I was the first to stop dead in my tracks at the sight of this creature, nearly falling flat on my face as a result, though the others quickly stopped and looked at me in confusion s I studied the creature. It was built not unlike a large therapod and stood some 15 feet tall, its body was covered in red and blue metalic plates which were tinged with rust, whilst what little organic flesh I could see appeared to have a sickly sheen to it. It had two long arms ending in vicious talons, a great tail covered in metal plates with a tip which seemed sharp enough to pierce flesh and organ, and when it pulled its head out of second story window its jaws appeared almost comically long, were it not for the fact they were filled with teeth which were dripping with blood. Flashes of memory raced through my mind at such a rate they made my head hurt. This creature was a Zyglak...and it should not exist on this planet, or any other planet for that matter. Given the situation, I said the first thing that came to my panicked mind.

“I have to get off this planet” Autumn let out a strangled, mirthless chuckle at this.

“You what?” Autumn asked.

“That thing is a Zyglak, and it should not be here” as I spoke I adopted a defensive stance, sword back with the shield brought in front to provide the most protection. “Tarn, I need you to get out of here”

“What?” the kobald asked in confusion and worry.

“Just go!” I barked, though I quickly regretted my decision as this cought to attention of the Zyglak, its head snapped around and its eyes focussed on me, and growl working its way up its throat as it sized me up.

“Toa…” it seethed, turning to to face me, very quickly I felt a pit in my stomach as certain inexplicable familiarities about my mask became very clear to me. I blanched as I began slowly edging back, for every foot I stepped backwards it took one step forwards

“We need to go” I said quickly.

“What-” Octavia went to ask, only for me to cut her off.

“We need to go now!” I repeated, panic starting to creep into my voice, from what I knew about this creature it was well beyond my current skill and I would have much rather put a good 50 miles between myself and it, consequently I proceeded to do the only thing which seemed sensible at the time.

I bolted...and I totally did not scream in terror as I did so.

“Nope-nope-nope-nope-nope” I muttered as I ran with the others close behind me.

“What even was that thing?” Alee asked.

“Zyglak” I said “amphibious, live a few hundred millennia, carry a flesh eating virus on their skin, resistant to elemental powers so that’s us fucked, oh, and it thinks I’m something which it would very much like to see torn to shreds and devoured. So, sorry fantasia, but I am NOT dealing with that thing today!” clearly Fantasia had other ideas as the Zyglak proceeded to land on the ground in front of us, causing a crater.

“Tsvina yenyika” it seethed in some foreign language as it slowly stalked towards me “The rest of you can flee with your miserable fleeting lives, I just want the Toa”

“I don’t know what a Toa is, but he is not one of them!!” Autumn barked, attempting to stand defensively in front of me, though considering I was twice her height she didn’t do a very good job of it “And if you want him, you’re going to have to go through me!” Octavia, on the other hand, decided to take a more direct approach as she reared up on her hind legs and drew her bow before loosing an arrow which struck to cobblestones at the feet of the zyglak, making it stop and look down and the chipped cobbles, before looking back up at Octavia and growling as she notched two more arrows in the drawstring and pulled her bow taught.

“One step closer and I’ll loose these arrows” she warned “they might not pierce your armour but I’m willing to bet I can still render you blind, lizard” the zyglak chuckled

“Big talk coming from a little rahi” it spat “I have lived a million of your lifetimes, and whilst your kind withers and dies, me and my brothers & sisters endure. You are all but dust beneath me, the next meal to be devoured!” and with that he charged, leaping through the air so quickly that by the time Octavia had fired her arrows her aim had been thrown off and so they bounced harmlessly off the snout of the creature. Using its arms and tail proceeded to knock, Vinyl, Alee, and Autumn out of the way in three different directions before grabbing Octavia by the throat in its right arm and pinning me to the ground with its left arm. Leaving me helpless as its eyes ran up and down Octavia with a predatory gleam and a long tongue slithered out of its jaws and snaked its way across her face, leaving a trail of saliva which matted her fur and made her shiver in a mixture of disgust and fear.

“I’m going to enjoy this” the zyglak practically purred, but a sickening schink sounded out and the zyglak bellowed with rage. I looked past the head of the creature to see Tarn with a dagger embedded deep between two plates of armour on the zyglak’s back.

