Took a while, but the next chapter is done!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 20: The Palace of Twilight

"Man, good thing we landed on the water and not on the bridge!" Luigi remarked as they were back at Lake Hylia, having landed on the water while barely missing the bridge leading to the cannon.

"So… We're heading back to Gerudo Desert, right?" Yoshi guessed.

"That's right." Link nodded and then Midna warped them directly to the Mirror Chamber.

There, they approached the mirror's altar, and the three shards they collected flew out of their inventory and slotted themselves into place. The now completed Mirror of Twilight shone brightly along with the chains bounding the large stone slab, which crumbled into dust and caused the stone slab to fall and shake the ground a little as the heroes stumbled backwards by that. Eventually, the designs around the mirror itself were projected towards the stone slab, creating a depression in the middle.

"Some call our realm a world of shadows, but that makes it sound unpleasant…" Midna said. "The twilight there holds a serene beauty… You have seen it yourselves as the sun sets on this world. Bathed in that light, all people were pure and gentle… But things changed once that foul power pervaded the world…"

"Foul power… You mean the power that Zant wields?" Rosalina asked.

"Yes…" Midna replied with a scowl.

"It was all our doing…" the Light Sage's voice suddenly came as they turned around to see the sages standing there, all looking rather crestfallen. "We overestimated our abilities as sages and attempted to put an end to Ganondorf's evil magic… I hope you can find it in yourself to forgive our carelessness…" they all bowed down to Midna. "O Twilight Princess."

The heroes gasped silently at this shocking reveal that Midna was the actual Twilight Princess. They all glanced at her, with eyes and mouth open wide.

"What? So…you knew?" Midna asked.

"Midna…?!" Peach gasped. "You're…"

Midna sighed. "Yes, I am the true ruler of the Twilight Realm. As a ruler who fled her people, I'm hardly qualified to forgive you."

It then shows a scene of Midna's apparent true form slowly backing away in fear from Zant, who wouldn't stop approaching her. Then, with just one swift arm movement, Zant curses Midna into changing into that familiar imp form as she collapsed to the ground. She slowly got up, and was shocked at her new form as she looked down at herself.

Midna tottered her way out of the palace before she collapsed on her knees tiredly. From her hand, she brings out a piece of the Fused Shadow that was the helmet she currently wears and sent it off into the air… and then looked up at it with what was probably the scariest-looking wide grin possible.

"In our world, we've long believed that the Heroes would appear as divine beasts and birds." Midna explained, as the scene now shows the moment where the heroes transformed into their animal forms for the first time. "That's why when I found you all, I thought I could use you, everyone." Midna was shown looking down, watching the transformed heroes being dragged away… before doing another quite terrifying-looking grin.

"So… That's why you wanted to force us to become your slaves." Mario concluded as the scene cuts back to the present. "You wanted to drag us all into saving your world and nothing more than just that."

"…You figured that out quite fast." Midna replied. "Indeed, I only cared about returning our world to normal… I didn't care what happened to the world of light, not at all."

"I'm sorry to say that to you, but for a ruler, that's a pretty selfish thing." Daisy stated with a serious tone. "The way rulers must be, is by caring about other things too, even if these have nothing to do with what they want. Otherwise, this will result in severe rebellion."

"I know." Midna nodded in shame, which caught Daisy by surprise.

"Really?"

Midna nodded, a slight smile showing up on her face. "After I witnessed the selfless lengths that Princess Zelda and you all have gone to… Your sacrifices…" she placed a hand on her chest. "I now know, in the bottom of my heart, that I must save this world, too. There is no other way."

"Now that's how you say it!" Daisy grinned. "And, by the way, about my harsh behavior towards you at the beginning of our journey…" she extended her hand towards Midna. "I'm sorry about it."

Midna took Daisy's hand. "You're forgiven." she said before shaking hands, while everyone else watched with sympathetic looks. After breaking off from Daisy's hand, Midna faced the group and said with a determined look, "Everyone… If we can just defeat Zant, the curse on me will dissolve, and we may be able to revive Zelda. Let's go! For Zelda! For all of this world!"

"Yeah!" the heroes nodded.

