A Tale of Clockwork

Chapter two

As the sun crested the plateau, Brass ambled down the outer path that connected the male accommodation with the main five tents.

Last night, the lone mess tent had gained several neighbours, twenty three, to be exact. Nineteen accommodation tents, along with three research and storage tents, and of course, the obligatory command pavilion.

While trotting along, he marvelled at the giant rocky bastion that stood to the east. It might just be him, but did that look like a really old statue? Brass stopped to contemplate the idea, his head bobbing subconsciously with the music blasting through his headphones.

Hmm. It really did look like a weathered statue. Yeah. There at the base, three hooves, legs and a… throne? A bit further up, there was a section which could be a body, covered in a cloak, or perhaps wings. But… no recognisable head, just an oblong shape jutting out of the top, with three little raises, two at the back and one a little farther forward. An Alicorn? Nah. No way even Princess Celestia’s that old. That thing would have to be like, ancient to have worn down that much.

Shaking his head at his foalish imaginings, Brass turned to continue down the path towards his goal. As he started walking, he felt a hoof on his back. He doffed his headphones, twisting to look at Granite Dancer with a smile.

“Hey, kiddo. You ready to meet the boss?”

“Clambering Ace? Already met ‘im.”Chapter two

As the sun crested the plateau, Brass ambled down the outer path that connected the male accommodation with the main five tents.

Last night, the lone mess tent had gained several neighbours, twenty three, to be exact. Nineteen accommodation tents, along with three research and storage tents, and of course, the obligatory command pavilion.

While trotting along, he marvelled at the giant rocky bastion that stood to the east. It might just be him, but did that look like a really old statue? Brass stopped to contemplate the idea, his head bobbing subconsciously with the music blasting through his headphones.

Hmm. It really did look like a weathered statue. Yeah. There at the base, three hooves, legs and a… throne? A bit further up, there was a section which could be a body, covered in a cloak, or perhaps wings. But… no recognisable head, just an oblong shape jutting out of the top, with three little raises, two at the back and one a little farther forward. An Alicorn? Nah. No way even Princess Celestia’s that old. That thing would have to be like, ancient to have worn down that much.

Shaking his head at his foalish imaginings, Brass turned to continue down the path towards his goal. As he started walking, he felt a hoof on his back. He doffed his headphones, twisting to look at Granite Dancer with a smile.

“Hey, kiddo. You ready to meet the boss?”

“Clambering Ace? Already met ‘im.”

“No, Brass, not old man Ace, the real boss-” Granite sipped her coffee, “-the one that even Ace answers to. She paid for this whole expedition, and is the reason I and by extension, you, are actually employed, so, I’d appreciate it if you could be good today.”

“Woah, somepony real important then. Ya don’t have ta worry. I’ll be on mah best today. Just for you.” He flashed a winning smile at Granite, at lease, what he hoped was a winning smile. Granite’s frown said otherwise, however.

“Are you hitting on me?” Granite replies, raising her eyebrows, “don’t you think you’re a bit young for that?”

“Ahm twenty-three!” Brass exclaims angrily, “and ah’ve got mah bloody degree, for buck’s sake!” Brass tried in vain to cover the light blush that graced his cheeks, “And no, Ah’m not hitting on ya!”

“Woah, woah, cool it, Brass. You know I’m just joking.” Replied Granite Dancer with a knowing smile, “That’s what friends do, you know,-” she handed Brass her half-finished coffee. “-So just drink some coffee and calm down before we meet the boss.”

Brass drank from the coffee gratefully, feeling his blood pressure fall with every mouthful.

“Sorry, Dancer, I’m just feeling tired, is all.” He muttered, feeling really quite embarrassed about his outburst. “Ah didn’t mean to yell at ya.”

“Don’t worry about it,” -Granite draped a wing over her friend’s back- “I know what you’re like when you have too much blood in your caffeine stream.” The well-versed comment earned a smile from the sleepy colt. Granite looked forwards, noting their location with a small sigh. “Anyway, looks like we’re here.” She folded her wing back to its natural position, ending the impromptu wing-hug. “So, you cool?-” Brass nodded, downing the rest of the coffee “-Awesome. Now, let’s get this over with, eh?”

