Chapters Break 1- That fresh start smell
Chronobreak - That fresh start smell
Unknown Location (Ekko)
It was a silent evening as time slowly ticked away. Ticking towards the coming dawn and the rise of the morning sun. However, for the Boy Who Shattered Time, he was just beginning to open his eyes again after being painfully whisked away from the fields of justice. To Ekko though, things felt strange. For one thing, he felt himself lying against a soft bed. Not a hard stone floor or the wooden ledge that looked over the city of Zaun, but an actual bed to rest on.
The thought caused him to look around the room he was in, which was unfamiliar at first glance. Mostly because he was tired. His vision was blurry, but he can make out a few things. For one thing, his goggles, Z-drive and guile were on a nearby table along with his bag, other inventions like his Timewinder and the crest he received from the vendor at his base from the field of justice. From the room he found himself in though, it felt very strange. It was nothing like what he had seen in Piltover or Zaun for that matter. Everything seemed… fancy.
Ekko wasn’t a fan of it. Not at all. He felt like someone or something was watching him. Carefully, he got up, not noticing the bandages on his arms as he walked over to the table with his gear and inventions on it. Taking some time, he re-equipped Timewinder, placed his goggles around his neck and adjusted the switch for his Z-drive that he kept on his wrist. As he reached over to turn on his Z-drive that he placed on his back, he stopped for a moment at the sound of…… Hoofsteps?
Quickly, he turned around and pointed his guile like it was a blade towards whatever was coming at him. However, he was quite surprised at what exactly he saw. It was a Unicorn. One with lightly colored fur and mane.
“What the heck?” Ekko spoke, lowing his guile. Unaware that the creature in front of him could actually understand him.
“You can talk?”
The response from the creature startled the boy. “W-what-? You… can understand me?” Ekko knew that a variety of creature that had become part of the League, but some weren’t able to communicate as well as others. A good case was the Void Burrower named Rek’Sai.
“Well you are speaking equish are you not? So that means you can understand me.”
“What’s equish? Do you mean Valoran by chance?”
“No, equish is our native language. Are you from a different nation?” She asked. Ekko… was right now unsure. He wasn’t sure if he was still in Runeterra or not. So, he tried his best to answer the Unicorn’s question. Despite the fact that he didn’t know the Unicorn’s name or a lot of other things that he would want to know right now like where he was exactly.
“Maybe… I’m not quite sure though. Have you heard of Zaun by chance?”
“What’s Zaun? Is that a nation you come from?”
“More like my home.” Ekko said, looking a little down upon saying it. “However, it’s not doing so well these days. The streets are corrupt, crime is a daily occurrence and life out there is… well, rough. Still though, to answer your question, have you heard of Demacia? Noxus? Ionia? Any of those names ring a bell?”
“Sorry, but no I have never heard of any of those places before.”
When he heard that, Ekko thought of one other thing to ask. “Have you heard of Valoran? Or Runeterra by chance? Valoran is the name of the continent that holds most of the nations I mentioned before and Runeterra is the name of our world.”
“No sorry, never heard of that either. You’re not from around here I take it?”
“Honestly, I just woke up here after getting summoned by the League to fight on Summoner's Rift.” The boy replied honestly. He thought that the Unicorn had heard of the League of Legends somehow. But to his surprise, her reply caught him off guard.
“Summoner’s what? Were you summoned by Princess Celestia or Princess Luna?”
“Who?”
“You never heard of the Princesses? They’re the rulers of Equestria, how can anypony not know them?”
“Honestly, I’ve never heard of Equestria and woke up to find myself talking to you… Matter of fact, sorry if I forgot to ask this earlier, but what’s your name?”
“Oh! Where are my manners? My name is Fleur De Lis, what’s your name?”
“I’m Ekko.” He replied, clearing his throat and adjusting his goggles before turning on his Z-drive.
“Well it’s nice to meet you Mr. Ekko. Forgive me if I might sound rude or anything, but what are you? You look like a hairless ape… no offense.”
“None taken actually. I’m a human.” He replied. “I’m also a champion in the League of Legends, but that’s more of a title than anything else.” Ekko took a moment to place his guile on his back before Fleur spoke again.
“Oh? So you a fighter in an arena then?”
“Well, not quite. The League of Legends is kind of different. To explain it briefly, it was set up so rival nations like Demacia and Noxus could rage political disputes on the battlefields called the Fields of Justice. However, I really don’t know much about it since I’ve only been part of it for a short amount of time.” Ekko sighed.
“Oh.”
“For champions, they are summoned by archmages named Summoners to represent one team while they square off against one other team of summoners and the champions they chose. We battle on places called Fields of Justice , including Summoner’s Rift, the Crystal Scar, Twisted Treeline, and Howling Abyss… Am I confusing you?” Ekko asked, seeing that the Unicorn looked a little distracted or either bored by what he told her.
“A little bit yes. Mostly because I have never heard of any of the stuff you just said.”
Now Ekko was surprised. “Fleur… where exactly am I?”
“You’re in Equestria, the equine nation and home to us ponies.”
Now things were beginning to cause Ekko to look back at Fleur in shock. As he looked outside from the nearby window, he saw the bustling city of Canterlot instead of the smoky streets of Zaun. It took him a few moments for everything to sink in. But the shock of it all startled him.
He wasn’t in Runeterra anymore… Not by a long shot.
“Fleur……?”
“Honey, I’m back!”
The voice surprised the unicorn, but she then calmly sighed. Ekko though, was confused on who that was. “Who was that?”
“My husband Fancy Pants.”
‘Fancy Pants? That’s a new one… Then again, there’s a scarecrow named Fiddlesticks, so who am I to judge?’ Ekko thought to himself as he saw the stallion enter the room. The boy took a seat on the bed he woke up on as Fancy looked around the room, trying to take in the situation.
“Oh, I see that our guest is awake?”
“Yeah, he woke up not to long ago.”
“Hello.” Ekko replied, waving a little. Fleur chuckled a little as he turned around, now seeing that the sun was rising. “Okay… that’s new.”
“Looks like Princess Celestia is up.”
“What does a Princess have to do with the sun?” Ekko asked, confused.
“Because while Princess Luna raises the moon, Celestia raises the sun.”
“Okay, that’s way different from what I’m use to.” Ekko responded as Fancy Pants used his magic to open the blinds and let the sunlight in. Now was when both Fleur and Fancy were able to get a full glimpse of the boy. Not in a dimly lit room, but fully lit this time.
“You’ll get used to it, but if it makes you feel better you’re not the only one that have that kind of reaction when somepony tells them about the Princesses doing that.” Fancy Pants replied.
“Question. What is that strange device on your back?” Fleur asked, pointing a hoof at it.
“Oh this? It’s one of my best inventions that I came up with. The Z-Drive.” Ekko replied, taking out the Timewinder he had in his pocket. “That goes with my Timewinder and also my guile. It helps me control my own time.”
“You can control time!?” Both Unicorns responded in shock.
“Well not all of time, more like my time. The Z-drive allows me to be able to keep track of where I am and then, I can use it go back to where I was four seconds ago. It might sound complicated when saying it, but seeing it is another story.”
“Interesting, it’s very rare to find somepony that can use time magic.”
“Well, it’s a mix between magic and science. It’s kind of hard to explain everything about my inventions without confusing you-.” Before he finished his sentence, his stomach began to rumble. That was when Ekko realized that he hadn’t eaten anything in the last few hours.
“Something tells me you haven’t eaten anything in the past couple of hours I take it?”
“Yeah. Food is hard to come by in Zaun. Any food you do find is overpriced. Haven’t eaten in like… Two days? I have had water and healing potions, but that doesn’t solve hunger related problems.”
“My word! What kind of nation you live in boy?” Fancy asked, shocked by what Ekko told him and Fleur.
“One where there’s a lot of problems in the cities that many call home. The corrupt streets of Zaun can really get to you one way or another. There’s even a wall that has pictures of the deceased on there. Trust me, I had to put my friend on there myself.” Ekko sighed, remembering his late friend Ajuna. He tried over 100 times to save him, but some things you can’t just easily fix.
“Sorry that you had to experience something like that.”
“Yeah… some things just can’t be fixed. There are no tools, no spare parts, nothing. Some wounds just take time to heal… and even then, it’s not the same.” The boy sighed. Looking back at the two ponies, he noticed the bandages on his arms and started to undo them. His arms had mostly healed, which was a good sign. But the only treatment to cure a empty stomach was food. And he really needed to eat.
“What would you like to eat for breakfast Ms. Ekko?”
“Well, what do you have?” He asked, trying his best to not sound greedy.
“Well we got flowers on toast, hay bacon, eggs, orange juice, donuts, and fruit. We also have tofu as well if you want any?”
Ekko raised an eyebrow at the choices. “What the heck is Hay Bacon and Flowers on Toast?”
“Kinda like bacon but without the meat. It pretty much just hay covered in oil.”
The thought of that did not sound good to him. In fact, it didn’t even sound edible. “I think some juice and bread would be fine. I’m not quite sure I would be able to find a lot of the foods that I commonly have while here.”
“What do you eat?”
“Well, humans are Omnivores. But don’t worry, I don’t think ponies are on the menu.” Ekko tried to not freak them out with that statement, but was unsure how the response would be taken.
“Oh! So your diet is a combination of a pony and a griffon.”
“Well, we eat meats, fruits and vegetables, but it really depends on if you can get them. Like I said already, I live in a rough neighborhood.” Ekko answered Fleur’s assumption. Soon, the two unicorns guided the boy to the dining room, where they prepared a few slices of bread and some orange juice for him. The servants were quite surprised to see Ekko, but after a while, they got use to his presence. While they were having breakfast, the Boy began to explain a little bit about the purpose behind the League of Legends, the continent of Valoran, and also about how the League exactly works. Fancy himself was surprised that the League was designed to settle political disputes by having champions fight one another to the death, but then again, there were differences between the League and an actual war.
Partway through the conversation though, the sound of hooves knocking against the door caught the attention of all three of them. Fancy, being the Stallion that he was, got up to see who was at the door. To his surprise, it was actually Prince Blueblood.
“Good morning Prince Blueblood, what brings you here?”
“Well, I was wanting to come see you and see if we could-.” Blueblood’s sentence was cut off upon seeing Ekko. To him, he was looking at a filthy hairless ape that was picked up off of the street.
“MOTHER OF CELESTIA!! WHAT IS THAT HAIRLESS APE DOING HERE!?”
“Excuse me?” Ekko asked. His ears twitched at being called out like that. This new pony was beginning to remind him of Jayce. The posterboy “defender of tomorrow” from Piltover who was just as arrogant as he was cocky. He always wanted to get the chance to smack him in the face when in the league. But now, this pony was playing the same role he would and it was making him tick.
“You heard me you filthy ape. What are you doing in Fancy Pants’ home?” The Prince demanded, a couple of his personal guards coming into the room now because of the sudden commotion.
“For the record, Fancy and Fleur saved my life. I would possibly be dying if they didn’t find me when they did. Also, I do have a name and it’s not “hairless ape”, blondy.” Ekko shot back. Trying his best not to start something, but also trying to keep his cool.
“A likely story. You must have used some kind of mind control spell on them to think you were injured.”
“Blueblood, he’s speaking the truth.” Fancy interjected. We found him bleeding across his body a few hours ago and it took us almost an hour to try and make sure his wounds didn’t reopen. Just please, leave Ekko alone.”
“Don’t try to pretend to make up lies for this filthy ape, Fancy Pants. He’s obviously using some kind of spell to cloud your mind.”
Ekko then turned to Fleur while he heard the two stallions argue amongst themselves. “Is he always like this?”
“This wouldn’t be the only time he done something like this.”
“Only time?” He then asked, wondering if he should be concerned.
“From what I heard he also did this to the daughter of the Kirin nation’s King in neighpon.” Fleur told him, sighing. “I’m surprise the Princesses haven’t punish him for that.”
Ekko was quite surprised himself. But he was really starting to get annoyed with Prince Blueblood’s constant outbursts. But what he said next really pushed things too far. Especially when Blueblood starting going after the two ponies who saved his life.
“Guard! Take this filthy thing to the dungeon and have it killed!”
Now Ekko began to see the guards come forward, trying to use their magic to restrain his arms and legs. However, he was use to these kinds of situations before. Using the tray that had his food, the boy tossed it like a frisbee, knocking the restraints away from the first guard. As two others drew swords, Ekko used his feet to kick his guile upward and block the incoming attacks. He acted in self defense, using his phase dive to roll underneath the table and then blinked over to the guard that was by Prince Blueblood. With one move, he defended himself from the incoming sword and knocked the guard into the Prince. Blueblood though, had another thing coming. With a quick motion, he ordered the guards to arrest Fancy Pants and Fleur.
Ekko was already two steps ahead. “No you dont!”
Chronobreak!
His Z-drive whirled to life as the boy backtracked to where he was four seconds prior. By Fleur De Lis. Just at the moment when one of the guards swords cut the side of his face. All the ponies in the room were shocked by what just happened.
“What the hay was that!?”
“That… was Chronobreak… I told you that seeing how my Z-drive works is different from saying how it works.” Ekko sighed. “Besides, look around you…” During that moment was when Fleur and Fancy noticed something they didn’t see before. Holographic projections of the different places that Ekko was in the room over the past few seconds. Stunning, yet remarkable. “If Mr. Prince here tried to catch me by surprise, I would always be two steps ahead.”
“Why you little-!?”
“It’s not my fault that you tried to not only harm me, but then go after the two ponies that saved my life.” Ekko shot back. Now the guards, who were once trying to go for the boy, were hesitant to even make a move on him. Despite the Prince’s orders though, all of them soon stopped what they were doing when another figure entered the room around the time Blueblood gave his next order.
“Don’t just stand there! Kill that filth and arrest them!!”
“Prince Blueblood!!! What is the meaning of all of this!?!” The loud voice startled the Unicorn stallion as a white pony with wings, horn and a long mane and tail entered the room. She was much taller than the rest of the ponies that stood there, and upon seeing her, the guards in the room stood at attention instead of following the orders from Prince Blueblood.
“A-auntie!? W-what are you doing here?”
“I came here because I felt a strong surge of magic just now. Magic that was said to have all but faded away.” She looked around the room, surveying the current situation as Ekko himself just put his guile away and wiped off some blood that was on his cheeks when a guard's sword clipped his face. “Now, I come here only for you to want to kill a young creature and arrest two nobles only for the reason because you feel like it!? I am disappointed in you. All of you...”
“Um Fleur,” Ekko whispered to her, a little confused. “Who is that?”
“That… is Princess Celestia.” She told him briefly before the Alicorn ordered Blueblood and the guards to leave immediately. “She’s the one I told you who raises the sun.”
Turning back towards her, the Princess then approached Ekko, before looking at both Fancy Pants and Fleur. Then back to him again. “I apologize for my nephew’s behavior. He’ll be dealt with as soon as possible. Now though, young one, what is your name?”
He then sighed, taking in a deep breath before speaking again. “I am Ekko… the Boy Who Shattered Time.”
End Break 1
Author's Note
Hey guys, Frost here. Since I have been playing a bit of League of Legends every now and then, I thought I would give a story involving Ekko a try. However, I'm not updating this one as much as my other ones given the amount of things I have to do. This includes the War of Shadows with Lance, A crossover with Ember for The Flames of a Phoenix, and some other things too. but for now, enjoy!
Oh and I just got Spirit Guard Udyr from a Mystery Chest today so I'm quite happy
Break 2- Time is but another river
Chronobreak- Time is but another river
Canterlot
Luna had just woken up from her much needed rest after a night of many surprises, only to be caught off guard by the lack of her sister’s presence in the castle. Normally, her sister would be in the same room as her when Luna rose from her slumber and warmly greet her like the sun she raised on a daily basis. But instead, the room was empty.
Curious on her sister’s whereabouts, The Night Alicorn used a spell that allowed her to sense Celestia’s magic. After finding out where she was, Luna sighed. Casting another spell, she soon teleported to where she felt her sister. One of the things she noticed was an open door to a dining room and from it, she could hear the diarch of the sun.
“ ......... young one, what is your name?”
Peaking a little, Luna’s eyes widened upon seeing who she was talking to… It was the same boy from the vision she had the night before.
“I am Ekko… the Boy Who Shattered Time.”
“Shattered… Time?”
“That is correct.” Ekko answered Celestia’s question.
“That… is no small feat. TIme based magic alone requires years to master and their is a very high risk involving its use.” The princess told him as she tried to see the contraption that was on his pack. “How do you do it though, if I may ask?”
“With my Z-drive.” He told her, pointing to the device. “It allows me to rewind back to different points in time and go back to where I was four seconds ago.”
“That’s quite impressive… May I see you use it?”
“I would, but I can’t chronobreak all the time. Everytime I do so, I need to wait ninety seconds before doing it again. However, I can show you something else. My Z-drive not only allows me to rewind back to where I was with Chronobreak, it allows me to speed up my own time to where I blink towards a targeted location or opponent. This is what I call phase dive.” Ekko soon demonstrated the said skill by walking to the other end of the room and using the ability to dive back to where he was. Celestia herself… was quite impressed. But with that though, the boy also saw something else. “Um… Celestia right?”
“Yes, Ekko?”
“Who’s the pony behind the door?”
The sound of a small squeak was heard from the door as it opened widely, showing the onlooker that was listening to their conversation. Celestia herself, was quite surprised. “Luna? What are you doing here?”
“I noticed that you weren’t in our chambers when I woke up so I came to find you. When I did, I found you talking to this… creature.”
“Human.”
“I beg your pardon?” Luna responded.
“I am a human.” Ekko said again. “My name is Ekko. Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise. Can I-.” Luna stopped speaking and her eyes widened the moment Ekko’s Z-drive began to glow again and the silhouette of him followed not far behind him.
“Well, looks like I can chronobreak again. I’m no longer on cooldown.” Looking at the confused faces of the few ponies around him, he began to explain once more. “It’s a figure of speech for the time I have to wait to use a certain ability again. Most of them are quick like my phase dive, but like I said, I need to wait ninety seconds before chronobreaking again.”
“H-how many abilities do you have exactly?” Luna stammered, shocked by what she was seeing and hearing from the boy.
“Five. Four I can do on my own and one just works passively. Phase dive is my third ability and Chronobreak is my ace in the hole. My first two abilities are nifty though if you time them right. But I might need some space if you want to see them… and a few other things…” Ekko turned to Luna, who he saw as patiently waiting to ask something. “Oh, uh… were you going to ask something?”
She nodded her head. “Tia? Can I talk to you in private, please?” Ekko watched as the other alicorn nodded her head and walked out the door, leaving just Fancy Pants, Fleur and himself in the room. Ekko at first wanted to know what this was about, but thought that since she wanted to talk in ‘private’ that he shouldn’t be snooping around. After a couple of minutes though, the two of them returned to the room, but something made Ekko think that what they were talking about made the two of them more cautious.
“Ekko…”
“Yes, your highness?” He responded, being polite.
“We would like to see you demonstrate your other abilities at the castle of my student in Ponyville. Along the way, I would like to ask you some questions.”
“Sure. Can Fancy and Fleur come along as well? They might help with answering some of the questions since I told them a bit about myself earlier.”
Celestia nodded, “They can if they want to-.”
“We would… But Fancy and I were invited by Filthy Rich to attend an event he has upcoming in Manehattan. I’m sorry, Ekko. We wish you good luck on your journey though.”
“Thanks… Never had much luck though… Mostly because I never needed it.”
This… was a cue for Ekko to thank them and say his goodbyes to both of them before he began to trot out of the room with the Royal Sisters. On the way, Ekko began to speak about everything that he told Celestia and Luna about himself, his life, being in Zaun, the countries of Valora and also most importantly… The League of Legends.
“Excuse me for interrupting, but what is this “League of Legends” that you speak of?” Luna asked as they left the building and began to walk through the streets of Canterlot. The boy sighed as they turned another street corner.
“The League of Legends was created as a way to solve political disputes because previous wars have left the continent almost broken. Demacians and Noxians were always fighting between one another along with other nations, so the League was created so their disputes could be solved on the Fields of Justice.”
“How does it work though. It sounds like Trial by Combat, but that got outlawed 1000 years ago.” Celestia replied.
“You never told me that…”
“Yes Luna, because before you were banished, you use to place bets on who would win or not. Very illegal if I do say so myself.” Celestia sternly deadpanned at her sister before looking back at Ekko.
“Well, it depends really on where the battle is being held,” Ekko explained. “Summoners Rift has teams of five champions each, like myself, fight each other to destroy the opponent’s Nexus. When you die, you’re resurrected a few moments later. The more time that passes, the stronger you become. Other map are different, but the objective is still the same. Twisted Treeline has three champions against three, Crystal Scar has capture points you need to control and Howling Abyss and Butcher Bridge has one lane and you get randomly selected for that fight. However, there are limitations on the last two maps though.”
“Limitations?”
“It’s hard to explain.” Ekko said. “The League always finds a way to try and increase the difficulty so some people won’t feel like participating is too easy.”
“Right, so Ekko, what kind of champions participate in the league?”
“Well, there are the ones from Demacia and Noxus. Personally hate both of their guts…” Ekko retorted. “There’s Ionia, Mount Targon, the Freljord, Piltover and Zaun. I can’t remember them all because I’ve been in the league for only two months and can’t remember a lot of things.”
“How many of these… champions are part of the league?”
“I don’t know exact numbers. I heard that a new member is introduced monthly and I’ve only encountered a few myself. Including Urgot, who’s too much of a hulking mass as his mechanical arm. Had to rewind three times to beat him when he ambushed me once back at Zaun.” Ekko said. “Still though, I think there’s roughly… somewhere about one hundred and twenty I think?”
Celestia and Luna just looked at one another, surprised. They didn’t expect that many individuals to be involved in this kind of league. Soon, the three of them soon arrived at the main hallway. But this… confused Ekko. Until Celestia casted a teleportation spell and the three of them ended up in a new room… with new individuals.
“Um… Okay? Not what I expected.”
At first glance, he saw six ponies and a creature that looked like a failed experiment from Dr. Mundo’s workshop. One pony was similar to the two princesses, two of them had wings, one of them had just a horn and two of them were just plain ponies. All of them though had their own reactions for what was going on.
“P-princess!?”
“Twilight…”
“Who’s the guy with the Mohawk?!”
“PINKIE!!!”
“Oh, by the league. MAKE IT STOP!!” Ekko pondered inside his head.
“Everypony calm down!!” One pony with some kind of strange hat yelled out. “Princess, I mean no disrespect, but why are ya’ here and what in tarnations is that?”
“Ekko.”
“Uhh… gesundheit?”
“No… Ekko.” The boy repeated to the confused Pink Pony that responded to him. “That’s my name.”
“OH! As in Echo? Like ECHO ECHO ECHO!!!” She shouted gleefully, trying to have an echo bounce off of the walls. All Ekko could do was face smack himself.