“That’s my princess you’re touching, chi cachu!” Tarn spat. And she drove the dagger in deeper, almost immediately a white glow surrounded her and gleaming white armour materialised around her as she grew about 3 inches in hight, the dagger also appeared to glow, before a shimmering sound was very quickly followed by a sickening mix of the rending of metal and ripping of flesh as ice exploded out of the creature’s back, forcing its armour apart with a spray of silvery red blood. The Zyglak reared up in agony, letting out a choked roar before a light in the center of its chest winked out, and the creature went silent before tumbling to the cobblestones, dead.

For a moment, none of us moved, too stunned by the very rapid turn of events, eventually as the others brushed themselves off I got up and made my way over to Octavia, who had a far off look on her face.

“Are you okay?” I asked, kneeling down and holding out a hand to help her up.

“Now? Quite frankly, no. I’m not okay” she huffed, before accepting my waiting hand “but don’t worry, it’s just my first time in a fight is all”

“Before we all go charging back in” Autumn said as she hovered over and pressed one of her hoof claws to the underside of my jaw “You’ve got some explaining to do, “toa”. What even is that thing? And how do you of all people know about it?” I cautiously moved her hoof out of the way with my hand, allowing me room to properly talk.

“As I said before, it’s called a zyglak, my kind had stories about creatures like them, about the universe they come from” I said “but they were total fiction, not even like a myth or a legend, more fantasy like lord of the rings. By all rights it shouldn’t exist which is why I panicked”

What even is a Toa?” Autumn asked. I frowned at this, took off my mask, and examined it intently. It was definitely a Kenohi hau...or rather a replica of one, though I doubted it was functional, not once had I been given an inkling that it could work. Fantasia would have some explaining to do when we were done here

“In the stories back home, zyglak were one of the not so pleasant races” I explained as I put this mask back on “toa were that world’s guardians, they had the power over elements similar to wrakjon. This mask is not unlike one particular mask which some toa wore, it gave its wearer the power of protection, in that regard this mask isn’t genuine, but the resemblance is enough that the zyglak thought I was a toa”

“But why have we not heard of them up till now?” Octavia asked “I’ve heard of some coastal towns and cities getting raided, but never any mention of…”zyglak”...” out of Octavia’s mouth the word sounded cumbersome, almost uncomfortable to speak.

“Because wey call them somethin’ else” We turned as one to look at Alee, who was inspecting the corpse, she then nodded at me “he calls them zyglak, but when ah was with the river pirates wey called them Iarann-Ais...Ironbacks in yer tongue. Whenever towns get raided most folks don’t get much of a good look at them, so they compare them to the only thing which is remotely similar...dragons”

“I can remember hearing about reports of strange metal skinned dragons when I was being trained by the guard” Autumn said “we were often threatened with being assigned coastal duty guarding against them as punishment, but we were never shown any pictures of them.

“Oh, they aren’t all bad, mind” Alee said “you’ll find some working as fishers, they’re amphibious, makes them very good at catching fish, which makes for an easy way to make a quick bit. I’ve met a few, they’re honest folks, but unfortunately the majority are like this one, sea raiders who plunder and pillage”

“Onælan, are you absolutely sure that it’s what you say it is?” Octavia asked as I walked over to the body of the zyglak and hauled it onto what was left of it’s back.

“It called me Toa, so that right there is a big giveaway” I said, taking a moment to examine it properly, before conjuring my dagger and using it to prise out the crystal embedded in it’s chest, before holding it up in the light of the sun to examine it, it was about 8 inches long, and about 3 inches in diameter “these things don’t have hearts like we do, they aren’t even organic in the sense we are, they’re mostly machine with some organic parts tacked on, practically immortal as well” I then held the crystal up for the others to see “the stories called this a heart-stone, if I remember correctly it’s their lifesource, their soul...I think I’ll keep it, it’ll make a cool necklace” clearly the others were taken aback by this, as they all gave me slightly wary looks as I rose to my full height and proceeded to drop the crystal into a pocket I had attached to the inside of my chest place, I’d make it into a necklace later

“So….Ice powers?” Autumn ventured, looking at Tarn, who was now stood with the rest of our group with her armour shining in the sun. “Can’t say I saw that coming...”

