Link hadn’t had steak in this land before the train ride. Twilight had woken him up when they took orders but let him go back to sleep afterwards.

The pony who took the order was offended by the request but didn’t argue. It was a valid menu option. She just didn’t like serving carnivores or omnivores. Twilight ordered a refill of scotch but cut herself off after that.

She frowned at Hinka. He always seemed most at peace while sleeping, but even now it was a reach. His eyes were somewhat squeezed shut. To a stranger, he might look like he was sleeping comfortably, but to Twilight, he looked anything but peaceful.

She chewed her lip a bit and took a sip of her drink. The trip was indeed to introduce him to her family, but she also had a therapy appointment scheduled for him. Rarity had suggested he was having flashbacks, which led Twilight to believe he was exhibiting symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

She and her friends were good at cheering ponies up, but they were not therapists with the exception of Rainbow Dash.1

Twilight chewed the inside of her cheek a bit. She hadn’t told Dash about Hinka’s most recent episode. She had a feeling that the pegasus was going to be upset for not having been informed sooner. In her defense, she hadn’t told anypony else yet either.

That defense sounded a lot better in her head.

She felt the boy twitch against her arm and her eyes wandered to him again. He appeared to be quivering. Another nightmare, perhaps? She didn’t think he was aware, but she had dropped in to tuck him in a few times after he’d gone to bed and found him asleep, but tensed, quivering, or otherwise distressed. She knew he was having nightmares, though what they were about was anyone’s guess save for Luna.

She glanced down the aisle and saw the dinner cart coming. Good timing. She gently shook him.

“Hinka,” she whispered. “Dinner time.”

He jolted when he awoke and looked about wildly. She squeezed him gently with her wing.

“Hey now,” she said. “It’s okay. We’re on the train, remember? It was just a dream.”

His heart was racing, and it took a bit more coaxing to get him back to reality. Twilight was quite patient with him. This wasn’t the first time he’d had an episode. There was the firework incident, which suddenly made a lot more sense to her.

The mare serving dinner came to them while Twilight was trying to calm Hinka.

“Tomato soup for you, Your Highness, and steak for your pet- “

Twilight shot the mare a look. She cleared her throat.

“Pardon, steak for your ‘boy.’”

Twilight leaned back a bit to allow the mare to levitate the dish over to Hinka’s tray table. She did not break eye contact.

“Can I get you another drink, Princess?”

“We could both use a glass of water.”

The mare nodded once and hurriedly went off to serve the rest of her dinners and get the irate princess her water.

She looked at his steak. She’d been on many trains in her time. Most of the time when food was served it was a gamble whether you’d get something palatable or not. The gamble was removed on board the Excess Express. The chef claimed in the brochure that he was trained by the greatest chefs the world over, who, upon recognizing him as another great, would immediately keel over dead having completed their life’s mission of training him. He had been investigated by the guards because it happened six times.

Link finished his prayer and dug in.

The steak was cooked to perfection and looked amazing. Link didn’t often use marinade on his meats. He tended to smoke them and use herbs commonplace among the Kokiri. He had a garden in his back yard he would use for bartering. He wished he could prepare a meal this good.

At the same time, he also hoped he never grew to expect this level of quality food. Nearly all of the meals he had in Equestria were leaps and bounds better than anything he could prepare. He was always grateful when food was prepared for him. He was the one who thanked whoever cooked for him. It was instilled in him by Saria. Whosoever fed you spared you hunting, cleaning, and prepping your own meal.

Link never wanted to grow accustomed to the food he was eating now in case he found his way back home. Kokiri Forest has no use for those with refined palettes.

Twilight, meanwhile, took a bite of her soup and smiled.

“I’ve always loved tomato soup. When I was a foal, I couldn’t pronounce ‘tomato’, so I just called it a bowl of red. My first time requesting it from my parents was quite concerning.”

Hinka looked up at her and she chuckled. “I was younger than you are. My mom was cleaning a dish in the sink, my brother was doing some homework, and I walked up to my parents and asked for a bowl of red. They thought I meant blood.”

He smiled at her. She offered him her spoon. “Want a bite?”

The ponies seemed to enjoy sharing their food with one another. He saw it throughout most of his time in Ponyville. Pinkie would less offer you food and more shove it into your face.

He didn’t often take them up on the offers. They sometimes forgot that he couldn’t digest hay. Twilight seemed to know what he was thinking, though. “There’s nothing in here that you can’t eat, Hinka. I think you’ll like it.”

He took the spoon from her magic and ate the soup she had offered. It was good, but not quite as good as Applejack’s version.

Twilight smiled a knowing smile at him. “I can see it in your eyes. Tasty, huh?”

“Even better than black broth.”

Twilight stuck her tongue out. Hinka had off-handedly mentioned that recipe to her in the past. When he told her of the ingredients, she quipped, “Now I know why you don’t fear death.”

