Chronobreak- We know your name child

Ponyville

It had been over a week since Ekko and Twilight had met Essence and the Doctor and now, The Boy who Shattered Time was getting used to all the things that were going on in Ponyville. Most of the time he spent inside the castle because of a pony named Lyra Heartstrings that always chased him endlessly, reading books and making possible improvements to the gloves that Essence gave him.

Now, night had fallen for some time and surprisingly, Ekko was caught off guard by two things when he was finally done with tinkering around on his gadgets. One, it was half past midnight. The other was that Princess Luna inside the castle along with Twilight and her friends. “Luna! What a surprise!”

“It’s good to see you again, Ekko,” The Princess of the night greeted with a bow. “How are you, this evening?”

“Alright I guess. It’s been slow with trying to get acquainted with the local population. But otherwise, I’m doing great.” He replied, leaning back in a relaxed pose as he looked at the Mane Six. “Twilight and her friends have been a big help.”

“They have now?” Luna raised an eyebrow, looking back at the six ponies. “Well, it is to be expected. They are the element bearers. Tonight, they even had helped me deal with the Tantabus.”

Ekko raised an eyebrow. “The what now?”

“It’s a creature that’s a conjurer of Nightmares and affects anypony that’s asleep. Which reminds me… How come we didn’t see you?” Twilight asked.

“Well, I’ve been working for the last few hours on some improvements that I was trying to make with my inventions, so I was otherwise occupied at the current moment in time.” He said. For a moment, Luna thought that the boy was joking around. But he then noticed that he did seem to make some noticeable changes. Mostly with the gloves that were on his hands. Originally, he used to hand a pair of leather gloves that looked like it came from the shop of a blacksmith. Now, it was something different. The gloves looked to be fingerless and made of black leather with some mechanical pieces attached to it. “I really am a night owl when it comes to working on my gadgets.”

“Sounds like egghead when she’s trying to study for something very important.” Rainbow snickered as she looked back at Twilight. “Wait til we have Nightmare Night later in the week.”

“What’s that?” Ekko asked. “It sounds a lot like the Harrowing back on Runeterra.”

“It’s a holiday where Ponies dress up, go trick or treating and spend time telling spooky stories and a lot of other cool stuff.” Rainbow smirked. “What’s your holiday about?”

“Mostly the same thing. However, on the 31st of October, the event is recognized because on that night is when a full solar eclipse takes place. Many rich folk in the city hold major masquerades during those times and have different costumes to wear. The children I was with and myself always heard of the holiday, but could not celebrate it.”

Almost all of Twilight's friends as well as Luna gasped upon hearing this. “That’s so sad… Why?” Fluttershy asked, confused.

“We were kids that lived on the streets, so we couldn’t get the costumes we wanted to wear. We only had enough money to get us by with everyday essentials like food and water. But the thing is, with all the criminal activity in Zaun, we couldn’t be able to hold our change for long until another crook tried to rob us.” The Boy sighed. “The same thing went for all the other holidays in the year. Including Snowdown during the winter. I don’t even if I remember even seeing snow fall. I always see it getting brushed off of some brute that gets summoned from the Howling Abyss.”

“S-sorry to hear about that, Ekko.” Fluttershy told him, trotting up and nestling nearby him. “I don’t know how it might feel to not be able to celebrate a holiday such as this, but I believe the girls and I can do something in order to make it a night to remember. Right?”

“Yeehaw!! I’m up for it!”

“Count me in!”

“What a marvelous idea!!”

“YIPPEE!!! A PERFECT NIGHT FOR A PARTY!!”

“Thanks girls, this really means-.” Ekko’s comment was interrupted as soon as one of Luna’s night guard burst through the door. It was a Male bat pony that had a dark purple armor on and folded bat wings. One of Luna’s personal guards.

“I’m sorry, Princess Luna. But there’s something that you need to see.”

“What is it, Nightwing?”

“There’s an incident near the Everfree,” The batpony replied, noticing Ekko before speaking again. “I need both you and… Ekko to follow me. We’re unsure if the events with the Tantabus caused this or not, but it would be best to have the two of you see for yourself to make sure.” Earlier in the week, Luna had introduced Nightwing to Ekko to make sure that the Night Guard will see him as a friend instead of an enemy. Now, with the strange case that was on his hooves now, the stallion would like his help.”

