• Published 4th Jul 2018
  • 24,667 Views, 4,119 Comments

The Power of Freedom - Greatazuredragon



Having long grown utterly bored with the destiny the gods had decreed for him, Ganondorf decided to take matters into his own hands and escape to a new dimension where he could be free. Even if that would mean turning into a pastel colored pony.

  • ...
23
 4,119
 24,667

VII - Of Storms and Prophecies

Of Storms and Prophecies

Giving a brief look outside as he stretched his muscles, Ganondorf noted that it seemed it would be a sunny day, though the slight chill in the air made him briefly wonder if they were nearing winter in this realm. As he stretched his muscles and stepped into the kitchen, he immediately noticed that the only ones already awake were apparently the Kid and Forest’s mother, Beautiful Blossom, and that both were already busy as they made breakfast for everyone.

Of the duo, Link was, unsurprisingly, the first to notice his presence, nodding in silent greeting the moment the brown coated pony entered the room. The pegasus’ actions did not go unnoticed by Beautiful, as the mare immediately followed the Kid’s gaze towards the King of Thieves’ form.

“Good morning dear, I hope you slept well!” the mare happily said with a beaming smile as she nodded in greeting herself, while giving Link a platter to take to the table, a burden he easily accepted with a small nod. “Please take a seat and make yourself at home, breakfast will be ready in a moment.”

“Morning,” he grumbled back after a moment’s pause with a hint of hesitation, not being even nearly used to anyone greeting him that cheerfully, or being that happy seeing him for, well, basically any reason, really. It was actually kind of unnerving if he was being honest.

Thankfully their host didn’t appear to take offense to his brusque answer as, with another beaming smile, she made her way back towards the counter where she appeared to be preparing some fresh bread with a happy air all around her.

After taking a moment to process the strange scene, Ganondorf decided to move towards the table and stay out of the way until the food was ready and the Princess and the other mares joined them so they could eat. But, while doing so, one fact in regards to the platter that Link had just placed atop the table caught his attention.

“Hey, Kid,” the Lord of Darkness called the attention of the green Hero, who stopped on his way back towards the stove to see what his old acquaintance wanted. Not wasting another moment Ganondorf pointed towards the large plate in question.

“Those are flowers,” he simply stated without wasting another moment as he pointed towards the plate that was filled with what looked like freshly cut flowers. The fact that the whole arrangement looked less like a decorative centerpiece and more as an actual dish intended for consumption showed its intended purpose for all to see.

“Yes,” Link succinctly replied in such a way that had it been anyone else Ganondorf would had been sure it would constitute as a deadpan. “Daisies, in fact.”

“Part of our breakfast?” he asked only for confirmation’s sake in slight befuddlement, the calm nod from the pegasus answering whatever doubt the King of Thieves still had for him.

“You don’t seem overly bothered by it,” he spoke conversationally as he examined the flowers more closely. He had been aware that their change in species probably would incur in an obligatory change in diet as well since their new equine bodies obviously would have very different food requirements and digestive tracts when compared to their previous ones, it had been the main reason why both of them had limited their food gathering before stumbling upon the gryphons to foraging for fruits and other edible plants instead of fishing or hunting, but this was the most blatant sign of the forced change in diet yet.

“Not really,” the green pegasus immediately replied with a small shrug of his wings. “Truthfully speaking, it should be an interesting new experience. And besides, it’s nowhere near close to the oddest thing I’ve ever eaten.”

“Oh?” he wordlessly inquired as he decided to make himself useful and help to set the table, taking over the clay plates Link was now carrying and setting them atop the wooden table.

“Yes, this has nothing on fresh bee larvae,” the Hero dryly spoke, a hint of distaste briefly appearing on his muzzle before disappearing behind his serene visage. “That’s something that I personally wouldn’t recommend anyone to try unless absolutely necessary.”

“I will take your word for it,” Ganondorf deadpanned with a small shudder as he imagined what that probably tasted like. With a serious nod of agreement Link turned back towards the oven where Beautiful Blossom was giving the finishing touches to their morning meal.