A voice came over the intercom. Link couldn’t understand a single thing it said.

“We’re about halfway to Canterlot. Shiny and Cadance should be picking us up!”

She clapped her hooves in excitement. Link did not share her excitement. He had no idea who Shiny or Cadance were.

“Shining Armor is my BBBFF. Cadance is his wife.”

He blinked. Bad Bow Bursting From Fences? Bum Bull Bites Franz Ferdinand?

Twilight seemed to realize she was speaking in tongues to him and clarified.

“That is, my big brother best friend forever.”

Link nodded once. Slowly. He thought it was the most nauseatingly saccharine nickname in history, and he’d been living in colorful giant pony world for the better part of summer now.

“You’re also going to be meeting my parents, and my niece.”

She put her hoof on his hand. “While we’re there, I also have an appointment with a special kind of doctor for you. To possibly help with your nightmares and the like. He’s supposed to be the best therapist in Canterlot. He’d better be, anyway.”

His going rate was absurd. The pony wanted 400 bits per session.

“Therapist?” Link echoed. Why did she think he needed a therapist? Sure, he had moments where he’d suddenly wind up lost in his memories, unable to tell reality from the past, and sure, he was terrified of fireworks and putting his back to doors and windows, and he supposed he could grant you that his aversion to being seen without as many clothes covering his scars as possible could be a bit odd, but…

Oh, Goddesses above. He was a basket case, wasn’t he?

“I’d really appreciate it if you gave it a try, Hinka. There’s nothing wrong with needing help. We’ll be glad to lend it to you.”

He sighed to himself and looked out the window for a moment at the trees whizzing by. Off in the distance, over the Everfree Forest, a storm was brewing. He chewed on his lip for a moment, then looked back at Twilight.

“I don’t like to share my stories,” he said. “There’s a reason for that.”

“I know you don’t like to share them. Don’t think of this as sharing so much as unloading. You’re carrying something around that is too heavy for one like you. You have the chance to set it on somepony else’s shoulders.”

Link thought back to his impromptu therapy session with Applejack, and how good it felt to get those stories out. It felt like poison was being drained from his body.

The ponies seemed to be trying their best to get him to share his stories. It was something he hadn’t even done with Saria, though that was admittedly due to her Sage duties. But he’d known Saria his whole life. He never shared his stories with Navi because she experienced them with him. Neither Tatl.

He was prepared to tell Twilight and her friends bits and pieces of his past. He wouldn’t tell the Crusaders anything about what he had done though. No matter how many times they tried to get him to talk. No matter how many times they employed their puppy dog eyes.

Talking to a therapist he didn’t know from Adam? That was another story.

Still, he trusted Twilight. He trusted Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. If Twilight felt that this was a good move, then he figured he could give it a try. Perhaps a single session and see how it goes. He’ll even tell the doctor some of his comparatively mild stories instead of the ones that truly haunted him.

He nodded once at Twilight, and she beamed at him.

“Yes! Thank you Hinka! He’s the best doctor in town. I think it will do you a lot of good.”

Link was pretty sure they said Ganondorf was the best choice for the King of the Gerudo and look how that ended up. He just hoped he didn’t have to stab this best repeatedly too. That would be a swell change of pace.

He wondered how Zelda was doing.

The remainder of the train ride was otherwise uneventful, with Twilight reading Daring Do’s breakout hit2 to him.

One by one, the ponies around them began to unbuckle themselves from their seats and get into the aisle to disembark. Link undid his buckles, but Twilight stopped him from standing.

“Let’s wait a moment for some of this crowd to clear. I don’t want you getting separated from me.”

He didn’t give her a response, and instead stared out the window at the station.

It was far bigger and busier than the one in Ponyville. Ponies of all walks of life were wandering the busy paths and streets. There were markets aplenty, a hefty guard presence, and what looked like the odd bar here and there. A large sign wasn’t too far from where he was seated; it looked like a map of the train station. Sparing a look over his shoulder, he could see several more tracks and additional markets outside the opposite window between passing ponies in the aisle.

He had never seen so many equines in one place. Even Romani Ranch, and they had a horse problem. Link nearly got trampled by one they called Hardly Flanged every time he visited the ranch. Cards on the table: When he was in a particularly rotten mood, he'd sometimes think about kicking its ass until he could change its name to Hardly Moving. He was the more mature one, though, so instead he'd just give apples or carrots to all the horses he saw except for that one.

He didn’t recognize any of the ponies he saw out there, but he could all but smell the air of superiority about them. It was like they thought their shit didn’t stink. It was Hyrule Castle Town all over again.

Twilight tapped his shoulder and he looked at her. She was carrying her luggage and his and had stepped out into the aisle.

“Come along! I think Cadance and Shining are waiting.”

