This chapter turned out longer than I expected!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 2: The Hour of Twilight

"HIYAH!" Link yelled as he did a jump attack with the Wooden Sword right into a poor scarecrow.

"WHOA!" Beth, Talo and Malo exclaimed in amazement.

"So, how did I do?" Link asked the children as he sheeted the sword onto his back.

"It was awesome!" Talo replied. "Thanks, Link! So, uh, I… I think I get it… Kinda… Hmm… Maybe not… So this means that anytime one of those naughty monkeys shows up…"

And right on cue, a monkey shows up behind Link, catching Talo's attention:

"WAH!" he exclaimed and then the monkey runs away. "C'MERE, YOU!"

He, Malo and Beth ran after the monkey into the woods. Link decided to go after them too since the woods were too dangerous. He ended up passing by Beth and Malo, who couldn't keep up with Talo as Link followed the path ahead to Faron Woods.

But the path ahead to Coro's cabin was blocked by a gate.

"I knew I should've brought Epona. But how did Talo even managed to get past this gate?" Link spoke.

He then found a piece of grass nearby and used it to call Epona before getting on her and making her jump over the gate. There, he passed by the Faron Spring and dismounted from Epona, and met Coro who was sitting in front of his cabin.

"Whoa! An Ordonian! Hey, guy!" he saluted. "Listen, I'm not sure you should be wandering around the woods without a lantern. Just because it's daylight doesn't mean it's safe. There are a ton of caves and dank spots around here that get pretty dark even in the middle of the day. Here! Go on, guy. Take this!" he hands Link a Lantern.

"Nice." Link smiled. "Thanks, uh…"

"Oh, my apologies, guy! Name's Coro." Coro replied. "Now listen, you weren't my first customer to stop by, actually. I previously met a group of seven odd people that asked me about this place. They didn't look like Ordonians, so I assumed they're from another region. I tried to offer them lanterns, but they refused and insisted they were fine."

"Is that so? Do you know where they headed off to?"

"I saw them heading right into that cave close by from here." Coro pointed. "They sure have guts to venture inside without a lantern, that's for sure!"

"I have a feeling they might need help." Link mused and walked off to the cave's entrance. "Thanks again, Coro."

"No problem, guy! If you ever need Lantern Oil to refill your lantern, just come to me!"

Link nodded in response and arrived at the cave's entrance, first slashing through a Deku Baba blocking the way, and also finding Talo's play wooden sword on the ground next to the darkness of the cave, called the Dark Tunnel, so Link knew he went in there too.

As Link walked around the Dark tunnel, he was left baffled since the torches inside were all strangely lit already, giving some light into the cave.

"Weird… Why are the torches lit?" Link wondered, as he knew that it couldn't have been Talo's doing since he possibly wasn't carrying any fire with him, or the seven unknown people too since they refused the offering of lanterns from Coro.

Well, it turns out that when the Mario cast and the other Link ventured into the Dark Tunnel, Mario had lit the torches with his fire powers, but obviously Link didn't know about that yet.

Shrugging it off, Link ventured deeper into the Dark Tunnel, fighting off some Keese, Deku Babas and Rats along the way and burning cobwebs with his lantern. Soon, he exited the Dark Tunnel, arriving in a large forest environment filled with more Deku Babas and Keese, as well as Bokoblins. Link fought them off before moving on, entering another tunnel where he defeated a Keese and a Bokoblin that was guarding a small chest. Link opened it, pulling out a Small Key and he used it to open the gate that leads into North Faron Woods.

As Link was approaching the pathway leading to the entrance of the Forest Temple, he suddenly heard a cry for help coming from up ahead:

"AAAAHH! HELP! SOMEBODY, HELP!" it belonged to Talo.

