A Hero Never Rests

It was finally done.

After weeks of will crushing traveling, bone breaking fighting and mind blowing puzzle solving, we finally did it. The journey had come to a dramatic and unusual end, but at long last I could rest without fear. The Demon King that tormented this land long ago and his loyal weapon that wished to take the spirit of my friend were now sealed inside the sacred weapon of the goddesses.

For once, things were starting to look good for me. Zelda, or Hylia as I should call her now had woken up in Groose's arms the moment my sword went through the king's chest. When she entered the door with Groose on her side she started to cry of what I could only guess was happiness, after all not every day you get your spirit sucked out by a demon sword to resurrect the incarnation of evil.

"Link... thank you. I think it's over... Finally... it's all over." said Zelda with tears falling from her eyes. She looked even more beautiful than before if that were even possible, I didn't hold back and ran towards her. When I reached her I embraced her in a hug, wanting nothing more than to comfort her, to make her feel like she was safe at last.

"Nice going you two, You guys were amazing in this little adventure I like to call the Legend of Groose." said Groose as he walked towards Impa, if we were in Skyloft I might've gotten just the tiniest bit annoyed; scratch that, I probably would've gone beserk on him, but after everything he's done, the courage he showed when standing up to Ghirahim, the wisdom he showed when he built the Groosenator and the power he used to save Zelda's body from being reduced to nothingness.

He has earned my respect, and he's a hero in my eyes.

"That's a little joke." said Groose in a low voice. I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit, he really does have a great sense of humor. Between some of Zelda's sobs I managed to hear a chuckle, he really knows how to lighten up any situation.

"Joke or not, your contributions to our efforts were heroic. You have my thanks." said Impa with the closest thing I've seen to a smile filling her face.

"Awww... well, you know. Just glad I could make myself useful. I'm happy things turned out great." said Groose as he rubbed the back of his head from embarrasment; and I thought only Zelda could get him that embarrassed. Once again, he did do a great job at helping me save the world so he deserved nothing less for his actions.

"Hey, so things look  pretty sewn up here. What do you say guys? Ready to head back to our own time?" said Groose as he turned around towards us with a wide grin in his face. "Grannie was really worried about you two. We don't want to keep the old girl in suspense too long."

I looked at him and nodded entusiastically, finally I would be able to return back to my home, to Skyloft. I would be able to sleep peacefully without having to be worrying about a demon sword slaying me in my sleep; I would be able to talk again with Pipit and Karene, but most importantly, I would return with Zelda. I started to walk towards the gate of time when my sword reacted strangely; Fi emerged from it quicker than she had done anytime before and faced both Zelda and me.

"Hylia, your Grace... Or prehaps you prefer "Zelda." It pleases me to know you're safe." said Fi in her same monotonous voice I had learned to love. I was slightly supicious of the gesture, it's unnatural for Fi to go out of the sword to tell her a simple "Oh I'm glad you're fine." Too bad my suspicions were proven correct when she faced me and said.

"Master... I must speak with you."

I nodded grimly and saw Fi gliding slowly to the pedastal in the other side of the temple, Zelda gave me a confused look while I followed Fi slowly; many ideas of what was about to happen filled my mind but none of them got even close to the truth. Once we arrived at the top of the pedastal, away from the view of my friends, she remained quiet for a while. I was about to nudge her to see what was wrong, but then she began to speak.

"Master Link, you have successfully protected the goddess reborn and defeated Demise, fulfilling your role as the hero of the legend." said Fi in a voice slightly slower than normal. Now I was getting worried; I might've felt glad that I was a hero among other things, but her voice unnerved me and gave me chills.

"My purpose here is complete." continued Fi, the words she would say next would shatter my heart.

"Therefore, I ask you to dissolve our arrangement as master and servant." said Fi as she gestured at the pedastal. "Drive the sword into the pedastal and I will return to the sword to enter a sleep without end."

"N-n-n-n-no." I said much to my amazement, since I was a little kid I had been unable to talk and relied on written language and signs to make people understand me. Fi flinched slightly at the sound of my voice but regained her composure seconds later to continue speaking.

"Master... it is time to conclude our necessary companionship." said Fi with her voice being interrupted constantly.

