I - A New Start

A New Start

“This is all wrong,” a young voice sounded within the cavernous room as she took in the large metal structure resting before her.

The voice belonged to a yellow-coated filly with a red mane and tail, who was carefully examining the twisted front of a large metal plow, the front of which was dented and fractured, as if something had hit the metal tool with a great force.

“How did he even manage to bend it this bad without actually breaking the metal?” she questioned with a hint of curiosity as she tilted her head to the side to get a better view, a large crimson ribbon atop her head flopping around with the movement.

“Apple Bloom, there you are!” an orange-coated mare shouted from the barn’s entrance as she laid eyes on the young filly now placing several tools around the dented plow. “C’mon sugarcube, we got to go or you’re gonna to be late for your first day of school!”

“But Applejack! I haven’t fixed the plow yet!” she protested from next to the makeshift forge she had built herself a few months ago while easily carrying a bag of coal that should’ve weighed far too much for such a young filly.

“No buts, missy, while Ah’m sure Big Mac will be ecstatic to have that old thing fixed, he can make do without it for a bit,” Applejack firmly replied as she moved towards the filly and started to herd her towards the door. “School comes first, you can get back to your forge later.”

Apple Bloom opened her mouth to protest that she had no need to go to a silly school, only for Applejack to give her a stern look, making her think better about voicing said thought. Even if it would mean postponing fixing the plow for a few hours, she knew a losing battle when she saw one.

Chuckling softly, Applejack couldn’t help but smile at her little sister’s antics in regards to her new hobby. “Ah swear, you are going to come back home for dinner with a blacksmith’s cutie mark one of those days,” she joyfully commented while lightly bumping the small filly in a friendly manner. “Celestia knows you’re always messing with some bit of metal or another since you built that makeshift forge of yours.”

Making a small noise to show that she was listening, Apple Bloom followed her sister out of the barn and promptly proceeded to go clean herself a little in a large barrel of water left there for just such a reason.

But even as she cleaned the bits of coal that had clung to her coat, no matter how excited she felt about the possibility of finally getting her cutie mark, Apple Bloom couldn’t help but feel that her sister’s thought wasn’t right. Yes, she liked fixing and messing around with the metal tools around the farm, and she was really good at it too! But as much as she liked the idea of forging stuff, she couldn’t help but feel that making metal tools and other such things wasn’t really the path she was meant to walk. She couldn’t really say why, it simply was.

For a brief moment Apple Bloom could swear she saw a huge furnace before her, larger than the barn itself. Its fires roared higher than any flame she had ever seen before as the stones themselves that made the walls behind it seemed to turn red with the heat. And, amidst the burning inferno, a massive sword was slowly given shape by the mighty blows of a hammer.

“Apple Bloom! Stop daydreamin’ already!” Applejack shouted from her side, an impatient look on her features. “We got to go!”

Shaking her head, Apple Bloom rushed after her sister. Putting the strange vision out of her mind, she focused on what she had to do to get ready for school instead. But even as she hastily prepared herself and followed Applejack off the farm, she couldn’t completely banish the mighty sound of hammer blows and the roaring of flames from resounding just at the edge of her hearing.

“Your technique continues to be masterful as always, dear,” a young white-coated unicorn filly heard her equally white-coated sister say primly as they finished their tea. “Oh, how I wish I had half your skills with etiquette when I was your age!”

Normally Sweetie Belle would blush and politely say that it was nothing. She simply absorbed the rules of etiquette and proper behavior Rarity insisted on teaching her when she stayed at her boutique, as their parents departed in their newest voyage, without great difficulty. She only had to be shown a rule or proper attitude once, and she seemed to know how to do it already and only needed practice to get the rust off the motions, almost as if she was remembering almost forgotten skills, much to Rarity’s elation and dramatic playful envy.

But today she simply didn’t feel like doing so, the news she had received shortly after their parents had left her at Ponyville making her feel slightly down. Naturally, that was immediately noticed by her older sister as Sweetie went to get ready for school.

“What’s wrong, Sweetie?” the fashionista gently asked as Sweetie Belle donned the small saddlebags Rarity had personally made for her that contained her school supplies. “Are you worried about starting the school year?”

“No, it’s not that, it’s just… it’s just silly. Nothing important,” Sweetie tried to assure her older sister. It was a silly stupid thing, nothing worth sharing, after all.

“Let me be the judge of that, darling,” Rarity warmly said while gently nuzzling Sweetie’s side. “You can tell me everything, you know that. So tell me, what’s wrong?”

“It’s just that… it’s just that Codex is moving away,” the young unicorn said after a moment, leaning against Rarity’s warm side. “Shortly after I arrived, when I went to the Golden Oaks library to return the books I had borrowed last time, she told me that she got offered a far better job at Canterlot’s central library and will be moving out soon. And I will miss her.”

Codex had been the little town’s librarian for as long as Sweetie could remember. Considering how much time she usually spent inside the building, and all the talks they had had as Sweetie helped the old earth pony mare with the chores around the library, she considered Codex a good friend despite the age difference between them. And one of the few that actually understood her love of reading and learning.

“Oh, Sweetie, that’s hardly a silly reason to feel a little down,” Rarity assured her as she pulled the filly close into a hug. “It’s always sad to see a friend go away, but such is life sometimes. That doesn’t mean you have to stop being friends just because she is far away. I’m sure that she would love to exchange letters with you, for instance.”

Burying her face into Rarity’s warm side, Sweetie made a small agreeing sound, feeling slightly better due to her sister’s words.

“This is not a goodbye, but merely a see you later,” the fashionista continued as she gently raised the young one’s head and gave her a small smile, a smile that took a gentle teasing tone as she continued to speak. “Especially considering how much you love your books and magic. Why, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if your not so distant future took you straight to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, in which case you will already have a friendly face there on Canterlot, waiting for you. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Sweetie had to agree that that did sound nice. Both meeting Codex again, and going to the famed school and getting access to all the tomes, books and scrolls that were stored within its hallowed halls, to be accepted into such a vaunted institution of knowledge and wisdom.

For a brief moment, she swore that she was somewhere else. Rows upon rows of spell books and tomes of arcane lore filled her view as far as her eyes could see. It was a massive library, far bigger than anything she had ever heard about, filled to the brim with arcane knowledge. And there, right upon the middle of it all she stood, her attention focused to a razor’s edge as she read books few even knew existed, much less had ever laid eyes upon, as she honed her wisdom even further.

Blinking her eyes, Sweetie banished the strange daydream with a small head shake. Sure, she loved reading, loved learning, and loved magic even more. But from there to daydream about libraries was another thing entirely. That was just silly.

Chuckling lightly, Sweetie decided that she may be reading a little too much as of late. And so, feeling far better already, she followed her sister out of the boutique and towards school. Even then, the visage of all those tomes and books remained nested deep within her mind.

“It’s okay to be nervous, you know,” a beige-coated earth pony fretfully said while all but pacing on the same spot, her eyes constantly moving from the clock on the wall to the young filly methodically packing things inside her saddlebags.

“Yes I know, Aunt Holiday,” the orange-coated pegasus filly calmly replied, not even a hint of worry or nerves showing on her small body as she finished packing her supplies for the day.

“It’s a new town, and a new school year. Feeling a little nervous is perfectly alright! You know that, right? There is no shame in that!” Holiday tried to assure the filly. Even if it seemed that she herself needed the assurance more.

Making an agreeing noise to show that she was still listening, the young pegasus neatly placed a few carefully wrapped fruits into the small saddlebag. It was frankly far more than she would need as a snack, but she always preferred to err on the side of caution and pack too much, instead of risk it and pack too little.

“You don’t have to act tough for our sake, dear,” the earth pony assured the filly for what Scootaloo knew was the fourth time this morning alone. “And remember, if you need any help, any help at all, just send word to my workplace and I or Aunt Lofty will rush right away!”

“I’ll remember, auntie, do not worry,” the filly replied with a smile, stopping her preparations for a moment to give her aunt a brief nuzzle. The action calmed the mare somewhat as she gave the filly a smile.

“Oh, I really wish things at work weren’t so hectic so that we could take you to your first day at school ourselves!” Holiday said while nuzzling Scootaloo back.

Moving back towards her saddlebags while making another agreeing sound, the pegasus filly started to make a final check that everything was in order, all the while hoping that her aunt would calm down a little now, everything was fine. She could easily handle going to school by herself. It was not like she was even slightly nervous about it, after all.

Scootaloo wasn’t trying to act tough or anything like that. It was just that, well, in truth very little really made her worry. That was all. No matter the situation she was faced with, how spooky something was, how harrowing something was supposed to be, she simply never got nervous. It was that simple, really.

She really couldn’t explain it, but every time she was faced with something that would normally make other ponies nervous or fretful, it was as if something deep within her told her that she had faced far worse before and dealt with it. So what was there to be worried about? She knew that it was a little odd. But, quite frankly, that also didn’t really bother her that much.

She was who she was, and anything that tried to disagree would be faced head on and eventually overcome. That was all that was to it.

For a brief moment she saw a monstrous beast roaring its wrath amidst a raging storm, the gargantuan creature being easily larger than Ponyville’s town hall. It was a gigantic monster covered in spikes large enough to gorge a grown pony with ease. It was a nightmarish visage straight out of a story, a beast capable of razing cities and destroying armies by itself. But, as she stood before the creature, none of that mattered to her. As she calmly drew her blade and started to move towards the great beast with sure steps, all that mattered was that it was blocking her path, and as such had to be overcome so she could keep going.

Blinking her eyes, she paid the daydream she just had little mind. It had been interesting, and even kinda cool, but not really pertinent to the situation at hoof or even really useful right now. And besides, those daydreams were just another odd thing that seemed to happen from time to time with no apparent reason. No need to get unduly worried.

Giving her aunt, who was still apologizing that she wouldn’t be able to take Scootaloo to the school due to being late for work, a tight hug and reassuring her once again that it was okay, and it really was, she went towards the door.

She knew that her family sometimes worried that she may feel neglected due to the fact that most of them were almost always busy with work. But once again, that was not the case. She understood that they were busy but loved her nonetheless. That was made clear by all the gestures of love and affection they showered her with when they had a free moment. And that, alongside the knowledge that they were all alive and well, was more than enough as far as the filly was concerned.

With a final farewell to her aunt, Scootaloo climbed atop the small scooter her parents had recently gifted her and started to buzz her small wings in order to get going. It wouldn’t do to be late to the first day of class, especially with her being a newcomer to the town.

“Now you be careful in there sugarcube, you hear me?” Applejack said as she nuzzled a very embarrassed looking Apple Bloom right in front of Ponyville’s school building.

“Applejack, stop embarrassing me!” the filly complained as she pushed her sister away. The yellow-coated filly gave her big sister a small glare as she fixed the large ribbon on her crimson mane due to the unwanted show of affection right in front of so many ponies.

“Now, now, none of that,” her older sister said with a chuckle before gently questioning, “You sure aren’t forgettin’ anythin’?

“Yes, I’m sure,” the filly replied with an eye-roll as she endured a final nuzzle from her overly affectionate big sister. “Tell Big Mac I’ll get the plow fixed after school, okay?”

“No worries, sugarcube, the big lug’ll be helpin’ me with the western orchard these next few days. So there is no rush with that,” the orange-coated mare chided her good naturedly. “And have a good day at school.”

“Yeah, sure,” Apple Bloom grouched as she started towards the school’s entrance with a final wave of goodbye to Applejack. She loved her sister, she really did. But sometimes she was kinda overbearing.

Dismissing that line of thought, she instead started to think about how best to fix and reinforce the plow so that Big Mac wouldn’t accidentally bend it out of shape with his strength, again. Really, the ease with which the stallion did so was mind-boggling! She had a few vague ideas for metal mixes that she felt would work wonders, even if she had nothing but a gut feeling to explain said feeling she knew that even her big brother would have a hard time breaking those alloys! But how best to gather the necessary materials she would need to make them?

So focused on that little conundrum was she, that Apple Bloom didn’t even notice the white unicorn filly right in front of her until she had barreled her over, bringing both of them to the ground into a heap.

Fighting back the urge to curse, Applejack wouldn’t let her hear the end of it if she found out she had done so, she tried to get free from the unicorn now splayed over her, with limited success.

“Are you two alright?” an orange-coated pegasus filly calmly asked as she moved closer to the two of them and proceeded to first help the unicorn back to her hooves before offering a hoof towards Apple Bloom too.

Apple Bloom for her part was already opening her mouth to reply that she needed no help from anybody and was more than capable of getting back up by herself, thank you very much! Only to stop and stare as her eyes locked with the two pairs of eyes now staring at her.

For a long moment none of them moved as the three fillies kept staring at each other. And as earth pony, pegasus and unicorn gazed at each others’ eyes, the rest of the world laid forgotten, the same thought passed by each of their minds. Somehow, they knew those eyes.

In a slight daze, Apple Bloom didn’t even notice as the young pegasus helped her back to her hooves as all three of them kept staring at each other as if under a spell. And as she stared into the eyes of those two strangers, Apple Bloom couldn’t help but feel that she knew them from somewhere. That she knew them far better than anyone that she had ever known. Better than even Big Mac, Granny Smith, or even Applejack. That she knew these ponies, completely and fully.

