1. Setting the Stage
What a night! It was loaded with pillaging, conquering, and most of all, good old fashion fun. Tetra, the pirate captain, pillaged and conquered the hardest of all, and she paid for it. As tired as one would be after a hangover, Tetra lay in slumber outside Hyrule Castle. The campfire she set up in the pitch black of the night sits still at her feet, the breeze taking an ash or two from the extinguished twigs.
The oldest trick in the book; a mischievous fairy tickles Tetra's nose ever so gently. Subconsciously, Tetra swings her arm up from the elbow, and now she's got a bigger problem. A glob of unidentified cream substance clogs her nostrils. Upon tasting it with the tip of her tongue, it is certainly not edible.
With a can of shaving cream in one hand and a nice dagger in the other, Skull Kid actually considers shaving. Not right here, of course. That would be obscene. Not in front of Tatl and Tael; they'd never be able to un-see what has been seen.
Groggily, Tetra uses her abs to sit up, and then uses her non-dominant hand to smear the majority of the shaving cream off her face. With a smirk, she deliberately yawns. An eye-watering stench seems to surround Skull Kid. He would make a big scene and start pretending to choke, but he doesn't want Tetra to get that satisfaction. He simply does what he thinks Ghirahim would do- make two waves of his hand over his nose to clear the air he is about to breathe of any impurities- and giggles.
Tetra wants that hat, so she takes that hat. With a new straw hat, Tetra stands up. She crudely brushes off the seat of her pants. A hatless Skull Kid realizes that wielding a dagger without a sheath is dangerous. The more dangerous, the better, so he gives Tetra her sheath back.
"Hey!" Tetra squeals, noticing a familiar shine from Skull Kid's knife. Her knife! That little thief! And there he goes, hatless with a dagger; a particularly hazardous combination. To top things off, Tatl and Tael take Skull Kid's hat back and return it to its rightful owner. So that's two things Tetra wants back.
Meanwhile, Zelda prepares to take attendance. There seems to be a new Link every day, so a record is required to keep track of the Links and what era they belong to. She reaches the bottom of the staircase, her eyes fixed on the clipboard in her hands. If she wasn't tripped, she wouldn't have noticed Skull Kid hiding behind her.
She looks up. A cat-like Tetra pounces through the open window in pursuit. As Skull Kid makes a run for it up the stairs, Zelda stealthily plucks Tetra's dagger from his belt. And a good thing, too, as Skull Kid slips on a wet rag one of the castle servants accidentally left behind on the staircase and tumbles backwards, straight into Tetra's clutches.
"Ack! Let me go! I won't do it again!" Skull Kid cries, struggling in Tetra's clutches. With her knife safely in Zelda's possession, Tetra doesn't see any reason to keep the kid in a chokehold. She releases him. He responds not with a 'thank you', but instead with "No promises."
Unexpectedly, Zelda pulls out a whistle. Three Links of different eras show themselves, lining up in an orderly fashion smack in the middle of the foyer. Tetra is ultimately intrigued by their behavior, especially since she knows Toon Link doesn't respond to anything but his name. He ignores all other calls.
Zelda continues her routine with a dignified manner, checking off each 'Link' as she goes. "Linkle, Toon Link, Young Link..." There is someone in line that doesn't qualify as a Link. "You're not Link!" Skull Kid scampers out of line, giggling all the way. Zelda would describe his hijinks as a hybrid between Midna's harmless pranks and Wizzro's lust to feed off of everyone else's misery; truly terrible trouble indeed.
But there is still a Link missing. Zelda calls a second time, "Link!" She receives two replies, one from Toon Link and one from Young Link, but they are both in front of her and already accounted for. An awkward silence follows. Tetra has enough time to check the sharpness of her knife whilst they wait.
Skull Kid's acute ears pick up stirring somewhere upstairs. He is able to turn his head about 100 degrees around, which is more than the average human, less than the average owl. Tetra takes notice of his neck cracking. Zelda calls again. Tetra can start to hear a rhythmic tap similar to that of knocking the two halves of an empty coconut together.
There is a whinny and a scream followed by the sound of bodies tumbling down due to gravity. Zelda, immediately alert to this, whips around to face the staircase. Her hands cover her mouth as a reaction to the horror. The three closest to the staircase dodge the surprisingly unharmed Epona. Link follows shortly behind his horse, still gripping the reigns. Linkle is as horrified as Zelda. After the initially shock, Skull Kid finds the situation outrageously funny. His stomach starts to hurt, and he can't breathe. To keep from collapsing, he uses Tetra's shoulder as a crutch. Tetra is thinking to herself 'oh no', but also finds the situation a tad humorous. Seriously, how often do you get to witness that?
It ends up being Epona that helps the discombobulated Link onto his feet. Zelda exclaims, "Oh great Hylia, are you alright?!" Link smiles, at least until Zelda starts checking Epona for injuries. Sure, no one cares that Link's right foot is backwards! Oh wait… that's just his boot. His boot is on backwards. False alarm.
To sum up everything that just happened, Hyrule Castle is pretty much normal. There was a peaceful period between Ganondorf's defeat and Phantom Ganon's attack, where in between those two periods of serious war, there were mini wars. Linkle finally made it to Hyrule Castle, where she was introduced to Zelda and Link. Wait, so Link is the hero? She doesn't believe he's the hero, so the two are locked in an argument where agreeing to disagree is not an option. Also between the great wars, Cia showed up on and off. Then one day she just stayed off. Not even her minions could find her, not that Wizzro was looking for her. Volga could see Lana's distress, and decided it was his duty to help find Cia.
Now that Phantom Ganon has been trapped in his own era, Cia is free, and though the Guardian of Time cannot be one again, they can still watch over Hyrule from the Valley of Seers together. As for Volga and Wizzro, no longer under the jurisdiction of Cia, they are free to dispute over the Eldin Caves. Not to say they don't lend a hand when their former full-time mistress calls.
Lana grew very fond of everyone within the other eras, and it was heartbreaking to see them all go. If only there was a way to allow them to visit without plunging Hyrule into peril. As the majority of the Guardian of Time, Cia was able to make Lana's wish a reality. By opening special portals to the different eras, all of Lana's friends are able to step into Lana's era, and similarly, Lana into their eras. And Darunia was afraid he'd never have a friendly banter with Midna again.
Oh yeah, at one point attempting to open a portal to Tetra and King Daphnes' era, Cia got a little carried away. A portal into a completely different game universe was opened. Of course, Lana had to check it out. One nice man she met mistook her for a Pokémon Trainer… whatever that is. Luckily for the world as we know it, Cia pulled Lana out of that world and closed that portal before Majora could try the moon plot again there.
It should be noted that nobody knows how Majora's Mask found its way into this era, but nobody figured it was a big problem when Link made easy work of Majora and its puppet. On the subject of mysteries, Cia opened one portal with an era unknown. Lana explored a little, but only met a lovely girl with red hair by the ocean. She said if that if Lana every needed anything to come and get her, and with that Lana left.
Cia isn't too sure about all these new friends. But don't worry; she'll keep an eye on things.