“No. E-K-K-O. Trust me, you’re not the only one whose actually said that.”
“Ekko, I would like you to meet my student and her friends.” Celestia intervened. “There’s Princess Twilight Sparkle…”
“Hello!” The Alicorn replied.
“Rainbow Dash…”
“What’s up?” Rainbow Dash stated in the air, acting all cool and carefree.
“Applejack…”
“Howdy!” The earth pony said, waving a hoof.
“Fluttershy…”
“H-hi……” The pegasus squeaked.
“Rarity…”
“Why hello there darl-. My goodness!! What sort of clothes are you wearing!?!”
“Uh… The only ones I have?” He responded.
“... Moving on… You already met Pinkie…”
“Hi Ekko! Where are you from? What are you? What’s the contraption on your back!? Do you like-?”
“Pinkie, please.” Applejack brought the Party Pony back down to earth as she spoke. “Theres no way in Tartarus that he won’t be able to answer your questions like tha-.”
“Zaun, Human, my Z-drive. What was the last question?”
The entire room now stared at the boy in shock. Surprised by what he just said. “H-how?”
He sighed, facepalming himself again… “Wow… Time is really not on your side…”
“Moving on…” Celestia intervened again. “Lastly, this is Discord. Reformed spirit of chaos and thankfully, not so much of a troublemaker anymore.”
“Please to meet you.”
“Now then… Twilight, where’s Spike?”
“Oh he was off with the crusaders earlier, trying to find some kind of urban legend called “The River King”.” Twilight told them. “He’s back now and taking a nap.” However, the mentioning of the Urban Legend caused a chill to run down Ekko’s spine. He had heard of that before.
But it wasn’t the highest of his priorities.
“I see…” Celestia continued. “Anyways, I brought Ekko here because he has a very special talent that I would like for him to show to you and your friends.”
“Seriously? This kid has a talent? What is he, some kind of Punk Rock music guitarist?” Rainbow sarcastically asked. Ekko himself sighed.
“No… I’m a champion in the League of Legends. And you’re soon going to see why.” Ekko replied, smiling a little as he backed up and took a position on the other end of the room.
“Is that a threat?!”
“No, it’s a challenge… Of course, it’s your choice whether or not you want to do it…”
“Oh I am so going to wipe the floor with this guy!!” Rainbow retorted, getting on the ground into a racing starting position like before a Wonderbolt race. Twilight tried to tell her friend to air on the side of caution, but the arrogant and pride filled pegasus ignored it, charging at him and not noticing what he was about to do.
“Heads up!” He called, moving his real body to the side while a holographic projection was seen hitting a contraption onto the floor, at the moment that Rainbow came across the circle, Ekko phased dived into it, setting off the trap he placed.
Parallel Convergence.
“What the hay!?! What did you do to Rainbow?!”
“Calm yourself, the effects are only temporary.” Ekko assured. Soon, five seconds later, Rainbow was moving again and then crashed into a wall. “That… was only one of my abilities. Parallel Convergence. You saw another one, phase dive, at the moment I dove into the circle the same time Rainbow came in. Parallel Convergence is meant to slow down opponents, but when I step into the circle, it temporarily freezes the time around them for four seconds before they could move again.”
“Wait… Freeze time!? Did I hear that right?!” Twilight asked upon hearing that statement.
“Of course. My guile allows me to slow enemies while speeding up my own time so I get a speed boost. Parallel Convergence allows me to corner anyone that gets too close to me. Phase dive allows me to dive right behind them,” The boy explained, pulling out another contraption. “Timewinder can hit opponents before returning back to me-.”
“OOOOH! It’s Mr. Frisbee!!”
“Pinkie…”
“-And lastly, there’s Chronobreak.” Upon saying that, Ekko used his Z-drive to chronobreak back to where he was on the other side of the room, behind the princesses, ponies, and chaos spirits alike. “Where I go back to wherever I was some time ago.”
Twilight herself was just overwhelmed with all the things Ekko showed her that she fainted the moment that he did that while all the other ponies looked at him in shock. “Hey, that’s why they called me “The Boy who Shattered Time” after all.”
“That… makes sense.” Discord was the first to reply. “Should I call you Timey Wimey?” Ekko shook his head as he looked back at the princesses, who began to speak again.
“Well, girls… and Discord. We’ll leave Ekko in your care. Please, don’t mess with him too much.”
“Tell Fancy and Fleur I said Hi.” Ekko replied as he watched both Princesses leaving in a flash of light. Soon, he began to walk to what he believed to be an open window and cracked it open.
“Hey sugarcube, where are you going?”
“Going out for a walk. I need to check something.”
“Dude,” Rainbow Dash deadpanned. “The door is over here.”
“I know… Trust me. I do my own stunts.” Without warning, Ekko dropped down onto the building next to it and began to run along the rooftops of the town. With Rainbow still watching him from her position in the air.
“Wow… Kid’s got skills.” She told the girls. “I’m gonna follow him and see where he’s going.” Quickly, she bursted out the same window that Ekko went out of and began to pursue him. She watched as he went to the edge of town, where the Everfree Forest was, and then entered inside.
“Why would he be going in there?” She thought to herself, as she lowered herself through the canopy of trees. Quietly, she stayed low as she followed the boy as he went along the edge of the river that was inside the Everfree Forest. Soon though, he stopped. At one of the docks that lingered by the coast, Ekko took out a small bag he kept on him. Earlier, he stored some extra food in here from Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis when they gave him breakfast. Now, he placed the bread and drink inside the boat that was nearby, sitting on the edge of the dock and looking down into the water below. The boy couldn’t make anything out of it, but he did see something that wasn’t quite… normal, so to speak.
As Rainbow watched, she noticed that the calm waters from before began to ripple, causing the river to swish around. Then, she began to hear… music? Which was strange because she didn’t see anypony carrying an instrument with them and she never thought Zecora to be the kind of pony to play a song. That’s when she saw a pair of demonic eyes form from the waters below as a terrifying beast rose from the river. However, to Rainbow’s surprise, Ekko wasn’t afraid. In fact, he had gotten up from his position on the docks to meet the creature halfway on the shore.
What surprised the Pegasus the most though was that when Ekko began to speak again. “Hello there, Tahm Kench.”
“Well well, if it isn’t the prodigy from Zaun. Surprising to see you out here in these lands… you are very far away from your home, boy.” The river demon spoke, his tone being a mix of melodic and vicious. “I suppose you aren’t here to make a deal now, are you?”
“Not when your deals lead to you being on the bottom of the food chain.” Ekko retorted. “Judging from your position and the fact that I still see you on the Fields of Justice, I figured that you would know a possible way for me to go back home.” The River King partially smiled, showing all of his teeth and causing Rainbow Dash’s fur to stand up on end.
“You seem to have run out of options if you are coming to ask for the help of a demon.” Tahm Kench’s voice echoed throughout the Everfree. “Tell me though, how did you end up in this world? It’s rare to see anyone else besides a pony in this place, and really rare to find a brilliant mind such as yourself.”
Ekko had his hands rummage through his pockets, taking out the crest that was given to him and tossing it to the monster he was talking too. “A shopkeeper at Summoner’s Rift gave me this as a ‘token of appreciation’ only to have me end up in this place after the fight was over. Can you make any sense of it?”
Tahm Kench shook his head. “It is odd, I can say that. But I do think that there is a way for this to be used. It won’t bring you back home, but it would allow for other people in your position to call upon you for your help. By casting it out into the void, other warriors throughout the void can find it and summon you to them.”
“Like with the League?”
“Almost. However, it’s different. Now, is there anything that you want these brave souls to know of you as? Like a message you want to send to them.”
Ekko thought about it for a minute, and then sighed. “I am known as many things. But, my name is Ekko. If there is a time where you need time to be on your side, summon me and I can help make sure that happens.”
The crest that Tahm was holding glowed for a moment before he smiled. “Message received.” That was when he did the one thing that Ekko was never ready to see him do. Swallow the crest whole.
“Did you just ate the Crest I gave you?”
“Calm down, kiddo. That was only a duplicate I sent to the void. Your real crest is in your pocket.”
“Okay-. Wait, anything you swallow goes to the void?”
“How else do you think I have an endless hunger?” The river demon questioned.
“ ……… Good point.”
“Now, if you would excuse me, somepony in Manehattan has a debt to pay. I’ll see you around, Kid.” Tahm waved goodbye, grabbing the bread and drink from his boat before he shoved off. “Thank you kindly for the food.”
Ekko nodded his head, waving goodbye. Now though, he was back to making the trek towards the Castle. Or in his case, running.
Because he likes doing his own stunts.
End Break 2
Author's Note
I would like to thank Professor Birch for the inspiration to do this chapter after reading his Tahm Kench story, Absolutions.
Now, Ekko's token is out there and ready for summoning. Have fun.
Just out of curiosity, How would Ekko react to meeting the Doctor?
Break 3- The Doctor meets The Boy
Chronobreak- The Doctor meets The Boy
Ponyville (Ekko)
As the Afternoon sun was continuing to burn down on the town of Ponyville, Ekko took his time to look around the surrounding area before deciding to go help Spike run an errand at the nearby flea market. It might have been short and simple for having to buy some hardcover books, but the looks he got from the surrounding ponies were just off setting for him. The only kind of looks that were like that when he had seen them before were from the kids that he met in Zaun that he made friends with and protected them from the criminal scum that polluted the streets. The looks of fear, confusion, worry. He was familiar with them.
“Ekko? You alright?”
Ekko snapped out of his thinking when he turned to see Spike. Who was holding some of the books on his own. “Oh yeah, just got a bit… distracted. Let me help you with that.”
“Sure thing.” The baby dragon replied as he handed some of the books to him. Before going anywhere else though, Spike had to check the list that Twilight had given him. “I’m not completely sure why she needs all of these though.”
“All of what?”
“The science of Chrono magic by Professor Clock Hand, volumes 1-4,” Spike read from the piece of paper. “Do you think she might be going a bit crazy after that time thingy that you showed her earlier today?”
“Personally, I think she just wants a better understanding of it. Trust me, I’ve seen crazy,” He told the dragon. “Ever had a girl in your life that you liked? Like a crush?”
“Once. Why?”
“Think of that, but then her going full blown crazy to where she starts talking to her weapons like they’re actual people. Not to mention that destruction is what she sees as fun.”
“What was her name?”
“Jinx,” The boy replied. “Now though, a lot of people just see her as the “loose cannon” and I agree with them on that.” The two of them soon walked through the door, only to find a stallion in a tie talking to Twilight in the guest room. They seemed to be talking something important, given the fact that there was still a full pot of tea, biscuits, and there seemed to be quite a lot of tea drinking between the two of them.
“Maybe we should just leave them be.”
“Good idea,” Spike replied. “Still though, I wonder why Time Turner would be here.”
“Who?”
“The Stallion. His name is Time Turner. But he’s sometimes referred to by others as “The Doctor”. Not quite sure why they call him that for being a clockmaker.” Spike told him as they made their way up the staircase and took a left. Spike decided to leave the books in Twilight’s personal study while he began to catch up on something he was reading. As Ekko turned around and closed the door though, somepony was waiting for him…… and they didn’t look happy.
“Oh… Hi there, Rainbow-.” Ekko’s brief reply was cut off when Rainbow grabbed him by the scarf and brought him down to her level.
“We need to talk. Now.”
“Talk? About what?”
“The walk you went on. I saw you go into the Everfree Forest and meet your friend that lives in the river.” When Ekko heard her say that, he released himself from the pegasus’ grip, telling her to follow him into another room.
“It seems like you have some questions for me.”
“Just two,” Rainbow snorted. “One, who the hay is he? and Two, why the hay were you talking to him? That creature looks like he can eat up the entire town. I wanna knock it out of the river and beat him to a-.”
“Trust me, don’t do that.” Ekko told her. “Never mess with Tahm Kench.”
“Tom? Are you talking that one rock-?”
“No, that’s his name. Tahm Kench. Remember earlier when I told you that I was a champion in the League of Legends? And the urban legend Spike was on earlier today?”
“Briefly,” Rainbow grunted. “Why?”
“That’s the thing. He’s a champion as well. He and I are both from the League, but the thing is, he calls the river his home.”
“What does this have to do with the legend though-?” Rainbow tried to interrupt. Being very impatient and really wanting Ekko to get to the point that he was trying to make.
“He is known as Tahm Kench; The River king.”
Those words from Ekko caused Rainbow’s eyes to widen. A lot. “Seriously? He’s the River King?”
“Yes… There are a LOT of stories about him and none of them are happy endings.” The boy sighed. “Making a deal with him is the last thing you want to do.”
Rainbow was not lost in thought. Ekko. Tahm Kench. This “league” he keeps mentioning. How in Celestia’s name does this all add up? She asked him about it a few moments later and Ekko explained everything he knew. The genius from Zaun simplified things by explaining that how the League of Legends worked was like a court. Two sides take Legal disputes into the fields of justices so they wouldn’t harm the fragile world that was Runeterra. Also, to take things further, Ekko used the pieces of a nearby chess set and some maps that he kept with him on the fields of justice to explain to Rainbow how it worked. Besides, it was easier to show with a visual demonstration than just explaining it.
But the one thing that continued to linger on his mind was the idea of other individuals that got “Displaced” as Tahm had said earlier. If only he had some sort of guide to explain everything to him. Someone that can show him the ropes. Zilean did that for him in explaining the League, but the Chronokeeper wasn’t here to help Ekko now.
He needed someone elses help.
The Tardis
"That is the last time I try to help a floundering nation," The Doctor, or David as he was known by his friends, grumbled flipping switching and such as the TARDIS dematerialized.
His eye was caught by the book on panel, the enchanted tome on Displaced, and he checked the page. "Well, who said coincidences don't happen. Might as well. Says he needs a guide so I'm off!"
David input the coordinates and the TARDIS flew off through the Void, leaving a rather confused group of officials behind as well as a giant flounder with a city on its head.
"Sir?" asked the youngest official, "Who or what was that?"
The stallion next to him shook his head, "I have no idea."
Back to Ekko
As the day progressed, Ekko used the chance to try to kick back and rest. However, it wasn’t all that easy for him. Especially with, all things considered, a strange noise coming from a nearby alleyway. He looked down from up top on the castle to now see a blue box form in the alleyway. He remembered seeing some of these in Piltover and began to wonder what one of them would be doing here. Curiosity got the better of him as he picked up his guile and leaped from the window of the castle onto the nearby rooftop. Afterwards, it was a matter of getting in the alley.
“Well well… what do we have here?” He asked himself, hiding behind a dumpster.
He watched as a man walked out of the box and locked it before he pointed a strange device around, which whirred. The man slapped it on his hand. "Bloody magic... Let me just- Ah ha!" The man held it up. He looked at it a moment, squinting before calling out. "You can come out! I'm nice enough."
Ekko, for one, was surprised. First off, this person coming out of the box. Second, that he knew where he was. Cautiously, he rose from the ground, being cautious about this new human figure that had emerged. “Who are you?” he asked, holding onto his guile and the chain to his Z-drive for if he needed to rewind at any point in this upcoming talk. Besides, neither one of the two expected to be talking to another human right now… Well, Ekko at least.
"Don't bother with your time device. I'm a Time Lord. Name's The Doctor," he held out a hand.
“How do you know about my Z-drive being a time device?” Ekko asked, still surprised by what this “Doctor” was saying. Then, something clicked in his head after remembering what Spike said earlier. “And aren’t you suppose to be a Stallion?”
“Ah! No, you’re thinking of this world’s version of me. As for your, Z-drive is it? Its in here,” The Doctor held up a large book. “Has any info I need on Displaced and more. Here,” The Doctor tapped the book which duplicated, and tossed the copy to Ekko. “It’ll tell you anything about them, although mine is slightly more detailed thanks to the TARDIS.”
“The TAR-what?” Ekko asked in confusion. “I’m sorry, but I’m still a bit confused by what exactly you mean by “Displaced” and everything like that… Doctor… who?”
“TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension In Space. That’s this blue box. Isn’t she beautiful? As for ‘Displaced’, they are dimensionally misplaced. Brought to Equestria from their home universe. Actually, just, The Doctor,” The Doctor said.
“Yeah… I might need some time to try and understand everything,” Ekko told him. “Is it alright if you and I could talk… well, in private. I don’t think you want the stallion you to see yourself.”
“I think he could handle it, if we play our cards right. He is a Time Lord after all. Lead on Ekko!” The Doctor grinned.
“O...kay, where to? I may be leading, but aren’t you like a guest? This is my world after all.”
“Then…” The Doctor seemed to ponder a second, “Yes! Shall we go see the Diarches, or Princesses?”
“Okay, that’s in Canterlot. You are in Ponyville.” The boy reminded him. “Would Princess Twilight work-. Oh wait, he’s meeting the Stallion you-.”
“Ekko? Are you-.” Before he could say anything else, Ekko turned around, only to be looking at Twilight and the stallion she was talking with earlier. “-there…”
“Well… this is awkward.”
The Doctor held out his hand for the pony him to shake, “Well, to solve confusion, call me David. That’s who I was before I came to my Equestria. David Tennant. And this is Princess Twilight? Why am I not surprised?” David’s eye twinkled mischievously.
“Umm… Hi?” Was Twilight’s only response. She seemed to be quite nervous. Possibly because she was intimidated by the personality of the Doctor.
The Doctor smiled, “A little confused huh? No worries, I seem to do that a lot,” he laughed. Time Turner himself just decided to excuse himself as he walked back to his home as Ekko sighed.
“We might be better off talking about this inside that blue box of yours. The TARDIS right?” When Ekko saw the Doctor nod his head, he turned to Twilight. She was still shocked by the most recent events and was also looking very nervous like her friend, Fluttershy. “Are you coming Twilight?”
“Umm…… I need an adult?”
"I am an adult, as are these two, right?" The Doctor said, "By the way, The Master in my world and I are actually friends, and I think he's in the TARDIS, so no over reacting," he told Twilight. "Jack, a Dalek, and a Cyberwoman may be in there two. All friendly, of course."
“We’ll be fine Twili-. Wait… Cyberwoman? What the F-?”
“Hm?” The Doctor looked at Ekko with a confused look on his face.
“I’m sorry, but I’ve heard you say too many things in the past few minutes and some things I can’t even comprehend. Maybe it’ll be best if we see it for ourselves.” Ekko replied back, gesturing towards him and Twilight.
“Ah, very well. Allons-y,” the Doctor opened the door to the TARDIS. Ekko, being mannerly, let Twilight in first followed by the Doctor. What he saw inside was… stunning to say the least.
“Holy crap… Where are we?”
“What do you mean?” the Doctor asked.
“I mean, like we just entered the TARDIS right? I thought it would be… smaller.”
“So it is?” The Doctor motioned him to go on. Ekko continued to move on inside until he got to the main control hub of the TARDIS itself. He was fascinated by everything that he was seeing. The three of them soon got to a table on the right hand side and sat down.
“I think maybe we should clear some things up. Like what these Displaced are exactly.”
The Doctor nodded, “That’s simple enough. Think of it like this. The Multiverse, our multiverse, has thousands of singular universes, anything that has been thought of in it, exists in it. Now, there are many Earths and many Equestrias. At one point in the Void, the chaos or place that separates these universes, Void-Dwellers came around and one, named The Merchant, started giving people from Earth powers and sending them to Equestria. These were the Displaced. While he has created a majority of the Displaced, there are other examples. Essence, Aaron, and in some cases, Discord. Any questions?”
Ekko raised his hand. “Is this Void somehow different from the one I’m familiar with? I have to face creatures from the void sometimes when I go into the fields of Justice.” To demonstrate, Ekko pulled out his book to show an image of one of these creatures. Vel’Koz was his name and he was known as the “Eye of the Void” by the league.
“He looks terrifying.” Twilight stated, looking at the image.
“Not as terrifying as some of the other champions I was forced to pair up with. Don’t even get me started on Cho’Gath.”
“Who?” The Alicorn asked.
“This ugly mug.” The boy pointed out, an image of the monster he sketched one time when he was called to Summoner’s Rift. The sight of the creature had caused Twilight to gulp and her eyes to widen.
“I do believe we were getting off topic though,” Ekko continued. “As you were saying, Doctor?” The boy gestured for the time lord to continue, repositioning himself in his seat.
The Doctor waved his hand dismissively, stood up, and tapped at the keys on the console.
“This is the Void I speak of,” he said, bringing up a giant map type picture.
“Whoa. That’s quite… massive.”
“That’s only a billionth of a percent of the entire Omniverse,” The Doctor said.
“A B-billionth!?” Twilight stammered. “Dear Celestia, that’s a LOT!”
“You tell me.” Ekko replied. Then, he remembered something. “Hey, Doctor. You mentioned a being named the Merchant right? Does it have an exact appearance?”
“Sometimes. In my case, he was an old man,” The Doctor said.
“Well, I think for me, the vendor that I met at the field of justice was the Merchant in another form. He gave me the crest of my city as a token of his appreciation. Moments later, when our match for the league was done, the token reacted to me being recalled back home and then I woke up in that place called Canterlot.” Ekko remembered everything from before. Strangely for him, he woke up to only finding his Z-drive, Guile, and that crest. His bag was gone and with it, the equipment and gold he had from his last battle. His personal theory was that either it returned to the league or somehow, they got scattered out across Equestria. Just another thing to get too later. “Anyways, now that we understand a little more about the situation, what brings you to our end of the omniverse, Doctor?”
The Doctor waved a large book, “This. I’ll tell you how I got it, actually. So, I was in the TARDIS, getting ready to travel to Canterlot and as soon as the TARDIS took off I was interrupted by a woman with cat ears and a tail. She tossed me this and disappeared. She just left a page bookmarked. This page,” he showed them a page for someone called Essence. “It says here that she’s a Meta level Void Dweller, which I assume means she’s something like a goddess, or something like the Abyss from greek mythology.” The Doctor finished and the book glowed for a second before another copy appeared on top of it. The Doctor looked at it quizzically before tossing it to Ekko.
“So let me get this straight… The book led you to us?”
“Yes. Actually, more of this ‘Essence’ led me to you,” The Doctor said.
“And is this Essence a thing or a living creature?” Twilight followed up and asked. “Because if so, then maybe there is a reason for you coming here.”
“Meta Level Void Dweller, meaning, from what I can gather, if she got into a fight with your deities, she’d win instantly,” The Doctor said, “It even says her power level. Look,” The Doctor showed them a page with numbers that just kept climbing.
“Do these numbers really mean anything?” Ekko asked. “Because sometimes brains outmatch brawn.” He had several accounts of these when having to take on champions on the Fields of Justice.
“Well, thats her apparent raw power, and her ability to make this book and record these details says she’s not dumb at the least,” The Doctor flipped a page, “This is another Displaced Void Dweller. Look at his power,” These numbers changed here and there, going up and down, but stayed in the same range.
“That’s… interesting,” Twilight commented. “Who would this one happen to be?”
