I don’t know what’s with King Candy at this moment. I couldn’t comprehend if he’s having a heart attack or it’s just normal for him to panic like that, but this I’m sure: I need to get out of this castle as soon as possible.

“Seize them, soldiers!” is what King Candy bellowed next.

Before any of them can even come near me or Ralph, I thundered, “HOLD IT!”

All of them stopped moving. I took the chance to look at my Menu and whispered to Ralph, “Ralph, close your eyes.”

“What? Why –”

“Just do it, you bastard!” I hissed at him while holding a Deku Seed.

I looked straight at Ralph and when I saw that he already closed his eyes, I threw the Deku Seed in front of me. Its effect was instantaneous: all of those in front of us, including King Candy, were temporarily stunned.

“Ralph, run!” I shouted while I ran towards the door.

I didn’t have any time to open the door so I took my Megaton Hammer out, but Ralph beat me to it; one smash with his two arms and the door was blasted to smithereens. He suddenly grabbed me and both of us escaped from the castle.

I seemed to me that Ralph only ran for a few seconds before we came to a stop. I didn’t notice where we ended up because I have lost my sense of direction because of Ralph lifting me up. I just realized that I’m already sitting on the ground and Ralph ran somewhere while trying to scare someone. I needed to shake my head a little for me to regain my focus. When I saw where Ralph went to, I saw that he’s talking to that little girl he was chasing a while ago. I daresay this is Vanellope von Schweetz, the girl King Candy was talking about. I went to them and heard their conversation. Ralph still didn’t change his mind. He still wants his medal.

“You can’t get your medal back until I win the race. And now that my racecar is broken to bits, there is no way for you to get it back,” Vanellope explained, irritated.

Ralph began to throw a tantrum by smashing his arms on a large rock that also looked like it was made of really hard candy.

Vanellope called, “What are you doing? That’s a jawbreaker! You couldn’t just –”

Before Vanellope can finish what she was saying, the jawbreaker suddenly split into half. I noticed that Vanellope smiled while she said something that I failed to hear.

I went to her and said, “You should have seen how he smashed that door back in King Candy’s castle.”

She looked at me. “Hmm, and who’re you? It’s the first time I’ve seen you ‘round here. Don’t tell me you’re friends with Ralph here.”

I crossed my arms. “I guess you could say that, but we just met this morning. I’m Link, from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. And let me guess, you must be Vanellope von Schweetz.”

“The very same,” she answered. “I think that King Candy already told you a lot about me, eh?”

“Well, other than the fact that you’re a glitch that shouldn’t even join the upcoming race, no, he hasn’t told me anything about you,” I responded.

Vanellope chuckled and looked at Ralph. “You, Ralph, if you really want to get your medal back, you need to help me make a new racecar.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?” asked a disgruntled Ralph. “I destroy stuff, not make them.”

“Oh, details, details, just come and follow me!” Vanellope answered, and then looked at me. “You, Link, will you come with us?”

I shook my head and said, “If I wouldn’t succeed at my first try with King Candy, I think I need to think of another way to make him listen to me. I need to go back to the castle, but I shall go straight to King Candy.”

Ralph scratched his head. “How would you do that? You know how secure the castle is.”

Before I can answer, Vanellope pulled him away and said, “Oh that shouldn’t be your problem, Ralph! Just go help me make my new racecar. And Link, I think you won’t find King Candy in the castle. He’s most probably out looking for me around the kingdom. Okay, we should go now!”

I just waved at them and started running back to the castle. But only a few minutes have passed and I already feel tired. I couldn’t imagine Ralph could manage to carry me all the way there without even breaking a sweat.

I didn’t really have any reason for doing this, but I just took my Ocarina of Time out and chose a song that I can play while resting. I didn’t really expect anything exciting that’ll happen after that, but when I finished the song, I distinctly heard galloping from a distance. I turned around and there she was, galloping towards me: Epona. I didn’t expect this to happen because while playing the game myself, I haven’t got to win Epona from Ingo in my copy of the game.

“E-epona? How did you manage to get here?” I wondered aloud, but I put that off my mind. “Never mind that. Okay, can you please carry me to King Candy’s castle?”

It felt really good, riding a horse, especially when you feel the wind against your face, but this feeling didn’t last long because we already arrived in front of King Candy’s castle.

“Thanks, Epona,” I told her. She galloped away from me after saying this. I could probably call her again later if I needed to, so I just let her be.

