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!