“Don’t know, but this “Essence” keeps reminding me of a mage back home named Ryze. He’s as smart as he is powerful and has inscribed hundreds of tattoo’s on himself as proof.”
“Why would he need Tattoo’s?”
“It’s required for the magic that he’s mastered called Thorn Magic.” Ekko said. “That’s all I know about him honestly.”
“That one is called Aaron. Essence seems to accumulate mass amounts of power every seven seconds.” The Doctor replied, showing Ekko his page in the book. He was quite surprised with him, but still was thinking of Essence when he felt something tickle his nose. Something that felt like… a tail of a cat.
Looking up, Ekko soon realized that someone was above him. But before he could speak, the cat like creature yawned and spoke first. “Ya called Doc?”
“I am to assume that you are Essence?” The boy asked, looking back at the Doctor. Twilight herself was even startled by her.
“That depends,” she rolled over in the air, her head staying where it was and the rest of her body floating upside down, “I am multiple things, to be honest. Multiple titles. The Musician, The Warrior, The Strategist, Madness, and so on so forth.”
“Why so much emphasis on the Madness part?” Ekko asked, the boy being partially confused.
“Its my name and a name of power in the Void. So, basically, it means me and I mean it. Very few have ever earned the right to say they have it. None, actually,” she said. Ekko himself was personally surprised with the way Essence was speaking, getting serious flashbacks of when Master Yi was once lecturing him. Telling him that “A true master is an eternal student” and so on.
“Wait,” Twilight then spoke. “If you say very few, then none. Which one do you actually mean?”
“I betcha she means none. Some champions in the League that I had to fight sometimes speak in riddles.” Ekko told her.
“None. And, you’re Twilight,” she pointed at Twilight, “and this is Ekko, the Boy Who Shattered Time with his Z-drive.”
“I guess news travels fast in the void.” Ekko smirked. “Where did you hear about me from exactly?”
“Heard? No. Knew of beforehand? Yes. I know about every Displaced. I make some. In fact,” her appearance began to change, taking the form of the Piltover Enforcer; Vi. Ekko and her were on even terms as of recently. She was born in Zaun, but pursued her belief in justice in the rival city of Piltover after saving some miners in a mining camp when it was on the verge of collapse.. Just never get yourself caught in her sights. One of her favorite sayings is “Punch first, ask questions while punching”.
The Doctor raised his hand, “I am still here you know.”
Essence smirked, “I know Doc.”
“Hang on, you were Vi?” Ekko asked. “Did you like transform briefly into her or assume her form?”
“Assuming the form of a mortal is easy for me, I also WAS her. I created the life, changed memories, and assumed the form. It was easy to live in that world for only a hundred years or so. That’s not even a blip in my life,” she smirked.
“Wow… That’s quite interesting.” Ekko replied. He soon got up from his seat and adjusted his clothes as he looked back at her. “I never expected her to actually be you. Then again, there have been a lot of things I haven’t expected over the last few days.” He noticed Twilight picking up the copy he had on the Book of Displaced as she trotted over next to him. Thinking about her, he then posed another question.
“Was their anything else you needed to talk about with us before we go?” He then asked, stopping just short of the door out of the TARDIS.
“Nope. Just figured I could pop up. Its how I roll, although,” she began taking off the gauntlets, “here.” She tossed them to Ekko. “If you ever need my help, hit the button that will pop up and you’ll video call me.”
“Thanks-.” Ekko replied before actually catching the gauntlets and almost falling backwards. “By the League, these are heavy!”
“Oh yeah, that…” She snapped her fingers and the gauntlets became extremely light. “There ya go.” The gauntlets themselves were now the size of his hands and were easy to slip on and off.
“Well, that makes things a lot easier.” The boy grinned, flexing his hands a little as he then stuck out his hand for Essence to shake. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you, Essence. You too, Doctor.”
David’s eyes widened, “I’m not leaving yet.”
Essence nodded, “I, however, will see ya later.” She disappeared somewhat in an unravelling fashion. Ekko watched as Essence faded away, refocusing his attention on the Doctor.
“I’m guessing that if I need any help, I come visit you?”
“Well,” he reached over to the console and messed around with a few buttons before a sonic screwdriver dropped into Ekko’s hand from nowhere. “Use that.”
“Will do,” He replied as he stepped out of the TARDIS. Turning to Twilight, he noticed the Sun slowly coming down as they went back towards the castle.
End Break 3
Author's Note
Crossover with Middy . Allon-sy!
Break 4- We know your name child
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 in famously 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:
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.
Break 5- Didn't I just knock you away?
Chronobreak- Didn’t I just knock you away?
Somewhere on Runeterra…
The sounds of armor clinking, feet moving against the ground, the sparks from machinery and the smell of gunpowder was quite common in the Yordle Land. Or as it was commonly known as, Bandle City. Night had just fallen upon the town that was in the southeast region of Valoran and the small town behind the Sablestone Mountain range was beginning to quiet down after the events of a long day.
This was exactly the case for Poppy. She was known as the Keeper of the Hammer, but also served as an envoy between Bandle City and the nation of Demacia. The hometown of her kind was known to be a community based government with a series of official to represent various locations throughout Runeterra. For Poppy, she was the Iron Ambassador of Demacia and because of her, both cities had a good standing relationship with one another. However, the same couldn’t be said for the port town of Bilgewater. Attacks on yordle vessels by pirates had been the main reason for the relationship between both cities being very tense.
Most other relationships with neighboring lands have varied over the years. Ionia for example has remained neutral with Bandle City with the yordle, Kennen, being part of the Kinkou Order. Another city to note was Piltover. Despite the city being allies with Demacia, many of the brightest yordle minds have attended Piltover University and their military weaponization was largely stationed in the city thanks to the minds of individuals such as Heimerdinger and Rumble. As for Military, Yordles such as Corki, Tristana & Teemo all lead various branches of Bandle City’s Militia in order to keep the people safe.
However, not all yordles were exactly friendly. One such example was Veigar, the tiny master of evil. After leaving his original home, he was set up for a shady business deal gone wrong and years of isolation inside a noxian prison cell warped his mind. Now, he was a feared warlock that had the goal to end all conflict on Valoran by having every city-state fall to their knees, regardless of who their ties are with.
Poppy though, wasn’t so much focused on that. She had finally returned home after another diplomatic meeting with Jarvan IV, the current ruler of Demacia. With these meetings being more and more frequent, it began to become a strain on the young yordle. For Poppy, her version of diplomacy was what she preferred to call hammer diplomacy . Something that she really liked to do against the heads of Noxian soldiers. When she was a child, she watched her father, a renowned blacksmith named Blomgrun, die as a pair of Noxian assassins killed him when he was trying to deliver a gloriously crafted helm to a Demacian general named Florin Berell. It was then though that Poppy was able to deliver the helm safely to Berell and the general saw her courage and determination through her tears. The next day, the general requested to the leaders of Bandle city for her to be the Yordle Ambassador of Demacia. The decision was unanimous.
Back in the present, the young yordle was finally setting down her travel bag, shield, and her large warhammer, Whomper, by the door to her home. However, what happened next was something that she really did not expect at all. For a moment, the yordle thought that she was alone. Until she heard something move and when she turned around, Poppy found an unexpected guest.
“Hi Poppy-.”
The small statement caused Poppy to overreact by grabbing her hammer and taking a swing at where the voice was heard from. It wasn’t until she saw who was actually talking that she realized that this speaker was not a foe.
“Oww! What the heck was that for!? I was just trying to say hi!”
“Teemo!? You startled me!” The Yordle snapped at the scout. “If I didn’t know it was you, I would’ve hammered you all the way back to Demacia!”
“I’m sorry Poppy,” Teemo apologized, putting his helmet back on. “I thought I just check on you and see how you are before I begin my night shift. I was summoned earlier by the League, so I had to have Tristana watch over the town while I was gone.”
“How did that turn out?” Poppy asked. All Teemo could do was sigh deeply as his head drooped down a little.
“Not well. Especially when Rumble was trying to test some new equipment earlier and it lead to the whole thing blowing up in his face. It took a few hours in order to clean up the mess.” Shortly after though, something else came to his mind as he looked back at Poppy. “Still though, things haven’t been so calm with the league lately.”
The Keeper of the hammer soon raised an eyebrow, confused by what the scout meant. “What do you mean by that?”
“Well, remember that one purple mage with the runes on his skin named Ryze? He was on the same team I was in for a battle at Summoner’s Showdown and he was telling me that the League has been scrambling to try to find out what happened after a champion had recently disappeared under unknown circumstances.” This was eye opening to Poppy. She never thought that a champion would actually disappear immediately like the way Teemo described. Sure, there was the rumor that Gangplank was dead earlier in the year, but those thoughts were soon demolished after his return to Bilgewater. Only question that remained now was how something like this could happen. And who was the person that disappeared?
“Teemo… do you know who was the champion that vanished?” Poppy asked him as he was scurrying over to where his bag was by the door. He gave a deep sigh before speaking again. “Not quite. All I remember right now was that it was a boy who was a child prodigy from Zaun. Doesn’t that city have a grudge against Piltover? Heimerdinger never mentioned that place and neither did Rumble when they were over there last.”
Poppy knew the answer to that one, right off the top of her head. “Zaun and Piltover are rival cities. However, there’s a difference. Zaun is a city hit hard with corruption and pollution. I was told that Noxus has relations with individuals in the city, but I was also told that they are part of the problem because of the chemical leaks that some of those scientists there had to endeavour. Piltover is the exact opposite. I know about this because some of the diplomatic meetings I was a part of had to take place in Piltover.”
“Wow… It must be rough on the folks who have to live there.” The scout replied, before something clicked in his head. “Ah yes, I finally remember that kids name.”
“You did?” Poppy asked, “What is it?”
“He went by the name Ekko. And no, I don’t mean it as in an echo in a canyon.”
“I wasn’t even thinking anything like that, Teemo.” Poppy deadpanned, facepalming herself. “Besides, weren’t you suppose to be on Night Watch?” Upon realization, the Yordle quickly grabbed his stuff and began to run out the door. Only though, there was one small problem. Only after five seconds of being outside, a powerful dark orb of magic slammed into the scout and sent him flying into a wall. This alerted Poppy as she grabbed her warhammer and shield, racing outside only to be greeted by a familiar face.
“Well now, if it isn’t the Iron Ambassador. This is just perfect…”
“Veigar!!” Poppy snarled, gripping her hammer as she stared down the warlock. A yordle himself, Veigar’s mind was twisted by the corruption that came with controlling dark magic. He was no longer the same yordle he once was. He was what some would call a menace. “You got a lot of nerve in order to be showing your face around here!”
The tiny master of evil chuckled. It was only a couple years ago did he try to abduct an unfinished rocket that was called The Mothership . It was a cultural icon in Bandle City and many have declared that it was there before the first few Yordles settled in Ruddynip Valley behind Sablestone Mountains. However, there are no records indicating the origin of the vessel or where it exactly came from.
“Well, you surely haven’t changed at all. Still loyal. Still strong… and still small.” He taunted, spinning his staff around as dark magic formed at his metal fingertips. “Let’s see if you can dodge THIS!!” With that, Veigar leaped into the air as he cast a dark bolt of energy in Poppy’s direction. The warrior rolled to her right as the warlock landed on top of the water fountain in the middle of the city's courtyard, continuing to cast his spell and trying his best to hit the yordle. However, it was in this moment that Poppy took the shield off of her back and threw it in Veigar’s direction, hitting him over the side of the head. That caused the Tiny master of evil to fall off his position on top of the water fountain and fall face first into the actual water that was underneath him. “Hey!! That’s not fair!”
“That’s ironic coming from a spellcaster that never fights fair.” Poppy taunted, catching her buckler as it landed by her feet.
“Why you little-! You’re just asking for it now!!” Veigar yelled, more magic curling around his fingers as Poppy tried to charge into him. However, the yordle warrior was soon surprised when she felt her face hit an invisible barrier as it knocked her back. looking up, she could see five interlaced barbs of spatial energy containing her inside.
“Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, now is the time where you DIE!!” Veigar hollered in rhyme, throwing forward a stronger projectile. This one filled with Primordial Magic. Poppy right now was running out of options. She couldn’t escape, given her previous try and it was likely that anything that she could throw would be prevented from getting out of the small cage she was in. Her only focus right now was to block out Veigar’s incoming blast of magic. As the spell loomed closer, the young yordle threw her enchanted shield at the ball of magic and a huge blast of light went off, blinding the two of them and causing the Keeper of the hammer to pass out. Unaware of the environment around her slipping away.
When the smoke cleared, all Veigar could see was a burnt patch of ground with a small trace of golden magic around there. This though, despite what it appeared to be, frustrated the wizard. “Dammit dammit dammit dammit!! She got away! … Well, I guess I’m going to hold off my plans for now. I’ve already caused too much attention here.” With that, Veigar brushed off the dust on his clothes and ran off, shortly before any of the guards were able to arrive.
Ponyville
It had been a couple of days since Ekko’s encounter with Lamb and Wolf, the eternal hunters that were known as Kindred. In that time, he had informed Princess Luna about them and had suggested that at one point, they should call on them. Despite the Princess agreeing on the summoning part, she felt that it was too soon to be calling on deities like those that bear the Mantle of Death. The two of them agreed to wait until things really began to get out of hand first before they reach out to them for answers.
If they were just doing their job, that would be one thing. But if that job happened too often though would be another story… even though it was very much unlikely at this point.
Right now, he was inside his room in Twilight’s Castle, working to see if he could make any adjustments to his contraptions and the set of gloves that Essence gave to him when the boy met the Doctor. They were the first two Displaced that the boy had met and he personally thought that in the future, he was going to meet more.
Twilight herself though was not present in the castle. She was asked by Princess Cadance of the Crystal Empire to assist with organizing the Empire’s library. Leaving Spike to be with Ekko, Discord, and the girls while he was away. However, despite things being very peaceful now, it wasn’t going to last much longer.
“Hey, Ekko. Pinkie and Rainbow are here!” Spike hollered from downstairs, catching the boy’s attention.
“Okay, I’ll be there in a minute!” He hollered, grabbing his Z-drive, guile and gadgets as he made his way downstairs. Upon arriving, he found the two mares waiting patiently. Rainbow was idly flying in the air while Pinkie was bouncing in place. Spike had retreated into the calm quiet sanctum that was his room while Ekko was with both of the mares.
“Hey girls, how’s it going?”
“Well, it’s been going alright now that we don’t have egghead bothering us all the time.” Dash sighed, smiling a little. “How’ve you been?”
“Alright. Just trying to tweak some things to my gadgets and see if I can make some adjustments.” He replied. “What about you Pinkie?”
“I’ve been doing great-!” The mare replied, until she turned around to see something going on behind her. For Ekko, he noticed that Pinkie’s tail was twitching uncontrollably. It didn’t seem like a big deal to him, but for the mare, she was ducking for cover underneath the table in the map room. “TWITCHY TAIL!!”
“Uhh… what’s the matter with Pinkie?”
“Dude, you need to move.” Rainbow told him. “Whenever Pinkie’s tail twitches like that, it means that something is going to fall.”
“Has it happened before?”
“Quite a lot. But not recently…” The pegasus told him. Taking her advice, he followed her to a nearby table and laid low for a few moments. However, after some time though, nothing happened.
“That’s… odd. I thought something was going to fall.” Pinkie said.
“Hang on… could there be a possibility that something might’ve fallen-.”
CRASH!!!
“-outside?” Ekko’s sentence was finished abruptly as the three of them rushed outside. TO their surprise, they found that whatever had fallen had hell from the sky and had caused a lot of attention. For them though, this was only the beginning.
“Rainbow!!” The voice of a young filly caught her attention as the pegasus turned to see Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Applebloom approach them.
“Scoots? Are you alright?”
“Yeah, but our clubhouse isn’t. While we were in class with Ms. Cheerilee, something just crashed into it and caused the tree to tip over.”
Ekko looked at Pinkie and Rainbow before looking back at the small filly. “We’ll go over and check it out. You three go back to class.” The group of fillies nodded their heads as the boy ran over there with Pinkie by his side and Rainbow flying above him. They soon approached the sight of the clubhouse and at first glance, the three of them were shocked by the amount of devastation that they found. A few trees were knocked over, broken like something smashed into them and caused them to topple over. But there was one thing that Rainbow noticed from her position above the others that caught her attention.
“Hey, is it just me or does that look like some kind of hammer?” Rainbow asked. She soon flew over there around the same moment Pinkie Pie trotted over and by then, they could tell that it was indeed some kind of warhammer. However, what it was doing all the way out here was beyond them. “You think that somepony could actually be strong enough to pick this up, let alone throw this thing?”
“Who knows?” Ekko shrugged. “However, it’s not something you should mess around with-.” At that moment though, the boy and the pegasus watched their earth pony companion pick up the handle of the oversized mallet, pull out a pair of shades from inside her mane and strike a pose.
“Stop… Hammer time!”
“Pinkie! What did I just say?” Ekko retorted, facepalming himself as he looked back at her. “I told you you shouldn’t be messing around with that. Who knows who might get hurt if you accidently hit somepony with that. Besides, it’s not yours.”
“Oh?” Rainbow Dash said, cracking a grin of disbelief as she tried to pick it up this time, with no success. “Who do you think it belongs to then-?” The element of loyalty’s words were not exactly the best words to say because a few seconds later, a wooden buckler came flying in and hitting Rainbow in the face. As the pegasus dropped down to the ground on all four of her hooves, Ekko saw the buckler fly back to it’s owner, but who it was surprised him. It wasn’t a pony, dragon or any of the species that called this world home.
Instead, it was a Yordle. One from Runeterra. One from Ekko’s world. “Nobody… touches… the hammer.”
“Holy crabapples, what is that thing!?!”
“It’s a yordle-!”
“Wait a second, this thing knows how to yodel?” Pinkie asked, following it up with the loudest one that she could pull off.
“Not that Pinkie, Yordle .” Rainbow corrected for her before turning to Ekko a few seconds later. “What the hay is a Yordle anyways? And why is it so small?”
“I HEARD THAT!!” It shouted, standing up and picking up the warhammer that was on the ground and placing it over it’s shoulder before looking up. When she noticed the human standing next to the two ponies, her eyes narrowed a little. Unsure if it was a friend or foe to her. “Can someone care to tell me where in Valoran am I?”
“Look lady, if you must know, I’m not going to be answering anything you say!!” Rainbow defiantly objected, much to Ekko’s pleas of her not to do anything stupid. However, what the little yordle said next really set her off like fireworks.
“Seems like you left your brave pants at home. Want me to wait while you go get them?”
“Okay, that’s IT!!” The pegasus yelled, taking flight into the sky before charging at full speed. It was only then though that Ekko soon noticed that the little yordle was preparing something with the warhammer that she was holding. And it did not look good from where he was at. But saying something right now would not work and just fall on deaf ears. Right now, actions would speak louder than words.
The boy ran forward as the pegasus was closing in on her target. The Yordle herself was about to charge head on into Rainbow, until Ekko phase dived in between them to push the pegasus out of the way, seconds before blinking behind her and knocking her backwards onto the ground.
“Ekko!! What the buck was that for!? I almost had her!!” The pegasus shouted in defiance.
“No you did not, she was going to charge and tackle you the moment you got close enough.” Ekko told her. “Please Rainbow, just trust me on this one-.” The name of the boy clicked in the mind of the young Yordle that was getting up. She swore that she heard that name once before. That was, until she realized it with her own eyes.
“By the ancients… You’re that kid that went missing from the league!” She shouted, catching Ekko’s attention as she walked over, shield on her back and just carrying her warhammer idly without intending to smack anyone or anything with it. “I’m sorry for being aggressive earlier. I wasn’t aware of anything going on and I thought one of you was going to hurt me. I’m Poppy. Keeper of the Hammer. You must be Ekko then, am I right?”
He nodded his head, answering her question. “I guess news travels fast?” Poppy nodded her head, telling her the exact same thing that Teemo told her before her brief encounter with Veigar. Now though, she had some new questions for the boy.
“Not to be rude or anything, but where exactly am I?”
“That… is a lot to explain. And I do mean a lot.” Ekko emphasized as he put his guile away and looked back at the two Equines with him. “Come on. Maybe we should have this talk somewhere where it’s not out in the open. Also, these two ponies are my friends. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.”
“Nice to meet the two of you. Sorry about my actions before, I wasn’t thinking straight.” Poppy apologized, only getting a narrow glare from Rainbow and a happy acceptance to her apology from Pinkie Pie. “Word to the wise, never refer a yordle to their height. Some, like myself, see it as extremely offensive.” The pegasus groaned internally as the four of them made their way back to Twilight’s castle. Despite some strange glares coming from nearby onlookers, the sight of Poppy’s hammer had them look away shortly afterwards. Mostly because they rather not have that weapon being slammed into their skulls.
When they arrived at the castle, Poppy was quite surprised by everything that was around her. She had never seen a castle like this before except for hearing about such magnificent buildings that were up by Freljord territory in the north. She was told briefly about this place that was called Equestria by Ekko and about the species and culture of the land by the two ponies who were with him before some questions emerged in her mind.
“This… is interesting and all… but how exactly did you get here in the first place?” Poppy asked the boy. Ekko sighed, getting out his token that was in his back pocket and looking back at the yordle.
“I was given this by the shopkeeper back at one of the bases on the fields of justice. After the match I was in ended and I was suppose to go back, something with it triggered and caused me to end up in Canterlot, the capital city of Equestria. What happened afterwards though is a bit of a long… and complicated story.”
“How complicated could it be?” She asked, setting her hammer down and leaning against it in a relaxed position.
“Trust me… very complicated.” He sighed. Around now was when the yordle noticed the energy that was coming from Ekko’s Z-drive. She was very… curious about the contraption and wondered if it was the reason why this young boy was emitted into the League.
“What’s that thing on your back?” She asked, pointing at it with an extended finger. “I saw it glow a bit when you dived in earlier to prevent me from charging at your friend and I haven’t seen anything like it before.”
Ekko grinned a little as he put his hand on it. “My Z-drive? It’s an invention that I made which allows me to control my own time. When I mean that, I don’t mean time in general unless I have to rewind something entirely. It’s a lot better when you see it in action that trying to hear me explain it.”
“How did it work when you used it earlier?”
“I sped up my own time to where I would appear right next to you in a blur.” Ekko explained, making Poppy grin a little. “It’s a mixture of magic and science.”
“Well, that is indeed interesting. But I think we can save that subject is later.” The yordle said, turning around a little. “I believe you might have some questions for me.”
“More or less, but to start, how in the world did you get here?” Rainbow interjected.
“That I’m not even sure about,” The yordle replied. “All I remember was fighting against a dark wizard named Veigar, me passing out and then waking up to the sound of your friend Pinkie Pie messing with my hammer.”
“I heard of him before. He’s a bit too small to be some master of evil if you ask me.” Ekko replied.
“Well, he is a yordle so-.”
“Wait, what-?”
