Chapter 1

“Evil goes where innocents stay, Innocents go where saviors follow,” it's a saying Link always went by, ever since he was forced to come to Equestria against his will.

For ten years he had struggled to survive in this world, slaying beasts that were out to hunt him down. Then there were the times he was forced to be a hero when lives were in danger, since he could not ignore the plea for help from others. or else if he didn’t do anything, it would weigh on his mind, knowing that he could have done something since he had the power to do so.

At the end of it all, he would use the Stone Mask to vanish from their sight, becoming nothing more than an old ponies tale for others to talk about. There were also many occasions when the solar diarch tried to seek him out… But she would find herself unable to get past the Everfree Forests’ strong magic, ending up always lost. and being returned back at the edge of the forest to her confusion.

Although, for Link… the moment he realized that he was not affected by the forests’ power like the other sapient beings that surrounded him, lead him to use the Everfree forest as a hidden home.

While it is a dangerous place to live in, it did have its uses.

Link had invested a great deal of attention, in order to avoid most of the pony population… which had worked out for him for years. He thought to himself, that they didn't need to know about his existence - nor do they need to know that he does not belong there…

Thus, he’s been trying to find a way home… and trying to find a way to return to his former form.

Winter arrived to the Everfree, and for some reason, the Pegasi have decided to make it extra cold… or perhaps the cold weather had to do with the woods themselves?

After tightening his red cloak and hood to ward him off the cold, Link proceeded to follow a pair of tracks left by a rabbit that he was hunting for, the tracks leading a little ways from the Everfree Forest, finally managing to track it down.

There in the distance, grazing away at what little grass it had managed to find, was a brown rabbit that would soon become his meal.

Lowering himself close to the ground, he carefully placed the Stone Mask on his face in order to blend in with his surroundings.

Quietly, he took out his Hero’s Bow… and proceeded to quietly notch it with an arrow from his quiver, taking aim, holding the bow parallel to the ground.

He took in a deep breath, and focused on his target.

It’s ear twitched and it rose it’s head, making Link freeze… luckily for him, the wind didn’t blow in the direction of the rabbit - thus keeping his scent concealed for the time being.

He remained motionless. until the rabbit redirected it’s attention back to its dinner. Link exhaled, releasing the arrow - allowing it to fly toward his target.

The rabbit fell to its side with a subtle thump, but Link’s attention was drawn towards a loud gasp in the distance, making him inwardly curse at his lack of awareness. Luckily for Link, he was still hidden thanks to the Stone mask's power.

Slowly, a young yellow Pegasus filly flew over to the dead rabbit, landing near it.

“Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!”, she immediately started to sputter out after looking at the rabbits’ wound, where with a quick pull she removed the bolt - gasping in surprise and shock when blood began pouring out of the wound.

Picking it up, she flew off at high speed, crying out loud “D-daaadddy!!” as she got lost in the distance.

‘. Great, I just scarred a Pegasus for life…’ Link mentally chided himself before saying to himself, “looks like I’m gonna have to take my hunting elsewhere. Why did that filly have to come so close to the forest?”, he finished by complaining to himself.

He turned around and slowly snuck away, careful to avoid any beast or more ponies.

Managing to hunt down a few more rabbits along the way, with the plus of not having any more witnesses to interrupt him… he moved towards the Everfree forests’ heart, eventually making his way to the deepest part of the forest where he had made his home.

As he arrived, Link reached over and pushed a makeshift wall out to enter his small home.

It wasn’t much, really… just a fire pit, a bed and a roof to keep the rain and snow out. Although there have been times he had to reconstruct it as it had collapsed out of its frailty.

Link sighed before placing the dead rabbits he had killed nearby the fire pit, then went to his firewood pile, placing more wood and kindling into his old campfire to feed its embers as he returned.

Creating a small spark of Din’s Fire, he lighted the fire again for the new wood… and once it was crackling merrily, he took out his Kokiri dagger (for a child, it would be a sword) and proceeded to systematically skin and gut the rabbits, only stopping to pass through their necks a small sapling, while with a flexible stick he proceeded to impale them to prevent them from separating - while making a space where the stick at the neck could come out and serve as holder.

This left him with two saplings holding six rabbits, where he placed them on four “Y” shaped branches at the sides of the pit, leaving him enough space to turn the rabbits every now and then.

Taking his time and warming his body with the fire, he cooked the rabbits… watching them carefully to prevent them from becoming burned, turning them every so often to even out the cooking.

