible. Soon enough the footsteps stopped, and the car door was pushed open.
Astrid covered her mouth with a hand, not trusting herself to stay quiet as the person hopped up into the train car. Seconds passed, during which Astrid dared not move until finally the person said, “Eh, I don’t see anything.”
“Then get your flank back out here and help me move this junk. I don’t get paid by the hour you know.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.”
The person exited the train car, allowing Astrid to breathe a sigh of relief, until she realized where she was and quickly extricated herself from the hay. “Gross, gross, gross,” she stuttered while wiping herself down, disgusted at the thought of being in the same place that rats potentially nested in.
Unsure exactly how she was going to clean herself off, Astrid reluctantly set that dilemma aside for later as she considered her next course of action. She obviously could not stay, otherwise she would inevitably be found, and she would rather not find out what the consequences would be.
Carefully tiptoeing her way to the door left open by the stranger, Astrid cautiously peeked outside to observe what was going on. The moment that Astrid stepped into one of the shafts of light a strange feeling beset her. It was as though in an instant everything had taken on an uncomfortable quality as the light increased to almost blinding levels of brightness. It felt to the girl as though she were pressed in from all sides. She could hardly see, and her skin felt like it was being squeezed. She tried to move, but her attempts felt sluggish at best, like she were swimming more than walking, and before Astrid could wonder for much longer what was going on, she began to feel rather ill.
“What the heck?” she said, very much alarmed at the sudden and inexplicable sensation, and she retreated as quickly as she could out of the light and back into the shadows of the train car. The moment she did the feeling faded just as quickly as it had appeared, leaving her confused and more than a little apprehensive at what just happened.
Although she was hesitant to try and repeat the occurrence, Astrid’s curiosity eventually made her brave enough to raise her arm and slowly move it into the sunlight once more, until it shone down on her small hand, and what she saw next left her with more questions than answers. Her hand seemed to disappear almost completely in the light, leaving only a faint outline. Again, the odd feeling returned, though this time it only affected her exposed hand.
“What in the world?” Astrid whispered softly, retracting her arm and flexing her fingers. They felt fine, but having seen them reduced to a mere silhouette did more than unnerve her, as she could only conclude that the rest of her body had been similarly affected. Astrid highly doubted this would be the last time she would be left wondering what exactly she had been turned into.
She didn’t really want to dwell on it too long, remembering her curiosity at what was happening outside. Risking blindness a second time, Astrid once more peeked outside the train car, shading her eyes with her arm. It took a long while and a good amount of squinting before her eyes adjusted enough to the brightness that Astrid could actually see what was going on, and what she saw offered her only more confusion.
“What the?” she muttered, completely dumbfounded at the sight of a bustling throng of what appeared to be horses trotting about. At least they resembled horses, at least in terms of body shape, but aside from that there were quite a few notable differences that stood out quite profusely to Astrid. The first among these differences were that many of them seemed to have been drenched in brightly colored paint. Most were either pushing or carrying wooden crates about across the train platform, putting in stacks or placing them in waiting wagons and carts. A few of the ponies even appeared to be wearing clothing ranging from work vests to hats with unidentifiable logos on them.
All of this on its own would have been more than enough to unnerve Astrid, but the fact that most of them were actually talking was when she started to wonder if she had eaten something funny earlier.
Blinking rapidly, Astrid glanced around at the surrounding area as dozens of the horse creatures milled about, and was summarily rendered breathless at the sight of towers of gleaming white marble.
Before long the brightness became too much for Astrid to bear, forcing her to retreat once more into the train car to recover, as well to try and process what she had just seen. “What is going on here?” she questioned aloud, wanting to believe that she was only dreaming. Another glance outside confirmed that this was not the case. It was all very real, as absurd as the circumstances may be.
“Okay, okay, calm down Astrid. Just. . . calm down.” Despite her attempts to retain her sense of composure, Astrid already felt herself failing miserably to keep herself from freaking out. She sat down, suddenly feeling lightheaded. “Everything is fine. This is okay. This is okay. I just need to. . . not overreact. It’s not that bad.” She paused for a moment to take a deep breath to steady her nerves. “Positives. Positives. Think of the positives here, okay? Okay. Number one, first positive. . . uh. . .”
