Bionicle: Equestrian Saga Side Stories

Hey, my name's Surefire, I'm an 18 year old unicorn from Trottingham with a red coat, black mane, and a bloody boring life. I hate constant routine, seriously, it drives me crazy. It's not like I actually have anything to do job wise, not many ponies are looking for a unicorn with a knack for fire magic, if anything they're trying to put fires out, which is the reason why I was walking down the streets of Trottingham towards the train station with a one way ticket to New Altero.

I entered the foyer of the station and took note of the golden statue depicting several of the Toa that helped to save Equestria from Teridax, can't remember their names of the top of my head. I glanced up at the information board, I needed to catch a train to Appleloosa and then enter a chute headed to New Altero, that was the part I was most excited about, but first I had a week or so of traveling from one side of the country to the other, not so exciting.

I trotted through the ticket barrier and headed towards the platform my train was waiting at, I soon found my train and quickly climbed on, no sooner had i found my cabin and sat down than the train quickly departed a sped towards Appleloosa.

*one week later*

I stepped out of the carriage and took note of the multitude of different species milling about, half were ponies (most of which were earth ponies), the other half were either tourists from one of the other northern countries like Minotauria or the Griffin kingdoms, or members of the many species that lived in New Altero, from what i had read there was about 10 or so different species native to the metropolis. I walked towards one of the information desks located inside the station building, an earth pony stallion was sat at the desk with a bored look on his face.

"Um, excuse me?" I asked, he looked at me.

"What can ah do for yawl, son?" he asked, smiling.

"I was wondering if you could direct me to the chutes to New Altero" I said.

"Look for the sign that says 'to the chutes'" he said "follow it and you should start to see signs in two languages, one of them's written in circular symbols" i nodded.

"Thank you" I said, before turning and walking away. I soon found the aforementioned sign and followed it until I came to an intersection with a set of signs in some weird text:

I stared at the text and tilted my head in confusion, I heard chuckling behind me and turned to see a four hoof and a half tall mechanical biped with brown legs and hands, cream chest and arms and a bronze coloured mask with lenses on the right side.

"Let me guess" he said, crossing his arms "first time going to New Altero?" I nodded.

"Yeah" I said "needed to escape from home for a while, figured a trip down south would do the trick" he looked at me like I'd grown a second horn.

"On your own?" he asked, I shrugged.

"what can I say" I said, shrugging "I'm a fairly independent pony"

"Trust me when I say you're gonna need a guide" he said.

"Are you offering?" I asked, he dead-panned.

"No, I'm gonna sell you a thornax...of course I'm offering" he said.

"Well then" I said "what's the best place to go to in New Altero?"

"Definitely Po-Altero" he said "come on, I'll show you the way" he then led me down one of the corridors, where I could mostly see more of the brown types.

"Say, I never got your name" he said after a while.

"It's Surefire" I said "you?"

"Bour" he said "I used to be a bricklayer, but bricks aren't exactly in high demand at the moment"

"Tough call" I muttered. we soon reached the station and I stopped when I noticed one glaring problem "I can't breath under water" Bour apparently found this funny as he promptly burst out laughing.

"Ha! That isn't water" he said "besides, you don't need to worry about that, you can breath just fine in the chutes. Come on" and with that he ran and jumped into the 25 hoof wide clear tube, the surface rippled as he passed through, and left a faint outline as he sped away. I tapped the surface with a hoof and it rippled slightly.

"Oh, Celestia, I must be mad" I said as I tightened the straps on my saddlebags and took several steps back before galloping and jumping in. i was temporarily disoriented as i floated in place for a few moments before being violently dragged along by the current, I got a sudden sense of vertigo as I accelerated rapidly along the chute. I soon heard a familiar chuckle.

"Heh, you can stop holding your breath now" I heard Bour say, I looked over to see him traveling feet first, laying on his back with his hands behind his head. I released a breath I didn't realise I was holding and expected the liquid we were traveling through to start rushing down my throat...only it never happened, it was certainly an odd experience, breathing through a liquid, it almost felt like breathing humid, summer air, only it was cool. I absentmindedly wondered if this is what it was like to be a fish before rejecting that thought as stupid.

"How long till we reach, what was it called again?" I asked, absentmindedly noting in the cacti flashing past us "'Po-Altero'?" he nodded.

"about an hour or so" he said.

"Is that all!?" I asked in surprise, he nodded.

"we're traveling at about 300 Kio per hour" he said "give or take a few" I didn't know how long a Kio was, but it sounded like the equivalent of Miles back home, I'd have to ask someone about it when we reached New Altero.