Time's Inferno

"Don't let anyone find the artifact."

Ray's eyes quickly open, but he does not jump nor jolt. The gray pegasus has had this dream far too many times before. All he hears is the voice. There is nothing visual about it, yet he knows that the voice he hears on a nightly basis belongs to the Princess of the sun, Celestia. He gets out of bed and stretches his wings. He looks over at his wife, whom is smiling, still sound asleep.

'I wonder what she's dreaming about,' Ray thinks to himself as he gets a quill and some paper. He starts writing a letter letting her know that he'll be away for the day, running some errands. He wishes her well at work and signs it with his name, Ray P. Clocks. As he gets ready to leave, he thinks of who he should go see. He doesn't want to go see a psychiatric pony, fearing he might get some sort of medication that might alter his personality. He doesn't really want to see Zecora, simply because her "brews" are not exactly… Helpful. He finally decides to go see the smartest pony he knows: Twilight Sparkle. He trots downstairs and opens the front door. A gentle and chilling autumn breeze hits his face as he steps out of his home.

Passing Sugar Cube Corner on the left, he continues his venture to the library. Sooner or later, the library comes into view. He looks up at the sky to check the time. "9:48 AM. I made pretty good time," he says with a smile as he walks towards the door.n He looks closer to see that there are two of Princess Celestia's royal guards at the door. Ray approaches the door, but is stopped by the royal guards.

"Halt!" the guard on the left says firmly, "None shall enter."

"Why?" Ray asks raising an eyebrow.

"The Princess has urgent business with Ms. Sparkle," the guard on the right says.

"Urgent? What's going on?"

"None of your business," the guard on the left says more firmly than he did his previous statement, "Now exit the premises."

"What if I have urgent business with the librarian?" Ray asks, trying to weigh out the importance of the situation in which Princess Celestia has secluded the library from the general public.

"Your business, no matter to what degree of urgency it is, even if it be death, is of no matter right now. Exit the premises before I force you off."

With that, Ray turns to leave. Whatever it is that's going on is very important. Ray goes behind a building and takes to the air, scanning for any pegasai guards in the area. Thankfully, there are none. With that in mind Ray quietly and discreetly lands on the balcony of the library.

Ray has always been the type of pony who hates being left out, especially if it means his family could be at risk. Granted, his family is his wife, he wants to protect her at all costs. If this situation is as grave as the guard is making it, Ray refuses to be uninformed.

"But Princess!" Twilight exclaims, "How can you be so sure that this plan will work?"

"Because I designed the prison," Princess Celestia said gravely, "I know how to fix it. We just need the Elements of Harmony to keep everything in place so no evils will escape."

'Evils?' Ray questioned silently, 'What evils? And what is this prison she speaks of?'

"And why is this 'prision' broken anyways?" Twilight asks, stressing over the situation, "Even a better question: How did it break?"

"Like all clocks," Celestia starts, "pieces and gears eventually wear out."

'Clock?' Ray's ears perk up at the word.

Ray's special talent, as simple sounding as it is, is making clocks. But, what makes him so special is that his clocks never break. Never. He has designed a system of gears and cogs that allow them to pass over each other without causing wear-and-tear to any part of the clock. Hearing that the prison is as simple as a clock means Ray can fix it and make sure it will never break again. The question is though... Where is it? Canterlot?

"A clock?" Twilight asks, "You imprisoned the evils of existence in a clock?! Excuse my tone Princess, but what were you thinking?!"

Celestia chuckles solemnly, "The clock is bigger than you think. It is no ordinary clock. It's--"

"HEY!!" a voice from behind Ray shouts. Ray jumps up and hits his head on a branch, drawing attention from the inside without question, "You are not allowed up here!" the guard shouts, picking Ray up. As he makes a struggle to stay in place, Celestia and Twilight abruptly end their conversation.

"What about that thing Princess?" Twilight asks.

"Don't stress on it," Celestia says calmly as if there is no comotion going on outside, "just be sure no pony follows you. Remember, this item can mean life and death of all of Equestria. Don't let anyone find the artifact."

