BIONICLE: Toa of Harmony

by ToaofTwilightZ

Chapter 3: Beware the Kapura, Kane-Ra Can't Ice Skate

“Well, ah’ll be,” said Applejack. “It ain’t ev’ry day ya find out ya’ll ‘n’ yer friends‘re legendary heroes and gotta stop an evil nutcase.”
The farm mare walked between rows of large, ornately carved statues of maskless matoran heads on a rough desert path. Behind her stood a massive wall of stone some five stories high. At the base of the wall was a tunnel carved directly into the natural monument: the gates of Po-Koro village. Atop the wall stood the tan-armored Turaga Onewa, the leader of this village, leaning on his massive stone hammer as he watched Applejack go.
Applejack chuckled to herself. “Heh, fer us it’s usually ev’ry other week. Still,” the earth pony’s voice trailed off as she looked back at Turaga Onewa, who had turned away to return to his adobe hut. “It was mighty nice of that Onewa feller t’ offer ta look after Applebloom while we’re here.” Applejack shifted her gaze down to her saddlebags. “Not to mention give me this fancy mask.”
Applejack started walking again. In the distance, barely visible through the shimmering air rising from the desert floor, loomed a large, snowy mountain. According to Onewa, the temple where the other Toa would meet was just on the other side of Mount Ihu. Still, it would take hours for a pony to cross the vast desert, climb the slopes of the mountain, and scramble down the other side, especially without wings or magic.
Then again, thought Applejack as she once again looked at her saddlebags. The orange mare pulled the Mask of Speed from her bags and put the metal object over her face, its dull-gray surface shifting to a deep brown as an energy to rival Pinkie Pie raced through her entire body. Applejack placed her Stetson back atop her head, her bangs flowing over the top of her new mask, pointed her body straight at the distant Mount Ihu, and started running. As the landscape around her blurred from brown to gray, and from gray to white, and the wind whipping at her blond mane grew ice cold, the farm-pony couldn’t help but cheer with delight.
“YEEe…“

“-HAAAAAWWWW!!!!!!!”
Rarity the unicorn had no time to recognize the voice before the snowy cliff-side above her collapsed, burying her up over her horn in snow with low rumble and a *WHOOMPH!!!!*
Who under Celestia’s sun and Luna’s moon would be foalish enough to yell on a mountain? Rarity thought to herself. She then heard a familiar voice.
“Hoooo-whee! Ah reckon its time ta challenge Rainbow to another race!”
Of course, Rarity thought as she ran a brush through her mane and tail to dislodge the ice crystals. She then popped out of the snow, growling “Appleja-a-a-a…” Her voice trailed off as she saw her friend. Or, rather, an orange mare with a familiar hat who sounded like her friend. But this mare wore a brown mask over her face, and her mane was frozen in icicles shooting straight out from the back of her head. The pattern was repeated upon the mare’s tail, and the fur all over her body was slicked back with frozen sweat, blurring the red apple cutie mark to make it look as if the fruits were flying through the air. A red ring hung from one of the icicles, apparently having fallen out of its owner’s mane only to be flash-frozen in mid-air. Rarity didn’t know whether to faint at the horrible mess, fall over laughing in relief at a friendly face, or try to help fix her friend’s appearance. She chose to do all three, in that order.
“Rarity, that you?” Applejack asked, staring confusedly at the white and purple unicorn splayed out on the ground laughing. “Ah, who am ah kiddin', 'course it’s you! Only ya’ll would have yer mane so neat after getting’ buried in snow. Sorry about that, by the way. Hey, what’re ya’ll laughin’ at?”
Rarity got up from the snow, struggling (and failing miserably) to stifle more laughter and regain her composure. She tossed her mane as she pulled a hair-dryer, a brush, and a mirror out of her saddle-bags. The hair-dryer was designed to run on the magic of the unicorn using it, so it could operate anywhere. Rarity offered the mirror to Applejack as she walked over to where her friend was standing and began melting the icicles. “I’m terribly sorry Applejack, but just look at your mane! You are an absolute mess! Whatever happened to you?”
Applejack struggled against a hard tug from behind as Rarity tried to dislodge a large chunk of ice from her friend’s mane. The result was for the chunk to fly off and shatter over the unicorn’s pointed head. “A funny-lookin’ metal feller named ‘Too-RA-Ga Ah-new-wa,’” here Applejack struggled with the pronunciation, “gave me this here mask o’ speed. I put it on, started runnin’, an’ before ah new it, wound up here. ‘Sides, ya’ll don’t look too ‘fabulous’ yerself, Sugarcube. Least mah mask don’t got a telescope stickin’ outta mah eye.”
