Cries of Fluttershy

I have roamed the unseen lands.
My body drenched with sulfur blood.
I walk Their paths and read Their books,
None led to cleanse me...
So cursed I dwell in silence.
In darkness as my guide...
To the next who say: "I am..."
And walk His way...
Again...

Vader – Impure

She stirred gingerly, listening to the rodents in the halls, whispering their awakening calls. Her mind was foggy, garbled messages from her previous time before the substitution of sleep had taken her suddenly struck her mind like angry dogs on the offense. Her sadness returned, she felt how cold he had gotten, in fact, his low temperature and shivering was possibly what had revived her conscious. It was scary how sick he had become, she feared his life hung by a thread of will to live. Gently approaching where she sensed his fore head would be, she checked his breathing.

A slight wheeze with every breath, greeted her hearing. Hanging her head, Fluttershy cursed her current condition. If only she had her eyes, she could help the king in his escalating fever. But alas, she was blind and flightless. Her vision, once vivid and filled with the beauty of the Equestrian world, was lost to history in the depths of these caverns. It was of the most rarest of occasions that Fluttershy would feel bitter and angry... But this would prove quite justified. An unholy creature had taken her once innocent form and corrupted it.

And now, its likely master, has grounded the most powerful being she knew besides her closest friends and the two princesses. The only friendly she knew still alive at this point could very well be dead soon if she could not awaken him.

Something must be done, it would not be easy, but a way was there to those with the will. And she had the will, now to find the way...

A dark laugh echoed in the depths of his consciousness, taunting, and eerie to the bone. His vision was fuzzy, all light had a tailing trail of some kind like spiritual orbs. A voice groaned, though he could not register that it was his voice, not as he wiped his hand across his hair.

A splintering silence had followed, the darkness seemingly vanishing and a modest light prevailing in the endless caverns. With his vision slowly recuperating from the blows he received prior, the detail of the rustic décor and the brown walls of the tunnels greeted him with morbid curiosity.

His dark and brooding figure swooned from a dizziness, as if he had too much to drink at the great dining halls of the Sheikah. He felt sick, yet he could not release his stomach's holdings for some reason. It was torturous, his body ached and joints refused aggressively to respond to his commands of movement.

No memory of what had happened would unveil itself in his mind as he stumbled into the wall, panting as if he had just ran a marathon with no rest. His chest burned as if flaming tar was poured on the spot where his heart would pulse ever so slightly in the flesh. His mind remained hazed and his senses frazzled, unable to smell and unable to hear. A long and constant ringing was all he could hear in the bowels of his drums.

The skin beneath his armor was moist from respiration, dripping wet with sweat. Singeing heat greeted his touch as he prodded himself in search of injuries, surprised to feel nothing out of place. But he knew something was missing from his person, it was not a limb, though. It was not any of his armor, nor his weapons; his favorite hat remained in place as well. No, none of that was the problem.

He felt nothing. No emotion, no hate nor love, no contempt nor happiness...he was numb all over, aside from his aching body, his emotions were not there, simply gone.

Again, a dark chuckle surrounded him. But Link was too distracted to notice the disturbance in the atmosphere. Boot steps resounded in the halls as Link continued to recover slowly, his hearing began to return, vaguely picking up each step the entity made as it approached him.

More chuckles came into hearing distance, just beyond the point of recognition, but evident enough to be known. The king rose to his full height, the boot steps has stopped behind him. He turned to meet the source of the boots, his vision still playing tricks with his mind. With the pace of a snail, his vision steadied as he braced himself against the wall.

Before him stood himself, as if he was standing before a mirror. A sinister smile graced the lips of this doppelganger, and another dark laugh resounded lightly in the caverns but definitely not from the silhouette. But it was obvious that the voice was that of himself.

Confusion hit the king's first wave of thoughts, what was this? Some trick of the shadow? And then it hit him, what shadow? His memories were creeping back into his mind, subtle enough to escape his grasp but an achievement easily gained through the weakened lord of darkness.

The doppelganger waited, seemingly aware of the inner turmoil the king was experiencing and adamantly content in waiting for the former hero of Time to recover completely or at least to a moderate state. The king swayed a bit more, nearly tripping over a pile of rubble at his feet, but the doppelganger reached out, holding the king right-side up.

