//------------------------------// // Not every Clock is created equal // Story: Through it all and Beyond // by ParaNomaly //------------------------------// Luna, Twilight, and Spike averted their eyes from the blaze of green light that illuminated the library. It grew dimmer rapidly before it completely vanished, revealing a large, robot-like alien right where Ben had been standing. Its outer layer seemed to be made out of copper, and its body possessed numerous black lines that ran through its torso and arms. In the middle laid a piece of transparent glass with the Ultimatrix symbol on it. One could even see gears inside turning as it moved. On its flat head, a key of sorts protruded from it, with holes in each side. “Clockwork!” the now identified Chronosapien said in a German accent, the key on his head spinning slightly as he did so. “Whoa… Did you turn into a clock?” Spike asked as he stepped closer and knocked on Clockwork’s metal shell, which made a resounding clunk every time. “I'm not a clock!” Clockwork responded as he looked down at Spike with his best attempt at a scowl, to which Spike rolled his eyes. “You even make clock sounds.” He held a hand up to his mouth as he attempted to hold back his laughter. “Those are unintentional!” the Chronosapien shot back. Twilight watched on in curiosity and disbelief. She didn't detect any magic coming from Ben when he ‘transformed’ the first time. And now that she had seen him do the same under more calmer circumstances, she noticed that he didn't output any sort of magical essence when he hit that watch of his and transformed, apart from the very faint magical signature he emitted when he was in base form. She couldn't understand how such a thing was possible. How can he just perform such an advanced spell and not use magic? While Twilight’s brain continued to have a meltdown, Luna looked on in surprise once more at the walking clock in the library. While it was less of a shock the second time around, it still piqued her interest. Such strange things had surfaced since her banishment, she wondered how it worked. “Enough of this. Just let me do what I was going to do.” Clockwork dismissed the baby Dragon and turned his attention towards the hole. “Let me show you how I fix things.” He spread his arms open as his centrepiece began to glow green for a split second, causing Spike to take a step back in caution. “Uh, wha-” He didn't get to finish as a bright emerald beam shot out of Clockwork’s chest, impacting the few dangling pieces of wood that remained on the edges of the hole. Instead of passing through them and making the hole even bigger, it seemed to stop as the area around it began to be illuminated by an enchanting green hue, and slowly but surely, the hole seemed to be repairing itself in a rather odd way. The little bits and pieces of wood flew back into the hole rapidly, almost like time itself was going backwards, to everyone's continued surprise. Clockwork stopped a second or so later and tapped the Ultimatrix symbol, reverting him back to Ben. He turned around with his arms still folded and smirked at the three. “Sorry for the hole, by the way. Rath can be a bit of a brute sometimes,” he apologized as his gaze shifted towards Twilight, which responded with only a slow nod. “Did you… How did-... How did you fix that?” she stammered as she looked over his shoulder at the now fixed wall with a look of confusion on her face. It looked just as it was before it had been destroyed. “I went Clockwork and fixed it,” he stated as if he was telling the evening weather, which resulted in getting Twilight more agitated. “But I couldn't sense any magic! Everything uses magic!” Her horn glowed as a book suddenly materialized above her head, and right next to Lunas, startling her slightly. If Twilight did notice, she paid no mind as she held the book in her aura and opened it, the pages flipping wildly as her eyes scanned the contents. “See?! It says right here that-” She was cut off by Spike, who tapped her muzzle and cleared his throat. “Maybe you should let him explain, Twilight.” He said as he shook his head at her antics, to which she responded by looking back up at him with a sheepish smile. “Er… right, sorry,” she murmured as she put the book back in its place. Ben responded with a shrug as the spotlight was turned to him. “The Ultimatrix–” he lifted his left arm up, “–doesn't use ‘magic’. I honestly don't know what runs it or the details. But I do know that it basically changes my DNA into one of a different species and transforms me into them. I've used it to fight all kinds of evil forces throughout my world and beyond. It's pretty handy,” he told her. “Thou said thy world, correct? Art thou implying that thou art... not from our planet?” Luna inquired as she stepped forward. Before Ben could answer her, he was cut off by the Ultimatrix as the dial and the tube-like structures on it turned yellow and scanned Luna, much to her sudden surprise. “Uncatalogued DNA Detected,” it spoke as it scanned her numerous times before stopping and turning back to its original color. “Unknown DNA sample acquired, scan complete.” It beeped before the dial popped back down into place, leaving the two ponies, save for Spike, stunned. “...What did thou just do?” Luna regained her composure and glared at Ben, taking another step towards him. He responded by taking a step back and holding up his arms in defense. “Hey, don't look at me. Sometimes this thing just does it automatically.” “That doesn't answer her question though,” Spike added from beside Twilight, who chose to remain silent and hear his answer. Ben glanced at Spike with a ‘Come on, bro’ look on his face before his gaze shifted back to the blue horse advancing on him. “Uh… The Ultimatrix scanned you and added your DNA to its storage… thingy.” was the best he could come up with given the circumstances. “Here, I'll show you!” Ben quickly added afterwards as he activated the dial and slammed it down. Luma turned her gaze away from Ben and shielded her eyes with her foreleg during the brief period of light. Once it had faded away, she lowered the foreleg and her eyes widened in shock as she looked over to where Ben had previously been standing. In his place was a tall, white alicorn mare that stood as tall as Princess Celestia with a long, white horn and a pair of large, equally white wings. Along with them was an ethereal mane that seemed to contain various shades of green in a rainbow-like pattern. Her eyes were a bright emerald, and on her flank rested a green hourglass figure. The Ultimatrix symbol stood proudly on her chest, just like all of Ben's previous transformations. “See?” she said, then immediately covered her mouth with a hoof, surprise clear on her face. “Oh. This, uh… am