Six Ways, Book 2: Duty

by the_bioXpony_guy

Chapter 13: United Against Them

In fulfilling their duty, the Equestrians had to sacrifice their complete unity for the sake of unifying with tribal strangers. This was just what the Rahaga wanted—yet while the Equestrians understood the irony in following the elders’ orders, they ventured on without their own Toa of Air.

It’s weird—I know, said Twilight, throwing the plan’s inconsistencies in the air as she and her friends exited the jungle. But if Pinkie does the right thing, she’ll be unified with Lewa and his village—right?

The village of air held its fate in the hands (and hooves) of two jungle-dwelling warriors. Soon Twilight would hold the same position for this island’s village of water—but would things differ with each individual village? Should we go back? she wondered, looking over her shoulder as she and her friends continued onward.

Twilight knew Pinkie. She knew Pinkie’s quirks, habits, and hobbies—but whenever Twilight felt as if she’d uncovered every shred of Pinkie Pie, she found herself unpleasantly surprised. She wanted to believe that her friend was responsible with her power—but was she really? For that matter, did she even trust Lewa enough to feel comfortable with his mentoring Pinkie?

A sudden thought occurred to her. They probably have a village elder. Surely an external entity with authority over the village could knock sense into the two Toa, if need be. As she realized this, Twilight almost struggled to retain some sense of optimism. Even if they do get out of hand, I can tell they already like each other. She smiled nervously. At least they have that.

Perhaps Pinkie wasn’t much to worry about after all—but what about Fluttershy? Twilight thought it only appropriate to talk to the pegasus during such a time of uncertainty—but she feared Fluttershy would end up snapping at her, as she had done quite often in recent memory. In addition, Fluttershy now always seemed to carry the same dull, blank expression on her face wherever she went; just looking at it made goosebumps crawl up Twilight’s leg.

The further north the Toa travelled, the more anxious Twilight became. Cold air took place of the warm, tropical climate the Equestrians had known just a few short minutes ago. Gone were the hundreds of insects looking for some nourishment—much to Twilight’s relief—and down came the snowflakes of the north. Fluttershy will blend into this environment before long, she thought with a giggle, moving up to her friend’s side, so as not to lose track of her.

Much to the Toa of Water’s surprise, Fluttershy made the next move. “Hi, Twilight,” she muttered.

A little humored, Twilight replied, “Hi, Fluttershy.” Immediately afterward, awkward silence filled the air between them. Twilight and Fluttershy could do little more than stay silent, making out only the sound and touch of the eerie breeze as it blew past the nearby mountains and whistled through the air. Fluttershy couldn’t help it; touched by this unknown force, she hardly even noticed the heartbeats passing by.

Every now and then, Twilight would glance over at Fluttershy and see her friend staring down at the ground—as if watching every little snowflake gather up. The longer she held her head in such a depressing position, the sadder her eyes became. Frozen tears lingered on Fluttershy’s eyes as her hooves started crunching against the icy gravel beneath them.

She looked as though she needed a shoulder to cry on—but would she even allow herself such a luxury?

A little further on, the sound of nearly inaudible sniffling caught Twilight’s attention. Again, she turned her gaze to Fluttershy, but she wasn’t sniffling from the cold. As chilly as their environment was, not the slightest hint of color came to Fluttershy’s cheeks.

Please, Fluttershy, Twilight silently begged, wondering if her friend could still hear her thoughts. If there’s something wrong, you know you can talk to me—right?

The Toa of Ice blinked once, twice. She sniffled, took a deep breath, and finally turned to talk to her waiting friend. “Um—Twilight?” she began.

Acting as if she were surprised to hear Fluttershy’s voice, Twilight twitched an ear, turned her head toward her friend, and asked, “Yes, Fluttershy?”

“What do you think we’re going to see out there?” The yellow pony lifted her gaze up to the sky. “I feel like somepony’s out there waiting for us.”

Twilight lifted her gaze as well, seeing the horde of mountains jutting out from the ground of what she believed to be Ko-Wahi. Normally she would have continued from there on, but Twilight found herself bumping into Applejack, who said, “Oh—sorry, Sugarcube. I’m just a little nervous about this here dirt.”

“Nervous?” asked Twilight. “What do you—” Just then, the Toa of Water blinked; the ground before her did not bode well for the Equestrians. “Oh,” she murmured, biting her lip. A layer of ash coated over the ground like a sheet of gray snow—but what bothered her more than that was the volcano to her right, which was clearly visible without the trees of Le-Wahi getting in the way.

