Inside the Great Zecora Spirit
Inside the Great Zecora Spirit
Twilight walked slowly, looking around at the setting that welcomed her. A big cobweb laid in the middle of the huge room, several hooves tall. A ladder and some vines were the only way to reach the upper platforms. She was looking up, seeing more platforms above and not noticed when a weird blue plant rose from the ground and prepared to bite her.
“Watch out!” Pinkie Pie shouted while changing her glow to a yellow one and began to float around the plant. Twilight jumped back shocked. but more because of the shout than from the actual warning. The plant missed its target. Twilight took the sword with her tooth and used her magic to rise the shield, adopting a combat pose.
“What is...?” Twilight started to ask, but her question died as her jaw dropped to the floor, letting go her sword. Her usually pink fairy was now white coated. Pinkie’s mane and tail were still bubbly, but now they were blond and her eyes were no longer blue, now they were bright purple. Her aura also changed from light pink to a yellow one. “Pinkie, is that you?”, Twilight asked.
“Well, duh! Who else could i be?” Pinkie answered.
“But, but... you are now white.. and... your mane is...” Twilight was confused “How is that possible?”
“You really think? I don’t look too different” Pinkie answered plainly.
“Too different?! You seem a completely different fairy!” Twilight shouted.
“I’m still your friend Pinkie Pie, silly filly!” Pinkie grinned innocently. “Now focus, this nasty plant wanted some piece of you, remember?”
Twilight moved her head from side to side leaving a big sigh, trying to do what Pinkie said. She took her sword again and adopted again her battle stance. “Ok, what is that thing?” Twilight asked, looking at her attacker, who was opening and closing its jaws, releasing a green and smelly smoke.
“It's called Deku Baba. Strike it when it's extended to defeat it.” Pinkie Pie was still floating around it, helping Twilight to get it centered.
Twilight walked towards the plant with the shield still up and saw it flex back, preparing to bite her again. She jumped back and the Deku Baba bit the air. Then Twilight swung her sword and the Deku Baba went stiff with the pain. Twilight struck it again and the plant detached from the ground while its jaws were separated from the stiff stem at the time it hit the ground.
“You should take that.” Pinkie Pie said flying back to Twilight, returning to her natural pink bright.
“And why on Hyrule I want to take something that tried to kill me?” Twilight asked after she sheathed her sword, forgetting the previous color change of her fairy friend.
“Because it’s no longer a Deku Baba, silly! Now it is a Deku Stick! You can use it like a sword!” Pinkie said smiling widely.
“Pinkie Pie, I already have an actual sword, remember?”
“Well, you can use it like a torch!” Pinkie tried again.
“Pinkie,” Twilight said with a sigh “we unicorns can lit our horn to make some light, so we don’t need a torch.”
Pinkie went silent for a moment, putting a hoof to her chin. “But I am sure you will need it somehow... I just can’t explain it. It’s like a feeling in the back of the neck. I just know you will need it.”
Twilight looked the serious tone her fairy adopted all of a sudden. Somehow, she knew Pinkie was telling the truth. She smiled at her. “Fine, I’ll take it, so we can move on.” Twilight used her magic to levitate the Deku Stick and put it in her back. It disappeared. “Wait, what...?” Twilight startled at the mixed signals her brain was receiving. Her eyes were saying “The Deku Stick is gone!”, while her tact and something else, like a sixth sense, were saying ”The Deku Stick is still there.”, and she didn’t understood it.
“What’s the matter?” Pinkie Pie asked, seeing Twilight’s confused stare.
“The... the Deku Stick I just picked up... I know it is here, but I can’t see it!” Twilight shocked her head after saying that contradictory sentence.
“So, you can feel it, right?” Pinkie said while looking their surroundings.
“Yeah... somehow, I feel it, stored somewhere in my back, even when it should be visible and it isn’t.” Twilight was puzzled. How was this even possible? She didn’t feel the item to be enchanted, so it should be standing out, since the stick was longer than her sword. But the stick was nowhere to be seen.
“Then try to take it.” Pinkie suggested. And so did Twilight, pulling out from behind her the Deku Stick. Pinkie seemed pleased. “Now put it gain in your back.” Pinkie instructed. Her unicorn friend did an the stick disappeared from sight again as it was stored again. Pinkie grinned happily. “There you have it, that’s the way it works.”
“Okay, that somehow works, but I don’t get it. That doesn’t explain anything!”
Pinkie shrugged slightly. “Anyway, we have some work to do, remember?”
“You’re right Pinkie, the Great Zecora Spirit counts on us. Let’s go.”
Twilight climbed up the ladder and started to trot and jump across the platforms that spiraled upwards by the walls of the hollow tree. She soon found a treasure chest, the same kind of chest containing the Kokiri Sword, back in the secret area of the Training Grounds. It was flanked by some vines, and in that vines were some nasty-looking spider-like monsters, blocking the path. Pinkie flew towards one of them to drag Twilight’s attention. But what really dragged the unicorn’s attention was the change of colors of the fairy.
“Pinkie, are you aware that you changed your colors again?” Twilight asked. “How is possible that Pinkie doesn’t realize of a so obvious change in herself?”
“Maybe, but that’s not the important thing.” Pinkie obviously didn’t give that matter any importance. “You see these little spiders? They are called Skullwalltulas.” Pinkie said. “They are pretty weak, almost any kind of hit will defeat them. But you have nothing right now to hit them with, so you better let them alone by now.”
Twilight switched her attention to the chest. She opened it, reveling a map of the area. She took a look at it, folded back an put it in her back.
“Argh! I still don’t get it! Where does it goes?” Twilight asked with frustration. She looked to Pinkie, who was at her side again and pink as always, waiting for an answer.
“I don’t know. But it works, right? That’s all I need to know!”
