Being a fan of Legend of Zelda I was ecstatic when my younger brother Mike knowing this got me a copy of Hyrule Warriors Legends from a garage sale and now I'm a teenage version of Midna, but hey at least I'm not cursed.
So I've been a big fan of Legend of Zelda ever since I was a young boy with my favorite in the series being Twilight Princess. My younger brother Mike knowing this got me a copy of Hyrule Warriors Legends from a garage sale. Now I'm a teenager again which is fine but to make matters worse I'm the Twilight Princess herself. Now all I have to do is make sure no one but my roommate Sunset know's the truth... and I just know it's going to suck when they find out!
Sex tag is for innuendo's and some suggestive scenes. tags will change as necessary.
Groans could be heard from the bed as the alarm blared and a light blue hand reached out from under the covers and searched from the alarm.
“Why does the morning always have to come so early?” a female voice from under the covers asked, to no one in particular, grouchily.
*Bang. Bang. Bang.*
And there was the roommate knocking on the door.
“Yo, you awake yet?” asked another female voice, sounding much more awake than the one in bed.
The blue hand hit the snooze button on the clock, while another hand pushed against the bed covers, as a light blue head with long bright orange hair and bright red eyes turned towards the door.
“I am now,” she stated, obviously annoyed at her roommate.
The door opened and an orange skinned head with red and yellow hair and cyan eye poked into the room.
“Morning Midna,” her roommate stated, “breakfast will be ready soon… also, you should stop sleeping in the nude, winter’s going to be here next month, you know.”
“Morning Sunset,” Midna yawned, “and thanks for letting me know about breakfast.”
Suddenly, an impish smile crossed Midna’s lips as she asked, “Also how did you know I was sleeping nude? Did you decide to take a quick peek while I was still asleep?”
A large blush spread over Sunset’s face, “I don’t know if you’re being serious or just messing with me…. and that scares me.”
“That’s the fun part, you’ll never know,” Midna said as she chuckled and sat up to stretch, making Sunset’s blush deepen as she made a quick retreat.
Snickering to herself Midna got up to take her morning shower. Once that was done Midna walked downstairs to the kitchen, wearing a light green shirt under a black vest and a pair of jeans with the symbol of a white sphere with light blue lines creating an odd pattern and light green sneakers. Her orange hair styled so it framed her face with two long tails going down the neck only to be tied together by a bronze brooch.
Walking into the kitchen Midna saw that Sunset’s now wearing an orange shirt with a red and yellow sun, a black vest with small yellow spikes, a purple skirt and black boots.
“So what’s for breakfast Shimmy,” Midna asked, sitting at the dining table with enough room for about four or six people at most.
“Sunny side up eggs with biscuits, bacon, and apple juice,” Sunset stated, placing the plates on the table before turning to grab the two cups of juice, unaware of another impish grin on Midna’s face.
“The food looks delicious Shimmy, kinda like you~,” Midna said in a sing-song kind of voice, moments before Sunset grabbed the cups. Sunset stiffened for a moment before whipping around.
“Would you stop doing that?!” Sunset yelled, but her only response was Midna’s laughter, “Do you know how difficult it is trying to figure out if you’re just messing with me? And you do this every, single, day! It’s seriously throwing me off!”
Calming down, Midna picked up her fork, saying, “Alright, alright, I’ll cut back with the teasing.”
After a few minutes of silence, Sunset asked, “Are you planning on telling the others who you really are anytime soon?”
Midna sighed and put her fork and knife on the plate.
“No,” she answered sternly, yet in a sad tone, “the fewer people know who and what I really am, the better. Come on Shimmy, what do you think is gonna happen when they learn that not only am I the Twilight Princess, but I was also once a dude who got turned into Midna because my bro gave me a copy of ‘Hyrule Warriors Legends’, and can’t even remember my original name?”
“I doubt it’ll be that bad,” Sunset said, trying to comfort Midna, “I mean, I’m a Unicorn from the other side of a magical mirror, who’s only here because, I was on an ego trip from being Celestia’s prized pupil. I’ll tell them where I came from if that helps.”
Raising an eyebrow, Midna spoke as she began counting on her fingers, “One you didn’t change genders. Two, we both know that Rarity is going to drill us for fashion about our worlds and all I’ll be able to say is ‘it’s not that different to here other than few people had a personal symbol that they always had on them.’ And three, what about the fact that I’ve been using an illusion to make myself look human this entire time? You know stuff like hiding my natural eye color and anything else that makes me stand out isn’t easy. That’ll basically be me saying ‘I don’t trust them!’”
Sunset flinched at the last one, “Yeah… I see where you’re coming from, but they’re gonna find out sooner or later,” she stated, rubbing the back of her neck.
“I know,” Midna agreed with a sigh, “but how in Din’s Fire am I supposed to tell them? ‘Oh hey girls, turns out I was once a man and got turned into a teenage version of Midna, whom is not only a member of a race from another dimension called the Twili, but i'm also their Princess.’ Yeah that’s something that’s easy to bring up.”
“Look at this this way Middy,” Sunset stated after having finished her food, “when you tell them, there’s a good chance they’ll take it as you trusting them enough to let them in on the secret.”
“Look, I’ll think about it, but I promise only to tell them if there’s an emergency where I have to, alright?” Midna said as she and Sunset moved to put the dishes in the sink.
“If that’s the best I’m gonna get right now, then I’ll take it,” Sunset said, shrugging.
“Oh, and can you, please keep the others away from the hill on the edge of the forest?” Midna asked in a tone suggesting a complaint, “I keep trying to train so I know how to actually fight, but every single time, you and the others trip my wards letting me know someone’s coming. All I’ve really been able to practice over the past year, is my magic. Not to mention, that I need to look for the missing pieces of the Fused Shadow, and I’m not going to risk them getting hurt.”
“Oh, is that’s what’s happening every time Pinkie says, ‘something exciting is going to happen’ there?” Sunset questioned, “I’ve been wondering why her Pinkie Sense was giving false alarms regarding that hill. I’ll do my best but no promises, now come on, we’re going to be late for school.”
Nodding, Midna snapped her fingers, casting her normal illusion on herself. While not much, it removed Midna’s ‘otherworldly’ feeling, as the yellow parts of her eyes turned white. Then, they grabbed their bags and headed out the door.
A few blocks away from the school Sunset asked, “So, apart from disguising your eyes, any reason you use an illusion spell and not contacts?”
Midna rolled her eyes, as she asked “Do you remember when we first met? How you said I had an ‘otherworldly’ feeling?”
Then Sunset nodded, saying, "Oh yeah, kinda forgot about that."
Rolling her eyes again, Midna explained, “Well, that's because you're used to it by now, but the point is, this spell is designed to hide that feeling, so I can walk around in the Realm of Light easier. I’m glad I got some knowledge on how Twili magic works when I was sent here. Heck, I'm lucky to be able to walk in the Realm of Light, considering the Twilight Realm is a Realm of Darkness. Otherwise. I’d probably be living in the Everfree forest just trying to learn the basics.”
Sunset gasped in mock horror, "Then, where would I be? Oh wait, I'd still have depression, have no friends, and be down one annoying, yet helpful roommate."
Midna smirked as she said, "Maybe, but who would have thought that the fastest way to make you lift your spirits was to show you I had magic by summoning a couple Twilight Wolfos and promise to help you get your magic back?"
Sunset gave a bark of laughter, "I swear, those wolves of yours are way to cuddly for their own good."
"And yet, they're my main allies when I'm an Imp," Midna stated, chuckling, "Just goes to show you that, even the cuddly wolves are still ferocious when they need to be."
"I bet Fluttershy would love to meet one of your Wolfos," Sunset said as the light for the next crosswalk turned red.
Midna shot a glance at Sunset, "Tell ya what, if it'll make you stop bringing it up, I'll make you a deal. I'll tell the others the truth, but on one condition."
Sunset looked at her friend and simply said, "Name it."
"The next time the portal to Equestria is open, we'll go through so you and your old mentor can talk, and I'll tell the others when we get back," Midna stated.
She was expecting a few different reactions, but the one that she wasn't expecting was the one Sunset gave her.
Sunset smirked as she nodded, "Deal."
"What?" Midna asked, dumbfounded as the light changed.
Grabbing Midna's arm, Sunset started walking, dragging her along, "I knew you'd come up with that kind of arrangement, so I promised myself that when you did, that I'd follow through," Sunset stated as she smirked over her shoulder, "And we're in luck, the portal's going to be open at the end of the month during the week of the Fall Formal."
Midna stared at Sunset as they reached the edge of Canterlot High School’s campus, before grumbling to herself something that sounded like, —"Should have seen this coming," making Sunset laugh.
—Lunch—
"Howdy y’all." Applejack said as she set her lunch trey down on the table, "Can't believe that Mr. Cranky gave us a pop quiz."
"Come on AJ," Sunset said, rolling her eyes, "it wasn't that bad."
"Says you," Rainbow said, "Question number twenty five was awful!" Just as Midna was about to say something, Rainbow pointed a finger at her, "You don't get to say anything either, miss 'I get straight A's in more than half my classes'. Face it, Mondays suck."
"That's an exaggeration," Midna said, rolling her eyes, "I only get straight A's in Math, Science, and English, everything else is a B- at best, and the only reason you don't like Mondays is, because it's the only day of the week where PE is the sport your worst at." ‘It's times like these that I'm really glad I'd got that high school degree,’ Midna thought to herself, ‘Makes redoing school so much easier.’
"Oh? And which sport would that be?" Rainbow asked as she shot a small glare at Midna at this slander.
Seeing Rainbow's glare, Midna simply smirked as she said, "Simple, tennis."
"Those grades are still better then most of us, darling," Rarity sighed, trying to defuse the situation, but before she could continue someone standing behind Midna had spoke.
"Well look who's gloating about how much of a genius she is." Turning everyone saw a girl with white and light blue hair, purple eyes, a blue coat with light blue stars on the arms, a purple skirt that has a light blue hem with white stars, and the image of a small wand with a white star and blue dust like trail, and knee high boots.
"What do you want Trixie?" Rainbow asked, exasperated, with a scowl on her face.
"Only to tell your friends here not to bother running for Fall Formal Princess, because I will be taking the crown!" Trixie said, glaring at Midna and Sunset.
"That's fine, I wasn't planning on running this year," Midna said, with a shrug, "What about you Shimmy?"
"Nope," Sunset said with a smirk, "winning that crown isn't even a blip on my radar."
“Wha..." Trixie's eyes went wide until she shook her head and turned to walk away, "I mean… good, Trixie didn't need the competition anyway."
"...She needs to get laid, that much stress isn't good for her," Pinkie deadpanned as she turned to her friends, once Trixie left.
"PINKIE!" Rarity cried, aghast at her friend's statement, as a large blush spread over Fluttershy's face, while Midna, Rainbow and Sunset snickered.
"I'm afraid I have to agree with Pinkie here," Applejack said, lowering her hat, "Maybe not the way she put it, but Trixie's been more aggressive than usual."
"What do you think could be causing it?" Fluttershy asked.
"Who knows," Rainbow said with a shrug.
"Well, it's hardly our problem," Rarity said as the bell rang, "Well, I'll see you all later… oh! And Midna?"
"Yeah?" Midna asked arching an eyebrow.
"You're not getting out of getting a dress this time, dear," Rarity replied with a smirk, making Midna pale a little.
As Rarity walked away, Sunset patted Midna on the back, "Well… it's been nice knowing you."
"Damn it Shimmy, I'm not suffering that torture alone," Midna muttered, just before an impish grin spread across her face as a thought entered her head, "Well now, THAT'S a plan."
As Midna walked to class she chuckled to herself, knowing that if Sunset was going to 'sacrifice' her to Rarity's over eagerness for the 'perfect' dress, then Midna would both follow Sunset's request from this morning and get a little revenge at the same time.
Unfortunately, at the back of her mind, something Trixie had said stuck.
—After School—
After heading home to change into their uniforms for work, Sunset and Midna walked towards the mall for their jobs.
About half way there, Midna sighed and said, "Hey Shimmy, I don't lord over you and the rest with my grades or anything, do I?"
"Middy, you hardly EVER mention your grades, so please don't let what Trixie said get to you," Sunset stated, patting Midna on the back, "She's just upset that she not at the top of the class."
"Thank's Shimmy," Midna said with a small smile.
—At the Mall—
"Hey Boss," Sunset said as the two entered their workplace, The Sushi Soldier.
Their boss's name is Fisher Fillet, he's a tall grizzled bald man with charcoal black grey beard, a piercing silver left eye, while the other was a milky white. He wore a white shirt, the branches of a sakura tree reaching around from the back.
A small smile appeared on his face when he saw the two, "Glad you're here. Bluegill and Merlin had ta leave early for a family emergency. So, head to the back, grab your notepads and head over ta booths 5 and 10."
"Got it Boss," Midna said as the two went to the back and reappeared a few minutes later.
As Midna went to booth 10 two men entered the restaurant. Both wore red plaid shirts and blue jeans, they even looked identical with the exception that one had shaggy black hair and a beard while the other had neatly combed red hair and no facial hair.
‘Oh great, them again,’ Midna thought irritably.
"OI! I thought I told ya not to come back!" Fisher growled, moving around the register.
"Did you? Hm, I can't quite recall. What about you brother?" The redheaded man said.
The dark haired man grinned, "Nope, the old fool must be going senile. So, is one of your waitresses going to show us to a table?"
Turning her head, Midna nodded at Sunset, who quickly went to help Fisher just in case, while Midna went back to call the mall's security. ‘I hope those two learn their lesson this time, they've been pulling enough crap in this store to last a lifetime,’ Midna's thoughts were interrupted by Sunset's unexpected roar of rage.
"Hello, Mall Security," stated a male voice over the work phone.
"We've got a couple men causing trouble at the Sushi Soldier-" More yells of rage this time mixed with embarrassment from Sunset and a roar of pure fury from Fisher are heard, "... and can you get here quickly? I think one just sexually assaulted my co-worker, so you might need to bring a medic for him as well."
Luckily, for the twins, security arrived quickly, the two men were arrested and taken away, soon things at the restaurant returned to normal. As Midna once again headed to booth ten, she noticed one of the regulars, Polar Claw, or 'Grammy' as she preferred, pat Sunset on the arm.
"Oh you poor dear, are you alright?" Grammy asked.
Sunset smiled at the old woman who has snow white hair, and was wearing a light purple shirt under her snowflake patterned jacket, "I'm fine, Grammy, I'm just glad that those two aren't going to be a problem anymore."
"Well, just remember what Grammy taught you dear," Grammy said and, with a grin, she and Sunset spoke at the same time:
"Next time men give you trouble, show them that we're not pushovers. Use your brains, as well as brawn. And if all else fails, kick them where the sun don't shine."
Shaking her head, Sunset chuckled, "Don't worry Grammy, I remember, now, what can I get you?"
—Two days later—
With no work today and her homework finished, Midna decided to try to get some training done. Walking into the living room, Midna saw Sunset relaxing on the couch, playing Monster Hunter World on their PS4.
"I'm gonna head out and try to get some training in,” Midna stated, then, with a small smile asked, “Think you can get the girls to come over and distract them?"
Sunset, who was currently going over her character’s new armor, nodded and grabbed her phone, "Sure, I think a the idea of a group study session, with the promises of Mario Party and pizza, should be good enough to get them all here."
"Damn, now I'm tempted to stay, simply playing Mario Party to mess with everyone is always fun," Midna said with her impish grin.
"And that is why we don't play it that often," Sunset said, rolling her eyes.
Midna shrugged, "Still, it's amazing that so many of the games between this world and the one I come from are the same, see ya later Shimmy!" With that Midna's body started to turn into black and dark yellow squares starting from the head and working it's way down which shot into the ceiling and disappeared.
Sunset shivered, "That form of teleportation cannot be a pleasant experience."
Just then her cell dinged, signaling it got a message.
Looking at the message, Sunset smirked and told herself, "Well, at least the distraction is working, time to order that pizza."
—At the hill just outside the Everfree Forest.—
When Midna reformed, she was holding a large stone mirror in her hands. When she let go, instead of falling, the mirror floated up, and took its place next to her right shoulder.
Rolling her neck Midna took a deep breath, "Alright let's get those wards back online and get started."
Putting her hand on the ground, Midna send a burst of magic into the hill, making light blue lines making a similar pattern to the picture of the orb on her pants appear spreading down the hill at a rapid pace before spreading out to the surrounding area before fading away as if they’d never appeared.
Waiting for a moment, Midna smiled and nodded as she thought, ‘Good, nothing's changed since I last activated it. So, I'll have a five minute head start if someone's headed this way.’
Standing up, Midna took a deep breath before swiping her left hand to the side, as if brushing something away. As she did, her mirror reacted, summoning a large stone hand which copied her movements, even if it was a little sluggish and wobbled in the air as if it was about to fall to the ground. As Midna continued to practice, her movement's slowly became more fluid as she got lost in the motions, her control over the hand slowly improving. By the time she finished a few hours later, when the sun was starting to set, the hand, while still sluggish, no longer wobbled in the air. Smiling to herself, Midna deactivated the wards, put away her mirror, and teleported to a small, unused ally near her home, glad she'd finally gotten a decent training session. Looking up at the sky Midna smiled, thinking that, maybe telling the others at the end of the month wouldn't be too bad, but only time will tell.
‘By Din's fiery wrath I hate this so much,’ Midna thought as she stood in a 'T' pose while Rarity fussed over which color fabric went best with Midna's skin tone and hair. Looking to her right, a small smirk appeared as she saw a bundle of clothes wrapped in brown paper. It took a week for Rarity to finish due to being busy with other orders, but she was more than happy to make some new sleepwear if Midna would help finalize a few new designs, or in other words, use Midna as a model for new said designs.
"Midna please be still, once I figure out the perfect color, I'll be able to finalize the design for the dresses," Rarity chided as she held up, then discarded, the fifth shade of orange, that to me, was the same color as the others.
Midna rolled her eyes, then, with a deadpan tone, suggested, "What about black?"
"Oh please darling that would-... wait a second… Idea!" Rarity's eyes widened as she ran to grab a roll of fabric, "Black itself might not work, but ebony or onyx might... how did you think of using black?"
The image of Midna’s True form, at the end of Twilight Princess, popped into my head, "I just like the color," I said, holding back a shrug.
Rarity hummed as if she felt like there was more to it, but let it slide as she moved to a sketch.
"Perhaps ebony with a hint of red," Rarity's eyes lit up as she went to a shelf full of red fabric, "Now which shade will suit you best?"
‘Farore's winds just let this end!’ Midna thought as Rarity's searched for the perfect color, and the fact that they haven't even started on the design Rarity wanted help on promised that the Twili wouldn't be getting home until sundown.
As Midna thought, by the time she left the Carousel Boutique, the sun was starting to set. Looking at the parcel under her arm, Midna's impish grin appeared, as tomorrow morning promised to be very entertaining. When Midna got home, she saw that Sunset had brought home some food from the Sushi Solder, and was standing there with a large smile.
"Thought you could do with a little food after spending so long as Rarity's dress up doll,” she stated, then pointed to the parcel Midna held with a raised eyebrow, “hey what's that under your arm?"
"Oh this?" Midna asked with a small smile, "It’s my new sleepwear, one of the reasons I took so long was because I asked Rarity, about a week ago, to make this for me and she would if I helped finalize a few new designs, which mostly meant standing there while Rarity did her thing."
Sunset winced at that, "Ohhhh, yeah, I can see why it took so long, she's been looking for someone to model for those, and Fluttershy's been too busy with those new puppies at the shelter."
After dinner, as Midna was about to head to bed, she looked over her shoulder and asked, "We still having game night tomorrow?"
A feral grin spread over Sunset's lips as she declared, "I am going to DESTROY you in Mario Kart."
A savage gleam entered Midna's eyes at this and challenged it, "Bring it Shimmy, just be prepared for when you get a Blue Shell in the face."
"Same to you," Sunset replied.
—Next Morning—
*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*
As Midna hit snooze and sat up, Sunset poked her head in.
As Midna looked at Sunset, a blush crept over Sunset’s face as she asked, "Midna...wh...what are you wearing?"
Getting to her feet, Midna looked at Sunset, her impish grin on her face and an odd gleam in her eyes.
Striking a pose Midna said, "Didn't I tell you yesterday? It's my new sleepwear, what do you think?"
Sunset looked at what she could only describe as a reddish-orange bikini top that reminded her of two large leaves and pants that hugged just the right places to extenuate Midna's natural beauty.
"Rarity really did an amazing job, wouldn't you say Shimmy~?" she asked in a sing-song tone.
Sunset shook her head, then sent a small glare to Midna, "This is because you went through Rarity's 'Fashion Frenzy' alone, isn't it?"
