The Discord Virus
Chapter 1: The Rainbow Factory
Part 1
As night began to rise, it seemed the very town of Ponyville quieted down in a restful sleep – unmoving and peacefully silent; kept warm by the blanket of darkness enshrouding the village. Yet the occasional rustle was heard as I sauntered through the calm, empty streets. The air seemed to have a dull thrum to it – like the beat of a drum. I looked towards the sky, ‘Or the flapping of pegasi wings.’ I thought as two indistinguishable figures materialized out of the dark night. It appeared the figures were flying towards me in a rapid descent. “That can’t be…” I said to myself, already knowing I was wrong.
Straightening my top hat, I viewed the figures, now semi-visible in the moonlight. “Armored pegasi from the looks of it; Celestia’s personal guards perhaps?” I concurred in my rather monotone accent.
Dust and leaves scattered about as the two pegasi landed in a flurry of wings and stomping hooves a few feet from me. I eyed them as they gathered their bearings; aside from an inch or two in height difference, the two were indistinguishable through their moonlit golden armor.
“Clockwork, I presume?” the taller of the two questioned in a gruff voice.
“The one and only time controlling pony, at your service.” I acknowledged with a bow and a tip of my hat. The two ponies were now collected and stood stiff at attention, an unexpected sign of respect. ‘You always enjoyed bragging about me, didn’t you, Celestia?’ I thought to myself, remembering a dinner party a while back when Celestia had shared some of my tales with the guests.
The shorter guard spoke up, interrupting my thoughts, “We bring urgent news from Her Highness, Princess Celestia.”
I turned my head to the second Pegasus, “And what news is that?” I inquired, joy slowly draining from my voice.
“Princess Celestia requires your immediate presence – we weren’t told anything aside from that.” the taller Pegasus elaborated.
“Fair enough…” I said under my breath. “Might I ask how long it took you two to fly here?” I inquired.
A look of uncertainty flashed across the guards’ faces as they wondered where the question was leading. “About an hour or so, sir.” The smaller Pegasus answered.
I resisted the urge to cringe when he addressed me as sir. “You can drop the formalities; I’m not as important as Celestia would have you think.” I said, sliding a small bit of humor into my voice to relax their mood. Despite my calm voice, my mind was running rampant trying to think of a reason for the summon. ‘Small chance it’s an invite to a tea party…’ I rationalized.
“Yes sir – err, Clockwork.” The taller guard stuttered, unused to calling a respected pony by their first name.
“And you left from Canterlot an hour ago?” I questioned them. They nodded their heads, confirming my need to rush. “Then we’ve no time to lose. Have you ever traveled through the shadows of time before?” I asked, then interrupted before they could answer, “Of course not… but there’s a first time for everything.” I said, leading them to a particularly dark shadow cast out by the wall of a nearby building.
“It’s going to be like traveling for hours in a matter of seconds.” I explained, giving them both a silver gear that I had pulled from my pocket. “Hold onto these, and don’t let go.” I warned, giving the guards a harsh shove into the shadows. They almost instantly disappeared, leaving behind only a small blur of where they once stood. “I love this part…” I conferred before stepping into the shadow myself.
“Halt!” the sharp command was called when a nearby guard noticed three figures that had seemed to appear in the shadow of a little-used stone bench. The armored Pegasus rushed forward but was halted in his tracks at the sight of the only figure that was standing up. I was wearing nothing but my normal attire, but it was nowhere near a normal thing to wear. A top hat with a gear strapped by a ribbon sat on my head while a pair of leather goggles hid my eyes through the light-purple tinted lenses while my coattails were held on me by three straps with buttons over my chest.
“O-oh, you must be Clockwork. The princess is waiting for you in her quarters.” The guard stuttered, standing straight as a tree.
‘You and your formalities,’ I complained in my head. “These two need chocolate milk; don’t ask – just do it.” I demanded. Stuffing the two gears back into my pocket, I galloped through the front garden like a train, the sound of my flapping coattails were the only thing audible through the wind I created.
As I rushed through the ornate hallways of the well-lit palace, I felt my power slowly drain as a result from carrying two passengers through the shadows of time. Worry that I’d waste my power before I figured out how to recharge it seeped into my mind but I quickly suppressed it. I mentally reprimanded myself, ‘Now is not the time for that.’
Reaching the enormous wooden doors that lead to Celestia’s private chambers, I nodded to the two guards stationed to either side. I gingerly creaked opened the massive double doors and walked in, flinching when they closed behind me with a loud wooden clack. Turning around, I saw a small handful of the most respected ponies in Equestria. Celestia stood closest to me, between the door and the table everypony else was stationed at – as if she had been pacing. Shifting my gaze to the table, I noted Princess Luna and her apprentice as well as the Mayor of Cloudsdale and his advisor; a sight that caused a serious worry.
