“The King’s…daughter?”

“Yes, of course!” the soldier shouted back. “They reported that a woman with a dragon specimen would be coming to educate the Princess!”

King. Princess. Twilight Sparkle mused over this, realizing that perhaps her situation wasn’t as hopeless as initially suspected. If these people, long-eared or otherwise, had a system of government similar to hers, then maybe she could get an audience with the ruling class sooner than she thought.

Still, she knew nothing about this supposed teaching position.

“Just go with it,” Spike urged her. “At least until we get inside maybe.”

True, Twilight thought. It wasn’t the truth, but, at the moment, potential survival hinged on making the right decisions. “Y-Yes, that’s right,” she answered. “I’m here on behalf of the King! To serve as a teacher to the Princess…” she paused, wondering if she should inquire about the royalty’s name.

“Zelda.”

Twilight and Spike glanced at each other. “Zelda?” they both asked in unison.

“The King hadn’t told you of her name yet?” the other soldier questioned, then thought on it for a moment. “Then again, given it is our King, he probably would prefer to tell you so himself.”

“Tell me what?” Twilight inquired.

“Never mind that,” the first soldier to speak answered. “It’s only natural he wouldn’t relay all the details as to why your task is so significant. Nevertheless, given that you are now here, we shall open the way for you.”

The drawbridge began to slowly lower, the chains echoing throughout the night as the mechanism controlling the bridge was manipulated, eventually coming to a halt when it met the space in between the ground and hollowed-out earth composed of the moat. Silence once again took over the entire area.

“Go forth,” one of the men shouted. “Your way is set out for you.”

Twilight nodded. “Thank you.”

She took a step forward, soon traveling across the bridge and through the gate, leading to a darkened town that reminded the transformed alicorn of Ponyville. A fountain situated in the center of the small town held a symbol in the middle that immediately drew Twilight’s attention, the woman approaching the triangular emblem that was seemingly resting on a bird with stylized features, Philomena or an adult Peewee coming to mind.

“What is it?” Spike questioned, still riding the woman’s shoulder, noting her supposed fascination with the decoration in the fountain.

“This…” Twilight began, somehow feeling compelled to reach out. “I’ve…seen it.”

“Seen what?”

“This,” the woman responded, continuing to reach out, fingertips about to graze the surface of the iron shaped into a perfectly angular and symmetrical triangle. “I…I think I’ve heard its name too.”

Spike took a look at his caretaker, the eyes of Twilight glazed over as if she saw visions that the little dragon couldn’t visualize himself, her expression torn between fascination and a slight hint of trepidation. Still, she nonetheless appeared magnetically drawn to the triangular shape.

“The Power of Gold…” she said mindlessly, memories she was never even aware of before flashing before her eyes the longer she studied the triangles. Three perfect triangles. “Three Crests for Three Sisters…”

“Twilight?” Spike asked, beginning to grow a little uncomfortable with his companion’s current state.

“Power…wisdom…courage…” just barely there.

“Twilight?!”

“...Triforce…”

“Hey!”

The sudden emergence of an unfamiliar voice broke the woman from her stupor, eyes returning to normal and the water of the fountain was still and reflecting the moon. Twilight and Spike turned to see an elderly woman (perhaps around Granny Smith’s age) dressed in ornate robes approaching them, seemingly rather displeased with the two of them.

“Are you the one the King called for to teach the Princess?” The woman questioned, crossing her arms to shield herself from the chill in the night.

“Oh, uh, yes, that’s right,” Twilight answered.

“Well, you certainly could have arrived at an earlier hour,” the woman remarked. “I spent all day waiting for you to arrive!”

“Oh, very sorry about that,” the transformed Alicorn apologized. “The journey here was a little longer than expected.”

“Never mind that,” the woman chided. “You’re here now, so let me escort you to a place for the night.”

“A place?” Twilight asked. “You mean you’re taking me to the King?”

“What? Don’t be so daft, woman!” The old crone scolded. “The Castle is sealed up for the night, no one gets in or out, so you’ll have to stay at the temple.”

“Temple?” Spike inquired, garnering the robed lady’s attention.

“You taught this little monster to speak?”

“Hey, I’m no monster!” The purple dragon protested. “I mean, there was that one time I grew all big and scary, but circumstances were a little complicated at the time…”

The old woman appeared perplexed, yet nonetheless continued. “Either way, access to the Castle is unavailable at the moment, so you’ll have to stay here.”