Rarity paused from her work on AJ’s tail to reach a hoof up to her mask. Matoro had called it the kanohi Akaku, the mask of X-Ray vision. Turaga Nuju, of course, had called it “chirp-chirp-SHRIEK!-cluck-squawk”, before the eccentric elder punctuated his outburst with a sharp clap. Matoro claimed Nuju was speaking the language of birds and flying rahi, and Rarity chose not to wonder the purpose of talking to birds on a desolate mountain without any flying wildlife, nor why the language would involve hand motions where birds don’t have arms. “Yes, well, my intention was to replace this mask with the one at the top of this mountain before being seen by the others. I was told by an adorable little creature named Matoro that we would each need to collect six different masks anyway, so thought to myself, ‘why not start now?’ Efficiency, yes?”
“Ah gotcha’, Sugarcube. Hay, speakin’ of cute little critters, Applebloom’s here too. The turaga in that desert village back there agreed to look after her.” The earth pony pointed an orange forehoof toward the collection of statues and adobe houses she just came from, now the size of a jagged marble framed by snowy cliffs, the dusty desert, and a sparkling blue sea.
“Really? Because before I left, Nuju sent Sweetie Belle and another matoran by cable car down to that beach by the volcano.” Though Sweetie insisted she was fine, Rarity knew the cold slopes of the mountain were no place for a young filly, especially without enough warm clothes for the both of them.
“Probably fer the best. So hey, want some help gettin’ that new mask? Ah was gonna hafta’ climb the mountain anyway to get to the temple where the others’re meetin’, so why not go t’gether?”
Rarity stepped back from her finished work with sparkling eyes and an open-mouthed grin. “Why, that’s a wonderful idea, Applejack!”
The unicorn twirled on a hoof and started up the mountain path, flicking her tail as a signal to follow. Applejack frowned in irritation as she walked after her friend. “Ya’ll don’t have to act so surprised.”
Rarity was the first to peak over the ridge at the peak of the mountain. Applejack couldn’t entirely remember how, when, or why she was carrying Rarity’s saddlebags in addition to her own; she was just grateful that at least now gravity could do most of the work on the way back down down.
Rarity stopped ahead of Applejack in a state of shock. She could only utter one word to describe the sight resting on the peak. “No.”
“What is it, Rare?” asked Applejack, fear creeping into her voice. “What’s wrong?”
“This is THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!!!” The unicorn fell backwards onto Applejack in a melodramatic faint, causing the earth pony mare to collapse under the combined weight of saddle bags and unicorn.
“What’s the matter? Is the mask not here? Is it broken? What?”
Rarity raised her head and pointed a white hoof at a gray object sitting in a mound of snow. The mask was shaped somewhat like a helmet, with the ridge jutting out over the eye-holes and three slashes across each cheek.
“It looks even worse the one I have on right now!” the unicorn whined.
Applejack dead-panned. “Is that all?” she asked flatly.
Rarity stared in shock at her best friend. “IS THAT ALL?! Why, Applejack, this is a nightmare! How is a lady such as myself supposed to save an entire island civilization, wearing something so…so…UUGGH!” Rarity groaned, realizing she was talking to the one mare under Luna’s moon least likely to understand the significance of her problem.
Applejack rolled her eyes as she walked over to the center of the peak and picked up the mask. “Look. From what ya’ll said, we’re all gonna need a mask like this one ta’ do what we gotta do an’ git home. If’n it’ll make ya feel better, ah can take this one, but you’re gonna hafta git over how stuff looks ‘n do what needs ta’ git done. The folks ‘round here call that duty, ‘n ah think they got th’ right ahdea.”
Applejack glanced over the side of the mountain to spot 4 multi-colored dots coming to gather in a stone circle far below. “An’ right now ah think we need ta’ git t’ that temple, if’n we don’t wanna be late fer Pinkie’s ‘Wacky Island Adventure’ party.”

Applejack and Rarity carefully navigated down side of Mount Ihu. The shelf they were on was sloped downward just enough that if they lost their footing, just once, they would be flying right of a cliff in a matter of seconds. Large outcroppings of rock stood up from the thick snow at their hooves. Beneath the snow, it was difficult to tell whether the ponies’ next step would push through to solid rock, or a patch of ice. Rarity was decided to be at the front of this expedition, her close attention to detail (and X-Ray vision) allowing her to determine a safe path free of ice. Applejack had found a rope in her saddlebags and used it to tether Rarity to herself. The idea was that if Rarity slipped, the muscular earth pony would act as an anchor to keep the two from falling.