“Are you joking?” Tarn asked “my kind inhabit the snowbounds of the minotaur lands, we thrive in the snow! nah, this I can work with”

“I’ll admit I’m surprised” I said, glancing at the zyglak corpse “from what I remember they are are resistant to elemental powers-”

“They are” Autumn said “that thing’s made of metal, the entire time it was monologuing I was trying to make a living puppet out of it, I could barely get a register on it” Vinyl frowned

“I tried to hit it with a high pitched screech...the fucker didn’t even flinch!”

“My gravity powers didn’t work either” Octavia agreed “it should have felt 30 tons heavier…”

“That’s because none of you are thinking outside the box” Tarn said, looking rather smug “yeah, if I’d hit hit with a blast of ice it would have done a fat lot of good, but I didn’t, all I did was encourage the water particles which were already beneath its armour to turn to ice. And what always happens to the plumbing in winter? Pop! Like our very dead friend over there”

“Clever girl…” I muttered, which warranted a snap of the fingers and a wink from Tarn, I then walked over to where I’d been pinned and picking up my sword and shield “so, my friends, once more unto the breach?”

*20 minutes later*

Dirt was kicked up around me as I dove over the drystone wall of a garden whilst energy weapons-fire wheeled overhead.

Of fucking course they would have god knows what kind of ranged weapons, I’m pretty sure I saw a rhotuka spinner at one point…

The six of us were now holed up behind the aforementioned wall with a number of the local guard, some of whom were having to make visible efforts to hide behind said wall. According to them this was a semi-periodic thing, five or ten years would roll around and they would strike Teesside, apparently they cycled through a number of cities on the two northern continent and there wasn’t all that much the locals could do except hunker down and maybe do one or two of them in if they were lucky.

And on top of everything it was currently raining...just my luck as a wrakjon of fire...

“Just our fucking luck that we’d arrive when they’re in the middle of a raid” Autumn said.

“For wha' it’s worth i’m not complainin 'a' you’re 'eear.” one local, a gargantuan female Tyke with a dark brown coat and light brown mane & tale by the name of Midnight Quarry, who had happened to tag along with us, said. “We’re a', wha' wor it? 50:5 teur t' ironbacks, teur ta thee ah think that’s eur recut for wee side” her thick accent went completely over my head, but I was too busy being waist deep inside my shoulderbag to offer a response.

“What are you doing?” Alee asked.

“Got you! I knew I’d left it in here!” and with that I backed out of the bag carrying one large bag and a certain punt-gun I had looted from the river pirates, though I had since modified it to make it more manageable for a single person, like myself, to handle; I had sawn a large portion of the barrel off, shortening it from 10ft down to 4ft, and I had greatly modified the firing chamber to utilize reusable cartridges, the idea was that I would retain each cartridge after its charge had been spent to reset and refill later, as a way of making things easier in the long run. Alee took one look at it and her face went through a range of emotions, before finally settling on confused anger.

“What did you do to mah gun?” she asked.

“Made it easier to use, trust me, you’re gonna thank me in a minute” I said, before hinging the stock down with a “thunk” and poking my head up above the wall. The other side was facing out onto a town square, though it was more like an octagon. Half of the “square” was occupied by various groups of locals holed up against the xyglak raiders, some were even armed with spell-rifles or wheellock rifles which was a big help, though none could match the firepower the zyglak were packing, or what this punt gun was capable of. Opposite from us I could see the zyglak similarly holed up, since the raid had started it had progressed from packs of the sea raiders roaming through the streets picking off stragglers to prolonged firefights as they tried to draw out of pick off the dug in locals. All told our current situation reminded me of footage of city battles from WW2, and I was having a hard time keeping a level head in the face of the utter chaos we were presented with, though Autumn had very quickly taken stock of the situation and had managed to successfully navigate us to our current position unharmed.

I scanned the town square, looking for an easy target, and soon spotted a lone zyglak not too far away. Ducking back down I began to rifle through the sack, before producing a cartridge which was filled with a single large slug, with the amount of powder it was packed with it could punch through steel, at the very least the zyglak was definitely gonna feel it. I then slotted the cartridge into the breech and swung the stock up with a snap.

“Are you sure that bodge is going to work?” Alee asked.

“If I wasn’t I wouldn’t have done it in the first place” I said, cocking it back, muttering a quick prayer which consisted of “Fantasia fucking protect me”, and popping back up over the wall, punt gun soon aimed on the zyglak, who had its back turned to me.