Midna snickered, "Maybe, but then again these aren't the only sleepwear Rarity made me, I did get a night shirt too. Want to see?"
Sunset rolled her eyes, "Later, we've still got to get to school, so get down to the kitchen, because it's your turn to make breakfast."
"Yeah, yeah." Midna said, rolling her eyes as she grabbed a large shirt off the back of a chair.
The left half was mostly blue with some orange and pale yellow, while the right half was dark red, pink and orange, on the front, it said 'I ❤️' and the picture of a sunrise/sunset, "Just let me go wash up first."
Once breakfast was ready, both Midna and Sunset sat down to eat the waffles Midna had made.
"So I assume that shirt was the other thing Rarity made for you?" Sunset asked, pointing to the shirt with her fork, a small piece of a waffle on the end of it.
"Yup," Midna answered as she nodded.
"So why did that bikini look so familiar?" Sunset asked
"Oh that was inspired by Sakuya's second from, you know, from Okami?" Midna giggled, "Took a while to get Rarity to make it, but it was well worth the effort."
‘True, those pants hugged your legs just right,’ Is what Sunset wanted to say, before she realized what she was thinking.
Instead she shook her head and said, "Whatever."
Once breakfast was done, the two were on their way to school, but as they were taking a shortcut through a nearby park, two familiar looking men, in red plaid shirts, stepped in front of them, each with a large growling black dog on a leash.
"Well, well. I wasn't expecting to see you so soon, bitch," said the redheaded brother.
Looking at the two men, who security had dragged out of the mall last Wednesday, Sunset sighed, "Can we not do this right now? We're going to be late for school."
"Too bad," The one with shaggy black hair growled, "because of you, my brother Prickly and I got banned from the mall!"
"You're the one who grabbed me," Sunset replied looking at Prickly, "I was just protecting myself!"
"Well now, Bramble how should we 'repay' her?" Prickly asked his black-haired brother, then gained a sinister looking grin, "I know! Why don't we let our dogs play with her friend? I mean, Atlas and Render look like they'd just love to get to know her a little better."
Taking a quick look around Midna, saw a cop walking towards them from behind the two brothers.
With a slightly mischievous gleam in her eyes Midna took a deep breath and yelled. "SOME ONE HELP! THESE TWO WANT TO SICK THEIR DOGS ON US!"
Prickly chuckled, him and Bramble oblivious to the officer approaching from behind, "Not so brave now, are ya? Who in their right mind would-"
"What's going on here?" A gruff voice interrupted, making both of the twins tense up for a moment.
Bramble quickly turned his head and saw the police man standing right behind them, and, in a tone of annoyance, grunted, "Nothen."
"Sir, these two sexually harassed me last week at work which, got them banned from the mall, and they just threatened to have their dogs play with my friend, Midna to 'repay' me," Sunset explained, "My boss, Fisher Fillet, will tell you the same thing if you ask him."
Prickly looked at Sunset, "Didn't your Mother tell you not to lie to the police?"
"I was the one who called mall security, if it helps sir," Midna stated, earning herself glares from the two brothers, "I used the phone in the Sushi Soldier's kitchen."
The cop nodded and spoke into his radio, "I need someone to check the reports of the Canterlot Malls security from last Wednesday, look for a case of ‘sexual harassment’ at the Sushi Soldier."
After sometime, he finally got confirmation that it happened, the police man looked at Bramble and Prickly, "What are your names?"
"Bramble and Prickly Woodchip," Prickly stated simply.
The cop nodded, "Thought as much,” the cop then pulled out two sets of handcuffs, “you two are under arrest for ‘Assault’ and violating your parole."
"You can't be serious!" Bramble shouted in outrage.
"Completely, now will you come quietly?" as the cop asked this, he gave them a hard glare.
The brothers looked at each other, then sighed, as Prickly said, "Yeah we'll come quietly."
The cop nodded again, his expression softened, "Good," he then looked at Sunset and Midna, "You two should get to school, someone will come to get your statements soon."
"Yes sir," Sunset said, then she and Midna rushed to school while the policeman escorted the brothers to the station.
—Principal Celestia's office, just before second period—
"-and that's what happened Officer," Midna stated as she and Sunset finished explaining what happened to Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna, and a police officer.
"That lines up with what a couple witness have said," The officer stated with a quick nod as she finished writing everything down, "Thank you for telling us what happened girls, I promise, the Woodchip brothers won't be getting a second chance at parole."
With that the officer left the room.
Leaning into the back of her chair, Midna sighed, "Well, that's not how I expected today to go, and after such a good morning too."
"Well, at least it's over and the two of you didn't get hurt," Principal Celestia said with a small smile, "Now off to class with you."
After Midna and Sunset left the office, Celestia leaned into the back of her chair and sighed.
Rubbing her temples, she said, "I can't believe the Woodchip brothers would threaten our students like this, back when we were kids, they'd be the last people to do this kind of thing."
Luna smirked, "Yeah, back then, you were the one who'd punch first and ask questions later."
Celestia returned Luna's smirk, "Hi pot, I'm kettle, have you been keeping up with your training lately?"
Then Celestia sighed, "And then there's Midna..."
Luna nodded, "Many things are in motion, but we don't know where any of it will end. For now, all we can do is wait, watch, and prepare."
—Lunchtime—
"How awful!" Rarity gasped, after hearing about what happened with the Woodchip brothers, "I’m glad that an officer was nearby, I'd hate to think what would have happened if he wasn't there."
"Who knows," Midna said with a shrug, "we might have had to climb a tree to escape the dogs and wait for help to arrive."
‘Or’ Midna thought, fighting back a scowl, ‘I might have had to use a bit of my power to scare them off, but who knows how that would have turned out.’
"Still, how stupid are those guy's to just threaten someone in the middle of a park like that," Rainbow said, hitting the lunch table, "I mean, first that stunt at the mall, and now this?" Then she noticed Fluttershy hadn't touched her food yet, "What's wrong Fluttershy?"
"During the first break, I sent word to the head of the shelter, Ms. Honey Bee, and she sent back a reply not long ago… about their dogs," Fluttershy said softly, tears starting to form in her eyes, "Their dogs had to be p-put down, turns out they had rabies and it had a-already progressed to the point where it c-couldn't be cured. Another month or two… and the dogs would have turned on their owners."
Applejack growled, as a dog owner herself, she didn't like hearing about this kind of thing.
"They should have taken their pets to the vet sooner,” Applejack said, holding back on yelling, “otherwise, this wouldn't have happened."
Midna got everyone's attention by clapping her hands, "So... changing the subject, who here can make it to Game Night tonight?"
"I'm afraid I can't," Rarity said with an apologetic smile, "Ms. Hemline is coming for an inspection tomorrow and I need to make sure everything is in order."
"Mrs. Bee also needs me tonight,” Fluttershy stated, “Not only for the cremation of the two dogs, but because the new puppies have been more excitable than usual.”
"You know I'll be there!" Rainbow smirked, "I still need to pay ya back for that cheap shot from last time, Sunset."
Applejack rolled her eyes, and, in a deadpan tone, explained, "Rainbow how many times do we have to tell y'all? A ‘Home Run Bat’ isn't a cheap shot, it's a lucky one. Besides, you're getting a ‘Falcon Punch’ in the face if ya think ah'll make it easy on ya."
"I won't be able to make it either," Pinkie sighed, shrugging, "the Cakes got a big order two days ago and need my help."
"It's cool Pinkie," Midna said, waving it off with a soft small, "no one's asking you, Fluttershy and Rarity to put your jobs at risk.”
Then looking at Sunset, Rainbow, and Applejack, Midna smirked, "So we've got Rainbow, Applejack, Shimmy and myself… why don't we make this interesting?"
Sunset raised an eyebrow, "How so?"
"Rainbow and I are on a team against you and Applejack, each time one of us wins a round they get a point, whichever team has the most points by the end wins."
Pinkie looked at Fluttershy and Rarity, and stated, "And now I'm glad I'm not going, those for locked in combat? Yeah, I'm not getting near that." Fluttershy and Rarity nodded in agreement, having once seen the four of them play a fifty-turn game of Mario Party and they never wanted to see that kind of battle ever again.
"What's the prize?" Applejack asked, ignoring Pinkie's comment.
"Hm…" Midna put a finger to her chin, then gained a mischievous glint in her eyes, "How about the losing team has to buy food for next month's Game Night?"
"Works for me," Applejack shrugged, then looked at Rainbow, "What about you Rainbow?"
"Bring it on! With a team of Midna and I, losing is impossible!" Rainbow said, fist bumping Midna.
"Well, I hope the four of you have fun....and don't do anything foolish," Rarity said, just as the bell rang.
"Well, see ya'll later, I've got chemistry today," Applejack groaned.
"Yeah, Mr. Ivory Flask is a bit heavy handed with his teaching method," Sunset nodded.
—After School at Sunset's and Midna's home—
"Food?" Midna asked.
"We've got pizza, some sushi, pre-made sandwiches, and chips." Came Sunset's reply.
"Drinks?"
"We got soda, juice, water, energy drinks, and AJ is bringing over some of her family's soft cider," Sunset listed.
"Games?"
"The Wii U and PS4 are hooked up, games are stacked by the TV, and Cards Against Humanity is on the table if we want to take a break... I think we're good to go," Sunset stated.
"Then as soon as Dash and AJ get here we can get this party started!" Midna exclaimed before she gave a sinister smirk, "I hope your ready to go down in flames Shimmy."
"Bring it on Midna," Sunset said with her own smirk, "after all, the twilight always gives way to the dawn."
"Oh that's original, how long did it take to come up with that? Five minutes?" Midna snarked.
"Like your 'flames' comment was any better," Sunset shot back just as the doorbell rang.
"I got it," Midna said, as she walked out of the room.
"Sup Midna?" Rainbow asked as she and Applejack entered with a small crate being carried between them, both wearing a backpack.
"Not much Dash,” Midna said, shrugging as she pointed to the game room with her thumb, “Shimmy and I were just making sure we had everything and had some pre-game smack talk."
"You mean the thing you need to work on?" Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow, making Rainbow chuckle.
"Yeah, yeah," Midna said, rolling her eyes and her impish grin sneaking it's way onto her face, "Who knows? We might be able to get a game of Mario Party in."
Rainbow snickered at Applejack's face, "Well, at least I'm on her team this time."
"Oh Dashy, don't you know?" Midna asked, her grin growing to the point Rainbow shifted uncomfortably, "In Mario Party....there are no teams."
Rainbow and Applejack shuddered when Midna said this, "You're evil sometimes… you know that right?" Rainbow asked, making Midna chuckle.
After Rainbow and Applejack put the crate down, Rainbow said, "Wish you could do this more than once a month."
"Yeah, like we have enough cash to do this every other week," Sunset said sarcastically as Rainbow threw her backpack on the couch while Applejack put hers against the wall, "And even then, we don't always get to do this once a month."
"And yet, when you do have one of these, it's always a blast," Applejack said, "So, what's first on the list?"
"Smash Bros., what else?" Midna asked.
"Who's going to be keeping track of points for the bet?" Rainbow asked.
"I will," Sunset stated, holding up her smartphone, "on my phone."
Turning on the TV and Wii U, Midna passed a controller to Rainbow and asked, "So, who's ready to get this started?"
Once the game was booted up and they were choosing their mains, Midna asked, "So, which mode do we do first? Time or stock?"
"Five minutes, no items, random stage," Rainbow suggested.
"It's as good a way to start as any," Sunset shrugged and with that, the game was on.
Several shouts of 'Cheap shot!', 'Got you!' and every once in a while, a 'DAMN IT MIDNA!' which was always followed by laughter, were heard over the next hour, and when it was done, Midna and Rainbow had earned one more point than Applejack and Sunset had.
"So what next?" Rainbow asked before she took a sip of some soft cider.
"I’d suggest Mario Kart, or Pokken Tournament," Sunset said.
"Mario Kart," Midna and Applejack said at the same time.
"I still owe Rainbow for that Bob-omb she hit me with last time," Applejack said, giving Rainbow a glare.
"And I promised you one Blue Shell in the face Shimmy," Midna said with her impish grin.
"For which you'll get a trio of Red Shells and a Fire Flower in return," Sunset said, a competitive gleam in her eye.
After a few rounds, Rainbow said, "Have any of you heard the rumors about a new Legend of Zelda game?
"Nope," Applejack said, "what, with harvest season coming up, there's been extra work around the farm. I'm lucky that Granny said I could come to this."
"Well, not much is known about it, but what I do know is that there'll be something called 'The Twilight' in it," Rainbow said, making Midna jump slightly, and glance at Sunset.
‘“The Twilight”? That can only mean Twilight Princess is coming out here,’ Midna thought in a panic, ‘Shit, part of me had hoped that it wouldn't be created here. Ok, deep breath Midna. Sunset made… well, tricked me into that promise, so, at least the girls will know, but what if…’ Midna began trying to calm down as her thoughts kept going in circles.
"Hey Midna, get your head in the game!" Rainbow said, making Midna snap back to reality.
Shaking her head, Midna once more focused on the game, but she just couldn't find it in her to give it 100%.
When the clock hit three AM, the four decided to call it a night, with Midna and Rainbow's team just barely pulling out the win. After cleaning up and putting all the food away, Midna sat on her bed with her night shirt and pants on looking into her Mirror of Shadows, which was propped against on top of her dresser, worry etched on her face. When someone knocked on her door, Midna jumped so badly she almost fell off her bed.
"Ye..." Midna had to swallow, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat, "Yeah?"
"Hey Midna," Sunset said softly as she entered the room, then closed the door as she continued, "how are you feeling?"
Midna shrugged and in a hushed, hoarse voice, said, "Been better… Rainbow's news about the upcoming Zelda game has got me worried. I mean, if it's the game I think it is, then how many people are going to make the comparison between me and the Midna from the game? And what about the girls? How are they going to react to it once I tell them who and what I am?"
Sunset didn't say anything as she sat next to Midna and put an arm around the Twili.
"Didn't I tell you last week Midna?” Sunset asked, then gave her a light bump with her fist to the shoulder, a small smile seen on her face, “everything's going to be fine."
"How can you be so sure?" Midna asked as she released her Illusion spell, her yellow and red eyes now staring back at Minda and Sunset from the Mirror.
"Because, they’re our friends Midna, they'll understand," Sunset said gently before bringing up a fist, "And besides, if anyone else gives you trouble for being who you are, just let us know, we've got your back!"
Wiping a small tear from her eye, Midna smiled, "Thanks Shimmy, that means a lot."
Midna yawned and rubbed her eyes. A lot had happened yesterday, from meeting the Woodchip brothers again and nearly getting mauled by their dogs, to Game Night and learning that the next Legend of Zelda game to be released will most likely be Twilight Princess. Groggy, she looked to her right to check the clock and froze as she saw Sunset's sleeping face, a blush slowly finding its way in the Twili's face.
‘Sunset? Why is she…?’ Midna thought as she struggled to calm the blush down, then she started to remember the previous night, ‘...oh right, last night, she came in to help me calm down after Rainbow told us the rumor about the next Zelda game. I guess afterwards, we were so tired we fell asleep. It's a good thing I'm not a guy, anymore, otherwise, this could’ve been even more awkward... by the Goddesses, how is she so cute when she's asleep?!’
Carefully getting out of bed, Midna saw it was around ten thirty A.M.
‘Only ten thirty huh?’ Midna thought to herself, ‘Weird, I normally sleep until noon after Game Night.’ Shrugging Midna started to move towards the door when she heard Sunset move behind her.
"Morning," Sunset yawned as she sat up, "Some night huh?" Here Midna was glad she wasn't looking at Sunset, as she was positive her face had become as red as Applebloom's hair. "What, with Rainbow letting us know about the upcoming Zelda game and all."
Mentally slapping herself, Midna shook her head, "Yeah, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it."
Getting to her feet, Sunset walked over and put a hand on Midna's shoulder.
"And knowing you, you've started worrying about telling our friends the truth again, now that this game is coming out," Sunset said as she let out a small chuckle, "It always surprises me how much of a worrywart you can be when just the right thing happens."
Midna pouted, making Sunset chuckle, "You're cute when you do that, you know that right?" This statement caused Midna to blush again, only this time, she couldn't hide it.
Seeing Midna's blush, Sunset chuckled again as she walked out of the room. When the two entered the kitchen, they saw Applejack and Rainbow were already up and eating some left over pizza both still in their night clothes. Rainbow's was a white sports bra and black yoga pants while Applejack's is a long sleeved dark green shirt and sweatpants.
"Morning you two." Applejack said. "How'd ya sleep?"
Sunset shrugged. "Can't complain."
"Sooo…" Rainbow started with a smirk, "I walked past your room on my way to the bathroom, Sunset, and I saw that, not only was your door open, but you weren't in there. I can't help but wonder where you were." Sunset and Midna ignored Rainbow's comment, although both and to fight back a small blush.
"Leave ‘em alone Rainbow," Applejack said, "Like you have room to talk when you and Gilda were going out."
"What are you two implying?" Sunset asked as she grabbed her own slice of pizza.
"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked.
"Yeah, there's no shame to wanting to sleep with your girlfriend," Applejack stated.
"Ummm, Sunset and I aren't a couple," Midna said simply, making Applejack and Rainbow look at the two shocked.
"Wait really?" Rainbow asked, "But you two are always so close, and Midna keeps on teasing you Sunset."
"I do that because her reactions are adorable and hilarious at the same time," Midna said, grabbing a bottle of soda.
"Although, I did turn that on her this morning," Sunset chuckled, making Midna shoot a small glare at her.
Rainbow snapped her fingers with a grunt, "Guess Pinkie and Fluttershy won that bet," Applejack also let out an annoyed huff.
Both Midna and Sunset looked at Rainbow with a deadpan expression, "There was a bet on whether Shimmy and I were a couple?" Midna asked.
"Um, noooo," Applejack said shifty-eyed, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Applejack, you're a terrible liar, you know that right?" Rainbow deadpanned before turning to Midna and Sunset, "Yes, there's a bet about whether the two of you are going out. Don't worry, the only one's participating in this bet is just Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy and myself. Rarity, surprisingly, wanted no part of it."
Midna facepalmed, then asked, "So, what were the stakes?"
"Losing team has to pay for a trip to the movies," Applejack shrugged.
"Damn it! Even though Midna and I won the bet last night, I still ended up losing," Rainbow groaned.
Midna rolled her eyes, then stated sarcastically, "Yeah, losing a bet on whether two of your friends are dating, I'm sure that's such a disappointment."
Rainbow spluttered while Applejack facepalmed.
"Anyway's," Sunset said, changing the subject, "now that Game Night’s over, what are you two planning to do?"
Rainbow shrugged, "Might just relax and read the newest Daring Do book."
"And I've got to get back to the farm soon," Applejack said, rubbing the back of her neck, knowing the hard work ahead, "Hopefully, we'll be finished with the harvesting by the end of the day."
"You've been working on this harvest for almost three weeks!" Rainbow exclaimed, "How big is your freaking orchard?"
"About as big as the last time you saw it, Dash," Applejack said, "It's just that a lot has been going wrong for the past month: Tractors breaking down, varmints keep making their way onto the farm and causing trouble, crates falling and breaking, animals getting sick. It's just been rough the past couple weeks."
‘As far as I know, Applejack's never had this many problems at once… I wonder what's going on?’ Midna thought as she took a bite of her pizza.
"Need some help Applejack?” Midna offered, “I don't think Sunset or I have anything planned for the day."
"Yeah, we don't want any of you to work yourselves to the point you're losing sleep over it." Sunset agreed, "... again."
"I appreciate the offer you two, but as I said before, we should be done by the end of the day, however, if that's not enough, I promise to contact everyone, alright?"
"It'll have to do," Rainbow shrugged, "Hey, Sunset pass me a can of coke, will ya?"
Half an hour later, Sunset and Midna said goodbye to Rainbow and Applejack and returned to the couch.
"Wonder what's causing all the trouble at AJ's," Sunset said, puzzled, "Do you think it has something to do with the Fused Shadow?"
Midna scratched her chin in thought, "Maybe, but I haven't sensed any Twili based magic in town, so I doubt it. Someone might be sabotaging the farm in order to buy it. Next time I go there, I get started placing some wards around the place."
"Wouldn't the shield be weakened if it's made to cover such a large area?" Sunset asked.
"That's true," Midna said, "maybe if I made it smaller and somehow gave it the ability to radiate some kind of aura… or an array of several ward circles…"
"The array is the better option of the two," Sunset stated, "that way, if one part fails, it won't take the entire thing down, but I think you should wait until you tell the girls the truth… I just remembered something, isn't Fluttershy a huge Legend of Zelda fangirl?"
Midna groaned and put her head in her hands, "Oh that's going to make telling them the truth SO much easier! Once she knows how I'm connected to the Zelda franchise, she's never going to leave me alone."
