• Published 7th May 2013
  • 3,398 Views, 315 Comments

Bionicle: The Darkness Within - FenrisianBrony



The Toa Metru team, led by Toa Vakama, pursue the Makuta to Equestria.

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Fighting the Tide

Luna grunted as a Shadow Pony jumped at her, long teeth arcing towards her neck. Raising her sword, she slapped the creature away with the flat of the blade, sending it flipping across the massive cavern. Within a second though, another three ponies were already jumping towards her.

As Luna began to lash out at the creatures, trying to limit her blows to non-lethal ones, the rest of the Lunar Guard were having troubles of their own. The Shadow Ponies were everywhere, snapping at the guards, and quickly overwhelming and surrounding the front line of troops, dragging some of them down, and literally tearing them apart.

The Toa were also directly involved in combat, fighting back to back in front of the guard. Unfortunately though, they were about to have a much bigger problem, as a massive shape suddenly barrelled into the middle of them, knocking Nuju off his feet, even as the Shadow Ponies cleared a circle around the groups, not directly attacking, but cutting the Toa off from any support.

“Brothers.” The not-Vakama growled, scowling at the Toa as they moved back together, helping Nuju back to his feet.

“Vakama.” Nokama said, readying her weapons nervously. “Snap out of it.”

“I don’t think so.” Vakama grinned, before flexing his claw hand, a gout of flame erupting from it, and forming a small blade.

“Agreed.” The not-Twilight laughed, moving through the ranks of Shadow Ponies, who moved aside at her presence. She didn’t even look at them, as if somehow they were beneath her.

“Oh…Twilight.” Whenua groaned. “Please…”

He didn’t get any further, as a blast of magic drove him to his knees. At the same time, Vakama sprinted forward, readying his blade, and bringing it down towards Matau. The green Toa only just managed to raise his swords into an X shape, before the fire blade crashed down. Before Matau could react, Nokama was by his side, swinging weapon at Vakamas side. Before it could impact though, Vakama disappeared, reappearing behind Nokama and bringing his foot into the small of her back, and knocking her to the floor. From the side, Twilight grinned manically as her horn faded again.

Onewa bellowed, and charged forward, even as Matau and Vakama clashed again. Whenua was instantly by his sister’s side, helping her to her feet, while Nuju attempted to break out of the cordon that the Shadow Ponies had kept out.

“Luna!” Nuju yelled, pushing a pony down, but being confronted by two more.

“Nuju?!” She called back, dealing with her own problems. “What is…”

Luna suddenly screamed, as a Shadow Pony sank its teeth into her back, ripping a chunk off, and leaving a bloody hole just in front of her cutie mark. Collapsing to the floor, Luna was lost beneath the swirling sea of Shadows.

“PRINCESS!!” Castelian screamed, lashing out at a creature in front of him.

Around him, the Moonlight Wardens were having similar success, repulsing ponies, and forming a small circle. With a wordless command, they began to move through the pulsating ponies, lashing out as they moved.

“Luna?!” castelian shouted, kicking a ponies legs from under it, while scanning the area for the princess of the Night.

“Sir!” One of the Wardens called, plunging beneath the surface and grabbing hold of something.

Instantly, Castelian dived after the pony, grabbing hold of Luna, and dragging her back to the surface.

“Circle!” He yelled, before turning back to Luna.

She was in a bad way, that much was instantly obvious. Both her flanks were bloody messes, her cutie mark had been completely ripped off of the left side, and was dangling on by a few tendons of muscle and flesh. What was though, was her right wing, or rather, what was left of it. About half of the wing was missing, having been torn straight off. Over the rest of her body, scars and gashes were oozing blood, but even as Castelian watched, they began to stop bleeding, slowly scabbing over before his eyes.

“Benefit…Alicorn.” Luna groaned, only just holding onto her consciousness.

“Just, stay quite.” Castelian said, looking around frantically, but he was talking to a pony who could no longer listen, as the princess of the night slipped into unconsciousness.

Looking down at the princess, Castelian’s heart ceased in his chest, before he finally got to his sense, and saw the rise and fall of her chest. Getting to his feet, he looked around, past the cordons that the Moonlight Wardens, and towards the scattered and broken ranks of Lunar Guard. They were holding, if only just, but he could already see that lots of guards had fallen, and every time they knocked a Shadow Pony down, it simply got back up. Making a decision, he raised his voice, shouting over the din of the battle.

“Lunar Guard! Weapons free! Repeat, weapons free! The Shadow Ponies are now to be engaged with deadly force!”

Leading by example, he moved forward, stabbing his sword through a Shadow Ponies mouth, before tearing upwards through the rest of its head.

“Wardens! Protect Luna with your lives!” He ordered, and instantly, the Wardens moved backwards, forming a much tighter circle around the fallen princess of the night.

In the ranks of the Lunar Guard, the balance of power shifted for the first time. Now that they were engaging enemies with the intent to kill, they were able to clear themselves a little bit of room, as the Shadows were taken by surprise at the ferocity of the new attacks.

Unfortunately though, the Shadows were tenacious foes, and quickly recovered from their initial shock, charging back towards the battle lines, teeth bared, and the few weapons that they had, glinting in the half light.

