My Little Bionicle: Quest for the Masks
By
Toa Coy, Co-author Blazikenking
(To be) Edited by Cade the Sharkbear
I’m going to use the canon mask locations in the next chapter until I get more suggestions or ideas, anyway dream world time.
~Toa Coy~
Chapter Seven: Life is Strange
*Six winds blow as one. They will turn the tide. We are marching on, standing side by side and we’ll carry on until all the fire is gone. Blown away, away to lands beyond. Winds blow as one.
Goldrax heard a hushed voice as his eyes opened to a blank room but seemed to have furniture for two beings: two chairs, a table, and nothing else. He hear the same phase once again but quieter as if it was a mantra for somepony in meditation. Rubbing his head his eyes grow a bit in surprise, he lacked his toa armor and seemed to be small.
“What is going on?” He said then rubbed his throat as he heard his voice. “What’s wrong with my voice?”
“Nothing is wrong with your voice, this is what you are in the dream world.” A voice said to him, one that he knew. He turned and saw her, dark blue almost black coat and her lighter blue mane made her teal eyes seem to jet out at him. She walked passed him and his crimson eyes followed her as she moved to sit down. She looked at him with a smile but Goldrax still thought that he was going crazy. After what seemed to be a few minutes she looked confused then spoke, “What’s the matter Goldrax?”
“You can’t be real, none of this could be. I must be going crazy.” Goldrax said to himself more than Artemis.
“I know what I can to convince you that is real.” She said walking over to him and kissed him on the cheek, which caused both of them to blush and avert their eyes.
“Okay you’ve got me on the reality but why am I here?” Goldrax asked as he followed Artemis to the chairs.
“As I said the dream world, this place is formed from the thoughts and dreams of every pony that has or shall be.” Artemis replied and still got a confused look on Goldrax's face. “As to how we are able to do is because,” Artemis said recovering from her cryptic message. “of my mother's ability to enter and control dreams. Due to my 'birth' I have a similar ability.”
“That still doesn't explain why I'm here?” Goldrax pointed out.
“I just wanted to talk to some pony like me.” Artemis said looking down at her feet. “I once said that you and I were alike, it appears I was right.”
Goldrax noticed her look glum, for a moment he saw himself in her place. Just then the dragon appeared next to him and it made him feel a bit at ease with someone familiar and real.
“Spike?” Artemis said raising her head and saw the dragon. Goldrax noticed another dragon appear but it appeared next Artemis. It looked similar to his dragon shade but it was light purple with green spines and a light green belly, and this raised another question to the ever growing number for Goldrax had.
“Why is your shade so colorful? I thought they could only be dark colors.” Goldrax said pointing at Spike.
“Shade?” Artemis said looking at the dream Spike. “He's not a shade, he is my friend in the real world. My first friend.” She sighed as a smile came to her face. “So how did you meet your friend?”
“I guess I created him.” Goldrax said remembering how his dragon came from his own energy and his desire to be stronger. “Through I don't know how I did it.”
Artemis seemed surprised to hear this, but something clicked in her head. What if there is a connection between me and him? That could explain why his shade looks like Spike.
The moment Artemis concluded that could be it but for now she wanted to just talk to this other pony so similar to her.
“Goldrax,” Artemis said causing the pony to perk up. “ Would you mind if I tell you something?”
“Not at all.” The Toa said. “What do you want to say?”
----
Twilight and the other equestrians seemed to be looking at this strange Toa, while they had only seen two other toa this one seemed far more fierce than Tahu and Gail. The Ce-ponies seem to stay away from Toa and seemed to be holding the baby dragon back with their magic.
“What did you do to Goldrax you mean creatures?” The dragon said fighting the magic that held him.
“The better question is what are you doing with this dude.” Rainbow Dash said walking over to the dragon. “Don’t you know that his group is responsible for taking one of our friend and attack our home.”
“He was following orders, and the worst he has done is send a shade to follow that white Toa since he wanted to act smart and not cause trouble.” The dragon countered as a shadow aura appeared around him. “Artemis told him that he was similar to her…”
“What did you just say.” Dash said as her eyes narrowed and cut off what the dragon was saying as she flew a small bit off the ground. “Artemis hates these guys, they kept taking her and tried to turn her back to Nightmare Moon.”
“Will you stop interrupting me and let me tell you the whole story not just what you think happened.” The dragon said as he seem to grow larger and his tone had a growl in it.
“Why should we?” Dash said with an aggressive tone in response of the dragon’s growl. “For all we know you could be lying to us.”
Apple Jack grabbed Rainbow’s tail with her mouth and pulled the pegasus away. “Come on you’re on watch with me.”
“Let me go, AJ.” Dash said trying to fight against the earth pony. “I was just getting started.”
“You were going to cause trouble now stop fighting.” AJ said out of the corner of her mouth.