Hearing that sentence, Ray's body froze. The royal guards had Ray escorted to the local jail. Ray sat in silence in the back of the darkened carriage.

'Oh crap...' Ray thought silently, 'My dreams, they're happening... Except, I don't know what's going to happen. I only heard that phrase in my dream. Hearing it in reality can only mean that I play a key role in this. But what? Alright... I need to calm down... Breathe and catch my brea--'

The doors open and Ray is thrown out of the carriage and down into the holding cell for pegasai. His wings are bound as soon as he lands to wait for somepony to either bail him out or be put into jail. He sits down and waits patiently on the day to draw to an end.

'Alright,' Ray thought quietly, 'No pony is going to bother you now. You need to plan this out. Celestia said that the clock is bigger than normal. That means that the biggest clock I've made can't be it, since it belongs to the Princesses and the royal palace. What clock is bigger that that?' Ray gets up and goes to the bars at the other side of the dull and lifeless room. "Officer?" he calls out.

"What do you want?" the one dention officer asks.

"Can I get paper and ink please? I know you don't allow any sharp objects in a cell, but paper and ink should be fine."

"I guess..." The officer says reluctantly, getting Ray his supplies. Two minutes later, the officer comes up with the requested supplies, "Don't do anything funny, okay?"

"Never," Ray says honestly. The guard walks off, leaving Ray isolated again. Ray starts rubbing himself against the bars, specifically his wings. He rubs his wings the wrong way against the bars, giving him hours of preening to do later. One of his feathers comes loose and falls to the floor. He picks it up, dips it in the inkwell, and begins writing his thoughts and drawing diagrams of clocks. He ends up drawing a big circle and leaving it blank after four other sketches. His notes: Round, 12 or 60 symbols/items, must have a way for it to work from the inside unless clock has exposed gears.

"Excuse me," a voice calls from behind, "sir?"

Ray turns around to see the Princess of the Sun on the other side of the bars. This was unexpected to say the least.

"Yes your Highness?" Ray asks, bowing his head.

"Why were you eavesdropping on me?"

"Because I had urgent business with Ms. Sparkle and was anxious to get my problem solved."

"And what is this problem you speak of?" Celestia asks with some interest, trying to seem as if nothing big is going on.

"Listening to your conversation with Twilight answered my question your highness," Ray said with a nervous gulp.

"Oh?" Celestia's tone shifted to a more firm voice, "How is that?"

"I've been having dreams that I was trying to fix this big clock for a while now, bigger than any other clock in the world," Ray starts, "but I couldn't just fix it. I needed strong and powerful magic. When you told Twilight of a giant clock that you designed and you were going to fix, that allowed me to rest easier in heart. Well, until I was arrested."

"I see…" the princess says contemplating something, "And, forgive me, but I never did catch your name."

"My name is Ray Pendulum Clocks, the best clock pony in Equestria," Ray said confidently.

"Why does that name ring a bell?" Celestia pondered out loud.

"Because I designed your clock in the grand hall with a guarantee that it will never break, otherwise you get your bits back."

"That's right!" the princess exclaimed happily, "You're the gentle colt that built that for us. It's a wonderful clock. Listen… We'll pretend this whole thing didn't happen and that you were never hear just as long as you don't talk to Twilight for the next week or see her, deal?"

'That was an abrupt request, as if it were a…' Ray trailed off in his head. He blinked and shook Celestia's hoof, claiming the deal.

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Ray is perched on a cloud above Ponyville trying to think as the day wanes to an end.

"I can't believe Celestia basically blackmailed me…" He said to himself, "Why keep me away from Twilight? Do I 'know too much' or something? All I want to do is fix a stupid clock. But noooo," Ray throws his hooves into the air, followed by slamming onto the cloud, "Even death isn't as bad. How bad can it be? I mean really?" Ray's eyes look over town hall. He opens his mouth to continue venting his stress, but he sees something he never noticed before. Town hall, and the buildings around it, are in a circular formation. There are six stairwells and six spaces in between, making twelve stairs and spaces total. Can town hall really be the great clock the princess was talking about?

