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Of Fickle Fates and Eternal Vows

by Orcus

Chapter 7: An Unexpected Guest

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"Fluttershy, are you positive that this will go well?" Mipha's question came with an air of uncertainty. Where they had arrived to, after around an hour of travel, was the front of the city of Canterlot. It was some time ago when they exited the forest and followed a pathway leading partly up the side of a tall mountain that overlooked the woods, and just standing before the front walls and main, lowered gate of this pony city was a bit of an intimidating sight. The thought of entering it, much more so.

"I am," Fluttershy confirmed with a smile and a nod, shifting her basket to a better position along her foreleg. "Just stay close to me when we walk into the city. I'm one of the Elements of Harmony. They'll listen to what I have to say."

With that, the pegasus cheerfully left the bushes. As Fluttershy began trotting ahead, Mipha, with some reluctance in her stride, began to leave her cover and follow with her hands grasping fiercely onto the hilt of her sword, which was held passively by her side. They made their way through the main gate, watched closely by the several gold-armored guards stationed atop it, who instantly took notice of not only the Element of Kindness, but also the strange being accompanying her.

As the pair walked through the lower district of the city, Mipha had a good look at the architecture of the place, which bore at least a passing resemblance to the building structure of some of Hyrule's civilizations. Her eyes constantly shifting around to new sights, they witnessed the many ponies to inhabit this place - some bearing wings, some possessing horns, and some having neither - and it filled her mind with questions as to how creatures such as they were somehow able to build it all. As if in turn, they glanced her way from wherever they stood, trotted or hid with fearful and curious stares. Still feeling quite anxious over simply being here, and seeing these creatures' reactions to her presence, the idea of running away and fleeing back to the familiar-by-comparison safety of the forest tickled Mipha's brain relentlessly, though she resisted the temptation as she walked on with Fluttershy.

Sometime after passing into the higher district they arrived at the main castle, and witnessing the building up close made Mipha feel both small and awestruck at its magnitude. Setting aside the basket she carried to the ground, Fluttershy began to make her way to the entrance and Mipha followed her to it in turn. It was as they were reaching it that the two guards standing in front of the tall doors, both unicorns bearing dark fur and glimmering armor, stepped between them and it. The sound of multiple hooves coming from behind then caught Fluttershy and Mipha's ears next, and they both turned their heads to see that several more had appeared. The one in the frontmost rank was a white-furred unicorn mare, and judging from her slightly more ornate gear, appeared to be the commanding officer of the group.

"Halt," she spoke, her volume deep, serious and to the point. "Drop your weapon to the floor and present your empty hoo- hands to us, creature."

Mipha's visage tensed at this, until Fluttershy, putting a steady hoof to her friend's arm, spoke up in her defense. "It's okay, guards. She's with me," she said. "We're just going to see the princesses and my friends to help straighten out a few matters."

"Irrelevant," another guard, one of the pair guarding the door, spoke up. His blue eyes focused on the alien creature standing beside Fluttershy with a glare of distrust shining in them. "Nobody, pony or otherwise, goes to see either of the princesses with a weapon on their person. Especially in these odd and troubling times."

Fluttershy pondered these words for a moment before turning to the Zora. "That... does sound reasonable. Mipha, are you okay with leaving the sword in the possession of these guards? For a short time, anyway. They'll bring it back if the princesses call for them."

Mipha gripped the sword tightly as she looked to it, sighing with the knowledge that it was far too late to turn back now. "Yes, I suppose," she answered quietly, slacking her hold on it. In a smooth motion she raised it, pommel-first, to the guards, upon which one of the armored ponies took it from her slowly and carefully into his hooves. After that was done, several of them stepped back, leaving just a few to remain with Fluttershy and Mipha.

"Follow us," one of the royal guards spoke without emotion, as though attempting to show off some formidable form of authority. "And don't make any funny moves. Because we'll see it."

Turning, they opened the great doors leading to the inside of the castle with a firm push. Mipha and Fluttershy walked inside behind them and entered an expansive hallway. As they were led through the corridor, the Zora's focus was ensnared by the multitudes of stained glass windows that lined the walls from their beginnings to their to ends. Each was like a painstakingly-crafted masterwork of art in their design, and it was clear that every single one of them had a story to tell just by discerning the characters and symbols upon them. From some of them, Mipha actually recognized the highlighted shape of Fluttershy amongst a group of others around her size.

The guards opened up another that laid at the end of the lengthy hall, and Mipha and Fluttershy were introduced to what appeared to be the throne room. Mipha spotted several ponies and one smaller, reptilian creature within, also matching some of the figures she witnessed in the windows. And as all their heads, horned or not, turned from the current conversation they were having to their direction upon hearing the doors open, their faces all curled into varying degrees of startled shock. The only one in the room who didn't seem to have too much of a surprised or concerned face was the dark-furred one who Mipha recognized as the pony she saw in her dreams, Luna, who sat upon one of two thrones present and only bore a wide-eyed look of mild surprise.

