The Gilded One

by Officer_Sam

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Violence, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Human, Other, Original Character
Length: 7552

A sleeping clock, awoken by a wandering ruins explorer in a place that feels off.

A sleeping clock finds itself trapped in it's own slumber.

Until the day a ruins explorer winds the old clock up, allowing it to move once again. Although something is very off... a strange location and strange events set in motion as the clock starts to tick.

Published 2021-06-25 05:40:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-07-29 19:20:49 UTC

Chapter One - Ticking Clock.

Tick. Tock.
Tick. Tock.

The room is dark.

Tick. Tock.
Tick...

The clock stopped ticking a long time ago.

…

The room was silent for an eternity.

…

That was until the eternal silence was broken by footsteps, muffled yet echoed.

The steps kept getting closer and closer.

…

Then they stopped.

It was silent again, but then I could hear someone fumbling around with a door handle across from me.

Suddenly the room is flooded with an orange glow and the sound of loud creaking of the large double doors across from me.

I try to speak but make no noise, I try to move but produce no progress. My eyes are fixed straight at the doors, like I'm staring out a window.

The bright orange lamp bounces about as it moves forward, not illuminating the holder. Based on the height of the lamp this person is short or this room is just big. However, the footsteps are now more noticeable as a sorta clip-clop on the floor tiles.

The lamp is set down on the floor facing me as a silhouette steps in front of it, the orange outline of a half sized horse. I was expecting a small human, a dwarf maybe. But this looked like a horse, a pastel brown one? Hard to tell in the orange glow of the lamp light.

"Well, what do we have here?" I hear a female voice whisper. Did that thing just talk?

It approaches me and lifts up a hoof and places it on my torso. I can't look down my head and eyes are stuck straight, maybe I'm just a spectator in a show at this point. I watch the mare trot out of view behind me.

Then they seemingly stop behind me. Suddenly, I hear the sound of cranking and-

Tick. Tock.

How long have I been out?

Tick. Tock.

Sensation fills me. I can feel once more.

My eyes dart around the room as I feel a metal crank being pulled from my back. Delightful clicking fills my head and mind as I am no longer a spectator to my body. I slowly tick up out of the throne I sat in, using my arms to support the push out of the seat.

I can move.

I can't remember the past.
But atleast my clock is moving, once more.

"What in Celestia's name have I done?" I hear the female voice gasp.

My joints are still a little stiff, aching but still ticking. I turn around slowly to face the voice. My shadow looms over them, blocking me from getting a clear look at their face in the dark. However, I can somewhat make out that this is indeed a horse, or a pony?

I slowly raise my arm, the mare seemingly flinches. I try to wave at them and speak, but my voice is without sound. I can feel my jaw move open as if about to make noise but nothing happens. So I make the hand gesture to wait a second, but they still seem to be in fear of me. I use my other hand to mess around where my voice box would be in my throat. And to no one's surprise it's missing.

I wave at the mare and gesture to their lamp, slowly moving back to give them room to pick it up. The mare takes this opportunity to walk over to the lamp, looking less frightened by my appearance.

"You aren't going to hurt me right?" She asked with an odd expression of curiosity and fear.

I shook my head slowly and extended my hand out, actually now that I see it; that's a claw, I have or a slight mix. The mare put their hoof out and we did a little hoof-hand shake. They seemed a little cautious but a bit curious.

"So I assume you cannot speak?" She asked.

I nodded.

"I guess I could call you Mr. Deer for now. Seeing as your face resembles a deer skull of sorts and those antlers" She said.

I put my hand on my head, indeed these are antlers. Then my hand moves to my face and feels about, this does indeed feel like the shape of an animal skull. A metallic skull and antlers upon my head, I don't quite remember that. My claw skids off my snout as I gesture at them while tilting my head a bit.

"Right, my name. My name is Caramel Stone and before you ask, well I mean… not that you can. But it was my parent's choice for this weird name." Miss Stone said,"And to add to that I am a ruins explorer, which is why I am here."

I nod a bit in acknowledgement.

"So Mr. Deer, quite a place you got. I almost thought you were an art piece… not to offend you or anything…" she said, getting quiet at the end.