“Maybe that is all you need, but I need to understand it, is frustrating!” Twilight stomped a hoof and let a sigh. “But, as you said, we have to help the Great Zecora Spirit. Maybe when we stop her curse, I can study that.”
“That’s my girl!” Pinkie cheered.
Shortly after, both reached a dead end. The wooden wall had no ladder heading up or vines waiting to be climbed. Twilight started to head back to the vines next to the opened treasure chest, but Pinkie Pie was looking the wall closely.
“Aha, just as I was thinking, that must be a door!” Pinkie exclaimed. Twilight approached her. “Do you see this block with a different color? That’s a door!”
“But it doesn’t have any kind of handle.” Twilight said, trying to push it. “And it doesn’t open pushing either.”
“To open it, you just have to take a look to the <> and press it when it says <>.” Pinkie explained.
“What are you talking about Pinkie?” Twilight asked confused.
“You know, the <>, the one on the top.” Pinkie Pie was explaining it like if that was the most common thing.
Twilight looked up, and only found the bottom part of the upper floor platforms. “What I expected to found up there?” Twilight’s confusion was growing by moments.
“Oh, silly me! That message was not for you Twilight. Sorry.” Pinkie smiled shyly in an apologize pose. “Just use your magic to lift the door. That should be enough.”
Twilight shocked her head from side to side, dismissing the weirdness of her fairy partner and paused in front of her door. To her surprise, she didn’t needed to use her magic at all. The door opened at the moment she started to build up the telekinesis spell, reacting at her intention to open it, not at the actual spell. She crossed it, Pinkie flying besides her and it closed swiftly behind her. Then, a loud metallic sound alerted both. Twilight turned her head around and saw four iron bars covering the door. The same kind of bars blocked the door at the other side of the room, trapping her inside. But she had no time to think about that, because a sound of brushing leaves alerted both of them. Pinkie immediately flew towards the source of the sound, adopting again a yellow glow to help Twilight to focus on the enemy. However, that color change didn’t help her friend to focus.
“Pinkie, you...” Twilight started to say. She stopped her words an let a little sigh. “You know what? Never mind...”
There were no enemy to be seen, only a pile of leaves in the center of the room. Then, from the leaves emerged a small face and threw something to Twilight. She was surprised, but dodged to one side to evade the projectile.
“This is a... Deku Scrub?” Twilight asked as the face buried again.
“Yes, it is. To defeat it, you need to return its projectiles to him in order to make it to come out of underground. Then you can strike it with the sword.”
Twilight prepared her shield and drew her sword back to her teeth. The pile of leaves rose again and shoot another projectile. This time, Twilight used the shield to make it bounce and hit the attacker. Right after the hit, the Deku Scrub let out a high-pitched and short scream and started to run over the room. Twilight cornered it and prepared to strike it.
“Please, forgive me, Master!”
Twilight stopped when she heard the shaking Deku Scrub. It was begging her to spare its life? She sheathed her sword.
“Thank you Master! In return, I’ll tell you something interesting. I heard once a unicorn had a spell that prevented him to take damage from high jumps. It was also something easy: he make himself roll with magic in the moment he touches the ground. However, that didn’t work when the jump was really, really high. Try it if you are feeling bold. Bye Master!”
The Deku Scrub hid again in the center of the room and the bars blocking the doors were released. Twilight headed to the door at the other side of the room.
“Look, there’s a treasure chest up there!” Pinkie pointed her hoof over a cliff in front of them. There was a platform floating in the middle of the room, to help to reach the cliff. Twilight jumped to the floating platform and it started to shake under her weight. She jumped to the cliff in the same moment the shaking platform plummeted to the ground, shattering itself into pieces.
“That was a close one.” Pinkie said, looking to the fallen pieces of platform. The ground was not really far, but the only door in the room was the one they used, and that door was in a step out of reach: too tall to reach from the ground and too far to reach with a jump from the cliff. Something caught Pinkie’s attention, it was hanging above the entrance. It looked like...
“Let’s see what’s in this chest.” Twilight interrupted Pinkie’s train of thoughts. She opened the box and was surprised to see it’s content. “A book and a little bag?” She lifted both from the chest to take a close look. “This book is pretty thin... it’s not a normal book... it’s a spellbook! And the bag have some kind of little seeds.” Twilight said inspecting both items. She left the bag in the ground and opened the book. It had few pages. The first ones were about magic theory, a subject she had pretty much covered. In the last pages, an unknown spell was described. It detailed how to put some magic power into a special kind of seeds to make them fly, like if they were fired with a slingshot. In the book were some pictures to aid to identify some of the things involving the spell. One of these things was the kind of seeds needed for the spell. Twilight took one from the bag. It looked exactly like the one in the book, which made sense, since both were found in the same place. She took another look at the book, trying to memorize the spell. Then she aimed the seed towards the shattered pieces of platform to practice it. She tried to impact in a particular piece to see her accuracy. Surprisingly, she hit it at her first try.
“Hey! You are good with it!” Pinkie said smiling to Twilight.
“It’s like if I was born with the skill to perform it... it just feels... natural. Like if the spell was made for myself. See that plant?“ Twilight prepared a seed, aimed, and hit it. “See the door?” Another seed hit it in the center. “See that ladder? Wait, what...?” Twilight stopped, the seed ready to be fired. A ladder was hanging from the cobwebs in the ceiling. Something clicked in her head: the ladder was just in the right position, and if it falls... she released the seed and it hit the ladder. It shaken a little before falling, right in the exact place to let her climb up to the door. Twilight grinned seeing that her assumption was correct. She took the bag of seeds and attached it to her belt. Then, she landed on the ground, rolling safely with no harm, as the Deku Scrub instructed her earlier; then she proceeded to climb up the ladder and exited the room.