The sages then disappeared, and Midna led the heroes to a glowing area just ahead of the mirror as staircases made out of light materialized in front of them. They went up, and eventually, the portal sucked in everyone into it.

The Twilight Realm was the home of the Twilit, the descendants of the Dark Interlopers who tried to invade the Sacred Realm, and only the strongest magic user amongst them would be crowned their ruler. The place was just like when Hyrule had fallen into twilight, only that it seemed darker, but the dusky skies and the floating black particles were still present. Surrounding this veiled place were large black towers, each of them bearing odd red markings, on separate floating islands.

The heroes materialized at the circle of light on the ground before the main plaza, and looked around the place in awe.

"Whoa…" Toon Link breathed. "This place is something else."

"Something about this place seems peaceful… but sad at the same time." Rosalina murmured.

"Well, this place was peaceful… until Zant took over." Midna grumbled. She then decided to make a request for the heroes, "Um, listen, everyone… Can I ask you all one last selfish favor?"

"Go ahead." Link replied, not bothered at all. "We're pretty much used to you making requests at this point."

"Fair point. Anyways, regardless of what my reasons may have been, I once abandoned this world… I left behind the Twili. Those who had followed me… Who considered me their ruler… Even now, as they remain here, suffering, they believe that help will come for this world… But if they were to see that the only help for them was a hideous little imp… Don't you think they'd feel let down?"

"What? Don't be ridiculous!" Daisy smiled. "I'm sure that your people will recognize you once they see you!"

"But… I abandoned them! A princess never abandons her people! You should know that since you're a princess too!" Midna shot back, and then looked down with a frown. "I'm… I'm nothing more than a coward."

"No, you're not. As with my case, as well as Peach's and Rosalina's, your people will be delighted to see that you came back, and that's all that matters. Plus, you said that they were cursed into monsters, right? They would know that you also suffered the same fate. And I just know that after everything Zant had done to them, they would never bow down to him! You shall always be their true ruler despite the consequences."

A smile showed up on Midna's face. "Wow… I believe that's the first time ever a light dweller would make me feel better, especially when it was the same one who previously had a bitter relationship towards me." she floated up closer to Daisy. "Thank you, Daisy. Now, let's go!"

Everyone nodded and went down the path to the plaza, where they spotted grotesque-looking shadow beasts standing around as the heroes gasped.

"Heads up, guys!" Link exclaimed as they got ready to fight, but Midna stopped them:

"Wait! They aren't enemies, everyone! They might look different, but… they're inhabitants of this world… They're my people."

"What?! Oh no…" Luigi whispered.

"Zant… How could he…" Midna muttered.

"We have to find Zant, and fast." Mario stated firmly.

"Actually, there is one way to restore my people back to normal." Midna said. "There are two glowing orbs known as Sols hidden in two corners of the Palace of Twilight. If we can retrieve these and place them in these two holes, then my people can return to their former selves again."

"Alright, we're on it!" Yoshi exclaimed as they went to the left island, since the right side had no path connecting to the island, and went through the door.

Inside, they were greeted by a few Twilit Baba Serpents and Twilit Keese, but they were quickly defeated, as well as a Zant Mask down below, which caused a treasure chest to appear that held a Small Key. And speaking of treasure chests, Luigi looked to the left to see a hallway, and could faintly spot another chest on the far side behind a strange black mist.

"Oh! There's another one!" he exclaimed and proceeded to walk over to the hallway where the chest was, not paying attention to the mist at all as everyone else looked over at him and Midna gasped.

"Luigi, no!" she called out, but it was too late as Luigi stepped into the black mist, which instantly changed him into his raven form.

"EH?!" he yelled in shock, but the others only heard a loud squawk from him.

"Bro!" Mario exclaimed as he and the others rushed over to the raven, but not going into the mist as Luigi got out of the hallway before changing back to normal.

"Mama mia…" he groaned. "I did not see that coming…"

"It was that black mist…" Mario mused as he looked at it. "Midna, what's that?"

"This black fog is made up of shadow crystals created by Zant. They blot out light…" Midna explained. "He's responsible for stealing the light from the spirits and turning the world of light into twilight… But he's not all-powerful. We're prepared too."