Astrid faltered, unsure how she could interpret anything that she had just seen as being positive by any stretch of the imagination. Being taken from her home to a strange place with miniature talking horses seemed much more akin to what she would see in the movies or read in a book. It was one of those situations that she always believed only existed in her imagination, something she would have to be on very hard medication to conjure up. Now that she was seeing it all with her own eyes, at least as much she was able to consider her current form as her own, Astrid felt as though she were about to pass out from the sheer absurdity of it all.
At the moment, all she really had was her health, and even that was an uncertainty.
Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, Astrid forced herself to calm down enough that she could come up with some sort of plan on what to do moving forward. She was extremely hesitant to show herself for any reason, as she was very much unsure how these horse creatures would react upon seeing her. Even if she were not reduced to such an unfamiliar body as this Astrid was not sure if they would be pleased to find a stowaway in their presence.
“What choice do I have though?” she questioned aloud. “I can’t just stay in here.”
Taking a deep breath, Astrid summoned up her courage and walked back to the door. Shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight, she vaulted over the edge, landing on the platform with a soft grunt, anticipating to immediately be greeted by shouts of alarm, bracing herself for whatever came next.
No such thing happened however. Cautiously looking around, it soon became clear to Astrid that she had to be noticed by any of the talking ponies. For the most part, they seemed to busy with their own business to pay much attention to the small creature that just hopped out of the train car.
“Okay then,” she said, not sure if she wanted to be relieved or off-put by the lack of mass hysteria she was sure she would have caused. Briefly she considered going up to one of them to ask if they would be able to offer her some assistance. She decided against it however, instead focusing her attention on finding something to mitigate the brightness of the sun. She didn’t fancy walking around with her hand over eyes the whole time she was stuck like this. Best to remain as out of the way as possible until then, she reasoned.
Stumbling around to a section of the platform that seemed to be less busy, Astrid had difficulty in discerning much of anything. Rendered practically blind by the sunlight, she walked with her hands out in front to ensure she did not accidentally bump into something or someone. This unfortunately did nothing to keep her from tripping over a discarded piece of tarp.
“Oh come on! Can’t I catch a break!” Astrid grumbled with her hand over her nose, massaging the fresh bruise on her face. Recovering from her fall, Astrid kicked at the tarp that had tripped her up. She was about to walk away in a huff, before coming to a stop as she realized that it could serve her.
Scooping it up in her arms, Astrid threw the tarp over her head and wrapping it around her small frame, effectively shielding her from the sunlight while still allowing her some modicum of visibility. It was a little big for her, as the “hem” of her makeshift cloak would drag on the floor wherever she went, but for the moment it would suffice. Just when she started to wonder where she was going to go and what was going to do next, the distinct clip-clop of approaching hoofsteps caught her attention, sending a jolt of fear into her as she quickly ducked behind a nearby crate, a picture of a smiling mare with a bundle of cherries in her hoof plastered onto its side.
“Did anypony else see that?” a feminine voice asked.
The question was soon answered with, “Oh, not you too Nano Breeze. I already went through this with Pen Mark. I swear, if you two are trying to pull another fast one on me. . .”
“What? No of course not. . . not this time at least,” the one identified as Nano Breeze replied. Against her better judgement, Astrid carefully poked her head around the crate. She caught sight of two ponies, one a bluish-grey stallion and the other a mare with jade colored fur. Until that moment when Astrid laid eyes upon them, she didn’t think anything else could surprise her, but found herself rendered completely dumbfounded when she spotted a pair of feathery wings sprouting from Nano Breeze’s shoulders.
A pegasus. She was looking at a real live, honest to goodness pegasus. So enamored was she by the notion of a mythical creature actually existing and talking that Astrid did not realize that she had been discovered until after Nano Breeze pointed a foreleg directly at her and said, “Over there!”
The grey stallion looked, quickly donning an almost disgusted expression upon seeing Astrid. “What in the. . ! What is that thing!?”
Recoiling at the harshness of the stallions’ tone, fear took hold of her completely as she rushed away.