On instinct, Link rushed up to the pathway, discovering a pair of Bokoblins holding Talo and the monkey he was chasing after hostage in a wooden cage. However, he also saw seven unfamiliar people next to the cage wrapped up in ropes; those being six humans, with one of them being a child with pointed ears, and a green dinosaur. Yep, those were the other Link and the Mario cast.

He was wondering who could those seven people be and if they were the ones Coro mentioned to him, but knowing that he was not going to get answers right now, Link proceeded to defeat the two Bokoblins and then freed Talo and the monkey and sliced off the ropes wrapping up the seven people.

As Link escorted the group back to South Faron Woods, the safer portion of the woods, it was already sunset. Talo looked sad and crestfallen, feeling ashamed for running off into the woods even knowing if it was dangerous.

"If you hadn't come, Link… Gee, me, that monkey and those new guys would've gotten eaten, probably!" Talo spoke up. However, little did he and Link know that, as soon as the former said the name 'Link', the group of seven had their eyes widened in surprise, especially the younger Link due to the fact that the teenager shared the exact same name as him. "She's actually a pretty nice gal, that monkey… She tried to protect me, so we got captured together. And then shortly after, those new guys came… and also fell victim to these monsters."

"Well, I'm glad I came just in time." Link chuckled.

Talo smiled a bit, but soon frowned again. "Um, Link… You're not gonna mention this to my dad, are you? He's always telling me to never, EVER go into the forest, 'cause he says it's dangerous… So you really can't tell him! Really! You have to promise!"

"I'll make sure to keep this between us." Link promised and then Talo ran back to the village. Once he was gone, Link turned back to the group and asked them, "Okay, first of all, you all have met Coro, right?"

"Yeah, we did." Yoshi nodded. "Why?"

"This dinosaur can talk? They certainly aren't from here, for sure…" Link thought before replying, "He mentioned you guys to me. How were you even able to light the torches in that cave without a lantern?"

"That was my doing." Mario said while conjuring a fireball from his hand. "I have powers of fire, you see."

"Huh…" Link awed. "Interesting. Now, how about you tell me who you are?"

"Oh, sure." Mario replied. "I'm Mario, and those are Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Daisy and Rosalina." he motioned to each of them, well, except for the younger Link for obvious reasons.

"Uh, what about the little kid?" Link asked, pointing at the younger Link, who had a somewhat nervous look.

"Well, about that…" Luigi trailed. "…He has the exact same name as you."

"Ah, got it." Link said… and then did a double take. "Wait, what?!"

"Yep… My name is Link too…" the younger Link said nervously. "And why is that, I have no idea…"

"That's… weird." Link blinked, summing up this situation in just one word; weird. "Well, if your name is the same as mine, then one of us must at least have some sort of nickname in order to distinguish us. Otherwise it's going to get confusing."

"You have a point." the younger Link agreed. "But, which one of us is going to get a nickname?" he faced the Mario cast, waiting for their opinion.

After some thought, the Mario cast came to a conclusion as Peach informed the two Links for them, "I think that we should call you Link since you're the one native to this world we're in." she told the teenager.

"Alright, then." Link nodded, and then Peach turned to the younger Link in order to think of a nickname for him.

"As for what your nickname shall be…" she pondered for a bit before commenting, "You know…every time I look at you, you remind me of a cartoon character, so how about we call you Cartoon Link? Or maybe Toon Link for short?" she suggested.

"Huh, that last one had a nice ring to it for some reason…" Link and the Mario cast thought, while the younger Link was still thinking about this nickname given to him.

"Hmm… This nickname isn't too bad. I like it." he shrugged. "…Why am I having a feeling that this nickname for me is going to get used a lot?" he thought.

"Link!" a voice called as everyone turned to see Rusl coming to them. "My son told me Talo disappeared into the woods and had not returned. I came as soon as I heard… But it looks like you have brought him home already… I apologize. Such a task should not fall to you."

"It's all right." Link replied. "What matters is that Talo is safe."

"True…" Rusl then eyed at the group behind Link. "And who might these people be?"

