“Vakama?” Nokama hissed as the pony continued to limp towards them.
“Guys, we can try talking.” Twilight pointed out.
“I don’t think it will talk.” Nuju pointed out.
“You can try.” Vakama said.
“Thank you.” Twilight said, before stepping forward. As she did this, the shadow pony stopped dead, and stared directly at Twilight. “Hello?”
The pony cocked its head to one side, shutting its mouth, but not making a single sound.
“Ummm…do you know where you are?” Twilight continued, but to be met with only the same response.
“Sugarcube…I’m not sure it’s workin’” Applejack said hesitantly.
“Ah, ba, ba, ba, ba.” Twilight said, waving her hoof in Applejacks direction. “I am Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic. With me are Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony, as well as the six Toas of the Toa Metru team.” Twilight introduced. “Who are you?”
Once again, the pony simply cocked its head to one side, but this time, it raised a single hoof, and slammed it down, making the first sound since it had appeared.
“Is that progress or…” Matau asked, before Rainbow cried out.
“Guys? More of them.” She said, pointing into the shadows again.
As she did so, ponies began to appear out of the shadows, they weren’t hiding within the shadows, but were physically materialising out of the very essence of the shadows. As more and more shadow ponies began to appear, the Toa slowly drew their own weapons, creating a cordon between the oncoming ponies and the Elements of Harmony.
“Girls, stay behind us.” Nokama ordered, brandishing her weapons in front of her.
“Ok, Matau, Whenua, you take the left. Onewa, Nuju, take the right side. Nokama, help me with the centre.” Vakama ordered, loading his disk launcher.
“Are you guys sure about this?” Fluttershy squeaked.
“I would rather not.” Vakama said softly.
The ponies began to approach, and the Toa readied themselves to combat them. Then, just as quickly as they had arrived, they stopped dead, surrounding the Toa, but not approaching any further.
“They stopped.” Matau observed.
“Really?” Rainbow asked scathingly. “Is that your intellect showing through again?”
“Stop it. Now.” Onewa hissed.
“What do you think they are doing?” Twilight asked.
“Good soldiers wait for orders.” Vakama mused.
“So they’re waiting for whatever’s in charge?” Rarity asked.
“That can’t be good.” Whenua moaned,
Slowly, the Toa began to move backwards, but the Shadow ponies instantly moved around the back of the group, cutting off the main avenue of escape. Once again though, they didn’t attempt to do anything more than block the group in.
“Looks like this is it.” Onewa observed, looking at the ponies just in front of him.
As he did, the shadow ponies parted down the middle, splitting into two groups, and forming a corridor down the centre of them.
“What do you think it is?” Applejack asked, as the Toa bunched closer together.
“We’re about to find out.” Vakama growled.
As he said that, an actual foot slammed down just into the view of the Toa, before slowly, an entire creature pulled itself into view.
“That’s not possible.” Whenua breathed, as he caught sight of the creature.
The creature itself was big, standing slightly taller than the Toa themselves, and wielding a fearsome looking staff in both of its hands. Its armour was the exact same colour as Onewas armour, a dark brown colour, which was only broken up by the glowing red eyes it sported.
“Rah-kah-nash.” The creature hissed, pointing towards the small group with its spear.
With that command, a ripple spread throughout the group of shadow ponies, and as one, they surged forwards, clashing with the Toa.
“Don’t hurt them.” Fluttershy called desperately from the middle of the group.
“Trying.” Matau grunted, pushing a shadow pony away from him before its gnashing jaws could snap down on his neck. Ducking another hoof strike, he hit the pony with the flat of one of his aero-slicers, knocking it to the side.
“You ok there brother?” Whenua asked, pushing a pair of ponies away, before another one jumped on his back, clamping its jaws around his shoulder, and drawing a scream from the black Toa.
“Brother!” Onewa shouted, jumping over to Whenua and tearing the pony of his back, throwing it against a wall with a sickening thud.
“Careful.” Vakama yelled, before turning to look out at the ever growing crowd of shadow ponies. “We need to get out of here.”
“Agreed.” Nokama grunted. “Twilight? Are you and the others ready to move?”
“Yes.” She replied from her position in the centre of the circle of Toa.
“Be ready then.” Nuju said, casting his eye behind him.
“Vakama, I have a plan.” Nokama shouted, pushing away an encroaching shadow pony.
“What?” Vakama grunted, aiming a disk at the ceiling over the leader and collapsing it upon it. The creature itself simply looked amused as it raised its staff, firing a bolt of energy at the falling piece of masonry, shattering it into nothing but dust.
“A pinpoint application of maximum force on a minimal area of resistance may allow us to break through the defence and allow us to break out of this situation.” Nokama replied.
“Y’all lost me there Sugarcube.” Applejack said from behind Nokama.
“Attack in one direction.” Matau summed up quickly, sweeping the legs out from a pony in front of him, before bringing the hilt of his sword down on the back of another ponies head.
“What is it with eggheads and making everything seem complicated?” Rainbow asked, trying once again to get around Vakamas legs and join the fight, but failing as Vakama cut her attempts short.
“Because it makes sure that the rest of my brothers understand me.” Nokama grunted.
“I will take the rear guard position. Nokama, you lead the others out of the temple. We will all meet up outside of the temple. Is everybody ready?” Vakama asked.
“Ready.” Came the near unanimous reply from the group.
“I’ll help you cover the rear Vakama.” Twilight said, moving her way through the other elements until she was next to Vakama.
“Out of the question. Nokama, move now.” Vakama ordered.
Instantly, the Toa moved there combat structure around until they were pushing their way back towards the entrance through which they came. Vakama on the other hand, was walking backwards behind the group, delivering sweeps and punches to keep the majority of the ponies at bay. Any that did get through were quickly dealt with by one of the other five Toa. Slowly but surely, they were making their way towards the exit.