“Pull!” I yelled for a little personal comedic effect, before pulling the trigger.

Boom!!!

I was promptly knocked on my ass as the gun bucked back violently and barked loud enough to drown out everything else in the town square, though I distinctly recall hearing aimless cursing in a foreign tongue which quickly died down signifying that my aim had held true.

“Could you make that thing any louder?” Tarn asked, rubbing one of her ears with the palm of her hand.

“Stow it!” Autumn hissed, as she peered over the top of the wall and her looked turned to one of amazement “don’t count your blessings yet, Onælan, but that thing actually worked!” I recovered and peeked over the top of the wall, following her gaze to see the zyglak now lying dead in the middle of the square, a sizable hole in its back which oozed silvery red blood, the rest of the zyglak, clearly stunned by the one shot kill, were now trying to hunker down behind walls and buildings.

“That worked a lot better than I thought it would...” I thought.

“I’m gunna need to make a scope next chance I get” I muttered “I was picturing using it as a heavy shotgun, but apparently those slugs work well enough to accurately take down larger targets”

“Oh, give it here!” Alee said, taking it in her magic and levitating the bag over “you said slugs, aye? Not shot?”

“Aye” I said “I’m not sure if shot would make a dent in their armour at this distance” Alee simply nodded, loaded a cartridge into the breech and then proceeded to walk in front of me.

“Hold me” she said.

“Excuse me?” I asked, surprised by her forwardness.

“Yew have more mass than me and even yew got knocked on your arse, this will send mey flying, ah need yew to hold mey to absorb the recoil” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, right, of course” I said, shifting back as she rested the end of the barrel on the brick wall, adopting a kneeling position with both forelegs holding the gun firmly. I then got in place behind her and leant against her back, just enough to stop her moving, then I wrapped both of my arms around her waist to secure my hold on here

“Don’t focus on where ah’m aiming” she said in a quiet voice as she levitated 7 cartridges and placed them in a line along the wall, add the one already in the breach and that was one shot one for each zyglak “ah need you to watch for anyone trying to sneak up on mey” I noticed Autumn staring at Alee as she held the punt gun.

“You were the one that shot me...weren’t you” she asked, to her credit Alee didn’t so much as flinch, though her expression turned serious.

“We fight side by side today, any quarrels we had in the past, they die with our enemies” she said “We’re battle-blooded now, that makes us damn near sisters so far as I’m concerned” she then turned to look at Autumn, a rare look of clarity on her typically manic face “Aye?” Autumn looked stunned.

“Ay...yes” she said, somewhat hesitant, before her resolve hardened and she nodded “Yes...let’s end this. You think you can get them all?”

“ah hit you through cloud cover at 1000 yards” Alee said, returning to look down the sights and slowly training the barrel on a zyglak who was peaking around “take that as an indicator of my marksmanship...mah folks even had a nickname for me on the rivers.

“Oh?” I asked. She didn’t answer for a moment, before breathing in then at last responding.

“Steady Aim”

And with that she pulled the trigger and the recoil hit me like a kick to the chest as sparks and smoke belched out the barrel with a cacophonous boom. For a split second I actually saw the slug sail through the air before hitting the zyglak in the center of its head, which promptly imploded as the slug tore through metal, flesh, and brain matter, and leaving a bloodstained hole in the wall behind as the zyglak crumpled to the floor without so much as a yelp.

“You’re watching my aim, human” Alee said in a warding tone as she reloaded and aimed for a new target, before switching to one tinged with annoyance “watch for anyone tryna be sneaky!” Another slug shot from the gun with a bark, another Zyglak went down. Unfortunately Alee’s warning chose to come true at the most inopportune moment as I spotted a Zyglak charging over.

“Alee, Move!” I barked, shoving her to the ground just in time to dodge a swipe from the Zyglak’s tail, only to be picked up and launched through the air and across the town square. I landed with a thud which stunned me, but I didn’t have much time to recover as already the zyglak was charging over. Bracing myself I rose to my feet and summoned my sword and shield with a quick spell before assuming a defensive stance.

