A Displaced Mask Hunter

by Runic_Soul

3 - An Abrupt Scouring

"Are you sure this is where you saw him heading, Rainbow?" Twilight asked as she looked down at the castle, the decrepit building standing forlorn in the valley.

"Sure I did!" Rainbow Dash quipped back, her mane blowing lightly in the wind, "I saw him walking this way just early after sunrise!"

"If that's true, than he should be here any minute now, according to my calculations," Twilight said, checking the time with a watch she had bought while she had been in Canterlot before slipping it back into her satchel. They had been told by Celestia to keep an eye out for the 'Toa' after they had told her of what had happened beforehand. Unfortunately, Fluttershy couldn't join them, since she had to find the rest of the animals that were displaced by Discord, and Rarity was held back because she was backlogged in work due to Discord setting her schedule back by days. Twilight was certain, though, that four, plus Spike to send new info to Celestia, would be enough to take this 'Toa' down. Of course, to ensure that he couldn't get over to the castle, Twilight had Rainbow hide the bridge so that the 'Toa' couldn't get across the gorge, which Pinkie had taken upon herself to use as a lookout stand.

"So, what are we going to do once we catch that varmint?" Applejack asked as she looked down the hill towards the path that led to the castle.

"Well, according to Princess Celestia, if we did come across him, we were supposed to capture him, with force being a more than likely course of action, and bring him to Celestia afterwards," Twilight said, only taking a moment to look at the orange pony before focusing again on the path below.

"And when we do, we'll throw a big 'Welcome-To-Equestria' party!" Pinkie exclaimed from her perch atop the wooden bridge, before falling off of it with a thump, her periscope rolling alongside her.

"...Right," Twilight and Applejack deadpanned in response as they looked at Pinkie being sprawled on the ground.

"Wait... I think I see him!" Rainbow whispered excitedly, and both Twilight and the rest of the four turned towards where she was pointing. Sure enough, a bipedal figure could be seen moving in their direction through the woods.

"Get down!" Twilight muttered as she crouched behind a large boulder, the others following suit as they hid behind various shrubbery and trees. They waited in anticipation as the figure stepped out of the woods. However, what came out was unlike anything that Twilight had seen before: It was obviously sapient, as given with the fact that it wore clothes. But, with its short black mane, short stumpy face, and even the make of the clothes, it was different from anything that she had seen before. It has to be a new species!, Twilight thought, a manic gleam developing in her eyes as she shifted her hooves back and forth in excitement. If she could study it, she might be able to earn the Canterlot Award of Science! As she prepared to go down to "introduce" herself, though, she stopped as the being walked towards the gorge and did something she had not expected at all.

Alex let out a muffled curse as a tree branch swung back to hit him in the back of the head. By Karzahni, it's like the whole forest is out to get me!, He thought as he rubbed the spot the tree hit him. His temperament wasn't eased in the slightest as he tripped over an unsuspecting log, sending him tumbling out of the woods onto a dirt path. Just my luck to fall onto a dirt road, he thought, beginning to get up before stopping as a thought struck him.

"...Dirt?" Alex muttered to himself. Getting up from his fallen stance, he looked around, and saw to his left, a decrepit castle. Whereas it would've been a magnificent sight in time’s past, it had since become decayed and broken, remnants of towers noticeable around the building. "This must be where the Elda is," he muttered to himself, grateful that he was at least somewhere on track now. As he neared the castle, though, he noticed that the castle was surrounded by a large gorge, with no visible bridge in sight. Alex looked down towards ends of the gorge, and let out a sigh when he failed to spot a way across.

"Well, that leaves me up a river with no paddle...," Alex said in false sadness, his shoulders slumping slightly for a few seconds before a smirk grew on his face. "Is what I would say if I didn't have Onu-Toa powers," he said, pulling the Kanohi out from under his arms. Lifting the mask onto his face, he felt the now-familiar energy travel through him, his body expanding until he was Nuparu Mahri once more. "Still not used to the transformation," Alex muttered to himself, removing the Blade from his back before stabbing the Blade into the earth, violet energy coursing through the Blade and into the earth below. All it took was a simple shifting of the Blade forwards, and the ground beneath him moved forwards until it touched the other side of the gorge. His task complete, he pulled the Blade from the ground and hilted it, but kept the Kanohi on his face in case he had to use the earth powers again.

"Now, where to find the Elda?" he muttered to himself as he walked over to the castle. As he passed underneath the threshold, he noticed two sets of stairs: The first, which was the more noticeable of the two, led upstairs, and towards what Alex could only assume was one of the few standing towers, though he was unsure of this. The second flight of stairs, though, was vastly concealed beneath the first flight, and it was only thanks to the low-light vision the Onu-Toa form had that enabled for him to notice the stairs.