While they headed to the main room again, Twilight took the map and looked to it. The map said there was a floor above her and another two below where she started. Since she saw no way to reach the lower levels, she decided to look for a way to the upper floor. She remembered the vines near the first treasure chest. She looked at one of the spider monsters and remembered Pinkie’s words about them. Twilight pulled out one seed and fired it with her slingshot spell. The monster fell on the floor and its body burned with a pale red flame, disappearing.
“That was creepy.” Twilight pointed out.
Twilight shot to the other Skullwalltulas to clear the way to the upper floor. The upper floor was a circular set of platforms attached to the walls of the tree. They headed to the room at her right and they heard the same metallic sound they heard before: the same metallic bars blocked again the room. However, this time the room was bigger. At the other side of the room another chest awaited them. Like the previous one, it was in a cliff, but there weren’t any kind of floating platform this time. She looked around and found a strange symbol in a slightly elevated part of the ground. She stepped it accidentally and some kind of mechanism started to work, elevating some platforms that filled the gap between the cliff where they were and the cliff where the chest was. Twilight watched amazed at it, but a clock-like sound snapped her out of her amazement. She reached the other side in no time and opened the chest. It contained a little scroll an a small sphere. It was dark blue, with two arrows, one white and the other red, in the center of it, together, pointing each to opposite sides. She picked up both of them and proceeded to read the scroll.
This is the ”Compass Stone”. If you want it to guide you through this area, say “Guide me, Compass Stone, because the evil forces must be gone!”
Twilight shared a glance with Pinkie, who shrugged, not knowing anything about that. Twilight placed the stone in the ground and recited the words. At that instant, the scroll burned in a green fire and it enveloped the small stone for a few moments. When the fire was gone, the stone cracked and turned into mist, a mist that surrounded Twilight, who closed her eyes in anticipation. It was a warm mist, like a blanket in a cold winter day. It disappeared in a blink, like if it never was there.
“Ok, now it’s time for me to not understand what’s going on here.” Pinkie said, a hoof rubbing her head. “Are you ok Twilight?”
“This is... amazing!” Twilight said excitedly with a big grin in her face, opening her eyes. “I can see everything in this place. Not only this room, all the rooms inside the Great Zecora Spirit. I can not see all the little monsters, but I can see where lies the source of the curse! And I don’t need to look at the map at all, I can see it just closing my eyes.” Twilight did it for a second and opened her eyes again. “There is another chest in this room, at our right.”
“Wow, that’s something very useful!” Pinkie said, mirroring the excitement in Twilight voice. “What more can you see?”
“I see the treasure chests, all the rooms, visited or not, and the were lies the origin of the curse. And I also see a mark indicating where I am.” Twilight started to pace through the cliff. “And it follows my location in real time. That’s simply amazing!”
“Ok, so, you know where we should go now?” Pinkie asked.
“Yes, we have to go to the lower levels.” Twilight stopped her pace. “But first we need to find the way to get out of this room.”
The platforms were down again, but the cliff was not too high, so Twilight just jumped and headed to where they entered, climbing some vines. She stepped again in the marked ground to action again the mechanism to rise the platforms again to inspect the left side of the room, where she saw in her mind-map a treasure chest. She jumped from the last platform to the left cliff, but something fell from the ceiling, bumping her back, and sending her flying to the lower ground.
“Twilight, are you ok?” Pinkie asked, bolting to her.
“Ouch... I’m fine, thanks for asking Pinkie. What was that?” Twilight asked while the platform lowered down, time of the mechanism run out, revealing a big spider-like creature, resembling the ones from the vines from before.
“This is a Skulltula.“ Pinkie said, floating over it with her yellow glow, Twilight not caring anymore about the change in her friend. “It’s weak spot is their soft belly, so wait until they expose it to attack”.
The spider swiped one of her legs trying to attack Twilight, making it to turn around, exposing the weak point. Twilight jumped to strike it with her sword. The monster fell, dead, burning with red flames shortly after, like it’s little counterparts. Twilight got back to activate again the mechanism for the platforms to reach the chest. To her surprise, that chest was very little. It looked like the others, but only one fifth part of the size the ones they found until now. Disregarding the size of the chest, she opened it and get shocked again.
“What does it mean?” Twilight asked. She looked again into the small chest. Inside it, a heart-shaped red substance was floating, rotating slowly.
“Isn’t it obvious? Is a Recovery Heart!” Pinkie said smiling. “Touch it to heal your wounds. You will absorb it, and it will recover you a little.”
Twilight turned around and was about to protest against the logic of what Pinkie have just said, but she did not said anything, because her tail touched the heart and the bruises made by the Skulltula disappeared at that moment. She trotted in silence towards the entrance to look for some clues when Pinkie Pie noticed something strange near the corner of the room, in the same cliff where the door stand shut.
“It looks like this torch was burning not too long ago...” Pinkie commented, glowing green, while her fur showed a slightly darker pink color and her mane and tail went flat all of a sudden.
“Wait a second... now you can glow green too?” Twilight asked with a little dismay in her voice.
“C´mon Twilight, this is not time for little details. This is important!” Pinkie said, indubitably serious.
Twilight tried to focus on the task instead on the mystery of the changing colors of her friend and sat to think a little about what it should mean. Maybe she had to light it up again? But how? She saw a torch burning near the marked ground. Maybe she could use that burning torch? She tried to move it, but it was fixed in the place. Maybe she could use something to make the fire go from one torch to the other? She tried to fire a seed through the flames of the lighted torch to see if it burned and lit the other one, but the seed didn’t burned. Then she remembered she was surrounded by wood, and wood fires pretty well! She took the sword and started to try to carve some wood from the wall.
“And what on Hyrule are you doing?” Pinkie asked rising an eyebrow, unamused, still floating around the extinguished torch. “Don’t you have anything to use instead of carving the insides of the Great Zecora Spirit?”
