When Legends Rise

“You’re a toa!” I exclaimed, Lesovikk snorted.

“It’s been a very long time since anyone has called me that” he said “and you’re one to talk, you should be in a museum...or a mausoleum”

“What do you know of my species?” I asked, at this he walked over and loomed above me.

“Enough to know that you are trouble” he said, jabbing a finger into my chest with enough force to make me stumble back.

“Yeah...about that” Fyrefly cut in, walking over “there’s evidence pointing to them being...wrakjon”

“What do you know of wrakjon?” Octavia asked, at this Fyrefly struck a dramatic pose.

“You’re looking at one of the original Wrakjon, baby!” she proclaimed, blue flames swirling around her “not bad for thirty five hundred years, if I do say so myself”

“Fyrefly here lead one of very first teams to exist” Lesovikk said, before gesturing to the white and yellow pegasus who was seemingly oblivious to unfolding events, instead electing to chase after a butterfly “Surprise controls the power of light”

“For all her doolally nature, she’s often there to help right when she’s most needed” Fyrefly said “I’m not afraid to admit she’s saved my skin more than once, it’s the reason I put up with her”

“You love me really!” Surprise called out, prompting Fyrefly to roll her eyes, before focusing her attention on us.

“So, clearly some of you are wrakjon, I spotted, fire, ice, and some sort of metal control from you” she said, pointing at myself, Tarn and Autumn in turn “what about the rest of you?” I began pointing to each member of the group.

“Autumn controls Iron, Octavia controls gravity, Alee controls water, and Vinyl controls sound” I said “Midnight hasn’t yet had her powers revealed, but it’ll happen some time soon I figure”

“So it’s safe to say that you’re all new to this, but how much experience have you all had in battle, a real battle, not just a small scuffle?” Lesovikk asked, at this we all looked away awkwardly.

“I have some experience...but never as a wrakjon” Autumn said, at this Fyrefly facehoofed.

“Great, we got a bunch of rookies who haven’t even grown into their armour” she muttered “and you’re saying you’re off to fight the empress!?”

“Well, I figure that’s why we stumbled across each other” I said.

“How so?” Lesovikk asked.

“Uh...you wouldn’t happen to be familiar with Fantasia...would you?” I asked, prompting a frustrated groan from Fyrefly.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me!” she said “that bitch roped you lot into this?”

“Well, not so much going to fight the Empress, that was my call” I said, crossing my arms. “but yes, I’m the poor fuck that’s soulbound to her” Fyrefly let out an audible wince.

“Soul magic’s a nasty business, you tread carefully” she said “but you were saying, “why we stumbled across each other”?”

“Fantasia mentioned something about some people in this general area who could help us get a better grasp of our abilities” Octavia said “given her propensity to dip her hooves into matters, we figure that would be you three” Fyrefly and Lesovikk shared a look, before looking at us and as one..

“No”

And with that they both turned and began to walk away from us, seemingly in a gesture of washing their hands and hooves of us, leaving the rest of us standing there, stunned. Myself and Octavia shared a look, before I turned to the rest of the group.

“Just...wait here for a few minutes” I said, and the two of us proceeded to follow after the Toa and Wrakjon.

“No?” Octavia called after them once we caught up.

“Yep” Fyrefly said, not stopping or slowing down.

“First new Wrakjon in 3000 or so years and your reaction is to just leave us?” I asked “you would leave us to head north with no preparation”

“If it involves Fantasia, we shall have no part in it” Lesovik said “doubly so if involves the likes of you, pakanga”

“So you would just leave us hanging?” I asked “and you wouldn’t even consider helping us to fight?”

“That just about sums it up” Fyrefly said, I scoffed at their apathy.

“So much for duty” I shot back, in an instant Lesovikk rounded on me, his blade materialising in his hand as he pressed it against my throat, as Fyrefly moved to stand between us and Octavia, preventing her from getting close.

“Do not dare to invoke the three virtues to me!” He hissed. “Your kind knows nothing of duty, to have a reason to fight. What do you know of duty?” this stirred something in me like a red flag to a bull.

“Oh aye?” I asked “and what about the reason why I’m heading north to fight the empress?”

