“Ok, we’ve made it. Do we have everything?” Said a man in a Vezon costume, named Goge, to himself. I think so, let's rock this party! His mind responded. Sometimes having an alternate personality was good, like organization.
As Goge entered the costume party he passed his friend and rival who was in a Toa Ignika costume. “Hey! you made it! So Vezon this time? Ironic don't you think? I mean I’m The mask of life and your its former guardian. what a coincidence!” He laughed.
“Well, I was feeling a little crazy this Halloween, so I decided to go as one of the craziest guys in Bionicle! Plus, he's awesome.” Goge replied heartily, gripping the staff in his hand cheerfully. “So, what about you Arthur? What made you go all Life Guy?”
“Meh, something in the back of my mind kept telling me to dress up as my favorite toa, so I dressed up as one of the coolest of the toa to ever exist!” Arthur replied. “After all, what other toa is a sentient mask of power that can create a body for itself!?” He added.
“Yeah, but Vezon gets to be insane and fuse random stuff whenever he gets bored. Plus, he does what he wants, like standing on a giant spider demon for all eternity.” Goge shrugged, glancing around.
“Oh, by the way. some guy in a blue robe came by and left a package for you and me. I don't know what it is so I decided to wait for you before opening it.” Arthur said while leading Goge into the Livingroom where the halloween party was going on.
“Alright! So, should we first party, or open up the present?” Goge asked looking around. He grabbed some food from one of the tables, and began chewing on some chips, while drinking some soda. He somehow managed to expertly get both snacks through his mask, and enjoyed every tasty morsel as he examined the party.
“Let's finish the party first,” Arthur said before adding, “After all, I have a feeling we might want to have some fun before opening the package.”
[rb]
“Ok, now that everyone has left let me go grab the package.” Arthur said before walking into another room.
Goge shrugged, before following Arthur into the other room.
As they walked into what looked like an office area Arthur pulled out a box that was half the size of a shoe box. “Alright, here it is.” he said before setting the Package down on a coffee table.
“So, let's crack it open!” Goge said eagerly.
Arthur pulled out a pair of scissors before using them to cut the box open revealing two letters inside, one labeled for Arthur the other labeled for Goge.
“Well, it's not quite what I was expecting, but hey, you can't get everything you want. Let's take a look at these.” Goge said, picking up his letter.
Arthur picked up his letter and opened it revealing some kind of ticket. “Ok… this is just getting stranger and stranger…” He said while reading what the ticket said. Goge did the same.
Hello there,
If you are reading this you have been chosen to be sent to another land where your actions will either help or destroy those you find there.
Good luck!
Goge reread it. “What, is this some sort of promotional thing for a video game?” He asked, looking over at Arthur.
“I don't know, sounds interesting though. If it's real though I would gladly accept, I honestly don't care for my current life much except for having you as my friend. everything else is too strenuous.” Arthur said while pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Yeah, this world is worse than most of the video games about nuclear war. So, I guess I'd accept as well.” I replied, and my alternate personality silently agreed.
At hearing the two accept, the tickets began to glow.
“Um, what is happening?” Goge asked, staring at the ticket and gripping his staff tighter.
“I think the tickets reacted to us accepting somehow!” Arthur shouted before the glow engulfed the two costumed friends.
The last thing Goge said on planet Earth was as such:
“That doesn't make any sense!”
And then they vanished in a flash of light.
××××××××××××××××××××××××××
‘Urgh… my head… what happened? and why can't I feel any…’ Arthur thought before his thoughts were interrupted as he ‘opened’ his ‘eyes’ to find himself in orbit around a planet. ‘WHAT THE FUCK!?’ he thought before he started to descend through the atmosphere.
