//------------------------------//
// Mr. Tock and the Contest 
// Story: The Further Adventures of Sepia Tock the Ponyville Clockmaker 
// by CanvasWolfDoll 
//------------------------------//

The Ponyville marketplace was abuzz. Doctor Whoof was up to something wacky, and royalty was in attendance.
Sepia still hadn't kicked the twitch he seemed to have developed, but it was in perfect synch with the beat of a second hand, so it had its uses. He gave Colgate a big, confidant smile from his rented tent across the way from hers.
“Sweet Celestia, he looks like he's going to stab somepony,” Trixie whispered to her new employer.
“I'm... sure he's fine?” Colgate replied with no confidence in what she was saying, “Age is probably taking its toll, or something...”
Sepia just kept beaming his confidence. He'll show her. He'll show everypony.
“He's cackling, Colgate.” Trixie resisted the urge to hide under the sales counter, “My granny warned me to watch out for cackling.”
“He's not cackling, he's just... stressed. Don't worry about it,” Colgate answered as Sepia began to giggle to himself. “Besides,” The toothpaste-maned unicorn added after a thought, “He's an Earth pony. You only need to watch for cackling in unicorns.” Nevertheless, Colgate decided it best to avoid the Clockmaker's gaze. 
“Trixie will prepare a few defensive spells nevertheless.”
“That may be for the best.”

Synchronome and Tinker Chime stood at the judge’s table while the Mayor and Twilight rushed to and fro to prepare for this latest impromptu contest. “Had nothing better to do this weekend either, huh, Tinks?” Synchronome asked with his smirk.
“Are you kidding?” The red unicorn with purple swirl-mane replied, “Both Luna and Soarin are going to be hosting. No way I’d miss it.”
“Oh, yes, I forget how awesome such things are to you non-Canterlot ponies.” Synch smirked in a jovial manner, “Personally, such appearances are pretty blasé.”
Tinker merely squinted at the blond-maned pony.
“Hello, everypony!” The third judge announced as she fluttered in, “I’m not late, am I? I so hope not. I left so extra early, but then there was this new lotus-themed restaurant opening in Cloudsdale, and I was really excited to give it a try, but there was this long line, and then I got in, and the meal was so good, and I got a second helping, and then that turned into a third, and that turned into a fourth…”
Synch and Tinker gave the yellow-orange pegasus even stares. “Good evening, Miss Cuckoo,” Synch said with a nod, “Did you perhaps bring Lordyhour with you?”
Cloud Cuckoo’s ramble halted as she searched her memory, “Um… no, I think he’s busy working on a book or something… or, wait, was it something about his eye… anyways, he couldn’t make it.”
“His loss,” Tinker replied, “This in turning into quite the event.”
A hush fell as the masters of ceremony took their position between the two clock merchant stalls.
“Citizens of Ponyville!” Luna projected masterfully, “I, your princess of the moon, have come to reign over this clockmaking duel!”
“Same here.” Soarin added, “Except the whole princess of the moon bit. Just Soarin. Of the Wonderbolts.”
The captive audience cheered heartily.
Luna levitated a few cue cards before Soarin, who read from them, “This clock-crafting duel shall be in three parts, as agreed upon by the participants. The first task is to build one hourglass, one clock, and one timepiece of the contestant's choosing. The second portion,” Soarin paused as the princess shifted cards, “will be a race to repair a clock first. Finally, both ponies will have to attempt to make a successful sale.”
“Art the contestants ready?” Luna asked, a gleam in her eye.
Sepia's answered was muffled within crazed giggling.
“I... suppose so?” Colgate answered as she gave a wary eye to Sepia, “Worried, but ready...”
“Are the judges ready?” Luna continued.
The judges, armed with clipboards, nodded.
The moon princess held aloof her front hooves, “Then begin!”
At this cry, Colgate and Sepia began their constructions, and the ponies crowded about to watch.
“If I may ask, Princess,” Soarin turned to Luna, “why do you act as an announcer so often? I know you’re our commentator at the Thunderbolt Racetrack, and now you’re here.”
“That’s, easy, Soarin!” Luna said with a smile, “It lets us attend such functions for free.”
Soarin mulled this explanation over as a he monitored the two clockmakers. Colgate was magicing together a simple clock, while Sepia had started up a kiln and began on his trademark ware. “But, you’re a princess.” Soarin finally said, “Can’t you just go and watch whatever you want, when you want?”
“A good leader, or pony for that matter, does not take what one has not earned.” Luna answered. “Besides, I find doing commentary most enlivening,” she added with a wink.