"N-n-no... please." I said to Fi with a begging expression, after all of our adventures together we had to go our separate ways. I should've seen it coming from a long distance, or perhaps I did see it, but I decided to live in denial rather than accept the truth. She didn't hear me and entered the sword without hesitation, leaving me in a daze due to the fact that I managed to talk and that she would have to leave forever.

"L-link... I know it's too much to ask from you, but you need to do it." said Zelda relucantly. I turned around and nodded at her, even though I hated to do it, someone had to. That's what makes heroes different from others, they carry the burden nobody else would even dream of carrying.

I lifted the sword above my head with terrible hesitation, all the while I thought of just letting the sword drop and walk away. I never begged for this responsability, why do I need to get rid of my friends? Also why does she get the worst part? Fi has done nothing more than follow the will of the goddesses, can't they let her have her own happiness for once.

"Master... I'm... happy...doing this... thank you... for the memories." said a voice in my head; or at least I thought I heard it. Before I could change my mind, I thrusted the sword into the pedastal. A bluish light began emmanating from it, while this was happening I felt the strangest sensation inside of me.

"I'm sorry Master... please forgive me..." said the voice which I now recognized as Fi's, while I was confused by her words I felt something pulling me towards the sword. I tried letting go but it wouldn't budge at all, while the hold was getting harder I began feeling fear for the second time in my adventure, the first one being when Zelda lost her spirit.

"Help!" I yelled. I saw Groose looking at me behind the door of time with a confused expression, probably due to my newfound voice. When he saw the light show underway he started running towards me, Zelda did likewise and started pulling me away from the sword.

"Link! Let go of the sword!" said Zelda with concern as she tried pulling me away, when Groose arrived I thought for a moment he would be able to help me, but I didn't feel the grip getting any weaker.

"Link! You're... fading!" yelled Groose as he pulled me even harder, for a moment I thought that my arm was about to be ripped out of its socket but seconds later I couldn't feel Groose pulling me. I looked at my arm to see that it transformed into blue energy and started flowing into the gate of time.

"Impa, what's going on? Why is this happening to Link?" asked Zelda with tears in her eyes, unable to stand it any longer I began using my newfound speech to try and calm them down.

"Z-zelda, d-d-don't cr-cry..." I said with great effort, Zelda looked at me with amazement while I managed to smile slightly.

"The hero is no longer needed, therefore he too will have to go." said Impa with the slightest hint of regret, those words hurt like no other. Did that mean that I was just a tool of the goddesses? To be discarded when the danger had passed and everything was back to normal?

"You didn't tell us anything like that! Hang on Link, I'm sure we'll get you out of here!" said Groose as he tried pulling one of my fading legs. After they faded up to my knees, he fell over to the ground in defeat, to see my friends broken in this way brought me close to tears.

"Groose, y-y-ou're a g-g-good f-f-friend. T-t-t-take care o-of her." I said with difficulty, he looked at me and nodded with determination, I looked towards Zelda, searching for the right words to tell her. The reason of my constant fighting was standing in front of me and I would be unable to be with her.

"Z-z-z-zelda." I began saying, only my head remained now and I needed to tell her... something. She looked at me with hopeful eyes, but before I could talk I felt myself flying away from the sword. I felt their gazes on me as I flew into the door of time.

The journey was the same as if I had entered the door under my will, for a moment I had the hope I was just being sent back to the future. I would arrive and everyone would be there, telling me that I was such a dumb skyloftian for falling for that one; but I was proven wrong when I saw the path coming to an end ahead. Once I went through it was as if I were floating in the middle of nothingness, I tried moving but found out I couldn't do so; I was trapped in a limbo or so I thought for a couple of seconds.

Suddenly, I was falling. I recognized the feeling from the countless of times I jumped off my Loftwing. Speaking of which, I wonder who'll feed her now that I'm gone... I hope someone looks out for her. After falling for a while I began to get bored, how can you get bored of falling you may ask yourself. It isn't that hard, when time seems to have stopped for you and the scenery never changes you will start to get bored.

I don't remember how long I fell, I had no way to tell the time in here, which made it even more surprising when I made contact with the ground. It wasn't a strong fall, but the shock from it did give me a huge fright.

And a bruise on the head.

