Author's Note: All right! Chapter 2 of the double upload here! For this one, we have Green and Zelda!
So, this one's going to take a bit of explanation. First of all, this may also be a good time to refresh people that there is very limited magic use in my world, meaning that Zelda does not use magic in this fic.
Now for the more important part. I'm using this chapter to introduce my Pokémon Trainers, which are the Dexholders from the Pokémon Special Manga. We'll have Red (corresponds to Male Pokémon Trainer), Green (Prof. Oak's Grandson), and Blue (corresponds to Female Pokémon Trainer) as well as my OC Indigo as Smashers, meaning that this Smash fic will connect with my previous Pokespe AU fic. I'm not expecting anyone here to have read that, so there's no need to go back and read that fic – all the pertinent info will be explained in this fic.
With all that out of the way, let's finally start this chapter!
Green sauntered into the gardens of Hyrule Castle, stretching his legs. As usual, he was in Hyrule on Smasher business. Rumors of large groups of Stalfos, led by a magic user had been reported in the Tabantha Frontier. From the information, Link had quickly deduced that the magician was probably one of Ganondorf's underlings, and sent a call out to the Smashers, requesting the assistance of the Smasher's resident Pokemon Trainers, the Pokedex Holders.
Naturally, they'd be a good fit for the job. With both the ability to fly with their Pokemon and the diverse and powerful nature of their teams, they'd likely be able to cut the search time in half and be able to assist in the elimination of the Stalfos.
Which was why Green was here in Hyrule. It was nice to get away from the mundane duties of the Dexholders, now that they were an official task force of the International Pokemon League. He sighed. It had been a long eight years since he'd been just the Gym Leader of Viridian City. Back then, they'd been former members of the officially disbanded Pokedex research project. Now, he was a leading member of an inter-regional task force comprised of his fellow dexholders and a Smasher to boot.
He'd been a Smasher for quite a few years at this point. While Red was one of the founding members of the Super Smash Bros, Green and his fellow senior dexholders Blue and Indigo had been recruited into the organization shortly before the Tabuu Subspace incident, on Red's recommendation. What a disaster that had been. He'd spent hours with an equally frustrated Roy after the debacle, drafting contingency plans while the others mitigated the aftermath elsewhere. Thankfully, those long nights were far behind him.
He took a deep breath of the warm air. It was late spring in Hyrule, which was a nice change of pace for him. It had been winter in Kanto when he'd left yesterday. They'd only celebrated New Year's Day two weeks prior.
He gave the guards a nod as he passed into one of the courtyards. The garden with expansive, spanning the entire side of the castle. It was adorned with a wide variety of flowers, bushes and trees, many of which he was unfamiliar with. He sauntered through, enjoying the beauty. He didn't touch anything, though. It was a universally recommended rule of thumb for Pokémon Trainers to avoid contact with plants that they weren't familiar with. He was pretty certain that these plants were safe, it was just force of habit.
Eventually came to a bench and sat down. He stretched. The time for action would come soon enough. There was no need to exert himself unnecessarily on an overly long walk. One of his Pokeballs wriggled a little. Green looked down and sent out the Pokemon. His Charizard hit the ground and snorted happily. He sat down on the grass next to Green, carefully wrapping his tail in front of him to make sure he didn't accidentally set something on fire.
"Hey, Charizard. You ready to fly?"
Charizard nodded its head. It let out a small grunt of affirmation and puffed a small jet of flame out of his mouth. Green allowed himself a small smile. Charizard was raring to go.
"Do you find yourself enjoying the gardens?" asked a quiet voice from next to him. He looked up to see a brown haired young Hylian woman in a blue dress standing on the path. A red flower was perched in her hair.
"Good day miss. Taking a stroll yourself?"
"Ah, yes, I was." She turned to the garden. "It's said the princess herself takes care of this garden in particular. They say she found wonderful plants from all across Hyrule and personally planted every single tree, bush and flower you see here."
She stretched out her hand.
"I'm Marin, by the way."