Synch, feeling it his duty, wandered over to Colgate, who had completed her clock and was beginning an hourglass. “Good day, Miss Minuette.” He said, “I see your constructions are coming along nicely.”
“Hello, Synchronome.” Colgate greeted him, “Anything I can do for you?”
“Just thought I’d come by and examine your technique.” Synch answered with a shrug, and then moved on to the topic bothering him, “So, what exactly did Tock do to warrant your departure? Was it all the whining about Doctor Whoof? I know that’s always driven him batty.”
Colgate shook her head, as she began to install the hourglass’s pinch, “Nothing like that. Just felt it was time to move on. Find my own way.”
“Ah yes, I suppose such time comes for all ponies,” Synch agreed with a nod, “Though, I don’t believe I had to battle my teacher when I decided to move on.” Colgate tried to smile through the urge to vent. “We merely exchanged back pats, final bits of advice, and well wishes. Then again, I also suppose Tock had a flair for drama.”
Colgate couldn’t restrain herself any further,  “He said my magic was cheating.” She exclaimed, “He thinks I’m less talented, just because I happen to own a horn!”
Synch tried to nod politely, “Ah, yes, I can see how that would…”
“And he doesn’t even know my name’s Minuette! Did he seriously think my name was Colgate the whole time! And what’s with that twitch of his! He keeps smirking at me, eye beating the seconds!”
“Miss Minuette,” Synch interrupted pointedly, “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but you’ve put eight pinches in that thing, and it’s beginning to look like the lifetimer of Wince Wind the Untalented! Please, do not let me distract you any further.”
“Oh.” Colgate said, examining her mangled glass, “I suppose you’re right.”
Synch nodded, then decided to extend a metaphoric hoof. “Look, I know it may have hurt your feelings, but perhaps you shouldn’t hold whatever Tock said about magic against him. He’s an Earth Pony artesian, after all. We have to make up for the advantages unicorns and pegasii hold over us.” Synch told her, “Sometimes, it’s easier if we hold the methods we lack access to as not true craftsmanship. Candy-makers hold pride in their callused, speech-impeding tongues, and potters their mud-caked hooves.” Synch gave her another nod, and began to leave, then decided to say one last thing, “Also, did you ever tell Tock your name? He may be a jumbled mess of nerves, but he’d never forget such a thing if he knew it.”
Colgate paused as she began to re-heat and shape the glass. She did recall, faintly, introducing herself as Colgate to him, as it was the nickname her parents referred to her as a filly. It also seemed less stuffy at the time. “I’m sure it must have come up.”
“Yes, I suppose in all those years you two shared, you must have discussed it.” Synch agreed, “Now, Miss Minuette, if you don’t mind, it looks like Cuckoo’s found an interesting cloud again. I must endeavor to retrieve her. See you when you’re finished.”
“Yes, thank you, Synch.” Colgate waved good-bye. She sighed, and left the glass to cool.

A couple hours later, the clocks were finished and carefully arranged on the counters of the sales tents. With the flip of a bit off Soarin’s wing, Colgate was determined to be the first to be evaluated.
“All right, Colgate, mind taking us through your work here?’ prompted Tinker as the audience clustered around. Sepia was closely examining the hourglass before being gently, if gruffly, pushed out of the way by Synchronome.
“Well, I decided, for the hourglass, to use ground up egg shells, and attempted to use a combination of magic and glass blowing to make the bulbs.” Colgate pointed to the, unfortunately, slightly misshapen hourglass.
“You let your nerves overwhelm you.” Sepia said, having snuck back over, in the tone of a concerned mentor. Some habits die hard. “You shouldn’t have started work on it until you could’ve kept the pipe steady.”
“Hush you,” Synch said to the brown pony, “and leave the judging to the judges.”
“He’s right.” Tinker admitted, “She shouldn’t have let her old boss worry her.”
Cuckoo gently turned over the hourglass, “Well, I think it’s very pretty! If a tad too fast…”
“Right, so the hourglass is a failure.” Synch summarized, in hopes of moving on, “What about your clock?”
Colgate turned to the small, ornate mantelpiece. “For this one, I thought I’d insert three complications: an alarm, a gear train to allow striking of the hour, and a repeater.”
“May I?” Tinker asked and, with a nod from the clock’s maker, pressed a button mounted on the top.
Bong-Bong ding!
Synch checked his personal watch, famous for being as close to perfect as a mortal pony can make, and nodded, “Two sixteen. Very good, Miss Minuette, it would seem you didn’t mess this one up.”
“She could’ve done a minute repeater.” Sepia said from his position behind the judges, “Her minute repeaters are good.”
“I didn’t have time to construct one.” Colgate answered, “Wait, why am I trying to validate myself to you? I did perfectly fine!”
“Hey, Mister Twitchy-eye, perhaps you should wait by your own entries?” Soarin suggested carefully.
“But I haven’t even commented on her watch yet! She only put an alarm and a single repeater in that one!” Sepia answered, exasperated, and then was carefully lifted away by Luna’s magic, and placed at his tent.
“I notice you used a glass face for this.” Tinker said, “It’s very lovely.”
“Yes, I thought, since it was being judged by masters, such as yourselves, you’d appreciate being able to see inside. I was inspired by… a very interesting piece I saw some time ago…”
The judges wrote there final evaluation onto their clipboards. “Thank you, Miss Minuette. Now, let’s see what Mr. Tock has for us.”
“Yes, yes.” Sepia said as they came over, and then quickly flipped his hourglass to show it was in proper working order, “This is my hourglass, I used the old pipe and spin method for the bulb, and filled it with marble sand. Isn’t it pretty.”
The judges nodded, agreeing that is was, indeed, very pretty.
“Here’s my clock. It’s complications include an alarm, decimal repeater, and moon phases. Now, for my personal choice…”
“Why does your clock have two faces on it?” Tinker interrupted, looking closer at the clock.
“It has a face, within a face!” Cuckoo exclaimed, “How weird.”
“Oh, yes, that’s the face for the hour hand. It goes from one to twenty-hour, presenting the exact time. I found it necessary.” Sepia answered dismissively, “Anyways, this other clock…”
“Wait, you’ve designed and built a twenty-four hour clock?” Synch interrupted.
“Yes, I did. Whatever, can we move on? I want to show you the flip-clock. It also does twenty-four hours, and displays the time in binary numbers. I learned the method from…” Sepia paused, “A very charitable craftspony in Manehatten. The minute and hour flip over to show the next number in the sequence. I included an alarm. Had I a little more time I… will you look at my flip clock?!”
“It’s marvelous.” Cuckoo cooed over the first, dual-faced clock.
Sepia won the first round.

