A Tale of Clockwork

------------------“A Tale of Clockwork”, by Daking457---------------------

-Chapter one-

Far to the north-east of the Crystal Empire, Deep within the Quartz Bluff mountain range, a group of figures stood in the falling snow, surveying the sheer cliff that stood in their way.

"Well, this sure is interesting" Muttered Clambering Ace, stroking his giant yellow moustache. "Granite Dancer," He said, turning to a black and red mare covered in ropes and grapples. "Go set a winch point at the top of the face. Take Pumice with you. No mistakes. We're too far from help if somepony falls."

The two pegasi nodded and trotted up to the east half of the cliff to make their ascent. Ace turned and walked back to the rest of the party, observing their fatigued looks and general haggardness. Need to get them under cover soon, he thought, clearing his lungs before addressing the group.------------------“A Tale of Clockwork”, by Daking457---------------------

-Chapter one-

Far to the north-east of the Crystal Empire, Deep within the Quartz Bluff mountain range, a group of figures stood in the falling snow, surveying the sheer cliff that stood in their way.

"Well, this sure is interesting" Muttered Clambering Ace, stroking his giant yellow moustache. "Granite Dancer," He said, turning to a black and red mare covered in ropes and grapples. "Go set a winch point at the top of the face. Take Pumice with you. No mistakes. We're too far from help if somepony falls."

The two pegasi nodded and trotted up to the east half of the cliff to make their ascent. Ace turned and walked back to the rest of the party, observing their fatigued looks and general haggardness. Need to get them under cover soon, he thought, clearing his lungs before addressing the group.

"Alright! We got ourselves a route, where we can whack up a basket, so no climbing involved!" Cheers rose from the crowd at that point. "However, we're going to have to haul the engine parts up there first" A few groans were to be heard, originating entirely from the winged population. "Yes, I'm sorry, but we're going to have to fly the stuff up. Now pegasi, grab your lifting partners and get ready for the flight."

After a few minutes, the general commotion had died down, leaving seven pairs, each with a part of the lifter mechanism, leaving Ace and Pumice with the gearbox. "Right everypony; follow us up to the ledge. Same deal as always, people. Now, Pumice, get here and give me a hoof" Ace began strapping himself into his half of the support harness and stopped. "Pumice! Get your plot here now! I swear if you’re off getting stoned again-" his angry tirade stopped as he realized he had sent Pumice off with Granite Dancer, and they were probably halfway up the cliff face by now.

"Aw, Hay" Ace muttered as he looked over the remaining engineers, scientists and interns, who were starting to shuffle in the increasing cold wind "Any of you got wings?" he asked, expecting the worst.

"AH DO!" A sandy Manehattan voice proclaimed, followed by a small wave of disruption moving through the crowd towards him, accompanied by apologies whenever somepony voiced their complaint at the movement. As the commotion neared him, Ace could just about make out a rust brown form moving towards him. Shortly thereafter, a young Thestrial stallion emerged from the crowd, shuffling his bat-like wings in the cold. Ace bit back his laughter, eyeing up the skinny colt and said, "I love the spirit kid, but I'm gunna need a heavy-weight to help me with this."

The colt looked at him nonplussed and replied, "Wha? Need a grunt ta lift that? Nah. Ah could do that wid only one wing."

Ace rolled his eyes at the colts boasting with a good natured grin. "Look, kiddo, I know you may think you have to look tough, but we both know there's no way you could possibly-" His speech was cut short as the Thestrial grabbed the hoof-holds on the gearbox shroud and took flight and turned, hovering, to look him in the eyes with a pair of slitted yellow orbs, displaying considerable irritation.

"Know whatcha wanna, gramps, but ah can lift it. Now, where to?” Climbing Ace shut his hanging jaw and gathered his wits, looking at the flight teams, all of which had looks of varying amazement at the colt's strength.

