Author's Note

Originally, this was meant to be much longer and released around the same time that Orrn, the Heart of the Mountain, was released in League of Legends. Then, school became a pain in the ass and unfortunately put this on the backburner. So for now... here's an update. However, I'm not entirely proud of this since I didn't really have the time to flesh this one out like with my other stories.

This story is not entirely back yet... mostly because I have no idea how to press on from here. Any help guys?
-Frost

Break 11- Well... that happened

Chronobreak- Well… that happened

Deep within the mountains north of the crystal empire, in territory that nopony had ever gone before, the sound of fire crackled throughout the mountainside and the sounds of clanging metal echoing throughout. Within Mount Everhoof… lied a forge. One that had cauldrons for melting and purifying ores that were used to forge items that were works of art. Yet it’s caretaker was not a tradespony by any means. Nor would he consider himself a normal blacksmith. For him and him alone… he was the shaping hand, the fire below the mountain… The Mountainsmith.

He was Ornn… and on this day, something did not feel right. It first started when he searched for materials in the mountains in order to create a warhammer at the forge. However, the materials he did find were not the same ones that would be present in the mountains of the Freljord. Instead, he found new materials… crystalline ore that he had not seen before. Of course, to him, he did not think that there was anything wrong with this at all.

Though… that all changed when he heard something. It sounded like a large crack, similar to that of a weapon breaking into multiple pieces. Then… came the clouds. The brewing storm of magic that quickly began to spread overhead. To him… he thought that the storm was the act of one person he knew… even though he did not smell the singed fur or the scent of jealous blood in the air as he looked at a city of crystal down below.

“Where are you…” He grumbled, going into his forge to take up anvil and hammer as he began to move down the mountainside. With everything that was once frozen before melting away upon him passing through.

Right now in the crystal empire, if there was one thing that Ekko was not a fan of right now, it was trying to navigate his way through a crowd of panicking ponies trying to figure out where Spike ran off too. He wanted to try and help out the dragon, but with him taking off so fast, it left Ekko little time for him to try and go after him. And since his Z-Drive wasn’t even on when Spike bolted, he couldn’t just rewind back and see where he went to since it wasn’t on in the first place. Leaving him with asking one question to himself every few minutes.

“Spike, where are you?” It was a question that he asked himself, even by the time he was able to get through the crowd and make it to the castle. Unfortunately though, as he got closer, that was when he unexpectedly saw bolts of magic being shot out of the windows… with some of them being redirected at him. Some of the bolts were only seconds from hitting him, until he phased dived out of the way and into the castle’s entrance.

Of course, that left him with a second problem as he got back to his feet. Trying to find him once he was inside. Because when he went through the door, there were way too many things going on at once that he was trying to keep track of. Not to mention the fact that he hadn’t had the slightest clue as to where he could be.

Before he could do anything about it, or turn on his Z Drive for that matter, something caught his attention. “Ekko? What are you doing here?”

As he looked up, that’s when he saw Poppy as he got up and looked back at the Yordle. “Spike ran off the moment he saw the storm coming in, so I wanted to find out what the heck is going on. Everypony that’s outside is panicking like crazy.”

“Well, just as much craziness is going on in here too…” Poppy told him in response. “Just as I found out that another champion from the League was here, Twilight’s niece ended up destroying the Crystal Heart on accident-”

“Hold on… there’s another champion here?!” Ekko asked, surprised at this revelation. “How many is that supposed to be now?”

“I don’t know, but he’s trying to come up with some kind of plan in order to put the crystal heart back together and push back the storm closing in,” The Yordle told him in response. “Right now, Twilight just wants us to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Whether it’s inside or outside the empire.”

Her comment was interrupted though when another bolt of magic just barely missed the back of his head as he looked back at Poppy. “Define ‘out of the ordinary’.”

Poppy sighed before stepping outside the castle and looking around for a moment. “Just follow me and don’t get left behind.” The Yordle noticed that the castle had rather high walls that looked over the city, so to her, this lead her to think that if the two of them were able to get up there, they could get a bird's eye view of not just what was inside the empire, but also outside of it too.

The only problem though… was getting up there. Yet, when she saw a cranked catapult at the ready and looked back at Ekko, that was when she got a crazy idea. “Hey… how far can you throw that gizmo of yours?”

“My Timewinder?” The boy asked, taking it out and inspecting it. “Pretty decent. Why did you ask?”

“Throw it when I tell you too at that,” Poppy said, pointing at the release lever of the catapult. “First though… I’m going to need to send you sky high.”