Link shimmied out of the seats and started walking down the aisle with Twilight behind him. Even with his smaller size, the train felt cramped.

He hadn’t been off the train for 5 seconds before Twilight gasped behind him and whisked him away in her magic before breaking out into a short-lived gallop. He was grateful Epona didn’t have the capacity to do that.

She seemed to have forgotten that she was hovering him, her two large bags, and his bag at the same time. He hoped she would figure it out soon; Link was almost upside down now.

The current object of her attention was a pink alicorn even taller than she was. He guessed she was only a bit smaller than Celestia, but he couldn’t remember; he only saw her once. Either way, he only came up to one of her legs.

Twilight and the new alicorn smiled at one another, and repeated a mantra that made him think his pony guardian/caretaker/parent/friend/owner/literature addict was having a stroke.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

Oh good, it looks like the new alicorn was also having the same exact stroke.

After they both miraculously recovered, they hugged.

“Cadance, it’s so good to see you again! How are Flurry and Shining?”

Twilight took a moment to look around.

“Moreover, where are Flurry and Shining?”

The other stroke-pony, Cadance, smiled again. “Flurry is with your parents. Shining is… well, there’s a bar a few shops down from here and the game is on. Apparently, it’s a squeaker. I’ll give you one guess where he is.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Oh, Shining… Ah! I almost forgot!”

She gestured to her side, where there was nobody standing.

“This is Hinka.”

Cadance giggled, but Twilight missed the joke. She looked down at where she was gesturing and saw no sign of the tiny human. Her pupils shrunk to pinpricks.

“Hinka?! Where are you?”

He tapped her once on the horn as he floated overhead and she looked up fast enough that he thought she was going to break her neck.

“How’d you get up there? You’re not luggage.”

She set him down gently and he brushed himself off a tad. He could feel Cadance looking at him, but without distrust or hatred. She seemed to be measuring something.

“Okay, take two: This is Hinka. Hinka? This is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. You can call her Cadance.”

Cadance smiled at him and offered a hoof. “It’s very nice to finally meet you! Twilight speaks very highly of you.”

Link took her hoof and shook it, albeit uncertainly. It wasn’t overly common for the ponies to offer handshakes. Err, hoofshakes. They normally just hugged you until every bone in your body was broken. Pinkie Pie was especially fond of that attack.

“Cadance, I’m going to go drag Shining back here. Can you watch him while I’m gone?”

“Absolutely,” she replied. “That’ll give he and I a chance to acquaint! How doess that sound, Hinka?”

Oh. That’s interesting. Normally, when new ponies met him, they’d do their best to make eye contact with him and then he’d have to flip them off. Cadance was looking into his eyes but would break eye contact with him before it went on too long.

Twilight thanked her and instructed him to be good for her, then she ran off towards a bar. While still hovering all of their luggage. She wasn’t struggling, so he guessed she forgot. Twilight was doughy and squishy if it came to a physical confrontation, but she was an absolute titan in magic.

The pink alicorn, Cadance, smiled gently at him.

“Aunties Luna and Celestia are both right about you.”

Link tilted his head slightly. She took a step closer.

“I can sense it. You’re very courageous. My aunts both speak very highly of you.”

He was confused. He’d only met Celestia once, during which time she made a bad joke, gave Twilight and her friends a job to do, and then left. He knew Luna better. She’d actually seen facsimiles of some of his war stories. He wondered what he had done to make such a strong impression on Celestia3.

He felt cold run through his veins for a second. A job to do. The job was to take care of him.

The job was to take care of him…

Was that all he was to the ponies? A job to be done? Some broken merchandise that needed to be fixed and reared before they could brush themselves off and congratulate themselves on a job well done?

He frowned to himself. No. No, he remembered more now. Celestia requested that they house him. She expressed a willingness to take him herself, at least for a time.

He wasn’t just a job to the ponies. If that was all they saw him as, they wouldn’t be so touchy feely. They wouldn’t encourage and support him. They wouldn’t remember the things he told them. They wouldn’t ask him how he was doing.

They wouldn’t love him.

He was far, far more to them.

Cadance put a hoof on his shoulder, and he jolted. She took her hoof back.

“I’m sorry, did I scare you? You seemed deep in thought. Are you okay?”

He noticed that Cadance was going to great lengths to not keep eye contact with him for too long. She seemed to be reading his mind and smiled gently.

“Twilight told Shining and I that you consider excessive eye contact a challenge or an insult. Far be it from me to upset my new nephew!”

Yes. He suspected meant more to them than he could ever know. The feeling was mutual. He smiled at her courtesy and the insinuation of her last statement. “Thank you.”

She giggled. “I think my daughter is going to like you. She’s quite… well, Shining says adventurous. I say rambunctious. Her name is Flurry Heart. She’s just a baby.”

Link had some experience with babies. Not as much as one like Saria, but when a new Kokiri came along, he or she would be raised by the whole village with the exception of Link himself; he’d been raised exclusively by Saria and Ko.