There was a tension in the air that suggested worry and a bit of hostility – almost like I had interrupted a debate. After formally bowing to Celestia, I asked the purpose of my summons. The words I heard next sent a chill down my spine and visibly paled my skin through stiffening hair. Voice full of disbelief and sorrow, Celestia choked out her sentence, “The Rainbow Factory is back.”
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Part 2
It was as if a wave of dread had washed over the room when the words left her mouth. All the ponies in the room seemed to look down when the words were released, all except Luna’s apprentice. “Well now that the crazy-dressed colt is here, could somepony please explain to me what the Rainbow Factory is?” she asked, apparently unable to know the problem until I had arrived. Luna stared down her apprentice, who looked down in shame.
Noticing this, I walked over to the table – everyone expecting a sharp criticism towards the rudeness of the apprentice. “Luna, what’s your apprentice’s name again?” I questioned, positioning myself across the table from the elegant blue alicorn. Luna looked down and again visually scolded her apprentice, whose ears had flattened in response.
“Her name is Lucktwist,” the princess of the night answered, turning back to me.
I turned towards the purple-maned unicorn next to Luna, “Lucktwist. That’s an interesting name, care to explain the clockwork behind it?” I asked.
The apprentice gave a quizzical glance towards her mentor, asking what I meant. Luna’s face brightened in a light smile before responding with a cheerier tone, “That’s just his way of talking, you’ll get used to it,” she waved a hoof in a circle next her head and made a silly face, cheering the room up causing some stifled laughter from Celestia and the mayor. “What he meant to ask was how you got your name.” she finished after the chuckling around the room died down.
“Oh,” Lucktwist said, happy to understand, “I guess you could say I roll the dice a lot - and follow what the result is,” She continued, enjoying the chance to explain her special powers, “If I roll a bunch of ones, I tend to be cheery, and things around me generally result in luckier findings.” the apprentice finished and stared at me, looking for a cheery response.
“I see…” I said, keeping a blank face, much to the disappointment of the young unicorn. “Well then let’s start at the beginning, shall we?” I asked, nodding Celestia to walk to the table and aid me. “Years ago, before the first Eclipse war and well before Discord had even attempted to take over Equestria, rainbows were a precious gift from these two princesses.” I nodded in the direction of the two sisters
Above us, an image provided by Celestia’s magic showed an ancient Equestria, filled with lush plants and forests dotted with little clearings where villages were set. Above the beautiful world was a massive rainbow, glistening in the morning Sun, just as beautiful back then as it would be now.
“But, quite unfortunately, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna couldn’t make rainbows all the time for all the good things to celebrate. So they had a particular workshop set up.” I said, my voice starting to lose the little cheeriness that had seeped into it.
The image formed into a bright building with a large rainbow at the front. Lucktwist noticed something in the image. “Who’s that?” she asked, pointing to the multi-colored pony standing in front of the building.
“That colorful pony would be Skittles.” I said. “Have you heard of Rainbow Dash?” I questioned.
The apprentice’s face turned sour at the mention of her opponent, Twilight’s accomplice. “She’s the flyer, right?” she asked, disgust seeping into her mouth.
“Yes, that’s the one.” I confirmed, mentally noting to question her apparent discord with Rainbow Dash later. “Rainbow Dash is a descendent of Skittles.” I stated, giving light as to the origins of the pegasus’ colors.
“Unfortunately, Skittles became corrupt somehow.” Celestia stated a bit too emotionally, taking the conversation from me and earning a disapproving glance through my goggles. “She began to create rainbows, just like she wanted but eventually cracked for some reason. She started going crazy and talking about, ‘spectra’ and ‘hues’ found inside ponies. We-“ Celestia choked up, “We didn’t find out what she was doing until it was too late.” Tears welled in the white alicorn’s eyes and she had to look away.
Along with her closed eyes, Celestia’s image shimmered and turned the sunny picture of the building into something horrific. “Is that-?” asked Lucktwist, who was shrinking back from the picture.
I nodded my head, “She had found something called, ‘The Pegasus Device’ to drain ponies of their colors, and use the colors to make rainbows instead of the long, drawn out magical process.” My regularly grim face turned an even darker shade, despite the permanent melancholy look that sat there, “Luckily Starswirl the Bearded and I found a way to wipe out the Rainbow Factory and all it had done, leaving only the ponies you see in this room, and the wizard himself with knowledge of what happened.”