“Veigar is a yordle. However, what happened to him is what happens when yordles are in social isolation.” Poppy told him. “They slowly go insane.”
“Oh… Well, you definitely learn something new everyday.” He sighed to himself, looking back at Poppy. “And just when I thought the last few weeks have been crazy enough.”
This, in response, got Poppy to look back at Ekko with a confused look on her face. “What do you mean by that?”
The boy soon sat down by a chair along a nearby wall while letting his guile lay against the table. “Sit down for a bit. This might take some time to explain.” For the next hour or so, Ekko caught Poppy up to speed on a lot of things. Mostly focusing on encountering Tahm Kench and Kindred to keep it brief. He wasn’t so sure about how Poppy would react if he told her about the Displaced, but made sure to throw in meeting the Princesses and also Discord. The mentioning of the spirit of chaos though had Poppy think that Ekko himself was being like Heimerdinger when he was trying to make an important discovery. Almost driving himself insane. Either that or it was the kinds of inventions he was working on with certain chemicals.
When she had that solid thought inside her head, the yordle was caught off guard when her hammer was beginning to lift off of the floor on it’s own. Like there was no gravity around it. Ekko himself straightened up and looked behind her.
“Speaking of the chaos spirit, he’s right behind you.” Ekko chuckled. This caused Poppy to abruptly turn around and be startled by the appearance of the spirit of chaos.
“Hi th-.”
WHACK!!!
“Owowowowowowowow!!!”
“Poppy!”
“What in Valoran is that thing!?!” She hollered, the yordle taking a defensive stance with both hands on her hammer.
“Poppy, calm down. Please-.”
The Draconequus himself was slowly getting up, looking back at the yordle and the boy before raising an eyebrow. “Wait… Her name is Poppy? As in Poppyseed-.”
WHAM!!
“OWW! Not my face!!!”
“Don’t call me that!! By the league, you’re even worse than Rumble when he’s trying to hit on Tristana and I.” Poppy groaned.
“Was the second hit really necessary?” Ekko asked, looking back at the Yordle as she stood over the dazed chaos spirit. “Matter of fact, why did you even attack Discord in the first place?”
“He startled me.”
That made the two ponies watching this unfold before them chuckle, but the first to speak was Rainbow. “He STARTLED you!?”
“HE… STARTLED ME!!”
“Well then, I guess he should apologize…” Ekko suggested, trying to resolve the conflict peacefully.
“Well, it’s going to be kind of hard considering that Poppyseed here hit me twice over the head, I’m thankful that I did not get a concussion-.” Before Discord could even say anything to finish his sentence, he noticed that the Yordle was swinging her hammer over her head and before he knew it, Poppy slammed the enchanted hammer on the ground.
What came next was a giant hammer the size of a train car striking Discord in the ribcage and sending him flying into the distance. Ekko honestly thought he heard the Draconequus say that he was “blasting off again!!” or something else that didn’t make sense to him. Right now, his focus was on the Yordle, who just casually returned to her chair and was oblivious to the hole in the roof she made.
“And that was for ignoring my previous warning.”
This in turn, caused Rainbow to laugh so hard that she fell to the ground from where she was flying in the center of the room. “Oh, I think Poppy here is going to fit in just fine!”
Elsewhere…
“Day court is now in session.” Princess Celestia spoke firmly as the alicorn slammed her gavel and turned to the pony that walked into the room. “Can you list your name and occupation please?”
“Diamond Dust is my name. I run the Canterlot Diamond store.”
“Mr. Dust, what exactly brings you to Day Court this afternoon?” Celestia asked the Unicorn as she looked in his direction.
“Because your nephew, Prince Blueblood is saying my diamonds are fake and said he was going to have my store shut down. Not to mention he tried to hit on my daughter in front of me.”
“I… see.” The princess replied, personally shocked by what she had heard. “I will deal with the Prince at the earliest convenience. This isn’t the first time that it has happened and I will hold him accountable for his actions, Mr. Dust. You won’t have to worry about your store being forced to shut down.”
“Please see that you do Princess. With all due respect, I would hate to have to shovel coal up your nephew’s flank to the point where he’s coughing up diamonds.”
“I will make sure to attend to it personally. Have a good day, Mr. Dust.” With that, the unicorn calmly trotted out of the courtroom and the Princess levitated a quill to make a personal reminder for later as she checked Diamond Dust off on the list of visitors that she had to see for today. “Next!” She said as the next pony walked in. An Earth pony mare this time. “Please list your name and occupation please?”
“My name is Vanilla Swirl. I work at the local Canterlot Ice Cream store that you and your sister visit during the day or at night.”
“Ah yes, hello to you again, Dear Vanilla.” The princess greeted, seeing that the mare was a friend to both her and Luna.
“Hello again to you to Celestia. The reason why I’m here is to get a restraining order.”
“A restraining order? From whom?” The Princess asked, thinking something to herself. “Please not be Blueblood. Please not be Blueblood. Please not be Blueblood…”
“It’s for your nephew, Prince Blueblood.”
“Oh? Why would that be?” She said, thinking again. “WHAT DID HE DO THIS TIME!?”
“He keeps taking my ice cream every time he visits my store. Saying that he need to examine my ice cream to make sure it’s not poisonous to anypony, but I know that jerk is just trying to get free ice cream from me. He’s been doing this crap for the past few months and I’m running out of inventory. He even took you and your sister’s favorite ice cream flavor.”
“Oh, now he’s crossing the line.” Celestia said mentally. “I will have the paperwork filed as soon as possible. Expect a courier to deliver it to you in a few hours. Hopefully, this teaches him that just because he is a noble doesn’t mean he isn’t responsible for his actions.”
“Thank you Princess. Hopefully I won’t have to keep attacking whenever he does that.”
“Hopefully, You are dismissed.” The Princess told her as she checked another name off of the list. She could see out of the corner of her eye that Blueblood himself was hearing all these ponies reporting him, like he was trying to plan some scheme for vengeance.
However, what was not expected was that before she could ask for the next pony to be called up, Discord barreled in from the ceiling of the Day Court, tearing off the room of the complex as he crashed into the Prince that was hiding nearby. Leaving all the ponies in the room, including Celestia and the guards, stunned.
“Um… I believe a small recess is in order.” The startled princess spoke, trying to form the words. “I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
End Break 5
Author's Note
Now with 20% more hammer.
This chapter is mostly inspired by the changes that will be coming to Poppy. Plus, the phrase at the beginning of this chapter makes me think if Ekko used his Ult shortly after Poppy used hers.
New info on Poppy: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/page/champion-update-poppy-keeper-hammer
Happy Black Friday. Glad I decided to avoid the madness xD
Break 6- I like hitting you!
Author's Note
Crossover with Vesperia and the story Shining the Blacklight . This was a quick one that I wanted to come up with while trying to think of how to continue some other stories. I hope this works out. Enjoy
-Frost
Break 6- I like hitting you!
Chronobreak- I like hitting you!
Ponyville (Ekko)
It had been almost a week since Poppy’s arrival and for Ekko, things have been a little easier for the Boy who Shattered Time. Mostly because he didn’t have to handle the daily shenanigans that normally happened in Ponyville, according to Discord. The previous day, Twilight and Fluttershy had to go out somewhere to solve some “friendship problem” that did not make any sense to him and today, the girls were helping set up a concert being held in Ponyville. Leaving Ekko to rest a little as he leaned back on the chair that was in his room. Still, there were a few things that he didn’t personally know about. Mostly though, this was regarding the Displaced. He had only met one Displaced and that was the Doctor. Well, make it two Displaced if Essence would count as one, even though she was known as a Displacer. It was because of them that he was familiarized with the concept, even though Tahm Kench was the one who sent his token out into the void.
Still, he didn’t know what being summoned would feel like. Nothing had happened since the Doctor decided to visit Ponyville and he was honestly beginning to wonder if there was something he missed. Something he miscalculated. Normally, with his inventions and gadgets, he would be a genius. Traveling about the Multiverse? Not so much.
So it was quite a surprise when he felt like he was getting pulled back by some unknown force. Thinking to himself, Ekko thought that this must be what happens when a Displaced like himself was summoned. Ironically, it felt like that when it came to being called upon by the League. Just… different. Before letting the full force of the pulling sensation take hold, he left a note behind that he personally hoped that Rainbow Dash or Discord would see if they went looking for him.
“I’ll be back in a little while. Don’t worry too much about me. Someone just wants to either meet me or have me help them”
Hopefully, for this being a first time that he was summoned by a Displaced, all things would work out the way he hoped.
Meanwhile (Domain of Mercer)
The moment that Ekko was able to feel like he made contact with something, the boy was shot out of the portal that brought him to this newfound world like he was shot out of a cannon, hitting the ground hard. He heard a loud slamming sound as he tried to get back up on his feet, his vision being very blurry and he can’t see a thing. By the time it cleared up though, he could hear someone trying to talk to him.
“The hell was up with that?” He asked.
Ekko personally raised an eyebrow, trying to get a barring of what was going on. “H-hunh?” He looked around a little, seeing a city in the distance that reminded him of the one place he really hated. Piltover. Matter of fact, this guy just reminded him of Jayce. One of his costumes or as the league called “skins” had him wear a cowl to cover his face. But he didn’t see a hammer anywhere. Maybe this guy was different? The only thing that stood out was that his head was stuck in the ground right now.
“I’m not sure what you mean. Matter of fact, where I am… Are you a Displaced?”
“Yeah, I am, and you're in a forest. You also just finished planting your foot in my face.” the other person said, ripping his head free of the ground and standing back up.
“Woah hey. What’s with the accusations? I honestly didn’t think that being summoned like that would involve me feeling like I got shot out of a cannon.” Ekko protested. “Besides, who the hell are you and why do you remind me of a pretty boy Piltie I know named Jayce?”
The hooded figure pointed towards himself, acting snarky. “My name is Alex Mercer, and how the hell would I know? I don’t know a Jayce.”
“You don’t? By the league, as if everything back home in Zaun and in my Equestria isn’t crazy enough.” Ekko groaned, looking back at this Mercer fellow that was talking to him. Soon, he was pointing a finger at Ekko and then asked him a new question.
“Hey, did you dress up as Ekko or something and come to Equestria?”
Now this guy was really beginning to remind him of Jayce. He always was one to ask stupid questions whenever they clashed in the League and this was no exception. “Dress up? No no no… I got put in My Equestria because a merchant in Summoner’s Rift gave me a crest of my city. When my team won our match, I woke up to find myself in Canterlot.” He replied. “Geez, no wonder you remind me of that Piltie. He always asks dumb questions.”
“I see…” He replied, before scratching his head. “Wait, what’s a Piltie? My League of Legends lore knowledge is a bit off right now.”
“It’s short for Piltover. Anyone from that city is nicknamed “Piltie” because most of them are snobbish and arrogant.”
“I'm starting to feel offended now.” He said, in a rather bland voice.
“Sorry man. It’s not my fault that you remind me of him.” Ekko shrugged, trying his best not to cause any trouble.
“You know, generally people apologize just a bit better than that after insulting someone else. Unless, of course, they’re looking for a fight.” Mercer snarled. Ekko noticed something going on with his eye, but figured that it would be best that he would surprise him on what that actually meant
“Well Excuuuuse me. I didn’t know that an accident would leave you highly offended. Plus, Normally people would accept any kind of apology you get. Not shoot it down like you just did.” The boy told him, gritting his teeth and preparing his guile for if this guy was to make a move on him.
“Kinda hard to accept a half-assed apology when there was an insulting term added into the mix. And when you don't even know the other guy.”
“I wasn’t trying to be half-assed.” Ekko corrected. “I was trying to resolve the conflict. It seems like you just want a fight to happen.”
Mercer groaned again, looking back at the boy. “To be honest at this point I just might, I haven’t had a good one for a while now. Nothing here really threatens me enough you see.”
“Well… Be careful what you wish for.”
“I could say the same for you. Because I know about your abilities, but you don’t know mine.” He taunted. Ekko watched as both of his arms changed before his opponent slammed his foot into the ground, causing black spikes to rise up from below his feet. Quickly, the boy used the Summoner's Skill Flash to teleport out of the way before having a silhouette of himself activate Parallel Convergence at the shapeshifter’s feet. With an added bonus, Ekko used Phase Dive to roll to his opponent and smack them in the face using his guile.
“Come on, show me something new! Right now, that just reminds me of Cho’Gath.” He taunted. Even though he was getting the edge here, Ekko still had a lot of tricks to pull off in case this guy tried to pull something on him. But to his surprise, this guy wasn’t bothered by his blows.
“Just testing something out. I've always wanted to do that.” His arm lit up as he teleported behind Ekko, kicking along the ribs and sending him into the tree he just sent Mercer into. “Better? You're not the only one who can teleport, but I don't have cooldowns.”
Ekko spat a little, looking back at the shifter. “Showoff.” Now seemed like a reasonable time to try out the gauntlets that Essence gave him. Though, he wasn’t quite sure how they worked, he had a very simple possibility on how. “Guess I need to try something new… besides… I like hitting you.”
With that, Ekko cracked his knuckles. A starting sign for what was to come next as the gauntlets slowly gained power. To distract Mercer, he threw out his Timewinder , a projectile that would go straight back to him after a few feet. After Mercer tilted his head to the side, he soon noticed the projectile coming back as it hit his head forward. When he looked up, Ekko launched himself forward. However, He wasn’t exactly able to hit Mercer because of him moving backwards at the last second as his hands turned into oversized fists and caught the punch that Ekko was trying to hit him with.
“Sorry buddy. Even with Vi’s awesome gauntlets you wouldn't overpower me with strength. On a side note she's also my favorite champion in the League, these things look really cool.” He said, the last part being in a whisper. “The more biomass I consume, the stronger I get and after leaving Ponyville I found a cave with a large dragon in it. Not to mention… other things I've consumed in the short time I've been in this world. What I want to know though… is how are you even able to lift these things? You look much scrawnier in person, no offense, and those things look a bit too heavy for someone like you to use.”
Ekko smirked at the compliment, looking back at Mercer. “True true… But you’re overlooking something… these aren’t exactly Vi’s gloves. A new friend of mine gave them. Plus… I’m surprised you didn’t pay attention to everything else .” By the time that Mercer had finally realized what exactly he was talking about, the young boy already had things set in motion as his Z-Drive whirred to life. With a flick of the wrist, time began to change as he disappeared from in front of Alex to behind him with Chronobreak, followed up by a one two combo of Assault and Battery. Only to come out unphased again. He thought it must’ve been some quick healing trick.
Still though, he had one idea that could surely work. When Alex attacked again, Ekko moved out of the way using the first half of Phase Dive. Once he did, he used the smoke cloud that rose up from the ground to have Vi’s gloves push him airborne. The teleport part helped him out with gaining some more feet. As he fell, he got his guile ready as the boy slammed down on his opponent, knocking off his hood to where he could see his actual face.
“And that’s how we say hello in Zaun.” The boy said, only for his opponent to headbutt him back in retaliation.
“Well hello to you too. Zaun seems like a friendly place.”
“Do you even get sarcasm?” Ekko asked, a grin appearing on his face.
“Do you?” His opponent asked.
“Yeah… However, there’s one thing you don’t get.” The boy told him as he raised his right hand to his teeth. He knew what the contraption was. He called it a “time dial”, which allowed for him to go backwards in time completely. However, too long of a backwards leap can cause damage to him or the world around him. So it was advised that one could only go back as much as six minutes.
He only needed seconds.
“Do-over.” His teeth gnawed on the dial, setting it back to a minute. Just about when Alex was trying to headbutt him. This time, he got Vi’s gloves out and used another one of the techniques to counter it. Excessive Force. It sent Mercer sliding backwards, but it caused him to laugh a little as he looked back at Ekko.
“Heh, very nice punch and shockwave. Have one back.”
Without warning, Mercer thrusted both of his hands forward just as they returned back to normal. This caught Ekko by surprise as he had to use his guile to stay in one place without getting thrown off balance. Once he straightened himself up again, he looked back at the shifter and shrugged. “Ehh… Okay at best. You got some nice moves. Though, I say we should call this one a draw.”
He nodded his head, stretching himself out. “Yeah, that move is to clear all the annoying fodder that gets in your way. Doesn’t work well against someone who can actually fight. A draw sounds fine. We’ll be here for an eternity if we keep this up. Glad I could see your moves up close and personal though.”
“Heh… Same here.”
Mercer soon pulled out his own token as he looked back at the boy, waving a hand in farewell. “Welp, I guess this is goodbye. If ya ever find my token in your world then just call me if you need help, it’s an enchanted diamond vial full of a reddish liquid, you can’t miss it. Word of warning, don’t try and open it. It’s full of the super virus I am made of, it would either kill you or turn you into an infected monster. “Ekko, our contract is complete. Do come back sometime.”
“I sure will.” The boy replied, using his own token to leap through a tear in the void that he created.
Back in Equestria…
Shortly after he came back into his Equestria, Ekko found himself inside his room, landing face first after being spat out of the tear in the void. Taking a moment to recompose himself, he placed Mercer’s token next to the Doctor’s Screwdriver, the book that Essence gave him and the twin masks of Kindred. It was strange to find himself here of all places. He honestly expected to end up in the Everfree Forest or on the roof of the castle. Not in his room.
But there was something else that surprised him more. When he looked at the makeshift calendar that he was given, something on there caught his immediate attention. He remembered that the day that Mercer summoned him, it was on the 24th of November. On the 25th, he promised to go with Twilight to the presentation that she was giving at Canterlot University.
Today’s date was the 26th. The day after. He had been only gone for two hours, but here, he missed out on two days. “Aww crap…” It was around then that he began to hear some voices from downstairs and left the room in order to see what was going on. When he looked out, he saw Twilight and her friends, one other Unicorn he couldn’t recognize and Spike all talking at the table that had the Cutie Map. Talking about him. Some of them thought that he had disappeared or was kidnapped. Poppy thought that he was summoned by the league. But no one seemed to have noticed him walking into the room as he stood next to Pinkie Pie.
“What’s going on?” He asked in a low tone.
“Well, the girls were talking about how you might’ve disappeared yesterday. There was the thought that you might’ve died, gotten lost in the forest, eaten alive, summoned, or could’ve been the effects of a paradox caused by Starlight when she tried to alter time on her own as a revenge plot on Twilight-.” The pink earth pony told him, oblivious to the fact that the boy they were talking about was standing right there. Now noticing that her friends were staring at her in shock and disbelief. “What? Was it something I said?”
It was only then that Pinkie actually turned around to see Ekko… and then proceeded to tackle him. Only for Ekko to phase dive out of the way and blink over by the others. “Sorry about making you guys worried.” He soon noticed the new pony with a similar mane to Twilight’s and light pink fur that was right next to Poppy and raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, but I don’t think we’ve met before. Who are you?”
“Um… I’m Starlight Glimmer… Are you the one Twilight knows as Ekko?”
“Yeah, that’s me.” The boy replied. “Wait a second… Pinkie, what was that one thing you said earlier? The one on the Paradox?”
The Unicorn herself just looked at the boy, confused as the expression on his face was a little more serious this time around. Not the cheerful one she saw earlier when he first walked in. “T-that… was a mistake…” For the next few moments, Twilight and the others had to explain what happened on the day that Ekko was presumed missing. Hearing about how Starlight pulled off a dangerous spell such as Time Travel and altered the course of history not just once, but several times. What really frustrated him now though was that everypony just seemed calm. Like nothing ever happened. They treated it like it was a simple mistake. But to Ekko, mistakes like this always came at a price. He learned the hard way himself.
“And you are certain that there wasn’t any remaining after effects because of what happened?” Ekko asked, now in a serious manner.
“Yes, Ekko. Everything’s under control. I even checked with the Princesses to see if they noticed anything out of the ordinary.” Twilight assured him. “I was even going to have Luna arrive later so we could introduce her to Starlight.”
Ekko sighed deeply, looking back at them with a serious glare. “I understand that, but Time itself is a very fragile thing. Mess with one piece of it and everything else unravels. Even though everything is normal now, it doesn’t mean it’ll be same a few weeks or months from now.” He told them. Starlight though, was really confused. She had only met this boy recently and now, he was talking to them like he was Starswirl the Bearded or Clover the Clever. How would he exactly know about a subject such as Time Travel?
“It’s alright, Ekko. You don’t need to worry.”
“Okay Twilight,” He sighed, finally noticing that the moon was out and it looked to be a few hours before midnight. “I’m going to be in my room for a little while. Get some things off my mind.” Even as he returned to his quarters and got to work on making some adjustments to his tools and gadgets, there was one thing he remembered in his mind for when these things happened. One thing that he remembered because of what happened to his friend and the after effects of those numerous attempts to save him. It had been only six months or so since then, but one thing will always remain the same.
There are always consequences .
End Break 6
Author's Note
Another new champ, another new chapter. This time, things are shaking up in Equestria as Jhin enters the scene. Don't get me wrong, I've had a lot of ideas of what to do up to this point, but when looking through some of the quotes he says in PBE, it would just fit for something like this.Ekko's new look
Hope you like it. Enjoy!
Break 7- Curtain Call
Chronobreak- Curtain Call
Canterlot (Nightfall)
The curtain of twilight that was the midnight sky had finally fallen as Luna released the spell she had used to raise the moon. It was well into the night, but around now though was not the time for her to relax. Earlier in the day, she had to talk to her sister because of the numerous disruptions to the public that were caused by her nephew, Prince Blueblood. This ranged from some minor offenses such as the encounters with the customers at the Canterlot Ice Cream parlor to the outrageous claims that were made by him in public against the owner of one of the top jewelry retailers in Canterlot. Celestia had told her that she had to discipline him with his actions against the young boy named Ekko. Now, it was her turn to do the same.
Trotting through the halls of elements gave the lunar princess time to compose herself as she began to think of the right words she would say to Blueblood. However, the words that she needed to choose had to be meaningful. They needed to leave an impact on him and not just bounce off like anything else that he completely ignores. As she reached the end of the hallway and trotted out into the garden, she personally cursed under her breath. He was right in front of her and it seemed like he was going to walk away.
“Blueblood…” She said at first, loud enough to catch his attention, but to not make it sound like she was using the Royal Canterlot voice. “We need to talk to you.”
“Auntie?” He first said before shaking his head a minute. “Auntie, what are you doing here this late? I thought you would already be in bed.”
“Actually, I stayed up because you and I need to talk about your recent string of behavior.” The Prince personally groaned, droning what Luna was going to say until she snapped at him. “And don’t be taking this lightly, nephew. You are one of Canterlot Royalty. You are suppose to set an example for all ponies that come in and out of this city's gates. That includes the one that we know as Ekko.”
“You can’t be serious? You expect me to show some commoner like that thing respect?” Blueblood questioned, gritting his teeth.
“I do… Tell me something, Blueblood… What do you want everypony to remember you for when you pass on? Do you want them to see you as a rich boy who doesn’t have any sense of character or respect? Or do you want to see them as somepony who would do anything to help Princess Celestia in times of need?”
