Chapter 13: First Blood
The Redemption of Jericho Swain
Chapter 13: First Blood
One thing that Applejack still hadn’t gotten used to was the shop. She was pretty sure that the gold they used wasn’t real, since it didn’t weigh anything or take up more space than her coin purse could ever hold. The fact that it steadily increased without any visible interaction only reinforced this belief. More strange than that, though, were the items. At the insistent whispering of the Summoner linked to her, she had purchased a tiny necklace, some potions, and some small, totem-like items that were called wards, which would serve as an early warning against enemy ambushes. As soon as she had grabbed her purchases, though, they dissolved into tiny particles of yellow magic that trailed into a slotted bracer she had been given. Shortly afterward, four of the six slots filled with small portraits of her purchases.
Riven had explained it to her once. She was not purchasing the items. They merely served as representations of power based on various artifacts held in the vaults at the Institute of War. The League loved its picture-perfect champions, and telling an archer to buy a gigantic magical sword to increase her fighting ability seemed rather silly. So, to preserve the iconic imagery every champion evoked, each champion’s standard battle attire and weaponry were enchanted to never become permanently damaged, and instead of buying actual items to use in battle, the champions would buy representations of an item’s power. In this manner, they could reap the benefits of any enchantments on the weapons, as well as gain a predefined measure of the weapon’s killing ability, which was regulated by League officials. Even with all of the explanation though, buying five different sets of armor seemed ridiculous to Applejack, even if she could acknowledge the practicality of the set-up.
“You gonna sit there all day, or do Ah gotta drag you to lane?” snarked Graves, who had bought a pair of boots and some potions in the time it had taken Applejack to even find the right necklace that she was supposed to buy.
“Uh, Ah’m good now. Let’s go,” replied Applejack, trying to remain polite despite Graves’ obvious displeasure at being saddled with not one, but four newcomers on his team. Applejack just happened to be the one assigned to protect Graves, who had a reputation among other champions for being a deadly fighter once he had purchased some equipment.
“Ah heard all ‘bout your training and whatnot, hell, Ah’ve even watched you a time or two to see what you were made of,” Graves growled, beckoning her to follow as he began to walk down one of the large lanes to the side of the slightly smaller center lane. “Ah don’t care a lick how good you think you are, kid. In this lane, there are only two rules. Keep me safe, and don’t kill the minions while Ah’m there. You may be plenty tough, but you ain’t got no stopping power like this gun has. Ah don’t care to play babysitter to some new kid, but Ah’ll promise you fair and square, you keep me alive, and Ah’ll murder our enemies.”
As her Summoner affirmed the truth of what Graves had been saying in her head, Applejack nodded humbly. “That sounds fair enough to me. Ah ain’t very comfortable with killin’, even if it’s just this pretend fake kind. Ah’ll do what it takes to win though.”
“Good. Last time Ah had to deal with a first-timer, she couldn’t stop turning people into squirrels long enough to hear a thing Ah said,” replied Graves. “Speaking of which, we’re against her today. Watch out for her trickery and that damn fairy of hers. She’ll likely be constantly poking around for weakness. Smash in her nose in when she sticks it where it doesn’t belong.”
“Yessir.” Applejack hefted her warhammer, and readied herself mentally for battle.
- - - -
Meanwhile, across the battlefield, Twilight crouched patiently in patch brush. Across the trees, in more of the rampant undergrowth of the jungle that spanned the space in between the three lanes, two soft green outlines gently burned in her vision, telling her where Pinkie Pie and Rainbow were hidden. Twilight had been waiting in the brush since shortly after being transported to Summoner’s Rift, guarding Rainbow Dash as she prepared to hunt the various beasts that would be shortly appear throughout the jungle. It hadn’t taken her long to buy some potions and a pair of boots, as her overachieving instincts had long ago prompted her to note that the shopkeeper always laid out his wares in the same manner, and she had subsequently memorized the layout. In less than a minute now, she knew that the large, stone guardian called an ancient golem would soon appear. Despite the stony exterior of the beast, or perhaps because of it, the golem wasn’t especially intelligent, and would follow Twilight for several seconds after she grabbed its attention, oblivious to Rainbow Dash, who would be chipping away at it from behind. Shortly after Twilight returned to the middle lane that she would be guarding, Rainbow Dash would finish slaying the construct, and hopefully not long afterward, she would be ready to set up an ambush. Everything would go according to plan, like they had practiced.