"Right, fliers, with me. Everypony else, move the equipment and supplies to the base of the cliff over there, just next to that spire." He indicated the formation in question with a hoof. After a nod from the team lead, Ace took flight, with the small airborne convoy following his wake. He flapped toward the plateau, riding the meagre thermals to the heights. As he crested the ridge, he spotted a convenient flat area that was shielded from the prevailing winds by a small rocky outcrop. Brilliant, he thought as he began his decent towards Pumice and Granite Dancer, each waving a pair of green glow sticks.

He alighted upon the frosted rocks and directed the rest of the lifters to land near him on the flat, not noticing Pumice trotting lazily up to stand next to him.

"Right, boss." Ace jerked in surprise, looking at his friend, who was wearing a smug grin for his triumph, small as it was. "We got the pulleys set up just o'er there, by the limestone formation. The stone looks kinda manky, but it should be fine, if lady fortune smiles upon us." Ace nodded his approval and turned to face the others, who having unloaded the machine parts, were milling in conversation.

"Good job. Kindly grab that lot and get them to pitch camp in the crater just over there."

Pumice rolled his eyes, rueing the job ahead. Scientists. Completely useless. "Sure thing, boss. Pretty shielded bit o' ground there. I'll go take 'em."

Pumice set off towards the pegasi and began delivering orders, leaving Ace with the task of assembling the traction engine. He looked over the various gears and parts strewn in front of him. "Well, I suppose I really should have taken that adult correspondence course. Hay, maybe I'd even know algebra too." he muttered to himself before sighing. This was futile. These forms meant nothing to him. They did have an engineer with them, but the problem was, Grinding Gears was an earth pony, and thus was on the valley floor, nearly a kilometre below.

"Whatsa problem?" Ace jumped for the second time in five minutes, looking to see the Thestrial looking at him, stood a few feet away.

"Shouldn't you be helping shift the camp parts up here?" he asked the teen, raising an eyebrow.

"Nah, Ah was told to stay up here, while the professionals do the work. Hmph."

Ace smiled at the colt's attitude. "There's no problem, I just can't remember how to put this thing together."

"Welp, that's easy. Whatcha gotta do is connect the burner to the steam generator, through the Watt pattern limiter into the type 3-7-2 Steam to torsion converter and inta the gearbox. From there, ya merely bolt it down and attach the winch."

As he was speaking, the colt started tinkering with and connecting the parts, in a manner which Ace could only assume was related to the gibberish he just said. After about ten minutes of thus, the now grease-smeared Thestrial stepped back, admiring his handiwork.

"Right. Looks good. Ah'm gunna start it up now. You may wanna stand clear of the exhaust pipe, though." After the old stallion was well clear of the black exhaust pipe, Brass grabbed the pull lead in his teeth and violently whipped his head to the side, starting up the motor, making the cold machinery come to life. As it spluttered and groaned, Brass tactically administered oil mixed with anti-freeze to the moving parts.

After a few minutes, the engine was happily humming away, anchored to the rock with four large spikes. Brass wiped his oily bangs out of his face with an equally grubby hoof before turning to face the Pegasus. "Welp, it’s a-workin'. Have ya got a winch an' cable for me to attach to it?"

Ace was stood staring at the traction engine as if it was some kind of monster that was just about to pounce on and devour him. "Ya hoo, any pony in there?" Brass said, waving a hoof in front of Ace's face. The Stallion jerked out of his revelry and stared at Brass, looking very much like he needed a strong cup of coffee. "Do ya have a winch an' cable?" Brass repeated, nodding towards the running motor.

"Yes. Pumice has it. I'll just go and get it off him for you" The stallion said as he turned and trotted off towards the bossy grey pegasus, who was currently shouting at the group who were trying to raise the communal mess tent.

Come to think of it, Brass needed some coffee too. He turned back to the motor, resuming the task of giving the machine a much needed oiling. "Ya poor thing. Looks like nopony among this lot cares about ya enough ta oil ya properly. Probably afraid of getting dirty. Hmph. They would run ya inta the ground an' wonder why ya broke."

