My Little Clockwork: An Ancient Secret

A very exhausted looking Sprocket lifts a ring of keys up to the door to her shop. Above her shines the sign for ‘Sprocket's Time Emporium’ in bright orange lettering. She unlocks the door and opens it. She walked slowly inside and let out a big yawn.

I went to bed early. Why am I so tired? she thought to herself.

Her horn lit up in its characteristic cyan glow as she lit up the lights in the small store. She yawned again and walked into the back room.

The room was rather cluttered and dingy with shelves and shelves of clock and watch parts in little labeled bins. In the back wall set a safe. She trotted over and with her unicorn magic, turned the dial inputted the code for the safe. It made a obnoxious squeak noise as she opened it and she snorted with disgust. Without missing a beat she levitated a bottle of lubricant and sprayed the hinges of the door with a quick spritz. She pulled out a bag of bits from within the safe and picked them up with her mouth. She then closed and locked the safe with her magic and to her relief it closed silently.

She then carried the bag over and dumped its contents into the cash register and closed the door.

Time for another day of gears and springs. she thought and it elevated her mood slightly. This was, after all, her special talent and what gave her her cutie mark. Her cutie mark featured a gear with only a faction of its teeth with clock hands over it. She glanced over her shoulder to look at it and smiled.

Suddenly the front door burst open, the bell ringing loudly. In rushed a small blue colt. Before Sprocket had a chance to move he rushed up to the counter startling Sprocket for a moment.

"Wha...what can I do for you?" she asked, stammering a little out of shock.

"Miss time pony miss time pony I need your help. It's an emergency!" he replied frantically.

"Oh? Did you not wake up in time for school 'cause your alarm clock's broken?" she replied with a smile.

"No no no, I need you to send me back in time. I accidentally broke my mother's prize vase she won a contest with at the fair. She's gonna be furious with me and I'll be grounded for a month. Please please please send me back to yesterday and I can stop myself from doing it! I NEED this! Please please please? I have bits!" he said, still frantic and about out of breath.

"Ok first of all, take a deep breath. In through your nose." She took a loud breath of air in through her nose to demonstrate. "And out through your mouth." She then released it through her mouth.

The colt proceeded to do so and relaxed a little.

"Better?"

"Yeah but I still need your help." The colt retorted, anxiety building in his voice.

Sprocket took another deep breath. "Unfortunately I'm going to have to say no. You see, I'm not a pony of time. I don't have control of time. I just help measure it. I fix and sell clocks and watches and other such mechanical things. I can't send you into the past even if I wanted to.

The frantic look in the colt's face fell. "So I'm just screwed? Dang it! Mom's gonna kill me!"

"I'm sorry. I could sell you a clock or a watch? Or what about this mechanical owl? It hoots every hour."

"No thanks I..." He stammered and was suddenly cut off.

With a gust of wind the front door burst open again, this time revealing an adult mare. Sprocket could tell just by her appearance that she was the colt's mother.

"Lucky Clover Hooves what are you doing in this cock store? I've been looking everywhere for you! I was starting to think you'd been abducted or worse! Never go running off from the house like that ever again! And what are you doing bothering this poor pony? I'm sure she has important things to do and you'll just get in her way! What do you have to say for yourself?"

The colt whimpered and viably recoiled. He opened his mouth to speak but only managed to let out a little squeak.

His mother glared and repeated "I said, what do you have to say for yourself little foal?"

"I... I'm sorry ok?" the colt stammered.

"That's right you're sorry but you don't need to just be sorry to me, you oughta be sorry to this poor mare too, bothering her like this."

The colt turned to Sprocket and with a relenting tone he said "I'm sorry Miss."

Sprocket smiled and replied "It's ok. I wasn't doing much of anything anyway. I just opened the store today and you're my first customer. I didn't really have any work to do yet so no biggie."

The colt's mother shot Sprocket a judging glace that implied she thought Sprocket was undermining her parenting. She turned back to the colt and asked "What in the hay were you doing in here anyways?"

The colt looked at the ground and kicked his front hooves a little. "I wanted to go back in time to yesterday."

"Go back in time? Why in the wide world of Equestria would you want to do that?"

"I...broke your vase. It was an accident. I didn't mean to. I was just playing with my toy Wonderbolt and I forgot where I was going and fell into it. I'm so sorry. I'm really really sorry Mom."

The colt's mother looked shocked, then angry, then she stopped and took a deep breath. "It's ok. I'm not mad. I'm glad you told the truth and I can see you came here to try to fix it with your own bits so I can't be too angry at you. You've learned your lesson. Be more careful next time, ok?"

"Ok" the colt said with a huge sigh of relief. He looked back at Sprocket "I'm sorry for bothering you. Good day miss."

Sprocket smiled again "It's no problem and if you ever need a watch or a clock come see me!"

The colt's mother then rushed him out the door and back down the street.

Sprocket sighed. How many times am I going to have to say that I don't control time? Nopony can. It's impossible! So why do they always ask? Maybe Lemon was right and I shouldn't have picked this name for my shop. I should have gone with something else she thought, then paused for a moment and reassured herself well it's still a nice name and I do sell clocks so it is what it is I suppose.