The guards in the castle are easily avoided. I managed to hide from their view just by walking when they had their backs turned toward me. I have done this countless times while playing Zelda games. After two or three more minutes, I finally arrived in King Candy’s room. I remembered what Vanellope told me about him not being here, but what could I possibly lose just by trying? I opened the door and I had to suppress a loud gasp because what was behind the door wasn’t a room at all.

An empty space is what occupies the area behind the door on your first look, but I can also see lots and lots of numbers that look like the data from a computer and several cables that connect here and there. I tried walking inside. I really thought I was about to fall into nothingness, but I actually floated. I doubted if this really is King Candy’s room. Vanellope is probably right by saying I couldn’t find him here in the castle. If so, I would need to find him before the kingdom is no more.

I was about to go out of the door when I noticed a block with Vanellope’s name on it. It looked like the cables connected to it were removed by force. I doubted about this even more, especially when King Candy specifically told us that Vanellope is merely a glitch in the game. If that’s the case, what is her software doing here? Before I could formulate and answer to this, I saw two other blocks with the inscriptions “Citizens’ Memories” and “Racers’ Memories” on each of them. Just like Vanellope’s software, it looked like those were also removed by force. I then realized that this King Candy person is not to be trusted. I needed to get out of this place and tell Ralph and Vanellope what I just seen, and also Calhoun and Felix, if it’s possible.

As soon as I exited, I tried taking out my sword, but for some reason, I felt like my body has shrunk. Not only that, it also felt hard, like wood. I looked around me and I saw myself in a mirror: I’ve just become a Deku.

“H-how…”

I then remembered the room where all the data of this game exists. Because of me entering that place, I think, my data has been altered and I just became a Deku. I tried opening my Menu and saw new items in my list: four different masks.

I haven’t played Majora’s Mask before, but I know for sure that these were from that game. I immediately wore one of them and my body suddenly transformed again: it became larger this time, but my extremities became thinner. That’s okay, I thought to myself. As a full-fledged Goron, I rolled out of the castle really fast before any soldier can manage to see me.

But I haven’t even managed to go too far from the castle when I heard an explosion and my body suddenly turned back to normal. I rolled and rolled out of control until I hit a giant marshmallow.

After recovering by eating a few pieces of the marshmallow, I looked at the whole realm of Sugar Rush… or what was left of it.

The whole place was swarming of insects that looked like they’re made of metal; the Cy-Bugs Calhoun was talking about. I looked around and saw Felix and Calhoun near the entrance of Sugar Rush.

Calhound immediately barked, “You disappeared for a long time. What happened to you?”

Before I can answer, another explosion erupted, this time from what looked like a volcano. I looked behind me and saw that all the Cy-Bugs were going towards the fiery lava erupting from the volcano.

I turned to where Calhoun was standing and said, “From the looks of things, I think answering your question is probably moot.”

After a few hours of looking for Ralph and Vanellope, all of us went to the place where the race took place. Felix explained to me that Kin g Candy is actually Turbo, a racer that went to Sugar Rush in order to invade it. He erased all the memories of the citizens and the racers, including Vanellope’s data so that’s why she’s like that. Apparently, Vanellope needs to cross the finish line in order for everything to go back to normal.

After Felix fixed the finish line, Vanellope immediately hopped on to her racecar, but before she can even cross it, a ball of electricity struck the racecar and it was blown to bits as a result. I looked to where the ball of electricity came from and saw Vaati… but he somewhat acted differently and he also looked differently.

“Vaati, what –”

He didn’t let me finish talking. “I am not Vaati! I am Turbo, the best racer in this whole arcade!” After he said this, he emitted several balls of electricity and proceeded to hit everyone and everything. Ralph ran to him, but he was easily deflected by three balls of electricity. I concluded that merely attacking him is unwise.

I looked all around for something I could possibly use against Turbo. I noticed that the finish line itself is glowing. I took out my Master Sword, except that it didn’t say ‘Master’ anymore.

“Four Sword? What the… yes!” I muttered to myself.

Turbo began making four large electric balls. He then shouted, “Start praying because this will be the end of –”

“YOU’RE GOING FIRST!” I cut across him and as quick as a flash, I stepped on the finish line, raised my sword towards him, and divided myself into four copies. He then releades the four balls of electricity, which I easily deflected using the four swords that the four copies of me were wielding. These hit him and he was knocked off where he stood. I ran towards him and started slashing on him nonstop until he exploded, just like the way bosses do in my game.