“No, wait a minute! Come back!” Nano Breeze exclaimed, hurrying over to where the creature was hiding, hoping to catch it before it could get away.
She was too late however, as the little creature jumped off the platform, crying in some odd language as it ran off into the streets, disappearing from sight. Spreading her wings, Nano Breeze flew up a little bit, trying to catch sight of where it had gone. Her efforts were in vain however, and she let out a sigh of disappointment. No doubt the creature had run off to hide in an alleyway.
Returning to the platform, she shot her supervisor, Crisp Heart, a strong look that did little to conceal how she currently felt about him at that very moment.
“What was that for?!” she demanded as she got right up in the stallions muzzle. “You didn’t have to do that! Now she’s off and ran away because of you!”
Flustered by her attitude, Crisp Heart retorted heatedly, “You think I care about that? I have a job to do here, and that does not entail chasing after whatever weird critters you happen to find.” Turning around, Crisp said over his shoulder, “Now come on, get back to back to work. That thing might have contaminated some of the shipments, and if that’s the case then it’s on your head, and your paycheck.”
Sighing, Nano Breeze had to suppress the urge to strangle her boss as she watched him go. She glanced back in the direction where the odd creature had run off to. She didn’t see it too clearly, but she remembering all too clearly the expression of terror and confusion in its eyes when it looked at her before it fled. Deep in her heart, she wondered if it would be okay.
Trying to shake off the feeling, Nano refocused her attention on her job, and promptly got back to work.
Sprinting away as fast as her little legs could carry her, Astrid dared not look back to see if those two ponies were chasing after until after she was safely hidden from sight and out of the sun in a dim, narrow backstreet, curled up beside an old trashcan. Panting heavily, she stifled the urge to cry from, knowing that it would nothing to help her now.
She clutched her necklace, holding on to it as though it were only defense against the world, and at the moment it might as well have been, until she eventually calmed down enough that she could actually process what she had just witnessed a few short moments ago, or at least try to.
“What is going here?!” Astrid questioned aloud as her brain did flip-flops. “Okay, I have to be dreaming now. There’s no other way. Pegasus or unicorns or whatever don’t exist. It’s just not possible. Yeah, that’s it. I’m just dreaming.”
Almost as if on cue the sound of a door opening drew her attention. She looked to her left to find a yellow pony with a single spiral horn on his head. The unicorn whistled a jaunty tune as a bag of trash floated beside him, enveloped in a bluish aura. A similar aura surrounded his horn. The unicorn took no notice of her as he continued whistling, before depositing the bag into a nearby trashcan, upon which he then trotted back inside, leaving Astrid staring blankly after him.
Astrid proceeded to groan audibly, covering her face with her hands while she slumped down as far as possible. “Right then. Not a dream,” she grumbled, as the reality that she was about as far from her home as illogically possible set in.
Unable to keep her grief and ire at the situation tempered any longer, Astrid yelled, not caring who or what heard her as she stood up and kicked at the trash can, knocking it over and spilling its contents all over the pavement.
Picking up a piece of discarded wood, she proceeded to beat on the trashcan with wild abandon, yelling obscenities as she throttled the thing, as though doing so would somehow beat some semblance of familiarity and control back into her life.
“Why?!” she screamed. “Why would you do this to me?!”
Nothing was right. None of this was right, and Astrid hammered that point into every dent she made, losing herself to her anger and frustration as hot tears flowed from her eyes even after the wood began to crack until it finally snapped in half, which only served to further enrage her.
Throwing the now useless block of splinters at the wall with all her might, Astrid’s fury and grief only continued to heighten.
“How could you do this to me Dad?!” Astrid demanded, resorting to striking at the trashcan with her bare hands now, not caring about the bruises she was accumulating on her fingers even when they started to bleed profusely.
“How could you do this?!”
Another blow, another dent in the metal, as well as another wound.
“To me?!“ She yelled bringing both hands up to bring them on the metal, clenching her eyes.
“To your own daughter!”
Her hands impacted on the metal, the act of which was followed the sound of galvanized iron crumpling.
Breathing heavily from her exertions, Astrid’s limbs were shaking from both raw emotion and her own physical stress.