“Probably to fight for fighting’s sake” Fyrefly said dismissively.

“Have you heard anything about what’s been going on up there?” I asked “foreign lands being steamrolled by an opposing army swiftly and without mercy? My kind was doing amongst themselves that some 80 years ago. Innocent civilians being rounded up and transported in cattle trucks to god knows where? My kind did that too. For the longest time my friends have been asking me why I’m so dead set on going after the empress, and not once have I told them why because I care to much about what they think of me and I know how bad it would make me look”

“Onælan?” Octavia asked.

“Ask me about the night of shattered glass” I said, looking Lesovikk dead in the eyes, making him raise an eyebrow “ask me about how millions were targeted and rounded up purely because of what faith they believed in, or where they lived, or who they loved. Ask me about the remains of one of the camps I visited 70 years after the fact. Ask me about how I saw hallway after hallway filled with portraits of the prisoners with numbers stamped, guilty of no other crime than being born to a certain race, believing in a certain faith, thinking a certain way, or loving a particular person. An entire room filled from floor to ceiling with pots and pans to the extent that it had to be viewed from the room above. I another room filled with the prisoners luggage with the return addresses painted on because the prisoners thought they would one day be going home. A room where photography was banned because it was filled with human hair ripped off the scalps of those who had been gassed to be used in bedding and clothes.” I heard a gasp and glanced over to see Octavia with a hoof covering her mouth, a horrified look in her eyes, for a moment I considered stopping, but decided against it, I had a point to make.

“I walked through one of the "showers", where these people would be sent and told to wash themselves, only to be gassed for the crime of who they were...I saw scratch marks on the walls from where people had tried to claw they way out through solid concrete as they died in pain, I was told that they’d had to run machines at full power to drown out the screams of women and children dying in absolute agony!” at this point I was starting to raise my voice, temper at their apathy combined with my own hazy memories rising to the surface “11 million died in hellholes exactly like that, and for what? Because they were perceived as inferior. Yes, my kind has done some evil, abhorrent acts in the name of faith and ideology, I’ll be the first to mention that fact, but for every one bad person there are ten willing to stand against them, to fight back. You ask me what I know of duty? I come from a world where my kind has commited many mistakes, I’m trying to stop those mistakes from being repeated. In return I ask what you two know of duty if you would willingly sit back and let such atrocities play out all over again?” the two of them looked clearly stunned. I backed away from Lesovikk and turned towards Octavia.

“Come on” I said “We’ll find our own way from here, it’s clear that whatever help we wanted won’t be found here, there’s nothing but some jaded relics with no fight left in them” and with that I stormed off, perfectly content to leave the two of them standing there, if they wouldn’t help us, then they we had nothing worth learning from them anyway.

“Onælan, wait!” Octavia called, galloping over and stopping on front of me, rearing up onto her hind legs and placing a hoof against my shoulder to stop me, the two of us were now looking eye to eye, Octavia even had a couple inches on me, looking slightly downwards at me with her face filled with concern. “You thought our view of you would change if we knew? That’s why you’ve only ever hinted at your reasons for heading north all this time, why you’ve avoided our questions on it?”

“That about sums it up” I said, not even having the courage to look her in the eyes, I then placed a hand on her outstretched hoof and squeezed it, savouring in the contact “I care too much...I care too much what you think, what Tarn thinks, what Vinyl thinks, I care way too much about what Autumn thinks. You’re all I’ve got in this world, and I’m not even talking romantically, I’d go so far as to say that all of you...you’re like a family to me. I worry that eventually I’ll do or say the wrong thing and that I’ll be left on my own” Octavia let out a sigh, sympathy mixing with frustration and she pressed her forehead to mine, a gesture equivalent to a comforting embrace in a culture that had to rely on conveying meaning through gestures that didn’t always make use of the arms.

“Onælan, understand that we would never simply abandon you” she said “We ponies place a high regard for loyalty, among other virtues”

“You have your own virtues?” I asked, she nodded.

“But that can come later” she said, dropping back down onto all fours “come on, let’s go find the others and continue on our way, we have a long journey ahead of us, and now we need to find a town to resupply” I nodded and went to follow after her, but stopped.