The Kokiri receive their names from the Great Deku Tree, and that typically didn’t happen until they were a few years old. Link believed one of the reasons the other Kokiri ostracized him so much was because he came with his own name, and the Deku Tree, either wishing to honor his late mother or simply feeling the name was acceptable, did not change it.

Link sometimes wondered if the boy he had become was decided for him by his own nature or by how he was raised. Nature v. Nurture was the conundrum he spent a great deal of time thinking about. He believed that it depended on the person. Some were shaped by their own natures, others by how they were reared. Perhaps he was shaped by both.

One thing was certain: He was more receptive to hugs and physical contact now than before he wound up in weird magical horse land. Hell, before he landed here, he’d been largely uncomfortable with physical contact.

He was drawn from his reverie by Twilight. Specifically, Twilight returning to he and Cadance with a burly white stallion with a blue mane and tail. He was happily chattering away at Twilight and had not noticed either him or Cadance yet.

“…down 7 to 2, advantage Canterlot Royals, it’s the bottom of the fifth, and the Mareiners hit a grand slam!”

“Isn’t a grand slam 4 points?” asked Twilight.

“Yeah, so they were trailing 7 to 6, and at the bottom of the next inning, guess what?”

“They got a triple?” asked Cadance as they stopped walking.

The white stallion shook his head at her. “Another grand slam. Twily here found me right after that.”

Link glanced at Cadance, then at Twilight, who appeared deep in thought.

“What are the odds of them getting two in one game?”

The stallion shrugged, but he grinned. “Probably slightly better than if they were to get 3. I’ll ask Dad when we get back how the game ended, but enough about that now.”

Finally, the stallion’s eyes settled on Hinka. The hylian felt smaller than usual before the burly white unicorn.

“You must be Hinka! Twily’s mentioned you. I’m her big brother, Shining Armor. You can call me Shining.”

Link bowed slightly, and he chuckled. “Well now, aren’t you well mannered?”

“Didn’t I tell you, big brother? He’s such a good colt.”

He smiled at her. “Yeah, yeah. But I’ve got a pop quiz for you!”

Shining lowered himself to be at Link’s eye level.

“Mareiners or Canterlot Royals?”

The four of them left the station afterward, with Link taking his bag back from Twilight. She insisted she didn’t mind carrying it but he always preferred to bear his own burdens when possible.

They stepped outside and for a moment Link thought it was completely dark. He was wrong. It was dusk. Shining pointed behind him at the giant walls surrounding the city, which cast shadows over a lot of Canterlot at this time of day.

“And there they are, Hinka,” said Cadance. “The mighty walls of Canterlot. They are effective in times of combat against ground-based enemies, and the Wonderbolts are unrivalled for aerial based foes. But the walls are just…”

Cadance appeared to be somewhat proud of them and smiled at him. Shining stuck his tongue out at the walls. She did not notice.

“Impressive, aren’t they?”

Link was quite the opposite of impressed. He’d heard Spike tell story after story of Canterlot nobles that felt invincible due to the walls around the city. He’d broken into supposedly impenetrable walled off cities and bases before.

“What splendid women’s quarters,” he remarked. He intended to say it in Hylian, but he forgot. He got a cuff on the back of the head from Twilight’s wing for that one.

“Hinka! Don’t be rude,” she scolded. Shining took great humor in his statement and Cadance smiled at him, not offended. “You don’t believe walls should be used to protect a city?”

He shook his head, leering up at Twilight for the cuff he got while rubbing the back of his head.

“Then what would you suggest?” Cadance asked further.

Link made sure to straighten his hat before he answered her.

“A city is well fortified that has a wall of men, not mortar and stone.”

The Sparkle family house had been passed down through generations. Her family traced its roots back as far as Celestia’s ascension, though back then her family was not well known, not noble, and by no means was it a household name. The Sparkle family’s furthest ancestors were largely highwaymen and bandits and a few tribals. It was something they didn’t like to talk about. The Sparkles today were law abiding ponies. Heroes, even.

There is talk among the other elites of Canterlot that the Sparkle clan has some bizarre code of silence. There are rumors that Twilight Velvet, though a sweetheart of a mare and always ready with a joke, was not somepony to cross. A dragon abused the hospitality of her grandson once by pretending to be his father. She hunted him down with a baseball bat and beat him senseless. She called the bat “Ol’ Hickory”.

Their home was 5 stories high, but fairly narrow as most of the houses in this area were. Imposing though the houses in this area looked, they were really 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, and the world’s smallest backyards4.

Link, looking up at the houses, was impressed. They were taller than most of the buildings in Clock Town and Castle Town with the exception of the Temple of Time and the Clock Tower proper. The Temple of Time was still the largest building he’d ever seen; it was even bigger than Twilight’s Castle and that of Canterlot.

