It moved like a spider and yet… it wasn’t your average spider. The Keelerak scuttled across the internal webbing of the structure known as ‘The Hive’. It moved slowly as it watched the enslaved pegasi and changelings. It called out with its buzz saw like mouth and received a message in its language: the plan is in full motion. ‘when this is over, we will kill the Makuta and claim the hive as our own!’ it thought, ‘we just have to wait until-‘ it screeched in pain as Krika’s front right leg pierced its armor and cut its way into the innards of the Visorak.
“Sorry, no traitors aloud,” muttered Krika.
Within seconds, the traitorous Visorak fell to the ground and its broken body lay there dead. Several shadow pegasi looked at the body briefly and then resumed their work. Most did not know what they were doing exactly but they did what they were told, they didn’t want to end up like the ‘Shadowbolts’. Although they all had their ‘light’ partially drained, they still had traces of their former selves. The Shadowbolt’s however, became brutal tyrants only obeying direct orders from Makuta Gorast. One pegasi had fallen in the presence of a Shadowbolt. She was injected with a near lethal dose of Hordika venom and left to die in the forest. Another species, the Changelings, were also captured by the Makuta.
“Why are we doing this?” asked one.
A changeling answered, “because if we don’t our queen will be murdered.”
“That’s why you are here. What about me and the rest of the pegasi?”
The changeling shrugged, “maybe they will kill your princess’s?”
“But, what about the elements of harmony? Will they save us?”
The changeling stared out into the hive, “I don’t know. They nearly killed us during our last encounter.”
“That’s because you were attacking Canterlot. Now you’re a prisoner just like the rest of us,” said the pegasi.
The changeling sighed, “One can only hope.”
One of the Shadowbolts overhead the two’s conversation and approached them, “not working? Well, why don’t we get Mutran to fix that?”
The pegasi panicked, “sorry! It won’t happen again!”
The Shadowbolt glared at the pegasi and changeling. Then she lashed out at them with a shadowy whip. The two cringed in pain, “you two got off easy, now GET BACK TO WORK!”
The two worked as hard as they could until the Shadowbolt was out of sight. ‘One can only hope’, the pegasi thought. One can only hope….
“Let me get this straight,” said Hewkii, “you kick each tree one by one until all the apples fall down? What kind of game is that?”
Applejack sighed; Hewkii was still having the trouble of the concept of apple bucking.
“It’s not ah game, we need to buck these here apples for food,” replied Applejack.
Hewkii nodded, food he understood, but why every single tree? “Do you have a faster method of getting the apples down?”
“There ain’t any faster way than this,” said Applejack.
Hewkii smiled, “oh really?” he then looked for a large rock. When he found one he placed it on the ground. “Watch this.” He then kicked the rock at the trees at a high speed. It hit nearly half the trees in the orchard. When the rock finally came to a stop, hundreds of apples fell of the trees. Applejack looked at them in disbelief.
“Faster than that?” asked Hewkii, grinning.
“What in tarnation…”
Hewkii laughed, “Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve played Kohli.”
“Kohli? What’s that?” asked Applejack.
“It’s a popular game on Metru nui. You kick the rock into the other net and your team gets a point. Well, in the old version at least,” said Hewkii.
“Huh, well, thanks for helpin me get all them apples,” replied Applejack extending her hoof.
“No problem,” said Hewkii, shaking it. At that moment, Hewkii saw a toa of stone with a Kanohi Rode while Applejack saw an earth pony with a mane made out of stone. Hewkii quickly withdrew his hand, “uh…”
“Err… yeah, thanks,” said Applejack.
A quiet buzzing sound suddenly filled the apple orchard.
“You hear that?” asked Applejack.
Hewkii nodded, “yep.”
Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
“Toa…”
Hewkii grabbed his war blade and slowly but subtly started to create stone walls. A dark chuckling was heard.
“Foolish toa, a pathetic barrier of stone is not enough to keep you safe from Makuta Gorast!” then the Makuta burst through the field of trees, sending stone chunks and apples everywhere.
“HEY! Y’all are going to pay for that!” growled Applejack.
“Foolish Toa, do you think one as small as you can defeat ME?!” said Gorast as she sent a bolt of chain lightning at her.
“WATCH OUT!” yelled Hewkii as he pushed her out of the way while making anther stone wall. It exploded upon the lightning hitting it. He glared at Gorast, “why are you here?”
Gorast laughed, “I’m here to finish the job my brothers FAILED!” she yelled as he sent out more chain lightning at the two. Hewkii dodged, then created another stone wall and used his Kanohi Garai, mask of gravity, to make Gorast float up into the air to throw off her aim. Applejack however, was not so fast.
“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” she yelled as the lightning hit her.
“Don’t move!” yelled Hewkii as he made a protective dome of stone around her to keep her out of harm’s way. Gorast laughed at him.
“Do you think a simple shield will protect your Toa protégé?” said Gorast, “well, think again!” Gorast then teleported into the dome and lifted Applejack off the ground with her four claws and up into the air hole in the top. Hewkii made the stone collapse, it was no use now, and used his mask again on Gorast to slam her back first into the ground. In a last effort, Gorast stabbed Applejack with her stinger on her mask and started to drain her inner ‘light’, causing her to turn a pale grey colour. Hewkii ran to the crash site to find the heavily damaged body of Gorast and injured Applejack on the ground. She weakly looked up at him.
“Help me…” Applejack then lost consciousness while Hewkii called for help…
*********************************************************************************
Some hours later Applejack awoke in Twilight’s house with eleven pairs of eyes looking at her.
“What the...” she started but then started to cough. Her coughing subsided and she asked, “What was that?”
“That was your first fight against Makuta,” said Hewkii, “and probably not your last.”
Rarity noticed the claw marks and the spot where Gorast used her stinger. “Applejack dear, what did that thing do to you?”
Applejack looked at her shiftily, “nothing.”
Hewkii shook his head, “no, you were stung by its stinger.”
“No ah wasn’t!”
Jaller walked over to Twilight, “your friend always this stubborn with injuries?”
Twilight shook her head, “no, she must not remember it very well.”
“Hmm…”
Outside the library, Krika watched the gathering of his enemies. He could easily destroy they right here and now but something was holding him back: the way out. They had a method of escaping but Krika new all too well what the consequences of leaving the normal were. Only Toa could pass through the barrier without being harmed. Discord tried it and well… it deformed him greatly. First, he is now organic. Second, thirty six of his original forty two kraata were lost. And finally, his deformed body, half the time he is floating because there was always the risk of falling over. Krika smiled inwardly when he noticed Matoro watching him out of the corner of his eye. Matoro was good with secrets, but sometimes he couldn’t tell if trusting Makuta was a good idea or not. Krika faded into the shadows and made his way back to the hive. If the Toa did tell the others, there would be little harm done. After all, one was powerless, another had no training, one had half of their ‘light’ drained and the other three hadn’t even awoken their powers yet. Both plans were succeeding nicely; one was for Discord, the other for the land of Equestria.
Matoro gazed into the sunset. It looked exactly like the kinds on Mata nui. ‘Maybe I’m not so far away after all…’ he thought. Sure, it was great to his teammates again but something was bothering him: Kongu, Hahli and now Hewkii have stated that the first time they came in contact with Pinkie pie, Rainbow dash and Applejack respectively, each had seen a strange looking Toa that bore resemblances to the respective ponies. He sighed, ‘just two more days until we have to leave. Will we be able to find the missing pegasi by then?’ Matoro stood up and started to walk back to the library. ‘one can only hope,’ he thought.
One can only hope