Dimensional Chronicles

Chapter 14: What is a Smile?
"When are you going to let it go?"
"When I can make them pay."
"They're dead Tanma."
"I know, I'm just waiting for a chance to make up what they did." Tanma brushed some dust from his shoulder.
"Well it's getting in the way of your part." Dekal rapped on the clipboard with a finger, snapping Tanma out of his daydreams. "We need everyone to help here but here you are standing around scowling, staring off into space and talking to yourself. These applications aren't going to sort themselves and I'm only allowed to help you with half of them this time."
"Fine, fine. Remind me why they want that colosseum rebuilt again?" Tanma picked up a stack of slabs with names and species designations on them.
"It has historical value or something... like... that..." Dekal trailed off, staring at her feet.
"Ha! They still get to you too." Tanma pointed accusingly.

"No, I get to me sometimes, stinking mask hasn't shut up for the past three minutes." She knocked on her squarish mask as if trying to drive out some invasive insect. She was about twice as tall as Tanma, with a bulky build, blue and purple armor and a mask that, in her opinion, was more a compilation of squares with a hole in it than anything else. Tanma had a much more sleek build; his mask swept back over his brow, his limbs and the silver propulsion device on his back were sleek. He was designed for air travel.
“What does that mask do again?” Tanma inspected the credentials of a vortixx whose application he had picked up. “I thought the vortixx just did weapons.” He muttered to himself.
“It’s a Kanohi Mashrak, mask of teleportational detection.” Dekal hit it again as it started screeching at her even louder. The room was suddenly bathed in light, streaming in from the window behind Tanma. The source was a ball of white energy streaking through the sky like a comet.

Dekal took a look at it; her mask calculated its exact landing point and it –thank Mata Nui- shut up. “Single teleport, eight unknown passengers, twenty foot blast radius,” She rattled off as the mask relayed the information to her brain. “impact in three seconds, two miles north of our current location.” She shook her head. “I hate that.”
“Hostile?” Tanma grabbed a sword from under his desk, tucking it onto his back before reaching for the other.

“You’re going to find out whether I want you to or not, aren’t you?” Dekal grabbed her three flanged mace from the corner, slinging it over her shoulder in preparation of whatever they may find.

Rainbow Dash bent over double, hacking and coughing into the dust; along with the rest of the away team.
“Space- Hack! - how did we land in - Graak! - in bucking space?” Rainbow wheezed out between breaths.
“The spell uses – Gaak! – exact coordinates. Hoo! That’s the spot we took off from; it’s in the orbit of a planet in this universe.” Lyra tried to stand up straight, only to fall back forward onto her hooves. “Well there go my hands, anypony still a hominid?”

“No, thank Celestia.” Rainbow flapped her wings a few times to get the feel back for them. Her zanpakto was still released, giving her wings bladed extensions.
“No, ah’m back ta normal.” Applejack rolled her shoulder to make sure the impact hadn’t hurt anything. Her zanpakto was hanging from a sash wrapped around her neck and shoulders.
“I’m still normal.” Rarity flipped her hair out of her eyes. Her zanpakto was hanging from her waist.
“I-I’m a hominid this time.” Fluttershy wobbled on her feet as she tried to find her center of gravity. She was gilded in sleek blue and silver armor, her zanpakto sheathed on her waist, her mask was roughly in the shape of a fish’s tail fin, and pair of silver flaps ran down her back. “It feels so weird.”
“I’m still upright.” Twilight rubbed her head. Her armor was gold and violet, wickedly spiked at the elbows and knees, she was a good head and shoulders taller than Fluttershy, her zanpakto was in a holster slung across her back, her right hand was slender and held wicked claws, her left hand was much bigger and had only three fingers as opposed to her right hand’s five, and all three held massive talons, her face was unquestionably reptilian, her feet were clawed as well, she wore her hair in a large ponytail that reached halfway down her back.
“I’m still a pony!” Pinkie yelled. “And I’m starting to feel left out.” She pouted playfully. Pinkie’s zanpakto was nestled into the hair of her tail.

