For whom the cogs turn, time marches on.

by Warioexpert

Rating: everyone
Tags: Sad, Fluttershy, Original Character, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Slice of Life, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 3405

A story of two brothers in the past and a lone stallion in the present.

In the past there were two brothers, Alleycog and Gemheart.
Both lived in Manehattan as inventors trying to make a better future for Ponykind.

In the present there's a lone stallion just moving into Ponyville.
What mystery will this stallion bring to the town? only time will tell...

Published 2013-10-17 16:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-17 16:00:02 UTC

The two brothers

Our story starts in a small moment in the past.

The big city of Manehattan, it was the same as any other day in the Big Apple.

The streets hustled and bustled with merchants in their fruit stands shouting out what they had for sale, business ponies trotting to make it to their jobs on time and all sorts of pony pedestrians that roamed the sidewalks.

And in between all the busyness of the streets, two colts trotted through the older city folk.

“Hurry up Gemheart!” said the younger white colored Unicorn colt as he trotted ahead, he was wearing a brown burberry hat on his dirty gray colored mane, in which he had his horn protruding from the top of it and his cutie-mark resembled silver gears meshed together.

“Slow down Alleycog I'm coming!” the older Earth colt huffed as he tried to catch up, the color of his coat was cyan and his mane was long and white also having spots of grime, on his back he carried saddlebags that were loaded with different machinery parts and scrolls of rolled up paper, all of which weighed him down immensely.

They were both Orphans, Alleycog being the smarter one of the two had an almost natural ability with different machine parts, he was always the one to come up with a plan to make money for their survival or in most cases to create a get-rich-quick invention, which would unfortunately always end up with little results due to the ambitious scales of his inventions, like an automated carrot peeler or even a steam powered scooter, they never had the means to make such things, though he still keeps all his ideas on blueprints.

Gemheart the older one was obviously the muscle, he was fairly strong for his size and age, able to haul and carry all the blueprints and machine parts Alleycog needed for his inventions, he was always happy to help his brother in arms and never complained about the heavy loads, in fact he enjoyed to work hard, at the same time he was very gullible to the extent of going with everything his brother planned out, no matter what the consequences were, however being the brawn of the duo didn't mean he wasn't smart, he also did his part in coming up with some ideas to make money, although with simpler methods like selling newspapers or offering services such as hoof shining and running errands for other city folk.

Neither of the two knew anything about their parents nor were they related by blood and apparently neither of them cared, they were the perfect duo, having fun everyday and getting into trouble as they did, to later plan out there next move the very next day and then some.

“Finally we made it” Said Alleycog as they reached their hideout located at an abandoned apartment building, no one had lived there for countless years and it seemed old enough to be one of the few buildings that were first lifted in the founding of the city, it was getting dark as well.

“Great, lets just get these inside” Gemheart grunted tiredly, the weight of the saddlebags he was carrying was more than what he was use carry, and the fact that he had already walked halfway across the city which made it even worse for him.

The Unicorns horn started to give of a white glow that enveloped the wooden planks boarding the doors, with a simple motion of his head the seemingly bolted down planks moved aside, as soon as they walked inside the planks covered up the entrance again, as if they were never moved in the first place.

They then walked up the stairs of the three story building reaching all the way to the third floor, the entire floor itself just an open room for some reason, aside from the boarded up windows, cracks in the walls and all the old furniture that was left behind, it was the perfect home for the duo in their opinion when they first stumbled upon the place, Alleycog using his magic again levitated a box of matches, he then lit a single match and started to light oil-lamps that were scattered across their hideout.

As it lit up the room revealed many blueprints of all kinds of inventions hung up on the walls, the hammocks that the two used to sleep at night, and the many toys that were scattered all over the floor, since none of them wanted to clean up the place, it was a big mess to live in.

Gemheart then lowered his neck and let the heavy saddlepack slide off his back, with a relieved sigh he let himself fall on his side, giving out a loud thud as he hit the dusty floor.

