Ending of Majora's Mask

The Ending of Majora's Mask are the subsequent events following Link's playing of the Oath of Order with the Four Giants saved.

Meeting the Mask Tribe
In order to escape, the entity of Majora's Mask creates what appears to be a tractor beam aimed at the moon, and seemingly escapes into its mouth. Link follows and upon stepping inside is pulled up roughly, before the scene ends. When he comes to, he finds himself inside of a vast plain with a great tree at its center. The beam Majora had created wasn't a portal to the moon, but a wormhole into its past.

There are several points of evidence for this: the first is the blur filter created by the movement within this plain, next is the fact the wormhole doesn't dissipate until after Majora is defeated. When Link wakes up, he finds himself in Termina field, relative to the center of Clock Town from the point that he appeared in the plain and the tree. Finally, the Mask Tribe, are a faceless group of children with no understanding of faces (see also; Debug Content). The appearance of the children to the Happy Mask Salesman, his knowledge of the ancient Majora's Mask, and his parting advice, giving Link the resolve to leave his new friend in Tatl for other ventures untold; connote in retrospect that he also left this land of Termina and thus was the child wearing the mask in the bygone past. (See Debug Content for an analysis of the topology)

At this juncture, the player either proceeds directly to Majora's Mask, or can help the four Mask Tribe children by hearing their philosophical questions and giving them the masks he's gathered in response. Finished with dispensing the merits he's gathered, the Majora-wearing child acknowledges Link and gives him the Fierce Deity Mask. Link kills Majora again, thereby keeping time intact. As Majora dies in a blitz of light, the moon deteroriates and the wormhole develops into a rainbow over Termina.

If the tree of the children is a reference to Yggdrasil, it's possible the idea of Termina's imminent doom, is inspired by Ragnarok, a battle that ends in the death of the gods, in this case Majora and Fierce Deity.

Déjà vu
If the player restarts the game, after having beaten it, and proceeds to the end again; the events will play out differently this time, with Tatl pre-emptively cutting off what Majora's Mask says, and waiting for it to reveal itself as independent after Skull Kid is knocked out. Link will also not be seen pulled up when he steps into the beam, but the scene merely fades out.

The Fairy Kid
Link wakes up back in the present, and the Happy Mask Salesman picks up the remains of Majora's Mask, mentioning to himself its evil is gone. Skull Kid is staring up at his old friends, who ask him to forgive them for abandoning him. With peace made, he turns and walks over to Link. After sniffing him, he comments to him that he smells like the fairy kid in the forest who taught him "that song," referring to Saria, since Link and he hadn't met, and Link isn't the one who teaches him the song (although Skull Kid refers to Link as "this guy" at the beginning of the game, this is merely because Skull Kids are friends with the Kokiri. See Forest Kids). This brief homage sets the first context to the Happy Mask Salesman's last words.

A Parting for a Short Time
As Tatl and Tael prattle about the carnival, the topic of Link's departure comes up as he talks to the Happy Mask Salesman. The Salesman informs him that "Whether a parting be forever or merely for a short time, that is up to you." This carries a lot of weight for various reasons; it refers to the Happy Mask Salesman's past noted above, and grants Link the will to leave, by introspection of all he's learned while in Termina; it harkens back to the beginning of the game's plot concerning Link's searching for Navi, telling him that she may come back to him again in the same way he'd found her parallel in Tatl (another throwback to the beginning where Link stares blankly at her); and finally, it's a nod to the end of Ocarina of Time and the closing of the Road between Times, which are only presumed to be separating Link forever and which prompted the quest to find his only kindred friend from his previous adventure in the first place.

Credits
As the credits start, for every mask sidequest completed by the player, a new scene plays. If the player hasn't gathered all the masks, the scene is blacked out, showing the masks that he/she failed to acquire.