Rainbow Dash was excited. Of course, Rainbow Dash had always been the most gung-ho of the group, having a naturally competitive spirit. She embraced nearly all forms of competition, even going so far as to spend a good portion of her foalhood practicing the Lightning Hoof style of martial arts, even though most of Equestria that wasn’t part of the Royal Guard ignored any manner of martial art. Though she had never found anything to equal her passion for racing and trick flying, Rainbow Dash easily devoted herself wholeheartedly to anything that was both athletic and competitive. This was no different, and she had been training hard. Many times, her friends had warned her against overconfidence. Rainbow Dash didn’t believe that was the case, though. Her confidence was hard earned, and she prided herself as one of the best athletes in Equestria because she knew for a fact that she was indeed one of the best, and no other pony alive could begin to match her speed in the air, not even her heroes, the Wonderbolts. Those famous flying stunt performers may be able to soundly trounce her in terms of agility and grace, but not one of them had ever gone supersonic in the air. She’d earned the right to a little of her brash and showy nature.
In front of her, a massive beast made entirely of stone suddenly materialized from nothing, its singular eye glazed over as it passively waited for any champion brave enough to face it. Hopping back and forth impatiently, Rainbow Dash waited for Twilight to make her move, while beside her, Pinkie wandered off to the last unoccupied lane.
After two seconds that seemed like an eternity to Rainbow Dash, a blast of violet magic slammed into the side of the golem. Rainbow Dash moved in, hacking away rapidly, swirling in the air around the oblivious beast as it charged after a long-absent Twilight Sparkle, who was already stepping carefully over the friendly minions that were passing by in their endless rush toward the many defensive towers that they were programmed to constantly assault.
Rainbow Dash was in the zone. She knew she could do this. The League wasn’t even half-ready for Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria and new best fighter in the League of Legends.
- - - -
“Executed!” Pinkie instinctively flinched as the announcer’s voice echoed through the battlefield, displaying a portrait of Rainbow Dash and one of the jungle monsters high in the air, where spectators and warriors alike could see it. Pinkie’s Summoner dryly noted that according to Rainbow Dash’s Summoner, the pegasus-turned-human had a larger grasp over creative language than either of them had predicted, as she had been swearing for two minutes straight after respawning on their team’s summoning platform.
“Eek. Hope she doesn’t beat herself up too much over it,” Pinkie commented to nobody in particular as she hopped over to another badly damaged minion, finishing it off.
“You should be more concerned about yourself, child,” Pantheon, her opponent, countered. The heavily armored warrior chuckled to himself as he readied his spear. “I have seen many newcomers to the League as of late, and by far you are not the most impressive. It’s almost insulting to have to put you down.”
Pinkie giggled as she dived under the spear, rolling past Pantheon, nicking him with her parrying dagger on the way. “You take things too seriously. I really like your outfit though! It’s like you’re trying to be all GRR and intimidating and stuff! And your legs look really strong too! I bet you could jump really high and-”
Pinkie was abruptly cut off as Pantheon bludgeoned her with his massive shield, dazing her slightly as he aimed several rapid jabs with his spear at her. “By the gods, child, please stop talking!”
Pinkie cried out and staggered back behind her minions, sporting several new cuts. Pantheon laughed cruelly as he pursued her, striking forward with his spear. Pinkie mock-growled as she parried it away, slashing rapidly at Pantheon with her rapier, never once losing her bubbly exterior. Pantheon sighed. He hated newcomers. This was going to a long match, he suspected.