“Round two: clock repair!” Luna exclaimed happily, “Judges, please prepare the clocks!”
“I’ve always wanted to do this.” Tinker said to himself as he and Synch walked up to a pair of clocks, set carefully atop a table. Cuckoo hovered a short distance away, holding up a large dart board.
“On your mark, Tinker,” Synch said, turning around to face away from the clock.
“Whoever gets the closest to the bulls-eye gets a shake on the loser’s bit,” Tinker said.
“Deal.”
Tinker cleared his throat, “One… two… three… BUCK!”
The two clocks went sailing as they were struck by the powerful kicks of the two.  Neither clock came close to Cuckoo, though.
Synch smirked, “Mine got closest.”
“Alright, I get you your drink when we’re done here,” Tinker conceded. “Let’s get the clocks.”

Sepia looked at the ruined clock he was given. “Well, obviously it’s going to need new casing. The springs snapped, and I think it’s missing a few cogs…”
He took out his tools, laid them out, picked up a pair of tweezers, and began to carefully rethread the present gears with one another, all along keeping mental track of what was left to be done in the name of speedy repair. “I’ll just have to remove the alarm.” He noted, “It’ll just slow me down.”
“Done” Colgate announced as she set down her own repaired clock, the magic aura fading away.
“Wait, give me a minute!” Sepia said, dropping his tweezers, “I’ve barely started!”
“Welp, that’s unfortunate for you, Sepia,” Synch said, picking up the clock in his hoof, and giving it a light shake. “Fortunately for Miss Minuette, though, seems she set a time you just wouldn’t be able to match. Round two goes to the apprentice.”
Sepia struggled to find words, as his twitch spread to his ear. “Find, I concede the round! Let’s move on already!”
“Uh…” Soarin began, “Would you, maybe, like to take a short break before the final round, buddy?”
“No, final round, let’s do it!” Sepia barked.
“I… think Soarin’s right.” Tinker agreed with the Wonderbolt, “Just a few minutes, maybe get lunch?”
Sepia scowled, both ears now alternating a beat. You could’ve kept tempo with them, as the eye kept the seconds, and his mane becoming increasingly frazzled. “Sales, right? That’s the last portion? Let’s do it.”
Synch shrugged, “I vote we proceed then. Might as well.”
“Excellent. Somepony lay out the guidelines!”
“Alright,” Soarin stepped forward again.  Knowing there was no way to avert the oncoming disaster, he decided he might as well try to minimize damage, “We’ll select a random third party, and both contestants will have to make a successful sale to them.”
Sepia chortled, “Yes, greet, good find the customer.”
“Ooh, ooh! That one, that one! Sell to him!” Cuckoo chirped from the sky, pointing at a dull blue unicorn, his messy gray mane barely viewable over the book he was entranced with.
“Done!” Sepia said, and began to race to the poor victim.
The officials watched as his dust faded away. “Colgate?” Soarin looked to the blue unicorn, “Any objections?”
“None that’d matter at this point.” Colgate answered, “Though, perhaps, somepony should make sure Sepia doesn’t hurt anypony.”