“And where exactly is here?” Twilight inquired.

“My home, and yours for the night,” the woman answered, gesturing to a towering structure of Gothic architecture a short distance away. “The Temple of Time.”

Pinkie Pie

Well, it might’ve not exactly been the Everfree Forest, but it was almost just as thick! This time, she had little to no sense of direction here.

These particular woods had already made themselves known as rather perplexing, Pinkie finding that she was already more than a little lost, the towering trees surrounding her all seemingly working to add to the overwhelming confusion she felt.

Still, regardless, she told herself not to panic, looking upward to the sky to see at least some of the foliage of the canopy had been parted, allowing her to see the moon from above. While it had been some time since she had first met Twilight, let alone first used the Elements of Harmony, it still felt odd after all these years NOT seeing Princess Luna’s image in the astral body, let alone a trace of it here.

“Guess they don’t have a Nightmare Night here,” she assumed aloud, continuing on her way. She didn’t know where that was, yet she had to keep going. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen anyone here. What do these creatures do for fun?”

Walking along further ahead into the dense forest, the pink-haired child was so preoccupied with searching for any sign of someone else, perhaps one like herself, that she was completely unaware that a pair of eyes was currently keeping track of her progress, all the while debating on what exactly should be done with this new intruder.

Twilight

The towering structure loomed over both Hylians and the dragon, the shadow cast by the building and the light of the moon shrouding the three in darkness. The holy woman went up to the doors and thrust them open, displaying surprising strength for someone her age.

“There’s a small shed in the back. You can lead your pet there for the night.” Twilight’s guide informed her, that it did not take long for either her or Spike to deduce what she meant.

“Oh, uh, Ma’am, I can assure you that my pet,”

“Pet?!”

“Sorry, I mean, Spike here, won’t cause any trouble.”

“Animals aren’t allowed in the temple,” the nun lectured. “I’m not having any accidents happen on my watch.”

“Hey, I don’t do that!” Spike protested, quite offended that this old bag was insinuating that he was on the same level as Applejack’s dog, Winona! “I didn’t even NEED to be trained to go outside,” he muttered.

“Hm? You speak?” The old nun asked, going up to the little dragon on Twilight’s shoulder. “Not bad Hylian either,” she observed.

“What?”

“Tell me,” the woman asked the indigo-haired traveler. At least, that was the story Twilight was going with for the time being. “How long have you had this…” she paused, looking over the adolescent drake. “Specimen with you?”

“Since he was an egg,” Twilight answered. “In fact, I actually hatched him myself.”

“It’s true, Princess Celestia-” Spike began, yet he was quickly shushed by his caretaker, the nun in turn confused as to what exactly he meant.

“Princess who?”

“Oh, uh, the ruler of my country,” the dark-skinned woman answered. “Princess Celestia of Equestria.”

The nun raised a brow. “Princess? If she rules, should she not be Queen Celestia?”

Twilight bit her lip. “Well, she technically co-rules with her sister, Princess Luna-”

“Wait a moment, two rulers governing a country, at the same time?” the old woman questioned, clearly baffled by such a prospect. “Was this the result of an armistice or treaty?”

The pointy-eared woman (formerly Alicorn pony) was confused. “What do you mean, exactly?”

“What else?” the older woman inquired. “Such an arrangement could’ve only come about through some sort of civil war!”

“War?” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, there was nothing like that!” she answered. “I mean, none in the history of OUR kind,” then again, her very journey began due to the conflict between the Two Sisters being renewed the day she went to Ponyville, yet she didn’t know if she could classify that as a war, per se.

Although, the ramifications of that battle were felt by all involved for the next thousand years.

“Then it’s an odd system,” the old woman noted, then shrugged after some thought. “Then again, I suppose ours is just as strange to some outsiders.”

Twilight and Spike gazed at each other. “And what would that system be?”

The nun stepped through the door, motioning for the other woman to enter, seemingly forgetting or not bothering to make Spike stay outside. “You’ll find out when you meet the King tomorrow. Although, if you’re fortunate,” she chuckled dryly. “You might meet our own Princess yourself.”

Rainbow Dash

If only she had her wings.

No, scratch that. If only she were a pony in general, then maybe she’d have some semblance of control over something. She had gone without wings before (albeit briefly), she could do it again, it was just working with these two legs instead of four! And what were these stranger things at the ends of her forelimbs? Were these what Twilight had called “hands?” If so, the transformed pegasus found the strange appendages to be completely repulsive!