“What kind of a question is that?” He asked, looking at Luna in disbelief. The lunar princess could only sigh deeply as she looked back at him with a disappointed look on her face. She never thought that Blueblood would be at the point where he can’t think for himself.
“It is a question to be thinking of everyday of your life. Every choice that we make always has a consequence. And one day, something like that will make your life flash right in front of your eyes. Your choices so far have been based on your own pleasure and greed, making yourself look like a spoiled colt. And for somepony in your position, those actions can’t be tolerated anymore.” Luna addressed to him, catching Blueblood’s immediate attention.
“Sure Auntie, like that will ever happen to somepony like me.”
“Your arrogance just adds to your overconfidence and it reeks.” Luna told him, “Be thankful that it was me telling you this instead of my sister.” Before Blueblood was be able to say anything, both of them were caught off guard by a loud ringing noise that ran through the courtyard. It sounded like it was cannonfire, but it was too close to be that and the cannons were pointed away from the city instead of towards.
“What was that?” Luna asked. Her nephew had no response to the matter, but both of them flinched a little at hearing two more loud bangs go off. It was then though that the Princess and her nephew hear three bodies fall to the ground. Three guards that stood up on the wall and were watching over the city. But where all three were shot, the strangest thing could be found on the bodies themselves.
A flower. One that looked like snow that would fall during a winter storm before the color changed. Resembling a violet shade of color. Luna herself began to worry about what was going on. Why was it that three guards were just killed out of nowhere. It doesn’t add up… unless.
Unless it was to attract bystanders. To set them up for being targeted again. She heard a brief click from far away and from a distance, the Alicorn thought she heard someone say something briefly. All while pointing a smoking barrel at them and looking down at them in a mask while hiding from the safety of the shadows.
Your final scene begins.
That was when the final shot was fired, heading towards Luna. She closed her eyes and braced herself for what was to happen, given that she had no magic in order to defend herself. But after a few moments, she didn’t feel anything. No pain, no wounds, no scar. Nothing. Did the Assassin’s shot somehow miss her? Did it hit somepony else? But it was then that she opened her eyes and saw the horror that unraveled before her.
Blueblood, who was previously right next to her, had taken the final shot to the left side of his chest. Blood formed at the mouth as he coughed and hacked as what was forming in his throat. This shot though, did something unordinary though. It began to root the body of the dying prince into the ground as the roots formed a tree from underneath that resembled one of the cherry blossom trees you would find in Neighpon. But this one sewn Blueblood’s body into the roots as it bloomed and formed the tree from the ground.
The marksman who took the shot now stepped forth, walking over to the body of the prince that he had just killed. The light had now revealed to the lunar princess who just took the life of her nephew. The one in the mask wore a white garment over his chest and shoulders, but his right arm appeared mechanical. There was an extended barrel on the right side that she saw him detach from the weapon he kept on his left hand and the mask he wore has separate carvings. One set on it’s right and one on it’s left. Though, the left side was more majestic than the right. “Another resounding masterpiece…” He said, with a sinister and chilling edge to his deep tone. “A fine work of art…”
Luna froze. THIS was art to him!?! That just made her angrier more and more. “W-what have you done? What have you done to my nephew!?” The stranger just turned around, staring down the princess for a brief moment. But, as he walked away, he told her one thing that made heart stop cold.
He has been made… perfect .
As the Virtuoso left and the curtain of night dropped over him once again, he left Princess just sitting on the ground. Mourning over the loss of her nephew as the flowers on the deceased guards slowly began to turn white. And the princesses tears began to glow with the stars in the sky.
Ponyville (The Next Morning)
By the time the sun began to rise, Twilight had to get herself ready. The princess was going to meet Shining Armor and Princess Cadence in Canterlot to get the chance to see Princess Celestia again. Along with that, it will also be a chance for Poppy, the yordle that Ekko had introduced her earlier in the week, to meet her teacher and everyone else in Canterlot. She even saw the Yordle this morning being very eager to meet with the royal leaders of the city.
However, one thing was stuck on her mind as she looked at her friends that morning. Something that was… well… off. “Hey everypony, have you seen Ekko anywhere?”
“Uhh, last I checked darling, he was asking me yesterday to make him a better set of clothes than the previous set that he was wearing,” Rarity replied, letting out a sigh of relief. “I think the boy is making sure to dress properly for our meeting with royalty today.”
“Seriously?” Rainbow Dash groaned. “We’re just saying hello, not going to the Gala again. That’s not going to be another year from now.” The Pegasus herself was rolling her eyes after what they had to put up with involving Discord the last time the Gala was being celebrated. However, all that did was just leave a confused expression on the face of the Yordle that was next to Spike.
“Pardon my interruption, but what is this Gala that you are talking about?” She asked.
“It’s an annual celebration involving almost all of the nobles and friends of the princesses.” Twilight explained to her briefly before looking around the room. “Come on now, he can’t be that busy now, can he?”
“Maybe he’s tinkering his equipment again?” Applejack replied.
“Possible, but not exactly an immediate answer-.” The Princess stopped speaking shortly after she heard the sound of footsteps lurk now far from where they were standing. From there, she saw Ekko, but he had a new set of clothes on and his hair was completely different than before. Almost like he washed all the white out of his hair and tied it all back.
“Sorry I was late. It takes a while to get use to a new set of clothes.” The boy said as he walked into the room. Now noticing that everypony was staring at him. “What? Was it something I said?”
The boy now had a pair of leather boots with strong black leather pants, metal gauntlets, and a new pair of goggles to add to his classic shirt and red scarf. The major change though was the style of his hair as it now looked like “dreadlocks” as it was referred to by the ponies that lived in South Amareica. His guile and gadgets also fit the new look as well, leaving everypony surprised.
“E-ekko… You look… different.”
“Well, I asked Rarity for some more casual clothes and I had to pull an all nighter fine tuning my gear to match my new appearance. Other than that, I spent almost half an hour trying to fix up my hair.” The boy said, putting his guile over his shoulders. “So, aren’t we going to Canterlot soon?”
“R-right… We just need to get to the train.” Twilight replied as all of them went out to the station. On the way to the train, Poppy had a few questions regarding who they were meeting and if there were anything specific regarding them that she should say or do so she wouldn’t embarrass herself when they arrived. Twilight and the others were happy to comply, since it was also Starlight Glimmer’s first time with meeting the Princesses as well.
However, when they pulled into the station, right away they could all tell that something did not seem right. Especially with the heavy presence of royal guards up on the walls and inside the train station. Leaving all of them to wonder why was there so much commotion amongst the city’s military.
“This isn’t normal,” Twilight said as she scanned the streets for signs of her brother and his wife. “The guard would only be acting like this if it was an emergency. But nothing major has ever happened since the incident involving Lord Tirek at Tartarus.” The Alicorn seemed worried alongside her friends. As for Ekko though, he and Poppy were trying to see where the commotion was coming from. It was only then though that Ekko noticed a small gathering of civilians not far from Canterlot Castle, outside the garden as several guards were trying to prevent them from entering the complex.
“This area is closed to civilians and is under investigation by the Royal Army. Please return when the Princess deems the location safe and sound.”
Ekko was surprised a bit, trying to see what it was. But what he did see caused his eyes to widen. “By the league…”
The bodies of four ponies were found dead inside the garden. But what the bodies looked like was another story. Three of them had a white rose form from where they were shot, but the fourth one looked like it was rooted into the ground while the wooden roots around it formed a tree that looked like something you would find in Ionia. But the victim… he remembered seeing him before.
“Don’t just stand there! Kill that filth and arrest them!!”
“Blueblood…” Ekko gasped, upon realizing who it was. It was the prince that Fleur De Lis told him was personally obnoxious. How this would have happened though was beyond him. It got to the point to where he wasn’t even aware of the friends that were calling his name.
It was only until he felt a tap on his arm that he looked to see Rarity standing next to him. “Ekko dear, we’ve been calling you for the last five minutes. What seems to be the matter?”
Turning to her, he sighed. “I just found out the reason for this whole crowd,” he said, pointing towards the garden. “There’s been a murder.”
The unicorn looked at him, shocked and in defiance. Claiming that Canterlot was suppose to be a peaceful city and nothing like this would ever happen. However, Ekko knew all too well what murder was like from the streets of Zaun. It was a normal occurrence because of how corrupt things were. The smell of corpses was all but a familiar stench to him and it wasn’t really a matter of how they died, but why. Everyone had their own reasons for wanting someone dead. He did too at one point. He wanted the killer of his friend Ajani to pay for what he did to him. But in the end, vengeance would never have been able to save him.
He had learned that many times, through the numerous rewinds, that not everything could be fixed. Not everyone could be saved.
It was only by Twilight calling out to them that they finally started walking back over. But in Ekko’s mind, he had questions that needed to be answers. How could something like this, in such a peaceful city no less, have happened. He had an idea of who to ask, but he had to deal with what was on his plate right now first beforehand as he walked back towards Twilight and the others. Soon though, he noticed two other figures. Two ponies that he had not previously met before. One was a unicorn and wore armor like a Captain of the guard would while the other one was a Alicorn.
“Shining, Cadence, this is my friend Ekko.” Twilight happily told them as the boy walked over to them.
“It’s a pleasure to meet the both of you.” he replied, shaking their forehooves.
“Same. I just wish it could be on better terms though,” Shining sighed. “I’ll explain once we’re inside. Follow me.” With it, the unicorn lead everyone inside, having the guards clear out of the room as the mane six, Spike, Starlight, Ekko and Poppy were now in the presence of Princess Celestia. However, one thing that Ekko noticed was that Luna was personally not in attendance.
“Greetings everypony.” The princess said, looking at everyone. “It is good to see all of you here. Including some… new arrivals.”
“I am honored to be in your presence, Princess.” Poppy said, bowing to her. “I am Poppy, Keeper of the Hammer.”
“So you are a hero, I take it?” She asked, causing the Yordle to blow it off.
“Hero? Nah, I’m just a Yordle with a hammer.” The Keeper replied, leaning back against her hammer as she set it against the ground.
“Pardon me, Celestia… but where is Princess Luna?” Rarity asked. “Normally, she isn’t one for being late to attend meetings like this.” Celestia looked at Shining Armor and Cadence for a short moment before sighing deeply. She had something to say and what she needed to tell them was not exactly good.
“Last night, a masked assailant killed four ponies in the garden and my sister witnessed the whole thing happen right in front of her. Three guards were victims, but the fourth one was her nephew, Prince Blueblood.” The Princess addressed. “The shot was intended for her, but it was him who took it in her place. We’ve been having the Royal Guard establish an ongoing investigation into what happened with my sister being the only witness.”
Everypony was just as equally shocked as they were horrified. Mostly because the mane six and the other equines in the room thought that out of all the cities in the world, the last place they expect for this to happen would be in Canterlot. Ekko and Poppy though, weren’t as terrified as the others. In fact, what the Yordle said next surprised everyone.
“Do you have an autopsy on the bodies? Or a witness account of the incident?” She asked, catching Princess Celestia’s attention. “Matter of fact, a description of the suspect?” The sun princess was going to answer for them, but instead, it was her sister who trotted out and began to answer some of Poppy’s questions. “The assailant was bipedal, had a mechanical right arm and a mask to cover his face. His tone was that of a male, but very sinister and when he shot the guards on the left hand side, a flower bloomed forth from the victims chest. As with my nephew, seconds after being hit, he was rooted into the ground around him like a tree as the roots weaved around his body and left it out on display.
“Luna… why are you up? You should be getting some rest-.”
“If there is anyone that can find out what happened to them, I believe Ekko and his friend can. That murderous rat treated death as it was an artform!” That though, caused something to click in Poppy’s head, causing her to start speaking to herself and trying to problem solve what was going on.
“... Four victims… flowers… tree… masked… Oh no. Don’t tell me…”
“What’s wrong Poppy?” Ekko asked, a bit concerned for the yordle.
“Princess Luna, may I ask you something?” The Yordle asked. “This killer… did he mention something about making his victims… perfect?” Her fears were confirmed when the mare nodded her head yes, causing Poppy’s eyes to widen as she gritted her teeth. “We might just have a bigger problem on our hands than we thought.”
“What exactly do you mean, Poppy?” Twilight asked, confused at the Yordle’s change in tone and how serious she was.
“If what Luna said is right, then what were dealing with is something more complex. A fellow Yordle of mine back home named Kennen had heard of such a person, who is an insane criminal that goes by the title “The Virtuoso” .” The Yordle began to explain as everypony looked at her. “He was supposed to be locked away in a prison in the country of Ionia because of how he saw killing and murder as a form of art. However, it has been said that shadowy elements within Ionia’s ruling council lead to him being freed and now serves as an assassin and messenger of terror. He treats his gun as a paintbrush, his kills as a work of art and his act like a performance in a theater.”
Luna’s eyes widened. “That… all makes sense. Before taking the last shot, that assailant said Your final scene ends as in the final scene of an on stage play.”
“He also has an obsession with the number four, since his weapon fires four shots before he needs to reload. Given that there were four victims, it just makes me suspect it even more,” Poppy said to himself. “Jhin has been wanted in various countries for the crimes he has committed. If we want this to end, than we need to do what we can to capture him before he strikes again.”
That brought something up in Ekko’s mind. “Hang on, does he even know that there are other people from Runeterra here as well? If so, then that would mean than we might become his next targets.”
“It all depends on how we proceed.” Poppy told her. Right now, it was like they were playing a game of cards. Play the hand you have been given right and you will have a good outcome. However, play it wrong and there could possibly be consequences for both of them. One being that they could end up as potential victims or get anypony else hurt if they are pulled into the matter.
“If we are dealing with what you described to us, than this killer is not one to be taken lightly.” Celestia said, looking at all of them. “Unlike those such as Lord Tirek, who would just cause an immediate rampage, this… Jhin that you speak of is as cold as he is calculated. He would plan out his next attack before executing it. We need to know who could be a potential target and see what we can do to protect them. I will not let a ruthless monster such as him harm any of my subjects!”
“What do you propose we do, Princess?” Shining Armor asked.
“Get as many royal guard as you can find to sweep through Canterlot. In addition, we will need to take extra security measure until things calm down,” The princess explained. “Twilight, Cadence. I advise that you take similar precautions in both Ponyville and the Crystal Empire to keep everypony living there safe and sound. If anything does change, inform me immediately. We will not let this man go unpunished for what he has done.”
“Yes Princess, right away.” Shining Armor saluted the Alicorn, shortly before everypony else was dismissed and allowed to leave. However, from a distance, one man watched through a scope as they all began to part ways. If they could see his face right now, he would be grinning to himself as everypony soon went their separate ways.
“Just like Ionia,” The Virtuoso said to himself as he put away the weapon that he saw as his paintbrush, returning into the cave that he used as hiding place on the mountainside. “You only understand harmony… Discord is required for contrast.”
End Break 7
Break 9- Time doesn't heal all wounds
Chronobreak- Time doesn’t heal all wounds
Since Vi and Caitlyn had arrived in Ponyville, Ekko felt as if the two of them were always keeping an eye on him and trying to spy on whatever he was doing. Not many things had happened in Ponyville since the Virtuoso named Jhin first appeared a couple of days ago and now, with both of the two piltover officers in the same place, the prodigy from Zaun felt like he had to constantly watch his back because he could never get any form of privacy. Not to mention that his distrust of anyone from Piltover didn’t help at all in the matter.
Personally to him, he would prefer any chance he would get of being someplace where he didn’t have to feel as if he had someone watching his every move. Especially when it came to Vi. Personally to him, he felt as if the enforcer had forgotten her roots. She once lived in Zaun, just like him before running away to Piltover, where she used to perform crimes and high octane heists with her Hextech gauntlets. But when one job went wrong, she used her gifts for a different use and Caitlyn gave her a second chance.
Yet, he still thought that she had thrown away her roots to become what she was now. An enforcer who wants to solve every problem thrown at her with a punch to the face. However, he knew personally that some problems can’t be fixed with brute force. That instead, it required both brains and brawn. Two things that he was using in the current moment to try and tinker with the transformation mechanics behind the replica’s of the Hextech Gauntlets given to him by Essence when the Doctor stopped by for a visit around a month ago. He wanted to have something around his size for gloves because he preferred his guile and gadgets in combat instead of punching things. What he was working on was using the contraptions like a set of armor gauntlets that would go over the leather gloves he currently had. Just for extra protection.
A couple knocks on the door broke his concentration, just as he was finally getting somewhere with his tinkering. “Who is it?” He asked, personally hoping that it wasn’t either Vi or Caitlyn trying to bother him right around now. He heard hoofsteps outside, which may have been one positive sign. But the thing he had learned from living with Twilight for a while is that around half of the time, she is with somepony else. It was mostly Spike, one of her friends, or her student Starlight, but it still meant that it could be someone else entirely.
Which was surprising when the door opened and not only did he see Starlight, but also see that the mare had changed the style of her mane. “Oh hey Starlight… you look… rather nice.” Ekko said, trying to think of something to say that did not accidently sound blunt in tone. “I like the way you did your mane.”
“Thanks… same to you.” She replied back, commenting on Ekko’s hair. He originally had the whole head of hair in a dreadlocks based formation, but after a week of trying to keep it maintained, he had given up and switched back to the original hairstyle he first had with the white mohawk.
“Where’s Twilight?” Ekko then asked, “For a moment, I thought that she would be right next to you.” For a moment, Starlight looked nervous. But soon, she had a response for Ekko as she cleared her throat.
“She went to go get her friends. The only ones in the castle right now are you, me and… I think her name was Vi downstairs.” That answered one of his questions, but didn’t explain one thing. It didn’t explain where Caitlyn was in that moment.
“Okay, but where’s top hat? Is she with Twilight?” Ekko then asked her.
“No, she went back to Canterlot. She felt that if she was by where the incident occurred, she could find some clues that were previously overlooked.” Well, that was a sigh of relief. It meant that there was one less annoyance trying to look over his shoulder now. But there was still something that he needed to know… and that was why did Starlight knock on his door in the first place?
“Okay, but why is Twilight gathering everybody?” Ekko then asked for clarification as he followed the Unicorn out of his room and closed the door behind him.
“We’ve been asked to come to the Crystal Empire in the north.” Starlight replied, but that only caused Ekko to be even more confused.
“What the heck is the Crystal Empire ?” He then asked. Upon hearing the name, he honestly thought that this place sounded like a hidden city in the Freljord, the snowy peaks that were to the north of most of the major cities and also home to the ancient Mount Targon. He didn’t know much about the place besides the names and some other stuff given that he had only been to the Howling Abyss a couple of times, but it still was enough for him to process it.
“You don’t know about it?” She then asked. “I thought Twilight would’ve told you. Her brother, Shining Armor, and his wife Princess Cadance rule the Crystal Empire in the North and is one of the kingdoms that is allied with Princess Celestia. In fact, Cadence is Celestia’s niece… Don’t get me wrong though, I just found this out earlier today so maybe Twilight has more information for you.”
“I think you gave me plenty of info already. Thanks.” He complimented her as they walked downstairs… only to pass by Twilight’s study room and all of the papers that were on the table. “Uh… Was Twilight pulling an all nighter or something? She made quite a mess in here.”
“Actually… That was what Twilight wanted me to look over before she got the letter about the Crystal Empire,” The mare sighed. “Those are all her… friendship reports that she had sent to Princess Celestia.”
Ekko raised an eyebrow, folding his arms and looking back at Starlight. “Friendship reports? Seriously? That’s actually a thing?”
“I’m a little surprised about it myself. Twilight told me that before becoming a princess, she was a student of Princess Celestia so she could learn the Magic of Friendship or something like that. Now I’m trying to learn it from her… But I don’t think going through thousands of reports will help me with that.” Starlight sighed, looking at the small stack of letters she did read… and the whole pile of ones that she had yet to go through. “I’m not quite sure if I’ll get the chance to do anything in the Crystal Empire if I need to spend all of my time reading all of these.”
That got Ekko thinking a little bit before looking back at Starlight. “Hmm… Are you learning anything from them?”
“I have, but it’s a lot to take in.” Starlight simply said before Ekko came up with an idea.
“Hey, maybe you should ask Twilight to give you an opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned so far while in the Crystal Empire. It may take your mind off of things and you won’t need to read all of those reports.” His suggestion made the mare think a little… and to her surprise, she actually liked the idea.
“That… is pretty good. Thanks for the suggestion, Ekko.” She replied before trotting off and waiting on Twilight to come back while Ekko walked back towards another portion of the castle. However, it was while the boy was walking that he ran into Vi, who happened to be eating an apple after breaking it into multiple pieces using her gauntlets.
“Oh hey kiddo,” Vi spoke up calmly. But something in Vi’s voice was off to the Zaun prodigy. Originally, when they first met in Equestria a week ago, things were tense between the two of them. Now the tone of her voice didn’t change, but the way it was said didn’t make Ekko feel comfortable. After all, one thing to remember from Zaun was to never trust a Piltie. “I honestly thought you would still be in your room and playing with your toys.”
And there it was. “Personally, I thought you would’ve went with the Law Dog back to Canterlot… Why did you stay?”
“Investigation is boring to me,” Vi replied as she cupped her right hand and punched it with her left fist. “Interrogation though, I like. But since we haven’t actually caught this Virtuoso punk yet, I’m going to be waiting a while before then.”
“Yeah, a LONG while.” He said to himself, but just loud enough for the Enforcer to hear.
“Look, I know that you don’t trust me because I’m from Piltover, but until we get back, can’t we just put our differences aside?” She then asked, only irritating the prodigy further as he glared back at her.
“You tell me…” He snapped, gritting his teeth as he looked back at her. “You were born in Zaun, but defected over to Piltover the first chance you got… Tell me, why is it that now you stop criminals and murderers and the people call you a protector why when I do the same thing in Zaun, the people see me as a vigilante. All I want is to give the people hope… That the way things are… with unchecked industry, black market trading and magic running amok… it doesn’t have to be like that. Yet, more faces are painted everyday on the memorial wall the longer this runs out of control. I want to help fix things… yet not everything can be fixed.”
Vi was speechless. She had heard of Ekko’s goal being to make the city better before when he was brought into the league, but she never heard the reason as to why. Now though, she heard that and a lot more than what she ever expected. “I’m sorry for bringing up the subje-.”
“Don’t be… Thinking about it helps me focus on my goals… on the reason why I fight.” He said, shortly before turning his head. “Well, there’s Twilight and the girls. Best guess, she’s going to call us over and want to talk with us.” He walked away from the Enforcer, leaving Vi to follow him as she watched the prodigy catch up to the Princess and her friends.
“Ah good, almost everypony’s here.” Twilight smiled, looking back at her friends along with both Ekko and Vi. “Now we just need to wait on Poppy and then I can explain everything?”
“Why not just explain it to us now and fill in Poppy when she arrives?” Ekko then asked, only to have some of them look back at her with a confused glare. “What? It was just a suggestion.”