I was very disoriented to say the least, but the first thing I noticed was the change of ilumination compared to the void, the light seemed natural unlike the one in the void. The building seemed familiar but at the same time it felt as if I had never been here before. I tried to stand up and investigate, but the moment my hands left the ground I felt myself lose my balance and fall on my back, hard.

"That didn't go as swiftly as I though it would." I whispered to myself as I tried standing up again, only to fall back one more time. Each time I fell, I tried standing back up with even more determination than before. Sadly, determination can only do so much and each time I thought I had finally figured it out, I lost my balance and fell again.

"Stay! Up!" I yelled as I tried to stay straight. I ended up on my back and unable to walk, it was in that moment that I noticed my lack of hands. In their place were some furred stumps without any fingers, to be honest I yelled at that moment.

"What in Hylia's name am I?" I yelled as I managed to stand on all fours, afterwards I tried to walk to the window in order to see myself. It was in that moment when I noticed my surroundings were very familiar; take away the crumbling pillars, the lack of nature and it was a perfect replica of the temple back at home.

"The Temple of Time." I whispered as I walked very slowly, it was hard walking any faster because I would lose my balance and fall over, I actually fell many times on my face, sides and even my behind.  I liked the Temple of Time, it had a nice ring to it that The Sealed Grounds lacked, after what seemed like several minutes I managed to reach a window of the temple and I finally saw what I was.

A four legged beast with a horn sticking out of his head, not too bad looking but strange. I still had my clothes and my hair so that kind of made me feel a bit better. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't gone on my quest to defeat Demise, I would've fainted right there; now that I've done things I only thought possible in my dreams, being a beast didn't seem so bad. Out of the corner of my eye I saw several yellow eyes staring at me from the forest outside, one thing I learned was that yellow eyes were always a bad sign, especially when they shine in the dark.

I turned around to explore the temple to see what had changed, for starters the Gate of Time was gone, killing away all of my chances of escape right away. The tree was no longer in its place, instead there was a stump of where the tree of life used to be.

The thing that surprised me the most however, was that the Master Sword was still in the pedastal, not a single edge seemed chipped away from here. Deciding that I would need it to protect me from all the strange things out there, I walked towards it and tried grabbing it with my stumps. It immediately slipped from my grasp and made me lose my balance for a while, luckily the sword didn't move and I managed to hug it with both of my stumps to stop me from falling.

"Phew! That was close." I whispered quickly to myself, I kept pulling the sword with my stumps with no success. I think it was mainly due to the fact that I didn't have any fingers since the sword escaped constantly from my grip.

"Some hero I am, not even able to reclaim his weapon." I said as I sat down while panting heavily, while I rested for a moment I started to think. About Skyloft, Fi, Zelda, Groose and the others, yet even when I was thinking of them a question appeared every time, making me stop thinking about those I left worried to death.

"How did I get here? Or even better, why?" I thought to myself as I began feeling slightly drowsy.

I'm sure by now that Fi had something to do with it, but it seemed as if she was forced to do so. It's hard trying to think this way, now that I think about it, she was really useful in these kind of situations. Always having at least a clue as to what to do, remembering things I would've otherwise forgotten in seconds and warning me of dangers that I sometimes ignored due to their insignificance.

"I think I'll sleep for a while, I don't think there's much I can do now, tomorrow I'll find a way to get back home." I said to myself as I began to lie down on the floor. It didn't take so long for me to start feeling sleepy, the battle against Demise finally catching up to me. Before I entered the realm of sleep, I saw a couple of saddlebags thrown on the floors with some familiar items on them like my whip and my shield; at least I still had them.

"It could be worse." I said to myself. "Though talking to myself might be a bit of a problem, not that I mind but back in Skyloft people like that were often seen as strange."

"I hope this is some sort of dream..." I said before falling asleep on the cold stone floor.

"Are you sure this is such a good idea Twilight? They're just little fillies and colts after all." said Cheerilee as she was walking behind the group leaded by the princess' student.

"I'm sure of it Cheerilee, it will be an enriching experience for your students." said Twilight Sparkle as she gave her a small smile. "And some mares." she added while looking at an aquamarine unicorn who was jumping from joy.

"I can't believe I'm going to the Everfree forest! Weee!" said Lyra Heartstrings as she jumped around the group of ponies, earning several strange looks from the bystanding ponies. However, many of them knew about her obsession with imaginary creatures and simply gave her an encouraging smile.