"Oh, I've met them in the woods and I rescued them alongside Talo." Link explained and then told Rusl their names.

"Pleasure to meet you. The name's Rusl." Rusl smiled, which then shifted to seriousness as he addressed Link, "Now changing the subject a little… Tell me, have you noticed how strange this wood seems lately? I feel… uneasy about what may lie in wait…"

"You…think so?"

"But anyway, Link… Tomorrow is finally the day. You will be departing for Hyrule. I think it is a good thing I have given this task to you… Good luck! And return safely! If you are lucky, you may even get to meet Princess Zelda! Ah ha ha!"

"Ha ha, good one, Rusl." Link chuckled. "But I also have a request… where are these guys going to stay for the night?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. My house has guest rooms for you all, so you can sleep there. Then, we could give you a small tour around the village." Rusl suggested.

"Thank you, Rusl." Rosalina thanked.

"You're welcome, new friends."

They all went back to Ordon Village to sleep for tomorrow. But little they knew about the strange events happening in Faron Woods…

The next day…

While the group of seven was hanging around in the village, Link was at Ordon Ranch, sitting on a hill and looking up at the sky, possibly think about his departure. Standing next to him was Epona, eating some grass.

"The first time ever I'm leaving Ordon… I wonder how big Hyrule is?" he thought.

*NEEEEIIIGH!*

Suddenly, a loud horse neigh snapped Link out of his thoughts as he turned to see two horses running wild around the field and scaring the crap out of the goats. One of those horses was light-brown with a brown mane, tail and hooves, and the other one was white with a blue mane and tail. Both of them were also slightly younger than Epona, but still had the height of an average female adult horse.

"Debbie! Ocean! Stop!" Fado called as he was chasing after the two horses.

"Oh boy…" Link trailed as he got up and mounted on Epona. "Come on, Epona!"

He hits the reins to make Epona gallop towards Debbie and Ocean, forcing them to skid to a stop in order to not crash into Epona. Afterwards, Link got out from Epona, took out a rope and tied Debbie's neck with it as Fado did the same with Ocean.

"Let me guess, you left the barn open again, did you not?" Link addressed Fado as they were guiding the horses towards the barn.

"Yeah…" Fado admitted nervously. "Sorry about that. These girls are still a long way to learn how to herd goats, but I just know they'll be able to once they've matured enough."

"Indeed."

"So, almost time for you to get goin', huh, Link? So how's about we finish up early today, bud?" but before Link could respond…

"Hey, Link!" a voice called out from behind the two as they turned around to see the group of seven running up to them.

"Oh! Good morning, you all." Link smiled.

"Good morning to you too." Mario said. "We greeted everyone in the village while miss Uli showed us around."

"That village sure looks peaceful!" Daisy grinned, and then she eyed at Debbie and Ocean. "Oooh! What pretty horses you got there!"

"You're welcome. Fado found them in the wild and decided to take them here." Link explained. "Their names are Debbie and Ocean."

"Oh, so these are how horses look like?" Toon Link thought, eyeing at the horses in awe. Considering that he came from a land that's all covered by ocean, he obviously has never seen a horse before, but he had read about them.

It was then that Debbie took a liking to Daisy as she walked over to the princess and nudged her. "Heh heh! Hi there! I'm Daisy!" Daisy chuckled as she pets her.

"Seems like Debbie has took a liking to you." Link said.

"Daisy is a huge fan of horses, so it makes sense." Peach stated.

"Oh, I see."

Then, it was Ocean's turn to take a liking to someone, and that one was Rosalina. She was surprised at first, but she giggled and petted Ocean back.

"Rosie! You got yourself a horse, too!" Peach squealed. "Ah, it reminded me of how I met Pearl in our first adventure in Hyrule…" she thought.

"…Well, then! I have never seen Debbie and Ocean open up to two people like that! Especially unknown ones!" Fado exclaimed. "Sadly, they're still not mature enough to be ridden on, I'm afraid."

