Machinations of the Worlds

by SoraPiroB

From the Night Sky

There are a few things that people think about after they wake up. Better get ready for work. I wonder what I should have for breakfast. Maybe having all those beers wasn't the best idea. Oh god I hope I'm not pregnant. For a particular pony drifting through space, its first thoughts after regaining consciousness were I'm glad I can't feel pain and I hope I stop spinning soon.

Indeed, Clockwork found itself to be flipping end over end as it sped through the void, traveling at an impressive rate after having been propelled by the force of the explosion. Using its magic, the mechanical unicorn grabbed its back legs and pulled against the direction of its rotation, mostly counteracting its movement. Taking a moment to wait for its glassy eyes to stop rattling around in its sockets, it took a moment to reassess its situation.

Just survived an explosion. Back in the void. Drifting who knows where. And I'm still alone. Hanging its head, Clockwork sighed at his plight. As it did so, its chin tapped against the amethyst brooch, which it still held against its chest. Well at least I accessorize well. Grinning at the small upside to its situation, it curled up slightly and resigned itself to another boring trip through the Chasm.

Huffing in frustration, Nyx kicked off her covers and got out of bed. Try as she might, she found it impossible to fall asleep. It didn't help that she was feeling anxious about her trip tomorrow morning to Canterlot. It wasn't every day that one was formally crowned as a Princess of Equestria. Although there had been a lot of royalty popping up recently, with the return of the Crystal Empire and Princess Cadence's placement as its monarch, as well as her own mother's ascension and coronation as a new alicorn princess.

Quietly she went downstairs and stepped outside, breathing deeply as a light breeze carried the smells of the warm summer night. Locking the door behind her, she stepped away from the Golden Oak Library before taking a stroll through the town to clear her head. There wasn't much activity going on, it being the middle of the night, but it suited her just fine. Nyx was now a teenager, complete with the angst that came with one her age. She was nearly the same height as Cadence now, despite being (technically) the same age as the Crusaders, who were now only a couple inches shorter than an adult pony.

She stared up into the sky, hoping that the moon and the stars would somehow alleviate her anxieties. She had so many questions and worries, fears that so much would be expected of her after she was proclaimed as a Princess of Equestria. She had no desire for power, and memories of her short reign as Nightmare Moon made her believe that she was ill-suited for it. By now most ponies had forgiven her for what she had done while being the dark Queen of the Night, but even now she still sees ponies that unintentionally avert their gazes from her or give her more room on the street than was necessary. Her only consolation to this was her friends, the ponies that have continued to stand by her ever since the beginning.

Making one last silent prayer to the night, Nyx turned around to begin the walk home, only to spot a shooting star streak through the sky. As she watched, it shone brighter, its fiery tail gaining luminance until it rivaled the moon. Suddenly realizing that it was drawing closer, she shot into the air and followed its path. As it sailed over the town it lit up the sky like a second sun, startling the few ponies that were out during the night. Using her formidable magic, the young alicorn pushed the comet further away and caused it to splash down in the middle of a pond in the outskirts of Ponyville.

As she watched, the water in the pond boiled as the flaming object became submerged, sending waves of steam over the surface. Once the bubbling stopped she landed by the edge of the pond and searched the bottom with her magic, sifting through the mud and the sand until she felt the hard lump of the object from space. Lifting it out and dropping it beside her, she slowly walked around it and inspected her find, thrilled to be able to look at a comet up close.

Having noticed that it was completely covered by the muck of the pond, she plashed water onto it with a wing to rinse off the filth, suddenly revealing a glassy blue orb that moved around as it was cleaned. Stepping back warily, she watched as the dirty form rose up shakily, an odd noise of metal grinding against metal coming from it. It turned toward her and leaned forward, water spilling out of its open mouth. After a brief moment, it spoke in a voice that reminded her of the music on her mother's records, although slightly muffled.

