On this fateful day, Grandfather Clock was busy at work like per usual, with a vigorous amount of work to be doing. He was quite happy to be secluded, away from everyone minding his own business. Although, he did get a frequent number of customers coming to him to get their clocks and watches fixed. He would occasionally venture out and about to get various bits, and bobs that were needed.
He was fairly accustomed to the way that things were for him, until he returned one day from going out for lunch. He gently flung then door open, only to find that Princess Luna was standing there.
"Oh, there you are, Mr. Clock. I have been waiting almost forty five minutes now..." The Princess stated.
Feeling pretty shocked, not only because Princess Luna was there, but because she had confronted him before he even got through then door.
He replied, "Well, I am sorry for any inconveniences, one does need to have a life outside of work, you know!" He told her, while taking off his scarf and hanging it up, and then proceeding towards her. "Anyhow, what is a Princess, like you, doing around these parts anyways?" He asked with integrity.
"Oh, I was just looking for you. I need you to mend something for me. Something very important!" She explained to him, craning 'round so that she facing him. "Being that you are the best clockwork mechanic in the whole of Equestria." She said this while pulling out a black box from her bag, and placing it on the counter. This wasn't the ordinary, everyday kinda box, no. This was special, it had a strange feel to it, and looked rather weird. As it was not square, nor was it rectangular. Instead it was a hexagon shape, and possessed a peculiar marking on the top.
Mr. Clock was interested by this box... he did know what was contained within this box though, and was rather desperate to find out! "So, Princess? What is actually in this special box of yours?" Excited as he was, he kept his emotions in tact, and contained himself.
"Ah, now. This is something that is very special to me, and is very no, extremely precious to me! Do you understand that?" She was serious now. She stared deep into his eyes, and waited for a response from him. "Um? Yea—" He was bedazzled by her glare.
"Mr. Clock, I am being deadly serious!" She slammed her hoof onto the counter - which startled Grandfather Clock. "Yes! Yes I do indeed Princess! Although, may I ask what exactly is 'wrong' with it?" He asked her, still looking up at her. "Oh, it has stopped working, like, the hands have stopped moving all of a sudden..."
"Ah okay, that should be pretty easy fix then!" He told her. "Okay, good. Thank you!" She turned to walk out, "oh, and I shall be back to pick that up again in a weeks time, okay?" She questioned him. "Yes sure, that is absolutely fine Princess, I shall have it done by then." He vocalized. "Okay then, perfect. Thank you once again, kind sir!" She pulled her hood up, pushed the door open and took off before it had even shut again.
Mr. Clock was so overwhelmed to be doing such a special job for a Princess, that he needed to have a sit down. He took the odd, but strangely appealing box with him, and examined it in more detail once sat down. When looking closer, he could see that the box had been engraved with Luna's name, which was written another language, of which he vividly enjoyed researching in his spare time. After a little while of inspecting just the box, he finally decided to open it so that he could get a better look at what he was working with.
"Oh my," he thought to himself "that is one magnificent pocket watch she has!" He was stunned by this beauty of a watch. He was intrigued to look closer, so he jumped up and fetched his magnifying glass, so that he could see every detail. He used his unicorn magic to hold up both things, so that he did not damage either one. As he carefully took the back paneling off of the pocket watch, he saw that maybe it wasn't such an 'easy fix' as he originally believed it to be. For the innards were much much more complicated that what he had thought.
As the time passed him by, he had finally figured out what he needed to do, and the parts needed in order for him to fix it. He searched high and low around his place, looked though books, and read up all he could about the parts in hand. He had a rough idea where he could get from. So he set out on his quest to find these parts. When he returned - which was a couple days after he had set out - he had gained the necessary components to finish this. He wandered into his work shop feeling pretty proud with himself, he slung his coat, and scarf onto the hangers, and trotted over to his table - where the pocket watch lay. "So I am going to do this," he was thinking, "and on time too..."
As he was fiddling around with the pocket watch, he didn't realise that he had accidentally pressed the button om top...within a split second there was a loud *POW*, and a big *flash*, which Mr. Clock did not notice, due to his unbreakable concentration. When he had finished doing what he was doing, and all the necessary tweaks, he broke his concentration finally. Without properly realising that he literally just froze time, he walked back over to his table, placed the pocket watch into the box, and sealed it again.
Because Mr. Watch was all about his reputation with folks, he wanted to personally deliver the package to the Princess. He marched through the main body of his shop, he sung his coat back on as he strided out off the building. And to his unpleasant surprise, everything was literally stopped - every single thing, from ponies on the ground, to random objects flying through the air - Mr. Clock was not too happy with what he was spectating...he just stood there for a good ten minutes, at least. He'd had enough, swung around on his heels, and barged back through his front door, where he dropped to the floor, and passed out.
A few days passed by;
Mr. Clock had eventually woken up, still in a bit of shock from the hitting of his head, on the solid wooden flooring. As he slowly, and somewhat, somehow, painfully came back to full consciousness, he saw that the world outside was still frozen in the exact same place as a couple days ago. Because Mr. Clock was rather confused about all of this, he went back to the box that the Princess had given to him, and re-looked the entire thing over, again. He saw something that kinda' resembled a note, this was stuffed into the backing of the box, evidently so that nopony would stumble across it...but fortunately for Mr. Clock, this is exactly what he was looking for; a letter from Princess Luna, saying;
To the pony that may be reading this, it is of utmost importance that you read this,
because if you do not - it may possibly lead to the ending of the entire universe!
you simply need to find one thing, from one place, and the
return here, and fix the broken watch; this 'thing is an ancient cog; from the Smokey Mountains.
Mr. Clock read this not rather thoroughly multiple times, and then eventually set the piece of paper down, and began to contemplate whatwas wrong, and how was he going to fix this?
"Oh for bucks sake!" he thought, "This is the last thing that I need happening in my life, and especially at this age, too." He went on. Being that Mr. Clock was easily getting on for his early 40's no - which is about mid(ish) aged for a pony where he lived. Although, he was pretty well built, quite muscular, and taller than average, he still didn't like the idea of adventures! But anyhow, he accepted that the fate of the entire universe lay in his hooves, he better get a move on.
Some forty two hours later;
"Ah, that's everything now!" He pondered to himself, while triple checking over all of his stuff. He had a range of stuff, things going from a sword, to a compass packed up in his backpack.