Brass followed Granite into the command tent, pushing the wind breaker out of its peg hook, allowing the sheet to flap madly in the cross-wind.

“Bloody hay!” Brass growled as he struggled with the flap, with more colourful curses appearing after an increasing time period. After a few minutes, he managed to anchor the unruly sheet down, driving a two hoof-long spike through the retention ring into the hard ice below. “There. Now stay there, will ya?” he snapped at the offending length of canvas, before turning around to find four pairs of eyes on him. The speckled grey and red pair belonged to granite. The yellow, Clambering Ace, the brown, Pumice. The cyan….

“P-p-princess L-Luna! I-I-ah, hey. How’s ya d-day going?” great job, Brass. Just met royalty- Buck it right in the face, why don’t you? Brass quickly knelt before the princess, in an action that turned into face-planting rather than the suave action he had tried to imitate.

“Well, this is Brass Cog, the resident foul-mouthed mechanic we have heard so much about?” Princess Luna asked Granite with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, Princess, that’s him” Granite replied stiffly, wishing she could hit Brass with the table she was leaning on. A metal table. Not as heavy as an oak table, but hard none the less.

“Well, from what we hath heard from Granite Dancer, thou art a diligent worker, when not cursing or sleeping. So, pray tell, hast thou been working diligently for our endeavour?” Luna asked the uncomfortable colt with a private smile.

“Um, y-yeah. I uh, haven’t been fired or anything?” He wished he could have undone the sentence even as it left his mouth. “N-not that I shouldn’t be fired, but… I’m gunna shut up now.”

“Well, we would release a palace servant if they possessed such a lack of etiquette as thou doth,-” a small groan slipped from Brass’s throat as he imagined having to fly all the way back to Manehattan and explain to his ma just why he had gotten fired from his first job, by the princess of the moon, no less “- however, as thou art a long-time friend of Granite Dancer, we art willing to grant thou a second chance. Alas, finding another competent mechanical engineer on such short notice would prove a chore even for royalty. Now, could thou kindly remove thy face from the floor cover, stand up and introduce thyself to us properly, mayhaps?”

“U-um, yeah.” Brass scrabbled to his hooves, facing the Princess, but never quite meeting her eyes. “I-I’m Brass Cog, your majesty”- that earned a poorly suppressed snigger from Granite, a frown from Pumice and a small smile from Luna.-“It’s an honour to make your acquaintance” Brass mumbled as he hashed out a rough approximation of a bow.

“Tis a pleasure, mister Cog. We hope that thou shalt aid our expedition to the best of thine abilities. While we are… grateful that thou would label us ‘Majesty’, we are a princess, not a queen. Our sister would not be best pleased if she thought I was usurping her highly esteemed title as the solar diarch of Equestria.”

“I uh, sorry?” Brass replied, scratching his head, “well, Ah’ll try mah best to be useful. Thank you for giving me another chance,” – a completely obvious snicker, not from Granite, but Pumice this time – “but Ah’m sorta wondering why ya wanted ta see me”

“We shalt enlighten thou in due time, but alas, we hath digressed from our original objective -” The princess turned to Clambering Ace, who was still wearing a grumpy-but-amused look, no doubt trying to look displeased with Brass yet failing, “- As we hath come for a progress report from thou, Master Ace. So pray enlighten us, how fares our little expedition?”

“Well, princess, we have are currently camped on top of the black mane cliff, the last observable rock formation from the Crystal Palace’s main spire, some five weeks walk out from the Crystal Empire proper. So, by the accounts made in Clover the Clever’s journal, we should be near the first marker – the southern avenues gatehouse, adorned with a sixty hoof-tall statue of queen Silver Ring. I was going to send up some Pegasi to scout about, to try and see if there is anything unnatural nearby.” The Princess nodded, as if contemplating the proposed action. After a few moments, she spoke,

“Hmm, yes. We believe that this is a sound approach to the problem at hoof. We would suggest, however, that thou pair up the pegasi into teams that can work efficiently, and have worked together in the past. As such, I believe that Granite Dancer should take Brass Cog as her ranging technician.”