“That's the second time today that I've fallen in water. Soon I'll be so rusty that I won't be able to move.” The figure shook itself heavily, flinging off the gunk that still stuck to it, revealing a coppery armor. It limped over to the pond, dunking its head in and rinsing off its face. Nyx stood dumbfounded for a moment as she realized that the comet was in fact a pony, one that somehow survived the intense heat and fire that would normally vaporize space debris before it even reached the surface of the planet. Collecting her senses, she stepped up to the pony and gently cleared her throat. As he turned toward her, her eyes widened as she looked into the face of the pony, not one of flesh and fur but of bronze and brass.

“What are you?” Nyx managed to ask, watching as two thin mechanical arms extended from its chest and scraped some mud from a brooch clasped in its wiry fingers. “Where did you come from? How did you survive all that heat?” Her inquisitive mind kept buzzing with questions, unable to fully accept that a metal pony had just fallen from space. She half believed that she was asleep, and that everything she was witnessing was just a fanciful dream.

While the tiny arms continued to scrape mud from every surface of its body that they could reach, the pony began to speak in that odd scratchy voice. “My name is Clockwork. I am an automaton designed with the intention of creating a body that would never age or catch illness. I come from the Arcanum in Canterlot, in an Equestria from a reality parallel to this one. I was able to survive the heat generated from the friction with the air by using my magic to transfer the excess heat from my body into the air behind me.”

It watched her with unblinking eyes as it spoke, most of the mud gone from the front half of its body. It then opened its mouth to allow the arms to clean inside, and Nyx was surprised when it continued to speak clearly despite the metal fingers scraping around inside its mouth. “How is it that I am still in Equestria, despite having left my world? The differences between these realities are subtle, almost as if they are all based on some rough blueprint, left to different builders to fill in the finer details of their own designs. And if that is the case, what is the original vision? What were we all supposed to have been destined to be?”

Nyx could barely believe her ears. Immortal ponies? Other worlds? The former was more believable, since she was a living example of a pony that would never die of old age, but to do so by constructing an artificial body was unheard of. And the idea of other worlds besides their own, ones very similar to theirs no less, made her head hurt slightly when she thought to hard about it.

Looking up to the sky from where the pony fell, she noticed that there only a few hours left in the night. Suddenly remembering that she had a train to catch in the morning, she turned to the mechanical pony, which by now had both arms jammed down its throat. Grimacing at the sight before her, she turned away and calmed the storm or questions in her mind. “Why don't you come with me to my home? Maybe my mother could help you out, and when we go to Canterlot tomorrow you could ask the princesses about...why you're here. Why are you here, by the way?” After a moment of silence, she turned to face the pony, only to watch as it slowly worked to extricate a large wad of mud and long grass from its throat. Turning away quickly and fighting to keep herself from emptying her stomach into the grass, she waited patiently until it finished, thinking of more pleasant things to occupy her mind.

“I am here by accident.” Clockwork spoke suddenly, its voice clearer and louder than before, thanks to the clearing of its voice box. “The event that gave me life also tore open a hole in reality, which I fell through. I had arrived in a space between worlds, and was left to drift there for 153 hours, 15 minutes, and 8 seconds until I arrived in another reality much like the one I had come from. Then a meteorite crashed down to the ground and somehow sent me back into the void. After that I arrived here.” Nyx turned back to face the automaton, grateful that it had finished its immodest self-cleaning procedure.

“Well, I'm not sure if we can send you back home, at least not right away, but we'll figure something out. In the mean time, why don't you come with me?” She looked to Clockwork, who gave a quick nod and followed her to the library. By now the moon had passed its zenith and was slowly descending back towards the horizon. Unlocking the door and slipping inside, she ushered in her new guest and closed the door behind him. She went over to the lounge section of the library and took the cushions from around the reading table, arranging them on the floor to create a makeshift bed. “Sorry about this, we don't have a guest room anymore since I got to big to sleep in mom's room. I hope you don't mind.”