“It was a lot of hard work, but we finally saved up enough money and got all the parts we need”
said Alleycog holding out his chest in pride, it was no joke, the two had worked very hard and saved a large sum of bits to be able to afford the specific parts for their next big plan, an invention that would revolutionize the way ponies would live their daily lives, exited the white Unicorn levitated one of the scrolls out of the saddlebag and rolled it out on the floor, Gemheart after getting on his knees looked over the schematics with a smile.

The invention itself was nothing anypony had ever seen before, it was a pair of mechanic appendages that would strap onto the saddleback of anypony who needed extra help in anything, the designs emphasized on harnessing Unicorn magic to make the appendages move, the ends of the appendages resembled human hands with working fingers capable of performing any day to day task with ease such as cooking, it would also be safer for blacksmiths, construction workers or any other kind of labor that required bigger distances between the pony and the danger factor.

“Do you really think this will change the world?” said Gemheart with a proud smirk.

“Definitely!” responded Alleycog with the same expression. “Now lets get to Work!”

We now move our story to the present time.

The town of Ponyville, everything was calm as nighttime settled over the tranquil town, the crickets chirped, the nocturnal animals started to scurry and fly about and princess Luna’s moon rose over the horizon before it held its place in the star spangled sky, bathing the night in its silver radiance.

Most of the ponies that lived there where getting ready to end another blissful day, the stores closed, the fruit stands packed up and left and the doors of homes locked shut, and soon after they were tucking themselves in their beds and started to sleep soundly, eagerly waiting for the next day.

All except for the violet Alicorn who lived in the town library, Twilight Sparkle, with her loyal assistant Spike, the baby dragon.

“Okay Spike, lets try this again,” She said to her reptilian companion as he held up a canvas of some-sort.

“how many times have we tried this already?”.Spike groaned miserably, he was exhausted from both the late night and the fact that he had been holding the canvas all day long.

She looked deeply into the canvas he was holding as she ignored him, the canvas itself was a portrait of many vibrant colors being spread outward like a firework explosion, she then concentrated as she closed her eyes.

With her focus centered on the colorful image her horn started to glow faintly and soon increased to a bright shimmer continuously intensifying, the baby dragon watched with a bored look on his face, by now you could see the bags under his eyes.

“Hmmm......!” A burst of light shot out of her horn like a small mortar, she bit her lip and watched as the light started to float toward the ceiling.

“Come on, come on!” She shouted out to the light as it reached its highest point, it shimmered brightly before popping like a dull firecracker, her mouth was left gaping open from the frustration.

“Well that was Anticlimactic” Spike stated bluntly before getting scolded by the frustrated Alicorn"

She was practicing for the annual Ponyville fireworks competition that takes place in the middle of the year and all of her friends were going to be participating for the grand prize of 1,000 bits and the best fireworks of the year trophy, however she wasn't interested in the prize, she just wanted to participate, have fun and give off a good show while she was at it, only thing was, the competition wasn't until 4 weeks later and she had just decided to start practicing today, much to her dismay that she couldn't get her magic firework to give off any colors whatsoever.

She gave off a disappointed sigh as Spike struggled to keep his eyes open and to not drop the canvas.

“Hmm... Maybe next time i should use a stand?” She rubbed her chin, she was starting to feel tired as well from practicing, she then took the canvas out of the tired baby dragons hands with her magic before sending him off to bed, she kept wondering as to how she was going to be able to perform the firework spell before the competition,she walked towards a window wanting to take a look at the starry sky.

As she looked out the window, a sight laid in her eyes that gave her a disturbing feeling, it was the sight of a shady figure walking on the street, as her eyes adapted to the darkness she could tell that the figure was wearing a black cloak that concealed it and on its back where heavy looking saddlebags that seemed to give of a metallic jingling sound.

'what in the world?' she thought to herself as the figure headed towards town hall.

