Tristana stretched her arms, the swamp stench burning her nostrils. It was harsh, but this was training after all. Only best part is she was allowed to use her favourite weapon; a cannon the size of her body she trapped sideways on her back. Thanks to Heimerdinger, it weighed next to nothing with all the gizmos and such used to modify it for the gunner.
“Mistake number one…” a hoarse voice echoed through the swamp, putting Tristana on edge. “Always keep your weapon drawn in enemy territory.”
Obliging to the voice, Tristana swung out her cannon and began firing at a bush the sound was coming from. Lifting her gun slightly she lumbered through the muck to inspect it.
“Mistake number two…” A serrated knife was at her throat, it would only take one pull to slice her windpipe in two. “Never let your guard down until you see the enemy corpse.”
Smirking, Tristana pointed downward to her aggressor. The cannon had been raised just enough to swivel under her arm to point directly backwards, a well placed elbow on the trigger. “Cut me up, we both go down.”
“Nice to see you’re improving,” Teemo chuckled, withdrawing his knife.
Rubbing her throat, the gunner wiped off a purple substance. “Blinding poison?” She sniffed it, getting dizzy as Teemo observed with amusement. “…Why did I do that?”
“I switched out the blinding poison for a dip in Graggy Ice, we all know you’re a lightweight and well, it seemed funny at the time,” the scout chuckled, pulling off his Omega Squad uniform helmet.
“You jerk…!” Tristana drunkly swung at her friend, only to trip and be caught by him before her face met with the swamp.
“Yep, funny. How’s being part of the rescue team working out?”
“They didn’t let me take my gun, so I modified a firehose.”
Teemo blankly stared at her, processing her reply. It did seem like her to always want explosions, but to make water go boom? Well, whatever made her comfortable, Teemo was willing to just accept it. Though what did worry him was that Rumble seemed to be getting awfully clingy as of late, perhaps he’s been getting desperate in his dating attempts knowing he will be deployed in a week with a new mech suit.
Willing to change the subject, Teemo cleared his throat to let Tristana stand on her own. “I signed Veigar up for Blitzcrank’s fleshlin-“ Pausing for a moment, he realised just how silly it would be to drag out the bottom line of what he was trying to say, ”…dating service.”
The gunner burst out laughing, wiping a tear from her eye. “H-Him?! Date-worthy?! Bwahahaha! Isn’t that i-insult to injury after he failed to steal The Mothership and you sent him hurtling out the window with a blinding dart?!”
“He found a match,” Teemo stated in a deadpan voice.
Tristana paused mid laughter, her eyes slowly scanning her friend’s face to make sure he was dead serious. “Who?”
“Lulu apparently.”
Processing this, she shrugged. “Eh, makes sense. They’re both coo coo, only thing is Lulu would keep him in line.”
“Wanna head back to the barracks mess hall?” Teemo suggested. “Corki showed me a new way to mix rations into something edible.”
Tristana felt her stomach growl, it had been hours since she last ate. “Sounds good, maybe we can see if specs is making something new with that pretty boy from Piltover.”
“You two were pretty close huh?” said Twilight.
Teemo nodded. “She stuck to me like glue when we were off duty, I think she had a thing for me but… I preferred to just ignore it.”
Arching an eyebrow, the alicorn leaned forward. “Well, when you do get home I think it would be best to clear things up with her.”
“I wish I could,” he replied solemnly. “During our last mission, I did something I should have never done.”
“What do you mean?”
The Yordle stared back. “Do you know what the Scout’s Code is?” A silence grew between them. “If you’re thinking about boy scouts, think again. It consists of five rules; Never involve civilians in skirmishes, safety of allies and innocents is top priority, never be afraid to make a tactical retreat, challenging a superior officer must have a good reason and always have each other’s backs.”
Twilight nodded, writing them down. “Those sound very noble.”
“I just wish I had a clue of what I was thinking when the enemy struck…” Teemo growled, clenching his paw-like hands into fists.
“Who were the enemies?”
“Ourselves, Bandle City devolved into a civil war.”
“Why?!”
Teemo sat silently for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “When Jayce, representing Piltover had his meeting with our representative Heimerdinger to discuss sharing blueprints of hextech machinery as a form of good will, Rumble had no intention of working with humans. He gathered Yordles that followed his ideals; that Yordles were the superior masters of hextech machinery compared to humans.” He slightly chuckled to himself. “To everyone’s surprise, Veigar didn’t join him, something about wanting to ‘conquer the world’ on his own terms before going on a honeymoon.”
“So you reformed a villain?”
He shook his head. “No, he’s still evil, only a little more social and easier to talk with.”
Diving from a hail of bullets, Teemo rolled into a partially destroyed buildings wall for cover nearby an injured ally. “We need an evac, asap!” he screamed into his built in radio. “Relax, buddy… you’ll make it…!”
The injured Yordle coughed out, “Sir, there are civilians trapped inside this building. G-Get the evac to save them first.”
Weighing his options, Teemo nodded and added through the radio, “We might need the medical team.”
“I’ll cover for ya down below!” an elderly voice croaked through the radio, ever-cheerful and rearing to go, Corki was already sending out a beating with his rockets.
“Corki you magnificent bastard!” cheered the swift scout.
“Eat this, ya whisky delta!” Corki shouted, launching a large rocket into a trench. The resulting explosion launched bodies left and right, the daring bombardier cackling. “This should keep em busy, ground team!” Out of the corner of Teemo’s eye, he caught a glimpse of a sharp, electrically charged metal object soaring towards Corki’s ROFL copter. Before the bombardier realised what just happened, the harpoon had embedded itself into the hull of his vehicle and severing the fuel line. “Well that ain’t right…”
Staring in disbelief, Teemo watched as Corki’s coptor disappeared with a blinding flash and was replaced by a fireball of his smouldering wreckage.
