The dark waves of magic holding her in place and tormenting her was bad enough, but being thrown through a portal, simultaneously getting hit with a bolt of her mentor's OWN MAGIC (buck that hurt like hay) then falling out of the sky, landing into a large bramble bush and then rolling down a hill was, in her opinion, about ten times worse! At least, that's what she managed to think after she fetched up against a large tree trunk with a KER-WHUNK and lay there against the base, feeling sick to her stomach and her entire body feeling as if she had been dragged through an icy mountain pass and had Zoran sea salt rubbed in her wounds.

She groaned softly, trying to re-orient herself as she attempted to rise to her hooves...

The world spun madly in her line of sight and she began retching violently, emptying her stomach of what little she had eaten for lunch before the attack had happened. She coughed and moaned as she lay there against the tree, breathing erratically and staring up at the sky...

Wait. Sky. The sky? Was she outside? If so, where was she? Where did those cursed nags send her?

The sour taste of her own bile in her mouth made her cough and grimace as she slowly began to get up...first her left forehoof, then her right, then she slowly rose onto her hind legs. She winced when she felt her shield prodding the back of her neck and reached back to readjust it, checking for her sword as well. She turned to take in her surroundings, wincing when she moved...she was sore all over, never mind the magical beating she had taken.

"Damn those twin bitches," she spat under her breath, kicking one hoof against the ground in frustration and anger. She looked around, wincing when she took a step forward...there were still brambles and thorns lodged in her armor. She tried summoning her magic...her horn flickered, once...twice...

Skyward froze as a terrifying thought entered her mind: fearing the worst, she slowly removed her helm, reaching up to feel gently along the protrusion from her forehead with one hoof; and heaved a sigh of relief....no cracks, definitely not broken. Thank Din for small favors. She sat at the base of the tree, slowly letting her senses orient...and carefully summoning her magic to remove the brambles from her armor proper. The Haylian unicorn glanced around her, taking in her surroundings; a dense forest rose around her, mist creeping along the ground and the trees closely grouped together, the shadows lending a foreboding air to the entire place...

Wait. None of these trees looked familiar at all.

Frowning, Skyward began to move forward, wincing when she put her weight on her right leg, a blossom of burning agony spiking up whenever she stepped down on it. Horseapples, she had likely injured it in the fall she had taken--ow ow ow ow...
Gritting her teeth, she kept going, trying to stave off the fatigue and the urge to just lie down and rest somewhere. She forced herself to keep walking, vision blurring from time to time; she coughed again, turning her head to spit to the side to clear the foul taste from her mouth and smacked her dry lips, shaking her head...

Water. She needed water.

She strained her ears, sniffed the air. There had to be water somewhere. Grimacing, she continued to put one hoof in front of the other, waves of fatigue threatening to drag her under. The rushing in her ears was the last thing she heard as she finally collapsed, the slight upper incline of the ground she was standing on causing her to lose her footing, roll down the slope and right under a huge tree...

A tree that just happened to be festooned with hanging masks.

Hearing the thud against her treehouse abode, Zecora raised her head with a frown from her potion making. As she moved to the door of her house, she grasped a sturdy looking staff: better to be prepared than not considering she lived in the Everfree Forest, which, unlike Ponyville, was not very safe. She opened the door with one hoof and stepped outside, glancing around. She had definitely heard something, but what was it? She walked around the perimeter of her home, and just as she moved to where one of the roots was jutting up from the ground...

She gasped when she saw the still figure of a pony lying near the great roots of her home, and quickly moved to the pony's side. The zebra blinked, seeing the armor that clad the pony...was this a royal guard of some kind? Zecora moved closer to inspect the pony and found that it was a unicorn...and a badly injured one at that. Burn marks were apparent on the unicorn's legs and so were traces of mild frostbite; one of the unicorn's legs was clearly showing signs of an internal injury...

A snapping of a twig behind the zebra reminded Zecora that there were indeed dangers in the Everfree and she grasped hold of the armored unicorn in her hooves. She managed to wrestle the unconscious magical equine over the roots and dragged her into the house, setting her on the floor. Zecora removed the helm first, then began trying to remove the armor the unicorn was wearing. That was no easy task..it was chainmail, not plate, and a few tufts of the unicorn's coat was pulled out in the process. That done, Zecora soon saw that the unicorn was a mare; a royal blue mane with an indigo streak, a coat the color of polished blue steel, and that she had no cutie mark to speak of. The sword and shield on the mare's back was another mystery--the markings on the shield puzzled her no end...three triangles in a pyramid and a red alicorn on a blue field?

However, upon inspecting the unicorn mare more closely, Zecora soon found that the poor thing was suffering from a fractured leg, multiple lacerations and minor cuts, frostburn and what looked like scorch marks...

"Injuries aplenty and battle decor, you were most certainly clad for war," Zecora mused as she looked over her impromptu patient. The zebra began cleaning her patient's injuries, setting and binding the fractured leg and splinting it to make sure it would heal. She began throwing herbs into her cauldron, and reached for a bottle on a wooden shelf. She began spreading salve on the scorch marks, bandaging the strange female as she went. That done, she stirred the pot on the fire. Several hours passed before the unicorn began to stir, and she groaned softly in pain, before slipping back into unconsciousness again.

It hurt. Everything bucking honest to Goddesses hurt like hay for certain. She felt like she'd been dragged through Death Mountain Crater, then through Snowpeak Mountain Summit, then thrown off said mountain into the biggest patch of brambles anywhere in Hayrule.

She drew in a breath that felt like she was inhaling part of a sandstorm--hot, dry and scratchy, and she began to cough...

"Here my unknown friend, take a drink/In dire need of it, one would think."