“Alright,” Lyra surveyed her team, “I’ve never been to this part of this dimension before, last time I was here I ended up spending a week on an island made out of a giant robot’s face. Rainbow, get as high as you can and survey for towns so we can look for allies.” Rainbow quickly saluted before shooting off into the sky. “Pinkie, I want you to see if you can find any water under this sand.” Pinkie jumped and clapped a couple times before burrowing into the sand with gusto. “Rarity, you set up a perimeter to our site.” Rarity nodded shallowly before turning to scout out an area. “Applejack, help me set up the tents.” Lyra pulled a set of tents that by all logic shouldn’t have been able to fit out of her saddlebag. Noticing Applejack’s raised eyebrow she added. “It’s a space expansion charm.” She passed a hammer to Applejack. “Fluttershy and Twilight… figure out what those bodies can do.”

Lyra squared off an area for the tents, placing the stakes for Applejack to hammer in.
“Uh, Lyra, how er’ we gonna get these ta stay in the ground?”
“Oh, sorry.” Lyra’s horn glowed for a second, compressing the sand into hard packed dirt. “There we go.” Rainbow swooped back down.
“There’s a town about two miles south of here, built into the side of that mountain there. We seem to have attracted some attention, there are already two hominids headed this way.”
“Hostile?” Lyra fixed her eyes on the mountain, trying to pick them out.
“No idea, one’s blue and purple, about the same size as Fluttershy, the other is about our size and green and silver. They’re both armed.” Rainbow set down.
“Estimated arrival time?” Lyra looked back to Rainbow.
“I’d say three minutes.” Dash flew back up.

“We’ve got some time to finish this.” Lyra directed Applejack back to the stakes.

Twilight stretched out her strange left hand, trying to get used to the lopsided weight, she felt a surge of power from the two for-fingers.
“Interesting.” She concentrated, flexing the massive hand. Lances of energy sparked between her fingers. “Very interesting.” She focused on a rock, Maybe it works like a horn. extending the claws towards it. Her arm whirred for a second, locking itself in place, the claws started glowing with restrained energy. “That can’t be good.” The recoil was enormous, jarring her entire chest, a wave of fire-blue pressure and heat went through the entire camp, kicking up sand and dust, which had once been the rock she had attempted to lift, it knocked Dash right out of the air, sending her barreling into Rarity.
“Woo!” Pinkie jumped out of the hole she was digging, half of which had come down on top of her. “Do it again Twilight!”

Twilight for her part was looking at the impact zone with an expression that may have been awed terror but it was hard to pick out emotions on her scaly face. Where a rock had once stood there was a softly glowing sheet of natural glass. She looked down at her left arm, flexing the claws again. They were remarkably undamaged.
“What kind of creature has an energy cannon built into its body?” She screamed, holding the offending limb as far away from her as she could.

“Fluttershy!” Rainbow yelled, shooting towards the terrified blue creature.
“blublbulbul!” Fluttershy screamed though the orb of water that had formed around her. She was panicking, flailing in an attempt to get out, Rainbow simply bounced off the bubble when she tried to interfere. The rest of the team could only look on helplessly as Fluttershy grabbed at her neck, fighting not to give in to the urge to gasp. Her eyes rolled back as she gave in, taking a long draught of the water into her lungs.

“What?” She spoke with surprising clarity. “Girls, I can breathe!” Fluttershy jumped for joy inside her bubble. Twilight, still a little deaf from her own mishap, looked on the spectacle with raised eyebrows, then she had an idea.
“Fluttershy, concentrate on the bubble.” Fluttershy did as instructed and suddenly she could feel a massive reservoir, directly underneath their camp, where the water she was currently floating in came from. It was incredible, she could feel every flow and eddy as the water lapped at the walls, she could feel all the blind, nameless things crawling and swimming through it. The sudden stream of new information and sensation was almost too much for her, she almost pulled away in terror, but it was too... nice. It made her feel connected, powerful, like she had the strength to make a difference in even the worst times. She had never felt anything like it.