I a girl now? Strange… the Ultimatrix has never given me the opposite gender, I think.” Ben shrugged and looked back at Luna, who looked up at him, or in this case, her with wide eyes. “Anyways. See? It was just a scan, I swear!” Ben tried to reason as she raised her foreleg to tap the Ultimatrix symbol but stopped just shy of it as a smirk formed on her face. “You know what? This is the second new alien I've gotten in under half an hour. And if this one has magic, that means…” she trailed off as she looked over at the bookshelves with a smirk. Her horn began to glow in a light green aura as several books shot forth from their places and levitated in front of her, resulting in a triumphant hoof pump. “Hell yeah, I can do magic now! In your face Gwen!” She continued to seemingly be entertained by the books in front of her for the next minute or so, before eventually becoming bored of it and tapping her chest, reverting back to Ben. He turned his attention back to Luna, who had been staring at him for the duration of his transformation. He stepped closer and waved a hand in his face. “Uh, hello? Is anybody in there?” Luna snapped out of her shocked state and focused back on Ben with a surprised expression. “Did… Did thou transform into an alicorn?” she slowly started with a hint of caution in her voice. “I mean, if that's what you call yourselves, I guess so?” Ben shrugged as his arms return back to his sides. “Anyways, do you believe me now?” He folded his arms across his chest. Luna blinked a few times and backed down, taking a step back and returning to her previous position. She brought up her left hoof and rubbed her forehead. “We… We suppose so. Sorry for our sudden aggression, we art still… adapting to this new society we found ourselves in,” she finished as she lowered her foreleg back to the ground and looked down at Ben. Now that he was somewhat up close to Luna, he noticed how tall she was. Granted, he wasn't very tall himself, but she still held about two inches on him. So she was… five foot eight, if his math was correct. He mentally shuddered at the thought of math, easily one of his most hated subjects in school. Ironically, Grey Matter adored math no matter how much Ben hated it. “Adapting?” He asked, not sure of what she meant by that. “It's been two months since we came back from our banishment, we thought it had spread all across Equestria by this point,” she stated as she looked at him with a confused expression, to which he responded with a shake of his head. “To answer your question about me not being from this planet, no, I'm not. I'm from Earth. Although none of you probably know about it,” he clarified, which earnt him even more confused faces. Spike scratched the top of his head as he stepped forward. “This is Earth. Well, our Earth anyways,” he said, eliciting a raised eyebrow from Ben. “Well, I'm from a different Earth. It's a bit complicated on how I got here, I barely know myself. But I'm betting on it being Diagon’s fault.” Ben glanced around the room at the mention of the name, a look of unease overtaking his face. “Diagon?” Twilight questioned. As she adjusted her wizard hat with her magic, Ben reminded himself to question her about her ridiculous choice of costumes. “I doubt you know who he is, but to sum it up: He's an extra-dimensional being of pure energy if I was listening correctly. I was in a battle with him and I got knocked out, heard him saying something along the lines of, 'Deal with you’ before I blacked out though,” he answered as he looked towards Twilight. “Hey, my comics have somepony similar to that! She's called Ciredan, and she's this cool space squid monster that-” Spike was cut off by Twilight, who put a hoof to his mouth. “Spike, I don't think it's time to talk about your comics.” She shook her head disappointedly, to which he responded with a pout. “This… Diagon, is he a threat to our nation?” Luna spoke up, her face adopting a dark and serious look. “Honestly? I don't know. He may choose to follow me here and try to finish what he started, or he'll just leave me stranded here forever.” Ben resisted the urge to take a step back, this lady could be really intimidating whenever she wanted to be. “But I wouldn't worry about him, I have something special for him the next time around.” He smirked and cracked his knuckles. Ultimate Way Big may not have worked on him, but he still had one final alien up his sleeve. If he ever even got to face him again, that is. Luna didn't seem to relax very much at Ben's reassurance, as she still looked unsure. But slowly nodded as she calmed down. “We hope thou art correct. We take threats to our subjects very seriously,” she declared. Ben nodded as a small smile found its way to his face. It was nice to see the leader of a nation that genuinely cares about their people, something he saw less and less frequently on both television and on a galactic scale nowadays. “I understand. But don't worry, I have a knack for saving the world, it's sort of a usual occurrence nowadays,” he boasted with a prideful smirk. Luna rolled her eyes at him and smiled slightly. While she may not express it openly, she was happy he was treating her so casually, unlike most of the ponies in Ponyville. That last thought erased her smile and brought a small frown to her face. Thankfully, no one else seemed to notice it. “Twilight, shouldn't you have been over at Fluttershy’s by now? You promised.” Spike turned to the lavender mare and crossed his arms, to which the latter responded with a nod. “Princess, we should get going.” She glanced towards Ben. “You'll be coming along with us too.” “What? Why?” His smirk fell as he looked over at her, confused as to why she wants him to come with her. “You’re new to Equestria, so I thought I could introduce you to my friends and give you a tour while we walk! Unless you plan to say all night in here reading.” Ben sighed and shook his head. “I guess not, I've already read all the books in here.” Twilight’s eyes nearly bulged out of her skull at that. “Y-You… You read the entire library already? How?!” “With Brainstorm, of course,” he replied casually, which caused Twilight's eye to twitch. “Hehe… Right. Let's just get going.” The door to the library was suddenly surrounded by a purple aura as it opened. She picked Spike up and placed him on her back before walking out of the building. Ben glanced over at Luna, who returned the favor before she followed after Twilight, leaving him alone. “Well, I guess I better follow too.” He lifted his arm up and activated the Ultimatrix dial, turning it a few times as he looked for the right alien, he didn't want to spook the populace, after all. “Come on, please give me the alien I want…” he uttered before he slammed the dial down.