"Considering that Mata Nui said the 'depths' of the castle, methinks I know which way to go," Alex to himself and, after ducking underneath the flight of stairs, began his descent in search of the Kanohi.

Twilight could not help but gape at what had just happened. This new species had not only transformed into the 'Toa' figure, but did so by just putting on a mask?! This was an unprecedented method of using magic that was unheard of until now! Forget the Canterlot Award, Twilight thought, the manic gleam in her eyes shining brighter, I'll earn the Equus Medal of Science and Magic for this discovery, and have a statue built in my honor!

"Spike!" she hissed in excitement, and the once slumbering Spike fell off the log he had fallen asleep on with a yell.

"What is it, Twilight? Did we capture that Toa yet?" Spike asked blearily, still drowsy from his abrupt awakening.

"Not yet, but I need for you to send a letter to Princess Celestia," Twilight said, and Spike, who woke up fully upon hearing the word 'letter', took out a quill and some parchment from his bag. Once Spike was ready to begin writing, Twilight cleared her throat before she spoke.

"Dear Princess Celestia," Twilight started to say, Spike writing down whatever came out of Twilight's mouth:

"I've found the 'Toa' I mentioned encountering shortly before and somewhat after the Elements of Harmony were used on Discord. Thanks to Rainbow Dash scouting out the Everfree Forest, we found him heading for the old castle. When he arrived while we were waiting for him, however, it turned out he was actually an undiscovered species, who transformed into his 'Toa' form by putting on a mask! I and a few others will be following him in pursuit shortly after this letter is sent.
Your student, Twilight Sparkle."

Her letter finished, Spike rolled up the letter before setting the parchment aflame with his fire breath, the letter travelling in a smoky trail towards Canterlot.

"C'mon, everypony, let's go after him! He can't have gone too far in!" Pinkie exclaimed, and everypony nodded in agreement, Rainbow Dash rubbing her hooves together in anticipation.

"Yes, let us find him. FOR SCIENCE!!," Twilight declared, hoof pointed in the direction the 'Toa' went. This caused for the others to look at her with an odd look on their faces. "I mean, for Equestria!" Twilight hastily corrected herself, wincing slightly at her slip-up. However, her sentence went unspoken as the group of five ran towards the castle, eager to catch up to the mysterious 'Toa'.

Alex shook his head as he rounded a corner, only to come to a stop as he came to yet another dead end. "Yeesh, what is this: a castle, or a labyrinth?" Alex muttered to himself as he turned around and backtracked several passageways. It had been at least an hour since he had entered the maze-like catacombs, and he still had no idea where the Elda was located!

As he stepped around a corner, however, he stopped as he heard a splash. Looking down, he noticed a small stream of water, his shoe submerged an inch in the trickle. “That wasn’t there before…” he mused, then looked in the direction the stream was coming from. In the stone wall, there was a large crack, the small stream trickling from the gap in the wall.
Roughly 40 feet in, Alex could see light seep in from the crack, showing that the crack exited to the outside. Alex moved towards the wall and put his hand on the crack. Concentrating for a few seconds, Alex forced his energy into the wall, his hand becoming enveloped in a purple aura. However, when he tried to push the energy into the wall, it only followed the cracks and mortar, leaving a web-like pattern on the wall. Alex quickly withdrew the energy, and frowned at this unexpected development. How was it that he could manipulate the earth with ease, but not these stone-

Alex froze as he realized the problem, then smacked himself upside the head. “Stupid!, He vocally chided himself. Of course he couldn’t manipulate the stone walls: He was a Toa of Earth! If I tried to manipulate the earth, I would only cause a cave-in!, he thought as he took off the Volitak. Once back in human form, he looked at the crack in the wall with a more critical eye. After a few minutes of studying the opening, he turned sideways and looked at the crack again before grinning.

“It’s a good thing I took Spelunking as one of my few Merit Badges while I was still in Boy Scouts,” Alex said to himself as he moved closer, then, with some difficulty, managed to slip through the crack, the Volitak in his forward right hand. As he traveled through the crack, he noticed that the water level gradually grew higher, until it had reached his ankles. As he reached the end of the crack, he felt the sides squeeze him slightly, but he managed to escape with a small *pop*, stumbling as he did so.