The mysterious figure lifted its head as it came up to the town billboard, the eyes concealed in the black hood scanned through the many notices posted on it, the biggest poster on it was the notice for the fireworks festival competition, it scoffed for a moment before it looked towards the jobs section.

“Hmmm...” A mouth then reached out of the hood and grabbed a single job notice in its teeth, the figure then walked up to the entrance porch of the mayor’s office and knocked on the door with a firm hoof.

“Come In!” The voice of Mayor Mare shouted allowing entry, as the door opened the figure watched as the mayor of Ponyville was going through her daily papers, as everypony knows the mayor’s work is never done, she then took a glance at the cloaked figure that stood in the middle of her office, her mouth gaped open as she was startled at the sight.

“U-Um... May i Help You?” She said nervously as she tried to keep her composure, she could feel a cold sensation running down her spine, as if her life were in danger, the tall figure simply walked up to her desk and and placed the notice in front of her, the note read.

_______________________________________
| WANTED |
| Town Blacksmith |
| |
| See Mayor Mare for more Details. |
| |
|______________________________________|

The mysterious figure then threw its head back allowing the black hood to slide off revealing the face of a young stallion with cobalt blue fur, dark green eyes and a short spiky mane that was as black as soot, the stallion then cleared his throat before speaking.

“Forgive me for startling you ma'am” he said with his deep sounding voice.

“Oh... well its quite alright” she said with a sigh of relief before taking a good look at the stallions face, the town had been needing a blacksmith for a long time, and judging by the newcomers looks he easily seemed qualified.

“So, You think you have what it takes to become this town’s blacksmith” she asked with a smile as she tested him mentally staring into his piercing green eyes, the stallion gave a simple nod.

“Yep” he said, the mayor nodded back approvingly, for some reason she could tell he was a hard worker who was up to the task.

“Alright then young stallion, right this way” She walked around the desk and towards the door, he followed soon after as he pulled his hood over his head, she and the mysterious young stallion walked along the road that lead to the outskirts of Ponyville, soon reaching the old blacksmiths shop, which had not been in use since the last blacksmith passed away of old age.

The mayor then took her keys and unlocked the door to the shack that was behind the shop, as they entered she started to explain to him about the job itself, the accommodations he will be given in ponyville and that in order to function he will have to venture out to the badlands in order to supply himself with iron ore before any work could be started here, knowing that didn't seem to bother him though, she then showed him through the work area outdoors, which resembled a blacksmiths work area from the middle ages.

“And this ends our introduction to your new job, i will leave you the key to this establishment and wish you the best of luck Mr. Um...”

She paused for a moment realizing that she had forgotten to ask the young stallion for his name the entire time, she then apologized and politely asked for his name.

“Oh sorry, I didn't give my name when i walked into your office... My name is--”

“Gemheart... Gemheart!” Alleycog shouted into his ear, both of them had been up all night long working on their newest invention and Gemheart had fallen asleep in the middle of the assembly process, of course with this Alleycog was mildly annoyed, he always knew his brother as a heavy sleeper, but now was not the time for snoozing in on the job, not when their most ambitious goal was afoot.

“Come on, get up ya’ big lug!” He kept shouting into his head no avail, the crafty colt rubbed his chin, then a mischievous snicker stretched across his face as he hatched an idea to wake him up, his horn lit up with white magic that pulled in machinary parts that were strewn around the hideout, they started to assemble into different configurations of mechanisms.

“No... Nu-Uh.... Nah...” His tongue stuck out on one side of his mouth as a bucket full of water floated over the sleeping Gemheart, he smiled as he watch his prank machine come together snapping each part into place, a few parts then assembled into a make-shift lever beside him before as he put the finishing touches, the mechanism itself was a simple system of gears and pulleys that lead to the bucket resting on a plank of wood, he flipped the switch and the diabolical contraption functioned as it was intended, dumping the whole bucket of cold water on the colts head.