She was quickly snapped out of her enraged daze when she realized something very odd about what just occurred. Firstly, that the trashcan was now reduced to something more akin to a crushed soda can. Second was the thick orange limb that pulsed very visibly in the shaded alleyway with a fiery light, ending in a monstrous fist.
Startled by the sight of the limb, Astrid jumped back with a frightened yelp, only to for it to follow after her. Just as she was about to look up to see what sort of malevolent creature it belonged to, the limb suddenly seemed to lose all its solidity as it went limp, scattering into lose strands of orange thread that fell over Astrid’s face, blinding her and causing her to fall backward onto her rear.
Sputtering from the mass of follicles that were smothering her, Astrid pushed it aside, thoroughly confused at what just happened.
“Was. . . was that me?” she questioned as she lifted her hair away from her face, gazing at it in a mixture of wonder and fright. “But. . . how did. . . what is. . ?” she stuttered, unable to properly word her bewilderment.
Before Astrid could even begin to even try and understand what she just did, she was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass, jolting her out of her puzzlement into looking towards the entrance of the alleyway, where a cream coated unicorn mare with saddlebags full of groceries looked on with wide eyes.
For a moment nothing happened as the two stared at each other, until a sheepish grin crossed Astrid’s reddening face. “Uh, heh heh, oops,” she muttered, suddenly feeling very self-conscious of herself. Her embarrassment was reciprocated by the mare cautiously backing away, never once breaking eye contact until she was well out of the girls’ sight.
Astrid waited for a few moments before scooping up her hair and sprinting away, deciding that she would rather not risk the possibility of the mare returning with friends. The last thing she needed right now was to be the center of attention.
Hoping that she was not being followed by anyone or anything, Astrid soon found a narrow alcove that seemed to serve no other purpose than for old, unwanted refuse to be dumped, completely hidden from the view of searching eyes, where she collapsed onto the hard pavement with her back pressed up against the wall to catch her breath. The day had only just begun for her, and already both physically and mentally drained.
With nothing better for her to do, Astrid began to analyze her hair, trying to determine what had made it morph into an arm of all things. Aside from the vibrant color however there was nothing she could find that differentiated it from her normal hair, and after minutes of pulling on it, twisting it or even trying to replicate what happened she eventually gave up, choosing instead to save it for later when she did not feel quite so broken.
Returning to her slumped position, Astrid curled in on herself, pulling the tarp over herself until she was completely enveloped, as though doing so would ward away the ache in her heart.
She did not cry. She had not have the energy for it anymore. Instead, Astrid fell into a fitful, uneasy sleep, wishing to go back home.
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this chapter in a nutshell (skip to 2:10)
Shadow Power : Check !
Hand Hair : Check !
I wonder if she have the ability to sumon Twilight Wolves .
Well Astrid is witnessing her Twili powers earlier than the previous iteration.
You wrote her meltdown really well and I appreciate you added this bit, it makes things more realistic. Lots of displace authors rush or don't write this phase, which is a natural occurrence to happen to normal people who suddenly lost their way-points.
Mistakes found :
for all of the good that would do her.
her hand moving up to her chest to grip her necklace.
it / I don't think at this point Nano Breeze would know what her gender is.
9412148
That wasn't an actual power she had other than Hyrule Warriors which isn't canon. Shifting to a sort of non-corporeal mist form, storing things in a dimensional pocket, heightended senses, flight, and endless taunting and mocking are all powers she does have.
I approve of this change from the original - before it was just 'a girl in the body of midna without powers', for a while anyway. Now, she isn't completely helpless, even if she doesn't know how to use her powers.
Good work. Not gonna lie though, I actually had a dream about this story recently, where Astrid started seeing a wolf, maybe even wolf link, as her new father. No idea why, but that's what I dreamed of. And if that's what happens, I'll eat a hat.
eh, either way, I look forward to more.
9412212
Oh Sorry !
9412225
Her dad in the story reminded me of an older Link and the unlikable man reminded me of Zant kinda.
9412347
Yeah, I can definitely see that, but does Link ever speak? It's kinda hard to judge someone without them speaking, or having much personality at all, really. We can't make presumtions though, considering this story is already drastically different.