Still, regardless, it would’ve perhaps been easier if she had been an equine, or some four-legged creature at the least. She could work with that, yet this body was just too foreign and strange to her, everything felt wrong and unfamiliar, barely able to maneuver it. Just how did her friend survive, let alone succeed in retrieving the crown back when she entered through that portal?!

“Ooof!”

Tripping over her feet yet again, Rainbow Dash propped herself up with her arms, fingers digging into the cracked dirt in order to gain some sort of solid support. Celestia, she must’ve looked as pathetic as she felt, flopping around like some fish or parading around like she was some animal disguised in a pony suit.

“I…I can do this,” the formerly cyan pegasus said, trying to rise once again. “It Twilight can do it…then…I can…to!”

Hoisting herself up on some sizable rocks, the rainbow-haired humanoid got to a standing position, although that was as far as she could get, her legs still feeling quite unsteady underneath her. Still, she was up now, it was just a few steps forward.

Of course, that led to the next issue of where to go from there.

Learning to walk was one thing, yet what good was that if she had no idea where to walk to? So far, there was nothing but dried terrain and any flora was minimal at best, plants mostly dried to their roots or cacti that would only serve to give her some acupuncture therapy than anything else. And, even more, no source of water in sight.

“Huh?”

At least, not at first.

Twilight Sparkle

“This architecture,” Twilight observed, slowly following the nun through the expansive main hall of the Temple of Time as it was called, the archways and pillars serving to hold up the building, the windows allowing pale moonlight to seep in from the outside, providing a small amount of natural light. “It looks reminiscent of Thirteenth Century Equestria.”

Still, if that was the case, thought Twilight, just what sort of time period was this place in?

“What was that?” the nun asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Twilight answered. “Just…observing your land’s unique style of building things.”

The old woman hummed. “This place is more than just a demonstration of ‘unique style’,” she told the younger of the two. “Where you stand is perhaps the most important location in all of Hyrule, as well as it's most sacred,” she informed. “I don’t suppose your Princess spoke to you regarding any of this?”

“Oh, well,” Twilight bit her lip, trying to conjure up an excuse. “Princess Celestia…didn’t get much time to tell me much. There was…another crisis involving missing students-”

“Students?” the nun asked, raising a brow.

“Uh, y-yes, students! Princess Celestia, she runs a school, you see,” the tan-skinned woman answered. “And…and I happen to be one of her most trusted subjects, so she saw fit to send me to teach the Princess here,” so far, the nun seemed to be buying it. “And, there was an incident regarding some of those students going missing, so she’s currently putting out a search.”

The old woman raised a brow, clearly somewhat skeptical, yet nonetheless brushed it off, continuing on her way to show Twilight her temporary quarters. “Well, if you are one of her best, then tutoring the King’s daughter should be no problem for you,” reaching a wooden door at the back of the ornate and polished temple, the nun opened the slab of wood to reveal a single bed situated in the corner with a worn out desk and chair to the left. “Until tomorrow morning,” the nun alerted the younger woman. “After that, you go to the Castle. This isn’t an inn, after all.”

“Oh, no, of course not,” Twilight answered, stepping into the small room, a single window allowing moonlight to seep in and cast the tiny space in a slight hue of pale. “Well, thank you for the accommodations, I guess-”

SLAM!

The old nun shut the door, cutting off the conversation, as well as cementing that she had no interest in the other woman aside from leading her here. “...this is goodnight.”

Spike huffed, migrating off his caretaker’s shoulder and onto the ground. “Oh, forget her,” he told Twilight, climbing up onto the semi-soft mattress filled with straw, adjusting himself until he got in a comfortable position. “At least we got a place to sleep.”

“True,” Twilight agreed, noticing that it barely took any time at all for the baby drake to immediately slip down into unconsciousness, lightly snoring away as if he were dead to the world. Going over to the bed, Twilight sat down and placed her hand on his scaled back, violet eyes turning upward as she spotted the moon outside, shining its lesser light down on the world, wherever this world was. Still, one factor still continued to perplex her.

What occurred between when they began the search for the missing students and now?