"Incredible." She breathed, staring off into space as she envisioned it all.
"Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash's concerned voice brought her back to the reality everyone else was working with at the time. "You alright?" Fluttershy, for lack of a better phrase, "pulled a Pinkie". She hopped out of the bubble, wrapping the cyan pegasus in her arms, jumping around and squealing in delight. "Fluttershy! Cant, breathe!" Rainbow choked out around the smothering embrace.
"Oops, sorry." Fluttershy let go, allowing Dash to take in a deep breath, the orb of water collapsed in on itself. "It's just, just..." she wracked her brains, trying to come up with a word to describe what she was experiencing. "Huge!" She swung her arms wide and fell back into the sand, laying there with a smile on her face. She started to absentmindedly make a sand-pegasus, within seconds Pinkie had joined her.

"Uhh, Lyra." Applejack tapped the mint unicorn on the shoulder, rousing her from the task of driving the stakes into the ground.
"What is it now?" Lyra almost glared at Applejack.
"Ah think there's somethin' in the water." She pointed behind Lyra, who turned to see the display Pinkie and Fluttershy were putting on.
"Well this is interesting." A new voice rang out. Lyra turned back around to face the newcomer. A green and silver hominid, smirking down at her, she already didn't like him. "My name's Tanma, yours?"

"Tanma, wait up." A hominid, clad in purple and blue and twice Tanma's size, came huffing up next to him. "I'm not as fast as you, come on." The creature bent over double, panting.
"Dekal, you're a toa." Tanma chastised her.
"And you're built for speed, I'm built for defense." Dekal stood back up strait. "Let's see what we've got here."
"Can I help you?" Lyra asked flatly, her hostility towards Tanma asserting itself.
"Tanma." Dekal whispered loudly.
"What?" Tanma replied frigidly.
"You see that thing talking too right?"

"Of course I talk, I was smart enough to survive being a meteorite." Lyra snapped. "And I'd prefer not being talked about like I'm not here." Dekal took a step back.
"Okay, sheesh. So, what brings a Vortixx a toa and five... things, to the middle of nowhere?"
"Just give me a second to finish this." Lyra huffed, yanking the hammer away from Applejack. "I don't like being interrupted." She drove the stake home with a single smack. "There we go, now, we came here looking for help."
"A bit cranky for someone looking for allies, aren't we?" Lyra and Tanma glared death at each other, no one was sure what they were seeing but it was clear that neither liked it.

Applejack and Dekal each pulled the mental combatants away from each other, taking it upon themselves to continue deliberations.
"Name's Applejack." She offered a hoof, Dekal took it and shook firmly.
"Dekal, Toa of Lightning. You've already become acquainted with the local curmudgeon, but I don't believe we know the rest of your troop." Dekal gestured to the rest of the group.
"Ah, well, the white one's Rarity, the one having a starin' contest with yer buddy is Lyra, The one with the big hand is Twilight, we jus' call 'er Twi'. Not entirely sure what she is right now." Applejack scratched her chin.
"Vortixx." Dekal waved her on.
"What now?" Applejack raised an eyebrow.
"She's a vortixx, where have you been the last three months?" Dekal sat in the sand, to get more comfortable. "They've only been crafting all the tools in this wasteland."
"Well we only got to this place, two minutes ago."

"You know, Lyra said you were looking for help with something, how about you just gather up your team and I let you explain your situation to the turaga." Dekal pointed to the mountain pass.
"Did he say his name was Tanma?" Applejack snapped around to look at Twilight, who was pointing at Tanma.
"Yeah, why?" Dekal rested her head on her palm.
"I have a feeling we don't want him hearing this." Twilight said carefully. "Do you think you could send him away for a moment."
"My friend, you have no idea how long I've waited for that opportunity. I've been stuck with him for a week." She turned to Tanma, who was practically butting heads with Lyra. "Tanma," He looked up, "Could you go get Vakama?" Lyra snickered at him.

"Why?" He questioned.
"It's either that or keeping an eye on your new friend while I go get him." Dekal waved him off. "Unless you'd rather continue your little staring match." Tanma looked for a second like he was going to refuse to go, if for no other reason than to spare his pride.
"Fine." He deflated, shooting one last glare at Lyra before running back south a few yards and jumping into the air, igniting his jet pack.
"That gives us a good five minutes, what did you want to talk about."