Green's eyebrow raised and shook her hand.
"I'm Green."
He recognized that name. Marin was one of Zelda's many alter egos. It looked like she had the same idea that he did. Green eyed Marin critically. One wouldn't have even thought for a second that Marin was Zelda. She hadn't even dyed her hair. Green supposed that it was what made her a master of disguise.
Charizard extended his claw. Marin giggled and shook Charizard's hand as well.
"He's a really nice…uh…Pokemon?"
"Yes, Pokemon. I'm a Pokemon Trainer," said Green.
Zelda knew this, but it was part of the façade. In case anyone was watching. It was probable that nobody was watching, but Green knew that Zelda preferred immense caution with her alter egos.
Only the adult smashers and a very select few others knew of Princess Zelda's true role with regard to the Smashers. Zelda did a lot of dangerous deep undercover work under her many alternate identities. Despite the fact that she had numerous alter egos, she frequently returned to the persona of Sheik, her combat alter ego and usual public face for less covert missions. Officially, Princess Zelda was not associated at all with the Smashers at all. Instead, the Sheikah were officially represented by the mysterious warrior only known as Sheik due to how frequently Zelda wore the cowl. Knowledge of her true identity and her actual role on the Super Smash Bros. could be disastrous due to the nature of missions that she usually took. Green just didn't know that she had a green thumb as well.
"It's a beautiful place. The princess must have put a lot of love and care into this garden."
It wasn't flattery, it was simply an observation of fact. His sister did a lot of gardening and he knew what a well-cared for garden looked like.
"I'm sure she'd be quite pleased that you are enjoying it so much. The princess isn't… as inclined to public appearances in recent days."
That was the cover story, at least. Blame the "reclusive behavior" on PTSD from Ganondorf's invasion. It wasn't totally untrue, either. That's what made it so convincing.
"Hmm. Understandable. Life in the public eye can be quite draining," agreed Green.
He relaxed back onto the bench, and Marin took a seat next to him.
"So, how did you come to work at the castle?" asked Green.
"Oh, I'm one of the royal musicians. I play the harp and sing," said Marin. "I left my harp in my room, though."
That was right. Marin was the bard/travelling musician persona. He'd heard her play before. She was very good. Good enough to publish an album and top Gold's infamous music charts for months, in his own opinion.
"So, how'd you learn to play the harp?" asked Green.
"Oh, my mentor taught me. He actually plays the accordion most of the time, but he's familiar with a variety of musical instruments. He's truly amazing!"
Green nodded. He must have been outright legendary if Zelda had gotten that skilled under his tutelage.
"He must have taught you well. I hear the royal family loves music. You must be a masterful musician."
Marin giggled. "Oh, you flatter me."
They sat in silence for a moment enjoying the setting sun as it slowly made its way to the horizon.
"Sunset in Hyrule is beautiful. Legend has it that it's the time of day that there's a whole realm that can only be traversed to and from during twilight," said Marin.
"Really now? What is it like?" asked Green.
"It's said that the other realm is a barren land, cloaked in perpetual twilight. It's said that there was once a great war between the Royal Family and a group of vicious rebels a very long time ago. The Royal Family won and banished the rebels who surrendered to the Twilight Realm, as it's called. There's a broken mirror in an ancient structure far out in the desert that's said to once have allowed for travel between our realm and the Twilight realm."
"What happened to the mirror?" asked Green, intrigued. He really needed to read up on Hylian history. Especially if it was as interesting as this.
"Oh, it was said to have been destroyed by a group of Gerudo bandits who were trying to escape the wrath of the Gerudo Chieftain at the time. They tried to use the mirror to escape, but in their haste they broke the mirror. It's said that unless the mirror is repaired, the realms will be forever separated."
Green nodded. "Seems like that's been working out for our realm, though."
Marin just laughed. "I guess it has. I just love stories like that, though! They have such a sense of mystery!"
Green smiled politely. "I suppose they do."
"Say, do you have any legends like that in your land?" asked Marin.