“Twilight doesn’t like having to repeat herself too many times when she’s explaining something. Trust me, there have been times where she gets extremely irritated if she has to explain something more than once.” Spike told him, just as Poppy was walking through the door with a sack full of food from the market.
“I’m back… and with enough goods to last us for a month!” The yordle happily declared, leaving everyone else to look back at her in shock and confusion.
“Okay… how exactly did that happen?” Applejack then spoke up as Poppy set the bag down on the Cutie Map.
“Well, some of the ponies at the market mistook me as a child, saying that I was too young to buy some of their products and I was able to convince them otherwise by saying that unless they want a taste of hammer diplomacy that they don’t discriminate me because of my height. They even didn’t ask for bits… which was a bit weird, but still… free food!” The Yordle’s story just lead to Twilight facehoofing herself while Ekko facepalmed himself after hearing what Poppy said.
“Well, that’s one way of doing it I guess.” Ekko then sighed, looking back at Twilight. “As you were saying?”
“Right… Girls, Princess Cadence wants us to come visit the Crystal Empire and her newborn foal, Flurry Heart. I know that things have been… tense with the increased security following what happened in Canterlot, but I think it’ll be good to get our mind off things for a while.” The Princess told everypony as she looked around the room. “Plus, we get to meet the new Crystaller for Princess Cadence.”
Right away, that caused some ponies… and the other people in the room to look back at Twilight in confusion. “What’s a Crystaller?”
“A crystaller is an advisor to the princess while also being a powerful wizard,” She explained. “This one in particular is named Sunburst-.”
That name in itself caused Ekko to notice Starlight’s expression immediately change in the fraction of a second. “S-sunburst? D-did I hear that r-right?”
“Do you know him, Starlight?” Poppy then asked, followed by several other questions similar to that one from the rest of the girls.
“Know him? Girls, Sunburst was my friend when I was only a filly… I h-haven’t seen him in a long time though. Years to be exact…” That got surprised looks from almost everyone. But when Ekko looked at Twilight, she was rubbing her front hooves together, grinning to herself like she had come across something.
“Please don’t tell me she’s gone Mundo on me… The last thing we all need is a crazy mad scientist pony around here. ” He thought to himself, shortly before hearing the Alicorn speak once again.
“Well, it seems like the perfect opportunity for you two to get reacquainted. It’s time for you to put my teachings to good use Starlight!” Twilight gleefully replied while Starlight bit her lower lip as the alicorn dragged on and on about what she needed to do and the long list of things that she wanted to do. Making it a bit awkward for everypony else.
That was when Poppy brought up a question that caught not only his attention, but also Vi’s as well. “Wait… if all of you are going… then who out of the three of us exactly is going to be staying here?” It was a honest question, yet Ekko was unsure if he should go or not. But while he was thinking, he heard something from an unlikely person.
“I don’t mind staying behind. Caitlyn may come back from Canterlot while you guys are away and two heads are better than one at solving these cases.… Besides, if that Virtuoso creep does show up, I think we’re the most likely pair to be able to take him on.” Vi said. Now, despite Ekko thinking that the Enforcer was using that to rub it in his face, she brought up a very valid point. Even if they were pilties, they were still a force to be reckoned with if trouble did occur.
“Okay, I guess that’s settled. Poppy and I are going to the Crystal Empire while Vi stays behind.” Ekko said before turning over to her and hearing a few sly remarks from Vi before everypony prepared to leave for the train station.
“Don’t get yourself in trouble… though I doubt that you will given the circumstances.”
All Ekko could do was smirk as he placed his guile on his shoulders and began to walk away with Starlight and the others. “Doubt me… I love that.”
Later
“Okay, when I first heard the name ‘Crystal Empire’, I literally did not expect for it to actually be made out of crystals!” The yordle retorted as she looked out the window while standing on the seat next to Ekko and Spike. “I mean, look at this thing! It looks like something you would find in the Howling Abyss!”
“Yes Poppy, you’ve said that about…… five times now,” Ekko groaned as he tried to readjust himself. “Can’t you at least take a minute to calm yourself down? You’re scaring a few of the fillies in the other cars.”
“Oh haha, Ekko.” Poppy grunted as she sat down and punched the Zaun Prodigy in the elbow. “But seriously, how can you be so relaxed about this right now? We’re going to meet a Prince and Princess from an entirely different kingdom! Doesn’t the whole thing… well… make you even a little bit nervous?”
“No, not really. If anything, this Cadence and Shining Armor that we are going to meet already know that we are coming. Same for this ‘Sunburst’ guy as well since he is an advisor for the Princess there.” Ekko replied back to her, causing the Yordle to look at him a bit surprised.
“Okay, how-?”
“Because I asked Twilight a little while ago the same questions that you are asking me now.” He deadpanned, getting up a little. “Plus, unlike you, who is going to meet the prince and princess, I’m going with Spike and Starlight and walk around the city.” Just as he said that, he turned his head to see Starlight trying to read and make sense of the EXTREMELY long scroll that Twilight had given her for the trip up. Fortunately, it wasn’t like Ryze’s scroll since the Rune Mage had his be tied down to his back, but it still must’ve been a pain to read.
In addition, there was the part involving Sunburst. Every time that name was mentioned, Starlight would be extremely nervous to the point that she would be sweating bullets. Something about it must’ve been bothering her and making her lose focus a little because the moment that the train pulled into port, she didn’t even realize that the train had stopped until after he spoke up and told her. But even after getting off of the train, she still seemed distracted. “Please don’t tell me that Twilight’s lecture on the way here made her brain dead… ” The prodigy thought to himself mentally before looking back at Spike. That was… when he got an idea.
“Hey Spike?” He said to the dragon, calling him over. “Can you help out Starlight? I think the train ride here really made her… distracted.” Spike, for a moment, thought that everything was okay with Starlight. But when she almost trotted into a food stand at the marketplace, that told the youngling otherwise as he raced on over. Ekko was going to follow him, but something at the corner of his eye caught his attention as he began to move. Something like a wisp that turned the corner nearby an alleyway.
“Hey Ekko, come on! Let’s go grab a snack!” Spike called out, causing him to turn that direction for a moment before looking back in the direction he was facing. He sighed for a moment, thinking what he saw was a figment of his imagination before looking back to Spike and catching up with him. As time passed, things seem to be getting a little bit better. Though now it was just Spike and Ekko by themselves as Starlight left them to go talk with her friend Sunburst now that she had the courage to go see him.
“You liking this place, Ekko?” The dragon asked him as the two of them were walking through the marketplace. Spike honestly thought that he would enjoy someplace like this, but then again, that was from his point of view. He still remembered when Twilight and the others originally came to the empire and had to save it from King Sombra along with the Equestria games sometime later. Heck, he even had a statue of him here for a short amount of time.
“It’s… alright…” The prodigy replied back. “It’s just… a little uneasy for me. Seeing everyone here being happy and everything… Back home, life was not like this for sure. You always had to watch your back and keep an eye out for it something bad were to happen.”
“But isn’t it a good thing that they’re happy? Heck, Starlight’s meeting a friend from her fillyhood and she’s excited… I think.” The thought of that made Ekko stop. What Spike said triggered something in his mind that he could never forget.
“Spike… I only had one friend that I knew since I was a little kid named Ajuna. Hell, he was like a brother to me. A sibling I really cared for… and even with all the gifts I had and being able to start back from square one over and over and over… I could not be able to save him.” He sighed. “Back home, there’s a place in the slums I lived in called the Memorial Wall… There, many Zaunites like myself pay homage to those that they lost… He is the one I had to put on there…”
At this point, the little dragon was speechless… But why was Ekko was telling him this? “Some things you can’t fix on your own… No tools… No spare parts… some things take time… and even then they’re not the same… and to me, time doesn't heal all wounds.” The drakeling understood how this made him feel uneasy… but it still did not answer his question.
“Ekko… Why… why are you telling me this? I mean… you wouldn’t say this to Twilight or any of the others I would think… but why me?” The answer… caught him by surprise.
“Because you remind me of Ajuna the most… I see him in you…” Ekko told him, getting down to his level. “And I would not let what happened to him happen to you…” Unknown to either of them, a storm was beginning to brew on the horizon.
And it was coming for the Crystal Empire.
End Break 9
Author's Note
Still on temporary hiatus, but I am making an effort to get back into the swing of things. Wanted to have this chapter try to bring out some more of Ekko as a character and also how life is was like for him back in Zaun. Enjoy!
Break 10- So direct, like most fools
Author's Note
This... was a LOT longer than I had originally wanted it to be. The original plan was to try and have a massive scene take place in the crystal empire involving one or more champs besides Taric, Poppy and Ekko, but it was insanely hard trying to figure out what to do, so I scrapped that idea and tried to implement something shorter. Secondly, I wanted to focus on a scene outside of Equestria and back in Runeterra, where the league has been noticing the recent series of disappearances and trying to fix the problem before it gets worse
Also... this was one title that I decided to pass on:
It may be a while before the next one, but until then, enjoy.
Break 10- So direct, like most fools
Chronobreak- So direct, like most fools
Realm of Valoran
In the late hours of the night, one of the individuals who was a resident of the Institute of War and a champion of the League of Legends, was hard at work in his personal study. Trying to solve a mystery that had happened on the fields of justice several weeks ago that was happening more and more. Champions disappearing from either the fields of justice, or their home city. It first started with the Zaun Prodigy, Ekko. But after that, there were other known disappearances. The demacian ambassador for the Yordles, Poppy, was the second known champion to go missing, even though everything seemed normal.
Things changed though upon the third disappearance. Once that made both the ambassadors of Ionia worried as well as the league. Jhin, the Virtuoso. A deranged killer who believed that murder was a form of art… and that art required a certain cruelty. The major concern was that if Jhin wasn’t found immediately, he will kill many people before eventually getting captured. It took Shen and Zed years to capture him the first time… and the League did not have years to wait.
The fourth one though was different again. For it seemed that not all of these disappearance happened in the same place, as it was originally lead to believe that it only happened on the Fields of Justice. This ideal was later shattered with the disappearance of Poppy in Bandle City, Jhin in Ionia and more recently, Taric on Mount Targon. He had recently endured the trials of the peak and had come out a new man, only to have gone missing in the event of a blizzard that happened on the mountain.
All four of these incidents were presently being looked over by a powerful archmage in his study as he tried to piece them together. Figure out anything that could serve as a link for the disappearances. Yet, as he was trying to figure this out was when he felt a presence approach the door to his study as he turned to see who it was. Finding the Curator and Librarian of the Institute’s archives come on inside.
“Nasus… I did not expect for you, or anyone for that matter to come visit me.” The archmage responded as he looked back at the Curator of the Sands. “However, I’m a bit occupied at the present moment with-.”
“I know… having to find out more about the disappearance, I understand,” The Curator from Shurima replied. “And that is something I wanted to talk to you about, Ryze.” Hearing this, the Archmage stopped what he was doing, closing the spellbook that he was looking over as he looked back at Nasus.
“What is it? Did something happen?” He asked, curious as to what information Nasus had that he might have not known about. The Curator of the Sands himself set down the staff that he would normally carry with him as he walked into the room, closing the door behind him and clearing his throat. However, what the jackal then told him was something that Rzye was unprepared for.
“There was one other instance that happened… Not a disappearace, but something else… And the League is already making a move on how to proceed with Jhin.” Rzye’s heart skipped a beat as Nasus took out a scroll. One that turned out to be a ‘help wanted ’ poster that was asking for anyone with detective skills and knowledge of tracking criminals. “For the first one, the league has taken notice of this poster that was a request for any professional detective to assist someone with tracking down a criminal. The league saw this as a potential clue since this attracted Plitover’s sheriff, Caitlynn, and the Plitover Enforcer, Vi. They could still feel their presence in Valoran, but according to the locals in the city, they had not been seen in sometime.”
Ryze looked back at Nasus, now thinking something off the top of his head. “So what exactly would that mean?”
“Well, when this was brought up to Xerath, he then explained that there might be a possible pocket dimension that was unknown previously, but over time as the magic of the dimension grows, it begins to overlap with the actual world that the dimension is a part of. He had sensed these magical surges over a particular period of time and from it, they match up with the days that Ekko, Poppy, Jhin, and Taric have gone missing.” That… was eye opening. Even to Ryze. The subject in which Nasus was explaining was originally only a theory from the books that he had read on it. But there was one thing that still confused the archmage.
“What does this have to do with Jhin though?” He asked, folding his arms for a moment as the runes across his body pulsed.
“The league has decided to no longer wait to take action and in this, they asked for the assistance of one of the newest champions to join the league to track him and capture him at all costs.” Nasus then told him, looking outside the mage’s study for a moment before looking back at him. “However, personally, I’m not sure about their choice of who they asked.”
That just made Ryze even more curious. “And why is that a concern?”
Nasus looked at the scholar and mage as he sighed for a moment. “I’m sure that you are aware of the situation between Plitover and Zaun, correct?” Ryze nodded. He was aware of the situation between both cities since some of his research in crystalline magic several weeks earlier had a link to Zaun and also the hextech crystals that are commonly used for storage and other items like keys and chests. “And the rivalry between both cities?”
“I am aware in a sense… and surprised that the two of them have not gone to war with one another because of all the hatred between both of them.” The archmage then said. “What does this have to do with tracking down Jhin though?”
“Because the League has called upon the same person who has been the sole reason that order has been kept between both cities… Yet, I’m not entirely a fan of her methods.” Nasus told him, before asking a question. “If you were in the League’s shoes… would you send a killer to hunt a killer?”
“That depends on the person…” The archmage told him. “If you are sending a criminal to capture a criminal, it would be risky… but if it were someone else, then the situation changes. Who did they choose?” It was then that the jackal took out a scroll from a leather satchel on his waist and handed it for the archmage to look at.
It looked like a human, but the augmentations on her body told him otherwise. What would’ve been legs was actually a pair of hextech augmented blades that served as limbs as the mage saw other pieces of hextech technology on the figure. The cold glare in her eyes too also made Ryze see why the jackal was concerned. “This is Camille… Known as the Steel Shadow and also the principal intelliger of Clan Ferros. An elite operative who ensures that relations between Plitover and Zaun run smoothly by any means necessary. Doing anything to keep the fragile balance of power of both cities in check.”
“She seems to be more machine that human from the looks of it,” Ryze remarked as he handed the scroll back to her. “Machines, like magic, can falter if not properly used.”
“I agree with you, and I tried to stress the same thing to the league… However, she wasn’t chosen because of her weapons, but because of her ability to adapt to the situation around her at any given time. Jhin is unpredictable… yet, Camille’s keen attention to detail always can have the tide turn in her favor.” Nasus then told the mage, recalling his conversation with the summoners of the league and their decision. “Their decision is final, Ryze… and there’s nothing we can do to change that.”
The archmage just sighed, shaking his head a little as he looked back at Nasus. “If that’s the League’s decision, then we’re not one to judge…” The League of Legends in itself had extended their generosity to several of the league's members for them to take up residence here. Some in exchange for the services of those champions, like Xerath, while others stood as guards or served for the league; the prime examples of that being Alistar, the Minotaur and Kayle, the Judicator.
The residents of the league were also rather diverse, some in which caught Ryze’s attention because of their background or what they were capable of. Janna Windforce, the Storm’s Fury and the guardian of Zaun herself was capable of channeling the very essence of a raging storm with her power, while Malphite, the Earth Elemental and the Shard of the Monolith, meditated within the caverns that were underneath the institute where the League was originally set up. There were a few others too for different reasons as to why they were there, such as Ahri, Amumu and Lee Sin that Ryze also had the privilege to fight alongside in battle.
If only he could find out what was going on with the champions that had disappeared.
Crystal Empire
“So… Can you tell me more about the ponies we are meeting?” The question almost surprised Twilight as she was trotting next to Poppy and the rest of her friends.
“Wait… you mean you don’t know anything about Cadence or Shining?” She asked, rather surprised to hear that as they were coming up to the castle in the crystal empire.
“To be fair, the only time that we did see them briefly was at a crime scene. Besides, I just wanted to know a little bit about who we are meeting. I do it all the time when I meet other diplomats for Demacia back home.” The Yordle explained to her, still carrying her hammer with her as they continued to walk to the front door. Twilight understood what she meant and she did explain to Poppy about Luna and Celestia before, so explaining to Poppy about her brother and his wife shouldn’t be too difficult… right?
“Well, Princess Cadence is the niece of Celestia and… Shining Armor is my brother.” That surprised the Yordle. She wasn’t aware that the two of them were siblings… matter of fact, there were several things she was still trying to get used too while they were walking. The Alicorn told her of how her brother was once part of the royal guard in Canterlot before marrying Cadence, the time where they saved the Crystal Empire and also most recently, where the two of them had a young newborn daughter.
“Well, your brother sounds like quite the Hero if I do say so myself,” The Yordle smirked as she looked back at Twilight and got her hopes up. “Tell me, does your brother like using Hammers?”
“Well, I think he’s more proficient with using spears or polearms when the situation calls for it.” Twilight told her, which bummed out the yordle. She originally thought that because of Shining Armor’s heroics, he would be a perfect candidate to be the hero to wield her hammer… but what Twilight just said just now had all those ideas blow up in her face. “Why do you ask?”
“It’s… You know the hammer I carry around right?” Poppy asked, causing Twilight to nod just as they got through the door to the castle. “Well, back home, other than being a Diplomat… I’m what you may call a hero seeker. For a long time now, I’ve been looking for someone back home who is supposed to be the ‘Hero of Demacia’ and be the rightful wielder of the hammer I carry. However, anytime I think I find someone, it doesn’t really turn out so well.”
“...... Should I ask?” Twilight asked.
“Most of them end up getting killed or eaten by monsters.”
“Oh… That’s… rather grim.”
“Comes with the job I guess,” Poppy said as she turned her head to notice Cadence and Shining inside the castle. “Oh, wow… the inside of the castle’s a lot more… roomier than I expected.”
“It’s good to see you again, Twilight,” She replied as the princess noticed the rest of her friends come into the room now as she turned her head to Poppy. “You must be Poppy, correct? How has your stay been in Equestria so far?”
“It’s been… interesting to say the least. A lot has happened in such a short time, especially with what’s been going on as of late.” Poppy replied back to Cadence as she looked around the area. “Not exactly the same as life was back in Runeterra, that’s for sure. It’s… actually quite peaceful.”
That surprised the ponies in the room as they looked back at Poppy, rather surprised and possibly a bit startled. “Are things not peaceful back where you are from.”
Poppy sighed for a moment, making sure that everypony was present, including Celestia and Luna when they showed up a few moments before going more into detail about what Runeterra was like. “Over the years, many disputes between rival groups, whether it has been two tribes or two countries, has always resulted in terms of magical warfare with little regard to the consequences of waging such battles, which we call Rune Wars. However, they could only go unchecked for so long and before you know it, the last two Rune Wars had drastically altered the geographical landscape and had caused severe natural disasters, even after magic was then used to try to piece everything together.”
“My word… if there was another one of those conflicts, then your world would cease to exist… How is it that it stays in one piece?” Rarity then asked as Poppy turned to her.
“That was what some of the top summoners theorized… and it was then that formed the organization that we know as the League of Legends, which would allow countries to settle disputes between one another that was both systematic and controlled,” The Yordle telling them, recalling everything she knew on the league. “The conflicts would be settled in special arena’s called the ‘fields of justice’ and summoners representing particular political alliances would summon champions, like Ekko or I for example, to fight alongside fellow champions to achieve the objective of destroying the other teams base, or what we call a Nexus.”
“Such a system like this seems rather complicated,” Luna then complemented, before then looking at her sister for a brief moment as she stated her next question. “And how is this not similar to that of something like trial by combat?”
“Well, in Runeterra, or the continent of Valoran for us, there are several city states. Each city state has a representative who is a diplomat of the league called an Emissary. When a match begins, there are arbiters… or adjudicators that are assigned to a particular match that keep track and record what happens and lastly, there’s a council of high summoners who determine what happens on a political scale when a match is over.” Poppy then finished… which in turn lead to Rainbow Dash blurting out something she wanted to ask the Yordle.
“Uh… how do you remember all of this stuff?”
“Well, if you aren’t fighting on the fields of justice or trying to search for heroes like I normally do, I normally read books.” Poppy told them, which in turn got a snicker from Rainbow as the Yordle glared back at her. “Besides, with the league making changes to the rules to prevent people from cheating, I would prefer to be up to speed.”
“She makes a valid point, Rainbow.” Twilight added on.
“Oh come on now… I thought we were coming here to visit the new addition to the family, not talk about political disputes and rules.” She said, groaning a little bit as Poppy decided to leave them be. Leaving her with Princess Cadence as she then turned and spoke up. “Sorry if I sounded too complex for you.”
“Not at all really… In fact, Shining and I have actually heard this before twice now.”
That… was news to Poppy. She did not know that someone else already gave them the same explanation. “Um… forgive me for sounding so abrupt, but why did you-?”
“I wanted to see how Twilight and her friends would react…” Cadence chuckled, smiling a little bit as she looked at Poppy. Now though, the Yordle had one last question to ask.
“Princess… who told you and Shining about the League?” That question… only lead to another question being given in exchange… and one that Poppy knew the answer too.
“Would you happen to know someone by the name of Taric?”
Meanwhile…
As Starlight and Spike continued to venture throughout the crystal empire, Ekko felt like he had to come with them every time they got up and went somewhere new so they didn’t get themselves in trouble… and if there was one thing he hated more than pilties, it was being responsible. He was rebellious and independent fighter, not a babysitter. He was thinking right now that Vi was having more fun doing something else rather than he was right now… and that made him sick to his stomach.
It was around now though that both the unicorn and dragon were talking to another unicorn. One that was male and, if he were to assume correctly, was Starlight’s old fillyhood friend Sunburst. Both unicorns had the chance to talk to one another for a while as Spike waited with him outside. But while they were outside was when Ekko looked up and asked something.
“Uh… Spike? Did the forecast call for storm clouds?”
The dragon himself was curious as to what he was talking about, but when the prodigy pointed it out to him, that was when he became a little bit nervous. “Uh oh… that’s probably not a good sign.” It was also then that a bit of snow began to fall on their heads as Ekko looked back at the baby dragon in confusion.
“The heck? I thought you guys were in the middle of spring or something.”
“We were… From what I was told, the Crystal Heart was suppose to prevent any dark magic from getting close to the city… If something happened…” Now was when Spike was beginning to worry and soon, took off as he left Ekko behind. “I’m sorry Ekko, but I got to get to Twilight!”
“Spike wait-!” Ekko called out, groaning a few seconds after the dragon took off as he chased him. Groaning to himself and saying one thing under his breath. “Ugh…… I hate being responsible…”
Yet, it was as he was running that he noticed Celestia and Luna personally flying in the sky, trying to use their magic to repel the shadows away. Making him think that if they are somehow involved, then this is no laughing matter.