Brass carefully pushed a glob of grease from the pot onto his hoof, and reached under the cowling, rubbing the gel onto the main cam shaft, letting the spinning metal carry the lubricant around and into the gears. "Don't'cha worry, Ah'll look after ya. An' when Ah find out which clopper ain't been looking after ya properly, Ah'll beat the fear of Celestia inta them. So don't fret, just run like a good li'l mota."

Brass, so totally absorbed in his care for the whirring machine, never noticed Granite Dancer’s shadow until the older pony spoke. “Hay, Brass, the boss told me to get you the rope so you can hitch the basket up.”

Brass jerked at the surprise, scarcely avoiding the unprotected gears with his hoof. He turned, glaring into the massive grin the older pony wore. “Oh, yeah,-” He snatched the top anchor for the rope and bolted it onto the motors fly-wheel”-laugh it up. Now, where’s that basket?”

Granite pointed at the grubby travel lift basket, stood between the motor and the formidable drop to the glacier below. “A’right, Cool. Now, do us a favour an’ clip it onto the basket hook.”

The mare obliged him with a small smile, enjoying her friend’s more relaxed attitude compared to that of Grinding Gears. Oh, yes. That grumpy old earth pony ground her gears just as much as the machinery’s.

She was not looking forward to the immediate future, however, as the caustic yellow engineer would no doubt be with the first group up, to make sure that the –quote- “feather-brained idiots have built that rust bucket proper-like” oh, that will be fun. Especially when Grinding Gears finds out that a fresh post-grad mechanic built the machine. Oh yes, even Discord himself couldn’t make a situation more chaotic than that old stallion.

While Granite’s mind was in full damage prediction mode, the colt in question was whistling idly as he wound the long cable around the cable, mentally counting off the marks on the rope as he worked.

One hundred-fifty, One hundred-fifty one, One hundred-fifty two. Damn, this is boring. Why can’t there a Unicorn with a spell or something? There seemed to be a spell for everything, even things you didn’t want a spell for. Like making stuff float. What’s the point in that? You could just pick it up with your mouth or hooves. That’s what he does, and he’s no worse for wear. Maybe the Unicorns are just sissy or something?

Brass frowned as he remembered a dirt-a-phobic white unicorn he saw a while at university in Manehattan. She was a really weird one. Kept dancing about and singing about being generous or something.

“Hay, kid, you done with your deep ruminations on the meaning of life?” Brass pulled himself from his thoughts, glancing to see Granite looking at him with a found smile.

“Ah dunno. Might just continue on for a moment or two,” -That earned him a snigger- “a’right. Let’s get this show a-rollin’, eh? You got the wheel set up right? Cool. Now, we just twist the regulator, pop in the clutch, yank back the throttle, an’ we’re set. Now, kindly give that cage a kick off the edge-” he turned to address the putting winch assembly “-come on, gal. Give us some action. Aye, that’s it. Keep it up for me now, ya hear?”

As Brass fiddled around with the machinery, talking to it all the while, Granite trotted back over to the cage shaking her head, and pushed the basket off the edge, letting it drop until the rope caught, catching the metal platform with a clatter. Nodding to herself, she reached to her wing and pulled out one of the loose feathers with a sharp tug and a wince, before spitting it over the edge.

Her eyes followed the red and black speckled feather as it gently tumbled past the descending cage towards the earth. No cross wind. Excellent. That will make life a lot easier when they lift the twenty remaining personal and the equipment. Hmm. Yeah, right. Life is never this easy. Something is going to go wrong soon, and nopony will be able to do a damn thing.

Granite Dancer sighed, shaking her head. Damn it, she’s starting to become a pessimist. “I’m getting old. I’ll end up like old man Ace before long.”

“Well, I didn’t quite think I was that bad.”

Granite turned to her boss with a smile. “Don’t worry. You’re not quite that bad. Yet. The awesome ‘tash offsets the grumpy cynic beneath.”