Ace nodded, eyeing the colt in question, who looked like he was asleep standing up.

“I’ll allow it if the kid can use the crystal array and gets some actual sleep first.”

“And thou? Dost this agreement appeal, master Cog?” Luna said, turning to face him.

Brass, who had been completely occupied with thoughts of cookies and a nice, warm bed, took a few moments to realise the metaphorical ball was in his court.

“Huh? Oh yeah! That’s cool. Ah can work with Granite plenty well-” he turned to face Granite, huge grin splitting his face “-just like that time at flight camp, eh?”

Granite’s face scrunched up as she remembered “that time”. That was not a good example of teamwork there. It was just after they met, actually. Quite ironic that. Long story short, they were teamed up to form a miniature storm system for the final team-based weather manipulation exams. Needless to say, Brass botched the logistics, getting not the little Grade 2 storm clouds, but the much more active and violent Grade 1s. Sure, they made a storm system, got full marks on teamwork and coordination. But when Brass bucked the stratus, they unleased a typhoon-strength lightning storm on the academy training grounds. The principle was not amused. It was only due to the stand-in examiner that they didn’t get flunked then and there. The rainbow-maned mare in question, a Rainbow… Dash? -What a name- was doing backflips, squealing about the team’s “awesome”, “radical” and “cool” routine. So, they had passed with an A for awesome –no joke, it was written on their grading sheets- and have a standing guarantee of jobs should they move to a place called Ponyville.

“Ya hoo!” Brass exclaimed, snapping Granite back to the here and now. “Ya with us Granite?”

“Brass. You don’t interrupt someone’s thought trains” Granite murmured, covering her face with a hoof, “Man, I phased out, didn’t I?” she added with a sigh.

Brass grinned. He know very well what Granite had been thinking about. He actually had his test report mounted at home -not that anyone else knew about it, of course- and he had been looking at cloud prices in the Ponyville area for a while, the promise of a steady job and thus, money, having caught him hook, line and sinker.

“I, uh, sorry. Just had a really… interesting memory” The only reply was a purple eyebrow raising nearly an inch. “It’s nothing, Brass and I can work together perfectly well, in fact, it’s been a while since I’ve done some proper wing-work.”

“Good. Then it is agreed” Luna’s head bobbed in satisfaction “now, master Brass, thou art dismissed. Go and rest. Thou shalt receive thy orders on the morrow.”

Brass nodded with a bow, before turning on hoof and retreating though the tent flap into the cold air beyond.

“Do you have any further need of me, princess?” Granite inquired politely. Luna turned to her with a secretive look.

“Pray tell, Granite Dancer, what is Brass Cog’s major fault?”

“Excuse me, ma’am?” Granite asks, reverting to her old manner of addressing the princess in her surprise.

“His fault. When thou submitted his file to my consideration, you mentioned the fact that he was, quote ‘a major asset to any enterprise, if one ignores his major fault”

“Oh. He… uh, struggles with certain things-” Luna left brow rose yet again, an action that was becoming the Princess of the Moon’s trademark “-like… reading. And common sense. And money. It burns holes through his saddle-bags.”

“See, I told you he wasn’t good for even counting tacks,” Pumice snickered, “the foal’s little more than a monkey with wings. Hay, I wonder if he can even count to-” Pumice never finished his sentence, as a speckled hoof whipped out and connected with his temple, accompanied with a loud smack. Pumice stumbled, tripping over the tarpaulin floor to land on his rump, staring at the towering form of Granite Dancer, the fires of Tartarus burning in her eyes.

“If you think Brass is stupid, then you are the foal here. He has a degree in mechanical engineering at the age of twenty three. You, at the age of thirty, have nothing. Oh, wait. You have a two year course in mountaineering. Such an amazing education you’ve got there. You think you’re better than him because you’re older. You’re wrong. Hay, if I wasn’t a better mare than that, I would beat the fear of the nightmare into you. Why, I think I might just do that anyway.” Granite raised her left fore-hoof, only to have it locked in a purple magic field, as the princess intervened.