"Hold on, shadow crystals…? Aren't those the same ones that we have in order to change into animals?" Toon Link remarked.

"That's right. That's why I said we're prepared too."

"So that explains why Luigi changed…" Link pondered. "Everyone, let's not touch any black mist we encounter around this place."

"Right!" the rest nodded and proceeded to go up the ledge to unlock the door, taking them to a room… with a lot of that black mist.

"Oh… Never mind." Link sweatdropped as he and the others went into the mist anyways, as they changed into their animal forms and fought off another Zant Mask, which caused not one, but two treasure chests to appear in the room, one holding another Small Key, and the other holding the Compass.

"Wait, we got the compass before the map?" Yoshi tilted his head before they all got up on the ledge above and unlocked the next door.

The next room seemed empty, save for a hand holding some kind of light orb at the far end. They cautiously dropped down to the lower floor of the room and passed a small circle depression in the middle… when suddenly, pillars landed in front and behind them, and then a holographic Zant appeared before them.

"A hologram of Zant?!" Peach flinched as Phantom Zant rose up his hands in the air to create a large orb of twilight and tossed it up, as it changed into a Twilit Portal where a flock of Twilit Keese came out of it.

"We've got ourselves a fight!" Rosalina exclaimed as she and Luigi quickly dispatched the Twilit Keese by firing magic and lightning bolts respectively.

After that, Phantom Zant appeared in the middle of the room, where he got immediately curb-stomped by the group before he teleported away, and this time summoned dozens of Twilit Baba Serpents from all over the ground, only for Mario to burn them all down with Din's Fire's fiery shockwave.

"Come on, is that the best you got?" Midna teased as she and the heroes got over to Phantom Zant to attack him again repeatedly until he was defeated and the barriers disappeared. "Heh, too easy." Midna smirked… aaand then Phantom Zant exploded into the same black mist that rained down right on the heroes, forcing them into their animal forms again. "…Oh." Midna blinked.

"Okay, this is a bit annoying." Toon Link grumbled as they got out of the mist and changed back to normal before eying at the light orb grasped by the large hand.

"What is that?" Daisy asked.

"That shining sphere illuminates this world. It's called a Sol." Midna explained. "It's like the sun of the world of light. The power of the Sol is the source of life in this world… It is pure power."

"Wow…" Yoshi awed.

"Ah! As long as you have this… Would you take this Sol to the Twili at the entrance to this world? This is the item I was talking about previously that will restore my people, after all!"

"Will do." Link nodded and slashed the hand to make it drop the Sol and he picked it up.

As they walked back and finding out that the Sol could dispatch away the black mist, they suddenly heard a noise from behind as they turned around… where much to their surprise, they saw the hand suddenly coming to life and started to slowly hover towards the Sol in Link's possession while making rather ominous sounds.

"Wh-What?!" Luigi stuttered, creeped out by the floating Zant's Hand.

"That's totally not creepy at all…" Mario trailed.

"I'll take care of it!" Toon Link said and fired an arrow at Zant's Hand, stunning it in place.

"I don't think it'll remain stunned forever, but it can buy us some time." Midna stated as Link quickly put the Sol into the depression to make stairs rise up. They quickly went up the stairs and Link fetched the Sol with his clawshot before they left the room just in time as Zant's Hand snapped out of its stunned trance, and resumed chasing after them by phasing through the wall above the door.

Fortunately for our heroes, Zant's Hand moved very slowly for their pace as they were making their way back, and with Toon Link constantly stunning it with arrows, it made their job less nerve-wracking and thus were able to casually leave the west wing, as Zant's Hand cannot leave the palace.

As soon as they left, a Twili Beast nearby suddenly changed back into a normal Twili due to the Sol's influence. The group then walked back to the main plaza, where Link placed the Sol into one of the circular depressions on the ground before they proceeded to the east wing this time.

Inside, there were a couple of moving platforms over a pool of black mist and two Twilit Keese flying around, which were quickly dispatched by Yoshi's homing eggs, and then they jumped over the platforms as Rosalina fired magic at a Zant Mask that showed up from the other side to defeat it. Eventually, they made it safely across while not landing in the black mist and got another Small Key in order to go to the next room.

