A Clockwork Origin

Princess Celestia, sun goddess of Equestria, fell into a pool of her own blood. Her face, once a sight that warmed the hearts of thousands of ponies, was broken and scared. She let out one final gasp and whispered,” I’m sorry.” as her assailant . . .

The scene shifts.

Celestia and Luna, twin demigoddess faced their oncoming death with sad smiles.

“Tia.” Luna said softly.

“Yes LuLu?”

“I . . .” Whatever last words she had planned to say were drowned out by the sound of a beam of pure energy engulfing the two sisters, killing them both . . .

The scene shifts again

Pinkie Pie, Element of Magic, and her friends hid within her room at Sugar Cube Corner. Well, more like what was left of her friends. Twilight, the purple earth pony on a eternal sugar high, had been killed mere moments before when she had bravely, yet foolishly, stopped and faced their pursuer in a vain attempt to buy them more time.

She was killed by a boot though her head.

“Mwahaha!” His insane laughter rung throughout the building.

The five friends huddled together, tears running freely down their cheeks as the doorknob slowly turned.

“There you are, you know, I was looking all over for you five.” His twisted smile widened as he stepped towards the trembling group. “It’s not veryknife ,” he twirled the large butchers knife in one hand,” to jump the gun,” he tapped the fire arm against his temple lightly,” and start the chase early like that. Now, let’s put a smile on those faces.”

The five friends give a scream of fear as their assailant lunges at them.

Once again the scene shifts

An enormous beast roars its pleasure as it drops the limp form of the regnant of the sun onto the ash strewn rubble of what was once Canterlot castle. The defeated sun princess lands next to the cadaver of her dear sister, her purple body missing a leg and arm, her once pristine dress soaked with her own life blood.

“I’m . . . sorry . . . Twilight . . .” She manages to croak out.

And again it changes

“Why?” Fluttershy manages to say as she grasps at the hand cutting off her oxygen supply, sending a hate full glare at the appendages owner.

“Why, why? After all that has happened, you have the gall to ask WHY?!” The attacker slams her victim onto the cold, unforgiving cement below them. “I’ll tell you why, Element of Loyalty, it’s because you pissed me off. I didn’t ask to be dragged into this pathetic world, and I defiantly did not ask to be turned into a carbon copy of that b***h Luna! And even after explaining myself, you still tried to element blast me to the moon!” The Luna look-a-like kicked the downed girl into a wall.

“We thought you were a threat!”

“You didn’t even know me. But now, now that doesn’t matter. Because today,” She conjured a broad sword into her waiting hands,” you die."

“Enough, Clockwork.” A monotonies voice says as the image changes to that of a room full of gears, resembling the inner workings of a grandfather clock.

“Tell us the meaning of these images. We do not recognize the events portrayed.” The speaker had a slightly deeper voice than the first, but resembled the first exactly. They both were similar to humans, with a torso and arms, but that is where the similarities end. Instead of a head, they both had a large green eyeball, which floated just above their cloaked torsos. And instead of feet they owned a wispy tail. “We do not even recognize the worlds!”

“Of course you wouldn’t.” A smooth voice replied, “After all, it is outside of your jurisdiction.” A purple cloaked old man with pale green skin and a scar running down one eye floated into the light. He suddenly shifted into a form resembling a baby, save for the fact he still had green skin and a ghostly tail. Oh, and the fact that his chest had a clear glass window inserted on it which showed his clock like innards.

“Outside our jurisdiction?” The first speaker scoffed.

“We are the Observants. The entire universe is our jurisdiction!”

“Exactly. The universe is your jurisdiction.” He aged to a middle aged man. ”It is not mine.”

“You mean . . .” An Observant started.

“Yes. These events are being played out in other universes.” Clockwork said as he floated past one of his time screens, showing him pointing off screen and smirking.

“Then why should we care? You said you had something of grave importance to show us. All I see are a few events that have nothing to do with us.”

“Oh, but they do. These events should never have happened.  Those ponies that died, did so before their time. And the ones responsible should never have set foot on those worlds. There is a great evil spreading across the multiverse” As if to punctuate his point, one of the screens suddenly turned white.

One of the two ghosts pointed the blank screen. “What does that mean, Clockwork?”

The old man turned, his ever present smirk missing. “It means that world has come to its end.”

“End?”

“Yes, end. You do speak English, don’t you?” Noticing how the ghost bristled at his jab at its intelligence, he continued. “It has run out of time, prematurely at that. It still had a good ten thousand years left. Such a shame.”

This sent the two eyeball ghosts into a tizzy. For a universe to simply run out of time, it was unheard of. And if it could happen there. . .”And the evil that caused it is spreading.”

“You must prevent such a fate from befalling our own universe, at all costs!”

‘Perfect.’ “I had a feeling you would say that.” Clockwork smirked,” So I took the liberty of finding these people.” All the screens save the one white one started showing images of various people doing various things.

“Who are they? And how will they prevent our universes destruction?”

“They are mere humans!”

“True, they are merely humans,” Clockwork started, turning young,” but so are the ones responsible for all this. Or, at least they were. But the ones I show are all good hearted people.” One of the people on screen people punched a man in the groin. “. . . If a little rough around the edges.”

“And how are they supposed to stop our destruction?”

“By stooping the destruction of the others in jeopardy. If they can stop the villainous beings that are causing all the damage, if they can protect the worlds I send them to, then the evil influence there cannot spread. And I can reset the damaged worlds to a point before the evil reached them.”

“But how can mere humans stand against an evil that can destroy a universe? We see that you have not even included the ghost boy to your list, what chance do they have?”

“Why don’t you let me take care of that?”

The two Observants looked at each other. “Fine, you may begin, Clockwork. But remember, they are your responsibility.”

“Their fate is on your head.” And with that they exited Clockworks realm.

“I know . . .” Clockwork began with a smirk. He pointed at the white screen and it began working again. ” . . . but then again, I know everything.”

--lb—

In a small town in Oregon, a funeral was underway. It was small, with only two people in attendance. As the casket was lowered into the ground an elderly man put his hand on his younger companion and squeezed, before turning and hobbling away.

The young man, a 6’2 man with brown hair and eyes, openly cried as the casket finely rested at the bottom of the grave. He wore a large tan trench coat over a white shirt and black slacks. His eyes were trained on his tan shoes as the grave was filled.

He stayed there, next to the grave, long after the undertaker left, muttering apologizes to the grave over and over again.

“They say time heals all wounds,” a voice said from behind him, startling him enough to make him jump,” but I find that doing something in the meantime helps the process greatly.” The young man spun around to face the speaker and froze.

“I am Clockwork, master of time and . . . why am I bothering? You’re just going to faint in ten seconds.” And just as he said, the mourning man fainted.