“See what exactly?” Ekko asked, a little puzzled like the other ponies around him. Somehow though, in his gut, he had a bad feeling about what exactly he was going to see.

“We found this as we were looking around the perimeter of the forest.” The guard told both Luna and Ekko as they looked at what they saw. “According to locals, they said that a group of Diamond Dogs lived here for a long amount of time and from time to time, were defensive in protecting what they saw as theirs. We don’t have any idea what caused this.”

“By the league…” Ekko swore. In front of him was five dead Diamond Dogs laid on top of one another in a pile. Blood was on the stone wall that served as the base of a cliff, but no one else had seen what happened or anything.

“Do you think there was a fight between them?” Luna asked.

“Possibly. But it’s also unlikely. Diamond Dogs aren’t very smart and judging from the fact that they use sticks and stones instead of weapons, it’s really unlikely.”

Ekko, from his position though, could see something though as they moved the bodies off of one another. “Hey, can you move the bodies into the light?”

“Sure. But why do you ask?”

“I want to verify something.” He replied, boldly. Luna, seeing this, nodded to Nightwing as he did what was asked. Turning the bodies over now, Ekko noticed something on all of them. Something that he said once he verified it. “They didn’t attack each other. They we’re attacked.”

Both the Alicorn and batpony look at each other with puzzled looks on their faces. “How can you tell?”

“Four of the bodies have chest wounds that look like they were shot by arrows. The fifth one looked like it tried to run, but something chased it, ruptured it’s leg and then got ravishly torn apart in a frenzy.” The boy explain, pointing out the bite marks and holes on the bodies. “Either it was two attackers or one acting as a single unit.”

“Any ideas?” Nightwing asked.

“Not really,” Ekko sighed. “I can’t see a lot of what’s here because it’s the middle of the night. Plus, this is a case for the guards to look at. Not someone like myself.”

“He does have a point, Nightwing.” Luna reminded him, causing the guard to sigh deeply. He now had the matter become a royal investigation with only Ekko being needed as a consultant. His job was to protect the civilians. Not get them involved in murder mysteries involving Diamond Dogs.

“Alright. But, if anything out of the ordinary occurs, report it to us right away.” The Guard told Ekko as the three of them began to walk back to Ponyville. Unaware of those that were watching them from afar. Specifically, the boy who shattered time. In due time, they will show themselves to the boy and his friend of the night.

In due time.

Three days later…

For Ekko though, he thought that he heard voices in the woods as the winds blew around the three of them on that night. Two voices that addressed each other as Lamb and Wolf.

He had heard of something like that before… But could it be possible for them to be here? He didn’t leave out the possibility after his encounter with the River King. But he was unsure. The Everfree forest felt like it was slowly turning into the Jungle on Summoner’s rift with the monsters and Tahm Kench. But today, he wasn’t going to focus on that and instead focus on the holiday of Nightmare Night.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Rarity couldn’t make up her mind on what the kid should wear. She had been in Manehattan for the past three days straight and within that timeframe, had to prove Dashie innocent, help AJ with a friendship problem and some more shenanigans that occurred. Luckily for Ekko, he had used those days to meet some of the townsfolk. One mare in particular though, really liked his style.

Her name was Vinyl Scratch. Famously known as DJ-PON3 and infamously known for her loud music and over the top Bass Cannon. One day, Ekko met her when the two musicians went to visit Twilight on trying to plan some future accommodation dates for a concert. Vinyl personally liked Ekko’s gadgets because of the color scheme that it gave off. It reminded her a lot of the spotlights that she had in her club and even got Ekko a pair of headphones and music to go with it. Unlike her normal tunes, the DJ had given him a few special songs that she thought worked with Ekko’s personality and background.

He couldn’t agree more. And thankfully, that actually assisted Rarity with being able to find a perfect concept to make a costume for him. She said that it might be a little… odd for him at first, but it would work out in the long run. What she didn’t mention though was that he needed a haircut to match that and that involved her using her magic to drag him all the way to the barbershop.