When Arthur landed he made a crater the size of a small house, but surprisingly he felt no pain. He then noticed his position, for some reason he landed in a position where he would have been standing but when he looked down he saw no body underneath his mask. ‘Wait, my mask? first of all, how did I survive that fall? and second, how come I see the mask I was wearing before that flash of light and... not… my… body?’ He thought before freezing in shock. ‘Did that ticket do what I think it did?’ he wondered before movement in the corner of his vision broke him from his thoughts.
“What was that, a fallen star?” Said a voice that seemed to be approaching the edge of the crater, but do to the smoke Arthur couldn't see what was speaking and neither could the voice see him.
‘Is someone there? If so, I wonder if they can help me?’ Arthur thought trying to do something to get the individual's attention before somehow making the mask glow a bit. ‘How did I do that?’ he thought before noticing what he heard come through the smoke, only to stare in shock to see an anthro zebra.
“Now what do we have here? A mask dropped from the heavens? and to appear during the festival to the circle of life no less! It must be a sign from the great spirits!” The zebra said before picking up Arthur.
As Arthur looked into the zebra’s HUGE eyes he noticed his reflection only to find his fears confirmed. ‘Great, I’m now the mask of life…’ he thought as the zebra carried him off.
“I can even sense magic radiating from it, I must bring it to the tribe elders!” The zebra said before beginning to sprint in the direction of a small village.
‘I hope this goes better than I think it will.’ Arthur thought as he was carried into the village and brought to a large tent.
“I wish to speak to the elders, it is related to the falling star that was seen during the festival!” The zebra said, to what looked like to zebras holding spears and wearing draconic masks.
“You may pass.” Said one of the guards as they both held the tent entrance open for the zebra who was holding me.
As we entered the tent I noticed there was a fire with three elderly looking zebras sitting around it in the middle of the tent.
-300 years later-
“As a sign of our acceptance of this peace treaty we give you, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, our most sacred treasure. Ignika, the Mask of Life.” Said the zebra chieftain presenting the mask to the princesses of the sun and moon.
“This is an honor! you humble us chieftain.” Celestia said as she accepted the silver mask from the zebra.
“Think nothing of it, for the mask finds you worthy to wield its power.” the chieftain said as the mask began to glow.
Celestia and Luna looked at the mask in astonishment, they had never thought the legends around the artifact to be true but were now being shown solid evidence that they were real. “We thank you and shall not abuse it.” They replied in unison before both parties left.
As the Princesses returned to canterlot they told their guard to send Starswirl to meet them in the throne room alone before going there themselves.
“You called your majesty's?” Starswirl asked as he entered the throne room.
“Yes, we have received a gift from the zebras when we made the peace treaty. Have you ever heard of the Ignika?” Celestia said to the young unicorn.
Starswirl's eyes went wide, “The legendary mask that fell from the heavens and is believed to be the embodiment of life!? its real!?” he stammered looking at the princesses with an astonished expression.
The princesses giggled at his reaction before levitating the mask over to him, Its glow increasing the closer it got to Starswirl and he took it in his hands before the glow faded away. “Fascinating…” All three of them said before Starswirl looked expectantly at the princesses.
“We wish you to take this mask and study it. learn what you can, but make sure we can use it whenever it is needed.” Celestia said before sending Starswirl away.
After starswirl left Luna looked to her sister. “Are you sure this is a good idea? If the legends are to be believed, the Great Beings will not be happy with us tampering with the mask.” She said worry evident in her voice.
“Don't worry sister, we won't do anything that would be disapproved of by the Great Beings. We will only try and learn more about it, we won't try anything dangerous.” celestia replied with a gentle smile.
To be continued...
“Twilight, Calm down!” A young purple dragon said to a lavender unicorn as they walked into the observatory.
“I can't Spike, I need to be sure about this!” Twilight said.
“Sure of what!? you still haven't told me what's going on!” Spike shouted at the unicorn.
“Elements, elements, elements, aha! Found it!” Twilight exclaimed as she found a large book with the picture of 6 jems surrounding the silhouette of a pony. As Twilight began to read she didn't notice the pedestal in front of her before bumping into it and causing it to fall over and the lightstone that was perched on top started to roll across the room.
