Bionicle: The Darkness Within

by FenrisianBrony

Worth a Look

The next morning, the twelve new friends once again met in Twilights library. The Toa had opted to stay with the ponies for the night, rather than finding somewhere else to bunker down for the night, and had left with the same ponies that they had spent the previous day with. The only exception was Matau, who had still not completely forgiven Rainbow for the whole race thing. This, coupled with the fact that he couldn’t stay on clouds like Rainbow could, meant that he had decided to sleep at Applejacks farm, spending the night in the barn.

“So did everyone sleep alright?” Twilight asked once the whole group had assembled.

The general consensus around the room was that it had been a pleasurable night. The only exception, was Matau, who unsurprisingly was not happy that he had to sleep in the barn, while Onewa had been allowed to sleep in the house.

“Ah’m sorry Matau.” Applejack apologised. “Ah already promised Onewa he could have the only space in the house.”

“If you and Rainbow got on better, I could have cast a cloud walking spell on you, but you didn’t want to stay there anyway.” Twilight pointed out.

“Meh. I guess.” Matau grumbled.

“Hey Twilight?” Spike called out, running down the stairs, before clutching his stomach and coughing up a gout of flame. “Mail for ya.”

“Thank you Spike.” Twilight smiled, levitating the scroll from him and opening it. A small smile appeared on her face as she scanned the paper, before closing the scroll and laying it down.

“Umm…what was that Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

“A squadron of lunar guard reported back into Canterlot late last night. They said that the Trottingham local guard had seen odd creatures moving in and out of the Everfree forest.”

“Define ‘odd’.” Nuju asked.

“The letter doesn’t say.” Twilight said after scanning at again. “But it’s signed by Princess Luna herself.”

“She must believe this is a credible piece of information that we should act on.” Vakama pointed out.

“Agreed. We should investigate immediately.” Nokama agreed.

“How long will it take us to get there?” Whenua asked the assembled ponies.

“By airship...four hours. Walking round the Everfree, one day.” Twilight answered.

“And if we walk through the Everfree?” Onewa asked.

“I wouldn’t suggest that partner.” Applejack warned. “The Everfree ain’t exactly the nicest place to walk through.”

“Still, how long?” Onewa asked.

“Well, airships can’t fly over the Everfree forest because of the rouge winds, so they have to go around,” Twilight said, thinking back to the maps she looked at for some light bedtime reading. “so they have to go around. Walking straight through without stopping would probably take you…around…two hours.”

“Well then that is the route we will take.” Vakama declared. “We will be back before tomorrow.” He informed the ponies.

“Now hold on there pal.” Rainbow said, flying in front of Vakama. “You are not going anywhere without us.”

“Although I do not condone the way in which Rainbow informed you,” Rarity began, walking over to Rainbow, “but I do agree her on this point.”

“We ain’t leavin’ y’all alone in case ya do have to face this Makuta fellow.” Applejack added.

“I do not think that will be needed.” Nokama said. “If this Everfree place is as dangerous as you have lead us to believe, I would rather you did not risk yourself to aid us.”

“I agree.” Vakama said, before turning around.

The Toa began to walk out of the library, but Twilight called out, stopping them

“So, which way are you heading? I mean surely you know where you are going.

“Twilight…” Vakama said exasperatedly.

“You don’t?” She asked in mock surprise, a smile spreading over her face. “Well, it looks like you need somepony to guide you.”

“You understand that if this place is truly dangerous…” Matau began.

“It is.” Rainbow butted in.

“Then we can’t guarantee your safety.” Finished Matau, not acknowledging Rainbows interruption.

“We understand.” Pinkie said, bouncing over to the Toa. “But you guys are all like ‘grr’ and any creatures will be like ‘oh please don’t hurt us’, so we’ll be safe.”

“Can’t argue with that logic.” Rainbow laughed.

“Fine. You can accompany us, on the condition that if anything goes wrong, you listen to, and follow, our instructions to the letter. Is that understood?” Vakama asked, turning to Twilight.

“Perfectly.” Twilight replied.

“Fine then. You may accompany us.” Vakama said, holding the door open, and allowing the Toa and the six ponies to exit the building. He then looked expectantly at Spike, who returned the look in a more quizzical fashion. “Are you coming?”

“Can I come Twilight?” Spike asked excitedly.

“No Spike. The Everfree forest is no place for a baby dragon.” Twilight said with a smile.

“But Twilight…”He whined, but Twilight was having none of it.

“No Spike. Maybe when you are older.”

“You always say that.” He huffed, before turning and walking back up the stairs, muttering to himself.

“Should we go then?” Nokama asked.

“Trottingham is in this direction.” Twilight said, pointing out if the town. “If we get moving now, we should be there before noon.”

***

“So how did you six meet?” Vakama asked as they walked through the Everfree forest.

“I’ve worked in Ponyville on the weather team since I left Cloudsdale.” Rainbow said casually.