He gave the platter full of daisies a dubious look for a brief moment before, with a shrug of his shoulders, he grabbed one of the flowers and threw it into his mouth. He thoughtfully chewed it for a few moments, before he admitted that it was nowhere near as bad as he had initially feared. Crispy and kind of minty flavored actually, not even close to the bland mess he had been expecting.

But even as he chewed his little morsel and wondered about the very real possibility that his taste buds could have been changed by the transformation of his body, he couldn’t help but gaze at the mark proudly emblazoned on Beautiful Blossom’s flank as the mare busied herself around the kitchen. For now that he knew what the marks at the colorful little equines flanks really were he couldn’t help but pay a little more attention to them as he pondered their meaning, which in turn immediately brought to the forefront of his mind a curious little fact he had noticed and was now nagging at the back of his mind.

And, thankfully, the white coated mare entering the kitchen with a slightly sleepy look would be the perfect sounding board to bounce his current line of thought at.

“Hey, Princess, what do you make of the relation between the ponies names and their marks?” he conversationally asked to the sleepy looking unicorn.

“What?” she asked in slight confusion as she gave him an odd look after she wished both their host and the Kid a good morning.

“Forest Blossom, Singing Blossom and Beautiful Blossom,” Ganondorf dutifully explained in greater detail to the wielder of Wisdom. “The first has a wild tree in full bloom, the second has what looks like a happy singing flower and the later has a pretty looking blooming flower.”

“And that’s not even mentioning Sure Shot’s bow and arrow, Forge Fire and Woodcutter’s blacksmith’s hammer and lumberjack’s axe or Old Oak’s oak tree,” Zelda immediately added on as she swiftly grasped what the Dark Lord was implying, what little sleep that still held on to her being forcefully shoved aside as she started to think about it all with a curious glint on her eyes. “I see what you mean; all the marks of the ponies we have met so far seem to be directly linked to their names. How intriguing…”

“So, any ideas for why that’s the case?” he curiously asked after watching the Princess ruminate about the little conundrum for a few moments longer.

“You know that I have nowhere near enough information to even try to create an appropriate hypothesis, especially with a sample size as small as seven individuals,” the unicorn mare sternly replied as she gave him a warning look.

“Oh please, I know how you work, Princess!” he teased with a dismissive wave of a hoof and a large smile as he took a seat at the table. “You may not know the specifics or be able to prove anything yet, but you must have at least an idea or three to explain whatever this is by now!”

They stared at each other for a long moment, his golden orbs and roguish grin against her blue ones and stern expression. Until, finally, she relented with a huff of annoyance, much to his internal celebration due to his minor victory.

“Very well, right now I see two possible explanations: the first is quite simple really, upon discovering their cutie marks the ponies change their names to something that better fits to the mark in question, abandoning their birth names to a new one linked to the mark,” she lectured him in the tone of voice that scholars everywhere seemed to favor for some odd reason.

“Boring, but practical, yeah I can see that happening,” he grumbled at the exceedingly mundane answer before asking about the second option. “And the second idea?”

“Due to the fact that the marks appear to be linked with the individual’s own destiny, it’s possible that either upon birth or during the mother’s pregnancy the parents may be able to achieve a limited form of precognition in regards to their children’s future,” she dutifully explained in a calm tone of voice, even as a very eager glint appeared in her eyes as she spoke about the idea. “As such, it’s possible that the ponies may be capable of foreseeing at least part of their offspring’s future, which would allow them to grant them names befitting of the destinies they saw!”

“Precognition… yeah, right,” the large stallion grumbled in disgust as he dismissively threw another daisy in his mouth. “I think I’ll take the boring first option, thank you very much!”

“The study of fate and prophecy is a thoroughly studied and proven field of magical lore!” the Princess huffed in slight annoyance at Ganondorf’s reaction to her second theory.

“Oh, I’m perfectly aware of that. Just as I’m aware of how thoroughly and completely useless said field of magic is!” he sneered back at the white coated mare. “You yourself should know that better than most, Princess!”