“But, as thou hast just attested, thou art a better mare then that-” Luna      looked at Pumice, still sat on the floor, with a healthy black eye forming, “Master Pumice, pray excuse us.” Pumice, scrabbled to his hooves, leaving the tent faster than a Sonic Rainboom. Luna turned to face Granite, with a pinched “I’m not angry, just very disappointed” look. Granite slowly wilted under the royal glare, hanging from her suspended forelimb. Luna sighed, rubbing her muzzle.

“Granite. Thou dost know not to strike, even in anger. Thou hast trained with and served as a member of the royal guard, a member of our personal bodyguard, no less. Thou should be able to control thine impulses better than thus.”

“I- I’m sorry, ma’am. I just-”

“Neigh, no excuses. Thou art aware of our attitude to those who try to dodge punishment-” Granite nodded, expecting the worst, “-however, as we art feeling lenient today, thou shalt only receive a caution from us. Alas, thou must be on thy best parole for the next duration. Now,”-Luna released the magic holding Granite’s hoof stationary-“Captain, thou art dismissed, go and prepare thyself for deployment tomorrow”

Luna watched Granite leave, waiting for the flap to still before turning to face Climbing Ace, who wore a troubled frown. “Now, Master Ace, pray enlighten us to the qualm those two have”

“No, Brass, not old man Ace, the real boss-” Granite sipped her coffee, “-the one that even Ace answers to. She paid for this whole expedition, and is the reason I and by extension, you are actually employed, so, I’d appreciate it if you could be good today.”

“Woah, somepony real important then. Ya don’t have ta worry. I’ll be on mah best today. Just for you.” He flashed a winning smile at Granite, at lease, what he hoped was a winning smile. Granite’s frown said otherwise, however.

“Are you hitting on me?” Granite replies, raising her eyebrows, “don’t you think you’re a bit young for that?”

“Ahm twenty-three!” Brass exclaims angrily, “and ah’ve got mah bloody degree, for buck’s sake!” Brass tried in vain to cover the light blush that graced his cheeks, “And no, Ah’m not hitting on ya!”

“Woah, woah, cool it, Brass. You know I’m just joking.” Replied Granite Dancer with a knowing smile, “That’s what friends do, you know,-” she handed Brass her half-finished coffee. “-So just drink some coffee and calm down before we meet the bosses.”

Brass drank from the coffee gratefully, feeling his blood pressure fall with every mouthful.

“Sorry, Dancer, I’m just feeling tired, is all.” He muttered, feeling really quite embarrassed about his outburst. “Ah didn’t mean to yell at ya.”

“Don’t worry about it,” -Granite draped a wing over her friend’s back- “I know what you’re like when you have too much blood in your caffeine stream.” The well-versed comment earned a smile from the sleepy colt. Granite looked forwards, noting their location with a small sigh. “Anyway, looks like we’re here.” She folded her wing back to its natural position, ending the impromptu wing-hug. “So, you cool?-” Brass nodded, downing the rest of the coffee “-Awesome. Now, let’s get this over with, eh?”

Brass followed Granite into the command tent, pushing the wind breaker out of its peg hook, allowing the sheet to flap madly in the cross-wind.

“Bloody hay!” Brass growled as he struggled with the flap, with more colourful curses appearing after an increasing time period. After a few minutes, he managed to anchor the unruly sheet down, driving a two hoof-long spike through the retention ring into the hard ice below. “There. Now stay there, will ya?” he snapped at the offending length of canvas, before turning around to find four pairs of eyes on him. The speckled grey and red pair belonged to granite. The yellow, Clambering Ace, the brown, Pumice. The cyan….

“P-p-princess L-Luna! I-I-ah, hey. How’s ya d-day going?” great job, Brass. Just met royalty- Buck it right in the face, why don’t you? Brass quickly knelt before the princess, in an action that turned into face-planting rather than the suave action he had tried to imitate.

“Well, this is Brass Cog, the resident foul-mouthed mechanic we have heard so much about?” Princess Luna asked Granite with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, Princess, that’s him” Granite replied stiffly, wishing she could hit Brass with the table she was leaning on. A metal table. Not as heavy as an oak table, but hard none the less.