There, the floor ahead was once again covered entirely in black mist and so the heroes had to change into animals while fighting off three Twilit Messengers plus a couple of Zant Masks. After that, the heroes got another Small Key and the Dungeon Map before heading through the next door.

The next room was similar to the one where the first Sol was, and was even the exact same layout. And it was not just the layout, as this room also held another battle against Phantom Zant, in which the heroes took him out the same way as before.

Then, Link took the Sol and they walked off, with Zant's Hand chasing them again as Toon Link once again fended it off by firing arrows at it until they finally exited the east wing. Heading back to the main plaza, Link placed the Sol on the remaining depression. The two Sols glowed brightly; their light having restored all of the Twili people back to normal.

"Yay! The Twili are back to normal!" Yoshi chimed. "Now let's-…" he cut himself off when he saw something happening to Link's Master Sword. "Uh, Link? Your sword is glowing!"

"Huh?" Link pulled out the Master Sword, as it was now glowing in a bright golden light. "Whoa!"

"Amazing… The power of the Sols has been transferred to your sword…" Midna awed. "The guardian deities of my world are on our side, too! You all really are the chosen ones, especially you, Link… A true hero! As long as you have that sword, you should be able to repel the shadows Zant has spread!"

"Awesome." Link smirked. "Let's go, everyone! To Zant!"

Everyone nodded and took off to the middle path, where there was a waterfall of black mist that Link easily cut through and they jumped across and went to the next door, ready to brave through the rest of this dungeon.

Some minutes later…

"Zant is just behind this door. I can feel it." Midna said as they all had reached the boss door.

"Then let's go." Link said as they unlocked the door and went through.

On the other side, they went up a small couple of stairs, leading them to the throne room where Zant was sitting on said throne.

"Zant." Midna scowled before grinning, "Isn't this ironic? Here we are, all thanks to the dark magic curse you placed on Link and his friends!"

"You speak of magic? Still your tongue for a moment, whelp, and I will tell you of both magic and the oppression of ages…" Zant chuckled darkly as he stood up from the throne, and his mask detached itself to reveal his true face. "The people of our tribe…a tribe that mastered the arts of magic…were locked away in this world like insects in a cage. In the shadows we regressed, so much so that we soon knew neither anger nor hatred…nor even the faintest bloom of desire." he had his arms spread out… and began to twist them and his body in a very bizarre way, much to the group's bewilderment. "And all of it was the fault of a useless, do-nothing royal family that has resigned itself to this miserable half-existence!"

"Whaaaat the…" Luigi breathed.

"This looks… rather unsettling." Mario blinked.

Then, Zant untwists his body before he started stomping the ground angrily in a temper tantrum, and then he calmed down quickly. "I had served and endured in that depraved household for far too long, my impudent princess." he suddenly lunges in front of them, only to quickly disappear afterwards… and then he began spinning like a top from behind them. "And why, you ask? Because I believed I would be the next to rule our people! THAT is why!" and now he bent himself backwards… what is even going on… "But would they acknowledge me as their king? No! And as such, I was denied the magic powers befitting our ruler."

"…This guy is insane." the heroes thought.

"It was then, in the thrall of hatred and despair, that I turned my eyes to the heavens…and found a god."

The scene cuts to a flashback of when Zant was just an ordinary Twili, as he was rushing out to the palace's outskirts before kneeling on the ground and began to mourn in sadness and frustration… the latter made obvious as he began to repeatedly pound the ground like a mad ape, and did the same with his head.

Just then, he heard a noise from above as he looked up, and saw an ominous mist slowly coming down towards him. He stood up and slowly backed away in awe before he was eventually consumed by the mist. Inside said mist, a very familiar face, that being the king of evil himself, showed up before Zant, and told him:

"I shall house my power in you… If there is anything you desire, then I shall desire it, too."

After the mist cleared, Zant was left there by himself as he made a generic Twili noise in awe by what he just witnessed.

The scene cuts back to the present, where Zant rose back up, but now he had his mask back on his face.

"My god had only one wish…" he said and teleported back to the throne. "To merge shadow and light…and make darkness!"