I look around the dark room, suddenly I can see a faint blue glow on my snout and a warm feeling within my ticking being. My eyes adjust better to the darkness, I can see better. Not clear as day but it's better than pitch black. I look around again, being able to see the room in better detail. This indeed looks like my throne room in a bit of shambles, and that is indeed a pastel brown pony with a black mane, wearing some sorta light green uniform and a pith helmet of sorts.

She looks up at me with a startled yet curious look.

"Since when do your eyes glow?" She asked, then realizing,"Oh wait, right."

I squint at her and notice the blue glow on my snout moves with my expression. I have much to ask but I cannot speak. She still stands next to the lamp in front of the throne as I walk into the dark of the room. I could barely make out some furniture when suddenly the orange glow turned upon me. A desk off to the side with a mirror frame and no mirror and a drawer with… parts. Useless parts, except for what looks like a voice box. I pick up the box and slowly place it into the base of my throat where it would be, I hear it click and start ticking rapidly then slowing to normal.

I make an audible coughing noise as a start and a couple audible attempts to clear my throat. I turn to face the mare who trots over to me, tilting their head.

"Hello there, Miss Stone." The voice was slow, sorta deep, a little raspiness and a subtle ticking on each pause.

This voice box might be slightly old and maybe damaged but at least I can produce sound now. Even if I sound a bit creepy, slow, sinister… I mean I have a deer skull for a face and glowing eyes.

"So you can talk now, I see." She said looking at my throat area.

"It appears so." I said in reply coughing again,"So where are we located?"

"We're deep in the Everfree Forest in Equestria, of course in this here ruins."

"I see." I nodded a bit. Equestria? Am I even in the same realm as Earth, have I been out for that long?

"I sorta stumbled in here by accident looking for some mines. We could, uh, leave if you'd like." She said, picking up the lantern with her mouth.

I nodded to her as we exited the throne and proceeded down the halls.

I put my claw up to my snout, tapping it silently. Something definitely feels off about this stronghold, for parts of it I remember and parts of it seem strange. That and the absence of any clockwork remains of the guards once positioned, unless there is still some in the storage rooms but the layout of this place seems different. In fact, I myself feel off but the ticking shall guide me. For now I say it's best to exit and find my bearings in this realm before attempting to recreate the old country of clockwork. I should take mental note of the land outside and compare it to where I've been before.

"Say what year is it?" I asked as we walked along the empty hallways towards the exit.

"Think it was like the year 1012 on the Celestial Calendar." She said with the lantern in her mouth.

Interestingly, my internal clock says it would be about 7118 now. Making this world's time about 6000 years off from Earth's realm, this makes me about 5500 years old. Such a long time and I haven't any clue as to how I am here now or how and why I 'slept' through such a long time. But I can't let that worry me right now, I have to keep going as my clockwork only moves forward with time. If I make haste I might be able to bring about what I built in the previous realm to this one. Let's just hope it isn't as hard fought and needlessly violent to do so.

We made our way through the ruins until we exited into a cavern and in turn eventually made it into a forest, Everfree I think she called it. This forest seemed a bit off putting and wildly untamed even though it's noon, unlike some of the forests and magical forests on Earth which were more peaceful even if they held some of the most deadly beasts known to the realm.

Miss Stone set the lantern down and put it out then attached it to her side belt making it clink as she trotted along. She then froze as the leaves rustled and I stopped too in realization. There was rustling in the leaves around us and a low growling. I could sense their magical presence, as if they were like the beasts from Earth. So even other realm's have magical beasts and out for blood no less.

The mare slowly backed up towards me and looked up at me with a scared look before looking around frantically, I looked down at her and pet her head in reassurance. I looked around and focused my magical senses. There were three wolf type signatures in this hunting pack, slowly circling in closer. It seems I can't use attack magic yet, so I have to do this the physical way. My joints may be ancient at this point but it seems I can still move at a decent speed with the passive enchantments I laid out long ago. I slowly bent over Miss Stone, crouching a bit with my arms ready to defend from the vicious hunters. That's when two of them pounced out from the left and right bushes, I was able to grab one by the throat and the other latched onto my arm, it's teeth keeping grip in my exposed skeletal structure. Now in the light I can see these wolves are made of wood, their glowing green eyes locked at me. Almost fearful gazes realizing they didn't do anything to harm me.