Then something made click inside her. Why she didn’t thought about that sooner? She took the Deku Stick from behind her and used her magic to lift it near the fire from one of the torches and then put it near the one where Pinkie was still floating around. The torch burned instantly and the bars of the door raised.
“Well done Twilight!” Pinkie said floating to Twilight while she started to smile, recovering her usual pink traits.
“But how is that you change your colors like that?” Twilight asked while they exited the room.
“I don’t know exactly why.” Pinkie answered. “In fact, I’ve never experienced that before, but it feels like it’s a part of myself. It’s a natural reaction.”
Twilight looked at Pinkie, who shrugged at her quizzical glance. The unicorn sighed a little and closed her eyes to focus herself on the map. They have explored all the rooms of the floors from base to top. Only the lower levels were unexplored yet. But she didn’t found yet any way to break the big cobweb in the center of the room on the first floor. She heard a sound and opened her eyes. She heard that one before. It was the sound the Skulltula made before falling and stumbling her. She looked up and saw it, hanging in the ceiling, waiting for any prey to be near it. Twilight approached one of the edges and a Skulltula blocked her way. She waited it to wipe a leg to her like the other did. She jumped back to avoid the attack and jumped at it with her sword as it exposed its belly. The spider collapsed and burned. She sat near the edge and looked to the center of the room, trying to find a way to reach the lower levels.
“Be careful Twilight! If you fall you will hurt yourself a lot!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“You’re right if i fall... That’s it!” Twilight jumped and stood up. “Pinkie, you are a genius!”
“No I’m not. I’m a fairy!” Pinkie answered flying around Twilight, confusing her a little. Twilight looked down again. She saw water in the lower section and hoped it will not hurt too much.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH-SPLASH!
The young unicorn bolted to the surface and gasped for air. “What I was thinking? Yeah, it worked as planned but...” Twilight thought while she reached a small part with shallow water and stood up.
“Pinkie, if I’m gonna do something like that again, please, stop me.” Twilight said looking around the room she just reached after falling from the top floor in order to break the cobweb that was blocking the access to the lower levels.
She fell in a little pool. The water was deep enough to prevent her to hit the floor of it after the fall, but there was a shallow part, where she stood. Behind her, some vines could be used to get again to the main room. At her right, a dry patch of land with an unlighted torch stood near a weird marked ground, similar to the one where she found the Compass Stone. At her left, another patch of dry land with a door at the far end, covered by some cobwebs. And, in front, a cliff a little bit too high to be reached jumping and to see what was there. With so little options, she reached for the marked ground and stood in there. The torch caught fire by itself. Twilight smiled at the sight and took her Deku Stick. She took it with her magic and made it caught fire using the torch. Then she headed to the other side of the room through the shallow parts and burned away the cobweb. She waved the Deku Stick a few times to extinguish the fire.
“Well done Twilight!” Pinkie cheered her friend. “How did you know how to make the cobweb disappear?”
“I read a lot. I just happened to know that cobwebs burn well.” Twilight answered with modesty.
They entered the door and it closed with a familiar metallic sound: iron bars were covering the door she entered and another one, at her right. The room was circular and very little. In the center, a group of yellow and green leaves moved. A Deku Scrub appeared from under the leaves and prepared to shot. Twilight, learned the pattern, lifted the shield to deflect the projectile. And as it hit the attacker, she cornered it. And, like the other Deku Scrub, this one was shaking when it saw no way to run away.
“Please forgive me, Master!, I’ll never do it again! If you spare me, I’ll teach you something cool.”
“I listen you.” Twilight said sheathing her sword.
“Thank you! Listen, you will never beat my brothers up ahead unless you punish them in the proper order.” The Deku scrub was still shaking a little. “The order is... 2 3 1. Twenty-three is number one! Do you think I’m a traitor? Well, I didn’t want to fight and they forced me to, so it’s their fault. Thanks and good bye, Master!” The little monster hid beneath the leaves again.
“So, not all the monsters wants to fight? Its leader must be scary” Twilight said, a cold shiver running down her spine. “Wait, why that other door didn’t opened?”
“Twilight, don’t look up, but I think we are being observed.” Pinkie said in a whisper, giggling a little.
Obviously, Twilight looked up to see a diamond-shaped plate above the blocked door. Inside the plate, an open eye was observing them, as Pinkie said. “So, what can i do to make this eye to stop watching us?” She grinned when she found the answer. She fired a seed to the piercing iris and it closed with a thud. The iron bars were lifted and they enter to the next room.
On the next room, machinery noise welcomed them. A rusty spiked bar was rolling above a platform that was moving back and forth over the water, being the only way to cross to the other side to jump to the moving platform from where she stood. She jumped into the water, trying to climb to the platform when it was in the other side, but it was no use. The she saw it. The same weird symbol of before was now underwater. She held her breath and dove to press it. She didn’t had any hard time at it, since it wasn’t any deep. As soon as she pressed it, the water level was lowered a little and a clock-like sound filled the room, like when she pressed the symbol in the Compass Stone room. She surfaced and went to the entrance of the room to jump to the moving platform while the water level was low. When the platform was at the other end, she jumped. There she found another Skulltula blocking the path. She dispatched it like with the other ones. The path was clear now, but the door was in a step too tall.
“Look, I’m sure you can move this block!” Pinkie said, noticing that problem.” It have the same symbols of the switches in the ground from before, and the underwater one. It can’t be a coincidence!”
Twilight had to admit it: Pinkie was right, the symbol over all the faces of the block was the same they have seen a few times before, so it must mean she can manipulate it. She also noticed the block was in some kind of “tracks”, like if someone placed it there and didn’t wanted to be moved farther away from it’s designed place. She didn’t thought about that to much, she had seen enough weird things for today; she just pushed it until it didn’t moved more and climbed it up to reach the door. The door closed again as they crossed it with the usual metallic sound, indicating they have to do something in order to get the door open. Twilight grinned when she saw what was in the little round room: a Deku Baba in the middle, and three torches, only one burning with fire.