“Wait, what-?” Before Ekko could even understand what was going on, he felt Poppy’s hammer hit the ground below him, before another one sent him flying upward. As he was taking off, the Yordle hopped onto the end of the catapult.

“Now!” With only seconds to react, Ekko threw his timewinder as it hit the crank of the catapult. Launching Poppy into the air as both of them landed on the wall. The yordle on her feet… and Ekko landing face first as he groaned for a moment and tried to get up from the stunt Poppy just did. Still trying to process everything as his timewinder soon returned back to his free hand while the other one picked up his guile.

“Could you… at least warn me before you do that?”

“Aw… and I thought you said you did your own stunts.” The Keeper of the Hammer chuckled, while also trying to explain why she did that to him. “Besides, it was the only way that we could be able to get up there and we didn’t exactly have the time to look all over the place for a set of stairs. We can get a bird's eye view of everything up here.”

That was true, Ekko had to admit. But he was beginning to think that any possible course of action that the Yordle had in mind somehow always involved the use of her hammer. “For the record… my stunts don’t involve a hammer slamming me in my ribcage.” He pointed out to her as he heard thunder began to crackle and roar like the sound of a raging bear. Yet, there was something else that did not quite settle right. And while Poppy was focused on what was going on inside the empire… what was going on outside of it was much stranger.

“Um… Poppy?” The boy said, only for the Yordle to not pay attention to what he was saying as she was too busy gazing over the empire. Not thinking at all that the biggest thing that stood out to them… was directly behind her as he tried to tap her on the shoulder. “Poppy…? Poppy!!”

“What-!? Can’t you see I’m-” That… was when Poppy saw what Ekko was seeing. What looked like a giant molten ram clashing with what looked like a bear that had the wrath of a raging storm surging right behind it. The snow around them was partially melted and the ground looked to have been scorched because of the sheer heat coming off the ram. “What in the world is that-?”

“Don’t look at me, they just showed up outta nowhere!” The boy grimaced for a moment as they watched. However, after a couple of moments, he began to notice something. The molten ram was trying to push the colossal storm bear away from the empire. This whole thing was making him groan a small bit as he tried to ignore the heat and focus on the task at hand.“Man, Vi’s probably doing a lot better than we are right now.”

Everfree

The sound of trees snapping and rocks breaking apart could be heard all around the forest as two champions of the League were squaring off outside that of the fields of justice. For one of them, she saw this as an additional ordeal outside of what she already was instructed to do by the league. However, for the Piltover Enforcer, this was rather personal.

During Vi’s childhood, she knew little from anyone about what had become of her parents. Most old timers told her that they died from an industrial accident, something that was sadly uncommon among the streets of Zaun. At one point, she even decided to give up learning about what happened, believing that some things were better left unknown. However… that fire she put out many years ago… was reignited by hearing a few simple words.

Ever wonder how you became an orphan?

By that statement alone, it told Vi that somehow… this woman knew about what happened. And if she was going to have to get her hands dirty by beating the answers out of her, then that was fine.

To her opponent though… the decision to charge in blindly was the decision of a fool with a deathwish. And a tactic that she had handled several times before. “So direct… like most fools.” As the enforcer swung at her, the Gray Lady just simply fell backward, before getting low enough to the ground to perform a tactical sweep. Knocking Vi off her feet as Camille’s legs struck the back of hers. This didn’t stop the enforcer from slamming her spare fist into the ground, bare inches away from her opponent.

For a moment, Vi thought that she had hit her. However, what looked to be an orange shield that was surging from the gem where her opponent’s heart was had taken the blow of the attack. Making it to where she wasn’t even able to land a scratch on her. “This is your best? I would think that someone of your stature would not be so… hasty to make quick decisions.”

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” Vi growled, glaring back at her opponent.

“Fools rush in where angels dare to tread…” The Gray Lady shot back, her two blades glimmering in the light. “Patience is what separates good hunters from dead ones…” In an instant, something shot out from around her opponent’s waist, before causing her to disappear into the trees. Before attempting to use one of her legs to cleave Vi’s head.

The Piltover Enforcer herself, had only mere seconds to react as she put up one of her gauntlets in order to defend herself. Though, she was shocked to see parts of her metal hands were beginning to break off and chip away, just from a single attack. She had fought against numerous opponents with blades before and they never have landed a scratch on her gauntlets before. But this time… she could actually see the metal of the gauntlets chipping away in front of her.

“A weapon’s virtue is proven in combat…” She then heard directly behind her, before swinging her arm and realizing that her opponent was already gone. “Sadly… yours doesn’t have that.”

“Shut up!!” Vi yelled, attacking again, only to miss her target once more. “Who the hell do you think you are to lecture me-!?”