Rarity was daintily brushing the snow from a rocky patch before them, Applejack maybe two yards away, when a fierce roar split the silence. Both ponies looked behind them to check for an avalanche. To their relief, nothing fell from the cliff above. As another roar echoed off the stone, the two mares looked at each other nervously.
“Rarity, what was that?” Applejack tried in the calmest voice she could muster.
“I’m not sure,” Rarity spoke back, also trying to remain calm, “but if it’s what I think, then we may want to hide.”
As the sound of ice cracking beneath dull, heavy hoof beats became audible, Applejack jumped and slid behind a large boulder, using the stone to stop her momentum. Rarity was checking frantically around her for the best places to step as she climbed up to friend, but it was taking the perfectionist unicorn forever to choose each step. As the hoof beats became louder, Applejack anchored herself against the boulder and pulled the unicorn up. Rarity squealed as she lost her footing and began sliding against her will. As soon as the unicorn came near the hiding spot, Applejack reached out a hoof and covered Rarity’s mouth, motioning for her purple-maned friend to be silent. The two carefully peeked their heads up over the boulder.
At first, they saw nothing but the rock, snow, and icy they had been climbing for hours. Then, with bellow, and grunting, snorting beast exploded through a large drift, ice and snow flying everywhere. The monster was covered in dark gray armor and was about the size of a Manticore. Blood-red horns twisted up from the sides of its head, and ice beneath the creature’s black hooves had a spider-web of cracks. In all, the creature looked to Applejack like a cross between the most ornery bull in the world and the evil robots in those sci-fi books Twilight likes to read. Rarity and Applejack ducked behind their tiny fort and began whispering to each other.
“So, ya’know what it is? ‘Cuz ya’ll said we’d wanna hide if you were right, an’ ah reckon that’s the kinda thing a pony would wanna hide from,” Applejack asked as softly as she could.
“The creature I met earlier wasn’t anything quite like this, but I’d guess this is another of what the Turaga refer to as ‘Rahi,’” Rarity whispered. “Rahi are the nastiest, most unfriendly monsters I’ve ever met. I’m told that sometimes the Makuta may command these creatures about, but many of them are plenty vicious on their own. The one I had the displeasure to meet was a wasp twice as large as I am, and was able to carry one unfortunate villager high into the sky before I was able to get a snowball into one of its eyes.”
“So basically, it was nothing like this ‘un, an’ ya’ll ‘ve got no idea how to deal with this critter.”
Rarity nodded. “That would be correct, yes. Applejack, you’re a rodeo pony; surely you dealt with angry cattle before?”
“There’s a difference between Daisy Joe and a giant robot!”
Applejack covered her mouth as the beast turned its head in the direction of the outburst. The monster snorted, hoofed at the ground, then charged straight toward the boulder. Rarity looked on and said, “The thing does realize it’s charging into 2-tons of rock? Most likely cemented to the ground by rock or ice?”
Applejack’s eyes widened. “Don’t matter. Ah’ve seen Big MacIntosh crush rocks twice this big with one kick. Didn’t even get a runnin’ start. Ah’m no Twi when it comes ta’ physics, but a monster that size would prob’ly be able ta send this here rock ta’ Po-Wahi, not even considerin’ the two ponies behind it…”
Rarity’s face paled. She grabbed Applejack with both forehooves and shook the farm mare. “No! What are we going to do, Applejack? I’m too young and beautiful to die! Oh, but how will Equestria survive if I die here? Who will set the standard for all things beautiful if I, Rarity the unicorn, am not there to shine as an example of what true fashion really is? This is absolute, positively, the. WORST. Possible. THING!!!!!”
Applejack panicked, looking around for something, some idea of how to stop a ferocious, rampaging monster. She would have to look with Rarity’s eyes, as the unicorn, it seemed, would be incapable of any form of coherent thought. Around her she saw rock, ice, snow, the cliff. She saw her friend’s horn and mask of x-ray vision. She noted her own rope and mask of speed. She saw Rarity’s saddlebag, full of fabric, outfits, and beauty supplies. She saw her own saddlebags, in which she had found more rope and some apples. She also remembered putting a mask in the bag, the mask at the top of the mountain. While Rarity’s mask looked like a telescope, made to increase vision, and Applejack’s looked like a bullet, made for going fast, the new mask looked like a helmet. If the last two masks were any indication, the look of this new mask probably meant it was for…
Gasping at the realization, Applejack reached into her saddle bags and replaced her mask of speed with this new mask. Just like the Kanohi Kakama had done, this mask filled her with a sense of overwhelming power, but instead of intense, racing energy, the sensation was of a great, protective force. As Rarity continued to whine at her side, lounging on a lavish couch that had spawned from someplace unseen, Applejack turned toward the rock in front of her and focused.