"Oh… That's too bad, but it's okay." Daisy frowned slightly as Rosalina had the same reaction.

"Now, how about you start wrangling those goats, Link?" Fado asked.

"Leave it to me, Fado." Link nodded.

Soon…

After completing his job of goat wrangling, Link rode back to Ordon Village along with the group, where they found Ilia standing there. Seeing the group, Ilia excitedly calls out to her dad, the mayor Bo, as he walks out of his home and smiled at them. Link and Ilia began to talk about Link's journey to Hyrule and also about his new friends as Bo watched.

"Oh, done herdin' for the day, Link?" Bo spoke up. "Well, nice work."

"No problem, Bo." Link replied as he dismounts from Epona as Ilia goes to her and pets her.

"The royal gift Rusl told you about is ready, so you should get ready for your trip to Hyrule Castle. Now, the royal family requested this gift specifically, so it's real special. It'd be…bad…if the representative of Ordon were to be late for such an occasion, you get me, lad?"

"Hey, Mayor Bo, could my new friends go along as well? I think they would like to see more of this land!" Link asked, directing to the group.

Bo took a closer look at them, and replied with a smile, "Why, of course! It wouldn't be so bad if they could see more of this land!"

"Thanks, mayor!" Toon Link thanked.

"Please, just call me Bo." Bo chuckled.

"The path before you is a long one, my sweet horse…but please bear Link and those visitors safely along it." Ilia instructed as she was still petting Epona. But then, she noticed something on Epona's leg. "Wait… What's this?"

Link, Bo and the group looked back at Ilia, who witnessed an injury in Epona's leg.

"What's happened? She's injured, isn't she?" Ilia questioned.

"Uh oh… There she goes…" Link thought as he makes a guilty-looking face.

"Link! How could you! You were pushing Epona too hard again! I bet you hurt her leg jumping fences, didn't you!" Ilia yelled angrily at Link as he flinched in surprise.

"Now, now, Ilia. There's no need to get so hot with him…" Bo tried to calm his daughter down, but she scolded at him:

"FATHER! How can you be so easy on him? You're the MAYOR! You should start acting like one!"

Both Link and Bo crestfalled in shame… and then they looked at each other with one eye. Meanwhile, the group of seven watched stunned at Ilia's attitude.

"You poor thing…" Ilia laments on Epona as she takes her away, much to Link and Bo's shock. "It'll be all right, Epona. I'll take you to the forest spring right now. Once we soothe you in the spirit's spring, you'll feel better in no time!"

"W-Wait! Ilia!" Bo called out for her, but she ignored him. "Why, without Epona… The gift won't get delivered in time! Oh, this won't do…" he sighed.

"…I'll go talk to her." Link settled. "Guys, follow me." he told the group.

"Okay…" Luigi replied while he and the others nodded before following Link.

They first met up with the children standing at Link's house. Colin noticed Link and the others and spoke shyly as usual:

"…Link, and you new guys, are you going to see Ilia? Maybe it's just me…but those guys don't normally let people through… Um, you think… You think we can go see Ilia together?"

"Sure." Link nodded as did the others.

As they were about to head to the spring, they met with Talo and Malo.

"Hey, we've been waiting for you, y'know, guys. Yesterday was soooo much fun! Yeah, chasing that monkey was great!" Talo exclaimed. "I was just telling Malo here about how we wanted to show it to him, but we let it go instead!"

"Oh, YOU didn't get caught, Talo?" Malo scolded.

"Oh! Colin!" Talo eyed at Colin, although sourly. "Way to spoil everything by telling your dad. Nice job." he said sarcastically.

"Yeah, thanks a lot!" Malo also said sarcastically, glaring at Colin. "We got scolded by our dad something awful. I thought it was never gonna end…"

"I bet you're trying to go see Ilia, aren't you? Well, there's no way I'm gonna let you pass!" Talo scoffed.