“Twilight!” Spike shouted causing the unicorn to look up from her book to see the lightstone starting to roll down the hall.
“I’ll get it!” Twilight said as she ran after the light stone down multiple halls until it stopped in front of a door she had never seen before.
Out of curiosity, Twilight decided to see what was inside. As she opened the door, she noticed it was pitch black in the room. using her telekinesis to lift up the lightstone she levitated it beside her as she entered the room, only to find it wasn't a room but a staircase.
“Thats strange, there shouldn't be anything below here…” Twilight mumbled as she remembered the castle design schematics from her studies.
Twilight started to descend the steps, and after what felt like an hour she came to an area where the stairs seemed to end in front of a door. Being cautious, Twilight opened the door to peek inside to find a room bigger than canterlot castle with a river of lava flowing through the middle dividing the room in half.
“Ok, this is getting weird…” Twilight muttered before stepping into the room.
Twilight noticed the other group of ponies arrive on the other side of the lava river and decided to try and figure out what's going on. “Hey! You ponies over there! Do you know what place this is?” She called over to them as she started walking in their direction as she looked around the strange room.
“No, we just came from the top of the mountain! We got no idea what's going on either!” One of them replied. A dark chuckle echoed throughout the cavern, and the lava bubbled.
“Welcome to my humble abode….” A voice echoed, and a silver head poked up from the lava. “My name is Vezon, Guardian of the Kanohi Ignika….or was it Olmak?” The head rose, a body rising out after it. “Sometimes I can't tell the difference between the two. Ah well, never mind my rambling. Who are you, and why have you broken into my sanctum?” The strange creature, Vezon, asked, lava dripping off his form. Silver armor covered his body, with spots of black inner armor. In his hand was a staff as tall as he was, with a disturbing speartip at the top. His feet were clawed, with three appendages stabbed into the ground. A black cape sat on his back, holes inside the fabric. His red eyes darted around the room, and a creepy grin was plastered onto his face.
“Ah well, I'm sure that you ponies.” He spat the word out like a rotten apple, venom dripping from the word. “Haven't changed one bit since I've been here. How long has it been again? Two, three hundred years or so? Maybe more? I lost count after three hundred, but that was apple thousand years ago. Oh, that's how long! One thousand, three hundred years!” He rambled to himself. “Anyways, since my home has been breached, I suppose it's time to move again. Fenrakk!”
An absolutely massive spider like monster dropped from the ceiling, teeth dripping acid. Like Vezon, it was covered in armor, with multiple layers of armor underneath. He leapt on top, a chain materializing onto his arm. He glanced at the ponies at the other side of the room.
“Ah who am I to leave without giving my guests a gift?” He aimed his spear at them, and a beam magic shot out, striking the group. When the dust cleared, him and the spider were nowhere to be seen. As for the ponies, they were...split into eight ponies, mostly identical to each other.
“What?” One of them asked the other, utterly confused. The...duplicates looked at the originals, while the originals looked at one another in shock. Or was it the other way around? A dark chuckle echoed throughout the cavern.
“In my people’s tongue, the word for clone was vezon. Since the being I am was the ‘clone’ of another, using this exact same spear, I am named Vezon. So , I guess I shall now bid farewell to my....children? Brothers and sisters? Ah whatever. Have fuuuun~!” Vezon called from an unknown spot in the cave, before silence reigned the massive cavern.
The Twilights just gaped at each other taking in what this ‘Vezon’ said before they, along with the other ponies, fainted.
~Later that day~
“Contact the princess! We found Twilight, and it seems like she isn't alone!” A guard said over a magical communication relay as he stumbled upon the room that the Twilights and six other ponies were in.
After she heard the news, Celestia ran to where Twilight was and began to do a checkup on her student. “What could have done this?” The alicorn asked herself.