Clockwork shook his head and moved over to the window, looking up towards the moon. “That is fine, thank you.” It moved over to the bed and carefully laid down in the cushions, thin pieces of rounded copper sliding down over its eyes. Soon there was a faint clicking sound coming from the mechanical pony, much like the winding of a clock. Certain that the mysterious automaton had fallen into what must have been sleep, she crept upstairs, making sure to not make too much noise as to wake her mother and Spike. Slipping under the covers of her own bed, she quickly drifted into a deep sleep, the mysteries of the clockwork pony distracting her from the anxieties that plagued her earlier.

Twilight yawned widely, sitting up in bed and stretching her limbs. Rubbing the sand from her eyes, she slipped into the bathroom and began her morning rituals. She only partially paid attention to what she was doing, as there were so many things running through her mind.

Today, her daughter will become a Princess of Equestria. This was a day that she had expected to come one day or another, but it came to surprise her how quickly that day had come. It didn't feel like eleven years had passed since she found the little filly in a bush in the middle of the forest, but now that she began to think about it she realized how far that filly had come.

Nyx had grown a lot in the passing years, both physically and emotionally. She had since been able to easily control the temper that she had inherited from Nightmare Moon, and never once had she fallen prey to those evil emotions. She remained as curious as ever, always asking her mother questions whenever she couldn't find an answer in a book, and even going as far as conducting experiments when even she had no answers.

Her magical aptitude had improved greatly as well, nearly regaining all of the power she had taken from her when Luna drained away her excess magic. She was nearly as powerful as Twilight, and was just as innovative. With a few more years of practice she would probably become as powerful as Luna herself.

Smiling to herself as she finished brushing her mane, she went down the hall and knocked on Nyx's door. “Wake up sleepyhead, today's the big day! You don't want to be late to your own coronation do you?” Walking downstairs while yawning loudly, she suddenly squinted as she was momentarily blinded by a flash of light, the rising sun reflecting off of a metallic pony sitting at the reading table in front of a short stack of books. Walking over to it, she looked it over and marveled at the intricate metalwork and the elaborate clockwork whirling silently beneath its coppery hide.

“Nyx, where did you get this? Is this another one of your projects?” She gasped in shock as the metal pony turned toward her and stood up, and stumbled backwards until she tripped over a stray cushion. “By the stars, it moves!” She straightened up and watched as the automaton walked around the table, her eyes inspecting its body in an attempt to determine how it was attaining locomotion.

Nyx came down and approached the scene, feeling fresh and rested. When she saw the copper and lavender unicorns together, she immediately remembered her midnight stroll and the pony that fell from the stars. “Sorry mom, I forgot to tell you, we have a guest.” She smiled sheepishly and went to stand next to her mother.

“Oh? Is he the one that made this? I'd love to meet him, I'd like to ask him all about this machine, it's fascinating,” Twilight smiled and gestured at the automaton. Suddenly a metal hand emerged and shook her hoof, and the pony spoke in a slightly echoed voice.

“Good morning, misses. I am Clockwork. Pleased to meet you.” It withdrew the hand and bowed its head. “Thank you for allowing me to stay the night at your home. I was hoping to accompany you to Canterlot and discuss my business in this world with the Princesses.”

“Wow, it even talks! How does that work? Is it a recorded message? Or maybe ventriloquism?” The lavender unicorn put her hoof to the pony's mouth to try to peek inside, but had it swatted aside by her daughter.”

“Mom, that's rude. This is the guest I was talking about. He said he came from another world, one just like ours. I thought maybe the Princesses could figure out how to send him home.” Nyx frowned at her mother and turned to Clockwork. “So, what do you want for breakfast? Do you even eat? Maybe you'd like some oil or something?”

Clockwork shook its head and returned to the reading table, resuming the statue-still position it was found in. “I do not require food nor oil, but your hospitality is appreciated. I will remain here until you decide whether or not I may go with you to Canterlot.” He turned the page with a mechanical arm and remained silent thereafter.

Author's Note:

Second chapter! We're in the world of Past Sins now.

Comments

[Isshiki Kotonashi]

Interesting so far!