Alex righted himself, then looked around, examining this new area with the intent to find the Elda. The area itself was a spacious cavern, the room itself having rocky terrain. However, the roof of the cavern was clearly earthen, with both beams of light and roots reaching all the way to the ground. Not only that, but the stream he was standing had reached its origin point: A river easily ten feet wide, the river was made of raging rapids, the top of the river a frothing white. The only evidence that it was a river and not a pile of clouds was both the rocks jutting out from the surface, the waterfall crashing down on the left side of the river, and the opening on the left, a fine mist rising from the opening. In the center of the river, though, was the Elda, floating over a stone platform.

“There it is,” Alex said, and took a few step forwards only to stop as a portion of the rock crumbled into the creek, the portions quickly tumbling back towards the crack. That’s right, Alex thought as he looked from the creek to the raging river, If I’m not careful, it’s a quick flow and fall to my doom. Looking around at the surroundings, though, an idea began to form in his head. “If I take some of these roots,” Alex said to himself, grabbing a nearby root sticking out of the wall. Giving the root a few good tugs, Alex then proceeded to pull the root from the wall, the root slowly separating from the wall. Once Alex neared the edge of the river, he stopped, then gave one final yank, removing a few extra feet of root from the wall. “Now, simply wrap this around for support,” He said as he proceeded to wrap said root around his left arm, stepping back as he did so. Once he felt the root begin to become taut from the wrapping, he stopped, then turned towards the river.

“Hopefully, this will keep me from falling in,” Alex muttered to himself, then, after tugging once more to ensure the stability of the root, began to run at the river head-on, the Elda directly in his line of action. When he reached the edge, Alex jumped off the ledge and swung forwards, the root ‘swing’ keeping him from falling in the frothing water. As he neared the Elda, Alex reached out with his right hand, eager to grab it. However, his attempt drew short, his hand not even touching the Kanohi before he began to swing back. “Damnit, I didn’t go fast enough!,” Alex cursed as his feet touched the ground again. Using the energy from the first swing, Alex took a few extra steps before, using a upturned rock as a springpad, dashing forwards at the Kanohi again at an even greater speed. This time, Alex managed to reach the Kanohi, his fingers barely wrapping around the top of the Elda.

“It’s about time,” Alex said as he landed back on the ground, the root untwirling from his arm as he walked off the remaining energy from the swing. As he held the Kanohi in his hands, he noticed that it was quite squishy in comparison to the Volitak. But considering that it’s an ‘organic Kanohi’, that’s no surprise, Alex thought as he lifted the mask up and put it on his face. As the Kanohi’s power flowed through him, though, he noticed that the transformation was… different… from Nuparu’s. The feel of the energy was certainly one of the differences, with a comforting yet energizing feel to it, rather than it being rough and pushing down on him. However, he couldn’t help but notice that the build itself was different, the ‘muscles’ now slimmer and more lithe. As he opened his eyes, he noticed the third main difference: To be more precise, two main differences.

Twilight let out a huff as she arrived at yet another dead end, Rainbow Dash and Applejack sharing her irritation. Pinkie, on the other hand… was nowhere to be seen.

“It shouldn’t be this hard to find him!,” Rainbow grumbled, crossing her forelegs as she looked down a hallway a few feet behind Twilight.

“He’s certainly one slippery varmint, I’ll give him that,” Applejack said as she joined the other two.

“He’s got to be somewhere!,” Twilight said, looking back at the two, “Besides, with all of the area that we’ve covered, it shouldn’t be that much longer until-”

“WHY THE HELL DID I TURN INTO A FEMALE TOA?!?,” A voice exclaimed, and the three ponies turned towards the direction of the shout.

“It’s got to be the ‘Toa’!,” Rainbow exclaimed, then took off in the direction of the voice.

“Hold up,” Applejack said, and soon gave chase, Twilight following shortly behind. As the two ran after Rainbow, a thought came into the forefront of Twilight’s thoughts: How is it that the ‘Toa’ can change genders?

“Okay, Alex, calm down,” Alex said to himself, his voice holding borderline hysteria as he looked at his body, trying to figure out how he had transform into a different gender, “You’ve transformed into a perfect version of Nuparu before; it’s no stretch that you’d be transformed into a perfect version of Hahli, gender and all.” As he began to calm down, he noticed a faint buzzing noise being emitted from somewhere. Looking at the entrance, he noticed that the buzzing noise was becoming louder. Is this the power of the Elda?, he thought, and readied himself for whatever came at him, his right hand grabbing the blaster that had been hanging at his side until now and held it up, ready for whatever came at him. As he did so, he noticed a second buzzing sound coming from underneath him.

Wait, underneath?