- - - -
Twilight Sparkle winced as another bolt of fire managed to catch her off-guard as she squared off against her opponent, a man who appeared to be completely and permanently consumed by fire called Brand. He hadn’t bothered with the banter that Twilight had been told was common between champions, and had remained sullen and silent as Twilight introduced herself and tried to be sociable. The entire situation was bizarrely awkward to her, as she tried to make the acquaintance of a person possessed by a fire spirit while they both tried to kill each other. She hadn’t had much time to pity Rainbow Dash’s embarrassing jungle mishap, though she knew that her friend’s pride was probably sorely wounded, and though she used what little spare thinking time she had to try and talk to Brand, her Summoner had been bombarding her with information non-stop, informing her of weakened minions, the state of her allies, the state of her enemies, how long until he thought she might be able to get away from her lane long enough to lend some aid to her friends without being noticed in time. It would have been overwhelming, if Twilight hadn’t already made a habit of multitasking to an almost unhealthy degree while she studied. Even so, at times she found herself having difficulties processing all of the information given to her.
She’d been doing everything by the book. She’d waited for minions to be weak before she took them out for a bonus to her income, and she’d used every opportunity she could find to poke at Brand’s defenses. It had been several minutes, and nobody had died on either side except Rainbow Dash, but Twilight thought she might be ready to make a move soon. She just had to wait for the perfect opportunity, when her opponent over-extended slightly...
She saw her opportunity as Brand stepped a little too far towards her side. Quickly, she appeared behind him with a flashing shockwave, eliciting a grunt of pain from him as he turned to engage her. ‘Good,’ she thought, ‘He’s too badly beat up to win a one on one fight, but he’s doing it anyway. Hah! Why would he even try...oh, ponyfeathers.” She didn’t even have to look behind her to know that the roar that had suddenly erupted behind her belonged to that half-dragon hybrid that her Summoner had mentioned was on the other team.
- - - -
Things had been going downhill from near the start for Rainbow Dash. She’d killed the ancient golem without any problems, moving on to the nearby clearing where three wolves sat, waiting for a challenger. The first sign of trouble came when she had moved to the other side of the battlefield, in the section of jungle closer to Applejack and Graves than Pinkie Pie.
The monsters in the jungle weren’t actually alive, but were similar to the minions on the battlefield, automated fighters to help boost a champion’s gold accumulation, and to help synchronize a champion with a Summoner so that the pair could access the full scope of the champion’s fighting ability. Due to a colloquialism developed during the prototypical experiments that preceded the League, these groups of monsters were commonly called ‘creep camps’ by personnel at the Institute of War. When a creep camp was completely destroyed, a signal would be sent to the Junior Summoners that were responsible for creating and maintaining them, and they would begin the process of recreating the monsters. The catch was that unless every monster in a given camp was destroyed, the signal would not be sent, and the camp would not be remade. This had given rise to a tactic commonly referred to as counter-jungling. The jungler, a champion commonly designated to patrol the spaces in between the lanes, who would wander the battlefield unseen by any enemies, using the creep camps as a source of income, would instead venture into the territory closer to the enemy to hunt monsters, usually leaving a single monster alive at a camp to prevent the camp from resetting, thus denying the enemy jungler precious monster kills.
This very fate had befallen Rainbow Dash as she came to a camp that only had one of the four ghost-like apparitions that comprised it present. This had only been a minor annoyance at first, as she had preemptively consumed one of her health potions in anticipation of sustaining more injuries fighting the so-called wraiths. She had walked away from the camp uninjured, feeling the potion work its way through her system uselessly.
It hadn’t been much of a worry then, but afterward she came to another camp that held one of the more powerful monsters, a powerful lizard-beast that held a temporary magical enhancement similar to what she had gained from slaying the ancient golem. This beast was somewhat more deadly than the golem had been, striking noticeably faster. Rainbow Dash had taken many injuries as the fight progressed, and even with help from her Summoner in the form of a spell specifically created for damaging the various automatons on the battlefield, it was a losing fight. Too late she realized that one missing potion had cost her the battle, and she began to retreat. It hadn’t been in time though, and the world went black for her for a few seconds as she succumbed to her injuries.