Gradually as Link's vision cleared, more detail became present in this copy of himself. The other Link did not have the white eyes of Erebus, the spirit of Darkness. Instead, Link gazed rather drunkenly into the eyes of his childhood. Piercing deep, oceanic blue, and colder than ice with an edge stronger than steel. It had been a long, long time since he saw his own eyes...The more he gazed at them, the more he felt that they were stolen from him and replaced by the white gaze of Erebus.

“Who...” He tried to speak, his voice scathing and raspy, as if he had just emerged from a long journey in a desert world with no water. The shadowy silhouette that took his form seemed more of a ghost now, waves of dark tendrils hung from its sides and waved idly as it stood still, holding the king up with surprising strength. He heard his own voice laughing around the corners.

“Be still, lord of Kingdom. Let yourself recover in full before you question what your eyes see and your mind seeks.”

For the longest time, she had no clue on what could be done. Nothing seemed to work on him, she tried calling his whole name, yet he did not move. She nudged his head aggressively, hoping the force of movement would awaken him...it did not. She struck his chest, clubbed his head with her hooves, pulled on his ears with her teeth, stomped in water puddles in the hopes that the splashing reached his face.

Nothing was working.

Exhausted from her quest to salvage her friends consciousness, she laid beside him as she had done before. With a heavy and sad sigh, Fluttershy's weary head sought respite on the king's neck line, her ears twitching to his breath. The cold had returned, forcing her to huddle close to his motionless figure like a dog would its master for warmth and security.

She really, really hated the odds set against her. With no way to gain her barrings, nor a guaranteed method of snapping Link from his slumber, she gave in. Letting another exhale loose from her nostrils, the golden pony began reminiscing memories with her friends. She remembered all the times they spent together at the Gala, or partying at Sugar Cube Corner. Among those memories came the times when her shy nature played a role in making her friend's day for better or for worse.

She remembered fearing the mighty dragon that took perch in a cave on top of the mountain peaks close to Ponyville, just passed Whitetail Wood. At the end, her courage emerged when her friends failed to remove the creature on their own.

Oh how she wished she could be that strong without becoming a monster, like the time when she learned to be “assertive”. She could use that courage and strength now...

The king had recovered enough to stand on his own power, though he still needed the wall to steady his heavy frame, the doppelganger had released him and took a step back to look Link over. With his body now stabilized against the rustic yet sturdy wall, Link centered his gaze on the entity before him.

“Who are you?”

He managed to croak out, entering a coughing fit immediately after words. The spiritual copy' remained silent, but Link's frown grew deeper. The haze and fog of his mind had cleared further enough for him to gain control over his thoughts. With the escalating lack of noise from the image aforementioned, the dark lord's patience grew thin as did his own expression.

“Speak!”

The spirit simply pointed to the king's chest, letting its voice which was no different than Link's own in all aspects be heard.

“I am you, I am that which makes you...you.”

With that revelation, the spirit began to circle Link, taking in the details to be sure of something the king could only guess at. With a weak growl, the king forced himself to turn and face the spirit, bearing a heavy glare of warning. Again, the spirit laughed, only louder.

“You need not fear me, but you should fear the fact that we no longer are one.”

“And exactly why should you and I be one?”

“Without me, you are simply a shell to be discarded. I am the gears that move you. If I do not house myself within you, we simply cease to exist. Vanishing from existence will be our fate without the connection that we were meant to maintain.”

The king of Kingdom's frown deepened, his brows furrowing in light of the spirits words.

“I am looking over you to see if my lack of inhabitance within your shell has begun to erode you as you sleep, the yellow pony at your side and the fabled blade wielded by all of your predecessors, discarded on the cold ground nearby.”

“What?”

“You still do not grasp it? The answer is simple, Onigami Son. I am the embodiment of the Hero's spirit in which Farore lady, goddess of Courage, created to be incarnated within every destined one's body. Our connection is mandatory, if you are to remain in existence.”

Link's mouth hung agape at the spirit's words, disbelief written across his face as everything that had happened began resurfacing from the dark sea of the sleep he was in. Everything dawned upon him, the battles, the quests, the death and revival, to the war that lasted for a millennium and longer still; to the deal, the new world and the caverns to which have put him to the test of Will. Lastly, he remembered defending Fluttershy's hurt form from the darkness that surrounded this place.

“Fluttershy!” He suddenly realized that she was no where to be found. In an attempt to search for her, the king took a step forward but tripped on his wobbling feet. Hitting the cold stone hard, he groaned but refused to be silenced. Clawing at the floor, Link drug himself in an attempt to find his friend.

