Legend of Zelda: The Equine Link

by CarmenColor

New Skills

Link, being the skilled hero that he was, had little difficulty transferring the sword skills he was used to using his hands for into different forms that he could perform with the blade in his mouth. At first, it had been an awkward way to hold a sword, but he had gotten used to it. Twilight and himself were practicing outside of Ponyville in a wide open clearing. Twilight levitated over some logs for them to practice on.

"The simplest moves are like this," Link said, grabbing his sword in his teeth. He cut sideways once across the log, leaving a deep, clean cut, and then he performed a verticals cut, which cut the log completely in two. Turning to another log, he performed a spin attack, splitting the log in half with a loud "HEEEYAH!!" Twilight cringed.

"I don't know if I can do this," she said, eyeing the sharp blade of her own sword, which sat on the ground. Link sighed.

"You'll do fine," he said, "but don't hold anything back. There's no need to be gentle." Twilight bit her lip and took her own sword in her teeth. Cautiously, she approached a fresh log and raised her sword. With a dull 'thwack', metal hit wood, but it was barely a cut off of the thing. Link groaned faintly.

"I told you I can't do this," Twilight grumbled, spitting out the weapon. She sat back on her haunches and hung her head, defeated.

"Twilight..." Link said, coming over and sitting next to her, "You can't expect to be good at something your first try. Here, what makes you really angry?"

"Well..." Twilight thought, "When Spike leaves the books out with their pages open." Link gave her a quick, confused look before shrugging and continuing on.

"Okay, now I want to to imagine that he left ALL the books out like that," Link said. Twilight gasped, her expression looking mortified. "Yes! Now I want you to take out your anger on that log!" Twilight stood again and gripped the sword between her teeth. The sword collided with the log, and splinters flew. Link raised a foreleg to protect himself from the shards. "Good! Very good!"

"Wow!" Twilight said, breathing hard, "I had no idea I could do that!"

"All it takes is a little perseverance, Twilight," Link said, "I knew you could do it." He patted her on the shoulder with his hoof before they continued their practicing. Link had to admit, Twilight was a pretty fast learner despite how much he knew she didn't want to hurt anything. He hoped for the life of him that she'd never actually have to use any of the skills he was teaching her. "Would you rather practice shield methods?"

"If you don't mind," Twilight said, instantly dropping her sword. She slipped the shield onto her foreleg. Link did the same.

"Okay, what you need to do is remember that you always have this with you. It's imperative. Whenever you are up against an enemy, you should have your shield ready." He raised his shield into a defensive position, and Twilight mimicked the action. "If an enemy tries to strike you, you can push forward with your shield agains his sword to momentarily disable him." He pushed the shield forward slightly and snapped back. Twilight tried to copy and did rather well, considering, but she seemed slow, and Link hoped that it wouldn't affect her fighting, but he had to make sure. He lowered his shield and picked up a stick in his teeth.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked. Link set the stic down against he could speak.

"I want you to try to block me and use the shield thrust to disable me if you can," he explained, but Twilight looked hesitant, "Don't worry, I'm just using this stick." She nodded and raised her shield. Link took up the stick in his teeth again and prepared to strike.

The first strike glanced off the shield, and Twilight made no attempt to disable him. She's smart, he thought, you never go for disabling right away unless you're a pro. The second and third strikes were met with much the same, but the fourth was when she tried to disable him for the first time. Unfortunately, she was a little late, and nothing happened. Seeing her mistake, she quickly adjusted and had timed it perfectly for the next blow. Link was fairly certain she had done it right, considering that he felt disoriented.

"Are you okay, Link?" she asked, and Link looked over at her, smiling broadly.

"I'm fine Twilight. I've been in much worse situations," Link said, "This is nothing." Twilight found that a little unnerving, but she had no time to dwell on the matter as a white unicorn approached the area. It would seem that Rarity had finished her tunic.