She quickly cleared her throat at the developing ‘unamused old man’ look developing on Ace’s face. “Erhm. Anyway. The cage is on the way down, and we’ve got no side wind to worry about. Should an easy assent.”

“Only should?” Ace questions, pulling his wise-elder-stallion image on maximum, with great success.

“Well, boss, it’s the... environ. It’s not right.”

“How so?” Ace replied with a frown. To him, the area seemed fine, but Granite seemed to have a sixth sense. One that had proven disturbingly accurate over the month and a half they had been working together. If Granite was on edge, Ace had good reason to worry.

“I dunno boss, it just seems to be… hostile. Like this plateau wants us off and away from here.” Granite frowned, feeling troubled, unable to interpret why this dead, rocky plateau wanted them gone. Ah, well. I’m just being paranoid, this place is exactly like the one before it, and the one before that. Right?

"Alright! We got ourselves a route, where we can whack up a basket, so no climbing involved!" Cheers rose from the crowd at that point. "However, we're going to have to haul the engine parts up there first." A few groans were to be heard, originating entirely from the winged population. "Yes, I'm sorry, but we're going to have to fly the stuff up. Now pegasi, grab your lifting partners and get ready for the flight."

After a few minutes, the general commotion had died down, leaving seven pairs, each with a part of the lifter mechanism, leaving Ace and Pumice with the gearbox. "Right everypony; follow us up to the ledge. Same deal as always, people. Now, Pumice, get here and give me a hoof." Ace began strapping himself into his half of the support harness and stopped. "Pumice! Get your plot here now! I swear if you’re off getting stoned again-" his angry tirade stopped as he realized he had sent Pumice off with Granite Dancer, and they were probably halfway up the cliff face by now.

"Aw, Hay" Ace muttered as he looked over the remaining scientists and interns, who were starting to shuffle in the increasing cold wind "Any of you got wings?" he asked, expecting the worst.

"AH DO!" A sandy Manehattan voice proclaimed, followed by a small wave of disruption moving through the crowd towards him, accompanied by apologies whenever somepony voiced their complaint at the movement. As the commotion neared him, Ace could just about make out a rust brown form moving towards him. Shortly thereafter, a young Thestrial stallion emerged from the crowd, shuffling his bat-like wings in the cold. Ace bit back his laughter, instead kneeling in front of the colt and said,

"I love the spirit kid, but I'm gunna need a grown-up to help me with this."

The colt looked at him nonplussed and replied, "Wha? Need two adults ta lift that? Nah. Ah could do that wid only one wing."

Ace rolled his eyes at the colts boasting with a good natured grin.

"Look, kiddo, I know you may think you have to look tough, but we both know there's no way you could possibly-" His speech was cut short as the Thestrial grabbed the hoof-holds on the gearbox shroud and took flight and turned, hovering, to look him in the eyes with a pair of slitted yellow orbs, displaying considerable irritation.

"Know whatcha wanna, gramps, but ah can lift it. Now, where to?” Climbing Ace shut his hanging jaw and gathered his wits, looking at the flight teams, all of which had looks of varying amazement at the colt's strength.

"Right, fliers, with me. Everypony else, move the equipment and supplies to the base of the cliff over there, just next to that spire." He indicated the formation in question with a hoof. After a nod from the team leaders, Ace took flight, with the small airborne convoy following his wake. He flapped toward the plateau, riding the meagre thermals to the heights. As he crested the ridge, he spotted a convenient flat area that was shielded from the prevailing winds by a small rocky outcrop. Brilliant, he thought as he began his decent towards Pumice and Granite Dancer, each waving a pair of yellow glow sticks.

He alighted upon the frosted rocks and directed the rest of the lifters to land near him on the flat, not noticing Pumice trotting lazily up to stand next to him.

"Right, boss." Ace jerked in surprise, looking at his friend, who was wearing a smug grin for his triumph, small as it was. "We got the pulleys set up just o'er there, by the limestone formation. The stone looks kinda manky, but it should be fine, if lady fortune smiles upon us." Ace nodded his approval and turned to face the others, who having unloaded the machine parts, were milling in conversation.