As he did this, he leaned back and enjoyed the heat coming from the fire even further, relaxing after spending hours in the freezing cold snow.

After about half-hour Link’s rabbit’s where cooked, where he hung a few on the side for other meals when he came back empty-handed… and taking one to eat he bit straight into it - accidently burning his mouth as he released his bite with a hurried move.

After huffing loudly in an attempt to cool his mouth, Link chuckled at his eagerness, blowing on the hot meat a few times, right before pulling the meat from the bones with each bite, chewing happily before swallowing, taking another bite in hunger.

Finishing with his meal, he laid back sated, bones on a side… placed over a large plate of bark with a red sign scrawl drawn over it.

He relaxed ‘till the sun went down, where he reached into his pouch… and retrieved a very ugly mask made of black wires which he placed on his face - the All-Night mask - which would keep him awake all night, as he had always done after the nightmares started… and the one called Nightmare Moon made her attempt at taking over him to do some wetwork for her… against the one called Celestia.

Adding to that peril - which he didn’t want a repeat of - he needed to be awake and aware because of the Timberwolves.

They always came out and were very active at nighttime.

Link looked up toward the full moon - and the strange pony figure on its surface - as he once again wondered why It had craters in that sort of formation. It was just one of many strange things in this world that he had found himself stranded in.

Filled with melancholy about the strange sky that constantly reminded him of where he was not, Link sighed softly as he thought about his home once again…

Are my friends worried about me? No doubt my family is probably still looking out for me after all this time, especially my mother.

I still remember the day I arrived here… trapped inside a crystal the moment I touched that damn chest lying in front of my doorstep.

Spiraling through the air, yet unable to close my eyes as everything turned into a whirl of motion, colors and barely distinguishable shapes.

Barely looking at the void between worlds as I twisted around, feeling myself both cold and burning, my entire body aching from the pressures imposed upon my body…

Until I finally crash landed into the Everfree forest, and even now I think I’d be dead if the crystal where I was trapped in had not protected me from the forces at play.

After a few moments passed after the crystal faded away, it took me a few seconds to realize that I felt different, only to turn my sights into my body… and realizing at once that I was wearing different clothes - a tunic and pants from the looks of it - unlike the comfortable sports pants and t-shirt I was wearing when curiosity led me to touching that chest.

Patting myself, I realized I had a pouch hanging from my belt… and as I subconsciously placed my hand inside it, wanting a mirror to look at myself…

My hand grasped a smooth surface, and as I pulled it, found myself staring at the reflection from a hand-held mirror… and my reflection revealed something mind-breaking: my brown hair was replaced with a weird type of blonde, while revealing that my ears were more… elfish, pointed and longer than my own. To make matters worse, my face… my own face… wasn’t the same anymore - I had the same facial characteristics as Link… but more grown up, nose more pointed than my round one, a receding chin against my old round chin.

I stared in shock at the mirror, my own face reminding me of the games I loved to play when a teen: Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and A Link to the Past.

As my breakdown continued, I started to freak out, hyperventilating… desperately wanting to run - and find a river to dive in, just to distract myself from what was going on.

This was bizarre beyond reason, and I didn’t know were I was.

That is, until after a lot of experimentation with the pouch contents led me to an unbelievable discovery: this pouch contained the equipment of not three, but four different Links.

This, of course, led me to use one mask that was incredibly useful to have in Majora’s Mask: the Stone mask.

The mask of the boringly visible. No one would bat an eyelid at me while wearing this mask… or so was the theory.

Before journeying into parts unknown, I wore it and tested its power against the locals - if I ever found them - as I made my way into the library.

In there, I marvelled at the fact that they had the same writing system as me, and took my opportunity to read up on the world’s history.

It turned out that this country found myself stranded in… was called Equestria, and it was home to three tribes of ponies. The winged Pegasi, the horned unicorn tribe and the plain earth ponies.

Also, I found out that they are currently ruled by an immortal, benevolent tyrant, named Celestia Australis Caelum Everfree.

The whole situation felt very alien to me, as I tried to make sense out of it and failing, since who can be prepared to face this kind of identity-wrecking circumstances? Not even mention the fact that I was completely and utterly alone… no access to my friends and family for guidance and support, not even comfort from my own kind.

This whole situation belonged in a fantasy novel rather than the reality I was currently facing. At first I wanted to refuse what my five senses were telling me… and found losing my battle with them the moment I applied logic to this whole mess - leaving me with no other choice but to accept what happened.