The three fillies simply stood there; completely uncaring to the fact they were starting to gather quite a bit of attention from the other colts and fillies as they crowded around the strange trio blocking the hallway. They stood there, staring at each others’ eyes as if in a trance, as the feeling of familiarity grew larger and larger with each moment that passed.

So lost was she in the unexplainable feeling that Apple Bloom didn’t even notice as the three of them started to float off the ground, nor did she notice the shocked gasps from the other ponies watching it all happen. All that she could focus upon, her whole world was narrowed down to the two other fillies right before her as she suddenly remembered it all.

She remembered impossible battles and worthy foes. She remembered countless adventures and innumerable ordeals. She remembered the sweet taste of victory, and the bitterness of defeat. She remembered the curses of fate and the joy of freedom. And, above all else, she remembered the two beings who had accompanied her every step of the way during her countless journeys.

Friend, foe, companion, enemy, confident, rival, family, nemesis, they had been all that and more. For, in the end, for the longest time, they had been all that each other truly had while trapped amidst the rotting eternities of the cycle the gods had cursed and trapped them within.

And with a blinding flash of light that provoked shocked gasps and shouts from the crowd all around them, the three fillies returned to the ground. The very familiar symbol of three golden triangles was proudly emblazoned upon each of their three flanks for all to see.

And so, Ganondorf, the King of Thieves, Dark Lord, Wielder of the Triforce of Power, and now a small yellow-coated filly born to a loving family of apple farmers, blinked her large eyes, shook her head once, stared at who she knew beyond any shadow of a doubt had to be her fellow Triforce Wielders, and deadpanned, “Well, that just happened.”

But before either Link or Zelda could reply, what looked like the whole school surged forward, all shouting questions and trying to talk over each other, crowding around the three of them and creating such a cacophony of noise that any chance of actually talking with the other two was a forlorn hope.

Rolling her eyes as the little princess started to try and defuse the situation, while Link simply calmly waited for the crowd to exhaust its enthusiasm, the Wielder of the Triforce of Power instead started to focus once again on the plow she still had to fix.

All the while wondering if making Big Mac a Titanite plow would be overkill or not.

II - A Peaceful Reunion

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A Peaceful Reunion

As they managed to break free of the raucous crowd thanks to the brave efforts of their teacher, Ganondorf couldn’t really say he was exactly surprised by the fact he was once again drawing breath after dying of old age in what was, from his point of view, mere moments ago. This wasn’t the first time he had been reincarnated, after all. By Din’s crimson flame, it wasn’t even the hundredth!

Though, he had to admit, the fact that he was now apparently female was new. Or would that be, she had to admit? Was he supposed to change what pronouns he used to refer to his person due to his change in gender? It would probably help avoid some complications when talking to others without having to explain the whole bloody situation, something that he really couldn’t be bothered to do most of the time.

Eh, why not. It would cost nothing, and one less hassle was always good.

Mind made, she followed Link and Zelda’s new forms into a small side room where Miss Cherilee asked them to wait for a moment as she calmed down the crowd and sent for their families. Apparently getting their cutie marks at the same time in such a dramatic fashion was enough that the teacher felt that calling their families was warranted.

Feeling a small shiver run down her spine at the mere thought of the accursed name those marks carried, she once again bemoaned that all her efforts during her previous life to get the things’ name changed to the far more dignified title of ‘emblems’ never panned out. Real pity, that.

“Okay, Ganondorf, what did you do this time?” Zelda rounded up on her the moment the door was closed and they were left alone, a warning tone clear in her words. Not even slightly fazed by the princess’ admonishing look, the Wielder of Power instead took a moment to fully absorb their new appearances.

The little princess remained a white-coated unicorn, though the light-violet mane would take some getting used to since Ganondorf really couldn’t remember an incarnation in which Zelda wasn’t some kind of blonde. Though seeing Link without a hint of green upon his person- or rather, her person- was what took the cake. Her being an orange-coated pegasus with a purple mane this time, neither being a color the Wielder of Power was used with associating to the Wielder of Courage. And she herself was a yellow-coated earth pony with a red mane. So at least that last one remained consistent. Thankfully, since she did enjoy the color.

Oh, and all three of them were downright tiny. Couldn’t forget to mention that. She missed her old size already.

“Ganondorf!” Zelda complained with an angry stomp of her hoof, cutting the Wielder of Power’s musings short.

“What?” she questioned without a hint of shame as she realized that apparently Zelda had been talking this whole time and she hadn’t paid attention to a lick of it. The fact that the angry ‘shout’ had sounded more like a squeak also really undermined the princess’ efforts to sound stern in Ganondorf’s personal opinion.

“Zelda would like to know if you are somehow responsible for our current situation,” Link helpfully said with a small smile while the tiny unicorn fumed next to her. “Also, my current self’s name is Scootaloo, if any of you are wondering. It’s a pleasure to meet you both once again.”

Rolling her eyes at her friend/rival/nemesis being her usual unflappable self, Ganondorf decided that there was no harm in actually answering Zelda’s question. “No, I didn’t do anything that could’ve caused this. I didn’t add anything in regards to this particular situation when I made the original ritual back on Hyrule, and I think that’s the problem. And the name is Apple Bloom this time around, if you must know.”

“The cycle of reincarnation, while you broke the chains that bound us to Hyrule, the ritual did nothing towards our bounds to the Triforce and the cycle of reincarnation it sustained,” Zelda said as she rested her muzzle upon a hoof, swiftly understanding what was happening from Ganondorf’s brief explanation and thinking about its possible implications. “And my new name is Sweetie Belle, at your services.”

“So we are still getting reincarnated then, good to know,” Link, Scootaloo? Eh whatever, either was fine. The no longer green wonder calmly continued. “Now the question is, were we reborn by chance, or for a purpose?”

That little curveball of a question made the earth pony filly blink in surprise, not having really considered that possibility yet. Now that would be really annoying if it held true. She had more than enough with being Fate’s chew toy to last several lifetimes already, and she knew the other two felt the same.

“Hard to say, but considering how we only got our memories back when we actually got together for the first time, I’m inclined to say it was chance. That never happened before, after all,” Zelda reasonably pointed out. And the former Dark Lord had to give her that.

In all their previous reincarnations, it had never been necessary for the three of them to get so close to each other before the process took place. Din’s fury! Most of the time it happened when they were literally countries apart! Not to mention the light show that had been involved, that had been new too. Point in fact; in neither this nor her last life’s memories did she ever remember such a showy light show accompanying a pony getting their ‘emblems’. Odd that.

Huh, guess there actually was a valid reason for Cheerilee wanting to contact their families, how about that? But before she could keep thinking about it, and how it basically happening right in front of the whole school would affect things, Zelda continued to talk, bringing the yellow-coated filly’s attention back to the present.

“Not to mention that, unless the calendar has been changed since our last life, it has been almost eleven hundred years since our passing,” she judiciously pointed out, right hoof still gently cradling her chin. “Those two facts, alongside how this realm has a lack of gods to meddle with things, makes me think it was merely chance that allowed the reincarnation cycle to stumble upon an appropriate situation to allow us to be reincarnated into suitable beings.”

Ganondorf could see it happening, the logic was solid. But sadly they didn’t really have much besides pure conjecture to draw hypotheses from right now. And the Three Goddesses as her witness, everybody knew that making conjectures based upon conjectures was never a good idea. It was just like inbreeding. You may even manage to pull it off successfully once or twice if you were lucky, but keep going long enough and you will inevitably end up hitting crazy.

But before they could discuss things further, all their ears swilled towards the door as they heard the swiftly approaching sound of quite a few hoof-steeps. The next moment, the door was barreled open in order to allow their teacher back, accompanied by several other ponies, including her new older sister, who was looking a little on the harried side.

“Apple Bloom!” Applejack shouted at the top of her lungs even as she rushed towards the filly and promptly proceeded to hug her in a quite considerable show of strength.

As she stoically endured being hugged by the orange-coated mare, who promptly started assuring her that everything was fine and praising her for getting her own ‘emblem’, Ganondorf mused that this was something else that would take some getting used to. She never had had a sibling before, after all, much less an older one. And now she had two of them. But as the mare she had nothing but good and fond memories of in this life released her from the embrace and started to ask questions about what had happened, she mused that maybe it wouldn’t be that much of a hassle in the end. Family was important, after all. And at the very least her new siblings weren’t weaklings. So she could cope.

And no, the fact that the hug had felt warm and comforting had nothing to do with it.

“Well, Ah knew that filly would end up causin’ some kinda trouble if left by herself, but when Ah thought that, this hadn’t been in the list!” Applejack half-heartedly joked in an attempt to break the ice, not really knowing how to interact with the white-coated unicorn she was sharing a table with.

“Quite,” Rarity primly said as she gracefully served some far too sweet smelling tea into two cups that looked far too fragile for Applejack’s peace of mind. “I must admit that I shared similar thoughts, after all Sweetie Belle is around that age where mischief seems to follow a young pony as if it’s their own shadow. But this was an unexpected development.”

Very carefully accepting the teacup with a hoof, the orange-coated mare did her best to politely sip some of the beverage without accidentally shattering the very decorated and fragile piece of porcelain. Some kind of jasmine, not bad, but also not really to her tastes.

A moment of slightly uncomfortable silence followed as both mares sipped from their cups, both of them not really knowing how to really get things going. Letting her eyes roam around Rarity’s boutique, where they had relocated after Cherilee had explained the situation and given the three fillies the rest of the day free due to it being the closest of their homes to the school, Applejack wracked her brain for how to start a conversation with this virtual stranger who had invited her into her home.

She knew Rarity in broad terms as the posh, prim and proper owner of the town’s fashion boutique. And that was it. Their only real interaction was when the white-coated mare bought a few apples during market day once in a while. The fact Applejack had never really needed any fancy frilly dress also meant she had never visited the boutique before, limiting their interactions even further. Horseapples, if they had ever said anything to each other beyond the vague pleasantries you said to everypony in passing everyday Applejack would eat her hat!

Holding back a sigh, she took another gulp of the tea. All the while wondering how her sister and her new… acquaintances, were fairing upstairs. This was awkward, that was the honest truth. Something that was not helped by the fact that Holiday, one of Scootaloo’s aunts who were taking care of the filly, had been forced to apologetically decline joining them due to work commitments. At least it was clear that the poor mare had wanted to stay to offer support to her niece, but Applejack understood that sometimes work really didn’t give a pony much of a choice.

Anyways, the fact was that she really hadn’t expected to end up sharing tea alone with the town’s fashion obsessed dressmaker when she had woken up today. But then again, she also hadn’t expected her little sister to get her cutie mark on her very first day of school in such a dramatic fashion that ponies would probably still be talking about it when she was Granny Smith’s age!

“So… entwined marks,” Rarity leadingly said while putting down her empty cup and looking Applejack straight in the eyes, apparently deciding to grab the bull by the horns and start the conversation already. “While I have always known that Sweetie Belle was special, I must say that this was most unexpected.

"It’s almost like, like-” the unicorn trailed off, dramatically waving a hoof aimlessly in the air as she searched for words. She knew that the mare had a reputation for being overdramatic, but this time Applejack felt that it was warranted. Entwined marks were something so rare to almost be folklore, after all. And yet, here they stood, with their little sisters sharing a linked mark with each other and a third filly.

“Like somethin’ straight out of a story book, yeah,” the apple farmer helpfully completed the broken sentence as she carefully put her own cup down as well, inwardly somewhat pleased that she hadn’t cracked the darned fragile thing.

“Yes, precisely,” Rarity said with a small nod, her eyes drifting towards the stairway to the upper floor, where said fillies currently were talking inside Sweetie Belle’s room. “I know it sounds silly, but it almost sounds like a dream!”

“It isn’t silly when it’s the truth. Ah’m not sure Ah believe this is not a dream myself!” Applejack replied as she removed her hat and distractedly passed a hoof over her mane. “Sweet Celestia, Entwined Marks! This kinda thing belongs to campfire stories, not bargin’ in the life of good honest hardworkin’ ponies!”

“Though you may have been born apart, henceforth you shall live as one; one heart, one purpose, one fate,” the unicorn said with a faraway look, clearly quoting something, probably a story, but for the life of her Applejack had no idea which one it was. “Yes, to consider this as a tale straight out of a storybook is indeed quite fitting.”

Giving the equally lost and unsure unicorn sitting across from her a long look, Applejack suddenly made up her mind. Sure, Rarity was a stranger to her in all but name and she really couldn’t understand what the mare saw with all those fancy schmancy clothes. But considering how Apple Bloom would undoubtedly end up spending a lot of time with the fashionista’s little sister, it was clearly time to at least try and change that,

“Ah feel that we should start this right, we never did introduce ourselves to each other, did we?” Applejack firmly said as she stuck her hoof forward over the table, after all, they would probably end up having to interact with each other quite a bit in the following months and years, what with their little sisters’ now being literally fate bound to each other. So better get used to the other pony. “Ah’m Applejack Apple, co-owner of Sweet Apple Acres, home of the best tasting apples of all of Equestria, and proud member of the Apple family, nice to meet you.”

Rarity on her part blinked in slight surprise for a moment, before a look of understanding dawned upon her features as she probably reached the same conclusion Applejack had achieved moments before. And so Rarity daintily pushed her own hoof forward and gently gripped AJ’s offered limb.