“Well, from what we hath heard from Granite Dancer, thou art a diligent worker, when not cursing or sleeping. So, pray tell, hast thou been working diligently for our endeavor?” Luna asked the uncomfortable colt with a private smile.

“Um, y-yeah. I uh, haven’t been fired or anything?” He wished he could have undone the sentence even as it left his mouth. “N-not that I shouldn’t be fired, but… I’m gunna shut up now.”

“Well, we would release a palace servant if they possessed such a lack of etiquette as thou doth,-” a small whimper slipped from Brasses throat as he imagined having to fly all the way back to Manehattan and explain to his ma just why he had gotten fired, by the princess of the moon, no less “- however, as thou art a long-time friend of Granite Dancer, we art willing to grant thou a second chance. Alas, finding another competent mechanical engineer on such short notice would prove a chore even for royalty. Now, could thou kindly remove thy face from the floor cover, stand up and introduce thyself to us properly, mayhaps?”

“U-um, yeah.” Brass scrabbled to his hooves, facing the Princess, but never quite meeting her eyes. “I-I’m Brass Cog, your majesty”- that earned a poorly suppressed snigger from Granite, a frown from Pumice and a small smile from Luna.-“It’s an honor to make your acquaintance” Brass mumbled as he hashed out a rough approximation of a bow.

“Tis a pleasure, mister Cog. We hope that thou shalt aid our expedition to the best of thine abilities. While we are… grateful that thou would label us ‘Majesty’, we are a princess, not a queen. Our sister would not be best pleased if she thought I was usurping her highly esteemed title as the solar diarchal ruler of Equestria.”

“I uh, sorry?” Brass replied, scratching his head, “well, Ah’ll try mah best to be useful. Thank you for giving me another chance,” – a completely obvious snicker, not from Granite, but Pumice this time – “but Ah’m sorta wondering why ya wanted ta see me?”

“We shalt enlighten thou in due time, but alas, we hath digressed from our original objective -” The princess turned to Clambering Ace, who was still wearing a grumpy-old-man look, no doubt trying to look displeased with Brass yet failing, “- As we hath come for a progress report from thou, Master Ace. So pray enlighten us, how fares our little expedition?”

“Well, princess, we have are currently camped on top of the black mane cliff, the last observable rock formation from the Crystal Palace’s main spire, some five weeks walk out from the Crystal Empire proper. So, by the accounts made in Clover the Clever’s journal, we should be near the first marker – the southern avenue's gatehouse, adorned with a sixty hoof-tall statue of queen Silver Ring. I was going to send up some Pegasi to scout about, to try and see if there is anything unnatural nearby.” The Princess nodded, as if contemplating the proposed action. After a few moments, she spoke,

“Hmm, yes. We believe that this is a sound approach to the problem at hoof. We would suggest, however, that thou pair up the pegasi into teams that can work efficiently, and have worked together in the past. As such, I believe that Granite Dancer should take Brass Cog as her ranging technician.”

Ace nodded, eying the colt in question, who looked like he was asleep standing up.

“I’ll allow it if the kid can use the crystal array and gets some actual sleep first.”

“And thou? Dost this agreement appeal, master Cog?” Luna said, turning to face him.

Brass, who had been completely occupied with thoughts of cookies and the unusual rock formation to the east, took a few moments to realise the metaphorical ball was in his court.

“Huh? Oh yeah! That’s cool. Ah can work with Granite plenty well-” he turned to face Granite, huge grin splitting his face “-just like that time at flight camp, eh?”

Granite’s face scrunched up as she remembered “that time”. That was not a good example of teamwork there. It was just after they met, actually. Quite ironic that. Long story short, they were teamed up to form a miniature storm system for the final team-based weather manipulation exams. Needless to say, Brass botched the logistics, getting not the little Grade 2 storm clouds, but the much more active and violent Grade 1s. Sure, they made a storm system, got full marks on teamwork and coordination. But when Brass bucked the stratus, they unleashed a typhoon-strength lightning storm on the academy training grounds. The principle was not amused. It was only due to the stand-in examiner that they didn’t get failed then and there. The rainbow-maned mare in question, a Rainbow… Dash? -What a name- was doing back-flips, squealing about the team’s “awesome”, “radical” and “cool” routine. So, they had passed with an A for awesome –no joke, it was written on their grading sheets- and have a standing guarantee of jobs should they move to a place called Ponyville.