“Your majesty! the artifact is glowing!” A guard said, out of breath as he burst into the cavern.
“What!?” Celestia exclaimed, but then an idea occurred to her. It was risky, and she didn't want a repeat of the Starswirl incident, but it was her only hope. So, she lifted the two Twilights and ran to the treasure room where the Ignika was kept.
Arthur’s POV
As I woke from my stasis I realized that I was no longer in Starswirl's lab for some reason, but that's not what I was worried about. As I looked around I noticed the chamber I was in was full of gems and gold, and there were multiple pony guards patrolling around. One of the guards noticed that I had started glowing once I regained consciousness and ran off, shouting the name of one of the princesses.
‘Ok… that was weird…’ I thought before the Princess of The Day came barging in a short while later.
“I hope this works…” Celestia said before placing two identical looking purple unicorns in front of me.
‘I have no clue whats going on but I’ll just go with it…’ I thought as the princess then picked me up and put me on her face while concentrating on the unicorn. I lent her the ability to use me for a moment to see what she would do before the two unicorns fused together.
“Thank goodness it worked…” Celestia said, making me now realize that this pony had somehow been split in two before I exacted my payment from her magical reserves for using me. “Urgh… I forgot about the backlash…” She muttered before turning to a guard. “Take my student to her chambers, I need to go prepare for the day after tomorrow.”
‘Whats going on the day after tomorrow?’ I wondered, my curiosity getting the best of me.
As the guard picked up the purple unicorn Celestia teleported to her chambers before removing me. “I hope my student can fulfill the prophecy… But I will send this with her just to be safe…” She said before writing a note and teleporting me and the note away.
~The next day, in Ponyville~
The purple unicorn, who I found out was named Twilight, had just set me down inside the library after meeting with the five ponies responsible for tomorrow's events before grabbing a book and mumbling something about nightmares. However I wasn't paying attention due to the fact that I was staring at her companion in amazement. I had never seen a dragon before and there was a baby one right in front of me… I’ll admit I fanboyed a bit in my head.
“Come on Twilight! come join the party!” Spike said.
“No thank you Spike, all the ponies in this town are CRAZY!” Twilight snapped.
I just ignored their banter and waited for something interesting to happen. ‘I jinxed it didn't I?’ I thought as I suddenly stopped sensing Celestia’s life force, a dark energy that only I could see descending from the moon. I was now wondering where Luna was, I didn't sense her lifeforce… was she somewhere far away? Who knows.
“Oh no…” Twilight said as a silhouette of a pony vanished from the moon.
‘Well, whatever is going on at least someone knows what's happening possibly…’ I thought as Twilight grabbed me and made a dash for the Town Hall where the rest of the citizens were gathering.
3rd POV
As the citizens of Ponyville gathered at the Town Hall for the Solar Sun Celebration, Twilight felt extremely anxious for some reason, almost like a curtain of dread covered her. She tried to shake her mind clear of thoughts about the Nightmare Moon Tale, and that strange thing from the cave, but they continued to swirl around her mind relentlessly.
“And now, here to raise the sun in person on this glorious day, our guiding ruler, Princess Celestia!” Mayor Mare exclaimed, and the curtains opened while the birds chirped a chorus. Only for nopony to be on the podium. A collective gasp to erupt from the ponies below it.
“Where is she? Is she playing ‘Hide and Seek’?” A pink pony asked, glancing around.
“She’s gone!” A white unicorn with a purple mane cried as she came on podium.
“Ooh~ she’s good.” The pink pony said before squawking as a dark mist started to form on the podium.
“Not good….” Twilight said to herself, shrinking back as the mist condensed into a alicorn with midnight black fur and armor.
“Hello my little ponies~” The mysterious alicorn said.
“Guards, seize her! She must know where the Princess is!” Mayor Mare ordered, and the guards launched at the mysterious alicorn. They were thrown back by a shockwave erupting from the Alicorn, who cackled with laughter.