Link was brought out of his reverie by the sound of snow crunching under the steps of something… and the scratching noise of quill over paper, booming all over the quiet of the forest like a sound that didn’t belong there.

The sound of a sapient being… in the depths of the woods… woods that didn’t like having strangers inside of it taking a walk.

He heard a young voice speaking outside of his home, as if talking to herself: “Where could it be? The book says I’d find one here.”

I blinked the sleepless rest out of my eyes, and slowly edged over to the grass wall… peeking out through a small hole, where I saw a light yellow unicorn with a red and purple color hair that grew down her neck.

“Maybe it’s deeper in the forest… ?” The young filly asked herself, with doubt in her voice as she started moving away from Link’s makeshift abode.

Once he observed that she had made a good distance away from his place, Link slowly crept out from behind his makeshift home… placing the wood planks back to conceal the entrance to his home, before quickly putting on the Stone Mask to blend in with his surroundings.

Link thought to himself ‘A filly her age shouldn’t be here in the forest, all by herself,’ before asking himself, ‘why didn’t the forest send her back the way she came?’

Link followed behind her as quietly and discreetly as possible, while trying to stay within range of his hearing, only to hear her say again, “Fluttershy said that she saw that strange stone in the forest with an eye drilled in it, making it look as if it were a troll’s face.”

The filly then hummed to herself, before asking to no one “. How am I supposed to capture that living stone? One moment it is there, the next is gone and moved elsewhere?”

‘Is she talking about my Stone Mask? Why would she want it? … more to the point, how could they see it?’ Link wondered inwardly as he continued to observe the little yellow unicorn filly with a red mane and tail which had a violet and lavender stripe through them… worrying about the fact that perhaps his mask wasn’t working as well as he thought he did.

*Grrrrwllll*

Link’s attention snapped immediately towards the growling coming towards his location… where three wooden wolves passed by him and surrounded the little filly with eagerness.

Seeing those wolfs confused him.

“What are they doing out so early? They’re not usually active during the day,” Link whispered to himself.

The young unicorn backed away, fear written all over her face - before she tries to ignite her horn while trembling all over… and watched her horn sparkle and fizzle, tears starting to form in her shrinking eyes due to her inevitable fate. She closed her eyes, as if hoping than that would make her end less painful.

Unknown to her, her shadow reached into his pouch… where he pulled out a fairly wide shield, red in color with golden edges, with a silver triforce and a sun at the top, with silver cloud motifs on both sides of the triangle.

Getting ready, Link appealed to his experience dealing with the weird wooden wolves. and the bitemarks and claw scars that he earned while learning to deal with them.

As he saw the wolves slowly edge closer to the scared unicorn, he made his move - sprinting with shield at the ready, knocking the first wolf sideways as it attempted to pounce towards the filly, Link managed to knock its attack of course.

Crashing on its side, the wolf collapsed to the floor from the impact - where Link took his chance to stab at the disoriented wooden beast, making it howl painfully as it let out a whimpering cry from its injury.

He heard the filly behind him let out a surprised gasp.

“T-the stone face!” She said in excitement despite the circumstances, attempting to pick him up with her telekinesis… only to realize he was too heavy for her to carry.

Ignoring her as he kept his sights on the remaining wooden wolves, Link reached into his pouch to take out a Deku Nut.

“Shield your eyes.” Link warned the filly, before closing his eyes the moment he threw the nut down, blinding all the wolves who were still standing in the process.

Opening his eyes, he rushed towards the filly, who gasped as he took her under her arm - where she started screaming in panic.

Cursing inwardly at this whole situation, he reached down to close shut her muzzle, just so that she would not attract even more predators curious about the source of the screaming.

Finally reaching his refuge, Link placed her inside as he quickly closed the wall. “Keep quiet if you want to survive!” Link warned the filly with severity before rushing off to draw any pursuers away from the structure.

Moving away from the structure with swiftness, he heard from afar the howling of the wooden wolves calling to their pack. Reacting quickly, he took out his Hero’s Bow and notched an arrow… and waited for them to come to him.

When they came barreling through the forest, Link took count of them - three in total - before aiming, letting loose the first arrow, and with a fluid motion that came from practice, he quickly notched another to strike the other wolves.

The first arrow struck the first wooden wolf, making it tumble over as it died.

His second shot was a miss, as the wooden wolf jumped sideways to get out of the arrow’s path.