“Ya hoo!” Brass exclaimed, snapping Granite back to the here and now. “Ya with us Granite?”

“Brass. You don’t interrupt someone’s thought trains” Granite murmured, covering her face with a hoof, “Man, I phased out, didn’t I?” she added with a sigh.

Brass grinned. He know very well what Granite had been thinking about. He actually had his test report mounted at home -not that anyone else knew about it, of course- plus, he had actually been looking at cloud prices in the Ponyville area for a while, the promise of a steady job and thus, money, having caught him hook, line and sinker.

“I, uh, sorry. Just had a really… interesting memory” The only reply was a purple eyebrow raising nearly an inch. “It’s nothing, Brass and I can work together perfectly well, in fact, it’s been a while since I’ve done some proper wing-work.”

“Good. Then it is agreed” Luna’s head bobbed in satisfaction “now, master Brass, thou art dismissed. Go and rest. Thou shalt receive thy orders on the morrow.”

Brass nodded with a bow, before turning on hoof and retreating though the tent flap into the cold air beyond.

“Do you have any further need of me, princess?” Granite inquired politely. Luna turned to her with a secretive look.

“Pray tell, Granite Dancer, what is Brass Cog’s major fault?”

“Excuse me, ma’am?” Granite asks, reverting to her old manner of addressing the princess in her surprise.

“His fault. When thou submitted his file to my consideration, you mentioned the fact that he was, quote ‘a major asset to any enterprise, if one ignores his faults”

“Oh. He… uh, struggles with certain things-” Luna left brow rose yet again, an action that was becoming the Princess of the Moon’s trademark “-like… reading. And common sense. And money - it burns holes through his saddle-bags.”

“See, I told you he wasn’t good for even counting tacks,” Pumice snickered, “the foals little more than a monkey with wings. Hay, I wonder if he can even count to-”

Pumice never finished his sentence, as a speckled hoof whipped out and connected with his temple, accompanied with a loud smack. Pumice stumbled, tripping over the tarpaulin floor to land on his rump, staring at the towering form of Granite Dancer, the fires of Tartarus burning in her eyes.

“If you think Brass is stupid, then you are the foal here. He has a degree in mechanical engineering at the age of twenty three. You, at the age of thirty, have nothing. Oh, wait. You have a two year course in mountaineering. Such an amazing education you’ve got there. You think you’re better than him because you’re older. You’re wrong. Hay, if I wasn’t a better mare than that, I would beat the fear of the nightmare into you. Why, I think I might just do that anyway.” Granite raised her left fore-hoof, only to have it locked in a purple magic field, as the princess intervened.

“But, as thou hast just attested, thou art a better mare then that-” Luna      looked at Pumice, still sat on the floor, with a healthy black eye forming, “Master Pumice, pray excuse us.” Pumice, scrabbled to his hooves, leaving the tent faster than a Sonic Rainboom. Luna turned to face Granite, with a pinched “I’m not angry, just very disappointed” look. Granite slowly wilted under the royal glare, hanging from her suspended forelimb. Luna sighed, rubbing her muzzle.

“Granite. Thou dost know not to strike, even in anger. Thou hast trained with and served as a member of the royal guard, a member of our personal bodyguard, no less. Thou should be able to control thine impulses better than thus.”

“I- I’m sorry, ma’am. I just-”

“Neigh, no excuses. Thou art aware of our attitude to those who try to dodge punishment-” Granite nodded, expecting the worst, “-however, as we art feeling lenient today, thou shalt only receive a caution from us. Alas, thou must be on thy best parole for the next duration. Now,”-Luna released the magic holding Granite’s hoof stationary-“Captain, thou art dismissed, go and prepare thyself for thine deployment tomorrow”

Luna watched Granite leave, waiting for the flap to still before turning to face Climbing Ace, who wore a troubled frown. “Now, Master Ace, pray enlighten us to the qualm those two have”