“And what would that mean?” Zelda shot right back, an annoyed look now firm on her features.

“Tell me, oh great Seer. Exactly how many times have your so called visions proved themselves to be of any use?” he asked in a sickly sweet tone of voice as he grinned back at the wielder of Wisdom.

The angry glare that the Princess was giving him was returned with an equally fierce glower from the Dark Lord. This was an old argument between them, one that Ganondorf refused to give a single inch on despite knowing that Zelda herself was a more than accomplished Seer, said argument being about the fact that, as far as he was concerned, seeing the future was a completely useless ability when all was said and done.

“Good morning Mister Ganondorf, good morning Zelda!” a tiny yellow blur suddenly materialized herself between the two ponies without any warning, cutting the argument short. “What are you talking about?”

Seeing the little ball of happiness that was called Singing Blossom, Ganondorf felt his sudden anger at the topic of seeing the future abate slightly. As he nodded a greeting to both Singing and her sister who was but a few steps behind her he inwardly berated himself for losing his control so easily, all the while blaming that stupid dream from last night as to why he was already so irritated this morning.

“Morning Squirt, Forest,” he dutifully greeted the two sisters with a nod each before refocusing on the little filly eagerly waiting for an answer to her question. “And we are talking about the general uselessness of prophecy.”

“What?” Forest asked in a very confused tone of voice as she stopped mid motion with one hoof raised in greeting towards her mother.

“Oh, you know, how seeing the future isn’t really useful, like at all, due to how incredibly vague any kind of warning you could get about the future tends to be as a general rule. I mean, you would expect that any Seer worth their salt would at least try and make themselves clear when they try to give a warning about some cataclysm or other that will happen in the future,” he fiercely stated as he grabbed another daisy to munch on. “But nope, all you’ll get is vague and confusing gibberish that will only make sense after whatever it was supposed to warn you about happens. And let’s not even start on the mess called self fulfilling prophecies, completely useless, all of it!”

“You know that’s not how it works, Ganondorf!” the white coated mare fiercely rebuked as she took two steps closer to his idly sitting form. “You know far too well that the future is not something that can simply be read as if an open book! That the future is not written in stone, but sculpted in water! Ever flowing and ever changing! To the point that the mere act of looking at it may change it!”

“See, just like I said, completely useless!” he interjected as he gave Singing a sage nod, the way the Princess was practically spitting fire by this point doing wonders for his irritated mood.

“But how would you know that?” Singing innocently asked with a tilted head, all the while her big sister kept switching her gaze from Ganondorf to Zelda as if she was trying to figure out if they were being serious or not.

“Well, for starters, the little Princess here got this really annoying habit of having prophetic dreams,” he stated in fake cheerfulness while gesturing towards Zelda with a fluid gesture. “She tends to know trouble is coming days to weeks before it happens, though the ability is far less useful to avoid said trouble than you would think, but at least she knows it’s coming!

“Meaning that she tends to get plenty of time to get herself into a tizzy and start to panic before the trouble really starts. That’s got to be worth something, right?” he continued while giving the unicorn a patronizing smile, the way Zelda was gritting her teeth in annoyance greatly improving his sour mood.

Forest’s barely audible and confused ‘What?’ was effectively overshadowed by Singing’s enthusiastic proclaimed ‘Cool!’, but both of them were overshadowed in turn by the way the green pegasus that had just placed his load of fresh bread atop the table entered into the conversation.

“And talking about prophetic dreams, Zelda, Ganondorf woke up in the middle of the night quite abruptly due to one,” Link casually stated before cordially greeting both sisters and the Princess a good morning. “The very abrupt way in which he returned to wakefulness and the fact he immediately adopted a defensive stance as he took in his surroundings before calming down also weren’t positive signs.”

“That was just a stupid dream Link, I told you that!” he grumbled in annoyance as he leveled a betrayed look at his occasional nemesis. “It was nothing!”