‘Man, it would be nice if I had His z-targeting - or at least a companion to help me aim!’, he thought to himself as he notched yet another arrow.

The beasts came closer and closer with every failed shot, forcing Link to put away his bow and reach into his sheath to pull the Ordon’s Sword from its sheath.

The two remaining wooden monstrosities finally arrived at his range, where they eyed him with rage - since he had both taken down two of their pack, and took away their prey.

Link glared back at them, not even blinking his eyes and didn’t back down from his stance - while his heart beat up faster, as he tried to think of a strategy to deal with the remaining two wolves.

The two magical constructs circled him like they normally did before, right as they lined themselves up for a pincer attack.

The moment they leapt at him, Link rolled forward slashing at one of them - and as they came to a stop… one of the creatures fell over on its side, now sporting a large gash in its body.

The other one took this distraction as an opportunity to attack Link - leaping onto his back, knocking the air off his lunges as he struck the ground… where Link screamed in pain as the wooden wolf sank its wooden fangs into his shoulder.

Quickly rising with the wolf digging on his back, Link made an effort to shake it off of him - before running towards a tree - where he slammed his back, crushing the wooden wolf against it.

With a sickening crunch, it fell onto the ground.

Panting loudly, Link reached to inspect his shoulder to inspect the degree of his injury, letting out a hissing breath as he touched the wound - wincing in pain.

Coming down from his adrenaline rush, Link realized he could feel his warm blood traveling down his torso and arm…

‘Damnit… this wolves have gotten smarter since our last encounter… thank Din it ended as it did.’ Link thought to himself grimly as he made his way back to his shelter.

But not before kneeling down, sheathing his sword in the dead silence… as the corpses of the wooden wolves exploded and shattered, releasing black smoke as they disappeared… reminding him of the enemies from the game, except they did not leave pieces of heart or rupees behind.

Slowly, Link got back up and made his way home in the middle of the silent woods…

Sighing in relief as he recognized his shelter, quickened his steps to reach it faster. The moment he reached up and moved the wall away, he could see that the filly was still there with her eyes tightly shut, the poor thing shaking in fear on the spot.

“They’re gone, it’s safe now.” Link told the trembling filly, who slowly opened her eyes, only to scream when she saw him.

“Get away from me you… you… thing!” Her horn ignited as she yelled.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to order me around, Filly. Didn’t your parents tell you the Everfree Forest is dangerous?” Link asked her with severity, seeing the annoyance in her eyes at his response.

“Well. Yes, they did.” She said with a pout, which caused Link to shake his head at her in disbelief.

“Yet you ventured in here regardless.” He deadpanned, causing the filly to get up with a small leap back on her hoofs.

“Because I needed something magical to report for my school, which is due tomorrow!” She exclaimed while directing a glare at him.

“Even if you had managed to find it, you wouldn’t be alive if I hadn’t followed you, Filly.” Link sternly reprimanded her, not liking this unicorn’s childish attitude.

“Follow me? But I didn’t even see or hear you. come to think of it, how did you disguise yourself as a stone with a face?” She asked with the innocent curiosity of a filly, but was still sporting quite the angry pout on her face.

“First of all, tell me exactly how you know of me?” Link demanded of the filly, keeping his voice level as he crossed his arms in annoyance.

“I read it in a book, where it spoke about a ugly stone with a single eye at the side. anyone who got lost in the forest would be guided out if they got sight on the moving.” She exposed in a cute, nerd-like fashion, making Link nod his head in understanding - while he inwardly laughed at her way of exposition.

‘Honestly, I didn’t guide most of the ponies who came here out, but did spy on them to make sure they’d go back.’ Link thought to himself with a smile in his mind, before the filly took him out of his distracted state.

Tilting her head at me, she asked in confusion, “Are you some sort of spirit?”

“Not exactly, I’m more of a nobody who lives alone in the forest,” he answered right before kneeling down to her level. “Now, I'm going to take you home."

“Not without that mask.” The filly retorted, while looking at his face with wide begging eyes framed with round glasses.

Link shook his head and picked her up.

“Hey! Put me down!” the filly whined as he took her under his arm, making his way quietly in the silent woods - closing shut her muzzle with his free hand.

‘I must check my injuries when I get back.’ Link thought grimly to himself as he trudged in the snow, more than eager to check on his injuries properly, once he was done with this task.

Author's Notes:

Credit to NeoKiva & FTR2017 for helping me rewrite this chapter.