The boulder exploded, fragments bounced off of a green disk of energy covered in runes floating in front of the farm-mare. Rarity yelped and jumped behind Applejack when a dark red horn flashed through the storm of ruined stone and was deflected by a sharp impact with the shield. As the dust cleared, the monster bull bounced backward and slid uncontrollably back down the slope. The beast snorted and scratched frantically at the snow and ice, failing to achieve any traction before flying straight off the cliff and bellowing as it fell to the distant ground below. The mares heard as the roar decreased in volume before ending with a loud crash, followed by weak, angry grunts as the fragments of rock also slid down over the edge.
As the green field faded, Applejack took off the mask and replaced it with her Kakama before setting her trademark cowpony hat back on her head. The two friends looked at each other with wide grins on their faces. “We did it!” Rarity shouted. “We’re alive! And all thanks to that wonderful mask I found!”
Applejack chuckled. “Ah though ya’ll said ya’ hated this mask.”
Applejack’s face fell as she looked up the slope past the cheering unicorn. Her eyes widened as she saw a rather large stone fragment that had been launched over their heads and shield by the Rahi. The stone was sliding down, too large for Rarity at least to jump over, and was picking up speed. “Look out!” AJ cried as she jumped in front of Rarity and held her forehooves up to catch the boulder.
She wasn’t able to stop it, and soon both ponies were being pushed across the ice down toward the cliff. This time Applejack was too preoccupied with the boulder to think of a solution. Rarity’s search instantly lit upon the rope looped around her body, digging into her skin and doing horrors to her coat. She loosened the rope and took it off over her head. Using scissors from her saddlebag, she cut the rope attached to Applejack and retied the end to the cowpony’s tail. Applejack looked back at her, her futile efforts against the rock and ice exhausted. “What’re ya’ll doin’?”
Rarity pointed to an outcropping of rock. “Applejack, you must get your lasso around some solid anchor point! We’ll swing around from behind this boulder and hang while I look for solid ground again!”
Applejack did as she was told, tossing the rope out and snagging particularly large spike that passed them by. Rarity wrapped her legs around Applejack's middle, and they turned away from the sliding boulder, which flew straight past and off the edge of the cliff. A loud thud followed by an angry bellow from came from an unfortunate Rahi below. As Applejack placed her feet back on the smooth spots of granite that Rarity had pointed out, the two were extremely glad that they were up here, far away from a very, very angry Rahi-bull.

As Scootaloo zipped through the twisted black forest, she came to a river of lava. Across the stream was a wall of black stone with a gray brick gate built into it. Through the gate she could see the light of many torches. Instead of slowing down at the sight of the molten obstacle before her, the filly sped up, aiming for an incline section of the cliff. Her scooter launched off the natural ramp, hanging in free fall beneath her as she buzzed her tiny wings as fast as she could. She was almost to the other side of the gap when her wings started to cramp.
She missed the cliff, falling t*ward the boiling rock flowing beneath her. As she fell, Scoots heard a *thunk, followed by the churning of gears and a pillar of stone shooting up out of the lava beneath her. She landed hard, and was surprised to find it wasn’t as hot as she thought it should be. Mostly, though, she was just thankful she wasn’t in the lava.
That was when she heard a voice from behind. The voice was old; it sounded as if the speaker was very sad about something, and had been for a long time. At the same time, though, the voice had a sense of strength and determination, passion that still burned even after years of accumulated wisdom.
“Hello. You must be one of Toa Rainbow Dash’s friends? You are a lot smaller than I expected.”
Scootaloo turned around to look up at an orange mask. The mask was mostly round in shape, but had a long rectangular piece that hung down from the mouth and moved as the wearer spoke, like the goatee of one of those masters in karate movies. The eyes behind the mask glowed red, but not frighteningly so, more like warm embers on a winter day. The wearer’s body was a mixture of flesh and metal armor of red and orange. The figure wore strips of black robe that hung from his shoulders to his waist, and he leaned on a long red staff with a torch on the end. Something about him seemed to demand respect.
“You know Rainbow Dash?” asked Scootaloo, forcing back the urge to raise her hand, as if speaking out of turn would result in a Miss Cheerilee-style punishment.
“I do. My name is Turaga Vakama. Rainbow Dash, the Toa of Loyalty, showed up in the forest outside my village a few hours ago. Gave my guards quite a scare. She said she had friends who might show up, Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic, Applejack, Element of Honesty, Rarity, Element of Generosity, Pinkie Pie, Element of Laughter, and Fluttershy, Element of Kindness. So who are you, small one?”