I squeezed my claw down on the one I grabbed crushing the wooden neck with a loud snap and splintering wood, I let it slump out of my hand as it's eyes went dark. I then reached over to grab the other one off my arm when I could sense the other one running behind me, when I felt it's jaw bite down onto my leg as hard as it could. I could then hear a light wood cracking sound and a whimper as it bit down, I bet it liked the taste of metal. I reached over and grabbed the one still latched onto my arm by the head, yanking it off as it's teeth snapped like twigs from where it was, and used it as a melee tool against the one behind me by turning my torso around and using the momentum to knock the other one out. The audible cracking of wood was a nice sound as both wolves lay still behind me, the green glow fading out. Glad to know I still got it at this age, still would prefer to have made them into campfire fuel using magic.

It was then I noticed both of my legs were digitigrade and had deer hooves, which is strange as I don't even remember even making such modifications but then again in a way it helps me fit in slightly to a seemingly animal society. Also I feel slightly better in this form for some reason, I guess whatever force brought me into this realm liked deer though.

I then looked down at Miss Stone, who was in shock. I tried to pet their head to calm them and asked if she was okay.

She just looked at me and nodded, she didn't seem in total shock anymore, maybe the petting helped a bit. Which is strange, I have claws essentially but yet I can seemingly be very delicate with them.

After a bit of comforting her, we finally continued on our way through the forest but this time she was trotting by my side trying to keep close to me while still leading the way through the forest.

After some stumbling over loose wood and trying to not get scared at every leaf related noise we eventually reached a faded path and followed it, presumably out of these damn woods and too civilization.

Author's Note

This first chapter is a rewrite of an old concept story in my drive.

I am still a little new to writing stories and such, but I think I did good compared to the original rushed draft and the fact I wrote this up on mobile while I don't have my PC setup yet.

But anyway, off to adventuring.

Chapter Two - Oh Deer, Miss Stone.

The walking clock and the pony walked along a faded trail in the Everfree forest, heading to Ponyville. Subtle ticking noises whispered in the forest wind, along with the occasional sound of leaves rustling and twigs snapping.

The pony's head was filled with thought, not noticing the whispers of the wind.

***
Oh my Celestia, I awoke a metal deer. And it's made of metal clockwork and ancient magics seemingly unknown to Equestria. And it has those strangely calming blue eyes, despite looking like a sorta spooky skeletal deer. But it did save my life from those timberwolves. And I forgot to ask for his actual name or where he came from when he fixed his voice issue.

I look up occasionally at him, he seems so calm for a machine recently awoken from slumber and thrusted into a small skirmish. Hopefully it isn't disrespectful or something, I mean I was only curious of course I should really not be touching everything in an ancient ruin alone. At this point it might be awkward to ask for info on this silent trail, I'll just question him later with my friend. After all she is the ruins and magic expert.

I look up at him again. Such an interesting design though, a thin and agile looking brass plated deer, though with some missing plates and exposed skeletal frame and clockwork. Wait, is his innards actually entirely clockwork? Yet he can seemingly think, maybe feel, he can certainly interact but yet he's still all metal. Actually considering he looks agile and has claws, he doesn't seem all that fast. Just strong and powerful seeing as he dispatched those timberwolves with ease. He might just be old and aged. Maybe I can help fix him up and keep him around.

***

Miss Stone keeps staring up at me as we walk. Seemingly she wants to ask a question or is pondering some thought, yet she looks away and remains silent. Though it may be awkward to attempt conversation after what's happened so far. Maybe I'll confront her about what's on her mind after the walk out of here. For now I should remain vigilant in these blasted woods.

After some while of walking silently through the woods, I could see a town up ahead. That's when I halted Miss Stone. She looked at me confused then had a look of realization. I was a tall metal clockwork deer, and up ahead was a town of ponies, we walked off the trail to hide in some bushes. That's when I remembered, my passive magics must have returned a bit as we were walking.

"Miss Stone, are deer rare in this realm?" I asked quietly.

"They aren't rare but their nation is sorta isolationists." She whispered back to me,"Why?"

"I think I can disguise myself using one of my illusion spells. It should calibrate itself to what this world's deer are like."

Miss Stone looked at me and said,"Well I don't want to cause a panic in town but I mean, living deer is better than metal deer."