“Rarity Belle, fashionista and owner of the Carrousel Boutique, where everything is chic, unique and magnifique, it is a pleasure,” Rarity declared as she gently started to shake the orange-coated mare’s hoof. A hoof-shake that immediately got stronger as Applejack took the lead and gave it a good proper shake. And despite a brief uncertain look, the fashionista actually answered properly to the action, briefly matching AJ’s movements before letting go.

“Well, Rarity, guess we will have to tackle this new crazy situation together,” Applejack said with a firm nod while inwardly wondering that perhaps miss prim and proper wasn’t that hopeless, after all. “Should you or Sweetie need anything, know that the doors of the Apple family will be always open to you!”

“Likewise, should the need arise, me and mine are at your family’s service,” Rarity replied with a small smile. “Should any help be needed, know you have but to ask.”

A tentative smile of her own surfacing on her muzzle, Applejack thought that perhaps this could actually work out alright in the end. After all, while entwined marks were indeed something straight out of a story, most of those stories did indeed have happy endings.

Though, now that she was once again thinking about her little sister’s new cutie mark, she couldn’t help but wonder what the golden triangles actually meant. It was a really odd choice for a cutie mark in her honest opinion. But then again, analyzing the things could get real complicated real fast, what with all that subtext and interpretation of symbolisms and other whatnots that got involved.

Eh, her little sister seemed happy enough with it, and with the two new friends that came along for the ride. That was more than enough for the apple farmer.

“No prophetic dreams, no foretellings of doom, no whispered tales of grim tidings on the horizon. Nothing,” Ganondorf mused out loud while pacing around Zelda’s room, which was placed atop a fashion boutique of all places. But then again, considering how she now lived on an apple farm she really couldn’t throw any stones in regards to unusual living arrangements. “There is actually not a single hint that anything even remotely wrong or foreboding is happening around the kingdom. At least as far as my memories go. What about you two?”

“The same,” Zelda promptly replied while Link simply nodded her head. “In fact, I’m quite sure there hasn’t been any major incident in living memory. Princess Celestia has actually managed to keep the kingdom peaceful and prosperous for centuries as far as I’m aware.”

To that, the yellow-coated filly could only firmly nod her head, her crimson bow flapping a little due to the motion. For all intents and purposes, it seemed that Equestria was actually experiencing a golden age, the kingdom actually experiencing a period of peace and prosperity that had lasted for millennia!

One thousand years of peace! The mere thought of it was enough to boggle the mind! Din’s fury, she sincerely couldn’t remember any moment in Hyrule’s history were peace had reigned for even one century! By the Three Golden Goddesses, even the times when ‘peace’ had lasted more than a decade or two were few and far between!

“Sweetie, would I be correct in assuming that even before reawakening your memories you were still a scholar at heart?” Link asked, cutting the Wielder of Power’s musings short as she took a moment to remember that Sweetie was Zelda’s new name.

“Well, yes, I did have very good studying habits and read quite a few books, so I guess that’s correct,” the unicorn filly promptly replied even as she gave the young pegasus a look, clearly wondering why Link wanted to know that.

On her part, the orange-coated pegasus simply nodded her head in apparent satisfaction, before calmly continuing. “Good, so do you perchance know what happened to Luna?”

That little question brought both Ganondorf and Zelda short for a moment as they realized a very obvious thing that had been slipping them by. Celestia was still alive and well as the ruler of Equestria after over a millennium, that was public knowledge, something everypony with half a brain cell knew about. But therein laid the problem, for she was the sole ruler of Equestria, which brought forth the question:

“What the heck happened to Moonbutt?” the Wielder of Power mused out loud, head tilted to the side in slight confusion even as the Wielder of Wisdom narrowed her eyes as she also pondered this unexpected development.

III - Missing Moon

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Missing Moon

“Not too shabby,” Ganondorf mused out loud as she inspected the makeshift forge her unawake self had been using. And, all in all, she had to admit to being pleasantly surprised.

Oh, sure, the setting was makeshift at best! But still, for something done without a hint of previous experience while being guided by what basically amounted to nothing more than gut feelings, her unawakened self had done a pretty decent job when all was said and done. Definitely better than what most gryphon smiths could do, from what she could remember.

As Ganondorf turned her back to the forge proper and started towards where she kept what tools she had so she could check them as well, the yellow-coated filly couldn’t help but muse about what she had discussed with her fellow Triforce Wielders earlier today. What, by Din’s mighty flame, could have happened to Moonbutt?

In the end, they hadn’t managed to reach any kind of conclusion about what had happened to the night-themed alicorn, or even why exactly it seemed that no one was aware that Sunbutt even had a sister in the first place before the sun had started to set and their families had decided it was time to take them home.

And hadn’t that been a rather unpleasant surprise! She sincerely couldn’t even remember having had a curfew before, ever.

Scrunching her nose slightly as she inspected what tools she had available to work with, the Wielder of Power had to admit she wasn’t exactly thrilled with the prospect of having to adhere to the rules set by the elders of the family. But at the same time, they were family. And that was important.

Sure, from what she could remember from the memories of this life, her new family wasn’t exactly restricting her movements or stopping her from pursuing her hobbies, much to the contrary, in fact. As long as she went to school, did her homework, and completed her chores, not only was she basically free to do whatever she wanted with her free time, but her elder siblings and the family matriarch would more often than not support and aid her in such endeavors. The makeshift forge she was currently inspecting being a prime example of that. But nonetheless, the knowledge that she had to be home before a certain time each night wasn’t something she could say she really enjoyed.

The Gerudo had never really cared about such restrictions, after all. Freedom and independence had always been a sticking point to the desert dwellers, and as such her minders rarely raised a single eyebrow if she spent days at a time without so much as setting a foot inside her personal chambers as she grew up. But then again, the fact that the ponies didn’t expect their young to reach a temple in the middle of a haunted desert and then make it back alive as a rite of passage into adulthood probably had something to do with that. Cultural bias and all that rot, as the little Princess would probably say.

Giving a light kick to the old anvil set to the side of the barn, and nodding in approval at the very solid sound it made, Ganondorf decided she would postpone her decision about what she felt about this new development until a moment when it impacted her negatively. Her current family was easily the best and most nurturing one she had ever had, period. And as such, she would extend to them the benefit of the doubt for the time being. No need to create a problem where may well be none.

Nonetheless, family issues aside, in the end, she and her fellow Triforce Wielders had decided to meet again the following day so that they could try and dig up any information as to what may have happened to Moonbutt. The fact that it would give their new families time to calm down from the slightly eyebrow-raising way in which they had acquired their ‘emblems’ was another plus with said plan.

Seriously, both Applejack and Rarity had been far too excited with the prospect of making a joint cuteceñera to celebrate the three of them getting their Triforce Pieces back.

A shiver ran down her spine as she thought about the name the silly ponies had given to this little coming of age celebration of theirs. Cuteceñera… by Din’s crimson flame, why did the ponies insist with their gods forsaken cutesy naming schemes even after all this time? Truly, her attempts to fix that during her last life had apparently been a complete wasted effort.

Shaking her head in a vain attempt to banish the name from her mind, the Wielder of Power continued her inspection of what she had to work with in regards to forging.

Stupidly silly names and unresolved mysteries could wait. Right now she had to assess what she had to work with in order to fix Big Mac’s plow. A promise was a promise, after all.

“I can’t believe that I missed it! I really wish that we had managed to be there!” Holiday bemoaned as they finished dinner, for the third time since they had arrived home. “Oh, my dear, I hope you can forgive us for that!”

“Don’t worry auntie, there is nothing to forgive, you were busy, that’s all.” Link calmly interjected, equally for the third time in an equal period of time, as she promptly started to help her other aunt, Lofty, to remove the dirty dishes from the table.

“Thanks, Scoots,” Lofty said with a small smile, as the very tired-looking yellow-coated pegasus accepted the dishes the young filly was offering her and placed them into the sink. “And you know that it simply wasn’t possible, Holly dear. Not with how swamped with work our office currently is.”

“But, but still…” the earth pony attempted to say while fretting, clearly seeking an argument against what everypony in the house knew were simply basic facts. They were busy with work, and that was it.

“I understand, auntie, really,” the orange-coated filly said with a small smile before proceeding to nuzzle her aunt’s side reassuringly.

“Oh, I don’t know what my brother did to earn such a marvelous daughter,” Holiday outright cooed while nuzzling the young pegasus back, a small smile overtaking her worried features. “You are always so mature and understanding! We really don’t deserve you, dear.”

“Don’t say that, you are a great family too,” Link said with a firm nod of her head as she gave her aunt a serious look. And she meant it. Her current family was easily one of the best she had ever had in all of her lifetimes.

Sure, the fact that more often than not in said lifetimes most of her family tended to be dead before she reached double digits of age kinda lowered the bar considerably. But her pony family always tried to make time for her and did their best to show that she was loved and mattered to them no matter how overworked they were. What else could she ask for?

“And we are happy to have you too, little one,” Lofty warmly said with a chuckle while mussing Link’s mane with a wing. “Now hop along, you still have an hour or so before bedtime. Go and enjoy it.”

Link simply raised an eyebrow in response, before tilting her head towards the dirty dishes on the sink in a silent question. Washing the dishes after dinner was one of her chores, after all.

“Not today,” the older pegasus promptly replied, more than used to her niece’s quirk of asking and saying things silently from time to time, as she proceeded to Holiday’s side in order to give the mare a hug with a wing. “You earned your cutie mark today, Scootaloo. Go and play, I will deal with the dishes.”

After giving her aunt a long look, Link simply nodded her understanding. And, with a final nuzzle to a now happily smiling, but still slightly teary-eyed, Holiday she left the kitchen.

Trying to not listen as Lofty started to calmly reassure Holiday, Link walked through the carpeted corridors of their home. The vibrant colors, cozy furniture, and several photos and pictures spread everywhere filled the house with a warm and light feeling that the filly always enjoyed. Yes, having a whole and unbroken family was a precious gift by itself. The fact that they loved her back only added to that.

With a small smile firm on her muzzle, she reached the end of the corridor and opened the door to her room. Immediately her attention fell upon the posters that seemed to occupy every inch of wall space that was not in use. Posters depicting pegasi doing impressive aerial stunts or posing while wearing blue uniforms with yellow highlights. A group of flying stunt performers linked with the equestrian military that her unawakened self had been more than slightly enamored with. And even now, she had to admit that the show she had seen them perform a few years back had been very impressive.

Entering the room proper, Link wasted a moment wondering why the posters gave him a slight feeling of familiarity that went beyond the memories of her unawakened self. Something about their uniform’s colors, and the group’s emblem, made him think that she should recognize them from somewhere. After another moment she dismissed it as inconsequential, at least right now. If it was important, she would remember it later.

With a small chuckle, she hopped atop her bed and turned around. But before she could do anything else her eyes fell upon the large windows now right in front of her, which showed that night had well and truly fallen by this point.

She stared out the window, and at the very nice view of the outskirts of Ponyville it gave her, for a long moment. Blinking once, she tilted her head slightly to the side in order to get a better angle, but what she was seeing remained the same. After another moment she nodded her head, sure that what she was seeing was indeed correct and not a trick of the light or something like that.

“Well, that wasn’t there before,” she mused out loud as she kept staring at the shining nearly full moon slowly rising on the horizon. A shining moon that was no longer the spotless silver disk she remembered from her previous life, instead carrying upon its surface what looked like the abstract image of a horned female equine.

“Nothing! There is absolutely nothing!” Zelda outright hissed in lieu of a greeting the moment she had laid eyes upon her and the no-longer-green wonder at their seats at the corner of the classroom.

Ganondorf and Link traded a confused look for a moment due to Zelda’s curt manners. The twitching brow, gritted teeth, and mildly manic look the white-coated filly was sporting were not something either of them were used to seeing. Or well, at least not used to seeing without a lot of effort on the Dark Lord’s part first.

“What?” Ganondorf simply asked, deciding for the blunt approach while banishing her musings about if she had to change her title to Dark Lady or something now, or if the original title encompassed both genders. Normally she would bother the little Princess about such things, what with Zelda being basically a walking encyclopedia, but considering that she looked like a pressure cooker about to explode Ganondorf decided said musings could wait.

Applejack would be very cross with her if she managed to level the school building on only her second day of classes.

“I agree with Apple Bloom’s query. Please, elaborate,” Link serenely agreed with the Wielder of Power, though, the slightly raised eyebrow the Wielder of Courage was sporting showed she was also surprised by the normally prim and proper Princess’ loss of composure.

“There is absolutely nothing about Luna in any of my history books!” Zelda hissed as she forcefully placed her saddlebags at the empty seat between the other two fillies, clearly visibly affronted by this turn of events. “From Gibberish Monger’s “Full Guide to History”, to Blank Scroll’s “Summary of the Old Age”. From Official Scribe’s “Compendium of History”, to Proper Grammar’s “Great Encyclopedia”! None of my books so much as mention the fact that Celestia ever even had a sister! Much less talk about Luna in any shape or form!