Alex leapt to the side, and was barely able to avoid being swallowed as a sinkhole opened up under his previous position. What came out, though, made Alex’s heartlight stop for a few seconds: A metallic screech reverberated through the chamber, before a green chicken-like machine climbed out of the hole. “Bohrok,” Alex whispered, a tinge of fear entering his voice as more Bohrok proceeded to pour out of the hole. He took a step back as he prepared to flee, only for the blaster to knock against a rock. This noise drew the attention of some of the Bohrok that had already got out of the hole, and they turned to him, letting out a ear-grating screech before charging at Alex.

Alex stumbled back as the Bohrok drew closer, but was too slow as the lead Pahrak lashed out with its head, the blunt, spear-like head slamming into Alex and sending him flying into the wall. As Alex slammed into the wall, his hand tightened around the blaster’s handle and let out a surge of water and lightning from the blaster, blasting the Pahrak back. Alex stared at the fallen Bohrok for a few seconds, allowing for the remaining Bohrok to escape from the hole and close in, before a feral grin grew on his face.

“Say hello,” Alex said as he pointed the harpoon at the oncoming Bohrok, “to the Conduit Cannon!” With that said, he pulled the trigger and let out a flood of water and lightning at the Bohrok. Though the charged torrent held back the group for a few minutes, Alex soon had to move when the Levahk in the group launched a wave of acid. As he rolled closer to the Bohrok, he reached out with the harpoon and, using the claw on the harpoon, ripped the Krana out of the nearby Parahk. Without its pilot, the machine slumped down and fell inactive. As he got back on his two feet, Alex thought he heard someone gasp, but shrugged it off as he focused on the remaining nine Bohrok. Using the same method that he had used to take out the first Bohrok, he soon moved between Bohrok to Bohrok, ripping the Krana out while avoiding both the lunging Bohrok and their bladed shields.

Soon, only one Levahk remained, Alex standing across from it with the Harpoon hanging loosely from his hand. For a few seconds, the two stared at each other, neither moving in an inch. Then, the Levahk let out a screech before rushing forward. Alex jumped over the Levahk as it rushed under him, and flipped the lid open, launching the Krana wide and sending the Levahk sprawling. As Alex landed on his feet, he looked at the surrounding Bohrok that were strewn on the ground, then frowned. Why is it that there hasn’t been a single Bohrok-Va that has shown up, Alex thought, looking across the room for any sign of a Va that was waiting to re-load the Bohrok with Krana. A sudden movement to the left drew his attention, only to stop as he spotted the purple unicorn from before pick up a Krana Ja with her telekinesis (‘levitation’), moving the Krana closer to her face as if she was going to put it on.

“Get away from that thing!” Alex shouted as he lunged forwards, knocking the Krana out of her grasp with the laser harpoon. The Krana let out a screech as it flew across the room, only to be silenced as it was knocked into the river, the torrent sweeping it away in seconds. Alex’s good deed would not go unpunished, though, as he was soon kicked viciously from his side, sending him airborne, before a second kick sent him flying into the ground. The impact left him dazed for a few seconds, but he soon regained his bearings. When he looked back at the unicorn, he saw the stetson-wearing ‘earth pony’ and the rainbow-maned ‘pegasus’ that he had seen with the purple unicorn had now joined her, the three glaring at him.

“What was that for?!” The purple unicorn asked angrily, her horn beginning to glow a light purple.

“Do you have any idea what you almost did?!” Alex asked, frustration entering his voice as he pried himself out of the ground. This shocked the ponies, who hadn’t expected the tone from him, as he continued to reprimand them. “That thing,” Alex continued, pointing at a nearby Krana for emphasis, “Was a Krana. They are the minds behind the Bohrok, the machines that were attacking me earlier, and only have one purpose: To clean all.”

“And how is that bad?” the earth pony asked, “After all, isn’t it a good thing that it cleans everything up?”

“I’m afraid that you don’t understand what that means. ...They consider all ‘life’ as ‘dust’,” Alex replied, “Once they are activated, they will eliminate everything on this planet, be it building, forest, or lifeform. All they care about is leaving this planet as nothing but one big dirtball.” At the end of this explanation, all three of the ponies faces were showing various levels of horror, with the earth pony and unicorn showing the most disgust, though the pegasus showed equal amounts of disgust and interest.

“Not only that,” Alex continued, “But when a Krana gets attached onto another being, the being will-” His warnings were cut off, though, when a pink earth pony slung herself over his shoulder.

“Hi!” the pink pony chirped.

“How did you sneak up on me?” Alex asked in a deadpan tone, his face matching his tone.

“I lived on a rock farm for most of my childhood, silly!” the pink pony replied, then pointed to Alex’s right, letting out a giggle as she did so. True enough, when Alex looked over in that direction, a hole was in the wall, with wooden beams supporting the entrance.

“I guess that answers the ‘how’,” Alex said with a slight grimace.