“Sorry about her see is just scared even if she doesn’t show it.” Fluttershy said walking towards the dragon and spoke in a calm tone. “Now what did Goldrax tell you about Artemis?”
The aura around the dragon seemed to dissipate a bit but still could be seen. “During the briefing on the Toa Eclipse’s mission here I asked who was the she he was always thinking about.” The dragon said with the growl in his voice going to a hum.
The group looked like the dragon missed something, which he did, about how the two talked during the briefing.The dragon counted to talk and recall all that Goldrax told him.starting from when Goldrax yelling in his mind and finished at the point Goldrax woke up thinking that it was all a dream. While the Ce-ponies seemed a bit on the fence on what the black dragon said, the equestrians had some to be more inclined to trust him since that seemed to match what Mata Nui said and why Princess Luna ask him what the order was doing now and that now explains who she was referring to.
“Dragon, I have a question for you.” Fluttershy said in a soft voice, like a parent would speak to a child.
“Sure go ahead.” The dragon said as he seemed to calm down and look about the same before Rainbow Dash riled him up.
“How did you meet Goldrax?” Fluttershy asked trying to pronounce the toa’s name correctly.
“I came from him.” The dragon said which got surprised looks from the ponies. “What?”
“How? Just how?” was all Twilight asked as most of the others could not speak due to a thoughts that were going there their heads.
“Got me.” The dragon replied with the best shrug he could do at the moment. “Normal shades are just shadow energy given purpose, but I don’t know why I took this form when I should be a shift and not this rahi.”
“Spike is not that.” Rarity said finally fed up with how similar the shade looked like the little dragon that had a crush on her.
“Who’s Spike?” The dragon shade said confused looking at the white armored unicorn.
Twilight could see what Rarity meant by that, while it did disturb her that the dragon shade look like Spike but the sound of Spike’s voice coming out of him cause her to bite her tongue. This lead into Twilight explaining who Spike was and why they knocked Goldrax out. Meanwhile Rainbow Dash had yet to calm down but she shut up about it with Applejack keeping an eye on her.
“I wonder what Scoots is doing right now?” Dash thought as she kept her eyes forward. “I hope she is alright. She was having some bad dreams about that Icarax guy coming and harming me and her friends.” Dash felt anger come up in a memory of the first night after the attack and the tears that she saw in the little pegasus’s eyes. This was one of those moments that blurred the line between being a role mold/big sister and a mother like figure. While Rainbow thought this a pair of golden eyes looked at her for a moment then they were gone.
----
Lesovikk was amazed to hear what Blue had said about Trixie. From the look on her face when he glanced over to her while the robot explained how she took over the town of Ponyville due to a piece of jewelry known as the alicorn amulet. During this explanation, Technia was out getting firewood for her and Blue’s camp since she would not listen to Trixie when she said that Technia could sleep in her wagon with her. Technia just snuffed at this and kept working on a fire pit. On their way to where Blue detected the Vahki, Technia remembered that she had him check for basic survival techniques in his database, should something happen. After the two nights Technia was able to build a decent fire pit and thanks to Blue was able to find edible plants.
Lesovikk admired Technia’s survival skills, but he wanted to bury the hatchet between her and Trixie. Since Technia was not willing to talk to Trixie, he would try talking to her.
“Miss Technia,” Lesovikk said getting up from his seat across from Blue, who was in sleep mode, and walked over to the unicorn. “I would like to talk to you for a moment over there.” He asked pointing behind a few trees.
“Sure?” Technia said giving the pegasus an unsure glance.
When Lesovikk and Technia got out of normal hearing range for a pony, Blue got up and headed towards Trixie’s wagon. Once there he used one of his forefingers and thumb to lightly tap on the door, why he did not rap on the door in a fist is because he lives in a world of cardboard due to his vahki strength.
“Miss Trixie.” He said after tapping on the door. “I would like to talk to you.”
“What do you want?” came Trixie’s response from the still closed door.
“I would like to offer you somepony to talk to with no bias to you and would see it from the point of logic.” Blue said as the top of the door opened to a Trixie who seemed to have been crying not too long ago.
“How do I know that you’re not lying?” Trixie said trying to get a read on what the robot would say, which was hard since Blues eyes were black.
“Lies serve no purpose at this point in time since they would only cause more problems than solutions.” Blue replied being a bit more monotonous.
“Okay?” Trixie said confused.
Meanwhile Technia followed Lesovikk to a nearby lake where he stared into the water and with his mask she could not see his mouth but from what she saw from his eye there was sadness and pain.
“Tell me Miss Technia,” He said still focusing on the reflection in the water. “How do you think I got these scars on my armor?”
“From a fight I guess.” Technia said confused on why he asked.
“Yes it was a fight, it was the last fight that I ever had that I called myself Toa.” Lesovikk said turning to look at the unicorn and while his voice was calm in his eyes there were tears. “I have seen things that were far worse than what that robot of your’s told me about Trixie.”