The apprentice looked down from the gruesome image, pondering the information, then looked back up, an obvious question written on her face. “But if you’re-“ she started, her eyes wide. “Who are you?” she asked.
Looking up, I saw the image fizzle and fade. The other ponies gave each-other knowing glances, which lightened the tone slightly. I gave a small unknown sigh, wishing I could tell them all exactly who – no, what – I was. Celestia detected my discomfort and happily chimed in, “Clockwork is somewhat similar to the aspect of time – we don’t let many ponies know of him due to his…” she paused, “skill set, for fear that somepony might try to use him. What we do know is that he has a great amount of control over time, which is why we’re thankful for his help, and why we’ve called him to help with this dilemma.” She finished, giving the brief summary of what she knew about me.
The young unicorn looked at me with more questions than answers but realized her questions were all taken up for the moment, but something in her head ignored her willpower and asked a question anyways, “So why is the mayor of Cloudsdale here?”
Now it was my turn to answer, “Well, had the factory been located in ponyville, wouldn’t we have Mrs. Mayor here?” I answered in my inquisitive way, hoping she’d reach the answer herself.
A smile almost broke through on my face when I saw her eyes shine when she realized the answer, “The new factory is located in Cloudsdale?” she stated more than questioned.
“That’s right,” the mayor answered, saying something for the first time since I came in. His voice was like that of a carnival ride director saying, “Step right up!” except, given the circumstances, it held a dire undertone. “One of Princess Luna’s Ponies of the Night discovered it’s whereabouts in Cloudsdale. Celestia?” He gestured towards the alicorn.
An image resurfaced above the table, several seemingly unsuspecting cloud buildings lined in a row, only one of them was slightly different; it stood above the rest and was missing all windows and visible doors.
“My Pony of the Night discovered its location through a small vent located on the north side, here, but she only barely made it out alive and the vent is now likely to be guarded.” Luna explained.
I looked over at her apprentice, who sat wide-eyed, mouth trying to form words. “Speak what’s on your mind.” Celestia said, noticing the stammering unicorn as well.
“It’s just that… I’ve seen this place before…” She paused, “In my dreams.” The room set into a dead silence.
I glanced at Luna, looking for an explanation, “It is possible,” the alicorn explained, “Lucktwist has been known to have dreams of events and places she has never seen before, it’s what originally led me to mentor her in the first place.” She clarified.
As if more proof was needed, the apprentice spoke up, “There’s a tunnel underground,” she explained, “over here.” The blue unicorn pointed towards the East side of the map.
“If she saw it in her dream, I wouldn’t doubt it’s there.” Luna stated.
“Well then,” I stood up and backed away from the table a few steps, “I have my destination. How I’m going to fix this without Starswirl, though, I’ll have to figure out on the way.” I started heading towards the door and turned around, “Not to mention it’s best I don’t stay here long. Thank you for your aid.” I said, bowing to the apprentice. “And at that, I must take my leave.” I added, tipping my hat to the rest of the ponies as I swung open the large double doors and walked out.
“Does he always leave so abruptly?” The mayor asked.
“He had the information he needed; he’s going to fix the problem.” Luna answered with a tone that suggested she expected my parting method.
“For all our sakes, I hope he does.” added the solemn voice of Celestia. All the other ponies nodded their heads in agreement; all except Lucktwist, who sat in deep thought, a desire to get answers lingering on her mind.
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Part 3
“How the tick am I going to get into Cloudsdale?” I mumbled to myself on my way out of Canterlot, mind racing to cover thousands of different possible answers to the question. “Maybe I could – no, that would require a unicorn.” I continued, eliminating that course of action. “Maybe I could trap a bit of time un-“ I paused. There was a noise behind me, something very feint. My eyes closed as I focused my thoughts, hoping the clockwork would reveal what the noise was. I opened my eyes an instant later, “So that’s how I’m getting into Cloudsdale.” I stated under my breath with the slightest hint of a smile.
“It’s nice to have company, but are you sure you should be out this late?” I called out without turning around to view who had hidden near the bush.
Feeling the familiar slight drain of power, I slowed time to a stop and turned around, heading towards the bush in question. Normally, I would have just called her over, but, needing to see how far this would go, I decided to test the young apprentice. Upon reaching the bush, I positioned myself behind the slightly depressed dirt, where four hoof prints were barely seen. Only the faintest of shimmers depicted the vague unicorn figure in the dim starlight.
I let time resume it’s normal path as I prepared to silently watch Lucktwist from behind. ‘This could seem like stalker behavior.’ I thought to myself, the partial humor doing nothing to phase my blank expression.