“It’s almost as if she has been purposely erased from history! As if someone had gone through every history book in existence and censored her very existence!” Zelda continued in a tone of voice that left little doubt she dearly wanted to get brutally creative with whoever had dared to do such an affront to knowledge as altering history books. Even if she thought that the motivation was a little weird, Ganondorf had to admit that seeing Zelda so bloodthirsty made her slightly proud. The little Princess had really come a long way. “It’s a travesty! Who would even do such a thing!?”

“Celestia?” Link pointed out, head tilted to the side as the young pegasus' pondered about this new information. “She is still alive, after all. So, unless there is some memory altering effect at play that erased Celestia’s memory of her sister, the only reason Luna would not appear in any book is if she wanted it that way.”

“I thought of that,” Zelda promptly replied as she took several deep breaths in order to calm herself. Though, the Wielder of Power noticed that there still remained a fairly murderous look on the unicorn filly’s eyes. Something she definitely approved! “But why would Celestia willingly erase her younger sister from history?”

“A coup perhaps? If Celestia decided she wanted to be the sole immortal ruler of Equestria and got rid of Luna at some point after our passing that would explain it,” Ganondorf reasonably pointed out with a firm nod, her large red ribbon wobbling along with the motion. “Though if that’s the case, then I really have to give it to Sunbutt for her acting skills. I would’ve never suspected her to have it in her to pull such a stunt! Much less successfully at that! I didn’t think she had it in her!”

“Possible, but unlikely, as you said, it would be a massive deviation from her usual personality and way of acting,” Zelda replied, resting her chin upon a hoof as she pondered about this new mystery. But before anything else could be said, Link interjected.

“I wonder if this has anything to do with the silhouette of a mare that’s now on the moon?” Link calmly mused, making her two companions stop talking.

Blinking in slight befuddlement, Ganondorf traded a look with Zelda as they both realized that, yes, the memories of their current selves did explicitly tell them that the moon did sport a large silhouette that resembled a mare’s face, something that most definitely had not been there millennia ago.

Unfortunately, Cheerilee had chosen that moment to enter the classroom to start school, preventing them from discussing this further for the moment.

With a very put upon sigh as their teacher started the class, Ganondorf grabbed pen and paper and resigned herself to a few hours of boredom. She really wished she could avoid this whole ‘school’ business as the useless thing it was, but sadly Granny Smith would never allow her to do so. The old mare really thought that school was important, and would be extremely disappointed if Ganondorf were to ditch.

The sacrifices one must make for the sake of family.

As they approached the town’s library after school had ended for the day, Zelda did her level best to rein in her temper. She prided herself in her control and ability to keep a level head. That was helped by the fact that very few things could really set her temper off, Ganondorf when she decided to be particularly annoying being one of the rare exceptions. The purposeful destruction of knowledge was another!

Taking another deep breath as she closed her eyes, she did her level best to ignore the little voice in the back of her head that was suggesting she head immediately to Canterlot, barge into Celestia’s throne room, and loudly demand the alicorn to explain what in Nayru’s name she thought she was doing!?

The fact that said voice sounded suspiciously like Ganondorf made it easier to ignore. But even so! To forget one’s past was to doom oneself to repeat it! She was certain that she had broached said topic with Celestia before! By the Three Golden Goddesses, even Star Swirl at his most insufferable knew that!

Sure, Zelda knew that she hardly had the full picture. There could be a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why Celestia had acted as she did. Though, she personally doubted it. There was simply no justification in altering centuries of history! What was the mare thinking?! Celestia was supposed to be the reasonable one of the two sisters, for Nayru’s sake!

“That’s a tree,” Ganondorf deadpanned, cutting her musings short. Blinking her eyes, Zelda realized that they had indeed reached their destination, the enchanted tree that served as the little town’s library standing but a few meters ahead of the trio.

“Yes, the Golden Oaks Library, perhaps now we will be able to shed some light upon this mystery,” Zelda firmly said with narrowed eyes, before promptly proceeding to power walk into the living building.

“The library is a tree. A Treebrary,” Ganondorf kept muttering as she followed after Zelda alongside Link. “Din’s fury, what is it with the ponies and their love of puns?”

Paying no mind to the Wielder of Power’s complaints about the ponies’ inability to name things, Zelda walked past the small desk where Codex would normally stay. The absence of the old librarian made her feel a hint of sadness for a moment, but nonetheless, she soldiered on undeterred. She demanded answers and she would have them!

“Do you really think any of the history books here will have any more information about what may have happened?” Ganondorf dubiously asked as they proceeded to the back of the library, apparently done with bemoaning the ponies naming conventions. “After all, if Celestia did overthrow her sister I doubt she would be as careless as to leave anything in a public archive.”

“True, I doubt that any of the history books here will be of any use. That’s why we are not going to use history books,” she firmly stated as they approached the section she had been aiming for.

“Ah, by Din’s eternal flame, please tell me you are not implying what I think you are,” the earth pony filly bemoaned when she saw the section they had arrived at. For, high above them, at the very top of a large bookshelf filled with tomes, was clearly written: Folklore and fairytales.

“There is no way to know without checking, but considering the mark on the moon and the lack of any official mention of Luna, there are two possibilities,” Zelda clearly stated, already moving forward to search amidst the books. “Either it was indeed a coup, and as such old stories will be the best chance of something having survived a censor’s purge. Or it’s something else, in which case once again old stories will probably be our best bet in finding any clues about it.”

With a loud groan, and complaining all the while, Ganondorf moved forward to help with the search, Link right beside her.

For several moments they searched in silence, well, relative silence that is, considering that Ganondorf was still complaining. Until their search was stopped as Link let out a slightly surprised hum.

“Found something, kid?” Ganondorf hopefully asked, both her and Zelda raising their heads to try and see what Link had found.

“Not really, just an interesting little bit of trivia,” was the Wielder of Courage’s immediate reply. And yet, despite her words, the pegasus filly kept reading the tale she had found.

“Okay, spill. What did you find?” the yellow-coated earth pony curiously asked, as she dropped the book she had been searching through to approach and get a better look. A moment later Zelda found herself doing the same, her curiosity getting the better of her too.

“The Three Guardians, a Hearth’s Warming Tale,” was Link’s dutiful reply as she continued to read, clearly engrossed by what she was seeing.

“What?” Ganondorf asked in clear surprise, something that was shared with Zelda.

“It’s a story about how three ponies: Earthbreaker, the earth pony; Farseer, the unicorn; and Stormcaller, the pegasus; joined forces despite their differences to fight against the windigoes, holding them back as the Founders of Equestria evacuated the ponies south,” Link continued, a tiny smile on her muzzle as she continued to read.

Now even more curious, Zelda swiftly moved forth alongside Ganondorf, both of them placing their heads at each side of Link as they started to read as well. And so, for the next several minutes they forgot about their search for answers regarding the missing Alicorn of the Night, as they engrossed themselves into a heavily romanticized tale of their first adventure upon this land.

Having spent far too much time reading a foal-friendly rendition of one of their past adventures, a very bemusing situation if she was being honest with herself, Ganondorf had to admit that she had enjoyed the read. The fact that she approved of the nickname that storytellers had come up with for her previous life also helped. They returned to their search for anything that could help explain Moonbutt’s disappearance from history. And finally, after far too long for her tastes, they seemed to have found something.

“The Mare in the Moon. What a stupid name to give to a prophecy!” Ganondorf grouched as they finished re-reading the tale slash prophetic warning. The fact that the title of the other bit of info they had found was “Elements of Harmony, a Reference Guide” really didn’t help.

“It’s a foal’s tale, Apple Bloom. They are all named like that,” was Zelda’s distracted reply as she swiftly re-read the entire tale, probably memorizing every word of it as well while she was doing so, the little bookworm.

“Yeah, but still,” the earth pony shot back, not really willing to admit that Zelda may have a point. “They still could have come up with a better name!”

“Maybe, but not important,” Link replied as she also re-read about how a night-themed alicorn was corrupted by her jealousy and some mysterious dark force, forcing her day-themed sister to banish her to the moon with six magical trinkets. And if that wasn’t a poorly made allegory to Luna and Celestia Ganondorf would eat Applejack’s hat! “So, how likely do you think this is true?”

“Doesn’t matter, we are not getting involved,” the Wielder of Power firmly replied before any of her companions could get any ideas about the subject.

“Apple Bloom! How could you say such a thing?” was Zelda’s scandalized reply. Ganondorf was not exactly proud to say that it took her a moment to remember that was her new name. Not that that would change her stance on this matter.

“Zelda,” the earth pony filly said, purposely using the mare’s old name to make her understand she was completely serious. “The damn prophecy is, for once, not about us three. That is very clear despite all the stupid flowery speech about stars, elements, and whatnot. Especially in the part saying how there are six of them instead of three.

“This is not our problem. And besides, the prophecy is very clear about its happy ending, far more than anything we used to get involved with!” she continued implacably as she started to pace back and forth in front of her fellow Triforce Wielders. She had dragged them to this dimension to escape exactly this type of circumstances! To be free of the meddling of Fate! And by Din’s crimson flame, she would make it so that stayed that way! “So I say we should just let fate play its course, and allow someone else to be destiny’s chew toy for a change!”

“But-” Zelda started to say, only for Ganondorf to swiftly move towards her until their muzzles were almost touching and stopping her short.

“Have you forgotten what happened the last time the three of us messed around with fate bound artifacts?” she hissed while purposefully giving the Triforce symbol upon the white-coated unicorn’s rump a look. Don’t get her wrong, she wouldn’t trade her Triforce of Power for anything! But she really could’ve done without the many, many headaches that had followed the acquisition of said Triforce Piece. “Do you really want to mess around with some Harmony Artifact doohickeys of unknown nature? Or have you even considered how these Elements might react to our Triforce Pieces?”

“Well, no, but-” Zelda once again tried to interject, but Ganondorf would have none of it. Like she would allow such an opening in her arguments as to allow Zelda to fill it full of holes with such silly things like logic and reason!

“But nothing!” she firmly replied, pressing a hoof against a now annoyed-looking Princess’ mouth. “The prophecy is clear. Let the six plucky heroes find the magical trinkets, Luna gets purified of whatever dark force based power boost she failed to contain like a complete amateur of the dark arts, problem solved! No need for us to get involved!”

“What if they fail?” Link very sensibly pointed out as she calmly watched Zelda and Ganondorf’s antics, much to the earth pony’s annoyance. She hated logic, especially when it was used against her arguments.

“Point,” Ganondorf very reluctantly said with a loud groan of annoyance. She swiftly thought about the possibility of the heroes failing their prophetic quest, which was, sadly, a real possibility, what with how she had managed to win more than once in the past against Link and Zelda. Luna was a decent combatant and had a keen mind, so unless whatever had possessed her and her prolonged imprisonment had addled her mind she couldn’t simply dismiss the possibility of the mare’s victory. Which would be a real bummer, since she didn’t think there was a way to make her family’s apple trees grow without sunlight, after all.

“Okay, so, we make preparations just in case the new band of plucky heroes fails, but otherwise I repeat: Not. Our. Problem!” she forcefully stated giving Link her fiercest glare. Not that that seemed to have much of an effect on the infuriatingly calm pegasus who simply shrugged with her tiny wings.

“Fair enough,” was the Wielder of Courage’s simple reply.

Ganondorf gave the orange-coated filly a long suspicious look. That agreement had come far too easily for her peace of mind. Especially since she knew that Link had a serious problem with leaving things be. But before she could do anything else, Zelda finally decided that she had enough with Ganondorf keeping her quiet by pressing a hoof against her mouth.

And so, the very next moment, the young earth pony found herself being tossed through the air by the equivalent of a magical battering ram being wielded by a very pissed-looking unicorn filly.

Suffice to say, not much more was accomplished in the following minutes.

IV - One Step Forward...

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One Step Forward…

As she walked down the dirt road, the morning sun shining upon her yellow coat, passing through rows upon rows of apple trees as she calmly trotted towards her destination, Ganondorf couldn’t help but ponder how weird it was for her to live amidst so much greenery.

Forests had always been far more Link’s thing than hers, after all. Barren wastelands, inhospitable mountains, treacherous bogs, those were the places she was used to finding upon re-awakening to a new life. And yet, as far as this new life as Apple Bloom was concerned, apple trees as far as the eye could see were home. It was an odd dichotomy, to say the least.

As the view of the small schoolhouse appeared around a corner of the road, the Wielder of Power couldn’t help but let out an annoyed sigh, her attempts of distracting herself by thinking about her new odd living arrangements fell short of the cruel reality that she had to go to school.

If she could ditch, she would do so in a heartbeat. But, sadly, she was quite certain neither of her new older siblings, or the clan’s ancient matriarch for that matter, would allow it. What a bother.

With a despondent shake of her head, the yellow-coated filly resumed her march towards the school building with all the eagerness of a convict walking towards the gallows. At least Link and Zelda had to suffer this indignity with her.

The moment the thought passed her mind she stopped. Tilting her head slightly to the side, Ganondorf considered the likelihood of the unashamed bookworm that was the little Princess feeling any kind of negative emotion regarding a place of learning, no matter how basic or beneath her vaunted standards, and scoffed as she corrected her earlier thoughts. At least Link would suffer alongside her.