“My animal friends all live on the edge of the Everfree forest just by Ponyville.” Fluttershy chimed in.

“I thought that Ponyville was a beautiful town when I was deciding where to set up my shop. I guess I just saw them around in the town.

“I know everypony in Ponyville silly.” Pinkie giggled.

“Oh, well I met them all at the summer sun celebration two years ago.” Twilight finished.

“What is a summer sun celebration?” Nuju asked.

“It’s the longest day of the year. Two years ago, Celestia was going to raise the sun in Ponyville, but Nightmare Moon returned and kidnapped her.”

“And…” Nokama prompted.

“I had found out about Nightmare Moons return before the summer sun celebration, and was intent on stopping it.” Twilight began. “Celestia knew about it all along though, and as always, she had a plan to counter it. I met the others, and we set off to find the Elements of Harmony, which we did, and then used them to purify Nightmare Moon back into Princess Luna and to save Princess Celestia.”

“So your ruler knew that she would be captured by this ‘Nightmare Moon’, possibly killed, and yet she went willingly?” Nuju asked.

“Sounds like Toa Lhikans sacrifice.” Vakama said wistfully.

“Who?” Rarity asked in an interested voice.

“Toa Lhikan was the Toa who gave us our Toa stones.” Nuju explained. “He sacrificed his own powers as a Toa when his duty was done, and passed on his mantle to us six.”

“He was captured when he was giving me the last stone. He sacrificed himself to save me.” Vakama said, not glumly, but just, matter-of-factly.

“What happened after that?” Twilight asked, interested to hear a more in-depth version of the Toas life.

“We set off to find the six great disks, under Vakamas guidance.” Nokama began. “After finding them, we presented them to what we thought Turaga Dume. He betrayed us, and set his Vahki enforcers upon us. Only Vakama, Matau and I escaped.”

“Yeah, while we were locked in prison.” Whenua pointed out.

“And we saved you.” Matau smiled back.

“Lhikan saved us. He taught us about the bonds of the Toa and got us out. You just provided an escape vehicle.” Onewa laughed back.

“Moving on.” Nuju prompted.

“Escaping, we returned to the coliseum, and found out the fate of the Matoran, and that of Turaga Dume. We rescued as many of the Matoran as we could, before attempting to take them to a new land. The Makuta followed us, and Vakama engaged him, before we managed to seal him away in Protodermis.” Nokama finished.

“But you’re hunting the Makuta.” Pinkie pointed out. “*Gasp* Does he have an evil twin brother?”

“No Pinkie.” Vakama smiled. “We returned home again to rescue the remaining Matoran. While there, we were captured by the Visorak horde under the command of Roodaka and Sidorak.”

“And poisoned by them mask-melter, don’t forget that.” Matau smiled.

“I remember. We were transformed into hordika, and I, I fell to its grasp more than the others did.”

“I will continue Vakama.” Nokama said softly. “After a battle with the Visorak, we rescued Vakama, and faced Roodaka. We used the same elemental powers that we used to seal the Makuta away to face her, and in doing so, freed her heartstone, which she took from the Makutas prison. This allowed him to escape, after which, he made his way here.”

“That sounds like a rough time.” Applejack said.

“It was, but it was our duty, and the only way to achieve our destiny was through restoring the unity between us.”

“The three virtues that you spoke of.” Twilight nodded.

“When are we going to get there?” rainbow butted in.

“Well Rainbow, considering the fact it will take us two hours to get through the forest, and we have only been walking for forty five minutes, that should answer your question.” Rarity said exasperatedly.

“Umm, Twilight, are there supposed to be any buildings this deep into the Everfree?” Fluttershy asked.

“No, why?” Twilight asked.

“I am guessing it’s because of that.” Onewa said, pointing at a large structure that was slowly becoming visible through the dense forest.

“Impossible.” Twilight said, darting forward.

Rushing forward, Twilight sped towards the building, prompting everyone else in the group to run after her, until they all stood just in front of the building.

“What is it?” Pinkie asked.

“It looks like a Marean temple.” Twilight said in awe, as she walked towards the stairs that led up to the top of the temple.

Comments

[Irregular Quiche]

UPDATE!

also FIRST!

[Midnight Blues]

hmmm Marean or Matoranian

[FenrisianBrony]

3278594
It was supposed to be a pun on Mayan

[Midnight Blues]

3279880 I know. I was just saying Matoran's probably built it. Although, Mayan culture was pretty brutal. Hope the Marians where not as brutal. Not as bad as Aztecs but still pretty bad.

[FenrisianBrony]

3280049
Ah, I get it. Do not worry, all will be revealed soon.

[FleetlordAvatar]

I wonder if that temple is a Kini Shrine, like the one in Ga-Metru.

[Wyrme]

I hate cliffhangers.(thumbs up if you get the reference.)

[Lord Nopony]

Interesting cliffhanger!