Pinkie Pie

“Ok, retrace your steps, Pinkie,” the bipedal humanoid creature said aloud, mind racing to try and remember just what happened before the sudden loss of memory. All the while, continuing to walk through the forest, which seemed to be growing more and more dense. “Sandbar went into Sugarcube, then we followed him to the Everfree Forest,” she reminisced, memories of the journey through the familiar yet still perilous woodland slowly coming back to her. “We got to the Castle of the Two Sisters, saw that they were in trouble, and then…” she closed her eyes, trying, fighting, desperately clawing for anything that would give her a clue, anything that would provide her with just a sliver of what she was missing from her mind. “And then…”

She bit her lip, trying to focus.

They were attacked.

Attacked by…by…

…

“Puckwudgies!” Fluttershy cried out, spotting the spiky creatures firing multiple quills at the six youths. “Hurry! Take cover!” she shouted, hoping that they would hear her, despite her tendency to keep quiet. Silence would do her no good now.

Not needing to be told twice, the six students from the closed School of Friendship rushed back into the Castle of Two Sisters, the Puckwudgies noticing that the intruders were attempting to escape. They were all about to fire at the fleeing six until a forcefield of glowing magenta manifested in between them and the smaller, more aggressive beings, saving them from receiving a rump full of quills.

“Shut the door!” the lilac Alicorn yelled, and the massive barrier between the inside and out shut, blocking any entry. “All right, girls,” Twilight began, the creatures’ attention now centered on the Princess of Friendship and her companions. “Let’s deal with these guys first!”

…

“And then, after we sent them off, we went into the Castle,” Pinkie Pie remembered, her two feet continuing to take her forward, yet that was the only thing she was certain of. “But…when we opened the door…”

After that, nothing.

The pink-haired girl sighed in frustration, unsure of anything after that. It should’ve ended there, she thought. They had saved the six young ones from danger, and thus, in doing so, proved Twilight’s theory of friendship being possible between all creatures, no matter the species. With that, they could be returned to their families, and the School of Friendship would be reopened! That was how things usually went! Everything was then wrapped up nice and tight without any loose ends! Maybe with a song or two thrown in!

…so why did she feel that there was so much more that she was missing?

Rainbow Dash

“By Celestia’s Mane and Luna’s Tail…” the transformed pegasus said in awe, mouth agape as her deep magenta eyes took in what was before her.

A vast valley of rock and canyon halved vertically before her, separated by a raging, roaring waterfall and rushing river down below. Yet serving as a a link between both ends was an incomplete bridge with little more than the foundation set. Everything else was completely missing. Still, there was nothing on this side, so Rainbow found that there was little good waiting on this side of the divide. Besides, someone had to have made this, she thought, so perhaps they were further ahead, past the unfinished bridge.

Of course, it was then that she became painfully aware that she was lacking in wings, and thus, a means to simply do a small flutter over the gap. Meaning, she would have to cross on foot, unsteady as she was. A fact she both despised yet ultimately had to swallow as the only means to get what she wanted.

“Hey, I’ve got this,” Dash told herself. “Wings or no, I’ve gotten pretty far with just two legs! Surely I can get across this!”

Approaching the beams of wood, the tan-skinned woman steadily stood on one of them, the passage narrow, but it provided a way across. The trick was just navigating there.

Slowly, she migrated forward, holding onto the side as she inched along, trying her best to not look down-

SNAP!!!

The wood beneath her broke through, gravity taking Rainbow Dash before she had time to process just what was happening. A terrified scream echoed throughout the valley until it was silenced by the waves below, swallowing her body and taking it to the depths.

Twilight Sparkle

“Guys?” Twilight’s voice echoed throughout the main hall, with no sign of the students anywhere.

“Hey, you can come out now! The Puck…whatevers are gone now!” Rainbow Dash assured, yet still, they received no response. The Castle was completely quiet, as if the youths had never been there to begin with.

“This is getting a little spooky,” Spike declared, inching closer to Twilight, who was now proceeding with caution. “Where could they have gone?”

“Anywhere, as far as I know,” Twilight answered. “Which is why we need to start searching, now.”

…

Within the confines of her mind, Twilight reminisced on what occurred during those moments, her memory opened up and more free to suggestion and possibility due to the state of unconsciousness. The woman was nestled up with the baby dragon, all the while unaware that she was being observed.

And said observer was about to make themselves known.

Author's Note

I'll have images next time. I'm torn between how to do things regarding them, as I'm kinda torn between both screencap fakes and comics.