She nodded for me to continue.

I closed my eyes and felt out into the world. I could feel the warmth of this world's magic and yet a slight tinge of coldness and… familiar magic. While odd, my main focus right now is to separate all these magical presences and find a sample of the deer presence in order to copy their presence and cover my own, like a cloak. This might take awhile, hopefully Miss Stone is patient.

***

As I nodded for him to continue he promptly sat down on the ground and his eyes stopped glowing. He didn't just die on me right?

But I can hear him ticking slightly so he's not dead, I guess. However, I can see a slight dark goldish glow through some of the holes in his outer plating. It's a sorta warm glow, calming in a way, with an occasional spike of white flashes. I may not be well versed in magic but this looks kinda cool, wait how long will he be like this?

A short couple of hours later -

It's been a while of sitting around, I almost fell asleep, wait I was asleep. His warm glow is quite peaceful though… Wait, did he always glow like that? His plating and skeleton is starting to glow orange, and a sorta spike of white every so often...

Poof!

I closed my eyes and reflexively put my hooves up from a sudden flash of light.

I slowly opened my eyes to see a genuine deer on four hooves standing before me.

He looked like a pony but more slender and slightly taller than me, his coat was a dark faded brown with a light grey underbelly. Also a light grey muzzle and… wait why is his muzzle a bit more rounded like a mares, wait… wait. His antlers are also not there. Is he a…? Is she a she..? I mean does the thing even have a gender to bring with?

***
I think I went too far, farther than a simple illusion and cloak of my own presence. I feel somewhat alive, Yet internally I can still hear the silent ticking… wait did I just pull off a transformation spell instead of an illusion one. I must admit that I was never really good at distinguishing the two but I could have sworn I was in the middle of the illusion spell. At least my disguise is solid, well soft and fleshy, and I shouldn't be able to be easily made out as clockwork. It does feel weird though, being in this body it feels like I have cold internal clockwork, but yet I have a warm outer feeling growing inwards. I think at any rate this is starting to grow on me for some reason, I can change out of this later if needed but we'll see how it goes for now first. I might have used quite a bit of stored mana to even do this anyway, speaking of which I can't really feel my mana for some reason.

I look down at Miss Stone who is looking at me with a confused look.

"What are you staring at-" I cut myself off, realizing my voice was now more feminie sounding.

Ok, so I not only didn't do a basic illusion spell but I turned myself into a doe, I would of prefered a buck to be honest. I mean it's not that bad logically speaking, it would be easier for people or ponies to trust a female, I think. However, I feel oddly comfortable as a doe, maybe this is what... No, I am clockwork. I did my work meeting royalty and would always take a soft approach that might explain the choice of transformation. Anyway, at this point I might as well think of a cover identity and get Miss Stone on board, if I didn't break her just yet.

She still looked at me in a confused awe. This might take awhile, wait. It's getting dark, this shall not take awhile.

A 'few' minutes later -

"And so Miss Stone, I am O'deer Stonia, not very creative but it's what came to mind and stuck." I said slowly looking back at Miss Stone.

"Right, so Miss Stonia then. Almost sounds like my last name." She looks up at me with a slight grin.

"I'll have you know Stonia was a well respected family and country where I came from." I said with a pout.

She giggled a bit and said,"Riiight. But anyway it's getting dark so we should get back to my house. I'm sure my housemate won't mind, actually she might and I have no clue how to explain this to her."

"Don't worry Miss Stone, I'll help you with the explanation."

"Really?"

"Yes, really now let's go forth."

We both walked out of the bushes back onto the path and into ponyville under the setting sun and eventual dim moonlight. No one was out at this hour fortunately, making for a peaceful and uninterrupted walk into town and to Miss Stone's house.

As we approached the house, I could sorta make out the timber-framing of this two story house. It reminds me of old human village architecture, specifically small villages. Although the streets are stone with some grass plots in front of the houses and some occasional lampposts, like you'd see in a small town. Whatever floats their boat I guess.

Miss Stone reached into one of the belt pouches and retrieved a key ring, jingling as she somehow held it. I looked down at my front hooves and did a sorta graby motion like you would with a hand, unsure of how you would grip things. That's when Miss Stone finally unlocked the door and we both walked in, shutting and locking it behind us.