“Corki…?” Teemo croaked through the radio.
Static.
“Corki?!” he screamed into the radio, another voice replacing the static.
“Teemo? Teemo you there?” It was Tristana, standing behind him with her rescue team. “Buddy…?” She reached out for his shoulder, her hand getting swatted away without a second thought.
“Out of my way,” he coldly replied, casually striding out into enemy fire.
“Teemo wait!” she called out, grabbing his shoulder adamantly. “Remember your code!”
Teemo shook his head to escape his trance. “You’re right… evacuate the civilians and our comrade, at least let me find out of Corki’s still alive.”
Tristana and her squad gasped in unison.
“He’s dead…?” one of them whispered.
Another whispered, “But The Mothership needs him…”
“Without him we’re as good as dead…”
“What are you all just lollygagging here for!? Do your mission!” roared Tristana.
“Yes ma’am!”
As soon as they were out of earshot and eyeshot, Tristana did something Teemo never thought she would do; cling to him sob.
“A strong lady like her breaking down…” he mused. “She was always so strong both in body and spirit.”
“Corki must have meant a lot to you two.”
“He was like a father figure for us, he taught us the ropes of The Mothership and kept us safe when we needed his help. With him gone, we didn’t know how to cope. I snapped, Tristana quit the force and Heimerdinger began building machines of war to demolish the enemy out of rage. We were all never the same. So if they never followed a code, why should I show the same courtesy to those bastards?”
“I’m so sorry I bothered you with this…”
“It’s fine, the war’s over now.” He chuckled.
“How did it end?”
Without warning, Teemo stabbed a knife into the crate, grinning. “This very knife slit Rumble’s throat during my last mission, the idiots at The Mothership claimed they’ve established peace finally. But peace is a fairy tale from how I’ve seen things. Because of my reckless manoeuvre, many innocent lives were lost, The Mothership overlooked my war crime to 'keep those alive happy we have a hero'.”
A scream died in Twilight’s throat, too afraid to even move a muscle she instead stared at the knife, her pupils the size of pin heads. She felt if she dared move that knife would be replacing her horn within a fraction of a second.
“Don’t worry, I only use it for carving and cutting my food now.” Teemo picked it up and sheathed it. “I hope I answered your questions, and gave you some good history.”
She nodded, one more question burning in the back of her mind, though from what she had seen it would be best to avoid such a question.
“And no… Corki didn’t survive,” he answered, as if knowing. The Yordle hopped off the crate he was sitting on and casually strode out to the cargo carriage door. “You’d be surprised how quick fur ignites.”
Once the door closed, Twilight took a moment to let all of this sink in. Was peace really a facade? History was written by the winners after all…what if her world’s peace was ill-gained at the cost of innocents? All this was too much for her to take in, gripping her head with her hooves she let the stress get to her as she broke down and silently cried alone as Luna’s moon overtook the sky outside.
Teemo hopped onto his bed, observing the other ponies conversing with Ashe and Tryndamere. It appears as if Rainbow Dash has taken a liking to the barbarian’s ‘awesome’ stories of battle while the two pacifists Ashe and Fluttershy exchanged ideals.
“Hiya!” Pinkie squealed, appearing right in front of Teemo who didn’t seem to flinch. “Where’s Twilight?”
“I’m sure she’s fine, darling,” Rarity reassured.
“But I wanna know his story!” the party pony seemed to whine, this was rather amusing for Teemo to watch. So carefree, so full of life.
On cue, Twilight teleported in, her eyes covered by her mane.
“Twilight!!!” cheered Pinkie. “So how’d it go, huh, huh, huh?!”
“I’m going to sleep…” she glumly replied, slowly trotting over to her bed and tucking herself in, facing away.
Knowing what had just transpired, Ashe gave Teemo a disappointed glare followed by everyone else staring at him warily.
He simply shrugged. “I gave her the information on me she wanted.“
The train lurched to a halt, anything and anyone not nailed down being shoved by the force into the carriage door. “What the hay just happened!? We ain’t at Canterlot yet!” screamed Applejack, pulling open the curtain to look out the window. What should be a starlit night was a swirling green and black mass of ethereal mist. A bright green light illuminated the distance behind the train, a lantern coming into view.
Getting a clear view, Ashe’s eyes widened. The train began to move again, though slower than usual. A green hook connected to a spectral chain shot forth and embedded itself on the window frame. “Tryndamere!”
“Right!” he growled, swinging his blade at the hook to no effect. “Not working…! Gonna need some help!” Nodding, Teemo and Ashe began firing their respective weapons at the hook to loosen it with minimal success.
“What’s going on?!” screeched Rarity, hiding behind Fluttershy.
A ringing of chains echoed as the owner of the hook floated into view right in front of Tryndamere, a skeletal floating face reeking of despair and agony. “Wrong move!” Tryndamere roared, swinging at the creature’s face. No effect, a swirling mass of souls instead protected its face and bounced his blade off of them.
The train was chugging at full speed, the hook loosening ever so slightly. It held out a clawed hand in reach of the ponies, ignoring Tryndamere, Ashe’s and Teemo’s constant barrage. “So sane…so innocent,” it’s voice rang.
“You will not harm my friends!” Twilight screamed, her horn glowing in a rage. “Out the way!” Reeling back, she shot a magical beam of concentrated energy at the monster. With the force, the hook detached, sending the creature tumbling into the distance as the train continued moving. Turning to the two humans and Yordle, Twillight wasn’t willing to leave any loose ends with what they’re dealing with. “You three have a lot to explain about who you were dealing with before coming to Equestria.”