“...Celestia damn it all to fiery destruction!” she said as she reawakened on the platform that she had first appeared on at the start of the match. For roughly two minutes afterward, her words were nothing but a series of curses that became increasingly vulgar, not ceasing until she had returned to the lizard elder, healed and ready for round two. As the beast finally fell, she spat on the ground. “Serves you right. You look like someone crossed a dragon with a diamond dog, you ugly piece of-”
“An ally has been slain!” The announcer’s speech was mostly automated, having been enchanted to give relevant messages to spectators and each team, though what each group heard was different. Twilight had gotten a little too eager to engage the fire mage on the enemy team, and subsequently, the same champion that had previously sabotaged Rainbow Dash’s wraith camp had now ambushed and killed her friend. Making things worse, Rainbow Dash’s Summoner had informed her that in Applejack and Graves’ lane, the two enemy champions, an archer named Ashe and a yordle mage named Lulu, were putting more pressure on the two than they could handle, and would need assistance. Rainbow Dash sighed as she began to head through the jungle towards them, knowing that her already stunted income was probably about to take another dive. If they were lucky, they might manage to take down one of the enemies, but Rainbow Dash’s confidence had taken a hit.
It took little time for Rainbow Dash to reach the lane commonly referred to as the bottom lane, where Applejack and Graves were being constantly harried by their opponents. Crouching silently in the reeds and long grass that grew rampant by the nearby stream, she tried to gather her willpower. ‘Gotta stay focused. If I let it get to me too much, I’ll just cripple myself. I can do this. I am speed. I...am...speed.’
- - - -
“Enemy double-kill!”
- - - -
“When you’re coming in for a fight, either commit or don’t,” growled Graves at Rainbow Dash as they both appeared on the summoning platform. “And get your damn head in the fight. If you keep letting that lizard kill you in your head all match, we’re already done for.”
Rainbow Dash was about to snap a response at her teammate when Applejack appeared beside them. Rainbow Dash turned to her. “You die too? I didn’t hear the announcer.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “Weren’t you paying attention when Twi’ was explaining all of this? Our Summoners can use magic to take us back here when we need to heal and buy.” Applejack frowned deeply as she continued speaking. “Gonna have to let the tower fall, Ah think. We can’t defend it and we’re only getting further behind trying to hold it.”
“Agreed. Ah’ll be fine by mahself for now, kid. Help your friend get back on her feet. That wizard girl’s having trouble too. Y’all should go relieve some pressure.” Graves began heading back toward his lane, leaving the two girls at the pad.
“Well, better get going. Twi’ needs our help,” said Applejack, tossing a few coins at the yordle tending the shop before heading back to the battlefield with her new equipment, Rainbow Dash following closely behind.
“Hey...Applejack. I’m kinda...” Rainbow Dash trailed off, hesitating a moment. “I’m not sure if I can do this. I’ve always known I’m one of Equestria’s best athletes, but this is different...I’ve screwed up so much already.”
“Don’t sweat it, sugarcube,” replied Applejack. “Ah know you, and Ah know there ain’t nothing you hate worse than leaving a friend hangin’, and that’s exactly what’ll happen if we can’t beat this little game they’ve put us in. All our friends and family and loved ones will just be hangin’, waiting for us to come back. Ah sure as hay wanna make sure Ah’m there if Discord or somepony like him ever comes back, so ain’t no way Ah’m letting this get to my head. Loyalty’s your Element. You gonna give up on protecting our home just cause you got a rough start?”
“No, no I won’t.” Rainbow Dash’s voice was serious, but a smile still graced her lips as the two stalked through the jungle until they came to Twilight’s lane, where Brand had her pinned down near her tower. The large structure, though powerful, was rather slow to respond to threats, and the fire mage darted in and out of its range, hurling fire at Twilight and stepping away before the defensive structure had a chance to discharge its deadly magical projectile at him.
Rainbow Dash’s Summoner confirmed that all parties were ready, and they began waiting for Brand to make another pass at Twilight. It didn’t take long, and Twilight barely had time to dodge as a pillar of fire erupted from the ground beneath her. As Twilight readied herself, she had a flash of inspiration. Charging at Brand, she unleashed a familiar burst of illusion magic.
The Want-It-Need-It spell was a magic that she hadn’t touched since she had almost wrecked Ponyville with it, but here, in the heat of battle, she had no such reservations, and her sense of control had improved vastly. To complete the illusion, she even decided to anchor it to a mirage of the same childhood toy that she had originally enchanted.