It was then that Link had an idea and brought out his Wooden Sword. "You want this?"

"Oh, hey, neat! Link! Lemme borrow that wooden sword! If I'd had that wooden sword yesterday, I could've handled it all alone, definitely! C'mon! Let me borrow that wooden sword right now!"

"Here you go." Link handed his Wooden Sword to Talo.

"Whoa! YESSS!" Talo shouted in excitement. "With this thing… I'll show 'em!"

He and Malo went towards the scarecrow and played together, unintentionally clearing the path for the group.

"Link." Colin spoke up. "Thanks… Those guys are always teasing me… What's so fun about swinging something like that around, anyway? I hate it… It's scary… But when I grow up, I'm gonna be just like you, Link! I don't want to learn about swords or anything, but could you teach me how to ride a horse sometime? Can you?! You have to promise!"

"I will." Link replied and then Colin rushed to the spring where Ilia was. Link and the others followed him into the path.

But once they reached the spring's gates, they were closed shut and they saw Ilia alongside Colin on the other side.

"Link!" Colin exclaimed to them, catching Ilia's attention.

"If you came to take Epona back, you can FORGET it!" Ilia scoffed. "Why don't you think about what you've done for a change! I won't open the gate until you change your attitude!"

"Oh come on! We have somewhere else to be!" Daisy retorted.

"Nope! Not hearing it!"

"Ilia, you don't know what happened yesterday…" Colin said, but she didn't listen, leading him to sigh as he told the group, "Listen, I don't know if she'll listen to me, but let me try to explain about Talo and the monkey, OK?" he then points to a tunnel at the woodland glade. "You all crawl in here through the tunnel in back while I do."

The group nodded and went off, as they found the secret tunnel and crawled through, and they found themselves on the other side where Colin was explaining to Ilia what happened.

"I had no idea… I hadn't heard the details about Talo's capture…" Ilia whispered. "But, Colin…" she then noticed Link and the others and was about to approach Epona, only for the horse to move away from her while snorting. "So you still prefer your master over me, huh, Epona?" she then looks at Link. "Don't worry about your horse, Link. Fortunately, it looks like the injury isn't too serious. You two can go on together. But, Link… Can you at least promise me this? No matter what happens on your journey, don't try to do anything…out of your league. Please. Just come home safely."

Link chuckled. "It's a promise." he then turned to his friends. "So, shall we get going?" they nodded in response.

But suddenly, faint galloping noises came in… and a massive boar crashes through the gate with two strange green creatures riding it as everyone gasped in shock and quickly moved out of the way. One of the creatures strikes Ilia with an arrow, causing her to wince in pain and fall on the ground.

"Ilia! No!" Link cried as he was about to head to her, but another of the creatures knocked him out with a club in the head, and then Toon Link and the Mario cast also got one as they tried to fight back.

Both creatures took away an unconscious Ilia and Colin while Epona ran off scared. Soon, a blue boar comes in, with the leader of those green creatures riding it. He scans around the area for a little bit before taking out a huge horn and blowing on it. With that, something strange materializes in the sky; it looked like some sort of black portal with very odd markings.

With a wicked smirk, the leader commands his troops to leave, and once they were gone, the group woke up at the same time as they sat up while rubbing their heads.

"Owww… That was harsh…" Luigi groaned.

"Huh…?" Link looked around him, and noticed that three certain people were missing. "Hey! Where's Ilia?! Colin?! And Epona?!"

"Whoa, calm down, Link!" Yoshi exclaimed.

"Oh no… Where could they…?" Link thought, and then looked at the broken gate. "There!" he instantly sprung up and dashed out of the spring.

"Link, wait up!" Mario called out as he and the rest ran after Link out of the glade.

However, as soon as they were running on the bridge, the group noticed that the sky was turning into dusk, much to their confusion.