“Good, in that case you really shouldn’t mind giving us some details,” the green coated Hero reasonably pointed out, a serene smile on his features despite the ever growing glare Ganondorf was throwing his way. “Better to be safe than sorry and all that.”

“He is right, you know,” Zelda interjected as she gave the earth pony stallion a stern but understanding look, the mere idea of Ganondorf having experienced a prophetic dream neatly shoving her earlier annoyance to the side. “I know personally how hard it can be to interpret a prophetic dream correctly, it’s far better to have several different perspectives analyze it in order to gather what information is possible from its portents.”

“For the last time, it was just a stupid dream!” he huffed in annoyance as he rose from his seat and moved towards the Princess. He stopped right in front of her before he slowly enunciated every word, his voice loaded with meaning. “And besides, you know that you are the Seer, not me! Now, drop it!”

“Link also occasionally has prophetic dreams, Ganondorf! They may not be frequent, but they do happen!” Zelda shot right back, not even slightly threatened by the Dark Lord’s posturing. “We share the same bond; it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that you could have them too and you know it!”

The wielder of Power and the wielder of Wisdom simply stood there in complete silence as they defiantly stared at each other’s eyes, neither willing to give up a single inch in this contest of wills, nor admitting that the other could be right, the tension in the room steadily rising with each moment that passed.

Until two gentle green wings rested themselves atop both their backs, startling them out of their staring contest and stopping things from escalating further.

“Calm down, the both of you. Zelda, you have to respect Ganondorf’s desire for privacy, if he doesn’t want to share what happened in his dream, then that’s his right,” the wielder of Courage serenely but sternly stated as he gave the white unicorn a look, keeping eye contact until she grudgingly nodded her acceptance. “And Ganondorf, while I shall respect your desire for privacy, know this, if you decide to share whatever it is that you saw, we will be here to help.”

Suddenly finding the wooden floor to be extremely interesting, the King of Thieves avoided the Hero’s earnest and sincere gaze... only to stumble upon the very big, soulful eyes of Singing Blossom. The worried look the tiny pony was giving him made him deflate with an annoyed grumble.

“Fine, if you must know, it was just a stupid dream about the long forgotten past, back when Hyrule had been flooded over. It didn’t contain anything I would call a warning and nothing else of note really happened,” he grudgingly shared, the beaming smile the tiny filly was now sporting making him decide to carefully examine the wooden ceiling instead. “Like I said before, it was just a stupid dream, everything is fine!”

With that admission the growing tension that had been permeating the room was blown away as mist before a gentle breeze, something that was helped further along as Zelda playfully replied.

“You do remember what ‘fine’ stands for, right?” Zelda immediately shot back with a tiny smirk on her muzzle, clearly remembering what Ganondorf had said about the expression a couple of days earlier.

“Breakfast is ready!” Beautiful Blossom cheerfully proclaimed before anything more could be said about it, much to the silent relief of the Lord of Darkness.

Thanking the Three Goddesses for the mare’s timely intervention, Ganondorf immediately hurried towards the table, swiftly leaving behind a serene looking pegasus, an annoyingly smirking unicorn, a happily bouncing filly and a very, very confused looking earth pony mare.



As he took a moment to appreciate the chill morning breeze and the warm sunlight across his body, Link calmly kept track of his companions’ conversation as they left the Blossom’s family home behind in order to meet Old Oak so that they could decide what to do next.

Though conversation might be a slight misnomer, considering that it mostly consisted of Zelda attempting to pry further details regarding Ganondorf’s dream, and the later unhelpfully answering with monosyllabic grunts to her inquires.

He knew that Ganondorf would be annoyed by him bringing his dream to Zelda’s attention, and he even could somewhat understand the Dark Lord’s dislike in regards to anything even remotely related to the realm of fate and prophecy. Because, truthfully speaking, he did have a point in regards to the fact that any kind of warning in regards to the future tended to be infuriatingly vague and imprecise as a general rule. But at the same time, Zelda also did have a point in regards to the fact that any kind of warning, no matter how small or vague, was better than none at all. And that while it was true that stopping a future from fully happening was extraordinarily difficult, that did not mean it was impossible.