Rainbow Dash’s village has to be somewhere nearby if the volcano is here, she noted. But I don’t see it anywhere. If the village were nearby, it certainly wouldn’t have been on this side of the volcano. No village existed on this side of the mountain’s face—only little streams of boiling lava and what appeared to be pores within the rock.

Wait a second. The Toa of Water twitched an ear toward the direction of the volcano. As she came closer and closer to the suspicious ash-covered mountain, Twilight heard what sounded like a colony of buzzing bugs—something akin to bees. She looked around to see if there was an insect flying by her ear, but she found nothing.

Rainbow Dash, noticing as Twilight diverged from the others, came her way and asked, “Something wrong, Twilight?”

“I don’t know,” she confessed, her ears still twitching and her mind itching to find the answer. The buzzing continued on in the tips of her ears when she said, “I hear something but—am I the only one hearing it?”

Rainbow Dash, along with Fluttershy—who was listening in—perked their ears toward the mountain. The Toa of Fire squinted her eyes and rotated her ears every which way. “I dunno,” she murmured. “All I hear is those lava streams over there—and all I can hear from that is a bunch of popping.”

Growing desperate, Twilight turned her gaze toward Fluttershy—to which the Toa of Ice responded by shaking her head. “Nothing.”

The unicorn wanted to grunt, but instead perked her own ears once again. “It’s getting louder!” she said. “It sounds like a bunch of bugs.”

“Wait.” Rainbow Dash’s ears twitched. “I think I hear it, too.” Much like the ringing of a sore ear, the noise grew louder and louder until it became almost difficult to hear anything else. “Uh—Twilight?” she began. “I think we have company.”

And just as those words left Dashie’s lips, the air around the Equestrians grew still, then exploded into a rush of pure noise—buzzing unlike anything ever heard by Equestrian ears. Even Fluttershy—familiar with bees and their ways—could not familiarize herself with such sounds.

From the volcano, they came in droves. Enormous, hideous bugs beyond the Equestrians’ imaginations began to litter the sky—some of them orange in color, some of them lime-green. They looked to be split between a species of dragonflies and bumblebees; their large blue eyes, powerful claws, and sharp stingers gave off that impression with ease.

Applejack gasped. “They’re headed right for us!”

“What do we do now?” said Rarity.

Twilight, paying little attention to her friends’ words, looked over her shoulder and toward Spike. “I need you to stand back.”

Without any argument, the dragon boy turned tail and ran, making sure to distance himself from the Toa and the bugs as much as possible.

Their first battle on this planet was about to begin. The five Toa, missing the sixth piece to their whole, waited for the bugs to come down. Then, one by one, they would attack—but with Applejack anxiety, Rarity’s pristine values, Rainbow Dash’s temper, Fluttershy’s timidity, Twilight’s uncertainty, and Pinkie Pie’s absence, had they any hope of attacking as one?

The buzzing of the bugs’ wings grew louder and louder by the second. Twilight, unwilling to lose any time on her hooves, felt their presence like a tickling whisper right by her ear. Determined, she flicked her gaze from Spike’s direction and faced the great insects.

Never before had she feared so vehemently for her life.

With hardly any warning at all, one of the giant bugs’ stingers—a stinger of which nopony could tell whether or not it was venomous—stared her straight in the eye, coming for her near the speed of sound. Her life flashed before her eyes as she nearly felt the stinger pierce through her skull.

Her right eye faced the consequence of being pierced at the hands of this animal, but her left eye sensed a flash of orange light coming to save Twilight from her doom. Fast as she was, Rainbow Dash leapt to her friend’s rescue. The Toa of Fire’s power seemed to take control of itself as she lurched toward the bug—intending to punch it—and noticed as a rush of flame surrounded her hoof. The fire didn’t hurt the pony, but almost seemed to soothe her skin as she landed a terrific punch to the animal’s ugly face. In doing so, she watched as it just barely missed the opportunity of ending Twilight once and for all.

And with that, Rainbow Dash and the bug came to the ground—one standing on all four hooves while the other twitched its damaged wings. Dash stared in awe at what now lied before her—watched as the metallic beast crashed to the ashen ground, unable to flap its wings and escape. She felt accomplished, yet—at the very same time—horrified by what she had just done.