Now though, he was ready. He had a bag to carry his Z-drive in, added some attachments to his guile and kept his gloves on hand as the sun slowly set. He was outside now, walking towards Twilight's castle when he noticed a familiar face in the costume of a lion. And he personally couldn’t get over how adorable she looked. “Howdy, Ekko!”

“Hello, Applejack. Your costume looks great!”

“Why thank you. So does yours. Did Rarity help you make it?” The Earth pony asked as the two of them continued to walk.

“Yeah, I really owe her for this one. I told her that I could pay her back somehow, but she said that I should keep it so I had a second pair of clothes on hand.”

“Well, ain’t that generous of her.” She smiled, trotting along until Ekko realized that they weren’t going in the direction of the Castle, but to Fluttershy’s cottage instead.

“Uhh… I thought this get together was at Twilight’s?”

“Actually, Sugarcube, Fluttershy decided to volunteer this time around. From what I heard, she’s been planning this for a while.” The Earth pony informed him. Ekko saw this as… surprising to say the least. Out of all six of them, he saw Fluttershy to be the most… timid. So her volunteering to host something that would make her hide inside her home was somewhat surprising.

When he got there, Ekko was greeted by Applejack’s friends and Twilight in a suit of armor that made him almost mistake her for Pantheon. Rainbow looked like she was in a ridiculous outfit that he would see Teemo wear on occasion. Pinkie Pie looked almost like Lux because of her cheerfulness and also her Cheerleader outfit. Fluttershy herself now looked like a Batpony and Rarity now reminded Ekko of Nami, the Tidecaller. As the night went on, Fluttershy herself began to tell her friends scary stories that made chills run through their spines and, at times, intimidated Ekko as well. But unlike the ponies, he kept his cool and remained unphased. Seeing this, Fluttershy now began to think about how to include him in the night’s festivities.

“Hey Ekko, how about you tell us a scary story from your home?”

Ekko raised an eyebrow and looked at the Pegasus, puzzled. “Wait… You want me… to tell all of you a story?”

“Why not? Let’s see if you can scare us more than Fluttershy has already.” Rainbow Dash told him, trying her best to be confident and show that she wasn’t scared. The boy smiled a little and took up the challenge. But as he was going to speak, the winds shifted a little and now, another voice spoke. One that wasn’t his and rode on the evening breeze.

“Lamb, tell me a story…”

The hair on the back of Ekko’s neck began to rise. Twilight and the others looked intimidated, scared and worried as to who was saying that. But then, Applejack was the first to speak. “Ekko? Wha’ is going on?”

“I… I’m not sure-.”

“There was once a pale man with dark hair who was very lonely.”

“Why was it lonely?”

At this point, everypony began to notice a marking begin to grow on a nearby Oak tree. It began to crack as the edges of the marking were burned into the wood of the tree.

“What in TARNATIONS is that!?”

“All things must meet this man. So, they shunned him.”

“Did he chased them all?”

“By Zaun,” Ekko swore. He saw that marking before. He heard these sayings before!! How were THEY here!? “... Kindred.”

“He took an axe…” The voice rasped as the marking shattered into two wisps. “and split himself in Two.”

“So he would always had a Friend?”

“So he would always had a Friend.”

The wisps floated away into the distance, but to Ekko, he didn’t see them as just wisps. He saw them as eyes. Eyes that now glowed furiously as he saw the glint of a bowstring being drawn and aimed in his direction. “Everypony, get down!”

Everypony in the area began to scramble as a glowing arrow flew through the air and landed in a tree. When Ekko and the others looked back in the direction of where the shot came from, the set of eyes began to dash off into the forest.

“GET BACK HERE!” Rainbow yelled, throwing her helmet from her costume aside and giving chase.

“Damn it! Wait-!!” Ekko cursed, looking back at the others. “Fluttershy, get your friends back inside the cottage. I’m going after Rainbow!”

He didn’t even hear them try to respond as the boy took off. He knew that the Cyan Pegasus was cocky. But he also knew that Rainbow had no idea what the hell she was dealing with. He had to stop her before her pride put her in a situation where she might get herself killed. Leaping over logs and avoiding any creatures he encountered, he soon found her looking at two masks that were on a tree stump. She was about to turn around and head back. But with her back turned, the two masks came to life, ready to pounce on their target.