"You're worrying too much Midna," Sunset said, patting the Twili on the back, "She might hound you for a while, but once the shock wears off, things will go back to normal."
"I hope you right Sunset, I really do," Midna sighed.
"So," Sunset said, clapping her hands together, "want to head to the firing range for a bit? It might help you relax."
Midna gave a small smile, "Sure, I'll grab my bow."
—At the 'Perfect Shot' Archery Range—
As Midna and Sunset entered the Perfect Shot's lobby, Midna carried a dark green half circle bag over her shoulder, while Sunset carried a large grey case. They saw the range's owner, Trick Shot, at the front desk. Today, she had her Harlequin and Shamrock green hair braided down to her shoulders, contrasting with her dark red skin. She's currently wearing a dark blue hoodie jacket over a black shirt with the picture of a serpent-like blue dragon with ivory claws and a flowing red mane coiled around the spire of a castle. Looking up from her paperwork, she smiled, "Sunset, Midna! Been a while since the last time you two stopped by."
Midna shrugged, "We've just been a bit too busy to stop by Tricky. Are there any archery lanes open?"
Tricky checked the computer, "Lanes 5 and 6 are free."
After handing over twenty bucks to use the lanes for an hour, Sunset and Midna headed in. Once they got to their lanes, Midna opened her bag and pulled out a dark green wooden long bow, while Sunset pulled out a grey composite bow. As the two finished pulling out their bows, and grabbing twenty of the supplied arrows each, they were surprised by a tri-toned green haired teen, dark pink earphones, with light pink skin, and amber eyes joined them.
"Midna, Sunset," the girl said, giving them a glare.
"Lemon Zest," Sunset said, returning the glare.
The three glared at each other for a couple minutes, before the three broke into giggles, "How have ya been since you transferred to Crystal Prep?"
Lemon sighed in annoyance, "Crystal Prep... well, it sucks. Almost everyone there has a stick shoved up their ass and an ego to match their bloated heads. Dean Cadance is fine, but Principal Cinch is a downright bitch. Unless students are up to Cinch's standards, they could get expelled, and not even the Dean can stop her due to so many of the School Board Representatives supporting her. I also think Cinch is obsessed with making Crystal Prep stand out more than Canterlot High, so her 'standards' mean that all students need at least a 'B' in all classes."
Midna frowned, "That's tyranny."
"I know right?!" Lemon exclaimed, "I'm just lucky I'm allowed to keep my headphones, thanks to Cadance. Otherwise, I would have demanded to being transferred back to Canterlot High."
"OI! There are others who want to get arrows you three!" Someone yelled causing Midna, Sunset, and Lemon to flinch.
As the three walked back to their lanes Lemon smirked as she stood at the start of Lane 4, while Midna took Lane 5, and Sunset took Lane 6.
Midna rolled her eyes as she picked up her bow, "So, anything else happen at Crystal Prep?"
Lemon picked up a forest camo composite crossbow, "Yeah, I made the sports team, the 'Shadowbolts'."
Sunset scowled. "Even the name of the team is a mockery of ours."
Lemon nodded and readied an arrow, "So, how's the school been doing? I'd have contacted my friends there, but again, Cinch's rules."
Drawing an arrow back, Midna asked, "She's not even allowing you to contact your friends?"
The Twilight Princess was disliking Crystal Prep's Principle the more she heard about the woman.
"We're not allowed to talk to anyone, outside of family, from Canterlot High," Lemon scowled, "If she knew I was talking to the two of you now, there's a very good chance I'd be called to her office, and lectured about 'communing with those from that embarrassment of a school'."
"Well, the Fall Formal's next week and Trixie's been ruder than usual, plus, she's running for Fall Formal Princess," Sunset said as she fired her third arrow which hit the target with a satisfying *thunk*.
"The day Trixie becomes the Princess of anything is the day Principal Cinch let's go of her hate boner for Canterlot High," Lemon snarked as she hit her target dead center, then she scowled, "Sometimes, I wish I never won that stupid race and the prize of going to the 'Crystal Prep Boarding School, a gateway to the future', then I wouldn't have to deal with Cinch's BS."
Midna pat Lemon on the back, "Well, hopefully something will happen and the Dean can wrestle back control."
"Well, the sooner that happens, the better," Lemon said, "Now, let's stop talking about school, retrieve our arrows, practice our archery, and have some fun."
—Two hours later—
After Midna and Sunset said their goodbyes to Tricky and Lemon, they started the walk back home. After a couple minutes, Midna thought she saw a flash of a large, fluffy, orange hair duck into an ally, but when she looked again there was nothing.
Noticing the look Sunset asked. "What's up Midna?"
Midna shrugged, "Thought I just saw some orange hair that could compete with Pinkie's on how fluffy it looked, but I guess it was just my imagination."
"Really? Kinda find that hard to believe, I mean, how the heck can anyone get their hair as fluffy as Pinkie’s?" Sunset asked raising an eyebrow.
"No idea," Midna replied as they turned a corner.
They saw that a local fast food restaurant on the other side of the street had someone out front in a large hamburger costume.
"You know I kinda pity those who have to do wear those costumes,” Midna stated, pointing out the mascot, “No one respects you and those things have got to be very uncomfortable."
Sunset nodded as she had a quick flashback to when she had to wear one for a part time job over a weekend, "Uncomfortable is right, you can barely move in them and while you're in one, you're going to get really sweaty really quickly." However, both Minda and Sunset stopped, shocked when the person wearing the costume turned around and they saw a familiar face, "Wait... is that.... Trixie?"
"Yeah… hey, have you noticed that Trixie hasn't bothered us once since the beginning of the month?" Midna asked as she and Sunset started walking again.
"...you're right, I wonder why, I mean, she was getting more and more aggressive, then, all of a sudden, she just stops? Something's not adding up," Sunset mused, "maybe the others have an idea as to what's going on."
—Two days later, *Monday* Lunch time—
"-and that's when we saw Trixie wearing the costume," Sunset said as she finished explaining what she and Midna did last Saturday.
"Funny how you brought up Trixie," Rarity said, "because yesterday, my mother sent me to the nearby 7/11 for something and Trixie was running the cash register."
"Ya sure it was Trixie?" Applejack asked, "Because last Wednesday, I had to take Apple Bloom to the library and Trixie was working there as a janitor."
"So, Trixie has at least three part time jobs?" Fluttershy asked, "No wonder she looked so drained and had such large shadows under her eyes when I saw her during second period."
"Make that four," Pinkie said, "I saw her leaving the daycare that Pound and Pumpkin go to yesterday when I went to pick them up. She was wearing a stage magician hat that was light blue, covered in stars, and had a crescent moon. I'm not even sure if she saw me, she was that out of it and let's be real here girls, I'm pretty hard to miss."
Rainbow gave Pinkie a deadpan stare, "I think I'm starting to remember someone you told us about once Pinkie... I think his name was 'Shit Sherlock', first name 'No'."
Pinkie, Sunset, Minda and Applejack chuckled while Fluttershy gave a small giggle and even Rarity had to hold back a quiet snort of laughter. These were days that Midna always enjoyed. Just having a good time talking to her friends, but she couldn't help herself and wondered how things were going to change after the trip she and Sunset would take to Equestria next week.
Chapter 4: A 'Formal' Interruption In The Fall or From Canterlot to Canterlot [Edited]
Midna stretched as she walked into the house she and Sunset split, having just finished a quick jog around the neighborhood before heading out to the Fall Formal. Walking upstairs, Midna headed to her room to slip into her dress, but froze the moment she opened her door. The first thing she saw was the dress Rarity made her. The top half was a dark purple, leaving only part her upper arms bare due to two silver gloves that went up to her elbows, but were also connected to the dress’s shoulders by some cloth that expertly went from the silver of the gloves to the purple of the main part of the dress. The lower half of the dress was made in a completely different style, made of dark green and steel grey cloth, parts of the dress had metallic looking feathers on the sides, and the front of the dress had six patterns that reminded Midna of a snake sword, between the pattern's were large slits that showed off a little of Midna's legs.
As Midna looked around the room, her eyes locked on where her Mirror of Shadows was supposed to be and her face paled.
"No... no, no, no! NO!" Running over Midna examined where the Mirror had been only to find a single strand of dark red hair.
—With Sunset—
Sunset was with the rest of the girls at the Carousel Boutique and was about to change into her dress when her cell rang.
Picking it up Sunset saw that it was Midna, she answered, "Sup Midna?"
"Sunset, someone stole my Mirror of Twilight!" Midna said, making Sunset freeze.
"I wish I was and I don't know how! I went out for a quick jog before I changed into the dress Rarity made me. Not enough to build up a sweat, but enough to get the blood pumping. I couldn't have been gone for more then five minutes, but the front door was still locked and I have wards set up around the house that not only alert me if something happens, but also make it so no one will look at the house and want to rob it. Whoever stole my Mirror also got past my wards! Wards that use Twili magic! Magic only I should have! I'm with one of my Twilight Wolfos and we're following the scent, but we're heading towards the school," Midna explained.
"And the only things going on at school are the Fall Formal and..." Sunset's eyes widened, " and the portal that opened tonight."
"Exactly! We're going to have to skip the Formal and get to Equestria ASAP! I've got our bows and some arrows, just in case, so get your ass down here! The portal's part of the horse statue right?" Midna asked.
"Yeah. I've got the book with me so I'll send a message ahead to let the Princesses know. Meet you at the statue," Sunset said before hanging up.
"Can you please tell us what's going on?" Applejack asked. "What 'portal'? What 'Princesses?"
"Sorry girls no time to explain, something just came up, so Midna and I have to skip the Fall Formal," Sunset said as she started to leave.
"Now hold your horses!" Rarity growled, grabbing Sunset's arm, "I'm not just going to let you and Midna skip the Fall Formal! I worked hard on those dresses and the two of you WILL be wearing them tonight!"
Sunset jerked her arm out of Rarity's grasp, "There's no time! Look, just come with me and I'll explain what I can, alright?"
"Fine, lead the way," Rarity said.
—In front of the portal—
Midna waited for Sunset in the shadows only a single red and yellow eye was viable, however, in the darkness of the statue's shadow it would be very difficult to see it unless you were looking for it.
'Come on Shimmy. Where are you?' Midna thought as she looked around.
Suddenly Midna's ears perked up as she heard Applejack say, "...hard to believe Sugarcube."
"Yeah," Rainbow added, as she and the rest of the group finished walking across the street and were now walking towards the statue.
When they got closer, Midna took one last look around the area to see if anyone else was looking.
When she didn't see anyone she said, "Hope you're ready Shimmy."
While Sunset looked at the statue everyone else looked around trying to find Midna, "I am, the Princesses and those who wield the Elements will be waiting for us."
"Good, that should hopefully make this a little easier," Midna said as she floated up, out of the shadows, to reveal that she had shrunken down and looked like an imp with long pointy ears, a stone helmet that covered her left eye and her hair was tied back into a single ponytail by a black circlet of metal that Sunset recognized as the 'shackle' that was this form's primary weapon.
When she noticed the stares that everyone, but Sunset, was giving her, she asked, "What?"
"Midna? Is... but... how?" Rarity asked, trying to process what she was seeing.
Midna sighed and looked away from the group, "It's a long story, but here's the short version: I'm...not human, I'm a member of the Twili, a race that lives in the Twilight Realm. As a Twili, I have access to magic which I used to take this form for... several reasons, one of them being that someone managed to get past my wards and steal a precious and VERY powerful artifact," here Midna hesitated, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner but... It's just something that's not easy to talk about."
Everyone had different reactions.
Sunset looked at Midna with a small, but proud smile, Fluttershy's eyes lit up as if it was Christmas morning, Applejack looked on with a neutral expression, Rainbow frowned, Pinkie was deep in thought, and Rarity was looking at Midna as if she was a completely different person.
After a few moments, Rainbow spoke up, her voice carrying no emotion, "So, you've been lying to us, both you and Sunset have been," Midna flinched as if struck and Sunset's smile faded into a small frown. "A few years ago, when we met I thought 'oh hey someone new in town’. Then, as we grew closer, I started thinking of you more as best friends... as family. But you've been LYING to us since day one! How? How am I... no. How are WE supposed to trust the two of you now?!"
Midna looked away to try to hide the tears that were now slowly crawling down her face. Sunset looked at Rainbow then walked over to put a hand on Midna's shoulder. Applejack and Rarity looked at Rainbow with large frowns on their faces, Pinkie's hair had started to deflate as she looked between Minda and Rainbow. However it was Fluttershy's reaction that shocked everyone: she turned on the spot and slapped Rainbow across the face, leaving a red outline of her hand.
"How could you Rainbow!” Fluttershy shouted, surprising everyone, “You can see how hard it was for Midna to tell us this and from her reaction, what you said is EXACTLY the reason she was scared to tell us! It doesn't matter if she's not human! She's still the same Midna who became our friend! How could you?" With that Fluttershy turned and walked back the way she came, a river of tears slowly rolling down her cheeks.
Rainbow watched Fluttershy walk away, rubbing her check then noticed that Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie nodded their heads in agreement, then turned to follow Fluttershy. Once they were a good distance away, Rainbow finally snapped out of her shock and ran after Fluttershy and the others.
"Fluttershy wait!” Rainbow shouted, “It's not like that!"
Once the group was out of sight, Midna wiped the tears from her visible eye, "...you said that when you came through the portal you changed from ‘pony’ to ‘human’. I want to avoid that, if possible, and I have an idea that might be able to work."
Sunset's left eyebrow rose, "What's wrong with being a pony?"
"Nothing," Midna said, "I'll want to see what it's like to be a pony later, but right now, we just don't have the time for me to get used to walking on four hooves, that's all."
"True," Sunset nodded, "We need to get your mirror back as quickly as possible. So what's your idea?"
"I'll hide in your shadow, when the original Midna was with Link, she would hide in his and when Link changed shape, she didn't become a wolf," Midna explained before her body became as black as the shadows on the ground with only her eye remaining the same, before she dove head first into the ground and disappeared.
Sunset shook her head, "Well… no time like the present," and with that Sunset gave one last look in the directions that the girls went and walked into the base of the statue where the portal was.
However, unknown to the group Vice-Principal Luna was watching from her open window.
Chuckling to herself she muttered, "And so their adventure truly begins, things will be very interesting from now on. Good luck girls, you'll need it for what's to come," Turning around Luna left the window to see to some preparations of her own before heading home.
—On the other side of the portal—
Once Sunset was through the portal, she was standing on her back hooves before quickly falling onto her front two hooves for balance.
"I've been waiting for this day for a long time," said a voice, sounding not unlike a mother’s would.
Looking around, Sunset saw twelve ponies. The first, to catch her eye was a tall, white alicorn wearing a golden tiara and necklace each with a purple crystal embedded it them, she also has a four-tone main and tail that blew in a non-existent wind and the symbol of a sun on her flank. The second, was a slightly smaller, dark blue alicorn who's mane and tail looked like the night sky and the symbol on her flank is a crescent moon she wore a black tiara and necklace with the same kind of crescent moon on the necklace as on her flank.
Next, is a light purple alicorn who's only a little taller than Sunset herself, who's dark blue mane and tail had streaks of raspberry and purple, her symbol is a large pink star with five smaller stars around it. Around the purple alicorn were pony versions of Sunset's friends. Pinkie and Applejack were Earth Ponies, Rarity is a Unicorn, while Fluttershy and Rainbow are Pegasi. The other four ponies in the room were guards standing near the door, two in gold armor and two in dark blue almost black armor.
"Princess Celestia," Sunset said with a small smile, "It's... good to see you again."
"And you as well Sunset," Princess Celestia smiled, "before we continue, this is my sister Princess Luna, but your message said that a friend would be joining you while the two of you look for a object that was stolen. Where is she?"
"I'm right here," Midna said as she rose from Sunset's shadow, still in her Imp form. Looking herself over, a small smirk appeared on her lips, "Guess my hypothesis about hiding in your shadow was right Shimmy, now then let's..." Midna stopped talking as she looked at Celestia and saw pure contempt.
"Oh, a Twili. How did you get out of the Realm of Twilight?" Celestia asked, not even trying to hide the hatred in her voice, "and for that matter how did you meet Sunset?"
Midna's eyebrow rose, "What's wrong with me being here and being friends with Sunset?"
“What's wrong? Simple, all beings of Darkness like you deserve to dwell within the Twilight Realm,” Celestia scoffed, making everyone in the room freeze and look at her, "After all, it's why the Golden Goddess banished you there."
Twilight and her friends were shocked, while Luna looked heartbroken, and Sunset honestly wanted to yell at her old mentor, but soon everyone’s attention was drawn to Midna whose lips were curled back in a vicious snarl, and visible eye had such a rage filled glare that everyone even Celestia took a step away in fear.
“We deserve to live in the Twilight Realm?” Midna repeated and, faster than anyone could react, Midna's hair shot-out, forming a hand, grabbing Celestia and dragging her so she was looking Midna in the eye, “Deserve? We’ve done nothing wrong! Our ancestors, the Interlopers, are the ones who turned against the Goddesses while we, the Twili have to live continuing to bare the weight of their sins! I’m lucky that I can walk in the Realm of Light without the fear of the Light killing me! No one else is able to! The Twilight Realm isn’t just our home, it’s a cage, a prison! Most of the Twili just stand around doing nothing because they’ve lost the will to do anything!” All the ponies, apart from Celestia, gasped, horrified at what Midna was saying but that’s only because Celestia was frozen as she looked into Midna's furious eye.
Tossing Celestia to the side Midna looked at Sunset, “Feel free to stay here with your ‘mentor’. I’m going to find the thief and get back what they stole,” Midna then turned to look at Luna, “Your guards had better stay out of my way because I’m in no mood to deal with them.”
Snapping her fingers a black and turquoise portal opened up next to the mirror and a black wolf with dreadlocks, light blue eyes, symbols on its legs, and a small stone mask on its forehead leapt out of the portal and stood next to Midna.
Looking at the wolf Midna asked, “Do you still have the scent?” When the wolf nodded, Midna floated over and sat on its back, “Good, then let’s get going!”
Right after Midna left, Luna brought up her hoof and placed it against the crescent moon of her necklace which started to glow. When it stopped Luna looked at Sunset and said, “Do not worry, now all the guards in the city know about Midna, they will help her find the thief,” She then turned to look Celestia, who was just sitting where Midna had left her, staring at the wall, “We’ll need to have a talk about this later Celestia. After all she was not the only being of 'Darkness' in the room.... and not the only one who was banished either.”
With that Luna looked at the purple alicorn and the pony versions of Sunset's friends, made a motion for them to follow and left the room.
Sunset took one last look at Celestia, before, she too, left the room and quickly caught up to Luna. "I'm sorry about Midna. Before we came through the portal we had a... bit of a fallout with the Rainbow Dash on that side of the mirror. She didn't take the news of Midna hiding the fact she's a Twili well."
"How bad are we talking here?" Pony Rainbow asked.
"Bad enough for Fluttershy to slap her hard enough to leave a handprint," Sunset said, making the purple alicorn and the others looked at Pony Fluttershy, shocked, while said pegasus blushed and hid behind her pink mane, "Yeah, that's similar to the reaction everyone had when she did it."
Luna chuckled, "Never underestimate the quiet ones, for they usually are the ones with the greatest hidden strength. Now what was this object that was stolen?"
"Midna has an artifact called the 'Mirror of Shadows', when she's not in her Imp form, it's her main weapon, but it's also full of Twili magic, making her the only one who can safely use it. However, the Mirror was still in our home when it was stolen and Midna set up wards to try to prevent that and she used Twilight Magic based spells to do that. So, whoever stole it, had to use the same kind of magic Midna uses... and according to Midna, Twilight Magic count's as Dark Magic due to how long they've been trapped in the Twilight Realm."
"That's very troubling," the purple alicorn said, before she realized something, "Oh, sorry for not introducing myself earlier, I'm Twilight Sparkle nice to meet you."
"Sunset Shimmer. Princess Celestia's former pupil… before my ego got out of hand-er... hoof, and I got a bit power hungry," Sunset said with an awkward chuckle.
"There will be more time to talk later," Luna said as a Unicorn guard in golden armor rushed up to her.
"Princess, there's a problem," the guard said, "Your sister's School for Gifted Unicorns, has been surrounded by some kind of yellow force field. It's difficult to see inside but what we can see is black squares floating up into the air. Also the being you told us about... Midna was it? She and that wolf of hers is on their way there as we speak."
"That means that the culprit is there," Luna frowned, "Thank you for telling me, block off the area, but let Midna and her companion through, we will be there shortly."
"Yes Princess!" The guard said as he saluted, then quickly ran off, his horn glowing a soft lilac. As the guard left, Luna lit up her horn and teleported everyone to the school.