Brand caught site of the ragged doll on the ground, and the spell instantly took hold, and he staggered helplessly to it, enraptured. After a couple of seconds, he was able to easily shake off the effects, being far too experienced with such trickery to be affected for long, but the damage had already been done. Twilight appeared behind him in a flash, a magical shockwave erupting from her. Brand grunted in pain, and responded with a searing bolt of flame, which struck Twilight solidly in the chest.
Twilight cried out, but didn’t falter, raising her hand as she felt her power building up within her. The ground began to crumble beneath her opponent, and he stumbled for a moment as he extracted himself from the rift that had appeared in the ground below him.
It was at that moment that Rainbow Dash and Applejack exploded out of the bushes they had been. As Brand found himself surrounded, his Summoner transported him a few feet away in an act of desperation, and Brand immediately sprinted toward his tower, only to be stopped dead in his tracks as the weight of Applejack and her plate mail slammed into him from the side, bowling him over. As he tried to extract himself from Applejack’s grasp, Rainbow Dash caught up to him. Brand only had time to growl in defiance before he was impaled upon Rainbow Dash’s blade.
As her friends congratulated her on her kill, Rainbow Dash grinned, wiping the blood from her blade on the grass. “Good job everypony. Applejack, you wanna come with me and see if we can make something happen in Pinkie’s lane?”
“Double Kill!”
Rainbow Dash looked up, and saw Pinkie’s beaming face as the announcer proclaimed her feat for all to hear. Rainbow Dash smiled. “On second thought, I think she’s fine.”
- - - -
Pinkie Pie giggled, stepping deftly over the body of Pantheon’s buddy, a weird half-dragon woman who had tried to catch Pinkie off guard. Of course, catching Pinkie by surprise was like catching...something very difficult to catch. Pinkie shrugged, abandoning the simile. That kind of thing had always been Twilight’s schtick anyway. On the other hand, a mixture of taunting and feigned weakness had been right up Pinkie’s alley. After all, if anyone knew about unbearably annoying when the occasion called for it, it was Pinkie, and these two had been no exception. Of course, Pinkie had, unlike her rainbow-haired friend, been paying attention when Twilight explained to them how towers would automatically attempt to attack anyone who injured an allied champion, and Pinkie had used that to her advantage, dancing around the base of her tower as the two enraged warrior tried to surround her. The dragon lady had fallen first, which Pinkie mildly regretted on account of not getting to ask her name, and Pantheon had tried to retreat. Of course, his tower-inflicted injuries had made him easy pickings for Pinkie, and she’d chased him down and secured the kill.
Violent as it may have been, Pinkie decided to look on the bright side of all of this pretend-killing. She’d get to meet all sorts of new people, and it was kinda fun matching wits with an opponent. She could deal with this.
- - - -
Celestia picked Discord up from the ground, ignoring that the blood dripping from various injuries was staining her coat. The fool had tried to break free from their new benefactors, and Celestia had been forced to show him the error of his ways. Of course, now their plans to save Twilight Sparkle from that cruel world would be delayed by weeks as he recovered. There was no way Discord could power the portal in his state. ‘Soon, my beloved student. Soon.’
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ha! Pinkie's so much fun
woot epic battle is epic
Exhilarating!
Though now I really want to see Twilight and Pinkie's ability pages - they look less autoattack/cc-related than the other two, and want to see what these 'Devastating purple magic blast's are :P
Anywhoo, keep up the great work!
it would be cool if you could detail out there abilites
Lol, Pinkie baiting and RD failing to jungle. I love this fic
lol wuuuuttttt
Pinkie is somewhat like Fiora then? "Fiora is my main" Applejack seems like Alistar to me, Twilight sort of like Ryze "Q" or Ezreals "E" arcane shift... Interesting..
Finally, it begins! Excellent job here; great writing, and I can't tell who will win!
Omg, Rainbow Dash you nooblord!
Nooblord
Nooblord
Nooblord
Nooblord
Very well done! I hope we see the conclusion of their first match in the next chapter.