After everything calmed down again, I turned around and saw everyone staring at me, except for Ralph that was still getting up from where he fell. “Felix, fix Vanellope’s racecar so we can get this over with.”

With only one strike of his golden hammer, Vanellope’s car was as good as new. She joyfully hopped on and Ralph pushed it towards the finish line. The moment the car touched the finish line, everything that was destroyed by the Cy-Bugs went back to normal. I also saw the citizens and the other racers regain their memories. What was astounding is that Vanellope’s ordinary clothes were replaced by a princess’ dress.

“Oh! I remember it now! Vanellope von Schweetz is really our princess!” one of the other racers exclaimed.

“Yeah, me too. Um, we’re really sorry for the bad things we’ve done to you,” another one said.

“Please forgive us,” yet a third one pleaded.

“May I talk to you?” Calhoun held my shoulder from behind.

I turned around to face her. “Is it about where I went a while ago?” I expected that she would ask me that. I disappeared for a bit of a long time so I knew she would ask me.

She took a deep breath. “It’s not natural for me to worry about other people, but a character from a handheld game wandering to this arcade? If your HP ever fell to zero, you won’t ever regenerate. Felix and I were worried when you disappeared.”

I hung my head a little because of what she said. It was wrong of me to make them worry. “Yeah, sorry about that. I shouldn’t have made you worry. But there’s no need to worry, I have two bottles of Lon-lon Milk and a Bottled Fairy with me, in case my HP did fall to zero. Well, I’ve already given the other Lon-lon Milk to your colleague before entering here. Ao yeah, I entered King Candy’s castle to talk to him about the Cy-Bugs and make him listen, but I couldn’t find him there. I entered a room where I found lots and lots of data, including the memories of the citizens and the racers –”

“So you were inside Sugar Rush’s database?” she asked me.

“It looked like it,” I answered. “I saw that King Can – er, Turbo… let’s just call him Turvaati in this case… yeah, he removed the citizens and the racers’ memories, including Vanellope’s data. There, I found out the root of this problem.”

Calhoun thought for a bit, then spoke again, “I think the reason why your sword changed is that you entered the database. That wasn’t your normal sword, is it?”

I took out my sword. It finally returned to what it used to be. “It has returned to normal, now that everything’s alright. But because of Turvaati, it did change. Even some of my stuff were altered.”

Calhoun smiled. “Maybe because you’re not really a part of this game, that’s why that happened to your items. Even to your own body. Look, your ears have shortened already.”

I touched my ears , but it didn’t feel like they’ve been deviated in any way. I was bout to speak myself when Calhoun received a call. She talked with the one on the other line for a bit. As she finished talking, “Link, the device where you came from has been replugged. You can finally return to where you came from.”

I didn’t feel any strong emotions with what she said. I already know that this is already the end of the movie, so it’s time for me to go back to the real world.

“Thanks for the chance. I’m not really good at goodbyes, so please tell them that I’m returning to my game,” I told Calhoun.

“Wait!” Vanellope called. I looked at here and saw that she was running toward me. “I think this belongs to you.”

Vanellope handed me the Fire Medallion I threw a while ago. I took it and thanked her.

“I thought you don’t care about it anymore?” Ralph asked me.

“Are you kidding?” I replied to Ralph. “Darunia gave this to me, so this is important.”

Ralph just chuckled to what I said.

“You know, it’s a pity that I didn’t get to see you race,” Vanellope said.

I chuckled and replied, “My horse can’t possibly handle really fast competitors. We’d just make fools out of ourselves. Besides,” I opened my Menu and took out my Ocarina of Time, “this isn’t the place where I can use my abilities to their full potential.”

I looked at Ralph and Felix. “Take care of each other.”

I saw Felix’s face turn pink while Ralph merely laughed. I walked back a few paces from them and played a song on the Ocarina. The whole place then brightened.

When the light disappeared, I woke up in front of the laptop where the ending credits started to play.

I looked at the clock and only around an hour have passed. I didn’t realize that I’m already smiling from ear to ear. I don’t know, I feel like I’m experiencing great joy right now, but I can’t determine why exactly.

A while later, I already knew why. “Oh, it’s been a long while since the last time I did this.”