The Twilight Wolfos ran through the city, following the scent with Midna easily clinging to it's back. All around them, ponies were either staring in shock or screaming in fear or for the guards. The guards, however, made no move to get in Midna's way, on the contrary they were getting ponies OUT of her way. Midna, however, wasn't paying much attention to the ponies, instead, she was trying to figure out how someone had gotten access to Twilight Magic.
‘Either they've gotten an ally who's a Twili or their hands... hooves on an artifact from the Twilight Realm...’ Midna thought before her eyes widened as a new wave a fear swept through her, ‘The only artifacts that I know of, that aren't in the Twilight Realm, are the pieces of the Fused Shadow, I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this.’
Midna was so lost in her thoughts, that she wasn't paying attention when the Wolfos stopped, sending her flying off it's back and right into a light blue magical aura, "Having fun Midna?"
Looking up, Midna saw it was Sunset who was keeping her in the air, "Sunset? How'd you get here so quickly?"
As Sunset put Midna down, the Wolfos walked over to give Midna's cheek a small lick, before it dove into a new portal to get some rest.
"Princess Luna got a report about this force field around Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns," using one of her hooves, Sunset pointed at a large black wall with yellow edges and patterns on it, upon seeing it Midna paled.
"Miss Midna do you know what that is?" Rarity asked.
"...It's the Twilight," Midna said making Luna, Sunset and Twilight gasp, "Whoever is responsible for stealing my Mirror, somehow surrounded the school with a Veil of Twilight."
"Then this is worse than we thought," Twilight said, panic evident in her voice.
"Then let's get in there and kick some flank!" Rainbow said, as she started to move towards the wall, only to be grabbed by Midna's hair hand.
"DON'T!" Midna yelled, getting everyone's attention, "If you, somehow, got through the barrier, you'd be reduced to your soul! Your body would vanish due to you being a resident of the Realm of Light! Besides, only someone from the Twilight can get through a barrier like this and I don't want to know what happens to anyone not from the Twilight touches it."
All the ponies looked at her shocked. "So what do we do?" Applejack asked, gesturing towards the veil, "Just... stay out here and let whoever set this barrier up work in peace?"
Midna shook her head, "I'm a Twili, so nothing will happen to me when I go through."
"Not alone your not!" Sunset said, stomping her hoof, "After you've been there for me all these years, I am NOT letting my best friend go in there alone! I don't care if I do become just a soul, I'll still be there for you!"
Before Midna could say anything Luna nodded, "Then it's settled, Sunset will accompany Midna while the rest of us make sure nothing gets in, or out, while to two of you take care of this."
"Is there anyone in the Realm of Light who you know can enter the Twilight Realm?" Rarity asked.
Midna hesitated, as if trying to remember something, "As far as I know, only the 'Hero Chosen by the Gods' is able to, but details are sketchy at best."
Everyone except Sunset frowned, "And there hasn't been a Hero in a very long time," Luna sighed, "Not since before Celestia and I took the throne, he just rode of on that odd Timberwolf steed of his and was never seen again."
"But there's no time to talk about the Hero," Pinkie said, "How are the two of you going to get past the barrier?"
"Leave that to me," Midna said, before looking to Sunset, "Last chance to back out Shimmy. Once we're through, we have no idea what we'll find."
Sunset smirked. "Just give me my bow and quiver, and I'll be fine."
From Midna's shadow, a blob of shadow-like liquid rose into the air until it was at eye level with Sunset, hovering. Then the blob 'popped', revealing Sunset's composite bow and a quiver with twenty arrows, ready for use.
Once Sunset equipped the bow and quiver, Midna sighed, "Knew you wouldn't back out, just know that I've never done this before, so I have NO idea if I'm doing this right," with that, Midna hovered up to the barrier, "stand right here Shimmy and I'll take care of the rest."
Midna then went through the barrier which rippled like water. After a few moments, a large orange and black hand burst out of the wall and grabbed Sunset before retreating into the wall.
After watching how Midna got Sunset through the barrier and into the school grounds, Rarity shuddered, "Well I don't know about the rest of you but I'll be having nightmares about that for a while."
One of the nearby guards nodded, with a fearful expression, "You're not the only one, Miss Rarity."
—Inside The Veil of Twilight—
After dragging Sunset through the barrier and into the Twilight, Midna took a moment to look around. The area had a yellow tint and black squares were floating up towards the sky before fading from existence only to reappear near the ground in endless patterns that, if Midna had to compare to something, it would be drizzling rain.
"Well that was unpleasant but at least we're through the barrier," Sunset said, her voice having a slight echo.
Midna turned to look at Sunset, then froze as her jaw dropped. Sunset wasn't a unicorn anymore, now she a biped again, now with scarlet skin, two large red bat like wings, long pointed ears, a tattered dress that matched her red and yellow hair, which was now pointing up, and every time it moved her hair seemed to flow as if it was made of fire. She also had a large tail and the whites of her eyes had turned black.
"Shimmy? What... happened to you?" Midna asked, surprised evident in her voice.
"Hmm? What are you talking..." Sunset started before she looked down at herself. After a few moments in a completely flat voice, she said, "What?"
"You look like some sort of demon and your hair and tail look like they're made out of fire," Midna said, before her impish grin appeared again, "but at least you're not reduced to a soul, and you still have your bow and quiver. So, how do you feel?"
"I… don't feel that different really," Sunset shrugged, "I mean, yeah, the wings are new..." Sunset then held up a hand, her light blue magical aura appeared as she made a few nearby rocks float into the air. "and I still have access to my magic, so that's a plus. But, I still wonder why this happened."
Midna thought for a moment, "Maybe due to spending so much time with me and being near my Mirror and my Wards let you absorb some Twilight Magic, slowly enough that it wouldn't mess with your mind?"
Sunset shrugged, "We can find out later, for now let's head into the school."
Midna nodded and the two made their way up to the school doors, which were locked with a large metal padlock, keeping four chains, that were holding the door closed, in place.
Midna sighed, "Should have seen this coming, guess we should expect more Zelda Dungeon tropes."
Sunset nodded and turned only to go wide eyed and jump to the side, dragging Midna to the ground as an arrow smashed into the door.
Jumping back to her feet Sunset's magical aura engulfed her hands, "What are those things?"
Standing a couple yards away were a group of six creatures that had appeared. They had light blue/grey skin with black lines creating patterns on their body, at the center of their chest was another pattern made out of red lines. Their heads were completely covered by a stone like mask that only revealed a single bright orange eye. Three of the creatures had bows drawn and ready to fire, while the other three held clubs.
Midna growled, "Shadow Bulbins, monsters who've been infused with Twilight Magic to such a point that they can survive in the Realm of Twilight, at the cost of being unable to return to the Realm of Light." As Midna spoke a Twilit Wolfos appeared and Midna took her place on it's back.
Raising a hand, Sunset caught the arrows that the archers had just launched at them, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sunset asked.
"Yeah, the only thing to do now, is kill them and then go look for that key," Midna nodded, making Sunset grin and, using her magic sent the arrows flying back at their owners.
Each arrow made a direct hit causing the Shadow Bulbins to fall to the ground before exploding into puffs of smoke, one left a bundle of arrows while the other two left blue gems.
"Huh, they're a lot more fragile than I thought,” Midna said, causing Sunset to raise an eyebrow, “I mean, I know in the game that the original Midna is from, they went down with a single arrow shot, but still, I thought that would be just a game thing."
"Well, at least that's good news, it means that what you know about the game is more relevant than we thought it would be going forward, oh and look, they drop Rupees. For some reason, I was expecting Bits," Sunset said with a small smirk as Midna's Wolfos charged forward before lunging at the center most Bulbin, which both damaged it and made it stumble backwards.
As this happened, the other two Bulbin's raised their clubs, only to get caught in the Wolfos' second attack, which was a second lunge, only this time it spun like a drill in the air, and before the Bulbins had a chance to recover, Midna's hair formed a large hand that smashed the three into the ground, right before two more Wolfos jumped out of portals and, in unison, the Wolfos attacked with the ones on the left and right switching sides, and the moment their attack was over, Midna's hair-fist smashed into the Bulbins, sending them flying only for them to explode into smoke upon impact with the ground.
"Nice job Middy," Sunset said as she walked over to grab the bundle of arrows to examine them.
"Thanks, though to be honest I’m mostly just going just letting my Wolfos do most of the fighting right now. As I told you a few days ago I haven’t really had a chance to really master fighting alongside the Wolfos or with my Mirror I at least have the basics down and I'm very glad that all that training paid off!" Midna said with a large grin on her face, "It's kind of a shame that they didn't have the key, but I guess that would have been too easy."
"Well, for now, let's just explore the school grounds," Sunset said as she drew her bow.
After about five minutes of searching and killing Shadow Bulbins, they'd covered about half of the grounds and had gotten fifteen Green Rupees, but they were nowhere closer to finding the key.
"Where, in the name of Nayru, is that fucking key?!" Midna growled after another group of Shadow Bulbins fell to the ground before exploding into smoke.
"Maybe in the storage shed?" Sunset asked as she pointed to a large shed nearby that had a large hose coiled neatly next to the door.
"There's no way it's going to be that easy Shimmy." Midna deadpanned.
"Tell ya what, why don't we make that a bet. I win I take sixty percent of the Rupees AND you stop teasing me for one month. You win and..." Sunset started only to stop and think.
"I win then you have to cosplay as one character of my choice for an entire week." Midna smirked holding out her hand.
"Deal." Sunset replied shaking Midna's hand.
Midna's smirk grew into her impish grin. "Don't worry I won't choose anything that embarrassing."
Rolling her eyes, Sunset walked over to the shed and opened the door revealing a small wooden chest. Shrugging to herself Sunset gave it a swift kick making it pop open to reveal a small silver key.
Smirking, Sunset picked it up and showed it to Midna, "And now I have the entire month of November free from your teasing," Midna's visible eye widened at the sight of the key.
—Meanwhile with Princess Luna and co. 3rd person—
About ten minutes had passed since Sunset and Midna had gone through the ‘Veil of Twilight’, as Midna had dubbed it.
“I hope everything’s alright in there,” Fluttershy said as she looked at the school.
"There's no point in focusing all our thoughts into how Midna and Sunset are doing," Luna said frowning, "For now, we just need to focus on making sure that nothing gets out."
Before anyone could respond a loud and very annoyed scream. Looking around Applejack said. "Hey Pinkie do you hear that?"
Pinkie shuddered. "I FEEL that."
—Inside the school 3rd person—
The pony who'd stolen Midna's Mirror looked up from the notes they were currently writing down and said, "What the Tartarus is that noise?"
—With Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna 3rd person—
Vice Principal Luna was sitting in her favorite chair as she worked on a few side missions in, "Metal Gear Solid 5, the Phantom Pain", after returning home while Celestia had to stay and run the Fall Formal. At one point, she had to pause the game as the sound of a faint but very annoyed yell could be heard. "Sis? Sis is that you? You already stole all my beer what more do you want!?"
—Midna 1st person—
Once I'd calmed down and Sunset's laughter had stopped, the two of us went back to the front door.
As the two looked at the door Minda looked at Sunset, “Think the key will break the moment we open the door?”
“I’d make a bet, but I think we can both agree that it’s just going to happen,” Sunset smirked as she put the key in the lock only for the key to melt into the lock causing the chains to disappear and the padlock fall to the ground.
Midna and Sunset looked at the door before looking at each other and shrugging, “Guess we know what happens now, but that’s still somewhat underwhelming.”
“Not all mysteries will be satisfying Middy,” Sunset said.
“I guess, at least we can get inside now,” Midna said as she opened the door, “So, where do you think we should start looking for the thief and my mirror?”
“Well, I’d guess in the main lab, but I haven’t been here in years, so, it might not still be in the east wing,” Sunset said, “But chances are, the hallways are going to be to narrow for your Wolfos to fight like they did outside. We’re probably going to have to change how we’re fighting the monsters.”
Midna tapped her chin, “Well, neither of us has a melee weapon and if we both focus on just ranged attacks that would put us at a disadvantage if a Bulblin got close.” As she thought her impish grin reappeared, “I think I have an idea.”
Sunset’s eyebrow rose until Midna floated up to whisper in her ear, which had Sunset giving her own impish grin, “That would give us an option for close range. We’re doing that the first chance we get.”
As the two walked into the Entry Hall, they saw three large doors: one to the north, one to the west and one to the east.
Both groaned when they saw the north and east were locked with more large silver padlocks, “And the Zelda tropes continue! So, we can expect at least one mini-boss, a dungeon item, and the infamous map and compass duo,” Minda grumbled, “So, the labs are to the east… what’s to the west and north?”
“Well, to the west was mostly classrooms, and I think conference halls to the north,” Sunset said, “I think there was also a library in the west and an astronomy tower in the… I wanna say north-east? Hard to say with how long its been since I was last here.”
“Well, at least we know to expect a fight the moment we walk farther into the room,” Minda said with a savage grin.
As the two walked farther into the Entry Hall, large iron bars rose out of the floor and blocked the door, while portals opened in the floor and more Shadow Bulblins jumped out of them.
Once the group of fifteen Bulbins with all, but two of them, wielding clubs were standing in front of them, Midna cracked her knuckles, “So, who’s going to start this off?”
With a roar, the Bulbins charged, “Well that answers that,” Sunset smirked as she blasted a couple of them with her magic, while Midna was using her hair hand *she really needed to come up with a better name for that* to smash Bulblins into the ground or simply knock them away.
As the fight continued, most of the Bulbins decided to focus on Sunset, as she was the one dealing out the most pain, giving Midna time to sneak to the back of the group. Soon, two of the Bulbins felt their clubs yanked from their hands, before Midna lifted them into the air with her hair hand and her impish grin.
“Thanks for the donation of melee weapons you two!” Midna snickered, before throwing the two towards Sunset, “Incoming Sunset!”
Grabbing the two in her magic, Sunset slammed them onto the two Bulblins that had just raised their clubs to attack her.
“Well did the plan work?” Sunset asked as she created a shield to block a thirds Bulbins club.
“Like a charm!” Midna cackled as she sank into the floor, before appearing next to Sunset and she handed Midna one of the stolen clubs, “Now, not only will I be able to fight in here without my Wolfos, but we’ll be able to save on arrows too.”
“Let’s just hope these don’t break on us,” Sunset joked as she brought her new club down on a Bulbin’s head, destroying it.
“Don’t even joke about that Shimmy!” Midna said as she blocked a Bulbin’s attack, “I don’t even know how degradable weapons would work in a Zelda game.”
“By making it that you get them off of enemies or find them in chests and the Master Sword could run out of power and need to recharge?” Sunset offered as Midna finished off the second to last Bulbin.
“I was following you until the part about the Master Sword,” Midna said as Sunset lifted the last Bulbin into the air before throwing it high into the air, “if the Master Sword is the ‘Sword of Evil’s Bane’ why would it run out of power? Is it close to its last legs? Is Fi dying? Did Hylia forget to plug it in so it could recharge?”
“Well Hylia gave up her life as a Goddess so she could be reborn as a mortal,” Sunset mused as she and Midna began collecting the Rupees that the Bulbins left behind, “And we don’t know if the other Goddesses could fix it if it started to break. So, who knows what might happen if it starts running out of power.”
“You mean apart from Demise breaking free from the sword and either absorbing Ganondorf to become whole or getting absorbed by Ganondorf?” Midna asked.
“That about sums it up yes,” Sunset agreed, “And now that we have some melee weapons, let’s go explore the classrooms and see what we can find.”
“Probably the Map, that’s usually the first main item Link finds in a Dungeon,” Midna said with a shrug.
As the two explored the classrooms, they fought their way through more Shadow Bulbins and found a couple small chests, one with a small key the other had a Red Rupee. Using the small key, they entered a large room that looked like it could hold around fifty students, if judging by size alone, due to all the desks being nowhere to be seen. As the two walked into the room, two shadowy figures leapt through the room’s windows. Both of them were bipedal lizards with black and red scales, orange eyes, holding silver scimitars, small square buckler shields, two axe blades tied to their tales and wore a grey vest and loincloths.
“Shadow Lizalfos huh?” Midna mused, “They didn’t appear in the game, but I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“So any ideas on how to fight them?” Sunset asked as she readied her bow, “In the games, some of these guys have stupid good reflexes when it comes to blocking arrows.”
Midna hummed in thought, before saying, “That shouldn’t be a problem here. In the game Lizalfos were basically just higher grade mooks… these, however, I’m not sure. I suggest sticking to magic and our new clubs, though... if we can get their swords, that could prove useful later on.”
Sunset smirked and rolled her eyes as she put her bow away, “Let’s just take them out and move on.”
After she spoke, the two Shadow Lizalfos let out a screech and charged. Midna and Sunset dodged the attacks and retaliated with their own, Midna grabbing one of the Shadow Lizalfos with her hair hand and spun it around before slamming it to the ground, stunning it, while Sunset set the other’s vest on fire, while also casting a spell so it couldn’t be removed, making it shriek in fear and pain as tossed it’s sword and shield away so it could try, and fail, to get rid of the vest.
Walking over, Sunset picked up the sword and shield before turning to the Lizalfos and giving it a very sinister grin, “Let’s see how well you can fight without your weapons.”
Meanwhile as Sunset was using her magic to defeat the Lizalfos, Midna was having some problems. While she was able to use her smaller size to dodge the Lizalfos’ attacks, she was also having problems counter-attacking. The Lizalfos had quickly learned to get away the moment Midna formed her hair hand, and if it couldn’t do that then it used it’s sword and tail-axe to attack it, which quickly made Midna retract it as she could feel every strike from her foe. She also found that her Imp form didn’t have the strength to do any real damage with her new club.
“I’m not getting anywhere with the way things are going!” Midna growled in frustration.
Internerly she was cursing that the only magic she was able to really practice was illusionary and warding magic, she didn’t have a single offensive spell in her rather limited arsenal.
‘Come on Midna, think! There’s gotta be something you can to tip the scales in your favor! I doubt and illusion would fool this thing for long. Some lizards have pit organs like snakes and I don’t know if my magic affects those and I don’t want to waste the magical power if Lizalfos have them too.’ Midna thought as the Lizalfos tried to bash her with it’s shield which she dodged by floating above her foe’s head, ‘Wards can’t help as you need to be really careful when making one so they’ll impractical to make during a fight... perhaps I should look into finding ways to have some pre-made wards handy the next time I go into a Zelda-esk Dungeon.’ Moving away from the Lizalfos Midna shook her head, ‘No don’t think about that focus! It’s adapted to fighting what I’m able to do and… wait a moment. By Nayru I’m an idiot!’
Midna gave the Lizalfos her impish grin, which, for some reason, seemed to set it on edge if it’s soft trills was anything to go by, “I’ve gotta admit I’ve gotten so used to fighting in the cramped corridors and rooms lately, that it took me a while to fully realize just how big this room is. So now that you’ve had your fun, why don’t I introduce you to some of my friends?” With a loud howl, three Shadow Portals opened up with Midna’s Wolfos lunging out of them, two of them sinking their fangs into the Lizalfos’ arms making it drop its gear, which Midna quickly stole by making them sink into the shadows, and the last going straight for the creatures jugular.
Once both creatures had collapsed to the floor, they vanished into puffs of smoke which came together to form a wooden chest and the classic Zelda Chime.
“Know how that’s possible Midna?” Sunset asked as the two approached the newly formed wooden chest.
“I’m just gonna assume it’s an ancient form of magic to try and keep thieves away, because I don’t have a clue,” Midna said before using her hair hand to flip the lid open. Just like in the games golden light shone out of the chest until Midna reached into it and pulled out a rolled up piece of paper.
“Welp now we’ve got a map, damn Zelda tropes,” Sunset groaned as the two stared at the paper.
—With Fluttershy, a few minutes after slapping Rainbow—
After slapping Rainbow, Fluttershy had found a quiet and hidden place to sit and think. Despite what she said, she could see Rainbow’s point, but seeing how scared Midna was… how hurt she was after what Rainbow said. Fluttershy just had to push her doubts to the side to try to help. At least that’s what told herself, but in truth, slapping Rainbow, her best friend, came out of nowhere.
“Why… Why did I slap her?” Fluttershy thought, looking at the hand she slapped Rainbow with, “I know finding out about Midna brought out a lot of emotions... but still-”
“Little Flutters? Are you alright?” asked a female voice, interrupting her thoughts.
Looking up Fluttershy saw a small white rabbit, looking at her with a tilted head, as she stated, “I’m alright N… Angel.”
“You don’t look alright Flutters,” Angel said, her voice was light with a slight musical ‘tinkle’ to it. Hopping over, Angel leaned her head against Fluttershy’s leg, “Did you have an argument with your friends?”
