A Timeless Classic: The Story of Klokwerk K. Millennia

by Psycho Shy

The Letter

It was a peaceful evening down in Ponyville, in fact; the kind that would make somepony think it was a nice place to live. With the creepy shadows of the night far away, all the citizens were wrapping up their daily activities and trotting dutifully towards their homes, ready to relax after a long day. The few marketplace-style shops around were closing, their merchants equally tired and ready to head home.

It was around this time that local hero of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle, was winding down her unusually tightly coiled springs as well. With her half-companion, half-pet Spike already resting in his bed, she was curling up with a book in her own bed. She may have looked very calm on the outside, but as she began to read, she was at odds with herself, wondering if she should spend the night sleeping or studying.

Beyond the borders of her book, Twilight thought she saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. As she set down the book carefully, there was a tiny trail of swirling, sparkling green fire lazily drifting its way out of Spike’s open mouth. She knew it well—the fire was magical fire, and magical fire coming from Spike typically meant mail from the Princess. She had always told him that he wouldn’t be so upset by oncoming mail if he didn’t focus on the feeling of it so much, so she savored this tiny victory.

Twilight waited patiently as the fire slowly curled itself up and formed a scroll. She used her magic to levitate it in front of her, and was about to start reading it when another scroll formed itself from the fire. “That’s strange,” Twilight mused to herself, “Celestia typically doesn’t need two scrolls to tell me something…I wonder what’s so important.”

She levitated the second scroll beside the first one, unfurled the first one carefully, and started to read. As she read, it immediately struck Twilight like a bolt of lightning what was so important. Her expression rapidly changed to shock, then to panic, then to horror. Finally, without even bothering to open the second scroll, she dropped her magic and burst out her front door. Her high-strung, panicked shout pierced the calm aura of a Ponyville evening: “GIRLS!”

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“Alright, alright! You have my attention, now what is it that’s so important it can’t wait until tomorrow?”

“Take a seat, Rainbow. I’ll explain when everypony is here.”

With that, a confused Rainbow Dash slowly flew over to hover beside an equally confused Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy. It was a very rare occasion that Twilight actually wanted to talk to them…in fact, in most cases, they had to drag her away from her books to get her to visit an event with them. They were wondering what event could be so important…or worse, what non-event.

Finally, the last of Twilight’s friends came running down the road to her library. Or, rather, hopping down the road. Pinkie Pie was as happy as a bee, either uncaring or unnoticing of how worried Twilight had sounded. Nopony really knew anything for sure when it came to Pinkie Pie. “Hi, Twilight!” Her shrill, happy voice spread through the air, a voice that certainly made ponies notice her. “I heard you calling and I didn’t know why but you sure sounded upset and I know that the perfect way to cheer somepony up is with a party so I brought all my party supplies—!”

“Of course you did, Pinkie, but I’m afraid no party will be able to lift my spirits. Come inside immediately, we can’t waste any more time.” Still in a blissful state of ignoring Twilight’s worried tone, Pinkie skipped into the library, finding a spot to stand beside Rainbow Dash.

Sighing, Twilight kicked the door to her library shut, levitated the scroll in front of her, and walked out to face her friends. She hated to deliver bad news, but she had to alert her friends of this. “First off, I’d just like to thank you all for coming on such short notice. Or rather, at least some of you came on such short notice,” she said, shooting an irritated glance at Rainbow and Pinkie. “It’s so good to know I have friends I can count on when I’m in need. Anyway, I’ve received a letter from the Princess this evening—“

“How nice of her to write back for once.”

Ignoring Applejack’s stray comment, Twilight continued with her speech. “…but I’m afraid none of it’s good news. We could pass around the scroll and read it, but that would take much too long—I’m just going to read it to you.” With that, Twilight turned her attention to the scroll she was levitating in front of her, and began reading it aloud.

“‘My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle:

As much as I despise to swamp you with my grim history a third time, I must inform you that there is another great threat to Equestria afoot—and it is approaching your town.’”

