//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: The Doctor Displaced 
// by Kaffeina 
//------------------------------//


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