“You are Apple Bloom, aren’t you?” a young confident voice asked from her side, breaking Ganondorf out of her musings as part of her mind acknowledged the name as also her own and caused her to turn her head to see who was speaking.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Diamond Tiara,” a pink-coated filly with a purple and white mane eagerly said as she approached Ganondorf alongside a grey-coated filly with a silver mane wearing glasses. The fact that the gleam in her eyes and the smile the pink filly was wearing were something that the Wielder of Power was far more used to seeing upon the face of her more conniving viziers immediately captured her attention. “I’m not sure if you are aware, but my father Filthy Rich is the owner of Barnyard Bargains, and has a business partnership with your family, and as such, I thought it would be nice for me to introduce myself.”

Ganondorf simply stared at the filly giving her a picture-perfect politician’s smile, before she had a small epiphany about what she was talking about.

“Oh, right, the zap apple jam,” the Wielder of Power said while giving a single firm nod as she acknowledged the very odd and magically charged produce her family made. “And the name is Apple Bloom, a pleasure.”

Truth be told, she only remembered that was a thing because of how odd the whole process to make said jam was. Not to mention that the fact that the matriarch of her new family had actually managed to find how to successfully weave wild chaos magic into apple growing was downright impressive, what with how said magic had the very annoying tendency of doing everything except what you wanted it to do at even the best of times. And the less said about what could happen when things went wrong when using the darned stuff, the better.

There was a reason why it was so rare to see a chaos mage, after all, and it wasn’t due to the fact that they were shy.

“Excellent! Well, there is another thing that I would like to talk about,” the pink-coated filly said in faux-nonchalance while purposefully fixing her mane in order to make it look like the topic was minor and unimportant. “In two days’ time my family will be celebrating my cuteceañera, and it would be a delight if you and the other two fillies you share a cutie mark with could come.”

Fighting back the urge to shiver at the cutesy name the silly ponies had given to their little coming of age ceremony, Ganondorf let out an amused huff as what the little filly was planning became clear. Their little light display a few days ago had drawn a considerable amount of interest, after all.

“Sure, why not, we will make an appearance,” she replied with a tiny smirk. “I will let the other two know.”

“Excellent! I mean, that’s good,” Diamond excitedly exclaimed before remembering herself and adopting a more aloof and controlled tone of voice. “I will expect you there. Have a nice day.”

As she watched the young apprentice manipulator start away towards the school entrance with her little grey-coated underling, immediately starting to talk to a few other young ponies that were in a group, acting confident and self-assured as she slowly increased her political capital with the group and converted the young ones to her camp without them even noticing it was happening, she had to acknowledge her burgeoning skills. Oh, sure, she was still rough around the edges and making the occasional blunder in her approach, not that her young targets were noticing it, but all in all a more than adequate show of skill, especially considering her age.

Diamond Tiara, huh? the Wielder of Power thought as she too continued towards the school, she would have to remember that name for later. After all, good, competent minions actually capable of taking command positions were always so hard to find!

“Why did we think the middle of the huge freaking forest was a good place for the castle back then?” Ganondorf grumbled as she followed Zelda’s tiny white-coated form, Link’s orange-coated form calmly following by her side as they trotted down the barely discernible path deep into the Everfree forest.

“Easily defensible and the area was plentiful with resources,” Link promptly replied while observing the throng of plants and ancient trees surrounding them from all sides with the air of someone taking a stroll through a park. “The fact that the wild magic suffusing the woods interfered with all three tribes’ magic equally was also a factor.”

“Point,” Ganondorf grumbled, as she remembered how precarious the situation had been in those early days of the alicorn sisters’ rule. It had been actually kinda funny, in a headache-inducing sort of way, how the fact that the Everfree’s natural wild magic ebbs and flows actively disrupting pony magic had ended up being a selling point, since it meant that the still distrustful tribes had a guarantee that the other two tribes weren’t using their magic upon the ruling body to control things. “But that doesn’t make the trek any less annoying. Are we there yet?”

“No, Apple Bloom, we are not there yet,” Zelda replied with an aggravated sigh, eyes stubbornly locked forward refusing to look at her fellow Triforce Wielders. “Ten minutes ago I informed you that we were thirty minutes away from the castle’s ruins, meaning we are still twenty minutes away from it.”

“How annoying,” she grunted, kicking a pebble into the underbrush. It was really annoying that any kind of precision teleportation was downright impossible within this forest, meaning they had to walk there.

“Seriously, Apple Bloom, we all agreed that surveying the ruins for more clues about the Elements was a good idea, so no point in complaining about it now!” Zelda sniped back, finally turning her head backwards and looking at the Wielder of Power with a fierce glare.

“You are going there to search for these Element doohickeys. I’m going there to scavenge and see if there is anything worth salvaging in the ruins.” Ganondorf shot back, perking up slightly upon seeing Zelda’s current annoyance. She hadn’t tested her new body in a fight yet, after all! And a nice spar would do wonders to alleviate her boredom!

Though, the scavenging bit was also true. She needed some quality metal to fix Big Mac’s plow, after all. Not to mention making some temporary weapons for both herself and her fellow Triforce Wielders. And the ruins were as good a place as any to try and find some.

“And the Kid… why are you coming again?” the Wielder of Power asked, tilting her head in curiosity upon realizing she had no idea why the no longer green wonder was coming too. Though, knowing Link and her wanderlust, she may have simply come to see the sights.

“The Master Sword,” the young pegasus simply replied, eyes still calmly enjoying the mass of trees all around them, despite the fact they looked much like the trees they had passed by half an hour ago.

Ganondorf blinked once in confusion, before she understood what the Wielder of Courage meant with her very succinct reply.

“Point,” she conceded once more, nodding her head once with finality, actually approving of Link’s reasoning. “Right, inhospitable, hazardous, spooky forest, your little diva of a sword is probably here somewhere.”

“What?” Zelda asked, now confused rather than angry, much to Ganondorf’s disappointment.

“Not sure how you haven’t noticed by now, Princess, but the Kid’s sword most definitely has a theme and isn’t afraid to stick to it!” Ganondorf drawled while giving Zelda an infuriating smirk, hoping that a spar could still be salvaged. “And if there is one thing that blade likes, it is picking forests as its resting place! The more hazardous and inhospitable the better! And if that isn’t an option, then an ancient temple-like structure is a good substitute!”

Zelda raised a hoof as if to protest Ganondorf’s words before a look of deep contemplation crossed her features, and then she proceeded to slowly lower it back down. “That is… not inaccurate,” she finally conceded in a wondering tone of voice, clearly pondering how she had missed that little odd quirk of the Kid’s blade.

A loud roar echoed through the shadowed woods, stopping their wonderings about the Master Sword’s little idiosyncrasies.

Turning her head towards the source of the roar, Ganondorf watched with a hint of interest as a manticore burst past the underbrush and into the dilapidated path. The chimeric beast, which out-massed the three fillies put together by several orders of magnitude, roared once more as it towered over them, clearly thinking it had found an easy meal.

“Oh, this is going to be fun!” Ganondorf joyfully proclaimed, cracking her neck to one side and then another as she walked past a deeply unimpressed-looking Zelda and a placidly waiting Link. A look of confusion appeared upon the massive apex-predator’s features as it realized that there was absolutely no fear whatsoever emanating from the three tiny fillies.

Taking a deep breath, Ganondorf dug deep into her magic and pulled it forward, enhancing and empowering her body far past what should’ve been its natural limits, and then pushed it again far past that.

A massive fanged grin upon her features, she kept approaching the now worried-looking beast. The Wielder of Power stomped with one of her forward hooves, the limb cracking the path with a muted thump, giving her a stable launching point so she could better lunge at her new impromptu sparring partner.

Grin growing even larger, Ganondorf felt some of her magical might start to leak out into the air due to her excitement. This was going to be fun!

And then, before her wide disbelieving eyes, the massive manticore turned tail and launched itself back into the underbrush with a panicked yowl, its large bat-like wings frantically beating at its back in order to eke out just a little extra speed as it frantically ran away.

“Good instincts,” Link idly commented with a small nod as Ganondorf watched, mouth agape, as the manticore disappeared.

“Get back here, you overgrown cat!” the tiny filly yelled in rage, jumping away from the trail after the fleeing beast. Zelda simply let out a very tired sigh.

V - An Enthusiastic Walk

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An Enthusiastic Walk

A heavy silence lingered over the Everfree. Nothing but the faint sounds of insects permeated the faux twilight caused by the massive trees and the sheer entanglement of plant life that blocked most of the sun from reaching the forest floor. It was a near darkness, broken by but the few stray rays of sunlight lucky enough to happen upon some small opening in the mass of green, giving some faint light to the near-perpetual penumbra of the woods.

Few things dared break the silence of the woods. Even the animals that called the place home that were out and about, be they hunting or foraging, did not break the silence as they did so, as if they had an unspoken agreement, that doing otherwise would be a herald of great and terrible things.

The hooded figure calmly walking upon the shadowed ground was no exception. Her steps were completely silent as she skillfully traversed the rugged terrain. Not a single cracked branch or disturbed leaf marked her passing as she ventured deeper into the dark woods.

As she passed by one of the stray rays of light, the midday sun illuminated the features beneath the brown hood. The black and white stripes of her coat showed her to be a zebra. And the ceremonial golden bangles around her neck and hanging from her ears showed her to be a shaman, one of the fabled witch-doctors from far-off Zebrica.

The zebra took in her surroundings with careful experienced eyes, knowing far too well the dangers the forest held, but also the bounty it contained. Her eyes glimmered with excitement as they fell upon a small particularly shadowed corner of the woods. Growing underneath a fallen tree there were several neon-blue mushrooms covered with pink polka-dots, something she had never seen or heard of before.

A smile graced her lips as she hurried towards her newest find. She had heard the tales, of the great bounty and vast menagerie of unknown species contained within the great green expanse known as the Everfree forest. By the spirits, that had been one of the main reasons to motivate her journey to the great forest in the first place! But, even so, Zecora had not been prepared for the reality of just how diverse the magical fauna and flora of the Everfree truly was!

“Hello, little mushrooms in the gloom; I wonder, will you be an ill or a boon?” the witch-doctor mused out loud as she approached the odd-looking spotted mushrooms, her left hoof already moving towards her saddlebags in order to get a container for her newest sample.

She had been living in the vast forest for little over two weeks at this point, and yet had already found twice as many new and undiscovered species of plants and fungi as the days she had spent within the woods. And when you took into consideration she had spent a good half of her first week setting down the protective wards and totems around her hut in order to safeguard her living space it all became all the more mind-boggling!

Truly, this expedition had been a marvelous idea, even despite all the hassle it had been to traverse from her homeland to the kingdom of the ponies. Just thinking of all the undiscovered magical reagents, all the new salves and remedies that could be made, it filled her heart with joy and excitement.

After carefully sealing the container with her prize, she proceeded to place it into her saddlebags, quite happy with today’s first find. Just at that moment, a deafening crack shattered the silence that had been reigning in the woods. And as all the creatures upon the great forest stilled at this violation of the silence, a loud bestial roar shattered it utterly.

Swiftly storing away her newest discovery, Zecora did not waste a single moment before drawing her trusty staff from her back and taking a ready stance. She recognized the roar. A manticore. And while the winged-felines were nowhere near as bad as one of the star-beasts that roamed the deep woods, that did not by any means mean the large feline predator was not a danger to be respected.

Staff at the ready, she narrowed her eyes in the direction she could hear the predator rushing towards her. Quite loudly, she may add. Which was odd, especially since the great felines were mainly ambush predators. The fact this new interloper was all but trampling all the underbrush on its path as it rushed towards her was most definitely abnormal.

A fresh youngling without hunting experience, perhaps?

The next moment her musings were sadly proven inaccurate, as a fully-grown manticore blasted out of the underbrush. Easily weighing more than five hundred pounds, and at least ten times the zebra’s size, the beast was a prime specimen of its breed.

This could prove challenging. Zecora decided as she prepared herself to dodge the beast’s initial lunge in order to whack its snout and dissuade it of the validity of adding zebra to its menu. She would have to devote her whole focus to this, lest she end her journey far too prematurely. Her path would not join that of the spirits yet if she had anything to say about it!

But it was not to be. Rushing past her awaiting form without so much as glancing at her, it dove into the deep overgrowth past her with as much speed as it could muster.

“What?” she found herself asking aloud, quite confused by this unexpected turn of events. That response was reinforced even further by what followed immediately afterward.

“Get back here you huge pile of fur!” a tiny yellow-coated filly roared as she appeared from the exact same spot from where the manticore had come. She could not weigh forty pounds soaking wet and was less than half the size of Zecora. And yet, that did not stop her as she chased after the fleeing predator. Her teeth flashed a bestial smile that would be far more at home upon the fleeing manticore as she rushed past the flabbergasted zebra far faster than most grown ponies could. Her large red bow flapped wildly upon her equally red mane while the sheer speed of the tiny filly only added to the surreal image of it all.

Zecora stood there unmoving, staff at the ready, for a moment longer. The oddness of what had just transpired robbed her of action due to sheer incredulity. She stared at the place first the manticore then the filly had disappeared with very perplexed eyes.

She blinked once, then twice, before she finally shook off her surprise and confusion. Turning her muzzle towards her saddlebag, she glared at it. Or more accurately, glared at the unknown mushrooms now contained within said saddlebag.