“Psssh. Big deal!” Rainbow Dash instinctively flew up to hover above her friends, and threw her hooves out as if she were practicing for a boxing match. “We’ve beaten plenty of villains before! What makes this guy so special?”

Without pausing to respond to Rainbow’s typical brashness, Twilight continued reading. “‘His name is Klokwerk Millennia, and he has roamed this world since soon after I came into power. I would describe his physical appearance to you, but that would take much too long. Enclosed with this message is a detailed sketch of him instead.

“‘He is a deadly force that not only knows all time since he was born, but can warp it to his very whim. In fact, we are lucky his skills are not as refined as they could be, for he rampages throughout Equestria, using his time-bending powers to force all in his path into terrible decay. For the longest of times, we have been powerless to stop him, but now, he is approaching your city.

“‘And that’s where you and your friends come in. When Klokwerk reaches your city, I want you to go and confront him. Don’t let him harm anyone, and if you deem it possible, defeat him. Be very careful around him, however; he is a very crafty, wise person that will take every advantage from you possible.

“‘I would come to help you defeat this great evil myself, but…’” Here, Twilight’s voice faltered and paused for a second. “‘…but I feel like I would only get in the way, since I no longer wield the Elements of Harmony. Once again, though, I cannot stress enough how careful you must be—for if he successfully detains even one of you, the circle of harmony amongst you will be broken.

“‘Good luck, Twilight and company. It may seem like you are only protecting your town, but if you defeat Klokwerk, the world will be a much better place because of it. Best wishes, Princess Celestia.’”

When Twilight finally set the scroll down to look at her friends, she found a state of shock not dissimilar to her own frozen on their faces. When they saw that she was looking at them again, the first one to snap out of it was Rainbow Dash. With the mentality that she wasn’t allowed to look scared, she flew over to the other scroll and picked it up. “Okay, so let’s see just what this guy looks like!” She announced. With an indignant glare, Twilight levitated the scroll away from Rainbow and placed it where all of her friends could view it at the same time.

With that, their new enemy was revealed. The sketch depicted Klokwerk as a large colt alicorn; about the same size as Celestia herself. His fur was the color of parchment, and his long, flowing mane was a shiny silver. His faded irises barely appeared any different from the whites of his eyes—many of Twilight’s friends pondered if he really looked like that or if it was a mistake. The side view revealed his cutie mark to be a silver pocket watch with the hands pointing to seven o’ clock, and the feathers on his wings looked very winded. He wore no clothing; save for a silver pocket watch identical to that on his cutie mark hanging around his neck by a silver chain. Everypony there simply assumed it was decorative.

No words needed to be exchanged between the group; they were all thinking the exact same thing: So…this is…”Klokwerk…” Finally, Applejack lifted her head up from the paper and looked at her friends. “It is gettin’ late…are we gonna miss Klokwerk in the darkness of the night?”

“I call the first night watch!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she sprung up and raced for the door. As she threw it open, Twilight took control of it with magic and slammed it in her face.

“Negative, Rainbow, there will be no night watches. If Klokwerk finds you alone, there’s no telling what he could do—remember what Celestia said about him detaining even one of us? We all need to hunker down for the night—like he probably will as well—so we can be well-rested when we encounter him tomorrow.”

Grudgingly, Rainbow agreed; she still wanted to keep watch, but she knew Twilight was probably right. It was a quiet, tense night at the library that evening—slowly but surely, the six friends drifted into sleep. The last two of the group still lying awake were Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle. The two spent time trying to coax each other to relax enough to sleep, and sure enough, it took about half an hour for Twilight to get Fluttershy to slip into subconsciousness.

Twilight lay there for quite some time; by the next day, she didn’t know when she fell asleep or how much sleep they got. She knew that she slept, though, but not easily. For on the note Celestia had written, there was something crossed out where she had described why she would not fight Klokwerk. It was well crossed out, but with Twilight’s intelligence, she had still managed to read it—“even I fear him a little.”