The zyglak drew some sort of pistol and fired, but I quickly sidestepped and struck at his hand with my sword, knocking the gun out of his grasp but unfortunately leaving him uninjured, I then pushed the advantage by shoving at his midsection with my shield, striking as his left shoulder with my sword and then finishing off with a kick to the chest, my enhanced strength taking the zyglak by surprise and sending him sprawling. I came it him with my sword, flipping it around and attempting to run the creature through, only to stop short as the tip of the blade hit against its natural metal armour. I received a kick to the chest for my troubles, launching me through the air once more and knocking my sword and shield out of my reach. By the time I was back on my feet the zyglak was upon me once more, coming at me with a swipe from the right, hitting me in the shoulder, before backhanding me with the same hand and sending me flying into the base of a statue located in the center of the square. The zyglak groaned in disgust as he heaved me up with one arm and drew the other back, aiming for my face. Just before the fist hit its target I ducked out of the way, creating a crater in the base of the statue and showering me with stone dust. I reached up for the glowing light embedded in the chest armour of the zyglak, this was its heart stone, and began to prise at it attempting to rip it from its chest.

I got as far as actually managing to bend some of the metal away before the zyglak looked down, shocked for an instant, before backhanding me across the face, cursing in its native language as I was launched some 5 feet across the square, before I could even get up I received a kick to the face and was forced to roll out of the way as it attempted to curbstomp me not once, but twice. I tried to land a kick to the zyglak’s knee, hoping to knock it off balance, only to misjudge and end up striking it with my shin, which sent pain shooting up my leg and making me cry out, pretty sure I heard a few ponies wincing. The Zyglak on the other hand cackled in amusement as it picked me up and flung me across the town square and following after me, picking up my own sword on the way over and brandishing it with the clear intent to kill.

“Never been one for a sword, too unwieldy” the zyglak said, looming over me “but it will do for ridding the world of one more wretched toa!” and with that he raised the sword above his head with the pointing down, and thrust down intending to skewer me. I shut my eyes, awaiting my fate.

the clashing of metal made my open my eyes in surprise to find Alee stood over me dressed in sleek blue armour, her twin double blades locked against the crossguard of my ow sword.

“Yew hurt mah friend” she said, levely “ah’ll make yew regret that”

“Oh? Do tell…” the zyglak said, changing the angle of attack until it was mere inches from the clear blue visor which now covered Alee’s eyes. Though Alee, to her credit, didn’t so much as blink “just what exactly do you intend to do? you are nothing but a lowly river pirate!”

“Pot calling the kettle black, mate” she said, slowly side stepping now that the attention was solely on her and pulling my sword with her using her own blades so as to take me out of the fight. Then, almost faster than I could blink, she shifted one blade till it was at a 90 degree and to my own blade, pulled the other away, began to spin it till the blades faded into one, then drove it upwards…straight through the skull of the zyglak. For a moment the zyglak didn't so much as move, but I couldn't help but watch with morbid fascination as the front of the zyglak’s skull slowly slid down before falling off completely, with the rest of the zyglak following a short moment later. Only now did a pool of silvery-red blood begin pooling on the ground. Alee now turned to address the rest of the sea raiders, who were stunned into silence.

“Alright, here's how it's gonna play out. These lands are under our protection now. Yew wanna raid these towns? Yew gotta go through us, or more accurately…” she paused for a moment, driving both her swords into the zyglak before lifting it up above her head “We go through yew!” and with that she launched the carcass towards its brethren and it landed with a thud at their feet. “and if yew happen to attack a town whilst we're gone? We will find yew, and we will kill yew, we now feck off!”

The remaining Zyglak quickly got the message and scarpered.

Author's Note

I give you the first race from Bionicle to officially make an appearance in the story:

"Zyglak don’t have friends... just meals they haven’t eaten yet."

Species: Zyglak, Ironbacks (or various translations of, depending on the nation)

Description: 15 ft tall, bipedal, therapodoid in build, biomechanical biology.

Abilities: Amphibious, invulnerable to direct elemental magic (though through the right application indirect attacks can have an effect), carry a flesh eating bacteria on their skin, some carry weapons with the ability to shatter objects on contact at will.

distribution: The ocean, coastal waters of the twin continents and "The Chain" region of islands, they tend to steer clear of Equestria due to past altercations involving Princess Celestia, consequently they are practically unheard of by equestrians, and at a glance would simply be mistaken for aquatic dragons.

Occupation: typically sea raiders, though small groups live more peaceful lives as fishers or sea merchants