Scooping up Angel into a hug, Fluttershy’s tears slowly crawled down her face and fell on Angel’s fur, “Midna showed us that she’s really a member of the Twili and Rainbow… Rainbow didn’t take it well and I… I slapped her. I don’t even know why I did it.”
Angel pushed herself closer to Fluttershy, “It’s just that with everything you told me about Hyrule, I knew that couldn't have been easy for her… but even so, it still hurts that she kept it from us. I know she has her reasons and I doubt she told us all of them, but… it still hurts.”
“And where’s Midna now?” Angel asked.
“She and Sunset went through a portal to go to Sunset’s home world of Equestria. That’s another thing that’s bothering me, why is Midna’s reveal more painful then Sunset’s?” Fluttershy asked, not expecting to get a real answer from her oldest friend, “Is it because Sunset had more time to explain why didn’t tell us? More time to tell us about why she came through the portal?”
“Can’t say I know Flutters,” Angel said, raising a paw to wipe away some of Fluttershy’s tears, “While I might not have alway been a bunny I’ve been with your family since your Great-Grandmother found me when she was a child, and as she helped me recover from my wounds I told her all about Hyrule and in return she wouldn’t tell anyone where I came from.”
“I can tell you that you’ve got her spirit and I see so much of her in you. You’re just as kind and gentle, but with an inner fire and strength that makes your defend those close to you with the passion of a Gerudo Warrior, and I’m not sure how I can help other than being here.”
After another few minutes Fluttershy’s tears stopped and she said, “Thank you Angel.”
“Not a problem Flutters,” Angel said, then pointed back to the school, “now come on, you’ve got a dance to get ready for.”
—Same time, with Rainbow—
“Damn it! How could I be so stupid?” Rainbow thought as she slammed her fist into a nearby wall, “Who knows how long Midna was building up the courage to tell us, and I go and make her fears a reality! Some friend I am.”
“Is something troubling you Miss Dash?” Turning around, Rainbow saw Vice-Principal Luna standing behind her with a small smile, “If there is, then I don’t mind giving what advice I can.”
“I… I messed up,” Rainbow said, not looking Luna in the face, “Midna and Sunset revealed a couple of big secrets to us and… I just showed Midna why she shouldn’t have done that, despite seeing how hard it was for her.” Rainbow wiped her eyes, trying to fight back her tears, “We’ve been friends since we first started going to Canterlot High and now… I just destroyed our friendship.”
“I highly doubt that Miss Dash,” Luna replied, walking forward and gently placing a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder, “I’ve seen many friendships be created and broken during my time here and I’ve never seen one as strong as the one you and your friends have. I suggest apologizing once you’ve all calmed down, perhaps after the Fall Formal?”
Rainbow looked away, “Midna and Sunset… won’t be attending the Formal. Something else came up which is why Midna had to tell us her secret.”
Vice-Principal Luna’s smile faltered for a split second but Rainbow didn’t notice, “Oh… well don’t give up. I truly believe that you can fix your mistake.”
“You really think so?” Rainbow asked, turning to look Luna in the face.
“I know so,” Luna replied.
“Thank’s Vice-Principal Luna, this talk really helped,” Rainbow said before walking away to look for her friends.
Luna watched her leave, a small frown on her face. Sighing Luna turned and walked to the school’s parking lot. She really needed to unwind after working so hard to get the Fall Formal ready, but her thoughts just wouldn’t stop replaying the scene she witnessed in front of the school’s statue and now the conversation she just had with Rainbow.
As Luna got into her car, she thought, “I know they had a small argument, but this is worse than I thought. I really hope I’m right and Rainbow can undo the damage she’s done, if not, then who knows what kind of consequences this could have.”
—Same time, with the rest of the girls—
Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack were in the Sewing Club's room as they put on their new dresses in silence.
Eventually, Pinkie said, “So… Midna is a from another Realm, not sure how to fully process that.”
“I know what you mean darling,” Rarity sighed, “I’m conflicted because both Rainbow and Fluttershy had a point. Midna had her reasons for not wanting to tell us, but to find out like this… I just don’t know what to think about this.”
Applejack put on the hat Rarity had altered, which looked a lot like her normal cowboy hat only it had a large green line on it and a large red flower on the front, “As much as I’d hate to say it girls, but right now we can’t figure out what to do. Midna kept this a secret yes, but all things considered there’s still a lot we don’t know. I suggest we try to calm down, have fun at the Fall Formal and talk to Midna and Sunset when they get back.”
Now fully in their new dresses Rarity, and Pinkie looked at Applejack and slowly nodded, “Yeah… your right,” Rarity sighed.
“Come on… we should find Fluttershy and Rainbow,” Pinkie said, though it was obvious she wasn’t sure if she wanted to see Rainbow right now.
“We may not want to see Rainbow right now, but at the same time we can’t ignore her,” Applejack said, “Ignoring her wouldn’t help anyone and just make things worse.”
“How’d you get to be so mature Applejack?” Rarity asked, “I know helping to raise Sweetie Belle had a similar effect on me but sometimes it’s hard to believe we’re the same age.”
Applejack shrugged, “I guess it’s because I was the one mostly responsible for Applebloom growing up. Granny and Big Mac did what they could, but considering how much work was put on them when Mom and Dad died, I had to step up until she was old enough to help on the farm.”
“That must have been hard,” Pinkie said with a melancholy smile, “I remember when the Twins were born and how difficult it was to just baby sit once a month, but if I had to raise them? I don’t think I’d be able to do that.”
“Yeah it wasn’t easy, now let’s go find our friends,” Applejack said, walking out of the room with Pinkie and Rarity fallowing.
—At the Fall Formal—
Fluttershy and the others stood to one side of the gym simple trying to enjoy the atmosphere, but everyone who saw them could tell that something had happened as Fluttershy was standing away from Rainbow. As the party continued, Pinkie noticed something, “Hey girls have any of you noticed that Trixie’s not here?”
Upon looking around, the group realized that Pinkie was right, “You’re right Pinkie,” Fluttershy said, “I wonder where she is. I mean she was so adamant about become the Fall Formal Princess. I wonder what happened.”
“Hasn’t she been looking more raged the past few days?” Rarity asked, “Perhaps that finally caught up to her and she just had to get some sleep tonight.”
“Perhaps,” Rainbow said, “Then again why should we care? Trixie’s been the biggest bitch in the school since the semester started and it’s not like we were ever close to her to begin with.”
“Now Rainbow, while Trixie hasn’t been the best that doesn’t mean we should ignore her when something is obviously wrong,” Rarity scolded.
“I guess,” Rainbow sighed.
After a while Principal Celestia walked on stage to announce the who won the crown and became the Princess of the Fall Forma. As she opened the envelope Celestia said, “And the winner is… Tree Hugger!”
“HUH?!” All of Fluttershy’s friends yelled as Tree Hugger walked onto the stage. Her light red hair was neatly brushed and flowed down her back like water. Her forest green dress was draped over left shoulder and tied around her right arm showing off a little skin, her dress ended about four inches above her ankles which gave her plenty of room to walk around and on her feet she wore emerald green low heels. All in all a very different look than the one Tree Hugger normally had.
“That… that dress is amazing!” Rarity gasped, “It fits her perfectly… who on earth made it?”
“I don’t know but who ever it was is just as good as you if not better,” Applejack admitted, “Do you know who made it Pinkie?”
“Nope,” Pinkie admitted, “but now I’m wondering if whoever made it could make something like that for the seven of us.”
“...yeah,” Rainbow said now looking at the floor, “Not sure how I’m going to apologize to Midna though.”
“I’m sure you’ll think of something RD,” Applejack said patting her friend on the back, “I highly doubt one fight will end our friendship. Even one like this.”
“I guess,” Rainbow sighed, “Do you have any ideas who made that for Tree Hugger, Shy?”
“Oh it was her cousin Coco Pommel,” Fluttershy said, “She’s like Lemon and won entry into Crystal Prep last year, but from what little I hear she hates it there.”
“Not surprising,” Pinkie said a large frown on her face, “I’ve heard a lot of rumors about that place and all of them are pretty bad.”
As the group talked amongst themselves Tree Hugger walked up to Principal Celestia who placed a tiara with a six pointed purple crystal star on her head. Taking the mic Tree Hugger said, “Thank you everyone for this honor. Now let’s get back to having some fun!”
As Tree Hugger walked off stage many people were surprised by her ‘speech’ but quickly shrugged it off as more music began to play and the dance floor was quickly filled. While Sunset and Midna couldn't be there and Trixie was nowhere to be seen, the Fall Formal was still pretty fun for their friends which is all any of the could have asked for. They just hoped Midna and Sunset were ok.
After taking a couple minutes to settle down after finishing off the Shadow Lizalfos. Sunset had finished fastening her new shield to her left arm and found a thick rope that she used to tie her new sword to her belt, “Well despite it just being the Map at least we got some new gear.”
“Yeah,” Midna agreed with a small frown, “Too bad we don’t know how to use it and Link always had some time to get used to his new sword at the beginning of a game. We’re getting them inside the first dungeon!”
"That’s true,” Sunset said, “Though something similar happened in Link to the Past.”
“So we just try using them and if it doesn’t work go back to plan a?” Midna asked.
“Yup,” Sunset agreed, “Though You might wanna be in your true form for that. Don’t know how well your imp form can wield a sword.”
Minda gave Sunset an impish smirk, “Oh you just wanna see more of my pretty face, don’t deny it.”
Sunset rolled her eyes as Midna’s form was covered from head to toe in shadows which then stretched and grew until Midna once again stood in her true form. She wore a skin tight dark grey shirt, navy blue running pants, and brown hiking boots. Seeing the surprised look on Sunset’s face Minda shrugged, “When I saw that my Mirror was gone and panicked. Thanks to that, all I did was put on my boots after grabbing our bows.”
“Well let’s get that shield in place,” Sunset sighed, “We’ll have to work on getting sheaths for the swords later.”
“We should also look at the Map we just got,” Midna said, “Just in case it has something interesting to show us.”
Once the shield was in place and the two looked at the Map they saw that like in the games it had small panels that when touched acted like buttons, to changed which floor it showed. However two things caught Sunset’s attention. The first was that the Map already showed where all the treasure chests were, the second was that the school had a basement, “Well at least we don’t have to find the compass so that’s good…”
"Yeah,” Midna agreed with a small nod, “Never understood why they didn’t just combine the two to begin with, but damn that’s a deep basement. Did you know about that Shimmy?”
“Nope. Never knew the school had one… let alone one that’s three floors deep. I mean it’s twice the size of the school if I’m reading this correctly!” Shaking her head in disbelief Sunset sighed, “Well have to find our way to the bottom floor. That’s where the skull showing the boss room is.”
Going back up to the ground floor, Minda pointed at a room in the west wing, “That’s the only room that shows up on the first floor of the basement and the ground floor. That’s gotta be our way down.”
“Huh… I think that’s the old divination room,” Sunset said after a few moments “From what I remember it wasn’t being used when I was last here. Maybe they found a reason to use it again?”
Midna shrugged, “No idea but at least we have a goal in mind now… also you doing alright? This is the first time you’ve been in this kind of fight… I mean it’s my first time too but still.”
“Yeah… I’m doing alright. Kinda surprised that we haven’t been badly injured yet, all things considered, but we should still be cautious as we continue. Now let’s head to all the rooms nearby with chests to find the small keys,” Sunset said as Midna rolled up the Map, “Closest one would be the east wing’s teachers lounge. Though we need to go up stairs to get there.”
After having Midna’s shadow absorb the map for safe keeping the two made their way to the stairs and fought their way through more Shadow Bulblins and some Baba Serpents. The two used their new scimitars and while they did have some difficulty due to not really knowing their new weapons they got through relatively unharmed. Once they’d gotten the chest and key from the lounge they continued to explore getting two more keys and found three chests with a total of thirty five rupees. Once they got back to the entrance hall but when they tried to use one of the small keys on the west wing door they key wasn’t able to enter the padlock by an invisible barrier of magic.
“Of course it can’t be that easy,” Sunset huffed, “You’d think the first Zelda Dungeon wouldn’t have this kind of requirement. You think a Wizrobe is behind this?”
“Possibly,” Midna said, “Though if one is then we’ll be getting a free magical staff.”
“True… Kinda hope it's the Majora’s Mask version though. That way we get either a powerful Ice or Fire Rod” Sunset said, as the two quickly unlocked the north wing. As they explored the only thing of importance they found was a couple more small keys and some more Shadow Lizalfos who were guarding a black crystal that shattered once they died. Once they’d finished exploring the north wind they found that they were now able to unlock the west wing.
Once they cleared out the west wing of treasure they got to the divination room they found that the room had no windows and had more Shadow Bulblins quickly dispatched, Sunset scratched her head, “There’s that done. Now where’s the way down?”
Midna and Sunset quickly searched one side of the room before they piled all the furniture along that wall and under the teacher’s desk and the old rug underneath it they found an old trap door, “Huh… wonder if this was the real reason for this room being closed off.”
“No idea,” Midna replied, “But whatever it leads to… I think it will be the real part of this Dungeon.”
Meanwhile outside the Twilight, the Royal Guard had finished setting up around the school and had already fought off some club wielding monsters. Luna now stood worried about how Sunset and Midna were doing while Twilight had taken her friends to look through the Royal Library for any clues that might help.
“Luna…” Turning her head Luna saw Celestia had joined her.
“What is it Celestia? As you can tell I’ve got a situation on my hooves,” Luna replied, making Celestia flinch at how formal Luna was being.
“Lulu please…” Celestia started.
“Don’t you ‘Lulu’ me Celestia,” Luna said as she turned to glare at her sister, “You know exactly what it said and who else it meant. Yes we need to talk about this but now is not the time as you can see…” Just after Luna said this, a group of ten Shadow Bulblins materialized at the school gates and charged at guards, the two groups evenly matched. At least before Luna joined the battle and with her help. With her assistance the Bulbins were quickly overwhelmed and destroyed. Celestia said nothing as she turned and walked back to the castle, head down.
As Midna and Sunset climbed down the spiral stone staircase that was under the trapdoor, Sunset created a ball of light so they could see. At the bottom they found a room roughly the same size as the Divination Room, made of dark grey stone blocks, some cracked with age, some covered in a thin layer of moss, “By… Din,” Sunset said quietly and having to force herself to not say ‘By Celestia’, “How long has THIS place been down here?!”
“A really fucking long time,” Minda snarked, “But we’ve still got to find the ‘Mini-Boss’ before we find the one who stole my mirror.”
“And the odds of us getting out of here without a ‘Dungeon Boss’ is?” Sunset asked.
“At best… one point five percent and that’s being generous,” Midna said, “This is basically a Zelda Dungeon, we found the Map, found chests with keys, and cash… there’s going to be a boss. On the plus side we got a ton of backup weapons now, and we can sell the extras… though we’re going to need to find a teacher because as easy as a club is to use, I want to use one of the scimitars we got,” As Midna finished as she got a really creepy grin.
“... and suddenly I’m scared of you having anything sharp,” Sunset said, making Midna burst giggles.
“So you are the ones who invade my sanctum,” A distorted voice echoed through the halls as the two reached the bottom of the stairs, “I… suppose I should welcome… welcome. Now what do you want?”
“I want back what you stole!” Midna yelled looking around. The new area was made of black stone, with small glowing white crystals on the walls instead of torches. The area looked recently cleaned and Midna shook away the image of Shadow Bulblins scrubbing away dirt and grim, “You have no idea what you’re messing with!”
“On the contrary! I know exactly what I have,” The voice replied, “A highly magical object, that is wasted on the likes of you. I don’t know how you knew about the portal but it doesn’t matter. I’ll be keeping an eye on you as you go through the rest of my sanctum. Good luck.”
“Great… a boss who’ll be watching us to see how we fight… you’d think that would happen towards the middle or end of the adventure but nooooo. We get it right out of the gate,” Sunset grumbled as she pulled out the map to find the closest unlocked room.
“Hey at least it’s happening this early on so it’s unlikely it’ll happen again,” Midna said, placing a hand on Sunset’s shoulder as the two started walking and Sunset put away the map, “Also we both know what’s most likely the cause of this…”
“Yup…” Sunset sighed as she held a hand up and blasted another group of club wielding enemies, “Good news, the more I use magic the more it gets in tune with this body so there’s a chance I’ll be able to use magic in the human world...”
“Bad news you’re running low right?” Midna guessed as she slashed at another Shadow Bulbin before dodging back to avoid it’s counter attack.
“Yup. Gonna have to stick with weapons for a while,” Sunset replied as she dodged a second Bulblin’s clumsy attacks, “Bow please.”
“One moment…” Midna replied before grabbing her target with her hair hand and crushing it with a grunt. That done she pulled Sunset’s bow and quiver out of her shadow and passed them to the fair haired girl, “Just be careful with that, I don’t want your arrow in my back.”
“Got it,” Sunset said as she slung the quiver over her back before passing her shield over to Midna who stored it in her shadow.
As the two continued through the dungeon, the situation outside the school had remained unchanged, “They’ve been in there for almost an hour!” Twilight said, worry evident in her voice, “Do you think they’re alright?”
“We can only hope,” Princess Luna sighed, “Nothing we’ve tried can get through this barrier, and yet those monsters can pass through with ease. I’ve never even seen this kind of magic.”
“A completely unknown kind of magic?” Twilight asked, fascinated.
“Not likely,” Luna replied, “It’s most likely the kind of magic that young Sunset’s friend uses. Midna I believe her name was. It is most likely the magic of the Twili.”
“I’ve never heard of the Twili before,” Twilight said as she rubbed her chin with a hoof.
“I would be surprised if you did. The only known records of them are… or were, kept in my sister’s and my old personal library at our old castle and even all we knew about them is they angered the Goddess somehow and were banished to a realm between ours, the Realm of Light, and it’s opposite, the Realm of Darkness. As such it’s known as the Realm of Twilight. I don't know how but young Midna is a member of the Twili who escaped the Realm of Twilight. I'll have to check to see if it's still there once this is over.”
“I wonder how,” Twilight said as she looked back at the barrier around her old school.
“If young Midna wishes to tell us then she shall,” Luna said, giving Twilight a hard look, “I feel that forcing the issue will not end well,” Twilight gulped as she remembered a few times where her love of knowledge had led her to do some… regrettable actions.
Back inside the dungeon, Sunset had Midna had found a place to sit and rest, “Glad we started exercising but man. This is a lot harder than it looks in the games…”
“Agreed,” Midna said, whipping some sweat off her forehead, “But I think we’re almost at the mini-boss.
“So we’ll have to be careful,” Sunset sighed as she checked her half empty quiver, “How many arrows do we have left?”
“I still have all my arrows, but since we don’t have arrows meant for combat, it's taking more arrows to bring down the enemies… though we did steal some of their quivers,” As Midna spoke she pulled one of the Shadow Bublin’s quivers out and handed it to Sunset who swapped it for her normal quiver, “We’ll have to find a way to get higher quality arrows…”
“Maybe Princess Luna could help,” Sunset suggested, “After what… My old teacher said, I don’t really want anything else to do with her.”
“Fair,” Midna said, not wanting to open that fresh wound any more than it already was, “On another note… I’m going to start keeping water and other supplies with me at all times form now on.”
“Good plan,” Sunset replied as she got to her feet, “Alright. Let’s get back to the grind and get your mirror back.”
After some more searching, finding bare rooms the two found their way into a large circular room, the walls being equal parts the same black stone as the rest of the second half of the dungeon, and large changes that Sunset thought could have held Manticores and Chimera’s easily in their prime. The center of the floor was an octagon, with four smaller octagons evenly spaced in a ring halfway between the center of the arena and the walls.
“I’m not surprised you made it this far,” The Distorted voice said, “This old arena used to be where wild and dangerous beasts fought each other so Equestria could learn their various strengths and weaknesses… though what you’re about to fight is a little different...” The four segments around the middle of the floor opened, with tall pillars with a ring of purple crystals at the top and base rising from the ground. Out of the center came a tall bipedal figure made grey rock, moss coating the creature like fur, it had two thick club like arms, and in one of them held a large metal hammer with the symbol of a three toed foot on each side in bronze, “This golem was brought out to put down the most powerful and dangerous beasts.”
“Hello mini boss…” Midna said as she examined the area, “You thinking what I’m thinking Shimmy?”
“Big tough golem and pillars around the room while none of our weapons have a chance of hurting it?” Sunset replied with a grin, “Step one pillars, step two golem… now scatter!” As the two scattered the Golem raised it’s hammer and charged before crashing it’s hammer down right where the two had been. The two continued to play chicken with the golem however they found that as long as it could ‘see’ the towers it couldn’t crash into them.