On another note, I feel bad for constantly camparing this story to the other one. It's only similarity is the scenario, really. But still, it's a valid point for people who remember the original.
9412364
In BotW there are plenty of examples of him talking even if there is no voiceover. A journal in Hyrule Castle also refrences the fact he rarely spoke growing up because he had accepted his fate of being the Chosen Hero and the weight of his responsibility gave him a need to disconnect rather than voice his own feelings about anything.
9412429
Damn, I need to play that game. Or at least watch gameplay off it. Guess I can't judge this fic too much anymore when it comes to the crossover part of it.
(So glad you didn't mention the shitty cdi games. It just occured to me about that one. May it burn in hell forever and ever.)
I feel bad for her
9412212
You forgot the part where she can hide inside of other people’s shadows also letting her protect herself from light, seemingly even the ones used by the light spirits.
It’s kind of crazy how different this entire story feels just from Dilos changeing one scene in chapter 2. I liked the original version well enough but this is more engaging than the ‘stranger and broken family help each other heal’ direction the first iteration felt like it was going in.
9412553
I also didn't mention the ability to hijack portals and cross low level magic barriers meant to keep intruders out but those are probably skills Astrid would have to master through understanding magic
9412606
You’ve got to admit that the shadow hiding seems like something that might be inate if it isn’t a twili spell that is at least semi-crucial for any of them leaving the realm of twilight.
9412148
I know a another displaced fanfict were the can
and as a displaced or any fanfiction for that mater you don't have to follow strictly to the the canon story.
9412212
I don't see why she wouldn't be able to.
Once in a while I might have a bright idea or some nice suggestions if I can belive some authors, so I just thought I put the whole comment in a spoiler, in chase you want to use something from that and no one else wants to know what could happen.
Even if Celestia would want to help her, the moment Astrid had control over her hair I had to image a scene with Celestia where she would try to get close to Astrid to comfort her.
Astrid would maybe play a prank on her and faking fear, then grinning like an idiot when one of Celestias hindhoofs reachs her hair. Even if nothing much would happen after that, I would like her to actually be able to introduce Celestia to the floor.
I just want them to know how cunning she could get. It could be a time in that story where Astrid is either feed up with something or just get's really excited about her powers.
Nice chapter, this was the better update of two I got today. The other chapter was three times as long as this one, which I currently dislike and three times more annoying.
That maybe sounds wrong but I think you understand what I mean.
I wish this would have been the chapter wish that many words tonight.
I hope instead getting catched by a hord of guards and treated like a wild animal, she will find someone who tries to get close to her with patient.
However I'm starting to image a nice scene for the guard stuff too.
9412621
Because Dilos1 doesn't unnecessarily OP his characters
9412225
It's nice that she is able to use her hair at least now and I started to enjoy some of the changes too. I still love the story, but I'm not sure if I would want that wolf thing to be anything more than an animal to her.
I'm not always a fan of characters being added from the same world, like in this chase her father.
9412621
I agree with that, but I guess the author would have to decite which powers could ruin the fun or make her to Op and stuff like that.
Maybe he just needs to describer her training her own powers well enough and give it some time till she grows into the title "Twilight Princess"
I come back from a party so I'm not thinking to deeply about it right now.
9412201
Thanks for the feedback. I was actually worried I made it happen too soon, but I'm to know it was well received.
great chapter
Nice ! Really like it so far.
9413167
9413235
Thanks!
Next week on an all new Eventide:
MidnaAstrid wanders into a cherry orchard, climbs a tree, eats a bunch or cherries, and gets a wicked nasty tummy ache!Hmm... So, Astrid can understand the ponies clearly (she clearly understood the ponies talking about chasing her off the train), but they can't understand her? Sounds about right- noone but Link ever seems to respond to his companions, unless it's convenient to his cause, or irrelevant... and Midna is one that only Zant and Ganon responded to, if I recall correctly.
Majoras mask reference
9462235
Zelda understood her too, it was less Midna speaking a different language and more of Nintendo not actually voicing their characters. Like how they dont show Link saying anything except when you're answering a yes or no question, but that doesn't means he's mute.