“This is actually working.” Onewa laughed, lashing out at a pony who had manage to sneak past Vakama.
“What was that other thing?” Rarity asked, keeping herself well within the safety that the Toa provided.
“Something that shouldn’t be here.” Whenua growled.
“What?” Twilight asked. “It looked kind of like you.”
“Exactly.” Whenua said.
“Was that the Makuta?” Applejack asked, her face becoming gaunt.
“If it was, we would be in a lot more trouble.” Nuju replied.
“I think we’re getting near the entrance.” Onewa called out.
“Wouldn’t that be the exit?” Pinkie piped up.
“She is right there.” Rainbow laughed, kicking a shadow pony who got past Vakama
“Nokama, how far?” Vakama shouted, using his disk launcher to push more ponies away.
“Twenty meters. Maybe thirty.” She replied.
“Keep moving them. I can keep this up fo…” Vakama began, but was cut off by a roar.
Vakama turned to look at the origin of the roar, and watched as the same creature from before appeared around the corner.
Slowly, the creature raised its staff, pointing it first at the group, before raising it slightly higher to aim directly at the archway over the exit.
“Get out.” Vakama said softly.
“What?” Whenua asked.
“I said get out!” Vakama screamed, before turning and picking Rainbow Dash up and hurling her bodily out of the temple.
“I’m confused.” Fluttershy said softly as Rainbow flew overhead.
“Oh Celestia.” Twilight whispered, turning to see what Vakama had seen.
Her eyes alighted upon the creatures’ staff, which was now beginning to glow at one end. As she saw this, her eyes went wide, and she finally realised what Vakama was insinuating.
“Get out!” She screamed, charging her horn and sending out a massive pulse of energy in a cone in front of her.
The Toa and the four remaining Elements of Harmony were lifted from their feet, or the appendages that they used to get around. The same purple aura that surrounded Twilights horn surrounded them, before another pulse sent them flying out of the temple.
“Nice.” Vakama grunted, a moment before the creature fired the energy pulse it had been charging.
The energy impacted just above the archway, causing a single crack to appear in it, before the entire thing began to crumble.
“Time to go.” Vakama shouted, picking Twilight up and preparing to run through the falling hail of debris.
“Too late.” Twilight groaned, her head still spinning from the spell she had performed.
While she could quite easily pick up an ursa minor these days, with very little effort, attempting to pick up four full sized ponies and five Toa, all of whom were in a non-standard formation, and were unaware of what Twilight was about to attempt, did require a lot of effort. The result had been Twilight nearing the point of unconsciousness.
“Chin up.” Vakama grunted, trying to pick his way through the falling rocks.
They almost got out, and they could make out the others calling for them from the outside. Raising his disk launcher, Vakama attempted to fend off another rock. Unfortunately, he miscalculated the trajectory of the falling rubble by just a fraction, and instead of bouncing harmlessly off his weapon, it impacted on his wrist, causing his weapon to skid out of his grasp and into a corner.
“VAKAMA!” Matau screamed, before the final rocks crashed down over the exit, sealing the two groups apart.
“No!” Vakama screamed in reply, slamming his fist on the wall.
Placing Twilight on the floor, making sure to place the unconscious unicorn behind him, he readied himself to defend her until his brothers and sister could get in to help them.
They’d get there soon.
…
…
…
Wouldn’t they?
***
“We have to get them out!” Matau shouted, running over to the collapsed entrance, grabbing hold of a small rock and pulling it away.
“Stand back!” Whenua called, pulling his earthshock drills from behind his back.
The drills began to gyrate, until they were nothing more than a blur. Bringing them close to the rock, he pushed them into the debris, slowly cutting into the rock face.
“How long is this going to take?” Rainbow asked frantically, nervously hovering behind the Toa.
“It’s thick.” Whenua grunted. “Thirty seconds, maybe more.”
“Oh Celestia.” Fluttershy squeaked. “I hope they’re ok.”
“Vakama and Twilight are strong. They’ll be fine.” Nokama reassured Fluttershy, but failing miserably to even reassure herself.
Exactly forty eight seconds later, Whenua had finally created a tiny break in the rock, and pulled his drills out of the wall, gesturing for Onewa.
“It would take to long to drill a big enough hole.” He explained.
“This is where I come in then.” Onewa smiled.
Drawing his fist back, he slammed it into the gap Whenua had created, before channelling his elemental power deep into the wall of stone.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, with a loud ‘CRACK’, a spider web like fissure appeared in the wall originating from the small hole in the wall.
“Stand back.” Onewa said quietly, withdrawing his hand. Bringing his foot up, he kicked out at the wall, and the entire wall fractured, before collapsing in front of him.
“Quickly, spread out and find them.” Nokama ordered.
Instantly, the ten creatures spread out, frantically searching the inside of the un-unnervingly empty temple.
After ten minutes of frantic searching, the group met once again, this time outside of the temple, just in case anything happened again. Eventually, Pinkie broke the silence.
“So…did you guys find anything?” She asked slowly.
“This.” Rarity said, holding up Vakamas disk launcher.
“But, he never puts that thing down.” Nuju said.
“Exactly.” Rarity replied.
After another moment of silence, Pinkie once again broke it.
“Any sign of Twilight?” She asked, her bottom lip trembling slightly.
“None.” Fluttershy whispered.
Instantly, Pinkie burst into tears, pulling a handkerchief out from nowhere and using it to wipe her eyes.
“Whenua?” Applejack asked. “You seemed ta know what that creature was.”
“It was wrong.” He replied. “Come on, we need to tell Celestia about this.”
“But, what was it?” Rainbow asked.
“Rahkshi.” He said darkly.