Focusing once again on the unicorn, I enjoyed the quick gasp that came from her translucent mouth when she discovered the figure she was following had disappeared. Deciding not to waste any more effort on her cloaking spell; one was obviously hard to continuously channel. The apprentice slowly became visible, first her sky-blue hooves revealed themselves followed by her purple tail that seemed to hang limply in an arc behind her. Finally her head was uncovered and I watched a set of big gaping eyes scan the area I had just left.
She jumped to the side with a small shriek of surprise when she turned her head and saw me standing behind her. “Sneaking behind someone isn’t as fun from the other side, is it?” I asked, the slightest hint of humor in my voice.
Lucktwist got up from her sprawled position on the ground and stared at me with wide eyes, despite her pupils which were shrunken to miniature dots from the shock. “How did you…” her question trailed off in wonder at the goggled pony in front of her.
I offered her a hoof to help her up, “I do that sometimes.” I said, enjoying not directly answering what was on her mind.
She took my outstretched hoof, too exasperated to think about it, and I hoisted her to her own hooves. “Oh so you stalk all pretty unicorns that follow you?” she asked, a playful, malevolent look on her face.
‘One of these kinds of ponies…’ I thought to myself. ‘I suppose I’ll just have to make due, then.’ I admitted. “I’ll be sure to tell you when I see one.” I coldly responded, my pride refusing to give her the satisfaction of the insult. She refused to be taken down by my response, however, and instead started circling me, as if she could find some source of her confusion on me that she could destroy. Upon not finding anything, she stopped in front of me and abruptly sat on the ground with a light thud, stumped as to what had just taken place.
“Well, no sense in moving on – you look exhausted.” I said, observing the weariness under the unicorn’s eyes. “Did you bring supplies to make a camp, by chance?” I asked.
The defeated pony looked up from her dazed state, “What? Oh, I – uh – yeah, except not.” She said. I stared at her until she clarified, “Just watch.” She said, hinting she was about to do something I should stand back for. Taking a few steps to the side, I observed what she was about to do, noting her horn starting to glow the familiar aura of magic.
As the glow from her horn grew brighter, a look of concentration appeared on her face, showing she wasn’t going to be a master magic user any time soon. ‘I wonder if I can change that.” I thought as items started appearing around the empty space to the side of the dirt trail. First a small, rolled up sleeping-bag appeared a few inches above the ground, flattening the grass beneath it on its decent. Next, a surprisingly large tent bundle appeared and crushed the poor weed unfortunate enough to have grown beneath it. A few other items appeared like a bag of such succulent foods that only a consort to a princess, or a princess herself, would be seen eating. A small bin of various toiletries and makeup appeared as well, which would have drawn a sarcastic sigh or at least rolled eyes from any normal pony.
When the spell was finished, Lucktwist nearly collapsed, clearly having spent what was left of her magic for the day. Looking around the miniature camp, I was almost impressed; if this luxury was what an apprentice’s idea of camp was, I would love to see an actual princess’s campout. “Quite the cozy setup you got here.” I blandly stated despite the awe-struck I felt.
“Thank you.” The unicorn gasped, still recovering from her exhaustive spell. “Well if we’re going to be setting camp, might as well not sleep in the dirt.” She added once she got her breath back. “Speaking of which, why are we sleeping here near the forest instead of sending me back to the castle?” she asked.
“Well I could, but then I couldn’t use you to stay on Cloudsdale, let alone reach the factory.” I stated, then quickly adding, “Hold on a tick, might want to take a step back.” afterwards as I prepared to set up camp.
Slowing time, I set about putting up the tent – rather expertly as well, since I had spent a while sleeping in tents on my travels. Finishing the tent, I set to putting out the rather large sleeping bag. It was the size of a large hay mattress when spread fully, complete with fancy pillows and took up a third of the tent floor. Once the main camp was set up, I gathered several sticks and rocks and set about building a fire.
Having applied enough heat to the makeshift pit, I resumed time, drawing another shriek from the apprentice as a fire quickly sprung to life in front of her.
A few minutes later, we were sitting on logs set a few feet from the fire; Lucktwist was enjoying one of her castle-cooked meals she had apparently teleported. ‘Teleporting that long a distance,’ I silently shook my head, ‘it’s a wonder she was able to do it at all, let alone survive afterwards.’ the thought echoing in my head for a few seconds before being interrupted.
“So… you’re really fast?” Lucktwist questioned between bites of the delicious smelling gumbo that sat in a warm bowl she huddled close to her chest, the roaring fire doing little to warm the cool night air.