Not to mention that the entire city, shortly after this incident first got out of hand, caused everypony to start running inside their homes and getting out of sight. Leaving Ekko out in the open on his own… and unable to find Spike anywhere. “You had an eye on him for ONE second and now this happens…” The likely possibility right now was that Spike would’ve ran off to where Twilight would be… and the most likely place that she would be is the castle in the center of town.
“Geez… If it’s not one thing, it’s another… At least Vi isn’t handling anything crazy on her end…” He groaned to herself. “I mean, she’s probably right right not just sitting around and not doing anything. Who isn’t a fan of that?”
Elsewhere, In Ponyville
For the enforcer named Vi, she was never a fan of just sitting around and not doing anything. Originally, she thought that something were to happen at one point or another in Ponyville while everyone else was away and it would give her the chance to do something here. Out of the champions from the league that she knew somehow ended up here, two of them were going up north to some… place that make her think of the Howling Abyss, Caitlynn was checking to make sure they didn’t overlook anything in Canterlot regarding their case on the Virtuoso and one other set of champions, Lamb and Wolf, were not heard from in days. Which, made the Piltover Enforcer insanely bored out of her mind right now and wanted to punch something.
Of course, she had tried… other things in order to cure her of her boredom. Walking around Ponyville was one, but the locals seem more… intimidated by her then at ease… Probably because they hadn’t seen anyone with oversized fists before. It was normal for people in the city of Piltover to have some kind of augmentation. Hell, a lot of people in Piltover and Zaun have a lot of crazy inventions and gadgets. Some even being recognized on the annual holiday between both cities called ‘Progress Day’.
But as she was coming back to Princess Twilight’s castle, the sound of a loud bang went off, causing several birds in the nearby trees to fly around and for a few of the other ponies to immediately go inside their homes. But it just made Vi a little more… curious. She knew for certain of two things… one, Caitlynn wasn’t back yet. Two, the only form of long ranged weaponry that ponykind had were bows, crossbows and sometimes a cannon or two. They were completely unfamiliar with firearms.
Which only meant one possible thing… The Virtuoso was nearby… and hiding in the forest. As the Enforcer ran out of the town to where she heard the first shot, a second gunshot soon followed afterwards. “That’s two… His shots are always in a series of four, so I need to keep my eyes and ears open for what comes next. ”
She had her fists ready to punch something and Vi was getting really excited for when she was to catch Jhin off guard and she heard a third shot being fired. But it was through the forests that the Enforcer heard something… else too. What sounded like blades cutting through trees as she planted her feet and quickly made a hard left turn and ran down a long pathway and straight to a clearing up ahead. But by the time that Vi had entered the clearing, it was then that she heard the fourth shot.
And saw an adversary cut down the Virtuoso as he fell to the ground and disappeared in a flash of light… just like if they were on the fields of justice. But the one who took him down though… was what caught Vi by surprise. “So much time focused on presentation… However, showmanship has no place in Battle.” At first glance, the woman that was talking didn’t look much… different to Vi at first glance. But upon seeing her turn around… she saw that this person looked more machine than woman. Multiple different Hextech body augmentations could be seen on the figure. The most noticeable ones being the ones on her legs, where two large hextech blades were instead of legs.
Yet, it was when she looked at Vi that the Enforcer noticed that she was more… disgusted by her presence than surprised to see her. “Mmm… It’s like looking into a crude, boorish mirror.”
“Excuse me?” Vi asked, a bit puzzled by why she was here and insulted by what this woman said. “Just… who are you supposed to be?”
“Personally, I don’t have time to explain myself to that such as you,” The woman shot back. “I only had one job to do and that was to track down the Virtuoso. That’s it.”
“Hey, I was just wanting to know who to thank for helping us, not you being rude.” Vi growled. She was not liking this woman’s tone… but there was something about her that… made her think that she had seen her somewhere before… but where?
“Pfft…… I don’t believe it… You honestly don’t remember?” The gray lady asked her, placing a hand to her face as a few of her fingers lightly touched her head in annoyance. “Let me ask you something then, girl…”
However… the question she asked… had different effects on Vi than one might think. “Ever wonder how you became an orphan?”
That single sentence… caused everything in Vi’s mind to come to an immediate halt. She only remembered bits and pieces of what was her childhood… and the parts she did remember she would rather want to forget. Now? Those parts were coming back… they were making her remember the old days when she had a family… before being an orphan on the streets… and also making her feel one single emotion once everything was all pieced together and discarding any form of self control she had for one thing.
Rage. Pure… Uncontrollable… Rage. Rage that made Vi lose control of herself as she charged at the silver haired woman. Wanting to make her pay for what she did all those ago.
End Break 10
Break 11- Well... that happened
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?
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
Chronobreak- Don’t Blink
Summoners Rift
The Fields of Justice was alive with the sounds of weapons clashing and the mist like feeling of magic that lingered in the air. Minions from both sides charged at one another and fought alongside the champions that were selected by the League to take part in this battle. Among them, was a young boy who lived among the streets of Zaun. Mostly, he would be referred to as a low life or a street rat. But to the League, he was much more than that.
He was Ekko: The Boy Who Shattered Time. Despite being from the corrupt streets of Zaun, Ekko is known as a prodigy who is known to spend his days with the other lost children in the city that don’t have a place to call home. His own invention, the Zero Drive, allows for Ekko to be able to manipulate time to his advantage, whether in a fight or to help defend his friends. However, he knows that not all things can be rewound.
He learned that personally when his best friend, Ajuna, died. He tried multiple times. Multiple rewinds in order to possibly save his life. But he soon realized that no matter how many times he tried, some things just can’t be fixed. There are no tools, no spare parts, nothing that could help bring back a friend. Things like this just needed time. And sometimes, things just aren’t the same afterwards.
Now though, he was in the center pathway, or what the other champions called “The middle lane” . Alongside him was the minions that were helping him and his team defend their home base, or “Nexus” . Ekko had only been in the league for close to two months and there were still a lot of things that he personally needed to learn and get use to. One in particular being the disembodied voices that he heard every few moments into the battle. He personally liked them at first, but soon, it just kept on getting repetitive and gave him a major headache.
Today he was fighting along four other champions. Leona; The Radiant Dawn, Quinn & Valor; Demacia’s wings, Braum; the Heart of the Freljord, and then Rengar; the Pridestalker. Or in Ekko’s case, Kitty cat, due to the fact that Rengar was a walking, talking lion. He didn’t really know or understand the reason why they were fighting this time. But then again, he didn’t need a reason. Anytime he stepped onto the battlefield, he was representing his city and to him, that’s all that mattered. Greatness and progress shouldn’t belong to one city after all.
His team’s soldiers or otherwise known as minions, were fighting alongside him. Originally, Ekko was tempted to give them names since it was odd to call them Minion 1 or Minion 2 . But the only one that he could come up with was for a tank like minion he named “Dave” . But that wasn’t what he was focusing on since no one usually gave a damn about minions anyway. Instead, it was to break down the enemies defenses. As he progressed further down the lane he was in though, things seemed a bit quiet… Perhaps some would say… Too quiet?
“BOMBS AWAY!!!”
Quickly, Ekko had to roll out of the way of a set of incoming bouncing bombs thrown by Ziggs. The yordle that was also known as the self proclaimed “Hexpolsives Expert”, but given his tactics… Not so much an expert in the element of surprise.
“You do realize that I now know you’re trying to surprise me, right?”, Ekko huffed as he recovered from the roll.
“FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!” Was the only response he got back as more explosives were thrown at him, including a Satchel Charge.
“Man, can’t knock any kind of sense into him like that.” Ekko thought. “Guess I can do it this way!” Holding his guile, he quickly smacked a contraption into the air, sailing towards where the Yordle was standing. While Ziggs was still confused, Ekko phased dived, or sped up time to seemingly teleport right behind him, activating the trap that he placed at his feet.
This was one of Ekko’s abilities was what he personally referred to as Parallel Convergence . This was a circle like trap that slowed any enemies that were inside it, but if Ekko stepped in during the time that it was active, he could freeze the time of a certain area and have anyone inside be stuck in place for a short amount of time.
Now that the crazed Yordle was just stuck in place, Ekko took his club and smacked Ziggs towards the satchel charge that Ziggs had placed before on the ground as it was about to explode.
AN ENEMY HAS BEEN SLAIN
“Whew… I rather not have myself blown to bits today.” Ekko told himself. He was crossing the halfway point of Summoners Rift, but was a little concerned with how to proceed. He needed to upgrade his equipment back at the base, but was caught up between leaving his post and preparing himself for the big fight that was to come. He saw that the amount of minions on his side were now the size of a small battalion, which made him feel comfortable with taking a quick break..
Turning towards the minions that were marching forth, he told one of them. “Keep on going, I need to rethink a couple of things.” With that, he began to cast his Recall spell that he had to learn upon joining the League. The process was tedious, but he was able to figure out all the kinks after some practice and guidance from a few of the other champions.
Five seconds later, he was back at where he started, square one. And also, at the front of the merchant’s little shack. “Welcome champion, How can I help you?”
“I’m looking for something to let me dive right in and deal as much damage as I can in the shortest amount of time. Have any suggestions?” The Merchant grinned, looking through the plethora of items that he had in stock before pulling out one to show to the boy.
“This is the Lich Bane. It’ll not only provide you with a little extra mana, but your guille will become empowered with magic when you use your abilities.”
“All in. Just my style.”, Ekko chuckled. “How much?”
“3000 gold.”
Ekko went into his coin pouch and pulled out the amount that the vendor asked for. “Here you go. Thank you kindly.”
“Just a moment, before you go, I think you should have this,” the Merchant interjected, showing a small emblem to the boy. “I found this while looking through my inventory and I believe this may be suited for someone of your caliber. You are from Zaun, are you not?”
He nodded his head. The emblem the merchant was showing was a hand size version of the Crest that represented his city.
A feeling of pride washed over him upon seeing this. But then, he remembered that everything, especially this, came with a price. “Um… I only have around 100 gold after my last purchase. Should I come back and get it when I have enough-?”
The merchant shook his head. “Keep it. Consider it as a token of my appreciation. If it’s not for talented hard workers like you, I wouldn’t have a business to run. Now, you might want to hurry. Those minions can’t last well on their own midlane.” Ekko soon snapped back to reality as he noticed the minions that were hustling from the Nexus passed the inhibitor.
“Thanks, Mr. Merchant… Walrus guy!!” He shouted, hurrying because he didn’t want to be late. Not noticing the pink cloud of smoke that went off briefly after he started to run. Going back into his lane, he noticed that another problem decided to show up. This time though, it wasn’t Ziggs. When he approached the group, he had to make a split second dodge to avoid an incoming gunshot. The boulder behind him exploded into a million pieces as an 80. caliber round smashed straight through it.
Looking up, he saw another enemy and narrowed his eyes.
Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover.
“Aw… Who called the cops?”
“That’s enough, little boy.” She rasped, clicking the lever on her rifle. “You’ve been causing too much trouble around here and I need to put a stop to you.”
Ekko gripped his weapon, cocking a smile at her. “I don’t cause trouble, I start it. You’re going to need more than that gun of yours to beat me, law dog.”
“Is that a threat?” The sheriff retorted, gritting her teeth as she centered the crosshairs on his head.
“No, it’s a challenge.” Ekko smirked a little, grabbing a contraption from his right pocket and preparing for the sheriff to make the first move. However, he was caught off guard to hear a spark of electricity from a nearby bush as a shuriken infused with lightning flew past his head and landed on a nearby tree, singing the bark to a crisp. From the bush emerged another yordle. This time, a ninja named Kennen.
“Seriously, there’s two of you?! I’ve had enough trouble with one of your kind trying to kill me!” He complained. There was something involving these little critters that Ekko wasn’t a fan of. Mostly because there was more to them than meets the eye. He learned that the hard way when he met a yordle scientist named Heimerdinger in a battle on the Twisted Treeline. His turrets and inventions caused Ekko to keep on his toes and try not to get his team blown up in the process.
Now though, he had to deal with an electric yordle ninja that was trying to fry him with his lightning shurikens. Not to mention the gunfire from the sheriff. As he kept moving though, the teen watched a set of bolas trip the sheriff by the legs and had her fall to the ground before a familiar face emerged and slashed through her.
This helped relieve the pressure off of Ekko as he through out the contraption that he was holding and hit him. However, the last blow went to the Pridestalker that defeated the first opponent in the save savage fashion.
DOUBLE KILL!!
“Seriously, Rengar!? I was just about to make my move on him!”
“Yeah, like I would believe that.” The Lion spat. “Your toy is still over there.”
Ekko sighed, “You know what they say, what goes around…” He caught the device as it came back to him. “...Comes around.”
“Right… You need to quit slacking off. Leona is pushing the tower in the bottom lane and are working on tearing down their defenses. Quinn & Braum are doing the same thing on the other lane. Right now, it’s our job to push forward.”
“Wouldn’t Leona need help?” Ekko asked, wondering how someone like him would take on a tower by himself.
“She’ll be fine. She’s been in these situations before and has been in the League for years, kid. She knows what to do. Now, quit standing around and hurry up. Whoever else is out there isn’t going to wait for you to make your move on them.” The feline retorted as he disappeared into a nearby bush.
“Thanks for the support… Furball.”
“Shut up and fight. Or else you’ll just end up as a trophy in someone’s den.” The lion threatened. With the lane cleared up, Ekko had space to continue moving. But his main concern was Leona. He knew that the paladin could handle this on her own, but Ekko still had the feeling that she would need some support.
Quickly, he began to channel one of the summoner skills that he chose for this match, Teleport . It would conveniently move him to a target in which he chose. Given that there was a battalion of minions by the paladin’s side, it made going to her a lot easier. After channeling the spell for about five to ten seconds, he soon appeared by Leona’s side.
“Ekko? What are you doing here? I thought you would be in the middle lane?”
“Last I checked, Rengar is helping clean out the trash over there and the others are pushing top, so I thought you needed some help.”
“You couldn’t be more right,” the warrior replied, pointing at the tower by the entrance to the enemy’s stronghold. “That tower is the only one left before the enemy’s inhibitor is exposed. However, Udyr is over there and killing any of our men that try to get over there.”
Looking over, the teen saw the spiritwalker in his Spirit Guard outfit using his fists in order to smack away at a few minions. “Really? He’s the problem? Oh dear, it’s Udyr! He barely seems like a threat!”
“Patience Ekko, there’s more to him than meets the eye-.”
The boy just rolled his eyes as he looked back at his teammate. “Patience? What’s that?” Without even letting Leona answer, he charged into the fray, trying to use his Timewinder to catch Udyr by surprise, only to watch as he didn’t budge due to his Turtle Stance . Then, he looked back at the champion that tried to attack him. Growling, he changed his stance. This time to Tiger stance. One that allowed for Udyr to move faster on the ground and pursue enemies. This one in particular being Ekko.
“Uh oh…”
At the moment Udyr charged, Ekko avoided his attack by using Phase Dive to dodge to his right. The spirit caller smirked, changing now to Phoenix Stance as he tried to use the flames that were emitted to burn the boy. Despite this working however, as they clashed, Ekko already had a chance to win. He just needed to time it right.
That was when Udyr was about to perform his final strike. “Rewind!”
This was Ekko’s Ace in the Hole. Chronobreak. An ability that allowed for him to retrace his steps back to where he was four seconds ago. Not only does the ability apply damage in an outward explosion, but it allowed Ekko a quick chance to recover. With a massive in the space-time continuum, Ekko warped out and back into reality, warping the area around him into a massive explosion of chrono energy
AN ENEMY HAS BEEN SLAIN
Ekko heaved a sigh of relief. “See, no biggy. Right Leona?...... Leona?”
YOUR TEAM HAS DESTROYED A TURRET
Ekko turned around, now seeing the paladin by the base of the tower she was trying to destroy. “Oh come on!? Did you seriously have to use me as bait!!?!”
“It’s not really how I do things, but I don’t let an opportunity go to waste. Besides, their inhibitor is right there and Quinn had just broken through the top lane’s defenses.” Leona pointed, seeing the demacian ranger and the bald mustache man destroy the tower on the other end of the base. “The quick we push through, the more likely chance we will win.”
“Wait a minute… Where’s Rengar though?” Ekko asked. “Has anyone been in contact with him-?”
AN ALLY HAS BEEN SLAIN
That caused Leona and Ekko to worry as the looked at one another. As they destroyed the enemy’s inhibitor and continue to fight the minions and champions of the opponent’s base, Ekko tried keeping track of everyone there. There was Caitlynn, Ziggs, Kennen, Udyr…… Wait, where was the fifth one?”
AN ALLY HAS BEEN SLAIN
ENEMY DOUBLE KILL!!
The screams that followed caused Ekko to lose focus. He was on his toes, trying to find out where this enemy was on the battlefield. That was, before he heard another voice.
“Stand behind Braum!”
Before another attack tried to strike Ekko, the Heart of the Freljord rushed in to block it with his shield. “You okay there, little rascal?”
“Thanks for the save, big guy. Who was that?” The boy asked. Braum sighed briefly.
“That’s Diana. Scorn of the Moon… and she really … REALLY … wants to kill us.”
“Why so?”
“Leona, that’s why. Diana has a fierce hatred for her-”
At the moment the muscled man said that, Leona and Diana had engaged one another and clashed swords. Diana furiously trying to strike Leona and cleave her head while Leona focused on disarming her.
“We can worry about them later. Right now, we need to get rid of those last two towers so we could go for the Nexus.”
“Good Idea.” Ekko agreed with Braum. The two of them pushed onward along with the new “Super Minions” that had spawned from destroying two of the enemies inhibitors. The minions, along with the combined strength of Ekko and Braum were able to destroy the first tower. But upon doing so, the Scorn of the Moon caught wind of their plans. She kicked Leona backwards and crippled her of using her arm that allowed the paladin to use her sword as she used her curved blade to go for Braum. As she was rushing forth though, Ekko saw her coming and pushed the Freljord man out of the way with all his strength as his guile clashed with Diana’s hooked blade.
“Foolish child. Do you have a death wish!?”
“I would say for you would be the one if you’re messing with me, lady.”
The Scorn growled. In a fury, she tried to hit the boy, only for him to phase dive behind her and tried to blink strike her from behind. But, to his surprise, Diana had three orbs glow around her as he was about to land his attack.
“What the-?!”
The three orbs caused a surge of magic to shoot pain through his body while the last one threw him backwards. Despite this though, Ekko didn’t give up as he continued to try and fight. even using his healing summoner skill to restore Leona’s health so her arm could be back in place. “Just what kind of goal are you planning to accomplish by stopping me, child?! Is this some insane plan from Leona?”
That’s when Ekko smiled… “Who said I was trying to stop you?... I was trying to stall you.”
Diana’s eyes widened. When she turned around, it was already too late. Ekko threw himself in Diana’s line of fire for her to not notice Braum while he tore down the opponent’s Nexus. When she turned to look, the last blow in the Nexus caused the mystical gem to crack and explode.
VICTORY!!!!
“Seem’s like I win, Moony.”
“This is NOT over kid. Do you hear me-!?”
Around then was when the cyan light that originally summoned the champions to the battleground whisked a few of them away at a time. First was the losing team, then there were his teammates. Now it was his turn. But as the magic glowed around him, the Token of Appreciation from the vendor he received earlier began to vibrate.
“What in the name of-!?” was all he was able to say before the cyan magic that surrounded him began to change and twirl violently, causing Ekko to disappear from sight.
Equestria
Luna was roaming through the starry playground of the dreamscape. Watching over the dreams of numerous ponies across Equestria. However, through her search, she came across something… unexpected.
It looked like the silhouette of …… well, a silhouette. Luna couldn't tell who, but could tell that it was a creature nonetheless. Two legs. Two arms. It had clothes from head to toe even though some of them looked ragged. Mane was standing up on end? Could it be a zebra? As she got closer though, she could see a darkened silhouette of Princess Twilight just outside. This, to her, meant that something else was going on outside. With a quick cast of a spell, Luna emerged into the real world, surprising the Alicorn.
“P-princess Luna!! I never expected you to be here!”
“I could say the same for you, Princess Sparkle… Pardon my rudeness, but why are you out here so late?”
“Well… I was looking outside my bedroom window as I was taking a break from studying to find this. There was a trail of weird…… symbols that lead all the way to it. But I can’t tell what it is exactly. You can’t even touch it either. It’s some sort of projection.”
Luna, surprised by that statement, tested the theory by trying to wave a hoof through it, only for her hoof to cut through the projection before it reformed. “Fascinating…”
“Have you seen this before Princess?”
“No actually… I have not.” The Night Alicorn replied honestly. “Did you said that there was a trail earlier?”
“Yes, but it faded away already. It was too fast for me to try and record.”
“I see…” Luna was very surprised by everything she and Twilight were seeing. But a few moments later, a small flash occurred, causing the two of them to be transported somewhere new.
“L-luna!? Where are we?”
“I-I don’t know. I would only assume that this is a dream.”
Around them were streets that almost looked like Canterlot, but ten times worse. The two ponies watched as they saw candles and what looked like a memorial on a wall before the two of them began to hear some words. While hearing this though, they realized that everything around them… was moving in reverse.
People waste a lot of time… Then they wish for more… Want more hours in their days, days in their years.
What they were seeing began to zoom out, showing two figures. A monster with a metal arm and what looked like a young child. Then, the two princesses heard a voice again.
As if they had all that extra time, they could fix any mistake. I don't need hours or days or years…… I only need seconds.
Everything that the two princesses were seeing unfolded so fast. A fight that occurred between the two of them and unknowingly, the child had slain the monster and won. To them of course. However, when it crashed into the memorial wall, the boy sighed to himself. It was back to square one for him.
Here's the thing about time…… if you can't make the most out of any given moment, then you don't deserve a single extra second.
When the vision ended, both Luna and Twilight had found themselves back where they were before in Ponyville. However, the image from before was gone. All that was left was the symbols that faded away. Both princesses that night decided to keep this to themselves. Thinking that this was some sort of weird dream.
But… Not everything is exactly a dream now… is it?
Ekko
He felt his body hit hard stone as he tried to open his eyes. Ekko honestly had no idea where he was or how he got here, but he had a strange feeling from it. Based on a variety of different factors from the texture of the ground to the noises that he heard… there was one thing he knew for sure.
He must’ve been in some kind of dream. Especially with the feeling of hooves touching his head. Trying to wake him up. When Ekko opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a two unicorns. One of whom was trying to talk to him. He couldn’t hear what they were trying to say, as his ears rung. Thinking it was just an illusion, he let gravity run it’s course as he fell backwards on the pavement.
End Break 0
Author's Note
Never look back...
Break 8- You're in the Wrong Neighborhood
Author's Note
"You're in the wrong neighbourhood." -Ekko, when taunting a Champion from Piltover. Alternate title was "Let's go hunt some Liches?" since Asphyxious decided to stop by. Still on a partial hiatus, but I'm doing what I can to help continue it. Thanks to Seth Typofather for giving me some ideas. Enjoy!