“Well that was quite rude; your answer did not need to be so crude!” she spoke to the colorful fungi. That quite clearly had some very powerful hallucinogenic properties, if the very brief contact with her hoof had been enough to cause her to see this completely crazy scenario.

Letting out a very aggravated sigh, the zebra replaced her staff upon her back. Shaking her head, she chastised herself for her own carelessness, touching an unknown reagent with her bare hooves due to her excitement of a new discovery! Her master would have her hide if she knew about this! And rightfully so!

“Well, this is quite the conundrum; hopefully with some work, it is something that can be undone,” she mused, already considering the best way to try and make an antidote. If not to cure, at least mitigate the effects of whatever was affecting her until it left her body.

“Greetings, wise one,” a melodious voice asked from behind her. Startled at not hearing anyone approaching despite how keyed-up her senses currently were, Zecora swiftly turned around as her hoof once again darted toward her staff, only to immediately relax upon seeing that the new interlopers just so happened to be two more fillies.

An orange-coated pegasus politely gave her a nod of greeting, and a white-coated unicorn was addressing her while bowing in the exact same way a fellow shaman would do upon meeting another of their kind. Clearly, the little fungi was not done playing its tricks on her. “Apologies for our intrusion, but would you have perhaps seen a yellow-coated filly pursuing a fleeing manticore?”

“Greetings little one, you are quite polite; Alas I fear your friend has escaped my sight,” she cordially answered while gesturing to the point where the filly had disappeared back into the woods. Politeness should always be answered, after all, even if the one offering it was but a figment of one’s own imagination.

The young unicorn let out a tired sigh, before bowing her head slightly. “Many thanks, wise shaman. But while I would love to stay and have discourse with you, I fear we must hurry after our companion lest she do something regrettable.”

“Think nothing of it, little one; at times there are simply things that must be done,” she replied to the very polite hallucination. A bemused smile was on her lips as she wondered what her subconscious could be trying to tell her by choosing the form of small pony fillies to appear before her.

She had yet to visit the pony settlement at the edge of the forest. While not yet at worrying levels, some of her stockpiled supplies could do with some topping off. Perhaps she should fix that in the near future.

“Many thanks, until we meet again,” the filly promptly said before darting towards where Zecora had pointed, her pegasus friend giving the zebra one more nod before imitating her unicorn friend.

The shaman watched them go with a bemused smile on her muzzle for a long moment, before shaking her head as a small laugh escaped her lips. Turning back to her saddlebags one more time she happily proclaimed.

“Well, little spore; at the very least you are not a bore!”

As she rushed past the underbrush, dodging and weaving the falling branches that her prey was leaving behind in her wake, Ganondorf could feel her fanged smile grow with each step she took. She was getting closer.

That was an undeniable fact. No matter the very respectable speed the manticore was keeping as it ran away, the distance between them was getting smaller and smaller with each moment that passed. The beast really should have known better than to try to deny its betters!

A gradual lightening of the penumbra of the woods as the chase continued told the small filly that they were approaching a clearing. It was an excellent bit of news, considering she was almost upon the manticore. Some clear space for their little tussle so that they could fight properly would be more than welcome!

And even better! As they both rushed into the clearing it immediately became clear that there was a very respectable rocky hill at the end of it, neatly cutting the manticore’s main avenue of escape!

Din was smiling upon her this day!

However, she would have to pay attention to not allow it to simply fly away. She really could not remember if this particular creature was fully flight capable or simply used its wings to glide and boost its jumps. The great cat’s wings did look too small to lift it off the ground, but the same was true for all pegasi, and that never stopped the winged ponies before. So until proven otherwise, best to think her prey could escape to the skies and plan accordingly.

Getting ready to pounce should that happen, Ganondorf watched as the panicking manticore roared in distress, head swiftly moving one way and then another while clearly weighing its options. Whatever the creature planned to do, it had best decide fast, because the yellow-coated filly was but one bounce away from tackling it.

However, the chase had to be put on hold as a far louder, and very annoyed-sounding roar answered the manticore’s. The great feline immediately crouched low to the ground, scorpion tail beneath its legs as it tried to look as small as possible as the earth trembled as something quite heavy moved.

Her eyes darted towards a large cave entrance that was neatly half hidden away by the shape of the rocky hill. Ganondorf felt her eyebrow rise in interest as what looked like silver light shone from inside the cave. The source of it immediately became apparent as with several more tremors that caused the manticore to whimper, a very large bear-like creature emerged from the cave’s mouth.

The creature’s fur shone as if it was a starry night, giving out a faint silver light. Correction, Ganondorf mused as she tilted her head to get a better angle upon noticing what looked like constellations upon the big bear’s fur, its fur was a depiction of a starry night! How curious! The bear was easily over twenty feet tall, with some very respectable claws and fangs. And it was sporting the very annoyed and angry glower of a heavy sleeper that had been forcefully woken up before they should’ve been.

As its red eyes fell upon the whimpering manticore and the madly grinning filly, it was painfully apparent that the huge bear was pissed. And as it took a step towards them that caused the earth to quake and let out a loud and very annoyed roar that caused birds to start flying away in panic for miles, it was clear it was not above venting its annoyance upon those that had dared to disturb its sleep.

Din truly was smiling upon her on this day!

With a smile so large to basically occupy her whole face, Ganondorf sent Din a quick prayer in thanks. And as the star-bear roared once again, the tiny filly roared back in kind as she rushed past the terrified manticore and straight towards the beast that was larger than her family’s barn.

Dodging a massive claw slash that uprooted several trees, Ganondorf crouched low for a moment before borrowing from the Kid’s book of tricks and jumping on the attacking appendage. Using the massive limb as a foothold to jump further upwards she climbed the great beast and got closer to its roaring maw.

Dodging the star-bear’s second claw as it sought to squash her as if she was a fly, the wind of the blow caused her mane and the bow upon it to flutter madly every which way. Ganondorf kicked off the beast’s shoulder in order to deliver a very respectable blow right to the creature’s brow.

Falling back to the ground upon her hooves, Ganondorf felt her smile grow even larger as the great beast simply took two steps back, shook its head, looked back at the beaming filly, and roared in anger.

Star-bear could take a blow, awesome!

Ignoring the open-mouthed manticore all but frozen at the sidelines, or the two other fillies rushing into the clearing, the yellow-coated filly charged back toward the gargantuan bear with another roar of her own. The star-bear roared in kind once more before likewise charging at the filly, the earth quaking with each of its steps.

All the while, a smile never left Ganondorf’s muzzle. Her day was most definitely looking up!

“Of all the harebrained, reckless, moronic stunts you could’ve pulled! Why by Nayru’s eternal wisdom did you think that fighting an Ursa Minor was an acceptable idea?!” Zelda furiously asked as the three fillies approached the ruined remains of a once mighty castle.

“Ursa Minor?” the Wielder of Power couldn’t help but ask, interest more than piqued as she emphasized the last word while completely ignoring Zelda’s chastisement. For, if she knew anything about how the stuck-up scholars did things when giving their fancy names to stuff, there being an Ursa Minor most definitely meant there was also an Ursa Major somewhere!

“Why do I even bother?” Zelda asked herself, resting her brow upon her hoof in exasperation at the devil may care grin Ganondorf was sporting.

“Beats me! The Kid learned to just live with my antics lifetimes ago!” the yellow-coated filly truthfully replied with a shrug of her shoulders, gaining an annoyed groan from Zelda for her troubles. “So, back on topic, is there an Ursa Major then?”

The star-bear had been a really fun tussle, after all! Therefore, having a friendly fight with a bigger version of it was a very appealing proposition for the yellow-coated filly!

Sighing once, Zelda shook her head before restarting to walk.

“Yes, there are Ursa Major,” Zelda simply replied, tone of voice resigned. “And before you ask, they just so happen to be at least five times the size of the one you attacked. But they are exceedingly rare to find, even for a star beast.”

“Something to look forward to then,” Ganondorf joyfully stated, a huge smile on her muzzle. “Will have to try and track one down when I have some free time. Or perhaps I could simply wait for Teddy there to grow up. Star-bear has some spunk, so a rematch when he is bigger could be fun!”

“Teddy?” Zelda asked while giving Ganondorf an odd look, causing the Wielder of Power to huff in slight annoyance.

Naming had never been one of her strong points. But that didn’t give Miss Encyclopedia a reason to nitpick the name she gave her new starry sparring partner!

Any further discussion about star beasts and sparring were shelved for later though, as the three fillies turned a corner on the trail and reached the Castle of the Two Sisters proper.

“Huh, Sunbutt really let the place go,” Ganondorf idly commented, taking in the crumbled walls and collapsed towers. Her keen eye told her the holes and cracks had been caused by time and the elements of nature, not an attack by an enemy.

It truly was a sad fate for a once mighty stronghold, to fall to the ravages of time instead of blazing brightly in a final defiant stand against a worthy opponent.

“So it would seem,” Link confirmed, poking with a hoof a very unsteady-looking rickety wooden bridge that seemed to be the only way to cross the ravine separating most of the forest from the castle proper. The fact the light poke caused a rotten wooden board to crack and fall, all the while the ropes made some very unsafe sounding groaning noises wasn’t really encouraging towards the idea of using said bridge.

“Yeah, nope,” Ganondorf stated with finality after another moment of inspecting the bridge and deciding she wouldn’t send a bokoblin to cross it, much less herself!

“Agreed,” Zelda promptly replied, calculating the distance between their position and the far side before letting out an annoyed grunt. “And with all the wild magic in the air and my currently limited reserves, teleporting us to the other side would be an equal gamble.”

“Then we take the long way,” was Link’s simple reply to their statements, already moving by the side of the ravine in search of a place to go down. After but a few moments she found what a generous soul might call a path, with several places where one could grab hold of the rocks for extra stability.

Not that that discouraged the Wielder of Courage for even a moment, for as Ganondorf and Zelda had been inspecting the ‘path’, the little pegasus had already started to go down without a moment’s hesitation.

Trading a look with Zelda, Ganondorf once more shrugged her shoulders and followed Link. It sure as heck beat the rickety ‘bridge’, that was certain.

VI - Dungeon Crawling

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Dungeon Crawling

“That didn’t used to be there, did it?” Ganondorf questioned her fellow Triforce Wielders. The source of said question being the large cave entrance standing before the three fillies.

After a fairly annoying descent through the ‘trail’ Link had found, they had reached the bottom of the ravine. Alas, before they could start the equally annoying climb on the other side so that they could finally reach the ruined castle, they had stumbled upon this little oddity.

“No, it most certainly did not,” Zelda confirmed, the tiny unicorn’s brow scrunched in thought as she probably tried to remember every single geographic and geological work ever made about the region or something along those lines. “The cliff face where the castle is located was solid rock all the way through. It was one of the main reasons why the spot had been chosen for its foundation in the first place, after all.

“There shouldn’t be a cave system here at all. And that is ignoring how the rock type seems to change from granite to some kind of crystal the further into the cave you go.” She firmly stated, observing the oddity that was the normal grey rock changing to the bluish purple crystal. “This is most definitely not a normal phenomenon.”

“Yeah, you make a good point,” Ganondorf agreed, nodding her head, her bow swaying with the motion, as she stood next to the little Princess to examine the crystal-like growths at the cave’s mouth. “What do you think, Kid?”

After a moment with nothing but silence to answer her question, the Wielder of Power stopped her prodding of the crystals with a stick to look for what was holding up Link’s answer, only to notice that the Wielder of Courage was not anywhere near them.

Dropping the stick, the yellow-coated filly looked around for the missing member of their trio. A moment later, and the sight of an orange coat disappearing deep into the cave answered her question of where the Kid had wandered off.

“She never looks before leaping, does she?” Ganondorf mused with a chuckle as she stared at where Link had just disappeared from view.

“Was that a rhetorical question?” Zelda half joked, a resigned yet amused air on her as she started after the orange-coated pegasus.

Shrugging her shoulders while barking out an amused laugh, Ganondorf followed. All the while musing if they would be lucky enough for Link’s odd luck to awaken some ancient sealed evil or something along those lines that could lead to a fun fight.

It really wouldn’t surprise her if it happened. After all, the Golden Goddesses as her witness, it wouldn’t be the oddest turn of Fate caused by Link’s weird relationship with Lady Luck.

The deeper they went into the cave, the more the crystal replaced the stones, until finally it overtook them altogether. The fact that the crystals seemed to shine with an inner light only added to the overall oddness of the place. Even then, she had to admit that the light made traversing the cave far less of a hassle.

With a last turn, the cave plunged downwards and opened into a grotto. The crystals covered every single inch of the place. The cave shining with their glow that lit up every single inch of it. The magic in the air was so thick Ganondorf could almost taste it. And right in the middle of it all, with an orange-coated pegasus filly right in front of it, seemingly staring at the ground of all things, was a large crystal tree that was most likely the source of all the magic.

“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day,” she stated, Zelda making a sound of agreement as they neared the tree.

“Six empty indentations near the tree’s crown,” Zelda mused as she placed a hoof upon the crystal tree’s trunk and closed her eyes, her horn lighting with a faint blue glow.

As Zelda was communing with nature or whatever the heck it was she was doing, Ganondorf instead moved towards the next very notable thing on the tree.