"Are you familiar with a matoran named Gavla?" Twilight asked. Dekal gave her a withering glance.
"No but Tanma was, said Makuta Vamprah decided to take her down with him when Karda Nui went up in smoke." An expression somewhere between sadness and anger passed through Dekal's eyes as she said Vamprah's name, the sadness was outward but the anger was directed inward.
"What if I told you that they were both still alive?" Twilight pushed further. Dekal's eyes lit up for a second before darkening again.
"They're the thing you need help with, aren't they?" She seemed resigned.
"Far from it, they are currently one of our best chances at stopping the real threat." Twilight looked Dekal in the eyes.
"I'd say, when can I join?" Dekal flashed a cocky smile. "I'd been trying to find that Viper Vamprah for years, I need to apologize for something."

Dekal peered around Twilight at Fluttershy, who was molding a bubble of water into any and every shape she could think of, smiling from ear to ear. "Heh, I remember that look." She chuckled, nostalgia softening her face. "That's the look of a newly christened toa." She returned her attention to Applejack. "When you tap into your power for the first time and you can feel it everywhere, every cloud, every trace of the air is saturated with it, you can feel it move and know it's yours to command, and you are its. You can't really describe the sensation, it's just too..." She muttered something under her breath, Twilight felt something's eyes on her. "Huge. Isn't that right Helryx?"

"How is it you always know when I'm there?" A hardened voice called out from behind Twilight, Her new body's instincts kicked in and she whirled around to hack at the newcomer with her left arm, only to be blocked by the shaft of the blue toa's mace. "You obviously have no idea what you're messing with here girl." Helryx's mask was silver, With three blue indents in the shape of hourglasses on the forehead and cheeks, her eyes were hard and yellow, her body was blue and sleeked, her armor notched in a fish-scale pattern. Twilight backed off, not wanting to make a wrong move near a being that put off the aura of authority this Helryx did.

"And Brutaka, how goes the split personality problem?" A cloak seemed to fall away, revealing a towering golden and blue brute, standing over Helryx like some kind of monstrous bodyguard. "Still wearing that fake Olmak I see." Dekal seemed painfully at ease with the sudden introduction of a creature nearly twice her size. "You didn't forget what my mask did already, did you? Although, moving on. Were you aware that Vamprah is still alive?" A look that may have been mistaken for surprise passed through Helryx's eyes but was gone before anyone would have been able to register it, anyone that is, other than Dekal.

"No? Well than I'm glad not to be out of the loop." She gestured at Applejack. "Applejack here and her friends are looking for allies, not in getting rid of Vamprah mind you. And, from what I understand of your organization, you're always ready to help when the cause is just." Dekal's eyes almost flashed with a challenge.
"That depends on the cause." Helryx rebuffed.
"How 'bout the survival of a race?" Applejack interjected.
"Ah, it speaks." Helryx knelt down to look Applejack in the eye. "And what has your people done to deserve our assistance."
"How 'bout reform two Makuta?" Applejack stated, now real surprise fell over Helryx's face. "Seems 'Ah struck a nerve there." Helryx stood back up, looking down on Applejack.

"Impossible." She stated flatly.
"So what? If you didn't care ta' do it than it can't be done?" Applejack's eyebrows furrowed. "From what Ah've gathered, from both Twi's description of poor Krika's breakdown, an' a look at that book Krika gave Rar'. It doesn't look like ya'll even tried." Helryx looked stung.
"We did all we could." She averted her gaze.
"Yeah, in the way of stopping a spread. Rar' could Ah see that book?" Rarity, stunned by her friend's deft handling of the situation, reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the book Krika had written, passing it to Applejack. Applejack flipped through, quickly finding the page she was looking for. "Ah may not be some fancy psychiatrist, but ta' me, this looks less like help, an' more like a Griffin Inquisition." She turned the book around to reveal a sketch of a poster, on the poster there was a rather diabolical looking makuta, holding up a screaming matoran, the emblazoned text along the bottom read, in matoran script, "Don't be like him or you will be brought down." Helryx was now openly shocked. "Ah see we're gettn' somewhere, now don't ya' jus' feel plumb terrible 'bout that?"