Immediately though, as quickly as she made that remark… she felt pain. Everywhere. Cutting through her legs before beginning to form all around her body. She dropped to the ground, hacking up blood and weakly looking up to find herself at the mercy of her opponent. She tried using her gauntlets to move away. Hopefully finding a way to backup and get out of the forest. But… that was when she found herself blocked off.

“And who exactly gave you permission to leave?” She heard the cold voice from above her as Vi watched her opponent dive down from above. Which had her immediately move out of the way as her opponent’s leg cut through the trunk of a tree cleanly in half, causing it to collapse as it fell forward.

But, this also gave Vi an idea. Grabbing the tree trunk, she threw it directly in the path of the Steel Shadow like it was a spear. “Really now? Do you honestly think that could land a scratch on me? You must be brain dead to think that such a tactic would-”

However, what the Gray Lady did not anticipate… was that when she cut through the tree, Vi was charging directly at her with both of her weapons. One strike in order to knock her up into the air with a furious uppercut. And the second one to send her crashing down. Even though that took up most of the energy that she had… and she could barely move in the process.

As for Camille though… despite her injuries, she still was able to get up from such a blow and look back at the downed enforcer. Glaring at her, before closing her eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath. “Hmph… perhaps you’re not as brain dead as I thought you were…” She slowly turned around and began to walk away from Vi, much to her surprise. “The luxury of mercy is one that I cannot afford… but it is one that I’m letting you have.”

“W-wait…” Vi choked, trying to stay standing, but soon fell to one of her knees. “H-how do you k-know… about me?”

All she was met with was silence… before the gray lady departed. But, not before giving her one final answer. “Find me again and prove to be able to stand against me first… then, I’ll tell you. But know this girl…”

The last four words were burned into Vi’s mind as she soon blacked out from her injuries and was left to lie in the Everfree. “I am your future.”

Back to the Empire

“Poppy, I know you wanted to be able to get a better view of everything that was going on, but how is this exactly a plan!?” Ekko asked after seeing what was happening on both sides of the wall of the crystal empire. “Matter of fact, what kind of plan do we even have at this rate?!”

“Well, with Taric working with the princesses right now, our best bet is to try and help the civilians!” The Yordle told him, before looking at the violent clash that was getting closer and closer to the Empire. “If you can make sure that everypony’s got someplace to-” However, the Yordle was interrupted when she saw a molten piece of rock flying towards the wall. Using her hammer, she swung at it and sent it flying back. Hitting a crystal not that far from it and causing it to break down and melt away.

When Ekko saw that… and looked back at the homes in the Empire and saw that most of them were made out of the same material, that made him realize what they should be doing immediately. “Poppy, if any of that rock crashes in here, they can break apart the shelters that everypony’s trying to hide in!”

The Yordle took a quick glance at him for a moment, before one of the burning rocks grazed the wall they were standing on and they watched the edge of it melt away like candle wax. “Alright, they aren’t going to get past us! We’ll send them back right to where they came from!!”

“Do you think we’ll be able to hold them off long enough for Twilight to find some way to clear up this mess?” Ekko asked, swinging his guile and sending another piece of rock back out into the snow.

“She better… And Taric’s with them. If he doesn’t figure out what to do, it just gives me more incentive to hammer him in the jewels!”

At that point… Ekko didn’t even want to ask what exactly did she mean by that. But, it was during this whole mess that a few things happened. One, while they were sending some rocks back, others were shot out of the sky by some gold colored magic. Two, there was a series of bright lights that came from the interior of the castle in the crystal empire.

But it was at one point… that a bright flash went off from behind them. And when they turned around, Ekko and Poppy were blinded by the light almost instantly. But when they were able to see again, both of them were shocked by what happened. The storm was gone, everything returned back to normal… and the molten ram and storm bear were no longer there. In fact, it looked like nothing was there to begin with since there was no trace left behind of the gigantic battle that was unfolding mere moments ago.

Which… left Ekko rather confused. “What… the heck just happened?”

“I… honestly don’t know,” Poppy replied back, before the Yordle turned to see Twilight and her friends emerging from the castle. “Perhaps Twilight can clarify some things for us.”

And just like that, the heart of mountain opened his eyes once more. Finding himself back inside his personal workshop. He honestly did not know what that was all about. For a moment, he thought he was fighting his brother, Volibear, in the middle of an unknown landscape. Perhaps it was some kind of dream or a vision.

Or perhaps… it was all real. Because as he looked in his hand, he still had the new materials that he was holding onto. Which… only lead to him letting out a deep huff as he looked back at his forge. “Well… That happened. Now, back to work.”

End Break 11