“Moonbutt, Sunbutt,” the wielder of power stated as she looked at the alicorn sisters’ ‘emblems’ proudly emblazoned on the crystal tree, before moving towards the third unknown ‘emblem’ right in the middle of the crystal plant. “Starbutt?”

“And the stars shall aid her escape,” Zelda muttered under her breath, as she opened her eyes. “This is undoubtedly the source of the Elements the legend was talking about; the amount of Fate magic gathered upon this tree is quite impressive.”

“So Fate was nice enough to give the ‘emblem’ of the one needed to fix the mess, neat,” Ganondorf sarcastically drawled, before continuing in a far more upbeat tone of voice. “And what do you know! Not a single golden triangle in sight!”

That little fact greatly raised her spirits! For even Fate itself agreed with her! Whatever this mess was, it was not their problem!

A smile on her face, she turned to the orange-coated pegasus that was still staring at the ground but a few hooves away from her. “And what are you doing there, Kid?”

“The Master Sword used to be here,” Link simply stated, still staring at what Ganondorf could now see was an indentation in the solid crystal where the Kid’s blade could have fit like a glove, now completely empty and lacking said blade.

“Huh, tough luck. Wonder who could’ve taken it?” the Wielder of Power said while giving a short pat of commiseration to Link’s shoulder. She simply made a noise the Wielder of Power translated through long practice with the Kid’s monosyllabic answers to ‘no idea’.

Which, fair enough. For while it was true that only a true hero could wield the Blade of Evil’s Bane, that didn’t help narrow down who the heck could’ve taken the sword besides it being some other goody-two-shoes.

After another moment of silence where the only sound heard was Zelda casting a few more spells upon the tree, the cave, and basically anything that caught her fancy at the moment, Ganondorf decided to voice to the Kid a question that had been bothering him since the Wielder of Courage had first mentioned the Master Sword back on the forest’s trail.

“Hey, Kid. You are kinda tiny right now,” she conversationally stated, gaining a deadpan look from the pegasus filly for it. Paying it no mind, she carried on. “So, had that picky blade of yours still been here, would you have been able to pick it up, or would you have ended up in a magical coma and woke up a few years from now when you would be able to wield it?”

The brief flabbergasted look that was Link’s answer to her question made a wide smile appear upon Ganondorf’s muzzle.

It wasn’t everyday she managed to break through Link’s zen-like armor, after all.

As she walked through the dilapidated corridors of the abandoned castle, Ganondorf basically slammed open every door she saw. She was a filly on a mission and would not be denied! And so, after leaving Zelda and Link back in the castle’s throne room as the little princess kept analyzing five stone spheres, of all things, Ganondorf instead kept searching for anything made out of metal she could salvage.

So far her quest had awarded her one halberd, two swords, and a shield. All of them had some rust and showed signs of the passing of time, but nothing that some work at the forge couldn’t fix in order to salvage the metal. Sadly, if her math was right, the amount of metal that would give her would be barely enough to make Big Mac a proper plow. Her big brother was a big pony, after all.

Therefore, she continued her search, wandering through the empty ruined castle in search of anything of note.

Reaching the last room in the corridor she was currently traveling through, Ganondorf attempted to open the door, only for it to not budge one bit even when she applied more force.

“What?” she mused to herself, as she realized that she was applying more than enough force that the wooden door should have shattered by now.

Actually paying attention now, the yellow-coated filly promptly noted that both the door and its lock were actually enchanted. And a closer look showed the magical signature upon said enchantments to be from none other than Sunbutt herself.

“Well now, this is promising,” she happily commented, now quite interested in what Sunbutt had locked away. It could be anything really, Sunbutt had the really bad habit of stashing stuff away and then forgetting about it.

Analyzing the enchantments, Ganondorf promptly realized they greatly increased both the door and its lock’s durability far past its natural threshold. Alongside that, they made it highly resistant to magic. Bypassing them to open the door would be quite a pain and take a lot of work.

That is, if Sunbutt hadn’t made quite the rookie mistake with the setup of this whole production.

And so, Ganondorf took a couple of steps to the left of the door, and applied the ‘Indestructible Door Fallacy’.

A moment of concentration as she gathered her mana upon her right front hoof. A surge of motion. And with a loud crashing noise that echoed through the empty corridors and halls, and a large cloud of shattered stone, the room had a neat new entrance through its ordinary stone unenchanted wall.

Jumping through the hole, the Wielder of Power took in her surroundings.

It was a medium sized room with no windows, covered in dust and cobwebs. No adornment or decoration was upon its walls. The only light entered by the hole she had made. The only thing of note was the small librarian’s lectern in its center.

That, and the book resting upon said lectern, that is.

A book that was radiating dark magic in waves, filling the room with its presence, making it so that it almost felt like there were dozens of voices loudly speaking over each other, making promises of greatness and might if one were to but open its pages and read its contents.

It was a black book encrusted with blood-red gems upon its cover, clearly an artifact of power of some kind. A magical item capable of giving the most ordinary of beings powers they couldn’t even fathom. The thick leather bound tome radiated malice and power in a thick miasma that could beguile the senses and warp the will of the weak-willed.

Sadly for the ancient artifact, said adjective simply could not be applied to the Wielder of Power in any way, shape, or form.

“That’s downright embarrassing! You should be ashamed of yourself!” the yellow-coated filly berated the dark tome as she sneered at it, completely unbothered by the clogging miasma filling up the room. “What were you even thinking?

“You are a dark tome of forbidden secrets! Not a cursed sword or other such weapon to justify such a brutish display!” she continued, getting closer to the tome and forcibly pointing at it admonishingly.

“I mean, seriously? A miasma of corrupted power and enough magic to saturate the whole room?” she mockingly questioned as the voices slowly stopped.

“You need to be subtle and elusive, giving just enough of a hint of your power as you slowly draw the unwary towards you in such a way that they will doubt it’s even happening!” she ranted at the clearly cursed book, which was swiftly drawing back its magical aura of corruption back into itself as if in embarrassment. “Have some goddess damned common sense! And by Din’s sacred flame, stop acting like a fishmonger’s wife screaming at the top of their lungs for attention!”

The book’s visage remained the same, and yet, if a book could flinch it would be doing so.

Magic levels in the dark room covered in cobwebs quickly returned to normal. Or, as normal as anything was in the Everfree. Ganondorf nodded once before once more forcibly pointing at the book. “Now, let it out slowly. Just enough to lightly fill the room without it being immediately noticeable.”

After a moment’s hesitation, the dark book did just that. Its magic slowly seeped out until it almost looked like there was a subtle shimmer upon the air in the room, something those not paying attention could easily dismiss as a trick of the light.

“Yes, much better,” the filly nodded, before continuing her lecture. “Now add just a hint of glamour. Enough to make you look interesting and valuable, but not enough to raise too many questions.”

There was a barely felt hint of magic, and the book suddenly looked far more inviting and interesting, in a way that would lead those that looked at it to feel the subtle desire to leaf through its pages playing around their minds.

“Better! Now keep practicing!” the Wielder of Power proclaimed with finality before turning around and making her way back towards the hole in the wall. “And if I hear you embarrassed dark artifacts with such an unseemingly display again I will destroy you myself!”

And with those partying words, the filly left the room, leaving nothing within it but darkness, dust, cobwebs, and a highly confused, chastised, and embarrassed dark tome of forbidden knowledge alone in the old forgotten room.

As she cast spell after spell upon the inert orbs her magical senses told her, in no uncertain terms, had to be the Elements of Harmony the legend was talking about, Zelda had no choice but to give it all up as a bad job.

The Elements were completely inert and unresponsive, and all her analyses showed they would remain this way until the sixth and currently missing element was brought back to its brethren. And considering the rest of said legend, even then its bearer would have to reactivate it for the magic of the Elements to be reawakened once more.

As much as she hated to admit, it seemed that Ganondorf had been right. This was not their quest to undertake.

“So, you done playing with the pebbles?”

And speak of the devil. Zelda mused, as she turned to see Ganondorf’s current form entering the throne room of the ruined castle. The dichotomy that was knowing that the tiny yellow-coated filly with a red mane sporting a huge crimson bow was the Wielder of Power briefly lifted the Wielder of Wisdom’s mood.

“Yes, it is clear that only the bearers of the elements will be able to reawaken them, and even then, only when the holder of the final element steps forward when the time is right,” she shared her findings, giving the five stone spheres a last look before shaking her head. “There is nothing we can do until then.”

“Told you so, for once it’s not our problem!” Ganondorf happily chirped as she approached Zelda’s white-coated form. “It’s Starbutt’s time to be fate’s chew toy! So leave it to whoever that is to do so!”

“I guess you are correct, no matter how crassly you worded it,” Zelda let out a sigh as she briefly massaged her brow with a hoof. “Especially since I’m certain that the ‘right time’ will be only after Nightmare Moon has already made her escape.”

“That is how things usually go with these things,” Ganondorf readily agreed with a shrug of a shoulder as she stopped next to Zelda. A hint of annoyance appeared on her features as she continued. “Also, couldn’t Moonbutt have chosen a proper villain name for her alter ego? Nightmare Moon looks like something to scare tiny fillies rather than a proper dark title!”

As Ganondorf kept ranting about the ponies ‘cursed lack of ability to choose appropriate names’ Zelda couldn’t help but let out a brief chuckle. She remembered well Ganondorf’s constant and fruitless crusade in their last life, as the Wielder of Power tried and failed to make the ponies stop giving things either cutesy or joke-like names. However, after a moment, she noticed something else, and so she cut the earth pony’s rant short.

“Ganondorf, where is Link?” she questioned, noting the lack of the orange-coated pegasus.

“Didn’t she stay with you?” the Wielder of Power asked in confusion.

“I thought she followed you to explore the castle,” the Wielder of Wisdom answered back, a hint of alarm in her tone.

“What are you two talking about?” the Wielder of Courage calmly asked. The orange-coated pegasus entered into the throne room from a completely different corridor, a very innocent look on her muzzle.

Zelda traded a look with Ganondorf, as both unicorn and earth pony realized that Link had been left unsupervised in an abandoned ruin for several minutes. With a silent consensus, both fillies turned towards the third member of their trio and asked as one.

“What did you do?” they questioned, alarm in the unicorn’s words and eagerness in the earth pony’s.

For her part, Link simply blinked her eyes. Then tilted her head slightly to the side, silently conveying her incomprehension of the question. Unsurprisingly, neither of the other fillies bought it for a second.

And so both started to question the Wielder of Courage to find out exactly what shenanigans she had been up to.

VII - Like a Link in a china Shop

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Like a Link in a china Shop

The sun was getting close to the western horizon. The afternoon sun lit up the Everfree forest with an auburn light, giving the dangerous forest an oddly picturesque feel as three fillies made their way out.

Ganondorf really did not want to have to listen to her older sister’s chastisement if she happened to be late for dinner, after all.

Tree after tree went past them in a blur. They zoomed past the three fillies one after the other as they swiftly followed the river downstream. Droplets of water sprayed all around them as they drew ever closer to the edge of the forest and Ponyville proper.

Yet, neither the yellow-coated earth pony nor the white-coated unicorn filly were paying the speeding scenery any mind, instead giving their whole focus to the orange-coated pegasus filly in their midst. Who in turn, placidly looked onwards, appreciating the scenery as if all was well in the world.

“And that’s when the magical armors attacked?” Ganondorf questioned, tilting her head sideways in confusion. The red bow upon her mane flapped with the motion. She was atempting, without much success, to make sense of what they had been told.

“No, that was after the sentient sword. I think?” Zelda started to say, only for the affirmation to turn into a question, as she tried to make sense of the whole mess.

“Was that before, or after, the room’s floor collapsed and she found the malfunctioning golems?’ the Wielder of Power questioned, also not having much luck in sorting out a passable timeline for the Wielder of Courage’s new misadventures.

“After, but before she stumbled upon the chimera,” the Wielder of Wisdom fiercely nodded, her brows furrowed in concentration. “At least, as far as I managed to gather.”

“How did you even find a chimera around here?” Ganondorf couldn’t help but ask, giving the pegasus who was still calmly looking forward, a questioning look.

“That’s actually a really good question,” a third voice added. And yet, the very posh voice did not come from the third filly amidst their group. It instead came from beneath the three pony fillies.

The owner of said posh voice so happened to be a large purple sea serpent, which sported a very fancy mustache upon their muzzle. “I have been visiting the area around the ruined castle for decades, and the forest for even longer, and I have never stumbled upon such a creature around these parts!”

Looking at the sea serpent, or would it be a river serpent considering they were currently traversing a river? Ganondorf couldn’t help but muse, not for the first time, and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last, how the Kid’s ability to find interesting stuff was downright unfair.

All she managed to find as she explored the ruined castle was a few dozen pounds of metal, and a very pitiful dark tome. That was it. Even if you included the magical crystal tree, that was hardly worthy of a proper adventure.

On the other hoof, in the very same timeframe and the very same location, the Kid had managed to stumble upon constructs, golems, magical armors, aggressive sentient weapons, monsters, and a sea serpent. A sea serpent who the Wielder of Courage had somehow befriended and convinced to give the trio a river ride back to closer to the forest’s border. That cut their journey back by more than half. In addition, this was merely what Link had admitted to happening. Ganondorf was quite certain that was not an exhaustive list of what the Kid had been up to.