“Not quite like that,” I corrected, preparing to answer the many questions that no-doubt followed the first one. “I’m called Clockwork for many reasons; one of them is my ability to ah…” I paused, “control time.” I finished, bracing for the inevitable fanmare shriek that was sure to follow.
Despite preparing, I was still caught slightly off guard by the wide eyed screech that came from the unicorn, “Are you kidding?” She questioned, hoping I’d say no. Much to her delight, I shook my head. The purple mare almost stood up and started jumping but was stopped by a thought that widened her eyes even more, “Are you Doctor Whooves?” she asked, looking around as if the Tardis were left nearby.
I chuckled to myself, “I can’t say I haven’t been called him before; but alas, I am not the Doctor. Though, we did do something just a small bit ago, but that’s a story for another time.” I said, recalling the adventure I had with my good friend where we stopped the changelings from taking over Equestria.
“You’ve heard of the Elements of Harmony,” I stated, again noting the sour look on her face, “You have. Well imagine an aspect now, an embodiment of an element. I would be the aspect of time.” I declared, waiting for the reaction.
If Lucktwist’s eyes could have gotten any wider, they managed when she started to realize who the being in front of her really was. Through her shocked state, she managed to squeeze a sentence from her mouth, “So you were speeding up time?”
“More like I was slowing it down.” I corrected, my voice as monotone as a sidewalk.
“Can you stop time forever?” she asked, starting to get excited
I instinctively felt inside myself where my power lay, “Not exactly.” I again corrected. The unicorn twisted her head to the side slightly, trying to understand, “Imagine an hourglass,” I explained, “as time goes forward, the sand from the top falls to the bottom.” Her head righted itself when she understood something, finally. “Imagine the sand is my power, as I use it, the sand falls to the bottom of the hourglass. The difference is, with a normal hourglass you can just flip it and the sand resets. I haven’t discovered how, if it’s even possible, to reset my hourglass.” I continued, “So I will eventually run out. And I don’t know what will happen when I run out of time” I finished.
Lucktwist looked down at her now empty bowl, digesting the information. “Do you know how much sand- err – power you have left?” she asked.
I resisted the sad look that tried to assert itself on my face, “I’ve got about one-quarter of my original sand that remains, but it’s a lot of sand in the first place, so I wouldn’t worry about running out any time soon.” I said, swallowing that exact worry myself.
“Oh…” she answered, a bit more hope on her face than before, “You said there were several reasons you were called Clockwork; what are they?” she questioned, amazed that such a pony could be so relatively unknown to the world, unlike Doctor Whooves or the Mare-Do-Well.
“Well, aside from my odd choice of dress,” I gestured to my unusual, steampony style clothing, “I’m one of the few ponies aware of something I personally call the, ‘Clockwork Reality.’” I began to explain, trying my best to avoid confusing the apprentice, who had brought her eyebrows together slightly, creating a thoughtful look. “Clockwork Reality is a style of understanding time in a sense that every action or event that takes place is a gear, pulley, weight, etcetera, on this massive machine of clockwork parts that make up reality.” I said, trying to finish the explanation soon. “Using my knowledge of Clockwork Reality, I’m able to do a few neat things like understand why things happen or detect things that are out of the ordinary, a shiny weight on an old and rusted part of the clockwork doesn’t exactly make sense.” I concluded.
“That’s way too confusing for me.” Explained the apprentice, who had given up on trying to understand. “I would like to know one last thing, though,” she yawned, “why not just send me back home again? I mean I know you can’t get to Cloudsdale because you’re not a pegasus, but I’m not either, so how can I help you?”
I let out a hearty laugh, startling the mare with my sudden change of tone, “You’re a unicorn! You can use your magic to cast a spell that allows us to walk on Cloudsdale.” I explained, waiting for her denial of ability to do that.
“But a spell like that requires an insane amount of magic! How am I supposed to opull something like that off?” she questioned.
“If it was easy, everyone would do it.” I quoted silently, “I’ve seen a small bit of your clockwork, I can tell you have the power to do it. After all, Twilight Sparkle was able to pull it off.” I reassured her. At the mention of Twilight, her face shriveled in disgust so I finally asked, “Which reminds me, might I ask what you have against Rainbow Dash and her friends?”
She looked down to her bowl again before speaking, “It’s not Rainbow Dash in particular, it’s Twilight. She always thinks she’s the most powerful unicorn and deserves the best treatment, but she’s not! And now she’s a princess, making her seem even more powerful. One day, I will be as powerful as Twilight, maybe even more so. I’ll prove I can be just as good as her without the pampering of Celestia or the powers of an alicorn.” She vowed.