When Twilight Sparkle looked their way and caught sight of Fluttershy she was ready to begin asking away as to where her friend had so abruptly disappeared off to this morning without so much as a hint of warning or notice. However, the Princess of Friendship was quick to join the rest of her dumbstruck allies in their gawking when she realized what company her timid friend possessed. With haste, she trotted in their direction until she stood a mere few feet in front of them. "Fluttershy, is this-?" she then questioned incredulously.

Fluttershy nodded, and motioned a hoof to the Zora next to her. "Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Princess Mipha." Her sentence came out calm and collected, and with it, Twilight turned her head back to Mipha.

"So, you're the 'creature' we've been told about?" she asked, deeply wishing to know before anything else.

Mipha was silent while she thought of the right words to use. "Apparently so," she responded with a minuscule shrug.

Rarity, who also began to follow in Twilight's example by walking closer to the Zora, seemed to have her attention more focused on Mipha's choice of attire instead of what she was. "Th-this may be a bit off-topic, and though it also seems to be of poor condition at the moment, your taste in fashion is quite... fetching, Princess," she nervously complimented, hoping that the kind words wouldn't somehow be seen as an offense.

"If it makes things easier for you, then you may refer to me as just Mipha," she suggested in turn.

"Mipha decided to join me here to escape a danger in the forest, and to let all of us know that she has nothing to do with what's going on," Fluttershy continued on. "When the guards bring in the weapon she gave to them, you'll see what we mean."

"'Weapon'?" Princess Celestia's eyes widened at the mention of this single word, and her voice attracted the undivided attention of all in the room as she slowly descended her regal self down from her own throne in a graceful motion. "What weapon?"

Their heads turning to one another, Fluttershy and Mipha's eyes met for a second before looking back to the Princess of the Sun. "The weapon Mipha told me she got from one of several beings who attacked her earlier this morning," the pegasus started again, before her Zora friend could trouble herself with answering the alicorn. "She told me that that they might be the ones behind what's going on with all the ponies who are vanishing."

"My assumption is a little bit complex, really..." Mipha stepped forward when Fluttershy finished, prepared to let them in on her experience. "But I am more than happy to share it, if it means professing my innocence and shedding some light upon this apparent conundrum you are all dealing with."

"Then by all means!" mirthfully spoke Luna, who walked beside her sister and gave off a warm smile as she fluffed her great wings out and folded them behind her back again. "We have enough time on our hooves to hear it. And any friend of Fluttershy is a friend of ours."


Link blinked once as he set his eyes upon the mammoth, artificial entity that was Divine Beast Vah Ruta. The elephantine behemoth's titanic form laid inanimately within one of the most shallow portions of the Lanayru Great Spring, alongside the bank which he walked with his allies. Its legs were partially concealed underneath its wide main body, reclining under the surf and away from sight. The blue light that once glimmered along its various protruding parts and within its many crevices was faded, leaving nothing in its place. Had anyone else born witness to it, they may have incorrectly suspected the great colossus to have been nothing more than an impressive, lifeless statue.

In the calm water around it, Zora of all shapes, colors and sizes swam, inspecting the Divine Beast as best as they could manage, or else keeping their distance and observing its full shape from afar. Link gazed upon it for a few seconds longer before he turned his view to Prince Sidon, who walked on the land alongside Zelda and himself.

Prince Sidon was a most imposing character, dwarfed by his father by comparison, but still much taller than your typical Hylian or Sheikah. With a robust upper body, thick skin of a majestic crimson tint, and sharp, sharklike teeth that rested within his mouth, he was an intimidating individual to be beheld by those who didn't know him. For those who did, such as Link, he was a charming and kind individual with an infallibly determined mindset as rigid and unyielding as stone. His people adored him immensely, as could be discovered by simply talking to any of his subjects, and it was in no small part due to his noble personality.

"Once more, I cannot express my gratitude enough for both of you arriving here to aid us with this distressing matter," he thanked again, turning his finned head their way as they got to the end of the bank. All that separated them from the downed Vah Ruta now was the water. "To cease functioning as it did so soon after the defeat of the Calamity... it fails to make sense to any of us."

"Whatever the situation is, I am confident that we'll find the solution," Zelda replied to him with a reassuring grin. Sidon reflected the expression when he stepped into the water and partially submerged himself in it, upon which Zelda, after Link motioned for her to go first, slowly went in as well and climbed onto his back.

When she was comfortably leaning upon him, Sidon brought her across the water and to the nearest platform protruding from the side of the inert Divine Beast in but several powerful strokes, zipping from the shore to Ruta in a scant few seconds. When she was safely across, he returned and speedily brought Link to it as well in the same way. When both were aboard the platform, Sidon leapt out of the water with the grandest of finesse and joined them. After making sure they were set, they all walked inside of the Divine Beast together.