“This is too easy.” Twilight said, speaking more to herself than to Pinkie.
She defeated the plant monster like Pinkie taught her, picked up the Deku Stick and used it to lit the other two torches. As she expected, the bars on the doors were released and she trotted happily to the door, ready for whatever she will encounter in the next room.
“Watch out!” Pinkie screamed right after crossing the door.
A Skulltula was hanging in front of her, but she was exposing her weak point at her, like if she wasn’t guarding the door. It looked like if it was there to prevent something to come out from that room. She defeated it with her slingshot spell. She walked by the point where the spider monster was slowly, watching what the room had to offer. It was larger than the previous one, but there was only a lit torch and a stiff Deku Baba. There were a couple of cobwebs at both sides of the room, just waiting to be burned. Twilight defeated the Deku Baba and took the Deku Stick it left behind to burn the cobwebs. She burned one of them and went to burn the second when she heard a craking sound behind her. She didn’t needed to listen Pinkie’s warning to adopt a combat stance. As well, Pinkie didn’t needed to wait Twilight to ask about the weird monster that was just appeared apparently from nowhere.
“It’s called Gohma Larva. When its eye gets red, it means its ready to pounce you, so watch out.”
The monster was as big as Twilight, but it stood only in two legs. It had two tiny red feet, a brown body, a massive green eye and some weird green bulge on top or it. She raised her shield and watched its movements. It was looking all over the room until it started to walk towards her. It stopped at some distance and its eye went red. The unicorn dodged the incoming pounce and counterattacked it as it stopped, using the yellow glow of Pinkie to help her to focus on the enemy. It made a weird scratching sound in pain and started to retreat, but it returned to her after two seconds fleeing. She lifted the shield again to stop another charge. The monster hit the shield and stopped once more, allowing Twilight to hit it again with her sword. The monster stumbled in his tiny feet and was consumed by the same red fire that consumed all the other enemies they have encountered before. Then she saw a red and white blob hitting the floor in front of her and startled when another Gohma Larva emerged from it. The young Kokiri glanced briefly to the ceiling and saw two more of the same kind of blobs hanging there. “So, that’s where the first came from.” She jumped back again to face the monster. It moved the same way the other did, so Twilight fought it in the same fashion, rising the shield, dodging and hitting it with her sword. The second one defeated, she looked at the ceiling and saw the two blobs still hanging there, so she decided to act quickly and took another Deku Stick to burn the second cobweb. The filly looked at her back, relieved when she noticed she had no enemies behind and Pinkie and her pink glow was beside her smiling, meaning there was no immediate danger. When the cobweb burned, it revealed a hole to crawl into it. She closed her eyes to see the map and noticed that the hole was connected with the room where she fell after jumping from the top floor. Twilight crawled through it and when she get out, she noticed she was on the top of the cliff. There was a cobweb in the floor at her right, two Deku Babas further at the right and a block to push at her left. Like with the other one, it was placed in a slightly sunken path, making it only possible to push and pull back and forth.
“If I could push the block out of there and into the cobweb, I’m sure its weight may broke it.” Twilight stated, looking for a way to push the block out of its designed track.
“I don’t think you have to do something so hard, Twilight.” Pinkie said, flying a little bit higher to get a good look to the whole room. “You can use the torch you used before if you push the block, so you can use it to climb back here.”
Twilight nodded in agreement and did as Pinkie suggested and pushed the block all the way until it fell off the cliff. Then she approached to the fire, took a Deku Stick and made it burn. The unicorn held the stick with her magic as she climbed again to the cliff and put the stick in the ground to burn the cobweb to reach to final room before the one where the source of the curse was waiting. Before going down, she looked for some vines to reach the lower level safely and without making a splashy entrance.
“If what I see is correct, the source of the curse is behind that door.” Twilight said, climbing out of the water.
They were in a big empty room. Large cobwebs were scattered across the ceiling. A door with iron bars was waiting in the far end of the room. And, in front of it, three Deku Scrubs were guarding the entrance, popping out from their group of leaves one at a time. She remembered the advice given by the Deku Scrub from before about the order to defeat them and approached the one at the center with her shield up. As she expected, the projectile hit back the Deku Scrub, but, instead of start to flee, it got paralyzed. Twilight started to wonder why it was like that, but a thud at her left snapped her out of her thoughts. She didn’t got time to rise the shield and ook the hit. She complained, but resisted the urge to fight against that Deku Scrub, because it was supposed to be the last one to be defeated. She faced the one at the right with ease and it get unable to move, like the one at the center. Finally, she confronted the one at the left and it started to flee as soon as the bounced projectile hit it. Twilight didn’t expect it to flee, she thought it was going to be paralyzed as well, but the Deku Scrubs weren’t quick creatures and it was cornered shortly after a brief chase.
“How is did you know our secret?!” The little monster sounded irritated.
“One of your fellows told us how to beat you.” Pinkie said.
“I can accept being forced to do guardian duties for our Queen, i can accept some rationing because there are some shortage of food, but this is just too much. Dissidents who give away our secrets? What else did they said? They said that, in order to administer the coup of grace to Queen Gohma, you have to strike her with your sword while she’s stunned?”
Twilight and Pinkie shared a surprised glance. “No, the only thing we knew was how to beat you, not your Queen Gohma. Thanks for the information.” Twilight said politely.
“Oh Queenie!” The Deku Scrub started to shake violently, realizing what it just have done.” I’m so sorry!”
The monster hid in its pile of leaves while the iron bars covering the door raised.
“Are you ready Twilight?”
“Let’s do this Pinkie!”