I resisted telling her that when I said I knew a bit of her clockwork, I meant I had been to the future and past, observing her for short periods of time. I neglected to mention that she would, indeed, be a princess in the future, without becoming an alicorn. She’d be the princess of an entire continent discovered in the next Eclipse War. And she does a wonderful job. I wanted to tell her that her dreams come true, but that would interfere with the clockwork.
“I believe you have enough power to surpass Twilight and her friends.” I comforted her. “Now come on, it’s time for bed, you need to recharge your magic and get a good rest – we’re traveling through shadows tomorrow.” I foretold.
The sleepy blue mare didn’t question what I meant; instead she retired to her tent and crawled into her sleeping bag, too tired to think about anything – but she did dream.
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Part 4
There was an island there, in the middle of nowhere; except nowhere included water as hot as lava. The sand was as hard as rock as well. She easily buried her front hoof into the solid rock of the sand, wondering how it was possible. It seemed as if time passed by while standing still, as if an eternity passed each second. It seemed the relatively small island wasn’t anything to be afraid of, despite each and every one of her instincts screaming at her that something was wrong.
“This shouldn’t be this difficult.” Lucktwist complained as her perception of sky had been turned towards the ground and she felt lopsided while standing. “How did I even get here!?” she quietly yelled for fear of worsening the already confusing environment. “Is- is this a dream?” the unicorn stuttered, trying hard to believe it was. But it was too real to be a dream, normally the spells Princess Luna had taught her kept her dreams from running out of control like this. ‘Maybe something went wrong this time…’ she thought, filled with dread.
At this point her initial dream training started to kick in. When she had these problems before, Princess Luna helped her through it so that she wouldn’t be haunted by these dreams again. “Okay, so step one: stay lucid.” She determinately told herself, attempting to gather her bearings. “Step two: find a trigger.” She said, looking for a common dream reference that was spread in most of her dreams. Struggling to make her way to the top of a crest in the sand, Lucktwist looked upwards towards the ground in front of her and saw what she was looking for: a pair of snake eyes etched into the sand a few minutes out.
“This is ridiculous!” the blue unicorn shouted in frustration as she floated down the hill, barely keeping her hooves connected to the ground. It seemed as if her words echoed throughout the large bowl in the island, calling back to her in random sounds of her own voice. Enjoyment rushing over her, she stopped and spent a few minutes randomly calling out to nopony just to laugh at the sounds that came back. “Backscratcher!” she cried, giggling afterwords. “Orange-peeler!” her echo called back, which sent Lucktwist rolling on the ground in laughter.
After a few minutes, she had trouble even breathing from the pain in her sides. Deciding that her call of “pineapple” and response of “hoof-polish” was enough fun for the time being. Walking forward again, she noticed that gravity seemed to have righted itself and she didn’t have much trouble traveling in this happier mood.
To her left she saw a sign that had gone unnoticed until now, ‘Happier mood, friendlier world.’ It read. She cocked her head to the right, confused as to how the sign had known what she had figured out. Walking forward, another sign stood to her right, again undetected until a few feet from where the picket was standing, ‘Curious? Let me help you help yourself.’ She read in her mind. Below the word, “yourself.” was an arrow pointing down, following the tip of the arrow, she saw a picture of a hat and an arrow pointing towards the double ones she was now heading towards. Following the second arrow, she managed to barely make out a small hat-looking object dead-center between the snake eyes.
“But it’s so far away…” she complained, feeling heavy-headed again. Taking a few reluctant steps forward, she saw one last wooden sign, “Dreams aren’t very far from reality, except you can control dreams far better.” She read out loud this time, a hint of confusion in her voice.
A gasp escaped her lips as her mind was flooded with a past memory:
“If you’re aware of a dream, you can control it with nothing but a thought.” Her mentor said under the night stars while the two were in the garden. “We can use this dream realization to do anything. Tonight, I personally want you to try using yours to help with problem solving.” Princess Luna finished.
“But how would I be able to use this in real life if I can cheat in a dream?” the apprentice asked.
A giggle seeped from Luna’s mouth, “You’ll find that dreams are the same as real life, only more problematic. If you’re ever going to try to control these dreams of yours, and eventually join in others’ dreams, you’re going to have to learn problem solving.”
Lucktwist was just about ready to try and stump her master, “But if I enter sompony else’s dream, couldn’t I just cheat in there as well?” she asked politely, waiting for the undoubted silence of thinking that signaled teacher.