P.S. Thanks for putting up with me patiently. Here's a Poro
Break 8- You're in the Wrong Neighborhood
Chronobreak- You’re in the Wrong Neighborhood
Ponyville
It had only been a couple of days since Ekko, Twilight, and the rest of her friends found out about the assassination of Blueblood by the Virtuoso named Jhin. A twisted murderer from Runeterra who believed that killing was an artform, obsessing over killing his victims perfectly and personally believing that art required a certain amount of… cruelty. All things that Ekko and Poppy both saw as sickening and downright awful. Since then, Twilight had taken necessary precautions by having some of the guards in Canterlot be stationed in Ponyville during the night so the civilians could stay safe. Celestia promised that she would be able to find a way to get to the bottom of this on her end in Canterlot, but it had been some time since that was last said.
As Ekko was practicing with swinging his guile by helping Spike play a game tha t the dragonling and the children in town called “baseball”, their game was interrupted when Twilight soon teleported out to them… while Ekko was in mid-swing. “Woah, Twi! Can’t you see that we were in the middle of something?” The boy told her. “One inch closer and I would’ve smacked you upside the head on accident.”
The Alicorn breathed a sigh of relief as she looked back at the boy while Spike went back inside the castle. “I’ll keep that in mind… Ekko, the princess is having some ponies come over to the castle later today that might help us out with getting to the bottom of what happened back in Canterlot earlier this week.” Despite that sounding positive, Ekko himself was skeptical because of the amount of precaution that had already been taken. And the fact that the law and him did not really get along so well back home in Zaun.
“Is it your brother and that Flash what’s his face guy that we met back in the city?”
“Not exactly.”
“And with that, you lost me.” Ekko told her, only to get a buckler to the head from Poppy as she soon went over to where Ekko was, reminding him to be respectful, even if Twilight was a friend to them and allowed them to stay at her castle while in Equestria.
“Twilight, did the Princess happen to tell you the names of the ponies that were coming by any chance or how she found them?” The Yordle asked while Ekko was taking a drink of water nearby.
“Celestia put out a notice shortly after what happened that she was looking for the greatest detectives and law enforcement officers to help with the case, ultimately leading her to summon them to Canterlot after she received a letter of confirmation from them. Turns out, they might be related to you guys.” Hearing that though just caused Ekko to spit out what he was drinking, all before falling to the ground and laughing his ass off because of what the Alicorn said a few moments ago.
“Heh, real funny now, Twilight…” Ekko asked, only to see that her expression remained unchanged. “Oh by the league, you're serious.”
“I am. The Princess said that both of them are from the same League as you two, no pun intended, and that one is a sheriff while the other one is-.”
“An enforcer of some idealistic nonsense?” Ekko interrupted Twilight mid sentence. The Yordle was going to scold the boy for interrupting the Alicorn again, but the princess of friendship was actually surprised to hear what Ekko said to her.
“Y-yeah… well not the idealistic nonsense part, but the enforcer one yes.” Twilight replied, “Why? Do you know them?” The thought of it just caused Ekko to groan as he placed his Guile on his back and folded his arms.
“Know them? Twilight, if I’m thinking that the two that you are referring to is who I think you are talking about, then I'm going to warn you that I’m not on good terms with anyone who’s a Piltie.” The boy warned her ahead of time. However, Twilight was not exactly sure what he meant by “piltie” as she just tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. “Piltie is short for Piltover. It’s a city that’s rivals with my home Zaun since both of them are known as the two leading city’s that develop Hextech and help strive technology back home.”
“I’ve heard of Piltover before,” Poppy added, leaning back on her hammer as she looked at both Ekko and Twilight. “Some of the brightest minds back in my home of Bandle City went to the University that’s in the heart of the city to learn about mechanical engineering, but that’s all I remember since Rumble has an oversized mech, Ziggs craves for explosions and Heimerdinger makes the worst jokes revolving around science.”
“Uhh… How bad?” Twilight asked, tilting her head a little.
“Honestly… don’t ask…” Poppy warned her. “But in all seriousness, how come you don’t like Piltover Ekko?”
“Because a lot of them are high class jerks and are just as corrupt and selfish as the criminals from Zaun. I honestly believe that we can make the future… and that starts by cleaning up the crime and the corruption on the streets. But that’s why back home, I’m seen as a vigilante…” The boy told them. “Because the justice system and the government is too messed up in order to be trusted and progress doesn’t belong to one city… like Piltover.”
“Oh…” Poppy at that point was at a loss for words as Ekko turned around and walked back into the castle. Leaving both Twilight and the Yordle personally stunned by what he had just told them. But that just brought more concern as well because of what Twilight mentioned earlier about the two “helpers” that Celestia had summoned to assist with trying to catch the Virtuoso. “So did the princess actually say when we are suppose to be expecting them, Twilight?”
Casting a spell, the Alicorn summoned the same piece of parchment that she had only received moments ago as she scanned the page with her eyes. “Well, according to the Princess she said that… they would… arrive…” At that point, her eyes widened immensly. “M-moment-tarily…”
“And that means?”
“A-any minute...” The Alicorn said, before looking at the Yordle. “Oh Goddess… I don’t feel prepared at all for this.”
“I think the feeling’s mutual,” The Yordle sighed as she picked up her gear and began to walk. “Come on. Let’s go find Ekko and make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble.” Even if Poppy’s words were to help ease Twilight’s nervousness, Poppy herself had a bad feeling that something bad was going to happen real soon given the recent series of events. That thought was soon confirmed as they arrived to see Ekko patiently waiting… and two new figures soon tumbling into the main hall of the castle. One with Pink hair and oversized gauntlets while the other one had a shirt skirt and a top hat.
“Well, would you look at that. It’s the Sellout and the Law Dog! Funny to see you here of all places!!” They heard Ekko say, just as the one with the gloves looked back in the boy’s direction and have her once calm face twitch a little. “So how does it feel now that you’re a piltie, Vi.”
It took a few moments for her to recognize who was talking to her, but then the enforced groaned, annoyed by the current circumstances. “Oh come on… Just when I thought that things couldn’t get crazy enough and now you show up? You’ve been gone for a few months and now you try to annoy me here? Please don’t tell me you happened to arrive here by that princess...”
Ekko raised an eyebrow before putting his guile on his shoulder “Vi, not to surprise you or anything, but I’ve been here a lot longer than you would think. The whole time I disappeared , I was somehow here… Trust me, it’s a long story-.” It didn’t take long for conflict to start though, but not from Vi. Instead, it was from her accomplice, who thought that Ekko was threatening her and tried to aim at his head. Just at the teen used a phase dive to dodge the bullet. “Oh come on! Can’t you not be so eager to shoot me right now?!”
“Give me one good reason not to,” The Sheriff snapped. “Especially with all the havoc you’ve been causing, I have no doubt that you’ve probably been doing the same thing here.”
“Hate to break it to you, law dog, but that’s not the case.” Ekko said. “Besides, even if I wanted to fight you… Twilight probably wouldn’t allow me too. That and there’s also Poppy-.”
“Wait what?”
“Poppy… You know… The demacian yordle with the oversized hammer?” Ekko said, just as she was walking in and looking at everyone.
“What did you say about my hammer!?” She snapped at them.
“N-nothing!” He replied. But thankfully, the sight of the Yordle caused the other two to calm down as they looked at both the boy and the keeper of the hammer with newfound agreement. “Still, as I was saying, we haven’t been causing any trouble, but besides myself and Poppy, along with Tahm Kench in the Everfree ,” The boy said under his breath. “The only problem that we have right now is Jhin… I’m sure Celestia filled you both in?”
“Yes, but It just makes me think… How is it that we somehow end up here… Do you think there are some… similarities between Valoran and… I’m sorry, what’s the name of this rock again?” Vi asked, causing Ekko to groan a bit.
“Equus.”
“Ah right… Still, don’t you think it’s… well odd that there might be some similarities. When Celestia was telling us about the Everfree Forest or something like that, I couldn’t help but think of the Twisted Treeline.” The Twisted Treeline in itself was one odd place that felt like a rotted out and haunted forest. But it also served as a battleground for matches in the League of Legends. However, unlike Summoners Rift, Twisted Treeline put three champions against one another and added different objectives to the standard destroy the enemy nexus game.
“Okay, well, maybe we should talk about that in a few moments. I can make us some tea,” Twilight insisted as she had the two lawbringers follow her into the nearby room, causing Ekko to breath a sigh of relief. He seriously just dodged a massive bullet (quite literally as well) with running into Caitlynn and Vi and right now, he felt like it would be good for him to try and chill out for a moment. Until he noticed something that Poppy was messing around with in her hands.
“Hey, what you got there?” He asked, turning to see that the Yordle was holding a green emerald gemstone.
“Some kind of Emerald I found this morning while in the marketplace… Oddly though, it makes me think of that Chain Warden in the league.”
“Who would that be?”
“Have you heard of Thresh at all?” The Yordle asked, only causing Ekko to shake his head no in response. But while they stepped outside and Poppy tried explaining to him what Thresh was to him, Ekko could feel something pulse inside the gem… Like it was… Alive somehow.
That when a large portal opened up, giving them a scare before something large steps out. The metal being was terrifying to look at, not only that it had a skull for a head and a large sword in it right hand. It then looked at them and tilts it head to one side. “He-. ”
WHACK!!
“Back off, Thresh!” Poppy snarled, whacking… whatever this being was suppose to be upside the head. “You aren’t taking our souls today!”
“Poppy, please calm down-.”
SMACK!!
After being hit on the head a second time, the metal being reach out and grabbed her hammer. It let out a growl before throwing Poppy into a tree. “Asshole… ” It said glaring at her, before turning it attention to Ekko. “Now then let’s start again, my name is- ”
“Thresh, Right?” Ekko assumed. “Because you just sent my friend Poppy into a tree and she really isn’t a fan of soul robbing liches.”
“...Who’s Thresh? ” The Lich asked before looking around. “Hey, we’re in ponyville. Wonder if Twilight is around? ”
“She’s… busy talking with Caitlyn and Vi.” Ekko responded. “Are you sure you aren’t familiar with Thresh… Matter of fact, are you even from the League?”
“Dude, I have no idea what you're talking about. ”
That just left Ekko to only one other possible question to ask, considering that he barely had any options left. “So if you aren’t from the League of Legends… Then you must be a Displaced, right?”
“Right on the nogen kid, Looks like you're the smart one out of the two of you. So, why am I here? ” The Lich asked as it pulled up a small cage from a chain on it hip, as he then started to look at it.
“Technically, Poppy gave what might be your token to me and then you know the rest… Trust me, her hitting people over the head with her hammer is normal,” Ekko sighed. “She even sent Discord flying into Canterlot.”
“That sounds funny as hell, oh by the way name Asphyxious. ” Asphyxious said as he held out his large metal hand.
“I’m Ekko, nice to meet you Asphyxious.” He replied as Poppy landed back on the ground with a loud THUD! as she looked back at the Lich. “And that’s Poppy… the one you threw into a tree.”
“Well, as long as no one else picks a fight with me I should be fine. I’ve been itching for a good scrap. ” Ekko rolled his eyes as he looked back at Poppy, telling her that Asphyxious wasn’t like this Thresh person that she was referring to before.
“If you what you say is true Ekko, then I’ll be fine with it. We already have enough problems with that twisted murderer Jhin killing Blueblood and now, we’re trying not to cause panic.” The Yordle informed him.
“Wait, back up. Someone has killed Blueblood… Who would dare try and hurt my nephew! ” Asphyxious growled as a little fire came off of his body.
“Easy Asphy… It’s this world’s Blueblood, not yours…” Ekko informed him. “And like what Poppy said, it was done by someone named Jhin, a twisted murderer who believes that killing is an artform and goes as far as to obsess over his killing his victims perfectly. Earlier in the week, three guards and him were killed in Canterlot, but Blueblood was hit instead of Luna, who was with him at the time.”
“...I wish to help you find this, Jhin and end him. This may not be my nephew, but I still feel like the loss is the same. Come with marrying Celestia and Luna, along with the girls. ” Asphyxious said sounding happy as he start to daydream. “Pinkie makes good cookies. ”
Both the Yordle and the boy looked at each other with a confused expression to represent how lost in translation they were, before Ekko groaned deeply as he set his guile on his back. It was then though that the Lich noticed the contraption that Ekko had on him and was curious as to what it was.
“Now what is this? ” Asphyxious asked as he took a closer look at Ekko gear. “Is it some kind of power sources for your sword? ”
“Oh no no no… That’s my Z-drive. It helps me with some of the abilities and gadgets I have… plus, this is a guile, not a sword,” Ekko pointed out to him as he tapped it on the side of the Lich’s head so he could tell the difference. “I put a lot of hard work into it and what it can allow me to do has almost baffled everypony I have met so far.”
“I wish I could take it apart and get a real look at how it works. ” The Lich replied but leaned away and saw someone coming. “Looks like we have more guests. ”
Turning around, Ekko noticed Spike, Twilight, and Starlight from inside the castle come on out. “Hey everypony, how is-. OH MY CELESTIA!”
“Hello Twilight, looking as lovely as ever I see. ” Asphyxious said as he then gave a bow to her. “Do not fear, my name is- ”
“Give it a rest, Thresh.”
“Poppy, his name is Asphyxious.” Ekko groaned, facepalming himself as he looked back at the Awkward Lich and the Alicorn. “He’s a Displaced like I am. Both Twilight and I are… familiar… with them.”
“I hope I’m not being rude but, can I rub your ear? ” The lich asked the princess of friendship. “My wife and I back home have been so busy, I’ve mist the time we would just sit around and I’d rub her ears. ” That just caused Twilight’s face to flare up in an all out blush as Ekko facepalmed himself. If he wanted too, he would rewind time to prevent Asphyxious from saying that… but then again, that would be a stretch.
“Uhh……”
“I’m kidding, I’m just pulling your leg Twilight. ” Asphyxious said before going to Ekko. “But really, my Twilight back home would have my head if I flirted with any other Twilight’s. ” That just caused the Alicorn to do one thing that was proper for that moment… She fainted. Falling asleep as she hit the ground. Spike himself was forced to have to drag her heavy body back to Twilight’s room while everyone else just was trying to understand what was happening.
“...I feel we should be going, before Twilight wakes up and asks about my life story. ”
“Any possible suggestions?” Starlight asked, a little nervous when speaking. Asphyxious taps his chin in thought.
“Did this Jhin say who his next target was? ” He asked looking at Ekko. “It help if we knew what he was planing. ”
“No he picks his targets at random… plus, there had already been some extra precautions taken recently involving security measures down here at Ponyville and up in the Crystal Empire.” Ekko said, briefly remembering that portion of it.
“I see, well then if there nothing I need to do. If you’ll let me, I’m going to explore for a bit. ” Asphyxious said as he walks off. Ekko sighed, looking back at Poppy and Starlight before saying something.
“How long would it be until one of the other townsponies freaks out or Rainbow Dash tries going all Defender of Ponyville on him?”
“Well, I’ve only known her for a short while… but I would have to say… Not long?” Starlight assumed, looking back at Poppy and him before all three of them heard a loud crash and the sound of boxes flying everywhere as some fruit crates landed almost a few inches from their general location.
“HOW DARE YOU STEP HOOF IN HERE!!! I’M GOING TO TEACH YOU WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MESS WITH THE AWESOME RAINBOW DASH, YOU METAL SKULL FREAK!!”
“... I feared that might happen.” Ekko groaned as he turned around and ran off. Hopefully, if Rainbow actually knew any better, she wouldn’t try anything stupid… Then again, this is Rainbow Dash he was thinking of here, so it was a bit of a toss up.
“Tell me, do you crash into all the guys like this. Or are you just happy to see me? ” Asphyxious joked as Rainbow Dash was standing on his metal chest.
“Great… a lich and a pervert… This is definitely not my day.” Rainbow groaned internally as she smacked Asphy’s skull before moving back a few inches to give her some room.
“Awww, and I was hoping we could play a round or two of. Who can not laugh first. ” Asphyxious said as he sat himself up.
“Says the monster that got in here-!” She said, planning to charge at him again until something came flying at her, stopped in mid-flight and returned to the owner as Ekko soon approached them.
“Both of you, settle down… Rainbow, this is a friend of mine named Asphyxious… He means no harm.”
“Highly doubt that, but If you say so, I’ll take your word for it.” Rainbow Dash groaned, “But did you seriously have to throw your Timewinder at me?”
“If I didn’t, your hoof would've been hitting a metal skull…” Ekko pointed out, shortly before he realized that Asphyxious grabbed onto the Pegasus and was cuddling her like a cat. “Oh you have got to be kidding me…”
“What? My RD loves this, Also my skull made of bone not metal. ” Asphyxious replied before scratching the back of Rainbow Dash head like a cat. The strangest part was she was purring during the whole thing, but when she was finally out of the grip, all that was on her face was a blush.
“Hey! What’s the big deal, you skeleton creep!?”
“Did you want me to keep petting you? ” Asphyxious asked with amusement in his voice. “I would love to, but I need to help Ekko stop a killer so maybe next time. ”
“Oh right… that guy… Well, good luck trying to find him. Last I heard, he’s nowhere near Ponyville, Canterlot, or any of the other major cities,” Rainbow replied back. “Besides, the real problem is trying to tell the rest of the town that you aren’t a monster.”
“I can change my form if that helps? ” Asphyxious asked. “Let me think, what form should I go with? ”
“What forms do you even have?” Ekko posed the question for him.
“There my Lich form what I’m in right now, my human form, dragon form, Pokemon form and a little something the girls back home enjoy. But I think I’ll try this. ” Asphyxious said as his body go up in blue fire, and once the fire is gone, what Ekko saw was a changeling in armor wearing an eyepatch.
“That… may be fine… but can you use a changeling’s magic?” Rainbow questioned the lich. “Because Changelings can disguise themselves as ponies, so I wondered if you could do the same thing.”
“I don’t know, I know that how I change forms I just don’t know how far it can go… Maybe you and I can find out?” Asphyxious asked waggling his eyebrows at her. Only leading to Rainbow punching him in the face and having him fall backwards.
“Heh, just like home…” He said with a grin on his face. “Only my wife more kinky. Anyway let be off then.” Asphyxious said as he got up again and walked off… Only for Rainbow to facehoof herself as she looked at Ekko.
“He has no sense of direction does he?”
“I’m not sure, why do you ask?”
“Because he’s about to walk into a store, in his changeling form mind you, and that store happens to be Rarity’s boutique.” It took a few moment for that to sink in, but what they saw next was downright awkward.
Rarity was chasing Asphyxious, trying to use a can of bug spray and whack him with a fly swatter. “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, YOU DIRTY BUG!!”
“KINKY!” Asphyxious yelled as he laughed. As he was trying to get away from the angry mare. “You know you want me! For I see the love in your eyes!” Then he started to sing. Only to get his face blasted by a powerful burst of magic that had him crash into Twilight’s castle.
“That’ll make him think twice before trying to win me over… He doesn’t even know how to properly talk to a lady.” Rarity sighed, before noticing both Rainbow Dash and Ekko. “Oh… You two ran into him before?”
“Yeah, he’s a weird one if you ask me,” Ekko replied. “But he has a name. It’s Asphyxious.” With a flash of light, the Changeling Asphyxious popped back to the group, breathing like he had been running for his life.
“I have return, from the den of miss Sparkle. She was not happy to see me, said something about not this dream again?”
“ …… You have weird friends, Ekko.” Rainbow said, only causing the boy to facepalm himself as he tried to resist the urge to knock Asphyxious over the side of his head with his guile,
“Trust me… I’ve only met Asphy today and this happens…”
“Okay let’s get going-.” And like that he start walking out of ponyville, like he was a different person, before he stopped. “Wait… my god I need to go back! I’m going to miss Dox Wedding!”
“Uhh… What?”
“No time! I need a gift!” Asphyxious yelled as a box was handed to him by Pinkie Pie, who appeared out of sugarcube corner in a blur of bright pink. “Oh... Thank you. Just call me when there’s trouble.”
“Okie dokie!” Pinkie said before she turned to the lich one last time. “Oh and Poppy will help you with your exit. Hope you aren’t afraid of heights!” The Earth Pony soon zoomed off afterwards, leaving Rarity, Rainbow, and Ekko to back up and watch as Asphyxious was sent flying into the air by her strongest ability, Keepers Verdict .
“And with that, I made sure to Hammer him in the jewels… literally.” Poppy smirked evilly, causing Ekko to facepalm a little as he looked back at the Yordle. This was going to be a LONG day for him… Even if their visitor was gone.
Crystal Empire
The cold winds of the north were felt across his fur as Shining Armor walked along the walls of the Crystal Empire. Despite his position as a newfound father, and the Crystal Empire now being safer than before after the Crystalling, the Unicorn felt uneasy. Mostly because a little while ago, he and his wife found out about the tragic fate of Prince Blueblood in Canterlot and the thought of a cynical killer running around on the loose really bothered him. Made him feel like he had a target on his back, even if the choice of victims was said to be… random.
As he trotted along the wall, he soon began to look out into the distance and watch the blizzard ahead. But what he did not expect was to hear the sounds of a loud roar and slams in the ground. Followed by the sound of a hammer and magic being casted. To him, he thought that somepony was in trouble. So immediately, he grabbed a spear from the weapon rack and teleported himself to the cold and freezing trench below. Trying to see through the blizzard and find out what was going on.
He found out once he saw a Yeti’s arm try to slam him, only to be blocked off by some kind of spell… Which was odd to Shining because he never casted a spell besides the one to teleport himself to the ground. But with it, the Unicorn also heard two words.
Fight on.
It was in that moment that Shining saw something. A bipedal figure with a series of crystal floating from it’s shoulderplates as it swung its mace at the Yeti. Striking a solid blow along the creatures head as it fell to the ground. Soon though, the figure turned to Shining, a surprised look on his face. “Well… This is somewhat unexpected… Are you hurt?”
Shining Armor shook his head, drawing out a sigh of relief from the unknown protector as he looked behind him. But Shining then asked him a question. “W-what are you doing out here in the Crystal Empire?”
That question… caused the man to turn back around. “Crystal… Empire? Forgive me, but I have not heard of such a place in all of Valoran. But the place just makes me think of Mount Targon…” After a short moment in thought, it looked back at Shining as something dawned on him. “Oh, I am sorry. I almost forgot to ask for your name.”
“I-i’m Shining Armor. Captain of the Guard here,” he spoke, almost stuttering in the beginning. “W-what’s your name mister?”
“My name is Taric…” The man simply said, not sharing his title or having to add anything onto that.
“Well, Taric, Would you like to come inside the Empire? It’s getting cold and with the blizzard kicking up, it may be a while before we have clear skies again.” The man agreed, only looking behind him to wonder how his journey had gotten him to this point.
And what could possibly lie in store for a man that was once known as an Oathbreaker.
End Break 8