“Shimmy blind it on three!” Midna called as she stood in front of a pillar it’s crystals gleaming softly. The Golem charged, raising it’s hammer to crush Midna, “THREE!” Midna yelled as she dove out of the way as Sunset released a large flash of light blinding the Golem causing it to crash into the pillar knocking both the ground while the rock on the golems right arm broke away revealing dark purple crystal. As the Golem got up it’s crystal arm stayed limp, “Looks like each town is the focal point for controlling only part of the golem,” Midna said as she rolled to her feet, “That or the matrix controlling this guy breaks down in predetermined order.”
“Either way we’re about to end this!” Sunset replied, as the two moved into position the Golem charged faster than it had before and raised it’s hammer to squish Sunset before she could jump out of the way.
“Oh hell no!” Midna growled her eyes glowed dark blue while her hair shot out forming a hand, grabbing the end of the hammer. She and the Golem fought for control, sweat pouring down Midna’s face both from using her magic like this in human form, and the strain of holding back the Golem, “Why… don’t… you… just… LET GO!” Midna roared before wrenching the hammer to the side where it crashed to the ground.
Angered the Golem roared and charged at Midna who was tackled out of the way by Sunset and in it’s blind rage the Golem crashed into the pillar knocking it to the ground, and the stone coating around it’s left arm shattered, “Think this will…” Sunset started as she and Midna got to their feet.
“Don’t finish that,” Midna said wiping the sweat off her brow, “We don’t want to jinx anything…”
Raising to its feet, the Golem roared again it’s hammer shaking before it flew through the air and embedded itself into the right of arm the golem, the two remaining pillars glow growing as the light grey stone covering the Golem quickly grew replacing the covering on the arms and trapping the hammer in place, “I hate to say ‘I told you so’ but…”
“Oh shut up and let’s take care of the last two pillars,” Sunset growled, however the Golem returned to the center of the room and raised it’s hammer, and the pillars glow changed from purple to red and shot two beams at the hammer engulfing it in fire. Bringing the hammer down, it released a wave of fire making the two teens scramble to get out of the way.
“Well… shit,” Midna said before the Golem waved the hammer in the air three times before slamming it down sending three spheres of magic towards Midna who dove out of the way barely avoiding the attack.
“I thought Mini bosses in the first dungeon weren’t supposed to have changing patterns once they got to half health!” Midna yelled.
“I blame you!” Sunset replied, “I don’t know how, or why it’s your fault, but I blame you!”
As the Golem raised the hammer this time the pillars gained a yellow glow, “Electric attack incoming,” Midna said as the two dove behind the pillars moments before a ring of electricity shot out from the Hammer. When the Electricity reached the pillars the electricity was reabsorbed into the pillars while the rest of the ring continued on dissipating harmlessly on the walls.
“Any ideas?!” Sunset said from her hiding spot, the Golem staring at the pillars just waiting for them to make a move.
“I’m working on it!” Midna replied, “We now know the pillars will just reabsorb the elemental magic but what about the neutral magical orbs?”
“And how are we going to get it to shoot the orbs at the pillars?” Sunset replied.
“... did you bring a bug net?” Midna asked.
“WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT?!” Sunset yelled back.
“Remember Link to the Past?” Midna snarked, “I mean if you have a glass bottle that could work too.”
“... I really hate you right now,” Sunset replied.
“You try wrestling a really fucking heavy magic absorbing hammer out the arms of an old and powerful golem!” Midna snarked.
“Wait... that’s it!” Sunset said, her eyes growing wide.
“You want to try wrestling the hammer away?” Midna asked.
“Not that. The hammer absorbs magic. Why not see what your magic will do to the Golem?” Sunset exclaimed.
“This is the dumbest idea I’ve heard all day… but it’s not like I’ve got any other ideas,” Midna sighed. Taking a deep breath Midna jumped out from behind the pillar and launched her hair-hand at the hammer. Once she grabbed it the Golem tried to shake her off however it was unable to as the hand unraveled to get as firm grip as it could. Panting heavily Midna forced her magic into the golem through the hammer. Moments later the Golem froze before jerking its body in rapid movements, the sound of stone on stone coming from it, multi color sparks coming from both it and the pillars.
“Shit! It’s gonna blow!” Sunset yelled, turning the two ran for the walls and ducking into an open cage just before the golem and pillars exploded, filling the arena with smoke, flames and shards of stone, though the cage the two hid in along with their shields kept them relatively safe from the blast, small shards of stone did bounce off their leather jackets.
Once the smoke cleared the two looked out seeing that the only thing remaining in the arena was the hammer which surprisingly had shrunk down enough that either of them could… hopefully lift it, “Shimmy?”
“Yeah?” Sunset replied.
“Next time you ask me to force my magic into a golem through a magical hammer… I’m punching you in the face,” Minda replied as she sank to the ground exhausted.
“F...fair,” Sunset replied, equally exhausted but managing to find the strength to help Midna to her feet and drag her over to the hammer, “Now get this thing in your shadow so we don’t have to worry about anything else using it against us.”
After the hammer was absorbed into Midna’s Shadow the girl passed out, "Yeah… I think we could use a break," Sunset sighed as she dragged Midna over to the wall. She just hoped nothing would appear while they were resting.
When Midna awoke she found her back leaning against the cold stone wall, her head on Sunset’s shoulder, “Look who’s finally awake,” Sunset said with a small smile.
“... You’re not going to let me forget this are you?” Midna asked as she got up and stretched, her back facing Sunset to hide her small blush.
“Would you?” Sunset replied, her smirk evident in her voice.
“Touché,” Midna sighed, “So how long was I out?”
“Don’t know,” Sunset replied, “At least an hour, maybe two.”
“So we’ve both had a chance to rest then,” Midna said as she cricked her neck, “Good. If the Mini Boss was that bad, I’m now dreading the Boss of this place.”
“Did that ever stop us in the games?” Sunset asked.
“Nope!” Midna replied, “Time to beeline to the boss, kick ass and get my mirror back!”
As the two continued through the dungeon, they found that Midna was able to wield the hammer, however she needed her hair-hand along with her normal arms. As they explored the part that unsettled them the most were a couple Pony skeletons that had been locked in an empty room with what they thought were blood stains on the floor around the skeletons.
“... Shimmy some really fucked up shit happened here if these two were just locked in here,” Midna said as they closed the door.
“Considering the cages in the golem room, what the thief told, us and now this… no shit sherlock!” Sunset replied, “Let’s just finish this and get back. I’m so freaking done with this place it’s not even funny.”
About halfway to the Boss room, Midna had to use her hair hand to reach up to the ceiling to pull a lever that opened the door, skipping the entire room puzzle. This annoyed the thief so much they said “Would you stop using your manus capillorum already?!”
“... was that Latin?” Sunset asked, “Because that sounded Latin to me.”
“I… think it was,” Midna replied, “and considering what I just did… I guess it means ‘hair hand’ or something like that.”
“You’re not gonna stop are you?” Sunset asked with a smirk.
“Why would I?” Midna snickered, “It helps and we’ve been here long enough!”
“Agreed,” Sunset said with a firm nod, “Decent name for that skill though.”
“Meh,” Midna said as they made their way to the room where the boss key was, “Might as well call it ‘Mage Hand’ and be done with it.”
“... I didn’t know you knew about DND,” Sunset said, “We should get a game together once we’re back home.”
“... I’m going to regret making that joke aren’t I?” Midna asked before using her new Magic Hammer to squish a Shadow Bulblin.
“Most likely,” Sunset snickered, “You’d be surprised at how mean Fluttershy can be when she’s a DM.”
“... It’s always the quiet ones,” Midna sighed, “They’re either secretly kinky, sadistic or both,” Sunset just nodded, knowing how much Fluttershy loved to manipulate the party with Succubi and was scarily good at roleplaying one.
When they reached the boss key room, the two found a circular room, with a large black, chest with gold lines on it in the center. Looking around, the only enemies they saw were purple slimes that slowly made their way around the room in random patterns, “A boss key… guarded by Purple Chu… I don’t know if I should be glad or insulted!” Midna said.
“Oh just take it and let’s go,” Sunset replied, “Or do you want a fight with the golem again?”
“Oh hell no!” Midna replied with a look of fear on her face before running for the chest, “Grabbing the key!” Opening the chest Midna reached in and pulled out a large key with the top part resembling a bat, with a sun crest on one side, and moon on the other, “Now time to find that thief, ” Midna said as she dropped the key into her shadow.
“To the boss room!” Sunset cheered. Once outside the boss room the two took a deep breath, “Ready Midna?”
Midna hefted the hammer over her shoulder, “Let’s get my mirror back!” Upon opening the door the room was lit by a few floating candles that only illuminated the center of the room and the two saw two glass containers, one held Midna’s mirror, the other much to their surprise, had a piece of the Fused Shadow, “... and now we know the source of all this.”
“Indeed,” Turning the two saw a female unicorn with a light yellow coat, dark purple eyes, and her main was mostly amaranth red, with purple and grey/violet highlights, and wearing a dark purple robe with silver arcane runes, and simple black rimmed glasses walk out of the shadows. Turning the unicorn looked at the Fused Shadow, “An odd stone wouldn’t you agree? It’s full of some unknown magical power and it resonates with the power held within this mirror, and since I have both, perhaps I’ll be able to figure out how to use it...”
“Can we just get past the monologue, get to the fight so I can get my stuff back?” Midna asked, “TLDR, you’re corrupted by dark magic and we’re going to beat it out of you.”
The unicorn scoffed, “Corrupted? I think not. But if you’re so insistent on dying I’ll gladly oblige you!” Shooting a beam at the case holding the Fused Shadow, the Unicorn then levitated the Fused Shadow over to her and was engulfed in shadows and her form twisted and grew until the shadows faded revealing that the unicorn was now an eight foot tall human woman, her hair now in two large ponytails that went down to her legs, her horn replaced with a tiara with a large black crystal as it’s centerpiece and two black cloths in the shape of a horse’s head facing each other draping down from the tiara to cover her face, leaving only her mouth bare. Her robe had grown to fit her new body, the runes now glowing slightly as they moved across the robe like the stars move over the sky. A dark aura emanated from the woman as she opened her eyes, her eyes glowing a malicious garnet red.
The woman raised a hand glass around Midna’s mirror and the glass shards on the floor vanished. Moving towards the mirror, Midna yelled, “Aww hell no!” Raising her hand the mirror flew from the surprised woman’s fingers and into Midna’s waiting hand, the magic in the mirror seemed to sing as it touched the magic of its owner, “No one uses my mirror without my permission!” As she spoke the mirror started to float behind her.
The woman scowled, “I am Moon Dancer the Twilit Arcane Weaver, and I shall remove you to continue my research!” At this the crystal lights of the room burst into life revealing a huge chamber similar to the one the two had fought the golem in only this time some of the cages had skeletons in them, a couple had the metal bars bent outwards showing that what had been inside, had somehow escaped, while in others glowing red eyes moved before the skeletal head of what Sunset recognized as a Hydra slammed into the bars before slinking back into the darkness.
“Oh noticed the room’s old occupants have you?” Moon Dancer asked as she threw a small ball of fire at the two, who ducked… well Sunset did at least. Minda swung the hammer like a baseball bat, sending the fireball back at Moon Dancer twice as fast, hitting her in the chest, “Ooff, annoying pest.”
“Hi Pot, name’s Kettle,” Midna snarked.
Moon Dancer sneered as she floated high into the air, her mask one of the constellations on her dress lit up, creating a spectral cloud with sparks shooting out of it appeared moments before a large four winged eagle flew out of it, letting out a screech as it stretched its wings, bolts of lighting shooting down from the tips of it’s feathers.
“SHIT!” Midna and Sunset yelped as they both threw up a hand creating a dome of dark purple and bright red energy, moments before the bolt of lighting crashed down onto the dome. The two grunted as the electricity washed over the dome until it dissipated leaving bright blue lines in the purple and red dome, “That was too close!”
“You’re telling me!” Sunset replied, “Hey remember how that golem fought with channeling magic through the hammer?”
“Don’t know what other options we have… let’s do it!” Midna replied and started to channel magic into the hammer until the metal started to turn back. Slamming the hammer down and moments later the shadows under Moon Dancer erupted out like water as a large black orb burst out of the ground and shot at the sorceress.
“That won’t work!” Moon Dancer yelled as a different constellation lit up creating a large kite shield which blocked the orb of magic, “It’s far to predictable.”
“Predictable eh?” Midna said before an impish grin spread over her lips before channeling magic into the hammer again, “How about this then?” Slamming the hammer down another black orb half the size of the last one rocketed towards Moon Dancer.
Recreating her shield Moon Dancer scoffed, “That didn’t work the first time it won’t wor…. GAH!” Moon Dancer crashed into the ground as an identical orb that came from above hit her in the back. Slamming the hammer down again Midna created pitch black chains which burst out of the ground like a snake and tied Moon Dancer down, “Let me...go!” Moon Dancer growled as she struggled against the chains.
“How about no,” Midna replied as Sunset raced forward to rip the mask off her face revealing the upper half had become an empty void with two beads of light as eyes.
“Creepy,” Sunset said before punching Moon Dancer in the face a few times before catching a club Midna tossed over and slamming that into her back.
“I said… Let… Me… GO!” Moon Dancer roared the glow of her eyes and the light crystals lighting up nearly blinding Sunset and Midna, as Moon Dancer vanished, repairing high above the center of the arena, “Now DIE!” This time a group of wolf constellations appeared.
“Two can play that game!” Sunset said as she jumped back while a group of Midna’s Twilit Wolves took her place and began to battle the constellations.
“Wha? What are those?!” Moon Dancer yelled in shock.
“I’d tell you but… I don’t feel like it,” Midna replied before focusing magic into her mirror and shooting and arrow of dark magic at Moon Dancer striking her in the shoulder, “Neat. A new trick… Sunset you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Needs more Daka?” Sunset replied with a sinister grin.
“Daka? What are you talking about?” Moon Dancer asked as she pumped a little more magic into her constellation wolf pack, making them grow a bit to turn the tide as Midna’s wolves were starting to overrun her pack.
“DAKA!” Midna cheered as her mirror started to rotate rapidly and unleashed a barrage of magic arrows, the bombardment ending with a large orb of darkness, knocking Moon Dancer back and she slumped down.
“Did we do it?” Sunset asked as Moon Dancer’s wolves vanished.
“Doubt,” Minda replied, her wolves taking defensive positions around her and Sunset.
Moon Dancer’s head jerked up revealing massive cracks in her face, her eyes and the stars on her dress now glowing a deep red.
“Damn it,” Sunset said.
Moon Dancer let out a piercing scream making the light crystals shatter once more bathing the room in darkness, the only sources of light being her eyes and dress which were glowing immensely in the darkness, and the ball of fire Sunset ignited in her hand.
“Phase two,” Sunset muttered moments before Moon Dancer gathered a large ball of magic and unleashed it as a beam of destruction.
“HOLY!” Midna yelped as she dropped the hammer into her shadow and leapt to the side, the wolf pack scattered their eyes and blue marks also glowing faintly in the darkness.
“Isn’t this a bit much for a first boss?!” Sunset said as she started to run from bolts of dark red energy Moon Dancer sent raining down upon the group.
“Golem. Mini Boss!” Midna replied as her wolves vanished, “So far this entire Dungeon has been equivalent to at least a mid game one!”
“So now what?!” Sunset asked.
“Now I respond in kind!” Midna replied, dropping her hammer into her shadow, and focusing her magic into her mirror, the glass and back glowing white, “Take this!” Midna roared before she too dove into the darkness.
“What the fu…” Sunset started as she and Moon Dancer looked around only for Sunset to remember one of Midna’s favorite tricks in video games and looked up, spotting Midna’s mirror floating just above Moon Dancer, “Clever girl…”
“POINT BLANK BITCH!” Midna roared, unleashing a highly concentrated beam of magic, the symbols on her mirror forming rings around the beam as it shot into the floor. Moon Dancer screamed in pain as the force of the attack slammed her against the ground. When the attack faded Moon Dancer had returned to her unicorn form, the Fused Shadow laying next to her.
“One down… two to go,” Sunset panted as she fell to her knees while Midna took the Fused Shadow piece and put it away, “By the Goddesses that sucked.”
“You’re telling me…” Midna panted, “We really need to find a proper way to train, because we got so fucking lucky to get through that will little to no damage.”
“Agreed… for now let’s just take Moon Dancer and get out of here,” Sunset said as a light blue circle of magic appeared in the center of the room, “And on cue, one exit portal.”
Midna lifted Moon Dancer with her hair hand and the three entered the portal. Light blinded them for a moment before they were standing outside the school, the Wall of Twilight that had been around it nowhere in sight, “Were you two successful?” Princess Luna asked as she walked up to the three.
“Yup. Here’s the thief,” Midna said motioning to Moon Dancer, “She had a piece of a Twilit Artifact which messed with her mind… also did you know there’s a HUGE section to this place where they experimented on animals in the past underground?”
“Yeah. We saw the skeletons of the animals… pony skeletons too,” Sunset scowled, “Way down there is under the old divination classroom… so have fun sorting that mess out.”
Luna and some of the nearby guards looked a bit pale at the mention of the skeletons before their faces hardened, “I see. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. My Sister has a lot to answer for,” Turning her head she gave a nod and a group of guards walked past her to start the investigation, “I’ll make sure the thief is scanned for any lingering effects and that she is punished for the theft of a powerful artifact. Since she was influenced by an artifact of your people Miss Midna that will be taken into consideration before her punishment is decided. Now why don’t we get you two back to the mirror so you can head home and rest?”
“Thank you,” Sunset said before she yawned, human again now that she wasn’t in the Twilight Realm.
“Yeah… I’m exhausted after all that,” Midna agreed, “How long were we in there?”
“About four hours,” Luna replied as the trio stated walking back to the castle, “Can you tell me what happened in the school?”
“Alright,” Midna said as the trio made their way back to the castle. The two finished once they’d reached the mirror room where Celestia was waiting.
Before Celestia could say anything Luna turned to Sunset and Midna, “I know you had your reasons but thank you for dealing with the situation… and alerting me to the state of the underground section of my sister’s school…” Celestia gulped hearing that her school’s secret had been discovered, “I shall have someone I trust look into finding out how to open the mirror’s portal whenever we wish, and if need be alter where it opens on your side for more security.”
“Once again thank you,” Sunset said with a small bow to Luna, “Though I don’t know how you’ll be able to contact us if you succeed…”
“We’ll figure something out,” Luna replied with a small smile, “If need be I can simply ask some crows to go through and look around. Very few people ever pay attention to an extra crow or two.”
“Too true!” Midna chuckled. With one last wave Midna and Sunset went through the mirror to get some much needed rest.
“Now my sister… you have some explaining to do,” Luna said darkly as she turned to Celestia who shuddered under Luna’s cold glare. This was not going to be an enjoyable conversation.
Midna and Sunset left the portal, the school was quiet as the Fall Formal had ended a couple hours ago, “I am SO glad we don’t have school tomorrow,” Midna said, “All I want to do right now is go home, take a shower then fall in bed.”
“Same,” Sunset said before yawning, “Perhaps tomorrow we can hit the spa. We’re going to need it with how sore we’ll be.”
“Oh man, the spa sounds fantastic right now,” Midna replied as the two started the walk home. Once they got home they froze as they entered the house as there was a light on in the kitchen, “Another thief?” Midna whispered.
“Oh do come in girls,” A female voice called out, “We have to have a talk before you two head off to bed.”
Midna and Sunset looked at each other before making their way to the kitchen where they found a woman with shoulder length dark green hair, tanned skin, wearing an artic blue coat over an orange shirt with a grey wolf’s face surrounded by autumn leaves around it, blue jeans and white sneakers. Her eyes are sapphire blue and have a few bags under them as if she hadn’t slept in a couple days.
Sitting at the other side of the table from the woman, Midna said, “I don’t mean to sound rude but… who are you and why are you in our house?”
The woman grinned, “My name is Roxane and as of today I’m now your landlord, though that’s not the reason I’m here. The reason is I’m now the one in charge of your…” Roxane paused as if trying to figure out the right word, “... Case I suppose will work. You see the one who sent you here, retired and unlike some of my colleagues I like to get to know the Displaced I’m looking after.”
“... Displaced?” Sunset asked.
Roxane then gave a quick explanation about the surprisingly common phenomenon, “Many of my colleagues have the habit of just sending someone off and moving on. I on the other hand take much fewer cases as I am way more picky about who I Displace…” Roxane then pulled her sleeve back and checked her watch and sighed, “I’m sorry but I need to get going, but before that…'' Roxane then snapped her fingers and Midna and Sunset felt slightly rejuvenated, “That’ll make it so that you’re not ungodly sore tomorrow, and this…” Roxane then pulled a red crystal and a letter out of her pocket and placed it on the table, “Will help you contact someone to teach you how to fight. I’ll let him fill you in on how to make something like this. Any questions?”