And besides, he was never one to ignore a useful tool or potential advantage, even if it looked like a long shot. And if that meant he had to deal with a grumpy Ganondorf for a while in order to make sure his ‘stupid dream’ was exactly that? Well, he had endured far worse for far less certain gains.

Not to mention the fact that one their hosts really didn’t look like they intended to let the larger stallion brood was a definite bonus to that particular plan, something that was readily confirmed by how Forest was now interposed between Ganondorf and Zelda, as if to protect him from the unicorn and happily changing the subject as she started to lead them down a gravel covered path and towards the elder’s home.

The wielder of Courage took a moment to smile and nod in approval to Singing’s happily bouncing form as he noticed the small saddlebag she was proudly sporting for all to see, as he calmly trotted after the others. The filly had been a very attentive student yesterday and deserved some recognition for her efforts.

“Hey, Forest, are we nearing winter or something?” the King of Thieves once more changed the subject with all the subtlety of an avalanche, the fact he had just ignored another of Zelda’s inquires making the Princess huff in annoyance.

As he made sure to not allow his smile to grow as he followed after the group, Link calmly kept looking at the small village they were passing through, the small cottages and wooden cabins and the fields beyond their backyards. Ganondorf could grumble and complain as much as he wanted, but no matter how annoyed the brown earth pony acted, the simple fact he hadn’t tried to make the white unicorn stop pestering him with her questions yet was quite telling.

“Not even close, we should be just nearing the fall, the weather really should be way warmer than it has been these last few weeks,” Forest retorted with an interesting mix of irritation at the subject and elation at being asked a question by her crush. And wasn’t that an interesting development? It was obvious that both Zelda and Beautiful Blossom had seen the young mare’s actions for what they were as well, so that left the question of who would realize the truth next in their little group, Ganondorf or Singing?

“And yet, despite the fact that the harvest season should be just around the corner, the weather keeps getting colder and colder!” the orange colored mare complained as Link listened with one ear while he placidly nodded in silent greeting to a group of deeply scowling earth ponies they had just passed by.

Personally he placed his bets on the young filly finding out about it first, since Link was quite sure that despite all his knowledge and experience the Dark Lord had very little experience when regarding the matters of the heart.

As he nodded in greeting to another group of angry looking earth ponies, while noting with some amusement that his actions of cordially greeting them while ignoring their glares seemed to make them really not know how to react, he thought that perhaps he should offer his old nemesis some advice for that little conundrum. Though finding a way of doing so without Ganondorf rebuffing his effort due to wounded pride would be tricky. It was something to ponder nonetheless.

“So it should be warmer than it is?” Zelda curiously asked while she did her level best to try and ignore the suspicious and angry looks both she and Link kept receiving. Though the way her ears flickered from time to time in agitation showed that her efforts weren’t being as successful as she would probably like.

“You bet it should be warmer! Bucking unicorns can’t do anything right! The needle heads got basically one job! To move the sun and the moon! That’s it! And yet they somehow manage to fumble it!” Forest’s newest complaint actually managed to gather his full attention as he processed what the mare had just implied. And apparently he hadn’t been the only one to find her phrase interesting, for both Ganondorf and Zelda were now intently staring at the mare.

“The mortals move the celestial bodies on this realm?” Zelda immediately asked, a tinge of incredulity clear in her tone of voice as she gave Forest a disbelieving look.

“Obviously! That’s basically all that your Tribe is good for!” the earth pony mare readily replied, a tinge of confusion overpowering the usual distrust her voice tended to carry when she spoke with the Princess. “No matter how high and mighty you horn heads like to portray yourselves to be, you are still mortal after all!”

A moment of silence permeated the group as they processed that little fact, nothing but the sound of their hooves against the gravel of the road as they moved breaking it. That the responsibility of something as intrinsic to the very survival and continued existence of this world as the movement of the sun and the moon had been apparently left at the hands, or hooves in this case, of mere mortals and not assigned as a permanent duty to a deity or two, was quite simply astounding.