Helryx recomposed herself, rubbing her forehead.
"Where did you get that?" She turned to Rarity, who nearly jumped.
"Krika gave it to me."
"Krika is alive as well?" Helryx turned to Dekal, questioning her with a single glare.
"It was hinted at," Dekal shrugged, "but the real question is, how good must AJ here be to get you not only get you to avoid a question, but to get you showing emotion?" She laughed. "I believe the answer is, painfully good." She gestured back to Applejack, who was wearing what could only be described as a predator's grin.

"A'll give you one guess as to why he's not 'ere with us." Applejack challenged, looking Helryx right in the eyes.
"He's dead." Helryx whispered. A look of realization passing over her face. "He died to make sure you could get here."
"Close but not quite. He is dead, but he died making sure a lil' filly got out alright. Wouldn't you like ta' pay him back?"
"What about Vamprah?" Helryx crossed her arms.
"You and I both know he was my fault." Dekal stated mirthlessly. "And I plan to go help him." A small lance of energy danced on Dekal's fingers.
"I'll see who I can spare." Helryx agreed before turning back to, the so far silent, Brutaka. "How about you?"

Brutaka grinned, framed by the tusk-like projections on either side of his mask.
"We would be glad to." The brute hefted a double bladed sword from his back, planting it in the sand to cement his agreement.
"Good, I'll see if I can get Axonn to go with you." Helryx nodded. "Artakha, back to the base if you please." The air around Helryx glowed for a second before she disappeared in a flash of light.

"Alright, Vakama's old, take's him a while to get anywhere, I'm slowed down by him, I come back and Brutaka has joined the number here. What did I miss?" Tanma set down behind Dekal.
"AJ just gave Helryx a verbal beatdown!" Dekal clapped. "It was awesome."
"Does this mean we've got The Order on list as allies?" Lyra asked around Rarity's book. "Cause if we do I'd say we're set. Eight members, all total badflanks, several of them practically invulnerable, the rest are extremely powerful, oh and one of them is invisible. How did Krika get this much info?" She lightly slapped the book. "He's got an entire chapter on these guys, and a well put together glossary." Tanma visibly stiffened.

"Krika?" He growled. "That monster's alive?" He grabbed Lyra by the scruff of her neck. Lyra snarled back.
"And if he is?" Her lyre snaked its way out of the bag cast over her back, melting over her hoof, the claws sprouted out of her gauntlet. She pushed him away. "What of it?"
"Tanma! Stop your foolishness!" A strong, if ancient sounding, voice rang out over the camp. A red and black being, about as tall as Tanma, walked up to him, the newcomer wore a red mask with a projection from the bottom, giving the illusion of a beard, his browline was large and rough, he wore a vest decorated with sown-on flames and carried a staff adorned with an orb that flickered as if it held a flame. He placed a hand on Tanma's shoulder, yanking him away from Lyra. "These are guests and are to be treated as such." Tanma looked like he was about to argue but took a deep breath and backed off.

"Go Vakama." Dekal muttered. Vakama turned back to the group.
"Brutaka, my friend, how goes life?" He bowed shallowly to the golden behemoth, who shrugged.
"We are content."
"Now Tanma told me that you were in search of allies to hold off some threat. What exactly is the threat?"
"Well," Lyra decided to take this one, "There is a pan-dimensional warlord that has seen fit to wipe our race from our world, our military hasn't seen any use for the past fifty generations, so we are woefully ill equipped to hold them off. We've found a way to keep them at bay for two weeks, just enough to buy time to search for allies."
"Other than makuta." Tanma snorted.
"Makuta?" Vakama cocked an eyebrow. "What are you going on about now?"
"Ask them."

"True we have Makuta Vamprah on our side, we had Krika but He died in the initial attack, ensuring the safety of a child." Lyra smirked at Tanma, who looked like someone had just slugged him with a brick and then insulted his mother.
"Impossible." Tanma snapped. "The makuta were monsters, that any of them survived is a stretch but you say they have reformed? That just stretches suspension of belief too far." He leaned in to whisper in Vakama's ear. "Turaga, they are spewing nonsense, I say we leave them to whatever their supposed 'attacker' has planned."
"Nonsense Tanma? The only one spewing nonsense here is you, now get away from my head. I see no deceit in her eyes." Vakama waved Tanma away. "Forgive him, he can be more than a little overzealous. I'll have to take council with the other turaga before I can guarantee that you have our support. But come, walk with me, I'd like to hear of how you turned the makuta. I had a brief stint as a villain myself and find such tales fascinating." Vakama turned, motioning for them to follow.