"Good job. Kindly grab that lot and get them to pitch camp in the crater just over there."

Pumice rolled his eyes, rueing the job ahead. Scientists. Completely useless.

"Sure thing, boss. Pretty shielded bit o' ground there. I'll go take 'em."

Pumice set off towards the pegasi and began delivering orders, leaving Ace with the task of assembling the traction engine. He looked over the various gears and parts strewn in front of him.

"Well, I suppose I really should have taken that adult correspondence course. Hay, maybe I'd even know algebra too." he muttered to himself before sighing. This was futile. These forms meant nothing to him. They did have an engineer with them, but the problem was, Grinding Gears was an earth pony, and thus was on the valley floor, nearly a kilometre below.

"Whatsa problem?" Ace jumped for the second time in five minutes, looking to see the Thestrial looking at him, stood a few feet away.

"Shouldn't you be helping shift the camp parts up here?" he asked the teen, raising an eyebrow.

"Nah, Ah was told to stay up here, while the adults do the work. Hmph."

Ace smiled at the colt's attitude.

"There's no problem, I just can't remember how to put this thing together."

"Welp, that's easy. Whatcha gotta do is connect the burner to the steam generator, through the Watt pattern limiter into the type 3-7-2 Steam to torsion converter and inta the gearbox. From there, ya merely bolt it down and attach the winch."

As he was speaking, the colt started tinkering with and connecting the parts, in a manner which Ace could only assume was related to the gibberish he just said. After about ten minutes of thus, the now grease-smeared Thestrial stepped back, admiring his handiwork.

"Right. Looks good. Ah'm gunna start it up now. You may wanna stand clear of the exhaust pipe, though." After the old stallion was well clear of the black exhaust pipe, Brass grabbed the pull lead in his teeth and violently whipped his head to the side, starting up the motor, making the cold machinery come to life. As it spluttered and groaned, Brass tactically administered oil mixed with anti-freeze to the moving parts.

After a few minutes, the engine was happily humming away, anchored to the rock with four large spikes. Brass wiped his oily bangs out of his face with an equally grubby hoof before turning to face the Pegasus. "Welp, it’s a-workin'. Have ya got a winch an' cable for me to attach to it?"

Ace was stood staring at the traction engine as if it was some kind of monster that was just about to pounce on and devour him. "Ya hoo, any pony in there?" Brass said, waving a hoof in front of Ace's face. The Stallion jerked out of his revelry and stared at Brass, looking very much like he needed a strong cup of coffee. "Do ya have a winch an' cable?" Brass repeated, nodding towards the running motor.

"Yes. Pumice has it. I'll just go and get it off him for you" The stallion said as he turned and trotted off towards the bossy grey pegasus, who was currently shouting at the group who were trying to raise the big communal mess tent.

Come to think of it, Brass needed some coffee too. He turned back to the motor, resuming the task of giving the machine a much needed oiling.

"Ya poor thing. Looks like nopony among this lot cares about ya enough ta oil ya properly. Probably afraid of getting dirty. Hmph. They would run ya inta the ground an' wonder why ya broke."

Brass carefully pushed a glob of grease from the pot onto his hoof, and reached under the cowling, rubbing the gel onto the main cam shaft, letting the spinning metal carry the lubricant around and into the gears. "Don't'cha worry, Ah'll look after ya. An' when Ah find out which clopper ain't been looking after ya properly, Ah'll beat the fear of Celestia inta them. So don't fret, just run like a good li'l mota."

Brass, so totally absorbed in his care for the whirring machine, never noticed Granite Dancer’s shadow until the older pony spoke.

“Hey, kid, the boss told me to get you the rope so you can hitch the basket up.”

Brass jerked at the surprise, scarcely avoiding the unprotected gears with his hoof. He turned, glaring into the massive grin the older mare wore.

“Oh, yeah,-” He snatched the top anchor for the rope and bolted it onto the motors fly-wheel”-laugh it up. Now, where’s that basket?”