She flipped a switch causing the room to suddenly be filled with light. I blinked a little as my eyes readjusted and then curiously looked at the switch and then at the light source on the ceiling. This must be that electricity stuff that was being developed before I slept, seeing as I don't feel much magical energy from this. I look around the now lit room; seeing a couch, coffee table, end tables, a couple bookshelves, and an unlit fireplace. A fairly basic living room, poking my head into the next door room I can make out what seems to be a combined kitchen and dining room area. As I turned around I saw Miss Stone laying on the couch half-asleep without her jacket on, that's when I saw an image on her flank of a lantern and pickaxe. I'll ask about that later, but it seems she needs her sleep after a long day, I gently nudged her and pointed up with my hoof.

"Oh right, I have a bed… you can sleep here I guess. Do you want a blanket or something?" She asked, looking at a chest in the corner of the room.

I nodded, seeing as it did feel a bit cool. Wait, feel… But I'm still half clockwork, right. I mean I hear the ticking still-

Thump.

I look over to see Miss Stone passed out on the ground after trying to get off the couch. I quickly picked her up and gently put her back on the couch. I looked around the room and saw the unlocked chest, opening it. It was full of blankets, just blankets in fact, so I grabbed one and covered her as she slept on the couch. You know I feel somewhat tired as well, but I shouldn't be, I'm part clockwork and I don't sleep, right? I mean I accidentally transformed myself into a deer while trying to perform an illusion spell. I don't understand...

I flip the switch and the room is slightly illuminated by moonlight instead. I sit on the couch next to the mare, leaning against the arm... hoof rest?

This isn't that bad though, I spent many years as a clockwork creation haven't I? But I must still try and serve the clock. Still this is a nice change of pace being alive, and not being a cold clock ticking away. I don't even remember much about the past or who I really am...

I slowly close my eyes as the ticking gets louder.

…

Images flood my head, a human, a deer beastkin, and clockwork?

The clockwork gears tick angrily together as the two hug, not letting go. Whispers filled my head repeating phrases of some language, telling me to continue serving the clock and to remember your place.

That's when clockwork imagery melted away, revealing a shadowed figure in front of a bright doorway. The light illuminating me in my deer form, chained down to a massive clock.

The voice spoke in a deep tone,"You are not the owner of this body, your soul is invasive."

The ticking intensified with anger.

"You're insane, this is my body. I rightfully own it." I yelled.

Wait, my voice was coming from the clock and not the deer.

"Wrong." Cried a feminie voice, similar to how the deer transformation sounded.

"You are no longer allowed to try and remain in control of this body." The deep voice stated.

I remember, I remember that day now...

"You were that dastardly deer trying to escape from the clockwork god! You're a traitor! That and you're no good boyfriend!" I shouted.

"He saved me but sacrificed himself and gave me a piece of his soul. You are nothing but an invasion on our attempt to escape the clockwork tyrant." The feminie voice said.

"That is correct, my deer." Another voice said from the dark,"I am still with you, though a tiny piece, I will guide you and also assist in fending off this vile soul that continues to try and take your soul."

I looked around for the voice's origin yelling aloud, "Show yourself you stupid pieces of-"

Painful flashes of light and grinding of gears. I'm, we, internal screaming, battling.

The clock needs to keep ticking I will not yiel-

The internal voice of one is silenced, so that the rightful may continue. The clock under the deer stopped ticking, the chains turned to dust.

"Miss Stonia. I put you back in control." The deep voice said,"Your lover's sacrifice was not in vain and he will be with you always."

I'm finally free from the clock and it's chains. I looked up from where I was chained and looked at the shadowy figure, the figure waved.

"Miss Stonia, I need you to wake up now. You can live life free, look inwards for guidance. Now wake up and smell the-" The deep voice was cut off.

A split second of darkness.

...

I was jolted awake all of a sudden, the only ticking I could hear was a clock on the wall. I quickly inspected myself to see that this is indeed real. I am a living deer again, though not like the anthro beastkin I once was, but I am at least free from the clockwork god and the servant who tried to take control. And I know that my lover's soul will guide me now and I no longer have to serve the clockwork.