“Remember when we used to walk home from school together, Shiny?” asked Twilight. “We’d either be laughing together, arguing, or racing.”

Shining laughed. “I still remember when you almost got into that fight when you were younger.”

Link was surprised. He looked up at Shining, who smiled down at him.

“She was your age, Hinka. And these bullies were starting up with her. I went to go back her up and little 9-year-old Twily holds a hoof up at me and says, ‘BBBFF, stand down. I got this.’”

Link looked over his shoulder at Twilight, who bashfully looked away.

“I didn’t say ‘Stand down.’”

“Yes you did! I remember this story!” said Cadance. “I was coming down the street to take you out to a movie, remember?”

Link smiled at her.

‘Speaking of bullies and fighting, I hear you’re quite the force to be reckoned with, Hinka,” said Shining. “Do you know Karate?”

Link was reasonably sure he heard someone Spike was watching on the television once refer to Karate as “The Dane Cook of martial arts.” Whoever that was.

He shook his head.

Twilight giggled. “Hinka kicked Rainbow Dash’s flank from here to Cloudsdale not that long ago. But it wasn’t Karate.”

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“What was it called?” she asked him curiously.

“I used Kun-So and Gun-Kuk-Do on her.”

Link didn’t like talking about his combat much. He wasn’t much to brag. He never had been.

Twilight, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind talking up either Link or Spike. She was very proud of both of them for whatever reason.

Shining Armor was impressed when she told him that Link had developed a reputation in Ponyville, particularly among the children, as a soft-spoken boy but also not one to be fucked with. Apparently, the Crusaders took it upon themselves to embellish his spat with Spike and Rainbow Dash. According to them, he broke every bone in Spike’s body and didn’t even get scratched once, and Scootaloo claimed the spar with Dash was close (it wasn’t), but he still managed to beat her. He reminded himself to talk to them about his conflict with that filly before they started up a rumor that he put her in a coma or something.

Cadance whistled. “You’re something else, aren’t you, little guy?”

Something else, alright. He shrugged. Shining chuckled. “You’re a good kid, though. I’m glad you stand up for yourself. You might be a good influence on Flurry as she gets older.”

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

It took Link a few seconds to remember who Flurry was. It was a common name in Equestria.

Shining opened the front door to the house, and Link’s hand immediately went to his bag. It wasn’t much, but any weapon is better than nothing.

Standing inside the house were three timberwolves. The same type that nearly did him in.

And for some reason, none of them were hostile, and Twilight, Shining, and Cadance were completely fine with them being here.

“Oh, Flurry, are you playing Timber again?” asked Cadance. The larger Timberwolf nodded and spoke. “Yeah, we’ve been at it for a while now. Grandma gave her one too many sweets.”

Link blinked. He looked up at Twilight. She seemed to sense his confusion and leaned down. “Some things are not always as they seem. Watch.”

One of the Timberwolves began to glow, and the rest shimmered and faded away, replaced by three ponies. Link relaxed a bit. Illusion spells. Those are simple enough to cast. If he had his Lens of Truth, he'd have seen right through them.

Two of the ponies bore resemblance to both Twilight and Shining. They were older, but their eyes still bore youth. Grey touched the manes and furs of each. One was a stallion and the other was a mare. In between them was a small alicorn filly. Pink. She babbled nonsensically up at both of the older ponies.

One by one, the three new pairs of eyes fell on him. They too quickly averted their gazes from his own, save for the filly. He didn’t fault her; she was an infant and didn't know any better.

The older mare took a few steps towards him and smiled. “Oh, hello dearie! You must be Hinka. It’s lovely to have you here!”

For a moment, Link thought Twilight neglected to inform them he was coming, until she continued:

“Twilight’s spoken highly of you. We’ve all been excited to meet you.”

Oh. That’s curious. There was a scar just under this mare’s eye. If he didn’t know any better, it was a scratch from a dragon’s claw. He had a similar one over his heart, but deeper. He remembered Volvagia’s shit eating grin when she realized what she had done, and he remembered it rapidly vanishing when he wiped a finger over the blood, licked it, and thanked her.5

He realized she was holding a hoof out to him, and he uncertainly reached for it, only to find out she wasn’t looking for a hoof shake. She pulled him into her barrel for a hug instead.

Had Link just arrived in Equestria, armed and uncertain of the intentions of the natives here, this act would have been seen as a threat. He barely knew what a hug even was before he got here. Not that Saria or Ko were emotionless to him; the Kokiri just had different ways of showing their affection.

He wrapped his arms around her gently, uncertainly.

“My name is Twilight Velvet,” she said. “I’m Twilight’s mom!”

She pulled him away and looked down at him again.

“And how is my little girl treating you? She hasn’t turned you into anything yet, has she?”