Green thought for a moment. "We don't have anything similar back in Kanto. Wait, I take that back. There's a legend about Clefairy and Clefable. Do you know what they are?"
"No, I don't," said Marin.
Green pulled out his Pokedex and skimmed through it, until he came to the right section. He showed Marin pictures of the two Pokemon.
"Oh! They're really cute!"
"So, legend has it that Clefairy once lived in a kingdom on the moon. They wanted to expand their kingdom to the surface of the planet, so they sent an explorer party to Kanto. They created a meteor out of Moon Stones and shot it off to the planet. Eventually, they crash landed on Mt. Moon and they explored the lands. However, they weren't able to find enough Moon Stones to make another meteor to go back home and they remained trapped on the surface. But once every year, they go back to the meteor impact site, and dance around it."
"Oh, no! That's so sad! They were never able to go home!" gasped Marin. "Is this real?"
"The dance is, at least. I've actually seen it."
"You have?"
Green nodded. "It's real. Closest thing to magic I've ever seen. Though it wasn't around a crater, it was on Mt. Moon."
"Wow!" exclaimed Marin. "That sounds amazing!"
"It is," said Green. "The Clefairy and Clefable all hold hands, and dance in a circle under the full moon. It's the stuff fairy tales are made of. The Clefable also collect Moon stones and bring them to the strongest Clefairy so that they can evolve. While we don't understand their society very well, as Clefairy and Clefable are both reclusive Pokemon, this does indicate that they have a much more complex social structure then many other Pokemon," said Green.
"Wow… that is just like a real-life fairy tale! Do you think they actually have a kingdom on the moon?" asked Marin excitedly.
"There's no evidence to prove it," said Green.
"Aww, that's disappointing!" said Marin.
"But we haven't properly explored the moon," amended Green. "Our astronauts have only been there a few times for short visits. So, the potential still exists, I guess."
"Wow! That's so exciting! Although, you guys are leagues ahead of us in that department. We only got electricity installed throughout all of Hyrule a few years ago! It will be a long time before we explore our moon!" said Zelda. "I wonder what could be there? Maybe that's where the fairies come from!"
"I guess that could be a possibility," said Green. He was trying to sound positive, but he had little faith in the idea. The atmosphere was far too thin to support any kind of life as far as he knew.
Marin glanced down at her watch. She stood up. "Oh! I have to perform soon," said Marin. "I'm afraid I have to go now. It was nice talking with you, Mr. Smasher!"
"It was a pleasure," said Green cordially. Of course, the excuse to leave the conversation to give Zelda time to change into Sheik. It was all part of the façade. Green leaned back as Marin walked off towards the castle, a bouncy spring in her step. Sure, it was a little awkward talking with Zelda in one of her personas, but it was nice to enjoy the company of his fellow Smashers.
Charizard sniffed the air.
"You smell something?" asked Green.
Charizard growled softly and flicked his wings out.
"I smell the meat too, Charizard. And calm down. We'll have enough time to fly very soon." said Green.
He rose to his feet. "Let's go make sure the others are ready if you've got so much energy."
Charizard snorted and followed behind Green as he made his way back towards the castle as the sun finished sinking below the horizon, casting a few last rays of light into the garden.
Green paused to look back at the garden for a moment. It looked tremendously peaceful in the growing dusk. Zelda really had done a great job planting and caring for the place.
He must have been staring for longer then he thought, as Charizard gently nudged him. Green snapped back to reality. Charizard chuckled quietly. Green shook his head. This wasn't like him at all. And now Charizard was laughing at him.
"All right. Let's get going."
Well, this one was a bit more world building focused then character focused. Rest assured that I plan to revisit Zelda – I hope to do quite a bit with her character in the future. This also isn't the last you'll hear about the Dexholders too.
Hope you all enjoyed the double upload!
Also, there is a new Super Smash Bros fanfiction and fanart Discord server that's been opened called Super Smash Prose! If this interests you, the Discord ID is gDK48ua.