“And you still stand by her?” Technia said raising her eyebrow.
“In my life I have seen my fair share of beings who are evil and corrupt; Trixie is none of those. I have seen what my life is like had a did something different thanks to that psycho.” Lesovikk said with a growl to himself.
“How did this being do that?” Technia asked.
“A tale for another time.” Lesovikk said turning away and headed back to the campsite.
Back with Blue and Trixie, after talking to Blue, Trixie felt much better. Blue meanwhile was processing what Trixie had spoke of, how she was not punished for her actions under the influence of the amulet but has to live with what she did to those who she so wrongly thought was the cause of her problem when she was the real one.
“Technia sees your lack of repercussions as a flaw that you are still a [censored rant].” Blue replied after opening a compartment for tissues in his arm.
“What do you mean by that censored rant?” Trixie asked confused.
“I have a voice chip that stops me from repeating things that must not be repeated.” Blue replied then he got up, but still had a slight hunch so he could walk in the wagon, heading towards the door.
“I guess you are going to head off to sleep or whatever you do at night.” Trixie said in confusion.
“No, but I think the toa’s plan was brilliant.” the vahki replied.
----
Icarax opened his good eye and squinted his other eye that would have been caked in dried green blood if not for the small healing ability that all the order member had. As he got up he noticed that his wings were tied to his body and there was not a hint of shadows with in sight only a blank whiteness that seemed to go on as far as he could see.
“Where in the karzahni am I?” he yelled out loud only for it to echo back to him.
He knew who did this to him but without the shadows his limited rahkshi powers would do him little good. So he used heat vision to mark an X into the ground and began to walked away from it.
----
Luna watched as Icarax moved from his spot in the infinity room, a room that goes on forever and that you can not be released from unless by a princess uses a spell that only the four of them know. Some part of her wanted to enjoy this for all the trouble that he had cause not only her country and it’s citizens, but her daughter. She shook her head and casted thoughts of evil intent away, Sombra did the same thing in the Crystal Empire. Now that she thought about it Icarax did remind her of Sombra, from what Artemis said the order member would brag about himself much like Sombra did in their battle. Luna wondered if Artemis was having a much easier sleep now that one of the major threats to her locked away for a good long time.
----
Vultraz stood in the main chamber of the fortress that he had decided to call it The Shadow’s domain, since he was so high in the order’s good graces Icarax left him in charge of this place. The rahkshi follow his orders now, the horrors that once served Icarax is now his to control and mold to how he sees fit. He had found a way to make it so that in one motion he could call shades when needed. He was able to do this is because he was one of the first shadow ponies, they were more powerful and had more defined shadow powers then the other ones. The blood red eyed crimson unicorn with gradient splashes of crimson to black on his body and a short black mane began his own plains. Just then a rahkshi of sonics came in and spoke it’s normal tongue to Vultraz about how some of the tracking rahkshi found tracks that did not match what they known of the natives transports.
“Are you sure about this?” Vultraz said intrigued by this. The rahkshi nodded which smiled at, “After a few thousand years he would have given up on our little game but it wants to continue than I am more than happy to do so.” With that an cocky evil smirk came to his face. “I want guards on alert at all times have more kraata put into armor and double the guards rahi, matoran, rahkshi, or otherwise.” He said moving away from the yellow and green armored rahkshi. From the corner of his eye Vultraz saw it nod and walk out of the room. Vultraz walked to the chair that was once Icarax’s and it was now his, but he was not stupid once his master was back he would reclaim his rightful spot. For now Vultraz was here and in charge.
----
Goldrax found what Artemis had said strange, not the part about Icarax or her fights with shades but this whole friendship thing and this school thing. He, like all shadow ponies, were treated like slaves with the more fierce of them getting better positions in the pecking order. That was his, and many of his fellow shadow pony, way of life. What Artemis spoke of was foreign as she was, in a way it seemed like a way of life he could learn to love.
“And that is my problem.” Artemis said finishing her long story. Her face still had a sad look but she seem to have a weight lifted off of her shoulders. She looked at the memory of Spike near her. “He is the only one that has accepted me as a friend and fiend that I once was.”
Goldrax notice this and then came to something that he should have seen before, the reason why his shade looked like that dragon. It was because he thought of her and her connection to this dragon gave the shade shape after Goldrax let his shadow powers fade to there normal levels. Just then the room seem to get wavy and become less solid and Artemis seem to be fading.
“What is going on?” Goldrax asked as his voice seem to get more towards his toa voice.
“You must be waking up.” Artemis said as she was almost completely gone. “I have a message for you to deliver for me. It is to tell a unicorn called Twilight that her little brother misses her.”
“Okay.” He said just as a blinding light hit him.
[Author’s notes: *opening for the song “If I Die In Battle” by Van Canto]