The spirit's hands found a way around his shoulders, stopping the king from advancing further.

“It's no use, hero of Time. We are standing in a plane where she does not physically or spiritually exist.”

At his words, the dark lord stopped, taking a deep breath as his struggle left him depleted of the little energy he retained. He could feel a sudden weakness throughout himself, as if he was nearly dead and dying.

The spirit pulled the king to his feet once more, propping him against the wall.

“Where...are we, than? And why are we no longer apart of each other?” Link weakly asked of his soul.

“The dark shadow you faced earlier, the one that escaped Tartarus and created this plain to which you struggle to survive upon, has detached us. So long as you remain within this Netherworld, you're life is threatened.”

Link nodded whilst he regained his breath. He raised his hands to his face, looking upon them with disbelief. He could not feel his fingers, the touch was so dead that it spun him into a dimension of horror and contempt he had never been to in all his long life.

Like the void in which the shadow had shown him how it had gotten free, Link bore no weapons nor will to command the shadows around him. His eyes rose to the Hero's Spirit, idly standing before him with a dull, dead look upon its face.

“How can we undo this trickery?”

“Firstly, you must awaken. The longer you stay here, the more likely your body will simply die in the physical world. Already, your breathing grows more shallow, bringing more fear for your health to the pony you have sworn to protect.”

“Is there a way for me to awaken here?”

“...Sadly, no. It must be done within the true plain. But, I wager that the holy spirit of Kindness will soon know what she must do. As for how to regain me and all the powers that you once held, you must gather my essence from the blood of the damned. Only then can we be reunited.”

“Will I be able to live without you in the true world?”

“Yes. But I hold all of the powers from both your heritage and the curse of Ganondorf. Without me, you cannot return to the rightful dimension of this world where you truly belong, where she is safe from this shadow, and where the war has yet to begin. Only through me can you return to the realm we were meant to be.”

In the long wait for a ray of hope to shine down upon her, Fluttershy remembered all the times she spent with Link in the wild woods of Whitetail during Spring. He would watch over her as she picked flowers from the ever lasting glades, playing his ocarina and occasionally developing tunes for her songs.

Fluttershy's mind stopped at one particular day. The wind was pushing the sunny heat from the fields, providing a freshness and a comforting cool aside from the ever enjoyable warmth of Light. It was the day when Link told her about his adventures and how music played a major role in his quests. He would name a tune and teach her the song with his Ocarina and she would try to develop lyrics to them all.

Finally, she recalled one particular song in which intrigued her deeply. Link called it the Sonata of Awakening, stating that old legends from a world parallel to his own told that the song was imbued with the power to awaken even the deepest of slumbering spirits. It was said that the Sonata of Awakening could even revive the dead lost to eternal sleep. According to the dark lord, he had proven the legends true when he raised a sleeping temple in a swamp land and awoken an ancient leader of a long extinct kingdom that only remained by the curse of the land.

It dawned on her that this song could possibly be exactly what she needed to revive him.

However, her glee had turned sour when she remembered that the songs only wielded their power because Link used a magical instrument to harness them. That was what she needed, his Ocarina. Sadly, she could not play it. Ponies weren't gifted with fingers...

But perhaps, she thought, she could sing at it and the notes would carry the magic of the Ocarina into his ears.

It was worth a shot.

Making her way around to his left, Fluttershy's nose smelt about for the item of desire. It had a certain scent that was unknown, but unique to everything, had it not of been for that fragrance the Ocarina emitted, her mission would be far more difficult than necessary.
Sticking her maw into Link's tunic at the neck line, her searching nose located the legendary artifact. Gently, she picked it up with her teeth, careful not to chip it or break it, and retreated from the king's pockets.

Success! The item in her lips, she used a hoof to locate Link's head, navigating the object to his ears where she gingerly placed it so that the holes faced her friend and the shaft pointed towards herself. Fluttershy thought long and hard on the words to which was spoken to her by Link when she inquired of his Ocarina. A specific song was needed to activate its energies when one other than he needed to wield its powers.

'That which links he who wields Courage to the flows of Time itself...' The words sounded so familiar, echoing from the reaches of memory... She knew that it was said before by somepony else. And then she remembered.