The Shadow Ponies were not like any opponents the Lunar Guard had ever faced. Manticores and Hydras were mindless beasts, and the Changelings had been controlled by one mind, and even then they hadn’t had to kill as much as they had repulsed attacks and taken prisoners. The Shadow Ponies were different though. They were vicious, and they were cunning, acting in packs to take out isolated pockets of guards. Soon, the Lunar Guards were on the defensive once again, being forced back towards the closed door to the stairs. The only part of the guard who wasn’t being overwhelmed, were the Toa, and the Moonlight Wardens.

The five Toa were still surrounded by the Shadow Ponies, Nuju having given up trying to break out of the circle, as even when he had made a large enough hole to get through, it was filled almost instantly once again. Turning his back on the static ponies, Nuju stared at his brothers and sister, as they tried to hit Vakama or Twilight.

Every time it looked like one of them was going to hit Vakama, Twilights horn flared, and he disappeared, reappearing a split second later and lashing out at someone else, bringing them to the ground, before moving on. Twilight on the other hand, was simply untouchable, surrounding herself in a shield when Onewa tried to hit her, and firing a burst of energy at a wall of rock that Whenua erected in front of her.

All in all, the Toa were barely holding the attack off. Their armour was scratched, and Nokamas mask had been badly damaged, the right eye having a massive scar going diagonally across it. The symbols that they wore on their armour were also mostly gone, having been melted off their body when Vakama had hit them, or had fired a disk at them, knocking them clean off their feet. It was only by dumb luck that nothing worse had happened.

Yelling, Matau sprinted forwards again, bringing one sword up, which Vakama quickly blocked, before he rolled back to avoid Matau’s next strike. Matau suddenly jumped up, spinning around and delivering a kick to Vakamas mask, landing the first telling hit on the Toa.

Vakama grunted as he was powered backwards, before he predictable disappeared, reappearing behind Twilight. He was panting hard, as the two groups faced each other again.

“You’ve gotten sloppy Matau.” Vakama panted, staring at the green Toa. “I think that’s your first hit.”

“Magic is hax.” Matau growled, circling around, as the others began to do the same thing.

“Isn’t it though?” Twilight asked. “To bad that you are powerless to help your pony friends. How long do you think the ponies can hold out?”

“Why are you doing this?” Nokama asked, looking at the pair.

“Why else. Fun.” Vakama grinned. It was not a happy grin.

“That, and it is only one way to assure harmony.” Twilight added.

“What?!” Onewa roared. “Harmony? Have you seen what you are doing here? The death you’re causing?”

“Your friends are just as much to blame.” Vakama spat. “Once the world is ruled by Shadows, there will be peace.”

“No.” Matau growled, diving forward again. On either side him, Onewa and Whenua dived forward as well, intent on bringing the fight to Vakama again.

Vakama growled, before running forward to meet his brothers again.

“Just give up.” Vakama laughed, delivering a punch to Matau’s face that would shatter pony bones, before being teleported behind Whenua and bringing his sword down. Only a quick strike from Onewa protected the black Toa, but by that point, Vakama had already been teleported again.

Far across the room, Castelian was still pushing back against the Shadow Ponies. He and the rest of the Wardens were holding steady, but he didn’t know how long he would be able to hold for. Glancing over, he balked at the sight that greeted him. The lines of Lunar Guard had been completely broken up, with ponies and squads fighting individual battles, and more often than not, being overrun and ripped apart. He could see bits of ponies being thrown across the room, and just a little bit of him died inside. He had seen ponies die under his command before, but not on this scale. From what he could see, they had already lost. They just went going to give up.

“Sir?!” Yelled one of the wardens, his face covered in blood from where he had been forced to use his teeth as a replacement weapon. “Orders?!”

“I…I don’t know!” Castelian admitted, stabbing with his own spear, and imbedding it in a pony’s chest. Before he could pull it out though, the pony was pushed to the floor by its comrades, and the spear was twisted from Castelian’s grip.

Vakama howled in anger as Onewa caught him with his weapon, knocking him to the floor. Instantly, the Shadow Ponies moved forward, surrounding Vakama and cutting him off from the others. At this unspoken signal, more ponies did the same around Twilight, leaving the five Toa alone. Slowly, the Shadow Ponies parted, forming a corridor between the Wardens and the Toa. Quickly, the Toa rushed over to the fallen form of Luna, joining the Wardens in defending the princess.

Without a word, the ponies began to retreat, moving back into perfect ranks behind Vakama and Twilight, some fifty meters away from Luna, the Toas and the Wardens. Looking around, Castelian saw the aftermath of the battle, and his heart dropped.

All over the floor were dead ponies, or bits, of ponies. A few were still standing, and they slowly limped towards the group, adding to the defence.

The Lunar Guard had entered the room with almost four thousand ponies. Now, there were twenty six of them, and of those survivors, only eleven of them were in any condition to fight. If the Shadows decided to attack again…well, this could be the end of the Lunar Guard.

Panting hard, Castelian moved up beside Nokama, and glared across the no-man’s land that had been created, fixing Vakama and Twilight with a look that could melt rock.

Vakama let out his own growl, before stepping forward.

This was it.