I smiled a bit as I looked around, the peaceful morning daylight illuminated through the window behind the couch, I was laying on the couch against the hoof rest my head assumingly hanging off the couch considering the slight neck pain I could now feel. And Caramel was using my belly as a pillow, that's kinda a cute sight and explains why I'm extra warm, and wait, I smell food coming from the kitchen… wait, if I remember correctly from when I was semi-observing, Caramel had a roommate… right?

And, oh dear heavens, this is a great position to be caught in…

And on que I could hear the hoof steps in the kitchen approaching the doorway to the living room.

Author's Note

I'm still typing this up on mobile yet again. So if theres any missed mistakes, please tell me.

But anyway I had a few directions in my improvised outline, but I felt a pull and went with it. Sorry if I pulled the unexpected.

I looked over this for about a week, starting with a quick typing and ending with what I feel is a solid product. I hope it's still a enjoyable read.

With that all said, I continue my adventure into the dark.

Chapter Three - Ponyville

The deer and the asleep pony explorer are enjoying their time on the couch.

Only for breakfast to be served.

***
A blue coated pony with a silvery mane and an image of somesorta artifact on their flank walked into view, levitating with them two plates of breakfast looking items. They gently put the plates down on the coffee table and looked at us with a growing smirk. Before I could open my mouth they began speaking.

“Don’t worry I won’t press for the details, but I must say Caramel has some exotic taste to bring a deer home.” She said, looking at me.

I have no words to respond with, or at least anything that could make the situation seem even more embarrassing.

“Well, seeing as you're our guest and she clearly trusts you enough. My name is Blue Star, and you are..?”

“I am O’deer Stonia, a uh, traveller and explorer. Kinda like Caramel here.” I said, trying to gently nudge Caramel awake.

“Five more minutes…” Caramel groaned, turning over.

Miss Star used her magic to poof the blanket away, causing Caramel to start reaching around for the blanket only to then slowly pick up her head and look at me, and my belly.

“Oh deer.” She started to sit up straight, her face almost seemingly went red,“Um, this isn’t what it seems Star.”

She was flushed as she tried to avoid eye contact with her roommate, who was still wearing a smirk upon their face.

“I’ll give you two some room to talk, just shout for me if you need anything.” Blue said, walking towards the stairs.

Once she was out of the room, Caramel and I looked at each other. I can tell today will already be swell.

A few minutes later. -

We finished eating our breakfast, with the occasional small talk. Caramel purposely avoided asking about how I ended up as a pillow for her, though I found it cute personally. Also, considering I haven’t really had normal herbivore meals in a long time, the food was pleasant. It’s been so long since I’ve actually eaten anything actually, I don’t even remember that far into the past. I looked up at Caramel.

“So, should we talk a little more about the whole clockwork deer form.”

”I almost forgot about that, you were some sorta clockwork thing and a pretty ancient yet advanced looking one. Clock makers don’t have anything on you.” She said with a small smile at the end,“But I don’t really get it, the style of that whole fortress thing and clockwork don’t seem too equestrian.”

“Well, to start off with. I don’t even know if I’m my own realm, your date didn’t match up with my internal clock. Then again calendars are sometimes replaced or forgotten. However, the fortress was seemingly familiar to me yet not at the sametime, though my memory of the ancient days as old clockwork and my pre-clockwork days are faded.”

“Pre-clockwork?” She asked, tilting her head.

“Ah, yes. I was at one point a deer though not exactly to my current transformation, I can’t recall all of it just a faded outline. Uh, clockwork machines were sometimes powered by souls or soul magic, I don’t remember the specifics of how I came to be clockwork.”

And now that I think about it, I don’t remember putting myself to sleep on that throne. The old memories are faded, even memories of love and people I once knew. Maybe it’s my lover’s soul keeping those memories alive, but I don’t even fully remember him. However, I could seemingly remember a bit of my magic training and could still use my affinity for transformation and illusion. I tried to reach into my memories, but even when trying to actively recall a memory it seems to resist, as if waiting for someone else’s permission, in fact I barely remember that dream now. I just know I felt free from some sorta chains, clockwork soul chains? Weren’t those almost impossible to break? Who broke them? Where am I? Why is everything different? Am I alone?

“Stonia.... Stonia!” Caramel’s voice echoed into my mind before I was able to shake my head and look at her, she had her hoof on my shoulder with a worried look.