“By Din’s sacred flame, and I thought our realm gods were lazy!” Ganondorf loudly proclaimed, nicely summarizing Link’s own thoughts on the matter, while Zelda’s utterly aghast expression showed that the wielder of Wisdom’s thoughts were not far behind the Dark Lord’s either.

The green Hero had to agree with that sentiment; such actions were both extremely lazy and highly irresponsible in regards to whatever pantheon oversaw this realm. It was actually quite baffling, in fact. Next thing he knew, the mortals had to take care of the weather and the shifting of the seasons as well.

“Greetings young ones, I hope you had a good night’s rest?” Old Oak’s firm voice cut past his musings, refocusing his attention at what was currently happening. He could always ponder about lazy, neglectful gods later.

The old stallion was standing right in a fork of the path with Sure Shot right by his side, an affable look on his muzzle and a deeply suspicious one on the ranger’s, a deeply suspicious look that seemed to grow even more pronounced as he nodded in greeting to both the elder and the sea green mare.

“Indeed we had, our thanks once again for your village’s hospitality,” Zelda honestly said while giving the elder a respectful nod, the very image of polite thankfulness.

“What she said, old timer,” Ganondorf happily added, completely ruining the image Zelda had been trying to present and garnering him an quick glare from the mare.

Link on his part simply stood there, a small smile on his muzzle as he listened to the song of the wind as he waited for his companions to end their usual byplay so they could move on to what had to be done today. Though, judging by the scowl Sure Shot was now sporting, his lack of reaction seemed to have somehow annoyed the ranger even more. Not that that really bothered him in the end, the mare would most likely come around eventually after spending some time with them, something that would undoubtedly happen sooner rather than later in such a small community.

“Good, good. So tell me travelers, how can this old stallion be of help?” the earth pony asked after letting out a small laugh as his intelligent eyes moved from one member of their trio to the other.

“We would like to see any maps or tomes you may have, and a general overview of the surrounding regions would also be greatly appreciated,” Zelda said after she saw that neither Ganondorf nor Link seemed enthused to be the first to speak. “Beyond that, the chance to resupply would be greatly appreciated.”

“Yes, I believe we can be of some help to both your requests,” Old Oak spoke after a moment, the way he was regarding the fact that Zelda was acting as their front today while Ganondorf had done so yesterday a curious point that Link made sure to take note.

“Yes, the first one can be easily handled; I have a few rough maps of the surrounding regions and quite a few books about various topics in my residence that I wouldn’t mind allowing you to see,” the elder graciously offered, an interested glint in his eyes now that he had confirmed that neither Link nor Ganondorf seemed bothered by the fact that Zelda had taken the lead.

“The second one is a little more complicated I’m afraid, for, as you can probably see, we are at the eve of the harvest season, so we cannot afford to part with much of our own supplies at present,” he spoke in an apologetic tone of voice, though his body language indicated to Link that Old Oak was far from finished, something that was proven as he continued. “Or at least, not freely.”

“Whatever, we got a few things we could barter with, up to and including several steel swords we took from the gryphons,” Ganodorf interjected, the fact that Old Oak immediately sneaked a peek towards Zelda to see if she had been offended by the Dark Lord assuming the lead of their talks, and the curious glint in his eyes when he saw that wasn’t the case, another thing that Link made note of.

“Ah, yes, the enchanted saddlebags I’ve been told your feathery friend carries, quite useful that,” he happily said, though upon hearing that Link simply blinked in slight confusion as he wondered why the old stallion thought his saddlebags were enchanted. “But while that would be appreciated, that’s not what I had in mind.”

“What would your idea entail then?” Zelda asked as she stood next to Ganondorf, not a trace of their earlier disagreements present in either of their features.

“You see, due to the growing unrest between the Three Tribes we have been getting fewer and fewer groups of pegasi bringing our crops the rain they need,” so the mortals also did tend to the weather in this realm, good to know. “As it stands we can barely offer you but the bare minimum of travel supplies without taking a risk due to the current state of our crops. But with enough rain to secure our harvest it would be another matter.”