That’s incredible! thought Applejack, almost completely distracted by the many beasts flying through the air. If Rainbow can do that on her own, I reckon I’ll be able to do something else like it!

A hundred moving targets flew about in the air, making the Toa of Stone wish she had brought her lasso with her on this trip. Nuts, she thought. In her frustration, she stomped a hoof against the ground. Had she not tilted her gaze to the ground, Applejack wouldn’t have noticed the stone on which she stood—which started to crumble beneath her hoof. That’s it!

Without hesitation, Applejack stomped her hoof again—and then again! Before she knew it, a stalagmitic figure rose from the ground. Before she knew it, she had managed to do something she never thought possible: she controlled the rock without even touching it.

Her hooves themselves seemed to be made out of stone; Applejack wondered if she could kick the stalagmite toward the bugs, if she could put as much force into her kick as she dared to dream. She leapt up into the air as her stone floated before her eyes. One kick was all it took.

Two carcasses fell down on impact. She couldn’t help but grin as they fell down. It’s like killing two birds with one stone, she thought. Or two giant bugs. But at least ninety-eight living insects still pursued.

“Whoa!” called Spike from behind all the others. “How did you do that?”

Rarity heard the boy and put a shocked look on her face. “Spike!” she exclaimed, turning her gaze back to the swarm. “What are you doing out in plain sight? You need to hide—now!” And with that, the Toa of Earth unknowingly created a barrier of hardened soil—an igloo of dirt—to go over Spike’s entire being.

For a moment she merely stood and waited for the bugs to approach—but then looked back over her shoulder and saw the dome she had just created. “Wait a—Spike?” She started to panic. “Wh-where did you—?”

At that moment, she noticed a little peephole on the side of the igloo. Through it, she saw Spike’s green eye as he attempted to look and see what was going on.

“Spike?”

But before the dragon could respond, he watched as she suddenly swept away from his view. One of the bugs came down and stole Rarity from under the other Toa’s noses. She let out a screech as the creature’s oversized claws caught a firm grip on her body. Up it went, intending to turn Rarity into a new slave for the hive.

The sound of Rarity’s scream stung Twilight’s ears as she turned her head and witnessed the black-and-white Toa being lifted further and further from the ground. “Oh no!” said Twilight, her hoof pointing toward her endangered friend. “Rarity!”

The others almost immediately turned their heads toward where Twilight’s hoof was pointing and gasped at the sight. Seeing Rarity struggling and squirming and trying to squeeze through nearly drove all the Toa to insanity—all except for Fluttershy. Rather than wait for the bug to slip up, rather than hope Rarity could get out on her own, rather than fend for herself and nobody but herself, the Toa of Ice allowed her instinct to take over. Heartbeats passed by slower and slower as she felt her body temperature drop below zero. Within seconds, frost began to form at the bases of her hooves. Within heartbeats, a razor-sharp icicle shot upward toward the insect, landing a blow right in its blue, oversized eye.

With that, the bug came crashing down—as did Rarity. The parasite made a loud clank noise as it hit the round, whereas Rarity only thumped and screamed in pain. The damage caused by this impact was immediately apparent.

Twilight gasped as she heard what sounded like Rarity’s tibia snapping in half. Horror flashed in her eyes as she to her friend’s side, ready to protect her from further incoming danger. “Stand back,” she commanded, gazing at Rarity from the corner of her eye. “I don’t want you getting any more hurt than you already are.” As Twilight said this, Rarity looked as if pain-stricken tears would start leaking from her eyes.

Yet as much as Twilight wanted to assure her friend that everything would be okay, she knew she couldn’t promise anything. Instead, she could only stay in one place, making herself and Rarity the easiest targets for these bugs. Sweat began pouring down the side of Twilight’s face as she awaited their approach.

Before long, one of the hideous creatures took a turn in its flight without warning. It started heading right for the two Toa.

This had better work, thought Twilight. The idea of being completely unsure drove her to near insanity. How do I even know if I can do it? What will happen when I move and think a certain way? The magic of Equestria was one thing, but the magic of this world’s elements left her with nothing.

Twilight’s ear twitched as she heard something from behind. Bzz, one of the animals whispered.

There’s another one, she realized.

Before Rarity could let out a horrified shriek, Twilight raised her hind legs and smashed the subtle scum. As she did so, a wave of water spontaneously rose beneath her hooves, adding a elemental power to her attack.