Link elected not to mention the time she accidentally turned him into a hydra. Every time he thought about it, it gave him a headache. He spared a look back at her and she answered for him.

“Me? Why would I do something like that?” she laughed nervously.

The older stallion laughed. “I take it you didn’t tell him about the plant incident?”

Link looked at him. He smiled. “Hey there, little guy. I’m Night Light. I’m Twilight’s father.”

“Which one?” Link quipped. He and Twilight Velvet laughed gently, and stepped aside.

“Alright, everyone! Inside! We’ve got some wine, some soda, juice, milk, water, and some snacks out in case anyone is still a bit hungry.”

They walked inside one by one. Link spared another look over his shoulder at the walls.

He could swear he saw the skull kid atop them, wearing Majora’s mask… He rubbed his eyes and it was gone. He spared a look into his bag to make sure nothing serious was happening.

One of Majora's eyes gazed back at him from beneath his clothes.

Twilight and Hinka were led upstairs to a guest room to drop off their bags. Well, it used to be Twilight’s bedroom. Hinka was amused when they opened the door and the room’s walls were covered with blues band posters. He looked up at her.

“Sparkle, what is all of this? Surely this distracted from your studies,” he joked. She giggled and blushed a bit.

“Blues were a guilty pleasure of mine,” she said. “Still are.”

“I could swear I still hear the music on the wind sometimes,” said Night Light. “I can’t tell if it’s an old echo from your record player, or if it’s from your castle in Ponyville.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she asked teasingly.

Hinka’s eyes fell on the bed. It was about as big as the one he used, which was enormous for him, but he’d seen Twilight’s bed at the castle too. He could swear it had its own time zones.

There was also precisely one bed in the room. He wondered if she would give him some sheets so he could sleep on the floor comfortably. He’d used his duffle bags for pillows before. She didn’t seem to notice his puzzlement, and he followed them back downstairs to the living room.

The rest of the Sparkles quickly learned that Hinka was a very quiet and reserved child. He answered questions and didn’t try to hide behind Twilight, but he didn’t act the way most foals did. They knew he wasn’t exactly a foal, of course, but his mannerisms and emotional control? JDLR.6

Link found himself to be quite thrown, speaking of, when he heard what Twilight’s parents did for work.

“I’m a novelist! It took me close to 30 years for my work to be noticed. That’s the value of hard work, dear,” was Velvet’s answer. He didn’t ask about the scar under her eye. Then, he looked at Night Light, who grinned.

“I'm an astronomer, and I also rob banks and break into businesses,” he said. “Then they pay me for it.”

Link blinked a few times. Shining, Twilight, and Flurry laughed at his reaction. Well, Shining and Twilight. Flurry hadn’t stopped laughing since Velvet had blew a raspberry into her belly two minutes prior.

Cadance nudged him and leaned in.

“He’s a penetration tester,” she whispered. “His job is to break into buildings to expose security lapses.”

Oh, that’s what that’s called? Link gave Zelda’s castle one of those without being asked to once. Night Light nodded once with a smile.

“That’s right. It’s exhausting, but so fun! Plus, there’s no real risk to it if you play your cards right. I’ve done it for nearly 25 years now.”

“Have you ever been caught?” asked Hinka. He nodded.

“Once. The client always prints out a letter for you to give to the guards if ever necessary. When I got caught, it was when I was still new and I just made a mistake.”

Link tilted his head, and Night Light scratched the back of his sheepishly.

“I was casing a bank, and someone behind me asked what I was doing, so I said, ‘I’m trying to work out how to break into this bank.’ Then I turned around. Two guards. Let’s just say I piqued their interest.”

Link smiled.

“Have you ever had a job before, Hinka? Or do your kind start work at a different age?”

Link had observed a while ago that child labor was frowned upon in Equestria. It was frowned upon to the point that whoever was found to be utilizing it could be fined or arrested. Errands were not considered labor, though Sweetie Belle would regularly lament the dozens of minutes she’d have to spend on chores per day. One of the first lectures he got from Twilight was for asking for more chores too much. She told him he needed to go outside and play.

“I worked for the general store, I fished, I hunted, and helped repair any damaged houses.”

His heroics were conspicuously absent from his CV, but his labors warranted the rising of Night Light’s eyebrows.

“Ah, so your people are hunter/gatherers?”

The Kokiri were, but Link didn’t feel like correcting him. He nodded.

At that point, Flurry Heart deemed it necessary to begin screaming like a banshee. When Link looked in her direction, he was staring at a redead. He shook his head gently and blinked, and it was Flurry again. Still screaming her fool head off for reasons yet unknown.

“Flurry Heart,” said Cadance. “If you don’t use your indoor voice, you’re going to get a time out.”

A time out? Link looked up at Twilight and tugged her wing gently. She looked down at him and offered him her ear.

“What’s time out?” he asked. She giggled.