“Do we get a reward for doing so well in the dungeon?” Midna snarked.
“Me healing you is the reward,” Roxane smirked, “Now that letter has everything you need to know about where to send the rent. Good night girls,” With a second snap of her fingers Roxane vanished.
“So… we’re not going to question that? Like at all?” Sunset asked, looking from the table to Midna.
“Too tired to question it. Just want my bed,” Midna replied as she got up, “All I can say is whether I'm sore or not I’m still going to hit the spa tomorrow.”
“Amen to that!” Sunset yawn, “G’night Midna.”
“Night Sunset,” Midna replied as left the kitchen. Once in her bedroom she put the Mirror of Shadows back in its proper place, then turned to her bed, sat down, took off her shoes before finally getting under the covers and instantly fell asleep. The next morning Midna sat up stretched and yawned before getting out of bed and getting ready for the day.
Upon reaching the kitchen she saw Sunset had already laid out a simple breakfast of eggs, a couple slices of fruit and a bowl of oatmeal and was sitting at the table eating her own food. The crystal Roxane left still sitting on the table, “Morning,” Midna yawned as she sat down.
“Morning,” Sunset replied, “Some night huh?”
“Do you mean telling our friends the truth, the dungeon or falling asleep the moment our heads hit the pillow?” Midna asked.
“Yes,” Sunset smirked.
“Smartass,” Midna chuckled. The rest of breakfast was in silence, both girls lost in thought.
“Oh I sent Fluttershy and Rarity notes saying we got your Mirror back and will most likely take today and the weekend to relax. Thank the Din that Principal Celestia gave us a three day weekend after the Fall Formal,” Sunset said.
“Still weird that her counterpart turned out so…” Midna said, trying to find a polite way to put it.
“Be such a bitch?” Sunset sighed bluntly, “Yeah… I know. I grew up admiring her, learning from her then…” Sunset scoffed, “No one ever said heroes didn’t have their flaws, and if they did then they never met Princess Celestia.”
“So what do you think this thing is?” Midna asked as she picked up the crystal Roxanne left.
“Maybe one of those Tokens…” Sunset started and as she said ‘Token’ the crystal lit up in crimson light blinding the two girls as they vanished leaving the dirty dishes on the table.
-Somewhere In Ponyville-
A sizable, three foot in diameter red orb shined brightly in the dark of a basement. A soft orange fire rose from the orb as it licked away the shadows of a stoney thirty foot wide and long haphazardly dug out room just shy of twenty feet in height, a single stone staircase with metal rails leading up to a set of four foot wide by four foot long set of wooden double doors. Somewhat obscured by the flickering darkness had been a sixteen foot tall and five foot wide dragon's skull, behind it had been the rest of it's remains woven into the form of a ten foot high, fifteen foot wide dome.
Sitting beside the shining orb had been a man no taller than five foot eight inches with brown skin, patches of brown scale on his cheeks with short, yet somewhat spiky brown hair and golden eyes that appeared to pierce the darkness. He sat cross legged wearing blue robes with a golden chain connecting the upturned collar with a book in his hands titled "Equestria: A History of Magic".
Humming quietly, his peace was disturbed by the sound of the entrance being thrown open, a young girl, five foot six inches in height with peach tone skin, golden blonde hair held in a two foot long side ponytail and tied with a red ribbon. Slit crimson eyes pierced through the dark as light shined from eight, three inch high bismuth colored prisms that hung from a pair of five foot long branches of wood shaped like a pair of wings, two inch metal plates covered the base of her wings as well as a pair of metal bands just an inch before the tip of said wings.
Yawning, the girl hovered her way deeper into the cavern as more of her form became visible… and it was painfully obvious that she wasn't fully clothed. Her only form of clothing had been stone plates adorning a short green skirt and a towel that thankfully covered her torso.
"Dumbass!" She called out, "I'm bored~ Let's do something not boring!" She whined as she put her head on his lap and looked at the man's book, "Ugh, why are you so boring?"
"Life isn't all blood, dismemberment and destruction, Veronica~" The man teased back as he closed his book and pet the girl's head, the irate blonde biting at his fingers before chewing on them. Of course, their peace was disrupted by a loud popping sound comparable to a balloon's rupture as a pair of young women fell before the pair.
"Finally, some excitement!" Veronica shouted with palpable annoyance which quickly grew to a sadistic grin… at least until she was pulled down by her skirt.
"Down girl, they could be friendly," The robed man replied as he took the orb, exerting his will upon it as the darkened room brightened to better reveal the pair.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!” The blue skinned girl yelled as she got to her feet, “I swear if this is Roxanne’s idea as a joke I will find a way to get payback. Preferably with my hammer meeting her face!”
“Revenge planning later,” The red and yellow haired girl said, “We need to figure out where in Din’s name we are.”
"Equestria, you landed in Dumbass's basement," Veronica replied as she pointed at said 'Dumbass' before crossing her arms, "You going to give me a reason to let you live? I was in the middle of something," Though she sounded rather irate, it was quite obvious she wanted the pair to act just as antagonistic.
“I call bullshit,” the blue skinned woman said, crossing her arms with a raised eyebrow, “You look bored as fuck… and what’s with the cave girl look?”
"FIGHT ME!" Veronica shouted before once more being pulled back, the man behind her sighing as he stood up.
"That's my fault," The man said apologetically, "It was the first thing I gave her to wear after an… incident… and she doesn't wear much besides it."
"Don't act like you don't like it~" The blonde said with a teasing tone as she poked his face.
Clearing his throat, the man looked at the pair, "My name is Azure, and… though I'd rather not assume… your names are?" He seemed to ask as he gestured his right hand to the girls.
“Name’s Midna and this is Sunset,” Midna said with Sunset giving a small wave as she gained an imp like grin, “And I thought your name was Dumbass?” Sunset just sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
Veronica slowly grinned, her sharp fangs glistening, "I like this one."
"Well, you did want something to happen," Azure pointed out, "This is about as something as we can get… and please… put on the rest of your armor…"
Veronica rolled her eyes before turning her back, whipping her towel off as a stone and cloth chest plate appeared on her person, covering the top half of her torso, her stomach and waist left bare as she turned back, "There, happy?"
"No, but we have guests," Azure said as he sighed, "Shall we move somewhere with better lighting?" He asked Sunset and Midna.
“Great. There’s two of her now,” Sunset muttered, “And yes please. We just finished with a giant dimly lit basement as our first ‘Zelda Dungeon’, so… kinda annoyed to be in one again.”
Nodding, Azure took his orb and shined it's light so as to illuminate their way out. Though he did stop for a few seconds, "Probably shouldn't have made this place so deep… can either of you fly?"
“I can in my Imp form but…” Midna shrugged, “Only about six maybe seven feet above the ground? Never really tried to see how high I can go.”
“Nope,” Sunset said, “Never learned that kind of spell.”
Azure hid an excited smile and turned away while humming in thought, "You have access to your imp form… well. I suppose we can do this one of two ways. We can both fly you up, Veronica carries Sunset and Midna, in her imp form, can hang off one of the belts on my robe."
“Nah. I have a better idea,” Midna smirked as she sank into the shadows.
“Now you only have to get me up there,” Sunset grinned, “Simple no?”
"That was so cool…" Azure whispered as he looked on in awe. Shaking his head, he motions to the blonde who only rolled her eyes.
"Why don't you carry her?" Veronica asked incredulously.
"Because I don't want any misunderstandings," Azure replied as he crossed his arms, the blonde sighing as she looked at Sunset.
"Alright, how do you want me to carry you?" She asked with an annoyed look. When Sunset shrugged Veronica just scooped the teen up into a bridal carry, “Don't complain about this later~"
Sunset gave Veronica a blank look before groaning, “This really is like having two Midna’s around.”
"Does Midna walk around commando as well?" Azure asked as a pair of six foot draconic wings unfurled from his back.
"Don't give her ideas," Sunset pleaded.
"Too late!" Midna snickered from the shadows.
"Hah! I really like her!" Veronica cheered as she flapped her "wings", the beat throwing her into the air as she flew up along the stairs, shortly followed by Azure.
Once outside, the group was met with a gentle breeze, a shining sun resting in the sky just before midday and a calming temperature. Surrounding them had been several rustling trees, a few looked frail and decayed while the rest seemed strong and lush, their leaves a very dark green. Behind them was a two story house that looked more like a rustic manse.
"Shall we go inside?" Azure asked as he gestured to the back door of the house.
Rising out of the ground Midna stretched, “Nice place. Wonder if our version of Equestria has an area like this.”
"Have you been to Ponyville?" Veronica asked, still carrying Sunset.
"Actually, that's a rather curious question," Azure muttered as he opened the door and ushered everyone inside, "What is your Equestria like?"
“All I’ve seen so far is a small bit of Canterlot and it’s castle,” Midna shrugged, “And most of that time was spent in… Celestia’s,” Midna spat out the the name as if it was one of the most foul things she’d ever tasted, “School since a unicorn named Moondancer somehow had a piece of the Fused Shadow and when the portal between Equestria and the Human World opened, and somehow got through the wards I set up around our house and stole my Mirror of Shadows.”
“I still call bullshit on that dungeon,” Sunset said, “An indestructible Golem as the Miniboss with a magic channeling hammer and the only way to take it down being to destroy it’s control spires? On top of Moondancer’s Twilit Arcane Weever form? If that was in a game it would at least be a Mid-Game dungeon.”
"Sounds like someone or some thing wants you both dead," Azure commented as he led everyone to a fairly spacious living room, Veronica sitting down on a couch… Sunset still in her arms, "Nica, please put her down…"
"Nah~" The blonde quickly replied with a smug face.
"Still, the way you mentioned her Royal pain in the ass…" Azure muttered before sighing, "We unfortunately don't have to deal with her… but we do hide in here from her and her prying eyes."
“She literally said and I quote ‘all beings of Darkness like you deserve to dwell within the Twilight Realm’,” Midna growled.
“Right in front of her sister,” Sunset added before slipping out of Veronica’s grasp to sit on a couch next to Midna, “And after that I can honestly say… I do NOT want Midna’s anger directed at me.”
"Nothing scarier than an angry eldritch being," Azure commented, "Not that that's a bad thing!" He shouted hurriedly.
“I’m more confused why you called me an eldritch being,” Midna laughed, “Plus I was in my Imp form when that happened.”
Azure chuckled a little, "Hey, I played Twilight Princess. That monstrous form Midna took when breaking the barrier on the castle is as Eldritch Horror as you can get."
"And I have no idea what you're talking about," Veronica commented, looking both bored and miffed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Midna said, “Though I do have one question before we get onto the more important stuff.”
"Shoot," Azure offered.
“Why is the term ‘Displaced’ used when it’s basically the same thing as an Isekai ?” Midna asked.
"The hell is an Isekai?" Azure asked in confusion, "Wait… what… year did this happen to you?"
“Twenty-nineteen,” Midna said, “And an Isekai is an anime trope when a normal person is teleported to a different world, sometimes in a different form, and always with at least one new ability… kinda surprised you don’t know it since it’s an old anime trope. Inuyasha is a very good example even though that’s just time travel, and while I may not like the story, Sword Art Online is another good example.”
Azure blinked once… then twice… Veronica walked up to him and gave the back of his head a whack as he shook off the feeling, "Ah… Okay, so I was living in Mexico for a good long while and I was uh… Isekai'd I suppose twenty fifteen. I haven't heard that term at all."
“Weird,” Sunset shrugged.
"I heard guests!" A high pitched child-like voice called out from the walls as a small, three foot and translucent spectral being appeared from the floor. It's appearance seemed to be a mix of a rabbit and a small bear cub wearing a metal viking-like helm with holes for their elongated ears and holding a small iron axe. The ghost looked around with their pale icy blue eyes before gasping and smiling brightly at Midna and Sunset, "SAAALUTATIOONS!" The ghost cheered, throwing both arms in the air.
Mida released a squeal as she dove at the small creature much to Sunset’s surprise cuddled the small ghost, “You’re so adorable!”
The ghost simply allowed herself the contact, giggling all the while, "Ah~ I do miss hugging~"
"You hug me all the time, Veral," Azure commented with a smirk.
"Yes, but that's because you're my baby boy~" Veral replied.
"Hah! Momma's boy!~" Veronica teased, Azure only rolling his eyes as he blushed.
"Besides the point… there's a reason you're both here, isn't there?" Azure asked.
“To make a long story short, after we got home from the Dungeon there was a woman named Roxanne waiting for us in the kitchen,” Sunset explained, “She said she was our new land lord and had taken up Midna’s ‘case’ as a Displaced, told us about them and left a red crystal on our table. We were too tired to do much so we just went to bed. Next morning we had breakfast and Midna picked up the crystal wondering if it was a Token. Next thing we know we’re here.”
Azure looked worried at this, "None of my tokens should be remotely activated like that…" He murmured before sighing. Shrugging, he started to look through his robes before pulling out a cut crystal colored a vibrant red, "Is this what you touched?"
“Yup,” Midna said as she pulled her own red crystal out of her shadow.
"You're holding a Destruction Diamond," Azure explained, "Normally, this gem will amplify your affinity for darkness and fire. Should you or someone else attempt to damage the Diamond, the spirit within will seep out and attempt to kill everyone."
“So use it in emergencies, got it,” Midna said, putting it back in her shadow.
"Oh no, go nuts," Azure said with a smile, "Just keep it from getting damaged."
"Wait, you never told me that would happen," Veronica said as she glared at Azure.
"I've never had a reason to," The man replied simply.
“So… Roxanne said you’d be able to teach us how to fight?” Sunset said, “We were mostly just lucky to get through the dungeon with little to no damage.”
“Well luck and knowing the Zeldra tropes,” Midna snickered.
"Fists, weapons or magic?" Azure asked with a smirk.
"Please say it's fists!" Veronica exclaimed with a wild smile.
"Down girl," Both Azure and Veral said in unison as the blonde slumped.
“Well we both have magic, Midna has some special weapons including her Mirror of Shadows, we’re both decent with a bow and while we were in the dungeon we stole a couple of the Shadow Bokoblin’s clubs and some Shadow Lizalfos scimitars and shields… oh and some of the Shadow Bokoblin’s arrows too.”
“Though you were in a more… demonic form while in the dungeon which as far as we know is what gave you access to your magic,” Midna said, now sitting on a couch with Veral on her lap.
"Then what would you like to focus on first?" Azure asked, "For example, I can teach Sunset here everything I know about pyromancy. Midna, I'm well versed in darkness and shadow magic, but I'm also adept with various forms of armaments."
"He also knows how to use his hands~" Veronica added as she slowly wrapped her arms around Azure from behind, the man blushing up a storm as she snickered.
“You tease him with innuendos a lot don’t you?” Midna snickered while Sunset had buried her face in her hands.
"Not my fault he likes it," Veronica replied.
"Please don't tell anyone our business…" Azure said weakly as he tried not to look anyone in the eye.
"And stop being such a hussy!" Veral shouted as she waved her arm at the blonde.
“It’s fine… I do the same thing to Shimmy,” Midna replied with her imp like grin.
“Why are we roommates again?” Sunset asked.
“Because we’re the best of friends and life would be boring without me,” Midna snickered.
“... damn it you're right,” Sunset sighed.
"Just friends?" Veronica asked curiously.
"So who wants training!?" Azure questioned as he quickly got up, an embarrassed smile on his face.
"I wouldn't mind learning some more offense oriented magic," Midna said, "Before yesterday all I did was work on wards and defensive magic to not let our friends know about what I can do… since they now know a little more about me I might let them know I have magic apart from shifting to my Imp form."
"And I have been meaning to learn some hand to hand combat…" Sunset mussed.
"Great, so how long will you two be staying?" Azure asked as he pulled out a piece of parchment and a pen.
“Well… we have a three day weekend back home but I don’t know if time works differently here...” Midna said.
"It has to," Sunset said, "It was around eight thirty when we left and it's nearing noon now."
"Hmm… that's a weird discrepancy," Azure mumbled, "Oh well, no use worrying about it for now," With this, he moved to the backyard door once more, "Coming?"
“Yeah yeah,” Midna said, rolling her eyes as she let Veral get up before moving to join Azure, “We’re coming. Don’t let Veronica’s wing hit yeah as we pass by.”
"Well, we have a few options," Azure said once they were outside once again, "We can train all of your physical abilities out here or we can go into the Everfree and we can train your magic in there."
“Why can’t we train with magic here?” Sunset asked, “And again I don’t know if I can use magic outside the Twilight Realm yet.”
"Did I mention the part where I'm hiding from Celestia?" Azure asked, "I can't risk her recognizing my magical signature or yours," He explained, "Plus, you may be human, but you're still in Equestria. We just need to awaken your core, and to do that… well, have you ever been inside someone's mind?"
“No, fair point, haven’t thought of it that way and no,” Sunset said, “Alright into the Everfree it is.”
Almost as if reacting to her words, the forest opened up, several small golden orbs floating near the entrance, "I'll lead the way," Azure offered as the group made their way in.
The deeper they entered, the more the dead trees began to thin out as more magically charged willows and oaks came into view, the same golden orbs floating within the forest having nestled themselves into the trees.
Midna shuddered, “This place is just teaming with Light Magic… I can feel it tingling on my skin.”
“Not just Light Magic,” Sunset said, “Nature Magic as well. Is this what the Everfree is supposed to be like instead of dark and gloomy like the one in our world?”
"This forest fell into disrepair," Azure began to explain, "Years and years of neglect as well as a certain chaos spirit filling the earth below with magic drinking seeds. Thankfully, someone fixed it."
“We’ll make sure to let Luna know about those seeds,” Sunset said, “Any idea where they’re most likely to be located?”
"Tree of Harmony," Azure replied as several golden orbs lit up along the surrounding shrubbery, "They were put there, to my knowledge, as a means to drain the tree of its power."
“... Didn’t know there was a Tree of Harmony but I’ll take your word for it,” Sunset said, writing down what Azure told her on a piece of paper Veronica handed herm “Now then you said something about awakening my magical core?”
"Hm? Oh right, I'll be taking a quick dive into your mind," Azure explained, all the while, the orbs in the shrubs blinked as they seemed to watch and follow the group, "You should be fully conscious as this happens which will make things that much smoother."
“That’s not ominous,” Sunset said sarcastically.
"Surprised you two haven't noticed the wolves," Veronica said absentmindedly, arms crossed behind her head in boredom. The orbs blinked again as the shrubbery rustled… but hadn't done much else. At least until a tiny yip echoed from Midna's right foot, a small ankle high dog shaped mass of golden white wood looking up at her expectantly.
“What a cute puppy,” Midna said as she knelt down to pet it, “Wanna see my wolves?”
The shrubs rustled again, ten more adult sized wooden wolves poking their heads out in curiosity, "I think that's a yes," Azure said with a chuckle.
Midna snapped her fingers and three Twilit Wolves jumped out of portals, padded over to the wooden wolves to examine them.
There has seemed to be a bit of apprehension from the wooden pack, but after a few sniffs, the wooden wolves calmed down quickly enough.
"Twilit wolves…" Azure whispered in awe, "Aren't they susceptible to the sun?"
"Twilit Wolfos to use their proper names but normally yes. I think because I have an item to summon then and it's… well me summoning them their fine," Midna said, "At least that's the only thing I could think of that makes sense."
"Soul bonded summons usually carry the same defenses as their summoner," Azure reasoned, "Well… I hope everyone's ready, because it's time to train."
The trees gave way to a large clearing, a round stone floor fifteen feet in diameter seemingly built into the ground as a massive oak tree well above eighty feet towered over the land. The sounds of explosions could be heard in the distance, though Azure and Veronica seemed to pay no mind to this.
"Well, why don't we get comfortable before anything major happens?" Azure asked as he set down a blanket he pulled from… somewhere as a pair of the forest wolves pulled out a wooden cart filled with a teapot, tea set, and various breads and cookies.
“So how are we going to do this?” Sunset asked as she sat down on a blanket.
"You just stay still while I place my hand on your head and enter your mind-scape," Azure replied, "Again, it should be painless."
“Well don’t blame me if you go anyplace you shouldn’t,” Sunset said, “With Midna as a roommate… well there’s a lot of weird stuff in my mind.”
“She’s not wrong,” Midna chuckled, “Then again we’re gamers so that’ll also have some weird stuff in there.”
Azure hummed as he pooled mana into his palm, "Hmm… might have to prepare a landing pad…" Gently, he placed his now glowing left hand onto Sunset's head as the world seemed to dissolve around him and teen.
Falling through a void, he landed on what looked like a thin sheet of glass that sealed in a rather large brain, "Hokay… now you should be somewhere…" Azure slowly began to look for Sunset, hopeful that she would be awake in her own mind.