Realizing this, Twilight did something she thought she would have never done in a strange and violent place like this:

She smiled. She smirked. She faced the danger as if it were another unread novel.

The bug heading for Twilight and Rarity took no notice to the bookish Toa’s newfound confidence. Unaware, the bug faced the impact of Twilight’s hoof slamming against its eyes, knocking two cobalt masks off its face in one fell swoop. And as she did so, the insectoid animal went flying in an arc before crashing to the ground.

Rarity, meanwhile, couldn’t help but notice the way it collided with the ground and struggled to get back up. As it attempted to crawl, the bug pointed its empty gaze toward the two Equestrians, staring at them with its two black sockets. Normally Rarity would have been slightly disgusted by the sight of a nearly dead bug—but now, she didn’t know what to feel.

Unable to fly, the bug attempted to flap its wings, but went nowhere in the end. The only movement it gained was through clawing at the dirt in front of its face.

Twilight’s ear twitched again. Oh, now what is it? she wondered. What is with today and nopony hearing all the things I can hear? The strange noise sounded like something low and gurgling—almost as if a large animal were rising from the depths of the ocean. With one quick glance, she realized it coming wasn’t the depths of the ocean—but from the pit of a river of lava.

The Toa of Water flinched as a horse-sized animal lifted itself from the molten rock. As it came up, some of the lava dripped off its back and down into the river; the rest of this magma cooled on its back, giving it the impression of a turtle with a defective shell. The unidentified creature moved slowly as it came up, but demonstrated its speed with a long, springy tongue.

It happened like lightning; had Twilight blinked, she might have completely missed what had just happened.

Like the largest toad the Equestrians had ever seen, the lava landlord grabbed the dying bug with its tongue and swallowed it whole. The bug met its end with a loud gulp. Seeing this, the Equestrians and the horde of flying bugs stopped what they were doing.

The bugs knew their place. The Equestrians were no longer worth the cause. So—as one unit, the insects retreated back into their home.

But just as quickly as the bugs had turned away, more of the giant frogs rose from the lava streams and went on to capture and swallow as many flying insects as they could. In due time, the last of the surviving bugs made it back into their hive—while the rest made a new home in the frogs’ bellies.

“Whew!” sighed Twilight. “Isn’t that a relief?”

Applejack, who was just about to chuck another stone at the swarm, chuckled. “You’re tellin’ me! I thought we were gonna be toast.”

Twilight smiled. “It’s just as I’ve read time and time again: there’s always a bigger fish.”

“Um, Twilight?” It was Rarity. She looked absolutely helpless on the dirty ground, casting a smile on her lips and a look in her eyes that read, Please pick me up right now!

Seeing this, the Toa of Water blushed an embarrassed shade of red and grabbed Rarity’s hoof to help her up. “Sorry, Rarity,” she said. “Are you okay?”

But by the time those words left her mouth, Twilight could already tell her friend was doing much better than she’d initially thought.

Rarity seemed to read Twilight’s mind when she replied, “Actually—I feel almost like I was never even hurt! I could’ve sworn I broke a bone in one of my legs.” As she said this, the Toa of Earth took a few steps forward. “My leg barely even hurts now that—aaaAAAHH!!”

“Hey!” shouted Rainbow Dash, her mouth agape. “Rarity isn’t a bug! What the heck is that thing doing?”

Perhaps they were still hungry; perhaps they were curious as to what horse meat tasted like. Either explanation would have made sense at that point—for Rarity found herself being rudely whisked away and picked up by the lava frog’s tongue. The animal’s tongue—hot like the inside of an oven—whipped her off her hooves and made her want to scream with every second it touched her skin.

Even from his earth dome, Spike could see Rarity about to become a statistic in this harsh world. In just a few seconds, she would disappear from this realm completely.

Rarity came in contact with the giant frog’s lips. Time froze as the standingby Equestrians stood back in awe. Their blood froze, the air they breathed froze, their thoughts drew to a stop.

And like a bolt of lightning, a flash of brisk light drifted toward the frogs, stopping them, as well.

Comments

[MonkeyPirate]

6612645 For a Bionicle/My Little Pony crossover, you're doing great! Just wish this got more views

[the_bioXpony_guy]

6620273 Well, thank you very much!
Are the other crossovers not that good, then? :p

[MonkeyPirate]

6620697 Yep. At least some of them are.