"Yep, very typical of Ganondorf…" Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toon Link thought.

"And as for his closest sidekick, Bowser… He said to make as much chaos as I desire! And with that, I shall dispose ANYONE who opposes me, my god and his sidekick!"

Zant floated up into the air, and used his magic to create a glowing red circle of runes while the whole place darkened, and everyone including him were sent to the arena where the heroes battled Diababa.

"Huh?! We're back in this place again?!" Daisy asked as Zant, who was hovering above the poisonous water, laughed and proceeded to fire energy bullets at them.

"Look out!" Peach called out as they dodged the bullets while she reflected some with Nayru's Love, but Zant teleported to the side to avoid his own reflected bullets.

"You have to do better than that!" Zant teased… and then Link threw the gale boomerang at him, causing him to fall in the poison as he bounced out of it to dry land, where he got whaled on by the Links' slashing, and Daisy kicked him into the poison water as Luigi electrocuted it, making the electricity travel to Zant. "YOOOOOWCH!" he yelled.

Growling, Zant flew up and changed the scenery again, this time taking them to the magnetic battlefield where Dangoro was fought. Acting quickly, the Links and the Mario cast sans Rosalina put on their iron boots and magnetic soles while Rosalina just flew up, as Zant slammed down onto the platform's edge to shake it wildly.

"Hey! You two are flying!" Zant exclaimed as he saw Midna and Rosalina in the air. "That's cheating!"

"And switching up the battlefield isn't?" Rosalina sassed, firing a beam of magic at Zant while Midna punched him at the same time, both attacks sending him into the lava below.

"Heh, looks like Zant got burned metaphorically AND literally!" Midna grinned and high-fived Rosalina.

"Agh… You'll PAY for this!" Zant yelled and changed the area again, now taking place in Morpheel's battlefield… which means it was taking place underwater.

Thankfully, Toon Link and the Mario cast already had their water dragon scale necklaces on, Midna seemed to be breathing underwater just fine, and Link quickly put on his Zora Armor, so it wasn't that much of a big deal to them. The place suddenly rumbled, and several large Zant Masks emerged out of the ground.

The heroes kept looking at each mask, wondering which one Zant was going to come out, until one of them opened up to reveal Zant as he started shooting more energy blasts at them, but Link blocked them with his shield. Then, Toon Link quickly pulled Zant out with his hookshot and the group went to town striking him until he teleported out and changed the battlefield again, taking them to Ook's arena.

"Heeheehee! Try and catch me!" Zant taunted and began to hop around the totem poles.

"…Seriously?" Link questioned after he changed back into his normal tunic before he and everyone else basically stuck to each of the nine poles and waited for Zant to stop hopping around.

And when he did, he was instantly knocked down just by the person rolling into their respective pole, and they all gathered back to smack down on Zant again.

"Alright… Playtime's over!" Zant declared as he changed the battlefield for the fifth time, now into Blizzeta's arena. "I'LL CRUSH YOU ALL!" Zant yelled and suddenly grew gigantic, where everyone's eyes widened in shock.

"Holy crap!" Daisy exclaimed.

"Uh oh…" Yoshi trailed as he and the others saw Zant coming down as they quickly scattered, where Zant proceeded to try and stomp them as if they were little ants.

Link quickly pulled out his ball and chain while Toon Link brought out the skull hammer, as they nodded to each other before hitting Zant on the foot as he began to hop around clutching his foot while shrinking down, until he was down to half his original size and he was fended off by the group again easily.

"THAT'S IT! YOU'VE FORCED MY HAND!" Zant yelled and changed the scenery into that of just outside Hyrule Castle, which still had the barrier on. "I'LL SLICE AND DICE YOU INTO PIECES!" he screeched as he pulled out two scimitars from each hand.

"…Okay, he's totally lost it this time!" Toon Link remarked.

Zant began slashing around repeatedly, as Link quickly blocked his attacks before countering and striking him a few times. Then, Zant went for a different attack… which consisted of him spinning around like a blender and going all over the place as the group avoided him while the Mario cast let out several projectile attacks at him, but nothing seemed to slow that maniac down.

