This mistake, however, did not cost a life.
The Clockwork City.
It held few names. Sotha Sil, it was sometimes called, after it’s creator. But most referred to it as the Clockwork City, for that was what it was.
Sotha Sil stood in front of the Throne Aligned, and though his eyes viewed the throne, in truth he gazed upon something else: the Brass Fortress. Once, it had been full of life, but now only Factotums walked the deserted streets.
Sotha Sil knew his time was drawing to a close. He had known it forever, and forever had it been unknown to him. The walls around him seemed to come closer with every passing second, though he knew it to be only a trick of his mind.
His power was waning too, a fraction of what it once was. Still, it was considerable, and some perks of divinity would never leave him, even if the Heart of Lorkhan spontaneously combusted at this very moment.
A grace of a smile appeared on his lips. Humour was something that came fleetingly to him, but when it came, it was good, refreshing like water after a trek through the desert.
He could feel the pulse of energy moments before his alarms did, and they all started blaring as they detected Almalexia teleport into the Clockwork City. But Sotha Sil still had some divine power left, and he used a bit of it to redirect Almalexia’s teleportation, and so instead of the Throne Aligned, she ended up in the same place Sil’s old friend Divayth had when he visited the Clockwork City for the last time.
A menial distraction at best, but it would keep Almalexia occupied for a time as she fought with his constructs. He was buying time here, prolonging his last minutes when he knew no chance of escape existed.
‘’Hiya!’’
What?
Sotha Sil drew his gaze away from Almalexia’s battle and into the Throne Aligned. There, peeking out of a crack in reality, was the head of a pink horse.
‘’Greetings,’’ Sotha Sil said, speaking for the first time in aeons.
‘’Hiya!’’ the mare said again, as she jumped out of the crack. Sotha Sil was forced to amend his earlier conclusion: this was a pony, not a horse. She had a pink coat and an even pinker mane that was like an explosion of poof had been placed upon her head. Interestingly, there was a mark on her flanks, of three balloons.
‘’Whatcha doing?’’ the mare asked, bouncing around the room.
Sotha Sil wondered if saying that he was waiting for his inevitable demise would spoil the mare’s mood.
As he thought that, the mare stopped bouncing around, and stood still in front of him. She barely reached up to his knees.
‘’Oh no, none of that, mister!’’ she said forcefully. ‘’You’re being a grumpy-pants. Come on, let’s get you to a party!’’
Sotha Sil ignored her tugging on his leg as he analyzed the crack in reality. At best, he had five minutes and twenty-three seconds before Almalexia would kill him. No matter if he teleported away or tried to defend himself, he would die in that time. But that crack through which the mare had come led outside of the Aurbis entirely. If it closed behind him, there was no way Almalexia would be able to follow through.
But perhaps more interestingly, the crack appeared to be more than just a portal. It was a way out of the cage.
Sotha Sil had lived long, far too long if he was true with himself. While the idea of dying did not do anything for him, that did not mean he wanted to die.
Perhaps, in this other Aurbis, he could atone for all he had done.
‘’Very well,’’ he said, as he issued a final mental command to the Clockwork City.
Shut down.
As the City turned to darkness, Sotha Sil allowed himself to be dragged through the portal by the pink mare. Faintly, he registered a cry of maddened rage from Almalexia.
Then he went through the crack, and the world shifted.
Sotha Sil had been all over the Aurbis, but never outside it. This crack, wherever it led, went to a place outside the Aurbis. Outside the prison.
And as a new world appeared, in a room filled with books, Sotha Sil smiled for the first time in centuries.
He was free.
Pinkie didn’t really know who this strange being was. She assumed he was a human, as he seemed to resemble what Twilight had told her and the others what humans looked like. And there was something strange about him; he had that same sense of power that Discord and the Princesses did.
But that wasn’t why she pulled him out of wherever he was. She pulled him out of there because he needed a party, and she had just the one in mind!
‘’You stay here, mister,’’ she said to him, ‘’I’ll be back in a jiffy.’’
After a moment, the man absently nodded, still looking around the library with a smile on his face. ‘’Thank you, my lady,’’ he said. ‘’You have done me a service I do not think I can ever fully repay.’’
‘’I just helped you!’’ Pinkie replied. ‘’You look very sad! You clearly need a party!’’
‘’A party?’’ The man tilted his head, then nodded. ‘’I have not attended a party in a long time.’’
Pinkie gasped. This could not be! ‘’Come on then!’’ She grabbed one of his arms and dragged him along. ‘’I’ll show you to my friends, and then we can have a big party!’’
The man was kinda heavy, but that didn’t matter, because Pinkie needed to get this man to her friends, who - conveniently, thank you Mr Author! - were all together in the council room.
Pinkie slammed open the door. ‘’Hi everyone!’’
‘’WHAT IS THAT?!’’ five voices shouted at once.
‘’Eep,’’ Fluttershy added rather weakly.
‘’This is…’’ Pinkie looked up at the man, who had the most unreadable expression Pinkie had ever seen outside of all those books about dark magic Twilight kept in the basement of the castle.
‘’I am…’’ The man hesitated, before finally giving everyone a small smile. ‘’You may call me Sotha Sil.’’
Author's Note
So.
Have had this sitting on my pc for some time; more or less forgot about it until I was looking through my 'Starred' docs today. As I said in the description, I might get inspired to write more, or I might not. We'll see.