As she turned around, the embodiment of the wolf lunged for her, but Ekko was quick to spring into action and threw his timewinder to hit Wolf on the nose. “Leave her alone!”

“More prey! Excellent!!”

“Wolf, ease yourself…” The White creature that had the wolf mask ordered. “This one is different.”

“W-what are you!?” Rainbow stammered, trying to comprehend what was going on.

“We are many things, yet we are Kindred everywhere,” The being spoke. “I am always Lamb to Wolf and he is always Wolf to Lamb.” The being named Wolf soon sniffed the air, looking at Rainbow with a menacing grin. It’s jaws eager to snap at something.

“This Equine’s fear is tempting me to chase it.”

“Yet, they aren’t ours for the taking… Not yet.” Lamb’s melodic voice soothed Wolf. “Still… It is a rare sight to see one brave soul such as you… Ekko.”

“You know me?” Ekko asked, partially surprised.

“We know your name child. Woven across countless almost lives.” Lamb replied. “However, we have not come for either of you. It is not your time. Our task was to establish our presence. Make ourselves known. The brutes nearby the cliff’s edge were the ones whose time was up.” That final piece had got Ekko to realize what they meant and that caught him off guard.

“The Diamond Dogs… That was your doing?”

“Their time had come.”

“Oh, they were a great chase!” Wolf laughed. “Their hearts were delicious!”

“Farewell, Boy who Shattered Time. Farewell to all. Be aware though. Many dangers are still out there. Always be careful.” The Duo soon disappeared into the shadows of the forest, leaving both Ekko and Rainbow on their own in the Everfree. Their masks on the wooden stump in front of them. Ekko looked at both of the masks and then decided to place them in his bag. They may be useful later on.

“Just w-who were they?”

“They were Kindred. The Eternal Hunters,” Ekko told her. “They represent the twin essences of death itself. Lamb and her arrows represents the swift end for those who accept their end while Wolf hunts down those that run from the inevitable. Every one of his chases ends with his teeth chomping and thrashing through them. Eating their hearts… Tearing out their throats. What they are doing here though… is still a mystery to me.” Ekko placed his guile on his back as he looked back at Rainbow. Come on, let’s go back. Twilight and them might be waiting for us.”

All Rainbow did was nod as they went back towards Fluttershy’s cottage. Her close encounter with the Twin Essences had left her terrified. The best that she could do now was be with her friends and try to trot off her frightening experience. Not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do, but it didn’t prevent her from trying. As soon as Ekko got back, he was slammed with many questions. All he did was tell them the same thing that he told Rainbow.

None of them could hold in their shock. But there was still one thing Ekko had to do. And that was talk to Luna. By any means necessary.

“Sir, I can let you in while Day Court is in session-.” The white pegasus guard told Ekko as he entered the building. The boy didn’t care if he was interrupting anything. Besides, it wasn’t Celestia that he needed to talk to. Instead, he had to speak to Luna. She was with her guard Nightwing when they found the Diamond Dogs from before and now, he found out who their killer was. They needed to know about this and quickly. He already had to wait til the sun rose before he could take a chariot to Canterlot and he had already wasted too many seconds to hold this off any longer.

He was now back in his old clothes as he reached the main hall. The castle itself was a lot bigger than Fancy Pants and Fleur’s home, so having to navigate was a lot harder now than before. He noticed that the guard from outside had not followed him in, so instead, he walked up to one of the guards watching the hallway and asked them a question. “Excuse me?”

“Yes-.” The guard looked up, a little surprised to see the boy, but soon redirected their focus. “-Err… How can I help you?”

“I need to speak with Princess Luna at her earliest convenience.” Ekko told the stallion. Calmly, but firm to show how serious he was. However, the guard didn’t buy it.

“I’m sorry. Princess Luna is otherwise occupied.” The stallion replied with a stern expression on his face. “Please, if you have an issue you need to address, you must wai-.”