“Flurry is misbehaving, and unless she improves her behavior, she’s going to have to sit in her crib upstairs and think about what she’s done for five minutes.”

If Link had screamed like Flurry in Kokiri Forest, he would have gotten a knock out, not a time out, but that wasn’t how things were done here. He left it at that. When he looked back at the offending Flurry, she was being carried upstairs.

Twilight, however, kept a hoof on him. He looked up at her, puzzled.

“You seemed to be somewhere else for a moment there. Do you want to talk?”

What did you see? was what he gathered between the lines.

“It’s nothing to talk about,” he replied.

Everything is cool. Everything’s okay.

The rest of the evening was uneventful.

Link learned quickly that the Sparkle clan was huge on cards. He learned the basics of poker, and the ponies learned the basics of Caravan, which he had learned from Tatl, and Faro, which was a popular game among the Kokiri7 and Link’s favorite card game.

He also learned that Twilight Velvet was a good baker. Possibly better than Pinkie Pie herself. He later found out that Pinkie occasionally apparated through a wall to practice her baking skills with Velvet.

He also learned that Twilight Velvet and Night Light were both early risers ordinarily. Night Light lamented to him that he was usually in bed for several hours by the time 8 PM came around.

Link chose not to mention that he once went 6 days without sleeping for longer than 4 hours, and that was before he found himself in Termina.

After everyone said goodnight, it was time to bathe. Twilight let him go first, and when he came out, he went back to her old room and sat cross legged on the floor in his pajamas. He busied himself setting up his rucksack for use as a pillow, which didn’t take very long. So, he used some more of his alone time looking around her room.

When he saw the dart board, he got an idea.

So as any 9-year-old retired hero who defeated one god-like warlock and one literal goddess hell bent on annihilation would do, he took out Majora’s Mask and started throwing darts at it for a few minutes.

He knew it wouldn’t cause any damage to the stupid thing, but he also knew Majora was always studying him and always aware of what he was doing in her company, and this was more fun than just giving her the little finger.

He silently cheered when one dart caught her eye. Did it actually hurt her? Doubtful; she no sold him when he ran her through on the moon. If the darts actually hurt her, he’d feel as though he’d been sold a false bill of goods.

A more mature person might argue that by doing this, he was essentially justifying her hatred. But Link knew that Majora didn’t love anyone. She was not capable of love. She knew how to hate, and she knew how to be dismissive, and she enjoyed when living things suffered. That was it. Even Ganondorf was capable of love, at least to a certain extent. He loved his parents, loved the kingdom he created, and he appreciated the finer things in life, such as music and a good wine.

The Fierce Deity? Link wasn’t even sure if it was capable of hatred, or any other emotion. That mask frightened him more than Majora or Ganondorf because it was willing to kill not because of a sick game, or because it hated mortal life, or because it sought power. The mantra Link had come up with after his adventures was this:

Ganondorf killed out of necessity.

Majora killed out of pleasure.

The Fierce Deity killed because it could.

Link still didn’t know for sure if the Fierce Deity was one spirit. He knew many spirits dwelled within that mask. What if the Fierce Deity was just a figurehead for these spirits, like the Skull Kid was for Majora?

The only thing Link knew for certain is, while Majora was extremely dangerous and fearsome in her own right, it was the Fierce Deity that Link saw as the greater threat, but also more easily controlled.

Majora was many things, but she was consistent. Link knew her quite well, both from her actions and by listening to her speak. You need to know your enemy.

But the Fierce Deity was not only strong enough to “kill” Majora where Link wasn’t capable himself, it felt absolutely nothing while doing it. While it was working, Link noted that Majora seemed to hate it, but it had no animosity towards her at all. That is, it was fighting her because she was there. Not because she was strong, not because she threatened its host, not because she threatened the world.

The Fierce Deity, he concluded, exists only in any given moment. Neither in the past nor the future. It never even attempted to draw in a host.

Its aloofness and strangeness frightened the young hero. He held it up as the first of his two worst masks that needed to be destroyed. Only… nothing he tried could damage either of them. He tried everything from hammer strikes to bombs. He couldn’t even scratch the paint.

“You really hate that mask, don’t you?”

He jumped. Twilight had a towel wrapped around her mane and she eyed her boy curiously. She saw darts on the floor around Majora and one in his hand.

Rather than denying it or saying he didn’t want to talk, though…

“Yeah.”

Twilight sat beside him as he threw again. The dart bounced off Majora’s eye.

“Hinka, why do you keep this mask if it upsets you so much?” she asked. “It… ugh, it feels like it’s staring right into my soul...”

“She probably is,” he said softly in Hylian. Twilight looked at him, puzzled. He cleared his throat.

“…I think I should tell you. My masks are enchanted. Not all. But many.”

Her eyes lit up. A foreign land’s enchantments?

“Is this one of them?”