“Just...don’t tell the others...about what I said, okay?” I asked “Loyalty or not, I’d rather they didn’t know, okay?” Octavia nodded, and soon our group was reunited once more and heading west, in search of the nearest town or village, hell, even a small settlement where we could at least get some rest for the night. Naturally, the topic of conversation had fallen to our own powers, it wasn’t exactly a peaceful discussion, either

“I’m just saying, how useful is the power of iron, really?” Alee asked. Autumn snorted, hovering lazily above us.

“You’re one to talk, I don’t exactly see water as powerful. water...” the pegasus scoffed, rolling her eyes “water soothes, calms, and luls the spirit into sleep. What power does water hold over any other power out there?”

“Water is patient, Autumn” I said, prompting everyone to look at me in surprise, typically I was happy to let them bicker amongst themselves without getting involved, so for me to speak up like this was odd to them “water just waits...it wears down the cliff face, corrodes metal, washes away the earth, extinguishes fires, melts ice, drowns life...water always wins”

“You realise you’re saying that as a wielder of fire, right?” Autumn asked.

“No element is without power, we all have our own strengths, Fantasia said as much for the four of us” I said “Tarn, for example, you now hold the power of ice, and blizzards, and glaciers. Ice has the power the move maintains and shape continents, or wipe everything out in an avalanche. If you fail to see the power in a given element, then you’re a fool”

“WAIT!!!!!” suddenly a shrill voice pierced the air from some distance behind us, and our group turned as one to see Surprise & Fyrefly, both fully decked out in their armour, and Lesovikk, hidden behind a thick cloak that all but concealed him completely, all running after us, the white pegasus of light leading the way, suddenly she seemed to disappear in a flash of white light, only to reappear right in front of us. “I just came to say that we never said goodbye, so...GOODBYE!” she made to dash off, only for Fyrefly to zip over and bite onto her tail.

“Now wait just a minute!” the pink mare said through gritted teeth, only when Surprise stopped trying to get away and instead began floating in mid air without moving her wings, did the Fyrefly let go of her tail. She then glanced at us, jerked her head away breifly as if cursing internally, then let out a sigh “Look, Onælan, I’m sorry about how me and Lesovikk were back there, and you’re right, if we were in your situation we would do the same, all three of us would”

“So...we would like to offer you our help in fighting the empress” Lesovikk said, looking decidedly sheepish. “And to teach you what we know, at least as well as it can be applied to different elements”

“What do you mean by that?” Alee asked.

“We’ll explain later” Fyrefly said “but first, we need to head to the nearest town for some supplies, then find somewhere to set up a camp for the night” Fyrefly said.

“Funny you should mention that, because that’s exactly what we were doing” Autumn said, rolling her eyes “We might not be millennia old, but we aren’t incompetent”

“5 bits said they come to blows by the end of the week” I whispered to Vinyl, she shot back with “make it fifteen”.

Many hours and miles later, we were now gathered around a campfire, casually talking amongst ourselves. One thing which had become apparent with Fyrefly & Surprise was that they had been bullshitting modern accents, Fyrefly cockney, and Surprise something approaching an almost stereotypical upper class british accent, they’d lasted for all of 20 minutes sat with everyone else before fyrefly had let slip her true accent, after which it soon came out that the both of them spoke in smooth, drawing accents which for a linguist nut like myself were absolutely fascinating to listen to, and had hints of more modern regional dialects all intermingled, I had managed to pick up hints of west country and Australian, among others. Given that they were both on the tail end of 3 millennia old, it wouldn’t have surprised me if these accents all originated from the ones that the two original Wrakjon sat before us were speaking in.