Lyra and the rest of the Away Team, or A. Team if you will, and Brutaka Fell in behind him.
"If you want to know how we got Vamprah on our side, it was rather easy, it only took two words." Lyra told Vakama.
"Oh, and what were those?"
"I'm sorry." Vakama stopped in place, turning to look Lyra in the eyes.
"No." He said, with the air of a man who had just heard a rather juicy bit of gossip.
"Yes, one of our rulers, who shall go unnamed-" She leaned in close as they continued walking. "Princess Luna" She whispered, Vakama chuckled. "- tried to have him killed, in response he took over a town and used it to make a personal army, when Luna showed up with hers there was a afternoon long battle, Vamprah was defeated and just when we were about to send him and Gavla, shut up Tanma," Tanma, who had opened his mouth to say something closed it and pouted, "back here with their tails between their legs Luna realized the error of her ways and said the magic words. As it is now he's working as a guard and Gavla has become the royal smith." Vakama nodded, stroking the projection on his mask.

"What of Makuta Krika?"
"Krika, you're going to have to ask Rarity about that." Lyra turned to look at Rarity. "Come to think of it you haven't told any of us. Mind sharing?"
"Well it's not much of a story." Rarity, shied away. "Nothing so epic."
"He was easily subdued?" Vakama cocked an eyebrow.
"My little sister smiled at him." Rarity shrugged, Tanma snorted.
"You have something to add to a tale you did not witness, Tanma?" Vakama challenged the matoran.
"Just this," Tanma stated flatly, "Once a monster, always a monster." Vakama's eyes seemed to flash and the faint flickering in his staff blazed for a moment. The Turaga took a deep breath and the staff's light calmed.

"May I tell you a story Tanma?" Vakama started firmly, this was a command not a request. "Long ago, when I myself was a toa, my team encountered the vizorak hoard."
"Yes the invasion of Metru Nui. I don't see what that has to do with-" Vakama struck the sand with his staff, the air seemed to grow warmer.
"Silence!" Tanma's mouth shut with an audible snap. "Now, as I was saying. We were captured, changed by the vizorak into hordika, more commonly known as?"
"Kronak Toa." Tanma droned out.
"Meaning Monster Toa. During our time as monsters we each had to suppress the primal instincts that come with that title, I believe you know a hordika by the name of Murtuk, for some of us like Matau and Whenua these instincts took on the form of pack behavior, which is honestly beneficial at times. For Nuju and Ownua they took on the form of isolationism and in Ownua it came with an almost uncontrollable rage. For Nokama it manifested as a deeper connection with her element."

"You mean it can get better?" Fluttershy squeaked from the back of the group, just in front of Brutaka. Vakama looked back at her.
"Apparently, you'd have to ask Nokama for a better description."
"Wow..."
"Anyway, for me, unfortunately, it manifested as anger. I was already angry with myself for allowing my team to fall to such a fate, I was also frustrated at them for blaming me for it, I saw it as disrespect and in all honesty I wanted to go home more than anything else in the world." He stopped walking, eyes glazed for a moment as he spoke. "To just go back to my days in the forge, carefully, patiently, crafting masks for others out of kanoka disks." He sighed before shaking himself and continuing to walk. "I struck out on my own, less to clear my head and more to rage at the world for cursing me so. And I was captured again, only this time," Vakama stared at Tanma, as if trying to pierce him with his eyes, "they didn't harm me. Instead they offered me a deal, I could go back to my home, begin my trade again and be left there in peace, with the blindly loyal vizorak as my assistants, if I brought her the rahaga, who had saved us, and the rest of my team. Do you know what I said to her Tanma?" He looked at Tanma, the shame of the answer clear on his face.