“Hey, don’t have a frown,” the pink pony stated, then pulled a cupcake out of her poofy mane, “Have a cupcake!” However, when the pony tried to feed him the cupcake, Alex was quick to swat the pastry away before flinging the pony over her shoulder, leaving her lying strewn on the ground.

“What was that for? She was just trying to give you a cupcake!” The orange pony said, a look of anger growing on all of the ponies’ faces. Well, all except for the pink pony’s face: Since she was facing away, Alex couldn’t make out what expression was on her face, the only hint of how she was feeling was her hair slowly flattening.

“Oh, I have my reasons,” Alex said as the pink pony’s hair completely flattened, and she began to make sniffling sounds, “Or rather, one big reason: If even a crumb had entered my mouth, I would’ve most likely-” Alex was cut off as the rainbow-maned pony launched herself at him, slamming him into the ground as she proceeded to hit him again and again.

“How could you make her cry?!” The pegasus shouted as she hit him again and again, her face showing her rage, “She was only trying to be friendly!” When the pegasus lifted both of her forehooves to slam into him, Alex knocked her off of her feet the flat of his blaster, then rolled back so as to get out of her range. As the two got to their feet and looked at each other, ready for the other to make their move, when an abrupt shout interrupted the battle:

“HUZZAH!!!”

Only because Alex was facing the crack was he able to react in time, swinging the blaster to catch the halberd with the blade as a unicorn with wings (‘alicorn’) dropped from above and lunged with her halberd. The two pushed against the other’s weapon before stepping back, the two glaring at each other.

“Forsooth, so thou art the villain who hath been terrorizing thy citizens,” the alicorn stated, pointing the blade of the halberd at Alex. Alex looked wary at the mare, but nodded nonetheless.

“Verily well, then,” the alicorn said, then pointed her halberd at him, “Have at thee!” With that, she turned into a dark smoke before spiralling at him, weaving back and forth as she charged at him in a patternless path. Taking advantage of her weaving, Alex ran towards the closest Levahk shell while firing a blast of lightning and water at the animate cloud. As the animate smoke cloud swerved away from the elemental beam, Alex took the hesitance to run towards the right exit of the river. When he reached the river, he stopped for a few seconds, and looked down at the exit, seeing only the white mist in return. With the alicorn closing in, Alex took this chance and did the only thing he could think of:

He jumped.

Twilight stared in both shock and confusion at where the ‘Toa’ had jumped from. Why would he try to flee, rather than fight like he had beforehand?

“Come on, let’s go after him!” A voice cried out, and Twilight turned to see Rainbow Dash ready to chase after the ‘Toa’.

“That is not necessary,” a voice said, and the four ponies turned to see Luna reform from her smoky form, “The bottom of thy waterfall has spikes strewn underneath thy surface. Thou would hath to be a master of water to prevent thy demise.” With that said, she charged her horn and prepared to teleport. “Now, let us be on our way. This place has… bad memories for us.” As the four ponies drew closer to Luna to join the teleportation, Twilight slipping a few ‘Krana’ into her sidepack for later study, a thought struck her... bringing doubt of the ‘Toa’s’ demise to her mind.

“...Wait a minute…” Twilight slowly said, her eyes travelling over the river and the fallen ‘Bohrok’ units. When they had arrived, the ‘Toa’ had shot streams of lightning to stun them. However, the streams were mostly made of…

In a flash, Twilight realized what this meant, and turned towards the Princess of the Night, her eyes widening at the surprise of her realization. Stepping towards Princess Luna, she began to say, “Princess Luna, don’t teleport us-”

“-yet!” Twilight finished, only to stop as she realized where she was.

“What is wrong, Twilight?” Luna asked, her friends also looking at her in confusion.

“When we arrived at the scene, the ‘Toa’ was fighting these creatures called ‘Bohrok’,” Twilight said, her friends nodding in agreement to this. “However, when he was fighting, he had used elemental blasts that were water charged with lightning.” At this, Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie realized what she was getting at, the former two verbally showing their upset.

“We do not follow,” Luna said, though she seemed to start to connect two and two together.

“When we were waiting for him to appear, we saw him use a different form to manipulate the earth to a mastery most unicorns can’t reach,” Twilight continued to say, “If he was able to manipulate earth in that form, then was a water user in the form we saw shortly there…” It was then that Luna realized what Twilight was getting at, and proceeded to curse at a level that Twilight immediately covered Spike’s ears (Who had fallen asleep during the search, and had ridden on Twilight’s back for the rest) so as he wouldn’t hear it.

… Twilight hoped future encounters with this ‘Toa’ went better than Luna’s current language.