Ray flies down immediately towards town hall, landing in front of it. He enters calmly and cooly. His eyes begin scanning the room immediately. The place is filled with ponies of all ages. This must be student-government day. But, there is nothing unusual or out of the ordinary and nothing representing a clock other than the fact that it's round. He sees a door labeled Employees Only. He makes sure no one is looking and enters silently.

The room is similar to an office, except there is no desk. Just a bunch of paperwork. Carefully, Ray begins moving each box of papers around. One catches his eye that is titled "CLOCK" and begins to read it. There seems to be a safe in the Mayor's room with a button in it that opens the stairway to the basement down below. Of course, there is no code, so this will have to be done the hard way.

Exiting the room quickly without being noticed, he walks to the Mayor's office. To his surprise, as he turns the corner, the Mayor and her friends exit the office, locking it, putting up a sign that says Be Back in Ten Minutes. Perfect. The pony with the key puts it under the mat, talking to the Mayor's secretary, not paying attention to the gray pegasus watching him. As they walk off, Ray takes the key and unlocks the door and goes in without being noticed.

The Mayor's stuff is nicely organized and everything matches certain measurements. The safe is under the Mayor's desk. Ray gently starts looking around for the code, careful to disturb nothing noticeable. After five minutes of nothing, he starts to fumble with the safe.

'Come on…' Ray thinks to himself, listening for clicks, 'Please work…' Click. He quickly rotates the dial the other way and starts the same process. 'Just a little more… And…' Click. "Yes!" Ray exclaims quietly, "Last one!" Two minutes of being careful quickly goes by with no result. "Please work… Please wo--" Click. The safe door opens, revealing only the button and a note.

"What's this?" Ray picks the note up, "'Dear pony, if you are reading this, then understand that by pressing this button, you will set off the evacuation alarm in the building. This may cause distress,' blah blah blah, 'and will alert authorities if this was not announced as a drill.' … Well shit. Looks like I have to haul ass back to that room then." Ray press the button, sounding the alarm and bolts out the door, accidentally knocking the Mayor over.

"What the?!" the Mayor says in shock, "Stop that pony!!"

And the race is on. Ray takes to the air, leading the Mayor's personal security through a crowd of ponies trying to evacuate. He busts through the door leading to the file room. The floor has parted, revealing a stairwell leading to the basement. Quickly entering, he barricades himself in by manually pulling the floor back over the stairs.

With his heart pounding, Ray delves deeper into the basement. Soon, he comes to a room that contains a center piece and a gear off to the side. Upon entering this room, he gets a chill down his spine. Shrugging it off, he starts looking around for a way to put the gear onto the center piece. He eventually finds a rod in the corner, along with a cog. Studying everything closely, he puts the cog on first, then the gear, and then puts the rod in between them. As soon as the rod clicks, he sees something has come from the sides. They appear to be levers for pushing and pulling. He grabs one and pushes hard, but nothing budges. This thing needs to be oiled, but how? Looking around, he starts to think outside the box. He looks up to find a lantern. Reaching for it, he hears an ominous whisper. Looking over his shoulder with his hackles raised, he sees nothing. He grabs the lantern on full alert now and uses the oil to make the system work. The lantern grows dim as he forces the gears to turn. Soon, they begin to move with ease.

"Finally…" He says still pushing, "That was a simple…" A light glows on the wall. Ray stops and looks at it. The light radiating off of this is a blood red color. "What is this…?"

Ray looks up to see a design of what appears to be a long, thin blade. He looks into the light and looks back up. He flies up to touch it, and in doing so, he realizes what it is: The second hand for this clock. Without thinking, he steps in front of the light.

"This is going to be one hell of an experience," Ray said with a gulp, "How bad can this be anyways?" He touches the light and discovers it's a portal. He shakes his head and says "Here we go," before entering into the bloody portal.

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Slowly opening his eyes, he looks around, studying the environment. He's in a room that's dimly lit by an ominous red glow from outside. He crawls to the window in fear of there being something outside and looks over. The world outside can only be described in one word: Hell.