Page Turner was having a pleasant day. He’d started out at the library, picked up a few new books, and now just needed a little lunch. Things were about to turn though.
“Hello there!” Sepia said, poking over the unicorn’s book, “How’re you doing today?”
Page Turner opened his mouth to speak.
“That’s great, great!” Sepia preempted him, “Say, you look like a busy stallion, constantly on the go, places to be. You know what you need, a clock!”
This was true, the unicorn’s old clock was getting old and out of shape, but this odd twitchy mess before him didn’t look entirely trustworthy.
“Just come on over to my tent, I have lots of clocks. Plenty of them! All sorts!”
Surely enough, Sepia did have plenty of clocks in his tent, ostensibly for sale. There were wall clocks, mantelpieces, watches, a few hourglasses, all for very good prices.
“So, sir, what may I get for you?” The clockmaker asked between convulsions of the eyelid.
The prospective customer looked at the seller of these wares: frazzled, ill-kept mane, twitchy and worried looking eyes, obvious fake grin. Something just wasn’t right in the state of Manemark. “What’s the catch?” Page Turner finally said.
“What’d you mean, catch? There’s no catch! Just some quality clocks, at good, craftspony prices!” Wince, wince.
“Well, sure, but what’s wrong with them?” The unicorn went on, “Will they turn my hoof green? Catch fire in sunlight? Fail to ring when I set the alarm?”
“What? No! Celestia, no, don’t be absurd!” Sepia said, “How dare you question me! I’ll have you know that you’ll find no better maker and seller of clocks than I!”
“Wait a… aren’t you Doctor…”
“No.” Sepia said firmly, “I am but a peddler, trying to sell you a clock.”
The unicorn backed away, “Well, thanks, but I think it’d be best if I took my business elsewhere, sir.” With that, Page Turner turned around, “Ooh, nice clocks!”
“Uh, thanks?” Colgate said, looking more than little perplexed, “Do you… want one?”
“Sure do! How much?”
“Eight bits?” Colgate suggested, not sure how to handle the sudden business.
“Have ten!” Page Turner said as he magiced the payment onto the counter and picked up his purchase then trotted off.
The collected ponies just stared a little bit. Sepia finally stopped fidgeting his ears, and his eye slowly lost its beat.
“We do believe,” Luna finally said after the awkward pause, “that this means Colgate is the victor, yes?”
“Yes. Yes it does.” Synch answered.
Cuckoo gave Colgate a sudden hug, “Woo! You go, girl!”
“Perhaps a do over?” Colgate suggested, the only pony looking to Sepia, who had a distant look in his eyes.
“Don’t be silly.” Tinker said, “You won fair and square.”
Colgate tried her best to smile, “Yep, sure did. Woopee.”
Inside Sepia’s head, a few cogs meshed together, and a small chime rang. He, too, tried his best to smile as he trotted over to the winner’s sales-tent, and dropped a pair of keys onto her counter. “Congratulations, Col- Minuette. I am proud of you,” he said, “You truly have ascended beyond. As promised, the keys to the shop,” Sepia nudged the keys forward half-a-hoof, “I wish you luck, and a happy life.”
Colgate looked at the keys, “Sepia, you don’t…”
“A deal’s a deal. You won my petty contest, you get the store.” Sepia told her in no uncertain terms, “Now, if you all don’t mind, I have a few matters to attend to.”
Sepia Tock walked away.
“Pfft, what a drama-queen,” Synch said with a roll of his eyes, and was met by the dissatisfied scowl of Colgate.
Soarin looked around small group. “Uh… I’ll be back in just a moment myself.”

Sepia was having difficulty with the screws, but he nearly had the door off.
“What’re you doing?”
Sepia turned to the confused face of the Wonderbolt.
“Well, I figured, since the door was my reward for that whole Ragged Rocks incident, perhaps I could keep it,” Sepia answered. “Besides, the one on my new wagon is so bland, and I’ll need all the attention I can get.”
“You’re seriously going to pack everything up and just leave?’ Soarin asked, “I’d call you a featherbrain, but even feathers have sense!”
“Hey, what am I really leaving?” Sepia said with what he hoped was a jovial smile, “Just an apprentice who no longer needs me, an old dusty store, and a town who wants me to be some pony else.”
“Sepia, I can’t just stand by and watch you abandon everything.” Soarin said.
“Fair enough,” Sepia answered, “why don’t you go stand by Colgate then? She has a new store, she’ll need help setting it up. Especially now some madpony has gone and stolen the front door.”
Soarin tried to conjure up more reasoning, but was dashed by the determination in Sepia’s eyes. “Well, if that’s really your intent, Sepia.”
“It really is.”
The two smiled. “Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you around, Sepia.”
“You too.”

Later that day, Colgate came to assess her new real estate. The door was missing, but she never questioned it. Instead, she sent Trixie off to order a new one as she took a seat behind the counter.
Tomorrow will be a new adventure.