"You refused, what toa would give in to such demands?" Tanma waved him off.
"Wrong." Vakama knocked a rock from his path with his staff. "I agreed." Tanma's face was a mixture of shock and horror. "I agreed because I wanted to go home, I agreed because I was angry, I agreed to do an evil thing, not out of malice but out of what I believed to be justified rage, and the simple desire to go home. In my quest to carry out my end of the bargain I became a monster and when my team came for my I tried to kill them and I would have if one of them hadn't taken a blow from a misfired rhotuka spinner for me and them pleaded for me to remember my duty to the matoran. Contrary to popular belief it was the fact that he had taken the spinner that made me pay attention to him. I didn't give a kane-ra dropping about the matoran at that point, I had already lost everything while they had hated me and accused me of killing my hero, why should I have cared about them? Now Lyra, why do you think I became a monster in the first place?" He pointed his staff at Lyra, his eyes already holding the answer.

"Because you felt unappreciated, you had fought for them with everything you had and they still ignored you and blamed you when things went wrong."
"Correct. You could learn a thing or two about reading people from this pony Tanma." Vakama chuckled. "If that's why I turned than Tanma, why did I go back?" Tanma looked at him for a second then rolled his eyes.
"Because you realized what you were doing was wrong." Vakama brought the staff down on a large rock, a metallic clank pealed through the air and the rock glowed red hot.
"Wrong again!" He bellowed, Even Brutaka flinched at the sight of his wrath. Vakama cooled down quickly. "I went back because by first coming after me and then in taking that hit they had proven that they cared for me, that they wanted what was best for both me and the matoran. Now Twilight, since Tanma has the emotional depth of a spoon, what does a real smile between friends mean?" Twilight thought for a moment, considering what she had learned from her studies in friendship.

"A smile can communicate trust, happyness, caring and many other positive things directed both at the user and the recipient." Twilight smiled, satisfied with herself.
"Correct, though I wouldn't have broken it down quite so much. What I was looking for was simply the third example. Caring, by smiling she showed that she cared for him at some level, and may have even enjoyed his company. So you see, heart-of-an-ice-cube Tanma, the reason that smiling worked was all in Krika's motivations. I've been looking through historical documents and it seems that no one ever showed any kind of caring towards a makuta and for someone like that a smile can change the entire course of their life." He knelt, touching the orb on the end of his staff to the sand. "It can change it from something ugly, course and gritty," The orb started to glow, as did the sand beneath it, "to something beautiful." The orb stopped glowing and he lifted a sheet of softly glowing glass out of the sand, it was an oval with five shapes removed, two that looked like crescent brushstrokes and three small circles.

"Now even you can't get this wrong Tanma," He continued, "what do these five shapes symbolize?" Tanma looked puzzled by this question.
"The top and bottom crescents represent good and evil, and the three dots represent unity, duty and destiny as a path away from evil." Vakama nodded.
"Now, this next one I'm sure you will get wrong so I turn to the one who out talked Helryx, what was your name?"
"Applejack sir." She tipped her hat to him.
"Applejack, what would happen if one of these virtues were to fall out of the pattern, say unity?"
"Than whoever was trying to get over would be trapped."

"Exactly, and you can't have unity without caring for those you are to be united with. In order to care for those under your protection you must feel empathy towards them, and they must show it in return. It is a form of unity." They had long since entered the town and had been attracting stares. "Now remove that and all you have is duty, which is not worth anything if you don't care about it, which then leaves destiny which is nothing without a duty to guide it. In short you cannot cross without these three things, and they are also the only things keeping you on the side of good, remove or damage one and they all fall, leaving you to tumble down into evil." He stopped outside a building. "They always fall in the same order, and the most easily damaged of all three is unity, you choose your duty, you can influence your destiny but you only control a small part of unity, the rest is controlled by those around you and if they damage yours it's all too easy for your other virtues to fall. That is what I believe happened to the makuta, we damaged their unity, and caused their downfall, insofar only Nokama agrees with me but in my eyes it all adds up. We gave them no reason to care for us and so they didn't. We brought about our own doom and theirs."

He looked up at the building. "The council is still meeting, I will plead your cause but these decisions take time, especially seeing as we have our own issues to deal with, I should probably have an answer for you by tonight. Until then, you should explore, this is after all the elbow of Makuta Teridax's body on top of being a cultural hub, so I'm sure there will be something of interest to you here." He passed the glass ornament to Applejack, who caught it carefully. "You can keep that."

Somthing stirred in Twilight's head with a single word.
"What? What? What!?"