Twilight walked a short corridor that leaded to a large room with four pillars equally distributed, at the same distance from the center of the room and its walls. A stone wall fell behind them as they entered the room. And then, Twilight listened it. A loud scratching sound, like something sharp walking against wood, started to echo all over the place. Twilight looked up instinctively and let out a short gasp. From the shadows that were plaguing the ceiling, a big orange eye was glaring at her. It blinked and started to walk in the ceiling a bit more before falling in front of her. Its big green and red body slammed into the ground and made the ground to shake a little. It stood in its two front legs before switching to her tail, strong enough to support her, in an intimidating stance, where its legs and two antennas waved threateningly over its big eye. Twilight was almost frozen in awe. She have never seen a creature so menacing and big. She took her sword and shield and adopted her combat stance, while Pinkie changed to her yellow glow and started to float around it.
“I think we can adopt it.” Pinkie said, trying to suppress a chuckle.
“Pinkie, please!” Twilight screamed with a string of fear in her voice. “I need to know how to fight that... THING!”
“Twilight, you have to learn to laugh to things that are scary. Fear is a good thing, but not to the point where it paralyzes you.” Pinkie was talking and laughing while the big monster started to walk towards the scared filly. “Just look at how ridiculous it looks, with all these green bulges and its thick antennas! And not to talk about that big eye!” When the fairy said that, the monster stopped in front of the unicorn and stood in its tail, while its eye changed and became red. Pinkie realized what was going to happen and went dead serious. “Jump back, Twilight! Now!”
As Twilight jumped, the monster hit the ground with both legs and them got stuck in the ground from the force of the impact. Pinkie took advantage of that situation to give some information to her shocked friend,leaving behind any trail of her playful conversation from before.
“Its name is Gohma. Is pretty much invulnerable, but its eye is a weak spot when it’s red.” Pinkie said in neutral tone.
Gohma freed its legs and walked again towards the now more confident Kokiri. It raised again its body, standing on its tail, trying to slam again its foe. Twilight watched how the eye was red again. She jumped back and got ready to strike it with her sword when the legs of the monster get stuck again. As the monster released the attack, Twilight’s muscles got tense in anticipation of her incoming assault. She jumped at the trapped monster’s eye, but her sword bounced in the red eye.
“It don’t work!” Twilight screamed, panicking a little.
“Just try something else. I’m sure you have something that can work.”
Gohma prepared another attack while Twilight prepared a seed to be shot with her slingshot spell. When Gohma stopped, and aired its legs, its eye was red, so Twilight didn’t waited it to attack and released the seed. Gohma collapsed on the spot with a scream and all its body started to spasm.
“Now is your chance, use the sword!” Pinkie shouted.
The sword slashed the eye several times, and Gohma tried in vain to move but it was too stunned to even blink. Despite the wounds, Gohma stood up once more some moments after, but this time it retreated to the ceiling. Pinkie followed the big monster to help Twilight to not lose track on it in the darkness of the ceiling. Then Twilight saw the eye turning red again.
“Oh no, I don’t know what are you going to try, but i won’t let you do that!” Twiligh took another seed and fired it to the monster hanging on the ceiling. The seed hit its target and the monster fell into the ground screaming in pain. Twilight slashed the eye a few more times and, suddenly, Gohma let a high-pitched scream and stood up once more, waving his tail and the antennas frantically. Then it stood in its tail, like if it was preparing to attack, but it fell in the ground as it was starting to burn in a unnatural blue fire, making its body to disappear in the spectral flames. When the fire dissipated, all what was left was some sort of heart-shaped object, slightly different from a Recovery Heart.
“This is a Heart Container. It will increase your maximum health.” Pinkie said floating bouncily around Twilight with her natural pink glow.
Twilight touched the Heart Container and it started to melt away and spread over Twilight’s body, being absorbed instantly. She felt fresh as if she didn’t fought at all. She even felt stronger than ever. Then her eyes caught a glimpse of blue light behind her. She directed to it without a second thought, some kind of force directing her hooves. When she stood in the lighted spot, the light intensified and Twilight felt she was starting to float.
Prologue: The summoning
In the vast, deep forest, strange and very unique,
I’ve been known as it's guardian, the Great Zecora Spirit.
The forest folk, the Kokiri, all lives with me.
Each of them has a guardian, a very friend fairy.
However, there's a filly who doesn't have one at all,
while forewarning nightmares, rushes her all night long...
She was in the grass with her pink fairy, standing in the rain, staring the walls of a unknown city. The large wooden gate descended as the loud mechanism that operate it echoed into the empty field. Two mares, one younger than the other, dashed at her side exiting the city, fear mirrored in the blue eyes of the younger one. After both of them faded into the shadows of the storm, a loud neigh at her back made her turn around. A large unicorn stallion with white coat and fire-red mane stood there with a smirk in his face. His sight was hooked on the dark horizon before he noticed her. Then he pointed one of his hooves to her, chilling her as a shiver run down her spine.
Oh, Pinkie Pie, the fairy, listen to my words,
because if we don't act fast, everything will be lost.
I'm sure you can sense too upon us the danger
as the malevolent forces deliver their attacks stronger
For a long time, the Kokiri Forest has been a strong wall,
protecting all the land of Hyrule of a threatening fall.
But the evil is growing strong, and against it my power
is getting so weak and it's not his greatest hour.
It's time for the filly without a fairy to start her journey,
as her destiny is to lead Hyrule steady and slowly.
Now fly fast Pinkie, go and bring her to me.
The fate of this world depends upon thee!
As the pink fairy flied towards the village, her mind was running fast. “Wow, I'm gonna be the very best friend of that little mare! I'm so happy I can start to sing!” She started whistling a happy tone, saying “hello” to a mare in the roof of the small shop on the forest and... “No, Pinkie, focus yourself, you have to deliver an important message from the Great Zecora Spirit remember?, There will be plenty of time latter for happy songs. Now, where was she living?”