“I-I…” I felt a sudden urge to cry. I held it in and looked back at Caramel,“I am fine, I just over-thought something for a second.”

“Look, while I’m not the most qualified person. I still would like to be your friend and help you as much as I can.” She gave me a heartfelt smile,“Now why don’t we take your mind off the whole clockwork thing, we can break the news to Starry later and see if we can help. Otherwise, why don’t we go outside and take a walk. Ponyville is nice this time of morning…. I hope.”

Caramel put on what looked to be saddlebags but not her explorer uniform, though it was a bit dusty, I guess. She patted the side of one of the saddlebags and I heard a little jangle of loose change, she smiled a bit as we proceeded outside.

“We’ll be back soon Star.” Caramel yelled up before closing the door,“Right, I guess we should get some light shopping done and a quick tour… and wait you're a deer.”

A couple of passing ponies stared at the pair of us before moving on, seemingly more careful. You know I think I somewhat remember hearing that deer are a bit rare, I think we both forgot to think before moving. That’s when the house door opened again and Blue Star came out using her horn’s magic to close the door. Did they really use a horn to focus magic, is that why I don’t see Caramel using magic? I should really ask about this stuff later.

“I think I should come along, a third wheel would never hurt. Plus I still have to ask Caramel a bit about you.” She said standing next to me.

Caramel shrugged and proceeded to lead the way forwards with Blue Star staying at my side.

Some of the ponies we passed looked at me with a familiar eye, I somewhat remember this faded feeling… I shook my head. No, they are just curious about me, I am a deer and new around here. Everyone is careful about strangers, right?

Author's Note

This one is a bit shorter than the other two, sorry.

I have been reaching a sorta writer's block I guess. Probably due to factors somewhat outside my control. Though I know that I might come back to stories and ideas like this and try to make them work.

Though I have to admit, I've been feeling tired.

Nevertheless, I must continue with my adventure.

Chapter Four - The Rift

A deer and two ponies walk through town getting some shopping done, all while having a little tour of Ponyville.

Meanwhile...

***
It’s been several months since the collapse of the clockwork army, the clockwork god was defeated by the United Front. It took us 20 something years of fighting to finally rid our realm of his evil presence. Now we can finally integrate some of the old clockwork droids into our workforce without worry of evil corruption and influence from that dastardly entity, of course we still took precaution to ward off any external attempts of control to our own clockwork drones by placing them under the state's control.

However, now I’m told by my court magicians that there's a report of a magical anomaly at one of their old forts and upon closer inspection the inner part of the fort seems to have been magically ripped from our realm to another, leaving behind an unstable rift connection. Could the clockwork god have escaped using a rift? But how could he have been hidden until now? Hopefully it wasn’t that damned clockwork entity but if it was, we would need to hunt the remnants down and rid them of his connection and destroy any nodes and hopefully prevent the next realm from being ruled by brass toys. I really don’t want a repeat of the Brass War.

I put down the report into a stack of other reports on my desk. I push myself away from the desk and stand up to stretch a bit. Oh it’s going to be one of those long weeks isn’t it? I’ll have to gather my advisors and such to start a plan on how we're going to deal with this possible mess, if anything we’ll probably need to make a gate to stabilize what remains of the rift and immediately send an expedition across. I’ll put aside some funds and manpower, they’ll need every coin and body if they’re to figure this situation out. Then of course I’ll have to deal with questions from our allied nations and they’ll probably want to go through as well, not to mention the possibility of other sentient species on the other side, but as I’ve always said one small problem at a time.

I look around my room, I almost forgot how empty it looks. I haven’t really decorated since the beginning of the war to cut down on costs, nor have I really spent money on clothes haven’t I? I’m still in my royal military uniform and I haven’t really worn much of anything else since the beginning of the war. Shopping later maybe, for now I have a major operation to organize. I am the king ain’t I?

Looking at the simple stand mirror next to the door I straighten my uniform out and prepare myself for the long day ahead.

***

You know after walking around ponyville a bit, it isn’t too bad. It’s a nice place for a small town. However, the look some of the ponies give me are strange but I am a new visitor to town, I’m sure it will go away with time.