“Ahhh! C-Cold!” Gemheart sprang up from the shock, his head got stuck in the bucket as he ran and crashed headfirst into the wall before falling flat on his flank, his head was spinning, meanwhile Alleycog had also fallen on his flank from the laughter, which turned into sheer hysteria when he saw that the confused Gemheart left a big hole in the wall at the spot his head bashed into.

He grunted as he shook the bucket off his head, water dripped off his mane as he glared at the Unicorn, who was struggling to catch his breath, he then turned his sights to the machine he had used to wake him up before, after a moment of silence he hoofed himself on forehead, half of him couldn't believe that he had built a mechanism as complex as that just to prank him, and the other half reminded himself that it was Alleycog, blowing things out of proportion was one of his character flaws after all, the angry Earth pony then sighed quickly giving up the urge to strangle him.

“Alright Alleycog i'm awake, lets get back to it” And with that they resumed their work on the machine, so far they had assembled the belt that attached to the limbs and part of the first appedage, they continued working all through the night as the hours ticked by, Gemheart felt like he had anvils for eyelids, his head constantly bobbed from exhaustion as he helped by bringing each part that his brother called out by name in a tray, and every time he was about to fall asleep he was quickly shocked back to consciousness by the thought of getting cold water dunked on his head again.

Alleycog however was feeling like he was in a deep trance of rotating cylinders and cranking gears, parts levitated in and out as he settled each individual piece into perfect place with his his magic, as they finished the left appendage of the contraption they started to hear sounds outside.

It was the familiar sound of pigeons cooing on the window, the now tired Unicorn looked at the boarded up windows with a twitch in one eye, it was morning and princess Celestia herself was moving the sun over the horizon as she tucked the moon away starting a new day for the city of Manehattan, they both squinted as the natural sunlight seeped through the planks.

“Hey look at that... it's morning already” Gemheart said delirious as Alleycog rolled his eyes to his obvious statement, he then looked at him, by now his younger brother looked like a train wreck, Gemheart suddenly started to smile, a sight that for some reason bothered him.

“Are you okay bro?” He asked with a concerned tone in his voice, he knew that Gemheart would never complain about anything they would do, but this started to seem like a little too much even for him.

“I'm just happy is all... Happy that i've been able to help you so much...” He said tiredly, Alleycog stared at him quietly, for a moment he felt a little guilty, before he was able to say anything Gemheart finally gave into exhaustion and collapsed onto the floor.

“Gemheart!” He frightenly shouted, a few seconds passed by before he could hear him snoring, Alleycog then chuckled in relief to know that he wasn't out-cold, he watched as he kept sleeping with the smile still on his face, this made him wonder about something before he looked down at his flank, to his disappointment his brother’s flank was still blank.

He then remembered the time when Gemheart told him the tale of the misery he use to go through before meeting him, he used to live in an orphanage at the northeast edge of the city and despite being the biggest colt there, he was the one who was mostly picked on by everyone for being the only blank-flank in the entire group and no matter how many things he would try his cutie-mark would never reveal itself to him.

Then, on that one fateful night he decided he finally had enough, with saddlebags full of stashed snacks and his own wits he set out to make a name for himself on his own and left the dreary place that tormented him behind.

Soon after he met Alleycog, a colt that lived off the streets and discovered his talent with machines, after disassembling an entire factory of equipment out of curiosity and seeing that Gemheart was a the kind of hard worker he needed to make his vision of being a famous inventor a reality and Gemheart seeing Alleycog as the only one that could help him get his Cutie-mark and help him find his true potential they both decided to join forces and become the fated duo of Manehattan.

'But that was two years ago'. He thought to himself, even with that much time gone by they were still the same, an ambitious wannabe inventor and a spineless blank-flank, he gave one last sigh before he decided to drop what he was doing and go to sleep, he walked to his hammock and settled himself in it falling asleep soon after.