She reached the house in a skip. “Oh, she's so cute while she's asleep... Focus, Pinkie, focus!”.
“Hi Twilight Sparkle, wake up!” shouted Pinkie Pie.
The purple-coated mare jumped on her bed, startled. “Whoah, who, what...?” said her while her brain was still drifting between the recent nightmare and the real world. She sat in the bed looking around her to find the source of the shout until she found it. It was a little bright pink-coated fairy, with a bubbly mane in a darker pink shade and a tail in the same style. She looked like a one hoof sized pegasus, but, instead of two regular wings, she had four translucent wings as large as herself, two at each side, and she was glowing in a bright pink that matched her coat.
The fairy positioned her at mere inches of her eyes, so both can look at theirs. “Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie the fairy!” Said in a too loud volume for a just awakened filly. “The Great Zecora Spirit chose me to be your friendly fairy and partner from now on, nice to meet you!” she said quickly, stopping to show a big grin and resuming her quick speech. “The Great Zecora Spirit has summoned you to talk about very important things, so let's got going!”
Twilight Sparkle got out of the bed and walked slowly to the bathroom. Twilight thought: "Yes, a summoning from the Great Zecora Spirit is an urgent one, but you cannot present yourself in front of her like if you were reading during almost all the last night before falling sleep, right?" She used her horn to pick up a brush to undo some knots on her dark purple mane and tail and straighten up a little her green tunic, the trait piece of robe that defined her as a Kokiri, like everypony in the Village. She washed away the last traces of sleep with some fresh water before heading out of her tree house. Before she reached the ground, a yellow pegasus wearing the same kind of robes as her was staring at her from the ground, with one of her large blue eyes covered by her long pink mane while she was wearing a shy smile looking at the pink fairy flying around her friend.
“Hi Fluttershy!” greeted Twilight as she reached the ground.
“Hi Twilight!” responded the pegasus. “Finally, a fairy came to you! That's great news! I'm so happy for you!” continued, hugging her friend and giving her a warm smile. “Now you can call yourself a true Kokiri! I mean, if that's ok for you”... ended with a meek tone, releasing her friend from the hug, blushing a little and patting the ground with one of her front hooves.
“Hi Fluttershy, I'm Pinkie Pie!” said the fairy jumping just in front of the shy pegasus, startling her a little. “The Great Zecora Spirit asked me to be Twilight's best fairy-friend and partner and also summoned her! Isn't it exciting? I am excited!”
“Is that true?” asked Fluttershy with a shocked face. “The Great Zecora Spirit has summoned you? Is quite an honor to talk to the Great Zecora Spirit. I'll wait for you here... if that's ok for you...” finished lowering her gaze, avoiding eye contact with Twilight.
“Is there any trouble?” asked Twilight seeing the last evasive behavior shown.
“No, not at all” answered the flying pony rising suddenly her head. ”It's just... I wanted to talk a little bit with you, but, since you have the Great Zecora Spirit waiting for you, we can talk later. Good bye Twilight. And nice to meet you, Miss Pinkie Pie.” and after that, she trotted away.
“See you later Fluttershy!” said Pinkie Pie waving with both front hooves and smiling as she left them. “She seems very friendly, right?” asked to Twilight advancing a little bit to make her start to move.
“Well, she had always been very shy, since she's the only pegasus around here” answered Twilight while Pinkie Pie was leading her to meet the Great Zecora Spirit. “She's the best friend I got since I can remember and she's always willing to stand for me when some of the big colts mock me for not having a fairy. And I was always standing there for her when somepony tried to push her around, trying to take advantage of her kind nature. She's not so shy with me as with the other ponies, she seem relaxed when we hung out together. And... huh?” she stopped suddenly when a white colt a little bit smaller than her blocked her way. “Ehm, excuse me Angel, but the Great Zecora Spirit have summoned me. Can you let me pass?”
The young earth pony looked at her with disbelief. “The Great Zecora Spirit summoned YOU?” asked him with a burst of disdain against her. ”Don't make me laugh! A fake Kokiri like you will never be summoned by the Great Zecora Spirit.”
“Hey, she's no longer a not-Kokiri-pony. Now I'm with her!” shouted Pinkie with indignation. ”And I have orders from the Great Zecora Spirit to bring Twilight to her”.
“And I have orders to not let pass anypony who doesn't have a sword and a shield. Now, get lost!” said Angel, almost spitting the words while stomping both front hooves to make his point clear. Twilight did it, since she have been known Angel long enough to know that he was not going to let her pass until she founded the aforementioned sword and shield. And conveniently, she knew where to find one of them at least.
“Why is he a mean McMeanie-Pants?” asked the fairy to her partner.
For a moment, the young unicorn looked at her fairy with a puzzled face until she understood what she was talking about.
“Oh, you mean why he is a jerk?” said Twilight chuckling a little at the weird words of choice of Pinkie. Her fairy friend answered with a nod. “As long as I know, he's the leader of the Kokiri, a sort of chief, but the title has gone to his head long ago. He never accepted me as a Kokiri because I am a blank flank and I never had a fairy... until today.” She grinned to Pinkie before continuing the story. “He also is being jealous of me lately because he have a crush on Fluttershy and we spend a lot of time together. Also, he blames me for not having any chance to succeed in asking her for a date. That's just ridiculous! If she rejected him is because she don't want to date him at all!” Twilight stopped talking as she reached her house.
“So, he's not just a mean McMeanie-Pants, but also a jealous judgmental McJealousy-Pants?” asked Pinkie while Twilight was climbing up the ladder. “It's gonna be hard to make friends with him.” said the fairy putting a hoof to her chin.