“Look,” Ekko snapped, cutting him off. “I am sick and tired of being forced to wait when I have new information on a case that the night guard have been looking into about the unknown murder of a pack of Diamond Dogs four days ago. Now, either you help me out and find someone appropriate that I can talk to so I can pass this information along or I will file a complaint about how you were mistreating a child. And yes, I do apply to that category.”

The guard was now sweating bullets. He was backed into a corner and since he recently just got promoted, if this boy was telling the truth, he would have him be demoted. Before he could speak though, another voice interjected.

“Seriously, Cloud Skipper?” Ekko turned to see a bat-pony mare with a night colored mane & tail along with folded wings, grey fur, and a cutie mark of three small flowers on it. She sighed deeply, which made the boy almost think of Rainbow Dash for a second. “I apologize for my colleague, he just acts too serious while he’s on duty. I’m to guess that you are Ekko correct?”

Ekko nodded his head briefly. “Yes, but how do you know about me?” The mare tilted her head to the side, having the boy follow him.

“Nightwing told me about you a few nights ago and so has Princess Luna. You’re quite the character for not being a pony. I’m Midnight by the way. Midnight Blossom.” The pony lifted her forehoof, offering it for Ekko to shake.

“Please to meet you-.”

“Come on, kiddo. There’s no need for formalities right now,” the batpony nudged him, “Nightwing is back with his family right now, but Princess Luna is unoccupied. So I can escort you into her chambers and then join you after that.” On the way up there, the two of them got to talk a little more and Ekko got to learn a bit more about Midnight and her colleague, Cloud Skipper. All the same, Midnight was able to learn more about Ekko, where he was from, and why he was called “The Boy who shattered Time”.

“So your little Gizmo can send you back in time? That’s cool!”

“Yeah, but going over my inventions is not my primary focus right now.” Ekko reminded her as they came across a set of doors with a crescent moon on it. “Is this her chamber?” The batpony nodded, using her hoof to knock on the door before stepping back. A few seconds later, the Princess of the Night soon opened the doors with a quick hoof. But since the doors swung outward, it accidently caught Midnight in it’s path, smacking her against the nearby wall.

“Huzzah! Well, Ekko, it is great to see you again. What brings you here now? I believe I had already seen you briefly before on Nightmare Night.”

“Yeah, but I came to meet with you on different circumstances,” Ekko first looked left to right and then all around him first before speaking again. “It’s about Wednesday night and the Diamond Dog case. I found out who killed them.” Luna’s eyes widened, looking around before speaking again.

“Come inside, this is a talk we should have behind closed doors.” With that, Ekko followed Luna back inside her chamber, unaware of the bat pony that was pushed into the wall. And the stallion trotting over that was snickering afterwards.

“I’m guessing you weren’t paying attention to your surroundings again?”

“Oh shut up, cloud butt!”

“The Eternal Hunters?”

“That’s right,” Ekko replied, taking out both of the masks that he picked up from Nightmare Night. “They represent the Twin Essences of Death itself.”

“Twin Essences?” Luna asked in confusion. “You mean there’s two of them?”

Ekko nodded his head, picking up the dark purple mask first. “Yes. Where I am from, they have many names. But they are always known as Lamb and Wolf. Lamb, the one I am holding right now, represents those that accept their fate. A swift demise like the firing of an arrow.”

Luna herself now became worried. Sweat was rolling down the back of her neck as she saw Ekko hold the other mask. “A-and Wolf r-represents-?”

“Those who reject their fate and run. Wolf gives chase and every time he does, he ends up tearing out their throats or eating their hearts… At least, that’s how the stories portray it.” Ekko told her. Now Luna was really worried. But still unconvinced.

“But those are just stories… right?”

“Well, yes. But Rainbow Dash and I encountered the two of them last night. Plus… I believe there is a way to call upon them using the masks that I’m holding now. But to do so, we need to wait til night has fallen.” Luna gulped upon hearing that. She could only think about one thing when hearing this.

What in Faust did she get herself into?

End Break 4

Author's Note

We know your name child. Woven across countless almost lives.
-Lamb (Kindred)

Nightmare Night Costume:


Kindred:

Their Story:

This I focused on the events of Nightmare Night and tried to have it relate to what Ekko remembers from his home. I hope I get everything correct.
-Frost