I like how you keep the action fast paced, but don't go into tons of detail for each skirmish. Gives a real good flow to the story while mixing in the action. And I figured Pinkie would be good lol. Poor Pantheon (one of my mains), he never gets any love :(, though I can definitely picture many funny scenes of Pinkie generally driving him insane ("She never. Stops. TALKING!"), but maybe she could teach him something about baking. Speaking of the Rakkor, are you going to have the mane six meet Leona and Diana eventually? Might be interesting to see how they react to another fight between the sun and moon.
Pinkie Pike OP. Better nerf Irelia.
Rainbow Dash dies to lizard, feeds bot. GGReportunskilledhuehuehue
Poor Graves, he has to put up with the newcomers.
Twilight and Brand are even with 1 assist and death each.
Dash and Shyvana are 1 kill/death each, though Dash is way behind in cs unless she counter jungles quickly before Shyvana respawns.
Graves is behind Ashe by 2 kills.
Applejack is behind Lulu by 1 assist.
And finally, Pinkie Pie is ahead of Pantheon by 2 kills, and probably has more cs since Pantheon was killed.
Yes, I'm totally shoutcasting this fanfic.
1064532
I was hoping for something along the lines of "Here comes the PARTILLERY!"
Maybe that's her ult, pulling the Party Cannon from whatever pocket dimension she stores stuff in and firing it. At point blank range.
Wonder how many new LoL accounts this fic ended up making.
God damn it, I said inb4 execute...
Nice opening, i always love your champion cameos and I can totally see Dash geting overzealous in the creep camps.
I didn't think Brand had blood anymore.
But what was Dash wiping off her blade?
As always looking forward to more, and hopingfor Galio.
So far we have 3 of Twilight's 4 Abilities, no clue what her passive is.
1. Teleport w/Damaging AOE, similar to a Kassadin warp I guess.
2. AOE/Slow attack, all we have is it blasts the ground and slows.
3. Charm/Taunt Want-it-Need-It. I thought a more aggressive version as an ultimate would be funny. Target a guy, and everything nearby attacks him briefly, but this works too. Not sure if it would be single or multi-target, guess it's largely irrelevent.
No clue about Rainbows abilities, Pinkie probably has some sort of detection/dodge passive. Applejack has a stun/root slam.
Can't wait for them to start breaking out the party cannons, rainbooms and lasso tricks. Applejack really needs a lasso trick.
Pinkie Pie OP. Better nerf Irelia.
i almost feel sorry for graves. almost. but its better him dealing with newcomers than some of the more aggressive champs like morde, cho'gath or hecarim, probably because they'd end up killing them themselves
still awsome story none the less
Inb4 mane6 meets Hecarim and his Suffering is Magic
Applejack would talk with him about blue ribbons ^^
WoW both The League Of Discord and this stories has captured my interest, a lot!
If it would be possible to a few questions? When will chapter 14 be out? And could i suggest a thought about a certain thing my imagination threw inside the story? Twi, Aj, Dash and Pinkie are asigned to their next match(with some other champion to go with them) and they get the pleasure of meeting their 5 opponents outside the fields of justice. The Terror Of The League as the certain 5 are called. The members in mention shall be Mordekaiser, Hecarim, Nocturne, Shaco and Fiddlesticks. The name suits them, doesn't it? 
And so as they meet Fiddle takes the bit crazy and bossy role of being his team's captain. As some of the others are scared/creeped out by their opponents Pinkie lets out a simple giggle with the comment that all of them are funny looking. 
And after a seond of silence the 5 terrors burst in to laugh, and as a party lover himself Fiddle takes to like Pinkie for her humor and guts to tell it right infront of them. Seriously i laughed my ass of while thinking of it! 
So those are my questions and suggestion. Hope to hear what you and the amazing audiance of this BOUSE fan fic think. 
Regards KRissCHu573.
"...Celestia damn it all to fiery destruction!"
My, my. Someone has a mouth on her. Though in her defense, Twilight gave a kinda crap leash.
Umm... What happened to that warhammer you said she had a few chapters ago?
2542592 Editing happened, of course.
2543427 Then shouldn't you edit the previous chapter with the warhammer to a sword? X3 (It's 'kay. I do that all the time! XD Just wasn't sure if it was something overlooked, or... you know. Thanks for answering! Loving this fic!)