“You desire for me to bring rain to your crops,” Link easily deduced.

“I hate to say it, but Old Oak is right, you know, the crops could really use some extra rain,” Forest added after a moment’s hesitation. “This is more than about mere supplies, buck, after saving us mom probably would supply you herself if she needed to! So if you wouldn’t mind, could you sort it out for us?”

Link barely had to stop to think about it. If bringing some rain to water their crops would help the villagers them he would gladly aid them regardless of there being a reward or not. Especially for something as simple as this request.

“I don’t mind, that isn’t really a problem,” he calmly stated, completely unfazed by the angry and distrustful glares the earth ponies who were slowly gathering around their group were giving him. “Would you happen to have an ocarina or any other kind of wind instrument that I could borrow?

“What?” Sure Shot asked as she abandoned her annoyed glower for a moment in favor of a look of honest confusion.

“Well, truth be told I can make do with any kind of instrument in a pinch, Farore’s grace, I once made do with a grass whistle of all things for quite a while,” he calmly explained to his curious and distrustful audience with a small smile. “But wind instruments do work better for me, and ocarinas are a personal favorite.”

None of the ponies seemed to know how to react to his statement, until, with a strange look on his features, Old Oak once more spoke.

“A Storm Caller?” the elder stallion mumbled in shocked surprise as he gave the green pegasus an evaluating look. “Are you saying that you are a Storm Caller?”

“A what?” Forest said, giving voice to everybody’s general confusion.

“A Storm Caller. Once long ago, long before the birth of the Pegasus Armada and their military ways, there were pegasi who could control the weather not through their hooves, but through music!” Old Oak excitedly explained to his attentive audience. “I had thought that the Armada had abandoned such old ways many, many years ago. That such knowledge had long since been lost! For as far as I know, all pegasi within their ranks now know only how to tend to the weather by hoof!”

“Well, it works,” he simply replied with a shrug of his wings after a moment’s pause, while also silently making a note to try and figure out how his new race could ‘tend’ to the weather by hoof since that implied he could probably do way more to clouds than merely push them around.

“Mister Link, would this work?” Singing happily asked as she offered a long wooden flute from her small saddlebag, the appearance of the long instrument from the tiny container gaining a few exclamations from the gathered earth ponies.

He analyzed the instrument for a moment before he nodded his agreement. A flute wasn’t really one of his favorite instruments, but it would work just fine for this purpose. He took it from the helpful little filly and took a moment to test how best to use the instrument with his new body.

Nodding once more in satisfaction he settled for using his extremely dexterous wings to press the holes of the instrument with his primary feathers while he held it with his hooves. And then he took a deep breath and started to play to his now very interested looking audience.

The moment the first few notes had left the flute, Link found himself sporting a jovial smile. A smile that grew alongside the echoing melody as dark rain clouds started to swiftly gather on the, up to this moment, cloudless sky, as if by magic, much to his audience’s vocal amazement.

Smile firm on his muzzle, he kept playing while immersing himself in the melody. After all, the Song of Storms had always been one of his personal favorites.

Author's Note:

About Link being a ‘Storm Caller’. I first read that pegasi in older generations of MLP could apparently make it rain and control the weather by playing musical instruments in the story “The Overworked Alicorn” by BreakDown, an amazing story that I’m ecstatic to say is once again being updated after a long hiatus.

When I remembered that little fact while thinking about this story, my mind immediately went to what Link could do with an ocarina, or other musical instruments for that matter, and the idea of his musical abilities being thought as a long lost ancient pegasi art fixed itself on my mind with a vengeance. Adding that to the fact that the idea of the confusion that would cause when the Trio eventually meets the pegasi seemed deeply amusing to me, and here we are.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for all the support! As of this post The Power of Freedom has seven hundred seventy three thumbs ups and only six thumbs downs, something that never fails to bring a smile to my face when I see it! You are all awesome!