At the strange voice and rhyme, Skyward blinked in confusion; but when a cup was put to her lips, she unconsciously drank from it. The cool, clean taste of water flooded her mouth and she greedily began to swallow the liquid down, spilling it on herself in the process, and she began to cough.

"Easy now, take it slow/I do not want you to drown, you know."

"Who... (cough) who art thou...?"

Zecora smiled kindly at the younger mare as she brought more water for her to drink. "I am Zecora, I live here as you see/I found you unconscious under my tree. Tell me, what happened to you? You look like somepony nearly ran you through."

Upon hearing that from the strange striped pony, Skyward's ears lowered and she sighed heavily. "....somepony almost did, but t'would hath been with magic, not a weapon...wait! Where is my armor? My shield, my sword...!"

She began to try to struggle out of bed, but Zecora stopped her with a stern look and holding her down with one hoof. "Not so fast, you are still very weak/Healing will take at least one week. Your fractured leg may take longer/If you do not rest and grow stronger."

Skyward sighed, ears folding back; she knew that this mare...no, Zecora; was right. With the injuries she had she knew she was bucking lucky to be alive. "...Very well, Healer. I bow to thy wisdom. But, how may I repay thou for thy kindness?"

Zecora gestured at her shield and sword in the corner with one hoof, giving her a gentle smile. "Knowing your name would be a start/And why do you not have your cutie mark?"

"My name is Skyward of Fiador Village, Healer Zecora...and I hath not yet found what my talent is to be. For years I hath sought it, but it eludes me still. And until I gain my cutie mark, my name remains incomplete."

Zecora cocked her head, and glanced at the shield and sword and the armor in the corner where she had put them. The items were far too heavy, too real, to not be a lie. "Tell me, where are you from? I don't know this Fiador Village...please, reconfirm?"

"I speak the truth, Healer, I swear I do not lie. If thou hath any means of seeing truth, by all means use it, I've nothing to hide," Skyward said quietly, too tired to argue with the zebra mare.

Zecora looked at the injured unicorn mare before going over to her shelves. She grabbed bottles and flasks at seeming random, placing them on a worktable, and then getting a large wooden bowl covered in odd, swirling carvings. She soon began pouring, mixing, chanting from time to time, and coming back with a bowl of some strange looking purplish liquid.

"This potion shall show us both what we seek, but it remains for the most part incomplete. A hair from your mane is all I require/to spark the spell afire."

Skyward reached up with one hoof and fiddled with her mane before wincing visibly with a hissed 'ow' and pulled out a gleaming indigo hair. Zecora took it and dropped into the bowl; at first, nothing happened...then the potion began to give off smoke as the hair ignited in the goopy mush. The smoke began to spread out through the entire house...and images began to form.

Zecora saw images of Fiador Village and the ponies who lived in it. She saw Mossy Boulder, Tempest Wing, Blazing Dawn. She saw how Skyward had been raised, and how she had been trained for battle as a young filly. She also saw how she had ascended to become Princess Zelda's protege, her training under the princess's guiding hoof, the surprise attack in the town square, and her most recent battle with the two ancient unicorn hags...and her being thrown into that portal.

The smoke soon receded and dissipated entirely after that scene, and Skyward looked the zebra mare in the eyes. "Now thy know the truth, Healer. I come from Fiador Village in the southernmost part of Hayrule. When I came to from the battle with those accursed nags, I stumbled 'round for a time before I passed out, and then thou found me."

Zecora looked down at the bowl before she looked back at her patient. "...I fear that portal sent you far away. You are no longer in...Hayrule, I am sorry to say."

Skyward blinked several times at the zebra's words, her heart starting to beat faster in disbelief and panic. Not in Hayrule? But...what...how....

Zecora saw the fear and the disbelief rising in Skyward's eyes and she gestured at the bowl, which was still smoking, but not as much as it once had been. "Those nags worked a magic most vile/But, your princess's magic saved you from a fate most hostile."

"...If...if I am no longer in Hayrule, then...then where am I?"

"A land of peace, no war or strife. This is Equestria, where you can begin a new life."

Skyward shook her head frantically and began struggling to get up. "My life is back home defending my princess and homeland! I cannot just sit on my plot whilst some crazed desert born thief destroys everything! I cannot fail Princess Zelda...I simply cannot..."

"Calm down, Skyward; tell me thy tale. Why is it so important that you cannot fail?"

Skyward began telling her everything she knew: the history of Hayrule, how the land was created by the three Goddesses; Din, Nayru and Farore, and how the Triforce tied into everything, about the Sacred Realm and how it had become a prison for an ancient evil. The legend of Time Link, he who had defeated the Evil King, and how the pieces of the Triforce: Power, Wisdom and Courage could grant the wish of anypony. She related the events of the battle, the concerns her princess had shared with her about emissaries from the Gerudo tribe, the bloody battle in Castle Town up until recent events. Zecora regarded Skyward for a long time. If she hadn't used that truth potion she would have thought this pony was certifiably crazy, but...

She knew Skyward wasn't lying. The look in her eyes told the wise zebra mare exactly what she had suspected; this was a genuine soldier who was dedicated to protecting those she cared about. And she knew that she was going to need help in more ways than one. This unicorn was a warrior, trained to defend her home and hearth, and being wounded and far from home...the zebra knew it was tearing the mare up inside. Defeat was one thing...despair was another. Skyward also did need to heal...she had been injured pretty badly and needed rest and care.

"I have a plan on how to help you, my friend. But understand, your wounds need to mend. For that you must now rest/So once more you can be at your best."

Skyward had to smile a little at the odd rhyming way the zebra mare spoke, she nodded and curled up as best she could--she was in truth exhausted, given her injuries. She closed her eyes and drifted off into sleep, lulled into slumber by the oddly soothing hum of Zecora singing something in her native tongue.