Granite pointed at the grubby travel lift basket, stood between the motor and the formidable drop to the glacier below. “A’right, Cool. Now, do us a favour an’ clip it onto the basket hook.”

The mare obliged him with a small smile, enjoying her friends more relaxed attitude compared to that of Grinding Gears. Oh, yes. That grumpy old earth pony ground her gears just as much as the machinery's.

She was not looking forward to the immediate future, however, as the caustic yellow engineer would no doubt be with the first group up, to make sure that the –quote- “feather-brained idiots have built that rust bucket proper-like” oh, that will be fun. Especially when Grinding Gears finds out that a Blank-flank, bat-winged undergraduate built the machine. Oh yes, even Discord himself couldn’t make a situation more chaotic than that old stallion.

While Granite’s mind was in full damage prediction mode, the colt in question was whistling idly as he wound the long cable around the cable, mentally counting off the marks on the rope as he worked.

One hundred-fifty, One hundred-fifty one, One hundred-fifty two. Damn, this is boring. Why can’t there be a Unicorn with a spell or something? There seemed to be a spell for everything, even things you didn’t want a spell for. Like making stuff float. What’s the point in that? You could just pick it up with your mouth or hooves. That’s what he does, and he’s no worse for wear. Maybe the Unicorns are just sissy or something?

Brass frowned as he remembered a dirt-a-phobic white unicorn he saw a while back in Manehattan. She was a really weird one. Kept dancing about and singing about being generous or something.

“Hay, kid, you done with your deep ruminations on the meaning of life?” Brass pulled himself from his thoughts, glancing to see Granite looking at him with a found smile.

“Ah dunno. Might just continue on for a moment,” -That earned him a snigger- “a’right. Let’s get this show a-rollin’, eh? You got the wheel set up right? Cool. Now, we just twist the regulator, pop in the clutch, yank back the throttle, an’ we’re set. Now, kindly give that cage a kick off the edge-” he turned to address the putting winch assembly, “-come on, gal. Give us some action. Aye, that’s it. Keep it up for me now, ya hear?”

As the colt fiddled around with the machinery, talking to it all the while, Granite trotted back over to the cage shaking her head all the while, and pushed the basket off the edge, letting it drop until the rope caught, catching the metal platform with a clatter. Nodding to herself, she reached to her wing and pulled out one of the loose feathers with a sharp tug and a wince, before spitting it over the edge.

Her eyes followed the red and black speckled feather as it gently tumbled past the descending cage towards the earth. No cross wind. Excellent. That will make life a lot easier when they lift the twenty remaining personal and the equipment. Hmm. Yeah, right. Life is never this easy. Something is going to go wrong soon, and nopony will be able to do a damn thing.

Granite Dancer sighed, shaking her head. Damn it, she’s starting to become a pessimist. “I’m getting old. I’ll end up like old man Ace before long.”

“Well, I didn’t quite think I was that bad.”

Granite turned to her boss with a smile.

“Don’t worry. You’re not quite that bad. Yet. The awesome ‘tash offsets the grumpy cynic beneath.”

She quickly cleared her throat at the developing ‘unamused old man’ look developing on Ace’s face. “Erhm. Anyway. The cage is on the way down, and we’ve got no side wind to worry about. Should an easy assent.”

“Only should?” Ace questions, pulling his wise-elder-stallion image on maximum, with great success.

“Well, boss, it’s the... environ. It’s not right.”

“How so?” Ace replied with a frown. To him, the area seemed fine, but Granite seemed to have a sixth sense. One that had proven disturbingly accurate over the month and a half they had been working together. If Granite was on edge, Ace had good reason to worry.

“I dunno boss, it just seems to be… hostile. Like this plateau wants us off and away from here.” Granite frowned, feeling troubled, unable to interpret why this dead, rocky plateau wanted them gone. Ah, well. I’m just being paranoid, this place is exactly like the one before it, and the one before that. Right?