Unfortunately the silence didn’t last very long, within moments a lighthearted laugh came from the blue alicorn, “When in somepony else’s dream, they have control of it and you have follow the dream logic. If they don’t have control, you can get stuck there. The most you can learn to do at that point is try and help the dreamer to realize they’re in a dream.”
She opened her eyes and stood up on the solid sand, shaking her mane to get rid of the few grains that had separated from their homes on the ground. Lucktwist looked down towards the hat etched on the ground in front of the sign, remembering that design. “Clocky’s in trouble.” She realized, bursing into a full gallop down the slope towards the hat below.
Realizing it would take at least another 10 minutes of a full speed gallop to reach the hat, she concentrated her thoughts and closed her eyes. Viewing the dream-world again, she smiled as her attempt at making a water slide worked. “Lets go!” she screamed, jumping into the curved slide and rushing downwards, spraying water off the sides. In mere seconds she had reached the bottom and hopped out, fur completely dry thanks to her trying to make dry water.
Trotting forward a few feet, she looked to her left and right to see the miniature white craters where the snake eyes lay, then in front of here where the hat was. It was almost an exact copy of the one her odd friend was wearing before she had collapsed in her sleeping bag.
‘Hard to believe this is a dream, it feels so real…’ she again thought, gently tipping the hat over to see if anything was underneath. She struggled with not dropping the oddly weighted hat, “Why does he have a gear in his hat anyways!?” she complained, picking up the paper beneath and setting the hat down.
The unicorn unfolded the paper in her hooves and read the one word on there, “Kaleidoscope?” she questioned. “What in the world cou-“ she shrieked and jumped back after looking up again. The hat had grown in size and was now dawned on a massive 5-toothed gear with a clock in the center where the hole was supposed to be. Taking a few steps back, she realized the structure was tipping forward and about to crush her. “Eeeeek!” she cried and rushed behind her, trying to escape being crushed. ‘I’m not going to make it!’ she thought, closing her eyes as the center of the clock was about to flatten her.
A few seconds passed in the dark, then a minute went by and nothing happened. She cautiously opened her eyes to find she was in a metal room, something like a broom closet. The rather plain room had nothing but a few brooms and mops stuffed in buckets of water, all dimly lit by an old light bulb hanging from above. Avoiding the low-hung bulb, she walked towards the metal door and struggled to open it. “This thing must be at least a foot thick…” she grunted, giving one last pull that created just enough gap between the door and the wall for her to slide through. In front of her an unforgettable scene started searing itself into her memory, something that would haunt her forever; an image of the past.
“We need to get to the Pegasus device!” she heard Clockwork yell towards some unknown pony. “It’s on the third floor, how do you intend on getting up there!?” the unkown pony yelled back in a deep, wisened voice. “Hang on a tick and I’ll have it.” Clockwork shouted back.
Lucktwist watched from the back corner of the immense factory she found herself in. Gruesome stains of an unknown liquid shimmered on the shadowed stone walls, the old, splintered wood floor didn’t help to ease the fear. To the left and right of the floor were massive conveyor belts, stopped, with hulking piles of what looked like meat. The noise of yelling ponies was almost fully combated by the sound of cranking gears and pounding metal that was heard from above. “This was… this is… the old rainbow factory…” she mumbled to herself after noting the streams of different colored liquid on the floor above her through the gaping square in the middle of the roof where what looked like a makeshift wooden elevator ran through. Coming to a realization, she jerked her wide eyes over to the unknown pony that sat in the corner, surrounded by suited ponies.
*BOOM!!!* she heard as a giant explosion flung at least 50 workers against the walls, some only barely missing her. She looked towards the source of the explosion, an old, grey pony wearing a blue wizard’s hat with bells attached. “Starswirl…” she mouthed, too much awe to use her vocal chords. The wizard stood in a swirling blue rune on the floor, his left hoof still on fire in case he needed to launch another fireball.
“Starswirl!” Clockwork called, standing on the elevator in the middle of the room, a line of downed ponies revealing his path. Lucktwist turned to look towards the wizard, the rune at his hooves starting to glow white with power. She watched in amazement as the rune seemed to launch the old pony towards the center of the room, then gawked as he landed gracefully next to the goggled pony.
Realizing her only way up was about to leave, she quickly tried to imagine roller skates to use to traverse the room faster. Opening her eyes, she looked at her bare hooves, ‘Right… somepony else’s dream.’ She thought before shouting, “Waaaaaait!” to the ponies on the elevator, who turned to her, confused looks on their faces. She rushed towards the wooden platform, not wanting to remain alone.
“Who are you?” the dream Clockwork asked in a rushed voice as he helped Starswirl hoist the ropes down to bring the elevator up.