"Twilight, darling! I've been looking everywhere for you! It took me awhile, but I finally finished this for you!" The alabaster pony levitated over what was unmistakably a tunic. It was purple, unlike the bright green of Link's own tunic, which had also been brought, but other than that, they were near identical, right down to the hat that went with it. Rarity had even found something to make the straps and a sheith out of, just like Link's had. Twilight briefly wondered if Rarity knew what the outfit was for, and decided that it was near impossible to know, unless-- "Twilight? Whatever have you done to those logs? It looks like you were trying to cut firewood."

Twilight panicked just a little bit, but managed to stay a least partly composed and she replied, "Well, you see..." She stopped, unsure of what to say next. What was Rarity going to think of her? She bit her lip.

"This is my doing, miss Rarity," Link said, "We were, um, trying our han--hooves at carving." Twilight nodded slowly, unsure if she was okay with lying to Rarity like this, though she did not want to have Link go to all that trouble just for her to blow it.

"Yeah," Twilight added nervously, "I, uh, I'm not too good at it though." She levitated all the logs into a pile. "Thanks for making this for me, Rarity. It's great, just like everything else you make." Twilight took the tunic from Rarity and levitated Link's over to him. He was very grateful that his clothing had been returned to him. He didn't much care for not wearing clothes.

Rarity left, though a bit too slowly and with a constant eye on the pile of logs, and Twilight carefully inspected the tunic that had been made for her. "I hope you don't mind that I lied to her," Link said, "It's just that you looked like you didn't want her to know."

"Thanks," Twilight said, trying to put on the tunic. She wasn't quite sure how to, but finally, after a little trial and error, she managed to get it on. It was actually pretty comfortable, and the sheith at her side didn't abstruct her movement any. She slid the shield onto her leg and placed the sword in its sheith to complete the look. Though she couldn't see what she looked like, she figured that it was probably amazing, as was the norm with anything made by Rarity. She found her mind wandering.

"Twilight?" The eyes of the pony in question snapped towards the one wh had spoken. Link was staring at her with an eyebrow raised slightly.

"Yeah?"

"It's getting a bit late, isn't it?" Link asked, "I know that I usually have no trouble protecting myself at night, but perhaps we should head inside? Your princess, er, Celestia, was it? Yes, well, she'll be lowing the sun soon."

"Oh, of course! You don't mind sleeping at the library, do you?"

"Of course not, Twilight. I've slept in much less comfortable spots after all. You don't need to worry for me," a yawn interrupted him, "Oh, sorry about that. I'm not usually tired at this time of day. I was tired last night as well, though I figured that it was just stress..." he stopped talking for a moment, blushing ever so slightly, "I'd hate to bore you though, so perhaps we ought to go before I start rambling."

The two tunic clad ponies walked back to the library. Twilight was relieved that everypony had already retired to their houses for the night. She wasn't sure what they'd think if they saw her waltzing about town in her new get up, and she planned to keep anypony from seeing it for as long as possible. She supposed that Rarity might tell about the strange clothing she had made for Twilight, but even the alabaster unicorn didn't actually know what it was for, besides wearing, and to store a sword in... Twilight shuddered, wondering what it would have been like had their roles been reversed. Would she have done something like that for Rarity if she knew it full intent? What would Rarity, as well as the rest of her friends, think when they learned of what Twilight had to do?

Not tonight, she thought, Don't worry about it tonight. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Comments

[Shadow-Dancer]

so far so good 5/5

[TheAssumingMage]

I noticed through these first few chapters that when you try to write "It" you often leave out the 'T' and it sometimes makes the passage difficult to read.

[CarmenColor]

2389245 Oh, whoops. Sorry about that.

[TheAssumingMage]

2391641 It's okay

[Violet Runner]

Know all Twilight has to remember is that "A sword wields no strength unless the hoof that holds it has courage."

[Race9000]

2380179
2/10 not enough explosions -IGN

Sorry I couldn't help myself.