The darkened, mostly sunless innards of the great mechanical creature was a scene that could be compared to few others. To walk about its spacious inside was like investigating a ruined, cave-like building filled with only the most advanced and confounding of Sheikah technology. Link still remembered well when he entered Vah Ruta last time, when it was full of life. He spent some time figuring out how to move about within it, slowly eradicating the corruption infesting its bowels until he destroyed the main source if its ailment and released the Divine Beast of Ganon's control.

It was a short time's travel that transpired before the three made it into the main chamber of Vah Ruta. A mostly empty area with shin-high water flooded over the ground, the greatest thing of interest to be seen was the large construct at the other end with a controlling pedestal at its fore. Zelda hummed in vexation, seeing that it, too, was without power. "Well, here is the main console. And it appears to be as inactive as everything else. How utterly curious, wouldn't you both agree?"

As he nodded his head in agreement, Sidon ran his hand over the smooth surface of the inactive machine-titan's stony carapace making up the nearby wall. "My sister's legacy is interwoven in many ways with this Divine Beast. Getting Ruta working again is perhaps my greatest desire in this peaceful time." A heavy sigh escaped him next as he looked back to his comrades. "As you both may have realized, this... means a lot to me."

"It means a lot to us as well," Zelda spoke again in a reassuring manner, placing her hand upon the prince's arm in a comforting gesture. "Without the aid of your sister's spirit piloting Vah Ruta, we may never have succeeded in banishing Ganon away from this world. And with all she had accomplished even before that, before the Calamity, she was a paragon to your people."

"As I, my father, and our kingdom know very well," Sidon agreed with a nod of his head. "You know, when we were informed by Link that you still lived upon his arrival to the Zora Domain a short time before we regained control of Vah Ruta, we thought briefly that she might have survived as well."

Sidon's head sunk an inch, and his eyelids lowered with it, though his overall expression was still calm and even-leveled. "It's a true pity that it turned out to not be the case, but it warms my heart to know the wretched creature that caused her death met its demise at Link's blade."

"And it was because of Mipha that I was able to do so, at this very spot," Link chose to speak, gaining his Zora friend's attention next. "Were it not for her words of warning, I may not have fared as well against Waterblight Ganon. And were it not for the blessing of her grace that she gave to me after I freed her spirit from the Waterblight's hold, I may not have been able to find as much fortune in my final encounter with the Calamity itself."

The small beginnings of a grin started to form on Sidon's mouth as he heard Link, and soon it evolved into a full on, toothy smile. "Yes, I think so as well. For all that was her shy nature, my older sister had a heart and will that exceeded many of our own," he simply could not help but chuckle as his head lifted once more and hands briefly clenched into fists. "A Zora you might not be, Link. But I see much of who Mipha was within you. It's no small wonder why both of you were so close to one another."

The Hylian looked away for a second and smiled at the image his memory provided of the time he shared with the Zora princess. As the tender and happy moment came to a close, Zelda looked directly at the pedestal once more. Wading through the water, she paced over to the ancient command console and looked at it up close. Like the rest of the great machine-creature, it was devoid of the light that signified its life. Pulling out her Sheikah Slate, she placed it upon its flat, eldritch surface and scanned it over, nothing happening all the while.

"How very odd... What on earth is troubling you, Vah Ruta...?" she pondered to herself after a few seconds had transpired. Her Slate soon finished its work, or at the very least as best as it could manage, and she lifted the device to her eyes to look over what meager few results it was able to gather. After properly analyzing it for a good few minutes, the princess turned her head toward the watching Link and Sidon.

"I... think I see what may be the issue," she said to the pair, moving their way. "If I'm not mistaken, Ruta is simply missing something. Something I have not yet discerned, but I can tell is extremely vital to its function."

She lifted her Slate again upon reaching them and started looking over it again, hoping to pinpoint what it was that was lacking. "Now, to find out what it is and how to remedy it..."

"Wondrous!" smirked Sidon upon hearing this, striking a flexing pose with one arm and giving his friends a sharp-toothed grin that glimmered with the sunlight shining in from openings in the upper part of the chamber. "Our first step! Our first stone to be added to the grand pathway of things!"

"Indeed it is," Zelda smiled back, unable to help herself after bearing witness to his trademark enthusiasm. "And yet, I fear that this process may be a tad more complicated than it seems. But no matter, I'll uncover what afflicting Ruta soon enough, I just know it."

"Ah, conviction. A healthy emotion to have for such a task as this!" once more exclaimed Sidon, striking another pose of a similar nature as the first one and gaining yet another amused set of grins from his compatriots.

Next Chapter: An Umbral Trespass Estimated time remaining: 31 Minutes
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