After that attack, however, Zant was left dizzy, giving the heroes an opportunity to lend a few strikes on him before he teleported away. Zant went after Toon Link this time and tried to slash him, but the young hero ducked under the scimitars and did an uppercut slice on his torso, and then Link did a helm splitter on him from behind to knock him down.

Zant got back up and tried to attack them all at once, but each time he went after a target, he would always get hit by either sword strikes, fireballs, lightning bolts, light beams, egg bombs, crystals, beams of magic, you name it.

"Time to end this at once." Link said as Zant was recovering from the panting after all those hits he received, and once he did, he saw Link walking towards him, but had his sword sheathed.

"Fool… You put your sword away!" Zant laughed insanely. "DIIIIIIIE!" he yelled, ready to strike Link down.

"You're the fool here." Link smirked… and finished off Zant with a mortal draw.

"AAAAAAGH!" Zant screamed in agony as he threw a tantrum, before eventually falling to the ground in defeat.

Soon, they were all taken back to the throne room, where the three pieces of the Fused Shadow that Zant had stolen flew back to Midna and went into her. She looked down at herself, hoping that the curse on her would be broken, but it wasn't.

"No… Why am I still like this?!" she cried, refusing to believe this.

"Midna…" Peach whispered, but before she could say anything else, Zant blurted out:

"Y-You… TRAITORS!" everyone looked up to see that he was slumped down on the throne.

"Traitors, ha! You want to know why none would call you king? It was your eyes, Zant." Midna scolded. "All saw it, a lust for power burning in your pupils… Did you think we'd forget our ancestors lost their king to such greed?"

Zant merely chuckled in response. "Midna… Foolish Twilight Princess… The curse on you cannot be broken… It was placed on you by the magic of my god! The power you held as leader of the Twili will never return!"

"So that's why… Ganondorf gave his power to Zant, so Zant was just a host for his magic…" the heroes thought as they put the pieces together, none of them noticing that Midna's hair was changing into something completely different due to her rage.

"Already he has descended and been reborn in this world… As long as my master, Ganondorf, survives, he will resurrect me without cease!"

Then, all of a sudden, Midna's hair shot out into several tentacles of vibrant pink that launched themselves straight towards Zant, impaling him violently as he screamed… before inflating and popping like a balloon. Everyone was left utterly speechless by that, including Midna.

"Wh-What just happened?!" Luigi exclaimed.

"He just exploded from Midna's hair…" Rosalina whispered. "Brutal…"

"I… I used just a fraction of the power that's in me now…" Midna breathed, clasping her hands onto her face in surprise. "I did THAT using only a fraction of my ancestors' magic?!" she manages to calm down, and cresfalled.

"Are you okay, Midna?" Mario asked in concern.

"…I'm fine." Midna sighed before she faced the heroes with a look of determination. "Everyone! Now is the time! We must save Zelda!" she looked down at her hands. "The evil power Zant was wielding… I couldn't take it from him. But at least I still have the magic of my ancestors… With it, I can return the cherished power Zelda bestowed upon me…" she casts a portal on the ground. "Now! Let's go! Princess Zelda is waiting!"

"Right!" the heroes nodded and went into the portal, ready to head off to Hyrule Castle.

Meanwhile…

"Hmph… So Zant has fallen…" Ganondorf mused. "Tch, he was a worthless fool anyways."

"Yeah, not even I could handle his behavior…" Bowser muttered. "Did he really think that I cared about him? How naïve of him." he scoffed while rolling his eyes. "And now, that stupid group is coming here…"

"True. But don't worry, I have a plan."

"And what's that?"

"Bowser… Send in the rest of our underlings. All of them! Make sure they do their best to drive those heroes away from Hyrule Castle!"

Bowser grinned wickedly. "As you wish, Lord Ganondorf."

To be continued…

The end of this chapter should give you a hint that the progression throughout Hyrule Castle is going to be a little different compared to the other dungeons, and a special surprise is about to happen during it! Until the next chapter!

Edit note: I realized that I forgot to reveal who was the summoned character from the previous chapter. Whoops! But honestly, I was surprised that most of you guessed it right! It was indeed the Hero from the Dragon Quest franchise - Eleven the Luminary to be precise - that helped out in defeating Argorok.