“Fools!” She taunted, a staff forming out of the shadows and into her waiting hand. “Don't you know who I am?!”
“Your Nightmare Moon!” Twilight shouted, glaring at the alicorn.
“So somepony remembers me, It matters not… I hope you ponies enjoyed your last day, because from this point on, the night. shall last! FOREVER!” Nightmare moon cackled evilly before vanishing.
“Come on Spike. We need to get back to the Library.” Twilight said, grabbing him in her magic and running towards the library. Rainbow-maned pegasus noticed her leave and chased after her, her four friends trailing behind her.
“Are you a SPY?” The cyan pegasus Twilight had met during her checkup on the events yesterday asked, right in front of her face.
“Woah now sugarcube!” The orange earth pony Twilight had also met yesterday said to the cyan pegasus while dragging her away from the purple unicorn. “Now Twilight, you seem to know what's going on here. Can you explain it to us?”
“Sure.” Twilight said, before clearing her throat. “In a story I read, an evil mare named Nightmare Moon attempted to bring Eternal Night to Equestria. She was sealed in the moon, but has escaped. I was trying to find a book about the items used to seal her the first time, the Elements of Harmony. However, I can't find it.” Twilight explained.
“Elements of Harmony, A Reference Guide.” The pink earth pony from earlier said as she grabbed the mentioned book and brought it over to Twilight.
“How did you find it?” Twilight asked, shocked at how easily she had found it.
“It was under E~” The pink pony sang.
“Let's see….” Twilight opened the book. “There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said the last known location of the five elements was in the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. It is located in what is now-”
“The Everfree Forest…” The group of six mares said in unison as they reached the forest edge.
The Ignika did not know why the ponies were scared of the forest, but decided to be helpful, making himself glow so they could use him as a flashlight. After all, he didn't want this ‘Nightmare Moon’ to win because that would mean that all the lifeforms in this land would perish from the cold generated by a lack of sunlight. And because no life would mean eternal loneliness.
“What is that?” Rainbow asked, pointing at Twilight's glowing bag. She pulled out the Ignika, looking at it with surprise.
“It's the Kanohi Ignika, a ‘mask of life’ given to Equestria by the Zebras in a peace treaty one thousand years ago. Princess Celestia gave it to me for studying before sending me here. But it never glowed….” Twilight explained, staring at the mask.
“Well, at least it will give us some light.” Fluttershy whispered, feeling comforted by the glow for some reason.
“Well, I suppose we should get moving.” Twilight said, holding the mask in front of her and walking forward. The others followed, keeping close to the light.
“Sooooo~ Giggle at the Ghosty! Guffaw at the Ghosty, Crack up at the creepy!” Pinkie sang, making the unnatural trees return to normal. After a few minutes of this, none were left with faces.
“Glad that's over.” Twilight said to herself as the group continued forwards.
“Oh come on Twi! With me around, what's the worst that could happen?” Rainbow Dash asked, unknowingly cursing the group with immediate bad luck.
“Probably me.” A metallic voice replied from the shadows.
“You just had to jinx it didn't you Rainbow…” Applejack deadpanned.
“Oh come on! This guy's a coward! I mean, he isn't even showing his face! He is probably just going to make a long speech before running away!” Rainbow retorted snarkily.
“I'm afraid that your hypothesis is terribly, horribly incorrect.” The voice chuckled darkly, and a silver and black figure with a mad grin planted on his face stepped out from behind a tree, spear in hand. Twilight gasped as she recognized him. He cleared his throat. “Terribly sorry about that, it's just I haven't used my voice in quite some time. It's still a bit rusty.” Vezon apologized, walking closer to the group.
“What the buck are you?!” Rainbow asked, disturbed by his appearance.
“He's a Vezon, or clone in his language. He was under Canterlot and got out.” Twilight answered, charging her horn.