He nodded. “In a way. It is the magic of this mask that makes it very dangerous.”

She tilted her head. Link looked up at her.

“Do you remember when I told you about Neki? The plant person?”

She nodded. “If I remember right, you said he was killed by a monster.”

Link threw a dart at Majora again. This time, more forcefully. Twilight’s eyes widened.

“Was the killer wearing that mask?” she whispered.

“The killer was that mask. It houses a malicious spirit. One that I cannot destroy.”

He looked up at her and sighed. “Let me tell you a story…”

Link knew telling her the entire story was out of the question. They’d be up until the next morning if he did. So, he gave her the basics, which he learned from The Happy Mask Salesman:

Majora, from what information he gathered during his journey in Termina, had an extensive history. Just how old the spirit of the mask was, nobody knew. The mask itself was known for being used in hexing rituals by an ancient tribe in Termina.

But the terrible power of the mask was often too much to control. While effective in these rituals, each use strengthened the spirit more. Eventually, its power was so immense, it could possess the body of its wearer. The records of what exactly Majora did once it achieved this capability were missing.

Come to think of it, all historical records in Termina have a gap extending from 4000 years ago until 1500 years ago. It’s as if humans didn’t exist for that gap of time, or they had been set back in their development of language and thought for that period of time. Link didn’t know for sure if Majora had done something, but the last record available describes “a terrible malady” originating somewhere in Ikana Canyon...

The Great Fairy of Ikana told Link of times long past, in which the spirit of the mask was that of a malevolent goddess. The Great Fairy told him she killed the gods that created Termina, and she was sealed within the mask due to the danger she posed by the Four Giants. Link believed it was the Fierce Deity that the Four Giants used to initially seal her away. Perhaps her granting the mask to him was her way of trying to settle the score by using Link as a pawn.

When Link arrived in Termina, she had already killed three possible heroes, either directly or by association.

Link told Twilight briefly of his friends, briefly of what exactly she sought to do to Termina, and what she tried to do to him.

Twilight, to her credit, didn’t take it in the way he would have expected had he just arrived here. She didn’t insist on taking the mask for research, didn’t insist on hiding it away, didn’t assume he was making it up to play a game, and didn’t just cry her eyes out or wear a look of shock.

She listened to everything he said, asked a few questions here and there, and when he was done, she was silent for a moment. Then, her eyes met his again.

“Who stopped her?” she asked him. “You said she killed three heroes. Who was the fourth that beat her?”

He was quiet, staring at the mask in question. His eyes slowly rolled to the Fierce Deity.

“I did, through the use of an even greater mask. But that is a story for another day.”

Twilight didn’t seem pleased, or surprised, or angry or upset. She sighed slowly.

“I suspected as much. Perhaps that is why you don’t act like other children.”

Link was quiet. He felt her hoof on his back.

“We have a new plan for tomorrow, then. First, we will have breakfast. Then, you and I are going to discuss this with the Princess. She needs to know if this mask is dangerous.”

She saw the look on his face and smiled gently at him.

“Don’t worry, she won’t take it from you. We’ll work together on securing it.”

Link was puzzled. “Majora is effectively a weapon of mass destruction. She’ will be okay leaving it in the possession of a child?”

“She leaves the Elements of Harmony in my possession. She will probably feel that this is the safest place for the mask until a more permanent arrangement can be made.”

“Then, she’s a fool.”

Twilight smiled. “Is she? Look at how Equestria is run, Hinka. I trust her judgement. Perhaps you should try it also.”

Twilight looked back at Majora. “Are you listening to me?” she asked it. “Surely you must be growing restless. Do not worry. We will find a more effective containment procedure for you in time. Then you will never harm anyone again.”

Link could swear he heard the goddess laughing.

End of Chapter

Author's Note

1- Though she was not practicing, Dash held a PhD in Pediatric Psychology. She claimed that it was in case her plans with the Wonderbolts fell through, or for when she got too old to fly. Dash was not yet aware of Link’s unofficial diagnosis.

2- Daring Do and the Holiday No Amount of Paint Would Cover

3- Many of Twilight’s letters since his arrival in Equestria centered around him and how he was doing, she grew to love him so much.

4- Actual retail price in the US: $5,675,000.99.

5- Link fought his enemies physically, emotionally, mentally, and psychologically. He was willing to do anything to get into your head if it meant an edge in battle.

6- Just Doesn't Look Right

7- A gambling game in which the entire deck is used. Players bet on the rank of a card drawn from the dealing box. The Kokiri sometimes gambled with their rupees but were known to gamble with their working hours too. Link was so good at the game, he got banned from most sessions that wagered more than a few rupees in Kokiri Village.

Fun chapter was fun.

Does anyone know what button I have to press to stop having a cold?

Next chapter has a special guest, and then Link gets therapy because I have an idea that I would like to see in print, Alex.