“Yo,” Sunset said from right behind Azure, making him jump, “So where do we go from here?”
Taking a quick breath, Azure sighed and stretched, "Mm~ Here should be fine. Now then, I'll just be placing a small bit of my magic inside of you and see if I can get your core to wake up…" That said, he quickly formed a wisp of fire with a flick of his wrist and rolled it around until it became a bit more solid. Once the ball of flame had turned into what was essentially an orange marble, he let it drop as it phased through the glass, "Now we wait."
“How long does this normally take and what’s the sign it worked?” Sunset asked.
"Well, when I tried this with Twilight, her horn started to act up as bursts of magic just popped off randomly," Azure explained, "You were a unicorn once, I think, your magic should just flare up."
Moments later sparks and then gouts of fire erupted from Sunset’s hands, “You mean like that?” she asked as she willed the fire to stop.
"Yup!" Azure said happily, "Let's see… depending on how strong that was… well, Veronica and Midna are out there so it should be fine…" He muttered cryptically before brightening up again, "Ah well. Anything you'd like to do in here?"
“Hmm… I can’t think of anything at the moment… oh! Perhaps try to find out why I went all demonic in the Twilight Realm?” Sunset said, “Right now the current hypothesis is that because I spent so much time around Midna, her Mirror and Wards, I've absorbed some of her magic at a slow enough pace that I’ve adapted to it.”
"Ooh boy, that is a can of worms…" Azure whispered as he held his chin, "Well, in baseline, Sunset Shimmer became a demon after obtaining the Element of Harmony, Magic. It may be the same or it may be different in your case as, with enough magic… well, demon form."
“... Damn multiverse theory,” Sunset groaned as she rubbed her forehead while the image of her demon form appeared before the two, “Well I never stole the Element of Harmony. I at least know better than to go mucking about with magical artifacts that need to pick their user. Plus the portal closed this morning and I had more important things on my mind while in Equestria. Like trying not to die while in the Dungeon.”
Azure nodded at this, "That's… actually good to hear. It's good to know there are other Sunset's with a good head on their shoulders. Though… there are always those few…" The image of Sunset in her pony form appeared, the mare staring darkly at a mirror which appeared to show her with a pair of wings before it fades away, "I have a good feeling about you though."
“Oh I saw that too but… Well Midna being Midna helped get me out of that mindset,” Sunset shrugged, “Now I don’t give a damn… doubly so after what… The Princess said about her.”
"The Luna from this world will give you a whole list of reasons to not like Celestia," Azure commented, "Anyway, we could spend more time in here and I can show you a few spells, or we can go back out there and teach you those same spells at a… slower rate, but at least the others won't wonder if you're alright or not… or at least Midna? Veronica's hard to read sometimes…"
“I think Midna would be more likely to consider how to get payback on you if you mess with my mind,” Sunset said drily, “And she can get… creative. Still surprised I haven’t gotten her into my D&D group yet but Fluttershy is not going to stop pestering her to join at least once in a while once I tell her Midna made a D&D reference.”
"Heh, I D&D'd once… that was fun," Azure murmured in happy remembrance, "So, waking up then?"
“Yup,” Sunset said. Once more, the world turned dark as Sunset gasped, her first sight being Azure pulling his hand away.
"Ooh, and she left scorch marks~" Azure said with palpable excitement as he pointed at a pair of black marks upon the stone next to Sunset.
"So she can use magic now?" Veronica asked, skeptical of the success. Flames burst into life and danced around Sunset’s fingers while she smirked, "Okay… guess it worked."
"And with enough work, she can have that fire burn hotter until it becomes plasma…" Azure muttered with darkened glee before clearing his throat, "In time of course."
“Something to look forward to,” Sunset snickered, “Man those Twilit Lizalfos are going to hate me once I start casting Heat Metal on them.”
“... I think anyone would hate you if you do that,” Midna deadpanned.
"Ah, I heard slow cooking lizards offers the best taste~" Azure said jokingly while Nica seemed to salivate.
“Well they don’t leave corpses so sadly we’ll never know,” Midna said sarcastically.
“And unless you take their weapons before they die… well they don’t normally drop their weapons,” Sunset shrugged.
"So it's not like Wind Waker where the weapon drops regardless?" Azure asked, "I'm surprised you two are still alive."
“As we said, luck and knowing zelda tropes,” Midna shrugged, “Plus having my wolves helps.”
"Hey, if you need weapons, Dumbass here has a lot," Veronica commented as she poked Azure's face.
“I’d rather learn how to use what we already have,” Midna said with a shrug, “But weapon training later. Magic training now. Speaking off… How are you going to teach me Shadow magic?"
Nodding, Azure stood up and dusted himself off before pulling back his robes. Wind swept by as he seemingly disrobed to reveal… another set of robes. This new set was an onyx black, form fitting robe underneath a lighter, tattered charcoal black duster, dirty bandages wrapped around his forearms, a belt with a vibrant red jewel as its buckle, black sandals, a necklace with a tiny skull, and finishing off the look was a black tiara with a red gem and a flowing black cape that may or may not have been green at one point.
"Ah, much better…" He murmured as he began to will the shadows at his feet to rise and writhe.
“If you're trying to Cosplay as a Fire Emblem Dark mage I’d give ya a six out of ten,” Midna said then looked at Veronica, “Didn’t you say the costume party was next week? Why’d he break it out early?”
"Oh come on, I don't look that bad," Azure said with a jovial smile.
"You look like a dork!" Veronica shouted in response. Said response only caused the man to smile fondly, the blonde blushing and looking away.
"Anyway… these robes are a bit more in tune with the darkness," Azure explained, "These should help me, and by extension you, in understanding the Darkness itself."
“Well don’t go all ‘Heartless’ on us,” Sunset snickered, “You’re sounding a bit like Ansem Seeker of Darkness there.”
Azure chuckled at this as he began to form four palm sized ink black orbs, "Well, he was half right anyway… The Heart, not the Mind, is the wellspring of all magic. The greatest magicians of their times understood that it was love, not hate, that fueled their spells."
“The code of the Final Fantasy Black Mages,” Sunset chuckled, “Love not Hate… still odd how that ends up with Meteor and Ultima.”
"Or the Master Spark if you know about Touhou," Veronica added.
"All good examples," Azure stated solemnly, "Now then, I don't have very many spell scrolls for dark based spells so everything I teach you will have to be learned from this suit. As such, we'll start off with you getting a feel for its brand of magic."
Slowly, the orbs encircled Midna and began to hover around her, “... Feels different to my magic,” Midna shrugged, “Similar but still different.”
"Not surprised," Azure offered, "Your magic is… alien, for lack of a better word. Magic like this is more… human. Now, I'm going to cast a spell and you'll have a chance to familiarize yourself with its structure and composition before attempting it yourself. Sound good?"
“Works for me,” Midna said.
“And in the meantime,” Sunset said as looked at Veronica, “You mentioned being willing to teach hand to hand combat?” Veronica's grin slowly grew, her sharpener teeth glistening in whatever visible light there was.
"I won't make it easy~" Veronica replied.
Meanwhile, Azure had conjured a giant, torso sized fist made from shadows and let Midna examine it.
“You’re trying to see if I can get a Zant Hand with this aren’t you?” Midna asked with a smirk.
"A what now?" Azure asked curiously, "Oh! Huh… that's a bit of a coincidence… no no. This spell is, funnily enough, called Gybbi's Elemental Fist.”
After examining the spell for a few more moments Midna tried to cast the spell and while she succeeded her shadowy hand, had light blue lines and runes similar to her mirrors, “Huh… wasn’t expecting those lines.
"Not unexpected, however," Azure commented, "Shall we continue?"
“Alright,” Midna said with a thoughtful frown, “Though shouldn’t we test to see if it’s usable?”
"Of course!" Azure cheered, "Practicality is just as important as theory," With that, he poured magic into his shadow as a ragged tan robe rose from it, two thin arms reaching out before the left hand pulled out an aged umbrella and unfurled it, "Here, your target."
Midna focused for a moment, flicked her wrist and the shadowy fist shot at the umbrella… only to splash against it like water dealing no damage, "Well that's not what I wanted… ok next try."
Meanwhile, Veronica was taking her time to review Sunset's fighting stance, which were all basic and ineffective, “So where did you want to start?” Sunset asked.
"Arms up!" Veronica ordered as she swiftly tapped Sunset's left elbow with her index and middle finger, "Feet shoulder length apart," She continued as she slid the teen's feet in place, "Knees bent!" Another swift tap, "Chin down," She then slightly tilted Sunset's head down, "Not bad, but better… now throw a punch."
“Considering your… abrasive personality I was expecting more of a drill sergeant type of teaching approach,” Sunset said then threw a punch into Veronica’s open palm.
Catching it, Veronica gave her fist a tight squeeze before letting go, "Just because I'm pissed twenty four seven doesn't mean I can't focus, now throw another punch," Throwing another punch Veronica caught it again with a smirk, “Plus Azure would never believe you.”
“... You really are way too similar to Midna,” Sunset sighed, “Minus the whole being angry all the time bit.”
"Blame Flandre," Veronica replied dryly before her eyes thinned into slits, "DODGE!" Was all she shouted before she moved to tap Sunset on her forehead.
“You know that’s more distracting than helping right?” Sunset asked as she rubbed her forehead.
"Not unless you're paying attention," Veronica replied as she crossed her arms, "Actually dodge this time," With that, Veronica continued to take whacks at Sunset.
Time passed quietly for the pair, Veronica constantly pushing Sunset's limits in both offense and defense. Though, more time had passed than they thought as Midna, Azure, as well as a pair of wolves approached with a cart of food.
"Almost dinnertime, ladies!" Azure said cheerfully.
“Already?” Sunset asked, surprised at how quickly time had flown. Looking up she saw the sun nearing the horizon, “Huh. Would you look at that?”
“Hey Shimmy check this out!” Midna cheered as the shadows pooled under Sunset then formed a near solid disk which raised up lifting Sunset and Veronica a couple of feet into the air.
“Woh,” Sunset said as she quickly regained her balance, “You sure you should use shadow magic outside the forest?”
“It’s fine,” Midna said as Sunset lowered back to the ground, “This little bit of magic won’t cause any problems.”
"We can always say it was Luna," Azure offered.
"Where is Moon-Butt?" Veronica asked, "I don't think I saw her at all today."
"She's probably at Twilight's," Azure replied, "Other than that, who knows."
“So what’s for dinner?” Midna asked as the group started walking to Azure’s house, “And damn Shimmy you look exhausted.”
“She’s really thorough with making sure I know the basics,” Sunset shrugged.
"Gotta know how to fight if you don't want to die," Veronica said simply.
"As for food," Azure murmured as he pulled a sheet covering the cart, a baked cheesy smell immediately wafting outwards, "Looks like it's mac and cheese."
"Your ghost isn't usually that lazy," Veronica commented as she looked at the top of the cart, eyes widening slightly, "Okay, that looks good."
There were two glass casseroles, the left dish held a fairly standard made macaroni and cheese, yellow cheese and elbow macaroni. The right however consisted of a white cheese with conch shell macaroni.
“Either way they look good,” Midna said, “There the option of adding meat to these and making them a sandwich?”
A wolf gave a bark and motioned to a bottom compartment, opening it revealed a basket filled with breaded chicken filets and a loaf of bread.
"That answers that question," Azure said enthusiastically, "Ah… her cooking reminds me of home~"
“This is your home,” Sunset deadpanned, “Or do you mean before you got Isekaied?”
"Before…" Azure said wistfully, "Ah, but that's beside the point! A full belly makes a happy heart~"
After dinner the group went into the living room, “So what now… and how do we get back home?” Midna asked.
"I can send you back easily enough," Azure said as he put everything away, "I just need something from your world and I can send you on your way."
A single arrow rose from the shadows before Azure, “Would one of my arrows work?” Midna asked.
Taking the arrow, Azure inspected it before biting on the wood. Eyes closed, magic pooled in his hands before his hands became enlarged dark green claws, gold and black bracelets adorning them. With a swipe, a rift was open to reveal a kitchen, dirty plates sitting on a table.
"Ish dish ye hm?" Azure grumbled out, the arrow still locked in his teeth.
“Yup,” Midna said, “Give me a moment to go see how long we’ve been gone,” Ducking into the kitchen Midna quickly moved the dishes into the sink before moving out of sight. A couple minutes later she returned, “It’s only been a few minutes. I think given a little time I can figure out the time dilation.”
“I’ll get you some paper,” Veral said before ducking out of the room.
When she returned Midna went to work and some time later she put the pen down and rubbed her forehead, “Ok if I did this correctly I think that two days here is roughly one day in our world.”
“We’ll find someone to double check it,” Sunset said.
"Is that good?" Veronica asked as Azure nodded.
"Ish shouns gu," He replied, "Ken ah dro th'aro now?”
“Yup,” Midna said, “Worst comes to worst we’ll make something up about missing a day of school.”
Spitting out the arrow, the rift slowly closed, "Veral, please ready a room," Azure asked as the ghost gave a salute before flying off, "Not exactly a five star hotel, but I offer my home to you."
“It’s fine,” Midna said, waving him off, “Glad I took the time to grab my Mirror so I can get some practice with it in.”
"Mirror?" Azure asked, "Wait… you mean that mirror?"
The Mirror of Shadows rose from the ground and floated behind Midna, “This is my Mirror of Shadows. My main weapon when I’m not in my Imp form… though I haven’t had much practice with my weapons.”
"Well, once we have Twilight double check the time discrepancies, you'll have enough time to practice," Azure offered.
“... I’m guessing Twilight being important is common through the multiverse?” Sunset sighed, “Just like other versions of me going power hungry?”
"I think you and my Sunset would have a lot to talk about," Azure said with a sad smile, "But I do suppose Twilight is a rather important constant."
"Why is Star Butt so important?" Veronica asked curiously.
"Bah, questions for later~" Azure said with a dismissive wave and smile.
“So… How do you keep the… Sun Princess from finding you?” Midna asked, “Do you just… hide in the forest whenever she visits?”
"I can seal my magic," Azure replied, "Though… seal may be incorrect. It's rather complicated, but besides that, I used various methods before I got my hands on a mask."
"He doesn't like wearing it," Veronica added, "I don't blame him."
“Like a… Majora’s Mask kind of mask?” Sunset asked, getting a nod from Azure she said, “Who did you use the Song of Healing on to get that?”
"Queen Chrysalis," Azure murmured.
“Who?” Midna and Sunset asked simultaneously.
Azure blinked away whatever somber thoughts he held before brightening up in epiphany, "Oh! You must not have met her yet. She's the queen of a race of equine shaped, shape shifting insectoids. You'll find her kingdom nestled deep within Appleoosa's mountains."
“Something to keep in mind,” Sunset said while Midna scowled.
“What’s to bet that the Sun Princess is screwing them over too just because they’re ‘dark’?”
"Chrysalis actually has a body count," Azure replied, "Though, that may just be in the comics…"
“Comics?” Sunset asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I think I'll shut up now…" Azure whispered before chuckling awkwardly which was followed up by a hushed 'Dumbass' from Veronica.
"I brought Twilight everyone!" Veral shouted suddenly, Twilight walking into view along with a cream colored unicorn wearing a purple knit sweater with glasses who's mane was styled exactly like Twilight's, though colored a more oakish red, "Oh, and Moondancer."
“Hello,” Midna said, though it was clear she wasn’t happy to see Moondancer, her Mirror subtly moving closer to float right behind her left shoulder.
The unicorn blinked and looked at Twilight and then Azure, "Something I did? Though, considering I was holed up in Canterlot for so long I don't think I did anything…"
"Different universes, different dancers," Azure offered as the confused Moondancer slowly nodded.
Clearing her throat, Twilight stepped in, "So~ I'm told there were numbers that needed to be crunched. How may I be of assistance?"
Sunset handed Twilight the paper, "We just want to make sure that Midna did the math on the time difference between our worlds correctly."
Taking the paper in her magic, Twilight began to study its contents before a quill and parchment popped into existence next to her; the equations being repeated, "Let's see… if I'm right… Yup! Everything checks out nicely."
“Woo!” Midna cheered as she raised her fists, “First try!”
"Time dilation from separate faucets of reality…" Moondancer whispered in awe as she was handed the parchment while Midna was given the paper, "The studies we could perform together…"
Twilight giggled at this before bumping her cheek on Moondancer's, "Why don't we save that for later? We're currently guests after all."
“Hey Azure?” Midna said, “Do you have any books on shadow magic I can read?”
"Not anything for shadow magic…" He murmured before he pulled out a crystalline blue sword with a golden guard and hilt shaped much like a dragon's head. With a press against it's left eye, a blue screen appears with the image of a bag, "Let's see, let's see…" Pressing the image, he found a black tome with a skull on it, "I do however have a book on Necromancy. Would you like to take a peek?"
"Nah," Midna said, "I'd rather not be the one making Redeads… man those are going to be a pain to fight."
"I can imagine…" Azure murmured before he shivered.
"What's the problem? Aren't they just zombies?" Veronica questioned, more than a little disappointed.
"That have a scream which can paralyze you for a few seconds letting them either latch on and drain your life force or if it's a Redead Knight hit you with its heavy sword," Sunset explained.
Veronica blinked before looking at the floor and nodding, "Okay…"
"Well, we won't bother you while you sleep," Azure offered as he started to lead the blonde away.
"We should get home too," Twilight said, "Don't want to stay out too late."
"It was good to meet such… interesting outworlders," Moondancer added before looking at Sunset, "Why do you look familiar?"
"Because as someone once said.. Multiverse theory is a pain in the ass," Sunset said with a smirk, "Name's Sunset Shimmer."
"Why does that feel lik-" Moondancer went from curious to surprise, "Sunset Shimmer? I haven't seen you in… my gosh, ten? Ten years…"
"And not our Sunset," Azure said.
“So the me of this world knows you?” Sunset asked, “Huh. I never met you in my world. Then again different worlds, slightly different lives.”
The next morning found the four sitting at the table eating breakfast, “So what are we going to learn today?” Midna asked.
“I learn more about pyromancy and it’s your turn for Veronica’s lessons?” Sunset asked.
"Sounds good," Azure said happily, a glass of red viscous liquid in his hands.
"I won't go easy on you," Veronica added as she toyed with an equal, but already empty glass.
“...Uh oh,” Midna said.
“Have fun~” Sunset snickered.
"Vampires aren't exactly known for their kindness after all," Azure added, Veronica slowly smiling as the glass in her hand disintegrated almost immediately.
“Meep,” Midna said as she shuddered from Veronica’s intimidating smile.
Some time later deep in the forest Sunset said, “So… why are we training pyromancy… in the middle of a forest?”
"A magical forest," Azure corrected, "As to why, consider the alternative. Do you want Celestia finding out you're here?"
“Nope, wondering if being surrounded by flammable material is a good idea,” Sunset shrugged, “But I guess you know what you’re doing.”
"Don't worry, I can put out the flames if need be," Azure offered before once more changing his wardrobe. These new robes were colored a vibrant red with yellow lining and accents in a flame motif. The gem in his belt was an orange yellow and instead of bandages, black metal bands adorned his wrists and a black cape blew in the wind, "Nice and warm~"
"So what do we do first?" Sunset asked, "Go over what I know before moving on?"
"That would be ideal," Azure replied, "You can go ahead and aim all your fire at me," He stated as he took a grappler's stance.
The next few minutes saw a flurry of various fire spells fly at Azure, the robed man spinning to and fro as he dispelled the flames, the last spell Sunset cast surprised Azure as it wasn’t just pyromancy but mixed cryomancy spell. A large icicle with a deep purple flame caught in the center. Sadly the icicle shattered and the flame fell to the ground and went out, “Damn it,” Sunset grumbled, “I still can’t get that spell to work… not surprising since I haven’t had a chance to practice.”
"That… that was an Elemental Shaman spell!" Azure said excitedly, "Okay, okay… you probably have no idea what I'm talking about, right?"
“Nope… and I just started making that one day due to sheer boredom,” Sunset shrugged, “Took a while to get the fire the correct color let alone learning a single cryomancy spell.”
"Well, all magic is simply bending the world to your whims," Azure explained, "Agitating the hydrogen and oxygen in the air, warping it and changing its form…" His hands seemed to slide along the air as water formed at his fingertips before steaming and finally solidifying into icicles with visible wisps that looked like they would burn at a single touch, "Ah, but that can wait…"
“Alright,” Sunset said, “So by dumb luck I stumbled into something big…” A big grin then spread over her face “HA! Take that Sun Princess! She said that my experiment wouldn’t lead anywhere!”
Azure chuckled at this, "Experimentation is the base of all academic ventures. If we didn't have people thinking outside the box, we'd never be able to evolve as a species. But enough about theoretical dilemmas on the philosophies of Darwinism, let's learn you some magic!"