“Oh, it's you!” Vezon chirped, clapping his clawed hands together. “Or are you that vezon I made with the Spear? Oh well, it doesn't matter to me. Now, what was I here for…” He began tapping his chin in thought.
The ground slowly began to give before collapsing under the ponies and Vezon, the ponies screaming as Vezon cursed his timing while Ignika just stared in shock when he saw Vezon.
“Damn it. Down the rabbit hole we go then!” Vezon said, before holding out his arms and yelling in joy. Then he noticed the glowing Ignika, and stared. “Wait a minute...that doesn't make sense. The Kanohi Ignika is on my head…” He muttered, utterly confused for the first time in centuries.
The Ignika was unable to speak so he just made his light flicker in recognition of Vezon’s statement before returning to glowing as he was snatched out of the air by Twilight's hand.
“That was way too close!” Twilight said as she held the Ignika in one hand while holding Applejack’s hand with her other.
Vezon, however, was still stunned by the fact of the Ignika’s existence, and fell off the edge, landing in a heap below.
“A-are you ok?” Fluttershy asked, poking Vezon on the shoulder. The other five ponies gathering around after being rescued from the cliff by Rainbow Dash.
“How? How is it possible? How do they have the Kanohi Ignika? I have the Kanohi Ignika fused to my head, so how do they have it?” He babbled, still stunned from seeing the Ignika.
“What are you talking about? The Ignika is right here, how could it be fused to your head?” Twilight asked, holding the mask up so they could see their surroundings as well as Vezon.
“No no no… how? Did something remove it during my sleep? Then how would I talk to Fenrakk? No, they must have cloned it somehow, replicated it.” Vezon replied.
“What are you babbling about? The Ignika was found by the Zebras over 1600 years ago after it fell from the sky before being given to the Princess during a peace conference 1000 years ago.” Twilight said, confused by Vezon’s ramblings.
“No...it can't be…” Vezon said, getting up. “Then again, we both were dressed as a character that used the Ignika, so it's possible… and he was Toa Ignika… could it really be Arthur?” Vezon mumbled, staring at the Ignika.
“Hello? Equestria to crazy! What are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash said.
“It's the only reason why there would be two Kanohi Ignika in one universe… you!” Vezon snapped, pointing at Twilight, his red eyes glowing. “Give me the Ignika.”
“W-what!? Why!” Twilight demanded.
The Ignika was stunned, he never thought he would hear his old name again, let alone that he would encounter his old friend who had somehow become Vezon… the mask was so overwhelmed his light accidentally went out, causing the ponies to panic.
“Why did the mask stop glowing!?” Rainbow shouted, not able to see anything in the darkness.
“Give me the Ignika. Now!” Vezon ordered, his red eyes piercing through the darkness in front of his face.
Arthur started to glow again to give the ponies some light once he snapped out of his shock, he soon regretted it though.
“Why do ya want the mask?” Applejack said getting into a defencive position along with Rainbow.
“Give me the mask!” Vezon repeated, ignoring Applejack. A dark red glow began to surround his eyes. “Give it to me now, or I swear by Mata Nui, I will remove it from your corpse!”
“Run!” Twilight said before she and her friends began to flee from Vezon, fearing for their lives. Beams of red energy shot from Vezon’s eyes, missing the fleeing ponies and cutting clean through a tree. Unbeknownst to the ponies, the top of his head began to glow a golden light.
Twilight, not paying attention to where she was running tripped over the stump and landed on her face, the Ignika sliding away from her. The Ignika then started to glow alongside Vezon’s head, slowly sliding towards him as the glow started to brighten.
“Agh! What...is...happening?!” Vezon cursed, dropping to his knees while clutching his glowing head, unaware of the Ignika sliding towards him.
The Ignika started spinning as a tornado made of dust started to form around it and particles of golden light streamed from Vezon’s head towards the tornado. As the golden particles stopped streaming from Vezon’s head and causing it to stop glowing, the tornado then stopped moving and leaving a simple dust cloud before it started to settle.