Oh that reminds me, we went to some place called Sugarcube Corner, oh deer were those some of the best sweets I’ve had in… well probably forever considering the amount of holes in my memory. Also the currency here is called Bits or something, they’re gold coins of sorts. I feel as if I’ve seen better looking gold coins in my past. But anyway we did some light shopping for basics cause I guess I’m hanging with Caramel for awhile, apparently I have to stop by the Mayor’s office later for citizenship papers or something. Then I’ll probably need to get a basic job so I don’t have to rely on Caramel for everything despite her insisting it’s fine, I won’t be some freeloader.

And now I’m back on the couch, Caramel and Star apparently wanted to talk about something in private. Now I’m just here, I can be patient.

That’s when the world went black...

...

From the darkness a familiar deep voice,“Prepare yourself for your previous realm is connecting and others are coming.”

“Who are you?” I called out.

“You must prepare yourself, Miss Stonia. You must show them you aren’t corrupt…” The voice trailed off.

…

I was jolted awake, looking up I saw Caramel standing in front of me. I hope this isn’t going to be a common occurrence, at least I was laying down this time.

“Jeez, were you that tired from earlier?” She said with a half smile.

“I am a bit, but I will be fine. Just thinking about the future and such.” I don’t think I should tell her about this ominous message just yet.

“Just know I’m here for talking if y’know you think too much.”

I nodded as she turned away and then turned back.

“Say what if we went back into the ruins, I could grab Blue and we could inspect it a bit more.” She said, looking at me with an excited look.

“I mean we could, I am curious about it myself. And maybe a nice walk would help anyway.”

“Right then let’s get ready.” She said, grabbing her explorer uniform and heading upstairs to talk to Star.

It might not be such a bad idea to revisit the ruins I once slept in, maybe I could answer some of my own questions and fill in some memory gaps.

***

My name is Johnathan Young, a human and a royal explorer hired by His Majesty King Samuel Adams of Stonia. Today, His Majesty got a council together to discuss the proceedings of the newly constructed gate to stabilize the rift. Apparently we’ll be well funded and backed up with soldiers armed with the new Bolt-Action Sampston Rifles. I was also told I would be the first to travel through with my team.

My team consisted of other explorers, hired adventurers, and a couple researchers. All of whom are a mix of human and beastkin. Specifically adventuring Wolvekin as they have better scouting abilities compared to humans and other beastkin. Anyway, our basic mission is to confirm if the clockwork god has a presence here or not and to investigate the remains of the fort and catalogue anything that came with it. Apparently a secondary team would be used to contact any form of local government after we stabilize our end of the rift and give the all clear.

Which, seeing as I’m among the first to arrive here, it is working as planned with one way trips at least. Though our rift opened up in the middle of some dark and spooky forest at night, leaving us with just the blue light from the opened rift illuminating our surroundings until we could get our lanterns on. After some fiddling around with material sacks, we got to work in stabilizing the rift by building a stone structure around it with some magical runes, thereby allowing us to go back and report the all clear. Now we could do two way trips and get to exploring while more teams come in to secure the rift area and do other objectives.

I can’t wait to explore another clockwork ruin, they’re usually pretty interesting and filled with fun contraptions. Of course we have to find it first, and to do so a researcher brought along some device that almost looks like a stick. Apparently he can use it to specifically sense clockwork signatures and the like, which means he’ll be navigating us. Eventually we ended up in a cave system that was almost maze-like, but as we walked closer to the source of the signature we heard talking. We shut off our lanterns and used some night vision spells to see, as we turned a corner we could see three quadrupeds standing next to a lantern pointing at a large brass door. One seemingly had a horn, a unicorn? Here? The other was wearing some uniform with a pith helmet and the other looked almost like a deer, the researcher looked back at me and pointed at the deer.

“That deer has very faint clockwork signatures.” He whispered to me.

I nodded then I motioned for the adventures to spread out, they took positions in the dark, some of them aiming their rifles up others with their hands on their sword’s hilts. Now it’s a question of striking first or maybe talking first? I mean talking ponies shouldn’t be a surprise considering Centaurs. But we shouldn’t be too hostile at first, what’s the worst that can happen? Screw it, I motioned to the adventures to stay still as I got up and walked over to the three.

Author's Note

My adventure continues on.