"I still think this isn't such a good idea, what if something happens to one of my students? We should head back to the classroom to plant a tree, that should teach them enough about the flora." said Cheerilee nervously. It wasn't so much because of the students, it was actually due to her own personal experience with the forest. Everything had been going great at the classroom, it had been a teacher's evaluation day and her evaluator was none other than Twilight Sparkle.

They had been viewing a lesson about the different types of plants when Scootaloo metioned seeing a strange plant at the Everfree Forest, at the mention of that she just couldn't resist and she said that many strange plants grew in the Everfree Forest. The classroom began yelling at her, literally begging to be taken to the scariest place in all of Equestria apart from Tartarus.

Under any normal circumstance she would've declined, but Twilight Sparkle told her that she would make the necessary arrangements to go. She tried making some excuses but for every argument she had, Twilight had three. In the end she had to go for "The Pursuit of Knowledge."

"Does the world hate me? Why can't knowledge be someplace less scary; like the library or Sweet Apple Acres." thought Cheerilee to herself grimly, the outline of the forest starting to become visible in the distance.

"I insist Cheerilee, I can guarantee you that we will have the best protection you can ask for in all of Ponyville." said Twilight Sparkle in a reassuring tone. Cheerilee gave her a fake smile while she shivered slightly; on the other side of the crowd, some ponies were listening to a story Lyra was telling them.

"The legends say, that in the middle of the forest. There are some ruins, where strange creatures used to live many millennia ago. They were called.... humans." said Lyra to the group who gasped in amazement at her tale, she smiled at their reaction and continued speaking.

"They stood on two legs like this." said Lyra as she stood on her hind legs. "And used the other two to create things that could make you smile, things that could make you laugh." she said while walking around them on two legs, she suddenly turned around and glared at one unlucky filly in the eyes. "Things that could make you cry."

"Pft, as if! Humans aren't real, they're just a story made up by ponies to scare little foals." said Diamond Tiara from the middle of the crowd. Lyra rolled her eyes, that was the most common answer she received whenever she told anypony about the new species.

"Yet all stories have some truth in them, right?" said Lyra to the filly as she stood again on all fours and started hopping around the crowd.

"Lyra, we're just going to the edge of the Everfree forest to see some of the flora." said Twilight. Her words seemed to fall on deaf ears since Lyra kept hopping around them like Pinkie Pie normally does.

"I will find some humans, I will find some humans." sang Lyra with happiness as the group was approaching the Everfree forest, on the outskirts of the forest were none other than Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

"Hey sis!" yelled Applebloom from the crowd.

"Hey sugarcube!" replied Applejack as she waved at her sister, Rainbow Dash cleared her throat at the crowd, hoping to gain their attention. The little ponies ignored her and started muttering some rumors about the forest between them.

"Are we really going into the Everfree forest?"

"My dad says that a three headed dragon lives in there, and feasts on little colts and fillies."

"I heard that Nightmare Moon's ghost lives in the forest!"

"I remember somepony telling me that there's supposed to be a treasure in the deepest part of the Everfree forest."

"My mom once told me about an army of ponies dissapearing in there many years ago."

"Ahem!" said Rainbow Dash in a louder voice, that did the trick as the crowd lined up, big mares included. After seeing that everything was in order she began walking from one edge of the crowd to the other.

"Now, you're about to go into the Everfree forest as a part of a field trip. You have probably heard many terrible things about the forest, well fear no more because we're here to tell you that they're all true." said Rainbow Dash, earning several gasps from the crowd and a facehoof from Twilight. Rainbow Dash laughed loudly at their reactions while Applejack glared at her for sacring the group like that.

"Stop it Rainbow, can't you see you're scaring the poor things?" asked Applejack as she took a step towards the shivering crowd of students. "Now listen here, on the edge of the forest there's nearly nothing to fear, but if anything should happen Rainbow and I here will take care of it."

"And that's why Lyra is here too, you have nothing to worry about. With 2 unicorns, a pegasus and 2 earth ponies nothing can go wrong." said Twilight as she set the example and entered the forest first, Lyra followed her closely and little by little, the crowd entered the Everfree Forest.

End note: Veredict?