“I’m Scootaloo! I’m not an Element of Harmony, or a Toa, whatever that is. Rainbow Dash is like a big sister to me! I’m gonna be just like her when I grow up, maybe even better!” Scootaloo gushed, excited at maybe meeting her heroine here, only afterward remembering her manners. “Um, sir.”
Vakama looked puzzled. “Scootaloo, you say? And you don’t control an element? This is unexpected. Please, follow me to my village.”
Scootaloo obeyed as the figure walked through the gate. The guards standing on either side stabbed the ground with the butt of their spears and saluted the pair. “Hail, Turaga! Hail, mighty Toa!”
“Um, hi?” answered Scootaloo, not sure of what to say.
The filly’s jaw dropped as she stepped into the village. The entire structure stood against the opposite inner wall of a massive volcanic crater, and was surrounded on all sides by walls of tall black stone covered in hundreds of blazing torches. Carved into the rock were dwellings of various sizes, their entrances glowing from the fires inside each one. Opposite the gate she had walked through, Scootaloo saw two guards with red masks and spears standing in front of a long, dark tunnel carved through the side of the volcano. Villagers in red and yellow armor were performing a war dance to the left of the cave, and others were running here and there carrying metal surfboards. One villager was standing before a dome with six niches in its side, polishing the newly-carved cutie mark of Toa Rainbow Dash. Vakama was rambling as he walked ahead of Scootaloo, and, had she been listening, she would have heard him call the villagers ‘matoran’ and the structure a Toa shrine.
She immediately forgot these fantastic sights as a familiar sound reached her ears.
“-but little did he know, that living in the sea below,
Another volcano was listening to his-"
"Scootaloo!” the singer’s voice cracked as the eponymous pegasus was tackled from behind by a blur of pink and white.
Vakama looked on as the two foals collapsed in a giggling pile, looking back at the gate to see a villager of ice being escorted by Jala. “And this is?” he asked, gesturing to the white foal.
“Sweetie Belle, sister of Rarity, Toa of Generosity,” Ko-matoran replied.
“Apparently small ponies don’t deal with cold as well as the average Ko-matoran,” the guard captain explained, having needed to ask very specific questions to get more than one-word answers from Ko-koro’s favorite ice carver. “Lady Rarity and Turaga Nuju saw fit to send her here, where she’d be warmer and under the protection of the strongest guard on the island.”
While the turaga talked with Jala and the ice guard, who introduced himself as Kopeke, one of the villagers with red armor, yellow feet, and a red streamlined mask came up to Scoots and Sweetie Belle. “Hey, here is the lava surfboard you asked me to hang on to,” he said loudly, eyes darting back and forth as he handed her the metal board, which was surprisingly light for its size and material.
The orange pegasus looked at him funny. “I never asked you to hold on to this. I don’t even know you!”
The matoran looked back and forth, and, when he confirmed no one was listening to their conversation, said, “Look, just play along, all right? Kapura told me I should say that to you and give you the board, and all I know is that when Kapura tells you to do something, you do it! Guy gives me the creeps.”
“I heard that, Maglya.” Both fillies and the matoran jumped back with a yelp as a monotone voice whispered inches from their ears. Standing there was a matoran in all red, with a mask shaped like a diamond with the edges rounded off. “You shouldn’t talk about people behind their back, you know.”
“Kapura, how – no, WHY do you always do that?!” shouted Maglya.
“Where’d he come from?” cried Scootaloo.
“Vakama taught me long ago the art of traveling quickly by moving very slowly.” Kapura spoke in his same light, almost emotionless voice. “I have been practicing in the forest for a while now. It comes in handy when I want to give certain gossips a scare.”
“What do you want, Kapura?” said Maglya, putting a hand to his head.
“To deliver a message to she-who-is-not-toa. Beware the Makuta, for wherever there is destruction, there he is also. The dead trees you saw when you came in? Those were destroyed by the Makuta, but the Makuta never left them. That is how he becomes so strong. That is what the Makuta does. He destroys things.” Kapura let his words sink in before turning and walking slowly away.
Scootaloo shook her head and cast a glance at Vakama, who was beckoning her to his hut. She looked back at the matoran in front of her. “It was nice to meet you, Maglya. I think I’ll keep the board. Hey, you think I can get some wheels and a set of handle-bars on this thing?”
Maglya smiled. “I hear there’s an engineer in Onu-Koro who’s good at that sort of thing, but you can’t get there from here right now. The tunnel is too dark without lightstones. Oh hey, I didn’t catch your name, ‘she-who-is-not-toa’?”
Scootaloo looked back as she and Sweetie Belle ran to catch up with Vakama. “It’s Scootaloo! Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, of the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”