*
“This song has served me thousands of times... The goddesses call it the Song of Time. It is the song that links he who wields Courage to the flows of Time itself, so that he may fight in the past, present and future for a greater purpose. It is said that those who know this song by heart, who are pure of heart, will be bestowed with the power of Music, which emulates many, many things in my world... Even other songs.”
*

It took her a few minutes to find her singing voice, but she would need more than just that, she would need to put all of her heart and soul into the tunes for it to work. Normally, she had no trouble, for every song she hummed or sung, it came from her beating organ in the center of her chest. It was all just a matter of how her notes entered the Ocarina, it had to carry the instruments magic into the air around lest her efforts be wasted. She took a deep sigh, gathering air into her lungs in preparation.

“I hope this works...”

“...Blinded, with focus, wielding all to come with no boundaries to cross. Heavens, rain mystery, light our stage oh so true, hidden by the lies of man kind... With this Song I pray that ye will answer me when I call... Songs of old tolls we sing again... With hope that you will hear our fall from the sky and grace. Goddess, so wise and glorious please give me aid in this crusade...”

Her words echoed across the crumbling, rotten walls, the lyrics sung with the rhythm of the song. An aura of mystery began to surround her, though none could see it, even if Fluttershy would still bear her eyes, it would have been an illusion to her sight. The magic was flowing, her efforts were indeed working. With haste, she sung the next song.

“Sleeping and weary, tired oh very, wake up and hear my tale... Beyond death or slumbering voids, revive to this tune, my weeping query.”

With the last enchanting resignation of her voice, another refreshing feeling protruded upon herself. A sudden and impossible wind bellowed across the caverns, kicking up dust and pushing against both Fluttershy and the king's unmoving form. All desire for sleep had left her, and she was revitalized with new energy.

It felt as if her efforts were once again fruitless, however, for nothing aside herself seemed affected by the tunes. But after what seemed like ages of constricting silence with her breath held caught in her throat, Link exhaled loudly. What sounded like the lament of countless souls suddenly invaded her hearing. A piercing signal struck both her mind and Link's, a signal of waking, a line so long and strong that which could pull the dead from the firmest grave.

She felt his eyes shoot open, evident by the following hysterical coughing and gasping and the painful growl. He tried to fight the inevitable sickness that washed over his body, but despite his strength, it proved too much for the warrior.

Consistent spazzes wracked his form, sending waves of discomfort through his large frame. More coughing ensued from his throat, his muscle's tensing with ever pulse. He struggled to fight the urges to vomit, the veins on his head presenting themselves showing the pressure he exerted to prevent his sickness from overcoming him.

“Link...? A-are you going to be alright?” Fluttershy whispered, her words almost drowned by the sounds of the dark lord's suffering.

Link's body had locked up, preventing movement of all kinds. His saliva escaped his lips, though he tried to keep the flows within his mouth. His efforts proved fruitless, so in an act of defiance, he pushed with his lungs, letting a mist erupt.

Though, with no air in his lungs, and his body tight and locked, he collapsed again. His defenses came crashing down and what ever was being held within his stomach came out. The taste was rancid, the acid burned his mouth. He did not want to hold it in any longer, it was just too much. He coughed and spat all he could, his muscles slowly unlocking as he lay there in agony.

“O-oh...my...”

The element of Kindness took great pity upon her friend, she heard it all and the stench of what had been released had reached her. In caution, she approached him, following the sounds of his large lungs breathing heavily. Sweat formed all over the king's head, what strength he still wielded now entirely gone with no sight of return in the near future.

He managed to push himself over and onto his back. He sighed, still trying to gain his breath. Fluttershy managed to find Link, lying flat on his back, no energy to move any further. His eye lids felt heavy, but with the effects of the Sonata, he could not close them. It only added to his torture.

Fluttershy examined her friend with her ability to visualize the world with scent, he still bore the injuries from the horde, and whatever attacked him afterwords had also left a scratch or two. Though she knew he was still alive and now some hope within their grasp, it left to question the strength of his mentality. Was he still there? Was he still awake and conscious, true? She intended to find out.

With her analysis and diagnoses of Link done and his injuries accounted for, she tried moving him with her head, nudging and tugging like before as if to gain his attention.

“...Easy, my friend. I just need to recuperate...”

He gasped between words, clenching his eyes shut with every heave of his armored chest.

'...Now, all have to pay...'

The last of his words to the demon shadows played through his hazed mind. As his breath eased further, his eyes opened. The gaze he gave was sharp and hard, not an essence of weakness within. Just a burning desire.