“And what of you, monkey boy?” Fyrefly asked “You’re gushing over how we’re talking, but how on earth did you arrive at the accent you’re speaking? I’m getting lesser yarvik broad with a hint of lower trottingham from you”

“My memory is foggy at best, no thanks to Fantasia” I said, taking a swig of my drink “but from what I recall till I was about 12, I was living in the south of my country, amongst the working class on the outskirts of the capital, but from then till I came here I was living further north, equivalent to southern Yarvik, in a steelworking town to boot, and that was during the years when it would have influenced me the most” I then nodded my head towards Lesovikk “we know of you and the Zyglak, but what others are roaming up here?” the rogue toa of air pondered for a moment, his hood pulled down exposing his mask and glowing eyes in the low evening sun, he absentmindedly tended to the fire with one of the larger sticks

“For the most part, those who had no reason to stay” he said with a shrug “one thing you organics need to understand is that compared to you, our cultures progress at a near glacial level, we measure lifespans in hundreds of thousands of years, our kinds do have idea of what lays beyond their homelands, but your empires rise and fall so quickly compared to ours it’s like watching mayflies live out their lives, so they simply don’t bother to make contact”

“Ok, but that doesn’t answer my question” I said “Who else lives in these lands?”

“Outcasts, outlaws, those simply wishing to make a new life for themselves” he said “I recall hearing about a couple of former order of mata nui members who struck out north, a few toa; Chiara, Orde, Zaria, to name a few. we tend to keep a mutual kinship, all former conflicts are buried in the past up here. Up here the average person lives and dies too quickly for us to form any meaningful bond, so we tend to keep to ourselves, appearing in cloaks under the guise on Minotaurs or dragons if needed. myself and the other toa tend to keep tabs in each other's location for the sake of practicality, a friendly face if things go south. I can tell you now that you wouldn't find anyone willing to step within a Kio of Equestria's borders” I raised an eyebrow at that, whilst Autumn looked confused.

“Kio?” she asked, looking back and forth between us two.

“Measure of distance, about point two leagues” I said, before turning back to the Toa of air “why wouldn’t there be any in Equestria?” Fyrefly let out a snort at that.

“Let’s just say your Princess luna didn’t take too kindly to a certain toa of psionics poking around in her head out of habit a couple thousand years ago” Lesovikk said, giving a pointed look towards the ponies present. “Plus there was another incident involving Celestia and some old seaborne warlords who decided to piss her off not long after banishing her own sister” Vinyl winced at that.

“That can’t have gone well for them...” she said.

“Well duh!” Surprise said “Why do you think old sunbutt has managed to maintain a nation of that size for well over 1500 years one a purely pacifist ideology? You play with fire, you get burned, a Celestia is like the sun!”

“What about Wrakjon like you two?” I asked, looking at the two new ponies present in our company “are there any others kicking about still?”

“That’s where my kind come in, funnily enough” Lesovikk said “when things went bad for them during Discord's reign a few of us stepped forward, took them under our wings if you will, so far as any of us can guess they're pretty much immortal, so it provides us with some company, plus they're our eyes and ears on the rest of the world, so it's a mutually beneficial arrangement. typically if you find an original wrakjon, you'll find a toa or some other being from the south not far away”

“But that’s something I don’t get, tall boy” Alee said “How did you even find folks like Firefly and Surprise in the first place?”

“Serving in the first Equine-Scythian war” Surprise said, surprising us with a rare show of calmness to her demeanor “We were both Wrakjon at this point, but had been in hiding for, what was it? two...three hundred winters? and whilst we knew of each other and had talked in the past, we'd never really interacted much”

“Who can blame me?” Fyrefly muttered with a roll of her eyes “these days I struggle to keep sane with you around”

“You love me really” the white pegasus shot back, sticking her tongue out.

“At the time I was staying in the local inn” Lesovikk cut in “during that period I would travel from town to town, seeking out odd jobs as a sellsword: a dragon terrorizing the local county? A crime gang? You name it, I would deal with it for coin, food and drink. I happened to be lurking in one corner when a recruiting sergeant announced his presence, told us “whoever so chooses to fight for our lands shall receive commendation for the local guard, forgiveness for past crimes and moral sins”...”

“It was the part about sins which perked Fyrefly’s ears” Surprise piped up, a shit eating grin on her face.

“That’s horse shit!” Fyrefly shot back.

“Fyrefly turned to the sergeant” Lesovikk continued “and she asked “what sins would be forgiven? Would they forgive adultery?” and the sergeant said “yes, for two years service”...”what about theft?”...”yes, of course, for 3 years”...so the young firespitter mulls it over, and then she turns back to the sergeant and says “better sign me up for fifteen”...” prompting chuckles from our group at the pink pegasus’ expense.