“I tried for some years Pinkie, he just don't want to be my friend. Just don't worry, I can live with it.” Commented the filly while she was looking for that something under her bed now. “Aha!, here is it!” Exclaimed while she used her magic to pull out a little pouch. The sound of some bits inside it made her smile grow a little and she opened to count how much currency she had at that moment: 50 bits. “When he said that I need a shield, I remembered I saw one in the village shop. I was going to use my savings to buy some new books for my collection, but I’m sure that speaking with the Great Zecora Spirit is more worthy than any books I could afford. And while we are at the shop, I will ask about a sword too.” Finally said happily, strapping the pouch to one of the sides of the belt around her waist with a big smile in her face. She liked to make plans. And that plan was simple and failsafe. What could go wrong?
"Sorry, we just sold the last one 10 minutes ago.” Said the shopkeeper, apologizing. “Some colts said something about Angel telling them he just spotted some nasty Deku Scrubs near the village so they took them all. But don't worry Miss Sparkle, I just ordered some and they are supposed to arrive today. If you can wait a few hours... do you want to get one from that order?”
“That mean Angel! I'm sure he said that just to cause you trouble!” said Pinkie with a whisper, allowing only Twilight to listen her.
“Sure thing Mr. Longshot,” answered the unicorn, focused on not looking too angry “I'll just come back later.” She started to trot out of the shop when she remembered the other part of her plan. “Oh, do you know where I can find a sword?”
Mr. Longshot looked her with curiosity “And why such a beautiful young filly like you may want a sword?”
Twilight blushed lightly from the compliment and answered. “I need it because I have been summoned by The Great Zecora Spirit but Angel says he won't let me pass until I got a sword and a shield?
The shopkeeper looked shocked “Are you telling me that Angel is not letting you to go to see the Great Zecora Spirit after you have been summoned by her? What's wrong with that brat, he have hay in his brain? Ah, whatever...” He looked at the shop, and seeing it empty but for his current customers, he motioned them to come close and started to speak in whispers. “Look, you don't listened this form me, but I heard that there's a narrow pass at the end of the Training Grounds. There, guarded by a rock monster, lays the Kokiri Sword. They say the rock monster is blind and deaf, and always patrol the same route endlessly, crushing anypony who dares to be in his path. The best way to pass through it is to follow it from behind. Do you understand?” Twilight nodded silently. The door opened suddenly, making the three of them to jump a little.
“This is an order for Mr. Longshot!” said the gray-maned mailmare.
“Perfect, that shipping was fast, thanks.” said the shopkeeper. He went to the door, signed the documents and took the box inside the shop. He opened and smiled seeing its contents.”Good news Miss Sparkle, we got some Deku Shields!” he said beaming.
“That was easy-peasy!” Pinkie Pie was surprised about how uneventful was the retrieving of the Kokiri Sword. “You know Twilight, I was expecting something a little bit trickier, but that was so easy that there's no sense in talking about it.”
“Now that I am geared up, we can go to talk to Angel.” Said Twilight as she was heading towards the exit of the Training Grounds.
“Hmmm... I don't think so.” Muttered Pinkie Pie floating beside her, not bearing her almost always present smile. “I think you have to... you know... <> them.” Twilight stopped her trot, not following the train of thoughts of her fairy. Seeing the quizzical look on the face of the unicorn, she tried to explain herself. “Look, when you <> an item, you create a link with it, so you can use it right in the spot.”
“That don't make any sense.” Said more to herself Twilight than for Pinkie Pie. But, anyways, she thought she wanted to equip them, hopping that should do the trick as both of them approached where Angel was, still blocking the way. “We got the shield and the sword, can we pass now?
“So, you got a Deku Shield, what a big deal.” Said Angel with obvious disregard towards Twilight. But his eyes went almost out of his sockets when he saw the other item clinging in her back. “And what's THAT? Is that the Kokiri Sword? But how is that even possible? The monster I... argh! Why do you have to be the favorite of Fluttershy AND the Great Zecora Spirit? I am the leader of the Kokiri, I got nothing of these...” he gritted his teeth angrily before letting go a sigh. “Ok, fine, you can pass, you don't want the make the Great Zecora Spirit wait, don't you?” he said before trotting out of there mumbling curses between clenched teeth.
After a short walk in a narrow corridor, Twilight reached the clearing where the massive tree known as the Great Zecora Spirit grow and lived.
“Great Zecora Spirit... I’m back!” said in an unusual neutral voice, suddenly very conscious of the important nature of the encounter.
Twilight watched in awe at the massive tree that was standing in front of her. It was as big as half of the Kokiri Village itself, and twice as tall as any other tree in the forest. It had a few shades of dark wood in the trunk, as if there giant tree had a face. But what shocked more the unicorn was the immense sensation of power that was irradiating her, like if the Great Zecora Spirit could pierce into her soul and mind without even trying.
So Pinkie Pie, you finally arrived,
why you weren't sooner by my side?
Welcome Twilight Sparkle to my place.
Listen carefully what I've got to say.
The past moons nightmares have been plaguing your dreams.
As evil gains strength, these appear to the sensitive ones, it seems.
To test you courage the time has come.
A nasty curse i got, and have to be undone.
Manly perils awaits inside my cursed body.
But with wisdom and courage, you will find victory.
If you succeed and make the curse subdue.
You may found something more about your past and about you.
After saying this, a large portion of the front of the trunk sunken into the earth, revealing an entrance to the inside of the Great Zecora Spirit. Twilight gulped at that sight.
Now enter both of you to fight this mighty danger,
Work together to overcome the tricks and its razor.
Pinkie Pie, help Twilight advicing her with anticipation,
Success on your quest requires planification.
And Twilight, hear all what Pinkie has to say,
She may not seem, but true knowledge she retains.
“Hey! Come on Twilight, we have no time to lose!” said Pinkie Pie suddenly, snapping Twilight out of his trance-like state. Both of them hurried to the opening, adventuring to the insides of a cursed being.