"What the? Dusk at this hour?" Daisy questioned.

"Something isn't right…" Rosalina mused.

When the group caught up to Link, they saw that he had come to a stop.

"Link? What's wrong?" Peach asked.

"Uh, g-guys…" Luigi stuttered as he looked up.

Everyone else followed Luigi's eyes… and what they saw left them in complete shock: at the point where the entrance to Faron Woods used to be was a strange large black wall with unusual orange markings on it.

"Wha… What is this?!" Toon Link asked in shock. "It wasn't here before!"

And before everyone knew it… out of nowhere, a pair of inky black hands came out of the wall and immediately grabbed the group of eight, pulling them into the wall as they screamed.

What was at the other side of the wall? A very strange, veiled place of darkness with a dusky sky and strange spinning small black squares flying upwards. Eventually, the group found themselves in the hands of a strange alien-like being.

"What in the world?!" they all thought as they did their best to struggle and escape the being's grasp.

It was then that the mark of the Triforce of Courage on the backs of both Links' left hands suddenly began to glow brighter and brighter as it blinded the beast, causing it to toss its captives to the ground.

"Everyone okay?" Mario asked.

"Nnngh…" what he got in response was Link groaning as his body and eyes were twitching, and the mark of his hand was constantly fading in and out.

"Link?"

"This feeling… I don't know what… but I feel… I feel…" Link groaned, feeling his bones shift and crack inside of him.

"What is going on…?" Peach breathed as everyone watched Link worriedly.

"Agh… agh…! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" he suddenly let out a scream… and then black-grayish hair burst through every pore of his skin as his scream turned into a snarl. He collapsed… in the form of a wolf.

"WHAT THE?!" Toon Link yelled while the Mario cast gasped. "Nngh… agh…" but then, he and the others started to feel dizzy and weird in the same vein as Link did. Additionally, the mark on Toon Link's hand also began to constantly fade in and out.

"Wh-What the… why do I feel…" Mario groaned, holding on to his arms as did the rest of the Mario cast.

"My arms… feel like… they're on fire…!" Daisy winced.

"I… can't… stand up…!" Yoshi groaned.

"Something… is… changing us…" Rosalina groaned.

"M-My… bones…" Luigi groaned, feeling his bones shifting.

"This… can't be… happening…!" Peach groaned.

Soon, they finally gave out a scream… as Toon Link changed into a wolf that was a younger version of Link's wolf form, but his fur was light-brown, before collapsing. As for the Mario cast… instead of fur, black feathers sprouted all over their bodies as they were getting smaller, their feet changed into talons, and a beak grew out to replace their noses and mouths before they also passed out.

That's right; the Mario cast had changed into six identical-looking ravens. The only way to tell them apart was that there were highlights of each of their main color on their feathery bodies, with Mario's highlights being red, Luigi's being green, Peach's being pink, Yoshi's being lime-green, Daisy's being yellow, and Rosalina's being cyan.

As the marks on both Links' hands lost their glow, the alien-like beast proceeded to drag them away, unaware of a mysterious shadowy imp watching from afar.

"Hmm… How very interesting…" she mused. "You changed into animals as soon as you entered the Twilight Realm." a smirk showed up on her face. "You may be just the right ones to serve me…"

To be continued…

Just like I did in my Ocarina of Time story, I decided to add two horses in order to make the transportation more diverse for the number of people in the group. Don't worry, they'll come back and will be ridden on after the group reach the Eldin Province!

And the new animal transformation for the Mario cast is... a raven! Surprise! I bet some of you weren't expecting that, were you? I wanted to make them into a flying animal so that in the section where you have to fly a Twilit Kargarok at Lanayru Province wouldn't force the creature to carry so many animals at once, and so the Mario cast can just fly alongside it. Plus, birds have very good eyesight, so that form for them will be perfect for ambushes!

Next up comes the group meeting Midna and Princess Zelda! See you then!