“I’m Lucktwist!” the apprentice answered, realizing the memory probably didn’t recognize her, “I don’t know if it helps, but…” she leaned in close to Clockwork and whispered the word from the paper in his ear.
She couldn’t see them, but Lucktwist was sure she noticed his eyes widen underneath his goggles, which were oddly grey now as opposed to the purple tint the normal Clockwork had. “How did-“ he paused, “Never mind that, you have my trust now.” He said, earning a look of shock from the two other ponies.
“How can we trust her? Don’t you remember what happened with Glamour Glitz? This could just be another disguise.” Starswirl suggested in a harsh voice, hoof alight with some combination of a fire and ice mist that suggested the apprentice wouldn’t be alive for much longer.
Lucktwist closed her eyes and hit the deck, expecting her body to explode in a ball of ice and fire any second. “No!” she heard Clockwork demand. “She knew my bind, we have to trust her.”
“How did she know that? She must have used magic to get in your head, we have to destroy her before she tries anything else.” Starswirl yelled over the noise of the cranking gears above, the fire-ice ball in his hoof growing larger and more menacing by the second.
“We can’t, that’s the whole purpose of a bind. It’s no wonder you don’t have friends, old man, you’re all too eager to blow them up!” Clockwork laughed heartily, giving another heave on the rope. The laugh startled Lucktwist, who expected the same solemn-faced bore she had seen before.
“You’re just as old as me, you time-controlling lunatic.” The gruff wizard complained back while turning to help pull the rope.
“The difference is I didn’t grow a beard and spend half my life studying magic as opposed to making friends with anypony other than a time-controlling lunatic!” Clockwork countered, a cheery laugh behind his words. “Now Lucktwist, what did you need? Remember, you have my full trust, and believe me, nothing you say will sound weird.” He explained.
“Well this is… you see...” the apprentice stuttered then stopped as they pulled the elevator up one last time to a grim sight; the three were surrounded by hundreds of guards, all rushing toward the center, gruesome weapons and tools ready to tear the three to shreds.
“Spit it out!” Clockwork demanded, facing one side of the room in an odd fighters stance while his close friend watched the opposing side, both hooves swirling in a powerful, glowing arcane energy.
“It’s- This is a dream!” Lucktwist screamed, keeping as close as possible to the center of the platform.
“This?” Clockwork questioned, “A dream?” he stated. “I see…” He said, closing his eyes.
Lucktwist burst out of the tent, shading her eyes from the morning Sun, “Clockwork!” She yelled, rushing towards me.
Knowing full well the consequences of doing so, I slowed time and sidestepped her attempted tackle-hug. I resisted the smile that tried to force itself on my face as she glared at me from the ground with a look that could kill.
“After last night, I’ve no doubt you have questions.” I said, setting myself on a log and gesturing her to sit on the one next to me. Sighing again, I prepared to have to answer more questions. ‘I can’t complain, she seems to be immensely powerful to have entered my dream.’ I thought.
Lucktwist sat down next to me, her evil glare starting to fade as questions rushed to her head, “First of all, what’s that one word about; ke-“ she asked before I put a hoof over her mouth, stopping her from finishing the word.
“That word is my bind. Being a controller of time, weird things happen. I keep a word in my head that only I know, and when I hear it from someone else, I know they either got it from me personally, or it’s me from another time. When I hear that word, I’ve no choice but to entirely trust who, or whatever said that.” I explained, waiting for the next question.
After a pause of digesting the knowledge, the apprentice asked the next question, “Was that a memory of your past? And was that really what Starswirl was like?”
The slightest hint of joy seeped into my voice, “Yes, that scruffy-bearded wizard was my best friend Starswirl the Great.” I verified, “And yes, that was one of my memories – unfortunately with my…affiliation… with time, my dreams are actually happenes; that was the actual past, and you could have actually died.” I stated regretfully.
Again, another silence preluded the next question, “What happened?” she asked, despite her best will against it.
I gave another mournful sigh, “We made it to the top, but the Pegasus Device was blocked by a traitor, Glamour Glitz. She pretended to aid us, then turned around and stabbed us in the back; Starswirl quite literally.” I said, having to pause before continuing, “He survived, but was poisoned. We barely managed to defeat Glamour Glitz, who went along with the Pegasus Device.” I said.
“Did he die from the poison?” the apprentice questioned, a look of sorrow written in her face.
“He…” I paused to search for proper wording, “He said goodbye in a very special way.” I said in a tone that suggested her question time was over. “Now come on, we’ve got a cloud to go stand on.” I said, packing everything up in an instant.