It was downright unfair, that is what it was!

“Chimeras aren’t even supposed to be native to this continent!” Zelda hissed in frustration as she massaged her brow, probably trying to fight off the start of a headache.

As an answer, Link merely gave a small shrug with her wings. As could be expected, that earned a groan from Zelda and a chuckle from Ganondorf.

A few moments of silence passed, in which only the sound of the wind and rushing water could be heard as the trees grew ever more sparse as they drew near to the forest’s edge. At this speed they would be back way before dinner. But a sudden thought occurred to the Wielder of Power.

Turning her head back towards the Wielder of Courage, she gave the orange-coated filly a level look and asked. “Hey Kid, was Sunbutt’s pottery collection still in the castle?”

The question actually made Zelda stop massaging her brow as she too looked at Link, a look between amusement and dread on her features as she realized what Ganondorf was asking.

Alas, as the seconds went by, nothing but silence was their answer.

“And here we are! This is the closest this particular river gets to the pony settlement!” the purple river serpent flamboyantly declared as he drew to a stop, curling his body in such a way as to make platforms they could jump on to reach the shore. “I gather you can make the rest of the journey easily enough?”

“Indeed, thanks for the ride, Steven,” Link replied with a polite bow of her head before making a couple of jumps and reaching the shore. Then she promptly started to placidly walk away, a perfectly serene air around her.

Giving a brief word of thanks to their ride before disembarking herself, Ganondorf decided that the very tiny smile on the Wielder of Courage’s muzzle was probably all the answer they would get in regards to that question.

As the morning sun shone over the fields of Sweet Apple Acres, Big Macintosh let out a tiny aggravated sigh, as he had to stop plowing the fields in order to realign the very old plow he was using for the task... for the third time this hour alone.

Lifting the heavy metal tool as if it weighed as much as a feather, the large red-coated stallion realigned the plow so that it would cut through the earth nice and straight. For at least a few minutes, that is, until the old and dented metal of the plow’s blade inevitably started making the plow go astray again.

Sadly, it was his own fault he was forced to use this old thing, what with how he had accidentally bent the newer plow he should be using nearly in half by hitting a rock hidden under the soil too hard.

And that after Apple Bloom had reinforced it a few months ago too.

But there was no use crying over spilt milk. And so Big Mac resumed his work. The fields wouldn’t till themselves, after all. And so he pulled the old plow. For several moments nothing but the sound of his hooves, the metal blade cutting through the earth, and the singing of birds could be heard.

“Big Mac, there you are!” he heard Applejack call him. Turning his head he saw the orange-coated mare approaching him. Stopping, he waited to see what she wanted while greeting her with a nod. “Have you seen Apple Bloom around? Ah haven’t been able to find her around the house.”

“At the barn,” he promptly replied as his sister stopped by his side.

“What is she doing there? All her chores are done aren’t th- She is at her forge again, isn’t she?” Applejack started to question, before she realized the answer to her own question and changed it accordingly.

“Eeeyup,” Big Mac nodded. A hint of amusement made itself known at his sister’s exasperation with their youngest sibling’s small obsession with her hobby of forging metal.

“Ah swear, how she didn’t get a blacksmith’s cutie mark Ah’ll never know,” Applejack mumbled as she removed her hat and passed a hoof through her blonde mane. Fair enough. Big Mac knew blacksmith’s apprentices that had gotten their cutie marks in the field with far less effort. “She really shouldn’t spend so much time in there, especially on a weekend.”

“Spent yesterday out,” Big Mac reasonably pointed out, defending their little sister’s odd little habits.

Yes, their little sister had always been a little odd. But in the end, who wasn’t?

She had a hobby she enjoyed with her metallurgy. She did her tasks on time with nothing but the normal light grumbling that should be expected of a young pony doing chores. She payed attention to her studies, even as she grumbled some more about how they were ‘a waste of her time she could be using far more productively’. And she respected her elders when it was actually important, never once raising her voice to Granny Smith even when she fully disagreed with the old mare’s verdicts.

The only real problems Big Mac could have pointed out in regards to Apple Bloom’s habits, namely her lack of proper socialization with other ponies her age and her habit of hiding herself on the farm and not going out enough, had been solved by her getting her cutie mark and the two new friends that came with it. Yesterday alone Apple Bloom had spent basically the whole day playing around with her new friends in the woods near the town.

Sure, the way she got the cutie mark and became friends had been a little odd. But once more, who wasn’t?

And so, if she wanted to fool around with her forge a little today, Big Mac saw no problem with that. The fact that there was a very high likelihood that their little sis was fixing the bent plow for him may also have influenced his decision a little bit. However, nopony was perfect.

“Big Mac, Applejack, good morning,” the big stallion heard their little sister call. As if summoned by AJ’s words, the filly was approaching them with sure steps, paying absolutely no mind to the large metal plow over three times her size that was being balanced upon her back as she approached.

The sight made a small smile appear on Big Mac’s muzzle. Apple Bloom’s cutie mark may not have a single apple in sight, but nonetheless their little sis had gotten that Apple Family strength in spades.

“Morning, sugarcube,” AJ greeted as Big Mac simply nodded once more in greeting himself. No need to change what worked, after all. The orange-coated mare shook her head on exasperation, a small smile of her own in her muzzle as Applejack moved to help their little sis with the very cumbersome package she was carrying. “Ah see you managed to fix the plow this big lug had busted.”

“Thanks,” Big Mac said to the filly, who avoided eye contact for a moment while letting out an embarrassed sounding cough.

“It was no problem,” Apple Bloom promptly replied, looking far too nonchalant about it all to be perfectly natural. “I just had some free time and found some scrap metal lying around, that is all.”

The plow had been bent nearly in half. Big Mac knew that it would have taken a proper blacksmith quite a bit of effort and time to fix it to normal. As he stared at the spotless looking plow being set by his side, the stallion knew that his sister’s words were not exactly truthful. Yet, knowing their little sis was not the best with dealing with open praise he let the matter lie.

If she wanted to downplay her part, then he would respect her wishes. But that was no reason not to show his appreciation properly. And so, he unhooked himself from the old plow and approached his tiny little sister.

Giving the filly an affectionate nuzzle, Big Mac once more voiced his thanks. He made sure to not bring attention to how doing so made her smile for a brief moment, before Apple Bloom seemed to realize she was doing that and hid the smile behind a nonchalant look.

Pretending not to notice the byplay, Big Mac instead examined his sister’s gift in full.

Straight as a ruler all the way through. There wasn’t a single imperfection or undulation anywhere in the metal. The plow glittered in the sunlight as if brand new. The sun illuminated a few faint lines around the blade’s edge and the main body that seemed to have been carved into the metal of the plow, giving it a very pleasing aspect as the lines seemed to flow into each other in a very pleasant way.

“You really surpassed yourself,” Applejack complimented as she let out a loud, impressed whistle. That just caused their sis to once more avert their gaze while mumbling it was nothing.

Big Mac happened to disagree. He would have had to pay quite a few bits to get anything even near this level of craftsponyship if he had been buying it at a shop. The thought filled him with pride for his little sister’s skill. But respecting her wishes, he kept the words to himself.

“Color?” Big Mac asked instead, changing the subject and voicing the most distinctive feature about the remade plow. That being that it had a faint copper-like, almost burnt orange, color to it, unlike the normal steely look it used to have.

“Just a new alloy mix that I think will be able to better handle your strength, you big lug,” Apple Bloom happily proclaimed, a proud smile on her features as she gave the plow a light kick that made it ring like a church bell. “I want to see you bend this one!”

Both himself and Applejack chuckled at the filly’s enthusiasm.

“Ah, can see that. This looks really solid!” Applejack agreed, affectionately mussing the tiny filly’s mane. A proud smile crossed her muzzle. “You should be proud, sugarcube. This some real fine work!”

“Whatever,” Apple Bloom replied, once more avoiding eye contact even as she batted Appejack’s hoof away. The filly promptly turned around and started towards the house. “Now, if there is nothing else you need, there is something I have to talk about with Granny Smith.”

As the eldest sibling of the Apple Family watched their little sister swiftly retreat, both ponies couldn’t help but let out amused chuckles.

“That filly really needs to learn how to deal with praise better,” Applejack mused out loud, again passing a hoof through her mane as the yellow-coated filly disappeared from view.

“Eeyup,” Big Mac readily agreed, already hitching himself to the new plow and resuming his work.

Immediately he felt the difference. The earth underneath the plow parted like water as he started moving faster and faster, picking up the pace. He could barely feel his muscles strain as he moved onwards, the work being done in a fraction of the time it would normally take.

His very pleased smile lasted a few minutes longer, until the plow shook in place while letting out a loud bell-like sound as he hit something.

“Oh horseapples,” he couldn’t help but curse, wondering if he had managed to break his little sis’ gift moments after receiving it. A worried looking Applejack rushed to his side, the frown on her brow showing she probably was having very similar thoughts to his own.

Only, after unhooking himself and going to examine the plow they found it perfectly fine, not a single mark upon its still pristine looking metal blade. Instead, there was a very large rock within the tilled soil. A very large and solid looking rock, that was neatly cut in half. The cut was so perfect and smooth that it almost gave the rock a mirror finish where it had been cut.

“Well, Ah’ll be darned,” Applejack said with a low impressed whistle.

“Quality work,” Big Mac readily agreed. A smile on his lips as he hitched himself back to the plow and resumed his work. Pride for his little sis filled him as the plow continued to cut through the earth with ease, leaving behind ruler straight lines as he worked.

Entering the family house’s main room, Ganondorf was unsurprised to see the family’s old matriarch hard at work in the kitchen, preparing a nice hearty meal for lunch so that her older siblings could regain their strength. That was something Ganondorf heartily approved of. But she wasn’t here to appreciate the matriarch’s cooking abilities.

“Hey granny, if you have a moment there is something I need to talk about with you,” Ganondorf said to the old mare, who turned her old face to smile at the filly even as she kept mixing what looked like a very large pot of tasty smelling stew.

“Why, hello little one. But of course, I always have time for family!” the green-coated old earth pony stated as she gestured Apple Bloom closer. “Now what bothers you, little one?”

“Nothing, it’s just that a cat decided to follow me to the farm, the ball of fur looks like it wants to stay around. So I decided to see what you think about it,” the Wielder of Power simply stated. Granny Smith was the matriarch of the family after all. Her word was final in regards to the farm.

“Darn stubborn critters, but also darn useful too,” Granny Smith said, dunking her wooden spoon into the stew and picking up a healthy helping of it before offering it to the filly. She promptly ate the offered morsel before nodding appreciatively at the taste. “Especially in keeping vermin and such out of our food stores.

“Sure, I see no problem in letting it wander around the farm, so long as you make sure it knows not to mess things up or do its necessities where it shouldn’t!” the old mare seriously stated, pointing the wooden spoon at Apple Bloom. “You will be in charge of it, you hear me young’n?”

“Sure, no problem granny,” Ganondorf readily agreed with a nod. Waving to the old mare, she moved back towards the entrance.

“And make sure it knows not to bother Winona!” Granny Smith added as Ganondorf crossed the threshold.

“Will do,” the filly shouted back, before looking at the brown and white work dog lazing at the entrance and motioning for her to follow. “Winona, with me, time to teach a newbie the proper order of things.”

The dog happily barked and started after the filly, as they moved away from the house and towards the large barn and the apple orchard past it. A very large manticore was fidgeting in place there, as if questioning how exactly it had ended up where it was.

“Now listen up, furball. You were the one that chose to come here, so as long as you stay in my family’s farm you will follow a simple rule!” the tiny filly less than a fifth the beast’s size and a tenth of its weight barked. The massive predator promptly drew itself perfectly still at the filly’s words, giving her its full attention. “If anyone above you in the pecking order gives you an order, you will obey it to the best of your abilities! Is that clear?”

The manticore let out a low growl of agreement, submissively lowering its head before the tiny filly. The filly nodded her head once in satisfaction.

“Good, so here is the pecking order! Me, Granny Smith, Applejack and Big Mac, Winona, the Apple Trees, and you. Do you understand?”

The massive apex predator looked at the tiny dog, who was happily wagging her tail while watching the procedures with her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth. It looked back at the filly with a look that all but screamed, ‘are you serious?’

“I said, do you understand?!” the tiny filly asked again, as she stomped once with a hoof. A light quake made itself felt as the ground cracked slightly at the motion. Hard eyes stared at the manticore, who promptly lowered itself to the ground and growled its agreement once more.

“Good!” Ganondorf stated with a fierce nod, giving the manticore one last look before turning towards Winona’s happily panting form. “Winona, you are in charge of furball here, show it the ropes and how we do things. Especially show her where we keep our produce and how best to keep vermin out.”

The dog happily barked her assent, before turning toward the very large feline and barking twice more before leading it away. After a moment’s hesitation the manticore followed, a very uncertain look on its features before she once more looked at the tiny filly, which promptly made it adopt a resolved look. Afterwards it followed the now happily barking dog with sure steps, as it paid close attention to everything it was saying.

Golden Crusaders

by Greatazuredragon

I - A New Start

II - A Peaceful Reunion

III - Missing Moon

IV - One Step Forward...

V - An Enthusiastic Walk

VI - Dungeon Crawling

VII - Like a Link in a china Shop